The Diego Diaries: Phase 4 (506) NOTE: We just passed 3 million words. :D I am replacing editing for boo boos. It is a slow but sure process. I have good glasses now. :D:D:D edited
-0-Out there
They floated toward a mishmash of fused metal, melted glass and glass-like materials of indeterminate description. The mass was bunched, coming together in the vacuum as materials in close proximity tended to do. It was after all how planets formed through aggregate collection. Frozen liquids obscured the way forward as they inched along guns in servos. Behind them four Wreckers followed, their sensors on high alert even as their weapons were set to kill. They watched Ratchet from behind and all sides as he and Sunstreaker led the way.
A shuttle moved forward along with two others trailing. They turned their forward lights on and the area immediately clarified. It seemed almost nightmarish with shadows forming along the edges of broken shapes as light illuminated other places almost too much. Ratchet paused glancing around. Out of the corner of his optic he thought he saw something move, something dark. He put a servo out holding Sunstreaker up. :Don't go any further. Everyone, turn quickly and get out of here:
They turned without a word moving with utmost speed back to the shuttles. Ratchet reached one and climbed up on the curve of its forward cowling.
:Prime to Ratchet. What's happening?:
:I thought I saw something move... a shadow figure: Ratchet said.
:Prime to search party. Pull back now: Prime ordered over the comm line. Everyone did, grouping around the shuttle where Ratchet was, then falling back together. It was a grim faced group that sat with their weapons out staring at the hulking mass before them, gathered on the roof and engine cowling of the two shuttles.
-0-On board Phobos
"This isn't good. It could be that the sparkeater is still there," Prime said. "Get Wheeljack and Perceptor here. Now."
Blaster turned and put the call through. Prowl walked from the command table to stand beside Prime. "We may not be able to salvage the Decepticons if the creature is lurking in the mass. I would call our mechs back further. We don't know how this works."
Prime nodded. "Prime to shuttles and Seekers in the search area. Pull back to the migration and await my call."
They acknowledged as the command staff watched the group comply. Ratchet was sitting on Kup's shuttle cowling and rode with the others back to the edge where the rest of the mass were waiting. The destroyed ship debris seemed less ominous from this distance.
:What did you see, Ada?: Sunstreaker said as he magnetized to sit on the cowling beside Ratchet.
:I saw a dark shadow moving swiftly back into the darkness: Ratchet said. :It could have been the light from the shuttles casting shadows or it could be the beast:
The mechs looked at the sputtering floating logjam in the distance in front of them, then Ratchet. :Do you really believe these things exist, Ratchet?: Springer asked with a solemn expression.
:I never did until now. Vos kept a sparkeater that had possessed a turbofox. They called it The Pet. What a vile number of tools these mechs are. I don't think salvaging their hides is worth the risk but then leaving them here to float in vacuum is a risk as well. All it would take is one unsuspecting alien to rescue this mess: Ratchet said shaking his helm slowly.
:We can end it by vaporizing the whole group: Drift said gazing at the wreckage from his perch. He squatted on the top of the shuttle, his weapons close to servo. They stared at it together, dreading it even as they considered their options.
-0-On the vessel Phobos
Charlotte Mearing watched the Autobots talking as she listened in. They were discussing things that she struggled to believe were real. The enormity of the universe had landed upon her with this mission. She had expected to go out, rescue a bunch of metallic aliens, then come back and write a report. Now she had peered into the abyss and found hell staring back. What could she ever write that would convey the sheer horror of what she felt? She didn't know. She stood silently and watched the mechs on the shuttles on the screen. She couldn't imagine being one of them right now.
Lennox and Graham were watching together as Epps knelt asking questions of Jazz who sat at the intel station doing scans. It was mostly ship driven so he had time to answer what Epps needed to know. He noted without looking that the four civilian humans had joined all of the soldiers including Morshower and Fulton to listen as well.
:What the fuck are these creatures? These sparkeaters?: Epps had asked.
