Writing Group challenge 2 fic

[dragonofdispair]

The asphalt is pitted and cracked. Shrapnel is scattered unevenly across it. Dirt and ash drift in the breeze. Smoke darkens the sky, blocking the natural light leaving the scene bathed in the occasional red light of explosions and intermittent blue light of bursts of plasma fire. Nearby is the deactivated shell of a mech, missing limbs and covered in scorch marks, but the killing blow was a still-smoking shot through the spark. The shell’s optics are dark and its mouth open as though still screaming. Despite the chaos and dead of the burning city around them, this scene is of a quiet moment, a short lull in combat and there are no enemies nearby as they shelter next to the crumbling metal and glass of a mostly destroyed wall.

The first mech, a black and white military frame with a medium sized, sleek hover car alt mode, is already moving away, a pair of rectangular sensor panels on his back hight and scanning for enemies even as seekers screamed through the distant sky, a new explosion billowing up into the sky in their wake. The light of the distant explosion is reflected off the edges of his armor, along the curves of his sensor panels, over the missile array on his back, highlighting those curves and making everything else about him seem darker in comparison. His back is turned as he leaves the shelter of the broken wall so his optics cannot be seen, but he is looking slightly upwards, scanning the sky, so the very tips of his red chevron are visible over his helm. Enegron and other fluids still drip sluggishly from his more minor wounds, but his major ones have been patched. More mech-fluids are splattered across his body where he has no injuries, almost coating his melee weapons. Blue arcs of electricity crackle along the batons extended from his wrists. One is held up as though to block a potential incoming attack, while the other is down, ready to counterattack. Everything about this figure is alert, ready for trouble, commanding. He has been to war before.

Contaminated energon pools where the first mech had levered himself up from the ground. The edge of that pool is the focus of the scene. The second mech is nearly identical in form to the first though he has fewer injuries, and also is a mostly solid grey color. He also has his sensor panels up and scanning for trouble. He though, is crouched at the edge of the pool of spilled fluids, examining something. He is more tense and flinches at every explosion or nearby spat of gunfire. His optics and chevron are both red and instead of electro batons, a short energon sword extends from one wrist, the edge glowing faintly blue. Energon and other mech-fluids are splattered across his hands and forearms, though the blade is clean. His sensor panels are slightly larger than his companion’s, and his missile array more extensive. With his currently unarmed hand, he is reaching down to touch something in the pool.

And in the pool, the focus of the second mech’s attention is a small piece of armor, about the size of his hand. It would be insignificant if it weren’t the focus of the mech’s attention. He’s holding it up with one finger, in the process of flipping it over to reveal what’s on the other side. It’s jagged and drips a bit of the fluid from the edges as it tilts.

On one side it is unpainted silver. On the other, the side that had been on the ground before the mech began to flip it, is an angular purple mark across black paint. The mark vaguely resembles a face with a pointed chin, sharp, triangular eyes, and three spikes on top of its head.