What Makes No Difference Is No Difference (WMNDIND 12)
-0-A moment later
They sat and stood around the rec room in the base as they gathered to get the latest word from beyond the blue skies of Earth.
Prime sat down, then turned to one of his oldest and closest personal friends, Ultra Magnus. "Ultra Magnus, I am so happy to have you here. What can you tell me of the greater galaxy beyond?"
"I am honored to serve you again, Optimus Prime. I've been tracking Scorponok and Shockwave for some time. They've been engaged with acquiring alien tech, both peacefully and not, for purposes that are not yet clear. It's not even clear what they've gathered in the form of soldiers and ships but they're putting something together. Perhaps for pirating or for pursuit of the Allspark, I don't know. Most of those who've dealt with them were highly reluctant to talk to me about it for fear of retribution. They're very unhappy with our species in a surprising number of places, I'm afraid."
Prime nodded. "That is our experience as well. What do you know for sure?"
"I know that there's a lot of interest in the planets this direction. There are rumors about a number of our most important relics ending up lost out this way. They were being removed from Cybertron, some over a very long period of time to be hidden from the gathering threat of unrest. I would assume that this motivates Shockwave as there has been word that he has broken his ties with Megatron. Apparently there's a rift between the senior Decepticon leadership, one that Megatron has exploited to his own advantage. It's believed that this is the reason Shockwave has gone off on his own."
Ratchet nodded. "I can believe that. They rule by force and Shockwave always was ambitious."
Perceptor nodded. "He once was a mech and scientist of great principles and courage but that was before the Clampdown and the restrictions on science and scientists by the Senate. Sentinel ordered his incarceration and eventual empurata disfigurement himself."
"You mean he had an actual face once?" Mirage asked with a smirk.
"Old One Eye was probably as ugly with a face as he is without it," Drift remarked to general approval. "Then he's setting up his own kingdom to compete with Megatron? Could he be the ship here looking for the relics?"
"Could be. He could have a bridge of his own. He was Bucket Head's main scientist after Jhiaxus split for safer pastures," Mirage replied.
"He cannot be underestimated as a scientific threat and foe," Perceptor said. "It would be to our detriment if we do."
Prime nodded. "We have found the Star Saber. They, whoever they were, wanted it and were searching at the spot. We did not pick it up on our tech but they were there looking with theirs. We need to be able to find them before they do if more are here. Most of them require a Prime to be useful but not all of them. We cannot allow them to retrieve any of the relics."
"I will work on it with Ratchet." Perceptor looked at Wheeljack. "Join us."
Wheeljack nodded. "Will do."
"What about Prowl and the base?" Prime asked. "What is the situation there?"
"He has a base 100 light years from here that's gathering soldiers, ships and along with all of that, refugees. They are coming in groups, small now but more expected. The network of camps and colonies out there are feeding information around. We will need to do something about it if they begin to come in groups that overwhelm our set up. Right now, we have several hundred soldiers, most of them highly proficient at fighting," Ultra Magnus said.
"Prime nodded. "We have to take care of our people. It is my duty and our obligation as Autobots. We need to find energon. What is the outlook from Prowl's efforts?"
"We have tracked a faint energon trail this way, Prime. It would seem that a Seeker drone came this way long ago. There are fragments in the debris field surrounding this system but I would hazard that there are huge deposits somewhere around here. We have to beat Megatron to them and it'll help us take care of our people," Nosecone said.
"So what's the big sword about? Why would someone else want it? The 'Cons? Are more coming? What's the deal?"
Everyone turned to stare at the floor.
Three kids were standing there staring up, one of them the irrepressible little girl with no fear.
The mechs looked back up at Prime.
"That is Miko. With her are Raphael and Jack, our indigenous allies and among the very few who know about us," Optimus explained. "You have to go in disguise here. The greater human population is not aware of us and if they were it would be a very bad thing."
They looked back down again.
Miko looked at Perceptor. The bot was red, white and black. He was incredibly elegant and soft spoken. He also had almost no experience with organic children of any species. "What about the sword?" she asked again.
Perceptor glanced at Prime, then Miko. "It is a relic of great antiquity. It must never fall into the hands of the Decepticons."
"Oh. Are there others and what are they?" she asked.
Perceptor glanced at Bulkhead who shook his helm. Leaning around Drift, Bulk caught her eyes. "Miko, there's some things that we have to find because they're important. How they got here we don't know. They just are important to us."
"Then when do we begin?" she asked with a grin.
It would take a few moments in their own language to explain Miko.
-0-Out there
He walked to his lab, then paused at the door. His ships were camped on a planetoid that was free floating in the debris field surrounding the system where Megatron was holed up. He had seen Megatron's ship, the Nemesis, in orbit around the third planet. He was cloaked but Shockwave could see him.
He'd been busy since the dispersal from their home world. He had collected ships, tech and soldiers. They were loyal to him because he made sure they were. Control devices were easy to install and now that he had, he had absolute obedience.
They were out of the view of most of the major players including Prime who was hidden on Earth as well. His signature was dampened and his location unknown. He was determined to find it but it was only one of several things on his list to achieve. Right now, locating the relics was priority one.
Prime or Megatron possessed the Star Saber. Perhaps that was no loss. Only a Prime could coax from it the power that made it so extraordinary. What he sought was even more important than the relics and weapons of Solus Prime. What he really wanted was the Magnificence. That star map showed every important element and energy resource in the entire universe. It also could locate anything, anyone or anywhere in the universe no matter how hidden or far away. With it, one could rule everything. There would be no limit to what a mech could achieve with it.
