| abstract
| - The bowels of Cybertron. Lately they've been seeing more visitors than they had in several thousand cycles. First the Cons and Bots as standard fare, then a lone human, possibly an EDC agent. Unfortunately, his head exploded before any more details could be ascertained. During that expedition into the deep, It was Elita-One and Perceptor who had stumbled across him, as they were sidetracked from investigating a potential discovery in the lower decks. Letting Perceptor do his analysis on the aftermath of the incident, E1 has asked a team to come with her to the depths, in case of any more Con shenanigans. At the worst, it'll be a boring exploration, with possibility of Con hijinks. Right now, the team is travelling through one of the enormous conduits that have been inactive, the glare of headlights from those that have them, help illuminate the darkness. BMW R1200RT-P Police Motorcycle whistles as he shines his brights on the walls, a little ahead of the group. What? He's a scout, people. "Man. I'm back on Cybertron so rarely...much less in the depths...this place is like, not even home, you know? <> Ambulance is smack in the middle of the group, shining a flashlight that's been attached to his decrystallizer everywhere he looks. "I hear you, Groove. After spending four million years running around these tunnels, you'd think I'd be used to them by now," he comments, looking at all the twisted metal, broken pipes, and shattered walls. "But no, I'm still not." First Aid idly wonders if he fell in love with Earth just because it's in such stark contrast to Cybertron. Still, Cybertron *is* being put back together again... just agonizingly slowly. Cyberpunk Wrecker Rig doesn't have headlights, they'd never shine past the frickin' huge plow on the front of the truck. Fortunately instead he's got some rather potent spotlights atop his cab to make up for it. The outermost ones are even angled to the sides slightly to cover a decent radius in front of him. "Ah reckon no ones been down here fer ages onna regular basis," he replies to First Aid. "Planet's healin' herself, but slowly. This stuff's pro'lly not crucial 'nuff." Fanfare is riding behind on Horsepower, watching the rear mostly. He had all his landing lights on, lit up like a weird christmas tree as he stared into the tunnel behind him. He fidgeted nervously, having been doing so the last few hours when he was made to turn his music off. The fact he could not transform down here didnt help." Blades is just walking, because helicopters do not do well in tunnels. He secretly hopes that they are attacked by mutants or demons, so that he can kill them. Blades could have hitched a ride with Horsepower, but he wants to be /ready/ if they are attacked. As a result, Blades is lagging behind the pack. Tow Truck 's engine rumbles softly as she follows along with the rest of the convoy, headlights illuminating the path before her as she hangs around the back. She can't help being a little behind since any rubble that looks remotely interesting seems to keep catching her attention. "I dunno why people never come down here. These places are like treasure troves for really neat old stuff if you're willing to look hard enough." Is that why she joined the team? To go scrap picking? Eh, it's a 50/50 assumption with her. Bug Creature is riding on Groove. How is this possible? Isn't Groove just big enough for humans to ride on? Well, apparently not today, as Repugnus is riding on top of Groove at the moment, in monster mode no less, his scythe-like claws "gripping" the handlebars. And by gripping I mean just closing down on them enough to not slice them off. "Weeee!" he contributes to the conversation. Elita replies to Groove, <> It's hard to tell if she's joking or not. <> A few minutes pass, transfering into a smaller pipe, and then onto the ground, which could only be optimistically named a road. Eventually, the end of the line is reached, several lines of sheet metal crumpled and twisted. Rusted and covered in metal dust, the area looks more blocked off than ruined. Elita shines her lights upwards, showing the scope of the place, the size of it is quite large, perhaps 3 or four full Bot stadiums in size. <> The lights adjust to reveal faded orange and red, a large symbol behind some of the rubble. For its shape, it could be the Autobot Insignia. BMW R1200RT-P Police Motorcycle vrooms towards the center of the massive chamber, coming to a stop to appreciate the sheer scope of the place. "Man. There's big and then