Things Change

A Transformers: Armada Story

By William Rendfeld

Earth. A mostly harmless blue-green orb silently floating in space. Billions of years old, and home to billions of indigenous, sentient life forms. All alone in the night.

It is alone no longer. The Transformers have arrived, and everything has changed...

Ironhide slowly ran his hand against the ceiling of the artificial cavern created by his team; it was barely big enough for him to walk around in comfortably, and even with the lights from the support struts, there was very little illumination. Still, this was a good start.

"An Energon cube for your thoughts?" a familiar voice asked. Ironhide turned towards him as Scavenger continued, "You look a little distracted."

"Not distracted, sir, just thinking things over," Ironhide explained. "We've got the main access tunnel done, and we've started on the central core, but this is only the beginning. Still, it's a great start. And I'm glad it's gone so well."

"Nothing wrong with taking pride in your handiwork," Scavenger noted. "Just don't start patting yourself on the back until the job is done. You know better than anyone that we have a long ways to go yet."

"Yeah," Ironhide noted, remembering that the truly daunting part of construction had only begun. "Still, we've got a good start. I'd say that's something to be happy about."

Diana Masters sighed and stretched as she walked down the massive halls of the Ark, lost in thought. She looked about somewhat nervously, still thinking over what she was going to say. Finally, she sighed, closed her eyes, and began to walk forward.

Only to bump up against something while she wasn't looking.

"I'm sorry," she heard a feminine voice say as she stepped back and collected her bearings.

"No, no, you're fine," Diana apologized, "that was my fault." She took a good look at the bulky Mini-Con she bumped into and said, "You're new."

The blue Mini-Con chuckled and said, "Just got here a half-hour ago." She offered a hand and continued, "You must be Doctor Masters. I'm Spiral, Street Speed Team."

Diana accepted the hand and said, "Call me Diana. I didn't realize that there were female Mini-Cons other than High Wire and Sureshock."

"You could tell?" Spiral asked with pleasant surprise. "Most think I'm male, even with the voice."

"The body language kinda gave it away," Diana explained. "If you don't mind me asking...are there many other female Transformers?"

"Not many, no," Spiral said with a saddened tone. "Thanks to us not needing to reproduce the same way as organics do, Transformers don't have as much need for numerical equality among the genders. I only know of about four or five female Autobots, and there aren't that many female Decepticons to my knowledge. It's a shame, really, but not much we can do about it I suppose. So, here to see Optimus?"

"Yeah," Diana replied. "I have something that I need to tell him."

"He's with Jetfire in the main conference room," Spiral said, pointing it out with her thumb. "Just try not to bump into anything again, hm?"

"I'll keep my eyes open, thanks," Diana said with a light chuckle. With a friendly wave, she went on her way.

"This is it?" a crimson-colored Mini-Con asked as he looked over his apparent living quarters. "This is what we have?"

Before him was a small chamber, its walls lined with smaller chambers barely better than cages.

"My apologies that the accommodations aren't to your liking, Side Burn," Wreckage noted, "unfortunately, this is the best that Starscream can give us for now. He's encouraged the other 'Cons working with him to keep us close when possible, but there's advantages in staying here at times. Besides, he's nice enough to keep us up to date on what we've missed." He turned to Side Burn and his associate and asked, "So, who else was with you?"

"Nightscream and Spiral's team," Side Burn said as Skid-z looked about uneasily. "The Autobots got them out no problem, though Jetfire didn't look happy about it."

"Can't blame him," Wreckage said. "Sadly, when Megatron comes back online, he's gonna want some good news. Better this than nothing."

"No...no...more suffering, more pain..." Skid-z said, barely audible to the other Mini-Cons. "I have to keep faith...yes, keep faith..."

As Skid-z wandered off, lost in his own fervent mutterings, Wreckage asked in a low voice, "He believes, doesn't he?"

"Yeah," Side Burn said mournfully. "Something fierce."

Wreckage shook his head. "Faith is good, but it's also blind. Can you do anything for him?"