Jazz considered that, the bogeyman of their species. This was the thing that was used to scare bad infants back in line. Few had ever seen one and most who did never lived to tell the tale. They were viscous, predatory, implacable and supernaturally dangerous. They removed the spark from their victim and digested it in their body in a very slow manner. Even though you were essentially dead when your spark left your protoform, your spirit or essence didn't die right away. It resided in the digestive system of the sparkeater to be slowly devoured and derezzed in the most horrifyingly painful manner possible. They were easy to discount, easy to disbelief. That is they were until you crossed path with one.
On their own they were big and frightening enough. They were all claws and screams, piercing points that spanned out from their bodies in multiple three-pronged daggers mounted on prehensile-appearing tails. They could overtake their victims, their essences inhabiting others so that they might hunt more capably. Turbofoxes were a perfect disguise, one they could assume with ease. They would overtake their victim and extract their sparks. They would digest them over a long time drawing sustenance before striking again. They were ruthless cybervores.
:They are supposedly myths, Bobby: Jazz said. :They are shadows that come out to eat your spark. I have seen grown battle hardened mechs fall to pieces at the thought of one of them showin' up. They are universally dreaded. It is a mark of how bad the DJD was that they could keep one as a pet:
:Those mechs … what the hell is their deal?: Lennox asked.
:They are fanatics. Mad mechs. They served Megatron fanatically but they also did because they got to kill people wherever, however and as much as they wanted. They are designed … they changed their own protoforms to allow themselves to be torture devices. The universe is filled with many amazin' things. They aren't one of them: Jazz said as he checked some data.
:How many things like that exist out there?: Mearing asked stepping closer to Jazz. :How many things like that do we have to expect to show up on our doorstep?:
Jazz stared at her calculating her mettle. Then he told her the truth. :Lots: he said.
:Fuck: Seymour Simmons muttered quietly, glancing at Jazz with concern. :I was afraid you would say that. Uh … fuck what everyone else says. I'm glad to have you guys here:
Jazz smirked, then nodded. :So am I. We wouldn't be able to find you if the phase sixers ever get past us. There would be nothin' left to see:
No one had another word to say after that.
Wheeljack and Perceptor walked to the command deck from the ship's bridge room pausing beside Prime. They stared at the screen taking in the scene. "We have been scouring the records for anything that might let us have a clue, Prime. It has a form that looks like this in the few first person encounters on record," Wheeljack said as he walked to a console and slotted a drive. He punched in the data calling it up on the big screen. The view outside disappeared as a monstrous creature replaced it. They stood silently taking it in.
A creature snarling and violent lunged at them in the drawing that had been made by an artist at the Archives of Kaon in some past era. It was of indeterminate size with speculation ranging from very big to the size of turbofoxes, one of its preferred formats. It was large with long arms that had terrible claws at the end of long strong fingers.
Horrible yellow optics and a screaming expression were obviously designed to overwhelm its victims along with four prong dagger tips on the end of numerous prehensile tails. It went for the brightest sparks in a group so some survived to tell the story. A spark like Prime's would be right up its alley. There appeared to be as few as four and as many as six daggers ranging from the body. The beast was ravening and terrifying, designed to overwhelm and kill its victims. It was known to do it one on one or from a distance. How it did no one knew. Few who ever encountered one ever lived so the idea of it went from a likely thing to a myth.
Or so they had all hoped.
"Ratchet says he saw a shadow moving in the rubble. What do you think?" Prowl asked.
The two glanced at each other, then looked at the screen. "It would explain a few things that are not understood if it is the creature. It can kill at a distance. If the creature it has inhabited is dead, then it will be looking for a new victim. There is only one time in the written record where one was killed by another. Hot Rod managed to merge one into the engine of a ship when it was pushed into the engine block when it fired up. If he were here he would tell you about it. We interviewed him before we came," Perceptor said. "He managed to do that but it was incredibly stupid."
"So," Prime said pausing a moment. "We need to lure it to a ship, then push it into the engines."
"That is one way to kill it," Wheeljack said. "I am thinking that if we can locate it, then we can send it into the center of a star with a bridge."
Prime blinked at Wheeljack. "Is that possible? Will it work?"
Wheeljack shrugged. "I don't know. I just know that it would get it out of here and if we dump it into a star it has to be killed. I don't know many things that can survive that."
