Guinea Pig Retrieval

Yrral System

A solitary star hangs in space, curiously unattended by planets of any kind. No majestic gas giants turn in bloated orbits, no ice-covered rocks swing in large ellipses, and no scorched desert worlds mark the dusty passage of time.

Instead, a thin black ribbon crosses in front of the star, then loops around behind in a brilliant blue and black band.

Contents:

Windshear

Asteroid Damocles

Dyson Ring

Shadow Squares

Sun (Yrral)

Obvious exits: Out &lt;O&gt; leads to Deep Space - Galactic Plane.

Outside, Windshear sitting on the asteroid admiring his laser carvings hes done. He looks at the odd planet from time to time and the strange ring around it and idly wonders if and when a shuttle is coming for him.

Scrapper supposes that he should go pick up Windshear. There's no real reason to leave a perfectly functional Seeker in the middle of nowhere. Oh course, says the devil on Scrapper's shoulder (it looks like Scrapper, only black and on fire), there's no real reason why Scrapper shouldn't, either. However, says the genie on his other shoulder (expected an angel? Oh, pit no. This is Scrapper), if Scrapper doesn't pick up Windshear, Windshear might contract SPACE MADNESS and start blathering over the frequencies, and that would upset Galvatron. So Scrapper guides the Invictus closer to the mega-structure, scanned tuned to look for Windshear's transponder.

Outside, Windshear is sitting pretty much where he was on the asteroid when he was last seen. The Seeker thinks he sees something out of the corner of his optics and he looks in that direction and sees what looks to be the Invictus. What a fine shuttle it is. Hes flown it before and know how well it responds. Hey... if hes looking at the Invictus that means someone came for him! He stands and gets on his radio.

You receive a radio message from Windshear: Yes, someone came for me. To whom am I speaking with?

You send a radio message to Windshear: This is Scrapper. You receive a radio message from Windshear: Greetings, Scrapper. As you can see your space bridge experiment worked. Though the ride was pretty rough, rougher then usual. Im still trying ot figure out how I kept my energon... thanks for coming for me.

Scrapper guides the Invictus toward the asteroid, as the locator beacon responds. He's just a bit fond of the Invictus. It's very much Scrapper's... style. And he's used it before, in different times. It's sure not subtle, though. He brings it to a landing near the construction site, glancing over at the tracking screen.

Outside, Windshear watches the shuttle land and then starts heading toward it.

Outside, Bonecrusher sticks his head out the hatch and shouts, "You ain't got Space Madness, do ya?"

You send a radio message to Windshear: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't fall over yourself thanking me. A rough ride, eh? Well, just consider this version beta...

Outside, Windshear grins as he gets the radio reply from Scrapper and then laughs at Bonecrusher, "Not yet at least... probably would have had I been here much longer." he reaches the shuttle door and waits to see if Bonecrushers going to open it the rest of the way or if hes going to have to. He looks at him, "No.. I dont have it." he reiterates as he looks at the Constructicon.

It escapes Scrapper why he brought along Bonecrusher on a simple pick-up job. Possibly, not bringing Bonecrusher would have been harder. Possibly, Bonecrusher would be useful if Windshear does have Space Madness and needs to be restrained. Scrapper leans over the scanners and checks on the status of the asteroid - intact, and in a nice circular orbit around the sun, between the sun and the ring. Neat. He says absently, "Let him in, Bonecrusher. But if he shows any signs of Space Madness..."

Outside, Bonecrusher looks back over his shoulder at something Scrapper says inside the ship and punches his fist into his palm. "I'll know what t'do, Chief!" He lowers the gangplank the rest of the way and gestures Windshear aboard. "C'mon, you."

Outside, Windshear walks up the gangplank and into the shuttle. Once inside he looks around and heads for a seat. "How far away did the Space Bridge take the asteroid -- and me, Scrapper?"

Windshear has arrived.

Bonecrusher flips open the chronometer panel on his left wrist and peers at it with the look of someone who never really got the hang of analog. "Uh, pretty far."

Scrapper is shorter than Windshear, and he's sitting down. Nevertheless, he does the best to try to loom over Windshear, even sitting. He swivels in the pilot's seat and holds up a finger along his not-nose, before replying, "And that is the all the answer you'll be getting. The exact distance is classified. This location is classified. In fact, this location does not exist. Yesterday, all you observed was the construction of three perfectly normal shuttles. If you require any assistance in forgetting, Bonecrusher is an expert in percussive maintenance."