"Try constantly," Side Burn said again. He turned to the green Mini-Con and asked, "Whatever happened to him, by the way?"

"He disappeared after we did," Wreckage explained. "Maybe it's better that way."

"I still think it was a bad idea," Jetfire stated forcefully, giving his commanding officer a hard glance. "It's not that I don't trust Starscream; I do. It's that I don't feel comfortable with Megatron getting any Mini-Cons. We're supposed to be protecting them from him, not letting him gather as many as he pleases. And the last time I checked, it was a bad idea to placate a tyrant."

Optimus Prime sighed, and then stared across the conference room to look upon his second in command. "I'm not happy with the idea either, Jetfire. But I trust Starscream to keep them safe. I also trust the Mini-Cons to stay with him rather than with Megatron; they have about as much reason to side with him as you would with Atlas."

"Yeah, well, not all Mini-Cons happen to like us, remember?" Jetfire noted. "Last I checked, the Destruction Team didn't care much for Autobot or Decepticon, and there's plenty of Mini-Cons who happen to side with the Decepticon philosophy."

"I know," Optimus noted. "One of the major reasons why I set up two retrieval teams is expressly because I wanted to avoid having Megatron with too many Mini-Cons with him. Some supported him; others are such that I feel safer with them with us. But every Mini-Con that's with Starscream makes one more aid for him against Megatron."

Jetfire sighed. "Not saying he can't use the help. I'm just saying that I'd rather he not have any; the fewer victories he has, the less likely he'll have support, and the sooner all this will be over."

The door slid open just then and Diana entered. Noticing that the two looked to be in heated discussion, she said, "I'm sorry, I can come back later."

"No, you're alright Diana," Optimus assured her. "Jetfire and I were just discussing our tactics. Is something wrong?"

"I just came by to fill you in," Diana explained. "I'm moving."

"Moving?" Jetfire asked. "Why are you moving?"

"You know about what happened last month in Indianapolis?" Diana asked. "As a result of what happened, the school system tried to use me as a scapegoat. No one was even hurt, but parents still complained because their kids were in danger, and I was the easiest target. I quit afterwards."

"Can't blame you," Jetfire noted. "I'd do the same."

"Yeah, but no job means no money," Diana explained. "I'd already paid my rent for the month, but it's running out in a few days. And I don't have enough money to pay for next month, in addition to food and gas, and my attempts at getting another job haven't been successful. My only options are move or live out of my SUV, and that doesn't sound appealing."

"So where will you go?" Optimus asked.

"My sister's family lives in Seattle," Diana explained. "She's offered to take me in, and chances are better that I'll find a decent job there than here. It's not much, but it'll do for a while."

Optimus looked down towards the small woman and said, "Diana, you've been a great help to us. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have known about Atlantis, or that one of the Keys was here on Earth."

"I didn't do much," Diana said dismissively. "All I did was bring up what I thought was an important point. You would've found it out eventually."

"Yeah, but you brought it up now, just as we found the Omega Lock," Jetfire said. "You gave us a leg up, saved us a lot of trouble. Can't say we don't appreciate that."

"Still, what happened wasn't your fault," Diana said. "I chose to quit. The fact that the pod was there, and that my class was there just when the 'Cons went after it, was coincidence. Nothing we could do."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we should up and forget about you," Optimus told her. "We can't exactly have a party, but we can at least give you a going-away present."

"You don't need to," Diana assured him.

"We want to," Optimus said firmly. "You've helped us, despite everything that's happened. It's the least we can do."

Despite herself, Diana smiled. "Thanks."

Hot Shot, Blurr, Crosswise, Jolt and Incinerator reappeared within the Ark's warp room, transformed and armed. "No luck," Hot Shot reported. "The pod was empty."

"Empty?" Red Alert asked from the transport console. "All six gone?"

"All six," Jolt replied. "Checked myself. Someone got there first. Similar MO to the pod Jetfire's team found, but everyone was gone this time."

