Tangled Destiny

Ch. 10- Leaving Cybertron

The next orn, they still hadn't heard anything from Megatron. Their Leader was constantly tied up in top secret meetings, and Thundercracker wisely hadn't dared bring up the topic again. Skyfire went about his daily shifts normally, but his spark was constantly tangled up with worry. Time was ticking away from them. The Autobots would be making their move soon, and after that it wouldn't matter whether their Leader changed his mind on his usefulness or not. He'd be trapped on Cybertron either way.

Thundercracker had told him what he knew about the upcoming plan less than a megacycle after their ill-fated conversation in the Throne Room. Megatron was sure that the Autobots were planning on sending their main flagship, the Ark, away from Cybertron in search of planets with harvestable energy to bring back to the war. They'd had confirmation that the Prime himself would be leading the expedition, and he would almost certainly be taking a large portion of the Autobot High Command as well.

Needless to say, Megatron couldn't allow the mission to succeed. If the Autobots actually managed to set up a steady supply line to his troops, then it could win them the war. They would have the energon to fully fuel their troops, and Skyfire shuddered to think of just how much of a difference that would make on the battlefield.

Megatron was equipping the Decepticon flagship, the Nemesis, so the ship could pursue the Ark away from Cybertron. Almost all the High Command was chosen to leave with him, and several Elite soldiers had been handpicked to accompany them, leaving just enough of the upper ranks to keep their end of the war running in the absence of both sets of leaders. With the recent, continual lack of resources and fighters, the war had already fallen nearly to a standstill, and it would almost certainly stay that way in their absence.

When Skyfire onlined a full two orns after the confrontation, he found a new, highly encrypted file waiting for him in his communications inbox. He opened the message slowly, frame tense and processer whirling in anxious anticipation. The message was only a few lines long, but its impact belied its length.

Skyfire read through the message a second time, then a third. The words imprinted themselves on his processer easily enough, but the meaning just couldn't seem to make sense. He'd just started his fourth time through when Skywarp came bounding through the dividing door between their quarters, only to pause in the doorway at the sight of the Shuttle staring blankly into space. Skyfire spared the processer space to give the Seeker a short glance before focusing back on the message, which only seemed to make the Seeker more curious.

Cocking his head, Skywarp stepped closer until he was right beside the Shuttle. "Skyfire? What is it?"

"He changed his mind…" Skyfire whispered.

Looking at him oddly, Skywarp plopped down on the berth in front of him and poked the armor on his chest inquisitively. "Who?"

"Megatron," Skyfire said, looking up to meet red optics beginning to widen in dawning realization. "He's actually changed his mind."

He transmitted the file to Skywarp. It was the official order for him to leave his normal duties and join the Nemesis expedition. Short, crisp, and completely unbelievable. Skywarp literally froze as he received the copy, and not even his optics or wingtips moved. Then his optics flickered as he sent a transmission of his own. Skyfire guessed it was a message to Thundercracker, and his prediction was confirmed when the doors swirled open again and Thundercracker came half-running inside.

"You're coming with us? Megatron actually…" he trailed off. Thundercracker started to smile, then laughed almost hesitantly, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "It worked. I can't believe it slagging worked."

Skyfire impulsively reached over and pulled Thundercracker down beside him and Skywarp, close enough to feel the warmth of the other two frames. He wasn't going to lose this. No matter what came next, he wasn't going to end up alone again.

…

As he continued with his normal routines over the next few orns, Skyfire felt lighter, almost relaxed for the first time in far too long. The tense expectant atmosphere of the building hadn't lessened at all, but he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders nonetheless. Whatever happened, wherever they went, he was still going to stay with his Seekers.

Half a megacycle into his latest med-bay shift, the tension finally broke. Alarm bells began to ring, and the air around him immediately came alive with transmissions and com conversations at the sound. They were a mix of base-wide announcements and short ranged queries, all of different encryption levels. Two of the unencrypted, wide-ranged transmissions played over each other in his communications array, but he could understand enough. The Autobots were attacking a nearby encampment en mass, and they had been radioed for reinforcements. The medics immediately began moving to their stations, arranging tools and organizing materials in preparation for the coming injuries.

