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short-circuit-the-great · 3 months

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Dying Sun / A Hundred Thousand Stars / Ch 7 / Solar Refraction

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Windsnarl's recruitment efforts continue, leading her to speak with two robots who have a painful stake in her future.

Chapter 7: Solar Refraction

Windsnarl went looking for people to join what she and Warp Drive had decided to call the Velocitronian Security Force. Simple enough name. Straight to the point.

The first place she tried was the hotspot well in Navitas, which sounded like an odd place to look but she was after someone in particular: the spark harvester Skytracks. Skytracks had never been fond of racing, and the rumors were she was slow, but Windsnarl didn’t care about that. What she did care about was that Skytracks was huge and easily as strong as her, and she could also fly. Dreadsmoke could fly too, also making it useful, but Windsnarl would have to think more about what to do with it. It wouldn’t be seeing attacks from the air, that was for sure.

Skytracks being able to fly, though? Aerial perspective was precisely the purpose Windsnarl had in mind. Air support would be invaluable.

“No,” was Skytracks’s immediate answer, and she was holding a protoforming spark as though she wanted to emphasize how busy she was. “I’m not leaving the well. These sparks will be absorbed back into the hotspot otherwise.”

“Anyone else could do this work,” Windsnarl said.

Skytracks laughed. “Anyone else would use this room as a race track and kill every protoform and brand new sparkling.”

Kill every sparkling.

Windsnarl kept her face expressionless, but a flicker of grief and anger passed through her optics, and Skytracks saw it with the one eye she still had.

“Right,” she said. “The murder. Sorry about that. Good luck making your army or whatever to get revenge on the rest of us. Now leave me alone.”

Windsnarl raised her claws. “I could kill you where you stand, Skytracks of Neo.”

Skytracks loomed over her, staring down at her with her single yellow optic. “Try it.”

Windsnarl’s optics scanned Skytracks’s massive body and her hands that could snap her in half with ease, and she growled and turned away, heading for the door. Skytracks’s plating clicked together as she waved, and she said, “Feel free to take a new sparkling on the way out.”

Windsnarl’s hands clenched into fists and she whirled around and swung at Skytracks, aiming straight for the hole in her face where her other optic used to be. Skytracks caught her fist and moved the protoform to a compartment on her leg for safety. Windsnarl clawed at her with her other hand, only for Skytracks to grab that one too and stare at her.

“I’ll have you know,” Skytracks said, “that I am not particularly attached to robots I didn’t harvest.”

She pushed Windsnarl away, and Windsnarl growled and rubbed her wrists.

“Get out,” Skytracks said. “I don’t need to be fast to rip you in half, though I suppose you’d already know that.”

Windsnarl tensed her legs to jump up and claw Skytracks’s face off, but then she growled again and turned away, walking toward the door. Then she started running and leaped outside, transforming and driving as far away as she could. She left Navitas far, far behind and finally stopped at the edge of the city, and only then did she change back, walking up to the railing to look out over the barren landscape under the setting sun.

She rested her hands on the railing, then her arms, then her head, hiding her face. She wanted to cry. She wanted to cry more than anything. But she couldn’t.

Warp Drive, I can’t do this.

But she had to.

They needed a security force. They couldn’t stand by and do nothing while violence swept over Velocitron, something that had only gotten worse in the days since the incident at the launch site. There were reports of people being attacked in Neo, in Umbra, in Glare, even in Windsnarl’s home city of Catalyst, which had always seemed so safe.

And that’s all they were.

Reports.

No one did anything about them because there was no one TO do anything about them, and that had to be fixed, and Windsnarl had to fix it now. She had to find people who were willing to fight, people who were strong enough. But if the strong people weren’t willing to fight, who else was there?

Someone tapped her shoulder. Windsnarl looked over to see Warp Drive, who signed:

That was only one person, and Skytracks is notoriously a huge asshole. Too much time alone in the hotspot wells.

Don’t give up yet.

Windsnarl smiled a little bit and wanted to take her hand, but she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to, so she looked back at the landscape. Warp Drive did something completely unexpected and ducked under her arm, which made Windsnarl jump. Warp Drive moved away, thinking she’d gone too far, but Windsnarl reached out and pulled her back without even thinking.

