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Post by SceneMod on Dec 28, 2007 20:04:03 GMT -5
Only a few blocks away from Autobase sits a lush green courtyard surrounded by important looking buildings. In the center of this courtyard stands a tower, a tower that serves a practical purpose, but one with such rich designs and etchings all over that it can also be considered decorative. It was first discovered by Jazz, Long Haul, and Arcee, and has since been investigated by Perceptor. It has been determined that it's a communications tower of some sort, that it has been receiving power since the destruction of the power station in the desert, that it has been dormant despite the received power, but little else has been determined. As fascinating as the structure may be, there's been a lot of work to do and the priority is only so high.
It has been standing dormant, yes, because the controls that work it from the inside are generally out of reach to Transformers, while it's not received any external commands of the sort it usually responds to. That changes now, as poking and proddings a continent activates a sibling tower. The dark tower near Autobase, like many others around the continent, brings several systems online, causing the tower to humm electronically and warm to the touch.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 29, 2007 0:15:53 GMT -5
There's a good chance Holi has never before looked quite this enthusiastic about any other task he's been asked – or volunteered – to perform. And it isn't just because he was asked specifically. No, this is something he's sure he can do. This is something he's sure is within his capabilities.
So there's some kind of radio anomaly, and it's related to some of the scientist's remote sensors? Hum. Could it be related to that tower the doctor wanted to explore a while back? That's the only thing the Micromaster can come up with that bears any significance to him. What could have activated these sensors Perceptor set out? Hum. Only one way to find out!
"Doctor!" he hails Perceptor across the field as he runs, waving one arm as if he wasn't already a glaring blue and white rocket of a tiny robot barrelling in a bee-line for the scientist. He finally screeches to a stop an arm's length from Perceptor's leg and quick as you please snaps to attention and delivers as crisp and proper a salute as anyone could ask. "Ready when you are, sir!"
OOC: No-one's at the tower just yet, but this is where they're headed, so here's the post.
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 29, 2007 1:03:49 GMT -5
Quite a change from the demoralized and shaken Rescue Team Captain that Perceptor had absconded with off to his lab for rest and reassurance not too long ago. Perceptor is well pleased by the transformation, and his decision to request Holi's assistance.
Perceptor returns the wave with a small one of his own, and his expression, for all of its distracted restraint, speaks of an answering eagerness as well. Work that isn't repair work with someone who has the appropriate skills to assist! Perceptor may be used to working alone, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't appreciate a fine collaboration now and then! His smile takes on a faintly sheepish edge as Holi approaches; he'd forgotten that the micromaster had mentioned his communications specialty once.
Perceptor is, perhaps, a little too used to working alone.
"'Hello, Holi!" he greets cheerfully, his optics crinkling a bit around the corners at that sharp salute. He turns and begins leading the way off into the city. "Thank you for your assistance. You may have guessed, the sensors I placed are within the tower that we had not gotten a chance to fully investigate."
He glances down, careful to keep his pace modulated to one that Holi has no difficulty in keeping up with, though there is an odd light in his optics as he restrains himself; doing sciency things? Definitely ranks waaaaay above weapons and combat training. Oh yes.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 29, 2007 14:16:01 GMT -5
"So it is that tower, sir?" As he follows along, Holi does a sort of quick-step so Perceptor needn't slow too much; it's a habit he picked up not long after joining the Galaxy Defence Force and it will probably serve him well here, too.
To say the Micromaster is curious would be a gross understatement; he's really rather intrigued by this development. The radio was so silent before. What could have reactivated things? If someone did it deliberately – and who would, for that matter? – why? He still can't hear any transmissions. Every new frequency he can pick up remains nothing but white noise or dead air, so whoever or whatever set this off isn't actually using the radio. Holi frowns, mostly to himself, thinking this over before looking up at Perceptor.
"Do you think it could be the Decepticons, sir?" he wonders. "Maybe trying to cause a distraction?" It's a valid line of reasoning for Holi. Generally, if there's some bizarre goings-on, one can be sure the Decepticons are behind it somehow.
Then a thought occurs to him.
"Wouldn't we get there faster if I just drove?"
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 29, 2007 15:03:48 GMT -5
The same thought had occurred to Perceptor as well - generally, if something strange is going on, the Decepticons are inevitably behind it. (Snow in the desert? Totally Decepticons. Cybertron is orbiting Earth? Decepticons. Juicy Juice is only 99% juice? Obviously a nefarious Decepticon plot. Surely.) However, he is far too much the scientist to blithely assume as much without at least a little investigation, first.