"Which means that whoever was doing this apparently has help, or at least a good amount of resources," Crosswise surmised. "And it definitely wasn't the Decepticons; they wouldn't have bothered with damaging the pod."

"A third group," Red Alert said aloud. "Maybe even a fourth. This is bad news." He looked towards the three and said, "Optimus will want to debrief you. Better get a recharge in."

As Blurr and Crosswise exited, Red Alert stopped Hot Shot. "How was he?"

"No clue," Hot Shot admitted. "Something's wrong, I know it. He just isn't talking."

Red Alert looked back towards the door where Blurr had exited, and said, "Give him time, Hot Shot. He'll talk when he's ready."

"I hope you're right," Hot Shot replied.

"Two Mini-Cons," Megatron grimly noted. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you were purposely getting such dismal results, Starscream."

"We can't all be perfect," Starscream replied. "We also made certain to do a couple Energon runs; the Autobots, fortunately, didn't interfere."

"Yet there's still a noticeable drop in our Energon resources," Megatron pointed out. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"No," Starscream answered. "But I have my suspicions. It will be dealt with, trust me."

"See that it is dealt with," Megatron said bluntly. "And quickly."

Starscream nodded, and Megatron exited from the Nemesis's command center.

"So," Thundercracker asked from a far corner of the room, once he was certain Megatron was out of hearing distance, "who do you think it is?"

"Dualor," Starscream explained. "He's the only one who could be doing it. The serious question is why he's doing so, and where he's storing it. And for the time being, I can't prove anything."

"Which means we'd better keep an optic open," Thundercracker reasoned. "You spoken to Prime or Bludgeon about it?"

"No," Starscream replied. "So far as I know, the line has yet to be tapped, but I don't want to risk it unless necessary. Dualor tends to be clever like that."

"Wonderful," Thundercracker said with a sigh.

"Computer, search all personnel files," a voice asked. "Give me a listing of all Autobots, active or otherwise. Scan for techno-organics."

"Search will take six cycles, please wait," the computer chimed in reply.

The Mini-Con huffed as he heard a light knock. He turned to see Roadhandler standing near his console. "I thought you may be checking the records."

"Not much else for me to do, is there?" Nightscream asked as he turned towards the red Mini-Con. "I'm guessing you did when you got here?"

"Yeah," Roadhandler replied. "Swerve's still running around on Cybertron, probably causing wrecks wherever he goes. Poor 'bot's probably lost without me." He sighed, and then added, "I noticed something else in there, though."

Nightscream's optics widened. "Airazor?"

Roadhandler nodded. "Not long after the Uprising, a security vessel carrying a small number of Decepticons went missing. She was part of the crew."

"Where?" Nightscream asked. "What sector?"

"Barely a light-cycle from Cybertron," Roadhandler said. "The ship just vanished off the scopes, nary a trace. Search teams went out looking for it; they went so far as this planet. They didn't find a trace."

"They should've kept looking," Nightscream adamantly said as the requested information came up on the console's screen. "They probably gave up without as much of a basic scan."

"What makes you think that?" Roadhandler asked. "The last time I checked, Optimus discouraged leaving anyone behind, ally or enemy."

"He might discourage it but that doesn't mean his troops follow it," Nightscream countered. "She's a tech-org, Roadhandler; you and I both remember how much of a stigma they had against them."

"Prime never encouraged that," Roadhandler told the purple Mini-Con. "He discouraged it. And Airazor was a good officer; you know that better than anyone."

"Then why didn't they try to find her?" Nightscream asked. "If she was so valuable, why didn't they look for her? Why not conduct deep planetary scans of every system from here to the galactic core? Why haven't they found her?"

"Because we didn't know where to start looking," a deep, familiar voice said from above. The two looked up as Optimus continued, "The galaxy's a big place, and we didn't have the resources to find them."

"That doesn't mean that they aren't out there," Nightscream continued, soft pleading beginning to seep into his voice.

