Transformers: Deep Space Exploration Team

by TcogArchitect


Chapter Two: New Places, New Faces

Published November 13th, 2012
Chapter two: New Places, New Faces

When he awoke from the induced stasis of the modifier pods, the first thing Dark Lance noticed was the hair. He had done this before, but the addition of organic structures to his body always made him feel like he had replaced another being's consciousness. The doors opened with a hiss, allowing him to step out and look at himself in the light. He was still dark blue, but was now on all fours, another sensation he was not unfamiliar with, but did not find entirely comfortable at first, either. He moved each piece of his body in rapid succession, ensuring that everything was still there and that he could move it all properly. His flight packs had unfolded and flattened out, refolding into a position which made them look just like natural wings, feathers and all. His sickles had been modified so that the blades could separate from themselves into a multitude of flexible, black fibers to make up his new tail, with the blades on his shield doing the same on his head to form a short, spiky mane directly behind his lance which, of course, now masqueraded as a horn on his forehead. His shoulder guards were now unfolded down his arms to become his front legs, with his original legs spinning backwards to achieve the long, powerful rear legs of the creature he was mimicking. His chest plate had extended out and up to form a new neck and head for his disguise.

He looked around after finishing his self-diagnostic to see his team finishing each of theirs. Standing in front of him now were three equine forms: a plain, somewhat feminine horse, with a light brown coat and a dark brown mane, which split in the middle to fall equally to her left and right, and a similarly colored tail; a creature that Dark Lance finally remembered from Earth mythology as a pegasus with a bright yellow coat and equally bright green messy mane and tail; and a pure white unicorn with a short, dark blue, slicked-back mane and dark blue, flowing tail. When they were finished, they went back into the bridge to clean up before continuing to the next order of business: the Decepticons.

"First of all," Dark Lance began, "we need to figure out how far away they landed from our ship."

Bunker carefully pressed a few buttons with his relatively clunky new appendages, and the holo-display then showed a curved line to indicate where the planet's surface was, as two small dots came into view, tracing two more lines down to the first. A number came up, indicating the distance between the two impact sites. It was not far.

Dark Lance considered the lines for a moment, then issued a command. "Aerial map of space between the crash points," he told the computer. The lines disappeared, and a large map of the area between the Autobot and Decepticon ships appeared in its place. To the northwest, there was a small town. A forest extended between the two crash sites, with the Decepticon ship itself smashed into the west side of a mountain, piercing it, while their own had slammed into the ground in the south side of the forest, digging a long furrow through the foliage with its engines before burying itself partially, with the rest of its bulk concealed from the town by the forest trees. Dark Lance looked intently at the map for a few seconds, before finally making his decision.

"Burnout, you go to the town, and make sure that the Decepticons are not already there. Bunker, start repairing the main ship functions. Skybreaker, you and I will head for the Decepticons' ship and try to find out if they are still functional. No one is to engage. If something happens, radio the others immediately. We don't know enough about this planet yet to get involved with the locals, so try to keep low profiles until we do."

The others nodded, and started on their assigned tasks. Bunker went further into the ship to get his tools, while the others walked outside to leave. The first aspect of this new world that they noticed was the lower gravity. They had been experiencing it for some time, but they had been accustomed to moving through their ship in zero-g, so it had not occurred to them how different this planet's gravity was from other planets they had visited until they were outside. The second thing they noticed was that the atmosphere wasn't just thinner, it was also much denser. This possibility had crossed Dark Lance's mind when looking at the holograms of their new forms, but he hadn't thought it would be to such an extent.

Having completed their initial observations about this new environment, Dark Lance and Skybreaker spread their new wings, and took off, acclimating themselves for a few seconds to this latest method of flying. Even though their wings looked comically small in comparison to the rest of their bodies, the two Autobots were easily capable of keeping themselves aloft in the low gravity and dense atmosphere. Now sure that they wouldn't need immediate medical attention, Burnout turned towards where the town on the map was, and headed off, the door closing behind her. Dark Lance and Skybreaker, also satisfied that they could now control their latest forms properly, steered north to where the Decepticons' ship had crashed.

When Burnout got to the town, she was very surprised at the inhabitants. It looked like they were all one of the forms she, Bunker, or Skybreaker had taken. She found it odd that they were all so similar in form, but she had seen much stranger things in her travels. She also wondered how they could build such intricate structures as the buildings she was currently passing without any fingers or other manipulators to hold the tools or carry the materials. The only thing that truly bothered her, however, was the fact that she didn't see any of them with both wings and a horn, like the form Dark Lance had taken. She wondered if it was just chance, or if that particular form was rare or unusual.

Meanwhile, Dark Lance and Skybreaker were hidden in some foliage a short distance from the Decepticon ship. When they had gotten close, they had been able to hear voices and movement inside, indicating that their foes had, in fact, survived the crash and were still fully functional. So the two had decided to wait in hiding until they had seen their enemies' latest forms, so that they would not accidentally, and incorrectly, assume that a random animal was not a robot in disguise.

