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| - The ceaseless heat has melted away all but the most resistant layers of litho-metallic sediment, which are thrust upward here like a series of vertical razor blades. The sides of these narrow ridges have been smoothed and polished by the infernal temperatures, and now stand as rows of multiple mirrors, reflecting the light back and forth among themselves in a blinding array. What little shadow these stark, knife-edged crests provide, is rendered useless by the thousandfold increase in reflected light and radiated heat. Contents: Jetfire Scattershot Rodimus Prime Obvious exits: North leads to Borderlands - North. South leads to Northern Mirrored Plains. Fly Jayson Redfield has arrived. One has to almost wonder how something like a full sized spacefighter manages to sneak anywhere! ... then again, that's possibly half the reason they were coming in from the opposite side as where the main Decepticon fortifications where, and counting on the fact they wouldn't really be paying much attention to where they didn't have actual holdings since they had more invested interest in Cybertron and Mexico right now. All the same, Jetfire isn't sparing precautions. Once he's in the thin atmosphere he cuts his hyperjets to reduce noticable energy emissions, swings his wings out fully and just glides the rest of the way in for a landing. It's a little on the rocky side, but then again, so its the whole planet. Once he's come to a stop he lowers the bay hatch. "Alright, here we go. Certainly I don't have to remind you guys to be cautious, considering where we are." Scattershot is ready and waiting for a stealth deployment. Although he still packs exactly the same weapons, gear and attitude as a regular deployment. Hmm. Well anyway, Scattershot knows the value of being cautious once in a while, and he's promised to keep a lid on his enthusiasm on this outing. It's just hard to pass up a trip to Charr. So many chances for a plan to go spectacularly wrong and a sneaky mission to turn into a shooty one. Porsche 959 is not Jazz, Jazz being the stealth master of all Porsches, but he's reasonably good at keeping quiet, if only because really loud noises give Nightbeat a headache, and his head complains about that. Nightbeat muses ambivalently, "I've been to worse places than Charr, but I can't say I'm eager to be here, y'know?" Of course, the Autobots also have the fact that keeping an entire planet under watch is /still/ pretty tricky. Unless the plot calls for an area to be watched at a given moment. Rodimus steps out of the hatch and smiles grimly. "Hey, Jetfire, don't need to tell me twice. After all, I organized this little field trip!" he says, stepping outside. He looks around in the blinding heat and shakes his head, breathing out a little. Then he mutters, "... I must have been slagging insane." He transforms - this is an area where covering more ground faster is a good idea - then shouts, "Quit griping and just get out here, Nightbeat!" From Exo-Armor Pegasus , Jayson Redfield is still feeling bad about the whole "losing Cybertron to the Decepticons" thing, but one wouldn't really know that with his generally cheerful demeanor. Despite his fears about space travel, exploring other planets is always fun, so long as he gets to stay on, or close to, solid ground. "Not my idea of a field trip," he remarks to Rodimus as he exits through the hatch. "Personally, I'd rather go to Florida..." Ever the jokester, he is. Rodimus Prime transforms into his Winnebago mode. Super Veritech Fighter waits for everyone to climb out, then transforms himself. It was great for getting them here, but his vehicle mode was just too big and easily noticable. Not that he was a lot smaller as a robot, but it was certainly more compact. Then pulls out a geological sensor from storage and starts fiddling with it. "I really wish Hound was here, this was more his thing." Super Veritech Fighter transforms into his Jetfire mode. Scattershot gives Rodimus a sideways glance. "What was that?" Right before the part about..." he trails off, then shakes his head. "Know what? Nevermind." He follows the others out, optics scanning the horizon for familiar landmarks. No chance he can risk taking to the skies here. Porsche 959 observes mildly, "You said it, not me, boss." He drives off into the blazing heat, down Jetfire's ramp, his sensitive visual sensors whining already. He complains, "Ugh, looks like Mack the Knife's nightmare out here." "See, Jace, the difference between the Decepticons and Disney is that Disney's been a lot more successful in their empire-building," Rodimus tells Jayson cheerfully before muttering soto-voice, "until recently, anyway," then switching back to his normal, loud voice, he finishes, "but they're both pretty tyranical at times." He starts to roll after Nightbeat, but keeps things relatively slow, as there are people here limited to foot. "Nightbeat, I can figure out that much without you. Find me something I *can't* see on my own." From Exo-Armor Pegasus , Jayson Redfield giggles a