Chapter Text
[SOMEWHERE IN WASHINGTON- 2002]
Optimus groaned as his optics onlined, immediately met with charred metal and sparking wires. Staggering to his pedes, he looked around as his spark sank. Other Autobots were slowly getting up, helping pull comrades from under debris.
He tried not to think too hard about the greyed corpses he’d spotted.
The Ark was a mess of mangled metal and shredded wiring. Wherever they’d landed, they wouldn’t be leaving any time soon. This was bad, this was really bad. There was no doubt in Optimus’s mind that the Decepticons followed them down when they crashed. They could be closing in on their location for all he knew.
“Optimus!” Elita called out, picking her way through the debris to hug her friend. “Thank Primus, we couldn’t find you. Ratchet and First Aid are both up, they’re working on injuries. We’ve lost a few, but most of us are accounted for.”
Optimus nodded, catching stray lectures from Ratchet as he surveyed the wreckage.
“We need to move,” he said finally, ignoring the various dents in his own frame. “The Decepticons most likely followed us planetside, and there’s no telling how close behind they are.”
Elita nodded, scanning over the disorganized remainder of their army. They’d be hard pressed to move very quickly right now, especially with all the injured, but they didn’t have a choice. The longer they stayed at the crash site, the more likely the Decepticons would find them.
“It’ll take us a bit to get everyone up and moving,” she finally said. “But we can do it.”
Optimus nodded his thanks and carefully made his way over to join the recovery efforts. Himself and Ultra Magnus were among the largest left, and they quickly got to work lifting shattered metal off trapped bots so others could pull them to safety. By the time the planet’s day cycle was beginning, their dead were buried, what little energon they had was recovered, and their injured were at least patched enough to travel.
“Alright!” Optimus called. “Jazz, take Bumblebee and whoever else is left from our scout battalion and go ahead of us. Mark a safe path, and report back the moment you see any Decepticon movement. Anyone who is undamaged, help where you can. Either carry supplies or your injured comrades. No one gets left behind. I cannot stress this enough, but stay together. We are on a strange world, and there could be dangers here we have no idea about. We are safer together than apart.”
Optimus turned and locked optics with Cirrus and felt his spark sink. He could tell they had the same simultaneous thought.
The sparklings.
They’d sent them in escape pods in case they didn’t make it, but they now had a new problem. They were on their own on a strange new planet with no idea what to expect.
They’d be naive to think the Decepticons weren’t still looking for them.
And now all they had as protection was each other.
Cirrus grabbed Optimus’s arm tightly, venting heavily as he tried not to panic. His sparklings. His sweet little treasures that he’d risked his life to protect were on their own at the mercy of whatever happened to live here and their own sire.
“Stay calm,” Optimus said quietly, helping keep his fellow carrier upright. “Just vent. They’ve got each other and their comms. We can trace their pod, and barring that, Singularis is young enough that your link is still very strong. We can use it to find them. Convoy is smart enough and big enough to carry them, he’ll keep them together and safe.”
“Try again Wheeljack! Try again, he made it, I know he did!”
Optimus heard Chromebolt’s panicked voice carry from across the clearing and felt sick. He hurried over as he watched Wheeljack shake his helm no. Chromebolt grabbed the datapad from his servos, shaking as she frantically typed away.
“You must be doing it wrong!” She said, vents coming heavy and panicked as she pinged the pods again. “He’s here, he has to be here!”
Optimus almost purged when he saw the screen. One pod was pinging strong, far across the continent they’d crashed on.
The other wasn’t pinging at all.
“Signal was lost in the upper atmosphere,” Wheeljack said, voice soft as he rested a servo on Chromebolt’s shoulder. “He…he might not have made it through the entry.”
Chromebolt’s whole frame trembled as she frantically shook her head no, clutching the datapad like it might show something else if she wished hard enough.
“He has to be,” she choked out, tears welling up in her optics. “He has to be okay. I promised his carrier I’d protect him, I promised I’d keep him safe till he came back.”
The scientist crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, her whole frame wracked with sobs as she clutched the datapad. Cirrus wordlessly knelt next to her, chirping softly as he put an arm over her shoulders and held her. Optimus followed after only a few moments, kneeling on the strange, soft surface of this new world to provide comfort to a friend. His engine rumbled gently as he helped keep her steady.
Chromebolt screamed to the sky, a spark wrenching sound of pure anguish and grief. Her sparkling was gone. Another casualty of war, so far from home he couldn’t even be properly buried.
Optimus swallowed down the bile threatening to crawl up his intake.
He’d watched Blitzkrieg grow up, watched as he and Convoy leaned on each other the way you only could with someone who knew you inside and out. He’d watched him laugh and cry and live for almost his entire life.
And now he was gone.
Just another memory for his sire who had already lost everything else that ever mattered to her.
Optimus heard the change in her voice as her grief turned to anger, Chromebolt shaking with rage in his arms.
“I’LL KILL HIM!” She screamed, murderous gaze turning upward toward the empty sky. “DID YOU HEAR ME MEGATRON?! YOU’RE GOING TO PAY FOR THIS!! I’LL BE THE LAST THING YOU SEE I SWEAR IT!!”