Author's Note:
Hello! This story is a rewrite of Too Noble for Success on Quotev, but it will not be quite the same. Hopefully in a good way. :)
The story will be an AU loosely following the Transformers: Prime series (credit to Hasbro), focusing mainly on original characters and events. Some canon character personalities and canon events are tweaked for creative purposes and to better fit the story.
Enjoy!
Nothing made one dread the day ahead like the knowledge that you may not live to see the next one. Despite having been involved in Cybertron's Great War for so long, that feeling of dread still gripped Blade Runner's spark. Every day she woke up to a firefight, and every day she saw enough energon spilled to stain the planet blue. There was only one way she could describe what remained of her once beautiful home world: complete and utter hell.
The only reason she had entered the war in the first place was because of the caste system that the High Council defended so adamantly. Inequality was a persistent problem throughout the entirety of Cybertron, and Blade Runner wasn't the only one who knew it. Megatron rose up and shared his dream of a better Cybertron, inspiring millions like Blade Runner. But when the High Council refused to allow Megatron to enact his vision, those millions chose to rebel. They'd been treated like lesser beings and dealt with the Council's bureaucracy for long enough. It was time for a change.
However, no one could've predicted the war would last for thousands of millennia. It was enough time that many people forgot the reason they were fighting, and enough time to eventually kill their planet. After that, nothing seemed to matter anymore. Blade Runner had fought hard to take down the evil in their government, but in doing so had lost everything. There was no point to the war now; after all, what had they left to fight over? Blade Runner succumbed to apathy, as it felt like everything she'd done from the very beginning had been nothing but a waste. And she could not escape the world she had helped destroy.
Blade Runner drove swiftly and silently through the remnants of Tarn towards her objective. Starscream had ordered her to wipe out a small group of Autobots trespassing on an unmanned area at the border of Praxium under Decepticon control. Grunt work, if she had anything to say about it. But orders were orders and it wasn't like she had plans later.
On her way there, she detected the energy signature of a ship, online and fueled. Thinking it must be a mistake, she double checked, then triple checked her instruments. The telltale sign of energon still pulsed strong, and the opportunity it presented startled her enough for her to screech to a halt and transform to reevaluate her options. A way to finally escape this god forsaken planet and its pointless war was staring her right in the face and she took it very seriously. There wasn't much time, so she had to decide quickly.
Blade Runner looked over the gray landscape and ruined cities all around her, as if seeing it for the first time. It was all so unrecognizable. This... was not her home. Not anymore.
She couldn't let this chance for a new start slip past her. Forget the Autobots, forget the Decepticons; if she got to the ship and commandeered it, Blade Runner could attain the freedom she so craved. There were very few — if any — operational ships left on Cybertron, and it was unlikely one would ever present itself again. This was her only opportunity.
Blade Runner changed course, transformed, and headed for the ship. Everything else be damned.
She reverted to root mode far enough away that the sound of her transformation wouldn't be heard by whoever was operating the ship. She snuck close, relying on her dull gray armor and using the surrounding debris as cover. Dimming the light from her orange optics as low as it would go, Blade Runner slowly peeked around at her chosen target.
A lone Autobot was loading the last of a pile of energon cubes onto the ship... no, scratch that. A second walked down the cargo ramp and swiveled his head warily, looking for signs of an enemy. Blade Runner hid herself well, evading the bot's watchful gaze. A parabolic microphone rose up from her shoulder plating, their conversation becoming clear.
"...Like I said before," the one on the ramp began, "there are too many Cybertronians that flocked to the nearest inhabited systems. They're not allowing any more of us; we'll just get shot out of the sky. If we're going to stand any chance of surviving, we need to go farther out."
"What about Optimus Prime's message?" The other stated, handing his comrade the last couple of cubes. "We have the coordinates to an energon rich planet; we should just go there. Regroup."
"Are you crosswired? The point of this is to get away from the war, not dive helm first into a new one. Both sides lost, get that through your head. Besides, there's no doubt in my mind that the encryption's been cracked by now. We'd be walking right into a den of 'Cons."
Would you look at that, someone of like mind for once, and out in this desolate waste of all places. Ironic, seeing as Blade Runner intended to kill them.
The fembot's fingers twitched as she readied her weapons, retracting the microphone. It was too bad; she couldn't allow them to leave with the ship. That was her ticket out of here, and the prospect of sharing didn't seem all too likely. Nor did she have any particular desire to.
The bots turned their backs to her to board, indicating her moment to strike. Wielding her twin blades, she moved like wind onto her prey, relieving the first bot of his head and stabbing the second one through the spark before they had any time to react. Blade Runner returned her arms to their natural state, walking over the corpses and into the ship.
