The flaming ruins of the Ark scythed through the air at a steep angle.
"Brace for impact!" Ironhide shouted even he held onto the life support bubble with the dark-haired woman inside.
The evening turned to daylight above the Islands of ORB, as the burning ship passed overhead. Out at sea, the ORB navy was turning in the direction of the crashing ship.
"Battlestations! Batten the hatches and prepare for a tsunami!" shouted out a petty officer on the deck.
The Ark's impact had the force of a nuclear bomb and set off a massive wave that raced towards the islands only fifty miles away. The half mile of water seemed to barely slow the ship, but when it slammed into the silt it had lost almost eighty percent of its velocity and force. That left the Ark half buried at the bottom of the ocean.
"Autobots, report!" Optimus boomed out even as he activated the lights on his body.
All of the Autobots on the bridge chimed in, but there were disturbing gaps elsewhere. Triton, Gizmo, Doubleclouder, Fallback, Backbeat and Download did not respond at all.
"Primus, I sent them back to aft damage control," Kup exclaimed in horror.
"There's nothing we can do about that. Now let us verify our guests health." With a careful poke, Optimus ripped the life support bubble open. "Friend human, are you all right?"
The girl looked up at him in a daze, then nodded. "I'm bruised and a bit battered, but I think I'll live."
The older woman wearing a blouse, skirt and a lab coat poked carefully at her extremities while squinting hard after she was released. "I'm fine also. Kisato, can you see where we are at?"
"Um, it's a large dark room. There's a huge window, but it's covered by mud, I think," the younger member of the Junk Guild explained.
"That is correct. We seem to have crashed into one of the oceans of your planet," Optimus noted. "It appears we were extremely lucky."
"Say... Why is you planet called Earth when it has so much more water than dirt?" Sideswipe asked curiously.
"The more proper name is Sol III, but even that is a simple matter of us not having a good reference to name it in comparison to other planets. We only discovered that there were other sentients here in the last month," the older woman said as she stood up. "I'm the Professor. Thank you for rescuing us."
"It's what we do," Cliffjumper remarked.
"I don't know if this is a bad time," Wheeljack admitted. "But whoever fixed up Drift did a remarkable job."
Bumblebee looked up worriedly from the human he had carried out of the doomed ship. "I think this human needs repair. He's leaking some coolant. And his leg looks like it is bent wrong."
"Lowe!" Kisato shouted. "Professor! He's really hurt!" That broken leg looked really bad.
"I'm sorry, but I think I fell on him during the crash," the A.I. 8 said aloud.
Ratchet walked over and checked. The wound wasn't as serious as he feared, but it still a good idea to let human doctors look over the wound and seal it.
"We need to get him to the hospital," the Autobot medic stated. "And the sooner the better."
"Yeah, and go meet the neighbors," Huffer remarked. "Just hope they don't shoot us instead of talk to us."
"Interesting," Ratchet said as he read a data stream from Teletran. "I'm getting information that might help us here." With that, he transformed into an advanced ambulance; large, red crosses on the sides and back.
"I've got a location of what appears to be emergency medical aid. Autobots, let's roll!" Optimus called out, transformed and opening his door so the two remaining humans could board him.
"I'm starting to sense a pattern," Patrick Zala remarked. "Every Cybertronian ship but the Revenge has come in the inner part of the Solar System and not too long after that has been wrecked."
"You have to wonder why we bother having these meetings," Ali Kasim commented softly. "All we ever talk about anymore are the Transformers. "
"It seems that Perceptor has no problems using any upgrades we've created for the ORB mobile suits," Yuri Amalfi stated. "The Armored shroud for the Duel is one of the things he's adopted for those units."
"If only he'd just stick to that and not create those N-Jammer destroyers."
"Or them turning Earth Alliance mobile suits into Transformers," Patrick Zala noted in a restrained manner. He found it ironic in another time and place he'd not want the other PLANTS council members to know about an Orb Coordinator piloting the Strike. After all the Transformers had done now they'd only have some interest finding out it was of his son's friends.
