[Author's note: For those of you who might not know, Nightracer was
the 1995 BotCon exclusive figure, designed and written by Raksha.  The
toy is a Gen2-Bumblebee (sports car version) recolor--black auto body,
silver engine & windows, yellow (though it was _supposed_ to be blue)
gun and underbelly.]


                      TRANSFORMERS GENERATION 2

                               STRANDED

              Part One: Confrontation at the Spacebridge

                      By Christopher E. Meadows

     [Dedicated to Raksha, for her long and ceaseless devotion to
furthering the Transformers fandom cause, and for coming up with such
    a nifty female Decepticon character.  Keep up the good work!]


    The small, black and silver sportscar sat quietly on a cliff,
overlooking a wide Arizona plain, waiting patiently for signs of
movement.  It--or, rather, _she_--had spent many, many days tracking
down this location, and the last two days waiting here, unmoving.  It
was boring...but it was her job, and that was enough.
    For the 3,432nd time, Nightracer's sensors panned across the
plain, pausing briefly at the small silver ring halfway to the far
horizon.  For the last two days, there had been no sign of Autobot
activity--not so much as a jackrabbit.  It made sense...the best way
to keep a secret Autobot spacebridge a secret was not to use it.  As
far as Laserbeak knew, it had only been used three times in the last
four months.  And that was what had told Nightracer to look. 
    As a human novel put it (Nightracer had never read any human
novels, but she had talked to Decepticons who had), "Once is
happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action."
Three times, hyperspatial spacebridge emanations had originated from
this sector.  Laserbeak had given her that information.  It had only
been a matter of time before Nightracer found it. 
    The war was going fairly well for the Decepticons; their current
strategy of guerilla warfare, lightning-fast strikes on tactical
objectives, was beginning to show results.  The Autobots would never
admit it, but they were starting to run scared, calling in backup
forces from the Cybertronian underground.  That was what this
spacebridge had to be used for--covert shipments of supplies and
forces in and out. 
    It had taken some time, and the rough desert terrain had caused a
good deal of wear on her suspension, but it had been worth it.
Megatron had personally congratulated her on her diligence, and
assigned her the honor of putting the covert bridge out of commission.
One more blow for Decepticon supremacy in the galaxy. 
    But the destruction of the spacebridge was only a secondary
objective.  Megatron knew that sooner or later, Autobots would have to
show up, coming or going.  As she was among the Decepticons' best
snipers, she would be able to strike from concealment and cut them
down before they even knew what hit them, further reducing their
numbers on this planet and making its conquest that much easier.  And
so she waited patiently, just outside the spacebridge's sensor
perimeter.  The results of the wait would more than make up for the
boredom it had caused. 
    As Nightracer's sensors tracked back to begin another sweep, they
paused.  There was something on the horizon...a dust cloud!
Nightracer's computer-guided visual tracking scanner zoomed in.
x2...x4...x16...x32...x64.  Four Earth-styled vehicles: two red and
blue Corvettes of different styles, a green pickup, and an orange and
blue Camero.  They wore the new-style Autobot insignia, used to
identify the Cybertronian reinforcements. 
    It took but a moment for her image-recognition files to return
their identities.  They scrolled across her field of view before being
relegated to an inset box in the corner. 

AUTOBOT: Rapido         FUNCTION: Platoon Commander
AUTOBOT: Skram          FUNCTION: Crack Patrol
AUTOBOT: Windbreaker    FUNCTION: Advance Intelligence Scout
AUTOBOT: Turbofire      FUNCTION: Supplies and Support

    A sports car cannot smile, but the sentiment was there.  Rapido's
four-bot special forces unit had been a thorn in the Decepticons' side
ever since they'd arrived from Cybertron three months before.
Nightracer herself had never crossed laser beams with them, but she'd
scanned their dossiers.  They were good, very good.  Though she could
usually hold her own against several Autobots with ease, Nightracer
had the feeling that this team might give her a run for her money. 
    Good thing it would not be a straight fight...

