Chapter 1: One year later

Seventeen hours after a successful 'autonomus roboticorganism' resurrection and extreme hostilities in the barren deserts of Egypt, the NEST team and personnel arrived in the early hours of the morning at the covert military base of Diego Garcia.

The sun was slowly rising in the sky warming the bases' cemented grounds, steel buildings and army warehouses. The entry point was heavily guarded with armed soldiers stationed at the forefront of the base whilst a fortified wall surrounded the boundary of the covert military grounds.

Dust and pebbles flicked into the air as a line of camo military vehicles made its way down the dirt road leading to the main gate. The cars were so riddled with dust that the pattern-paintedcamouflage was barely visible through the solid layers of muck.

Once granted clearance, the transport cars began to enter the compounds, and it did not take long for Theodore Galloway, national security advisor to the United States president himself, to sieve his sights through the cluttered mass of Autobots and soldiers setting his eyes upon the subject he was preparing to verbally harass.

"You moronic gun wielding maniac! So help me I will have you court marshaled and thrown in jail!"

Major William Lennox shot a cold death stare at the fast approaching Galloway who didn't appear to notice his message of intent to injure. It was far too early for Lennox to be verbally slandered by a snake in the grass politician.

Pushing nearby soldiers aside, Galloway lunged forward pulling the fabric of the Major's uniform at the right shoulder. Onlookers watched with intense gaze anticipating an imminent fist fight.

"You are going to wish you had never been born you inbred redneck!" Galloway threatened poking his finger to Lennox's face still gripping at the soldier's uniform.

With an instant reflex Lennox shot his hand around Galloway's index finger pulling it towards the man's own wrist. The politician's knees buckled under the pressure and his grip around Lennox's uniform released. Basking in the joy of knowing he could easily break the feeble man's finger with one twist, Lennox loosened the hold bending over the quivering heap.

"I was just doing my job, sir." His respectful address without even an obscure attempt to conceal the sarcasm.

"Just you wait! Just you wait!" Galloway's hostile tone revealing a far greater sincerity than the soldier's remark. Although announced at Lennox himself, Galloway directed his threatening gaze across the crowd of soldiers that had advanced upon the foreground of the scene and across to the background where the Autobots had been assembly upon their arrival on the base.

Turning and drudging away to the nearby military personnel complex, Sam slid from behind the gathered mob until he was standing at the right hand side of the Major.

"Do you want me to ask Bumblebee to sit on him?" Lennox couldn't help but snicker at the comment whispered silently at his side by the teenager. Synchronised laugher spread across the soldiers in hearing range of the joke, lightening the mood after the tense confrontation.

Yet it was no time to dwindle on the comical relief, there was still an array of military protocol to attend to following the brutal battle with the Decepticons. Major Lennox ordered his team toward the military compounds leaving Sam to scurry back towards the arrival depot to meet his parents and girlfriend.

Taking a moment to examine his surroundings, the top secret training base for the Autobots and military soldiers did not appear any different to any other top secret military base. Of course, Sam could only make that assumption with his knowledge of how a top secret military base was shown in Hollywood movies.

But for a location that housed super advanced transforming alien robots, Sam had anticipated at the least a daunting steel structure in the centre of the base that sheathed the area under an invisible force field. Too many computer games. Instead, the base resembled an aircraft hanger with its long stretched cemented grounds, grey steel warehouses and compounds, a few with visible aircraft carriers and jets- those that didn't transform into a giant robot equipped with weapons that could demolish a building in seconds.

As Sam slowly approached the arrival point of the base, his stiff movements and awkward bodily tension reminded him of the injuries he had sustained during his escapades in the Egyptian war zone. A few cracked ribs, a multitude of burns and bruises covering his body and a fractured arm was just the tip of the ice berg of his mangled state. Whilst he had received the top medical care the military had to offer, his body still felt like it has been slammed by a truck. Moreover, it had been slammed by a runaway freight train.

Looking down at his sizzled arm, he scratched at the relaxing bandages wrapping his hand and forearm that had begun to unravel. He stared intently at the white cloth. It seemed so strange against his skin. For a moment he began to feel like the bandages didn't belong. He couldn't even remember how he got them. Am I going insane?

Sam stood still in a trance examining the wrappings trying so desperately to recall in his memories the mystery of the bandages origins.

"Sammm?" A deep pitched call snapped him instantly from his daze. He turned in a complete circle trying to locate the origin of the voice. It almost seemed to surround him creating a ripple effect outwards from his position, like the echo itself had come from inside his ear, or close to it. But he was completely alone. No one around for at least ten metres.

Sam looked up at the sky. When did the sky turn a bloodshot red? The sight sent a sharp fear spreading throughout his entire body as the clouds began to be engulfed in fire.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl. Numbness. All outside noises ceased and everyone around him began to move in slow motion.

The sound of Sam's own heartbeat and breathing was deafening. He was afraid. Petrified.

Standing still grasping at his chest Sam turned his head toward the western edges of the base where the Autobots were gathered across the foreground, no more than fifty metres away.

Blue and red metallic paint glistened in the sunlight reflecting the red fire from the sky. As he watched the robot from afar, Optimus' face lit up with a profound terror that disturbed every nerve inside Sam's body.

Still focusing on the Autobot leader, Sam watched frozen in panic as the robot's metal arm raised toward the sky, canon retracting from his wrist as he pointed it into the air.

Optimus fired a single concentrated blast. The sound was painful to hear. The loud discharge collided with Sam's ears forcing him to jerk with a startled shock.

Sam's whole body jolted with fright. Everything disappeared to black.

A flash of bright light blinded Sam as he cringed, slowly opening his eyes. A stream of light had protruded through his blinds as the sun rose across his window.

