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Description
Chapter 3: A little look in the depth

Deep Space - Mars - 1 month ago

After leaving that mudball of a planet, Starscream had headed out into space towards the temporary Decepticon Base on Mars. He was seething. He was literally fuming his exhaust pipes out!

The little rat of a human!

Starscream couldn't care less then Megatron was dead. In fact he should thank the boy for putting that madman out of the picture for good! But Starscream had an agenda of his own... And with the Allspark destroyed, he would have to think everything out again! It was changing everything... And the balance had suddenly shifted in the universe, making Earth a turning point in that ages old conflict.

Earth.

The first time Starscream had set foot there, he had though that it was a disgusting organic-infested mudball. All he wanted was to find and retrieve the Allspark as soon as possible and then leave this place. But he had not only found the Allspark here... Megatron had been there too. He had followed the Allspark signature through space for millenia only to crash along with it on the small, backwater planet.

How ironic.

But the seeker had plans of his own. he had just landed on Mars and headed towards the base. he was greated by a familiar yet very unpleasant sight. He rolled his optics when the visored mech saluted him with coldness and spoke up. Starscream cringed some, he never liked that drone-like voice of his...

"Soundwave, report!"

The mech may be a pain in the aft but he was very efficient. Maybe even too efficient... he answered with that emotionless tone of his, showing nothing of what he was really thinking.

"New arrivals due in 5 cycles. Earth troops are not responding hails. Query: Allspark retrieved?"

Haaa, that was good. New troops were coming to replenish their now almost dead troops here on earth. Starscream had a little satisfied sneer at that but his expression immediately darkened at the mention of the Allspark. Soundwave was no fool, he already knew something was up and that this wasn't good, not at all. Already he was worried for the sake of his cassette sent on this planet with Barricade. He had a quick glance at the seeker's thoughts and felt dark rage and loathing, and also glee and a high amount of relief.

He tilted his head, something was up. Megatron was supposed to be retrieved along the Allspark but Starscream's mind... was too much of a chaos for him to find anything anyway. So he asked again, a little irritated.

"Query: Megatron and the Allspark retrieved? Status?"

Starscream swirled to face him his optics ablaze and fangs bared in a snarl, apparently he didn't liked the telepath's tune. He balled a clawed fist and spat harshly.

"The old scrap heap is deactivated, and the Allspark is destroyed! All of our work here was for NOTHING, thanks to that slaghead Megatron!" he hissed and punched the wall so hard a large chunk fell off. "That fragging son of a glitch! If he wasn't dead already, I'll terminate him myself!"

Soundwave was a little taken aback. Megatron and the Allspark, destroyed? This was not good... Not good at all. His visor flashed brighter for a moment, the only exterior signs of his thoughts and feelings on the matter. If Megatron was dead then it means... he narrowed his optics behind his visor and growled lowly. That couldn't be good...

Starscream was now Leader of the Decepticons.

Which made himself second in command.

Slag...

The seeker then smirked, letting him know how aware of that fact he was, and laughed a bit disturbingly. Soudwave almost shuddered. Starscream was not as crazy as Megatron but he was a close second... Maybe he should terminate him and take commands. He really pondered that options for a few minutes while the seeker cackled madly.

Finally he stopped and Soundwave was relieved. That sound was grating his audio so bad... He narrowed his eyes. Starscream had not always been Second in Command. At the beginning of the war, Megatron had chosen a more qualified mech for the post but... Said mech vanished not long after the Lord himself. The rumors said that he crashed somewhere and was either dead or in deep stasis...

Well, there was no time to try to retrieve him now. They have more pressing matters.

"Query: Orders?"

"Send a call on all channels for all remaining Decepticons that may still roam the galaxy! Tell them to come here, to Earth." His look darkened and he added in a low hiss. "The Allspark may be gone, be we are far from done with this planet, Soundwave. The humans have to pay for its destruction... I will not rest until this world lay barren and dead!"

He laughed again, and Soundwave wondered if it wouldn't be better to just leave this place and try to find a new source of energy to replenish their dying race. Maybe find some femmes to create new sparks now that the Allspark was gone.

