| abstract
| - Nevada A land of rugged, snow-capped peaks, dry desert valleys, and huge, sparsely populated expanses, Nevada, the Silver State, still has the aura of the Old West. Blessed with widespread mineral resources, it is the nation's leading producer of gold, silver, and mercury, but its main claim to fame comes from, of course, gambling. That, entertainment, and skiing make it a popular destination for tourists not only from the bordering states but from around the world. Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe are the best known tourist traps. Less well known features are the large, discreet military facilities and testing grounds in the least-populated areas of the state. LAST TIME ON.. THE TRANSFORMERS! Rodimus Prime had given Red Alert one mission directive above all others: Find out who Silas is. This of course went with finding out anything about his secret organization, MECH. And so, the paranoid Security Director went about doing just that. The trail led him to New York City, specifically the Yahoo! Inc offices. He'd tracked a large amount of encrypted emails being sent from a burner phone. Once there, they were given cartloads of shredded documents to sift through. Apparently the CEO wasn't the biggest fan of Cybertronians. Just when Repugnus had discovered what they came looking for, the room caught on fire! Following the trail to Nevada, Red Alert 'asked' for control of Perceptor's cam-drone network to blanket the city of Jasper in high elevation recon. Just what awaits them in this small quaint town? *The symbol revolves around, to signify the episode has begun!! * TEN MINUTES AGO.. "Alright, we're going to keep this clandestine as possible. Altmodes only, you either ask an EDC soldier.." Red Alert points to the rag tag squad dressed in civilian clothes, "To ride along or activate holo-drivers. Fliers.." he looks at Jetfire, Ranger, and Slingshot. "Cover us from the air and makesure that drone network is still in place." "Mute, Amber.. you're with me in the lead car. Alright team, let's get to work!" NOW.. The Fire Department Countach, which is in NO WAY suspicious at all, rolls along the main street and into Jasper. While quaint and small, there doesn't seem to be much activity in the streets or anywhere really. Small groups of people mingle here and there, however. <> Red Alert transmits to the others. EIGHT AND A HALF MINUTES AGO.. Red Alert totally said "Transform and roll out!" <> Slingshot dips a wing lazily, drifting right. "Jetfire, Ranger! Congrats on being assigned to Skywatch with me, lil' Bots! Ya'll might learn a thing or three." Yes, he has named their portion of the Op 'Skywatch.' No, Slingshot can't do anything not epic enough to have it's own name. Repugnus past-salutes Red Alert as he gives a terrible order--at least, to him. "Altmodes only? Roger that!" And then he's hustled off before Red Alert can correct him. Well, it'll probably be fine. SOMEWHAT INTO THE FUTURE A moderately obese man is walking down an alleyway, talking on a cellphone. "Yes, of course, I understand..." There's a skritch in the alley behind him. The man straightens, turns around... and drops the phone in complete and utter terror at what he sees! This isn't the first time Amber's driven a Countach; Sideswipe is a friend of hers. Niiiiiiice ride. "You do realize that your altmode stands out like a sore thumb, sir? And if I may suggest something to follow up on, find Yahoo's offsite storage location and seize their backups. I think they were trying to delay us with the damned paper." She sighs as she glances back at their cavalcade. "Robots in disguise don't work so well these days," she mutters to herself. Autobot Shuttle soars upwards, curving around and looming over Slingshot, casting the Aerialbot into shadow. <> Wishing he was in Red Alerts stereo system, Mute has to settle for the passenger seat (well if you were Red would you trust Mute to play the music). He waits for now till they reach their destination. Pink Techcar idly enters Jasper a bit after Red Alert with her passengers. <> Her comm changes over to internal for her passengers, <> A vocalizer screen totally stolen from Knight Rider emphasises her words. Back on the Autobot bandwidth, <> She adds after a moment, <> The techcar stops at a red light. During the timeframe, a man with a squeegee and bottle approaches the car. He gestures for a windshield wipe, as he holds a can for spare change. Her lights flicker as he starts spraying down the windshield, <> With a honk, she drives forward an inch then pulls onto the next road. Apocryphacius is hiding underneath Elita One's holographic driver, because being inside Elita One's trunk would be terrifying. Also, touching a lady's spare tyre would be rude! He replies quietly, "A bit... claustrophobic? But fine. Really." He's