=Chapter 9: Blue Bird=
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"It's just a little skill. Besides, it's nothing special, almost everyone on-board can cook up at least one meal. So why make a big deal of it?" Falco mused to himself, trying to find a reason that Katt was obsessed over the fact that he could cook. Fox being surprised, he understood, Falco wasn't normally one to make the meals, only bug Fox about his cooking. He glanced at the radar screen just in front of the Arwing's joysticks. The location that they had set out for was within range of their radar. It was a huge structure, much bigger than the Great Fox. If anything, it was on par with the Ark III, if anything. He turned his attention back to the region of space immediately in front of him. The location they were heading for was the Meteo Asteroid Field, a region of space that, in some scientist circles, may have held Lylat's Fifth planet.
"Well, I can see why you'd hide here, all these big asteroids floating around in such a dense structure and that makes it damn near impossible to find. But how the hell did they get it here in the first place?" Falco asked to no-one in particular. Peppy, who was hanging out in the Great Fox, gave a suggestion, "Perhaps they didn't exactly get the whole thing there in one piece." Falco briefly glanced at the monitor on the left side of the cockpit as Fay inquired what he meant. "What I mean is that they either built their base out of materials they found here, or they built pieces of it and assembled it in the asteroid field." At that point, a grey jet, a different model from before, flew up to the Arwings. The same, gruff voice of the Eradicon spoke to them, "Actually, we bridged here. Unfortunately, the location that we ended up in severely damaged much of the ship. We are likewise short on materials to repair our starship. Hence why I must inform you that large portions of our ship are off limits due to environmental conditions hazardous to your kind." Slippy was the first to notice the jet, "Mister Eradicon, is that you flying alongside us?" The Cybertronian only replied, "Yes. This is my alternate form, and my number is 2104." Fox asked the Transformer, "What do you mean when you say your number is 2104"
"I'll explain Generics, Army-building, and mass-production later."
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Soundwave opened the Energon storage closet, where they were keeping the Protoform and the Spark being kept. He carefully observed the Spark, and realized that the rhythmic pulsating he had previously recorded were becoming steadily more erratic. The Spark in question was becoming more and more unstable, a sign that it was losing energy and fading.
He would have to start preparing the Spark to be reinserted sooner than predicted, and the radically low amounts of Energon available to power such a huge frame made it a bit intimidating to think about. Soundwave wasn't heartless, but he was tactical. He turned to the Vehicons aiding him. They simply stared back and wordless conversations seemed to fill the empty space between them. Raising an arm and pointing at the hallway behind them, Soundwave sent the two Vehicons to retrieve more of their brethren. He had a plan for being able to conserve what little Energon they had in storage while being able to bring it to life.
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Starwing ran another internal analysis on his systems, glancing up to see Hound walking into the room. Pedes clinked across the floor to the computer, where he opened up a few programs with a few clicks. Pausing his internal scan, Starwing sat up and asked their new leader, "What're you doing?" Hound replied without even looking at him, "We need help. That simple. I'm opening up a channel and sending a request for aid." Starwing opened his mouth to protest when he silenced him, "Don't even start, Starwing. We're ill-equipped to handle things like this and I'm well aware of the risks of sending a message that open. And frankly, all I can say is this. Frag the mission. We can't take another hit like that with our limited medical abilities, so I'm pulling the plug on the search. Cybertron can send their own slagged recovery team." As soon as he paused, Starwing interjected, "And what are you gonna do? Return to Cybertron? Chicken out? That doesn't seem very brave." Hound turned to glare at him, "I'm not going to Cybertron, and I don't care if you think I'm a coward, this is a matter of practicality that we can't afford to strain." Starwing raised a hand to protest, stopping momentarily as he suddenly felt dizzy, "Yeah... Well like it or not, you're the most... experienced at leading... out of the five- er, four of us..." Hound activated the distress beacon, hoping that it would attract the attention of another Transformer vessel. He then turned to Starwing, "I don't care if I had the Matrix of Leadership in my chest, I'm not going to stay and let our numbers fall and resources dwindle for some simple excavation mission."
Starwing tried to argue, and promptly stumbled. Hound briefly snarled at him as he toppled toward him, then stopped as he fell limp against the sentry. As he fell to the ground, Hound grabbed hold of him and tried to slow his descent. He shook the triple-changer in an attempt to wake him and called his name, "Starwing?" Nothing. "Starwing?!" Hound ran a diagnostic scan and saw that close to every last drop of Energon in his body was being diverted toward the wheels on his hips and legs, and he had overheated to the point of shutting down. Those same wheels, he recalled, transformed into caterpillar treads for his Landmaster form. Looking up from the unconscious mech cradled in his arms, he yelled for the other three.
Stiletto was the first to arrive, with Cameo skating in shortly after. Upon seeing Starwing unconscious, they immediately rushed to help him. Unfortunately, no-one had any medical experience in this field, having only been a field medic patching up severed appendages with jury-rigged materials for a temporary fix at best. Stiletto looked up from Starwing briefly to see that Hound had sent a distress signal, "You're giving away our position?" Hound's yellow optics turned to Stiletto, "Yes. Besides, our base is already compromised Primus knows who knows where we are. We may as well try and find help from any allies we can. In the meantime, help me stabilize him! Now where is Pitstop?"
[A/N]
→ I'm not disregarding the RiD part of the Aligned continuity, this fanfic takes place around the time RiD occurs. Hence why Bumblebee, Grimlock, and Sideswipe aren't around for example. And yes, I have plans to work around the whole gimmick of Optimus being alive in that continuity without rendering this more of an AU than it already is.
→ Am I turning into Simon Furman? I swear, characters are just dropping left and right. But not to worry too much, only one of the two fallen characters here is what I would consider dead.
→ EDIT: Late update is late