"It is, indeed, Holi, and that could be a possibility," Perceptor answers, pleased that Holi's thoughts seem to follow his so neatly. "What, precisely, are you detecting now?"
That last question brings Perceptor to a stop, a look of almost, "well, duh!" upon his features. He is so used to walking everywhere - his alternative modes are hardly as speedy as his two feet, after all - that he forgets that others have the capability of transporting him around.
"Yes, that would be more expedient," Perceptor replies to Holi with a wry chuckle. "And thank you for the offer."
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 29, 2007 18:52:14 GMT -5
Space might be at a bit more of a premium in the little police car's interior than it is with most other Autobots, but he's fairly fast. The jaunt to the tower should pass quickly enough that there'll be no risk of any servos kinking up. Though Perceptor might have to ride with his lens barrel pointed out one window.
"You're welcome, sir," Holi chimes before thumping down and forward into vehicle mode. One door pops open expectantly. "And… well, I'm not picking up anything different just yet. Still empty airwaves. They're there… but no-one's using them." He's paying close, careful attention, too, just in case traffic does spring to life as suddenly as had the radio presence itself.
Once Perceptor hops aboard, they'll be off with all due speed.
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 29, 2007 19:38:24 GMT -5
"How curious," Perceptor observes before transforming with a familiar rattle and clack of components sliding into place. He lands with a soft thump in Holi's front seat - scope indeed pointed out the window, but it's more from anticipation than from being too cramped. There's no tongue and ears flapping in the wind of their passage as Holi zips along, but the impression of a cheerful hound enjoying the scenery is rather strong.
"Well, perhaps we will be able to learn more once we investigate the communications array within the tower itself," Perceptor observes as the tower swiftly rises into sight ahead of them. A few moments more and Holi is sliding to a stop, door swinging open to allow Perceptor to disembark with a soft thump as he drops to the pavement without bothering to transform just yet.
"Hmm.... Curious," he murmurs, playing his field of vision over the length of the tower as he awaits Holi's transformation. "There is definitely some new activity..."
As soon as Holi joins him, the small microscope begins rumbling its way toward the door on hidden treads.
OOC: posing of Holi done with permission.
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Post by SceneMod on Dec 29, 2007 19:50:27 GMT -5
The tower has been brought online and in a ready state, and now, finally, it receives its transmission from its sibling. Signal given, its holographic units come online. Overhead, images form as light is manipulated into a 3-d holographic display, one large enough and high enough to be seen not only anywhere in the city the Autobots have claimed, but even where so many of them are currently out training. Watch, now, as a world ends: The broadcast starts in a tastefully decorated but somewhat spare room. There are a number of pieces of furniture that look to serve as chairs and are arranged in such a way as to allow those sitting in them to converse with each other while still partially facing a central point. In other words, it appears to be a talk show or news room of some sort. No one is sitting in them. Standing amongst them are two beings, roughly humanoid in appearance but with four arms and skin that tends towards much redder shades than you get on Earth. 1 The observant who have noted local statues, pictures in their solid media, and so forth should easily peg these two as natives of Gillanan III. One is considerably more slender than the other, suggesting, perhaps, that they are male and female. The two appear to be addressing the recording device, although they will sometimes interact with each other, and sometimes interrupt each other. Their movements are erratic, almost frantic, and their faces, roughly humanoid even if the nose is replaced by slits and the eyes are probably too tilted, hold expressions of fear, desperation, and sorrow. Liquid falls freely from both eyes on both beings. The words are incomprehensible, for the most part, but the tone is clear. Fear, exhortation, something that falls just short of panic. All in all, they give the impression of newscasters attempting to give a message that utterly terrifies them, and completely failing at a neutral delivery. Between the two is a screen that seems almost to be floating in the air. The screen displays images of widespread panic and mass movement, Gillanan's loading into spaceships and spaceships taking off. A mass, hurried evacuation of the planet itself. The entire broadcast flickers, and now the room is gone, and the images that had been on the center screen take over the entire transmission. More evacuations. The alien-language voice-overs continue, tone and speed of delivery doing much to convey information where words themselves are meaningless. The image flickers, and a world is seen from space. Not Gillanan III, this is a metal world. Their sister planet, lost Gillanan IV. Another flicker, and scenes of panic, mass movement, and evacuations appear, only this time the setting most of those doing the running are made of metal and match the