Radio: Kup to Skyfire

[Kup]

Kup decides that Perceptor does not have 'something better,' as Xaaron put it, because from the sound of things, he doesn't have anything at all, so he goes ahead and makes the transmission.

//Skyfire, this is Kup. Don't know if you remember me at once... I guess that would depend on when you were pulled from.// After all, it's entirely possible that Skyfire was pulled from before even his encounter with the scientist. //I'll explain why I've got your frequency in a moment. Mine is...// and he gives it.

//Sorry about the delay, by the way, but I honestly... have no idea what terms you last saw me under. This is gonna sound screwy as all get out, but we've got, oh, half a dozen or more different, alternate timelines tangled up here. Starting a month or so ago, we've had Transformers just suddenly appearing on of this planet- Gillanan III, by the way, but I got no idea where the locals went. They were gone when we started arriving.//

//We seem to be getting pulled from different realities, and what's more, different points in our realities. For example, I'm from...// and he gives his timestamp. //None of us have figured out why yet, though.//

//I know it sounds crazy, Skyfire, and I realize that if you know me at all, it's barely... but just so you know, if I were lying, I'd come up with something a hell of a lot more believable.//

[Skyfire]

// Kup? I'm afraid I don't... ah. I think I may remember you. // There's a certain archness to Skyfire's tone that suggests he remembers his run-in with Kup very well.

// That's an interesting explanation there. A bit low on the probability curve but... I'm not familiar with the world; if your timestamp is to be believed, there may not have been intelligent life on it when I explored this sector, if I ever was in this sector. Which sector are we in? I assume this is the same galaxy as Cybertron's, or have we invented inter-galactic travel in the last several million years? // Skyfire's voice is inquiring, not sarcastic.

// If you are who you claim to be, would you mind explaining the item that got you so angry last time, and led to you assaulting my partner? //

[Kup]

Kup gives the sector. It's a couple of galactic arms away from Earth, Cybertron, etc. A goodly distance.

//And 'we' haven't invented anything. Well, okay. 'We' invented plenty, but like I said, this ain't us. Well, any 'us' who've spoken up, anyways.//

//I decked Starscream because he called the Autobots a, and I quote, 'bunch of obsolete relics who don't understand why we were built with guns.' The symbol you had asked about was the Autobot symbol, by the by. Sorry I didn't stick around to explain that much. Can't say I'm sorry about decking him, though, because I'm trying to be on the level here.//

[Skyfire]

No, Skyfire hasn't visited this world, but at least he's located himself in space, more or less. This seems to be the cranky mech he ran into out in Far Astoria sector... at least, he remembers the same incident Skyfire does.

// Though he does have a talent for insulting strangers without checking to see if their guns are hot first, he is my partner. What is an Autobot? //

There's more to ask--the situation is still far from clear. Too many scattered voices--but let's get one answer at a time.

[Kup]

Is. That does a good job of placing general timestamp for Skyfire. He's yet to ask that Skyfire actually give his, interestingly enough. And he bites down the instinctive correction of 'Was.'

//An Autobot, contrary to other claims, is someone who knows exactly why we was built with guns. To keep other Cybertronians with guns from using them to subjugate them and the rest of the leakin' universe. Folks who don't believe that just 'cos we're bigger and stronger than much of what's out there, we've got a right to be running things.//

//Usually the 'other' Cybertronians are wearing a different symbol. The Decepticon symbol. Purple, pointed. Sharp as a knife, and about as friendly. You might spot your boy wearing one. Now... I know our last encounter isn't going to make you inclined to look favorably on me, but, y'know, I've been on the level, even when I know damned well the answers are either nuts, or ones you ain't going to like.//

//Now I'm going to give you some advice. Don't you put any symbol on until you know damned sure what it stands for.//

//The lines got drawn up while you were gone, son.//

//I'll keep answering your questions as I can, but there are some things you're not likely to believe from me; you'll need to figure out for yourself. Be careful, and I'm right here if you need an assist.//

//Now, any more questions?//

[Skyfire]

// You are correct, Kup, I'm going to need to find things out for myself. I'm hearing too many conflicting things to believe everything I hear over radio, // Skyfire replies.

Kup seems open and aboveboard, and tells almost the same story as Starscream--so, either they were both enemies, or the 'transplanted in space and time' event had actually happened. Skyfire dismissed the possiblity that everyone was an enemy; he didn't have the fuel to get back to Cybertron on his own, so if everyone here was out to get him, he was just screwed. No point and no future in that. Besides, no matter what kind of trouble the smaller jet had found and was trying to hide from Skyfire, Skyfire still had his partner Starscream.

And there had been that strange voice asking what was going on... evidentally, Skyfire was not the only mech to be pulled here recently.

"War came. City fell." The lines had been drawn very sharply indeed. Well. They'd known things couldn't last when they set out; the energy stores were declining too rapidly. That's why they'd gone exploring in the first place--to find more.

Kup seemed open and aboveboard--but he was a mercenary who sold his services to the highest bidder, and he'd assaulted Skyfire's partner and ditched them in a rather nasty sector. Not the most trustworthy of individuals. On the other hand, he didn't expect Skyfire to trust him.

