Heya, sorry for the delay. Just had a birthday. Let's call this a little... puttz of inactivity? Anyway, scripture update of the chapter:
Job 7:17: Be ready! "I will come to them from before them, and from behind them, and from their right, and from their left, and You will find that most of them are unappreciative." Satan will come from all directions. Make sure to be ready for his arrival, and able to resist it!
On with the chapter, hope you enjoy!
"Lotan," the voice boomed in the darkness. "Lotan! Awaken!" it called again. I opened my eyes to find I was floating in the midst of darkness. It was certainly strange to float... if you've ever floated. I looked to what I thought was down, and saw black nothingness, as where the other directions. Slightly confused, and a bit disoriented, I looked for the disembodied voice, only to find nothing.
"Who are you, and, where are you?" I called to the darkness, half expecting to have nothing reply.
"I am here, and I am not. I simply request your ear," the voice boomed again. I attempted to locate him from the sound's direction, only to fail. It was coming from everywhere at once. I have a feeling I'm not going to like this, I thought to myself.
The voice spoke again, "Why have you come to arrive on such a planet?" it asked.
"You know, funny story about that... Listen, what is going on? I mean, I don't usually float in the middle of nowhere that often, barring a weird story from when I was seven..." I said to the voice.
"I am visiting you. Perhaps I should say, you are visiting me. You are currently at the Autobot's base on the planet known as Earth. I reside on the planet Vevis, and I come bearing this message: If they know, they will fear," he stated, even though he was just talking, it had the noise equivalent of a large ship taking off.
"Know? Know what? And where's Vevis?" I asked.
"I must absent from you. Remember!" he said before echoing off into the black darkness that covered the world.
I woke with a startle. "Jeez, that was a weird dream." I got up, and walked over to a small food depositor. I ate and then left my quarters. I was walking toward the command room when I heard Optimus' door open beside me, and him walk out. He walked beside me for several seconds in silence, then he spoke.
"Are you ready to attempt making contact to your people?" he questioned.
"I am. Do Cybertronians ever had dreams?" I asked him out of the blue.
"We do, though not as humans or Conians consider dreaming. Our CPU remains active through our recharge, so that we remain fully conscious during our power down. Our 'dreams' are simply replaying last cycle's events, sometimes further back than last cycle though," he answered my question. "Why do you ask?"
"Well," I started, "I had an interesting dream last night. Mostly I was just curious."
"I see. Ratchet," he said as we entered the command room, "Are you prepared for contact?" he asked the CMO.
"Yes," he replied simply. "Lot, just speak and it should broadcast."
I took a deep breath before speaking. "Former residents of the world Conia, please respond."
No answer.
"Those of you who remain from the destruction of our home world, Conia, please respond," I said again. Just static. No answer. Just, nothing. I sighed and looked at the ground. "Either there's no one receiving the transmission... or there is no one to receive the transmission," I said. Optimus looked at me.
"Do not despair. They may simply not have a transmitter. We shall try again next cycle," he said in his monotone voice. I nodded and went over to the couch where Jack and Miko were sitting while Raf was sitting in the chair next to them on his computer.
"Heya Lot," Jack said not taking his eyes away from the television screen. Apparently he was playing a video game. His thumbs were clicking away at the Xbox controller and he looked rather integrated into it.
"Hello. What are you playing?" I asked.
Jack shifted his body left and right before ducking. I wondered if, one, he had heard me, and two, if he knew that wasn't going to help him at all. After a few seconds of this, he replied, "I'm playing Halo. It's a game where you have to basically just shoot stuff."
"That is the entire purpose?" I pondered.
"Well, no. But that's basically all I can do before I die," he replied before ducking again.