bit. "You complain almost as much as Gears, Nightbeat." He giggles a bit more at Rodimus's comment as he follows the Autobots. Jetfire chuckles a bit at the exchange between Rodimus and Jason, then hmms a bit as he fiddles with the scanner again. The heat was making it a bit awkward to calibrate. He takes a few steps (which is quite a few to smaller 'bots) then stops and fiddles a bit more. "The temperature is making it difficult to get fully adequate readings... but at least we know there's no shortage of geothermal energy as a potential power supply. No wonder the Decepticons used it as a hideout before they got a foothold on other planets." Porsche 959 snaps, "I most certainly do not!" He's almost sluggish as he drives. He'd love to let Muzzle floor his throttle, since the terrain here is so mirror-smooth, but he's petrified that his engine will overheat in the sweltering temperatures. "Something you can't see, huh? Well, I'm sure that /Jetfire/ there could tell you that the damage to that one ridge there is consistent with something medium-sized falling from space... but he probably couldn't spot that hole in the ridge, there." Combat: Porsche 959 searches for Hole . Combat: Hole has been found! "Huh," Scattershot replies once the hole is revealed. "Never would have known that was there." He steps closer, raising his rifle eagerly to his shoulder. "Well...we'd better check it out. No telling what's in there." Winnebago stops then transforms and looks towards the ridge, frowning and shading his optics from the blistering sun. It... doesn't do much good. He shakes his head. "I still can't see it, but I'll take your word for it." He waves the others in that direction before transforming again and rolling off. "Come on, guys, let's check this out." From Exo-Armor Pegasus , Jayson Redfield may be enthusiastic, but he's not really sure about staying here for too long. Stupid Charr. "All right! Down the rabbit hole!" He speeds after Rodimus, just a few inches above the ground. "A crater wouldn't do us much good, it's too open due to the impact for... oh." Nightbeat was just making an example before he pointed something out. "Now that would certainly be more applicable than a crater, yes." He follows after the others, still doublechecking his scanner every now and then. "Going to need to recalibrate some survellience sensors to have resistance to this heat... Charr doesn't have rabbits, Jayson." Jetfire fails at putting his name in his poses again Winnebago would have never guessed that pose belonged to Jetfire. From Exo-Armor Pegasus , Jayson Redfield grins, though no one can actually see it. "It's just an expression. Ever read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland?" You climb down through the hole in the wreckage. The inside of this wrecked ship appears to be a jumble of mismatched parts, dating anywhere from 4 million years ago to pro-modern Quintesson design. Various panels are welded, stapled and bolted together in an attempt to keep this flying hunk of junk in the air... Obviously, it failed. Now, due to the crash, the seams are split, pieces of metal once assumed to be crash chairs and monitors are littered all over the place, and this central cabin generally appears to be the Cybertronian version of the legendary Earth ship Titanic. Facing downwards but forward in relationship to the ship is the hatchway leading to the Pilot's cabin. To the left is one of the blast doors leading to the Engine Room. Obvious exits: Hole Cavern Jetfire enters the ship through the hole in the hull. Jetfire has arrived. Rodimus Prime enters the ship through the hole in the hull. Rodimus Prime has arrived. Exo-Armor Pegasus enters the ship through the hole in the hull. Exo-Armor Pegasus has arrived. Scattershot enters the ship through the hole in the hull. Scattershot has arrived. Rodimus Prime transforms as he gets to the hole, then leaps in feet first, landing on the deck with a clang. Deck? Rodimus looks around, eyes wide. "This is... this is incredible!" He glances at Jetfire, then at Nightbeat. "What do you two make of this?" Porsche 959 rises up into his robot mode and turns on his headlights, which are mounted just above his wrists as a robot. They make very handy electric torches. He approaches closer to one of the monitors, his expression intent and thoughtful. "Hmm. Weird the Decepticons haven't stripped it for parts. Some relatively new gear in here, boss. You think they'd noticed it crashing down. Then again... naaah." The puzzle pieces of Porsche 959 rearrange into the hard-boiled Autobot detective, Nightbeat! Scattershot kneels on one knee, shifting his rifle aside (but keeping it close at hand) so that he can examine a loose looking panel. "Whatever it is, it was practically falling apart even before it ended up in here," he comments. "It's really hard to get your literary tomes in a size I won't squish between my fingers--" And Jetfire cuts off there for a moment after climbing in. "... Hmm, this would appear to be some sort of spacecraft intereor instead of the cave I was expecting." Immeadiately