Howdy do!
So here we get to find out a little about what Driveshaft's deal is. I introduce another character who is a total aft just because he. Got to love those kind of characters. Oh, just to clarify. When I talk about 'Royals' I don't necessarily mean royalty. I just mean anybody higher up on the food chain from Chrome and the miners. This is very much a caste? system where there are very district levels of actually royalty (Sentinel Prime) high class (Driveshaft and my soon to be introduced mech) middle class (approximately where Ratchet and Focus are. Nova and Quicklight are a but higher up) and the poor. And then the miners at the bottom of the food chain.
KeepingThemAtBay: Thanks for the suggestion. I googled it and actually came up with some handy ideas. We'll have to see where it goes. *shurgs* I know just a little more then you reader do but not by much.
Komanah24: If Megatronus was human (Primus forbid), he would be the annoying guy in the back of class wearing all black, a skull on his shirt with really big earphone on and completely ignoring the teacher. Total completely rebel. (No offence to anyone who is like that.) Like I (think) said in the chapter before. This is pre-war FF so not everyone is a mean war torn jerk. But evil does start out little. Yes Driveshaft does have a reason for being like that.
Stormin' Hudson: Good to hear from you again :D Yeah, Chrome is a lot like that. In truth, he's had a hard life and Ratchet is kinda softening him up a little. Chrome is nothing but a big softy at spark.
There is a time jump but not an overly huge one. I just need to keep the story moving. Again, because I have no idea how the hole time/age thing works, I'm going with earth style. (7 orns in a cycle, 4 cycles in a groon, 12 groons in a metacycle ect ect. )
Nanoklick-second
Klick-minute
Joor-hour
Orn-day
Cycle-week
Groon-month
Metacycle-year
Ratchet slowly sank into the chair Chrome slid over to him. His optics were unfocused as his processor completely stalled out. Chrome gently rested his servo on the stunned apprentice. He knew exactly what Ratchet was going though. He had known the painful feeling far too often. But Ratchet didn't even acknowledge the comforting gesture. There had been a mining accident and three mechs had been seriously injured. All three had offlined, including Ratchet's patient. Graphite had saved his life when he first went up to the mines almost an entire groon and a half ago. Ratchet had patched him up when he had gotten the shrapnel in his side. After he was fit for work again he had been transferred to a different mine. But then the call came it.
"How could he offline? What did I do wrong?" Ratchet breathed, staring at the energon still coating his servos. He had tried. He had tried everything.
"You did all you could. Sometimes it just isn't enough." Chrome said, knowing exactly what it felt like.
"But…I…He…" Ratchet couldn't even finish, he was still in shock. Chrome vented softly.
"Your first lost?" Chrome asked. Ratchet didn't answer, but continued to stare unfocused at his servos. Chrome took that as a yes.
"I'd say that it happens. That you need to learn to get over it fast so that you can focus on those still online." Chrome said. "But at the same time…you can't get used to it. If you do… you lose a part of yourself. The part that wants to save lives and the reason to be a medic."
"I know but…" Ratchet whispered, clenching his servos tight. The dried energon started to flake off. "What if I could have done more? What if-?"
"You did all you could Ratchet." Chrome interrupted gently.
"Do they all feel like this?" Ratchet asked.
"Yes. Every death feels personal. It never gets easier." Chrome explained. "You just have to learn to keep going."
Ratchet nodded, clenching and unclenching his servos.
"Take the rest of the orn off. You need it." Chrome said, gently pulling Ratchet to his peds.
"Kay." Ratchet said quietly as he started toward the door. Chrome watched his as he left before opening a private comm.
"Dusty, are you on your off shift?" He asked.
"Yeah, why? I was just headed into Iacon for a drink with the rest of the gang." Dusty replied.
"That mining accident at D-4? We lost them. Ratchet was in charge of Graphite." Chrome explained.
"Primus, he was one of mine. He was a good miner, what happened?" Dusty asked.
"One of the main support beans in an energon cavern collapsed and dropped a beam on Graphite, Shader and Sawblade. Sawblade was killed instantly but Shader and Graphite were pulled out alive. But we couldn't save them." Chrome answered. He didn't know the others personally but he and Graphite had been good friends. All of Dusty's gang were his friends.
"He's taking it hard?" Dusty asked.
"It's his first lost. Can you make sure he gets home in one piece? I need to stay here and wait for Copper."
