literature

Transformers: The Exchange

Deviation Actions

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Ratchet looked around nervously. It was his first time in the field. Before the war started, he wanted to be a medical upgrader. Who wouldn't want to make their fellow Cybertronian stronger, faster, and function  longer? When Megatron and his Decepticons rose up, Ratchet changed his goals. He became a battle medic, the last Cybertronian to achieve the title, in hopes of just keeping his friends alive. He looked across the field to see the Decepticon warrior Deadlock, and looked back at his squad commander, Kup.
"Don't worry, kid. You'll be in and out in a matter of cycles," Kup said with a smile. This didn't console Ratchet. Kup's squad had been known to lose members left and right, and he didn't want to be amongst those statistics.
The sole female member of the group, Elita-One, chipped in, "You're doing a good thing here Ratchet. If everything goes right, the Autobots will take a huge step forward in this war, and the Decepticons will take a huge step back."
Ratchet knew that he was doing the right thing, but feared that the Decepticons wouldn't honor their side of the bargain. He continued on with Kup's squad up to the Decepticon base.
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The Decepticons opened fire. It's not like none of the Autobots saw this coming. Once they handed Ratchet over, it was obvious that the Decepticons wouldn't hold up their end of the bargain. What wasn't expected was how many Decepticons were hiding nearby. Blitzwing, Vortex, Blastoff, and Sunstorm flew over the horizon. The Constructicons snuck up from behind, and formed Devastator. Sixshot, Frenzy, Rumble, and Motormaster emerged from nearby buildings. Kup's squad was surrounded. Dion was shot and killed immediately. Kup ordered a tactical retreat, and the team transformed and exited the area. The Decepticons surrounded the base to make sure that no one else got in, and that Ratchet didn't get out.
"Get in there, Autobot," barked Deadlock. Ratchet continued onward to find the highly damaged Shockwave laid out before him. "You Autobots got lucky shooting the only Decepticon that knows how to repair a bot."
"I feel so lucky to be here right now," remarked Ratchet. Deadlock shoved Ratchet into the wall and looked him in the optics. After a cycle or two, he let the medic down and walked away. Ratchet turned his attention back to Shockwave.
As he began his repairs, he released his hidden Minicon ally, Longarm. Longarm is a close friend of Red Alert, a fellow medic who was recently put into stasis after being infected with contaminated Energon. "Okay, Longarm, go through the vent. Find Alpha Trion." Longarm broke through the vent, and was gone.
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Deadlock eventually returned. "What's taking so long? Shouldn't Shockwave be fully functional already?"
"Do I tell you how to do your job? You Decepticons left the wound open to long. An infection, likely brought back from the gladiatorial pits in Kaon, spread quickly. I needed to rid the wound of the infection before I operated, or it would have killed him. Once I'm certain that the wound is fully stabilized, I'll begin the actual operation."
"Uh…okay," replied Deadlock. The Decepticon was clearly unfamiliar with the medical terminology. He left the room.
"That was some grade-A Ratbat exhaust," smirked Longarm, as he came back into the room. He handed Ratchet a holographic map of the base. Ratchet looked over the map, and looked back at Longarm.
"Okay. So Alpha Trion is residing on the other side of the building. Do you think this Deadlock will actually take me to him once Shockwave is 'functioning' again?"
"I hope so, doc."
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Everything was set up perfectly. Shockwave's chassis was modified to be controlled by Longarm. Longarm would then act as Shockwave, free Alpha Trion, and continue to assist the Autobots from within the Decepticons. But the best laid plans of 'bots and 'cons often go awry.
Unbeknownst to the Autobots or even the Decepticons operating this base, Soundwave uses a special frequency for communication amongst Decepticon higher-ups. Soundwave demanded that each Decepticon amongst this group, including Megatron, enter in a code every 96 cycles, or else it would be assumed that they had been compromised. For ages, this practice was looked upon as unnecessary. Shockwave, once back online, was the first to not enter in the code.
