Transformers Prime: The Swift and Proud (Sequel to Echoes of the Past)

Chapter 1: First Contact

Author's Note:  This is the sequel to my first book, Transformers Prime: Echoes of the Past.  I got the suggestion from several of my readers to make a second book, so here you go!  Again, Biiiiiiiiigggggg thanks to StormFireGirl for the inspiration.  Her book Burn inspired some of the character choices and a few of the plot twists.  (Great Book!  You should check it out!)  I'm giving her credit where credit is due before anyone starts yelling at me for copying their work.  Anyway, now what we got that settled, on with the book!!!!!!

First Contact

My engine revved as I raced along the dirt road behind the air base, passing through the gates before slipping into the hangar that had become the Autobot’s base of operations.  I transformed as the doors closed behind me, though my mother’s disapproving glare made me pause as I took in her annoyed body stance.

“And where exactly have you been for the last three hours?”  Her cyan optics were locked with my white ones, and I shuffled one ped against the floor as I took great interest in a loose lug-nut.

“I was out for a drive.”  I said in a small voice, though I knew that was no excuse.  We both knew that Thunderclap and I were not allowed outside of the base without another ‘Bot as support, lest a Decepticon scan pick up our signal.

Echowind was no stranger to being cooped up in base for long stretches of time, but that made it that much easier for her to lecture my spark sibling and I on how it wouldn’t kill us to be careful.  Regardless of the fact that she had risked her own life to save our shire on the day we were born, her protective instincts prevented Thunderclap and I from stepping a single step outside the base without a senior ‘Bot at our side.  This made for long and boring days that drove both my spark sibling and I nearly to hysterics.  Would it kill us to have something exciting happen in our lives?

Then again, much had happened during our short lives, though much of it neither of us could remember, on account of being almost newborns for a good portion of it.  The old base had been discovered not long after Thunderclap and I were born, and after Team Prime had scattered to the winds, we had been on our own with only our mother to look after us.  In a desperate effort to stop Megatron from taking over Earth, the Autobots had staged a desperate offensive on the Decepticon stronghold, Darkmount.  Optimus had been critically injured during the destruction of the old base, but with the help and brave actions of our shire, Smokescreen, he had been repaired and upgraded with the power of the Forge.  Darkmount had fallen soon after, and the Autobots had been relocated to what came to be known as Autobot Outpost Omega Two.  During that crisis, another Autobot had joined our ranks, and his addition was a welcome surprise during our darkest hour.  Ultra Magnus had been Optimus’ second in command during the War on Cybertron, though his strict adherence to protocol rubbed a lot of bots the wrong way.  We had grown to work with him and his attitude had loosened a bit, but he could still be an insufferable stick in the mud when he got mad.

Surprisingly enough, even though Thunderclap and I were little more than sparklings, our growth had accelerated due to the environment we had been born into.  What would normally have taken dozens of vorns to complete occurred in less than one.  By human standards, Thunderclap and I were teenagers or young adults, though that didn’t stop mother from treating us like newborns.  Ratchet was at a loss as to how Thunderclap and I had matured so quickly, but given it had happened anyway, there wasn’t really much point to that line of thinking.  Even though my spark sibling and I stood almost as tall as our parents, and possessed alt-modes, by all rights we were still children.  It burned us both knowing that we could not help in the fighting until we got a bit older, but orders were orders, even if they did annoy us to the point of insanity.