Starscream Chronicles

Cybertron, Vos, Golden Age
Fledgeling Age – Year Three Hundred Forty Seven

A full sized Seeker was the top of the proverbial food chain on Cybertron. They were agile fliers with fast reflexes and keen vision. Used frequently for search and rescue missions, they were good at locating missing people which would make them adept hunters. They were also a mid-sized Cybertronian which also deterred most natural predators. Anything that might target a fully mature Seeker would find them hard to catch.

The Razor Claw Eagle was relatively uncommon and rarely ever bothered a mature Seeker due to their size. But smaller Cybertronians had to be on the watch, most did not go into the open wilderness where these giant avians thrived. The Razor Claw Eagles typically avoided the great forests because encounters with the trees damaged their wings. Its preferred range was the plains and plateau searching for prey that was neither too small nor too large.

The great avian was relatively young, only being a few decades old and flying south of its usual range of the Hydrax Plateau. Gliding gracefully on the warm summer thermals, it kept an optic on the ground seeking prey. Although that was not its primary goal, it sought to find itself a mate.

It followed the chasm over the Vossian lowlands just east of the city and south of the forests. It spread its wings silently for a moment until it found a thermal rising up from one of the chasm vents. As it rose into the air it noticed a flash of red and the glint of silver. Interested, it banked to get a better look. Its optics switched into the infrared spectrum and it detected a heat signature. The target was small, bipedal but not overly small to make it a worthless target. Near it was another heat signature, a much smaller quadruped. It appeared to the eagle that the biped was hunting the quadruped. It would choose to hunt the hunter who was focused on its task.

Adjusting its flight path so that the sun was at its back, The great avian banked before making its dive. Wings folded to allow for speed, it streaked out of the sun, Razor sharp claws extended. It figured that its prey would make a great gift to a potential mate.

Its target was the fledgeling Seeker hunting oblivious to the peril he was in. The Seeker had never seen an Eagle before and it never occurred to him to look up for potential predators; he had never seen anything other than a Seeker in the sky. Ground based predators were not uncommon, he learned to track the wolves that roamed the area periodically. He usually kept an optic and audio open for them.

But what was coming out of the sky toward him had made a tactical decision. It was flying in from the sun. If the fledgling had looked up, it would not have seen it within the glare of the Cybertronian star. It was not until the huge shadow fell across him that he had any idea he was in trouble. His own prey had become aware of the problem and bolted across the field then dove into a hole. By the time the fledgeling turned to look in the direction from which the shadow had come, he encountered the full force of the eagle's attack. His legs sprang into action as the avian's talons closed around his shoulders and intakes with such pressure that it sliced into him like a hot knife in butter.

The next instant, he was lifted from his feet, his weight caused the talons to penetrate deeper. He screamed in agony and in terror. His tiny voice screeched for help, unfortunately he was so far from civilisation that no one could hear him let alone respond.

He was on his own. He swallowed down his terror and tried to find a solution to his problem. He remembered a reaction he had when he had been attacked by retro rats once. He wondered if he could duplicate that event. He glanced down at the ground and swallowed hard. The fall would be damaging if not lethal, but it was better than being torn apart and eaten alive by the avian. He hoped that maybe he could take the bird out along with him.

He reached up to grab at the talons; this action aggravated his wounds and violet fluid spilled down his arms and dripped off his elbows. The pair rose higher into the sky. The fledgeling glanced down once more, they were over the chasm, heading across to the far side. Panic rose up inside of him for a moment. He wanted to release the claw but he was afraid of falling into blackness.

The eagle hit another thermal that caused them to rise into the air so suddenly that the Seeker tensed up so hard he could feel a pulse of energy burst outward from him. The Eagle uttered a strangled cry as it was rendered unconscious it too fell from the sky, its talons released hold of its prey and they both plummeted into the inky depths.

Flailing, the little Seeker cried out in terror and he tensed up as he fell. Suddenly, unexpectedly, his body reacted. The tension he had built up forced him to fold in on himself. He screeched as his head suddenly flipped under plating at his back. For a moment he thought he had collided with the ground, but the sensation of falling continued, and the expected shock of pain was missing. He experienced a slight vibration of air as it hit the wings at his back, which had flipped around and merged with his side. After what felt like an eternity he discovered he had taken a new form. He had seen others change between shapes before, it never occurred to him he might have that same ability.

