Nature of the Beast Short Story: Jonah and the Leviacon
FoY will be the next story with a chapter update, then AA. But in the meantime: a quick short story to tide ya'll over, in which Perceptor tempts fate and Reef Crusher has the patience of a very grouchy saint.
The mission was supposed to have been a simple one: a diplomatic expedition to Aquatron, to ascertain whether or not the Aquatronians would involve themselves in the War raging on the home-front. The whole thing was meant to have been an easy, non-hostile endeavor to a generally peaceable planet, taken in an unarmed shuttle with only three 'bots selected by Optimus Prime himself, who would ride with them as the official envoy. The main cruiser they had arrived in had been ordered to keep in low orbit, cloaked, to avoid possibly alarming colonists. They would merely ask the colonists their question, and if rejected, they would simply warn the Aquatronians that the Decepticons might try to force them into the fight. Then they would leave.
Or, at least, that had been the plan.
Things hadn't quite worked out that way.
The shuttle rattled under the barrage of blaster-fire. At the controls, Jetfire swore as a particularly powerful blast sent the shuttle and everyone inside lurching to one side. An alarm blared alongside red emergency lights.
"Engine one is failing! Steering capacity is compromised!" warned Jetfire.
"Find us a place ta land, then!" demanded Jazz. "Our ride can't take much more o' this!"
The shuttle lurched again. Optimus was starting to look nervous.
"Easier said than done, Jazz! Or did you forget where we are?!" snapped Jetfire.
Through one of the few windows, Perceptor could see thick black smoke pluming outside. Whether it was coming from the engine or some other damaged component he could not tell for certain. That was arguably not an encouraging sign when all that lay below them for klicks on end was open ocean, in which their Decepticon pursuers seemed intent on drowning them. But maybe, Perceptor mused, that water could provide refuge. Blaster fire didn't work below water, he knew that from tests, and the heavier barrage could be slowed as it struck the surface. It wouldn't be perfect protection by any means but it might prolong their functionality just long enough to reach land – or at least shallower waters.
Perceptor silently shared the suggestion with Optimus. The Prime absorbed the data, put it through a risk/benefit calculation, and made his decision.
"Head for the water! Dive!" ordered the Prime.
"Are you mad?!" demanded Jetfire.
The moment the Air Commander saw the older mech's look, he realized he wasn't.
"Oh, frag me..." muttered Jetfire.
The shuttle went into a seventy-degree nose dive towards the ocean below. The shuttle kept rattling as the barrage intensified while more alarms triggered over the increasing damage. The Decepticons must have known how close their shuttle was to destruction: one final, blaring klaxon warned of incoming projectiles – of the heat-seeking variety, no doubt. With the shuttle's steering capability heavily compromised, Jetfire's frantic jerk to starboard was instead a groaning, sluggish turn. The consequence was statistically inevitable.
"Brace for impact!" warned Perceptor.
Optimus lunged and crouched over both him and Jazz as well as he could.
The first missile struck hard, blowing a hole in the shuttle's rear canopy. But its twin struck even harder, finishing the job. Half a klick above the ocean, with a horrific roar and creak, the shuttle ruptured. The next thing he and his associates knew, they were plummeting towards the water as what was left of the shuttle rained down around them. The enemy only pressed their advantage, but like Perceptor thought their blaster fire could not penetrate the ocean's surface. The missiles, however, were not impeded, and screamed in after them. Jazz would have been hit had Jetfire not shoved him out of the way, though the missile struck his starboard wing in consequence. A thin trail of Energon bled into the water.
"We need to get outta here!" insisted Jazz in a mild panic. "We're sittin' ducks like this! Not to mention we're sinking and there's no floor!"
"Hold on," said Jetfire.
Jetfire was at least able to propel himself somewhat, albeit clumsily, so that Jazz could grab hold. That only made him start to sink, too. The addition of Optimus and then Perceptor to the weight load accelerated his descent.
"Get us outta here, man!" begged the spy.
"No. Take us lower," ordered Optimus. "This ocean is nearly the same temperature we are. There is a chance we could fool their targeting systems, but we must be lower to increase that chance."
"That's not a bad idea," the Air Commander admitted.
"Do it," agreed Jazz.
Jetfire cut his engine and let himself sink. Five more missiles shot down dangerously close to them, but after the fifth vanished into the depths, no more joined it. Optimus stayed silent. His optics followed the thin wisp of Energon trailing out from Jetfire's wing with a worried gleam.
"That is not enough to trigger their sensors, Optimus," Perceptor assured him. "The water is diluting it in any case."
