Ep. 2 - And South of Paradise - (Closed)

[Deleted]

Takes place concurrently with East of Eden: Week 1, Day 3, at 5:00am!

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For the third time that night, a ground bridge burst into life.

It too was not placed lightly - Ratchet had deliberately targeted it to open within a thick copse of pine trees and brush so as to hide its distinctive flash of green light. Almost immediately the bridge faded again, leaving two Autobots standing in the darkness behind it.

Bluestreak and Zoom-Zoom had not been routed to the Black Rock base first, like Optimus had. Rather, they had walked from the Autobot base straight to the operation site: a guard outpost two miles south of the main MECH research and development facility. And unlike Optimus they were utterly alone.

They stood within the trees, hidden from sight. The woods were dark and still, save for the chirp of crickets. Just to the north of their position harsh lights glowed through the needled branches. If they walked in that direction to the edge of the trees they would see their objective.

The guard outpost was small and well hidden by the rocky terrain. It had been built at a narrow point in the valley, where the rock formed a natural bottleneck. A dirt road wound through a handful of squat concrete bunkers, next to which were erected several khaki tents draped in camouflage netting. Wood logs and sandbags and empty ammunition cases formed barricades, behind which were mounted several portable mortar positioned to rapidly launch explosive rounds directly up or down the valley from behind protection. They were light and mobile - and could pose a threat even to a Cybertronian.

More dangerous were the vehicles parked about the outpost: armoured humvees with heavy machine guns mounted on the back. Mortars were long-range weapons, meant to be fired over a distance. The machine guns would be very effective up close, particularly against the armour of a smaller mech.

Armed soldiers stood guard outside the bunkers. A handful of others had set up fires in brick firepits and sat around them for warmth, talking quietly. To a man they all wore the dark fatigues and combat armour of MECH.

On the north side of the outpost stood a taller concrete building. A diesel generator and small transformer yard sat outside it, feeding it power. On its roof was an array of dishes and antennas and criss-crossing wires - this was the communications site, most likely.

Right away, Zoom-Zoom would be able to determine his advantage: he was small enough to access this building, and well-armed enough to tackle any soldiers manning it. A larger mech might be able to destroy the building, but all of its systems and data would be destroyed with it.

Zoom-Zoom just had to make it past the soldiers and the machine guns first.

A that moment, both of their internal comms chimed.

"Bluestreak, Zoom-Zoom - this is Wash. Mirage, Optimus, and the humans are all in place and ready to move. You're all cleared to proceed - good luck, guys!"

[Bluestreak]

Wash's cheerful voice echoed in Bluestreak's audials.

"Copy ya, Wash, thank you!" he automatically chirped back.

Then there was that click of a comm turning off. Things fell into silence. Radio silence. Tucked as they were within the branches, the trunks of the trees subdued the night noises to a dull background hush. Even the rusty chirp of crickets was just the soft rustle of the tree limbs scraping against his plating, the tips of the pine feathering along his silver paint.

A broken branch tip dripped a curling amber smear of sap; it trailed a sticky path over the sharpshooter’s shoulder.

The night smelled like pine. It was one of those scents Bluestreak liked. Well, he thought he liked it. Pretty sure he did. Yeah, he did. It had a sharpness to it, a sweetness that was so unlike anything he had ever smelled on any other of the planets he'd been on. Not that he'd been on too many, but he would have remembered that smell if he'd ever smelled it before and--

As usual, his brain couldn’t stand that abrupt silence and tried to fill it up. He struggled with it for a moment. Old words drifted back in, old memories. They always did at these moments before a situation was about to take place. Break up your outline. Keep it to the shadows, keep yourself appropriately positioned; if you can find a spot to lie flat and under some cover, do it.

Uh, doesn't look like the third option is really an option right now, he discussed with his internal voice. Okay, let's see, this place is well hidden, there's that space- good for me, it makes it easier to hold the point from a bit of a distance, hey, that's handy, I'd rather not have to close if I don't have to, thanks anyway, they've dug themselves in pretty well, they've got a lot of protection. Narrow points; these humans know tactics and they’re keeping a low profile.

His right optic squinted slightly, the sky-blue color shuttering to a narrow slit.