Less than half a breem after the alarms first began to sound, Medical Commander Hook closed up his tools and, with a curt order for all of them to continue working, left the med-bay. Everyone paused to watch the med-bay doors close behind him, and the transmissions scattering across the base gained a new complexity as almost the entire med-bay began speculating about what could possibly cause Hook to abandon his med-bay during battle preparations.

Skyfire kept staring at the place he'd last seen Commander Hook even after the closed doors cut him off from sight. He could only think of one thing that would draw that mech away from the med-bay. He hesitated, caught between following Commander Hook out and waiting for orders confirming it was time for the Nemesis expedition to assemble.

One of the transmissions that reached his comms was tagged with Thundercracker's personal identification number, and Skyfire immediately cut out the interference from all the other messages to listen to it.

:: Skyfire, get to the loading bay now! The Autobots are making their move::

That was all he needed. Skyfire immediately sub-spaced the tools he'd been holding and made his way out of the room, ignoring the questions it prompted from the remaining medics. A set of coordinates had been attached to the transmission, and a moment's thought connected the location with one of the loading bays along the northern edge of the headquarters.

:: I'm on my way. :: he sent back. The channel clicked closed almost immediately as Thundercracker's full focus returned to back to whatever he needed to do—probably coordinating the flyers from afar so his physical absence wasn't as noticeable.

Skyfire all but ran down the hallways, dodging grounders and airframes alike as the entire Base mobilized for battle and as, unbeknownst to the rest of the army, the selected crew of the Nemesis gathered in the loading bay. Ever since he'd been accepted into the crew of the Nemesis, he'd carried everything he needed to bring with him in his subspace. Now, he was thankful for it. By the sound of Thundercracker's voice, he wouldn't have had time to stop by his quarters, and the Nemesis sure as the Pit wouldn't wait for him.

The loading bay was a mess of activity when Skyfire arrived, and in the middle of it all stood the Nemesis. It was the first time Skyfire had actually seen the marvel of engineering that was the newest Decepticon warship. Heavily modified for war, the ship's armor was almost unthinkably thick, and he could pick out the heavily reinforced seams where powerfully modified weapons were hidden. Its lines were sleek and smooth, speaking of both speed and strength.

Thundercracker was standing with Skywarp and Lunarflash in the center of the loading bay, alternating between barking orders at the mecha swarming around him and concentrating on a fast paced, highly-encrypted com channel. Technicians were crawling around the ship as they readied it for takeoff, and many of the mecha were already making their way inside. Skyfire eyed the ship's entrance thoughtfully before deciding to join the small group of Seekers instead.

Skywarp caught sight of him when he was about halfway there and waved him over with a strained smile before turning back to watching his trinemate fretfully. As he grew closer, Skyfire found Thundercrackers optics and, though the blue Seeker didn't have the time to acknowledge him, the Seeker's stress-tight plating loosened slightly at the sight of him.

All at once, a wave of tension seemed to swell over the entire room, leaving mecha cursing and scrambling around hastily. Thundercracker twisted toward the ship, swearing vividly. He immediately marched quickly towards the ship, the other two Seekers trailing after him like contrails off the wings of a jet. Skywarp snagged Skyfire's arm as he moved past him, dragging him along as well.

"The Ark just launched," he explained under his breath.

Skyfire nodded and sped up so he was in step with the Seeker. "How long until we follow?"

Skywarp shrugged. "A breem. Less if everyone important gets on sooner."

He looked up at the rapidly filling ship. Slag. A breem was barely any time at all. Thankfully, it seemed like most of the equipment and supplies had already been loaded in preparation, so it was only the remaining mecha that needed to enter. As they entered the wide loading hatch, Thundercracker was carried off to the Command Deck with Lunarflash and the other Officers, and Skywarp and Skyfire drifted along towards the back of the ship with the rest of the lower ranks. A crowd had gathered along the small rec room and surrounding hallways as mecha filed into the ship. Nobody knew what they were meant to do or where their quarters were, so they just packed tighter together and waited for orders to come.

