Dr. Archeville stood several hundred feet from the large brick and steel wall encircling the unknown town before them. They had seen many strange and disturbing things in their long journey across the country. They crossed paths with the Autobots several times, managing to elude them each time. They saw cities destroyed before their eyes. They saw survivors continue to exist against all odds. This was the first fortified city they had seen. Gray crossed his arms and frowned. The structure certainly was formidable. It had no ornamentation; it seemed to be built quickly and sturdily for the sole purpose of closing the town and keeping the rest of the world out. But the residents couldn't possibly believe that it could keep out any of the Autobots. Gray slowly shook his head. It seemed more likely that it was constructed to keep away unwanted humans. 'A shame,' he thought sadly, 'that we must fight ourselves as well as for our survival.' "Should we knock?" Shawn asked dryly, prompting a smile from many of the resistance cell. Gray absently rubbed his hands together. "Shutting themselves in," he said quietly, mostly to himself. "Are they trying to hide something?" Cassie shrugged. "Probably to keep others away from that energy source we were detecting." Lincoln began walking toward the main gate. "Only one way to find out for sure: ask them." He dropped his laser rifle on his shoulder. The weapon a modified gift left by several Decepticons who tried to befriend them. 'Most likely out of guilt,' Gray thought. They had come across several Decepticons since escaping the West Coast. One group of jets actually saved their hides as they crossed the Rockies into an Autobot trap. Gray always rebuffed their overtures of peace however, and kept only cool relations with them. Decepticons were not thought highly of among many members of the cell. They were seen as beings of immense power who refused to use that power to defeat their foes. As a result, those foes wiped out innumerable people and cities, leaving chaos and terror in their wake. Even if the Autobots were driven off, Gray had little doubt that humans would have to rely on a miracle to bring things back even close to the way they were. The group decided collectively that they would rather die fighting for themselves then depend on the whim of the Decepticons if they had the choice. Sadly, they often did not. Dr. Archeville started walking towards the gate with several others when Lincoln held his hand out. “Doc, you should stay with the others in case something happens to us in there.” Gray opened his mouth to protest when a voice called out to them from the east. “Something will," a voice called from the east. Dr. Archeville turned towards the voice. Walking slowly towards them was a young woman, perhaps a little older than Dirk. Her long brown hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her brown eyes shifted quickly among the cell members as she approached Gray. Over her shoulder was slung a small blue knapsack. Archeville began to take a step forward towards the woman, but stopped as he felt Cassie's hand slowly wrap around his arm. Shawn Berger was slowly walking back towards Gray as well. The woman stopped several dozen feet away and looked slowly at the collapsing circle of people around her. There was a look in her eyes that Archeville could not quite make out. It wasn’t fear. Perhaps it was worry. He motioned the others to stop. "Why do you say that?" he asked. The woman shrugged. "Because it wouldn't be the first time. A few others from...there," her eyes shifted slightly, motioning to the south, "have come up this way looking for something that looks like civilization." "Seems to me we found some," Dirk said suddenly. "Don't let that wall fool you," she replied softly. "Or the nuclear power plant they're trying to hide from rest of us." A soft murmur ran through the group as the woman continued. "These people aren't civilized. They fear outsiders. They fear technology. The leaders, the ones that are in charge of the power plant, are looked up to like gods for facing the technological demons that give them electricity." She looked at Gray. "They'll see your groups' weapons and they'll lock you up for simply bringing such things into the town." "How do you know all of this?" Cassie interjected. The woman shifted her gaze towards her. "I used to live here after the...Autobots attacked Minneapolis. I had to beg them to let me move into the city. A couple of days later, they found my books." She absent-mindedly clutched her knapsack. "They told me that it was knowledge like that which got us into our problems in the first place. They stole them from me and burned them. And when I dared to question why they use that power plant, they snapped. They tried to throw me into the prison." She released the bag. She looked at the wall surrounding the town and chuckled. "But I escaped. "Not everybody in there is bad. Some of the gate guards leave some food out for me from time to time. But most of them are the types you want to steer away from. I guess that's my calling now. To warn anyone who wanders through here away from the city." She lowered her head and whispered, "I was going to be a doctor. Hardly the same thing, now is it, Lib?" Cassie looked worriedly at Grayson and said, "We should still check it out. At the very least, we could use some fresh supplies." She stepped closer to the young woman. "Can you tell us who we might go to for some help?" The local looked up, blinking tears from her eyes. "I...," she started, peering at the walled town. "I can show you." "We don't want to put you in danger." The young woman smiled wanly. "I can make my way around. And the locals that I can trust certainly won't trust any of you." Cassie turned back to Gray. "I'll go and bring Shawn with me. Don't want to rile up the natives with too many of us wandering around." She turned back towards the young woman. "What's your name?" The woman simply stared at Cassie for several seconds and then burst out into a sad laughter. "My name? My name doesn't exist anymore." She suddenly stopped laughing and looked at Cassie. "My name is Liberty. Liberty McLean."
"This way," Liberty said quietly, leading them down a relatively empty back street. Cassie watched her as she slowly walked down the street with a guarded ease, doing a very good job of looking casual. It was obvious that she had done this on more than one occasion. The few citizens of the town that passed by them did so without a second look. Cassie risked a quick glance around the buildings that began to rise around them. Small shops that specialized in more obscure products lined the street. Liberty explained to them that many of the merchants could get merchandise that was deemed contraband by the strict leadership of the town. Ahead of them, Cassie saw the nuclear power plant rise above the rest of the buildings. 'I wonder why the Autobots have left this town alone?' she thought. 'Maybe they think the plant is too small, but still...' Suddenly, Liberty came to a stop and carefully looked up and down the street. "Wait here. This guy will probably help you out with most of what you need, but it'd probably be best if I talked to him first." With that, Liberty walked swiftly through the door to the building. "She's a bit fidgety, isn't she?" Shawn Berger said idly. Cassie shrugged. Shawn didn't fool her. He always came across as easy-going and aloof, but his mind was always stuck in high gear. "I guess I would be too if I went through what she did alone. We're luckier than most having others around that have been through the same thing." A couple of seconds later, Liberty stepped back out to the street. "He wants to check you out before he'll say he'll help you out. He's decent enough for this town though. Just don't..." Liberty's voice grew softer and trailed away as she focused on something behind them. "Oh crap," she said frantically. "Come on, we gotta get out of here." "Why?" Shawn asked, starting to look behind him. "Now!" Liberty hissed, grasping his arm and guiding them both back towards the main street. "What's going on, Liberty?" Cassie asked, trying to get a glimpse of what was making their young guide so nervous. "Administrative guards," she said simply. “Crossed paths with them a couple of times while a lived here. Not exactly the friendliest sort.” She peered around the busy street, as if looking for someplace to lie low, and whispered, "They must have found out about them camped outside the town. Great thinking, Lib. Why not just bring them into the lion's den?" She stopped and motioned to a cafe on the ahead of them on the left. "Let's duck in there. I have to figure something out." She led them quickly towards the restaurant, cutting between people passing on the busy street. Cassie risked another look around, searching out for the guards that Liberty was trying to evade. She did not know what they might do, but judging from Liberty's reaction and her accounts of what the town was like, she imagined she did not want to find out either. Cassie continued to follow the other woman through the busy street, absently apologizing to anyone she happened to run into in her. She looked back to be sure that Shawn was still close at hand. She turned back towards Liberty and jumped back as several men rushed past her. Cassie watched the men grab Liberty and carry her quickly towards the buildings lining the street. Cassie and Shawn quickly followed after the men. They caught up quickly; the crowd parted ways as guards ran through, leaving them an easy route. They watched them carry Liberty into an alley and pin her against a wall. Cassie inched closer towards them, trying to hear what the guards were saying to her without them noticing her. She ducked behind some boxes lined by the alley as Shawn did his best to shield her and remain casual to the eyes of any passers-by. She strained closer until she started hearing snippets of the conversation. "...lock you up for good this time," one of the guards stated gruffly. "I didn't do anything," Liberty said pleadingly. "I just wanted to visit some friends is all." One of the men laughed. "Friends? You must think we just fell off the turnip truck, girl." "More like looking for others to con," another stated. "The Administrator is on to you. Neither you nor any of those monsters will be getting near the plant. Do you actually think that the good citizens of this town will actually follow you into betraying all that we have fought for since those robots," he nearly spat this last word, "showed up?" Liberty let out a bitter laugh. "'Good citizens?' Good citizens are few and far between. There's thugs like you and the many people who simply go along unquestioning. Frankly, I don't know which is worse..." One of the guards punched her in the stomach. Liberty cried out and doubled over. “You shut your mouth, you filthy spy,” he said hoarsely. Liberty slowly straightened herself out and asked, "How many times do I have to tell you idiots that I'm not spying for anybody, let alone robots trying to kill us?" After another round of laughter, one of the men reached for a cord around her neck and pulled out some sort of necklace. Cassie squinted to see what it was and gasped. It was an Autobot emblem. Cassie ducked behind the boxes as one of the guards slowly turned his head in her direction. "Oh yeah?” a guard asked sarcastically, snapping it off her neck and twirling it before her. “This little knickknack is going to be more than your ticket out of town this time, doll. This will be solid proof that you are guilty of spying and high treason against the Administrator." "Davis," another guard hushed from a position near to Cassie. She slid back towards the main street, feeling an urgent tug on her shirt from Berger. With the scuff of a boot mere feet from her, Cassie got to her feet to turn and run, but was quickly grabbed by one of the guards. As she was shoved against a wall across from Liberty, she watched Shawn quickly subdued as well. The guard holding Liberty looked over his shoulder. "Snooping around?" He turned back towards Liberty. "Or friends of yours?" "Never seen them before," Liberty said curtly, never taking her eyes off the guard before her. The guard simply chuckled and turned towards the other four men. "Charge them with conspiracy to commit high treason and take them to the brig." Cassie stood still, her eyes flitting around looking for something to get them out of the mess they were in. 'Don't even tell me that after evading the Autobots all this time,' she thought, 'that we're going to stopped by humans.' Shawn bucked against the guards holding him, but to little avail. Cassie looked at Liberty and blinked. The young woman was observing her, as if waiting to get her attention. She smiled. Then, with astonishing speed, Liberty shot her hand out and grasped her necklace. The stunned guard released her and raised his rifle. Liberty drew her hand back and swung, whipping the metal Autobot symbol against his face. The guard bellowed in pain, reaching for his face. Liberty quickly reached down and grabbed the guard's rifle and raised it, striking it against his chin and dropping him to the ground. She raised the gun and leveled it on the other guards. "Drop it, kid," one of them said, the bravado suddenly vacant from his voice, "or I'll blow your buddy to Kingdom Come." Cassie felt the barrel of a pistol press against her back. Liberty laughed, the sound very distant and very cold. "You think I really care as long as I take some of you down with them." Within seconds, the four guards had scrambled off into the street. Liberty looked down at the unconscious guard at her feet with contempt and then shook her head, whispering something that Cassie didn't hear. She then picked up her necklace, which was now chipped along the bottom of the face, and tied it around her neck again. When Liberty looked back up, concern was etched on her face. "Are you guys all right?" she asked walking toward them. "Sorry about the dramatics, but most of the guards are cowards at heart. I just needed to scare them off." Cassie nodded, still stunned, and turned to Shawn. Her brow furrowed at the distant look in the security chief's eyes. It was a look she had seen before, one of quiet thoughtfulness. After a second, Berger turned and looked Cassie. "We'd better get out of here before they bring some friends," he stated, turning away from the alley. They started walking quickly towards the gate. She glanced at Liberty and pulled her closer. Something was bothering her that she needed answered and it couldn’t wait for the city gates. If Cassie didn’t like the answer, she’d make sure that Liberty found her way into the Administrator’s hands. “Liberty, why do you have that Autobot symbol?” she asked quietly, so the locals wouldn’t hear the question. Liberty looked at Cassie sorrowfully, as if trying to find the words. Tears slowly began welling in her eyes. “I made it from a piece of an old car I found on the way up here. I left…there with a couple of other people from my town. They started walking east, hoping to get to Chicago. Silly really, isn’t it? They destroyed our city. You’d think they would have destroyed a bigger one already. The people I was with started arguing about food rations, accusing each other of taking more than their share. I gave up my food just so they would stop fighting, but they just kept going. They were at each other’s throats. I just couldn’t sit there and listen to it, so I got up and went for a walk. I could still hear them; they were screaming at each other. Then I heard a couple of gunshots. I ran back.” She stopped and looked at her hands. “He killed him. Over Oreos, for God’s sake. So I ran away and went north instead. I made this to so that I could always remind myself who the real enemy is. The guards found it and it freaked them out. They thought it meant I was spying for them.” She laughed nervously, running her fingers through her hair and loosening the ponytail. “I’m glad I made it now, after meeting those guys. I needed the reminder.”
