Would you look at this, an update that is actually early instead of being late. Not as long as my last update, but still. And I am also still sorry for making you all wait, I hate not writing at the pace I like to, which is fast. I was stuck on the first part of this chapter for three weeks, just the beginning, the rest of it I have written in the last week or so. So, even though this was faster than my last update, I am sorry for making you wait.
By the way, I changed one little detail in chapter 23. I said that the flamethrower that Pyros use burns the same temperature as the surface of the Sun, and that Cybertronian armor was basically vaporized by that heat, but that wouldn't make any sense, since there are metals on Earth that almost have a higher melting point than the temperature of the Sun's surface. So, I changed it to sixty-thousand degrees kelvin, which makes it ten times hotter than the surface of the Sun. I know, minor thing to change, but my muse demanded it.
I hope everyone had, or still is having, a lovely holiday season. I certainly did, and I am going to enjoy the rest of my Christmas/New Year's break.
And also, for everyone who reviewed, thank you. It always makes me happy to see that people read and like my story. Thank you. :)
Thanks go to Crystal Prime for beta reading.
Selena Snow - That was my intention. Lol. I am glad you found that part funny, it was a lot of fun to write such an awkward moment. Hehe. Unfortunately, my muse never gave me ideas for Valentine's Day. :/ *Sighs* I know I could have had fun with that if my muse had given me ideas, but oh well. There will be other funny moments. Thanks for reviewing. :)
Autobot Shadowstalker - Yes, yes they did. And I originally planned on having Arcee kiss Shadowstreaker on the check or something, but I decided against it since it wouldn't have worked with what I have planned. And that is classified, and will remain so until I reveal what it means in a later chapter. And yes, yes they are. Haha. But that is what makes writing their characters so much fun. And I updated soon-ish. Didn't take as long as last time, at least. Haha.
jayna prime - *Watches you hyperventilate and become speechless* I seem to have broken you. Huh. Lol. I am glad you liked it so much. :)
smoshaholic123 - I am glad you think so. I always like writing a cliff-hanger, they are so much fun. Haha. Thanks for leaving feedback.
Anduren - I am flattered that you like this fic better than the cartoon, I don't think it is since I am a humble person, but I thank you anyway. I liked the cartoon a lot up until the last five episodes or so, it just became way too serious and there wasn't enough humor to balance it, and it was becoming inconsistent, which was another reason why I stopped liking it.
AllSpark Princess - Of course Shadowstreaker will be a large role in the story, what that role is, however, is classified. But I can tell you that he will play a major role in the future.
Fox of Magic - *Looks at date* Will a few days faster than my last update do? Lol. Sorry for keeping you waiting.
Kaylee Chiara - I do tend to have a lot going on in my chapters, don't I? Guess that's a side-effect of writing such long updates. Haha. And my chapters always seem short in my head, but when I write them down, I find that they are really long. Lol.
As I said in another reply, classified. You will get answers, but it will take a while, there are things that have to happen between the explanation and now. And you are most welcome. :)
Sky's Limit5 - Actually... Answers for that are going to have to wait for a while, so it I'm not going to tell you this chapter... Sorry? Haha. I promise that there will be answers, but it is going to take a bit before I get to that point in the story. So please be patient with me. :)
And I love writing long updates, but there is a point where it comes time to end the chapter, and the last chapter seemed to go on forever.
pfolk - We all have outbursts, so it's fine. Glad to hear the story you are writing is coming along nicely. And consider this chapter a late Christmas gift.
Happy New Year to you, as well.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. I only take credit for this story and my OCs.
March 30, 2013 8:34 A.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
One orbital-cycle, two jours, one mega-cycle, and five solar-cycles. That was how long it had been since I left my original reality.
It was strange, I had learned and experienced so much in only a little over one Earth year that it almost seemed like I had been here a lifetime.
I had been turned into a Cybertronian after spending my first seventeen orbital-cycles as a human. I had become a warrior. I had taken the lives of sentient beings. I had seen a few things that would have stayed with me for the rest of my days, even if my memory hadn't been photographic before becoming a Cybertronian. I had gotten a tiny glimpse of what it was like to be a sparkling's sire, even though it was only about one mega-cycle. And I had... Fallen in love, with my best friend and partner, a femme who I knew didn't feel the same way about me.
But, it seemed as though my spark didn't care if Arcee felt the same way or not, because for the last three jours, my spark had been fluttering more than it ever had, almost to the point of ridiculousness. Three jours ago, my spark would sometimes flutter if Arcee laughed or smiled. Now, it would flutter if we were standing close to one another, or sometimes if she even just looked at me. And then there was the matter with the... Pulling, and the electrical jolts that accompanied it.
The Pulling, as I had come to call it, has happened three times since it first started on Christmas, each exactly thirty solar-cycles apart, which meant that it wasn't just a one-time occurrence, it was in a cycle. But despite that, I hadn't told anyone about the Pulling, and luckily no one had found out... Yet, at least. And that was good, because I felt compelled to keep the Pulling a secret even more than my feelings for Arcee. Of course, I was still being very careful not to let anyone else find out about my feelings for Arcee. But, I was putting a bit more effort to keep the Pulling a secret, since there was no doubt in my CPU that if Arcee finding out how I truly felt about her would weird her out and ruin our friendship, then her finding out about the Pulling would be even worse. Much worse.
Other than the three Pulling instances, there had been surprisingly few noteworthy events over the last three jours.
General Shepherd was still searching for the mole in S.T.F, last I had heard. Although, he hadn't informed us of the progress of his search in nearly a jour. It was possible that he had caught the mole, but that was highly unlikely since we hadn't been informed of the capture of the double agent. So, S.T.F's mole was more than likely still giving information to MECH.
Ratchet and Moonracer have continued to study the Delphic, they had not been able to find out very much information about the enigmatic power source, however, and its creators remained a mystery to us. But fortunately, they have had better luck with the armor fragment I gave them back in December. According to Moonracer, who had been studying the armor fragment more than Ratchet, the fragment was made out of an alloy based on common Cybertronian metals that was mixed in with a number of common elements, such as Silicon, Carbon, Aluminium, and Magnesium. And also contained rare elements, such as Yttrium, Lutetium, Praseodymium, and Scandium. The combination of all these elements produced a super-dense, incredibly strong alloy that was almost on par with my armor in terms of tensile strength and resistance to heat, which didn't bode well for us if every Decepticon on Earth was now equipped with the armor. Moonracer was still studying the armor fragment in hopes that she could find a weakness we could use against it.
Also, the Decepticons had been strangely inactive in the last three jours. And it was made even more unusual by the fact that this lull in Decepticon movement came with Megatron in command and not Starscream, who had often gone into long periods of inactivity. Not that any of us were complaining, the less time we spent fighting the Decepticons, the less likely we were to destroy something and reveal our presence to humans.
