TRANSFORMERS GENERATION 2 STRANDED Part Two: Aftermath By Christopher E. Meadows [Still dedicated to Raksha, but also to M. Sipher, whose (partial) Nightracer story I wasn't aware of 'til after posting the first part of this one. Nice story, write more! :) Also dedicated to anyone who finds the time to send me FEEDBACK. I'm dyin' out here. :)] The large, purple, roughly-humanoid figure stood quietly on a cliff, overlooking a wide Arizona plain, waiting patiently for signs of movement. It had stood here for a long time, and would likely stand here longer still. That was its duty. It did not get bored...it did not even know the concept of boredom (or, for that matter, the concept of concepts). It was not smart enough for that. All it knew was its duty, and its duty was to stay here and watch, stay here and watch.... Then the shrill voice of its Mother-Goddess-Regis broke across its mind, and it stood at sharper attention. "A defold reaction has been detected in the desert! Seek it out, my children! Investigate and destroy!" The figure launched itself into the air, its tiny mind resonating with something close to joy (the one emotion it was barely capable of) at being able to follow its Mother-Goddess-Regis's command. SELF-REPAIR DAEMON> QUERY STATUS HYDRAULIC COOLANT: 92% MAIN PROCESSOR: 86% SUSPENSION: 67% ENERGON LEVEL: 66% ALL OTHER SUBSYSTEMS NOMINAL Nightracer was the first to regain awareness--as a Decepticon, she had optimized her autorepair systems for rapid recovery from battle damage first and foremost. However, the others were coming around, too--there was no time to linger and finish them off. Nightracer grabbed her assault rifle and stowed it, transformed, and rolled out of there at top speed. Rapido was the next to revive, slowly pushing himself up from a prone position and getting back to his feet. He looked around, to find...the desert again. The bridge must have malfunctioned, then, knocking them all out. "Ow," Skram said, getting back to his own feet. "My cranial circuits are singing loudly in my head. To think I thought only _humans_ got headaches." Rapido nodded. "I feel the same way. Better check the others." Skram nodded. "Right, boss." He turned to do so, then noticed the retreating dust cloud. "Hey, who's that? What the hell happened here, anyway?" "Your second question, I can't answer yet. But as to the other... I recognized her from Autobot City's Decepticon recognition database." "Her?" Skram said. "I thought there weren't all that many Decep femmes left." "There aren't many, no. At least not active in the wars," Rapido said. "But that one is, and she nearly killed me. If the spacebridge hadn't gone active at just that moment...." Turbofire groaned and slowly started to get back up. "Who is she, boss?" Skram turned to Turbofire, and helped him get back to his feet. "Her name is Nightracer. Decepticon sniper." Skram's optic receptors blinked, and he nearly dropped Turbofire. "Nightracer? You were almost killed by _Nightracer_? Wow!" "You know her?" Rapido chuckled slightly. "Funny, Skram, I never pegged you as the sort to read Decep profiles." "I don't--but I mean, geez, _everyone_ knows about Nightracer! She's practically _legendary_." "Is that a bit of hero worship I detect, Skram?" Rapido asked amusedly. "Worship? Naw...but respect, yeah. I can respect her abilities no matter what side she's on, right?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned to Turbofire. "You okay, Turbo?" "I think I'm in one piece..." Turbofire said. "Except...oh, no. They're gone!" "What? What?" Skram asked, looking over Turbofire for any signs of damage. "The quartermaster files I was running back to Cybertron," Turbofire groaned. "That whole memory module is wiped clean. Pffft. Nothing left." "You can restore from backups at Autobot City, right?" Rapido asked. "Yes, but--" "Then don't worry about it. We've got better things to worry about now, like figuring out what just happened." Turbofire nodded. "Yessir." Skram moved on to check on Windbreaker. "Hey, Farty, you okay?" "Don't...nnnngh...call me that," Windbreaker said, opening his optics. "Arrrrgh...I feel like Prime just ran over me." "Optimus or Rodimus?" Skram cracked. "Both of them. Where are we?" Windbreaker took Skram's proffered hand and pulled himself back to his feet. "Looks like we're still in the desert," Rapido replied. "Skram, check the spacebridge. Find out what happened. Windbreaker, Turbofire, establish a perimeter, make sure Nightracer doesn't come back. I'll radio Autobot City for instructions." "Yessir!" Turbofire said, transforming and rolling out along with Windbreaker. "You got it, boss." Skram pulled out a hand-held scanner and went to look at the bridge. Rapido stepped out of the circle of the spacebridge and flipped the commpanel on his arm open. "Rapido calling Autobot City. Rapido calling Autobot City. Autobot City, do you read?" A few minutes later, Rapido closed the commpanel and stepped back over to where Skram was working. "Nothing. All I get is static across all bands, even the human broadcasting ones." "You do a self-diag? Make sure your transciever wasn't fritzed by whatever?" Skram asked. Rapido nodded. "First thing I checked. And there's no _interference_, either. It's just as though the signals...aren't there." Nightracer raced across the desert, putting a few good miles between herself and the Autobots. She was fast, but she knew that some of those Autobots were faster. Best to get a good head start in case they wanted to pursue her. At least the mission had not been a complete failure. The secondary objective had been achieved--the spacebridge would probably take some time to fix, and, since the Autobots knew the Decepticons knew about it, they might even have to scout a new location as well. Still, it was a hollow victory. All four of them should have been smouldering piles of spare parts by now. As these thoughts ran through her mind, Nightracer was startled when her sensors started pinging--and was startled all the more because the blips were coming from the wrong direction to be the Autobots. Whatever they were, they were coming in high and fast. As the humans said, discretion was the better part of valor. Whatever