[ti]Ep 2.5[/ti]Lost & Found [Ravage]

[Deleted]

EP: 2.5 - Week: 1 - Day: 6
Location: Nemesis -> Blackridge Hold
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Time was lost and non-excistent as darkness swirled around and curled itself from one edge to another, consuming everything it touched into a fast void of blackness. Like a blackhole it swallowed the remains of space and time, leaving nothing more than emptiness in its path. Yet the steady echoing noise that seemed to never shut up rumbled in the distance...

Being kept in a state of unconsciousness wasn't pleasant, and while the part of 'waking up' felt more like a shot of 'high-en' and a punch to the face, the black and white mech slowly became aware of his surroundings; feeding on cold yet burning pain that washed over nothingness as he tried to pull himself away and out of an empty slumber.

Red optics started to flicker through the dark at that, vaguely tracing the objects that lay around and trying to form a solid image of an inky environment. The sight was blurry and all fuzzy, optical feedback slowly refocused as constant waves of filed information ran through a corrupted memory bank. Missing chunks demanded to be filled, yet couldn't...

Whatever happened, whatever fate took over this world let the Decepticon quickly realise that the room had shifted; the surface once called floor turned ceiling, and the former ceiling became newfound ground to lay and walk on. It was a rare sight, and a strange feeling that everything that once was so familiar could look so alien.

Broken crates, shattered glass, loose wires and busted objects were scattered all over the place. The former training room with all its content and items sure looked bad. The door itself rested half opened and damaged at the newfound ceiling and seemed to be scrambled with whatever it was that blocked the entrance... or exit. Great!

Nontheless, the black and white mech slowly began to shift his weight, pulling himself free and out of the rubble and wreckage that rested atop. And while getting up and about was the easy part, getting out of this mess was certainly another. But, the first step towards freedom had been made and the remains of dust and junk had been brushed aside; revealing some minor scratches, scuffed off paint and small dents that snaked over his armor in a weird pattern. But overall? Everything seemed to be fine, except the pounding ache of his processor. Though, no broken or twisted limbs. That was a plus.

However, his servo reached up and towards the side of his helm at that, instinctively checking for any damage taken there, and a communication-line that would still be accessible somehow. As one thing was for sure; a room upside-down was not a simple incident, or a prank, but furthermore a complex problem that required some sort of assistance. He could figure as much.

Though, he hesistated at first, unsure of how exactly approach such a situation.

Sure, there was this one thing called 'Protocol', but he felt too tired and exhausted to follow it through, being not entirely sure of who exactly he should contact anyway or what kind of frequency would be best suited for such circumstances... but luck would only be with the one's who tried, he thought and hoped that at least someone would listen in or monitor their frequencies.

And while the distress signal was a standart one that had been sent with the simplest of request and information needed, it still was a call for help... a call that hopefully would reach its destination somehow.

[Ravage]

In the violet light of early evening, a small herd of pronghorns moved across the grassy basin.

Most of them were browsing. The antelope pattered forward in a line, each taking a few dainty steps before nervously lowering their heads to the rough shrubs and grass. Their long noses efficiently nipped off stems and leaves; they chewed for a few seconds and then swallowed them down half-masticated. Later on at a safe space they'd fold down into tiny circles in the dry grass and quietly cough up their cud to re-chew at their leisure.

A few of them stood without pausing to snack, their noses up, ears flicking; they were the wariest of the sentinels. They were the self-appointed lookouts for the big predators that prowled the Oregon range. Coyotes, of course - the intelligent wild canines were good hunters, especially of unwary fawns. Eagles would sometimes snatch an infant pronghorn right out from beside their mothers.

More dangerous was the elusive cougar; the cats used stealth and speed to take down even the largest buck. They sat high on the stones to sniff and take in their prey; and then silently padded down to ambush.

Tonight, a cat watched this herd.

Yet the eyes were not amber. Nor were they organic.

Angular red, they focused on the animals below. Dark ears twitched and then flicked forwards as Ravage silently shifted on the ledge of stone beneath him and resettled his flank on a still-warm patch of rock. Places like this soaked up heat throughout the day and radiated it back most of the night.

Ravage could quietly admit to himself that as much as he was a mech of cities and technology... he approved of warm places to lie on.

Back when he had been among the towers of Cybertron, there had been plenty of them. Warm shelves where hot air drifted, blown across them by the massive ventilation systems. He and his partner would stretch out and laze across them for hours, just content to sit there in silence, watching the mechs in the courtyards far below.

