Glossary

Vorn – 83 years

Solar-cycle – 1 day

Stellar-cycle – 1 year

Orbital-cycle – 1 month

Nano-klik – 1 second

Joor – 6 hours

Breem – 8.3 minutes

Groon – 1 hour

Deca-cycle – 3 weeks

Disclaimer: Its fanfiction. Of course I do not own it.

Quickstrike's Story – War on Cybertron

Chapter 1

Mirage

It was a quiet night in the Autobot base. Almost all of the Autobots were asleep except the members on guard and a specific red camouflage officer. Mirage was lying on his berth and running his processor through some things. The one that came to the forefront of his mind was a situation he had been watching for a very long time.

There was a silver Decepticon femme that he could not get out of his processor. She as older than him and according to information on her, she joined the Decepticon side near the very beginning of the war. She was known among the Autobots as a very cold and uncaring femme, but also a very ruthless.

It seemed to all the Autobots that she had pathetic aim and that was why she used blades most of the time. In fact she was an excellent blade-user, even better than Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, who are the best in the Autobot ranks. However, after vorns of Mirage studying the femme in battle, when he could, it wasn't that she had terrible aim, because that was definitely not the case, but she just preferred to use her blades. Most Autobots that have not faced her before in battle make the mistake of assuming she did not bring her blades, however they are always cut down when she pulls them out from her subspace under her wings.

She was even more dangerous to the Autobots as she was a seeker, but she was a better fighter than most seekers, in fact she was just better than the other seekers in everything. She did not run away when fighting got too close instead she didn't really fly when fighting. She was usually on the ground but used her thrusters to dodge attacks if she needed to.

What really got most of the Autobots, was that she could go against the best of the Autobot army and not die. She could go against Optimus Prime and come out alive, albeit a bit harmed but she could still come out of it. That is something a lot of other Decepticon except for Starscream, only because he is a coward, and Megatron cannot do. But what scared most Autobots was that she didn't hesitate to fire on her comrades. If a con didn't obey her order she would ruthlessly shoot them or force them to obey. Of course, not many Decepticons disobeyed her as they feared her as much as the Autobots did. But there was always the stupid one.

She was second only to Megatron. No one on the Autobot side knew why she was only third in command. It was rather obvious that she would be a better second than Starscream, but they were very thankful for it. It would be harder to beat the cons if such a player was second in command.

As Mirage thought about her more and more, he played back scenes of her fights he had recorded, as to study her and find out weaknesses. As he was going through something caught his eye. He played back the recording of the last battle they had and watched it again.

It was the twins versing the femme this time. She was efficiently dodging anything they threw at her which pissed off the front liners very quickly. The femme had no emotion on her faceplates either which continued to further irritate the twins. "You piece of Decepticon scrap metal! Fight us like a real mech!" Sideswipe shouted. "I am not a mech, therefore why should I fight you like one?" The monotone reply made by the femme seemed to still Sideswipe for an astro-second. He then roared in rage and further attacked. Sunstreaker who had be silent during the exchange spoke up "You don't even fight like a femme. Go crawl back to your mate Megatron!" The femme seemed to still in shock for a few nano-kliks.

To all the Autobots it seemed like Megatron and the femme were spark-mates. Since no one could prove wrong or right, and the fact that she was high in the ranks and one of Megatron's most favoured Decepticon. All assumed they were mates.

The femme's faceplates morphed into a look of disgust before they shifted back almost straight away. "I am no one's mate." Her answer made the twins pause for a nano-klik but it was enough for the femme. She shoved her blade through Sideswipe's shoulder before swiftly turning and doing the same to Sunstreaker. The twin front liners gasped in pain and fell to the ground; the femme turned away from them but didn't check if they were still online.

Sideswipe transformed his arm into a cannon and shot her in between the wings. A known sensitive spot on a seeker. The femme barely flinched and turned around with a blank look on her face. She turned her arm into a cannon and fired at him. The femme's cannon blasts were powerful things and so the twins thought it was the end of the line for them. When the blast got closer to the twins they tried to move out of the way but the fired energy went straight over the top of them. They heard the blast hit metal and span to see who she hit. They saw another Decepticon that was sneaking up behind them. The Decepticon that got hit glared at the femme, before going offline. The femme stood with the blank look still on her face. She looked at the twins, who had amused but pain filled looks on their faces. "That's some pretty poor aim you have there, femme!" Sunstreaker called out standing up and getting ready to fight again, Sideswipe following close behind.

