*****
The wind rustled through the leaves, the only sound in the stillness of the night. Inferno marched over the leaves in his seemingly never-ending patrol of Sector Gamma. It was a chilly night, and he shivered as the breeze scattered the leaves around his feet. It was a cloudy night, and despite himself, Inferno began to feel uneasy. He tightened his grip on his flamethrower and looked around warily. A line of white fire appeared across the sky, and his optics widened. He reached down and switched on his comlink.
“Inferno to Royalty, come in Royalty!”
“What is it, Inferno?” The gruff voice of his leader crackled loudly through the speakers.
“Have the main computers been repaired yet?”
“No, Scorponok and Tarantulas are still working on them. The buffoons probably won’t have the system up until tomorrow. Why do you ask?”
“I just spotted an incoming stasis pod!”
“Where?” Megatron’s voice showed his interest.
“Grid Phoenix, Sector Gamma, Sub-sector Vegas.”
“Move to that location and stay there. Guard the pod. I will send someone to assist you shortly.”
“As you command, my Queen!” Inferno intoned dramatically.
“Oh for Pit’s sake, will you stop calling me that?” Megatron growled over the comlink. Inferno did not hear him, as he was already in the process of transforming to beast mode and crawling to the pod.
In the darkness behind him, a pair of optics glowed menacingly. They disappeared as soon as they came online, and a shaded figure followed the hapless ant.
*****
Half a megacycle later, Inferno reached the crash site. The pod was smoldering at the end of a path of broken trees, flattened bushes and trenched earth. It was coated in dust and mud, and was smoking slightly. Inferno crept forward, touching the pod with his antennae, and then drew back sharply. The pod was still hot to the touch.
“Inferno, terrorize.” The ant’s skin split apart and shifted into different locations as he transformed into a tall, dark red menacing robot, with metallic blue optics, a massive mouth filled with sharp, needle-like teeth and a large flamethrower slung across his back.
He walked up to the pod and stared at the statistics board. It was blank. Something about that wasn’t right, as the pod probably would have been scanning for a proper beast mode by now. The pod was still sealed tightly, so the protoform couldn’t have left the pod. But why would the Maximals pack an empty stasis pod?
Wait, maybe they kept a few empty pods as a precaution, so that they themselves could be converted back into protoforms. The Maximals that were on the ‘Axalon’ when they crash-landed on this planet were only a few members of a much larger crew, most of which had been converted to protoform status. Inferno was not quite sure how he knew this, he just did, and remembering random things and facts like that made him rather uncomfortable. He just shrugged it off and brought his fist down on the pod with a sharp crack to make sure that it was empty.
There was a sudden rustling in the leaves, and, unlike before, there was no wind blowing. Inferno whirled around, reaching back and whipping out his flamethrower in one smooth motion. He cocked it, looking wildly about. Nothing was there.
He snorted and relaxed, mentally berating himself for jumping at shadows. All the same, he kept his flamethrower by his side. He reached down to switch on his comlink, intending to report to Megatron that it was a blank pod, but froze as the tips of his fingers brushed the switch.
He turned and walked into the woods, seemingly at ease. But in his vocal gears was a scream that could not escape.
Dun dun dun!
Haystack
My apologies for the delay.