Ravage opened his mouth in a silent, lazy stretch of jaw and then half shuttered his optics. He brought up a paw to rub against his cheek, a half-hearted swipe that was so silent that the animals in the distance didn't even glance up from where they ate.

Yet for as lazy as he seemed, Ravage was montitoring. His partner was unable to do this at the moment, and the Decepicons were scattered both by ocean and by continent. Without Soundwave able to follow the patterns in the signals right now, it had fallen to Ravage. It was not the cat's forte- he was by far a better information gatherer than he was a sorter of it.

That said, he was good at listening. He'd been picking up distress calls for several days now, and had been able to retrieve quite a few mechs so far. Every Decepticon found was one more that they could use to get Blackridge up to speed, one more whose skills might be useful.

A tilt of his head raised his nose as if sniffing along a scent trail. The information flickered over the line.

Blackframe.

Ravage's ears cupped forward. 

He knew exactly who this was, and in a way, he wasn't surprised at all that he had survived the downing of the Nemesis. One who was versed in security knew all the ways you could break into an area, but they also knew how you could break out of them.

The cat rose to his feet. A light patterning of dust drifted down from his belly and silvered along the stones beneath him. 

:Acknowledged, Blackframe: he replied. :Are you mobile and able to make your way to a bridge if I open it near your location?:

[Deleted]

The occasional rumble that left the creaking vessel was low and droned through the halls. The familiar sound of footsteps and the chipper voices of guards that had once traveled past these halls had been replaced with silence. A silence that crept under the black and white mech's frame like a wraith. The Nemesis was and always had been a busy place, full of hard working troops and individuals that fulfilled their day-to-day jobs. Seeing it hollow and abandoned was as walking through a ghost-town, and that fact alone was reason enough to leave this place as soon as possible.

Blackframe had channeled through various frequencies, trying to get an answer of some kind while he went over past events. Though, the answer he'd hoped to receive hadn't taken as long as first anticipated it seemed. The response of a voice that had made it through the open line was a foreign one he did not recognize. But in all honesty? He did not care. The only thing that mattered was that it was indeed a Decepticon, and that was convincing enough for the moment. Every light that could be chased to reach the end of the tunnel was welcoming and would not be ignored, regardless if a train waited at the far end or not.

Listening carefully he took in of what had been asked and responded shortly after. Voice held low and tiresome.

::I am mobile and ready for pickup.::

A very simple reply, one that was short and straight to the point. He wasn't in the mood to explain further conditions, nor to chatter away some bad jokes that could be misunderstood as some sort of provocation or the like. He was only glad that someone actually had responded and therefor would value a quick rescue even more. Of course he had questions, many in fact, but those were for another time. Right now though? It was time to prepare for departure.

The training room itself was far more suited to welcome even a larger group of Cybertronians into its halls as it offered a larger portion of space to those who wished to use it for its original purpose, and therefor he had no concerns regarding a bridge being opened at his location. However, he had to be patient and would wait for the swirling vortex to appear while shoving lighter object aside and keeping the comm line open in case further instructions would follow.

[Ravage]

Ah, at least there was no screaming and shrieking over the line.

For that, Ravage was grateful. He'd dealt with much of that lately; many of his fellow Decepticons, when met with a response other than their own static silence, let loose with abrupt yowls. They were understandably either full of fear and pain, panic at the situation they found themselves in...

Or they were imperious and demanding; pick me up, get me out of here, it took you long enough!

The cat didn't mind the first. It was understandable; one did not plummet a ship from the sky into the ocean without injuries. The way those he'd picked up so far had described the Nemesis, it had come to rest upside-down on the bottom of the ocean. Everything not bolted down had become a moving mass of jumbled metal. It had combined with acidic waste, coolant, and in some cases, saltwater. The caustic combination of chemicals combined with the wreckage; tossing and mauling those unfortunate enough to be trapped within.

He did mind the second though. A little please and thank you went a long way with the cat. He had dwelled within the high towers and places of Cybertron; it was second nature to him still to appreciate manners, even in trying circumstances.

The words were to the point. Something else he appreciated right now.

:Good. Opening a bridge to your point now.:

Ears twitching, the cat padded forward in the dry Oregon dirt. Then he stopped and stood, his red gaze fixed on some distant point, as if he was following a path laid out in front of him.

