Project One Series, ch 41

Project One: Ultimatum
Chapter 11: The Morning after the First.

To the Director of Armed Forces Finances, from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Dear Director,

First and foremost I want to thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter of military spending recently discovered by the Joint Chiefs and the department of the Treasury.

It is with a heavy heart that I must request your own personal story on the subject of one Samantha Carter and the base known as NORAD and why it was destroyed. Several of our field teams reported that Ms Carter was in fact a traitor to her country, if this is true, you can confirm it, or you can deny it. There is also the loss of important data within NORAD's computer network. Thankfully it was taken off site before the base was destroyed.

If it is alright with you I want to hear from you regarding the files and finances of several soldiers, most notably deceased Colonel Samantha Carter, and deceased General Jonathan O'Neill

0600 hours 2 May {Joint Chiefs of Staff meeting clock time}, White House East Room, The White House, Washington D.C.

Morshower looked bleary eyed as he took his seat at the table, there were five others there so far of the Joint Chiefs. It came recently to light of the allegations of finances being laundered and the traitor, Samantha Carter was being given a padded paycheck and increased government grants for secret projects.

It was why this emergency meeting of the Joint Chiefs was called. Morshower had already sent the letter to their targeted person of interest to inform them of questions to the staff and the like.

Why the man was a thief and liar was beyond even Morshowers comprehension. He shook aside the thought. Now all he had to worry about was the questions to ask once they got a reply from their person of interest in the case before taking them to trial.

Two more people entered, finally Thunderstrike entered and took a seat at the table. They could begin once the President had arrived, however once the reason for the retired General being there was given, the meeting began. Morshower spoke first.

"I sent the letter as required stating our intent to question the means and allegations behind the rumors of laundered finances and padded paychecks to employees of the Air Force. The letter was sent as directed to the Eccles Building. No reply as yet as I just sent it off before coming here." the whole thing left a bad taste in Morshowers mouth.

Thunderstrike spoke up, "I looked into this Samantha Carter and her dealings. Six years ago Carter founded a project, which required money in terms of a federal grant to begin the project, a new form of fighter craft for the Air Force. What she called a F three zero two, what it meant none knew at the time only that it was a project that should be the new Fir Force fighter craft by the end of the presidents then second term. Unfortunately we have not seen any of these fighters on screen or in person as yet and therefore we do not know exactly what she used the money for."

"For all we know Carter had used the money to found other projects aside from the initial reason the money was sent to her in the first place." Morshower said.

"Exactly, which brands her not as a traitor, but as a thief. For the moment." Thunderstrike pointed out.

Morshower nodded and spoke, holding up a sheet of paper from a tan folder. "Listed here is also founding for a project of pick up and delivery of a item for testing, assuming the item found was worth the time and money, the file says the grant gave in taxpayer founded money the sum total of exactly twenty six thousand dollars to pay travel expenses, boat hire, fuel, lodging for military personnel on site, and also ground transportation from the site back to NORAD. Also listed is several devices, and also a new employee." Morshower set the file on the table. He passed it to the guy to his right who wanted to see it and read it over.

Morshower placed his hands together on the table, as if in prayer, then said, "Now, can anyone tell me just why we let this happen ?"

For the moment not many could, finally, Secretary of the Air Force General Roberts spoke up, "Its possible that this particular grant was used as intended, the employee was hired as required, another employee was let go. The item was safely taken in and test work began, next thing we know, an attack was launched against NORAD and two other Air Force bases in the Nevada desert. It was not until the aftereffects of the loss of both bases did we begin questioning everything we could." He pulled out some folders, opening one marked TOP SECRET he removed a file. "This file was sent to me yesterday afternoon." He said. "It details everything that occurred at NORAD and our other bases within range of NORAD. It is signed officially by the president." He handed the file to Morshower

Morshower read it over, Thunderstrike said nothing, he knew of the raid on NORAD and also area fifty one. Quiet useful. He owned it now. He needed a place for the Dreads to stretch their legs, literally. Morshower spoke, "Yes, I’ve seen this file, everyone present here were also present when the Vice President through the President directly labeled the now deceased colonel Samantha Carter as a traitor and that justice to be done was death, to be carried out by one person alone. Though everyone on the base had also gone with Carter into the darker ways of life. There was no choice but to destroy the base directly. Leave no trace."

"Yes, but who and what destroyed the base ? Residents near NORAD reported lots of bombs dropping, no house damage aside from small bouts of gunfire ripping siding and breaking a few windows." Another man said, he was the secretary of the treasury. Thomas Jackson. This was a severe financial matter to be taken care of.

