Remember the western bunneh? Guess what I'm just posting?
Title: A Fistful of Energon (co-written with nkfloofiepoof)
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Eventual Slash Pairings.
Characters: Starscream, Skyfire, Wheeljack, Blaster, Perceptor, Cosmos, Inferno, (General Enssemble, those are just the ones with 'speaking' roles right now.)
Summary: During their escape from Cybertron to seek out new sources of energy, the Ark is attacked by the Nemesis, and rather than Earth, the resulting chaos causes them to crash on an uncharted world unfit for mechanical life. Now trapped, the crews of the two ships must work together if they wish to survive.
Notes: This began with me randomly drawing a couple of bots in cowboy hats, and devolved into an actual plot bunny loosely inspired in spagetti western films. Completely AU.
Stars. Millions and millions of stars, each one a system with the potential to contain many new and amazing worlds for the two explorers to quench their inquiring minds with.
"This system isn't exactly the most lively," Starscream commented dryly, three planets into the planetary system he and his partner, Skyfire, were currently exploring and documenting.
"The previous two planets have been quite disappointing, that much is true," Skyfire conceded, flying in perfect formation alongside Starscream. "The next planet, however, offers some promising readings."
"It better. It would be such a waste if we stumble upon yet another glorified piece of useless rocks." The seeker sped up in the direction of the next planet they were set to analyze. "I'll go ahead and explore the first two moons of the planet."
"Affirmative." Skyfire headed towards the planet. "Huh, this is quite interesting."
"What is?" the smaller jet asked absently, focusing his attention on the largest of the two moons that orbited the planet close to one another.
"The planet seems to be enshrouded in a cloud of some mineral dust," Skyfire replied with a notch of fascination in his voice. "My readings aren't very clear but it seems to have potential for life forms or at least usable materials. The cloud seems to be causing some interference, however."
"Interesting. This moon isn't offering much, it's as lifeless and arid as the planets we've approached previously."
"I'll go ahead and descend onto the planet. I'll keep the com line open." The larger jet proceeded to enter the atmosphere of the planet.
"Careful now, Skyfire." Starscream transformed and landed in the largest moon, preparing to take some samples of the materials available on the surface to analyze properly once they were back into their laboratories on Cybertron.
"You know me, Starscream." Skyfire's response was not without a little amusement. Starscream snorted instead, addressing a half hearted 'whatever' at Skyfire -his companion could be as bad as a sparkling when something piqued his curiosity. "Alright, I'm going in."
For several breems, Starscream continued gathering samples which were later stored in containers he subspaced for safekeeping. Once he decided the larger moon had no more to offer, the dark faced seeker moved to the smaller moon.
After approximately four joors, Starscream realized his partner hadn't said a thing in a long time, something unusual for Skyfire. Not too concerned yet, Starscream transformed back into his jet form and circled the planet. "Skyfire? Everything all right down there?"
After a breem or two without reply, Starscream began to worry. "Skyfire? Do you copy?" Again, no answer. "Primus, what now?"
The seeker tried different frequencies to try to reach his companion, but he received no answer whatsoever. Starscream concluded the cloud of whatever it was that covered the planet was causing heavy interference with their communications, and he decided to enter the planet's atmosphere. No sooner had he started his descent, Starscream could feel the sediments composing the cloud filtering through his vents, beginning to weigh him down at a terrifyingly fast rate.
Starscream was forced to abandon his plan and ascended once more. It occurred to him Skyfire possibly crashed if his own vents and intakes had clogged up by the dust as quickly as Starscream's. "What do I do?" he muttered to himself. He couldn't just leave Skyfire there, especially if his friend could very well be injured. However, Starscream knew he wasn't suited to attempt a descent on this planet to rescue Skyfire on his own.
Starscream swore loudly, voicing his frustration with a loud thrust of his engine. He couldn't leave Skyfire there, but he was too far from Cybertron to call for help. With a long string of expletives towards this particular planetary system, the seeker decided the only thing he could do was to retreat back to Cybertron and request the assembly of a search party.
"I'll be back, Skyfire!" Starscream transmitted, hoping against his better judgment that Skyfire could hear him, and with a loud roar from his thrusters, he circled the planet one last time before he sped up towards Cybertron.
