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In another universe, another time...maybe things could have been different. A look at one of those possibilities is found here. Or perhaps a look at an untold-portion of the 'true' story. I leave it up to the reader to decide... |
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Huffer: "I'm tired...and I need a good lube job. How much further?" Ironhide: "Aw, shut yer trap. We've still got a couple of light years to go 'till we get there." Wheeljack: "It will be good to see home again. I wonder if the place has changed much?" Prowl: "We'll know soon. I just hope they have decent repair facilities. Ratchet did what he could for us, but there weren't many spare parts to go around." Ratchet: "I just can't believe they left us floating out there in a derelict ship. I wonder what happened? Must have been one heck of a party..." Brawn: "Last thing I remember is Megatron attacking our shuttle." (clutching the rough metal patch on his shoulder.) "After that, just a haze. I woke up in that busted-up funeral barge with the rest of you." Bluestreak: "We'll know soon. Now on orbital approach to moon-base 1." (He said, as he piloted the strange screw-shaped ship, with a derelict barge in-tow...) How indeed, gentle reader? How could the Autobots have left their comrades in space, lying in a dear-dead state? Perhaps we have no true answers for you; merely some assumptions made to fill in the gaps between a past and future time... Great medics were few and far between in those war-torn days. There were but a handful of Cybertonians who could tell the difference between stasis-lock and 'true' death, much less pull a 'bot back from the brink. Alpha-trion was one of those who could. So was Ratchet. But Alpha-trion was trapped within Vector Sigma. And Ratchet, unfortunately, was one of the casualties, one of the many that 'died' on the battlefield that fateful day in 2005. The other Autobots, not knowing that their friends could be brought back to life, interred the bodies as best they could, and sent them out into space. What a lonely, frustrating trip that must have been, for those who were still aware, but could not function. Feeling the energon slowly dry up in their circuits, as they slipped further and further to the point of no return. Most were equipped to go into stasis-lock for long periods of time. A few were not. Some were merely damaged in such a way that they could not be saved or revived. There were more than a few that, unfortunately, fell into this category because of less-than-timely action on the part of their comrades. Oh, the humanity! The lives that could have been saved had anyone known enough how to do it. The Quintessons knew how. But they were only concerned with one of the Autobots interred on that barge. The others were of no consequence to them. As long as they could revive The One long enough to destroy the rest of the still-living 'bots, that was good enough for them. How the best-laid plans can go awry. The one the quints tried to revive was of too-strong a will to be manipulated. Thus, their objective failed. Again. They were not without other resources, though. The other Autobots thought the Barge destroyed when the engines blew, but the explosion only took out the engineering section of the ship. The Masoleum portion of the vessel was still intact and, once towed to another location, put to use again. The Quintessons were right in the middle of reviving their army of undead Autobots when the Hate Plague hit. It was at this point that those working on the Barge Project turned on each other, to disasterous results. None of the Autobots were fully revived, and those that could finish the job (the quints) had all killed each other before the Matrix could save the galaxy. What a morbid sight that would have been, should anyone have come calling. Workbenches full of half-repaired bodies, while other bodies lie dead on the floor, their mech-fluids pooling around them. Of course, no one did come calling, and the base was quickly forgotten. How strong a spark is, that doesn't want to die! The matrix can do more than cure a plague, or destroy an evil...it can heal in ways not understood by the most brillant of minds. That which can breathe new life into a being can certainly heal an old one, even from half-a-galaxy away. But the process is slow; the spark can be restored, but it is up to the body itself to heal in many cases. Some sparks can mutate an entire body, and quickly; others take time to repair the body they have. It was in this state that Ironhide came back to life. His head barely attached to the rest of his torso(as an upper section was blown away by a fusion cannon) by the most flimsy of wires. Monitoring systems beep, and automatically increse the flow of energon to the frame. Consciousness is still a struggle; it takes time after being deactivated for so long...
TO BE CONTINUED |