Decepticon Interim: Salvage Flight

[Skyfire]

Beyond the small plaza, a broad boulevard ran from the crater to the edge of town. It once ran further than that, before Needlenose started testing his weaponry. Still, even the stub of boulevard is enough space to post Skyfire.

He transformed into his starship mode (which Cybertronians have always called "shuttles" for some reason) and waited the few moments it took Hook to board and secure himself.

Engines thundered as Skyfire launched into the air and circled the town in a slow spiral climb.

"Now would be a good time to let me in on the secret of our destination," Skyfire says.

[Hook]

"Hm?" Hook gives the coordinates easily. "It is several days drive from our encampment."

He has secured himself and a bundle he grabbed from the medical plaza before he left in Skyfire's cockpit.

[Skyfire]

Skyfire integrates the coordinates into his orbital maps and studies the ground he's headed for. "Looks like a wetland, and your coordinates are near that causeway, which should be firm enough for landing. I'll do a touch-and-go to confirm it."

He still has the habit of talking aloud about what he's doing to mitigate probable hazards; Starscream's paranoia about "ways this can get us both killed" frequently required a bit of calming, and it didn't hurt to have two parties looking out for dangers on an unknown world.

"Fortunately, we're not driving." Skyfire's engines roar as he opens all throttles and arcs high into the atmosphere, rapidly hitting very high mach numbers. "ETA 20 minutes."

[Hook]

"That sounds like the place where we left it. You shouldn't be able to miss the machine, and if you do, I'll have to check your optics."

Hook turns his mind inward as the starship flies, focussing on the new problem of Starscream.

[Skyfire]

While he climbed, Skyfire thought to ask a question he'd been wondering about. "How did the Guardian of Crystal City end up on the opposite side of the war from the builders of Crystal City? Omega Supreme said Crystal City was destroyed by your forces--I know tragedies like that happen in wars, but how did you end up on the side that destroyed your city?"

Skyfire imagines that Crystal City was destroyed by a missile strike or bombing raid, possibly even one that went astray. That it was deliberately destroyed by the Constructicons, he has not one clue.

[Hook]

Hook stiffens in his seat, then drops his head into his hands. This, this is something the does not need to deal with after everything else today.

When they return with the mining pony, he is going to escape to work on a pet project for a few hours. Or at least until the next crisis comes along.

His fingers rake over his face as he lifts his head. "After the destruction of Crystal City, Omega Supreme was deceived and led into a trap. We do not know who arranged it- none of us would have done such a thing or used such a terrible trap."

"An ancient device, something from before the Golden Age, ripped into his armor and... Well, we are not precisely sure what it did. We believed it tried to reprogram him. He fought it, pulled it off... But when he looked down on us, his old friends... He hated us."

---

ETA, later: Hook totally meant 'mining worm'. But the player thinks 'mining pony' is gigglesome, so it stays.

[Skyfire]

Though a good chunk of Skyfire's mind is busy with flight path calculations and monitoring his exterior skin temperature and atmospheric pressure (pushing things so hard you burn up in atmosphere is bad), he notes Hook's sudden tension. Sensitive topic. This war has left many scars, it seems.

"I'm sorry. Sorry for you, and sorry for him, and I'm sorry I distressed you by asking," says Skyfire. "Maximum altitude; beginning descent."

And so they are as Skyfire plunges back down toward the lower atmosphere.

[Hook]

Oh, good. Skyfire seems to think he's upset by this. He had been at the time, underneath the overwhelming urge to please and serve Megatron. But he is still not entirely certain if his displeasure was from Omega Supreme's wrath turning on them or from failing Megatron in the task of reprogramming the Guardian.

Skyfire's descent is met with a certain warmth. The sooner they get this done, the sooner he can hide from the rest of the Decepticons long enough to reorganize his mind.

[Skyfire]

Fifteen minutes after his climb began, Skyfire descended from the upper atmosphere in a streak of fire, air brakes screaming as he hit the thicker air of down below. He continued to dump speed and altitude as he circled the swamp in a descending spiral for the next four minutes.

"Trim tabs are responding like they should. Thank you for fixing those up." Wings swung forward, finally, into their subsonic cruise position, and Skyfire made a low pass over the target coordinates. He could clearly see the deactivated mining worm stretched across the swamp in shallow, serpentine curves; its metallic shell reflected his landing radar, marking it clearly.

Skyfire banked and came back around, flaps down and belly jets thundering to touch down on the causeway. He allowed his weight to settle by stages, ready to open throttles if the road subsided suddenly under his weight. Finally, Skyfire was satisfied, and cut his engines.

"Touch down is go. You may disembark as soon as the forward bay door finishes opening," he told Hook, as he lowered the forward ramp/door.

[Hook]

The oppressive, wet heat of the swamp slinks into Skyfire's hold as Hook makes his way towards the hatch, coils around the Constructicon and fogs his visor. With an irritated movement, he swipes his visor clear but the fog quickly returns.

