Part 2 of the Transformers fanfic...
Nova Black walked through Settlement Four. She wasn't sure why she did it, really. Nothing ever changed, not around here. Still, it made her feel busy.
That was something she missed. It was quiet around here, too quiet for Nova's taste. Back home, something had always been happening. When they weren't patrolling the territories they controlled, there was always something to squabble over. Often, one bot taking issue with another getting more than his fair share of the energon. Sometimes, though, brawls broke out just for fun.
And of course, there was the war, though Nova's squad hadn't seen much of it. Some bots had to do the much more boring job of overseeing the territories under Decepticon control, after all.
Not that her old Subcommander had done much of a good job of that. She was sure she had his laziness to thank for the relatively uneventful life she and the others led now. As long as they paid Bane and the others off with enough energon, he usually left them alone.
Lazy worthless piece of scrap. He should've just blasted the place a few times and made sure to get everyone's attention. Not that it would be particularly good for me these days if he did.
Nova had to admit that leaving that life behind had its perks. As much as she hated contributing to a communal energon pool, it did mean never having the embarrassing problem of nearly breaking down when everyone else had it in for you. And while bots here did do their fair share of resolving disputes with fists and lasers, it happened much less often. It was nice to need fewer repairs.
She scowled, passing by an old videoscreen, its surface scored with huge cracks. At first glance it looked dead, but like anything else here, it didn't give up so easily. Every now and then an image flickered across its surface.
Nova recognized it as a standard propaganda poster, the lines it struggled to speak the usual platitudes about the glory of the Decepticon empire and the importance of contributing energon to the cause. It had long since been defaced, lines, crude drawings, and even cruder words painted over the flickering image. Nova grinned and kicked it for good measure.
Her kick widened a crack in the wall. Beyond it she could see words painted. A secret compartment? She bent down, pulling it open.
She staggered back, startled. She'd long since gotten used to the anti-Decepticon graffiti anywhere Bane and his goons wouldn't find it. Hell, once or twice she'd been in a black enough mood to contribute.
She'd never in her life, however, expected to see any walls painted with "Until all are one" in red ink, much less the symbol painted alongside them. Even with overseers as lazy as Bane, painting Autobot slogans on a wall -- hidden or not -- would be suicide.
She stood back, blasting her way into the alcove. If rebels were keeping a stash here, it would likely have something useful in it. And be worthwhile to clean out for other reasons as well. With the help of Nova's signal dampener and the crude amplifier she and the others had cobbled together, Settlement Four survived by keeping quiet. The last thing any of them needed was for someone to be loudly defiant here.
Besides which, not liking the Decepticons was one thing. Actually promoting the Autobot cause was something else entirely.
Nova surveyed the cranny. While it might once have held supplies, now it was empty of anything save the markings.
That did nothing to reassure her. Whatever the rebels had kept stashed here, someone had been around to pick it up. And although the alcove had been hidden, Nova would bet half the energon in Settlement Four that the graffiti was recent.
Which meant that the laxer that idiot Bane got about enforcement, the bolder these Autobots, whoever they were, would eventually get.
Unless, of course, someone from Settlement Four found them and drove them off.
Or lasered them into slag, though that came with its own problems for someone who was trying to lie low. And was likely impossible, considering she'd be outnumbered anyway. While the others might agree that keeping Autobots around was risky, Nova doubted highly they'd ever be willing to attack them.
Great. This was just what Settlement Four needed. Frowning, Nova pressed a panel on the side of her head, recording an image of the graffiti. Then she raised her laser and fired, scorching the letters from the face of the far wall.
Satisfied that at least now Bane and his cronies wouldn't stumble on treasonous messages the next time they showed up to collect the energon tax, she transformed and flew off. Walks could wait until she'd done something about this.
###
"Hey, Eclipse! What's so urgent?"
