This is an optional read, shut your face if you try to complain that it's too long.









"A machine built to end war is always a machine built to continue war."



- Ultrakill on The Final War



Humanity has been at war with the Invaders for decades. They don't know why the green bio mechanical octopi from space are trying to invade their planet, but they know it's for nothing good. United under a common threat, humanity has joined together to create the Pacific Rim Defense Force. PRDF reverse engineered some of the technological remains of the alien invaders to create Link technology and build the first ever Mecha unit. Now, these units are created in the thousands and are piloted by Humanity's Finest to push back the alien invaders.



When the Invaders started to get desperate, their fuel running low, the PRDF was able to capture one of their ships and discovered the Rift technology that they used to teleport to Earth as well as all of the coordinates of their bases and ships. With victory now in sight, humanity prepares to counterstrike for the first time since the war began, bringing the war to the Invader's doorstep. They prepared Nuclear Bombs for this attack, many having been made before the war with the Invaders, but had to have been used sparingly to keep the fallout from polluting Earth. What these past attacks proved, however, is that the Invaders had no defense against nuclear fallout and were highly susceptible.



PRDF gathers their Mecha Units and opens up rifts to the locations that have been marked by the Invaders and sends the Units through the folds in space to place the bombs in the perfect locations to destroy the Invaders once and for all. Humanity has always been exceptional at causing genocides and to the tired people of Earth, this one was justified. Some Pilots never make it back through however, detonating the bombs before they could make it back through the Rift to complete the mission, but regardless, their attack is a roaring success. The Invaders are finally gone and if they come across any survivors, they will be shown no mercy.



However, some of the Pilots that never came back through the Rifts didn't actually die.



They're still out there, living out their lives, trying to find a way back home, and wiping out every Invader they come across along the way.



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As Overdrive is blasted out of the glass viewing window of the alien ship by a scorching tsunami of fire, he can only really think of one thing:



I should have stayed home when I noticed that bad feeling this morning.



Unfortunately, he had a job to do and he did it very well so the Higher Ups wouldn't let him skip. Especially when the mission's goal was to finally win the war against the Invaders. They would drag him from his dorm room by his ear and force him into his mecha before getting Downshift to, and these are her words not his, punt him through the Rift.



She would do it too.



Without hesitation, even.



If Overdrive had the ability to sigh in this moment, he would. Instead his breath has been knocked out of his lungs, so he plummets through the sky with a soundless shout of alarm. He can see his teammates pinging as friendly on his radar, falling along with him as the ship above them slowly blooms into a red and orange bouquet of floss flowers.



How pretty their death is.



He thinks with a detached sort of interest as he pulls his eyes away from the suspended explosion and the smoking shrapnel whipping around them to instead activate their private comms system.



"Status." He demands bluntly, voice a croak and wanting to make sure his teammates are okay before giving any orders.



"Alive and at 89% integrity." Downshift replies from her position in her mecha's cockpit, switches being flipped in the background of her end of the call.



"Alive, unfortunately. 94% integrity." Camshaft responds dryly from inside their mecha and Overdrive nods, unsurprised at the lack of damage his teammates have sustained. They were almost as good as their job as he was so it was expected that they would make it out relatively unscathed for what was supposed to be an in-and-out drop off mission.



"Listen. We're literally in the stratosphere so we need to start unassisted landing protocols before we reach the troposphere. Gather up." He orders shortly as he uses his thrusters to reorient himself into a proper falling starfish position, the air smacking into his mecha activates the pressure sensors and makes his brain fill in the rest of the sensations. Makes it feel like he just got smacked in the face with a frigid, continuous, blast of wind. It reminds him of winter in Greenland, their first mission as a Unit to hunt down a small outpost of Invaders in the Uninhabited Zone.



"You don't have to tell me twice." Downshift says as she gets into position, reaching out with one large hand to grip Overdrive's entire forearm. Camshaft is silent in their compliance, maneuvering with their thrusters to be on Overdrive's other side and takes the other arm of his mech with practiced ease as Camshaft and Downshift also grasp forearms.



"Wait until the last moment to deploy your chutes and compensate with your thrusters. With all the shrapnel around us, they're likely to get shredded and we'll be right back where we started." Overdrive orders calmly over the comms and his teammates send back their affirmatives. The rest of the fall is dreadfully long, altitude sensors ticking down as they continue to plummet. At almost the last second they deploy all of their parachutes as well as activate all of their thrusters to slow their fall into something less crippling.



God, he's glad that the Link implant comes with an external neck brace to mount the connector's on otherwise this would hurt so much more.



The landing jars all of his joints painfully and Overdrive's HUD lights up with red and purple warning notifications, trying to bring his attention to the damage sustained on the landing rather than trying to keep his mech from crumpling. Instead, the ground beneath Omni Unit's feet caves in like crumpling aluminum, metallic dust springing up from the harsh contact and blinding their normal optical sensors. Overdrive simply switches to heat vision and gives another order.



"Detach the chutes and run. We're right under the ship and will be flattened if we loiter." He's already forcing himself to his feet, having had to take a knee on impact, and pulling his teammates toward what his compass is telling him is east. At least this planet has magnetic poles that the compass can pick up so they can navigate.



"But protocol-" Downshift starts, hesitating in detaching her chute while Camshaft and Overdrive have already discarded theirs.



"Says to save the chutes if we can and we can't." Overdrive cuts in, really tempted to pull his sword from it's back mount and just slice the thing off, but thankfully Downshift complies. Together the three mecha sprint away from the soon-to-be landing spot of the Invader's ship and just in time too. Overdrive can hear it falling with a scream of failing engines pushed to their limit and the roar of something very very large burning.



The Unit Leader activates his overheated thrusters again to increase his speed as he literally runs for his life, leading his teammates down paths that feel safe and away from areas that do not. He's worked with them long enough that they know better than to question his intuition and make sure to step exactly where he does.



The sound of their own thrusters is being drowned out by the collapsing Goliath of combusting metal nearly on top of them and it makes Overdrive worry that he may have lost his teammates. (Oh God, they better be right behind him). The metal ground underneath their feet splits with a loud crack from the impact of part of the ship. Overdrive clenches his jaw and keeps sprinting even as the ground they were running on starts to sink under the weight of the warship, the safe area they need to get to seemingly rising up out of reach.



But it still feels safe so Overdrive keeps going.



The trio makes it to the newly made cliff face and the red mech doesn't even hesitate, running up the side of the wall and forcing his metal toes to make foot holds as the notifications from his overheated thrusters start to obscure his brightly colored vision. His teammates are still behind him, hell, Camshaft was ahead of him at this point. Their mecha was made for high jumps and acrobatics to the point that it's legs had even more articulation joints than the standard mecha.



Once at the top, Camshaft doesn't even wait to get to more steady footing to whirl back around and shoot a grapple down the face of the cliff, the hook gripping onto Downshift's neck fairing so that they could heave her upward with a whine of overtaxed hydraulics. Once Overdrive reaches the top of the cliff, he extends his arm and deploys his grapple as well, pulling up their much heavier and slower third up to safety with so much effort he can feel the strain pulling at his human body's joints as the controls fight him.



Downshift's arms dig into the top of the cliff and she pulls herself up with a grinding sound as her fingers drag grooves into the metallic surface of the planet with an adrenaline fueled determination to get the fuck out of there! Once they all make it out of range, to safety, they turn to watch the remainder of the ship bursts on contact with the ground in a monumental mushroom shaped plume of smoke and fire. A blast of wind and heat expands from the epicenter of the explosion and he can feel both through the armor of Overdrive's mecha as it slams into him, blinding him a second time with the flash of red in his heat vision.



The impact of the secondary explosion forces them to stagger back a few steps and then further forces the shorter Mechs to hide behind the motionless, immovable tank, that is Downshift to keep from going flying. The blast dies down as quickly as it came and Overdrive can finally hear his own labored breathing again, sweat pouring down his forehead and into his eyes as he takes a moment to collect himself.



