This Story is set during the time of G1 Season 3 Transformers. It does borrow from an episode or two, but I have attempted to keep the story as different as possible from other plots in that season.
1.
Wet hands? A moist grip? Sweaty palms! That was it. Sweaty palms. That was the human expression. That's what he would have had, if he was human. There was no phrase in the Cybertronian language for the nervous, tense feeling he had at that moment. Not that it mattered. It had gone as quickly as it had come. He was a warrior. There was no time to be nervous. There was no time to second guess his choice. He had found cover and set his trap for his unsuspecting prey. It was not his way to hide in the shadows. It was not his way to be devious. He had always faced his foe head on. The direct approach was his way, not this underhanded plotting and scheming to defeat the enemy. Yet here he was.
Ultra Magnus, the famed Autobot Commander hiding in the shadows. His hulking form barely visible in the dark, contrasting shadows of the hallway alcove. Stretched across, from wall to wall was the trip wire connected to a set of EMP grenades. He had positioned himself far enough away to be on the edge of the blast. He may feel the effect, but his prey would be totally disabled. That would be the opportunity he needed to get in close and exact his revenge. To do what needed to be done. That was when he would set right that which had been made wrong. He would attack his defenceless victim and end this charade. The servos in his hands twitched. He gripped his rifle tighter in anticipation and prepared his optics and operating systems for the shock it would receive. A metallic thud down the hallway caught his attention. He recognized the sound as someone trying to step lightly and doing a poor job of it. As a large metallic being it was hard to walk quietly. He had never before worried about stepping lightly. Those he fought always knew where he stood. Another reason Ultra Magnus despised what he was doing. A true soldier must always face his opponent and see them face to face before battle commenced.
But this wasn't just any opponent. This foe deserved respect and caution. And that was exactly what Magnus gave him. Another footfall. Magnus was sure this was it. His optics strained to see movement in the dark. There it was, coming around the corner. The shadow moved slowly as it scanned the hallway for signs of Magnus or any other threats. Ultra Magnus fought hard against the desire to leap from his hiding place and thrash his opponent within an inch of its operation. The energon flowing through his circuits heated to a boil as the shadow took step by step towards the trip wire which would end this game. Magnus had waited for this moment. His prey stopped. "NO! One more step. Take one more step", Magnus raged to himself. He saw the shadow glance left and right. The grenades were well hidden in the walls, but the trip wire still glinted in the dim light if seen from the right angle. His preys view slowly turned toward the floor. This wasn't supposed to happen. The chance of seeing the trip was miniscule, but still a possibility. Magnus' processors raced. Options? Does he shoot from behind? The blast wouldn't hurt, but it might push his enemy into the wire. Does he throw something at or away from the still shadow causing it to tumble or panic into the trap? He couldn't just run and push it into the wire. He would get caught in the resulting explosion. There was only one option.
Ultra Magnus rose from his hiding place and leveled his weapon to the figures lower back. His trigger finger twitched as the shadow stepped forward again. The wall to the right exploded in a ball of white light and metal shards. Arcs of energy flowed across the walls and over the floor hitting the figure in front of Magnus. Silhouettes flashed over Magnus as the arcs subsided. His prey fell to the floor limp and paralyzed.
Ultra Magnus seized upon the chance he had been given. His gun clattered to the floor as he exploded from his hiding place sending trash and debris flying before him. Leaping like a predator to the prey Magnus landed atop the one he had been hunting. His optics stared down at the wounded one below him and hatred ran cold through his metal body. Ultra Magnus raised his massive fist. It was time to end this.
The blackness of his optics turned a glowing red as Ultra Magnus' vision came back online. The copper colored ceiling stared down at him as he lay in the stasis chamber recovering from a long tour running Autobot City. As the rest of his systems rebooted the bed opened up and the room came to life. Lights turned on, computers ran diagnostics, and the doors unlocked. Magnus swung his legs over the open side of the bed and stood up. His pure, white body glinted in the light of the room. A recent cleaning and buff had restored his white color to a bright gleam that would blind anyones optics. He looked across at his armor sitting in it's alternate mode by the door. Reaching to a button on the wall he locked the door to the stasis room. He didn't want anyone walking in on him until he was done.
