Adapting An Old Tactic To The New Age

Repair Facility

''Upon entering through the large doorway, it is noticeable that the Debris Medical Facility is not as nice or as large as Autobot City's or Iahex's. On the far wall are numerous operating tables lined up with various tools used for such procedures. In between the entrance and that wall are medical personnel, either repairing the wounded or patiently awaiting another rush of allies in need of their skills. Several cabinets line the eastern wall for storage, mainly used to contain the small internal components necessary in Cybertronian repair. Overhead is a large scrolling screen with the words: Quiet Please...Quiet Please. On the western wall is a decent sized machine that is actually part of the wall, used to dispense and color any factory standard part a wounded Autobot would require. ''

Let's see now, we've got Cybertron trying to reformat itself to death, Decepticons trying to force control of said reformating, and one of their own having disappeared into the depths of the planet. She probably shouldn't be too concerned, Velum's a tough lady and can take care of herself, but one can't help but worry about a friend and ally lost behind the lines. But seeing as the Autobots are always there to help when Earth gets in deep poo, it's only fair the EDC would send some help to return the favor when Cybertron needs it.

It wasn't quite the big picture that Talia was semi-wandering the good guys' semi-secret base for though. She had an idea in her head and she wanted to find one of their technical experts to toss it about with. Techs usually hide out in labs or repair bays, so that's the best place to look first.

Though it's enough to make her pause at the entrance, one hand gripping her hat to her head so she can look up without losing it, because that's a long way to look up. "Tarnation, Ah keep forgettin' this place is just a'big on the inside as it is onna outside..."

Jetfire has been holed up in the lab at the Debris for several cycles since he and Firestar's skirmish with Bonecrusher and Ravage at Tarn. There's certainly a lot of things on his processor, from Vector Sigma's strange behavior, to the drone mainframe to underminding Galvatron's influence over the system. So many questions...

How did Galvatron gain control so easily? Why was Vector Sigma so interested in Captain Velum? Is Galvatron's influence irreversible? Why did Vector Sigma all of a sudden decide to start reformatting the planet in the first place?

At the moment, the scientist is examining the recent scans of Velum's exosuit that First Aid had sent along, and cross-referencing it with older ones to see if he could figure out what it was about that specific device that had attracted the creation factory drone. And then there was the question of what exactly the drone had done to modify the suit and how...

What with all that, the tall white mech doesn't even notice a human female walk in.

Some humans might be afraid of getting accidentally stepped on, but Talia isn't one of them. She's been around heavy machinery all her life, even before she joined the EDC. She just walks over to the tall white mech, and gives his ankle plate a solid rap with her knuckles. "Knock knock, anybody home up thare?" Good greif Cybertronians are big, but this one is -really- big.

"Oh!" Suddenly, someone is knocking on his ankle plating. Jetfire starts slightly, but is careful not to stumble too much for fear of accidentally injuring or killing what's likely to be a human or Nebulan. He turns around, and crouches down as far as he can without falling over in order to face his visitor. "Well, hello there." he greets. "Miss...?" he asks, hoping for a name.

Never mind crouching over he still towers above her head considerably, but she takes it in stride. She removes her stetson with one hand and salutes with the other for the sake of being proper. "EDC Airborne Squadron leader Talia McKinley." The plops the hat back on her head and resumes her casual demeanor with that out of the way. "Was lookin' fer one of yer tech types 'bout a few things."

Jetfire nods. "A pleasure to meet you, Ms. McKinley." he says, smiling politely. It's kind of uncomfortable crouching so he straightens up an sits down at a workstation nearby. "I am Jetfire. And if you were indeed searching for someone with technical knowledge, you have come to the right place," A brief pause. "So. What might I be able to do to assist you today?"

Oh, up on the table, good idea. That's closer than trying to kneel down to her level. "Well for one," Talia starts, even as she grabs what's probably a transformer sized drawer handle in the workstation and hoisting herself. "Command wanted a check-up on Velum's disappearance and why yer planet took an interest in her exo."

There's a few moments of pause as she climbs the rest of the way up, finally hoisting herself up onto the workstation tabletop. Doing it herself didn't seem to bother her much even if she could of asked for a lift. "And fer another thin', Ah got a bit of my own stuff Ah wanted to ask 'bout."

