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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jun 14, 2011 16:26:31 GMT -5
Month 7, Week 1, Day 1, semi-private, because it should be Elita-1, Optimus Prime, Scenemod, and Sentinel Prime, but it could open to others upon request!- - - Getting stuck on a derelict ship with Optimus and Elita-1 is not exactly what Sentinel Prime was hoping for this moment or ever again, actually. However, it's not like he could take Jetstorm with him inside and send Optimus outside - that would make no sense, from a tactical point of view. Mirage and Slider made sense as a team, and Override was logical leader for the two. So Sentinel Prime's stuck with his two old friends. To make things worse, Elita-1's probably delighted, if he knows her at all. Sentinel Prime takes one look back before popping out his electric torch to shine some light on this subject. The spectacle before them is frankly appalling - such a mess! - with deep grooves rent into the floor, the walls, even the ceiling, and an oily, viscous orange liquid filling the grooves and splattered everywhere else. There are spare parts littered around with no rhyme or reason, a bolt here, a piston there, the gnawed remains of a finger peeking around the corner. The emergency lights are on, low and flickering, and conceal more than they reveal, because the main lights appear to have been shot out with long iron spikes. Something's dripping down the spikes, drip-drip-drip, but there's no sound, because there's no air. The whole state of maintenance is deplorable, with insulation and snarled wires peeking out the torn panels, some panels torn so deeply that the stars peek at them. It's the mess and the lack of order that bother him the most. He curls his lip and tries to decide how to proceed. This is horrible and revolting, but that doesn't make these bad people, per se, just slovenly and disgusting and urgh. Still. Sentinel Prime radios over open band, //Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong.// That's how it's supposed to be said, right? And again, in rather bad Lithonian, //Hello? We mean no harm.// Just to Optimus and Elita-1, he radios, //Get behind me for now, and be careful.//
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Post by Elita-1 on Jun 15, 2011 11:51:44 GMT -5
Elita gladly accepts the order to stay behind Sentinel. //This... this is appalling!// she says, //There's nothing in the database that suggest the Lithones of any reality would live in such deplorable conditions!//
//Not-,// she quickly adds, //that that means anything in this reality. But...//
//Watch yourself,// she ends finally as Sentinel takes point.
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on Jun 17, 2011 20:29:18 GMT -5
Optimus Prime brings up the rear, axe in its two-handed configuration held defensively in front of him, his battle mask already in place. He keeps spinning around to look behind them, positively jittery.
//Not mentally healthy, non-criminal Lithones, anyway. Yes, sir.//
If he sees a single spider, he is grabbing both Elita and Sentinel and dragging them bodily off this horrorship. Just see if he doesn't.
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Post by SceneMod on Jun 17, 2011 22:10:44 GMT -5
Sentinel's radioed greetings are met with naught but dead air.
If the group listens closely, they can hear, deep within the ship, a faint metal-against-metal skittering noise, irregular and inconsistent, and so soft it can barely be heard above the nearer dripping of orange liquid from a jagged tear into the wall into a pool of the stuff on the floor, or the electronic crackle of the shorted panel behind it. As in other parts of the ship, the deck plating here is treacherous, weak and slick. From here, the passage way continues ahead straight for a short distance where it meets a T-intersection, one path left, one right, both blind from this angle. Between the location where the Autobots boarded and that 'T', there are two entrances to rooms on either wall. All entrances once had doors, and all doors are ruined in some way. One Hangs off the hinges so as to partly obscure the room behind, one lies on the floor, another is closed but has had a hole ripped into the center, and the fourth is missing entirely. The rooms beyond are small and in a condition similar to the hall, and as lifeless. They look like they might perhaps have once been living quarters or storage rooms, but nothing that resembles a control room so far.
Though there is no sign of life, the flickering of the emergency lighting gives the illusion of movement.
That is just an illusion, right?
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jun 18, 2011 20:39:45 GMT -5
Despite his own queasiness, if Sentinel Prime could see Optimus's jitters, he'd chide him and deride him, in his own particular way. Actually, though... //Optimus, keep trail.//
Elita-1 can get mad at him all she wants, but if there's something big and nasty that is going to sneak up behind them? Sentinel Prime wants the Autobot who... defeated Megatron back there, not a cadet.
There's no reply to his greetings, just a vibration he can faintly feel in his feet. Sentinel Prime presses on carefully, wary of the floor after that warning on the radio.
