In the Abyss

[Starscream]

Floating. That’s all Starscream seems to be capable of at the moment, as he looks around to see nothing but a vast expanse of space in all directions. The only thought on his mind is a simple one: how did I get here? It was only moments ago that he was about to seize his destiny, fully ready to kill Metalhawk and seize control of Iacon, and now he isn’t even close to Iacon – he isn’t even on Cybertron anymore.

“No,” Starscream says out loud in a high pitched whine. “No! I was so close to achieving greatness, I was moments away from-from seizing my destiny!” The sound doesn’t actually carry anywhere, by virtue of being in a vacuum, only annoying Starscream more. He reaches out and punches, hitting nothing but blank space, and causing a sharp pain in his arm. He is way too tired for this, he desperately needs to refuel, and he’s still damaged from Megatron taking him captive. The realization suddenly hits him: if he doesn’t find some way to get to civilization and refuel, he’ll die out here. It’s not a pleasant thought.

Starscream instinctively initiates his transformation to his jet mode, the most effective way he has of getting around. He hears the familiar “TSCHE-CHU-CHU-” echo throughout his body, and his body begins to contort, but then there’s a scraping sound and he cries out in pain, immediately reversing the conversion.

“Dammit! Busted transformation cog.” He’ll just have to fly in robot mode, then. That shouldn’t be too bad. He turns on his thrusters and they ignite quickly, so he gets into his typical flight pose and picks a direction at random that vaguely feels like “down”, beginning to take off...at a snail’s pace. Starscream covers his face with his servos. This could hardly get any worse. He shakes his head and continues to fly.

Starscream soars through the abyss for what feels like an eternity, the dark vacuum seeming truly infinite around him, as though he’ll spend the entire remainder of his life out here, flying aimlessly until he finally runs out of fuel and just...dies, Primus knows how far from Cybertron. If Starscream were religious, now would be the time to ask for salvation, but he never was. He’d only ever believed in himself, and his tremendous luck that seemed to follow him everywhere. But now his luck seems to have run out.

Still, though, he keeps flying. Starscream is nothing if not persistent. And it always pays off. Just as his energon levels are getting to really dangerous lows, and his body seems finally ready to give up, Starscream sees a large, glowing sign that says “Halley’s Garage”, perched on top of what appears to be a mid-sized asteroid with a large building taking up most of the surface. Maybe not the best place, but any sign of civilization is a good one. Starscream lets out one final push as he sees that sign, zooming towards the asteroid and then crashing into it, finally losing consciousness as he lands down on it, unable to take anymore. But now that he’s on a populated asteroid, he’s safe – he hopes.

 

[Starscream]

Starscream comes online laying face down, his arms and legs on metal beams just above the ground, the cold metal tickling his temperature receptors. The first thing he notices, after his immediate physical situation, is the faint taste in his system of non-energon-based fuel. It isn’t horrible, and it’s certainly better than dying due to want of fuel, but it certainly doesn’t energize one like proper energon. How had he gotten here? The last thing he remembers is crashing into the asteroid, hoping to survive. Well, he had lived. That was something, at least. Out of the corner of his eye Starscream sees movement, and he turns his head to see a small humanoid, apparently a male, his face caked with grease. The organic nods at Starscream.

“I uh, saw you crash down onto my little asteroid here. Figured I better not just let you die out there,” the humanoid laughs awkwardly. “I guess you saw the sign. I’m Halley. Jim Halley. Took you into my garage here and hooked you up to get some fuel in you. Tried to fix you up a little but, well – to tell you the truth, I ain’t never seen a machine like you before.” Halley shakes his head. “And speaking of, I’m talking to you now without even knowing if you can talk.”

“I can speak...Jim Halley.” Organic names always feel so awkward in the mouth. They lack the simplistic elegance of Cybertronian names, and they always have to have two names rather than just one. Jim stands there for a moment, just looking at Starscream and smiling, slightly annoying the bot.

“Sorry,” Jim says, shaking his head. “But is it alright if I get a picture? You’re, uh, definitely the coolest thing I’ve ever had in this shop.” Starscream sighs, then puts on a fake smile. This lifeform appears to be a local, and he should play along if he hopes to get any useful information out of him.

“Of course, feel free.” Jim’s face beams.

“Let me just grab my camera,” he says, then darts out of the room. Starscream looks around once he leaves. He’s surrounded by various types of spaceships, ranging from the same size as him to significantly larger, all about the right size to be used by an organic like Halley. They’re situated on metal bars above the ground in much the same fashion as Starscream, and he realizes that he’s rigged up exactly like one of the vehicles in for maintenance. Him, Starscream, reduced to the level of an inanimate machine! It would be enough to make him seethe with rage and destroy the whole place, once upon a time. But he’s a changed bot. And he really needs the help of this human.

“Alright,” Jim says as he walks back into the room, a camera in hand. “Smile! You, uh, do smile, right?”

“Yes,” Starscream says through clenched teeth, smiling widely and disingenuously. He holds one hand up with two fingers in the shape of a V, a pose he encountered frequently when going through human media while stationed on Earth. Its popularity guaranteed the human here would be satisfied with it, he reasoned (the fact that he always thought it looked fun was besides the point). Halley snaps several photos, his camera clacking loudly with a bright flash, then chuckles to himself.

“My folks back home would never believe this. Without the pictures, I mean.”

“Right, yes, very cool. So, Jim Halley,” Starscream begins, laying on the charm. “I will be blunt with you. I have no idea where I am or how I got here. But you seem to be a knowledgeable guy, am I right? I’m sure you could be of assistance!”

“Oh, wow, you’re not a native? Well, I’m no expert on this stuff, but here’s what I know.” Halley began to explain the strange realm Starscream found himself in, his explanation often interspersed with “ums” and “I thinks”, the mechanic clearly not well versed in cosmology. But Starscream was able to get the picture: they were in some isolated pocket of space with 8 different planets, each one different than the others. He was unable to get a clear picture what exactly any of these world were like, but at least he had the general idea.

“Thank you, that was illuminating. Now, as you can probably surmise, in my current state I am unfit to travel anywhere. How does one travel from world to world out here?” Starscream asks.

“Oh, well you can find all sorts of ways. But I’ve actually got family with a farm down on Erde Nona, been meaning to go visit them. It’s a nice planet. If you want, I could drop you off in the big city down there, Arcadia, on my way down there.” A smile forms on Starscream’s face. A big city? Perfect.

“That would be appreciated, Jim Halley.”