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The New Age - (Market Commodity book II)	By : Scienceteacher Category: Transformers > G1 > Round Robins Views: 6401 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Do not own the Transformers, am not making anything from this story.

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**New Era part 2**

**Written by StSE, universe G1**

“So, we have two dozen clones to deal with. None are sparked - so we can assume they’re infected,” Drew noted. He turned his visor to Daniel and nodded.

“Well Commander, I’m going have to back out on the idea of me just walking up there and demanding that we be let in. I hope you understand…” Travis stated, with a sarcastic tone to his voice.

“Wouldn’t be a wise tactic anyways. You might end up being used for target practice,” Jag dryly noted.

“That’s obvious, sheese what a freagin loser!” Speed mumbled under his breath. He clamped his mouth shut again as Scream shot him ‘the look’.

Daniel drummed his fingers on his armored thigh as he considered the situation. “Ok, five are Brawl models, five are Onslaught models, two Vortexes, six are Red Alerts and six are Prowls. The military models are going to be the hardest to secure since they have the heavier shielding.”

“Daniel, I want a few of them operational. We’ve got many weeks ahead of us with little to do. If they are infected, I’d like to do some experiments on them while we are stuck here,” Sharon said. She glanced back at Rumble; the Decepticon could feel her glare even with her reflective gold faceplate down.

“If we can draw them all out in the open, I can peg most of them with my null ray. Then the rest of the mechs can secure them,” Scream offered. The gleam in his optics told them that he was more than eager to try it.

Jag nodded his agreement. “Then we can jump them and secure them before they reboot. There would be no damage done to them that way. And fairly safe for us as well.”

Beachcomber looked up at the sun in the west; the sky there was becoming a deep swirl of colors as the ash cloud in the stratosphere refracted the solar waves. It was fast approaching them, now carried along by the jet stream. “Whatever we do, we need to get undercover in the next hour or two,” he informed them.

Briefly, every eye and optic glanced up. The time table was plainly written in the very sky for all to see.

Jester grinned. “That new shielding you installed on us ground clones should be able to handle standard small arms fire – right?” he asked. From his expression it was obvious he’d already thought up some kind of booby trap or something. He was truly brilliant in thinking up unexpected, and nasty, surprises for his opponents during the training sessions.

“Yep,” Speed replied with a rather smug smirk.

“We’ll draw them out. Be ready Scream,” Jester said with a widening grin. He punched Speed’s shoulder armor. “I’m laying down a Dr. Pepper that I and Jag can whip you and Shado in a race!” he taunted. With that, he and Jag transformed and zoomed down the hill towards the hub.

“Beat us! Those motherfuckin’ losers are going to pay up! Come on Shado!” Speed growled. They disappeared in a cloud of dust and gravel as they sped off after the two ground clones. Speed’s gleeful cackles on how he was going to so ‘whoop them’ filled the air.

“Well, that should cause most of the security clones to come over and see what’s going on – without causing them to feel the need to activate weapons,” Blue noted as he watched the racing clones doing circles in the open field next to the hub. They were staying right outside of the fence. Making a scene – but not really threatening the security of the hub.

“Well, its working!” Darren chuckled as he watched the security clones line up at the fence. Their weapons weren’t out, and they were just watching and babbling to each other as they pointed at the racing clones.

“We’ve got 12 lined up. Go for it Air Assault!” Daniel ordered.

The stealth jets transformed and zoomed off with Scream in the lead. They circled low, letting the low hills hide them from view. The humans and mechs watched as they came up behind the distracted security clones. Many of the clones fell immediately. A few tried to turn and raise their weapons, and then they were hit with the null-ray. The clones who’d been racing, transformed and ran towards them. Securing the downed clones before they could reactivate…

"Ok Air Assault, stay by the secured clones. Ground Assault, hunt the other four security clones down and secure hub," Daniel barked over the CB link.

In a blur of motion, the Air squadron banked around, transformed and ducked quickly amongst the still forms of the secured FedEx clones. Scream and Jag locked optics briefly, the Seeker nodding for the heavier shielded ground clones to move out. Swiftly, the four darted across the open space and found cover next to some of the buildings.

