![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Fanfic time again.
AT2 Chapter 2
Perceptor joined them holding in his hands a small box. Hound recognised the distinctive grey casing, the data recorder. He hoped that Perceptor had managed to wrangle some information from it.
They all stood around the central table. Hound projected a topographical hologram of the surrounding area. “There’s not much to go on, but the terrain out there isn’t difficult to traverse by what I’ve seen so far. The difficulty is the dust kicked up by the wind. I wasn’t out there for long, but it still caused minor injuries. We can’t get any real distance from the ship without taking significant damage.” He shut the hologram off.
Perceptor placed the box on the table. “I’ve managed to restore some of the data contained in the recorder. However, I’m afraid the news isn’t good.”
“Any news at all is a start,” Hound said.
Perceptor continued. “It would seem that Jetfire and Skids' followed standard protocols once they’d crashed. Jetfire took minor damage, Skids’ was left with slightly more lasting injuries but was still functional.
“There’s a break in the data, but then Jetfire reports that they start detecting strange readings outside. Nothing substantial, more like something was there, invisible except for the effect it had on its immediate environment. Sometimes they’d get something like the ‘shadow’, similar to the ship they found. Three orns after they reported a ‘shadow‘, Skids’ reports he cannot find Jetfire. Shortly after this there’s nothing.”
A silence descended over the group as what they had just been told sunk in. Hoist broke the short silence. “There’s a chance they’re still alive. We haven't got any evidence to the contrary.”
“There’s no sign anywhere on the ship of any fight. No carbon scoring, nothing.” Sideswipe informed them. “I thought it was always a possibility.”
Hound acknowledged the information. “Thanks, Sideswipe. It saves us some time.” He looked at them each in turn. “Unless new information presents itself, I think it’s safe to assume that Jetfire and Skids’ disappearance is connected to an external source.”
“Decepticons?”
“I doubt it, Sideswipe.” Perceptor answered him. “While the Decepticon’s may not be quite as harmless as the Senate believe them to be, I’m quite confident in my assumption that this ’shadow’ and the unknown ship are connected to their disappearance.”
“We need to find out all we can about this ship. But how? It’s not like we can go and knock on the door.” Hound activated his projector again. “We also need to know how we can get through that.”
Perceptor studied it. “ I believe Hoist and I can come up with something. But with keeping the shields and equipment operational, we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
“You tell us what you need and me and Sideswipe will pitch in with all the help we can.” Hound shut off his projector. "Time is running short. Working on the assumption that Jetfire and Skids' are still alive, we‘ve no idea how much longer they might have.”
With a plan of action set up and the unknown fate of their comrades hanging over them, a sense of urgency more intense than before settled over them. No one rested until recharge was unavoidable. Hoist had connected the two ships together, constructing a small walkway between them and interlinking the systems, with Perceptor working on the shields so they would encompass both ships and protect them from the elements and geomagnetic storms.
Between helping out with the work going on around him, Hound keep a sharp optic on the sensors, watching out for signs of possible unseen guests. It worried him. The lack of readings didn’t mean they were alone. He also had no idea of what lay beyond the boundary of his initial scans of the area. The wind had kept up consistently for cycles so there had been no way of extending the range of his surveys. He had general information on the layout of the moon; orbital scans had been taken before, but nothing was as useful as a ground-based survey to get a real feel of the lay of the land.
They had been working solidly for nearly a mega-cycle when the wind dropped to a level where outside travel was possible. Hound approached the others. “We need better information on what’s out there. If you can manage without me I’m going to see if I can extend our range. Any extra information we can get will help and to be honest, I’m tired of having to work in the half dark.”
“I’m not sure if it would be wise, Hound.” Perceptor warned. “If the wind were to increase again, it will be very damaging to your systems.”
“Perceptor, we need this information. We may not have time to wait for you to develop any shielding for us and then survey. The guys are relying on us and while there’s an opportunity to make some progress I have to take it.”
