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Post by Long Range on Mar 2, 2009 0:41:37 GMT -5
Day 4, Semi Private (as far as a I know.)
At least, thats what Long Range thinks he's doing out here waiting for Hellbender to pitch up. As always, he's taking the idle time to sit down and vegetate, as far as robot can, at least.
//Hellbender, get your aft down here before I fall into defrag.// Long Range transmits, watching cloud formations and the like to pass the time.
A little bird/lizard thingy even settles down on his one knee. Too bad its going to have to move soon, or be defaned by the roar of artillery fire.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 2, 2009 19:48:01 GMT -5
// Working on it. Gotta brief you anyway. //
A few moments later, Hellbender strides up the hill to where Long Range is sitting. "Thanks for sparing me a few shells, Long Range. Now here's the deal: On mah signal, Ah need an explosion at these grid coordinates <insert three coordinates>", he points out over the country-side, "either simultaneously, or precisely timed. Can you do that thing where you lob a shell up and long and then launch the next one before the first one lands so they land at the same time?"
He grins. "I heard of someone doin' that to completely fox some Autobot tunnel-rats--they figured the long shell had missed, then---BLEWIE!"
"Once you get set-up, Ah'm goin' to dive underground and get in position to detect all the ruckus you're gonna raise. Should let me get a good picture of what's deep underground here. Ah detected somethin' funny way back when and always meant to follow up on it." Hellbender shrugs, the motion waggling his stabilized shoulder gun up and down. "Been kinda busy with all the weirdness since then."
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Post by Long Range on Mar 3, 2009 0:56:40 GMT -5
Long Range listens to what Hellbender wants, and smiles. Why can't people ask him do things that he can do well more often? Its like nobody ever needs precise mass destruction in style.
"I can do that easily. Now, had you wanted me to snipe a plane out the sky, that would be tricky." He says, getting up with some difficulty and walking to a more open area. His four cannons mean that he can land up to eight shots in one place,or more, depending on the range and time he has to work with.
"Its going to take me some time to transform. Any idea whats down there?" He asks.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 3, 2009 7:37:39 GMT -5
"Heh. Guess it's a good thing Ah don't want seismic readings of the sky," Hellbender replies.
"It'll take me a while to dig down there to where Ah can listen proper," Hellbender says, gesturing at the ground. "Ah got some funny echoes off a rock seam down there a while back, when Ah was diggin' the base out, but it were too deep to get a good readin' of it. That, and Ah was still gettin' the hang of this here form's gee-o-logical software. Didn't half understand whut Ah do now 'bout it."
"Ah ain't expectin' nothing exotic--no buried alien spaceships or freaky crystals of power--well, the latter's possible, maybe. Just some special rock or ore that echoes funny. You never know--might be special crystals, or an underground cave complex lined with shielding, or somethin."
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Post by Long Range on Mar 3, 2009 8:24:24 GMT -5
Long Range is part way through his transformation so he can't move huch, but if he could he'd cock his head to one side to contemplate what they might find. Personally, he wouldn't mind a chest full of precious metals along with some ancient high grade energon, but thats just his pirate side talking.
"A cave, you say? Connected to the mines or all by its lonesome?" He asks. He's not much of a geologist, but it'd make sense if they where attached to the mines.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 3, 2009 20:13:19 GMT -5
Hellbender began to transform, curved plates shifting and moving and enveloping his robotic semblance with that of some weirdly angled and curved thing.
"Nah, Ah'd have noticed that when Ah was explorin' the mines," Hellbender says, his voice somewhat muffled by the fact that his head is now buried somewhere in his interior. Another twist and his non-Euclidean geometry resolves itself into that of the giant mining worm.
Hellbender's voice sounds louder, hollower and deeper as he turns his head--well, front end--to face Long Range. "There's a lot of flooded shafts down deep and an old drainage aqueduct goin' toward town--Ah keep thinkin' about borin' out the blockage and draining the mine, but workin' underwater is a real pain, and Ah ain't had no real reason to bother. She'll flood town real good when I pull the cork, too."
