A Plan Comes Together

Saturday, April 21, 2012, 10:14 AM

Valles Marineris

The magnificent Valles Marineris valley system is comprised of a multitude of valleys and canyons stretching 3,000 miles, from the Tharsis Planitia at the western end of the canyon system to the Elysium Planitia at the east end. The region is filled with extinct volcanos and other peculiar geological findings. The atmosphere is almost 80 percent carbon dioxide here, rising to well over 95% further east and making it hazardous for those who need to breath oxygen.

Hardhead strolls around the Base's outer Perimeter watching the limited techs assembling the more complicated holo-graphic traps. He then wonders by the large razor-sharp nets that are being weaved and being set in place. He nods slowly to everyone he passes as he radios on the short wave. "Status Report? What assistance is required where?"

Amber MacKenzie already finished her shift of sentry duty at the top of the cliff. Right now, she's talking to a technician about a vacuum cleaner. Well, about a long, flexible tube that sucks up dust and sand. She pauses on hearing Hardhead's voice. "Heya, Hardhead. I'm working on the dust pits again." She stares around, drooping a bit from discouragement. "I don't think we'll be able to fill more than three. Those are bigger than I thought... If there are any dust storms in the forecast tonight, I'd suggest leaving the covers off those pits and let them fill that way."

Foxfire skulks about, checking on various parts of the perimeter. “Everything seems to be okay”, he radios to Hardhead, proceeding to make his way in that direction.

Hardhead looks at Amber and gives her a slight nod. "Three is more than we had last cycle." He pulls out a data pad and punches on it. "There are a few scattered sandstorms, but nothing that would seem to work." He clutches his hand into a fist. "Could we make a dust storm?" He looks at all of the cliffs. "There has to be something..." He rubs his jaw. "I was thinking, the Decepticons tracked us through our tread-tracks. Could we use that to our advantage?" He tight beams to Foxfire. "Good, the last thing we need is a surprise. Any thoughts on the traps...Additionally, we need shuttles...in order to pull out when the time comes."

Wheeljack comes up from the hidden base, carrying a load of assorted this and that’s in his arms. "Okay, I scrounged up the rest of whatever else we can spare." He stopped and dumped the menagerie of materials in a pile for the techs to pick from as need be. "If nothing else we'll make the Decepticons regret thinking just knowing where the base is was all they needed."

Foxfire approaches Hardhead, musing over potential traps. "Pitfalls wouldn't be effective, obviously. But hidden lasers might be."

Amber MacKenzie shrugs and sighs. "I'm going to climb the opposite cliff, if the tubing can reach that far. It'll be close, but there's oodles of sand and dust on the top." She also looks around, frowning. "They already know where we are," she begins, her voice turning unusually cold. "I don't think they need any tracks to follow us, though... you could try leaving some tracks leading from the base to beyond the razor wire net. If someone's following them, they'll regret it. Oh, hi Wheeljack! I haven't seen you, well, since we got back from the past." Foxfire is skulking, so she hasn't seen him yet.

Hardhead looks at Wheeljack, a small sigh escapes his mouth, but he shakes his head. "I see." He looks at the parts. "Is there anything else we can scavenge? If not that is fine...We will make do." He nods towards Wheeljack. "Most of the tech stuff goes past me, but you need muscle, let me know." He looks at Foxfire and nods to the Fox. "Lasers?" He ponders. "Could we use excess pistols and rifles to jury-rig those traps?"

"Possibly," Foxfire says as he sits on his haunches. "As long as it's efficient."

Hardhead nods to Foxfire. "Slag if I know, but it is a place to start." He pulls out his Shatterblasters and tosses them towards Foxfire. He then pulls out a laser pistol, tosses it in the pile, another laser pistol, another slug based pistol, and finally one last Laser Pistol. "That is all that I have one me...I will see what I can gather from inside the Armory."

"You can probably scrounge up some spare sidearms to do something like that. They'll only hold a limited charge, but should get the job done." Wheeljack rubs his chin for a moment, the wanders over to one of the makeshift work spots, waving to Amber as he does so. "Good to see you're still up and about Miss MacKenzie. And use more than just tracks. Smear some grease in the sand or some such. Heat residue. That sort of thing. A lot of their trackers do so by other than visible trails."

