Ep0.5 - Sandy Scrublands [Closed]

[Deleted]

A lone rhinocerous grazed on twisted-scrubby vegetation, munching his way through it with single-minded, unhurried determination. It was a fine figure of a beast, its leathery hide thick and proudly displaying the occasional scar from who knew what sort of battles, but fighting was the last thing on the rhino's mind if the lazy twitch of its tail was any indication. This beast was exactly where it wanted to be, doing what it wanted to be doing, and all was right with its world.

"Magnificent."

Its observer lay belly-down on a sandy knoll some distance away, so as not to disturb its peace. Rhinox had been watching the organic eat for the past four hours, and his servos were starting to cramp up, but by Primus, he didn't care. He was having more fun than he'd had in a very, very long time. This planet was amazing! He'd barely seen any of the dominant species - he was saving that wonderful experience for later - but on his trek from the ship's crash site, he'd catalogued a double handful of new species, started to categorize them into groups by structure, and he knew he'd barely even scratched the surface of this planet's biodiversity. Not since Cybertron had Rhinox been so in love.

The rhinocerous trotted off, having reduced the bush it was eating to barren sticks; "Thank you, my friend, and farewell," Rhinox murmured, and pushed himself painfully to his feet. As much as he loved this planet, the dirt and sand was not doing his quick patch jobs on himself any favors. He winced, trotted around in a circle to get his energon flowing again, and then forced himself past pain into his transformation sequence. The four-wheeled, high-clearanced altmode was just enough like his old one to be comfortable; like the rhino, it was well-adapted to the rough environment and as tough as tough came.

Once he was moving, Rhinox didn't feel the pain so much. That was usually how it worked. He did, however, have more attention trained on his sensors, and it wasn't long before he picked up a blip: a Cybertronian energy signature, strong and unmistakable. His spark leaped within him.

After so long... is it possible?

Rhinox sped up to find the source. Autobot or Decepticon - after his long, desperate solitude, it almost didn't matter, to a spark starved for company and connection.

[Deleted]

The great seriousness with which the Autobots were taking an unexplained energy reading on the African continent could be most easily summed up by one simple fact: it had taken Raf all of thirty seconds to convince Optimus Prime that he should be allowed to go along. In fact, Shadow half suspected the "reading" was nothing more than an excuse to give them - particularly Bluestreak - a chance to get away from the base and any reminders of recent Decepticon activity.

Shadow had absolutely no objections to this trip, even if it turned out they were chasing a sensor glitch in the base computers. She, Bluestreak, Bumblebee, and Raf had ground bridged into an absolutely beautiful day, with no humans but Raf in sensor range, and no instructions except to investigate the area and contact base when they wanted to go home. Essentially, a day off to do whatever they wanted.

Raf had immediately scurried off to take pictures of everything, with Blue ostensibly keeping an eye on him (but really mostly sunning hirself). Bumblebee was actually taking readings in the area, though with plenty of digressions to do other things. And Shadow had volunteered to do a quick sweep of the surrounding area, which involved a great deal more sliding around rocks and plant life at high speed than actual patrolling.

It had been, frankly, a pretty good day.

She skidded to a halt as her wheels flushed out a small family of rodents from the brush, unfolding from her alt mode. She watched the tiny animals' mad dash for a moment, weapon cycling up, tracking subroutines coming online, calculating the most efficient way to take out the entire group.

The last thing she expected was a voice coming from behind her.

[bumblebee]

‘Nycticorax nycticorax/Black-crowned Night Heron.’

“Stop it, Bee.”

‘ Falco tinnunculus/Common Kestrel. Numida meleagris/Helmeted Guineafowl’

Raf threw up his hands in despair. “Beeeee!” A low whirr-beep hum arose instantly from the parked Camaro beneath the boy, a very distinct noise that Raf had come to understand was as close to laughter as Bumblebee’s damaged voice could mamage. It didn’t really matter, Bee put off ‘amused’ and ‘teasing’ in a non-verbal cloud so thick Raf actually wondered if there was some 6th sense to Cybertronian communication he was picking up on. (But that was silly so he dismissed it.) From the roof of Bumblebee’s bright yellow alt mode, Raf had been happily taking pictures of everything his limited camera memory would allow him and to his dismay Bee had discovered that Rag wanted to research each bird for himself to discover what is was… so the cheater was Google image searching everything.

“I’m serious, Bee!” Raf clicked a photo of a puzzled looking bird nested in the nearby bushes. Dozy herds of gazelle wandering by in the distance. Shadow was over the next hill off actually doing their job for the mission while Bee entertained Raf. There was not roundabout way of saying it. Bee was babysitting. Raf didn’t care. He was enjoying himself too much to examine the motivations behind the Autobots’ willingness to do whatever little thing it was that he, Jack, Miko and even June wanted them to do. He knew exactly what it was motivating them… but he didn’t say or think it. “Stop with the Google!”

Bee chirped impudently, wheels wiggling in the sand, but after that wall was quiet on the grasslands. It was obvious this was just the kind of downtime they'd been looking for after... everything that had happened. Raf was old enough to understand wanting to move on.

