Professional Massive Nerd

Jazz knew how he came off. Casual, carefree, and not particularly aware of dangers around him. It was an image he had carefully crafted when functionalism was still dictating what he could and couldn’t do. He had found it to be an incredible way to avoid detection and get the drop on his enemies. It was a double positive.

It was easier to strike back if your attacker thought you weren't paying attention. He hadn't known Chromedome for long, and he wasn’t planning on lowering that guard. His friends might have called him paranoid, but it kept him functioning. He didn’t know what Chromedome did when he was with the enforcers, but he had the distinct feeling it wasn’t anything good. 

Chromedome seemed off. It wasn’t in any way he could put into words yet. But something seemed wrong with him. Jazz liked Chromedome so far, but he didn’t trust him. Jazz only trusted a few mechs, and all of them were either offline or on Cybertron. 

He had misplaced his trust one too many times for him to trust anyone. Mechs betrayed each other all the time, and over the smallest things. He didn’t trust easily. 

Wildlife, and animals on the other side, were a different matter entirely. They didn’t have the capacity to maliciously lie and strike out. If they struck out, it was always the fault of something a mech had done. Maybe they were scared or threatened, and they would lash out in defense; they wouldn't attack without reason. It was something Jazz appreciated. 

He could trust animals not to attack him for no reason.

Jazz wasn’t an idiot. He knew he could still, and would, attack him for other reasons. But never to betray him maliciously. He was on guard with every creature he encountered.

Being on guard constantly was starting to get draining. Sneaking off on his own was beginning to look more appealing. Jazz could play the part of a sociable mech well enough. Spending all this time alone with one other mech was starting to put him on edge. 

They were between shoots. Jazz was sitting down in the small corner of the abandoned building they were calling home. He was looking through the rapidly building pile of footage. Every few clicks, he would flick his optics up at Chromedome. The other mech hardly moved. He sat perfectly still, reading the data pad Jazz had prepared for this trip. 

Jazz was in a loop of looking down and working only to catch a glimpse upward. He was just keeping an optic on Chromedome. The lack of motion from him was putting Jazz on edge. Jazz needed some time to himself. Where he didn’t need to watch his back plates as closely. 

Jazz loudly stretched his joints. He let his frame make enough noise so Chromedome would look over.

“I need to stretch for a bit, I’m just gonna go on a short walk,” Jazz said. “I’m getting a bit stiff.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Chromedome titled his helm.

Jazz stood up. “Nah, you can stay here, I’ll be back soon.”

Chromedome nodded, “If you’re sure.”

Jazz backed out of their small space slowly. The door was getting easier to open each time they moved it. More ice became dislodged, making the mechanism easier to operate manually. 

Jazz told himself he was just going to leave for a little bit. Just to clear his processor. He was relieved at the silence as soon as he shut the door behind himself. It was still light out. But the clouds were so thick he couldn’t make out where the systems star was in the sky. It was probably still low on the horizon; the night cycle had only ended a little while ago.

Jazz started walking. He wanted to get away from Chromedome for a bit. He also wanted to figure out if there was anything he wanted to say in front of the camera. Most documentaries on this planet had always focused on the grizzly fate of the settlers. If they mentioned the technorganics, it was always in a bad light. 

Vicious creatures that attacked their creators when they had the first opportunity to. 

It didn’t matter to anyone else that there was no evidence of the settlers being killed off by the Mer. Jazz personally thought most of the settlement had fallen into the ocean after some sort of seismic event. It was a more interesting story if the creations killed their creators. There were no documentaries just featuring the Mer as anything other than cold, hardened killers. 

There were research articles. But those never got shared around much. Jazz had to use some of his old contacts to get access to them. He even found those to be lacking. Some of them read like they had chunks missing. But according to his contacts, those were the only versions of those files in the archives. 

Jazz was almost starting to believe the Senate just wanted Mechs to assume the wildlife here would kill the first mech it saw to scare them away. Gelu was already dangerous with all the water. The Senate probably didn’t want to send out more rescue crews when the next colony fell into the ocean. 

Jazz walked down the cliffside shore slowly. Enjoying the view of the ocean below.