"I'm not sure," Shawn Berger said thoughtfully, prompting both Cassandra Vasquez and Grayson Archeville to turn towards him. A part of him, a part that was buried long ago before he transformed himself into a corporate powerhouse, wanted to drop their scrutinizing gaze. They were currently discussing the possibility of asking Liberty to join them. Cassie made a number of excellent reasons for feeling this was the right thing to do, ranging from how she saved them in the town to wariness about leaving her to fend for herself when she would obviously be marked by the leaders of the town. Shawn certainly couldn't argue with either of these. Still, there was something that disturbed him about her. From the time that she attacked the guard in front of her to just after she chased the rest off brandishing the rifle, she didn't seem like the quiet lonely young woman that guided them into the city. She was someone else, someone that Shawn had not quite figured out yet. "We know so little about her," he continued. "We know she survived a great atrocity," Cassie countered. "And we know she has helped us when she could have simply run. I think we owe her at least the opportunity to join us." Shawn nodded slowly. Again, he found himself agreeing. There were no real words to describe how Shawn felt on the matter. It was a gut feeling that told him that there was more to Liberty than met the eye. "That's true," he said finally. "We can ask her. I just think that she might be a little, I don’t know, insane." Gray nodded. "That may very well be true, but I think that we all are by now."
Liberty walked along the edge of an embankment overlooking the brown, dead Mississippi River and closed her eyes. As a gust of wind kicked up, brushing through her long brown hair, she allowed her other senses to guide her on her short walk. She had told Dr. Archeville that she needed some time to think about their proposal of joining their group, but her decision was made the instant she was asked. She simply didn't want to seem overly eager at the opportunity presented to her. She opened her eyes again and smiled. And then she stopped in her tracks and frowned. Ahead of her several hundred feet was pile of debris, most of which was burnt or destroyed by the people living in the walled city she had been waiting beside. It was mainly comprised of burned out cars, seen as devilish reminders of the reason they were hiding behind a stone structure that they could not possibly believe would protect them if the Autobots decided to pay them a visit. She had seen this pile of scrap many times in the weeks that she waited. There was a new addition, one that looked as good as new. 'Dammit,' Liberty thought as she stalked towards the red car resting among the wrecks. 'Of all the luck.' As she closed in on the red car, the car suddenly shifted into robot mode with a chuckle. Liberty continued walking and watching the Autobot, pausing once to look over her shoulder towards the camp near the town. The robot's smile faltered slightly, obviously confused at the brashness of human walking towards him. Liberty merely shook her head. "What are you doing here?" she asked forcefully. The Autobot simply stared at her. "Answer me, you dolt!" she hissed. A look of anger washed over the Autobot’s face. The robot answered by lunging forward to grab her. Liberty deftly sidestepped the robot's reach and grabbed robot's arm. With a grunt of exertion, she whipped him around and tossed him over an embankment. Liberty grimaced and rubbed her shoulder. 'Losing my touch,' she thought wryly. She looked over the embankment at the Autobot getting to his feet, about thirty feet below her. He was staring up at her with a mixture of anger and horror. No doubt running into a human that could actually throw an Autobot was something of a surprise. She jumped down the embankment, landing squarely on her feet and placed her hands on her hips. He recovered quickly and raised his blaster at her. “Squishing humans is more fun,” he said maliciously, “but shooting them gets the job done too.” Liberty rolled her eyes. "I’d stop," she said firmly. With a mental command, her face and body split down the middle and slid apart. Her red and blue robot form stepped out of her Pretender shell and she raised her own rifle towards Cliffjumper. The Autobot’s optics grew the size of full moons as he watched. His gaze glanced over to her Autobot symbol, glimmering in a sea of blue on her shoulder. "If you know what’s good for you,” she continued with a smirk. “It’d make Prowl mad if his plan went awry so soon.”
Liberty walked through the halls of Autobot City, looking around her in awe. The halls, as well as every other Autobot in the facility, towered over her, but it was something that she had grown used to over the years. In fact, she relished that her small size made her nearly invaluable as a spy to the Autobots. They did not have to go through the trouble of establishing her among the Decepticons or outfitting her with some sort of cloaking device. All she needed was a data signature suppresser and she could walk among enemy forces without the need to worry about being seen. In fact, it was almost getting too easy. She sometimes wished, over her years under Ultra Magnus' stewardship of Cybertron, that some of those pint-sized Decepticon cassettes were still on the planet. They were of comparable size, just a little taller, so naturally they could go where she could. It would force her to be more careful. It would give her some sort of challenge. She nearly skipped, giddy with the pleasure at finally getting a call to service that would challenge her. In the last several weeks, she had been run through a crash course, indoctrinating herself with human culture. 'Such as it was,' she thought. She looked up at Prowl, who was keeping his pace slow so the smaller Autobot could keep up. She still didn't understand why they were going through the trouble of spying on these creatures. Most cases, the Autobots simply moved to obliterate them or enslave them and left it at that. Beyond forced labor, they seemed insignificant to the overall goals of the Autobot Empire. Yet, here was the exception. She had asked Prowl many times over through her preparations why this mission was the case, but was rebuffed each time. "So where are we headed?" she asked. "To get outfitted for your mission," Prowl answered. Liberty scowled and her light blue shoulders slumped slightly. She despised lugging equipment on a mission. She felt she was a skilled enough spy to walk amongst the humans without being spotted. "And where is this joyous activity going to happening?" Liberty looked forward at the sound of a door opening in front of them with a hiss. Her jaw dropped open for a second as she saw Perceptor standing just inside of the other room. She quickly tried to compose herself, cursing at allowing her fear to show itself so easily. She was no coward, but Perceptor's reputation was larger than life. Prowl did not seem to notice her reaction. He motioned her into the lab and followed in after her. Liberty slowly walked into the lab, her optics darting around the room as if she were waiting for something to jump out at her. Under every light there seemed to be something hideous and deformed lying on a table. Liberty tried not to look at them, but still felt her optics drawn towards the horror. ‘Stop it, Lib,’ she scolded herself. She jogged a short distance to reach Prowl, staring straight ahead. Perceptor was already standing beside another table, slowly clearing away some clutter. He grasped one piece of equipment between two fingers, as if trying to hold as little of the device as possible, and place it on a table behind him. “Obviously, Ratchet was here,” Perceptor stated, his tone neutral despite the way he handled the medic’s equipment. Liberty stepped around Prowl warily, almost afraid of what she would find. Her optics widened in surprise at the sight of a young human woman, lying perfectly still and seemingly at peace. ‘Or dead,’ she thought with a shudder. “Is this the candidate?” Perceptor asked Prowl, while eyeing the smaller Liberty. “Indeed.” Prowl turned and looked at Liberty. “Here is your equipment.” Prowl then reached towards the women and fiddled with her neck. Liberty jumped back as the human split in two down the middle. After a moment, Liberty stepped forward to get a closer look. The human was mainly hollow inside except for a few small pieces of equipment. In fact, the human seemed to be composed of some sort of soft alloy. Liberty looked up at Prowl questioningly. “You have heard of Pretender shells.” Prowl stated. Liberty nodded, but Prowl wasn’t looking at her. He continued. “Most shells are created for the purpose of increased battle skills for those deemed too fragile to go into battle on their own. However, we decided that perhaps we could modify one to be the size of the natives of this world. An Autobot would then be outfitted for one for the purposes of infiltrating one of these resistance cells.” Liberty looked down at the floor. “I guess you were volunteered, Lib,” the small Autobot spy muttered. Prowl looked down at her with a frown. “Yes, you were,” he said with a tone of annoyance. “Perceptor will see to some minor alterations to make yourself compatible with the shell. You will then join the humans of a cell and monitor them.” “For what?” Liberty asked curiously, a glint in her optic as she looked back at Prowl. She relished new information. It was one of the main reasons she became a spy to begin with. “You’ll know when we want you to know.” Prowl turned to leave. “Once you’ve gotten used to the shell, we will bring you to a location in their path.” “Hold up there, big fella,” the blue and red spy said with a smile. “You’re the big planner guy around here. These humans are gullible but they aren’t all stupid. There needs to be a bit more…” she looked up, searching for the right word. “…art involved if you really want me to fit in with them. Whatever mystery thing I’m supposed to be looking for won’t just fall into my lap. They have to trust me.” “So don’t act suspicious. We don’t have time--.” “It won’t take long,” Liberty interrupted, ignoring that she could have been shot on sight for interrupting the Lord Prime’s right hand. She was simply too excited about the challenge in front of her. “But if you really want me to fit in, I have to have experiences like they have. Even better, I should have interactions with other humans, not only for them to hear about, but for them to see as well.” Prowl looked at her, obviously suspicious of her giddiness over the mission. Finally, he turned to walk out again. “Very well. See me after the procedure and we can discuss it further.”
