| abstract
| - Repair Depot (#368) Perceptor comes walking in with a science tech. The tech is carrying the parts and wiring that were retro-engineered while he's carrying the disks that came off the satellite as well as the data chip with the deciphered information off said disks. "Crackshot." the microscope bot offers politely. Security may not be needed much, but Chains was curious about this project, and likewise, he's pretty sure con spies and others would be too, so he volunteered to come keep an eye on it. After all, all the egg-heads sometimes aren't as good at keeping things in order as they seem to think. The minibot is mostly pretty quiet, letting them do their work and just keeping alert optics open for any signs of trouble. Crackshot is to one side for now, going over the final flight plans carefully and minutely. He missed very little of course, all details looked after a s he straightens "Professor!" he greets with a wave "The parts? Wonderful. Are we returning the discs too then?" Hot Rod will probably get into insane amounts of trouble for bringing Arcee into Iacon again. But this time he at least had a reason. He wanted to bring her to Optimus, but since he couldn't be found. The young cavalier decided to give his girlfriend a tour, "Well, you've already seen my quarters.. so I thought maybe you'd want to see something else for once." he chuckles as he leads the pink femme around by the hand. He peers around suspiciously like he's breaking some sort of rule, "This is the repair bay.. nothing too fancy--what the?" he says as he peeks his head into the doorway and peeks to see what the big deal is going on in the rom. He looks back to Arcee, "No wonder no one is around.. everyone is in here. At least that means we won't get caught." he jerks his thumb towards the room, "It looks like something big and secret is happening in there.. maybe we should go elsewhere." Ratchet comes in a little after Perceptor, offering the gathering a nod. "Who knew putting retro engineered parts into an alien satellite would draw such and audience." He slips around the group to take a look at the parts, "They look very good, thank you for bringing them over in person. I think Crackshot and I can handle the installation from here." Perceptor hands the parts over to Ratchet, giving Crackshot the disks and the data chip. "Of course. I am positive those that made them would expect them to be in place to continue this satellite’s mission." the scientist notes, then furthers, "The data chip is what we deciphered off them, so no need to keep them to ourselves." Arcee is taken by the hand on a tour by Hot Rod. "Well, seems interesting," she says, as she follows along, "And maybe we'll find Optimus too?" She's eager to make the switch from plain old Neutral to full Autobot. Chains crosses his arms, not responding much to the general chatter. This is something big and secret, after all, so it needs to have some kind of security detail, even if its a minimal and in house thing. Right now, he's it, and not immediately inclined to small talk. "Excellent. And we have the physical reconstructions as well to figure out the grooves." Notes Crackshot happily, waving at Hot Rod and Arcee to invite them in as he takes the discs and carefully reapplies them. "I have the old shuttle launch pad ready with a rocket donated by some people from Iahex." Hot Rod looks at Arcee and then rolls his optics, "Talk about dull Arcee.." he sighs but the femme always seems to get her way. He looks at her, "Just keep your head down and don't say anything.. maybe no one will recognize you." he smiles, "And stay close to me." he instructs her just before the young Autobot enters the repair bay with the equally young pink femme in tow. The cavalier walks on in and gives the room a quick glance over and moves to an open spot where he just stands with the pink femme slightly behind him. He studies the mechs in the repair bay and feels himself die a little bit inside when he realizes they're just scientists doing extra boring geeky things. He crosses his arms over his chest to try and block more of Arcee from the other's view. Ratchet walks over to the satellite with the parts in his hands, setting the parts next to the object then walking over to where he has some older tools that should do the job when it comes to removing the old parts and installing the new ones. "Fast work there, Crackshot." he notes as he gets to work on removing the old, burnt out parts from the satellite. "Here hold that." he tells Crackshot, giving him a part that will go back in, but has to be out of the way to get a part that’s being removed. Perceptor focuses upon Ratchet and Crackshot as he states, "About that dust you found that you sent over to me to examine, Crackshot. It had some very interesting temporal properties. I've been experimenting with ways to send this satellite back to its creators as well as the correct time from whence it came. It took all these cycles, but we finally found the right compounds to trigger a reaction." that's when he produces something else to be installed on the machine, "It's got a timer to set that will