Blimping Out

Gates of New Polyhex

Like a shadow on the edge of one's consciousness, the darkling spires of New Polyhex rise up before you like the ethereal nightmare of some age, long past. There had been stories, rumors, perhaps, of the rebirth of this city. Foolish boasts of the glory of the new Decepticon capital. The sheer size of the city, the darkness of the towers and highrise buildings which compose the city, the efficiency of the troops marching in pristine order, to and fro, along the roadways... all of them symbolize but one thing: power. Sheer, and absolute power. The gates of New Polyhex are completely transparent, constructed of a nearly-indestructible transantium-di-polycarbate alloy. They have been shaped, by cunning hands, to mimic the Decepticon symbol in appearance when closed. Above this gate, an archway, connected to the walls of the city, is mounted. It is beautifully adorned with a &gt;relief&lt;. The archway and the walls themselves are constructed from a material quite unlike anything seen before... it is dark, completely black, yet at the same time bright and glittering. Obviously some mixture designed by the Constructicon Chemist, Mixmaster. There can be no doubt that these walls are anything less than indestructible...

Contents:

Moonracer

Windshear

Obvious exits: Fly &lt;Up&gt; leads to Sky above Outskirts of Polyhex. East &lt;E&gt; leads to Road to Polyhex. West &lt;W&gt; leads to Customs Gate.

Scrapper is hard at work on some defenses, since a) Shockwave demanded them and b), Scrapper would have done it anyway. It's what he does, when he isn't building death rays or abominations or just plain normal buildings. Right now, he's working on assembling the skeletons of some massive Zeppelins. With Cybertron's new suns, the blimps can be solar-powered and patrol Polyhex's skies, zapping Autobot intruders with sun-charged lasers. They look suspiciously like Batman police Zeppelins, even in these early stages of construction.

Windshear is walking along -- yes walking (strange seeker) after just being released from the repair bay at Darkmount. He looks fine but is in serous need of a paintjob.. hes just walking deep in thought as he considers when he will hitch a shuttle back to earth. As he walks he notices something strange, bloated things and he pauses and stares.

Scrapper spots Windshear, and he immediately decides to co-opt the Seeker, because hey, another pair of hands would be... handy. The Constructicon barks, "Windshear! You can help with the outer coverings. They need to be cut into shape and bonded together." They're something like fabric, but tough, acid-rain-proof, in several layers, and self-sealing to prevent leaks. Right now, they're just sitting around the site on large reels.

Windshear literally blinks and after the optic covers slide back out of sight he looks in the direction of where the voice came from. "Scrapper?" he asks as he approaches. "What are these, things?" he grabs a reel and starts to try and get some of this material off. He doesnt seem bothered that he got volunteered for whatever this project is. It gives him something to do at least. And better then having to hover over a chasm and hold support beams while Blueshift made his Galvatron Bridge.

Scrapper explains, "They're Zeppelins! Rigid airships. They'll be fitted with solar panels and laser weaponry, so they can cruise around, zapping Autobots who try to breach our territory. Here's the pattern for the covering - cut it out in these shapes." Scrapper attempts to foist a datapad showing the patterns upon Windshear, totally unaware that there is a lady whose head makes a very nice mug watching his every move.

Windshear looks at the datapad as he listens to the description of these zeppelins. Hes not a dumb mech and understands the schematics and strts cutting the material as per the diagram, "These dont look that sturdy regarding laserfire though, SCrapper. Or do you have something planned for that?" he asks as he works.

Did he just say 'Zeppelins'? Moonracer frowned as she crouched behind a rock barely large enough to keep her concealed. She was close enough to hear, faintly, and she could see everything going on, she just hoped nobody was up on top of that huge gate, keeping any kind of 'good' watch on this area. Taking a good look at that material, the femme would love to be able to get her hands on a piece of it to take back. The tech's could take a look at it and maybe make it useful.

Scrapper waves a hand dismissively, and he insists, "Oh, the covering can auto-seal to a limited extent, and there are several layers. It can stay afloat even if half the air bladders are deflated. As I always say, it's not engineered unless it's over-engineered!" He chuckles and walks over to get back to work on welding the light aluminum structure together.

Windshear just nods and keeps cutting the sheets as per the diagram. Hes not a constructicon so he wont question this. "How will these be controlled?" he asks making small talk as he stacks a few sheets to the side toward Scrapper. Then the Seeker glances around as if looking to make sure they arent being snuck up upon. Nothing looks out of the ordinary as far as he can tell, and Windy starts work on another sheet.

Listening to Scrapper explain the material to Windshear, Moonracer files that bit of information away for later. But now, she wanted to get a look at this construction project from another angle, for the recording, so she crept as quietly as possible from behind the rock, and began to circle around to the other side of the gates. If Scrapper or Windshear saw her, she'd be in some serious trouble. It'd be worse if that Constructicon caught her, and turned her head into a mug again. She still wasn't entirely convinced that had happened, but she certainly didn't want it to happen /now/.

Scrapper continues to cheerily exposit, "Ah, any Decepticon in good standing will be able to uplink to the Zeppelin via radio and call it in for shots." In other words, the CONTROL effect. "Of course, it would be disastrous if the Autobots were to intercept those control codes. So we'll cycle them regularly." He keeps piecing together the rigid framework, bit by bit, his welding torch glowing brightly.

