Okay, so I know that I still have other stories to get to, but I had to do this one. I recently came across the fanfic Sari and Transformers Prime: Episode 1 again (it's an awesome fanfic, please go check it out) and it reminded me of Elhini Prime's (I think that's how I spell the username) Son of the Stars series to a certain degree. Reading Sari and Transformers Prime and remembering Son of the Stars inspired me to write this fanfic. To my knowledge, these subjects have never been approached in this way (the way will be revealed as the story progresses) and I'm really excited. Especially since it'll give me the chance to use an OC I made recently, named Pulsar. She's not a main character beyond the prologue, by the way. She's just important for a small bit, kind of like how Smokescreen was briefly super important in Transformers: Prime. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this story!
Disclaimer: Pulsar is the only one/thing I own. Also, I know nothing about Red Alert, he was just the only Autobot who I could remember who had medic-sounding designation, so I decided to use him. For what, you'll learn later. Unsure if he'll actually appear in the story again, though his role in the prologue will be explained later.
Prologue
The sound of blasterfire and the pounding of pedes on the metal ground of Cybertron was what kept her going despite the fact her energy levels were getting dangerously low. Her central pump couldn't push energon through her system fast enough to keep up with how much of her fuel she was currently burning through. She was vaguely aware of her two companions, one of which was returning the blasterfire back at their pursuers. She weaved and dodged around startled citizens, knowing that she had to keep moving. The wailing was what kept her from turning around and aiding her comrade who was returning the blasterfire, hating to leave the fighting to him alone. Blue optics glanced down at the wailing bundle she was clutching to her chassis as she fled, wishing she could do something to calm the little one she was protecting down.
"Pulsar, look out!"
She gave a cry of pain when something exploded far too close, throwing her forward and causing pain to coarse through her. The wails turned to screams and her optics widened with panic. Ignoring the pain she was feeling, she scrambled to her pedes and scooped the bundle up again, once more running. They soon reached their destination – the emergency evacuation pod launch building, for if Cybertron was ever invaded or some other major disaster of some kind struck. Normally off-limits to civilians, it was kept locked and only those in the Elite Guard or on the High Council had a key. She didn't have time to care about that and, using all the strength she could muster, simply kicked the door in. Rushing inside, she ran right for the nearest of the smaller pods. They were made for those who were young, so she didn't worry about any settings or anything as she opened it and placed the bundle inside.
The blasterfire was faint now, so she risked a look over her shoulder. Her two companions were there, the taller of the two finishing with welding the door back into place before beginning to barricade it. She looked back at the pod, at the little being she'd set inside of it. A great sorrow welled up in her spark as she looked down, the sparkling having finally calmed down. Two gold optics peered out, looking up at her. She took a moment to ensure the sparkling was comfortable before placing her own helm to the smaller being's helm. The little one was so small, so fragile and weak. She wasn't sure how it'd survive and prayed that the research about the hidden defense mechanism in sparklings was correct, that this little creature made of slippery, silver metal would survive. Blinking back coolant, Pulsar took a shuddering intake in an attempt to keep her composure with a rush of air to help her cool down. Slipping into her natural dialect, the rough and grinding Kaonian, she spoke to the little one.
"I'm sorry, Sonicbreaker," she whispered. "I'm sorry that I must send you out on your own, with no one to protect you. Primus keep you, little one."
She pulled away and set the coordinates into the pod – she just hoped that there actually was a forgotten, remote planet at those coordinates where the Ancients had indeed planted energon during the war against the Traitor. Once the coordinates were set, she stepped back so the pod could close. Turning, she saw her second companion at the controls to the Spacebridge that was just beyond the building. Seeing that Pulsar was ready, the mech nodded with a solemn look as he fired up the Spacebridge. She didn't know how long it would take the pod to reach its destination and prayed to Primus that she would be able to locate it once she arrived.
"Are you sure that you cannot come with, Red Alert?" she asked the Medical Caste mech in Iaconian.
"I am certain, Pulsar," the mech replied, sorrow in his voiceprint. "I would if I could, you know that."
