Mine shafts

[Jetstorm (BM)]

Being high up and at the eye level of these big guys seems something special. Jetstorm liked it, and it almost made him feel giddy, like a little kid! Even though there was no such thing as ‘little kids’ where he was from, the point was still there. He grabbed a hold of Spinster’s shoulder and nodded. “Yes... I don’t have a boss here, and it seems that if I’m going to survive, I’m stuck with you guys, and whoever your boss is. And I don’t want to be a paperweight, whatever that is, I’ll pull weight...” he admitted, sighing. His personal conscience whined about having to do work, but he ignored it.

“Maximals... Are the scum of Cybertron. They’re half organic, half technological freaks of the universe and all they seem to do is exist to change Cybertron from its beautiful mechanical state into a state of techno-organicism,” Jetstorm explained to Spinster as he looked up at him, and mimics a yawn as his internal sensors buzz about low fuel. He keeps one claw down on the larger bot’s shoulder as he rubs the side of his head. “Can’t tell ya more if I pass out though, man, I hate dark places.”

Just as he was about to say more, a voice half buzzed in his head that wasn’t one of the familiar ones and went about insulting Vehicons! Jetstorm straightened up as he listened and then almost hissed his reply, // Is... This thing on? And who’s calling me a drone? You pathetic slaggin’ glitch, I’m well beyond a mindless piece of scrap! //

[Spinister]

Dead End answers Thundercracker's questions about Skywarp, and Spinister brings out a datapad and files down a note thoughtfully. He scribbles down some more notes when Jetstorm explains about Maximals. Since Dead End has gone through the trouble of mentioning the 'squishies', Spinister decides to explain the matter a bit more thoroughly. "There are currently four Decepticon-allied Nebulans on the planet. Nebulans are small organisms that resemble humans, if you are familiar with humans. However, all of the Decepticon-allied Nebulans that you will encounter here have been bio-engineered and equipped with exo-suits. Singe, transform."

With a grumble, Singe complies, and Spinister now has a Vehicon on his shoulder and a rather grumpy Nebulan in his hand. Singe is a few feet shorter than Jetstorm, so the Vehicon general may take some comfort in that fact.

Spinister continues, "The other three will be outfitted in similar fashion to Singe and answer to either Hairsplitter, Sunbeam, or Zigzag. The Predacons Blackarachnia and Sky-byte are also partially organic. Any other organic creatures are unknowns and should be treated as such."

He takes a few steps away from the mine, out into the light. Taking in Thundercracker and Dead End with his glance, Spinister notes, "I am authorised by Lord Starscream," now there's a quirk - calling Starscream 'lord', "to assay your abilities and weapons for later reporting to him. Even odd hobbies. What sort of duties and responsibilities do you usually handle? Jetstorm, this goes for you as well. In addition, I'd like a brief rundown of the situation from which you were just pulled. Important terms and technological benchmarks should also be listed."

"Now, let's get Jetstorm a drink. We can walk and talk." Spinister shoots a glance down the mine and starts to head for their store. He has some sample vials that he can use to pour a bit of energon into for the small jet.

[Thundercracker]

Thundercracker listens carefully to Dead End's explanation, nodding as he processes the information. Definitley not a dream or an afterlife. Alternate universes aren't that hard to grasp either -- apparently Skywarp's insistence that Thundercracker sit down with him to watch cheesy human sci-fi films has paid off. A Long Haul on the Autobot side is a little more difficult to swallow, but all the same he can respect Hook's wishes. And though he would probably cut off his own wings before admitting it, he's never been eager to harm humans, so leaving these Nebulons alone (strange creatures, these transforming organics, but then, wasn't this whole situation strange?) won't be a problem.

"A planet that is a crossing point for many realities and timelines..." He ponders that. "I'm no scientist, but the idea's fascinating enough to think about." He can't say he's too happy to see Starscream, but a familiar face is a familiar face, and he can't be too choosy.

Then a particular remark sinks in. "I was dead?" After a moment where his CPU scrambles to fit itself around that fact, he forcibly reminds himself alternate timelines. "Well... interesting," is all he tells Dead End, though his tone of voice suggests that's a definite understatement.