"Well, I was speaking to Apocryhpacius last mega-cycle, and he seems to believe that it was interested in her comm unit for some reason. I can't imagine why, since that model is not exactly a unique device. We have many units that are designed and programmed similarly to that one, especially drones. Therefore, that matter is still somewhat of a mystery to us. It seems we will have to examing the system directly..." Jetfire trails off, not really wanting to bore her with more detailed speculation.

"Oh?" He asks at the mention of personal requests. "And what might that be?" The scientist smiles slightly. "Let me guess--a new weapon? Or perhaps improved firepower for one your vehicles?"

Talia McKinley knows enough to get the general gist of the matter, even if the more intricate details are lost to her. So she's not just nodding to be nice. "Kinda what the eggheads back home figured. The runnin' theory is just that the exo was different enough to get its attention." She shrugs a little. Sounds like Apoc has been making himself useful despite the planet 'threatening' him at least.

When the mention of weapons comes up the woman perks back to full attention. "Act'ally, that's exactly what Ah came lookin' for. Iffen ya been on Earth enough ya maybe heard of the Coast Guard? Ah use to serve in that before Ah transferred to Earth Defense. But they have a trick or two Ah reckon, with a little puttin' of heads together, might produce somethin' useful. Ever since that blackout the planet biz the brass have been hot on findin' ways to make sure we don't get caught with our proverbial pants do--" Talia stops as she realizes that might not make a sensible allusion to a transformer. "Err, tailgates hangin' open."

There is still no word of Captain Velum. Elita One came home. The Nebulan hasn't. Apocryphacius feels that is rather unfair. He looks in on the repair, sort of hoping that he might see - no.

Cybertron is a damnable planet, he feels.

Apocryphacius salutes Captain McKinley and greets, "Sir."

Jetfire nods, listening to Talia's words. "Yes, we've noticed the code is quite ancient--perhaps it was simply curious about the fusion of Cybertronian and organic." He muses. But then she starts talking about the Coast Guard, and brass, and pants...? Okay, he gets the Coast Guard part, he'd been on Earth enough to know about that, plus it was on file in the Autobots' databanks. The rest of it is kinda lost on him, though.

"Ah..." he pauses awkwardly. "I take it you want a new weapon, or perhaps an upgrade to an existing one, based upon Coast Guard battle tactics?" He nods to Apocryphacius when the Quintesson enters. "Oh, Apocryphacius. It is good to see you again."

Talia McKinley turns her head a moment and gives a nod and tip of her hat to the Quintesson from atop the workstation. "Howdy Ahpocryphashus." She manages to say his whole name, though her drawl mangles the pronounciation slightly. "Pull up a.. well, ya got yer own hoverin' beam but pull it up anyways. We were just talkin' about Velum disappearin', and some weapon stuff." Maybe something in his field of work will give the Quint something else to think about.

Then she turns back to Jetfire, a grin spreading across her face. "Yer a sharp one ya are. That's -exactly- what Ah was thinkin." She tugs the strap from her shoulder and slings the vagely gun shaped and length case off her back, sets it down and opens it up, then pulls a high powered rifle out of it. "Don't worry, safety's on an' she's unloaded." She holds the rifle up for the scientists to see. "This is what we called a 'breaker'. We used em to shoot the engine outta smuggler boats and other vehicles. Stop 'em dead in their tracks. Now Ah reckon ya ain't gonna be able to knock one of ya big guys on yer keister in one shot." She tucks the rifle under one arm and holds up a finger from the other hand. "But, iffen it were possible to come up with somethin' with similar penetratin' power that'd muck up somethin' important inside, it'd give the Cons another reason to not take us so lightly."

Jetfire smiles at the compliment. "Why thank you, Captain. I do my best; but forgive me if I ever misunderstand some of your metaphors." he chuckles a little.

The scientist then turns his attention to the 'breaker' rifle, nodding. "So, a precision strike against a speeding vehicle. That could be useful." He begins scanning the weapon to see if he can't get some of the schematics of its inner workings.

Darkness  waves politely and greets, "Hello, Jetfire. I hope this day finds you well." His faces click a bit at the mention of weapons. The mangling of his name is ignored; no one ever gets it right, anyway, and it isn't like he deserves his name to be said properly. he winces when she mentions Velum. However, as she suspected, he does perk up at the idea of the scaled up breaker. "...oh. Very nice. I do like that. Considering the average density of armour, to achieve sufficient penetrative power..." He starts scribbling on a datapad.

