CT7567Rules: I am using Ironhide in this story in place of Bulkhead. Don't misunderstand, I think Bulkhead is great, and definitely a fan favorite, but so is Ironhide. The two of them are pretty much the same, large, strong, tough, and weapon heavy Autobots, just with different color schemes.
Ch8: Collaborations and Discoveries
After completing introductions on both sides, the Autobots led the Union Alliance forces back to their ship on the other side of the mountain. Torn and Striker piloted the two Freedom Cats to the other side of the rocky outcrop the Autobots had emerged from. As the rest of the Alliance exited from the opposite end of the outcrop, they all took in a breathtaking sight as they landed. The view of the giant Autobot ship known as The Ark was as massive as it was magnificent, and the sight of it took their breath away. All of the Autobots save for the one called Arcee kept walking up the landing ramp into the Ark while the Alliance forces collected themselves.
"Woah, now that's a ship!" Jak exclaimed.
"I concur, that's an engineering marvel in its own class!" Cal added in awe.
"It dwarfs even Haven's Tanker Ships! I've only ever dreamed of something like this being built," Keira said in astonishment, while standing behind her, Samos smiled warmly at his daughter's enthusiasm. While not sharing in their human friends' understanding of technology, the dragons still had their own opinions of the Autobot ship.
"By the ancestors, that thing is as big as that terraformer was!" Saphira gasped, with Cyril nodding in agreement right next to her.
"Indeed it is," Terrador agreed as well, "though it certainly doesn't appear as menacing."
"That's a good thing," Cynder said with Spyro adding in response, "definitely."
Arcee stepped up to the group to address all of them, "I guess we'll take all of that as compliments, and a relief that the sight of the Ark doesn't terrify you."
Volteer happily replied, "not at all Ms. Arcee! In fact I find it rather fascinating, to be standing among yet another wonder of the universe we've yet to learn about. I also admit I approve of your choice of color!"
Zaxto added saying, "Ditto!"
Everyone, human and dragon, sweat-dropped from that last comment, while drawing a chuckle from the Autobot femme, "good to know, but let's stop staring at the outside and finish our shared discussion on the inside. Please, follow me."
Looks of thrill mixed with apprehension were present on their faces as the Alliance forces followed Arcee up the landing ramp to the interior of the Ark. As the group of humans and dragons mixed together entered the ship, they got their first look of the Ark's interior. The inner halls were decorated with the same golden yellow color as the exterior, much to Volteer and Zaxto's joy. They were also well lit, hardly any shadow except for the ones the group cast themselves were present within them.
Some including Calidan and Keira took in a full scope of the hallway, getting their first look at Cybertronian technology up close. The steel-colored floor seemed to be lit with pulsing blue channels running underneath it, leading to a large half circle door at the end of the hall. Arcee led them straight ahead toward it, with Jak, Daxter, Cal, Keira, Spyro and Cynder right behind her, and following them were Torn, Ashelin and the rest of the Freedom League forces, and the dragons were bringing up the rear with the Earth and Electric pair in front and the Ice pair and lone Fire dragon in back. The door opened upon Arcee's approach by sliding up, stunning the native visitors momentarily as the Autobot femme walked inside the now revealed elevator lift.
"Come on in, there's enough room for everyone," she said. Everyone obliged as they filled the lift to near full capacity, and the door closed before they felt the mechanism surge to life, and it started ascending.
Once they reached the top it opened again, and to their shared surprise, they saw they had arrived at the Ark Bridge, where all the other Autobots save for Ratchet were present at their stations. Arcee exited as the group took their new surroundings in with awe before finally exiting the elevator.
As they continued their look around, Optimus turned to face their guests, "welcome Union Alliance to the Autobot Bridge, also known as Teletraan One."
Terrador addressed first, "much obliged Optimus. I must say it's unlike anything my kind has ever seen before."
"Oh yes…definitely…incredible!" was heard from amongst his fellow kin save for Spyro and Cynder who were still observing, while mentally comparing the alien technology to the human technology they were familiar with.
The humans were doing the same, although half of them were analyzing as well as comparing the Autobot tech to their own. Cal and Keira both wondered if it all operated on the same principles they knew, or something completely different altogether? They certainly wouldn't rule out the latter considering this was an alien species that was clearly years ahead of their own technology.