---
"We've got massive damage on the back end, left side!"
"Two thrusters are out - if we lose another two, we're dead."
"I'm registering a breech in the hull - it's small, but it's not going to stay that way for long."
"Return fire, slag it all!"
The navigation controls shook under Jazz's hands as the Ark sustained yet another hit, and he tried to tone out the voices barking damage reports and yelling from one end of the bridge to the other. His comrades darted all around the control room, taking over for those injured by sparking and exploding consoles or those who were more useful in another area of the ship, and it was all Jazz could do to maintain his concentration as he guided the Ark through a solar system, dodging desperately around asteroids and moons.
So much for leaving unnoticed.
Most of them, Optimus Prime himself included, were not naive enough to believe they would completely escape detection, but they had all hoped they would have a better head start than this. However, they could not wait for absolute certainty - Cybertron itself was dying. All renewable resources were drained, and if a new source of energy was not found soon, the planet would be uninhabitable.
So, Optimus Prime compiled a team - the Autobots' best. Experts in all fields from combat and communication to science and medical were gathered and placed together in an elaborate but well-mixed team. With Primus' blessing, they would find a planet in a nearby solar system with enough resources to bring Cybertron from the brink of death. It was a complex undertaking and prone to a great many things which could go wrong during any stage of the operation, and they all knew they would garner the Decepticons' attention sooner or later.
Nonetheless, they did not in the least expect to see the Nemesis itself on their trail.
The Ark was a large ship, large enough for the massive group of Autobots to call home for the next few vorns during their expedition and still have plenty of room left over. The Nemesis was larger and, as hinted by its designation, far more menacing. As soon as Prowl identified the serial number of the star ship following them, they knew they were in trouble.
A sharp jolt shook the entire Ark and nearly threw Jazz from his seat at the controls. A new klaxon joined the alarms already making his audio sensors ring, and his voice was nearly lost in all the noise as he demanded what was happening now - only Optimus' voice carried over the chaos.
"They're boarding us!" he announced. "All Autobots prepare for battle! Drive them back to the Nemesis!"
With the flip of a few switches, Jazz set his control panel to hold its position in the hopes that the previous moon he avoided was the last for a while, and he quickly pulled out his weapon as he leapt from his seat to join the fray, and not a klik too soon as a section of the hull was blown inwards just inside the corridor leading to the bridge. The vacuum of space ejected all of the smoke, flame, and debris and left only the group of Decepticons as they rushed from the Nemesis to the Ark in a flurry of missiles and laser fire.
They positioned their boarding tube just right, probably calculated by one of the Constructicons - the skeleton crew on the bridge was not adequate enough to fully combat the invading Decepticon force. The remaining Autobots were elsewhere in the Ark either manning the artillery to return fire or patching what they could of the hull damage before vital supplies were lost to the void. The Decepticons, however, attacked in full force, three to every single Autobot on the bridge. The noise was so great, yelling would have been worthless, so they switched to battle frequency.
< I've got Megatron, > Optimus Prime's strong signal ordered over the chaos. < Stop Soundwave before he can do any damage to the computers. Ratchet, Ironhide - whichever seeker that is, stop him before he destroys something we can't do without. Any Autobots not focused on keeping the ship from coming apart, assist at the bridge immediately! >
Surely, Jazz thought, three against one were fair enough odds for them to do fairly well against a mech even as large as Soundwave, but he, Prowl, and Sideswipe were cast aside like spare parts - the blue mech only went down when Ironhide kicked him from behind, but even then, he did not stay down for long, and Ratchet's attempt to subdue him again was nearly immediately thwarted as Soundwave threw him off.
Autobots rushed into the bridge and joined the fray. Sunstreaker latched onto Starscream though it was already too late to salvage most of the port side consoles from the Decepticon vice commander's null rays. Hound and Trailbreaker traded fire with Thundercracker and Skywarp while Optimus grappled with Megatron. The chaos on the bridge was so distracting, no one noticed Teletraan-1's monotone warnings until the Ark gave a sudden, violent lurch to the side and sent the two leaders sprawling over a smoking console.
