Chapter 4: Phone Home
Once the three Autobots had intervened with Bruticus, and Steven had stopped his guardians from pressing further, things started to simmer down with the groups. The gems unfused back to their three original forms and Combaticons separated back to the five individual selves as well.
To make a point about them not being here to harm anyone, Hot Rod and Jazz told them everything that they needed to know about them. It wasn't any different from what they had told Steven, and they even left out the same details that they had before. Steven already knew more about them then these three, and they didn't intend on letting on anymore than that.
Likewise, the gems gave some information of their own. It wasn't a lot considering that Steven had already taken care of most of it, though they did assume that he hadn't told them about his being only half human. Since it wasn't brought up, they left it at letting them think that he was still only human.
While the Combaticons never actually said anything, they had been listening the entire time, wanting to know everything that they could about the creatures that had been able to match their combined forces. It was always wise to learn about your enemies.
"Well, it's nice to see that some of you can be civil." Pearl said to Jazz, before tossing a dirty look at Swindle, "but would you or your friends kindly explain why it was that you were trying to destroy our home?"
"Woah, hold on there. First off, we are not friends." Onslaught said, finally speaking up, "The day that any of us befriend an Autobot is the day I meet the Allspark."
"That could certainly be arranged." Cliff Jumper said, clear disdain in his voice.
"You wanna pick up where we left off Auto-trash?" Brawl said, "Because I have no problem with giving you that lesson in manners I promised."
"Enough, both of you." Hot Rod interrupted, "None of this matters, especially to the natives."
"Wait, you mean you guys aren't on the same side?" Steven asked.
"That's hardly the point right now." Onslaught said, getting back on track, "To answer your question, it was because we were trying to get at that stockpile of energy that seems to be buried behind that thing. With the state of the outside, we thought it was abandoned."
"Excuse me!?" Pearl said, "I will have you know that I have spent many hours making sure that-" Pearl was interrupted when Garnet put her hand up, letting her know that she would take care of things from this point.
"Look, the state of the house is hardly a topic of concern right now." Garnet said, "What I want to know is what you mean by stockpile of energy."
"It's the reason that we're here in the first place." Onslaught went on, "We were sent to find energy, and there was a signature here that is nearly identical to that of energon."
"To what now?" Amethyst asked.
"It's essentially their life's blood." Steven answered, "They and everything that they use run off of it."
"Though, what you are picking up is not what you think. Allow me to explain." Peridot said, having finally recovered from the breakneck speed they had been traveling at. She then projected an image from her gem, showing the robots just what it was she was talking about.
"The energy source that you claim to have picked up, is not actually an energy, but rather is the signature of our own life source. That being our gems." Peridot explained, pointing to her own gem, "It is through these stones that we are able to project ourselves as physical beings. While I'm not at all sure why our gems give off the same signature as this energon you speak of, I can assure that it isn't the same thing."
After the brief explanation, Onslaught was very skeptical as to if this was true or not. Though, this wouldn't be the first time that something was mistaken for energon. Looking over at Blastoff, Onslaught cocked his head in the small gems direction. Knowing what he meant, Blastoff opened up the holographic projector in his arm. Looking at the projection that Peridot was showing him, and the image provided by Perceptor, he could see that she was correct.
"It's true. The same signature that we saw before in the ship is also present in these gems the creatures have." Blastoff told everyone, "but the real question is; where does this leave us?"
"Living rocks or not, we have to get communications up and report back to Cybertron." Onslaught said, "Once we report our finding, we'll let home base decide what we do from here."
"Hold up there, Onslaught." Jazz said, "You really think it's a good idea to be bringing that thing down here? I mean, the secrets out with them, sure, but so we really need to expose ourselves more?"
"Look, radioing back to our leader takes priority. We'll keep it cloaked, but we are setting up that commlink." Onslaught said, before switching his communications to the ship. "Ground team to scout ship, we need you at our location. We have a place ready for the setup."
"Good luck, I was trying to get Perceptor and he didn't answer." Hot Rod said.
"You were trying to contact a scientist who was probably over engrossed in some sort of experiment. Soundwave is our comms officer, and he always answers." Onslaught said, before going to trying to hail the ship again, "Soundwave, this is Onslaught, do you read me?"