creature Synapse had brought back on his trip to the asteroid belt. Four arms, two legs, a more alien face, and since there are some organic Gillanans also on the streets 2 some scale is provided. These individuals are larger, perhaps a bit closer to Minibot height, although still on the small side for that. Flicker. Again, the metal world from space, but it is no longer centered in the image, but towards the bottom, most of the planet cut off. From behind the world a bad moon rises. The first thing visible is the outer ring, not a ring of dust and debris such that a natural world might have, but a solid thing made of a metal that is a dark orange in color. Then, below that death-rust colored curve peeks the sphere itself, all grays and oranges and made of metal. Flicker. Another angle of the same scene, and the great pincers extending from the invading world become clear, as does its maw. It moves closer to the metal world, and the pincers open, then close, ripping out huge gouges of the planet's surface before sucking them in. Flicker. Back on the planet's surface. In the distance, the spike of orange metal tears up blocks of cities, slaughters metal and organic alike, rips the crust of the world itself apart. The spike moves swiftly closer to the source of the recording, to the viewpoint of the watcher, massive swaths of destruction left in its wake before the camera blacks out, not in flicker, but in static as whatever was doing the recording is destroyed. Flicker, and the static is replaced by another scene from space. This time it's obvious that the recording is being made through the view-screen or port hole of some sort of spacecraft, and is positioned in such a way as to let the viewer see, quite clearly, metal, buildings, people being sucked into the maw of the destructive force that's come down on Gillanan IV. Several space craft take off in an attempt to escape the planetary destruction, only to be drawn back in and destroyed. Then, the camera source itself, and therefore the viewer, starts to move swiftly closer to the mouth of the dark planet. The voices that have been providing the alien-language narration rise up in a crescendo of fear and terror as the viewer catches its first glimpses of the terrible, grinding jaws of Unicron, and then everything dissolves in static once more, and all is silent. The silence lasts fifteen seconds, and then the transmission begins once more. A tastefully decorated but somewhat spare room is displayed. There are a number of pieces of furniture that look to serve as chairs... End Interim. 1 Zigzag's description of Gillanan's from an early post: 'Too many arms, but otherwise not bad.'2 There was a great deal of travel and trade between III and IV, as they were two closely placed inhabited worlds OOC: This post has a theme song, kindly provided by Perceptor's player. Feel free to download in order to listen: www.ravynfyre.com/Music/Transformers%20-%20The%20Movie%20Score-1987/01%20-%20Unicron%20Theme.mp3
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 29, 2007 21:55:05 GMT -5
"I hope so," Holi answers Perceptor, torn between speeding up a little to get there that much faster or slowing down for safety's sake as he draws close on the tower. He finally settles for slowing into a controlled slide – and maybe he's a little proud of how cleanly-executed it is, too. With Perceptor safely disembarked, Holi returns to robot mode once more and climbs to his feet to follow. He stops cold in his tracks when there's a brief squawk of a signal over the radio. He even begins to prompt the scientist, but before he can get out more than the first syllable, the broadcast erupts in vivid detail overhead and speech fails him. Holi looks up and up, watching in slack-jawed awe and with a slowly growing sense of horror. The language may escape him, but he knows those vocal tones quite well and he understands the expressions even on those alien faces. These are people sick with fear and grief. They're terrified and they're trying – failing – to keep it under control. These are people in desperate need of help. Every impulse in Holi's mind, every last bit of code in his programming screams that he should lend that needed aid, help direct evacuation, knuckle down and stay calm to make sure everyone else makes it out safely. He can't, though; he can only watch and try to ignore the awful pang of guilt rocking through his core as the visuals flicker and change to a planet that is no longer there. After another few seconds, he sees exactly why it's gone. It takes him an instant to make the connection. Kup has told him of Unicron, a planet that devours other planets. Holi remembers that quite clearly. Now, here, he sees the monster, and the mind-numbingly horrible sight robs him of both speech and motion even as the broadcast scatters into static and restarts itself.
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 30, 2007 6:17:30 GMT -5
His shadow falls across the metallic pavement as he transforms, prompted by the images erupting overhead. This, then, is the information he'd been looking for as he'd picked through the various components and apparent databanks he'd scavenged from the local Gillanese equipment, and apparently right here in the Tower all along. He'd known it had to be here somewhere. After all, an entire planet could not simply empty itself, and a neighboring planet shatter to shards without at least one news outlet catching it.
