This chapter is a collab between my friends Tem, Izzi and me.

Transformers obviously belong to HASBO.

oOo

-Chapter 1: Autumn-

A ramp lowered from the small spacecraft that looked incredibly out of place in the middle of the clearing, between nothing but trees and some random rocks. A violet colored fembot bolted down said ramp at top speed, not wanting to spend any more time in the cramped up space of the small ship – and especially not in the company of the other tank former, whose presence she had had to endure for the entire time of the flight. It just took Temper one step off the metallic surface though and the pede that had briefly touched the new planet's surface was pulled back again as if the very ground had snapped at it.

"Oh! Eeeewwww!" the small femme didn't even try to hide her disgust at the brown and surprisingly sticky substance that had embedded itself at once into all joints of the unfortunate pede. It felt cold and slimy, a mixture of alien world fluids, grainy substances and small, organic fibers … and Temper could swear that something had just moved in there! Disgusting didn't even begin to describe it! She started frantically rubbing her pede at the ramp to get the offending substance off her chassis.

"I'm taking back the 'all terrain' part in my function description! There is no way I was built to ever tread on that!" she uttered.

"So much for 'a great step for Cybertronians', eh?" Heavy pedes that made the ramp vibrate slightly with each step announced the approach of the starship's pilot. "The ground will need several joors to dry with just the light of this system's sun, provided the clouds will clear up long enough, after it stops raining. And it doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon." Vault stated with a look at the thick layer of dark clouds. "Get on your tracks! We're wasting precious mission time."

"Shouldn't we get us new altmodes first?" Temper inquired in an attempt to delay the inevitable. "This is a new world and we don't know what awaits us beyond this."

"The report we have of this mudball says there is no native intelligent life-forms we need to hide from, it is covered in organic life not in mechanical and I didn't see anything in the files of the local fauna or flora that I could transform into without major changes to my original frame design." Vault replied, carefully stepping of the ramp and onto – or better into – the water soaked ground, registering with a frown how deep her pedes sank into the mud at once.

"Hmmm… actually there was that one black and white marine mammal that would match your size and color scheme perfectly," the small, violet colored femme couldn't help but remark with a smirk.

"Do I sense a hidden insult here?" Vault cast an annoyed glance at the smaller framed femme trying to remember which of the planet's life forms fit that description but deciding to let it slip as insignificant information. "Why would I even want to transform into a 'marine' life form, I'm not planning to operate more 'under water' than we already are." Another poisonous glance was cast at the dark clouds, which still continued to pour insane amounts of said liquid down at the two cybertronians. "Not that you'll fit in with that gaudy paintjob of yours, no matter what you might choose as your altmode. Unless you want to change your transformation sequence to an insecticon frame of course, I think this planet has some violet beetles."

Now it was Temper's turn to cast her companion a death glare: "Awfully nice of you to point out my options but I decline. So can we get this mission done with? What's first on our agenda anyway?" she finally stepped off the ramp so Vault could retract it and seal the entrance of their small ship.

"Scouting the area for any cybertronian activity. Searching for a suitable location and verifying its position according to the map coordinates. Oh! And you'll love to hear that according to the map and the triangulation data, we should now be standing in the middle of a vast arid plane with nothing but sand, dunes and rocks. Isn't it just lovely to operate on outdated information? Anyway, once the terrain is clear I'm gonna drop off my cargo and you are to send an encoded report back to the boss. Just don't screw your part up."

Without transforming they cautiously neared what appeared to be natural brown and yellowish or partially green structures, a forest. It was obvious that even Vault's heavy tank altmode would get stuck within the thick underbrush within astroseconds.

"Yeah, yeah I'll manage. So all those organic… are that even trees?... just snuck up on us?" Temper gestured at the surrounding forest that had so very few things in common with the crystal trees and metallic plant structures she knew from her home planet.

"Yes. Looks like we have some walking ahead of us. Oh joy! Oh joy! Just gotta love organic wildlife, look away for some vorns and it decides to evolve a complete new ecosystem."

Of course a few vorns was an understatement. Since the war had started there had been far more important things to take care of than monitoring the evolution of organic life on some backwater planet. Their current mission was one of those things, at least in Vault's eyes. She wasn't sure about her companion. Temper seemed not to take their assignment seriously at all. It would probably just take another few breems before…

"So this place could have sentient life by now? You do realize that we could be the first Cybertronians to discover an alien civilization in this space sector?"

