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Post by Perceptor on May 14, 2008 0:22:13 GMT -5
Hard on the heels of Botanica's rather fervent transmission on the Autobot Broadband, Perceptor initiates a private transmission to the Autobot's primary Command.
//Xaaron, Rodimus, Kup...// He transmits, voice filled with regret, but tone firm. //The base is lost, our data is lost, our work is lost, Repair is lost, Optimus and the other shells are lost. These Autobots are valiant and brave and will fight until the last of them drop, ground under the dark Prime's heel, but most are not warriors, and the nuances of battle may be lost amidst the chaos. We have been fortunate - thus far - that none of them have truly been lost - yet.// Silence for a beat, as if letting that sink in, or gathering his words. // We can rebuild, so long as we live. //
// Call the retreat; state it clearly for those who will themselves not to see. Call it now, before our fortune fades, taking their sparks and cores with it. Else, none will give this battle up while you remain on the field. Any of you. //
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 14, 2008 8:28:33 GMT -5
If Perceptor had just waited a few minutes, the order to retreat would have come on its own. Instead, Emirate Xaaron looks dumb and pushed around by someone who wouldn't know tactics if he saw them in a petri dish.
Emirate Xaaron snaps, clearly angry, //You think that I don't know that we need to retreat? You think I'm that stupid? You think I'm some vainglory hound who will make a Pyrrhic pyre of his men?// Sorry, ladies. //Perceptor, I've been flat on my back, slammed into a sidewalk and dazed. It may be irresponsible of me to even get into that situation, but I would also consider it irresponsible to not do anything about the Decepticon artillery piece setting up to shell my men into oblivion. Now that I am back on my feet...//
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Post by Perceptor on May 15, 2008 3:23:35 GMT -5
Perceptor doesn't know tactics. What he does know is that five - no six! - of their number, and several of them among their most... durable, have been felled by the dark prime. Perceptor isn't sure if any will even survive those few minutes, and he fears for everyone's lives; he cannot bear to lose anyone else.
// No, I do not, // Perceptor snaps in response, frustrated, in pain himself, angry at himself and full of guilt-laden fury at their foes, and finally unable to contain it. // I would not have cast my ballot as I had if I did think you capable of that. Observation, however, leads me to believe that the others, by and large, do not truly understand how dire our situation is. // After all, you do not wipe databases that you intend to return to in a few hours.
// Dire enough that, by your own words, you are only now returning to battle, and I have had to accept repairs from Shockwave in order to make it to safety. // The disgust in his tone is clearly for himself.
And just as clear, that Perceptor is not doubting Xaaron. He's afraid.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on May 15, 2008 8:24:53 GMT -5
//Perceptor, this is not the time,// Rodimus finally says sharply over the frequency he had been included in from the beginning.
//If we do have folks out there who don't understand how dire the situation is? Good. We have got people out here who have never participated in large-scale combat before, and folks that green aren't known for reacting well to being told there's a good chance they won't be surviving the next two minutes. Let's wait until after we pull their chassis from the smelter before we tell them how close they got to melting, huh?//
//The retreat has been sounded. Everything else can wait.//
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 15, 2008 10:23:00 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron wants to tell Perceptor plainly what he thinks. However, he swiftly realises that doing so would be a poor idea. So instead, he swears. That's a rather rude thing for him to say about the factory compilers in Tarn, isn't it?
//You do realise what a corner Shockwave has painted me into, don't you? If I chastise you for accepting Shockwave's aid, you will be embittered towards me and more liable to sympathize with the Decepticons. If I do not admonish you, you will be given the unconscious suggestion that consorting with powerful and devious Decepticon leaders is acceptable behaviour. Either way, I lose.//
And Emirate Xaaron refuses to lose. Winning - that's the name of the game.
