Transformers: Sins of future's past
by JupiterJones aka J.A. Franks
Disclaimer: All things Transformers belong to Hasbro and Takara-Tomy. I own nothing but the plot and Ocs.
Setting: G1/beastwars/beast machines continuity, except where it isn't. Divergent time-line, AU.
Chapter 1:
Patchwork awoke from her stasis nap with a start, her engines revving loudly as a klaxon sounded from one of the patched together control panels. She scowled as she got up to silence what was undoubtedly a meaningless glitch. Unfortunately, it was far from meaningless. There were anomalies in the transwarp drives. Drives two and five were running above their rated temperatures and one and three had dropped output by thirty percent. "That's what you get from scavenging parts from old Maximal cruisers." She grumbled as she tapped in corrections and dispatched a few of her drones to repair the problem. The error cost the mission though. Instead of dropping out of transwarp in Earth orbit, the ship would pop out just behind the orbit of Mars. Which meant that the rest of the trip will be on main engine power.. and the ship would lose the element of surprise.
Not that it mattered much, she realized. The ship's armor was tough enough to withstand blaster fire from all but the most advanced Predicon cruiser. And what defenses did earth even have at the target date? "she racked her processor as she discounted the human weapons immediately. The only Cybertronians that could pose a threat in space at her current entry point were Astrotrain and Skyfire.
She considered the possibility that they could find a way on board. Astrotrain, she could deal with easily, by proclaiming to be there on behalf of Megatron. Skyfire, on the other hand.. she would have to fight, and her tiny Vehicon body was under equipped to combat the more powerful mech. However, she did have more than plenty of time on her servos. Not to mention plenty of spare parts. An idea formed in her processor as she commanded her Vehicon drones to gather.
Blaster was monitoring the consoles diligently, trying his best to ignore the twins bickering in the background.. while attempting to decode the latest Decepticon transmission. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were about to come to blows when the alarms started to blare, causing Blaster to topple out of his chair in surprise.
"What in Primus' name is going on in here?" demanded Prowl as he stepped into the monitor room.
Sunny quickly ran to the console while his twin picked blaster up off the ground. "Ow.. my precious audios." Blaster grumbled.
"Beats me prowl. Teletraan-1 just detected a massive energy surge just beyond the orbit of Mars." Sunstreaker frowned as he tried to get an image on the screens.
The floor shook as a number of Autobots, Prime included, rushed to the monitor room to see what was going on, just in time for a fuzzy image of a large object was pulled into view. "What on Earth is that?" Spike exclaimed as he skidded into the room.
"It looks kinda like a ship, though.. not any configuration I've seen!" Jazz spoke as he hurried to help clear up the image.
"Where is it headed?" Optimus Prime asked calmly, his optics narrowed as his processor couldn't recall any craft matching that design either.
Having finally recovered, Blaster ran some quick calculations. "Its lookin' like it headed for Earth! I'm going to try contacting it and see if ti responds.. its pretty far out so it might take a while."
Optimus nodded. "How long till it reaches earth?" he asked.
"About two weeks, given the speed at which its moving. Its moving as fast as blur did when we gave him high grade." Sideswipe grinned briefly. "It doesn't seem to be slowing down any though, you would think they would be firing the retrorockets at this point... unless its got some crazy sort of drive system to slow it down from that speed."
"Keep me posted. Blaster, try every form of communication you can. Skyfire? If this thing gets much closer we're going to need you to try and scout it out. Everyone else, remain on alert until otherwise commanded." Optimus ordered.
"And if you two glitch heads pull any pranks while we're on alert, I'm doubling the punishment." Prowl snarled at the twins.
"Aww.. you're killing us Prowl!" the twins complained in unison.
"Not fast enough!" Prowl retorted as the other Autobots, and humans left the room.
Meanwhile, at the Decepticon base, Megatron was receiving a report from Shockwave when the transmission guttered out. "Soundwave, report! What happened to the transmission?"
"Interference: Energy disruption detected. Re-connection: in progress." Sound wave replied as he quickly tried to restore communications with Cybertron.
"Never mind that, I can get the report later. Tell me, what is the source of the disruption?" Megatron demanded.
The other Decepticons murmured amongst themselves breifly before Soundwave spoke. "Source: Located. Large vessel detected. Configuration: Unknown. Allegiance: Unknown. Destination: Earth. ETA: Approximately two Earth weeks. Question: Attempt communication?" Soundwave glanced back to his monitor. "Autobots: Already attempting. Response: Pending."
Megatron frowned. "Attempt communication and monitor Autobot attempts. Jam theirs if necessary. And see if you can't restore communication with Cybertron. Hook, assist Soundwave with restoring communication with Cybertron. Starscream." Megatron glowered at the oddly silent seeker. "You're too quiet. What's keeping your processor so worked up that your vocalizer isn't working?"
Starscream was indeed quieter than normal, and Megatron wasn't far from the mark as to why. The former scientist could only think of a few things that could disrupt subspace communication. "I was thinking... anything that can disrupt our communications is either putting out an enormous amount of energy, or is disrupting space and time on a large scale. Either way, its power source must be incredible! If we were to intercept that vessel and take its power source.. think of all the energon we could make!"
Megatron rubbed his chin as he mulled it over. " I see what you mean, Starscream. Dispatch Astrotrain to scout and intercept when the vessel is within range. No doubt that traitor Skyfire will be doing much the same."
"As you wish, Megatron." Starscream stood and quickly left the room. Of course, he had his own plans on what to do with the energy.