The new shape felt tight, compact and it seemed to manage the fall better. Air flowed around him and he seemed to slow down as a pocket of air formed under him. Also it appeared that he was gliding gently rather than falling out of control. In spite of this transformation, his momentum continued to carry him deep into the chasm.

The walls of the great ravine filled his view and he struggled to try to redirect himself. Somehow it seemed his body naturally understood things the fledgeling did not. After a few terrifying moments he found himself headed directly toward the wall. Not wishing to impact the vertical rock face he attempted to look upward, as he did his thrusters ignited for the first time. Another scream of surprise came from him and he rocketed parallel to the stony barrier. His small engines screamed as they fought against gravity. However, somehow he managed to find a reserve pocket of energy that allowed himself to fire another booster. This allowed him to defeat the downward pull of gravity. After a few terrifying moments he rocketed out of the chasm.

His booster disengaged as he levelled out. Relief flooded him as he located an open field and he relaxed himself a little. As he did, he shifted form once more. He dropped down into the razor grass, grumbling at how it stung him. He looked down at his hands, fluids seeped down his arm from the shoulder wound and he came to realise for the first time that he was more like the larger fliers he had seen around the city than the creatures that he had hunted.

The revelation thrilled him. He could fly! There was no place on the planet he could not get to. He could even traverse the chasm or even explore deeper into it. He wanted to see if he could do it under a less stressful situation and he tensed himself up and his body sprang into action. Once more he was in tetra jet shape, tiny, still bleeding from his wounds. He wondered to himself why he had not realised he could do this before? There were lots of moments where he was scared or tense, he did not shape shift in those situations. Or was it because he was falling and his form was best suited to when ground was a distance away?

He sat for a moment, he had wheels, he could feel them below him. He had a heads up display which showed his alternative mode, readings on his flight systems. There were words along with the images but they made little or no sense to him.

After a few moments of testing what all the new appendages did, he ignited his thrusters once more then rocketed across the chasm. He spent an hour experimenting with his new found abilities, twisting and turning. It seemed if he wanted to go up he went up. Filled with joy he abruptly experienced a barrel roll. It startled him for a brief moment then he laughed, and began to try to roll again, spiralling through the air. For a while, the small hunter had lost his usual conservative attitude and indulged himself in what could only be described as play. It was not long before his intakes and shoulders began to throb, his previous injury was starting to bother him. This drew him back into reality and he landed.

The fledgeling glanced around. It was a new area, a place he had only looked upon. predators here should not be too much different from what he was used to, Turbo Foxes or Steel Jaw wolves. He had encountered them on different occasions and managed to evade them. His tanks gurgled, he realised that flying had spent a great deal of energy. Energy that he did not have to spend so frivolously. He realised that he would have to fly more conservatively in future if he wished to fly at all. He paused then looked up at the trees as his shoulder gave a nasty throb, he held it whimpering.

As he stood there he wondered if he could use flight to augment his hunt, and how? Fly toward, prey change form then attack? Use the momentum to drive a spear through his prey? If that was the case, then he could hunt the larger and typically more dangerous beasts that he would ordinarily avoid. Larger beasts had greater fuel capacity. Some even had more than one tank. He discovered this titbit of information when he had encountered a dead Iron Hoof Stag which had lived in the forest near his home. Sadly the tanks had already been breached by whatever had killed it.

Flight would also give him an out if he found himself in danger. But that advantage would require energy. And that was something he needed soon. He drew out his sling shot and loaded it with a crystal bundle, and quietly stole through the trees. Careful placement of his feet allowed him to walk stealthily. The wind was blowing toward him so his presence would not be noticed by scent either.

He spotted a retro-rat skulking amongst the fallen copper leaves. He drew the slingshot's band back, and his shoulder throbbed in protest. He aimed and released his payload. The fabric containing the destabilised crystals opened up mid-flight and caused a scattering effect which effectively covered a large area. The ground exploded as the crystals impacted. The rat, unable to flee, fell over stunned and wounded.

Once the fallout had subsided, the fledgling hurried to kill the creature. Once he was sure it was dead, the small Seeker opened it up and removed both the spark chamber and the fuel tank. He did not wait long to drink both, hungrily. He licked his fingers off the remaining liquids then rested a moment.

The sky started to darken and he knew he should have tried to return to the safety of his chasm side lair. Unfortunately he allowed his hunt and play to distract him from keeping track of the day cycle. In spite of his hunt, the flight had burned way too much energy for a single rat to replenish. He would have to hunt again soon. Unfortunately it was far too dim either to hunt or to find his home. On top of that he also had to worry about an entirely new set of predators which would be waking up to stalk the night.

