Transformers: Remnants of the Past, A.K.A. GIANT FUCKING ROBOTS!

The desert breeze whistled dryly, dustily over the lone, cracked and baked road that stretched itself out languidly over the flat landscape. Nothing for miles around grew more than a foot high, except for the occasional cactus. The sun burned down from a cloudless sky as an eclectic assortment of oddly out-of-place vehicles emerged from the heat haze.

The pack was lead by a powerful Semi rig with gleaming chrome and a blue and red flame job. Following behind him were two big, black SUVs, one with a bucket in the back, the other larger and more armoured. They were accompanied by a very recognisable shape, straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster, the Tumbler. A green rescue vehicle rode alongside it as a white Audi sportscar overtook. A lean, green Kawasaki weaved between them all as an old steam train chugged along the railroad tracks a few hundred yards to the left. A Formula One racing car shot out in front of the Semi as a massive, mobile crane brought up the rear of the pack.

Silently they traveled across the expanse of sand and shrub towards a looming mesa in the distance. A small dirt track led off the asphalt and passed through a set of chain-link gates into an abandoned courtyard filled with old nondescript crates. All ten vehicles left the road, except for the steam train, which suddenly seemed to hop from the tracks and roll through the desert sand to follow the others.

They barreled through the gates and came to a stop in the courtyard, facing what appeared to be a boarded-up tunnel. The vehicles sat still for what seemed like minutes before each of them hissed to life, and seemed to unfold where they stood. Metal plates retracted back, rotated, changed orientation. Wheels spun and split, panels flipped over and metal limbs began to emerge from each of them as they stood up to take on a humanoid appearance.

The final gears, pistons and hinges clicked into place as the now robots loomed over the dusty courtyard, surveying it with a calm intensity. One of the larger robots, the Tumbler, reached a hand down to the ground to deposit something, no someone. It was a girl with blue hair and to her shoulders clung a tiny robot, no more than eight inches tall.

The largest of the metallic beings, the former crane, also reached down to the ground, leaving a slightly bewildered young man with glasses standing at his massive feet.

The blue and red robot, which had been a Semi truck moments before and was now the second tallest, turned to the group and gestured behind it at the monolithic mesa. "Agent Simmons has informed me that this natural outcrop houses a long-abandoned Sector Seven command centre," it intoned in a deep, masculine voice with a hint of measured authority and wisdom to it. "It should serve well as our new base of operations. Major Lennox was informed of our location personally. I do not wish to risk the Decepticons tapping into our communications again. Nevertheless, he knows where to find us should the humans require our assistance."

Looking up to his leader, the smaller black SUV robot pointed what appeared to be a pair of arm-mounted cannons at the wooden barrier covering the end of the tunnel. "Want me to blast it, Optimus?" It asked. "No, Ironhide," Optimus replied, "We'll do this the old-fashioned way, through the grease of our gears." With that, the large robot strode towards the barricade and knelt down, beginning to rip up the railway timbers that blocked the entrance. Several of the others joined him in this task.

Remaining behind was a bulky-looking robot, which had previously been the armoured SUV. It turned around and stared pointedly off into the desert, being careful not to trample the couple of humans beneath it. Ramraid remained silent for a good, long time before kneeling down and turning his head slowly towards the humans and the smaller robot perched atop the female's shoulders. "I'm sorry you were dragged into our mess, Abby, Dex," he spoke with soft, rumbling intonations that resonated years of experience and were tinged with melancholy. His faceplate retracted before he resumed speaking, revealing an oddly human face made up of moving metal plates. "I would not wish this life upon any sentient being..."

The steam from Cog's transformation whipped over the ground before disappearing into the desert breeze. Every slight motion he made as he looked over the long viewed sand created the sound of gears and pumps moving with him. He looked at Optimus and sighed, he'd remember that face for billions of years no matter what. But it wasn't going to help him understand what he was going on about even though he tried to explain on the way there. Cog kept himself in the dark for a reason, because he didn't want to be apart of the war, and yet he was dragged into it anyway.

Cog would do anything for old friends, but this was really grinding his gears. He was sick of fighting and didn't want any part of it. But unfortunately, all he could do was sigh again before turning to the others. He really didn't know when or how and alliance was set up with the humans, but he decided to leave the subject alone and go with it.

The old bot walked forward, small puffs of steam blowing out from his ankles as he stepped down, and moved to help the others. He looked down at the humans as he past and shook his head. "Nothin' but a nuisance."

"You know, I don't think that's fair," Gigabite commented on Cog's degrading remark on the puny humans, all the while stretching by turning sharply left and right while keeping his feet rotted in the ground, producing a series of metallic clangs from where his spine should have been had he been a vertebrate. "Considering it was you who brought this world to their planet."

However, he immediately regretted saying 'you' instead of 'we' when he realised how he had separated himself from the group. "I mean, not that the fighting is unjustified," he hurried to add, "but keep in mind that you are-- we are-- our race are guests around here."

