Bad Boys And Their New Toys

Armory - Combaticon Base

''This is the part of the room that contains the things that go bang in the night, day, and often in the middle of the afternoon. A variety of lockers, cabinets, and metal boxes have been arranged in the room to provide whomever can get through the thickened steel and optical scanner sealed door with whatever additional munitions, weapons, or ammunition they may need. In addition to all this supplies four lockers have been arranged in a row in an alcove on the right side of the room each with a name painted onto them in alphabetical order.''

Onslaught is patiently waiting for Swindle. Well not that patiently. His arms are crossed over his chest and he's foot tapping. The components they "acquired" on Pz-zazz are in a crate in front of him and he placed his stun gun on it. But where is Swindle? Not that Onslaught could not do it himself but it's a discipline thing. Swindle must learn not to sell Onslaught's stuff.

When you needed to find Swindle, there was two or three places you could be pretty certain to do so. The Combaticons' own Armory was one of them, which is certainly why Onslaught is waiting there for him. Sure enough he eventually walks out of the sectioned off corner he's claimed as 'his' area, with his scatterblaster in one hand and what looks like some sort of barrel attachment in the other. "Just need to retool the fittings to Decepticon standard measurement and everything should be fi--" He stops as he steps into where Onslaught is in view, and after a split-second start discards his stuff aside quickly. "Ah, Onslaught, there you are. And you brought your stuff too. Wonderful."

Onslaught remains still for a second before nodding at Swindle, "Now that we got the required components, it's time for you to proceed to the last part of our...deal. I want you to repair and improve my weapon. I'm expecting a 40% increase in effectiveness." He grabs his gun before shoving it into Swindle arm. "Take this." he says before opening the crate. "All that you need is there. I checked every component myself."

Swindle urfs softly as the rifle longer than he is tall is shoved into his arms. He's about to retort that of course everything is there, he put it there himself.... then stops himself when he realizes that's why Onslaught checked it personally. Heh. "Of course, of course! You know I don't go back on a deal." Baited pause. "Well, not on an important dea--" Stops again. "Oh, bother, not important." He waves it off dismissively as he walks over to the work station. "Deadweight, get your skidplate out here and bring that crate over here."

The clunky labor-con steps out of the partition about to grumble about something... but upon seeing Onslaught waiting shuts his own trap, and instead of grousing about either Combaticon being strong enough to carry their own things transforms into his forklift mode and obediently does as he's told.

Onslaught moves to stand behind Swindle, his large body casting a shadow over the smaller Combaticon. He is glad Swindle understood what he meant but just to be sure, he's going to keep a close optic on his work. "Indeed, it is not important. Now get to work." He glances towards Deadweight for a moment but otherwise does not seem to acknowledge the laborcon's presence.

Swindle in a matter of seconds with a fingertip driver has dismantled most of the exterior housing of the sonic rifle. Followed by quickly disposing of the remaining broken pieces by the time Deadweight gets the crate moved. The resident gun jockey knew his stuff and how to do it quickly... Debatable if its because of familiarity with his teammates' armaments, or having to work quickly under pressure via his, ah, 'other' jobs.

"Here." Absently Swindle picks up the piece had been toying with when he walked in and tosses it over his shoulder to Onslaught. "Entertain yourself with that." ...With what? It just looks like a component to a rifle barrel of some sort.

Onslaught catches the rifle barrel and examines it...while keeping an optic on Swindle's work, "What is this?" The combaticon commander doesn't want to be distracted but he got to admit that Swindle usually has a lot of cool "toys" in his shop and he wonders if this is one of his new creations.

Swindle pauses a moment, optical input zooming in on the rifle to examine the insides. "Okay, the main sonic battery array is still functional, it's the parts that make it actually project that were mangled, as I suspected." He holds his hand out a moment. "Hand me the resonance amplifier and modulation regulator module." Deadweight digs the parts out of the crate and hands them to Swindle, and the dealer goes about installing them.

"It's an adjustable guassian choke," Swindle replies without looking up, though he does snicker a bit to himself. Figured it would be a good idea to give the boss something to pass the time with. "It's used on weapons that fire in pattern spread to reduce the random dissolution of the scatter cloud. You lose some of the cover arc, but in return gain greater muzzle velocity and centralized impact damage." Now who has a weapon that can fire like that, hmm?

A good general knows his men so Onslaught is will aware of all weapons used by his troops. "Interesting. I assume you are planning to use this to allow yourself to focus your fire. Good idea. Where did you get... nevermind, I don't want to know." After spending a few more seconds examining it, he puts it back on the table but away from his gun's parts. "You should try to convince Vortex to change his gun too." Glue gun? Seriously?"

