Iacon Wasteland

Within an hour, the assault on the jail had been planned out and Ratchet went with the group that was planning on sneaking around using the secret passages. They took the secret passage in the morgue and made their way to the dorm rooms. Despite the fact that they took the area, the invaders didn't leave any soldiers their and stayed in the atrium, probably because the dorm rooms were a non-critical function to them and most of the rooms would probably have to be broken into. In Ratchet's group was Srig, the grey guard that reminded him a lot of Derve in body shape; Tassel, a brown color bot that was taller and leaner than Ratchet whose optics had a yellow background with silver optics; Terrarium, a dusty-tan color bot that was pretty short, but also very lean with simple yellow optics; Goldtext, who was around Ratchet's size and was colored black with gold etchings on his arms and legs with black optics with gold irises in it; and Fervent, a bot slightly bigger than Ratchet, who was black on his body and parts of his limb, and white everywhere else and wearing an odd necklace with a symbol on it. Each of them had been armed with a simple gray guard pistol with a very sleek, ergonomic design using ballistic rounds holding fifteen bullets per clip and Srig had a laser rifle with him that was that was a bit large and bulky, but easily useable for someone like him. Joor was leading the group at the front and they were waiting for the opening shots of Ratchet's group to start entering.

The group got funneled out of the secret passage to a dorm room. "I'll check the hallway," Srig told them as he moved ahead to check the door and the other five check their gear. This gave Ratchet the chance to look at the squad he was with. Tassel was easily the most nervous, walking back and forth and biting the tips of his servos. Terrarium wasn't that far behind, sitting on the bed and slowing rechecking the bullets with shaking hand, accidently slipping with one and letting it out of his hand. Goldtext was easily the calmest, sitting peacefully next to Terrarium and grabbing the bullet before it hit the ground and giving it back to him, which kind of creeped him out. Not as much as Fervent, who was easily the most bloodthirsty of the lot, leaning against the wall and playing with what looked like a ceremonial dagger that he brought with him with a gleam in his optics that had black optics with a white background. He guessed his blade was a ceremonial one due to the silver etchings on the blade and grip and the same symbol on his necklace being highly visible on his crossguards. In fact, he could see words on the blade, but it wasn't in a language he knew, which was unusual. There weren't that many languages on Cybertron.

"It's all clear," he heard Srig said as he motioned them over and they all followed along, Terrarium messily putting the bullets back in the gun as they were leaving. Ratchet followed behind Srig as they exited to near the end of the all, completely opposite of where his room was at. They quickly closed the distance and were at the at the intersection, where Srig looked both directions before confirming that the coast was cleat and they continued on until they reached Barricade's door and Srig tried to open it only to find it lock. "Dammit. Ratchet, crack this."

"Alright," he said and examined it. He could spot an energon spring visible at the side of the panel and pulled the lockpick out and stick it in the energon spring, pulling out the holographic image. It was a criminally easy puzzle, being only one thing he had to spin between the inner and outer circle and quickly spun it around until he found a match and confirmed it, the screen going green in acceptance and unlocking for him. Ratchet pulled the device out, put it away, and opened the door, allowing them entrance into Barricade's room. At the same time, he heard footsteps marching down the hall.

"Quick, get in, get in," Srig whispered harshly and everyone quickly did so and closed the door behind them and locked it. "Alright, now let me go find that button," he said as he went off. Ratchet separated and looked around the room. It was simple, having all that Ratchet had in his room, plus a poster over his bed that seemed to have the police pledge on it and another one with many guns on it, giving names and info on it. He went over to his desk and found a data pad on it. He picked it up and looked at it, appearing to have a message on it.

This is Barricade. To those reading this, I'm leaving the shelter since the radiation appears to have mostly gone away. I know this is unexpected, but I heard a radio transmission from an old friend of mine and I'm making my way over there to meet him. This might be a suicide mission, but I need to get out of here. If you want to find me, I'm getting the transmission from the police station at the Dead End. I'll be there, if I make it. Good luck with the fallout shelter.

"Huh, that explains why Barricade's not here," Ratchet muttered as he felt his Pipbot rumbled, telling him that it saved Barricade's note. He heard the wall at the center back wall open up and he turned to see the hidden room with a ladder heading down.

