Author's Note to be Read: Promethatron is based off of Halo's creation (and loosely the movie The Martian), the Promethians, which belongs to Microsoft and not me or my brother. Transformers is owned by Hasbro and only Hasbro, and not by me. This is inspired by Halo's Promethians and Transformers, creating the following idea: What if Cybertron had a sister planet that was far more accelerated than it's dwarf sister? This is Promethatron's story. You have been warned for awesomeness, gramatical errors, and plot holes. Read with caution.
"Space travel is a thing!"
The selected mechs and femmes were brave, intellegent, and could crunch the required numbers in a record amount of time. They were clever, creative...and they were chosen to leave. If their intelligence was to be used, then it would be used to discover worlds. The first leap of Cybertronians to find a new home and claim it.
The launch went well. The creation of the ship was monitored by Alpha Trion, a young mech with brilliant ideas. In his servo was his Covenant, something he was never seen without. The famed Quill rested on an open page, watching the ordeal with disinterest. The ship was called Aries after a vote that went seven to eight. The other name was the Ark, and the name was due to be recycled in a new age. But for now, it rested in the back of everyone's processor, everyone, it seemed, except Alpha Trion, who had already seen ages into the future, and things looked dim...
The mechs and femmes waved their final goodbyes, and then they were gone, whisked away into unfamiliar territory. On a playful whim, one of the mechs called themselves Space Pirates, and whenever they could transmit and receive messages from Cybertron, they demanded to be called as such.
But then communication was lost upon arrival on a large world dwarfing Cybertron by a thousand times and then some. The world was new, strange, half machine and half organic. The femmes and mechs were lost in the beauty, and they proceeded cautiously.
However, they were not cautious enough...
ooo
Optimus sat in his chair and he watched the stars through the viewport. Ironhide was yapping to a startled Jetwing, who gripped his desk and leaned further and further away from the red mech the closer and closer he got. The old mech was so wrapped up in his story that he didn't know that the gory details were probably better left saved in his processor. Bluestreak was busy with Prowl, arguing with his older brother about one thing or another. The Lambo Twins were, thank Primus, present and working as they should, save the occasional squabble and flick of the audio. Ratchet was taking stock of medical supplies, Energon, and the ever-present pink dye that had been smuggled aboard. Optimus huffed and shifted, moving his helm to be supported by his other servo.
They were lost, he mumbled. We are lost, he corrected. "Where are we?" he asked, probably for the thousandth time. Ratchet was getting irritated, and instead of answering the Prime, he growled.
Jetwing, finding his escape, stood up and offered his opinion. "Well, I am in the middle of a horrible story Ironhide was telling me about how it rained acid and he watched his own partner disintegrate before his optics and he said That's what you get for stealing my Energon goodies, so I now know what to do with you all who are stealing my goodies!"
The room went silent. The Twins stopped harassing each other and they blinked fearful optics at the Seeker before the red twin elbowed the yellow one and growled, thanks for that.
Optimus got to his pedes and walked to Perceptor, who was charting their position. Star charts were taped all around his makeshift cubicle and he looked at the Prime when he got close. "Where are we?" Optimus asked again.
Perceptor pointed with the tip of his stylus, ink still on the pointed tip, and he made a small mark between two large circles drawn on the paper. "That's us," he chirped and he leaned back in his chair. "We are in space."
"Gathered," Optimus said. He nodded slightly. "I mean, however, where are we in space based on our current surroundings?"
"Ah." Perceptor shuffled his empty pages. "I don't know."
"Thank you, Perceptor." Optimus walked back to his chair and he sat down, gripping the armrests. "Any logical guess?"
"Lost," Jetwing offered, reaching up to turn off the audio Ironhide was yakking into. He obviously relaxed. "But I am getting readings on some possible sister worlds."
Optimus felt Orion Pax shift inside him and he bolted to his peds to see the readings. As Orion Pax, he had read a lot about the sister worlds, like Aquatron and Velocitron. They had interested him just as this one did. He smiled at the readings. "Do we have time to dip low enough to see if there is Energon?"
"It wouldn't hurt," Ratchet said as he reviewed his stocks. "A trip down would only burn a percentage of what we have that is not being used for ammo."
"And if we ever need ammo," Ironhide said as he tore off a part of his chair and shoved it in his mouth. "We can crunch metal."
Jetwing shuddered in disgust. "That will be the day I officially sign off on life. Primus," he said, leaning back in his chair, his optics closed and his arms outstretched, "take me before I must resort to cannibalism. My chair has too much to live for...and Ironhide must taste as bad as he smells..."
"Enough," Optimus said before the older mech could get involved. "Sideswipe, alter our course."
ooo
The planet came into view, and Optimus, face pressed to the viewport, was lost in its beauty, but Jetwing remained unimpressed.
"Do we have the reserves to skip this planet and head off to the next one?"
Perceptor looked up from his map. "The next planet is too far away for our current reserves."
The Seeker stomped his pede and growled. "Darn it! I don't like plants." He curled his claws up and shuffled away as if the planet's inhabitants might reach up and touch him.
Everything was going well, up until the point Perceptor came back with disappointing readings.
"Energon breach" was all it took for Optimus to give the signal to land the Ark immediately, and it seemed a good time for him to let his inner Pax out and to look around at this sister planet.