Around Blackframe, the ship settled and creaked. Strained metal groaned like a wounded beast. Coolant and worse was running out of the vents and onto the floor; stinking, pale colored froth slopped along the angle of the deck plating and rolled downwards. There was a constant, soft hiss in the air, filling all the empty spaces with sound. Pressurized lines had popped and shattered.

The Nemesis was a mess. Something that looked like a hand bumped against Blackframe's ankle.

It wasn't attached to the rest of a body though, so maybe it was just a random bit of equipment that sort of looked like a hand. Hard to say.

Even as it scraped on past the mech, there was a slight glow that appeared not far from him. It started out as a dot of luminescent green, shimmering within the darkness of the space where Blackframe struggled to push things aside.

Then it irised open; the twist and swirl of light bright and bold. It illuminated the mess and chaos within the space.

Blackframe wouldn't have to go far to get to it and out of this ship...

[Deleted]

While Blackframe occupied himself with the random objects, he waited patiently for another respond. And as it came? He listened. Though, he did not reply back, finding it unnecessary to do so...

Then, the smell of something odd caught his attention instead. It wasn't one he had encountered before, or at least not all too often. The foul smell of an unknown substance that had mixed with the dry yet wet air began to thicken in the room. It became more and more apparent as it seemed to manifest itself, hovering like an invisible cloud in the air.

Had this scent always been there?

He couldn't remember. But the weird odor reminded him of an exposed, or rather exploded chemical laboratory with certain liquids smashed and combined together while leaving a toxic mist behind... sickening.

The corner of his mouth pulled downward in an expression of disgust as his tank began to turn in respond. But it wasn't all too terrible all things considered. He had encountered far more worse during his time spent on the abandoned outpost. A purple like planet, one similar like the desert of earth but far more cooler. It was dull and had little to no remarkable landscapes to offer. Though, it had been covered with volcanic rocks, vaporizing black smoke into the air that wrapped nearly around the whole surface, transforming its atmosphere into a heavy blackness that hung like an electrified storm overhead; one that reeked of burned metal and corrosion. Just like the training-room he found himself in.

Though, his train of thought came abruptly to a halt then as he felt an object brushing against his pede. Instinctively his attention shifted and snapped to the foreign item. His gaze lowered to the ground and rested on the weird shape down below, carefully observing.

What the fraggin' slag?

It was dark, and the flickering light from outside the hallway wasn't doing much to aid him in his attempt to see more clearly. His vision was still blurry, as if looking through a fuzzy curtain. The officer couldn't distinguish its true form due to this, but it didn't matter regardless as of soon it was overshadowed by a light that seemed to grew stronger and brighter with each second that passed, until it came fully into view.

The all too familiar vortex of swirling green sparkled into existence shortly after. And Blackframe quickly lost interest in the object and turned his attention towards the bridge instead. It felt like an eternity, but had probably only taken a few seconds.

He began to move forward, slow and steady. He did not know what would await him on the other side and therefor was careful, raising his right arm in front of his helm in order to shield his optics, not caring what may lay around him at the moment. Traveling through their technology had a lot of benefits, yet the abrupt change of climate, light and environment wasn't one of them. It even could throw the strongest individual into a state of sudden disorientation, but those thoughts were quickly shoved aside as he entered the swirling vortex, determined to escape the doomed ship.

On the other side; A black and white figure appeared, it wasn't tall, nor bulky, but it was distinguishable as one of them, a Cybertronian. It emerged from the colorful display, ever so slowly. And when its pedes touched foreign ground, a different one than the metal floor of the Nemesis, it came to a stop. The green and white light reflected on dull armor parts, scratched and scuffed off as if being worked over with raw sandpaper. While the mech did not show any signs of being in severe pain, the flip of the ship had not been kind to him.

Blackframe took a second before lowering his arm, focusing in on the new environment that surrounded him. He did not know where he was, or what even to expect. All he could see right now was a blurr of white, slowly fading away and revealing what may lay in front of him.

[Ravage]

Blackframe's optics would adjust into evening, outdoor light. Around him, there was nothing but rock and violet sky. Empty space, so different from the crushing weight of the ship; there was no putrid, tank-churning smell of chemicals. Yet that horrid sting of the mixed vapors would no doubt remain in the mech's filters for a while, their lingering reek slicking down his olfactory systems.

Beneath his feet, there was the give of dirt.

