Faultline | TFA

And he didn’t want to embarrass himself by hitting his helm on bulkhead openings. He’d had enough irate medics work to pop dents out of his helm to last him a lifetime as it was.

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His voice was a bit hesitant, yet slightly amused.

“Will I… fit in my root mode? Or should I just stay in my alt?”

It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to remain in his alt mode to fit through hallways not designed for tall Cybertronians.

be squinting since his optics were unused to such high levels of brightness. Faultline’s feelers extended from their slots, curling slightly in a relaxed manner that would be understood by any Insecticon as non-threatening. One of his feelers twitched in the direction of the ship for emphasis.

well maintained. Near the ship’s hatch was Lumin in his alt mode, whose door swung open so that Pirelli could pounce out, followed by a languid stretch of its spine. The Earth’s star was bright overhead, warming his plating as he approached. He mused that if he were in his root mode, he’d likely be

His HUD then flashed, signifying the coordinates had been reached, and so he breached the surface slowly this time, not wanting to spew dirt unnecessarily.
As his entire form exited the tunnel, a docked ship lay just ahead, and while it was severely dwarfed by the Nemesis in size, it appeared to be

Faultline slowed as he began to ascend toward the surface, nearly at the coordinates Lumin had provided him. The relief from their short recharge had cleared a fair bit of his exhaustion, and the contentment in his spark helped keep his processor off the aches and pains as he drilled.

most content recharge cycles he had in a very long while.

Before long, Faultline slid into a deep recharge. Fatigue and injury had finally caught up with him. The dual sounds of a snoring engine and the much tinier feline rhythmic purrs filled the tunnel with an almost pleasant euphony. Faultline would look back on this and realize it was one of the

Faultline continued to regale Lumin with the finds of various planets, his tone shifting away from the war and more to things that personally intrigued him. This went on for a bit until his voice got more and more muffled as his feeler slowly retracted back into its housing.

“They saw my size and tried to train me to be a combatant,” Faultline mused. “But that didn’t last long once they realized I was rather soft at spark. I much preferred scouting for them, and it didn’t take more than a few clusters to convince them I was best suited for the task.”

went on to instruct them on how to speak Cybertronian common and read standard glyphs. It opened an entirely new world up to them. Most were simply grateful to not starve.

to start. He decided to start when the war erupted at the surface, explaining how his underground kin were drawn out due to energon veins drying up. He spoke of how most were treated as pests of low intelligence, but how the Decepticons had far less reservations about recruiting them and even

Faultline continued to idly engage Pirelli with one of his extended feelers watching her small reflective orbs track the feeler’s movements as a paw soon followed. Thankfully he was quick enough to pose somewhat of a challenge to her. He paused briefly at Lumin’s loaded question, pondering how best

swat at one of his feelers. The vents illuminated by orange biolights cycled warm air and created a pocket of pleasant warmth.

“It does help, doesn’t it? The war has taken too many sparks already. I am glad you persevered.”

As Lumin and Pirelli settled down, he slowly curled his serpentine form around them in a relaxed coil, snug yet not confining. He positioned himself in a way that his drill ended up in the inner coil so he could still speak with them easily or even play a bit with Pirelli by having her attempt to

It was because Faultline trusted Lumin that he did not really further question this medic friend. Lumin wouldn’t have offered if the medic held faction against a bot. “Thank you, I’ll take you up on that offer,” he laughed lightly. “These error logs are becoming a bit much.”

crawling into his subspace to rummage around in it deciding on a crystal. He was pretty sure the minibot would fit, but he didn’t bother mentioning it since Lumin already had a cube on hand and seemed fine on waiting until they arrived at base.

It made the slightest echo as the sounds bounced off the enclosed space. “A crystal? Of course you can,” Faultline said. “I’ll give you a piece from one of the more concentrated clusters I have in my subspace once we reach your base.” Although the thought amused him momentarily as he imagined Lumin

Faultline felt some of the persistent aches begin to recede from the forefront of his processor as his frame settled into the cool soil of the tunnel. He was fatigued enough his engine started to idle in a woozy purr before revving up to its previous normal rhythm upon hearing Lumin’s voice.

ground and retracted his pedes into their slots.

“If you’d like, I can coil around you both. It will be warm that way.”

Even for a mech that has seen raw energon countless times, their luminescence in the dark was a thing of beauty. If it weren’t for the organic scents permeating the air, one could almost pretend they were still on Cybertron. Ensuring that Pirelli was not beneath him, he lowered himself to the +

many would curl around his vents or nestle atop his chestplates where the heat was most palpable. It didn’t take long at all for a blue glow to illuminate their path forward, and for the tunnel to open into a wider cavern where glowing energon crystals glimmered at the center.

“Ah, it will also be rather cool underground as well. I will keep my vents open while I recharge for you and Pirelli.”

Simply making the offer made him briefly reminisce of all the various times he’d huddle with crechemates and sparklings for warmth, and with his frame being among the largest, +

an unexpected cave-in. Given enough warning, his large frame would protect them from the impact but thankfully he was not sensing a level of vibration to be concerned over as he tuned into Lumin’s words.

“You’ve got to share the footage of that with me sometime.”

Faultline’s feelers ceased their agitated twitches once out of the downpour and extended out to brush against the ceiling of the tunnel. The last thing he wanted was to have harm come to his old friend and their organic companion due to +

note of the occasional soft brushes of fur against his pedes and the patters of paws across soil as Pirelli continued to emit that soft rumble. He then laughed aloud at the imagery cooking within his imagination matrix of the feline taking an aggressive stance against one of Lumin’s tires.

“Oh yes! This planet is rich in energon deposits, plus its organic composition makes it far easier to excavate.” He pauses, “Well, mostly. My frame doesn’t do well with the sodium liquids here, I should see a medic soon. But for now, I’ll be ok.”

His field then teeked with fondness as he took +

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“Hey Lumin, how did you meet Pirelli? They’re very friendly. Most organic species do not react so fearlessly.”