At the flicker, he snaps out his shield and extends it in a large bubble around himself, Elita-1, and Optimus Prime, lance out and extended in the other hand.
Then he realises it was just a flicker of the lighting, and he's overreacted again.
//Slaggit,// Sentinel Prime whines.
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Post by Elita-1 on Jun 19, 2011 21:19:20 GMT -5
When Sentinel extends his shield, Elita automatically faces out from his back. Not directly back, because if things work out right, Optimus can back up and fill the gap, and they have the directions covered as best they can with just three people.
//Can't really blame you there,// she says to Sentinel, //This place would make anyone jump- eeee!//
One of Elita's legs breaks through the rusty floor, and she swings her arms out, trying to grab onto one of the boys for purchase. Good thing those gloves are on, huh?
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on Jun 22, 2011 18:30:07 GMT -5
//Yes, sir,// Optimus transmits back. That skittering noise? That's the spiders coming to devour and/or mutate them all.
The red Prime takes a step back as the blue one extends his shield, which, since he was looking behind the group at the time, means they're all three now standing in a ring facing outward, like a herd of large, horned herbivores when a predator approaches. Given how Autobots from their reality tend to measure up to their foes, this is probably appropriate.
Optimus makes a grab for Elita-1 as she falls through the floor. Or as her foot punches a hole in the floor, which is probably more embarrassing than lethal, with no worse consequences than losing her balance. He still grabs desperately for her arm and shouts "Elita!" because he is jumpy as hell, and why do these things keep happening to him? (G1 Optimus never had to put up with this crap. He just had to worry about The Most Dangerous Game and hands reaching out of billboards to forcibly transform his dudes. Or he had to be sure to take his anti-depressants so he didn't commit suicide over World of Warcraft. Or something. But never any horrible spider flashbacks.)
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Post by SceneMod on Jun 22, 2011 21:51:29 GMT -5
The foot pushes through the floor. And then the floor pushes back. Sentinel's forcefield is a potent defense, but it doesn't extend below, and as Elita's foot breaks through, something, several somethings, burst up, grasping, clawed hands first, then the head. The creature looks like it might have once been Lithone, but its lips are pulled back from unnaturally sharpened teeth in an animalistic snarl, optics are opened wide in uncomprehending rage. The Lithone attempts to bite down on Elita's foot, as the hands punched through the floor reach for the legs of the other two.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jun 22, 2011 22:53:28 GMT -5
Oh, the Fallen take him to the Pit! Has Elita-1 managed to fall through the floor already? Wait, no. Optimus actually seriously tried to catch her this time. Good. At least the bot learns from his mistakes.
Then Sentinel Prime's brief moment of complacency is shattered by the fact that there's something coming up through the floor at them. He doesn't think. He just retracts his shield to spiked format to allow everyone greater mobility in the half, sidesteps, and tries to thrust a lance down that open gullet. Something's attacking. Kill it all and let the AllSpark sort it out. Then write an apologetic press release later.
//Elita-1, borrow Optimus's powers,// Sentinel Prime orders, trying to keep a lid on panic and figure out the next thing to do. Why Optimus? He's trying to grab her anyway, Sentinel Prime rather needs his shield and lance right now, and also, Sentinel Prime is a jerk and wishes for Elita-1 to make Optimus mildly uncomfortable.
They need to get this ship out of the way, but they need to also not die. They need to warn the others. Hating himself a little, he continues, //We go deeper still, not back to the exit. Have to find the controls.//
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Post by Elita-1 on Jun 23, 2011 11:19:46 GMT -5
"The floor just gave way," she says as Optimus as grabs her arm and keeps her from falling in to her hips, "Thanks, I-" Whatever else she going to say is lost in a scream of very real fear and pain as something's teeth scrape across her foot before she can get it completely withdrawn.
She tries to kick that something hard in the face, then with Optimus's helps gets back on firmer footing. Quickly, she strips off one glove, then tries to grasp Optimus just long enough to borrow his abilities. He won't feel great, but it shouldn't muck with his reaction time too much. Unless something causes her to hold on too long, that is.
//Acknowledged.// Elita-1 is scared witless, but she was still trained to be a solider. She'll not shirk from this.
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Optimus Prime
Minor
Caution: Hero makes wide right turns.