Cal went and walked over to Bumblebee who he saw was stationed at a right-side terminal near Jazz and Sideswipe. Jak, Keira, Spyro, Cynder followed, and by extension Daxter and Tess. Saphira in turn, followed Arcee, wishing to get to know her fellow blue colored femme better as she walked up to a left side station near Ironhide with Sephpyr following out of curiosity. Everyone else stayed at the main hub where they began conversing with Optimus.
Torn started by asking Optimus, "If you don't mind me asking, how long did it take to build this thing?"
Optimus answered, "The full construction of the Ark was completed in five Stellar Cycles, or five years in your terms."
His fact astonished them all, yet Striker voiced it out, "Five years to build all this?! Dang! It took at least 8 years for us to build our first space vessel! I know, my grandfather was part of the team that helped build it!"
Optimus further explained, "in all fairness, the Ark's construction was rushed to be completed. While its systems and structure are all space worthy, there were some things that had to be omitted from the original design, unfortunately."
Ashelin inquired, "I'm guessing it was either lose them or lose the whole ship?"
"Correct," Optimus said to her, "During the war's final days, the Decepticons had accelerated their advance into our borders. If we had not made the changes in the timeline we had, they would have destroyed the Ark as a whole and we would have been stranded on our dead world."
Terrador concluded, "and your faction would have lost the war right there?" Optimus nodded back in confirmation.
"In comparison with the war as a whole, saving the Ark was a minor, yet significant victory. I only hope we can make it all the more worthwhile here," said the Prime.
Vacu took this time to make himself known, "well Optimus sir, I'm as much a newcomer to the Union Alliance as you are. But if everything I've learned about them from Master Terrador is true, I can assure you that siding with all of them, and by extension, us, will make it all worth it."
The Prime nodded to the acolyte accepting his comment, while the dragon guardians including Terrador nodded with pride toward him. The humans felt the same as well as honored, although Zaxto softly snorted at his fellow acolytes' attempt to brownnose. While that was going on, Samos noticed something out of the corner of his eye, etched into Optimus's foot. Its signage was enough to coerce the old sage into walking up to it while gathering everyone's attention.
Ashelin asked, "Uh Samos? What are you doing?"
As he halted by his foot, Optimus asked the sage with a raised optic, "is something wrong?"
Samos finally said, "Oh! No, nothing, it's just this symbol, what is it doing engraved in your foot?"
"Ah, you mean the symbol of fortitude?" Optimus asked.
"Fortitude?" Ashelin questioned.
"Yes, in fact it's one of the seven that are imprinted upon my protoform."
"Protoform?" Volteer asked next.
"It's the Cybertronian equivalent of human skin."
"Ahh, so they're tattoos? Heh, we're no stranger to those around here," Torn said pointing to the marks on his face.
"More like birthmarks," Optimus clarified, "you see, when a Cybertronian is born, they are embedded with a mark of one of the seven virtues, passed down by our original creator, Primus. Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Patience, Justice, and Temperance, any one of them can be imprinted upon a protoform body, in multiple locations."
"Fascinating, although you say you have all seven?" Cyril asked.
Optimus clarified, "I didn't always, but when I was reborn as a Prime, I was gifted with being imprinted with all seven. Fortitude was my original symbol at birth."
"You weren't always a Prime?" Zaxto asked curiously.
"A Prime is the highest level of command a Cybertronian can achieve. It is not something one is born with, it is earned," Optimus explained with modesty.
"Well spoken. We are no strangers to achieving high ranks within our people either, so I can guess your ascension was quite the journey?" Terrador commended.
"Indeed it was, though that is a story for another time," Optimus said, with all nodding in agreement, before Samos returned to the topic at hand.
"AHEM, as tempting as it is to hear about that, I must inquire about this symbol etched into your skin Optimus, for I'm all too curious as to why its text is all too similar to the language of the Precursors!"
The sage's statement shocked the whole group, including Optimus who asked, "what do you mean similar? The dialect of our birthmarks is from our most ancient language?"