there's big, you know Repugnus? And this is like, large." He shivers, still feeling extremely uncomfortable with no open sky above him. Places like this...this is where the Technobots clawed for survival against Hunn-Grr's tribe for eons. "What a terrible life..." He sighs quietly, being all serious and stuff. "It's hard to resist stopping right here and beginning repairs," First Aid replies to Horsepower. "Yeah, I guess," he comments to Torque. He realizes she's got a point, but Aid still doesn't like it down here. Too many broken things. Emerging into the area, First Aid whistles, impressed. "Hey, that thing just behind the debris there. Is it my imagination or does it look kind of like... I mean, if you squint a bit." Aid shines his flashlight on the potential Bot insignia. Cyberpunk Wrecker Rig pulls to a stop with a heavy hiss of airbrakes as they reach the location Elita was talking about, letting his spotlights illumante the wreckage, and the partially obscured sigil. "Ah reckon ya might be onta somethin' here li'l lady. But I think we gotta do some cleain' up, first. Watch yer head, Fanny." With the warning given he swings his boom around, drops the hook into the top of the pile of debris, and tries to pull some of it free. Fanfare twists about, trying to see past his own bulk ahead. As the caravan comes to a stop he clambers off, turning his bright lights towards the wall as well to help light it up, before ducking the boom "Ach! Thanks fer the warning." he notes to Horsepower, not at all minding it. Bug Creature yawns. "Psh. SPACE is big, Groove. This is just a little closet in some forgotten corner of the universe," he says, though whether his sentiment is sincere or if he's just trying to harsh Groove's mellow--well, okay, he's harshing his mellow. "But yeah, it's hard knock life. Hey, though! At least they had football.... back... then?" "Stand back, guys, I'll see if I can't lighten the load for you," First Aid says. Pivoting his decrystallizer, he fires a concentrated burst. The outer layer of the rubble suddenly shows stress fractures... and then collapses in on itself. Some time passes as the bigger bots do some manual labor. First Aid's decrystallizer worked a lot of wonders for the others, until it just resettles the junk itself. Most of the junk gets moved, though it takes some time and energon to do it. By now most of the team surely could use a short break. Alas, the entry to this massive fortification is beckoning, a Grimlock sized door that seems to be functional. Elita remarks quietly, "Whomever worked here was larger than most of us, that's for sure. Seems to be power at least." With a bit of fiddling and sparks, the door slides open. Inside, darkness. Bug Creature hops off of Groove to "help" and seems to be intentionally doing a terrible job. Fanfare grumbles "If Ah could transform ah'd just haul et all away. " remarks Fanfare as he helps to push and shove as well, his blades whirling slowly in irritation. Lights are flashed around as people start to enter. Indeed, the place is as big as it seemed. It also seems to be vacant! The only thing inside, at least in the light's area are the mechanisms for opening the doors behind you. It appears that while you came in a work door, the entire wall before you is dedicated to split open as well. Occasionally turbo-rats or energy roaches are sighted in the distance, the quiet squeaks and chitters before they dart away from the light. Cyberpunk Wrecker Rig blames the lack of speed to his gear being meant for vehicles rather than junk, but plugs away at it all the same like the diligent worker he is. "Yah think we'll need to blow it ope--" Elita gets the doors to unlock! "--Nevahmind." With Fanfare already down to help, he transforms up into robot mode, and slings one of his chain-whips over an arm, just in case. "Just hope what was keepin' us out ain't keepin' somethin' else in..." The wrecker rig heaves up and rearranges into a heavy Autobot form. Groove stands up into robot mode after Repugnus dismounts and fires one up, frowning into the abyss beyond the door. "It's like, looking into the future, but it's not bright at all. Or maybe the shades that you're wearing because of how bright your future is are so dark that you can't even see the future anymore..." He falls in beside Blades as the group enters. "I'm completely ok." He reassures Blades, who didn't ask. He puffs, and offers. Tow Truck pulls up alongside the others when they reach the rather cavernous room, the femme having to transform