trying to convince himself. Jetfire circles the perimeter of the town, keeping himself just above the cloud cover as he scans the area below. "Thank you, Slingshot..." he mutters, doing his best to ignore the Aerialbot's blatantly loud-mouthed bragging. He resists the urge to remind Slingshot that he is in fact a lot smaller than him, in all actuality. Therefore calling the scientist 'small' wasn't quite accurate. <> Red Alert beeps to the cockiest Aerialbot, though when you're teamed with a bunch of losers.. Velum isn't a huge fan of pink, but she can't really complain while taking a spin in Elita's passenger seat while Apoc takes the driver. How does he even fit in here..? "No surprise Silas would have something way out here. Nothing for miles around this little town, perfect for hiding." The woman muses while resting an elbow against the window, keeping keen observation of the streets. "Really wish I could've brought my exo." Chatter over the radio draws her attention however, the Neb rolling her eyes, <> F-15E Strike Eagle zooms in from the west to join the small flock, trying to stay in some kind of formation. Thoough he steadily drifts out of it, absently flying on his side. Pink Techcar muffles a laugh as she drives on, <> Her driver's side window rolls down a bit, <> The bum, apparently defeated by Elita's reluctance, skulks away, head lowered. A few steps away and he coughs something into his wrist. Well, bums aren't typically known for being healthy. As he gets driven around in comfort (they don't know how to make car seats like they used to... back on Cybertron), Mute scans local wifi, or at least scans form it. Apocryphacius comments, on the coughing bum, who is now in the distance, "The health care system does leave something to be desired, still..." To Velum, he suggests, "You should build a tiny exo that you can fold up in a suitcase." Apparently, he wants Velum to be Tony Stark. Amber MacKenzie peers around and frowns. "It's like a ghost town here." She doesn't like the tinted windows, either. Reminds her of the laws about tinted glass in cars. Then again, it could just be because of the summer sun, which is particularly nasty in Nevada. Red's explanation of his disguise warrants rolling of eyes. "How many Countachs are on the road these days compared to the rest of the cars? I know that *I* would stop and stare at a Countach if one drove by." She sighs and shakes her head. "Yes, I'm ready." AV-8B Harrier II dips a wing to greet his Aerialbot comelately brother. "Glad you could join us! Don't worry, Raid- I'll handle things if Blitzwing shows up. I'll be like 'ohh snap, suck on deez rocketzzzzzz-" And then Red Alert's warning transmission comes in. "Or if no Blitzwing, I guess if we get attacked by homeless people. Either/or, Slingshot's gonna be teaching master classes in 'how to take a beating from Slingshot!" As he transforms, Mute activates his own holograms to cover himself in the form of a human. Settling into the front seat, the rather non-descript human looks to Amber briefly with a smile before turning to look out the window, keeping an eye on the streets as Red Alert drives into the parking lot. "Mmh.." That's all the reply Elita and Apoc get from Velum, though she does hear that tiny suit idea which is pretty great, a bit too distracted watching the bum move off and returning attention to the town itself. It's not right, too ghostly even for a podunk town like this. Already she's thumbing at her knee in anticipation, getting that tingle you feel when something's amiss. <> Maybe his paranoia is starting to rub off, but she's sure something's up. Every block appears to have a couple wifi signals emanating from it. One might think it's more wireless activity than is justified by the paltry number of people here. There's also occasional radio traffic of a different kind, but it just seems to be gibberish. Autobot Shuttle gians height, running his sensors across the terrain beneath. <> Both doors pop open, allowing the passengers inside Red Alert to depart. <> he announces, sending out a jamming signal. <> he adds, pulling back and parking in a stall. F-15E Strike Eagle hisses, "Shut yer face before you crash it into a mountain!" He accelerates to try and throw Slingshot off balance... but then thinks better of it. Red Alert is tense enough as it is. With a loud, needless sigh, he hangs back and coasts lazily, optical sensors directed skyward as he pings for anything out of the ordinary. After giving Mute a smile in return, Amber deploys. Stepping gracefully out of the sportscar, she takes a quick look around, and not just at the suspiciously staring character. Her clothing is nondescript and doesn't stand out. Moving slowly, almost causually, she takes advantage of the few cars available and slips among them. MEANWHILE.. Getting