But he knew Starscream well, and the seeker will not back off until he had his revenge... Even if it was at the cost of their own people.

oOo

Earth - Mission City - 2 weeks ago

Now that this coward Starscream had fled this planet he was all alone and honestly didn't thought they'll ever came back for him. So he had to fetch for himself. he was good at it, but he was enraged. With good reasons! They had lost the Allspark! Their race was doomed to disappear! Not today or even in a millennia but sooner or later...

They will go extinct.

And this mere thought made Barricade's energon run cold in his lines. This was all Megatron's fault. His lust for power and conquest had drove him to madness and in the ends he couldn't even understand what danger he was putting his own race into. The small Decepticon scout and spy had lost all respect for the mech long ago, and he had continued to follow the Decepticons for only one reason: the Allspark.

Finding the Allspark and using it to rebuilt their world.

But apparently Starscream wasn't planning on anything like that either. With the Allspark gone, they should at least be trying to gather the remaining Femmes and use them to create new sparklings! This was more important then wasting times on the organic mudball... They could always come and get their revenge later, when their race isn't in such a dire danger anymore!

The small mech growled lowly, his engines hissed some and startled a passing dog. This was stupid! He would give anything to be out of there but... His orders were clear. Stay on Earth and awaits for further instructions. So for the last two weeks he had been keeping a low profile.

Barricade almost jumped out of his plating and actually blared his honk when his long-range scanner came to life when he was slumbering under the sun. A couple of humans passing by stared at the car oddly for a few moments but when nothing more happened they just shrugged and kept going.

He had picked a very faint and very distant Decepticon distress signal.

The police car rumbled a bit and checked this out.

It took a while to triangulate the signal, it was so faint, but he finally managed it and frowned a bit internally. This was on the other side of the world... In North Africa, a country called Egypt. That would be hard to get there... He frowned and sighed. He'll have to report this. Starscream would have to send someone else to investigate if he wanted to know who this was...

It never occurred to him that it may be a trap, because it was impossible. This was a old Decepticon signal encoded with a outdated encryption code. Way outdated... Like thousands of Vorns old.

He opened a comm. line with the Mars base.

"This is Barricade reporting. I have just picked up a Decepticon signal on Earth."

Soundwave's voice answered him and he cringed. This mech was a drone and had a voice that sounded like a drone... He didn't quite liked him but didn't downright hated him. He was... ok, he supposed, for a mech this cold and calculating.

"Report coordinate and designation."

"I have the coordinates but the signal is corrupted and only partial. It's freaking old too. I don't have a designation."

There was a silence, Soundwave was probably checking out the data's he just sent him via data burst with his last reply. He waited. Soundwave's voice returned a few moments later.

"Signal: potent. Location has been verified. Small human settlement only, no Autobot signal nearby. Proceed to the location and investigate. I will send you ravage to assist."

He growled some, great... This was the other side of the fragging planet and he was no flyer! He said calmly, stating this fact.

"How do you expect me to get there Soundwave? I can't fly and by land it'll take me weeks..."

"There is no hurry. Priorities: elsewhere. Find a way. Ravage will be waiting for your arrival at the designed coordinates. Soundwave out."

Great. Just great... Fragging bitch of a telepath!

Well, he had a long way to go so he should as well get going. He swore and roared his engines to life, leaving his warm hiding spot. Hurray for chain of command... He was always stuck with the worst jobs!

oOo

Egypt - 13 km from Gizhe - Now

He was fragging tired... It had taken him two weeks to get here. Two slagging weeks! He would make Soundwave eat his own visor next time he met him... Anyway, he was finally there, and he growled lowly. His poor chassis was now more dusty then the desert itself and he had to pick a new alt-mode for this little desert trip.

His police car mode would've really stuck out in here like a rust spot on a pristine chassis. Now he was going as a dusty old jeep, and he hated this look a lot. It wasn't /him/ at all.