Funny, he was more nervous about this all of a sudden than he’d been over things in a while. There was an odd nagging mumble; Decepticons were known. Humans weren’t. They were an unknown point, they weren’t as predictable as the Decepticons were. Really, in the end, Decepticons were predictable. They wanted you dead. Who knew what these humans wanted from them; er, not that all humans wanted something or another. His thoughts sidestepped to one particular one and he was going to have to talk to Wash again and see if maybe they could go and–

A glance down at the smaller mech next to him. Back on track back on track, Blue.

Immediately, he offered up a friendly grin to Zoom Zoom, his doors lifting. His rifle shifted against his shoulder with a soft click; his hand comfortably palming the stock. The weight was there against him, a gentle nudge of support that helped him step away from the words in his head and back to the moment.

“Well, we knew that was coming,” he murmured quietly. Bluestreak didn’t feel like messing with his comm too much right now; who knew if they could pick things up or not. Words were fine anyway, they were sort of grounding. “I mean, all the defenses, they’ve got themselves set up good for both close in and distance.”

A grin. “So, what’s the plan?” he asked, deferring to the smaller mech. He wasn’t a spook, didn’t know the first thing about being a spook. That was okay, he was content with his job. Heck, he was good at his job. Aim, fire. Yep, he could do that.

“I mean, besides the plan of getting in there and no one getting shot or blown up and being torn apart and rebuilt by MECH into war machines , because that’s the best plan, super plan, wonderful plan, that’s my absolute first choice of plan.”

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom was wondering where it had all gone wrong. He'd had a less than stellar track record with the Omega base yet somehow he'd been selected to go on this mission against MECH. Hadn't he proven that he couldn't be relied upon for...well, anything? But noooo. They didn't have any other hackers on base, so that meant this job had fallen squarely on Zoom-Zoom's shoulder. Privately, the minibot made a note to himself, if he ever transferred out to another outpost somewhere in the galaxy, he'd be keeping that skill off his resume. Of course, this all depended on him surviving this mission and given the universe's disposition to giving Zoom-Zoom the worst possible outcomes, he fully expected that this mission was going to end either in his death or capture by MECH, which was probably a fate worse than death on account of that whole body hacking thing.

To say the minibot was displeased with his current assignment would be an understatement. The only consolation was that they had assigned him some support. But Zoom-Zoom would still much rather be anywhere but here, thank you very much. He didn't really know all that much about Bluestreak, nor did he particularly care. All he hoped was that the mech would be useful.

The minibot had moved slowly after Bluestreak through the ground bridge. In part, reluctance, in part, allow the bigger mech go on ahead and soak up any bullets just in case there were enemies waiting on the other side. Zoom-Zoom exited in a bunch of pine trees, coming to a halt to get a good look at the environment before he moved anywhere further. They had cover, for the moment which was always a positive in his mind.

He moved up reluctantly, his colour changing system active and just ready for him to pick a scheme and swap it out. It was uncomfortable to not to have done so already but Zoom-Zoom needed to see he was going before he could make that change. Thanks to its cooldown period, he couldn't afford to be careless and pick the wrong paintjob. The minibot's optics scanned the environment with a focused look, a expression that other mecha rarely ever saw on his features. What he saw…

Annoyance was the first emotion Zoom-Zoom experienced. Obviously, he was not dealing with Cybertronians, where he was the small one, able to quietly flit unseen between enemy lines. Here, the humans and their outpost was small and he was the giant. Unless he was able to turn invisible, he was not going to be able to make it past without alerting the guards. The minibot's lip plates tightened in disgust. This was everything he hated about an operation, all rolled into one. Zoom-Zoom preferred his work to feature heavily on the 'unseen' side of things.

A straight up assault on the other hand, was not what he wanted.

While he was still mulling over the outpost and its set-up, noting the placement of its barricades, the mortars and the armored vehicles, he listened with half an audial to Bluestreak's ramble. Zoom-Zoom's doors drew up when the other Bot asked him what the plan was.

The spook blinked. His head would have jerked to look up at the bigger mech except he was focused at the moment on noting as much of the enemy's position as he could.

The plan?

It had been a very, very long time since Zoom-Zoom had been involved in this kind of operation. And, generally speaking, he hadn't been the ones come up with the plans, that tended to be someone else's job. That is not to say that he couldn't, but he was sorely out of practice in the whole team-planning department. His long trek to earth had been just one long stretch of solo jobs that relied on a healthy dose of improvisation.