The ships engines rumbled to life with a loud, low note that vibrated the floor beneath them. The mecha surrounding them immediately hunkered down as much as they could with the limited space, tucking their armored plating close to their frame and bracing themselves on whatever they could reach. As more power was routed to the engines, Skyfire found out why. The Nemesis wasn't equipped with interstellar-quality shock absorption, and the inertia from the initial blast of energy was enough to send almost the entire group tumbling to the floor. Skyfire staggered under the weight of it, and he felt Skywarp stumble against the side of his frame.

As the acceleration equalized, their frames were able to steady themselves again, and they cautiously began to relax from their braced stances. The first violent shudder as the Nemesis reached the first layer of Cybertron's atmosphere sent them back to their defensive positions soon enough. From their vantage point, they had no way of looking out of the ship, but Skyfire still had the memory files of Cybertron disappearing behind him from when he'd still been an explorer. He could feel Skywarp shifting anxiously beside him, so he transmitted the Seeker a copy of the memory.

The ship gave one last, intense quake underneath them as they left the pull of Cybertron's gravitational field. It felt strange to be weathering the sensation inside of a ship instead of from his alt mode, but he would get used to it. It wasn't the first time he'd flown inside a normal ship, just the first time he'd left Cybertron in one. Artificial gravity kicked in with a jerk—another first for the shuttle. He'd never bothered with it when it was just him and Starscream.

The flight continued smoothly after that, though the rest of the mecha kept up tensely muttered conversations and movements. Every so often the ship would jerk under them as it turned or sped up after the Autobots, but nothing happened that was strong enough to hint that they were close enough for a fight. After a moment, Skyfire offlined his optics and immersed himself in the old memories.

…

Life on the Nemesis was… tedious.

The Nemesis drifted through space as they followed the Autobots trail. They'd been quick enough that they were in no danger of losing track of the Ark's signature on their scanners, but the Autobots had gotten enough of a head start that it would be orns before the Nemesis's stronger engines were enough to overcome the distance. Meanwhile, aside from the navigator and other assorted technicians, there was nothing for the rest of them to do besides wait.

With Megatron and the rest of the Command Staff so close, none of the frontliners dared risk a brawl to relieve a tension, which meant Skyfire didn't even have any repairs to occupy his time with. Aside from Hook, he was the only other certified medic on the ship, and finding out he'd be working directly under the perfectionist had been a rather unpleasant surprise. The rest of the ship was all but boiling over with repressed tension, so Skyfire spent most of his free time in his quarters.

Unlike their last quarters, his room wasn't attached to Skywarp and Thundercracker's this time. It was a far smaller room—grunts quarters, with a berth barely big enough for him—but Skyfire didn't mind the inconvenience. He was just grateful to be on the ship instead of trapped back on Cybertron. Besides, he preferred to spend his off-shift with the Seekers in their far larger quarters anyway.

With his new free time, he started tinkering with old, half-forgotten experiments again. He didn't have any of the precise equipment or materials he'd once used, but there was enough old tools and material in his subspace for him to figure something out. He'd forgotten how good working on a project that didn't involve battle damage or tangled Decepticon politics could feel. It was just clean, comfortable experimentation. Without the tools or any set goal, he couldn't get anything truly worthwhile done, but he did manage to clean up some old, inefficient programs for energon synthesis and, more importantly, keep his processer occupied and as relaxed as possible onboard the warship.

…

Half an orn after leaving Cybertron, Skyfire's spark started to ache—a familiar, frozen pain that intermittently pulsed its way through his frame. The beaker he'd been holding fell from suddenly numb fingers to crash loudly into hundreds of glimmering pieces. He may have made some sort of shocked sound, but after the first pulse of spark-pain, he'd stopped paying attention to anything else. It had been megavorns since he'd last felt that unmistakable pain. With a quick transmission, the door to his quarters locked, and he hesitantly focused on his spark in a way he hadn't for so many vorns.

The empty bond, which had been cold and dormant for so long, was actively pulsing against his spark, sending knifes of ice erratically through his frame. Shock and growing pain kept him frozen for a moment, and it was a full half breem before the burst of sensation dulled to a simmering, sensitive reminder. When that happened, Skyfire unclenched his fingers from the dents he didn't remember making in his desk and stepped back, venting harshly.