out of the car as requested, the holo-generated human around Mute pulls out a pair of shades and puts them on. As he walks around Red Alert to accompany Amber in her slipping through cars, Mute continues scanning the nearby WiFi signals, sorting through them and looking for any data. Not simply relevant data, simply any data. Google may accidentally pick up personal info when scanning streets, Mute pretty much collects that sort of stuff as a hobby. "Slingshot...Air Raid, calm yourselves." Jetfire quips as the Aerialbots start to banter. "Remain focused." The scientist then busies himself scanning the airwaves. He picks up on the wireless signals, as well as the radio chatter that appears to be gibberish. Pink Techcar pulls down a side street, and then into an alley. <> "Tch..." Air Raid is all too glad to have the twitchy drone to focus on, promptly darting after it. <> he asks eagerly. Apocryphacius attempts to remove Elita One's hologram generator to make it portable! However, as he tinkers with hooking it up to some weird crystals, it malfunctions and disguises Apocryphacius as Al Roker! Oh no, he hopes no one asks him to predict the weather. That would be awkward. Amber MacKenzie takes advantage of the coming dusk to edge closer to the staring man. She doesn't just watch him, either; she keeps an eye on the buildings and windows around them, the cars and their contents, and any passers-by. Cover offered by the cars is lessening, though, and that increases the chance that she might be spotted. She slows even more, freezing if the man glances in her direction. <> Red Alert transmits to the femme commander, his doors closing and sealing. His attention is currently on reviewing the drone history files and the dude still staring at him in the parking lot. An eagle begins to follow the Aerialbots. An eagle that does not flap its wings, and never blinks. Autobot Shuttle weaves back and forth on a serch pattern as he contemplates the erratic drone. <> He breaks off at Red Alert's latest transmission. So, now he's a airborne surfboard? <> Slingshot breaks left, circling around the eagle for a better look. <> The Aerialbot starts to sing to himself, R&B style. <> F-15E Strike Eagle eases up when he's told he can't shoot anything. Slingshot directs his attention to the Americon bird. <<...Yeah, that's a /really great bird/, Slingshot,>> he deadpans. <<...Hang on, not flapping?>> He slows further to try and get near it. AV-8B Harrier II inverts, kicking in his VTOL systems to hover upside down over the eagle. <> Amber MacKenzie edges closer, probably too close. After all, the guy could actually be watching her without appearing to do so, but... Hmmmm. Now that's odd. For the moment, all her attention is on the man, and she stares at him with narrowed eyes from his blind spot. The bird doesn't reply to Slingshot. It doesn't turn its head towards him. Then suddenly, it banks abruptly to the side and... it's gone!? Pink Techcar pulls back out into traffic, well the streets anyway. <> With Velum perhaps volunteering to take over as driver since she needs one to at least pretend to be legal, not that she's not been made of course. Pink supercar, hello! She starts to cruise the streets, mapping out the layout discreetly. The intent: Note where cars on the road are coming from and going without tailing them. To do so, she performs her own loop, tracking multiple cars, and working in concert with whatever eyes in the sky are available. Surveillance is a tough job, but it is so much easier with a team... Receiving the request for scanning, Red Alert scans the area around him.. which is also the hot car with the strange dude inside of it. <> F-15E Strike Eagle tilts slightly. <> He darts above Ranger and hovers there. <> The tall man does not move as Amber approaches, does not turn his head. Hrm, did his ear twitch, though? Probably just the heat screwing with you. 'Al Roker' is dropped off, hopefully on a sidewalk. This is a weird experience for Apocryphacius, being able to wander around and not look like a total freak. He tries to find someone he can talk to, in a normal human fashion... The holo-form human that's been trailing Amber, pauses while he awaits a reply from Red. Though the fact the 'human' loks around, darting it's gaze back to the strange non-sweaty human while monitoring for anyone approaching Amber, it's evident there's some concern. On receiving the radio, Mute doesn't hesitate, nor does he remain that subtle. While his hologram remains on, anyone really good can see the edges pixelate as Mute vaults over the care between him and Amber, landing he moves fast to place himself between her and the non-sweating human. Amber MacKenzie makes note of the license plate, for thoroughness' sake. Though frequently - but slowly - glancing back at the still