The Transformers war had raged here
on earth for years and both sides in this civil war had found their way back to
Cybertron. Yet they chose to return here to carry on
their battles. Some say that they needed our energy,
others say that they wanted our planet, a few claim that it was spite alone.
Some of us give them reason for spite; I am one of those people.
Project: MANMADE
Prologue:
Soundwave
made his way cautiously towards the storage tanks. Seeing no
one nearby he decided to continue with his plan. Slowly he reached up
and pressed the button on his shoulder.
“Rumble,
Frenzy, eject. Operation: energon recovery.
Qualifier: stealth,” he softly rumbled as the cassettes launched from his
chest, quickly transforming before hitting the ground. Normally a boisterous pair, the two were
abnormally quiet, they understood the grave importance of this mission.
“Ravage, Lazerbeak eject. Operation: Perimeter
surveillance.” Just as quietly as the others Ravage hit the ground and began stalking the
area. Missions can be quite easy when proper stealth precautions are taken,
Soundwave thought as he ejected empty energon cubes from his chest.
*
Oh, crap, ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap!!
Axle Waters mind raced as he huddled against the ridge lining the edge of
the storage tank. Just my luck that’d I’d
be out here on a frelling Saturday, working on a pump that isn’t even on my
section. Axle had traded on call weekends with a co-worker just so he could
make the big paintball scenario game next weekend. All week had been quiet and
he had hoped that the trend would continue for this weekend. It didn’t turn out
that way, instead a small circulation pump on the top of number seven petrol
storage tank decided to start cavitating. Considering
the liquid assets that were kept stable by this pump, the area manager had
quickly paged Mr. Waters to handle it. The engineer (in training) had quickly
diagnosed the problem, but those thoughts were quickly lost as he realized that
a 30 ft tall robot stood between him and safety. All Axle could do was press
himself into what little cover there was and hope that they didn’t notice him. Where was Rainbow when you needed them?
*
Cavalier
was enjoying her Saturday evening tour of Earth locals. Tonight the femme was
doing her best to enjoy the northern
“Hey
honey, I don’t like it either, but it is their planet to work with,” replied
the Corvette. “Just hold out for about five miles and we’ll be through this and
back out in the open.”
“Fine,
Tracks, it may be their planet, but someone should tell them that they’re
messing it up. Bah! Let’s get through this!” The white and black Chevy sped up
gaining just a touch of distance on the blue Corvette before Tracks sped up to
join Cavalier.
“What’s
that?” Cavalier inquired a few minutes later.
“What’s
what?”
“That
dot in the sky over there. Looks like a bird, but I’ve never seen one just
quite like it before.”
Tracks
nearly locked up his ABS as he slammed on his brakes, “What’s HE doing
HERE!?!?!”
“He who?” Cavalier asked as she too stood on her brakes.
“Lazerbeak.” Tracks replied as he
opened his comlink. “Tracks to
“Blaster
here, what’s up Tracks?”
“Blaster,
I’ve spotted Lazerbeak circling over a refinery down
here off the coast. That means that Soundwave’s back.
Do we know of any Decepticon activity on Earth?”
“Negative,
Tracks. I have no clue how he got here I’ll notify the others.”
“Lets go see what they’re up to!” Interrupted
Cavalier as she sped back up to close in on the refinery.
“Hey!
Get… back… here…*sigh* Blaster I have to follow her, I’ll get back with ya later. Tracks out. Girl, you
better not get my paint scratched” Tracks muttered as he sped of after the
young Autobot.
*
Soundwave looked up at the return of Lazerbeak.
“Lazerbeak report.” Mentally
Soundwave cursed as he downloaded Lazerbeak’s
report. How could they have found us this
quickly? He thought. There was no way they could have detected him coming
on planet, of this he was certain.
By
now they had collected a large stack of energon cubes
and the tank was nearly empty. “Rumble, Frenzy start moving the energon to the base” Commanded the purple bot, as he pushed a new button on his shoulder. Suddenly a
black point appeared between Soundwave and his tapes.
It quickly expanded to accommodate the brothers and their armfuls of energon.
*
Axle’s
fears rose as he saw the portal open, but when he saw the smaller robots begin
carrying the energy cubes into the portal he gained hope. Maybe they’ll leave and not see me. I may yet survive this! Then he
saw the two Autobots approacthing.
Shit.
*
As
Cavalier drove up she spotted Soundwave and some
strange engery rippling behind him. “Halt! Or I’ll
shoot!” she yelled as she transformed into her bot
mode, pulling her pistol in one clean motion.