The fact said friend was reported to have stood up to Galvatron and the combined form of the six robot team. The same team that heavily damaged a ZAFT base and on their own without merging. Leozak's team had been able to inflicting damage on their land battleships... which was impressive.
'Perhaps giving him one of the new prototypes and having Athrun renew their friendship would be useful,' Patrick Zala mused. Anyone who could fight the Decepticons that well and was a coordinator was worth trying to dine and wine to his side.
"There's also the matter of Commander Rau La Creuset," Parnel Jesek stated. "We can't just show him acting like a good boy, it's time he's brought before a military tribunal."
Patrick winced at that, as it look like Parnel had defected from his camp with a bit of vigor to show his new loyalty.
"The actions of Commander La Creuset were those of a man who had his orders," Louise Leitner stated. "He had no way of knowing a group of extra solar aliens were going stop by to fill up their fuel tank. And his disbelief at their story is completely understandable." The Judiciary Committee head was one of Zala's faction and honestly didn't see anything legally wrong with the actions taken.
"And now the Earth Alliance has access to a fuel source our N-Jammers can't effect in the slightest!" Which was an exaggeration, of course. With the high density batteries, they already had something that would work.
"Which has been quite easy to change mobile suits over to use," Ezalia Joule remarked. "We'd have no problems adapting the technology and it'd make the energy hog defense systems the prototype mobile suits have more cost effective."
"And put a madman that can turn into a seige cannon in our solar system," Siegal Clyne noted. "And many of our children have only barely survived their encounters with him."
Patrick Zala rubbed his forehead for a moment. As useful as La Creuset had been, he was now a heated political issue. One he desired to have around for his plans, but it was looking more and more like that won't be possible. Of course his plans were also being changed due to the Transformers. Perhaps if he could get O.M.N.I. used as shock troops in the battle to take back Cybertron.
Worst came to worst with La Creuset, he could always be let go. Zala knew he could always find someone else for his plans.
"If we must do so," Zala said tiredly. And with that La Creuset's fate was sealed.
Inside of Heaven's Base, Matias Aducarf looked disappointed. The 'treasure trove' they had discovered of a Transformer ship had turned out to be much less useful then they imagined. Said treasure trove was the extremely durable trophy room of Lockdown.
Most of the weapons and equipment inside were insanely difficult to reproduce. The irony of it was the alloys that made up the armor of the room were easier for their to replicate then anything inside it. One of the few things they figured out was a form of cement that hardened in seconds and was stronger then anything made on Earth. They also found a new form of fire retardant. They had no idea where Lockdown had gotten those, but those two things likely were the quickest they could replicate and sell.
For a group that wished to profit from war that was not what they wanted. And they had high hopes for all the alien weapons in their grasp.
"So what are we calling the armor?" General Haite asked with almost a grunt.
"Cyberium." Matias shrugged at the look he got.
The general nodded, even as they turned away and headed to a manufacturing plant deep within the base. His aides followed him into the deeps where Strike Daggers were starting to be built. Currently, their was only a stripped down prototype.
"This, general, is a the Mark I heavy blaster. Using some of the technology that Admiral Garcia has forwarded to us, we've managed to build a much better energy weapon than almost anything we've seen at a reasonable cost."
"That's some mealy mouthed bull you just spewed their, boy. Why isn't it just 'the best' already? I'm paying you for results, not prevarications."
"The 250mm phase cannon in the Launcher Striker is quite a bit more powerful, but at a premium cost. Though it looks like we can cut some costs or increase its power." The engineering officer shrugged at that.
"Do both. That cannon has quite a kick already, but an even better one means we might be able to take out Galvatron." Haite just smiled at that. Matias looked thoughtful for a moment as he pondered doing that for a Striker Pack.