The Decepticon simply got back into a fighting stance putting her cannon away and getting her blade back out. Before either of them could move she darted forward and sliced their legs so they could not stand. The twins fell to the ground with howls of pain. She looked about to finish them off when Optimus darted over. (Megatron was not in this battle) The femme jumped away from the twins as they smirked before going offline, thinking Optimus was going to get her.

Prime got in a fighting posture as did the femme. They sprang at each other and began fighting. Optimus seemed to be holding back for some reason, but it was not a worry as the femme seemed to go all out.

Sometime during the fight there was a loud screech of pain from one of the Autobot femmes of the Valkyrie unit under Elita-1. Without hesitation Optimus transformed his cannon and fired at the con damaging the femme. The Con that Optimus was versing also got out her cannon and fired on Optimus who was in the direction of the other battle. Both blasts hit the offending Con and he went offline. Ratchet who was the field medic at the time ran over to the Valkyrie femme and hauled her out of there.

When the recording turned back to Optimus and the Decepticon femme they were battling with swords again.

When there was a small lull in the fight between the two the femme looked around. Seeing the many offline Decepticons and so few remaining, she shouted out her orders. "Decepticons Retreat."

The cons, who would not dare to leave before she said they could, took off without a word of protest. However before the femme did, Optimus nodded at her. The femme inclined her head then transformed into her alt mode, which was a silver Cybertronian jet, and took off.

Mirage played three specific parts over and over again: The bit where the femme supposedly fired on the twins while they were down, when the Autobot femme was about to be off-lined and the small exchange between Optimus and the femme before she left.

Instead of looking as the blast hit the Decepticon as he was sneaking up on the twins in the first bit, Mirage looked and analysed the femme's movements. He watched as her optics adjusted above the twins and gets her cannon ready to fire. Mirage was shocked. She had not missed as every thought she had. She hit her target. Her target was not the twins but the Decepticon behind them.

He did the same for the second recording; he focused on the femme as she 'shot at' Optimus. He watched as she seemingly had a minute glare in her optics focused on the con about to offline the Valkyrie Autobot. She had purposefully missed Optimus and hit the Decepticon.

Mirage knew that something was up. She had not off-lined the twins when she could have. She did not fire on Optimus when he had his back to her and Optimus nodded at her to which he got a nod in reply. Something was most defiantly up. It was almost like Optimus knew that she wouldn't shoot him even if he turned his back. The nod from Optimus was a 'thank you' nod and the return was a 'you're welcome' nod. 'What is going on here?' Mirage asked as he vented loudly in a Cybertronian version of a sigh.

"I'll ask Optimus about it after recharge." Mirage muttered out loud, Mirage shut off his optics and got in a comfortable position on his berth. "I will get to the bottom of this." That was the last thing Mirage said as he dropped off in to his dreams about the Decepticon femme, Quickstrike.

Quickstrike

Quickstrike was annoyed. Her faceplates didn't show it but she was. If she could have, her optic would be twitching in annoyance. That was how annoyed she was. It was very hard to get any emotion out of Quickstrike but the SiC was succeeding without knowing it. The slagging second in command Starscream was being a kiss-aft again to Megatron. Quickstrike wanted to bash in the seekers helm and tell him to stop. It was only giving the Decepticon leader a bigger head.

Since Quickstrike was great at hiding her emotion, she knew how to look for it in others, mainly soundwave. She glanced over at him and low and behold, he was annoyed too. She could see him fighting against the twitch in the optic that threatened her. Soundwave wasn't as good as hiding and seeing emotions as she was because she had been trained as a youngling to control her emotions.

She turned back to the grovelling Sic and her leader who she knew had a big head. She listened silently and waited until Starscream got to his point. Eventually. She finally had enough after half a breem of listening to Starscream blather on. She unleashed her blade with a loud *shing* which instantly silenced the SiC She sheathed her blade and looked to Megatron, leaving her face still blank. Megatron chuckled. He motioned for Starscream to make his point.

"My Lord Megatron," Starscream began in his nasally voice, "now is the time to attack the Autobots. They may have won the last battle thanks to someone retreating," Starscream glared over at Quickstrike. He was always jealous of Quickstrike and so he always put her down and tried to be better than her. It never worked because it always backfired. "Records show that Starscream has retreated many more times than I have and with more than half the mechs still online on the battlefield." Quickstrike spoke in her monotone. "Enough!" Megatron snapped at Starscream when he opened his mouth to retort. "Continue Starscream." Starscream bowed pathetically. "OF course lord Megatron. As I was saying, they may have won last battle but because of that they will not be expecting an attack so soon." Megatron seemed to think this over. His optics brightened in sinister glee and he turned to Starscream. "Well done Starscream." The SiC stared smugly over at Quickstrike. Who simply looked at him with her usual blank face. The seeker growled before turning back to Megatron.