Amber MacKenzie stares at the cliff, green eyes narrowed. She knows a way up or five, but not really near the vacuum. After nodding to Wheeljack, she sighs and strides briskly to the bottom of the cliff, dragging the vacuum tubing behind her. Loosely securing it to her shoulders, she begins climbing. "Be careful, guys. I saw a collection of Decepticons in the distance." She pauses to wave - carefully - to Foxfire. "Luck, dude."

Hardhead tight beams to Amber. "Good, we will set those tracks last. Additionally, Ms. MacKenzie, have you scouted a canyon that leads out of here towards a large open area. It seems unlikely we will be airlifted from this position, but if we could fall back through a canyon and then seal it, we may be able to set up a secure fall back point."

Amber MacKenzie waits until she reaches a ledge before she turns to answer Hardhead. "Not really. Valles Marineris is thought to be a rift valley. Most of the side canyons like this one are from the weakening and erosion of the rocks. Remember when we were wondering if there was water on Mars?" She points at the worn, and in some places crumbling, cliff faces. She pauses, doing a double take, then shrugs and starts vacuuming nearby ledges. When that's done, she resumes her climb. Under the lesser gravitation, she doesn't take long to reach the top and the wealth of sand and dust. A second pit starts to fill with the messy red dust.

Wheeljack sits down at what has been his on and off work spot, a welding torch emerging from one forearm and a few sparks flying. Then he sets what appears to be a Transformer sized hunting trap in a pile with several others. Though if a keen eye looked closely they'd notice that instead of just clamping shut they have trigger pods in the center that give off powerful electrical shocks to whoever is unlucky enough to step on one.

Hardhead smashes his fists together as he makes his way towards the Base in order to raid the Armory for excess weapons. He radios back to Amber. "I see..." He continues to walk towards the base as he radios back to Amber. "I see, extraction is going to be difficult then...any suggestions are welcome." He then heads inside the base and moves towards the small weapons closet. He rips the door off in order to vent his frustration...he then begins picking up the loose weapons.

And the junior EDC tech, Blaise, rolls a wheelbarrow of various shards of glass, splinters of metal, bent nails, metal filings and other assorted fragments towards one of the more open spaces. "Mr. Wheeljack Sir, should the bits in th' frag explosives be pre heated or just load lots of pointy, sharp bits in for a big messy boom?"

Amber MacKenzie only has to sweep the tube around to harvest the mineral wealth - not - of Martian dust. The barely-audible hum of the vacuum grows louder as the engine so far away labors to draw not only dust but sand through the long tube. She pauses once in a while to look around for any movement. The night is bright with stars, enough to cast shadows, and she can see for quite a distance.

Her perspective allows her to see several hundred feet to the west, where a slash of black marks another canyon. "Hmmmm. Hardhead, how long a distance can Nosecone drill? If he can make it through this..." She gestures to the west, then scowls when she realizes that Hardhead can hardly see it. "... about four hundred feet. There's another canyon, and we could hide the shuttles there and retreat through the tunnel."

Hardhead carries out the weapons to the pile he has started, he then drops them into the pile. He moves to a nearby rock and drags it towards the pile of weapons. He rolls his head as he grabs a weapon. He begins to disassemble the weapon, removing the safeties. "This will give a little strong boast, doesn't matter if it blows up after a few shots." He says towards Foxfire. "I'll prepare the weapons, you prepare the traps?"

He then radios to Amber. "Hmmm...if Nosecone can't I am sure we can blast our way through what remains. Can you transmit the clearing? I'll arrange the shuttles to be there and send Nosecone the coordinates. Good work."

Wheeljack starts to assemble another trap, changing up the design a bit by using a spare demolition charge. So when stepped on the trap will clamp shut fast enough to hopefully hold the Decepticon there while it explodes. At the question he looks up from his work and down to the junior tech. "Just load them up with every sharp bit and piece you can fit. The detonation will heat them up a bit as it blasts them out."

Blaise nods then remembers to use the radio, "Yes sir. Lots o' sharp bits comin' up." Carefully uncapping a truncated cone (a cylinder smaller at one end than the other to focus the blast outwards in a spray), the tech begins to scoop the assorted debris into the container, carefully making sure that it's a well mixed load.

