Omega Supreme
Minor
Shorter and Coloured Funny but Still Angry as the Pit
Posts: 456
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Post by Omega Supreme on Dec 2, 2010 8:37:58 GMT -5
Omega Supreme also looks over to listen to the results of those surveys, making his interest, though more moderate than Long Haul's, obvious. Is he going to be expected to do surveys, too? Now that he doesn't consume the energy needs of a small nation?
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Skyfire
Major
I'm a scientist, not a....
Posts: 891
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Post by Skyfire on Dec 3, 2010 21:08:42 GMT -5
Skyfire smiles wrily. "Nightbeat, local laws are, well, local. I try not to run afoul of them when I'm groundside, but how a planet decides to manage its tariffs, taxes and economic policies is their choice. It's frequently revealing when you study the culture, but..." Skyfire shrugs, his big wings shifting up and down. "I find the desolation of the planetary ecology much more disturbing, though Pz-Zazz's economy is fundamentally unsound."
"Well, Long Haul, I think I know the orbit of every piece of functional machinery floating around out there, and there's a lot of it. Even more non-functional junk, but salvage companies are regularly scavenging that, so it's not predictable. Frankly, Pz-Zazz's near-space environment is almost as bad as planet-side--a lot of decaying stuff, and devices in non-regular orbits that sometimes move... let's just say space traffic here is as hazardous as I hear their groundside traffic is." Skyfire grimaced. "A cluttered mess."
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Dec 3, 2010 23:04:58 GMT -5
"It's not the rule of law that rules Pz-Zazz, Skyfire. The people who make the laws and the ones who enforce them are on the take. The ones who are really managing the economy down there are the crime bosses," Nightbeat opines.
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Post by Long Haul on Dec 3, 2010 23:58:16 GMT -5
So the interesting thing about the spaceways around Pz-Zazz is that there's a lot of space junk? What is Skyfire, space Scavenger?
Long Haul gazes out at the planet below a little longer, having little to say about the laws and politics on the world below. Instead he asks, "So, erm... do we wanna even bother with the training room? Or... I guess we can just point it out on the way to medical?" Because of course the training room that doesn't use simulations, the one where people risk real damage, is right next to sickbay!
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Omega Supreme
Minor
Shorter and Coloured Funny but Still Angry as the Pit
Posts: 456
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Post by Omega Supreme on Dec 4, 2010 0:48:51 GMT -5
"Pz-Zazz's problem: universe's problem. Autobots: defeat Decepticons. Autobots: solve problems." That's what most of Season Three was. Autobots solving other planets' problems, since the Decepticons weren't much of a threat anyone, just bumming around on Charr and going to see psychiatrists.
Omega Supreme tries to reach out and gently poke Long Haul on the shoulder with a claw, but it might not be all that gentle. He frowns. "Training: next."
All the rooms, Long Haul! Omega Supreme must see them! Long Haul cannot withhold architecture from his old buddy!
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Skyfire
Major
I'm a scientist, not a....
Posts: 891
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Post by Skyfire on Dec 4, 2010 9:34:37 GMT -5
Skyfire nods slowly in response to Nightbeat. "That's part of what makes figuring out the real power structures and economic policies tricky, but then, I've seen perhaps two planets where the actual power structure matched the 'official' one. They were both single-ruler despotisms of recent origin. Er, as of my visit, that is."
"The economic policies on Pz-Zazz, however..." Skyfire shakes his head. "Instead of managing the world for long-term prosperity, everything I've seen indicates that those in charge are basically looting the economy as fast as they can. 'Getting while the getting is good', I've heard it called. That's very unstable in the long-run."
That's the worrisome thing about them, Long Haul. You never know when you might run into some not-quite-defunct battle station with a decaying, insane main computer, or something. "I've also got a nice list of spy satellites that can either view our ship or the Decepticon's, but I'm sure no one wants to hear a list of orbital ephemera."
The big white shuttle-former gives Omega Supreme a quizzical look. "We do? Things have changed a great deal, then. When I was sent out surveying, my mission was to find energy resources for Cybertron, and avoid local entanglements--though I find studying other worlds fascinating, it wasn't really in demand back home."
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Dec 4, 2010 20:24:10 GMT -5
"I've heard it called a 'kleptocracy'," Nightbeat notes.
"I'd be very interested in hearing the list of satellites that can spy on us and/or the Decepticons!" he says. "You've reported that to Rattrap, right?"
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Post by Long Haul on Dec 4, 2010 22:14:09 GMT -5
"Okay, okay!" Long Haul protests, holding up his hands. "We'll do the training room, too!" He turns towards Omega at Skyfire's question, and a small shift of his shoulders and tilts of his head conveys curiosity. Autobots as the problem-solvers of the galaxy sounds neat!
