Wreckage
Major
One of the Quiet Ones
Posts: 554
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Post by Wreckage on Sept 27, 2007 21:51:57 GMT -5
If Wreckage knew how to look apologetic, he might. A little. Needlenose has had his undivided attention since arrival. Wreckage had merely delayed his response thinking perhaps one of the others would like to answer Needlenose first. As it is, he maintains his non-expression and, accustomed as he is to random displays of anger and violence, continues to regard the Mayhem with a steady gaze throughout the tantrum. He very silently resents being told he does not understand how to follow orders, and that he is unused to discipline. He understands these concepts very well. However, he will keep silent his protests. If Needlenose would like someone to answer questions, Wreckage can answer questions. They may not be the most elaborate or verbose of answers, and with that, Needlenose will simply have to cope.
With that, the tall white Decepticon steps forward slowly and easily. When he speaks, his voice is as flat and emotionless as ever, but there is a somewhat lighter, easier hint to the low rumble. He is… behaving.
"You wish to know my abilities," he murmurs, adding not quite as an afterthought, "sir." He is not behaving because he is intimidated by Needlenose's implied threats. He has faced far more frightening in his time. "I am one of Lord Megatron's warriors and have been for some time. I went to Earth after the Lieutenant Commander and… several others." Needlenose did not ask about comrades; Wreckage will not elaborate further. "I fight close-range." As the swords on his arms might well indicate. "That is my specialty, but I am not… unequipped to cope with opponents who are beyond the reach of my blades." The machine guns remain hidden under his swords and at his back, but there is very obviously a large energy cannon protruding from his midsection.
He shifts his weight slightly as he trails off. Talking about himself is strange. Talking this much is even more out of the ordinary. Unsurprisingly, he finds himself at something of a loss for more words.
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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on Sept 28, 2007 2:18:13 GMT -5
Skystrike stops and turns back around reluctantly. If Skystrike didn’t like him before she definitely disliked him now. Even so, the seeker simply watched impassively as Needlenose’s moods did various hundred eighty degree turns as he ranted, raved and switched right back to civilized talk. Yeup, that was definitely familiar and not a way that the berkut particularly liked, despite the fact that the sheer amount of similarities and the irony of the situation amuses her slightly.
The amusement was fleeting, however. Skystrike didn’t particularly want to stir up another in fight and not only because Needlenose had the ability to destroy entire city blocks. She wanted to live long enough to see if they could find a way back from where they came from. Making enemies with her current comrades wasn’t going to help her with that.
She listened as Wreckage spoke up with mild interest, watching the usually stoic and quiet APC spoke more words than she’d heard him say so far in one go. He seemed a bit uncomfortable at the end of it too, although that may be just Skystrike’s imagination. The seeker shrugged inwardly and turned her attention back to Needlenose, picking her words carefully.
“I was a bodyguard for a fuel distribution convoy from the beginning of the Great Shutdown until I landed here. I was a shock trooper before that.” Skystrike began, keeping the tone of her voice neutral as she spoke. “I can fly quite well. I do long and mid-ranged combat well enough,” she gestured to one shoulder cannon. “And I’d like to think I have relatively well developed hand-to-hand fighting capabilities.” If they weren’t, she wouldn’t have survived through certain parts of Cybertronian undergrounds.
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Post by Starfighter on Sept 28, 2007 22:31:24 GMT -5
Starfighter cowers against the building as Needlenose goes into his rant. When Skystrike finishes he steps forward again, stiff at attention and yet a wire's breadth from shaking like a leaf. This would be a lot easier if he could just type it up and send the whole matter by personal message instead of actually having to talk to Needlehose.
"I'm Shockwave's personal assistant and secretary, sir. I'm skilled in data analysis and research, mostly administrative duties. I've been keeping a record of information gathered here and timestamps of our Decepticons, but it's far from completed."
Nervously he offers up his datapad again, the screen now showing his profile at a level two clearance--level three being for the high command's eyes only and level four for Shockwave alone. There's also level $, which is basically levels one through four with notes scribbled in the margins, but no one cares to look at that.
