What Makes No Difference Is No Difference (WMNDIND 25)
=0=Fresno
"Do you have a gun? What about your phone? How will you charge it?"
"I have my gun. We all do. We'll charge it in town. We're only camping rough. We're going to eat in town and can charge them there," Shane said to his mom.
"Okay," she replied. "I put some food into the car. When are you going to leave? Call me when you do."
Shane Boone hugged his mom, then his father. He patted his dog, then with a grin and nod walked to his car to climb in and drive away. By the time he reached the houses of Toby Simpson and Marc Anderson he was ready to fly. They hit the road, a small car and a loaded pick up truck heading for the deserts around Jasper, Nevada.
=0=Morning briefing
They gathered to get their marching orders, going in trios into the world to check out the numerous locations suggested by the Magnificence. Ratchet assigned them, opened bridges and soon they were all gone. It was quiet in the vast installation when the last bridge shut down.
"Ratchet, I've been working on the equations to increase the range of the bridge that you have built. I think with a little bit of help from Prowl that we can extend the range as far as the edge of this solar system with what we have at servo here."
Ratchet glanced at Perceptor with surprise. "That would be wonderful, Percy." He glanced at Prowl. "What do you suggest?"
Perceptor told Prowl and he accepted.
A ship would be coming with the needed components and the long term plan to make this a bridge that could reach Prowl's base in the future. It would be a very exciting moment for Ratchet having created space age tech out of stone age materials.
=0=The Great Rift Valley, Eastern Africa
They came out of the bridge onto a plain that was astonishing in its beauty and size. As far as they could see, which was considerable, there were all manner of animals amidst the scrub trees, still green grasses and meandering small streams. Watering holes held conglomerations of wary animals, each eyeballing the other with suspicion and care as they gathered to wait out the great heat that came this time of the day. Mirage effects shimmered across the great valley as things began to get hot.
"Wow," Bumblebee said as he transformed with Springer and Drift.
"I hear ya," Springer said as he scanned in all directions. "There's no humans here. Just animals."
"I love Earth's animals. I think I really love Earth," Bee said. "Their cultures and animals. The plants. All of it."
"Its nice," Drift said as he walked toward a huge lumpen growth of reeds surrounding a small rivulet of water. "We better keep an optic peeled. There's deadly predators out here."
"Maybe we'll see lions," Bee said as Springer unsubbed a meter.
Springer grinned. "You can play fetch with the kitties, Bee. We'll find the relic. I'd yell 'BAIT!" really loud when you do."
Bee grinned as he began to follow the two. "How about I just point and yell 'SPRINGER!' instead."
It was an amusing trio who walked into the wilds of the most astonishing and diverse continent on Earth.
There would be predators.
=0=The Brazilian Rain Forest, South America
"Oh, frag. Water. Everywhere. What are those?"
"I think they're leaches or slugs or something, Sunny," Sideswipe said to his brother as he compared the critters swimming in a dank pool before them with images from the internet.
"Frag," Sunny said sourly. "Why do we get shit details?"
"Because you annoy Ratchet and he makes the orders for missions," Blue said as he leaped over the pool. The others followed, then walked up the embankment to the higher ground. It didn't help. They were surrounded by dense dripping jungle and who knew what else. It would be a loud bitch fest for the duration of their search.
=0=Paris, France, Europe
"This is the life."
"I agree," Mirage said as they drove along the main thoroughfare of the City of Lights heading toward a cathedral sitting on a tiny island in the middle of a river that ran through the city itself.
"I love places like this. I wonder if my holo-form will be good enough that we can look around a bit," Jazz said as they reached and entered a huge roundabout.
Around and around they went until they took the right road out of it. Onward they went toward Notre Dame-de Paris Cathedral and a relic of unknown kind buried on its grounds. It would be a long wait until dark.
=0=Death Valley, California, North America
"Wow."
"I hear ya," Devcon said as he scanned all around him. The heat was unbelievable for a site on Earth, ranging at the moment around 122 degrees Fahrenheit or 50 degrees Celsius. "It sort of feels good. Nice solar today."
Arcee glanced around, then down at the ground which was deeply dry and cracked. "Well, there is that," she said as she began to walk toward the beeping light on her handheld.
Bulkhead and Devcon followed.
=0=The Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Europe
"I hate snow." Nosecone frowned mightily.
"You and me both," Ironhide said sourly.
Ultra Magnus glanced around, then into the distance where a narrow valley led upward to where the blinking light was located. He glanced at Ironhide and Nosecone. "The light is signaling up there. We have to climb that crevasse, then dig at the top of it. Apparently, when the relic was buried this area wasn't so craggy."
"Lucky us," Nosecone muttered as he followed the two upward toward an expanse with frozen water in the form of long glistening ice floes several feet thick.