Sam shifted a few inches across his bed to avoid the light that was resting upon his pillow.

It took a few seconds for Sam to notice how much sweat was beaded across his brow and forehead. Slightly lifting his upper body collecting himself, he noticed his pillow and pajamas were saturated with patches of sweat. Frustrated, he dropped his head back down onto his pillow. He could control his emotions while he was awake, but once he turned his mind over to his subconscious, he lost all control.

Placing his anxiety aside, Sam twisted his neck to face the large digital clock resting upon his dresser. 06.45.

"Shit!" He was late.

"Useless alarm!"

Leaping to his feet in a movement that would be worthy of a ninja, Sam bolted toward the bathroom ensuite in his room. A shower will have to be sacrificed today he reasoned, quickly brushing his teeth and stripping off his pajamas spraying his entire body with deodorant. He was lucky his occupation was not strict on personal hygiene, well at least not to the point that one missed shower was an employment issue.

Grabbing yesterdays Khaki pants and black shirt off the floor putting them on after a quick sniff -and not recoiling in disapproval- Sam hustled through his room for his required belongings and headed outside into the hallway.

Bypassing a few of the other on-base residents, he briskly sped to the eastern building war room where he was sure Optimus had already begun his address.

"Hey! Watch it Soprano!" Bellowed an off balanced science worker, complete with white lab coat and biro in her chest pocket. In his determined charge Sam did not even register the approaching movement of another person as he turned the corner through the labyrinth of hallways.

In an impressive display of reflexes, the woman avoided being knocked off her feet dodging right and lifting her left arm into the air allowing just enough leeway for the boy to pass under.

"Sorry, sorry!" He almost sounded sincere as he fled the scene returning to focus on bolting to his destination. Rolling her eyes in a huff, she watched as the fumbling kid raced around the next bend of the hallway and out of sight.

Sprinting past an assortment of dorm rooms and recreation areas, Sam found himself banking into the open space of the NEST base spying just across the grounds his destination. The steel building stood almost four stories tall, and basked an enormous sliding front access. The door itself was also equipped with a man sized entry point, but as the giant door was already opened to accommodate the arrival of a twenty eight foot robot, there was no need to use the smaller door. Its usefulness most likely came about when the twenty eight foot robot itself was not present to open the giant door alternative.

Racing across the asphalt his heart pounding as he gasped for air, Sam approached the buildings' entrance coming to a sudden halt as he peered into the vast quarters. He was definitely late.

The complex stocked an immense array of computer monitors and projection screens, cords snaking up and around the walls disappearing behind desks or under the floors. In the centre of the room stretched a metal walkway accessible each side with an attached stairway. The walkway itself housed three screens and camera equipment affixed tightly upon the metal structure. Standing upon the metal podium, Major Lennox stood eye to eye with an alien robot covered in black exterior bodywork.

Sam slowly slinked into the room amongst an array of soldiers and motionless cars with all eyes and grills facing the exchange between Ironhide and the Major.

"Your late." A voice murmured. His creeping might as well have been stomping to the sensors of a cybertronian. The yellow camero mocked playfully as Sam crept to his left side door, leaning into the car's bodywork with his back.

"Stating the obvious bee?" Sam smirked. But his entrance did not go unnoticed by just the striped scout. Although whilst in disguised mode the cybertronians had no facial features, Sam could feel their attention to his sudden presence. Opitmus Prime especially. It was almost as if Sam could touch the leader's optical sensor prying him as he stood leaning against Bumblebee's bodywork.

As Optimus withdrew his sensors from Sam shifting his intentness back towards the meeting at hand, the robot internally sighed at the sight of his human comrade. Not a sigh of disappointment in the boy. Optimus knew no one, abide Major Lennox, that deserved his utmost respect more than Sam Witwicky. But in observing Sam's composure, tardiness, stress receptors and obvious fatigue in his facial expressions, Optimus calculated the boy had again not acquired the computation of sleep a human of his age biologically required.

The boy is still plagued by his psychological turmoil. Optimus recalled on several occasions how he had questioned Sam's mental alertness and his lack of physical vigor. Nightmares is how he explained his lack of sleep.

Although cybertronians didn't experience nightmares to the degree and measure a human would, Optimus did emphasis with the boy's inability to switch off one's thoughts of burden, troubles or grief. The leader was not a stranger to these woes. He had lost many friends and comrades throughout his numerous solar cycles. Each loss weighed heavily on his spark and on occasion prevented his regeneration periods from reaching full recharge. Being equipped to concentrate on healing was a primary prerequisite if severe injuries were obtained.

Suppressing his concerns for Sam until a more appropriate time and place, Optimus diverted his full attention to Ironhide's address.

"It is now that our resistance is most dire." The Autobot weapons expert declared. His eyes sorely fixated on the camera upon the walkway, occasionally diverting across to Major Lennox and the monitors. "This is why we have decided to relent our oppositions, but only to the extent to which I have conferred."

"Bee, what is he talking about?" Sam questioned, attempting to keep his voice to a soft whisper not to draw attention. Without success. Turning to a slight angle to answer without breaking his focus from the exchange, Sergeant Robert Epps remarked "The bots have agreed to give us some weapons."

Is he serious? Complete and utter disbelief erupted in Sam. Why would they change their minds now? The Autobots have been fighting Decepticon invasions on earth for years, and they never conceded to sharing technological weaponry with the American military.

Sam slumped into himself as he considered all the disastrous consequences of the Autobots proposal. Sam began to worry intensely, but he forced a mask over his expressions to not reveal his aversion. The last thing he wanted was for Bumblebee or Optimus to feel offended. Maybe there is a logical explanation? A sudden realisation washed over Sam, and he began to feel incredibly guilty as he contemplated that this turn of events might be completely his fault. I never should have joined NEST.