"Alright, make sure you're weapons are good to go," Srig told them. "This will take us to the prison and that's where we will get in a firefight. Now, I and the guards have given you several sessions over the years with self-defense and using guns, so you know how to use them. Just remember, these people are out to kill us. They will slaughter us if we don't push them back. Just… something to think about if you're feeling uneasy about killing these guys," he told them.

"I don't mind. Pests need to be dealt with accordingly," Fervent replied, smiling slightly in his direction and Srig shuttered at that comment. Ratchet agreed with his feelings. He didn't spend much time with him, but he was pretty creepy to be around.

"It is unfortunate, but we must preserve the lives here. Most of the people here are innocent and the enemies are quite savage," Goldtext said, clasping a hand on Terrarium and Tassel's shoulder, surprising both of them. "I hope you two can steel you your resolve for the battle."

"Uh, y-yeah, sure," Terrarium answered with Tassel giving a shake of his head.

"Good," Goldtext said. "Now in the name of Primus," Fervent scoffed at that, "let us cast these interlopers out of here."

"…Right," Srig muttered. "I'm on point. Goldtext, take the rear. Fervent, on me, and the rest of you can decide from there," he told them as he entered the room and took the ladder. Fervent sauntered behind him, leaving them to choose. Terrarium and Tassel instinctively bumped Ratchet up, causing him to glare at the two of them before following behind Fervent down the ladder, with Terrarium following behind him. It was a short one before he placed his feet on the ground and followed the group down the tunnel with Srig leading the way with his Pipbot's flashlight. They walked along the hallway before talking a right walking down a long hallway. It took a minute before they reached a dead end. "Huh, the entrance must be around here somewhere," he muttered, looking around before he noticed a small button on the wall. "Alright, found it. Get ready, everyone," he told then as he turned his Pipbot off and Ratchet gripped his pistol tightly as he heard the button being pushed and light enterer the hallway as the wall on the right opened up quietly.

He expected gunfire to ring out, but was surprised when none happened. "They didn't notice us. Fervent and Ratchet, on me," he told them as he exited the room. Fervent followed quickly behind him and Ratchet went along as quietly as he could into the room. It was a rather large room, him hiding behind a desk. From what he could see, the room was split into two, the left was the other entrance surrounded by two small offices with unbroken windows. The other half was the one he was in and contained the one desk and several large objects that looked like exercise equipment, probably the place where prisoners could stretch their limbs. He saw multiple doors on the right, which must've been the cells. The enemies were spread out, having two in one office and three in the other, one at the entrance door, one walking around, two chatting about near the cells, and one trying out one of the exercise equipment, oscillating his arms back and forth as he pulled weights. "There's a lot more than I expected," Srig muttered as he poked his head out and ducked back under. "We're going to have to be really careful."

"No kidding," Fervent muttered as he poked his head out. "I think I know which one is the leader."

"How do you know?" he asked as he poked his head up and saw one of the raiders berated one in the office. "Oh." The raider leader was a tall and stocky one, a tan pain-job that was flaking off and showing plenty of rust, and a demented look in his cracked green optics. He spent a few more seconds yelling at him before exiting the room and walking on over to the cells. He reached the center cell and opened it. He entered the room and someone was roughly thrown out to the ground on his chest. It didn't take long before Ratchet identified him as Swindle, who looked a bit dinged up. He tried to get up before the leader sent a kick in his face, causing another cut and rolling over to his back.

"You said there was a way to access the armory from here!" the leader yelled at the merchant, standing tall over him.

"There is! You just have to follow my instruction, which I know is hard for you. You haven't been around a civil place for so long-ong-ong," he groan as the leader stomp on his chest, causing a slight dent in his chest.

"Then why aren't we getting in?!" he yelled at him.

"I don't know. You have to be doing something wrong," Swindle told him, holding onto his chest.

"Or, just maybe," he muttered, grabbing a pistol and pointing it at Swindle's head, "you're lying to us!"

"No, no, I'm not!" he yelled, holding his hand out in a begging gesture.

"Why? The only reason you're still alive is because you said you had information. Since it's becoming obvious that you're completely lying about that, you've become expendable," he told him, getting ready to pull the trigger.

"No! No!" he yelled, crawling back, with the leader following along slowly, until he hit the exercise equipment.

"Are we going to do anything?" Ratchet asked, turning to the other two?

