TRANSFORMERS GENERATION 2
                                 and
                     ROBOTECH: THE NEW GENERATION

                               STRANDED

                    Part Seven: The Attack Begins

                      By Christopher E. Meadows

    The combined human and Cybertronian forces raced across and over
the desert toward the Invid Hive, all going over the plan in their
minds just one more time to make sure nothing could be forgotten.
Nightracer, most of all; hers was one of the most important parts.
Ironic that the Autobots _had_ to trust her, if the attack itself was
going to work. 
    The plan did seem to be foolproof, though Nightracer knew from
long experience that no plan could ever be completely fail-safe.  It
was the function of the planner to try to cover as many contingencies
as possible, to make certain that as little was left to random chance
as possible.  And there were few chance elements in Nightracer's part
of the plan, at least.  Except...
    "Turbofire," Nightracer sent.  "You said there was a wrecked
transport shuttle, to the south of our camp."
    "That's right.  Why?" Turbofire asked suspiciously.
    "I need to go there.  Now.  Show me where it is."
    Had he a head at the moment, Turbofire would have turned it in
surprise.  "Say what?!  _Now?!_"
    "Yes, now, Autobot.  The success of this plan could hinge on it,"
Nightracer said coolly, thinking how nice it would be if she could put
a sizeable hole through his incredibly ugly green hood. 
    "You've got to be out of your--" Turbofire began.
    "Do it, Turbofire," Rapido said, pulling up beside them.  "I think
I may know what she has in mind.  But keep your comlink open, and meet
us at the rendezvous point soonest."  "And keep an eye on her at all
times" was left unsaid, but they all had no trouble hearing it anyway. 
    "Hey, wait, do I get a say in this?" Lunk asked from the cab.
    "Looks like you don't," Turbofire said resignedly.  "All right,
Decepticon.  Follow me."

    As the car and truck swerved off and headed back the way they had
come, Skram pulled alongside Rapido and opened a private commline
between them.  "Are you sure about that?  I wouldn't trust her as far
as I could throw Metroplex."
    "I wouldn't trust her as far as I could shot-put Unicron, Skram,"
Rapido said over the same channel.  "Except in certain situations.
Without Turbofire, the whole plan collapses, and she doesn't get
home."
    "Are you sure she _wants_ to get home?" Skram shot back.  "She
could set herself up pretty nicely with those Invid just by turning us
all over to them."
    "No, Skram...I know her kind," Rapido said.  "She's completely
devoted to the Decepticon cause, more's the pity.  And she knows she
could do far more good for them by returning home than by stranding
herself and us in this world."
    "You think so?" Skram said.
    "I know _she_ thinks so, which is more important," Rapido replied.
"And furthermore, I can tell you that she isn't even counting the
humans in the equation.  Few Decepticons would."
    "I guess you're right," Skram said.  "But still..."
    "I saw the way you looked at her when you came driving up," Rapido
said.  "Something must have happened.  Tell me."
    "Well...not long after we reached the area, we got...um,
separated."  Translation, she gave you the slip, Rapido thought
wryly.  "So I kinda cruised around looking for her, then I heard
gunfire and general metal mayhem.  I found a good spot..."
    "And you saw the camp."  It was not a question, but a statement. 
    "Yeah."  Skram was silent for a moment.  "I mean...it's not like I
haven't seen _pictures_.  In Jazz's Earth Culture and History class,
the World War II segment...'Night in Fog' and all that.  But this..."
    "...was real, yes," Rapido agreed.  "I've seen similar things in
my time."
    "But, I mean...she was just _standing_ there.  Talking to the guy
who was running it all," Skram said.  "It was like she didn't even
_see_ those people.  I don't even know what they were talking _about_,
but they seemed friendly.  Or at least not hostile--and this was after
she blew up about a dozen of those Scouts and Troopers...."
    "Mm-hmm."  It did indeed fit his hypothesis of why she needed to
check the shuttle now.  Easier to bargain for power cells than take
them by force...and what might the Invid possibly have wanted from
Nightracer, hmm?
    "What was she _doing_, though?  It's kinda bothering me..." Skram
said.
    "She didn't give specifics, and I didn't ask," Rapido said.  "But
I've got a pretty good idea.  I don't think we need to worry about it
now."
    Skram accepted this, and they kept driving in silence for a while.
Then Skram spoke up again.  "Hey, boss?  Why _do_ you think Nightracer
wants to go to the crashed ship?"
    Rapido considered.  "Trust me on this, Skram.  You don't wanna
know."