At Spinister's suggestion he nods his agreement and moves to follow the helicoptor. "Spinister, my primary function is as a warrior, though sometimes I acted as a scout if no one else was available. My weaponry includes a standard-issue laser pistol, a drone rocket, and an automatic incidenary gun. I can also create sonic booms when the need arises. Hobbies? Well... mostly flying, though Skywarp did get me halfway hooked on human cinema." Slag, he'd hoped that Seeker would show -- he would have made this situation halfway bearable. But judging from Dead End's explanation, perhaps he would appear later on. That was some comfort.

[Dead End]

"Apparently your other version arrived badly wounded and died before he could get anywhere. If he's from anything like my own history, I can even guess from when. And if you're from a history like my own, trust me when I say you've probably got more future here than back there. At least you won't lack for spare parts now... minus what we used for patching up Needlenose," Dead End adds with a tone of morbid amusement.

"I supposed I should give you the full rundown," Dead End tells Spinister. "Your version of me may not be at all like me. I am a member of the Stunticon gestalt team. We were created by Megatron in 1986 as an elite anti-Autobot, Decepticon automotive terrorist squad. Myself, Wildrider, Breakdown, Drag Strip and Motormaster, with Motormaster leading. We answered only to Megatron." And whether we bothered to do that depended on Motormaster's mood...

"My primary function is warrior; I am equipped with an air concussion rifle in robot mode and vehicular mounted blasters in car mode--though sometimes I use a standard photon pistol for pinpoint work," Dead End lists off his MOS in a bored tone. "I am also one of Menasor's arms, but that's moot; no doubt I'll be dead long before we find enough of my brothers to reform him. My secondary function is radar tracking, and my tertiary function is mapping and navigation. I have a fairly powerful radar array and the routines for radar terrain-mapping--which you might have noticed, since I've been providing all the other maps that Fleetwind didn't."

"I can fly in robot mode, and I'm a very fast car in auto mode," Dead End drones on. What else was he supposed to bore this odd lovechild of Vortex and Arcee with? Ah, he'd seemed curious about the forcefields. "Megatron built us all with skin-surface forcefields. As Hook can tell you, they're rather finicky, but useful. Unfortunately, the Autobots designed the Aerialbots specifically to breach our defenses."

"Megatron usually sent us after specific targets that required infiltration into human areas before striking. The first time we were sent out, the humans mistook us for Autobots, because we were cars." Dead End sounds vaguely amused.

He sounds less amused when he continues, "Galvatron only bothered to use us for Menasor. He had no interest in our other capabilities. It was only a matter of time before he expended us." Could that be bitterness in Dead End's voice?

Other things are too subtle, too complex and too private to explain to outsiders, like how the five of them complemented each other's psychoses, how Motormaster drove them and Dead End provided the calm center. Or how Dead End seemed to be the only Transformer who was aware that he was going to die someday, no matter what, and why couldn't the rest of you see that?

"Hobbies? Keeping myself polished and properly maintained isn't really a hobby," Dead End points out. "I do have sufficient technical skill to handle my own preventative maintenance--one just doesn't go running to Scrapper or Starscream everytime a few bolts work loose. I have a nice collection of ebooks, if that counts. Clark Ashton Smith is much more interesting than Motormaster."

[Jetstorm (BM)]

“Hi, my name’s Jetstorm, I’m a Vehicon Aero General, my likes including slagging Maximals, racing my -ahem- friend Thrust through the city, dramatic performances at night, and odd music from these transmissions in my head. My dislikes include Maximals, drones who are stupid, dark enclosed spaces, and Megatron. I enjoy operatic performances from other planets, using my fusion particle cannons to shoot things, and long flights through the twilight sky.”

The Vehicon’s voice sound so oddly like a cheesy love-show announcer, though nobody would have recognized it. He ran a hand along the side of his head, his horns fanning out as he cleaned himself up. “And my good sir, not only will I do my best if you let me fight... I would love a drink. As long as you’re not hitting on me, yes. A drink sounds divine.”

Just add ‘dahling’ to the end of his sentence, and one can get a feel on how much his own voice varies when he’s just normally talking. How... Quirky.

[Sky-byte]

The sound of voices echoing about in the mines is enough to lead Sky-byte to the small gathering. Whether or not it's worth the detour is debatable. The Predacon stares at the new flier. So, that one's obviously one of those Decepticon jets, then where's that smart-mouthed Vehicon....What in the world is that clashing with Spinister's paint job?