“Cav, No!” Tracks called out at the same moment as Soundwave reached for his shoulder cannon. Tracks looked on
in horror as the young Femme bot fired on the Decepticon. Her shot was slightly off and slammed Soundwave in the hip causing his shot to go low and spray
dirt and concrete up at the two Autobots. Soundwave stumbled, first into the storage tank, then
though his own portal automatically beginning to close behind him.
The
initial spray cleared just in time for the two cars to see a human screaming
and falling from the top of the tower. “AHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….”
The scream was abruptly cut off as he passed through the edge of the closing
portal.
Cavalier
looked on in shock at the mangled form of the human as sirens approached in the
distance.
---------------------------------------
Chapter 1
Must
fight back the pain
Searing
through my head
“Nova One, Dreamland Control
reads Long Haul is holding at angels twenty. Nova Two and Three are already in
the air. You are cleared for takeoff. Have a nice flight”
“Roger Control, Nova One
beginning takeoff run.” Lieutenant-Major Manfred “Manny” Greycastle
smiled into his mask. With his toes on the brakes he slowly applies thrust to
full military power. Its overkill with the amount of runway available, but
Manny always likes to keep his piloting skills at combat readiness. Besides the
DreamStar could launch off a carrier deck without a
catapult no problem, and that’s not in VTOL mode. As he released the brakes
Manny was rewarded with the sensation of being plastered to his seat as the g
forces built up. Then in a blink of an eye the DS was 100 ft off the ground
gear up and well on her way to cruising altitude.
“Hmmm, yeah baby!” exclaimed
the exuberant pilot as he pulled off a double barrel roll. But the initial
excitement quickly fades as Manny’s thoughts focus on the mission. He was
scheduled to take control of two automated attack drones (AAD) and lead them
through some test combat maneuvers.
Manny slid his sleek black
and red fighter into position off the right wing of a heavily modified EB-52,
ending the joy of free flight sooner than he would wish. In fingertip formation
off the left side were the two AAD’s. At a little
more than 30 feet long it continually amazed him that these could carry the
amount of firepower that they did. Unlike previous flights during this flight
each of the drones AI’s would have full access to their 50 caliber AP cannon
and the 4 advanced stinger missiles each carried.
Manny merely thought about
calling the bomber and his advanced control system opened the proper channel
for this exercise. “Long Haul, this is Nova One on station and ready for
command transfer.”
“Roger
Nova one, hold one sec for command transfer.”
Manny prepared himself for the tingling sensation that always came whenever he
had command of these drones. He thought it felt sort of like an itch, but not
enough of one to be really annoying, just slightly disconcerting.
**Twing**
“Nova One, Long Haul
requests confirm command transfer, over” Radioed an officer on board the EB-52.
“Long Haul, Nova One
confirms command transfer. Requesting permission to engage in part one of
test.”
“Request granted Nova One,
happy hunting”
****
**Ker-chuck-shin**
“What
was that!?!?” exclaimed Lt. (jg) Charles Harkness as he pushed himself out from under a large
machine. Grease up to his elbows, he stands looking at what appears to be a
very large piece of mobile artillery quite unlike any the world has seen yet.
Charles walks backwards away from the machine the thirty feet to the wall, in
order to take in the entire huge machine that was codenamed: MANMADE.
“What
the…” the Lieutenant mumbled as he walked towards the intermittent light coming
from the cockpit area. “If I didn’t know better I’d say that the automated
repair system was acting up,” he said. However, he did know better. None of the
systems were even supposed to be powered up yet! As he walked around the hangar
he stared in disbelief – it was the self-repair system! But there’s nothing to fix! he thought as
he approached the sparks shot off the welding arm. This whole system was
designed to repair damage sustained in battle, but it wasn’t doing that. Instead
it was welding the doors shut and doing something inside the command cockpit.
As
soon as Lt. Harkness realized this he sprinted for
the alarm button and dived out the nearest door as the hangar went into
lockdown.
“What’s going on?”
“MANMADE’s repair system is
doing something to the cockpit.”
“How’s that even possible? It’s supposed to still have
the manual power blocks installed.”
“I don’t know, but it is.”
“Could the AAD AI have infected it?”
“No way, the systems weren’t connected. Period. Separate isolated computer
systems.”
“Better get the DreamStar and her pilot back
down here in case we have to take drastic measures.”
“On it.”
“May I suggest that we send the AAD’s
to Red Sands for emergency recovery? I don’t think it’d be a good idea for MANMADE
to get in control range of them if it’s acting up.”