Talia McKinley sets the highpowered rifle down and takes a few steps back so she doesn't get in the way of Jetfire's scanning. The biggest problem with the breaker rifle is that it is, comparitively, old tech. It's entirely Terran technology because the Coast Guard doesn't have access to all the cybertronian sharing the EDC does. Good for the job it was meant to do against other earth craft, but against a Cybertronian it would be just flicking spitwads without some help.

Seeing Apoc get interested and to work as well does make Talia smirk a bit more though as she chuckles slightly at Jetfire's difficulty with metaphors. "Don't feel bad big fella. Iffen it wasn't for spendin' most my life 'round machines in some form, Ah pro'ly wouldn't get most of yours either." Idly she folds her arms while watching the two scientists go about calculating. Nice to see an Autobot and a Quintesson working together. "T'be honest Ah ain't so worried about the direct damage as Ah am hittin' deep enough to screw up the insides. Muckin' up one of yer internal systems would be like one of us gettin' a bone or muscle shredded. A hindered enemy can't fight as well, after all."

Jetfire completes the scans, and the data begins to flood the holodisplays of the workstation he's sitting at. "Hmmm...well, the first problem with this bit of technology is that it is quite old, and would need a significant firepower boost in order to be effective against Cybertronian alloys. In addition, enhanced targeting algorithms may be of paramount importance, since many of them are capable of flying or maneuvering at high speeds. Of course, this is dependent upon who exactly you are up against. Brawl is heavily armored, but not exactly what one would call versatile. Blitzwing, on the other hand, is extremely agile in his flight form."

He pauses, thinking for a moment. "Well, what are your thoughts, Captain? Would you prefer your weapon to be more effective against heavily armored targets, or against agile targets? Or perhaps a bit of both?"

Death  flips through some of his older designs, pausing wistfully at several that involve some rather interesting crystals. Ah, that was a lifetime ago, but not his lifetime. Then he opens up a fresh file and puts the best of his scribbles there. He says, deliberately, "What I like is that it should allow you to take a Decepticon down alive, if you just kill their engines, allowing them to be captured for... trial." His mouth quirks a bit, optics flickering.

Talia McKinley ahs at Jetfire. "That's a good question, act'ally. But aimin' ain't gonna be a problem." She reachs down to pull a more high tech pistol from her belt holster. For the most part it's just a standard EDC sidearm, but when she clicks on the additional electronics piece mounted under the barrel a targetting scanner blips to life and a holographic sight flickers on the side. "Ah can get one of these smartgun aiming modules mounted on it like Ah do my blaster here. Handy li'l piece of hardware actually. Iffen Ah don't shoot myself Ah can transmit the tactical feed to someone else." Talia McKinley already has Crackshot, that's just how she explains it.

Jetfire nods. "I see. Well then, I will focus my efforts upon boosting its ability to penetrate Cybertronian armor." He turns to the holodisplays around the workstation. "Hmmm, perhaps a high-energy photon stream to penetrate armor and melt turbines. Or would you prefer a precision strike using an explosive projectile containing corrosive substances to destroy circuitry responsible for fuel injection?"

Death  suggests a bit hesitantly, "You could have it adaptively adjust its resonant frequency so as to cause breakdown of molecular structure for ease of insertion."

Talia McKinley wrinkles her nose slightly at Apoc. "Ya make it sound like tryin' to probe their aft or somethin'." Pause. ".. Granted, shootin' a Con in the keister wouldn't be a -bad- thing." She looks from Jetfire to Apoc and back again. A lot of good ideas being tossed about, though nothing is quite catching. "All good ideas, but we're kinda lookin' for something a bit more.. uh.. possible to be standardized if it works out?" She lifts one hand to tap her fingers to her chin. "What 'bout somethin' magnetic? Y'all mostly metallic or electronic, right? Somethin' that could lock parts together or screw up somethin' delicate dependin' what it hits."

Death  steeples a pair of tentacles. "Apologies, sir. That was hardly my intention. Now... most Transformers are hardened against normal EMPs. They require slightly more exotic techniques to befoul, in my experience, due to the variety of materials that may comprise them."

"Er..."Jetfire raises a brow at Talia's comment. Probe their afts? He wasn't sure how that sounded like probing Decepticon aft. Well, humans...he never could quite get their jokes. Instead, he nods at her suggestion. "Hmm, a precision EM burst to scramble their microcircuits? I could manage that. But," he says, nodding to Apocryphacius. "He's right. The pulse would need to be strong enough penetrate outer armor, but not so much so that it would be difficult to harness."