"Fraggin glitch is coming? Oie. That's rough. But yeah. Yeah, no problem. The least I can do is make sure the kid gets home."
"Thanks, Dusty. It means a lot." Chrome said before he cut the link and watching as Ratchet drove away.
"You sure you're going to be alright?" Dusty asked as he and Ratchet rode the lift to Ratchet's apartment.
"Yeah. I'll be ok." Ratchet said with a forced grin.
"You sure?" Dusty asked, still suspicious as the lift doors slid open.
"Yes Dusty, I'm-" Ratchet started to say before he came faceplate to faceplate with Nova. "-Nova. What are you doing here?" Ratchet asked.
"I wanted to talk to you. You weren't home though so I was just leaving." Nova replied, also surprised to see Ratchet.
"A friend?" Dusty asked, eyeing the very pretty silver and pink femme. Ratchet elbowed the mech, glaring at him.
"Yes. She's a very good friend of mine and a medical apprentice." Ratchet said, frosting the miner with a look. He turned back to Nova. "Nova, this is Dusty. He's the miner I told you about."
Nova grinned, crossing her arms over her chassis, also looking the mech over.
"So you're the one he put back together." She said. Dusty nodded, straitening slightly under her inspection.
"Yes miss. I owe him my life." Dusty said.
"Please. It's just Nova. I don't like sounding that formal."
Ratchet didn't miss the way that Nova looked at Dusty and grinned.
"She wants to give you a quick scan so she can see the repairs herself. Nova's just too polite to ask." Ratchet told Dusty over a private comm. The miner snorted out loud.
"If you want to do a scan to see for yourself what the kid did, then feel free." Dusty said with a smirk at Nova's confusion.
"Really? I mean…you don't mind?" Nova asked, her normally eagerness back in place.
"I'm not shy." He said with a smirk, straightening again as Nova raised her arm, the pale blue scanner activating in her bracer. She circled him once and poked him a couple times before her curiosity was satisfied.
"He replaced you're entire right side. Your faceplates, optic, entire arm and shoulder joint. Half your chassis…pelvic joint…leg…everything. That's pretty impressive." Nova said, optics wide in shock. Dusty shrugged.
"When you do the work I do you get used to the risks." Dusty said, turning back to Ratchet.
"I didn't do all of it. Chrome did most of it." Ratchet said, glancing over at Dusty.
"I have to get back to the mine. Are you positive you'll be ok?" Dusty asked again. Ratchet sighed, the pain of losing a patient still aching at his spark.
"I told you…I'll be ok." He said, sounding less then convinced at his own words. Nova glanced between the two mechs, concern in her green optics.
"What? What happened?" She asked. In a nano-klick her optics had hardened. "Ratchet, I told you to be careful! You promised!" She growled, jabbing a digit at his chassis. Dusty took a step back.
"No, it was nothing like that. The injured were already out by the time Chrome and Ratchet showed up." Dusty said, his attitude taking on a more somber manner.
"Then what happened…oh. Oh Primus, you lost one." Nova said quietly, her gaze softening again. Ratchet nodded sharply.
"All three of them didn't make it." Dusty relied.
"You're first?" Nova asked.
"Yes. A support beam had fallen. It landed on the three mechs and crushed them. Two were still online when they were dragged out. Chrome took one while I took the other but… His chassis had been crushed and I wasn't-" His vocal processor chocked out with a quiet hiss of static.
"And you brought him home?" Nova asked, turning back to Dusty.
"Yes. Chrome told me to make sure he made it safely." The miner said, glancing over at the yellow mech beside him.
"Well I'm not on shift this orn. I can keep an optic on him." Nova said.
"That's all we need. Ratchet's one of us and a loss hurts everyone." Dusty said before he turned back to the lift.
"Oh Dusty?" Nova called after him as the door slid open.
"Yes?" Dusty asked.
"Thank Chrome for me will ya? It means a lot that he made sure Ratchet made it home safe." Nova said, giving the dusty red mech a gently smile. The miner returned it before entering the lift and the door slid shut.
"Let's go. You're not going back to your apartment." Nova said, placing a servo on Ratchet's arm.
"And why not?" He asked with a sigh, glancing down at Nova.
"Because you need to get your mind off of it." She said simply. "I haven't lost a patient yet, I'm thankful for that but I know you need something to do."
"Not now Nova." Ratchet said, trying again to walk past her.
