One Small Step for Bugs, One Giant Leap for Bugkind

Quintessa System - Milky Way

Quintessa is unique in that the system is named after the largest planet rather than the star, which bears the simple tag Star 2316. There were two planets here, one with indiginous life. The smaller, Quantal, was colonized by the Quintessons eons ago, and was nearly as crowded as the homeworld before the massive explosion that destroyed Quintessa sent a raging hailstorm of millions of jagged asteroids to pound its hapless neighbor out of life-supporting existence. Now, all that's left of Quintessa is an asteroid field, and Quantal is in the throes of a violent volcanic rebirth.

LAST TIME ON THE TRANSFORMERS..

The Wreckers, a crack unit of commandos built for desperate gambits and no-win scenarios, were assigned by Rodimus Prime himself to investigate the planet Vex. More specifically, the Radulax colony which sent out a distress call. And so, the heroes of that tale did.. touched down and made contact with the Radulaforms, then BUGS!! At the peak of battle, the impossibly huge Cyberpede retreated.. burrowing a hole in the ground.

Shortly afterward, Trailbreaker and Arcee oversaw an autopsy of some of the bugs.. which led to mixed revelations: The bugs were somehow distant cousins in organic make-up with Earth's insects AND the robotic components contained within had MULTIPLE similarities with Sgt. Velum's cybernetic arm.

NOW..

The Galactic Assembly turned to Rodimus Prime. Who turned to the Wreckers. Who are busy.

As the gargantuan Autobot Frigate touches down, the large landing-ramp lowers and allows its passengers to depart onto Vex and into the Radulax colony.. or what's left of it. It's a literal ghost town, a former military institution.. giant gaps of walls are crushed and torn asunder. Vehicles are strew about, seemingly hastily left.. doors are left wide open. Remnants of a battle are evident, but all bodies are removed.. gone. Scorch marks speckle the ground in random fashion.

Crusade has his rifle at the ready as he disembarks. He steps carefuly, half-expecting the giant cyberpede to explode out of the ground and attack them at any moment, and surveys the area with a frown. The sight of the abandoned, half-wrecked town is rather unsettling for him.

"So..." Crusade keeps his voice down, as if speaking any louder might summon a swarm of hostile giant bugs. "What are we looking for out here?"

Afterburner preps his pistol and double-checks the damned thing as it has a tendency to jam in the wrong situations. Need to get that looked at by a professional one of these days. "Allright...I cannot believe I am saying this but..What's the plan?"

Poise is here due to her technical knowledge. The EDC's had its share of issues with these bugs, enough that they needed a liason for this exploratory mission. Her hovercycle slowly coasts down the ramp, her keen eyes surveying the area. "I wasn't given a briefing on this, but it seems obvious that things have escalated since last report. We're going to need to search for survivors, the radio waves, and secure the area." She shrugs, "That's standard search-and-rescue protocols."

Near the back of the craft when they touch down, Trailbreaker is jolted from his semi-rest from the rough landing. His thoughts of Governor Lightsinger, Chromia, and his shortcomings are quickly replaced with the mission at hand.

Another bug adventure, wonderful! /sarcasm

Standing, the Autobot Defensive Strategist answers a call on the main line of the ship. With the touch of a few buttons, the holomatter diorama is up and running.. displaying a hologram for all to see. Kup appears before them, chomping down on his cy-gar and a hand placed on his hip. "Keep it simple team, enter the chasm, analyze what you can find, bring back anything not bolted down, and high-tail it back to Autobot space." he grumps, saluting. "Afterburner, you're in charge." Kup replies, then the feed cuts out.

 Poise says, "are all operational team members on the NEST channel?"

 Afterburner chuckles a bit "Yes."

 Poise says, "I don't have access to your private channels, I need to make sure we're in proper communication"

Afterburner blinks at Kup's instructions...Did he really did that. Oh man... Afterburner walks up to the door. "Allright. Kup's last instructions put me in charge...The guy is definately going senile. We go out there bring back anything not bolted down and even then it depends on how hard it really is bolted. If things go spinwards you smash the entire area, you kill everything hat has more than two legs."

Trailbreaker returns to the ship, running all sorts of diagnostics and scans on the planet to forward to Afterburner's team in the field.

Afterburner looks at his two fri...let's call them collegues for now. "Ok. I have never worked with either of you so far so I have no clue how you perform under fire. Apparently we might be up against some bugs if it ever looks like we get swarmed we get back-to-back and move towards the shuttle. Now...let's go explore a bit and maybe run into some bugs." He steps down from the shuttle pistol in hand and starts scanning the scene with a bit more attention. Thank Primus Strafe is not here with them. They would be dead before they made it down the ramp.

Poise revs her bike's engines in neutral. "Not equipped with much in the way of large scale demo, but I do have a few grenades capable of damaging Cybertronians." She proceeds to give an initial scan over the area of destruction, "And those same bugs that...well, that may still be Classified." She hits a few buttons on her HUD, "I'll give you my basic profile. Hovercycle, chain gun, and recalibration-certified." The Nebulan gives a shrug, "Gee, sounds sort of depressing when I sum it up like that."

