Fandom: Transformers/Movie-'Verse
Title: The Red Queen
Author: Dex
Characters: Ensemble.
Pairings: None yet.
Rating: PG-13 for now, and for what I have in mind so far
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, nor the settings. Please don't repost. Flames will be ignored.
Summary: The Autobots and Decepticons find not humans but robots controlling the earth. How will this change their search for the Allspark?
Author's Notes: Adopted this bunny from writer83729. The bunny was: how would the Transformers cope if they landed on a post-apocalyptic earth, where machines are the super powers and humans are just trying to get by? Mind you, the computers that now "rule" earth wouldn't be like the Transformers: they would do what their program demands them to do: destroy humans. Kind of like a gigantic hive mind all attached to a "super-computer" (let us call her the Red Queen) that went ballistic (either that or is too dedicated to its program and mission like in the Space Oddysey books and in Resident Evil 1...either way, humans are screwed). And, like in I, Robot and Terminator, this supercomputer controls all technological things. Meanwhile, there are humans around, doing what they can just to survive. So here are the issues:
1) The Autobots don't know that humans are of a "higher intelligence/consciousness" than other fauna
2) The Red Queen computer thinks that the Autobots and/or Decepticons (with their "individual thoughts") are viruses and are subsequently trying to purge them out of its system
3) Once the Autobots do find out that humans are kind of like them in terms of thought, then there's a whole trust issue, because then they would have to deal with a whole planet full of scared humans with the same mindset as Sector Seven (because after all this, I think that all humans would have a distrust towards machines).
4) Much love if you can put in "communication problems" (if the Red Queen program and all it controls only communicate in 0s and 1s, so the Autobots will have a hard time trying to communicate with Sam)
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Prologue: Off With His Head
The drones noticed the life form before the main program had; they notified it. At first they had assumed the life form was a meteor. However, it had been sending a message, much like the internal communications used by the drones. They had scanned it once they noticed the message, and found no organic life form, so the only conclusion could be that it was mechanic in nature. When the drones received their orders, the objective clear and not unexpected: terminate. With a soft whir, there was a flurry of activity, the drones moving to take down enemy once it landed. They continued to trace the life form, taking into account each subtle shift. They were prepared when it came, surrounding it, watching it crash into the Earth's surface, leaving a smoking crater.
The life form emerged from the hole in the ground it had created; it was male in appearance, the drones informed their queen, but she curtly reminded them that it meant nothing. Speculation was useful at times, but it mattered very little to her. The drones listened to her ranted lecture, even as they pulled closer to the lone life form, approximately fifteen feet in size, yellow and black. They took vague notes about its description, before they turned to the problem of termination. The size could be a problem, but they had numbers, and it seemed curious, canting it's head, taking a small step forward. It meant they had the advantage as it would not suspect the attack.
It tried to communicate, using an internal communication system, and the drones froze, sending a message to their queen. The message was not directed at them, as it was sent out into space. This life form was also incomprehensible. No doubt the queen would want to be informed, even if she could not understand the message herself. More importantly, the Red Queen would know what to do with this life form. They chattered amongst themselves, as they waited for the inevitable order. Destroy the signal. They did so happily, focusing on the message first. It was time sensitive after all, while terminating the life form was not. They sent up firewalls before they set about to chopping it up, sending each piece to another system, where it was deleted. The queen did not like to take chances, so she would no doubt check over their work at some later point; none of the drones wished for her to turn her wrath upon them.
The drones moved forward, attacking, choosing weapons that were laser based, guessing they would be most effective. It stopped talking attempting to communicate at least, moving backwards, a helmet coming down over it's face, weapons coming from it's arms. The drones took images, and sent them to the queen. She finally stopped speaking, and the drones held off for a moment, while the order came in. Terminate it, quickly.
The plunged forward. The life form shot at them, some of the ranks going down. The front lines, mostly, and the others moved over their fallen partners. They also asked the queen for reinforcements. They had not anticipated the size of this creature, or how advanced it would be. The queen quickly agreed, dispatching four more troops. She wanted to take no chances.
The life form did something unexpected then. Gears whirring, it began to change. Not that it changed their order. Except that the queen had been watching through one of the drones. Take it alive. The drones changed tactics, even as the life form finished; when it was done, a vehicle unlike any the drones had encountered sat in front of them.
It made no difference. Until the queen gave another order, they would do capture this life form. They quickly decided to herd it away from the queen. After that, there were few places where they could sabotage one of its size, and they argued for a brief moment. They finally decided on an abandoned quarter, the alleyways barely wide enough for this life form to get through. They sent some scouts on ahead, throughout the alleys, and began their chase.
The life form slowed when he came to the alleys, then revved his engine. One of the scouts dropped onto his windshield; while it held, the life form veered to the left, which it had no room to do. The side of this new form scraped against the brick wall of an abandoned building. It whined, slowing, trying to right itself.
By then, the drones were on top of it. They did what they could to cause it pain, as that had forced it to decelerate. It writhed under them, as best as it could when it was a vehicle, the same whirring noise warning them that it would go through another metamorphosis.
The swarm they had become attacked the parts exposed as the life form changed, and the whine it let out was louder. The drones ignored it, attacking, even as it was in the process of changing. It even attempted to fight back in that state, but if the movements were any indication, it was losing strength. They continued until it was down, and still. They sent the coordinates, and a small description of the life form, to the queen. They updated her on the weight so she could provide adequate transportation. When they had first seen the meteor, and discovered it to be sentient, they had assumed it was coming in a vehicle of some kind, and had not weighed it. Now that it was stable, they knew that there was no vehicle as the life form itself acted as a vehicle.
They all were ordered to stand guard, which they set about doing, waiting until the queen's appointed vehicle came to transport this life form to one of her laboratories.