Day 1: Behind Enemy Lines

After a mission gone wrong, Mirage's left all alone and injured abroad the very same decepticon ship he helped sink. With no way of contacting his comrades, it's up to him alone to get out of there, before either the cons or his own body claims his spark first.

Title from: Make the Grade - Jack Conte

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Mirage cursed as he ran, desperately trying to avoid the laser fire raining from behind him.

:Mirage to Jazz, Mirage to Jazz! Jazz do you copy?!: He yelled through the comms, maneuvering around a shot way too close to his helm for comfort.

:Yeah, we hear you.: He was greeted by Jazz's smooth voice. He let out an ex-vent of relief before swearing loudly and abruptly rolling to the side to avoid a photon blast. :Mirage I heard- What's happening over there?!: Jazz's voice went from worried to alert in a nanoclick, now on edge by the normally calm noble's demeanor.

:The mission got compromised, they know I'm here! I'm using the new holograms from Wheeljack to appear differently, so they don't know who I am-: he jumped and roller left, avoiding a hastily thrown grenade, but his right arm still got the majority of the blast. :-FRAG, but I need to get out of here, preferably with back-up and a medical team ready for when I'm-!: He turned around to check the distance before himself and his followers only to be met with a laser right at his face. He had a split moment to duck, but it was too late.

:AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!: He howled both through the comms and his vocalizer, the pain momentarily clouding his processor. He heard Jazz's and some more voices through his comms before they ultimately faded into unrecognizable static. He tumbled over, his remaining working hand coming to his face where the blast hit. He cried out again, his vocalizer now a little raspy from his continuous screams. With a click he shut it down and took a deep in-vent, trying to clear his processor. He vaguely noticed the decepticons stopping, unsure of what to do, many shocked at one of them actually hitting the target. He grit his denta and with a final(silent) yell took one of his smoke grenades and threw it at the enemies. With a thick cloud forming before it even hit the ground, the low-tier goons cried in confusion, their visibility compromised due to the smoke.

He bit back another scream as he manually overwrote his pain receptors off, finally letting out an ex-vent as he managed to get most of them offline, the pain subsisting significantly, yet still strong enough to be felt. He grunted as he got up and hissed as his right arm snapped off and hit the floor with a sick splat, the energon from his ruptured lines rapidly pooling around the severed limb. He looked up at the decepticons only to see the smoke already disappearing due to the ship's ventilation system.

With no time left to think, Mirage turned and ran as fast as he could, abandoning the limb behind, using his remaining hand to carefully cup and clench the wires to hopefully prevent more energon from leaking out.

Mirage swore as he yet again ducked for cover, this time behind some maintenance crates. The rough sound of metal peds hitting the ground right next to his hiding place sent shivers down his protoform. The decepticon's gruff voices bounced off the walls as they called all personnel aboard, informing them of the autobot spy hiding amongst them. As quietly as he could he crawled deeper into the crates, hoping to have at least a moment to get his thoughts in order. Finally, he settled again and slowly brought his right arm up.

He made a face as he looked at what was left of his right arm. Wires dangled uselessly, with energon steadily dripping from the wound. He growled quietly, mind racing, desperately trying to think of something to do. Finally, a single suggestion popped up on his feed. He felt a pit settle in his fuel tanks as he read the result.

"Cauterization" was displayed in big, bold letters in the lower left corner of his feed.

Maybe...

Mirage squeezed his remaining hand into a tight fist. Oh, it's going to hurt like the pits, but it could theoretically work if he did it properly.

With no other solution coming to his processor, Mirage sighed, resigning to his fate as he opened one of his subspace pockets and took out a special blade. He clicked a cleverly hidden switch on the handle and watched as the blade started to light up, its temperature steadily growing.

He carefully put it on the ground to let it heat up and then carefully lead his other hand to his destroyed arm. Carefully, he slipped his fingers under the plating and felt around for a specific wire.

It's a neat little trick he learnt from Ratchet. The energon flowing to his arm naturally flowed through one specific wire, which then branched at around below the elbow to allow smaller ones to lead the energon through the entire remaining forearm and hand. If a specific spot on said wire was pinched, it stopped the energon flow completely for around two to three breems, depending on your frame build. Mirage let out a quiet cheer as he finally found the spot and pinched it, grinning as he saw the energon slow to a small dribble before finally stopping completely. It was a great trick, but not a long-term solution.