"I'll do my best, sir," Crusade answers, though he doesn't manage his usual enthusiasm. He moves to follow Afterburner, keeping his optics on the ground for any signs of movement. "If I see bugs, I'll holler."

Afterburner nods at both everyone "Allright spread out hundred meters tops. Look for any clues and watch for anything that might 'look' dead. It might not be." The technobot peeks into a structure for a few seconds and moves on. Ride Armor  marches out of the shuttle, glancing this way and that. He carries a rifle but has the weapon pointed down. "I've seen the reports - these are no ordinary bugs. The sooner we find out where they came from, the better." He moves away as instructed, careful to keep Poise in sight.

 Poise says, "I don't have much in the way of scanners here. I'll be relying on visual."

 Afterburner says, "Check for anything that out of the ordinary. Debris could be hiding tunnels.  Did the bugs all come from the air or did some tunnel under?"

Of course, what would a shuttle for transformers be if it didn't have at least one cool function or feature... As soon as everyone is clear, the passenger area separates in a hiss of pneumatics and other such devices, the shuttle's wings expanding and shifting as it grows a head...a tail...feet...and overall serious kinds of spectacular. Oh wait, that's not Afterburner's shuttle...that's the other one that arrives on-scene. Leaving the big blue box of a puma behind to guard the first autonomous shuttle, the Dino-bird half of Lynx takes to the skies overhead to fly overwatch. << Lo and behold, I am out exploring and find something of interest in my sector! I've got overwatch, do be mindful of shooting in the air. I might have just had my armor polished at a planet well known for meticulous attention to detail, and an insatiable need for only the most strict of standards in regards to their work. >> He pauses to admire his wings for a moment. << And what a phenomenal job they did! >>

Sky Lynx transforms, his body separating into two. The top half retains his bird-like trademark shape, but his lower half sprouts a head and takes to the ground in Lynx form.

Crusade wanders away from the group, searching the area. You can bet he's staying within a hundred meters of everyone else. He doesn't poke anything or turn any rocks or rubble over; he looks for things that are out of the ordinary or suspicious in any way.

Poise nods, "Aye aye." As a skirmish focused harrier, she was used to playing forward scout in these sorts of situations. The hovercycle begins to peel forward, her chipper voice breaks into the comms, <> She looks to the sky as the party discusses possible attacks from above.

Combat: Crusade compares his Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Crusade compares his Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Crusade compares his Intelligence to 65: Success!

Afterburner stops to observe some burn marks on a vehicule. "Plasma burns. The inhabitants did not all go down easy." He kneels down to pick up something...

Combat: Afterburner compares his Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Afterburner compares his Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Afterburner compares his Intelligence to 65: Failure :(

Poise regards the rather large figure of Sky Lynx with no small amount of surprise. Sky Lynx may actually register a targetting lock on him for several moments after his grandiose entrance. However upon seeing his autobrand, Poise gingerly raises a finger up to clear the targetting solution for her weapon. The autocannon lowers back into its housing in her side car. "Nothing here so far." The town is very quiet, nothing save the wind...for now... The technobot continues on the road out of town towards the chasm that was marked in the 'briefing' map. "Found a blaster. It was cut in half but I am willing to bet it was chewed. Scan for survivors but honestly I do not think we will find any here. The cleanup was too...thorough. This does not /feel/ like a raid or something random."

<> Crusade backs away from one of the collapsed buildings as he informs the others of their. <>

The Dinobird keeps its optics on the ground below, glancing towards Poise. << Hahah, silly joke. Quite the sense of humor you have there! >> Of course, the assumption on Lynx's part is that someone was mocking him for the 'mind your fire' remark. << Everything appears to be clear up here in the skies. I shall certainly keep an optic open, though. Rest assured, any airborne threat shall have to go through me first. >> He turns his attention back to the air, then off towards the horizon to scan for anything that might indeed be a threat.

 Poise says, "I don't see any bodies of anything at all."

Poise sents out a signal, her combat cycle roars up to her side in a moment's notice.

Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 65: Success!

 Poise says, "Whatever's going on, we're most likely the targets, if these insects return."

 Afterburner says, "Indeed. How fast is your bike anyway?"

 Poise says, "I can top 170 with it, more if I use the boosters."

 Afterburner says, "Fair enough. Gives me an idea of how fast we can pull back if we find more trouble than we can shred."

 Sky Lynx says, "I am sending out to you all some coordinates of a structure that appears to have been hastily fortified. I am going to scout ahead to get a better look. Half of me is nearby in case you require assistance on the ground."

Combat: Combat Hovercycle  compares her Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Combat Hovercycle <Poise > compares her Intelligence to 65: Success! Combat: Combat Hovercycle <Poise > compares her Intelligence to 65: Success!

<NEST> Poise says, "I'm picking up some melting points on some of these buildings."

<NEST> Poise says, "I'm going to venture a guess and say it probably wasn't plasma fire, but acid."

<NEST> Afterburner says, "Roger that Sky Lynx. Interesting Poise.  Keep an eye opened for burrows.  I do not want us to keep looking up to get surprised from below."

<NEST> Poise says, "I don't suppose anyone has seismic equipment or radar?"

<NEST> Afterburner says, "Sorry, we did not bring any nerds along. Unless someone else had hidden talents?"