"Well I'm telling you from my own experience that this text reads like the old Precurian script," Samos said, "this one in fact roughly translates to 'courage', a synonym for fortitude as you explained."
Optimus was stunned by his explanation, as were the rest of the crowd, including the humans who couldn't believe that these alien robots had a language script that roughly resembled their own! As they were talking, other conversations were taking place, starting with Bumblebee's group.
Cal asked, "so does a ship this size take all seven of you to fly?"
Jazz answered, "Actually the Ark is capable of flying all by itself through operational instruction by Teletraan One."
Keira added, "like an autopilot?"
"More like a supercomputer," Sideswipe said, "this whole ship can run with a crew ranging from one to its max capacity of 300."
"Wow, and we're there any other ships like this?" Jak asked.
Jazz answered, "we've had other vessels of similar size, but none as advanced as this baby, she's state of the art!"
Despite not sharing their human friends' enthusiasm for technology, Cynder made to oblige them, "So I guess it's your people's most advanced model?"
"You got it!" Sideswipe answered before his tone turned dismal, "as far as I know, the only ship that can match it, is the current Decepticon vessel, 'Nemesis'."
"Fitting name," Cal said, scowling with the others as they remembered what they saw in the projections.
Bumblebee spoke then, 'We just hope our ship fares better in defending your planet from their attack than we did Cybertron.'
All of the native Alliance members turned to Cal for translation, "what did he say?" Jak asked him.
Cal loosely translated, "Bumblebee is saying he hopes the Ark can prove a reliable defense for us."
While knowing he only told the context, Jazz and Sideswipe were both surprised that this one human could understand Bumblebee's binary language, "you really understood all of that?" Jazz asked.
Cal nodded before saying, "yeah, don't ask me how cause I'm not sure myself. You don't mind, do you?" He asked the scout. Bee quickly shook his head, feeling quite satisfied that at least one human could help translate this strange new world for him. As Cal gave a smile back, the other humans and dragons present had no doubt these two were going to make great friends.
While Cynder's group were conversing with one group of Autobots, her best friend had started another with her blue Autobot counterpart on the opposite end of the console.
"So I'm curious, how do you cope being the only girl on the team?" Saphira asked Arcee with a grin.
Arcee lightly chuckled before answering the young acolyte, "It isn't easy all the time, but I handle it, and with all these boys, it's never a dull moment."
Ironhide said, "huh, not like you make it any easier Missy."
Sephpyr and Saphira barely held back a laugh while Arcee shot the veteran Autobot with a dry glare.
"Watch it old man, and keep in mind our tally shows I've saved you more times than you me."
"And don't you forget who taught you everything you know about battlefield tactics," Ironhide replied.
A surprised Sephpyr asked, "you're her teacher?"
"Military instructor mostly," Ironhide clarified, "back on Cybertron, I was in charge of our Autobot boot camp focused solely on training new recruits. It was rather fitting as I was one of its founders and one of the first to graduate from it. Arcee was one of our most prominent graduates during the war's final years."
"Cool!" Saphira complimented.
"It wasn't too hard," Arcee said, "I had already been through previous training regarding stealth tactics and fighting disciplines, so it made sense to combine it all together with military training."
"I agree, my mentor Cyril has taught me you can't limit yourself to one profession, for among the Dragon guardians, having a broad base of knowledge is fundamental to protecting the realms," Saphira said.
"Wise words," Arcee commented.
"I agree, perhaps collaboration between our worlds won't be as difficult as I thought," Ironhide surmised, "Though from what you've said, I'd like to converse with these guardians myself."
"You should Ironhide sir," said Sephpyr nodding in agreement, "in fact you'd probably along well with Master Terrador, he's a former battlefield commander himself."
"A Kindred spirit huh? Hehe, consider me interested kid," Ironhide replied.
"Is he also cranky, rigid, and hardheaded?" Arcee asked the acolyte, "if so then we can consider him Ironhide's dragon doppelganger."
The dragon acolytes chuckled at the stink eye the veteran Autobot threw at the spymaster. As the conversations reached a combined pause, they were interrupted by the sound of the elevator opening. Ratchet stepped out to join his fellow crew and their guests.
Optimus greeted him, "Ratchet, were the ship's diagnostics complete?"