All optics, blue and red, moved to face the view screen which was filled with an image not of the sparkling void of space but of a planet covered with brown clouds, and the image grew larger by the astrosecond. Temporarily forgetting about the white tyrant, Optimus dove for the navigational controls in an attempt to bring the Ark's nose up and out of its collision course with the clouded planet, but the Ark, and the Nemesis still attached to it, were already breaching the atmosphere.
Flames licked the edges of the torn hull, rendering the sharp edges white hot, and smoke billowed from the burning metal as the boarding tube connecting the two star ships gave a deafening groan but stubbornly refused to break. The view screen gave one last view of the brown clouds before both ships tore into them, and the bridge was filled with thick dust which immediately choked the systems of the combatants, clogging intakes, blinding optics, and grating into vents.
All on the bridge were offline before the ships crashed.
---
Wheeljack groaned lowly, slowly coming to after the powerful crash forced offline everyone inside the ship. He looked around and approached the nearest mech, Blaster, and shook him to force him back online as well.
A couple of mechs around him, Inferno, Brawn, Cosmos, and Perceptor also began to power up.
"What the slag happened?" Inferno rubbed his head while he surveyed his surroundings, taking notice of the amount of mechs laying around unconscious.
"The Decepticons attacked and boarded the Ark, then we crashed somewhere. Blaster, take Inferno, Brawn, and Cosmos with you to the bridge and survey the situation," Wheeljack ordered before he turned to Perceptor. "There's severe damage on the hull that must be repaired immediately. I'm registering high concentrations of dust filtering through the gap."
"Wherever it is we landed, the atmosphere is charged with dust," Perceptor responded. "If we don't close the gap soon it's going to be impossible to access the bridge." Perceptor dared a look through one of the few windows in the area, observing the dull brown clouds of dust above.
"Cosmos, do you think you can handle that?" Wheeljack asked.
"Leave it to me!" The minibot transformed and headed towards the hull.
"Perceptor, attend to the remaining 'bots here, I'll go with them to assist in the repairs."
Perceptor nodded and watched Wheeljack and his group leave after Cosmos then turned around to give a quick look to the remaining mechs currently offline on the ground, heading for Bluestreak first. With the Decepticons onboard, they needed as much gun power as they could muster.
"The dust is gettin' thicker, Wheeljack," Inferno covered his optics with a hand, beginning to find it harder and harder to see. The dust was also beginning to grate his vents and optics.
"Cosmos, you're going to have to proceed alone from here on." The engineer handed the minibot a portable welder. "I'll give you any instructions required from here, but we cannot proceed any further."
"I'll handle it," Cosmos replied and took the welder, heading further down into the hull, forced to transform into his alternate mode in order to withstand the thick cloud of dust which had formed. "Wheeljack, I found the gap. There's a boarding tube still connected between the Ark and the Nemesis."
"Weld what you can of the hull to the tube. We'll take care of that after we retrieve our friends at the bridge." Wheeljack turned to Inferno, Brawn, and Blaster. Of the three, Blaster was faring better; the visor of his helmet was protecting his optics a little better. "I don't think we can do much within the bridge just yet. Cosmos will have to extract the crew by himself."
"What is this place, anyway?" Blaster asked, brushing some of the dust off his arm and rubbing it between his fingers.
"I don't know. We'll find out once we can get Prime and the others back online." The engineer knelt down to pick up a handful of the dust accumulated over the ground to analyze later on.
A little later, Cosmos was dragging the unconcious forms of his fellow Autobots out of the bridge, close enough for Brawn, Wheeljack, Inferno, and Blaster to carry them into the medical bay.
Perceptor, who had managed to bring back online the rest of the available crew, was fast at work attending to the fallen Autobots.
"What about the Decepticons?" Cosmos asked when he hauled Jazz, the last Autobot, out of the bridge.
"They are not going anywhere any time soon, leave them there for now. Brawn and Cliffjumper, stand guard as close as you can to the bridge." Wheeljack assisted Perceptor in repairing what damage the dust did in Ratchet - the sooner their medical officer was back online, the sooner the remaining offline crew and Optimus Prime could be attended to properly.
"I have a feeling things are just going to get worse from here on," Inferno muttered and helped Cosmos place Jazz onto one of the empty berths within the medical bay.
