Complicated Vows: This Is War

Judgment

            The NEST team had arrived and was keeping the unknown, but known-enemy, blue bot dancing between Sabot rounds. Mirage had sworn the Cybertronian wasn’t a Decepticon, but the bot’s glowing red optics suggested differently.

            However, just two hours earlier, Major Lennox had been shuffling paperwork at his desk when a runner came to him, stating that his presence was urgently requested in the Autobot port. There had been no pre-set meeting with them for this day, but he ran to the hangar anyways.

            There, he found a very panicked, and surprisingly filthy, Mirage. He knew Mirage was fastidious about his paint and polish, to say the least. For him to be so covered in dirt and not be fussing about it was a sure sign of very bad news.

            After a brief entourage of Cybertronian and Italian curses, Mirage explained the situation quickly about Raptor and Bee’s dual, Danielle being in the middle of it, and possible Decepticon interplay. He failed to tell about the sulfur cannon, because no one was to supposed to know that he knew, which if they did find out that he knew, and how he knew, he would surely find himself on the wrong end of a cannon.

            Knowing that it wasn’t a false-alarm, Major Lennox rounded up his troops and they set out. They had to follow Mirage all the way back to base because, for safety reasons, the human government was not allowed to know where the Autobot base was stationed unless there was a dire emergency.

            They had arrived just as whatLennoxassumed was the bot Mirage had called Raptor was about to offline Optimus Prime. The NEST team was still approaching whenLennoxhad given the order to fire. Even though it was incredibly risky to open fire with an ally so obviously in the vicinity, it was a split second decision that Lennox figured was the right one; a few little sabot rounds were less lethal than a point-blank cannon blast to the spine. 

            Now, they sat on the front line, firing everything they had at Raptor now that Optimus had moved back from the target and was firing his own rounds.

            Raptor suddenly lost it and fired round after round of unidentified ammunition into the NEST team and the surrounding area. When each cannon round struck, it exploded and gave off a white dust that thickened the air. The smell alone drove back the human soldiers.Lennoxknew what sulfur smelled like, recognizing it from boot camp training on bioweapons. Through choked coughs and wheezes, he ordered his troops to fall back immediately, to clear the area no matter how far back they had to move.

            He saw many of his cavalry men running on foot. Turning to look back for the reason they’d left their vehicles, he saw many of them disintegrating before his eyes. It was like a cancerous rust from hell was spreading over the steel and eating it into a flaking dust within just minutes. Whatever that Decepticon was armed with, it was extremely hungry for metal.

            Back inside the hangar, Ironhide and Bumblebee were ready to burst out the front door. Hearing the halt in gun fire, Ironhide opened the door, only to shut it again quickly when he saw NEST falling back. They had never retreated as far as he knew, so whatever the white smoke that filled the yard was, it was harmful to humans.

            Out on the base yard, waving his men to fall back, a wrong motion caughtLennox’s eye. Amidst all the backwards motion, he saw one smaller figure rushing forward. Fully focusing on the abnormal movement, he saw a young woman rushing towards the Decepticon, but she had to fight her way around the retreating NEST team first.

            Several of his soldiers grabbed for her as she ran by them, but she managed to slip through their hands or evade their grasp entirely. She looked up to spotLennoxstaring at her and ran farther to the side of him as she approached. He ran towards her, hoping to intercept her before she got too close and got herself killed.