Blaster Descends to Earth FINALLY
Blaster had been flying through space for what seemed like half of forever since he'd picked up Prime's signal. That had probably been on of the happiest days of his life since Prime had split up their company to scout the universe for the Allspark. The sheer relief at knowing that at least some of his fellows were still active had nearly off-lined him.
Now though, things were starting to get a little bit chaotic as he and his four cassettes that aided him neared the planet that had originated the signal. Everyone was impatient to touch down and unload. They'd all been spending a little too much time in each other's company apparently. It was bad when even Rewind and Eject were quarreling.
The red mech just kept counting downwards from ten, and focused on the signal he'd picked up just outside of Andromeda. It was starting to get fuzzy now though, and that seriously bummed him out. It had been a long time since he'd gotten to listen to any good new music. That was life when you were at war though, right?
The signal fell off completely as his other sensors began to pick up a huge influx of electromagnetic energy, the static making him wince and starting up a headache behind his right optic. So much for that trade off...
Forcing past the irritating pain, Blaster turned his sensors outward to follow the source of the energy. He needed to know what it was coming from as he was headed in that exact direction.
The little solar system he'd been called to had a gigantic yellow star at it's center. The electron breezes swirling out from it tickled over his sensors, and he powered their sensitivity down a few notches. He wasn't really in the mood to be teased by any of the cassettes about being ticklish.
The trip continued to be quiet, the mech's companions having mostly settled down since picking up on Blaster's sudden outward trained concentration. The solar winds were making it a bit difficult for him to navigate, but basic coordinates were locked in and the mild deviations he was being bombarded with weren't too much trouble to ignore.
As he cruised around the sun, letting the energy tide carry him to conserve fuel, the blue and green planet he'd been searching for came into view. It spun out from behind two smaller, dully colored ones like a bright jewel and it was difficult to fully suppress a pleasantly surprised gasp. At least this location looked like it was going to have some good scenery!
Hey guys, check it out, he comm'ed his traveling companions. Looks like this place might be pretty interesting.
I hope there's some intelligent life on this planet. Not like that last one we went to with all of those overgrown aomebas, Rewind commented. The conversation degenerated from there into a complete dissection of how worthless self-contained, semi-organic organisms were before Blaster broke it up.
Okay guys, mute it. I need to concentrate here because this ride is about to get rough. You just kickback and get some recharge while you can. I'll wake you if I need your help.
Blaster flew in closer to the planet, external visual sensors picking out a multitude of bulky metal shapes orbiting around it. "Oh, they really shouldn't have. Setting out all of these new toys for me to play with. This planet really knows how to welcome a mech and make him feel at home."
Chuckling to himself, Blaster extended a few ether-net probes to the nearest satellite, querying it. The response was immediate and positive, and he hacked into a veritable feast of data. It was a communications satellite for something called the World Wide Web, and that had Blaster's name written all over it.
With a broad smile flexing his facial components, the mech dedicated a few more datastreams to pulling in everything he could off the Web. It really did span the whole distance of the blue and green globe, and Blaster greedily devoured every byte. He relegated the stream management to his secondary processor, letting it crunch and prioritize the data into neat little files to be assimilated in greater detail later.
He turned his attention to more satellites, picking up all sorts of video and radio signals that tickled his processor until it practically glowed with giddy excitement. There was so much life and entertainment on this planet! Finally! Movies, music, streaming video feeds...what more could a mech ask for?
A little more hacking around, he finally scored himself a GPS satellite and queried it as well. The thing rejected his inital request, and Blaster gave it wounded optics. "Come on baby, don't be like that. I promise I'll be gentle. Don't be so cold," Blaster cooed, really turning on the charm and finally getting his way with the machine, and taking everything he could get from it. Score! A pinpoint location of the origin of Prime's signal.
More of the satellites snubbed him at first query, only to be charmed out of all their secrets by the Autobot communications officer. The government spy satellites really gave his dummy AI a run for its credits, but it eventually won out over the more primitive tech. It was still fun to have a little bit of a challenge though.
The signals remained strong, the processing continued as the mech broke into the planet's Ionosphere. The massive electron activity up there forced him to power down both audios and optics to save himself from being off-lined by the sheer amount of noise, the pain behind his optic intensifying further. There was so much here to listen to, and he was very nearly overwhelmed.