MAYBE SHE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO DO THAT.

But before Windsnarl could move away, Warp Drive moved closer and slipped their hands together.

I have an idea of where to look next, she said.

Where? Windsnarl said.

Warp Drive’s antennae twitched in a way Windsnarl was pretty sure was the equivalent of a smile. The toughest robots are going to be at the-

Seediest bar in town, Windsnarl said when they got there, an absolute hole in the wall in the Delta market. It reminded her of Liquid Lancer’s in Neo, but somehow worse, and the sign was so beat up she couldn’t even read the name. As soon as they entered, rough-looking robots were everywhere, covered in patches of rust and missing paint, some with broken or missing optics, some with mismatched limbs, some with cracked wings and tires so ragged and worn out that they couldn’t possibly last through another race. Everyone was talking and laughing and enjoying their drinks. Some of them played games too, such as darts or a host of card games Windsnarl didn’t care to name. She’d never been good at any of that, though she bet she could throw a dart pretty damn accurately if someone’s optic was the target instead of that stupid board on the wall.

None of these people looked like they were disciplined enough to be in any sort of security force protecting Velocitron and its people, but Windsnarl couldn’t be picky, so she looked around carefully, seeing which robots looked to be the toughest. She kept Warp Drive close by, though everyone was too absorbed in their drinks or conversations or games to pay her any attention.

One very drunk robot leaned back in her chair and made eye contact with Windsnarl, smiling and waving and nearly falling to the floor. She caught herself at the last second and slammed her drink back onto the table, still waving at Windsnarl.

“Sheriff, dude,” the robot said, “is that green thing your Conjunx?”

HUH?

Of all the disrespectful-

TO IMPLY SHE WAS SO UNPROFESSIONALLY CLOSE TO WARP DRIVE.

But that would be nice, wouldn’t it? NO, no, it wouldn’t. Windsnarl couldn’t think like that, especially not after what happened with Snowcrush. She wasn’t going through that again, not for anything. And this was the First Senator. Have some respect.

When we are together, we are the same.

Meet me as a fellow Velocitronian.

Aaaaand those words complicated things. Because that made it possible that thinking this way WAS fine, despite everything that happened, and that Warp Drive even welcomed it, which she most certainly did not.

Then why did she grab my arm like that earlier?

To talk to her, obviously!

But she got way closer than she needed to and I liked it and she liked it too.

NO THINKING LIKE THAT.

NOT ALLOWED.

Windsnarl was so caught up in trying to suppress whatever THAT was that she completely missed where this robot had called Warp Drive “that green thing.” It finally registered and Windsnarl raised her claws, moving closer to the robot. She didn’t care if this person was drunk. Warp Drive was the First Senator. No one was going to call her “that green thing.”

“She’s so pretty,” the robot said, dragging out the last word. “She also reeeally looks like the First Senator.”

“She is the First Senator,” Windsnarl said coldly, and she completely forgot to say that Warp Drive was also NOT her Conjunx, but it was too late.

“Sheriff Windsnarl pulled the First Senator!” the drunk robot yelled to the entire bar, and everyone went nuts.

Well, almost everyone. There was a group in the corner of the bar that was yelling and cheering about something else, and Windsnarl, who wanted nothing more than to jump into the solar storms at this point, turned her attention over there.

“Excuse me,” she said, and she moved in that direction, Warp Drive following closely.

“You two are the only ones doing anything!” the drunk robot called after them. “Please get married!”

What?

Windsnarl abandoned the event in the corner for a moment to turn back to the drunk robot, who still needed to be punched in the face for the “green thing” comment anyway. (But she HAD said Warp Drive was pretty, so perhaps it wasn’t malicious at all, but Windsnarl should still treat it that way, right?) “What do you mean we’re the only ones doing anything?” she said.

“About the violence,” the drunk robot said. “People have been getting attacked all over Velocitron by these crime groups—don’t know why, and it’s kinda always been a problem, but it got super bad out of nowhere.”