"I was just getting to that Mr Jackson, but you raise a fair point. Residents whose homes were damaged during the battle will be given federal money directly through the Federal Reserve Board directly. Not through stocks, not through banks, but directly through the federal reserve. I want a full list however of the homes that were damaged, and the level of severity of the damage. Loss of power, loss of internet, loss of phone or any form of damage to the structure of the home, if the homes are empty, with no one in them, but the empty homes, repair them, then sell them." Morshower said, pretty much listing off a idea that everyone accepted right away.

"Now" Morshower said picking up a briefcase. "Let us get to the reason we are here. There is a man who works in the Federal Reserve Board, as a finance officer. As we all know the Eccles Building is also a bank for this area. Not just for the federal government but also to the residents of Washington D.C. Therefore, this man also most likely had laundered money for other people as well."

Morshower opened the briefcase and started through the many files that Swallowtail had sent him, he had printed them all off for the meeting and the inquiry letters. "For all we know our person of interest in this matter has a yellow sheet. Where it is if he has one I do not know."

"So this is a guessing game ?" One of the other joint chiefs asked

"No, it is not. Our person of interest is known to several members of our team. Both the CIA and FBI have agreed to share with us everything they know of this person, as well as the person that our target funded so extensively."

Some of the Joint Chiefs read some of the files, the first page at least. "So we’re after a money launderer." One of them stated. More of a statement then a question. Worse came to worse, the joint chiefs were going to have more then enough trouble.

"Looks that way." Thunderstrike replied with a serene slight nod. "The man wanted to supply someone with extra taxpayer dollars, on top of that he founded several projects that were deemed as unwanted by the United States military special projects division." He said, reading off some of his own files his Dreads had dug up on the guy.

"So this guy is also using money he was not allowed access to, in order to found projects that were classed as not to found or attempt ? What was the guy thinking ?" Morshower said.

"It was more who he sent the money to. The Federal Grant money was sent to a person at NORAD station." Thunderstrike replied, "The person receiving the grant money used it to found secret projects, our man was never informed of what those projects were. However it was not until our other man managed to get hired by the now dead Carter and company did we get anymore information of what really went on within NORAD's old rocket test facility." Thunderstrike set the files onto the table for all to have access to.

After a few minutes of quiet, everyone was reading their files sent to them quite carefully, did another member of the meeting speak up. "Impossible. Devices that were found in nineteen thirty two not far from the Giza Pyramids were taken to a secret military base in America, and since late nineteen ninety seven had been used as a means to go to other planets, and also other galaxies. Impossible. that’s like saying that aliens are the real thing!" The man was also quite wrong because at that exact moment there was an alien in the room, and it was Thunderstrike.

Thunderstrike took notice of that statement and sat up straighter, only Morshower knew for sure exactly what alien life was on earth, though he was also slightly wrong given the fact that there was an alien walking around with a weird thing on his forehead. The new owner of area fifty one set his elbows on the table, his hands resting on his chin.

Morshower spoke before things got too carried away. "What we know now, and what we have in these files are two different things, Our teams in the field are gathering Intel on our person of interest in this case, as well as details pertaining to who exactly was getting more then their fair share and why." He said setting his elbows on the table, outlining a few things on the digital system for all to see.

"As far as we are all aware, robotic experiments through the government were responsible for the events at Las Vegas, however it was made clear that something else was a foot at the attack on Chicago, and recently New York city a few years ago." He highlighted areas on a map of the world. "Events happened around the world, we tried to keep it secret. With the attack of Chicago it had to come out. The weird thing in the sky. That was their home world" He said. He sat back in his seat. That was Thunderstrikes cue.

However before the ancient Seeker could speak voices rose and one of those present at the meeting asked simply, "Who are they ?" in answer to that Morshower looked at Thunderstrike.

The ancient Seeker spoke; "They are as you most likely not expect. However. Some of them came to be protectors, fighting for the good. Working with those they call their friends, most of the few I know use the term of Primary Innocents to keep track of certain people so their enemies wont get to them, if at all." He said.

"Enemies ?" Someone asked. "What enemies ? What exactly are we up against ?" Thunderstrike typed in a few keys on the keypad, the maps reset briefly, then in their place images appeared. Mostly of military type transports, aircraft and similar.

Seeing the images on screen the Speaker of the House, James Maxwell, said. "Those are military vehicles. Some civilian contacting vehicles. What are you showing us ? Our own cars and trucks ?"

"In a manner of speaking yes." Thunderstrike replied, he then hit the PLAY button. The images went into motion. As they did so Thunderstrike explained "These cars and trucks as you call them, are everything but your every day transportation to and from work."

