kenyastarflight

The leaders of the two Cybertronian factions in Detroit faced each other in what had once been the Autobots’ new command center, each side sizing up the other and assessing how much of a threat they might be. On one side Starscream reclined in a steel chair that was just one step shy of a throne, flanked on one side by Slipstream and on the other by Grimlock. On the other side, Megatron stood with his arms folded across his chest plate, with Optimus, Dominus, Rodimus, and Strika gathered around him like an honor guard. It would have made for a grim spectacle, Optimus decided, had it not been for Jetfire and Jetstorm hovering at Starscream’s side like overeager sparklings. Starscream seemed to be doing his pointed best to ignore them, but they continued to gaze up at him adoringly. “So,” the self-styled Lord Mayor of Detroit noted, steepling his fingers before him. “Lord Megatron and his cronies have come crawling to ME for sanctuary. Such delicious irony, isn’t it, that you

For such a tiny country, Panama had managed to be one of the most strategically crucial locations of the Kaiju War. Its canal, a narrow but vital connection between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, made it both invaluable to worldwide shipping of supplies and an Achilles’ heel to the efforts to keep the Kaiju confined to the Pacific. For years the PPDC and the Panamanian Public Forces had eyed the canal with trepidation, knowing that someday a Kaiju would attempt to breach the canal and action would need to be taken. Today, with over a dozen Kaiju advancing on the narrow neck of land connecting the American continents, the Panama government and its small military force were preparing for the unthinkable. Explosive charges were being planted, and the Panamanian president would soon have her hand on the button that would detonate those charges. Should any of the Kaiju show signs of trying to reach that canal… she would press it, and hopefully seal off that corridor to the

WARNING: This fic contains massive spoilers for the video game Bugsnax and it's DLC content. Proceed at your own risk if you have not yet played the game or watched a playthrough of it. Also, content warning for offscreen death and misgendering. “In other news, the disappearance of a number of members of the Snaktooth Island expedition two months ago continues to baffle authorities. While death certificates have been filed for the missing Grumpuses, the Coast Guard has declared it too dangerous to return to the island to search for bodies. Family members and associates of the missing are unavailable for comment at this time-” Floofty turned the television off and turned their back on it with a sigh. Why had they turned that fool device on in the first place? They should have known it would only bring up unwanted emotions -- the disastrous expedition and the ensuing investigation were all the news seemed to talk about anymore. It was all the survivors seemed to talk about

Swift woke up with a crick in her neck struts, absolutely no idea where she was at that moment, and a pair of orange eyes -- not optics, but organic vision sensors -- peering directly into her face. “Oh… hi,” she murmured, not daring to twitch a servo. “Who are you?” The creature -- a beaked green animal with leathery wings and a bony crest -- cocked its head and regarded her from its perch on her chestplate. Then it leaned in and pecked lightly at a seam in her armor. “Hey,” she scolded, and tried to shoo the critter away. “I’m not food, stop it.” Her unlikely visitor flapped its wings in reply, screeching. “Snapper, are you making a pest of yourself again?” At the sound of Terminus’ voice, memory returned to Swift -- the rally, the argument with her parents, the flight she’d taken to calm her circuits, the unexpected reunion with a mech she’d long thought dead. She wasn’t at home -- she was curled up on the couch in her father’s apartment in Kaon. Not her adopted father

Sentinel Prime had expected to be thrown into a prison cell in Kalis and forgotten -- perhaps with Optimus as a cellmate, just to drive home how much of a failure he was. He hadn’t expected a reprieve, and from one of the unlikeliest of sources to boot. The guards dragging him away from Ultra Magnus’ office and down a corridor halted in their tracks as Alpha Trion stepped into their path. The old statesmech regarded them with his hands clasped behind his back, resplendent in regal plating that gave him the look of a wizard draped in robes. And despite his current seething hatred for the Council and all affiliated with it -- not to mention the cuffs binding his wrists -- Sentinel felt a sudden urge to salute in respect to the Councilor. “Ah, just the mech I wished to see,” Alpha Trion noted. “How fortuitous.” “This mech is under arrest,” one guard informed him. “We’re taking him to Kalis to be detained. I’m going to have to ask you to step aside.” Alpha Trion raised an optic