Perceptor conceded to his point. “You’re the commander. But even though I’m worried about our comrades as much as you are, we will be no help to them if we incapacitate ourselves endeavouring to find them.”
“I appreciate your point. But this needs to be done.”
Hoist looked up from his workstation just as Hound left. “While he has a point, has he been spending too much time with Sideswipe? As it seems to be rubbing off on him.”
“I couldn’t say. But we really don’t need to be a ‘bot down. It will take too long to get any help here and with the current solar activity, I’m not sure if we could get a message through.” Perceptor picked up some tools to head off to the shuttle. “We’ll have to rely on the fact that Hound is a level headed fellow and the advantage of the winds increase and decrease patterns being gradual enough for some warning.”
Hoist nodded. “If you’re getting started on those modifications to the shuttle, I’ll join you in a moment. I’m just going to ask Sideswipe once he’s finished working on the relay nodes if he would calculate how long our energon reserves will last for, or we’re going to be running into bigger problems than the wind out there.”
Hound had reached the outer edge of his last survey, transforming he stood and looked out over the largely flat landscape. He held his hand up, catching some dust on the metal flat of his palm. Looking at it, littered in among the dust was sharp shards of varying sizes, from the near microscopic to larger pieces. He couldn’t identify the type of metal it was. He put some aside to give to Perceptor to analyse later if they had time. Transforming, he set off again, keeping a careful note of the wind speed for any indication of change.
Sideswipe stomped into the shuttle bay. “It’s been four cycles and he’s still not reported back.”
“He’ll be okay, Sideswipe. Four cycles isn’t long and the wind is still low.”
The bay doors were open to give them more room to work, so there was no arguing with Hoist on that point. However, the time factor was something Sideswipe could pick up on. “I know four cycles is not exactly a huge length of time, Hoist. What I’m saying is, is its a long time for him to have not checked in at all.”
“Communication outside the ship is impossible from the distance Hound most likely is. The interference from the geomagnetic storms make anything outside of the shields very intermittent even in short range.”
“Okay then, what about now!” Sideswipe ran to the console and hit it as dust and shards started swirling into the bay. As the doors shut and the dust settled to the floor Sideswipe turn to look at the two startled faces looking at him. “Like I said, I think we have something to worry about.”
Hound had stopped on a small ridge, and though the wind was still at a low speed, he was still getting small nicks all over his armour plating. Deciding that as he didn’t know how long he had until the wind would pick up, he turned back towards the base, pleased that he’d at least got them a little more information. They were exposed all round with little ground cover, and while this left them in the open, it also left in the open anything else that may be here. He had nearly got back to base when the wind suddenly picked up. He skidded in the dust from the sudden blast, dulling his reaction time and leaving him no time to avoid the boulder that flew into the side of him. The high speed of the impact rolled him on his side leaving Hound vulnerable. He knew he was better protected in his alt mode but not where he was on his side, giving him no option but to transform. Dust was everywhere, his optics could barely see the ground in front of him and it was getting under his armour plating, rubbing into the circuitry beneath.
He knew if he could get into alt. mode, his armour covering would fit closer, possibly give him more protection, but when he tried, the tiny shards rubbed and cut into him painfully. Internal systems started setting off warnings of damage, sensors everywhere fired off signals to his central processor. It left him no choice, he had to make his was back as he was. He started walking, holding an arm up in a futile attempt to keep his optics clear. Dust was clogging up his joints, making movement stiff and awkward. His progress was slowing with every step. With internal system warnings becoming urgent, promising imminent stasis lock, and almost no visibility, he wasn’t even sure he was going in the right direction any more. Then everything went dark.
“You stupid fragging…”
Audio sensors were online, but only just. Sounded like someone he knew.
“…the slag you doing out here!”
The voice sounded annoyed. He shut it off. Too exhausted to listen to it.
