Chapter Text
“Alright, last chance to load up,” Killshot told his group as he looked his shotgun over and checked his gas mask while the Vehicons were moving the barricade for them. “You don’t want a malfunction in the middle of the fight. Could easily get you killed.”
“My, you’re so smart,” Skywarp mocked him as he made sure his mask was fitted on tightly. “I never could’ve known getting my gun jammed in the middle of a fight could be so hazardous.” Killshot scoffed at that, annoyed.
“Just giving advice,” the sniper responded to him. “Things are getting serious here. I just want to make sure we suffer no casualties.”
“Killshot makes a fine point. This is the last objective we have before we’re able to leave,” Dead End stated as he placed a placating hand on Skywarp’s shoulder. “We’re almost out of here.”
“Aw, leaving so soon?” Wildrider asked. “We’ve just said hi! I wanted to talk more about our lives.”
“Another time, Wildrider. Another time,” Dead End sighed. “I’m busy right now. Got a lot of work to do. We’ll be visiting the DJD next.”
“Those scary slaggers?” Wildrider asked. “Why you’re doing something so stupid?”
“Orders from Megatron,” Dead End stated.
“Oh… so you have the decision between walking to death or suicide,” Wildrider said in layman terms.
“Roughly enough, yes.”
“Hey, we haven’t done anything to incite the DJD’s wrath,” Killshot pointed out, pointing his finger at the cynic. “We’re obviously going there for other reasons, although I do wonder what it is that he wants us to do. It’s very puzzling.”
“No kidding. Why do we need to go see them?” Skywarp wondered. “Just going to some base, right?”
“Yeah. A place called Delphi on Messatine,” Dead End stated. “Wonder why we have to go there?”
“Yeah… well, we’ll think about it later. Let’s get to work cleansing the air so that we can take these ridiculous gas masks off,” Killshot ordered. “Once we get that done, we can depart from here and continue on our journey.”
“Right, of course,” Dead End nodded as the Vehicons finished removing the barricade.
“All good, sirs! We’ll close this off after you leave,” one of the vehicons said to them.
“Great. Let’s go,” Killshot ordered as he poked his head out to look down the dark, dilapidated hallway. He flicked on the flashlight to his shotgun to see more clearly around the area for any threats. Upon a quick look around, he gave the signal that it was safe and moved ahead into the hallway. Dead End followed behind next with his gestaltmate right behind him and Skywarp bringing up the rear, all of them with their flashlights on. As they left they could hear the door closing behind them, the Vehicons moving to barricade the door again. “Alright, guns up. I’ll lead us to where me and my group was exploring.”
“After you,” Dead End said and Killshot nodded as they all headed down the corridor.
*Beep* *Beep*
“Hmm…?” Swindle hums as he heard a beep and looked at his console. “A massage from Barricade? Huh.” Swindle clicked on it and examined the message.
Swindle. Found the guy you were looking. Black-and-red seeker named Bombline, correct? He’s here on Talos Four. He was involved in an incident here and brought in for questioning. He has been released, but judging by what I’ve heard, he’ll be leaving soon. If you want him, you better hurried over here. Contact me before you arrive and I’ll see if I can arrange for you to land. I know it’s difficult for a Decepticon ship to land here legally. Also, from what information I’ve gathered, it sounds like he’ll be leaving soon. He’s just here for supplies. Could be gone by tomorrow.
“Huh… interesting,” Swindle said with a sly smile. “Always a reliable source of information.” The merchant hummed happily to himself for pausing and rereading the note. “Tomorrow?! Gah...,” Swindle groaned as he slumped in his chair ranted to himself. “If the DJD wastes too much of our time, we might not be able to make it. Talos Four is also in the opposite direction of Messatine. It’ll take so long to reach it.” He kicked the console in grustration a couple of times before sighing again and typing a reply to him.
Barricade. Gather as much information as you can on them. I’m stuck doing errands for Megatron right now and have to complete them or else risk his ire. It’s very likely that I won’t be able to get there before they leave. Get the information in any way you can. Do this and I’ll pay you a considerable bonus.
Swindle sent the message to Barricade and sighed as he waited for a response. Within seconds, a response came back
Can do. I’ll send another message one I’m done gathering data. I expect a rather favorable payment from you for this.
Swindle responded back.
Thank you, Barricade. You were always one of my favorites. Still am.
With that done, Swindle relaxed in his chair again. “Well, can’t wait to chew Megatron out for these errands when we could’ve gone to Talos Four right now,” Swindle said with a sardonic chuckled. “Should’ve sent someone else to carry these errands out instead of us.” Swindle sighed as he relaxed before hearing it beep again as Dreadwing was trying to contact him again. He quickly answered it. “Yeah, Dreadwing?”