Finally, our energon situation was even worse than it was in December. Not even the Energon Harvester was helping, since we hadn't detected a stray energon signal in nearly two jours. We knew the location of almost a dozen major energon deposits, but the Decepticons had all of them under heavy guard, so we couldn't raid them to replenish our own storage hangers. As a result of our lack of an energon inflow, we were down to roughly fifty storage containers of energon, which was barely enough to last the eighteen of us for two mega-cycles. If we didn't find an energon deposit soon, all of us would fall into stasis lock within a jour, due to lack of energon. But, that was something Optimus told us Autobots to keep to ourselves, we didn't need Raf, Miko, and Jack worrying about our energon supply when there was nothing they could do to help with the problem.
Speaking of the human teens, I was hanging out with Miko and Jack at the moment, playing the Dark Carnival campaign of Left 4 Dead 2 with Jack... On expert... With realism on... It seemed like a good idea at the time.
"Boomer!" Jack yelled as he pushed the obese infected away from Ellis, who he was playing as, and unloaded half a clip of his AK-47 into the undead monstrosity, causing the Boomer to go... Well, boom, in a shower of digital gore.
"Don't lose the gnome!" Miko cried frantically, pointing her index figure to where Jack and I had thrown a garden gnome, that we had won earlier in the level by getting the high score on a carnival shooting gallery, before we started to battle the undead horde. "I don't want to lose the achievement!"
"It's fine, Miko," I said, rolling my holoform's eyes at Miko's words as I blasted the heads off of three normal infected with Coach's Combat Shotgun. "Besides, you're not even playing, don't worry about whether we get an achievement or not."
"But Jack's playing, and he's been trying to get this achievement for a while," Miko said, then leaned against Jack and wrapped her arm around one of Jack's, grip obviously light so she wouldn't hamper his ability to play. "And I want what he wants."
I made a gagging sound as Jack and Miko shared a quick kiss, they were one of those lovey-dovey couples, which was perfectly fine, but they often said really cheesy things. "Oh, sorry, your mushiness almost made me purge my tank." I joked, using the rest of the rounds I had in my shotgun to kill a Smoker that had failed to trap me in its tongue before I pulled out my melee weapon, a guitar, and took the heads off of any infected that got too close.
"You're just jealous you don't have a girlfriend," Jack said with a smile as he threw a Molotov Cocktail at an infected Clown and the horde of normal infected following him.
"No, actually. I am just tired of watching you two kiss every few klicks." I said matter-of-factly, but internally I didn't care what they did, I knew I would be stealing a kiss from Arcee if she and I were together... Although, that would require Arcee to have feelings for me in the first place.
'Don't start thinking about that,' I thought, keeping my holoform's face impassive as I continued killing the infected with my character's guitar.
"Uh-huh, sure," Jack said sarcastically, shooting me a disbelieving look as he and I killed off the last of the infected.
"Who's going to carry the gnome?" I asked, changing the topic to avoid discussing this subject any further.
My attempt to change the topic seemed to work. "You are, I carried it last time," Jack said as he reloaded his character's AK-47 and replaced the Molotov Cocktail he used by grabbing one of two Pipe Bombs from a nearby table.
"I've been carrying it about eighty percent of the time since we got it," I protested as I moved Coach over to the table and grabbed the other Pipe Bomb. "And you are the one who wants the achievement..."
Jack sighed and moved his character toward the garden gnome. "Bastard," I heard him whisper under his breath, more out of jest than anger.
"Only when I play video games, and that is mostly in the form of kill-steals," I joked as I switched my guitar for my primary weapon and started to reload my Combat Shotgun, preparing to play bodyguard while Jack carried the gnome through the level.
Jack never got to the garden ornament.
Without warning, or even its signature theme music, a Tank ran out from behind a building and swung one of its massive fists into the AI-controlled Nick, downing the ex-con man and sending him flying into a wall about fifty feet away.
"What the hell?!" Jack asked no one in particular as he backed up his character and opened fire on the Tank with his AK. "That Tank is a freaking ninja!"
"I am aware," I said, unloading on the Tank with my Combat Shotgun while I backed away from the hulking infected as well. "Just shoot him and hope we have enough room to stay out of his way."
"I'm trying," Jack responded in a slightly panicked tone as his AK-47 clicked empty and he pulled out his dual pistols and kept firing. "But he's not going down."
As Jack and I continued pouring rounds into the Tank, the monstrous infected picked up a rock and threw it at the AI-controlled Rochelle, instantly killing our second AI-controlled teammate, since she had been downed twice in a row without being healed.
"This is going well," I quipped as I fired the last rounds of my shotgun into the Tank and started to reload as it turned its attention to Jack and I.
Jack sighed. "Shut up, Shadowstreaker," he said, only half serious as he reloaded his pistols and continued to shoot at the Tank.
"That wasn't nice," I said, faking a sad and offended tone as the Tank picked up another rock and threw it at Jack and I.
Jack managed to dodge the incoming boulder, but I didn't react in time, and the rock hit my character squarely in the chest, downing him in an instant.
"And that wasn't nice, either." I said, adding onto my last statement as I shot at the Tank with the pistol you automatically pull out when you are downed. "It's all up to you, Jack. No pressure."
Jack ignored me, keeping his focus on the screen as he switched his pistols for his AK and reloaded the assault rifle and continued firing.
As Jack reloaded his AK-47, the Tank picked up another rock and threw it at Jack's character, but Jack managed to move behind a wall before the Tank finished throwing the boulder, causing the rock to impact the wall instead of Jack.
After the boulder shattered against the wall, Jack stepped out from behind his cover and fired his AK at the tank, continuing to back up since the Tank was charging him.
"Use your Pipe Bomb. If you time it right, the explosion will do a lot more damage than what you're doing with your rifle," Miko advised.
Without acknowledging his girlfriend with words, Jack pulled out his Pipe Bomb and, after taking a brief moment to aim the crosshairs on the screen, threw cylindrical explosion at the Tank.
The Pipe Bomb soared threw the air, tumbling end over end as it flew straight toward the Tank... And hit the monstrous infected right between the eyes... And then bounced right back to Jack and exploded close enough to him to down his character.
The silence that followed Jack's character being downed by his own Pipe Bomb was deafening. I had played with game quite a bit when it first came out, and not once had that happened to any my friends or I when we played. We had some pretty spectacular fails, of course, like accidentally killing ourselves with a Molotov Cocktail, but we never managed to kill our characters with our Pipe Bombs. That was really hard to do, since Pipe Bombs had a few micro-klick timer that would beep at you before it blew up, and that made Jack's fail all the more impressive.
After the three of us continued sitting in silence until we respawned in the safe room, I looked over at Jack. "How the hell did you manage to do that?" I asked in exasperation.
"Shut up..." Jack said in what was meant to be an angry tone, but it ended up coming out as an amused one, since he was struggling not to laugh at his own misfortune.
"That was impressive, Jackie," Miko laughed. "And not in a good way."
The taller teen shook his head. "And now my own girlfriend is making fun of me..." He said with a sigh, tone carrying a tone of false sadness and hurt.
"Aww... I hurt my Jackie's feelings," Miko said, pushing out her lower lip in a fake pout before she pulled her lip back in and smiled. "Let me fix that." She raised her head up and planted a kiss on Jack's lips.
I made another gagging sound. "Oh, man, do we have a mop?" I asked. "I just hurled cheesy lines all over the floor."