He could already tell the Mer weren't inherently violent. They didn’t react defensively when they were close to them yesterday. They didn’t display any signs of defensive or defensive behavior. They seemed more curious about whatever creatures had come to what must have been seen as their territory. 

Jazz tread carefully over the ice and snow. He made his way over to their little point they had been using to access the beach. He wasn’t going to go close to the water. But as long as he was there, he might as well check on the cameras. 

He started to climb down onto the first outcropping. He heard something move in the distance. He looked down toward the sound. The larger Mer was perched on a rock near the beach. It looked toward him for a second before turning away. It’s optics where focused further out into the ocean.

Jazz wondered if any of the Mer even remembered Cybertronians. No one knew how long Mer lived. There had never been a living one placed in long-term captivity; a few had been observed for short periods, but the records of any specific observations were long gone. If there were any surviving Mer, they would be older than most living Cybertronians. 

If the Mer were old enough to remember their creators, he would have expected more defensive or skittish behavior. The two they had encountered so far seemed calm around them so far. Jazz wasn’t going to push any boundaries with the Mer. He was planning on keeping a safe distance.

Jazz slowly climbed down the cliffside. The large grey Mer didn’t look over at him. Jazz leaned more into his mindset as a spy and inched forward carefully. He kept his motions short and quiet. He didn’t want to spook it.

When his pedes touched the gravel on the beach, the Mer twitched. It turned on its perch and narrowed its optics toward Jazz. It didn’t bear its teeth, and it didn’t show any sign of what he thought would be defensive behavior. 

Jazz stilled. The Mer stilled. It examined Jazz for several seconds before deciding he wasn’t worth the attention. The Mer rolled onto its side. It lay its head down on the rock and kept its optics focused on Jazz. 

Jazz took a careful step. The Mer didn’t move. He took another step, more confident. The Mer huffed and rolled over. It’s back-faced Jazz. Its fins are more visible. Twitching and moving as the wind howled against it. Streaks of blue, and the odd hints of red littered its mostly grey body.

It was a magnificent creature. He couldn’t deny the inherent horror of the Mer’s creation. But he admired their beauty.

The Mer didn’t seem as bothered by the cold as he was. It was amazing to see. He was wounded by what was done to them to allow them to survive in such a harsh environment so casually.

Jazz found a place to sit. He pulled out his data pad and swore at himself for not bringing a camera down with him. After this, he was going to make it a habit to bring the device with him in his subspace every time he left their shelter. 

He spent his alone time observing the Mer and writing about anything he observed that he thought was interesting. 

Their behavior, their biology, everything about these guys was poorly documented. Jazz thought it was a shame. They were such a beautiful and majestic species of life. One that was created by Cybertronians, only to be abandoned by its creators after the settlement fell. It seemed cruel in a way, but Jazz knew if the Senate were more involved in their care, the outcomes for them would have been negative.

One of the many things Jazz hated about the Senate was their disdain for organic life. He had seen the first servo with Orion, what type of treatment organic species had gotten under the Senate’s care.

It was interesting to see how well the Mer were adapted to the planet. Jazz shivered in the cold, but the Mer didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. It breathed in like an organic creature. Jazz was familiar with organic ocean life on other planets, and he saw some similarities. He saw gills, but the Mer didn’t seem to struggle with breathing air, at least for short periods. 

Jazz sat staring at the Mer.

He heard pedes touch down onto stone. He looked up. Chromedome was starting to climb down the cliff. Jazz bit back a groan. He looked at his chronometer. He did a mental double-take. He was gone for longer than he thought. It wasn’t like him to lose so much time. Documenting the Mer had just taken up more of his attention than he thought it would have.

Chromedome must have gotten worried when he didn’t come right back. 

“The mean-looking one is still here?” Chromedome said as he approached Jazz.

The Mer turned to face the two of them at the sound of Chromedome’s voice. It stared unnervingly at the two of them. It made a call that graded against Jazz’s audials. 

The other smaller Mer peaked out of the water. Chirping back at the larger one. 

“My bad, I mean the creepy-looking one,” Chromedome said. 

Jazz made a mental note to mute the audio for this clip.

The smaller Mer chittered and barked. The larger one looked almost offended as it pushed off its rock and sank back below the water. 