Their patience was eventually rewarded, as another, red-colored version of the creature Dark Lance had become walked out, followed by a dragon, a lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail, and a cross between a lion and an eagle with its head feathers swept backwards. Instantly, the two hidden robots knew which of their enemies was which. Bloodwing, the leader, had chosen the same form as Dark Lance. Small wonder, since the two were so similar in their other alt-modes. The dragon was Fireburst, the second-in-command of their team, and their heavy weapons expert. The bat-winged lion was Crosswire, the group's medic, if you can call him that. Dark Lance and Skybreaker had seen firsthand what that mad monstrosity was capable of, and it had been one of the worst experiences of their lives. The last was Sharpedge, who lived up to her name in every way possible. From her combat style to her way of speaking, she was one of the meanest Decepticons to ever exist.

The two hidden Autobots watched in silence as the group in front of them checked several places outside the ship, set down some small discs around the area, and then went back inside the ship, which disappeared a few seconds later, shrouded by a cloaking field. Dark Lance got up, then motioned for Skybreaker to follow. Once he was sure they were a safe distance away, he took to the air, the other following close behind.

Burnout's mission had been much less eventful. After setting down a pair of infrared tripwire alarms connected to their ship's alarm system, she went back to the town's library, and began studying the history of the world she was now on after telling an overly friendly purple unicorn she couldn't chat due to urgent business. She also discovered that the unicorns were able to use magic, explaining how they could build so much, while thinking it was a good thing Dark Lance had sent her instead of Bunker. After she had gone through most of the library, she decided it was time to go home. She managed to get out without being stopped again by the librarian, and started heading back towards the Star Runner.

During his comrades' absence, Bunker used the peace and quiet to focus utterly on the task at hand. He first repaired the Energon shields, allowing him to return to his normal form and get the rest of the job done faster than he would have otherwise. Except for one interruption from Burnout to sync up her alarms to the ship, the time passed by quickly and quietly. He may be willing to fight against Unicron himself one-on-one for any of them, but he enjoyed the quiet, peaceful moments. They calmed him, and he was able to do a lot more when he wasn't being interrupted constantly by his teammates. By the time the others got back, he had almost all systems except the engines up and running.

"Nice work, Bunker," Dark Lance complimented as he walked in with Skybreaker, both of them transforming into their robot modes. He was now able to see that Bunker's arms were his rear legs in beast mode, with the tail becoming his signature pair of flowing capes. The head of his beast mode now faced the ceiling, with its horn flat against Bunker's back. Skybreaker's beast mode had him laying backwards, with his main shoulder-thrusters becoming the head, his arms forming the back, and his secondary hoverpack turning into his front legs. Dark Lance was always amazed at how no matter what alt-mode one of them took, the transformations they used were always very similar to previous modes. Even his new beast mode was reminiscent of his usual jet alt-mode. Burnout soon appeared, showing that her old gauntlet had become the majority of her beast mode's head, while her other hand joined it to form the bottom portion of the mouth. Her whole upper body then twisted to put everything in alignment, including the two front legs which now hung off the back of her shoulder blades, looking like they wanted to mimic Skybreaker's backpack.

The four of them then sat in the newly-repaired chairs surrounding the hologram table. Each told the others what they had accomplished over the course of the day, until everyone knew everything that had transpired up to that point, including the fact that they were not horses, but ponies, as well as various other terminology and historical information Burnout had picked up during her studies. Then the other three looked expectantly at their leader, waiting for his verdict on what their priorities would be while they were here. He was silent for almost a minute, mulling over what their course of action should be. Should they go on the offensive, and try to take out the Decepticons before they could do anything to prepare? No, that wouldn't work. The 'cons were always ready for battle, and his team was still tired as well. Try to repair the ship and leave? That was an even worse idea. Even if Bloodwing didn't attack them during repairs or takeoff and let them leave, the natural inhabitants of this world would be unprotected, and that was unacceptable. What about the protoforms? Barring a meteor shower of large proportions, they would be safe in orbit. Start mining for Energon right away? No, the locals might have evolved to need the crystals to survive. He had to make sure they wouldn't suffer without it first. Which meant only one option remained: they would have to go out and reveal themselves to this world. Soon. If they didn't, Bloodwing and his team might gain the upper hand by tricking the population into thinking the Autobots were the evil ones, which had already happened once, and he didn't want it happening again. He was about to tell the others his decision when an alarm went off. Something was walking around outside, possibly a Decepticon. The hologram table hummed to life, showing them a picture of three small, probably younger members of the beings that inhabited the area: a regular pony, with a bow the size of her own head holding her mane back; a unicorn with a curly, two-toned mane; and a pegasus riding a scooter. The three young creatures were staring, mouths open, straight at the ship. Dark Lance looked at Bunker.

"You haven't gotten around to fixing the cloak field yet, have you?" He said, already knowing the answer.

"I had just started on it when you got back." Bunker replied grimly.