"I quit. I'm putting in my notice effective immediately. Fuck this." Camshaft's voice comes through the comms system, sounding like they gargled gravel for an hour before attempting to communicate. Downshift's responding snort is followed by a hysterical little giggle and she reaches behind herself to jab one finger down on top of Camshaft's head in what is basically a mecha sized noogie.



"Yeah. I don't think you'll be able to retire yet, Cam. We're now starring in the movie Castaway: Space Edition." She responds and Camshaft swats her hand away with a scrape of metal on metal.



"I am not going to be Wilson." They grumble under their breath but just loud enough for the comms to pick it up anyway. Overdrive rolls his eyes and steps out from behind Downshift to take a look at their surroundings, having to adjust his heat sensors to the increased warmth in the area from the scorching smoke so that most of his vision isn't just red and orange. He spots some kind of treeline to the north east of them and decides that tree coverage is better than standing out in the open.



"Let's head for the forest. We don't know if there are any Invaders lingering around-"



"You think there are survivors after all of that?" Downshift asks incredulously.



"-on the surface of this colony planet and we also don't know what kind of life was here originally. With the commotion that crash caused, we're likely to get some company soon." Overdrive finishes confidently, starting the trek towards cover at a moderate pace so that his thrusters can cool down to a safe temp.



"Oh that is a good point, actually." Downshift says with an audible wince and Camshaft's mech lets out a series of short mechanical whirs that they usually make when they're laughing at their teammates. They follow after Overdrive at the same pace, scanning around them for any sign of a heat signature not made from the flames behind them.



When they reach the trees, Overdrive pauses for a moment at how they appear to be made of metal and crystal rather than anything organic. Was this planet all metal and stone? The ground certainly wasn't made of any kind of organically made "dirt" that he was more used to. Overdrive activates his space grade long distance comms system and curses when he gets no signal, his HUD painfully pinging that he's taken damage to his antenna. How the hell is he going to report to Cosmo now?



"Comms to Earth are down. Once we get to a defensible position, Shift, I need you to fix up my antenna." Overdrive asks, wiggling his damaged antenna that was affixed to his mecha's head. Camshaft makes a humming noise of agreement with their mecha, motioning to their unaligned left thruster wing. Oh, that would be hard to deal with. Yeah.



"With our surroundings, I'll certainly have enough raw material to drone forge into the proper parts." Downshift says as her mecha's head lifts up from where she was watching her feet so that she can see farther forward, searching for a rest spot. They eventually find one after a few hours of walking, half of a metal ramp up into what may have been a bridge that created the perfect mecha sized lean-to shelter. Overdrive stands in front of the shelter and locks his mecha's joints so that he can keep watch (now with normal vision mode, thank god.) while being Un-Linked to rest his half fried brain while Downshift fixes up Camshaft's thruster wing. It's more important for them to be in perfect fighting form in their current situation instead of being able to contact Cosmo at Earth Control. Overdrive can let his inconsistent self repair systems have a crack at the antenna while he waits.



He can hear Downshift's drone hatches open up and the little things buzzing and swarming around as they get into the nooks and crannies of Camshaft's innards that Downshift cannot reach with her mecha's thick hands and then the zzzzziiiiiiiiii of the little welders going by her mental instruction. It reminds him of the Shatterdome, as it always does, with the sounds of repair and bouncing sparks. Overdrive hopes that this time of peace continues to last so that they have enough time to recuperate before going out to explore the vast unknown that they crashed into.



He doesn't have a good feeling about this place.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------



This place fucking sucks.



Overdrive thinks tiredly as he walks past yet more weird trees that look like strangely shaped solar panels. At this point he thinks that this entire place is completely uninhabited because all he's seen for hours now, not accounting for their long rest to repair themselves to tip top shape and then nap after the fall, is an uninterrupted stretch of forest. The wreckage of the ship is behind them and is still consistently giving off a column of black smoke and Overdrive is refusing to walk back over to that thing on sheer principle of hatred.



At least Noor is having fun on this journey.



Camshaft is climbing trees and boulders, investigating crystals and silica based bugs. Overdrive is sure that it's fascinating for the mildly feral medic, but he just doesn't see the appeal. Yes, the brush foliage does appear to be made of slowly growing quartz and yes, that weird dragonfly thing does have an intricate wire based nervous system visible through it's semi transparent exoskeleton. Are these things beautiful? Absolutely. Does it help Overdrive figure out where they are so he can get a message to Cosmo at Earth Control so they can open a Rift home? Not really, but Overdrive isn't going to discourage their teammate by voicing this aloud. The medic has enough of their own anxiety to deal with and doesn't need saddled with Overdrive's on top of it.



Downshift, thankfully, is simply humming along to the music that Overdrive was playing over their Unit comms as they tried to put more distance between them and the crash. It was her day to pick the music (they had a rotation schedule) and while Overdrive didn't love Mando-pop, it was better than silence. The red mecha pauses mid step as his newly repaired antenna prickles with radio feedback a few seconds before what is definitely an EMP pulse, though the very edges of it, washes over the trio of mecha pilots.



All three members of Omni Unit snap their heads to the side to try and see what had just set off an EMP, the distant sound of a crash echoing through the trees. Thankfully the Unit wasn't effected by EMPs after the Invaders had primarily started using them to combat the PRDF's Mecha army. The brainiacs of PRDF had worked pretty hard in the following months to make the Mechas as EMP proof as possible. But that might not be the case for whatever just crashed just now.



"Cam, please climb to the top of one of the trees to see if you can spot what set off that EMP." Overdrive orders and Camshaft pauses in their current spot, on top of a cube-ish shaped bolder and inspecting a nearly invisible butterfly like bug that was cupped in the palm of their mecha's hand to protect it from the magnetic attack.



They let out a hum of affirmation, flicking their fingers delicately so that the insect flies off elsewhere and gets to work. They leap silently from the boulder and land on the lowest branch of a nearby tree before scaling it, staying close to the trunk to avoid getting blocked by the black panel like fans that made up the "foliage" of the tree.



"What do your elf eyes see?" Downshift asks in amusement despite the situation, standing at the bottom of the tree that Camshaft was at the top of and craning the neck of her mecha up to see where they were perched.



"The edge of the forest." Camshaft answers dryly and Downshift snorts in laughter before going quiet to let the hunter actually take a look.



"Invaders, seventeen klicks to the west. Engaged in a fight with what appears to be local mecha." Camshaft says, much more seriously this time, and Overdrive's attention sharpens at the words.



"How many Invaders and what classes?" He asks, plans of attack already swirling in his head and fingers itching to reach for his sword.



"Ten Swarm class, eight Grunt class, and one Scout class. Acting as a monitor, I believe. There used to be more, but the three unknown combatants seem to have been reducing their numbers." Camshaft informs dutifully, sending over a photo of the fight so that the other members of the Omni Unit could see for themselves. There seemed to be a number of fallen Scouts and even less of the ground based Invaders, so the Team Lead instead focuses on the upright mechanical combatants. Overdrive studies the local mecha with a critical eye and purses his lips at how… bulky they were. It was like the makers of the mecha hadn't figured out that greeblies and flair meant something for the Invaders to grab a hold of. That and they had very few joints in their plating around major areas of movement to allow for a greater range of motion. It's like they hadn't been designed for combat at all.



Hell, all three of them had wings. Ridiculous.



"Alright team. We have some work to do." Overdrive sighs and Downshift snorts in amusement as Camshaft drops back down to the forest floor.



"We don't know if the Locals are going to be hostile or friendly to outsiders so we'll use this as an opportunity to get in their good graces. We'll get to the edge of the forest and Cam will snipe the Scout out of the air from the tree line. Then, Shift and I will use the ensuing chaos to help the locals clean up the remaining Invaders." Overdrive orders as he starts sprinting towards the fight, making a simple plan for the fight considering they're not fighting against a large group of enemies and expecting his teammates to follow him.