Nova Black finished transforming just in time to wince. As wise as it was to go by another name, she still hated it. She'd figured on having plenty of time to think up something clever, but as luck would have it, the bots of Settlement Four had stumbled on her sooner than she'd planned. She'd said the first thing that had popped into her processor, and found herself irritated by it ever since.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to calm down. Now that she'd returned home, she had a problem. She'd blasted the graffiti away, which meant that sooner or later whoever had made it would notice that it had been removed. And violently at that.
Not that she regretted vaporizing Autobot slogans. Still, it meant she couldn't pretend nothing had happened and hope to gather information quietly. She'd have to use a different tactic.
Very well, then. "You want to know what's urgent? Come here. I'll tell you." She looked around and upped the volume of her audio synthesizer. "And I mean all of you."
Heads turned. Several bots transformed and gathered. Everyone knew that Eclipse had helped build the few defenses they'd had. If she'd noticed something was amiss, it probably paid to listen.
"Or better yet," Nova continued, "I'll show you." She tapped a mechanism on the side of her head, projecting the images she'd recorded on a nearby wall.
"That's the problem," she said, pointing. "We've hidden here forever -- under my signal dampener, I might add. But we can't keep hiding for long if an Autobot outpost springs up right in the middle of the Settlement."
The gathered bots were silent for long moments. Several shook their heads.
"What do we do?" one finally said, her long arms twitching in worry.
Nova's hand clenched into a tight fist. "We make sure they know they're not welcome."
"And how do you propose we do that?" someone else said, sidling up to Nova and jabbing a finger at her chest. "Hunt 'em down like we're Decepticons?"
Nova shook her head. Brightbolt. If any bot was going to make trouble over this, it would be him.
Once, he'd probably lived up to his name. Parts of him still gleamed; he polished himself when he could. And she had to admit his vehicle mode was sleek and fast. But stellar cycles of living out here had pitted him with scratches and dents even he couldn't bang out. Not to mention damage that looked a good deal older. Like most of the bots in the Settlement, he'd probably been in the war. And seen a fair bit of action, from the look of him.
Nova pushed his hand away, snarling. As far as she was concerned, now he was nothing more than a particularly shiny irritant. "Might be fun, but we don't have the weapons. Or the energon to bother trying anyway."
He glowered back at her, his head clicking as it moved right up to her face. "Might be fun? Are you malfunctioning?"
"Easy," she hissed back. "I only meant we should send a message. Let them know that if they want a revolution, they can't do it here. That's easy enough. I started it myself -- by lasering the graffiti right off the wall."
"She's right," someone else said. "I say we get rid of anything else they left and hope they go away."
Twitch shook her head. "We shouldn't get involved. Everyone in the Settlements has a right to believe as they will. We've never cared before. If we start now --"
"Oh, they can believe whatever slagging nonsense they want," Nova snarled. "It's recruiting I'm worried about."
Brightbolt's visor flashed an angry yellow. "Listen, Eclipse. If we interfere, we're doing the Decepticons' work for them. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not wasting good fuel doing anything that would help those bastards." He turned, indicating the gathered bots around him. "Just look at us. We're running on close to empty already."
Yes, but you'll waste energon and time shining yourself up, Nova thought. Damn fool.
"Help them?" Her wings twitched. "Trust me, if I wanted to help the Decepticons, I'd be doing more than removing unsightly graffiti."
He turned to face her. "Yeah. I'll bet you would."
"Exactly what is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing that anyone with functioning optics can't already see for themselves. Do you think no one here knows who built y --?"
The sound of a revving engine interrupted them. Brightbolt and Nova quickly stepped back to avoid being flattened as the newcomer zoomed between them.
"Break it up, you two," he said, transforming. "Twitch is right. Not fighting between ourselves is how we survive out here."
He rounded on Brightbolt. "We never ask where anyone comes from. You know that. And if we know -- or think we know -- we sure as slag don't volunteer the information."
Nova stared. Now this made things interesting. But was he covering for her because he knew where she'd come from, or was he doing it because he didn't?
