Title: No One Behind Me
Characters: Mirage, Bumblebee, Jazz
Verse: G1, AU
Warnings/Content: war time violence and destruction
Prompt: Scenario - 'If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.' Niccolo Machiavelli
A/N: Written for prompt #2 at tf_speedwriting in an hour.

Bumblebee slipped up behind the Decepticon guard, his solid energon blade smoothly sliding out from its sheath in his forearm. He waited until the guard turned at the end of his patrol and stepped into his body, the blade sliding neatly through the cables and lines of the guard's throat. The Decepticon slid to the ground, energon spraying from his lines, air wheezing out, collapsing to his knees, which brought him down to Bumblebee's reach. Bee didn't hesitate, slamming his fist through the gaping hole made by his knife, wrapping his fingers around the mech's comm unit embedded in the back of his neck and ripping it out.

The Decepticons would know something had happened when this guard dropped off their comm network, but by then, he and his team would be on their way out. Bee had learned the hard way to never leave a Decepticon behind him that could strike back. He was ruthless in his elimination of threats, and Jazz had learned to appreciate that Bumblebee, although sunny in nature, was absolutely deadly in the field.

Mirage shimmered into existence beside Bumblebee, and the minibot stepped close to his team mate, allowing the electro-disrupter to hide them both from any normal optical range. Holding onto Mirage's hand, Bee allowed his blade to flip back into its holder and followed the invisible pull on his hand. Once he was in position, Mirage let go of his hand and Bumblebee shimmered into the visible spectrum once again.

Nodding, Bee moved into position. He trusted that Mirage was moving into his own position, and that Jazz was where he needed to be. The huge gate and wall of the Decepticon fortress dominated the horizon in front of him, and Bumblebee drew a sharp ventilation of air. Jazz had them tackling this fortress, which was a stronghold of the Seekers, a place where the air-bourne divisions of the Decepticon forces flew from with impunity, striking the Autobots where and when they wished. Their Prime had made it clear that the air forces would have to be eliminated for future battles to succeed against the Decepticons.

Bee had no idea how they were going to go about this. Mirage had been gone for three orns, gathering information about the fortress. Knowing him, he had fueled up and snuck into the fortress, using his electro-disrupter and his natural abilities, honed through vorns of practice, to keep himself from being caught and to map the entire structure.

Now it was Jazz's game. He was inside the fortress, doing whatever he was going to do to sabotage the place. Bumblebee's job in the team was to eliminate any threats that could impede them or cause them harm. Jazz had learned to appreciate Bee's natural predilection, which was to make sure that any Decepticon he brought down stayed down and was no longer a threat to them. If Optimus gave an order that no Decepticons were to be killed, Bumblebee made sure they had no comm units and that their gross motor function was disabled, usually permanently.

Shaking his helm slightly, Bee brought his attention back to the fortress in front of him. Now he needed to activate the distraction and draw everyone's attention to the front gate. He pulled a small box from subspace and placed it under a large slab of metal from a collapsed building, then moved to his next station quietly, planting another and moving on until he'd ringed his half of the front with boxes, scattered about. He smoothly moved away, moving erratically and freezing in place at odd moments, doing his best to behave like one of the native scavengers. Finally done, he withdrew back from the gate to the rendezvous point.

Once there, he waited. A soft clicking noise caught his attention, and he focused on it with his audios, his other sensor arrays scanning for other life forms and traps. He nodded, once, and Mirage shimmered into existence a little way in front of him. Bee nodded again and triggered his first box.

A pillar of flame shot into the air. Mirage triggered his box, and a spray of multi-coloured sparks began flaring from that box.

An alarm rang out across the ravaged landscape before them, and the massive gates creaked open, spilling Decepticon forces from inside the fortress.

"Time t'go, gentlemechs." A soft voice breathed in their audios, and Bumblebee and Mirage set their remotes to automatically set off the boxes before pulling back and making their escape on Jazz's heels.

They slid through the twisted remnants of the city, moving toward the metallic hills that ringed the outer fringes of the city's remains. Once there, Jazz veered and led them toward a small canyon, not the main one they'd used before. Trusting him, Bee and Mirage followed in his footsteps.

At the very edge of the canyon, Jazz paused and looked back. The last couple of boxes Wheeljack had created went off. By now, an enormous force of Decepticons were arrayed before the gate, weapons bristling. Even the air forces were on the ground, backing the ground-bound forces.

A deep rumbling came toward them, and Bumblebee was surprised that he felt it, not just with his audios, but in his feet. Jazz looked extremely satisfied.

"It failed, Jazz." Mirage said.

"Nope. Wait for it." Jazz told them.

The massive tower that was the central feature of the fortress began to sink. Bumblebee hastily cycled his optics, unable to believe the data they were sending his processor. He looked again. The tower was sinking faster now, and the Decepticon forces seemed to be milling about rather than keeping their lines.

The bottom dropped out under them, and Jazz pressed a small box in his hands. Screams echoed across the plain. Bee looked at his commander, and Jazz gave him a nasty smile.

"I just disabled all flight protocols through a virus I introduced. All the fliers…can't."

"Leave no mech behind you that can take you out." Mirage said.

"Eliminate the threat permanently." Bumblebee said at the same time.

Jazz nodded. "Exactly. Let's get back and tell Optimus his forces are safe from these fliers."

Bumblebee chanced one final look back. Where the Decepticon fortress had been was a massive sinkhole, dust and debris billowing up, obscuring the stars. Turning firmly forward, Bumblebee followed his team mates, leaving behind an army of dead enemies.

~Finis