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[Onslaught Six]

I brought Sunstreaker to work today, and somehow wrote a story about Prowl.

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"Such heroic nonsense."

And that was the last thing I heard, and then I went offline.

Wait--lemme start over.

***

We were on Moonbase One. Me and Ratchet and Hound and that other guy. Sitting down. Talking. Yeah, we still talked. It was hard to find time to do it anymore, with the war and all, but we did it. I'm not sure why.

"The new security upgrades to the ships should stop the Decepticons hijacking our energy transport ships. At least, that's what Hoist said."

"Hoist is full of shit."

"Yeah. Yeah, he is."

I fiddled with a loose panel on my left arm. Damned thing. This was a really old body. It'd have been nice to have a new one, but unfortunately, there just wasn't enough resources to go around. I guess maybe I could've cribbed parts from Bluestreak after he died last year, but most of the other Autobots thought stuff like that was kind of...disrespectful.

"I guess we'll be making the trip back to Autobot City on Earth soon."

"Like it's any better there than it is here. Autobot City may be an energy processing center, but there's not a lot of energy to process."

"Nobody likes a pessimist, Gears."

"I'm Brawn, asshole."

whatever. He was just mad because of a pesky shoulder injury that Ratchet couldn't quite fix.

Hound just looked up into the night sky. The stars.

"It's beautiful."

I looked up at him. "What?"

"The sky, and the stars. It's all so beautiful. We spend so much time fighting that we never stop to look up at the sky anymore." He nodded back down at us. "The humans only have the sky like this for half the day--the rest of it, it's illuminated by that star they orbit. And most of them seem to be 'asleep' during it. We take the sky for granted, like it's always going to be like this, but the humans don't even 'look' at it."

I stood up. "You think too much about useless things. This is a war. It's about survival. Do you know what happens to Autobots who spend all their time staring at the sky?"

Hound started to get up, irritated. "No, I don't, why don't you tell me, 'officer?'"

I held out my acid pellet gun. "They get shot, Hound. They get 'shot.'"

*THOOM*

The two of us turned our heads in the direction of the noise. Ironhide stood there, holding a shotgun with smoke pouring out of the barrel.

"Quit arguin'. Naw. Prahm wants y'all to take the ship down to Autobot City, immediately."

I put away my gun and turned to Ironhide. "But we're not scheduled to leave for another megacycle."

"Don't shoot the messenger, boys."

Ratchet got up. "I dunno, you seem to have taken care of the shooting here, Ironhide."

"You want a fist in the mouth, medic?"

"Don't get antsy. We have to share a ship to Earth, remember?"

Brawn got up too. Ironhide and Ratchet continued to argue as they exited our little quarters. Hound still stood there, gazing up at the sky.

"Hound, come on. Don't you have to help Kup move a sign or something in a day or two?"

My words jolted him out of his trance. "Oh, no, I got reassigned. Sunstreaker is helping him do that."

"Suntreaker's 'dead,' Hound."

"...Oh, yeah. Oh well. I'm sure it'll work itself out. All I know is that I'm supposed to stay here now."

"Whatever."

I walked out, but I took one last look back at him, and he was back to looking at the stars.

And that was the last time I ever saw Hound.

***

The asteroid field hit us like it hit the Ark four million years ago. God damnit, couldn't we come up with some technology to fix this?

Ratchet pulled up a diagnostic. "Um, guys? We have a problem."

I glanced over. "A Decepticon spacecruiser? But why are they on our tail?"

*THUNK!* We got hit by an asteroid, and I yelled back at Ironhide. "Pilot the damn thing, you redneck!"

"Mah neck is 'grey,' policebot!"

Ratchet tapped a few buttons. "I dunno why they'd be after us. We don't 'have' any energy. It doesn't make sense for them to try hijacking us."

"Maybe they'll realize that and let us go?"

"Prowl! Get your ass back up here and help me pilot, these asteroids are multiplyin'!"

I sighed and ran back to my seat. At the exact same moment, the spacecruiser shuffled next to our shuttle and expanded out a tube.

"Oh no."

*CRAAASSHHHH*

*BLAAAAM*

"It's MEGATRON!"

*BOOOOOOM*

"ATTACK!"

"DIE, AUTOBOTS!"

Megatron transformed into gun mode and Skywarp grabbed him, firing off a shot.

It tore right through Brawn's shoulder, causing a huge explosion and wounding him. Fatally.

"Take 'that,' Gears!"

Ironhide was next. He pulled out his shotgun, but before he even had a chance, he was taken down. I saw the smoking bulletholes spattered across his chest armour.

"You're next, Prowl!" I heard one of the Decepticons shout out.

I blasted one. Or two. Or a couple. I don't know. But it wasn't long before I was shot in the stomach. And then the chest. And then one of my arms and my shoulder.

I saw nothing but smoke. Then my vision went dark. My body hit the ground.

All I heard was the gunshots and screams. And then some vague footsteps. And a yelp.

"Such heroic nonsense."

*SHUUUUBLAAAAAAM*

That's the last thing I heard.

Then I went offline.

[Gomess]

If Sunstreaker's dead, who pilots the shuttle with Op, Hound and the Dinobots in??

The mystery unfurls!

Take *that*, Gears!

[Onslaught Six]

If Sunstreaker's dead, who pilots the shuttle with Op, Hound and the Dinobots in??

The mystery unfurls!

Take *that*, Gears!

Simple. Huffer does!