Transformers Animated: Morning After By Fang Wolfsbane
He couldn't remember much.
All he did remember was his processor whirring and his helm aching as if Bulkhead decided to body slam his helm after performing some kind of crude decapitation. The loud warning siren wasn't helping all that much either.
Groaning to himself, Highdrive's optics struggled to force themselves online, watching as frost disappeared from the glass casing surrounding him. A nano click later he stepped out, a servo flying to hold said helm. From the looks of it, those around him seemed to have a similar problem.
Highdrive didn't need to ask what had happened. One moment the six of them had been on an asteroid, clearing debris from a spacebridge when they'd discovered something Ratchet had called the 'Allspark', something that should have remained an object of legend, but was now within the very ship they occupied. He would have asked if it was still on board, but from what he could see, Optimus was already standing at the control panel, looking over a video feed of what had brought them online in the first place.
A giant… he didn't know what. From what he could figure out, it seemed to be an organic, and Optimus Prime wasn't all that keen about just letting them sit this one out. A silent conversation seemed to take place between the Prime and their head medic, Ratchet. A conversation neither he nor Bumblebee planned on interrupting.
How they had gone from trying to defend the very creation of life for their kind from the dark lord of Cybertron himself to ending up on an organic planet was beyond him. He knew he could chalk it up to the planet's gravity pulling them in, causing them to crash on the surface, which was why they had to go into stasis from the start. A check on his internal clocking mechanism revealed that it had been approximately fifty stellar cycles since that day. A day he didn't ever want to go through again.
By all rights they should have been focusing on getting the ship back in, well, shipshape, but before he could think to voice his opinion, he watched as Optimus sent out the ship portable AI drone, Teletraan One to scan the organic vehicles. If they were heading out, they were doing so in disguise. Better safe than sorry, at least on one front.
Collecting the data they needed, the drone sent the schematics to the biggest stasis pod, locking in the alterations it needed to perform on them in order for them to seem like they at least somewhat belonged on this planet, whichever one that was.
Highdrive headed in after Bumblebee, trying to hide his discomfort as he synchronised himself with the pod, downloading the data it had chosen for him. At best it was a painful stinging sensation, but not bad enough that he risked squealing like a sparkling to be teased by the other mini-bot the moment he stepped out.
Dimming his optics, Highdrive watched the pod scan his current form, then download the schematics to his frame, causing it to shift and mould itself in the appropriate areas to ensure a flawless alternative four-wheel form. This was his official first scan since boarding the ship, actually his very first scan since leaving Cybertron, since reaching an age appropriate for him to leave academy grounds. Thinking on this, he felt a pained tug at his spark that he tried to ignore. Now wasn't the time to dwell on the past.
After they all transformed into their new forms for the first time, Highdrive wished for a reflective surface to give himself a once-over. From what he could see in Optimus's sidemirror, he was rather low to the ground like Bumblebee, but not as bulky. No, his form was sleeker, smoother. The way his paintjob mixed in with the vehicle's natural decals, he seemed to be some kind of emergency four-wheeler, which suit him just fine, considering that it was something he had been studying for fifty stellar cycles ago.
They were about to head out when Ratchet mentioned that he wanted to stay behind with the ship to run some diagnostics, putting in a request for Highdrive to stay behind as well. Having never been on another planet before, Highdrive silently begged their commander to let him go with, surprisingly receiving the option to choose. It wasn't a hard one.
"If Ratchet stays behind, then I should go with you. I mean, it only makes sense for there to be a medic in the field, just in case something happens," Highdrive said, using a textbook excuse he'd heard from a senior back at the academy when they had gotten the opportunity to go out in the field for the first time. The hum their leader gave earned a grumble from the eldest bot.
" There you have it. Autobots, let's roll out." And with that, Highdrive followed the red and blue truck out of the ship, straight into fluid-like substance that enveloped around them the moment the ship's doors opened to usher them into the brand new world.
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