Once he had fully come to stand on solid ground that was not metal, the portal wobbled, diminished and then irised shut, leaving the world dark and cool. There was not a touch of constantly recycled air that would meet his sensors. None of the sharp, oily scents of the filters that constantly scrubbed the air of the Nemesis.

No constant whirr of the great engines turning, or the ever-present click and tap of other mechanical souls trotting the halls while they moved and worked. Not even the creak of the ship as it thrashed against the water it now found itself entombed in.

Everything mechanical was gone, and around Blackframe weighed eerie natural silence.

As things started to drift into focus, his new world revealed tall crags of basalt easing down into the area in which he stood. There was a sharp rising rim of stone to his left that was jagged and rough against the horizon. Thorny brush struggled in the red, rocky soil around his feet. The woody stems held tiny leaves silvered with a fine dusting of fuzz.

Yellowed grass poked out of every space it could manage to grow in.

Nearby, one of the shadows coalesced into shape. Low slung and small, it hopped down off one of the rocks and padded towards Blackframe, long tail swishing behind it. It seemed to half vanish with every stride, a weird, wavery shadow that moved between blotches of dark until it came to a stop not far from the mech.

A sniff, and Ravage's ears went back slightly, then pricked forward again. His red optics gleamed as he perused the mech before him with a thoughtful air.

He had obviously taken some damage within the depths of the Nemesis. The tall mech's frame and paint had taken the brunt of his adventure, but that was simply cosmetic. What Ravage was more interested in knowing was if Blackframe was going to take a few more steps and drop to the ground of the Oregon desert. He'd already had a few of those moments happen since the other day, and frankly, he didn't feel like attempting to drag anyone of the mech's size back to the base with his teeth.

"Blackframe," he said. His voice was low and soft, but held a very distinct rumble to it, as if it was rolling out of the deepest point of the mechanical cat's chest.

"You look better than most, so far," the cat said. "What are your self-diagnostics at the moment?"

[Deleted]

Within seconds the vortex had closed behind the mech, leaving him standing in the abandoned wilderness of the Oregon desert. His vision slowly came into focus, and he carefully took in the sight.

The rocky surface and mountain like wall rose proudly up into the air, surrounding them. Shrubbery and dust, more rocks and all that organic stuff he never could find himself to like stretched far into the distance. Blackframe only knew so much about earth, while he had read the basics and informed himself about specific areas, he was far from recognizing landmarks or other notable places which could have helped him at the moment. What a shame.

However, Blackframe took a moment to try and adjust himself to the new environment, but failed to do so as another zap of nausea rushed through his frame. An uncomfortable hiss escaped him at that, before lowering his arm completely and shielding his mid-section in a protective way instead. The flickering of red optics glaring through the dark tinted visor followed shortly after, before locking his vision onto the feline like shape approaching him.

With noble grace it snaked its way from the rocks and came to stop just so that he could take a closer look of who he was about to deal with. Granted, the black and dark gray metallic form wasn't something he'd expected to see. The rather animal like build reminded him of those towerling pets some liked to keep to entertain themselves, though, this one was bigger... and it could talk!

The first thing he noticed as the other began to speak, was his own name. Low and distinct it rumbled from the felines chassis, leading him to pay attention to the question which had been asked.

Then, the taller mech opened his mouth to answer, but instead tipped forward to throw his upper body into a stooped position. The words forming in his intake died quickly as something else crept its way upwards, burning within his throat.

The action followed after happened fast but swiftly as his tank convulsed and emptied itself in one go. The little bit of energon left within, now painting the dusty floor beneath. The sudden change of position, the environment and the journey through the swirling vortex itself took its toll on him. It wasn't pleasant, but thankfully it was over quick and he began to slowly shift upright once more.

“S- Self? Sel-f diagnost-ic? I- I feel likke being hit by a ttruck.”

He managed to spit in between, before raising his helm to look at the cat. Squinting an optic.

“You know what? Forget the truck, take a jet and frag me sideways. You're one of those pets, aren't ya?”

“What happ- ...What's the status?”

Wiping his mouth with the back of his servo, he didn't expect to receive an answer, but it was worth a shot anyway.

[Ravage]

The word landed as thickly between them as the pool of energon now soaking into the dust of the Oregon landscape.

Pet.