"Do not disengage battle Integration levels until it's clear that the locals are friendly." Overdrive reminds, remembering the time they had been sent to go assist Downshift's old unit back in China and then nearly getting stabbed in the back because Downshift, who sees the best in everyone, had assumed everyone was on the "same side" and let her guard down.



"Yeah yeah. Stop getting on me about that." Downshift grumbles at Overdrive's left shoulder as he increases his Integration percentage from 30% to 60%. Sensation of pressure become more acute across his entire- across his mecha's entire body and his vision doubles in quality and periphery size. He can even feel where his limbs are located without glancing down at them now. As he takes a short moment to adjust to his heightened senses and proprioception, Overdrive turns off Downshift's Mando-Pop as revenge for her grumbling.



"Noooo!!! Not my Mayday!! Give me back my boys!" Downshift cried dramatically, but silences herself once the edge of the forest comes into view. As playful as Downshift is, she knows when to put the job first and Overdrive appreciates that about her. The team lead studies the ongoing fight as Camshaft starts to get in position, climbing up into a tree's lower branches to have a better chance at hitting the Scout Class Invader.



In the time it took to get to the fight the local Mecha have taken out three Swarm class and two Grunt class Invaders with no casualties on their side. The Scout class is, as usual for it's class, standing apart from it's stupider subordinates and hovering above the skirmish with the beating of it's membraneous wings. It even has a spent EMP weapon gripped in it's feet. It will likely start picking off mecha from the air if it starts to loose too many of it's own soldiers and will retreat if it becomes outnumbered. Overdrive knows how those cowards work well enough considering the decade long war Humanity has been in with these assholes.



Camshaft unfolds their rifle and checks the chamber, the five foot long penetrating round already ready to be fired. The sniper starts to line up the shot and Overdrive pulls out his own sword to prepare to rush into the fight as soon as the Scout goes down. The first shot doesn't even make Camshaft's mecha flinch despite the visible recoil, a flash of fire bursting from the muzzle, and they pull the bolt back to reload before the first shot even hits the Scout right through the side of its head. The thing's skull bursts like a water balloon filled with slime. The second shot is sent right through the Scout's chest where the thing's equivalent of a "heart" is, the burst of green gore creating a comet's tail of goo as the dead Invader plummets from the sky.



Overdrive doesn't even wait for the Scout to hit the metallic ground before he's sprinting out into the fray with a brief push of his thrusters. The longer he waits, the more of a frenzy the Swarm and Grunt class Invaders will work themselves into without a Scout to relay them orders. Overdrive thrusts his sword forward, skewering the Grunt class through the stomach and activating the teeth of the chainsaw portion of the blade so that he could tear his blade upwards through the thing with little resistance. The Grunt Class invader falls to the ground in two halves with a wet shplat that makes Overdrive grimace behind his oxygen mask as he can feel it's blood drench his hands. He may not be able to feel temperature from inside his mech, but for some reason the Invader's gore always leaves behind a lingering phantom of warmth.



To his side, Overdrive can feel Downshift bodily slam into a Swarm Class Invader, putting her fist through the face of it and then using her other hand to grab it's tail to rip it in half with the disgusting sound of tearing sinew. Rather than focus on what his teammate is doing, Overdrive instead turns to the local Mecha that had fallen to the ground when the first of Camshaft's shots had sounded. It looks like they had gotten distracted and then pushed down by the very same Grunt that Overdrive had essentially bisected.



The Team Lead does a double take at the whole fucking face that the blue mecha has, expression wide with open mouthed shock (is that a tongue????), and offers them a hand up as they mentally put that observation away for later. The Local grabs the Overdrive's hand and allows him to pull them up (God, why the hell are they so light??? Overdrive could lift them off the floor with one hand.). They're shorter than Overdrive's mecha, but well armored in bulky shapes around the ends of their limbs. The Local opens their mouth and tries to speak to them in a language that sounds like a car speeding through a Best Buy while the driver babbles in Portuguese out the open window and Overdrive decides, as he takes a recording of those words, that he's not dealing with that right now.



Instead he just gives the alien mecha a nod, whirls on his feet, and swipes out his sword like he's a batter trying to get a home run. The Swarm Class behind him screeches like grating metal as the blade edge of Overdrive's weapon digs into the thick trunk of it's neck like a hot knife cuts through butter. The decapitated head goes flying and the Swarm Class's body drops to the metallic ground, twitching. That Invader had been going for his Mecha's head, which is a little strange, Overdrive notes absently. The Invaders on Earth have long learned to go for the cockpit by now rather than the head, which is mainly used to store sensory and communications equipment.



The Invaders learned the hard way that just because a Mecha is headless and essentially blind, doesn't mean it's dead.



Maybe the Invaders haven't been on this planet long enough to figure out the same? Or maybe these mecha have something more important in their- Overdrive ignores that train of thought for now and waves off the speaking of the Local mecha behind him to get back to the fight. He doesn't want Downshift to get all the kills by herself even if she's laughing over comms as she's reducing Invaders to paste with her fists. Overdrive activates the double barrel canons in his forearms to shoot an oncoming Grunt as he steps over the corpse of the beheaded Swarm, creating a viridian hole of viscera through it's face and killing it instantly.



And, just like usual, Overdrive doesn't have to wait long for the next contender to lunge at him.



A Swarm Class opens up it's massive maw with multiple layers of sharp teeth that remind Overdrive of a shark and attempts to melt his mecha's plating into slag with a spray of acid spit. Overdrive ducks under the hazard, into the Swarm's reach, and lets the thing charge directly into his blade because it's too simple to think of a different attack method other than forward. His chainsaw sword reaches past the Invader's many rows of teeth, through the somewhat softer roof of it's mouth, and directly into it's minuscule brain. Overdrive then twists his blade with a grunt of effort, lifting the Invader from the ground, and throws the still twitching corpse into the next charging Invader.



It squirms under the weight of its dead brethren and Overdrive takes the time to stomp down on it's spine particularly roughly as he steps onto the two bodies, it's vertebrae crunching satisfyingly under his Mecha's toes. He doesn't even look down at the paralyzed thing as he activates his cannons to blast a hole through the top of this one's head, the smell of scorched alien flesh stinging his nose. No one really gets used to the smell of these kinds of fights. Disgusting. Overdrive takes advantage of the high ground to launch himself into the air, revving his chainsaw sword so that he can kill off the last Swarm class Invader by sawing it in half diagonally as it tries spitting acid at the back of one of the Alien Mecha. The stupid toothy thing gurgling blood and spilling acid all over itself, making it's corpse more soup than synthetic flesh.



Overdrive is covered in more green blood than he'd like, but he doesn't bother trying to wipe it off as he turns to the last Grunt Class that was attempting to speak, but didn't really have the mental faculties to do much more than ramble a few words in it's creator's native language. Overdrive hasn't activated the Translation Program for the Invader's language yet and so all he does is stare at the Grunt class with a pitiless gaze as it gets out a few words that might be a last request, but Overdrive simply does not care. He points at the Grunt Class Invader with a mimed finger gun.



"Cam, do you mind?" The Team Lead asks over private comms mildly, head lazily tilting to the side as the last invader tries to say one last thing and he can hear Camshaft rack another bullet into the chamber with the familiar shick-ack of the bolt sliding back into place over the comms. The Grunt's head bursts with an audible pop as Camshaft's penetrating round meets it mark, the crack of the bullet being fired echoing from their current location.



"A little dramatic for the new audience, aren't you?" Downshift asks in dry amusement as she makes sure an Invader is dead by crushing it's head under her foot with a wet squelch. Overdrive huffs quietly at being called out as he slashes his sword to the side to fling off as much gore as he could from the slick blade before he sheathes it back onto his back. He then raises up his hand, still pointing, and circles it in the air.



"Alright. Gather up. Time for socializing." Overdrive orders calmly, making sure not to lower his Integration percentage from 60% even if the feeling of gore in his joints was aggravating. The Local Mecha were looking at Overdrive and Downshift with wary interest, but none of them seemed to be up to approaching quite yet. Downshift reaches Overdrive first, bouncing a little on her toes despite being absolutely painted with green viscera.



