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Post by Kup on Jul 22, 2007 18:13:59 GMT -5
Kup relaxes slightly as the spark appears to stabilize and Jazz returns to consciousness. He subspaces his gun, steps nearer to the group, and puts a hand on Long Haul's shoulder. "Well done, lad," he says as soft praise. Then he moves back again and transforms.
"If he's stable enough to move, you can put him back here. That way Long Haul can still keep an eye on him."
He doesn't even point out that since his arrival, Kup's done considerably more hauling than Long Haul! Kid's been busy enough as-is.
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Post by Long Haul on Jul 22, 2007 18:47:53 GMT -5
Long Haul slumps in sudden relief as it works, and Jazz's spark is, at least for the moment, stabilized. His optic band goes black for a moment, and he's still. Not long, but probably long enough to get some of the more hardened hands present annoyed with him. Then he shakes his head and his band blinks back to life.
"S'just temporary," he reports. "We can move him now, but... if we don't get him fixed proper, and soon, he'll still..."
He gently picks up Jazz's upper half, but does not answer his questions, leaving that to the others. Lousey Constructibot bedside manner! He puts the other Autobot in the back of Kup's pick-up bed and then climbs in with him. Good thing Constructic- er, bots are so much smaller in robot mode than alternate mode. This means there's no room for Jazz's bottom half, though; someone else will have to carry that.
Before the green-grey pick-up can start moving, though, Long Haul tries to catch Emirate Xaaron's eye.
"What's in there, it's different, but there are... echos. Kinda hard to explain it. But... like, I been looking at the stuff here, and a lotta it I can figure out, 'cos you know, electrons, they tend to run the same way no matter what. But I can tell what makes it run here, it ain't Cybertronian technology. But these guys... they're different from anything back home, true, but... I... s'just feels more Cybertronian than, say, the stuff on this planet."
The mech is obviously flailing for words, trying to force his wholly insufficient vocabulary into contortions it was not meant for. But now the hard part is past, and he goes on. "He's gonna need a more competent medic, and he's gonna need parts. We can get by on a delay with one if we get the other, but both we're still gonna need pretty quick. And, erm, I think Cybertronian parts, even our Cybertronian parts, would make for faster adapting, if you get my meaning." Long Haul watches Xaaron's reaction with earnest. After all, the sort of thing he's suggesting is rarely well-received out of his own small group of work-mates...
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Jul 22, 2007 19:39:19 GMT -5
Waiting patiently – and this is a feat in and of itself – is Holi with a pile of paint bottles and a mecha-dragonet firmly strapped into another seat, squalling about its predicament. Oh, sure, now it isn't angry at him; it just wants him to let it loose.
"I'm sorry," he says to it in an abiding tone. The tone, in fact, he typically uses to explain things when Jan is being thicker than usual. "But we have to stay here. We could leave any minute now!" It squirms against its restraints and whines at him in what can only be a pleading way. He makes a face and looks the other way. "That isn't going to work on me, you know!"
He still ends up shooting quick glances its way as it squeals unhappily. Maybe… no! No letting your sympathies get the better of you, Holi!
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Post by Bumblebee on Jul 22, 2007 21:58:32 GMT -5
Bumblebee slumps as the moment has passed. Jazz is okay. For now. Components fold themselves away and his spark retreats into its chamber as he walked toward Jazz's lower half, carrying it as best he could out of sight from his friend. Not trying to hide it from him, but placing it right next to him would just be alarming.
#...I will try to fix you..#*
To Jazz he transmitted again: //we are far from home. these are our new friends. despite their appearance they are autobots from a different cybertron to ours. we need to get you repaired and together we will work together to find a way home.//
*Fix You - Coldplay
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Omega Supreme
Minor
Shorter and Coloured Funny but Still Angry as the Pit
Posts: 456
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Post by Omega Supreme on Jul 23, 2007 8:01:22 GMT -5
Omega Supreme sits with his big ramp down and waits for the procession to alternatively wheel and walk into him.
He wouldn't tell anyone, but when someone squirms in one of his seats it kind of tickles. At least the dragon hasn't taken to gnawing on the straps. He could feel that!
Sounding vaguely concerned, he inquires of Holi, "Paint: secure?"
The last thing they need is paint flying around when he launches and clinking someone in the head. It'd be really bad if a can burst open, got inside Jazz, and damaged some critical system.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Jul 23, 2007 8:20:26 GMT -5
Primus should be afraid of Xaaron. Xaaron knows where Primus lives. He knows where his Primus lives, anyway.
Emirate Xaaron cannot suppress a chuckle and murmurs, "Chatty fellow, isn't he?" He cannot name many who would be so talkative so near to death. If they do fail, Jazz isn't going to have last words. He's going to have a last novel.
He nods and agrees, "I know what you mean. It's like someone took the same core technologies and ideas and developed them differently. They turned left when we turned right. It's what we would have been, if events had just gone a bit differently. See, I think they use some sort of matter compaction instead of subspace." He pauses and shakes his head. "No idea how it works. I've been out of this business too long, but it's how it looks to me."
Emirate Xaaron is able to read between the lines that Long Haul's words are skipping around and thinks back to a little thing that was mentioned quite a while ago. It seems like a while, anyway, even if it wasn't. Swerve and Arcee found an Optimus Prime corpse, did they not? He reaches out to give Long Haul a pat and notes slyly, "I think it's what the old boy would want. What's nobler than saving a life even after you've died?"
It certainly makes more sense than shooting the corpse into space.
He makes his way up the ramp and into Omega Supreme, looking for a place where they might put Jazz. Looks like Omega Supreme has a chintzy little fold-out table stowed away. That might do.
