|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 27, 2007 9:26:06 GMT -5
The rosy fingers of dawn turn sticky with golden honey, setting Emirate Xaaron's form ablaze, as if the aureate Emirate was made of molten metal. Overall gold with silver accents was fine enough on Cybertron, in the darkness, but on a world with a sun, he's downright hazardous to look directly at in the morning. Catching sight of the dazzling reflected light off his hands, he tries to hide in the shadows. Primus, could he be a worse beacon?
A hand over his optics just to cut down on his own blasted glare, he listens along to Perceptor's deductions and notes, "If we can get Omega Supreme properly fuelled, we could make it back to Cybertron," thanks to cartoon physics.
He watches Synapse transform, adding that detail to his memory banks and also the view of the cockpit. He nods and agrees, "I'll follow with Long Haul. You can transmit us a map of the terrain ahead as you go?"
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 27, 2007 10:12:02 GMT -5
Even in the bright light of dawn, Long Haul is still... lime green, black, and purple. And not particularly reflective shades of any of them. He does avoid looking at Emirate Xaaron until his optics have adjusted to the glare, however.
Long Haul grunts as he studies Perceptor's map. "Just getting back to the right where is only the start. Some of us are pretty far off on the when... and alla our whiches ain't the same, either."
He scans over the map, but it makes little difference to him. He's land transport, not air, and certainly not space. Then he just nods in agreement with Xaaron. "Yuh, we'll follow." With that, he hefts the cable they had used to climb up there the night before, and looks for a sturdy surface to tie it to for climbing down. As he turns away from the others, he pauses. "Good luck, guys." And then it's back to work.
|
|
|
Post by Perceptor on May 27, 2007 14:49:17 GMT -5
Perceptor studies the graphic a few moments longer, still deep in thought - conveniently missing the worst of Xaaron's glare in the process.
"I agree, Long Haul," he replies. "The question of temporal, positional, and universal displacement aside, the determination of why and how each of us was removed to this location remains to be addressed as well."
Perceptor is a scientist. Knowing how a thing happens is never enough; he wants to know the reasons behind everything, as well, even if they have no bearing on the outcome.
"Why, in particular, were each of us taken, and why were we removed from the particular moments in our existences that we were? To what purpose-"
The sound of Synapse transforming interrupts Perceptor's pending scientific soliloquy; he turns a sheepish look up at them all.
"Ahem. Ah. Errr... yes. Speculations that should wait for a more appropriate time to continue them. We will keep in contact," he explains before transforming, mass-shifting to better fit in Synapse's hold. "Thank you."
|
|
Synapse
Minor
Do not touch...please
Posts: 380
|
Post by Synapse on May 27, 2007 17:42:07 GMT -5
"I'll send along image captures of the terrain as I fly over," Synapse replies to Emirate Xaaron as he lowers the hatch.
Checking that all systems are green and that everything else is secure, Synapse fires up his boosters and hovers into the air. He waits until he is a dozen meters above the roof-top before turning west southwest, the direction that most of the radio signals that they had been receiving seemed to be coming from. His nodes have already started to sweep out in that direction, transmitting and mapping what terrain that they pick up. Synapse in turn sends it to the rest of the group.
High enough into the air, Synapse can see a glittering band of silver-blue towards the horizon, a strip of white is the only thing separating the blue from the rest of the land. Beach. On that beach he can make out a gigantic form.
"So what's the plan, Perceptor?"
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 27, 2007 20:25:15 GMT -5
Long Haul actually made sense to Emirate Xaaron. He's pretty sure that a sign of the onset of madness. Of course, this could still be a hallucination as he is slowly digested by the Chaos-Bringer, damned for an eternity of digestion. He's already decided that thinking like that is unfruitful, however. Emirate Xaaron has to treat this as real, because if he doesn't, and it is, he's screwed.
Emirate Xaaron snaps off a salute to Synapse and Perceptor as they depart and says softly, barely audibly, "Primus be with you."
After they are gone, he muses, "Ought we take the map?" They could cut up that bit of the floor. Then again, a cut up roof might look odd to anyone who comes by here. So would a star map with Cybertronian markings.
Emirate Xaaron moves to help Long Haul with the rope and something occurs to him, "How do we get the rope down once we're down?"
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 27, 2007 20:41:57 GMT -5
Long Haul points to the knot he's tying. "Should hold while we go down, and then when you yank it right, it'll come right down. We may got cranes and elevators, but sometimes to get the tricky parts when yer building, you gotta pick up a few tricks like this." Once he's done, and is satisfied with the knot, he stands and looks over at the star map. "Eh. Shouldn't take too much longer to pull it up. I got it in my memory, but... gettin' it to Omega Supreme'll be most useful."
The Constructibot trundles back to the star chart, withdraws his weapon from subspace, and adjusts it as a cutter/welder. Then, he begins to remove the star chart, sometimes cutting it, sometimes simply tearing the metal when he feels he can without destroying the chart. He's making a fair amount of noise, and at first it drowns out a strange keening...
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 27, 2007 21:00:22 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron studies the knots, looking at it from several angles and remarks, "That's quite clever! Handy, too." He smiles, seeming quite pleased. Emirate Xaaron will take his happiness where he can find it.
Since Long Haul is busy tearing up the star map, Emirate Xaaron starts pacing around the perimeter of the roof, looking out to see if anything has changed since last evening. The city looks much the same to him. When he reaches the spot on the roof that is farthest from Long Haul and the noise that he is causing, he pauses, stiffening.
