The Price of Freedom Part 1

"Kup don't go today, I have a feeling something bad is going to happen."  Jahna said as she watched Kup prepare to leave.

Kup hugged his wife and kissed her forehead, "As long as this war continues bad things are going to happen, the only thing I can do about it is keep fighting until we win. There's a force of Decepticons attacking the main Autobot base, they need everyone who's not trapped inside to attack the Decepticons from behind and hopefully drive them off. Most of our weapons are stored in that base; we can't let the Decepticons get a hold of them." he told her,

"Try not to worry about me too much; I've survived thousands of battles and as long as I have you to come home to that's not going to change." he reassured her then let her go and started to gather the weapons and things he would need to take with him.

A short time later he was ready to leave.

"When can I start coming with you and help take out some of those Decepticons?" his son, Ellard asked.

"Too soon I'm afraid, although I hope by the time I can't make you stay home any longer the war will have finally ended." Kup told him.

"But I want to see some action and be able to tell my sparklings stories like you tell us."

"You can't tell stories if you get killed in battle." Kup replied.

"I would be fine; I've been trained by the greatest warrior on Cybertron." Ellard told him.

"Trust me I've only taught you a little about weapons and hand to hand combat, not enough to survive on the battle field."  Kup told him.

"Well then when you get home can you at least start teaching me some of that stuff?" he asked.

"Maybe if your mother says you've been good while I'm gone and you have all your chores done when I get back." Kup relented.

"Yes sir, I'll get started on my chores as soon as you leave."

"Good." Kup replied then turned to his daughter, Evera, "You'll help your mother while I'm gone, right?" he asked.

"Of course dad, I always do." she replied then asked, "When you get back can I train with Ellard too?"

"The training we'll be doing would only be useful on the battle field." he told her.

"Well I was kind of thinking about fighting with the Autobots too." she told him.

Kup's optics widened, he knew eventually his son would join the Autobot army, there was nothing he could do to stop him, but he had thought he would never have to worry about Evera being near a battle.  "But I thought you wanted to become a medic." he replied.

"I do, but I also want to see some of the action, just think about it the greatest warrior on the planet and both of his children fighting together. If you trained us the Decepticons wouldn't stand a chance against us together."  she said.

"I'm hardly the greatest and saying that won't get either of you anything." he said looking at both of his children.

"But dad I can fight just as well as he can." Evera said indicating her brother.

"We will discus it when I get home."  Kup told her.

"You won't let them run off and join the army while I'm gone, will you?" Kup asked his wife.

"Of course not, but I would feel better if you just stayed here, couldn't you just say you aren't feeling well or something and stay with us? Just this once?" she asked.

"No, but I'll be home before you know it." he said as he hugged and kissed her and his children, telling them all goodbye before he left for the base.


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Kup met with his company and they were told that a small force of Decepticons had been attacking the base. Once some of the ground troops had arrived the Decepticons started attacking only from the air, getting close enough to drop bombs and fire missiles then flying out of range of the base's weapons. They were very slowly wearing down the base's defenses, but the number of Decepticons attacking was slowly lessening even though no one had seen any fall. Within an hour of the soldiers arriving out side of the base the air was filled with smoke and there were only five Decepticons left, but they still kept attacking.

"Something isn't right, since when do the Decepticons not retreat when they're this badly out numbered?" Kup asked firing at a Decepticon that was coming into range then ducking back behind a pile of ruble as the Decepticon fired his guns at him.

"I don't know, but as long as we're winning I'm not going to complain." the soldier next to him said.

"But we're not winning, we've only shot down a couple of them, they're just disappearing, like they're going somewhere else." Kup pointed out ducking as a missile hit the ground in front of the pile of ruble they were behind, sending up a cloud of smoke and debris.

"Maybe they think they can just keep us busy until we're too tired to fight back and then they'll send in the rest." the other soldier suggested.

After about another half hour of fighting the remaining Decepticons suddenly left.

"What do you think made them retreat so suddenly? There was no change in our numbers or their's." Kup asked.

"I don't know, but at least it's over and they didn't get into the base." the other soldier replied.

"Something still doesn't feel right about this." Kup said as they got up and were ordered to carefully head towards the base and search for anyone who may have been hurt in the battle.

Just as they were heading towards the base Kup noticed a horrified look cross the captain's face. "Men we have a more serious situation to deal with, I just got word, this was a decoy, the rest of the Decepticons were attacking two of our cities." the captain told them.