"You enjoy your job too much." Overdrive points out mildly, gesturing to her everything and he can imagine the sharp grin that's sure to be stretching across Downshift's face at the reference. The first time he ever said that to her, she had been waist deep in Invader Corpses and gleefully describing how wine was made by stepping on grapes in a massive barrel before comparing it to the feeling of the heads of the smaller Invaders smearing under her feet.



"No such thing, Er-ge." She responds cheekily as Camshaft silently comes up to Overdrive's other shoulder, creating a three mecha wall opposite side of the three mecha group of strangers. The alien mecha warily stand across from the Omni Unit in a loose line, their bulky and flashy bodies scratched to all hell but still obviously prepared to defend themselves if the humans so much as twitch wrong. All of them had expressive faces too, glowing eyes watching them with an intensity that spoke of being in a conflict for a good long while.



The humans stare at the aliens for a long moment, not really able to speak first considering they don't have external speakers and wait to see if the Locals are going to attack, just as wary as the locals of being turned on. When they don't Overdrive goes back into his mecha's computer, selects the recording of one of the Alien Mechas speaking to him, and opens up one of the newer programs that had been added to his mecha before they had been launched into space.



See, when Humanity finally managed to take control of a mostly intact Invader ship that had careened itself into the South Pole (Thank you Striker one zero six one for your sacrifice. Sorry your government never found your body), they were able to get more than just Rift tech and allied coordinates from it. They also got the Invaders' language database. So Overdrive just runs the voice clip through it and hopes that the Invaders have managed to create a translation of this species' language for them to use in the upcoming hard times the Omni Unit is sure to face. Unfortunately, it takes a while for the Translation Program to parse out the words being said due to all of the background noise in the recording so it's still looking by the time the local aliens decide to address the trio of humans.



"State affiliation and designations." One of them asks warily, they sound masculine, but Overdrive doesn't know how their species deals with gender so he's sticking to 'they'. Camshaft uses their mecha to make a confused clicking noise and gestures to their mecha's faceless head as if to say 'we cannot reply to you' and Overdrive has never been more glad that the Medic had a flair for the non verbal. Downshift takes their lead and lets out a whizzing sigh with her mecha, motioning with both of her hands for the alien mecha to chill out.



That's not gonna work when you look like you bathed in Invader blood, Fu.



"What's the plan here, Drive?" Camshaft asks as they watch the mecha who spoke first get a sour expression but nod in understanding. At least body language was similar enough across cultures for them to communicate well enough.



"I'm running a language clip through the Invader's language database to see if they have a translator or a Language pack to download." Overdrive says over comms while he makes his mecha grind out a frustrated noise and motion for the Local Mecha to wait, this time using the clearer voice clip of the question being asked to search for the language. A result comes up almost immediately and it's a partial translation program. Bless the Invaders immaculate record keeping. It's literally the only thing they're good for. Overdrive sends two copies of the program over, one to each of his teammates, before downloading it himself and flinching in his cockpit at the static that blats briefly in his headphones as they reset when the program has finished integrating.



"Oh that is certainly a way to have a tonal language." Downshift says over comms as she skims over the language description that came with the program, sounding disgruntled at how the different kind of tones were basically subharmonic and therefore unable to be produced by human vocal cords or able to be heard with just human ears unaided.



"Will we just have to use a computer constructed voice to speak to them if we ever open comms?" Camshaft asks rhetorically, their mecha reaching up to scratch at their audial horns in awkward confusion, shifting from foot to foot.



"We'll just have to find out by speaking to them, wont we?" Overdrive says dryly as he constructs a public text channel, using his mecha to act as the host of the server, and then sends an invitation to all three of the local mecha who react to the invitation with mixed emotions. One seems politely interested that a solution was found, another looked annoyed at having to deal with this at all, and the third just seemed exasperated.



[V-907:] There is no need for you to type, as we can understand your spoken words just fine, but our lack of ability to speak necessitated a need for us to resort to written communication.]



Overdrive explains simply, delighted to find that the local's written language has extensive tone indicators built right into it and being sure to use the polite but formal indicators in his message.



"This is… unusual. Do you not speak Hand?" One of the locals asks carefully, their words being translated into english real time and thankfully the computer generated voice sounds similar enough to the Local's own voice for it not to be too weird. Camshaft makes an amused humming sound as they respond, holding up their hands and wiggling their fingers to show off that they were noticeably different and clawed.



[H-898:] Not your version of Hand.]



Their tone is dry and bordering on sarcastic, but it's better than Camshaft not using tone indicators at all in their haste to get the message out as soon as possible. They have always hated texting so this is all that Overdrive is willing to ask for.



"Ah. Well, that would be a problem, wouldn't it." One of the other aliens says awkwardly and Camshaft shrugs with a blase flick of one of their audial horns.



"Would you be so kind as to introduce yourselves?" A third Local asks snidely and Overdrive sucks on his teeth as he contemplates being honest about their situation or not. They could be willing to assist them if they explain their situation, but on the other hand they may be trying to gather information to use against them later.



[T-913:] Tank nine one three, Pacific Rim Defense Force's Omni Unit, Callsign: Downshift. Lovely to meet you! Gotta say, love what you've done to the place. Very chic.]



Downshift responds with a playful salute to her mecha's temple before Overdrive could even make a plan for this sort of thing and he slowly turns to look up at her, tired of her just spilling her guts to potential hostiles. He knows she did it because that's just what's done in the military back on Earth, constant introductions, but still. She glances at the Overdrive with her mecha and then visibly cringes at whatever imagined expression she reads from his body language.



"Shift… Knowledge is power. Lets not give the potential hostiles more power than they need." He reminds her in a cool tone over the private comms, pinching the spot on his mecha's face where his visor ends in a poor imitation of pinching the bridge of his nose in stress.



[H-898:] Hunter eight nine eight, Pacific Rim Defense Force's Omni Unit, Callsign: Camshaft.]



Camshaft introduces themselves in much the same fashion, if with more subdued tone indicators, making sure to not add on any unnecessary details to their introduction. Overdrive is just thankful they decided to go along with Downshift at all.



[V-907:] Vanguard nine zero seven, Pacific Rim Defense Force's Omni Unit, Callsign: Overdrive. Nice to make your acquaintance.]



Overdrive finally introduces himself with his own salute and heel click, turning to look at the three Alien Mecha and documenting the expressions on their faces to try to get a threat assessment.



Only… They look intensely curious, almost hungry, instead of literally anything else Overdrive was expecting.



Oh this does not bode well…



"Do you think-?" Overdrive is able to catch from one of the mecha with the Overdrive's audial receptors and his brows furrow in confusion as he tries to figure out the implications of that. "Do you think" what? What is it that the three humans remind these aliens of? What is it that they inspire? Is it good? Bad? Does Overdrive have to prepare for something that could endanger him and his teammates?



"Nice to meet you Downshift, Camshaft, and Overdrive." The center mecha says with a sleazy smile that was just too much like a smirk to seem real, their eyes lingering on the three humans' legs and weapons before holding a hand out, assumedly for someone to shake. (Body language really is strangely similar.) Their mecha is a vibrant blue, red, and silver that shines through the light layer of grime they're coated in. How they managed to get a paint that fancy when they're fighting on their planet's front line is beyond him. Regardless, Overdrive reaches out to grasp their hand and raises an eyebrow when the pressure sensors in his hand tell him that the Local Mecha is trying to squeeze quite hard.



Oh, so that's where the bad feeling was coming from.



"I am Starscream."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------



"Okay. Did anyone else get bad vibes from them, or is that just me?" Downshift asks over private comms as she looks between Overdrive's captive hand and the face of the weird alien. Who, by the way, seems to be anticipating some reaction to their name. Unfortunately, they're not going to get it.



"Oh no, yeah. Their vibes are rancid. Don't trust a single thing that leaves their lips" Overdrive agrees mildly as he puts a bit of strength into his own grip and watches as Starscream's fascinatingly emotive face pinches a little in pain before letting go.