The image turned video of the HVA medical transport van transforming into a rather large robot, and protecting a school of all places from a even uglier looking much much larger robot that was pretty much causing a massive mess in an area of Detroit was quite amazing to watch.

Another video showed a pair of solid black military hummers transforming and performing something akin to a dance while swarms of maniacs of sorts tried to take them on, only to get destroyed or stomped into oblivion.

"These two here" Thunderstrike highlighted the pair of black hummers dancing the tango against other Decepticons of a strange metallic purple hue. "Are part of a much larger contingent. This one." He highlighted a video bringing up the much larger version of it onto the screen, it showed a rather exotic classic muscle car from the late sixties era in a fight alongside a massive pickup truck of some kind against what looked like a massive scorpion. "Is quite important to several, mostly to me."

"What do you mean ? You mean that these cars and trucks are really alien robots ?" Speaker Maxwell asked.

"In a manner of speaking, truth be told the forms were here already, they just copied them. Easiest way to hide. Also one of the harder ways to hide as well." Thunderstrike replied. "They are limited by their own sizes of their bodies, not just their primary power source." another image appeared, this time of a ‘naked’ protoform of a Cybertronian upon their first step on Earth or wakening from the Well. It stood dozens of meters tall, humanoid, with hands, feet, and a torso. But where of various heights.

"Let me get this straight, whatever these things are, the ones we’ve seen are so far the good guys, right ?" Speaker Maxwell said.

Thunderstrike didn’t nod, but he did speak "Yes and no." He said.

"What do you mean by that, General Stryker ?" Morshower asked. He knew only so much himself, never actually meeting or seeing a Decepticon directly, but he knew people with experience in such matters. Not that it fully matter. Much.

"What we have seen so far, the ambulance medical transport, the two black hummers, the black pickup truck and the muscle car. Those we can be sure are on our side, the good side. For wont of a better term, call them friendlies. On the other end of that table we have the bad, which are termed the Decepticons." More images appeared, showing alternate chassis frames, and also their faces and what they looked like as massive robots.

For a few moments nobody spoke seeing the images of seemingly normal military trucks and civilian contracted vehicles. Mostly police and similar groups. Completely unassuming people worked with such machines. One police cruiser however was on the screen, it looked alarmingly similar to the exotic silvery red muscle car fighting the massive scorpion creature.

Speaker Maxwell spoke, pointing at the police cruiser image, then at the muscle car fighting alongside the massive black pickup truck. "This car here, this police cruiser. And this one, this robot here. Look alike. Is this to be so, or am I seeing things ?" he asked. Giving Thunderstrike a look.

"You are not seeing things. As I know it this police officer and this lovely muscle car are siblings of some sort. One good one bad, in this case two sides to a coin. This coin being good or bad, in this case the police officer represents the bad side, or the darker side of that coin while the prettier muscle car represents the lighter, nicer side of that same coin." Thunderstrike explained.

"How do you know so much of these... things ?" Speaker Maxwell asked the ancient Seeker. Thunderstrike did not know how to reply to the question.

Thankfully Morshower saved him. "He is one of our best operatives when it comes to dealing with such events as they happen. It has been on a need to know basis. And at the moment, you all need to know." He said. At a nod, the two secret service men closed the doors and stood in front of them. Morshower then motioned to Thunderstrike to stand and reveal himself. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Joint Chiefs, allow me to introduce to you all, Thunderstrike. One of our most trusted generals."

Thunderstrike didn’t even stand, instead he dropped the illusion. Black and gray and silver machinery appeared with bright red eyes in the place of a human man. A machine who could mimic a human amazingly well. "I am not the only one in this room at this moment either. Gentlemen, if you will observe the two secret service members within this room." As he spoke they too dropped their disguise and appeared similar to Thunderstrike, but with bone white instead of silver. They were also quite stocky as well at the shoulder.

None made a move, It was five long moments of quite before one man spoke, "So we are protected by some, but hated by others. Makes sense I suppose." The man said.

"It does. Some of us are to protect, the medical truck you saw fighting the construction crane. The Crane was  the enemy, its target could have been anything,  the medical truck is none other than a old friend of mine. This car here" The video started playing again on the large screen, it showed Jinx driving up Executive avenue with seven Cyberpumas following behind him. "Is known as a Cyberpuma Herder. He’s a nice guy, very good natured, great sense of humor. One of the good guys. What you know as the Autobots. They fight for freedom of all living creatures, and that includes humans. This Mustang here" The video then focused on a Mustang GT500 Queen of the Road with all sorts of alien markings on it. "Is none other than their young leader. She is also very good friends with the vice presidents daughter too." Thunderstrike said reforming himself as his General persona.

