Alita released a nearly inaudible sigh of relief as she forced her hands to unclench and release the steering controls. She had survived the first test, flying innocuously past the Decepticon battleship's finely tuned long-range sensors. The entire time she had felt a pricking sensation at her neck, as if the crosshairs of a weapon were pointed directly at her back. Fortunately someone with restraint must have been in charge at the time, most likely Cyclonus, to keep the less-controlled foot soldiers in line and discourage random pot-shots at passing ships, for the reason that it might attract unwanted attention as well as waste valuable ammunition. She had had quite a hard time keeping herself from jamming on the thrusters and speeding away as her instincts screamed to do, but that would only serve to call attention to herself and get her nicely killed. Not that her chances of survival were really all that likely, but she preferred an honorable death. Her rational mind told her that the asteroid she was behind at the moment hid the ship quite well, and that the Cons' short-range sensors weren't powerful enough to find it unless they purposely searched, but she felt horribly vulnerable and exposed. At least she wouldn't have to wait for long. The supply ship was due along any minute now. In fact, she could not shake off a deep-seated fear that it had already come and gone, robbing her of camouflage that she'd need to penetrate the battleship. She could always wait for another one to appear, but the stops were far between, and the longer she stayed out in the open, despite her asteroid cover, the higher the stakes rose on her discovery.
She jumped slightly as the supply ship suddenly appeared in the distance on her viewscreen. It was too soon, she just didn't feel ready yet! If only she had a little more time to prepare... "Nonsense!" she yelled aloud, startling herself and giving her the mental boost she needed. "All the time in the world wouldn't be enough to prepare myself to die. My mind's just stalling for time and if I don't hurry, I'll lose my only chance!" With that pep talk of sorts, she took hold of the steering controls and slowly edged her tiny craft out from behind shelter.
She gently nosed her craft forward until it hovered under the wing of the immense but dilapidated cruiser. No doubt it belonged to the Scuzoids, who hoarded their profits instead of using them to improve their ships. All the better for her, since their scanners wouldn't detect her, and the crumbling exterior would confuse the scanners on the Decepticon battleship. Still, one never knew. Alita had seen quite a few energon raids end in catastrophe because of some unforeseen element. Normally she held no beliefs towards the existence of gods, but she was praying with all of her might at this moment, not even bothering to direct it to anyone in particular. She knew that the only thing that would get her through this was her own wit and skills, but still her murmured pleas seemed reassuring.
She pressed her legs together tightly to keep from trembling as the enormous battleship loomed ever closer. An opening slowly hissed open like the giant maw of a huge predator, eager to swallow its helpless prey. Alita shook her head to chase away the frightening mental picture and adjusted her speed to compensate for the slowing craft above. It wouldn't look very good for her to shoot out from her cover, practically begging to be shot at.
The Scuzoid pilot must had already given a clearance code, for the ship encountered no opposition upon its entry. Alita experienced a few moments of sheer terror as she nosed the ship in, fearing that the behemoth above her would shift abruptly and land on her, but it remained on course as it slid into the docking bay with surprising gracefulness. Alita landed behind it, being careful to keep out of sight of the 'Cons waiting to unload the shipment. As soon as she heard the cargo ship doors open she stepped out of her own small craft. She'd have to move quickly, for a stray worker could circle around the cargo ship and find her own. Despite the fact that it bore no markings at all, Autobot or otherwise, the Decepticons would sound an alarm. Fuel pump pounding, she edged around the massive craft and peered around. A steady stream of drones circled the craft, unloading the new supplies and carrying them out of the shuttlebay to various parts of the battleship. Drones weren't too bright and luckily were programmed to accept anyone that bore the Decepticon insignia. This was a stroke of luck, but someone had to have authorized the docking of the supply craft and would no doubt arrive shortly to oversee the delivery. She cut ahead of the drones, grabbed a random box, and swiftly exited the shuttle bay. She was in- so far, so good.