Scream turned, dropping to his belly armor next to the secured clones as laser fire strafed their location, motioning for the rest of his team to follow suit. He used them for cover, just as the other flyer clones did. They weren’t armored like their ground clone partners were. But using the stunned military clones for cover, they began to fire. This kept the oncoming FedEx clones’ attention on them and away from the movements of their ground unit.

Taking command of the Ground Assault, Jag ran to the side of a building, motioning his team to do the same. They split up in pairs, using the buildings for cover as they hunted down the remaining twelve security clones. "You’re looking for five Red Alert models, three Brawls, two Onslaughts and two Prowls.. Watch those Reds and Brawls – they’re freaks under pressure!" Scream radioed to Jag as he did a quick count of secured clones.

“Holy Shit!” Jester yelled as one seemed to appear out of nowhere. Screaming in a fit of rage mixed with terror, the clone ran straight at him with guns blazing.

“Got him!” Shado yelled as he aimed at the clone attacking the other pair.

“AKKKKKKKK! Sttttttt!” the Red Alert clone shrieked as he fell in the crossfire between the two teams. His chassis jerked violently as the multiple rounds pounded his armor, slicing through him at the seams. Staggering, he collapsed in a smoldering heap.

The sounds of gun fire drew out other security clones. They were all freaking out, yelling to each other as they tried to figure out where the rest of the security force was. Since they were programmed to deal more with emergency management like fires, tornados and ice – they had no clue as to how to respond to the infiltrators. All they did was pull out their weapons and fire blindly in front of them, praying they hit whoever was trying to break into the hub.

“Fuck it! Don’t need any loser Red Alerts anyways!” Speed yelled as he blazed away with his laser rifle. He didn’t care for that particular model. They were paranoid wimps that freaked out under pressure.

“Noooooo! AKKKKKKK!” The clones seemed to erupt in electricity and fire as the flyers added their own firepower to those of their comrades. The overwhelmed Red Alerts seemed to melt as fire consumed them. They sunk to their knees as their vocalizers made horrific sounds while their chassis were virtually ripped apart. Finally, it was over, and nothing was left of them but a pool of molten metal.

Before the Ground Assault team could catch their breath, a low rumble could be felt. “Oh slags – here comes the armored squad,” Jag muttered as he reset his weapons. “Shado – cloak and flank them,” he ordered as he nodded to his saboteur. The mech nodded and disappeared.

"Sending two," Scream radioed.

Just then a flash of wings blew over the Ground Assault team. TC and Silver flew low and fast, as they dropped small cluster bombs onto the approaching security forces. They banked hard, wheeling around and strafing the scene just as the bombs hit. The three Brawls and the Prowl leading their charge had no chance, if the bombs didn’t blow through their armored plating – then the cross fire from above and three sides cut through their seams. This ignited their energon pellets. Blowing them up from the inside out… They came back down to Earth in tiny shards and a light spray of burned oil and hydraulic fluid. Coating all the members of the Ground Assault team…

“Boy, that was gross,” Jester muttered as he wiped the goo off his optics and slung it onto the ground.

“Death isn’t pretty, but better them – than us,” Jag stated flatly as he quickly ran over. “And we still have the smartest ones left.” He ducked as small arms fire pounded the metal side of the hangar he was crouched by.

“Oh great, now we’re facing one of you – leading the freagers! Well this blows. But let’s show the losers what we’re made of!” Speed snickered as he pulled out his gravito gun and powered it up.

“Ok, have an idea. //TC, Silver bank around and strafe their positions. Shado, flank these new ones and after their disoriented – we’ll slam them hard!" Jag ordered. He nodded to Jester and Speed, all of them ready to smash-and-dash.

"TC hit them with a sonic boom while you’re at it. Knock their audios off line!" Scream added. Hearing his order, everyone shut off their audios in preparation.