"Fragging Soundwave, slagging son of a glitch..." he mumbled and then stopped. He was merely a few hundreds of meters away from the coordinates where the Decepticon signal was originating from and...

"Holy slagging Primus..."

There, only 500 meters from his position, hanging from a high machine by heavy chains, was a mech he had thought dead for thousands of Vorns. He was dusty, bent, broken and missing parts but there was no doubts on his identity.

He stared for only a few moments before opening a comm. channel to the Mars base again. But this time, to his surprise, it was Starscream whom answered him.

"Report, Barricade! What have you found?"

"You won't believe me Starscream."

"It's LORD Starscream for you!" Screeched the seeker and he cringed, his audio ringing.

"Whatever. I found the origin of the signal. It's hanging right in front of my optics a few hundred meters away... The humans have unearthed it for us."

There was a sneer at the mention of the humans and Barricade chuckled darkly. He hated Starscream with a passion...

"So? Who is it?!"

He waited a few moments, just to piss Starscream off a bit more and make the tension rise with his little mind game.

"Barricade..." Starscream hissed warningly, his patience wearing thin.

"Alright, alright, don't get your thrusters in a knot! I think you won't like it though... You sure you want to hear it?"

"Don't make me come down here and kick your sorry aft, you worthless pile of..."

He cut him out in the middle of his threat, biting his glossa not to burst out laughing.

"It's Shockwave!"

Silence.

"Starscream? You copy?"

More silence, then a enraged snarl, and Barricade had to it his lip not to laugh again. Ho Primus, he was pissed! That was worth the trip!

"WHAT!?!"

Ouch. That almost shorted out his audio. Starscream's voice was a weapon in itself...

"You hear me! It's Shockwave! But don't get your processor into overheating, Starscream, he's not going anywhere. He looks like a pile of scraps."

There was a silence and then he heard voices in the background and soon another voice spoke to him. Soundwave. Better... At least his audios were safe now.

"Barricade: Stay on your position. Shockwave: must be retrieved. Reinforcements are on the way."

Barricade was about to answer when he froze. Ho slag...

That red and blue semi was sticking out A LOT on the sandy background. There could be only one explanation... And there was this greenish ambulance medic of his, wasn't it? Yeah, there was indeed... He sighed, this was just great...

"Soundwave? We have a problem. Prime and his medic are there."

oOo

Meanwhile...

"So do you think you guys will be able to revive your friends?"

Melanie was standing at the edge of the dig and watching while more of the sand had been removed. Another robot was indeed buried there, at least. She shivered when this one had been uncovered. He was frightening... All fangs and claws and spiked razor edges... Only a small bit had been uncovered for now but it was intimidating. He looked even bigger than the first. And there was supposed to be four others? She wondered what they'll look like...

Nice, this one was nightmarish enough, not to mention the first one, huge, dark, spiky and downright ugly. One of the arm was missing and they were on the process of unearthing it from a few distance away. The Autobots were telling them where to dig. So far, their directions had been useful. The military weren't that annoying when you were used to their presence. She had spoken to that Lennox guy a little and he was a decent man, nice and friendly. She didn't know what to think of the others though and she felt out of place amongst them...

So far, only the first one was almost completely free from its sandy prison.

Optimus had told her everything about their race, their war and why they were here. She had been shocked and disbelieving but... he had showed her his true form.

And she had been awed. They had only met two days ago and already her life felt totally changed. She couldn't imagine going back to her everyday routine after that...

Optimus wrenched her out of her thought when he spoke, his holographic form standing next to her while his alt-form was parked a few distance away.

"At least another week, I'm afraid. They are buried deep and we can't risk using our own technology to unearth them. But I am confident that they will be retrieved soon." He smiled and his intense, deep eyes sparkled a bit with his amusement, his kindness. "Ratchet is here to make sure that the recovery goes smoothly and that they are not further damaged in the process."

She blushed some under that intense gaze. Melanie had never had a real boyfriend, had always been too busy, but in the course of two days, she had grown... very fond of her new alien friend. She didn't quite know what to think of it... He wasn't even human and yet... She had feelings for him? It was all too overwhelming... When he put a firm, strong hand on her shoulder she felt a sort of electric current course from the spot he had touched. She hid her shudder she didn't wanted to embarrass him.