It had been long enough since he'd thought about it that he had to focus to access the memories, but he knew what would follow. That short pulse of pain had been more a warning than anything, though an intensely strong one. The pain always pulsed in cycles, short bursts that increased in intensity and duration until it finally crested with a force that left him immobile and unable to think for the cold. With how intense that first pulse had been, he didn't want to think about what the final burst would become.

Skyfire moved almost mechanically as he focused on preparing for the next few megacycles. The door stayed locked, and he prepared a short message to send to Skywarp and Thundercracker telling them he was caught up in a delicate experiment and wouldn't be able to join them that megacycle. For the first time, he was grateful for the distance between their quarters. The Seekers didn't deserve the reminder of their own broken bond.

Skyfire stayed in his room with his mismatched projects as the aches steadily increased, stronger than they'd been since those first few vorns after his loss. He tried to continue working on his projects again in short bursts, but he found himself unable to focus on the equations and materials. Every time he tried to concentrate, his processer kept returning to one haunting question—why? Why now, after all these vorns, had the broken sparkbond flared back to life so strongly? Had leaving Cybertron's surface really cause so much of a difference, or was there something about the composition of space that reacted with sparkbonds? With no answers and no way to find them, the questions just swirled unendingly in his processer.

A particularly strong flare of pain sent him nearly crashing to the ground. He half-fell into his desk instead, leaning against its solid presence as he hunched around his spark. It felt like an icy vice was squeezing his sparkchamber, and each pulse of his spark only felt colder until it peaked and faded back into the frozen ache. He finally gave up trying to distract himself with his experiments and collapsed on his berth instead to wait the final few pulses out.

Eventually, his com pinged with a request from Thundercracker, and he sent them the prepared message. They obediently left him alone, for which he was grateful. He didn't think he had the concentration left for an argument or even a second transmission. He didn't need to wait long for the final surge to come. Skyfire nearly blacked out from the force. Words failed him, and for a timeless eternity, the intense, arctic pain claimed him, spark and frame. When it was finally over, warmth and sensation slowly crept back over his frame. His spark continued to pulse painfully, but it was bearable.

He waited for his frame to stop trembling and his raw emotions to calm enough for him to fake the rest. Then he opened his doors as calmly as he could and started the too long journey to the Skywarp and Thundercracker's quarters. Bracing himself, he controlled his face and wings and anything else that could potentially show weakness to the other Decepticons wandering the hallway. The Seekers knew him well enough to be able to tell something was wrong, but he was trusting they would let the matter drop once they realized he didn't want to talk about it. For now, though, he didn't want to be alone.

…

Skyfire filed into the loading bay with the non-ranking Elites as orders were broadcasts to the different soldiers. They'd finally gotten in reach of the Ark, and the boarding ramp was almost ready to be deployed. Skyfire wasn't technically included with the Elites and there were no other noncombatants on the ship, but he'd still been included in the wide-ranged com orders, even if he had no idea what to do next. He was left staring at a milling sea of red optics and thick, warrior grade plating. Skyfire felt distinctly out of place among them.

He'd soon learned that he was the only mech on the Nemesis with blue optics. It wasn't too much of a surprise—Iaconian blue optics had always been uncommon in the 'Cons, particularly among the Elite—but finding out everyone else on the ship carried either the Kaonite or Vosnian shade of red optics was still a disconcerting discovery.

The broad doors to the rest of the ship swung open, and the Command Staff entered. Megatron's imposing presence was first, followed by the other high ranking Combat specialists. Their Leader was still speaking quietly to the mecha surrounding him, though the low, indiscernible rumble of his voice seemed to fill the entire room. Thundercracker stood up there with him, though he was placed closer to the back of the group. Airframes in general were vastly more suited to aerial combat, and they wouldn't find near enough space to be as effective in the close-quarters battle that was to follow.