He took his hand away and admired his work for a nanoclick. He then looked back at his destroyed arm, thankfully not dripping energon anymore. He frowned as he realized that, despite his best attempts, he's probably going to scream bloody murder, which is a big no-no in his current situation. Quickly coming to a decision he looked around, searching for something to bite on. "Bingo!" He thought as he saw a loose piece of metal sitting on one of the maintenance crates. He quickly took it and ignoring his tanks' churns of disgust at the texture, he put it in his mouth and bit down on it. He grimaced at the taste but ultimately decided to ignore it to the best of his abilities.

His processor's gonna be occupied with something else soon enough.

He shook his head and finally looked at the blade, now an angry red. He felt anxiety swell in his spark as he picked the blade up by its handle, its warmth easily felt even through the protection the handle gave.

He took a deep in-vent as he slowly brought the blade to the cables. He felt his hand shake slightly to which he forcefully tried to get it to stop. He couldn't afford a mistake, especially in such a delicate procedure. He swallowed around the metal in his mouth as he finally brought the blade to his cables.

He bid down so hard he felt the metal bend in his mouth, but it successfully stopped anything more than a gargled shout to escape. Oh Primus, it hurt so much. Hot, searing pain shot through his arm, much worse than the laser to his face, much worse than any laser wound he's had before. A sizzling sound filled the air as the blade's temperature slowly melted the cables together. He bit down harder as coolant-tears welled up in his optics and more cries threatened to escape his vocalizer.

"Oh, Ratchet's going to have an absolute fit when he sees what I've done!" Mirage chuckled through the tears at the unexpected thought before doubling over in pain as another wave of pain seared through his arm. He bravely held the blade to the cables despite his frame's protests, only biting harder and harder as new spikes of pain his his processor.

Primus, if this is how it felt when he had his pain receptors turned down, he didn't ever want to find out what it felt to cauterize a wound with them turned at normal levels, or worse, turned up!

He let out a strained sob as he looked at his arm. The cables looked more like one big melted piece of slag than cables now and with a gasp of relief he finally pulled the blade back, quickly clicking on the switch and setting it on the floor again, this time to let it cool down.

He finally relaxed, venting harshly. He let his head fall back, setting it against the crates as he gasped, his sounds still muffled through the metal in his mouth. With a grimace he pulled it out with a shaky hand and scowled at the visible dentae marks, practically biting through the piece. With yet another grimace he set it beside him, too afraid of throwing it and it making too much sound like he wanted. He vented heavily, his processor finally clear of pain. He looked at his arm again and yeesh , Ratchet's famous wrenches are definitely gonna get deployed this time, but he supposes it's better than bleeding and passing out in the middle of a decepticon ship.

With one last ex-vent Mirage bit his lip plates and carefully stood on shaky legs. He looked over the crates and saw no decepticons. One good thing about his current situation.

He tried to call his team again, but only static met him back. He cursed his luck and after waiting for a couple nanoclicks to be sure no decepticons were coming, he activated his electro-disruptor and carefully started moving through the halls.

With one hand holding the melted remains of his cables, he slowly walked as close to the wall as possible. He hissed as each movement aggravated his other wounds. Gritting his derma shut he shifted as his right leg brushed against the wall, leaving a small smear of energon behind. He was lucky it was even still functioning and didn't fall off like his arm, but in the absolute disaster that was his cauterization attempt he completely forgot to take care of it.

He felt a spark dancing on his faceplates. Great, another injury to add onto his "Injuries forgotten while he writhed in pain" list. With most of the left side of his face panel gone, the exposed wires sparked and tugged relentlessly, his optic shattered and popped out of place, dangling a little off from his face by a couple wires. Honestly, at this point he was just surprised he somehow managed to ignore those injuries up until now!

"Primus, I must look as if I came out of one of those poorly written human horror movies that Bumblebee keeps watching with Spike and then proceeds to have nightmare fluxes from..." Mirage thought as he grit his denta, afraid to let even the smallest sound to alert the decepticons of his position.

Warnings kept popping up on his feed, with him dismissing them every time. He had to focus on getting out of here, he could check just how exactly fragged up he was later, thank you very much.