"Yes, sir. Along with that, we are looking to add a layer of Cyberium. That will make these guys nearly twice as tough. We are looking at an 'Ace' unit that might be armored entirely of Cyberium, which should be tougher even than a Transformer. Well, because our mobilesuits are so much bigger."
"These aren't going to turn sentient, are they?"
"No, sir. We're not even sure how the Strike became sentient. The computers installed in it were nowhere near powerful enough for a true A.I." The engineer, Matias, just shrugged at that. He didn't believe the report on the Strike somehow gaining a soul.
"How about the new Trans-Phaseshift that I heard was in the works? Why aren't we putting that into all of these?"
"Costs. Even with what we are learning from the Transformers, that's not cheap. So again, only for ace suits like Calamity or the Raider series."
"I wonder if ORB would have left those energy hogs out on their ASTRAYs even if they had access to it?" Haite mused. Had the EA brass known about the Astray project being down the road figuratively from their project they might have used it as a basis for a mass produced mobile suit. True, they had the Strike Daggers but having another possibly design like it or the Eurasian Federation's Hyperions was always a good idea.
Admiral Gerard Garcia had been waiting for all of the Autobots and Minicons to be called away by Perceptor, leaving just 'Strike' behind in the Archangel's hanger. "Gentlemen, take fifteen. I need to speak to the Strike." He waited for the flight crew to depart and then moved in front of the ex-mobilesuit.
The large Transformer looked over at the human in confusion. "You want to talk to me?" He was not sure what to make of the human, as Whirl did not like him and the other Autobots were not totally trusting.
"I do. It occurred to me that your status as an ex-mobilesuit and now a sentient has never been fully dealt with."
"What do you mean dealt with," the Strike asked dangerously.
"Just in the same manner that complications are dealt with. Obviously, it would be wrong to just consider you property. While I can't even imagine how you gained a... Spark, right? Gained a Spark, to the Autobots, that's becoming alive with what they consider a soul. Just the existence of alien species has thrown the worlds religions into disarray, that doesn't apply to you... exactly. Your body is local... terrestrial. You are, in effect, the first native Transformer." Garcia was carefully building up his ground in logic.
"I guess that's true." The Strike really did not get where this was all going.
"And in that case, we have to decide where to put you. I'd like to see you join the Atlantic Federation Navy, as I feel its your real home here with the Archangel and our crew."
"But I like hanging out with Hotshot and the Minicons," he protested. "Though, I feel a strange kinship with the pilot Kira Yamato, too."
"That could be because you awoke in close proximity. Heck, you could be soul siblings somehow. And I don't intend to separate you from the Autobots, but they aren't from our world. They have been fighting their war for thousands of centuries."
"And I've seen datatrax of their homeworld," Strike stated. "A hollow metal world the size of Saturn over 700 light years from this planet."
Garcia wondered if the Transformers lived to shake things up. Just as he knew whatever Primus was, be it a deity or a religious figure of some kind was going to make waves. And here he thought a race of machines won't be religious. "Thank you for that bit of information," Garcia stated diplomatically." But this planet is your home, and it needs protection."
"Heliopolis, my birthplace is gone, my siblings were taken and reside now in the Archangel," Strike noted. "Cagali seems... to not want to be around me. Flay Allaster, I think compares me to Galvatron."
Garcia was starting to consider his current command a political minefield. He had the children of a good portion of the PLANTs Supreme council on his ship, the daughter of a late Vice Minister who wants to take out what he'd been told was one of the nastiest Transformers in existence who he could see how he gained such a reputation, the headstrong daughter of the head of ORB, and of course the group of Autobots who made it all possible.
"Ms. Allaster has gone through a great loss and has been rubbing a lot of people the wrong way," Garcia stated. "However, you must admit that you came to life over Earth and the Archangel is the closest thing you have to a home right now?"
"Sure, I guess."
Garcia nodded then in acknowledgment. "What I would like to do is commission you as an officer of the Earth Alliance. That way we have you here with us and can have you interface with the Autobots on a more even basis. And it will show that we are willing to be inclusive to all races." In fact, he was also planning on having Athrun and his band seconded to O.M.N.I. officially.
