Hazmat
Aug 7, 2016 17:06:06 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2016 17:06:06 GMT -5
PLAYER INFO
Name/Alias: Alex
Age: 28
Where did you find us?: Google search
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Hazmat
Nickname: Haz
Age: Sparked during the Golden Age. Sooo… 60’s
Gender: Male
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Autobot
Original Occupation: Removal, transport, and decontamination of hazardous materials. Toxicologist. Occasional transport of non-hazardous materials.
War Occupation: mobile artillery commander, toxicologist
Occupation/Specialization: Custodial duty, hazardous duties, repairs, toxicologist/medic’s assistant
Appearance: Hazmat is big, even for a cybertronian. He stands eye to eye with Optimus Prime and his build is similar to that of Optimus, but he’s waist is almost as wide as the Prime’s chest, has thicker heavier plated arms, a large backpack unit similar to Ratchet’s pack, and has thicker legs and bigger feet to support his massive amount of weight so he’s technically bigger then the Prime. However his hands have only four fingers and are thicker like Bulkhead’s hands. His features are smooth but have sharp angles. Taking on the vehicle form of an airport fire suppressant rescue truck, Hazmat is tough and well armored around his legs, torso, arms, and shoulders. The armor around his joints is thinner though. Also his vehicle form is littered throughout his body.
Beginning with his large blockish black pedes that have three small squares around the front of the pedes to make it seem as if Hazmat has “toes” on his pedes but they are there to help spread out his weight over a wider area. These lead up to his bright green lower legs, where the rear wheels of his alternate are housed in armored resets located on the outer side of the lower legs. The armor on the lower legs keeps going upwards to protect the knees with large block-shaped armor plates. These are connected to the upper legs and waist which are colored black. Located here on the outer sides of his thighs are a pair of rectangular cases that go from Hazmat’s hips to his knees, which act as the containers for his weapons. Reaching up to his large and wide green and black torso there is clear evidence of the cab across his chest, but the breakable glass has been replied with black metal shutters with a green Autobots crest painted in the middle of it. Behind those shutters is a gap just big enough for two fully grown humans… or a trio of small ones. The headlights of the alternate are located on the bottom edge of his chest while the front row of flashing lights that double has his hazardous material scanners for his decontamination system.
Connected to there are his green shoulder where the front tires are stored, mounted on the back of the shoulder armor that starts out as blockish but the further away from the torso you go the rounder it gets. Extending from the shoulder armor are Hazmat’s thick black arms which end with his 4 digit servos. The fingers are relatively thick and have armored plates that protect the knuckles similar to Smokescreen’s servos, though instead of the protective armor stemming from above the joints like Smoke’s, Hazmat’s instead come from below the joints giving every piece of his digits a raindrop shape. Connected to Hazmat’s back is a black and green backpack unit that houses the water and foam tanks of his alternates form. Small hatches on the top of the backpack houses the nozzles of Hazmat’s alternate form.
Hazmat’s black helm is cylinder in shape with a domed top. There is an indent in the front for Hazmat’s silver face and his yellow eyes and green eyebrows. Just above his brow there is a green brow guard that juts out from his cylinder like helm. The entire brow guard can extend down like a motorcyclist’s helmet, all the way to Hazmat’s chin, pulling a green face guard down with it that protects Hazmat’s entire faceplate while a semi-transparent yellow visor protects his eyes while still allowing visibility. A pair of green antenna extends out from the upper corners of the indention of Hazmat’s helm and are pointed upwards and back, extending till they are level with the top of Hazmat’s helm.
Altmode:
2014 Oshkosh Striker 3000 6X6 ARFF Crash Truck
History:
Even during the Golden Age of Cybertron somethings that were done produced a byproduct, some of them were quite hazardous to the health of some Cybertronians. While the amount of hazardous materials was always small the fact of the matter was that it couldn’t be allowed to build up or it could have nasty side effects, or removing contaminates from usable materials. Thus multiple Cybertronians were assigned the task of decontaminating the hazardous materials and then hauling them to where the now useful materials can be used, or recycled… mostly recycling.
However some hazardous materials, such as unstable Energon, could only be stabilized on sight and had to be transported to specially equipped facilities to be properly processed before they could be used or broken down, in which case transportation of those materials were required. However transporting hazardous materials on the Cybertronian highways poses too much of a risk to the rest of Cybertron’s population if the shipping container leaks or if an unexpected event such as an accident occurs, while transporting via flight is even more dangerous because experiencing turbulence during flight could agitate the hazardous materials to the point that they might actually explode. So isolated transportation in the form of tunneled highways was the way to go, and most of these ‘custodian’ mechs and femmes were locomotives that could tow box cars so they could haul a massive amount of their volatile cargo without requiring backup.
Hazmat is one such custodian bot, and he did it proudly with his helm held high. While one might think that cleaning up the toxic waste of Cybertron would be a horrid job, but it came with many bonuses such as a great supply of Energon to aid him in producing the chemicals for his emitters and helped pay for other expenses. He was also one of the few custodian bots that was actually armed to defend himself from the vermin that roamed Cybertron’s underbelly… like scraplits, Empties, or criminals that were looking for a place off the grid to do some dirty dealing. He was also a trained and equipped toxicologist so he could treat any Cybertronian that found themselves in a hazardous or quarantined zone. There were other Hazmat cleaning Cybertronians that were armed and others that had some medical training but Hazmat was the first to have both. This fact made him a bit full of himself when it came to doing his job, and wouldn’t let anyone say otherwise. It was getting to the point that Hazmat seemed to view himself as one of the most important Cybertronian on Cybertron, despite the fact there were thousands of other hazmat units across the entire planet. True he was one of the most versatile Hazmat units out there and one of the youngest, but he was still basically only a Cybertronian custodian… though that never prevented his ego from growing.
That all changed when the caste era began, and all Cybertronian custodians found themselves at the bottom of the caste… and Hazmat’s world crumbled. He couldn’t believe it, and he’s ego couldn’t accept it! He, Hazmat, the most important Cybertronian on all of Cybertron, possibly the next prime, was reduced to scrounging for Energon, and no one seemed to care! He was a recognized toxicologist! He should’ve been up in the towers with the other scientists and doctors… but no, he was on record as a custodian and would only be recognized as such. Miners had more rights than him! Angered over the direct insult to whom he was, Hazmat began to plot a scheme to get even with the Council for reducing him to nearly the bottom caste. It would be simple too! All he’d have to do is place some toxin by a ventilation shaft that led into the Council chambers, and let the toxin slowly wear them down till they fall over. To the currently delusional Hazmat it seemed like a great idea, and he’d never be caught since no one would ever look at the custodian for being the cause of a hazardous toxin afflicting the Council. They’d only realize how important Hazmat was after all, he would be given a much better class, and then they would ask him to come in and clean up the mess in the Council chambers so no one else would fall victim to it.
However Hazmat never acted on his foolish plan. He was thinking about how to make arrangements to get near the council ventilation system when he went to the Order of Vector Sigma for a little help in getting some Energon when he met a very interesting person; the priest Altruous. Even through what started their conversation was as insignificant as Hazmat wondering if the rust that was on Altruous’s left pede was caused by acid and wanted to scan it to check, the old priest’s wisdom and insight let him read the custodian bot like an open book. Altruous could clearly see that Smokestack was harboring some anger and wanted to help solve whatever was causing the mech before him to harbor such rage. Hazmat relented after a few tries and explained how the Council knocked him down to his low class and that he intended to avenge himself. Instead of turning Hazmat in for a the crime he intended to commit, Altruous instead carefully talked Hazmat out of trying to poison the council by explaining that everywhere around the council chamber is monitored and he’d be caught on the spot, and invited Hazmat to return for more talks. Still affected by his anger but having nowhere else to turn to, Hazmat begrudgingly agreed.