Sideswipe brushed the back of his hand across his face in annoyance as a shard of metal cut a gouge in his faceplate, catching a nick out of his nose as it flew past. He growled, grabbed hold of Hound under his arms and dragged him aboard the shuttle, all the while cursing. He slammed the door behind him, laying Hound out as best as possible in the cramped space. He surveyed the damage, satisfying himself that Hound was still functional, if only barely and dropped heavily into the cockpit’s pilot’s seat.
The engines roared to life as the shuttle lifted off the ground as Sideswipe piloted it back to the ship, flying aggressively to avoid the larger debris and feeling any extra dents Hound got in the back because of it, he probably deserved for being an idiot.
Audio’s came back online first, shortly followed by his optics, but they were dimmed slightly. He could make out Hoist standing nearby studying some readouts. Hoist walked over to the open recharge chamber Hound was laying in. “Welcome back to the land of the functioning.”
Hound tried to talk, but found he couldn’t, so he smiled apologetically instead.
“Hoist smiled. “Your vocal processor will be working again soon, it’s just taken me a while to get the dust out of it.”
Hound tried a different approach. If he could get his holograms working. He gingerly tested the connections to his gun turret‘s simulation circuitry. It was faint, but enough that Hoist could read the Cybertronian script hovering in front of Hound.
“You’ve only been out for an orn. It’s taken me at least 8 cycles to get all the dust out of your systems.” Hoist checked the readings again. “You’ll be a bit stiff for a while, but your self repair systems should fix the minor damage that’s left.” He came back to Hound. “You gave us a scare though. Wasn’t sure for a while there if I could get you stabilised before you went into stasis lock.”
He read the new hologram. “Hey, don’t worry about it. None of us knew the wind could whip up that fast. You were nearly back here anyway. No matter what you think, none of us was thinking you were irresponsible.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “Well, maybe except for Sideswipe. But then I think he was more worried about you then he’s prepared to admit.”
Hoist read the last message. “You’ll be able to thank him yourself. Get some rest, recharge a bit longer and you’ll be up and about in no time.”
Perceptor joined them holding in his hands a small box. Hound recognised the distinctive grey casing, the data recorder. He hoped that Perceptor had managed to wrangle some information from it.
They all stood around the central table. Hound projected a topographical hologram of the surrounding area. “There’s not much to go on, but the terrain out there isn’t difficult to traverse by what I’ve seen so far. The difficulty is the dust kicked up by the wind. I wasn’t out there for long, but it still caused minor injuries. We can’t get any real distance from the ship without taking significant damage.” He shut the hologram off.
Perceptor placed the box on the table. “I’ve managed to restore some of the data contained in the recorder. However, I’m afraid the news isn’t good.”
“Any news at all is a start,” Hound said.
Perceptor continued. “It would seem that Jetfire and Skids' followed standard protocols once they’d crashed. Jetfire took minor damage, Skids’ was left with slightly more lasting injuries but was still functional.
“There’s a break in the data, but then Jetfire reports that they start detecting strange readings outside. Nothing substantial, more like something was there, invisible except for the effect it had on its immediate environment. Sometimes they’d get something like the ‘shadow’, similar to the ship they found. Three orns after they reported a ‘shadow‘, Skids’ reports he cannot find Jetfire. Shortly after this there’s nothing.”
A silence descended over the group as what they had just been told sunk in. Hoist broke the short silence. “There’s a chance they’re still alive. We haven't got any evidence to the contrary.”
“There’s no sign anywhere on the ship of any fight. No carbon scoring, nothing.” Sideswipe informed them. “I thought it was always a possibility.”
Hound acknowledged the information. “Thanks, Sideswipe. It saves us some time.” He looked at them each in turn. “Unless new information presents itself, I think it’s safe to assume that Jetfire and Skids’ disappearance is connected to an external source.”
“Decepticons?”
“I doubt it, Sideswipe.” Perceptor answered him. “While the Decepticon’s may not be quite as harmless as the Senate believe them to be, I’m quite confident in my assumption that this ’shadow’ and the unknown ship are connected to their disappearance.”