On an unspoken command, the Elites started to shift around him. The heaviest armored frontliners migrated towards the front of the loading bay, closer to where the boarding ramp was to be deployed. Lighter frametypes and long-distance combat specialists were pushed towards the back of the ranks, and Skyfire followed the flow until he was in the last rows of mecha. He may be required to join the battle as all mecha save the Navigational crew were, but that didn't mean he would be nearly as effective as the battle-hardened warriors beside him.

Skyfire took out a high high-quality plasma rifle from his subspace, its weight nearly as familiar to him by now as the technical tools he'd once wielded had been. He knew how to fire it—had trained itself in its use for megavorns—but this would be the first time he'd carry it into true battle. He tried to calm his processer. It didn't work.

The boarding ramp clicked into place with a reverberating thud, and the entire room fell completely silent. Nobody moved, nobody spoke, and even their vents seemed to have stopped cycling. Then Megatron stepped forward with a loud roar of challenge, and the temporary tranquility descended into chaos. Megatron and the other Officers led the charge into the Ark with the rest of the Elite following close after, and the Autobots were waiting for them. Skyfire couldn't see the Autobots that met their charge, but he could certainly hear the ground-shaking crash as the two sides collided. He entered the boarding ramp at the rear of the group, after the first charge had already pushed most of the Autobots deeper into their ship.

Skyfire lingered near the back of the Ark, using his plasma rifle to help the other Decepticons whenever he found the chance. Even the Autobots' armor was all thick enough that nothing less than a point-blank blast would do serious damage, but he still felt a twinge of guilt whenever his shots connected. The fighting dragged on, each klik feeling like a minor eternity, and his audios were overwhelmed by the chaotic clamor of metal colliding with metal and the unmistakable whir of high-powered blasters. A stray blaster bolt streaked past his head, nearly scorching the thinly armored plating of his cheek as it passed.

The entire ship unexpectedly lurched to the side, forcing Skyfire to lean heavily against a nearby orange wall, and his processer immediately leapt into overdrive. He recognized that sensation. The ship was shuddering through the start of atmospheric reentry, and judging by the haphazard intensity of the quakes, they were descending far, far too rapidly. Even in the middle of a battle, no sane pilot would risk an uncontrolled landing over a completely unknown planet. He'd read the Ark's pilot's file. The mech was one of the best the Autobots had to offer, known more for his composure under pressure than risk taking. He wouldn't have authorized a dive into the gravitational field of a strange planet.

Which meant he couldn't be flying the ship. Sometime during the fighting, the pilot must have lost control over the ship. Slag. Even if someone managed to gain control of the navigational equipment again, the pull of the planet would be too strong to escape anymore. They were going to crash.

Around him, mecha from both sides continued to fight, ignorant of what the pressure shaking the ship really meant. They would find out soon enough though. Skyfire considered sending a brief transmission to warn Skywarp and Thundercracker but decided against it. Even if they were in the Command Deck, there was nothing they could do to free the ship from the gravitational field anymore, and he didn't want to put them in even more danger by distracting them from the fight.

The ship tilted into a deeper dive, and the artificial gravity cut out all at once. The mecha from both sides were forced to stop fighting, finally realizing that something was wrong as the growing pull of the planet's gravitational field tried to yank their feet out from under them. Alarmed shouts filled the air as both sides struggled to hold their ground, many of them sliding across the smooth metal floor. Skyfire grimly braced himself against a bolted down, utilitarian table along one of the walls.

A loudly cursing blur of red started to tumble past him, and Skyfire automatically reached out and snagged hold of the falling figure. Once his processer caught up with his reaction, he immediately regretted the action.

It was a minibot. An obviously Autobot minibot, to be precise, and one that looked nearly as unhappy to be hanging upside down by his leg as he had been freefalling towards the front of the ship. Even amid the chaos of the crashing ship, he was able to meet surprised, battle-bright blue optics for a timeless moment. Skyfire briefly considered just letting the Autobot's leg go, but the decision was taken out of his hands when the ship jerked again and the red minibot swung close enough to the table to grab his own handhold. After that, there wasn't time to worry about the other mech. The growing free-fall twisted out into a straighter path, and the added inertia almost tore him away from his handhold.

He didn't even register the impact before everything went black.

