Work Hazards

Transformers: 2005 - Fortress Maximus - Saturday, October 09, 2010, 9:05 PM

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Several weeks has passed since Autobot high command had first issued the order to make the many underground tunnel underneath Cybertron operational and ready for use as well as opening up new tunnels to stage further assaults in the future. Since then, many resources and manpower had been diverted behind the scenes to make the vision into reality. Hundreds of Autobot gumbies can be found throughout the underground tunnels as they either tunnel their way through the subterrain layers of Cybertron or are putting into metallic platings and electrical wirings to put the finishing touches in their segment of the tunnel. However work has slowed down as the Autobot engineering crews tunnel ever closer towards the area beneath Iacon, having abandoned the old tunnel of used to evacuate the Autobot forces nearly a year earlier due to suspicion of booby traps, they have called in the specialists.

And so comes Fortress Maximus and his crew of able bodied Autobot and Terran volunteers to save the day! The Headmaster leader can be seen guiding one of his remote drone, Grommet, towards the tunnel's walls as he uses the specialized sensor modules on the drone to detect weakened areas in subterrain layer ahead where they can dig without creating massive seismic reactions above that'd tip the Decepticons as to what's going down below, "Here, this is the place where we need to start digging. Excavate ahead for 51 meters and then stop and I'll look for the next weakened sections there."

"Diggin' a new tunnel? Good. I was worried we were gonna go the whole distance doin' this the -easy- way and clean out the old one." Sandstorm chuckles a bit as he slings the drilling device Engineering loaned him off his back. The thing was big enough it needed to be wielded with both hands underarmed, and still produced a good amount of kick. But that's why they had the big tough Wrecker carrying the thing wasn't it?

Fortunately beneath that daring-do Sandstorm has the brains to actually know -what- he's doing with the contraption. "And then I wouldn't get to test this baby out!" Reving it up, the drill spins to life and he starts digging into the indicated spot. "Whoo-oo-oo-oo-oo! Fee-eel tha-at hor-r-r-sepo-ow-ower-r-r!" There's still enough vibration to make him stutter, but it sounds like the daredevil is enjoying it.

Foxfire is apparently here for search and rescue purposes, despite his protests that he's not a dog. Oh well, what can he do when duty calls? He sits to the side, out of the way, as he watches his fellow Autobots go about digging, knowing that his own attempts to do so would not be considered helpful.

Battlecruiser < Scattershot > pulls back the charging lever on a large pneumatic jackhammer. It's so large that he has to hold it with both hands, and a coolant tube trails from the end of the device to a large bulky box strapped around Scattershot's hips with a metal belt. He wields the oversized powertool like it's one of those portable miniguns. "I've been waiting all day for this," he remarks to no one in particular, before going to town on a section of wall that needs to be dug out.

Battlecruiser < Scattershot > transforms into his Scattershot mode.

Loadout isn't built for heavy manual labor, and unfortunately he no longer even possesses an alternate form that would allow him to help with hauling away debris or the like. C'est la vie.

Fortunately he can still be useful, as there's always a requirement for technical sorts to take care of the scanning equipment and machinery, right? Thus he's standing back, manning a console and watching the readouts as information is relayed back to him about the surrounding area. "I must admit I find the idea that the Autobots were forced into underground movements like this for so long a little disconcerting..." Not surprising, given that he comes from a time when everyone still walked on the surface of Cybertron freely, even if both sides -were- at war.

Bitbucket is here as well, having been volunteered to accompany Loadout to assist with maintaining the equipment and machinery. It's a far LESS active role than he's accustomed to, and he's fretting a bit at not having something to do. "Why is that, sir?" he asks Loadout.

Loadout absently rubs one hand on his own chestplate, as he relives old, old memories that seem like dreams from a long time ago. "Because before I took my...extended rest period in that stasis pod, while we may have been at war with each other, neither the Autobots or Decepticons controlled a majority of Cybertron. It was..unthinkable."

