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Post by Spinister on Sept 4, 2011 15:46:56 GMT -5
Month 2, Week 1, Day 3, Burma ruby mine, Republic of the Union of Myanmar, open, even to good guys! Good guys, however, should probably start in a different area and then run into the bad guys midway through.
Fools rush in where devils fear to tread. Spinister took some time to case this site, first with satellite imagery and internet searches. Then he dropped by the vicinity to let Singe interact with some of the locals while Spinister did some overflights.
Spinister is still not sure this is not a trap. What he has figured out is that it's a ruby mine, the workers are underpaid, the conditions are terrible, and... sometimes the rubies explode for no reason. The geology scanner he borrowed off Ship is giving him some readings in the correct range for energon, give or take error.
He's crouching behind cover, helicopter blades low and Hairsplitter in his other hand. His time watching has told him when there will be a gap in the surveillance coverage of the mine, and that time is now. Spinister half-turns and nods to those with him, who are...
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Post by Onslaught/Octavian Comstock on Sept 4, 2011 19:53:06 GMT -5
Normally, Onslaught would not have gone into these cramped depths. He had other matters to attend to! But the human Powell had intrigued him, so here he is, covering Spinister's six, clutching his stun rifle. He keeps an eye both on the tunnels, on his fellow Decepticon(s) and the crystals. The cannons on his back are currently missing, not willing to risk impeding his mobility (and what use are his rockets here anyways?), not to mention that it allows him to instead carry a container backpack that they can transport the crystals in.
When Spinister nods, he quickly returns it, and checks his onboard systems before speaking. "I am not picking up any life signs so far, mechanical or organic. But these crystals are distorting the range and effectiveness of my scanners."
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Swindle
Major
This space for rent.
Posts: 571
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Post by Swindle on Sept 5, 2011 17:22:02 GMT -5
Swindle is here too. What with the presence of precious gems and the possibility of energon, both in a politically unstable region with multiple armed militias, all of whom presumably need weapons, it'd be surprising if he wasn't. Plus, he can carry a lot of stuff if this turns out not to be a false lead.
The arms dealer crouches behind the Mayhem and the Combaticon, covering the rear with his scatter blaster, though he looks over his shoulder at Spinister to ask "Well?"
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Post by Spinister on Sept 7, 2011 21:25:37 GMT -5
Spinister just nods again and gestures. C'mon, follow him.
He pads out, quiet as usual, which is to say very, and he slips into a tunnel that is coincidentally tall enough for him while the guards aren't looking and the nearly-slave workers are away. The tunnel mouth has been stripped bare of rubies. There's not so much as a glint.
They need to go deeper still.
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Post by Onslaught/Octavian Comstock on Sept 10, 2011 19:57:19 GMT -5
Onslaught nods, thumb flicking over a switch on his rifle. Quickly, he follows, letting the smaller two Decepticons walk in front of him, trying to be as quiet as he can for someone his size.
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Swindle
Major
This space for rent.
Posts: 571
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Post by Swindle on Sept 11, 2011 20:07:33 GMT -5
Swindle, too, follows behind Spinister, going as quietly as possible. He pulls the Sonic Jammer 3000 from his drawer, because, in addition to the handy stasis ray that everyone remembers, it also muffles alarm noises. It may not muffle footfalls, but if the mine has an alarm, they'll be thanking Swindle later.
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Post by Spinister on Sept 11, 2011 20:43:51 GMT -5
After a montage of twists and turns, the ceiling has narrowed, it's darker down here, and there's a soft red glow ahead.
One last turn, and there they are. Ruby crystals overflow from the walls and ceiling, lighting the gloom. Rubies... aren't supposed to glow like that.
If Onslaught cares to whip out his energon detector that he had earlier, the device ought to be going absolutely nuts. A more exhaustive survey, perhaps performed by a geologist (Do the Decepticons even have one?), will reveal that these rubies are actually microscopic ruby spheres packed closely together with energon filling the interstitial spaces, the way that water fills in the gaps between tiny quartz spheres in an opal. In short, the rubies are infused with energon, so they can be used as a power source, they emit light, and they're explosive.
Spinister looks down the mine. Is that a corpse? The mine owners really show no regard for their underlings. No, he thinks he sees breathing. It'll have to become a corpse, then.
Spinister starts to draw, and the human runs, fueled by the primeval terror that allowed ancient humans to run away from lions, down a shaft too tiny for any of the Transformers to fit into. Spinister's optics narrow into tiny slits, and he sends Hairsplitter off to hunt down the miner.
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Post by Onslaught/Octavian Comstock on Sept 12, 2011 7:05:13 GMT -5
Before, further up the tunnels, his scanning systems merely fritzed. But now they are going haywire, even making him grunt in discomfort, so he quickly shuts most of them down, making him operate on just his basic senses. That's all he needs, anyways.
Well, aside from the handy energon scanner he packed with him! He reaches into subspace and pulls it out, swiping it much like a Geiger counter, carefully monitoring the results, and relaying them to Spinister over his radio. (Like he's going to trust Swindle with this. He doesn't even trust his own!) //Interesting. These are quite potent. We will need to study them up close in a safe environment, but for now, the results are quite promising.//
He doesn't pay attention to the human. Spinister is a Mayhem, and his Master partners are no less effective. The human's fate was sealed even before he started to run.