Windshear shrugs, "If the Autobots gain control of these I'd think there would be some contigency plan to bring these down ourselves then?" he pauses a beat then, "That has been thought of hasnt it?"

Moonracer continues to listen as she creeps around to get several video views of the construction process. Man, the techies were gonna love this stuff! Crouching down behind another large rock, the femme really hopes these two give something away in terms of control frequencies, or something /really/ useful while she's here.

Scrapper scoffs, "That is why I will include a big, red, self-destruct button!" Every project needs one of those, Scrapper firmly believes. He points over at a box marked 'large red self-destruct buttons', then works on connecting some reinforcement spars to the main load-bearing struts.

Moonracer 'hmm's' quietly to herself at the mention of a self-destruct button for the Zeppelins. That'll definitely come in handy when the time comes to strike at Darkmount again. And Moonracer was certain that that time wasn't far away. Still crouched behind that big rock, the femme listens and watches, being as careful as she can to not give herself away while still getting some good video of the project.

Windshear looks at the box labeled 'self destruct buttons' and smirks, "Now really, Scrapper, if the buttons are on the zeppelins and they are in the sky and ot of control, how do you propose to hit the self destruct?"

Scrapper stares at Windshear and exclaims, flailing his arms, "For the love of little winguts, man! Use the wings that the factory gave you!" Almost every Decepticon can fly in one mode or the other, sheesh! Wobbling a bit and almost losing his balance, Scrapper grabs into the spar to steady himself. Whew.

The video at this point might be a little shaky, as Moonracer has to cover her 'mouth' to keep from laughing at Scrapper just now. It takes a few seconds, but the femme sharpshooter gets her laughter under control, and hopes it was muffled enough to keep her hidden. But just in case, she's creeping back a bit, to a larger rock about ten feet behind her, to use for some better cover.

Windshear cant help it and starts laughing. He waves a hand toward Scrapper and just laughs. "But wait..." he weezes between laughter, "If its all shooting and out of control how is any of us suppose to get to the big red button?" he calms down a bit and continues, "I say we set up a remote control on these to explode them from a distance if something should go wrong."

Scrapper points out, patiently, "Windshear, if the Autobots subvert the Zeppelins via radio, our radio self destruct won't work very well, now will it? And you fliers pride yourselves on your skillful flying, I thought. But I don't think it'll be a problem, anyway. The control codes cycle regularly, remember?" He climbs down from the spar to grab more reinforcing stringers. Moonracer continues watching, glad that Windshear's laughter covered her own stifled laughing at Scrapper waving his arms around like that, and nearly falling over. Crouched behind some good sized cover now, she could still hear well enough to know what was going on, and still had a good view of the construction process, so she decided she'd stay put for a little while.

Windshear thinks for a moment, "Well yea, fliers are superior to everyone else if you must know. Any one of us could get close enough to detinate one of these blobs if it went out of control. I was just thinking more of the situation from a general perspecive is all. But yes," he pauses and lays another stack of sheets for Scrapper to take. "as long as the codes cycle regularly we will be fine."

Scrapper glares at Windshear for a long, cold moment, a look that says, 'Not now. Not soon. Not when you expect it. But someday. Someday, you will regret that comment.' Scrapper can wait. He has all the time in the world. With an armful of stringers grabbed, he climbs back into the skeleton of the Zeppelins he's been working on, so far.

Windshear stares back at him, "Why are you looking at me in that tone of voice for?"

'That's what you think.' Thinks Moonracer as Windshear says they'll be fine. Sneaking out from behind the large rock, the femme creeps slowly around back to the west side of the area, for some more video footage from that angle again, to get the majority of the Zeppelins in their various stages of construction.

Scrapper snorts and snaps, "Nothing, /Seeker/." Scrapper isn't easily offended, but really? Does Windshear have no CPU to vocoder filter? He shakes his head and keeps welding skeleton pieces togethe, the structure starting to look more like a Zeppelin now.

Windshear cant for the life of him understand what he said but then again, he thinks about it. Yea ok, but really, its the truth isnt it? Seekers are that elite group that really are amazing. Who else is on the level of fliers? Well... "Devestator could destroy these things I bet if it came down to it."

Moonracer stifles a giggle at the animosity appearing between the Constructicon and the Seeker, and continues creeping around to the first rock she'd used to hide behind. Those Zeppelin's looked like they were gonna be some pretty hefty pieces of machinery. Hopefully the techies would be able to crack the radio control codes, and use 'em against the Decepticons. As she settles in behind her cover, she quietly whispers into her radio while keeping her camera focused on the Zeppelin building.

Scrapper is running low on stringers, he sees! He'll have to go for another load. If only Long Haul was around, to haul things! Scrapper glowers and fairly snarls, "Devastator can bring down /cities/, and don't you forget it!" He transforms to his pokey payloader modes and fliess off for more supplies.

Scrapper cleverly disguises himself as a bright green payloader. No one will ever suspect!

Combat: Payloader &lt;Scrapper&gt; begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Moonracer

Combat: Windshear compares his Intelligence to 71: Failure :(

Windshear watches the Constructicon transform and take off and now hes left babysitting...blimps. He looks around again and then just sits down near all the sheets hes cut and waits for Scrapper to return.

Combat: Like the wind, Moonracer is gone!