[T-913:] So as delightful as this meeting is. Why are you fighting out here? And without backup? Uninhabited areas should have at least three Units and you guys are one Unit at best?]



Downshift asks in that specific kind of tone that reminds Overdrive of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde: Intentionally Ditsy For The Pure Joy Of It But Also Cause Subterfuge. Right. He forgot that Downshift was good at that sort of thing considering how rarely she used it on him. Apparently, he caught on too fast for it to be effective. Overdrive just thinks he has a better taste in movies than most high ranking military personnel.



"Me and my trine were on a scouting mission when the Quintessons attacked with an EMP. We were not prepared for a ground fight." Starscream says as their sleazy smile falls into a grimace and Overdrive makes his mecha hum in acknowledgement, arms crossed casually as he looks down at the blue and red mecha. That is a plausible explanation for the reason why only a single mecha Unit is out here in the first place, but it doesn't explain why a mecha wasn't prepared to fight. That's the entire point of mechas, but considering they don't appear to be designed for efficient combat it may be that they weren't made to fight at all.



Hell, they might not even be mech-



"Considering how he expected us to react to his name, I bet we're talking to someone of high standing." Downshift comments in amusement over their private comms and Overdrive scrunches up his nose as his thoughts derail at the comment. He does not like how they've already run into someone distasteful and influential. Those are usually the worst kind of people to deal with and Downshift knows this, having once been someone like that before her demotion due to her transition. He also met the American's Head of the Science Division one time to update his Link implant and that one time was more than enough for him for exactly this reason. Creepy one eyed monumental mad scientist.



"He better not be." Camshaft mutters and Downshift snorts a poorly stifled giggle.



[T-913:] Oh that's just the pits~ What direction was the city were you coming from by the way? Our navigation equipment got a little scrambled when you know-]



Downshift waves back behind her at the column of smoke that used to be the Invader's ship. Though these Locals call them Quintessons. (The translating program provides the definition of this word as "The Perfect Ones" which, ugh, he's changing that immediately to "Evil Green Space Calamari".)



[T-913:] -That landed nearby and promptly exploded.]



She finishes like they weren't on the ship when it started falling or that they were the reason why it exploded in the first place. It rankles him that they cannot claim their achievements in this situation, but it's for the safety of his teammates so he doesn't say anything about the avoidance of the truth.



"Fair enough. Not to mention that coming up from stasis after so long must be disorienting." Starscream says with a scowl that might have been sympathetic, but looks more like a sneer as they put their lightly crushed hand behind their back to subtly shake it out. Overdrive probably wouldn't have noticed if their wings weren't so damn reflective and he could see what was happening behind the mecha's back off of the metallic silver finish. (Seriously, wings on a mecha is idiotic and there are three of them right here.)



"What the fuck are they talking about?" Camshaft wonders aloud over private comms and Overdrive hums in agreement.



"They probably came up with their own conclusion as to what we are and are trying to confirm it by mentioning it casually in conversation to see if we correct them or not. Downshift does this to the Americans all the time." Overdrive points out dismissively, his mecha's head lazily tilting to the side as he studies the three similarly constructed mecha before them to create mental plans to take them down when, not if, they turn on them.



"You want me to play into the assumptions then? Keep them guessing?" Downshift asks, knowing the answer already even if she asked the question aloud.



"Of course." Overdrive agrees with a touch of a smug smile.



[T-913:] A femme needs her beauty recharge you know and that was quite the abrupt wake up call.]



Downshift responds with a hand on her popped hip to really sell the personality she was putting on. Camshaft makes a snorting sound with their mech and brings up a hand to cover the lower half of their face as if to hide a smile.



"You're a femme?!" The purple painted mecha on the left of the trio blurts out in shock and Downshift slowly turns to look at them with a more genuine intent to strangle. Overdrive cringes visibly at the darker turn of his teammate's mood. When she first started transitioning after her demotion she got a lot of comments like that and most of those comments ended in violence.



[T-913:] What's that supposed to mean.]



She uses the tone indicators that mean quiet hostility and warning and the mecha seems to cringe as they read the words sent in the chat.



"I- it's just- I thought most femmes reformatted themselves to be a bit more delicate? After they committed to the aesthetic?" The mecha says awkwardly and half motions to Starscream beside them before aborting the movement. (Maybe Starscream used to be a femme? Or just liked the "aesthetic" and was naturally on the sharp and spindly side? Regardless, they're not a femme currently). Well that just proves that this alien species already has a vastly different view on gender that the humans do. They're talking about being a woman as if it was a hard core fashion fad rather than just an inherent thing about someone.



"Overdrive. Let me rip their head off. They'll be fine afterwards, promise." Downshift asks sweetly as she takes one threatening step forward and Overdrive swings out an arm to hold her back before she could actually make due on her threat.



"How about you don't rip off the limbs of an alien mecha who may or may not have their cockpit in their heads, hm?" He says back blandly just as Starscream themself reaches out to slap the purple mecha upside the head with a loud clank!! The punishment and proceeding silent conversation between the two alien mecha makes Downshift relax a considerable amount so Overdrive lets his hand fall back to his side with a wheezing sigh. Camshaft just snickers again with their mecha, laughing at the misfortune of the Local Mecha.



[V-907:] As enjoyable as this exchange has been, we would prefer directions to the closest city please.]



Overdrive requests mildly, putting his hands behind is back in a soldier's parade rest, his antenna flicking in impatience that he refused to show otherwise. (Not like he wanted it to show in his antenna either. The sensitive long distance communication equipment unfortunately just had to be wired directly into his neural network. This was one of the many unwanted side effects.)



"Unfortunately, our own systems were scrambled by the Quintesson's EMP so we wont be able to send you coordinates, but we'll be happy to lead you to our city." Starscream says with a genuine sour scowl this time, forcing the expression into a smirk as they make the offer to be a guide and Overdrive finds himself suspicious of it immediately. The Team Lead pauses and then leans forward, down, to meet the gaze of the blue and red mecha.



[V-907:] In return for what, might I ask?]



Overdrive asks making sure that the tone of the message conveys that 'I know you aren't doing this to be nice.' and frowns even harder when Starscream chuckles at the message. Infuriatingly shiny little twit. Do they even realize that Overdrive, who had already pulled their bigger ally to their feet, knows that they are a little less than two thirds his weight and oh so easily crush-able? The team lead doubts it. The red mecha forces himself to calm down and packs away his temper while mentally making a note to let Downshift do most of the communicating with Starscream. It wouldn't do his team any good to peel off the face of their guide simply because he finds their smirk infuriating.



"As you can see, my trine has been grounded due to that despicable EMP. In return for being your guide to civilization, all that I ask is for you three to be our guards." Starscream requests with that smug smirk that makes Overdrive's knuckles itch as they motion around them at the gutted Quintessons that lay about the area. It's an admittedly tempting offer. Simple. Almost too simple. Overdrive doesn't trust it one bit.



"We could always just crush them if they try anything. They're not as good as we are at combat." Camshaft comments quietly as they subtly study the three locals.



"The gravity on this planet is a little less than that of Earth and, as such, their plating appears to be less dense in comparison to ours in addition to the obvious vulnerabilities that can be exploited." Downshift agrees as the head of her mecha cocks as she also runs the numbers.



"I'm more worried at any attempts they may make at compromising our mechas to get to us." Overdrive admits mildly as he leans back again with a thoughtful hum of his mecha, make the others think he's simply considering the offer rather than talking to his team.



"We already sleep in shifts. They likely won't be able to get to us that way. And it'll be hard for them to get any sort of coding into our mechas considering our access ports are behind our masks and in our cockpits under layers of steel and titanium." Downshift points out what Overdrive already knows and the man wants to rub his face as his exhaustion starts to get to him. Too bad his flight helmet and oxygen mask are in the way so he can't really touch his face at all.