"I think… it's best if we just wait it out," Srig told him and Fervent just nodded along quietly. Ratchet gawked at the two before turning back to Swindle begging for his life. He was busy sobbing through what Ratchet assumed was a complex lie about the armory, doing whatever he could to prevent a bullet from entering his head. Judging by the look on the leader's face, it was obvious that he wasn't buying it and was going to fire it soon. Since Srig and Fervent were happy enough to let Swindle die, it was Ratchet's choice of whether he would interfere and try to save him. On one hand, Swindle was the one who set the events in motion that led to him getting a bullet in the head and for putting the whole facility in danger. On the other hand, Swindle was his friend and it's not like he intended for all his chaos to happen.

"Dammit," Ratchet muttered as he took aim with his pistol, much to the surprise of Srig.

"Ratchet, what are you-"

*Crack*

"Ah!" the leader yelled as the bullet hit his arm, causing him to drop his gun.

"Oh, frag it, concentrate fire!" Srig yelled as he popped up and fired his rifle at the patrolling raider, several of them hitting the guard's chest, one hitting the spark, and making him collapse to the ground and Fervent quickly took aim at the exerciser, sending two bullets through his head and splattering energon on the equipment.

"Ambush!" the raider yelled as he took cover behind of the equipment and Swindle did so as well, trying to avoid the crossfire. As the raider were taking cover, the door to the entrance opened and bullets were suddenly sent out and shredded the guard placed there.

"Moving up," Srig yelled as he jumped over the cover, followed by Fervent, and the two took cover behind one of the equipment together. Ratchet heard footsteps and gunshots behind him and Terrarium and Tassel took cover with him, both of them looking scared for their lives.

"This is insane," Tassel muttered as bullet and lasers flew in every direction as Joor and someone that looked like Handbrake was taking cover at the entrance and started firing at the people in the offices.

"No kidding," Ratchet muttered as he looked up and saw the two raiders that were grouped together were closing the distance and was practically right next to Fervent and Srig, about to get in cover. Ratchet took advantage of their movement and quickly fired at them, sending a bullet into one of their shoulders as Fervent and Srig popped out and finished him off with two lasers shots to the chest and one bullet through the head before taking cover again. As that was happening, Tassel and Terrarium were taking potshots at the office while Goldtext was calmly aiming at the office and fired, sending a bullet through one of the raiders head.

With the amount of enemies significantly decreased, Ratchet took the risk and started moving over to Swindle, jumping out of cover and taking cover behind the equipment. He looked around to see the guards in the office were staying close to cover thanks to fire from both entrances, the solitary raider was busy dealing with Srig and Fervent, and the leader was missing. With everyone occupied, he started dashing across the room over to Swindle at the other end of the room, being able to avoid the attention of the raiders as they had more pressing matters. It wasn't long before he jumped behind Swindle's cover and took cover with him, surprising him as he yelped in surprise at his unexpected arrival before he realized who he was. "Ratchet? Oh, scrap, I can't believe it," he chuckled, happy.

"What did you expect?" he asked as he checked him over. The dent that the raider inflicted on him wasn't very bad and the little dents and cuts were hardly worth noting, although there was quite a few of them. He was probably the raiders' personal punching bag for a while.

"You took a bullet to the head. You forgive me for thinking that you living was hopeless, especially when these bastards invaded the place," Swindle told him.

"Yeah, well, they ignored me for some reason. Apparently, killing someone in a coma is a low they won't go," Ratchet shrugged.

"Well, now that you're awake, I doubt they won't take the risk now," he told him with a smile that suddenly faded away. "Oh, scrap."

"What-" Ratchet attempted to say when he felt someone grabbed his head and cracked it against the equipment while pulling the pistol out of his grip and tossed it to the side. He felt a hand hoisted him up by the neck before smashing him against the exercise machine's bench. Ratchet felt the wind knocked out of him as the leader got on top of him, kept one hand on his neck to keep his head still, and started punching him, obviously not letting the bullet wound in his shoulder stop him. Within three heavy hits, Ratchet was already feeling dizzy and his HUD was a bit wonky. Before he got another hit in, Swindle jumped on him and sent both of them off the machine.