<NEST> Poise says, "well that's certainly rude!"

Sky Lynx kicks his wings, and engines, into gear to cruise effortlessly towards the building he'd marked on his own radar, snaking along in an almost wasteful serpentine to get an idea of the terrain below so he can feed the topography back to the others on the ground. Upon arrival at the building itself, he slows his flight, circling overhead once before dropping down to get a nice up-close view of the hasty fortifications. "This is Lieutenant Commander Sky Lynx, Autobot Third Air Strike Division of Cybertron. Please make yourselves known if you are survivors or refugees and if any require medical assistance. If you are hostile, please make yourselves known and either run away in fright, or face your inevitable demise by provoking me."

<NEST> Poise says, "I'm just saying that we might be able to manage a seismic scan of the area if we had radar capability"

<NEST> Afterburner says, "Sure we might but no radar-capable nerd was available. Heck if Kup put me in charge that should tell you something or who was available."

<NEST> Afterburner says, "Hey Crusade"

<NEST> Sky Lynx says, "Come now, keep your eyes and optics on your HUDs, I am sending back what topography I can scan while in-flight."

<NEST> Sky Lynx says, "It might not be true radar, but it should suffice."

<NEST> Poise says, "Reading the telemetry, sir."

No answer from the building. No movement nothing...

Combat: Afterburner compares his Technical to 65: Success! Combat: Afterburner compares his Technical to 65: Failure :( Combat: Afterburner compares his Technical to 65: Success!

Ride Armor <James Bailey> finds a relatively open clearing, then pulls off the helmet of his armor. It powers down immediately. James then lifts a pair of binoculars to his eyes and scans the horizon,

James exits his Ride Armor.

Combat Hovercycle <Poise > reconnoiters with the Lynx half of Sky Lynx, after registering his map layout of the area. She pulls up along side his lower half, an awkward look on her face as she tries to figure out how to address him. Was he still Sky Lynx? Was he Lynx? Did he talk at all, or was all of his vocal capacity in the Sky form? "Well, if this building was fortified at all, it was probably the last stand." Poise revs her engine and moves in closer to investigate. This wasn't full blown combat, her devil-may-care attitude of recklessness wasn't quite piqued, but certainly someone needed to figure this out. <<Getting a closer look.>>

Afterburner arrives the designated building the ground floor entrance is half collapsed but there is a bike sized hole at the bottom of the debris. The technobot kneels down to observe. "Like you said Poise. Some of these bugs used acid. Seems some burned their way through here into the building." He aims his pistol down the hole for a few seconds checking if there is any movement that reacts to the light or threat...Nothing on the ground floor anyway.

Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 75: Success! Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 75: Failure :( Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 75: Success!

<NEST> Poise says, "looks like I'm the only one that can investigate, unless someone brought along some Cassettebots"

<NEST> James Bailey says, "There's a reason the EDC doesn't have Infantry...but in this case we might not have any other choice."

James Bailey moves up to the building with the others, peering carefully at the exterior.

"Naturally!" Comes the reply. The Lynx-half is indeed apparently just as much Sky Lynx as the rest of Sky Lynx is. "Keep a sharp eye out, I'll make sure nothing sneaks up from out here and keep an eye on the rest of the team." True to form, and word, half remains behind to watch the entrance while the other half flies overhead to keep a wary overwatch. << I'm going to fly towards the canyons and scout the terrain. I'll send back what I scan back as a topographic overlay for the local maps with areas of interest marked out." And...dinobird is gone while the puma remains behind to play vigilant sentry.

<NEST> Afterburner says, "Just a quick look then Poise. No sense risking too much.  Not to mention bugs but this thing could also collapse."

Combat Hovercycle <Poise > notes the bike sized hole after Afterburner peers into it. "I'll check it out." She hits the lights for her cycle, sending her highbeams into the darkness. << Leaving radio comms open. >> With her chain gun aimed before her, Poise moves to investigate the dark interior of the building.

<NEST> Sky Lynx says, "I've found what appears to be an anomalous reading on my short-range scanners. It appears to be a hole, and a rather sizable one at that. I'll have a quick look and report back what I find. Anything that requires a hole large enough to fit me is most likely best avoided."

James Bailey listens to Sky Lynx's report and then chews his lip. He leaves his helmet off and then removes most of the rest of his armor, which reconfigures into a motorcycle.

<NEST> Afterburner says, "or Explored don't be such an Aerialbot Sky Lynx."

Combat Hovercycle <Poise > disappears into the building, though her comm channel remains open. << Might not be able to progress too far. Place is barricaded. No bodies here either. >> She gazes up into the light breaking in from above, then dismounts from her cycle, arranging its lights to cover as much area as possible. Poise draws her sidearm, and moves to explore some of the interior rooms, relying on her training, to hug walls, and turn with weapon drawn to clear rooms.

Poise hops off of her cycle, switching to be on foot.

<NEST> Sky Lynx says, "Hah, never you mind about me. There's very little out there I cannot outrun. Or outfight, for that matter."