He mentally chided himself for reprimanding the team's lead veteran, and probably the one who regretted this war the most. He turned to the two humans, opting to make ammends on a different front. "Look, he doesn't man that, he's just a bit old-fashioned--" his audio emitters silenced abruptly as he once again realised he had chosen the wrong words.

"Uh, I'm just gonna go over there and try to dust myself a bit..." his voice faded awkwardly as he took a bit of distance from the group and kicked a rock frustratedly.

"Ah come on Rammy, it ain't all that bad," Tonic piped up from his perch on Abby's shoulders. "'Cept for, ya know, the little wuss humans who get in the way." He jumped down off her shoulders, jogging to join the other Autobots before she could dump him off her shoulders herself or take a swing at him or both. He grinned at Gigabite's attempts to pull himself out of the whole he was digging for himself and shook his head a little when he didn't quite manage it. "Dude," he said, giving Gigabite a friendly punch in the foot as he passed him to go add his mostly useless but ever enthusiastic hand to the excavating effort. "Smooth."

Abby had tried to take a swipe at Tonic as he jumped down off her shoulders, settling instead for just glaring at him as he bounced off out of her range. "No it's cool," Abby said, as if in reply to both Gigabite and Ramraid. "If Shadowbolt and all you guys hadn't shown up when you did..." she trailed off, not really in the mood to finish that thought. "What I mean is, this is way better than the alternative, so, thanks." She glanced over sideways at Dex, giving him a small smile, wondering how he wound up getting himself involved in this whole thing.

Chunky shot out of the ground at an alarming rate, because he was a "fired" autobot he decided to have been neutral instead seeing as Megatron was too evil and Optimus Prime was too mean. But then again, he wasn't being commanded by Optimus at the time. Chunky opened up and started causing mayhem all over the world. "BAM! You got hit by a smooth criminal" Chunky sung to himself as he mowed down thousands of people with his hidden nuke launcher, "Taste a bit of transformer mayhem! This is what you get if you get a fired autobot! Mwahahaha".

Blitz looked around at the desolate wasteland set before him. It was definitely a change of pace from the bustling cities he was accustomed to, but at least there was plenty of space around to run wide open.

He ran over to the other Autobots who were prying the boards off the entrance, paying no attention to the small humans he passed by. Being one of the smaller bots, they all towered over his small frame.

"Can I help? What can I do? I'll be glad to be of service. How long are we going to stay holed up here, because I'm itchin' for a little action? Huh? Huh?"

Blitz asked noone in particular and his highly accelerated pace in speech might annoy some, but it was part of his hyperactive personality. The last thing he wanted to do was sit in a hole and wait for orders.

-------------------

When Abby turned and smiled at him, Dex turned his head quickly to avoid eye contact. She was cute, but really, this whole situation was just overwhelming him. Giant...Fucking...Robots...in disguise! It was only days ago, that Dex was sitting quietly at his computer lab at home, but now he was dragged into something he still couldn't come to grips with.

On the way here, Speedstreak had told him of a war lasting millenia between the Autobots and the Decepticons, two opposing forces that inhabited a highly technological world called Cybertron. Dex briefly smiled as he thought about what technological wonders existed on that alien planet. But this thought had to take a backseat as the enormity of his current situation set in. He had been taken against his will by an alien Formula 1 racecar, and he was now stuck in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles away from any city. There was no electricity and worse yet, that meant no computers. While he knew the Autobots' intentions were good, there was just a part of him that wished he wasn't where he was.

This post has been edited by Runt82 on Jul 14 2009, 03:33 PM

After setting Abby down, Shadowbolt looked around cautiously. Moving a group of this size was dangerous, and this was his fault in the first place for not focusing on losing the Decepticons. He might as well be careful. He stood by Abby like a silent guardian, a watchful protector. He was still bothered by the encounter with Sirene, his mind and body strained. The others closest to him would notice something wrong. Well, more wrong than usual. He had been brooding since the death of his lover, and they knew either the fight with Krieg or Sirene was gettting to him.

Abby was happy to notice Shadowbolt was staying near her. She felt better with him around, safer. But even though she'd only known him a few hours, Abby had a knack for telling when something was eating at someone, and something was definitely getting to the Autobot watching over her. He'd been silent almost the entire trip over, almost from the moment the Decepticons retreated from their attack. Abby looked back at the robot towering above them. "Hey, you OK?" she asked.

Shadowbolt shook his head. "No." He paused, looking to the north then down at Abby. He crouched down to her level. "Sirene, the Decepticon that attacked you in the base, we have a history. There's... there's a reason I decided to spare her, even though I truly wanted to."

He stopped, not sure if anything more would be relevant. "...Its a long story...

Abby smiled, taking a moment to look around at the whole lot of desert-y nothing around them. A whole lot of desert-y nothing it wasn't looking like either she or Dex would be allowed to leave any time soon. She turned back to Shadowbolt, giving him a small shrug and a smirk.

"I've got time."

