Ep0.5 - Utah - "Slasher Flick" [closed]

Jeff sighed internally, a human habit that was so very accurate for the emotions it portrayed.

He really really didn't want to go out hunting for the much rumored-about femme Serotype. According to Chris, who had heard from Mike, who had heard from Gerhard, who had heard from both Stephanie and Mary, Serotype had a tendency to send Eradicons back to the Nemesis with incurable viruses, nasty rashes, and, many times, with many parts missing. Jeff didn't consider himself any better at fighting than any other Eradicon, he'd just been around the bend a few hundred times more than some. And he'd learned that legends like Serotype were to be avoided at any cost. Sure, probably one of the Decepticons could go out and face her, but of course they were too busy to track a rogue scientist down.

"Nooo, send out the mindless Vehicons to do it. Nevermind they haven't succeeded yet," he growled to himself, tilting his wings to descend from cloud cover. Upon seeing no enemy fire coming at him from this height, he continued griping. "Hey, someone find Jeff! He'd be perfect for this!"

The six Eradicon jets with him didn't respond to his grumping. They were the mindless ones of his kind, the drones. No one else volunteered to come with him, and six drones was all that would be spared on this mission this time. What cowardly little fraggers, the lot of them! There were more qualified Eradicons for this mission than he, especially with approaching sunset and a creeper with acid for energon in her veins (That's what Walter had said anyway. Thank you, Walter). He shouldn't be here!

He'd done everything he could to get out of this. 'Everything he could' mostly involved finding an empty cupboard in Starscream's lab, cramming himself inside, and forwarding any hails to an impromptu voicemail. He hadn't liked it in there, but it had seemed safe until he'd been found.

In the end, he'd ended up leading a squad of seven out into the depths of Utah. He'd been flying for well over two hours by now, and still no sign. But the lead the others had picked up had covered a wide area, and he was reaching the center of the selected region. Down below, he could see the ground littered with deep crevices, all interconnected and complex, and while he didn't like the look of it, he just knew such a location would be ideal for a refugee.

He didn't want to do this. Actually, he could just fly around and say he didn't find anything. But Jeff was by-the-books about this kinda thing, had something to prove, and maybe he was little afraid someone like Soundwave would find out he hadn't actually done his job. So he angled his wings, sent a silent command to his unrealized comrades, committed to the task, and then descended.

Passing down into a canyon, he scanned the walls, fanned out his troops, and took stock of the area before landing at the bottom. This particular section of the canyon seemed clear, but the place stretched onward, riddled with narrow walkways and caves. They'd have to investigate every one of them, and it was getting darker.

Scrap. He'd better not find anything, or he'd strangle someone when he got back, whether he had servos to strangle with or not.

"Jeff, activity to the East. Red smoke detected," one of the drones called.

Jeff had already seen it and waved the guy off. What did this mean, red smoke? It didn't seem natural. He wouldn't say he was an expert on all things Earth, much less what kind of billowing clouds of matter it chose to spew out, but he was pretty sure 'red' was not on the List of Things Normal for this geographical area. He walked a few steps forward, his visor dimmed as if he was squinting.

He couldn't see anything, and the smoke was getting closer. Scans came up with nothing either. He continued to stare, until a trill of fear shivered up his back and his resolve deflated enough that he motioned one of the drones forward.

"Hey. Go check it out," he said quietly, and the mech complied, trotting forward into to mist. Jeff felt bad using the others as canaries, but as he was the only sentient one here he couldn't afford to go first. He turned to the five vehicons behind him. "You, watch the rear."

The drone he spoke to nodded, and immediately began scanning their six with suspicion.

Jeff, despite everything, took a few more cautious steps forward, his arm guns extended and primed.

"Jeff," the drone he sent ahead called back like an idiot. Did he not SEE those damn horror flicks?? "There's no one here. The source of the smoke is also currently undetectable."

--

The sound of a heavy body hitting hard dirt was difficult to miss, but even though the red smoke was dissipating quickly now, it was difficult to see for a few more seconds.

Jeff waited stiffly, the other vehicons unmoving, as the cloud of rouge cleared away to reveal the downed drone. The neck was ripped open, the head lopping backwards, with energon seeping into the rocks. The scene hit Jeff like Prime on a rampage.

"OOoooohhh!!!" Jeff howled, backpedaling several steps. He hit one of the drones, who toppled into the dirt. "He was just talking to me!" he added breathlessly.

