Vengeance on Videw

The Village of Doom
'''Videw

''Planet Videw is a small, Earth-sized rocky lump in space. Once a lush world, the surface has been devastated by solar flares millennia ago. Only now has life started to return to it, with forests and jungles dotted around the surface, with only the creatures small enough to survive the Armageddon still existing. Strangely enough though, there seem to be various primitive villages also scattered around the surface of the world.

ONE YEAR FROM NOW

The space station hangs in space, in the shape an immense Decepticon Logo that hovers in the deepest night. The function of this ship may look mysterious from the outside, but inside it is clear - it is a TRIAL SHIP. Inside is a huge courtroom, filled with many high ranking, stony faced Decepticons. And sitting in the defendants chair is none other than BLUESHIFT.

He leans back in his chair, as the prosecuting council, the mysterious BLACKSHIFT, stands to address the court.

"Ladies and gentlemechs of the jury. We have already seen the despicable actions of the vile BLUESHIFT, but the evidence I now present is the most DAMNING yet! It regards events on the planet Videw..."

As he speaks, the courtroom screen flickers to life, and all turn to watch it. We see a Decepticon shuttle touching down on the planet Videw...

NOW

A Decepticon shuttle touches down on the planet Videw. Blueshift is already outside, strutting about on the ruined planet's surface and breathing in the horrible atmosphere. "Ah, global devastation!" he exclaims, taking a crumpled map from a pocket. "Now, this is a TRAINING MISSION, and as such, Lord Galvatron doesn't need to be notified, or even KNOW about it. Am I clear on that?"

Blight scurries out and just looks about and hears Blueshift. "Could it be you didnt get his permission and did this without really thinking anything through, once again Blueshift?" The insecticon asks as he looks about the area.

"Hnn" Fulcrum grunts, his face set to "disaprove", though he's not really listening to Blueshift, instead swinging his hammer back and forth on a length of chain as he steps out after him, staring at the motion as if trying to work out something incredibly complex. "Training for what exactly?" He gives the chain an experimental sudden jerk upwards, narrowly avoiding hitting himself in the face with his own hammer.

Shoxcannon hovers over Blueshift, measuring the chemical composition of the horrible atmosphere. Hmm, mostly sulphur dioxides. "Assuming that nothing of especial interest to Lord Galvatron that would benefit the Decepticons as a whole by his learning it happens, your assumption would be correct," hedges Shockwave.

Windshear listens to Blueshift as he powers down the shuttle and does the landing checks on it so to speak. Then shortly, he gets up to join the rest out of the shuttle. "What type of training, Blueshift?" he questions echoing what Fulcrum just asked.

Astrotrain is yet another member of that crowd that doesn't believe a word Blueshift just said. And he's also enjoying the rare luxury of riding along n a shuttle for once rather than carrying a bunch of other Decepticons! Think of it as having insurance just in case the ride here got blown up or something. Cause it happens alot, right? At the moment he stands outside the ship as well, his rifle resting on one shoulder with the barrel pointed at the sky as he stares at Blueshift, "Yeah right, and Blot's gonna win an award for cleanliness anytime soon." He then pauses as he's reminded of the hovering Shoxcannon above. "...huh, first time for everything."

Blueshift stares at Blight with disapproval. "Apologise to me Blight, you HAVE to, that is what you DO now!" he prods his datapad with Thrust's report as proof of this. And then he turns to Fulcrum. "We are generally TRAINING Fulcrum, thoughts like that are why I have a laser and you just have a stick as a weapon. Besides..."

He pauses as he hears Shockwave. "Ah crap who told him about th- I mean HELLO SHOCKWAVE!" He coughs. "Indeed, there is NOTHING that Lord Galvatron would be interested in at all. NOW, to the training!"

He raises a dirty, old map of the planet's surface. "Okay. Nearby - " he points to a small village below where the Transformers are standing "- is a native settlement. They worship a totem. This totem is actually a black light converter for the L-8 robot that lives bene - I mean it is a TOTEM. And your task is to destroy it without angering the natives."

Below, the native village is full of mechanical, humanoid beings, like Transformers but in a poorer state of repair, wandering about huts and laying tributes at the foot of the totem. They also look like they are tough enough to perhaps hurt or kill an average evil robot in a fair fight.

Shoxcannon keeps a close eye (figuratively) on Blueshift in case something happens that Lord Galvatron WOULD want to know about. The High Command has expressed an interest in what exactly it is that the Shifts get up to out in deep space(Galvatron's exact words were somewhat less charitable), and Shockwave means to find out even if it involves exposing himself to dangerous quantities of stupid.

Astrotrain is totally all in favor of unfair fights, "Hey I bet if we went and grabbed Devastator and let him loose around here we could make a big mess!"

"It's not JUST a stick" Fulcrum frowns, reining in his hammer-on-a chain so he doesn't inadvertently smash someone else in the faceplate. "Astrotrain's right" he says. "Instead of tip-toeing around the natives we could just go in with overwhelming force and carpet bomb the village to bedrock."

"At the moment," says Shockwave, "Devastator's component team members are needed on Earth, for the completion of Lord Galvatron's grand weapon."

Windshear has nothing to ass to this conversation so he just listens. He also brings his weapons online and studies Blue closely as he talks. There evidently is more here then.. meets the optic... but he doesnt say anything. Chaos looks likely to happen and thats always a lot of fun.

"I apologize, for revealing how you plan things." Blight says, sounding annoyed as he then looks at the bunch of them. "I could shrink down, and begin eating it from the inside out, maybe even transport a bomb into it." Blight says with a curious tone to his insecticon voice.

Astrotrain makes a face at Shockwave that would probably be fitting if he had just stepped in something smelly, squishy and left behind by some manner of disgusting organic creature. "Taking all the fun out of it eh?"

Blueshift nods. "Yes. Besides, the Constructicons wouldn't come. And Fulcrum, that is a good plan. However!" He holds up a seeker head in each hand. "That was the first plan. It did not work. Now, go mingle with the natives!"

Astrotrain blinks and stares at the two heads that Blueshift is holding up. "SLAG PIT! That's horrible!"

Blueshift idly throws both the heads at Astrotrain. "Yeeeah"

Astrotrain points at the head on the right, which is thrown...and he then catches it and holds it up for good measure, "He owed me chits for a bet he lost last week!"

Fulcrum peers at those heads. They look familiar. "Entries #21 and #24 on the Presumed Dead list? You should have handed their parts in for recyling."

"Yeah," Harrow moves to scoop up the second head, frowning, "We could use the parts..."

Fulcrum turns his frown towards Blight. "And no eating the spares."

"Director of operations, Logically my plan is sound, to infiltrate the totem, shrink down, enter it and destroy it from within. By the time the natives realized what happened, our forces will have completed the goal and escaped retribution. How would you go about doing the task with the objectives givenm if I may ask, Sir?" Blight asks.

Windshear looks at the Seeker heads and puts a hand to his neck. "That was so not cool, Blue." he mutters as he watches Astrotrain catch the head and comment. Then he looks over at Fulcrum and then down to the villiage, "Lets get this thing going, shall we?" He gives Harrow a look then at her comment and starts to say something but stops.

Stinkbug says, "I stopped eating spare parts when Galvatron cannoned me."

"This is awful!" cries Blueshift in despair. "Blight is the only one with a plan. Go on Blight, go down there! And uh..." he points at Harrow. "You too Harrow, we must distract the natives whilst Blight eats stuff!"

Harrow stares at Windshear, then hands the head to him. "Hold this. Let's go Blight." She tromps down towards the village, waving cheerfully at the natives.

"I would bombard the site from orbit. However, your plan has the advantage of consuming less energy while only putting yourself at direct risk," Shockwave replies to Blight. "Proceed."

Down below, one of the robotic natives waves cheerfully back at Harrow

Actually, on closer inspection, the native is waving the severed arm of a seeker that he is holding

Blight nods and transforms into his smallest form, flying onto the top of the femmes head and lands. He grips down on decepticon metal and waits for the femme to move closer and closer to the natives, watching everything about them as best as he could in his three quarters of an inch sized form.

Astrotrain watches from up where the other Decepticons are, waiting to see if they tear Harrow into itty bitty pieces or not. Up until he sees them waving, and waving that severed arm for good measure, "...maybe their style ain't so bad."

Windshear gets a Seeker head put in his hands and looks down at it in shock. With much will power to keep from making a sound he looks to see who he can hand it off to but it seems everyones busy now. He drops it on the ground and looks at the village, and the native waving the Seeker arm. "Their style aint so bad?" he asks Astrotrain. "Thats easy for you to say..."

Blueshift stands behind Astrotrain and gives him a good hard shove. "Get down there Astrotrain, you need some good hard TRAINing too!"

Harrow has enough sense to stop, and raise her palms harmlessly. "Would you get your aft over here, Windy!" Her optics are locked on that flailing native. "We uh... bring gifts!"

Fulcrum perks up at the idea of orbital bombardment. "All we'd need is a suitable asteroid and someone to steer it down." He looks at the two..uh.. 'volunteers', privately glad it's not him that's being sent down there. Though technically he outranks Blueshift, so he could tell him to stick one of those seeker heads up his waste port. And give him the blueprints in case he can't find it with both hands. "Windshear, try not to damage the parts more than they've already been" he snaps, picking up the severed head and idly tossing it from hand to hand.

The native with the arm stares at Harrow, as a few more crowd around. "Ah!" he states in a rusty, robotic voice. "Have you come from the stars to bring gifts to our humble village?"

Astrotrain snorts back at Windshear, "What? So they like a little ruckus, all they did was tear up a couple seekers anyway. No loooooooooss!" Astrotrain is big and burly, a whole lot moreso than Blueshift. But that is exactly the reason he isn't ready for the push that catches him in mid-back and sends him tumbling down the slope, arse over teakettle and a great chorus of clanking parts and metal on metal. Up until he lands right next to harrow with a harsh *CRASH*, face-down and arms spread eagled to either side. A few seconds pass before he slowly gets up again, brushing himself off as he mutters quietly. "...first I'm gonna tear his wings off..."

"Aw c'mon, you're starting to sound like DreadwAHH!" Harrow jumps aside as Astrotrain crashes nearby. "Hnn." She turns her attention back to the native, "Why yes! If you'll just wait a moment..." Anyone have anything shiny?

Windshear watches Astrotrain sail on down to join them and he snickers, "Nice landing..." he looks back at Harrow and just gives a shake of his head to her comm.

I have pieces of a broken human handheld game system. Blight sends amongst the decepticons, remaining on the femme's head and felt the wind as Astrotrain came in.