It was a cruel flicker of Cybertronian life; those who had an animal based form were often looked down on by their peers. Under functionist views, they were just barely above the disposable class, and some of them were not even that. When it came down to it, data-stick and a mechanical dog were merely tools to be used. If they broke down badly enough, you simply went and picked up a new one to serve your needs.

Train a new beast to stand at your heel, to carry your burden, to protect you from the workings of the world.

It did not surprise him that he was not known by Blackframe. He had been rather absent from the Nemesis, set on tasks that were suited for his skills and silence. Among the humans and human cities he padded, unseen and unnoticed. His focus for the last few months had been on the trail of the enemy. The humans were skilled and they were silent, they had taken care to disguise their actions and activities. The closest they'd managed to come to them was that warehouse that the Autobots had destroyed...

However, after that, the trail had drifted away, like ash and dust.

Ravage took care to angle his muzzle away from the puddle of electronic vomit. He waited silently for Blackframe to regain himself. The dark cat was perfectly still except for the tip of his tail, which was twitching from side to side. It was the only thing on him that moved.

"That does sound unpleasant," he remarked dryly.

"As for the situation, the Nemesis is on the bottom of the ocean. It has been there for nearly a week-  apparently sabotaged. For now the survivors have regrouped in a small outpost not too far from here."

He lifted a foreleg, turned his paw, and gestured to indicate somewhere in a northerly direction. 

"Commander Starscream has been working to restore communications with the mining facilities and stragglers. Unfortunately, there has been no word from many of the Decepticons."

Lord Megatron included."

[Deleted]

An unpleasant grimace formed onto his faceplate as he listened to the feline like Cybertronian, one that mirrored his anger and irritation towards this whole ordeal. It was hard to find a balance of their current 'here and now' and 'now and here' situation; one moment he'd been buried deep under rubble and scrap in darkness, the next second he stood on wobbling pedes, exposed to the outside world of earth.

Blackframe wasn't pleased to hear what information Ravage had revealed, to say the least, he was outraged by the fact that their Warship was currently unavailable to them, and how much time had passed since their loss.

A week! This reality was hard to swallow.

It wasn't so much of the fact that the ship had been downed for such a long period of time, but furthermore that HE was trapped down there with it. For him, it was as if the crash had been just a few hours ago, now having to realize how much time actually had passed, left him feeling empty.

As Ravage continued, Blackframe shifted his weight in order to avoid the blue puddle in front of him, staring down at the cat with a low 'tsk'. Whatever came next, whatever rambling words followed, they were absorbed carefully and stored for later. Right now, his mind was still occupied to adjust itself anew.

The subtle motion of a paw however, was not lost to him, yet he refused to look into the direction in which it had pointed. Instead, he tried formulate a respond.

“If you can't save yourself, you're not worth saving.”

It was a flat and dull answer. Just another awful reminder of how much worth an individual was to the great Decepticon army... And even the mentioning of Megatron's disappearance did not surprise him at all. It was commonly known that their warlord tend to 'vanish' from time to time, and therefor, Blackframe wasn't worried about it.

But what he did worry about, were the circumstances they found themselves in.

“So, what happened? Erm, exactly, I mean.”

His optics narrowed to the ground then, shifting in concentration with a small flicker of gleaming red before making optic contact once again.

[Ravage]

The cat's ears lifted. He turned his head to observe the tall frame of the mech in front of him. The odor of that spilled, noxious puddle curled into in the air. It rubbed vile fingers against Ravage's olfactory sensors; a brief, instinctive urge coiled up within the spy.

Scratch at the ground. Cover it up. Leave no trace of self or indicate any injury to those who might follow.

As he had for millions of years, those instincts were compartmentalized. Tucked aside. Buried beneath what had once sat by the foot of someone's dais and watched over that throne driven by ego and falsehoods.

"I have never agreed with that particular line of thought," he rumbled. "If I did, I would not have bothered responding to your call. For now, it comes to the fact that there are simply are no available resources and limited rescue personnel. We have lost nearly everything, and our capability at the moment to be able to mount extensive searches for survivors is low."

Ravage met Blackframe's gaze and did not look away for a long moment. His optics did not shutter into a blink. He merely focused on the other Decepticon with merely a calm, cool regard.

"There is a virus that is on board," he explained. His words were straightforward, matter of fact. "It apparently affected many of the crew and caused them to become There is a good chance that it now resides within the Nemesis itself, but that remains to be seen."