The only thing better was the Allspark. That device was here, too, he believed. Its faint signature could still be read in the drifting energies and particles of space. He'd followed it here, then scanned for enemies. That's when the relics began to show their faint signs. He had nearly secured the Star Saber when the Autobots showed up. He could've burned them to glass like he had the others, the humans, but there were more of them coming.
Earth crawled with them, the organic insects. They were everywhere underfoot. He would be more careful. There would be no more hikers walking up on him as he examined things. There would be no more nosy humans checking out the lights. He would take more care or it would alert not only Optimus Prime but Megatron as well.
He walked back into his lab with the door closing behind him. Picking up his welding tools, he began to work on his project. Outside, the emptiness of space would be all around them as his mindlessly obedient soldiers continued to work on a permanent stone fortress for their base.
-0-Later that night
"ARE YOU GOING TO LISTEN TO ME!?"
Mirage who was walking from his barracks nearby paused. "No."
"I want to speak to Prime. I WANT TO SPEAK TO PRIME!" Knockout shouted as he pounded on the door. He peered out of the small window in the reinforced door that held him inside.
"So do a lot of mechs but I don't think you can expect it anytime soon," Mirage said. He walked on, the invective of the 'Con music to his audials. He headed out, then paired up with Nosecone and Ironhide. They were going to be searching for relics and/or their signatures. Now that they knew they were there, it was high time to find them. He walked into the main room and paused beside Ratchet. "We could use an optic in the sky."
"I've hacked into their satellites. I'm configuring three of them to do ground searches without the humans knowing," Ratchet said as Perceptor stood beside him watching the procedure.
"That is very neat work, Ratchet," Perceptor said. "If you adjust the dampener just a bit … like this," he said as he entered the math, "then they absolutely will not perceive any sort of static from us for the duration."
"Very good, Percy," Ratchet said. He tapped two keys and the screen shifted. There was a grid pattern upon which the satellites which normally scanned for spies and geological anomalies began to send secret code to them of a deeper and more dangerous screening. "We can direct you now," Ratchet said glancing at the bots standing behind him. "Perceptor will bridge you out."
The big red equipment bot moved to the bridge, set it, then began to send paired teams out into the world. When the last one departed, he turned to Ratchet. "This bridge is remarkable, Ratchet."
Ratchet looked at Percy. "I do what I can."
"That is evident. Let me help you," Perceptor said as he moved to stand beside Ratchet. They would work together all afternoon and into the night. It would be just like old times.
-0-On the road
They drove together nearly bumper to bumper as they began to move out across the flat plains of Kansas. Bee and Nosecone would chat and roll, covering the entire state as they did. They would not get one ticket doing so. They would also find nothing of significance other than the old traces of Decepticon activity. It was likely that they were searching for energon. That they might know about relics was anyone's actual guess.
-O-Starscream
He stood at a computer station staring at data that he'd managed to purloin off the general scans of the ship's sensors. This was Trypticon, the giant titanic reaction to Metroplex that the Decepticons had constructed. It was big, heavily designed for war and vast enough for Starscream to run his own operations without attracting too much attention.
The ship's scans could penetrate the ground. They could easily scan the moon down into the crust and had a detailed map of the solar system worked out. That is how Starscream found out that Shockwave was nearby. He had debated telling Megatron, then nixed that notion. Anytime there was play in the leadership, he inched just that much closer to what he'd suffered for and considered his ultimately, the leadership of the Cause.
Lord Starscream, Emperor of Destruction.
It had a nice ring to it he thought. He grinned, then added more information to his secret files before erasing it from the general data stream. He was very good at doing this, taking what he needed and covering his tracks. He got the slag kicked out of him for many things but never this.
The Kaon barbarian wasn't interested enough in tech to figure it out. He grinned, then continued. It was going to be a long interesting night.
-0-Megatron, Emperor of Delusion
He sat in his cabin, a rather luxurious accommodation in the vastness of the ship that once was sentient. He wasn't now. That part of his process was dampened and managed. Trypticon was a vast and ferocious mechanism but he was difficult to control. Shockwave had made that a moot point, rendering the big vessel for all intents and purposes lifeless.
What he found out as Shockwave redesigned the vessel he also built in snooping devices, detection sensors and other mechanical information gatherers. Megatron had found them because he was what all of them forgot and had underestimated about him. Megatron was one smart fragger. He sat sipping his evening high grade as Starscream gathered information under a ghost protocol.
Megatron found that pathway early on. He knew that Starscream didn't know he had. It amused him to watch the smaller sly mech build his empire. He was going to enjoy crushing it. As he watched Starscream probe the system for information, he wondered what Shockwave was doing in his fortress redoubt somewhere hidden in what the humans called the Oort Field. He would relax, enjoy the show and find out in due course.
-0-Soundwave
He sat in his cabin watching Starscream seek information about Shockwave. He also watched as Megatron watched. He was the king of surveillance, something that the three involved took for granted at their peril. He gathered what they gathered, dropping his spider programs to follow them without their knowledge and bided his time.
It would be a long intriguing night for him as well.
-0-TBC 2-20-15 edited 2-21-15 edited 2-13-16 01-23-2021
