Promontory Point, Mars

 

     The vast red planetscape of Mars extends for thousands of kilometers, uninterrupted by little more than dust, rocks, and the occasional geological feature, at least until this particular area. Formerly the site of the Terran compound, it was the resting place of the massive city-Transformer Trypticon for a time, and of the compound itself, there are few traces; Trypticon parked himself right on top of it. To the southeast is the largest canyon system on the planet, Valles Marineris, dwarfing even Trypticon himself.

 

Contents:

Rodimus Prime

Defcon

Autobot Shuttle <Alpha Trion>

"Death Star 2"

Mars Sensor 1

Memorial Plaque

Obvious exits:

 Northwest <NW> leads to Ares Rail Station.

 Southeast <SE> leads to Valles Marineris.

 North <N> leads to Martian Lake.

 

DepthCharge emerges from the alpha trion, having been asleep or something. Yep, that DepthCharge, what a slacker. Sleeping on the job. Oh wait, not sleeping. 'Rest Cycle'.

 

Rodimus Prime stands near the 'Death Star' now more like a junk pile with a nice crater in the middle. Rodimus, while hurt, does not look too bad. He could even pass for next month's cover of playfemme. On news stands august seventh! Prime looks about and rests his photon eliminator across a shoulder. He clicks on a radio frequency and says, "DepthCharge, status report..."

 

DepthCharge radios back, walking casually without a scratch on him (don't you just hate people that slide through battle like that?), "Greetings Autobot leader Rodimus Prime. Autobots Inferno and Foxfire are in a stable condition and will be fine until they are returned to Earth. I've used the tranquilizers from the shuttle's medical equipment so they should be completely at ease and not aware of any time passing between the end of the battle and their reactivations. I have gathered together all the repair and mechanical equipment I could lay my hands on and are ready to examine anything that might give us a clue as to why

Mars left orbit."

 

Rodimus Prime nods and looks towards the walking DepthCharge, "Good." He looks over at the two large cone shaped engines that pushed mars. Wow, where'd they come from? Scrapper said they've been here since the beginning and no one noticed. It works for Prime. He says, "Think you can do something with those things DepthCharge?"

 

DepthCharge does a double take. Great googly moogly. Giant engines. He walks on over towards the two giant cones, running his hands down them and says, "Interesting.. it will take me a while to familiarize myself with the technology here. But I should be able to." He takes out his scanners and begins to get to work and asks, pausing, "If I fix them, can I keep them?"

 

Rodimus Prime drops his jaw for a second looking at DC with an 'are you kidding?' look, but says, "We'll see DepthCharge, first you have to make them run."

 

DepthCharge nods and smiles to Rodimus Prime, looking back at the engines and getting to work on giving them a good once over. The joke is on you Chosen One! DC is planning on keeping them anyway. He'll hide them under his bed and you'll be none the wiser. As he examines, every so often DepthCharge comments, "Hmm.. This doesn't look right. Seems to be shorted. I wonder what happens if I do this.." and applies some solder and then comment, "Oh yes. That does look better." Gee, better hope he doesn't make a mistake or Mars might end up

hurtling into the sun.

 

Rodimus Prime rubs his chin and looks over at the shuttle, at least it's ready to go if they go start to go towards the sun. Didn't Optimus nearly get thrown into the sun a few times? That's why Rodimus is better, he hasn't gotten thrown into the sun yet.

 

DepthCharge hasn't ever been to the sun either, luckily. As there are giant bees there that would kill anyone who got close. The sun is a scary place. Anyway, DepthCharge keeps on working and scanning, whistling a little tune to himself that sounds somewhat like 'Convoy'. Bet this Autobot is just dying to try out these engines. As he works, more and more of the protective armor shields around the engines are stripped off, allowing DepthCharge access to the engine's internal systems where he either repairs or.. adjusts. Adjusts unknown

technology. Scary.

 

Rodimus Prime waits for DepthCharge to get finished, there really isn't much Prime can do but watch out for incoming cons. Not that they're stupid enough to try something again so soon. But you never know. He looks over at DepthCharge and while he knows the mech has some skills, he always has to wonder if DC's crazier than Wheeljack.

 

DepthCharge says, examining a few bits and pieces, "Autobot Leader Rodimus Prime, would you be so kind as to remove one of the Alpha Trion's seats and bring it here? I need it for parts." And tosses over a sonic screwdriver to the Chosen One. Hey, Prime should know how to do simple tech work. He repaired Kup after all. Then again, Kup is so old that he probably has 'insert slot a into column b' parts.

 

Kup does have that setup. He's nothing but slots sadly, very little tabs. Rodimus Prime however, grabs the sonic screwdriver and says, "Sure thing DepthCharge..." though he's more than a little curious as to why he needs a chair. Still, he is the scientist here, not Prime, so he goes over to the Alpha Trion and quickly disconnects one of the rear seats, not the pilot's of course, that'd be silly. He then brings it back to DepthCharge, pole, chair and all before putting down sideways on the ground next to DepthCharge. Gracefully, he flips the screwdriver around so the handle's facing DC, making sure to turn it off before he does. "Anything else?" he asks.

 

DepthChargelooks at the chair and contemplates but then gives a final shake of his head, saying, "No. I believe that should be sufficient. Thank you Autobot leader." And starts working again. Say what you will, DC may be crazier than a loon but it appears as though he has made progress. So he either knows what he is doing or has just turned these engines into a giant planetary bomb. Whatever the case it should end up moving mars. He says to Prime, "Getting there.. shouldn't be too much longer before I can attempt a test power up. They appear to have merely been overloaded than destroyed. So the internal damage isn't wide spread." That's one of the beauty about circuits. When a part overloads, current doesn't make it past that point.

