[fic] Snow World
Thanks to me randomnly getting the flu for the first time in like a billion years, this fic is squeaking in so close to the deadline it depresses me. It's probably clumsy in some areas, but wow I need to sleep.
Title: Snow World
Series: IDW
Rating: T
Summary: A cold mission on a frigid planet leaves the Terrorcons less than thrilled with a supposed winter wonderland.
Notes: Inspired in part by Stephen King's Beachworld. Except with, you know, snow. This takes place not long after the exodus from Cybertron. And hopefully this still counts since in IDW, they're not technically a gestalt. Yet, in my headcanon, anyways. They have their monstrous alt modes here, though.
Hun-Grrr couldn't decide what was worse - the wind or the snow. The snow by itself was problematic, piling down from the sky so thick it blocked their thermal sensors. The wind pushed it into massive drifts, the cold cutting through their armor and the walls of the base. The structure had been outfitted with several deflector shields, which buffeted the wind in a way that prevented them from getting buried alive.
Well, if Sinnertwin didn't hurry it the frag up, Hun-Grrr thought, then he was going to be frozen to the spot, and it wouldn't matter. The blast door was only half open, and he had to keep a tight grip on it to prevent the wind from tearing it right off. He was considering shutting Sinnertwin outside when a smudge of yellow appeared in the swirling white.
“Come on!” he shouted, the words ripped away by the wind so quickly he barely even heard them. Sinnertwin stumbled and staggered, feeling his way forward by running his hands along the walls of the outpost building. Once he was close enough, Hun-Grrr risked letting go of the door so he could haul his comrade in. The door shrieked, but Sinnertwin grabbed it at the same time Hun-Grrr started rolling it closed, and the howling wind was shut out.
Sinnertwin stomped his feet, shaking snow and ice off of himself. “F-f-frag! I hate this!”
“Stick your head in the heating coils, then,” Hun-Grrr snapped. “What's out there?”
“What do you think?” Sinnertwin grumbled, with no real malice in his tone. He wiped condensation off of his optics, though not much else was melting. The base was only a few degrees warmer inside. “Absolutely nothing. The path is completely gone, and whatever trails might be out there are either scattered to the winds or buried under twenty feet of... of snow. I haven't got any clue what happened out here.”
“Right now I'm assuming they relocated to the secondary outpost,” Hun-Grrr said, as Sinnertwin shook himself off again. His entire frame glittered with ice crystals, the top layer of his armor still too chilly to melt them. There wasn't supposed to be anything on this planet aside from a geological survey crew, one of many looking for either energon, or a sufficient substitute. The Terrorcons had been called in when contact with the crew had cut off, and the weather conditions deteriorated to beyond disastrous.
“That's a long way off,” said Sinnertwin. “You sure Cutthroat can make it?”
“Of course not,” Hun-Grrr said, turning on his heel. He needed to check in with Rippersnapper anyways, and make certain that stupid bird was staying on task. “He says he can, but I told him not to fly outside the range of the base's scanners. They barely reach halfway to the next base, so he's not going too far. Just scouting out what he can.”
Which meant he was probably already under a hundred feet of snow, having flown too far and overshot his capabilities.
Rippersnapper was looking irritated, not even glancing up at them when they walked into the control room. There was nothing on any of the screens besides flickering white - snow or static, if the camera had gone out.
“This is stupid,” Rippersnapper announced. “Mission logs just cut off about the time they stopped broadcasting to the hub, and there's not so much as a brief 'we're leaving' anywhere. I guess if I were stuck here I'd want out, too. This snow is awful.”
“I thought you liked water,” Sinnertwin said, looking at the control console. Wow, there was a whole lot of angry looking flashing lights on there.
“Water,” Rippersnapper growled, “you can swim in. This stuff - it's worthless! Should have never left Cybertron...”
“You're welcome to go back,” Hun-Grrr said. “Let us know how the radiation poisoning feels while you slowly starve to death.”
“Funny,” Rippersnapper snorted. “Take radiation over snow any day. Didn't have to deal with this slag back home.”
“Drop it,” Hun-Grrr said. “And get used to it. We're not on Cybertron anymore, and I can guarantee this won't be the last time we'll deal with snow. Now, is Blot finished down in the supply room?”
Rippersnapper shrugged, then hit the comm line open. “Hey, moron, done yet?”