to actually get a good look of the place. "Whoaahh... This place is amazing. I wonder what it was used for way back when. Storage maybe?" Though what it'd store is beyond her. When First Aid and Horsepower move to clear the mystery symbol of debris, she volunteers to help, saying in quite the confident tone, "Here, lemme help you guys with that." Of course when she gets up there, and actually tries to shift aside some of the rather large pieces it... proves to be a bit of a challenge for her. Talk about a blow to the ego. Thankfully the others do away with the rest in time and they come face to face with a door. "It's.. a little worrisome, I'll admit, to see things built for people /way/ bigger than us." She mutters softly before flicking on her headlights and tailing behind the others, making sure to use Horsepower as cover. Torque shifts several plates before standing upright in robot mode. "Guardians mebbe? " asks Fanfare, not at all hiding. It would really be pointless seeing as he was a walking wall himself. He pulls out one of his brothers' cigars, but doesnt light it as he squints down the distance "Hrm... Looks empty. Shall we? " he asks. Ambulance would transform and move in to help the others, but there's only so many that can be gathered around one spot, and the doctor isn't known for his physical strength. "You guys alright? Groove, you need to lift with your knees. No, you're /knees/. Wait, Repugnus, I can totally see that you are only barely lifting. Come on." Finally, though, they make it through. First Aid rolls through the work door. "What do you think this place is?" he comments out loud. "Could be Guardians, yeah..." he adds. Bug Creature shuffles along after the others, cackling to himself. "Hey, look at these hands! I can't hold anything with these!" He holds his claws up. "Anyway, I bet we're just going to find the Dinobots' secret party lounge, and there'll be, like, Grimlock there, sitting on a couch, watching TV, and we'll come in, and he'll be like, 'What the hell YOU people doing here!? This me Grimlock's place!'" He laughs at the that. "Wait, hold on..." He fires off a spark at a turbo-rat, and and it shrieks in pain before it skitters away. "Bwahahaha!" Blades shrugs at Groove and mumbles, "That's nice." He follows along after the others, but he does have one blade drawn, and his intent is totally to get into a fight if he can only find a legit reason to do so. Could there be evil statues here? While doing the basic investigation work of the grand place. Fanfare is the first to find a stand off in his respective area. It's set up similar to standard computer systems, though granted an older design. It seems to have fallen on hard times though, and will need a bit of work to get it running if one would want. Fanfare hrms and squints at the thing, dusting it off a little bit "Hey! Look what I found!" clenching the cig in his teeth, he tries to do what usually starts Bad Stuff in movies. He tries to turn it on. Ambulance immediately flips into robot mode. "Hey, computers! Good optic, Fanfare." the Protectobot steps on up to him, now holding the flashlight in his hand to give the transport some light. "Need a hand?" he asks, though from what he can see Fanfare's got it down pretty good. Ambulance flips up into robot mode. "We -could- use more spare parts fer Omega," Horsepower rumbles at the Guardian musings. Idly twirls the end of his chain in one hand as everyone is entering. When Fanfare speaks up he trundles over in that direction. "Definately ain't been used in a while." Looks like the stuff-getter is already poking at it though. Fanfare is bore, and agitated. He will poke things in this state. Bug Creature leaps over to Fanfare's side. "Fanfare, no!!! You've killed us all!" He pauses, a shocked look on his face. "...well, actually I dunno. Buuut.... don't you guys think you should've investigated what the hell this thing does before you threw the switch? Because it could have been like, a computer that controls automatic turrets or something." The emitter seems to power up just fine, thanks to Fanfare's prowess. First thing, it generates a bit of light for the area which is quite useful. Even Bots on the other side of the area can see it as well, as it lights up the darkness with a soft shine. It begins to then project a holographic design of some large machine, which then is summoned from subspace, on a larger degree than expected. From first look, it appears to be some sort of computer used for analysis. A chain reaction starts