The Dinobird drops down on the lip of the 'cavern' detected, wings folding in as he stands poised and contemplative. There's a moment of thought, a moment of reflection...and then a moment of fire as he chuffs out a healthy plume of the good stuff out to illuminate a ways down the passageway. "Now then, I don't much care to repeat myself. But, who am I to deny ears and auditory sensors from hearing something that rings so true?" And...there goes the 'I am Sky Lynx, Third Air Strike Division of Cybertron....' speech all over again. Back at the building, the Puma keeps a watchful eye on the building's exterior, slowly circling around it as Lynx monitors the goings-ons nearby on the off-chance something tries to ambush the team on his watch.

Crusade hurries back towards the group, saluting as he comes to a halt. "Nothing over that way. Further orders, sir?" He doesn't address anyone in particular with his question, and looks at each Autobot and EDC soldier in turn.

Afterburner blinks at Crusade and turns around to check behind him "That was the one thing I forgot to mention. Don't 'sir' me. We will wait for Poise to come back out then head towards that hole Sky Lynx mentionned. I do not think we will find anything here. Like I said earlier...thorough. Very thorough."

Puma-Lynx glances towards Crusade and nods. "I think the rest are investigating the building while I am holding an overwatch. I am also checking this tunnel that appears to have sprouted up near a canyon not too far from here. it does appear to be well carved out, and very smooth, I'm flying through it now." And, indeed he is flying through it. Feet folded up, wings compacted in, Sky Lynx's other half is carefully and slowly making his way further into the tunnel, giving out soft bursts of flame just to light the way deeper down every so often. << This place is truly fascinating as well. If you are coming here, do mind your step. The walls appear to be very smooth. >>

Poise scours the area, frustrated by the lack of any lead whatsoever. She topples over what furniture is left in the room, using her flashlight to examine the room. << Nothing. Absolutely nothing. >> Her tone is that of the irritated. With nothing more to the situation, she returns to her bike, turns off the lock on it, and rejoins the others outside. She manages a weak shrug, "They were extremely thorough."

Afterburner folds with the classic noise into an Armored Cybertronian Attack Bike

Armored Cybertronian Attack Bike <Afterburner> revs up his engine a bit. "Allright team. Let's go check out that hole Sky Lynx found. Maybe we will finally get lucky. I am getting angry and have nothing to take it out on." Without further delay Afterburner eagerly heads off towards the coordinates Sky Lynx gave for the 'hole'.

Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 75: Failure :( Combat: Dino Bird and Lynx compares his Intelligence to 75: Failure :(

James Bailey seems te relax ever so slightly once Poise is out of the building. He climbs onto his own bike and then starts the engine.

Crusade blinks a few times at Afterburner, then shrugs and transforms to follow him towards the canyon.

Crusade transforms into a Jaguar F-Type R Coupe.

Poise sents out a signal, her combat cycle roars up to her side in a moment's notice.

The Galactic Council has requested aid in rescuing the inhabitants of a Radulaxian colony, but it seems the assigned team has arrived a bit too late? Aha! A mystery to be investigated, how could Nightbeat ever resist? Much more interesting than simple search and rescue, anyway.

As Lynx flies through the tunnel, spurting flames just to see farther into the cavern, some of the fire ends up scorching the outer armor on Nightbeat's back as he's in the process of investigating something on the ground. Yelping and straightening up, he has a rather snide response for the dinosaur-like shuttle. <<Yeah and why don't /you/ watch your flamebreath?>> It's not said scathingly, but more of a teasing tone is used.

Combat Hovercycle <Poise > follows General Bailey towards this cavern. With the Autobots around, and themselves, perhaps there'll be something here more to this mystery than simply being late. The sheer befuddlement of it still annoyed Poise...

James starts his Motorcycle.

Dinobird-Lynx spies nothing immediately threatening or offputting and starts to venture deeper in. << This is quite the impressive cave, it seems. I'm curious to know what actually ... wait one.. >> He blinks at Nightbeat and frowns. "When did you get here?" He shakes his head. "Nevermind, it is unimportant. Have you found anything?" Outside, the Puma-Lynx keeps pace with the others, dropping in comfortably on the rearguard position and keeping a wary optic (or two) out for signs of danger. << Considering how fortified that building was, what are the possible threats that may have been faced? >>

AUTOBOT SPINNY - Uneventful travelling. Just more of the same. Empty buildings trashed vehicules, bite marks, claw marks, traces of acid here and there. Drag marks on the ground. No bodies, not even a single bodypart. No stray arm or leg. Vehicules eviscerated to get at their contents but absolutely nothing left in them and not enough blood all around for people to have been killed or eaten on the stop. Seems they were carried out alive or mortally wounded.

Motorcycle <James Bailey> 's expression grows darker as they explore. "This doesn't make any sense - where are the bodies ?"

Combat Hovercycle <Poise > responds morbidly, "I seem to recall them attacking and trying to eat engineers back on the..." She pauses, "Classified."

Armored Cybertronian Attack Bike <Afterburner> reaches the hole and transforms back into robot mode, and examines the walls. "According to the Wreckers they were bugs...big bugs. Like hornets the size of Bumblebee. I guess the Wreckers through they got them all. Might have been wrong. Something funny about the wall's texture..."

The Cybertronian attack bike unfolds with the classic noise into Afterburner's robot mode.