    The black Pontiac Firebird roared up the canyon into the valley of
the Invid Hive, followed by the blue Corvette and the green pickup.
Nightracer was calm, as she usually was just before a battle.  No
worries--she had gone over the plan in her mind several times already,
just on the drive from the rendezvous point.  She was aware of the
possible failure points, and ready to improvise a new plan if the need
arose.  There was nothing else she _could_ do at this juncture, and so
additional anxiety could only be counterproductive. 
    It had taken no small amount of argument to get the Autobots to
accept her leadership of this mission group.  They did not trust her,
and Skram had wanted to put _Turbofire_, of all people, in charge of
this part, if not himself, rather than follow orders from a
Decepticon.  Or perhaps he was still pissed off at her for taking his
gun away from him.  Regardless, it did not matter.  The day she
worried about what some punk kid thought of her was the day she
permanently transferred her allegiance to the Autobots. 
    Rapido had agreed that her experience and her prior acquaintance
with these aliens logically qualified her to be in charge at this
point...although he had undoubtedly told the others to keep an optic
sensor on her for possible signs of betrayal.  As long as that did not
distract them from the mission at hand, then it was fine with her.
She had no intention of betraying them at this point.  When they
returned to their own universe, however, that might well change. 
    In Turbofire's cab, Lunk kept one hand on his bag of explosive
charges and gripped the armrest tightly with the other.  It went
against all his instincts not to reach out and grab the wheel.
Firstly, he had never been in a truck that drove itself before, and
secondly, they were heading right into the heart of the enemy camp,
with dozens of Invid of all descriptions rising up into the air and
glaring at them through those red slitted sensor eyes of theirs.
"Gah...they're everywhere!"
    "Don't you worry," Turbofire reassured him, polarizing the cab's
windshields.  "Keep quiet, and they won't even know you're there."
    "Thanks," Lunk said, relaxing a little.  "I don't like to think
about what would happen if they found me in here."
    "Wow, would you look at all of them?" Skram gasped.  "They're
_everywhere_!"
    "Cut the chatter back there," Nightracer said.  "This is the
crucial part."  The green and orange battloid had emerged from the
Hive, and was now making its way out to touch down right in front of
them.  The canopy opened, and Corg leaped lightly to the ground. 
    "You have done as I ordered?" Corg demanded.
    Nightracer transformed and stood erect.  "Yeah, pal, I have.
Here."  She walked back around to Turbofire, and lifted a
tarpaulin-wrapped object out of his bed.  "Feast your eyes."  She
threw it down on the ground at his feet.  The tarp unravelled to
reveal the charred, unidentifiable remains of a human corpse, clad in
the standard-issue CVR body armor of the Robotech Expeditionary Force.
"There's more where that came from."
    Nightracer smirked inwardly, recalling the human's--Lunk's--
reaction when she had torn away the crashed shuttle's armor plating to
find the corpse, then fired her blaster rifle at it.  "Hey--what the
hell are you doing?!" he had gasped.  Even Turbofire had seemed a bit
aghast. 
    "Evidence that I've destroyed you, human, as the aliens had asked
me to do.  Think they'd just take my word for it?"
    "But it--that's--"
    "He's already _dead_, human.  It's not as though it's hurting
him."
    Now, as she watched Corg's delighted expression, Nightracer knew
she had been justified.  She had him eating out of her hands.  And
Lunk, in Turbofire's cab, shivered, knowing that Nightracer would
happily have destroyed him and all the others if she had thought that
to be the most efficient way home. 
    "Excellent!  You shall have all the protoculture you need.  Now,
tell me where the rest of the bodies lie, that I may personally make
certain they have been destroyed."
    Nightracer pointed north.  "About ten miles that way.  Look for
the rising smoke, can't miss it."
    Corg leaped to the cockpit of his Royal Command Battloid.
"Enforcer!  Take them to the loading dock and give them protoculture.
Invid, to me!  We go to verify the kill!"
    About half the Invid around the Hive swarmed up after Corg as he
launched and headed off to the north.  Nightracer turned to the
Enforcer in question, whom she towered over.  "Well?"
    The Enforcer swivelled its head to look up at Nightracer.  "You
will leave all weapons behind," it said flatly.
    Nightracer unslung the assault rifle she had pulled from her
subspace arsenal expressly for this purpose when she'd transformed.
"You're the boss."  She jerked her thumb at Skram and Turbofire.
"They're unarmed."
    The Enforcer swivelled its head, and regarded the car and truck
doubtfully. 
    "What, do you _see_ a gun?" Nightracer asked incredulously.  "Come
on, time's a-wasting."
    "Follow me," the Enforcer said in that same flat, emotionless
voice.  It turned toward the cluster of buildings and took off.
    "Well, you heard it," Nightracer said, transforming back to
vehicle form.  "Let's go."