“We need to find out all we can about this ship. But how? It’s not like we can go and knock on the door.” Hound activated his projector again. “We also need to know how we can get through that.”
Perceptor studied it. “ I believe Hoist and I can come up with something. But with keeping the shields and equipment operational, we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
“You tell us what you need and me and Sideswipe will pitch in with all the help we can.” Hound shut off his projector. "Time is running short. Working on the assumption that Jetfire and Skids' are still alive, we‘ve no idea how much longer they might have.”
With a plan of action set up and the unknown fate of their comrades hanging over them, a sense of urgency more intense than before settled over them. No one rested until recharge was unavoidable. Hoist had connected the two ships together, constructing a small walkway between them and interlinking the systems, with Perceptor working on the shields so they would encompass both ships and protect them from the elements and geomagnetic storms.
Between helping out with the work going on around him, Hound keep a sharp optic on the sensors, watching out for signs of possible unseen guests. It worried him. The lack of readings didn’t mean they were alone. He also had no idea of what lay beyond the boundary of his initial scans of the area. The wind had kept up consistently for cycles so there had been no way of extending the range of his surveys. He had general information on the layout of the moon; orbital scans had been taken before, but nothing was as useful as a ground-based survey to get a real feel of the lay of the land.
They had been working solidly for nearly a mega-cycle when the wind dropped to a level where outside travel was possible. Hound approached the others. “We need better information on what’s out there. If you can manage without me I’m going to see if I can extend our range. Any extra information we can get will help and to be honest, I’m tired of having to work in the half dark.”
“I’m not sure if it would be wise, Hound.” Perceptor warned. “If the wind were to increase again, it will be very damaging to your systems.”
“Perceptor, we need this information. We may not have time to wait for you to develop any shielding for us and then survey. The guys are relying on us and while there’s an opportunity to make some progress I have to take it.”
Perceptor conceded to his point. “You’re the commander. But even though I’m worried about our comrades as much as you are, we will be no help to them if we incapacitate ourselves endeavouring to find them.”
“I appreciate your point. But this needs to be done.”
Hoist looked up from his workstation just as Hound left. “While he has a point, has he been spending too much time with Sideswipe? As it seems to be rubbing off on him.”
“I couldn’t say. But we really don’t need to be a ‘bot down. It will take too long to get any help here and with the current solar activity, I’m not sure if we could get a message through.” Perceptor picked up some tools to head off to the shuttle. “We’ll have to rely on the fact that Hound is a level headed fellow and the advantage of the winds increase and decrease patterns being gradual enough for some warning.”
Hoist nodded. “If you’re getting started on those modifications to the shuttle, I’ll join you in a moment. I’m just going to ask Sideswipe once he’s finished working on the relay nodes if he would calculate how long our energon reserves will last for, or we’re going to be running into bigger problems than the wind out there.”
Hound had reached the outer edge of his last survey, transforming he stood and looked out over the largely flat landscape. He held his hand up, catching some dust on the metal flat of his palm. Looking at it, littered in among the dust was sharp shards of varying sizes, from the near microscopic to larger pieces. He couldn’t identify the type of metal it was. He put some aside to give to Perceptor to analyse later if they had time. Transforming, he set off again, keeping a careful note of the wind speed for any indication of change.
Sideswipe stomped into the shuttle bay. “It’s been four cycles and he’s still not reported back.”
“He’ll be okay, Sideswipe. Four cycles isn’t long and the wind is still low.”
The bay doors were open to give them more room to work, so there was no arguing with Hoist on that point. However, the time factor was something Sideswipe could pick up on. “I know four cycles is not exactly a huge length of time, Hoist. What I’m saying is, is its a long time for him to have not checked in at all.”
“Communication outside the ship is impossible from the distance Hound most likely is. The interference from the geomagnetic storms make anything outside of the shields very intermittent even in short range.”
