Chapter 10 - Autobot Lost

Driving blind.

It was morning now; Saber had been driving all night and was headed eastbound. Though the organics he'd pulled his alt-mode from might've done so, he wasn't driving aimlessly. As it turned out, the fall from Orbit had done nothing for his internal systemic issues; his built in Transmitter and Receiver - or T'n R as it was more colloquially known - was still very much busted and without it he couldn't send or receive transmissions. If he wanted to contact Autobot forces and get off-world, he was going to need a working Transmitter - one up to Cybertronian specifications. He was a long way from Cybertron but, thankfully, he wasn't too far off from something that could serve his current needs.

As he drove, Saber had been tuned into the creature's Interconnected Network; his computer-like Brain module took in the native's information in an instant and allowed him to surf the web and drive at the same time - something that wasn't recommended amongst indigenous commuters. According to the internet, he was on a planet called Earth. It was the third Planet in the Solar system. The dominant species called themselves Humans, there were nearly 8 billion of them and they were in far more complicated predicament than the Cybertronians were.

On Cybertron there were only 2 factions fighting for dominance. On Earth there were 110 armed conflicts across 5 of the 7 Major continents, each of them set about by, minimum, 2 factions. So complicated was this set of conflicts that it actually made Saber miss the straightforwardness of the War back home. Then, Saber started to actually think about the war back home…

4 Million Solar Cycles had passed since he was set adrift. That was 4 Million years here on Earth. In a war that changed so very quickly from Cycle to Cycle, Saber couldn't help but worry about his side's stance in the Great War. When last he saw his world, he'd witnessed Iacon aflame and countless Autobots dead. And 4 Million was a long time to be removed from that horrific scene.

Saber started to think of his Mother back home. He thought of Meister, Nines, Skyfire, Jetfire and all the other Autobots who had fought with him that day. Where were they now? Were they alright? Were they still fighting? Had his father really died? All those questions and so many more ran through Saber's processor. But, he couldn't stress about that now, not while he knew so little. Stressing wasn't going to get him home.

So, Saber focused on things that could actually help him, like the Satellite Array East of Arizona where he'd landed. Located off of Old Highway 60 in Magdalena New Mexico was the 'Very Large Array'...it didn't have a very imaginative name. But the series of massive Radar dishes on use there could serve as a new transmitter for him. With it he hopefully could find his way back to the Autobots and back to Cybertron.

Determined to find the others, and using his Alt-mode's Global Positioning System as a guide, the Autobot put Pedal to the Metal and accelerated. It was a 4 Hour drive to Highway 60 and Saber never stopped for anything, there was no need to. He'd only taken the Nissan as a disguise, he wasn't actually the car. The only fuel he'd ever need was Energon and thanks to his self-induced Stasis, he'd done well to reserve the stores he had.

Saber drove until Sol - or the Sun, as it was also known - rose over the horizon line. It was as Sunrise peered over the New Mexican Mountains and Mesas, that the Autobot finally got a good look at the world he'd landed on and what he saw was unlike anything he could have dreamed of.

The sky above did not give credence to the Stars beyond them. It was blue. Vast. It seemed to go on into infinity with wispy formations of condensation and water called 'clouds' painted across it's cerulean visage. And the ground beneath such a painted scene? It was varied.

Unlike the vast metal soil of Cybertron, the ground was varying shades of brown, reddish brown and tan. It rose up into great Mountains with flat Peaks - Mesas, as they were called - and descended into valleys filled with crumbled up collections of green shrubbery and bushes that went on until they touched the sky. About the only thing Saber recognized on this strange alien world was the road and even that took another form. It was Black, segmented and it seemed to stretch on forever, no need for transforming roadways like the Iacon Speedway here.

Through the sensor panels doubling as Windows on his Alt-mode, Saber took in everything. It was all so overwhelming and yet, he found that he couldn't get enough of it. It was, in a word, beautiful.

"...Where am I?" He wondered, his voice coming through his alt-modes' built in radio. The Young Autobot would continue his drive to Array and, for perhaps the first time in his life, he'd genuinely enjoy the ride.

