These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

LXIX. Secrets

-------------------------------------------------------------

They found Shockwave and, from what her father had time to tell her, the mech had been waiting.

The mission had started well enough despite the anxiety over the thought of the Decepticon being there. Shockwave hadn't shown at first, though; no, her father and the teams had pressed through into the facility's main court yard where they met with Alexi Voskhod, whom led them through to the main corridor. The nervous-wreck—as Lennox described him—disappeared after showing them the way and they had continued on into the core of the facility while Optimus remained on watch outside. Things changed, however, when the humans didn't discover their target, but rather an Energon-radiating object obviously of Cybertronian origin along with a single old, very dirty box belonging to the Russian Space Program.

Then the Driller arrived.

It killed three soldiers instantly while the rest managed to scramble their way out. The metal beast snatched up the Cybertronian object and escaped to the surface, thankfully ignoring the rest of them. Prime was ready for it, and he, along with the others humans outside, clashed with the titan. Their efforts relieved Shockwave's pet of the object and also forced the two of them into retreat. It was both a victory and defeat; while they were glad to be out of harm's way, they—or rather, Optimus—had wanted the mech's head more. However, that wasn't to be the end of the Autobot Commander's wrath: the object, which the Driller had dropped was, indeed, of Cybertronian origin, and it belonged to a subject very dear to the Prime.

As such, it was why he had returned in silent rage—he refused to speak to anyone, including his fellow 'bots— and had yet to transform even after spending hours in vehicle form, his fender staring right at the object. It was small by Autobot standards, and looked like it should have been long deprived of Energon with its battered, frayed form, yet it set their detectors screaming whenever one was brought near. Even Ratchet and Wheeljack—now returned from the mission in the Middle East along with the others—gave their confirmations that it was, indeed, still thrumming with energy before going off to mumble between themselves in a way that made Catherine curious.

In fact, all of the Autobots had begun to act up when her father had taken the Cybertronian object out of Optimus' interior and set it on the table. She meant to ask him what it was, but, even if he had known, Lennox had to deal with Morshower on a nearby video screen, and so she was only given the good news that he, along with the majority of their team, were unharmed. She'd tried asking Sideswipe and Sunstreaker next, but they were in just as much disbelief and noted it was better not to talk about it until Prime did. Of course, her curiosity—and annoyance—grew, but she controlled herself if only because Optimus was silent and brooding, and she couldn't fathom a deadlier thing to behold.

For that reason, she kept mostly to her own thoughts, and it didn't take long before anger seeped in. Why was a Cybertronian artifact in human hands? It had long since been decided that humanity would inform the Autobots of everything they knew about them, so why had the spherical object not come up? Was the government hiding more secrets from them? That shouldn't have been the case, though. Blaster surely would have found data on such things if they were, so how? It was infuriating, and it made her even angrier to know that the object, regardless of its level of usefulness, has not been shared with their comrades. They had built this program upon the trust between them, but who knew how many more secrets there could be now!

Unfortunately, she was not given long to ponder over such thoughts. She was, however, given ample reason for her anger to rise even higher: a last second notification from Blaster that they had a visitor from the United States Government. She knew she would gripe out the Communications officer later for his lack of warning, but, in the meant time, she had to deal with their "guest", whom was none other than the National Security's Director: Charlotte Mearing.