For lack of any actual shelter, the fledgeling scaled a sturdy Copper tree and pulled some of the verdigris leaves off and then folded them around the fork he had tucked himself in in an effort to hide himself from view. He settled down with great difficulty, no position was comfortable or spared him of the pain that he felt from his shoulder and intake. They burned and oozed, yet somehow, after a while, he managed to slip into sleep.

He awoke, as the sun creped up from across the chasm, light penetrating his copper leaf hide. He blinked and whimpered. He felt as if his shoulder was on fire. Glancing at his wounds he was worried about the brown coloured ichor that oozed out them. An infection had definitely set in.

Some sort of pathogen that had been carried on the unclean claws of the eagle had entered his small body. Without a lot of experience with infectious diseases, it took hold. The energon he produced from his wound should be a bright violet, not a sickly brown. He understood that this was not good, and he would soon become ill. He half climbed, and half fell out of the tree, and stood on the ground shaking. He felt both freezing cold and burning hot, and realised that he was not going to become ill, he already was.

Unsure of what he should do in this situation, he stumbled forward fearful that he was now an ideal target to any opportunistic predator passing by. He knew from experience that he hunted easy targets such as the weak or lame, and this was the cycle of life. He was in no condition to seek energy for himself.

He knew Vos was across the chasm, and that he may have to find the people there in order to get help, but the city was effectively out of reach. He entered a clearing and located a pond that he hoped he could clean himself in. He staggered forward considering his options. Sometimes the ponds contained fuel, and other times they contained piranhacons. The fledgeling stumbled toward it and dropped to his knees taking a handful of the liquid to wash his septic shoulder. He knew the water could clean his wounds, at least then he could see what was going on. The thick ichor washed away and dissolved into the fluid.

What he saw disturbed him. The colour around the area had darkened, as if it was dying back. Nanites crawled out of the wound and deposited the ichor at the edge. They were attempting to clean the infection rather than close the wound.

His balance finally faltered and he fell face first into the pond. Some of the liquid passed his parched lips and entered his mouth. He spluttered at first before gulping some down then drank deeply. It was not water like that which fell from the sky, but some other similar looking fluid. It quenched his thirst and felt cool on his burning hot body. Yet his fear for predatory fish was renewed and he struggled to extract himself from the pond.

A few minutes later he finally managed to drag himself onto the bank then collapsed. After a while the tiny flier's body insisted that he rest and he quickly fell into a fever induced sleep.

As soon as he went offline his self repair systems jumped into action. The pond contained a pure energon, a liquid that would enhance natural healing; it was similar in nature to the fluids found in a Seeker's pod. He had washed his wounds with this liquid and a fair amount had entered the site as well as what he had drunk. His repair nanites, quickly absorbed all the micronutrients and went to work, both repairing the damage, fighting the infection and adding to his growth and development.

He awoke when the sky was starting to dim, surprised to be still alive. He no longer had the fever, although he was still sore. He glanced at his shoulders to check out his wounds. He was pleased at what he had seen, the nanites had nearly bridged the gaps and appeared bright. He also noted that he did not feel hungry. This surprised him as that feeling was his constant companion. It seemed strange not to feel it.

Connecting the dots between his infection, the cleansing and abrupt recovery he knew that the pond was somehow the source of his well being. This connection made him realise that he should bring home some of the pond's liquid and that it would help him heal from injuries he would sustain. With that he filled his empty fuel storage tank with the valuable liquid and noted the pond's location. He would return here later for more.

No longer wishing to get caught a second time in an unknown area at night, the fledgeling Seeker hurried toward the chasm. He looked downward into the darkness and stepped forward and wondered if he could shift forms like he had done the previous day. Taking a deep breath he stepped off and dropped into the darkness. Once again, his body responded and morphed into his alternative form.

He reminded himself to be more conservative, he adjusted his heading and flew toward his chasm-side ledge. It took several minutes before he arrived home. A distance that would take a few hours to cover on foot. As he drew near he relaxed and released his alt mode, flipping into his root form. His momentum carried him forward a little and he landed neatly on the ledge.

He turned back to look up at the sky as it darkened and the local nebulas brightened. He realised that the flight ability could change his whole way of life and how he viewed his world. The fledgeling quivered with hope and excitement.