Author's Note: Finally an update! Please don't hurt me for taking so long!
Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Cyber Stargate
Chapter 4: Meeting
As the strange humans entered the ruined city, Ultra Rodimus followed. Despite his massive size and fifteen tons of weight, he could be utterly silent when he wanted to be. The humans never even knew they were being followed. His stripes rippled, keeping him disguised as a piece of the planet.
As the four went, they wondered about the planet's inhabitants, and commented on the size and condition of the ruins. Their follower noted that they were heading right for the Rift, the huge gash in Cybertron's surface, and picked up the pace a bit. Fortunately, they spotted the Rift before they ended up in it. That was when another danger, this time a hungry turbofox, showed up.
Despite what most people thought, Cybertron did have axial rotation. It spun on an axis just as Earth did, only slower. Cybertron's "day" was around fifty hours long, but there was very little difference between night and day. Cybertron did not orbit a sun. The planet was a wanderer. The axial spin did give the planet winds, enough for most of the flight-capable Autobots to glide on.
The turbofox edged closer to the four. Ultra Rodimus solved the problem by moving into the wind until it blew his scent directly at the 'fox. It froze, scenting a much larger, far more dangerous predator, and decided to find food elsewhere. The young Prime watched it go, then turned back to the four just in time to hear the first creak of stressed metal. Then, before his horrified eyes, the edge of the Rift gave way, and one of the humans fell into the depths.
He bolted, exploding from hiding and crossing the distance in several huge strides. Running at full speed, he launched himself over the other three and dove into the Rift.
The screaming human was below him, flailing wildly. Ultra Rodimus kept his arms tight to his body, reducing the drag. Within seconds he was within range.
In one swift move, he flipped over and transformed to his bird mode. Using a move he'd trained and perfected for precisely that task, one leg shot out. His clawed toes plucked the human out of the air. A second later, he flipped head-down and snapped open his wings with an audible crack. His fall turned into a swoop, and he shot upward, heading for the open sky.
Jack O'Neill didn't know what had happened. One moment he'd been watching his partner fall. The next, the ground had shaken, and something huge had thundered past overhead, a greyish streak that vanished into the darkness below. He'd thought he was seeing things until Sam yelled in surprise, and Teal'c flinched.
Below, something buzzed. Then, more than a mile away, the streak reappeared, this time heading up. Jack made out huge wings and a long tail. The shape wheeled toward them. As it came closer, they made out more of the details.
The creature looked like a cross between a bird and a man. Its body was humanoid in shape, but the legs ended in grasping toes and sharp claws. Instead of arms, it had clawed wings. The head resembled an eagle's, but was much wider across the braincase. Silver feathers ran down its back. In color, it was mainly a smoke-grey, striped red and blue. Piercing green eyes glared down at them. The beak opened in a thunderous cry.
"It's carrying something," Sam suddenly realized, pointing at its right foot. The toes were curled up into a fist, as if to hold something.
"The creature is also metallic," Teal'c noted as he activated his staff weapon and took aim at the creature.
Up close, the bird-creature was huge. Its wings spanned more than 150 feet from tip to tip. The beak was big enough to hold a transit bus. Each eye was five feet across.
The bird-creature soared past. They turned to watch it. A safe distance away from the hole, it went into a hover. Then it opened its claw, and a very much alive if very shaken archaeologist dropped to the ground.
"Daniel!" Jack ran toward Daniel.
A buzzing sound filled the air. Everyone stared as the bird-creature changed shape, exchanging wings for arms and talons for feet. The feathers vanished. When the change was complete, a humanoid creature dropped lightly to the ground and glared at them, hands on its hips.
The being was huge, over 60 feet tall. Its slender body was clearly metal. A long silver braid hung down its back. From its expression, it was obviously irritated. The stripes marking its body all turned red, reflecting its mood.
"Just what in the universe do you think you're doing?!" the creature demanded, the timbre and depth of its voice revealing it to be a 'he'. Green eyes flashed at them, another indicator of his anger. "The Badlands are restricted for a reason! Everyone knows that! What do we have to do, build a fence around it to keep you stupid humans out?! We make it very clear to every human and nonhuman that this area is off limits!"
The rant escalated from there. SG-1 tried to speak, but the metal creature simply raised his voice and drowned them out with sheer volume. Finally, they gave up and waited it out.
The metal creature finally wound down. He glared at the four for a moment. "Now, just what about the rules isn't clear to you?"
Jack aimed his gun at the creature.
"You point that in some other direction!" the creature ordered sharply. "That puny thing can't hurt me anyway. It's been tried, so I know."
Jack ignored the order, sidling forward until he reached Daniel. Slowly, he pulled the archaeologist behind him, never lowering his aim. Then he slowly back up until he'd rejoined his team. Sam and Teal'c also took aim at the creature.
"Don't you move," Jack snapped at the creature. "Tell us who the hell are you, what the hell are you, and what rules are you yapping on about?"
To be continued...
This didn't go quite as I'd planned, but that can't be helped. It'll get better as the story progresses. So keep on reading. And here are the reviewer responses:
Unknown: Didn't I already ask that you put in a reviewer name? And I'm a Translash writer, so you'll have to get used to it. And the movie only introduced Ultra Magnus. It never gave any hints as to his preferences in partners. In the future, keep comments about his choice of partners to yourself.
Lalene Brooks: Thank you for clarifying that for me. And thanks for the compliments.
Gromia: Of course not. But I needed to have a reason for Ultra Rodimus to reveal himself. Catching a falling human was just what I needed.
Fenestrae: The SGC has been under the mountain for years, operating the Stargate. They only heard rumors about the Transformers, rumors they considered wishful thinking or fables. And I know what the lava is called, I just wasn't sure how to spell it, so I didn't bother.
Worker72: Just keep reading. Couldn't do first contact 'cause it was Optimus back in the 80's who was the Prime. It'll get better. Just wait until Ultra Roddy starts going on missions with SG-1. Pity the Goa'uld who cross his path!
That's it for this chapter! Stay tuned for more!