Anything Jack or Miko might have wanted to say to me for my comment was lost, because immediately after I spoke, the workstation started to beep rapidly, a sign that something had been detected on our sensors.
And since I was the only Autobot besides Ratchet and Moonracer, who were studying the Delphic and armor fragment in the med-bay, that wasn't out on patrol or down in the Safe, I had to find out what our sensors had found.
I tossed the controller in my holoform's hands to Miko. "Hold this," I said, and then dematerialized my holoform and changed from my MRAP form into my true form.
"What's going on?" Miko asked as I started to walk toward the workstation, with an excited look on her face, from what I could see out of my peripheral vision.
"Don't know," I replied, not looking over at Miko and Jack as I reached the workstation and started typing the command into the computer that would cause it to display what our sensors had detected. "But we're about to find out."
I finished typing the command into the computer, but instead of showing an energon signal, the signature of a Decepticon ship, or even the beacon of a weapons cache, the main screen zoomed out from its constant overview of Earth. And the screen continued zooming out past Luna before focusing on a large asteroid that, according to the readings on the screen, was passing within two-million kilometers of Earth, a short distance in terms of how outer space was measured.
"Well that was anti-climatic," Miko said, the excited look on her face being replaced with one of boredom. "I was expecting something cool, like a new Bot coming to Earth or a Con base that lost its cloaking device. But no. It's just an asteroid." She and Jack chuckled slightly at her joke.
I ignored the two humans and looked at the screen in confusion. What Jack and Miko had failed to realize, is that there was an energy signature coming from the asteroid, an energy signature that was unique to Cybertronian technology. There seemed to be something masking the signal as well, like a cloaking device or something similar. But it wasn't doing a very good job at keeping the signal masked, since the signal was still strong enough for our sensors to detect it from two-million kilometers away. So, whatever was masking the signal was likely severely damaged or rundown.
But the fact that there was even an energy signal coming from an asteroid raised questions. What was causing the signal? Was it a piece of a forgotten superweapon created by the Decepticons? Was it something like the Delphic? Or was it something else entirely?
After I had continued to ignore Jack and Miko, they seemed to get the feeling that there was more to what they were seeing on screen, and they stopped chuckling.
"What is it, Shadowstreaker?" Jack asked, a tinge of worry creeping into his voice since I had a serious look on my faceplate.
I ignored Jack's question and opened a comm-link with Ratchet. "Ratchet, we have a situation out here."
There was an audible grumble from Ratchet's end of the comm-link. "What?" The white and red medic asked in a tone that was a little gruffer than what was normal for him, probably because I had likely interrupted a test he was conducting on the Delphic.
I glanced at Jack and Miko, who looked like they were starting to get unsettled by my silence, before replying. "The long-range sensors just picked up an asteroid passing within six-hundred thousand kilometers of Ear-"
"Let me get this straight," Ratchet interrupted. "You disrupted my tests on the Delphic because our sensors detected an asteroid in a system that has not one, but two asteroid belts? How is this important?"
"You didn't let me finish," I pointed out patiently, knowing that Ratchet was only being short with me because he wanted to get back to running tests on the Delphic. Maybe I was going to have to talk with Moonracer about having an intervention with Ratchet concerning his constant testing of the Delphic, he was slightly obsessed the ancient crystal.
Ratchet sighed. "Alright, then. So, what is so unique about this asteroid that you have contacted me and interrupted my tests?" He asked, tone only slightly less impatient than it was a moment ago.
"According to the sensors, there is an energy signal coming from the asteroid that is unique to Cybertronian technology. But I can't tell if the technology was built by Autobots or Decepticons, since there also appears to something masking the signal," I explained.
There was a pregnant pause from Ratchet's end of the comm-link. "Moonracer and I are on our way out," he finally said, curiosity replacing the impatient tone in his voice, and then closed the link with that.
After Ratchet closed the comm-link, I looked over at Jack and Miko, who now looked quite anxious. "Sorry for ignoring you, I was talking with Ratchet." I apologized.
"What's going on?" Jack asked, repeating his earlier question.
"Somewhere on that asteroid," I said, pointing a thumb digit at the main screen. "Is an unknown amount of Cybertronian technology. Technology that someone, somewhere wanted to keep hidden."
"How do you know that?" Miko asked, giving the screen a brief, confused glance, likely not understanding the readings being displayed on the main screen.
I gestured to the screen again, this time with my helm. "The readings on the screen say that there's an energy signal coming from the asteroid that is unique to Cybertronian tech, and it also seems to be being masked by something, likely a cloaking device like the one we have for the base. But beyond that, I don't know anything else, that's why I told Ratchet. Hopefully, he and Moonracer will be able to give us some more info." I said, then looked over toward the hallway and waited for Ratchet and Moonracer to appear.
I didn't have to wait long, since the two medics stepped into the ops center a couple micro-klicks after I spoke.
"How long ago did the signal appear?" Ratchet asked as he shooed me away from the computer and he and Moonracer went to stand at their parts of the workstation.
"About two or three klicks ago," I answered, folding my servos behind my backplates as I moved to stand next to the catwalk Jack and Miko were standing on.
"Has it changed in intensity since it appeared?" Moonracer asked, not looking up from her keyboard as she started typing commands into her part of the workstation.
Even though Moonracer couldn't see me, I shook my helm. "No, it hasn't changed at all since our sensors detected it," I replied.
There was a short silence as Moonracer and Ratchet went to work at the computer before the white and red medic spoke. "You are correct in saying that the energy signal is being masked, Shadowstreaker, there's something running interference on our sensors."
"I am getting some interference, as well," Moonracer added. "It seems like a cloaking device, but it must be severely damaged, otherwise we wouldn't be getting a signal at all."
"I knew that already," I said to her evenly, not wanting to accidentally seem like I was irritated for no reason. "Is there anything about the signal that the rest of us aren't aware of?"
Ratchet answered my question instead. "It isn't coming from Autobot or Decepticon technology," he said flatly, as if that wasn't at all surprising.
I gave Ratchet a confused look. "What do you mean?" I asked, keeping my servos folded behind my backplates as I stepped over to Ratchet and looked up at the main screen, while Ratchet himself kept his attention on his keyboard.
The white and red medic didn't look up and gestured vaguely to the readings on the main screen. "The energy signal might be being masked, but it was clear enough for me to run a comparison between the signal and the readings of all known Cybertronian technology, both Autobot and Decepticon. And the signal doesn't match anything. Even the Delphic had a different energy signal than this piece of technology." He explained.
"So, we basically know nothing about what's on the asteroid," Jack summed up.
Moonracer shook her helm. "Not necessarily," she said. "We know that the technology is Cybertronian in origin, and that it wasn't created by Autobots or Decepticons. That leaves two options. One, the technology, whatever it is, was developed by neutrals after the war, which could make it an interesting object to study. Or two, the technology was created by one of the Thirteen, which would make this an invaluable find. One that could, potentially, shift the balance of the war in the Autobots' favor."
"That's a little dramatic, don't you think?" I asked dryly. "After all, the thing we have been able to determine about it is that the technology wasn't created by Decepticons or Autobots. For all we know, the signal is coming from a container of the Cybertronian equivalent of coffee."