Sky-byte stops his flight and transforms, unsymmetrical robot soon replacing the obscenely large shark. The blue thing looks to be alive and overflowing with verbosity. So, this is the Vehicon. Tiny, but...definitely not a drone. All the more reason for him not to be mouthing off like that over the radio at Sky-byte!

"Huh, and I thought that we might actually have had something special here."

[Spinister]

Thundercracker has likely been considered dead a few times in Spinister's timeline. The details are a bit sketchy. A lot of people have been dead a few times. According to Needlenose, Spinister would have been mostly dead soon if he had but stayed in the universe where he was supposed to be. However, those from Dead End's universe seem to be quite familiar with the idea of a dead Thundercracker. Dead End is, anyway. So the corpse is probably from that timeline, for whatever it is worth.

Wanting both of his hands free to take notes, he settles Singe on his other shoulder. Singe peers around the back of Spinister's head at Jetstorm skeptically. One may note that Spinister writes left-handed. His hand-writing is a fairly neat cursive, however, with a sort of clipped precision to it. It's also backwards. Everything is mirrored. As encryptions go, it's laughable; cracked by holding it up to a mirror, but it's a headache for anyone reading over his shoulder, like Jetstorm or Singe might be.

Spinister comments, "Thank you." It's a generic 'thank you' that goes for everyone. They're all being nicely cooperative so far.

Thundercracker relays fairly similar specifications to his universe's Thundercracker. He's opened a new file for the Seeker and for each of these people, even if he had files on them in his old universe. Spinister's datapad is interesting. It seems to be quite a normal secured military datapad, but Spinister keeps it partitioned for even better security. He's thinking about rigging it to explode, too, and possibly installing a blade in the stylus. Spinister is never bored.

What Dead End has to say is a little more interesting. Spinister's helicopter blades perk slightly. He makes a few underlines at the mention of robot mode flight and the forcefields. Spinister's Dead End would envy this Dead End, not least of all for the reason that he seems to have all of teammates still alive.

Spinister is most assuredly not hitting on Jetstorm. Needlenose would have to have words with Spinister if Spinister was. Confused, Spinister lets the issue pass without comment.

He looks up at Sky-byte. Nothing special here? But Dead End has found for them two blue jets! They even come in different sizes. You could accessorise with them. That's what Needlenose would say, isn't it? Since Sky-byte hasn't introduced himself to the new arrivals, Spinister gestures with the stylus and explains, "That's Sky-byte. A few more questions. Dead End, is robot-mode flight common in your reality? Sky-byte, Jetstorm, what exactly do you mean by Vehicon drones?" Maybe they're like facsimile constructs. "All of you, can you think of any interesting or notable technologies that your reality possesses, along those lines? Could you give me a brief summary of your universe's history?"

Spinister is not just concerned about what has appeared. He is concerned about what could appear. He also realises that if they pool their technological resources, they may be able to come up with a few interesting things. He continues walking. They ought to get to the energon store soon enough. Didn't Dead End mention rigging an explosive or something on the door?

[Thundercracker]

Thundercracker catches himself staring at Sky-Byte, then shakes his head. "Sorry for staring," he tells the Predacon, "but I haven't seen a lot of mechs with beast modes. The only ones I'm familiar with are the Dinobots." He shudders and hopes none of those brutes has managed to pop up anywhere on this planet.

Dead End's comment about his body was probably aimed to unsettle him, but instead it triggers a strange urge to see "his" body for himself, if only to pay respects. He and this other Thundercracker are linked -- their lives were similar, if not nearly identical, and the courses of their lives brought their paths to cross here.

To Spinister he says "Like I said, I'm no scientist. Never much cared for Megatron's obsession with superweapons. We've got gestalt tech, but you probably already know about that." He nods at Dead End. "We've got the space bridge, though fragged if I know how it works.

"History? Far as I know, it's always been about the Autobots and Decepticons trying to pound each other into scrap. Autobots developed transforming technology and got the upper hand for awhile -- they call it the Golden Age, though I'm sure the 'Cons called it something different. Then Megatron popped up and the 'Cons got transforming tech as well, added on gestalt tech and robot flight, and the war started all over again.