Yep, there it was: The 'What if' speculations and useless smalltalk.

"I rather hope we won't. It'd be nothing but a bother." the red eyes narrowed somewhat. Seriously, organic sentient life? What was that cpu-less femme thinking?

"But wouldn't it be cool?" Temper droned on.

The taller femme was not planning to answer, but that didn't discourage the smaller one from sharing her thoughts in the least.

"I mean, ain't you curious of what we could meet here? What if those organics have already developed a culture of their own? What if they build cities, like us?" The yellow optics glowed a bit brighter as the femme raised her voice almost as if she wanted to be louder than the pouring rain. "And fight wars, like us?"

By now, Vault had no doubts on where this whole speech was going.

"What if they have some elite fighting units that are able to use the power of their organic minds and bodies to become one with their organic world and reach the levels of true Shadow Warriors? Just think, Vault! We could obtain all that amazing knowledge!"

Here we go again, Vault though with a quiet sigh.

One of the first things that the tall femme had learned about her new partner was the fact that Temper had very specific interests. She loved to study ancient cybertronian tales. Not only did she collect, read and translate old scripts which contained esoteric concepts and beliefs, she was also actually convinced that thanks to them she would learn 'the mystical powers of the shadows' – of course Temper had never explained what those 'oh, so awesome powers' were supposed to be.

It would have been halfway more acceptable if this had anything to do with some cult or any other form of belief system such as the Brothers of the Holy Spark or the infamous Unicronian sect The existence of religious fanatics was something Vault could understand to a degree, even if she did not comprehend why anybody would make so much of a hassle about abstract ideas. Temper, however was a different sort of fanatic. She was not about convincing others about her believes… most of the time (for what Vault was incredibly grateful actually).

Temper was simply obsessed with that one particular script in her possession which happened to be the story about the Shadow Warriors. She cherished that lecture to a point that she needed to check the slagging thing every five astroseconds as if her very spark depended on it.

Soon enough Vault had found out that the bookworm's ultimate goal was to become one of those mysterious Shadow Warriors herself. Ever since that day, the red-eyed femme couldn't bring herself to take her 'partner' serious.

So far, however, she had kept it to herself what she really thought about all those 'mystic powers' and 'shadow warriors' and any other fairytale meant for entertaining little sparklings.

Vault suspected, though, that Temper didn't really expect her to appreciate such things as long forgotten knowledge. Vault was a warbuilt after all – big, slow and dimwitted (at least in the opinion of everybot else) so Temper was probably content with the thought of being the only one of them smart enough to gain those ancient powers by studying her precious script.

The original script had been engraved into exactly 1688 incredibly thin metal slices, of which sadly only roughly 700 could be retrieved and restored back to a halfway readable form. Readable being an overstatement here, because so far nobody had been able to decipher the code it was written in into anything that made remotely sense. And many had tried, they all had failed.

Temper would not fail. She would learn the secrets of this script, the secrets of becoming a proper warrior of the shadows. She was already on the right way becoming one. Nobody had noticed how she snuck into the Hall of Records at night, found the tome and created her own personal copy, which she would always have access to on her datapad.

She also had secretly returned several times after, because Temper had suspected the answers she was looking for weren't to be found in the text alone.

Encrypting a text was only one possibility to create a secret message. The other half was hiding the real message somewhere where nobody was looking for it.

That was why Temper had examined the original tome over and over again, trying to discover something new, that she, hundreds of historians and countless curious students had overlooked so far.

And Temper would rattle on and on and on about it, nonstop, like she had done during the whole flight from Cybertron (at least when she wasn't making snide remarks about Vault's piloting and navigation skills).

The worst part for Vault was, however that just now she had mused what it could mean, if it was true… if Shadow Warriors were not just a thing of legends…

"You know Temper, for someone who tries to be a mystical, graceful and deathly silent warrior you are extremely loud and clumsy. Shouldn't you work on that first?"

"What?" the small tankformer's whole attention was instantly drawn to Vault, which resulted in missing a rather large root sticking out of the mud.