"You want me to fight for the Earth Alliance?" Strike asked surprised.
"We could use the help fighting the Decepticons," Garcia replied. "Plus it'd give you a place to belong. Pay and maintenance for free."
"I..." Strike said. "Whirl doesn't like or trust you, sir."
Garcia didn't look surprised. He figured the Wrecker only barely tolerated him. Not that it was hard given Whirl didn't hide his contempt very well. It was easy to tell when Whirl liked or disliked something. "You don't get to be a flag officer without pissing people off and having people not like you," Garcia explained pragmatically. "Of course, I have theories why an elite commando was taken off his unit for basically babysitting duty, especially if the death rate of his unit is to be believed."
"But.." Strike said softly. "Almost every Autobot looks up to and respects Optimus Prime. Other then Grimlock but he doesn't honestly like anyone."
"The Transformers respect physical ability," Garcia noted. "All their leaders from what I've seen or heard lead from the front. It doesn't work that way for humans. I'd probably have stroke or heart attack if I got into one of the Gundams or ASTRAYs and tried to battle the Decepticons in single combat."
"I honestly don't even have a name," Strike sighed.
"We can always think of something for the paperwork," Garcia said with a shrug. "Everyone's been calling you Strike, so perhaps something along in that vein."
"I like that," Strike admitted. Garcia looked pleased at that.
Unseen by them was a pair of yellow optics. Haro took in the scene slowly, being very confused. Too many large and complicated words.
"There you are," Athrun said as he grabbed the pink robot. Now he finally see what the Autobots had done to this robot.
Shinn Asuka was at the beach with his family checking the damage the minor tsunami had done when suddenly a red ORB cargo hauler, an ambulance, and a few cars drove out of the water and towards the road at high speeds.
"What was that?" Maru Asuka asked in shock.
Then an orange tow-truck came out of the water and transformed to robot mode. He loomed over the Asuka siblings yet had no weapons in his hands. Shinn put himself between the robot and his sister regardless of that.
"I can't believe it but I might agree with Sunstreaker for once," the robot grumbled. "That has to be a sign of shokaract."
"It's a Transformer!" Shinn yelled.
"Brilliant deduction," Huffer sarcastically remarked. "Got anything else to tell me I already know like stars are balls of hot gasses or that water can be used to make rocket fuel and one of the gasses organics like you breath?"
A yellow car mini-coupe came out of the the water and turned into a robot.
"Don't mind him," the newer robot stated. "He acts like a tricursed glitchhead with something stuck up his tail pipe. All the time."
"Slag off, Bumper," Huffer snarled as he glared at yellow Autobot.
"So to quote a cliche," Bumper stated with an amused grin. "We need to be taken to your leader. We kind of moved into the neighborhood and want to get to know them better."
Shinn's dark red eyes went wide as he imaged trying to introduce a few of the infamous extrasolar robots to the Chief Representative. Lord Attha so far hadn't said much about the Transformers, other then to morn the death of the one that got killed in ZAFT's attack along with so many from Orb.
Until now it all hadn't been any more real then a big budget science fiction movie to Shinn. Then he heard the sound of VTOLS as a pack of six of them flew overhead. Huffer nearly snorted. Yeah that would really be effective. If they just wanted to mess up his paint job and annoy him. At least he wasn't yelling at them to hold their fire while charging at them with a gun. 'Primus knows Wheeljack would probably do that,' Huffer thought.
"Put your hands in the air and don't make any sudden movements!"
The pair of Autobots raised their hands and hoped Ratchet and the others were having better luck.
At the hospital the paramedics gasped when the ambulance they got an injuried young man out of it and then transformed into a robot.
"I'd treat him myself, but organics are not my usual patients," Ratchet stated. "A sentient AI from this planet fell on him."