“Agreed. Have Long Haul
recover there too and get them reloaded into the bird ASAP. Don’t need to leave
these guys hanging out there.”
“Sir, we’re picking up something over the hangar’s
intercom.”
“Put it on speaker”
“Sir, yes sir.”
*click* “Welcome
my son, welcome to the machine……”
Almost got it! Manny thought as he
completed the tight immelman followed by a tight
spiral, putting the target drone directly in front of him. Slowly he began to
squeeze the trigger, when suddenly a pair of cannon bursts erupted from either
side of him. He released the trigger as the drone spiraled down to crash into
the desert floor. Damn, those AAD’s are better than I thought! Well they won’t get the
next target before I do. Lt. Greycastle thought
as he locked on to the next target.
He
was just beginning to focus on his next target when the radio interrupted him,
“Knock it off, knock it off, knock it off!” Manny
swiftly brought his wings level and Nova two and three neatly followed suit.
“Nova one, return to base. Something’s wrong with project
MANMADE and we want you there to help control it. Long Haul you have command of
Novas two and three, Control out.” Manny felt the sharp ping as the drones’
command line was quickly moved over to long haul.
“Ouch!
Gimme some warning next time Control, that switchover
hurt. Nova one returning to base.”
“Sorry,
Nova one, but Watchtower gave this red priority.”
“Roger
that command, be there in about a minute.” Literally he thought as he accelerated
up to somewhere beyond mach 3.
*
“Command,
this is Nova One on station outside hangar 3. Awaiting orders,” reported the
young pilot as his craft deftly changed from a graceful fighter jet to an
imposing mechanoid, landing gently on the taxiway.
“Nova
One, be advised that there are three security tanks rolling in. Orders are to
remain outside and monitor the situation. Further instructions will be given
momentarily.”
Figures,
he thought. They’re never ready to
take action. The passive sensors began to sweep the area with the new
combat AI filtering out all the local “noise.” The first thing that registered
as out of the ordinary was the fact that MANMADE was already warmed up. Next
the audio filters picked up and amplified the sounds from inside the hangar.
“What’s this? Who left the radio on in the hangar?” mumbled the pilot as he
recognized the last few seconds of Pink Floyd’s Welcome to the Machine. As it ended the music smoothly transferred
to Brain Damage.
“Control, can you turn off
the radio in the hangar? I can’t hear anything over it!”
“Negative Nova One. Power
has already been cut to the hangar, the sounds seem to
be coming from the vehicle itself. Continue monitoring. Control out.”
Manny sat there watching as
now the thermal imaging system had zoned in enough to watch all the miniscule
heat transfers within the machine. It was quite an amazing sight as he realized
that he was watching the automated repair system doing something to the
test-bed mech. “Oh crap! I left my mp3 player in there! Damnit!”
he exclaimed as the tanks rolled up. He hadn’t realized that he’d been mouthing
the words to the well-remembered songs. Nor did he realize that all the songs
played could be grouped under the label psychedelic rock. Slowly the thermal
signature of the engine compartment rose. Suddenly the point defense turrets
came to life and the automated repair system shut down and folded away. Soon he
could see and hear the huge mech moving, just ever so
slightly inside the hangar. If he didn’t know better the Lieutenant would have
said that it seemed like something was testing this out methodically, much like
a person would treat a limb fresh out of a cast.
“Control, I’m reading
movement and weapon activity. Please advise”
“Nova One, maintain position.
If it attempts to leave the compound you are authorized to use lethal force to
detain it. I say again, do NOT let it leave the premises under any
circumstances.”
“Roger that, Command. Nova One is weapons hot.” Great! How the hell are 3 automated tanks
and my DStar going to be able to handle this
monster?! As Manny settled into his
seat, trying to prepare for what he knew to be a hopeless battle, he almost
failed to notice the rising heat signature of the projects massive main cannon.
<guitar
rifts play>
“…Click, Click…”
“Oh, Shi…” Lt. Greycastle couldn’t finish the exclamation as he poured
power into the main engines, sending the agile mech
hurtling into the air.
*BOOM* <continue playing Saliva’s Click, Click, Boom>
The hangar door hurtled off
its massive hinges following the near unstoppable blast from MANMADE’s cannon. The tanks had no warning and no way to
dodge the multi ton door. Fortunately
these tanks are remote controlled Manny thought as he watched the door
crush them into rubble. Suddenly the DStar began to
fall towards the left. A moderate shard
of metal had damaged the left leg, and he was quickly loosing altitude at
balance. Swiftly he dropped to the ground and leveled his cannon at the
oncoming howitzer.