With a clatter and a loud splash the violet femme went down.

"Point in case." Vault commented drily.

Temper answered with a stream of swearwords, profanities and threats of death and torture.

The taller femme didn't even bother to hide a smirk: "And that could probably be heard back on Cybertron." She chuckled before she moved on deeper into the forest leaving it to Temper to get back up on her own.

oOo

Somewhere in the woods a creature much smaller than a Cybertronian was crouching between the thick green leaves of the underbrush. It was listening intently to the high pitched chirping noises that echoed through the forest. The constant clatter of the falling rain was not able to drone out the strange sounds in the slightest.

It had been a bad day for the hunt. The prey was hiding, waiting for the sky to stop crying. Then thunder had rolled through the sky like the terrible roar of a beast from the nightmares. Fear had gripped the creature's heart and was only slowly letting go of it. All its senses had still been alerted when the chirping had begun. It didn't sound like any birds the creature knew, and as the strange sounds came closer and closer new noise got mixed within, branches breaking, rain hammering on some surface quite different from rock or wood and the steps of something huge and heavy, moving through the woods.

oOo

At the same time a different kind of hunter slowly awoke from a long and deep rest. An incredibly sweet and alluring smell was tickling its nostrils. That alone would have been enough to roust it from its slumber however two other unfamiliar scents made all its four eyes come alive in a mere instant.

:Intruders!:

:They came to steal what is ours!:

:They have what is supposed to be ours!:

The creature unfurled its whole body and rose from the rock slab it had been lying on and with motion surprisingly fluid for a being of its size it dashed towards the source of the three scents.

oOo

So far their scans of their surrounding had only registered small organic life signs and the two femmes were about to get on with the next step of their assignment. Vault had pulled a black metal box out of the storage compartment in her trunk. It was sealed with a security lock, the box's material shielding its contents from curious scans. The femme slowly let the gaze of her red optics slide over a nearby rock face appraisingly.

"Would you get on with it? Just stuff the thing into a hollow tree or something! Finding a hiding place can't be that difficult! What is in that box anyway?" Temper was almost fidgeting by now.

"The content of the cargo is none of our business. And we're supposed to drop it someplace where it will stay for a few vorns if necessary. Anything organic will have long decomposed by then, and no telling what being exposed to water will do to the container. The rocks look far more promising, a cave would be ideal for storage so if you're that impatient …"

This was when the movement registered, guns snapped out of their respective compartments on both of Vault's arms reflexively. She was already aiming them at the top of the cliff before the first falling boulders hit the ground next to her. Temper had managed to avoid getting hit by jumping back just in time. Vault herself got hit by a few smaller rocks but ignored the minor scratches they caused on her thick armorplating in favor of aiming at the thing that had just appeared at the cliff above them.

At the first glance it seemed nothing more than just a cluster of normal organic shrubbery, just that the local flora was not supposed to move around and snarl at them, it wasn't supposed to have two snake-like necks and heads with beady yellow eyes either.

Whatever the thing was, it threw itself at Vault, baring fangs, with long mud encrusted claws extended. The femme didn't hesitate to welcome it with plasma fire from both her arm mounted guns.

The monster wasn't even slowed down.

Not having enough time to activate her force shield the heavy armored tankformer threw herself to the side, losing sight of the beast for a moment.

The monster was carried on by its own momentum, turning around sharply.

Vault's gaze fell on her partner: Temper was holding two long metal rods in her servos, one of them with a blade. She shoved both pieces together and they connected with a soft 'click'.

"You are freaking kidding me! You are using a spear? And you have to reassemble it first?" Vault would had no time to start reprimanding the violet scouttank, as the monster was already whirling around, ready to charge again.

Temper didn't take time to answer either, instead dashing forward, dodging two snapping jaws and using a sturdy branch as a handhold to swing her frame upwards and onto the beast's back. She didn't get in more than one single superficial stab though, since she soon needed both servos to hold on for dear spark.

Vault cursed and withheld her fire as the monster went berserk in an attempt to shake the smaller tankformer off of it but the wannabe shadow warrior clung to it like a magnet. Until the beast threw itself down and started rolling on the ground – Temper just barely managed to let go of it as to not getting squished under it.

