|
Post by Mirage on Aug 20, 2009 22:25:13 GMT -5
Timestamp: Day 28. Semi-private. Please ask before posting in.
Mirage is in a rather melancholy mood. Rare for him, but not completely unheard of. He is unused to space travel, to the confinement. Oh, there have been diversions, of course, and many here are pleasant company. But hey are not his type of company, not really.
He is probably not in the best mood to have the conversation he is setting out to start. But...it is one that needs having, and one he's avoided for several days.
Mirage leans against the door way of the sparring room.
"I do not suppose you have a moment, Ultra Magnus?"
|
|
Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
|
Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 24, 2009 6:15:16 GMT -5
Ultra Magnus has no sparring partner. He isn't sure he should ask anyone here and he's even less sure anyone would accept – he'll never know until he tries, warns that calm, confident voice that used to reassure him in his most uncertain moments – but that doesn't stop him from at least going through forms. It's something to occupy his mind.
He doesn't expect company, either, so Mirage's arrival earns a surprised, puzzled look between stances before Magnus stops.
"My schedule's rather open," he says without a trace of irony.
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Aug 24, 2009 22:32:25 GMT -5
Mirage moves gracefully into the room and seats himself upon a small bench situated to one side.
"Yes, well, I could point out that even after being cleared, you've been rather solitary, and so have no one but yourself to blame if you've less than a full dance card." Mirage smirks. The easy arrogance, the lightness in his tone, the actual humor in the smirk itself, are likely quite removed from the last memories Ultra Magnus may have of a certain spy.
He brings crosses one ankle over the opposite knee and then sighs, "I was hoping, Ultra Magnus, that you might be willing to give me a more...in depth accounting of what happens between my pull point and your own."
"You need not go into the particulars of your own situation." Mirage was listening to the initial interrogation, after all, "But...I would appreciate hearing whatever you might tell of home."
|
|
Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
|
Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 25, 2009 12:18:50 GMT -5
"…Home?" Ultra Magnus pauses at that, mulling over the request. Mirage doesn't look like the Mirage whom Magnus convinced to lay down arms on Earth; Mirage still gleams in the form he wore millions of years ago, back on Cybertron when the war was still young. There may be more to cover than Mirage is willing to hear, thinks Magnus, taking in the former aristocrat's cheery mood. Mirage just looks so young.
Nonetheless, Magnus nods; Mirage asked and it isn't Magnus's responsibility – not any more – to nanny other soldiers. He draws up and stands in place, a loose sort of parade rest, hands folded at his back. For him, it's one of the most comfortable, natural ways to stand.
"What was happening when you… left?" Is that even the right term for how Transformers keep ending up here?
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Aug 25, 2009 14:03:58 GMT -5
Mirage likely does not want to hear what has actually happened to his world. He has always had great pride and love for Cybertron, something that doesn't change over the years between himself and Ultra Magnus.
"I was displaced shortly after Optimus gave the evacuation order," Mirage replies. "An order about which I was very unhappy, and I did not hesitate to express that displeasure."
He snorts, "Though in the past months, I have learned a little about discretion in such matters."
|
|
Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
|
Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 26, 2009 3:55:36 GMT -5
There's no comment from Magnus on Mirage's opinion regarding Optimus's judgement. Not because he thinks the Prime infallible – and he thinks no such thing – but because he knows Optimus thought he had made the best decision for Cybertron. It hadn't been, but Magnus has no room to criticise his brother's mistakes.
"You've missed… quite a lot," he says instead, shoulders dropping ever so slightly with the weight of the memories. "I suppose I'll start with this, then: the evacuation never happened. Prime called it off."
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Aug 26, 2009 9:20:09 GMT -5
Mirage starts, and the look he turns up at Magnus is one of relief mixed with incredulity.
"He did? But why? So many tried to persuade him otherwise, and yet he held firm."
|
|
Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
|
Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 26, 2009 12:52:42 GMT -5
"I don't know every detail," Magnus admits. Even in private, Optimus had never wanted to talk much about what happened to change his mind. "But it came after the destruction of Iacon. The Decepticons launched a full-scale siege and… these giant engines beneath Iacon – they were activated at nearly the same time." Many good men were lost in the chaos; Magnus's own unit never fully recovered. He adds, voice softened with vorns-old pain, "It was a nightmare. But Prime… he put a stop to it. Declared the evacuation order cancelled and had us go underground to continue the war.
"It carried on like that for a while. Attrition… that's all it became. We were too firmly entrenched for the Decepticons to rout and the Decepticons had too much firepower for us to push back." Magnus's gaze drifts to the floor. "And then… we lost him," he says, hardly more than a whisper.
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Aug 26, 2009 19:08:37 GMT -5
"Engines? Beneath the city?" Mirage sounds quite surprised. :But how...where did they come from? Surely no one could have built them in complete secrecy?"
The spy is frowning. Glad as he is that Optimus changed his mind, this talk of hiding in the Underground, of there being no real progress made, it bothers him. His frown deepens as Ultra Magnus's tone changes.
