| abstract
| - When there's a crime committed in the city morgue, it's up to crack detective Donald Schanke to investigate. And his partner, too, he guesses.
- This is the main repair bay for the Autobots. Several operating tables lie in a row here, and a long bench lines one wall. On the bench are assorted tools used in repairing damaged Transformers. Scattered throughout the room are various repair bots, awaiting the arrival of more wounded to repair. The room gives you the perception of being immaculately clean, not a tool out of place. On the left side of the operating arena are wide sliding doors that open into the recovery ward. Less frantic than the busy repair bay, it consists of two rows of immaculate beds on opposite walls for those needing peace and quiet to rest and recover from their repairs. The sounds of quiet conversations between medic and patient, or between visitor and patient, are about all that disturb the quiet. Jayson Redfield comes hurrying into the facility, looking quite concerned. And it's no surprise, as he was listening in on the Autobots' broadband. He comes to a stop and looks around quickly, as if searching for something. Andi Lassiter is already here, the repair bay bustling and ready for any incoming wounded that get routed here. She's busy enough that she doesn't notice Jayson's arrival. "Ding Dong, the witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked witch!" Sit-Com sings as he goes through the supplies for the repairs. The medics, on the other hand, do notice Jayson, and make sure not to injure him in their bustling. Jayson himself, however, makes a beeline for Andi. "No one's been brought in yet?" he asks anxiously. Loadout has arrived sometime after the exciting events on Cybertron. Impactor isn't likely going to be returning to Earth right away, given his critical condition and needing to be stabilized as well. But given that Loadout is still moving around under his own power, what little reserves he has left, that is, he eventually shuffled back to the Earthen coil to recover. Damage isn't serious or life threatening overall, though he certainly has that 'blasted and blackened' look to him from having been right in the thick of things. His appearance would be enough to horrify himself under almost any conditions, but right now hes just too darn tired and low on power to be energized enough to worry about it. Or to even offer any greetings or acknowledgements or the like, as he shuffles on into the repair bay and finds a large seat to just clank himself down into, near one of the refueling stations. On one hand he's starting to get used to all this lightheaded post-strain after every fight. On the other hand it's just as debilitating as it was the first time. That's the consequences of lending himself out to heavy trigger fingers. Andi Lassiter looks around and down when she hears Jayson's voice. She beckons him to the table where she's coordinating the controlled chaos, and one of the medics scoops him up to set next to her. "Thanks for arriving so quickly, Jayson. There's been a pretty major fight on Cybertron. I don't know if any o fthe injured will get routed here, but we're preparing just in case." She hears a discordant clank, and leans a bit to look over at ... "Loadout?" "Haven't you heard?" Sit-Com says, "About the bird?" Jayson Redfield allows himself to be lifted up to Andi. He nods. "I was listening to the Autobot frequency. It sounded like something big was going down." He, too, hears the clank, and looks over to Loadout. "Man! You look like you've seen better days, bro." Loadout doesn't repond to the inquiry from Andi at first, just staring straight ahead, his optic visor dimmed. Though Sit-Com's statement draws a brief flicker, it's little more than that. It takes a few moments before he comes back to the 'here and now' to realize he's been addressed, and a few moments more to respond. "Just somewhat overstrained." He finally states, his features blackened by excessive heat in certain spots where his body had to vent coolant to prevent overheating. "Any structural damage is more or less superficial. My systems are not accustomed to dealing with severe energy drains and power routing on such a grand scale." Andi Lassiter nods to Loadout. "We really need to do something about that. Is anyone else being routed here for repairs?" "Now then, in the booth, let us take a look, operators are standing by," Sit-Com says to Loadout. "So is it true? Ding dong the witch is dead?" "To my knowledge, the only critical case is Impactor. And he is being stabilized on Cybertron now. He may be moved here later for additional work, I am not fully certain though." Loadout trails off again at Sit-Com's question and somehow, miraculously, manages to understand it. Or at least the gist of it. "Galvatron has vanished as a result of the fight and being thrown into the device. Though Rodimus does not seem confident it will be a permanent thing. Given the history I have familiarized myself with, I can see logically why he would be prone to feel this way." As he speaks, Loadout never once moves from the chair, finally addressing Andi's last statement."It is an unfortunate side effect of my inadvertent hybridized design. I am not optimized internally or structurally for this sort of functioning. In fact I don't believe such an optimization exists in any Autobot schematics, for that matter. Consider it, if nothing else, the tradeoff for having an older designt hat has been irreversibly changed." Jayson Redfield snorts. "Damn right it's not permanent. Galvatron always comes back. He's like an annoying bug that just won't die." Andi Lassiter calls out a few quick instructions to a handful of the medics bustling about, who all gather up easily portable groups of tools and supplies then depart quickly. "Well, let's get you settled for now, Loadout, and I'll start talking with Jetfire. we can probably improve on some of your systems." She looks at Jayson. "Would you like to check Loadout over and make sure there aren't any injuries we need to address immediately?" Jayson Redfield nods to Andi. "Sure thing. You have a scanner I can borrow?" Andi Lassiter already has her scanner out and is offering it to Jayson. "Of course." "I feel the problem is not so much a design flaw in itself, as I am trying to fullfill a role that no Autobot is really designed to handle." Loadout says evenly, staring at a far wall as he sits back in the chair. "I