“I think you offended him,” Jazz joked. 

The smaller Mer stiffened at his voice. It dipped deeper into the water, only just peaking its head out. 

“It is a creepy-looking one,” Chromedome insisted.

“I don’t think it looks creepy,” Jazz said.

“What do you think it looks like then?”

“Mysterious, maybe? Exotic? I don’t want to call them creepy in the documentary; they get enough of that from everything else that’s been made about them.”

Chromedome shrugged. 

“I’m still going to call it creepy when the cameras aren't rolling. It’s almost unsettling how Cybertronian they look. I don’t know why they were built like that.”

“Not like there's anyone left to ask,” Jazz said. “Who knows?”

“I got some lines I want to record while the light is still good,” Jazz said. “Do you have the camera on you?”

Chromedome had the camera out and ready from his subspace before Jazz could even cycle his optics. Jazz waited for the indicator light to turn green before he started. 

“We’ve been incredibly lucky so far in our encounters with the local wildlife,” He kneeled, and Chromedome followed his motion. 

His audials could still hear the smaller mer in the water behind him. He was far enough away from the shore that he felt comfortable turning his back to the creature. He stayed alert and got ready to run if it made any sudden moves he didn’t like.

“So much remains unknown about the mysterious life on this planet. Mer’s remain a mystery. No one is even sure how long they live. There could still be Mer on this planet that were created by the original colonists.”

The Mer chittered and called out. Shrill and high. A new sound. Jazz turned around. It dipped under the water before scrambling up onto the beach. Chromedome and Jazz both took steps back as it scratched at the stone. 

Jazz wasn’t sure why it was doing that. It didn’t seem to be going after either of them. Its behavior almost seemed erratic. 

He heard a loud call. Deep, booming. The ground underneath his pedes trembled. Familiar.

Jazz stayed calm. His optics narrowed.

“What was that?” Chromedome whispered.

“Another creature local to the planet, get to the cliffside, be quiet,” Jazz whispered back. 

The Mer dragged its way inshore. Jazz ran, and Chromedome followed after him. He heard another call. This one was louder. It was getting closer. They didn’t have time to climb away.

Another booming noise shook the beach. The Mer scrambled behind a rock and curled into its tail. It pressed itself flat against the ground and didn’t look back at the two Mechs as it looked out at the ocean. 

In an explosion of water, a giant creature burst from the waves. Its head thrashed around violently. Its body was littered with scars. Its mouth split open. A tongue licked the air. It was a long creature that seemed to be all tail. It didn’t have any servos or other limbs. Wires pulsed with a dim color under its scales. It turned its dead blue eyes onto the shore. The air rumbled with a growl. It snapped forward out of the water.

Chromedome pressed further against the stone wall. 

The smaller Mer uncurled itself and let out a high screech. The creature started to move onto land. It jerked its massive head around and lunged. The large Mer leaped out of the water and grabbed the end of the creature. It let out a cry as it was dragged back down into the water. 

The larger Mer wrestled the creature, it was several times longer than the Mer. The animal wrapped around the Mer, but the Mer dug its claws into the creature's side. Blood leaked into the water as the creature thrashed. Its long, slender form slipped from the Mers' grasp. As it moved, the Mers' claws dug into its scaled hide. 

The creature disappeared beneath the waves.

The Mer didn’t dive after the creature as it went back underwater. The larger Mer called, and the smaller Mer called back. Jazz watched as the smaller Mer crawled back into her water. It swam around the layer one as the two of them called back and forth to each other. 

“What was that?” Chromedome asked.

“A prototype, the colonists' first attempt at making life,” Jazz whispered, “Tell me you were recording that.” He watched as the two Mer kept calling to each other. “They’re supposed to be extinct. The Senate said they were all infertile and too unstable to survive.”

Jazz swore at himself. He should have known better than to trust that information. It had seemed likely based on what he had read. Unlike Mer, the prototypes had been captured and brought off-planet. They all shortly died after leaving. But obviously the creatures were more stable than the Seante gave them credit for.

“The camera was recording the whole time; I was too focused on getting away to get a good shot.”

Panic was already gone from Chromedome’s voice. The mech was back to being unnaturally calm.