At first the talks didn’t go much of anywhere, but over time Hazmat started to realize just how much of jerk he was being for thinking he was the most important custodian Cybertronian when all the others were in the same boat of losing income. However they were still all very useful and needed even with the low caste which turned out to be as low as Hazmat thought it was. So finally he let go of his anger. He also realized that there was no way he could live his decadent life style even before the caste system cut his wages. With a little help from Altruous in money management, Hazmat managed to decrease his expenses to the point that he could survive. He also learned the value of wisdom, so Hazmat all but threw away his ego and started to focus more on using his head. As a result Hazmat proved that wisdom doesn’t come with age; it comes with a willingness to learn from your experiences that come with age.
Now with a wiser and more honorable Hazmat on the job, work in the removing and decontaminating hazardous materials took on a new look for Hazmat. Before it was just a job he took pride in because of his overinflated ego… but now he truly realized what purpose he had: he was protecting the ‘bots of Cybertron from disease. Oh sure, it was the job of doctors and medics to repair the injured… but the job of the custodians was to make sure that no one got sick in the first place. With this thought in mind Hazmat redoubled his efforts doing his assigned tasks, and soon he was out pacing just about all the other custodial bots that he knew. Now most custodians occasionally ran into a criminal or two in the underbelly of Cybertron attempting to use the old forgotten areas to do their dealings, most custodians would actually ignore it so they don’t get on the bad side of the criminals while some might join in the dealings to get some extra credits. Hazmat was one of the few custodians that not only reported the criminal activity to the police but offered to help catch the criminals. The answer was normally a no but once in a while Hazmat was the one that had to chase the criminal because they would flee into a hazardous zone that the police wouldn’t dare go… in which case Hazmat would emerge from the toxic fumes with a sick Cybertronian in his servos and would use his skills as a toxicologist to cure and fix the criminal on the spot, then hand ‘em over to the authorities.
Over time Hazmat had opened up enough to make a few new friends. One of them being a waste hauler femme named Shale. Over time Shale and Hazmat became more then friends. However during one trip down into Cybertron’s underbelly Hazmat accidently ran across Shale selling drugs and their relationship was quickly thrown into shaky territory. Angered, Hazmat couldn’t forgive Shale right away or soon afterwards so to give himself time to think he agreed to transport a small collection of quarantine transport cars to Kaon. Normally such a thing wouldn’t be required but a rare toxin had been found in Kaon’s underbelly and transporting it long distance to the only reclamation center that could properly dispose of it required very specific means of containment.
However it wasn’t long after Hazmat arrived in Kaon that the Great War began, and Hazmat found himself unable to escape the home of the Decepticons while the foot soldiers of Megatron’s army patrolled the underground for non-loyalists to “offer” them a chance to join. At first Hazmat simply tried to stay out of the way and went to stay with the other custodian mechs of Kaon, assuming that they felt the way he felt in that a cleaner didn’t have any place in a war. However Hazmat was wrong since he not only found that the custodian mechs weren’t just Decepticons but were preparing to go on a mission to aid in the Decepticon cause that only they could do thanks to their Hazmat Armor. They even had a few Decepticon warriors acting as their escort. Hazmat wasn’t sure what to expect when he saw all this, but he didn’t expect the custodian mechs to offer a place among them for this mission. Hazmat was hesitant at first but after listening to a recording or two of Megatron’s charismatic speeches along with the custodians talking about how they were treated unequally, Hazmat’s old childish anger and resentment towards the council started to come back to life. Having trouble deciding between his old angers and the wisdom taught to him by Altruous, the fact that he was surrounded by loyal Decepticons pushed Hazmat over the edge and he soon had the ‘Con sigil on his chest.
The first mission that the custodian bots went on was in fact something only they could do; have the walk into a quarantine zone and turn several values to begin the draining process for very large acid tank. The next mission was to gather several tons of scrap metal to be recycled, during which a few vermin tried to attack the custodian mechs and the escorts did fight them off, though when Hazmat joined in the battle and helped win he was offered some combat training. At first Hazmat wasn’t sure since he didn’t exactly want to kill but in end he agreed to it. In between each mission Hazmat was given some combat training ranging from melee, to unarmed, to ranged combat to improve his capabilities.
The sixth mission turned out to be the final part of a six phase mission. The scrap collected was for making containment units while draining the acid tank opened up a way to a storage vault that could only be accessed through one path that was at the bottom of the acid tank that had a very small drain. Unsure of what they were trying to get in the vault, Hazmat asked their escort and was given an alarming answer: the vault was actually a massive containment unit for a large supply of dangerous chemicals that is so deadly it could snuff out a spark in a matter of minutes. Decepticon escorts were trying to make a name for themselves by impressing Megatron by dumping the toxin under Iacon to poison all of the Autobots there. Hazmat couldn’t believe his audio receptors; the very toxin that they intended to transport to Iacon was the same toxin that Hazmat had brought the quarantine transport trucks for. He was now starting to wonder if the requisition for the containers had been part of this plan from the very start.
At that moment Hazmat decided he couldn’t stand being on the Decepticon’s side, charismatic leader or no, wrath of those around him or no… live through it or no, Hazmat couldn’t allow this mission to reach completion. As it turns out there was another custodian bot that similar thoughts and he had simply turned on his heels and started to leave the group. Knowing he couldn’t stop them all on his own, Hazmat stopped him from leaving and, with permission from the rest of the Decepticons, talked to him in private. The Cons thought Hazmat was trying to convince the bot that they were in the right, just as they had convinced him… though in truth Hazmat was asking for Buffer’s help in stopping the group, and Buffer agreed. When the group reached the bottom of the fully drain acid tank and opened a quarantine door at the bottom to reveal a toxin filled room, Hazmat decided to act once all of the custodians mechs had entered the quarantined vault… and brought his hammer down on the head of the lone Decepticon escort, crushing her. Hazmat then entered the vault and, alongside Buffer, used his steam hammer and shot cannon to eliminate the Decepticon custodians… though it was a 2 on 6 battle and it ended with both Hazmat and Buffer really banged up. Even so the two Decepticon traitors worked together to render the toxin useless. They couldn’t render it inert but they could leave the vault door open while they blasted the acid valves. The end result was the acid dissolving the toxin so it got mixed into the acid, resulting in the toxin becoming inseparable from the acid. No one had any hopes of transporting it now. That stuff was stuck in Kaon’s underbelly for good.
Alone, warn out, and their hazmat armor badly damaged, Hazmat and Buffer managed to find a custodian tunnel where the Decepticon recruiters weren’t located and managed to get out of Kaon. However as they traveled Buffer gave into his wounds and died. Hazmat continued to navigate the underground until he reached a small Autobot outpost where he surrendered. A Decepticon custodian was still a Decepticon so Hazmat was made a prisoner of war… one of the first to willingly turn themselves in without putting up any sort of resistance. While in prison getting treated for his injuries Hazmat asked about the Autobot cause, and eventually asked if he could join them. When asked why he wanted to switch sides, the custodian mech told the truth: he didn’t realize what he was signing up onto when he joined the Decepticons, and the moment he found out he tried to undo the damage he had done and then fled… an hoped that he could find redemption for his acts by fighting on the side of the Autobots.
The Autobots were suspicious at first and Hazmat couldn’t blame them, so when they interrogated him Hazmat not only fully cooperated but he volunteered anything he knew as well. This made the Autobot interrogators happy, though the thought of the Decepticons playing with such dangerous toxins was a bit disturbing though at least that batch of it was gone now. However the fact that Hazmat had volunteered the info involving the toxins was enough to prove that he was truly trying to turn over a new leaf, that and he didn’t consider him undoing the damage he had done as the redemption, but rather the first step towards it. Because of all this, Hazmat was given a pardon and allowed to join the Autobots.