The minibot looked Bluestreak up and down, eying off the rifle he was carrying. Mentally, Zoom-Zoom flicked through what he did know about the mech. Sharp-shooting was what Bluestreak was particularly renown for. He could take out the long range weaponry, the turrets and the humvees before Zoom-Zoom moved in. But as soon as Bluestreak started shooting, the minibot would have to get moving before someone got to the tower and alerted the main base.

...and if Blue started shooting from their position in the trees, all enemy fire would concentrated on their position when Zoom-Zoom got going…

The minibot flicked his optics back up at the outpost nested in the rocky terrain. "Well, the first thing to do would be to take out the turrets and the humvees and anything else that looks like it can damage a mech. That'll be your job. Hopefully that'll also serve as a distraction, so that the bulk of the fire is on you and they won't notice me until I'm a lot closer. In fact, when you start firing, if you can safely move out and make yourself really obvious and obnoxious, so much the better. By the time I get up to the outpost, I'm counting on you to have destroyed most, if not all, of the big guns, so I can my aft pronto up to the towers without too much distraction. The ground troops shouldn't be too much of a problem really, I'll deal with them, it's just the turrets and those mortars that concern me."

He rocked back on his heels, thinking about it some more. Zoom-Zoom craned his head back, trying to see if he'd missed anything. A thought occurred to him and he idly added, "Suppose it's too much to hope that you could block the road heading up to the comm tower by shooting out the hillside above it? It'd slow down any troops trying to get up there."

Zoom-Zoom activated his nannite reconfiguration scheme, using the dark gray camo paintjob, since he'd soon be up amongst the rocks and the concrete tower. Then, he melted back, gaze calm and expectant as he looked up at Bluestreak, waiting to hear if the mech had any objections or anything to add.

[Bluestreak]

Bluestreak listened as he looked pensively down at the outpost, his blue optics bright within the shadows of the pines they stood in. His thumb rubbed restless circles against the stock of his rifle. As Zoom-Zoom spoke, he didn't interrupt, he simply took in one target after another - the humvees, the turrets, and then he began to hunt for things that would make the most noise and clamor and draw the most attention to it.

The humvees would be a serious target. A memory of the Decepticon destroying that car down in the desert, the vehicle exploding. Explosions were always disorientating, he was the first to admit it. You didn't know where the next one would go off, and they sent those involved scrambling for cover. Which was good, confusion was one of those things that was great if you weren't the one who was confused. Or something like that.

Bluestreak nodded. "Yeah, I can do all that," he murmured, voice low and quiet among the silence around them. "I mean that's doable, I mean, I've got it. Take out the humvees and the turrets and anything that could take a shot at you and all that, I get it, I've got it. I can take those down, get rid of the big guns and all that at this distance, should be able to do it fairly quickly."

The silver mech's words were running together. There wasn't even a pause in all that, it was just as if he was thinking out loud as much as he was actually thinking in his brain. Or maybe his brain was going a mile a minute, calculating this and that and the wind and the trajectory and how much angle and force it would take to shoot out a hillside.

Then he looked a bit apologetic. "As for the hill," he said, with a quick tip of his head to where the small rocket sat in the shoulder launcher. "I can hopefully take it out. I'm not so sure about how much damage it'll do, I dun know much about Earth stuff like this yet. Dirt's different than buildings and support..."

The mech trailed off. Obvious nervous tension crept into his frame, the mech shifted his weight and then caught himself and adjusted the rifle against his shoulder. "Support beams," he said very seriously, and then his voice quickly lifted and became chirpy again.

"I kinda think that what might happen is that unless I strike the absolutely right spot, it probably wouldn't bring it down far enough to block all the road."

He brought up his free hand and shaded his optics. "Maybe. Not sure. I can try though after I've done what I can to take out those guns. You don't want to meet those ones down there close up, no way, they'll pin you between two of them and shoot."

A sheepish grin crossed his face. "I'm not so sure about being the target thing. I'm kinda a long range sort of guy. Er, I'll do it, honest, I'm not afraid of--"

Being a target? No, you're scared to death but it doesn't matter, if that's what needs to be done you do it, you do the job you need to do, Bluestreak, you just do it. Prime's counting on you, he sent you with him and if this guy needs a target to keep him safe and get that info, and than no one else ends up like Air Raid.