up, other emitters starting to glow and power up. Soon the room is filled with bright lights and a myriad of machinery, parts and benches. Someone had a workshop on a grand scale. Elita looks over the place, in surprise. "I had no idea that anything was functioning still down here..." She points to a pipe welded symbol on the wall, "That...is a pre-war Autobot symbol...Amazing." Blades points out, "If it controlled automatic turrets, I would have just stabbed the turrets." he doesn't mess with or touch anything, though. The hologram, though... "...eh, well, at least Elita One's excited?" First Aid shoots a worried look at Repugnus, "Oh, nuts, I didn't even think about that." He starts glancing around the room from the computer terminal, trying to see if any turrets pop up. Fortunately, it does not. As the projector starts up, Aid turns off his flashlight since it's no longer required, stepping up to the holographic schematics. "My goodness... say, you don't think we've found one of... you know, His old workshops?" "Ah really doubt they'd have hooked 'em up like that, Mate." remarks Fanfare calmly to Repugnus, watching the things light up, staring about "Ah mean, how'd they turn it on without shootin' themselves?" He was suitably impressed as well, staring all about. Groove exhales a plum of energon smoke. "Ok whoah." He glances over at First Aid? "Him? Alpha Trion?" He coughs, wishing his optics weren't so dry. "Can we like...maybe take everything to the surface? Look at it up there?" Pink Techcar considers the thought, "Alpha Trion had several bases, I would not be surprised. A shame Perceptor didn't make it here, he'd probably overload." The futuristic car breaks open in the middle, as the legs form upward. Her hood shifts into her armor plating with her arms coming together at the last, turning into Elita One's robot mode. Torque's antennas flick up at Fanfare's mention of finding something, pulling her attention away from the pile of scrap she currently wandered off to dig through, and subsequently shove apparently useless looking things into subspace. "Be careful there, Fanfare. No telling how old the tech down here is." The femme muses while looking over at the group hovering near the console. She's a little surprised to see that he successfully turns it on though, literally booting up the entire room it seems, turning it into a long forgotten workshop. Torque is pretty much stunned at the sight, almost immediatly dropping what she's doing and stepping up to some of the machinery and holo-specs. "Dear Primus, /look/ at all of this stuff. It's amazing!" Anything tool or machine gets her excited rather easily. "We have to take it back with us. I mean, we can't just leave it all now that we've found it." "It's very old, that's fer sure." But now Horsepower's own curiosity is perked, and he trots over to one of the emitters and crouchs down a bit to look at it, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Trion or otherwise, whoever was workin' outta here was very damn good at it." He laughs a bit as Torque pretty much echos his sentiments, abiet more loudly. "Its def'nately a find, that's fer sure." Bug Creature looks around the place, snorting a bit. "Well, shoot, I dunno, maybe whoever set this place up wasn't very smart." He gets a better look at all of the machinery sliding out everywhere. "Uh. Maybe whoever set this place up didn't have a lot of sense?... Uh..." Fanfare ehs "Ah doubt that. Thes is high tech mate." notes Fanfare as he remains standing, staring all about as his blades whirl again. First Aid nods to Groove, "Yeah, lets start cataloging the stuff and we'll see what we can take back. All of this should be studied." He glances over at Elita One but doesn't say anything. Aid had actually been thinking Primus or one of the other Quintessons of old, but it could be A3 as well. "I wonder what it all is. Blueprints for Transformers? Subspace pocket designs? Schematics for star cruisers?" He strolls in between the holograms, trying to see if any of them make sense to him. A large sensor suite opens up on high, "Scanning Autobot Signatures. Please Stand By." The line scanner starts to give the once over to the Bots within the forge, as a tinkling, humming noise follows the scanner. It is to be noted that First Aid does find several different types of blueprints, and files within easy reach. Whomever put them together seems to have been lost to time though. Either that or was intentionally wiped out. Weapons, Ship designs, it was definitely an