Predatory

Fears of the DJD

"As you all know, our system has been breached, and the unthinkable has happened; someone has infiltrated headquarters, right underneath us as well. And we didn't even know until after the fact-"

Tarn paused, letting that sink in. Everyone, now all sitting in an orderly fashion around the kitchen table, looked down, that wasn't something anybody was proud of.

"-however, that's not the concerning part. Unfortunately."

My head snapped up in alarm. There was more than an infiltration? What could possibly be worse? Was Dawnstar okay?

"That's not what I wanted to hear this morning, Tarn." Helex mumbled lowly, he crossed one pair of arms and rubbed his forehelm with one from the other pair.

"I know."

"You mean it gets worse?!" Kaon slammed his hand against the table. Fluffy sniffed him and whined, earning him a ruffled pet on the head.

"Sadly yes, the infiltration was just the beginning. Shockwave managed to track down exactly what was taken from the lab. It appears to have been a prototype weaponized disease that targets minorities based upon the programming that is being used at that moment in time. I don't have the full details and even if I did I doubt I would understand it, however, I do know that it is highly deadly and could potentially wipe out 4/5 of the Decepticon army in a matter of days. So, this is quite literally a matter of life and death now."

Vos swore. Then he frustratedly ran a servo over his faceplate.

"I knew it." Kaon plopped down into his chair and crossed his arms in a huff. The Pet thrust his head between his arm and his chassis, trying desperately to get Kaon to shower him in attention. "there's always a catch, just one normal mission would be nice."

Tesarus groaned and slid into his chair. A long stretch of silence enveloped the table.

"So...what exactly are we looking at this time?" Helex said at last. 

Nickel suddenly came out of her tired trance. She jabbed a tiny but terrifying finger at Tarn. " I need to know if I gotta stock the med bay for a lot of damage or a SCRAP-load of damage. I don't want another repeat of the Cairpythian Theatre please!"

Everyone except me groaned after that. I'm assuming that whatever happened at the Cairpythian Theatre was memorable, and not in a good way.

"Aphelion has had quite a few rendezvous with those on The List, specifically a certain coup leader who ran an above average sized cartel that took us years to suppress and even longer to track down and kill, I am sure you all know who I am talking about."

"Warlord..." Kaon hissed, he twisted his face into a disgusted sneer.

Wow, real creative name, I thought. But the faces of my teammates told me that this was no joking matter. Nickel said something under her breath that I didn't quite catch but it sounded like a string of rather obscene words describing Warlord's mother's interface panel. I winced.

"Yes, Kaon. In other news, I had another chat with our little clone friend, he might not know the big picture, but he does listen to his surroundings. Rumors of the return of the Functionist council, and  that includes a rather close affiliation with Aphelion. Supposedly, there's a rumor going about that Aphelion is going to supply the Functionist council, with an army of clones, an army that could be rebuilt in a matter of days after killing off the entire first batch."

A dreadful silence hung heavy in the air like a thick unseen fog. The shadows suddenly seemed darker, the lights dimmer, and the purple of the walls a malicious grey.