The Wreck

On the planet of Cybertron, everything was in chaos. For millennia, the forces of the Autobot resistance fought back to topple the tyrannical Decepticons. Little did they know then that their conflict would slowly destroy their planet from the inside out. At the hidden Autobot base, the freedom fighters who lived there were beginning to feel the effects of the planet's crumbling. Energon supplies were beginning to run low, and they were already sending whatever they could spare to power the Ark, a ship that had the potential to help them escape. Inside the base now, the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, was currently in a meeting with the Autobots Perceptor and Ratchet.

"It getting worse by the day, Optimus," Perceptor said, "Energon levels on the planet are dangerously low and still dropping. If we don't leave soon, the planet will die and we'll be on it.

"But we still need enough Energon to power the Ark," Ratchet said, "We only just reached the halfway mark."

"Is there any area that we haven't checked that might possibly have a reservoir remaining?" Prime asked.

"If there is," Perceptor said, "The 'Cons would have gotten to it a long time ago."

Just then, Wheeljack burst into the room: "I don't mean to intrude," he said, "But you might want to see this."

"What is it, Wheeljack?" Prime asked.

"Something's just crashed near our base, it looks like a Cybertronian ship."

"It might have enough Energon to power the Ark." Ratchet said.

"There's only one way to find out," Prime said, "Wheeljack, take two other soldiers with you and go investigate that crash site."

Saluting, Wheeljack ran out of the room.

"I hope this means our luck has changed." Perceptor said.

Optimus only looked grim: "We can only pray."

…

A few minutes later, Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, and Jazz drove up to the crash, and transformed back into their robot forms.

"Dang," Jazz said, looking at what was left of the ship. "This thing went through a real hard time."

"Yeah, no kidding." Cliffjumper said, "You suppose there's any survivors?"

"Only one way to find out," Wheeljack said, turning his hand into a gun," Let's crack this thing open.

It took a few minutes to find the hatch, but once they got to it, it didn't take long to blast it open. The three then dropped into the wreck.

"Alright guys, stay sharp," Wheeljack said, his gun still raised, "We don't know what's in here."

Slowly, they crept through the hall until they came to the turret control pods, where they found two transformers slumped over the controls. Cliffjumper ran to each of them and scanned them over.

"They're still alive; must be in some kind of stasis." He said.

"We'll bring them back to base when we leave," Wheeljack said, "Right now, let's focus on finding the command bridge. After a few twists, turns, and dead ends, they finally found the bridge. Inside they found three more Transformers, all in the same stasis as the two from the turrets. As Cliffjumper hoisted one over his shoulder, he managed to activate the main console of the ship, opened the main sever, and began to run diagnostics on the ship.

"What does it say?" asked Jazz.

"Nothing too interesting yet." Cliffjumper replied, then, "Wait, hold on."

"What is it?"

Cliffjumper didn't answer, but his eyes got really wide, then he said, "Holy mother of Primus! We gotta get this back to Optimus!" Quickly, Cliffjumper made a copy of the diagnostic report and saved it on a drive chip.

"Okay, let's mark this spot and get back to base." Cliffjumper then said, "And we need to hurry. No telling if the 'Cons got wind of the crash too."

"What's the rush all of a sudden?" Jazz asked.

"I'll explain on the way," Cliffjumper replied, "Let's just get these guys and get out of here!"

A few minutes later, the three drove back into the Autobot base, the survivors strapped to the roofs of their vehicle forms. Ratchet ran up and began untying the transformers.

"I need help getting them to the medbay," He said over his shoulder, and three other Autobots came to assist them. As Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, and Jazz transformed back to robots, Optimus and Perceptor approached.

"What did you find?" Prime asked.

"Well, aside from those five survivors," Wheeljack said, "Cliffjumper found that there's quite a bit of Energon left in the ship that we can harness."

"I'm sensing bad news here." Perceptor said.

"Well, sorta," Cliffjumper said, "As I was looking through the diagnostics, I came across a few things that you might want to know about."

"Like what?"

"Well, for starters, it came here from Earth. And its Decepticon."

"Decepticon? Are you sure?" asked Perceptor.

"I'm more concerned as to how it came from Earth." Prime said, "How did they know about it?"

"Beats me," Cliffjumper said, holding out the chip, "This holds the entire ship report, so you can see it for yourself."

Perceptor took the chip: "I'll take a look at this," he said before walking off.

Prime looked grim: "The report helped, but it still doesn't make sense. If the ship has plenty of Energon, like you said, then how did it crash?"

"Well, the ship did look like it was attacked." Jazz said, "but none of our sentries reported anything."

"But why would Decepticons fire on their own ship?" Wheeljack asked.

"There may be only one way to truly get an answer," Prime said, "We need to speak with the survivors of the crash."