Ep. 0.5 - Ice - Closed

"Yeah. The scary thing is he'd survive this kind of stuff. He sorta on the tough-to-frag side of things. On most bots, this would certainly turn their processors to toast," said Blaster, "this certainly isn't stuff for script-kiddies. This is what it takes to keep Soundwave out."

He was very much proud of his cyber security system. He has programmed it mostly from scratch. It took him a little while just to come up with it. But it was one of his most favourite projects.

"It's all set up to detect someone like Soundwave. If I can break it, it's not good enough. Oh! Check out this viral mine trap I set up! It's my favourite. One wrong move and you don't just get bombed with one virus. You get bombed with ALL of them! It takes AGES just to work around all of them at once! That's why I love it," said Blaster.

Blaster jacked out as well. He paused for a moment allowing the room around him to take shape. He paused for a moment to stretch.

"Thanks, mate! It's pretty state of the art given with what I have to work with. But that's what it takes to keep hackers like Soundwave out," said Blaster, "But I do think we can do better. Right now, it's just me watching it. I need some more optics looking at this. I do a fantastic job on my own. But I'm just one mech. What we need is some sort of highly trained group to keep an eye on it. And since Soundwave does have symbiots, we need to start symbiot-proofing smaller areas where they may get in."

Blaster paused for a moment to think it over. Steeljaws was a great asset to have. But on the other hand, letting a neutral in to handle something as delicate in nature as Autobot security? He weighed out his options carefully. On the other hand, Steeljaws has shown himself to be quite competent and reliable. Furthermore, Blaster really wanted to free up more of his time.

"That sounds like a plan. But since well, Steeljaws is a neutral, I'm going to suggest a probationary period. Not that he hasn't shown to be a security issue. It's more or less a procautionary thing and furthermore, it give him the chance to decide if in the end this is exactly what he wants to be doing on going," said Blaster.

Steeljaw made a habit of knowing what was going on, particularly if it involved the parts of the base that impacted his own upkeep. Conversations between both of the mechs that he ostensibly reported to, concerning the current security... well. That more or less impacted everything Steeljaw did every day.

Which wasn't to say he was lurking. He wasn't. Certainly not in the air duct - bless the humans and their need for breathable atmosphere - one room off of the control room. It wasn't lurking. It was just where he had happened to sit his aft down for some much needed maintenance.

::Be there in a klik,:: he commed back, and then proceeded to count off the time units of that klik, industriously finishing the polish of his left back pede, before rising to his feet and making his way back to the primary control room duct precisely on time. Nudging the grate aside, Steeljaw twisted out of it at a ninety degree angle, clamping onto the ceiling as he dropped out of the duct. A leap took him to the wall, and from there down to the level of the control banks. "You called?" he asked brightly.

"Permanent monitor duty," Jazz chimed in cheerfully. "All the base feeds we're setting up route to you when you're on duty, with the standard alerts routing to you as well as Prime and the officers when you're not on duty. You can set it all up to feed remote if you want, go on walkabout, whatever. More folks to wander past the biggest security holes with a purpose isn't a bad thing, either. Anything triggers, you'll have authority to enable and troubleshoot any of the automated systems, as well as letting the engineers know when anything security-related comes up dead or broken."

He leaned on the back of the monitors chair. "Folks on monitors would back you up whenever they're not doing anything else exciting. And...hopefully you'll have the most boring security specialist position ever and never have to do anything beyond watching a whole lot of nothing."

And, since he was talking to a Neutral, "And, just so we're all on the same page, this is a NON-combat post. You are not to engage any enemy or possible hostile that makes it into the base. Anything makes it in here, I trust you'll dive for the vents and call in a heavy-hitter."

"In exchange for these responsibilities," Jazz grinned, "you get increased rights to Autobot facilities and services. We got ourselves a weapon specialist and medic that I believe you might be interested in speaking with? Maybe? Possibly?"

"Right now it's probationary meaning that if you're not at all happy about this, you have right to dissolve it and back out. But if you discover that this is what you want to be doing, by all means just let us know," said Blaster, "This alright with you, Jaws?"

Six months. Half of a planetary rotation in local time, but barely anything in Cybertronian terms. Enough to get a feel for it, decide if he wanted to continue doing it. Enough to find out if there were any other options.

Enough that he would have to start making some decisions by then, but in the meantime it was a generous offer and appropriately open ended on both ends. Steeljaw appreciated that.

"It sounds fine," he assured them. "Six months, then, and we can re-evaluate." He tipped his head to the side, one shoulder lifting slightly in a partial shrug. "I will reserve the right to break contract if a Neutral ship comes through with a flight path out of this solar system and an extra berth gone spare." He pulsed a wry 'it's not personal' feel to them, underscoring the Neutral aspect. "The chances of that, however, are vanishingly spare."

Sitting back on his haunches, he looked at them both. "I presume I'm to report to one or both of you?"