Post by Skyfire on Dec 2, 2008 21:52:04 GMT -5
With growing dismay, Skyfire follows the short trail of destruction to its end under the trees where a blackened wreck lays crumpled against the bole of an ancient, now-smouldering tree. It's a tight fit for the big white shuttle; he resorts to a mode rarely seen save by a few Autobots (that this Skyfire has not yet met). Skyfire hovers on vectored jets as he shuts down his rockets and scramjets; then he partially transforms, swinging his legs down to stand while his wings and forebody remain in shuttle mode*.
Once he's sure of his footing, Skyfire transforms fully into robot mode and stoops to fit under the trees where Fleetwind-3 lies. Grim forboding fills him as he sees for the first time how Fleetwind's blackened hull has shattered on striking the bole of the great tree. The jet-former's entire upper right chest is smashed open, and the right arm and gun assembly separated and thrown into the undergrowth. Metal should bend and peel, not shatter. Skyfire knew just how much heat it took to turn Cybertronian alloys that brittle.
A patch of yellow catches Skyfire's optics as he crouches to examine Fleetwind more closely--one wing, torn away in the crash, still flaunting its bright, gay colors. The rest of Fleetwind's body is charcoal gray, now; heat-shattered optics gaze hollowly at the sky. Ever so gently, Skyfire tries to unlatch and lift his half-melted cockpit, to see if by some miracle Fleetwind's laser-core survived. The latch crumbles in his hand like so much rust, and the remnants of the canopy fall away.
There's nothing left inside. The fire burned fiercely inside and out; only char and melted lumps of servos and semi-conductors remain, iced with strands of melted wire coating them in an abstract tangle.
Skyfire's optics dim, and he bows his head. Too late, again. "I'm sorry, Fleetwind. I wish I'd had the chance to know you better. You were a far better mech than your counterpart, that I do know."
Skyfire does not have any particular belief in an afterlife--he's too much the scientist to hold a belief based merely on "I wish it were so", and none of the dead he once knew have returned and provided evidence.
But oh, for the deep dark ache in his core, he wishes it were so!
The distant sounds of combat, and the thunder of sonic booms reminds Skyfire that time is short and he has a duty to fulfill. He rises, and changes into gerwalk mode again, using his still-available arms to load Fleetwind's remains into his cargo hold. Even as he does so, fervently hoping that there will be no more such cargoes after this, he lets it be known what must be known.
// Starscream, this is Skyfire. I regret to confirm your report on Fleetwind; he has fallen, and will not fly again. I have recovered what remains. // Skyfire's voice is heavy with grief, and he makes no effort to hide it.
A strangely familiar set of engines shrieks in the distance as the owner hurtles toward a fateful rendezvous...
---
*Macross Valkyrie in gerwalk mode (As seen in "The Day of the Machines" G1 episode). Trivia: it's an undocumented transform mode of the TF Classic Jetfire toy, too.
Fleetwind-3's unfortunate condition by arrangement with player
Once he's sure of his footing, Skyfire transforms fully into robot mode and stoops to fit under the trees where Fleetwind-3 lies. Grim forboding fills him as he sees for the first time how Fleetwind's blackened hull has shattered on striking the bole of the great tree. The jet-former's entire upper right chest is smashed open, and the right arm and gun assembly separated and thrown into the undergrowth. Metal should bend and peel, not shatter. Skyfire knew just how much heat it took to turn Cybertronian alloys that brittle.
A patch of yellow catches Skyfire's optics as he crouches to examine Fleetwind more closely--one wing, torn away in the crash, still flaunting its bright, gay colors. The rest of Fleetwind's body is charcoal gray, now; heat-shattered optics gaze hollowly at the sky. Ever so gently, Skyfire tries to unlatch and lift his half-melted cockpit, to see if by some miracle Fleetwind's laser-core survived. The latch crumbles in his hand like so much rust, and the remnants of the canopy fall away.
There's nothing left inside. The fire burned fiercely inside and out; only char and melted lumps of servos and semi-conductors remain, iced with strands of melted wire coating them in an abstract tangle.
Skyfire's optics dim, and he bows his head. Too late, again. "I'm sorry, Fleetwind. I wish I'd had the chance to know you better. You were a far better mech than your counterpart, that I do know."
Skyfire does not have any particular belief in an afterlife--he's too much the scientist to hold a belief based merely on "I wish it were so", and none of the dead he once knew have returned and provided evidence.
But oh, for the deep dark ache in his core, he wishes it were so!
The distant sounds of combat, and the thunder of sonic booms reminds Skyfire that time is short and he has a duty to fulfill. He rises, and changes into gerwalk mode again, using his still-available arms to load Fleetwind's remains into his cargo hold. Even as he does so, fervently hoping that there will be no more such cargoes after this, he lets it be known what must be known.
// Starscream, this is Skyfire. I regret to confirm your report on Fleetwind; he has fallen, and will not fly again. I have recovered what remains. // Skyfire's voice is heavy with grief, and he makes no effort to hide it.
A strangely familiar set of engines shrieks in the distance as the owner hurtles toward a fateful rendezvous...
---
*Macross Valkyrie in gerwalk mode (As seen in "The Day of the Machines" G1 episode). Trivia: it's an undocumented transform mode of the TF Classic Jetfire toy, too.
Fleetwind-3's unfortunate condition by arrangement with player