Combat: Afterburner compares his Technical to 75: Failure :( Combat: Afterburner compares his Technical to 75: Failure :( Combat: Afterburner compares his Technical to 75: Failure :(

<NEST> Poise says, "I just wonder if this really has anything to do with the Insecticons."

<NEST> Afterburner says, "Could be an experiment gone wrong."

<NEST> Sky Lynx says, "It could be something new entirely."

<NEST> Sky Lynx says, "There is a lot of invasive creatures throughout the Universe. I've seen a fair bit myself."

Nightbeat sighs. "Probably not much more than what you all have." He shakes his head. "The only definite conclusion I can come to is that the settlement was looted, and the colonists were abducted via physical force. No orbital bounce, portal, or other manipulation of time-space. They were dragged."

He pauses, thinking. "What do we know about the Radulaxians, anyway? Or about this particular settlement? Anything unusual about it? Different from other colonies?" Is this tunnel even natural? Apparently the walls are very smooth, which would hint at a purpose as opposed to natural phenomena.

Combat: Nightbeat compares his Technical to 75: Success! Combat: Nightbeat compares his Technical to 75: Failure :( Combat: Nightbeat compares his Technical to 75: Success!

<NEST> Poise says, "On my first mission in deep space there was...oh, which one was he? One of them, the lightning one, he just about exploded into a lightning storm.   These don't look like him, but there were a lot of Insecticons out there."

<NEST> Nightbeat says, "Do we have access to any records of activity in the area just prior to this disaster? Communications? Shipments? Who was here and who wasn't?"

<NEST> Afterburner says, "We got a distress signal and then nothing."

Lynx waits for his other half to rejoin him before combining together and taking another look around. A far more critical look at that. "I can't imagine we will find any survivors at this point. Most of what I am seeing is rather limited to predatory actions, and unless they are like a spider that stores food for later..." He shakes his head slowly.

Sky Lynx transforms into the wondrously phenomenal form of a Sky Lynx!

Upon reaching the hole, Crusade transforms back to his robot mode and starts looking around. He doesn't touch anything, and keeps his hands firmly upon his rifle to ward off the temptation.

As lowly cadets are prone to do, Poise fades into the background for a bit.

<NEST> Nightbeat says, "...all right then. I'll take that as a 'no'."

Afterburner looks down into the hole...He looks back at the others. Pulls out his gun and grabs the edge of the hole. "Going down!" The technobot skids the down the hole trying to use his free hand to slow his descent leaving finger marks along the surface until he reaches Sky Lynx about 150' down.

No one seems to have any kind of a useful answer to Nightbeat's questions. Of course, Sky Lynx babbles on, anyway. Primus, he can barely stand that guy. So he does what he can to tune his audio receptors out of the mech's voice. He begins examining the walls of the tunnel more closely. No, this was definitely not simply a natural phenomena. /Something/ had created it...

Gah, if Lynx would just stop talking..."Um, yeah. If you would stop moving your mouth about stuff that's already obvious, maybe I could actually concentrate on figuring out something about this tunnel that /isn't/ actually obvious." Does he ever quit with the snark? Well, does Lynx ever quit with the ego?

...didn't think so.

Nightbeat grumbles and holds a datapad scanner up against the wall, its pale blue light illuminating a small section of it. The device emits a high-pitched bleep as it takes measurements of the diameters of the holes in that particular area. He moves it to another spot, and does the same. Five times, he does this. Finally, he looks up. "Just as I thought. All equal radii. This wasn't a horde of Insecticons, it was just one. A giant one, at that."

Finally catching up from the Autobot Frigate he stayed behind to guard, or were the animators just lazy and/or forgetful that Trailbreaker was in this episode; the cheerful Autobot jogs up and surveys the group.

"Just got a short-wave from Kup, says we need to hit the cave and get out.. there's a cosmic rust-nado rolling in from the east in about seven kliks." he looks around from each Autobot to the next, "Where's Afterburner?"

Sky Lynx looks over at Nightbeat with a hint of incredulity. "Just one? I do find that difficult to believe, but I cannot imagine it is just one singular entity responsible for this." He thinks again. "Also, the Insecticons tend to eat everything that contains matter, not just organics. At least, the more virulent ones do." He muses for a moment and just looks upwards to unleash another plume of fire to illuminate as much of the place as he can. "Trailbreaker! Good to see you are well. Afterburner is around here...somewhere. At least, I know I heard him come in."

Afterburner looks up and waves at Trailbreaker "Down here. It looks like this tunnel continues on. I do not know what happened but when I find the thing responsible I will make it regret what it did for the rest of it's life...both seconds of it."

"It's not Insecticon, well.. that's not what Triage said back at the Ark." Trailbreaker remarks, using the hand palm forcefield emitters as a sort of light. "He said it was a cross between a mutated terran insect and Nebulon cyber-netics."

Sky Lynx's plume of fire reveals a cavern that leads south, the recent digging by the Cyberpede opens it up (even for Lynx to follow in). And finally, Afterburner!! Wasting no time, Trailbreaker throws on a protective field and jumps down the chasm. "If you're gonna spelunk Afterburner, spelunk in style!" he quips, trademarked grin present as always.

