Can you spare a Nickel-Iron shipment?

Summary: Suddenly flush with raw metals, the EDC gratiously sends a few loads to their friends and allies the Autobots.

Commercial Hangar - Copernicus

''Abuzz with activity, this area holds sleek corporate shuttles, bulky freighters, and public transportation to and from the Sol system. Docking ports ring the central column like airport gates, leading to comfortable waiting rooms for those waiting for either transportation or goods. Along the floor of the hangar are neatly-arranged steel crates and containers holding freight for customers in the Sol system and beyond. Shuttles slip silently in and out of the huge exterior doors, going about their business of transporting passengers and cargo where they are needed.''

Outside, You descend from space to the Landing Pad .

Outside, Landing Pad 

Outside, ''The smell of heated tarmac hits you first as you survey the landing and liftoff point for all flights to Cybertron. The wreckage of previous battles here are off to the back in a jumbled heap. To the southeast is the massive form of Autobot City itself, a bit battle-scarred, but still operational. Surrounding you on all other sides are forests of large conifer trees.''

''The spaceport absolutely sparkles with a new shine - in fact, it's almost blinding in direct sunlight. Spots are a thing of the past, and each building has a brand new coat of paint. Even the *scrap* piles look like they've been cleaned off and straightened up.''

Outside, Terran Shuttle  cruises down for a careful landing after transmitting ID and clearance codes and receiving the necessary permission.

Crosscheck has arrived.

James Bailey sits in the co-pilot's chair, an EDC Shuttle Pilot specialist behing the primary controls. His Exo-Jet is in the cargo bay where it can be launched if necessary. James turns and gives Crosscheck a professional nod. "Crosscheck, right? I'm Lt. Bailey, or Beetle." He pauses for a moment. "Er, or James if you prefer."

Crosscheck is standing near the launching pad, his optical visor surveying the sky as he waits for the terran shuttle to arrive. The engineer will finally get the basic supplies he needs to start to construction of the Ark II, thanks to the EDC and he is rather impatient to see that asteroid. The shuttle finally lands and he climbs aboard. "Lt Bailey" he nods to greet him, "It's a pleasure to meet you. In the name of the Autobots, I thank you for your help."

Raindance has arrived.

Raindance floats into the area beeping loudly. "Why thank you Crosscheck, that is very generous, but I have met you already!" he emits, hovering straight after Crosscheck. "So we're going to Monacus yes? Or Nepsa? Or Femax..."

Crosscheck is a bit surprised by Raindance's arrival since he didn't notice that he was followed, "Hum oh hi Raindance...I was talking to...oh never mind. We're going into Orbit, on Harvest One to be more accurate. The EDC..." he gestures towards James, "...provide us with enough iron to be able to starts the construction of the Ark II."

James Bailey hits a few high-tech controls, causing the shuttle to close it's doors and prepare for liftoff. "We're going to Harvest One. It's a giant metallic asteroid in orbit of Earth. If you guys are ready, we can get underway..." His pilot, the ubiquitous EDC Specialist Bob, turns and murmurs something. James grimaces slightly, then activates the comm system. "Please discontinue the use of any long-range radios until we've cleared the atmospheric envelope."

Outside, You launch into local space to Earth Orbit.

Outside, Earth Orbit Outside,

As you enter orbit above the blue-green surface of Earth, you peer through the clouds and see various possible landing sites...

Outside, Contents: Harvest One Copernicus Station Terran Sensor #8438 Moon

Outside, Obvious exits: Outside, Escape Orbit  leads to Terrestrial Planets . Outside, Eastern Hemisphere  leads to Stratosphere above Eastern Hemisphere. Outside, Western Hemisphere  leads to Stratosphere above Western Hemisphere. Outside, Ayotizinco Cairo Spaceport  Houston Spaceport  Autobot City  New York City  EDC  Korean Spaceport

James Bailey adjusts the viewscreen to display the asteroid in question as they approach. He confers quietly with his pilot, who sets the shuttle on a course to cruise by the Copernicus Station first. The station is dwarfed by the massive Harvest One, but you can see tiny space-suited EDC techs are busy repairing damage from a recent Decepticon attack. There's also an almost constant stream of Exos and shuttles going back and forth between the station and the asteroid, like tiny space-ants.

"Oh" emits Raindance as the shuttle goes into space. He floats back into a corner. "Oh. An asteroid. Great. Yeah. Like uh... we're not even making a brief stop-off at Monacus?" His voice rises in pitch, at an attempt at some hope. He rotates to peer out of the window at the stars. "...is it too late to get out?"