"Complete and cleared," Ratchet answered as he explained to the whole native audience around him, "with each flight and landing, a full diagnosis of the Ark's flight systems is mandatory, to detect and eliminate any issues that could prohibit the next one."
"Makes sense, we try not to fall short on running diagnostics on our own systems here," said Ashelin, "and seeing how this vessel is your only means of transport, you would naturally keep up with its maintenance."
Ratchet nodded in agreement, but had something to add, "I do what I can, but my role as the medic already takes up too much of my time, fortunately we do have someone who fills the gap well."
"Anything to help Ratchet sir!" A squeaky voice caused their Elorin audience to jolt, and even the other two groups turned back to see a small orange human-sized robot with wheels instead of feet zip his way around to speak to his superior officer.
"You know I take pride in my role as the assigned tech support logistics and diagnostics analyzer for this ship as granted to me by the jiiibe…fiiive…hiiive…High!...Council who assigned me here in the first daaaze…traaace…laaace… Place!"
If the sight of the small robot their own size didn't surprise the humans, bearing witness to his stuttered speech did. Optimus and his fellow Autobots gave the minicon either sympathetic or amused glances, whereas Ratchet just sighed exhaustively.
"Apologies for my minicon assistant," Ratchet said to the Alliance group, "he suffers from a cranial trauma that crossed his circuits."
"In other words, he was hit hard on the head," Torn clarified with Ashelin throwing him a cringing look.
"That's correct!" the minicon answered exuberantly, "sadly I have no memory of when it happened, just that I remember waking up in a medical bay after my unit was supposedly…diiive…striiive…eyyyed…wiped out! Ratchet was the field medic present at my revival, and I've stuck by him since. You can call me Fixit."
"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Fixit, I am Volteer," the electric guardian first introduced himself and then his prized pupil, "and this is my protege Zaxto."
"So are you really this ship's engineer?" Zaxto asked using the knowledge he had gained of human occupations during his first Elorin visit.
"Well, that's a lot shorter than the title that was given to me, but yes I guess you can say I am!" Fixit answered.
"Cool, mind if we ask questions on how everything works? We find it all fascinating," Zaxto asked him on behalf of him and his teacher.
Fixit was happy to answer, "Ask away! Where would you like to start?"
The sight of the two dragons commingling with the little Autobot warmed the hearts of the present audience. First contact, and already two differing races were commingling together like long lost friends. It was a sight Optimus relished in, he only wished all the other races the Autobots had encountered during the war could have been the same. Though there was a question he had to raise with his old friend that had now been brought to his attention.
"Ratchet, might I ask a favor of you?" Optimus asked the medic.
Ratchet turned from his assistant's conversation with the electric dragons before answering, "of course, what?"
"Samos here has brought to my attention that our ancient Cybertronian scripts which we bear on our bodies, apparently share a similarity with a particular language used on this planet."
Ratchet's optics went wide before he gasped, "what?! Impossible!"
"Not a word I like using myself," Samos interjected, "but given everything I've experienced over the years, I'm starting to doubt anything is impossible. Though what I told Optimus is true, your Cybertronian symbols bear an uncanny resemblance to our own Precurian script, I have a sample right here."
The sage pulled out and unrolled a scroll given to him by Seem, that was etched with symbol copies originally found on the Alliance Arch. Since his original life's work came to an end months ago, the sage had adopted a new project in commingling with the Precursor Temple monks on discovering the mysteries of the Alliance Arch scripts. One particular interest to him was a line saying how the precursors of old adopted their current dialect from another unknown script, using it as a root. Solving the mystery of this unknown text became his new interest, and he now believed a major clue had just been discovered with the arrival of these alien robots.
"By the Allspark," Ratchet gasped in astonishment as he bent down to read the text on the scroll. He couldn't deny now, the text did share a similarity to Cybertronian. "Where did you get this?"
"This particular text was found on an ancient precursor structure we discovered months ago," Samos explained, "it's actually what helped us forge the Union Alliance with the dragons in the first place."
"Samos is correct," Cyril added, "we have a similar structure that links with it on our own world, surrounded by a pictograph of similar markings."
