Code of Honor:
Transtermite
By: Master Solo
Chapter 1: The Earthquake
Writer's Note: I must warn you that this is the first time I’m taking anything and rewriting rather than writing toward an ending with a few scenes in mind. When I was writing this, I realized that the guys I’d kiss on first sight (plus Dinobot and Blackarachnia) seem a lot easier to write than the rest of the gang.
The crimson glow of dawn bathed an endless roll of golden grassland, giving the panorama an eye-burning, yellow-orange glow, save one spot. Some of the sun’s light reflected from the speck, but it was the color of darkly oozing blood. The dark spot, in truth, was a transformer named Dinobot.
As Dinobot hunted in his powerful, robust beast mode, he could not help but ponder about past events. He considered himself a Predacon at core, or so he had thought until he realized that certain events were impossible. With the role he had played in the destruction of the last golden disk, even if it was to preserve Predacon and Maximal alike, no sensible Predacon would count him amongst their ranks again, not even the forgiving Tripredacus Councilor Seaclamp. He had done what was necessary to regain his honor, his Predacon honor, yet ironically, in doing so, he had eliminated all chances of being recognized as a Predacon. No matter what calamities he had prevented when he removed the golden disk from Megatron’s grasp, the Predacons would view him as a traitor who destroyed the greatest treasure off all time. The Maximals, on the other hand, called him a hero, even though he had disobeyed orders.
A hero. To Dinobot, he was quite the opposite. He had been a traitor, first to the Predacons, then to the Maximals, and then he had left the Predacons again. He had considered himself a traitor and an insult to his battered honor, yet the Maximals disagreed. Like so many other Maximal concepts, the dinosaur had trouble grasping the concept of being a ‘hero’.
The raptor snorted and shook his head as he quietly stalked a deer. He hated every last bit of it, yet his logic circuits told him that the only path before his feet was that of a Maximal. It was almost unthinkable that a cold-blooded lizard would belong to a group of mammalians and avians for as long as his deeds would be remembered. Once a deed was done, all that remained were consequence and destiny, neither of which the lizard could resist. However, the world before him appeared new, and he was just uselessly denying his fate. In protecting the future of Predacon, Maximal, and human alike, Dinobot had become seriously damaged and were it not for the Maximals, he would have been terminated.
The dinosaur allowed a slight hiss to escape from his lips. There was a thing as foreign to him as being a Maximal. Even though he had betrayed them, the Maximals took him back and when he attempted to mitigate his deeds by providing the ancestors of those who would aid the Autobots in the Great War, he ended up owing the Maximals his body and spark. There was that attachment that was born from debt and because of it, he could never be Predacon again without shattering what was left of his honor.
The raptor’s eyes narrowed as he prepared to pounce on his prey. That was another major difference between the dinosaur and his carnivorous allies. To Dinobot, one must eat or be eaten, sometimes both, but to his grudging comrades, especially Silverbolt and Cheetor, blood was to be avoided whenever it could be. Dinobot viewed himself as a foreigner whose honor could only be protected in an alien land because home was no longer home. Such was exile’s honor. The velociraptor ended his train of thought by ripping out the throat of his prey.
As the raptor finished his meal and cleaned the blood from his talons, his comm came to life and he answered.
***
Megatron’s feigned snores echoed in his command chamber as the Predacon leader rested in his giant chair. His optics were shut off and covered so that no outsider could distinguish between sleep and the mech’s watchful state.
Rampage tiptoed through the doors, but once the snores landed on his auditory receptors, he launched into a brisk run and lunged for the half of his spark that sat on Megatron’s armrest. He has had enough of the torture and following more orders from the insane tyrant out of beastly pain was on the bottom of the crab’s wish list. That was rightfully Rampage’s spark, not some dinosaur’s remote control. The overgrown dinosaur as far from reason as a mech could go and just as careless.
As Rampage’s hand inched in around the energon-studded box that contained half of his spark, Megatron’s large, purple hand slammed the box. Surprised and tortured by several energon crystals stabbing into half of his indestructible spark, Rampage dropped to the floor and doubled over. The transmetal crab struggled against his urge to convulse. Just how did he end up in Megatron’s base in the first place?
“Did you really think you’d catch me so unaware?” The Predacon leader almost laughed.
“You’ve made your point.” Upon hearing Rampage’s reply, Megatron eased his grip on the box and stuffed it in a compartment in his body.
“Never forget who holds your spark and thus is your master.” Megatron reminded.
“That, I promise.” Rampage’s reply seemed honest, but a dangerous glint in his optics hinted otherwise. He might not have been successful for the time being, but soon, his spark would be whole again. Soon, I’ll be my master.
“Maximal units detected in grid Deltron, coordinates 8-3-6.” The Predacon computer reported.
“Grr… They’re after my new jamming station!” Megatron growled and pounded his massive fist against an armrest. He called up a tac-map on his holographic globe and three Maximal icons appeared on it.
The three Maximal icons flashed one by one and the computer revealed them to be Dinobot, Silverbolt, and Rattrap, respectively. Megatron continued. “I believe I can put your rage to good use.”
***
Rattrap and Dinobot trekked across a barren, desert landscape on foot while Silverbolt, the wolf/eagle fuzor, followed overhead. Silverbolt repressed his headache as he was forced to listen to a complete version of the other two Maximals’ complaining contest. His code of honor forbade complaining, but the acute hearing from his beast mode made the constant bickering almost unbearable.