High above the planet, the scouting ship had taken up a holding position over a different part of the planet that. After the drop off of their scouting parties, Perceptor went to work with trying to figure out why it was that things had changed so much since the last time Shockwave had taken any notes from this planet.
It is to be expected that, with so much time passing, things are going to change. Yet how was it that such a large quantity of energy that had a similar molecular structure to that of energon could just go unnoticed? Did Shockwave really investigate the planet as thoroughly as he claimed?
"It will all be so much easier when I get a sample." Perceptor said to himself, logging down notes into the data files. This planet was going to be invaluable to them once they actually were able to get to that energy source.
Meanwhile, Soundwave had busied himself with preparing the communications relay. Once they got the okay to start, he didn't want any time wasted. Megatron wasn't known for his patience, and it would be wise of all of them to get things done quickly. Even excluding Megatron, the need for energy on their home planet was all too prevalent.
While looking over the antenna's one last time, Soundwave's heard Onslaught coming over the shortwave frequency.
"Soundwave acknowledges. Report." he said, listening to Onslaught, "Confirmed. Locking onto coordinates. Have the area prepped for arrival."
Looking to where Perceptor was, he finally realized how engrossed the scientist was with research and logs. Was it any wonder why he and Shockwave were able to get along so easily when they worked together? While to two had different views on things, they always got the best results. If he were allowed to continue, Soundwave knew that Perceptor would stay there all day.
"Ground team one has reported in. Prepare for landing and relay set up." Soundwave said to him, getting Perceptor out of his stupor.
"Huh? Oh right, yes." Perceptor said, finally coming back to reality, "Setting course for the first drop point."
"Understood, waiting for arrival." Onslaught said, turning back to the group, "See, Soundwave always has communication down to a T."
"Geez Perceptor, what are you doing up there?" Hot Rod questioned, looking up at the sky.
"Hold it right there." Pearl said, "You can't just go set up a huge satellite here. There are people around and-"
"We have our orders." Onslaught interrupted, "Besides, this cliff face will do a good enough job masking the tower. Not to mention, it's not even that large. Once we know what's happening, we'll more than likely have to take the thing down anyway. If everything you're saying is true, there's no sense in us staying here."
Pearl was about to continue on with her argument, but she really couldn't. Everything that Onslaught had just said did make a lot of sense. Even if she wasn't a fan of having them here, this was likely going to be the quickest solution to getting them out of here. She just hoped that this wouldn't take too long.
Thankfully, it was hardly a wait at all. Although cloaked, the ship that the robots had spoken of could be heard coming from quite a distance away. When it got in close enough, a distorted, faint outline could be seen of it. Almost looking like the image of the sky was being warped and bent.
Upon the ship's landing, the cloak was lost. No longer needed with it being thoroughly concealed by the hillside. To Steven and the gems, the sheer size of the ship was a sight to behold. If this was just one of their scouting ships, then they could only wonder how big some of their other vessels could be.
Not long after its landing, the ship opened up and revealed the other robots that had been referred to. Both of them were carrying large boxes of what Steven assumed was part of the setup they were going to have here.
"Combaticons, retrieve the remaining assembly parts." Soundwave said after placing the box down, the gems noting that his voice highly synthesized compared to all the other bots. "Laserbeak, Rumble eject. Operation; Communication."
As the Combaticons went off into the ship to fetch the rest of the parts, the gems all watched in amazement as two much smaller robots were ejected from Soundwave's chest. The first was what looked like a bird, while the second was a humanoid looking one with large fists and piston-like devices on its arms.
As those two started getting to work with the equipment set up, the second bot came down to join with his fellow Autobots. At least, if the symbols on their bodies were anything to go by.
"Hot Rod, while I must say that this is a decent location for the array to be set up, I must ask why it is that you moved from your previous scouting location. Did you not find any anything that is of use for our mission, or was it-" Perceptor stopped, finally realizing that they were not alone on the beach, "Wh-what is this? What are they doing here? You know protocol; no contact with indigenous life forms. What were you thinking when you-"
"Easy Perceptor." Jazz said, interrupting the scientists' rant, "We all know how things are supposed to go, but this was pretty unavoidable. Especially when Brute-brain decided to get involved with it. But we've kept contact to a minimum. It's only these five that know about us, and we plan on keeping it that way."