Repugnus is here with the other Autobots. He told them, not so long ago, that drilling was a waste of his talents and that he should REALLY be off hunting Decepticons who wander off by themselves. They didn't take that suggestion very well, obviously, so Repugnus is here instead. He's holding a medium-sized drill in his hands. Not too big, just right for his size. Maybe a little *too* just right. Then he looks at Loadout, and tosses the drill over his shoulder as he approaches the Autobot from behind. "Heyyyy, buddy," Repugnus says, as he begins patting down Loadout's shoulders and head, like he's looking for something. "Wanna help with the excavation? I mean, all I gotta is shoot upwards and we'll be there in no time, dawg. Say, do you got some kinda... uh... nevermind." Repugnus stops patting Loadout down, but only because he didn't find what he was looking for.

Fortress Maximus lifts up a ridiculously large mass-shunter excavation equipment, the very same ones that he and a team of Autobots had braved through the Warrens to obtain last night, and thumbs the activation switch, "Autobot high command already thought about cleaning out the old tunnel that we used to evacuate from Iacon, but we deemed it too risky in the end. The Decepticons aren't fools, just because the tunnels were sealed doesn't mean their strategists wouldn't anticipate the possibility of us clearing the tunnel and using it again. In all likelihood, we'd be walking into a jungle of booby traps."

The Headmaster leader then directs his oversized industrial excavation tool over to the designated sections to be cleared and squeezes the trigger on his tool in hand, there's a loud pneumatic hiss and before long, a portion of the metallic subterrain layer of the wall in front of him is ejected out the back thanks to fancy mass-shunting technology. "We'd be fools to think that the Decepticons wouldn't assume we'd be making a new tunnel either." He lets the mass-shunter excavation tool rest against his leg so he can point his free hand towards the equipment, "However any logical strategist would assume it'd take a several more months, assuming we started shortly after losing Iacon. With these tools, we'd be breaching them much ahead of schedule." He smirks a bit before resuming work, "Sometimes tactical ingenuity comes from being able to acquire the right tools for the job at the right time before you opponents can suspect it."

Scattershot growls. "We don't like to think about it much either, newBot. We like to spend more processor cycles thinkin' about how we're gonna get our planet BACK..." He turns back and demolishes another chunk of wall, then leans back, suddenly in a better mood. For some reason. "So how're you fittin' in around here, anyway?"

Sandstorm steps back for a moment as Maximus clears away a good chunk of the wall. Once it's open again he gets back to burrowing with his heavy equipment. "Just consider this the warm up for it, Scats," he remarks, managing to keep his dental plates from clattering so much from the recoil of the drill tearing into the wall this time.

Bitbucket looks at Repugnus oddly. He's ... um ... awfully friendly, isn't he?

Repugnus isn't, really. :O

Loadout peers towards Scattershot, optic band pulsing several times before he looks back at the readouts. "Well enough, all things considered. I've had time to adjust to the pace of things now...even if they are far different than what I was previously used to. I will adapt, of course." He cuts off suddenly as he feels...hands patting at his head and shoulders. "...-what- are you doing?" He suddenly exclaims, then half jerks away at the same time Repugnus gives up the search at about his shoulders, luckily for Loadout, even if he isn't aware of it.

"Gyah! I am not a piece of equipment to be used at a moment's notice! Besides, I hardly think my alternate form has the power capacity nor sustained drilling capabilities of digging through the underground metal of Cybertron!"

Clearly miffed, he turns half away, arms crossed over his chest.

Repugnus smirks, backing away from Loadout with a shrug. "Hey, I understand. I getcha. Playing hard to get. Well, don't cry to me when the Mutilicons attack and you're like, "Waaah, Repugnus, shoot me" and I'm like, "Nah, man, spurn me once, *spurn me never again.*"

Several groups of gumby Autobot excavation crew members begins to join in with the other Autobots that are already working at the removing the layers of subterrain metal, each equipped with the specialized tunneling tools that was recently recovered. All of the tools required some degrees of maintenance and restoration, sadly other more so. However due to time constraints though, some crude jury rigged job can be seen here or there while others are still awaiting to be brought into working order by volunteers like Bitbucket and perhaps Loadout. Afterall, this tunnel to Iacon is only one of MANY others also in progress. One thing is clear though. Autobot high command is investing a lot in Cybertron's underground networks.