Moonracer and Ratchet gave me identical, perplexed looks. "What is 'coffee'?" They asked in unison, Moonracer tilting her helm slightly, while Ratchet kept his helm vertical.
"It's a popular human drink, helps them wake up in the morning," I replied, then got the conversation back on track before we could veer off topic. "But the point is that we don't know what's on the asteroid, saying that technology could shift the balance of the war is a bit premature."
"I know that, I was merely saying that anything made by the Thirteen could be a game-changer for either faction," Moonracer said. "And that means that even if this technology wasn't created by the Ancients, we need to recover it so there's no chance such technology falls into Decepticon servos."
I immediately understood what Moonracer meant. "Are you saying-"
"That you, Jetfire, and Springer are going to leave Earth for a while when they return from patrol?" Ratchet interjected and finished my sentence. "Yes, that is exactly what she means."
Miko's face lit up at Ratchet's words. "You're going into space?" She asked me, eyes wide with excitement and wonder that was... Well, Miko-like.
I shrugged. "Apparently," I replied easily, as if going into outer space was barely a noteworthy event, which was true for most Cybertronians, but not me. I couldn't deny that the concept of breaking the gravitational pull of the only planet I had ever stood on was... Incredible. But it was also terrifying, since we would be on our own after we left Earth's atmosphere and got too far away for our comm-links to work. So, I was more than a little excited for this mission, but I was also just as nervous.
Miko was silent for a micro-klick. "Dude, you are so taking my phone so you can take pictures," she said with a totally serious, and yet somehow excited, look on her face, as if there was a real possibility that I was going to take her cell phone into space.
"I am going to be flying through space in one of my alt modes, I am not going to have time to take snap shots for you, Miko." I replied, giving the young Japanese girl a flat look for her words.
Miko huffed. "Then make time!" She cried in an urgent tone, putting her hands on her hips as if she was trying to strike a commanding pose, though it wasn't effective. "I missed out on a photo opportunity the last time you Bots went into space, I am not missing out on a second one!"
I chuckled at Miko's antics and opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, I was abruptly filled with a feeling of dread that was not my own, and I felt compelled to look at the main screen.
The feeling of dread increased when I looked at the image of the asteroid, but it was also accompanied by hope and happiness, but also sadness and a feeling of grudging acceptance, and also... Amusement. It was by far the strangest and most confusing combination of emotions that I had ever felt.
And just as quickly as they appeared, the emotions vanished like wisps of smoke, leaving me standing in the ops center with questions ringing in my helm.
'What was that?' I asked myself. The rush of emotions I just experienced felt similar to what my bond with Solus felt like when it was open in the Pocket Universe, but the bond I shared with her had remained closed when I was flooded with emotions. And-
"Are you alright, Shadowstreaker?" Moonracer asked, cutting my thoughts short. "You seem troubled."
I shifted my attention away from the main screen and looked at Moonracer. "I'm alright, just confused about something," I responded, then turned around and started walking to my quarters. "I'll be in my quarters until Jetfire and Springer return to base," I said over my shoulder-joint, ignoring the puzzled looks I knew the others were giving me.
As I walked down the hallway, I was filled with another feeling of dread, but this time its meaning was clear. Whatever was on the asteroid... Was going to change a lot of things, and those changes might not be for the better.
Forty klicks later, I was standing on top of our base with Jetfire and Springer, who had returned from patrol ten klicks ago, waiting for Ratchet to tell us when to take off and leave Earth's atmosphere. The reason we were standing on the top of the base was simple. We were waiting for the asteroid to get closer.
Moonracer had plotted the course of the asteroid and found that it would come within seven-hundred and fifty-thousand kilometers of Earth, close enough for us to fly to it in roughly six breems when we weren't limited by the atmosphere of Earth. But, we couldn't cover that distance in one go, we would need to bring some cubes of energon with us so we replenish the energon that we were going to burn up during our flight. But, since there was no gravity in space, we would need to land on a planetary body that had enough gravity to keep our energon in our cubes. Luckily, the path of the asteroid was going to take it past Luna, which meant we would be able to use Earth's only satellite as a stepping stone to get to the asteroid.
We just had to wait until Ratchet told us when to leave.
"This is taking forever," Springer complained, pacing back and forth impatiently.
"Planetoids tend to take time to move through the cosmos, youngling," Jetfire deadpanned from where he sat on the helicopter pad.
Springer huffed. "Shut up, old mech," he said as he sent an annoyed look the seeker's way, which didn't faze Jetfire in the slightest.
"You are a very impatient mech, youngling," the seeker said. "We haven't even been up here for five klicks, and you are already being irritable."
I heard Springer growl under his breath. "It's impossible not to be angry when... He is here," he said, sending a scowl in my direction, which he had done periodically since we had come up here.
I pretended I hadn't noticed the scowl Springer was giving me and kept standing with my servos behind my backplates, patiently waiting for Ratchet to open a communications channel and let the three of us know when to leave. Normally, I might have responded to the green Triple-Changer's words, but since we were about to go on a very dangerous mission with just him, Jetfire, and I, I felt like there were important things to do than trade, hopefully, verbal blows with Springer. So I decided to stay silent until Ratchet contacted us.
Surprisingly, I wouldn't have to stay silent for long, since Ratchet opened a communications channel with the tree of us at that moment.
"You are clear to leave Earth's atmosphere," the white and red medic said simply, then closed the channel with that.
After Ratchet closed the channel, we all folded into our alt modes, with Springer folding back the rotors on his helicopter form so he could achieve a high enough speed to keep up with Jetfire and I. And then we all started flying straight up, quickly leaving the speed of sound behind in a sonic boom.
Soon, Jetfire, Springer, and I were flying at mach 3.2, the maximum speed we could fly this low in the atmosphere without leaving Springer far behind, but we would be able to pick up the pace by a factor of about thirty when we entered the heavens and weren't restricted by the air of Earth.
Ten micro-klicks after we started flying, we had already risen beyond the height of Mount Everest, and since the air was only a third as think up here as it was back down on the ground, we also increased our speed to mach 4.1.
After twenty micro-klicks, we were flying more than five times the height of Earth's tallest mountain, and we were now moving at mach 13.2, exactly four times the maximum speed as a SR-71 Blackbird, or roughly four and a half kilometers per micro-klick.
After thirty micro-klicks, we were so far above the ground that the atmosphere was virtually non-existent, allowing the three of us to fly at one-hundred and thirteen times the speed of sound, or about three times as fast as the Saturn V rocket. There was no doubt in my CPU that the news networks of Earth were going to have a field day with three unidentified flying objects soaring straight up in the air in broad daylight. But since we had a limited time in which to get to the asteroid, that didn't matter at the moment.
Just one full klick after we took off from the top of our base, we were already more than two-hundred miles above the Earth, and well on our way to our first stop. Luna.
March 30, 2013 10:53 A.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
Ratchet stared at the main screen in the ops center, watching the three red dots on the screen that represented Jetfire, Springer, and Shadowstreaker as they passed the half-way point between Earth and its only moon.
