Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

On the night the Iron-Eating Bug incident ended, Vector True moved the Retribution Number.

Both the temporary judicial liaison point and the Autobot base are conducting a comprehensive investigation. The former is fine; the Iron-Eating Bug only stayed there briefly, and after several scans, it was confirmed that there was no sign of life.

The Autobot base was in a terrible state, and the Graviton Vector didn't want to get close for the time being.

Megatron remained remarkably calm about this: "You can stay as long as you want."

Vector: "Are you happy?"

"no."

Megatron remained unfazed, but the Iron-Eating Worm had surprisingly earned his slight approval.

Of course, he would never tell the vector pointer such a thing.

-

The next day, after confirming the safety of the judicial liaison point, Yin Vector returned.

After finishing her own business, she took 97, AZ, and four Mini Transformers to help the Autobots repair their base.

Iron-eating bugs are truly indiscriminate eaters; they gnaw on walls, wires, equipment, and even Autobots.

The base was riddled with gaps and signs of re-welding.

Boom and Chaos actually enjoyed what they were doing, since this was different from a venting room; they had the opportunity to openly and legitimately dismantle damaged wall panels.

"This needs to be replaced!" A thunderous punch landed.

Vector suddenly turned around: "I told you to loosen that piece!"

"It's cracked on the side too."

After a quick, confused inspection, I realized: "It's cracked."

"Okay, you can continue."

The two little guys were happily wreaking havoc. The Sawbird was in charge of checking the high places, while the Mechanical Dog crawled into the base's repair area, checking along the way for any hidden Iron-Eating Bugs.

Not long after, he suddenly stopped and took a gentle sniff.

There were very faint traces left there, almost completely obscured by the smell of solder, damaged wiring, and various repair materials.

The mechanical dog walked forward and sniffed again, finally reaching the newly disassembled repair compartment, only to find that there was nothing inside, just the lingering smell.

He suddenly remembered that he had smelled it before.

-

The vector was helping to secure a metal plate to the ambulance when its leg was gently tugged.

She looked down, and the mechanical dog stood beside her.

"What's wrong?"

The mechanical dog turned around and gestured for her to follow. Vector was a little confused, but he still went along.

Upon reaching the maintenance mezzanine, the mechanical dog lowered its head and sniffed a few times before looking up at her again.

"Is there something here?" The mechanical dog nodded.

"Still there?" The mechanical dog shook its head.

The magnetic field crouched down, slowly probing along the interior of the interlayer—but found nothing.

"I've smelled this before," the mechanical dog said after a moment's hesitation.

The vector's expression changed slightly: "Where?"

The robotic dog turned towards the temporary judicial liaison point, and she paused for two seconds: "Why didn't you tell me the first time?"

The mechanical dog lightly scratched the ground with its paw: "Too bland."

At first, he even thought it might just be a faint smell left by the new equipment, but when two completely different places had almost the same strange smell, it was hard to continue to think it was a coincidence the second time.

"Well done." Vector ruffled his hair. "You were right to tell me this time."

She summoned AZ and had 97 retrieve all the recent maintenance records from the Autobot base.

We checked several machines together for a long time, but still found nothing.

The base had just been attacked by iron-eating bugs, and the ground was littered with broken parts and repair debris. Trying to find some random little thing among them was about as difficult as picking out a specific grain of sand in the desert.

In the end, only encrypted records can be left.

[Unknown anomaly: Appeared for the second time.]

[Source: Unconfirmed.]

[Target status: Suspected to have left.]

"Mechanical dog, tell me immediately if you smell it again in the future."

He nodded earnestly.

Unbeknownst to anyone, outside the maintenance passage, a tiny machine, barely larger than a typical laboratory tool, had already been drilled out through the drainage system.

The Autobot base was a good target for destruction, but unfortunately, by the time it arrived, the Ironhide Bugs had already destroyed most of it.

So the little thing only stayed for a short while, noted down the base's structure and location coordinates, and then left.

-

Before the base was even fully completed, Fuller brought new troubles.

Fuller's transport plane was attacked by unidentified armed forces while carrying something called a dynamic nuclear power generation device, and it is now clearly no longer safe to continue transporting it via conventional military routes.

"I need help."

A metal device appears on the main screen.

Jack stared at it for a long time, still confused: "What is this?"

Fuller: "A dangerous thing."

Fuller had initially considered transferring the patient directly via the land bridge, but the ambulance driver immediately rejected that idea.

"no."

The vector generator also shook its head: "If this kind of nuclear energy equipment becomes unstable during the bridging process, radiation will spread over a wide area along the channel."

Fuller frowned: "So?"

"Use physical transportation."

Optimus Prime said, "We'll escort them."

The escort team was quickly finalized: Optimus Prime, Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Jazz would be responsible for the transport, the dynamic nuclear power generator would be placed in Optimus Prime's cargo hold, Fuller would accompany the vehicle, and Smokescreen and Ratchet would stay at the base, along with the three children.

Vector didn't go with them. Before Optimus Prime set off, he looked at her and asked, "Did you stay because of the anomaly discovered by the robotic dog?"

"Hmm." Vector looked around the base, which was not yet fully repaired. "We still don't know what it is. I'm worried. Contact me immediately if anything happens."

"The same to you."