Redemption

Chapter 1 - Partisan Compromise

Clink. Clink. Clink.

Knockout watched the doors before him in slight disinterest, drumming his fingers against the counter he leaned against.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

It was boring, just waiting for the remaining Autobots to come to a decision. What were they to do with him?

Though he tried to stop it at first, he couldn't help but allow his mind to wander.

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The small shuttle shook with each gust of wind. The metal frame was strong, but the impacts of burning up on planetary entry were proving to be too much for it to handle. It could have been worse, Knockout supposed. Cybertron's atmosphere was far stronger than whatever backwater planet they had arrived at.

But they were crashing, and that was never good for a ship.

Alarms were blaring now, searing into the doctor's audios. The emergency lights as his only light source, Knockout could just barely make out the boxy silhouette of his ally between the flashes of red.

"Signal the Nemesis!" Knockout yelled in panic, pulling on the small ship's controls with all of his strength.

"The, the what?" A deep voice spouted in exasperation. "Since when do we have a nemesis?"

Knockout rolled his optics heavily. "The ship, the name of the ship we hailed-" Knockout was thrown backwards after yet another large shake of the escape pod, losing his grip on the controls and harshly slamming into the wall behind him.

"Ouch, that can't have felt good"

"Shut up."

The large mech to Knockouts left quickly jumped to the front of the ship, grabbing the controls and pulling on them with strikingly more success than the cherry medic had moments before.

"Fine, I'll do it myself," Knockout mumbled under his breath, shakily stumbling over to the single monitor. The hull of the ship was crumbling like paper. With each step Knockout worried he would tear right through the bottom and be sucked out into the open air below. Throwing himself on to the computer panel, the medic scrambled to contact the ship that had guided them to this wretched planet in the first place. "Knockout to Nemesis, requesting assistance." It briefly occurred to him that his partner's screaming combined with the sounds of the pod actively tearing itself apart might have made him difficult to make out through the transmitter. "Mayday Mayday! We're going down!"

"Ground floor's approaching fast," the large mech yelled over the chaos, "can you get through to them any faster? We're going to need a better doctor than you!.. heh, no offence..."

"Save it, Br-"

"Brace yourself!"

Knockout didn't have time to think. Before he even registered what was happening his helm was jostled into his chassis, the sorry excuse for a spaceship folding in on itself like a tin can as it hit the ground.

The escape pod came down at an angle, carving through the earth like a snake in sand.

When the large mech peeled away the only panel that wasn't still scolding hot, Knockout groaned. Hard light flooded the metal tomb in the fashion of fire catching on timber, spilling over the broken casket and cascading Knockout in warm light. Before him, his partner stood before the cherry medic's battered frame, extending a hand towards him.

Shaking, Knockout reached towards him. The blue painted mech, now visible through the dust and grime, didn't wait. He grabbed Knockout's arm confidently, and pulled him up into the warmth. Together, the pair stumbled out into the light.