Windsnarl saw Photon’s blood flying through the air again, and she blinked and said, “Yeah, it did.”

“Heard you’re building something to deal with it,” the drunk robot said as she took another sip, like she needed that in any way. “You taking applications?”

Windsnarl finally put her claws away. “Yes, we are actively recruiting. What is your experience?”

“Mm, hardly sober enough for an interview,” the robot said. “But my name’s Lionstrike.”

She waved at the other robots at her table, all equally drunk. “Starlane, Mirrorbreaker, Bullet Train, Torpedo, and Hammerfist. We’ve all lost a friend or a Conjunx or a limb—that’s why we’re drunk, hehe!”

There was nothing funny about that.

“Happy to join,” Lionstrike said. “Let us know where to—hic—go and we’ll pull up when we can think straight. Hehehehe.”

She turned to the others, took a long sip of her drink, and slammed it back down, yelling, “Guys, all my friends are dead. I was forced to watch.”

They all started laughing, and Windsnarl stepped away, struggling not to think about Photon. God, it was so hard not to think about Photon. But Warp Drive was here and Windsnarl was able to stay tethered to reality when she brushed her tail against her, though only by a thread.

“The Citadel,” Windsnarl said to the drunk robots. “Come to the Citadel tomorrow. I will be waiting.”

“Yeah, dude,” Lionstrike said, and Windsnarl finally walked away.

No matter how much she wanted to go home right now, she couldn’t, and she was going to see what was going on in that corner, where the robots were still cheering for something. She had six recruits now, but six recruits was not enough. She needed far more.

And maybe that corner would have some.

When Windsnarl got there, she pushed her way to the front of the group right as a robot’s arm was crushed into the table and everyone erupted into more cheering. The giant hand closed around his own let go of him, and as the robot rubbed his hand and turned away with a scowl, the same giant hand whacked him on the back. It was big enough to cover the entire surface.

“Better luck next time,” said a voice like exploding stars—rough and broken, but a powerful sort of broken, like the way an avalanche was tumbling fragments of a mountain.

Windsnarl looked up. And up. And up. And up some more. And up a lot more. And there behind the table, which was bent significantly in the middle and would likely not last much longer, was the biggest robot Windsnarl had ever seen. The only ones she’d seen that were bigger than that were the combiners from Cybertron, and those were essentially multiple robots in a trench coat. This was one robot. One massive, shiny golden robot, bright like the sun and with optics like the red Energon some people used to cheat at racing.

“Who’s next?” the giant robot said as a much smaller one collected a few coins from the robot who’d just lost. “Wrangle, you want to try?”

The coin collecting robot put the coins in a jar and shook her head. “No. My glorious mind reading powers tell me you’re planning to throw me straight out the window.”

“Come on, I only did that to the first guy,” the giant robot said with a grin. “And your glorious mind reading powers are not real.”

“Are too!”

“What am I thinking right now?”

“Wrangle snores funny,” Wrangle said with a long sigh, and the giant robot cackled.

“You’re right, but at what cost?” she said with a snicker. “Get over here.”

Wrangle went over to her and the giant robot lifted her up so they could touch their foreheads together. For that moment, they looked happier than Windsnarl had ever seen anyone, and then the giant robot set her down and cracked her knuckles, a sound like thunder.

Then her optics landed on Windsnarl.

“You,” the giant robot said. “You look strong. Arm wrestle me.”

“I’m not here for that,” Windsnarl said. “I need your strength for another task.”

The robots gathered around the broken table began to move away, and the giant robot laughed under her breath and slowly stood up. The blades on her back rattled as they fanned out, scraping the ceiling and leaving long scratch marks. When she was fully standing, she had to lean over so she wouldn’t crash straight through the ceiling and out the roof, and she slammed her hands onto the table, breaking what was left of it. She settled for crouching on one knee, still towering over everyone present, and Windsnarl noticed two long poles attached to her legs—were they missiles?

No, she realized when Wrangle handed the giant robot a massive sword and then another. They were scabbards, and it looked like there was no way the swords would fit, but mass displacement allowed them to click back into place, put away for now but ready at the hip if there was a need to draw.