inventor who lived here. First Aid takes the voice as proof that this isn't lab isn't Primus's or the old Quints', then. That was before the Bot/Con split. "I'm not seeing any authors listed, but, oh, hey! Torque, come on over here. Doesn't this look kind of similar to a pre-war rail cannon?" Aid pauses. Ah. Weapons. Fanfare ohhs as it all activates, and tenses as he is scanned, frowning worriedly "Computerrr, wot are ye scanning for? " he asks, his thick accent rolling out. "Eureka!" Repugnus says, raising a claw as a beam of light sweeps over him. "I have determined the means by which the proprietor of this establishment would activate his defense turrets. Namely, the thing's that's scanning us now. With any luck its circuits haven't degraded to the point where it will process commands incorrectly! Also, good thing you guys are here to keep me in check because if it's working right then I just totally lulled this computer into a false sense of security!"
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* BZZZZZZZ***** "Non-Autobot signatures detected. Countermeasures engaged." Ports slide open as strange, glowing discs start popping out of the walls. A square around Repugnus illuminates, then suddenly projects a force cage to trap the Autobot if he's not fast. Squares on the ground in several other places start lighting up as the security features move to swarm the Autobot team. "*Non*-Autobot signatures? Wait, we're Autobots! We're Autobots!" First Aid exclaims. He steps forward, pointing at the insignia on his chest, "See? They just added a little bit of detailing so it would look better close up!" First Aid jolts back as a square appears around Repugnus. "Eek!" Aid says, hopping away from a square that was chasing him. Blades cheap-shots, "Hey, maybe Repugnus needs a /bath/, but he's still an Autobot, you dorky computer!" Bug Creature is not very fast, and is ensnared by the force cage. "Oh, no, the trolling has become REAL! Darn, I must have been on vacation from the Autobots when this thing was made." He notices that everyone else is imperiled by the cages, too! "You guys, too!?" Fanfare ACHS himself as he waves a hand "Ey, we're nae non autobots. " he ducks one disc, "Do ye nae SEE the symbols? "he notes, grumbling as he tries to hit the same button to try and turn it all off again. ".. Ya just -had- to say somethin' Pug," Horsepower groans as the Monsterbot more or less calls that one, and First Aid starts to panic. "We're pro'ly all too 'new' fer a old system to reconize." Letting out a bit more length, he spins his chain in front of himself to block a couple of the energy discs. "Just find a way to shut it down again!" Torque looks up from hovering over an array of tools, keeping her hands at bay so she doesn't go snatching up everything in sight. "Hmm? Wait, really? Lemme see..." She sidles over to First Aid, head tilting while she looks over the schematics. "Hmm. ..It does, actually. Maybe this is the blueprint for a prototype?" She's positively grinning at the thought of finding such great relics. But then the computer goes about scanning them, and comes up empty handed, so to speak. "Wait, what?? Damn dusty old tech doesn't even recognize us!" Figures there would be an outdated security measure in here, though it seems quite effective when it traps Repugnus and threatens to do the same to the others. "Ergh!" A freeflying disc catches her up as she tries to move from a square, making Torque lock up a second, able to feel her strength diminish a little from being sapped. Unfortunately for her she pauses a second too long and the square of light beneath her forms into another prison. She's nearly panicing now, resorting to slamming a few punches into the force cage, "Slag, get me outta here!" Blades totally gets stuck in a cage and whacked by an energy disc that start draining his energon, making him feel sleepy! "Huh," he says, staring dumbly at the disc. First Aid dives towards Fanfare to help him with the computer. He's sure he can find a safe way to turn it off. But right at the mid-way point, a square veers off course and snags him in a force cag, causing Aid to smack against the side of it. "Oof!" Fanfare grumbles a little bit. Somehow being the largest he was doing ok with dodging, but its only a matter of time. Maybe it was his paint job "Ach!" he tries hitting the POWER button again. And if that fails, he'll start booking for the door. "Ah cripes..." The force cage that holds Pug seems solid enough, that type has been seen on Cybertron for