This was the first time
Manny had seen the new project since it had received it’s
chameleon camouflage system and even at 100 yards the monstrosity was hard to
see. Seeing it turn and begin heading down the taxiway he let out a slight sigh
as he leveled his GAU-8M at the retreating machine and fired off a short burst.
His heart rose as the burst solidly hit the center of the large tank’s body and
the active cammo sputtered and faded.
Unfortunately he could now
see that the burst of 30mm shells did absolutely nothing to the new armor plating
on the beast. Manny watched on in a sick sort of awe as the large machine
smoothly transformed from the largest mobile howitzer ever into one of the
largest mechs he’d ever seen. Slowly the mech turned and squared off with the DStar.
Manny felt as if MANMADE’s optics were cutting
straight through the DStar’s armor plating and
scanning him personally, when suddenly the machine unleashed a torrent of point
defense fire sending shuddering waves through the smaller mech. As Manny
tumbled backward with most of the cockpit lit up with failure warnings he saw
another tank skid around the corner and drew a bead on its target. With barely
a turn of the head, the monster leveled his fusion cannon at the small tank and
proceeded to atomize it.
Manny’s head ached with the
feedback he was getting from his control system. His mech,
unlike other transectors, operated with a neurofeedback lead from the pilot. This allowed for faster
transformations and maneuvers, but also happened to cause the pilot intense
pain when the mech took damage.
Through the waves of pain,
the lieutenant felt more than saw the larger mech
approach and lift up his mech by its neck. What’s Jonathan Davis doing here he
thought just before he blacked out.
*…’cause it’s all in the family…*
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
Chapter 2
New
body, form, spirit
Must
protect those I love
After inquiring at the
floor’s nurse station, Luke MacArin walked slowly
down one of the many nameless sterile halls. I don’t like hospitals, thought the youth. Never have, never will. Last time he was in a hospital he met the
shade of Air Commander Starscream, an experience he
didn’t want to repeat. Slowly he made his way towards room 129. Quiet, even for a Hospital, though I suppose
a coma ward would be. He didn’t want to be here, but he was assigned the
task. Once from his friend, and again by his boss.
Quietly he opened the door
to find the standard, silent, sterile hospital room. Unlike other rooms he’d
been in this one had a wonderful view through the open curtains, with the
setting sun streaming in. Just as quietly he shut the door behind himself.
“Well that was silly,” he murmured as he turned back towards the bed. “You
probably can’t even… hear… me.” He stood shocked looking at the body, what he’d
thought were rays of sunlight, he now noticed, were
something much different. As he moved to the foot of the bed he saw white
strands of material stretched from the comatose body straight up, and seemingly
through the ceiling.
Strangely the texture of
these chords seemed familiar but for a moment he couldn’t place it. “Looks like
freakin’ Starscream!” he
quietly exclaimed as he admired the ghostly tendrils. He slowly reached out
towards the fibers and as his hand approached he started to get some feeling he
couldn’t quite place from it. It sounded almost like music.
“Hello, who are you?” Luke
jumped and turned to face the voice. Standing just inside the door was a man
and a woman, both with gray streaks in their hair. Neither
looked like they had slept in days. Must
be the parents thought the teen.
“Hi, um, my name’s Luke.”
“Hello Luke,” Replied the
father as they moved to either side of the bed. “So what brings you visiting? I
don’t remember Axle mentioning anything about a Luke. You a
friend?”
“Well, not really no. I’m just here for a friend of mine.”
“Hrm,
okay. Where’s your friend?”
“She’s waiting outside.”
“Invite her up. Really, if
she’s a friend of Axle’s she should come up here. Might help
him some. He can hear us, you know?”
“Well she doesn’t exactly
like hospitals. I think you can see her from this window though.” Luke moved
over to the window searching for the white and black car. “There,” he said
pointing towards the Cavalier.
“Why does she wait in the
car?”
“Well, actually she, kinda, is the car.” For a quiet room, Luke was unnerved at
the sudden silence. He turned towards the father, wondering what had happened.
He stepped back in shock when he saw the hatred in the father’s eyes. “Wha…?”
“Get. Out.”
The older man nearly whispered in a voice cold enough to freeze the air. “Your ailen freinds are the ones that
put my son here! We're not interested in their wars or their problems. So get
out, NOW!”
Knowing when he wasn’t
welcome had kept him alive this long, so he hurried from the room trying to be
discrete. He hurried out of the building and hopped into the driver’s side of
Cavalier. “Well that could have gone better,” he mumbled as they headed out of
the parking lot.