    "Man, I can't _wait_ to get back to Cybertron and get a complete
lube job!" Skram, the blue Corvette coupé, said cheerfully.  "All
this Earther road grit really gets into your joints, and there's only
so much I can do with a portable oil bath."
    "Yeah, I know what you mean," Windbreaker, the orange and blue
Camero with the unfortunate name, agreed.  "And all the Decepticon
activity...wow!  It seems like I've been running from one end of North
America to the other tracking it down.  I am _exhausted_!"
    "Be on your guard, everyone," Rapido, the red Corvette, advised
the others.  "There's been some Decept activity reported in the area.
Could just be a routine patrol, but you never know..."
    Turbofire, the green pickup, put in his assent.  "Agreed.
Caution is _always_ warranted where Decepticons are concerned."
    "Hey, loosen up, guys!" Skram complained.  "Saving the universe
can't be _that_ big of a deal!"
    Turbofire snorted.  "Yeah, right.  As many times as we've had to
pull _your_ skidplate out of the fire..."
    "Guys, guys!" Windbreaker interrupted.  "We've been under a lot of
stress lately, and we're all firing on a few less cylinders than we
ought to be.  Let's all just try to relax for a change, eh?  I think
we've earned it."
    "I'll relax when we're safely back on Cybertron," Rapido said
pensively.  "Until then, we've got to stay sharp.  After all..."
    "Yes, we know, we know," Scram said, parroting, "'The deadliest
weapon you can have is a sharp mind!'  Sheez, get _real_ already..."
    "You know, Skram, your tone borders on insubordination," Rapido
observed.
    Turbofire snorted.  "Like that's ever bothered you before..."
    "Hey, look, there's the spacebridge!" Windbreaker interrupted.
"Skram, you're the one with the access code, right?"
    Skram nodded.  "Right!  You guys get in, I'll punch the time-delay
and join you.  How long you want me to set it for?"
    "Better make it five minutes," Rapido said.  "We need to run our
last-minute system checks before transit."
    "Right, right, Primus forbid we should ever forget the
_checklists_," Skram muttered under his breath. 
    "What was that, Skram?"
    "Nothing, Rapido, nothing at all!"

    Nightracer, now in her humanoid robot mode, watched from behind a
pile of boulders as the four Autobots transformed.  Three stepped into
the spacebridge; the fourth lingered at the control console for a
moment before following.  She smiled beneath her metal faceplate, and
devoted a moment to arming herself. 
    Nightracer selected a weapon from her subspace armory, with every
bit as much care as an expert Earther golfer might lavish on deciding
whether to use the eight or the nine-iron for a tricky shot.  The
laser sniper rifle would be the best choice for this particular shot,
she decided.  The spacebridge was well within its ten-mile range, and
she would not need to worry about correcting for shell drop or
windage.  Not that such _was_ a worry, when necessary.... 
    The gun's targeting display overlaid itself on her own field of
vision, and zoomed in with almost dizzying speed on the spacebridge.
As the heads of Rapido's squad appeared within the crosshairs,
Nightracer allowed herself a momentary smirk.  Targetmasters were for
those poor unfortunates who _needed_ them.
    Smirk completed, Nightracer considered her options.  She could,
she knew, eliminate any one of the Autobots with dead certainty.
However, the other three would seek cover, and likely also signal for
help.  That would be...regrettable.  She _wanted_ to eliminate all
four, plus the spacebridge, and get away clean; that was the mission
she was tasked with.  Anything less would be unacceptible. 
    Nightracer's crosshairs drifted down and to the right, centering
on the bridge's primary Energon distribution coupler.  According to
what she knew of spacebridge design, a shot to just the right
two-inch-diameter area would cause a power surge, which in turn would
cause electromagnetic feedback and a resonance buildup, which would
make the whole thing explode.  In truth, Nightracer did not pretend to
understand the technobabble behind Shockwave's explanation.  What she
knew for certain was that if she shot a certain point, it would blow
up.  This was what she wanted. 
    Nightracer lined up the shot and fired once.

    Turbofire was running through his supply inventory files when it
happened.  There was _so much_ that an Autobot quartermaster had to
keep track of.  _All_ Energon presence and expenditure, from the
megajoule supplies necessary to power Autobot City's emergency defence
systems, down to the smallest Energon snack issued in Autobot ration
packs, had to be accounted for.  In triplicate.  Repair parts, hand
weapons, training manuals, lubricants, spare tires, _everything_ had
to be kept track of in a wartime situation.  And Primus help he who
lost track of even the smallest hex nut, if Wheeljack found out about
it. 
    Just as Turbofire closed the display window for the list of
left-handed reverse-thread hydrospanners supplied to Autobot City in
the last six months, a distant glint caught his optical receptor.
"Hey, what's tha--?"
    And then, the explosions.