Air Raid.

Bluestreak drew himself up. The jet mech had saved him once, back on Cybertron. He'd always been an up front sort of guy, and Bluestreak liked him a lot. He'd consider the mech a friend, actually, and well, he'd lost a lot of friends over the eons. Too many to count. Too many memories, and the only way he'd keep them at bay was to concentrate on the task at hand and think about the here and now and right now...

If there was something that would help Air Raid and keep other Autobots from getting hurt, Bluestreak would wear a giant chicken costume and make buk-buk noises while standing on the ridge to make a better target.

What? He'd seen it on TV. Not the standing on the ridge thing. The chicken costume thing. Seemed like that was a pretty human way to draw attention to yourself. Or streaking over a rugby field, but he knew that it just wasn't the same. No pants here, haha!

"I'll cover you, I can do that, yeah. Don't worry about that. They can come after me if that's what happens. How close do you think you can get before you need me to start shooting, because that makes more sense than me shooting and you having to go in with them looking for you, right? We want them looking for me."

[Deleted]

It was quiet and sheltered in the trees, and the sky was dark. Both mechs were, for the moment, perfectly concealed.

Past the treeline the terrain sloped down to the outpost. The outer perimeter was less than a half mile away. Their current position gave them both a good sight-line over the encampment. Bluestreak in particular would be able to draw a bead on many of the vehicles and the mortars from where he sat. Electric lamps jury-rigged about the outpost gave enough light to aim by.

The communications site was a little more difficult to access. The dirt road that wound through the outpost led north to the concrete building with the dishes. The road itself was open and offered little shelter. A few sparse bushes and stunted trees along the side of the ditch was the only cover. The night was still dark, but dawn was approaching. Soon the cover of darkness would wan, and the road and the rest of the rocky valley would be lit with enough pale daylight that remaining hidden would be difficult.

At least no soldiers patrolled the road. And the outpost itself was quiet. Smoke drifted up from the fires. The MECH guards that stood about the site were gathered mostly by the barricades. A few men passed in and out of a nearby bunker with a ventilation unit and a small satellite uplink dish on its flat rooftop. That was likely a command bunker.

There was no indication that either mech had been spotted yet. Activity in the camp was minimal. The guards beat slow patrols through the compound, relaxed, their rifles lowered.

[Deleted]

Zoom-Zoom had been half-expecting some sort of objection from Bluestreak. It was one thing to rapidly throw together a hastily improvised plan when it was himself, he knew what he could do and what he couldn't. But the addition of another person added in a whole lot of variables Zoom-Zoom didn't know what to do with. He'd thrown a lot of demands on the mech, really just to see what would stick and what wouldn't. The spook's main concern really were the turrets and humvees, the obvious threats and if Bluestreak was able to handle them, Zoom-Zoom would be fine with that. The mortars first, especially. Anything else would be an unexpected bonus.

"I kinda think that what might happen is that unless I strike the absolutely right spot, it probably wouldn't bring it down far enough to block all the road."

Zoom-Zoom shrugged. "If you think it's doable, do it. If not, then don't waste the rocket. I defer to your judgment here."

He listened to the sniper ramble. It may have been a long time since the minibot had worked on a team but even so, he did notice when Bluestreak briefly faltered on the idea of being a target. There was a part of Zoom-Zoom, a cold, buried part of him, born from time on the streets and his long, lone trek across the galaxy that regarded Bluestreak impassively at this. That was the bit of him that regarded his own survival above all other things. Zoom-Zoom shoved it down and focused on the mech he was working with.

Oh how did this go again...you needed people to work to their strengths. Something like that. And he'd rather Bluestreak did something that the mech was confident about than risk on it on something the mech wasn't sure he could do.

A dead teammate isn't much use, a grim part of him mused. And didn't that threaten to start a whole tizzy of thoughts he really shouldn’t be dealing with right now. Maybe it would be easier to think in terms of tools and gadgets. Like, you wouldn't use a grenade to kill someone if the goal was to be quiet and stealthy and leave nothing but a giant big question behind. Use the right tool for the right job, until push came to shove basically. There, that worked. He could handle thinking in those terms.