Hellbender's grinders spin up and he rears back, then stabs the ground. There's a rumble of metal blades biting into dirt, then he slowly disappears into the ground. A spray of fine gravel and coarse sand spews from his tail vents and fills the tunnel behind him.
// Radio check. You receivin' me okay, Long Range? // Hellbender radios Long Range on his personal frequency.
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Post by Long Range on Mar 4, 2009 0:41:34 GMT -5
//I can hear you. Wouldn't flooding the town flood the base, part of which is underground?// Long Range transmits.
Not that he doubts Hellbender ability, but he'd want to avoid Hellbender going off half cocked and flooding the base by accident.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 4, 2009 9:02:17 GMT -5
There's a gentle vibration in the ground underneath Long Range's feet as Hellbender burrows.
// Base is flooded, kinda-sorta. It's built on top of the mine--Ah dug out all but the top floor from the upper mine levels, and Hook built the top floor above the mine. You go down to the lowest floors, you're looking into the central mine pit. Iffin you was to jump down that pit, you'd hit bottom with a splash--like I said, bottom level is flooded.//
Hellbender falls silent as he digs into a hard layer of rock for a moment, then continues, // Most of the town is downhill, in the valley. Aqueduct feeds into the sewer system, but I've been under the town--it's in bad enough shape that all that there water hitting the drainage at once would back up fast. Even that wouldn't drain the mines... You'd have to pump the lowest shafts out, raise the water up to the aqueduct.//1
Again silence, and the distant vibrations cease. // Okay, I'm in position. You 'bout ready for my signal? //
--- 1Mine aqueduct & drainage issues very loosely based on that of the Comstock Mine
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Post by Long Range on Mar 4, 2009 10:51:22 GMT -5
//In a mostly unrelated note, the base wouldn't collapse into the mine or something should something big and explosive, or just big, hit the base?// Long Range asks.
He doesn't doubt that the base was built to the best standards by Hook, but he's no idea how well the mine is built.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 4, 2009 12:34:41 GMT -5
// Nah, Hook shored it up pretty good. Something big enough to collapse the base would blow us all sky-high, or just flatten the whole thing anyway, // Hellbender replies. In a teasing drawl he adds, // You fallin' on it ain't gonna break the base. // // Let me know when you're ready for mah signal, Long Range. //
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Post by Long Range on Mar 4, 2009 15:41:35 GMT -5
//Heh. I'm ready.// Long Range responds.
Really, Long Range is more worried about falling through the floor than anything else.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 5, 2009 7:44:24 GMT -5
// All right then! On my mark---FIRE 1! //
A precisely timed interval seconds later--
// FIRE 2! ///
Finally...
// FIRE 3! //
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Post by Long Range on Mar 5, 2009 14:11:16 GMT -5
Long Range fires, as he has done so often before, exactly when the order is given.
Though this the first time in quite a while that he's done so without the express intention of blowing people into small pieces.
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Hellbender
Major
Mecha-Shai-Hulud
"Seriously."
Posts: 892
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Post by Hellbender on Mar 5, 2009 19:58:51 GMT -5
There's long silence, then...
// Got it! Waitin' on the mining brain to process all this... //
The ground rumbles in warning--then stops abruptly.
// Hel-lo there... There's definitely somethin' interesting down there. Rock layer with an odd texture... Can't quite understand what this dadburned alien logic is tryin' to tell me about it. Ah'm diving down to check. Oh, and you can stand down now. Thanks for the assistance--I'll be back up in a little bit to tell you what Ah found. //
Hellbender grinds his way through the sandstone layers down toward the curious rock seam that had shown up so distinctly in his seismic imaging. What was it? The Gillanese mining computer couldn't or wouldn't translate its opinion to symbols Hellbender could recognize.
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Post by Long Range on Mar 6, 2009 10:58:18 GMT -5
Long Range begins to transform back. Like anything else he does, it will take a while.
"Any idea at all what it is?"
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