<NEST> Afterburner says, "Let's get to the bottom of this."

<NEST> Sky Lynx says, "Agreed."

"Then explain to me why all these holes are exactly the same diameter." Nightbeat retorts, jabbing a thumb toward the porous wall. "If they had been made by millions of individual creatures, there is no possible way they could be so incredibly uniform. And don't know if they were Insecticons or not." he points out.

This fact seems to be confirmed by Trailbreaker's information about what Triage said. "Now the question is why. Hm. Maybe an experiment gone awry? What kinds of reserach went on there before this? Do we know?" Eh, probably not. He follows Trailbreaker into the cavern leading south, perhaps there will be more clues waiting to be discovered.

Afterburner keeps his pistol at the high-ready position and slowly continues advancing. A small flashlight under the pistol's barrel is all the Technobot has but it will do the trick. "Still with us General?"

Sky Lynx hmms. "Questions we have all come to answer, Nightbeat! And answers we've most likely also come to break if found." He chuckles softly before slowly following. After all, he doesn't want to jump down and crush everyone else that's gone before him. And suddenly, landing lights. The various bright lights used for navigation and deep-space exploration, and landings and taxiing at night, surge to life to help illuminate things. Why didn't he think of this sooner? Because...well, fire! Also, the animators had to keep things varied, right?

The cavern opens up to a larger room, carved from the stone itself; it shows signs of crude hastily completed construction. As the Autobots venture forth into the larger expanse, the sight beheld is even more revealing than the cavern walls themselves.

Auto lights activate when they near!! The room is flooded from overhead dome lights, track lighting running along the floor, and the occasional lamp located throughout the room.

Revealing..

Crude carved walls turn to pristine metal siding and floor, a state of the art laboratory. The only thing about this lab is.. it's been torn down, and what looks like a hurry. Terminals lie broken and smashed deliberately in the middle of the room, piled ontop of one another. Stations are somewhat operational, only missing any specimens or equipment used in their work. Slabs of all manner line the middle of the room, leading all the way back.

Back to a darkened section, a large blast door bars entry.

Afterburner lowers his pistol as the lights come on and he realizes the Autobots are the only occupants here. "Nice lab...We should have a brought at least one nerd along." He goes straight to the back and looks for a console or button that might open the blast doors.

"Whoa..." Crusade looks around the laboratory - or rather, what's left of it. He glances at one of the stations and starts towards it, but rethinks his decision and heads for one of the broken terminals instead. After a moment of hesitation, he tries to see if he can get functioning.

Sky Lynx follows Afterburner along, scanning the lab equipment. "We can take anything serviceable back with us and I'll turn it over to them for analysis. I'm sure something can be gleaned. Or, rather, if anyone can glean something, they can." He turns his attention to the blast doors, foregoing terminals and controllers in favor of resting a massive foot against it and giving a hefty shove, just to test them. "I wonder if these are built to handle severe abuse."

The lab comes as no surprise to Nightbeat. Giant rampaging insect-thing? Why would it just pick on this particular settlement? Wellll...most likely because it was made here, or brought here somehow. "Why do you all look so surprised?" he questions the rest of the team. "I mean, massive twisted techno-organic attacking a specific Radulaxian settlement? This was my /first/ guess."

Nightbeat's optics wander toward the blast doors, but he looks alarmed when Sky Lynx starts trying to break them down. "Sky Lynx, don't you think we ought to, oh I dunno, /find/ out what we can about what might be on the other side of those doors before we go charging in?" He asks, pointing at one of the terminals. Walking over to it, he examines it and finds that it appears to be one of the less-destroyed ones and therefore had a higher chance of being useful.

Immediately, he begins attempting to hack into it and search for any information regarding what was or /is/ still here...

Trailbreaker deactivates his forcefield after the coast is clear, finding himself inspecting a slab near the middle of the room. Shackles and chains are magna-bolted to the floor, claw marks run rampant on the makeshift operating table. Whatever was chained here, it was against its free-will.

If it even had any.

Afterburner would find a very busted looking console that reads <<BLAST DOOR CONTROL>>. It is smashed beyond all recognition, the only thing relatively intact is the convienent marking of the front indicating what it was for. Both Crusade and Nightbeat will have trouble piecing the wiring together, everything has been cut and almost all the harddrives have been destroyed. Can they find a terminal with a harddrive in it still?

The Blast Doors groan under Sky Lynx's pressure, but hold their ground. There is a darkened glass viewbar across the door, too small for anyone to fit in.. but perhaps they could look inside?

Combat: Nightbeat compares his Accuracy to 75: Success!

Combat: Crusade compares his Accuracy to 75: Failure :(

"Oh, calm yourself. I am capable, not careless, Nightbeat." Sky Lynx looks back at the mech before turning his attention to the blast doors. "If I'd wanted to break them down, I'd have broken them down, not simply pressed weight against them." He glances at the viewbar and directs a light towards it. "Can anyone get a look through there and see anything?"

Nightbeat smirks at Sky Lynx's reply. "Uh-huh. Suuuure. Because there's obviously a reason to press your weight against the door, just for the sake of pushing up against a door. I mean, it feels GOOD, right?" It seems none of the terminals are operational, but he decides to search for one that might still have intact storage hardware that can be removed fairly easily.