"The keywords there about being bait were, 'if' and 'safely'. Only do it if you're certain you're up to it," the minibot pressed sharply. "If it's something you're not sure about, then I'd rather have you remain hidden here and keep watching my back for trouble. In that case, I'd move in a bit, say maybe a quarter of a mile, before you take out the heavy guns and start the whole slag show. Then I'll push up and deal with MECH as they come."

Zoom-Zoom paused before letting his shoulders fall slightly, like, oh, running into the enemy -into the will be alerted enemy- was no big deal for him. He'd sounded a lot more confident then than he actually felt. But his resolve, as it did when there was nowhere left to run and all he could do was fight, was gathering. There was no option to retreat here, he could only go forward.

[Bluestreak]

"Aw, yeah," the silver mech replied quietly. His doors sloped back slightly, the hinges offering up a sigh of relief, even if he did his best to hold back anything of that sort coming from his vocalizer.

Bait. If and safely. Those were two very nice words. Those were the sort of words that when applied to the word bait made it a much better word than paint a target on yourself and hope you could outrun the bullets and anything else they happened to throw at you.

Zoom Zoom's words reassured him a bit somehow. Not the bit about being bait, of course; that wasn't at all reassuring- but... at least they were in open spaces, places he could get over. Terrain he could use to his advantage hopefully; he wasn't that comfortable yet in the backcountry like this. Personally, he felt a lot more agile on paved roads, but hey, so did everyone with wheels, right?

A quick smile flashed across his features and he bobbed his head in a nod.

"Thanks. I mean, yes, I understand. Promise, I've got your back, your job is the important one tonight, and I know that. We've got to get that information back to base. You can get in there and do it right and you know what to look for. We gotta get it back, that's all that matters, but--"

"Honestly, my judgment? I don't think it's viable," Bluestreak murmured. He glanced down at Zoom Zoom and was honestly concerned. "The rocket, I mean. I mean, it's viable, the systems work fine, it'll blow a hole in things if we need it, I just don't think it's going to do much on that hill except maybe really cause us some problems later on. I'll save it, we might need it to fall back on as an option, you know?"

slowly, he glanced down at the quiet camp.

Hopefully we won't need that option.

The sharpshooter didn't add those words on. Bad enough that he thought it. For once his brain outran his mouth and gently tucked those words away. Usually it was the other way around, he was the first to admit it. Really have to work on the outside voice, Bluestreak.

"Er, hey, guess we better get started then, before they pick us up first, right?"

He took a few steps forward, carefully ducking through the trees. Gently, his hands pushed the limbs away from his face and chest. He was careful to disturb as little as possible. He'd been taught that; distance was great, but you had to be careful setting yourself into place for a clear shot. A trail could be caught from the air, it could be followed from the ground, and it was a pretty serious arrow that pointed right at you, nope, no thank you.

"If you're ready, go ahead and move in," he told Zoom Zoom. "I'll target on your directive, you just give the word when you're ready to make your move, and I'll make sure you have your distraction."

[Deleted]

The minibot allowed Bluestreak's chatter to wash over him, turning his optics to survey down over the outpost. This time he wasn't picking up enemy encampments, he was observing the guard movements through the camp, the directions the patrols would take them. One of his doors flicked uncomfortably as Bluestreak gave his thanks.

Don’t thank me yet. I'm not…You can't…

…trust…

Gah, it didn't matter.

He pulled himself away from his own inner musings when Bluestreak moved on to the viability of the rocket bringing down the slope. The minibot wasn't surprised that the sniper shot down the option.

"Fair enough," Zoom-Zoom allowed with an unbothered shrug. It would have been nice to block the road, buy him a little bit of time in case he got caught up dealing with the defences. But, on the other servo, you could get never go wrong with having an extra rocket just in case things went bad.

"If you're ready, go ahead and move in. I'll target on your directive, you just give the word when you're ready to make your move, and I'll make sure you have your distraction."

"I'm going, I'm going," Zoom-Zoom half-grumbled.

The minibot stood still for one long moment, absorbing as much of the picture he could. The placements of the mortars. The humans on patrol in the compound. The road up to the camp was empty. And then, beyond it, the objective. The communications site.