"No, it doesn't," Optimus replied. "That ship had a fine crew, and every cycle I hope that they're found. But for now, as much as I hate to admit it, that's all we can do until more hard evidence appears."

Nightscream lowered his head, and turned back to the screen. "Did she at least think about me?"

"She did," Optimus assured him. "Every Autobot and Decepticon whose Mini-Con partner left Cybertron after the Uprising thought about them. Airazor became even more dedicated after you left; she hoped that if Megatron was defeated, if he was incarcerated or destroyed, that if you came back to Cybertron, it would be safer, and she'd never have to say goodbye again. She volunteered for every combat mission after that, took on any assignment that came so long as she wasn't damaged. Many Autobots and Decepticons were proud to fight beside her, and owed her their lives. When we find her, you'll be the first to know."

Nightscream gave him a hard look and asked, "When?"

"I never abandon hope," Optimus decisively said.

"Tech-org?" Alexis asked, looking at the security monitor from within the Ark's control center. She turned to Red Alert and asked, "What's a 'tech-org'?"

"It's a contracted term, stands for 'techno-organic'," Red Alert explained. "During the first Great War, a few Quintessons captured Autobots and Decepticons. They performed experiments upon them, tried to figure out just how we came to life like we did. Many lost critical systems, went into terminal stasis lock. Others had slightly different luck." He collected himself, and continued, "A few Quintessons went so far as to deliberately alter certain Transformers, graft organic components into them. Many didn't survive; the few who did needed to go to Vector Sigma. Their systems were altered, the organics integrated into their construction. With some it was only a few parts here and there; with others it was slightly more extreme."

"That's terrible," Rad said aloud. "How could they do that?"

"The Quintessons didn't see us as anything more than amusements," Red Alert explained. "To them we were slaves, at best useful, at worst annoyances. They toyed with us, ripped us apart, made us feel like little more than vermin. I only wish it was limited to them; the universe, and life in general, would be far better off. You probably know as well as anyone that humans are hardly immune to such sins."

"Big robot's got a point," Carlos said in a low voice.

"But why would Nightscream think that people weren't looking for them?" Rad asked. "I mean, Optimus would do it in a heartbeat."

"Not all Autobots are like Optimus," Red Alert solemnly said. "Many thought it was unnatural to have organic parts; the few who did were shunned by society, especially those who were entirely techno-organic. Humans would probably feel the same way if mechanical parts were forced onto them."

"Can't say I disagree," Alexis noted. "I hope he finds Airazor at least."

"We all do, kids," Red Alert assured them. "Airazor was a good Autobot; she's been missed for a long time. Once she's found, along with the rest of the crew of that ship, we'll have one less thing to worry about, and one more reason to celebrate. Primus knows we need all the excuses we can get."

Longarm entered the room at that moment and said, "Got that bit of equipment ready for you, Red. Want to take a look at it?"

"Yes, thank you," Red Alert replied.

"Equipment?" Rad asked. "What for, the new base?"

"No, nothing like that," Red Alert explained. "It's something for Doctor Masters. Sort of a going-away present."

The trio of kids looked at one another, surprise etched upon their faces.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Sideswipe shook his head as he looked at the lack of damage to the target. He needed to work on his shooting, but badly.

"You're overworking yourself," he heard a voice say. He turned to find Blurr walking towards him. "Just relax. It's much easier to aim and fire off a shot, make the target, when you're calm, than when you're stressed."

"Thanks," Sideswipe said, somewhat nervously.

As Sideswipe waited for the target to be rebooted, Blurr continued, "You've been putting in a lot of time on the practice range since you arrived, Sideswipe. Is there a reason?"

Sideswipe stopped, and slowly said, "I want to be out there." He looked at Blurr and explained, "I want to do what you do, what Hot Shot and everyone else is doing. I want to be out there, part of the fight. And when that happens, I want to be ready."

Blurr gave him a hard glance. "I wouldn't be so eager. You know about what happened to Hot Shot, don't you?"