She nodded, shoulders drooping. She looked back at the little one she had put in the sparkling-grade evacuation pod, seeing those curious little gold optics looking back at her. Trembling, Pulsar reached out to rest her clawed digits on the pod lightly, finding herself praying to Primus that everything would be all right. She then went to a second sparkling-grade evacuation pod as Red Alert launched the first one through the Spacebridge. The two pods, while headed for the same destination, would be started off in separate parts of the universe – in separate galaxies – for maximum protection. While also erasing the coordinates set for the starting points, it was just an extra precaution to go separately. The second sparkling had blue optics – so many had blue optics on Cybertron, with other colors only being common among certain Castes – that made her spark twist.
"Pulsar," her second companion urged worriedly, glancing at the barricaded door.
She could hear the banging on it – whatever help they had received before was gone now, and she knew they had little time. She quickly got the little one settled, taking in its form. Silver and armor less, like the other. Both sparklings were too young to have started to grow their first set of protective armors that would protect them while they were young. Sparkling armor was specially made to be extra resistant to denting, to better protect them until they were younglings and able to be fitted for "proper" armor. Shaking her helm in order to refocus her thoughts, she quickly set the coordinates and stepped back.
The banging was getting louder as the second pod was launched. She looked to her two friends, pleadingly, but the second quickly grabbed her by the servo and pushed her into a pod for those with spark. She watched as the coordinates were set, as the pod was prepared for launch. She quickly reached out, gripping the mech's servo before he could close the pod. A sudden need came over her, even as the banging grew louder and was joined by the sound of tearing metal. She could feel the panic over her two bonds, and the fear.
"Promise me," she begged, "Promise me that you'll protect them. That you'll make sure they come to me. Promise me, Soundwave, that I won't lose them forever."
She could see her friend's hesitance, his purple optics wide at her pleaded request. Yet he nodded, a look of pain coming over him.
"I'll do everything in my power, Pulsar," the mech swore to her. "You'll not lose your brother, or your mate, on my clock."
"Thank you," she whispered, letting go and watching the pod close.
She heard the subtle hiss as the pod's systems were online. She found her systems slowly being shut down, one by one, and her awareness fading. She watched as the view outside the pod was switched, heard the sound of the door finally being torn from it's welding and crashing to the floor. She felt the pod as it was launched, fighting the induced stasis for as long as she could. Her last sight was the vast void that was space, a place she'd never imagined she'd get the chance to see from more than the plating of Cybertron.
When Pulsar came online, she knew that something was horribly, horribly wrong. Her systems, as they rebooted, pinged her with error message after error message from being low on energon – lower than she should have been – to her weapons systems failing to come online. Her pod was in shambles around her, causing concern as she groaned with pain. Her joints creaked, needing to be oiled, and that made her wonder how long she'd been exposed to the planet's atmosphere while in stasis. Crawling away from the wreckage of her pod, she grew deeply concerned with how she could have possibly crash-landed. Had something knocked her off course? She was very afraid that it had and tried to scan the world around her. Her scan was littered with errors, she couldn't get a proper reading.
The planet was organic, that much she could tell from her surroundings. The area was mostly barren, with a few organic scattered about. Her memory processor must have taken damage if she couldn't remember, as she knew that her mate had told her everything she needed to know. He had wanted to make sure that she was prepared. The organic matter beneath her was coarse when it slipped through the platting of her armor to touch her protoform, making her wince. It was painful, but it was uncomfortable. It was impossible to get a proper grip on the matter and it frustrated her that she could not stand in the stuff, having tried to rise multiple times despite her pain receptors screaming in protest. She was also sinking in the stuff a bit, slowing her crawl from what it could be.
She wasn't sure how long it took her to reach some sort of path that cut through where ever she was, and by then the ground had become far more solid and allowed for her to dig her claws into for a proper grip. She still couldn't rise, far too weak to. A glance behind her showed that she had left a clear trail of energon and winced at it. She knew that she was losing far too much energon and that she should be succumbing to her error messages – she needed to go into stasis lock for her system to perform the necessary repairs. Unfortunately, that could harm her precious sparkling. She was already half-way through the framing process, her little one's spark having already detached from hers to join his frame. She should have stayed with the pod and broken down some of the scraps, she wasn't sure she was producing enough excess metals to provide for his forming frame.