[Deleted]

The last thing she expected was a voice coming from behind her.

"Hey. Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

It was a line that had history behind it. He'd shouted it at Decepticons across the battlefield, growled it at a certain slagsucker in purple plating when he'd had a smaller teammate in a chokehold, and tried to keep a straight face when saying it to his best friend, who was fully half his size. He was - pretty sure he was saying it to an Autobot now, despite the rather un-Botlike behavior of aiming a weapon at small, defenseless organic creatures. He couldn't see a symbol, but the energy signature was wrong for a 'Con.

Thus, he spoke calmly, almost idly, as if calling someone a bully was as inconsequential as mentioning the weather. His arms were crossed, head canted to one side, in a nonaggressive pose. Rhinox didn't want to fight the first Cybertronian he'd seen in nearly a century (and yes, he was already converting to Earthen time units). He just wanted her to stop.

[Deleted]

It was pretty obvious what the others had done. Sending Hir, Bee, Raf and of course their babysitter Shadow to the middle of no were Africa to look for a mysterious energy signature. Perhaps ou should have been upset, or insulted but they were right. Ou needed some time out of the base to think, to recover in more way's than one.

And here under the Savannah sun, laying on the grass and watching Bee and Raf bicker. (Something about birds?) the little grey sniper was finally starting to relax like ou hadn't been able too in a long time.

Stretching out and wiggling hir newly repaired (AGAIN!) Door wings ou finally got up and looked around. Wondering were Shadow had gone off too.

[Deleted]

Shadow's first thought as she turned, blaster up and ready, was Primus fraggit, I have got to get some decent weapons. Her second was, How in the Pit did something that big sneak up on me?

A belated third was, Huh, I guess there really was an energon signature in this area.

"Most of the things my size in this region are endangered," she said, matching the mech's tone, though she didn't lower her weapon. "Those were just vermin."

As she spoke, she opened an encrypted comm to Bumblebee on a scout frequency. ::Heads up, Bee. I've got company.::

[bumblebee]

‘Raf!’

“I got it! I got it!” Raf was already jumping off his friend’s roof, his sneakers hitting dirt at the same moment the yellow muscle car behind him came apart at the seams with that alien rushgin sound of uncountable mechanism unfolding from the stringing physics of subspace. Raf backed up, climbing up on a nearby rock as the Autobot scout reassembled himself, stood up, and rapidly signaled Bluestreak from where the Nissan was lounging happily in the sun, looking for all the world like a lazy mechanical housecat. “Is Shadowrunner in trouble? Is it Cons?”

‘Dunno/not sure/can’t tell. Stay/don’t move! We’ll be right back. Bee cycled up his weapon systems and started for Shadow’s position just over the hill. He was getting another energy signature, couldn’t tell if it was friendly or hostile but it was certainly unknowns and Bee’s track record with his outings lately had been poor enough to make him assume hostile. ‘Blue! Roll out! Shadow’s got some mech on her. Give me cover/possible suppressing fire from the hilltop.

And just like that Bee was over the top of the hill in time to see Shadow squaring off with a massive dull gold colored mech three times her mass. He was taller, about Ratchet’s height, heavy-grade armor, front-liner build but he didn’t appear to be hostile, rather he looked like he was gearing up for the mother of all lectures. Shadow looked, understandably, fragging baffled. Bee chirp whirred in vaguely hostile Basic.

‘Who are you/what do you want?’

[Deleted]

Vermin, huh? Rhinox had to work to hide a smile as he gestured at a furry predator watching them half-hidden in the yellow grass: a cheetah, whose species was in fact endangered. "Even vermin have a role to play," he said. "Even as a meal for larger creatures. Just because they don't look valuable to us doesn't mean they aren't valuable." He paused. "That is why the Autobot policy on worlds not their own is non-interference... unless that's changed while I've been away."

He doubted it, somehow. War changes mecha, sure, but Optimus Prime couldn't have changed that much.

Lecture over, Rhinox turned to address the angry challenge chattered at him in Basic... and for a moment he couldn't speak at all, grief hitting him like a shockwave. A young mech, scout-class, and yellow... "Engineer corps, formerly of Team Axalon," he answered the hail, setting bitter memory aside for now as he transmitted glyphs encompassing Autobot/friendly/alone/need repairs. "My name is Rhinox."

[Deleted]

In a spark beat Bluestreak went from reclining in the grass like one of the large cats out there to up on hir feet and rifle out. A kalidascope of emotions coursing through hir. Fear, anger and surprisingly enough hope. Maybe this surprises mech could be a friend. Before reaching the top of the hill to cover Bee and Shadow the little sniper turned and offered to a smile to Raf. The little human looking a bit out of place all alone in the brush.

"It'll be okay, don't get hurt okay?"

On top of the hill and watching the goings on through hir scope Blue couldn't help but hope this friendly looking mech was on their side. He looked like Optimus did when he was about to give a lecture.