trigger the reaction. If it works correctly, as I am positive it will, it is my and the other scientists belief we could make a sort of time machine based off what we learned during experiments and testing." Arcee looks around the repair bay with interest. Lots of things going on! She keeps quiet, as advised by Hot Rod. After all, it looks import and she doesn't want to interrupt. Chains notices Arcee, alright. But then pink robots kind of stand out, even here. He considers a moment, then skips saying anything. After all, they did do her a fairly big favor, she showed every intent to join, and she seems to be staying out of the way just fine. Besides, who is he to criticize new recruits and all of that? The minibot just sets to keeping an optic on her and Hot Rod, almost as much because of the Cavalier as because of his girlfriend. Crackshot smiles again at Arcee, recognizing her "Hey. Nice to see you again." he takes the item handed to him by Ratchet, nodding as he allows the mech to work "Will it work then Professor? I worry about what they will think if their machine gets there TOO soon, but then they'd all figure it out in time." Hot Rod looks at Chains when he notices the mech's optics on him and Arcee and then Crackshot actually says something to her! He sighs a bit and steps to the side since there’s no longer any need to try and hide her. He's already feeling as if his processors are going to shut down from sheer boredom. He then leans over to whisper to Arcee, "We should go." but he already knows the femme's answer. She'll probably want to stay just to prolong his suffering. His hand moves to slip into the femme's smaller hand. This might suck but at least he has his femme with him. Ratchet hmms softly to what Perceptor is saying. "Didn't do a full scale test, Perceptor. You cannot know for positive it'll go back to its right time. Best we could even hope for is sending it back towards its creators." he notes, installing a part with the old school tools and attaching the wire leads from it to other parts within the chassis of the satellite. Perceptor nods, "True I didn't get a full scale test done. But its worth trying for it anyway, if nothing else to prove or disprove the theories behind time travel." he looks toward Crackshot, "We did some estimates based on travel distance back to the coordinates of origin we got off the disks. If it travels at the pace it was taking before coming here, we believe it will arrive near the planet of its creators within several meta-cycles." Arcee smiles back at Crackshot. "Fancy meeting you here," she says. Then she sees Hot Rod get a little antsy. "I want to stick around a bit longer," she says, "I'm sure someone can show me the way back if they have to." Chains shifts his attention back to the project once he determines that there's no real problems with the current audience. While he doesn't follow most of the tech jargon and all, he does get the idea of the item's function, which can only help scouting and recon. Since he doesn't take up much space, moving about to get a better look at the thing from a different angle isn't too hard. "I can show you back to the main area if you need a guide." he volunteers at the words from the femmebot. Hot Rod seems to be going on and off line from boredom. But Arcee's voice finally snaps him back to the present and crap.. he's still in the repair room. He leans close to Arcee to whisper, "I have to get out of here. No one should bother you if you don't get in their way." he gives her a kiss on the cheek, "Meet me back in my quarters when you're done." he reluctantly lets go of Artcee's hand. He's too young and wild to be cooped up in a science convention like this. And besides there’s a fishing hole with his name on it and he means to claim him a big fish catch! The cavalier suddenly runs out the door leaving poor Arcee to fend for herself. Ratchet installs the next part and hooks up the wiring, then takes the part he had Crackshot hold onto off his hands so it can be put back into place. The doc is certainly quick and efficient about it all. "All right Crackshot, let's see if this satellite will work with the new retro-engineered parts before I close up this panel here." Crackshot hands the parts next to him, waving Arcee over as Hot Rod leaves "Come on and watch." he note welcoming, quite friendly he was, and making her feel at home he did try. "Wonderful. Shall I do the honors?" Perceptor turns toward Hot Rod and Arcee, then looks at Chains. A soft hmm. "I shall see if that rocket is ready to go Crackshot." the scientist offers. Arcee says goodbye to Hot Rod and then goes to stand by Crackshot. She stands there quietly, watching in keen awe and interest. Chains nods to the scientist when he glances his way. "Just let me know if you need somethin' heavy moved, Docs. Otherwise, I'm jus' stayin' out of the way." He's good at that and all. Even if he had a much closer look, he wouldn't have any idea what he was looking at, just its scouting potential keeping his attention. Crackshot nods at Perceptor "thank you sir." he smiles at Arcee "We found this a few months ago. I've been repairing