The muffled roar of afterburners filled the air, then two fighters flashed by. The ground shook as TC released a sonic boom directly at the three clones. Dropping their weapons, they screamed and put their hands over their audios, just as all their windows imploded into millions of shards. Then the laser fire hit them full on. They were slammed back against the hangar wall behind them with a crash that rang all the way up to the waiting humans and mechs on the hill.

Before the battered clones could even move, the Ground Assault team was upon them, pointing their weapons at their heads. The commanding clone looked up, his cracked blue optics meeting those identical to his own. “Why? .. Why are you breaking in?” he stammered, tears of pain streaming down his burned cheeks. “This.. This is our duty.. We must.. stop… you,” he gasped. He couldn’t hear the answer, for his audios had been blown.

Speed snorted; leveling his gun at them. He was more than ready to put the losers out of their misery. “Fucking losers…”

Shado curled his fingers around Speed’s, stopping him. “He’s right; he’s just trying to do his job. No need to insult him.” He glanced up at Jag, and now Scream as he strode up. “Do we have to offline them? What if they surrender?”

“Freagers can’t even hear now. Why bother with them?” Speed snorted.

“Because they’re the same as us,” Scream countered. His red optics met Shado’s. “We don’t even know if they can be repaired. And what if they’re infected? Then we’re just delaying the inevitable.”

“But what if they’re not? Or maybe Sharon and TC figure out how to fix them?” Shado countered. His blue optics pleaded with Scream. The peace loving Mirage clone hated any death that wasn’t necessary. If there was even the slightest chance for these clones – he wanted them to have it!

“Ok, see if you can get them to surrender. If so - Speed, I want you to disconnect their weapon systems,” Scream ordered with a nod. Then he turned on his thrusters and walked back to the rest of his squadron who were now guarding the secured clones.

The Sideswipe clone had been watching the conversation between them. He too didn’t really want to KILL if it wasn’t necessary. Beat them up – now THAT was fun! But kill them when they were helpless – naw… So the quick thinking clone thought of a way to communicate to the two. “Hold on,” he said to Shado. Jester then pulled out a small jar of white clown-face makeup. Holding out his left arm, he wrote ‘Surrender?’ on it and held it out for the two still-functioning clones to read.

“Y-yes,” they both gasped in between their groans…

Speed nodded to Shado as he bent down and opened up their chest panels. Casually he ripped some wires in half, and then shut them. “Well, the freagers are disarmed – but don’t expect ME to carry their afts. It’s bad enough I’m goin’ to have to repair the losers,” he snorted and stomped off.

Many voices cussing began to drift from over by the Air Assault squadron. The Ground Assault team looked at each other, wondering what they needed to do now. Shado bent down and slung the heavily damaged Prowl clone over his shoulder. With a sigh, Jester threw the heavier Onslaught one over his. “Boy, these military clones are heavy sloggers,” he noted.

“Well, looks like the fraggin’ losers are reactivating,” Speed quipped, glancing behind him at the rest of their unit…

-----

The twelve undamaged prisoners were chained together by ropes looped from neck-to-neck and marched towards the hangar that the humans decided they’d hunker down in. To silence the bitching from the security clones, Speed and Silver had put duct tape over all of their mouths. Marching them inside, Jag decided that it would be better to tie all of their feet and sit them in four groups of three. Sitting them back-to-back, they tied their necks tightly together so that they couldn’t move. Silently, the secured clone prisoners sat there with their arms handcuffed behind them, glaring daggers at their captors.

“Here, let me show you how to disable their weapon systems. Fucking losers don’t need them anyways,” Speed snickered. He knelt down in front of a Vortex clone, flipped open an access panel on his abdomen, and showed Silver, TC and Blue which wires to cut.

Beachcomber and Rumble watched in frank amazement at the thoroughness and efficiency of the clones in making their captives completely helpless. “Damn, if we’d known they were this good – we’d have used them ourselves. Instead of just letting the humans have them for fuck toys!” Rumble smirked as he glanced up at the Autobot.

Beachcomber shook his head and sighed as he sat down with a clang. Carefully, he leaned his back armor against the heavy metal plating of the wall. “Is that all you cons ever think about? Conquest? There’s so much to life besides that you know.”