With the scouttank out of the way plasma bolts from Vault's guns once more seared through the monstrous vegetation, igniting branches and leaves, but the beast seemed not even to feel it.

Temper dove back into the fray, pointing the spear at a spot where the shrubbery seemed burned and thinner, hoping it to be a vulnerable spot.

Only it wasn't – the spearhead scraped over an uneven and hard surface beneath the foliage with the screeching of metal on metal, then it got stuck in the black and smoking mass and with an almost bell-like ringing the metal shaft of the spear snapped into pieces.

The beast let out an annoyed roar and the scouttank was swatted away like an insect by the thing's tail. Then finally both snake-like heads fixed their gaze on one femme each. The monster opened its maws simultaneously. Bright yellowish energy built up from deep in those throats just astroseconds before hot, searing fireblasts scorched everything in their paths.

Mud steamed and cracked as it was instantly dried, puddles evaporated and white clouds of fog shrouded everything from sight.

When the thick cloud of a condensed water vapor was finally blown away by the wind, the only figure that still stood at the battlefield was the two-headed monster. Two pairs of yellowish eyes glowed with fury as the beast skimmed over the surroundings in search of its prey.

:Where are the intruders? They took what is ours!:

One of the heads turned to the left. Its big nostrils moved slightly.

:This way! We will track those thieves down by their filthy scent.:

The other head exposed its collection of fangs in a parody of a smile.

:We will feast today!:

With that, the monster followed the trail in the direction of the mountain, right where it had come from. The hunt had just begun.

oOo

Somewhere deep in a cave the silence was shattered by a low wail:

"How?! How could you betray me like that?!" Temper whined in the darkness, forgetting all about the plan of getting the pit out of there and hiding silently until the monster had lost interest in them.

"Do you really expect an answer?" the other tankformer inquired, an optic ridge raised.

"I took care of you! I spoilt you every day with fresh oil!" the smaller femme continued her litany of accusations.

Vault just exvented in a long and suffering sigh. ~Why do I have to deal with the crazies?~

"For the last time, Temper! I doubt your spear is up to answering questions! So stop whining! It was only some blade on a stick, nothing more!"

"You have no idea how rare and unique that 'stick' was! It cost me a little fortune to get it!" the scouttank waved the broken parts around as if to make a point and Vault had some difficulty not to be hit by accident in their narrow hideout.

"Primus be damned! Will you be careful? Which bot would even bother to sell one of such poorly made forgeries to you? Wait!... Don't tell me it was that smooth-talking, shady dealer Swindle?" she cursed.

"So, you know each other?" Temper actually halted her movements surprised that she and the grumpy, black femme apparently had a common acquaintance.

"Everybot knows him, Temper! He's wanted by both Decepticon and Autobot forces for fraud! Guess a few of his cheap blasters blew up in the wrong faceplates. Not to mention that it wasn't exactly taken in well when it turned out he had sold weapons to both sides, no matter the lack of quality. Speaking of which, how much did he charge you for that badly manufactured replica?"

"No that much actually, since I bought the whole collection of authentic, Shadow Warrior melee weapons, he made me a special price."

Vault just stared at her companion with a slack faceplate.

"You mean you bought a whole bunch of them? A whole bunch of weapons that will break when you just look at them the wrong way?" She finally managed, voice instinctively raising.

"The spear wouldn't have broken if the shell of that thing hadn't been stronger than cybertronian heavy armor!"

Temper was about to continue when a low but deep growl echoed through the cave and both femmes startled.

Vault powered up her plasma guns to get ready for the impending battle. The pale blue energy was reflected manifold from a myriad of huge blue crystals lining the cave walls, illuminating their surroundings brightly for a moment. That short moment, however, was enough for both of them to realize in what kind of place they ended up hiding.

"Are you trying to offline us?!" Temper somehow managed to shriek and whisper at the same time.

"Scrap! Oh scrap!" Was the only answer. Vault shook her head and hastily powered her guns down, instinctively taking a step back from the walls. "So much about shooting. Tell me you brought at least a spare replica with you, bad weapons are still better than no weapons." Vault whispered, spying over a rock formation, trying to see whether the monster was getting closer.