The attack on Hannibal Chau’s headquarters was almost anticlimactic… but then, any attack on a human-sized foe would be for creatures used to battling fellow titans. It had been child’s play to tear down the building that served as Hannibal’s headquarters, and not much more difficult to punch through layers of concrete and steel to reach the basement levels. And although the secret level they’d finally uncovered had been constructed to imprison a Kaiju, it hadn’t been equipped with a full-scale assault in mind. Who would think a Kaiju would try to rescue one of their own, after all? It was almost disappointing that the man hadn’t put up more of a fight. But Hannibal, for all his bravado, knew when he was outmatched, and he’d surrendered to the Jaegers without issue. “Just keep THOSE ugly buggers away from me,” he ordered from his perch on Coyote Tango’s palm, pointing at a snarling Slattern. “Especially the mom.” “We’ll think about it,” Coyote rumbled, and she curled her

The three of them flew home in complete silence. Swift didn’t dare speak up first -- both her parents seemed angry enough that she feared they would start ranting if she said anything. Sooner or later she knew she was going to have to explain herself to them, but she didn’t want to be the one to volunteer that information. But the longer it took them to start asking questions, the more her internals churned with apprehension. Glory finally broke the silence once they had touched down on the balcony of their apartment, but it was only with a firm, clipped order. “Go to the living room and wait for us.” “Yes, Mom,” she replied, her voice soft as she ducked inside. She had barely claimed a seat on the couch when Blitzwing walked in and sat down beside her. His expression was hard with anger, but his wings twitched -- a tic she’d come to recognize as a sign of worry or fear. Guilt stabbed at her, mingling with her own worry and anger. She hadn’t meant to scare her parents… just

Despite vast differences in species, culture, and circumstances, some things regarding family dynamics never really changed. “Are we there yet?” Safeguard asked, a slight whine in his two-toned voice. Starscream growled under the roar of his thrusters. “We’ll get there when we get there. If I hear that question one more time I’m going to swat someone!” “Who are you going to be swatting, Father?” He growled again. “I don’t know where you got your smart-alek tendencies, but it wasn’t from me.” The young combiner just gave a little shrug -- well, as much of a shrug as he could while lugging a bigger mech -- and trailed after the older flier. The Dinobot dangling from his arms had no comment… but then again, two of the three Dinobots hadn’t said a word since they had plucked them off their island. Perhaps they really were as dim as they looked. Starscream twitched one wing as they flew, grumbling over the slashes raked in the metal. Recruiting the Dinobots has been a rougher

Those who spent much time around the Jaegers had heard them make a multitude of sounds since they had gained sentience. Synthesized speech, yes, but also a vast array of growls, purrs, rumbles, croons, trills, and thrums that could put whalesong to shame. There were evenings where one could stand on a walkway or balcony for hours and listen to the rise and fall of sound as the titanic mecha conversed in their own way, the metallic chatter somehow soothing. Today, however, there were no contented trills or croons. The Jaegers roared -- there was no other word for it. The Shatterdome seemed to shake with their anger, and the techs and workers who had spent so much time in their company that they walked amongst them without fear kept well out of their way. Even their own Rangers had fled their company as soon as they’d left their Conn Pods -- they knew their families well enough to know when they needed space, after all. We’ve got to rescue them! Cherno insisted. We need to get to

“You complete me, you know.” The taller femme’s voice, low and almost seismic in quality, sent a shiver through Calypso’s frame. She didn’t resist as a large hand, scarred from vorns in the mines and cycles of brutal war with the Alternians, rested on her hip and drew her close. Nor did she pull away when the femme’s other hand took her chin and tilted it up until she was looking into her deep blue visor. “It’s not like I was broken before,” Gaia went on, her thumb caressing the jetformer’s cheek plate. “You weren’t a missing piece. It’s more like… you’re water, filling in all the gaps and cracks I didn’t know were there.” “That’s a bad analogy when water rusts us,” Calypso murmured, though she didn’t pull away. Primus, she could gaze into Gaia’s visor forever, as if she were gazing into the night sky. Perhaps if she gazed long enough, she could pick out stars and galaxies, comets and nebulae and the very heart of the universe… Gaia gave a chuckle that rumbled through both