"-The best mathematicians are the best warriors".
Firstly, a shout out to TFPKOFanGirl, thank you for your encouragement to a rather lonely person all those years ago 4 years ago. If I hadn't had that conversation I would have never decided and be inspired to finally write and post this story. You changed the course of my destiny. :D
Reviews are welcome even though this is my first and last story that will be (see my profile for my explanation why), share the ideas and feel free to say whatcha want to say. Okay? :)
Notes.
Kliks are the equivalent of seconds or minutes in canon. In this story they represent the cybertronian equivalent of seconds.
I've included different real life mathematics terms, the Planck unit is real and is the smallest unit of time, the picture is a picture of the Planck equation. Infinity is not a joke it's a real maths term(but it is funny, like hey we're approaching infinity) as is limits, asymptotes(the definition of frustration as an Australian mathematician once said because they're always trying to reach the line on a Cartesian plane but they never will! EVER! "Are we there yet, are we there yet? No! And we'll never!").
A bit of the thinking behind the story. Everything that is created by people probably was built with maths, equipment, furniture etc. Maths plays an important part in planning and logistics. Soundwave in the Prime cartoon is incredulously efficient and competent and in many times in combat or elsewhere you can see he's calculating things. Like when Optimus tries to grab the bone relic midair Soundwave appears to start calculating on his visor the precise location and duration of the fragment so he can catch the piece with a spacebridge without Optimus following it. That's really good maths at work. I imagine in combat he would also employ mathematics and with a cybertronian processor it makes sense he would be capable of utilising maths to calculate his avoidiing and attacking mid combat.
The lines in between the text indicate a change of scene, so be unconfused. Cheers people (What? I come from a land down under).
Calculations, billions of them flashed and scrolled on a screen. Glyphs and symbols, speculations, ideas, hypotheses mashed themselves out in full brainstorming mode.
A blur o f blue and pink. He calculated the trajectory, velocity, parabolic implications and the points in relation.
And simply waited.
He had already send a code with the precise calculations to the spacebridge central processing unit. Detailed in his data package was the codes and equations detailing the moment to activate. In addition to this it contained the precise location where it should open up at.
The spiky dark figure regarded the lithe motorcycle racing at 255 kliks at the billionth of a Planck towards him.
He directed his computers and focused on time and distance so he could recheck 20 billion times that his calculations were accurate. Time slowed down from the perspective of the visor busy with calculations. The blurr of blue and pink motorcycle hurtling at him became like slow motion as his cybertronian processors started processing in smaller and smaller units of time.
Seconds began processing in milliseconds. Milliseconds became microseconds and microseconds descended into the even smaller unit of picoseconds.
The blur was no longer a blur, it was now a slowly moving Autobot Arcee as his processors delved far beyond the decimal point. His processors transferred to the femtosecond, then the yoctosecond then ultimately the smallest unit of time, the Planck second.
The intriguing Planck. He had often used it, fond of it gravitational constant, light speed constant and quantum constant which allowed him to rearrange it's equation. It was suitable for an infinite variety of situations and needs that often cropped up for the third in command and communications officer of the decepticons. As such it was his favourite unit to work with and play around with.
The spacebridge activated.
Autobot Arcee slipped through unable to change her trajectory fast enough to avoid the green swirl. Just as the rearranged Planck equation dictated would occur.
Mathematics was so trustworthy, compared to cybertronians and other alien species.
At Autobot Arcee's sudden departure beautiful silence permeated the halls of the Nemesis. No more reverberations from the noisy motorcycle's hasty travel assaulted his senses anymore.
Soundwave had restored the balance.
His opponents blades sliced 0.5555555 millimetres of dark cyberrutium from his visor. His processors operating at picosecond speeds toke the luxury of 7000 fractions of a second to watch the delicate shards spin away into the rocky desert.
He hadn't taken a hit on his frame since 700 years of fighting! This outrage was not to be ignored, he whipped his hybrid optic cables to smash the tricoloured offender into the moh scale of 6 rock flooring. Slightly more than halfway the hardness of diamond according to earthen sclerometers and research. As expected the impact combined with the hardness of the rock, caused minor damage with temporal shock, which required 5 seconds of recovery for his opponents systems to respond at full efficiency.
