Author's Note: Transformers is a franchise I have adored for a very long time and with recent events unfolding that have made my life more complicated, I decided to work on an old idea.
Now this story is entirely based around the plot of the 2007 movie but takes HEAVY inspiration from tie-in media to make the robots the main characters. As such there are NO human characters in this story whatsoever. If that bothers you then you probably won't like this story. Also I'm shaking up the robot cast so expect missing faces and new faces!
This started off as a discord exclusive (link in bio) so the entirety of the story is done. Not gonna leave you all with another ongoing serial, lol. I'll be posting daily so expect a chapter or more a day.
With that out of the way, enjoy !
-Chapter 1: Hunters and Gatherers-
40 miles from SOCCENT base, Qatar, Middle East
Lumbering across desert dunes, the dull THUD-THUD-THUD of heavy-duty rotors churning up the scorching air, a Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low broke up the monotony of the sandy landscape with its flat-gray mechanical bulk. Manufactured for exclusive use by the United States Air Force, the Pave Low's mission was low-level, long-range, undetected penetration into denied areas, day or night, in adverse weather, for infiltration, exfiltration and resupply of special operations forces. For a sizeable helicopter the Pave Low was an efficient machine and perfectly engineered for combat assignments.
This particular vehicle was on assignment to move troops between forward outposts. The established SOCCENT base provided a stable hub for all mainline operations, but it also served as the heart for a much larger operation spread out across the Qatari desert. Communications centres and military depots dotted the desert, all of them singicantly smaller but no-less significant than SOCCENT central. The Pave Low moving across the desert now was bringing fresh troops to man one of the distant communication centres. It was a routine shift, one conducted dozens (if not hundreds) of times during the US Army's stay in Qatar. The crews were used to it all…
So the last thing they were expecting was for a blazing meteor to fall from the sky and smash into their starboard side.
Hull torn open, smoke belching from shattered rotors assemblies, the Pave Low spiraled out of control in a downward descent towards the desert sands. The pilots tried to broadcast a desperate cry for help, hoping that someone, somewhere, would hear them,
"Mayday! Mayday! This is A-R-X Forty-Five! We have been struck by an unknown bogey and are going down!"
The Pave Low crashed into the sand, the impact killing all on board. Puffs of black, choking smoke began to rise up from the wreckage, marking the gravesite that would go unseen by human eyes… but did not go entirely unseen.
A heavy THUMP THUMP THUMP of massive footsteps filled the silent desert air and a massive 50-foot shadow fell over the remains of the Pave Low. Bipedal in shape, metal plating glinting in the light of the arid sun, servomotors whirred and pistons hissed as the figure looked over the wreckage of the Pave Low. With scarlet eyes, thin beams of light took note of the vehicle's construction, analyzing every bolted plate, screwed pneumatic, and wired hardware. Despite the damaged condition, internal computation systems remade schematics using conjectures and input from the available vehicle parts.
Trans-scanning complete, the bipedal figure shimmered as liquid metal repurposed existing materials into new shapes. Arms and legs sprouted panels and parts of a Pave Low, including the helicopter's alphanumeric designation printed on a piece from the tail: ARX45. Leaving the wreck behind, the mechanoid stepped off a sand dune and thrust himself into the air, reconfiguring his body with a heavy CHUNK-CHAK of converting machinery. Rotors spooled up to a blisteringly high rpm as the being took on an identical shape and appearance to the downed Pave Low. Once again the THUD-THUD-THUD of heavy helicopter rotors filled the desert air as the faux-Pave Low got underway.
"Blackout to Starscream. I've made landfall near the designated coordinates and have assumed an alternate form based on the native species' available technology."
"That's Lord Starscream, Blackout!" Starscream snapped in retort. "If I must remind you again I'll feed you to a scraplet hive!"
"Oh no. My microcircuits tremble with fear." Blackout sarcastically scoffed. He had no patience for Starscream's pretentiousness. "I am advancing on the location. I am one mega-mile out."
"Good. Remain hidden until orders are given. Quake is in the vicinity to provide backup if need be." Starscream commanded. Blackout doubted that would be necessary.
"What are we doing on this speck of dust? There's no way a Decepticon transmission originated from here."
"This is why I do the thinking, Blackout, and you obey my commands." Starscream said derisively, earning a growl of irritation from his subordinate. "The fleshling military base should have an uplink to their central mainframe. Hack the system and we should be able to locate the origin of the signal we intercepted." He explained.
"Why not do it now?"
"Not all the pieces are in place. If we intercepted the signal then you can be sure the Autobots did too." Blackout supposed that made sense and kept on moving, pinging his scanners to triangulate the locations of the human operations stationed in the desert…
Town of Tranquility, West Coast, USA
A red Scion xB with gold trim sat parked on the side of the road, innocent and unremarkable. While flashy for the neighbourhood it resided in, it appeared no different from the other vehicles parked in sequence before and behind it… although a keen observer would note a peculiar face-like shape in place of the company badge on the rear of the vehicle…
Behind its deeply tinted windows, a pair of small humanoid robots sat in the driver and passenger seats of the Scion. Before each was a hardlight console through which they performed their duties. Of the pair, the one in the driver seat was swiping through various uploaded files, documents and images. The other, in the passenger seat, reclined with his legs up on the console. "Ugh! There's nothing going on this neighbourhood... what a boring assignment!" The blue one grumbled, sliding back in his seat and slapping a hand over his golden faceplate.
