Wandering Earth

"What's going on? Why has everything gone pitch-black before my eyes? Where are the lights? Who turned them off? Ever-Changing Steel System, activate! I-I'm Starscream! Didn't I complete the mission you gave me?!"

There was nothing but darkness. Starscream had no idea what was happening to him. No matter how loudly he shouted, he could not hear his own voice, and his limbs were completely immobile. He could not even switch into his simplest transformation.

The surroundings remained pitch-black, darker than the vastness of space itself. Yet Starscream could sense his own body, seemingly falling in a certain direction, as though some powerful gravitational force were desperately dragging the unfortunate Decepticon Air Commander toward it.

What Starscream did not know was that when that massive magnetic field had collapsed, he and Sixshot had practically ended up mutually destroyed. Though the latter's body had been battered beyond recognition, his Spark had at least survived. The distress signal he sent out at the last moment was discovered by a Decepticon search team roughly two weeks later, but no one knew how many years it would take to repair Sixshot.

As for Starscream, a powerful blast had propelled him away from Cybertron, after which he began falling at a certain free-fall velocity toward a remote set of coordinates known as the Milky Way.

On the surface, Starscream now looked like a massive chunk of lifeless metal, drifting aimlessly through space. But if one looked carefully, one would discover that his drifting was actually following a set trajectory.

These were emergency measures improvised by the Ever-Changing Steel System. When Starscream's central processor and Spark were about to suffer fatal damage, it had proactively shut down all mechanical systems. It then designated the planetary coordinates Optimus Prime had left behind as his destination, activating Starscream's propulsion system once every twelve hours to help him maintain his coordinates.

That destination was a low-level planet everyone called "Starvation." Apparently, the name had been given by some Transformer ancestor, and it sounded rather strange.

Although Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader, had designated this place as a backup landing site, he would not casually visit such a backward planet unless he had absolutely no other choice.

But why did the Ever-Changing Steel System insist on sending Starscream toward that primitive planet? Surely it was not sending him ahead to scout the way for Optimus Prime and the others?

Or perhaps it was to evade Sixshot's future pursuit. After all, planets with low civilization levels were comparatively less dangerous. For a severely wounded Transformer like Starscream, finding a safe foothold to repair himself was the most urgent matter at hand.

In any case, they had to believe that this system was doing what was best for Starscream, rather than pursuing some other purpose...

Who knew how much time had passed when Starscream suddenly felt as though his body had entered some atmosphere. He knew that sensation of air resistance and friction well, and the flames generated by that friction seemed to lend faint color to the pitch-black world before his eyes.

"Beep beep beep. The system has detected bio-energy. It can be used to charge the system. The host may regain partial control of visual functions!"

It was the long-unheard voice of the Ever-Changing Steel System. Though he had not figured out why, Starscream eagerly activated his visual system.

What was going on? What was that azure planet beneath his feet? What were these coordinates?

A string of questions surfaced in Starscream's mind, but before he could ask any of them, he discovered that his body was uncontrollably plummeting downward. This planet called "Starvation" seemed to possess extraordinary gravity. Once one entered its atmosphere, unless one had exceptionally powerful thrust, one could only be pulled by the planet's gravity and fall rapidly toward the ground.

Although Starscream had regained some functions, his power system was clearly still severely lacking. There was no way he could resist the planet's gravity. Moreover, as the kinetic energy from free fall combined with his own weight, his descent grew faster and faster.

This azure planet was divided into an Eastern Hemisphere and a Western Hemisphere. Thus, among its ancient civilizations, at least several nations witnessed the sight of this "falling star" at the same time...

"Your Majesty, this old minister observed the stars last night and discovered that a celestial body appears to have fallen from the heavens. It seems the Greedy Wolf Star has descended into the mortal realm. This is a most ominous sign!"

"What? The Greedy Wolf Star? Are you certain the Astronomical Bureau has not made a mistake? No wonder the Xiongnu in the north have been so restless lately. Could it be they have been affected by this heavenly omen?"

This was the interpretation of an ancient eastern people. When Starscream fell, it was nighttime in their nation. The glow produced when his wings tore through the atmosphere was regarded by the nation's priests as an ill omen, filling their ruler with terror.

On the other side of the planet was another ancient empire, and they too witnessed Starscream's descent. But for them, it occurred during the daytime, so their interpretation was entirely different from that of those easterners.

"My great sovereign! The gods in the heavens have finally heard your prayers! This fireball falling from the sky is a revelation from the God of War. Our empire will soon conquer the entire realm!"

"Hahaha, I saw that coming long ago! I will send my armies to the banks of the Nile! I will conquer their queen!"

Well then, everything had two sides. Different people viewing the same thing through different eyes could arrive at vastly different conclusions. Such was the state of this planet called "Starvation"—a low-level civilized planet still in a feudal age of cold weapons.

Aside from early Autobot space pioneers, there were almost no signs that any high-level life-forms had ever descended upon this planet. Though these lower life-forms were also violent by nature, given their technology and methods, even with Starscream gravely injured, there should have been nothing to worry about, right?

The question was whether this planet possessed any substance that Starscream could convert into usable energy. Otherwise, he would never be able to return to Cybertron!