megacycles as good restraints. Furthermore, enough are popping up, as the Bot team dodges, that very shortly it be getting harder to maneuver around them. Repugnus too feels the effect of energon draining off of him, though at a slower pace than the discs deal out. "Blast it all!" Elita gets snared as well, up against the wall, the entire area contained by the force cage. "We can't blast them...Shockwave uses these, they ricochet." Her voice is muted from within the cell as it absorbs some of the sound. She mutters as she watches the situation unfold poorly. "Is someone near a console, we could try to override..." She looks about in her area for help. Fanfare says, "Tell me how afore they cage me!" Bug Creature transforms at this point, pulling out his Venom Laser and aiming it at the disc below him. But, he catches Elita's warning just in time and holds his fire. "Well, if I can't shoot it, then what the hell do I do? Play some elevator music and hope these damn things get bored?" The creature spins and twists about into Repugnus's robot mode! First Aid tries in vain to sissy slap his way out of the force cage he's found himself trapped in. Blades's energy is slowly sapped until he curls up on the floor and takes a nap. Hopfully someone will rescue him before he dies of energy deprivation. Or not. They could get Defensor a hook hand. Fanfare ducks another one and growls as he gets nowhere with the panel. So he raches into subspace and pulls out a small glowing cube of energ "Ye like energon do ye? FETCH!" he pitches the small explosvie cube at the overhead sensor. Now things aren't looking so good. It's like everyone has either gotten caged, or disced. He growls as one skims across his shoulder, but quickly taps into his own secondary tank to make up the difference. "Hang on ladies." With a snarl he stomps over to the cage holding Torque and tries to slam one of his big fists into it hard enough to make an opening. The force cages continue their sapping work, lulling Blades into unconsciousness. Torque, Repugnus and First Aid still stay standing, even if they can feel the draining effects ebbing away at their resolve. With a resounding crash, Horsepower buries his hand into the cage, which pops out of existance! It seems however that he has made himself a target of the energy discs, which come darting at him and Torque en mass now. Fanfare's tactic of detonating the sensor above causes a small, but worthwhile explosion that leaves the eye sensor in a mess, sending showers of sparks down to the room. Those avoiding the security might note that it is easier to avoid the energy discs. Elita murmurs something to herself as she looks over some plans. "....Energon Harvester." She looks over her shoulder at the group, "Keep at it, I think I found something." She squints as she looks over the blueprints, working with what is at hand. A lengthy bout of punching, combined with the sapping effects of the cage itself, are clearly taking their toll on Torque, who now leans up on one sides, venting hard. "Erf.. I hate energy barriers. So damned hard to break.." She takes a moment to steady herself again, readying one last punch. But before she can even swing, Hoss comes to the rescue and breaks her out! So strong! "Thanks Hoss. Phew, thought I was a gonner there for a second. These things bleed yah dry." She staggers a little while standing, but soon finds her footing and starts to make her way on over to the console. "Cover me from those discs! I'm gonna take a crack at this damnedable computer." "Ah'll try Elita!" notes Fanfare as he pulls out another cube and tosses it at a cluster of the discs. *FWHOOSH* First Aid whews as the cage around him vanishes. He steps out, rubbing his sore hands together. "Is everyone alright? I don't suppose someone brought along some energon cubes for mid-mission snack?" That cage did a real number on his energon levels. As the discs continue to fling themselves at Torque and Horsepower, First Aid draws his photon pistol and tries to snipe one. He has no idea what'll happen but he can't let it get his friends. "Ya got it!" As Torque scrambles for the computer, Horsepower puts his sizable bulk between her and the security countermeasures. Only to growl as another disc manages to imbed in his shoulder. His secondary tank is only going to be able to counteract the energon drain for so long. "Hff. Ah wanna look at those later," he gruffs to Elita, though his attention is elsewhere. Like picking up one of the work tables, ignoring the tools