// It'd be nice to know if I'm going to be shot at by whoever runs across me, // Skyfire said dryly. He started to say his next thoughts, then cut off before they reached his radio. For all I know, you could be trying to bag me along with my partner, and sweet-talking me in. For all I know, he's got a gun to his CPU and is inviting me in under duress, while trying to warn me off by acting suspiciously. For all I know, you do.

// Who is on which side here? //

[Kup]

Keep hearing too many conflicting things.

Kup can't help but wonder if they're all coming from the general channel, or if Skyfire's talking to him.

//Like I said, I'll keep answering questions as I can, but that's not one I can. Take what time you need to decide where you stand, Skyfire, but until I know where that is, there're limits to what I can tell you. But generally, alla us are marked.// Everyone except Xaaron, but he wouldn't be out wandering by himself. Well, and the Junkion. //Either with the Autobot brand, the Decepticon brand... or there's this weird insect-looking face. They're with the Decepticons. Keep your optics open, and you'll figure it out.//

//I doubt you'll be shot at by anyone you run across, to be honest. I know our side won't shoot first,// not until Skyfire is a confirmed Decepticon, in the least, and even then they'll be generally reluctant, //and Starscream's probably gonna try to talk you into becoming a 'Con, so shootin' first would work against him there.//

//Sorry I couldn't answer the last one. As I said, there's some things I just flat can't answer yet, not without endangering folks who rely on me.//

//But one question you might want to think about asking me is, "Kup, why do you have my personal frequency?" Unless you'd like to muse on that one on your own.//

[Skyfire]

// I would like to hear your explanation, Kup. Why do you have my personal frequency? And who else does that I don't know? // Skyfire asks.

[Kup]

//Because I have the personal frequencies of all active Autobots, Skyfire. Though there's enough I gotta keep some in archives. But here we're talking my past. Your future is still your decision.//

//The only other person that has your frequency that I know of for sure is Perceptor, one of our scientists. Most the other folks are from other realities or too early or just flat didn't work with you. Omega Supreme might, too, but he spoke up over general.//

//Now, I imagine Starscream, if he's yours, might, but you'd know that better'n me.//

[Skyfire]

// He does, and he does seem to be the Starscream I knew, but... much time has apparently passed for him. How did this war start? // Skyfire asks.

[Kup]

//I wasn't on planet for the restart, Skyfire. When I returned, it was back underway. But the spark in the fuel tank was the construction of Megatron, who became leader of the Decepticons, and the development of robot mode flight and gestalt technology by the 'Cons.//

[Skyfire]

// Those are some interesting innovations, but I don't see how they'd start a war. What exactly is 'gestalt technology'? The name suggests several possibilities. Megatron, obviously, is an unfamiliar name to me. //

A brief silence. // What do you mean, 'restart'? Oh, and do you have a full ephemeris for this system? I'd like to correlate yours against the one I'm assembling. //

[Kup]

//This is commonly called Cybertron's 'Third Great War,' but really, not sure it isn't just the Second War with a really long pause in the middle of it. You wouldn't know about the Second Great War. Back when I left the planet, they were actively suppressing knowledge of it and what it was about... s'why you didn't recognize my insignia.//

//We was built as consumer products, Skyfire. Two main lines, military hardware and civilian services. The first Great War was both sides getting rid of the builders who thought it was right to sell and trade in sapient beings. Second Great War was when one group of Cybertronians decided one way to keep from getting sold and traded was to make sure we owned everything ourselves. Most of the ones what thought that were descended from the old military lines, but it never was as clear cut as all that. Anyway, that group called themselves the Decepticons, and those of us who object to that line of reasoning are the Autobots. We eventually won an uneasy peace through the development of transformation technology¹, and folks decided that to try and keep others from getting ideas of universal conquest and the like by pretending they never had those ideas to begin with.//

//That don't work, and even if the masses forgot... well, the masses ain't everyone. So... Megatron got built, he got some potent new technologies... 'gestalt technology' is basically a way of making one Transformer of about Guardian level power by combining five or six smaller ones... found some like minded types, and the Third War started. Or the Second War restarted. Depending on how you look at it.//

//No full set of data. I was here a few months at one point when my ship broke down, is all. Interstellar travel. First two planets in the system uninhabitable. This world and its three moons... I think they mighta had some climate control bases of some sort on them. IV, which was a mechanized world... only one moon, I think. Then three or four uninhabited ones further out, giants and ice balls, that sorta thing.//

---

¹ Why yes, it is amusing that the faction that won the Second War through trickery and deception are the Autobots, but it's canon back-story. What can I say?

[Skyfire]

Skyfire is slow to reply (well, he's having a active chat with more than one person here), and when he is, there's a distinctly unhappy tone in his voice: // Are you telling me that the history I was taught was a lie? Knowledge was already suppressed? //

// Kup, your data may be in error. I have located the two inner worlds, and the gas giants, but there is no fourth inner system world. I'm picking up many small bodies in the fourth orbit--looks like a metal-rich asteroid belt. There's also quite a few structures in orbit here--solar arrays, microwave aggregators, space stations, and the like--coming up close on one now--//

// WHAT THE--? // A snarl of static cuts across the channel.

[Kup]

//Error? There's no er-// Kup cuts himself at the exclamation and static.

//Skyfire! Come in! What's your status?!//