"Too bad. You and I going to go to a café, I will buy you a flavored energon and we will talk about what stupid things Focus will do to try and get his mentor's attention." Nova said, her grip tightening as she pulled Ratchet back toward the lifts. Knowing it was useless to argue, even though he was a fair bit bigger than her, Ratchet followed her back down to street level and followed her into Iacon. Nova took the lead and drove to a small dinner off of the main highway. The two apprentices transformed and walked in, Ratchet following Nova to a quiet corner booth. A petite femme took their orders and they were quiet as they took their first few sips.
"I got it!" Nova said, slamming her cube down and pointing a digit at Ratchet. He froze, his cube hallway to his mouth.
"What?" He asked, slightly concerned.
"Focus. My guess is that he's going to cut his own servo off just so that she will put the temp plating on." She said.
Ratchet snorted, setting his cube back down with a smirk.
"I don't think he'll be that desperate." He said. But at the look Nova gave him he grimaced. "But I have been wrong before."
"Are you kidding me? Don't you remember what he did for what's-her-faceplate? Ah…" Nova snapped her digits a couple times, staring off into space.
"Galaxy?" Ratchet supplied.
"Yes! That 's her!" Nova said, her optics snapping back to Ratchet. "He nearly got himself expelled."
"Right. Now I remember." Ratchet said with a chuckle. "He was chasing femmes before we met and he's still chasing them now. I'm surprised that he doesn't flirt with you."
Nova snorted.
"That's a joke! Quicklight threatened to beat the slag out of him if he tried to hit on me." Nova said with a grin.
Ratchet lost track of how long they had been talking. Nova was right. It was a good thing to get out of the apartment for a while and let his friend distract him from the loss of a friend and patient.
"And now we've got mentors. I mean, if someone had told me when I was youngling that I would have grown up to become a medic in Iacon? I would have laughed at them." Nova said.
"In few short cycles we've come so far." Ratchet said with a grin.
"We have. I mean, I'm learning so much. The Academy was wonderful, best metacycles of my life, but working with Driveshaft? It's just so much more." Nova replied.
"Same with Chrome. Did Focus tell you I met the Prime?" Ratchet asked. At the wide optic look that Nova gave him he took that as a no. "The youngest, Orion Pax, was in need of a frame upgrade. Apparently he won't let anyone but Chrome touch him. That was…intense." Ratchet said, shaking his helm.
"The Prime? As in Sentinel Prime, ruler of Iacon?!" Nova hissed, remembering to keep her voice down in the café.
"Yes. Talk about pressure. Wow. If I never have to have him watching me again that will be too soon." Ratchet replied with a smirk. "I never would have expected to work on the Prime's son this soon out of the Academy. Obviously I can't tell you the details, but that was intense. Chrome's entre teaching style is intense."
"What do you mean?" Nova asked, her half-finished energon forgotten.
"Chrome is very much hands on. Well you saw what Dusty looks like. He made me take the lead on repairing his side and that was what? Two days out of the Academy? We weren't even aloud to touch a laser scalpel until we had memorised the entire fragggin textbook. And even then!" Ratchet said.
"Yeah and you had no problems with that. You were always Jackknife's favorite." Nova said with a quiet laugh.
"Yeah. Until Focus and I messed up his filing system. I though he was going to dismantle Focus." Ratchet added.
"Jackknife wasn't the only professor that wanted to do that. I can think of at least four other professors that wanted to dismantle Focus or Quicklight." Nova continued.
"But most wanted to dismantle them both." Ratchet said with a smirk. "I miss those orns. Goofing around the halls, annoying the professors. Saving the two class idiots from Jackknife."
"They've changed a lot since then." Nova said, also remembering the orns at the Academy. Ratchet snorted.
"Focus sure as Pit hasn't changed. You know I almost had to go and bail him out of the stockades? Again?"
"Ok ok. You got a point." Nova said with a smirk. "Quickligth has changed since then." Nova said, suddenly very sober. "He's changing a lot." She added with a sigh, staring down at her energon cube.
"That can be good thing. He, we all, are growing up. Even you have to admit that I've changed since I started working for Chrome." Ratchet said, watching his friend closely.
"Yeah. I guess you have changed for the better." She said with a smirk. But then she got serious again.
"But not Quicklight. He's getting… I don't know. More serious. He doesn't want to have fun anymore and he is spending far too much time with Driveshaft."
"Is that a bad thing? He wants to learn. He always has. He was just as good as I was at the Medical Academy." Ratchet replied.
