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Date Posted: 20:13:05 04/08/02 Mon
Author: Officer Max Pendobal
Subject: Things were decidedly anything but "all right"...
In reply to: Lt. Admiral Bhoare 's message, "Retaliation." on 14:31:41 04/08/02 Mon

Max had been climbing down the framework of the DIPSCEE when everything around him was suddenly bathed in green.

Decades-long intuition overrode all natural human curiousity, and he gripped the edges of the metal and slid the rest of the way down before giving in to the urge to look toward the heavens. Something was up there, something beyond the fleet, something that made even the largest Cybertronian ships look like emerald backlit dust motes. Max squinted and held a hand up to shield his eyes as those dust modes broke down before an enlarging red dot. Once more the sixty year old's better instinct kicked in and he dove for cover just as the platform he had sat upon not twenty mintues ago was reduced to rubble.

* * *


Max coughed hard as he opened his eyes, his pain a reassurance that he was alive. He pushed against the cold metal, his back straining against debris, and fumbled, collapsing. He lay there ready to accept death, and thought fondly of his wife and the happier times of his youth.

No.

No, there were good times, but not half as many as he would have liked. Max realized he had spent more than half of his life focused on a career that was a means to an end he never took the proper time to appreciate. And now his service was nearly up, and the fruits of his labor might yet be embraced. He was going home soon. Max's life was about to BEGIN, and he was damned if he was going to lay down and DIE now, not without at least facing the unseen cowards that, prepared as they had been, somehow still got the better of them. He heaved upward once more and stood shakliy amid a sea of debris that appeared endless.

Max reached around and checked his rifle, finding it had cracked in two on his back. He tossed the useless weapon aside, once more counting his blessings, and walked about five steps before he noticed something was wrong.

Velocity was still bathed in green, but he now realized that the light from the distant reaches of space was the ONLY source of illumination. Bunkers, towerlamps, and generators alike were all eerily dark. Max quickly reached into his pocket for his communcations unit. It crackled to life but he could tune into nothing but static. Whatever had hit the planet hadn't been an electromagnetic pulse, but it had targeted the main power stations and taken out the grid with scientific precision. Max checked his digital compass and his wife's small holographic portrait. Both were functioning perfectly, more evidence that the pulse that had hit the planet was purely destructive in nature.

He pocketed the image of his wife and kept the compass out, navigating the now strange landscape trying to find an entrance to one of the underground facilities. It seemed hopeless, until a thin vertical shaft of light grew ever wider before him, illuminating an entrace he had not even been able to distinguish amid the dark green haze. The ground shook now as an Autobot, high-beams on full, stepped forward, searching for survivors, searching for Max.

Max felt twenty-one again in that moment, remembering the first Autobot he had seen, the momentary anxiety that gave way to a feeling of true security once he realized these giants were gentle, and would yield to little in the name of protecting him. Max raised an arm to summon the scout, to greet his savior, when a flaming chunk of metal eradicated all hope, extinguishing the beacon in the jade night, removing his savior from his sight.

Max blinked in disbelief and was running toward the flaming debris before he realized it himself. It took far longer than he would expect to cover the distance, and he realized how far away the Cybertronian had actually been standing. As he got closer the heat was overwhelming, and he quickly pulled his jumpsuit's translucent hood over his head and selaed it, next donning the chainmail gauntlets strapped to his belt. There was bound to be energon radiation about and, sixty years old or not, under attack or not, Max wasn't about to risk E-cancer. Through the flames he made out a name painting on the hunk of metal: "Epiphany".

Max staggered back, his face suddenly wet with tears. He had known the men and women serving on that scout shuttle, known the Maximals and Autobots aboard as well. Good ones, one and all. He clenched his fists and looked up to the sky, howling in rage at the flashes of battle in the heavens, where others mightier than he were deciding his fate. Max had a wife to return to, and grandchildren that he had never met. And while his career dominated his life, determined his fate, today was the day Max was going to take his destiny in his own hands. He checked his compass and veered away, making his way through the battlezone as more ship parts and allies bodies rained dangerously from above.

Officer Max Pendobal was going to be all right, and he was going to make damn sure of it himself....

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Replies:

  • Red warning lights sprang to life... -- Oyl Slik, 08:53:01 04/09/02 Tue
  • The Swarm (Hives) -- The Hives laid back in wating..., 15:15:46 04/09/02 Tue
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