"Aaaah!" nods the head native. "The totem HATES star travellers!" Those around him start to get agitated, waving clubs and sticks and lasers. "The totem also hates spaceships, we will take yours and burn it-" At that point, Astrotrain crashes down. "A LIVING spaceship!" he cries. "He must be killed in the sacred way. Bring on the sacred objects of DEATH!"

Two natives walk over to Astrotrain. One holds a gigantic hammer, the other holds a gigantic, sharpened metal beard.

"You didn't salvage their legs, did you Blueshift?" remarks Fulcrum idly. "With some tinkering it would be possible to mount the units in the neck-pieces to create small autonomous drones."

"No" lies Blueshift. "No I didn't"

"Then I'm gonna tear his optics out, and I'm gonna mount them on his aft, so he can watch as I KICK THE SLAG OUT OF HIM!"

Astrotrain is so caught up in just what horrible things that he's planning to do to Blueshift that he almost doesn't catch how he's suddenly become an object of interest to the natives, especially as the two come near him. "...wait what?" he states, narrowing his optics and shifting his rifle a bit defensively. A match for an average Decepticon these natives might be, but he considers himself an above-average Decepticon under any circumstances. His bluster disappears when one produces a...beard. "GYAH! GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME! I'm not gonna become some freakish Sweep mutant!" He leaps back a bit, looking left, then right. "Uh...besides, how do ya know I'm a spaceship!?"

Harrow makes no effort to talk Astrotrain out of a beardy death, as she's sure he can handle himself. Give me what's left of the handheld, Blight.

Blight pulls the device from subspace which makes the pieces appear infront of the woman's hands and then he begins his sneaking, flying and letting Astrotrain provide a good distraction for him to sneak.

Fulcrum's everpresent frown deepens. What's wrong with beards? Secondary facial plating is awesome. AND he had it before all those annoying Sweeps. "I think something may be going awry" he remarks, peering down towards the village.

The arm cannons on Windshear shift slightly more toward the aliens as he watches the situation with Astrotrain and the ... beard. Why is Astrotrain so against a beard? He has a stylish Seeker goatee and it rocks. But no matter. Windshear takes a visual scan to see if more natives are coming and remains on guard.

"How many times have you visited this planet previously, Blueshift?" asks Shockwave, zooming in on the beard-shaped implement. Is that a sweep beard?

The native leader points at Astrotrain's wings. "You have the wings of the devil!" he cries. "From the Pit itself! We shall smite you with our holy weapons! Prepare to be smitten!"

As Windshear scans, more natives can be seen moving from their huts and from around the scary, tall black totem, to see what the fuss is all about.

Blueshift pats Fulcrum on the back. "Go sort it out then Fulcrum. I would but I'm uh... invigilating..." He pauses as Shockwave speaks to him. "I've uh, had a few goes sir. Like, test runs." Shockwave's scan will reveal that the beard is in fact, a large sheet of metal cut into the shape of a beard, looking a lot like Fulcrum's.

Harrow turns a shiny gold circuit board in her hands, discards the rest, and looks expectantly to Windshear. Her voice a whisper, "You're telling me you have /nothing/ in subspace that's shiny? Quit holdin' out, Astrotrain's gonna' get smitten if you don't fork anything over!"

Astrotrain fistshakes for good measure back at the native leader, "THem seekers had wings too and ya didn't...oh wait, ya did." Astrotrain tries to think fast on his feet right now, and a moment later he comes up with an idea of sorts! "You dizzy natives wouldn't know a spaceship if ya saw one!" A moment later he transforms, his larger locomotive form rising up as he emits a shrill blast from his whistle, turning his angular triangle-shaped ram prow at the front to face the leader as if it were his face. "See? WHEELS! Wheels. Ya use wheels to fly on this backwards planet of yours!?" He's never been more glad to be a triplechanger in his life.

Spinning and shifting parts result in Astotrain's heavy locomotive form taking shape.

Windshear sees more natives coming and leans toward her whispering. "We have more problems then whether Im holding out on anything, Harrow. Do some fast talkign before 'Train gets.. smittin..."

The native leader strokes his chin as he stares at Astrotrain. "Praise be! he is not a spaceship, he shall not be smitten for that crime." His optics then narrow. "He is a TRAIN, a vile machine used by the L-8! HE MUST BE SMITTEN!"

Fulcrum shoots Blueshift a Look. "Fine" he finally grunts, hefting his sledge in one hand, activating his anti-gravs to head over to Astrotrain as the triple-changer transforms. No need for the natives to bring the seeker a beard or a hammer, he's already got both. Plus if anything goes wrong, Shockwave will back them up, right?

Right?

Blight finally reaches the totem and begins to crawl along it, looking over the black think to find a way into it's innards. He focused on his work, trying to find an opening into the totem itself.

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "...can I run them over? PLEASE?"

Shoxcannon is hard to read at the best of times, but as a gun he's positively cryptic. Who knows if he would actually protect anyone here or just blame it on Blueshift instead if it goes horribly awry.

Harrow very nearly laughs as the leader continues to make things hard for Astrotrain. "Ahem. Fast talking? I don't see you helping out!" She moves to nudge Windshear towards the leader, "Windy here as a good reason why you shouldn't smite our spaceship! Er, train."

Locomotive emits a thick BLAST from his whistle, as if venting his frustration like an overheated tea kettle. "Okay, seriously I'm about two seconds from seeing how these freaks are gonna stand up to a demolition derby if someone don't pull something out of their aft. PATIENCE RUNNING THIN!" His form vibrates as he chugs ominously while pointed at the native leader.

Windshear looks back at her angrilly. His form all but screams in neon lights that hes a Seeker. So is she for that matter. He looks at the native and his optics flare. "No, you do not want to smite the Train," He begins making his gen greivus rasp as menacing at he can. "I will be very --" his sentence is cut off by the LOUD train whistle blast... "Thats why... no back off on him." he finishes and strikes a rather imposing stance toward the native.

Blight will find the 'Totem' is actually a rather scarily high-tech piece of machinery, emitting a worrying amount of strange radiation. There are some small vents near the top that will allow access into its delicious insides.

The native leader gives out a cheer as he sees Fulcrum hover towards him. "Look, he has the beard and hammer of the gods! It is a sacred messanger - " He points at Astrotrain. "- HE will decide your fate, minion of the EVIL ONE!" The native leader stares at Windshear for a moment. "Hmm, your argument is very... not persuasive..." he states, trying to be polite.

"See" Blueshift states, crossing his arms and leaning against the shuttle as he watches the goings on down below. "See Shockwave, the key to being a good leader is to give your men free reign, BUT don't be worried about casualties. It happens."

Behind the village is a large pit, full to the brim of dead seekers

Blight finds one of these vents and crawls into the inside of the totem to begin eating the source of that delicious radiation he was picking up. He could hear what was going on, and ignored it as he went to work.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Trust me Astrotrain"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "When have I ever let you down"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "He did send you into a village which kills trains and spaceships..."

[Decepticon] Fulcrum says, "It seems I'm now a messenger of the gods. Perhaps I can tell these idiots to go and comit ritual suicide."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Look, I didn't know they killed TRAINS"

[Decepticon] Harrow says, "That's not a bad idea."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "When I get my hands on you, Blueshift..."

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "Bet you knew they kill Seekers though..."

[Decepticon] Blight says, "This totem is actually very advanced. Gives off delicious radiation."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Well Windshear, that is my current hypothesis"

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "I'm gonna give you a third mode. RUBIX CUBE!"

[Decepticon] Windshear says, ".......""

[Decepticon] Blight says, "Could have astrotrain say to ritualistically kill themselves. After all, your viewed as a savior, if the idea is against their beliefs, it would make sense to come from their demons."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Why... why would they listen to a demon"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Blight you are paid to eat not talk"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Eat the dangerous thing"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "I am being paid?"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "...no"

"Oh I'm just SO HAPPY TO HEAR THAT." The train responds to the leader, glaring his single front-mounted headlight on him like the Eye of Sauron. "Don't think I'm not still thinking what he'd look like all crunched under my wheels..."

Fulcrum is surprised to find himself declared an angel, but quickly rallies. "Yes, I am a messenger of the Gods" he intones, waving his hammer, electricity crackling threateningly around its head. "This train.. yes, this train has been sent as a SWORD TRAIN OF JUDGEMENT. Because you have been WICKED and DISPLEASED the Gods!"

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "...a sword train of judgement?"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "I was wondering that myself..."

Harrow slowly edges away from Astrotain, seeing as this Fulcrum fellow appears to have gone mad with power.

The native leader stares at Astrotrain. "Well there aren't any tracks for you to drive on and..." He pauses, and gasps at Fulcrum, as does everyone else in the village. "What!" he cries. "A sword train of JUDGEMENT?!"

Everyone falls to their knees in front of the SWORD TRAIN OF JUDGEMENT. "My lord! We have been good! We have toiled the land, and protected the TOTEM, and also killed all those hundreds of plane-robots that keep coming here!"

"THOUSANDS!" cries the native robot. "THOUSANDS of plane-robots!"

Blueshift coughs

[Decepticon] Fulcrum says, "Blueshift..."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "MmMMMmm?"

[Decepticon] Fulcrum says, "Never mind. Windshear, Harrow, Blight.  What's happening with the totem?"

Blight begins munching on the totem's innards, devouring as much as his tiny mouth would let him as he got closer and closer to the delicious radiation, enjoying this meal of his.

[Decepticon] Blight is making munching noises. "This thing is quite delicious."

[Decepticon] Harrow says, "Do hurry it up..."

Locomotive grks like he just had a glitch, "I don't NEED fraggin tracks to..." He trails off then as suddenly everyon keels before him at the behest of their new 'god' in the form of Fulcrum. "...uh, yeah. Okay so...yeah. Thousands eh?" He doesn't sound all that choked up by the revelation of course.

As Blight munches on the totem, it starts to shudder somewhat, sparking and making a rather worrying noise

Windshear's left wing twitches at this comment and he looks at Harrow not at all happy with what the native just said. "And what the slag are we here for again?" he asks no one in particular.

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "The bug is eating it I think."

"Silence!" Fulcrum interrupts, waving the hammer. "You know who amongst you are guilty! Who have sinned against the Gods! Listen, even now there comes the..er.. sparking and crackling of their displeasure! And THUS COMES THEIR JUDGEMENT!"

[Decepticon] Fulcrum says, "Okay Astrotrain, run some of them over. Not all of them, just the guilty looking ones."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Sweeeet."

[Decepticon] Blight says, "It's a shame you guys cant taste this stuff, this is good stuff."