man, she goes back to checking out the surroundings. After all, quick movements attract the eye, and she definitely doesn't want to attract this... whatever's attention. She rests one knee on the unpleasantly hot pavement to steady herself. Good thing she's not wearing a dress today. Autobot Shuttle spins on his axis, so he's flying upside down, and opens his lower hatch, ready to receive the drone. Aside from that, he maintains a steady flight. And has room to be stood upon. The drone reacts in kind, attempting to zip away down towards the town! Air Raid transforms, drops and balances on the shuttle's underside. He manages to swipe the drone out of the air before it can get too far. "YEAH! You think you're so hot, drone!" He tries to slamdunk it into poor Ranger's hatch. The tall man's reaction to Mute's acrobatics is Pink Techcar obeys her traffic laws, even on the highway. She instinctively moves over into the far lane, the fast lane. For a moment, the urge to open up the throttle kicks in. However, catching a large moving van in her rearview mirror, she reigns in the moment. < She pauses, <> Elita One changes lanes, then slows to get behind the larger van. The question had to be answered, were these vehicles gas powered, and therefore have exhaust, or were even the vehicles themselves powered some other way... 'Al Roker' says to the woman, "This weather we are having. It sure is weather. Is it not? Definitely not... ice cream or... dish detergent? Definitely weather." AV-8B Harrier II flies over Raid and Ranger, attempting to mask how impressed he is with Raid's manuevering. <> The Aerialbot jerks right suddenly. <> Autobot Shuttle winces as the drone bounces off his hull, but manages to seal his hatch before it can bounce back out. <> Air Raid hops off Ranger to dive with a few graceful flips before twisting back into a jet. < The vehicles do indeed have exhaust. It's what killed a man recently, after all! The only issue is that there aren't many other vehicles on the road, so Elita's attempt to tail it does not go unnoticed. The van begins to loop around a block, as if it to test Elita... or maybe he's just lost, who knows? AV-8B Harrier II is doing his best to fly calmly, despite being in a decent amount of pain. <> "Al Roker' holds up his hands placatingly and replies, "Can you inform me as to the disposition of local restaurants? I am... ah... Apollo Cross?" BZZZT BZZZT! Sparks emanate from where the bird has stuck something from its mouth into Slingshot. Pink Techcar would mutter to herself if she had a mouth. She goes right on past the truck, <> She swerves, <> <> says Air Raid, falling back into formation. <> Red Alert can't help but exclaim without giving any other explanations. <> he orders, transforming into robot mode. "Apollo Cross," the woman repeats. She ignores Al Roker's questions, and stands up, smoothing out her skirt. "You are coming with me," she says, ignoring the disguised Quintesson's question. "Or else." She reaches into her purse... and places upon her head... A BLUE JAYS CAP! Jetfire follows Ranger and lands in the parking lot to run diagnostics on the malfunctioning drone. "Its behavior did not appear to be synchronized with the rest of the unit, which is odd, since a 'disband' command was not issued." At least as far as he can tell... Autobot Shuttle flips back around, suspending the drone immobile with his artificial gravity systems, and speeds down to the parking lot Red Alert indicated. His landing thrusters kick up dust as he gently touches down. Opening his side hatch, he extends his boarding ramp. AV-8B Harrier II recovers flight stability as he shudders. <> F-15E Strike Eagle groans, "Wah wah, so ungrateful. I got all of it! I... Oh whoops, its head is still stuck on ya'. Heh, DEAL WITH IT." Raid would put on shades if he could. He merely barrel rolls off. Boarding Ranger, Red Alert afixes the drone with a glare before moving to a roughshod examination table. It's actually a seat, but beggars can't be choosers. "Jetfire, open 'er up and let's get started." he points to the scientist and the drone. "I want to get the personal flight camera out of there now." Oh snap, Agent Blue Jays! 