| abstract
| - Iacon Plain -- The Past The Iacon Plain is often obscure by fog or red-lit by the heavens. When the plain can be seen clearly, it is cut by criss-crossing deep trenches. The trenches march the back and forth advances and retreats around Iacon, when the city has been besieged. Far from a war of miles, this has barely been a war of meters. The ground is slick, and it ois easy to get bogged down. Here, at the Plain of Iacon, is a bustling of Autobots and Neutrals helping in the refortificating of Sentinel Prime's homebase. Just twenty breems ago, Straxus led his minions here in search of another strange terminal ... another mystery to unravel in the great scheme of things. And knowing the great deciever, it is a conundrum that requires extensive unraveling. Specter is among the occupants here, resetting and calibrating a defensive turret. All of the automated defenses are offline, so there's a small gathering of guards keeping watch along the perimeter. Tuning the device with a wrench-like tool, the Autobot turns to the gumbie holding the box of instruments. "Okay, I need a size seven gear molding impact wrench now. And make it snappy, ain't got all day!" Patchwork isn't here to help. She's not the sort that's all that great with defenses and the like, but she -is- here watching (likely pointlessly) in the direction she'd seen Ultra Magnus be carted off in the night before. The femme is unknowingly wringing her hands, fingers twisting around one another, as her weight shifts from right foot to left while she waits. Groove is leaned up against the base slowly watching things, he hated this part...standing guard...it wasn't his first choice of assignment but then again it was something to do. His optics looking left and right he was taking in the area, the rocks and hills, and things around, yeah he was on guard, but his focus was shifted elsewhere. Harrow had been instructed to /spy/, which certainly wasn't his function, and he hated snooping around like this. Stealth was far from his forte, but like any good Seeker, he followed orders, regardless of how ridiculous they were. Flattened up against a large cargo transport, he peeks around the cabin, surveying the situation from afar. Specter grabs the desired tool and goes back to work on the defensive platform. "Okay, I think this one is good enough ... hey, Tripwire! Wanna test this baby out?" he shouts out across the trenches to the newly repaired Autobot. Specter's attention is drawn towards another turret, this one more towards the outskirts of the emplacements. Sauntering up with his tool kit and gumbie-helper, the young rookie shoots Groove a snazzy grin and thumbs up. "Hey, how's it going? Bored on guard duty, huh?" he calls out, catching a faint glimpse of Patchwork out the corner of one optic. Patchwork twists back as she hears the continued clanging and whirring of repairs going on, before she turns back out to continue her waiting. She's keeping to herself today, it seems. Groove turns his head "uh something like that..." he nods then tries to act as if he hasn't been doing anything insubordinate. He stands and shifts as though he's been caught with his hand in the energon store. He sighs and starts to really watch now he notes patchwork close and then tries to ignore the femmebot as well as the others, groove just isn't a very social creature. Harrow squints at the mech doing the shouting, then realizes what he's referring to - the turret. Eh, surely they weren't stupid enough to test it near the cargo transports. He dares to creep closer, until he's near enough to catch the quieter conversations. Nothing of any importance, alas, just gumby-babble. -BAM- Someone had opened a transport hatch behind him and sent him sprawling. "INSOLENT WHELP!" Harrow totally forgets himself and begins pummeling the poor neutral gumby to tries to break free. Specter begins wrenching on the turret, accidentally setting the defensive emplacement online and in scan mode. Quickly the weapon revolves to Harrow's position and fires a horribly aimed shot ... missing by at least twenty feet wide left. The albino Autobot quickly shuts the turret down, remarking "Whew, there must be ah glitch in the system. Hey Groove, wanna give me a hand here?" For now, it seems they don't notice the Decepticon's presence. Groove looks up "uh yeah ..of course..sir." he makes his way to specters position it's better than standing around wating for primus knows what. He sighs quietly as he steps up to Specter "What would you have me do?" he asks and waits for instructions cause he's clueless when it comes to things like this. Patchwork starts at the unexpected shot, twisting around to stare in Specter's direction before she heaves a heavy sigh and takes several large steps in the opposite direction of the 'misfire'. Dealer moseys out of the city, looking up at the repair work with his hands on his hips and an approving smile on his lips. "Wow, you guys are sure working hard! Did Sentinel tell you to do this or what?" Harrow abruptly drops the neutral mech, optics wide, gazing in the direction of the missed shot. "Shut up," he mutters, and promptly knocks the neutral out with the grip of his pistol. "Hmm..." Sidling around more transports, he zeroes in on Specter, who appeared to be running the operation. Specter gives Dealer an apathetic