    In a small cluster of rocks a ways to the north, Scott Bernard
lowered the binoculars from his eyes as Corg and the rest of the
Invid passed overhead.  "There they go."
    "And it looks like the others have been successful as well,"
Lancer observed from his vantage point behind him, facing the opposite
direction.  "Let's give them a couple more minutes to clear the area,
then move."
    "All right!" Rand pulled off the camouflage tarp hiding his Alpha
and vaulted to the cockpit.  "Looks like it's working like a charm so
far!"
    "Let's hope it continues that way," Rapido said, pulling out from
under a rocky overhang.  A few moments later, four Veritech fighters
and two Autobot cars left their rocky hiding place, moving back toward
the Hive. 

    As the other two cars and one pickup moved slowly up toward the
prison camp, Skram had to struggle to stay calm.  Spread out all
around him were the tired, the destitute, the exhausted human workers,
overseen by armored Invid Enforcers.  If Skram had had blood, it would
have been boiling by this point--and Nightracer's cute little trick
with the corpse had not helped any.  If he had not been keeping an
iron grip on himself already...he did not know what he would have
done. 
    Before he had been assigned to Earth, Skram would have been
hard-pressed to explain just why he should have felt for such a puny
organic race.  Back then, all he had cared about had been racing along
the streets of Iacon, dodging Decepticon patrols and knocking back
high-grade Energon shots with his buddies at Primus' Own, an
underground Autobot club. 
    Coming to the Terran front had been a whole new experience for
Skram.  The briefings, the orientation classes in Earth culture taught
by Jazz and Blaster, and the patrols in the human cities had exposed
him to many new ideas and concepts.  Human brains seemed just as
sophisticated as Cybertronian models, in their organic way.  They
could have thoughts, ideas, even emotions, just like Transformers
could--and some of them were a lot of fun to hang out with.  Just
because their bodies were weaker was no reason to look down on
them--nor was it a reason to let them get kicked around by stronger
bullies. 
    Just take it easy, Skram told himself.  Stay calm.  Stick to the
plan.  Stick to the plan...you can have it out with Nightracer later.
For now...there are humans to rescue.
    The cluster of buildings loomed ahead, along with the concrete
and barbed-wire fencing that surrounded it, and the two Shock
Troopers waiting by the gate.  They swivelled their optics to stare
coldly at the human vehicles being led by the Enforcer, but took no
action other than standing aside for the gate to be opened.
    "Into the belly of the beast," Lunk muttered, clutching his laser
pistol all the more securely. 
    "Let's get ready to give it a case of heartburn it'll never
forget," Skram responded. 
    The Enforcer led them along a paved drive between rows of
buildings.  The pavement was pitted and cracking--it had obviously
seen better days.  There were more Enforcers and Scouts around, on
patrol, but none seemed to pay attention to the three Cybertronian
vehicles and their Enforcer.  No humans were in immediate view, but at
the far end of the road was a fenced enclosure with other buildings
within it that was probably their housing. 
    "I bet this was a human complex before the Invid occupied it,"
Turbofire mused. 
    "Yeah," Lunk agreed.  "They take advantage of human structures
where they find them...but they aren't that good at maintaining 'em."
    "Doesn't surprise me," Skram muttered.
    "Keep it down," Nightracer growled.  "We're here."
    The Enforcer led them off the track, around to a loading dock
behind one of the buildings.  It stepped up onto the dock and turned
to the door.  "Wait here.  Your protoculture cells will be brought to
you."
    Just then, a chain of explosions split the stillness, and
fireballs traced their way across the sky overhead.  The Enforcer
turned, then exploded as Turbofire blasted it with the engine cannon
hidden behind his front grille.  "That's okay...we'll just help
ourselves."