Posts: 385
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Post by Optimus Prime on Jun 26, 2011 9:16:06 GMT -5
Optimus really, really wants to say 'I told you so' to Sentinel Prime, but it'll have to wait for later. Now he's trying to pull Elita-1 away from the hole in the floor, trying to stomp on those horrible clawed hands or plant the blade of his axe in a mutilated face.
He doesn't resist when Elita borrows his powers, though he does give a slight shudder. It never used to feel like that.
//Roger.//
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Post by SceneMod on Jun 26, 2011 17:33:19 GMT -5
The Lithone whose head is visible has an axe, a foot, and a lance heading toward it. All connect and the thing screeches before falling back through the hole, its face a ruined mess. This doesn't stop the grasping, clawed hands, some of which get stomped on, but between the feet and weapons coming down on the weakened flow and the creatures grasping up through it, it's not long before the entire deck plate gives out, leaving all three Autobots with nothing to stand on.
Cables, ducts, and pipes get in the way, though some are broken through, as the three mechanoids, thanks to the weakened ship infrastructure and their own momentum, crash through multiple floors, possibly bouncing and jostling this way and that as they fall.
When they hit bottom, they are not all together. And though the fall got them away from the Lithones for the moment, from the sounds of things, the rabid robots are coming, and fast.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Jun 26, 2011 20:32:34 GMT -5
What, did Optimus want Sentinel Prime to go in shouting, 'Die, alien scum!'? Sentinel Prime's doomed if he acts like his usual aft of a self and doomed if he tries to be politically correct and non-judgmental like these weird other-dimensional Autobots!
Sentinel Prime wants to know why falling through the floor keeps happening to him. Override did warn him, though. He just barely manages to stow his accessories before he lands hard on his head, putting a kisser of a dent into it and bending two of the antennae on the side. Sentinel Prime groans loudly in pain and slowly pushes himself up, trying to blink the static out of his optics. He takes stock of the situation and realises with a horrible feeling that wrenches his fuel tank that he can't see Optimus. There's Elita-1, but they're - they're split up.
"Frak," he curses noisily, grabbing his midsection with one hand and his forehead with the other, kneeling and leaning forward a bit as he tries to make the world stop spinning.
Finally, Sentinel Prime gets himself back up, and he lopes over to Elita-1 to offer her a hand up, not really thinking about what a dumb move that might be. He thinks out loud, "Okay, I need to have Skyfire, Jetfire, and Jetstorm go find Optimus. I can't leave him alone. Fraggit,, why'd I break us into groups of three? Groups of four would have been better, then I could have split two of them off to go find Optimus and there'd be two left outside..."
He shakes his head and tries to get right back to the situation at hand. "Actually, let's just get out of here."
Stupid G1, setting the precedent for vics, when the Allies versus the Axis showed that teams of four are much better than teams of three.
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Post by Elita-1 on Jun 26, 2011 22:13:31 GMT -5
Elita reaches for Sentinel's hand, as automatic a gesture as the offering, and perhaps her bare fingers touch his for a moment before she jerks back, optics wide and apologetic. If he stays there, she'll switch to the hand that still has a glove on it. Otherwise, she'll make it up on her own.
Well. If she needs it, she may have a shield and a lance available to her now.
Once she's standing, she looks at Sentinel and nods.
"We have to find the control room, though. Complete the mission. That's what we're trained to do, right? Optimus...we'll find him, or they will. We won't leave him."
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Post by SceneMod on Jun 27, 2011 19:46:27 GMT -5
The two robots are currently in an engine room of some sort, by the looks of things. There are large, open spaces, and they've landed on a walkway, one with multiple branches. They were rather lucky to have landed there - a little bit to the one side, and they'd have kept falling into one of the giant generators. The machinery is densely packed, however, and distances from walkways to equipment are small - which might be the only reason the Autobots haven't seen any 'crew' quite yet. Given the radiation levels these machines have been putting out, it's likely they wouldn't want to stick around for long, even without the threat of attack.
A crash and a snarl is enough to alert the two that their respite is over, as a long-limbed robot - this one not Lithone - suddenly leaps out of the darkness from below and grasps onto the underside of their grate walkway, positioned directly between the two, before letting go with one hand to attempt to bash its way through. Meanwhile, several twisted machines - most of these of the expected species - start to emerge from the shadows, some crawling along the side of equipment towards the two, others rushing towards them along the walkway. Two of them leap at Sentinel, one from the walkway and one falling down from above, while some sort of long-eared robot jumps at Elita-1 from the densely packed steerage equipment.
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