Chapter 11: The Continuing Battle

"Fellow Decepticons!" Starscream declared. "We have encountered an unexpected meteor shower. It would be best if you all were to brace yourselves."

"Now how are we supposed to do that when we’re all jammed in here like cyber-fish in a can?" the burly Seeker sitting next to Scamp asked.

"Oh no, the meteor shower!" Scamp shouted. He rushed to the front of the ship, tripping on nearly every Con in his way.

"Halt!" Thundercracker shouted. "Just where do you think you’re going?"

Scamp was desperate. He knew the fate that awaited the others. "If I don’t stop this ship we’re going to be torn apart by meteors and laser blasts!"

Thundercracker stared at Scamp. "A meteor shower taking out the ship? How cliché."

Unsure of what to do, Scamp looked worriedly about the ship. Every optic sensor on board was staring at him.

"And what do you mean laser blasts? We’re too far away from the Maritonian sector for battle, and the Autobots don’t even know we’re coming." Thundercracker told Scamp.

The ship was beginning to shake due to small meteors bombarding the ship’s hull.

"We should have avoided this situation all together" Scamp commented. "The Autobots would have seen us but at least we would’ve been able to see them."

The ship was shaken once again, this time more violently.

"The ships can no longer continue without exiting the meteor shower. We’ll have to fly through it manually. Just follow our shuttles" Starscream announced.

The doors of the ship opened, and one-by-one each of the passengers exited and transformed into tetrijet mode. Like a swarm of mosquitoes the Seekers followed the two small shuttles, one piloted by Starscream.

Most of the Seekers were able to navigate the shower, but an unfortunate few lost control.

"What the heck is he doing? We’ll never make it!" Scamp shouted.

Soon, the unexpected happened, unexpected to all but Scamp. The Seekers were being met with laser blasts from the meteors!

"AUTOBOTS!" Starscream shouted. "ATTACK!"

"They were expecting us, how could this be?" one of the Seekers shouted back.

One-by-one the Seekers were exiting the ship and transforming into Tetrajet mode. The swarmed the area like mosquitoes, far more Cons than Bots. The Bots had a great strategic advantage though; they didn’t have to navigate the field.

"Brothers!" Scamp shouted, along with many of the other Seekers after seeing their companions smashed against meteors and blow to pieces by Autobots.

Frantically, Starscream captured one of the Autobots and terminated him. He carried him back to his ship, and screamed "Full retreat!" The Seekers began filing back into the shuttle.

Many of the Cons were shot down entering the shuttle. "Scamp! Lookout!" shouted one of his friends as he flew behind Scamp to protect him.

"Noooo!" Scamp wailed. He carried his friend’s body back into the shuttle with him. Being made mostly of spare parts to serve more as cannon fodder, Scamp and those like him had very few friends. It made sense in a way; after all, statistically he wouldn’t be around very long.

"One word of this to Megatron and you’ll be scrap" Starscream said as he pointed one of his guns at Thundercracker.

Thundercracker batted Starscream’s arm to the side. "You’ll never be able to hide this from him. You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t scrap you on the spot."

"That’s what you think." Starscream was very angry, but more so at his own idiocy than Thundercracker. "Besides, I captured their leader."

"How do you know that’s their leader?" Thundercracker asked as he folded his arms.

"Because I say it is, and that’s what Megatron will have to believe!" Starscream bellowed at the top of his audio emitters.

As soon as every surviving Seeker was in the ship, Scamp stood up and yelled frantically. "I told you, I told all of you! Why didn’t you listen to me? How could you let this happen? Why didn't you just listen? Why?" He felt powerless. One of the most horrific battles he was ever engaged in had just been repeated, and he could do nothing to stop it.

Scamp fell to the ground grasping his head in front of the other Decepticons. Slowly, very slowly things around him started to fade. Things became a little clearer. He was in the middle of the market area. He was probably a site to see, but he did not care. Too many things were running through his head.