kenyastarflight

Despite what Swift feared, she wasn’t carted off to a jail cell. Though part of her wished they’d locked her up and left her to rust instead of dragging her in front of a joint meeting of Decepticon High Command and Optimus Prime. Her memories of Shockwave were oddly fond ones. He didn’t exactly have a warm personality, but he had always been kind to her. He’d been her guardian while she’d been a foundling at the Academy, and whenever she’d visited her mother at the command center he’d greeted her and inquired about her health and studies. She tried her best to show him the proper respect, but in her CPU he more fit the mold of a favorite teacher than a commander. Now, however, she felt no rush of fondness at being escorted into the interrogation room, cuffed and mode-locked and under close guard. She only gazed at the gathered officers and wished she could melt into the floor. “Swift of Polyhex,” the violet mech noted, his voice utterly devoid of inflection. “Be

Optimus wished he could say that Sentinel’s bombshell regarding Ultra Magnus had shocked him to the core… but to his surprise, it didn’t. Yes, some part of him DID reel at the news that the Autobot leader was the son of a notorious Decepticon general. But somehow it didn’t shake him as badly as he assumed it would. Perhaps it’s only life-changing news the first time you hear it, he thought wryly. Or only if it applies to you. “That slag-munching piston-sucker!” Ratchet exploded, bringing his fist down on the wing of the rusted airplane. “All this time he preaches about how anyone of ‘Con heritage is an enemy, when all this time he’s one himself!” “I knew Deathsaurus had reproduced,” Megatron noted. “I didn’t realize his sparklings had become Autobots. It would seem more of our lost children ended up in Autobot care than I first realized.” “How did you find out, Sentinel?” asked Optimus. “Did the Council ask you to check?” Sentinel shook his head, the tension in his

Aleksis Kaidonovsky woke as he often did -- all at once, eyes open and alert, the fog of sleep blinked away within seconds. He sat up immediately, making Sasha stir in her sleep and Cherno Alpha grumble softly at being disturbed. Years of living in the Vladivostok Shatterdome had drilled the habit of a quick awakening into him, ensuring he was ready to leap out of bed and into his drivesuit at a moment’s notice. Already his brain was scrambling to identify what had awakened him, and it took him a few seconds more to realize it was Sasha’s ringtone and not a Shatterdome alarm. He drew in a deep breath, then released it, muscles primed for action slowly relaxing. “Sasha-” “Voice mail,” she muttered, pulling the blankets over her head. “If they call again, answer it and tell them if they wake us up on a Sunday again, I will cut their balls off.” What if they’re a Jaeger? asked Cherno. Or they don’t have any- “I’ll find something to cut off,” Sasha retorted. “Go back to sleep

Swift wondered if Terminus was growing suspicious of just how long she and Harmony were staying in his workshop. For her part, she’d assumed they’d step out and rejoin her father after they’d finally kissed and confessed their feelings for each other. But evidently Harmony wasn’t through with her… and evidently she wasn’t about to drop her distrust of Terminus just because he turned out to be her girlfriend’s long-lost father. “Look, all I’m saying is that you might be willing to let go of the fact that he’s been stalking you for weeks, but I’m not. Just because he’s your spark-father doesn’t mean he’s not a creep.” “Keep your voice down!” Swift hissed. “He could be out there listening!” “See, you even acknowledge that he’s still creepy,” Harmony noted with a smirk. “I didn’t mean that he’s out there with his audial against the door,” Swift protested. “This is his apartment, and I don’t think he’d appreciate us trash-talking him in his own home.” Harmony gusted a sigh and

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