Driver 2

Driver 2

Planetfall

A Transformers Prime Fanfiction

     "Were closing in on our landing vector Commander," a voice calmly stated.
     Commander Holdfast nodded in acknowledgment.
     "Reduce speed to subsonic and brace for atmospheric entry."
     Alarms began to sound. Energon readouts were redlining across the Autobot ship.
     "Offline those alarms," snarled the first officer. "We don't need to waste energon having some scrapping computer tell us we're low on energon." The noise cut off abruptly as some subordinate obeyed. In the ensuing silence the ship could be heard straining under the stress of atmospheric entry. She had been built for it; every scoop and curve on her hull was designed to plunge into the gasses of any world imaginable. Still everybot felt a surge of relief as they sighted solid land. The ship impacted with the ground roughly. Sparks flew from half a dozen overworked systems. The commander waited patiently as the crew rallied from the almost crash.
     The first officer appeared at his side with the preliminary report. The commander let his shoulders relax slightly. The inertial dampeners had held. The ship was structurally undamaged. Nobot had been seriously injured in the crash, any more than they already were.
     "Hardstrike, prepare a reconnaissance team," the commander ordered. "We have but few cycles before the Decepticons are in range. I want as much energon in our storage bay as we can fit before they get here."
     "Captain!" the first officer acknowledged.
     The commander triggered the comm. and began issuing orders throughout the ship. Repair crews began reparing the damaged sections, engineering crews prepped the drilling equipment, and medical teams tended the injured. One particularly insistent medic approached the captain with determination on his faceplates, but his commander studiously ignored him.
     "Captain Holdfast. Cleftplate needs to scan you for injuries," the medic stated firmly but respectfully. "She requests your presence in sickbay immediately."
     Holdfast nodded absently and murmured something along the lines of he'd be along shortly.  The medic arched and optic ridge at that and spoke again.
     "Cleftplate informed me that if you didn't immediately accompany me to her I was to suggest that she might be needing a cube," the medic's voice faltered a bit at the end as his captain's faceplates stiffened in some unreadable emotion.
     The commanding officer stared hard at the healer for a moment and something that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle came from the direction of the first officer. Holdfast shot him a venomous look that wilted the medic, who wasn't even his intended target, but had no effect on his executive officer and oldest friend.
     "Hardstrike," he growled, "you have the bridge."
O
O
     The sickbay was nearly empty when the captain stormed in. One glance at his scowling faceplates caused several sudden, miraculous cures and within moments the space was clear except for the CMO and the Captain.
     "Really Cleftplate?" he demanded, "blackmail?"
     "You are here, it worked," the bulky fem laconically replied without turning. "Get on the berth."
     Knowing an argument would be pointless the captain growled and stepped into the vertical med berth. Cleftplate's shimmering green armor caught the sickbay lights as she ran the scanners over him. Once that was done she began administering various injections; the captain was privately certain that this was more to fulfill some latent sadistic tendency than any real physical need of his but could never prove it. Once that was done she wordlessly began realigning mesh plates battered by hard use and long inattention.
     "It's looking good," Holdfast finally broke the silence.
     Cleftplate arched an optic ridge at him in query.
     "The drills are already harvesting energon from the vein we discovered," he explained, "and it hasn't degraded too far from the state it was in when it was stored on this planet after the battle. In just a few clicks we'll have enough refined energon to be able to refuel the ship and provide for the needs of the crew until we rendezvous with the rest of the fleet at Regulon Four."
     The medic let out a pleased grunt and gave a stubborn joint a particularly rough jolt. Captain Holdfast winced as the plate snapped back into place. He had been putting basic maintenance off too long he knew. But there was always so much to do. He let his processor begin wandering off to the crew rosters while his determined medic continued her ministrations.
O
O
     A sturdy white mech paused before a hatch. His broad, battered shoulders stiffened as he prepared himself to enter the commander's quarters. A passing vehicon leered at him smugly but the miner chose to ignore it. He knew what rumors went around the ship. It didn't matter. He triggered his com and the portal dilated open revealing darkness beyond.
     The mech's faceplates twisted in disgust. Was she trying to intimidate him? She knew as well as anybot that his vision extended well into every know spectrum. Better than most, his inner mechanisms clenched as the memories of what she had done to him in the past resurfaced.
     "Won't you come in my love?" a silky voice purred from the darkness.
     The mech strode into the quarters and stood impassively staring at the fem lounging against the bulkhead.  There was no denying she was beautiful. Her mesh glowed smoothly far into the infrared spectrum and her optics burned like stars in the darkness. Each band of her lithe frame hummed with power and her eight limbs swayed in constant but subtle motion. That physical beauty had lost all allure for him long ago however. Now he could only see his brothers who had died at the end of her long cruel talons.
     When he had first seen the hunter she had fascinated him. In her every movement there was power, aggression, and poise completely foreign to the world of miners he had known before Megatron had claimed his unit for the Decepticons. She had made overtures towards him which the mech had eagerly accepted despite the warnings of older Cons. It had cost much time and pain before he had realized his mistake.  Now he always blocked his bond when he entered her presence alone. There was no point in exposing the remains of his family to her sadistic whims.
     "The stars are lovely in this sector aren't they?" she asked sweetly as she moved to stand closer to him.
     A long black arm wrapped around his shoulders and the mech couldn't help flinching away, mentally cursing his weakness when he saw the pleased smile that flickered across her faceplates.
     "Aren't you curious about your mission?" the fem murmured into his audio receptor.
     The miner didn't move, didn't respond. A look of annoyance set itself in the beautiful faceplates and she dug her stroking claws in a bit deeper, drawing a thin line of energon from his mesh. Still he didn't respond; mere physical pain had long ago ceased to motivate the mech. The black fem looked like she was about to go on when she suddenly stiffened and her optics went out of focus.
     "Ah, pity," she muttered, "out of time. Too bad."
     The fem pulled away from the mech and took a more military pose. The mech felt a data package ping against his CPU and dutifully opened it.
     "Commander Deadlock orders you to take your entire unit and deliver a package to the Autobot ship below us," the fem informed him. "They have landed and begun harvesting energon. You will be provided with an atmospheric entry vessel. Once you land you will proceed immediately to drill to the coordinates given to you and sabotage the ship in the indicated manner, after the completion of which you will rendezvous with the energon retrieval team. Any questions?"
     "Who will you be keeping here?"
     An odd smile split her face plates.
     "Weren't you listening? I said you were ordered to take your entire crew."
     The mech stiffened. Keeping one of his unit hostage while the rest were on missions had been the standard for every job since their first and only failed attempt at defection. A faint warning rang in his mind, but if this meant they were together he certainly wasn't going to complain.
     "Is that all?" he asked stiffly.
     "Yes, you'd better get going. Dreadlock doesn't like to be kept waiting. As you well know," a small chuckle escaped her after that last remark but the mech refused to respond.
     The miner bowed low.
     "As you say commander Araichnid."
     She watched him leave, letting her optics linger on his small but powerful form as it was highlighted in the portal one last time. Something small and weak twinged somewhere deep within her spark. With a start the ebony fem realized that she would miss the nameless miner. A sudden urge to call him back one last time flickered through her CPU. As she had done so many times in the past the Decepticon shook the odd and somewhat disconcerting compassionate impulse off and proceeded to disinfect her talons.