Dirk hoisted himself up and started walking slowly towards the outskirts of the camp. Most of the group's brain trust was off doing whatever leader types did. Several other members were gathering supplies or securing the camp. Dirk was just plain bored. After their encounter with the bad seeds in the walled town, the group had moved to the north. They reached the edge of a small wooded area that was situated beside an abandoned farmer's field to one side and a granite quarry on the other. He paused for a couple of minutes, staring at a rusted tractor sitting idle among the random assortment of crops and weeds. He leaned heavily against one of the trees, his thick black hair falling over his eyes. He hated that any time he saw any vehicle, he always felt he had to look twice to make sure that it wasn't an Autobot. He dropped his eyes from the tractor and down do his hands, where he was fidgeting with a couple of pieces of dried food, feeling the odd sensation of anger and fear well up in him. He hated running. Where he grew up, running was not seen as a strategic retreat to face the enemy on their own terms. Running was a sign of cowardice. 'And where did all this running get us?' Dirk thought angrily, stooping down to grab a couple of rocks. 'On the run, that's where. Nowhere to go, no place to settle down.' He heaved a stone towards the tractor, missing it badly. 'Just running.' Dirk tossed another rock idly in the air, watching it drop into his hand again after each toss. Finally, he grabbed the rock and whipped it angrily into the field. He watched as it again fell well short of the distant vehicle and sighed. He turned back into the woods and started walking towards the camp. As the young man trudged through the forest back towards the camp, he started to think back to the beginning of all of this. Back then, Dirk was basically carefree. He was seventeen years old with his whole life ahead of him. He remembered sitting with Shawn Berger in his office while pretending to listen to his droning about potential and responsibility. He knew enough to nod in the right places, but his attention was more focused on getting out of the security mogul’s office and down to a party some friends were throwing that night. It wasn't too long before Dirk realized that he was nodding at nothing, as Shawn had turned his attention to the radio instead. Dirk remembered hearing the news reports and scoffing at them. Several days later, he and Shawn and a few other lucky people got out of town as the Autobots descended on their home. Dirk shook his head, trying to drive the thoughts from his mind. The worst part about the lapses in the usual routine of the group was being alone with his thoughts. They always returned to the first time that he had seen the robots in real life. On the news, when they attacked other cities and ruined other peoples' lives, they did not seem so real. It was like watching a movie more than anything else. After all, he had reasoned at the time, who could have expected something that belonged on a cheesy science fiction show to actually exist? But to actually see them was another matter all together. They towered over the humans scurrying underfoot. Some of them simply ignored the natives of the town and set about dissecting it for useful materials. Others gleefully killed the people that were running for cover. He grimaced as each breath started smelling like the burning flesh and death that was around that day. Dirk shut his eyes, but the images of people eviscerated by lasers or the splatter as they were crushed under metal feet came unbidden anyway. Voices to his right finally stirred Dirk from him painful memories. He walked towards them, thankful for the distraction. A mischievous smile started growing across his face as he deduced who it was. John Konstantastos and John Davie were both several years younger than he was. J.D., as Davie had become known, had gone to the same school that Dirk seldom attended. Before this, Dirk knew almost nothing about him other than that he was damn smart. Smart kids tended to get picked on at his school, but J.D. was immune to the common teenage trauma. 'Being six-foot-four at fourteen will do that,' Dirk thought as he walked towards them. Konnie, as Dirk called the other John, was a more recent refugee, arriving with the group in the past year. Like J.D., he was a big kid and nearly as smart. The two had become fast friends, rarely seen apart from one another. Dirk considered them friends as well, though it would be difficult to gage that based on the conversations they would have. Half the time, Dirk expected Lincoln to come charging in to break them up. "Well, well," Dirk said happily as he walked closer, "if it isn't the Johns." Dirk's smile widened as the two young men looked up with a scowl. "Mannis, shouldn't you be off avoiding work somewhere," Konstantastos said, trying to wave Dirk off. "Already done with that, Konnie. Looking for something else to do now." Konnie grabbed a pinecone and whipped it towards Dirk, striking him on the arm. "Dammit, stop calling me that, you ass. Frickin' Lincoln's started calling me that now." Dirk laughed and sat down next to Konnie. He took out his dried fruit again and offered some to them. "Sentry duty?" Dirk asked off-handedly, nodding to a few of the other refugees as they passed by. "Yeah," J.D. answered. "Which means we're just about up to date on the gossip around here." Konnie grunted. "Gossip. Like it doesn't take like three minutes to get the run down. We've got giant killer robots after us and we still got nothing going on around here." "Except that one thing," J.D. offered, running his hand through his blonde hair. "Yeah," Konnie replied and looked back at Dirk. "What's up with that new chick? Seems nice, but I think she's a couple of spades short of a full deck, you know." "I don't know," Dirk said, shaking his head. "I don't like her. She just kinda shows up and instantly helps." "Um, we all just showed up, Dirk buddy," J.D. said with a smile. "Yeah, but when people do show up they aren't helpful. Kinda like Konnie here." "Eat me," was his curt response. "Most of ‘em are just too shocked. Shocked at the reality of all this. Shocked to find other people around. With weapons. I'm just saying that it's just too much a coincidence that she--." Konnie nudged Dirk. "Can it. Here she comes." The three young men watched Liberty walk towards the food packs and talk with the person that was distributing them. After thanking him, she turned and started walking back towards her tent. As she neared the trio on sentry duty she paused and looked at them, a distant look in her brown eyes. After a moment, she smiled. "Hi." With that, she turned her head and continued walking towards her tent, her head lowered slightly, as if she were having one of her spoken-aloud inner monologues. Dirk shook his head. What he had said to the others was true; he did not trust Liberty. It was more than just showing up and being useful. There was something else there that Dirk could not quite put his finger on. He had been around nasty people enough to be able to sniff out a troublemaker. Still, he would have felt paranoid if he had been the only one that seemed to think this. Dirk was almost relieved to see that Shawn seemed to regard her in the same manner of suspicion. Together, the three men watched her sit outside her tent, dart her eyes around, and quickly scurry behind the flap of her shelter. Finally, Dirk said, "That girl is unhinged." "She's certainly odd," J.D. responded. "She's hot," Konnie added. Dirk and J.D. looked at the other man. They then turned and looked back at Liberty's tent. "Yeah," they said in unison.
Liberty threw the monitoring device to the floor of her tent. She sat down with a huff of frustration and crossed her arms, looking darkly at the closed door of her tent. Not long before, she had found out that the leaders of the resistance movement were meeting in one of the tents. For nearly the last hour, she had been trying to listen in on those conversations, but was instead answer with nothing but static. She glanced at the chronometer on her arm (“It’s called a watch, Lib,” she reminded herself), an odd habit she had picked up since acquiring her shell, and sighed. It was nearly time for her to check in with Prowl. She had plenty to tell him, but certainly nothing that he would find useful. She lifted herself up and pulled a mirror out of her backpack. After adjusting her hair, she stepped out into the broken sunshine that filtered through the canopy of leaves above them. She smiled at a few of the humans and walked past a group of them that were somberly eating their food. After a quick look back, she stole into the forest, careful to make as little noise as possible. Several hundred feet from the edge of the camp, she exited her Pretender shell. Liberty paused to look at the shell for a moment. She had to admit she liked it. It was an excellent tool for infiltrating these natives without arousing suspicion. More than that, she liked how it looked. She had never really looked at the humans before. Many of the features were startling similar, though lacking in armor. Two arms, two legs. A head with two optics. Some Autobots had single visors or battle masks to distinguish themselves, but then Autobots did not have hair. Liberty reached forward and pulled her shell’s brown hair over its shoulder, smiling as her shell smiled at her. She found that she liked having hair. She had always liked a soft breeze blowing over her. That feeling was only enhanced with how it brushed through her hair, flow lazily around her face. She stepped back and shook her head, bringing herself out of her near daze. “Better go keep an eye out for them, in case one of them comes wandering through here.” Liberty watched the shell turn gracefully back towards camp, its head keeping a watchful eye out for any humans that happened into the woods. Liberty smiled as images that the shell saw was displayed over her own sight. “Seeing two things at once is handy in the spying business as well, isn’t Lib?” she asked herself quietly. She dropped herself into a crouch, as her blue and red form would easily be seen among the greens and browns of the forest, and activated her communications unit. She peered at a display on her right wrist as it quickly ran through a numbering sequence. The comm’s audio activated with Prowl’s deep voice prompting, “Yes.” It was somehow toneless and menacing at once. “There a reason you decided to send a lackey to watch over me?” she asked, not hiding her annoyance. “Standard procedure for a mission of this nature,” Prowl calmly replied with a steel edge to his voice. “Cliffjumper has withdrawn now that you’ve obviously established yourself. Now do you have anything useful to add or are you simply in the business of wasting my time?” Liberty ignored the question. “You could have told me that these humans were ahead of the curve in advanced technology,” Liberty growled. “They do have access to Decepticon equipment,” Prowl said. “You know that many of these cells have had contact with them.” “Not just that. They’ve got Autobot tech as well.” She paused by heard no reaction from Prowl. “And some nice homemade stuff to go with it. They seem to have some sort of jamming device that won’t let me eavesdrop on their