Wheeljack could only mutter in response as he resumed his work, "I have the feeling you are right, Inferno."
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Eventual Slash Pairings.
Characters: Starscream, Skyfire, Wheeljack, Blaster, Perceptor, Cosmos, Inferno, (General Enssemble, those are just the ones with 'speaking' roles right now.)
Summary: During their escape from Cybertron to seek out new sources of energy, the Ark is attacked by the Nemesis, and rather than Earth, the resulting chaos causes them to crash on an uncharted world unfit for mechanical life. Now trapped, the crews of the two ships must work together if they wish to survive.
Notes: This began with me randomly drawing a couple of bots in cowboy hats, and devolved into an actual plot bunny loosely inspired in spagetti western films. Completely AU.
Stars. Millions and millions of stars, each one a system with the potential to contain many new and amazing worlds for the two explorers to quench their inquiring minds with.
"This system isn't exactly the most lively," Starscream commented dryly, three planets into the planetary system he and his partner, Skyfire, were currently exploring and documenting.
"The previous two planets have been quite disappointing, that much is true," Skyfire conceded, flying in perfect formation alongside Starscream. "The next planet, however, offers some promising readings."
"It better. It would be such a waste if we stumble upon yet another glorified piece of useless rocks." The seeker sped up in the direction of the next planet they were set to analyze. "I'll go ahead and explore the first two moons of the planet."
"Affirmative." Skyfire headed towards the planet. "Huh, this is quite interesting."
"What is?" the smaller jet asked absently, focusing his attention on the largest of the two moons that orbited the planet close to one another.
"The planet seems to be enshrouded in a cloud of some mineral dust," Skyfire replied with a notch of fascination in his voice. "My readings aren't very clear but it seems to have potential for life forms or at least usable materials. The cloud seems to be causing some interference, however."
"Interesting. This moon isn't offering much, it's as lifeless and arid as the planets we've approached previously."
"I'll go ahead and descend onto the planet. I'll keep the com line open." The larger jet proceeded to enter the atmosphere of the planet.
"Careful now, Skyfire." Starscream transformed and landed in the largest moon, preparing to take some samples of the materials available on the surface to analyze properly once they were back into their laboratories on Cybertron.
"You know me, Starscream." Skyfire's response was not without a little amusement. Starscream snorted instead, addressing a half hearted 'whatever' at Skyfire -his companion could be as bad as a sparkling when something piqued his curiosity. "Alright, I'm going in."
For several breems, Starscream continued gathering samples which were later stored in containers he subspaced for safekeeping. Once he decided the larger moon had no more to offer, the dark faced seeker moved to the smaller moon.
After approximately four joors, Starscream realized his partner hadn't said a thing in a long time, something unusual for Skyfire. Not too concerned yet, Starscream transformed back into his jet form and circled the planet. "Skyfire? Everything all right down there?"
After a breem or two without reply, Starscream began to worry. "Skyfire? Do you copy?" Again, no answer. "Primus, what now?"
The seeker tried different frequencies to try to reach his companion, but he received no answer whatsoever. Starscream concluded the cloud of whatever it was that covered the planet was causing heavy interference with their communications, and he decided to enter the planet's atmosphere. No sooner had he started his descent, Starscream could feel the sediments composing the cloud filtering through his vents, beginning to weigh him down at a terrifyingly fast rate.
Starscream was forced to abandon his plan and ascended once more. It occurred to him Skyfire possibly crashed if his own vents and intakes had clogged up by the dust as quickly as Starscream's. "What do I do?" he muttered to himself. He couldn't just leave Skyfire there, especially if his friend could very well be injured. However, Starscream knew he wasn't suited to attempt a descent on this planet to rescue Skyfire on his own.
Starscream swore loudly, voicing his frustration with a loud thrust of his engine. He couldn't leave Skyfire there, but he was too far from Cybertron to call for help. With a long string of expletives towards this particular planetary system, the seeker decided the only thing he could do was to retreat back to Cybertron and request the assembly of a search party.
"I'll be back, Skyfire!" Starscream transmitted, hoping against his better judgment that Skyfire could hear him, and with a loud roar from his thrusters, he circled the planet one last time before he sped up towards Cybertron.
---
"We've got massive damage on the back end, left side!"