To his left, he could hear his courted typing on the keyboard of her section of the computer, as well as the two romantically involved human children as they watched a television channel called 'CNN' in the same area Ratchet had seen them playing their virtual games. He could hear an unfamiliar human female saying something about 'three unidentified flying objects leaving Earth's atmosphere at speeds unobtainable by human aircraft,' but he couldn't make out the exact words.
And he did not need to.
The method in which Shadowstreaker, Springer, and Jetfire had left Earth was not a stealthy one, and Earth was far too densely populated for a member of the human race to not notice Cybertronians leaving atmosphere in such a way, so it was obvious that the human female was speaking about his fellow Autobots.
'They are gone for less than two breems, and the human media is already running stories about three mysterious objects leaving Earth, Agent Fowler will be not be pleased,' Ratchet thought with a sigh. The agent of the United States' government had yet to call the base, but Ratchet had no doubt that it wouldn't be long before he did, likely after he had crafted a cover-story for the 'UFO's that the human female was talking about, and the annoying human would most certainly demand to be informed about the situation.
Bringing himself out of his thoughts before he got angry at Agent Fowler when he wasn't even here, Ratchet looked away from the main screen focused his attention on the left corner of the screen of his section of the computer, where images of his most recent test of the Delphic was being fed from the computer in the med-bay, to the computer in front of him through a live-feed.
Ratchet knew that his extensive testing of the ancient energy source was slightly... Obsessive. But, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to the Delphic than what he and Moonracer had already determined. His courted mostly lost interest in conducting tests on the Delphic, and had since focused most of her attention on the armor fragment Shadowstreaker had recovered from the battlefield more than three jours ago, but he would continue administering tests on the ancient energy source for the next centi-vorn if it meant he would unlock all the mysteries it was hiding.
Tearing his gaze away from the readings of his current test of the Delphic, Ratchet looked at the right corner of his computer screen, where he was running a program that would hopefully clear up the energy signal their sensors had detected more than a breem ago.
Just like with the Delphic, Ratchet couldn't get rid of the feeling that there was more to the signal than what their instruments were telling them at the moment, so he was clearing up the signal in hopes that the sensors would give them more information. But in the breem since he had started to clear up the signal, there had been no noticeable change.
"Perhaps it is time for you to turn that program off," Moonracer suddenly said, causing Ratchet's thoughts to come to a halt. "If there was anything more to the energy signal, the program would have completed its run-time."
As if his courted's words were the password to the computer in front of him, Ratchet's section of the computer beeped once and the window in the right corner of the screen automatically enlarged itself, signifying the completion of the program he had been running.
Giving Moonracer a small smile as if you say 'you were saying?', Ratchet turned his attention to his computer screen... And froze in shock at what he saw.
Moonracer noticed the change in her courted's demeanor, and walked over to him. "Ratchet?" She asked as she put a servo on his shoulder-joint and gave him a concerned look. "Is everything al-" She cut herself off in mid-sentence when she noticed what her courted was staring at out of her peripheral vision, and when she looked fully at the screen, she widened her optics and froze at the data she was reading.
Moonracer and Ratchet stood there for several long micro-klicks, unable to speak or tear their gaze away from the screen as it displayed the unmasked data the sensors were receiving from the asteroid.
"We should... We should get Optimus in here," Moonracer finally said, breaking the silence she and her courted had fallen into. "Only a Prime would know if these readings are correct."
Ratchet nodded absently and opened a comm-link with the Prime without taking his optics off of the constant flow of data coming from his computer. "Optimus, we need you to return to base, there is an urgent matter that requires your attention."
"What is it, Ratchet? Has something gone wrong with the mission to recover the technology from the asteroid?" The Prime asked almost immediately.
"No, not yet, at least." Ratchet replied slowly, still not taking his optics off the data on the screen, which was now starting to form five images close to the core of the asteroid.
Optimus took a long moment to respond. "Then what is so urgent?" He finally asked, tone carrying a tone of confusion so faint, the only reason Ratchet even detected it was because he had known him for so long.
"The discovery of what is on the asteroid itself. And it is either our salvation... Or our doom," Ratchet replied quietly as the data finished rearranging itself into five images.
One of a legendary hammer.
One of an enigmatic broadsword.
One of data cylinder that had a different signature than any other cylinder Ratchet had seen.
One of a near-mythical great sword.
And one of a great ship, which was of a design that wasn't found anywhere in the data archives of Ratchet's computer.
March 30, 2013 3:43 P.M
On approach to asteroid containing unknown Cybertronian technology
We had been flying through space almost non-stop for more than six breems, with only a twenty klick break from flying when we made a pit stop on Luna. I was tired, bored, sick of flying, and just wanted to go back to base and relax. Of course, since Jetfire, Springer, and I were just now arriving at the asteroid, that last one was going to have to wait for a while.
The asteroid that we were racing toward was absolutely massive in person, I estimated that it was around ninety kilometers long by sixty kilometers wide, making it large enough to be considered a planetoid. It was reflecting a moderate amount of light, meaning it was likely a M-type asteroid that was made primarily out of Nickel-Iron, and containing only small amounts of stone. So, landing on the asteroid wasn't going to be a problem since we could magnetize our pedes, but drinking one of the cubes of energon we brought with us would have to wait until we got back to Luna, since the energon would simply float away once we pulled them out of our sub-space.
As Jetfire, Springer, and I approached our destination, we reduced our speed enough to make it safe for us to land on the asteroid without harming ourselves in the process. After slowing down, we transformed and landed on the asteroid in a crouch, sending fragments of metal and rock flying out into space as we impacted the surface of the asteroid with a boom that was lost in the vacuum of space.
Rising from my crouch, I looked around and saw that the area around us was riddled with tiny craters from where meteorites had collided with the asteroid. There were formations of boulders surrounding us, but instead of being made out of stone, they were made of metal, more than likely Iron or Nickel.
Looking straight up, I could see more stars than I had ever seen before, all shining brighter than when looking at them through atmosphere, like a never-ending sea of white marbles. And Earth and Luna were right in the middle of that sea, with Earth looking like a giant sapphire, while Luna looked more like a great white diamond. It was so strange, seeing the only home I had ever known so far away from me, it was truly an indescribable feeling. But it was definitely an amazing sight, and nothing I had seen even came close to comparing to its beauty.
Well... Arcee did, surpassed it, in fact. But that was beside the point.
"About fragging time we got here," Springer said through a communications channel since there was no air to carry sound, breaking me out of my thoughts as he stretched his servos. "My gears were starting to cramp up."
"Then I suggest you stretch them," Jetfire said as he walked toward what looked like a hill, but was likely the edge of a crater from when another asteroid collided with this one, and then closed his end of the channel with that.
Not bothering to add anything onto Jetfire's statement, I quickly followed the seeker in his short walk to the edge of the crater, with Springer following the two of us after he stood in place for a brief moment.
After we reached the edge of the crater a few micro-klicks later, we ascended the hill... And then looked in awe at the sight that greeted us.
The crater in front of us was about two kilometers wide, and about a quarter of that deep. But that wasn't what was leaving the three of us in awe.
What left us in awe was the grouping of light grey structures built in the center of the crater.