Aliens though these Gillanese may be, their grief and terror bridges that language barrier and his core aches for them. He'd felt much the same himself when the view screen on that Junkion ship had finally blossomed with images of Unicron's massive bulk, tearing into Cybertron - his home! - so savagely. There is nothing to be done here, however, for this is history and one, perhaps two at the most, years past. Their grief and fear must go unansw-- No... It.... it cannot...
"Unicron..."
His voice is barely a terrified whisper as he shudders and drops to one knee. Suspecting, even seeing the shattered, splintered, decimated remains of Gillanan IV and knowing what the likely culprit had been is a wholly different matter than seeing it in all its vivid detail looming in overhead. To watch that massive Destroyer rending a whole world - it's people - and devouring all before it...
He is there, quite suddenly back on the bridge of the surprisingly solid shambling wreck of a Junkion battleship, watching helplessly as his world cries out, as the Junkions dash around him performing duties that he is no help for. A massive hand fills the viewscreen, engulfs their whole view, and suddenly, the floor and ceiling and every wall groans with terrible strain, crushing inward in that grasp. He can feel the walls pressing in, the ceiling jamming down against his scope, the floor warping under his feet as plating and jury-rigged struts and bulkheads give way under the strain. Darkness as power fails, thrusting them into a crushing depth illuminated only by a scattering of optics of many colors, far too few of them familiar hues of blue as he is cocooned in rust colored metal, as his limbs are trapped by the compressed steel. He cannot move, cannot see, can feel only that massive shudder and heave as the wrecked remains of the Junkion's pride are cast off into the Void like so much refuse...
And not knowing how the others fared, for in that final glimpse before that massive hand had filled the screen, in that moment before everything had failed and gone dark into the crushing, entombing blackness imprisoning him, a glimpse of the usurped Quintesson ship darting in like an arrow, and a flash of a massive beam weapon turned upon it. Just that burst of light, vanishing into shattered darkness a bare instant, less than that, before impact, and then...
Nothing. Just pressure and the groan of tortured steel and the faint cries of unfamiliar Junkions dying in Unicron's grasp and then darkness, ripe to be filled with his too-fresh memories... with Wheeljack and Windcharger as they are so carefully laid out after being uncovered again, with Ratchet and Ironhide, Prowl and Brawn as the shuttle's horrible cargo is finally unearthed... with Prime's once-unfailing form, now greying, greyed, crumbling before his gaze as he looks on helplessly, having failed his Prime, and that terrible wondering now... wonder just how soon would it be until he would see them all again, because he can feel their regard upon him in this crushing blackness now...
The memories are... too recent, too terrible, and his wide blue optics do not even register the brief crackle of static overhead before the broadcast cycles back to the beginning as he stares, terrified and unseeing, up into that horrible sky.
The Destroyer has come again to finish what he'd begun.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 30, 2007 18:18:02 GMT -5
Holi knows he froze up again and shouldn't have. Even though moving seems hard to do at the sight of that incomprehensibly gargantuan monster, he should have followed his programming and his instincts, kept moving. Rodimus Prime's radio call reminds the Micromaster of that and he blinks, then lifts both hands to his face and slaps himself on both cheeks. Maybe the determined, calm expression he fixes in place afterward would look unfamiliar to the other Autobots here, but he has worn it before. A time or two.
"Doctor, sir!" Holi begins, turning. "Sir, we have to shut this off! We–" Then he stops, only for a second or two this time, frowning in consternation. "…Doctor?" The young captain peers back up at the hologram before looking again at Perceptor, then scurrying to the scientist's side. Holi knows this situation; he's done this more than often enough himself and he's none too proud of it. "Doctor," he says and gives one teal forearm a shake. "Doctor! We have to make the playback stop, sir! You can be scared later!" urges the Micromaster, training and programming clicking into place to dull the frantic edge in his voice. Another shake and no response forthcoming. Holi screws up a stern look, bracing himself. "Sorry about this, sir," he mutters, "but we need to move!"
While he can't quite wrap his arms around Perceptor's forearm, Holi does the best he can and gives the scientist as strong a pull toward the tower as he can manage. If he can't snap Perceptor back to his senses with words, he'll try with action instead.
OOC: Grabbing and pulling of Perceptor done with player's permission.
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 30, 2007 19:15:14 GMT -5
"H-Holi?"
It's probably smaller and more confused than the micromaster has ever heard "the Doctor" sound before, but it is at least, finally, intelligible.