gaze, "Yeah, right." he laughs while repositioning the data-terminal on the weapon emplacement to face Groove. "Sentinel hasn't said a peep since that fight last night, I think Alpha Trion really got to him ... plus that weirdo getting carted off." he sighs. "Okay, just make sure it doesn't fritz out like it just did ... cool?" he asks Groove, going to work on the guidance sub-routine programs. "I heard about that!" remarks Dealer, nodding enthusiastically. "Sounded like the old geezertron really gave Sentinel a hard time about his ways and means. Think he's maybe bucking to take charge of the Autobots again? Maybe try to take the Matrix back?" Patchwork rounds fully on Specter as she hears him speak, optics blazing. "He is -not- a weirdo!" she snaps, taking a half step forward before she looks to Dealer. "The Autobots would be better off if he did, I think." she adds, in a mutter. Groove blinks "sir how am I saposta do that." he positions himself so that if the cannon tries to make an unwanted move he can grab it and stop it. He thinks. His gaze shifts to dealer with a nod, that he's seen him but he doesn't respond to his statements about the other mechs, and knows it's not his place to. "You just hit the off button if it goes on the fritz!" Specter shouts up from his work, trying to get the tool unstuck from the bolt he was loosening. Sighing, he steps up from his work and looks back at Dealer. "Is that possible? I thought Alpha Trion gave it up for good? Think you can give me a hand here ... I can't get this loose!" Towards Patchwork, he replies. "Sorry, slip of the verbal processor." Harrow is... apparently doing a good job of going unnoticed! Would Boomer be proud? Hm, unlikely. With the flip of an internal switch, he records the chatter. Weirdo as in Magnus? Heh. Dealer raises a hand in a vague sort of a wave back at Groove, whom he doesn't know well. "I don't know, can you go back to being the Matrix bearer if you stop? I'd think A3 is way too old to do the kind of stuff the Prime has- yeah, sure, let me get up there." Dealer climbs up a ladder to try to give Specter a hand. "...the Prime has to do on a regular basis," finishes Dealer with a grunt, wrenching on the tool with both hands. Combat: Dealer compares his Strength to 60: Failure :(Dealer throws up his hands in defeat. "I think it's really stuck. You might have to cut the bolthead off and drill it out and replace it." "Nah, lemme have a second shot!" exclaims Specter, spitting on his hands and having a go at the tool. Combat: Specter compares his Strength to 60: Success! Groove sighs and steps back a moment to give the two a bit of room to decide what to do with this turret. He looks down at patchwork and shrugs, yes he's distracted. "He is my friend. NOT a weirdo." Patchwork repeats, again, arms crossing over her chest with a huff. "And it's my fault he's there, and your Prime won't help him. Some Prime." She looks up at Dealer at his quick capitulation to the drill. "No wonder you won't all help..." "All help with what?" asks Dealer, looking down from the parapet. Groove puts a hand over his optics and shakes his head "primus..." he utters quietly. "Ah ha, got it ... WHOA!" Specter shouts out, having wrenched the ... wrench free, but managing to lose his balance and teetering on the ledge of the weapon emplacement. Not a second passes when suddenly he falls over the edge and to the ground below. A cloud of dust is sent out after he impacts against the ground with a *THUD*. "With getting Ultra Magnus back. He's only where he is because he was trying to help your Prime, and now your Prime turned his back on him. Primus knows what they are doing to Magnus right now!" Patchwork explains, and with no small amount of emotion. Her head jerks to the side, and she stares down at the spot Specter managed to land in oh so gracefully. Hmm, Sentinel won't help? Gold! Harrow slides into a crouch, one palm flat on the the ground, the other against a helm guard. There's no stopping his smirk as he watches Specter haphazardly tumble to the ground. Groove blinks and looks over the edge "um..sorry sir.." he says of not catching the mech before he took the tumble, there's a grin on his face now though. He turs to Dealer "didn't expect him to go over." he says with a laugh. "Oh, that," says Dealer, face grim. "I heard what happened to that guy. And it's a bummer, he seemed like he had his spark in the right place, but... Look, I might not be a big warrior... okay, I admit I'm not at all a big warrior, I'm just a supply guy." Dealer gives another shrug. "But there's certain things I've learned while I've been with this organization, and one of them is that when somebody gets killed in battle, you don't go throwing more live bodies after the dead one in some kind of crazy suicide charge. All that does is compound the loss. If they took his corpse he's in Ibex at least, probably Darkmount if you want to be realistic, and if they whacked HIM right here at OUR base, what do you think they're gonna do to US if we go running in there where they live and have all their troops besides?" Groove nods "the last thing we need around here is a pile of bodies" a nod to dealer "Agreed." Specter gets up in a hurry, dusting himself off. "That guy is dead?" he questions, climbing the ladder up to the circular platform. With a grin, he tosses the tool back