clattering off of it for the moment, and holding it up like a shield just in time for several more discs to bury themselves in it. Fanfare says, "Ah've some! But ah'll have tae step out tae transform. Ah really need tae be able tae shunt me wings intae subspace."" Repugnus decides to just force the energy bars open while he still has the strength to do so. "Get... outta... my way...!" he grunts, pushing them aside and stepping through. He stumbles out of the cage, and once it tries to start following him again, he grimaces and runs from it. "Somebody tell the stupid thing we're Autobots, even me!" First Aid's shot misses, hitting the far wall instead. These things are fast! At Repugnus's insistance, he shouts, "We're Autobots, we're Autobots! Till all are one! Freedom is the right of sentient beings! We wage war to defeat the evil forces of the Decepticons!" He dives out of the way of one of the discs, "Uh, we'll be back after these messages?" Aid really wishes he could think up some more Autobot platitudes, but it's tough when energy discs are trying to murder you. "Bah, you old piece of scrap! Stop denying me access!" Torque hisses as the console flashes at her, denying her from turning off the system. She's nearly at the point of just punching it. "Screw it, I'm doing this manually." She kneels down now, pretty much tearing away the bottom panel to reveal the insides, which she promptly climbs into. What is she even doing in there? Rearranging cords? Just ripping stuff apart? Who knows. Hopefully it works though. The heroes are doing a pretty decent job of freeing themselves, though the system seems to recover quickly, highlighting squares again and again, smaller ones too that seem to follow movement. First Aid pays for his attack by a volley of four of the discs coming his way, Fanfare's desperate ploy works, despite not having more than a hunch, the three swarm into the energon cube slicing it to bits, which dissipates before returning to their present course, hunting down the bots with the highest energon left. "Alright, I think I got it..." Elita braces a large makeshift weapon in both of her arms, which glows ominously. "Come on...work dammit.". She is rewarded for her juryrigging with a metallic whine as the device fails to respond. "Lousy stupid..." She kicks at it a few times frustrated. A rippling thunderclap is heard as the weapon fires, sending energy buckling before her. She laughs in frustration, "Ha ha, there we go, there it is!" The weapon belches a second time, removing a good portion of the walls before her before it fizzles out of commission. Torque manages to get into the system, but it'll take a wee bit of time to get things shut down...just a minute or two left. First Aid's optics widen as three of the discs careen in on his position. The Protectobot nimbly jumps over the first, dives behind a projector to avoid the second, and sidesteps the third. "Hah, that's how you do it," Aid says triumphantly. Wait, three discs? Weren't there actually--the fourth slams into the doctor's midsection, causing him to fall down on his butt, drained of all but the bare minimum of his energon needed to keep functioning. Looks like our butts need some more saving, Torque! Horsepower scowls, but that the discs seem to home in on the cube Fanfare tossed doesn't go unnoticed. So they don't just drain, they seek it. "'Nuff is 'nuff." Huffing as his own systems are struggling to keep up from the hits, but the big guy has gone into Poppa Bear mode after seeing several of the other Autobots going down. He stomps towards the nearest launcher, and with a snarl attempts to smash his hands into it and rip it right out of the wall! But instead just sort of comically strains at it, having lost more power than he wants to admit. Repugnus, unfortunately, has never been keen on dodging. Not so much because he can't, but because he generally doesn't want to. Sadly, this attitude bites him in the rear, literally, as a disc smacks into his butt. "Gah! I like all kinds of sensations, but not the loss of sensation!" he complains in his usual TMI way. And so he staggers, but nevertheless, he tries to help Torque out. "Rggh, Torque, strip the cabling for the control systems and the power cords, maybe you can cause a short or something! Gah..." Fanfare dodges again, but it seems his luck has run out as finally, collected cubes of color under his fet suddenly expand upwards, aiming to cage the giant mech. He helped in surprise, the console he was holding onto inside the cage with him "Ach! Nae!" he yelps as disks start to hime in on him. And out of instinct, he tosses the first thing he had his hands on at them...