"Mission must remain covert. Any and all sightings must be dealt with. Laserbeak, Rumble; terminate." Soundwave said, ordering his minicons.
"Woah there, hold up!" Jazz said before the smaller cons could actually do anything, "I know your boss doesn't care about any other form of life, but we have our orders as well. No other life forms are to be harmed. Now if you want this mission completely botched and have to report back with a mission failure, you're gonna have to go through us first if you wanna get to them."
There was a long pause from Soundwave while his minicons waited for their next orders. As always, the communication officer was meticulous with everything that he did. Considering every possibility before actually acting on it.
"Autobots will be held accountable for all interactions." Soundwave said.
"Fair enough, but you boys are taking responsibility for starting that fight." Jazz said.
"Self defense is basic protocol for all missions. They were not the aggressors." Soundwave responded.
"Not the aggressors?" Pearl said incredulously, "They tried to destroy our house. If we hadn't acted there would have been nothing left and- What are you doing?" Pearl was stopped from her anger fueled speech when Perceptor bent down to get a closer look at her.
"Hmm, so these are the inhabitants of this planet?" Perceptor asked, "Interesting how the body structure is somewhat- wait a moment." Perceptor said, using the tube-shaped piece that was on his shoulder to scan over pearl, who simply stood there flabbergasted by everything happening.
"I'm picking up the same energy signature as what we saw in the initial scan of this planet. How is this possible?" Perceptor asked.
"Well, that's a bit of a story, but I think they'll be better at explaining it than us. Frankly, I still don't think I get it." Hot Rod said, gesturing to Steven.
As the communication array was set up, Steven gave Perceptor the same long-winded overview of everything about this planet and just what it was that they had found. Everything from the real native population of this world, humans, to what it was they were actually seeing on their scans. Perceptor was absolutely fascinated by everything he was hearing, nearly forgetting about the real reason that they were here.
"This is absolutely remarkable." Perceptor said, going into full crazy scientist mode, "An entire species that is derived from projected bodies made from stones of the planet. The sheer leap in evolution that it must have taken for this to be possible is like nothing I have ever studied before. Please, if I may, how is it that your kind came to be? Is there more to your stones then just being minerals? How is it that-"
"I hate to interrupt you there Doc, but they finished with the communication setup." Cliffjumper said, getting Perceptor to back off with the questions.
"Hmm? Oh yes, of course. The entire reason that we're here." Perceptor said, going to join Hot Rod and the others to give their briefing.
"Thanks, he was starting to get as bad as Peridot." Amethyst said, receiving a dirty look from Peri.
"He has a tendency to start speaking in terms no understands except for himself when he gets into things." Cliffjumper explained, "Well, maybe himself and Shockwave, but that's really about it."
"Who's that?" Garnet asked.
"Not important. All that matters right now is getting this report into Optimus. He's gonna have a few things to say, I already know." Jazz said, ing over to the communication array.
The gems were all very confused by everything that was happening. They had been hearing so many different names and things that they didn't understand, and none of it was getting explained to them. The vague and dismissive answers were just leaving them scratching their heads, wanting to know more. They understood the importance of keeping secrets, but what was so important that their visitors couldn't tell them anything solid?
Wanting to get in on the information that was likely going to be passed out, Steven managed to get close enough to the robots that he could see what was happening but managed to stay out of their line of sight. Hopefully, this would provide some answers.
While the gems might have normally told him not to do this, they were just as equally curious as he was. After having to fight these creatures, they needed to know if they truly were friend or foe. They had a duty to this planet, and they weren't about to just let these new aliens come in and act like they owned this world.
"Scouting party to Cybertron, this is Soundwave." the comms officer said, trying to get in contact with their home planet, "To any that are receiving this, response."
"This is commander Starscream." A voice said through the speaking of the instrument, "I see that communication has been established. What's your report?"
"Requesting holo-comm with Lord Megatron to report findings of the scouted planet." Soundwave responded.
"I'm afraid that our leader is currently occupied. He is speaking with Optimus Prime on certain matters. With that said, feel free to give your report to me and I will ensure that Megatron hears them." Starscream said.
"We must have direct communication with both leaders. It is an urgent matter and one that can only be heard by them. Retrieve them." Soundwave responded.
