(no subject)
Down the elevator and into the garage, and back to his normal size- that's a relief if anything ever was- and past all the other vehicles to the garage door. Ironhide's scanners pick up the immense heat of the sands of Qatar almost before the door begins to open. When he rolls through, it's straight from one garage to another- from Milliways to the SOCCENT facility, where Ratchet is waiting. The medic listens to Ironhide's tale with equanimity and perhaps a little irritation at seemingly being the only Autobot not to find his way to the strange place at the end of the universe.
When he hears about Ironhide's meeting with a different universe's Autobots he blurts something in Cybertronian that nearly scorches the paint off the walls, and then repeats himself when he hears about the effects of nucleon. Ironhide's pretty sure he's gonna be sharing the hangar with a mech in total sensor lockdown tonight. He knows what it looks like when Ratchet devotes all of his facilities to thinking through an unprecedented situation.
He'll tell him about the Nullspark another time.
Scorponok's on to them by now, Ironhide's sure of it. He keeps finding energy traces that fairly scream the Decepticon's presence- days-old traces- and every one of them leads to somewhere more blatantly inconvenient than the last. It's irritating, to say the very least. At this point, if he were to find the bug right on the other side of the next dune, there's a pretty good chance Ironhide'd go straight for what's left of his tail and start slamming him into the nearest solid objects at hand, just to blow off a little steam. Tracking something with that little processor power shouldn't be this difficult.
He's starting to understand humans who fish for things like trout. The first time, you do it because you're interested. The next time, you do it because you got it wrong the first time. After that you do it because you're not about to let something with less processor power than a calculator beat you.
They'll be going home soon. They've been here long enough and then some. They haven't found Scorponok yet, for all their trying. He's still there somewhere, though. They'll flush that bug out of the ground, or the humans will. Then it'll just be a matter of calling up Captain Lennox and getting him some leave, because if anyone deserves to see Scorpy get what's coming to him, it's Lennox.
Thing is.
Thing is, there haven't been any responses to their signals to the stars yet. Not that Ironhide expected any. It's been a couple of months since Prime started signaling. The only way anyone'd pick up on that is if they were already in-system or on their way to Earth. The nearest star hasn't got planets, and that's four years out at lightspeed. No one's gonna be answering for a while, and Ironhide knows it.
But the thing is that you spend long enough tootling around in the desert all on your own, or next to a mech who's too busy thinking to talk, and you get to thinking yourself. And you gotta wonder: who else is left? Who else are you ever gonna see again? How long before anyone hears, how long before they show up?
Does anyone else hear? Is there anyone left to hear?
There has to be, doesn't there? They can't all be offline...
Ironhide's not real good at being the philosophical, speculative kind of mech, so when Ratchet asks him what's got him so quiet all of a sudden the medic just gets a grunt.
He'll be outside shooting things for a while as they get ready to head back. Beats thinking.
When he hears about Ironhide's meeting with a different universe's Autobots he blurts something in Cybertronian that nearly scorches the paint off the walls, and then repeats himself when he hears about the effects of nucleon. Ironhide's pretty sure he's gonna be sharing the hangar with a mech in total sensor lockdown tonight. He knows what it looks like when Ratchet devotes all of his facilities to thinking through an unprecedented situation.
He'll tell him about the Nullspark another time.
Scorponok's on to them by now, Ironhide's sure of it. He keeps finding energy traces that fairly scream the Decepticon's presence- days-old traces- and every one of them leads to somewhere more blatantly inconvenient than the last. It's irritating, to say the very least. At this point, if he were to find the bug right on the other side of the next dune, there's a pretty good chance Ironhide'd go straight for what's left of his tail and start slamming him into the nearest solid objects at hand, just to blow off a little steam. Tracking something with that little processor power shouldn't be this difficult.
He's starting to understand humans who fish for things like trout. The first time, you do it because you're interested. The next time, you do it because you got it wrong the first time. After that you do it because you're not about to let something with less processor power than a calculator beat you.
They'll be going home soon. They've been here long enough and then some. They haven't found Scorponok yet, for all their trying. He's still there somewhere, though. They'll flush that bug out of the ground, or the humans will. Then it'll just be a matter of calling up Captain Lennox and getting him some leave, because if anyone deserves to see Scorpy get what's coming to him, it's Lennox.
Thing is.
Thing is, there haven't been any responses to their signals to the stars yet. Not that Ironhide expected any. It's been a couple of months since Prime started signaling. The only way anyone'd pick up on that is if they were already in-system or on their way to Earth. The nearest star hasn't got planets, and that's four years out at lightspeed. No one's gonna be answering for a while, and Ironhide knows it.
But the thing is that you spend long enough tootling around in the desert all on your own, or next to a mech who's too busy thinking to talk, and you get to thinking yourself. And you gotta wonder: who else is left? Who else are you ever gonna see again? How long before anyone hears, how long before they show up?
Does anyone else hear? Is there anyone left to hear?
There has to be, doesn't there? They can't all be offline...
Ironhide's not real good at being the philosophical, speculative kind of mech, so when Ratchet asks him what's got him so quiet all of a sudden the medic just gets a grunt.
He'll be outside shooting things for a while as they get ready to head back. Beats thinking.