"Two thrusters are out - if we lose another two, we're dead."
"I'm registering a breech in the hull - it's small, but it's not going to stay that way for long."
"Return fire, slag it all!"
The navigation controls shook under Jazz's hands as the Ark sustained yet another hit, and he tried to tone out the voices barking damage reports and yelling from one end of the bridge to the other. His comrades darted all around the control room, taking over for those injured by sparking and exploding consoles or those who were more useful in another area of the ship, and it was all Jazz could do to maintain his concentration as he guided the Ark through a solar system, dodging desperately around asteroids and moons.
So much for leaving unnoticed.
Most of them, Optimus Prime himself included, were not naive enough to believe they would completely escape detection, but they had all hoped they would have a better head start than this. However, they could not wait for absolute certainty - Cybertron itself was dying. All renewable resources were drained, and if a new source of energy was not found soon, the planet would be uninhabitable.
So, Optimus Prime compiled a team - the Autobots' best. Experts in all fields from combat and communication to science and medical were gathered and placed together in an elaborate but well-mixed team. With Primus' blessing, they would find a planet in a nearby solar system with enough resources to bring Cybertron from the brink of death. It was a complex undertaking and prone to a great many things which could go wrong during any stage of the operation, and they all knew they would garner the Decepticons' attention sooner or later.
Nonetheless, they did not in the least expect to see the Nemesis itself on their trail.
The Ark was a large ship, large enough for the massive group of Autobots to call home for the next few vorns during their expedition and still have plenty of room left over. The Nemesis was larger and, as hinted by its designation, far more menacing. As soon as Prowl identified the serial number of the star ship following them, they knew they were in trouble.
A sharp jolt shook the entire Ark and nearly threw Jazz from his seat at the controls. A new klaxon joined the alarms already making his audio sensors ring, and his voice was nearly lost in all the noise as he demanded what was happening now - only Optimus' voice carried over the chaos.
"They're boarding us!" he announced. "All Autobots prepare for battle! Drive them back to the Nemesis!"
With the flip of a few switches, Jazz set his control panel to hold its position in the hopes that the previous moon he avoided was the last for a while, and he quickly pulled out his weapon as he leapt from his seat to join the fray, and not a klik too soon as a section of the hull was blown inwards just inside the corridor leading to the bridge. The vacuum of space ejected all of the smoke, flame, and debris and left only the group of Decepticons as they rushed from the Nemesis to the Ark in a flurry of missiles and laser fire.
They positioned their boarding tube just right, probably calculated by one of the Constructicons - the skeleton crew on the bridge was not adequate enough to fully combat the invading Decepticon force. The remaining Autobots were elsewhere in the Ark either manning the artillery to return fire or patching what they could of the hull damage before vital supplies were lost to the void. The Decepticons, however, attacked in full force, three to every single Autobot on the bridge. The noise was so great, yelling would have been worthless, so they switched to battle frequency.
< I've got Megatron, > Optimus Prime's strong signal ordered over the chaos. < Stop Soundwave before he can do any damage to the computers. Ratchet, Ironhide - whichever seeker that is, stop him before he destroys something we can't do without. Any Autobots not focused on keeping the ship from coming apart, assist at the bridge immediately! >
Surely, Jazz thought, three against one were fair enough odds for them to do fairly well against a mech even as large as Soundwave, but he, Prowl, and Sideswipe were cast aside like spare parts - the blue mech only went down when Ironhide kicked him from behind, but even then, he did not stay down for long, and Ratchet's attempt to subdue him again was nearly immediately thwarted as Soundwave threw him off.
Autobots rushed into the bridge and joined the fray. Sunstreaker latched onto Starscream though it was already too late to salvage most of the port side consoles from the Decepticon vice commander's null rays. Hound and Trailbreaker traded fire with Thundercracker and Skywarp while Optimus grappled with Megatron. The chaos on the bridge was so distracting, no one noticed Teletraan-1's monotone warnings until the Ark gave a sudden, violent lurch to the side and sent the two leaders sprawling over a smoking console.