“Now what task could the First Senator have for someone like me?” the giant robot said as her optics rolled over to Warp Drive.

“We’re building a security force to address the outburst of violent crime all over the planet,” Windsnarl said, “and we need strong people to join.”

The giant robot snorted with laughter and whacked Wrangle’s shoulder, though Windsnarl noticed she held back significantly. “They want me to be a cop,” the giant robot said. “Upholding the law and bending it however I please.”

“The second part is not true,” Windsnarl said. “The law is never bent.”

“It’s not?” the giant robot said. “That’s news to me.”

Her optics burned into Windsnarl’s. “Tell me, Sheriff—how long until you turn against the very people you set out to protect? Fighting violence with more violence, hurting them worse than they hurt us—how long until you go from protecting Velocitron to crushing it beneath your claws? Not long, I will bet, and when it happens, I will never stop working to bring your regime crashing down.”

“No one said anything about a regime,” Windsnarl said. “I only want us to be able to protect ourselves, and Velocitron as it stands is not strong enough.”

“And you’ll do anything to make it strong enough,” the giant robot said. “Absolutely anything. I know what kind of person you are—my Cybertronian friend here says you have the optics of someone she knows.”

Wrangle didn’t make eye contact, only whispering a name Windsnarl almost missed over the sound of the rest of the bar carrying on with their conversations.

“Megatron.”

Windsnarl had heard this name before. He was a revolutionary on Cybertron, standing up to the functionist regime there. What was so bad about that? Megatron saw things could be better and was working to change them. Windsnarl was doing the same thing.

All she wanted was a stronger Velocitron.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Windsnarl said. “If you aren’t going to join us, then we will be leaving now.”

“My name is Suncatcher,” the giant robot said. “I expect to meet again.”

Suncatcher. Why did that sound like a name that was going to haunt Windsnarl for the rest of her life? She didn’t think any more about it and left the bar with Warp Drive, who grabbed her hand and said:

We got a few people. It wasn’t a total loss.

Windsnarl agreed, but it was still unfortunate that both Skytracks and Suncatcher had refused. And they were both incredibly threatening about it too.

How long until you go from protecting Velocitron to crushing it beneath your claws?

Never. Windsnarl wouldn’t do that.

And Warp Drive wouldn’t either.

Building the Security Force proved to continue to be a struggle. Windsnarl put advertisements calling for recruits all over the Delta market, and Warp Drive helped her distribute them in Neo as well. The rest of the senate was atrociously unhelpful, and the only senator who distributed any advertisements in their own city was Burnout, though she made her guards do it.

That was when Windsnarl realized she was a dumbass.

The guards, she said to Warp Drive. We just have to train the guards. That will make up a huge portion of the Security Force.

Recruitment efforts were still a good idea, but they had many, many guards all over Velocitron, at least a thousand for each Citadel and two thousand for the Delta Citadel due to its size and importance. That was huge, at least compared to the six recruits they’d started with in the bar.

You’re going to train that many people? Warp Drive said. I don’t doubt your abilities, Windsnarl-

She said her name she said her name why did Windsnarl like that so much what was going on.

-but that is too much work for one person, Warp Drive said.

Who else can train them? Windsnarl said. The two people I was going to ask to help with this both refused.

And one more too—Windsnarl had sought out a particular patron at Liquid Lancer’s. Lancer himself had said no, but he was no stronger than the typical racer. No, Windsnarl wanted the person who was always drinking there, a fellow part-Predacon named Grizzly, more commonly referred to as Grizz. He was big and strong and, of course, like the two other big and strong robots Windsnarl spoke to, he refused to join the Security Force.

Dustbrawl knows how to fight, Warp Drive said. Ask her for help.

Dustbrawl fights for fun, Windsnarl said. She has never killed anyone. She will need to kill for this job.

She can learn, Warp Drive said. Work with her first, and when she learns to kill, have her train the others alongside you.

How can I change a person’s entire philosophy? Windsnarl said. It’s a game to her, remember? No one dies in games.

Tell her this is a new game, Warp Drive said, in which the only way to win is to kill. If your opponent gets up again, they can hurt you again. Dustbrawl will learn to finish them.

