Reveille
The dark, ice plain didn't reveal much, but the maw of the explosion bore in deeply. Not a living thing stirred... oh, never-mind.
Signal moaned when she awoke. Grasping her head from the fiery pain that quickly ensued, "Ratchet... What happened?" Her reply was the fierce wind, as she studied the darkness searching.
"Ratchet?... Ironhide? Da- Prime?" She cried, catching herself from saying 'Daddy.' Then it smacked her hard in the face, the explosion; and the last words of Gordonvich, "Return to your Master..."
She still didn't understand, but she got a good feel of her new body. Small flaps on the back of her shoulders with longer ones lower down; she felt how the longer ones would spread out, then close like butterfly wings. She used her hands to feel along her helmet; antennae freely moving out of her way as she brushed the two side panels, coming across one that fit snuggly under the helmet. She could feel the warm beat of her spark, nothing like her old organic heart. It seemed to pulse an electrical charge to each beat, feeling the charge go throughout her body. The wind blew again, snapping her back into the situation. "Ratchet said that no one would last very long in this... not even a Cybertronian... I think..." She stared up to the stars above, "I want to go to the moon... but how am I going to get out of here?" In response her calves widened, feet spreading as the two jet engines roared on.
"Oh sweet I can fly!" She jumped up, engines blasting her up higher as a visor and facemask enclosed her face. "Woohoo!" She screamed out, spinning around as she practiced her wing movements. She didn't waste much time as she flew upward, determined to break through the Earth's atmosphere to examine the one thing she always wanted to see, the moon landing.
Flying through the vacuum of space and fighting the Earth's gravitational pull was harder than she thought, but she made it. Engines turned off and pulled back in as her feet pounded the white dust, sadly she didn't get the landing right as her face buried into the ground.
"One small step for man, one giant fail for Signal!" She laughed as she picked herself back up. She examined her crash site, writing 'Signal was here' over her face print in Cybertronian and English. She paused, "What am I doing here again?" She wandered around till she stumbled over the flag. She brushed it off then stuck it back into the ground.
"It is quiet... radio silence... dark of the moon..." she checked on her radio signals, which worked perfectly... "Why was there a radio silence" she asked herself, turning around to the ancient crashed ship. She knew well that it was Cybertronian, but to which side? She rocked back and forth, trying to decide if she should contact the Autobots first then explore the ship with them or vise versa? She decided to explore, they would never had let her go with them, they thought she was dead, and she didn't even know if there was a threat. She followed the steps of Aldrin and Armstrong to the alien ship, neurons snapping in wariness to danger. She didn't get close to the ship when she notice the drag marks next to obvious Cybertronian footprints. Her spine began to make a clicking, rattling noise as she could feel the subtle movements of the Decepticons below. She could feel herself scream as she blasted off toward the Earth, flashing out an encoded help beacon. She didn't even remember the Autobot codes, she didn't remember who the Autobots were, and she didn't remember where she was going. She couldn't help but scream out, she didn't know why but she felt as if she needed to do so.
*Commander Starscream, a young Autobot has uncovered us and is heading to Earth...* Soundwave growled.
Starscream didn't bother to reply as he locked onto the coded beacon, ready to tear the unknown Autobot to shreds before they could reveal their plan.
Signal just flew around, gold armor turned black from the immense heat returning into the atmosphere. She was losing her memory rapidly; she couldn't remember where she was going, let alone her name. Everyone received her scrambled message, unsure as to its origin or meaning. It was in every language known to man and the different dialects of Cybertronian. She knew that she needed to turn off the beacon, but had no idea how.
*Lord Megatron, I have found the unknown bot. It is a sparkling... I've never seen this one before...* Starscream reported, following close to the strange flyer.
*Get it to stop sending that signal! If it still lives after that, bring it to me...* Megatron ordered.
*Yes Lord Megatron...*