Chapter 9 - Landfall

Coming in hot.

Saber's eyes open and his Optics engage. Once again, he finds himself submerged in a liquid prison within a vat of glass; he can barely make out his surroundings. All he knows is that the world is cold, dark, empty...until it isn't.

Two bipedal shapes shimmer and shift on the periphery of the opaque glass; they appear to be conversing. A Third enters and the others part to grant it ingress, then new figure approaches. Its visage is hard to decipher, but Saber can tell it's a person - A Cybertronian with the faintest hint of Violet shimmering across their chassis and a single yellow light emanating from it's head, piercing through the murk, seemingly looking right through the Autobot.

The yellow light at the center of its head flickers; a voice speaks. The words it says should be indecipherable and yet, Saber can understand them clear as day.

"Wake up, my Contingency."

Saber's eyes shoot open. His optics engage, his systems come back online and he is greeted by a hail of warning messages. Before he has a chance to understand where he is or why his body is practically screaming at him, he feels an intense heat all across his form - his chassis is on fire.

The Autobot shifts, he turns his body and his perspective changes from the sea of black dotted with flickering stars to the shadowed side of a world of blue, the surface of which is dotted with an innumerable amount of golden lights, the sight of which quickly made Saber aware of his situation: he was falling towards a Planet, an inhabited planet with a civilization all its own, and he was falling fast.

Cybertron had a very thin Atmosphere which made it subject to all manner of heat and radiation. As a result, the Cybermatter that made up a Cybertronian's body acted like a natural heat shield. Cybertronians could reach heats of over Five Thousand Degrees Celsius before their chassis would actually begin to fail. It was why the munitions their weaponry used had to burn so much hotter and be so concentrated; heat was - generally - not a problem and neither would the heat of reentry be. However, it wasn't the heat that concerned Saber. Rather, it was the landing that did.

According to his built-in Altimeter, Saber was somewhere between the Mesosphere and the Stratosphere and dropping. His body was traveling at a speed of Twenty-Six Thousand Kilometers per Hour while being pulled in at a rate of 9.8 meters per second squared. That was to say, it wouldn't be long before he made Planetfall.

Saber was at A Hundred Thirty Thousand Feet now. A quick math equation predicted that he'd make landfall in approximately 5 Kliks. That was 5 Kliks to figure out a way to slow his descent and stop himself from becoming scrap. 5 Kliks to practically do the impossible. First, Saber put his arms and legs out, spreading himself wider. The greater surface area would do little to slow his descent but 'little' was better than nothing.

'Man I wish I could fly…' Saber thought. But since he couldn't, he'd have to settle for falling with style.

Saber Transformed his arm into its Path Blaster Configuration. The bottom barrel opened up and, with his free hand, Saber pulled its energy Condenser. The Path Blaster Series was touted for its ability to fire weapons at longer ranges than even some rifle platforms. This was because of the Energy condenser which did as the name implied and super condensed the energon fired from the weapon.

The mechanism allowed the Path Blaster Series' munitions to fly further, farther and faster; it accomplished this by way of Energon expulsion. A concentrated field of Kinetic energy would push and compress the user's Energon so that the blasts fired would be lethal…they also had a knack for exploding when catastrophically damaged. There were more than one reported case of a cracked Condenser taking a bot's arm clean off. So effective was this energy release that it was the same tech used in high-yield grenades. Because of this, Autobot field manuals advised that, in the event one was cracked or broken, they should be disposed of immediately; as the ensuing explosion was powerful…which was exactly what Saber was banking on.

The Autobot figured that, if he could set the Condenser off right before landfall, the Kinetic release would serve to offset the force of impact and soften his blow. Such a theoretical move might work…unless he got the timing wrong. Then he'd end up compacted into the Planet's surface just before losing his arm. Either way, this was going to hurt. His only hope was that he'd be alive to feel the pain afterwards.

He was at 17 Kilometers now, a little under 2 and a half minutes to go before landfall. Arms and legs still outstretched, Saber gripped the Condenser in hand. A damaged Condenser had, on average, 30 Nano-kliks before detonation and he hadn't calculated his nearly 10 meters per second squared rate of acceleration in his earlier prediction, so he had no idea when he'd actually need to set the condenser off. As if he hadn't more things to worry about, this crazy plan of his was about to be a photo finish.

At 10 Kilometers, Saber's systems were in full freak out mode. Alarms and warning signs flashed across his Hud, his body was practically screaming at him for moving way too fast - a fact he was already acutely aware of. He was going to have to pull the trigger on his insane plan sooner rather than later, but the timing was screwing him up. There was no way to know where the sensor buffer began and ended, so he had no choice but to leave it to the last possible moment.

At 3 Kilometers Saber was the brightest thing in the night sky. He crushed the condenser in hand and it began to glow brighter than even he was. He had pulled the trigger, now all he could do was wait and brace. Even if he'd done this right, this was going to be far from a gentle landing.

Saber took the Condenser and, fighting the force of Gravity, he threw it out before him. The Condenser grew brighter as it fell; the Autobot shut his eyes and awaited the result of his gamble. 30 Nanokliks drudged on for what seemed like an eternity; the last thing Saber felt before his systems went black was an explosion that sent him spinning - followed by hard Earth.

It would be 20 Kliks - or minutes as the world he landed on had preferred - before Saber's systems would reboot. And even then, they didn't all come back right away.

Laying in a crater with his Chassis burning and his Brain module flirting with critical system shock. As his system attempts a full reboot Saber dips in and out of consciousness, each period of brief awareness fills the Autobot's perception with a little more information. With every interval of darkness, strange bipedal creatures fill the edge of the crater he'd made. Until, finally, he regains autonomy of his body. With 60% of his Saber awakens and the first thing he sees, past the thin trail of smoke rising off of his own superheated chassis, are the stars.

