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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on May 31, 2007 7:42:18 GMT -5
"Done,"
Skystrike looked momentarily up from melting the edges of a piece of the tanks armor. For a brief moment her optics narrowed slightly at him before she noted the lack of trembling or any other troublesome signs of a potential system breakdown. Relaxing slightly she eased back, putting her weight on one heel and causing what was left of the tank’s now-mostly empty shell to creak and tilt slightly.
“… Get those,” she pointed to a pile of parts she’d placed on piece of sheet metal at the edge of the stream, “up on the road.” No, she didn’t trust him with anything more exerting than that quite yet.
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Post by Starfighter on May 31, 2007 8:18:47 GMT -5
"Right." Starfighter took the edges of the length of metal and started tugging it up the ridge, having to run back down every few minutes to grab what had fallen off.
Crisis averted, for now, and another cube of energon was certainly going to help his spirits.
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Fleetwind
Major
The Chancellor, His Eminent Grandeur, Marquis Fleetwind. The Insurgent Subduer of A Non-Threatening Cute Little Furry Kitten
Twined Elf
Posts: 730
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Post by Fleetwind on May 31, 2007 9:13:55 GMT -5
Fleetwind was just about to respond to Dead End when Starscream shoved him aside on the other Seeker's rush to the energon cubes. The pastel yellow mech's optics flash, and his expression briefly flickers to one of surprise and bafflement before he pushes that away. He had heard stories about the Air Commander, after all.
Everyone's heard stories about Starscream.
He briefly considered confirming Hook's observation that the chargers could be drained directly, then decided against it. He had been exaggerating how low he had been, mostly because he really wasn't up to flying recon at just that moment, and he didn't want to give the others cause to question his honesty. Well, cause beyond the inverted purple symbols on his wings.
So instead he turned back to Dead End and inclined his head with a faint but friendly smile. "That's right, Dead End. Fleetwind." He considered the other's comments about air defenses. "Well, I've flown over at least three cities on my way down here, but have yet to spot any hint of current and active inhabitants. I suppose, however, the possibility of automated defense systems are something to keep in mind. After all, you lot did have to deal with that." At the word 'that', Fleetwind gestured vaguely towards the ravine to indicate Bob.
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Dead End
Major
Yes, we're all doomed. I already knew that.
Posts: 797
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Post by Dead End on May 31, 2007 11:13:56 GMT -5
Oh look, Starscream is behaving like... Starscream. Fleetwind is trying to deflate Dead End's predictions of doom and disaster. Well, at least someone is covering the downside possibilities when he suggests them, like Wildrider and the others wourld have.
Hook had initially reminded Dead End of Drag Strip, but not any more. Drag Strip would never have rebuked a superior officer in that sharp, confident tone. Hook was more like Motormaster than Drag Strip--supremely confident because he really was that good at what he did. Starscream, on the other hand... reminded Dead End more and more of Drag Strip, which was odd. He never had back home--but Dead End had never really worked with Starscream. Dead End answered to Motormaster, who took orders from Megatron alone.
True, the ruthless and increasingly confident Starscream who had pushed Megatron out the airlock had slapped down Motormaster once or twice with his null-rays, but this Starscream seemed to lack some of that Starscream's ruthless confidence. That could be a problem.
When Hook had finished pulling the last of the salvage out of Dead End's trunk, the Stunticon transformed and picked up one of the cubes that Starscream had knocked askew. "I'll tell them that when I get back to the ravine," Dead End told Hook.
He turned slightly to face Starscream, visor and mask hiding all expression. "Yes, Commander--there are yourself, your three jets, myself, and Hook in the immediate vicinity, plus Demolishor and Sky-Byte somewhere else. Whoever they are, however trustworthy they may be. I mistrust voices on the radio whose owners I do not know." Dead End shrugs slightly.
"You are fortunate, Commander, to have the best technician and engineer in the entire Decepticon forces here. I have no doubt that Hook can adapt any of this technology to our use, and extract whatever energy is to be had, as well as keep us in good shape."
Dead End restrained himself from the urge to point out that Omega Supreme would probably kill Hook first, leaving the rest of them to slowly weaken and die from cumulative damage and lack of maintenance. It wasn't what Starscream needed to hear right now. Starscream needed to hear how he had loyal, capable support here, and it didn't hurt to flatter Hook, either.
