It was a beautiful day in Moominvalley. Moominmamma was in the kitchen, preparing supper. While she was doing this, Moomintroll, the Sniff and Snufkin were lying on the riverside, looking at the clouds. "Hey, Moomintroll", asked Snufkin, "what do you think that big cloud over there looks like?"
Moomintroll thought about it a little while and then answered: "I don't know... a ship, probably?" "Hmm, might be", said Snufkin. Their conversation was interrupted by Moominmamma shouting that it was time for supper. All three of them rushed eagerly inside.
Moomintroll hadn't known the symbolism of his words. For, several kilo-metres above the surface, hidden by the clouds, hovered the deathly Decepticon battlecruiser Leviathan. Its 40 000 -ton hull was covered with an assortment of deadly weapons and protected by the strongest of armour. Inside, there was a scene completely different from what it looked on the riverside.
Dozens of Decepticons rushed from place to place, always hurrying and trying to at least look important. This was a big day in Decepticon history - they were about to conquer a planet before the blasted Autobots got there.
Misfire was standing on a balcony outside the ship's interior, looking at the stars. He was in no hurry - he knew everyone else would do their job just as well without him. Suddenly, the automatic balcony door opened and Misfire turned around to see Weirdwolf standing in the door-way.
"Misfire, you come inside must", said Weirdwolf, "Commander Scorponok with you speak wants to." Misfire let out an irritated sigh, partly because he hated to be disturbed, least of all by Commander Scorponok himself, partly because everyone just tended to hate Weirdwolf's disorganised style of speech. However, he suppressed his feelings and went inside the ship.
Scorponok was standing in the bridge room, the only room in the whole ship to fit a robot of his size. He addressed Misfire plainly, but importantly. "Misfire, our radar probes have picked up a habitable planet directly below us", he said.
"So?" asked Misfire, "What's it got to do with me?"
"I order you to descend onto the planet surface and search for lifeforms. If you find any, you are to estimate their value to us, and depending on your estimate, either persuade them to join our cause or destroy them."
"Okey dokey, Scorponok", said Misfire. He left the room, ran to the flight deck, transformed into jet mode, and was on his way.
After supper, Moominpappa and Moominmamma had retired to their after-supper nap. They were already snoring heavily when the children gathered in front of the window to look outside and play games. Snufkin gazed lazily out of the window, looking at nothing specific. Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden had their eyes turned on each other instead. The Sniff was looking at his collection of sparkling rocks. Only Little My was standing still in front of the window, her eyes fixed on a distant point in the sky.
Suddenly she poked her small arm out and tapped Moomintroll on his (nearly nonexistent) shoulder. "Moomintroll, you'd better take a look at this", she said.
Moomintroll had mixed feelings. His love for the Snork Maiden tried to prevent him from turning his head, but his natural curiosity won over. He shifted on the couch and asked Little My: "Well, what is it?"
"Look! Up there on the sky!" cried Little My.
"Is it a bird?" asked Moomintroll.
"No, it's some kind of artificially-propelled air vessel!" answered Little My.
"Hmh, I didn't think my brother had finished his creation this early", said the Snork Maiden and dismissed the incident from her mind. None of them could suspect anything wrong until the Snork himself came panting on their doorsteps.
Moomintroll let the Snork in and asked what was the matter. "It's just not fair!" cried the Snork. "There I was, adjusting the final touches to my air vessel, and someone has the nerve to finish his or hers first! It's enough to make me crazy!"
Now the party of the children were interested. Led by Little My, they ran outside, with Moomintroll, the Sniff and the Snork as the main runners-up. Far after them the Snork Maiden and Snufkin dragged along, coming mostly for the others' pleasure. All of them had their eyes turned on the strange vehicle in the sky.
"Holy spires of Iacon!" thought Misfire. "There are life forms here, and organic ones at that!"
He waited for Aimless to make his report on their value to the Decepticon cause. In 28 microseconds it was ready. "Usage: infinitesimal, value: scarce" was all he said, but it was all Misfire needed. He remembered how Scorponok had said that if the life forms were of no use, they must be destroyed. And who was he to argue with his commander?
After a quick mental note from Misfire, Aimless let off a heavy barrage of shots, each aimed at the strange life forms below. In less than a second, the shots hit the ground, each missing their mark by more than 10 metres. Aimless shot again. The shots missed again. "Drat", thought Misfire.
The loud noise had woken up Moomintroll's parents. They clambered out of bed, got dressed and went outside to see what all the fuss was about. Once outside, they were very surprised. "Oh, my beautiful flower arrangements!" said Moominmamma, "All fried up somehow!" She began to worry about where to get seeds for new flowers.
