FORGOTTEN FRAME
A Transformers story by Wallas or StrikeValkyrie

“Thanks for dropping by guys, it's always a pleasure to have guests here.”

“No need to be grateful, really. On the contrary, we should be thanking -you-. After all, you are building us a new set of weapons.”

“Yeah. Like, for free.”

“We're fighting on the same side, Deftwing. I'm not an active soldier myself, so that's the best I can do to help.” Ironfist said, “Who knows, chances are one day I might get saved by these weapons myself or that high command will issue them for mass production if they work out in field testing.”

HERE LIES THE SPACE FOR THE MAIN INTRODUCTION CHUNK

“Putting all the past stuff behind, it was really awesome to have a chance of building weaponry for you two.” Ironfist said, looking at his visitors every time he was sure he wouldn't trip over something or slam into a protrusion sticking out of the walls or ceiling. “I mean, I hear you were invited to form a new elite strike unit to act as a second Wrecker unit... what was it called? Obliterators? Turbomasters? Something like that I think”

Thunderclash pretended he didn't sense Deftwing's optic sensors locking on him askance and looked at Ironfist sheepishly for a second, “How did you know about that? I thought not more than ten Bots  were aware of that. Or supposed to.”

The beige-and-blue Autobot most likely smiled faintly under his face plate. “I guess information like that reaches my lair every once in a while. And before you ask, no, I have no secret wiretapping in the High Council's conference chambers.”

“No point in asking him, Thunderclash, this dude has a natural ability to obtain intelligence he shouldn't even consider existing.” Deftwing patted the larger robot on his shoulder's rear armour plating. “That's what makes his datalogs so entertaining.”

“I, uh... see you know my work, huh? I'm surprised anyone is actually still looking through these nowadays.” Ironfist scratched the back of his head.

“Oh come on, a bit more faith in your writer skills won't kill you.” the jet-former went on. “I mean, I remember we once had a really suicide scenario going on in the final days of our operation on Tarkis Beta. Aside from The Voice's transmissions, your datalogs were the only thing that kept many of our boys from going insane... and that is a damn decent achievement if you ask me.”

Thunderclash tilted his head, feeling more than out of place in this conversation right now. “Wait, you mean -those- datalogs? Wreckers: Declassified?” he asked. “Ironfist is Fisitron?”

“Ironfist, Fisitron, it's kind of hard -not- to make the connection.” Deftwing said, “Well, that and you wouldn't really expect someone on the Con side to write over 300 datalogs where they get their asses kicked on a regular basis.”

“Please don't share that after you go back to your outpost.” Ironfist sighed. “I won't deny it once someone asks me about my little hobby directly, but I prefer to keep tabs on number of people knowing who's under the alias. Despite what regular soldier and field ops think, my work has about as much fans as haters. Many of the latter in the higher command chain, really. They think Wreckers don't need a chronicler and that I'm often relying on data that's supposedly still classified.“ he scratched a moderate crack on the right side of his forehead.”That and then's the problem with several of my inventions being considered... inappropriate for combat purposes as breaking several Cybertronian codes. At once. Even if some other became standard equipment for strike forces and defence teams.”

He stopped talking for a few moments to let it sink in before resuming.

“So yeah, I have enough of morally ambiguous reputation as it is and I don't need any more credit to build it up towards the infamous side that some guys up there gift me with.” he summoned a small holographic image of  their shuttle resting on the near landing site onto  his hand projector. “I mean, look at the ship they gave you to come here. It's most likely going to be scrapped as soon as you come back, and that sure says a lot about what some people from brass think of me.”

“Why would you say that?” Thunderclash wondered, “Prowl assured me that was the only vessel he could spare for us at the moment.”

Deftwing's mind suddenly clicked into Ironfist's gears upon hearing that. “Oh, I see...Prowl  probably tried to say in a subtle way 'the only vessel that he considered expendable enough to send here. Hmm, right, reminds me higher-ups became anxious of sending more useful ships to this place after that incident with Powerglide's fighter.”

“Yeah, yeah, they'll never get bored of holding that one against me.” Ironfist mumbled ”But seriously, Powerglide was flying around in a machine he claimed as a trophy after his team destroyed that Decepticon raider base on Skallorr. It's not my fault that airhead forgot to switch the ship's transponder to Autobot recognition signal before flying into my automated defence system's firing range. I still guess he was lucky to get out of there before my ion launchers fried his main reactor.”

Thunderclash suddenly felt a very strong urge to download the current telemetry data of the ship. He was happy to learn it was still in one piece and no imminent threat was hanging above it.

“That's a long walk we're taking.” Deftwing noticed after some five minutes of strolling deeper and deeper into the compound's interior. “For a supposedly third-class weapon designer you sure have a lot of space at your disposal, Fist.”