"Skystrike and myself belong to the 'kill people and break things' school of functionality--we are warriors. I do not know Fleetwind, I'm sure he can fill you in on how he may best serve you. Starfighter... is adept at records and logistics details, the sort of thing that bores a true warrior mindless, but someone has to do. I request your permission to assign him to Hook, to assist Hook in keep track of logistics, and device schematics, and all that sort of thing."
If Starscream is as much like Drag Strip as Dead End suspects, it's really best to let the decision be Starscream's--he'd be less likely to say 'No' out of petulance that someone else thought of it and went ahead and did it without consulting him.
Speaking of Starfighter... Dead End sent a private transmission to Starfighter: // Starfighter, you are keeping a record of the disassembly of the alien tank? So if Hook gets a notion to reassemble it from parts, he knows what went where? //
After finishing his energon cube, Dead End transforms, awaiting Starscream's decision before he returns to the ravine for more salvage.
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Starscream
Major
"Sometimes I can almost feel it!"
strangely enough, male.
Posts: 945
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Post by Starscream on May 31, 2007 16:48:06 GMT -5
Starscream's optics narrowed at Hook's insistence of only one cube. He might be greedy, but he's not going to leave others completely depleted. That being said, the entire cube wasn't necessary to refill his reserves. He opens his cockpit like a personal cabinet and places the over half-full cube inside. Just in case.
"So how did you make the cubes, smart-vocalizer." He said to Hook. "I don't see Soundwave around here." Hmm, or IS he... No, that couldn't be. There is little love between the Tape Commander and the Constructicons, there is no way that they would work together, even if it meant ganging up against Starscream.
To Dead End, Starscream replies. "These strange new voices.. one claims to despise Decepticons whilst the other Decepticon's Megatron sounds nothing like the one that we know about. They are apparently not together. We are many, they are few." He clenched and raised his fist menacingly. "We can trust them enough because they will be acutely aware of what will happen to them should they attempt to betray us. And if we do not gain allies to our cause, we will at least gain more valuable resources for Hook to salvage." Starscream grinned. Either option was acceptable. "We will need everyone to return here before we can continue searching for the Constructicons. Continue salvaging resources, Dead End, just don't go too far."
"Hook, where were you located and where were the rumoured appearances of Long Haul located? That might give us some idea as to where to search for the other Constructicons, assuming they're here. Also, I will need to know what equipment you have with you, so we can work on what else needs to be fabricated here."
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Post by Hook on May 31, 2007 20:23:07 GMT -5
Dead End's lovely ego-stroking got almost entirely ignored as Starscream opened his mouth yet again and made Hook wish he had been able to defragment more before dealing with this.
Starscream kept speaking of going after Long Haul. He should tell the other Decepticons that his gestaltmate seems to be from far enough in the past that he isn't a Constructicon.
Hook teased out several lengths of connective wire from the CPU Dead End had brought him. "We should be cautious in approaching Long Haul. There is something wrong in his head."
Caution was preferable, yes. Caution meant not shooting on sight and hopefully not shooting to kill. Caution should allow him to examine the situation as it stood and determine several courses of action to fix Long Haul's problem.
"I do not know where he is currently," Hook added as he slid his fingers along the smooth protective casing on the hexagonal unit. "He cut contact with me abruptly."
Briefly, he wondered why he had coaxed out those wires in the first place, as he had no use for them right now. Oh, yes, a connection could give him an idea of the processing power that this unit actually had, and thus it's usefulness for repairs.
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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on Jun 1, 2007 7:49:02 GMT -5
Skystrike watched Starfighter drag the pieces up the gully’s steep bank before wordlessly turning back to cutting the tank. Most of the pieces were just armor now and so rather than exerting the delicacy as she done to the various components that’d been within the machine, she was now simply cutting, tearing pieces out and then tossing them off to one side. She could distantly hear the explosion of hisses as the scorching hot edges of the sections hit the water or the mud an quickly began vaporizing the water around it.
After a few minutes of roughly cutting up pieces of the armor, she finally tossed aside one last piece, leaving only the empty plate that’d made up the tank’s underside. The blue jet cast a glance around to the slightly scattered plates, managing to make them out over the cloud of fine steam that had begun settling over the rivulet, faintly rippling in the starlight. After she’d vaguely spotted where they all were she began the process of picking them up, intending to bring a few pieces up her self.
