The Hardship Tour

The Hardship Tour(Unfinished)

Chapter 1

“Say that again, sir?” Silverrose’s red optics brightened with surprise at her commanding officer. She had given him her report about the unusual telemetry one of her rather remote satellites picked up a few hours ago; but she was not expecting to be sent on the mission to investigate. If what the data indicated was correct, the mystery of what happened to a lost group of seekers exploring that sector of space several months ago could be solved. It could also be that the satellite was malfunctioning as well. Silverrose highly doubted that, but it was still a possibility they needed to prepare for.

“Did I stutter?”

Inwardly Silverrose cursed herself. She had an annoying tendency to blurt out whatever she was thinking rather than reign most things in and just nod and say, “yes, sir.” It brought no end of both irritation and mild amusement to her superiors.

“No, sir. I was just… surprised is all.”

The older seeker leaned back in his chair and regarded the lightly colored female for a moment from across his neatly organized desk. “If I were you, I’d start learning when to mask your emotions more; for your protection and the protection of those around you.”

Biting back an exhale of frustration at her almost complete social ineptitude, Silverrose simply nodded. “As you wish, sir. Who will I be sent with?”

“That will be entirely left up to you,” he said, tossing a datapad across the desk at the light pink, silver, and mint green seeker.

Catching it neatly with quick reflexes, the result of many millennia of dueling in the Arena, Silverrose peered at her boss with confusion and surprise. “I’m leading the mission? May I ask why, sir? I’m hardly qualified for field command.”

A smirk. “Very good, Silverrose. You’re following me on this one. No one is truly qualified for field command until after they’ve had experience. You commanded the telemetry section on Earth base for a year and a half; and you’ve been efficient and more than competent as a subordinate in the same section on Cybertron for almost two years. I think it’s time to see if you can handle what should be a minor investigation a few sectors away. Now enough chitchat, go get ready to go.”

Silverrose tensed visibly at the subtle reminder of her demotion as the lead telemetrist on Earth to ordinary subordinate in the same section on Cybertron. Her wings drooped slightly in renewed shame and humiliation. Actually the “demotion” had not been one in the strictest sense as it was more that she was transferred to Cybertron which already had a lead telemetrist. Demoted by default of being transferred rather than because of work performance, in essence. The young seeker’s work on Earth had been exemplary, but she had proven unable to adapt to life on Earth in other ways. Socially, she was a disaster; “putting her foot in her mouth” regularly and taking constructive and not so constructive criticism too personally, resulting in a personality too sensitive, young, and immature to handle the “bigwigs” on Earth. Skywarp, in particular, had done a lot of damage with his pranks. It was thought by some that Silverrose simply was sent to Earth at too young an age, the equivalent of a human about age 19-20, and that she would mature with life and military experience.

Noticing the change in the light pink and silver seeker’s body language, the older seeker growled in annoyance and looked at her reproachfully. He knew it was likely going to make her feel worse, but he didn’t care. It was time she let go of the self pity; and he was fervently hoping that a successful field mission might do the trick. He was pretty certain that deep down she had the courage to do her best with whatever came her way.

Snapping to at her superior’s disappointment, Silverrose saluted. “I will make preparations immediately, sir.”

It was only after she was safely on the other side of the door to her superior officer’s office that she allowed herself to lean against it, tilt her head up, and mutter “Am I ever going to do *anything* right?!”

***

“Yeah, keep grinning, Windstorm. It just makes you look goofy.”

That just made Windstorm burst out laughing again. “I’m sorry Silverrose, but the idea of taking orders from a woman makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”

Silverrose smirked as her former brother in law, Solarflare passed between her and Windstorm with a case of handheld weapons to load onto the shuttle. He shook his head at Windstorm, who grinned back hugely. “Sick bastard.”

“Well excuse me for finding commanding women to be sexy. Just because you and Sunstriker were raised to believe that women should keep to more traditional roles doesn’t mean that *I* have to think that way.”

Inside the shuttlecraft, Silverrose’s bondmate, Starshadow listened to the exchange with amusement, but refrained from joining in too much so that he could concentrate on performing the inventory of their supplies. When he had accounted for everything they were authorized to tote along, he logged it on a datapad and handed it back to Silverrose, who looked it over, performed a visual inspection herself, and then signed off on it.