Ratchet steady himself as he sat up to see Swindle doing his best to inflict damage on the leader, sending a few good punches in, but the raider was much stronger, catching Swindle's third fist and using his other hand to punch him a couple of times in the side before grabbing his head and slamming him to the ground before throwing him off and getting back up. He took a second to brush himself off before eyeing Ratchet and quickly leapt towards him with his fist raised. Ratchet instinctively jumped off and his fist impacted the bench instead of his head. Ratchet quickly draw his knife out as the leader jumped on him.

They collided, Ratchet sliding his knife at his lower body and feeling it hit the leader's T-cog, but he only gave of grunt of acknowledgement of that as he backhanded Ratchet across the face, making him lose his grip on the knife and sending him to the floor on his back. As Ratchet was left trying to reorganize himself, the raider pulled the knife out of himself with a simple tug and approached Ratchet with the knife. When he saw this, he attempted to back up, but the raider quickly grabbed a hold of his leg and slid him forward as he lifted the knife up to impale Ratchet.

*Crack*

A shot near them rang out and a sudden squirt of energon escaped the raider's neck, causing him to drop the knife and grab a hold of his neck, trying to prevent it from bleeding so much.

*Crack*

Another bullet came and went straight through the back of his head and out his right optic. He gave a gasp and collapsed to his knee, using one of his hand to balance himself on the ground. He tried to speak, but the hole in his throat was causing him to make only weird gurgle sounds with static interference.

*Crack* *Crack*

Two more shots came out and went straight through the center of his spark. The raider leader gave one last static gasp before his arm fell out from under him and he collapsed on his side, energon pooling from his wound. Ratchet gazed at the corpse before he turned to the shooter, who happened to be Swindle on the ground, aiming Ratchet's pistol at the corpse. Once he realized the corpse wasn't moving anymore, he put his gun down and feel back in relieve. At this point, the rest of the raiders were almost dead, with only one at the office with a missing arm and the one at the exercise equipment, engaged in a knife fight with Fervent with Srig trying to take aim at the raider. In a second, Fervent suddenly raised his leg and smashed it into his, dislocating it and eliciting a scream from the intruder. The raider gave as gasp as Fervent suddenly got behind him, wrapped his arm around his neck in a chokehold, and thrusted his knife through the small of his back, piercing his back and silencing the raider, making him spit up energon from his mouth before Fervent let go and let him collapse to the ground with a smirk, leaving only the one in the office left alive, who was summarily taken care of by Goldtext in the other office shooting his barely exposed leg to make him fall out of cover to Joor's bullets.

With all the raiders dead, a feeling of calm enter the room. Ratchet got on his feet as Joor was checking on Handbrake, who got shot again, only this one was in the less valuable left arm; Goldtext was comforting Terrarium and Tassel, the latter who was shot in the right shoulder; and Fervent and Srig were walking over to Swindle and Ratchet, the former wiping the energon off his blade by wiping it on his arms, which the latter was grimacing at. Ratchet reached Swindle first and crouched over the weary figure. "Thanks for saving my life," Ratchet thanked.

"No problem. I've learn to pay my debts," Swindle told him as he sat up.

"If you want to pay your debts, you have a long way to go, considering you're the reason this all happen," Srig told him as the two stopped in front of them.

"Yeah… I'm working on it," Swindle muttered. "I got more since you all saved my life."

"Well, you can thank Ratchet for that. We were comfortable just letting you die until Ratchet fired his gun," Fervent told him with a shrug and Srig turned to glare at him.

"Oh, well, good to see I still got one person who cares about me," Swindle muttered, rubbing the back of his head.

"I don't know if you deserve it, but I couldn't just watch you get executed like that," Ratchet said.

"Yeah, I was lucky to delay them as much as I did. I told them this massive lie about the jail being connected to the armory somehow and they swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. Reminds me of my time as a used T-cog seller," he told them.

"Speaking of the armory, we were wondering if you had any explosives to break into the armory," Srig questioned him.

"Nah, I don't. I may have smuggled some things out of the armory, but not explosives. Too dangerous to pass that around," he answered.

"At least you have some sense," Srig muttered, "but now we have no way of actually getting in."

"Well, I do have one half of the security codes," Swindle told them, "but Siren has the other half and you need both to activate it."

"Well, we don't have the code, but Ratchet does have a hacking device," he told him.

"Wait, seriously?" Swindle asked, turning over to the doctor. "Never took you for the hacking type."

"Got it off Pyrobyte's effects," he told him.

"I've seen him pick door locks. I'm interested in seeing how he does in the hacking department," Srig commented.