It wasn't long before Saber reached the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. It was exactly as the name had described, a 'very large array' of Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Five meter Radio Telescopes deployed in a gigantic 'Y-shaped' formation. The humans were using them as a gigantic Astronomical Interferometer. By blasting radio waves, all 28 of those dishes were being used to - basically - sharpen deep space images for better study here on Earth. Evidently, the Humans' tech had not reached the Cybertronians in efficiency. Cybertron had no need for such giant and cumbersome instruments, the same tech could fit on a bot's wrist and had a much greater yield. If they wanted, Cybertronians could look to the sky and get much clearer pictures of the cosmos. Today, however, Saber did not need to use the Array to view the stars. No, he needed them to reach the Heavens.

It was 6am US/Mountain time. The Autobot drove onto the compound and drove up to the Array. The Telescopes were mounted on double parallel Road tracks, they were built that way so that they could be moved and adjusted at will. Compared to Saber's Biology, the technology required to manipulate them would be child's play for him to access.

As Saber drove onto the compound, one of the Humans stepped out of an on-site Visitor Center to stop him. "Hey, that's far enough!" The little Human man said. "We're not open yet! Come back in three hours."

Saber stopped before him and transformed, shifting from Nissan Fairlady to Robot mode in seconds. The sight of the Autobot dropped the human to the ground.

"That's ok." The Autobot said. "I'll let myself in."

Saber stepped over the human and walked to the Array. "Call nine-one-one!" The man shouted as he scrambled back into his office. That was the call number for local Authorities. But Saber wasn't bothered by the threat. With what he'd seen in their society regarding Robots, the closest analogue to what he was, Humans didn't really seem to take them seriously.

Gundam, Armored Core, Titanfall, even the very serious, government contracted Boston Dynamics Robotics program, Humans only saw 'Robots' as toys and pop culture items. Of course, Saber wasn't a Robot, not by their definition. But the description of a 'Transforming robot on government property' was so out there that it probably wasn't going to gain that much traction. As such, Saber figured it'd probably be some time before the authorities arrived, if they came at all. By then, he'd be done and gone.

The Autobot approached one of the Array dishes and knelt beside its control panel. With this technology, Humanity had made observations of Black Holes, they'd noted protoplanetary disks around young Stars, they discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the center of their Galaxy. They proved the Universe's cosmological parameters and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produced radio emissions. The Humans used the Very Large Array to pull the observable heavens closer to their little bubble of Oxygen, dirt and Water...all that and Saber was going to use it to phone home.

The Autobot approached one of the antennas. Each of the machines in the Array was spread out over 13 miles and stood at over 90 feet tall, easily dwarfing the 13 foot Autobot. Though he was at the physical location of the Array, the actual control center was located several miles eastwards in Socorro - at least, that's what the information readily available on the Internet told him. As a Cybertronian however, he could access the network by interfacing with the tech in person, which was exactly what he'd planned to do.

Reaching up into the antenna's undercarriage, the Autobot pulled the control panel apart. Then he transformed his index finger into an input jack and plugged himself into the antenna and subsequently, the whole Array. As a being of metal and technology, Saber could feel the Array, as if all of the Antenna pointed towards the heavens were extensions of his own body.

"A little crude, certainly slower than anything back home but, it'll do." Saber said. Then, all the Antennae in the VLA began to move.

Saber did not know how far he'd traveled from Cybertron, nor did he know Cybertron's position in the cosmos. So, pivoting every antenna in the Y-shaped Array for maximum area of effect, he decided to broadcast a signal in every direction this side of the Hemisphere. The Array's Radio based frequency was slow, but blasted into space, the waves would travel for lightyears before dissipating. Even if it took some time for the radio waves to reach, Cybertron - with its comparably advanced receivers - could easily pick up the signal before they became incomprehensible. Though he was gone a while, he figured someone had to be listening.

The Autobot made sure he was on an Autobot frequency. After all, this would all be moot if Decepticons ended up intercepting his transmission. When everything was good, he began.

"Hello?" Saber started. "This is Autobot Saber, Driving Blind." The term 'Driving Blind' was code for when an Autobot was lost and without means of transportation. "I am a survivor of the Ark's voyage off-world. I…I don't know if there are any others. But, I've crash landed on a world in the Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. The indigenous people call it Earth...they aren't very good with names."

