My Crazy Robotic Family

Cybonic Plague

Waking up this morning to hear ratchet say he had ground the location of the Nemesis by pure chance was not what I was expecting to hear first thing in the morning. 

"How did you penetrate their cloaking technology?" Optimus asked him.

"I didn't. I was experimenting with various wavelengths when I stumbled upon it." I was very surprised that we had been so lucky.

"Their ship must be experiencing some sort of electromagnetic breach." I commented. 

"With Megatron deceased and the element of surprise-" Arcee started excitedly.

"-we coud do some serious damage." Bulk ended. 

"Also on the same frequency was an autobot emergency beacon." Ratchet said.

"The Deceptions can wait, there may be autobots on distress. Ratchet, bring your medical kit. Jadelynn, accompany us." I nodded to Optimus and ran to get my gear. After quickly strapping on my weapons I ran to Optimus, who was now being approached by Ratchet. Optimus lowered his hand and I was able to quickly and swiftly make my way to his shoulder.

When the three of us walked through the bridge, I noticed that there was a wrecked autobot ship in the middle of the desert, surronded by the darkness of the night. I hold closer to the cables of Optimus's neck, knowing he could stumble without proper lighting. 

"A crash landing, buried here for centuries." Optimus noted sadly. I guess there's not much of a chance of finding any autobots in distress. 

The three of us were able to make our way to the large ship, and Ratchet makes us a door with his torch.

"If they travelled in stasis there may be survivors." Ratchet said. Ratchet and Optimus both brought out lights so we could see inside the dark ship. The walls were rusting away and as soon as we entered the ship, it began to creek and move and made both large bots stumble. I gripped onto Optimus's neck tighter as he regained his footing.

We came across a large door, which Optimus was easily able to open. Inside was horrible sight, however. Nearly a dozen dead cybertronians littered the area, on the floor and even hanging from the ceilings. Energon was pooled around each corpse, but the energon was discolored, and looked as if it itself was rusting away.

"Energon isn't supposed to look like that, even after centuries, is it?" I asked Ratchet. He nodded in response as he moved to examine one of the closest corpses.

"Optimus, these bots did not perish in the crash. They are showing signs of a virus." 

"This is a plagued ship." Optimus concluded with a glare.

"Don't touch anything!" Ratchet said and held Optimus back as he made a move to step forward. "The virus could still be active."

"Then maybe the two of you should leave and I can continue a search, this isn't worth the risk." 

"Sound advi-" Optimus started but the ship began to drastically move again, this time more than the last. Both bots were thrown to the wall as I clung to Optimus's neck tighter than ever. They both braced themselves against the wall and looked up at the ceiling. Optimus was directly underneath one of the deceased autobots, and the corpse had shifted when the ship did. Discolored energon droplets fell onto Optimus, who groaned and tried to wipe them away.

"We need to get you back to base, now!" Ratchet ordered and moved to grab Optimus's arm to pull him along. 

"This doesn't mean he's automatically infected does it?" I asked him.

"Unfortunately, yes. It does." Ratchet replied sadly. We left the ship and as soon a we touched sand, Optimus started staggering and holding his head. I climbed down from his shoulder and combed Arcee who was still at base.