Walking to an interface on the wall opposite him, Magnus entered his own passcode, Carly, and was given a disc from a port next to the screen. Taking the disc, he slipped it into a port in his arm that opened and closed over the disc. Walking to the door, he never stopped at his armor. As he passed through it, the trailer shifted and transformed around his feet and legs raising him several feet higher. The base of the trailer rose up and secured itself to his chest as white pillars rose from the shoulders and rocket launchers folded out of the massive blue arms which now replaced the shiny white of his alternate robot mode. From behind, blue and silver panels of armor appeared and came together around Magnus' head. His helmet secured itself to the upper portion of the armor as the visuals came online before his optics. Like a liquid the rest of the armor flowed and moved into it's proper position around the final form that was known as Ultra Magnus. He unlocked the door.
John Kensey had been at Moon Base One as an engineer for four months since his deployment from NASA. While not directly working for the Earth Defense Command, he was subcontracted out to them for a remaining eight and a half months before he would be allowed back on Earth. NASA had created a partnership with the EDC to help keep up the systems hardware and software on the different orbiting and stationary bases above Earth's atmosphere. It was a benefit for both groups. NASA would get paid handsomely for the brain power loaned out, and the EDC would get "cheap" labor to custodian it's defensive platforms. Great for them, bad for the brains stuck in orbit for a year at a time. John hadn't seen his girlfriend since being sent off world except on vid chat. His parents were constantly sending him messages voicing their concern for his safety, though that wasn't new. And he had missed the season finale of his favorite show, "All in the Family Unit". Even with the negatives added up, it was impossible to ignore all the high points of his deployment to Moon Base One. He had access to amazing technology that he would never have planetside. He was always meeting new species from other solar systems, not to mention the chance to work alongside transformers nearly everyday. And what a view he woke up too every morning. As a child he envied those brave men who traveled into space and walked on the moon. As a teen John remembered news reports of plans for permanent settlement on the moon to further space travel. Those plans were greatly accelerated when a new species called Transformers made themselves known to the world and began cooperating with the many governments of earth. Space travel quickly became normal and by the time John graduated from MIT and joined NASA, Moon Base One had been in operation for several years. It's original purpose was to be a launching point for space travel, but when the orbiting bases where built it's mission became one of defence in case of hostile attack on the planet.
John's current job was to fix several diode points in the station which diverted energon to different portions of the station. This energon was amazing stuff! While it wasn't able to power a light bulb, it's bio properties for energy consumption was phenomenal. He had seen it power entire space ships straight out of the solar system and a worker bots worked for days powered by small amounts of the energy. The Human governments had clamored to know the secrets of energon, but the robot race had refused to offer any insight into how it was manufactured, used, and even how it worked. The original leader, John forgot his name, explained his belief that humans would take the source of energy and turn it into a weapon, destroying themselves as his species had done. The current robot leaders held this same belief. And, frankly, John did too.
On this particular diode point one wire had shorted out and needed replacing. John leaned back and wiped his forehead. Almost done. Two more points and his day would end early. He was looking to get a racquetball game in before supper. Then dinner with the cute analyst he had met yesterday. Not a date, just dinner. No harm in that. Right? And his girlfriend didn't need to know everything that happened up here on Moon Base One.
Soft rhythmic thuds snapped him out of his moral dilemma. He knew that sound and wondered who it would be. He had been excited to meet several Autobots within the first few days of his arrival. But as predicted the excitement had faded and running into one of the big bots had turned into a regular occurrence. Now and then he would meet someone big in stature and rank. As the Autobot rounded the corner into his view, he realized this would be one of those meetings. Quickly, that excitement turned to dread.
Ultra Magnus had passed several humans and bots through the hallways after leaving the stasis chamber and he greeted each with a curt nod of acknowledgement. He wasn't feeling up to a conversation. He had a destination in mind and was trying to think of what he was going to say when he arrived. With his processing power focused on the coming conversation, as he turned the corner, he wasn't expecting the yell coming from the floor below. "Watch out!"
John dropped the electro spanner he was holding and tried to leap aside. Tripping over his toolbox he fell face first to the floor and rolled to his back. No way it would end like this! The quickly descending foot stopped above him and faltered. The giant robot fell against the wall and John felt the ground shake as the blue foot slammed to the ground just inches next to him.
"By the Matrix! I'm so sorry. I didn't see you."
John stood up and craned his neck back. Staring straight up he gawped at the blue and red figure before him. Never did he think he would meet the Ultra Magnus, City commander of Autobot City. He could almost see his blue doppelganger looking back at him reflected off the robots shining armor. The tall, white pillars of his shoulders jutted up high above the empty rocket launchers. Ultra Magnus' glowing blue optics stared down at him. John had heard the robot commander's head was a helmet worn over the real face of the commander. But at the moment he didn't care. He was staring into the face of one of the most powerful beings in his universe.