conversations. They also have a monitoring device that cycles through… hold on.” She struck a button on the comm display. A brief burst of static rushed through the open channel before a new frequency was reached. “As I was saying, they cycle through different wavelengths to detect EM waves like this one. I’m afraid our little chats are going to have to be short.” “So you’re telling me that you haven’t discovered anything yet.” Liberty frowned. “If I knew what I was looking for it would certainly help. You don’t seem surprised at the tech. If we’re just going to be playing guessing games out here, I’m afraid this is going to take awhile.” “Fine. One of these humans knows where the Decepticon base is. The human in question has even, according to our sources, visited the base. The Decepticons that we have captured have been no use to us in regards to the location of their headquarters. Human brains, such as they are, have proved much easier to access. Find the human that visited the base and let us know.” “Why not just bring the lot of them in?” Prowl waved off the question. “We have our reasons. Now—.” Liberty noticed movement in her shell’s field of vision and cut Prowl off. “Sorry, company’s coming.” She disconnected from the transmission and sprinted back to her shell, trying not to think of what punishment might be waiting for her back at base for ending the transmission so abruptly. She stepped up to the shell, which had slipped behind a tree, and stepped back inside it. She then sat down upon a fallen tree and waited to be found. “Oh, there you are,” a voice said from behind her. Liberty turned around with a weary smile, shuffling through the list of names that she had compiled thus far. “Oh, hi, John. Didn’t hear you coming.” “That’s all right. And call me J.D. Less confusing then saying ‘John’ and having two of us answer.” He looked at her for a moment. “Just needed to be alone for a bit?” “Yeah,” Liberty answered, bringing a distant look to her eyes. “Not really too used to having a bunch of people around, you know?” “I’m sorry to interrupt. Believe me, I understand the need to just get away for a bit. But, they wanted to do a quick head count, bring everybody back to the main camp before the sun sets.” He looked down at her and smiled. “I’ve got a gift for finding people that don’t want to be found.” ‘You better keep that in mind, Lib,’ she thought to herself. “Yeah okay,” she said aloud as she stood up and followed the tall human back towards the camp. “Is it dangerous out here?” “Nope. The perimeter defense does a pretty good job at that. They do like to draw it closer to the camp and away from the forest at night though, just in case.” Liberty’s head cocked to one side. Her electrical systems could feel the perimeter since she joined with the group, but this was the first it had been brought up. “What’s that perimeter for anyway?” J.D. shrugged. “Couple of reasons really. Keeps the animals out for one. They don’t like the sound it makes. Plus, it keeps out people that don’t really have any business with us. If they want to talk, they can wait ‘til morning.” They reached the more open area where the camp was situated. J.D. turned and looked Liberty. “I’m going to tell Lincoln we’ve got the all clear. See ya around.” Liberty waved as J.D. turned and jogged towards one of the security heads. After she had the crackle of energy as the security grid activated, Liberty walked further into the camp. Several of the humans were sitting around talking. She stepped up to the group and sat down on the ground near them, hoping to hear about any of their plans, wanting to hear the word “Decepticons” come up. But as she listened, most of them were simply talking about inane little things that did not seem to matter at all. They talked about offspring and gardens and television programs. They all sounded a little sad, but from time to time there the somber environment was split by laughter. As darkness grew around them, members of the group came and went. Liberty sometimes spoke about little things as well, making them up as she went along. The extra time she had coaxed out of Prowl to study further this particular aspect of human society was paying off. After a couple of hours of getting little in the way of usable information from them, Liberty turned and looked at a lone figure sitting quietly away from the group. Liberty rose and walked towards the woman, whom she recognized as Cassandra Vasquez, one the first people she had met here and, more interestingly, one of the leaders of this resistance cell. She brushed some hair around her ears and looked down at her. “Hey, Cassie. Do you want some company?” Cassie gave Liberty a weary smile. “Sure.” They sat in silence for several minutes. Liberty was running through ways of turning the conversation to the Decepticons, but was unable to think of anything that would not have instantly caused the resistance leader be become suspicious again. The incident with her necklace had almost ruined the mission before it had barely started. Liberty simply sat back against a tree, content that she would have to just let the conversation come on its own. She looked up at the tops of the trees above her and sighed. ‘It is a nice night,’ she thought. ‘I’m not sure I have ever had a night like this. Not worrying about watching my back too much. No clatter from those loud warriors that are always in the base.’ Despite not finding out any valuable information, the humans that were gabbing away about nothing were actually adding to her growing knowledge of humans. Every one of them seemed to react in a different manner and had different thoughts and beliefs. The more she saw of them, the more they interested her. These were not insects as Prowl had made them out to be. They were intelligent in their own way. Not on a military level, or even a technological level, despite what she found them capable of creating. She saw how they could be a threat. Perhaps that was the reason Prowl had placed her among them. Perhaps he felt they needed to be watched. A sigh from Cassie stole Liberty from her thoughts. The Autobot turned toward the human, a questioning look in her eyes. Cassie looked at her and smiled. “Sometimes I can sit in there with them and talk about that stuff. The way things were and reminisce and smile about how great life was back then before we even knew how good we had it. Guess I’m just not in the mood for it today.” She let out a deep breath and leaned back, resting on her arms and looking over the tops of the head’s of the other people. The light from the dim fire danced across her aging features. Liberty thought Cassie's eyes looked like they were staring at something else instead. Liberty nearly started when Cassie turned back towards her, the same distant look in her eyes, as if she were not focused on Liberty, but rather something deep in the recesses of her own mind. “I think about that day sometimes,” Cassie said, almost in a whisper. “I try not to, but when you talk about the good stuff, the bad stuff is always right there, tagging along. I think about all the people in the University and the workers in Gray’s lab, and how I know of exactly three people that made it out of there alive, and that’s only if I count myself. Thousands of students, hundreds of staff, and all the people that I knew, that had a spot in my heart and mind, could all be gone.” She looked down, her voice softer. “I would have been too if my meeting hadn’t been running late. “But instead, it was Gray, his partner, and I talking about some internships with their company. God, we even heard the air raid sirens go off. We just ignored them. They don’t test them often, but they do test them. It couldn’t be the Soviets. It never even crossed our minds that it was alien robots bent on killing us.” Liberty frowned at the description of the Autobots, but did not say anything. She was hoping this would lead to the Decepticons somehow. “After it kept going on and on, we started to get curious. We stepped out the back door to see just as the building got hit. It was so loud, but we still heard screaming inside. Dust came rushing out the door and through us across the alley. We managed to get further away from the building. Gray was speechless; I kept saying that I needed to get back to the school. Whitney was the only one that was thinking clearly. He tried to guide us further away, but the missiles and lasers kept following us. There were dead people everywhere. People that were hurt, beyond our care. One guy was going around shooting the ones that were bad off. He got his head taken off by a laser not long after we ran passed him. Then I saw one of them for the first time. He didn’t see me, or who knows what He would have done.” Cassie’s voice dropped lower, anger wavering on the edge of it, tears welling in her eyes. It seemed to Liberty that it was sheer will that they didn’t start streaming down her face. “I’ll never forget him. His cold blue eyes. He just stood there and callously motioned where others were to attack, completely uncaring that he was destroying us. I just couldn’t understand it.” Cassie let out a cold laugh. “And on top of it all, he had the markings of a cop car. The irony of it all.” She wiped away a tear and looked at Liberty. Her sad demeanor suddenly changed to one of concern. She placed a hand on her shoulder. “Oh Liberty, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” Liberty shook her head quickly. “No, it’s okay. I, uh, I understand. We’ve all got stories like this. We lost something when… you know.” Liberty looked at the group sitting nearby still talking to each other. She frowned slightly, realizing that they really did all have stories like Cassie’s. All of them, except for her. Despite herself, she felt like an outsider. Cassie nodded her head and let out a long breath. “I just hate for them to see me like this. They look at me as a leader. I need to be strong for them.” “You are,” Liberty offered, trying to console her. Cassie let out a small laugh and gave Liberty a quick hug, further surprising the Autobot with the gesture. “Thank you, Liberty. Thanks for being a shoulder to cry on. I need to get to the perimeter.” Cassie rolled her eyes. “Sentry duty.” Liberty smiled and rose with her, saying their good-byes when Liberty reached her tent. After ingesting the rest of the food, a handy addition that Perceptor added in place of the need for energon, Liberty settled on the ground and stared at the top of her tent. She listened to the gentle breeze brushing through the trees above her. Despite the usually soothing sounds above her, it was everything she could do not let out a scream. “You aren’t here to feel sorry for them, Lib,” she whispered hoarsely. “You aren’t here to fit in. You’re here to do your job and that is exactly what you will do.” Finally, she let out a wavering breath, willing herself to calm down. She settled deeper into the blankets stretched out on the floor beneath her and shut down her optics. As she started drifting towards the edge of consciousness, she heard a voice talking loudly, telling the end of some story. Then she heard laughter. It was not just the polite kind from earlier in the evening, but real and pure laughter. Liberty’s brow furrowed despite herself. ‘How can they still laugh?’ she thought as she fell into a recharge cycle.