"Wow, nice." Swindle nodded as he tried to get up. "Well, let's get the- oooooooh!" Swindle groaned as he got up.

"Are you okay?" Ratchet asked, looking him over.

"Sorry, just… energon deprivation. These slaggers have been starving me for the past few days. I really need something," Swindle muttered as he hold on to Ratchet's shoulders for support.

"We'll get you some on the way to the armory. Ratchet, is your head okay? That cut looks pretty bad," Srig asked him.

"Cut?" Ratchet asked as he felt the right side of his head and felt a cut their leaking energon. "Huh, I didn't notice, but it should be fine. It feels like a shallow cut," he told him.

"Alright, rest a little bit while I go check on the others," Srig told him as he went off to go check on Goldtext's group, leaving Fervent behind to look over them.

"Ugh, once again, thanks for saving me," Swindle thanked them.

"Yes, and thank you for exposing us to the outside's dangers," Fervent thanked him sarcastically.

"Yeah… no one is going to let me forget that, are they?" he asked him.

"I highly doubt so," he replied.

"Ugh… I never should've given Pyrobyte that gun," he muttered.

"Why did you give him that gun, anyway?" Ratchet asked, glaring at him.

"I thought it was for self-defense. He told me about Barricade having it out for him and thought he was killing to sneak in his room at night and kill him. I didn't think he was going to start a shooting rampage," he told him earnestly.

"I highly doubt you did it just because he said he was in danger," Fervent muttered.

"Nothing's free, especially protection," Swindle muttered. "I had him get a few things for me and collect a bit of information on people in exchange for the pistol."

"Now why is that?"

"Hey, if you got information on people, you got power. I knew a few people were jealous of my job, so I wanted some blackmail on them," he answered.

"You're not painting yourself in a positive light," Ratchet told him.

"Well, my reputation is already shot. Might as well drag it in the mud a little bit more for you," he told them with a shrug.

"Huh, I like that. So often, you see people tell more and more lies to excuse their descent into moral degeneracy. People who accept the corruption of their soul and not deny it are worthy of respect," Fervent praised.

"I don't know whether to be honored or ashamed," Swindle responded, unnerved.

"It was a compliment," he smirked.

"And that's exactly why I'm unsure of how to feel," he muttered.

"Hmm, speaking of unsure feelings, why did you want to save Swindle so much, Ratchet? I'm unsure of why you would want to save him so much," he questioned him.

"He's my friend and he was about to be executed. I don't know why you would be willing to just watch him die," he said, insulted.

"Hmm, I suppose you can call it a difference in culture," he shrugged.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hmm, now isn't really an appropriate time or place, but if there is a good time later, I might let you in on my culture. Hell, I might just let you help me out," he chuckled darkly.

"Okay… freak," Swindle muttered for the two of them.

"Now that isn't nice," he replied with that ominous smile as Srig came up behind him.

"Alright, Tassel took a bullet in the shoulder, but it isn't bad. Goldtext and Terrarium are both unharmed. Fervent, stay here and keep the prison lockdown with them. Ratchet and Swindle, follow me," he ordered and walked to the entrance, with Ratchet carrying Swindle with they crossed the room to the entrance. Srig stopped as they reached the office and looked in the right one to see Joor raking care of Handbrake. "Is our only nuclear technician still here doing well?"

"Fine enough," Joor said as he pressed a finger into the bullet hole.

"Gah, watch it, you aft," Handbrake yelled at him.

"I think it would've been best just to keep him away from all firefights," Srig told him. "Getting shot twice isn't very fun, I imagine"

"Getting shot in two weeks is only fun for masochist," Handbrake told them. "Besides, Ratchet, our coma doctor, took a bullet through his head and he's ready to go."

"Is coma doctor my new nickname?" Ratchet asked.

"It's passing around. Got a nice ring to it," Joor told him.