…

When he started to online, the first thing Skyfire was aware of was the sense that something was wrong with his frame. He wasn't onlining right—it was too slow, too uneven. Error messages came to the forefront of his processer, and he flicked through reports of corrosion and minor damage from what seemed like every part of his frame. Even his processer felt sluggish as it meandered towards full consciousness. The closest thing he could compare it to was coming out of a medical stasis, but even that had been smoother than this haphazard onlining.

His sensor net reconnected, and he groaned at the aches and stiffness permeating his entire frame. Nothing was missing or even severely damaged though, so he did his best to cut down the sensory feedback so he could think better. A bright orange blur greeted his optics, and he had to reset them several times before the smudges of black and blue in front of him solidified into Thundercracker's face. He slowly pushed himself up, hissing as every joint in his frame seemed to resist the movement. His chronometer had been corrupted, but they'd had to have been in stasis for an obscenely long time judging by the weakness in his frame.

Thundercracker was saying something, but his audios hadn't recovered enough to interpret sound yet. His communications array was still offline as well, so he held up a hand to silence the Seeker and brought up the problematic coding. It held a few errors his self-repair hadn't found yet, and he corrected them with a moment's thought, making his audios fizzle back online with a grating screech of static. The clangs and clatter of mecha moving around filled his processer as he turned back to Thundercracker. For the first time, he noticed Skywarp waiting beside Thundercracker, waiting for his systems to recover with as much patience as he possessed.

"What happened?" he asked unevenly after resetting his vocalizer a few times.

They were still in the Ark, but the ship was most definitely not moving anymore. The silent thrum of the engines was still beneath them, and the weight of real gravity, not artificial, pulled at him. The gravity was weaker than what he was used to on Cybertron, and his sensors registered a far thicker atmosphere surrounding them.

Thundercracker hesitated, looking at him oddly. "Do you remember the crash?"

The memory files immediately scrolled to the front of his processer, and he nodded. It was a slagging miracle he was even online to remember it. That had been a Pit of a crash, and one that probably should have torn the ship apart around them, to say nothing of the mecha inside it. The Ark had to be a stronger ship than he'd assumed. As he glanced around them, the only mecha moving had the purple Decepticon insignia etched somewhere on their frames.

"We won?"

Skywarp grinned widely, perking up proudly where he sat "Yep!" he chirped. "We already found where all the major players are, and the Autobots are all still out cold."

Skyfire felt his processer stutter as he realized what that meant. Primus. The war was… essentially over. The entire Autobot Command Staff had been on this ship—the Prime, the Second and Third of the army, most of the higher Autobot Elites. Even if the bulk of the Autobot army was still back on Cybertron, it meant little with their leadership essentially annihilated.

Everyone he saw seemed to be wandering around aimlessly, seemingly in shock that the Autobots could be defeated so abruptly. Aside from Thundercracker, he couldn't see any of the Decepticon Command Staff either. Skyfire… had no idea what they were supposed to be doing now. They were still in the Autobot flagship after all, even if all the Autobots were stasis-locked, and after having crash landed on an unknown planet nonetheless.

He turned to Thundercracker, who was glancing idly at the mecha around them. "So what happens next?" he asked.

The Seeker shrugged. "We're gonna need a new ship, to start with. This one's code locked to the Autobots, and the Nemesis broke free during the crash. Who knows where it ended up. After that… I'm not sure. We'll return to Cybertron and finish the war, I suppose, and then… who knows?" His mouth quirked up in a small smile. "I guess we're all going to have to learn how to live during peace again."

Peace. After all these millennia. It sounded impossible, but there was nothing he wanted more. He hoped this planet had the resources that would allow them to build a new ship. Otherwise they'd have to resort to scavenging parts from the Ark, and then they'd have to deal with whatever traps and safeguards the Autobots had added. Not a pleasant prospect, particularly since he'd likely be the one fixing the resulting damage.

A sudden thought occurred to him, and he nearly groaned out loud. "I'm going to be doing maintenance checks for metacycles before we've fixed everyone's stasis damage," he said, already starting to look the two Seekers over and tagging the many spots of degradation. Slag, that kind of repairs was always time consuming and exceedingly tedious, and they only had two mecha to work through the entire crew of the Nemesis. He was going to want to claw his optics out by the time they were finished.