"Do you actually have a plan or is this speculation?" Prowl asked.
"Uh … I am thinking that its hiding in the large pieces that are still together. If we send them through a gate, it should take him too," Wheeljack said glancing at Perceptor who nodded.
"What if you send the pieces away and it doesn't go. It won't have a place to hide or exist. That means it could reach out for a place to habituate," Prowl said with a slight frown. "I would think it would increase the chances of it making a move on us even from a distance."
Everyone considered that, then Wheeljack looked at Prime. "We need to pull everyone back, then focus on the pieces that could hide a creature. When their coordinates were loaded in the computer, then we can send it away. Theoretically."
"What about overtaking one of the three still out there?" Prowl asked.
Perceptor considered that. "I don't know that it would. None of them are in good condition. If it does and we just leave then it won't be able to feed because it will be stuck here. Its not infinite. It actually has a higher need to feed than we do and its sustenance is more specialized. We can eat a lot of different fuels. This creature needs spark energy. It needs one of us to carry it away on top of that so it can continue to feed on spark energy. Its not going anywhere with the DJD because they aren't going anywhere. No one can even substantially guarantee that they are still alive. We are speculating. Two of the spark signatures are muddled and hard to read."
Prime considered that, then looked at the screen. The beast in the image was leering out at them, its bestiality intimidating. "I would like the plan worked out and presented. If it meets the safety standards we need, then we can do it. I don't want this thing hanging around here waiting for someone to overrun."
"No matter what, Prime, we can't leave it here to prey on someone else," Perceptor said nodding. "It must be destroyed." He turned walking to the computer terminal next to the humans, the two bending themselves to the task. The humans gathered to watch them as they discussed the process of taking the beast to a place it would never leave alive.
-0-Outside
Ratchet paused, then looked at the others. :Prime has Wheeljack and Perceptor here working on a solution. He says to stand by:
The others nodded, then turned their gaze back to the vessel and its debris. It was far in the distance but they could see details with their specialized optics. Nothing seemed to be moving at the site including the three bodies which were drifting in the darkness.
:What if they manage to do something here. How will we know that thing hasn't taken over one of those slaggers?: Whirlaway asked glancing at Ratchet.
:I don't know. I'm not the messiah of our people. I merely toil in the vineyards: Ratchet said to the hooting and hollering of the masses.
:Wheeljack to Ratchet:
:Ratchet here:
:We have a possible solution. We have taken the schematics of the wreckage and programmed them into the bridge computers. All of it is being highlighted for a send. We are going to try something that we haven't done in a long time. In the old orns it was possible to transport through bridges parts of a scene or elements of it. We used it to transport our troops when they were trapped. We have the theory of it and we're going to do it with the wreckage. It won't be taking the bodies but it will take everything else larger than a microbe including the beast. Hopefully. Maybe:
Ratchet grinned as Wheeljack sputtered. :You don't like imprecision do you, 'Jack?:
:No: There was a pause, then Wheeljack was back. :Ratchet, we want the shuttles to pull back farther. The refugees will be pulling back all around the wreckage. We will give you a breem to move farther away. Our calculations suggest that will be far enough to prevent anything from following you from the wreckage. The point is to spring the bridge on top of the wreckage with the identified pinpointed objects being sucked in leaving everything else:
:Sounds like a plan. Do we move now? Do you need more information or what?: Ratchet replied.
:No. Just move, Ratchet. We're sending the word to all the ships in the radius we need to be clear to move away. Do it now, Ratchet: Wheeljack replied.
:Will do. Ratchet out: He turned looking at the rest of the mechs who were watching him with interest. :Wheeljack is going to vacuum the area and clear it of crap. We need to move back so that the thing if its there won't jump to us:
They nodded, then moved to enter the shuttle. When they were in Ratchet joined them and the entire group all around the wreckage began to move away. When they reached the appointed place of refuge, everyone moved to the windows to watch. The wreckage was silent and still, the darkness of space filling the crushed mess with an eeriness that was frightening.
Then a huge flash of light appeared out of nowhere.
-0-TBC November 8, 2013