“What? Don’t trust me?” the blue and gray seeker grinned mock innocently, knowing full well that a visual inspection by the commanding officer was standard procedure to verify that everything was correct and was not personal.

“You’re a Decepticon, are you not?” Silverrose returned the innocent look and exited the shuttle, looking around the shuttle bay quickly.

They were still waiting on the last few members of their party who still had time to prepare since they were on duty at the time they were selected for the mission.

Solarflare looked over at Starshadow with curiosity and finally deigned to ask the question that had been nagging at him since he learned who Silverrose had selected to go on this little wild goose chase. “Starshadow, why are you coming along? Do we seriously need an oceanographer for this?”

Starshadow chuckled and sat down in the pilot’s seat to perform some maintenance and systems checks to ensure that the shuttle was in perfect working order. “Our dear mission leader is being mercilessly efficient. She did some research on the planet we’re headed for, decided there was enough ocean to explore, and decided to bring me along so I can chart the waters while the rest of you look around for the missing Seekers. Oh and I’m also doubling as the shuttle pilot since I have to pilot my own shuttle when I do my offworld work.”

Snorting, Solarflare looked across the room at Silverrose, who was now discussing mission plans with Sunspire and Windchaser who had arrived moments before. “You’ll forgive me if I think that she has ulterior motives for bringing her *bondmate* along?”

“That’s not ulterior, that’s obvious,” Starshadow grinned impishly, knowing full well where Solarflare was headed with that remark. “Look on the bright side; at least she’ll be in a good mood.”

Taking great satisfaction in the horrified look on the ever prudish Solarflare’s face, Starshadow clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder and gave it a few good shakes. “Relax bro, we wouldn’t torture you guys that way.”

“I sincerely hope not,” the black and yellow seeker grumbled in response.

“Unless of course you all brought sleep masks and audioplugs…”

Solarflare groaned and slugged Starshadow just hard enough to indicate just what he thought of that little joke.

“Ouch!”

Now it was Solarflare’s turn to smile sweetly.

***

The stars streaked by on the viewscreen in various colors as the shuttlecraft journeyed through space to its destination. Fortunately, their traveling time was relatively short as seekers tended towards claustrophobia if made to endure cramped quarters for long periods of time. Also fortunate was the fact that seekers also tended to enjoy the company of their own kind and usually found ways to keep each other amused during missions such as this one.

“So how many red shirts have we got with us?” Sunspire, the medic, asked with a mischievous grin. That grin broadened when the reference didn’t go missed by Silverrose and Starshadow, who snickered despite themselves. Like Sunspire, Silverrose and Starshadow had both spent time on Earth and as a result, had absorbed a fair bit of the human culture; entertainment in particular.

The rest of the shuttle’s complement had never been to Earth and they looked at each other and Sunspire with utter confusion. Silverrose smirked and looked over at Starshadow. “Do we tell them?”

Keeping his optics on his instruments, Starshadow explained. “Sunspire is referencing an old Earth show called Star Trek. In it, the security guards all wear red shirts and they always got killed off on away missions.”

“Primus fragging red wing stripes…” Solarflare grumbled sarcastically. “It’s always something.”

That got a chuckle from the rest of the crew until another impish grin spread itself over Windstorm’s face.

Windchaser groaned, knowing what the olive green and beige jet was about to ask. “Oh Primus, here he goes again…”

Windstorm was not deterred in the least. “So uh…Silverrose? Are we there yet?”

“Boy, if you ask me that again, I’m going to have to get up out of this chair and hurt you.”

Silverrose knew that Windstorm was constantly asking her that just to be a pissant and get a rise out of her. Fortunately, she was in a fairly jovial mood and felt like playing his little game.

After a few more minutes, one of Starshadow’s instruments beeped indicating that they were approaching their destination. Slowing the shuttlecraft to a speed safe for traveling within a solar system, he laid in the coordinates for the fourth planet.

Starshadow chuckled. “Your timing was spot on perfect, Windstorm.”

Silverrose nodded in agreement. “I thought I was going to have to knock him out.”