Skywarp laughed—a loud, full framed thing that was as much half-hysteric relief as humor. "Look at it this way," he said, still chuckling. "Without any new battle damage, you'll have a slagload of extra time to finish it in." He spun in place, looking back over his shoulder to talk to them. "Let's get outta here. Soundwave and Lord Megatron are still trying to hack the ship, but I want to see what kinda planet we're stuck on."

With that, Skywarp started bouncing merrily towards where Skyfire assumed the front of the ship was, and they followed closely behind. They passed the bright red minibot only a few mechameters from where he'd onlined, where the impact must have thrown him. Skyfire resisted the urge to nudge him or one of the other offline Autobots as he navigated around their prone forms. They were only in a deep stasis, not deactivated, though it was a close thing. Energy conservation had shut down all of their systems except spark-containment, and the only way Skyfire could tell they were still alive was by the color of their armor.

Their plating was still bright, if slightly faded from lack of energon. By the looks of their armor, they probably had a couple more vorns, maybe a decavorn at most before lack of energon was enough to extinguish their sparks, no matter how many systems had been offlined to save energy. He almost opened his mouth to ask why they were all leaving the Autobots alone, but he thought better of it. He didn't want to give them ideas. At war they might be, but the idea of deactivating an unconscious, stasis-locked mech still made his spark clench with disgust.

Thundercracker must have followed his gaze anyway. He sighed, prodding a stray limb away from their feet. "Megatron wants to leave them there to deactivate on their own. I'm not sure why. He probably thinks it's a fitting end for them."

Skywarp snorted and pranced back to their side to whisper conspiratorially. "Pretty slagging stupid if you ask me, but Lord Megatron is acting a bit… strange." Then he yelped as his trinemate pinched the tip of his wing with a sharp glare.

"Not. Here," Thundercracker hissed lowly, glancing tellingly at the assorted mecha still wandering around nearby. Skywarp had the grace to look guilty and murmur an apology.

"Let's keep going," he said, properly chastened. Not that it would last very long. By the time they had reached the uncovered exit, Skywarp was back to his normal, chatty self.

The loading hatch was open, though he could clearly see signs of planetary debris littering the area outside the entryway. They stepped out of the ship together, and their sensors immediately began analyzing the new environment. It was a distinctly organic planet, absolutely coated with small, green organic growths that brushed oddly against the bottom of his feet. The soft ground sank slightly under his weight, and some of the delicate growths broke off, leaving oddly textured smears in his seams. Glancing back, he was surprised to find that the rest of the ship just disappeared into a large, natural mountain sticking up from the planetary crust. Well, slag. The crash must have taken them straight into the side of a cliff, of all things, and even if they did manage to gain control of the Ark it would take a stellar cycle at the least to free the ship. He sighed and turned back to the rest of the new planet.

They'd gotten lucky. Extraordinarily so. This was one of the most habitable planets he'd ever seen, with stable atmospheric conditions, a solid ground, and no immediately visible hazards. They'd likely have to be wary of any natives with such a seemingly harmless planet, but that was a minor problem compared to what could have been. He could already see some ridiculously tiny organics wandering around in the distance, though they looked to be the organic equivalent of drones instead of anything more sentient.

The clouds of moisture suspended in the atmosphere shifted farther away, and a glowing ball of heat blazed out from behind them, causing everyone to freeze as bright rays of light reflected off of their armor.

The planet had a sun. One close enough for the tickle of energy to spread across his plating, yet far enough away they wouldn't have to worry about its powerful radioactivity causing damage. Skyfire felt his plating loosen to expose more of his plating to the wonderful flux of energy, and the mecha around him did the same. Beside him, Skywarp murmured in contentment. They didn't have any of the modifications that would allow their frames to convert the light efficiently by any means, but what they could get was still enough to send a pleasant rush of energy across their sensor nets.

"I think I'm really going to like this planet," Skywarp murmured happily from beside him. "An open sky, free energy, and no Autobots to muck it all up. Could do without all the organic mess, but, hey, nothing's perfect."