"Those... Dinobots... Are warriors for your kind, as you told me? That's probably why this one looks so mean but... Why choose an alternate form that mimic an extinct creature of our planet?"

He blinked. She had apparently said something he wasn't prepared to hear and she explained some more.

"Well, for what I can see of the head and upper torso, he looks like a creature that lived millions of years ago, called Tyrannosaurus Rex. Had your kind been around for so long?" She sounded a little overwhelmed by the thought. The idea that this being could be older then her entire race, and even the mammals...

"We Cybertronians do not calculate time the same way you humans does. Our lifespan is a lot longer than yours. In fact, unless it is from a injury or illness, we cannot die from old age as you organic creatures do. Our spark just goes on and on..." He explained to try and clarify things.

Her eyes widened, he was basically saying they were immortals, or at least their sparks were. She ask, her voice slightly shaky.

"Just... How old are you...?"

He looked at her and she could see the depth of his eyes showing a little bit of his extended experience. He answered in a soft voice, sounding tired suddenly.

"In human years, I am almost as old as your planet. But do not let it impress you. I am merely a sentient being seeking a little bit of peace in that universe."

Melanie felt her throat clench at those words. Almost as old as the Earth... Billions of years? She couldn't even start to grasp the concept, it was all too overwhelming. So it was possible that those transformers, in that pit, had been here when the dinosaurs were around. And... Her own lifespan must seems to them not more the a brief glimpse in the length of their lifetime... She stared at Optimus again and felt a lump in her throat.

She was about to say something when she felt observed, like eyes staring at her back intensely, and she turned around. There was no one here. A bathered Jeep, some military transports, Ratchet and Optimus parked nearby... Mike was in a discussion with Ratchet, they had apparently befriended a lot in the last two days. She smiled some, this was good. Ratchet seemed like a good soul to her...

It was then that all hell was let loose...

-TBC-

Description
Chapter 3: A little look in the depth

Deep Space - Mars - 1 month ago

After leaving that mudball of a planet, Starscream had headed out into space towards the temporary Decepticon Base on Mars. He was seething. He was literally fuming his exhaust pipes out!

The little rat of a human!

Starscream couldn't care less then Megatron was dead. In fact he should thank the boy for putting that madman out of the picture for good! But Starscream had an agenda of his own... And with the Allspark destroyed, he would have to think everything out again! It was changing everything... And the balance had suddenly shifted in the universe, making Earth a turning point in that ages old conflict.

Earth.

The first time Starscream had set foot there, he had though that it was a disgusting organic-infested mudball. All he wanted was to find and retrieve the Allspark as soon as possible and then leave this place. But he had not only found the Allspark here... Megatron had been there too. He had followed the Allspark signature through space for millenia only to crash along with it on the small, backwater planet.

How ironic.

But the seeker had plans of his own. he had just landed on Mars and headed towards the base. he was greated by a familiar yet very unpleasant sight. He rolled his optics when the visored mech saluted him with coldness and spoke up. Starscream cringed some, he never liked that drone-like voice of his...

"Soundwave, report!"

The mech may be a pain in the aft but he was very efficient. Maybe even too efficient... he answered with that emotionless tone of his, showing nothing of what he was really thinking.

"New arrivals due in 5 cycles. Earth troops are not responding hails. Query: Allspark retrieved?"

Haaa, that was good. New troops were coming to replenish their now almost dead troops here on earth. Starscream had a little satisfied sneer at that but his expression immediately darkened at the mention of the Allspark. Soundwave was no fool, he already knew something was up and that this wasn't good, not at all. Already he was worried for the sake of his cassette sent on this planet with Barricade. He had a quick glance at the seeker's thoughts and felt dark rage and loathing, and also glee and a high amount of relief.

He tilted his head, something was up. Megatron was supposed to be retrieved along the Allspark but Starscream's mind... was too much of a chaos for him to find anything anyway. So he asked again, a little irritated.