The heat searing along the protective carapace used for their interstellar travel, made Blaster incredibly grateful that he'd had his heatshields reinforced before they'd all been split up. The atmosphere was giving him some serious drag and it was taking every bit of concentration to maintain a steady course. It was almost inevitable that there would be a slight deviation in his landing, so he struck up another conversation with the GPS satellite, using it guide him to the planet's surface. That was when he found out that he'd already deviated from his course enough that it would take a bit of traveling to make up his overshoot.
"Ah, scrap..."
It was a handful of clicks before the mech collided with the earth, sending sprays of dirt, rocks, and trees over a dozen feet into the air. The backtrail of his landing was a huge flaming gouge right through the middle of a pine forest, and unfolding to stand upright in his tall protoform, more sensory probes extending to scope the environment for signs of life, Blaster actually winced in a little bit of sympathy for the wounded ground.
Giving a shrug, the Autobot hunkered down behind the treeline to skulk through the forest shadows. He couldn't help but think that Hound would appreciate scenery like this, and continued moving forward. All the while feeling the buzz of his slave-drive being stuffed full of new information, the acknowledgement of contacts being broken as information sources were exhausted, and all of his virus scanning programs beating up his extensive RAM to keep the rest of his processor and circuitry clean.
Blaster approached a thin stretch of road twining like a black snake through the forest, his audios picking up the distant growl of a heavy sounding engine. Getting down as low as he could to avoid detection, he zoomed his vision in on the squat red SUV that crested the ridge. Radio antennae sprouted from the roof like weird growths, and the shiney silver front grill was graced with heavy black ramming bars. The other mechs were constantly getting on his case about his lack of weaponry so to him, the bars would be a useful touch. Not to mention the vehicle was just the right size for his large, mechly self.
The communications officer scanned the bright colored H3 as it passed his hiding spot, rechecked his coordinates with the satellite before breaking contact and sped off in a southerly direction.
Opening up a comm channel using a dedicated broadband Autobot signal, Blaster broadcasted his planetfall.
"Autobots, Autobots, do any of you read me? This is Blaster. I've just made planetfall and am en route to base coordinates. ETA is approximated at seven hours, fifty-two minutes, and thirty-two point five seconds, earth time. Respond back."
He waited patiently for contact as he continued to travel, the heavy tires of his new altform eating up the miles of asphalt.
Now though, things were starting to get a little bit chaotic as he and his four cassettes that aided him neared the planet that had originated the signal. Everyone was impatient to touch down and unload. They'd all been spending a little too much time in each other's company apparently. It was bad when even Rewind and Eject were quarreling.
The red mech just kept counting downwards from ten, and focused on the signal he'd picked up just outside of Andromeda. It was starting to get fuzzy now though, and that seriously bummed him out. It had been a long time since he'd gotten to listen to any good new music. That was life when you were at war though, right?
The signal fell off completely as his other sensors began to pick up a huge influx of electromagnetic energy, the static making him wince and starting up a headache behind his right optic. So much for that trade off...
Forcing past the irritating pain, Blaster turned his sensors outward to follow the source of the energy. He needed to know what it was coming from as he was headed in that exact direction.
The little solar system he'd been called to had a gigantic yellow star at it's center. The electron breezes swirling out from it tickled over his sensors, and he powered their sensitivity down a few notches. He wasn't really in the mood to be teased by any of the cassettes about being ticklish.
The trip continued to be quiet, the mech's companions having mostly settled down since picking up on Blaster's sudden outward trained concentration. The solar winds were making it a bit difficult for him to navigate, but basic coordinates were locked in and the mild deviations he was being bombarded with weren't too much trouble to ignore.
As he cruised around the sun, letting the energy tide carry him to conserve fuel, the blue and green planet he'd been searching for came into view. It spun out from behind two smaller, dully colored ones like a bright jewel and it was difficult to fully suppress a pleasantly surprised gasp. At least this location looked like it was going to have some good scenery!
Hey guys, check it out, he comm'ed his traveling companions. Looks like this place might be pretty interesting.
I hope there's some intelligent life on this planet. Not like that last one we went to with all of those overgrown aomebas, Rewind commented. The conversation degenerated from there into a complete dissection of how worthless self-contained, semi-organic organisms were before Blaster broke it up.
Okay guys, mute it. I need to concentrate here because this ride is about to get rough. You just kickback and get some recharge while you can. I'll wake you if I need your help.