He rolled one shoulder and then swung his nose to the north. With a flick of his tail, he started to pad forward. The cat's footsteps made no sound as he moved away from Blackframe and began to walk away in the direction he had indicated earlier with his paw.

[Deleted]

A tired gaze met Ravage's.

Of course the black and white mech was thankful for the quick rescue once he'd send out a signal, yet it was not as quick as he'd hoped. He didn't know what annoyed him more, being left behind for a week, or being unable to wake faster.

Probably the second...

“Well then, it is how it is.”

A shift of his pedes accompanied this, trying to get some motion back into his system. He could feel how stiff his joints were, and while not injured, it certainly felt weird to move like that after all this time. A good day of rest and some pampering would certainly do the trick to get back to routine, hopefully.

The officer listened carefully to what was said then, paying attention to the tiny details, even if he did not understand them fully at the moment. The mentioning of a virus running free left him rather unaffected, it wasn't his section of knowledge, at least not in medical term and so it was shoved aside for now.

Then, as Ravage began to move, he hesitated a moment before following suit. His frame started to swing after the feline like shape, struggling to keep up as nausea still crept through his system. His pedes dragged across the dusty surface, too exhausted to care about it as he tried to found solid ground.

Blackframe was taller than Ravage, given he was a full sized mech and therefor heavier then the cat in general. Nonetheless, the sound created from his frame was just as silent, save from the scraping sound of metal against rock at the current moment.

“So? This virus, is that the reason why you haven't bridged me directly into the base? Not to be rude, but... where is this base even located? And do we have to walk far? I mean, if bridging is out of the question, where's the road then?”

His attention shifted towards the environment while taking in every rock, every path and any other notable landmark to shove and lock it into his memory as he talked. If they were truly to walk all the way? He'd better make sure to 'enjoy' the view at least.

[Ravage]

There were a lot of rocks.

So many rocks. Red rocks, grey rocks, brown rocks, some speckled tan ones thrown in for good measure. If Blackframe wanted to step away from his job with the Decepticons and become a rock lord, he would certainly have a good start out here.

No paths met his eye. More of a lack of them, the area was fairly barren and wild.

However, up to the north, there was a huge, fault-block mountain with a flattened ridge. As far as landmarks go, it was a good one.

There was a sideways motion of the long, supple tail.

"The virus is one of the reasons, yes," Ravage replied.

The cat's trail kept to the hard-packed areas, so as to not leave a print behind. A clump of dry grass feathered against his front leg, leaving a pale smear of pollen against his plating. "The other reason is that there is due concern that having so many concentrated energy signatures in this area may draw unwanted attention. All we can do for now is open the bridge as carefully and quickly as possible until we build a space that will shield it's presence."

That was the truth, at least for him. Having control of the ground-bridge was not normally Ravage's job. His work all revolved around stealth and quiet, and leaving as little trace as possible.

The Nemesis did that naturally; the Decepticons were constantly on the move.  Their ship was cloaked and silent. There was absolutely no danger that the Autobots or even the humans would notice much except possibly a cluster of energy spikes in a location for a brief moment. Which meant that they had an excellent  chance of getting what they needed without causing undue interest.

Here, they had no ship. No guns. No protection but  themselves and the rock that surrounded a large hole in the ground (a well disguised hole, but still, a hole.) They were down numbers and they were down supplies.

The Nemesis crashing had lost them the stealth and silence they had taken for granted. All Ravage could do was not have that door open and shut over and over again within the base until they were able to build a space to shield it. Luckily, he did not think it would take that long, even with what little they had for supplies. 

"The road?" he mused. "About twenty miles in the opposite direction, and I would not call it a road on the best of days. As for how long to the base? We only need to walk about eight miles.

"The outpost is under ground," he explained. "Hidden, and we need to take care to keep it that way."

[Deleted]

As they continued to walk through the barren landscape, Blackframe stared into the distance while trying to keep up with the information that had been thrown at him.

Under normal circumstances he would be able to process such things with easy, but now? It clearly took him a moment to even recognize the importance of the provided details. It was confusing, so to speak, and while he tried to make sense of it all, it overwhelmed him at the moment.

A deep ex-vent followed at the realization and he slowly began to falter in his steps.

Everything was just a huge mess; ship gone, crew gone, comfort gone... all that was left was a terrible nightmare. The whole universe felt as if it would crush him at any moment, trying to haunt him should he refuse to swallow the bitter pill it offered.

Why couldn't go anything right? At least once?