Optimus then asked Ratchet, "you had all of Cybertron's historical texts downloaded into the Ark mainframe did you not?"
"Yes, all that was saved from Iacon prior to its destruction," Ratchet answered.
Optimus proceeded with his question, "when the time is right, could you access the archives focused on our origins of language? Also, allow Samos to view it with you so he may provide his own viewpoint on this seeming revelation?"
Ratchet looked down to the green sage who gave a rare eager look. He was no doubt awaiting the chance to learn more about another lost Precursor mystery, if that's what this case of similarly sketched symbols was. His fellow humans and even the dragons awaited the Autobot medics' response.
"Hmm, fine fine, though I'll have to take point on the research, when we can," he finally answered.
"Much obliged Ratchet," Samos said with a bow.
BEEP…BEEP…BEEP
Suddenly, an alert sounded off from the main console, ending all conversations on the bridge. All eyes were on Optimus's first lieutenant as he called out to him, "Jazz, Report!"
Jazz explained as he read from the console, "Teletraan has detected two large energy signals! Coming from the upper atmosphere, one unknown, but the other isn't…Optimus, it's the Nemesis."
"The Decepticons," Ironhide growled. All the Union Alliance were horrified by the news, though Ashelin took the lead in speaking for everyone, "led by Megatron?"
"Indeed," Optimus gravelly confirmed.
"The unknown signature," Samos surmised, "...it must be Errol and Malefor's new vessel."
Jak asked his guardian as he called out from across the bridge, "but where could they have gotten one? We destroyed the Dark Ship months ago!"
"We destroyed A dark ship Jak," Samos reminded, "though from everything we learned about the Dark Makers in our first confrontation with them, they've been hoarding all over our galaxy for ages. Meaning, they no doubt have more."
"In other words, we have yet another alien invasion on our hands," Torn voiced everyone's concerns.
"Yeah! Only this time we now have not one, but TWO hostile bunch of nasties to deal with!" Daxter yelled out, making the whole Alliance group sweat drop, and the Autobots raise an eye to the small yet loud creature's rant.
"What are your orders Prime?" Jazz asked his commanding officer.
All eyes were on Optimus as contemplated for a moment before turning to the human leaders behind him, "does your Alliance have any locations from which to mount an offensive and defend?"
Torn nodded as he answered his fellow commander, "our headquarters has the most state-of-the-art defense systems on the planet, and the best weapons against any armed assault."
"We also have a secondary headquarters in the neighboring Haven City, complete with additional troops and fighters," Ashelin added.
"Then we must make haste to defend both locations, as they will no doubt be the Decepticons primary targets," Optimus theorized, given how their enemy Errol was now commingling with the Decepticon warlord, and no doubt had given him the knowledge on where to strike first.
Optimus turned to his two fastest soldiers, "Sideswipe, Bumblebee, escort the Union Alliance back to their transports, and then follow to their headquarters, we will fly ahead to mount a primary defense. We will just need coordinates from one of you," he finished looking down at the humans.
"I'll stay," Ashelin volunteered, much to Torn's surprise and personal concern.
"But Ashelin, your…" he was cut off as his lover spoke as his commander in chief...
"My decision is final General! Our troops need a leader on the ground, so you need to go back. Hold off any hostiles until we arrive, that's an order!"
Her tone confirmed to him that she wouldn't be swayed, and relented, "as you wish Governor."
"If you'd like, I will stay and assist you as well," Terrador volunteered himself, surprising his kin and his student.
"Master?" Vacu asked.
"At ease Vacu," he consoled him, "if we have a warfront coming, I offer to lend my own battle experience to help you prepare." The Dragon Guardian leader said to the Autobot Prime.
"Your offer is accepted," Optimus answered gratefully.
Terrador nodded before turning around to address his fellow guardians, "fly back with the others, let Charvo and the rest of our allies know what's coming, we'll reconvene later."
"Very well," Cyril sighed, before he addressed the acolytes, Spyro and Cynder, "let's go young ones."