Amber MacKenzie nods, frowns at herself in disgust, and radios, "Right. I'm going to finish with the dust first, then go have a better look. I don't want Nosecone to drill blind." One of these days, she'll get the hang of not making gestures via radio. She takes off the lightest top coating of dust to spare the vacuum, moving slowly to keep it from swirling into visible clouds of dust.

When she's done, she strolls westward, keeping a careful eye on her footing. A good thing she does, as she nearly twists her ankle in a dust-filled crack. Swearing quietly, she massages the ankle gently through her suit. Now is *not* a good time to be crippled. When she more gingerly resumes her walk, she finds that the other canyon is at a bit of an angle to their original refuge, but it'll still work. "Here you are, friend. The coordinates. It's a shade further north than I originally thought."

Wheeljack nods approvingly, then looks up to see what anyone else is working on. Hmmmm. There's one of the nets some people made... some old mortars that where in storage in the base before they moved in... some left over casings... Abruptly the engineer snaps his fingers. "I've got an idea." He walks over and kneels down to inspect one of the mortars.

Hardhead receives the Coordinates and nods slightly to himself. "Good Work, are there any cliffs or locations where we can place snipers...In case our fall back goes south?" He continues to manipulate the weapons and preparing them for the traps. "Hmmmm...I see." He then radios the local area. "Good work, this is shaping up? Does anyone have any other ideas? Something that may cause mass damages...at this point, we need something that will scare the cons. Something that melts their armor?"

Amber MacKenzie makes her way back, limping slightly on her sore ankle. It's not broken, thank heavens, and it works, but she's gonna have to be careful climbing down the cliff. Thank heavens for Mars' lovely, lovely low gravitation, too. When she reaches the cliff edge overlooking the base, she radios back, "Not a lot of cover on this side, but there's some rocks. A sniper would need to be half buried, but it's feasible for a few to be stationed here." Scare the Cons? She smirks and starts down the cliff, moving slower than is usual for her. "Weird things happening freaks some of them out," she remarks casually. Aimless panicked very nicely, as she recalls.

Wheeljack then picks up one of the nets, stretching it out between his hands. Then let’s go of it with one hand and picks up a shell casing for the mortar. Makes a few mental calculations on the volume of the shell, and the amount of similar space the net would take of if bundled properly. Launch, midair the shell would fall off to release the net, the shell dragging the net behind it like a fishing net with the momentum to snare... "... I think I've got an idea to make some of these nets a big more dangerous to the unfriendly skies... or just to make them cover more distance at ground attackers."

Blaise scoops more carefully chosen debris into another canister, tightening the almost paper thin top onto it and setting it on a stack with the others. Reaching up to scratch his nose absently, his gloved hand bonks the helmet. A sheepish look around to see if anyone noticed the forgetful moment and the low grade tech goes back to filling the cones.

Hardhead glances around at looks at Blaise. He emits to the tech. "You, Tech..." He nods at him. "Good work, any thoughts?" He looks at Wheeljack and radios. "Perfect. Do you need help?" He radios back to Amber. "Good work, I'll have some Support Stationed there. The last thing we need is a surprise during the fall back. Those are messy enough." He then helps prepare the laser traps based on the plans giving to him. He hums while he diligently works on the laser traps.

On reaching the bottom of the canyon, Amber starts to stretch and carefully work her ankle to make sure it doesn't stiffen. She spends several minutes on that; it's become critical to maintain her fitness with an attack coming any time now. After finishing, she has a look around to see what everyone else is doing. Busy, busy, busy, it seems. Good. She perches on a rock to watch and clenches her jaw to keep from yawning. If that starts, she won't be able to stop. She sighs and tilts her head/helmet back to touch the cliff behind her. "I'm glad this is all coming together," she comments wearily, to no one in particular.

Blaise tips the wheelbarrow over to begin scooping the last bits of this load into the canister cones. "Uh." over the radio in response to Hardhead, "Thank you sir. Ideas? Of? Uh.." A look at the wheelbarrow, then a look over to where he thinks Hardhead is. "No sir. But I do need to get more of this sharp bits to finish th' canisters though."