Oddly, those words did nothing to ease his concerns. As they continued to sink further down in the water column, the Prime warily checked their surroundings. After looking to the southwest, he did a double-take. His optics went round while alarm blitzed through his field. Perceptor followed his gaze and soon found himself with a similarly wide-eyed look. There was a dark splotch in the distance that was only getting larger and more distinct as they watched it. He assumed it at first to be one of the organic, aquatic lifeforms Aquatron was known for – some were known to reach impressive sizes – but the reality was much more intriguing: a massive creature covered in kelp-colored armor plate (or possibly mechanical like they were?) was swimming directly for them.
"What in the Allspark is that?!" demanded Jetfire.
The behemoth's jaws creaked open.
"Oh, slag! Oh, slag me!" cried Jazz. "It's gonna eat us!"
"Jetfire, move!" thundered the Prime.
By the time Jetfire had his engine back at full throttle, the jaws were practically already on top of them. Jetfire made for freedom as they closed.
"No, no, no, no!" he shouted.
He wasn't fast enough. The Air Commander uselessly rammed into one of the giant teeth – teeth, Perceptor noted, that were oddly worn down and blunted, not at all like those of a true predator. And, further, they were metal, as was everything else around them.
With nowhere to go, they were left to float to the bottom of the creature's maw.
Jazz bemoaned their current predicament: "Getting eaten is not how I wanted to go!"
A strange noise occurred then, like a mix between the hiss of an airlock and the loud rush of water over a waterfall. Perceptor looked up to note the water level was lowering rapidly.
"It's draining the water out," he noted. "Interesting."
"So it's a filter feeder, then?" guessed Jetfire nervously.
Perceptor looked around to find another oddity: they were at the very front of the mouth, near the base of the lower set of teeth, and the creature had not done a thing to direct them further back. It certainly could have; there was nothing to actually stop it from doing so.
An inkling of an idea started to form.
"...This creature is not interested in consuming us," he muttered.
"What?" the Prime wondered.
"What do you mean it's not interested?! We're in its mouth, Percy!"
"Observe."
Perceptor started walking towards the back of the mouth.
"Percy, what are you doing?!" Jetfire shouted in alarm. "Percy, get back here! Percy!"
About halfway back, a low growl welled up from the throat. Then, a powerful rush of hot air slammed into him with such force it blew him back twenty feet.
He turned back to the others, smiling. "See? If it wanted to eat us, it would not have stopped me."
As if to prove his point beyond any doubt, a deafening clanging noise rang out. Thick, segmented panels folded out from the left and right side of the throat to form a barrier between them and the danger zone. To him, it rather looked like the bulkheads one found in starships. Or, he thought with a flash of intrigue, the ones found inside Titans.
He gestured proudly.
The worry in everyone's optics abated somewhat.
"A'ight, so if it doesn't wanna have us for lunch, what's going on?" asked Jazz.
"Well, that I honestly don't know," he admitted. "For a creature that otherwise looks like an ocean predator, this is very non-predatory behavior. Fascinating, isn't it?"
Jazz cast a wary look at the bulkhead. "Yeah. Sure. Fascinating..."
"Are you suggesting this creature might be sapient, Perceptor?" a now intrigued Optimus asked him.
He nodded, "It certainly behaves as such."
Optimus looked around. "Could there be a way to communicate with it?"
He looked around, too, before bringing out a scanner. If this creature was Cybertronian, it stood to reason it had a frequency-based communication system much like theirs – a comm. link, or something akin to one. Curiously, he found no trace of such a system, and testing multiple frequencies yielded nothing. But he did find something peculiar indeed upon looking up: there was something attached to the roof of the creature's mouth, too far forward to have anything to do with feeding. He couldn't quite make it out in the dark.
"Jetfire, if you are capable, could I have a lift, please?"
The Air Commander let him balance precariously on the canopy of his vehicle form. Upon taking him up to the object, he was further puzzled: it looked like a harness of all things, a full body one at that. The most notable oddity about it was the presence of a cable that attached directly to the roof of the mouth via a port.
"I wonder..." he muttered.
Perceptor reached out for the cable, grasping the end in one hand. The creature responded instantly, emitting a low frequency rumble that made his plating vibrate unpleasantly.
Out of curiosity, he released the cable, after which the rumble quieted. Upon taking the cable in hand again, however, the rumble returned.
Jazz anxiously shouted a warning: "Percy, I don't think it likes you touching the whatever-it-is!"
"Agreed! Stop touching it!" urged Jetfire.
"Oh, very well," he conceded. "I won't touch it. I'll only look."