As fate would have it, one of the Minibot-sized excavation crew reaches down to pick up one of the smaller mass-shunter excavation tools similiar to the one that Fortress Maximus is using, and perhaps something got crosswired when he picked it up, or maybe he accidentally touched the trigger. Either way. The mass-shunter hisses to life and shunts the molecules of the nearest thing that it's pointed at... a large portable power generator. Suddenly a medium sized square chunk of the power generator is removed from the rest of its body and ejected out behind the mass-shunter, to the dumbfounded look of the Gumby worker who then mumbles in disbelief, "Uh. Oh, smeg what the hell did I just do?!" As if in response to the gumby excavation worker, the large portable power generator overloads and EXPLODES!!! with a loud KRAAAAA-FOOOOOOM! The resulting explosion causes the unreinforced tunnel ceiling above begins to rapidly cave down.

Fortress Maximus' turns around in horror, realizing all too well what is to happen next and prompt leaps towards the direction of the cave in as he makes a futile attempt to keep the ceiling from collapsing with his two thick arms, "It's a cave in! EVACUATE! EVACUATE NOW EVER---" It's hard to hear what else the Headmaster leader was shouting out under the rumbling of the collapsing ceiling and the screams of scattering gumby excavation workers.

His rant over, Repugnus picks his drill back up, sighs, and approaches the drilling site. He sees an unmarred spot of wall, shrugs, and applies the spinning drill to it. Bits and pieces of metal fly off as he punches holes into the wall.

Scattershot's first reaction to the explosion is to drop the jackhammer and take up his acid pellet rifle. Only then does Fort Max's exclamation register, and by then it's too late and the giant Autobot has already...been buried? "Frak! What the--?! Is it the Decepticons?!"

Sandstorm drops his drill-machine at the sound of the explosion, shouting "I DIDNT DO IT!" on reflex... Which just makes one wonder what sort of trouble the Wreckers get into -normally-. He scrambles backwards several steps to get out of the way, but just as he turns around to bolt ends up running smack into another fleeing Autobot. Which only results in them both getting buried under the avalanche of metal alloy and whatever the heck else actually makes up the interior layers of Cybertron.

Repugnus looks over, somewhat alarmed as the ceiling begins to collapse, just in time to see Fortress Maximus get buried under rubble! And then... he goes back to drilling the wall. "Zero days since the last workplace accident. Real shame. Well, he's a big guy, I'm sure he'll be fine." Despite his words, Repugnus looks more annoyed than apathetic.

Loadout hasn't got a lot of luck when it comes to staying on his feet when explosions, firefights or in this case, unstabled tunnels start to collapse around him. Hurled away from the console he was manning, he crashes against the far side of the tunnel, sliding down onto his aft with a stunned look on his face. "Oof!" Luckily the console, which is somewhat heavily damaged in the process, half falls over him and acts as a sort of shelter from flying debris.

Alarmed, Foxfire jumps to his feet at the explosion and resulting cave-in, his ears lowered. As he has been distanced from the other Autobots, he is unable to return to them before he finds himself blocked off by falling rubble, and afterward, he realizes that he is alone! "Guys?!"

Bitbucket is near the same console as Loadout, and thus gets thrown against the same wall. However, unlike Loadout, he hits the wall face first and is out for the count. Well, here's proof that this guy is NOT a combat-ready mech -- his surface plating is dented by the flying debris and apparently from hitting the wall.

Scattershot seems to be trapped in a pocket of air and open space with a half-dozen gumbies. They were fairly far from where Fortress Maximus was last seen, and none of the other Autobots who were in the area are in their little section of temporary breathing space. The gumbies immediately begin shouting contradictory suggestions, some convinced they should dig their way out, others wanting to sit tight and wait to be rescued, a few adamant they should keep quiet and try to open communications with other Autobot survivors. One poor gumbie in the corner seems to be especially confused and keeps transforming into his hovercar mode, moving a few meters in one direction before running out of space and then shifting back to robot form. A second later he does it again only going in a different direction.

The cave ins eventually ends after a few nerve wrecking moments has passed. Dust permeates the entire tunnels, or rather, pockets of the tunnels left as several tonnes of metallic rubble seals the luckier Autobots who managed to avoid a painful fate.

Unfortunately the less luckier Autobots are either buried beneath the rubble, their survival slim due to the sheer weight of the rubble, or partially buried like Fortress Maximus is now. The large blocky Headmaster leader was nearly engulfed by the collapsing rubble, only his head, right arm, and chest was spared from the collapse. Although his free limb doesn't look to be in good shape either. For all intents and purposes, Fortress Maximus is disabled. Eventually the Headmaster leader coughs out, "I-is everyone alright? Status r-r-eport!" It's hard to tell just how far his voice can be carried across through the collapsed rubble and all that nasties, although it doesn't help to try.