All optics, blue and red, moved to face the view screen which was filled with an image not of the sparkling void of space but of a planet covered with brown clouds, and the image grew larger by the astrosecond. Temporarily forgetting about the white tyrant, Optimus dove for the navigational controls in an attempt to bring the Ark's nose up and out of its collision course with the clouded planet, but the Ark, and the Nemesis still attached to it, were already breaching the atmosphere.
Flames licked the edges of the torn hull, rendering the sharp edges white hot, and smoke billowed from the burning metal as the boarding tube connecting the two star ships gave a deafening groan but stubbornly refused to break. The view screen gave one last view of the brown clouds before both ships tore into them, and the bridge was filled with thick dust which immediately choked the systems of the combatants, clogging intakes, blinding optics, and grating into vents.
All on the bridge were offline before the ships crashed.
---
Wheeljack groaned lowly, slowly coming to after the powerful crash forced offline everyone inside the ship. He looked around and approached the nearest mech, Blaster, and shook him to force him back online as well.
A couple of mechs around him, Inferno, Brawn, Cosmos, and Perceptor also began to power up.
"What the slag happened?" Inferno rubbed his head while he surveyed his surroundings, taking notice of the amount of mechs laying around unconscious.
"The Decepticons attacked and boarded the Ark, then we crashed somewhere. Blaster, take Inferno, Brawn, and Cosmos with you to the bridge and survey the situation," Wheeljack ordered before he turned to Perceptor. "There's severe damage on the hull that must be repaired immediately. I'm registering high concentrations of dust filtering through the gap."
"Wherever it is we landed, the atmosphere is charged with dust," Perceptor responded. "If we don't close the gap soon it's going to be impossible to access the bridge." Perceptor dared a look through one of the few windows in the area, observing the dull brown clouds of dust above.
"Cosmos, do you think you can handle that?" Wheeljack asked.
"Leave it to me!" The minibot transformed and headed towards the hull.
"Perceptor, attend to the remaining 'bots here, I'll go with them to assist in the repairs."
Perceptor nodded and watched Wheeljack and his group leave after Cosmos then turned around to give a quick look to the remaining mechs currently offline on the ground, heading for Bluestreak first. With the Decepticons onboard, they needed as much gun power as they could muster.
"The dust is gettin' thicker, Wheeljack," Inferno covered his optics with a hand, beginning to find it harder and harder to see. The dust was also beginning to grate his vents and optics.
"Cosmos, you're going to have to proceed alone from here on." The engineer handed the minibot a portable welder. "I'll give you any instructions required from here, but we cannot proceed any further."
"I'll handle it," Cosmos replied and took the welder, heading further down into the hull, forced to transform into his alternate mode in order to withstand the thick cloud of dust which had formed. "Wheeljack, I found the gap. There's a boarding tube still connected between the Ark and the Nemesis."
"Weld what you can of the hull to the tube. We'll take care of that after we retrieve our friends at the bridge." Wheeljack turned to Inferno, Brawn, and Blaster. Of the three, Blaster was faring better; the visor of his helmet was protecting his optics a little better. "I don't think we can do much within the bridge just yet. Cosmos will have to extract the crew by himself."
"What is this place, anyway?" Blaster asked, brushing some of the dust off his arm and rubbing it between his fingers.
"I don't know. We'll find out once we can get Prime and the others back online." The engineer knelt down to pick up a handful of the dust accumulated over the ground to analyze later on.
A little later, Cosmos was dragging the unconcious forms of his fellow Autobots out of the bridge, close enough for Brawn, Wheeljack, Inferno, and Blaster to carry them into the medical bay.
Perceptor, who had managed to bring back online the rest of the available crew, was fast at work attending to the fallen Autobots.
"What about the Decepticons?" Cosmos asked when he hauled Jazz, the last Autobot, out of the bridge.
"They are not going anywhere any time soon, leave them there for now. Brawn and Cliffjumper, stand guard as close as you can to the bridge." Wheeljack assisted Perceptor in repairing what damage the dust did in Ratchet - the sooner their medical officer was back online, the sooner the remaining offline crew and Optimus Prime could be attended to properly.
"I have a feeling things are just going to get worse from here on," Inferno muttered and helped Cosmos place Jazz onto one of the empty berths within the medical bay.
Wheeljack could only mutter in response as he resumed his work, "I have the feeling you are right, Inferno."