She clutched the box to her chest as she forced herself to sedately walk through the corridors, which were not heavily traveled but still contained the occasional passerby. Those that did walk past gave her an odd look, since Decepticon females were rare enough, but they hadn't seen any that ranked high enough to be posted to the new ship. Their curiosity was quickly quashed by her icy glare, for they knew that females also had fiery tempers, and, as several brash and stupid males had found out in the past, staring too hard resulted in rather unpleasant body alterations.
'Well, would you look at that,' Alita thought to herself in amazement as yet another male that passed by gaped, then looked flustered and embarrassed, mumbled an apology and saluted. 'Females may be a rare commodity among the Decepticons, but they've certainly earned respect. I never thought I'd be envious of some 'Con femme. I always assumed that they were treated as fluff, fit only to serve as maids and pleasurebots. Most Autobot males have trouble keeping their optics in their head when a femme passes by. Maybe we should take a cue from our opposition and start teaching a few lessons with our fists!' Alita snickered aloud, the sound echoing down the fortunately deserted hall, startling her and causing her to nearly drop the package. She sobered up instantly, remembering where she was.
She rounded the corner and stopped short in horrified shock. She had downloaded the schematics of the base provided by Punch into her CPU, but they had been based on what the layout would be like once the construction had been completed. It hadn't taken into account any delays, and though the layout in her head insisted that there should be a finished corridor right in front of her, the massive gaping hole in the floor refused to disappear. There was quite simply no floor from one end of the corridor to the other. She frantically searched the schematics for an alternate route, but the only other possibility lay in heading back the way she'd come and then passing by the command center. Perhaps foot soldiers and lower-ranking officers would pay her respect, but the higher-ranking officials would instantly recognize an unknown face and ask unpleasant questions- unless they decided to talk with their fists or guns. She'd taking a gaping hole in the floor over gunfire any day.
She peered closely at the walls, searching for a platform that would allow her to cross. The rim of the wall that jutted out didn't look wide enough to support her. How on Cybertron had they been working on the floor? Then she saw it- a mini hovercraft that would allow the workers to place the metal sheeting without resting their weight on it until the soddering cooled. The hovercraft was quite inconveniently on the other side of the hole. "Aren't going to make things easy for me, are they?" she grumbled to herself. All right, she had come this far and she refused to be stalled. As she had so often lectured to her femmes, there's almost always a solution to any problem if one simply knows where to look.
She scanned the room once again. Nothing. Nothing that would help her get across. Unless.... She looked up. Bingo! Thick pipes stretched high overhead neatly traversing the hole and continued to the other side. She mentally reached into her subspace pocket but stopped when she realized she still held the package in her hands. She knelt to put it down, but the label caught her eye. "Flash grenades," she grinned. Perfect for getting out of a tight spot. She ripped the lid off quickly and picked up a grenade, surveying it like a connoisseur. Satisfied that it was free of defects, she hooked it on a small piece of protruding metal on her hip. She wished that she could take the whole box, or at least a few more, but she had to travel lightly. One should suffice, and her blaster had never let her down before.
Alita pulled a grappling hook out of her subspace pocket, attached to a fragile-looking rope. She wound up and threw the rope, which looped around the pipe and hooked on the other side. She jerked the rope to assure its stability, then began to climb up. It was lightweight and easy to transport in a rather subspace pocket but was also very sturdy.
Her hands closed around the pipe and she hoisted herself up, wrapping her legs around it and swinging herself on top. She unfastened the grappling hook and returned it to subspace. She gripped the pipe strongly between her thighs as she began to slide down its length. She tried not to think of the vast emptiness under her as she slowly shuffled along. She wasn't used to this sort of thing at all- she had been a tunnel fighter for so long, used to cramped and enclosed spaces. It had taken a while, with a lot of support from veteran space pilots, until she adjusted to the vast inky blackness of space. At least then she had known that space would not kill her, it was simply its size that intimidated her. But the expanse below her was definitely life-threatening.
She started as a noise came to her audio sensors. It didn't come from the adjoining corridors. No, it sounded a lot closer than that.... Suddenly the pipe shifted underneath her and gave an ominous groan. Alita could not suppress a shriek as she clutched the metal frantically. The pipe was never meant to support anyone's weight, not even the lighter female models. She began to crawl faster, the seams of the metal continuing to groan. She risked a quick glance ahead and saw that, while this pipe was slowly separating from the others, the next pipe was firmly cemented in the wall. She had come over two-thirds of the way already. She could make it if only the pipe would hold together....