Swindle merely chuckles some more at Onslaught's reaction. "Come now, you know me... perhaps better than I wish, but that's besides the matter. Do you think I would really orchestrate such an endeavor to acquire the components to modify your weaponry without acquiring something for myself?" He picks up the rifle's barrel, holding it up to look down the length of it and make sure it's not bent or clogged with anything, then goes to reattach it. "But yes. 'Street sweeping' is all well and good for crowd control, but lacks the paunch to come up against individual commandos. Wielding shield." Deadweight hands him such as Swindle pulls an arc torch up from the table, holding the translucent plate in front of his face while making sure the barrel is good and firmly affixed in place.

Onslaught reports his attention towards Swindle's work, "Versatility will offer you a larger choice of strategy. I'll make sure to take your new weapon into account when I prepare my next plan..." He adds, while checking his internal chrono, "To answer your question : No, I am not surprised. But it's good for you that you succeed in acquiring what /I/ needed."

Swindle sets the torch and shield aside once done, and plugs a diagnostic module into the rifle's electronics to make sure everything has calibrated itself properly. "Seriously, the fake order to ensure everything to improve your rifle and build the component for modifying mine was nearly collected together already? Worked like a charm." Pauses to rub his chin with a finger. "Still no idea how the Autobot savage -and- the EDC general managed to be there at the same time, but hey, works to our advantage. Since we wanted to make off-world agencies think twice about working with Earth companies." The module dings and flashes green lights. Swindle unplugs it, and clamps the access panel shut. "There, finished!" He steps back out of the way to let Onslaught collect his rifle, picking up his own scattergun and choke module as he does so. "You may have to recalibrate your internal targeting hardware to accommodate for the slight increase in recoil from the amplified sonic discharge, but nothing major for your keen processors."

Onslaught takes his rifle and proceed to inspect it. After a few moment, he lowers his apparently satisfied by his inspection. "I'll make sure to stop by the shooting range to test it before I take the field. After all, we better make sure it works perfectly...right?". He remains silents for a moment before adding, "I cannot guess why there was EDC and Autobots there... bad luck I guess... or we have been infiltrated. Those fake recruits may had access to files related to our raid."

Swindle starts unfastening the barrel of his scatterblaster so he can install the choke module, but pauses to look up to Onslaught again as he mentions the fake recruits. "Aaaah, yes. Speaking up. You have any plans in mind for Shockwave's crack-down on Crystal City's, ah, lack of loyalty shall we say." Once the barrel is off he sets it aside, and goes to remove the interlock ring so he can install the properly fitted coupling piece to the new modification.

Onslaught shrugs before replying, "Harassing rebels is not exactly a challenge. If Shockwave wants to put me in charge of that operation I'll be pretty displeased. This is a job for those weirdos of intelligence. I'm more interesting in planning the Cybertron campaign and in finding a suitable location of Trypticon before some brilliant constructicon decides to park him an undefendable location."

Swindle aaahs. "That would be more worth your time and effort, yes." Fusses a moment with installing the new coupling, then affixes the interlock ring to the end of the choke module and starts to fasten it back into place. "Deadweight, get me the new barrel piece with the modified length and connector stirrup." As his laborer trudges off grumbling to do so, Swindle goes back to work making some minor adjustments. "Well, unless you need Bruticus, I'll probably help him out a bit. Dealing with those sort of rebels is something I'm.. familiar with the methods of. Besides! I still have my CC Civil Service Badge to exploit to my, ah, the Empire's advantage."

Onslaught waves his hand to show it doesn't bother him, "Do so if you can help. I doubt Bruticus will be required, especially if I am to lead that campaign...unless we get ordered to hunt down Rodimus but that sounds more like a Sweeps or Predacons' job."

Swindle finishes with the choke module, giving it a few test on and offs, done so by twisting the module one way or another. Guess its called a choke for more than one reason. "Besides, while they may be good at busting up clandestine operations, Intelligence wouldn't know what the smeg to do with the looted paraphernalia." Deadweight rumbles back in and hands Swindle the modified barrel, which he locks into place on the end of the choke module. "And now I'll be ready for any close quarters combat that results as well."

Onslaught would grins at that comment bu alas, he's mouthless. "Good." he says while grabbing his rifle, "Now if you excuse me, I'll go try this new baby. I'm going to participate in a raid soon and I want to make sure my accuracy module is recalibrated before I go."