"For training!" Harrow gives Windshear's shoulder a hearty punch now that things look in control. "Aren't you learning anything?" We don't have all day, Blight!

The natives all look back and forth, worried and muttering. One of them points at the sparking totem and screams. "IT IS ANGRY! HE IS RIGHT!"

Blueshift gives a whistle. "See, what THAT totem is Shockwave, is a BLACK LIGHT CONVERTER that powers the underground complex. Uh, that's gonna be the hard bit. Also I hope Blight doesn't poison himself after he's gone to the trouble of making Galvatron not hate him again."

Windshear gets punched on the shoulder and gives no reaction to it as he looks at her, "Im learning that just when I think Ive seen it all, something new comes along..."

Locomotive's single Eye of Sauron headlight swings about the kneeling figures, as if searching and probing. "Eenie meenie miney...ah ha!"

It settles on one particular loner-looking type who is kneeling off to the side, prompting the triplechanger to suddenly declare, "GUILTY!" And with that there is a sudden rumble as the SWORD TRAIN OF JUDGEMENT moves WITHOUT TRACKS with a sudden rumble of acceleration to 'pounce' on the lone figure and grind him under his wheels! Children, sensitive types and mechanical-rights activists should probably turn away at this point.

[Decepticon] Harrow says, "This is awesome."

Blight flies out of the vents and is flying at top speed, barely avoiding getting fulcrum in the eye as he flies. It's gonna blow! He bellows into his radio.

Fulcrum mutters to himself, "... I should... preacherbot."

The rest of the natives gasp as Astrotrain runs over one of them. "It must be from the gods!" someone cries. "See how it moves without tracks! It is a miracle!"

The totem starts to smoke now, horrible black light leaking from it as the ground shudders

"This does not look good." Windshear says as he takes a step back and looks up at Blueshift as if to ask 'now what?'

Blueshift gets out a deckchair and sits on it as he studies the map of the planet. He pours himself a glass of ener-shandy as he works. Then he raises his head and shouts at the Decepticons in the distant village. "Oh, oh guys, you probably want to get out of the blast range!"

Blight is already flying to get out of the blast range, note him flying past the others as fast as his wings will let him.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Harrow, Windshear, do you want to stay behind and make sure all the natives are caught in the explosion?"

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "....."

[Decepticon] Harrow says, "....."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "It was just an idea!"

"Err... let's scram," Harrow turns heel and bolts back up the slope, Windshear in tow.

Windshear suddenly finds himself yanked by the femme and being hauled up the slope. "Flying is .. faster..." he manages to get out as he breaks free and transforms, going full military power when he does.

Robot Windshear transforms into a Cybertronian pyramid/Tetrajet.

Locomotive pauses as he hears the words 'blast range' somewhere. "...what? WHY YOU SNEAKY LITTLE..." And then an idea occurs to him. He shifts around, crunching the unfortunate remnants of the native under him as he swings about to look back up the hill. The Eye of Sauron proceeds to illuminate Blueshift and his deck chair, just as the rocket boosters on the back of Astrotrain's form take on an ominous red glow. "Heh heh heh...." Ther is a brief high pitched whine as the thrusters power up and then? An EXPLOSION of acceleration as the locomotive rockets up the hillside towards Blueshift at several hundreds of miles per hour! "GUILTY!"

"Have faith and remain strong and perfectly still!" booms Fulcrum as he fires his boot jets and propels himself away from the doomed village. "The innocent have nothing to fear!"

Blueshift's optics snap up just as he sees Astrotrain rocket towards him. "Ah snap!" he exclaims, hovering into the air in an attempt to avoid the horrible triplechanger.

And then down in the village, as the natives run about, the totem shakes and shudders, leaking black mist, and then with a loud explosion, a sphere of pure BLACK arcs out from the totem, stopping just short of the Decepticon encampment by a few inches. And then the sphere vanishes, and where the village was, is just just a spherical gouge cut out from the ground.

Key word of course being -triplechanger-. As Blueshift hovers upwards, Astrotrain's body shifts and transforms as he lifts off a moment later with wings sprouting from his sides. Of course it could be argued that he's just trying to get out of the 'blast radius' that much faster. And he may even be trying to take Blueshift to safety for good measure! Trying to turn him into a smear on the figurative windshield of his shuttle altform in the process? That's just bonus.

Parts spin, components shift and Astrotrain's body grows in size until he is an enormous space shuttle.

Combat: Decepticon Shuttle [Astrotrain] strikes Blueshift with his Ram attack!

Combat: You took 18 damage.

Blight transforms into large insect mode at the last minute and flies just out of range, the force of of the explosion hurling him back and he just rolls along the ground. "Ow..." He mutters as he twitches his attaenae about him before peeking up at the rubble pile he made with his being thrown. "Wait for me!" He screeches as he flies above with the others.

F-16 Falcon [Harrow] takes to the air after Windshear, and circles above to look for survivors. "Ha! Hahaha! Victory!" Her gazes shifts back to the little air chase. "...?"

"That was a highly improbable victory," remarks Shockwave, hovering safely out of the way. "Blueshift, your capacity to lead inexplicably successful missions is in inverse proportion to your capacity to plan and execute any other objective, even one so minor as 'staying upright' or 'keeping all parts of your body connected to the whole.' It is remarkable to witness."

Tetrajet [Windshear] had enough distance to not get caught up in the arc and after it subsides, he circles back around and sees where the village was. "Yes, victory but what exactly for? Thats what Im trying to figure out." He notices Astrotrain ram Blueshift and decides hes not getting anywhere neat that /disagreement/.

Blueshift and his deckchair are splatted against Astrotrain's windscreen as he sails into the air. He then crashes to the ground, coughing up dust. "Well, THERE'S gratitude for you!" he spits as he stands. "You're alive aren't you Astrotrain? All down to MY fine leadership, no need to thank me! Now!"

He looks about at his 'crew'. "The totem powered an underground complex. All the power is off, or should be draining now, so it will be safe to just pop in and pick up an erm... box. An insignificant box. Come on!" He points to the bottom of the spherical pit blown into the ground, out of which now pokes half a tunnel which has been ripped into

Fulcrum shakes his head but otherwise adds nothing to the discussion. Severed seeker heads, Fulcrum as the mouthpiece for an angry and judgemental god - what's next? Is Grimlock going to show up wearing an American flag as a cape?

F-16 Falcon [Harrow] ponders, "Mm, maybe experience? We got to travel, we got to meet a tribal group, we got to kill them... Nothing pleases you!" Pausing to listen to Blueshift's orders, she pipes up, "Sir, if the box is insignificant, why must we retrieve it?"

"It is insignificant!" echoes Blueshift. "It is a training box Harrow, it is symbolic of victory. Now, you and Windshear lead the way into the tunnels, we will follow you!"

Decepticon Shuttle [Astrotrain] loops about in a banking motion as he comes up alongside Shockwave's floating Shoxcannon form. At the moment that he's cut back enough speed he's about to stall, he finally transforms back into his robot form, hovering in place and crossing his arms over his chest. He has that 'pleased' look like he just got some sort of petty revenge. Well in his mind he did.

Shockwave simply straightens up and rotates in a few places to assume his robot mode.

In a chorus of shifting and spinning parts, Astrotrain's body spins and lifts up into his large robot mode.

Tetrajet [Windshear] hears Blue's orders as he considers what Harrow just said to him. He circles back around and starts decending toward the tunnel. "Sure lots of things please me, Harrow." he begins as he continues decending as he also hears Blueshifts new orders. "I just like to know whats going on in advance sometimes.." He transforms and lands at the tunnel edge and waits for the rest.

Cybertronian Tetra jet transforms into the Decepticon, Windshear

Shockwave descends and transforms, setting down with a heavy thump to stare down into the tunnel entrance with his single unblinking eye. Naturally he will let the 'trainees' go first, however.

Blight catches up with the rest and just remains in position. "What are my orders, sirs?" He asks as he remains a giant floating insecticon, attaenae wiggling.

F-16 Falcon [Harrow] grumbles and dives towards the pit, transforming to land beside Windshear. "You first," she insists.

Blueshift isn't obviously Blight's 'sir', but he answers anyway. "TUNNEL TIME BLIGHT!"

The dark blue F-16 Falcon Harrow transforms into her robot mode with a swift shift of components.

The Lair of Octavius
Scavenger emerges from the shuttle, having slipped into recharge on the way. Of course, no one told him when they arrived! He comes clomping down the boarding ramp, his odd, shovel-tipped tail waving. "Hey, you guys!" He's huffy. "Thanks a lot for leavin me behind!"

"You didn't miss much" Fulcrum replies. "I became the messenger of the Gods, and Astrotrain their sword. Then the village...hn.. blew up is the wrong term. Disapeared. The village went away."

Windshear looks at Harrow, "Why did I know you were goign to say that?" he looks back into the tunnel and scans it with his sensors and pauses taking in what the readings are telling him. "A box.. black box?" he turns on his comm.Blueshift, its just a black box? How big? Do you know how far back it is?

Blueshift floats down the hole in the ground towards the tunnel. "Its okay guys, we'll be right behind you!" he radios back. "You'll know it when you see it! Now, there MIGHT be a robot guarding it, but the destruction of the totem will have nerfed it so you have NOTHING to worry about!"

Inside the tunnel is flickering emergency lights, leading down into a larger chamber just out of sight

Blight flies down and then looks to the hole in the ground, following afterwards, scurrying after Windshear. "You alright underground? Heard seekers hated being underground." He says as he tries to scurry with the two seekers.

Windshear gives Blueshift a look. Hes fast learning not to take what this mech says literally. With a shrug he makes an idle note on whether hes gotta go in funky cause of his wingspread and removing one of his arm cannons to be a gun, he steps inside the tunnel.

Blueshift waves his hand towards the other Decepticons present. "Come on guys, come on, to the tunnel! Windshear and Blight are going in first, it'll be fine. Besides, Windshear is REALLY slow, if the robot is still in there, we just have to outrun Windshear!"

Blueshift then turns his radio off :(

Fulcrum follows Windshear into the base, despite his best judgement. Maybe he can haul the other Seeker away when he gets mauled by the security systems. Or put him out of his misery.

Scavenger jog's the tunnel's entrance. "Didn't miss much?" He says to Fulcrum, "It sounds like I missed EVERYthing! Just like always." He follows the others cautiously, having heard something about a robot guardian. He's surprised he hasn't been thrown into the hole first to keep it occupied! "Guys! What are we doing? Do you need me?"

Catechism appears out of nowhere or perhaps from the background. She has a map in her hands, and she complains, "This isn't where I was going! Where are the beaches covered in fighter jets? Hmmph." She pauses and looks around, seeing the tunnel and the gathering of Decepticons. "...oh, huh! Hello?"