Quickstrike spoke for the first time during the meeting. "Lord Megatron. What would a fight with the Autobots at this time, achieve?" Megatron looked over at her and grinned. "We shall put them on edge at the auto-scum base. That way they will station more Autobots there, leaving the cube less guarded."

Quickstrike kept a neutral face but inside her optics were wide. "The Cube? Lord Megatron?" Megatron chuckled darkly before answering her question. "That's right you were not at the last meeting, instead you were on a mission that Starscream failed at." Megatron said with a glare at his Sic. He turned back to Quickstrike not caring for the look on screamers face. "I am going to use the cube to win this war. I will be the supreme lord of Cybertron and PRIME WILL BOW AT MY FEET!" The Decepticon leader bellowed and laughed manically. Quickstrike simply bowed her head and accepted the answer.

On the inside however, she was fretting slightly. She had to warn them. Prime must know what Megatron's plan is. Quickstrike knew better than everyone that if the All-Spark fell into Megatron's servos. Cybertron would be thrust into the never ending darkness and the universe would be in trouble.

"Quickstrike. You will join Starscream on this mission." Quickstrike nodded. However Screamer started complaining. Before he could say anything however Megatron glared fiercely on him. "She will go with you." Screamer cowered and nodded furiously. Megatron stepped back and turned to look at all the other Decepticons who were at the meeting.

"Get ready to move out in a joor."

"Yes, Lord Megatron."

All the Decepticons left the meeting room and went off the get prepared. Quickstrike headed over to the med-bay to get her med-kit ready. She had a very strong feeling that she was going to need it. She trusted her instincts above all else.

As she left the med-bay she came across Starscream. His optics followed her aft as she walked past him. As a warning she unsheathed her blade a little bit, loudly. Starscream jumped then glared at her before it melted into a look of lust. Quickstrike knew this was coming. Starscream hated her but since there weren't very many femmes at all in the Decepticon ranks, only three including herself, but the other two were spark-mated leaving her the only available femme in the Decepticon ranks.

"My lovely Quickstrike, how would you like to release a little tension before the battle." He asked suggestively. Quickstrike didn't even bother slowing or answering. She just continued walking.

It seemed to piss off the Second in Command. "I do not like being ignored femme." Screamer said as he ran passed her and stopped in front of her. "Move." Quickstrike stated. Screamer smirked. "Join me in moving on my berth and I will." Quickstrike almost smirked but she did not show it. "Affirmative." She said. Screamed grinned and went to say something, but yet again before he could something stopped him. Quickstrike pulled a wrench out of her subspace and smacked Starscream with it on the helm until he was in stasis.

Quickstrike grabbed Starscream's left pede and dragged him through the Decepticon base to his quarters. She acknowledged Barricade as she came through the mechs quarters. Barricade smirked and followed the femme and the unconscious SiC. Quickstrike opened Starscream's room and threw him with amazing strength onto his berth. She then banged out the dents and left, leaving a laughing Barricade behind.

Quickstrike then went and finished preparing for the attack, and how she was going to tell Prime about Megatron's plan.

Mirage

Mirage on-lined his optics whilst his systems got back up and running, coming out of recharge. The camo officer sat up on his berth thinking of what he needed to do that solar-cycle. He was going to question Optimus before he went out on his patrol shift. Mirage groggily got up from his berth and grabbed a cube of energon to drink. He had a feeling that he should have a tank full of energon today and he trusted his instincts. He drank the energon quickly so that he could catch up to prime quicker and left his quarters.

When he got out, He sent a message through comm. Link to Optimus.

::Mirage to Optimus::

::This is Optimus. Is something the matter Mirage?:: Mirage almost sighed at the response.

::I was wondering if I could speak to you if you're not busy? It's about the last battle.::

::Of course. Meet me in my office::

::Yes sir. Mirage out::

As mirage walked toward Optimus' office, he was trying to think of a way to breach the subject of Quickstrike. He couldn't just blurt out that he saw the nod. It would be disrespectful to the Autobot leader.

Mirage had a groon before he had to go on patrol and so he knew he would have to get to the topic quickly. Just as Mirage was figuring it out, the alarm sounded. Mirage cursed and ran out to where the Decepticons were approaching. He used his abilities and went invisible.