Blaster flew in closer to the planet, external visual sensors picking out a multitude of bulky metal shapes orbiting around it. "Oh, they really shouldn't have. Setting out all of these new toys for me to play with. This planet really knows how to welcome a mech and make him feel at home."
Chuckling to himself, Blaster extended a few ether-net probes to the nearest satellite, querying it. The response was immediate and positive, and he hacked into a veritable feast of data. It was a communications satellite for something called the World Wide Web, and that had Blaster's name written all over it.
With a broad smile flexing his facial components, the mech dedicated a few more datastreams to pulling in everything he could off the Web. It really did span the whole distance of the blue and green globe, and Blaster greedily devoured every byte. He relegated the stream management to his secondary processor, letting it crunch and prioritize the data into neat little files to be assimilated in greater detail later.
He turned his attention to more satellites, picking up all sorts of video and radio signals that tickled his processor until it practically glowed with giddy excitement. There was so much life and entertainment on this planet! Finally! Movies, music, streaming video feeds...what more could a mech ask for?
A little more hacking around, he finally scored himself a GPS satellite and queried it as well. The thing rejected his inital request, and Blaster gave it wounded optics. "Come on baby, don't be like that. I promise I'll be gentle. Don't be so cold," Blaster cooed, really turning on the charm and finally getting his way with the machine, and taking everything he could get from it. Score! A pinpoint location of the origin of Prime's signal.
More of the satellites snubbed him at first query, only to be charmed out of all their secrets by the Autobot communications officer. The government spy satellites really gave his dummy AI a run for its credits, but it eventually won out over the more primitive tech. It was still fun to have a little bit of a challenge though.
The signals remained strong, the processing continued as the mech broke into the planet's Ionosphere. The massive electron activity up there forced him to power down both audios and optics to save himself from being off-lined by the sheer amount of noise, the pain behind his optic intensifying further. There was so much here to listen to, and he was very nearly overwhelmed.
The heat searing along the protective carapace used for their interstellar travel, made Blaster incredibly grateful that he'd had his heatshields reinforced before they'd all been split up. The atmosphere was giving him some serious drag and it was taking every bit of concentration to maintain a steady course. It was almost inevitable that there would be a slight deviation in his landing, so he struck up another conversation with the GPS satellite, using it guide him to the planet's surface. That was when he found out that he'd already deviated from his course enough that it would take a bit of traveling to make up his overshoot.
"Ah, scrap..."
It was a handful of clicks before the mech collided with the earth, sending sprays of dirt, rocks, and trees over a dozen feet into the air. The backtrail of his landing was a huge flaming gouge right through the middle of a pine forest, and unfolding to stand upright in his tall protoform, more sensory probes extending to scope the environment for signs of life, Blaster actually winced in a little bit of sympathy for the wounded ground.
Giving a shrug, the Autobot hunkered down behind the treeline to skulk through the forest shadows. He couldn't help but think that Hound would appreciate scenery like this, and continued moving forward. All the while feeling the buzz of his slave-drive being stuffed full of new information, the acknowledgement of contacts being broken as information sources were exhausted, and all of his virus scanning programs beating up his extensive RAM to keep the rest of his processor and circuitry clean.
Blaster approached a thin stretch of road twining like a black snake through the forest, his audios picking up the distant growl of a heavy sounding engine. Getting down as low as he could to avoid detection, he zoomed his vision in on the squat red SUV that crested the ridge. Radio antennae sprouted from the roof like weird growths, and the shiney silver front grill was graced with heavy black ramming bars. The other mechs were constantly getting on his case about his lack of weaponry so to him, the bars would be a useful touch. Not to mention the vehicle was just the right size for his large, mechly self.
The communications officer scanned the bright colored H3 as it passed his hiding spot, rechecked his coordinates with the satellite before breaking contact and sped off in a southerly direction.
Opening up a comm channel using a dedicated broadband Autobot signal, Blaster broadcasted his planetfall.
"Autobots, Autobots, do any of you read me? This is Blaster. I've just made planetfall and am en route to base coordinates. ETA is approximated at seven hours, fifty-two minutes, and thirty-two point five seconds, earth time. Respond back."
He waited patiently for contact as he continued to travel, the heavy tires of his new altform eating up the miles of asphalt.