At that moment, there was a bright flash on the viewscreen to which all of the seekers instinctively brought their hands up to shield their optics; and then the shuttle’s instruments lit up with lights and beeps. Starshadow checked his board and concentrated on the information he was receiving. Silverrose leaned over his shoulder and interpreted the data.

“Wormhole,” she said with a certain amount of awe in her voice and looked back up at the viewscreen with an almost reverent fascination. The wormhole was quite beautiful, bordering on ethereal in its rarity and myriad colors.

The others, save for Starshadow, were transfixed by the sight in front of them. Starshadow was still concentrating on his board. After a moment that felt like an eternity, Solarflare broke the silence. “Oh look at Starshadow all unphased and working like a good little soldier.”

The blue and gray seeker waved his hand mock dismissively. “Ah you know, in my line of work I see these all the time. They’re a dime a dozen really. Just another shuttle port short cut through outer space.” Then with sarcasm. “I’m working here, hello?! I don’t have time to be in awe of it.” Turning his attention back to Silverrose, he informed her that the sensors were picking up the same readings that the satellite’s telemetry had reported back on Cybertron.

“It looks like our missing seekers could be on the other side of that wormhole,” he nodded towards the anomaly on the viewscreen. “And that also means that this wormhole is probably stable and will continue to open and close in the same areas of space.”

Silverrose nodded. “All stop. Keep us at a safe distance for the moment and send a subspace message back to Darkmount informing them of our current status and request further instructions.”

Starshadow gave his bondmate a quick nod and set about his tasks.

Windchaser, who had been mostly quiet for the majority of the trip, spoke up. “Uh, what if the wormhole closes before Darkmount responds?”

Starshadow briefly glanced back at Windchaser. “I requested instructions in the event that occurs as well.”

“Think of everything, don’t you?” Solarflare grumbled.

Starshadow nodded with a smug grin. “I’m just used to communicating with Darkmount since I run a lot of offworld missions. You learn quickly how to be efficient and get your options answered in a few communiqués, rather than going back and forth all day.”

“A huge part of me really wants to go through that thing and see where it goes,” Sunspire said excitedly.

Solarflare looked over at her in stunned disbelief. “What if it goes to oblivion?!”

Starshadow didn’t even bother to suppress the teasing grin that came unbidden to his lips as he continued to work at his console. “Then that will be your big chance to get away from it all.”

Solarflare stared at Starshadow, completely unimpressed as the rest of the shuttle’s complement snickered and chuckled.

After a moment, one of the lights on the console began flashing yellow again, indicating an incoming transmission from Cybertron. Starshadow and Silverrose both read the contents. The silence in the shuttle seemed to last an eternity for the rest of the seekers as they waited for Silverrose to inform them of their next course of action.

Silverrose looked over her shoulder at their questioning faces. “Looks like you got your wish, Sunspire. We’ve been instructed to travel through the wormhole and confirm the location of our missing seekers.

Sunspire pumped her fist in excitement. “It is sort of scary too though, even though I’m dying of curiosity.”

“You and me both,” Silverrose nodded in agreement, then she turned back to Starshadow. “Set a course for the wormhole, quarter speed. Think you can handle it?”

“First time for everything.”

“You’ve no idea how comforting that is…” Solarflare grumbled sarcastically.

Windstorm reached over and thumped his wingmate on the head. “Oh zip it already. It’ll do you some good to get out of the shop.”

“Frag you, Windstorm!”

“Everybody fasten your seat belts. Here we go.” Starshadow adjusted the controls on his console and the shuttle began making its way for the wormhole. Everyone in the shuttle tensed both with excitement and nervousness. Wormholes were unpredictable at best and nearly anything could happen to them in the next few moments. Hopefully, it would simply deposit them in one piece in another section of space where their missing comrades ended up several months before.

The ride was fairly smooth until the very end when immediately after exiting the wormhole the shuttle encountered intense turbulence and Starshadow’s console went crazy with lights and sounds. The shuttle rocked with the turbulence, throwing Silverrose and Windchaser out of their seats. Starshadow had to hold on to the edge of his console to keep from being tossed about as well. Silverrose pulled herself back into her seat and wrestled with getting a grip on her fear. They couldn’t afford for her to be paralyzed into inaction from fear. She had to do something! She was the mission leader for crying out loud and people were depending on her.