into the bag and fiddles with another slight modification. "Alright, how's it look on that side Groove?" Patchwork sets her jaw, shaking her head. "He wouldn't leave me, or any of you, if you were the one taken. And -that- is where you are all thinking wrong. He isn't dead. I -know- it." Dealer holds up his hands, balancing them as if he was weighing two different things. "On one side you've got the Decepticon fortresses and on the other side you've got our walled cities. We skirmish in the middle now and then, but as long as we mostly keep to ourselves, nobody gets killed. That big blue and white guy only bought it because Straxus and Shockwave escalated it, but now they seem to have gone back to their bases and left things peaceful again. You want to stir that hornet's nest? You go ahead. Take your laser gun and go bang on Darkmount's door and see how far you get." Groove nods down to specter "it looks ..fine I guess..I'm not good at this sir." he admits honestly but from his vantage it looks perfectly fine. "Magnus wouldn't leave anyone behind, let alone have us dive into something he wouldn't think we could all handle..." he blinks "I hate war..." "But it isn't always going to be that way." Patchwork implores, arms dropping back to her sides before she hrmphs, softly. "Fine. I will. But I am -so- glad we learned not to leave anyone behind when I come from." She nods to Groove b efore she agrees, again, softly, "He wouldn't leave any of us behind, and Im not going to leave him behind." Harrow will admit that Dealer certainly has some sense. He chuckles to himself and continues recording. Foolish femme, they'll never get their precious Magnus back! Never! Beaming, he pauses to stop himself from bursting out into a diabolical laugh of sorts. Dealer turns around and slides down the ladder, going up to try to put an arm around Patchwork's shoulders in a sympathetic way. "Look, I know it hurts, and I know it's frustrating, and you seem like you were really close to him, but there's a /reason/ why huge armored war machines like that Magnus guy say big heroic things like 'I'll never leave you behind!' or 'into the breach once more!' It's because they CAN. They're built for it. Look at us, what could any of us do to Straxus, or Shockwave, or even that creepy square blue guy who works for Shockwave? If we stick our necks out they'll get chopped off by Straxus' giant axe. I think you could really fit in here and I don't want to see you go and get melted into a glowing lump like Magnus did just to bring back whatever's left of him. Would Magnus want that to happen to you for his sake?" Groove sits on the edge near the weapon and allows his legs to hang off and sighs "great...I love being told I'm useless in the morning..." he shakes his head. "If we do it alone...but we're all stronger when we work together than we ever are alone. And Magnus has NOT been melted into a glowing lump!" Patchwork shrugs from under the arm when Dealer insists that he was. "Stop saying that!" Specter tries to ignore the speeches of dying heroics ... it's not the best subject matter for the usually pleasant Autobot. "Alright, when you're ready Groove ... I want to test the platform's systems." Groove Stands back up with a mock salute "yes sir..let me know." he says waiting. Poor, poor Patchwork. Harrow simply sneers at the display of emotional display of trust and hope and friendship and all that BS. In truth, Harrow hadn't a clue what the plans were for Magnus. Dealer crosses his arms over his chest and frowns. "Well, that's what I heard happened from the troops who were manning the wall last night, I was doing a supply run at the time. They said he was melted to the ground and the Decepticons had to cut the plate out to take him. Right there, see?" Dealer points at a hexagonal hole in the ground near the middle of the still-warm battlefield. "Maybe you're right, maybe he's still alive somehow. But even if you got a whole bunch of medics and supply carriers and scouts and engineers together it's not going to add up to the Decepticon warriors. It'd just mean gutting our organization. What you need is Sentinel Prime at the head of the charge. Whatever else his flaws are, he's the only one who can stand up to the Decepticon leaders. That's why he's Prime. Why don't you talk to him about it?" "Because he already said he won't help, and he already walked away." Patchwork informs Dealer darkly, an entirely different femme from the babbling, happy one who first appeared out of no where. "Alright, time to turn this sucker on!" Specter shouts out, fiddling with the data-control terminal. Pushing the large red button, his optics brighten a hue or two in anticipation ... and nothing. "Oh bother." Dealer squinches up his mouth in thought. "Oh....kay, how about Alpha Trion, then? He used to be a Prime, right? He's brave, he's competent, he's got powers beyond mortal machines. He's old, but maybe he'd come out of the garage for a noble cause." "He said he wanted to talk to me, anyways..." Patchwork agrees with a succinct nod before she looks to Dealer, shoulders dropping. "Grimlock is coming up with a plan...but it's -Grimlock-. His plans are...not." "That giant monster guy?" asks Dealer, audibly skeptical. "He's got a lot of power, sure, but... he sure doesn't seem like he has the brains to pull off something like