"Fine. We'll do it." Overdrive finally decides with a sigh, sitting back a little in his cockpit but unable to feel much more than the heat of the seat warmer.



"But if they try anything you have my full permission to dismantle them for spare parts." He finishes with a grim grin and the Downshift's audial horns wiggle in delight at the order. Camshaft just clicks in agreement before going silent again.



[V-907:] You have yourself a deal.]



Overdrive says, making sure to not let his sharp grin bleed into the tone of his message and holds out a hand for Starscream to shake. The shorter mech looks down at the hand with a flicker of distaste, probably because of the blood, and delicately grabs his hand in a way that indicated that Overdrive should lift it to his face to kiss it. Well… its better than their earlier attempts to use his mecha's hand as a stress ball and it's not like he can kiss the hand anyway. His mecha, need he remind the other, doesn't have a face. So Overdrive just shakes the hand again, noticing that the digits have one less joint in them than a human hand but double jointed knuckles, and then drops the hand without any further fanfare.



[H-898:] Which direction will we be heading in? I don't like being out in the open so soon after a conflict.]



Camshaft asks in the chat after their long stretch of being silent, not even looking at the local mecha as they stare off at the sinking sun in the distance. It was less of a question and more of a blatant change of topic to a preferred one. Camshaft, as a sniper with anxiety, was very aware of open spaces. Overdrive is surprised that they didn't bring this up earlier.



"Of course. Lingering out here during dark cycle where Quintessons could find us is far from ideal. Lets find some cover so that my trine can self repair." Starscream says with a grimace back on their face as they stalk their way toward the forest to get under cover, the other alien mecha following a little behind and falling into rank. Overdrive exchanges a three way glance with his teammates and they all select a local to shadow as their guard. Their weapons systems were likely still mostly offline due to the earlier EMP and even if they could defend themselves with their bare hands, Omni Unit did make a deal with them.



And so back into the trees they go.



Overdrive sighs with his mecha as their guides try to find some shelter to keep them from being seen by Invaders during the night. He takes this opportunity to study the mecha ahead of them more thoroughly. Starscream is the only one with more than two colors on their armor, the other two being purple and black, and blue and silver respectively. Their wings were triangular shaped much like a jet's wings were, rather than like bird wings. Though they weren't positioned on their mecha in a way that would make them particularly aerodynamic if they were to activate their thrusters. Much the opposite, actually. Speaking of thrusters. Their plantigrade style legs ended in thruster heels that make them look like they're wearing chunky heeled boots.



Overdrive squints at these three mecha with increasing incredulity the longer he looks at them.



How in the world do they fight and run like that?



They look ridiculous. The only good things about them are their emotive faces. (Which are admittedly quite pretty by human standards.)



Guarding these mecha is going to get his Unit seriously injured when they inevitably run into more Invaders. Which they most definitely will. The bad feeling still hasn't gone away, just gotten worse, but it's not like Overdrive can do much about it. He, much to his eternal disappointment, cannot see the future.



Whatever entity out there that gave me the good/bad vibe detector really needs to get it's shit together and commit.



Well, if worst comes to worst, at least these local mecha will be relatively easy to kill.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Thundercracker's POV:



The three strange mechs that Starscream had managed to get on their side were starting to make him nervous the longer they remained silent directly behind the Command Trine. He thought their weird half vocalizations that they seemed to use to "talk" would be more frequent, that they would chat with each other as the six mechanisms tried to find some cover for the dark cycle, but they were almost completely silent other than the shockingly hard to notice sound of their pede-steps.



How could mechs that were noticeably larger than the three seekers be so much quieter than them? It was plate compacting in how unsettling it was.



Starscream thought they were an ancient model of soldier from the Expansionist Age that had been knocked out of stasis when the Quint Flag Ship crashed. Thundercracker, while not as smart as the leader of his Trine, was at least more observant than him and thought that their strange guards were aliens. He thought it was pretty obvious if you just looked at them. They don't look like any kind of Cybertronian that Thundercracker has ever seen, their armor too round and their behaviors too off to be anything else. The big yellow one may even look like she has a face, but he just knows that there won't be anything recognizable under that battle mask.



Thundercracker takes another glance back at their three new guards and purses his derma nervously at how close the red one is to him. It seems that the silent trio of aliens have selected a member of the Trine each to guard and Thundercracker was unfortunate enough to not get Downshift. She seemed like a riot with a sense of humor and a violent streak that would make her fit right in with the Decepticons.



Instead, he's been selected by Overdrive: The probable Leader of these aliens and, in his opinion, the most intimidating of the bunch.



Not that there's anything wrong with the mech (that he knows of at least), but they sort of strike Thundercracker as the kind of mech that could behead a fellow mechanism without so much as a pause of hesitation. It doesn't help that under all the green gore and rusty red paint on the mech, their vivid orange bio lights remind him far too much of the inside of a smelter for his tastes. Their angular visor was almost worse to look at because of this, it flickered as the mech's thoughts flitted through their processor with combustion warm hues. It makes him think that the alien was planning to stab his Trine in the back rather than stick to their promise to keep them protected as they self repaired from their internals nearly having been blown out by the EMP.



Maybe he'll call ahead once his comms system is fully back online and ask Megatron to have them fight for Guest Rights once they reached Kaon. Get a feeling for their combat capabilities against a species more like their own and make a more accurate threat assessment other than just "deadly to Quints".



Overdrive tilts their helm to the side to peer down at Thundercracker and he can feel his face plates heat up at being caught staring at his own guard, knowing that the smile he attempts looked more like a grimace than a sheepish grin. The alien mech makes that low sounding grinding noise from before, but this time, it upticks in tone at the end. Thundercracker takes a micro-klick to realize that they had just asked them a question and goes even hotter in the face plates. He worried them cause he was wondering if they were gonna cut his helm off with that huge sword of theirs.



"I'm fine. It's just- you have a very unusual helm construction." He makes an excuse for his staring and pauses when Overdrive lets out a considering hum that sounds more like an energy weapon powering down than anything that would be used in Neocybex. Another point towards alien: these strange mechs don't make any kind of sound that Cybertronians do naturally. They don't trill, chirp, or beep and their clicks sound mechanical rather than digital. Instead they grind, growl, and churr. They aren't bad sounding at all, quite the opposite, but it's not Cybertronian.



[V-907:] My helm is constructed as such to redirect strikes and glancing blows to minimize damage.]



Overdrive replies in their comm chat room and Thundercracker ignores how Starscream immediately tunes in on the conversation even if he isn't looking over.



"I- oh. That's useful?" Thundercracker offers, not really knowing how to reply to the admission that the mech beside him had been formatted specifically for combat. No wonder they looked so unsettling. They weren't constructed for socialization and ease of life at all. That's almost as bad as the Functionalists.



[V-907:] It's certainly allowed me to keep my helm a good number of times, yes.]



The red mech agrees somewhat dismissively, helm tilting in a way that reminded Thundercracker of a cyber-cat, even with those uneven finials of theirs. The unexpected shift in perception sent Thundercracker's processor a little askew for a klick.



[V-907:] I have noticed that the Quintessons still go after your helms. How long have they been on the planet?]



Overdrive asks and Thundercracker is a little confused as to how the statement and the query relate to each other, but tries to answer to the best of his ability none the less.



"Their most recent attempt to control the planet has been relatively short if more successful, only 70 or so vorns. I remember when they started really trying to invade in earnest. My Trine was sent to the Surface to fight them off." The blue seeker says as he thinks back to the day he had been sent out to the front line with the rest of Vos's Air Force. The Quintessons have never been a species to ever give up something they viewed as an asset and had attempted to conquer their planet once before and failed miserably because they couldn't figure out a way to get past the planet's natural Shielding. This second attempt at conquering, they had Rift technology and simply materialized inside of the Shield.



[V-907:] 70 vorns is a relatively short period of time. How long did their previous attempt last?]