“There’s a whole lotta shakin’ going on around here.” Rattrap complained as he barely avoided a group of tumbling rocks.
“Megatron.” The velociraptor hissed through his razor-sharp teeth. Dinobot, as a former Predacon, knew the tyrant better than any other Maximal.
“It seems unlikely that Megatron would build a jamming station and trigger an earthquake in this area.” Silverbolt voiced his doubt.
“Ya mean it’s no fault of his?” Rattrap joked. When he was answered with silence, the transmetal rat expanded. “Get it, fault? Earthquake?”
“Most amusing, vermin.” Silverbolt merely chuckled while the dinosaur hissed a reply. Dinobot curled a talon around his large, raptor jaw and half-blinked. He sniffed around, for he knew that the earthquake was a precursor to a greater disaster. He then volunteered to scout the crevasses.
“Chopperface, ain’t no way I’m leavin ya alone.” Rattrap’s wheels dropped as he chose to accompany the oldest member of the trio. First, the raptor rejoined Megatron, and then the big lizard had gone against orders in the valley and nearly gotten himself scrapped.
“I do not require a babysitter, rodent.” Dinobot displayed his annoyance by growling in Rattrap’s face and baring his formidable, large teeth. Though the large Maximal would not admit it, he much enjoyed the rodent’s company and preferred the bickering to silence that most would give him. He had not anticipated that he would meet one whose feistiness almost matched his pride. The rat was just a rat, but Rattrap was a useful one.
“In this case, I will fly over those peaks.” Silverbolt pointed at a set of mountains in the distance and soared out of sight. As gentle winds whipped his face, the fuzor pondered curiously about his two companions. Alone, Dinobot was an enigmatic brother who valued honor and yet was as cold and merciless as steel. Rattrap, on the other hand, was a talkative, feisty, and sometimes annoying friend with a sense of humor that the fuzor did not always understand. Together, the two were torture for the lupine ears.
Dinobot and Rattrap were on the verge of resuming their bickering when once again, the low rumble of unstable earth started. This time, however, there was another sound as well, a scream from under the earth, which escalated to a full-scale, massive earthquake.
The earth beneath them shook and cracked, driving a steep crevasse between the two. Rattrap struggled to balance himself on his hind wheels as the rock under his front wheels broke off and disappeared into the dark nothingness below. The rat reversed his gears and backed up for some distance, giving himself room to accelerate and jump to the other side.
“Earthquake, meet da race rat.” Rattrap grinned smugly as his speed made him airborne.
The raptor carefully examined the rocky landscape that the earthquake had shaped and planned his moves. He was stuck on an island sticking out of an ocean of nothingness, but he was not helpless. He had been put through similar exercises in his earliest days and he knew what to do. The tan and brown striped dinosaur used his powerful legs to jump from rock to rock until there was nothing between him and the arid land in which he must destroy the new jamming station. With a powerful kick, the dinosaur launched himself at the barren land.
While the pair was in midair, the earth shook again, this time putting more distance between both Maximals and the land.
“Whoa!” The transmetal yelped as he descended past his target. Just inches in front of him, Dinobot was confronting the same problem. The dinosaur leaned forward slightly and was able to catch the edge of the cliff and hang on with his six talons. Rattrap, who was left with no other option, wrapped his two from paws around the tip of Dinobot’s tail.
“Oh no. Rattrap looked down and squealed. “We’re all gonna…”
***
Rhinox joined Optimus in the dimly lit Maximal control room. As the two studied the readings on four or five staticky screens, Optimus commented. “More tremors, and they’re building in intensity.
“Our teams near the epicenter. With Megatron jamming us…” Rhinox noted, but was interrupted before he could state his conclusion The golden ring above his optics bent to form a worried expression.
“I’m going after them. I’m not in the mood to see any more friends in stasis lock.” Optimus broke the comment off and transformed into his vehicle mode. The board beneath the gorilla’s feet took the Maximal leader out of the base almost instantly.
***
The rat flailed in midair, his mouth wide open, before landing squarely on his chin . Unable to sustain the uncomfortable position for long, the rat fell onto his back. As he pushed himself up, he saw Dinobot’s long, thick tail waving. Within a second, the tail disappeared and the dinosaur had transformed into robot mode.
When the former Predacon lifted himself up and climbed onto the landscape, Rattrap shoved his sharp nose at the other Maximal’s face.
“Just what was dat for, Chopperface?” Rattrap demanded.
“That was to rid me of your stench, cheese breath!” Dinobot replied before straightening himself and transforming back into beast mode. The two Maximals cruised alongside each other and as usual, bickered until they were interrupted. There was a huge scream in the earth and the Maximals’ circuits went haywire.
“Hellppp!!!!” Rattrap screamed as his wheels took him this way and that on the shaking land. Dinobot, however, was in no position to help the rat, for like Rattrap, the dinosaur was grounded. The violent shaking soon sent both the rat and the dinosaur flying into a ditch and buried the two under a heavy pile of boulders.
***
Silverbolt stood atop the tallest peak he could find and scanned the distances. As the impact of the earthquake reached him, the fuzor transformed into beast mode and book to the air, barely avoiding burial under what was left of the peak.
***
Silence began its reign as the earthquake ended. A stasis pod that was previously buried under layers of rock was finally activated and rippled with energy as it began to scan with its twisted scanner for a suitable life form for the spark that it housed.
“Suitable life form found. Beginning replication.”
End of Chapter 1