Sandstorm growls a bit, managing to get a hand up to rub the side of his head. "Well, that sucked." Paused at a bit of muffled mumbling, and shifts a little so the gumbie he ran into and then landed on when they fell can actually speak. "Did you have to fall on me?!" Sandstorm manages a weak chuckle. "Hey, I kept less of the rubble falling on you." "... Good point." The Wrecker grunts, testing how much room he has to move. Which he doesn't really have much of. "I've heard of heavy metal but this is rediculous!"

Foxfire rears up onto his hind legs and paws at the debris that's blocking him from his friends. As his claws do little damage, he drops back down to all fours and considers his options. He *could* reopen the tunnel with a bomb, but in the current situation that may be too risky.

"All right, everybody SHUT IT!" Scattershot bellows. The gumbies in his area do stop, just for a moment, looking around at each other and at Scattershot in surprise. Then the ceiling shifts again, sending bits and pieces of metal and rust dirt pouring down. The gumbies all start shouting again, their combined volume overcoming the Technobot leader's cries for quiet.

Repugnus stops drilling away, mouth pursed in displeasure. Looking around, he realizes how many of the other Autobots have been trapped under debris. "Ugh. Have to play hero, I guess." He transforms into creature mode, claws flicking out, and his huge optics glowing green. "Okay," he mutters, waving the claws about, using them to scan by scent and noise. "Where are you dumbasses? Oh, and yeah, I'm completely undamaged, Maximus, thanks for asking."

Repugnus twists and flips around into his horrific creature mode!

< Autobot > Repugnus says, "If you're on that, uh, "job?" And you're receiving this? And you, uh, are looking for a way out? Make noise. Lotsa noise. Helps me find you."

Loadout comes to again after a few moments. Sitting up slowly from where he was laying, and almost hitting his head on the overhanging rubble in the process. Maneuvering with some awkwardness, he twists around in place until he can move a little more freely in the confined space, coming across Bitbucket's prone form nearby. Studying the damaged Autobot for a moment, he begins to poke and prod expertly at the prone form, seeing about trying to bring him back online if possible in this confined space.

"As if this couldn't get any worse..." He grouses gloomily.

"Hrrrk!" A stab of pain goes through his chestplate again. Brief, but intense, doubling him over for a second before it passes....a grim line forming on his mouth immediately afterwards as he returns to working on Bitbucket. Careful what you wish for, Loadout.

< Autobot > Sandstorm says, "I hate to be a spoilsport, but doesn't more noise run the risk of causing -more- avalanches?"

< Autobot > Powerglide says, "No, not at all."

< Autobot > Repugnus says, "Hrm. Well. Do you have anything on you that smells really potent?"

< Autobot > Sit-Com says, "Eau De Blot."

< Autobot > Repugnus says, "Like, I dunno, maybe a human left an omelette in you. Or something."

< Autobot > Repugnus says, "And it's been in there for *years.*"

Fortunately for some of the trapped Autobots, whoever they may be, there are some of the heavy-duty excavation tools that managed to survive the cave in. Some Autobot excavation workers who are sealed near Repugnus begins to tap against the metallic rubbles around them, at first there was only a few, then more and more pings and clanks can be heard. It sounds muffled, as expected, but audible nevertheless.

As for Fortress Maximus, he's sealed somewhere but he can hear Repugnus and knowing that the Monsterbot can be unpredictable at times, he cautions, "Repugnus, g-get them out but n-nothing reckless. Got it?" After a while, the disabled Headmaster leader also hears Scattershot's muffled bellowing in the distance which causes him to frown. He's getting weaker now due to the damage that he sustained in the cave in, but he forces himself to raise his voice louder so he can communicate with the Technobot commander, "Scattershot. T-they aren't soldiers. Only workers and e-engineers. They're not d-disciplined enough to remain calm in a crisis." He coughs and pauses a bit before continuing, "G-give them instructions, inspire them with order. An average mech needs at least t-that to be freed from the fears that throws them into c-chaos. Something that they can d-do, to help themselves out of the crisis."