“Okay then, what about now!” Sideswipe ran to the console and hit it as dust and shards started swirling into the bay. As the doors shut and the dust settled to the floor Sideswipe turn to look at the two startled faces looking at him. “Like I said, I think we have something to worry about.”
Hound had stopped on a small ridge, and though the wind was still at a low speed, he was still getting small nicks all over his armour plating. Deciding that as he didn’t know how long he had until the wind would pick up, he turned back towards the base, pleased that he’d at least got them a little more information. They were exposed all round with little ground cover, and while this left them in the open, it also left in the open anything else that may be here. He had nearly got back to base when the wind suddenly picked up. He skidded in the dust from the sudden blast, dulling his reaction time and leaving him no time to avoid the boulder that flew into the side of him. The high speed of the impact rolled him on his side leaving Hound vulnerable. He knew he was better protected in his alt mode but not where he was on his side, giving him no option but to transform. Dust was everywhere, his optics could barely see the ground in front of him and it was getting under his armour plating, rubbing into the circuitry beneath.
He knew if he could get into alt. mode, his armour covering would fit closer, possibly give him more protection, but when he tried, the tiny shards rubbed and cut into him painfully. Internal systems started setting off warnings of damage, sensors everywhere fired off signals to his central processor. It left him no choice, he had to make his was back as he was. He started walking, holding an arm up in a futile attempt to keep his optics clear. Dust was clogging up his joints, making movement stiff and awkward. His progress was slowing with every step. With internal system warnings becoming urgent, promising imminent stasis lock, and almost no visibility, he wasn’t even sure he was going in the right direction any more. Then everything went dark.
“You stupid fragging…”
Audio sensors were online, but only just. Sounded like someone he knew.
“…the slag you doing out here!”
The voice sounded annoyed. He shut it off. Too exhausted to listen to it.
Sideswipe brushed the back of his hand across his face in annoyance as a shard of metal cut a gouge in his faceplate, catching a nick out of his nose as it flew past. He growled, grabbed hold of Hound under his arms and dragged him aboard the shuttle, all the while cursing. He slammed the door behind him, laying Hound out as best as possible in the cramped space. He surveyed the damage, satisfying himself that Hound was still functional, if only barely and dropped heavily into the cockpit’s pilot’s seat.
The engines roared to life as the shuttle lifted off the ground as Sideswipe piloted it back to the ship, flying aggressively to avoid the larger debris and feeling any extra dents Hound got in the back because of it, he probably deserved for being an idiot.
Audio’s came back online first, shortly followed by his optics, but they were dimmed slightly. He could make out Hoist standing nearby studying some readouts. Hoist walked over to the open recharge chamber Hound was laying in. “Welcome back to the land of the functioning.”
Hound tried to talk, but found he couldn’t, so he smiled apologetically instead.
“Hoist smiled. “Your vocal processor will be working again soon, it’s just taken me a while to get the dust out of it.”
Hound tried a different approach. If he could get his holograms working. He gingerly tested the connections to his gun turret‘s simulation circuitry. It was faint, but enough that Hoist could read the Cybertronian script hovering in front of Hound.
“You’ve only been out for an orn. It’s taken me at least 8 cycles to get all the dust out of your systems.” Hoist checked the readings again. “You’ll be a bit stiff for a while, but your self repair systems should fix the minor damage that’s left.” He came back to Hound. “You gave us a scare though. Wasn’t sure for a while there if I could get you stabilised before you went into stasis lock.”
He read the new hologram. “Hey, don’t worry about it. None of us knew the wind could whip up that fast. You were nearly back here anyway. No matter what you think, none of us was thinking you were irresponsible.” He paused, looking thoughtful. “Well, maybe except for Sideswipe. But then I think he was more worried about you then he’s prepared to admit.”
Hoist read the last message. “You’ll be able to thank him yourself. Get some rest, recharge a bit longer and you’ll be up and about in no time.”