Several Wonderbolt emergency crews, along with the Autobots and ex-Decepticons ran towards the shuttle that crashed on the runway. The ear-piercing sound of sirens hit the air as every Transformer with an emergency-chosen vehicle came racing down the runway.

The hose on firetruck Inferno sprayed water towards the out of control fires, putting them out. Wonderbolts stepped out of the cars, and approached the gaping hole in the shuttle. Several sparks of electricity accompanied by panels and sheets of metal falling apart continued to befall.

"What kind of 'Welcome To Earth' entrance was that?" Inferno asked, putting out the fire.

"That's no entrance," Arcee said, pushing some of the debris out of the way.

As the Autobots cleared some of the debris off from the shuttle, Spitfire and a few Wonderbolt companions climbed inside to the shuttle.

Almost immediatley when they got inside did they take a step back with precaution. The entire inside of the ship was nothing but a giant crumbling mess. Gunshots everywhere, panels and screens destroyed and in ruins, wiring in shambles, the entire command center was nothing but shambles!

Even worse was when they walked and looked at the back. The cryo-stasis chamber that was in the back was just gone. All that was left were a few wires and tubes that had connected to the chamber, leaving nothing but a gaping hole in the wall. A few sparks of electricity danced from the sprockets, the only sounds emitting.

The Wonderbolts looked behind them and gasped. Three bodies laid about on the ground, all look severely pained and injured. Stepping into the shuttle close behind, was Arcee and Nitro Zeus. The two of them wandered inside and looked around, observing the mess that the Wonderbolts had seen.

"Someone threw a party here," Arcee muttered.

"And they didn't invite me? Shame," Nitro quipped.

But the two Transformers turned around and gazed at the robots that were down. Arcee gasped, recognizing one of them. He grabbed the shoulder and chest of Ironhide, flipping him around on his back. She looked mortified, seeing his state. A gaping hole and several laser shells were through his chest, making him look like Swiss cheese. His skin was darkened and blackened, completely limp and lifeless, and lastly, a small pool of Energon was visibly leaking from his mouth, making the sight even more gruesome.

"Ironhide..." Arcee whimpered.

Nitro shuddered. "Oh that's a dead guy..."

Nitro's eye swiveled around, turning into a scope. Staring down, he looked towards Ironhide's wounds with curiosity.

"Hmm... I think Doc bot needs to take a look at this. I don't guns took Ironhide down," Nitro observed.

"What do you mean?" Arcee asked.

"Look at the wounds. Lasers and guns shot him, but they didn't do anything to hurt him. The only bits of damage were minimal burnt marks on his armor," Nitro said, pointing at some of the holes.

Arcee's eyes looked down at the penetrated armor, and then back to the one-eyed Decepticon.

"You may have a point."

"Of course I do," Nitro shrugged.

"Tell Rest-Q we need him to run an autopsy on Ironhide," Arcee called out.

Nitro stood back up, and his head and body turned around, looking at his surroundings. He looked at the gaping hole in the wall, and then back to the command center. Staring down, he saw two other Autobots who were down as well.

"Hang on a nano-clik," Nitro said, leaning down. He put a hand on the first one, feeling the metal. "This one isn't dead!"

"Neither is he," Arcee said, looking at the twitching fingers of the other Autobot.

"We've got ourselves some survivors, boys! Get the Doc in here fast!"

---

After the shuttle had been cleared, the three Autobots were taken into the medical center. Rest Q (the only doctor in the base) accessed the mainframe and began typing up a new report.

The Ark:
Report: Shuttle Crash

Cadet Blastwave -- Survivor
Cadet Flareup -- Survivor
Weapons Specialist Ironhide -- Dead
Gobot Guardian, Heatseeker -- Fate Unknown
Special Cargo -- Missing

Rest-Q finished the report, and switched the mainframe over to another screen. As he turned around, he looked to the two Autobots that were laying down on the infirmary tables. Two completely unlike each other.

The first one he identified was a female, very skinny and agile figure at that. Orange, red, and black paint. Tailpipes attached to her arms like they could shoot fire, and wheels built into her heels. The other one was a much more muscular build. He had hulking armor over his body, sharp talons, a samurai-like helmet, and he was mostly colored with green and blue paint, with a few glows of yellow neon emitting his Energon.

Rest Q picked up a holo-clipboard, taking down notes of their injuries. Nothing major, thankfully. Just a few burn marks on their paint, nothing they couldn't fix.

A soft moan interrupted his report. Setting the holo-board down, he noticed one of the Autobots was starting to move. The smaller one, in fact. She groaned as she tried to pull herself up, but Rest-Q stepped in time.

"Easy now. Don't move too fast, or you'll fall over," Rest-Q quipped.

"I think I'll be fine," said the Autobot who held her head. "W-Who are you?"