There was no movement, though. Obviously not from the drone, but nothing else either. Suddenly Jeff smacked his chest plates, the clang causing the drone next to him to stare.

"Quit it!" he hissed to himself. He transformed his hand back into his rifle. He hadn't changed it back to a servo on purpose, and didn't remember it shifting. "It's one fembot!"

He nodded to two of his Eradicon fellows and they moved forward, one scouting the area ahead, and the other checking out the dead drone.

The group pushed forward. The drones signalled that the way was clear, but as Jeff passed a cave to one side he yelped and ran forward; slagging drone had scanned the visible entrance of the cave, but hadn't actually checked the inside!! And now that Jeff was at the front of the pack he could see that the cave problem was only going to continue - they were everywhere. Up near the top, buried into the ground, carved into the side, the caves in these canyons were anything from very shallow to dark and deep. Their attacker could be anywhere, and now she was probably behind them because they'd moved where she'd wanted them to be.

He spun around, "Arm yourselves, and stay alert! She could be in any one of these caves!"

Scraaap.

Rather than stick around to see what nastiness she might throw their way, Jeff had two drones go out in front and two follow up the rear. To his left the last drone took to his side.

Together, the group pushed through the quiet canyon, and Jeff was extraordinarily aware of the shadows becoming darker. Some of them even looked like they were moving.

Jeff worked to keep himself calm. He was already creeped out, but now he was apparently being hunted, his team on the defensive. He had to change this around somehow, but taking to the air was out of the question. The walls were too steep, and going vertical would only allow her more cover. They'd have to get smart. His first thought was to split up, but he dismissed that immediately. That's what several other squads had done, and look what happened to them. His second thought was to run forward, barrel through these ravines and then turn around and slowly advance backward. But he couldn't be sure of her location to do that and get anywhere better than where he was now. Besides, who knew if she had booby traps set up in this place. At the thought, he reeled.

He really wished he had someone with some brains with him, and not mindless clones. Chris preferably. He was more cool headed on a mission, if a bit hot tempered on the ship. Jeff figured he'd know what to do, though the mech was more inexperienced than he was.

A rock dislodged from a nearby boulder and crashed to the ground, causing Jeff to automatically leap over a ledge to cover with a brief squeal. He popped back up, arms extended. Nothing there. and it seemed he was the only one who'd reacted the way he did. His chest warmed with embarrassment, and he kept walking.

He had to think of something quick...

Up ahead was a wider, sky lit section of the canyon, just wide enough that his team could fan out some more, gain more ground, and, hopefully, find some proper cover. The ledges in this area were steeper and narrower, and the caves seemed to be shallow... At the center of the 'clearing' was an odd shaped statuesque rock, tall and narrow and covered in the multicolored bands that revealed such a formation's age. Inspecting it, he shook his head in wonder. With the wide middle, the wide rear, and the sculpted tri-formed top, the thing kind of looked like a Dodrio.

This place made Jeff really curious just what in the Pit the river that made this place looked like... cuz damn.

"Alright. Everyone find some cover, inspect every corner, and watch each other's backs," he said quietly into the near silent canyon.

"Jefferson, this cave leads somewhere," one of the drones commented a moment later.

"So does this one," said another.

"What?" Jeff gaped. "Oh, this is...this is perfect."

This wasn't going well at all, was it? Without exploring each one, these caves could lead anywhere else and she probably knew each one by spark. If his current ambush plan didn't work, he'd have to attempt calling for back up, no matter how stupid it would look on record.

Their designations were HED-977 and KJI-196. Both looked like any other Eradicon of their kind, and acted no different either. At least, no different from factory specific vehicons anyway. They were as aware of the world as they needed to be and only as intelligent as warranted to operate well on the battlefield and on the ship. Both were recent models, naive but unaware of that fact.

The chances they'd survive this mission were very small.

Jefferson was pondering. The guy wasn't exactly built for planning and strategy, so he was having trouble deciding on a plan and estimating their effectiveness. But while he silently ranted, HED and KJI continued on with previous orders.

Before them was a cave, and beyond it a tunnel that curved right. It was large enough for a shorter bot to fit through, but wide enough that it could be hiding someone. They both entered and crouched forward, weapons ready.

It was soon revealed that the tunnel branched. One lead straight back to the clearing, and the other went deeper. The pair exchanged glances and noticed Jefferson was calling them, asking for their position. HED placed a hand to his helm to respond, but KJI chose to step onward into the dark.

