What Makes No Difference Is No Difference (WMNDIND 17)

-0-On a desiccated planet 12 light years from Earth

They sat on the ground, one of them bitching as loud as he could in the foulest manner possible as another got a hole plugged in his back from a harpoon wound. Prime watched as Roadbuster brusquely put the patch on Birdbrain's backside, then rapped Wildfly on the noggin for his tirade. They smoldered as they sat on the dirt waiting for whatever would come next.

"Why did you come this way?" Prime asked as Roadbuster stood up and subbed his patch kit.

"Frag you, Prime. I don't have to tell you anything," Slog said with fury.

"No, but you will tell Prowl. You can tell me now and leave here in relative good health or you can tell Prowl and suffer the consequences of his wrath," Prime replied evenly as he stared at them taking his measure.

"You're never about harming anyone, Prime. Everyone knows you're a soft helmed Autobot, you two-bit fragger," Wildfly said before Impactor 'accidentally' kicked him. "FRAG YOU, IMPACTOR! PRIME IS A FRAGGING LOSER AND SO ARE YOU! THIS MEANS NOTHING! IN THE END WE WIN ANYWAY!"

"In the end you wind up in jars on a shelf in Prowl's office. He doesn't have a soft spark and he doesn't give a frag about your sorry afts," Impactor said as he knelt down beside Wildfly. "You're going to be unscrewed and stowed in a parts locker to be used to construct tables and chairs so why not save your own afts? Do you really think the 'Cons will reward you for your stupidity?"

"Frag you, slagger," Wildfly said with a malicious grin. "I could rip you to pieces and stow them in a debris chute without batting an optic. YOU'RE A FREAK AND YOU KNOW IT! WHO HAS A HARPOON FOR A SERVO?!"

A rap on his helm greeted that as Impactor looked at the others. "I'll be slagging glad to drag your sorry carcasses into Prowl's office and watch him unscrew every nut and bolt in your bodies. In fact, I'm going to help him," he said rubbing Wildfly's face with his harpoon.

That mech pulled back to glare at Impactor.

"If you give us what we need to know you might not have to end up in hardware bins and the recycler. Prowl is nothing if not efficient and you know him … he has no emotions to tell about."

"Just like Shockwave," Bristleback said drawing glares from everyone. "HE IS! SLAGGER HAS NO SPARK! I'M NOT GOING TO THE MATRIX FOR SHOCKWAVE! FRAG SHOCKWAVE!"

"Tell me what you know and now," Prime said coldly.

Birdbrain stared at him for a moment. "What's in it for us?" he asked.

"You get to keep your sparks," Impactor said as he loomed over them.

Most of them glared back unimpressed.

It was silent as Birdbrain did the math. The smartest one of the group, he usually did the talking. He shifted to become more comfortable. "We were called to see Megatron."

"Roadbuster, go to their ship and check out their flight plan," Impactor said as the big mech turned to jog to the cavern nearby that held their vessel. "We followed you from the Benzuli. The signal you got wasn't from this direction. It was from the Empire, from Moonbase."

Birdbrain glared at Impactor. "It had Megatron's signature."

"And you didn't run it to make sure, I suppose," Impactor said.

Roadbuster came out of the cavern and jogged to where the party stood and sat. He paused beside Springer. "They came this way but not toward that third planet. The third planet has the signature of Nemesis petering out there." He looked at Prime. "The same planet that your signature leads toward."

Prime nodded. "Megatron is there on board Nemesis. He is staging on the fourth planet, digging in for whatever it is he is there for. We spied their construction on the way here."

"What about that, slagger?" Springer asked as he nudged Birdbrain with his ped.

"THAT HURTS, FRAGGER!" he exclaimed. He glared at Springer, then turned back to Prime and Ultra Magnus who didn't hide what he wanted to do to them on his face. "We were coming at Megatron's call, his message signature was intact. We were heading for a planet deep in the debris field of that system."

"Planet X then," Ironhide said. "The humans just discovered it by its gravitation effect on other bodies. They don't know it really exists but they theorize it does."

"Frag them whoever they are," Wildfly said. "We were going to see Megatron and you tell us he wasn't in the place we're going?"

"We do," Springer said grimly. "Who is there if not him?"

It was silent a moment, then Prime glanced at the ship hidden nearby. "Strip that ship of anything that can be used, its databases and codes, Springer. Impactor, take this rabble to Prowl. I am sure that he can incarcerate them better than we can on Earth."

"Jail? Is that it!?" Slog asked as he was dragged to his feet.

"It's better than you deserve, slagger," Roadbuster said as he shoved them toward his own ship. They howled and screamed, shoved back and struggled but soon were inside, magnetized to the bulkhead in the hold. They could scream to their spark's content because the holds of Autobot ships came soundproofed.

Impactor watched them go, then turned to Prime. "What now?"

"We are searching for relics, important and dangerous relics that appear to have been hidden on the third planet of this system. They could be in other places as well. We are in possession of some but there are more possibly missing there and on other worlds of this system. We are also looking for the AllSpark itself."