Perceptor released the cable and the rumble stopped. Rather than touch the item in question, he brought out a scanner, though he couldn't quiet understand the system he was looking at. It was a harness, an advanced one, but that cable puzzled him. It was meant for insertion into a matching port – in the head, judging by its position at the front end of the harness. Something, or someone, was meant to have that cable attached to them while in the harness; exactly why was inconclusive. Even more intriguing, the creature was extremely adamant about not letting some random individual interact with the rig, even in innocent study. Deductive reasoning then would argue that the creature wanted someone highly specific.
He motioned for Jetfire to take him back down.
"Well?" wondered the Prime.
"I'm not certain what the device is for, Optimus. And even it I was certain, the creature seems very clear about us not inferring with it. Even if it could have something to do with communication, which is indeterminate, our access is denied."
Optimus hemmed. "There is no indirect way to communicate?"
"Well, it seems incredibly sensitive to touch but that doesn't offer much. Using a tactile code would require the creature know the code, and without being able to upload that information into its brain module –"
"So we're stuck in a giant sea monster's mouth waiting to see what happens," concluded Jazz flatly. "Peachy."
Another rumble came. This one Perceptor could almost hear a "tone of voice" to, reminding him of one of Ironhide's infamous annoyed grumbles. He could not tell if Jazz's words had been the trigger (which may indicate at least one-way verbal communication they could employ) or if something else had been, but that the creature had a discernible personality was fascinating – further evidence of this creature being much more than some big, brainless "sea monster".
"Actually," he mused, "Optimus, can you tell if this creature is Cybertronian? Is the Matrix able to determine that?"
The Prime approached one of the lower teeth before kneeling to put one hand just below the base. Then, his optics shuttered. He was listening for something, but not with his audials.
"It has a spark," he said eventually, and rose, "so it must be."
"But I've never heard of a 'bot designed like this before," breathed Jetfire. "It's big enough to be a Titan but its body plan is reminiscent of the extinct Predacons. And if it is a Titan, then – why, that would make it the only known aquatic Titan on record!"
"I know!" cried Perceptor. "Oh, I wish it would let me run more scans! I'd love to know more about its inner workings! At the very least I can gather some preliminary scans of the oral cavity while we're here..."
He brought out his scanner and aimed it at the jaw hinges. The sea beast issued another low grumble.
"Yeah, here's a crazy idea: how about you don't antagonize the giant sea monster while we're in its mouth, Percy?" Jazz suggested through clenched denta.
"It's not a monster," Perceptor sighed. "We've already established that fact."
"It will be if you keep messing with it!" insisted Jetfire.
"Both of you, calm down, please," urged the Prime. "Perceptor has a point. If it were hostile, why is it taking such care not to harm us?"
Jazz and Jetfire shared glances.
They were all nearly knocked to their knee pikes as the creature lurched.
"What was that?" demanded Jazz. "Did we hit something?"
Perceptor waited. After a moment, he took note that the motion they were feeling wasn't from an impact at all. The lurches, more like sways really, were repeating in a steady pattern. He recalled that the creature had had four limbs: a quadruped. Then, he understood.
"It's walking," he realized.
"Walking?" repeated Jetfire. "Wait, then it has to be walking on something, mustn't it? Like –"
"Land?" murmured the Prime.
The creature eventually slowed until it came to a stop. With a hiss, groan, and creak, the mighty jaw hinges unlocked and opened. Bright light, sunlight, flooded into the dark. It took a moment for everyone's optics to calibrate. When they did, Perceptor almost didn't believe what he saw. Jazz, on the other hand, did.
"Land!" he cried happily. "Dry land, dry land, dry land, dry land!"
Jazz vaulted out of the creature's maw and practically stumbled onto the sandy beach where he collapsed in a happy heap.
A quick check of his comm. link detected multiple registers. The island was inhabited.
The creature issued another rumble, this one friendlier. The floor beneath them shifted, revealed it to be a giant metal tongue, and lifted to offer a ramp above the wall of lower teeth. Jetfire and Optimus left quickly, but Perceptor was slower to disembark. The creature was patient though; its mouth did not close until they were all safely on the beach. Another low rumble vibrated through them as the behemoth watched them closely.
"It...you...saved us?" breathed Jetfire.
The creature lifted its head higher up and lowered it: a nod, or at least an acknowledging bow.
"See? I told you it wasn't interested in hurting us, or eating us," huffed Perceptor proudly. "It even had the courtesy to bring us to an inhabited island."
Optimus gave a formal half-bow back, thanking the creature. In answer, the beast merely grunted, rose up, and plodded back out into the shallow bay. In a heavy swish of its tail, their titanic rescuer returned to the open ocean.
"Come, then," gestured the Prime. "We can inquire if there is a medic here to tend to Jetfire's wing. Then our mission can proceed as planned."
"And then get us a ride outta here, please and thanks," added Jazz. "If I ever see another ocean again, it'll be too soon."