Saber paused for a moment to think about what else would be important information to give.

"I came back online less than 7 Nano cycles ago, I've only been active long enough to take a disguise and make this broadcast. My onboard, transmitter and receivers are busted, so I won't be able to receive any pings if you send them. But, what I can do is set up a location for rendezvous."

Saber reconnected to the Earth's internet and engaged with one of the Humans' search engines. A Google search later and he'd pull up the map of the United States, which was the name of the Country he'd landed in.

"Ah, here we go." Saber pulled in on the state of New Mexico. "I'm in a region called Magdalena, New Mexico. The Locals have seen my true form, so it's probably not the best idea to stick around."

Saber sifted through a map of the region. He was looking for a new rendezvous locale and as he did, he got other pings about the State. Information like its population of 2.113 Million and its capital of Santa Fe came up on his HUD, along with news reports regarding the region.

"How about…Albu…querque…?" The name of the town stuttered from Saber's mouth; he was far too intrigued by what had accompanied it to think about his annunciation.

Linked to the Town's name, the following Headline dominated the newspace:'Blade Falls From the Sky! Sword From the Heavens Lands In Albuquerque & Stumps Scientists!' The Headline alone would have been a head scratcher, but that's not what caught his eye. Not even halfway down the news article was a picture of the legendary Star Saber! It was just sitting there, embedded in the ground just outside of the town.

"Autobot's standby." Saber killed the map of New Mexico and focused solely on the blade embedded in the Earth. A little over a hundred miles from his position, the mythical blade had touched down barely a day before he did. The Star Saber had landed here, on Earth and at its hilt the Matrix of Leadership still gleamed bright.

The sight of the Star Saber put Saber's processor into overdrive. Somehow, by some stroke of insane luck, he'd landed on the same world the Star Saber had come to. When last he saw it, the Star Saber was jettisoning off-world from his Father's hands. That's when he realized something particularly heinous. Saber had been gone for Four Million Solar Cycles - that was Four Million Years on Earth. All that time, Cybertron had gone without its most coveted artifact…and it had gone without a Prime to lead it.

The thought that there was no Optimus Prime to help the people of Cybertron; that Megatron of all people might be leading the planet, instantly filled Saber's Spark with a pang of dread. But the dread he carried was quickly dashed by a flicker of hope.

The Matrix was here. The Star Saber was here. Both were conjoined in a neat little package and Saber? He was likely the only Cybertronian who knew where they were. The Autobot could drive over and retrieve both at once; the only thing between him and the Blade was the open road. All hope was not lost. For all intents and purposes? Saber was that hope now.

Saber got right back on comms. "Autobots..." He began. "I-I just found out, the Matrix of Leadership and with it: the Star Saber; they're here! And they're not far either!"

The Autobot could barely contain his enthusiasm. But before he could continue, he heard sirens in the distance. Saber turned and watched a distant convoy of Police cars rolling his way. Apparently, his earlier hunch was wrong; the Authorities had heeded the word of the man he'd scared half to death. Although that was probably because he'd taken control of government equipment and less likely because they actually expected to find a Hostile Alien Robot messing with their stuff. In that latter bit at least, the Humans would find themselves in the wrong, he was neutral at best.

"Authorities are coming. I need to go now." Saber said. "I'm gonna go get the Matrix and bring it back to Cybertron, this I promise to anyone still listening on this frequency." Saber paused for a moment. He didn't know how the War was going back home - if it was even still going on at all. But, if the war was still raging, he had to believe that even on a Decepticon controlled Cybertron the Autobots would still be fighting the noblest of fights.

"Autobots." He began again. "I'm gonna bring the Matrix back home. This, I swear to you. If there's even one other Autobot still fighting, I want you to know that you're not alone. I'm fighting with you. Till the stars go black and the Universe ends, I'll fight with every last fiber of my Spark."

The sirens were getting closer, Saber had to go now. "See you soon." He said before disengaging from the Antenna, assuming his alt-mode and driving off.

With his GPS set on Albuquerque, Saber put pedal to the metal and drove off, the sounds of the Law enforcement sirens getting quieter behind him as he focused body and mind on a new task: recovering the Star Saber by any means necessary.