Each of the structures were defying physics, floating in place without anything to keep them there. They didn't seem to be designed with aesthetic value as the main goal, since the angles of the buildings looked to be designed more for efficiency than anything else, but they were still amazing to look at. Perhaps not as breath-taking as the Decagon, but amazing, nonetheless. There were also glowing orange lines going up and down each building, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out why they were even there.
The smallest structures were about as tall as me, not including the extra height they gained from floating above the surface of the asteroid. I didn't know what they were, but my guess was that they were either some kind of storage containers, or a deactivated weapons platform.
The largest structure seemed to be a tower in the direct center of the crater, but I had no idea what purpose it was supposed to serve. It was very tall, however, the top of it was probably about twenty meters or so above our helms, which would make it about five-hundred meters in height.
Directly underneath the central tower, there was a tunnel dug into the asteroid. And it seemed like whoever had created the buildings in front us had also built down into the tunnel, since I saw orange light coming out of the tunnel, and of the same shade as the structures we could see.
As we continued to stare at the floating structures in amazement, I couldn't help but wonder if they had been created by the Cybertronians of the Age of the Primes, or maybe even designed by my carrier. But in the back of my helm, there was something telling me that wasn't the case. And for some reason, I felt less inclined to believe my own thoughts on who created these structures, and more compelled to listen to whatever was telling me these buildings weren't constructed by the Cybertronians of the Age of the Primes.
"Buildings from the Age of the Primes... Is not what I expected to find here," Jetfire said in a quiet tone, clearly still in awe of the structures in front of us.
"They aren't from the Age of the Primes," I said matter-of-factly, trusting that the feeling I had was right.
Springer rolled his optics at me and glared. "And I suppose that you know everything when it comes to the architecture of the Ancients, don't you?" He asked sarcastically, obviously not asking me a serious question.
I ignored Springer's tone. "For one thing, my creators designed the Decagon and it was more like a piece of art than a military base. But these structures weren't designed to be beautiful, they seem to be built for efficiency and nothing else." I said, not looking at the green Triple-Changer as I continued to gaze at the floating constructs. "And for another, there's something off about this place. Not really sure what it is, but it's nagging at me, call it a gut feeling."
"Well, gee, you're right, Captain I-Know-Best," Springer mocked condescendingly. "Because if you say something, it's always right no matter what," he scowled. "Shut up, you hypocrite."
I kept my faceplate neutral as Springer spoke. "I am not like you, I am not 'chasing' Arcee, Springer." I said, trying to keep my voice as neutral as the look on my faceplate, but failing to. "Why is that so hard to get through your helm?"
"Enough, younglings," Jetfire interrupted before Springer and I could continue trade blows. "You both told Optimus this wasn't going to happen in a mission again."
If there was atmosphere on this asteroid, I am certain Springer would have grumbled under his breath at Jetfire's words, while I would have merely sighed in annoyance at how Springer always seemed to be able to irritate me just enough to drag me into an verbal confrontation, even if it was a short one.
"Fine," Springer said with an angry tone directed at Jetfire, then focused his attention on me, gave an ornery grin, and made a long, swooping gesture with his servo. "Femmes first."
I responded to Springer's insult by grabbing the back of his armor, picking him up off the ground a few feet with one servo, and tossing him down into the crater, causing him to tumble helplessly down the incline of the side of the crater until he reached the bottom.
Sensing Jetfire giving me a flat look, I turned my helm and returned the look he was giving me with a flat look of my own. "He said femmes first, I was just helping him down the incline." I said, unable to sound like I didn't enjoy what I just did.
Jetfire shook his helm. "Let's just get down there, shall we?" He asked rhetorically, then took a step forward and let himself slide down the side of the crater.
I quickly followed Jetfire's example by stepping forward and letting myself slide down the side of the crater as well. After Jetfire and I slide down into the crater, we rejoined Springer, who was scowling at me, but that wasn't anything new, and we started walking toward the tunnel beneath the central tower.
As we approached the first of the floating structures on our way to the tunnel, I noticed that they weren't as flawless as they seemed at first. At a distance, they were seamless in their construction, perfect, like masterpieces of efficiency. But up close, I could see their faults. A plasma weld here, a gap between metal plates there, things that human eyes would have missed completely, due to the fact that these faults were tiny, likely only a few micrometers across. But I noticed them, and it all added up enough to give me the impression that whoever built these structures either didn't completely understand the technology they were using to create them, or they had built the structures in a rush, possibly both.
I brought myself out of my thoughts as the three of us reached the edge of the tunnel.
The tunnel was about three-hundred meters in diameter, and was filled with the same orange light that ran up the sides of the structures around us. It was also lined with constructs of the same make, except the ones in the tunnel seemed to have different functions than the constructs we had already seen. From what I could see, the tunnel went down for kilometers, not all the way to the center of the asteroid, but it was still around twenty kilometers deep. There were also obstructions in the tunnel in the form of bridges that appeared to be made out of the same orange light that was running up the sides of the structures. These bridges criss-crossed the tunnel like a spider web, with each of them either leading to a gap in the structures lining the sides of the tunnel, or just stopped in the middle at what was likely some sort of computer or a maintenance station.
"Well, this is an interesting find," I said. "Seems like the surface structures are just the tip of the iceberg, whoever built this place must have hollowed out a significant amount of the asteroid and used it as a base."
"So it would seem," Jetfire agreed. "But that isn't the only interesting find." He added cryptically, and before I ask what he meant, he kicked a sliver of Iron that was near his pede into the tunnel, causing a previously invisible barrier to glow orange and ripple like water as the Iron sliver passed through it and fell toward the bottom of the tunnel at a higher velocity that it should have in this gravity.
I gave the area the ripple first started a confused look. I didn't have to ask to know that an atmospheric shield was had caused the ripple.
An atmospheric shield wasn't really a shield, it more like a curtain that kept air inside a structure built in an area without atmosphere. It wasn't a common technology, although it also wasn't very difficult for Cybertronians to create, but I had never heard of an atmospheric shield being transparent, or in this case, acting as the barrier of an artificial gravity field, judging by how fast the Iron sliver had fallen. And that made this atmospheric shield very strange, but that wasn't anything new, this entire place was strange.
"How did you see that?" I asked Jetfire, pushing my confusion aside for the time being.
"You don't get to be as old as I am without learning a thing or two along the way," Jetfire replied easily, then changed the topic as he gestured to the start of a walkway that looked like it went around the sides of the tunnel all the way to the bottom. "We should probably get a move on, it's going to be a long walk down."
Springer took one look at the walkway and shook his helm. "Yeah, that's not happening, old mech," he said, then without another word, he jumped out from the edge of the tunnel, passed through the atmospheric shield, and started to free-fall toward one of the orange bridges below us.
I blinked several times at how Springer did something that actually made sense, since simply jumping down would save a lot of time we would have spent walking. "Did Springer just make an intelligent choice?" I asked, still keeping my attention on the shrinking form of Springer as he free-fell.
"He did," Jetfire said with a trace of surprise in his voice. "And it is a choice that I will follow, see you down there," the seeker turned so that his backplates were to the tunnel, gave me a causal, two-digit salute before he let himself fall back, passing through the atmospheric shield and starting to free-fall upside-down.