"You dare to give me orders, Soundwave." Starscream said, clearly irritated, "As second in command, I am more than capable of-"
"You do not have clearance." Soundwave said, cutting off the commander, "This is priority one, only our leaders are to hear this. Retrieve Megatron and the Autobot leader."
There was a short pause after Soundwave's response. The comms officer and the second in command had always butted heads, especially when it came to things such as the chain of command. Yet, after a grunt of dissatisfaction, Starscream did yield.
"Very well." Starscream said, the speaker going silent once again. After a very short wait, there was a button that lit up on the control panel of the antenna tower, indicating a request for holographic communication. After hitting the button, Soundwave and all the others moved back so that they could see and speak to who it was on the other end.
Two holographic images appeared in front of the scouting teams. While both of the figures were certainly large, the holographic images did shrink them down a were the two de facto leaders of both factions of Cybertron. Optimus Prime and Megatron.
"I see that long-range communications have been set up. I do hope that you have pulled me away from my meeting with good reason Soundwave. What is your report?" the Decepticon leader demanded.
"I ask for your report as well, Hot Rod." the Autobot leader said.
"Lord Megatron, initial readings of this planet showed strange results." Soundwave said, "Old records given by Shockwave were no longer accurate. The planet is now populated and is showing strange signs of energy signatures similar to that of energon."
"It is true Optimus, the planet is no longer like the old reports." Hot Rod said, "Though, after an investigation, we have confirmed that the readings were not actually a fuel source."
"I see." Optimus said, "Then what was this strange reading?"
"I admit to my own curiosity as well." Megatron said, "If not a viable energy source, then what was it that your scanners picked up?"
"If I may, Lord Megatron, it was not as we thought." Onslaught said to his master, "Upon arriving on this planet, he attempted to gather a piece of the substance. Unfortunately, after we encountered some of the local populace, we couldn't-"
"Locals? Are you saying that you had contact with the species of the planet?" Megatron interrupted.
"It wasn't intentional at all." Hot Rod said, speaking for both parties, "The places that we explored had no signs of life forms upon initial scanning, but we made contact nonetheless. It was really unavoidable."
"How many know of your presence?" Optimus asked.
"Five currently." Jazz answered.
"And why is it that they have not been dealt with, as per my orders?" Megatron asked, anger clear in his tone.
"The Autobots stopped us from carrying out your order, my liege." Onslaught said, "Even going so far as to say that they would re-escalate the war."
"As they should have." Optimus said, "There is no reason for us to be interfering with alien life forms. Nor is there any reason for us to terminate them."
"Optimus, do you not see the folly in keeping those that know about us alive?" Megatron questioned the Autobot leader. "The more that know about us, the more likely chance that he will find out about what is truly happening. The lower the profile we keep, the better off we will be."
"While that is true, we can't just eliminate them." Optimus argued, "We are the ones at fault for letting this happen. Yet, in that same regard, I feel that we now have an opportunity before us."
"And what, pray tell, is that?" Megatron asked.
"While this may not have been what we were looking for, it could lead to something of great use." Optimus said, "While I don't know what you found there, it may be worth investigating. With something that nearly fully resembles energon, it may be the key to figuring out the formula for something synthetic. Something that we greatly need. I believe that if we learn more about this, it could help us with our energon problem."
Megatron said nothing at first, simply mulling over what Optimus said. While the two of them rarely, if ever got along, they did have their moments where even they could agree without issue.
"What do you propose, Optimus?" Megatron asked.
"For now? We leave behind a small team to not only keep track of the ones that know of us, but to also put further research into this matter." Optimus said, "We will each leave behind one member, but then send more qualified people to further research this. What say you Megatron?"
"Hmm… an interesting proposal." Megatron said, "but one that does make sense. Very well Optimus, we will go further into this when our team reports back in person. Soundwave, you will remain behind to maintain communications. Someone will return later to properly relieve you."
"Yes, Lord Megatron." Soundwave said, making no argument to his leader.
"Cliffjumper, you will remain behind with the natives of the world." Optimus said, "Hot Rod, I wish to speak with you when you return."
"Yes Optimus." both said. Hot Rod sounding slightly down with his response, knowing that he had disappointed their leader.
While this entire conversation had taken place, Steven and the gems and been closely listening. Things were definitely not as they seemed. Their new friends had not been giving them the full story, and now they were going to be watched by them. What was going on here?