“H-hey Kitkat? I- I need a moment... ju-just go ahead. I'll catch up later... I think.”

He called out to the cat, exhausted.

No, he truly did not want to keep wandering through shrubbery and rock right now, and it became apparent as he started to trail off the path and instead head over to a small row of rocks before slumping down.

The dull ache of pain in the back of his helm slowly faded as he rested, elbows propped onto his legs while his servos cupped and hid his face. He knew he should keep walking and pretend to be fine, act like nothing was wrong... but, he couldn't. Not right now.

[Ravage]

Ravage's ears cupped back. He heard the heavy vent, the click of metal as Blackframe's feet dragged across an outcropping of rock, the shuffle of his exhausted strides on the hard packed earth. The cat's head was slung low between his shoulders; he sniffed the air, but didn't turn his head to look at the mech following behind them.

One stride, two. Blackframe's steps were slowing to a stop.

Normally, Ravage would have loftily ignored the nickname Blackframe called him. He was Ravage. Not kitty, not puss puss, not Soundwave's creepy little ceiling cat partner. So many mechs over the years had dismissed him, thinking he was nothing more than a non-sentient beast, and he was fine with that. All the more amusing when he chose the right moment to speak.

However, this was different. There was no malice in it, no teasing note. It was simply the tone of a tired, injured mech telling him he needed a moment to gather himself. No jest or sarcasm. I'm done. I can't. Give me time.

Which was one of the most honest responses about this entire situation that Ravage had seen so far.

What are we going to do?

He had heard it so much in the last few days.

Survive. Decepticons survive. They had been through worse than this, far, far worse.

As Blackframe slumped down, the cat turned. He slowly lowered his own haunches to the rough ground beneath him. He settled his forepaws, as still as a statue before he inclined his head. Slanted red optics half-shutterd in thought before he lifted his nose again and sniffed thoughtfully at the air. Dry, high land surrounded them. The stones beneath his paws were still slightly warm from the heat of the day.

Empty sky above them. The stars were flecking against the dark blue, memories of sky and space and the Nemesis herself.

"Blackframe," he rumbled. " I can call someone to help. I cannot support your weight myself, but I will absolutely make sure you get safely back to the base."

[Deleted]

Just a moment of peace and quiet, it was all he wanted.

The terrain was rough and not even comfortable enough to be considered suitable for a quick break, yet it was all he had to rest on. The stone was uneven and hard, the construction formed by nature itself. Under normal circumstances, Blackframe would have ignored such things and would brush them off like dust on his armor.

But right now? It was not even worth it. So much slag just happened within a few fleeting moments that it was hard to even grasp the concept of it all.

While the silence only lasted for so long, he already felt slightly better. Though, it was surprising to find the cat still there when he lifted his helm to take a look around him, sitting patiently as if waiting... for him? That was odd. He already had expected the creature to wander off without any second thoughts, following whatever it was it had to do.

But somehow it felt nice to see otherwise.

His expression was neutral, to say the least, exhausted, tired, and he was absolutely done with all this slag by now. He simply stared at the feline for a few seconds, studying his posture and form once again while listening to his suggestion. It was... concerning, and suddenly Blackframe felt a rush of anxiety roll over his frame.

“You don't have to sniff all the time, I know I smell like some sewage trash slug or something. And I don't need any help, I'm fine. I- I jus' had somethin' in... my o-ptics, that's all.”

He said while rubbing his visor.

It was best to lie, showing weakness was never a good idea in front of another Decepticon, be it a normal mech or a beast. And overall? The creature was right, they had to get back to base somehow and his whining did not help to achieve that, he realized.

Slowly coming to his senses and pushing other thoughts aside, the black and white mech rose to his pedes once again, forcing himself to look more imposing than before. His helm held high, his legs were slightly spread to balance his weight while his chassis was puffed to the front. Shoulders hiked up to display a posture of superiority while his face sported a strong and confident expression.

It was all show, however, the truth was, he just wished to take a long, hot shower, refuel, take something to ease off the dull ache and get a well deserved recharge. That sounded just nice.

Nodding to himself then, he took a step forward, facing Ravage head on as his right arm slowly extended towards the cat's helm. The gesture was performed carefully and with great care as if trying to avoid any unpleasant reactions, yet not hesitant in motion. His servo was extended flatly, palm facing downwards to make his intentions visible and clear; hoping to pet the cat without being bitten.