Either way, it was useful. She didn't need the rest of the Settlement deciding she was wrong about this because they didn't like where she came from.
And if anyone could deflect that unwanted attention, it was Grandeur. He'd been here longer than anyone.
She'd have to thank him later. She'd need the help again. If she couldn't make Brightbolt mute his audio output.
"And you." He turned to Nova, his jaw clicking faintly as he frowned. "Breaking things isn't going to convince whoever scrawled that on the wall to leave. More likely it'll just convince them we're their enemy. Or attract Decepticon attention anyway."
Nova scowled back. "We're not their enemies? Not liking Bane's goons is one thing -- Primus knows I don't -- but treason is another."
"That's not your call to make, Eclipse. That's the whole Settlement's decision, not yours alone."
Right, Nova thought. Consensus. Sure. Never mind that by the time we decide, even a dimwitted scrapheap like Bane will have figured out what's going on and vaporized the lot of us.
At the moment, she half wished she were still one of them. At least back home no one hesitated to pummel some sense into complete idiots.
Brightbolt spoke again, snapping Nova out of her reverie.
"You may be right, big guy," the gleaming bot was saying, "but I still don't have to like it." He turned away. "We all went Neutral because we don't want open war. Most of us just don't have the spark for it. At least not any more..."
He stared into the distance for a long moment. "But we've all still got our sympathies. In the end, everybody's on one side or the other. And wherever she came from, I'm afraid we're lending our audio receptors to somebody on the wrong one."
He stomped off, his polished feet clanking against the cracked and rusted ground.
If anyone out there who knows more than I do about the comics and stuff can help me out, I've got a question about time. I know that in TF:A a year's a "stellar cycle." Does anyone know what the units of time in G1 were? I gather "quartex" is roughly an Earth month, but I don't know what year and the like are. I've used "stellar cycle" here because it's the only such time-unit I know, but I don't want to be embarrassing about my verse-mixing. I don't mind a bit of that, but I don't want to sound totally n00btastic.
So... anyone know time stuff who can help me out?
That was something she missed. It was quiet around here, too quiet for Nova's taste. Back home, something had always been happening. When they weren't patrolling the territories they controlled, there was always something to squabble over. Often, one bot taking issue with another getting more than his fair share of the energon. Sometimes, though, brawls broke out just for fun.
And of course, there was the war, though Nova's squad hadn't seen much of it. Some bots had to do the much more boring job of overseeing the territories under Decepticon control, after all.
Not that her old Subcommander had done much of a good job of that. She was sure she had his laziness to thank for the relatively uneventful life she and the others led now. As long as they paid Bane and the others off with enough energon, he usually left them alone.
Lazy worthless piece of scrap. He should've just blasted the place a few times and made sure to get everyone's attention. Not that it would be particularly good for me these days if he did.
Nova had to admit that leaving that life behind had its perks. As much as she hated contributing to a communal energon pool, it did mean never having the embarrassing problem of nearly breaking down when everyone else had it in for you. And while bots here did do their fair share of resolving disputes with fists and lasers, it happened much less often. It was nice to need fewer repairs.
She scowled, passing by an old videoscreen, its surface scored with huge cracks. At first glance it looked dead, but like anything else here, it didn't give up so easily. Every now and then an image flickered across its surface.
Nova recognized it as a standard propaganda poster, the lines it struggled to speak the usual platitudes about the glory of the Decepticon empire and the importance of contributing energon to the cause. It had long since been defaced, lines, crude drawings, and even cruder words painted over the flickering image. Nova grinned and kicked it for good measure.
Her kick widened a crack in the wall. Beyond it she could see words painted. A secret compartment? She bent down, pulling it open.
She staggered back, startled. She'd long since gotten used to the anti-Decepticon graffiti anywhere Bane and his goons wouldn't find it. Hell, once or twice she'd been in a black enough mood to contribute.