Fulcrum says, "Well there's a mass grave of fighter jets over there somewhere."

Inquisitor, good to hear your voice in the radio. You missed the giant pit filled with dead seekers that Blueshift sent here. Blight says and lets Scavenger get infront of him. "You can get infront of me, Constructicon."

Astrotrain has followed after the others. Probably due to a sense of morbid curiosity. Rifle still in hand, he's holding -waaay- back. Even behind Blueshift. Maybe he even plans to shoot Blueshift when he's not looking! Or maybe just push him to the ground if something big and hungry with an appetite for metal munching shows up...

Blueshift rubs his hands together as he strolls along beside Fulcrum and Scavenger. "Oh yes yes Scavenger, you are slow and quite gristly aren't you? Perhaps you can join the forward scout team?"

The forward scout team will see the tunnel open out into a large, cavernous interior. Emergency lighting is on all around, and robotic workers are constantly working, repairing systems and ferrying raw materials. In the centre of the room is a pedestal on which rests a perspect case that contains a black box, towards the right somewhat is a cryogenics chamber, in which the remains of some putrifying, octopoid creatures are frozen.

Blueshift coughs loudly. "Don't listen to them Catechism, they are horrid liars. NOW, according to the map I bought from Monacus, this is the survival chamber, built before the solar flares devastated this world. And the sec- the INSIGNIFICANT BOX is inside somewhere..."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "How are you doing, ba-SCOUT PARTY?"

Windshear pauses at the edge where the tunnel expands to the large room so to speak. He looks at the robot workers, the box, and the chamber with the octopoid creatures, "Blight." he rasps suddenly, "Get up here, now."

Scavenger is happy to be asked to do something, but wary about what he's been asked to do by Blueshift and Blight. "Uhh, sure. I'll go in front!" He tries to stride confidantly toward the front of the column, his pistol at the ready, but he can't keep from hunching in fear. First to die then. He supposes there's some honor in that at least.

Catechism glares at Fulcrum and puts her hands on her hips, "You are a sick, sick man, Fulcrum!" She radios back to Blight, ... Yes, some ellipses. She stomps over to look at Blueshift's map, nodding and murmuring, "Yes, an insignificant box. And then... we put you INSIDE the box." Because Blueshift is insignificant. It works perfectly.

Blight scurries into the chamber and peers about. "I see it." He says softly and just shrinks down to his tiny insect form and begins to fly for it, trying to find what security systems the box was under.

Astrotrain pipes up helpfully from his position at the back, "I'm all in favor of putting Blueshift inside the box."

Stinkbug says, "Same here."

Windshear supresses a laugh as he watches Blight move into the room. He watches the robotic workers for any reaction. "If we can fan out, I suggest that we do and be ready to take out those workers..." he glances at the chamber then radios to Blueshift. Where did you say you got this map from? And from who or what?

Fulcrum just stares blankly at Catechism. "Well it's possible they might have been destroyed with the village" he replies. "But we did retrieve these." He holds up a severed Seeker head colored in deathly greyscale, its optics dull and lifeless.

Shockwave is intrigued by the possibility that Blueshift may actually be capturing something of value. After all, Blueshift's upgrades have to come from SOMEwhere, and no one seems to know how he keeps getting clearance from the chief of engineering for them. He treads along with Astrotrain, more curious than concerned.

Blueshift tuts loudly. "Fulcrum, you are disgusting. Also, do not belittle your peers, for I am fantastic!" He holds up his radio. "We're nearly there with you, have you found it?"

Blight will find the box in the centre of the chamber is extremely high technology, secured by various energy bonds and locks that make it inedible. Also something about the technology is familiar. Maybe not Cybertronian, but... familiar.

Scavenger creeps along carefully, still unsure exactly what he's looking for. "Nobody tells me anything," he grumps. When Blight moves into the room ahead of him, he follows after. "What's this box?"

"Nothing important Scavenger!" replies Blueshift. "Just a TRAINING BOX". And then he replies to Windshear over radio. "It doesn't matter, it was from a GOOD SOURCE. I know he was a good source, because he kept telling me it was real even as I killed him"

Windshear doesnt stop the Constructicon from following Blight but hes not real sure if was a good idea. Then he gets blues message, "Even as you killed him? Mmmm Blight, report."

"Hopefully it's a training box Blueshift can fit into." Astrotrain pipes up from alongside Shockwave. "And if not, I enjoy the idea of such a challenge of getting him inside said box anyway!"

Catechism looks over at the head Fulcrum is holding curiously, and she notes, "I bet you could get a good bucket out of that."

"I was thinking of mounting a small anti-grav unit in the neck and turning it into a semi-autonomous drone unit" Fulcrum says, not paying much attention to their surroundings. Windshear, Blight and Scavenger will have surely checked for traps, secret tunnels, goblins and the like.

"The device is bound with various energy bonds and locks, I cant eat the locks, but this technology is very very familiar...." Blight says as he flies around the various locking mechanisms and defenenses, trying to learn more of this type of technology. "I...think this may be quintession..." He mutters.

Blueshift emerges into the main chamber now as the group reaches it, slapping his hands together. "Good work scout team!" he shouts. "What's going on in here then?"

The robotic workers seem to ignore the scout party, and Blueshift, continuing to weld, press buttons, and shift about raw materials

Catechism rubs her chin, and she replies, "I can't help but think that you have it backwards, Fulcrum." She does look around, almost twitchy. Catechism hates her map.

Windshear looks at the creatures in the chamber at the mention of Quintesson. He looks at the workers again and the room in general then looks back at everyone. "It goes without saying that room is trapped." he begins, "I dont know what is being built as you can see, and the workers seem to be ignoring us. This just looks too easy...But lets go in and get it over with -- Id suggest someone stay here at the tunnel though."

Fulcrum turns the head this way and that. "What do you mean? Heads are hard to recycle. No-one wants a second-hand head. But with cameras in the optic sockets, a simple control program partially slaved to a datapad, maybe a speaker in the mouth..."

The creatures in the crygenic chamber are dead. It seems to have defrosted at some point in the past, and been refrozen again. They are mushy and covered in ice crystals. But glaring at Windshear from the chamber is the gnarled, impassive face of a QUINTESSON

"Your dedication to conservation of war materiel is commendable, Fulcrum," notes Shockwave.

"Quintesson, eh?" Astrotrain muses as he overhears that little tidbit. "But of -course- there ain't gonna be one of them multi-faced freaks around for us to shoot eh?" He is saying this of course before someone goes and peeks into a certain chamber.

Scavenger considers the robotic workers suspiciously. "Quintesson? Oh, that sounds bad. Is it bad?" He stalks around, poking things, looking over the equipment and machinery in the room. He puts his hand on his chin, fascinated. "This is some place," he says, turning toward Windshear, "I think this - Waaahey! Primus!" He sees the Quintesson now. His limbs seem to act of their own accords, flailing in shock.

Blueshift looks upwards idly. "Mmmm?" he exclaims as he overhears Windshear and Scavenger. "Oh yeah, this is a Quintesson base, sorry, should have mentioned that!" he mutters, putting his hands in his subspace pockets

Astrotrain says, "..."

Astrotrain reaches down and grabs up a sizable rock, then chucks it at the back of Blueshift's head!

Combat: Astrotrain strikes Blueshift with his Grab attack!

Combat: You took 0 damage.

Blueshift shouts angrily as Astrotrain beans him in the head. "Oi!"

Astrotrain fist-pumps triumphantly like a pitcher who just threw a perfect strike. "It's just a Quintesson ba...YA SHOULDA TOLD US THAT EARLIER!"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Can we have Astrotrain's dex reduced"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "It is way too high"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Like, cut his arms off"

[Decepticon] Fulcrum says, "Dex? What?"

[Decepticon] Air Governor Ramjet says, "What manner of gobbledygook is this!?"

[Decepticon] Galvatron says, "Hm. Interesting proposal. Astrotrain, what are you going to do next time the other Decepticons propose tossing me out of you?"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "You know!"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "A dex!"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "Maybe we can upgrade Blueshift's processors, so he can remember when he is sending us to a quintession base."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Uh, next time? Next time I'd just cut the asking and dump Screechface into space."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "...and since ya already dusted him I'll dump uh...Blueshift or somethin."

[Decepticon] Catechism says, "Blueshift can fly in space, anyway; why is he bumming a ride?"

Catechism makes it to the main chamber, still bantering with Fulcrum, "Yeah, some of those Headmaster would get uppity if you tried to replace their heads, and... I... what? A Quintesson base? Blueshift, is this a box a SHIPPING CRATE? So, we can return you to the manufacturer and get our warranty money back?"

The worker stares back at Windshear blankly, and then gets back to working on the machinery it is repairing. Blueshift hovers over the box container. "No Catechism, it is just uh... insignificant. Blight, can you really not just eat it?" He curses loudly to himself. "Eh, well at least destroying the totem will have definately shut down the guardian robot.

A voice echoes down from the top of the cavernous room. "GREETINGS!" it booms as something very large and mechanical slowly descends. "I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU FOR MILLENIA. THE SLEEPERS HAVE DIED, BUT THE SECRETS REMAIN. I AM OCTAVIUS, THE GUARDIAN." Octavious descends into the middle of the chamber on what seems to be a steel wire protruding from its body. It is a very very large...

MECHANICAL SPIDER

You say, "Oh snap"

"I have a bad feeling about this" Fulcrum mutters, running a few internal checks, re-routing power to his heat-rays, shifting his grip on his hammer, and generally perparing to kick ass or run like hell. The blacksmith sweeps his gaze around the room, then visibly starts as the booming voice begins. "Looks like I was right.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "CODE 45-F"

[Decepticon] Galvatron says, "Very good. You get to keep your limbs, Astrotrain. *Sorry,* Blueshift."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "GIANT SPIDER"

Blight shuts up when he hears a voice and see's a giant big insecticon brother! He peers at this being and just remains silent and sneaky, to try and avoid attention from the beast, seeing as how right now he is very very small.

Windshear steps back and looks at this.. spider as it decends. He looks at Blueshift, "You knew about this thing?!" he brings his arm cannon up that he was holding as a rifle and aims at the Spider, "If I have any say in this; someone yank the box and lets get the slag out of here, or just.. get the slag out of here...!" he takes a backwards step toward the tunnel while still aiming at the Spider.

[Decepticon] Blight says, "Blueshift...Is there anything ELSE you know about this place?"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Uuuuuh"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "Like some way to kill this thing?!"