Impactor nodded. "What do you want us to do?"

"Take this rabble to Prowl at Alpha 1, then give your services and skills to him. We have refugees fleeing trouble and some of them need rescue. There are many Decepticons roaming wild now and they could cause a great deal of suffering to civilians," Prime replied.

Impactor nodded. "Call us if you need help with the relics. I would love to even the score with Megatron and Shockwave."

Prime nodded. "How is Fortress Maximus?"

"Better. He's with others of his kind. Hopefully, when he's well he can come and help us out," Impactor said. He nodded, then began to walk to his ship. They boarded, his team, then took off immediately.

A pile of gear lay scattered on the ground. "Hound, take this to Prowl. If there is anything to help me in it have him message me on the secured line. Right now, I have to find out where Shockwave is hiding inside this system. Their ship can stay hidden here for now," Prime said glancing around the area.

Hound nodded, then directed his teams to gather up the equipment and tools that were stripped from the vessel nearby. They boarded, then lifted off leaving Springer, Ironhide, Ultra Magnus and Prime alone.

"Did you want to go with them?" Magnus asked Springer who watched Hound and his ships disappear into the sky.

Springer looked at him, then grinned. "And miss the fun here?"

Ironhide grinned. "Slagger. Let's get going. We need to scan for Shockwave when we go back. What about buzzing this Planet X?"

"I think I want Perceptor and Ratchet to make sure that our ship can not be detected. If he called for one gestalt he could have others there as well. I do not want to provoke a fight that we are not prepared yet to win," Prime said as they began to walk back to Magnus's ship. They entered and flew off.

The only sign they were here was a slowly dispersing molecular trail of their ship's exhaust and a blue energon stain that was slowly being covered with dirt and sand stirred up by a light breeze from the south.

-0-On the way back

Ironhide stood in front of the sensor station that was mounted on the wall in the back of the ship.

Springer was lounging at the comm station, sitting on a simple bench that folded down. The no nonsense attitude that drove Ultra Magnus seemed to extend to his ship as well.

"Nothing so far," Ironhide said as he scanned far and wide.

They were entering the solar well, heading for Earth in the sly so that nothing could follow and discover their base. It wasn't as tricky on Magnus's ship because it was designed to sneak around without his usual quarries … some of the worst of the worst catching on. It was relatively mashy in the solar well as they dodged comets and debris before entering the system itself.

Passing into an area free of debris, they extended sensors for anything that might be a ship's signature or trail. Passing Charon and Pluto, the other four moons on the far side at the moment, Prime sat back to relax a moment.

Magnus glanced at him as he flew. "What are your thoughts about Shockwave being here?"

"I was told by Prowl that he has broken with Megatron. They are sworn enemies now. He must be here for the relics and he also must be assembling an army to both protect him and do his bidding. I can only assume thus far that he is after the relics, too. If any one of them get the AllSpark then the situation will become dire immediately."

"I would assume then that they believe it and other things are here in this system. It might do us a good turn to look at other worlds as well. The relics are unaffected by heat or cold, thus they could be anywhere," Magnus said.

Prime nodded. "That is true. We have to step it up on Earth. I am concerned that Megatron is the one who is killing humans in his zeal to find the relics."

"What if it isn't Megatron, Optimus," Springer said. "What if it's Shockwave? What if he has soldiers that he's deploying around to look? It would be just like him to kill humans that might be there at the same time. Has Megatron killed any humans since you both have been here?"

"No," Prime said grimly. "Killing without remorse would be Shockwave's default as well."

They passed the debris field that separated the inner and outer planetary groups, speeding in an arc around Mars to come into the Earth in a burst of speed that would be hard to detect by either humans or Cybertronians.

"If Megatron is building a base down there we have to put an end to it," Ironhide said. "Either that or take it over. I think taking it over is a better idea. We can call in some of our battle groups and give it back to Bucket Head the way he deserves."

"I have thought of that. I need to get with Prowl and work out a few of these changes. I need a better idea of the big picture," Prime said as they blazed into the upper atmosphere of Earth. They would swing around the Earth three or four times following no discernible pattern before heading toward Jasper, Nevada with all haste. They would be inside the mountain going downward on the elevator before anyone could even detect that anything odd had happened.

-0-On the way to Earth following the Omega Beam

A protoform flying in transitional mode blazed forward. Having crash landed on a huge rocky planetary fragment near the edge of a nondescript solar system, the sole passenger had taken stock, then transformed to make their way onward. There were Autobot signs here and there it seemed to him so he shot onward, passing debris, entering the solar well, then making a swift turn toward to a blue planet third from the sun. He would careen in and land in a long bounding ride to slam into a marshy swamp.

It would not be the kind of 'splash' he wanted to make. When he did, Autobots would be heading his way to rescue him. As they did, so would a Seeker flight seeking to put him in chains.

-0-TBC 2-18-16 01-24-2021