Wheeljack sits down and starts fiddling with. At Hardhead's question he does look up for a moment. "How good are you with firing trajectory?", he replies, aware its somewhat of an obvious question. "I think I can modify these launchers to shoot some of the nets. They won't be quite as lethal to airborne Decepticons, but they'd get caught up in vents and rotors and control surfaces. Annoyance factor is everything for this."

Hardhead looks at Blaise as he ponders for a moment. He radios. "I see...we are currently accepting all ideas...these are desperate times, there are no dumb ideas..." He then finishes his trap as he walks towards Wheeljack. "I have some skill in that field." He nods slightly to Wheeljack as he listens. "That sounds...destructive. I like it, Wheeljack." He looks at the items. He pulls out a data pad and begins to work on firing solutions, he shows the pad to Wheeljack. "Would this work?"

Amber MacKenzie sits quietly, caught in a whirl of angst that she usually avoids by keeping busy. Murder. No, it's not! She growls softly to herself. Taking a deep breath, she muses, "If someone caught in one of the pits is able to fire his thrusters, that dust will go everywhere, but mostly into the air. It'll cut their visibility. Hmmm. Maybe we should set it up to do that deliberately. Turn the vacuum into a blower. The less they see, the less they can avoid our 'gifts'."

"Heck, even if it misses a flier it might land on ground troops on the way down. Win-win if you ask me." Wheeljack explains even as he leans over a bit to take the datapad from Hardhead and looks it over. "That's great! With this basis I can program the firing mechanism to handle the rest. For maximum effect we should put a couple up on those cliffs you mentioned, they could give a withdrawal through the canyon some cover."

Putting the last filled canister on the stack, Blaise rights the wheelbarrow and begins the slow walk back collect more sharp bits. Walking and talking he can do, "Do we have anything' that'll stick to them and flash or burn when mixed or exposed to some sort of special magic 'con field?" Serious tone.

Hardhead reaches his hand out and clasps Wheeljack on the shoulder. "Good...I guess you are back." He looks at Wheeljack. "Sorry for earlier comments about you..." He then stalks off back towards the laser traps, when he pauses...Amber's comments and Blaise's filtering through his mind. "Slag, that is a good idea...Flashburn their armor...cause panic. Makes our traps more effective." He radios to Wheeljack, Amber, and Blaise. "What about that, can we use the dust storm traps and find some chemicals to burn the 'Cons armor?" He proceeds to prepare another laser trap, this time with his Shatterblaser, he sighs as he buries his weapon. "Have to get back to earth and get my spares..."

Wheeljack ehs at Hardhead, dismissing it with a brief wave. "Don't worry about it. With a track record like mine you get use to people having their doubts at first." The inventor just isn't one to hold a grudge, he's too energetic and high spirited for that. "Aha.. there." He finishes figuring out how to shell a net, then slides it into a mortar. "Fits, perfect."

Amber MacKenzie stares upwards at the opposite cliff, lost in thought. She starts when Hardhead's voice erupts from her helmet. "Uh... yeah. We're having to leave a lot of stuff behind, especially stuff that's easily replaced by supplies from Earth. There might be anything in there. Pits, avalanches, razor webs..." Her thoughts are still somewhere else, and she finally frowns. "It won't work. I was thinking about a massive holo to give the impression that the canyon was somewhere else, but that would only waste some of their munitions before they figured it out." She shakes her head in disgust. "Or we could use it to generate a larger dust storm from their bombs..."

Hardhead carries a grudge like others carry hope. He continues to work on the next laser plan according to the plans he was given. He continues to hum, this time it appears to be A Nebulan anthem of some time. He radios towards Amber. "A larger storm sounds good?"

Blaise sets the 'barrow down and stars mixing materials from various piles. 8 scoops of metal filings, 12 scoops of glass shards, 14 scoops of various bent screws, short wires and nails and topping it off with some slashed silicate rock shards or shiny bits. "Er. Mr Hardhead sir I don't know much about chem-cows but if you get cheap flash powder it's pretty sensitive to 'lectricity and heat. Makes a mess of things."

Hardhead finishes the trap as he turns his head to Blaise and nods as he radios. "Cheap Flash powder..." He then radios towards Amber and Wheeljack. "Y'all know of any flash powder? I can search the Computers if necessary..."

