Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
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Post by Tracks on Jul 9, 2008 9:04:16 GMT -5
Maybe this planet had flying construction equipment? Now that'd be something to see.
"Well, if you're going to continue looking around the bottom of this cavern, I think I'll wind my way around on top," Tracks pointed to the dark ceiling of the cave before shifting and folding back into his vehicle mode. His engine guns and wings unfold as he soars back into the air, some soot marking the area where he had once been.
Headlights flip up as he makes a brief pass over the cavern floor once more, then up Tracks goes, lights setting off dazzling colors above as he weaves around stalactites and the shimmering rock. Something flaps past with a flurry and rush of wings, a few bats maybe, but the shapes register slightly too large for Tracks to truly be positive. He dips back down to soar beneath the bridge and perhaps provide some more light below.
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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 Jul 9, 2008 13:40:17 GMT -5
Flying construction equipment? You mean, like the Constructicons? Heck, Scrapper can fly in both robot and vehicle modes!
Override begins picking her way through the stream, sending native fish shooting off. Since Makeshift is inspecting the bases of the bridge, she's decided she'll check out the side of the cavern where the bridge goes back into its own seperate tunnel.
When Tracks could-be-bats-but-they're-rather-on-the-large-side start fluttering about, she looks up, searching for the source of the noise. Next step, she suddenly slips and is briefly under the water before splashing about and righting herself once more. With the last step, the water had barely been up to the middle of her lower leg, but here, it's up to her waist.
"Water's deeper than it looks," she tells the others. "Changes depths pretty suddenly, too."
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Post by Makeshift on Jul 11, 2008 16:13:30 GMT -5
Look on the bright side, at least we don't have all of them on the same side to deal with. Yet.
Makeshift has just about made it to one of the bridge supports when he hears Override splashing down. He turns around to see her climbing back out of the water. "Guess I'd better stick to the shallows. Wouldn't want to get swept away by an undercurrent."
Reaching the base of the nearest support, Makeshift taps on the metal. Looks solid enough. His mapping sensor ticks away, taking in the structure of the bridge; some of the builders might find it interesting to see how local techniques differ.
Hmm. Looks like a sliding track of some kind up there. Makeshift gestures up at the flying car. "Tracks, can you follow that....er, track, up to the top? I'll take a look down here, maybe there's a platform or controls or something."
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Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
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Post by Tracks on Jul 12, 2008 15:26:12 GMT -5
"Without a problem," he replies to Makeshift.
Sliding track? Tracks changes course from heading back to the ground to flying towards what he deems as this track. "I've found it." It's a simple mechanism and the Corvette drifts as slowly as possible along its course. "Just as long as you don't end up running anything into me, I'll stay with it."
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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 Jul 12, 2008 17:48:56 GMT -5
"But Makeshift, can't you fly?" There's no need for Makeshift to be wading around in the water in the first place!
Override, however, cannot fly. She wades a bit further, then pauses as she gets to the other edge of the depression she's in. For a moment, her head goes below water as she scrambles up, but when she emerges the water is no more than knee height. "All right. Almost to the other side. Hey, how're things going with you, Tracks?" she asks.
And then she trips, and goes under once more.
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Post by Makeshift on Jul 14, 2008 12:40:27 GMT -5
"In vehicle mode, sure," Makeshift replies to Override. "Won't help me clean up, though." A postage stamp on a helicopter blade might not be enough to cause a full-sized chopper to crash (according to Mythbusters, anyway), but Makeshift is a lot smaller than a full-sized chopper. Of course, his rotors have gun barrels stuck under them, so it's probably a lost cause trying to argue about his aerodynamics.
The track is fairly obvious, a metal rail attached to the side of the bridge, following the curve of a support beam arching over the water and running up to the top. Following it to the bottom, Makeshift finds a hook, beginning to brown with rust, holding the tattered remains of a net into the stream. Looking across the water, the Mini-con spots a similar system on the other side.
"Huh. Wonder what they used this for."
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Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
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Post by Tracks on Jul 15, 2008 18:18:31 GMT -5
Tracks follows the railing for a bit, pausing at it continues down a tunnel leading out of the cavern. After following what he can with his optic sensors aided by headlights, Tracks turns back and lands gracefully beside Makeshift and calling out to Override as he does so. "How're things going? With flying colors, it seems."
"It seems to be some sort of transport system," he kneels down and peers at the net and then back into the water, silver flashes of fish winking back at him. "For food perhaps?"
Then goes Override's trip and Tracks is back up, eying the spot where she disappeared.
// How are things going for you? // Conversational as that may sound, the words more mean 'Are things going to be alright and are you going to be needing some help?'.
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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 Jul 15, 2008 21:36:04 GMT -5
//Well, I'm glad for my headlights. Another deep spot.// And indeed, the spot where she is can be seen clearly as the light shines up from beneath the water. The light flashes about, shining against the sides of the crevice she had fallen into as she scrambles up the side again.