"I suppose I should be more careful when I walk down the hall. You soldiers could be anywhere" Ultra Magnus said. His voice was quieter than John suspected it to be.
"That's fine. It was was probably my fault anyway," John said taking a few steps back. "I suppose I shouldn't have been set up so close to the corner. And thank you for the compliment, but I'm not a soldier, Sir."
"Ah, well" Magnus paused, "What is your classification then?"
"Oh, I'm an engineer for NASA. Just here on loan to help get this place running smoothly. My name's John, John Kensey." John scratched his head, curious and delighted the great Ultra Magnus would take interest in a small grunt like him.
Ultra Magnus nodded his head, a gesture he learned from the humans as a show of understanding. A beat passed and Magnus realized that it might not be considerate to just move on after apologizing and decided to conversate with John Kensey, the NASA Engineer.
"What is it you are currently working on? I see you have the wall panels opened."
"This particular section has a weak control wire and doesn't allow the proper flow of energy to the following diodes. Plus, I'm having to go through the entire system and check and upgrade the older flow tubes and control wires. There are some big guest planing to train on the moon and they are going to be housed here during their down time. We have to make sure they have the energy they need to ah," John stammered over the next word, "recharge."
Magnus was amused at the word, but understood John Kensey's meaning.
"You are talking about the Dinobots, aren't you? Yes, they will require all the power supplied to them. They are very powerful creatures."
John nodded in agreement and scratched his head once again. Wait till his friends back on Earth hear about this. They wouldn't believe him.
Ultra Magnus decided it was time to move on and let John Kensey get back to his job. "John Kensey, it was a pleasure meeting you and I hope you all the best in your work here. And again, please forgive my clumsy disregard for where I was walking. I promise next time we meet I will not tread on you."
"Ha Ha. I would appreciate that Mr., ah, Ul, Ultra Magnus." Just saying the name to the actual Ultra Magnus made John excited.
Satisfied that he had been considerate enough to the human he nearly crushed Magnus smiled and waved to the engineer. Taking a big step to the other side of the hallway he continued walking toward his destination. Time to get back to business.
John Kensey watched as the massive robot walked down the hallway. How could such a big being be so smooth in movement? How was it that this collection of computer parts and machine was living? How did it turn into a vehicle? John pondered these questions and more as Ultra Magnus turned the corner and disappeared from view. "Wow! No body with believe this", he said aloud to himself. He picked up his dropped electro spanner and turned back to the open panel in the wall. His encounter had reinvigorated him. Meeting such an important player in the world stage had showed him how a little grunt like him could help in his own way. He set to work. The letter he would write tonight to his parents already taking shape in his head.
The door hissed open and Ultra Magnus quietly strode into the medium sized laboratory. A small helper bot scurried under his foot and once again he was reminded of his massive size. The room was littered with objects one would find in a multitude of places, but never in the same room. Along one wall there were large thick slabs of metal in different states of degradation. On that same wall hung wires, cables, power cords, and different sizes of servos and gears. At the wall opposing there was a table covered in different vials and jars containing liquids and chemicals Magnus would never understand. All over the room there were tools for metallurgy and engineering. Several computers lined the back wall. The two on the far left were running calculations with numbers and equations rapidly flitting across the screens. Three little helper bots ran back and forth in the room working on slides, chipping at the residue on the metals, and feeding new numbers into the calculating computers. He glanced up at the massive red microscope in the middle of the room and watched as a helper bot took out the old slide and slid in a new one.
"I still don't understand why you use the helper bots and not the humans on base. Or a fellow transformer whom you could easily request be transferred here from Autobot city", Ultra Magnus said to no one in particular.
"Ultra Magnus! How are you this cycle", questioned the large piece of lab equipment.
"I'm fine thank you Perceptor. What are you up too? I see you have your helper bots busy."
As if on cue the slide helper ran to Perceptor, took hold of the slide, waited for the scan to finish then slid the large sheet of transparent glass from Perceptor's clasp and shoved in another. The bot at the monitors stared at the screen for a moment before it's hands quickly moved over the input panel entering the new data for the computer.
"What is it you are working on, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Oh, no. I don't mind at all. Many cycles ago I was forced to work on a cure for the affliction 'Cosmic Rust'."
"I remember that", added Magnus.
"I would suspect you would. Despite the circumstances, I was so pleased that I was able to create the corrostop, preventing the rusting effect. Unfortunately with the scarcity of ingredient X, I have decided to revisit my previous work and attempt a new formula. One that is not as contingent on such a scarce ingredient. I must say, I'm quite proud of the results. The new formula will not be as effective at the original, but it will arrest most caustic substances before they do any damage, including the aforementioned Cosmic Rust."