"Query: Megatron and the Allspark retrieved? Status?"

Starscream swirled to face him his optics ablaze and fangs bared in a snarl, apparently he didn't liked the telepath's tune. He balled a clawed fist and spat harshly.

"The old scrap heap is deactivated, and the Allspark is destroyed! All of our work here was for NOTHING, thanks to that slaghead Megatron!" he hissed and punched the wall so hard a large chunk fell off. "That fragging son of a glitch! If he wasn't dead already, I'll terminate him myself!"

Soundwave was a little taken aback. Megatron and the Allspark, destroyed? This was not good... Not good at all. His visor flashed brighter for a moment, the only exterior signs of his thoughts and feelings on the matter. If Megatron was dead then it means... he narrowed his optics behind his visor and growled lowly. That couldn't be good...

Starscream was now Leader of the Decepticons.

Which made himself second in command.

Slag...

The seeker then smirked, letting him know how aware of that fact he was, and laughed a bit disturbingly. Soudwave almost shuddered. Starscream was not as crazy as Megatron but he was a close second... Maybe he should terminate him and take commands. He really pondered that options for a few minutes while the seeker cackled madly.

Finally he stopped and Soundwave was relieved. That sound was grating his audio so bad... He narrowed his eyes. Starscream had not always been Second in Command. At the beginning of the war, Megatron had chosen a more qualified mech for the post but... Said mech vanished not long after the Lord himself. The rumors said that he crashed somewhere and was either dead or in deep stasis...

Well, there was no time to try to retrieve him now. They have more pressing matters.

"Query: Orders?"

"Send a call on all channels for all remaining Decepticons that may still roam the galaxy! Tell them to come here, to Earth." His look darkened and he added in a low hiss. "The Allspark may be gone, be we are far from done with this planet, Soundwave. The humans have to pay for its destruction... I will not rest until this world lay barren and dead!"

He laughed again, and Soundwave wondered if it wouldn't be better to just leave this place and try to find a new source of energy to replenish their dying race. Maybe find some femmes to create new sparks now that the Allspark was gone.

But he knew Starscream well, and the seeker will not back off until he had his revenge... Even if it was at the cost of their own people.

oOo

Earth - Mission City - 2 weeks ago

Now that this coward Starscream had fled this planet he was all alone and honestly didn't thought they'll ever came back for him. So he had to fetch for himself. he was good at it, but he was enraged. With good reasons! They had lost the Allspark! Their race was doomed to disappear! Not today or even in a millennia but sooner or later...

They will go extinct.

And this mere thought made Barricade's energon run cold in his lines. This was all Megatron's fault. His lust for power and conquest had drove him to madness and in the ends he couldn't even understand what danger he was putting his own race into. The small Decepticon scout and spy had lost all respect for the mech long ago, and he had continued to follow the Decepticons for only one reason: the Allspark.

Finding the Allspark and using it to rebuilt their world.

But apparently Starscream wasn't planning on anything like that either. With the Allspark gone, they should at least be trying to gather the remaining Femmes and use them to create new sparklings! This was more important then wasting times on the organic mudball... They could always come and get their revenge later, when their race isn't in such a dire danger anymore!

The small mech growled lowly, his engines hissed some and startled a passing dog. This was stupid! He would give anything to be out of there but... His orders were clear. Stay on Earth and awaits for further instructions. So for the last two weeks he had been keeping a low profile.

Barricade almost jumped out of his plating and actually blared his honk when his long-range scanner came to life when he was slumbering under the sun. A couple of humans passing by stared at the car oddly for a few moments but when nothing more happened they just shrugged and kept going.

He had picked a very faint and very distant Decepticon distress signal.

The police car rumbled a bit and checked this out.

It took a while to triangulate the signal, it was so faint, but he finally managed it and frowned a bit internally. This was on the other side of the world... In North Africa, a country called Egypt. That would be hard to get there... He frowned and sighed. He'll have to report this. Starscream would have to send someone else to investigate if he wanted to know who this was...