"I was created sometime during the most recent war and joined Megatron's army." Why he did he's no longer certain, but he opts not to tell that to Spinister. "The war ended up draining all Cybertron's energy, so the Autobots sent off a ship to find more energon. Megatron chased after them, both ships crashed on Earth, we went into stasis for four million years or so, then a volcano awakened us and started the fighting all over again." He huffs a sigh through his vents. "And somewhere in the middle of all that fighting I came here."

[Dead End]

The energon bunker was quite close to the mineshaft, actually; they all arrive there after just a few minutes of walking. Dead End went ahead and pretended to fiddle with the wires in the goo stuck to the door, then peeled the whole thing off. No one had disturbed it so far, so perhaps it was working.

"You can go in now," Dead End said, and added privately to Spinister, // Not that it was actually wired up. It would be... foolish to detonate our entire fuel supply just because one person got hungry; it was merely a deterrent to the stupid and casual. //

He brought out a cube for the newcomers; unless Thundercracker's tanks were dry, he wasn't likely to drink the whole thing at once, and hopefully Jetstorm only required a little bit. "Spinister, do you need any extra?"

"Robot-mode flight is common among my Decepticons, very rare among my universe's Autobots, though it was becoming more common in the last year or so. So was interstellar flight, for that matter, ever since Unicron and the coming of Galvatron," Dead End adds thoughtfully.

"Hmm... you'll probably want to know about the possible death of Megatron and Unicron's attack. And Starscream's very brief reign as leader and Emperor. Really, I don't know where to begin. For more ancient history, Starscream might be the one to talk to. I've heard stories that he is from before the war, and knew people who are now Autobots back when they were neutrals. I hardly know as much as what Thundercracker just told you about ancient history--oh wait, he wouldn't know about the Quintessons. They re-appeared after his time."

He glances toward Thundercracker. "I think they were called 'The Builders', back before we had a proper name for them. They are a worse enemy than the Autobots, and more treacherous than Starscream. Even Galvatron has stopped dealing with them."

"My team was built in the modern era, of course, and the Autobots created the Aerialbots to oppose us. One of whom showed up at the battle of the mesa, by the way... as did Kup."

"Oh, and our Optimus Prime is dead. I suppose you'll want to hear about that, too."

[Jetstorm (BM)]

A glare is tossed in the direction of Sky-Bite, before he’s promptly ignored and dismissed as an annoyance. Jetstorm makes the decision that annoyances like that shouldn’t be dealt with.

He leans back a bit onto Spinster’s shoulder as the larger bot walks, his optics to the skies. Something inside him just was all excited to start flying again, after all, look at those skies! They were just calling his name! Or that may have been one of the voices in his head. Either way, something was calling his name, and he wanted to fly. When he’s called upon to answer another question he jumps a bit back into reality.

“Drones are just like, mini-me’s in terms of shape. They’re smaller, they possess less firepower, and stuff. But they’re just like... Yanno. Stupid. They have no means of free will or a mind of their own. I don’t like ‘em because they’re stupid but I’d use ‘em back on Cybertron because if I didn’t, I’d probably get yelled at,” he explains as he looks back down at Spinster’s notepad and then points. “Don’t put down me gettin yelled at.”

“I dunno about technology though,” he continues, “As long as my comrades and I could slag things, that’s all that mattered. That, and not running out of fuel oh for the love of all things mechanical I’m running low.” His thoughts quickly went off topic as they moved into the fueling area. “Might have to put me down, or something...” he stated the obvious as he stared at the glowing cube and then back over at Spinster.

[Sky-byte]

Talked down to, ignored, mocked, ordered around....there's only so much a shark can take in the course of a few days (why do the blue seekers always seem to be the slightly reasonable ones?). Sky-byte spares one last glare at the Decepticon's retreating (in his mind) backs and stalks in the opposite direction. Never mind Spinister's question and the splurge of various Decepticon information going on behind him.

If allowed to leave, he transforms and launches himself into the air, quite intent on leaving them behind and setting out on his exploration.