“Hey there, cowboy!” Konnie shouted, causing Liberty to look up from her breakfast of some sort of cooked rodent. She watched as the tall man walked playfully up to the human she recognized as Lincoln Collins. Lincoln has currently on patrol around the perimeter of the camp, grasping an energy rifle that seemed to be a modified Decepticon model. “That beard regulation, soldier?” Konnie asked. Lincoln shot him a crooked smile. “Don’t you have someplace to be, Konnie,” he responded, putting a stress on the final word. Konnie narrowed his eyes and looked down at Lincoln, who stood a good five inches shorter than the younger man. “It’s a good thing that you’re armed, Lincoln. And could so kick my ass. Otherwise, you’d be eating dirt right now, bubba.” Konnie quickly added in a laugh and trotted off to the center of the camp, where the food was being dished up. With Konnie out of earshot, Lincoln let out a soft chuckle and continued his path around the perimeter. Liberty dropped her plate and ran a couple of steps to catch up with him. Lincoln watched her as she slowed to match his gait. A dingy cowboy hat covered his shaggy blonde hair and cast a shadow over his blue eyes. Liberty prided herself in being able to pick out emotions that rested in optics or in body language, but Lincoln’s was unreadable at the moment. “Doing all right, Lib?” he asked. “Yeah, just curious about something,” she replied. She was, in fact, curious about something. Somehow these humans had been able to create some sort of perimeter defense. She had gotten up early to casually stroll past it a couple of times over the last several days, trying to get a good look at the energy source. She had not spent long on her little reconnaissance mission, as she did not want to arouse suspicion. After several futile minutes, she walked back to the center of camp and helped make a fire with the cooks. “What’s that?” “A few nights ago, J.D. mentioned something about a perimeter defense. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a little sci-fi for what I expected out of, well, people.” Liberty put her best worried look on the face of her shell, hoping it would prompt a more thorough response that he otherwise might have given. “It’s a little sci-fi for my tastes as well, if you must know. I’m not exactly sure what makes it tick; that would be Doc Archeville’s department.” “Did he make it?” “Yeah, actually, he did. It’s modified tech from some of the robots. It raises an alarm if someone passes through it and keeps *them* from being able to detect us. Blocks electrical currents or something.” He smiled wanly. “Like I said, I’m the wrong guy to ask if you want the ins and outs of it. Runs on hydropower, I guess. Besides drinking water, it’s another reason we like camping near rivers. It’s done wonders so far, I’ll tell you. You could sit back and laugh at the scourge that wanders through the woods thinking about stealing our stuff.” ‘Amazing,’ she thought. Perhaps there was more to the mission than merely finding which of these humans had been to the Decepticon base. Perhaps there was also this Archeville. Even with Decepticon aid, putting together such a device should be well beyond this race given the technology available to them. Maybe Prowl had plans for this human as well. “Couldn’t they steal it in daylight?” Liberty asked, keeping the conversation going, hoping to receive more interesting information. “Is that why it’s still on now?” Lincoln looked at Liberty again, this time with almost wary look in his eyes. It was a strange reaction to the question, at least based on what she had seen of these humans over the last couple of days. It wasn’t distrust, a look that Dirk displayed unabashedly in her presence. Rather, it was almost a sort of sadness. “I suppose some of the scum might be desperate enough to try coming during the day, but we’ve yet to come across anyone willing to try. We can afford more security in the daylight when it’s easier to see because we’ve got the defense system up at night. They see us toting these,” he hefted the laser rifle, “and scurry off nine out of ten times. Usually just takes a shot to scare the rest off for good.” Lincoln sighed, glancing down at the rifle once before turning his attention back to the forest around him. “In my line, before all this happened, I used to see all kinds of scum. Scum that would kill you for a couple of bucks in your wallet. That’s about the only thing in this world that hasn’t changed.” Liberty smiled. “I’m distracting you. I should go.” She couldn’t help but noticed the second question went unanswered. Lincoln turned towards her, the shadow of a smile creasing through his beard. “No, I like the company actually. Besides, in a few minutes, I’m sure to have plenty to do.” “Why’s that?” Liberty asked, feigning worry. “The two Johns and their juvenile delinquent pal, Dirk, will be about done with breakfast and feeling a bit bored. You can usually count on at least one prank sometime during the course of the morning.” Lincoln smiled. “Keeps a guy on his toes at least.” Liberty laughed. Inwardly, she again marveled at the resiliency of the humans she had seen so far. During her time studying the race for the mission, several Autobots told her (those who even acknowledged the existence of a race so beneath them) that the humans were basically weak Decepticons in nature. Liberty was finding that deduction to be nothing short of false. The Decepticons were physically strong, which in her mind made them weak in all other manners. They had the ability to do whatever they wanted, yet they always held back. The humans, at least these humans, were weak yet seemed to be preparing for a fight that they could not possibly win. She knew it could not just be these forty humans on the planet that were like this, not with the number of resistance cells that were known. What was more, for some reason, the Autobots could not crush them. Resistance groups survived, even thrived in some areas, despite being the hunted on this world. Liberty’s thoughts abruptly stopped as Lincoln grabbed her shoulder. She looked back at him with a questioning look, but berated herself. ‘Keep your eye on the ball, Lib. You’re not writing a dissertation on these guys.’ Lincoln motioned towards the crest of a hill. As Liberty observed the hill, her warrior instincts kicked in. The hill offered good strategic cover. Shadows from several trees, with the added effect of looking into the sun, offered perfect cover for an ambush. “That’s were those goons will be waiting,” Lincoln said softly. “So predictable. Come on, we’ll circle around and get the drop on them.” Liberty followed Lincoln off the main path and into the periphery of the forest, quietly making their way towards where the three younger humans were supposedly waiting to bombard Lincoln with some practical joke. Liberty could not use her sensors here for fear of detection, but something made her doubt that this was where the ambush would be. “Are you sure?” Liberty asked. Lincoln shrugged. “Well, they haven’t caught me yet.” As they neared the crest of the hill, Lincoln stalked out of the forest, walking almost silently towards the small grove of trees on the hill. He stopped, frowning, obviously not seeing what he was sure should be there. “As I asked before,” a voice called from above Lincoln, hidden within the leaves of a tree, “that beard regulation, soldier?” Lincoln’s head shot up as he peered into the green leaves dancing in the breeze. Suddenly, two other figures dashed out of the forest near Liberty, spraying some white substance from a can at the surprised security officer. “Because we can supply the shaving cream,” Konnie, now climbing quickly down the tree, said. He pointed his own can at Lincoln and started shooting. Lincoln, for his part, simply stood there shaking his head, as if this was his punishment for being caught unawares. Another voice called from the distance, interrupting the affair. “Do I even want to know?” Liberty looked up at the sound of the voice and watched Dr. Archeville walking towards the odd scene. J.D. tucked his can of shaving cream away and smiled sheepishly. “Probably not.” “Hmm,” Archeville mused. As Lincoln started scraping the shaving cream from his face, the scientist looked at the three younger men. “Maybe your energy would be better use on the north side of camp. Find Rita. She’ll put you to work.” “Golly, Doc,” Konnie said sarcastically, “just what we were hoping you’d say.” “Yeah,” Dirk chimed in, “you can never get too much work. Heaven forbid a little R & R.” Archeville simply looked at them. Dirk sighed and trudged off, Konnie and J.D. in tow. As the three humans walked past Liberty, they each gave her a nod of acknowledgment. The only difference between the looks was the fact that the two Johns smiled, while Dirk regarded her with his usual suspicious manner. She turned and watched them walking away, talking and laughing as they did. Each time that Dirk looked at her like that, she couldn’t help put examine her activities for anything that might look suspicious. She regularly wandered through the forest, a pattern she set up so that her sojourns to make her regular correspondences with Prowl might not seem odd. But many of the cell members walked through the forest. It seemed to be a way for them to gather their thoughts, based on talking to a few of them. Nothing else about her demeanor registered as odd or out of place either. Perhaps it was just something akin to her own instincts, something he simply picked up at some point in his upbringing. In a way, she liked that he regarded in such a manner. It forced her to always be on guard. Liberty turned back towards Lincoln and Archeville, who were in the middle of a conversation. “What do you mean, they aren’t coming?” Lincoln asked, sounding a bit agitated. “You sound like one of them,” Archeville said with a wry smile. “It’s simply too dangerous. We’re not ready to make a stand yet. We finally have the perimeter working at such a level that we can nearly avoid detection. We haven’t seen any sign of them in some time.” “Just because we haven’t seem any sign of them does *not* mean they haven’t been monitoring us. They could be using some sort of tracking device, satellite photography. Hell, with the kind of tech they have, it’s likely beyond imagination what they could come up with.” “I know we’re taking a chance. But, this is it. Here. We’re marginally protected from outsiders.” “There is too much faith in this damn perimeter,” Lincoln said, obviously frustrated. Archeville sighed. “I know it’s marginal. I know it won’t stand against an assault that they would unleash on us. But, with human assistance, it still works against the bands of thieves that wander around out there. That is the point of it. Not as a security blanket, but to make sure that the valuables aren’t stolen. “But, if the Decepticons come here now, it is far more likely that we will be detected. Because they will be detected.” “What about Ravage?” Archeville shook his head. “It’s just too risky. We’ve taken so many steps to evade detection. With any luck, they really do think we’re going south.” Lincoln placed a hand on the older man’s shoulder. “Look. You know I understand and agree with our policy with those guys. They could do so much, but don’t. But we really shouldn’t turn away the help they are willing to give us. We stand a far better chance with anything they can give us. Anything. I just don’t like the idea of turning our backs on their help.” “We’re not turning our backs,” Archeville responded. “But this is just bad timing. I will take any help they can give us, but to show up--.” “Any help?” a voice called from the forest beyond the energy field. Liberty looked up sharply from the conversation, restraining a look of annoyance. Finally, after six days of traipsing around the camp, the magic word had been spoken: Decepticon. Some viable information was finally coming out of the mission, only to get interrupted. She could only hope the conversation would continue after the distraction was dealt with. She peered into the forest, but saw nothing. Liberty glanced over at her two human companions, both of whom were looking at her with a look of worry. Archeville then turned back to the forest as Lincoln walked over to where Liberty was standing. “Regular party crasher, aren’t you?” Archeville asked, his tone a familiar one. “Yes, well, I think my invitation was lost in the mail,” this invisible figure replied. But then, the speaker walked out of the shadows. Liberty gasped as she recognized Ravage walking slowly towards her. The Decepticon turned his attention away from Archeville and towards Liberty. For her part, Liberty held perfectly still, keeping both eyes on the Decepticon spy. Here was solid proof, not relying on Autobot intelligence alone, that the Decepticons did have a hand in the workings of this resistance group. But she could not afford any elation at this point. She was too worried. Worried that Ravage would see what she was. Worried that he would tell the humans exactly who she was and what she was doing there. Worried that her Pretender shell would choose that moment to malfunction. None of those things happened. Instead, Lincoln placed an arm around her shoulder in what could only be a soothing gesture. Her Pretender shell’s complexion changed to a ghostly white, a product of worry and fear as well as her systems automatically redistributing energy to her signal dampeners and weapons systems. She looked down at her hands, which were shaking, and scolded herself. ‘I’m an Autobot, damn it,’ she thought, ‘not some simpering empty.’ Liberty shook off Lincoln’s arm and walked several paces back, giving herself room to fight if the need arose. She watched Ravage look upon her with sorrow. “I am sorry, miss,” the feline Decepticon said, his tone in line with his words. “I did not mean to startle you. I had not realized that the group had picked up another human. I mean no harm.” Liberty opened her mouth to say something, but no words would come out. Aside from sorrow, the Decepticon’s smooth voice had more than a hint of respect as well. Liberty began to relax, knowing that her cover was still intact. The Decepticon never would have spoken to an enemy in such a manner. She looked up at Lincoln, who had walked up to her again. “Are you all right?” the sandy-haired human asked. Liberty blinked. “Um, I don’t…” She stopped, looking at Ravage again, who was still regarding her with the same look of respectful remorse. “I need to go back to the camp.” Lincoln turned towards Archeville. “I’ll go with her, try to explain the situation. Should I get the others?” Archeville nodded. Liberty spun on her heel, her brown hair snapping around, its weight dropping over her left shoulder. She walked quickly away from the Decepticon, as if the distance would keep him from seeing the truth. In her years as a spy, she had never felt so exposed. There had been literally nothing that she could do. She had to simply stand there and hope that he would not see through the disguise at what lay at its heart. She knew that he would have seen a killer.