what you're talking about." Groove shakes his head "grimlock has a plan?" he turns to specter "I think i'm scared now." Harrow leeeeeeans closer to catch any part of this 'plan'. Patchwork shrugs one shoulder in a lower dip. "He's thinking of one. I don't know that he has one yet." Specter punches the button a few more times, just to see if it's a short somewhere in the system. "Crap." he sighs, opening up the diagnostic tab on the weapon's terminal. "Oh, haha. Groove, see if you can't connect the relay cable from up there ... that cord that connects the weapon placement to it's processor." "Well... good luck with that, I guess," sighs Dealer, giving Patchwork a pat on the shoulder and climbing back up onto the wall to help with the repairs. Harrow vents a sigh and finally stands, switching off the recording. Seems he's gleaned everything he can from this visit, so he begins to sneak away, sidling around supply crates. Groove gives specter a nod and grabs the cable and turns to connect it slowly he looks down before making the full connection afraid he's gonna get kocked off this think like specter had. Patchwork nods a bit to Dealer before she, too, sighs. "I think we'll need it." she agrees heavily before she looks back up to Groove and Specter. Dealer takes a welder to a nasty looking crack in the wall. "So who's we? Just you and Grimlock? I hope not, for your sake," he calls down. The weapon platform whirls to life when the cable is connected, swiveling around to Harrow's exact position. <> it emits, loading a barrage of rockets into it's bay and sighting towards Harrow. He-She is sadly out of range, no explodey today. Groove steps back "whoa it's alive.." he backs up next to specter. "Well, Fairway too. I don't imagine any of you will volunteer to come along, so we don't have much choice but for it to be us." Patchwork replies, head tilted back to watch them as she works. As the platform whirrs to life, Patch takes a half step back, blinking. "Whoah!" exclaims Dealer, straightening up and pulling his gun, swinging it around wildly. "Where? Where?" Harrow slinks off without a hitch! Or so he thinks. At the sudden exclamation of the turret, he yelps and leaps into the air. "Gahh!" Out of range? Hah! "...You're all DEAD!" he cackles, hovering akimbo. Specter pulls a multitude of throwing knives from his satchel. "Hey, what the heck?" he exclaims, trying to get a bead on the Decepticon. "Is that thing hovering in mid-air?" Groove turns his head "Slag!" he turns to specter "any more bright ideas boss?" "It's one of the new ones, the time-travellers!" shouts Dealer, diving for the cover of the battlements and shooting from a crouch behind the parapets. "Get down!" Combat: Dealer strikes Harrow with his Solid Light Blaster attack! [Pulled -4] Kachow, kachow! Rounding, Patchwork's eyes widen as she sees Harrow hovering there. "Harrow!" She steps forward, not bothering to look for cover as she pulls out her pistol and lifts it to send a shot towards the far too familiar Con. Combat: Patchwork strikes Harrow with her Pistol attack! Oh crap. Damnit. Harrow immediately transforms and circles. "Hmmm no one's hovering!" He makes to dart, but Dealer nails him straight in the nose cone. "Glitch!!" He vengefully fires back, only to get singed by another laser. "STUPID FEMME!" Harrow twists and folds into a dark blue F-16 Falcon mode with shark-face nose art! Combat: F-16 Falcon strikes Dealer with his Laser attack! Groove turns to specter "well she's gone and done it now hasn't she?" he sighs watching the scuffle "great..." he mutters trying to get down off the side of the base and down to ground level. Specter steps forward, about to throw a projectile at the advanced Seeker ... but pauses. "Umm, anyone notice something else strange? Like, doesn't that guy look ... odd?" Shaking the thought from his mind, the Autobot dashes towards cover and throws a tiny energon blade at the transformed Decepticon. "Stick this up your exhaust!" Combat: Specter strikes F-16 Falcon with his Energon-Knife (Disruptor) attack! Groove has yet to pull a weapon he really doesn't want to "primus..." he knows the con is outnumbered four to one, he stays in the back field but hasn't decided if he's got the gut to get in the fray. F-16 Falcon yelps as the blade stabs into his undercarriage. "NnnnRGHH! Frag you all! I have all that I've come for anyway! Hahaha! Your Magnus will never see the light of day again! ADIOS!" Combat: F-16 Falcon begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit. page ripley=Thank you. Groove blinks as he runs up to patchwork "that was stellar now wasn't it?" he should be shot for such sarcasim. Patchwork stares at Harrow's aft side as the Con takes off before she stomps her foot in impotant frustration. Grooves sarcastic wit has the medic's head turning, and optics narowing. "No. It wasn't." Specter sighs, getting back to work on the other turret emplacements. Likewise, the guards surrounding the perimeter are a little more on edge and attentive. Groove nods to patchwork "he might be back..." she says firmly sitll unarmed and planning to stay that way. "Well... at least it sounds like he's still alive, or at least, hasn't been smelted in Darkmount yet," says Dealer, replacing his blaster in its holster and getting back to work.
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