Overdrive types out slowly, using tone indicators in their glyphs that indicate understanding, but Thundercracker cant help but feel that the mech beside him is a little caught off guard. It's not their EM Field, which has been compressed close to their frame so that the seeker cant feel anything from it whatsoever, but maybe a slight shift in how they're holding their frame?



"Around a 130 vorn? It was mostly a siege to try and starve Cybertron of resources, but we are a self sufficient planet, unlike the Quintessons." Thundercracker explains, knowing that the Expansionist Era was a few thousand vorn before the first war with the Quintessons, so Starscream's theory was still viable, but the blue seeker was still convinced that these strange mechanisms were aliens.



[V-907:] An 130 vorn siege does seem quite tedious.]



Overdrive replies with another set of lightly dismissive tone glyphs only to pause for a klick before their head snaps a full 180 degrees to look behind themselves with a range of motion that Cybertronians definitely do not have. Actually, now that he's noticing it, all three of the alien mechanisms have ceased all movement, standing as still as the trees around them with their audials pointing directly upward as they looked back at something the seekers couldn't see. It was startling and unnerving. Have they all glitched? Crashed? What was going on?!



That's when Thundercracker hears it: the quiet sound of pebbles skittering over the metallic forest floor and cabled tentacles slithering over stone.



Oh slag.



Immediately, as one, the three guard's rotate their bodies to face where their heads were facing and draw their weapons. Camshaft unfolds their rifle with an echoing snap before pointing the muzzle the wrong fragging way and shooting an energy shot into the distance, barely missing Starscream by a servo's breadth. Screamer is about to do what he does best, but Thundercracker elbows him sharply to point out where Camshaft had actually fired. The energy shot briefly illuminating the mouth of a cave that looks big enough for the Trine to squeeze into.



[H-898:] Run. Hide. We will handle it.]



The self proclaimed hunter orders bluntly, not using any tone glyphs in their message before leaning forward and then blurring forward with a burst of speed and light. The seeker assumes that they just ran towards the enemy despite the poor quality of visibility during the night cycle, the other two strange mechanisms following not long after. Thundercracker doesn't wait to see what it is that had been following the group of mechs, grabs each of his trine members by their upper struts, and drags them into the cave to hide as his processor whirls with what he just witnessed.



"So Screamer, still think they're Expansionist Soldiers?" The blue seeker asks weakly as he remembers how the Unit of alien mechs had just proved without a doubt they weren't from this planet with a brief demonstration of low level body horror.



"Of course I do! That is a perfectly logical mod to have when at war with different species on their own planet!" Starscream hisses spitefully as he tries to find a comfortable seat on the ground of the cave, making Thundercracker grin at the far too quick response.



Yup.



Definitely aliens.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Overdrive had smiled grimly when his night vision revealed to him the smaller shape of the Invader that they had unwittingly stumbled upon. The reason they were small was not because of their age, but because of their class.



A self proclaimed Prosecutor.



Or that's what the translator of the Quintesson database called them once Overdrive used the translator on the Invader's own language. He thinks it's rather Ironic that species of war mongering colonists would name their own ranks after a Judiciary system. As if what they were doing was some kind of twisted justice. Regardless, Prosecutors aren't all that high up in rank, according to their own documents, and were the class of True Quintessons that handled the administration work of the Quintesson Empire.



That essentially means that it didn't take much to pin the tentacled techno-organic creature to the forest floor and pry open the cover of it's data storage ports so that Overdrive could plug in and steal every bit of data on this colony planet this Invader had.



Which, to be honest, didn't seem to be much considering how long the Invaders have supposedly been here.



Annoying.



Overdrive, before he was a pilot but after he joined the ZSU, was an intelligence officer that specialized in programming and digital infiltration. So hacking his way into the Prosecutor's mind wasn't all that hard, if frustratingly time consuming due to the difference in coding languages between species. Thankfully the Invaders were arrogant and long lived, which made them complacent against Humanity as a whole. Their mistake was thinking that Humanity would be unable to rapidly develop their own high tech defenses and weapons to be used against the Quints.



Plato did say that "necessity was the mother of invention" and Humanity had a great need for anything that would work against the hostile Invaders.



Overdrive sighs in exasperation and grabs one of the Prosecutor's tentacles, rotating his forearm very quickly to simply twist the appendage off as it tries again to choke him as he's ripping it's own data out of it's head. Camshaft unsheathes one of their forearm blades to finish slicing off the tentacles so that Overdrive could put all his focus back into his work. Knowledge is power and he wants to know everything about the Invaders' occupation of this planet.



He can't read everything now and it was far too much information to simply download into his own memory banks through the Link Implant without overwhelming him. So he scans all the scalped data for viruses and double- triple- checks for Traps before he files the data away into storage for him to go back and read later. Once he's satisfied with the harvested data, the team lead straightens out his free hand into a tungsten plated spear point with claws and jabs his hand through the Invader's skull to skewer it's brain.



The shrieking alien goes silent immediately and Overdrive briefly regrets the method of death he had selected as he shakes gore off of his hand with an annoyed whoosh of his vents.



"You get anything good, Er-ge?" Downshift asks from where she was standing guard over the other two mecha and Overdrive hums over their comms.



"It was too much to download directly. I'll have to set it aside 'till some time later to read it all over. I've already sent a copy to Cosmos." He says, a little annoyed but not really able to do anything at the moment to fix the problem. He did, however, have the time to read one thing that was most recently saved in the Invader's mind.



"I was able to get that it had a semi-functioning ship about three klicks to the south west." Overdrive says, smugly, as he points in the direction of the fallen ship's coordinates. Downshift makes a cheerful series of clicks with her mecha, clapping her metal hands together as she looks off into the distance with a smile in her voice.



"Oh fantastic! As delightful as our guides are, I do not want to spend days walking to wherever their city is." She says and Camshaft snorts with their mecha, a single hand coming up to cover where their mouth would be if they had a face like their guides did.



"Delightful? Starscream?" They ask rhetorically, grin obvious in their tone.



"I am trying to remain polite with him considering our Venerable Leader cannot." Downshift sniffs primly and Camshaft rolled their mecha's head in a way that tell their teammates that they are also rolling their eyes. One of the great things about Downshift's chattiness with the alien mecha is that she was able to get all of their pronouns. Though their system of pronouns in their language was a little confusing at first considering that they have nothing really to do with gender, but Overdrive understood it rather quickly. They have a standard pronoun, a pronoun for those that participate in the Femm aesthetic, and a pronoun that indicates that they don't know the pronoun of whoever is being addressed.



It's a relatively simple system and Omni Unit takes one of each to be used for themselves accordingly.



"Enough chatter. Lets head back to the cave and settle in for the night. I've been awake for hours and would like to not be." Overdrive says tiredly as he stands from his kneeling position and runs a critical eye over the Invader's corpse to see if there was anything that could be scavenged for. Prosecutors like this are non combatants, however, and Overdrive sees nothing of use. Downshift, being the actual expert on this sort of thing, finds a few things of note to take and tucks them away into her storage hatches.



The walk back to the cave seems longer than the race to the Invader and Overdrive just knows that as soon as he Un-Links for sleep he's going to pass out right in his cradle rather than be able to make his way towards the bunk in the back. He thinks that he's been able to hide his fatigue well enough from the Locals, but he cannot hide how it feels like his brain is about to slosh out of his ears from his teammates.



Camshaft especially, considering the medic is able to read everyone's biometrics and health status from inside their own mecha.



Overdrive relaxes a little at the sight of the cave entrance, his night vision tinting everything green, and allows himself to dial back his integration percent down to 40% rather than keep it at 60%. The alien mecha have at least proved non-hostile enough for that.



"Downshift. Chill out." Camshaft says in a dry exasperation as they all quietly make their way towards the cave, the locals' noises going quiet from inside as the three humans approach.



"I have no idea what you're talking about, Da-ge. I am very chill." She snipes back a little distractedly as she's likely focusing on taking apart the scavenged parts with her drones in her internals, but the other Unit members can see where her massive hands are clenching and unclenching with hardly held back excitement.