He hadn't the time and processing space to check it his usual 20 billion times but he was deeply pleased to find his mathematics proved precise and correct. The result aligning with his mathematical prediction.
Back on the Nemesis Megatron applauded the quiet mech as he silently handed over his prize. What Megatron didn't understand though was the mathematics were at the core of his success.
If Megatron had studied to the highest level of mathematics cybertronian processors had this war could have been won years ago. Unfortunately the hulking gladiator had learned the art of destruction in the rather than pursuing cybertronian equivalent of a doctorate in precise relativity and applicable quantum theory.
Soundwave sighed internally trying to teach Megatron to reinvent the way he engaged in combat was unlikely to succeed.
Even so he displayed on his screen, in cybertronian glyph, "I can teach you to be the greatest warrior."
The lessons were not going well.
"Soundwave!" Megatron growled, " I don't need to understand how the velocity and mass of my cannon effect are relative to points infinity and Planck."
Soundwave stared back seemingly emotionless. Black blank visor emptied of the previous scrolling equations displayed on his screen visor.
But Megatron did need to know how the velocity and mass of my cannon effect are relative to points infinity and Planck. Because once he understood that and how to rearrange the Planck equation and understand the asymptotic graph charting his cannon's beam and calculate field variables he would never miss a shot!
He presented this argument to Megatron on his visor display backed up by a simulation of Optimus Prime blowing up as the beam hit it's intended mark perfectly solved, calculated and rechecked 20 billion times.
But Megatron had enough after spending an entire week devoted to relativity, infinity, asymptotes, limits and advanced calculus of every shape, equation and application to combat.
"Enough!" He bellowed, the force of the sound powerful enough to shake the command centre slightly, causing every vehicon to flinch violently and loose equipment to rattle.
"I have had enough, more than enough of calculations and checking," Megatron rasped lowly, " And if I succeeded in eradicating almost all Autobot control off Cybertron without relativity and quantum theory, then I shall, conquer galaxy just fine without it!"
And that was the end of the lessons.
Megatron went back to his usual way of haphazard combat and planning and Soundwave continued to calculate.
One might say observing the decepticons that Soundwave was the backbone, providing order, structure and accomplishing day to day necessities. That Soundwave fully and expertly managed decepticon army logistics but really it was because the mathematics.
When energon needed to be conserved Soundwave could calculate the precise mass to the thousandth decimal that each vehicon ration would need to be reduced to. He could solve what percent power could be reduced on the Nemesis without sending it crashing down to earth. With his advanced mathematics he was able to vastly improve mining techniques and energon extraction and refinement. And he had more than just a few vehicon students who he had trained to run the decepticon logistics in the command centre, they were rather bright learners.
The intriguing words of one of his relativity lecturers rang true for Soundwave.
"Curious to what most think, the warrior is not the most dangerous in combat. In a study conducted by 15 researchers and 20 participants, they had an experienced gladiators engage in combat with a mechs who had never received combat training. The untrained mechs however, were some of the top students in precise relativity and applicable quantum theory, the same which you are studying." The lecturer beamed research data towards the class.
Amazed looks flooded different faces in the class. The dark spiky mech sitting by himself however, did not appear amazed in anyway. Rather inside his processor the data confirmed a hypothesis he had for a long time, a hypothesis which had lead him to study this doctorate with the recent unrest on Cybertron.
The lecturer continued on once the hum of the class discussing the data to one another subsided,"Not only did the untrained mechs escape with mostly only aesthetic injuries they were able to take down experienced gladiators at an average of 7245.734793073 nanoclicks. This study rocked the world of combat training. In fact it led to more mathematically based combat training."
Starscream had studied mathematical combat in a school that opened in response to the research and its findings. The reason why the jet felt confidant enough to show off his mathematical prowess by dropping off a cliff, only turning on his jet turbines 995.77973597 millimetres before hitting the hard rocky ground.
The lecturer had a proud look in his eye and he held his frame with a confident posture at the end his lecture, an amused sparkle in his optics as he finished off with his concluding statement.
"Truly the best mathamaticians are the best warriors."