 

Rodimus Prime nods and smiles, "Glad to help." He stays near DepthCharge however, in case his services can ever be useful. While he does not know much about this stuff, he does grasp the concepts DC's doing.

 

DepthCharge works back on attaching all the armor panels to the engines and once that is done, carefully jams the seat Rodimus got for him into the ground and sits himself in front of the engines. Hmm. It feels okay, but still something is missing. Opening up an internal compartment, DepthCharge pulls out a Cybertronian sized rear view mirror along with some fluffy dice and sticks them to the engine too. Ah, much better. Why DepthCharge is carrying that around remains a mystery. He says as he begins to activate a few sub systems of the

engines, "I wonder how many miles to the gallon this thing gets."

 

Rodimus Prime looks confused for a second and wonders where he got the fuzzy dice. Well, that'll make someone go insane so he skips it saying, "I hope you calculated what it'll take to get us back into a stable Mars orbit?"

 

DepthCharge continues to hum to himself, as various systems light up on the engines. But despite the insanity that appears to be present, DepthCharge does actually remove his medical scanner and runs a check over all the systems to ensure they are functioning with what he assumes is correctly. He says with a nod, resuming his seat, "Autobot Leader Rodimus Prime. The test start up seems successful and there does not appear to be any readings to be concerned about. Permission to fully activate the engines and try returning Mars to its proper position?" DepthCharge adds to Prime's query, "Actually, the computer of the engines has plotted the course the planet has taken. I plan on simply following that course back."

 

Rodimus Prime nods and is glad it didn't blow up. "Yes, whole heartedly DepthCharge, let's put this rock back in place. Then set the engines to overload. I want to make sure nothing is left here for the cons to use."

 

DepthCharge butbuts, not delaying the travel but still not wanting to lose out on a piece of technology, "I can't keep them then? You never know when having planet moving engines might come in handy." Oh well. If worse comes to worse and Prime asks DC to blow them sky high then at least DC always has the blueprints he scanned. He can build new ones! He says, "Okay. Going to fully activate the engines." He looks in the mirror and comments, "I wish they hadn't parked the Earth so close. Well, I should be able to reverse out of here without side swiping it." Hopefully that is DepthCharge's idea of a joke. And then as he fully powers up the engines and Mars trembles slightly. You'd expect maybe something more. But hey, it is a very gentle process. After all, the entire planet could crumble if you just blast the thing about. And then DepthCharge sits, acting like he is driving and humming he tune 'convoy' to himself.

 

Rodimus Prime shakes his head, "No, they're too dangerous. How would you take them off mars anyway DepthCharge? You can't put them in the shuttle and I doubt even Omega Supreme could lift both of them." He watches DC 'drivin ' and just shakes his head as he walks over to investigate the 'laser'. At least it'll keep him away from DC humming that annoying song.

 

DepthCharge sighs somewhat sadly, having planed to dismantle them all. Still, he'll be able to build new ones. The Aquabot idly comments to himself as he drives the planet, "Strange how things work out. I never got around to learning how to pilot a shuttle. And now I have to pilot a planet. Well, at least I assume I have right a way for any space faring vehicles." Anyone watching the night sky will notice that Earth is starting to get smaller and the alignment of the stars are changing somewhat.

 

Rodimus Prime just barely hears DepthCharge and shrugs from his spot near the "laser". He picks up a burnt out control panel and pokes at one of the buttons causing it to pop out and clatter to the ground. He's just waiting for this planet to be back in place again.

 

~Cause we gotta little ol' convoy, rockin' through the night

Yeah we gotta little ol' convoy, ain't she a beautiful sight? 

Come on an' join our convoy, ain't nothin' gonna git in our way

We're gonna roll this truckin' convoy, cross the USA

Convoy... Convoy...~

 

Well, things seem to be going well so far. DepthCharge hasn't blown up the planet and it is moving in the right direction. At least DepthCharge assumes it is in the right direction. But hey, what's the worst that could happen if it wasn't. The kids of Earth would just have to re-learn their planets. Venus, Mars, Earth, etc.

 

The Aquabot watches the little computer readouts on the engines to ensure that they aren't in danger of overloading and that he is following the right path. He calls out, "Shouldn't be too much longer Autobot Leader Rodimus Prime." Yeah, it may have taken days for Mars to get close to Earth but it seems like it is only taking hours to get it back in the right place. Why? Umm.. cause the path it has traveled has left a curve in space! That's right.

 

You may be wondering where this apparent convoy is coming from? Well duh. It is Mars and its two moon. You know. Phoebe and Joey. Or something. And so through space the planetary convoy travels, collecting a few rogue satellites in their travels. But hey, it isn't like this thing can turn on a dime. Eventually as the engines start to give out due to the strain of moving the planet Mars is shifted back into position, DepthCharge watching the computer readouts and making minor adjustments to get it back into the right spot. Once it is, the Aquabot quickly shuts down the engines and stands from his driver's seat, stretching. Ah,

nothing like a nice drive.

 

DepthCharge then kisses his poor engines that would have been SO awesome to keep good bye and plants some explosives that Foxfire probably brought with him. Heading back into the shuttle, DepthCharge activates the explosives before the Autobots blast off and a loud explosion flares, creating a nice crater (which shall be named the DepthCharge crater forever more) in the surface of Mars. And the Autobots voyage onward home. And here ends the story of when Mars and Earth decided to meet. What of Earth? Will the humans ever rebuild and repair the damage that has been done? That is, another story..

 

<Never ending Story theme plays>