Hazmat was given an Autobot crest and started off with simple tasks where he was watched, starting off with being the custodian mech for an outpost, though he had to be unarmed. As time passed he was trusted more and was allowed into other areas of the outpost, and in time was allowed to carry his shot cannon and steam hammer again. During this period he tried to look up Shale to see if she was safe, though when he found out that she was making a bundle off of the drugs being sold during the war he stopped digging because he was a little miffed over the idea of her profiting off of the war and he wondered if she had changed while he had gotten stuck in Decepticon territory. Hazmat was getting the trust of the Autobots he was with, but some still gave him a skeptical look. Fine by him; trust had to be earned and that took time… and from what he could see this war was going to last a long time. It wasn’t until the outpost was attacked by Decepticons that Hazmat’s loyalty to the Autobots was proven to be absolute when he dove head first into enemy fire to protect the outpost’s commanding officer, then took several more hits as he helped hold the Decepticons at bay while the outpost’s internal and external defenses were being brought back online. Once he was fully repaired the outpost’s commanding officer not only thanked Hazmat but promised that he’d start looking for an assignment that fit Hazmat’s still set. At first the custodian mech thought this meant he was going to be assigned as a custodian in a much larger base.
Oh boy was Hazmat’s assumption wrong on that one! Hazmat’s combat abilities, hauling capabilities in his locomotive alternate, and proven loyalty made him perfect for taking part in convoys responsible for hauling supplies and troops to the front line and then pulling the wounded away from the combat zone and to field hospitals where they could be treated. However Hazmat wasn’t going to be an escort for a convoy: Hazmat became one of the convoys. Soon the aging Autobot found himself pulling flatbed cars mounted with swiveling turrets, controlled by other Autobots since Hazmat can’t control them himself while he’s hauling them. While some did argue that attaching mobile artillery units to flat cars pointless and a waste, they couldn’t ignore the results: the artillery were able to stay moving and firing without wasting Energon to move themselves, and the only thing consuming any Energon to move the long train of cannons was Hazmat himself, and he needed less Energon to move all the cannons then one cannon need to move itself! Mobile Artillery Unit 5567-Zeta had been born.
Thus Hazmat found himself doing what he was assigned to do for almost the entire Autobot/Decepticon war; pulling turret mounted cars across war-torn Cybertron delivering fresh troops and supplies to the front lines, then pulling the wounded soldiers away for treatment. It wasn’t like Hazmat went into battle every single time he hauled materials and troops to the front line. He always stopped behind the Autobot line to drop off troops and assisted in the unloading of supplies and loading of wounded, and then would pull out… though occasionally Hazmat did have to ready his weapons and hold his own if the Decepticons ever broke through the Autobot line when he was switching around his cargo… or when the Decepticons launched a surprise attack on his convoy and he had to help defend it but in those situations his job was to keep the convoy moving… he was the form of locomotion for the convoy after all and lacked weapons in that form… though he was an impressive battering ram.
During the war at one point Hazmat had actually managed to fine Shale… or more like came across her by accident when his convoy had to stop to hide from a rather large Decepticon force. Under normal circumstances Hazmat’s convoy could’ve handled them since they almost always has a full platoon of rested troops on board… unless they were hauling wounded which was the case here. While waiting for the Decepticons to pass Hazmat went on a patrol and ran into Shale, and asked her to join the Autobot cause, saying that he’d try his best to get her assigned to his convoy. He almost begged her to until he truly realized what he was asking of her; the femme had no combat experience at all though her greatest aspect was her strength, she wouldn’t get convoy duty but rather would get combat training and be sent to the metal shredder known as the front. When Shale saw the wounded in Hazmat’s convoy that clinched it; Shale wanted nothing to do with the war. Hazmat wouldn’t see her again till he got to Earth.
As the war continued, Hazmat had trouble ignoring the fact that all this conflict was starting to effect the planet in a negative way. His primary function was still that of a custodian mech and those built in talents were telling him that Cybertron itself was getting ‘sick.’ His hazmat sensors were confirming it by detecting higher levels of hazardous materials, some of it a byproduct of combat and some caused by the bioweapons used by the Decepticon. Hazmat found himself treating bioweapon afflicted Autobots more and more till every time he stopped at the front lines he was basically the bioweapon treatment specialist that everyone came to first. The war dragged on and on and Hazmat’s age was starting to act against him, ranging from having difficulty accelerating to the structural integrity of his joints failing due to overuse and old age. Only his growing combat experience, wisdom, and creative way of thinking kept alive in the waning cycles of the war.
He had become the commanding officer of the mobile artillery convoy Zeta and had fought in many battles, including the retaking of Decagon where the Zeta convoy kept the Decepticons unbalanced because they kept raining artillery rounds down on them from where it would normally be impossible to set up mobile artillery so fast… and by the time any Decepticons reached the location where the artillery fire was coming from Hazmat had already moved to another location and had resumed firing. The convoy also placed their turrets in hazmat cars that could be fully sealed or opened at the push of a button, then Hazmat pulled the convoy through quarantined areas to come out within Decepticon territory, opened up the hazmat cars to unleash a barrage of cannon fire to make the Decepticons think they were under attack from an angle away from the main attack group, and then the hazmat cars would close up again for Hazmat to push them back through the quarantined zones so any Decepticons that did find them couldn’t pursue. This method of guerrilla warfare kept the Zeta convoy active since nearly the beginning of the war till its very end. Hazmat wasn’t exactly a famous officer during the war since there were so many other famous heroes fighting on both sides, but he did get noticed occasionally.
Then finally it happened; the call to board the Ark had been sounded. With a full load of resources, Hazmat pulled his convoy towards the Ark, knowing full well that he was about to say goodbye to his home, possibly forever. He had no idea what became of Altruous and Shale, but he couldn’t worry about it. He had one duty, one purpose; get himself and what mechs and femmes he had manning the convoy turrets to the Ark with the full load of supplies the convoy carried.
He failed.
While crossing a damaged bridge the convoy was attacked by Decepticons. One by one the Autobots manning the convoy turrets were killed and Hazmat found himself facing a rather skilled Decepticon on his own. The battle dragged on, even as the bridge that the convoy had been crossing succumbed to its damage and started to crumble, Hazmat was unable to get an upper servo on his opponent but he wasn’t getting beaten either. The battle ended not when one of the two fighters fell, but when the Ark started to fly up into the sky. Hazmat had missed the last bus off of Cybertron. The Decepticon didn’t even have the kindness to finish off the stunned Hazmat, but rather left him alive to slowly die on a dead world.
Trapped on Cybertron, Hazmat rendezvoused with the remaining Autobot forces and continued the war that had destroyed an entire planet. As one of the few Autobots with command authority the aging custodian found himself responsible for far more Autobots now they he ever had been in command of before the Exodus. Several battles were fought over the dwindling supplies that Cybertron had to offer, and in the name of the Decepticon or Autobot cause… and Hazmat was getting tired of fighting. However he couldn’t forego his responsibility to his troops either, which were starting to dwindle as well. In an effort to get resources Hazmat led his troops to the remains of his mobile artillery convoy in hopes of finding some usable equipment, and found that if they distributed the undamaged and repairable parts from the 30 artillery cars that had fallen a total of 7 of the artillery cars could be brought back online. Armed with mobile artillery units Hazmat renamed his post Exodus company Zeta Company after his lost unit. Using the cannons in several hit and run raids allow the Autobots under his command to make headway against the ‘Cons, but on the whole Hazmat’s advances were negligible. Battle after battle the war of attrition on Cybertron ended with both sides virtually annihilating one another and Hazmat was the only one of Zeta Company to survive the trip to Decon’s underground. During the final battle his shot cannon and hammer were destroyed.
Attempting to survive, Hazmat had to strip and scrounge for Energon of any type to survive. At one point he found a long range ground bridge that still functioned, but to survive he syphoned almost all of the Energon from it, leaving just enough for the bridge to give him one jump to another part of Cybertron if he needed to make an escape. The ground bridge became a sort of shelter for Hazmat as his desperate attempt at survival continued.