His previous line of thought got interrupted as he felt more than heard footsteps behind him. By the vibrations, they were dangerously close to his position. He froze, hoping they just ran past without noticing him.

To his surprise they stopped a bit before him, talking to each other. He strained his audials, trying to hear their conversation only to receive yet another warning, proclaiming with bold letters about his only one working audial, with his left completely useless, torched and melted by the blast.

He had a brief moment to curse the slagger who got a lucky shot to his head. He knew he was lucky to even be functioning, especially in the state he was in, but he couldn't help but to swear at the one who got him in this state.

"Energon signature identified: Autobot Mirage abroad Nemesis." A robotic voice called through the ship's speakers.

Mirage froze, feeling the energon in his lines run cold. His spark clenched in an uncomfortable sensation, his vents momentarily speeding up as horror clouded his processor.

Frag.

Mirage scrambled to get ahold of his body, even with the cold, dreading sensation slowly seeping through his systems. He had to get out of there, now.

Frag, frag, frag!

He sped up, clenching his denta to prevent any more whimpers of pain to escape. Clutching his severed cables, limping a little, with black spots appearing bigger and more often in his vision, he knew he wouldn't last long.

"I only have to get to the extraction point..." He thought, swerving left. He hoped Jazz sent out a rescue team already, with his chronometer busted he had no idea of knowing how long he's actually been aboard the ship...

He grunted quietly as his melted cables bumped into the wall, causing a spike of pain to travel through his arm.

"Great, the only thing I need now is for my wound to reopen! Focus Mirage, you're better than this!" Mirage thought to himself bitterly, swerving another left and down a dark, slightly damp staircase. He couldn't help but let out an ex-vent. Just at the bottom, there should be a small supply closet working as the Spec Op's extraction point. He and Jazz discovered it once and it served them well ever since. He wondered how the decepticons hadn't noticed it yet as he carefully stepped down the stairs, but at the same time, what could he expect from the decepticons, exactly?

With one hand resting on the wall to support himself, Mirage walked down as quickly as he could. Finally he stepped his peds onto the lower floor and almost cheered as he saw the slightly rusted doors of the supply closet.

Very aware of the many warnings practically blinding him at this point, he quickly limped to the door and opened it with. He flinched at the loud squeak it let out, but quickly whipping his helm around shoved no decepticons anywhere. He ex-vented in relief and with one more pull it finally opened, proudly showing its interior. Mirage could practically feel his body shutting down on him, with the adrenaline that had him moving finally dispatching. He took a couple shaky steps(mindful to close the door behind him, of course), and with a clang fell against one of the walls.

There he was, sitting in basically the same position he was in during his cauterization, waiting for his team to show up. He let his head fall and bump against the wall. Primus, he must look pathetic.

More and more warnings kept popping up. He tried to move his left servo only to find out he couldn't. "Energon conservation" me managed to read through the sea of pop-up warnings on his feed. Great.

"Initiating shut-down protocols."

He swallowed, feeling as his systems slowly shut down one by one. He reset his optics, struggling to see anything anymore. Finally, he let his mind drift back, slowly resigning to his fate.

Then, just at the edge of his sensors, he felt a slight shift. The room's temperature dropped abruptly and after resetting his optics he saw two- no, three colorful, moving blobs. They're here. They came for me. He last thought, a small smile creeping up onto his lipplates. One of the blobs, a mostly white one, most likely Jazz, turned around and seemingly said something, but his audials didn't pick it anymore. Blob-Jazz ran up to him and crouched, one hand coming to touch what remained of his cables, the other to his face.

He tried to show his gratitude through his EM field, but he had no idea how much of his feelings were actually converted, especially in his current state. He just hoped it was enough to get the message across.

He was talking again. Mirage wished he could hear anything, but with one last message, his body finally shut down completely into stasis.

Mirage's body slumped forward, causing some chaos to erupt around him. With the last of his consciousness, he smiled again and finally reset his optics for the last time. 

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My search history after writing this one looked like something out of a crime documentary lmaoo

This past month's been really hectic with my e8 exams last week, but luckily all that bs is finally behind me and I can get back to writing! I've been a transformers fan for a long time and it's been a pleasure writing this and the other works for it!

Hope you all enjoyed and stay tuned for the rest of the works!