Then something long big and slimy crawled up her left thruster heel.
Skystrike froze, a look of utter horror slowly scrawling itself over her black face. A thunderous shriek reverberated up the gully seconds later, an impressive feat for someone with such a low voice.
“Ohstars, it’sinsidemyheel!” The distant sound of metal splashing back into the water closely followed suite.
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Post by Starfighter on Jun 1, 2007 7:59:21 GMT -5
// Starfighter, you are keeping a record of the disassembly of the alien tank? So if Hook gets a notion to reassemble it from parts, he knows what went where? //
//Mostly, sir. There's a few parts that went missing or were destroyed during the battle and I haven't gone over all of them again, but the majority of them have been recorded to the best of my ability.//
He didn't mention that he'd missed a few moments of Skystrike's disassembly while he was busy trying to cough up his spinal strut. But with Hook being as skilled as he was, Starfighter was sure that the data he'd gathered would be sufficient enough.
The accountant came towards the other group of Decepticons backwards, still pulling the parts atop the large metal sheet he was using as a makeshift sled. He kept checking over both shoulders to make sure he wasn't about to walk off a cliff, but didn't see Starscream until right before Skystrike shrieked.
His almost-reflexive jump into the air could, of course, be taken as a reaction to either.
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Fleetwind
Major
The Chancellor, His Eminent Grandeur, Marquis Fleetwind. The Insurgent Subduer of A Non-Threatening Cute Little Furry Kitten
Twined Elf
Posts: 730
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Post by Fleetwind on Jun 1, 2007 8:14:49 GMT -5
With the attention turned, thankfully, away from him, Fleetwind took a moment to step back and finish off his energon. His listened carefully to the others, and considered offering to scout, although he would have preferred to wait until the sun is up.
He looked up sharply at Skystrike's panicked flight, and his red optics cycled a blink. "Ignite your thrusters, then!" he offered helpfully before scanning the rest of the sky.
It was darker to the east than to the west. Something was blocking the stars.
"There's a storm coming," Fleetwind observed to no one in particular.
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Dead End
Major
Yes, we're all doomed. I already knew that.
Posts: 797
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Post by Dead End on Jun 1, 2007 16:43:16 GMT -5
Dead End nodded in acknowledgment to Starscream and transformed back into his automotive mode after finishing off the last of his energon cube. He appeared to ignore whatever it was that Skystrike was doing, but did turn in his path to acknowledge Starfighter as he hauled the improvised sledge full of salvage into the station.
"I was actually coming back for some of that, Starfighter--but now that you're here, Hook has an energon cube for you. If you see Skystrike before I do, tell her there's a cube here for her, too." He paused at Skystrike's distant shriek. "Sounds like the first of us to go," Dead End said dolorously.
"Lovely," Dead End said as he regarded the storm clouds Fleetwind had pointed out. "Probably acid rain. We'll all be reduced to lovely little etched metal sculptures. Hook, do we need to get this scrap back under shelter?"
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Starscream
Major
"Sometimes I can almost feel it!"
strangely enough, male.
Posts: 945
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Post by Starscream on Jun 1, 2007 22:04:39 GMT -5
"What happened with Long Haul?" Starscream inquired. He thought that if there were two Constructicons, there could have been six. Perhaps because of their connection. But if they were from different eras, or perhaps this Long Haul was completely different from the Long Haul Starscream knew, then they couldn't hope for Devastator.
And that was worrisome. If the Autobots had Omega Supreme, then these few Decepticons were sorely outnumbered. "So we have found ourselves on this unoccupied planet. From different times, different eras. And it would be foolish to assume that Omega Supreme was the only Autobot." Not that there was anyone there with greater tactical superiority than Starscream - at least that's what he thinks - but it helps to vocalize the problem. "Did anyone experience anything as they shifted? A sense of movement, any sudden flashes?"
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Post by Hook on Jun 2, 2007 13:51:01 GMT -5
"No, Starscream, I recall nothing of it."
Hook turns to look at the building storm-clouds. Meteorology, what did he know about meteorology... Next to nothing of the theory, really. Everything he knew came from observation on Cybertron and Earth. As this planet seemed more like Earth than Cybertron, using that as a model...