'Al Roker' reacts with very obvious fear to the Blue Jays cap, which is... really weird. He looks left and right. Oh no, not all this again! Never let them take you to a second location! But... but... they need to get to the bottom of this, and... Pink Techcar registers, <> She takes the next exit as she moves to circle back towards the team. The pink techcar finds herself in a side street, crusing casually but with little wasted effort. A semi truck pulls in front of the intersection and stalls. She turns into an alley, all dark and mysterious. Agent Blue Jays gives 'Al Roker' a robotic smile as he turns compliant. "Excellent. You will come with me." Wait, wasn't Agent Blue Jays supposed to be in prison right now? Well, anyway, she reaches down to grab 'Al Roker' by an arm. Is she going to get a tentacle-y surprise? It is true 'Al Roker'/'Apollo Cross'/whoever has suspiciously tentacly arms! Stupid hologram, not being a fancy solid hologram. On closer inspection, the Tall Man's head has turned 180 degrees on his shoulders. Autobot Shuttle , just, kinda sits there, straining his sensors for any incoming hostiles as people treat him as a laboratory. "Ranger, do you have any tools located in here? We should really mag-lock this drone down before we do anything with it." Red Alert asks, struggling to keep ahold of the drone. Apparently it has a mind and will of its own! Apocryphacius disables his 'Al Roker' disguise. Oh well, that was fun while it lasted. He confirms, "Oh yes, Agent Blue Jays. Me. The question is... do you think you can kill me or subdue me /before/ I can disable your suicide switch?" Apocryphacius pulls out a laser scalpel and a syringe full of sedatives and faces her down. Yes, his main concern is really that she might die before she can be taken into custody. Priorities? What are those? Agent Blue Jays thinks for a moment. Quintessons are notoriously fragile, but would even her 9mm pistol be sufficient to put him down before he subdues her. She keeps the gun leveled at him, thinking to herself. Well, she's using FMJ rounds... maybe if she puts one in each head... Amber MacKenzie, with the same slowness and care as she used approaching the man, eases away from his car towards another, then towards an apparently abandoned store next to the parking lot. Flattening herself against the building, she glides around empty garage cans and through the shadows towards the front of the lot. Hopefully, the guy will keep his eyes on Red Alert until she has some real cover. Death tries to close the distance and tries to grab Blue Jays's wrist firmly to direct her line of fire out and to the side. It's sort of his fault, isn't it? She /should/ be in jail. ...and well, there are worse ways to go out than gunshot. Agent Blue Jays gasps as her arm is seized, and the gun goes off in her hand. Unfortunately, Apocryphacius wasn't fast enough to direct it away from him in time, and the bullet ricochets off of his dome, leaving a dent. SPANG! Autobot Shuttle muses upon the question. "Well, I have lifting cables, uh, outside. Internally I usually rely on gravitics. Like-" The drone crashes to the floor, denting slightly. "Ow. Just, be careful not to get caught in the grav-field." Red Alert fights against the artifical gravity, moving over towards the drone. Ah well, looks like he'll have to perform the neccesary mechanics. Maybe Jetfire can play his mad assistant Egorbot? Opening up the drone, he makes note of some scorch marks along the outside of the casing. Once inside, it looks like an ordinary drone. Death 's dome is dented, and he makes a squeaking nosie of pain. Stupid, stupid, stupid! His whole plan was stupid? Why does he even bother trying? He should just give up and... well, he does have sedatives in one tentacle. While he's at it, he tries to jab the syringe into Blue Jays. Should give him just enough time to find the suicide switch, he hopes... Amber MacKenzie reaches a safe distance and some decent cover, so she takes a few minutes to record the spooky doings of the Tall Man. He's melting! He's melting! Or something. She shivers, a bit unnerved by the weird goings on. Instead of high tech, she's thinking ghosts. Silly Amber. If he's finished doing tricks, she'll make her way over to Ranger and the rest of the ground crew. "Hlegh--" Blue Jays grunts out as the syringe is jammed into her neck. Her head slumps over almost immediately, and more importantly, the killswitch detects an involuntary unconscious state. Of course, sometimes there are false positives, so it starts a five second timer before it checks again.... to see if it needs to explode. Death does a quick check with the scanner and then goes in with the laser scalpel to try to remove the explosive! He's seen this before. Sort of. If she survives, he'll worry about antibiotics /later/. Apparently he's not finished doing tricks... but Amber didn't catch a good look at what that was. Though maybe her camcorder did. She's not sure she had it angled right; guess she'll see. With Not-so-tall Man gone, she finally reaches poor Ranger and steps inside, keeping a wary eye out for angry birds. "What the.." Red Alert trails, finding some footage from the security cam. The last few seconds that the drone captured were as followed: <> Slingshot breaks back through the clouds after losing track of his location. He has a decent reason: ""Ya'll I can't get this screeching to stop, for reals!" He swoops in low over the town and