Crossbreed

Syringe

The Ground Bridge suddenly opened behind me and I looked away from my workstation upon seeing the blue-green reflection of the transportation vortex on the sample vile I was holding. It was late into the partially cloudy night and all the humans, aside from Rafael, had left to their government lent accommodations. Rafael said that he would rather wait for Bumblebee to return from the mission.

All of the others had gone on a rather large scale scouting mission, as the cave they were searching was of a massive size. We still have the issue of energon, and even though we managed to seize an energon mine from the Decepticons, we are still burning through our supply quickly. Optimus's upgraded form requires more energon than he needed before, three new permanent additions to the Autobot team need energon to function, of course, and we need to keep Ultra Magnus's ship fueled in case the Autobots must relocate at a moment's notice, so we take whatever opportunity we get to harvest more energon.

Because of this need for energon, I have worked hard on the Synthetic Energon formula to complete it. Unfortunately, my progress has been the equivalent of running uphill underwater, due to the lack of the appropriate technology.

And even after the destruction of the Decepticon citadel, Darmount, dealing with the Decepticons, has been, of course, no easier. With the arrival of Shockwave came his pet. That Predacon, or the Dragon, as the humans have taken a liking to calling it, has made it very difficult for us Autobots, to say the very least. Almost every time we search for energon, or, more recently, Predacon remains, the Predacon is sent to attempt to rip our bots to shreds. And there has been too many times that such a thing has almost happened.

When our 'Bots are forced to engage in combat with this beast, usually one or more bots return to the base injured. Thankfully I have seen no life-threatening inflictions, but it is only at matter of time before the Predacon causes serious damage to one of the Autobots. And I fear that if that happens, I won't be able to aid them to my fullest ability, because of the lack of the proper tools.

I just hope that the same does not go for this late mission.

I placed the sample vile down gently on my workbench and turned completely to face the opened Ground Bridge. Glancing briefly at Rafael, who had sent the Bridge for our team, I stood and waited for my comrades to emerge, mildly aggravated that my private project had been interrupted.

Soon enough, our leader, followed by Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers, and the scout team walked into the base. I shook my helm slightly at the sight. All of them appeared to be tired and were riddled with dents, scorch marks and painful tears in their armor.

Today was a good day, compared to others.

But, I can tell that they didn't emerge victorious when I saw that Bumblebee's scratched, dented doorwings were very low and when I heard Smokescreen say nothing.

The Ground Bridge closed once all of them were inside of the base, and I looked up at Optimus as his large form approached me. I can clearly see the damage he suffered, and there was a tired look in his optics, an expression more noticeable than usual. I have come to know that tired look as the look of defeat for our leader.

Before he could tell me, I said what was evident. "I take it the Predacon was there."

He blinked down at me and nodded once, confirming what I knew. "Yes, old friend, the Predacon was sent to the mine we were searching."

"Slagging thing managed to cut most of the team off, and tossed Bulkhead and I around. Optimus came to help, but it didn't work out too well." All of us turned and looked at Wheeljack, who looked back with his arms crossed over his chassis. There was an irritated edge in his tone, something that was mildly surprising for a mech who is usually calm under the worst conditions.