She'd never in her life, however, expected to see any walls painted with "Until all are one" in red ink, much less the symbol painted alongside them. Even with overseers as lazy as Bane, painting Autobot slogans on a wall -- hidden or not -- would be suicide.
She stood back, blasting her way into the alcove. If rebels were keeping a stash here, it would likely have something useful in it. And be worthwhile to clean out for other reasons as well. With the help of Nova's signal dampener and the crude amplifier she and the others had cobbled together, Settlement Four survived by keeping quiet. The last thing any of them needed was for someone to be loudly defiant here.
Besides which, not liking the Decepticons was one thing. Actually promoting the Autobot cause was something else entirely.
Nova surveyed the cranny. While it might once have held supplies, now it was empty of anything save the markings.
That did nothing to reassure her. Whatever the rebels had kept stashed here, someone had been around to pick it up. And although the alcove had been hidden, Nova would bet half the energon in Settlement Four that the graffiti was recent.
Which meant that the laxer that idiot Bane got about enforcement, the bolder these Autobots, whoever they were, would eventually get.
Unless, of course, someone from Settlement Four found them and drove them off.
Or lasered them into slag, though that came with its own problems for someone who was trying to lie low. And was likely impossible, considering she'd be outnumbered anyway. While the others might agree that keeping Autobots around was risky, Nova doubted highly they'd ever be willing to attack them.
Great. This was just what Settlement Four needed. Frowning, Nova pressed a panel on the side of her head, recording an image of the graffiti. Then she raised her laser and fired, scorching the letters from the face of the far wall.
Satisfied that at least now Bane and his cronies wouldn't stumble on treasonous messages the next time they showed up to collect the energon tax, she transformed and flew off. Walks could wait until she'd done something about this.
###
"Hey, Eclipse! What's so urgent?"
Nova Black finished transforming just in time to wince. As wise as it was to go by another name, she still hated it. She'd figured on having plenty of time to think up something clever, but as luck would have it, the bots of Settlement Four had stumbled on her sooner than she'd planned. She'd said the first thing that had popped into her processor, and found herself irritated by it ever since.
Shaking her head, she forced herself to calm down. Now that she'd returned home, she had a problem. She'd blasted the graffiti away, which meant that sooner or later whoever had made it would notice that it had been removed. And violently at that.
Not that she regretted vaporizing Autobot slogans. Still, it meant she couldn't pretend nothing had happened and hope to gather information quietly. She'd have to use a different tactic.
Very well, then. "You want to know what's urgent? Come here. I'll tell you." She looked around and upped the volume of her audio synthesizer. "And I mean all of you."
Heads turned. Several bots transformed and gathered. Everyone knew that Eclipse had helped build the few defenses they'd had. If she'd noticed something was amiss, it probably paid to listen.
"Or better yet," Nova continued, "I'll show you." She tapped a mechanism on the side of her head, projecting the images she'd recorded on a nearby wall.
"That's the problem," she said, pointing. "We've hidden here forever -- under my signal dampener, I might add. But we can't keep hiding for long if an Autobot outpost springs up right in the middle of the Settlement."
The gathered bots were silent for long moments. Several shook their heads.
"What do we do?" one finally said, her long arms twitching in worry.
Nova's hand clenched into a tight fist. "We make sure they know they're not welcome."
"And how do you propose we do that?" someone else said, sidling up to Nova and jabbing a finger at her chest. "Hunt 'em down like we're Decepticons?"
Nova shook her head. Brightbolt. If any bot was going to make trouble over this, it would be him.
Once, he'd probably lived up to his name. Parts of him still gleamed; he polished himself when he could. And she had to admit his vehicle mode was sleek and fast. But stellar cycles of living out here had pitted him with scratches and dents even he couldn't bang out. Not to mention damage that looked a good deal older. Like most of the bots in the Settlement, he'd probably been in the war. And seen a fair bit of action, from the look of him.