"Oh, right. I'm Rest-Q, medical officer and sadly the only medical officer on duty. I will be here for every medical emergency should you need it," Rest-Q introduced himself. "You are Cadet Flareup, right?"

"Mmmhmm," Flareup nodded, holding her head. "Oh my aching processor..."

"Easy now," Spitfire called.

Flareup turned her head, and her eyes sunk. It was only Spitfire who walked in, but in an instant Flareup started screaming.

"Oh my god, CREATURES! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Spitfire held her ears hearing her scream, cringing at the ear piercing shriek. Flareup fell off of her bed, and she pushed herself against a wall. Spitfire was being looked at like she was a tiny little mouse, small and innocent. But yet, she still screamed.

Rest-Q only stood and watched as she screamed. He shook his head and sighed.

After what felt like an eternity of high-pitched wailing, Flareup's screams finally died down, and Spitfire removed her ears.

"Are you done now?" Spitfire deadpanned.

"Oh Vector Sigma, she speaks!" Flareup panicked. "Why does she speak!?"

"Easy. Flareup, what you're seeing before you, is a human. They're the inhabitants of Earth who run the planet. Very primitive but also very tame species."

Flareup gulped. "Y-You sure?"

"Absolutely," said a voice from the corridor.

Flareup jolted her head up, blinking to the Autobot who stood in the doorway. At first she was surprised, but then her face immediately changed to a look of joy.

"I... I don't believe it! You're Jazz, the Jazz!"

Jazz chuckled. "Well, I didn't think I have fans all the way back on Cybertron."

"Of course I know you! You're one of the few who destroyed Unicron, your name is practically famous all over Cybertron!" Flareup squeaked. She stopped when she realized how unprofessional she was behaving, and cleared her throat. She gave one single salute to Jazz, "Cadet Flareup, sir!"

"At ease, kid. Its pretty chill here these days, there isn't really much need for the formality," Jazz explained. "And that human you're staring at right now? That's Captain Spitfire, she's taking over the place for the time being."

Flareup blanked. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, she--"

"N-No, sir, I understood what you said but... why her?" Flareup asked. "Isn't she... you know, tiny?"

"Small but strong. There is no leader who's too small nor big," Jazz replied grinning.

Flareup gulped. "W-Well... okay then, I guess..."

"Well now that formalities are out of the way, I think we need to hear something new. What happened on that shuttle?" Spitfire asked.

"Huh? Oh, right!" Flareup cleared her vocal processor. "Okay, so precisely at 0600 Earth hours, we arrived on this planet. But as we were heading down towards Autobot headquarters, our shuttle was attacked."

"Any clue as to who attacked you?" Jazz asked.

"No sir. But I know for sure, it wasn't Megatron, or any of his goons. I do remember this, there were three of them. One of them was huge, the other two? Average sized Cybertronians."

"What about physical traits, anything distinguishable about them that you recognized?"

"No sir. I don't know who they are. I had training in identifying Decepticons from the Great War, but I never seen these Decepticons in my life. One of them was black, the other two were red and blue."

Spitfire sighed, "Well, at least we have something to work off of. But that still doesn't answer the other questions. Where is Heatseeker, he was in the shuttle with you, correct?"

"Yes ma'am, he was. But I don't know what happened to him. They knocked me out, along with non-talker here," she said, pointing to Blastwave who wasn't awake yet, "and they ran off with... oh no. The cargo, they took the cargo!"

"What cargo? What are you talking about?" Jazz asked, moving a few steps forward.

Flareup sighed, obviously sounding a little stressed. "Ironhide meant to show you and Lieutenant Bumblebee as a surprise, but he said he found someone. During the cleanup operation after Unicron's destruction, just outside of Cybertron's atmosphere, Ironhide said he found someone in some of the smoldering debris floating in space."

"Who?"

"I don't know!" Flareup said, her hands slapping her sides. "He strictly wanted to keep it a surprise for you guys! But I don't know why, and I don't know who he found!"

Jazz and Spitfire looked at each other with some worried looks. First Ironhide was killed, now Heatseeker and their 'special cargo' was gone too. Their situation wasn't sounding too good now.

"We're going to have to find them then, and fast. Jazz, tell Hoist and Grapple to keep finishing repairs on our radar system, we have to have the satellite back on now! Rest-Q, finish the repairs on Blastwave so he's up and kicking."

"Got it boss," Jazz grinned, walking away.

"Right," Rest-Q nodded.

"In the meantime, I think we should check Teletraan-2's prisoner archives. Maybe the Decepticons you saw weren't ones you were taught in the war academy, because they were captured on the Alchemor."

"I guess they are, ma'am?" Flareup shrugged, unsure.

"Lets go check it," Spitfire said, leading the new cadet out of the room. "In the meantime, tell me a little more about who you think you saw..."

Next Chapter: Chapter 7: Cargo Drop Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 42 Minutes