"You are about to try to rip off the faces of one of our guides so you can see if you can make one for yourself with your new parts, is what you are Shift. Resist the urge and instead you could perhaps ask how it works instead? I'll even let you send your findings back to Cosmos." Overdrive placates mildly, knowing that she had been eyeing the aliens' faces the entire time they have been acting as guards. He doesn't know what kinds of parts she had gotten off of the Prosecutor, but it seems like something that Downshift suspects she can use to create a face of her own.



"We're certainly not on friendly enough terms for me to just outright ask. Maybe if I butter Starscream up with compliments? He seemed to like that on the walk over…" Downshift complains to herself as they approach the cave with nearly silent footsteps. The mechanic has always been the friendliest of Omni Unit and had gotten Starscream to speak to her a few times, but nothing as extended as a whole conversation. She was able to discover that the alien mecha was very susceptible to compliments and praise. Which is definitely something to keep in mind for later when he needs to negotiate with the winged mecha at a later date. Speaking of keeping something in mind-



"Cam, are you taunting her on purpose so that Shift will actually ask questions so you won't have to sit next to her vibrating out of her skin while on watch?" Overdrive asks, letting his amusement seep into his voice even as Downshift sputtered right into his ear. She had even switched into Mandarin, she was so flustered. It just made it even better when all Camshaft did in response was say in their usual dry fashion:



"Yes." and then moves to climb into the cave for shelter. The medic freezes as they receive the muzzle of a gun to the face for their troubles. Skywarp is the one holding the weapon, looking tense and anxious before that all drains away into horror has he realizes who he's just pointed his gun at.



"Oh Primus, sorry, we didn't know it was you three." He cringes in apology as he pulls the weapon back. Camshaft's audial horns swivel a little after a moment of stillness and they finish ducking into the cave with a tired sounding wheezy sigh of their vents.



[H-898:] Not the warmest welcome I have ever received, but not the coldest either.]



Camshaft responds over the chatroom, tone dry but amused. They press close to the walls of the cave and lets the other member of the Omni Unit enter before moving back over to stand guard in front of the cave's entrance. When they had rested earlier today, Camshaft was the one who had gotten the most sleep, so it was their turn to stand guard as Overdrive and Downshift got some sleep.



"That didn't take long." Starscream observes, asking what happened without asking. Overdrive doesn't reply, instead crouching down with a straight back and locking his joints so that he could finally Un-Link himself to rest his soupy brain. Additionally, if he tried to speak to that annoying little twit when he was this tired, he may just pop his head off.



[T-913:] It was simply an escaped Quintesson administration officer. We were able to… subdue it pretty quickly. Er-ge is going to sort through the information we got from it while in recharge.]



Downshift answers instead as she settles down in much the same fashion, resting her hands on her knees so they wouldn't be dragging on the ground as she locks up her joints. Camshaft lets out a mild hum of agreement as they keep one eye on the world outside the cave and another eye on the Locals.



[H-898:] Now that we have shelter, it's best to stay here for the rest of the dark-cycle to avoid ambushes and repair any damage from the fight.]



They respond as they pull out their rifle again and start checking their magazine to count their remaining physical ammo. Overdrive tunes out anything else that might be exchanged as he starts the excruciating process of Un-Linking from his mecha after so much activity. He can feel his mind shrink and shift as he settles himself back into his body and winces at the pain of the connection ports pulling at his nerves as the cables disconnect with a wet sounding snick.



Overdrive grunts as he leans forward in his cradle, reaching up a shaking gloved hand to message the scarred skin around the titanium ports that were installed in his body. His head throbs painfully underneath his temples and in the back of his neck with a familiar uncomfortable heat. He opens his eyes to try and maneuver around his cockpit only for his vision to swim with a wave of vertigo so intense that he has to shut them again and breathe carefully through his gritted teeth.



I am not going to puke. I am not going to puke. I am not going to puke.



He forces himself to instead pull off his helmet and oxygen mask, letting the skin on his face breathe and take in the slightly too cold temperature of his cockpit that the white coats back on Earth said was the optimal temperature for piloting in. He tries to open his eyes again, only for his eyelids to feel like they weighed 45 kilos. He opens his eyes anyway



"Sasha? You alright?" Camshaft's concerned voice sounds from inside the discarded helmet, probably through a private one on one line considering they called him by his name and Overdrive reaches out to flip the switch that would allow the audio to play through the whole cockpit instead. It feels like someone filled his bones with lead and he thinks he might be soaked with sweat but the surface of his skin feels kind of numb so he can't really tell.



"Your readings are showing an elevated heart rate and-" The medic cuts themselves off with a quiet curse and Overdrive can't help but smile as his medic very obviously prepared to scold him for not looking after himself.



"Intense Dehydration!! Go drink an electrolyte slurry and lay down!!" They snap, irritable and Overdrive chuckles as he reaches out to grab an aluminum hydration can, pushing through the nausea, and chugs it down before reaching out to grab another. Once they were empty he tosses both empty hydration cans into the recycler from his position in his pilot's cradle (Not all that hard, his cockpit was tiny).



"One day, you'll be able to stop reminding me about these sorts of things." The programmer says mildly, legs shaking as he stands from his cradle to walk back to where he could pull out his bunk ledge, eyes fighting to close on him the entire time. His legs don't feel like they're moving correctly, but he forces through the mental disconnect as he fumbles with his bunk latch, the bed folding out with a thunk. Now all he has to do is lay down and let his eyes win the fight.



"When? Inshallah?" Camshaft snarks back dryly and Overdrive snickers as they crawl onto the plush futon that was tailored just for his narrow bunk shelf. (Downshift was amazingly skilled like that.) He rolls onto his back and winces when the weight of his body causes his connection ports to dig painfully into his flesh and rolls back over onto his front. Usually, they wouldn't even be this sore with overuse, but he had gotten his ports updated before this mission and so all of his once old scars have been reopened. They were just barely healed when the PRDF higher-ups had ordered this mission.



A.K.A: Mission send the Omni Unit through the new Rift to take down the largest Invader ship listed, get the location of the Quintesson home planet, and then send a message home to show they made it through alive so that all the other mechas could be deployed out into the field to get rid of any reinforcements the Invaders could call for when Humanity regrouped for a second attack force on the planet.



...



That didn't make a lot of sense. God, he needs to sleep.



Whatever. They completed their mission to survive the journey through the rift as well as their objective to destroy the ship, but failed in getting the location of the Quintesson's home planet. Cosmos had informed him that Mechas were sent out to take out the known Invader bases and ships regardless of the planet's location being discovered. He hopes that one of the other teams manages to get the location on their own missions.



It's weird to think that right this instant there are thousands of humans scattered across the universe and fighting their own battles with the Invaders.



"…When spring comes." Overdrive promises as he forces his eyes to open again, not remembering when he closed them, and Camshaft huffs at his answer, the sound of bullets being pushed back into a magazine could still be heard in the background of the call.



"Get some sleep, Sasha. You will need it when you wake up in the morning and have to figure out how to fly the Invader's ship to wherever these aliens want to take us." They order and Overdrive scowls at the reminder of the plan they had made earlier.



"If it's a trap, I'm going to wring Starscream's stupid little neck." He grumbles and Camshaft snorts as they audibly push the magazine back into their rifle.



"You are being paranoid, but you have never been wrong before. You have a 'bad feeling' still?" They ask dryly and Overdrive grumbles into the cushion of their bunk, pain making them more cranky than usual.



"Tak." Overdrive agrees as he reaches back to message at one of the ports on his lower spine, regretting not peeling out of his Assist Suit before laying down.



"Then prepare for the worst and hope for the best as you usually do. Now: Sleep." Camshaft orders, probably having expended all of their words for the day and shutting down the private call. Overdrive grumbles and crosses his arms to act as a pillow as well as a blind fold to keep out the light of the screen that will never fucking get any dimmer than they currently are.



"Note to self: Learn to win an argument with my doctor." Overdrive grumbles to himself as his heavy eyelids finally refuse to open again.

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