"No, I kinda haven't trained with any of them yet. So I wanted to master the spear arts before trying my luck with the more exotic ones. But hey! I got an inbuilt knife I can use." The scouttank let a short blade snap out of its compartment on her arm."

Vault's red optics ran a skeptical scan over the tiny blade but it seemed of much better quality than the broken weapon.

"See the bright side." Temper tried some careful optimism. "At least we won't starve on this planet, not with that much energon in this place."

"We won't even have time to grow hungry. Not with that monster going to tear us to shreds. I only got a bunch of throwing daggers. With my guns out of the game and you down to a blade, we are primely screwed!"

"Let's see what a true Shadow Warrior would do under circumstances like this."

With that she pulled out her datapad with the copy of the ancient script from her trunk and started skimming through the text. "The best way out is always through." She read out loud in an actually preaching tone.

Vault took a nervous glance at the beast that was getting closer to their hiding place with every passing breem.

"Great, and how are you planning to go 'through' this monster? You think it will just let us pass, if we ask nicely?"

"It will if it won't see me." Temper replied sounding surprisingly confident as if she had instantly gained infinite wisdom just by checking on that scrappy script. "Listen carefully, I got an idea..."

oOo

The beast patiently followed the delicious scent of its prey, slowly closing in on the two intruders' hiding place. This hunt was all too easy, the two bickering voices were carrying through the empty caverns of the mine and the complicated maze was effortlessly navigated, the monster's yellow eyes used to the darkness of its very own lair for millennia.

The intruders had maneuvered themselves into a hopeless position, the corridor they were cowering in a dead end.

The monster threw both of its heads back and roared challengingly.

The immediate response was the sound of something shifting, the beast hesitated, it knew the sound from somewhere it was an old memory, a very old and foggy memory of the past – long before becoming the guardian of this place.

Its whole body tensed, the sound meant…

Thunderous roaring echoed from the walls again this time not emanating from the beasts own throat but a pair of powerful tank engines, as two sets of headlights lit up everything in agonizing brightness, reflected on countless energon crystals protruding from the walls.

The monster closed its burning eyes and averted its heads from the light source instinctively, realizing in the very instant that this was exactly what the intruders had intended. And there was still just one way out for them. Its own roar mixed with the deafening engine noise as it lashed out with its claws, feeling them hitting metal, rending and tearing and the smell of processed energon filling its nostrils.

Then they were past it. Turning around in the narrow corridor cost the monster precious astroseconds in which its prey slipped away.

Metal was screeching over the tunnel walls, the noise getting more distant. With another roar the beast gave chase. The wounded prey wouldn't get too far, that much the hunter knew for sure but nothing was more annoying than the thought of helpless pests escaping your deadly claws by mere luck.

The pair of cybertronian vehicles barely made their way out of the mine, the two-headed monster right behind them, breathing fire up their rear ends. They avoided its snapping fangs only by inches as they took a sharp left turn and drove up the mountainside. Their caterpillar tracks made getting up the steep slope possible. However, the uneven, rocky surface slowed them down to the point that the beast had no problem catching up with them at once. The giant jaws missed the rear bumper of the purple vehicle again but the furious monster didn't intend to give up anytime soon.

"Will you just speed up, Temper? You can't tell me that is your top speed!" the black tank shouted back, catching a glance of the smaller vehicle and their pursuer in a side mirror.

"I'm leaking energon here, you big jerk! I get more error messages than I even knew I had systems on that side of my frame and you want me to go faster?" The scouttank bit back, trying its hardest to keep up, while bluish fluid seeped from its flanks.

"So what? Do you need me to tow you?"

"Pit no! I don't want any help from you!"

"Good 'cause I don't have a towrope anyway."

Temper's angry reply was cut off as she yelped and swerved to the side seeing that the monster was about to attack once more. But before it struck, the black tank countered with a blast from her plasma gun hitting one of its heads and drawing an ear-piercing screech out of the beast.

It didn't stop it, though, just made it hesitate for the blink of an optic as the other head created a fireball and sent it in their direction. Fortunately, both tanks were already too far to get hit by it. Those few astroseconds when the monster had slowed down had given them the opportunity to increase the distance.

"No matter what, go forward!" Vault shouted trying to be louder than her engine. "Understood?"