"It's more than that. It's no secret that Driveshaft hates the miners. He keeps mentioning it at the hospital. And what worries me is that Quicklight is starting to listen to him."
"What?"
"He did defend the miners…for a while anyways. But now he just keeps quiet." Nova continued, shaking her helm sadly. "I don't know."
"What about you?" Ratchet asked, aware of the serious topic.
"I'm fine. I don't let Driveshaft's words affect me." She said with a sigh. "Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions."
"What conclusions?"
"He mentioned Chrome the other orn. But he said the designation with so much hatred…I think you were right when you said there was something going on between the two." Nova said, dropping her volume a little and leaning in closer to Ratchet. "Driveshaft asked Quicklight if there was any chance of getting you to change your mind about Chrome as your mentor."
"And what did he say?" Ratchet asked.
"Course he said there was no chance. He knows you're stubborn." Nova said, giving Ratchet a 'duh!' look. "But then he mention Drillbit."
"Who did?"
"Quicklight. He said that he was the reason you became a medic. Driveshaft… he seemed spooked. But Quicklight dropped it and Driveshaft didn't bring it up again. But a few orns later, I had to go back because I forgot some of my tools there. And Driveshaft was cursing Chrome. Saying that he would pay for what he did to Alloy." Nova said quietly.
"Well who's Alloy?" Ratchet asked.
"This is where things get weird. Alloy was Driveshaft's mentor. He was murdered."
"What?!" Ratchet hissed. "Is he accusing Chrome of murder?! But that's impossible! Chrome's a medic! His programming wouldn't allow him to harm another!"
"That's what I though! But at the same time, Driveshaft was completely wired. And I did a little digging. You know," Nova shrugged innocently, "because I can. Alloy was killed by a miner. They found the murder weapon, but never the miner that did it."
"And they know it was miner?" Ratchet asked.
"I couldn't find anything else. The few mechs I talked too didn't know or wouldn't tell me." Nova said, relaxing against the back of her bench.
"So it wasn't Chrome." Ratchet stated.
"Couldn't be. Like you said, Chrome's a medic, even if everyone hates to admit it. And he couldn't hurt anyone let alone terminate someone." Nova said.
"If it's true, that explains why Drivesahft hates the miners." Ratchet said with a shrug. "I guess he just takes it out on Chrome because he cares about them and he's a friend of them. That's probably why he doesn't like me. Because I'm Chrome's apprentice."
"Wait a klick, if he's friends with the miners, he might know who killed Alloy. If it was a miner that did it." Nova said quietly, leaning in again.
"Could that be how Drillbit is involved?" Ratchet asked. "Like I said, Chrome flipped when I asked him if he knew Drillbit."
"Maybe. But it's obvious that someone isn't telling the whole truth." Nova said with a sigh. "This suddenly got very complicated and confusing."
"But the mech that I saw said that Drillbit was dying." Ratchet said. "What color was Alloy?"
"Orange and black. Why?"
"Because the medic I saw throw the miner out was orange and black. That could have been Alloy."
"But you said that the miner was refused help." Nova said.
"He was. The medic threw him out. That was when he said that Drillbit was dying. The medic still refused to help him and he left. Drillbit couldn't have killed Alloy. Could he have?"
"If that miner didnt get help for Drillbit, that miner might have gone for revenge. Maybe that's what's going on. The miner killed Alloy because he refused to help his friend Drillbit." Nova suggested.
"And…I think… I think I saw a blue mech by the window of the hospital. That might have been Driveshaft." Ratchet said quietly.
"So he saw his mentor throw the miner out?" Nova stated.
"If that really was Driveshaft." Ratchet interrupted.
"So that's how he knows Drillbit." Nova said.
"I don't know. Like you said, things just got complicated." Ratchet said with a shrug.
"So Driveshaft hates Chrome because Chrome knows the miner that terminated Driveshaft's mentor and won't betray one of his friends." Nova summed up.
"That's a lot of ifs but it's possible. It explains why Driveshaft hates Chrome and Chrome claimed to not know Drillbit." Ratchet confirmed.
"Something is going on around here and I don't like it." Nova said, her armor flaring slightly.
"And I don't dare ask Chrome about this. That mech has one Pit of a grip." Ratchet said, remembering far too clearly how Chrome had thrown him up against the wall.
"Just…be careful. And I don't mean the mines. Focus said that he was dangerous and you confirmed that when you said that Chrome threw you against a wall." Nova said, her armor starting to flatten back out.
