Deep under the massive metal surface of Cybertron, the ancient hallway stood testament to a time before war and strife. Its arched, vaulted ceilings caught and reverberated each sound they heard.

Each step.

Most chambers this old had fallen into disrepair or become home of any number of the planet’s cyberfauna. This one, however, was kept pristine; not a single facet of the building had been altered since the cycle its doors closed.

The steps grew louder.

Not only was the architecture preserved, but so too was its function. Shelves of datatracks and hard drives neatly lined shelves as tall as the ceilings, each one lit by a small glowing blue indicator bulb.

The steps stopped.

“Optimus Prime.”

“Drift, if you were any other Autobot, I’d scrap you myself and melt you down for my amusement. Maybe not that order.” The large purple and slate green Autobot Prime had been absorbed by the glowing holographic screen in front of him but now lifted his head to glare at the red and white robot now approaching. The screen accessed and displayed stacks 91083MR through 28987G, each file displayed simultaneously allowing Optimus’ own cataloging systems to process and sort every byte of information. “But since tracking me here demonstrates you have the hunting skills I need; I’ll forgive you rather than add you to the smelt.”

The red Autobot smirked, “Well that warms my ember… In a non-carapace-melting life-ending way.”

“I was going to ask you down here eventually anyway.” The Autobot Supreme Commander waved his hand and the files on the holo-screen morphed into images. Three images, to be precise. They were part of personnel logs of some sort, with short profiles next to each photograph. Two of them were close headshot images – one was a robot with a cone-shaped helmet, and another had large yellow goggles and a domed head. Both robots appeared to have aerial alt modes. The third image was a screen capture from a security feed. It showed a large white robot with blue stripes running down her chest and up her shoulders. “What do you know about the universe?”



- Coalescence