Hazmat’s living nightmare ended at last when the ground bridge alerted the Autobot of a space fairing vessel approaching Cybertron. Grasping at what could be a false hope Hazmat open contact to find that the vessel was being piloted by an Autobot named Kamal. Hazmat couldn’t believe his audio pickups, but what he heard was even more unreal; Kamal was offering to transport Hazmat to another planet where several other Autobots had gone to… including the last Prime. Hazmat accepted and used the last of the Energon to power the ground bridge to its maximum range, and limped through the bridge and onto Kamal’s vessel. Once Smokestack got to Earth and finally fixed up the damage that had been accumulating, Hazmat was more than ready see what this Earth had to offer. However when he saw that the locomotives on Earth were so restricted with their movement, Hazmat chose to move away from the locomotive form and took on a fire truck as his vehicular form. Now he was capable of driving where ever he was needed to go while still retaining his horsepower.
Hazmat’s long life story was far from over.
Personality:
If someone that knows Hazmat on a personal level were asked to sum up the Autobot’s personality into one word, that word would be chivalrous. Normally an honorable Autobot, Hazmat is the type of bot that you can trust just about anything with, be it your keys or your secrets or even your life. A social bot, Hazmat is usually up for a conversation whenever the need arises and is more than willing to offer his two credits whenever he thinks it’s a good time to do so. Oddly enough he actually likes making quips and puns, the worse the pun he makes the more he’ll smile at them. Diligent and dedicated to his work, Hazmat completes any task that he is given no matter the difficulty… but he isn’t above asking for help if he needs it. He knows the consequences of letting his ego get the best of him. However be advised that if mess up the results of his work just when he’s completed it he’ll make you help him fix it back up. Wise and resourceful, Hazmat actually has some experience in being a leader… not much but it’s there so if need be he can take charge of situations if there is no one else around to do so. When it comes to friendships though Hazmat is willing to give anyone a try at being a friend, but his respect and trust take time to build up. Once you have his trust and respect though he’ll always stand by your side. He occasionally acts a bit fatherly to those that are much younger then him, but then again there are few left that are close to his age so that pretty much means everyone gets the fatherly treatment… unless they are his commanding officers or they ask him not to.
Oddly enough Hazmat finds it a little difficult to communicate sometimes, even though he likes to talk. Sometimes subjects fly over his head while others he’ll misinterpret. The problem arises when he’s not aware that the misinterpretations are wrong, and will only realize it when someone points it out.
While on the battlefield Hazmat is brave, protective of his allies, and a bit ruthless. He doesn’t exactly back down from a fight unless ordered to, but he’s wise enough to know when a battle has become hopeless and will only keep fighting such a battle if there’s something else to aim for besides victory. However when it comes to being merciful to a defeated enemy… Hazmat is lacking in that department. He doesn’t like leaving an opponent alive to have them attack him from behind. However if he’s up against an opponent he fines honorable he might try to get them to join his side. Despite this he does like the occasional duel to keep his skills sharp, or to pass on what he knows.
However Hazmat isn’t without his faults. His temper doesn’t come out much but when he does lose his cool Hazmat’s anger could leave anyone in pieces. He’s also a little on the slow side when it comes to giving out forgiveness, and at times he when he does forgive someone he’ll keep in mind what they did to wrong him and will be slow to trust them again… if ever. He had other flaws besides his temper, such as being a little gullible. While Hazmat is wise that doesn’t mean you can’t pull the wool over his optics, if anything it’s rather easy to get him to fall for a prank or a trap.
Likes:
Puns: Hazmat has a love for making puns, even if they are at his own expense. Now he doesn’t make them constantly, oh no! He knows when it’s time to stop making the puns, but that doesn’t mean he’ll stop making them out right. Some of them are good, while other ones aren’t so good. However most of them are only groan worthy. In a sense this locomotive’s jokes are running low one steam. GET IT?!
Imparting Experience: Like any old mech or old human, Hazmat has loads of experience he’s more than happy to teach it to others that ask for it.
Job well done: This Autobot doesn’t call himself a custodian mech for no reason. He likes to keep himself busy and get any tasks assigned to him completed.
Children: He isn’t quite sure what it is about humans, but something about them just makes him smile softly… and nothing gets him to smile more than human children.
Steampunk: While odd, Hazmat seems to have a liking to what humans refer to as steampunk. This liking to it comes from the fact that Hazmat believes that just because something, or someone, is old doesn’t mean you throw it away and steampunk has that same notion written all over it.
Rust Sticks: Hazmat has one heck of a Cybertronian sweet tooth, and always seems to have a few rust sticks on hand to satisfy a sweetness craving. As to how he gets these sticks with him being on Earth? The mech taught himself how to make them cheaply back when he was young.
Dislikes:
Water: Despite taking the form of a firetruck Hazmat has a fear of water. Small puddles or small ponds are fine... even a swamp doesn’t bother him… but if it’s deep enough for him to become full submerged then get ready to see this Autobot’s “NOPE” face.
Failing to protect those around him: Hazmat almost can’t handle it if he fails to protect someone from harm. If a friend of his dies at the servos of someone else, Hazmat might even go through Optimus Prime to kill his friend’s killer. Fighting the entire War for Cybertron from start to finish left it’s scars.
Ruining his work: While it’s true that Hazmat doesn’t mind dirt, he still prefers areas that are indoors to be clean. So if someone makes a mess of an area that he had cleaned within a few cycles ago, he has a tendency to get mad. However if you mess up what he had just cleaned on that very cycle… expect him to not only shout at you but for you to help him clean it all back up. This includes any repair jobs he’s done too. He won’t be mean about it, but he will insist.
Strengths/Weapons:
Hazmat Armor:The signature armor of Cybertronian custodians such as Hazmat, this armor allows those encased within it to handle environments that most Cybertronians would be terrified of. The outer-most layer is a hard metal shell for deflecting hard impacts that has been treated to withstand some hazards, such as acids, radiation, and viruses. The layers of insulation underneath that are meant to keep out the harmful environmental hazards that Hazmat might come across, such as electricity or extreme temperatures. The final layer of the Hazmat Armor is a network of processors that run throughout Hazmat’s body that make alterations on how the bot’s systems operate to give him the best edge in surviving hazardous situations; increasing the amount of coolant running through his chassis when encountering an extreme amount of heat, raising the internal temperature of his chassis to handle extreme cold, or activating countermeasures to deal with radiation or high amounts of electricity, or an electro-magnetic pulse.
Strength: Hazmat was originally built for hauling massive amount of cargo in his alternate form and that translates into his robot form in the form of great strength.
Wisdom: Having spent so much time learning from all of the experiences of his long life, Hazmat has become quite wise and knows how to use it both on and off the battlefield. He can think on his feet and can more than handle himself in a duel of wits. His wisdom also makes him an impressive teacher and quite patient when he needs to be.
Toxicologist: Thanks to the fact that Hazmat would be the first on the scene if a Cybertronian ever found themselves in a contaminated environment, he’s been trained to treat Cybertronian that are poisoned or contaminated. With a well-equipped lab Hazmat can synthesize most cures that the “sick” Cybertronian can either drink or have it injected into them.
Decontamination Emitters System: DES for short! Cleaning up hazardous materials is what Hazmat was built for… it’s his name for Primus sake! Most hazards for Cybertronians are solids that can get stuck within their tubing, but that also makes it easier to collect them. Now Hazmat has three ways of handling these hazardous materials in preparation for collection; spraying them with a neutralizing agent, coating them with foam, or emitting a spray into the air Hazmat calls the “clumping Agent” to deal with airborne contaminates.
To make the neutralizing agents Hazmat carries several small tanks of chemicals within himself that the DES can mix together to make the needed agent. Hazmat also has two large tanks, one for holding water the other for holding fire-suppressant foam. Now these tanks aren’t capable of transforming without spilling their contents so instead of them being housed within Hazmat they are shifted onto his back, stored in a backpack unit while Hazmat is in his robot form. The fire hose nozzles that were on the roof and front bumper of the alternate form are also located on the backpack unit, positioned to be fired over the shoulders. For suppressing fires it is possible to fire just water or fire-suppressant but there are far more ways to use the DES.