her since to send her home." he explains, gesturing to the satellite as he carefully starts to power it up. Ratchet nods to Crackshot, "Yes, please do." he replies, then a nod to Perceptor. "Thank you, Perceptor." a look toward Chains, "Will do." Perceptor nods, "No problem." then walks out the door to go check on the rocket. While all the work goes on, Arcee still stands there, interested. She has enough knowledge to know roughly what's being done, so it's not boring for her. Chains nods towards Ratchet, glad enough to be of service should they need it. With people moving about, the mini moves back to his original vantage point with a good sightline towards the door, but also out of everyone's way. Crackshot blinks and waves a hand in front of Arcee's eyes, to see if she heard what he said. Ratchet watches on with scanner in hand now, observing the boot up of the satellite. That is if Crackshot did it by now. Arcee did sort of space out a moment. "Oh, sorry," she says to Crackshot, "Interesting. How's the repairs on it going?" Lifeline arrives when people are moving about, her determined footfalls perhaps familiar to some. She also looks like she's brought her own personal storm cloud along, two Autobot security guards trailing after her ... guiltily? "Well the repairs are done." Crackshot had indeed, the machine powering up quickly and smoothly "Right now we're updating her so that she can go home." Ratchet looks over and nods to Lifeline, "Gave you a hard time did they?" he asks, pausing, "I thought was on duty for the guard gate this cycle." he murmurs. Arcee looks over at Lifeline. "Fancy seeing you here," she says, "Just my luck, Hot Rod had to run. Oh well, I guess I'll catch up to him later." She looks back at Crackshot. "Will this help us against the Decepticons?" Chains frowns at the sight of Lifeline. He knew she was occasionally an ally and all, but this place is still almost as full of allies as Autobots suddenly. In theory, that's not a problem, other than he pulled security for this shift on this project. He doesn't say anything, doesn't object, just eyes the pair of security guards a few moments, and goes back to surveying the room in general. Crackshot shrugs "I don’t see a problem with him leaving. He seems to be trying to hide you from everyone, like you're some sort of secret. Whys that?" asks Crackshot as he waits for Ratchet's thoughts on the readings. Then Lifeline walks in and he perks up with a smile "Lifeline! Ma'am, I mean. It’s good to see you here!" Ratchet shows Crackshot the scanner, "The readings look like they are in normal parameters. I believe we could get this on the rocket and send it off into space." he states. He smiles a bit to Crackshot's question, "Young thick headed love eh?" then he looks over, "Hello there Lifeline." Lifeline just crosses her arms and raises an eye ridge at Ratchet's comment, her still-faint glower probably proof enough that the Autobot medic hit it right on the money. She nods a hello to Arcee then looks at Crackshot briefly (was that just the faintest hint of a smile?) before she pulls a canister from a storage compartment and steps over to offer it to Ratchet. "Ratchet. I would have had this here sooner, but ... " She leaves the rest unsaid, knowing that the implication would be understood. Arcee watches everything. She's not really got much to do with the transactions or the preparations. She's interested though. Chains moves over to briefly confer with the other security personnel, just briefly getting the basic setup and all before he moves back to more general guard duty, once any concerns are aired, though he tries to do so without disturbing any of the work going on. Crackshot nods at Ratchet happily "So we're a go! Wonderful. Chains, would you give us a hand? And how have you been Lifeline?" he asks, capable it seems of holding multiple conversations. Ratchet accepts the canister. "Quite all right." he glances toward Chains, "I believe we'll make use of your offer to assist in moving the satellite carefully to the rocket on the launch pad shortly." he kneels down to install the canister into the satellite and hooks up the wires as well as fuel lines. "That should give it just enough fuel to break free of the rocket as well as any evasive maneuvers as it travels through space." Lifeline may as well offer while she's here. "I can also help, if you want." "I think I'll just stay out of the way, unless I can help in some way, too," Arcee pipes up. Chains has a great combination for just this sort of effort, small enough to get into position for helping with the carrying without getting in anyone's way, great coordination and agility for moving about, and yet an awful lot of power packed into a tiny frame, making moving the rocket quite a bit easier. "No problem, Doc. Jus' lead the way." Arcee giggles suddenly. "Do you guys think Hot Rod is treating me like some kind of secret?" she asks. Crackshot wells "He does seem to try and hide you from us even if we're in the room." he notes critically "As though he didn’t want us to see you at all. Its not very rude to boss people around." he beams at Chains and