"Come in Deadlock," Soundwave's voice boomed from the monitor.
"Soundwave, sir. The Autobot medic is currently operating on Shockwave. I have nothing further to report at this time, sir."
"Shockwave has been compromised. Eliminate him and the Autobot medic."
Deadlock hesitated. He'd killed many Autobots, but never a non-combatant. "Yes, sir."
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Suddenly, a firefight burst out in the corridor outside Shockwave's operating room. Deadlock led Decepticons on one side, and Sunstorm on the other. Ratchet and "Shcokwave" were forced into pulling out their weaponry and defending themselves.
"Well. Guess they didn't want you patched up after all," Ratchet said.
"Decepticons! Cease fire! We will honor this Autobot's actions, and let him and the prisoner go," Longarm said in an attempt to stop the attack.
"Shove it up your tailpipe!" hollered Sunstorm. He then aimed down his sights, and shot Shockwave dead center in the chest. As Shockwave fell over, revealing the Minicon inside, Ratchet ran to his side.
"Ratchet…go on, I can't…can't make it," said Longarm as he went offline. Ratchet had no idea what to do. He's lost his only ally inside the Decepticon base, his cover's been blown, there's absolutely no contact with Kup or the rest of the team, and it's still unknown whether Alpha Trion is even online in his cell. He managed to get back into the operating room, but knew that he wouldn't be able to defend himself much longer. The only exit to the room was through an army of Decepticons or through a vent sized for Minicons and smaller 'bots.
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"Move over! I'll crumble that door for 'ya," said Rumble.
"Hurry up!" screamed Vortex.
"Good, it's open! Let me through, I want to tear him limb from limb," said Sunstorm. He looked around the room, but Ratchet wasn't there. Frenzy called him over, and presented to him pieces of Ratchet's armor plating.
"He must have removed it to fit through the vent," said Motormaster.
"Frenzy, Rumble, follow him. Vortex, Blastoff, head out to Soundwave and bring back more Minicons. Sixshot, get me a map of the vents. Blitzwing, make sure he doesn't leave the base. Motormaster, try to get the Constructicons back here," said Sunstorm. "Won't this be fun, Deadlock?"
Deadlock looked back at him with an emptiness in his optics.
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"Get the Costructicons, Motormaster. Primus, does Sunstorm really think we can't handle this by ourselves?" asked Motormaster. He set off a trip wire, which in turn broke the pipes in the corridor, releasing large amounts of smoke. "What's going on?" he asked. With the precision of a surgeon, a small blade cut his leg servos, and he fell to the ground. His comm link was removed from his body, and used to send out a distress call. "No! Don't come! It's a trap!" he screamed, but his voice could not reach over to his severed comm link.
The thin exoskeleton of Ratchet walked through the smoke and looked down at Motormaster. "now this will only hurt for a cycle."
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Sunstorm was the first on the scene. He found Motormaster with a severely mangled face, and quickly scanned the area, looking for Ratchet. "This medic is just full of surprises, isn't he?" He heard footsteps coming from the other corridor and readied his gun. He saw a leg come around the corner and opened fire.
"Sunstorm! What are you doing? It's me, Sixshot! I was responding to the distress call," screamed the Decepticon that Sunstorm was shooting at. He lowered his gun and began to walk over to Sixshot. Before the two could meet, however, a blast went through Sixshot's chest, and he fell to the ground. Sunstorm hurried around the corner and saw that the armory door was open. He transformed and flew at top speed into the room.
"Decepticons, remain at your posts. Motormaster and Sixshot are down, and I'm investigating. Report in," said Sunstorm.
A few cycles passed with no response, and Sunstorm tried contacting them again. Again, there was no response. The door closed behind him.
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"We've got movement in the armory," said Rumble.
"Let's find this Unicron's spawn and take him down," added Frenzy. They moved through the vents and approached the armory. Once in the vents above the armory, the space in front of them exploded and they fell out. They looked back up and saw Sunstorm shooting aimlessly around the room.