“A squad has moved out to get rid of the toxic air,” Dreadwing told him. “Killshot, Dead End, Skywarp have all left as well as Wildrider.”
“Understood. I’ll make sure to keep in contact with them,” Swindle said as he prepared himself. “Thanks for telling me.”
“You are welcome,” Dreadwing said as he got off and left Swindle by himself as he contacted his crew.
“Killshot, you’re there?” Swindle asked the sniper as him and his group went down a stairwell.
“Yeah, I’m here. I’m heading down a staircase right now. To be specific, I’m at stairwell B, floor 3,” Killshot told him.
“You were on floor 5, where the generators,” Swindle told him.
“I remembered,” Killshot snapped at him as they reached the fourth floor.
“Just a reminder,” Swindle told him. “Once you reach the entrance to the second floor, just head forward. You should reach the location you were exploring back then and be able to find the crate.”
“Understood. We’ll make sure to keep in contact with you,” Killshot told him.
“Stay safe,” Swindle told him.
“Will do.”
Killshot went back to concentrating on what was in front of him as they reached the fifth floor and opened up the door to look into the hallway. It was empty with darkness all around being lit up by small emergency lights. He stuck his head out to look left and right as well to find much of the same, only with a couple of dead bodies on the right side.
“All clear,” Killshot said as he moved forward. “Stay close and watch out for the creatures.” The other three gave a short reply of agreement as they started to move through the hallway. Every moved their guns around, taking care to look at any hidden areas the creatures could be, especially the vents. As they walked, they could hear the creaking of the metal as they walked and what sounded like faint scrapping sounds from above and below.
“Frag, this is creepy,” Wildrider murmured as he looked up everywhere. “I have no idea how the pits you guys managed to get through this ship so far.”
“It sure wasn’t easy,” Dead End told him. “We fell for their trap in an elevator and Killshot got his wounds as a result.”
“You did? Damn, that sucks,” Wildrider grumbled.
“No kidding. He was stab in his shoulder.”
“Hmm… and what about you?”
“I got shot by a prisoner on the ship,” Dead End told him. “Seaspray was his name.”
“That green wrecker?” Wildrider asked.
“Dude’s yellow,” Skywarp told him.
“Green as in new,” Wildrider specified. “He was inducted into the Wreckers just a couple of years ago. I’m surprised they’re still taking new members, especially from a seacraft of all thing. They’re not very useful. They’ll just waddle around in the water.”
“Well, I can tell you he’s a good shot,” Dead End growled as he put a hand to his abdomen. “I walked into the gravity room first and got shot as a result of it.”
“Thanks for taking the bullet,” Killshot remarked in a harsh whisper. “Will you two be quiet and concentrate on the matter at hand.”
“Hold on, real quick. He was in the gravity generator room? How the pit did he get from the cells to there?” Wildrider asked. “That place is on the ninth floor on the other side of the damn ship.”
“Really now?” Skinner asked interested but not turning his head away from what was in front of him. “Could be that he got lucky and managed to get to the gravity room unharmed.”
“No fragging way. This ship is really hard to get around if you don’t know where everything is,” Wildrider said. “Hmm… I’ll have to stop by the prison after this for any info. There’s something fishy about this and not the dynamoduck kind.”
“It does sound odd,” Dead End agreed. “Tell me, how does your prison run, Wildrider?”
“Each prisoner gets their own cell in isolation from the others and are fed three cubes of energon a day,” Wildrider told him. “Each cell has a small hole to allow contact with the prisoners net to them and only them, so they don’t get completely mad from the isolation.”
“Are they ever allow out of their cells?” Skywarp asked.
“They shouldn’t be, but some rumors are out there that the SIC, Crosswind, takes people out of their cells for some… ‘personal time’ in his room,” Wildrider told them.
“Personal time?” Skinner asked, disgust in his voice. “Was that slagheap doing what I’m thinking he was doing?”
“Most likely. He pays people off to keep Dreadwing from knowing about it. If the captain knew about it, he threw him in a cell. He frowns upon that sort of conduct,” Wildrider told them. “I know some people think I’m out there, but I have my limits.”
“Those creatures had better killed the fragger,” Skywarp growled.
“We haven’t heard from him since this happen, so we assume he is,” Wildrider stated. “Much deserved in my opinion. Only wish I could’ve given him some of my payback. I’d do to him what he did to the prisoners.”
“Hmph, got the slightest bit of power and he abused it immediately. What a disgusting mech,” Dead End growled.
“Yes, but good news! With him and several others dead, I’m sure I’m next in line for second-in-command!” Wildrider cheered.
“…That is officially the scariest thing about this ship.”