For all that Holi lacks stature, he is far stronger than he looks - especially against an unresisting subject. Perceptor is pulled forward, catching himself as he does so on his free hand, sense slowly filtering back into his optics as he crouches on hands and knees just yards from the door to the tower. Holi is saying something, ordering it, an echo of Rodimus's transmission from a few moments before.
They have to shut down the replay.
"Y-yes... yes, of course... I..."
Blue optics fix upon that determined, calm visage for another long moment, blue optic band the still center of a whirling maelstrom. Time... restarts, and just as suddenly as he'd found himself in the crushing blackness, he is back, Holi's tiny hands grasped firmly upon his arm, urging him into action.
They have to shut down that replay.
"Yes," he responds more firmly, scrambling to follow where Holi pulls as he answers Rodimus on the radio. Perceptor seizes upon that calm proffered by the aptly chosen Rescue Captain, clings to it until it begins to fill him. A shift of that arm to turn his hand, giving Holi a reassuring and grateful little squeeze, and then Perceptor transforms, mass-shifting to fit within the structure.
"The primary power relay. Not graceful, but efficient," he offers, his voice quavering but barely.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Dec 31, 2007 1:12:18 GMT -5
Holi beams encouragingly as Perceptor seems to recover from his fugue and come back to his senses. This is good; this is very, very good. The little blue Autobot also hopes his superior doesn't mind a slightly more expedient form of travel. Or being carried. Because he's mumbling an apology for his abruptness, scooping up the red and teal microscope and, arms full, bolting indoors with only a cursory pause at the door to give the interior a visual scan just in case there's something that could collapse or fall on them. Better safe than sorry.
"Primary power relay?" Holi echoes, looking over the many panels and consoles. So, pull the plug, basically? "Roger!" Holi can do that! As soon as he finds the plug, anyway. Another murmured apology and he sets down Perceptor to free himself up for a more proper search, scouring for something, anything that looks like a power cable among all the various cords and wires poking from the backs of different equipment pieces. The playback has to be shut off and there's an overbearing sense of impetus; it's upsetting others. Rodimus Prime, Perceptor, even Botanica… who knows who else that hasn't spoken up on the radio.
It's with that thought in mind, and the sound of static as the playback works its way around again, that Holi finally gives in and unceremoniously shoulders aside a bulky unit he's just going to guess is the master board. It's certainly the busiest display in the room. Shifting the thing out of place is accompanied by a loud crackle and a pop as it pulls a cable free of the wall, and the whole room seems to hum for a split-second before everything flickers to a silent stop. Holi hopes fervently – with every circuit and solder in his little body, in fact – that includes the images in the sky outside.
"…Doctor, sir?" he finally queries, peering out from between machines. He can't hear the broadcast anymore.
OOC: Perceptor carried with player permission.
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 31, 2007 14:32:16 GMT -5
Warned by the mumbled apology, Perceptor manages to bite back his little exclamation of surprise; he doesn't mind in the least at being toted around, he just hadn't been expecting it.
Once inside, he, once again, regrets not having taken the time to examine the facility more before. There are quite a few likely looking components and structures which could, hopefully, kill power to the transmitter, but he doesn't know for certain. Cannot know from just a glance and Perceptor, unlike many other mechs, does not generally act on a hunch.
While Holi searches briskly along one wall and the components there, Perceptor is busily training his scope along everything nearer his own level, studiously tuning out the sounds from that horrid playback outside. He turns to offer Holi his assistance where the micromaster searches just in time to see a more determined set settle over Holi's stance, and then the strong young mech is shoving that unit aside by main force-
And silence settles outside. Blessed silence after the cacophony of the Gillanan's grief and terror. From his vantage, what he can see of the sky looks clear and bright once more, followed soon after by the transmission from Rodimus. Perceptor allows himself a moment to sag with relief.
"Well done, Holi." Perceptor sighs, and, like a dog shaking off a dousing, shudders from tread to lens. "Well done. Thank you." There's a solemn note in his voice that seems to indicate far more than gratitude for simply silencing the broadcast.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Jan 2, 2008 20:29:54 GMT -5
Holi's smile at the commendation is a little sheepish and very accomplished as he bashfully rubs the back of his head before working his way between consoles to the open floor.
"Thank you, sir," he murmurs with overwhelming sincerity, then glances anxiously around the room. They'd stopped the playback as ordered; now what? he wonders. Oh, that's right – they have one more coming down here to help them with the equipment. He turns to Perceptor, careful to address the microscope lens when he speaks. "Botanica's on her way, isn't she?" He's pretty sure, but confirmation is always nice.
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