The process of Hazmat cleaning up contaminates starts by scanning the contaminates with his shoulder-blade mounted scanners ((mounted on the roof of his cab while in vehicle mode)) and thus identifying the contaminate so Hazmat can figure out how to deal with it. If the contaminate can be neutralized then the DES starts to mix the needed chemicals that Hazmat is carrying to create the neutralizing agent, and it is then mixed with water to dilute the agent since the straight agent would be harmful to Earth’s environment… and to stretch out Hazmat’s supply of chemicals. The agent is then sprayed onto the contaminate to break it down similar to the way enzymes break down food. If the contaminate will take a long time to break down then the agent mixed up with a foam instead so it will stick to the contaminate. If the hazardous material can’t be broken down then a containment solution is mixed up instead of a neutralizing agent and then mixed up with foam that will solidify on contact with the hazardous material, becoming a brittle clump that a human could break up into flakes, making it safer to move into a hazardous transport container so it can be moved into quarantine. The final method is used on airborne contaminates and almost all of them are handled in the same way; with a solution that Hazmat calls the “clumping agent.” Spraying this smoke like substance into the air, all Hazmat has to do is wait for the neutrally air buoyant particles of the agent to collect the airborne contaminants till they get too heavy and float down to the ground. Hazmat then just sweeps it up. This “clumping agent” has a short half-life so after about 30 minutes it dissolves and fades away. Spraying this agent into the air also makes a good smokescreen.
Weaknesses:
Unarmed:Despite having some impressive weapons during the Great War, Hazmat is now completely unarmed. He’s forced to rely on his strength in battle as a result. He does have his fire hoses that he can use to spray a distant target but they would be a non-lethal weapon since the most his hoses would do is push a light weighted Cybertronian off their feet and would do little to a medium weighted Cybertronian. Against a heavy-weight the hoses wouldn’t do squat. Also the range of the hoses is limited.
Non-combat armor: The Hazmat Armor makes Smokestack resistant to hazards… he is not immune. Eventually he’ll succumb to hazards like cold just like any other Cybertronian, it will just happen a lot slower. Also the networked processors that make up the deepest layer of the Hazmat Armor aren’t under Hazmat’s control. They’re like a human’s immune system; protecting the body from harm or invaders but completely independent of the host’s control. Because of this Hazmat can’t tell it to turn off when he wants it too. Say he got frozen in a solid chunk of ice by a cryogenic weapon, but saw an opportunity to launch a surprise attack if he waited inside the hunk of ice before using his Hazmat Armor to escape… the answer is he couldn’t go for that opportunity because his Hazmat Armor would already be heating him up to melt the ice to keep Hazmat alive. He can’t turn it on whenever he wants to either. Say he got caught in one of Arachnid’s webs and he could escape by heating up his Hazmat Armor to melt the webs, the answer would be a no because he can’t make his armor heat up at will.
Slow, Old, and Oversized: Hazmat is among one of the bulkiest Cybertronians around, but this comes at several costs. All of that weight and being a working mech since the golden age has worn on Hazmat’s joints, so a precise hit to say his knees, elbows, shoulders, or hips can damage those joints without the need to get through all of his armor. Secondly his heavy weight makes it hard for him to accelerate while in his robot form, and even then the most he can do in his robot speed is a jog with long strides. The only way he can manage to get to a running speed is by first charging at max speed in his vehicle mode then transforming mid-charge… but even then he can’t maintain the run for long. This slow speed and slow acceleration translates into issues while Hazmat is in hand to hand combat. He is forced to rely on building up momentum in order to move quickly enough to handle himself in a battle against quicker foes… but even then he’s at a disadvantage because if he loses any momentum it will take him time to regain it. Losing momentum is as easy as needing to change directions more than 45 degrees to avoid getting hit, while getting hit at the wrong angle will also result in the loss of momentum. It’s also lost if he uses all his built up momentum to land a powerful blow. Getting up from a fall is also in issue since gravity will constantly pull him down while he’s trying to get up. Lastly Hazmat sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s really big, he’s colored black and bright green, and he’s slow; all this translates into being a sitting duck.
Not a doctor: While Hazmat can treat Cybertronian illnesses and toxins, he’s not a doctor. Meaning that any repairs he can make are limited to patches.
PTSD: Having spent so much time alone on Cybertron where his only company were the corpses of fallen comrades and any Decepticons that had stayed behind only to attack him, Hazmat has nightmares whenever he enters recharge. A “goodnight sleep” is hard for him to get unless certain circumstances are met, such as a REALLY good day before starting his recharge cycle. If not, then he sometimes needs a recharge inducer.
Hunger: Hazmat is a very large Cybertronian. As a result he needs a lot of Energon to keep on running.
Short On Supplies: The chemicals that Hazmat’s DES uses are hard to come by on Earth, so he has to use them sparingly while on Earth. He also has a limited amount of the stuff in his tanks so when Hazmat is out he has to return to base to make more at a fully equipped lab… which the Autobots don’t always have. Refilling his water tank is easy but refilling his fire-suppressant foam tank is difficult since the large amount he would need to fill his tank can only be found at airports and military insulations… both of which would get suspicious if some random fire and rescue truck rolled up asked for a full tank of fire-suppressant foam. Finally there is no way for his chemicals to harm a Cybertronian… at all. He could take all of his chemicals, mix them in every conceivable way, and then dump all the mixed chemicals onto a Cybertronian and the only result would be a wet Cybertronian. The chemicals can’t even make their paint peel. A Cybertronian could DRINK these chemicals and be fine. Mind you they might ‘eject’ it afterwards because they can’t digest the chemicals but it won’t hurt them.
Special Skills:
Custodian: Hazmat’s main function was decontaminating toxic areas, but he’s also good at cleaning in general which he does with cleaning tools he brought with him from Cybertron. These include a rotary scrubber, a mech sized mop that has a telescoping handle so it can be used by others smaller then him, wet vac, and several other tools for keeping things clean.
Extra Info:
Hazmat has begun to study human culture and wanted a way to interact with humans if he has to. So, he has become rather proficient at using his holoform. His holoform is a strong male in his prime, wearing brown firefighter’s jeans with a T-shirt, and combat boots. Hazmat chose this holoform to intimidate humans so they wouldn’t try to touch him. Too bad Hazmat’s voice isn’t gruff enough to match the holoform… because of this the holoform Ben comes across as a big teddy bear.
Sample RP:
Cold… it was always cold on Cybertron now a cycle. Most planets were warmed not just externally by the sun they orbited, but also internally by their molten cores. The metal planet was no different for a time since its core also internally heated the planet, sending it’s ‘hot of the plate’ Energon coursing through the planet for the population to consume. However Cybertron’s core was no longer functioning, thus it was no longer internally warming the planet. As a result the metal planet was colder now, but as one of the last Cybertronians on the planet looked up at the star filled sky and let out a sorrowful sigh. At that moment he would’ve preferred the sun going dark instead because the Energon that came from Cybertron’s core was also the only fuel that Cybertronians could consume.
And within 10 square clicks there wasn’t a drop of Energon anywhere. The only living Cybertronian within that large area had picked it clean.
Hazmat shook his helm as he rolled his right shoulder as he gazed up at the star filled sky. If he focused he could pretend that he could make out what was left of the exhaust that the Ark had left behind as it had taken off… without him. A low angry growl escaped his voice box as his right servo tightened into a fist. A long duel with a skilled Decepticon that had slaughtered his entire squad was responsible for that… not exactly the ‘Con but rather the duel itself… and Smokestack’s anger about losing the convoy that the squad had been guarding. The old Autobot could’ve retreated from the battle if he had moved fast enough, and then he might have made it to the Ark before liftoff. But no, he had to avenge his fallen comrades even though their last words were for him to run, and that led to one of the longest one-on-one duels in his long life against a much younger ‘Con that was clearly skilled. The duel ended when the sound of the Ark’s first stage thrusters coming online and lifting the last hope of all Autobots into space... leaving the old mech behind on a Primus forsaken wasteland. He fought alongside the other Autobots that got left behind but in the end Hazmat was the only mech left standing in the Deacon’s underground.