Anyone can change, Windsnarl.

Especially for the worse.

And for the worse is what we need.

#transformers #maccadam #transformers dying sun #tf fan continuity #transformers fanfiction #writers on tumblr #oc: warp drive #oc: windsnarl #oc: suncatcher #oc: skytracks #warpsnarl #ao3 writer

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short-circuit-the-great · 4 months

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Dying Sun / A Hundred Thousand Stars / Ch 5 / Security Force

AO3 link | Previous chapter

⚠️Violent⚠️

Chapter 5: Security Force

Snowcrush’s new lover was an Autobot whose name Warp Drive wasn’t going to learn. It wasn’t because she hated him—he hadn’t done anything to her—but he wasn’t going to be a presence in her life. Soon Snowcrush wouldn’t be either.

I’m sorry, Snowcrush said that day as they stood in front of the ship she was going to take. This is goodbye.

I know, Warp Drive said. Thank you for being my friend.

Snowcrush smiled. Thank you for being mine.

Then she hugged Photon, for whom it had been decided he was going to Cybertron with her. He wanted to stay with her, but he also wanted to stay on Velocitron with Windsnarl, so he was crying about how much he didn’t want to go and ran over to hug her. She knelt down to his height and hugged him close.

“It’s for the best,” she whispered to him. “Go with your mother.”

“But you’re my mother too!” Photon said through tears.

“And I always will be,” Windsnarl said.

“I don’t want to go to Cybertron without you,” Photon said. “Why can’t we stay here with you? I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to understand,” Windsnarl said. “Just know that none of this was your fault. This is the way things happened and it’s okay.”

She kissed his forehead. “I love you to the stars and back.”

She picked him up to give him back to Snowcrush, and a solemn exchange took place. Their optics met once and only once, and it was a look with one request:

Please take care of him.

And a look with one response:

I will.

Then Windsnarl walked away, and when she reached Warp Drive, they walked away together. As they lost sight of the ship due to a hill, Windsnarl’s steps got faster and faster, and then she was running, and then she transformed and drove off. Warp Drive drove after her, and she eventually found her in the park by the tower. She transformed again so her tires wouldn’t ruin the grass (it was fake, but still) and walked over to her. Windsnarl had her back leaned against the marble with her shoulders pressed against it, and her optics were closed. As Warp Drive approached, Windsnarl stretched her neck toward the sky and put her hands over her eyes, trying to stop something.

Warp Drive sat beside her in the grass. She reached up and gently took one of Windsnarl’s arms, sliding her hand down until their fingers connected. Then she said through speaking hand:

I’m here.

I know, Windsnarl eventually responded, and something was falling from her optics. Thank you, Warp Drive. Thank-

She was cut off when she dropped Warp Drive’s hand and jumped to her feet, her eyes locked on something in the near distance. They couldn’t see Snowcrush’s ship anymore, but Windsnarl was looking in that direction, and at first, Warp Drive didn’t know why until a horrible scream split the air.

It was Photon.

Warp Drive and Windsnarl drove off immediately, and when they reached the launch site, a huge Velocitronian was holding Photon in the air. Snowcrush tried to make him drop him, but he just kicked her to the ground and laughed. The Autobot had a gun pointed at the attacker, but the others who were with him seized it and snapped it in two.

“Your sparkling wants to be in two places at once,” the attacker said. “Many will think this to be impossible. Lucky for you, little robot, there is a way to be with both of your parents—to be on Cybertron and Velocitron at the same time.”

He was holding Photon by his shoulders in front of him, and as Windsnarl ran at him to attack, screaming, “LET HIM GO!” horrible snaps and cracks split the air as the attacker pulled. Warp Drive realized too late what he was doing and jumped at him, but before she could get close enough to help Photon, she was covered with a torrent of blood.

The attacker held out half of Photon’s torn, bloody corpse to Windsnarl. “Here is your half of the sparkling.”

