eugenesis-text

‘Do friendly visitors drop bombs!’ cried Wheeljack, pointing to a black shape that was falling from
Astrotrain’s underbelly.
The Autobots ran towards Delphi and dived to the ground. A series of jarring thuds marked impact
but there was no explosion, no shudder of light.
Ratchet was the first to lift his head and the first to approach the half-dozen large black containers
jutting out of the ground; angular and crooked, like rotten teeth splitting a gum, each one was stamped
with a pentagonal insignia. The nearest had split on impact and spilled its contents. Ratchet fell to his knees
and dragged his hands through hundreds of Anti-Inhibitor chips, duodurillium ingots, energon swabs,
syringes, resus-packs, cold-blade scalpels and arc welders.
He was still doing so when Chromedome came running outside. ‘You’ve found the supply drop,
then. I lucky-dipped an open transmission as we were disassembling the comms equipment.’
‘Who do we have to thank’ asked Mirage.
‘I don’t know. The caller said he was a friend of yours, Wheeljack. And whoever buzzed us had
another message, one from Fulcrum. He thought it might be important.’
‘And is it’ asked Ratchet.
‘Depends how much importance you attach to last words. Nightbeat’s, in this case. Only Fulcrum
was present when he actually died. Nightbeat said something strange before shutdown, and it’s been
bothering him.’
Ratchet nodded sympathetically. ‘I’ve heard many deathbed homilies in my time. What was it’
‘Heath re: nigh know want too.’
January 12 th 2013.
Rodimus Prime was happy.
He was standing in Autobase (the original one, the one that had been all-but destroyed in 2010 –
well, sometimes you had to move back to move forwards), and had just heard more good news from Kup
(Kup! It was amazing how they’d managed to find the old Autobot’s brain module inside his chest and
resuscitate him). According to Kup, Thunderclash wasn’t dead; on the contrary, the Star Former was safe
and well, and keeping himself busy in the Galactic Core – it turns out that the robot Ultra Magnus killed
on Aquaria was a facsimile construct! Incredible! Prime chuckled to himself at the thought of working with
an FC all these years… no wonder their arguments always used to go round in circles. The real
Thunderclash was popping over to help Magnus rebuild Metroplex and transport him to the new Autobot
City: Earth.
Rodimus Prime was happy.
So much had happened over the last few days. He shook his head in disbelief at the effects of yet
another new strain of Nucleon – ÜberNuke – that was already being called ‘the new Lifecode’ by robomedics
across the galaxy. With the Decepticons’ invaluable help, the magic potion was being distributed
across the planet. So far, as well as curing Prowl of Corrodia Gravis and flushing the Inhib Chips from every
Reddie’s body, ÜberNuke had successfully resurrected every Transformer who had died over the last few
weeks. By extracting a genetic memory of their Vorcode (preserved in everything from scraps of metal to
ancient vidpics), the wonder drug had been able to generate a whole new body and brain. It was a miracle
cure, bestowed upon them by Primus Himself, who had appeared before a crowd of thousands in the form
of the Keeper. As well as denouncing the Old Texts as a ‘book of lies’, Primus had demonstrated his
divinity by initiating a planet-wide regeneration. All trace of the Quintessons’ occupation was removed,
from the Recyc Plant to the Kledji Concentration Camp, from the acres of dead-space to the red-raw
Cleanlands. The planet looked exactly as it did before December 2012, warts and all.
Hah.
If only.
Rodimus Prime knew it wasn’t like that.
The rebuilds, the ÜberNuke, the Primal visitation…
It wasn’t like that at all.
Sometimes, the clock could not be turned back. No amount of wormholes could undo what had
been done.
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