Hazmat wasn’t sure what became of the Decepticon that had caused him to miss his only way off of Cybertron, but at the moment it didn’t really matter. So he relaxed and let tightened digits of his servo go slack. He was here, and he’d have to deal with it. With that Hazmat returned to the task at hand; attempt to figure out how to climb down the collapsed tower he had climbed a few hours ago. He squatted down, the hydraulics and joints making up his legs groaning slightly under his weight, to get a closer inspection of the remains of the elevator shaft that he had climbed up to get up the tower in hopes of finding any Energon up there. He had gotten lucky and scrounged enough to fill two cubes… but while he had been scraping the last few drops of Energon into the second cube his audio pickups heard the sound of a crash, and when he got back to the elevator shaft he found that there wasn’t any shaft left.
Which left him a bit of a problem; the only way down was to either take a flying leap and hope he’d handle the long drop, or try to climb down the rusty support beams and hope they could handle his weight along with the weight of the building they were still holding up. Of course Hazmat went with the latter since it was a really long fall, and carefully swung his heavy chassis over the edge and planted his pedes on the first support. It held, much to the old Cybertronian’s relief. He then slowly removed one pede from the support and bent the leg that was now holding all of his weight, lowering himself towards the next horizontal support while his servos loosely held onto the vertical support on his right in case he needed to suddenly grab onto it. The pistons in his bending leg groaned and blew out steam but held as his free hanging pede found firm footing on the lower support. This time shifting his weight to the leg that was now on the lower support, Hazmat pulled his weight off of the bent leg and let it slowly extend to place it on the lower support and firmly planted that pede onto the support. This pattern continued as Smokestack slowly lowered himself from one support to the next, making his way downwards to safety.
It was working until he was two thirds of the way down when he heard a SNAP! One of the bolts of the support he was standing off had sheared the moment his full weight was on it! Hazmat tried to shift his weight to the next support beam, but there wasn’t enough time to… only for his green eyes to widen in fear.
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
”SCRAP!”
Down he went, falling like a sack of spare parts, the old Cybertronian fell the rest of the length of the tower and landed on his pedes with a thunderous thump! that echoed for almost a mile. The instant he hit the ground a stream of error message scrolled across the Autobot’s field of vision as Hazmat’s right leg started to burn with pain and couldn’t support his weight anymore, and he tipped forwards to end up on his servos and knees. ”Great. Just great.” Hazmat grimaced as he rolled onto his left side and then onto his aft and quickly sat up to look at the damage done to his leg. There was a crack in his Hazmat Armor’s outer shell running along the front of his right leg, just below the knee. Tiny bits of gold coloring could be seen in the crack, revealing the underlying insulation of the Hazmat Armor, along with a few drops of Energon leaking out of the crack.
Acting quickly Hazmat aimed his left forearm at his leg as the medical scanner extended from his forearm and started to scan his damaged limb. The beam was blue as it passed over his upper leg, but the moment the beam crossed the crack it turned red. All the while he was keeping a close eye on the scan readouts that were starting to scroll across his HUD on the left side. The results made him frown even more; the crack in his armor was caused by him hitting something on his landing that was hard enough to not only break his armor but to pinch one of his primary hydraulic lines. No hydraulic fluid was going down to his pede.
It would be an easy fix since all he needed to do was open up the armor an free up the line… but was one thought currently scrolling through Hazmat’s processor on repeat: Frag…
He was about to pull his leg closer to start working on it when the sound of a crunch drew his optics off to the right as his left servo quickly reached down to his left hip and curled around the grip of his Shot Cannon if he needed to draw it. He didn’t need to pull the grip back to load an Energon shell… it already had one loaded. Hazmat kept it loaded in case something came out of the darkness to attack him. One good close range shot normally did the trick, and if not it would stun any single target enough for him to either load another shell or grab his steam hammer. However now would be the worst time for something to try to attack him since he was currently disabled and unable to move. His head on a swivel, Hazmat surveyed his surroundings and found the source of the sound; a hunk of the broken elevator shaft had been crushed by a falling piece of debris. There was rust floating in the air so it was easy to tell. Hazmat would’ve relaxed slightly knowing that there wasn’t any danger but his leg was still broken so he wasn’t out of the pit yet.
Looking back down at his wound, Hazmat reached into his subspace and pulled out what looked like some type of stun gun. It was a medical device used to make the pain receptors in his leg go numb so he could repair his leg without screaming his voice box out, but still this self-surgery wasn’t going to be pleasant. However there was a downside: his Hazmat Armor made him resistant to it so the pain killer wouldn’t last long. After using the tool on his leg a few times, each time resulting in a small electrical discharge that made Hazmat flinch, he carefully opened up the damaged armor plating with his fingers to see the pinched hose, stuck between his armor and frame. The pooled up Energon in the wounded area quickly leaked out. There was no way he could to a proper repair, he just didn’t have the tools to do so… but he could patch it enough to get to safety. Gritting his teeth, Hazmat carefully used his servo tips to grab the hydraulic line and carefully pull it open at the pinched area to allow hydraulic fluid to flow through it again… but not much. This was followed by reconnecting the leaking Energon lines. Finally Hazmat closed up his Hazmat Armor, one layer of insulation at a time. His right servo retracted into his hands and a welder extended out in its place and he began to weld his armor shut. By the time he was finished with the last weld Hazmat was gritting his teeth in pain since the pain killer had worn off. If only he could tell his armor to turn off occationally!
But the repairs were done and it was now up to his auto-repair systems to fix the rest of the damage. It could do it but it would take time. Retracting his welder so he could use his servo again, Hazmat slowly rose by placing his weight on his left leg, than slowly applied weight to his right leg. It held. He tried to take a hesitant step, only to find his right ankle joint was weak due to lack of hydraulic fluids reaching the pede. It was going to be a long limp back to his shelter, and since he had to climb over some debris transforming into his alternate to get there wasn’t going to be an option. Seeing no other option, Hazmat right servo reached down to his right pede and grabbed a piece of metal to use it as a crutch. It held his weight, but barely.
It was a long and hard journey but Hazmat finally managed to get back to his shelter. It wasn’t much, or at least it wasn’t much now. Before it had been one of the many reclamation centers that dotted Cybertron’s underground. Now it was just another destroyed structure. Well, okay not entirely destroyed since it’s lower levels were still fairly intact, thanks to the fact that this reclamation center also served as a hub for custodial mechs to dump their detoxified cargo, get backup for a rather large cleanup job… or get repairs after running into something or someone rather bad in Cybertron’s underground. As a matter of fact this particular reclamation center was the closest one to the Decagon, though Hazmat had only been here once which was to refuel while on his way to Kaon with a shipment of hazmat cars. It wasn’t long afterwards that the Great War had begun and Hazmat temporarily joined the Decepticons before coming to his senses and switching to the Autobots.
Hazmat winced as he stepped down on his patched up leg once again, and looked up at the large contraption that he had set by the only entrance into his shelter; one of the last remaining remnants of his military carrier during the great war, a turret car which Hazmat had pulled himself during the great war. It was the only part of his convoy that had survived during the battle that ended with Smokestack missing the Exodus and all of his troops dying. Not knowing what he would be up against on this dead world, Hazmat had kept these turret cars with him during his travels throughout the dead planet’s destroyed surface and underground… only to run into only corpses that were already gun-metal gray or others that were so much worse off than him that killing them was more like putting them out of their misery then an actually battle. Eventually when Hazmat found this reclamation center and made it his shelter, he simply parked the turret car by the entrance into the shelter to act as means of self-defense if someone tried to attack his shelter. However after so many vorns went by without anyone showing up, Hazmat drained them of their Energon for his consumption. Now it was just an ornament that was rusting and gathering dust. The old Autobot limbed up to the mobile artillery and placed his left servo on it for support while he continued to limp into his shelter. So much time has passed, and I’m still relying on my allies for support… he thought as he carefully let go of the car and then placed a servo on the wall of the rectangular corridor that lead into his shelter. As he did so the only thing he could hear was the clunk clunk clunk of his large feet, along with the occational clang of his make-shift crutch.