"If you need more, it's here." The profile has most of his information (there isn't much to see and most of it's boring), barring the mention of his laser core disorder. The mention of 'bad seeds and poor influences' is making him wary of any potential pruning of the ranks, with a sickly accountant as the very obvious first candidate.
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Sky-byte
Minor
Worst Luck Ever
Posts: 334
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Post by Sky-byte on Sept 28, 2007 23:30:01 GMT -5
Ignoring Needlenose becomes a pointedly useless strategy. Sky-byte winces at the sound of metal being torn from its place. He looks up, only having to scrabble out of the way with much more undignified fashion than he'd like to. The reader avoids an untimely deactivation by his claws as he tosses the book in his hand further ahead to make a proper transfer.
Once having dodged the large piece of metal and having stared at Needlenose's rant/talk, Sky-byte lowers the reader to his hip, face falling. Mayhems? Discipline? Fuel thirsty killer? A shiver passes through Sky-byte's frame as he tries to look 'Not Intimidated' while seeming 'Cooperatively Loyal'. No bad apples here. Nope! Look, he's not even complaining about being lump with the Decepticons. This time.
Watching the others with a curious eye as they report their backgrounds, Sky-byte taps his foot as it comes down to him.
He clears his throat, thrusting his chest out proudly. "I'm Megatron's second in command. Well, my universe's Megatron and his glorious Predacon army," the fact that said army has been reduced to the Predacon equivalent to the Three Stooges will not be mentioned. "I specialize in melee, aquatic to be exact. I nearly incapacitated Optimus Prime in one of those battles," a relishing grin appears on his face. "I can fight long range if I have to," he says, gesturing to his spark crystal. Though his aim isn't the best. "I can also tunnel my way through most materials, anything metallic excluded. I think you already know that I can fly in beast mode."
There, is that enough for the Mayhem? Or will the shark have to clap and do tricks too?
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Post by Needlenose on Sept 29, 2007 7:15:48 GMT -5
At Sky-byte's mention of underwater combat, a quieter voice from Needlenose's side (where he has one of his Nebulans magnetically holstered, incidentally) sighs and says, "Dude, we've got to find a beach. I'm gonna just whither and die if I can't catch some waves here soon!"
Needlenose's antenna fall back with annoyance, and he hisses, "Shush, Sunbeam!" Then they perk up and he looks at the others, chuckling. "Erm, sorry about that. Sunbeam here is a surfer when he's not putting in time as one of my guns."
He listens as all the answers are provided, his demeanor still very cheerful. "See how much easier and more pleasant this is with everyone co-operating." He starts towards Starfighter, gesturing to Sky-byte and saying, "That's right. Predacon. My apologies. I keep forgetting they're a distinct faction around here." As he finishes this he glides up to Starfighter and, with the player's permission, accepts the datapad for examination. "Thank you. Thank you very much... very useful, this, though the information's a bit limited in this sort of situation."
"There's a few more questions I need answered, and you lot can get back to what you were doing. I'd like to know about the major historical events back in your own universes, with a focus on any technologies you think are significant. Besides that, I need to know who each of you engaged in combat back at the power plant, and what you were able to observe about their abilities. If you don't know names, just give descriptions; maybe someone else will know the name."
His gaze sweeps the others. "And then I'll leave you alone! Well, for now." He gestures at the non-smashed books. "Got to admit, I'm a bit curious about those."
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Wreckage
Major
One of the Quiet Ones
Posts: 554
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Post by Wreckage on Sept 30, 2007 16:06:53 GMT -5
Still more talking. This Needlenose asks for and does far too much of it.
"Long ago," begins Wreckage with a faint burst from his ventilation that might or might not be a sigh, "Lord High Protector Megatron ruled Cybertron… alongside Optimus Prime. All was peace until Lord Megatron made a bid for the All Spark. Prime denied him; war began with our armies against Prime's… rabble and our world was ruined. Eventually, Prime cast the All Spark into space while Lord Megatron was distracted by the battle at Tyger Pax. Lord Megatron alone pursued it, and both were lost." There is an unusual gravity to Wreckage's words. The disappearance of their leader was a deeper blow than the razing of Cybertron. There were many other worlds; there was only one Lord Megatron.
