| abstract
| - After stealing an iPad from an anonymous businessman on a coach, drifter Verity Carlo and her younger sister Sari are picked up by an intense man, Hunter O'Nion, who reveals he's an alien conspiracy theorist tracking down reports of giant machines in the area. They soon come across the coach Verity and Sari departed, which had been run off the road by a police car - the businessman whose iPad Verity stole is missing. The pair continue on, but find themselves stalked by a police car. When the police car, suddenly, transforms into a large, black-and-white robot, knocked him onto the hood of an abandoned car, then violently demanded information on eBay item 21153. The robot prepares to kill them but Verity and Sari are saved - by the smiling driver of a suspiciously well-armed ambulance... As their mysterious rescuer attempts to evade the pursuing fighter jet, Verity and Hunter start to realize that not only are they being attacked by one of the disguised mechanoids Hunter has sought—but that the ambulance they're sitting in is also one of them. Suddenly, two sports cars, one white, one black, join the jet in pursuit of the ambulance. Deploying sophisticated gadgetry, the ambulance driver manages to lose their pursuers for a while, and Verity finds the fugitives a place to hide—the automotive workshop of Jimmy Pink. Verity reveals that she and Jimmy are both net-hikers, members of a community of drifters who use the Internet to maintain their mutual-assistance network. Hunter realizes that not only is Verity's palmtop stolen, but that it's the very item that the jet and sports cars are trying to recover. He confronts the ambulance driver with a picture stored on the palmtop, but Verity, sick of conspiracy paranoia, takes it back from them and walks outside. Within a second, she's back inside, babbling frantically about Decepticons—and the garage door is ripped from its mount, revealing two giant robots, one black, one white, demanding the palmtop. Confronted by two menacing robots, the stunned Verity, Hunter and Jimmy can only stand and gawp as the ambulance driver disappears in a blaze of electricity, stunning one of the robots - and as it falls into a garage wall, sending concrete everywhere, the ambulance itself transforms into a third giant robot, shielding the three humans from the rubble. As the robot who was a police car draws a weapon, the third robot deploys an ink spray, blinding his attacker, then folds itself back down, becoming an ambulance once again, and orders the three humans inside it. The ambulance is once again picked up by the blue jet fighter and narrowly avoids a pile-up caused by the jet's sonic boom. This allows the police car - who identifies himself as Barricade- to catch up, partially transforming to deploy weapons. According to the ambulance, this is a very disturbing sign, as Decepticons never break cover, let alone in such a brazen fashion. Some more fancy driving allows the motorcycle and sports car to shake Barricade, but Verity, whom on top of fleeing for her life has had reality turned upside down on her, gets out of the ambulance and flees. While Jimmy goes to calm her down, Hunter tries to pry more detail out of the two vehicles - starting with their names, Bumblebee and Arcee- but before he can get far, the jet re-acquires them. With everyone back inside, Bumblebee and Arcee go on the run again, but three more cars with weapons that spring from hidden compartments appear and shoot the plane down. These cars then transform and draw weapons on Ratchet, and the leader - Prowl - informs Bumblebee and Arcee of the statutes of the Autobot Code of Interplanetary Conflict that they have violated. In her defense, Arcee offers only two words: Siege Mode. Aboard the Autobot starship Ark-17, located at the bottom of Lake Michigan, Prowl gives Bumblebee and Arcee a through dressing-down for disobeying his orders and breaking cover, then tells him to find out just what's on Verity's stolen iPad and get rid of the humans, refusing Bumblebee's suggestion that Prowl alert Optimus Prime. Arcee appears to Verity, Hunter and Sari in their containment cell and persuades Verity to hand the palmtop over. She shows them the mysterious businessman's photos and explains they show a Decepticon command bunker, mysteriously abandoned (which Decepticons never do) and apparently in Siege Mode much too early than standard Decepticon procedure. In the meantime, a police officer is investigating the dead body found on an Arizona reservation, tracking him to a caravan park - just as a pair of war-planes, one black, one blue, appear out of thin air and destroy the dead man's caravan, promptly disappearing again. Later, an Abrams battle tank destroys the remains of the garage. Finally, the coach which Verity and the dead man traveled on is destroyed. Verity, Hunter and Jimmy insist that Arcee take them to the Decepticon bunker in Nebraska so that they can locate the proof Arcee needs to persuade Prowl of the severity of the Decepticon situation. Partway swayed, Arcee makes her mind up when Bumblebee offers to help out. The three humans and two Autobots make their way to Nebraska - just as the Decepticon lieutenant Starscream orders Skywarp and Brawl to destroy the bunker. Verity, Hunter and Jimmy explore the abandoned Decepticon base. In the process, Verity discovers a months-old human corpse and almost has a nervous breakdown. Topside, Skywarp and Brawl try to destroy the bunker, forcing Arcee and Bumblebee into battle. Bumblebee is able to shoot down Skywarp, his processor speed outmatching Skywarp's, but Arcee is taken out by Brawl. Meanwhile, the Machination prepares to "appropriate" Cybertronian technology, having discovered the location of Ark-19 via the SM-40's homing signal. Back underground, Verity discovers someone else has entered the bunker - Megatron. Skywarp and Brawl begin to level the Nebraska bunker. Jimmy and Hunter escape, but Verity is still below, paralyzed by fear at the sight of Megatron - who ignores her as irrelevant. As the bunker collapses in on itself, the Autobots and humans risk themselves to pull Verity to safety. Meanwhile, Starscream and Blackout refine the Ore-13 yield at the Oregon base, as Starscream plans to ingest the energy. Blitzwing and Skywarp survey the new crater, with Blitzwing believing the base and what they did there made them stop being Decepticons and it "deserves to be buried". At which point an enraged Megatron smashes his way out and destroys Skywarp with one shot. Brawl engages him and is smashed to pieces. The Autobots flee back to the Ark, knowing Megatron is out of their league. The Autobots report the data they gained to Prowl - Starscream's cell found a new variant of Energon they could directly apply to their systems. Quickly exhausted the seam, they abandoned the bunker for a new one in Oregon (which had a richer seam) and engaged Siege Mode to protect what they had. Megatron is here to "put his house in order", and nobody can tell how powerful Starscream's cell may have become. Starscream charges himself up to immense levels with Ore-13, intending to defeat Megatron. While the other Decepticons drop their guns and cease their mutiny upon Megatron simply talking, Starscream unleashes his full, devastating power. However, even Starscream's increased strength isn't enough to defeat Megatron and Megatron beats Starscream half to death. With Megatron now in command of the Earth cell and ordering Phase Two, Prowl realizes they need to call in Optimus Prime. Unluckily, the Machination have tracked the Autobots to their base.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)