“Shaving cream?” Ravage asked as he walked up to the group Liberty was sitting with. She immediately tensed, but forced herself to relax. The shell, along with her own signal dampener, was working to perfection. She leaned back against the tree she was using as a back rest and let out a soft sigh, which wavered slightly has passed through her vocalizer. “Times are tight, Thundercat,” Konnie responded. “But hey, if you have any better ideas, I’m all ears.” Ravage drew back in exaggerated horror. “Me? Contribute to the delinquency of the youth of the planet Earth? Never!” Ravage took a few steps forward, smiling. “Skywarp, however, has no such compunctions. He gave me this.” The Decepticon withdrew a small panel that had some sort of instructions written on it. “I believe his instructions were: ‘Use it well.’ Don’t have too much fun.” Ravage winked as he walked silently away. Not without, Liberty noticed, one more look at her. She felt her motor relays tighten once more. Liberty was sure that the rest of the group thought her apprehension to the presence of the Decepticon spy was a product of a fear of giant robots. She knew they would reason that Ravage was the first such robot she had seen since her hometown was wiped off the map. In truth, her apprehension was something else completely. Liberty the Autobot was not widely known on Cybertron, which is what every spy likes to see. Most of her more prolific work was done since the Lord Prime and his crew disappeared over four million years before. But even still, Liberty found herself wondering if somehow, Ravage would put two and two together. He was the best spy the Decepticons had. Could he know about her work? If he did, would he wonder after the coincidence of an Autobot spy and a human running around with the same name? She knew she was overreacting. She was not acting suspiciously and it would take an incredible leap of faith and a great deal of footwork to believe that they were in fact one and the same. Still, she could not take the chance. She would have to redouble her efforts and get the ever-loving slag out of there. ‘But God,’ she thought suddenly, ‘I don’t want to leave.’ Liberty frowned and shook the thought from her head. “Hey, Liberty, you hanging in there?” a young woman sitting beside her asked. Liberty turned and looked at her. Her name was Brea and, other than the fact that she seemed to be close to J.D., that was all that she knew about her. She was simply one of many in the group that tended to keep mostly to themselves. “That thing doesn’t scare you?” Liberty asked quietly. Dirk grunted. “Seen scarier things than him.” “Yeah, like your face in a mirror, Mannis,” Konnie said, looking up from the notes that Ravage had left for them. “There’s some good stuff here. Freaking genius.” As J.D. and Dirk closed in on Konnie to see what sort of mischief that Skywarp had brought for them, Brea leaned closer. “I felt the same way the first time I saw him,” she said. “I was about three days after I ditched the trailer park my aunt and uncle were stowed away in. I barely knew any of these goofballs yet,” she motioned to three guys, “and here comes this giant robot cat. Oh boy, did I freak. “But then I got to know him. He’s a nice guy, nothing like I expected. He actually spends most of his time just talking to us. He talks shop with the head honchos, but I think it’s checking in with all of us that’s his real reason for coming out here.” Brea squeezed Liberty’s hand. “Give it some time.” Liberty looked down at Brea’s hand and smiled. “Yeah,” Liberty said, “time.”
“You were more quiet than usual back there,” Ravage said as Shawn walked him back to the edge of camp. “Yeah,” Shawn responded thoughtfully. “I don’t know if you gathered from the meeting what was implied, but if we’re going to have a last stand, it happens here. “I caught that,” Ravage said quietly. “There are worse locations to be. The quarry, the cave system you guys built, the stockpile… it’s the sort of thing that would make any military tactician smile. You seem prepared.” Ravage stopped walking and looked at Shawn. “Though I do wonder about the timing. The seasons change early this far north. Do you have the provisions to last through a winter?” “We’ll be fine. I’m more worried about the Autobots catching us unawares.” “I have my ears open. Any Autobot movement in the area, and you will know about.” Ravage regarded him with an expression of worry. “Why make a stand? Why now?” “Because, we’re ready for it now. A fight is inevitable. We’ve been running with them on our tails for so long, that much is obvious. Better to have them come to us on our terms.” Ravage nodded, knowing after so many meetings that there was next to nothing that he could do to dissuade them. “I understand, you know. We all do. We feel we should do more as well. Logistically, with the numbers available to us, you must understand how difficult a task this is.” Seeing Shawn’s eye begin to glaze over from the familiar argument. “I am not making excuses; I am simply telling the truth. But we have a new lobbyist who comes by from time to time.” Ravage smiled. “Sounds a lot like you when you decide to open your mouth. He is quite convincing. Science teams have been working overtime to work up something to even the odds a bit.” Ravage placed a small box into Shawn’s hands. “Give that to Dr. Archeville. It is something the Bombshell cooked up. It’s been tested; it works. But it has never been used in the field by humans, so it should catch the Autobots off guard.” Ravage stepped into the forest and turned around once more. “And Shawn, contact us when the assault begins. I can guarantee we will be there to help.” Shawn nodded. “We know you will, Ravage. And thanks.”
“Mannis, you are so full of crap, it stinks,” Konnie whispered hoarsely, trying to keep his voice down. “A weapon stockpile right under our noses?” Dirk dragged his hand through his thick black hair and smirked, but kept his eyes on the fire. "Well, you don't have to believe me, but doesn't make it any less true. It's back in that quarry under a nice sophisticated lock and key." J.D. shook his head. "That you can just happen to break." "Well, as you two love to point out, I *am* a juvenile delinquent." Konnie continued to regard Dirk sourly, but asked another question that was on his mind. "How did stuff even get out here, *if* it even exists? Did the Decepticons drop it off for us?" Dirk shrugged. "You two are the smart ones; you figure it out." J.D. looked thoughtfully at the moon as it darted in and out of the clouds. "Probably the recon missions." "What?" Konnie asked. "The recon missions. Doc would send a small group ahead. Well, maybe they worked ahead and placed those supplies where they supposedly are." J.D. shrugged. "As good an explanation as any." "Of course," Konnie ventured, "that would imply that this whole trek would have been planned from the beginning. Or at least for a while now. Probably for this 'last stand' they keep whispering about when they think we can't hear them." J.D. frowned and shifted his gaze from the moon to his hands. "That scares the crap out of me. Always knew a fight was coming, but it's a little ominous knowing where it's going to be. Kind of like we’re saying that there’s no turning back anymore." "Yeah," Dirk and Konnie said in unison. For several minutes, the only noise that surrounded the group was the crackle of the fire and the wind whistling through the trees. The same thought was running through each of their minds: Was this where they were going to die? There had been precious few deaths among the group so far, something which everyone in the group was silently thankful. Here it felt different. They had remained in the same location for longer than any time in the last four months. They did not have to be military strategists to see that the quarry that lay to the north of the main camp was a good spot for a fight. And then the whispers among the older members of the group and the way their eyes shifted guiltily when one of the younger people walked by them. Tension was starting to settle over the three men sitting around the fire like thick blanket. Finally, Konnie stood up. “But this is ominous garbage is only possible if Dirk is telling the truth. And personally, I think the boy’s on crack.” J.D. laughed and stood as well. “So what do you think, Mannis? A little show and tell time?” Dirk stretched and remained seated. “Well I would, gents, but I’m already on Lincoln’s short list for an ass kicking. If whoever’s guarding it tonight catches us--.” “Oh, I wouldn’t worry about the guard,” J.D. said smoothly. “Because that’s me. And I’ll tell you, I am dying to see what they keeping making us sit in the dark fighting sleep for.” “Yeah, but if they catch you leaving your post, you’ll be dead.” J.D. shrugged, and motioned to Konnie. “Take John in then. I’m sure he’ll tell me the truth about what’s in there. You know, after hmm-ing and aww-ing about how it’s nothing, just a bunch of junk, really nothing of consequence, oh by the way I got you. Right, John?” Konnie looked aghast at J.D. “I am *hurt* that you… well, know me well enough that I would do exactly that. Bastard.” Konnie turned his attention back to Dirk. “So how about it? Say I come swing by and get you in about two hours.” Dirk sighed. “Fine. Two hours. And I know I don’t have to tell you guys to not tell a soul.” J.D. and Konnie nodded, both turning back towards their respective tents. Then all three men stopped, staring at the figure leaning against a tree about ten feet from the fire, the darkness of the still camp silhouetting her. “Well,” Liberty said, “looks like you boys are about to get yourselves into a bit of trouble.” She smiled brightly. “Mind if I tag along?”