Wheeljack stops working on the net mortars for a moment to reach into his internal storage, pull out a canister and hand it towards Hardhead. "Here, give here this. It's the same mix I use for flashbangs and heat rounds and the like, it should help give her concoction a bit of an extra sting."

Broadcast dances on into the area while singing that annoying song, 'Jumper.' He has a giant box of goodies with him. "So, I heard you like mudkips?" He pulls out some random trinkets from the box. "These are old collector's editions of traps. Like a landmine!"

Amber MacKenzie finally shakes her head. "Won't work. The bombs won't be hitting the right area to produce dust clouds over here. Bugger. And no, I'm afraid I don't know about flash powder." She looks up at the dark skies and sighs. Once upon a midnight dreary, while she pondered, weak and weary...

Meanwhile, Autobot techie Widget, in the time he can spare from gazing worshipfully at his hero, Wheeljack, is slowly putting together a large-scale holographic imager. The image is very simple, so even though the size is overlarge, the portable power source can handle it. Whenever Wheeljack looks his way, he busies himself, so his progress is slow.

Hardhead takes the Canister and nods briefly. "Understood." He then moves towards Blaise and gives him a nod. "Good work, Trooper." He then hands over the Canister. "Wheeljack says this will work." He pulls out an ener-cigar and hands it to the trooper as a token of his thanks.

Blaise looks up.. and up a bit more as Hardhead comes over and talks. Eyes big in the helmet, he carefully takes hold of the canister, "Mum always said Uncle Bud hated th' cheap stuff. S' how he lost this fingers in the factory. Thank you sir." With both hands full, the cigar is stared at before the canister is carefully put into the wheelbarrow and the cigar taken, "Er,... Thank you sir!"

Hardhead nods at Blaise as he makes his way back towards the Laser trap set up area. He looks at the Junkion who arrived. "Junki...errr...Broadcast." He looks at box. "Those could be useful." He motions towards an area in the rear flank. "That area over there has not been mined yet." He then radios towards Amber. "Ms. MacKenzie, how is your oxygen? Do you require another canister?

Wheeljack is just glad to see so many different sorts working together, nodding a bit in approve before going back to work on the net launchers.

Poor Widget only has enough parts for two imagers, and that only with a lot of creative interpretation and substitutions. As he assembles the items, he keeps his wide, shining blue optics on Wheeljack, the LEGEND. At least he's not drooling. Amber, sitting nearby ahems in his direction, and he looks away from his hero. She's staring at him, and he's suddenly self-conscious. At least that motivates him to get back to work.

"No thanks," Amber answers Hardhead. "I'm fine for now."

The EDC tech rolls the wheelbarrow back over to the truncated cone stack. Taking the canister of powder out, he sits down and starts to carefully, real real real real real real carefully add some of the powder to some of the debris filled cones. Blaise uses a much smaller, plastic-formed scoop for this work, not wanting to be like his Uncle Bud. He likes having 11 fingers, thank you very much.. Although gloves are a real pain.

Wheeljack puts the nets and recovered mortars to good use, dividing them out into two sets. One for launching at ground attackers at a distance, the other with a higher trajectory for trying to tangle up flying targets. If they bring anyone with helicopter modes of winged bird forms, those will be an unpleasant supply. There's not a whole lot of them, but enough to be trouble. The idea is as much to keep the Decepticons guessing at just what might be coming next and get their hackles raised after all.

Uneasy under the optics, uh, eyes of the watching human femme, Widget works faster. Starstruck or not, he's a good technician, and now that he's paying attention, his steel hands move smoothly and surely. He assembles the two units in relay. Install a power source in one, install it in the other. Wire the emitters to one power source, wire them to the other. It's still a major project, and it takes quite a while before he finishes, and even then, it's not over yet.

Amber plays overseer, imagining herself cracking a whip, but really, all that's necessary is to make sure the guy is paying attention to his work, not Wheeljack. She rolls her eyes, but she's still amused. It's odd when she feels older than a Transformer. "Not much longer," she murmurs to herself.

Hardhead looks around as the others continue to prepare the traps a look of satisfaction on his face as he finishes another laser trap. He radios on the shortwave. "Once we are out of here, I'll get the first round." He moves to the next laser trap and continues his work.