Station

The lengthy transit tube terminates in what was once a busy waystation, but everything of any use has long since been stripped, leaving a maze of broken pipes, stripped conduits, and dark, uninviting maintenance tubes. Dirty oil and grease dripping viscously from the piping lubricate the thick steel floors, making for treacherous footing, while numerous massive steel pillars support the ceiling, making for a poor field of vision. As sturdy as the underlying structure of this station may seem, even the wide support pillars show signs of distortion and weakening.

Contents:

Bug Creature < Repugnus >

Bitbucket

Scattershot

Foxfire

Sandstorm

Loadout

Obvious exits:

West < W > leads to Transport Tube.

Up < U >

Bug Creature < Repugnus > turns towards the pings and clanks, easily picking them up with his sensors. As he stomps towards the big metal plating that sealed some of the workers off, he replies, "Yup, yup, don't make things worse, gotcha." He digs his claws into the plating, and they're sharp enough to punch all the way through. A gumby cries in pain on the other side. "Woops, sorry!" Repugnus chuckles. "Please keep all hands and fingers away from the Monsterbot, heeheeheee!" Despite this initial setback, he begins to carve a rough circle shape out of the plating.

Bitbucket finally rouses as Loadout's assistance helps. "...sir? What happened?" He sounds as bad as he looks, and is completely baffled to boot.

Loadout sits up, satisfied as Bitbucket appears to come back online. "It would appear there has been a tunnel collapse of some sort." As he speaks, his right hand retracts into his forearm, the modular tool device extending in its place as his cutting torches suddenly come to life. "I can only hope the rest of the Autobots are not seriously harmed. But I think I can start trying to cut us out of here..." And indeed, as he says this, he starts cutting into the metal around him, carefully, in the direction of where he hopes would be the nearest open area. All the while willing his body to behave itself and do what it's supposed to do.

Scattershot tilts his head to one side, listening, trying to make out the voices from Autobots in other chambers. "Max?!" he shouts back, nearly overloading the audio receptors of the nearest gumby. "Is that you? What was that?! Can you repeat your last, everythign after 'soldiers'!"

At last, one group of the Autobot's excavation team will be rescued by Repugnus shortly! What about Sandstorm and the gumby that he ran into? What tools might he find, or ideas he can think of to get himself out of that mess? Loadout and Bitbucket seems to be in better location than the other trapped Autobots, will their combined efforts be enough to free them from their earthly prisons?! What about Foxfire, probably the luckiest of all. Will he be the doom of the other Autobots if he does the unthinkable by setting off a bomb?! Will this monologue end soon? Yes actually, yes it will.

Fortress Maximus looks around, his position on the floor restricts much of his field of vision, but he manages to reply, "Inspire them with orders, Scattershot. S-shouting at them won't help, i-if they're doing something, they'll be able to stay focused."

Sandstorm grunts and tries to shift again, pushing up against the pile of rubble on his back as much as he can to give the guy underneath him room to move. "Well.. ah." "Borehole," interjects the tech, holding up his arm-mounted drilling 'hand' a bit. "Right, Borehole. How convenient." Sandstorm growls in concentration, hydrolic muscles straining in his arms and legs. Even the Wrecker's strength was being put to a test here. "Can you move?" "A little.. if you don't fall on me!" "Don't worry 'bout me kid." Grunt. Shove. A little rubble trickles loose, but he's holding. "Get up and use that drill before I do though." "Yes.. yes, of course." Borehole crawls forward a bit, and starts cutting at the 'wall' of the pile of rubble around them. The wrrrrrrring can probably be heard faintly on the other side.

Bitbucket nods to Loadout and stiffly moves to follow the other mech. "How do you want me to help, sir?"

Bug Creature < Repugnus >, after opening a convenient hole for the gumbies to escape from, waves the gumbies past him as they emerge like he's ushering them in to see the circus. "Right this way, folks, right this way. Fun and excitment awaits just up ahead! Oh, and sorry about the hand, teehee!" He grins at a gumby clutching a hole in his hand from where Repugnus accidentally punctured him.

That taken care of, Repugnus looks around for more people to help in his own way, waving his claws about as he does so. He hears... drilling? They probably don't need help. Muttering... talking... yelling? Is someone yelling for something? He creeps towards the pile of debris that's sealed away Scattershot, waving his arms about as he assesses the blockage. "Hm, this could be a little more complicated!" He gives the debris an experimental poke to see how stable it is.