At the end of the corridor was Hazmat’s shelter. As he limbed his way into the shelter he eyed everything carefully to make sure it was all still in place and functional, even with a big gun sitting on his front door that didn’t mean it would deter everyone that was desperate. The shelter was fairly drab but it was clean and livable… it was the home of a custodian after all. The room had been fashioned with a Cybertronian-sized couch and a few tables, a pair of Energon processors, couple of other medical tools, and some other repair tools… all of which Hazmat made use of. The couch was where he’d lie down to recharge… if he could get himself to recharge that is since he had some much trouble doing so since he always had recharge-mares. The tables acted as work benches since sometimes the custodian mech needed to make repairs to parts of his shelter… it was partly blasted apart. He had also made some modifications to one of the Energon processors using an emitter and several filters he had salvaged from a dead custodian bot he had found at one point, converting it into an Energon filtration machine. Hazmat carefully walked over to the filtration machine and leaned his waist against the table so he could use both servos instead only using one servo and having the other one occupied with holding himself up with his crutch. Reaching into his side mounted compartments with both arms, Hazmat lifted out the two cubes of Energon he had managed to salvage from the tower he had climbed. He placed them both down on the table and carefully removed their lids to reveal the Energon he had found earlier and frowned as a stream of golden light was emitted from his eyes and scanned the Energon for any contaminants… and found plenty of rust flakes. If he drank it like this his body would reject it… followed by him ‘ejecting’ it through regurgitation. He never experienced it and he had no plans too. So instead he simply picked up both cubes of Energon and slowly poured them into the Energon filter, closed the lid, and turned the device on. The filtration process would remove any contaminates from the Energon making it completely drinkable… though it would take quite a while.
With nothing to do but wait, Hazmat started to turn around and limp over to the couch but stopped half way over to glance at what was sitting in the back of the shelter, and the reason why he picked this as his shelter instead of somewhere else; the long range ground bridge that was still functional. When he first found it Hazmat had drained it of nearly all its Energon to stay alive, but when he realized that he just might have to make a run for it through through the bridge he left just enough energy in it for him to make a getaway. He wasn’t an expert on using ground bridges, but he had an idea he left enough Energon since the machine had a gauge. While it didn’t do much else to help Hazmat stay alive, he did occasionally glance at it to see if it’s radar was detecting anything he should be concerned about.
Which was why when he glanced over at the ground bridge while walking towards the couch he stopped. Every single time he had looked over at the ground bridge the displays had looked the same every time… though this time there was a new red light, and it wasn’t coming from the radar. Puzzled, Hazmat started to limp over to the ground bridge, his patched leg letting out a groaning sound each time he took a step. He was figuring the system was having an error and it needed to be repaired. Why not? It had gone without repairs for ages and that was before he found it… and without having anyway to fix it he just kinda left it. He was still surprised it was functional at all, let alone at a good efficacy. However when Hazmat had gotten over to the ground bridge control panel, his jaw nearly fell off of his helm; it was the ground bridge’s comm relay that was blinking! ”That can’t be right…” Hazmat said, thinking out loud, as he activated the diagnostic cycle for the ground bridge. After a moment the readout of the diagnostic’s results were deplayed, and Hazmat’s optics widened… and widened… and widened till they were about to pop out of his helm.
The ground bridge was receiving an incoming message from orbit! The ground bridge terminal had been broadcasting a signal this whole time and Hazmat didn’t even know it… and it was receiving a return signal on that broadcast! Hazmat wasn’t sure what to do! For all he knew this could’ve been a Decepticon contacting the ground bridge… or maybe it could’ve been an Autobot… or maybe a living Priest of Primius visiting Cybertron to see how the dead planet was doing and just happened to detect the ground bridge signal. Or maybe it was some passing none Cybertronian ship. Whichever it was, Hazmat wasn’t going to let an opportunity to leave Cybertron to pass up and he pressed the transparent blue button on the display to activate his end of the comm.
”This is Hazmat, commanding officer of Autobot mobile artillery unit 5567-Zeta, and the Zeta Company. To whom am I speaking with?” was what came out of his vocalizer. Now… to wait for a reply from whomever was on the other end of the line.
Name/Alias: Alex
Age: 28
Where did you find us?: Google search
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Hazmat
Nickname: Haz
Age: Sparked during the Golden Age. Sooo… 60’s
Gender: Male
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Autobot
Original Occupation: Removal, transport, and decontamination of hazardous materials. Toxicologist. Occasional transport of non-hazardous materials.
War Occupation: mobile artillery commander, toxicologist
Occupation/Specialization: Custodial duty, hazardous duties, repairs, toxicologist/medic’s assistant
Appearance: Hazmat is big, even for a cybertronian. He stands eye to eye with Optimus Prime and his build is similar to that of Optimus, but he’s waist is almost as wide as the Prime’s chest, has thicker heavier plated arms, a large backpack unit similar to Ratchet’s pack, and has thicker legs and bigger feet to support his massive amount of weight so he’s technically bigger then the Prime. However his hands have only four fingers and are thicker like Bulkhead’s hands. His features are smooth but have sharp angles. Taking on the vehicle form of an airport fire suppressant rescue truck, Hazmat is tough and well armored around his legs, torso, arms, and shoulders. The armor around his joints is thinner though. Also his vehicle form is littered throughout his body.
Beginning with his large blockish black pedes that have three small squares around the front of the pedes to make it seem as if Hazmat has “toes” on his pedes but they are there to help spread out his weight over a wider area. These lead up to his bright green lower legs, where the rear wheels of his alternate are housed in armored resets located on the outer side of the lower legs. The armor on the lower legs keeps going upwards to protect the knees with large block-shaped armor plates. These are connected to the upper legs and waist which are colored black. Located here on the outer sides of his thighs are a pair of rectangular cases that go from Hazmat’s hips to his knees, which act as the containers for his weapons. Reaching up to his large and wide green and black torso there is clear evidence of the cab across his chest, but the breakable glass has been replied with black metal shutters with a green Autobots crest painted in the middle of it. Behind those shutters is a gap just big enough for two fully grown humans… or a trio of small ones. The headlights of the alternate are located on the bottom edge of his chest while the front row of flashing lights that double has his hazardous material scanners for his decontamination system.
Connected to there are his green shoulder where the front tires are stored, mounted on the back of the shoulder armor that starts out as blockish but the further away from the torso you go the rounder it gets. Extending from the shoulder armor are Hazmat’s thick black arms which end with his 4 digit servos. The fingers are relatively thick and have armored plates that protect the knuckles similar to Smokescreen’s servos, though instead of the protective armor stemming from above the joints like Smoke’s, Hazmat’s instead come from below the joints giving every piece of his digits a raindrop shape. Connected to Hazmat’s back is a black and green backpack unit that houses the water and foam tanks of his alternates form. Small hatches on the top of the backpack houses the nozzles of Hazmat’s alternate form.
Hazmat’s black helm is cylinder in shape with a domed top. There is an indent in the front for Hazmat’s silver face and his yellow eyes and green eyebrows. Just above his brow there is a green brow guard that juts out from his cylinder like helm. The entire brow guard can extend down like a motorcyclist’s helmet, all the way to Hazmat’s chin, pulling a green face guard down with it that protects Hazmat’s entire faceplate while a semi-transparent yellow visor protects his eyes while still allowing visibility. A pair of green antenna extends out from the upper corners of the indention of Hazmat’s helm and are pointed upwards and back, extending till they are level with the top of Hazmat’s helm.
Altmode:
2014 Oshkosh Striker 3000 6X6 ARFF Crash Truck
History:
Even during the Golden Age of Cybertron somethings that were done produced a byproduct, some of them were quite hazardous to the health of some Cybertronians. While the amount of hazardous materials was always small the fact of the matter was that it couldn’t be allowed to build up or it could have nasty side effects, or removing contaminates from usable materials. Thus multiple Cybertronians were assigned the task of decontaminating the hazardous materials and then hauling them to where the now useful materials can be used, or recycled… mostly recycling.