::Bee is he friendly? Can I put the gun down or should I shoot him?::

[Deleted]

Perhaps the oddest thing about the big mech's quiet lecture was how utterly sincere he was about it, a firm conviction that even this planet's natives didn't share, in Shadow's experience. She didn't have time to answer his chide about Autobot non-interference, though, before Bumblebee was there, chirping challenges and generally acting like taking the big mech would be no problem.

(Actually, they could take him with no problem, it just wouldn't be by fighting fair. She had no doubt Blue was somewhere out of sight, covering them.)

As soon as Rhinox introduced himself, she was running his designation through the copious databases all intel bots maintained. ::Ident's coming up green for me,:: she commed without looking toward Bee, still on the scout frequency. ::Are you coming up with any reason to flag him, or do we call Blue off?::

[bumblebee]

::Stand down, Blue. We’re okay. He’s coming up green for me too.::

Bee’s tonal glyphs immediately lost their hostile edge, softening back to more conversation bleeps and whirrs. He cycled down his weapon systems and briefly signaled back to Rafael who came clambering up the hill. His eyes got rather large behind his glasses at the size of the mech, Rhinox, and rather reflexively he took a picture before grinning at Bee. He chirped back before turning around to face the new comer, moving down the slope into more conversational range.

‘My name is Bumblebee. Scout/Autobot/soldier. Currently deployed with Team Prime.’ He pointed to the rise of the grassy knoll where Bluestreak’s slender frame was rising from the grass, the glint of hir rifle catching gold off the African sun. ‘That’s Bluestreak. Our sniper. He can shoot a bolt off a circuit-crow at ten kilks.’ Bee said this perfectly cheerfully, utterly friendly, but there was no mistaking the warning. He did not, notably, introduce the others. He whirred curiously in his broken dialect. ‘Did you follow Autobot transmission to Earth or this just a happy crash landing?’

[Deleted]

Rhinox was struck silent for a moment, for three reasons.

Reason one: Team Prime. Regardless of the legendary reputations of the mechs their leader had chosen for his teammates, Team Prime meant Optimus Prime, and that... left Rhinox a little thunderstruck.

Reason two: Team Prime had, apparently in defiance of their own protocols, made contact with at least one human. Perhaps he was wrong in what he'd told the black Autobot after all. ...Still, a guilty part of him wanted to talk with the human, get to know him, learn from him. So far, he hadn't dared to approach any human for longer than it took to scan his new alt mode, and he was desperately curious.

Reason three: he had been, all unknown, under a sniper's scope the whole time. Careless of you, big guy. You've been away from the front lines too long.

"A happy accident," he told the scout, shaking off his surprise. "I've been off the comm lines for a long time - I had no idea any Cybertronian was here." He frowned, a cold suspicion entering his mind. "But if Team Prime is here," he said slowly, "that means the Decepticons are too. Doesn't it?"

Grim news for Earth's citizens, he thought. Primus grant that Earth would not become like Cybertron.

[Deleted]

Bluestreak didn't need much prompting to get up out of the brush and join the others in meeting the new mech. A friendly, FINALLY some one who wouldn't want to slag them. Blue kept hir rifle out though, considering recent event's ou wasn't really willing to completely trust their luck.

As the sniper got closer ou heard Bee's praise and smiled a little bit wider as ou heard it. That the scout thought so highly of hir skill made hir spark flutter a little.

"It's nice to see a friendly but how did you get here? How long have you been here? What have you been doing in Middle-of-No were-Africa?"

[Deleted]

Certain that Bee and Blue had the situation covered if it turned hostile, Shadow cycled her own weapon away and took a more relaxed stance, her EMF sliding to a friendlier long-wave frequency which was as false as the friendly tone of her voice when she spoke. "You could say that," she answered his question about the Decepticons, pulling his attention away from Bee...and away from Raf, who was standing nearest the yellow scout and who the newcomer was just a little too curious about. "Megatron and some of his best are on this planet."

She let that sink in while Blue joined them. She didn't think Rhinox was lying about being off the comm lines, but even if he was exactly what he appeared to be, there were plenty of bots who'd have second thoughts about going up against Megatron himself. And plenty more who'd blow a lot of hot exhaust until there was actually a battle. She wondered which group the mech would fall into.

[bumblebee]

Bee whirred thoughtfully. From behind him he could hear the happy ‘click, click, click’ of Raf taking pictures, so very quick to cheer up when the danger had passed – one of the many things Bee enjoyed about their three youngest human friends. Their capacity to bounce back after a scare was very good, the same way Bee and Blue had abandoned his previous hostilities in the blink of an optic now that he had a solid ID on other Autobot. Team Axalon – not a team he was personally familiar with, but one he recalled and on which came up easily in the Autobot service records and all stats were matching up.

And since they’d already spent their allotted Makeshift doppelganger shenanigans bit for this planet, Bee wasn’t worried about an impersonator. They’d strapped a bomb the size of a small car to the Con’s aft.

‘You’ve been off comms,’ said Bumblebee, ‘and you crashed/landed here, and you said ‘formerly’.’ The scout’s optics flickered. ‘I hate to ask this but… where is Team Axalon? There’s no Autobot/friendly chatter/news/intell this far out about the other units in this/other galaxies. Optimus will… need to know, Rhinox.’