Astrotrain hefts his rifle up at the ready, pointing it in the spider's general direction. "Why did I even -come- here again?"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Well I have a plan for that"

Things are just getting better and better. Scavenger has only just recovered from the shock of seeing the Quintesson, and NOW he's confronted by a giant spider! He falls back to hang with as many of his fellow Decepticons as he can find in a group. "Oh boy," he stammers, "What are we still doing here? Let's kill that thing or get out of here!" Scavenger, for what it's worth, votes for getting out of here.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "We blow up the totem, which depowers it and shuts it down forever"

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Ya call this powered down?"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "...no"

[Decepticon] Fulcrum says, "Can't we just hit it until it stops moving? That works for most things."

[Decepticon] Blight says, "Blueshift...the totem is blown up."

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "the totem is destroyed and its still here, Blueshift."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "I hate you so much."

A small *click-ding!* sound comes from the direction of Shockwave as he confirms the calculation that he had formed as soon as he detected the presence of a Quintesson. "A giant spider. As I had predicted." His chest glows brightly as he spins up his reactor, but he doesn't open fire. "Perhaps it will be the riddle-asking variety of giant spider."

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "I agree with Fulcrum."

The giant robot spider twitches its limbs as it scans the occupants of the room. "You ARE the recovery team, yes? The first one did not arrive. The sleepers died. Tell me, how IS Quintessa"

Scavenger stares. "Riddle-asking? Why build a giant spider just to have it ask riddles?

[Decepticon] Shockwave says, "None of you seem to have detected that the giant spider is speaking. This strongly suggests that it is of the riddle-asking variety of guardian robot."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Yes I know it is still there Windshear"

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "and its now speaking..."

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Maybe it just wants to chats up up before it wraps us in goo and sucks out our energon."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Okay okay, I've got this!"

[Decepticon] Catechism says, "Oh, is this the kind that always lies and gives you three remotes and only one shot at the room?"

Blueshift steps forward, raising a hand. "THE ANSWER IS MAN!" he booms in a non-sequitor

Fulcrum mutters to Catechism, "... no-one... that... a rapidly..."

[Decepticon] Blight says, "...Blueshift...Can you get any more dumb?"

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Let me hit him with another rock and see."

Catechism covers her face with her hands as there is a giant Quintesson spider. She grumbles, She mutters to Fulcrum, "... always..." Catechism pries her hands off her face and considers what Fulcrum has to say. She can only moan, "You fool! You've doomed us all! Someone's going to do it now!"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "Maybe we should give this spider tribute. I think giving it blueshift is great tribute."

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "We give it Blueshift for the box..."

"'How is Quintessa' is not a riddle," Shockwave points out. "Evidently you have been dormant for quite some time, 'guardian.' The time of the Quintessons has come and gone. Quintessa itself is no more. One could take this to understand that your obligation is at an end and you are free to self-direct."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Except I wouldn't give Blueshift as an insult."

No one mutters anything to Scavenger. They're probably talking about feeding him to the spider.

Catechism tries to elbow Fulcrum, as Shockwave spills the beans, "See? Shockwave did it. Oh, this is going to be horrid."

[Decepticon] Blight says, "What if we can recruit this being for our side, tell it the autobots destroyed quintessa\"

The spider chitters for a while as it processes this. "All is not lost!" it replies. "My mission was to guard the sleepers and the secrets they stole from BOLTAX. Our masters will rise again, will we be triumphant!"

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Yeah see that doesn't usually go good for us when we try to recruit neutral things on our side."

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "That's not a half bad idea. You tell it."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "See amjet-ray."

Fulcrum just nods, his frown deepening. "We should have just shot it. Or pretended to be the repair team or something. Or Quintesson military robots. Or gods. Were you here when I convinced the natives I was a God?"

Scavenger frowns. "It doesn't exactly look hostile just yet. I mean, it's a giant spider and everything, but maybe it's not going to kill us."

How do you frown with no mouth? It's magic.

Catechism shakes her head sadly. "No, I was... elsewhere." Looking for the planet of beaches with fighter jets. "But that must have been amazing. You would have been the God with the worst self-confidence, since you wouldn't even believe in yourself!"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "I am remaining hidden."

"We, not unlike yourself, are creations of the Quintessons," notes Shockwave, illuminating the dead Quintesson in the broken cryotube with a shaft of visible light from his cannon arm. "You may observe, however, that the aforementioned sleepers are in a less than optimal condition. All the same, your enemies may prove to be our enemies. What is the nature of 'Boltax?' There may yet be some way for you to carry out your programming."

Blight remains as well hidden as he can, trying to find a way to remove the box's defenses without that spider finding out.

[Decepticon] Shockwave says, "I strongly recommend that, while I have the giant spider, mechanical, talking-and-riddle-asking variety, engaged in conversation, you collect whatever you came here to collect."

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Good idea, Shockwave? Uh... what are we here to collect again?"

Windshear slowly backs up toward the tunnel as Shockwave speaks. He wouldnt have spilled the beans but its been done and hes got a feeling they are all going ot be fighting a big spider before its over... he remains silent and just works his way back to the tunner entrance.

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "that box, get it."

"YES!" the spider booms. "I recognise your specifications, you are from the factory world of Cybertron. As was Boltax. He was a robot too, like us, but he was something MORE. He developed secrets, secrets so terrible and vast, so POWERFUL that their name lives on in history, known only as UNDERBASE. The might of the Quintesson empire could not destroy him, but the SLEEPERS were able to steal his secrets, and waited here for the recovery team. And now, you have arrived!"

[Decepticon] Backfire says, "I don't see no box!"

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "thats because you arent here, Backfire..."

The spider starts to lower itself down more, near the box. Blight might think the spider is trying to squat on him :(

Shockwave is infamous for his frankness among the Decepticon commanders. It makes it difficult to tell when he is lying, as opposed to, for example, Starscream. You could tell when Starscream was lying because his mouth would be moving.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Oh yeah. Underbase, that too"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Wonder how that slipped my mind"

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "...."

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Urge to kill, rising!"

Scavenger wants to think of something smart to say. He thinks until his head hurts, but can't come up with anything. Better Shockwave to talk to the giant spider anyway.

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "The spider's on it! Well, almost.  Do you guys want me to go get the box?"

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "you think your fast enough?"

Blight flies to hurry from being squished by the giant spider, moving to land on Windshear's face to avoid being smashed.

"I am Shockwave," declares Shockwave. "I am a scientist of Cybertron. The Underbase is a matter of great interest to me, as legend tells that it was stored for a time on Cybertron by the ancient Quintessons, but was lost mysteriously from our planet aeons ago. Were these secrets which the Quintessons' servants, which is to say you and we, are to guard, located anywhere other than in the minds of the sleepers? If not, I regret that they may be lost and our mission failed."

[Decepticon] Backfire says, "SpaceCommander Redshift is fast, did you guys bring him?"

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "M-maybe. I can try.  When I go get, then what do I do?  I need an escape plan."

[Decepticon] Blight says, "We are stuck with his brother, Blueshift."

[Decepticon] Windshear tries to answer but it sounds all muffled..."MMffss ME!..mmshgg

Astrotrain is all quiet right now, watching as Shockwave does his thing. "...I bet if it -was- a Riddle Spider, Shockwave would have solved it fast and we'd be outta here already."

"NO!" The spider booms at Shockwave. One arm waves at the box over which it now crouches. "The secrets are stored in this box, it contains vital information as to the Underbase and its location. With this, our masters will become unbeatable and rule the galaxy once more!"

"Oh yeah" coughs Blueshift. "The box is secrets and stuff. Uh, someone go find a self destruct button"

Windshear gets smacked in the face by Blight and stumbles back. He reaches up to get the bug off his face. "MFMFff OFF ME!" he pulls the bug off and then flings it back up on one of his wings...

"I'll find it," says Scavenger. Anything to avoid having to try and get the box from the spider. He moves quickly from console to console, looking for what he assumes will probably be an big, inviting red button. "When I find it, do you want me to push it?"

"Oh yeah, totally!" Blueshift mutters back. He didn't mention anything about a timer :(

Scavenger will find lots of pretty console buttons, including consoles that control the cryo unit and the Black Light Converter system, which as the collector was destroyed, isn't looking too well. The spider twitches as it sees Scavenger

Blight lands on one of Windshear's wings and holds onto it, watching the area with attaenae wiggling around.

Catechism ahems and drops a grenade on the floor. The pin is still in. She suggests, "We could just blow it up the easy way and ignore any self-destruct buttons. That might work, too." This is too simple and obvious to ever work.

Fulcrum is momentarily distracted by Windshear doing some sort of interpretive dance.

"Excellent," declares Shockwave. "Then, although the Quintessons themselves are waning, through our loyalty they may yet prevail." He projects color video of Apocryphacius tooling around on Earth talking to some humans onto a nearby wall. "We serve a Quintesson by the name of Apocryphacius who resides on a planet far from here, which is the planet we have adopted as our own new primary base of operations. We have the capability of faster-than-light travel thanks to my underling 'Astrotrain.'" Shockwave points at Astrotrain. "Are you capable of faster-than-light travel, Octavius, or would you prefer that we deliver the underbase data to the last Quintesson ourselves?"

Astrotrain isn't the swiftest brick in the pile but he knows darn well enough not to speak when Shockwave is weaving some intricate plot. Thus when he is indicated by the one-eyed wonder, he simply inclines his head and does his best to look like a wall painting.

The spider pauses, chittering for a moment. "No, I do not possess faster-than-light travel power." Then the forcefields and locks on the box shut off, and Octavius lifts it in one of his pincer-claws. "I shall travel in your craft with you to meet our leader!" he booms.

From the shadows, emerge seven more spiders, each identical to Octavius. They all speak in unison, the echo coming not from the chamber, but them all speaking at once. "We are Octavius, we will bring the secrets and restore the glory of the Quintesson Empire!"

Windshear hears something hit the floor and notices its a grenade with the pin still in it. He hears Catechism and is all for blowing this joint literally. Too bad the grenade didnt roll out toward the spider and the box....

Scavenger flits about, passing over various interesting-looking controls as well as some broken-looking ones. He's getting worried that there ISN'T a self destruct button when, on a console at the very back of the room, he finally finds what he's looking for! "I found it," he says, "but there's a problem. It looks like its under some kind of covering." He bangs on the console. "Can't break it. It looks like I need 2 keys to lift it. There's one here, but that's it."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Scavenger! Blight is small, use him as a key"

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Good idea! Hey, Blight.  Little help?"

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "...do I gotta carry all these freaky spiders inside me?"