Nova pushed his hand away, snarling. As far as she was concerned, now he was nothing more than a particularly shiny irritant. "Might be fun, but we don't have the weapons. Or the energon to bother trying anyway."
He glowered back at her, his head clicking as it moved right up to her face. "Might be fun? Are you malfunctioning?"
"Easy," she hissed back. "I only meant we should send a message. Let them know that if they want a revolution, they can't do it here. That's easy enough. I started it myself -- by lasering the graffiti right off the wall."
"She's right," someone else said. "I say we get rid of anything else they left and hope they go away."
Twitch shook her head. "We shouldn't get involved. Everyone in the Settlements has a right to believe as they will. We've never cared before. If we start now --"
"Oh, they can believe whatever slagging nonsense they want," Nova snarled. "It's recruiting I'm worried about."
Brightbolt's visor flashed an angry yellow. "Listen, Eclipse. If we interfere, we're doing the Decepticons' work for them. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not wasting good fuel doing anything that would help those bastards." He turned, indicating the gathered bots around him. "Just look at us. We're running on close to empty already."
Yes, but you'll waste energon and time shining yourself up, Nova thought. Damn fool.
"Help them?" Her wings twitched. "Trust me, if I wanted to help the Decepticons, I'd be doing more than removing unsightly graffiti."
He turned to face her. "Yeah. I'll bet you would."
"Exactly what is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, nothing that anyone with functioning optics can't already see for themselves. Do you think no one here knows who built y --?"
The sound of a revving engine interrupted them. Brightbolt and Nova quickly stepped back to avoid being flattened as the newcomer zoomed between them.
"Break it up, you two," he said, transforming. "Twitch is right. Not fighting between ourselves is how we survive out here."
He rounded on Brightbolt. "We never ask where anyone comes from. You know that. And if we know -- or think we know -- we sure as slag don't volunteer the information."
Nova stared. Now this made things interesting. But was he covering for her because he knew where she'd come from, or was he doing it because he didn't?
Either way, it was useful. She didn't need the rest of the Settlement deciding she was wrong about this because they didn't like where she came from.
And if anyone could deflect that unwanted attention, it was Grandeur. He'd been here longer than anyone.
She'd have to thank him later. She'd need the help again. If she couldn't make Brightbolt mute his audio output.
"And you." He turned to Nova, his jaw clicking faintly as he frowned. "Breaking things isn't going to convince whoever scrawled that on the wall to leave. More likely it'll just convince them we're their enemy. Or attract Decepticon attention anyway."
Nova scowled back. "We're not their enemies? Not liking Bane's goons is one thing -- Primus knows I don't -- but treason is another."
"That's not your call to make, Eclipse. That's the whole Settlement's decision, not yours alone."
Right, Nova thought. Consensus. Sure. Never mind that by the time we decide, even a dimwitted scrapheap like Bane will have figured out what's going on and vaporized the lot of us.
At the moment, she half wished she were still one of them. At least back home no one hesitated to pummel some sense into complete idiots.
Brightbolt spoke again, snapping Nova out of her reverie.
"You may be right, big guy," the gleaming bot was saying, "but I still don't have to like it." He turned away. "We all went Neutral because we don't want open war. Most of us just don't have the spark for it. At least not any more..."
He stared into the distance for a long moment. "But we've all still got our sympathies. In the end, everybody's on one side or the other. And wherever she came from, I'm afraid we're lending our audio receptors to somebody on the wrong one."
He stomped off, his polished feet clanking against the cracked and rusted ground.
If anyone out there who knows more than I do about the comics and stuff can help me out, I've got a question about time. I know that in TF:A a year's a "stellar cycle." Does anyone know what the units of time in G1 were? I gather "quartex" is roughly an Earth month, but I don't know what year and the like are. I've used "stellar cycle" here because it's the only such time-unit I know, but I don't want to be embarrassing about my verse-mixing. I don't mind a bit of that, but I don't want to sound totally n00btastic.
So... anyone know time stuff who can help me out?