Outside, Harvest One ''Outside, This is 'Harvest One', a metallic barren rock with no air, no water, but plenty of metal for which can be exploited. The stars glitter off its dusty, rock strewn, and pockmarked surface. Thankfully, this 200 km diameter M-class asteroid is large enough to have its own rotation, so someone isn't cooked all the time when they're facing the sun.''

Outside, Thing Contents:

Terran Shuttle 

Exo-Suit 5373 Starknight Spare 

Terran Standard Troops #5033

Terran Standard Troops #5327

Crosscheck stands in front of the screen observing Harvest One and Coppernicus. The scientist is impressed by the technological progress that represent the spacestation for the terrans who were barely able to go into orbit 30 years ago according to the historical reports. "Very impressive" he mutters before adding louder, "I see you have been quite busy here." He tells

James before looking back at Raindance, "Don't worry. We won't be long. We will load the crates into the shuttle and then, back to Nevada to turn that iron into solid steel."

Outside, From Terran Shuttle , Talazia Keldahoff drops Ventress Exo-Suit .

Outside, From Terran Shuttle , Talazia Keldahoff enters the Ventress Exo-Suit .

James Bailey turns and looks back at the Autobots. "Okay, we're setting down at the edge of our mining operation here." He pauses, then points at the small grouping of construction and excavation equipment, all modified to work on the surface, that the shuttle passes over and then lands next to. "Yup, we've been at this for almost three days and we haven't even made a dent in this thing. Literally."

Outside, Terran Shuttle  sets down and begins depressurizing. James pulls on his helmet and checks the seals on his EDC space-suit.

"Oh. Okay." Raindance bleeps. "Like, I can't load stuff since I can't hold things, /thanks/. I guess I'll just film some sort of docusoap about you guys for morale or some rubbish." He starts flitting about the shuttle, filming everything and everyone from bizarre angles. "FROM SPACE THEY COME!" he bleeps. "James Bailey and his ROBOT CHUM! But what dark secrets will get in the way of their relationship?"

You leave the Terran Shuttle .

Ventress Exo-Suit  Robot opens the shuttle door and clomps on out as well. Tossing an odd salute towards Bailey's ship......the mech begins to walk it's way out. <<Beetle. Seems everything's all right so far....wanting to do more mining?>>

From Terran Shuttle <Intrepid>, Crosscheck is a bit confused by the human's choice of words, "You mean you're unbable to extract the minerals or that what you extracted represente a negligeable percentage of the asteroid capacity?" The autobot is getting ready to disembark when Raindance starts to make his video, "Hum... if you wish... but you could also make a good video of the place so we can have an estimate of the amount of minerals on that rock?" As the shuttle door opens, Crosscheck waves at the exo-suit waiting for them, "Greetings." he says as he steps out of the shuttle.

Crosscheck leaves the Terran Shuttle <Intrepid>.

Crosscheck has arrived.

Raindance leaves the Terran Shuttle <Intrepid>.

Raindance has arrived.

James Bailey walks slowly out onto the surface of the asteroid, each step taking him several feet. He returns an akward salute to Talazia and some of the Terran Standard Troops lurking around in space-worthy Exo-Suits. He transmits back to Crosscheck, <<The second one...we've taken over a hundred tons worth of ore from here already, but you can barely even tell.>> He gestures at a few large metal container-boxes. A rag-tag group of civilian miners led by a Bruce Willis look-alike are just closing the last box, which is backed full of metal. <<Keldahoff, we're going to divert the next few shipments to the Autobots.>>

Ventress Exo-Suit <Talazia Keldahoff> Robot activates the magnets on the feet of the exo and locks herself to the asteroid. the benefits of being on a metallic asteroid. <<The Autobots are getting some huh? Research purposes I imagine.>> She says quietly before looking towards the Autobot that has come out. <<Greetings.....uh....I don't even think I know your name.>> The pilot says looking to Crosscheck.

Raindance floats onto the asteroid, buoying around in the vaccum of space. "James Bailey works nine till five" he emits. "He is paid a pittance. But his friend Crosscheck gets paid nothing. What motivates this men. Is it the sexy space vixens that live on this asteroids?" His camera-cone focusses on Talazia. "Will they both have their hearts broken? Watch on and find out!"

Crosscheck nods at Bailey and looks towards the spot he pointed...indeed the total mass of the asteroid didn't seems to have changed much. This is the engineering equivalent of a wet dream for a scientist like Crosscheck. This mining operation should be able to provide him with the raw materials he needs to build the superstructure of the Ark...the greatest project of his life since he worked on the original Ark milions of years ago. Looking down at Talazia, he waves at her, "Greetings. I doubt we ever meet, I rarelly leaves my lab... designation : Crosscheck. Pleased to meet you." As he hears Raindance's comment, he turns towards him and raises his hand as if he's about to say something but he finally decides it's not worth it and just shakes his head.