* RIPP* goes the control console, before he hurls it at the nearest glow. "What does it look like I'm doing??" Torque's muffled voice is heard from inside the console, working fast to switch things here and there, override this and that until the screen lights up in green and pings. At least the signal goes through before Fanfare gets a hold of the console, tearing it from the ground to reveal Torque nearly tangled up in wires. "...Well then, that's one way of dealing with it too." All in all, it took a team effort to shut down security, but it happens. Whether it is Torque's simple computer access, the eventual overload or the strain of the system against the energy put against it, or if Fanfare ripped a security console out, the projections cease with a flicker, and then are gone. The discs leave small metal centers, no doubt the core of the weapons used. Lights flicker for a few moments as a distorted voice, no doubt from the sensor above, announces "SKZKSKKKHHHH B.BSHSSSKKKK" That said, it was a victory. Elita looks at her makeshift weapon, shrugging. "Wasn't that hard to do." She looks up to the rest of the team, "Good teamwork. I think we can salvage most of this, maybe even take it up to Iacon. Wouldn't hurt to have some extra resources against whatever comes our way. Repugnus, I think we need to collect what we can for blueprints and the like, before we leave though." First Aid's contribution to the team effort was the sissy slap and holding the flashlight for Fanfare. Still, he's pretty pleased when the security system shuts down. Knees wobbling, First Aid grabs onto a console to pull himself back up. "I call dibs on riding Horsepower back," he says in a weak voice. He's not going to be much use loading all this stuff up. Fanfare sighs and drops to a knee wearily as well, nodding at Elita. "once we're in the clear, ah ken refuel and haul everyone back." he promises Repugnus lies flat on his face on the ground. "Right, when I got feeling in my aft again, we'll get right on that, Elita. Well, at least I was wrong about this being Grimlock's party house, otherwise we'd likely all be in much worse condition." Elita One slouches noticably as well, though she keeps her gameface on a bit longer. Eventually she reclines next to one of the machines left standing. "There's a lot of questions left here..." She idly looks at the harvester, "Oh, who was it that wanted to take a look at this? I'm surprised it worked, really...but the parts for it were simple enough, could fix it up maybe..." She hefts the cannon, "Early war weaponry...Hmmm." Horsepower grunts, stopping as the systems shut down, exhaling loudly as cooling systems kick in to handle the system strain. But it gives him a few moments to look over to Elita and her cobbled together handiwork. "... Nice job, lass. For doin' it in a pinch at least." Grabs the disc imbedded in his shoulder and pulls it out. He almost throws it away, but stops, looking at it. And then tucks it away. To the victors go the spoils, and that sort of technology might be useful, even if it is old. Then pushes himself up to his feet. "Iffen we're sure there's no more bad su'prises, we can call Operations down 'ere to pick through. Bet they'd love a look 'round." He trots over to Elita. "Find anythin' else interestin'?" Elita One laughs softly, "Horsepower..." She motions to Repugnus, "We *are* Operations for the moment." Fanfare coughs and holds a hand up, looking hurt "me Too!" Torque pretty much just sits in her spot for now, taking a moment to gather herself. She's gonna need a power down after this. "I'm just glad everyone's alright. That was insane. But I guess it's what we get for barging in like that and activating some seriously old tech." She grunts softly, pushing herself to her feet, pausing to look over some of the tools now strewn around. "But at least we came out with some treasure, so to speak." Continueing, she moves over to heft up the conked out Blades, placing him on one of the cleared tables before moving to help First Aid to his feet. First Aid gets helped up by Torque, "Thanks," he says appreciatively. The Protectobot steps slowly through the artifacts as they start getting gathered up. Fanfare starts to pull some crates out of subspace to use to box things up, as well as labels and record datapads so everything is recorded right
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)