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Jazz
Rookie
SugarSugarBoozeSugarSugarBoozeSugarSugar!
Posts: 175
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Post by Jazz on Jul 23, 2007 9:08:15 GMT -5
Just imagine, Emirate, if Jazz wasn't close to death. He'd probably be driving everyone a little crazy.
The radio conversation does seem to give him a little more... hope? Someone Jazz hasn't seen for a very long time showing up suddenly. He can't die here. Not until he catches up to the sky painter. And there's so much more that he needs to do-- to ask--
Jazz isn't in any position to protest when Long Haul figures out how to shut off his radio.
Actually, that's usually the FIRST thing Ratchet does to him.
He can't help being disappointed though. Without the conversation to maintain, Jazz is faced with the wall of pain, and the low murmurs of the strangers around him.
And the thoughts. No one had to say that he was critical, or imply that without more aid he'll probably die. Jazz can feel it. It's a slow tingling numbness that's mingling with the screaming pain, and the jolts that come from being moved. Conserving strength, a medic once told him, meant shutting down non-essential systems.
He's shut down as many as he could, vocal processor aside. If any more shut down, he runs the risk of cascading failures. If he lets go of consciousness, he won't have to think about the lack of sound. Vacation from this reality.
Jazz also might not wake up again.
"Bumblebee..." Jazz manages, still fighting that urge to let go. "Tell Skyblast... 'm lookin' forward to seeing his next..."
He trails off as the entirety of his attention, strength, and focus is on not actually dying. The others around can do what they need to do, move where they need to go. He's not going to be protesting.
Wow. Jazz shut up. It took a while, didn't it?
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Post by Kup on Jul 23, 2007 10:15:17 GMT -5
While the chattering may have been annoying, the silence is... disturbing. He hears Xaaron say something about what the "old boy" would want and saving life after death, and he can't help but ask, "What're you guys talking about?"
No one bothered to tell him about the Optimus Prime corpse!
Still, he follows Emirate Xaaron up the ramp, moving as carefully as he can. Which, given that he's a pick-up, isn't that careful, but hey. He follows the small gold robot inside, and pulls up next to where the other is pulling down the emergency fold-up medical beds, then waits to be unloaded. Meanwhile, he tries to get things under control over the radio... that other Autobot that Skyblast described sounded familiar, but then, lots of things sound familiar to Kup. He's sure he'll put his finger on it in a moment...
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Post by Long Haul on Jul 23, 2007 10:46:01 GMT -5
While Long Haul rides in the back of the truck (ha ha! Someone gets to carry him for once!) he answers quietly, "A couple of the arrivals... they reported a corpse where they showed up. S'prolly our best source of parts."
Then, when Kup pulls to a stop, he hops out of the back of the pick-up as quickly as he can hop (which isn't very quick, given that he's Long Haul), and gently lifts up Jazz before transferring him to the medical table. He straps the other in place securely and adds, in clumsy attempt at comfort, "Don't worry. We'll have you proper help here soon." Then he folds down a seat next to the bed and straps himself into it.
"Soon as everyone's aboard, we should be ready to take off," he says quietly, voice subdued and still shaken.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Jul 23, 2007 14:26:57 GMT -5
Well… no, none of the paint is really that secure.
"Not really," Holi mumbles, looking at his pile of bottles. Oh dear. "I'll take care of it!" And to the task at hand he leaps with reckless abandon! That should probably be read as 'crouches with a mounting case of nerves', but the spirit is still there. He crams as many of the bottles as will fit into his little-used subspace pocket – certainly not all, but enough, he hopes – and is busy trying to bundle up the remainder in his arms as the others begin boarding. Holi keeps quiet, rather than chirping a greeting; the mood is far too grim, even for the Micromaster. As Kup rolls in, he sees why.
Holi has known only the war for… well, all his life. As the Rescue Team captain, even in Sector Two he has seen any number of battle wounds and of widely ranging severity. He is hardly numb to it, but for his dearth of years, he's far more used to the horror war can bring than someone his age probably should be.
Nevertheless, he goes very, very still at the sight of the silver Autobot. Jazz, that was the name mentioned on the radio. If he looks a little sick, he does his best to conceal it by hurriedly finishing up with the paint and clambering back to his seat.
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Post by Bumblebee on Jul 23, 2007 15:26:18 GMT -5
Bumblebee boarded the shuttle and lowered the rest of Jazz onto the ground next to his bed, and wrapped a connector around it so it wouldn't wobble around.
He did his best to keep Jazz in good spirits. //i will keep in touch with skyblast. he is concerned with your well-being.// He'd better address the inconsistencies with their time zones. //i have not met you on earth yet. i have been on earth for four of their years. what is the last thing you remember.//
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Omega Supreme
Minor
Shorter and Coloured Funny but Still Angry as the Pit
Posts: 456
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Post by Omega Supreme on Jul 23, 2007 16:42:21 GMT -5
The ramp retracts, and the doors snaps shut and seal with a frantic hiss as soon as Bumblebee's in. Omega Supreme starts the countdown right away, not waiting for everyone to get strapped in. Jazz is already secured to the medical table. That's the important thing.
The rest of them can can get strapped in during the countdown.
Then the zero hour is reached, and it's time to go. Real astronauts have to wait for hours and hours on the launch pad, and some of them don't even have windows. Autobots are spoiled and lucky.
Omega Supreme's engines open with a deafening roar. They might want to shut off their audio sensors. The vibration and rattling reaches deep.
And they're off, free of the surly grasp of Gillanan III's greedy gravitational pull.
They'll have a few moments of freefall. Then, it'll be down again, heralded by fire.
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