Liberty sat down across from J.D. after watching Dirk and Konnie slink into what appeared to be a man-made cave system within the quarry. She frowned slightly at the heavy door as it slid shut, more than a little frustrated that she was not going with. Dirk had, of course, dreamt up some excuse for not allowing her to go with them, saying something to the effect of it being difficult enough to guide one person without having to worry about two. ‘Which,’ she thought, ‘is complete and utter bologna.’ The real reason was that Dirk did not want her to see it. Of course, if she just stayed close to J.D., she would be sure to here what was inside the cave. And quite frankly, the curiosity was killing her. If Dirk was to be believed, it was some sort of weapon that the humans wanted to keep hidden, even from their own kind. Was it artillery capable of damaging an Autobot or worse? Was it some sort electronic weapon? After spending a week with these humans, she was beginning to believe that just about anything was possible. Liberty sighed and looked at J.D. The young human was looking out into the darkness, infrared goggles covering his brown eyes. “I wouldn’t worry about Dirk,” J.D. said suddenly without looking back at Liberty. “Eventually he’ll come around. You know, maybe.” “Why doesn’t he trust me?” Liberty asked. J.D. shrugged. “Not really sure. Kid basically grew up on the streets. Ditched school a lot, stuff like that. The way he tells it, he can sniff out a troublemaker a mile away since he grew up around them.” He smiled and glanced over at her. “I used to believe him too, but he still thinks John is harmless.” Liberty laughed and leaned back against a rock. “So you knew Dirk from before all this?” J.D. nodded, still peering around for anything suspicious. “Yeah. Grew up in the same town. Central City, Oregon. Middle-of-nowhere, USA. It was kind of tucked into a valley west of the Cascades. One lousy mall, which meant that was where all the kids hung out. The pride of the town was the high school football team: Central City Rockets. It won state three years running. We had this stadium there that just put the other schools’ fields to shame. Just about the whole school would show up. It was basically a huge party every Friday night.” J.D. paused. “The basketball team pretty much sucked though. Had to be if I was all of fourteen and still the best player.” Liberty smiled. “Yeah,” J.D. said again, his voice growing more distant. “God, that place was boring. What I wouldn’t give be back there again. To have everything back to normal.” Liberty’s smile dropped off of her shell’s face. She listened to J.D. breathing, water vapor condensing in the cold air around him. He was only a shadow against the darker background of the quarry behind him, but she could see his sadness in how his shoulder’s dropped slightly around him. She could hear it in the way his boot scuffed against the rocky ground. Guilt threatened to drop around her like a fog. She knew that the Autobots were to blame for J.D. not sitting in the stands enjoying a football game right now. It was the Autobots’ fault that he would not be walking around the lousy mall with his friends. Liberty lowered her head and frowned. ‘It’s not for the Autobots to be concerned with the lives of these creatures,’ she berated herself. ‘It’s for us to expand, to spread throughout the galaxy.’ She raised her head and watched J.D.’s shadow again. ‘Isn’t it?’ “Why did you leave?” she asked suddenly. For a minute or two, J.D. did not answer. He simply continued looking around the quarry, remaining vigilant in his duties as a sentry. Liberty, too, turned and glanced around. Her vision, even within the shell, had a greater range and scope than the eyes of a human. She could see a few birds or bats flying around through the quarry, trying to find an easy meal. She could see the trees all around them swaying serenely in the night breeze. She looked up and saw only the clouds that obscured the stars and moon above them. They also, she knew, obscured something else. They obscured a night sky devoid of aircraft the humans once flew. They obscured the satellites that once drifted in orbit around the planet. They obscured so much. “Because,” J.D. answered suddenly, his voice soft, barely above a whisper, “it’s not there anymore. The Autobots arrived one day and erased it from the map.” He cleared his throat and continued, his voice stronger. “I guess me, Dirk, and Shawn were the lucky ones. We lived. We took off after it was obvious there was nothing left to save.” He shifted uncomfortable. “The town is gone. Everybody I loved there is dead. Guess you know a little something about that though.” “Yeah,” Liberty hushed, knowing it was a lie. J.D. took a deep breath in and reached his arms into the air. “But, as Dirk likes to grimly say when I get melancholy like this, at least the school is gone too.” Liberty said nothing, unsure what could possibly be appropriate given the information she had just heard. “On to less depressing subjects before it gets worse. Ravage give you a bit of a shock this morning?” Liberty looked up sharply at J.D. “How is the sight of that robot less depressing?” “Because he’s on our side,” the blonde human simply said. Liberty huffed in disbelief, trying to play her part. J.D. looked at her with a smile. “Hey, you saw the way the whole camp perked up after he came and checked on us. You can ask everybody here, everybody, and they will give their brutally honest opinion on just what they think of the Decepticons. But everybody is also grateful that they are there, that we’re not completely alone. Man, even Lincoln seemed less surly than usual and the only time I’ve seen him walk around without a dark cloud over his head is when, well, you’re around.” Liberty looked up sharply. “What?” J.D.’s smile grew. “Well, you may not have noticed it, but Lincoln is usually so crabby he could use a shot of penicillin or two. Except when you’re around. The way me and John got it figured, he’s got the hots for you.” Liberty blinked, thanking Iacon’s spires again that she talked Prowl into the extra research into human behavior and phraseology. “There’s no way!” she exclaimed with honest disbelief. ‘How could he?’ she added to herself. ‘I’m trying to kill them all.’ J.D. smiled. “Whoa, there tiger,” he said teasingly. “It’s just a theory of ours. Dirk figures we’ve seen a bit too much ‘Days of Our Lives’ when it was still on the air.” He paused. “He might be on to something. Still, playing ‘Who’s hooked up with who’ passes the time on sentry duty.” “You mean there really are relationships like that here?” Liberty asked, again finding herself fascinated with human behavior. “Well, there’s Cory and his parents. But that’s a bit obvious. There are a few that are fun to watch. They think they’re being covert about it. But then it’s a little hard to hide anything from a group of like forty people. We all kind of get to know each other in a hurry.” “Maybe Konnie’s hiding something on you?” Liberty asked with a smile. J.D. chuckled. “Right. Konnie’s not subtle. If you’re female, Konnie digs you.” “What about you? You and Brea seem close.” This time, J.D. paused. “Me and Brea are close because we have similar circumstances. Hers is named Colin. Mine’s Sara.” Liberty tilted her head in interest; there was no Sara with this group. J.D. smiled off into the distance, obviously seeing a memory instead of the sky that was only just beginning to show the first hint of dawn. “God. Sara’s the best thing that ever happened to me. The way that she could just look at me and know exactly what I was thinking, it was uncanny. When I held her hand, it was almost electric. It sounds so damn corny, but everything that I am, it’s because of her. “You know what it’s like when you haven’t seen someone in a while and you sort of start to forget what they looked like? Like they are there in front of you and you know who they are, but a veil’s dropped between you and them? It’s like that with my friends, my family. But not with Sara. It’s weird. I can close my eyes and still see every fleck of gold in her eyes. I can still see the way her ponytail would bounce when she would run at a track meet. I can see those hands in mine. Oh… God, I love her.” “Where is she?” Liberty asked. “Home.” Liberty frowned. “Home? But I thought you said your home was destroyed. That everyone was dead.” J.D. turned and looked at Liberty. She could not see his eyes through the infrared goggles, but she knew she didn’t have to. His entire being seemed to have been swallowed whole by sadness and love. “It was,” he answered. “And they are. But Sara’s alive where it counts. With me.” Liberty opened her mouth to say something and realized that there was nothing she could possibly say. She simply sat there, her optics unfocused on the human in front of her as he again peered around quarry. She felt… she did not know what she felt. Never before, in the millions of years that she had been in existence, had anyone opened up to her like that. She had never before seen a soul in such a raw form, heard thoughts that are always kept within, hidden from the world. Before she could help herself, she found herself wondering if this fact was a product of her race or it was a product of the society that it had built. Liberty started as J.D. rose to his feet. He reached up and pulled the goggles off; dawn had only just come and gone. Liberty turned to see what he was looking at. “No one said there was going to be a party here,” Brea said, fighting back a yawn as she walked down the rocky path. “Naw,” J.D. said, “just us guards and insomniacs. What brings you out and about so early?” “Nightmare,” Brea said simply. “Trying to walk it off.” J.D. nodded. “I’m here if you need to talk.” “I know. We’ll see how that walk goes first.” Brea sat down beside Liberty. “Trouble sleeping, Lib?” she asked, placing an arm across one of the Autobot’s shoulders and laying her head on the other. Before Liberty could answer, the door to the cave they were sitting in front split open and Dirk and Konnie, both covered in dust, walked out. Konnie beamed. “That was,” he paused suddenly, seeing Brea sitting on the rock beside Liberty. “Awesome?” he finished doubtfully. Brea smiled sleepily, her head till on Liberty’s shoulder. “Yep, I think it’s officially a party.” She lifted her head. “What’s awesome?” “It’s, uh, top secret,” Dirk offered doubtfully. Brea laughed. “Can’t be too top secret if you goofballs are traipsing around in there. Come on, tell me.” Dirk and Konnie shrugged and J.D. looked as though he suddenly found his fingernails oddly interesting. “Boys.” Brea turned and looked at Liberty. “Do you know what it is?” “Vaguely,” Liberty said truthfully. “I was sort of waiting to hear from Dirk and John after they got back from checking it out. They were going to tell me and J.D. what they saw.” Brea smiled wickedly. “Oh, Dirk won’t tell us anything. It’s Konnie that will spill his guts to any pretty face.” J.D. smirked. “I’m not exactly sure how to take that information.” Konnie shrugged and winked at Brea and Liberty. “Can’t argue with the truth. I’ll tell you what’s in there. Proof that we might make be able to beat these asshole Autobots after all.”
“Domo arigota, Mr. Roboto!” Konnie shouted. After a second, J.D. and Brea dropped their practice rifles and doubled over laughing. Dirk turned and smirked at Konnie, leaning on his rifle and shaking his head. Several other humans in the practice squad were laughing as well. “What,” Lincoln shouted, stalking over to the group, “the hell was that?” Konnie beamed. “That was my battle cry.” “Battle cry,” Lincoln said over another burst of laughter. “Do you guys think this a joke?” The laughter around him suddenly ceased and Dirk’s smile shifted quickly to a scowl. “This is real. This isn’t a game. They aren’t going to join in the merriment at cracking little jokes. Jesus, I’m starting to wonder if you people really know what we’re up against.” “We’re not idiots, Lincoln,” Dirk shouted back. “We’ve been fighting this fight for as long as you have. We’ve seen the same crap as you have. We’ve been doing this all morning. It’s called letting of steam. So maybe you should just lay the hell off!” Lincoln turned and glared at Dirk. Shawn stepped quickly between them. Lincoln looked at Shawn for a second, then turned and stalked back to the line of young people. “Once more, then we disperse,” Lincoln said sternly as he walked down the line, watching them hoist their practice rifles and face the spot where the targets would spring from again. “And concentrate. Make this count. Maybe without the battle cry this time.” Konnie nodded, but said nothing. Lincoln crossed to the end of the line and depressed a switch in his hand. The targets shot quickly into the air. All ten people raised their rifles and fired. Lincoln nodded. ‘They’re getting good, I have to admit,’ he thought. “All right. Go get some food.” The group quickly dispersed. Lincoln walked over to the discarded rifles and became loading them onto a cart. He glanced back at Shawn, who had pulled Dirk aside. The kid had his uses, but Lincoln simply did not like his attitude. He was lax, disobedient, and disruptive. But, Lincoln always found himself forced to admit, he had a knack for finding the weakness in every simulation they had run to date and he was easily the best shooter of the entire group, Lincoln and Shawn included. But his attitude always seemed to hold him back. Any authority figure, with the exception of Shawn, was often times ignored at the very best. Too often, outbursts like the one that had just happened were the result. Shawn walked over to Lincoln. “They’re kids. It’s no excuse, I know, but driving them too hard will more likely lead to them blowing you off rather than listening to you.” “Yeah, I know,” Lincoln admitted. “They shouldn’t even have to do this.” “But they do,” Shawn finished. “I know.” Lincoln stood up and started pushing the cart towards the storage tent. “We really should think about getting the younger kids at least accustomed to handling these weapons. God forbid, but if they get caught somewhere without one of us nearby, they need to be able to at least try to hold an attacker off and make an escape.” Shawn nodded grimly. “You’re right, of course. I just don’t even like to think that it would came to that.” He looked up at the changing leaves above them. “Cory and Bridgett are certainly old enough. Cory’s parents have actually asked me about it.” “And Liberty?” Shawn did not say anything for a moment. “Oh come on, Shawn!” Lincoln exclaimed. “What is it about her? The way you and Dirk act around her, you’d think she was the enemy. She’s just another kid who lost everything.” Shawn stopped and looked at Lincoln. “The reason I hesitate is because I just don’t know if she is capable of handling it. Yet. You saw her reaction to Ravage.” “That was almost a week ago,” Lincoln said. “Doc has talked to her about our situation with the Decepticons and their relationship with the Autobots. She’s in the same boat as Cory and Bridgett. She should be given the right to protect herself.” “It’s not just reaction to Ravage though. It’s her entire psychological makeup. I just don’t know that what’s happened to her hasn’t left her a bit worse for wears up here.” Shawn tapped his forehead. “She has been adjusting nicely. She seems to becoming friends with the Johns and Brea. Let’s give it a little more time and make sure before we start handing over live firearms to her. All right?” Lincoln nodded. He would have argued further, but Shawn’s tone made it perfectly clear that the conversation was over. Lincoln knew it was more than simply his supposition that Liberty seemed a little crazy. There was something else that Shawn saw that made him hesitate, something that he had not shared with Lincoln yet. Maybe Cassie or Doc had some idea, but Lincoln could not see it. She seemed confused, lost, but no more so than any of the others in the weeks after they had first arrived. ‘Frankly,’ Lincoln thought glumly, ‘sometimes I think it would be safer if she was armed rather than Dirk.’