Rumble snorted as he plopped himself down. Making himself comfortable, he leaned against some boxes, not far from the Autobot. “Spoken like a true Autobot. You mechs are such freagin’ wusses!”

Overhearing Rumble’s comment, the red ground clone snickered. “You know what Rumble? Fuck you…. Oh wait – nix that… I wouldn’t want to dirty my cable on you!” Jester smirked as he and Shado carried their damaged captives over to Beachcomber. After all, the Decepticon was under THEIR command now. And this guy really needed to just shut up and do as ordered!

Rumble considered getting up and kicking the smart aft’s tail pipes. He was halfway up when he remembered that his hip bearing was still shot. Sitting back down in a huff, he crossed his arms at glared at the mini-Sideswipe. Eventually, he’d kick his aft – or force interface him…. Eventually… He began to silently mull over which he’d rather do. The idea of a little Sideswipe screaming as he thrust his cable into him – was a rather enjoyable image to be sure.. But then again – smashing his fist into that smirk would probably be just as enjoyable…

“You mind watching them while we help the team?” Shado politely asked Beachcomber. He had watched the Decepticon’s sulking behavior and wondering how long it’d be before the little freak jumped ship. If he was a betting clone – he’d bet it would be as soon as the mechs showed back up. And to be honest, he’d probably give the bastard a lift to the launch pad – just to get rid of him. He was as ruff cut as Speed!

“So you chose to save both bot and con clones – even though they may be infected?” the Autobot asked in amazement.

“Well, Sharon might come up with something, now that asswipe here told her what she’s up against. And a clone is a clone – we aren’t like you guys,” Jester quipped. He grinned as Beachcomber held his hands out for them to set the damaged clones on. Then he shot a quick glance at Rumble, his optics silently telling the Decepticon he was more than willing to scrap with him. Anytime – Anywhere…

He couldn’t help it. The little freagin’ Sideswipe clone was way too big for his tailpipes! “That’s because you’re not good enough to be us, you little slogger,” Rumble snorted. He yelped in surprise as he suddenly felt an arm wrap around his neck and a barrel of a narrow cannon digging into the side of his helm.

“Let’s get one thing straight you little prick, you follow us now,” Scream growled in his audio. “If you have a problem with that, then I’ll just blow your useless cranial unit off your shoulders – understood?” His voice held that threatening tone that the real Starscream always had. But with the clone, there wasn’t going to be a second chance. He wasn’t as wishy-washy or as arrogant as the one he was cloned from. He was simply stating fact.

A shiver of fear went through the small con. Gulping back his fear he nodded, and in the blink of an optic the red Seeker clone had zoomed off to help Daniel. “Damned clone thinks he’s freagin’ Starscream,” he grumbled as he rubbed his neck. But deep inside he thanked Primus that the real Starscream wasn’t nearly as efficient or as tough as his clone!

Beachcomber set the two helpless clones in his lap. He began to lightly stroke their chassis, trying to comfort the terrified little ones. “No Rumble, I don’t think so. I think he’s far surpassed Starscream already. He’s the perfect combination of Decepticon and Autobot ideals,” his optics tracked the red Seeker clone. “I think you Decepticons may have unwittingly produced the ultimate leader for the new species. He just doesn’t realize it yet.” He looked down again at the little mechs he cradled in his lap. No, cons would’ve never shown this mercy – and Autobots wouldn’t have shown this level of ferocity…. But the clones did nothing out of hate. They just did what they had to in order to ensure they survived. And they did it with an efficiency that was truly meta-blowing!

