Ep 1 - The City of Roses (Closed)
Apr 16, 2014 10:42:29 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2014 10:42:29 GMT -5
All of Dart's sidestepping and the welts on her chest did nothing for Ghost's peace of mind. Yes, Pyrotech was clear in his directions; yes, he was good at stepping back and letting a frame work at his own speed (which was glitched-rare in an officer); he had a lot of qualities that Ghost liked on an overseer.
But if someone as mincy-quick as Dart to obey had gotten disciplined like that, Ghost rather thought Mister Utmost either had a short fuse, or a really capricious one.
He'd waved away Dart's apologetic look; you couldn't help dust being dust. For his own part Ghost was trying here and there to rub at his vents absentmindedly, like a man covered in bits of dry hay would scratch at them.
Ghost had to actually focus on the lack of an alarm of any kind, because once again old-and-tried battle instincts didn't like it; he had to pointedly remind himself that Autobots laid out alarms around every nook and cranny - humans had no reason to. Some part of him also itched to go back to long-gone duties. Fix the valve that was letting pressure escape from somewhere, steam advertising it as loud as a neon holo. Replace insulation, re-clip lines securely, clean housings; the tunnels were solid but the infrastructure within them was... well, kinda shoddy. Even for humans. One would think with as many as there were of them, there'd be more hands to do that kind of maintenance...
Once the door was open he scuttled smoothly out of the officer's way, familiar at that point with Mister Utmost's habit of striding regally in past whatever obstacle had once been in his way. He slid back, along a wall, bow before him.
It was a little shocking to suddenly see, clearly, their surroundings when Pyrotech turned on his headlights. The generator was about as massive a beast as Ghost had imagined, and he admitted to immediate relief that he would not have to find a way to wrestle the massive thing out to wherever Pyrotech wanted it. He did allow himself to look it over, briefly fascinated. Primitive though it may be, the generator was a little bit of human ingenuity, ancestor of the portable power cell. Well... not so portable, but still. His attention returned sharply to the officer with the new set of instructions. "Yes, sir." Even as he answered, Ghost was turning slowly to examine, and scan, the contents of the room.
The wiring first caught his attention, though the cable was not far behind. It wasn't that they were particularly rare or exotic or what-have-you, no; the thing was, making either in such large quantities, particularly with the 'Nemesis' always engaged in one skirmish or another, was hard. He didn't know what the big ship had in the manner of raw supplies or basic manufacturing facilities, and he sure as slag wasn't about to ask after that kind of thing.
The wire, for example, was your basic, extrude-braid-coat insulated wire. It was the single, simplest, most slag-all used and useful bit of hardware you could have access to. And yet Ghost could count in one hand's worth of talons the times he'd actually had it on hand to replace rather than splicing old, stripped stuff.
The cabling, in its heavy spools, caught his attention for two different reasons: one, a spool was glitch-easy to roll forward and two, Pyrotech was going to need something to run the power the generator would give him from Point A to Point B.
All this thinking, of course, was going by on the assumption that Mister Utmost didn't already have those things; if he did, however, and therefore didn't want them, Ghost was thinking of snagging one of those wire bundles for himself...
"Wire looks good, sir." He walked as quietly as he could through the morass of abandoned goods, clutter and junk. He only stopped to examine switches and boards if he could detect any electronic components to them - anything else would be predacon-level ancient, and who knew if it'd be any good. Ghost could splice junk together to cobble working tunnel systems; he could not do the same with relics. "Cable's primitive, but it'd do in a pinch if you don't have power carriers. And it's easy to snag. Anything on a spool's worth the taking, sir."
In a flash of inspiration, he also broadened his search to seek LEDs and, more importantly, the optical fiber that humans usually attached them to. "Most anything here's that's not new it's going to rust, sir." He lifted off a switch and rubbed residue off his talons. "From the boxes I'd just take the bolts to ground the generator, unless you've got something to do the job already, sir."
But if someone as mincy-quick as Dart to obey had gotten disciplined like that, Ghost rather thought Mister Utmost either had a short fuse, or a really capricious one.
He'd waved away Dart's apologetic look; you couldn't help dust being dust. For his own part Ghost was trying here and there to rub at his vents absentmindedly, like a man covered in bits of dry hay would scratch at them.
Ghost had to actually focus on the lack of an alarm of any kind, because once again old-and-tried battle instincts didn't like it; he had to pointedly remind himself that Autobots laid out alarms around every nook and cranny - humans had no reason to. Some part of him also itched to go back to long-gone duties. Fix the valve that was letting pressure escape from somewhere, steam advertising it as loud as a neon holo. Replace insulation, re-clip lines securely, clean housings; the tunnels were solid but the infrastructure within them was... well, kinda shoddy. Even for humans. One would think with as many as there were of them, there'd be more hands to do that kind of maintenance...
Once the door was open he scuttled smoothly out of the officer's way, familiar at that point with Mister Utmost's habit of striding regally in past whatever obstacle had once been in his way. He slid back, along a wall, bow before him.
It was a little shocking to suddenly see, clearly, their surroundings when Pyrotech turned on his headlights. The generator was about as massive a beast as Ghost had imagined, and he admitted to immediate relief that he would not have to find a way to wrestle the massive thing out to wherever Pyrotech wanted it. He did allow himself to look it over, briefly fascinated. Primitive though it may be, the generator was a little bit of human ingenuity, ancestor of the portable power cell. Well... not so portable, but still. His attention returned sharply to the officer with the new set of instructions. "Yes, sir." Even as he answered, Ghost was turning slowly to examine, and scan, the contents of the room.
The wiring first caught his attention, though the cable was not far behind. It wasn't that they were particularly rare or exotic or what-have-you, no; the thing was, making either in such large quantities, particularly with the 'Nemesis' always engaged in one skirmish or another, was hard. He didn't know what the big ship had in the manner of raw supplies or basic manufacturing facilities, and he sure as slag wasn't about to ask after that kind of thing.
The wire, for example, was your basic, extrude-braid-coat insulated wire. It was the single, simplest, most slag-all used and useful bit of hardware you could have access to. And yet Ghost could count in one hand's worth of talons the times he'd actually had it on hand to replace rather than splicing old, stripped stuff.
The cabling, in its heavy spools, caught his attention for two different reasons: one, a spool was glitch-easy to roll forward and two, Pyrotech was going to need something to run the power the generator would give him from Point A to Point B.
All this thinking, of course, was going by on the assumption that Mister Utmost didn't already have those things; if he did, however, and therefore didn't want them, Ghost was thinking of snagging one of those wire bundles for himself...
"Wire looks good, sir." He walked as quietly as he could through the morass of abandoned goods, clutter and junk. He only stopped to examine switches and boards if he could detect any electronic components to them - anything else would be predacon-level ancient, and who knew if it'd be any good. Ghost could splice junk together to cobble working tunnel systems; he could not do the same with relics. "Cable's primitive, but it'd do in a pinch if you don't have power carriers. And it's easy to snag. Anything on a spool's worth the taking, sir."
In a flash of inspiration, he also broadened his search to seek LEDs and, more importantly, the optical fiber that humans usually attached them to. "Most anything here's that's not new it's going to rust, sir." He lifted off a switch and rubbed residue off his talons. "From the boxes I'd just take the bolts to ground the generator, unless you've got something to do the job already, sir."