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TFP- Cooperation

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Part 7/9 of a Transformers: Prime fanfiction based on the events of episode 16 "Operation: Breakdown"


"What are you, a maintenance drone? Hurry up and hand me that patch cable already."

"I won't hand you anything if you keep up with that attitude," Ratchet sniffed.

The two medics knelt side by side on the panelled floor of the Autobot base, shoulders tensed as though the very thought of their proximity caused physical pain. Rather than apologise, Knock Out chose to remain silent as he pawed through the innards of the main computer in the command centre. He and Ratchet were surrounded by reams of wiring and maintenance equipment, their servos stiff from crouching down for so long.

Ratchet raised an eyebrow, scornful. "Well?" he asked, holding a loop of thin cable just out of the Decepticon's reach. "Do you want this or not?"

"Yes," Knock Out replied stiffly. Ratchet's brow travelled even higher, disappearing completely under the amber crest on his forehead. "Yes please."

With a mocking smirk, Ratchet extended his arm to offer the cable. "There – was that so difficult?"

"You have no idea," sighed Knock Out, extracting one hand from inside the computer to reach for the flex.

Watching from the humans' living area, Arcee gave a small sigh and turned to face her commander. Standing at her side; Optimus inclined his head in response to her expression, arms folded beneath his chestplates. He didn't have to speak for her to read exactly what was on his processor, and nor did she have say anything to let him know that she was in agreement with his thoughts. Even Jack, watching furtively from the pale sofa before them, could sense it: the awkward tension between the two medics was heavy enough to speak for itself.

On returning to the base with Arcee and Jack, Knock Out had fallen strangely quiet. He had approached Ratchet without fear and, in front of the entire Autobot Earth team, apologised to him. His request for forgiveness had sounded decidedly rigid and forced, but had been accepted just as laboriously by his fellow medic. After several awkward cycles in which Knock Out attempted to explain just how antiquated the Autobots' scanners were, Ratchet had finally allowed the Decepticon to make several small modifications to their systems – with extremely close supervision.

"What do you hope to achieve with this thing, anyway?" he asked, as Knock Out disconnected a lead somewhere deep inside the terminal. The monitors above their heads flickered momentarily, before an error message popped onto the central screen. "I didn't think that Decepticons would even bother learning about primitive Earth tech, let alone be able to run maintenance on it."

Knock Out gave a humourless breath of laughter as he attached the patch cable onto the end of the freshly-removed flex. "I have a lot of free time these days, it seems," he replied, shifting on his aching knees. "Regardless – I'm recalibrating the sensitivity of your scanners. I've also added Breakdown's energy signature to this computer's data banks, meaning that we should be able to pinpoint his location from anywhere on this planet."

"Anywhere on this planet?" Ratchet repeated, sceptical. "I highly doubt that. Even if you were to reroute all of the base's power to the scanners, the chances of detecting such a specific signature across the entire face of the Earth are infinitesimally slim. Human technology is noisy and chaotic – there is simply too much interference."

"That's what this is for," smirked the Decepticon, as he introduced the patch cable into the open socket. He got to his feet with slight difficulty and walked around to the keyboard, leaning in to swiftly type reams of seemingly-senseless code. Ratchet followed suit and struggled upright, encouraging feeling back into his servos as he observed with suspicious optics. "Watch and learn, old-timer."

Knock Out hit the final key in his sequence with a flourish, and glanced up at the screen expectantly. The error message flashed for a second – but disappeared before the Autobot medic could mock his apparent failure. An aerial map of the barren region surrounding Jasper flickered onto the monitor, marked with a cluster of four tiny points of light at its heart. Three of the dots were red, while the other was purple. Almost immediately afterwards, two more red points popped to life nearby.

"This is the result of a scan with your old systems," Knock Out explained, gesturing toward the central cluster as Arcee and Optimus began to approach the medics. "Here we are, and those two must be the other 'bots who left before with the humans. Now I'll run a scan using the modifications I've made…"

The command centre was suddenly filled with the sound of Knock Out's sharp fingers tapping on the keyboard. Once silence fell again, he took a steadying breath and returned his optics uncertainly to the screen. The map began to zoom out and shrink, the dots representing the Cybertronians' energy signatures bunching closer together, displaying a wider expanse of desert wasteland. A sixth point of light – purple as royalty – abruptly blinked into being a good distance from the others.

"Well, whaddya know?" Arcee commented, folding her arms lightly. "The 'Con knows Earth tech."

As Knock Out studied the purple signature closely, Optimus stepped forward to catch the attention of his medic. "Ratchet," he began, coming to a halt beside his amber-and-white subordinate. "Does that point of light represent Breakdown's location?"

"I'm not sure…" Ratchet replied, trying not to look overly-impressed. "It's a Decepticon energy signature alright, but there's no way to tell whose for certain. Judging by its stationary position, however…I think it's safe to say that we're not looking at a Seeker."

Before Optimus could respond, Knock Out turned on his heel to face the Autobots and jabbed a finger toward the signal of his fellow Decepticon. "Where is this?" he demanded. His chest felt strangely tight – strained – as though the air was void of oxygen.

Cautious, Ratchet eased Knock Out aside and began to tap at the keyboard. "Hmm…it's not too far from here, actually," he said, surprised. "Almost directly due-North. It appears to be some kind of air base… situated on the southern shore of a large body of water named Groom Lake."

"Groom Lake?" Jack cut all of a sudden, incredulous. "Wait – as in, Area 51?"

The four Cybertronians present exchanged confused glances, prompting him to rise from the couch and approach the low railing that enclosed the humans' living area. Arcee watched him with one eyebrow raised, intrigued. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"It's a top-secret government facility – or so say the conspiracy theorists," he began to explain, gesturing a hand. "There's a whole bunch of myths and rumours surrounding it to do with UFOs and other mysterious phenomena. Not to mention the fact that it's in the middle of nowhere – there's nothing around for miles. It's the perfect place to hide a Decepticon."

Knock Out studied the human for a moment, before turning solemnly to face the Autobot commander. "MECH didn't hesitate to turn their guns on me," he said, managing to uphold his composure. "But if what he says is true about this place being remote, then we needn't worry about maintaining our cover for fear of civilian interference. I suggest we depart immediately."

"It won't be that easy to get in," Jack hastened. He gave an exaggerated shrug under the weight of the Decepticon's stare, apologetic. "Like I said, the place is military. Security's gonna be tight – and with all the government secrets it's supposed to be protecting, I'll bet there's a lot more than your average Decepticon stowed away in there. You guys'll never make it in."

Ratchet gave a shallow laugh, and crossed the command centre to the GroundBridge controls. "You forget," he smirked, proudly patting the control panel with one hand. "Human security measures are nothing that we have to worry about."
Things are gonna get a lot more exciting in the next part. Trust me ;P Word count = 1292

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IrkenConfederate's avatar
I vill stop for naow, but I cannot vait to reed zee next chapterr. ;)