"Which ones?" several soldiers asked.

"The two closest to the base, they knew we would call in the soldiers from those cities to help defend the base, leaving no one to defend the cities." The captain explained.

Kup could have sworn his spark stopped, Jahna had known something was going to happen and he had still left them. If they were hurt he would never forgive himself for not listening to her.

His company and the others that had come from the two cities were quickly divided by who had come from what city and then were sent home to help.
As they came over a rise that they would normally be able to see the city from a horrified gasp spread through the whole company.  
Where the city should have been there were only miles of ruble with flames and smoke billowing up from all over the place, making it look like something out of a nightmare.

Kup stood there like many of the others too shocked and horrified to move. He had expected some damage, a few buildings destroyed in the downtown part of the city. He had thought that the suburbs of the city, where his family was would have been relatively untouched, but everything was gone. Not a single building or house was still standing, only jagged sections of walls stuck up from the piles of smoking debris, everything else had been flattened.    


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It took Kup a minute and a grid overlay of the area to locate where his house had been. When he did his knees nearly gave out when he realized that not only had his house been destroyed, from the large crater that took up half of where the house had been it had been directly hit.

Recovering a little from the shock he ran towards where his house had been, ignoring the captain's calls for him to wait.

As soon as he got close to the city he was overwhelmed by the smell of burned wiring, scorched metal and horrified by the site of the torn and mangled bodies and limbs that littered the ground. He tried to ignore it as he kept moving and prayed that somehow his family had survived this nightmare.

As he reached his house he started calling out for his wife and children as he started digging through the ruble. He let out a cry of pure agony when he pulled back a large piece of wall and found Ellard's mangled body, one arm ripped off, both legs horribly twisted and a large hole blown through his chest where his spark should have been. Knowing there was nothing that could be done for him he moved on still hoping that somehow his wife and daughter had survived.

After searching for what seemed like forever he finally found Evera's body under the ruble next to the body of a Decepticon. Her hands still gripped the handle of a sword that had been thrust through the Decepticons spark, as if she had used her last bit of strength to make sure the Decepticon wouldn't live through the battle. One whole side of her body was mangled and burned as if she had been too close to an exploding bomb and energon poured through several cuts that had gone through her armor. He scanned her body, another cry escaping when he found that she was dead, her spark pierced by a small piece of metal that had most likely been sent flying by one of the explosions that had leveled the area. She had died fighting, but it had been a simple piece of debris that had killed her. He couldn't help thinking if he had been there like Jahna had wanted that he could have done something to save her.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard a moan coming from a pile of ruble several feet away.
He ran over and started digging until he found his wife. Her legs were crushed under a large piece of stone wall and a piece of a metal support beam stuck through her back and out of her chest near her spark.

She smiled when she saw him and weakly said. "You would have been so proud of the children; they each took out at least two Decepticons. I was pinned here in the first attack and they fought so bravely keeping the Decepticons away then there was this horrible explosion and I was buried here. Have you seen them? Are they alright?" she asked.

Kup's spark broke, how could he tell her that both of their children had been killed.

"They didn't make it did they?" she asked when he didn't answer right away.

"They died fighting the Decepticons, from the looks of it our little girl took out another one right before she died." he told her.

"That's how they would have wanted to go, fighting for our freedom from the Decepticons." she said weakly, her optics dimming.  

"Jahna, Stay with me, I can't lose you too." Kup said desperately.

"I don't think we have a choice, I'm not going to last much longer; even if I don't die before a medic gets here, part of the beam cut into my spark the second it's moved I'll die." she told him. "Just stay with me."

"What am I to do without you?" Kup asked.

"You'll go help look for survivors and then you'll keep doing the same thing you've been doing, stop the Decepticons, keep fighting for freedom and protecting the innocent and live your life, don't ever give up a chance to be happy just because we're not with you."  Jahna told him.

"I'll try." Kup replied barely able to speak as he sat down next to her and held her hands in his.

Being careful not to shift her body, Jahna leaned her head onto his shoulder and weakly told him. "I love you."

"I love you too." he replied wishing he could hold her in his arms one more time. He gently lifted her chin and kissed her then held her as well as he could without moving her body. They stayed like that until her spark finally went out, then fighting back sobs of unbearable grief he got up and went to help the others who were searching for their families. It had been the last thing she wanted and he was going to do it no mater how much he wanted to simply sit there and wish he had listened to her or died along with his family.