A vast sea of Dark above peppered with flickering distant stars made the sky he was under look like Cybertron's. If he were none the wiser, then that's where he'd think he'd landed. But the positions of the Stars above? Not only were they wrong, they were unrecognizable. This sky was not Cybertrons and the ground beneath him? The one that crumpled and gave way to his weight, it was not Cybertron's soil. It was other; he had landed elsewhere in the cosmos.

As Saber looked up into the night sky and wondered where among its stars Cybertron could be he recalled what had happened to him. The Fall of Iacon, the Death of his Father, being violently pulled from the Ark, drifting through Space, it was all coming back to him now.

"Ugh…" The Autobot laid his head back in the crater he'd made and silently cursed the fact that he'd survived the experience. A large enough part of him really wished he'd died so he wouldn't have to recall what had happened. But, before his self pity could become too self destructive, he heard voices on the edge of his periphery.

"What was that?" He heard a little voice say. It was not alone.

"It came from the crater."

"Is that the Robot?"

"Do you think it's Military?"

4 Distinct voices made Saber depress his brow in confusion. He turned his head and cast a gaze in the direction of the voices to find that his descent had attracted a handful of the indigenous population. They were small, bipedal and they looked fragile. The sound of his own voice had sent jolts of shock through the bodies of the strange creatures. That they'd apparently never seen him before was evidence that he hadn't accidentally stumbled onto one of Cybertron's long lost colonies, which did not instill any hope in him.

With the four creatures gathered and his systems at 80% effectiveness, Saber figured it was probably time to get back up. Though he might want to, he couldn't just lay in that crater waiting for death; that would make his survival moot. So, moving his servos for the first time since the fall, the Autobot somewhat reluctantly began to pick himself up.

"It's moving!"

Saber heard the voices around him as he raised himself from the Crater. His body hurt like hell and he was maybe moments from slipping back into stasis but his gamble had paid off. He'd survived the fall, but where had he landed? And, perhaps more importantly, why could he understand the creatures that'd gathered around him?

Saber stood up in the nearly 400 foot wide crater he'd made. "Oh my god, it's getting up!" One of the creatures said. Saber saw that they were visibly taken aback by his presence and confirmed his earlier hunch, they'd definitely never seen a Cybertronian before.

The creatures held small rectangles in their hands, one of which cast light onto the Cybertronian, making him reflexively shield himself.

"Uh. Hi?" Saber said, giving a little wave from his already raised hand.

The creatures collectively gasped. "Did it just talk?!" One of them asked.

Saber found it mildly amusing that they apparently could understand him too. Before he could ask why that was, another called out.

"Is that a GUN?!"

Saber raised a brow. He picked up his other hand and was semi-surprised that it was still in its Path Blaster form. He'd never reverted back to his hand; that was not a good look.

"It's got a gun!"

Saber converted his Pathblaster back into a hand. It was ironic that the creatures were screaming about his weapon since, without the condenser, he couldn't even fire it. It was now little more than an intimidation tool, but they didn't know that. All the little people understood was that he was large, metal and had a weapon. To their credit, those were valid causes for concern.

Saber was about to explain himself when he heard the wail of distant sirens. Behind the creatures' visage, Saber could see flashing red and blue lights on approach. More of the locals were coming and soon he'd be practically swarmed. Armed or not, that was not a position he wanted to find himself in.

Saber thought back to the Autobot Advanced recon skill set.

Keep a positive Attitude.

He hadn't died, so maybe that was on the table.

If you know you are going to be without Energon for significant time, enter temporary stasis.

He'd done just that and it'd landed him here on an Alien world, alone and away from Cybertronian Civilization. Though, it could have been worse. Again, he could have died.

Should you end up on a populated world of significant technological advancement, assume a disguise.

Well, he was certainly on a populated world of significant enough technological advancement. It was time to take a disguise.

Saber cast his gaze back towards the small creatures. Behind them sat a collection of parked metal vehicles with 4 wheels each, just one of them would do.

Saber looked at the vehicles, the one closest to him caught his eye, both figuratively and literally. From his optics the Autobot cast beams of light; the beams shone passed the humans and over their vehicles as he performed a function called Trans-scanning.

Trans-scanning was a biological process that allowed Cybertronians to scan and then copy the design of an object to then serve as their new Alternate Mode. This process was not limited to things of equal Mass. Their malleable Cyber Matter meant that, for the Most Part, Cybertronians could become anything they wanted, they'd just convert into the object at their own scale. Given that his current goal was to take a disguise, Saber had chosen a vehicle whose mass his body could replicate. But, if he wanted, he could take the design of a Flying vehicle, he just wouldn't be able to actually fly as his body lacked the sufficient energy to propel him in-Atmosphere.

With his Trans-scanning complete, Saber's Body augmented and shifted, adopting new parts - or 'kibble' as they were biologically known. Saber then shifted his body. He changed into his new alternate form and then drove out of the crater and onto the road.

Saber checked the specs of his new alternate mode. According to them, he was something called a 'Car' now. Specifically, he was a custom Black and Gold 1969 Nissan Fairlady Z. A little old for the Planet's Calendar year of 2024, but it would do.

The Autobot rolled right up to the indigenous life forms and the vehicle he'd scanned. Their stunned silence was overtaken by the roar of his new engine. "Thanks for the wheels!" He said in earnest before turning down the road and driving off and away from the incoming Sirens. Saber left the creatures in the dust. They stayed behind and watched in shock and awe at just what the hell it was they'd just witnessed while Saber moved on.

His next move was to enact the next step in the Autobot Advanced Recon Skill Set: to make contact with other Autobots.