"But why disguise yourselves ?" Asked Speaker Maxwell.

"Humans have always showed their capacity for hostile action towards anything remotely hostile towards them, that includes us. So we hid ourselves as common every day items, including microwaves, cellphones. The list goes on." Thunderstrike replied. "The two Secret Service agents you see here are under my direct command. They wont attack unless told to do so."

"What about those creatures seen a day or so ago around the white house, you remember those black catlike things." Someone else piped up.

"The Cyberpumas, yes, Jinx oversees them, the six solid shiny black ones we saw were kittens, in a manner of speaking, the duller black one is their mother. So to speak. Jinx is the Cyberpuma herder. The GT40’s driver." Thunderstrike replied.

The meeting went on for a little while longer before it ended. The letter was sent. The first round of questions were going to begin soon.

*~*~*

0922 hours 2 May, Medical Safe house, Ashton Maryland

Lake paced in her room. She was not the best at waiting. She never really was good at waiting to begin with. She had no plan for anything, no plan to sneak on Kinsey, no plan to jail him, or kill him, or anything really. Lake was sadly, planes in Ashton. Which like she joked about before, actually did indeed make for a bad movie title.

Swallowtail sat on the bed nearby, she was shifting through her wireframe map. She was unhappy about something important concerning a past mission. That might have been why Blackstreak hadn’t been around very much last night. Lake thought, over the last day or so Blackstreak and Swallowtail, Lake had noticed, were not exactly on top of things the way they normally were. The red clothed soldier never asked her friend about the matter the young Prime was upset over. Thinking instead to let her friend talk about it when she was ready.

Finally Lake stopped pacing, looking at her friend for a long moment. Swallowtail noticed and looked up. "What is it ?" Swallowtail asked, standing up.

Lake sighed, "I’m hungry" She finally said, moving to the door she opened it and stepped into the hallway. It was time to raid the kitchen. Swallowtail went with her. The house was one floor, and very large. Two garages, one was a three car garage, the other a two car garage. A large pool in the backyard which Lake actually enjoyed. Even though it was May and quite cold at times the pool was actually pretty nicely heated.

Lake scampered into the kitchen barefoot, she went right to the fridge and started digging around in it to find something to eat for breakfast while Swallowtail figured her friend busy enough she took a seat in the living room not far away and in view of the kitchen. Once more going through her wireframe map. Lake found a glass and filled it with Pepsi, then found some beef and cooked it up.

The news paper arrived. Brought by one of the secret service agents. Lake paid it no heed for the moment other then noting the front page. A smirk on her face as she read it and saw the picture. Three M12 LRVs racing each other around the Reflecting Pool in D.C. It was a funny thing at times. Heh, someone had reported on the race that Swallowtail did. And an annoymus tip had been also given to the papers concerning something at the Fed. Which threw Lake partly for a loop as the economy was working perfectly fine, the stock market was on the up and up too. There were no mentionings of herself, or any of the others for the moment. Lake then focused on the weather report the paper printed through the Weather Channel’s website.

It was about an hour later and Swallowtail perked up. Toi was nearly there. And Wheelie wanted to see Lake, so did Brains, and to be honest, Lake wanted to see them all too. Toi was twenty minutes away. Now there was less waiting to do. But even then Lake didn’t even have a plan yet for what to do against Kinsey. She took a bite of her meat and opened up the paper and started reading the story.

"I wonder why he did it" Swallowtail suddenly said. Lake looked from the story in the paper to look to her friend. At the look from her friend, Swallowtail continued. "Blackstreak had a mission from Thunderstrike a few years ago, in order to help us as a team he had to go undercover, I wonder what made him want to do it. If it weren’t for him we’d not be here right now." Swallowtail actually couldn’t believe her hearing system when Blackstreak said he was on the other team and left.

He never harmed any of the team as he left though. It was unique how it all worked out. Missions with the team were easier, it was how they rescued Lake from Death Valley in the first place. Since then her knees were in perfect shape with no problems whatsoever. With the information that ‘Streak kept supplying them with the Autobots were able to hide from Carter and the others of the former team of SG1

But it hurt though, Swallowtail had thought she had lost another friend to the Decepticons. But she was proved wrong weeks later when ‘Streak met up with her and told her why he was playing double agent. It was not until after the mission was finished did it all make sense and they got Lake back. Lake didn’t really like that mission either, at least she was able to walk just fine within a month and a half. Had she access to a Stasia Tube at the time it would have been an hour and a half instead.