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Swindle
Major
This space for rent.
Posts: 571
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Post by Swindle on Sept 14, 2011 20:14:08 GMT -5
Glowing crystals must be valuable. Swindle steps into the chamber in hushed reverence, reaching out a servo to stroke a glowing gem, though not so quickly someone couldn't stop him. It's okay, babies. Daddy's here now. He'll take care of you.
He turns a baleful glance on the human as he runs away, reaching into his drawer for some sort of poison gas grenade before Spinister dispatches Hairsplitter to deal with the problem.
"So are we going to start harvesting these or what?" he asks quietly.
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Post by Spinister on Sept 14, 2011 21:21:54 GMT -5
There are a lot of twists and turns, which prevent Hairsplitter from getting line of sight. Also, underfed and exhausted as the miner is, he knows where he's going. Hairsplitter has to double back a few times, and it slows him down.
The miner makes it to the surface, though Hairsplitter is close behind. The miner runs to the office and tells a rather incoherent story about giant metal men that the overseers take as delusional babbling. They would have ignored it entirely, except that Hairsplitter, in full armour, with his own rifle out, knocks down the door behind the miner.
Well, now there is a metal man with a gun, then. Hairsplitter does manage to nail the miner and one of the other officials, but three make a break for it in different directions. He takes after one in a run, but he'll have to go after the other two later, and this is attracting more attention than he wanted...
One of them makes it to a radio. Though Hairsplitter eventually catches up with him during his murder spree, the message has been sent.
The message, through an exceptionally unlikely chain of events, is forwarded to the Autobots.
None of this would have happened if Hairsplitter had just let the miner run - he'd have been dismissed as crazy, but Hairsplitter doesn't know that. He just knows that he's shot an awful lot of people in a rather short time.
Meanwhile, Spinister lets Swindle do whatever indecent things Swindle wants to do with the crystals. He confirms simply, "We take them," and he reaches out to just yank one cluster off the wall and put it into Onslaught's 'backpack', if allowed. Some are more firmly attacked and might require picks to get free, though.
After a moment, he adds, "Quickly."
That was a spectacular screw-up on Hairsplitter's part, topside. Spinister does not approve.
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Post by Onslaught/Octavian Comstock on Sept 15, 2011 17:21:35 GMT -5
If Onslaught could receive that message, he would actually have the support struts to chew out Spinister for his mistake that will inevitably come back to bite them in the ass. But instead, he goes blissfully unaware and focuses on the mission, kneeling down and popping open the backpack, allowing Spinister to load him up.
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Swindle
Major
This space for rent.
Posts: 571
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Post by Swindle on Sept 19, 2011 5:53:36 GMT -5
Swindle's love isn't indecent. Don't be a prude, Spinister.
The arms dealer opens his drawer, removes a sonic screwdriver, and begins prying crystal formations off the walls of the cavern and into his chest. He's still unsure whether he should try to keep some for himself or not. He doesn't want to tick off the Mayhem.
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Post by Spinister on Sept 22, 2011 11:51:35 GMT -5
OOC: Good guys are welcome now - I know that Impactor and Pee-Dee want in. I would suggest using the Autobot spacebridge to jump into the general vicinity of the mine and then putting that drill tank to use!
Hairsplitter now feels terribly vulnerable and exposed. He is, after all, just a cyborg humanoid in armour with a rifle. The guards here will be heavily armed - this is a ruby mine in a contested area! He decides to flee from the scene of the crime off into the surrounding area. Spinister can dang well pick Hairsplitter up later. Probably in a swamp. Hairsplitter will find a swamp, dangit, and he will hide there, if he has to run twenty miles.
Spinister withdraws a temporary pickaxe that he will only have for this scene, for the purposes of collecting energon-infused rubies, and starts to collect larger chunks to load into Onslaught's backpack. To motivate Swindle a little, he comments, "If we collect more than our mission quota, you may keep what you can carry."
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Sept 22, 2011 15:44:27 GMT -5
There are times when the loss of sensation that comes with being not quite alive comes as an advantage. One of those times is when using the Autobot space bridge, which still tends to cause what a human would describe as severe nausea. He merely grunts in discomfort, and looks around.
"Off the mark," he observes to anyone who happens to be with him on this mission. It takes him a moment to orient himself - as a commando, he's skilled in getting his bearings quickly in unfamiliar territory, but organic planets are new to him. The extra time spent figuring this out annoys him. Finally, he nods in the direction of the mining offices. "That way. Message was pretty vague. Better get a look at what's going on ourselves."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Sept 22, 2011 20:19:09 GMT -5
"Oogh," Pee-Dee says, wobbling on her feet. That vaunted Junkion endurance doesn't defend against translocation nausea at all.
"Yes, sir, DSC Halford!1" she transforms and lets Impactor climb on then takes off towards the mining camp. She does her best to avoid sounding like a herd of elephants crashing over the terrain, but the way her spikes tear up the ground can't be silenced.
1. New Tricks
Impactor posed with player permission.
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