Moominpappa, however, had different things on his mind. His attention turned to the strange red air vessel that was coming nearer by the second. Suddenly, to everyone's amazement, the air vessel changed form. It became a human-looking machine creature, nearly as tall as the great Moominhouse itself. In its hand it carried a blue and grey device which reminded Moominpappa of a gun. (To others it just looked weird - Moominpappa was the only one who had ever used a gun.) "Who are you? WHAT are you?" asked Moomintroll, who had first recovered from his astonishment.
"I am called Misfire", said the machine creature, "I am a Decepticon warrior and I've come to claim this planet as our own."
"Hello there, Misfire", said Moominpappa, "I am Moominpappa, the head of the Moomin family and their friends. Why don't you come to our house and we'll discuss the business about our planet or whatever it was?"
Misfire pondered the question a bit, then agreed. "All right, fleshling", he said, dropping the blue and grey device from his hand. While falling to the ground it, too, changed form to a human-looking creature just a bit taller than the Moomins.
"My name is Aimless", the creature said, "and I am a Nebulan warrior allied with the Decepticons."
"Oh, how swell", said Moominpappa, "you can come to our house and have a cup of tea, coffee, or whatever it is Nebulan warriors drink, while your friend Misfire can wait outside so he won't damage our furniture." Misfire and Aimless agreed and they began walking towards the Moominhouse.
In a few minutes the Moomin family, their friends and Misfire and Aimless had reached the Moominhouse. Moominmamma panned her hand over a patch of ground near the house and said to Misfire: "You can sit there if you get tired of standing all the time."
Misfire thanked her but informed her that due to his electromechanic structure he could stand all the time he wished and still not get tired. Satisfied, Moominmamma joined the others as they escorted Aimless inside the house. Inside the house Moominpappa invited everyone to sit around the dinner table. However, the chairs were too small for Aimless's bulky armour, so he had to use the couch instead. Moominmamma served hot cinnamon tea to everyone. Aimless stirred his tea with his armour-plated finger, first observing how everyone else handled this ritual. When he had learned enough, he picked up the cup (being careful not to crush it), and lifted it to his lips and drank a small sip.
"So how does it taste?" asked Moomintroll.
"Actually, it's quite good", said Aimless, "reminds me of a drink called Zwoki back on Nebulos. I used to drink that a lot before signing up with the Decepticons."
"Speaking of these Decepti-thingamajiggers", said Moominpappa.
("Decepticons", corrected Aimless)
"What was that business that you and that nice Mr Misfire told us you were on?"
"Oh, nothing special", said Aimless, "just that our commander, Scorponok, wants us to take control over your planet and establish a strict military rule here. No big deal, really."
"But", asked Moomintroll, "does that mean you will rule over all Moominvalley?"
"Yes", replied Aimless, matter-of-factly.
"And the Lonely Mountains?" asked Snufkin.
"Yes", repeated Aimless.
"And even the Island of the Hattifatteners?" asked the Sniff.
"Yes", repeated Aimless, calmly as ever.
("Well, I can live without the Island of the Hattifatteners", thought the Sniff to himself.)
But Moominpappa was concerned over this news. "Surely you won't destroy all these beautiful things here and turn them into some noisy, busy city or anything?" he asked.
"Yes, that's almost exactly what Commander Scorponok intends to do", replied Aimless, "he will have most of the organic areas destroyed and replaced with steel-and-concrete military structures to provide an outpost against our enemies, the dreaded Autobots."
"I don't like this", said Snufkin, "this reminds me of the time those geysir-seekers tried to 'put Moominvalley on the map' as they expressed it. I simply couldn't live with all that many people, much less Decepticons."
"Neither could any of us", said Moominpappa. Everyone but the Sniff echoed his reply.
"Do you have any form of currency?" he asked Aimless.
"Yes, we use small packets of purified energy called Energon", replied Aimless.
"If you establish an outpost here, could I have some of this Energon?" asked the Sniff.
"Of course", said Aimless, "you will receive a standard wage for your wilful cooperation with the Decepticon army."
"Sounds interesting", said the Sniff.
"Forget about it", said Moomintroll so sternly that the Sniff surrendered to his advice.
Pretty soon the Moomin family had convinced Aimless that it was in everyone's best interests NOT to make Moominvalley into a Decepticon military outpost. Moominpappa and Aimless went outside, where Misfire had been patiently waiting, and informed him of their plans. Misfire, not being all that power-hungry and eager for combat himself, agreed to their point of view.
Suddenly, a small yellow light on Misfire's left wrist lit up. A hissing sound could be heard through the comlink Misfire wore on his arm. "Misfire, this is Vorath. You are ordered to report your current status." No one spoke a word. The message repeated until another voice cut in: "Give me that! Misfire, this is LORD ZARAK! What the slag have you been doing there all that time? Give me your report at once!" Misfire and Moominpappa exchanged a few knowing glances at each other's eyes. Then Misfire pressed a small button on his wrist and the comlink shut itself down.
The End