"I've checked the records," Sideswipe told him. "I know what happened all too well. I'm not eager to be out there...in fact, I'm scared out of my processors. But that doesn't mean I don't want to help if I can."

Blurr looked uneasily at the rookie Autobot, his own mind unsettled. "That doesn't mean things will always work out."

"Doesn't mean you shouldn't try," Sideswipe said with a shrug.

He returned to his shooting practice, and Blurr slowly exited.

Diana gave the box a gentle shove, pushing it into place in the back of her SUV. She took a breath, closed the back hatch, and looked back towards the place she'd called home for the last six years.

It wasn't a bad building; the roof didn't leak, and the landlord kept it well-maintained. She'd been lucky to find her apartment when she did, and whoever ended up with it next would be lucky to get it.

She smiled wistfully, then stretched and moved towards the driver's side door, key in hand.

"Miss Masters!" she heard a familiar voice call.

Diana sighed and shook her head; she knew she'd forgotten something. She looked to find Rad, Carlos and Alexis riding up towards her with the Street Action Team. "I had a feeling you might show up, kids. Who told you?"

"Red Alert," Alexis explained as the three came to a halt and dismounted their Mini-Con transports. "We were kinda hoping he was wrong."

"I wish he was," Diana admitted. "But my options are sorta limited."

"Miss Masters," Rad started, "I..."

"Don't apologize," Diana told him. "None of this was your fault, Rad. Yes, you woke the Mini-Cons up, but you didn't do it purposely and you didn't know any of this was going to happen. Besides, the way I see it, we all came out ahead." She indicated the Street Action Team and asked, "Or would you have preferred not to have met the Mini-Cons?"

"At last, someone with some sense," Sureshock said in a low, somewhat jocular tone.

Rad smiled nervously, and admitted, "Well, it wasn't all bad, I guess."

"See?" Diana said. "Bright side's always there."

Rad chuckled a little and smiled despite himself, and Carlos asked, "So what are you going to do now?"

"My sister's family lives in Seattle," Diana explained. "I'll stay with them for a while, try and find another job. Considering my doctorate, it should be at least a little easier. Might even get a teaching job at a college, I don't know. Just don't count on me coming back to a job here in town; even if the public school system offered me another job, I'd turn them down in a second."

"I wouldn't expect anything different," a familiar voice whispered.

The four humans stood alert, and Diana discreetly glanced about and asked, "Mirage?"

"I couldn't let you leave without giving my peace, now could I?" the invisible Mini-Con asked. "Besides, I have something for you; your going-away present."

Four small objects appeared and seemingly flew of their own will through the air, into the surprised hands of Diana and the trio of kids. Diana quickly examined her own; it resembled a small cell phone, silver and black with a tiny emblem resembling a mix of the Autobot and Mini-Con insignias.

"They're like Earth cellular phones, only with an added feature," Mirage explained. "The green button near the screen, when pressed, opens a direct two-way line of communication to the Ark, and will do the same to the base once its completed. Just in case any of you need to contact us in an emergency."

"Whoa," Carlos said, impressed with his gift. "Nice. Thanks."

"My pleasure," Mirage said happily. "Take care, Doctor Masters. See you around, kids."

Diana smiled and promised, "Will do." She then pocketed the communicator, looked to the kids and said, "Well, I'd better get going before the traffic really gets bad. Look out for yourselves, okay? Don't get stepped on or anything."

"We won't," Rad promised. "See you, Miss Masters."

The trio waved as they mounted the members of the Street Action Team and rode for home, Diana waving after them. As they went off in the distance, Diana climbed into her own vehicle, closed the door, fastened her seatbelt, and slid her keys into the ignition. She looked down towards her right; nestled in a pet carrier and belted in was her cat, Abby. "Ready to get started?" Diana asked of her cat.

Abby mewed.

Diana smiled. "So am I." She started the motor, looked to the rear window, and slowly backed out before driving off. Things had changed; Diana silently hoped that they were for the better.

The End