Snowcrush lifted herself from the ground, only to see the two gory pieces of her sparkling and scream and cry. Windsnarl lived true to her name and snarled like a rabid dog, leaping onto the attacker’s chest and slamming him to the ground. She slashed her claws over his face again and again, quickly snagging an optic on one claw and smashing it against the ground, scattering the broken pieces. The attacker screamed in agony but Windsnarl didn’t stop, seizing a plate of metal in his neck and tearing it off with her teeth.

She spit the metal on the ground and yelled to the Autobot, “Get Snowcrush out of here!”

The Autobot didn’t waste any time, grabbing Snowcrush, who was still screaming, and fleeing into the ship with her. The attacker’s friends tried to board the ship, but Windsnarl leaped at them with a roar and smacked them out of the way with one swipe of her claws. They were on the ground and at the mercy of the ship’s fire, and as it took off, they disappeared into the fire and smoke.

Windsnarl ran back to the original attacker on all fours just as he was beginning to pick himself up, and she slammed him into the ground again, making a splintering crater.

“Does it hurt?” she snarled in his face. “I hope it does, you son of a bitch.”

She punched him again and again, making the crater deeper and deeper and bloodier and bloodier. Behind her, the attacker’s friends were getting up, swaying to their feet and stumbling over to the crater, their metal smoking from countless burns. Windsnarl roared again and jumped on the first one she saw, tearing into his throat with her teeth. He screamed but it was cut short, and Windsnarl smashed his chest open and slashed her claws through his spark chamber, smashing it over and over again until it was nothing more than lifeless dust. Then she realized the rest of the attackers were on her, and she threw them off and twisted around to bite them and tear their limbs off and anything else she had to do.

More attackers ran up the street, and Windsnarl was quick to intercept them. She finally caught sight of Warp Drive still standing there and said, “Run!”

The attackers noticed her too and their leader laughed weakly from the crater, where he was somehow still alive.

“First Senator Warp Drive,” he said. “It’s an honor. You’ll attract a high price.”

Windsnarl stomped on his face, crushing his skull completely, and he was finally dead, but the other attackers were still there, and Windsnarl jumped at them again. Warp Drive moved to attack, but Windsnarl said, “No! Get out of here!”

Warp Drive finally changed to her alt mode and drove away, but she didn’t go far. She had to call someone to help, but there was no one to help. The police were completely useless against a threat like this. What were a bunch of traffic cops going to do? Velocitron had never dealt with anything like this.

It needs to change.

Warp Drive started driving again, headed straight for the Citadel.

It needs to change right now.

We need to be strong. We need to be protected from threats from within and without. We need to stand up against everything Cybertron thinks we are and rewrite our story—and we need to squash whatever the hell happened today.

This is my planet.

I am not going to let it fall apart.

Warp Drive reached the Citadel and sprinted up the steps, knowing there was a senate meeting today and knowing Burnout always showed up early. She was going to be here. She had to be here.

You misrepresent everything I say, but you are going to be helpful today.

Warp Drive flew up the stairs and burst through door after door, headed for the Basilica. Sure enough, there was Burnout at the table, all alone except for Override, and Warp Drive launched herself across the table and barely stopped before ramming straight into Burnout’s chest.

YOU WILL HELP ME, Warp Drive said through an electromagnetic pulse, AND YOU WILL HELP ME NOW.

“What happened?” Burnout said.

A SPARKLING WAS MURDERED AT THE LAUNCH SITE, Warp Drive said. SHERIFF WINDSNARL IS FIGHTING AN ENTIRE GANG ALONE. SHE NEEDS HELP.

“We don’t have help,” Burnout said.

MAKE HELP, Warp Drive said. MAKE AN ARMY.

“Where will we find an army?” Burnout said.

GATHER ANYONE WHO CAN FIGHT, Warp Drive said. TODAY WE ARE GOING TO BUILD SOMETHING TO KEEP OUR PLANET SAFE AND ENSURE NOTHING LIKE THIS HAPPENS EVER AGAIN.

TODAY WE ARE GOING TO BUILD A SECURITY FORCE.

#transformers dying sun #robogore #tf fan continuity #transformers fanfiction #transformers #oc: warp drive #oc: windsnarl #WarpSnarl

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