"Lost who, Magnus?" He then adds, a bit more softly, "Perhaps you might sit? It would no doubt be more comfortable."
|
|
Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
|
Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 26, 2009 20:15:51 GMT -5
Unfortunately, Magnus can't really answer Mirage's questions about the engines. He simply doesn't have anything more to tell the other Autobot, and he grimly shakes his head, optics dim. He takes it a step further and raises one hand in a forestalling gesture at the suggestion he sit.
"If I wanted to be comfortable," he murmurs sadly, "I would have refused to tell you these things." He cycles air for a second before replying to that last question as he folds his hands together again, "Prime." Mingled with the grief he can't hide are hints of the resentment that runs nearly as deep. "What I know of the events atop the tower, I've heard secondhand… take that as you will. Megatron was going to use a Space Bridge – he failed with the engines, so perhaps he wanted to further Decepticon conquests that way instead – and Prime moved to stop him. It… exploded. Both of them vanished."
The resentment begins to take firmer hold as he continues, backed by a low-simmering, directionless anger.
"The Autobots couldn't keep it together without him," he explains, jaw tight. "We splintered. Grimlock took other hotheads like him and they called themselves the Lightning Strike Coalition. Springer and his Wreckers split off as well. The only reason their antics didn't end us all," that last part practically spit out, "is because the Decepticons were just as badly off without Megatron. Starscream had his Predacons, Ratbat had his Ultracons, and Shockwave… Shockwave took control of the Decepticons. There were skirmishes breaking out constantly. All those trigger-happy idiots did was make the situation worse."
And after that….
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Aug 26, 2009 21:29:08 GMT -5
If it were an accident, unpredictable, then why is Ultra Magnus so angry over it? It is not as if Optimus left deliberately. The anger and resentment are both coming through clear as crystal to the spy; but what is the real root of it all?
As Magnus describes the mess that both sides become in the aftermath of their leader's disappearance, Mirage can't help but look annoyed.
"Lovely. So we make an even bigger mess of things, all because we fall to pieces without one individual," he snorts, "Where am I that big clusterfrag?"
|
|
Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
|
Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 26, 2009 23:15:03 GMT -5
"We needed Prime," Magnus counters Mirage's dismissal, voice turning steely. "It couldn't have been more painfully obvious. And when we didn't have him, it all went to pieces." At his back, both hands are clenched into fists. For a moment, his shoulders lock up with the tension; it ekes back out slowly during the seconds that he takes to calm himself. "And you, as far as I know, were with Prowl and the other Autobots." Loyal at the very least, if not yet committed.
Ultra Magnus braces himself for the next part. Not because it's terribly traumatic, but because he knows it's going to sound ridiculous if he has to explain certain details.
"Then came the Fallen. He was after… something. I really have no idea what exactly it was he wanted," because his information on this is all secondhand as well, "but he nearly got it. He was unstoppable. It's a miracle he didn't succeed because nothing thrown at him seemed to faze him." Magnus shakes his head and cycles his optical cluster. "For a moment, Autobot and Decepticon were united against the Fallen. Just for a moment," he murmurs. "And then it went back to the way it was. It took so much to bring about the peace talks… maybe too much. We had nothing left – we weren't prepared," and by 'we', Magnus means 'I', "when… when Megatron returned."
Megatron. Not Prime. Optimus had remained missing, and when Megatron and his Seeker-like legions swept over Cybertron, Magnus hadn't been able to shake the sickening feeling that his brother was lying dead somewhere in the galaxy.
"None of us stood a chance. Megatron rallied the Decepticons and with the extra soldiers he'd brought back, they took over. Threw every last Autobot into the mines and made us their slave labour."
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Aug 27, 2009 8:38:58 GMT -5
"All of us?" Mirage asks as Ultra Magnus finished, "There were none who escaped the net?"
Mirage finds that hard to believe. Superior numbers or not, Megatron or not, the Autobots were too persistent. Plus, the spy cannot imagine himself working in the mines. Just the though of what it would do to his finish alone is nightmare inducing.
"But why is so much of your information secondhand? What you just described with this...Fallen person sounds like a major happening. Surely you were involved?"
|
|
Ultra Magnus
Major
Disappointing Fellow Autobots Since the Age of Internment
Posts: 565
|
Post by Ultra Magnus on Aug 27, 2009 9:07:10 GMT -5
Magnus amends, "There may have been a few who managed to avoid capture… but if they had, I doubt they could have done much. Megatron's aerial forces had the entire planet locked down as far as I knew. I…." Had been too devastated by the loss of Grimlock to fight his own enslavement. "…Was in the mines."
And then the question he least wants to answer. He could tell Mirage anything reasonable and likely get away with it; anything rather than reveal himself for the pathetic coward he is. Instead, he winces and looks away from Mirage, turning fully aside and staring at the wall instead, because the former noble is one of the troops he let down. Will let down in this case.
"…No," he says. His voice is clear and crisp and full of shame. "I didn't participate in the battle against the Fallen." Any explanation he tries to offer will only sound like an excuse, so he offers none; Mirage can make his own judgement.
|
|
|
Post by Mirage on Aug 27, 2009 22:20:35 GMT -5
Mirage would like to ask why.
But he doesn't. The pain in Ultra Magnus's voice is too clear. Later, perhaps, when they are better acquainted. But not now.
His tone and expression are very neutral and non-judgmental as he merely says, "I see."
"And then?"
|
|