Chapter Text
The moment Wheeljack stepped out of the space bridge, he knew something wasn't right.
Actually, there were a bunch of things that weren't right. Instead of the jungle of Eukaris, he and Starscream were standing on a desolate plain filled with jagged rocks. The sky was a deep blue, edging into black. Wheeljack squinted into the chilly breeze that blew right into his face. In the distance, he could just barely make out some vague shapes that might have been buildings.
Starscream, on the other hand, seemed to be focused on what was missing. "Where is the delegation party that we were supposed to meet?" He looked around, and the stark difference between this place and the jungle planet seemed to dawn on him. Flicking his wings out, Starscream rounded on Wheeljack. "Where are we?"
"Hey, Jetfire, I don't think you sent us to the right—" Even as Wheeljack turned back towards the space bridge, it closed with a conclusive swirl of sound and light. Wheeljack's outstretched hand fell to his side. "Frag," he muttered, and tried opening a comm link.
"Well, this obviously isn't right." Starscream waved at Wheeljack. "Get ahold of Jetfire and tell him to open the bridge again."
"I’m trying," Wheeljack said, making another effort to open the connection. Then he shrugged, lowering his hand from his comm suite. "There's no signal."
"Fantastic," Starscream said. He turned again and surveyed the landscape they'd landed in, his hands on his hips. "Now what are we supposed to do?"
Wheeljack eyed the biggest star in the sky, which was low on the horizon. He pointed at it. "We should probably see if there's some place we can hole up for the night," he said. "It's already cold. I'm gonna bet it'll be even colder when the sun sets.” He waved his hand at the horizon. “It looks like there might be some buildings that way."
"I'll go see what I can find. You start driving that way," Starscream said before transforming and jetting off towards the buildings Wheeljack had seen.
Wheeljack watched Starscream fly off, then sighed. "Yessir," he muttered. Then he folded onto his alt mode and drove in the same direction that Starscream had flown.