It seemed simple on the surface. Zoom-Zoom's processor played out an ideal sequence of events. Advance forward a bit, let Blue blow the serious defences, then advance up and try to reach the comm tower before anyone got the word out.

Seemed simple. Seemed easy.

Probably wasn't going to be.

And-

He mentally gave his weapon systems a prod, a last minute check even though he knew they were fully functional. He had his pistols. Not to mention, hidden away within his forearm was the comforting weight of a sample of Wheeljack's work. The acid gun should be enough to dispatch any of the larger guns in case Bluestreak missed any of them. And really, it wouldn't keep the minibot from recharge if he had to put down a few natives permanently.

Zoom-Zoom exvented, forcing himself to relax. He began to move, not straight forward through the trees but to the side, heading east. He didn't want to accidentally leave a minibot shaped hole in Blue's cover and ruin his position. Carefully, the minibot picked his way through the foliage to the edge of their little copse. Once there, he crouched down, one knee and hand flat against the ground as he cautiously peaked his head through the bushes.

Oh. Wait.

There was a slope down here. One that might actually-

The minibot shuttered his optics briefly. Glanced back at the MECH outpost, the guards patrolling it, then over to the comms tower. A number of quick calculations flowed through his processor. The hillside didn't have a lot of cover in terms of trees but it was still dark and the brush was rather high. Given the distance, he might just be able to get down to the comm tower without being seen...and if he was, so what? Blue could still take out the long range weaponry and he'd have a head start to the tower.

::Heeeey:: he pinged Blue. ::Hold the line, I think I might be able to get around the outpost, avoid it entirely and just head straight for the comm tower:: One hand curled around his bent knee and he tapped his fingers idly as he re-adjusted his entire strategy and approach to the mission. If there was one thing Zoom-Zoom did well, it was think fast and adapt to the unexpected and he wasn't about to ignore the possibility that had just opened up.

And if there was also one more thing Zoom-Zoom did extremely well, it was not run straight into enemy bases and attack them when the option to go around them was available.

[Bluestreak]

::Holding,:: was the surprisingly prompt (and short) response.

At Zoom Zoom's slightly terse comment earlier, the sharpshooter's doors flicked forward slightly. A look of concern had drifted over his features.

Bluestreak understood, or thought he did. He was pretty sure he did. He himself had none of the smaller mech's skills; he couldn't even begin to fathom creeping through a camp full of folks who wanted to oh, see you dead. That wasn't his job (and frankly, he was mighty fine about that) but still... he could empathize. A slip up, and everyone knew where you were and you'd have to fight to get out of those places. It was the same slow crawl of worry that had purled through him when Zoom Zoom had recommended shooting before he went in.

He'd do it, yes. Zoom Zoom was in charge, and whatever he needed, Bluestreak would do, period. If he could pull vital information, it might mean the difference between -- well, one mech down or all of them down.

He'd seen what happened with the all. He never, ever wanted to see it again.

As the minibot slipped forward, Bluestreak lifted his rifle up. His motion was smooth and slow, no sudden jerks or flashy motions. He tucked his rifle quietly up against his shoulder, eyeing the distance through the scope. Intigrated systems linked up. Things processed between his mind and the rifle; distance, angle, wind speed, line of sight visibility.

The air was clear. Wind slow. The branches surrounding him barely rippled. The rifle's barrel moved a fraction of a touch; compensate for that.

In the dark, the sharpshooter's left optic began to glow brighter. It became the color of the mid-day Nevada sky, hot and sharp. He had carefully moved forward to take his position, targeting one object after another, cautious to avoid pointing the rifle at the humans clustered below, but covering the mini-bot's slow creep down through the trees and brush.

:: Got it. Holding,:: he repeated softly to the other mech, because he apparently couldn't just be satisfied saying one word and nothing more. ::If you think you can get around, that's great, that's awesome, good plan. As far as I see no one below is moving from my vantage here. I've got you covered, got a good view of everything going on, promise.::

[Deleted]

The slope to the east did look… rather inviting.

It was gentle, and free of bare rock that might clatter beneath his feet and give him away in the night. The soil was a mix of light, dry shale and grass, all of it hard-packed and firm. Its surface was tufted with taller brush, a mix of sage and gnarled, stunted trees. The trees were sparsely foliated with a thin, shaky leaf - but where they grew bunched together they were thick and tall enough to offered decent cover.

