Advent Adventures - Day 2
Dec. 3rd, 2012 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camfieldDay 2!
Continuation of This ficlet.
Characters: Ratchet, Starscream
Rating: PG-13
Continuation of This ficlet.
Characters: Ratchet, Starscream
Rating: PG-13
Ratchet was upset. Or, rather Ratchet was more upset. It had been days since Starscream called him to repair his leg and he honestly had thought that the seeker would have contacted him before now. It was maddening, but then again, it was Starscream. If Ratchet had wanted easy, he would have chosen a different Cybertronian. Period.
Still, it rankled his pride that the Seeker hadn’t already contacted him. His interface skills had been legendary; surely time hadn’t had that much of an effect on them. Sure, now he was sleeping more often than not alone, but with only five Autobots on Earth, limited Energon, and continuously revolving monitor and patrol shifts it was hard to summon up the time or energy to do more than fall into recharge. Pit, the last time he’d gotten any had been when they’d all piled on top of Optimus when he’d returned from the Decepticons, and that didn’t really count. Frantic interfacing never counted when measuring skill.
At least, that was how Ratchet justified his too quick overload to himself.
So shifts came and went, each with him carefully monitoring the airwaves, each with him leaving a little more disappointed and a little less hopeful.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Starscream cursed Megatron’s name for the umpteenth time as a patrol flew past his hiding spot. He was trapped, well trapped, in a small cave, one that was barely big enough for his wings to properly spread out. He’d carefully dug out the back of the cave so that his legs could slip into the hole and he could lay on his front, the only semi-comfortable position he’d found so far. Not that that said much, seeing as he was covered in dried Energon and grit, laying on rock and dirt as the organic materials continued to grind into his joints and seams.
He would have tried to send the Autobot medic a comm, but the patrols were close enough together that it would have been immediately intercepted. Likewise with an actual escape attempt, the second he burst out of his hiding spot he’d have more drones on his tail then even he could handle. It seemed that Megatron was taking no chances this time on his survival.
Which would have stroked his ego if he hadn’t been stuffed in a tiny hole, trying not to be found by fucking drones.
Still, he was very low on reserve Energon and at this point wasn’t even confident in his thrusters working. There was so much organic matter lodged in the turbine that Starscream couldn’t spin it up, and lighting it was a good way to force fire back up and into his leg. Not to mention that he was uninterested in marring his plating any more than had already happened.
His optics were off, most of his systems were to conserve energy. The ground rumbled as another patrol passed and he could feel the heat that came from the Eradicon’s thrusters. Desperation, his declining systems warring with the need to wait until it was safe to leave.
It was finally a tiny bit of pragmatism mixed with the knowledge that he wouldn’t last much longer that pushed him to heavily encrypt a text message. Using all of his ability to create something that would be beyond a drone’s ability to hack. Only including a set of coordinates, nothing else, and hoping beyond hope that Ratchet got to him before Soundwave did.
Still, it rankled his pride that the Seeker hadn’t already contacted him. His interface skills had been legendary; surely time hadn’t had that much of an effect on them. Sure, now he was sleeping more often than not alone, but with only five Autobots on Earth, limited Energon, and continuously revolving monitor and patrol shifts it was hard to summon up the time or energy to do more than fall into recharge. Pit, the last time he’d gotten any had been when they’d all piled on top of Optimus when he’d returned from the Decepticons, and that didn’t really count. Frantic interfacing never counted when measuring skill.
At least, that was how Ratchet justified his too quick overload to himself.
So shifts came and went, each with him carefully monitoring the airwaves, each with him leaving a little more disappointed and a little less hopeful.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Starscream cursed Megatron’s name for the umpteenth time as a patrol flew past his hiding spot. He was trapped, well trapped, in a small cave, one that was barely big enough for his wings to properly spread out. He’d carefully dug out the back of the cave so that his legs could slip into the hole and he could lay on his front, the only semi-comfortable position he’d found so far. Not that that said much, seeing as he was covered in dried Energon and grit, laying on rock and dirt as the organic materials continued to grind into his joints and seams.
He would have tried to send the Autobot medic a comm, but the patrols were close enough together that it would have been immediately intercepted. Likewise with an actual escape attempt, the second he burst out of his hiding spot he’d have more drones on his tail then even he could handle. It seemed that Megatron was taking no chances this time on his survival.
Which would have stroked his ego if he hadn’t been stuffed in a tiny hole, trying not to be found by fucking drones.
Still, he was very low on reserve Energon and at this point wasn’t even confident in his thrusters working. There was so much organic matter lodged in the turbine that Starscream couldn’t spin it up, and lighting it was a good way to force fire back up and into his leg. Not to mention that he was uninterested in marring his plating any more than had already happened.
His optics were off, most of his systems were to conserve energy. The ground rumbled as another patrol passed and he could feel the heat that came from the Eradicon’s thrusters. Desperation, his declining systems warring with the need to wait until it was safe to leave.
It was finally a tiny bit of pragmatism mixed with the knowledge that he wouldn’t last much longer that pushed him to heavily encrypt a text message. Using all of his ability to create something that would be beyond a drone’s ability to hack. Only including a set of coordinates, nothing else, and hoping beyond hope that Ratchet got to him before Soundwave did.