“Yeah,” Blot replied. “I'm done.”
“Good. Then get your lead aft back up here.”
“Everything's sparkling,” Blot said.
“Yes, Blot,” Hun-Grrr said, ignoring the pained look Rippersnapper sent him. It wasn't like Blot's stupidity was contagious, anyways. “We know.”
“You should see it.”
“We see plenty of it where we are, Blot,” Rippersnapper growled into the comm.
“It's kind of... swirly.”
Swirly? Hun-Grrr looked at Rippersnapper, who threw his arms up in defeat. Who the frag knew what Blot was talking about when he was feeling smart?
“Uh, swirly?” Hun-Grrr asked. There were no cameras in the lower level, so it wasn't like he could just check to see if there was a draft down there.
“It's... you should really come see it.”
“He's lost it,” Rippersnapper declared, turning back to the console. He frowned, realizing he'd lost track of what flashing light meant what. Great.
“I'm going down to see what he's on about,” Hun-Grrr said. “And wrap things up around here. As soon as Cutthroat reports back, call him back in. We'll shut down the base and head for the next outpost - see if we can't find anybody.”
Rippersnapper grunted in response, and Hun-Grrr headed for the stairwell. Ice, fine as dust, clung to the walls in whirls and dazzling patterns. Almost like art, except it was cold, irritating, and not supposed to be there. He hoped there was something left in the supply room for him to chew on, since his nerves were starting to rub raw.
Blot, at least, was where he was supposed to be in the lower level. The supply crates had been meticulously stacked to one side, so the room was mostly barren and empty looking. Blot was standing in the middle, staring intently at one wall. Hun-Grrr stopped a few feet away from him, trying and failing to see what he was staring at.
“Anything left down here?” Hun-Grrr asked. Blot shook his head.
“Crates are empty,” he said. “Took everything with them when they left.”
“Alright, let's head back up, then,” Hun-Grrr turned to do just that, faltering when Blot didn't move.
“It left when you came in,” he said. Hun-Grrr had the ugly feeling that Rippersnapper wasn't totally out of line in thinking Blot had finally lost it. But why now? “Hang on...”
“Blot,” Hun-Grrr said slowly. “You just told me there was nothing down here.”
“Not in the crates, but -” he stopped, raising one hand and pointing. Ice crystals shimmered across the floor, weightless in the sudden breeze that picked them up before they rolled back down to the ground.
“There's a draft down here,” Hun-Grrr said firmly. “Now -”
“No there's not,” Blot said, with such simple conviction Hun-Grrr knew telling him otherwise wouldn't end well. “I checked every wall when I moved the crates. There's no cracks. No draft.”
The crystals whorled again, rising up and then falling across the floor, scattering in a million different directions. Unfortunately, Blot was right. There was no draft, and the little mass of ice crystals was definitely moving in their direction.
“Well that's weird,” he said. He had no intention of finding out what was causing it, though. They needed to - “Frag!”
Blot jumped as Hun-Grrr stumbled to one side, shaking his foot as though something had bit him. Another whirl of snowy dust collapsed on the ground, then slithered back between the crates it had apparently come out of. Hun-Grrr hissed, the affected dermal sensors either stinging in pain, or had gone dead.
“We're leaving. Now,” he said, catching a flash of more ice crystals, creeping towards Blot.
“But -”
“When was the last fragging time I ever had to repeat my orders to you?” Hun-Grrr snapped, and Blot flinched. That cleared up any other delay, and the two of them tromped up the stairs, Blot sending one last confused look behind them.
Sinnertwin met them at the top of the stairs, looking more than uneasy. Hun-Grrr would figure out what his was problem was later.
“Has Rippersnapper got the database files copied yet?” he asked, and Sinnertwin nodded. “Good. There's nothing else here, so we're getting out before things get any worse. Any word from Cutthroat?”
“Uh...” Sinnertwin's uneasiness visibly increased, and Hun-Grrr pushed past him, heading for the control room.
“What's the problem?” Hun-Grrr barked at Rippersnapper. Was it just him, or were there a lot more red lights on the console than there had been before?
“We lost two deflectors,” said Rippersnapper, shaking his head. “They just suddenly stopped working, and thanks to the direction of the storm, it means the entrance is going to be buried in about... I don't know, seven kliks?”