James Bailey goes over to talk to the mining team, particularly their leader. After a quick discussion, James low-g-walks back to the Autobots. "Hmm, that is one rough-around-the-edges roughneck. But word on the street is that is team's the best in the world at mining in extreme conditions." He shrugs. "The problem is, they're not military and we can't exactly control what they say or do. I'd appreciate it if we could keep them in the dark about where these containers are going. Anybody got any ideas?"

Ventress Exo-Suit <Talazia Keldahoff> Robot shrugs it's shoulders as if mimicing the pilot. <<Tell them to get to work and they'll get their paychecks? Where they go is none of their business. however, if we show them a little bit of curtesy, they might not do the same for the Decepticons.>>

Crosscheck scratches his chin in a very human like attitude, "Spare parts." then looking downs at the humans, "Our warriors get sent into the repair bay on a daily basis...no one will be surprised if we says that we need that much steel to keep them in prime condition."

James Bailey nods at Crosscheck and Talazia, "Good enough. Maybe a little bit of both." He gestures the leader over. "All right, we're going to send the next four containers to the Autobots here. They're running a little short on spare parts. What with all of the fighting they've been doing to defend the planet from the Decepticons." He gives a quick respectful nod to Crosscheck, then goes on. "Basically we just need you to move two boxes onto each of these shuttles." He gestures at the Terran shuttles. "We can add a couple of hours of overtime." The miners eyes light up, but one in the back mumbles something about having his parking tickets waved.

The mining crew gets to work, using a large tractor-type vehicle to start loading the containers into the Terran shuttles.

Crosscheck lets Bailey handles the details with the workers, meanwhile he pulls his datapad out of a subspace pocket and proceeds to evaluate the amount of steel that he will be able to produce with those four containers. According to his calculation, it won't be enough to complete the ship but it's more than enough to start the building process, which, he is sure, will be a welcomed news for Prime.

The scientist reaches for a piece of metal laying at his feet and starts to examine it...veyr interesting, he will have to do more testing later.

Ventress Exo-Suit <Talazia Keldahoff> Robot stands back a bit with a couple of awkward looking steps, due to the mag-locks, but the pilot seems to handle it like a pro. <<Seems like a good idea right now. and it's good to meet you Crosscheck. Sorry about not acknowledging that earlier.>>

James Bailey looks over at the crew as they load the metal, then glances at Crosscheck. "Once we're ready, we might need you to show us where to take this shipment. I'll have Specialist Bob follow us." He makes sure his message is transmitted directly to Talazia and Crosscheck, and that miners or anyone else won't hear, before continuing. "I'd appreciate it if you could show us around the project site as well. We've both worked with Autobots before, but I'd love to see how this one is going."

Ventress Exo-Suit <Talazia Keldahoff> Robot nods it's head. <<Yes Please. I'd like to see the project.>> She makes sure the signal is only sent to Crosscheck and Bailey of course....the Miners don't need to know.

Crosscheck uses a private EDC/Bot comlink to avoid being overheard by the miners <<We're going to Nevada. Sec Gen Witwicky granted us access to large portion of the desert. I'll enter the exact coordinate into the flight computer before we leave. I would be glad to make you visit the construction site but I must warn you that there isn't much to see at the moment...without any metals we couldn't start the construction...>>

James Bailey watches the Miners finish their work and get ready to take the rest of the shift off. They board a shuttle waiting to take them to the nearby Copernicus. James then turns to Talazia and Crosscheck. "Ready. We can all go in the Banzai."

You enter the Terran Shuttle <Banzai>.

Outside, Ventress Exo-Suit <Talazia Keldahoff> Robot nods it's head. <<Just as long as you stay out from under foot, Beetle.>> The pilot says as the Exo suit thumps it's way towards the shuttle....and heads in before locking itself down.

Outside, Crosscheck nods at Bailey and climbs aboard the Banzai. He walks towards the flight computer and as he said he would do earlier, he enters the coordinates of the construction site. "There... we're ready to leave."

Crosscheck has arrived.

Talazia Keldahoff has arrived.

================================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/118                    Posted        Author Project Ark II update             Thu Jul 31    Crosscheck --

Spinny is replaced by Crosscheck
"Here's my most last report on the project Ark II. Today the EDC delivered 4 containers of metal, which I'll convert to steel or something better... the construction will finally starts in a few days."

site with Crosscheck*
 * Video footage of James Bailey and Talazia Keldahoff visiting the construction

"I still need the rest of the materials...so you konw what to do guys. Crosscheck out"

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