transforms into robot one, skidding to a rough stop on his knees. He presses his hands over his audio receptors, face twisted in pain. "What did that slaggin' bird do to me?!" Imma let you finish, but Slingshot transforms into the most HEROIC AERIALBOT of ALL TIME! Just before Amber gets inside Ranger, a face peers out at her from the eighth floor of a nearby building. It's the tall man. He really gets around! Red Alert has locked Slingshot out of channel Autobot. Autobot Shuttle sends out a tracking beacon on Autobot wavelengths, in order to allow his allies to converge upon his location. The ones that can't fly, at least. <> "Nothing good, I can't seem to get at the other intel here.. I need equipment, maybe a Perceptor or two." Red Alert addresses Ranger, locking away the drone in a storage container and approaching the front of the craft. "Feel free to disable the artificial gravity for now, I'll be right back!" he denotes, taking off towards the boarding ramp. Slingshot looks up at Red Alert, nodding his head and getting to his feet. He eyes the ion rifle uncomfortably. "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT?" Death is shell-shocked and covered in gore. He /thought/ he could get the explosive out, he didn't think it would be easy, but he thought he could do it. He was so, so very wrong. There is no way to make this right. Apocryphacius just freezes there, stunned. Opening up a shortwave, Red Alert beams a message directly into that bald head of Slingshot’s. <> he rants, finger still idly playing over the trigger on the weapon. <> Slingshot is already onboard Ranger because holy scrap. Something skitters across the buildings like a spider, occasionally stopping to look at Ranger. It could be the tall man. It could be you're going nuts. Re-Entering Ranger, who is quite possibly tired of people boarding on and off all the time, Red Alert moves towards the container and opens it up. "Slingshot, get over here and give me a hand." he orders, trying to calm down from Mr. Threatening just a few minutes ago. He attaches the datapad again, this time deadset on getting just another crack at this tech stuff. Slingshot gives Red Alert a look, still trying to pretend like his head isn't splitting in half from crazy screeching sounds. Nevertheless, he moves over to the security bot, really close actually because they're rather cramped. "WHAT DID YOU WANT?" Combat: Red Alert compares his Technical to 90: Success! Death numbly pulls out a body bag, gathers up Blue Jays's pieces inside the bag, tags it, and heads off. He feels... awful. His hubris just cost someone her life. He SHOULD have been better. There is no excuse for his failure. Cross... Xabat... had a bomb in his head, the autopsy showed. If things had gone differently... Apocryphacius would have been less than useful there, it seems. But he moves off for the rendevous point. Red Alert is scary. Video plays on the datapad as Red Alert finally cracks it. The drone appears to have captured a video of a Cybertronian standing in the desert, along with MECH troops and, judging from the grey hair, Silas himself. They're watching a test of some sort of energy projection device pointed at a small hovercar of alien design. The projector appears to project a beam onto the hovercar, which immediately goes berserk, its lifts sending it careening all over the place. The onlookers back away, as if afraid it might hit them, but the hovercar hits the side of a mesa instead and explodes. <> croaks a voice over a radio transmission. "Bottlethrottle.." Red Alert says aloud, mouth still agape. Then it hits him, they are literally in MECH territory. That weapon is here or in close proximity. And then to up the ante? The Security Director catches a radio transmission, coming from the tall building right next to the parking lot. The eighth floor to be exact, the Tall Man. It only contianed three words, though they are terrifying in context. Autobot Shuttle starts up his engines, kicking up a cloud of billowing dust. <> Amber MacKenzie is already in the shuttle, so it doesn't take her long to take a seat. If Ranger has seating for humans, she'll use that, seatbelt included. If not, she'll just have to hang on for dear life and hope that Ranger has a smooth ride. Autobot Shuttle 's engines whine as they kick up into a higher gear and he rises smoothly from the ground, his ramp retracting and his hatch closing. Broadcasting internally he advises <> Even though the datapad had already been stored and the feed turned off, the image still burns in Red Alert's mind clear as crystal. Reports of the weapon was one thing, seeing it was another thing entirely. "Thank you Ranger. Team, full debrief upon disembarking at base." he orders, taking a seat next to the others.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)