his curiosity is perked, and starts poking along the walls abit. "Somewhat of a hodgepodge of technologies though. Prehaps some sort of scavanger ship that crashed here and hit the cliffside with enough force to knock it over on itself." Flicks some dirt and gravel off his fingers. "Despite the state of disarray it would appear the hull and structural integerty have held up otherwise. Remember, this location is farther away from their main establishments, they may not of ever noticed it hitting down..." "Wow!" Jayson exclaims. "This is awesome! Maybe there's some cool stuff in here..." The Pegasus pokes about the ship, as if looking for something. But Jayson, of course, has no idea what he'll even find, if anything. Rodimus Prime nods, bringing his hand up to his chin. "Do we know for sure that it crashed /after/ they occupied Charr? I mean, sure, some parts look new, but can we confirm they're /that/ new?" Without waiting for an answer, he starts to take a look about the cavern himself, poking at areas here and there, although he does glance up from time to time to eye the exit. Jetfire pauses. ".. Rodimus does bring up a good point." Hmmmm. He fiddles with his scanner a bit and produces several beep and pinging noises as he switchs it back to its more typical settings. Then starts scanning assorted panels and consoles. "Let's see if I can get a more accurate dating on some of this hardware, if I can find the more recent piece of machinery that will give us a better idea of the last time its flown. Though regardless..." He looks down to Jayson, as if to confirm what he's about to say. "Finders keepers? That's the phrase, right?" Nightbeat shrugs and holds his hands up, admitting, "I dunno, boss! Some of this scrap looks Quintesson-made, to me, but that could mean anything, really. Buggers have been around forever." He sneers a bit. "I'll leave the carbon dating fiddlery to the scientist, there." Rodimus Prime smirks over at Jetfire and confirms smugly, "Finders keepers." He hesitates, then adds, "Unless a really good reason comes up not to keep this." Like, say, if the ship somehow induces madness in those on board or something. Finding random crashed spaceships isn't always a good thing in this part of the galaxy. Rodimus pauses thoughtfully by the exit leading further into the ship. "I think we should explore further before getting too settled in the bridge section. We can always come back here later." Scattershot drops the plate he's pried free and then stands up, readying his weapon again. "'Finders keepers'? If we can /keep/ any Decepticons from finding it, maybe. He follows Jetfire over to peer around him at what he's looking at, then wanders over to see what Nightbeat's up to. Finally he ends up next to Rodimus. "Sounds good to me," he says. "Maybe we'll find a ship's armory." Jetfire lets out a somewhat exapserated sigh. "If I had known we would be finding derelict spacecraft I would of brough more appropriate hardware for salvage analysis... for now, its safe to say it's been for a while either way... prehaps other parts of what remains of the ship will provide more clues." An earthquake shakes the ground, followed a few seconds later by the ominous sound of rumbling, another reminder that Charr is a volcanically active planet. "Well, let's see what /is/ next, but sure, keep an optic out for the armory," Rodimus answers as he heads towards the hatch. He pauses and braces himself as the area shakes, then looks back at the others and hmphs. "We'll have to be careful." Because they totally wouldn't have been careful otherwise. Rodimus Prime moves through the ripped hull back to the cavern. Rodimus Prime has left. Jetfire moves through the ripped hull back to the cavern. Jetfire has left. Exo-Armor Pegasus moves through the ripped hull back to the cavern. Exo-Armor Pegasus has left. Scattershot moves through the ripped hull back to the cavern. Scattershot has left. The ceiling of this huge cavern, the former lair of the leeches, reaches up so high into the darkness that only a guardian robot could truly see it. The dark yellowish walls seem to be weirdly textured with an almost hexagon pattern that extends over 90% of the available surface area, but is dull, cracked, and dry. The floor is made of a rough, leathery material, and to one side is an opening in the floor, revealing access to the underground river channels. The strange scent of rust mixed with sulfur and a hint of cinnamon is almost overwhelming in the hot, arid air. For some reason, large as this place is, air doesn't seem to be circulating too well. Contents: Scattershot Exo-Armor Pegasus Jetfire Rodimus Prime Wreck Obvious exits: Channel A pile of what looks like broken, mismatched metal containers of all sizes and shapes lies on the far side of the chamber, strongly reminiscent of the landscape on the planet Junkion, but the lines seem familiar... This is actually some kind of ship, though not even a Junkion ship looks this bad! It's not just from crash damage, either. Whoever built this ship didn't have the innate mechanical genius of the