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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Oct 8, 2008 20:58:13 GMT -5
The arrival points loosely sketch out a Matrix pattern, it has been observed. There are three rim points unaccounted for – they do not seem to be arrival points, but there is no time to check them now. Of course, circular designs naturally point toward their centres.
At the centre of that loose geographic Matrix is a deep, steep-walled crater. The black desert soil, not quite sand, has been turned to jagged glass here, reaching up like impaling spikes. The craeter is fairly recent, geologically speaking, and in the desert, it has been excellently preserved.
Even if there was nothing here, the air currents would put commuting jets passing over it. It is a favourable spot.
However, Emirate Xaaron is here, trekking down the side of the slope. He is seemingly alone, but the lack of tracks across the desert would suggest that he has been dropped off here. He slips between the up-jutting spikes, heading toward the centre.
Why does he feel like he's going home?
OOC: Autobots, want to be waiting in ambush around here? Go for it! The terrain is rather broken. Autobot jets and spacecraft can be in loiter, high up. Decepticons/evil Autobots, want to have been commuting through and attack that tempting lone golden figure? Go for it!
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Oct 8, 2008 21:41:05 GMT -5
The area is craggy and upturned. Lots of places to hide. And tucked away in one of them is a bright red and yellow robot. He lacks the self-assured smirk of his counterpart as he watches Emirate Xaaron through what are, basically, binoculars. He doesn't even have cool slide-down ones like Arcee.
The Prime frowns as he watches. He does not like the idea of using Emirate Xaaron as bait. Frankly, he'd much rather use himself as bait. However, he understands the reasoning behind this, and agreed to the plan. Now all that waits to be seen is whether or not he'll be able to follow through.
OOC: Skippable.
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Skyfire
Major
I'm a scientist, not a....
Posts: 891
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Post by Skyfire on Oct 8, 2008 22:29:04 GMT -5
After dropping off Emirate Xaaron, Rodimus Prime and whomever else, Skyfire returned to space--only to loiter far, far above. Farther away than he would have liked, but he could still return very quickly if called. Now there was the waiting, and hoping that someone would be left to call him...
--- skippable
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Oct 8, 2008 22:42:15 GMT -5
Duskwing... is on patrol. The most distant patrol duty he can manage to 'accidentally' fail to avoid so no one will realize he actually wants to be far, far away from those Others. Especially that Bumblebee and that Perceptor, because Duskwing is convinced that Starscream will have his wings off at the roots if he gets in a fight with them again.... before it's time.
Duskwing finds the endless, twisted lava formations vaguely interesting. They aren't like Cybertron's metal canyons, but they are tricky and would be great for concealing ambushes. That arch there would conceal an Autobot fuel raiding party in its shadow--and that deep ravine a squad of Wreckers, and that crater nicely contrasts with the brilliant gold Autobot leader...
....
....
Forty miles past, Duskwing banks sharply, almost stalling out of the sky and comes racing back.
"SLAGGIT! Cheap, flaking chrome leaf on a mis-aligned cam shaft! That's an Autobot back dere!"
The dark blue and purple F-15 circles the crater widely, looking down at the golden figure below--and makes a call on the Decepticon channel.
// Hey, Boss! And Spinster! An' 'Nose! Dat Xaaron guy is out here in the desert up to somethin'! Grid coords <blah, blah> //
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Post by Makeshift on Oct 9, 2008 18:32:21 GMT -5
Stowed away under a low overhang that most bots wouldn't even fit a foot under, Makeshift sits in weapon mode, doing his very best to sit still as his guns track Xaaron's progress down the crater. He's glad to be out of those tunnels, but he's not so thrilled to be going into battle again. Hopefully they won't have to carry anyone back in buckets this time.
Skippable.
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Post by Springer on Oct 9, 2008 21:23:25 GMT -5
Also amid the crags and rocks is the lone Wrecker commander, ready to fight at a moment's notice, gun in hand.
He's not that picky about who was used as bait. He's not that close to Xaaron, and this isn't his Rodimus. Yeah, they're both important figures. Yeah, using either of them for bait is pretty risky. That's not Springer's concern. His concern is making sure that the big scary fishes don't steal the bait. This is accomplished by shooting the big scary fishes in the face when they bite.
So, Duskwing...you gonna bark all day, little doggie? Or are you gonna bite?
---------- Skippable.
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Override
Minor
The Chancellor, Her Noble Potency, Empress Override. The Glorious Victor over Everyone Else On the Track
Shut up and drive
Posts: 476
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Post by Override on Oct 10, 2008 19:09:48 GMT -5
There's also a planetary leader amongst the crags and crevices. A red and white racer (no, not Swerve - he's out in the desert. And in the Temple) watches the golden Autobot below, then glances upwards towards the sun and the direction Decepticons are liable to come from.
Blast it all, standing around and waiting is not one of Override's strong points.
OOC: Skippable.
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Midnight-3
Cadet
"Payback's a mother, ain't it?"
Posts: 74
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Post by Midnight-3 on Oct 10, 2008 19:25:37 GMT -5
Someone with a serious desire to wreck evil Autobots lurks amid the same crags Springer does. Indeed, he's not far from Springer, and keeps an eye on the Wrecker commander. Midnight has no particular love for Wreckers (and a particular hate for his own world's Wreckers), but Springer earned a certain grudging admiration from Midnight during their sparring session with Fleetwind. Springer is a solid mech, someone who can both take it and dish it out, and not a bad companion in a brawl.
Hmm, there's a Duskwing circling overhead. Probably as big a blockhead as their own, judging from the way he flew past and then came rushing back. Unfortunately, if he's like their Duskwing, he's too damn agile and fast for Midnight to catch by himself.