"Great, let's keep going," Srig told the duo and tried to ignore another long conversation over something pointless. The three went down the steps down to the barricade room, where a mech and a femme were watching it together and was pleased to see the three walk out. "Hey, mission accomplish. Keep the barricade up," he told them as the trio walked past them to the stairs and took the steps up, making Swindle grunt with each step up. Obviously, he really needed to get some energon. They reached the hall and they continued forward to the door ahead of them and went down a set of steps to another room. The room was a bright, happy place colored in a highly comforting red-and-white color scheme. There were tables and booths set up for people to sit in and what appeared to be a counter. There were another entrance to the right side and a door on the left. At the back-left corner began a counter that went to the center-left side of the room with stools for people to sit on. The trio moved over to a nearby booth and took a seat in it, Ratchet and Swindle next to each other with Ratchet on the outside and Srig sitting by himself. A mech came over, being a simple blue bot with blue optics and a datapad in hand came over to them.

"What will you have?" he asked, ready to take their orders.

"Just a glass for each of us with nothing else in it," he told him.

"Right, coming on up," he said, writing it in the datapad and heading to the back.

"Oh, thank Primus, I really need some energon," Swindle muttered, rubbing his chest.

"Right, don't care. Did you learn anything while you were with them?" Srig asked him.

"Um, I don't know, maybe? I remember them repeating something a few times. What was it called?" Swindle asked himself, rubbing the back of his head.

"Was they talking about something like a weapon of some sort?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah, it had something to do with that armory. I think, yeah… they said they needed whatever was in there to win a war," Swindle told them.

"A war? Then they must be a pretty large force if their engaging in a war," he told them.

"Yeah, and I think they want to establish this place as a possible base," he told them.

"They're not trying to preserve it," Ratchet muttered.

"They came from nuclear oblivion. I highly doubt cleanliness is something that they care for," Srig rebuked.

"Good point," he admitted.

"You know, if they have a large force, they'll overwhelm us at some point," Srig muttered. "We're basically running on limited time."

"That's correct," Ratchet muttered. "With the amount of people dead or missing, it's very likely that we'll be overrun sooner or later."

"Well, what if we get the other group they're warring against to help us?" Swindle asked them.

"Are you kidding? They're probably just as bad, if not worse, than these guys," Srig doubted him.

"Well, what else do you want us to do? Attrition will kill us before we can successfully fight them back," Swindle told him as the waiter brought their drinks to them and gave each of them their glass.

"Here you go," he told them, crossing his arms.

"Thank you, Crystal," Srig thanked him as the three took a drink from it. Ratchet and Srig drank it and enjoyed it. Swindle had a different expression.

"Puah!" Swindle yelled, spitting it out. "What is that?"

"Oh, sorry. I must've mixed your drink with the cave fungus," Crystal apologized smugly, causing Swindle to glare at him.

"Why you little-"

"Crystal, please bring Swindle an actual glass of energon this time," Srig interrupted him, hoping to end a potential conflict.

"Why? It's all his fault that these outsiders are rushing in and causing chaos," he told him, glaring at Swindle.

"Fine," Srig muttered before passing his glass to Swindle. "Then get me another drink, alright?"

"Erk… fine," he scoffed, walking off.

"Wow, I really feel like public enemy number one," Swindle muttered, taking the glass and drinking from it and giving a pleased moan. "Oh, I needed that."

"What do you expect?" Ratchet sarcastically asked. "Now, about this other group."

"What, you think they might help us, too?" Srig asked.

"Well, Swindle has a point. We can hold them off for a while, but sooner or later, we'll be overrun. We need help from someone," he told him.

"Ugh…," Srig muttered. "Let's get Siren out first, before we decide on this. He's the Overseer, so he has the final decision." Crystal returned with a glass of energon and gave it to Srig.

"Here you go," Crystal said and Srig gave a nod before grabbing it. Crystal walked on off and left the three alone.

"So, rescuing Siren from his office. How are we going to do that?" Ratchet asked.

"Full frontal assault. Once we get the weapons from the armory, our people should be able to fight back a lot more efficiently," Srig told him.

"We could also use the secret passages to move close to it. Is there a room nearby to it?" Swindle asked.

"Well, the lounge is pretty much right next to it, but I have no idea whose room could lead to it. We can't waste our time on it," he told him.

"That would be mine."

"Gah!" the three yelled as they turned to see Dwell standing over them with a dull smile.

"Primus, you are a creepy mortician," Swindle muttered as the three calmed down.

"I'll take that as a compliment, you wonderful specimen," he smiled at him. "The need to rescue you has given me so many more bodies to explore, not to mention you causing this in the first place. You deserve all my praise."

"Primus, why do I get all the wackos?" he asked in disbelief.

"Right… your room has the secret entrance to the lounge?" Srig asked.