//You'll definitely want to avoid this spot, Makeshift.//
After some time, her head pops up again. She looks around, and spots the net that Makeshift is inspecting, and decides to head towards it through the water. At least then if she falls into another deep section, she's got a net to climb back up. "Maybe it's to keep larger creatures from getting back into these tunnels?" She points up to the bridge again. "After all, they do use this area."
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Post by Makeshift on Jul 16, 2008 17:29:11 GMT -5
//Duly noted and mapped.// She might want to tell him to mark it as something like "over an average Transformer's head here" later. At this point Makeshift is just marking "over Override's head here" for easy current reference.
"If they wanted to keep big creatures away from the bridge, why would they put the net right on the bridge?" This isn't snide commentary. This is a Mini-con largely clueless about organics.
Makeshift transforms and flies out over the water, shining a spotlight down on the net. Broken ropes trail downstream in the current, with fish occasionally pecking at bits of algae and seaweed growing on them. The bottom of the net goes down farther than Makeshift's light penetrates. "Maybe it was used to catch debris from upstream to keep it out of the groundwater?"
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Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
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Post by Tracks on Jul 19, 2008 0:19:51 GMT -5
"Hmmm I would think that a net to keep debris out of the groundwater would be of much finer quality," Tracks murmurs, on fist on his hip and one rubbing the tip of his chin. "It's a pity that none of us are quite so aquatically-oriented. But perhaps we can follow the stream the best we can above water and see just where it leads to?" A water collection system? A (likely abandoned) sub-terrain city? Just more endless caves? Anything is possible.
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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 Jul 19, 2008 17:33:32 GMT -5
"I'd rather follow the road than the water, thanks," Override says to Track's suggestion as she finally gets to the net, Once there, she begins wading towards the other bank. "Can't we just mark it as something of interest and come back to it later?"
The racer finally makes it to the other edge of the river and clambers towards the shore, at which point she starts heading towards the other side of the cave. The 'headlights' on her feet move strangely as she walks along, and it gets a bit difficult to make her out amongst the shadows.
After a moment, however, her voice rings out loud and clear, "Hey, I found a platform! Some sort of elevator, looks like, but it doesn't seem to have power to it."
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Post by Makeshift on Jul 20, 2008 5:25:52 GMT -5
"If the tunnel stays wide enough above the water, I could follow it," Makeshift says somewhat doubtfully. Natural variations of rock formations aside, going by himself down into the cramped, dark tunnels, with a watery fate awaiting if something goes wrong? Even in vehicle mode, they can probably see him shudder slightly at the thought.
Makeshift's searchlight traces up the underside of the bridge, following the net's track upwards and along the bottom of the roadway as he begins hovering forward. At Override's callout, he swings his light that way, following along the side of the bridge to hopefully avoiding blinding her in the process, and tilts his rotors to move forward towards her. "Any obvious damage, or are we gonna have to go looking for the source?" Which probably means he'll have to look, since Override doesn't fly and Tracks doesn't hover. Eh, it's something to do.
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Tracks
Cadet
Can't match this
Posts: 122
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Post by Tracks on Jul 21, 2008 6:51:38 GMT -5
"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to put it off till later," Tracks says easily, waving off the suggestion with a shrug. After all, they didn't go through exploration of that muddy tunnel from before because of his prompting. If Override is against the watery journey and Makeshift as well, Tracks can hold his curiosity.
Maybe it's for the chance of doing some investigating around on his own.
"Does it look large and strong enough to hold an average mech?" Tracks calls out as he begins wading into the river. The energy it'd take to fly across when he could just ford the waters would just be a waste. He keeps the unexpectedly deep areas that Override remarked upon in mind as he crosses. It isn't too long before Tracks clambers out on the other side, flicking water from his fingers as he follows Override's voice.
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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 Jul 21, 2008 8:18:11 GMT -5
"I don't think any of us should go off on our own just now, Makeshift." There, Mini-Con. Now you don't have to go into the spooky-dark water-tunnel! "Like Tracks said, we can just mark it and check it out later."
"No obvious damage, Makeshift, but I don't know where the power source is, either. The platform's pretty good. I'd say it could hold two normal sized mechs - seems intended for fairly heavy equipment, really."
She looks back and nods her head once when Tracks approaches, gesturing to what she had been talking about earlier.
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Post by Makeshift on Jul 21, 2008 16:43:38 GMT -5
The dark water isn't the problem. Unless it's Dark Water, but Makeshift isn't a pirate. Then again, why would Makeshift remember that show anyway? "Consider it marked. Wonder if we've got any good swimmers around." Makeshift hasn't heard about Claw Jaw, apparently.
The Mini-con crosses the water, tracing his searchlight around. Finally his light meets Override's, shining on the platform and tracing around it, searching for the controls, as well as any visible maintenance hatches or other noticeable parts. Hopefully they can get it working without having to bother a tech about it.
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