The groups were now all split up and intertwined. Boarding the elevator was now the combined group of the Union Alliance minus Terrador and Ashelin, and Sideswipe and Bumblebee taking their place. The door closed before the elevator activated taking them down to the main hall. Upon exiting, the Autobots transformed into their vehicle modes, and gave their permission to the humans to mount up. The humans split with both of them, Jak, Cal, Keira, Daxter, Tess, and Samos went with Bumblebee, while Torn, Striker, and their guard escorts went with Sideswipe. The Autobots hit the gas, zooming down the corridor toward the ramp. The dragons took flight behind them as they followed the sentient vehicles out.
From a console screen, Jazz saw that the group had exited the Ark and stopped at the rocky outcrop where the F-Cats were. "Prime, they're clear."
"Initiate takeoff," Optimus gave the order standing behind his lieutenant as he worked the main console, and Arcee, Ironhide, and Ratchet manned the other controls down below. Ashelin, Terrador, and Fixit stood side by side as they felt the Ark's engines re-ignite. The party outside watched in awe as they saw the Autobot ship legs retract as it ascended into the sky once again. Next stop, Union Alliance HQ.
After exiting out of hyperspace, the Decepticons got their first look at the human planet of Elorin in front of them. They were already disgusted knowing it was fully teeming with organics, but what outweighed it was the anticipation of another battle with the Autobots, and another chance to wipe them out for good to avenge their lost homeworld. Megatron gave his opinion at first sight, "hmph, such a small pack of dirt. With Cybertron lost, Optimus now resorts to defending the most insignificant specks of dust just because they contain 'sentient' life, hahaha, how the mighty have fallen."
Malefor was quick to interject, "perhaps, but if I may offer some advice Megatron, remember that even the smallest of bugs can leave the nastiest bites, and a swarm of them can even prove fatal."
"Speaking from experience are you?" Megatron threw back in mockery, something Malefor merely sneered at. However, he was prevented from retaliating by his comm officer.
"Lord Megatron, Starscream and Errol are prepared to teleport," said Soundwave upon reading his console.
"Bring them aboard," Megatron ordered. With a push of a button from Soundwave, a flash of light appeared behind Knockout and Brawl, and out of it came Starscream and Errol as they were standing on the mothership bridge.
"Ah, finally, back among clean halls," Starscream stated, which made Errol sneer.
"Did you enjoy your ride Starscream?" Knockout mocked the aerial commander, "or did you pick up anything that would force me to quarantine you?" Brawl smirked at his colleagues' attempt to irk the lieutenant.
"Grrr! Amusing Knockout, though you would do wise to hold your tongue to your commanding officer," Starscream seethed at the Con medic.
"At ease Starscream," Megatron ordered, preventing further arguments, "save it for the ground."
He turned to the Dark Maker leader, "are your forces ready to assault Errol?"
"Ready and hungry," he answered.
Starscream added, "indeed master, all your orders were carried out to the letter."
Megatron gave his next order, "Good, go and prepare your Seeker armada for attack."
"With pleasure my lord," Starscream said with a bow before turning to run toward the exit off the bridge.
Before he reached it however, it opened in front of him, halting his advance. The figure on the other side made him gasp, before slowly stepping aside. The others watched with curiosity at what made him stop. The soon got their answer as the new arrival emerged from the dark corridor and onto the bridge, his mere presence intimidating even Knockout and Brawl.
Megatron however took his cue, "Ah, excellent timing. Malefor, Errol, allow me to introduce you to the final member of our Decepticon inner circle…"
The two other members of the Maleficence watched as the new Decepticon walked up to their group. He bore a single glowing red eye, and a cannon in place of its left arm. His footsteps echoed throughout the bridge as he approached it.
Megatron finished his previous sentence, "...our chief engineer, and one of my fiercest warriors; Shockwave."
The one-eyed Con made his final step as his master finished. Shockwave stood expressionless as he observed both organics with his eye. By first impression, Errol and even Malefor could agree, this was one Con not to take lightly.
There's my full cast, finishing up with Fixit from RID, and Shockwave from TFP. I know some might be disappointed that I left out Bulkhead and Breakdown from the TFP series, but this is a multi-crossover fanfiction story, and I don't want to completely copy from another storyline. I prefer using elements from different series and genres molding them together into something unique, which is what makes a great fanfiction story in my opinion. Feel free to review and share your thoughts! See you next chapter!