The Spark in the Cellar

Ch. 1: Fleeing for "Freedom"

ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS!!! DO. NOT. FLAG ME!

"Hon', what in Primus's name are you doing!?" Whispered Appala Lunar, my mentor, in fear of being heard by our oppressors after I shattered her cell's Energon bars with my bare servos. My partially unarmored & battle-worn self lurched swiftly into the room & broke her bonds, freeing her from the wall "No time to explain, AL! Come on!" she doesn't move. "I can't!" this earned a worried look from my optics "Why not?" "They broke my legs so that I couldn't fight them." Rage boils my Energon as I pout sternly to the ground. No. We have no time for this, not now! Those intruders won't keep the lab glitches busy for long & the ship is about to leave. "Fine, I'll carry you!" I grunt, scooping her off of the floor & over my shoulder. "You're coming with us, frag those glitches! Watch your helm!" I made a beeline for the doors ahead of us as my mentor & sister in arms struggled to grasp what was happening now, tugging at my helm cords in a futile attempt to slow my rampant movement. I'm sorry, my dear friend, but I would not be able to live with myself if you died here alone & I have three mini ships in agreement with that.

...

"Get this thing started!" I yelp after kicking a rivaling mech out of the ship's door frame. "I can't!" The young seeker mech screeches from the pilot's chair "Something is blocking the jet's engine, if I take off, we'll explode!". The occupants of the vessel, all young greenhorns, a few sparklings & rebellious scientists, screamed & begged for Primus to help us all out of this while making promises of what would happen if they were delivered from this torment, all but Appala. "Which engine!?" I call to the ship's front as silence & whimpers clasped those present "You're malfunctioning! It'll combust if you-!" "Which. Is. It?" I demand. He confesses which engine is downed as he tries to assuage me out of whatever he thought I was going to do before I screamed "Would you rather only me or all of us!? Choose!" He cringed from my tone as I turn into the door "Close it behind me! I'll catch up!"

My helm cords whipped from place to place landing me next to the downed engine's fans. As I'm fixing it a mass of white or light grey blur above me followed by a leaner purple & red form careening into the first one causing the wall of the space station we were sitting in to morph into a vacuum pulling everything to it, ship & all. With the engine fully mended in record time, I make my way past the now-closed door & to the pilot's window to signal for a safe lift-off. "Where are you going, my disgraceful little metro-rat!?" Taunted a familiar voice as a spear pierced through my outstretched arm eliciting an outcry of agony from me. The barbed skewer must have gone through the side of the ship & scared the wits out of those seated on the ship's platform side. Pink Energon coating said weapon was most definitely not helping them either. "Lockjaw, it's over! Let them go! Let us go! Let me go!" I plead to my former colleague & ex-partner who condemned me to this state in the first place. "No, my dear assistant! You're mine! You all are & I won't rest until all of your helms are strung up on my wall!"

Fighting rabidly, I pull my skewered limb from the vessel's hide leaving the skewer in its place & put all my weight onto this Mad Mech in a last-ditch effort to ensure a safe trip out of this hellfire that they had been trapped in for decades. We tumble onto the catwalk & down a ways away before I threw him over the side only for him to sink his talons into my ankle causing me to fall off the side along with him but not before I grabbed the walkway's side & begin to kick his face in. The port's barricaded door blazed with welder's cast off as I turn back in terror to the ship full of frightened onlookers, to my injuries & then back to the ship while feeling a wave of realization wash over me. I can't make it, but they can. I break off Lockjaw's grip sending him into the inferno below, hoist my damaged form back onto the catwalk to raise my fist above my head & pump it into the frigid air as if to shout out 'go on without me! I'll cover you!' to the aviator who was astounded by my brash behavior but caught on quickly, kicking the lifeboat into gear & flooring it. "You'll do good, ya' Lil lug nut." I vent in pain & pride as I watch the last group set off to charter their futures. They were too young for all of this anyways, only a few decades with the exception of Appala. Fire consumes me as the walkway crumbles from below. Silence. Nothing moves, nothing is living. I'm at rest now.