"And where do you think I was planning to go? Right into that monster's death grip?" The smaller tankformer started over but she quickly realized that Vault was suddenly speeding up and that at this rate Temper would be left behind very soon. "Hey, what are you doing?" She called out to her companion "Trying to lose me?"

As soon as the words had left her vocalizer and she got no answer in return, she knew that was actually very likely Vault's intention. It was only reasonable to leave the weak ones to scrap, if that was what it took to save your own spark.

"Vault!" She called out again, this time far more panicked. "Don't you dare leaving me behind! Do you hear me? Vault!"

The truth was that Vault indeed couldn't hear her anymore, she was by now too far away and Temper, damaged and weakened as she was, wasn't able to do a thing about it.

The betrayal stung deeply, not that she had trusted the other femme in the first place, that would have been utterly foolish, and yet being left alone hurt more than the open wound in her side. In a haze she moved further forward avoiding a boulder looming up in her course more by instinct than by intention. She broke through a dense patch of underbrush, feeling how the organic matter got stuck in her caterpillar tracks, scraping against her plating.

Then, for a fearful moment she lost traction, as a whole batch of rubble came loose under her and slid down the mountainside in a miniature avalanche. Just an astrosecond later she felt stable rock again under her tracks and she continued to fight for every mechanometer of lead she had to the monster right behind her.

All of a sudden the chase ended.

Temper hit the brakes and came to a screeching halt, just at the edge of a deep and wide chasm. There was no way to cross it, no way to climb the steep mountainside on the left side and if she tried to reach the tree line to her right she would have to transform back into rootmode, while the beast could easily catch up with her. She revved her engine unhappily as the monster closed in on her.

The beast apparently had noticed the chasm too and slowed down, now sure that its prey was out of options. Temper remotely nurtured the hope that maybe she could dodge, when it came dashing at her. As the monster stalked closer, she transformed back into rootmode, her battleblade ready and the head of the broken spear in the other servo. If her spark was about to return to the well she wouldn't go down without a fight.

"Dodge, dimwit!"

Temper abruptly turned her head just in time to behold a black shape dashing toward her.

It was Vault. She too had transformed into her rootmode and was now sprinting towards the beast, the trunk of an uprooted tree under her arm.

In no time Temper read her intention. She knew she was in the way. But when she followed the command and threw herself to the side, it became clear that Vault had misjudged the distance.

She wouldn't make it. The monster already turned one head towards the incoming challenger while keeping the other locked on the violet framed femme, charging up to bath both bots in smelting hot pit fire.

Temper shut her optics preparing for the moment her cabling would melt away and leaving her armor a dead, scorched, empty shell. It never came. Instead there was a low clanking noise followed by an irritated growl of the beast.

Opening her optics she saw the beast's two heads trying to refocus on her and Vault, Vault bridging the last distance with a growl coming deep from her vocalizer and the tree trunk slamming home, striking the monster right into the spot where the two snake-like necks connected to its torso. The beast was pushed back by the impact, its claws not being able to steady it on the muddy ground and with another, this time surprised roar it went over the edge of the chasm, thundering echoes following each time it slammed into the rock wall on its way down.

For a tense moment the two transformers just waited there in a fraught silence, listening. Both of them still on alert and unwilling to get anywhere close to the edge to check on their fallen enemy. Soon, Temper was back on her feet but not without an effort. Vault caught a glimpse of a wince on her faceplate before the smaller tank managed to hide it. She vented heavily and finally let go of the tree trunk she had still been clutching.

"Are you all right?"

Temper gave her one of her usual dirty looks in response.

"All right?" She replied, her rising voice implying an incoming outburst of hatred "You used me as bait! That is not all right! And you almost let that slagging monster fry me!"

"Don't be ridiculous! I wouldn't let you go offline," the black tankformer calmly assured her, "not before your job is done and the encoded report for this mission has landed right on Counter's desk."

"What is that supposed to mean!" Temper asked angrily but the other femme wasn't in the mood for continuing this conversation.

The crazy plan had actually worked. Vault could barely believe it herself, she shook her head remembering the one moment where the beast had suddenly diverted its attention during the battle, both its heads swaying to the side in surprise. She let her gaze wander over the battle torn ground, until her optics fixed on an inconspicuous object half buried in the mud between the beasts giant footprints.