//So for now, I will accept that you had reasons for doing what you did, and later, when tempers have cooled, I shall inquire as to the specifics of those reasons. However, please get a medic to check you before you head to our final retreat location to be sure that Shockwave has not placed a tracking device or radio tap on you.//
If Emirate Xaaron starts getting crank calls from Shockwave? He knows who to blame.
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Post by Perceptor on May 15, 2008 15:31:56 GMT -5
// I had already planned on doing as much, // Perceptor replies. He will not explain to Xaaron that the Emirate cannot chastize him more than he is already berating himself, nor that he has no desire - nor had before now - to "consort with powerful and devious Decepticon leaders". Is it not acceptable, and he will continue to be angry with himself over the event, over his own distraction and shock that prevented him from putting up more resistance than he had, for a great long time to come. Now is not the time, and Perceptor isn't even certain if Xaaron would believe him or not, especially if the Emirate can believe that Perceptor would consider the situation acceptable.
// I will not endanger the others more than I have already, even if that requires placing me in stasis. //
// I await everyone's arrival, and I would appreciate your assistance, Rodimus, in verifying that my own system checks are, indeed, accurate and that no such devices have been inserted. //
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on May 15, 2008 18:50:26 GMT -5
//If we put you in stasis, Shockwave may as well have killed you, Perceptor,// which might have been kinder than putting Perceptor in this damnable position, //except that rather than engendering hatred toward your murderer and unity among the Autobots, it will instead cause negative feelings between the Autobots - an even more effective way of destabilising us than simply killing you.//
Emirate Xaaron's thought processes follow tortuous turns to come up with such assessments, because someone has to.
//Even ignoring such an extreme repercussion, forcing you to doubt yourself is nearly as insidious.//
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 8, 2008 22:42:06 GMT -5
// Xaaron, Springer informs me that you are already in contact with him, // Perceptor transmits to the three Autobots without preamble. // From his description, I believe that he is just outside near the temple. I have already instructed him not to fire upon anyone until Kup or I arrive, given that he contacted me first, and spoke of Kup. I thought that Kup or I would be more recognizable to him, in the chance that he is not of your reality, Xaaron. With your permission, I shall head in that direction. //
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Post by Kup on Aug 8, 2008 22:48:47 GMT -5
//Springer, huh?//
//If he's not from Xaaron's reality, why would he already be talking to him?// How else would he know his frequency? //For that matter, why is he talking to you about me, and not to me about me?//
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 8, 2008 22:53:30 GMT -5
// Because his Kup is apparently comatose. I do not believe this is our Springer, however we can provide ready points of reference. //
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Post by Kup on Aug 8, 2008 22:57:34 GMT -5
//... Why don't you check into whether he's got a laser core, a brain whatever, or a spark? I'd just as soon know whether we're dealing with an alternate comatose me or a future comatose me.//
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Post by Perceptor on Aug 8, 2008 23:28:51 GMT -5
// I believe that you are safe, Kup, // Perceptor replies after a long moment. // Springer possesses a spark. //
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Post by Kup on Aug 8, 2008 23:34:01 GMT -5
Kup mutters, //Glad to hear it.// Of course, he'll still want to hear the explanation of what the blazes happened to that alternate Kup, but they can settle that later.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Aug 9, 2008 7:51:20 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron answers, hesitantly, //This Springer does not have my frequency. I have the Wrecker frequency,// Impactor was smashed this one cycle, see, and they made a wager of a game of quarter-stasis... //In my reality, and in others, I suppose, Springer is an elite commando known as a Wrecker. I used to work very closely with my reality's Wreckers.//
//Please, go meet him, Kup, if you can spare the time. I'd like you to go with Perceptor.//
Emirate Xaaron's voice is oddly insistent, oddly pleading there. It's not his Springer, not the young man that he both inspired and failed, but it's a Springer all the same, and a Springer who, it seems, would very much like to see a Kup.
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Post by Kup on Aug 9, 2008 12:29:36 GMT -5
//All right, Xaaron. Perceptor, meet me at <co-ordinates between the tunnel exit and the temple>?//
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