He glanced at the grasses stirring in the wind. There would be rain by morning. Lovely.
"We need to get these components under cover, but we should have several hours in which to do so. However, we also need to determine a route to take from here, and who will carry the supplies we take with us."
Hook turned to a small pile to his left that he had gradually built up of parts that he would fight tooth and nail to take with him and deposited the tank's CPU there. "I found this station's power storage. Quite ingenious - it is a room-temperature superconductor storage loop." A pause. This is about where someone like Skywarp would ask him to explain that in smaller words. "It doesn't lose any energy put into it except through said energy being deliberately drawn off. However, nothing is putting energy into it either. So while we could live off of it for some time, we will still eventually run out of energy here. Dead End, come over here. I need to put items back into your trunk."
"Now, the superconductor loop appears to have connections to the receiver dish." Hook points that out for the newcomers. "However, the dish is not receiving beamed power. Likely, the power station that supplies power is damaged. Possibly the satellite that beams power is out of alignment with the dish. Either possibility requires us to move on from this place."
"However, I have noticed a pattern. Of the six of us currently gathered, five of us appeared in these plains. Three of us specifically appeared in close proximity of each other. Starfighter appeared within sight of this service station. I have no data on your appearance point, Starscream. Be that as it may, it suggests a high chance of anyone else who appears here will also appear in the plains. This is not a certainty, as Fleetwind and those two dolts on the broadband demonstrate. But it is something to bear in mind."
"That is the basic logistical situation for energy. Parts we have a fair amount of, though most will require some modifications before they can be installed, and almost all will need to be slightly upgraded in order not to downgrade our own performance. However, none of us are particularly equipped as transports, so most of these parts will need to be left behind. Or some device with which to transport the parts will need to be created. I would like to examine the possibilities of that tank Dead End and Skystrike disabled when there is better light available."
Should he summarize anything else for the two newcomers? Hmm, no, the tactical situation really belonged to someone else to describe. "We know there are Autobots out there, but I am afraid that more than that I will have to leave in your capable hands, Starscream."
"As an engineer, a Decepticon, and an explorer, I suggest that all of us take a full defragmentation before we pull out of this area. Not all at once, but as fast as we possibly can. We know very little about what else is out there, and we will need to be at our best."
If this went anything like the campaigns he'd been on with no advanced scouting, then they were all going to wish they had a chance to defragment long before they actually got such a chance.
OOC Note: If no one has any objections, I'd like to fast-forward to morning in Hook's next post or the one after that.
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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on Jun 3, 2007 13:58:27 GMT -5
The sound sizzling of flesh wafted upwards, accompanying the black smoke that was rising up from the remains of the… ‘critter’. ‘Critter’ because Skystrike didn’t know what else to call it. Either ways, the ‘critter’ was currently a still, rather disturbingly, twitching mass of charred flesh on the road. Fleetwind’s advice hadn’t done all too good for it, apparently: then again a face full of a seeker’s afterburner generally wasn’t exactly the most healthiest thing to face.
Skystrike peered down at the ‘critter’ in morbid curiosity, gently poking it with a piece of metal and recoiling whenever it convulsed. After another few moments of that, she just made a disgusted face at it before finally standing up from her tensed crouched and looking around to the service station. Without another backwards glance the blue jet idly made her way back to ‘The Group’ feeling generally twitchy and contemptuous.
She listened to Hook’s voice become louder as she made her way over to them, taking some comfort in that particular familiarity as she spotted the almost ominous outlines of the two new seekers. Starscream and Fleetwind if she recalled Starscream’s color scheme correctly. It’d been a while since she’d actually bothered to pay attention to the Decepticon propaganda.
"… currently gathered, five of us appeared in these plains. Three of us specifically appeared in close proximity of each other. Starfighter appeared within sight of this service station. I have no data on your appearance point, Starscream. Be that as it may, it suggests a high chance of anyone else who appears here will also appear in the plains. This is not a certainty, as Fleetwind and those two dolts on the broadband demonstrate. But it is something to bear in mind."