    Rapido leaned out from behind a boulder and let go with a volley
of blasts from his double-barrelled assault cannon, holing three of
the Shock Troopers that were moving in on them.  "Windbreaker!  Go!
I'll cover you!"
    "You got it!"  Windbreaker ran ahead to the cover of the next
boulder, and opened up with his own rapid-fire cannon.  "How're we
doing?"
    Rapido turned and fired again, perforating a Scout that had
somehow managed to sneak in behind him.  "Looks good from here."
    "And here!" Rook said, swooping down in Guardian mode from
overhead and unleashing a cloud of missiles.  "We've pared them down
a lot already."
    "Nnngh...yeah," Scott Bernard grunted, pulling a high-gee turn
overhead to shake a pair of Invid off his fighter's tail.  "Just a bit
more, to buy the others the time they need, and then we'll be ready to
try for the core of the Hive."
    "I just hope those other big bruisers don't make it back in time
to cause a problem," Rand chimed in.
    "You know, that's one of the things I like about you, country
boy," Rook smirked.  "Your never-ending optimism."

    Skram stood on the loading dock, looking at the door.  "You've
got thirty seconds to get that open," Nightracer said, hauling out an
assault rifle.  "Figure we've got about that long before someone
remembers us."
    Skram's right hand retracted, and a group of micromanipulation and
soldering waldos emerged in its place.  "Piece of cake."  A bit of
quick sparking and whirring later, the door clicked and Skram yanked
it open.  "There we go.  And it looks like we hit the jackpot!"  The
warehouse room was about three-quarters full of cylindrical
protoculture power cells, stacked neatly against the walls almost to
the ceiling.
    "Whoa...that's a lot all right," Lunk said.  "I hope we can carry
enough."
    "Don't you worry about that," Turbofire said.  "I have a bit more
storage room than it looks like."
    Nightracer glanced at the room.  "Right.  You and the human start
loading Turbofire with those things."
    "And just where will _you_ be?" Skram asked suspiciously.
    Nightracer worked the action on her rifle with a satisfying click.
"Making sure we're not interrupted.  Get to work!"  As Lunk climbed
out of Turbofire's cab, she raised the rifle to her shoulder and
stalked around the corner of the building.  The sounds of automatic
weapons fire and clattering shells could be heard from that direction
a few moments later. 
    Skram hefted his own gun.  "Forget this, I'm gonna help!"
    "No!" Turbofire growled.  "Get me loaded first, kid, then we can
_all_ help.  It won't do any of us any good if you get overrun before
we're done here."
    Skram reluctantly lowered the gun.  "Right.  Open one of your
subspace cargo bays, then...let's hurry and throw this stuff in."  He
glanced back at the corner of the building, where the sounds of
gunfire continued, then followed Lunk in to help with the cargo
loading. 

                           TO BE CONTINUED

Author's Notes:

    One of the fun things about writing this story is the chance to
throw in a few off-the-cuff extrapolations that make sense.  Things
like Deluge's alternate power source for the Decepticon base in an
earlier episode, and Jazz and Blaster's Earth culture orientation
courses here--and, likewise, the explanation for why Scott Bernard
keeps firing volley after volley of missiles like he doesn't have to
worry about resupplying.  I look forward to doing more of this in
future episodes.
    Not really too much else to say.  I guess the initial burst of
inspiration that caused me to get the first six episodes done
practically one per day has petered out, and it took me a while to get
the inspiration to crank this one out.  I hope people read it and
respond to tell me they liked it, if they liked it...the more response
I get, the more likely it is I'll be able to get up the gumption to
crank out part eight sometime soon. 
    I hope you're enjoying this so far...if you are, _please tell me
so_, okay?


"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, Rapido, Windbreaker, Turbofire, and Skram 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. :)

Robotech, the Invid, Prince Corg, Scott Bernard, Rand, Rook, Lancer,
Lunk, Annie LaBelle, Marlene, and other associated characters and
mecha are trademarks of Harmony Gold, Inc.  Their unauthorized use
here is not for profit, and not meant to infringe upon those
trademarks.  This is _not_ an official Harmony Gold-endorsed story,
please don't think I'm trying to pass it off as one.  (And that should
make the Harmony Gold lawyers happy too! :)