Loadout pauses for a moment to consider, "If I knew which way was safest, I hate to admit it but perhaps blasting our way out -could- be the best route. But I don't want to inadvertently cause another collapse, or blast through into somewhere that others are trapped."

"For now we'll need to clear debris as we move." As he says this, he starts passing back bits of metal to Bitbucket as he cuts through where he can, shearing through beams or outright huge slabs of metal pieces of Cybertron's surface in the process. All the while passing the 'rubble' back to Bitbucket to move out of the way.

< Autobot > Loadout says, "Loadout here. I am unharmed, and trying to cut my way out. Unfortunately I do not have one of those drill tank modes, which would admittedly be useful right now."

< Autobot > Sandstorm says, "Luckily the guy pinned under here with me has a drill-hand."

Scattershot stares at the wall of collapsed metal that Fort Max's voice is coming from in disbelief, then turns his blazing optic visor on the gumbies with him. "Give 'em something to do, huh? Well...why not, ain't like we got any better options here." He says all this in a low mutter, then raises his voice. "All right guys...listen up." He repeats it a few times, more and more of 'his' gumbies stopping to look at him each time. Maybe the common Autobot responds better to reasoned conversation than bellowed orders, thinks Scattershot. Who knew? "I know things are looking grim, but we gotta stick together. It's the only chance we got. Half the extra equipment we brought in here with us is for drilling and excavatin'. We can USE it to work our own way out of this mess." He bends down and then hefts the massive pneumatic hammer he'd been using earlier. "C'mon, we know we can do it...we're Autobots." Turning towards the wall, he gets to work. Soon the other gumbies start to follow his example...

Even Sandstorm may very well be nearing freedom with the help of Borehole! The sound of excavation tools can also be heard in some of the pockets of rubble where trapped Autobot excavation workers are sealed in. Some of the gumbies are able to free themselves sooner than the others due to having been fortunate enough to have some of the tunnel excavating tools along with them. The newly freed excavation workers then follows Repugnus' example and begins utilizing their tools to start working on freeing the other trapped workers behind the piles of rubbles.

As for Fortress Maximus, he's still a lame duck at the moment, sadly. Being pinned down on his back side on the ground and having 3/4 of your body buried under rubble can seriously reduce one's options. Instead, he does the only thing he can do as well in this situation. The trapped Headmaster leader struggles to lift his right hand, which he has balled into a fist, and drops it onto the ground below again and again, repeatedly. *knock* *knock* *knock*

A thin red line appears along some of the metal rubble just at the edge of the debris pile, soon followed by the telltale glow of a torch flame cutting its way through. A few moments later, a large enough line is created so that a quick kick from one of Loadout's blocky metal feet finally has he and Bitbucket emerging into freedom again. Gratefully standing up, Loadout wastes no time in nodding towards the other Autobots that are currently freed, then stooping down to pick up some of the scanning equipment again. "We should be able to locate the others more easily with this!" he calls out, moving to get the pieces set up again properly. Though he pauses to grimace a bit at a wave of discomfort that washes through him, and is gone again in an instant.

Bitbucket considers for long moments while helping Loadout by moving the cut pieces of debris clear. "Sir, do you think everyone else is all right?" If he were human, he'd sound like a frightened child.

After a bit of work the drill pokes through the outside of the pile, leaving a nice sized hole before Borehole has to pull back with a wince and a few sparks crackling from his elbow joint from stretching too far. "That's as far as I can reach from down here." "Don't worry, it's enough." Sandstorm shifts his weight to one arm to keep the rubble supported, then shifts the other closer to the hole. There's a click as he gives a mental command and his chest compartment pops open. "Since you're down there, reach in and grab one of those babies." Borehole does so, and pulls out the small spherical shape. ".. Uh, sir? This is a bomb isn't it?" Sandstorm smirks as he takes it in his free hand as its held up. "This? Naaah. This is just a firecracker." With a grunt he strains to shove it into the hole his companion made, then presses the trigger and crouchs down to sheild the smaller Autobot. The sphere hisses a bit, then *FWOOM*.