Now, however, there are apparently other Megatrons. If there is another Starscream, and another Scorponok – or two – that seems the most reasonable conclusion. Wreckage has yet to decide what he should think of that.
"Without the All Spark, our world began to die. Starscream, the lieutenant commander, departed with a crew in search of it and Lord Megatron." Of course, Starscream would never do something as foolish as abandon the hunt for their leader in favour of locating the All Spark and seizing its power for himself instead. That would be an act verging on the suicidal. "I was dispatched not long after as part of a separate crew to search another sector. When word came that the lieutenant commander and his complement had narrowed our quest to a single planet, I felt my place was there and left to join them." It was a rash, stupid, and impulsive action. He often tried to ignore that aspect of it in favour of the loyalty it implies. "Both were found only recently."
There is a pause while Wreckage takes a moment to recall the events of the battle. It is only the most recent in a very long chain of skirmish after sortie after ambush.
"I first engaged two," he rumbles. It had been somewhat unfulfilling in one respect. "Both seemed young. Possibly inexperienced with battle. A green flier of… unusual make. His weapon temporarily paralyses its target. And an orange ground vehicle." A momentary hitch as Wreckage searches his databanks for the appropriate word. "…Bulldozer. Armed with a cannon until I relieved him of it. He attempted close combat." The APC's tone suggests the orange Autobot was a terrible fool for making the effort. "Another came to their aid. A truck, faded green. He was a far more capable opponent," and now Wreckage's tone might almost suggest a distant sort of respect. "Physically powerful. He had two weapons, one energy blaster and one that fired acid."
Wreckage pauses once again to consider the remainder of Needlenose's request. Significant technologies? What is significant to the other Decepticons may be innocuous and commonplace to him. The Mayhem asks a bothersome question, indeed.
"…Significance is… subjective," he rumbles at length. "There is autonomous mode-scanning and regenerative armour… things even the newly-created possess. But most important of any is the All Spark. Without it, Cybertron has withered. Without it, there will be no new life." No new warriors for Lord Megatron's cause.
There may be no further exposition, either. If Wreckage has a daily word limit, he probably broke it two paragraphs ago.
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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on Oct 1, 2007 4:13:05 GMT -5
Skystrike leveled Needlenose with an indiscernible look when he gestured to the squashed books. Whatever kind of ‘look’ it may have been was obscured the moment Wreckage began to talk, though. The APC certainly had a very interesting version of events. Fuel had been what’d driven the transformers in her universe to earth. The Allspark had apparently been the reason for Wreckage’s version.
As for the technology, well, Hook was probably going to have a field day with Wreckage once he finds out. So the Allspark was his version of Vector Sigma? Except for the fact that the thing apparently made Cybertron as well rather than just laser cores for new bodies.
It was a bit odd for the seeker since her universe brought about the Dinobots without even needing Vector Sigma, so there wasn't much point putting effort into a life giving technology when there was fuel to worry about. Even Cybertron was going on just ‘fine’ , although there was sometimes the problem with the multiple underground layers that could potentially collapse. Or not collapse? Spacer told her once that gravity probably cancelled itself out somewhere in between the planet’s core and outer shells. Mass and all that. If you got to the deepest layers, you would probably be walking on the ceiling—
The jet’s musings stopped when Wreckage finished and she glanced briefly around at him. It was a fleeting and mildly curious look, but she didn’t say anything and instead began her own crash-course version of Cybertronian history.
“… There was a Golden Age before the Decepticons started a new revolution and war led by our Megatron. After a few million years, Cybertron was shutting down due to a major fuel crisis…” There was another pause. “And Megatron and Optimus led their respective armies out into space to find energon. They apparently crash landed on earth and lay dormant for a few more million years. After they woke up, the Decepticons opened a warp gate back to Cybertron and… that’s it.”
She didn’t have much to tell about the Great Shutdown did she? It was like living under a space rock for a few million years. Lots of darkness and stumbling about, relying only on the light your optics cast. Only Lighter bothered to keep up with the meager news and his retelling of them were often nonsensical.