At this point, Amber is thinking more about her bed than the current work, but she wants to see this last idea of her finished. A few Autobots volunteered to help mount the imagers on the assigned cliff faces, one of which is down the canyon a ways, the other is up the canyon. If the Decepticons come through the canyon instead of just bombing from above, they'll encounter the traps. Tagging along for the first placement, she follows them up-canyon and supervises (yeah, right) as they climb up the cliff face and fasten the huge screen to the sheer rock wall with long, sturdy bolts. When the unit is activated, the cliff vanishes, replaced by an image of empty airspace and a distant canyon wall, exactly as if it were see-through. Good.

Amber trails them back to camp, and that's as far as she goes. She watches as they take the second imager and move down canyon, then turns away. "That's it for me," she tells Hardhead, yawning.

Wheeljack doesn't reply, but he does give Hardhead a brief thumbs-up in reply before continuing his work. Most of these things are only going to get one use, but damned be it if he isn't making sure that one use gets the most for their effort.

Hardhead finishes the last laser trap as he stands. He pulls out an ener-cigar, giving it a light. "I love it when a plan comes together."

Message: 3/56                     Posted        Author Mars: Base Operations Complete    Sat Apr 21    Hardhead -- \*TEXT ONLY REPORT*
 * ================================== Autobot ===================================

TO: COMMAND.

FROM:HARDHEAD

Thanks to the tiredless efforts of the following individuals, Ms. MacKenize, Wheeljack, Foxfire, junkion Broadcast, and Gumby Squad Techs Blaise and Widget, we have finished 95% of the planned traps surrounding our Comprised Mars base. All Autobots around Mars should proceed with extreme caution. Due to recent security compromises, the rest of this message is encoded under Protocol Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

\*PROTOCOL WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT ENGAGED*

The following traps have been placed: False Canyon Walls with deadly Traps, large razor sharp nets designed to slice through armor, exploding traps that will fire razor sharp nets into the sky. Additionally there are Boulder traps, trip wires, dust pits, decoys, deep pits, and a rather nasty trap that will hopefully melt the armor off of any Decepticon visitors by spraying them with a chemical and sand. We have IFF scramblers in place and traditional mines. There are additional traps mixed in with those that are equally lethal. Attached is a file with the location of the mined areas. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. You WILL NOT be rescued should you wonder into these areas.

Additionally, Ms. MacKenzie has scouted a safe landing zone for our escape route. I have ordered snipers to cover this area around the clock. This is our ride out, it must be kept safe! Currently our path to shuttles is blocked, but a plan has been developed and due to the sensitive nature, is on a need to know basis. The location of the shuttles is being verbally delivered to shift commanders only in order to maintain security.

\*COMMAND ONLY* Morale in the area seems to be up as work keeps people's minds and processors focused. I have ordered non-essential personal to mount up and evacuate to the fall back points. I am surprised the Decepticons have not attacked already, the only thing I can figure is they are occupied with something else. Whatever the reason, it is likely not good for us. I recommend that we try and recon their operations while we still can. We will continue to hold the line for as long as possible. Everyone who is serving on Mars should be given a citation for their bravery.

-Hardhead out

\*END TRANSMISSION*

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===================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/57                     Posted        Author Mars Base Orders                  Sun Apr 22    Rodimus Prime -- \*TEXT* TO: All Autobot units currently stationed on Mars and -only- those units. Earth Autobots do not receive this. A good job all around to those who worked so hard on getting the base trapped. I expect the Decepticons are likely to get more of a surprise than they bargained for when they inevitably make a move on the base. Make them regret any overconfidence on their part. All Autobots currently stationed on Mars are, however, to keep an rapid evacuation procedure ready for themselves and all EDC personnel currently stationed with them. While the Decepticons will no doubt throw everything they have at the base, we've been able to beat superior odds in the past, much to their chargrin. Unfortunately, if they decide to mobilize Trypticon to dislodge a stubborn defense, Metroplex will NOT be available to fight him. To repeat, Metroplex will NOT be available to protect the base on Mars. Act and plan accordingly, Autobots. Give them a good punch in the nose, but don't sacrifice yourselves in a hopeless situation. I need you to remain alive and operational as opposed to gone and honored in memory. Plans are in the works. \*TRANSMISSION ENDS*

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