"You too. I think both our mentors are involved with something. I just don't know what." Ratchet said, his optics taking on a haunted look.
xxXXxx
Chrome was just finishing up the medical reports when he sensed the hated ID signature. He couldn't stop the growl that escaped his engine at the mech's horrible timing. He stood and went to his office door, watching as the brown and gold colored mech walked in, his faceplates in a permanent smirk.
"You got a lot of nerve showing up right now Copper." Chrome growled at the mining formech.
"I come when I come." The mech said, his high class accent thick in his tone. "The reports done?"
"Course they're done. In fact I just finished filling out the last three." Chrome spat.
"Tut tut Chrome. You normally have all the reports done already." The mech said, that sinister smirk still in place.
"We got three more casualties this morning. They didn't make it." Chrome said, the loss hurting him too.
"Well at least there is still some good to that." Copper said, slowly scanning the medbay and making sure not to look at a furious Chrome.
"What are you talking about? I would gladly go out of business if it meant the miners weren't getting hurt or killed in those mines." Chrome said turning his back on the mech and stalking into his office.
"Well, three less miners to put up with." Copper said casually. Chrome nearly went back out and clocked the mech. But this mech was dangerous. Frag Copper off and he could make the miner's lives even more dangerous than they already are. For the moment he settled with images of ripping the formech's helm off.
"Still working this slagging excuse for a medbay, huh." Copper asked from outside. Chrome bit back a snarl, instead, choosing to grip the edge of his desk hard enough for the metal to warp. He vented hard, then stood, grabbing the reports and walking out to face the hated mech.
"I do my job. Maybe you should start doing yours." Chrome snarled, slapping the datapads into the mech's servo harder than need be. "Like making the mines safer. They need better equipment and you know it!"
Copper took the datapads, scanning thought the first few.
"I'm a busy mech. What can I say?" He said.
"They need that equipment Copper! Graphite and the others would still be online if that beam hadn't cracked under the weight!" Chrome snarled.
"And that's my fault-?"
"Yes! Because over half of their equipment it faulty! Or in this case not even designed to hold that amount of weight!" Chrome yelled.
"So now you're a miner again? I didn't think you were done playing medic." Copper asked, smirking at Chrome.
"They need me more here than in the ground! And if you would just do your job and get them the fragging equipment I could go back to the fragging mines!" Chrome snarled.
"I heard you got an apprentice." Copper said calmly, completely changing the subject. It caught Chrome off guard.
"What's it to you." He snarled, his engine growling dangerously as he faced the mech. If that mech said one thing wrong he would-
"What did you have to do to get him? Bribe someone? Or maybe you threatened someone?" Copper asked, still scanning the reports.
Mentally, Chrome was slowly dismantling the mech piece by piece. In reality he was glaring daggers at the mech.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Now if you have everything you need get your fragging aft of out my medbay." Chrome ordered dangerously. Copper ignored him.
"So does this apprentice of yours know about you?" He asked, knowing he was treading a very thing line.
"I said it's none of your concern. Now get the Pit out!" Chrome demanded, pointing to the sliding doors. Knowing that Chrome's short amount of patience was running dangerously low, the mining formech turned his back on Chrome and walked away.
"You know that that apprentice is going to find out. What you did? Everyone knows you did it and it's only a matter of time until it catches up to you." Copper said over his shoulder guard as he walked out. Chrome's vents stalled at the remark. The fragger had a point. By no. Ratchet was too far into this. The royals that know won't speak to him and the miners are already sworn to secrecy. Sterling made sure of that. No. For now, his past was safe.
Yes a little shorter then last chapter but it needed to end here. FYI, that last part with Chrome is happening at the same time as Ratchet's and Nova's chat.
I really really really hope I didn't give to overly much away. There will be a chapter on why Ratchet became a medic, that is important, and what the heck is with Chrome's past.
Copper is an aft because I can make him one and he's fun to write. Think of him as the really annoying stereotypical pain in the aft boss from the movies that holds your very job and or life in the balance. Feel free to send me hate mail about him.
please let me know if I'm speeding up to much again, but I didn't know what to use for a groon and a half of filler. Depending on reviews might change when I post next because if you think I am going a little to fast then I will need to figure out another whole chapter or two to write before I post a good part.
Oh yeah! Should I keep this as one big story or break it up? I don't know, what do you guys want?
See you all next time!
2211Nighthawk.