Her hands struck an oily patch and slipped off, the momentum throwing her body off balance. Her hands scrambled for purchase as she felt her body going over the edge, but the round pipe afforded no handholds. She cried out in panic and despair, fuel pump threatening to smash its way out of its housing, as she slid off her perch. Her thighs instinctively clenched, keeping a death grip on the metal above. Her body jerked, nearly shaking off her hold, but her legs held. Her upper body dangled above the yawning pit, and in spite of herself she got a direct view of the floor fourteen levels below. This route had been selected for her infiltration because it was low-traffic and low-security, but apparently it was such a low priority that the entire section had been left unfinished. A random, crazy thought rushed through her CPU- 'Maybe I should have chanced the command center after all. Death by gunfire would be more honorable and less terrifying.' That struck her as rather funny and she almost began to laugh, but the sound died in her throat as the pipe shifted once more. Rivets popped out one by one, falling silently through open air to land far below.
She craned her head upwards, surveying the pipe. It would fall any minute now, but the next pipe was very close, close enough to grab if she could get her hands around it. Her thighs tensed around the pipe, preparing for the weight shift. She would only have one chance at this, for her movement would jerk the other pipe free. She began to swing back and forth slightly, desperately trying to shut out the groan of metal fatigue as she built up momentum. Suddenly her body bent at the waist, surging up as her arms opened wide to clutch the lifeline above. Her fingers grazed the metal and clenched, the muscle cables tensing as she raised herself higher, giving her the precious seconds she needed to move her hands up and wrap her arms around the pipe. She felt the pipe shift and suddenly begin to fall. Her legs opened up to release it, and it fell like a rock, mercifully missing her by a scant few inches. Alita began to work her arms backwards on the pipe to give herself enough room to hoist her legs up. Once again she swung back and forth, then on the backswing her hips rocketed up and her legs grasped the pipe above. She hung upside-down, trying to stop her trembling. Just then a loud clang rose up from far, far below. She hadn't kept track of the time, but the longer the delay between the fall and the landing indicated the distance, which in this case seemed to be enormous.
Alita squeezed the pipe in her hands, reminding herself that it and she were both still here, but she might not be for long if she didn't get moving before her body gave out. She forced herself to shimmy along the pipe, not daring to try to climb on top but remained suspended below it. She shut down her optics, relying on the steady, repetitive movement to keep her going. "Just a little more, just a little more," she told herself. Her optics powered up quickly when her head bumped against something, and she found herself face-to-face with the wall. Her gaze cautiously dropped, fearfully expecting to see more empty space. She shook her head, but the blessed image remained- solid ground below. It took several minutes to force herself to let go of the pipe to retrieve the grappling hook from subspace. She quickly secured it around the pipe and assured that it was well-placed. Everything was ready for her descent, except her legs, which refused to surrender its grip. "Oh, come on now, this is ridiculous! I can't stay up here all day!" she told herself. After a few more minutes she managed to force her trembling legs to surrender their perch. She had another moment of terror as her body swung free, then her legs clamped down around the rope, and she slowly lowered herself down. The moment her feet touched the ground her legs collapsed, and she curled up in a fetal position, trembling violently. She recalled the faint clang that the pipe had made when it landed on the punishing metal floor far below and shuddered, bringing on another round of trembling. "That could have been me," she choked.
'Get up, you ninny!' an inner voice hissed. Just then an alarm sounded. "Intruder alert! Security personnel to your posts! Secure all sensitive areas!"
Alita groaned; they had most likely discovered her shuttle. Instead of depressing her, though, it spurred her on. She leaned against the wall as she slowly eased herself to her feet, coaxing her wobbly legs to support her. She didn't have too much further to go, but the last few yards would be the most dangerous of all. She would have to cross the Hub, the central area of the ship where the essential corridors of the ship intersected. It would be crowded with robots strolling by, enjoying their free time between shifts, or others bustling off to begin their own work shifts. The crowds would conceal her nicely, but it would also be heavily guarded now that the Decepticons had been alerted to her presence. Despite her new paint job and Decepticon insignia, a female Transformer was bound to attract attention. Still, there was no way around it.