Junkions. It was well on its way to falling apart even before hitting the ground. "No body panic, that seismic activity was not very close," Jetfire remarks. Then adds under his breath, "Yet, at least. Either way, if this has stood here this long, there shouldn't be much threat of a collapse. Prehaps if enough of the hull is in intact we can use it as part of the outpost in itself as an entrance way." Exo-Armor Pegasus wanders back to the group, the pilot not having found anything. At least, nothing worth snatching. As it turns out, the rest of the ship is in such bad condition that the group finds itself outside the wreck shortly. Rodimus whistles. "This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder. Or, 'curiouser and curiouser', I guess you could say." He smirks back at Jayson. "Looks like the Wonderland reference was apt." From Exo-Armor Pegasus , Jayson Redfield grins, though, as before, no one can see it, and the exo holds up its arm to give Rodimus a thumbs-up. Scattershot looks over one shoulder to examine the profile of the wreck, then turns to survey the cavern they find themselves in. He flexes a knee to toe the ground a few times, then moves over to the side of the channel. "Are you kidding me?" he murmurs, then turns to look back at the others. "Is Charr supposed to have /water/?" Nightbeat listens to the rumble of the earthquake and confirms Jetfire's assessment, "Yeah, not too near. And hey, even Earth's moon's got water. Stranger things have happened. I guess this is down too deep for it to boil off? "Apparently it does." Jetfire replies. "It's not as strange as you might think, Scattershot. Much of Earth's most tectonically active seismic chains are -under- water, after all. Or it's not close to any heat vents," he adds to Nightbeat's comment, even as he walks over to examine one of the walls. "Though... this pattern of stone does -not- look like it was hued by water corrosion, that much is for certain." Rodimus Prime shakes his head as he looks around. "No. Too regular." He kneels and touches the material of the Earth. "And whatever this is, it doesn't feel like any kind of dirt or stone /I've/ ever seen." He smirks. "Maybe if we had Kup with us, he could tell a story or two, though." Scattershot begins walking around the channel, looking for a way around. After only a few strides he halts and then turns to look at the others. Siesmic chains? Patterns of stone? These don't seem to interest him much (he's probably only talking this much to make it clear that he's not a token redshirt). So now, Scattershot leans over the channel, trying to peer into the water. "Wonder where it /goes/," he muses. "Where it ends up?" Another river channel, half-filled with churning water. Yes. Getting mistaken for a token redshift is a bad, bad thing. Nightbeat can tell stories. They're not very good stories, so he keeps his trap shut and just examines one of the river channels which is churning right along. He listens to the sound, and from the sounds of it... this is an open channel, not just groundwater in a rock matrix. From Exo-Armor Pegasus , Jayson Redfield wouldn't mind a story from Nightbeat. Might be as fun as Kup's stories. "Well, we could follow it," Rodimus suggests. He frowns at the channel. "It doesn't look /that/ deep." Then, to test it, Rodimus jumps /into/ the channel. So much for caution! The water maybe goes up a little past his knees. Jayson might need to sit on someone's shoulder, but everyone else should be fine. Rodimus Prime drops into the channel with a splash. Rodimus Prime has left. Jetfire drops into the channel with a splash. Jetfire has left. Scattershot drops into the channel with a splash. Scattershot has left. Exo-Armor Pegasus drops into the channel with a splash. Exo-Armor Pegasus has left. You drop into the channel with a splash. Ripples of not water, but smooth, pastel blue marble cover the floor of the chamber like frozen waves. There was never a lake here, though, only the facade of one. The flow of water carved these imitation waves and swirls eons ago, when this was the bed of a mighty river. Now, only the petrified vestiges remain in the marble to mark the course of a river that apparently evaporated millions of years ago. The smooth, fine-grained walls and ceiling are the purest of white in color and have a silky, opalescent sheen, obviously from a different sedimentary layer than the floor below. If all is quiet, the sound of water running somewhere can be heard, echoing faintly throughout the cavern. Contents: Exo-Armor Pegasus Scattershot Jetfire Rodimus Prime Obvious exits: Channel Tunnel Rodimus Prime trudges through the channel, then pauses when it leads to yet another channel. He looks around, mouth open slightly, then grins. "Wow! This place is... beautiful." From Exo-Armor Pegasus , Jayson Redfield doesn't need to sit on someone's shoulder. He has his exo still! And given that said exo is airworthy, he's up above the channel, leisurely following the Autobots. "Oh, wow," he says in awe, in complete agreement with Rodimus. Scattershot pans his gaze