"That is correct. I never understood the use for it," he told them. "Made me wish I had Tacklebolt's room so that I can get to the morgue uninterrupted."

"Which room is yours?" Srig asked.

"From the atrium, I'm on the left hallway to the second door on the left. It should be easy to find. I painted a black X on it," he told them.

"Is everything about you creepy?" Ratchet asked.

"That's subjective, although I am fascinated with death. So if that is the source of my 'creepiness,' than yes," he told them.

"It would've been so much easier if you just said yes," Ratchet muttered.

"Right, well, here," pulling a keycard out and handing it to Srig. "For entrance into my room."

"Ah… thanks," Srig nodded.

"Yes… now go make some more corpses for me, okay?" he asked before heading off, leaving the three alone.

"Frag… I'd go out on a suicide mission to get help from that opposing faction if it means getting away from that sicko," Swindle muttered.

"Count me in," Ratchet agreed.

"Well, are we all refreshed?" Srig asked them and they both nodded. "Okay, let's head on up to the armory," he told them, getting up with the other two following along. Srig led the way back to the previous room and took the one door they haven't enter yet and went down the down a set of stairs to another hallway. They walked forward and took a door to the right, entering a red colored room. In front of them was a sturdy metal door that appeared to be locked by two large bolts keeping it in place and a computer was on each side of it. Inside the room was a large, burly mech who was red everywhere with solid blue optics and was obviously a tank due to the tank barrel sticking out from his chest. He turned to the three that enter and immediately set his optics on Swindle.

"WOW! You have some nerve coming back after you stole from here, you thief," he threaten, cracking his knuckles.

"Never let it down," Swindle grumbled.

"Hey, Warpath, calm down!" Srig told him, holding his hands up. "We need him to get in."

"Why? Does he have a code?" Warpath scoffed.

"Uh, yeah," Swindle nodded.

"WHAT! You sneaky… you stole that from ME!" Warpath continued to yell at Swindle.

"Maybe!" Swindle replied.

"Swindle, is there any other crimes you've done that you haven't told us about?" Ratchet asked him with a death stare.

"Maybe a couple."

"Okay, I think I need to (WHAM) knock your lights out," Warpath threaten, approaching Swindle.

"Warpath, we need him for now," Srig told him. "You're not the only one who really want to punch the scrap out of Swindle, but he's useful for now."

"But I wanna punch him!" Warpath repeated.

"Yes, yes, but you can do that later, when these invaders are kicked out of here. After that, I'll let you get a couple of good punches in," he told him.

"Hey, wait, what?!" Swindle asked.

"Hmph, fine. Once we (BLAM) kick these raiders out, then I'll kick his aft," he told them, making way for them.

"Right, Swindle, input your code. Ratchet, I hope you're as good of a hacker as you are a lockpicker," Srig told him.

"I hope so," Ratchet muttered as he went to the left computer while Swindle went to the right one. The computer was flat one built into the wall, which was a pretty fancy one. Ratchet brought his cylindrical device out and looked for a place to insert it. He saw a small hole next to it on the right and figured that's where it belonged, so he inserted it inside and a holographic screen came out and a bunch of symbols and letters formed, occasion forming words. It was just like the dream, except these were six letters long.

WRETCH, CROUCH, POURED, FRINGE, FOLLOW, BETTER, TOUTED, ALMOST, LOUNGE, BINGED

Ratchet examined them and clicked on the first one.

0 OUT OF 6

Not off to a good start, but it did remove a few from the selection list.

POURED, FOLLOW, ALMOST, LOUNGE, BINGED

Once again, he clicked on the first one.

2 out of 6

Okay, if that's true, there was only two left.

LOUNGE, BINGED

With only two left, he clicked on the first one.

0 out of 4

With that, he clicked on what had to be right.

PASSWORD CORRECT

He unlocked the computer. He looked on the screen and saw one option to open the door. He looked over to see Swindle waiting for him. "You've got it?" he asked him.

"Yeah, I got it," Ratchet replied.

"Alright, we must activate it within five seconds of each other. We'll do it on my mark. You ready?" he asked him.

"Yes."