---- skippable for now
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Oracle
Minor
The future is always in motion.
Posts: 426
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Post by Oracle on Oct 11, 2008 4:25:18 GMT -5
Head tilting back briefly to follow Duskwing, Oracle turns back to watching Xaaron and scanning the area in turn from her own hiding place in the rocks. Covertly watching like this was something she was rather used to, but she hadn't been concerned about the object of her attention before and the change was a bit disconcerting. She supposed she ought to be used to that by now.
She did understand the need for Xaaron using himself as bait...well sorta, but she didn't have to like it much. So she did her best to stay alert for either Duskwing deciding to try his luck, or someone else joining the game.
OOC: Skippable.
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Skyfire-3
Rookie
Professional Treasure Hunter and Pet Fancier
Posts: 182
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Post by Skyfire-3 on Oct 11, 2008 17:15:03 GMT -5
After receiving certain orders from Rodimus-3, Skyfire-3 lofted into the sky and scrambled for the middle of the Black Desert. Scramjets and rockets howling, he zipped through the upper atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. Damn, damn, damn. I'd almost arranged to stay the hell out of the way of the next fight, and now Prime's got a cyber-bee under his hood and I have to check it out. Maybe I'll be lucky and it will be nothing. Still, the sneaky bastard has me burning all my reserve fuel; I won't be able to ditch the crazy slagger for the stars until I manage to reload that...I really need to see if I can cut a deal with their Starscream; preferably before the big betrayal. So I may have to collect Autobot jets instead...Damn them for losing TC!Skyfire arcs down and thunders over the area in question at Mach 3, letting his sensors and imaging take in the view as he concentrated on any potential threats. As he came around for a slower pass, his concentration shifted to analyzing his imagery and the spectrometer readings... Yes! There was metal there--checking the images for that area, he catches a glimpse of gold. Now Skyfire knows where to look for the return pass. Another, much slower but still supersonic and thunderous pass confirms it. // Autobots, Prime, we have someone's Emirate Xaaron wandering around a crater in the desert, coordinates <blah, blah>, // reports Skyfire-3 on the Autobot-3 Channel. // Orders? //
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Oct 12, 2008 19:52:08 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron would know the whine of a Seeker anywhere. He is not without fear, but he acts with decisive purpose as he continues to trudge to the centre of the crater.
He reaches the middle, where the remains of a purely metallic meteorite of vast size are splattered into the glassy bottom of the impact crater.
A purely metallic asteroid is odd enough - not rock at all?
But what he finds here makes him drop to his knees. Emirate Xaaron knows these metals, knows this peculiar feeling that he's been missing the whole time on this forsaken world.
The asteroid is a piece of home.
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Post by Rodimus Prime on Oct 12, 2008 23:27:45 GMT -5
Rodimus Prime continues to watch from his hiding place. Not too far, but far enough that he's been using his binoculars. And because the Prime can see what's going on, he can also see that Emirate Xaaron has, for no apparent reason, dropped to his knees.
He lowers the devices for a moment, frowning thoughtfully, then raises them once more as he activates his radio.
OOC: Still skippable
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Oct 13, 2008 18:45:44 GMT -5
After quite a bit of back and forth on the Deception channel, during which Duskwing got increasingly annoyed as his perfectly reasonable request for orders was ignored until he repeated his request, Duskwing finally got the words he'd been waiting for:
//Circle the area and watch for signs of others in hiding. Do not engage until Needlenose and his contingent arrive.//
Finally! Duskwing had been pretty sure that doing what he felt like would probably get someone mad at him, but it was like they wanted Duskwing to just do any old thing--probably so they could blame him for it.
// Yes, sir, boss, // he radioed back. Arguing with Lord Shockwave wasn't noted for increasing one's chances of surviving the war, so Duskwing struggled mightily to restrain himself from telling Shockwave what he thought of the big purple gun's patronizing, wiseacre remarks.
Yeah, dump on the grunt just for being a grunt. If I do what I think I want to, you'll bust my aft for 'exceeding orders'; I ask for orders like a good little soldier and you get on my aft about not thinking for myself. Since when did any of youse want me to think for myself?
He just couldn't resist. // Order to think for myself a--ack--acknowledged. Duskwing out. //
Duskwing continued to circle, waiting for Needlenose and the others to arrive.
--- skippable
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Skyfire-3
Rookie
Professional Treasure Hunter and Pet Fancier
Posts: 182
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Post by Skyfire-3 on Oct 14, 2008 21:38:36 GMT -5
//Shockwave just decided to inform me of this, but thank you, Skyfire.//
//Return to our gathering point. Pick up Kup, Ironfire, Holi, and Bambi. You lot are to investigate and, if possible, capture.//
// Yes sir. Returning, // acknowledged Skyfire-3.
As he banked, Skyfire-3 added on the Villain Band, // Skyfire returning to base for pick-up. If you see a big white shuttle around the desert crater before I announce I'm back, it ain't me. //
Long Haul complains about being nothing but a transport all the time--seems that's what I'm turning into around Prime. We shall see. We shall see.
Unless someone is fast and alert indeed, Skyfire leaves the region. When he returns, it'll be with reinforcements....
--- skippable/temporarily Out-of-Thread
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Oct 17, 2008 18:51:28 GMT -5
Emirate Xaaron is fairly spiritual for a robot, be he also understands that there is a time and a place for everything, and the time to be kneeling reverently is not when there are unfriendly jets flying overhead.
Now, he breaks for cover, quite certain that he's been seen. If they want him, they're going to need to put some effort into looking.
OOC; Skippable. Want to hunt down Xaaron? Let me know, and we can spin off.
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