Shadowfire

Chapter 31

"What the hell do you mean we aren't allowed off base?" Lennox growled at Mearing through the screen, bringing a hand down hard on his desk.
"Those are your orders Major" her gaze darted around the room she was in, and then her tone softened "I get it, believe me, I do- but we have to play by their rules on this one. Just wait it out, soon the public will forget what happened and then the government will let up on us" she looked at Lennox's face and signed, running a hand through her hair "I'll speak to Morshower"

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"US military General Glenn Morshower retired today, in the aftermath of the Chicago disaster. Fox News reports-"

Epps scowled and threw something at the radio, he missed and Lennox shook his head as he got up to turn it off. Sergeant Cogar raised his drink in salute.
"To the downfall of a good man"
"What-" Sam began but I shushed him.
"Morshower stood by us, refused to put the blame on the Autobots, he understood. We all know he didn't really retire, he was replaced by a puppet"
"This whole situation is going too far" Jason complained "cutting our funding, transferring Mearing off the project, new superiors, stricter supervision-"
"Makes you wonder what they're afraid of" Epps mused
"They're afraid we'll go rogue, and there's not a damn thing they could do to combat us if we did"

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The men- soldiers, dressed all in black, heavy tactical gear, well armed and prepared- streamed into the base, barking orders and flashing their guns around, as if to intimidate us.
"What's going on?" Lennox demanded, striding up to them, his troops fanning our defensively behind him "I didn't give anyone clearance to enter this base"
"You are a soldier of the US military, hereby suspended from duty" someone said, as the crowd parted to reveal the man that had replaced General Morshower. Lennox straightened, but didn't salute the man "you don't give orders to anyone"
"What the bloody hell-" Epps demanded, taking a step forward, hand on his gun, aggression in every line of his posture.
"Stand down soldier" the new General said "this man has repeatedly failed to follow orders to turn intergalactic fugitives over to the United States government, he's lucky he isn't being court-marshalled and slapped with treason charges" this was the first I had heard of Lennox benign asked to hand us over, but it didn't surprise me that he had refused.
"Like hell" Sam's friend, Jason, spat.
"Sergeant Cogar, I understand this may be confusing to you and your men" the General said placatingly "but please, allow my troops to do what needs to be done, these are wanted fugitives, living on US soil without our sanction"
"You can't do this" Sam exploded, and I groaned, of all the times for him to draw attention to himself.
"You are not allowed to be on this base Mister Witwicky, this is a military matter- someone, escort him out" one of the soldiers in black moved to do just that, but Epps thrust a hand into his chest.
"You stay the hell away from all of us"
"Master-Sergeant!" The General said sharply, but it was too late, the soldier swung at my uncle, who deflected the blow with a forearm, and drove his fist into the man's unprotected side. Just like that, there was chaos.

Slowly, we began to retreat back into the base, trying to get some walls between us and our enemies.
"Don't let them get away!" The general ordered and his troops opened fire.

NEST soldiers drew into tight formation, and the Autobots activated their weapons systems, loosing canon blasts in the vicinity of our enemies. Sam and Kayla drew pistols and stood side by side with our human allies, facing off with the government men. The sounds of battle filled my audio receptors, the harsh rattle of gunfire and the loud booms of cybertronian weapons systems mixed with grunts and screams of pain. I was off balance, searching for my other self to provide cover, but he was gone.

And then my vision tunnelled as I saw my father get hit.

"No!" I screamed, as a bullet impacted with Lennox's torso.
"Will!" Epps shouted, trying to get to his friend, who grabbed his side with one hand as he crumpled to the floor, still firing with the other. Sam pulled Epps back as death flew throughout the warehouse.

"Bee! Get them out of here!" I yelled, motioning to the mech to get Sam and Kayla to safety. Transforming into his alt mode Bee put himself between his charge and the advancing line of enemy troops, Sam man-handled Epps into the car after Kayla, and I took a moment to be surprised that he was able to, even as bullets pinged off Bee's armour.

"Prime!" Jason shouted over the din, catching my attention as he motioned with his head "go on! Get out of here! We'll cover you" Optimus dithered for a second as the soldier caught my optic "I'll take care of the Major, just go!"

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Turns out that whichever department was in charge of the government strike team wasn't stupid, they had blockaded the whole base, completely cutting us off from any means of escape that didn't involve punching a hole in their wall. And even then, there was the problem of what to do when we did escape, we had no shuttle- the Zanthium had been destroyed, and it had been a bastardised meshing of human and Autobot technology, I wouldn't trust that there hadn't been some way for the humans to take control.

"Optimus, what do we do?" But the elder mech didn't respond "Optimus!" He turned to me.
"I'm sorry Shadowfire, I should have listened to you, you have consistently been able to see clearly where my optics have been clouded by blind faith. You are more worthy of the name Prime than I"
"That doesn't matter now" I hissed, furious "you're our leader, lead us" but the 'bot just shook his head.
"I get that things have been hard for you Optimus, you lost your mentor and your oldest friend, your trust in the humans was misplaced, but you need to look past that right now, we- the Autobots, your troops, are in danger, so lead us and help us get out of here"

The mech was silent for a minute, head bowed in defeat, but then he straightened, posture once again reflecting the great Prime we all respected. He turned, nodded to me once, in recognition, and then strode past me.

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We idled, engines at the ready, waiting for the signal. We had to break through the ever tightening grip of these human soldiers now, before they called for reinforcements, before they reached the caches of weapons we designed to kill cybertronians. Jazz was beside me, a dark grey modern muscle car, and the rest of the 'bots were arrayed throughout various points in the building, readying to make a break for it. Hopefully, we would be able to get through their lines, without concentrating ourselves in a way that would allow them to gather to pick us off. I didn't let myself think anything beyond what we were going to do, didn't let my thoughts wander to my father, the man that had raised me, lying there, crumpled on the ground, bleeding; didn't let myself begin to break, to mourn. Sam's friend had said it would be alright, but still- I had run, had just left him lying there, at best to be captured by our enemies.

A shatteringly loud blast of a semi's air horn sounded, echoing for a second before it was drowned out by the roar of engines, Jazz and I tearing forward.

We reached the human line while they were still trying to figure out what was going on, their radios a constant barrage of "contact in the west sector" "calling for reinforcements" and even one plain "help!".

But the humans weren't stupid, and soon regained their wits and began firing on me and Jazz. We were trying to escape, not kill them, so Jazz and I dodged long bursts of machine gun fire, had human projectiles ineffectively pepper our armour, and transformed mid air for long enough to leap the human line. Even as we sped away I got the feeling that it could've been much much worse, not every 'bot would've been lucky enough-

And then we reached the second line.