“We have two now?” Skystrike muttered, mostly to herself as she came to a stop a good few yards away from Hook before tossing aside the piece of scrap metal and listening as it landed somewhere off the road with a dull ‘thunk’. The berkut hadn’t been paying all too much attention to the radio conversations having been more preoccupied with the tank. She supposed she could replay it all later: at the moment she still wasn’t in the mood to listen to people bicker over the radio anymore than she’d been before. Her optics flickered briefly to the energon that Hook had lain out but she stopped herself from walking over to pick up a cube. Just a few more moments listening to the crane, incase there was something important she needed to listen to before refueling. She wasn’t exactly well known for listening while refueling.
"That is the basic logistical situation for energy. Parts we have a fair amount of, though most will require some modifications before they can be installed, and almost all will need to be slightly upgraded in order not to downgrade our own performance. However, none of us are particularly equipped as transports, so most of these parts will need to be left behind. Or some device with which to transport the parts will need to be created. I would like to examine the possibilities of that tank Dead End and Skystrike disabled when there is better light available."
Skystrike stood where she was, vaguely to attention which was more or less just standing without falling back to her casual slouch. Starscream was here after all, might as well have some semblance of a flier’s dignity even if she found that she really didn’t care anymore.
“My alt-mode’s weapons bay is mostly empty, I can carry some of the pieces as well,” she rumbled before jerking a thumb as the garage. “We can also dismantle the vehicles and make a make-shift trailer out of their undercarriage if we’re not in too much of a hurry.” Which they shouldn’t be seeing as they were all stuck on an alien planet with no set schedule as of yet. Hook and Starscream would probably change that very soon, though.
"We know there are Autobots out there, but I am afraid that more than that I will have to leave in your capable hands, Starscream."
Oh, yes, the Autobots. Joy of joys. Hopefully it would be a few months before any encounters. A few months to get on their feet and make at least some sense of the situation they were in at the moment, gather resources, get all the people in one place and… a lot of other things. Knowing her luck though, another encounter and maybe even a fight would happen in a few days.
"As an engineer, a Decepticon, and an explorer, I suggest that all of us take a full defragmentation before we pull out of this area. Not all at once, but as fast as we possibly can. We know very little about what else is out there, and we will need to be at our best."
Skystrike considered volunteering to stay awake but idly decided against it. At least until any volunteers were actually asked for. She didn’t want to defragment just yet, even if she’d been holding it off for the last month or so. She never did like defragmenting.
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Post by Starfighter on Jun 3, 2007 15:34:04 GMT -5
Starfighter nodded quietly as he listened to the others talk, taking an energon cube for himself and drinking it quickly. The grass underneath his feet still felt rather strange, but it was better than mud or whatever it was that attacked Skystrike's feet. His vote was still for very small Autobots.
There were plenty of people around to take command and make the decisions for him, and he appreciated that. Still, he didn't care much for Starscream and few people around her seemed to like him either, and it was entirely possible that there would be a crisis of command at some point. Those were never easy on the underlings.
Then again, there were a lot of places to run to should things go sour. And considering their dire situation, most people would be likely to stay together out of mere survival instinct. This might not be so bad.
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Fleetwind
Major
The Chancellor, His Eminent Grandeur, Marquis Fleetwind. The Insurgent Subduer of A Non-Threatening Cute Little Furry Kitten
Twined Elf
Posts: 730
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Post by Fleetwind on Jun 3, 2007 16:03:36 GMT -5
Fleetwind shook his head. "I didn't feel anything during the shift, no. The last thing I remembered before waking up in the north was that I was about to have a building knocked on me." WHAT? Someone actually answered one of the Air Commander's question? What was this world coming to?!
The pastel Seeker crouched down and examined the metal road beneath them. "I don't see any significant acid etching, or, indeed, excess corroding on the metal," he observed in answer to Dead End's fears, and then pointed out towards the grass. "And I doubt that soft material would survive strong acids long at all. Acid rainstorms in this area don't appear to be a very high likelihood, although I don't really have any experience with non-metallic worlds."
When Hook noted the problem with carrying supplies, Fleetwind pointed out, "I've got some room still in subspace, though not a lot." He was, after all, a Seeker, and not equipped as a transport. When the Constructicon made further recommendations, he stood and offered, "I can take one of the early watches. I managed a partial defrag while I was buried." The casual tone in which this is said almost seemed to imply that it was an every day thing.
OOC: No problem at all with the time skip, Hook!
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