Curiously Vault picked the thing up. …It couldn't be!

It was a stick of the same organic material the trees on this planet were consisting of, just that one end was pointy. A quick scanning glance told her the pointy end had been exposed to fire, which had hardened the material. At about half length the stick had been wrapped with a small piece of different material, dried organic skin, as if to give digits holding it a better grip, just that it was far too tiny to be used efficiently by any Cybertronian, the weapon barely being the length of her forearm.

Vault's processor almost stalled trying to comprehend all the implications this discovery brought up. There was sentient life on this planet! Temper had actually been right about something, the world was gonna end now!

"Do you think it is dead?" Temper asked while cautiously spying down the rock wall, bringing Vault back from her musings.

The taller femme hastily stuffed the wooden spear into her trunk, hiding it from sight. If Temper ever found out about being right this one time, Vault would never hear the end of it. She turned around to answer the question but…

An enraged, audial shattering roar echoing through the canyon answered for her.

Both femmes looked at each other in mutual dread.

"I'm suggesting a hasty retreat from this area!" Vault turned around and began to run.

"I second that!" Temper hurried after her.

oOo

The sky finally stopped crying and once again the seven-colored bridge to the Spirit World appeared above the water soaked ground. That was a good sign, the small, two-legged creature knew it and he could even feel the Spirits calming down as well as the Tall Ones who had defeated the Walking Forest on this very day.

The high pitched chirping was bouncing back and forth between the two huge figures as they descended the mountain. It was difficult to follow them, not because they would have noticed but due to the speed they were moving at, even with one of them obviously wounded. Nevertheless the tiny creature somehow managed, since the Tall Ones paused as they reached the base of the mountain. He arrived just in time to watch them, piling rocks over something that was almost darker than the night. The hunter shuddered, never before had he seen such a thing. Were they burying an evil spirit? Had the Walking Forest tried to stop them and free it? The urge he felt to cast all caution away and take a look at it once the Tall Ones were gone was overbearing, yet the covering rocks piling up over it were an insurmountable obstacle for him.

The Tall Ones examined their completed work satisfied and disappeared between the trees. Soon afterwards a line of fire shot towards the clouds accompanied by thunder. The Tall Ones were gone, back to the sky where they came from.

The hunter felt how his whole body relaxed, the spell that had been hanging over the woods today was finally broken. And it felt like whatever strange power had possessed him today to follow the messengers from the spirit world around was gone now as well.

At least the adventure had only cost him a spear and not his life, and the Walking Forest would calm in due time. It was time to return home with a tale worth to be painted on a wall of their cave; with a tale none of the other hunters would ever believe. The hunter gave the pile of rocks another longing glance but even with all members of his tribe helping they wouldn't be able to move them, so there would never be any proof of his tale. He was about to leave the site when a single beam of light broke through the clouds and made something glitter in the tall grass. When he got closer to check on the strange finding, he realized that it was a part of the broken weapon that the Tall Ones had lost during the battle. He couldn't believe his luck – that thing would prove his tale to the others. All he had to do now was taking it home somehow...

oOo

The ship with the two femmes aboard had barely passed the orbit of the first gas giant on its way out of the solar system, when a second smaller ship left its hiding place in a moon crater and flew straight to the planet the two tankformers had just left.

The short transmission that Temper had sent from the planet's surface just breems ago had already been decoded and analyzed before their ship had even taken off.

The bot aboard the second ship extended a confident servo, adjusting the course ever so minutely. He ran his digits over a screen, monitoring the new data, but there was nothing to be concerned about. His processors received more and more information and his excitement grew. Uncharted territory, an organic world waiting to be explored by him. His faceplate stretched to form a smile, and he flexed his shoulder joints. At long last: An adventure! A real, honest to Primus, adventure! Sure, visiting an underdeveloped world for a simple reconnaissance mission wasn't exactly the adventure he'd cooked up in his many simulations. But it sure beat being stuck in dusty, clustered quarters for hours, being shooed through a training parcours, archiving outdated data or managing boring supply lists, all awhile having to endure the everlasting critiques of a certain seasoned warrior who didn't seem to have much of a liking for him. Apparently lame chores 'built character'. Neon suspected that he was merely being given the shaft. However, finally his potential had been recognized, since for the first time he had been entrusted a serious mission.