Emirate Xaaron leans over the edge of the roof slightly, cupping a hand to his audio. There's definitely something out there that he hadn't heard before. He turns and looks to Long Haul, reporting, "Something's... keening. Be aware."
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 27, 2007 21:05:59 GMT -5
Long Haul is almost done! But at Xaaron's warning, he stops for the moment, and tilts his head to listen. "I don-" Then the keening sounds again. The sound is much like a wild animal, but somewhat synthesized, different from an animal's noise in the same way most Transformers' voices differ from organic speakers'. It also sounds somewhat... desperate. Almost pathetic. "Ah, yeah... I hear it..." he grumbles.
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 27, 2007 21:19:24 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron frowns and paces about the roof, trying to get a bearing the direction from which the sound is originating. Aloud, he theorises, "It could be a threat. Doesn't sound like it is approaching, however. The position seems static. Dare we investigate? It's just the two of us. We don't have our comrades here to assist."
Belatedly, he thinks that he ought to kick himself. Telling someone new to danger that something is dangerous is usually the quickest way to get him to want to try it. It takes experience with war to learn what a blessing boredom is.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 27, 2007 21:29:19 GMT -5
And guess what? Long Haul is a mechanoid who's spent all his life in boring, and is downright eager to try something else out instead.
He's also brave-to-the-point-of-stupid.
The transport gets back to work, cutting the rest of the chart away. He shrugs, and tries to act casual to hide his eagerness, but his voice easily gives him away. He's a horrible, horrible deceiver. "Yeah, well, uhm... maybe we oughta better. Just... just in case... I mean, we doan want nothing sneaking up behind, right?" Smooth one, Long Haul!
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 27, 2007 21:52:13 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron covers half his face with a hand. He knows that look. It is often replaced by that faint look of surprise and horror that one sees on corpses that have has large holes shot through their torsos.
Then again, if Long Haul gets injured now - mildly so - they'll be delayed. That could stall them from having to deal with Omega Supreme. With a faint unsettling smile, he agrees, "We shall investigate, then. You are correct. We don't want to be attacked from behind at all." Emirate Xaaron smiles beatifically. Long Haul should probably be worried by how easily the Emirate agreed.
He continues to listens, squinting at the other rooftops. Xaaron points and surmises, "Seems to be coming from over there." It's the direction of what looks like a helicopter pad on top of a multi-level garage.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 27, 2007 22:01:44 GMT -5
Long Haul doesn't know Xaaron well enough to be worried by how easily the other agreed. Long Haul is also absurdly trusting, as has already been noted.
The transport picks up the meta star chart and trudges over to where the Emirate stands. He nods. "Ah, arright." Then he surveys the city. He puts down the metal, and seems to silently count off a few things on his hands. Occasionally, he lifts his right or left hand, and seems to try to trace something out in the air. Then he nods once more. "Right... seems to be more or less a main road... a few curves here or there, but still, pretty important road." He picks back up the star chart, walks to the edge of the building, and drops it off the roof, causing the thing to land with a clang on the metal ground. Then he turns to Xaaron. "Don't think it'll be too hard to get from here to there once we're down on the ground, not if'n this place is laid out in any way what makes any sense at all."
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 27, 2007 22:31:39 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron winces as Long Haul manhandles the map. He peers over the roof's edge. It seems to have held up well enough, despite the drop. Emirate Xaaron says, "Lead the way, then."
Despite his words, he shimmies down the rope, which obligingly holds his weight. If the situation was really critical, it would, of course, break. He steps away from the rope and looks in the direction of the garage. He patiently waits for Long Haul to come down the rope, evidently in no hurry to discover whatever it is that it producing the keening.
|
|
|
Post by Long Haul on May 27, 2007 22:44:34 GMT -5
Long Haul watches Xaaron lower himself and, somewhat less gracefully, follows. Still, his arms and his grip are both quite strong, and he makes it down easily enough. Once down, he grabs hold of the cable, looks up along it, and shake-jerks it over to the left.
Nothing happens.
His optic band flashes, and he shake-jerks it again, this time to the right.
Again, nothing happens.
He growls softly, shake-jerk-tugs, and this time the cable comes loose, falling directly down on Long Haul, the metal cable clanging and clattering against metal robot and metal ground. It's not enough to knock the heavy construction mech over, but it is enough to elicit a faceless glower. "Dammit," he mutters, then shakes the cable off and hands it to Xaaron. "Here you go."
Long Haul transforms back into dump truck mode, then shouts, "Load that and the chart up." Then he pauses, hesitating, before growling, "And then climb in yourself. It'll go faster this way."
|
|
|
Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 28, 2007 9:52:14 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron begins to doubt Long Haul's knot-tying prowess. He stares up at the tied end of the rope, a hand over his optics for shade. Then, the rope finally tugs loose, and Emirate Xaaron takes a few hasty steps away. He winces as the rope clonks into Long Haul and, tone diplomatic, jests, "That was part of your plan, I trust?"
He takes the rope and the chart and loads them onto Long Haul's bed. Then, after a moment, he loads himself and says, "Thank you." He firmly grips the dump truck's sidewall, not keen on falling out.
The keening is erratic. Some elements are semi-repeating, but it seems to be randomly seeded. At times, it pauses, as if expecting a response. Emirate Xaaron dims his optics and murmurs, "It's a hail, and it's not getting the correct response, so it's repeating."
|
|