She slunk through a main corridor and hid behind a pillar, peering cautiously into the Hub. The sudden chatter and noise assaulted her senses, reverberating off the metal support structures. The sight astonished her- she was actually seeing the enemy at rest, those that had raged in the midst of battle now relaxing with their friends and perhaps imbibing exotic fuels. It was the exact same scene at Metroplex when war-weary soldiers found a moment of peace, only the faces were different here. Well, the menacing guards standing around with fully charged weapons really weren't part of the Autobot party scene either. No doubt this was a new addition to Decepticon R&R as well, judging from the many curious looks the passersby gave them. "All this for little ol' me? I'm touched," Alita cooed. She could be as coy as she liked, but that still didn't solve the problem of getting past them.
Her optics fell on a lone adolescent Decepticon roaming around the outskirts of the crowd. His Decepticon brand still gleamed with newness, and his optics shone as he gazed reverently at the older warriors. Alita couldn't help suppressing a smile of amusement. He reminded her a bit of how Hot Rod had been at one time. He'd do nicely.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again," she grinned. "There's almost always a solution to any problem if one simply knows where to look." She had to confess that she was going to have fun with this part of the mission.
"There you are," she purred, sidling up to the young mech and putting her arm around his waist. "I've been looking all over for you."
"You -- you have?" the astonished male gaped.
"Oh yes," Alita purred, caressing his helmet and struggling hard not to dissolve into helpless giggles. "Why don't we walk across the Hub together, get to know each other?"
"S—sure!" the mech stammered, grinning from ear to ear.
"Great! Then let's go." Alita ushered him along, wary of the guards, who had all taken notice of her presence. Most of them had relaxed when she walked off with her friend. "So what's your name? I mean," she said hastily, "I've seen you around but never got to find out what you're called. I just had to get to know you."
The male smiled bashfully, and Alita felt a twinge of guilt. He was very young and no doubt inexperienced. It was funny but also very painful to see his eagerness. She shouldn't be playing with him like this, but still he was just a 'Con and also a very useful pawn. Still, he was too young to be fighting in a never-ending war.
"My name's Sport," he replied. "The other guys kept sayin' I was a good sport, you know, since I'd never let teasing bother me. I know I'll be a great soldier one day, I just need the chance to prove it!"
Alita winced at those words. So many of them, on both sides, had started out as idealistic young robots looking to make their mark and emulate their heroes, but too often they ended up dispirited and trapped. "I'm sure you will, but it's not as great as you think. At least think it over before committing yourself."
In the corner of her optic, Alita saw one of the guards approaching, frowning suspiciously. She quickly turned and kissed the mech deeply, muffling his startled cry with her lips. He was too shocked to return the favor. Alita breathed a mental sigh of relief as the guard turned away, convinced by the display of affection. They had arrived at the corridor that she needed, the one that led down to the engine room. "Gotta go now," she said, feeling rotten at his crestfallen expression. She knew that it was foolish to worrying about a 'Con's hurt feelings, who'd be out there shooting at her soon enough since he was considered important enough to station here, but still his wounded expression stung her. Worse than that, she knew that this place was about to make a very large bang quite soon, and she wanted this innocent mech to have a chance to escape. "Tell you what," she said. "Meet me at the shuttle bay in a few breems. I've got to take care of some unfinished business."
Sport's beaming face was almost laughable. "Sure, meet you there!"
Alita strode off, thoughts already turning towards the tricky task ahead. "Wait a minute!"
The cry stopped her in her tracks. She turned around slowly, ready to face the business end of a rifle, but it was only Sport. "You never told me. What's your name?"
"Alita," she told him before she could stop herself. 'That was stupid!' she scolded herself. 'Now they have a way to trace you.' But at least she had been honest about one thing.
Sport smiled dreamily. "That's a real pretty name. See you soon, Alita."
"You too, Sport," she replied, knowing that she would never see him again. But at least he had a chance to survive.