Talia McKinley considers that for a moment. "What if instead of a pulse it was a magnetically charged round?" They may be onto something now, just needs a little more finess. "Somethin' just physical enough to wedge through the outside so the magnetic field could affect what's underneath? Maybe even warp the armor itself inward to make a mess of things."

Death  points out dryly, "Swallowing a magnet can kill a human. I would rather imagine that a magnetically charged round would have similarly deleterious effects upon a Transformer."

"So--like a an EMP grenade?" Jetfire queries, rubbing his chin for a moment. He ponders the idea, glancing at Apocryphacius when he points out that the attack might simply kill a Cybertronian instead of just stopping them from escaping. "Well...I doubt it would offline the target permenantly. It might cause him to stasis lock, but if the blast radius is too large, there is a risk it might affect your own equipment, that of your allies, or your allies themselves. I suggest a very precise burst confined to the enemy's propulsion systems."

"Not quite." Talia shakes her head, ponytail swating with the motion. "Yer right about grenades bein' too 'messy', don't need to explode none. Just have enough oomph to get past the armor so it don't stop the magnetics." But then the scientist goes on instead of continuing the grenade thing like she was starting to wonder. "Yeah, like that. Somethin' focused enough it only has to get through one point to scramble what's inside." She holders her blaster, then raises one hand and makes a ring with two fingers and pokes a finger of her other hand through it. "Precise. All that armor don't matter s'much when yer tryin' to penetrate just one spot. S'way the breakers are designed for hittin' something specific like they are, too."

Death  speculates, "Could just do a two-stager - a shaped charge to put a hole in the armour, and the magnet charge inserts through the hole."

Jetfire nods at Apocryphacius. "Excellent idea!" He exclaims, and immediately begins running calculations and coming up with a few rough schematics. "A small explosive device, designed to deliver a small, precise blast. Once the amror has been blown away, the EM device may be injected through the opening. Even a small charge would be enough."

Talia McKinley slaps her hands together. "That sounds perfect! Means the weapon doesn't need to be much bigger either."

"Of course. Small size is a definite advantage, since the larger the hole must be, the more powerful the explosives to disintegrate that much armor mass. That, and it would also allow the weapon itself to be less massive and thus easier to carry." Jetfire agrees, continuing to work on the schematics. Ah, yes! This one would do. The projectile would fire, utilizing high-energy particles to propel the device to the location specified by a targeting array, then deploy the precision explosives first. He begins sorting through the various potential explosive substances, searching for the perfect combustion reaction for this particular purpose. An exothermic chemical reaction? Its kinetics would need to be well-defined. Or perhaps something like a miniature detpack? Raw energon? Nah, likely too unpredictable, especially when coming into contact with exotic particles.

Finally, he pulls together a basic schematic for the weapon, and projects the image to a spot in front of Talia. "Would this suffice?" Most of it is probably beyond her, but Jetfire has done what he can to ensure that she can see it is based off of the idea that Apocryhpacius had come up with.

The elaborate scientific details are beyond her, but Talia knows enough about guns and using them to get the general gist of the matter. She gets the 'blow tiny hole in armor and shove magnet inside to screw Decepticon up' of the matter and that's enough for her. She leans forward a little to regard the display. "Ah reckon that's just the sorta thin' we're lookin' for." Then stands up with a low whistle. "Ah'm right impressed. Ya two did in a little back and forth discussion what it sometime takes the labs back home weeks to puzzle through."

Jetfire smiles appreciatively. "Thank you, Captain McKinley. It is always my pleasure to be of assistance in any way possible." The hologram disappears once Talia is finished looking at it. "I will send you a copy of the data for your reference. When will you have urgent need of this device?" he asks, wondering if there is a deadline of any sort on the project.

Talia McKinley shakes her head as she picks up her rifle she used as an example and puts it back in her case. "No, no. Ah know better than tryin' to rush such a thin'." Slings the case strap back over her shoulder as she stands. "Ah right appreciate all the help though. Even li'l steps to gettin' the Cons to remember they ain't gonna be just steppin' all over us is a big improvement."

"All the same, I will do what I can to deliver your new weapon in a timely fashion." Jetfire replies. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Captain!" He smiles as she gets up to leave.