Offer Accepted -A TF: Prime Drabble

   In the very center of the Gobi desert, miles from any prying human eyes, worked a small battalion of Vehicons, the faceless, nameless legions of the Decepticon army. That they were anonymous in both appearance and designation was a result of their master Megatron’s, philosophy. Names belonged to the strong-it you wanted one, you had rip and claw and fight your way to recognition, like he did, in the Gladiatorial pits of Kaon. Then, and only then, would you be worthy of personhood.
 
         These particular Vehicons were hauling unrefined Energon out of nearby cave. Currently, a trooper referred to as J0 (‘Joe’ to his friends) was carrying a cluster of the life-giving crystals before dumping them into a hover-cart being monitored by MAR-10. Marten was in charge of keeping track of the energon’s status, making sure nobody was skimming off the top (at least nor without giving him a cut) and that it wasn’t about to blow them back to the All-Spark.  Joe dropped the energon was holding into the cart, landing with a metallic ringing.

      He turned Marten, and asked “How much longer is our shift?” Marten checked on the data slate he was holding “About…90 more cycles.” Joe groaned. “Primus, Breakdown never worked use this hard.” His friend nodded in agreement “Had a real respect for the working bot”
“That’s right, I think he worked in construction before the war or something like that…hey, we still playing cards with SM-14 tonight?”

       “Smithy? Man, haven’t you heard? Smithy died, like, a few weeks ago.”

      “Man, really? That sucks. Who offed him? A bet it was that blue Autobot Glitch… “

“The ninja-bike lady? No man, Megatron threw him off the ship”

“What he do to piss off the boss-bot?”  

“Nothing-boss just needed to catch a relic that been thrown off the ship by an Autobot –I forget which one…”

“But Smithy’s a-“

          “Ground trooper, not a Flyer, right. I know that, you know that, but Megatron evidently didn’t.”  

         “Primus,” said Joe, shaking his head, “Why are we even looking for all these old stuff, anyway? Shouldn’t we be building new stuff?”

         “Yeah, man, especially now that Big M got that hot shot mono-eyed scientist  back from Cyber-“  

He was interrupted by something big and red and terrible falling out of the sky like a meteorite, leaving a crater in its wake. It was cybertronian, like the Vehicons, but nearly twice as tall, and its frame was massive. It was an entity that all Decepticons knew, hated, and feared.

Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots.

“Decepticons,” he said, his voice heavy with authority and sadness, “leave this mine-” He pulled a gun large enough to crush a Vehicon with its sheer weight alone from behind his back   “now.”  Most of the Vehicons started futilely firing at the last of the Primes, but Joe had shifted into Car-form and started driving as fast as he could in the opposite direction. Martin soon followed, changing into jet-mode.

        “Are you insane?” Martin asked as they raced towards the setting sun “Megatron will kill us for deserting!”

         “And Prime will kill us for staying! Every time he engages a Vehicon, he always gives an offer of retreat or surrender or something like that, and I’m going to take it!”

       “This is treason!”

        “Hey, you want to remain loyal to a guy who can’t be bothered to find out if someone can fly before throwing him off a spaceship, be my guest!  Besides, you think that he’ll notice that we’re not in the pile of scrap metal that Prime’s making right? No one’s going to notice that we’re missing!”

          “…that’s actually a good point.”  
If Joe could smile at that moment, he would have.

           “I’d thought you’d agree. Now, I know this neat little drive-in theater that’s still open in North America and I kinda need your help crossing the ocean…”