It never occurred to him that it may be a trap, because it was impossible. This was a old Decepticon signal encoded with a outdated encryption code. Way outdated... Like thousands of Vorns old.

He opened a comm. line with the Mars base.

"This is Barricade reporting. I have just picked up a Decepticon signal on Earth."

Soundwave's voice answered him and he cringed. This mech was a drone and had a voice that sounded like a drone... He didn't quite liked him but didn't downright hated him. He was... ok, he supposed, for a mech this cold and calculating.

"Report coordinate and designation."

"I have the coordinates but the signal is corrupted and only partial. It's freaking old too. I don't have a designation."

There was a silence, Soundwave was probably checking out the data's he just sent him via data burst with his last reply. He waited. Soundwave's voice returned a few moments later.

"Signal: potent. Location has been verified. Small human settlement only, no Autobot signal nearby. Proceed to the location and investigate. I will send you ravage to assist."

He growled some, great... This was the other side of the fragging planet and he was no flyer! He said calmly, stating this fact.

"How do you expect me to get there Soundwave? I can't fly and by land it'll take me weeks..."

"There is no hurry. Priorities: elsewhere. Find a way. Ravage will be waiting for your arrival at the designed coordinates. Soundwave out."

Great. Just great... Fragging bitch of a telepath!

Well, he had a long way to go so he should as well get going. He swore and roared his engines to life, leaving his warm hiding spot. Hurray for chain of command... He was always stuck with the worst jobs!

oOo

Egypt - 13 km from Gizhe - Now

He was fragging tired... It had taken him two weeks to get here. Two slagging weeks! He would make Soundwave eat his own visor next time he met him... Anyway, he was finally there, and he growled lowly. His poor chassis was now more dusty then the desert itself and he had to pick a new alt-mode for this little desert trip.

His police car mode would've really stuck out in here like a rust spot on a pristine chassis. Now he was going as a dusty old jeep, and he hated this look a lot. It wasn't /him/ at all.

"Fragging Soundwave, slagging son of a glitch..." he mumbled and then stopped. He was merely a few hundreds of meters away from the coordinates where the Decepticon signal was originating from and...

"Holy slagging Primus..."

There, only 500 meters from his position, hanging from a high machine by heavy chains, was a mech he had thought dead for thousands of Vorns. He was dusty, bent, broken and missing parts but there was no doubts on his identity.

He stared for only a few moments before opening a comm. channel to the Mars base again. But this time, to his surprise, it was Starscream whom answered him.

"Report, Barricade! What have you found?"

"You won't believe me Starscream."

"It's LORD Starscream for you!" Screeched the seeker and he cringed, his audio ringing.

"Whatever. I found the origin of the signal. It's hanging right in front of my optics a few hundred meters away... The humans have unearthed it for us."

There was a sneer at the mention of the humans and Barricade chuckled darkly. He hated Starscream with a passion...

"So? Who is it?!"

He waited a few moments, just to piss Starscream off a bit more and make the tension rise with his little mind game.

"Barricade..." Starscream hissed warningly, his patience wearing thin.

"Alright, alright, don't get your thrusters in a knot! I think you won't like it though... You sure you want to hear it?"

"Don't make me come down here and kick your sorry aft, you worthless pile of..."

He cut him out in the middle of his threat, biting his glossa not to burst out laughing.

"It's Shockwave!"

Silence.

"Starscream? You copy?"

More silence, then a enraged snarl, and Barricade had to it his lip not to laugh again. Ho Primus, he was pissed! That was worth the trip!

"WHAT!?!"

Ouch. That almost shorted out his audio. Starscream's voice was a weapon in itself...

"You hear me! It's Shockwave! But don't get your processor into overheating, Starscream, he's not going anywhere. He looks like a pile of scraps."

There was a silence and then he heard voices in the background and soon another voice spoke to him. Soundwave. Better... At least his audios were safe now.

"Barricade: Stay on your position. Shockwave: must be retrieved. Reinforcements are on the way."

Barricade was about to answer when he froze. Ho slag...