But he wouldn't, and he knew that.

Precious fuel leaked from the deep wound in his side, and KJI leaned against the wall. It had happened so fast, he was much too shocked to immediately call for back up. He rested a hand on his side as his legs gave out and he slid to the ground. It was strange, realizing he was surprised. It was weird realizing he could feel at all. Drones were not built to stare at their servos, covered in energon, and recognize that they had about nine nano cycles to live. They weren't built to realize they didn't want that to happen. But it would.

He looked up where he thought he saw the vague shape of the one who'd stabbed him, then held a servo to his helm.

"Jeff. Threat...detected. Coordinates as follows." Is this why some of the others took names? Is this why they chose to distinguish themselves? Because they'd suddenly felt different? Because they felt at all? He never understood, and simply dismissed it to complete his duties. He'd never done anything more than his programming was made for, nor anything less. This was so...strange.

"KJI-196, is she offline? Did you shoot 'er??" Jefferson had named himself after a World War II flying ace. A human name, despite the Decepticon conviction that humans were less than rats. The other fliers did the same.

"No..." He should name himself, too, he supposed, although he didn't understand why he wanted to. "And my name.. is Karl."

"Karl!?...Ohhhh, god - Primus. Well, kill it, dammit! Hello??"

There was no response.

Jefferson, by now, was seriously considering leaving, but he couldn't just leave 'Karl' could he?

"HED-977, check up on him, quick. Get him out of there, we're leaving!" Jeff called and commed at the same time. This was way over his head, and one of the drones had just fragging named himself. What in the Pit!? Thist spoke of a huge problem, or at least it seemed to be a problem. Just which drone was actually sentient, and which wasn't? How many of them were just like him before he'd become Jefferson?

While Jeff continued to panic, HED-977 held on to his composure. Unlike his dead comrade, he had no secret concept of identity or deeply buried feelings. He walked forward, confirmed KJI-196's death, grabbed the mech by the arm and hoisted him out towards the clearing, energon trail bright and shiny.

Jefferson only got a brief, terror-filled look at his dead...subordinate? Comrade? before something was hurled out of the cave behind HED-977 and exploded in a plume of red-brown dust. Not knowing what it was and having the self-preservation instinct of a living mechanoid, Jeff bounded backward, avoiding the cloud as it spread as best he could. Still, his pedes began to itch and the sensation startled him enough that he blasted upward onto a ledge to seek cover and check himself for damage.

The drones weren't so lucky. With two dead, there were just four left. HED-977 and GFB-734 took the brunt of the cloud and immediately began to rust. It wasn't deep, nor did it mean instant death, but the rust settled in and began to itch. To really itch. Both drones weren't exactly programmed to panic, but they did need to complete their mission, so they quickly began to attempt to brush and scrape the substance off.

The third, BKM-487, was hit in the side with the substance and did something much similar, but more frantically and with much vocalizing. He clawed at himself, his pointed digits digging deep gouges into his metal hide to get it off. The fourth, KIN-606 reacted similarly but worse. The last bit of the dense cloud settled over him and seeped into his systems. He was, for lack of a better word, soaked in the irritating substance. He lurched backward, slamming inadvertantly into the canyon wall and began clawing at himself in panic. The itch bore into every nerve he had and, in an effort to get away, he launched upwards, transformed, and hit full speed in two seconds.

He also hit an opposing wall in two seconds. The Vehicon slid to the wall with an unexpectedly slick, wet sound.

Jeff had seen enough human movies to know what the signs of a heart attack were, and that's what he felt like he was having. In the space of about a minute, three of the vehicons below were incapacitated and teh fourth just killed himself. Killed himself, to get away. It was taking all of Jeff's self control not to scratch at his pedes as it was, and he was currently plastered against the canyon wall, on his ledge, his fuel pump begging him to move so all the energon it was pumping could actually be used.

But he just wasn't sure where to go.

The Eradicons were tripping over themselves down there, one of them sounding eerily frightened, and Karl's body was lying unmoving, the red itch going completely unattended to.

His optics fell on the cave the thing had come from, and then they found the actual object - some kind of canister, blown apart by its own blast, lying at the center of the blast zone. It was tehn he realized with horror that the femme who had thrown it was in there and she was about to come out to finish him off, too.

Well, he wouldn't let that happen. It was time for a retreat.

Too scared to even call out the order, he too fell towards the ground and transformed. Before he hit, he took off, rocketing upwards out of the canyon.

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