“How is he?” the car asked
as they started off back towards Autobot
headquarters.
"As good as any other
person who's in a coma I guess, but something strange is going on here. That
and now his parents seem to have the hate on for your kind and those of us who
associate with you. They seem to blame you for his condition."
"But I was trying to save him!" She cried.
"True, but they don't
see it that way. They see that a transformer, Soundwave,
did this to him. They don't distinguish between you and him. It's like with me
and other street people. We're a completely different class, and society
doesn't distinguish one of us from the next."
***
"Unnggg....."
Lt. Greycastle groaned as he stirred in his bed.
"What happened?" He asked as his eyes fluttered open. Slowly his
senses activated and he took in his surroundings. He could feel the I.V. in the
back of his hand and he heard the hum of the machines that monitored him.
Turning his gaze from the dull white ceiling tiles, he caught a glimpse of an
orderly scurrying out the door. As the door closed Manny noted the armed
military guard standing just outside the room.
Well at least they got me
out in time. I wonder how much was destroyed. Manny began to carefully
gauge his current physical status. He felt a few major bruises on his shoulders
and hips, but that was expected from his chair straps. Most of the pain was
currently a constant dull throb in his head. He shut his eyes and tried to
concentrate the throb away, but was unsuccessful.
When he heard the door open
his eyes snapped open to find his boss, General Sims, followed by a doctor. He
smiled weakly as the doctor shuffled past the general and began to check the
Lieutenant's chart against readings from some of the machines. Manny glanced at
the general and got the 'We'll talk about this later' look.
"So, how bad is it
doc?"
"Not too bad really, a
minor concussion, a cracked collar bone, and a host of bruises," the
doctor smiled. "We'll have you out of here by mid afternoon."
"Thanks. No offense,
but I never really liked hospitals anyway."
"No one does, it's ok Actually we were kidna worried for
a while there. Generally concussion victims don't sleep for two days."
"Two
days?! I was out for two days?"
"Yep. You
must be charmed, to have survived a high speed landing gear failure and not
sustain any injuries worse than these." Now the doctor was holding Manny's
chart at his waist and was looking expectedly at his patient. Manny locked
stares with the doctor. At the edge of his vision he saw General Sims nod
slightly.
"Well doc," the LT
replied, "this new X-37 is pretty hot stuff, but prototypes always have
greater possibilities for failure."
“Lieutenant! You
know better than that!” barked General Sims. “I’m sorry doc, I’m going to have
to ask you to forget that you heard that” explained the general as he led the
doctor from the room.
“Of course, sir. I understand.”
“Good.
If everything is in order I’ll have a car here for the Lieutenant at
“Yes, he should be ready by
then.” The doctor, trying to show that he understood the situation, quickly
added, “I’ll have his room isolated. I’ll take care of all his needs
personally.”
“Yes, that’ll be good. Thank
you for your cooperation.”
---------------------------------------
Chapter 3
Now
I find myself out in space, ever searching, seeking, yearing for the way home.
Months later...
"Nothing
really special to report right now." Reported
Kup. "Its just
been disurbingly quiet. Galvatron
is still consolidating his forces on Char and has been seen off planet only for
minor supply raids. Interestingly enough Soundwave has
not been seen since that incident with Cav and
Tracks."
"We should hit them now
before they gather their forces and attack us!" Ultra Magnus gestured
angrily at the starchart in front of him. "I'm
tired of always being on the defensive."
"I'd rather not have to
be fighting at all, Magnus." Rodimus Prime shot
back at Magnus. "More importatnly we can't
abandon Earth or Seibertron until we KNOW where all
of Galvitron's forces are for certian.
We think that most of his forces are on Charr, which
makes some stratigic sense, but there are too many
units unaccounted for. No, for now we'll stay here." Rodimus
picked up a pad. "In the mean time continue the training of the newer
bots."
"Yes sir."
"Kup,
I need you to push the intel
people. We need to know where ALL the active cons are."
"Right
on it, sir."
"Oh, and has there been
any update on Cavalier's human?"
"Nothing new, he's
still in a coma as far as we know, and his family still won't talk with
us."
**
"Waddaya
mean she's going to be down for another month?! She's aready
been down three!" Exasperated Manny gesgulated
rudely at the phone and the invisible party on the other end.
"Sorry, sorry, fine. Thanks for the update." He slammed the phone
back into its cradle.
Despite the recent incedent, he had recovered and obtained flight clearance
shortly more than one month afterwards.
Spending the following two months not flying had left him uneasy.