"Yeah we kind of didn't want to mess up something," Sideswipe said with his hands raised. "Since that's never a good thing."
"So you guys take shanix?" Cliffjumper asked holding up what looked like a giant gold coin in his hand.
"You'll have to speak with the Accounting department," one doctor admitted.
Lord Attha looked at the preliminary plans for the Akatsuki. He had intended for that to be a last resort weapon in the defense of ORB, but everything he had heard about the Decepticons and their laser weapons made it more of a priority. He also could easily imagine his nation being a battle field between the Autobots and Decepticons due to the Ark being off the coast.
The mobile suit might be their only hope against Galvatron's laser cannon. He doubted his daughter could have a happy and long life with the threat of the Decepticons looming over ORB. They had utterly no regard for sentient life other then to crush it under their heel.
And the three completed Astray prototypes held their own against ZAFT and the Decepticons.
The Lion of ORB hope the Seiran clan would keep from doing something stupid. Unato was at least politically skilled but his son Yuna was frankly nowhere near as effective or powerful as he thought he was. He also had a talent for pissing people off.
'I hope Cagalli can keep Yuna in-line when they're married.' Uzumi thought praying that is what would happen in that union.
Otherwise things would go really bad for ORB before Yuna learned his limitations and not to arouse the ire of the wrong people.
Uzumi Attha was driven from his musings by Chief Engineer and designer for the Astrays Erica Simmons. He quickly closed the file of the blueprints for the Akatsuki.
"Lord Attha..." Erica stated. "Wheeljack is a mad genius."
"Oh?" Uzumi asked.
"I have been asking him about things I have learned off about Transformers internal workings," Erica said proudly. "It has been extremely informative. A pity not with a great deal of practical applications to the mass produced ASTRAY project."
"And the upgrades to the prototype ASTRAYs that Colonel Kisaka has reported on?" Attha asked. They were very interesting to him. Especially the part about Energon. For ORB to have a source of fuel that like that would be a good thing.
"Oh, those we have implimented. The most basic item was a multi-connection power port for weapons along with improvements to the sniper rifle in the works for the A2 Astrays. The beam will be more powerful and the scope will be able to follow faster moving objects."
Uzumi Attha really didn't like having to compete in the arms race with PLANT and the Earth Alliance, but it was the only way to keep ORB free from either party. "And have we gotten any of the weapons mentioned built?"
"We got the scatterblaster and can even mass produce it, however it has one flaw," Simmons stated. "It is not very effective in outer space."
That was a very large limit to the usage of the weapon. It definitely made him wonder if they should mass produce the weapon or not.
"We've also been able to build the energy deflecting material in large scale. We've made a mobile suit sized shield to see how effective it really is."
"Good," Uzumi said with a slight smile. If it worked then the Akatsuki was to be produced. He would fast-track it for development and deployment. And perhaps they should make more of those shields.
"As for the bad news, we tested the energy draining claw and it was shattered with liquid nitrogen," Erica grimaced. "Ironhide's weapon can fire off a wide variety of things like molten lead, or liquid nitrogen, or a very base substance."
"Base?" the Lion of Orb asked with a confused expression on his face.
"As in base on the PH levels," Erica explained. "Water is neutral, acid is one extreme and base is the other."
"And I take it his weapon is something we can't replicate?"
"Sir, I won't know where to begin how to create a gun that can do that."
"Is that a common weapon?" Uzumi asked. He needed to know for sure what sort of weapons would be used against his forces by the Decepticons.
Erica shook her head. "They tend to use laser weapons that are so powerful they are matrixing their energy into a plasma, but there are those like Ironhide that use guns that fire more esoteric ordanace."
"Anything else I should be aware of?" Uzumi asked.
"They also are able to fire energy blasts out of their swords," Erica stated.
"That's...unexpected." Lord Attha admitted. And likely not easy since their upgrades to the Sword Strikers didn't involve that ability.
'Still all this is easier then the conversation I'll be having with the Yamatos. Now more then ever since we know what Kira being an Ultimate Coordinator really means,' Uzumi thought to himself.