---

Tonic paused from his feeble (by Autobot standards anyway) efforts to haul back one of the timbers when Blitz not so much spoke as sprinted verbally. "B, dude," he said looking up at the hyperactive ninja. "Take a breath."

"I know right?" Gigabite agreed helplessly, shrugging with a sigh and walking over to the where most of the bigger Bots huddled, ripping apart the blocked entrance, and made with what he could to help hasten the job.

"Sirene infiltrated the Autobots a long time ago. Back on Cybertron. She befriended me, and we became..." He tried to find the right words. "Its hard to put it in words humans can comprehend... the closest thing I can think of is 'lovers'. Back then, I built much of the equipment and weapons we used in the war. She began selling the specs of my equipment to the Decepticons behind my back, and we started losing some battles we shouldn't have." He glanced at Cog before looked at Abby again. "We didn't know what was going on... and after a few months, we started winning again and my new equipment could stand up to our enemies. Sirene had stopped giving her superiors information, probably because by then she had actually begun to love me. Guilty, she came clean with me and told me what she was... a spy. I'm sure you can tell how humiliating it must have been to know that the person you loved was the enemy..."

He paused, looking at the desert once more. "I told her that if I saw her again, I'd kill her... I didn't even keep my word on that."

This post has been edited by Astoroth on Jul 14 2009, 10:46 PM

"Ha ha. You know me. Here, let me make this easier for us," Blitz speedily replied. A green glowing energy blade protruded from his right forearm, and he began slicing the extra pieces of timber in half so he and Tonic could carry them.

This post has been edited by Runt82 on Jul 14 2009, 08:20 PM

A whistle blew when Gigabite told Cog off. The nerve of that little punk, he had no idea what he'd been through and here he is telling straight in his face that it was his fault. If this was back on Cybertron, and this was one of his soldiers, Cog would have not resisted the urge to pummel the servos out of the little scrap heap. But then again, if this was back on Cybertron, things wouldn't be how they were now.

Then again he was right. The autobots were guests, protectors of the humans. Like it or not, one time or another Cog would have to deal with them. But he had never protected something so fragile before, he knew it was going to prove to be quite a task knowing how many decepticons were after them for some reason. But his role was central defense, here and on Cybertron, and by the All Spark he wasn't going to let another die in his presence.

Cog looked over and caught the gaze of Shadowbolt and narrowed his optics. He didn't like that look, but he couldn't hear what him and the human were talking about. Damn audio receptors, going on the fritz. He'd have Ratchet look at them later.

The old bot walked towards Shadowbolt and the two humans, who would probably feel the warm rushes of steam blowing towards them as he approached. Cog stood over the three of them and sighed, "I... apologize for what I said earlier."

Ramraid shook his head at Tonic as he ran off. The seasoned warrior disapproved of the little bot's constant jibes and failure to take anything seriously, but like the other Autobots, he tolerated them.

Ramraid nodded solemnly at the pair of humans, "Just be aware that life as you know it may never be the same again. There's no telling how long the Decepticons plan to occupy Earth. We transformers have existed for millennia and will continue to do so as long as our parts function. It could be many of your lifetimes before we manage to drive them off."

Leaving them with that depressing thought, Ramraid stood and strode over towards the barricade that had almost been torn down. Approaching his leader, he asked, "Optimus, if this bunker is designed for humans, how are we to conduct our operations here?" Pausing in his work, Optimus Prime turned to face his old friend and lowered his vocal emitters so that the others could not hear. "I learned from Jetfire's memory banks that this is the former site of tests done on captured Decepticons during the second World War. Years later, it was retrofitted with reverse-engineered Cybertronian technology and Allspark energy was used to attempt to create new transformers to operate it."

Glancing briefly at Gigabite as he said this, his blue optics then re-focused on Ramraid as a smile played across his metallic features. "Despite it's sordid history. it should accommodate us well."

Ramraid couldn't help but display a small measure of amusement when Optimus mentioned the testing of Decepticons here. The humans probably put them through quite a bit of suffering before they were eventually stripped down for parts. "Yes, yes it should," he replied and gladly set to work removing the rest of the boards.

Once the tunnel entrance was clear, a road became visible on the inside, but vanished into shadow a short distance from the mouth of the tunnel. Turning to the Autobots and humans alike, Optimus intoned. "We will have to travel three kilometres down this subterranean passage to access the main base. Watch your crane arm, Heavy Metal." The big bot looked up at his over-sized appendage and groaned in his rumbling voice, "Always getting in the way, aren't you?"

"Autobots," Optimus called, "Roll out!" With that, his components shifted back into their truck configuration and he set off down the long, dark tunnel. Ramraid remained at the tunnel entrance and would be the last to go inside. "You heard Boss Bot, let's get moving, before we're seen." As those words left his vocoder, he chuckled internally. There wasn't a single sentient for miles around.

As the Autobots made their way down the arched concrete tunnel, they would notice a significant drop in air temperature. So would Abby and Dex. There were no lights to speak of. Probably to prevent the entrance being seen at night or to disorient potential detainees.