[Spinister]

Thundercracker does not offer the most detailed of summaries, but it's enough to give Spinister pause. They developed transformation technology. So they were not granted it by Primus? That corroborates with some of them not even knowing who Primus is. It's rather disturbing to think that mere machines without divine souls could aspire to become true Transformers, but he really cannot see anything about this Thundercracker, this Dead End, et cetera that would set him off about thinking they are alien forgeries. Besides, Spinister has seen at least some of them fight. Nothing that does not live is so zealous about avoiding death.

Speaking of fighting, he's getting the idea that one-on-one sparring matches with himself may not be the best way to gauge combat readiness. The problem with a sparring match is that if someone gets in close, Spinster isn't very good there and tends to snap like a twig. However, if he can get out to a decent range, his sparring partner will quickly find himself hamstrung by a well-placed shot and then facing down a target lock on his core. Game over. All of this says nothing about the opponent's abilities. It just says that Spinister is very good at ranged combat and not great at melee, and he knows that already.

He's thinking that maybe breaking people into teams and having them do some team sparring will be a better idea. It'll get these people used to working with each other and maybe rattle their comfort zones a bit. There are a lot of them, so ones where he's a little surer of their capabilities, he might hand off to Needlenose. Spinister thinks he knows Needlenose's combat abilities, but letting him run drills will test his judgment, observation, and assessment abilities.

Spinister radios privately back to Dead End, // I know. I'll find a proper lock. // By 'find', he probably means 'kitbash out of extant materials and say that he found so that no one gets the bright idea of assigning Spinister to help build the weapon of the week'. Spinister has nothing but respect for the hard-working engineers and technicians of the Decepticon Empire, but he has no desire to join them just because he knows how to use a wrench. He does note that Dead End is being a bit evasive. If he'll 'want to know about blah or blah', Dead End can just say it. Spinister may have to press him later.

He shakes his head at the cube. No, he's not hungry. Spinister's really more inclined to go out and shoot down a dirigible on his own than drink this stuff.

When Jetstorm says not to write down the bit bout him getting yelled at, Spinister does pause with his stylus and his mirror-writing. He takes the moment to put away his datapad and withdraw a tiny sample vial, usually used for forensics work. It's about the size of a bucket to Jetstorm. Delicately, Spinister dips the vial into the cube and then passes the vial up to Jetstorm.

Assuming that Jetstorm takes the vial, Spinister flicks his fingers clean and notes, "You've all had live fire experience, then, if no actual kills. Jetstorm, you're used to drone assistance, Dead End to other Stunticons, and Thundercracker to other Seekers. Correct?"

Given that Sky-byte just deeked out on them, and Spinister will have to hunt him down, they definitely need to do some team drills. Spinister's even going to try to break up the teams as much as he can. No letting all the Seekers be on one team.

[Thundercracker]

"I'll take some of that," Thundercracker tells Dead End, and he accepts the cube and drains about a quarter of it before handing it back. He'd refueled shortly before whatever dimensional/temporal anamoly that brought him here happened, so he only needed topping off. Still, one never passed up an opportunity to refuel -- you never knew when it would be your last.

He mulls over this latest information from Dead End. From the sounds of it, he escaped his reality just in time. Megatron and Optimus Prime both dead? Well, it had only been a matter of time; those two slagging hated each other. At times Thundercracker had been privately convinced that this entire war had become nothing more than a grudge match between the Autobot leader and the Decepticon warlord.

"From what you've told me, Dead End, there's one blessing in being yanked to this reality -- I'll miss out on a slagging lot." He cocks his head to one side. "Who's this Galvatron? Megatron never named his successor, or at least not to his troops. Guess we always assumed Starscream or Shockwave would take over."

To Spinister he replied "Yeah, I mostly worked with other Seekers. We were a good fighting team, one of the best. Sorry if I've been kinda vague; getting sucked into alternate realities kinda throws one's faculties outta whack. But I'm sure you knew that."

He looks at Jetstorm again. "Vehicon, eh? Never seen anything like you before. Those drones you describe almost sound like the Insecticon clones, heh. Maybe our realities aren't so different."

He looks around for Sky-Byte, but the shark is gone. Ah well. Maybe they'll meet up again at a later date.

[Dead End]

Dead End nods in acknowledgment at Spinister. "You are correct; I have only worked with my--with the other Stunticons before, though sometimes we are split into smaller groups for particular missions."