In an upscale apartment in October City that felt like a prison cell to it's owner, two friends met to talk and play chess. Possibly for the last time given the charges one of them had leveled against them.
"Well I'm screwed old friend," Rau remarked with an annoyed tone. "All due to extra-solar aliens."
"Yes, it's hard to imagine that could have happened." Gilbert Durandal commented. "I'm sure a lot of plans have gone up in smoke due to their very presence."
"And you want to know the amusing thing?" Rau said with a smile. "Expect people to shove the motto of the Autobot's leader in your face a lot when they find out about your Destiny plans."
"It's just the masses reciting an interesting meme," Gilbert said with a touch of amusement. "From a race that's about as screwed up as humanity. Perhaps they had a system like I believe will save humanity and it didn't work for them. "
"I just hope you didn't use that as pillow talk with your girlfriend," Rau quipped. "How are you and Talia doing anyway?"
"She wants to have a child and I honestly..." Gilbert trailed off.
"You could always blame it on Galvatron and the Decepticons," Rau noted. "Who'd want to have children with them running around?"
"I don't think she'd take something that transparent very well," Gilbert mused out loud. He knew he had a silver tongue but he also knew there were limits to what it could do. And that would be passing one of them. 'Perhaps I can still salvage at least some of our relationship.' Gilbert pondered. He then put his mind to figuring out how to do that.
"Of course Galvatron might do what I want for me," Rau stated. "It seems humanity and Transformers are all self serving creatures. Disgusting."
Gilbert sighed. He really needed to get Rau a girlfriend. If he didn't know the lengths his friend would go to commit his goals, he'd consider him just a moody and anger teen that wanted to get let off some steam. Still he had to save his friend, and save humanity from itself. He then shivered and the hairs on his neck stood on end.
Rau wondered if his drugs had any side effects as he could make out a purple and black ghostly figure outside the apartment looking into space. He stared at it and was looked back in the eye by the apparition. It radiated cunning and malice and Rau wondered why it was watching him like this. After what felt like an eternity the figure nodded and then vanished.
"What was that?" Gilbert gasped. He wasn't sure what he had felt but he knew something very odd had happened.
"I'm not sure," Rau stated. But he had the feeling that it his star had not finished its ascent suddenly. With that, he chuckled to himself.
Gilbert narrowed his eyes. He had a really bad feeling about what happened.
Over the Pacific Ocean, a massive ship floated over churning waves as it led the combined water naval fleet from Gibraltar. The three Hampton-class aircraft carriers, dozens of support ships were flanked by four Vosgulov-class carrier submarines of ZAFT. It was probably the most powerful wet fleet ever gathered in the history of the human race.
Mobilesuits and Transformers flew overhead as Whirl, Jetfire and Jetstorm taught the Strike more about his flight mode and how to get the most out of it. Murrue had decided that it would be a good training exercise for the Gundams and ASTRAYs, as they were out there also flying on improved Guuls thanks to Perceptor. He had also been seen making his own version that was less than half the size.
But they were finally reaching their destination that they had been racing towards since they had been informed of the crash of the Autobots just off Orb. The 1st Combined Fleet took up position alongside ORB's Aegis-class cruisers out away from the island as the flagship headed into a massive drydock, slicing through the waters.
As the Archangel backed into a massive dry-dock cage, Kira wondered if his parents would believe what he'd been through. To end up piloting a mobile suit, gaining new friends, renewing his friendship with Athrun and fighting evil robots from outer space. His mobile suit becoming sentient and able to transform into a jet was just one part of the story.
'My life has become a science fiction series,' Kira mused with a slight smile as he realized how completely crazy all that was. Kira then saw his parents at the end of the drawbridge as the rest of the human crew exited for some well deserved rest. He was glad they had survived the destruction of Heliopolis and that he had Thunderstick next to him so they had proof of his adventures.