that meant. Nightracer pulled in under a convenient rocky overhang until the aerial blips passed by. If they were Decepticons, she could hail them after she saw what they were. What they were was purple, and roughly humanoid. They had arms and legs, huge pincer claws and feet, and two big flattened tubes over their shoulders that could only be weapons of some kind. And they were not like any Decepticons or Autobots that Nightracer had ever seen. Nightracer waited until they had passed, then pulled back out onto the desert and kept going. Whatever they were, they were heading in the direction from which she had just come--toward the Autobots. It was tempting to turn around and follow, just to see what happened, but no. She would report to the Decepticon regional headquarters first. Perhaps they would know what those strange intruders were. Turbofire and Windbreaker headed out across the desert, in different directions from Nightracer and each other, to begin their perimeter patrols. They would establish a perimeter a couple of miles out, then circle around it to look for signs of Decepticon and other activity. Windbreaker had come about a mile when it occurred to him that something didn't seem right. He could not quite put his finger on it, but something about this place was just _off_ somehow. But what was it? It was only after he nearly drove right off a cliff that he realized what it was. He immediately stopped and transformed, then opened his chestplate storage compartment and pulled out a small computerized map display. A quick check of the map versus a quick look around confirmed his suspicions. "What in Primus's name...?" Windbreaker flipped open his commpanel. "Windbreaker to Rapido. Come in please." Rapido's face appeared in the small vidscreen on the panel. "Rapido here. Go ahead, Windbreaker. Have you found something?" "Yes, I have. Or, it's more like I _haven't_ found something." "Explain." "The terrain here is...not the same terrain as we have on the checkpoint map," Windbreaker said. Rapido considered. "Hmm...could the misfiring spacebridge have triggered an earthquake or a rockfall or something of that nature?" Windbreaker shook his head. "I almost drove off an eighty-foot cliff that wasn't there before. And the whole lay of the land is different." "Then maybe the map is in error?" "Rapido, I made that map _myself_." Rapido nodded. "Right. I suppose you ought to know, I've had no luck contacting Autobot City, or picking up any other radio signals at all." "You want me to come back?" "Negative. Continue on your perimeter sweep. Let me know if you find anything. Rapido out." "Roger." Windbreaker closed the commpanel and put the map away. "Well...guess I'd better keep looking." He transformed back to a Camero and rolled on. Rapido rested his left palm against the spacebridge ring and leaned against it, looking down at where Skram was kneeling next to an open panel. "What have you found so far?" "Well, I'm no super-scientist--just a patrol trooper with field medic and maint training..." Skram prefaced. "I know, Skram. But you're the closest thing we've got right now." Skram nodded. "It looks to me like she knew just where to aim." Rapido raised an opticbrow. "Explain." Skram held up the access panel, with a hole neatly blasted through it. "This is the 'bridge's primary Energon distribution coupler panel. And this shot...well, you know the Death Star's weak point in that old Earther vid? Just call her Luke Skywalker." "The bridge's one point of weakness?" "Yeah. It should have blown us all sky-high." Rapido nodded. "Then why didn't it?" "Well, from what I'd heard, Wheeljack and Perceptor were tinkering with the design of this particular bridge, using it as a prototype. Going for higher energy efficiency or redundancy or something," Skram said. "You know how they are. Near as I can figure, the changes they made musta been enough to lessen the weakness here." "Hmm." Rapido thought about this. "So when the spacebridge timer ran out, it tried to activate, but nothing happened?" "I wouldn't say nothing just yet," Skram said. "_Something_ happened...but I'm not quite sure what." Rapido nodded. "I'm beginning to get a sinking feeling about this...." Skram stood. "I think I'm starting to get a worse one. Look!" A scan visor slid down over his eyes as he zoomed in on something coming over the horizon. "Decepticons?" Rapido asked, following Skram's gaze to the purple crab-like mecha coming over the horizon. There were eight of them, flying in formation, and the red sensor eyes in the middle of their torsos gleamed menacingly. "Doesn't look like it...fact, I've never seen anything like them before. They don't look too friendly, though. Look at those gun pods on the shoulders." Rapido flipped open the commpanel again. "Turbofire, Windbreaker, get back here pronto. We may have trouble." "Roger!" The purple crab-mecha approached and touched down, landing in a semi-circle around the spacebridge. "I've never seen a purple crab, I'd never hoped to see one..." Skram muttered under his breath. "Guess I might as well try talking to them," Rapido said, stepping forward. He cleared his voder. "Ahem...Bah weep grah-na weep--" As one, the muzzles on three of the mechas' cannons glowed white, then plasma disks filled the air in Rapido's direction. SHA-BOOM!!! TO BE CONTINUED Author's Notes: Okay, so when I called it a _straight_ Transformers 'fic I wasn't entirely telling the truth. Oh well. :) --R_M "Stranded" is copyright 1997 by Christopher E. Meadows. Permission granted for free electronic distribution via Usenet and associated archival, as long as no fee is charged and this notice remains intact. For further permissions, such as inclusion in "Con-Quest" or on an archival webpage, please contact the author, he would likely be more than happy to oblige. :) The Transformers are registered trademarks of Hasbro and Takara, and Nightracer is a trademark of Raksha and Plumed Serpent Productions. Their unauthorized use here is not for profit, and not meant to infringe upon those trademarks. This is _not_ an official Hasbro-endorsed story, please don't think I'm trying to pass it off as one. (There, that should make the Hasbro lawyers happy. :)