Aaand, score! The detective manages to recover one. It's damaged and will need some circuitry replaced or rewired, but nothing Perceptor or Brainstorm can't handle right? That is if Nightbeat can't figure it out himself.

Moving over towards Sky Lynx, Trailbreaker grabs one of the room lamps on his way over. "Well, since you had the 'bright' idea.. why I don't help shed some 'light' on the situation??" he can't help but quip, grinning all the while. A centralized forcefield emission from his palm takes care of the glass, now all he needs to do is ease the light fixture inside the opening.

"Did it work, can you see anything?" Trailbreaker asks.

Even though Nightbeat found a harddrive, on-site investigation is another thing altogether.. even for him. Rewiring takes time, time they don't have. Perhaps if Crusade helped him quickly?

Combat: Trailbreaker compares his Accuracy to 75: Success!

"This one's dead," Crusade says mournfully, turning away from the broken terminal. He glances at the hard drive in Nightbeat's hand and goes over, eager to prove he's useful in some way. "Did you find something? Can I help?"

Combat: Crusade compares his Agility to 50: Success!

Sky Lynx ignores Nightbeat's snarky response and turns his attention to the window to get a look, altering the various filters on his own optical visor to try and compensate for the lighting. "Make sure we are not simply bedding down. Just because we cannot get through from this side does not mean whatever is on the other side is blocked in."

Nightbeat nods. "Well, sure I guess." He says reluctantly. Not exactly the type to ask for help before he's 100% sure he needs it. "Here, hold this in place while I restore the central connector."

The detective sets to work in conjunction with Crusade, hopefully once the drive is repaired, it will shed some additional light on the situation!

Combat: Nightbeat compares his Agility to 50: Failure :(

"Well, what do you see?" Trailbreaker asks, growing impatient.

Not exactly Batman and Robin, Crusade and Nightbeat work well enough together.. but their rhythm is a little off. Maybe Crusade can compensate quickly, while they have time??

Combat: Crusade compares his Agility to 60: Success!

Sky Lynx studies the view beyond the doors for a moment before straightening up. "Gather up whatever evidence we can from here and store it. I want an immediate high-level classification placed on this entire operation until otherwise stated, no one is to hear about anything here outside of Command personnel." He sizes the door up again and checks it over. "Trailbreaker, find a device that can record footage, especially-" he pauses a moment. "Go inside my cargo compartment and open up a case marked with a gold and fire-red Autobot emblem and bring me the little remote device Elita One made for me. It's time to put it to proper use."

Once connected to the wires, the central line feed from the harddrive glows red hot.. then cools down. On the makeshift terminal it's connected to the screen starts scrolling..

FILE 665-24.. Location REDACTED perfect for experimentation on local genus of insect, as per REDACTED orders. Isolated, sterile, the local populace has no idea what is ocurring beneath their very feet.. END FILE

FILE 665-65.. Specimens are reacting as noted to exposure of REDACTED with only one fifth of them rejecting cybernetic components. More research is required into rejection, further study of control sample REDACTED might be required. Subjects are experiencing REDACTED symptoms, sending their mechanical and organic systems into conflict with another and expire shortly thereafter.. END FILE

FILE 666-66 War.. Countless have suffered.. Countless more will suffer.. They will pay.. No longer shall we be subjected to their whims.. No longer shall we suffer.. They will ALL pay.. I am hive.. I am legion.. I am REDACTED.. END FILE.. ERROR-ERROR-ERROR

The makeshift terminal and components begin frying, heating to an elevated state. If only one of them could remove the drive before it melted!!

Trailbreaker nods to Sky Lynx, retrieving said package from the compartment indicated. "I haven't seen you this worked up since Starscream called you an oversized aerial mecha-whale, is it that serious?" he asks, trying to get a peek at what's behind the blast doors.

Combat: Crusade sets his defense level to Protected.

Crusade flails around awkwardly at the device. "Wait, wait, no! Stop!" He grabs at the hard drive and tries to yank it out before anything explodes or catches fire.

Combat: Crusade compares his Agility to 85: Success!

At the last possible second, as the fire alights on the wiring and leads to the harddrive.. Crusade manages to pull it to freedom, the rest of the makeshift terminal is reduced to molten slag on the floor.

Nightbeat sighs, sounding a bit exasperated. "Ugh..." he mutters. He knew this was a bad idea. It could have been done a /lot/ faster if he'd just done it himself. "I really hope this data doesn't have ten thousand levels of encryption on it." If there /is/ any data on there at all.

But then--! What's this? He watches the screen light up with new information. Again, it doesn't come as a surprise to Nightbeat. He'd suspected some sort of illegal experimentation on something, given the struggle marks all over the floor.

But then the drive starts melting! "Oh, scrap!" he exclaims, but Crusade is already on it! "Phew, good work team." He says with a grin. "Now let's hope Perceptor can salvage any of the corrupted files."