lifeline "I'd love to help. Come on, Arcee. " he notes, turning to lead the way, although he kept watching Chains nervously Ratchet nods to Lifeline, "Your assistance is appreciated." then he looks upon Arcee and states firmly, "Are you always so evasive about answering direct questions? This won't look good upon you if you are seeking to join the Autobots." he closes up the panel and secures it in place, then takes a spot on one side of the satellite to assist Chains, "Lifeline if you would take your vehicular mode, it would work best for transporting this machine." "Sorry sir, force of habit," Arcee says to Ratchet, "Comes from living in Cubicron for a while. I'll be as direct as you want me to." Chains manages his bit of things fine. He has good hands for this type of thing, and plenty of strength in a small frame. The broad shoulders don't hurt any either for adding stability, even if he's not a transport vehicle alt. If he notices he's being watched closely, he doesn't say anything. "Can't say as I've noticed, but then I dunno him that well." he replies to Arcee's question, while moving. Lifeline nods to Ratchet and transforms in an open area close to the satellite. "Ready any time you are." Really. How WOULD you Autobots get along without Neutrals like Lifeline? Crackshot directs the movement of the new refurbished satellite, eagerly taking the lead as he moves them out onto the launch pad, where a narrow, tall rocket was waiting for launch, fuelled up. "I'm glad I don’t spend many extra credits." he jokes. Ratchet assists Chains with heaving and moving the satellite up and around, getting it past the medical tables. Putting it upon the flatbed of Lifeline and then climbing up on board with it to hold it steady. He looks at Arcee, "Understood." then to the fellow medic. "Follow Crackshot." Lifeline follows Crackshot out to the launch pad at a sedate-walking speed, accelerating and decelerating very gingerly to avoid jostling both the satellite and Ratchet who's steadying the delicate piece of equipment. She pulls up to a stop next to the rocket and can't help but comment. "Haven't seen one of those in a very long time." Perceptor walks over and says, "It's all fueled and programmed." Arcee looks at the satellite and rocket setup. Truly a thing of beauty. She hopes the Decepticons don't get their hands on it. "Seems Hot Rod isn't that worried about people knowing about me," she says. Chains provides the bunch of them a security escort on the way, before shifting back at the pad in order to help take the satellite back down and get it loaded. As long as nothing requires reaching too high, quick, delicate work with heavy materials suits the cyclebot just fine. Crackshot looks at Arcee curiously "He seems to try and make it as though you aren't even present. Always telling you to hide behind him and stuff like you're not supposed to be here." he shook his head in dismay, looking back to Lifeline with a smile "Yes. It’s an older style but it was used mainly for launching research satellites as well as navigational beacons. " he notes, knowing much about the rocket. Ratchet steps off of Lifeline and gestures to Chains to assist him with the satellite. With the two of them at it, it's soon on a lift that will take it up to the top of the rocket. "Hope you don't mind heights." is offered to the minibot. Perceptor watches on, not adding to the conversation at this time. Lifeline pulls away from Ratchet, Chains, and the satellite as they carry it toward the rocket then transforms and steps over next to Arcee. "I wasn't told what the purpose of that thing is. You?" Arcee shakes her head. "Nope," she replies. Chains shakes his head to Ratchet. "Be a pretty lousy recon agent if I had a problem with climbin'. Lookin' forward to seein' this thing off." He doesn't respond any further to Arcee's question. He's only seen them in the undercity, which was a rather different situation, after all. Crackshot chuckles at both of them as he waves Arcee and Lifeline up onto the lift "It crashed months ago. We're returning it home!" he notes as he waves at the sky. "It has a purpose, why not help it fulfill it?" Ratchet nods to that as the lift raises the two of them along with the satellite up to the top of the rocket where they can load it up. "Good." he smiles a hint. Perceptor states, "It's mission is to gather information as it goes through space as well as to give any species that finds it information about the inhabitants from the world of its origin." Lifeline nods to Arcee, watching the lift carry the mechs and satellite up and away. Then she raises an eye ridge and looks at Perceptor. "Was anyone able to determine the unit's point of origin?" "That's a great idea," Arcee says, "Though, did we send information to warn them about the Decepticons?" Chains glances again at the satellite, "Interesting thing, glad we're able ta get it goin' again. Be curious to hear what our folks found out about where it came from an' all." Alien planets, after all, would offer some interesting exploration opportunities. Crackshot shakes his head 'I don’t think that we're in danger of that. We don’t even