"Perceptor, am I standing in a room full of cosmic rust?" His hands went up in the air and he cautiously looked around. Ultra Magnus thought to himself, "Of course, why wouldn't I walk into a room full of a destructive, eroding substance when Perceptor's involved."
"Ultra Magnus, you may take comfort in the fact that this particular sample has been rendered inert. And besides, you are only infected if you come in contact with the material. Thus I have the spark-less helpers assisting me."
"That is comforting to know."
The slide helper bot ran to perceptor and pulled the slide out from under the lens sensor array. The numbers helper began inputting the new data. The large microscope began to shift and realign itself. The Lens tube folded to the side as Perceptor's head appeared and his arms extended out from his now formed torso. His legs came together under his body bringing him to Magnus' chest. In less than two seconds the unassuming microscope had transformed into the Autobot scientist Perceptor.
"Though I query as to what this impromptu visit is actually about," said the scientist. "Surely you did not make an exclusive stop at the laboratory to inquire about my findings regarding the corrosive study."
Magnus gently leaned his massive form against a table. His mouth opened and he let out and airless sigh. Another trait he had picked up from humans.
"Did you experience another dream?" Perceptor asked.
Magnus pushed himself off the table and forcefully exclaimed, "It was not a dream! But, yes, it happened again. I was in the stasis chamber when I, when it happened. I felt like I was somewhere else. I felt…" Ultra Magnus stared at the ground.
"Well never the less, I don't know how to classify what is transpiring during your time in the stasis chamber. We have no words to characterize what is taking place. The closest terminology I can come up with is the human word dream. So I'm sorry Ultra Magnus, but until I know more about the circumstances and possible explanation, I'm going to have to label it as a dream, temporarily of course."
Magnus allowed himself an inward chuckle. Perceptor was a no nonsense scientist and usually stated things as he saw it. Magnus raised his arm and the small door on his forearm opened and ejected the disc. "Ah, good. you gathered data for me to use." Perceptor took the disc from Ultra Magnus and inserted it into one of the large computers to download to the proper information.
"Did you happen to widen the data gathering parameters or do they remain the same mechanical and status readouts as before."
"I didn't change anything. Were you able to use the data last time?" Magnus responded.
"No, I'm afraid I wasn't. I believe I told you as much. The data you offered me last time was, to say the least, insufficient to determine a cause or reasoning for your, ah, vision."
Internally Ultra Magnus noted Perceptor's changing of words. He was one of the few scientist Magnus knew who truly cared for others. Changing the description "dream" too "vision" showed Perceptor recognized Magnus' dislike of the though he was, "having a dream". He didn't know why, but it did bother him.
"Ultra Magnus", Perceptor started, "I will analyze the data a second time, but I suspect we will have the same conclusion as last time. Insufficient data. Is there some reasoning you are unable to allow me access to more of the stasis data"
"Perceptor, I'm not sure…"
"I can have the chamber evaluated for any faults in the monitoring equipment."
"No. I'm sure that will not be necessary." Magnus stood to his full height. His demeanor suddenly shifted to that of a commanding presence rather than the quiet patient he had originally walked in with. "Perceptor, I understand your desire for more information and data on the issue, but I'm afraid I have given you all I can. Please do your best and report back to me when you have reached a conclusion."
"I will Ultra Magnus", responded Perceptor. Though he wanted to protest and continue asking for as much data as the computers could gather, Perceptor recognized this and the end of the conversation, as far as Ultra Magnus was concerned.
An obvious beat went by before Magnus said, "Thank you." And in a softer tone, "I do appreciate your help Perceptor."
Perceptor nodded as Magnus turned and walked out the door. In the many years he had known Ultra Magnus, Perceptor had never seen him in such a state. He was bothered by something, but unsure what to do. It was as if Ultra Magnus, Commander of Autobot City had time for everything but this.
Ultra Magnus strode down the hallway towards the Moon Base Commander Offices. He regretted being so abrupt with Perceptor, but he could tell the rest of the time in the lab was going to be used to discuss his "dream" further. The issue disturbed him. He wanted to put his thoughts towards something he was able to control, like the managing of Autobot City. He knew the outcome of his communications with his subordinates. They would have to reassure him the base was running smoothly, and he should relax and forget about the operations of the city for a cycle. He knew all of this. He had the answers to those questions. It was the questions he left in Perceptor's lab he didn't have answers too.