After checking on the position of her shell, Liberty pulled her pistol from subspace and trudged deeper into the woods. Using her stealth capabilities, the same ones that let Ravage into the camp through the barrier, she stepped past the nearly invisible security device. It had been almost two weeks since she had last checked in with Prowl, something she knew has going to elicit a severe punishment when she returned from her mission. ‘If, that is, I didn’t have a couple of nice morsels of information,’ she thought happily. In the week or so since Ravage showed up, she found out that he was a fairly common guest with many human resistance groups. He did not seem to have a set schedule, which was unfortunate, but if Liberty reminded Prowl how clever he is, perhaps that would massage his ego enough to belay any punishment. Then there was the arsenal. She had still yet to see it for herself, but from what she gathered from Konnie’s account of it, it was more than a little impressive, at least in shear numbers. Still, the information did little good to the Autobots without knowing more about what sort artillery lay within the cave. When Konnie spilled what he had seen, he used incredibly generic terms like “missile” and “some kind of weird rifle,” which was no good to Liberty. It could be ballistic in nature or could be something else completely. Her curiosity over the matter was so great that more than once she caught herself walking down the path into the quarry to check it out. Luckily, she always pulled up well before she could arouse any suspicions. Liberty ducked behind a tree and opened a channel to the Autobot base, setting a silent timer to shift the frequency when the EM sweeper passed in her direction. “Oh,” Prowl said sarcastically when he answered the signal, “and here I was starting to think that you had forgotten all about us.” “I’m sorry, Prowl,” Liberty said. “It’s proved a bit more difficult than I had anticipated to get out away from the camp undetected.” This, of course, was not entirely true. It was true that it had become increasingly rare that her sojourns into the forest were unaccompanied. She often found herself with Brea as company in the last week since Ravage had visited the camp. Sometimes they would walk in silence, other times they would talk about the most inane things. This ability to talk without saying anything of consequence thoroughly fascinated Liberty. There were more than a few Autobots with the same trait. Even more, she found that the more time she spent among the humans, the more she was finding that she was enjoying herself. Not just the simple fact that it was quiet and peaceful, but it was becoming impossible to ignore the fact that she enjoyed their company. Where she once sat apart from the others and listened, now she was finding herself among them and sharing in their conversations. But still, other times she would find herself walking among the trees alone. She would be walking towards a quiet location to contact Prowl and she would stop, trekking in a different area instead. Instead of checking in with her commanding officer, she would listen to the winds gliding gently through the trees. She would stare at the leaves that had changed from green to red and yellow. She would watch the animals that roamed timidly through trees, hiding from hunters both human and otherwise. ‘Are you hiding from something, Lib?’ she sometimes asked herself on this walks, but never able to answer the question. “Perhaps you simply aren’t using your skills to their fullest potential,” Prowl stated with a menacing undercurrent. “Perhaps you had better work on that.” His meaning was perfectly clear. “I will. I do some information for you, though the human that has visited the Decepticon base has not been disclosed to me.” “If you are waiting for disclosure--.” “Prowl,” Liberty interrupted, again fearing a vicious response when the mission was over, but knowing full well she would not be able to talk with her commander long, “I can’t simply walk up to them and say, ‘So, been the Decepticon base lately?’ They need to think that they can trust me. I can’t just happily talk about the Decepticons. Part of my cover forces me to be deathly afraid of giant robots. Would you have me disregard this and put the mission in jeopardy?” “Watch your attitude,” Prowl stated in a slow, warning tone breaking over the communicator. “Besides, one of them was here five days ago.” “Ravage,” Prowl simply said. “Yes,” Liberty confirmed, relieved that Prowl did not bring up the lack of contact. “He was here for about five hours all told. He spent some time with the leaders here, but mainly he just walked around camp. The Pretender shell seems to be working perfectly; he did not react in a manner that would suggest that he recognized me.” Prowl said nothing. “He seems to be a regular visitor, judging by some of the conversations that I heard. And, from what I’ve gathered, I believe his last previous visit with them was twenty-three days ago several dozen megamiles south of where they picked me up. I can beam you coordinates of the possible location.” “Do that. Anything else?” “A head count. There are thirty-seven of them here with varying ages. There are four of them that are so new they cannot even talk. One is quite old. The rest are of an age that the humans seem to find useful in some manner. The leader is a Dr. Archeville, as you likely know. I’ll send you the names of the rest of them now. I’d estimate that twenty-four of them would find their way to the battle field.” “Are they expecting us to attack?” Prowl asked with honest curiosity. “Well, yes. They seem to think that it’s inevitable. I haven’t seen anything to tell me that they could amount a viable counterstrike, but there is the Decepticons to worry about. Obviously, they would be contacted in the event of an attack.” Liberty was suddenly glad that Prowl could not see her. She knew fully well that the humans had some sort of weaponry and that at least some members of the group thought that it gave them a fighting chance. ‘Still,’ she reasoned, ‘there is no reason to spread possible erroneous information to the other Autobots at this time. The weaponry could very well be nothing.’ “Yes,” Prowl said thoughtfully. “There also seemed to be some sort of split amongst the members of the group some time ago. Maybe something that I can exploit before I bail out,” Liberty added doubtfully. ‘Mainly out of guilt, Lib,’ she thought sullenly. “What do you mean?” “I’m not exactly sure. I’ve tried to get some of them to talk about it, but most of them a pretty tightlipped about it. From what I’ve gathered it has something to do with Dr. Archeville’s business or research partner, Dr. Whitney Golden. It’s likely nothing but I can try to find out more.” “Not at the expense of the greater mission,” Prowl stated neutrally. “Keep your mind on the task at hand, finding the Decepticon base. And do it quickly. Autobot command has only so much patience for these games.” “As you command.” With that, Prowl terminated the communication and Liberty leaned her head back against the tree behind her. She studied at the red and orange tree leaves, watching a couple of them fall to the ground in the late afternoon wind. She tried to clear her mind, but questions kept swirling around, just like the leaves. Why had she not told Prowl about the weapon cache the humans were camped near? Even the most useless of weapons could have some effect on the Autobots’ plans and, in all likelihood, the weapons were not useless. With the Decepticons keeping a presence with the group, it would be naïve to think that they would leave the humans with little to work with should they come under attack. The resistance cell was situated in the middle of the continent and likely far away from the main Decepticon base of operations. What if the Autobots attacked tomorrow? What would they face? Liberty ran her hands over her face and sighed. “You need to get into that storage area, Lib,” she whispered to herself. “You need to find out just what is in there.” She sighed and began to stand. She stopped and stared at the display coming from the optics of her Pretender shell. The shell was watching two humans she had never seen before walking stealthily towards the resistance cell’s camp. She frowned. “Now what are they up to?” she whispered as she stood. She started walking towards her shell and commanded the shell to stay near the strange humans. Through the shells audio sensors, she heard one of them say: “See, what’d I tell you? These’re those people I was telling you about. Big guns, tents, food.” “Yeah, big guns,” his partner replied. “So how exactly are we supposed to get in there without getting our heads blown off?” “Easy as sin,” the first human chuckled. “Just nab one of those little kiddies that are playing over the hill up there and *make* them give us their stuff.” Liberty had seen enough. She would not allow these humans to hurt anyone in the cell or endanger her mission. She stopped herself short from wondering why she put the priorities in that particular order. She issued a series of commands to her shell and moved swiftly through the trees towards them. “Good plan,” the shell said, stepping out from behind the tree, giving Liberty her first good look at the humans. They were both young, no older than Dirk. Their faces were covered with dirt, likely applied to act as a sort of camouflage from the looks of it. One of them was carrying a gun. Risking a quick scan, she discovered that the gun was not armed. They both turned in her direction, ridiculously shocked looks on their faces. “But you forgot to take me into account.” “Oh yeah,” the leader human said raising the empty pistol, “well, don’t move, little lady. I’d hate to shoot a pretty thing like you. At least before we put you to use.” The shell smiled, oblivious of the threat. “That isn’t loaded,” it said in a sweet, fearless voice. The human frowned and lunged for her. The shell deftly stepped aside and pushed the human as he passed it, letting his momentum carry him into the tree beside her. She turned towards the other human. Where the first human looked angry, this one seemed nothing short of terrified. Liberty almost pitied him. Before she could move towards the second human, the other one jumped her from behind, intent are incapacitating her. The shell grabbed one of the arms that was roughly wrapped around her waist and pulled it, hearing the sickening crack of breaking bones. The human cried out. “Shh,” the shell intoned, “you’ll disturb the neighbors.” It draped its arm around his neck and slammed him back against the large oak behind them. It then flexed its arm and snapped the human’s neck. As he fell limp, the shell dropped him unceremoniously to the ground and turned towards the other man. But he had already started to flee deeper into the woods. Liberty changed directions to intercept the human and ordered the shell to give chase as well. She watched as the human turned and looked back at the shell, chasing after him with a speed no human could match. With his attention elsewhere, the human did not see the tree branch directly in front of him. As he turned his head forward again, the limb slammed into his forehead, knocking him off his feet. He landed roughly on his back, dazed. The shell slowed to a stop and looked down at him. As it moved into his field of vision, Liberty watched his eyes grow in terror. His mouth was moving soundlessly, as if the branch had knocked out his power of speech. A small trickle of blood ran down the side of his head from where the tree limb had struck him. As Liberty reached the scene, she looked at it in wonder. Any native of the world would find the scene odd, a young man staring up in obvious fright at a young woman significantly smaller than he was, but they would never suspect that the human was actually staring up at an alien. The shell looked so real, so… human. The male human let out a pathetic sob, breaking Liberty’s reverie. He blinked and tears flowed from his eyes, streaking the dirt on his face. “What are you?” he asked in a broken voice. “I’m human,” the shell, through Liberty, responded automatically, “just like you.” Liberty blinked in surprise at the answer. So did the shell. They both shook the thoughts from their heads. Liberty then ordered the shell to turn and retreat as she made her way over to the prone human lying in a bed of dead leaves. “But she isn’t,” the shell added with a dismissive wave of the hand. The human sat up and watched Liberty’s red and purple form step next to him, but his scream was cut off by laser fire vaporizing him where he lay. The shell stopped and turned as Liberty walked up to it. Like she had so many times before, she simply stared at it, awed by its appearance. She ran her metal fingers through the shell’s soft brown hair. It did look so real. “But you’re not human,” she added aloud.
Forward to Part 2
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