Rumble followed Beachcomber’s appraising look. He narrowed his red optics as he studied the mini-Starscream. If it was that obvious to both him and the Autobot – then his bad feeling about that particular clone was dead-on. He began to wonder just how many of those dratted Starscream clones were showing the same traits. And how many were now infected? It would make life on this devastated planet even harder than the humans imagined… Dread began to fill Rumble’s every circuit. And silently, he cursed Thundercracker again for not showing up at the designated pickup point…

The last Hummer was pulled in, just as ash began to fill the air. The clones helping the humans lower and secure the giant hangar doors. Other than Silver and Speed, there was no bragging to be heard.. And even their bragging wasn’t terribly bad…

----

“Well, look what we got here,” Drew said as he found several pallets of those familiar wooden shipping crates. Cutting open the plastic, he read the shipping labels. “Looks like a shipment of clones going to Ft Carson in Colorado,” he yelled over to Darren.

Darren was busy helping Sharon fill the blow-up pools they had found in a pallet. These had been going to a Walmart, which probably didn’t exist anymore. So, with a found hose, they were slowly filling each 6,000 gallon pool from the sink in the hangar’s bathroom. TC was busy blowing up the top ring of yet another one. The more they filled, the better off they’d be. Darren looked over at his friend. “Well, Ft Carson will be under several hundred feet of ash by now – doubt they’ll need them.”

“And if they’re being shipped FedEx, than they’re most likely search and rescue models. Maybe even medical models,” Jag said as he and Blue walked over. Working together, the two pulled off a couple of the wooden crates and popped off the lids. They removed just enough of the Styrofoam peanuts to see the clone’s heads. “Well, we got a Beachcomber, a Perceptor and a Ratchet so far,” he announced.

“Cooooool, didn’t know many of mine were being sold to the military,” the Autobot said. A lazy smile crossed his face, not many of his clones had even been made... It would be nice to have one to hang out with. He continued to absentmindedly stroke the two in his lap as if they were cats or something. Not even noticing the hum starting to replace their groans..

Silver unlocked the door, allowing Travis and Daniel to stomp in. Then he closed it again, and resumed his guard position, watching both captive clones and the ash falling outside the little window in the door. The two men shook themselves, the gray of their ECE suits now being an even lighter gray from a layer of ash.

Jester and Scream trotted over with some brand new towels that they had pilfered from yet more shipping boxes, and began to wipe down the men’s suits. Once they were reasonably clean, they helped the men get out of them.

“Well, the ash fall is already four inches in just the last four hours,” Daniel reported to the group.

Travis held up the cable they’d been laying out. “But, we’ve got a fiber optic line connected to the underground broadband line, so until the entire Eastern network goes down; we’ve got PC communications and electricity.”

Sharon nodded at Darren and left him to finish filling the pools with TC’s help. Going over to a Hummer, she pulled out her laptop. Finding a small office in the side of the hangar, she plugged in the power and the ‘ground line’. And started working to get them connected to the internet.. It was slow going.. “Well, most of the primary servers are out. I have to try and route through New York - and its mainframe is overwhelmed,” she explained as Daniel hovered over her shoulder.

“Well, keep trying sis, we’ve got to let them know we’re alive – and about the Decepticon program in these clones!” he growled the last part, glancing over at Rumble.

“Geese, they’re going to keep blaming me, aren’t they?” he grumbled as he curled his arms around his bent legs and set his chin on them.

Beachcomber merely shrugged as he continued to gently stroke the two clones he was in charge of. It was the Decepticon’s problem – not his. He glanced down in his lap, noting that the pair were watching the activity inside the hangar as they relaxed against him. True, they were so damaged that they were helpless, but something inside him just said that it felt right. It felt right to see bot and con descendants lying peacefully together. Shifting, he leaned back a little more. A wistful smile on his blue face as he watched his group prepare to wait the disaster out…..

Prowl-796 hummed slightly in response to the mech’s fingers rubbing his chest armor and single remaining door wing. He tried to ignore the damage signals that were streaking up from his destroyed legs and ripped open back regions and focus on the touch. He ground his dental plates together as he looked up at the blue mech. He had failed in his assignment of guarding this hub. But something inside him had driven him to strive to continue functioning over certain suicide by trying to continue the futile resistance to the assault. It went against his programs to surrender unless ordered to by his assigned human commander, but he had done it anyways.