am undergoing particularly heavy power drains and restoration in a short time as I struggle to keep up with the necessary demands, and to provide a regular supply of 'ammunition' for those using me." It doesn't help he typically ends up in the hands of the triggerhappy types either. Probably accounts for part of the reason he keeps coming away feeling like an oversqueezed lemon each time. Jayson Redfield nods again and takes the scanner. He waves a medic over to give him a lift down, and once he's back on the floor, he makes his way over to Loadout, and prepares the scanner for use, as Andi showed him how to do previously. He studies the readout momentarily before making his report, not taking his eyes off the scanner. "Looks like it's mostly external damage, though his internals could probably do with some maintenance." He looks up at Loadout, scrutinizing him. "It seems to mostly be damage from energy blasts. How do you feel, Loadout?" "Very drained." Loadout states evenly. "Something I am starting to become accustomed to. My systems experience a large amount of strain in combat as they try to keep up with the necessary performance to produce an acceptable rate of fire. It's to be...expected." Andi Lassiter is splitting her attention between directing the remaining medics and making sure that Jayson doesn't get stuck on some aspect of Loadout's repairs that he's unsure of. "Would a ration of energon help?" she calls across the way in between other tasks. Jayson Redfield nods in understanding, then diverts his attention from Loadout. "Miss Lassiter, how do I do internal maintenance? We should check to be sure he doesn't have some other damage that, by chance, the scanner didn't pick up." "My reserves will need replenishing, yes. I used up quite a bit during the fight." Loadout states, as his chestplate suddenly opens up in that typical way for car-design Autobots to allow access to his innards. What's inside definetely is NOT typical equipment for car-design Autobots though. Nothing more clearly illustrates that he is not what he appears to be given his false-vehicular look in robot mode, and now a glance at his internals that shows delicate circuitry, large oversized lines and relays for conducting power, focusing units for diverting said power into destructive force. He looks like he should turn into a car, but he's built on the inside like a great big weapon. Andi Lassiter turns back to Jayson. "First, you... oh." She smiles. "Loadout's ahead of me. If you need any more thorough scans still, link the hand held unit to the closest array overhead." "So are we still teaching Jayson the way of the Maytag Repairman?" Sit-Com asks. He peers at the scanner. "Sure thing," Jayson says. He grins up at Sit-Com. "You could say that." He turns back to Loadout to examine his now open chest. "Doesn't look like there's anything wrong, but we can take care of that maintenance." Andi Lassiter finishes up with what she's doing while one of the medics steps up next to Jayson carefully to offer Loadout a container of energon. If Loadout were more or less in his right mind, he would -probably- be a little apprehensive about letting a newbie tinker around in his innards. Not to mention a human newbie at that. It's probably testamount to just how drained and 'punch drunk' he's feeling that he doesn't give it a second thought, all but mechanically reaching out to take the offered container of energon so he can start imbibing it properly as his maintenance takes place. In human terms, he's exhausted. Dead tired. Totally out of it, and pretty much in the process of nodding off. Jayson Redfield wanders away from Loadout for a moment, and returns to him with some special liquid for cleaning internal workings. He gets one of the medics to give him a lift up to Loadout's chest, where he begins working. He's actually a little nervous, as it's his first time doing such a thing, but he manages to remain calm and focus on his task. If he should mess up, he only hopes no one will hate him for it. It's the bane of being a rookie repairman, after all. Loadout has pretty much gone offline by this point, unable to stay 'awake' for any longer. Luckily there are others nearby to give a hand, and heck...field stripping and cleaning weapons or equipment under supervision is usually where most repair jobs begin anyway, isn't it? Some parts have to come out and get cleaned or flushed out, some just need to be cleaned off. Maybe a capacitor overloaded here or there and needs to be replaced... Andi Lassiter glances over again, then becomes one of the others going over to help Jayson. This really is one of the best ways for him to learn, as Loadout isn't really injured in any way, and even better, he's not in a mood to protest. Once she realizes the mech is all but asleep, though, she beckons a couple of the medics over. "Okay, Jayson, hang on for a minute." The medics proceed to carefully lift Loadout and set him on the nearest medtable where he can rest and allow the spot repairs to be done more easily. Jayson Redfield watches as Loadout is moved, then motions for the medic holding him to take him over to the med table. Once there, he steps off the mech's hand and onto the table, where he goes about with cleaning Loadout's internals. Andi Lassiter hitched a ride with Loadout instead of staying behind. But then, she's used to doing stuff like that. Loadout is indeed off in Autobot dreamland of some sort, no doubt living out fantasies of going from one end of Metroplex to the other like a living tornado and leaving the entirety of Autobot city sparkling to such a degree that it causes a nearby shuttle carrying all the Decepticon CoC to crash and burn. Soon after the rest of the leaderless Decepticon army surrenders, thus singlehandedly winning the entire war through the power of his cleanliness. It's good to be him in dreamland. Sit-Com has claimed a vacant repair bunk and has also drifted off to dreamland. A Galvatron-free dream! Jayson Redfield can only wish he had dreams like that. His are usually bad ones. He finishes his work and takes a step back, making sure he hasn't missed anything. "Now that that's done," he mutters, mostly to himself, "let's see...need some tools to finish up here..." Andi Lassiter offers her tools to Jayson with a smile. "All yours." Jayson Redfield accepts the tools. "Thanks." He then goes back to the maintenance work.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)