Windshear understands exactly what Scrapper is really saying and with a glance at the other constructicon he looks back at Scrapper and says simply, "Understood."

Scrapper stares at Windshear silently for a moment. Then, he swivels back around in the pilot's chair, and he starts the pre-launch check, making notes in the digital logbook. He mutters, "Not sure why I bother. This is all going to be wiped and replaced with details of a run to Monacus, anyway."

"That's the kinda maintenance I'm best at," Bonecrusher says proudly, folding his arms over his chest. "Force'a habit?"

Windshear sits back and watches. Hes really not intersted in any of this if hes not suppose to know it. Unlike some, if hes not rank enough to know, he doesnt want to know. "What did we do on Monacus?" he asks though suddenly. "We need to make sure what we say matches..." he offers quietly.

Scrapper glances over at Bonecrusher and asks, "What did we do on Monacus?" Scrapper knows that the best lies are simple lies, but he also knows that he's not really good at making things simple. Also, whenever he goes to Monacus, he tends to get painted something absurd. Scrapper finishes the flight check, and he brings the shuttle up from the asteroid.

"Uh..." Bonecrusher thinks for a while. "I don't remember," he eventually says with a shrug. "Monacus is always a blur'a colored lights for me."

Windshear smirks, "We went, we got overenergized.... we woke up somewheres we shouldnt and came back to base...hows that?"

Scrapper is pleased. And that is why he picked Monacus. It's a Grade A location to go AWOL for a while, and no one will ever question if you don't remember what you did there or if your stories don't match. He grunts, "Good enough." The shuttle jerks into motion, up and away.

[travel spam]

Outside, Imperial Spaceport

Outside, The Imperial Spaceport stretches out before you in all directions. A marvel of modern engineering, it is kept in a constant state of cleanliness and order by the hundreds of janitorial droids which skitter back and forth between and around visitors' legs. The huge landing area boasts repair facilities, terminals, and some of the most modern air and spacecraft on Cybertron. Several &gt;starships&lt; are currently in dock or leaving, and they appear to be representative of a wide sampling of the civilizations of the Galaxy.

Outside, Obvious exits:

Outside, Fly &lt;Up&gt; leads to Sky above Polyhex.

Outside, Launch leads to Orbit of Cybertron.

Outside, Northwest &lt;NW&gt; leads to Forum.

Outside, This room is a shuttle room. You can type '+destinations' to take an auxillary shuttle from here.

Windshear is silent on the ride back. Just looking out of the window nearest his seat and keeping to himself.

Scrapper isn't a great conversationalist during the flight, mostly because he's never a great conversationalist. Once they land, he flips open a panel on the shuttle's command console, jacks in a cable to his datapad, and he works on swapping the flight data. Scrapper's not a hacker by any stretch of the imagination, but a simple wipe and swap job is within his skills. (Plan B, of course, is asking Bonecrusher to just blow up the console.)

Bonecrusher is as quiet as the others, but then Bonecrusher is a robot of few words at the best of times. He considers himself more a man of ACTION. Or inaction, when nothing needs demolishing. He comes over and looks over Scrapper's shoulder to see what he's doing.

Windshear gets up and approaches quietly, "What you are doing here is none of my business either so if its all the same Im heading out. Thanks for the ride." He turns to head for the door to disembark.

Scrapper is doing really boring things. Blank out files from time period A to B, insert fake files from A to B. Actually going to Monacus would have been much more exciting! He waves absently to Windshear and suggests, "Might want to get a better firewall. You can pick up strange things on strange worlds."

Windshear pauses at the door. "You have a point." he says, "I will check it out, thanks." and he leaves.

Windshear has left.

Outside, Windshear has arrived.

Outside, Windshear takes off on a shuttle bound for NCC Spaceport.

Outside, Windshear has left.

"Kid's learnin' a thing or two after all," opines Bonecrusher.

Bonecrusher has disconnected.

Scrapper finishes with the wipe and swap job. He closes up the panel, puts the cable and datapad away, and he swivels around in the chair. Scrapper takes a moment to lean back, hands folded across his lap, and he reminds, "I find keeping low expectations is a good way to always be pleasantly surprised."