“Technology-wise, we had a decent warp gate.” Skystrike couldn’t really think of anything else at the moment.
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Post by Starfighter on Oct 2, 2007 13:13:36 GMT -5
Starfighter's good at history, hurrah.
"Sir, our Megatron was built at the end of the Golden Age and began the Second Great War, during which Megatron and a small group of the Decepticon elite pursued Optimus Prime and his Autobots into unknown space. I was built during the period during the period of the Great Shutdown after their crash on Earth and subsequent time in stasis for approximately four million years, after which both groups finally awoke and began to battle over Earth's resources for the replenishing of our stores on Cybertron. Shockwave opened a space bridge to Earth for the new supplies, and at this point we have control of most of Cybertron. By Shockwave's predictions, in two years we will have total control altogether."
And...well, slag. In five they'll get Unicroned and it won't even matter.
"As for technological advantages besides sole possession of a space bridge, we have the greatest number of gestalts, beginning with our Constructions and continuing onward. Unlike the Autobots, all of us have flight abilities." He's not sure how else to continue; it all seems so obvious to him.
"At the last battle...I took out a few of the autodefenses, helped with an attempt to bring down Omega Supreme, attempted to rescue a supposed Neutral friendly who turned out to be an Autobot and was attacked by an unknown jet Autobot with some sort of blade structure."
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Sky-byte
Minor
Worst Luck Ever
Posts: 334
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Post by Sky-byte on Oct 2, 2007 20:28:34 GMT -5
Out of all of the Decepticons here, none of them mention transwarp technology. How odd. They must be extremely backwater, or, so Sky-byte would like to think.
"In my world, Megatron, the glorious leader of the Predacons, traveled the planets and siphoned away energy from all that he could. I am--was--no am his second in command. We only recently landed on a curious planet called Earth and encountered the Autobots again after making away with the planet's top energy researcher." Sky-byte won't mention that he just let said researcher get away just before his arrival.
"Technologies? Well, we have transwarp cell technology. It's quite useful for interstellar travel and our ship makes quite a bit of use out of it. Unfortunately, said cells take up an extraordinary amount of energy," says Sky-byte. Now that he mentions it, weren't they still collecting energy just for their ship's use before he appeared here? So much for getting any surplus profits in energy. "As for any other notable things..." Sky-byte shifts into a much more frustrated position. "The Autobots have something called a space-bridge as well. It's something they have an infuriating habit of popping in and out of at the most inopportune moments. If their Build Team wasn't holed away so often, I'm sure we would have retrieved that technology by now..."
Blasted technicolored rookie team.
"I managed to encounter a rather solid looking red mech on the mesa, a scientist if I remember my facts correctly. Later on the oddest looking yellow mech came to relieve him. After a bit of combat, I was called away for...pick-up duty," says Sky-byte, the last part is mostly mumbled. The great Predacon general, reduced to a giant trolley. The shame!
Oh my, so much for not getting into too much detail. Sky-byte is getting verbose again.
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Post by Needlenose on Oct 2, 2007 21:50:03 GMT -5
Needlenose listens carefully, and nods as everyone describes their histories and technologies. His antennae droop. None of these Autobots sound familiar to him! Well, few of them do. Wait. Wait. Capable, powerful, acid, truck. And someone fitting that description did identify himself over the general frequency. But the color's all wrong!
"Wreckage, you sure that was green, and not maybe... I dunno. Light blue? Like, with a lot of yellow dust on it or something?" Where would they get yellow dust in the desert?
"Starfighter, could you please describe this 'neutral friendly' of yours? Like, physically? This jet of yours sounds like the one Wreckage identified as Skyblast."
"Your red scientist sounds like Perceptor, Sky-byte. He had been identified before we got there, although... I thought he had some blue as well. Do you remember any of the capabilities of the yellow mech? And, erm... describe this 'space-bridge' of yours, will you? We've got one, too, in my universe, but it's not exactly something you go 'popping in and out of.'"
Finally, Needlenose sighs. "And Skystrike, could you please describe the Autobots you engaged? Wait. You were fighting Nightbeat when we arrived, weren't you? And then got pulled off for Omega Supreme. Anyone besides that?"
