Chapter 35: A System Reward That Outweighs Profits
"Host, prepare for impact. We may need to perform an emergency landing...but there's good news: our final landing zone is a desert, where the probability of collision is nearly zero!"
Alright! After spinning wildly in the air for about ten minutes, Starscream finally crash-landed in a barren, lifeless desert.
"Boom!"
It was far from a graceful landing...more like a headfirst dive into the sand...utterly unworthy of a Decepticon Air Commander. But at least, for the moment, Starscream was safe.
"Bzzt, bzzt, bzzt!"
"Crackle!"
"Host, congratulations on completing the mission to cover the great Autobot evacuation. The system has now unlocked 50% of its functions. Your Pretender ability has also undergone a full upgrade, entering a Mimicry state. The following is detailed information on this new state…"
Alright, so the mission had ended in complete failure...but at least the Transformer System had unlocked half of his functions and granted him a new ability.
Still… what use was that? Starscream had arrived in a completely unknown star system. His body was severely damaged, and aside from lying helplessly in the vast desert to self-repair, he could barely move.
At this point, Starscream was little more than a pile of scrap metal...well, a shiny pile of scrap, since his aircraft navigation lights still flickered weakly.
Bored and frustrated, Starscream activated the Transformer System to study his new "Mimicry" function...the reward for which he had nearly risked his life.
Previously, his Imposter skill had been a simple disguise. But this upgraded Mimicry allowed Starscream to become almost indistinguishable from what he imitated...even enabling limited cross-species transformations.
In short, Starscream could now mimic Sixshot...not only his vehicle and combat modes, but even his beast form. Transformers capable of this, Autobot or Decepticon alike, were exceedingly rare.
But of what use was perfect mimicry on this desolate, primitive planet? According to Starscream's initial satellite scan, while there were indeed several low-level civilizations here, there were no signs of either Autobots or Decepticons. That meant neither the Autobot refugees nor the Decepticon pursuers had any intention of coming here.
Starscream was probably the first Transformer tourist to ever visit this place…
"Alright, System God, how long until I'm fully repaired? I really don't know how I ended up stranded on a planet this primitive. Do we still have enough energy? Should we explore? But I doubt there's any energy on this planet that I can actually use, right?"
Starscream was exasperated. If he couldn't leave this strange planet, returning to Cybertron might be nothing but a distant dream. He should never have let himself be tempted into completing that last 10% of the mission. He didn't even know if Sixshot had truly been defeated!
"Dear host, due to severe physical damage, recovery is estimated to take more than half a month. Fortunately, because we shut down the system in time, your current energy reserve should last about two months. Although this planet's civilization is primitive, high-energy reactions of advanced technology have been detected in several regions...possibly remnants of interstellar exploration teams!"
Finally...some good news! It seemed this so-called "Hungry Planet" wasn't entirely devoid of traces of alien technology.
Hopefully, those advanced visitors had left behind some relics...perhaps energy converters or power cores. Otherwise, Red Spider's life here would be quite miserable…
However, while Starscream was busy fretting over such trivial matters, he was unaware that the two great empires of this planet...whose civilization he dismissed as "primitive"...were already organizing massive expeditions. Troops and theologians were being dispatched to scour the desert where the "celestial phenomenon" had fallen, hoping to find the gift that had descended from the heavens.
The difference lay in perspective: the western emperor believed the Red Spider to be a divine blessing, a symbol of the God of War's glory; the eastern emperor, meanwhile, saw it as a curse and vowed to destroy it.
Of course, countless smaller factions who had also witnessed the fall were equally eager to claim the "celestial relic" for themselves. Thus began a massive, planetwide hunt for the Red Spider...though Starscream himself remained blissfully unaware.
"Damn it! That idiot Optimus Prime could've chosen any landing site! Why did it have to be this backwater planet? Now I'm stuck here for months! I swear, once I get back to Cybertron, I'm joining the Decepticons again!"
Everyone makes their own choices. The Autobots had become a minority, and could be wiped out by the Decepticons at any moment. Given Optimus Prime's nature, he would never reveal Starscream's true identity...so even if Starscream returned as the Decepticon Air Commander, he'd have no problem fitting right back in.
Yet Starscream had no idea that, over the next few centuries, he would embark on an utterly unpredictable adventure on this planet called Hunger...and that his advanced Cybertronian technology would forever alter the course of human civilization here.
Perhaps this was fate itself.
Some say gods exist in the universe...but in truth, they are merely beings of higher evolution. To those ancient, ignorant humans, both Decepticons and Autobots were celestial beings capable of flight and transformation.
Perhaps, in the not-so-distant future, countless believers would come to worship Starscream himself… as their supreme god.
(End of Chapter)
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