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Blades stopped as he heard the voices of the officers coming down the hall to his left. If he was lucky they wouldn’t see him, and if they did, they could all pretend he was just paying them the respect due their rank and letting them pass ahead of him. Frankly, though, he didn’t want to interact with them at all. His team was on the outs with command right now for reasons he didn’t know and he didn’t want to be the brunt of their ire.
“And the overall battle report? Aside from our total failure to save the city, of course.” Solarwave, the station’s new second-in-command said darkly.
“Considering that the Seekers came in like thieves in the night? The fact that we had any survivors at all is a miracle, and the fact that there were so many can only be attributed to the quick response to the teams on the ground.” Rebound, the base tactician replied. “The Protectobot medic even managed to save—“
“I’m aware of what the Protectobot medic saved. A drain on resources and a waste of space.”
Blades felt the fuel in his tanks go sour.
“Sir?” At least Rebound had the decency to sound upset.
“That hatchling,” The word dripped scorn and disgust, “Is never going to live long enough to be useful to us, and it will drain valuable resources until it dies. It would have been better off if someone had given it a mercy kill in the street.”
“With respect, I don’t think the Prime would agree with you.” The tactician’s tone radiated quiet anger.
“Well, the Prime isn’t here and he isn’t in charge of this base.” The two officers stopped just far enough into the intersection that Blades could see them from his hiding place further down the hall. “And if I find out that you’ve undermined my authority by going over my head to him, things will be very bad for you, very quickly.”
The Protectobot did his best not to move or make a sound that would give him away to the other mechs. He was burning with anger, though. If the two mechs hadn’t started moving again, he thought he might have armed his cannon and fired Solarwave.
“I don’t think that my going to the Prime is going to be your primary concern,” Rebound told the second-in-command as they left the intersection.
“See that it’s not. And take that damned hatchling away from the Protectobot and kill it.”
Blades turned and sprinted back toward the medbay, not caring if the officers heard him or not. He would put out his own spark before he would let them take Charger away from First Aid. And he would make a fine Decepticon if he allowed them to kill the hatchling.