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Omega Supreme
Minor
Shorter and Coloured Funny but Still Angry as the Pit
Posts: 456
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Post by Omega Supreme on Dec 5, 2010 0:43:23 GMT -5
Omega Supreme just shrugs at Skyfire. Yeah. He was there. Not in the exploring corps, but he lived through that era, guarding Crystal City. Blah blah blah, been there, done that.
At Nightbeat's inquiry about spy satellites, Omega Supreme inquires, "Clean-up: necessary?" Sure, Omega Supreme could spend some time knocking debris out of orbit, if it would be useful.
He explains more to Long Haul, "Diplomacy: rampant. Negotiations: frequent." So. Yeah. Autobots just go to peace conferences and tell people to get along. It is not hugely exciting. Aside from when Quintessons kidnap people.
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Skyfire
Major
I'm a scientist, not a....
Posts: 891
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Post by Skyfire on Dec 6, 2010 20:24:27 GMT -5
Skyfire chuckles. "I believe Intell is on the forwarding list for my report, yes. As well as the bridge crew, Emirate Xaaron, assorted staff, and Science."
"I don't know, Omega. There are already salvage firms removing outright non-functional junk whose ownership is not contested, but there's a lot of stuff floating around up here that belongs to somebody, and Pz-Zazzers are, ah, rather territorial."
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Dec 6, 2010 21:35:47 GMT -5
"Oh, good," Nightbeat says in response to Skyfire's assurance that all the proper people are getting copies of his data. Nightbeat is a loose cannon detective who doesn't play by the rules. He has no time for figuring out whose paperwork goes where.
"Peacetime, huh? Sounds . . . nice," he says a bit wistfully. He's been fighting so long in his reality he's compressed most of his memory files from before the war. What would he even do if he wasn't searching for Matrices and sleuthing out Decepticon plots? Maybe retire to post-Bird Pz-Zazz, start a little private investigation business.
"It's no good cleaning up space debris as long as people keep dumping more," the detective says with a shrug. Of course, the same could be said for 'cleaning up' the streets. "Suppose it doesn't hurt anything to try, though," he adds, reconsidering his position.
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Post by Long Haul on Dec 6, 2010 22:07:27 GMT -5
Actually, everyone in this room except Nightbeat are from peace-time Cybertrons. It's kind of weird when you think of it.
When Nightbeat says that it's no good to clean up if people keep dumping more, Long Haul shrug. "I dunno. If you clean up, like, everything that's out there, and then someone goes and dumps out the same amount, you still got half as much as you would have if no one had done any clean up at all," he points out. This may be indirectly admitting that Scavenger is useful. Good thing Scavenger isn't here to hear it!
"Anyway, uhm... think maybe it's time to go and move onto that training room?"
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Omega Supreme
Minor
Shorter and Coloured Funny but Still Angry as the Pit
Posts: 456
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Post by Omega Supreme on Dec 6, 2010 22:20:36 GMT -5
And so, Omega Supreme heads off towards the training room, not to be denied any of the architecture.
"Venture: insubstantial. Gain: negligible," Omega Supreme muses. If he doesn't try, he'll never get anywhere.
Soon, Omega Supreme is at the training room.
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Nightbeat
Minor
Eternal Foe of Kitsch
"Truth is revealed in the smallest detail."
Posts: 453
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Post by Nightbeat on Dec 9, 2010 19:55:54 GMT -5
OOC: Skipping Skyfire due to time-out.
"I guess even a little bit of light helps beat back the darkness," the detective says, nodding at Long Haul. "Or helps clean up the trash, as the case may be." And this universe clearly needs all the light it can get, given that it has a confirmed Unicron, but calling on Primus feels so weird to those who do it. The latter datum leads Nightbeat to believe that if this universe has a Primus, he's sick or something. Maybe he has god flu.
"Yeah, this is the training room. Not nearly as interesting as the sim room unless you screw up and forget to set your weapons to low power for target practice," he says when they arrive at the next stop on the tour.
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Post by Long Haul on Dec 9, 2010 21:21:13 GMT -5
Long Haul just dips his head to nod in agreement with Nightbeat. He gestures to one wall, which has a weapons rack sporting a modest selection of (properly secured for space travel) weapons. "Everything we got in here is automatically set to safety, where it makes a difference. There's an override, but we've got some proper armories... things have gotta be pretty bad if we're using the training room props instead."
"Mostly, this room's here sos those who don't need the fancy props don't have to hog up the sim room when they're practicing."
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