“Fantastic,” Hun-Grrr snarled. “Where's Cutthroat?”
“Dropped off radar about an astrosecond before the deflectors went,” Rippersnapper said. “Radio interference, too. He's on his own, wherever he is.”
“Pull the database files if you've got them done,” Hun-Grrr said. “Then wipe it clean. This base is officially abandoned the moment we're out the fragging door. Blot - cut off the power cell. Sinnertwin, help me get that blast door open before it gets frozen shut.”
Sinnertwin scrambled to catch up with him. The glittering walls were starting to make Hun-Grrr claustrophobic, and he wanted out of this damned place as soon as possible. Of course - was it any safer outside? Well, it wasn't like they had any choice at this point. It was either complete the mission, or bounce back up to the ship and call the whole thing a total loss.
Ice had already begun to creep in around the edges of the blast door. If they waited too long it would get sealed shut, and Hun-Grrr wanted to avoid using Sinnertwin's flame throwers in such a confined area. The vents were probably getting clogged with snow and ice as well. The two of them took hold of the handle and heaved back, splintering ice and letting the howling wind rush in once again.
The door lurched in their hands, and Sinnertwin crashed into Hun-Grrr's back as the door slammed itself shut, chunks of ice raining down on them. Stunned, Sinnertwin looked at the door, then down at Hun-Grrr.
“What the frag just happened?” They could both hear the ice creaking, and not in a way that meant it was breaking apart.
“Blot, forget the cell if you're not there already,” Hun-Grrr said over the team's comm, pushing himself back up to his feet. “Both you and Rippersnapper need to get down here, now.”
“That wasn't the wind,” Sinnertwin said, large optics flashing in fear. The overhead lights flickered once, then went out, meaning Blot decided to complete one order before the other. Hun-Grrr turned on his flood lights. “That -”
“Forget it,” Hun-Grrr said, turning as Rippersnapper showed up, followed by Blot a moment later. “Blot, open the door for us.”
Blot nodded, then transformed to his alt mode. He gave one good tug at the door, which resulted in more cracking ice and the handle snapping off. Blot looked at the handle for a moment, then at the door, trying to work out how the door was supposed to open now. Tossing it to the side, Blot slammed his palms into door, metal buckling and allowing him to get a grip on it.
Ice and metal popped and snapped as Blot heaved back, finally succeeding in ripping the blast door out of its track. Pure, dazzling white flooded their optic sensors, and Blot dropped the door, staggering back. There was only a thin gap near the top of the door frame where the snow hadn't quite piled up.
“Go!” Hun-Grrr shouted, the wind already shrieking loud enough to drown him out. “Up! Climb up!”
Sinnertwin was the first one moving, clawing at the overhang and pushing through the snow to haul himself onto the roof of the outpost. Rippersnapper went after him, having to dig a little to get his wider body through the hard packed snow. Blot was next, and after a moment of watching him paw at the overhang without any results, Hun-Grrr stepped up to give him a boost.
Hun-Grrr followed him up once he was over the edge, just in time for a massive gust of wind to blast over them, knocking Sinnertwin off his feet and sealing the small gap back inside closed. Hun-Grrr switched to the internal comm, even though the wind felt strong enough to whip away even radio signals. “Stay close to the ground, and stay in sight! We're going to have to foot it to the second base -”
“That's over two kilometers from here!” Rippersnapper shouted, both over the radio and out loud. The sound didn't carry, but Hun-Grrr had the feeling he was just relieving stress. He sympathized, considering at this point he'd chew his own arms off if it meant getting out of the snow.
“Then start walking!” Hun-Grrr shouted back, dropping to his alt mode. The lower center of gravity in his alt mode made the wind a bit less menacing, but it still managed to flatten them. Sinnertwin stuck close to his side, with Blot and Rippersnapper trudging behind them, noses to the ground.
The mission became simple: find Cutthroat, find the survey crew, bounce off the planet via orbital jump. He had no fancy notions of salvaging tech or equipment at this point, considering the weather conditions of this planet on a nice day. Even packed together, the four of them were having a hard time making head way through the snow. There were no paths, and what they had cut behind them was already being swallowed in another drift.