With the press of a button, the ship's thrusters hummed to life. Blade Runner grinned at the beautiful sound, taking a seat at the controls and closing the hatch. She was sure to destroy her Decepticon homing beacon so she could not be tracked or chased after by her high-heeled superior, then made for space. Eventually Cybertron was merely a gray marble in the distance, and immediately it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. There was a small part of her that was saddened to be leaving, but she reminded herself that there was nothing left; it was time to move on. She had already grieved the loss of her planet after its death; there was no use doing it a second time. Her gaze shifted forward and she didn't look back again.
The voyage wasn't as easy as she had originally hoped. She flew from planet to planet requesting to land, only to be turned away under threat of anti aircraft fire. It was just like the Autobot said. So she traveled further out, into the lesser known reaches of deep space. But her energon supply was getting dangerously low, and fast.
Blade Runner turned to look at her few remaining cubes. She'd already been rationing; what was left could keep her alive another decacycle or so, maybe three if she really stretched it, but that left her stranded and dead anyway. If she used it on the ship, she may be able to make it to the next quadrant, but that meant starvation before finding a viable place to stop and restock on supplies.
She looked at the controls, weighing her options. She was beginning to regret destroying her homing beacon, because the ship's long distance transmitter had conveniently gone offline due to damage sustained from being chased off by other planets' militaries. And she wasn't particularly good at fixing things; that was always Influx's job. Whichever way she spun it, she was fragged.
Unless she took her chances with the onboard stasis pod. She'd noticed it her first time refueling the ship, but didn't think she'd have to use it. Now it seemed like her only option if she was to survive. But then she wouldn't have control over what happened to her; it would all be left to fate.
Blade Runner frowned at the contraption. At least her chances of staying alive were higher. Probably.
She put the ship in stasis mode, then entered the pod. It closed and sealed automatically; there was no turning back now. A dull hum surrounded her and she closed her optics, allowing the darkness to take her.
A violent tremor and a crash loud enough to make her audio receptors ring is what finally shook Blade Runner out of stasis. Well, that, and she had been flung through the viewscreen of the stasis pod. She laid there on the ground for several minutes, disoriented and trying to gain her bearings. She wasn't quite sure what had happened or if she should try to move, but she was pretty sure she was alive and that in itself was a wonderful start.
At some point she managed to push herself up into a sitting position, then checked for injuries. Only minor damage, nothing a little sealant couldn't fix. It was then that she realized her ship was slowly taking on water.
Blade Runner stood and moved to the controls to open the hatch, only to find it inoperable. She noticed a red blinking light on the control panel, indicating the ship had activated its short range distress beacon. It must've detected a Cybertronian signal on this planet and had been drawn to it. Well, that explained the why; now to figure out the where.
Blade Runner kicked out what remained of the front window and crawled outside. A stench immediately struck her sensors; the planet was definitely an organic one. Muddy water and trees covered the ground as far as the eye could see, and there was an almost ambient noise as the local fauna shared its presence. Sunlight beamed through the leaves of the trees, warming her gray armor. She stood there for several minutes — or maybe days, she couldn't tell — to let her senses fully immerse themselves.
It was actually... very peaceful. A concept she'd nearly forgotten. Her mouth tipped into a small smile and she closed her eyes, basking in her newfound freedom.
Her euphoria was short-lived, as a familiar pulsing hum from above crept into her field of awareness. She knew the sound so well that there was no doubt in her mind: it was the Nemesis. How and why that blasted warship had come to this planet she had no idea (how long had she been in stasis?); all she knew was that it was associated with just that. War. The very thing she'd been trying to escape. It was certain that her ship's distress beacon was being investigated, and she had no desire to allow herself to be discovered.
As quickly as the Nemesis appeared, Blade Runner picked a direction and booked it. She hadn't the faintest clue where she was going, but that didn't matter now. When she reached solid ground and the trees grew more sparse, she transformed and drove as fast and far away as she could. She could only hope her presence hadn't been detected.
A large cave presented itself in the midst of the forest, Blade Runner deciding it best to hide there for awhile until she was certain she wouldn't be followed. A string of curses left her vocalizer; had she not been punished enough? Had she not yet paid the price for the role she played in dooming Cybertron? Even after millions of years of misery, the universe still saw fit to deny her peace. What was she to do now? Her ship was damaged beyond repair and there was no one other than the Decepticons that could help her. She was once again trapped.
"Pull yourself together," Blade Runner scolded herself before attempting to get her thoughts in order. Her circumstances weren't ideal, but as long as the Decepticons or Autobots were unaware of her presence, she was free on this planet. When the Nemesis retreated, she'd return to the ship's crash site to see if there was anything salvageable. She'd set up a hideout, then learn more about the planet she was on. This was her new home — at least for now — and like it or not, she had to make the best of it.
Blade Runner leaned against the wall of the cave and sat. The sun was beginning to hide behind the horizon, the last of its light reflecting a golden hue off the lush landscape before her. It wasn't Cybertron, but it was still very beautiful in its own way. When morning came, she'd begin her work.