Shockwave considers the eight giant spiders in total and adds, "If it would better serve your programming, one of you could accompany the underbase data to this planet. We cannot bring the High Five-Fold Lord Apocryphaicus here as he requires the continual attention of the primate race native to that planet for his medical needs, and we are unable to transport all eight of you due to Astrotrain's cargo limitations."

[Decepticon] Fulcrum says, "Commander Shockwave, I don't mean to question your plans, but this seems like it could go horribly wrong."

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Oh no..."

[Decepticon] Shockwave says, "There is risk in every venture."

Astrotrain grunts, "Yeah otherwise I'd have to jettison some wei..." A brick flies out of nowhere and hits Astrotrain in the face, knocking him flat.

The spiders all pause. "THERE IS NO WEIGHT IN SPACE!" they boom at once. "I cannot let the secrets leave my sight, it is against my programming!"

[Decepticon] Blight says, "It probably just went wrong."

[Decepticon] Windshear says, "Something tells me this will go really badly if it does go wrong...I say blow them and the box up and get out of here. If the Decepticons cant have this knowledge then neither should anyone else..."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Ugh you sound like a Sky Lynx Windshear. Get that box!"

Windshear suddenly steps foward, "Can I have the box, Octavius?" Sure, why not just ask for it....

As one, the spiders step forwards, chittering, in the direction of Windshear. "/NO/" booms the reply, as the lead spider holds the box up in its pincer

Catechism keeps the grenade by her feet and looks increasingly more anxious as more spiders appear and Shockwave goes off on some crazy-logical plan and thy still don't have the box, which is sadly not a shipping crate to return Blueshift to his manufacturer.

"However, there is still volume in space," counters Shockwave. "If you would accompany us to the surface of this planet, we can transform Astrotrain into his spacecraft mode, so that we can attempt to fit as many of you as are able to accompany the secrets." His head turns briefly towards Windshear. "This is Octavius' mission and core programming, Windshear. He is neither able to neglect it, nor are we suitable to replace him in his duty."

"I think.. I'm going to go check on the shuttle" says Fulcrum, sidling towards the exit. He doesn't know how to fly it, but he can run preps on the damn thing and make quite sure it's ready to fly.

The spider holding the box steps closer to Shockwave. "There is another way!" it booms. "We are made by the same masters. I shall download my mind into eight of you, then we will be able to leave this place!"

Windshear looks at Sockwave, "I dont like the sound of this 'underbase' I dont like anything that is so well guarded for Quintessons --" He pulls up his arm cannon held like a rifle right now and aims at the box and lets his actions speak for him. But he does not pull the trigger.

Astrotrain isn't exactly fussy about transporting spiders inside of him. So at the mention of another plan, he at first looks hopeful...until the 'downloading of minds' part. "...uh..."

Blueshift points at Astrotrain. "This guy's mind is really really roomy. Tons of space"

Astrotrain starts looking for another rock.

Scavenger scratches around on the floor and tries to find a shard of metal long enough for him to cut into a key. He's a Constructicon! He's got all sorts of useful functions. "Blight," he says, "I'm sorry to insist, but I'm coming up with nil over here."

Catechism suggests warily, "There are those dead Seeker... heads, right? Can't we just download them into some Seeker heads? They'd be more compact that way."

Shockwave has never been all that attached to Earth in the first place and obviously has no great concerns about delivering a swarm of giant Quintesson spiders (speaking and riddle-asking variety) to the blue planet if it might lead to getting his hand on the Underbase. "That is a plausible method, Octavius, but I am concerned about my minions. Will you allow me to review the method by which you propose the transfer? Please excuse me while I discipline my underling for his daring to threaten the object of your mission. It will be brief."

Shockwave undergoes an extremely simple transformation to become a giant flying space "laser."

Shoxcannon transforms, swivels in midair and lets fly with a microwave beam towards Windshear immediately, in spite of the close quarters.

Combat: Shoxcannon misses Windshear with his Shoxcannon attack!

Blight growls as he flies over to Scavenger. "Alright then." He says as he flutters and flies to the constructicon.

Windshear hears the mention of minds downloaded.. "Oh slag no..." he primes the laser and puts his finger on the trigger but still doesnt fire.

The lead spider steps forwards, a probe extending to scan the heads. "Negative!" it booms. "Your bodys possess greater mobility. It is in the service of our masters, you would gladly do the same!"

Two of the spiders skitter backwards as Windshear threatens them, and then Shockwave misses him, blowing a hole in the machinery. "Careful!" they shriek. "The Black Light system is very delicate!"

"Thanks, Blight," Scavenger says, "I need you to try and reach into that lock and activate it right as I turn this other key. Is that OK? It might save us."

Blight just crawls into the keyhole and tries to position himself. "Alright, ready." He says to the Constructicon, waiting for the signal.

Windshear catches Shockwave transforming and aiming at him suddenly and he dives for the floor. Thank Primus the shot missed him and he hears it blow out some machinery nearby. He looks at Shockwave but doesnt say anything as he gets back to his feet. He looks at the two spiders that shrank back when he has his weapon aimed and just hefts the lasercannon, but he doesnt aim it again.

Astrotrain has meanwhile found his rock! He hefts it up towards Blueshift...that is, until Shockwave proceeds to transform and opens fire in Windshear's direction, prompting the triplechanger to raise one arm and shield his optics from view. When he sees it's all said and done, and Windshear is fortunate enough to still be standing...he briefly debates using now as a good chance to throw his rock. ...then decides it's best to save for now.

"I regret the collateral damage," intones the floating beam cannon, steam venting from its barrel. "Let us prepare the transfer. We will begin with this wayward soldier." He transforms again, hitting the ground and rising from his half-crouch to reach out to try to seize Windshear by the face like palming a basketball.

Shockwave simply straightens up and rotates in a few places to assume his robot mode.

Combat: Shockwave strikes Windshear with his "GIVE me your FACE" attack!

Blueshift leans back against Astrotrain, oblivious to the rock. "Astro, when it all goes down, grab the box off the spider"

Catechism ducks off to the side a bit as shots are fired. Then, it looks like Shockwave is willing to let Windshear get turned into vessel for a Quintesson spider. Eesh! Sorry bud, but better him than her, she thinks. She crouches down and picks up her grenade, tossing it from hand like a worry ball.

"Now!" Scavenger turns his key. He turns it so quickly that it snaps clean off! No matter. It's still turned, and if Blight activates the lock then the case pops open, revealing the shiny, red self-destruct button.

Shockwave crushes Windshear one-handed, lifting him off the ground and holding him out to the spiders. It looks just like a certain Marvel US comic panel that Megatron prefers not to be reminded of.

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "You still went me to hit the self-destruct button?"

Windshear clamps his hands around the purple arm and hand that has grasped the slag out of his face. He snarls. "..NO..." he aims his one attached cannon at shockwave and fires.

Combat: Windshear's Destabilizer Ray attack aimed for Shockwave backfires!

Combat: Windshear strikes himself with his Destabilizer Ray attack!

Blight's wiggling inside the lock works, and the case opens, revealing the button. As this happens, the spiders start to gather around Windshear. One of them, the one with the box, extrudes a large drill from its front, and starts to slowly move it towards Windshear's head

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Hmmm maybe we should wait for it to mind-screw Windshear?"

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "What? That... sounds pointless.  Sorry.  Are you sure?"

Windshear is hit with his own weapon and doesnt care. He sees the drill and struggles still against Shockwaves grip. He extends his blades and attacks for everyrhing hes worth to get shockwave to let him go.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Hmm no I'd probably get in trouble with his mentor. Press the button""

Combat: Windshear misses Shockwave with his Arm Blade attack!

Astrotrain blinks at Blueshift. "Me? Why's it gotta be m..." he trails off as there's some flailing and backfiring of weapons, and spiders ominously closing in on Windshear!

And the triplechanger facepalms, maglocking his rifle to the back of one shoulder again. "...let's get this done with."

Blueshift slaps Astrotrain on the back. "Go for it! I would, but, my knee..."

[Decepticon] Backfire says, "He'd have to have a mind first..."

Astrotrain proceeds to aim one large foot at Blueshift's knee and KICKs for good measure, "Hurts real bad, I know!"

Scavenger brings his fist down on the button. Only then does it occur to him that such devices usually have a timer. "I did it!" He turns to his friends. "I hit the button! We should probably run now!" He holds out his hand, offering to carry Blight.

Shockwave holds Windshear at the end of his arm, snapping his wrist to disorient the Seeker further and keep his arms flailing around uselessly instead of slashing Shockwave's armor. He draws his fist back, swivels and attempts to slam the back of Windshear's head into the ground. "Be still."

Combat: Shockwave strikes Windshear with his Double Tap attack! [Pulled -5]

Blight moves into the constructicon's hand, letting the faster being be willing to lug him around, as long as he isnt squished by the lime green robot.

The moment Scavenger hits the button, the entire room starts to shake violently, an emergency klaxon blaring out. The workers continue to work silently, but the bodies of Octavius recoil, the one with the drill moving away from Windshear momentarily. "The Black Light unit! YOU!" they boom at Scavenger! "YOU HAVE BROUGHT DISORDER WHERE ORDER REIGNED!"

Two of the spiders break away and start shooting at Scavenger, one firing lasers, the other shooting out steel cables as the alarms reach feverpitch. The one with the drill turns to Shockwave. "The black light unit is on overload, we will need to escape. The mind transfer MUST be done now or we shall perish!"

Catechism watches the interplay between Shockwave and Windshear, back and forth, and she fiddles with the grenade a bit, taking a few steps back. She suggests again, "Looks like you guys aren't in the best bargaining position. I'd suggest that you reconsider the offer of inhabiting portable dead Seeker heads."

Windshear is stunned and damaged by Shockwaves attacks but he still doesnt care. "No.. one.. gets in my head.. NO ONE!" he seeths and attacks again, paying no mind to anything around him right now save for the Decepticon that has him by the face and into the ground. He brings his legs up and tries to kick the purple gun in the back as hard as he can.

Combat: Windshear misses Shockwave with his Kick attack!

"My minions are regretfully rebellious," declares Shockwave, trying to pin the struggling Windshear against the floor. "Is Catechism's proposal workable, or will it be necessary to wire the storage into this seeker's life support in order for you to inhabit it?"

Combat: Shockwave misses Windshear with his High Pressure attack! [Pulled -6]

Astrotrain is on the move now as everything goes to hell and back! He lunges forward as blasts begin flying, and proceeds to leap into the air, focusing on the one spider that's holding the box. "Here's a little move I learned off Broadside, much as I'm loathe to admit it!" The triplechanger floats above the spider, his anti-gravs humming, until he suddenly transforms an instant later. And for a split second in time before gravity takes over, a hundred tons of metal Locomotive hangs in mid-air over the spider. "SQUISHY!"