"Slow your hardrive, Eject. There's plenty to learn if you just pay attention." His partner and black-shaded brother, Rewind, chided. Ever the master of trivia facts, historical tidbits, and the odd piece of useless information, Rewind was constantly taking in new data about his surroundings and from the datanets he could access.
"Easy for you to say, Rewind. You're all about this low-key boring stuff. I'm all about action! I need something to happen!" Eject responded.
"Like what?"
"I dunno... maybe something to shoot at."
"You know our directive; Prime wants us to stay hidden unless we encounter legitimate Decepticon activity that needs to be handled." Rewind stated firmly. "And we haven't encountered a Decepticon since we arrived here."
"And it's been so. Boring." An exasperated Eject complained. "Where are we even supposed to start anyway? What do we look for? There's no way these primitives have any kinda technology remotely close to ours. You see how sluggish their datanet is?"
"Which in and of itself means good news for us. We find something that's infinitely more advanced than anything they've got and it will probably lead us to the signal." Rewind explained. With a gesture from his mechanical hands, the hardlight console expanded the imaging system to reveal countless images all flickering in sequence as the Minicon indexed them all.
"I still think this is the wrong place to search." Eject huffed.
"Maybe not." His brother countered, quick keystrokes blazing across the interface. "While you've been complaining, I've been scouring their 'internet' for clues. There's an entire sub-section dedicated to what they call 'the unknown'. I find their stories about 'cryptids' to be particularly fascinating." Rewind mused.
"Did they happen to include anything that vaguely resembles a Decepticon? That code was broadcasted in their language, you know." Eject wondered, sounding just barely interested.
"Yes of course I know. I'm in the middle of cross-referencing with my internal database now." Rewind replied, and the images tripled in speed as they flashed across the screen. Rewind's internal light-matrix data storage system enabled him to record and store an almost infinite amount of data. That and his recall from memory of any individual datum was virtually instantaneous. If anyone could find a piece of information relative to their search, he was the Minicon for the job.
And within moments of having spoken aloud, Rewind's archival skills finally paid off.
"Hey… wait a nanosecond…"
"What? Whatcha find?" Eject curiously asked, leaning over. Deft inputs from Rewind's servos paused over a single image.
"Check out these prosthetic lenses. This image was uploaded from somewhere in this vicinity." He stated. Eject leaned over and shrugged.
"So? Don't look all that special. Look damaged, actually."
"That's not damage. Look," Rewind countered, keying in a new command. The image of the lenses expanded until the seemingly cracked glass filled both of their terminals. Scanners immediately coded the shape and length of the cracks in the glass as unearthly computer systems zeroed in on the fractures to reveal, not damage, but lettering so microscopic they looked like cracks in glass, "see?"
"Woah! Those are cyberglyphs!" Eject exclaimed, surprised by the find. How his brother managed to pull that off in mere nanoseconds was simply beyond him. But he couldn't argue with the results.
"Neo-Decepticon from the looks of it." Rewind surmised. He began keying in more commands. The image had been found but now he needed to isolate the source, the host site, and triangulate the available information to pinpoint exactly where these glasses were located. "I think we have our lead-hey!" The Minicon's console abruptly went flat, his connection to the human internet terminated before he could complete a scan. Eject looked to his and realized the console had burnt out too.
"What was that?" He wondered.
"My connection fouled up. Something terminated the uplink… Blaster, was that you?" Rewind asked. The central screen on the Scion's display flickered to life, revealing a wave pattern that flickered as their ride spoke,
"Negative, Rewind. No meddlin' on my end."
"That's not good." Rewind muttered, shutting down the terminal. "We should move on… but we better come back to this area."
"You mean some human owns a pair of prosthetic lenses with Decepticon glyphs disguised as cracks? How in Primus' name did that happen?" Eject asked aloud, rubbing his faceplate in lieu of a chin.
"Got me, Eject. But this warrants a further search." Rewind decided. He patted the wheel of the Scion. "Take us to the edge of town, Blaster. I wanna find a distribution station where I can hardlock a connection. Try to connect to the humans' datanet again."
"Copy that, ro-bro." Blaster promised, the Scion rumbling as his engine started up.
"And tell Fastlane to meet us there. This must be the key and we need the other Autobots in on this." Rewind quickly added.
From outside, the Scion's lights flashed to life as it pulled out of its parking spot and drove off at a leisurely pace, appearing no different from any other vehicle and leaving any human observing clueless to the fact it was really a robot in disguise…
But unbeknownst to the Autobots, a pearl-white Mercedes GLK 350 SUV that had been sitting parked down the street (using other parked vehicles for cover) also started its engine without a human in sight. At a glance, it seemed entirely inconspicuous. Perhaps a remote start, some humans might suspect.
But behind the deeply tinted windows, sonic scanners played over telecommunications broadcasts as voice-wave patterns appeared on the radio display… and casually replayed Rewind and Eject's entire conversation.
"You mean some human owns a pair of prosthetic lenses with Decepticon glyphs disguised as cracks? How in Primus' name did that happen?"
"Got me, Eject. But this warrants a further search."
"Soundwave to Barricade. Confirm potential activity related to signal interception. The Autobots are on to something." A monotone voice stated.
"Affirmative, Soundwave. Rendezvous for analysis debrief." Came the mechanized reply in spoken Neo-Decepticon.
With a flash from his LED headlights, the SUV drove off, briefly revealing an angular face in the place of where the company badge should be on the grille…