“Can't help it.” the robot shrugged. “I'm not as useful for them as Wheeljack to justify augmenting -my- lab's walls with ten layers of anti-bomb plating just to keep me around. That's why they preferred to throw me into some distant, deserted colony where nothing would happen if my stuff exploded all of the sudden. And since this huge forgotten compound was the only location available... don't worry, this place is safe.” he added seeing their sceptic glances. “Unlike Wheeljack I don't do stuff that has more than 15 per cent chances of totally malfunctioning.”

“Must be lonely for you out here.” Thunderclash said. “Not counting the skeleton crew of the colony there's hardly anyone around. And those who we met earlier didn't look like they took you out for an Energon drink at all.”

“I'm used to loneliness.” Ironfist waved it off. “Solitude helps me keep my optic sensors on my projects. Some of these aren't all that distraction-proof. Like Springer said once, being alone can be an advantage once you stop to look from a different angle.”

“Yeah, but you do remember he said that just before he headed off for a one-bot suicide mission because he didn't want to risk losing the whole unit at once on Raidark, right?” Deftwing teased him.

“Minor details, I take pride in thinking everyone can interpret his words in a slightly personalised way.” the short robot tried not to look annoyed by the remark.” Anyway, looks like we're here, weapon vault seven.” he said as he tapped a long password into a touch-sensitive panel installed next to the high-grade armoured door.

He went in first, turning on the lights and standing next to a large container visibly put in front of multiple similar caskets scattered on the floor. With some effort, he moved the casing closer to the room's wide table and started inputting another authorisation code into the box's console.

“There we go.” he said enthusiastically as the container's locks gave in and the top slid to the side, revealing a moderately-sized yellow-and-blue metal shape that he next placed on the table. “Deftwing, I present you the weapon you requested.”

The jet-former looked at the device with a mix of curiosity and puzzlement. Ironfist promised him a new, powerful weapon, but so far all he was seeing were very, very oversized binoculars with four barrels sticking out of the right lens niche .

“That's... umm, what the heck is that thing?” he finally said.

The weapon specialist came closer to the gadget, seemingly used to people asking that sort of questions.

“This, my friend, is a prototype Lightformer Vulcan.” he explained calmly, “It's a new type of energy-conversion gun that I've been working on lately. Basically you could call it a variation of a laser cannon, just far more energy-efficient, faster and accurate than what you usually see. I'm also working on a sibling of this device with some properties modified.”

Deftwing walked around the weapon, tilting his head from side to side. “It's kind of big if you ask me... especially considering the barrels are only at one side.”

“Trust me, that's the smallest casing I could come up with considering what I've packed inside.” Ironfist raised his index finger, “True, the firing mechanism and energy cells are all mounted in the right half, but the left half is loaded with useful stuff, too.  Namely, a very advanced long-range targeting computer that will not only help you during high-speed dogfights in jet mode, but will also double as a great spyglass to see what's kilometres ahead of you. Basically I was building this so that it could counter the Super Vision ability of the Predators and I think I actually managed to pull it off.”

“Sounds promising.” Deftwing nodded. “What about the firing rate and stuff like that?”

“By default it's set to fire thirty bolts per second, at this setting it can punch a decent hole in enemy hull with every connecting shot, but if you decrease the firing rate the power of every blast gets increased. At the lowest setting it fires two shots per second and then has a power comparable to a small photon bazooka, but I'm not sure how can be that useful with your fighting style.”

“I guess. Supposing I manage to pick this up, looks quite heavy-” he abruptly stopped talking as he tried lifting the gun from the table. It was unnaturally light considering its visual dimensions. His surprise was even bigger when he realised he could pick up the weapon with only one hand with just moderate effort.

“Yeah, I called it 'Lightformer' for a reason.” the weaponsmith smiled under his faceplate. “It's best suited for dual-hand wielding, but if you really need, you can also attach it to your forearm or your wings when necessary. Oh, and for a steadier aim, I included an artillery stand.” with a flick of a switch on one of the main grips he unfolded a support shaft that gently touched the floor after only a second. “I like to think about many options at once, including comfort of use.” he said as he buried his hands into the Vulcan's casket again, this time to retrieve small monolith-like casings. “And these are the ammo cells. You can store these under your wings in both modes or on the sides of the Vulcan. In my estimation, reloading should take two seconds if you're fast enough, one more for the system to recharge. Also, in standard configuration empty powerpacks fall into a special chamber inside the firing mechanism, I don't need Decepticons to pick them up after the fight for reverse-engineering. Not to mention parts of your gun falling out in the middle of a crossfire can be a major distraction in critical moments.”