"Sunstorm, you're gonnna deplete your Energon if you keep that up," said Frenzy.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," shouted Ratchet as he dropped a grenade next to the trio. Frenzy and Rumble ran behind cover, only to activate a trip mine set under the floor tiles. Sunstorm, on the other hand, flew up to the vents and grabbed Ratchet. While holding him, Sunstorm flew through the vents and back out into the corridor.
"Blizwing, Deadlock…get down here and help me."
Ratchet grabbed his surgical knives, and prepared to defend himself. Sunstorm grabbed to long pieces of shrapnel that were once part of the vents. The two clashed their weapons again and again. Ratchet charged forward, transformed to duck under Sunstorm's swing, and transformed back, throwing one of the surgical knives into Sunstorm's back. Sunstorm dropped the pieces of Shrapnel and began to open fire on Ratchet. Ratchet ducked behind cover, but Sunstorm kept getting closer. He prepared himself, aiming his blade at Sunstorm. He'd only get one chance.
The ceiling above Sunstorm burst open, and Blitzwing fell down. Sunstrom was trapped under the triple-changer's massive body. Ratchet looked up and saw Deadlock smiling back at him. Deadlock tossed down the key to Alpha Trion's room and left. Ratchet picked up the key, accessed Longarm's map, and followed it to prison cell.
"Oh, Primus, let him still be functioning. The Autobots desperately need to get something out of this," Ratchet said to himself.
"By the Allspark, I'm surely not that important," responded Alpha Trion as he exited the cell. Ratchet let out a sigh of relief before showing him the map and directing him on the route they would take to meet back up with Kup.
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Things were finally looking up. These Decepticons were defeated, Alpha Trion was freed, and Ratchet was just happy to be online. As they exited the based, they were shot upon from the sky. Blastoff and Vortex returned with Laserbeak and Ravage. Ratcheted pulled Alpha Trion behind cover and looked around for a blaster. He could see Dion's body, with blaster in hand, but knew that even Blurr couldn't make it over there quick enough.
"Behind you!" yelled Alpha Trion. Ratchet tried to turn around quick enough, but Ravage was upon him. It took all of the medic's strength just to hold Ravage's jaws open. Alpha Trion intervened and tore the blasters off of Ravage's sides, and shot the Minicon. Ratchet got up as Ravage scampered away. Alpha Trion tossed him one of the blasters.
They tried to fight back, but the flying Decepticons were too fast. When all hope seemed lost, Kup's squad returned and fired at the Decepticons. This attack allowed Ratchet and Alpha Trion to make their way across the field.
"Stop," said Alpha Trion, as he changed direction and made his way over to Dion.
"What are you doing? He's offline. There's nothing we can do for him," said Ratchet. Dion's chest opened, and Alpha Trion pulled out his spark.
"His body may be terminated, but he is not yet one with the Allspark." Blastoff landed in front of the escaping Autobots and knocked down Alpha Trion. Ratchet held out his salvaged blaster and attempted hold off Blastoff. He just needed a few seconds more…
Blastoff was shot through the chest. The team sniper, Jazz, hid on top of the closest structure to the Decepticon base. Losing a piece of Bruticus was not an option, so Vortex ordered a retreat. The Decepticons flew off. Jazz dropped down and helped get the escapees onto the squad vehicle.
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Ratchet looked at his injuries, and hoped that he'd be able to get some new armor plating soon. He then turned his attention to the Decepticon base, as it disappeared in the distance. Alpha Trion put his hand on Ratchet's shoulder and smiled.
Elita-One finally broke the silence. "So, Ratchet…We've got some open spaces on the team now."
"No thanks. I'm needed elsewhere." Ratchet looked over Dion's spark in his hands.
This was done for :iconthe-ratchet-club:'s contest.

I'm thinking I might continue the story in a style similar to WFC and FOC, as in each chapter features a different character.

All characters owned by Hasbro.
© 2012 - 2024 JohnJanuarius
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168natasha's avatar
ohhh this is amazing i hope you do more