The gold and blue Minicon looked forward to meeting Kira's parents. He just hoped they could understand how amazing the things Kira managed to do were.
Across the way, the Autobots and Strike were leaping to the service road, looking around the inside of the massive Morgenrote complex deep in the earth of the islands.
"Mom! Dad!" Kira yelled before he was pulled into a hug.
"So that's your batch proto-initiator and laser core builder?" Thunderstick asked a smile. "So when are you going to introduce to them your girlfriend?"
"I don't have a girlfriend," Kira said flustered and sounding embrassed.
"Sure you do," Thunderstick commented. "Flay's your girlfriend and Roadhauler thinks you need your cerebro module debugged and rebooted for liking her."
"I know," Kira grumbled darkly and then saw Thunderstick smirking at him.
Caridad Yamato tried to take in all her adopted son's friend had said. A memory surfaced of Kira's Birdie robot as his friend because he was wary of the other kids finding out he was a Coordinator. And then it hit her that Kira had a girlfriend.
"Hey, Flay get over here!" Thunderstick yelled. "You want to meet your boyfriend's parents don't you?"
Flay just stared at Thunderstick until Haro and Jolt started pushing her toward Kira and his parents. Flay didn't look very happy for them to be moving her. "You're a jerk, Thunderslap."
"Such a lovely couple," Thunderstick remarked with amusement. "Don't you think so?"
"Yep," Jolt said with a laugh.
"And you want them to have kids so you can teach them Cybertronian swear words," Thunderstick stated. Kira and Flay blushed at that comment.
Jolt laughed. "I'm not against that."
"Son," Kira's father managed to say. "You have very strange friends."
"I know," Kira groaned. "Trust me I am fully aware of that."
"You should have seen Kira in the battles we got into," Thunderstick spoke up. "He did stuff we didn't even know was possible and held his own against Liokaiser."
Then a shadow covered them and the Minicons gasped. Kira turned and he saw Optimus Prime. In his shock of seeing the Autobot legend that all the Autobots had talked about, he didn't notice Flay clutch onto him like he was a life preserver.
"Kira Yamato," Optimus stated. "I'd like to thank you for all your help. You truly have the spark of an Autobot."
Kira couldn't help but be moved by those words. He then tried to form the words for an intelligence response to Optimus Prime. "I...thank you sir," Kira stated. "But I honestly don't want to be fighting in this war."
"Nor do I," Optimus Prime admitted. "But we don't always get what we want and sometimes we find out what we really are on the battlefield."
Kira felt a lot of the weight this war was putting on him lifted when he heard that. He could see why the Autobots all looked up to Optimus Prime.
Flay's grip had loosened slightly at the very oddly gentle-seeming words of the most respected Autobot in existence.
Then the Minicons gasped again. A full sized white Autobot that Kira had never seen before stood next to Optimus Prime armed with a sword.
"It...it can't be!" Jolt exclaimed. "You're dead!"
"Hey, Jolt, Thunderstick," Drift stated. "Its good to see you guys again."
"We discovered Drift on a Junk Guild ship almost entirely repaired," Optimus Prime explained.
"Drift... but everyone said you're dead!" Kira yelled.
Drift smiled sadly. "Kid when you get blown to bits... if you're lucky they can wield you back together."
Kira didn't now what to say to that. Flay wondered why some robot could be more or less resurrected yet her father stayed dead. It was completely and utterly unfair to her and she didn't like that at all. Especially one everyone wrote off and being completely and utterly dead.
"Did you have any Minicons?" Kira asked the Autobot swordsman.
Drift shook his head. "They didn't really want me to have any," he admitted. Being a reformed Decepticon with his past classified definitely made them not want to give him a Minicon. It was something he tried to not let bother him, though it was extremely hard some days.
Garcia and the Archangel crew were surprised to find Jolt and Grip-Lock had assembled a Mobile Suit in a back repair bay. There were two ASTRAYs in various states of completeness and a second Strike Gundam they had begun work on. He didn't think they had enough spare parts to even attempt to do any of this.