know what language they speak yet." he admits "But we're trying to decode the message. Hopefully we will someday." he pets the satellites' side. Ratchet nods to Chains and closes up the panel to the rocket, the lift taking the two of the down to the ground. "I do believe the scientist will tell us in their own time." Perceptor smiles and replies, "We know the coordinates of origin and are working on comparing them to our known space maps. That will be take awhile since we will triple check to be 100 percent positive we traced the route correctly." to Arcee he assures, "We gave them information about our species." to Crackshot, "The data chip I gave you translates their language to our own. It's very primitive in comparison to our own." "Could we put it in binary? That would be fairly easy to decode, don't you think?" Arcee wonders. Chains hops off the lift while its still a ways up and gets out of the way, stepping back to make sure all remains in place, and get a good vantage point to watch from, just in case there's any additional concerns. He doesn't seem too worried one way or another about the cryptography, not his department. "Already? " asks Crackshot, surprised as he steps off the lift as well and moves with the others as the rocket starts to warm up "I hope it knows its' way home." he admits quietly, almost reluctant to see it go. Ratchet walks from the lift and heads to safety, gesturing to the others. "Let's get clear everyone." Perceptor replies, "Well I suppose we could just triple check our deciphering findings for you Crackshot, to make sure we translated them correctly. I have a copy of the data chip I gave you, so you can keep that one and see if any of it makes sense to you." moving out of the way as well, "Oh I'm sure its programming will kick in Crackshot, don't worry." a glance at Arcee, "We could do that, yes." Lifeline nods, clearly curious about the information gathered from the device. "Well, if the technological level of the fuel cell I replaced was any indication, I doubt the Decepticons would be interested in anything they might use as weaponry. However, the base metals of the original fuel cell were... worrisome." She moves to walk with the others away from the rocket. Arcee obediently backs off, so that she's well out of the way of the rocket flames. Chains gets out of the way of any trouble quickly, finding a good vantage point to watch from, since he still has to account for being a bit smaller than most of current company. Crackshot walks back with the others, glancing to Lifeline "how so? " he asks curiously, then smiles at Perceptor "Its too late now I think." he admits. Ratchet gets into the safe zone as the heat shields raise up around the rocket and the launch announcer starts to do the countdown. He looks over at Lifeline in concern. "Well I suppose they'll get a hint of our technologic know how as it is even with the retro-engineered parts in the satellite." Perceptor nods to that, "Agreed." Lifeline says, "That's not what concerns me, Ratchet. The metals in the original cell were too pure. They had to have come from an environment with an active planetary core and seismic system." She looks toward the rocket again. "I really hope that the Decepticons do not pay that little satellite any attention."" Crackshot frowns, puzzled as he peers at Lifeline "I don’t understand." he admits. Chains lets the others deal with the implications of the technology exchange and all, just watching the rocket for now. Only the mention of seismic activity gets any notice. "Huh, that'd be interestin' exploration." he muses aloud. Ratchet ahs softly to what Lifeline is getting at as the launch announcer announces the last numbers and finally the rocket engines roar to life. "The defensive grid will deal with them if they bother to try." the medic bot states. Arcee is needing recharge. "Excuse me, I think I should get some rest," she says, "Thanks for letting me observe." Perceptor notes, "Plus I do believe that Sky Lynx is watching on in orbit to make sure things go as planned." he whips out the remote for the test he's going to do. The rocket clears the city, then pushes onward, rising up into sub orbit, then orbit. Stages peel away. Then lastly the satellite is ejected into deeper space. The scientist activates the test and hmms, "Well that's a failed test." he listens to his radio, "Sky Lynx reports in that it made it." Crackshot sighs a little bit as he watches it go, looking... sad. Ratchet nods to that from Perceptor. "I've work to do in Iahex. Take care all. Good to see you Lifeline." he offers with a smile. A nod to Arcee, "No problem." Perceptor states, "And I've some work to do still on the temporal dust as well as rechecking our translation findings." Crackshot stares up at the sky, looking at the others. then he smiles "I'll stay here for a bit if that's okay." Lifeline actually offers Ratchet a smile in return, then nods to Perceptor. "Thank you both for letting me assist." She looks at Chains, expecting that he'll be the one escorting her back out. "Don't get a hitch in your neck servos."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)