“Report!” She had to raise her voice to be heard over the noise.

Starshadow’s face was the picture of concentration as he continued trying to re-establish control of the helm. “The shuttle’s not answering her helm! As best I can tell, the wormhole deposited us right next to a large class M planet and we’re being dragged down by its gravitational pull. In simpler terms, brace for impact!”

“Any chance we could take a raincheck on that?!” Windstorm’s voice wavered with a touch of fear as the others looked for something stable to hold onto even knowing that they’d possibly be destroyed anyway.

Silverrose looked at Starshadow helplessly. There was nothing she could think of to do. Her bondmate was still trying to gain control of the helm and it appeared that he was at least somewhat successful in turning it so that the crash would not be at an acutely vertical angle. The more horizontal the shuttle was when it hit ground or water, the greater their chances at survival. Well, at least as long as they didn’t strike a mountain before coming to a complete stop.

Finally, having done all he could, Starshadow wrapped an arm around his mate’s waist and threw them both to the floor of the shuttle. He wrapped his free arm around the leg of his chair and held Silverrose to him protectively. Whatever damage the shuttle took at impact, Starshadow hoped his body would provide enough of a shield to protect his wife.

A few more moments of terror later, the shuttle made impact.

Chapter 2

Windstorm was the first to stir after the jarring impact of the shuttle on the planet’s surface. To say that the landing was bumpy and uncontrolled was a great understatement. As he brought his optics online, the young security officer noticed that most of his fellow seekers had been thrown about the shuttle. That was to be expected given the rough nature of their landing. He hoped they were all still alive. Turning his head to the left, he spotted Windchaser a few feet away. Groaning with stiffness, Windstorm crawled over to Windchaser and nudged his shoulder. Windchaser gasped and jerked back in surprise, but relaxed when he remembered what had happened and brought his hands up to rub at his face.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Windstorm couldn’t suppress the mischievous grin that came to his lips and whisper to Windchaser. “Pssst, we made it. We’re here. You can wake up now.”

Windchaser couldn’t help but chuckle at that. If there was one thing that Windstorm could do very well it was comic relief; and while Solarflare found Windstorm’s humor horribly ill timed and improper in some situations, Windchaser was glad for it. Windstorm was good for morale and Windchaser had a nagging feeling they were going to need him in the very near future. Still chuckling and still seeing static, Windchaser reached out blindly to swat at Windstorm, making Windstorm laugh quietly as well.

“Is everybody else in one piece?” Windchaser slowly and tentatively pushed himself to a sitting position and waited for his head to stop spinning before looking around the shuttle.

“I don’t know. How do I look?” Solarflare grumbled sarcastically from under a console on the other side of the shuttle.

“Like a frickin’ ray of sunshine, as usual.” Silverrose returned the sarcasm as she pushed herself to her feet; and then helped Sunspire to hers.

Windchaser grinned at Sunspire. “Yay, the medic survived!”

“Good cuz I think I landed on my aft wrong,” Windstorm grinned impishly.

Solarflare snorted as he made his way to the back to begin checking the status of their supplies. “You landed on your *head* wrong.”

Silverrose shook her head at the lot of them with a slight chuckle and then looked at the viewscreen, which had shattered on impact. No telling what was outside the shuttle. Inside though, there was plenty of debris and dust. Okay, well sand was outside. Still looking around the shuttle, Silverrose took a step forward and tripped over Starshadow, who was still out cold on the floor of the shuttle. Immediately, she began silently chastising herself for not noticing his prone form sooner.

Some leader I’m turning out to be…

Waving Sunspire over, Silverrose knelt next to Starshadow.

“Is he going to be alright?” She asked the medic worriedly.

Taking out some instruments, Sunspire busied herself with them for a few moments before nodding. “He should be. Looks like he hit his head on the bulkhead behind him. He’ll come around soon.”

“Now what?” Windchaser asked. Windchaser was the youngest of the group and graduated from the Cybertron War Academy not too long ago. Silverrose had picked him for the team because, despite his youth, he was a very gifted Engineer; and as her boss had done with her, Silverrose thought the field experience would be good for him.