Sky Lynx glances over at Crusade and Nightbeat. He'll worry about getting proper confirmations from them once they've settled whatever mayhem is happening over there. His focus returns to the drone and the window in the door, remotely breaking the drone into the obligatory two pieces (yay for mini-shuttles). "Trailbreaker, see if that will fit through the gap. If not, break the tailfin off and shove it through again. The bottom half as well. I want someone else to see this before I make any sort of wild claims." Whatever it is just gave even his little mini drone protoge the back seat. He looks back at Nightbeat and Crusade. "Have you found anything?" Crusade quickly moves the hard drive from one hand to the other, like a hot potato. "We found this, sir."

Trailbreaker struggles with fitting the drone through the window, turning it all sorts of angles and pressures.. nothing.

Making sure to cover Sky Lynx's view of the drone, Breaker gives it a good punch with the fist.. maybe some muscle will squeeze it through.

It's not like Lynx to forgo any boasting or response to other boasters, Starscream is usually a hot button. Whatever is or isn't inside the room has Sky Lynx the straight-mech to Trailbreaker's joke-mech.

That is not a good sign.

Combat: Trailbreaker compares his Strength to 75: Failure :(

Combat: Sky Lynx compares his Strength to 75: Success!

"COME ON YOU BLASTED DRONE!!" Trailbreaker gets upset, using a forcefield as an axis.. a random scrap of metal as the fulcrum.

Annnnnnnnnnnd then Sky Lynx just presses it through.

Show off.

Sky Lynx watches as Trailbreaker struggles and just puts his tail into it, probably leaving a mark on the drone. Turning to face Nightbeat and Crusade, he sizes up the drive. "Good job. Bag it up and look around for anything else, anything out of the ordinary or that truly looks like it doesn't belong. Property tags on the computers, emblems, logos, manufacturers...anything." He turns back to the door and activates a holo-projector to show what the drone sees while it pieces the two halves back together and begins hovering towards the machinery inside. "Some mech else tell me they do not see an EDC ground bridge here and that I just have a short circuit."

Trailbreaker just stares for a long moment, extended because of his utter silence.. a usually uncommon thing for him. "We need to get this to Prime."

From above, terrible drafts start entering the cavern.. swirling about, they carry small silver flakes. Upon closer inspection, that's the laboratory itself's wall and floor.. the cosmic rust-nado must be moving in quicker than they predicted!!

Located atop the surface, Seaspray calls down in his gurgily and bubbly voice. .oOHeyyy, hurrry upp downn thereeOo.

Nightbeat looks toward the projection and shrugs, folding his arms. "Nope, no can do, sorry. I mean it's definitely a ground bridge, and definitely looks like EDC property."

He looks up when a strange voice calls down to them. "Oh uh, actually Seaspray you don't have to wait for us. Lynx is down here, too. Which, I thought it was on the record that he was, so I'm not exactly sure why you came out here in the first place?"

.oOTo remindd you that thee stormmm iss movinng innOo. Seaspray calls down from above, .oOEvenn Lynxesess can't remainn inn aa cossmic russst stormm too lonnggOo.

Crusade stores the hard drive away once it's cooled off a bit before he starts searching for anything else to swipe, but the silver flakes distract him. He stops to watch them swirl about the room. A frown tugs at his mouth as he realizes where those flakes originated. He goes about the room in a hurry, looking for objects of interest that aren't nailed down.

"Seaspray is right, if we tarry.. we'll be swept away and stripped to our circuitry by the storm!" Trailbreaker agrees with the water bot, moving towards Crusade. "Gather as much as you can in the middle on this slab, I'll throw it into a forcefield and bring it up with us." he informs him.

"I flew in afterwards." Lynx jumps on the radio. << Clear out Seaspray, I have the extraction. See you topside. >> A glance goes back to the blast doors and the drone inside. "Load up what we can quickly, this flight departs as soon as the doors are shut." He guides the drone into a little dive-bombing maneuver to toss the bottom piece through before trying to fly the top-half through. The poor drone is getting beat up, but it's something he seems to be very...reluctant to have to leave behind if he can help it. For personal reasons that go beyond its likeness. Once it's made a rather ugly landing and is on-board, he transforms and settles on the ground, engines warming up as the passenger door slides open. "Trailbreaker, don't you worry about the storm, just get what you can aboard and I'll handle the rest."

Crusade nods and hastily starts gathering various objects of varying use that he can get his hands on, dumping them on the indicated slab. +ooc Not a problem, thanks go to Crusade and Lynx for keeping it going.. Burner for running when I had to jet off for work.

"Did you just make light of a cosmic rust storm?" Trailbreaker inquires, loading the cargo up into the brash and bravado-filled lion-turkey Autobot. "I think you just out Sky Lynxed even yourself." he chuckles.

"Oh, right, of course. Thanks for reminding us about impending doom, otherwise would have totally forgotten." Nightbeat mutters, smirking a little. He takes few images of the lab, then boards Lynx quickly. Hopefully they will be able to reach orbit before the storm kicks in!

Sky Lynx smirks inwardly and, as soon as everyone is aboard and ready, kicks things into gear. "It's only paint and polish! Nothing I can't have redone. Strap in and enjoy the ride." Engines roar to life and, with that, the team is reliving the cave-worm flight from Star Wars...only with a nasty storm instead of teeth. And at the speed of absolute insanity...