    Nightracer's sensors displayed the whole thing for her, in full
high-definition resolution and Dolby digital stereo surround.  A chain
of explosions rocked the silver spacebridge ring, throwing the
Autobots to the ground.  Excellent.  Except...the explosions had not
been even _half_ as powerful as Shockwave had described.  The
detonation should have been a huge pulse of white-hot intensity as all
the stored-up Energon in the bridge's powerplant detonated, not a much
smaller chain-reaction.  Furthermore, tthe explosion kicked up a huge
cloud of dust, which, combined with the electromagnetic pulse from the
explosion, meant that her sensors couldn't pick up anything through
it, and it was a large enough cloud that it would probably take quite
some time to settle. 
    There was no way of knowing if the Autobots were truly
obsolescent...and by the time she could make certain, they could have
revived and be ready for her if the blast had only scrambled them
temporarily.  Perhaps it would be best to check her kill.  Her mind
made up, Nightracer stowed the gun and transformed back to her
automotive form.  A few moments later, she raced across the desert,
accompanied by a dust cloud of her own. 
    It only took a minute to make it across the desert to the bridge
(though she could tell her suspension would be aching for hours).
None of the Autobots had moved.  The silver circle of the spacebridge
was tarnished now, blackened in places and with thick black smoke
rising off of it.  The control console still seemed to be functional;
there were a number of flashing lights on it.  Well, she would see to
_that_ after making certain that all the Autobots were really dead. 
    Nightracer drew a drum-fed assault rifle out of subspace and
stepped cautiously into the spacebridge circle.  The Autobots lay in
little crumpled heaps around the perimeter.  One of them--Rapido--was
groaning slightly, and slowly reaching for the big double-barrelled
assault cannon scant feet from his hand.  So, they were not obsolete
after all, hmm?  Well, they soon would be. 
    Nightracer kicked the gun away from Rapido's hand and stepped in
front of him.  Rapido looked up--right into the barrel of her gun.
Nightracer did not say a word; she simply started to pull the
trigger--
    --then the five minute timer on the spacebridge activation switch
expired.  The spacebridge gate slid shut, and lights--the remaining
few that had not exploded--started cycling around the rim.  Nightracer
was distracted for a moment, and it was all Rapido needed to lunge at
her and knock the gun out of her hand.  Nightracer fell back, adopting
a defensive mechajitsu stance automatically. 
    Then all Unicron broke loose.


                           TO BE CONTINUED


Author's Notes: 

Why did I write this?  Well, I felt those poor original Gen2
Transformers kinda got shafted.  They should have had a cartoon based
on them, or at least appeared more prominently in the comic books.
Besides, Nightracer is a _neat_ character, and her background makes
her fun to write.

Also, this was a chance to play with the Transformer concept, but with
characters who didn't have any background other than what was on their
file cards.  In other words, clean slates, nothing on which anyone can
say, "Hey, you're not portraying them right!" because they haven't
ever _been_ portrayed before. :)

As to the background against which this is set...well, I tried to
write the story so that would be largely unimportant.  After all, if
I had to spend most of the story detailing the background, what room
for plot or character development would there be?  (It also means I
don't have to worry too terribly much about just where in which
continuity the Gen2 figures are supposed to fit. :)

In my mind, if there _was_ a genuine Gen2 cartoon, Rapido would be
voiced by Charlie Sheen, or perhaps Emilio Estivez.  Skram would be
voiced by Matt Frewer...I knew _this_ just as soon as I read his quote
on the back of the package. :)

Any comments on this story?  Particularly on my portrayals of the
characters?  Let me know.

(And just _wait_ 'til you see what happens next. :)

                    --R_M


"Stranded" is copyright 1997 by Christopher E. Meadows.  Permission
granted for free electronic distribution via Usenet and associated
archival, as long as no fee is charged and this notice remains intact.
For further permissions, such as inclusion in "Con-Quest" or on an
archival webpage, please contact the author, he would likely be more
than happy to oblige. :)

The Transformers are registered trademarks of Hasbro and Takara, and
Nightracer is a trademark of Raksha and Plumed Serpent Productions.
Their unauthorized use here is not for profit, and not meant to
infringe upon those trademarks.  This is _not_ an official
Hasbro-endorsed story, please don't think I'm trying to pass it off as
one.  (There, that should make the Hasbro lawyers happy. :)