It's actually more of a pop than an actual blast, as it was a concussion gernade instead of explosive. But the brief discharge of force, meant to be able to knock larger Decepticons on their ass, is enough to blow chunks out of the rubble without causing too much noise or a bigger blast radius. "There, go, go!" Sandstorm gives Borehole a push to help him crawl out, then pulls himself out to the hole, getting a helping hand pulling up from Borehole in return. Autobot teamwork at its finest folks.

The pile collapses into the now open space left moments later.

Scattershot and his impromptu team of gumbies bursts into the next 'chamber' in the rubble, then spot something promising. It's the bottom of a giant blue boot. "There he is!" Scattershot crows in triumph, and his squad of gumbies brighten up immediately, despite their clear exhaustion. He heads over and they starts digging the Headmaster out, and folowing his example, the gumbies do the same.

Bug Creature < Repugnus > grumbles. The survivors in this little pile appear to be helping themselves just fine. Well, whatever. Then he hears the knocking sound. "While I grumbled, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as of one gently rapping, rapping on my metal floor. 'Tis some big lummox,' I muttered, 'tapping on the floor. A pile of fail, and nothing more.'" The Monsterbot clambers up to the pile of rubble, and begins to slash away at the big chunks that have piled on top of the Headmaster leader, making them into smaller, more manageable chunks. "..so that now, to still the ache of my head, I stood repeating, 'Tis some loser entreating escape from the ruined floor--some dumbass pleading freedom before he gets bored, that it is, and nothing more.'"

"If there is any sort of damages, it will be nothing we cannot fix." Loadout reassuring Bitbucket in the process, helping him climb clear of the rubble pile as he takes note of the fact that Repugnus seems to have uncovered Fortress Maximus. Or is starting to, anyway. "That's what we're here for, and we do the best job possible, and then some."

Bitbucket follows Loadout, nodding as he stumbles after the medic. "Yes, sir." Thank Primus that his repair tools -- while not integrated into his hands like a real medic would have -- are still safe and sound in a storage compartment. He's sure now that he's going to need them.

Looks like today won't be the day that Fortress Maximus is to be buried for a few million years, because not one but TWO groups of Autobots have now managed to find their way over to him. Of course, Repugnus' comments is met with an unamused expression coming from Fortress Maximus, who replies dryly, "Not that I'm grateful, Repugnus, but have I ever told you how distasteful your 'poems' are?" Was there a bit of exchange in humour in between all that? Who knows? Who cares?! Eventually even the large blocky Headmaster is freed from his earthly bondage and he climbs back onto his feet before looking at the two groups of Autobots who managed to spring him free, "Thanks, I'll return the favour some day. Let's get out of here though. The excavation teams will be able to handle the rubbles from this cave in once all the survivors are accounted for. As for us..." He looks at each and every Autobot around him, "...we could use a break."

Bug Creature < Repugnus > gives Maximus a hideous grin. "Awww, you just don't appreciate the *classics.* Anyway, not that I don't appreciate a break or two, but I like to stay busy. If I'm not busy, I get bored, and if I get bored, I find ways to entertain myself!" He shuffles to aid the excavation teams in locating more survivors, or, failing that, dead bodies.

Sandstorm dusts himself off a bit, then gives Borehole a slap on the back. "Good job buddy.. but they can probably use your drill diggin' the others out." The gumbie gives him a nod and hurries to help with the clean up. Sandstorm folds his hands behind his head as he trots over to where the others have already dug Maximus out mostly. "Well that was certainly more exciting than expected!"

Fortress Maximus nods understandingly at Repugnus, albit with a bit of reluctance. Is it really a good idea to let that Monsterbot run around unsupervised?! That'll be a story for another day. "I think for most of the excavation crew workers here, they'd probably prefer something less intense, but you and the others all did a great job in getting yourselves and the rest of these workers out of this mess. They'll have this tunnel cleared out and work done yet." He looks around as he watches the teams of Autobot excavators are already in the process of mass-shunting rubbles out of the way, freeing trapped survivors and clearing the cave in.

A few days later, against all odds, the tunnel leading below Iacon is constructed and reinforced despite being a bit behind schedule due to the last minute hiccup that had threatened to derail the whole project. Autobot high command will be able to make use of this tunnel yet for their assault on Iacon and beyond! Dun dun duuuuun!