Of course his mentor had also been muttering mostly to himself, quite begrudgingly, "Those two femmes are up to something and I want to know what! And you are the mech to find it out! It's about time you prove that you're not just an annoying, noisy heap of spare parts."

But Neon was confident that there was an underlining of affection for him somewhere in those gruff words and that was just how his mentor chose to show it.

His thought patterns were interrupted when he realized that his ship was urgently alerting him to the necessity of deploying the reverse thrusters or else he'd crash into the quickly approaching planet's surface. With a swift movement he enthusiastically started the landing sequence, hurrying through standard protocol. His ship was making its way through the thick greenery shortly afterwards, it jolted as it less than gracefully made contact with the ground. Roughly riding over the uneven terrain, it finally settled with a protesting rumble.

The sole passenger hopped out energetically. He had a task of infinite importance to fulfill and he hadn't any time to think about how strange his organic surroundings were. He opened his armpad to reexamine his coordinates.

It looked like he had landed -or rather fallen- a little further away from where he was supposed to be than planned. But no matter, it just meant he could venture a little further on this new world. With that thought lingering in his processors, he took a step on the wet ground and almost slipped. It was more difficult than he had calculated to move around.

Undeterred, he pushed forward, moving towards his destination agonizingly slow, as the terrain proved to be a worthy opponent indeed. While he already used to think he had problem getting from point A to point B back on Cybertron, he discovered that that was nothing compared to this. Finally, he had made it to his target location. He checked the coordinates from the transmission one last time before casting a look around and spotting a small structure of rocks. A sense of accomplishment filled him. He had conquered this slimy terrain and gotten to the end of the world. He rushed over to the formation, tossing a few of the boulders aside. He felt like a pirate retrieving his treasure, a grand adventurer obtaining a relic of mystical power.. a.. he failed to think of something else of fantastical importance, so instead settled for quickly taking apart the rock mound.

At the bottom he found a black box. Feeling rather disappointed, he picked it up, examining it shortly. Aside from the lock and seal it was unremarkable at best, he had been hoping that it would look more… interesting. He checked it again then opened his own transmission line: "Cargo retrieved at target coordinates, the seal hasn't been broken and everything is intact. This was just too eas…" A low sound coming from behind him caused him to whip around clutching the box tightly to his chest. First he only saw pieces of black and singed shrubbery with a glint of a dull metal surface below them but another growl caused him to cast his gaze upwards. Four beady, yellow optics were fixed on him, as two large heads were staring down, baring rusty but incredibly huge fangs with a dual snarl.

The mech literally froze with fear, his processors halted and his limbs no longer receiving logical orders. He neither thought to assume an offensive stance and deploy his disruption blaster or to activate his defense mode and fan out his arm-shields.

That short astrosecond of shock cost him as instantly the beast's long tail swung around, slamming into his back.

The force sent him flying forward, and then crashing into a nearby tree. He stumbled to his feet, his joints malfunctioning slightly as pain fogged his thought processes. It took him a few moments to realize he'd dropped the box at the monster's feet. Hesitating slightly, he considered his best course of action and was about to move towards the beast to snatch the cargo back but the strong jaws of one of the heads quickly seized the metal box, tossing it up in the air and then caught it again, crunching the container between its teeth. All the while the other head continued staring down at him, now with an almost smug expression as if daring him to try something. Deciding this was a lost cause, the mech turned on his heels and hightailed back to his ship. "This isn't what I signed up for!" he exclaimed to no one in particular, his voice crackling with static, as he slammed the hatch closed and hit the emergency launch button. "And how am I supposed to explain this back at the headquarters?"

oOo

Back on the planet, the beast dropped the crushed box into its cave, bright blue glowing liquid started to leak from the cracks of the container and pooled on the rocky ground, where they were greedily lapped up by both heads.

:It's been so long.:

:Yes, so long since we had highgrade.:

Finishing its snack the beast happily rolled up for recharge, there had been a chase, all intruders were gone now, it had lost lots of that annoyingly itching green stuff that had been creeping under its plating since like forever and now some high energy fuel warmed its tanks from within. Maybe this day hadn't been a total loss after all.