Weakly, he turned his head. Scanning around the interior of the large hangar, he focused his one good optic and took mental notes of what he observed. Two of the cargo jets were crammed inside, and the invading team of humans and clones were bustling about. Some of them were going through freight and pulling out items they could use and setting up water storage pools - while others had dragged in a fiber optic line and were trying to link up with the internet. Twelve of his fellow security clones were tied up in groups so that they could lean their backs against each other, but were totally helpless.

The wreck of a clone turned his optics to the strange Unit of clones who had so quickly and thoroughly defeated his security force. The flyer models were obviously modified drastically from their original model specs. If it weren’t for their face plates and helms, there’d be no way for him to identify their models. Being able to hear the setting of their vocalizers would’ve helped, but his audios were blown to shards. Prowl-796 recognized that this unit far surpassed his in tactics and training. And because of this, he couldn’t help but be impressed at the ability defeat him even with a 3-to-1 ratio in his favor.

Movement caught his optics. Once again some of the Prowl, Vortex and Onslaught clones were having their little rage fits. He and his second-in-command had been having issues lately with some of the clones having major personality glitches. They’d already had several of these refurbished, but that dratted virus kept fraggin’ their programs again. His human supervisors had been waiting for a replacement shipment to arrive. But with the eruption – well, Prowl-796 was just stuck dealing with the troops he had.

His Lieutenant weakly nudged him, the Onslaught clone barely recognizable now with all his damage. Briefly, they locked optics, worried that the glitched clones of theirs might cause issues. Should they tell their captors? Identify the clones that needed to be shut down before they somehow broke out of their bonds. But how? Neither he nor Alpha-121 could even hear.

But they could still talk..

“Autobot,” Prowl-796 said as he looked up at the mech.

There was no response, so perhaps he wasn’t loud enough?

“Autobot,” he said again, increasing power to his vocalizer. This should increase his volume. Apparently it worked; the mech stopped rubbing his fingers and looked down at him with an expression of curiosity. He said something in reply, but Prowl-796 couldn’t understand him, because he simply couldn’t receive audio input. “I can’t hear. Audios are blown. But I must warn you.”

The mech nodded that he’d understood the limitations, but then he held up a finger for the clone to wait for a second. His lips moved, obviously he was informing others of something. Suddenly, Prowl-796 couldn’t see the Autobot’s face since two clones had just landed and were kneeling next to him, peering down at him. He ID’d them as modified Seeker models, most likely Thundercracker and Starscream. Since he had been watching them, he’d realized that the Starscream model seemed to be the leader of the clones. So he turned his one remaining optic to him.

“Glitched clones need to be shutdown. We were waiting for replacements. But they’ll get violent soon,” he told him. The Starscream clone tried to ask him something, but then the Autobot seemed to tell him something. He clamped his mouth shut, realizing that the damaged clone couldn’t hear him anyways. He and the Thundercracker clone seemed to confer for a little bit, and then a human woman was on his other side, also talking with the clones.

They seemed to have come up with a decision. The woman looked down and wrote “tell us which?” letter by letter on his one remaining door wing. She obviously knew how sensitive they were to touch, for Prowl-796 could decipher her words. He weakly nodded “I can show you which ones. Others seem fine. Though some are getting mild glitches now…”

The Starscream clone put his arms under him, and Prowl-796 felt himself flying through the air. Without much effort, the Seeker landed and brought him up to the groups of tied up clones. The damaged Prowl clone moved his one functional arm, pointing and telling them what was wrong with each of his troops. He watched as the Dragstrip clone followed them around, easily shutting down those clones that he told them to shut down.

Then he was laid down on the hard concrete. The Dragstrip clone knelt down next to him and opened up his chest armor. Prowl-796 tried to smile at the yellow clone since he was apparently performing a cursory exam of his damage. ‘He must be their medic,’ the Prowl clone thought. This was highly unusual, since that model was notoriously obnoxious and built just for racing. But a medic was a medic, and in the condition he was in – he didn’t care WHAT model fixed him, just that he got fixed. This was his final thought as he went into stasis.

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The New Age - (Market Commodity book II)