Solarflare looked over at Silverrose from the cases of supplies he was inspecting. “Looks like we still have all our supplies. We can thank Starshadow for having cased and stored them well.”

“Well, that’s something.” Sunspire said with relief.

Silverrose folded her arms and chewed her lip nervously and pensively, trying to determine what to do next. She looked down at her mate, Starshadow, still out like a light. There wasn’t really anything that could be done for him at this point so sitting with him would be a waste of time.

“Hopefully we’re not buried under a ton of rock. Let’s see if we can get out of this crushed tin can and see what’s outside and inspect the damage to the shuttle.”

The other seekers seemed to brighten a tiny bit at that; no doubt aching to at least stretch their wings outside the tight confines of the shuttle.

Silverrose proceeded quickly to the rear of the shuttle, but was stopped by Solarflare’s stern voice before she was able to open the hatch.

“Just where do you think you’re going, little missy?!”

Stopping, Silverrose turned to face him with a look of genuine confusion. “I thought we were going outside?”

“You are in command, which means you don’t go anywhere until security has scouted the area and deemed it safe, especially in a situation like this.” Solarflare ignored Silverrose’s exhale of frustration and impatience as he opened one of the weapons cases they had brought along. He quickly removed two of the sniper rifles and tossed one to Windstorm, who caught it neatly.

Frag, I forgot about that…, Silverrose thought with irritation. I’m screwing up already. Go figure.

With a defiant air, Silverrose reached out to activate the door controls again, but Solarflare snatched her wrist faster than she thought possible.

“I won’t tell if you won’t…” She pleaded with huge, innocent optics. No such luck as Solarflare simply grinned victoriously and shook his head.

Checking his rifle to make sure it was fully charged and operational, Windstorm, serious for once, nodded in agreement with his wingmate. “Solarflare is right this time, Silverrose. This isn’t the situation to be plowing ahead with your “I survived several million years in the Arena, therefore I must be invincible” attitude.”

Groaning, Silverrose put her hands up in surrender. “Fine, fine. Go and be quick about it. I’m anxious to get out of this coffin, okay?”

“Did you have to say coffin?” Starshadow, having just returned to consciousness, groaned as he stiffly sat up and rubbed his head.

Silverrose smacked her forehead in self reproach. “Did I put my big aft foot in my mouth *again*?”

“Relax, dear. I’m just messing with you.”

Laughing, Sunspire went back over to Starshadow to check him over again.

Seeing that Starshadow was now among the land of the moving, Solarflare asked if there was any way to access the censor readings of the planet just before the crash.

“It would be nice to have some idea of what’s out there.”

Pulling himself up, Starshadow examined the console and started punching in commands. “I don’t think we’ll be taking off anytime soon, but I think we have some computer access here. Give me a moment… I’m not detecting any natives such as Earth has. There are some animals though, both land and marine so keep an optic out for those. Also, it looks like we’re picking up the missing seekers about 200 miles from this location. There also looks to be another group of Cybertronians a lot further away. I would hazard a guess they’re Autobots.”

Silverrose looked over his shoulder at the readings. “Makes sense. You’d think if they were all Decepticons they’d have banded together by now.”

“Yes, but we’re lucky to still have some sensors operational. If the two groups crashed and lost sensor capability, they may not even be aware of the other.” Sunspire offered.

Silverrose shook her head. “But wouldn’t we have been told about two missing groups of Decepticons?”

Starshadow looked over to Sunspire. “The sensors are able to determine subgroups among Cybertronians at certain ranges; say, Seekers from land bases vehicles and so on. The second group is just slightly out of range for me to give a definite answer as to what faction, but they can tell me that they are definitely from Cybertron. And I’m thinking that if they are Autobots, then they likely encountered our Seeker group near that wormhole and they both got sucked down here.”

“Alright, Windstorm and I are going out there.” Solarflare said, heading for the hatch. “If it’s fairly safe, we can all have a look at the shuttle’s damage and determine our next course of action from there.”

Windstorm raised his weapon to the ready and took up position just to the left of Solarflare, who keyed open the hatch.