It was slow going, and the wind and ice stung hard enough to numb dermal sensors. More than once they had to stop and knock out chucks of snow from between their talons or joints. Hun-Grrr thought of Cutthroat, who had the lightest armor out of all of them. If he had gotten buried, that was probably the safest place for him. The wind was simply too much, it seemed, even for the toughest of the Terrorcons.
His foot slid against something slick, most likely ice, but when he curled his claws it didn't cut right through. Pawing at it, he shifted the snow to reveal the flat panel of a deflector shield, and Hun-Grrr felt a sudden lurch of dread. There was no way they'd made it to the second outpost so soon, which meant they'd just gone in one very small circle. But had the original base been buried that quickly? He hesitated in rethinking his orders, staying in place just long enough, it seemed, for something in the snow to find him.
Hun-Grrr first felt his haunches sink into the drift, and then something solid grabbed his tail, yanking hard. Knowing he would have no grip in the shifting snow, he lunged forward and sank the teeth of his right head into Sinnertwin's ankle. Sinnertwin howled at him over the comm, but he ignored it, as whatever had his tail yanked again. It had a five-fingered grip, along with talons sharper than his own teeth.
“Pull!” Hun-Grrr commanded over the comm. “I've got Cutthroat!”
Sinnertwin staggered forward, walking awkwardly because of where Hun-Grrr's long jaw had sunk into his armor. Rippersnapper and Blot moved to try and dig, just as Cutthroat suddenly popped up on their radar. A few good tugs and he came out from the snow, wings tight to his body, but Hun-Grrr could still feel a lot of weight dragging them all down.
Blot saw the cable tied to Cutthroat before he did, and stared pulling it up, dragging out one of the lost crew. The mech was barely on his feet before a gust of wind knocked him flat, his lighter frame type making him next to useless in the extreme elements. Hun-Grrr transformed, letting the others use the cable to pull up the crew, and pulled Cutthroat against him.
“How many?” he asked over the comm. The wind, as if sensing conversation, picked up, moving waves of snows at them. He felt the the entire planet was trying to wash them out.
“Four,” said Cutthroat, both grateful for the warmth and resentful of the attention. “Not counting me.”
Blot pulled up two more crew members, while Rippersnapper kept the area as clear as he could with his wide nose. Sinnertwin kept hold of the cable, leading the other 'Cons into a huddle where they could stay close and warm. The fourth mech came up, and Hun-Grrr pushed them all into a circle.
“That's everybody?” he asked. Cutthroat nodded stiffly, entire frame rigid against Hun-Grrr's. His armor was not thick enough to withstand these sorts of temperatures for very long.
Confident everyone was accounted for, Hun-Grrr signaled their ship for an orbital jump, not caring how much ice he'd have to clean out later. A particularly nasty gale ripped across the snowscape, causing the survey crew to stagger into one another. Safe between the Terrorcons, no one slipped out of place. The snow clutched at them one last time, before Hun-Grrr felt the air charge, and then they were gone.
***********
“So, you're saying there was no geological superstructure on that planet at all.”
“None whatsoever. Just a fragging ball of ice. It's how we wound up so close together - we were just sliding along on a sheet of ice as the wind pushed us. Ripped the drill right apart, too. Never find the damn thing in that mess now.”
“Whole thing's a damn mess. I'll be glad when I can feel anything again. I've been in snow before, but not like that.”
“Kinda had a life of its own, didn't it?”
There were some mumbled agreements, and most of the conversation split off into other topics. Hun-Grrr listened with only vague interest as the mechs they'd rescued discussed their time on the snowball, and what they were going to do next. Rippersnapper sat with them, having the painfully dull task of collecting their reports. Puddles pooled in the dips of the worn parts of the ships floor.
“You have to admit,” Sinnertwin said, shifting in his seat next to Hun-Grrr. “It was pretty weird. No one ever said snow could do... weird stuff.”
“I don't think they knew,” Hun-Grrr shrugged. “But I'll be happy if I never deal with it again.”
“Cutthroat's gonna be out for awhile,” Sinnertwin sounded cautious about that. Probably because Cutthroat would have threatened to rip out his optics for repeating to anyone how the mission had exhausted him. He might still have authority issues, but it had worked out for the best. This time, at least.
“He'll live,” Hun-Grrr said, in a tone that meant that was the end of it. “We'll all live.”
With or without Cybertron, with or without snow. They would live.