Disclaimer: I don't own Beast Wars.
Well, I'm trying something new here, and if people like it, I'll continue with it.
I can't say any more than that without spoiling it, you'll just have to read. The rest of the A/N is at the bottom.
….
I turned out the lights in my quarters before wearily dragging myself to my recharge platform.
Of all things I'd gotten used to, sleep, or more accurately 'recharge cycle', seemed the most foreign.
If I were able to remember a time before the beast wars, I would have realised that non-organic Cybertronians needed far less sleep then we did, something to do with the beasts natural instincts or something.
Of course, I couldn't remember anything of my previous life, and I'd never bothered to question it, so I just accepted the way things were as the way things were.
I lay my head down wearily and with the reassuring feeling of my energy replenishing, I was soon drifting to a much deeper level of consciousness.
…
I was standing outside a metallic building, this one differing from the rest as it was clad in meticulously polished titanium, somehow giving a warm bluish tint to the buildings exterior.
This was of course one of the few elitist academies that had sprung up; every bit of their appearance crafted to give the manifestation of knowledge and relaxation; from the extensively glazed crystal panels to the aesthetically pleasing and completely unnecessary flying buttresses.
A place I would call home for the next ten years.
By definition, I was a biologist; I'd dedicated my life to studying organic planets, and as such I'd earned a reputation among my peers as a peaceful character.
Of course, I was as shocked and stunned as the rest of my colleagues when I received transfer orders to study at such a prestigious place as the one in front of me.
"Hi!"
I spun on my heels, nearly losing my load of books to meet the bot that was now standing at my side.
"I'm Optimus Primal, so this is your first day too eh?"
I nodded.
"Before you ask, when the elders named me they thought I was worthy of a prestigious title, but not to be a Matrix bearer, hence the suffix was changed to Primal, and not Prime."
I nodded silently before extending my hand. I was about to introduce myself, but the mech cut me off again.
"So, how'd you get to be here?"
I told him.
"You earned a scholarship in peace? Me too. But I guess in these times that we need as many mediators as possible."
I told the mech that I desired to travel off world as a biologist, rather than hanging around interceding faction disputes.
Primal opened his ID, showing me a licence to handle small transport hoppers.
"Cool eh? I hope to upgrade it to an interstellar licence and maybe own my own exploration ship. Hey, you wanna be part of my crew?"
I nodded, despite quickly getting bored with this bots speeches.
The first day was fun; I learned more about planetology there than I ever had at my old educational facility. I knew then and there that I'd chosen the right calling.
The next six years were basically the same; I learned an awful lot about my future calling, and even met someone.
She was a pretty young femme who shared my interest in biology, even if technically she was more of a botanist.
Later that year, Primal did indeed get his light capital licence and he instantly thought of my spoken agreement all those years ago.
Although I didn't really like him, the call to actually experience what I was learning about was too great, plus my colleague literally helped me pack and then dragged me to the awaiting ship so we could sign aboard together.
At this time, stasis pods were just being developed as a mode of transport.
Optimus had managed to acquire eight pods, which meant that his small ship could be manned by only a pilot, an engineer, and a mechanic, with the luxury of a forth active crewman to assist where necessary.
The system worked well; the four would manage the ship, and the rest of us could be brought out of stasis upon planetfall to handle the experiments and surveying and cataloguing of the flora and fauna.
The pods weren't flawless; in times of emergency they removed any susceptible components from their inhabitant by reverting them to the base protoform and storing their personality and memory in the pods computer. Although it always worked, I couldn't help but feel that the system was a little too volatile
Not that we ever encountered too many planets like that, besides, changing a body shape keep things lively.
Although we never officially bonded, everyone commented that the two of were literally made for each other; we often went off on our own for extended periods to collect samples away from the Axalon.
Finally our ten years were up and we went back to Cybertron so that we could all graduate; the practical experience of the fieldwork negating the theoretical work we missed while away.
After that we had several crew changes; old crewmates went on to do other things, while new bots seeking adventure and a chance to get away from home for a while signed on.
Through all this, only six of us stayed on as permanent crew; the four 'skeleton' crew, myself, and my 'mate'.
The two of us never questioned the possibility of leaving our work; we loved it almost mindlessly.
Finally after a long while we had another crew change, this time scoring a full crew for a change; we'd always had a few pods vacant and filled with emergency 'blanks' since our initial mission all those years ago.
That was when fate intervened.
I was in stasis at the time, but I'd gleaned from a few scraps here and there that a renegade Predacon ship stole some precious artefacts from the Maximals and the Axalon was the only ship in the vicinity able to respond.
After travelling through a transwarp portal in pursuit of the renegade Darkside, Primal jettisoned our pods so that we might survive. The planet was rich in energon and thus we were reverted to protoforms once again.
…
"INFERNO! GET HERE NOW!"
I instantly returned to full consciousness, even though I hadn't finished recharging.
"Yes my Queen!"
I mentally reprimanded myself just before the royalty did; the Queen didn't like being addressed by her title.
As I grabbed my flamethrower off my nightstand and headed out the door, my mind wandered back to my strange dream.
For some reason I could remember it vividly; I was a Maximal biologist before the Beast Wars and madly in love with the Maximal known as Airazor.
Which made no sense; I was a drone, loyal only to the colony. Maximals only existed to burn for my Queens glory.
With that reassuring thought in mind I quickly dismissed the happenings of the recharge cycle and sped towards my Queens chambers.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Ok, show of hands, who thought it was Tigatron??
Did you like this fic?? Would you like to see more done this way? If so please leave a review, and while you're at it, wish my good friend Albedo a happy birthday. (on her fic, not mine ;)