Spinning and shifting parts result in Astotrain's heavy locomotive form taking shape.

Scavenger takes Blight, cradling him carefully, and hauls aft as werido space laser spiders start firing at him. "This is getting crazy!" He barrels toward the exit. "We should leave now! Are we leaving?"

The spider starts to drill /into/ Windshear's armour as Shockwave holds the seeker down. "Negative!" Octavius replies. "We require a living body. We will take this laserco-" Astrotrain tumbles from the sky, landing on the back of the spider, crushing it in a horrible mess. The drill snaps off in Windshear's chest as the spider sparks, the box that was in its claw flying into the air...

...and into the hands of Blueshift. "LEG IT!" he shouts, running for the tunnel

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "LEG IT"

[Decepticon] Backfire says, "Legit?"

[Decepticon] Astrotrain says, "Cheese it!"

Catechism sighs and shakes her head, muttering, "Space-spider zombie Seeker heads crawling around on little spidery legs would have been /cool/, but no." At least Blueshift finally has his blasted box! She turns and runs, as even Blueshift suggests that they run.

Windshear feels the drill pierce his chest and screams, "SO HELP ME!!!" he growls and stuggles even more...mentor.. someone mentioned mentor.. "Fusi..llade.. anser to her for this!!!" He swings at Shockwave again when suddenly the drill is snapped off in his chest and the spider is smushed. It hurts, he can feel the bit in his chest but he doesnt care.. he still swings.

Combat: Windshear misses Shockwave with his Punch attack! "Although I am not capable of feeling the emotion myself," notes Shockwave, throwing Windshear over his shoulder towards Catechism's hopefully waiting arms, "I can recognize that this would be an appropriate time to feel regret at having deceived you and led you to your deaths when you were only carrying out your programming."

Shockwave undergoes an extremely simple transformation to become a giant flying space "laser."

Shockwave transforms and sweeps an infrared beam across the ceiling of the chamber, between the group of Decepticons and the other seven spider guardians. "Nevertheless, I must admit: I lied."

The lights in the complex start to flash red as klaxons go off, getting even louder, and the ground itself rumbles, smoking. The spiders scatter about, some of them vanishing into the ceiling, others trying to chase the Decepticons, shooting lasers and wires at them

[Decepticon] Shockwave says, "Decepticons, retreat. Windshear may require assistance in escaping."

Locomotive is covered in mechanical spider-goo after squashing the little multi-legged beastie like it was little more than a grape filled fruit snack. "That was messy...but one of the more satisfying things I've ever done!" He can't help it. He's covered in mechano-spider guts and loving it.

Catechism attempts to catch Windshear and sling him over her shoulder as she switches to anti-gravs over just running. She comments idly, "Do you /really/ think Fusillade would stand against Shockwave for you?" She seems to be expressing genuine disbelief at the concept.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Does Windshear still have a brain?"

[Decepticon] Scalpel advises, "Kill ze little vun!"

Windshear is caught and flung over a shoulder, "Dunno.." he rasps, "But it was worth a try..." Primus his head is killing him, the drill in his chest is stinging. Hes so mad hes shaking, so freaked out.

Blueshift shifts to spaceship mode, rocketing down the tunnel and onto the planet surface. "Runrunrunrun!" he keeps muttering in panic

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Quick, who's our shuttle pilot"

Catechism sighs heavily. She can be dense and obstuse at times, but some people can be so naive. She advises Windshear, "Hold onto to me tight, if you can. I'm going to transform and jam on afterburner." She withdraws her whip and tries to loop it around Windshear, to lash him to her, before transforming and blasting down the tunnel, after Blueshift.

Catechism transforms to her jet mode, which is quite astoundingly simple for the coneheaded model that she is.

Locomotive's hugeass shuttle mode may be a little big for getting out of the tunnels, so for now he settles on a rocket booster assisted rush as a locomotive. Leaving a long purple smeeeeear behind him, he the triplechanger rumbles back up the tunnel at full speed, smashing the tunnel wider where he needs to as he serves as nothing short as a huge train-shaped battering ram.

Scavenger is torn when he sees what's happening with Windshear, but he isn't about to try and wrench him from Shockwave's grasp. He tells himself that THAT particular situation is in the hands of mechs far more capable than he and, as he is commanded, legs it out into the open. He heads for the shuttle running hard. "That sure went to the Pit in a hurry!"

Shoxcannon reverses his thrust and glides backwards through the tunnel, pulsing the laser at the scoring he had just made in the ceiling, and bringing a large section of the cavern ceiling down to slow the spiders' pursuit. Transforming, he turns to jog heavily up the tunnel towards the surface.

Shockwave simply straightens up and rotates in a few places to assume his robot mode.

Locomotive is actually nice enough to drop his rear ramp for Shockwave to get on board as he makes his escape. It cause he's a nice guy? Not really, he just knows that in robot form Shockwave is slow as molasses.

Inside the base, alarms blare as one of the spiders is roasted in Shockwave's beam, and then crushed by falling ceiling. Blueshift transforms back to robot mode as he reaches the Decepticon shuttle and leaps inside it. "C'mon, c'mon!" he shouts.

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Uh... did we get the box?"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "No, sorry Scavenger"

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "What was in it?"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Nothing, it wasn't important"

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Well. That's good!"

Windshear hangs on for the ride for all hes worth but is thankful for the whip lashed around him as he is low on energy right now and needs the help.

Shockwave is pretty slow in any case. He grabs ahold of Astrotrain's siderail and pulls himself into the back of the train, covering the Decepticons' retreat with his cannon.

XF-35B Astral Lightning [Catechism] zips over to Astrotrain, cuts thrust, and transforms quickly, trying to use her residual momentum, mostly arrested by her boot jets, to carry her and Windshear inside Astrotrain before the ramp door closes. She grumbles, "I bet the planet is going to explode now."

Scavenger piles into the shuttle at last, heaving. He puts Blight down gently. "What was all that about Underbase?"

Shockwave slowly recharges his capacitors, watching out the back of the train until it takes off and transforms. "To tell the history of the Underbase would require both a longer duration than your attention span allows, and more understanding than you are capable of. Suffice to say that it is a treasure of great value."

Windshear lays there on the floor in Astrotrain definitely having seen better days. His head hurts so bad. The side of his head looks compressed from Shockwave's grip. He doesnt make a sound though but puts a hand up on the drill bit in his chest and makes a small attempt to tug it out.

Blueshift puts down the box as the shuttle takes off from the planet's surface. "Oh uh, Primus knows. You know what spiders are like!"

As the shuttles take off, the planet rumbles, and then explodes in a firey wave of destruction.

ONE YEAR LATER

"HOLY PRIMUS!" Blackshift shouts at the court. "He blew up the planet! I was only going to get him on a traffic offense! That's AWFUL!"

Blueshift coughs

NOW

As the shuttles blast away at full speed from the exploding planet, the shockwave arcs out, causing a rippling chain reaction that sends the sun nova, destroying the other planets as well in a wave of black light energy.

Shockwave looks Windshear over briefly before tromping over to him to pry his skull back into the proper shape. "At any rate, that was a highly unexpected discovery, and well worth a few seekers. As unlikely as it is that you actually knew what you were doing, good work, Blueshift."

Windshear looks in shock as his head is mangled. Thank the powers that be that he has a high pain tolerance or his screams would be heard half the way to Cybertron right about now. Wow, bedside manner? Of course not.. sheesh. hes not sure if he should thank Shockwave or just glare at him but he does feel better.

Catechism has a thing for what Man Was Not Meant to Know, so she perks up and looks rather dyingly curious as Shockwave basically says he's not going to go into detail. She hisses under her exhaust, "Blast!" She recoils her whip, preparing to put it away neatly. Catechism stares dourly out the porthole, as the planet, sun, and other planets also explode. "Knew it."

Shockwave would not appreciate the thanks even if he got any, knowing the big purple walking killer computer.

"I also had anticipated a planetary explosion," agrees Shockwave, going to the porthole. "Although the explosions of additional planets as well as a star were not in my calculations. Octavius must have been a load-bearing boss of exceptional value."

He was worth a lot of xp.

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Well a lot of nice things got exploded."

Epilogue: Medbay
'''NCC Medical Ward

''Like its previous incarnation, this medical ward was designed with the medic in mind, with all the modern advances to make the dirty work of repairs a world easier. It is well lit, the blue and violet metal of the walls and decor is a shade paler here, and the ubiquitous filigree is missing, all to assist in ease of cleaning. Still, the place veritably sparkles. In the furniture, there is a subtle motif of blades and sharp edges, as if to evoke the scalpel of a surgeon, although it is all quite safe. Around two dozen beds, more comfortable than their sharp looks would suggest, fill the medical ward, laid out in a tidy grid, and more can be flipped out of the walls should emergency demand it. A set of tracks on the ceiling mirror the grid of beds, allowing advanced scanning equipment and tolls to be swiveled around to the various beds. Computer terminals and cabinets are molded right into the walls at intervals, and while there are the normal medical security cameras, it appears as if someone has set some of the cameras specifically to watch the cabinets.

Scavenger escorts Windshear into the medbay, offering the damaged Seeker a shoulder to lean on. "Nice of Shockwave to patch you," he says, "not so nice of him to damage you. Come on in, lay down, and we'll fix you up."

Brawl is seated in the Medical Ward, looking bored as all get out. Upon Scavenger and Windshear arriving, his optics resume full brightness. "What happen to Seeker?"

Windshear nods and just lays on the table. "No.. one in my head.. but me..." he mutters as he still makes an attempt to get the drill out of his chest. He hears Brawl and looks over at him with strained looking optics, "Shockwave... my head... spiders..." he says making no sense but he doesnt care right now. Just the thought of almost losing his mind in a sense really freaked him out.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Hmm, do we have any /cryptographers/"

Brawl gets up from his seat and tromps towards Windshear. "Head? Spiders? Quick, Scavenger. We need to drill hole in Seeker's head to get spiders out!"

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "Sorry. I don't know anything about crypts."

Blueshift wanders into the room. "Oh, don't worry Brawl. Windshear's just being a BIG GIRL because he didn't want to let Shockwave make a giant spider lobotomise him

"Yeah... it's a long story," Scavenger says to Brawl, "There's no spiders in him. There almost were." he nods to Blueshift and then sets about trying to secure Windshear on the table.

Brawl leans in closer, putting his head next to Windshears. "Is Blueshift right? Brawl thinks he hears spiders. This mergency!"