"Okay, five, four, three, two, one, hit it," Swindle said and Ratchet clicked on 'open door.' They heard a rumbling sound and the two bolts to the door removed themselves as the door split apart to open up into the room. The group entered the room to find a wide variety of weapons placed against the walls, mostly including assault rifles and laser rifles, perfect for the corridor based fighting in the shelter. The exceptions were a couple of sniper rifles, a few high-impact pistols, and the boxes of explosives and ammo around the room. "Oooooh, yes," Swindle moaned.

"YEAH, raiders won't know what hits them!" Warpath celebrated, pumping his fists in the air. "I wonder if I can find some tank shells."

"Right, I'll go inform everyone about this and we'll stage an attack on the people trapping Siren in his room," Srig told them as he headed out. "Make sure Swindle doesn't sneak any weapons out!" he gave one last piece of advice as he headed out.

"RIGHT!" Warpath nodded, turning to glare at Swindle. "Don't you do anything, thief!"

"I know, I know," Swindle chuckled, holding his hand up and stepping away from the boxes of explosives "I won't do anything wrong."

"Huh-huh…," Ratchet muttered as he walked around the room and looked around at all the weapons. "Where did Vault-Tec get all of these weapons?"

"I… may have helped a bit with that," Swindle told him. "Vault-Tec said they needed guns and I got them guns."

"So you're an arms dealer as well?" Ratchet asked, sounding incensed.

"Yeah, you can add that to my list of crimes, but if I'm doing my math right, I'm certainly not the only one they knew. They might've even have contacts in the military," Swindle told him, looking around.

"Huh, Vault-Tec has provided protection to us and all the other vaults out there, yet we know so little about them," he muttered.

"They're secretive, even to the employees like me and all the guards here. Siren might know something, but that's the only thing he is quiet about," he muttered.

"Siren said that he had no idea. I believe him," Warpath told him.

"Come on, he's the Overseer. He has to know something," he told them.

"He might. He might no. Does it matter? Vault-Tec has to be destroyed, as well as the rest of the world," Ratchet told him.

"Yeah, that's also true," Swindle agreed, taking a seat on a crate. "Although, not everything outside is completely destroyed. At the very least, those raiders learned to survive."

"At a cost."

"WHAT THE!" Warpath yelled, looking beside him to see Dwell standing beside him wearing that same dull smile on his face.

"How are you so quiet?" Swindle asked.

"Oh, sorry, I just learned that you intended to open the armory. There was something I needed to mention about the raiders," he said as he walked across the room and picked a gun off the wall, this one being one of those high-caliber pistols. "I examine the raider Ratchet killed with a knife. The insides were, well… a mess. The insides were partially melted together, creating a unique Cybertronian. Wires merge to become one. Holes from radiation. Organs slightly rusted through thanks to radiation speeding it up. If he was in a hospital, they would put him in emergency care at the instant," he told them as he grabbed a crate and placed it underneath his left arm.

"If that's true, then he wouldn't be standing and fighting in the first place," Ratchet told him.

"Ah, that's the beauty of it. The radiation also gave positive effects, basically increasing their strength and pain tolerance and their ability to intake radiation. Quite fascinating," he told them as he made his way out of the room. "Do take care and make more bodies for me to examine. They are fascinating," he told them, leaving the room.

"Wow… what a creep," Swindle muttered.

"Yeah... HEY! Did he take a gun and a box of ammo with him?" he asked.

"He sure did," Ratchet told him.

"DAMMIT!" he cursed.

"Calm down, Warpath. We need you to stay here," he attempted to told him.

"I know… but he just walk in here and took it."

"Frankly, I let him. He's too much of a creep to protest to," Swindle chimed in.

"I agree with that," Ratchet nodded. "Morticians are like that in general, from all the ones I met."

"Mortician and (BLAM) coroner," Warpath corrected.

"Right. I just hope we don't end up on his slab. I don't want him looking around inside of me," Swindle told him.

"Agreed."

"Right, word is being passed around and we'll have to load them up with guns for the upcoming firefight," Srig said as he entered the room.

"So, we're going to carry this off soon?" Ratchet asked.

"Yeah," he told them, looking around the room. "This place is a thing of beauty."

"Military?" Ratchet asked.

"Uh, kind of. I didn't really like it, but I always liked guns. Especially when we're using to save the day," he told him.

"I don't know if we'll save the day, but I'm sure we'll (BLAM) kick so much aft to rescue Siren," Warpath told them.

"Yeah… let's just hope Siren can hold out for a little longer."