Taking Jetfire's lead again, I turned around and let myself fall back, only faintly feeling myself pass through the atmospheric shield before I couldn't feel anything except the wind hitting my faceplate.
Free-falling wasn't an experience that could be properly described. The closest thing I could compare it to would be standing in a windtunnel set to more than one-hundred miles an hour, only you weren't standing on the ground, and you could see and feel yourself falling, which makes free-falling completely different than standing in a windtunnel, which is why free-falling can't be properly described.
After free-falling for nearly a klick, I saw Springer land on one of the bridges that stopped in the middle of the tunnel, and Jetfire joined Springer on the bridge a moment later, leaving me the only one still free-falling.
Flipping over so that I wasn't falling upside-down, I adjusted my trajectory so I would land next to Jetfire and Springer. And when I was only about two-hundred feet above it, I activated my jets to slow my descent and bent my knee-joints slightly when I landed to make sure my landing was as soft as possible.
After I landed, I took a quick note about how the bridge we were on wasn't made out of light like it seemed to be, but was in fact made out of some kind of crystal that carried light through it, and changed its shade when it was stepped on. Even if the bridge wasn't made out of light as it appeared to be, the fact whoever that built this place was able to create a bridge out of something as fragile as crystal still made it a very impressive feat of engineering.
Static suddenly blaring from the end of the bridge caused my observations to halt, and put any conversation Jetfire, Springer, and I would have on hold for now.
The three of us shared a look before we started walking toward the end of the bridge.
As we got closer to the end of the bridge, the life-sized, hologram of a ground-based mech, who was unmoving, appeared out of a sphere that was floating beyond the edge of the crystal arch we were standing on.
"Alert: Central computer files corrupted." A deep, synthetically created disembodied voice said in the language of Cybertron, surprising us slightly at its abrupt appearance. "Beginning automated playback at log 467B. Log owner: Head Scientist Techlaser, of the Reclamation Division. Subject: Incredible." The disembodied voice went silent as the hologram of the mech that must have been Techlaser started to move and speak.
"Techlaser's log, entry 467B: It's incredible! Ever since we first found this asteroid, we've only looked at thermal images of the vessel. Now to finally get to the core of the asteroid and can see it with our own optics... It's breath-taking," The hologram said with tone filled with awe. "I can't even imagine the technological leaps we'll make when we find a way to study its systems! E-" The log froze and started to skip, much like a CD would when it was damaged.
The disembodied voice, which I deduced was a VI of some sort, spoke again. "Alert: Log partially corrupted, fast-forwarding." The VI went silent again as the log fast-forward ahead and started playing again.
"-I just hope this ship isn't as active as some of the ruins we've found. This technology is so advanced, it makes us look like primitive organics that live in caves. Tier 1 technology is dangerous enough when misused, but Tier 0? If this ship is active, and we mess something up, we could easily destroy this entire solar system. I pray that Primus watches over us, wherever he is. Computer, end recording." The voice and hologram of Techlaser faded away with that.
Springer, Jetfire, and I shared perplexed looks at what this Techlaser was talking about. But before any of us could speak, the VI spoke again.
"Automatic playback: log 545C. Log owner: Head Scientist Techlaser, of the Reclamation Division. Subject: Failures, and wariness." It said, falling silent again as Techlaser's hologram reappeared, looking more solemn than when he spoke last time.
"Techlaser's log, entry 545C: The ship claimed another life this cycle. Holdfast, one of the security guards assigned to protect us science-types, was atomized in front of my optics approximately three breems ago as he threw me out of the path of one of the vessel's defense turrets... Which I had accidentally activated." Techlaser's hologram said with a regretful sigh, then a frustrated look appeared on the hologram's faceplate. "I have told E-" The log started to skip again.
"Alert: Log partially corrupted, fast-forwarding." The VI said, going silent again as the log fast-forward ahead, though it seemed like it hadn't even skipped a word, just part of one, and stopped skipping.
"-Is that we can't keep studying the ship until we fully understand why it keeps firing on us, but he always points out that only one in ten trips into the ship have produced a casualty, and we learn more about the vessel on each trip. He is technically correct, but he failed to address the fact that while we are learning more about the vessel each time we walk through its halls, we are only learning about minor communications systems and the duodenary power systems. We still have no idea how it is powered, what material was used to construct its armor, what type of shielding it has, how its weapon systems function, and even its propulsion is a mystery, since the Particle Cannons guarding the engine room have reduced even the most heavily-armored of our tanks to stray ions in a single hit." Techlaser's hologram shook its helm and was silent for a long time before it continued.
"I haven't the slightest idea why the vessel reacts in the manner that it does when we attempt to study its major systems, the other ruins we studied have defenses as well, but they didn't react like this," the hologram shook its helm again. "A question for another cycle, I have other topics for this log. Ever since the accident an orbital-cycle ago, Research Division has been under-staffed, so they have been folded into my Division, which means Reclamation is essentially going to be continuing all of Research's projects with the remaining members of the Division, as well as our own. While I always welcome more bots in Reclamation, I am wary about one of the projects we will be conducting, called Warrior. From what I have read, its goal is it create a fully sentient super-soldier with as much free will as the rest of us. Research had already created a process for creating one of these super-soldiers through the consumption of a formula, but the accident last orbital-cycle delayed the project. This might sound like a good thing, but I have studied the formula, and it is dangerously unstable. I am going to have Lockjaw look for a way to stabilize it before we start testing. Computer, end recording." Again, Techlaser's voice and hologram faded away.
After the second log ended, I felt like I something was behind me. But when I turned around, nothing was there, although I thought I had seen a pair of violet optics duck behind a corner in the shadows as I turned around, but it was gone so fast that I was sure it was my CPU playing tricks on me.
Shaking off the feeling I was being watched for the moment, I looked back at the sphere as the VI spoke up again.
"Automatic playback: log 546A. Log owner: Head Scientist Techlaser, of the Reclamation Division. Subject: Discovery!" It said before Techlaser's hologram reappeared again.
"After searching the ship for so long, we have finally found out why the vessel reacts so violently to our intrusions, this ship is the armory of the Thirteen!" The hologram said in a voice that was even more excited that it had been in the first log. "We found the armory by accident when we were trying to gain access to the vessel's computer systems, but we must have activated something we were not supposed to, because we ended up opening a hidden door instead of activating the computer. The armory was free of defenses when it first opened, but it created somehow materialized several Particle Cannons within a few klicks after we opened the door, preventing us from exploring the entire armory. However, we were able use a stasis field and remove several objects of interest before the defenses activated." The hologram paused for a moment and grabbed a data pad from something out of view before he continued.