“We can look over the footage during the night cycle,” Jazz said.

The smaller Mer ran its claws over the larger one. Jazz watched as it gently traced over wounds that were slowly leaking a bright purple fluid. The larger didn’t attack the smaller as it poked and prodded. 

The larger one barked sharply one last time before swimming back underneath the waves. The smaller looked back at Jazz and Chromedome before following.

“It’s amazing how intelligent they are,” Jazz said.

“They’re uncanny,” Chromedome flicked the camera off. “I could almost imagine them walking down the streets of Cybertron if you took away the tails,” Chromedome stored the camera away in his substance. “And you know minus all of the organic bits.”

“Makes me wonder why they were made to resemble Cybertronians so much. I just don’t see a practical reason for it,” Chromedome said.

“Senate always said this planet was full of nut-jobs, and scientists who were a little loose in the moral department.”

“You’ve never really seemed like one to put a lot of weight into what the Senate said,” Chromedome responded. 

“I can’t really think of any other reason beyond crazy scientist," Jazz said honestly. 

Jazz vented harshly. “Come on, I want to get some shots from other places besides this beach, might be good to take one of my drones out for a bit.”

Jazz expected a complaint. After their ordeal, he would have expected more complaints at the prospect of more work.

Chromedome started to walk back up the icy steps. “Might as well, never know when the weather is going to turn here.”

Jazz hid the surprise. He nodded to Chromedome.

“Yeah, what I would give for a weather satellite, or for any satellite, not having long-range comms is a bit of an adjustment.”

This planet had originally had a few satellites orbiting it, but without a population, they were deemed unnecessary and removed. The only way to communicate off planet was with an emergency beacon, and that would only send out an SOS; it didn’t allow them to communicate anything else.

The two of them made their way back to their shelter. Chromedome and Jazz searched through their equipment, searching for one of the two drones Jazz had brought with them to this planet and its remote control. 

The two of them stood on the edge of the cliff. Jazz huddled into Chromedome and watched the feed as he flew the drone. 

There were many things to hate about this planet. Even Jazz would admit that. The views were not one of them. The way the light caught the icy glaciers in the ocean was a sight to see. Even on camera, it was breathtaking.

Chromedome wasn’t excited when he found out the only place to recharge in their make-shift shelter was on the floor. If there were ever berths in this building, they were long gone. The only good thing about their shelter was that it was marginally warmer than outside. He could still feel the chill in his protoform even after the heater ran during the night cycle. It burrowed deep into his frame.

Onlining in the morning was slow. His frame felt heavy and sore. He didn’t feel rested. Recharging on the floor was not a great experience. He wasn’t thrilled to be doing it again.

 Jazz groaned from his claimed spot on the floor as Chromedome stood up. Chromedome made his way over to their supplies and started to look for an Energon ration. He shakily sat down against the floor as he started to refuel.

“I’m going to check the footage from last night,” Jazz said.

Jazz pushed himself up from the floor, and he looked through their half-unpacked mess of supplies. After searching, he pulled out a data pad. Jazz grabbed his data pad and flicked it on. It whirred and clicked as it booted up. Jazz had a frown on his face as he looked through the footage.

“Looks like we lost one of the cameras last night,” Jazz said as he leaned down, huddling over the device.

Chromedome vented slowly, “That’s unfortunate.”

Jazz scooted over next to Chromedome and showed him the camera feeds. Both of them were still there. Jazz tapped a button on the screen, and the footage started to play. Chromedome leaned in as the clip sped up. A flash of grey struck out at the camera before the video feed was lost. The audio feed continued for several more seconds.

A loud splash cracked through the speakers. Clicks and whistles trilled, then died out quickly as the audio feed was also lost.

“Another Mer?” Jazz asked eagerly. “There must be more here than the council thought.”

“Well?” Jazz said.

“Well, what?” Chromedome asked.

“We should go out there and replace that camera. Get an early start,” As he spoke, Jazz was already pulling another camera out of one of the crates.  

Jazz let out a triumphant sound as he put the object in his subspace. He stood by the door eagerly. Chromedome made a show of standing up slowly and walking next to Jazz.

“Grab one of the cameras too, never know when we’ll get the chance to film something,” Jazz said.