That red and blue semi was sticking out A LOT on the sandy background. There could be only one explanation... And there was this greenish ambulance medic of his, wasn't it? Yeah, there was indeed... He sighed, this was just great...

"Soundwave? We have a problem. Prime and his medic are there."

oOo

Meanwhile...

"So do you think you guys will be able to revive your friends?"

Melanie was standing at the edge of the dig and watching while more of the sand had been removed. Another robot was indeed buried there, at least. She shivered when this one had been uncovered. He was frightening... All fangs and claws and spiked razor edges... Only a small bit had been uncovered for now but it was intimidating. He looked even bigger than the first. And there was supposed to be four others? She wondered what they'll look like...

Nice, this one was nightmarish enough, not to mention the first one, huge, dark, spiky and downright ugly. One of the arm was missing and they were on the process of unearthing it from a few distance away. The Autobots were telling them where to dig. So far, their directions had been useful. The military weren't that annoying when you were used to their presence. She had spoken to that Lennox guy a little and he was a decent man, nice and friendly. She didn't know what to think of the others though and she felt out of place amongst them...

So far, only the first one was almost completely free from its sandy prison.

Optimus had told her everything about their race, their war and why they were here. She had been shocked and disbelieving but... he had showed her his true form.

And she had been awed. They had only met two days ago and already her life felt totally changed. She couldn't imagine going back to her everyday routine after that...

Optimus wrenched her out of her thought when he spoke, his holographic form standing next to her while his alt-form was parked a few distance away.

"At least another week, I'm afraid. They are buried deep and we can't risk using our own technology to unearth them. But I am confident that they will be retrieved soon." He smiled and his intense, deep eyes sparkled a bit with his amusement, his kindness. "Ratchet is here to make sure that the recovery goes smoothly and that they are not further damaged in the process."

She blushed some under that intense gaze. Melanie had never had a real boyfriend, had always been too busy, but in the course of two days, she had grown... very fond of her new alien friend. She didn't quite know what to think of it... He wasn't even human and yet... She had feelings for him? It was all too overwhelming... When he put a firm, strong hand on her shoulder she felt a sort of electric current course from the spot he had touched. She hid her shudder she didn't wanted to embarrass him.

"Those... Dinobots... Are warriors for your kind, as you told me? That's probably why this one looks so mean but... Why choose an alternate form that mimic an extinct creature of our planet?"

He blinked. She had apparently said something he wasn't prepared to hear and she explained some more.

"Well, for what I can see of the head and upper torso, he looks like a creature that lived millions of years ago, called Tyrannosaurus Rex. Had your kind been around for so long?" She sounded a little overwhelmed by the thought. The idea that this being could be older then her entire race, and even the mammals...

"We Cybertronians do not calculate time the same way you humans does. Our lifespan is a lot longer than yours. In fact, unless it is from a injury or illness, we cannot die from old age as you organic creatures do. Our spark just goes on and on..." He explained to try and clarify things.

Her eyes widened, he was basically saying they were immortals, or at least their sparks were. She ask, her voice slightly shaky.

"Just... How old are you...?"

He looked at her and she could see the depth of his eyes showing a little bit of his extended experience. He answered in a soft voice, sounding tired suddenly.

"In human years, I am almost as old as your planet. But do not let it impress you. I am merely a sentient being seeking a little bit of peace in that universe."

Melanie felt her throat clench at those words. Almost as old as the Earth... Billions of years? She couldn't even start to grasp the concept, it was all too overwhelming. So it was possible that those transformers, in that pit, had been here when the dinosaurs were around. And... Her own lifespan must seems to them not more the a brief glimpse in the length of their lifetime... She stared at Optimus again and felt a lump in her throat.

She was about to say something when she felt observed, like eyes staring at her back intensely, and she turned around. There was no one here. A bathered Jeep, some military transports, Ratchet and Optimus parked nearby... Mike was in a discussion with Ratchet, they had apparently befriended a lot in the last two days. She smiled some, this was good. Ratchet seemed like a good soul to her...

It was then that all hell was let loose...

-TBC-