Windshear jerks his head away from Brawl suddenly, "No spiders in my head.. almost.. shockwave.. spiders.. downloaded wanted to.. but I woudlnt let him..."

"Stop speaking in fragments Seeker, Brawl not understand!" Brawl bellows, lifting his head back up. Looking towards Scavenger, "On second thought, Brawl not hear anything. Mebbe his brain is brokened?"

Scavenger produces a spanner that looks like it has been around since the slave era. He uses this to pop open Windshear's drill wound. "No spiders," he says, "Everything's fine, Seeker. Just settle down while I pull these drill shards out." He proceeds to yank large silver pieces of metal out of Windshear by hand. "Oh! You want some kinda pain blocker or something?"

Windshear grits his dental plates and almost chips a fang. "No.." he says strained, "I...got..it..." he actually doesnt want out right now, no way. NOt after what he just went through. He grabs the table and sets his jaw, dealing with the manual removal of the drill bits in his chest the hard way.

"You know..." Blueshift mutters as he watches Windshear struggle on the table with the horrid drill shard. "If we tape this, we could sell it as some horrible torture porn I bet."

Brawl whirls his head around, his attention pulled from Windshear's pain and Scavenger's handiwork. Tromping up towards Blueshift, the Combaticon taps him on the shoulder. "Blueguy, there big money in this porn thing?"

"Maybe," Scavenger says to Blue, "if you're into that." For the smaller drill shards he has to use forceps. Of course, the pair he produces are rusty as hell and comically oversized.

"I dunno" Blueshift replies. "That can be your new mission Brawl. To find out"

"Brawl lazy!" Brawl replies, still looking at one of the shift brothers. Optics squinting, it's fairly obvious he's somewhat annoyed by Blueshift's lack of help in this matter. "Fine, Brawl ask someone else."

[Decepticon] The Brawl says, "Blueguy say Brawl need find out if big money in pron. What is pron?"

"Brawl the pornographer," Scavenger chuckles, "There's something I'd like to see. Or... maybe not."

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "He's talking about filming humans in the act of procreation."

"You want to make video about shellfishies? That dumb." Brawl grumbles to Blueshift.

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Actually, I'm NOT Scavenger"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "You dummy"

[Decepticon] Catechism says, "I don't even want to know why you know that, Scavenger."

[Decepticon] Scavenger says, "...I'm lonely."

Avalanche walks in, only to hear Brawl talking about sea life. "....I've must've been missing the most interesting chatter..." He comments.

Blueshift weights the black box in his hands. "Indeed" he mutters. "Indeed..."

"Same." Harrow steps in from a side room, sharpening a blade, "Speaking of, Brawl, did your aft end up shutting down?"

"Hahawaha, no." Brawl laughs at Harrow. "Brawl find out sound not coming from bottom, but from Tremble's corpse instead!"

Scavenger finishes puling the last of the drill shards out of Windshear's chest. Well, all the ones he can SEE anyway. He rummages in a drawer for some electronics to stuff in the wound to replace the ones the drill damaged. "Where has this medbay gone? Gore porn? Mechs' afts shutting down? I'm trying to work here. And who's Tremble?"

Avalanche looks down at Brawl, leaning in so that he can hear him. "You know, I would show the medic some respect, Brawl. It is because of mechs like her, that we still function after battle." Not that explaining that will do much, but Avalanche has the intimidation factor that can work with him.

Windshear is glad the poking around and rummeging around in his chest is done and relaxes a little bit as the constructicon looks for something in a nearby drawer. "Did you get it all, Scavenger?" He asks suddenly. He doesnt want any part of that spider left in him.

"What you catbozo talk about, Brawl no speaking to you." Brawl huffs, obviously not intimidated at Avalanches strongarm technique. "Tremble is that rollerguy, bad attitude. Decent fighter tho." he replies to Scavenger.

"Eh," Scavenger shrugs, "I think so. Anything I didn't get is probably too small to do much damage. Probably. But if you're chest starts smoking or catches fire, come tell me." He turns to Harrow. "You're a medic?"

"He means Tremor," Harrow mutters, then beams up at Avalanche. "Catbozo? You gonna' let him get away with that?" She nods to Scavenger, "Yes sir."

Avalanche grins at the much smaller combiner, "He's got guts to talk to me like that, but he'll learn in time..." He then straightens himself. "Of course, he'll need time to heal before the lesson is being in session."

Blueshift completely misunderstands what Avalanche was saying. "What, a femme? Really?" He then leans in to Scavenger and slaps the Constructicon on the aft. "Hey baby, what are you doing later?"

Windshear looks at Scavenger incrediously, "Uh...sure..." he says regarding 'if his chest catches on fire'. Then he sees Blueshift put a move on the Constructicon and starts laughing.

Harrow just laughs. And laughs.

Scavenger jumps as he is swatted! "Hey! I'm not the femme!" Oh, if only Cybertronians were sexually dimorphic! "Her!" He hooks a thumb at Harrow (no pun intended.)

Blueshift pauses, and then laughs too as if he was in on the 'joke' the whole time. "Yes. Haha. I knew that Scavenger, I was just... testing you..." He then wanders off to the corner of the room to furiously wash his hands

"You rooks all the same, all talk and no show." Brawl jests towards Avalanche. "Size of mech not portant in fight. Size of fight in mech is what matters."

Avalanche looks at Blueshift, "Cute..." He says and chuckles.

Avalanche then looks at Brawl, "Indeed, they are."

Harrow apparently isn't femmely enough. "Should I make sure Windshear's chest doesn't catch on fire?" she asks poor, violated Scavenger.

Blueshift pokes Harrow's chest. "We should give Windshear's chest more armour like yours, Harrow!"

"That's a good idea!" Harrow exclaims, and goes to look for a femme chest.

Windshear's optics widen, "I. dont. think. so." he stammers.

Avalanche looks over at Harrow, and raises an optic ridge. "Naw, you may need to give him a much larger one. He gets shot in the chest...ALOT."

Blueshift nods his head. "Hmm you might be right Avalanche." He holds up a shard of the drill. "Its got to be big enough to not let drills THIS big get through!"

Scavenger now begins sealing up Windy's wound - with a giant hammer. CLANG CLANG CLANG! He pounds the bent metal plates back into place. "I don't really think he needs a new chest." CLANG CLANG! "This one's gonna be just fine in a second." CLANG!

Windshear can not believe hes being hammered on. He winces a time or two and in between, glares at Scavenger, "What is your damage, Constructicon?"

Scavenger says, "It's your damage we're currently concerned with."

"You give Seeker bumpy chest, why?" Brawl questions, looking over Harrow's shoulder.

"Scavenger is of the elite Constructicons! He knows what he's doing, Windshear!" Harrow nearly sputters.

Harrow shrugs, "You don't think he'd look better with it?"

Windshear looks at Harrow, "I know.. thats what worries me."

Harrow frowns, now imagining Windshear as a femme, but talking in that epic baritone of his, all Dr. Girlfriend-like. "Avalanche, did you need something?"

Avalanche nods, "Actually, I did." He offers up a TF-sized floppy disk. "I need you to look this over, and find out if it would be feasible. Just some upgrades I was thinking of, myself."

"But Seeker not sposed to have bumpy chest, Autobutts all gonna laugh at him!" Brawl responds.

Scavenger now smoothes a bonding agent onto Windshear's chest. "This is how Hook fixes ME," Scavenger says, "Only he usually hits me even more." He picks up a plate of sheet metal. His fist slides up to be replaced by a cutting torch which he uses to trim the metal quickly and effectively. "We're going for function over form here."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Shockwave, why dont we use Black Light to power stuff more, that stuff is really effective!"

[Decepticon] Catechism says, "Probably the risk of accidentally blowing up stars, to hazard a guess."

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "Well, have we carried out a proper risk assessment"

[Decepticon] Air Sheriff Blueshift says, "I mean, how often does that happen?"

[Decepticon] Shockwave says, "Thus far, 100% of the time."

"I am no femme." Windshears baritone rasps firmly. "Far from it -- Harrow why areyou looking at me in that tone of voice?" He stops as Scavenger speaks up then and he watches him, his optics widening, "No no.. Im a sleek good looking Seeker, Form is function, I must maintain that." Gee is someone a little vain?

Harrow takes the disk and nods, subspacing it. "I'll take a look tonight... though ah, what makes you want an upgrade?" she queries, looking up. "Surely nothing gives you trouble on the battlefield..." She laughs at Windy's comment. "Sleek and good-looking, huh..."

Avalanche chuckles at that, "No no, I wish to sow more terror on the battlefield now. With fear comes power, and I crave it." He then shrugs, "That, and I think it's time for a overhaul of my equipment. An ill-prepared soldier...is a dead one."

Harrow nods, "Alrighty then... I'll drop ya' a line." She turns back to Windshear and surveys the hammering, grinning. "Decent medic, huh?"

"Well... I could try and make it look a bit nicer." Scavenger trims the sheet metal a bit further and then tries to line it up on Windy's chest. "You can give me a hand, femme, if you want. I don't mind."

"FINE!" mumbles Blueshift as he moves to help Scavenger

Windshear looks at Harrow, "I ... well he is fixing me..." he looks at Scavenger, "Uhh..." then he hears scavengers comment and sees Blueshift heading over. He looks back at Harrow rather pleadingly.

Harrow stifles another laugh at Windshear's expression. "Uhh, Blueshift, sir? ...Ah nevermind." Let's see him assist.

Blueshift takes out a fireaxe and moves to push Scavenger aside. "Okay Scavenger, let the experts deal with this!" he mutters, raising the axe above Windshear's neck

Windshear rolls off the table suddenly and onto his feet. "No thats quite alright -- I think I will live with the hole in my chest, thank you."

Scavenger jumps back a bit to avoid being bonked by a wing as Windshear rolls off the table. "Ah, hey," he fairly pleads, "I was doing my best! Come on, lie back down and I'll fix you however you want."

Report
'''Planet Videw

Blueshift appears on the screen, looking slightly charred. In his lap is what looks like a black box.

"Today, Shockwave, Catechism, Fulcrum, Windshear, Harrow, Astrotrain, Blight, Scavenger and I did NOT go to the planet Videw. Nothing at all happened, especially regarding destroying a native village by destructing a Black Light Converter. Additionally, we did not then descend to an ancient Quintesson base and battle with giant robot spiders. Shockwave did not try to lobotomise Windshear, and there were absolutely no ancient secrets that we recovered."

He pauses. "Addendum. We did NOT destroy the planet, nor did we destroy the entire solar system in a Black Light explosion. That is all"