Planetfall
Two cometary forms converged on Mars.
They landed between the big rock formations, sometimes called the Mountains of Mars, avoiding the wrecked Mars Rovers and the Beagle.
The red sands of Mars stretched in every direction. No other signs of life, though samples of the surface tested proved there had once been water there. A space beacon indicated this was the right planet to land on for assembly though.
The cometary forms unfolded into two silver robots. One was smaller and snuck off round behind the rocks, the other one was bigger and a bit more stocky. He looked round boldly, checked himself and his surroundings including the Rovers, Spirit and Beagle, but none of them met with his approval as a disguise, though he foraged among them for spares.
Then he went looking among the rocks, taking it as a challenge as he took everything in life, to explore this new planet, research all signs of life, and to do whatever it took.
Both had come in response to the beacon which still hung in space,
above Mars, though it directed vessels in a very old language, older than humanity itself, towards the next planet.
The one who had landed second crept around the rocks because he had detected signs of life: a life like his. There, looking about him he stood scanning with his many efficient scanners.
All the same, he had landed a bit more roughly than the first, so the first was able to jump him.
"Halt, who goes there?"
"I am the Doctor for the Decepticons."
"Ah well, that is my position, Chief Medical Officer to the Decepticons, you cannot be."
"I will duel you for the title."
"I was given my position by Starscream, he knew me from his Academy days, and he said if he ever got to be leader of the
Decepticons I could be their doctor."
"I still challenge you to a duel. I will not yield to an appointee!"
The first got out his micro laser.
"My designation is Headfixer. What do they call you?"
"Just call me The Doctor."
"Ah, mysterious eh?"
"All us Decepticons are."
"You just want to be extra mysterious. I hope your skill matches up!."
He fired up his micro laser. But the one called the Doctor also fired up his micro laser and parried the blow.
"Is this duel to the death?" Headfixer said.
"No the usual 3 hits and a yield. I do not want to have to kill a fellow Decepticon and a fellow doctor."
They fought fiercely all round the Mountains of Mars, not giving any ground at first, but finally hitting and cutting bits of plating off each other.
Then both began to tire, and finally the size and youth of the second one began to decide the battle. It was also likely he had seen more combat than the first, whose career lately had seen more processor programming (or reprogramming) in a space ship and not so much field medicine - he relied on his name and reputation to strike fear into the sparks of his enemies. This did not help at all when his micro laser went skittering away among the rocks.
"I have you at my mercy. Yield!" Said the Doctor, pointing his micro laser at the other's spinal node at his neck. One false move and he could lose the use of his hands and arms, a little lower and he could lose control of his legs: his vocal processor and data ports could be fried from this position and his body would be useless to him. He could see the futility of his position and said "I yield."
It was not much of a victory though: although he had had 2 hits and the victor only one, it meant that both were leaking energon. And the planet showed little hope of an opportunity of replacing that fuel. Or of giving them energy to recharge with, though both tried to patch each other up, welding each other's leaks.
"I wish I'd never fought you" Headfixer said "better dishonour with life."
"How long do you think we've got?"
"To self-repair? 3 days(12 joors) if we're lucky. We must try and find another source of energy."
They found some geothermal energy at last and recharged in the heat of a small volcano, sending out a Decepticon distress call.
They woke after half a joor's recharge to find somebody repairing them.
It was Starscream. Being a scientist he did not often repair but he did and it was easier for him than for either of them. They were soon in good enough shape to launch off again but they pointed out they had been directed here.
"I will change the beacon" said Starscream. "It is best if everyone lands on Earth now, the third dirtball from the Sun. In the first invasion there were two fliers, Blackout and I, and Scorponok launched off from Blackout. I can refuel you, but it is possible that other groundlings could not make the extra cometary jump. Ah, Headfixer, I am glad to see you, I can as I promised now make you Chief Medical officer to the Decepticons, as Megatron is dead."
"It'll have to be him now, Lord Starscream." Headfixer said, pointing to the doctor, "I lost the title in a duel."
"Oh?" said Starscream getting an angry edge to his voice. "When did you join the Decepticons?"
"At the beginning, when Megatron was giving speeches. I was a craftsmech at first. Then I joined the school of Navy and Air forces to become a doctor and get a wider experience of robot bodies when the war started." He commed his credentials to Starscream.
"Name?"
"I am normally called the Doctor." He knew this would not be enough for Starscream.
"You do not mind that I am leader now?"
"No Starscream-Lord Starscream." said the smiling mech.
"You must have had a name at first."
"When I was a craftsmech it was Rivetrammer. I did not like it. I put a lot of work into becoming a full mech-doctor. I took that title and hope to get another name on the planet we are going to now."
"Hm. We will see. I brought ground fuel and air fuel, I can carry more than I need, you can have some of the ground." He gave them both some fuel and they prepared to jump to the next planet.
Starscream carried on his search for more Decepticons, especially flying ones.
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They landed on earth near a road. As usual with cometary forms they had an urgent need to scan something as soon as they unfolded and as this planet teemed with intelligent life a good disguise was essential.
Headfixer chose his first, he scanned a lemon yellow Toyota Celica,
and transformed into a vehicle exactly the same.
"Yellow? What kind of colour is that for a stealthy Decepticon?" said the Doctor.
"If I have an emergency I want to be seen."
"When do psychiatrists have emergencies?"
"You'd be surprised. And I'm still a qualified Doctor when I go into battle."
"Well I'm going for something more muted."
He chose a battered brown Citroën Synergie that they found in a drive.
"The usual colour here for Emergency Vehicles and Doctors is white or yellow or green with red lights." Headfixer said.
"Why should I disguise myself as an Emergency Vehicle? That's like an Autobot. I may have to do that sometime, but for now I want to be different. Like this I can creep around any city or town, carry equipment and repair people. I leave white coats to your department, you're the shrink."
"Don't use slang terms, we can use their language or our own beautiful one."
"I find it better to use the language of those I'm going to be working among. I shall not forget Cybertronian. This alt. has an interesting style name on it 'Synergie,' hm," he checked it on the internet, "meaning 'working together' and the beginning bit sounds a bit like us, wicked."
"Dr Syn, how about that?"
"Dr Syn it is then!"
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"Hook's not here yet and Bonecrusher's dead so you two are the Medics at the moment." Barricade said, as he took them to Soundwave to report in at the Decepticon base, which was an adapted old warehouse with a building like a hangar on one side.
Dr Syn requisitioned a large room near the hangar for the Medbay and began un-sub-spacing all the spare parts and equipment he'd been collecting since Cybertron and putting it on to the shelves and into the cupboards.
Starscream returned without finding Thundercracker and Skywarp the other two seekers of his Trine though he knew they must be coming. He approved of the Med-bay's position, it put him near to two friends when there were two Megatron supporters near. Also it meant he and the other fliers when they came could take off on one side and come in when they went separate to the grounders, and get repaired soon near the sky ready to go out again if they were damaged. Barricade brought in their first patient Frenzy and he could only put the little mech in stasis for now.
His head had been cut in half by one of his own discs, but he had a decentralized nervous system and so was soon fixed.
"Registration- your origins are required for base records." Soundwave said
"I must have been sparked in this body as a craftsmech I don't remember anything else," said Dr Syn. No creators , nothing.
"Nor I," said Headfixer. "I specialized in medic-mechanic work and programming as soon as I heard of them."
"Sometimes the All Spark created such workers straight into the body to assist us," said Soundwave. "Thank you for repairing my casseticon."
"No problem!" said Dr Syn.