Not for a large robot, however. Bluestreak would stand exposed on the slope.

Zoom-Zoom, however…

At the bottom of the slope was the comm site. Next to it was a dirt road that forked north and to the east. But it was dark - no vehicles travelled along it - and the only light that shone there was that which glowed from the windows of the communications building. Zoom-Zoom would at least be able to operate under the cloak of darkness until he reached the building.

As for Bluestreak…

His keen scope would be able to easily pick out details in the outpost below his position. The hot glow of a fire pit, sheltered behind a barricade, where a handful of soldiers lingered to talk and warm their hands. Behind two more barricades to the west and east sides of the camp: mortars, one facing the road, the other pointed west. Neither were currently aimed at the trees he was crouched within.

Men patrolled through the outpost. They looked alert, but relaxed. None of the Humvees parked about the compound were active. Light shone in the windows of the bunkers. Undoubtedly more troops were inside. If he focused on the narrow windows he would be able to faintly make out what looked like metal shelving, walls lined with bundles of cables. Part of a computer network, perhaps? There were a handful of small satellite dishes on the roof of the biggest bunker.

[Deleted]

It hadn't really sunk in to Zoom-Zoom that his word was it on this mission. The idea of leadership was practically anathema to him, so the minibot hadn't consciously acknowledged his role on the mission. Otherwise, he'd have come to a crashing halt. He could handle himself. The minibot had no idea what to do with another person. He'd given Bluestreak some directions and then trusted the mech would be able to follow his own judgement and do the rest.

::Acknowledged:: Zoom-Zoom answered simply in response to Bluestreak's assurance that he had a good view. ::Keep me posted:: Strangely enough, those few words were it from him. The minibot's focus was on plotting a path down the slope, one that would maximise the use of cover and minimise the amount of time he was exposed but was also the most direct. He didn't have the time to spend the whole night skulking around and indeed, sometimes the faster route was better. Going slow also meant there was more time to be found by the enemy but too fast, and you were more likely to draw attention to yourself.

Once he'd settled on a path he was happy with, Zoom-Zoom set off, heading for the closest set of trees. He moved quietly, keeping his profile as low as possible. His stealth dampeners switched on out of habit. The minibot's doors (what a stupid configuration, why'd they stick out like that, Primus did he miss his old hovercar set-up) were pulled tight against his frame. Zoom-Zoom kept his sensors alert, optics sweeping the area for any enemies.

[Bluestreak]

"Okay, okay, will do."

Bluestreak's rifle was steady. It did not move, or twitch. In fact, the sharpshooter seemed to have locked up entirely as he surveyed the scene below. That was what you did. Things were always drawn to motion, and the more you moved the more likely it was that something would gleam, some sharp eye might see something out of the ordinary.

Back on Cybertron it had been easier. Everything was metal, shades of metal, more metal. His rifle could blend into the environment, poke out from a pile of scrap. Belly down in a broken tower, shards of transparent metal that had once been windows roughing up his paint. His own colors served him well, for that reason. They were easy to fool a bored watch-eye with on Cybertron.

Here, not so much.

Probably should think about refinishing your rifle in some sort of Earthy camo. Like there are no silver trees here, haha - huh, you know, they'd look good in silver. I wonder if they make silver trees, actually. Are there silver trees in this world and if so, wonder where they grow. City trees? Nope, those are still green. Vegas has green trees, right? Okay, they're palm trees, but they're green at the tops, and huh, what kind of trees am I -- wind's picking up a bit.

The mech's optic gleamed brighter- he shifted his rifle and compensated for that, slowly and cautiously.

Hmm okay, trees - huh, a firepit. They're talking around it, right, totally relaxed. Mortars, check, not aimed here oh thank someone double check, triple check, nope, still clear, Blue.

They're patrolling though, but not worried, that's good. No one's drifting towards stuff, this is all normal, okay - huh... wait...

Bluestreak adjusted his scope a bit more, trying to get a better focus on the window with the cables for a moment. Maybe he'd see a human shadow, or someone walking by inside.