Now however they were done, so far, with many things and merely had to wait. They had to wait for the right time to catch Kinsey red handed. To which Toi had asked, "What color is his hands now ?" which had Lake not held back her friend, could have gotten him clobbered from Swallowtail. They had to worry only so much now however, they just had to wait for Toi to get back. Wheelie and Brains had been wanting to see Lake and Lake wanted an update from them on how things were with Doc anyhow.

Toi pulled into the driveway of the Medical Safe house and stepped out of his cab, the hard light hologram driver seat appeared as he stepped out in his Unit mode. Wheelie and Brains also hopped out of the truck. Wheelie carried Brains in his bed portion into the White House and they both went looking for Lake. They had news they wanted to share.

They found Lake and Swallowtail in the large living room of the house. The two females were sitting watching TV, well, Lake was watching TV, watching the Weather Channel’s Wake Up With Al. Whereas Swallowtail was staring off into space thinking about past missions most likely.

At seeing Lake the two drones scampered to her side, Wheelie sat down, picked up the remote and was about to start flipping through the information highway at five hundred channels a second when Lake gently lifted the remote from the drones hands. "Mission report first, remote after." Lake said.

Wheelie’s shoulders seemed to sink, but he nodded and Brains and he traded report parts. They listed everything that occurred and even had fun doing it. Toi even got some upgrades as well. A new toolbox to store his weapons in. Wheelie even had a software update too direct from Ratchet. Brains even had a software update too. As did Frenzy.

They reported how they worked with the CIA and FBI directors searching for pictures of Lake and how they kept leading both men on really well. None of them figuring they were being watched carefully. It was just too easy. The Chessmasters won the games it seemed. But they also found out something rather important too. But they kept their mouths shut as they remember their orders. Lake was to focus on on that evening. And for a reason.

Lake’s father was not yet awake, it was just Lake and Swallowtail and some Secret Service agents that were up and about. Even though it was only nine and a half in the morning. It became clear that Vice President Marks was in attendence of an important meeting that he had to cut short and leave sooner then planned to be there for his daughters birthday surprise.

Which was at ten am that same morning. Marks had a gift he’d been planning for his daughter. She loved the Detroit Tigers baseball team with a passion, she had never even been to a baseball game for that matter. So this was going to be a wonderful surprise. Daniel Marks had bought six weeks in advance, five tickets, suite level tickets at the Tigers Clubhouse Diner at Comerica Park in Detroit for that evening for his daughters seventeenth birthday.

And that meant two things that had to be done. The first was to let Lake open the package at ten that morning, then take the vice presidential motorcade to Detroit for the game that evening. The only problem was the Decepticons, and one other woman. Marks had noticed a shift crew change and a new recruit was put on his detail. A woman. A woman that the Autobots knew about. But they were not to let Lake know. Lake was to focus soley on the game that evening and having fun for once.

Nothing more was to bother her in any way. The new Secret Service recruit was a wet work agent sent by the CIA. And Marks also had Blackstreak on his Secret Service detail as well to keep an eye on things carefully. If the wet work agent tried anything, Blackstreak could easily keep the woman under control. Worst came to worst, Blackstreak could backhand her into next month for all Marks cared.

The limo pulled up the gate of the house, a second later the limo pulled up to the garage and stopped, Marks stepped out. There was no doorman here so Marks didn’t have to worry of telling the guy not to worry about opening his door for him. Marks stepped lightly up the pathway to the front door and entered the house. He saw Lake and the others in the living room, Lake had the Weather Channel on. Which made sense. It was one of the few channels she actually liked when the Tigers weren’t on.

Lake looked his way as he spoke, "Am I late ?" He asked. Tossing something to Lake, "Good morning Sweetheart. Are your bags packed ? We got us an important trip to take." Marks said, Lake just looked at him confused, catching the item he had tossed to her. It was a magazine. Sports Illustrated had done a article on the Detroit Tigers and how they had been winning every game so far in the season.

"Important trip." Lake asked. Where were they going ? She looked to Swallowtail, then to Toi, what was going on ?

"We have something important that we’re doing today. You’re needed for the event too." Marks explained to Lake. Swallowtail nodded, made sense, Lake though looked confused still. "Relax, Its a important event that’s been in the planning for the last several weeks. You still still have that baseball mitt the President gave you right ?" the President had given Lake a baseball mitt for some reason, he never said of why. Lake could easily throw a grenade like a Justin Verlander fastball.

Lake nodded, Marks continued, "Good, you’ll need it, grab it, pack a bag for an overnight trip up north. Don’t worry, its a family gathering and I was invited, I thought to bring you along since you are my daughter." Lake nodded then, it made a little bit more sense, but she was still confused.

Twenty minutes later and Lift arrived to fly them to Detroit.