Son of Airachnid (Transformers prime)

9

Chapter 9: Predatory

   It's been a week since Max discovered the crashed Autobot ship and his new found friend, Syphir. In that time he learned things about her and her time during the war, she enjoyed telling stories whilst he worked on repairing their new base\ ship which Max dubbed Teletraan 3. With Syphir's guidance he was able to fix the groundbridge systems along with other essential functions, however he hasn't been able to get Teletraan 3 to fly. Although this didn't bother Max that much because he wasn't planning to leave Earth anytime soon. Another thing they had to work on was Teletraan 3's Energon locating systems. It was damaged but not to the point of it being unfixable. After it was fixed Syphir successfully picked up the location of two energon deposits. Syphir was an engineer back on Cybertron so her expertise really helped out. Max's parents were also engineers and they taught him a lot so Max picked up on Cybertronian engineering rather quickly, although he still made mistakes.

   One of Max's biggest concerns right now is their energon supply. If the enegon was for him alone this wouldn't be a major concern, but now he has to supply Teletraan 3 systems and Syphir's spark support systems. On top of this the scrap yard mines are starting to run low, the deeper he goes the less energon he finds. That mine was huge but not infinite. Right now they have about 50 years worth of energon. At first that sounded good to Max but then Syphir explained the lifespan of a Cybertronian to the youngling. That's when Max started planning more for the future, but there is one 'small' problem. The Autobots and Decepticons are also always looking for energon, if the only mildly fictional Teletraan 3 can pick up energon then so can the Autobots and Decepticons. 'What am I going to do?' Max asks himself before Syphir brings him out of his thoughts.

   "Hey I don't know if this will interest you any but, I just detected ship crash landing." Syphir report's.

   "Autobot or Decepticon?" Max questions.

   "Neither. It could be a civilian ship or a supply ship. If it's a civilian ship then it could have other neutral's like you and we could use some help with energon mining. On top of that, they could wander off into a human town or city. That won't end well for anyone." Syphir answers. 

   'She's right, that would cause panic and I could use some help with mining and processing energon. But that would be more mouths to feed, we'd burn through energon faster. Logically speaking ignoring them would save us energon but that is a very cruel thing to do. Plus they could wander into human civilization and accidentally cause problems. I don't have a choice. I have to help them now and deal with the consequences later. My parents would scold me for being selfish.' Max thinks to himself.

   "Alright, I have no choice then. Syphir lock onto that location and open a groundbridge." Max orders.

Crash site

   "What happened here?" Jack asks curiously as he stares at the damage done to the forest. This was supposed to be a simple no risks recon mission, but midway through said recon Jack and his guardian Arcee stumbled into a downed cybertronian ship.

   "Crash landing. Stay behind me low and close." Arcee orders as the two make their way closer to the ship.

   After getting closer the two see a familiar Lamborghini driving straight to the crashed ship.

   "Max? What is he doing here of all places? We're days away from Jasper." Jack asks as he watches the Lamborghini transform and walk closer to the ship.

   "Don't know. Wait here." Arcee answers before transforming and driving towards Max who has already found the entrance to the ship and entered.

   Arcee got to the entrance and called out Max's name a few times but got no answer. A feeling of dread washed over her. The sound of slow metallic footsteps were heard heading for her from the darkness of the ship. This put her on high alert so she readied her blasters only to put them away when Max emerged from the shadows. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.