Of course, he also didn't remember a chamber like this in the plans for the Archangel. Though the ship had transformed into a giant robot and beat down Liokaiser. So perhaps it was still adjusting itself somehow.
"You two have been busy," Garcia remarked. He was sure that having a non-sentient Strike available for use would take much of the sting out of the original becoming a Transformer to the OMNI brass. Even with the original having joined their navy.
"We needed a hobby and Thunderstick showed us a hidden file on the Blue Astray," Jolt said with his hand on the back of his head. "It showed some planned weapons and a few upgrades for the Astrays." Their cunning plan to upgrade to a cool bulk body had been derailed!
"Though most of them are really weird and not very useful," Grip-Lock admitted. "The dual beam sabers and blaster rifle combo they planned for the fourth Astray was the best of the bunch."
"And we had utterly no idea about the Astray project," Yzak stated. "Got to admit even if half the stuff in that file didn't work very well at least Orb is willing to be creative."
Cagalli however looked completely and utter enraged. No one was sure if it was at the Minicons for building more Astrays and a G Weapon or that no one had told her how many Astrays there were. With her also staring at the odd knees on one of the Astrays. "I need to see all data and equipment lists for the ASTRAYs," she said very slowly.
"You got it," Grip-Lock said as he handed Cagalli the datatrax with all the information they had on the Astrays and their planned weapons.
Nicol wondered what they needed the belt sander and jumbo sized can of primer for. Were they supposed to be Transformer heath care products?
"Just as long as you don't let that psycho Flay drive any of these," Yzak remarked. He had this feeling that Flay was going to get herself killed in quest for revenge against a literal killing machine and that she had a few screws loose in her head.
"Definitely not something we want to have happen," Jolt faux whispered. "Maybe see if Cagali can drive the Strike II."
"Its just a stand in name," Grip-Lock interjected. "I wanted to call it the Zeta Strike Maximus."
"And the better of his two names," Jolt grumbled. Strikeblast sounded really bad.
"Nicol," Yzak commented. "Let's not ever let Grip-Lock name things. Ever."
"Agreed," Nicol said nodding his head.
Flay was on her way to a meeting with the developmental staff for the ASTRAY series. Dr. Erica Simons had wanted her input as a novice pilot of the ASTRAY series. She was just coming around the corner when she heard voices.
"Yes, the outer structure of Drift appears that it was heavily modified at one point, Lord Attha. I suppose it could be our equivilant of plastic surgey," the engineer was explaining.
The strong looking leader of ORB nodded. "Could it just be damage that was repaired?"
"The Professor did not think so. As a salvage specialist, she looks for that sort of thing. She saw a lot of repairs, but the underlying structure was different. I've got her estimation of what Drift would have looked like," Erica explained as she turned on a 3D projector.
"He looks very different. Well, send me a report and keep me abreast of any developments."
Flay suddenly realized he was going to be heading for the door, which she quickly knocked on. "Hello?"
The Prime Minister of ORB opened the door to see the young woman in an ORB uniform. "Ah, Miss Allster. Let me be the first her to offer you our condolences for the passing of your father. He always advocated a strong, peaceful relationship with our country. He will be sorely missed."
"Ah... thank you Minister Attha," she replied awkwardly.
"Ensign Allster, please come in," the blonde ASTRAY engineer called out.
Flay stepped in, taking in the 'other' face of Drift. It looked more cruel, in her eyes. In fact, it looked like a Decepticon. The fact he also had laser cannons on his forearms didn't help at all. She narrowed her eyes.
"Let's start with what you found to be hard and what does not feel natural, Ensign," Erica said as she turned off the projector.
Flay started to explain her first problems, all the time aware of the cutting edge 3D projector just like her family owned. She remembered a trick to get the last image out of it and onto a memory core. And she had some pointed questions to ask, as soon as she figured out who to ask them of.