"Let's see, one data cylinder, one hammer, and two swords. Normally not an impressive amount of Ancient technology, but after searching through our data archives, we found that everything except the data cylinder was an artifact of the Thirteen. The hammer once belonged to Solus Prime, it was both the forge she used to create the weapons of the other members of the Thirteen, and the weapon she wielded against Unicron at the dawn of Cybertronian civilization. We don't know very much about the first sword, only that it is called the Omni Saber. It belonged to Megatronus Prime, but there is nothing even less known about the Prime who wielded it than the Saber itself. The second sword, however, is very well known. It is the Star Saber, Prima's weapon, the bane of Unicron. If we can figure out how to use any of these artifacts, we might just be able to restart the Age of the Primes. For the time being, we're keeping the relics close to the ship, we have no idea if the Thirteen installed some sort of fail-safe that activates when one of their artifacts is taken a certain distance from their-" Techlaser was cut off by a scream that sent chills down my spine, it was like hearing the horror of a thousand bots all crying out at the same time. "What was that?!" Techlaser's hologram asked someone we couldn't see, them looked forward again. "Computer, end recording!" His hologram faded from existence once again.
We had no time to be amazed that these Cybertronians had come across the armory of the Thirteen, because after Techlaser's hologram faded away, the same piercing scream we heard coming through the hologram and cut through the air like a moleculon knife, sending another chill down my spine that I am sure Jetfire and Springer also felt.
"What the pit is that?" Springer asked, his tone uncharacteristically flat and nervous, something I had never heard from him.
I looked back at where I thought I had seen a pair of violet optics earlier. And sure enough, there they were, accompanied by several other pairs of optics, all of which were violet. "Nothing good, Springer," I said as I deployed my Scatter-Blaster, doing the best I could to keep my voice steady as fear crept into my spark.
Whatever was screaming let out another wail, sending another chill down my spine as more pairs of optics joined the first.
As more and more optics joined appeared, the first set of optics moved out of the shadows and took a step out onto the bridge. The orange light of the bridge revealed it to be a slightly disfigured Cybertronian that was moving around by using all four of its limbs, giving it the appearance of a crouching mechanical animal.
"Whatever happens here, don't get separated, we will fight more effectively as one," Jetfire instructed as more violet-opticed Cybertronians crawled out onto the bridge.
There was another scream from the thing that was wailing, more optics appeared in the shadows, and I could see the walls of the tunnel moving as Cybertronians crawled on them.
Jetfire, Springer, and I took a step back away from the violet-optic Cybertronians approaching us.
The VI spoke again. "Automatic playback: log 546B. Log owner: Head Scientist Techlaser, of the Reclamation Division. Subject: STAY AWAY!"
"Techlaser's log, entry 546B: STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!" Techlaser's hologram yelled urgently, although I was too busy focusing on the Cybertronians in front of us to know what his hologram was doing. "The Warrior project is a disaster, Lockjaw tested the formula on another Cybertronain against my orders, and instead of turning the test subject into a super-soldier, it turned the test subject into a mindless beast, whose only motivation is to make other Cybertronians like him. What started as one test subject, is now half the station, and we're losing ground. Fast. If anyone is hearing this, there's a reason why this station is drifting, and that is because we've deliberately sent this station out into the void to keep it from spreading. There's nothing here that's worth letting these things out, leave while you can. Do you hear me? Run! Ru-" The log was abruptly stopped and it turned into nothing but static.
"I think that Techlaser guy was onto something," Springer said, shifting his optics nervously between the Cybertronians that were on the bridge, and the ones that were crawling on the walls.
"For once, Springer, you and I are in agreement," I said, deploying my missile launchers so I could track the Cybertronians on the walls, but they were like bugs, there were too many to count.
"And unfortunately, we can't go anywhere," Jetfire said grimly.
I gave Jetfire a quick glance. "What are you talking about?" I asked.
"The Nemesis is above our helms," Jetfire replied, pointing the servo that he wasn't using to hold his weapon up to where we had free-fell from.
I moved my helm just enough to look up, but not lose sight of the crawling Cybertronians. The Nemesis was indeed above us, having probably just arrived since I didn't see any gunships moving around it. It was hovering above the tower, clearly unable to get into the tunnel.
But, even though the Decepticon ship wasn't able to get to where we were, it still had more than enough firepower to offline us as soon as we flew out of the tunnel. And while there were a lot of these creepy crawling Cybertronians, the Decepticons would be able to clear them out with gunships, giving them free access to the ship Techlaser mentioned, and the artifacts they already had taken from it. And that wouldn't do.
I glanced over the side of the bridge. Wherever the artifacts of the Thirteen were being stored, it would be down at the bottom of this tunnel. Techlaser's log had said they were keeping the artifacts they recovered close to the ship in case there was a fail-safe built in, and the ship was at the core of the asteroid.
"We have to get down to the asteroid's core," I said in an even voice, sounding less afraid than I felt at the moment.
"Are you fragging insane?!" Springer hissed, giving me a look of disbelief. "You heard that log, there's nothing in this place that's worth letting these things out. And I know what you're thinking, and I'm not going to risk my life over a few trinkets left by the Thirteen!"
"We have three options, Springer," I said. "We can stand here and fight these things, which will likely end with the three of us being offlined. We can try and fly through the air defenses of the Nemesis, which will end with us being offlined. Or we can jump down to the core of the asteroid, recover the artifacts the builders of this place recovered, and pray that we find another way out from down there."
Springer seemed to think about what I said for a few moments, but his thoughts were no-doubt cut off when one of the violet-opticed Cybertronians jumped at the three of us, soaring through the air like a demented frog before the three of us riddled it with bullet-shaped rounds of energy, offlining the Cybertronian before it was even half-way through its leap.
After we offlined one of the violet-opticed Cybertronians, the others made a sound akin to growling, and it echoed around the tunnel.
"I vote going down to the ship and hoping there's another way out of here," Springer said quickly.
"I second that vote," Jetfire added. "And I think it's time we took our leave," after speaking, he turned and jumped off the bridge.
The crawling Cybertronians seemed to sense that we were about to escape, and they rushed at me as Springer followed Jetfire and jumped off the bridge.
I fired two shots from my Scatter-Blaster and took off the helms of a pair of Cybertronians before I launched four missiles right in front of the group of rushing Cybertronians. They hit right where I meant for them to, and the group was sent flying backward from the explosive power of my missiles, and also cracked the bridge.
After sending the horde flying back, I folded my missile launchers back into my shoulder-joints and returned my servo to normal before I let myself fall off the bridge, just in time to avoid one of the Cybertronians as it landed right where I had been standing just a brief moment before.
As I free-fell, looking up at the bridge and the Nemesis, I knew one thing. And that was while my fellow Autobots and I were alright for now, we weren't going to be safe until we were back on Earth.
Did I just leave you with a cliff-hanger for the year? Yes I did. Did I enjoy it more than I should have? Absolutely. When will I update again? Don't know, hopefully soon.
I would have made this one chapter, but I realized that there was a LOT more to this story ark than what I originally thought. If I had made this one chapter, it would have been longer than my last one by a good margin, and I wouldn't have been able to post it until next month. And to be honest, the place I left this chapter was way too tempting to not make it a cliff-hanger.
This chapter's credit song is "8 Dawn Music - Buried Power" This song fits with the theme of the chapter very well. It's light most of the time, like with most of this chapter, but also has a darker feel to it at times, like with how I ended the chapter.
So, please be sure to leave a review and thanks for reading. I'll see you soon.