around. "Eh. Could use a little steel plating." Jetfire sloshes his way down with the others, despite the water only being just above his ankles due to being taller than everyone else present. "... Wow. Well now we know the Decepticons haven't found this place, they would of ripped it apart looking for resources without a second consideration of the natural beauty it depicts." You shift your attention to a new location. You begin scouting out Magnetite Mine... Nightbeat kneels down and touches the smooth blue marble with a hand, remarking, "I've seen banks with worse facades, I'll tell you that. Even before they were robbed, mind you. The bullets always do wreck things up a bit. But hmm, this place ain't the end of the road!" Rodimus Prime nods, spying a twisty, turning tunnel that seems to lead off to the darkness. He turns on the headlights on his shoulders, even if they're pointed in more or less the wrong direction. They still help. "A bit further on?" He looks back at the others. "Although so far, I think we may have found where we should put our outpost!" Jetfire replies, "It wouldn't hurt to double-check the other passages around, just to make sure we don't get any surprises." Rodimus Prime nods. "Exactly. So far, this place has been one surprise after another - sooner or later, we're bound to find an unpleasant one!" He starts to head down the twisty little tunnel. "Let's see where this leads, hmm?" Rodimus Prime moves south into the tunnel. Rodimus Prime has left. You move south into the tunnel. Narrowing again, this section of cavern is more like a tunnel. The entire east wall is a solid mass of metallic black crystals shaped like miniature pyramids, sparkling brilliantly in the light. Scattered around are odd pieces of ceramics, in the form of small boxes, primitive digging tools, and pillars to stabilize the ceiling. The west side was apparently once another exit from the tunnel, now sealed by a massive pile of collapsed granite slabs as well as fragments from the shattered ceramic pillars that failed their intended purpose to prevent the cave in. Immediately noticeable is a very strong pull, almost enough to drag a normal-sized Transformer off his or her feet. It is an effort just to stand still. Contents: Rodimus Prime Obvious exits: Tunnel Tunnel Jetfire emerges from the tunnel to the north. Jetfire has arrived. Exo-Armor Pegasus emerges from the tunnel to the north. Exo-Armor Pegasus has arrived. Rodimus Prime is not a normal sized Transformer. He's larger. Not just larger, but stronger than most. Even so, he seems to be exerting some effort to stand upright. He grits his teeth as he forces himself to continue to walk, with some effort. "Okay, so far I'm voting that lake-looking place instead of here." Jetfire errrs as his scanner unit starts to fluxate wildly. "Be careful guys, I'm getting a large amount of magnetic interference up ahead.. whoa." There's a thud as Jetfire attempts to stop, but the magnetics get the better of the larger Action Scientist-bot and he thunks down on his aft due to being off balance. "... I second that vote." Nightbeat is a bit runty and weak, for a car Autobot, and he /is/ dragged off his feet and sent skidding face-first across the floor. He eventually hits the wall, crumpling a bit. There is a Nightbeat-coloured stain left on the floor. He grunts out, "Gnn." Rodimus Prime watches Jetfire fall and frowns. "Maybe we should... should put off further explorations until later?" He smirks. "I... don't see the Decepticons coming at us from this route. Something non-metallic, maybe, but not Decepticons." An earthquake shakes the ground, followed a few seconds later by the ominous sound of rumbling, another reminder that Charr is a volcanically active planet. Nightbeat points out, "Nebulans. They could send Nebulans after us... maybe. Dunno. Muzzle's got metal in his bones, but he's not feeling too hot about an active test, and - whoah!" "Unless they had someone with a magnetic forcefield, but even then, they'd be heavily drained by the time they got through I would wager." Jetfire fortunately doesn't have much trouble getting back up, he's still stronger than the magnetic force... when he's paying attention, at least. ".. It's like a much more powerful version of the Cobalt Plains, almost." Though even his steps are a bit heavier as he backs up a bit. "Yeah. As much as I would love to explore farther, the sheer variation in environments we've already seen is a good indication that prehaps a more thoroughly prepared survey crew is needed." Then the ground rumbles, almost enough to knock RODIMUS off his feet. He chuckles. "I'm going to take that as a sign that you're right, Jetfire." With that, he turns to follow Jetfire back. "Jetfire, if we set something up in that blue room, I want you to work as much as possible with the surroundings that's already in place. I'd hate to destroy something like that." Jetfire nods his head a bit as he heads back for the passage they came from. "Trust me Rodimus, I share your sentiment entirely."
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