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Wreckage
Major
One of the Quiet Ones
Posts: 554
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Post by Wreckage on Oct 3, 2007 10:53:41 GMT -5
One might almost hear the frown in Wreckage's voice. He does not terribly enjoy being prompted yet again, or having his recall implicitly brought into question.
"Green," he says. "I am certain." He had seen the Autobot quite clearly before he took a face-full of acid. "He identified himself as Kup on the radio," Wreckage adds after a moment to mull over any other information he has. The voices had matched, at least.
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Post by Skystrike/Skylar Stringers on Oct 3, 2007 22:41:20 GMT -5
“Just Nightbeat and Omega Supreme. I was watching over Shortround and Sky-byte during the rest of the battle due to Hook’s order.” Needlenose and Spinister intervened on the first one and Omega Supreme was obvious.
Skystrike shifted her weight slightly, already feeling the first twinges of impatience that made her fingers twitch. She didn’t like being impatient, but she didn’t exactly like being interviewed either.
Then Hook's voice came over the radio and the mention of her name caught the blue jet's attention. Dead End? What happened?
"Guess we're going." She rumbled, mostly to Starfighter although her attention was still directed at Needlenose. Straightening up from the partial slouch she'd subconsciously slipped into, the berkut activated her anti-gravs, only pausing once in the air to wait for the other seeker.
OOC: Moving out after Starfighter posts, unless Needlenose has anything else to ask?
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Post by Starfighter on Oct 4, 2007 16:56:04 GMT -5
"The Neutral was a sort of lavender color. He called himself Treaddrift, that's all I managed to gather." Starfighter bows ever so slightly to Needlenose and backs away again, assuming that Needlenose has heard the superior officer's orders and knows why he's leaving.
"Do you need anything else, sir?" If not, he's leaving.
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Sky-byte
Minor
Worst Luck Ever
Posts: 334
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Post by Sky-byte on Oct 4, 2007 18:16:25 GMT -5
"I don't know what their space-bridge is exactly. All I know is that any time we Predacons were on our raids, the Autobots always managed to get their not too long after. They just fly in and out of these shining portals---wait, you said orange bulldozer?" Sky-byte whirls around towards Wreckage. Hmm, orange bulldozer and the menacing Decepticon finds said bot's fighting amusing. That fits with someone he knows...
Oh, so there are others from his reality here? How fortunate. One can practically see the look of glee in Sky-byte's optics. Oh if he could get his hands on the Autobot space-bridge now. Once he returns to his world, how much would Megatron praise him? Why, his leader might even forget about the whole situation with Dr. Oniishi!
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Post by Needlenose on Oct 4, 2007 19:25:39 GMT -5
Needlenose hisses softly. He would curse a bit about Seekers not knowing that there are other parts of a robot's appearance besides color, but Wreckage did the same damn thing, too. Well, Wreckage also included alt mode, and let's face it - color and alt mode pretty much made up what most Transformers used to identify a mechanoid.
He nods and waves off Skystrike and Starfighter. Hook's called them, so that takes priority over the interview, and he was pretty much done with them, anyway. With them gone, he nods to Wreckage. "Ah, all right. See, now, your description pretty much matched Kup... but the color's wrong. Well, for my reality. So either he's not my reality's Kup, or he's my reality's Kup with a new paint job. Someone to be careful of." Kup had built up a legend as someone to avoid in his youth, then no one heard from him for awhile and everyone figured him to be a burnout. Obviously that wasn't the case, though. He's back - Needlenose knows he's back, because he was on the Ark when Needlenose was forced to surrender - and 'Bots don't come back from burnout.
"I'm done with the questions, then." He looks at both the APC and the shark, and explains, "I suppose I oughta explain what a space-bridge is for us, then. See, used to be, it was a literal bridge through space. You start one side on Cybertron, cross the bridge, and then you're on Earth. Just like that! Newer versions are portals, but they take up so much energy we usually only use them for interstellar travel. They used to just be ours, but eventually the 'Bots started figuring out how to make them, too."
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