"Hey, Zoom Zoom?" he murmured. "Everything seems steady, no one's moved, but I can see through the bunker windows and uh, there's stuff in there. Like a lot of stuff, walls covered in cables and metal shelving and- looks like maybe lots of computer stuff on that one, and - uh, satellites on the big one. Bunker, I mean. But no one's in your direction, no one's even turned a micron."

[Deleted]

Halfway down the hillside, hidden within a clump of trees, Zoom-Zoom paused and listened to Bluestreak's report.

Satellites.

Computer stuff.

The big bunker right in the camp.

Great.

The minibot felt a flash of utter frustration. Not with Bluestreak but with the situation in general. And then, as soon the frustration had come, it was gone. Zoom-Zoom had simply accepted the added twist to the situation. Parameters changed all the times on missions as new intel came in.

::Give Wash a heads up:: Zoom-Zoom replied. ::Ask him for his thoughts about it. Right now, I'm going to focus on bringing down the comm tower::

Computers could mean data, important information that they (Zoom-Zoom) should make the attempt to recover. Satellites - communication. It could just be to the comm tower or it might be a back-up, disabling the comm tower itself might not be enough to silence all communications for the outpost.

But the bunker was right in the middle of the outpost...

Zoom-Zoom went over the area map he'd built for himself while standing atop the hill. He pondered for a moment. ::I don't think I can get near the bunker without being noticed:: he added slowly. ::Not unless you've found a way I didn't see first time round. I'd much rather have the comms tower offline as soon as possible. Gives us a bit more room to work with, if they can't get off a distress signal::

::I guess, if things go south and I accidentally kick up a racket, try to prevent them from bringing down the bunker? You'll need to destroy those satellites too, in case some of them are transmitters::

With that, he returned to slinking down the hill under the cover of darkness and the sparse trees scattered across the slope.

[Bluestreak]

It was nice to hear someone's voice that immediately didn't use the phrase, shut up I'm trying to think, or be quiet over the comm, Blue, I need to concentrate. He would have understood either comment, but right now it just was... that he was up here, by himself, processing information that he didn't know what to do with except relay it on down to someone who might. He was not an information gathering sort himself. His concentration was better when he had one hard thing to focus on, he knew that from experience.

Hold still, hold still. Don't move. Steady. That's all you can do right now and keep a lookout for him.

Can't hit that comm tower yet. Sure, you don't hear the projectile coming but when it hits, it's going to make a lot of noise. This camp's too quiet to do that, not a lot of activity. Wish there was more sound, it might not get noticed if I shot it but if I do now there's no way.

He scanned the ground again. If he had to move, he'd be in the open. Even dropped to his belly, it gave him less chance to react and less of a lookout point. Not useful.

Wash was, however, and Bluestreak totally grabbed that idea. He could run information from place to place, relay it, and let Zoom-Zoom concentrate on his task at hand.

::One second, I'll contact him but no. I don't see a way either for you to get to it that you didn't see. They'd notice you, that road's right there, it's open, but if things go south, right, but they won't, you're not going to kick up a racket, nope. Right, yeah, comm tower first, it's probably manned more for those reasons, but I can do both, I can hit those satellites and the comm relay ones fast...::

His thumb slid carefully, double-checking that his rifle was armed to the projectiles. Always double check everything. Triple check it. Do it right the first time.

Okay, looking at this, Bluestreak, it's not great. I'm worried about using a ion charge on that generator and the relays. If it surges back bad, it could get through and maybe wipe the info we're trying to get. Save that, last resort.

He paused and opened up a private line. His eye was still on the scope and he slowly scanned the area again beneath him, just making sure things were still as they had been a few seconds before. It would be awesome if they could do this by stealth. He liked it better when no one shot, including himself. Less chance of someone getting hurt.

::Wash, if you're around still? Got a bit of information for you, if you can answer me. Hearing your thoughts would be awesome.::

[Deleted]

No suspicious activity came from the road or the bunkers as Zoom-Zoom stole across the hill. The brush seemed to serve its purpose well as makeshift cover. Judging from the faint light over the range to the east he had perhaps thirty minutes of darkness left before dawn arrived.

Meanwhile, Bluesteak's commline clicked open.

"I'm here!" said Wash. "I should be able to help you, though I don't have any eyes on your location at the moment. What information do you need?"