When they landed, the native life ran away and hid, chirping and growling lightly at the new arrivals. Optimus regarded them with interest, and Jetwing regarded the grass under his peds with disgust and shuffled his pedes, wearing the grass away where he stood so he just stood on earth. He relaxed minorly.
"Spread out and search for Energon," Optimus ordered. He armed himself not with guns, but with observation jars and nets.
"Let it not be said we are being led by a pure soldier," Jetwing remarked and he charged his gun, promptly firing at vines that looked like they were going to touch him. He ended up just ducking beneath the charred remains of the vines (that stubbornly held onto life) and he lifted a piece of Energon that glowed faintly in the disgusting weeds of a disgusting planet filled with disgusting organic life. "I've got Energon!" He held the piece in the air, purring. "Who's going to lick it? One lick per crew member." He held it to his optic. "How many licks does it take to dissolve a tiny crystal of Blue?"
"Thirty," someone barked. "And there's thirty-two of us."
"That's unfortunate," Jetwing said and he tucked the crystal into his subspace, "that you had time enough to count."
Optimus chuckled to himself and he knelt, gently touching a small creature resting on a log. It chirped at him and he chirped back, but the little thing hopped away and the Prime sat back on his heels, looking up at the towering trees. "This place is amazing!"
"Thanks for helping, Prime," Ironhide sneered as he wrestled with vines. "This isn't a field trip. This is Let's Fix The Ark and Get Off This Planet!"
He ignored his friend and he moved the weeds aside to watch the little hopping thing, unscrewing a jar lid and holding it so the creature would hop into the container. It did and Optimus secured the lid and subspaced it. "I am merely observing our surroundings as a breach large enough to take the Ark down in a matter of seconds will take days to fix."
Groans echoed around the forest, but were interrupted when an excited Sideswipe lifted up a complete shard of Energon. "I got Energon!"
A twig snapped in front of Optimus and he turned his gaze ahead of him, his optics narrowing. There was a flash of light and then...nothing. He frowned and he got to his peds. "Go wander. We meet back here in a joor."
He stepped deeper into the forest, moving aside large leaves and more vines until he came face to face with a wall covered in ivy, lichen, and moss. He touched the engravings on it and he frowned. Some of it resembled Cybertronian! He scolded himself at his surprise. This was a sister planet, after all, but still...he allowed himself a flicker of surprise. He patted the metal wall and he ran his servo along it as he walked. While his back was turned, a being pulled itself away from it and sprinted, smacking right into Jetwing.
The Seeker laid on his back, the being twitching and whimpering in shock, kicking one leg in the air as it looked around. Optimus ran to him and rolled the native off Jetwing.
"Came right out of the woodwork!" He pointed at the wall and then at the native, staring at it's narrow face and blue visor. It lowered its helm and gave a low whistle, trembling lightly. Four claws on each ped curled into the grass and it tucked its arms to its belly and chest, carrying a weapon of some kind. Jetwing stood slowly, his servos out to show he meant it no harm. Optimus reached out to touch, and splayed his servo across the visor. It whistled again, panting softly.
Jetwing took another step back and stood upright, sighing. "It looks like a bag of framework, but it's got the body of a brick wall."
When he spoke, the native shifted and the armor plates on it acted as though it wasn't even secured properly, and it shifted as well, moving and acting like a living thing around the skinny being. Optimus ran his servo down across one of the levetating plates and lifted it, but before he could peek underneath, it bolted and sprayed Jetwing in the organic material he detested.
"Salad. I am covered...in salad." He shook himself off and growled at the Prime. "You don't touch things that come out of walls. I don't know if nobody told you this, but you don't touch anything wall-oriented! Unless it itself is a wall and not straight outta the woodwork!"
"Stop saying that. That wall was not made of an organic material." Optimus studied his servo. The native didn't feel like the wall. It felt like he had touched a Cybertronian.
"It's my saying. Don't take it away from me." Jetwing flicked a stringy bit of weed off his wing and he shuddered and whimpered. "I'm covered in green! Eww!"
"Stop whining." Optimus looks at where the native had gone, then back at the wall. "Come here." He walked over to it and heard Jetwing behind him. He touched some of the runes on it and he looked at Jetwing. The Seeker stopped focusing on the green still on his wings and he frowned.
"Cybertronian?" He scoffed. "I know I sound surprised, but I truly am. You would think that their language would slowly adapt to those used on this planet, which clearly it sort of has, but...it's still Cybertronian."
Optimus rapped his knuckles on the metal. "This metal is not Cybertronian-based."
Jetwing nodded and he looked at it, backing up to see more of it. "But that native...?"
"Felt like a Cybertronian." Optimus looked at the servo that had rested on the plate. "It felt smooth, not servo-made..."
"Like a Cybertronian does." Jetwing nodded and he touched the wall again. "But this is rough, has tool-marks on it, and it's imperfect. It's a mix of every kind of metal known to us." He frowned and shook his helm. "Prime, this isn't a mystery we need to solve. In a couple days, we'll be gone, and we don't need to care about freaky natives coming out of walls."
"Mm."
Together, Seeker and Prime walked back to the Ark, but under the watchful gaze of blue visors and narrow faces.