=0=Bali, Oceania
No one arrived yet. This would be the reward for Nosecone, Ironhide and Magnus after Switzerland. That they would arrive at night would be a good thing because they would have to lift some heavy rocks, dig down and retrieve what was there, then return everything to nearly normal as possible.
The waves rolled in and the waves rolled out in paradise.
=0=On the top of the world (Or their secret base)
Prime and Prowl stood together staring out into the night time of the Nevada desert. It was beautiful and inky dark as night settled. All the business was over and Prowl had to leave. It was a hard thing between them to do.
Optimus squeezed Prowl's servo, then turned to him. "We must make the long range bridge a priority because I need to know what is happening where you are and you need better access here. We have them digging in around this planet and the humans are helpless against them. We must make a plan to take the Martian fort away from them."
Prowl nodded. "There are many garrisons and fortresses of Autobots, ships and support in the galaxy and we've connected with them. We even have a deep cover team on Cybertron now. All we need is a unifying plan and the location of Megatron's ship. If we can take out Trypticon then we can move in and sew up this solar system. It would give us a good place to push back. Beachcomber is convinced that there's a lot of energon around here in the system. The free floating energon he's charted came from an explosion a long time ago and indicates that one of the four inner planets is the source."
"Send him here with a team to work with Perceptor and Ratchet. If it turns out to be Mars then we will be forced to deal directly with the problem. If they do not know about the energon that might be there then they will eventually," Prime said. "We cannot allow that to happen. All he would have to do is put out an all call into the galaxy and we would be overrun in no time."
Prowl nodded. "I'll get on it."
They stood together silently, then embraced. Hugging each other tightly, Prowl reluctantly stepped back. After a moment of silent communion, he began the process of transforming into a transitional format to return to his base 100 light years away. It took a moment, then he was ready to go.
Prime watched him do this thing, a process that was as normal and beautiful to him as any other their species could accomplish. He admired Prowl's beauty as the color scheme he wore, black and white, began to morph into the standard color of their underlying protoform. His was copper, a light color that suited Prowl. Copper was holy and to Prime he was, this constant companion in all things during all the long agony of his official life.
Prowl ignited his thrusters, then began to rise. When he was far enough up, he turned on the gas and disappeared into the night. Optimus would stand a long time on the mountain top watching the sky, tracking a light until it could no longer be seen even by him. Only then would he return to the base inside.
=0=Death Valley
"Frag," Bulkhead said. "This is hot even for me." He trudged along over the deeply desiccated surface of heavily sun bleached ground. "How far now?"
Devcon grinned. He loved Bulkhead. Everyone did. He reminded Dev of his grandson sometimes. "We're nearly there. You ready to dig?"
Bulkhead transformed his servo to the wrecking ball-mace he was famous for. "I'm ready if you are."
Arcee laughed. "That's my Bulk."
"POUND! POUND! POUND!"
Everyone stopped, then stared at Bulkhead's chest. The panel slid by, then Miko peered out. "THANKS! IT WAS GETTING HOT IN THERE!"
"MIKO!" -Arcee and Bulkhead
"BWAHAHAHA!" -Devcon
Moments later around a growing hole …
"Can I help you, Bulk?" Miko asked as she stared into the hole with curiosity.
"Just stand back, Miko. How come you aren't in school today?" Bulkhead asked as he watched Arcee in the hole breaking the matrix around something that looked silver and square.
"Its conferences today," Miko said.
"What's it going to be for you?" Bulk asked hopefully.
She glanced up, then got a cagey look on her face. "What did you hear?"
"MIKO!"
"Hey, Bulk. Reach down and pull this out. Okay?" Arcee said as she jumped out of the hole.
Bulkhead knelt, then gripped the object on one of its free sides. He gently tugged, then pulled it out. Standing again, he held it up. The object in his servo looked like an image of someone, someone old and powerful. They gathered around it, then jumped back with shocked surprise. Bulkhead dropped it like a hot rock.
"WHAT!?" Miko cried out as she ran to the image and looked down at it.
"MIKO! STAND BACK! We don't know what that thing is or what it can do," Bulk said as he reached for her.
She squealed and jumped into his servo. "THAT FACE MOVED!"
=0=At a valley in the heart of Africa's great mystique
"I think Prime needs to come for this," Springer said as he rubbed his servo.
"That was a pretty good zap. You alright?" Drift asked with a smirk.
"I'M FINE!" Springer said as Bee snickered. He glanced at the mini-con. "Next time you pick it up, slagger."
Nearby, a pride of lions were watching them with an unwavering steady gaze.
=0=A base 100 light years away
Prowl walked toward the Operational Center which in two days would be inside a mountain. He entered, then walked to the command table.
Hound glanced up. "How was it?"
Prowl glanced at him. "Moving very, very fast."
=0=TBC 01-26-2021 I am going to be posting to this story every two days or so. Diego has priority but this one has insisted to be written again and I play well with others, so … ;)