Mirage decided to watch Quickstrike this battle and try engaging in battle himself against her. As the mech burst out of the base, still invisible, he scanned the Decepticon until his optics landed on the one he was looking for. What he saw made him slightly surprised. She had thrown a look of loathing over at the Decepticon Second in Command. The SiC just grinned lustily and waggled his eyebrows. Quickstrike turned away and got ready for fighting. He watched as she scanned the Autobots arriving until her optics landed and locked on one in particular. Mirage turned to see who she was looking at when he spotted them. She was looking at Optimus Prime. Prime had not yet noticed that she was looking at him so Mirage took his chance.

Manoeuvring through the battlefield firing shots and stabbing Decepticons, he made it over to Quickstrike. She was not moving and staying away from the fighting. Mirage unsheathed his sword and winced as it made a very loud sound. Quickstrike whirled around and unsheathed her own blades. She glanced around but saw no one.

Quickstrike smirked "Hello, Autobot Mirage. Fancy not seeing you here." Mirage let out a little chuckle at her pun, no doubt knowing she would hear it. "Wow the infamous Quickstrike, emotionless and ruthless, making a pun." Mirage said as he was moving as to not give away his position.

Quickstrike chuckled then became serious "I'm in a bit of a rush, so let's get this over with." Mirage grunted in acknowledgement and swung his blade towards her. Surprisingly she dodged. Mirage swung again and yet again Quickstrike dodged. Quickstrike then flung her blade out as Mirage who pulled his own blade up to block the strike. Mirage was dumbfounded. "How the pit do you know where it am?" He asked, blocking another strike from the femme.

Quickstrike looked up from where the two blades were crossed and looked directly into Mirage's optics. "I can see you Mirage." Quickstrike pulled her blade away and looked at the stunned Autobot. Mirage was slightly scared, if the femme had the technology to see him, than how many other Decepticons had it?

"I am the only Decepticon bearing such technology. The others do not know about it." Mirage visibly relaxed. (AN: Or did he? Get it you can't see him cause he's invisible… I'm going to shut up) He then tensed again and wet back into a fighting position.

Quickstrike

She continued to fight with the camo. Officer, thanking herself that the last time she had been 'taken in' by the Autobots that she had grabbed the technology. As she fought with him she noticed that he seemed to be studying her, but not in a lusty way that most Decepticons do. She was enjoying fighting with this warrior make no mistake but she needed to get to Prime before Screamer sounded the retreat.

As she blocked another swing from the camo officer she notice out of the corner of her optic, a Decepticon named Dirge, who had been publicly humiliated and rejected by her, was lining up his cannon and firing. She immediately knew that the fragger had no idea that Mirage was there, therefore he was aiming for her. She knew that as she saw the blast come out of Dirge's cannon, that it was in fact not going to hit her, but Mirage. It was going to hit his spark chamber. Quickstrike pushed Mirage to the left so that the blast would not hit him in the spark. Instead it just missed the chamber.

Mirage

Mirage cried out as the blast hit him and it deactivated his cloaking. He smacked into the femme who had shoved him to the left. He was confused but as the blast hit he realised that if she had not pushed him, then the blast would have hit his spark chamber. When the second blast hit him it knocked him over, making him take the femme down with him.

As both fighters had been so focused on their fight, they did not notice as they were battling towards the edge of a very deep drop that went for quite a while. So when the second blast knocked him and Quickstrike down, they both went tumbling over the edge.

As Mirage and Quickstrike fell, Mirage was losing a lot of energon quickly from the wound of the first shot. He looked at the further down Quickstrike and saw her activating her thrusters. He thought she was going to fly out of there but when she reached him she grabbed onto him slowing his decent but making it hard for her to fly.

As Mirage was falling into stasis from energon loss, he had a quick thought of how grateful he was that he took that cube of energon earlier, otherwise he would have died sooner. As Mirage looked down at the struggling Decepticon femme, he was confused.

"Why?" he asked

"My falling would have made that fragging seeker call the retreat. I cannot leave just yet." Was that a little desperation he heard in her tone or was it just his processor playing tricks on him?

"Hang on Mirage. We are almost at the bottom. Just stay with me." Mirage's vision began to go black but for some reason his spark was singing as the femme held him and told him to hang on.

The last thing he heard before he went into stasis was Quickstrike. "Don't you dare die Mirage. I have finally found a worthy battle partner. Please, stay with me…"

Then Mirage heard and saw no more.

End chapter

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