Chromedome grabbed the first camera he saw and placed it into his subspace. Jazz didn’t comment on his choice. But the other mech kept a close optic on him as he put the device away.

The door was still a pain to open. But between the two of them, it was doable. The morning air was just as unpleasant as it was the previous cycle. Ice kicked up into his visor by harsh winds as soon as he stepped outside.

The sun wasn’t visible in the sky. Thick white cloud cover greeted the two of them that morning. The two of them walked carefully toward the cliffside. The ocean crashed against the rocky shore. A mist was sitting thickly on top of the water. It was a haunting sight.

Jazz and Chromedome made their way back to the part of the cliff they had used as makeshift stairs. Jazz started climbing down without hesitation. Chromedome followed quickly after him. The climb down was still difficult. He had to carefully place his pedes firmly so he wouldn’t slip down off of one of the large outcroppings they were using to make their way to the beach.

“Let's get some footage, maybe we’ll get lucky and find some evidence of the Mer who grabbed the camera,” Jazz said.

Chromedome pulled the camera out of his subspace.

Jazz approached the location of their missing camera, with Chromedome walking behind him. Jazz looked back. He moved in front of Chromedome carefully.

“Try to keep me in the middle of the frame, or just off to the side,” Jazz said.

Jazz stood up straighter. His expression became looser.

“We’re rapidly approaching the location where just last night we believe one of the local technorganic life forms damaged one of our time-lapse cameras,” Jazz said into the camera.

Jazz walked with a new confidence. His voice was open and friendly. Mainly, he just seemed excited in a contagious way. Chromedome was shocked by the sudden change in his demeanor.

Chromedome panned down at the location where they had left their camera set up. He was surprised to see the tripod was still there. The camera was nowhere to be found, but the tripod had been left undamaged.

“Huh,” Chromedome said.

He put the camera back in his subspace and leaned over to pick the tripod up.

“What?” Jazz asked.

“It’s not damaged,” Chromedome brought it up to his visor to examine it more closely. “There isn’t even a scratch on it.”

If an animal had grabbed it and pulled the camera off its mounting, there should have been more damage. He should have seen claw marks. He just saw an undamaged tripod.

“I’m surprised it’s even still here. I thought they pulled it under with the camera,” Jazz said. “It must not have been secured very well.”

He heard a loud splash of water off the shore. Chromedome and Jazz both turned to the noise. A figure breached the water and came to a rest on a rock that jutted out of the water. The same white Mer from their first day pushed its way up into a resting position, flaring its fins out.

Chromedome pulled the camera back out of his subspace and kept his hands as steady as he could as he filmed it. He tried to keep the creature in the center of the image. Tried being key. His servos were struggling to hold the device as steadily as he would have liked.

Parts of the Mer looked eerily like a normal mech. It had a helm and even some odd plating on its arms. It even had something that looked like a battle mask and visor. The rest of the creature was organic tissue. Between plating, he could catch flashes of scales. It looked like an uncanny mirror of Cybertronian life.

Jazz slowly stepped in front of the camera again. Each step he took made Chromedome afraid that the Mer would duck back under the water.

“Right here, the same Mer we observed on our first morning has come back to get a better look at us,” Jazz said quietly.

Chromedome almost jerked the camera as he heard another splash of water. A second Mer joined the first on the rock. It was larger than the first. This one was mostly grey with flashes of blue on its fins. It had fewer of the plating-like structures than the first one. This one had a visible face. That looked almost angry. It definitely looked angry.

“A second one,” Chromedome said.

The second Mer almost looked like it was glaring over at the two of them. The white Mer chirped next to it, and the larger one seemingly lost interest in staring intently at the two of them.

“Wonder what they’re doing?”

“They’re supposed to be pretty smart, maybe they’re just curious?” Jazz said. Jazz crossed his arms over his chest plate as he stared at the two mer. “Really sad, but not a lot of studies have been done on these guys. The Senate didn’t want anyone coming out here after the last scientist went missing.”

“Might be good to leave that part out,” Chromedome said.

“Not like the Senate is around anymore,” Jazz said.

He heard a splash, and as they turned around, both of the Mer had dashed back under the waves. 

“Must have spooked them,” Jazz said.