They stood outside, lazing around and idly basking in the sunlight, as they waited for orders. More Decepticons trickled out of the ship to join them, and Skyfire counted off nearly all of the mecha from the Nemesis, including several Command Staff. The Constructicon gestalt had clumped at the far end of the group, and many had split into scattered groups. Nobody had left to explore the rest of the planet though.

They only straightened back to attention when a visibly fuming Megatron came stomping out of the Ark with Soundwave at his side. Immediately activating his anti-gravs, he flew towards the top edge of the cliff, and the rest of the Decepticons obediently followed. Megatron was waiting for them, staring coldly out at the gathering mecha.

"The Ark is useless to us," he growled, pacing along the edge of the cliff. He stopped in its center and faced them, his powerful form silhouetted against the strange blue sky. "We have been given a far greater prize, though," he continued loudly, making full use of his commanding voice. "This planet is rich in resources, and it will give us the resources we need to not only create a new ship but gather enough energy to return to Cybertron stronger than ever!"

He turned and took off into the sky with a rallying cry. The rest of the Decepticons, accessing their own anti-grav mods, followed with echoing shouts of victory and excitement.

Skyfire had already activated his thrusters and was about to follow when Skywarp paused and glanced back at the small orange piece of the Ark that was still visible. He hummed thoughtfully—a sound that immediately sent up red flags in both Skyfire and Thundercracker's processer. A thoughtful Skywarp was not a good, rule-following Skywarp, and that sound almost always led to trouble. The only good sign was that the rest of the Decepticons were already out of sight of whatever mischief the Seeker decided to pull.

"Skywarp…" Thundercracker growled in warning.

The other Seeker just grinned, optics bright with a familiar gleam of mischief.

Thundercracker groaned. "Skywarp, no." He didn't make a move to stop his trinemate though, just waited in the resigned, exasperated silence of a mech who knew when trying something was just plain futile.

The grin spread wider. Skywarp lifted up one of the integrated rifles along his arm and leveled it at the orange prow of the ship just barely sticking out of the mountain.

"Lighten up, TC," he teased.

Then he fired. The shot struck the head of the ship head on, warping the metal with its heat before being deflected into the surrounding mountainside. Clumps of the material were shaken loose from the force to fall heavily down on the Ark and surrounding area with satisfying thuds. Skywarp giggled and made as if to shoot the ship again, but this time Thundercracker stepped in and pushed the rifle down before it could be charged.

"You've had your fun," he said, his tone unusually serious. "Let's catch up with the rest before we lose them."

Skywarp huffed, though he obediently let the charge disperse. After a moment, Thundercracker released his wingmate's arm and stepped back. Skywarp immediately leapt into the air and transformed. His alt-mode was, oddly enough, different now—smoother and slightly smaller, with odd seams and structures. After the initial surprise passed, the Seeker moved to hover above their helms.

::Race ya there! :: he commed, the glyphs bright and cheerful with glee. Then he took off, speeding towards the distant clouds of moisture and the still-strong signals of the other Decepticons. Thundercracker shouted something uncomplimentary at his trinemate, but he still transformed to give chase. Skyfire followed at a more sedate pace, absentmindedly cataloguing the differences in his own new alt-mode, as he watched the two Seekers playing in the new atmosphere. Already, life was starting to look up again.

~.*.~

AN: A bit of a filler chapter, but it needed to happen. I hope nobody will mind if I skip over some canon stuff next chapter (I'm getting impatient for the next plot arc to get started), and this should be the last episode I go into any real depth on. Also, you… probably noticed that I tweaked quite a bit of background events from the original show. I watched the episode, and I honestly couldn't think of a way for the canonical leaving Cybertron scene to make sense in this, so I ended up creating my own.

So, apparently, The Victory is technically the name of the ship. It's just… not really mentioned in the actual show. Since it's such an obscure title, I'll probably just not use it and refer to it more generically when it comes up. We'll see. Also, for anyone wondering, Skyfire caught a falling Cliffjumper. No real reason, except I thought it was just a delightful mental image.