Gritting his jaw, Hook activates a few of the internal temperature regulators around his visor. It will take a few moments for the fog to clear; for now, he is effectively blind.

Blind with one of Starscream's ancient friends. Skyfire seemed decent enough, but so did Starscream when he was trying. Alone, out here...

No, that was paranoia.

Let it be paranoia. He did not think the other Decepticons could survive for long without someone who would tell Starscream when he was being a fool.

Better to concentrate on the job. If he allows his mind to wander, he won't get it back for hours.

Kneeling, he unrolls the bundle he has carried from the field hospital plaza. What he seems to have is a disassembled block and tackle. "A mechanical advantage of ten, once I get it set up. My encounter with the mining worm convinced me that lifting it with just my own crane-arm would be impossible."

[Skyfire]

As soon as Hook has exited, Skyfire transforms back to his robot mode. He looks the situation over.

"Interesting device, though it seems out-of-place in a swamp. It appears suited for hard rock or at worst, packed earth tunnelling," he says, gesturing at the cutting heads.

The large white robot looks over Hook's extra pulleys and cables. "After we break it loose from the mud, you'll need me to get in position so you can winch it aboard. Let me check the ground..." Skyfire proceeds to step carefully around the nose of the worm and the causeway.

"The causeway and associated ramps are adequately packed down. The surrounding marsh isn't. We'll have to maneuver it around so I can settle here and you can winch it aboard that way," Skyfire indicates a point on the causeway and a line of travel with his hands.

"So you're going to bolt the standing end of the pulleys to the causeway? Is that sturdy enough to anchor it? I haven't had a chance to study the local transportation infrastructure." He looks thoughtful for a moment. "Although they did use water transportation."

He turns back toward the worm. "Let me know when you've got the vectors calculated; how do you want me to push, pull or drag this thing?"

[Hook]

"Pull," Hook instructs as he sets about mounting the vertical portion of the pulley system. "If this job goes simply, I may be able to start reprogramming this miner before the next crisis asserts itself."

[Skyfire]

"Affirmative." Skyfire examines the nose of the worm closely; the immoblized cutting heads should be solidly mounted, and the backs of them provide a good handhold. He seizes the mining worm and braces his legs, forcing his heels deep into the swamp mud like the support pilings under a New Orleans skyscraper.

The worm is solidly mired, and Skyfire lacks the strength of a Blitzwing or Astrotrain. He wrestles it from side to side, trying to break the mud's suction on the mining robot. It still refuses to break loose--

Skyfire may lack the strength of an Astrotrain, but he's blessed with a lot more CPU power than the triple-changers. There's more than one way to exert force. With a thunderous roar, Skyfire ignites his jets--

The mining worm abruptly breaks free and is dragged fifty feet across smouldering peat before Skyfire cuts his jets and settles on firmer ground. Now that it's loose, Skyfire can wrestle the worm around to position. Once it's laid out, Skyfire stalks over to the firm ground of the causeway, shaking the baked black mud off his legs as best he can.

Once in position, he transforms and lowers both front and rear cargo ramps. It's Hook's turn now. While he waits on Hook, Skyfire peruses his orbital maps, curiously tracing the course of the river that feeds this vast swamp.

[Hook]

Hook pauses briefly in his work to avoid snapping one of the lines. Another crisis that requires his personal attention.

"We have someone to retrieve and work on," the Constructicon notes as he finishes arranging the block-and-tackle. "Spinister has provided a set of coordinates that this Midnight will theoretically be near. As he does not seem to be dying outright, and we may require it for parts, let's get the miner taken up first."

That said, Hook sets about getting the mining worm into Skyfire's hold.

[Skyfire]

Getting the worm into Skyfire's hold was simply a matter of Hook hooking his winch into the block and tackle array he'd set up and dragging the worm aboard. It came aboard with many a scrape and bang, leaving a trail of viscous black mud all over Skyfire's deck, but it came aboard. The nose shoved up against Skyfire's forward cargo bay door, and the tail had to be curled into one of the rear 'leg' bays, but it fit... just barely. After Hook unhitched everything and stowed his supplies, there was room for him in the other 'leg' bay.

Skyfire processed the coordinates Hook had given him. "The causeway runs near that area; it should give me something firm enough to land on. There are partially flooded ruins nearby, but I don't trust them to land on."

He raised the last ramp and ignited his jets, lifting slowly with the weight of the worm inside. Wings spread wide for low-speed flight, he cruised over the swamp, following the black metal causeway.

"For all that these black roads run across the planet linking cities, they must have used water transport--most of the cities I can locate are on waterways or the seacoast, or both," Skyfire muses.

---
And we're off to the Elsewhere in the Swamp, a Decepticon has fallen thread. All assumed movement of Hook done with permission of Hook's player.