“Or maybe they don’t like political talk.”

Chromedome picked the tripod up off the ground. Jazz pulled out the spare camera he brought and started to set it up.

“I’m gonna place it a little far back, I really don’t want them grabbing this one. I only have one other spare,” Jazz said.

Jazz took a few steps back from the shore and started to set the device up.

He set himself up on a large boulder and fiddled with the camera that he had been using. He wanted to get more familiar with the device. Especially as he was supposed to be using it to film whatever Jazz wanted him to film. It was a simple device on the surface, but he easily got lost in menus and submenus. He didn’t know what most of the settings did.

A fog was starting to roll in towards them. It made the temperature of the planet even more unbearable. But he could at least admit that the views were nice. He was silently sitting, staring out at the ocean. Debating with himself about how long exactly he wanted to be out in the cold. 

The clouds had not let up once during the whole cycle. If anything, they had gotten thicker and darker. 

The waves lapped harshly against the sharp rocks of the coast. Each flare of water had him on alert, looking for any more signs of the planet's wildlife. His patience and observance were something he had honed in his old function. But he was feeling his processor start to drift off and wander.

It wasn’t something he was familiar with. He was used to being able to focus on a task more easily. His processor almost felt muddled.

It felt familiar.

He couldn't remember ever feeling like this. 

He looked over to Jazz.  He was still messing with the camera and fiddling with the angle of the tripod.

Chromedome drew into himself. Being alone in his thoughts, in his memories, was something he was finding to be increasingly unpleasant. He knew there was a hole there. In his memories. Sitting and thinking about it only made him feel worse about himself.

It was harder to see; the fog was getting thicker. He steeled himself as he got ready to gather up his equipment and head back to camp. In the dark, he heard the water hit the shore, followed by a quiet thud. A trill rang out over the beach. 

Chromedome locked his joints and looked down. He caught a flash of white and heard something drag across the stone of the shoreline. The sound was dampened by the fog, and he was having trouble figuring out where exactly the dragging sound was coming from.

The white Mer slowly crawled into view.

The Mer froze. He saw its mock visor glow back at him in the dark. Its fins flared, and it dropped lower to the ground as it stared back up at Chromedome. It was close to him. It was too close.

These creatures, at least according to the senate, were aggressive towards Cybertronians. Jazz said otherwise, but he wasn’t sure about that. Considering everything the senate lied about, it wasn’t something he was completely sure of. But he wasn’t going to take a chance, considering how large the Mer was. 

He got ready to do something before he froze. He didn’t know what to do. Part of him was acknowledging that he should have called for Jazz. But he couldn’t find it in himself.

The Mer was almost his size. Chromedome thought he might have been ever so slightly taller. It had sharp claws that scratched marks into the stone underneath it as it slowly dragged itself backward before stilling. It pressed itself against the ground.

It didn’t look like it had a mouth or optics. He knew it had to. He wondered if what he thought was a visor was a large optic, or if its mouth was so well hidden that he couldn’t see it. Or if this one was one that Cybertronians had experimented on. His processor was going wild with theories. 

The two of them sat unmoving, staring at each other. 

Chromedome slowly inched his way off the rock he was perched on top of. He stored his camera. 

The Mer let out a frustrated-sounding huff and slowly and laboriously dragged itself back into the fog. Chromedome lost track of it. He heard it drag itself along the stony beach. After a while, he heard something fall into the water.

Chromedome finished climbing off the rock he had been sitting on. He started to walk away as he heard the Mer breach the water again. He barely had a chance to turn around before he heard a loud splash. He turned around just in time to get covered in ice-cold water.

The cold water was a shock. He flared his plating and shook it off to the best of his ability. He heard the Mer chittering in the water.

“I could almost swear you did that on purpose,” Chromedome said.

Chromedome walked slowly away from the shore. The water clung to his frame, and he wanted to get by the heater in their shelter and do his best to dry it off.

“Jazz!” He shouted.

“Yeah?” Jazz hollered off to his side.

Chromedome followed the sound of his voice.

Jazz slowly came into view as he carefully made his way through the thick fog cover.

“Are you ready to head back to camp?” He asked.

“Why are you wet?” Jazz asked.