Dead End looks at Thundercracker for a moment, then glances at Spinister, his visor brightening slightly.

"I suppose it's story-time," he says dourly. Have no doubt it's a grim and tragic story. "To explain Galvatron, I have to explain Unicron, and what happened to Starscream, and the fate of Megatron, and the raid that cost us everything, including you and Skywarp... and Spinister probably wants to know all this too."

Dead End takes back the partially-drained cube and stows it; he'll take it to Hook if no one else pops up starving. The base design business will probably have Hook working until he collapses from fuel starvation, if he doesn't burn out his CPUs first.

He picks an abandoned earthmover and sits down on it. "Who knows if things go anything like this in your universe, Spinister? But for myself, Hook, Fleetwind, Starfighter, Starscream, Thundercracker, and possibly others that I'm not sure if are from my reality or yours or some other... they go badly."

"By 2005 we had pushed the Autobots off of Cybertron; they retained a toehold on the two moons, and their bases on Earth along with their human allies. I've been told that Megatron opted to strike at the Autobot's powerbase on Earth. According to Starscream shortly after the raid, that was a fatally risky, 'go-for-broke' strategy and it was all Megatron's fault things went wrong. I am not a strategist, so I have no informed opinion on that matter." No, Dead End is not going to say blatantly that Starscream's opinion might have been somewhat biased, but he's sure that Spinister can figure that out for himself.

"Megatron did not take we Stunticons on the raid. He took the Constructicons, Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Soundwave and his cassettes, Blitzwing, Astrotrain, and the Insecticons, that I know of. As I understand it, they captured an Autobot shuttle over the dead shells of some of Optimus Prime's elite cadre--possibly one of the few good things out of that raid," Dead End says gloomily.

"I've heard different versions of what happened down there; you'll have to find someone who was actually on the raid, from after 2005, to get the details. Optimus Prime was killed by Megatron, that much no one disagrees about. Megatron was gravely wounded by Prime; how gravely, was a matter of political debate. What I know is that Starscream returned to Cybertron in Astrotrain, on the last dregs of the latter's fuel, but without Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercracker, or the Insecticons. Supposedly they were all killed in battle with the Autobots, and the bodies jettisoned to save fuel. Starscream claimed leadership of the Decepticons as you might expect."

Dead End takes out the partially-drained cube and takes a long sip, refreshing himself. He's been very busy walking about and talking to people. His pause and silence seem to invite questions.

[Jetstorm (BM)]

A bucket sized amount of fuel, man, he wasn’t allowed this much before. Jetstorm happily took it, ‘drinking’ it through a fuel port on his side. His horns fanned out to the side as he drank, and one could almost see the cheesy, stupid grin on his nonexistent face. He returned the empty ‘bucket’ to Spinster and shot up into the air, happy to be flying once more. His quick actions even said ‘I am happy look at me go I am happy!’

“Hee. Well, yeah. I’ve killed stuff. Uh. I forget though, but I’ve killed stuff. Temporarily, I think? Yeah,” Jetstorm said a bit slowly as he thought, floating along and putting a finger to his faceplate in thought. “And my my, it feels good to fly again, doesn’t it? Oh yes. It does,” he says as he turns a lazy flip and then stretches his arms. “I’m so awesome,” he half declares to himself.

“Insecticons? They sound delightful,” Jetstorm says as he floats a bit near Thundercracker and then leans back in the air as if he’s at some sort of bar. “Maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but I know one thing, you are not a bad bot. Because you’re blue. And I’m assuming you can fly. It’s like a win win combination baby.” He snaps his ‘fingers’ and assumes the familiar Fonz ‘Ayeee’ position.

There’s something that resembles a hiccup from Jetstorm as he talks again, “Your reality sounds like a bummer,” he says as he looks over at Dead End and shrugs. “But... Man what are you talking about ‘Optimus Prime?’ I got one, but it’s ‘Optimus Primal’ not ‘Prime.’ And he’s a monkey... Thing. Jeeze, he’s crazy too. Like, the bad crazy not like the me crazy.” Jetstorm half shivers and he looks a bit confused. “He thinks he’s a good guy but he wants to turn Cybertron, long lived home of the Transformers, into some half organic mess. Slag, that’s stupid.”