She had taken a moment to rest, studying the odd path as she did. It was a faded grey-black with odd, faded yellow stripes going down the middle. It also had white lines on either side, just a few microns in from the edge of the path. Running her digits over the path, she allowed her sensors to get a feel for the material, her scanners automatically examining the material. Her scanners couldn't properly identify much due to her damage and because she wasn't equipped with an explorer's scanners that would be able to identify organic matter. She did find traces of metals she didn't recognize in the stuff, but it was so tiny she'd almost missed it entirely. The white and yellow appeared to be something akin to paint. Her curiosity was burning, and she had no way of satisfying it.
Her processor reached out, looking for some databank she could hook into and found nothing. Either there was no technologically equipped species on the planet, or she was on a planet without sapient life. Her scanners assured her that the atmosphere could support organic life, but she couldn't be sure thanks to the damage to her scanners and processor. She kept her systems running constant diagnostics on her sparkling chamber, needing to make sure that her little one was still framing right and that she was in no risk of losing her sparkling.
She sat there for some time, taking her moments alone to properly grieve what she had left behind. To grieve what she knew would not happen – her mate would not see his sparkling for a long time, possibly not even until the little one was in his youngling frames. He didn't know where she was, and she was far indeed since she could no longer sense him or her brother. She knew they were at least online still, or she'd be suffering immeasurable pain. Her bond with her not-quite-fully-framed sparkling had formed by now, and she realized that he was further alone than she had originally believed. Had he continued to frame while she was in stasis? Was that even possible?
She should have asked Red Alert about it, she'd been meaning to and had forgotten. Now she couldn't be sure other than her mechling was almost ready to greet the universe. Exventing heavily, she decided to follow the odd path and see what she would find. She was fairly confident that there was a sapient species on the planet, or that there had been once, given the existence of the path. Unsure why, she found that she could not bring herself to crawl on the path, instead crawling besides it. Her energon levels were depleting more and she finally managed to seal off the damage to prevent more leakage. She knew that she was dangerously low if her systems were already taking a bit to respond to her, which was more dangerous to her forming sparkling than to herself. She found her fear growing with each pacing micro-klick and began to pray that she would come upon someone who would be able to help her soon.
Suddenly, her audios picked up a sound that was vaguely familiar just as she spotted lights in the distance ahead of her. Coming to a stop and resting herself, she was surprised to see an alt. mode coming barreling towards her down the path – which must have been a road of some sort. Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed the alt. as it swerved suddenly, worried that whoever it was might get hurt. She was shocked when her grip crushed where she had grabbed it – at the front. She heard the distinct crunch of metal, as well as something else she didn't recognize, and watched as a panicked organic sprang from the alt. She realized that it must not have been living, explaining the flimsy plating, and studied the organic curiously. She had not expected organics who used what looked similar to Cybertronian alts for transport, but it was a very curious thing. The organic appeared to be wearing what looked like thermal-mesh – there was no way it could be any kind of armor – and noted the bundle of thin wires on its helm.
"What are you?" she couldn't help but ask aloud, noticing the organic wince. Realizing that Kaonian must sound rather harsh to the little thing, which was about the size of a prematurely extracted sparkling, she switched to Iaconian. "Is this better, little one?"
She could tell that talking to it soothingly was calming the originally frightened organic down. Before she could further investigate, a gasp left her as pain and fear flooded through her bond. She knew what was wrong even before her protocols began to ring alarms in her processor. Her sparkling! Not her sparkling! Looking down at the organic in desperation, she prayed that this had been Primus' response, that this organic could help her and her sparkling somehow. Please, Primus. Do not take my sparkling from me now, when he has yet experience his lifecycle.
Well, there's the prologue. And yes, I'm leaving you all hanging. And no, you'll not learn the exact details of what happened for a while. *grins evilly*