"I see. And watch out behind you," I warned as I took a seat next to him. Raf briefly glanced up from his computer before returning to, whatever he was doing. Jack heeded my advice and turned around to see a storm jackal shoot him in the head. He cursed as 'Master Chief', Jack's player, died and fell to the ground. Then the storm jackal added insult to injury when he walked over Jack's dead body and started crouching and standing. Jack simply waited to re-spawn, calmly walked over to an armory, and grabbed the biggest gun he could find. When he cocked it the noise it made sounded like a cannon going off. I saw a smile creep across his face as he walked off to find the storm jackal. After about two minutes of searching, he found it, and took aim. If you thought the loading was loud, you should have heard the gun go off. The jackal, well, ceased to be, while Jack was thrown back from the recoil... right into a covenant soldier with a rocket launcher. I'd never seen a smile turn into a frown so quickly. He cursed again as the soldier repeatedly fired rockets into his player.
I got bored with watching Jack loose to these enemies, so I accessed the internal computer in my head. I quickly gained access to his Xbox, and searched until I found the file. After doing a little bit of editing, and one death by Jack later, he re-spawned to see the jackal had, not only taken out all of the enemies in sight, but had also killed itself. Jack looked at the screen pondering what the heck had just happened, while I sat there smiling to myself.
I stood up, straightened my shirt, and walked off to go see Arcee. I hadn't familiarized myself much with her as of yet. I knocked on the door to her quarters.
"It's unlocked," she called from within. I pushed the door open to find her sitting at her desk reading a datapad. She turned her head to see who had entered her quarters and greeted me. "Oh, hi, Lot."
"Hello, Arcee. How are you?" I asked as I looked around her room. They were slightly smaller than mine, but bigger than Optimus' quarters. He takes care of his soldiers first, an honorable quality, I thought to myself.
"I'm doing well. Did you need something?" she asked putting the pad down on her desk and standing up to face me. Her desk was not unlike a human desk, though it had no legs. It was fastened to the wall through two L-bars holding it upright. The desk itself was practically a large metal slab sticking out of the wall.
"Actually, I just came by to say hello. We haven't had much interaction aside from when I first met you," I said looking up at the tall femme in front of me. She eyed me curiously then responded.
"No. I guess we haven't. So, how goes the signal to your race?" she said after a moment.
"There has been no response as of yet. Optimus and I are going to try tomorrow; I hope we get a reply," I stated, looking around her quarters. She had a row of datapads on a shelf hanging off the wall slightly adjacent to her berth – probably a book shelf. She had a stand next to her berth as well, housing an energon cube atop it. On the side of her desk, she had an energon depositor. It looked similar to an Earth fountain drink station.
"Well I wish you good luck," she replied. "How are you adjusting to your current home?" she asked me.
"It's going well. Every once in awhile, I'll wake up and have no knowledge of my position, but that goes away after a few klicks. Over all, it's wonderful staying here, though I wish to see my people once again," I said wistfully.
"That's understandable. Even though there's a few 'bots here on Earth, I still miss my people, my planet," she said. Her optics were looking off at the wall like she was remembering something. She suddenly snapped back to reality, and looked at me. "Did you have anyone special on Conia?" she asked.
I took a minute to gather my thoughts. "Aside from my family, yes. There was a female explorer that was helping me explore the Great Cave, though she died in the initial blast," I said looking at the ground.
"I'm so sorry," she started. "I know how hard it is to loose someone close to you," she joined in my sadness. Then she attempted to change the subject. "You getting along well with the kids?"
"Yes. Jack seems much like a friend I had back on Conia a few orn ago," I said remembering my comrade, Mentelle. "And Raf seems most like my younger brother I had. And Miko... she's more like that crazy cousin we all share," I stated as I tried to lift the mood. Apparently it worked. Arcee and I shared a laugh.
"I'm glad to see you getting along." She put a finger up to her ear, "As much as I enjoy talking to you, I am needed in the command room. I'll talk to you later," she said as she went over to the door and left the room. I shrugged and walked over to my room and punched in the code Optimus gave me. The door slide open and I entered the room. I noticed the empty shelf that should house books or datapads. I'd have to do something about that.
A/N
Sup guys. I've been working on this chapter the past day or two after I started it. I'm sorry for the lack of effort in updating within the first... what was it(?) Two weeks? Like I said, I was a little busy. Anyway, now that I'm out of that rut, I'm back to writing again.