However some hazardous materials, such as unstable Energon, could only be stabilized on sight and had to be transported to specially equipped facilities to be properly processed before they could be used or broken down, in which case transportation of those materials were required. However transporting hazardous materials on the Cybertronian highways poses too much of a risk to the rest of Cybertron’s population if the shipping container leaks or if an unexpected event such as an accident occurs, while transporting via flight is even more dangerous because experiencing turbulence during flight could agitate the hazardous materials to the point that they might actually explode. So isolated transportation in the form of tunneled highways was the way to go, and most of these ‘custodian’ mechs and femmes were locomotives that could tow box cars so they could haul a massive amount of their volatile cargo without requiring backup.
Hazmat is one such custodian bot, and he did it proudly with his helm held high. While one might think that cleaning up the toxic waste of Cybertron would be a horrid job, but it came with many bonuses such as a great supply of Energon to aid him in producing the chemicals for his emitters and helped pay for other expenses. He was also one of the few custodian bots that was actually armed to defend himself from the vermin that roamed Cybertron’s underbelly… like scraplits, Empties, or criminals that were looking for a place off the grid to do some dirty dealing. He was also a trained and equipped toxicologist so he could treat any Cybertronian that found themselves in a hazardous or quarantined zone. There were other Hazmat cleaning Cybertronians that were armed and others that had some medical training but Hazmat was the first to have both. This fact made him a bit full of himself when it came to doing his job, and wouldn’t let anyone say otherwise. It was getting to the point that Hazmat seemed to view himself as one of the most important Cybertronian on Cybertron, despite the fact there were thousands of other hazmat units across the entire planet. True he was one of the most versatile Hazmat units out there and one of the youngest, but he was still basically only a Cybertronian custodian… though that never prevented his ego from growing.
That all changed when the caste era began, and all Cybertronian custodians found themselves at the bottom of the caste… and Hazmat’s world crumbled. He couldn’t believe it, and he’s ego couldn’t accept it! He, Hazmat, the most important Cybertronian on all of Cybertron, possibly the next prime, was reduced to scrounging for Energon, and no one seemed to care! He was a recognized toxicologist! He should’ve been up in the towers with the other scientists and doctors… but no, he was on record as a custodian and would only be recognized as such. Miners had more rights than him! Angered over the direct insult to whom he was, Hazmat began to plot a scheme to get even with the Council for reducing him to nearly the bottom caste. It would be simple too! All he’d have to do is place some toxin by a ventilation shaft that led into the Council chambers, and let the toxin slowly wear them down till they fall over. To the currently delusional Hazmat it seemed like a great idea, and he’d never be caught since no one would ever look at the custodian for being the cause of a hazardous toxin afflicting the Council. They’d only realize how important Hazmat was after all, he would be given a much better class, and then they would ask him to come in and clean up the mess in the Council chambers so no one else would fall victim to it.
However Hazmat never acted on his foolish plan. He was thinking about how to make arrangements to get near the council ventilation system when he went to the Order of Vector Sigma for a little help in getting some Energon when he met a very interesting person; the priest Altruous. Even through what started their conversation was as insignificant as Hazmat wondering if the rust that was on Altruous’s left pede was caused by acid and wanted to scan it to check, the old priest’s wisdom and insight let him read the custodian bot like an open book. Altruous could clearly see that Smokestack was harboring some anger and wanted to help solve whatever was causing the mech before him to harbor such rage. Hazmat relented after a few tries and explained how the Council knocked him down to his low class and that he intended to avenge himself. Instead of turning Hazmat in for a the crime he intended to commit, Altruous instead carefully talked Hazmat out of trying to poison the council by explaining that everywhere around the council chamber is monitored and he’d be caught on the spot, and invited Hazmat to return for more talks. Still affected by his anger but having nowhere else to turn to, Hazmat begrudgingly agreed.
At first the talks didn’t go much of anywhere, but over time Hazmat started to realize just how much of jerk he was being for thinking he was the most important custodian Cybertronian when all the others were in the same boat of losing income. However they were still all very useful and needed even with the low caste which turned out to be as low as Hazmat thought it was. So finally he let go of his anger. He also realized that there was no way he could live his decadent life style even before the caste system cut his wages. With a little help from Altruous in money management, Hazmat managed to decrease his expenses to the point that he could survive. He also learned the value of wisdom, so Hazmat all but threw away his ego and started to focus more on using his head. As a result Hazmat proved that wisdom doesn’t come with age; it comes with a willingness to learn from your experiences that come with age.
Now with a wiser and more honorable Hazmat on the job, work in the removing and decontaminating hazardous materials took on a new look for Hazmat. Before it was just a job he took pride in because of his overinflated ego… but now he truly realized what purpose he had: he was protecting the ‘bots of Cybertron from disease. Oh sure, it was the job of doctors and medics to repair the injured… but the job of the custodians was to make sure that no one got sick in the first place. With this thought in mind Hazmat redoubled his efforts doing his assigned tasks, and soon he was out pacing just about all the other custodial bots that he knew. Now most custodians occasionally ran into a criminal or two in the underbelly of Cybertron attempting to use the old forgotten areas to do their dealings, most custodians would actually ignore it so they don’t get on the bad side of the criminals while some might join in the dealings to get some extra credits. Hazmat was one of the few custodians that not only reported the criminal activity to the police but offered to help catch the criminals. The answer was normally a no but once in a while Hazmat was the one that had to chase the criminal because they would flee into a hazardous zone that the police wouldn’t dare go… in which case Hazmat would emerge from the toxic fumes with a sick Cybertronian in his servos and would use his skills as a toxicologist to cure and fix the criminal on the spot, then hand ‘em over to the authorities.
Over time Hazmat had opened up enough to make a few new friends. One of them being a waste hauler femme named Shale. Over time Shale and Hazmat became more then friends. However during one trip down into Cybertron’s underbelly Hazmat accidently ran across Shale selling drugs and their relationship was quickly thrown into shaky territory. Angered, Hazmat couldn’t forgive Shale right away or soon afterwards so to give himself time to think he agreed to transport a small collection of quarantine transport cars to Kaon. Normally such a thing wouldn’t be required but a rare toxin had been found in Kaon’s underbelly and transporting it long distance to the only reclamation center that could properly dispose of it required very specific means of containment.
However it wasn’t long after Hazmat arrived in Kaon that the Great War began, and Hazmat found himself unable to escape the home of the Decepticons while the foot soldiers of Megatron’s army patrolled the underground for non-loyalists to “offer” them a chance to join. At first Hazmat simply tried to stay out of the way and went to stay with the other custodian mechs of Kaon, assuming that they felt the way he felt in that a cleaner didn’t have any place in a war. However Hazmat was wrong since he not only found that the custodian mechs weren’t just Decepticons but were preparing to go on a mission to aid in the Decepticon cause that only they could do thanks to their Hazmat Armor. They even had a few Decepticon warriors acting as their escort. Hazmat wasn’t sure what to expect when he saw all this, but he didn’t expect the custodian mechs to offer a place among them for this mission. Hazmat was hesitant at first but after listening to a recording or two of Megatron’s charismatic speeches along with the custodians talking about how they were treated unequally, Hazmat’s old childish anger and resentment towards the council started to come back to life. Having trouble deciding between his old angers and the wisdom taught to him by Altruous, the fact that he was surrounded by loyal Decepticons pushed Hazmat over the edge and he soon had the ‘Con sigil on his chest.
The first mission that the custodian bots went on was in fact something only they could do; have the walk into a quarantine zone and turn several values to begin the draining process for very large acid tank. The next mission was to gather several tons of scrap metal to be recycled, during which a few vermin tried to attack the custodian mechs and the escorts did fight them off, though when Hazmat joined in the battle and helped win he was offered some combat training. At first Hazmat wasn’t sure since he didn’t exactly want to kill but in end he agreed to it. In between each mission Hazmat was given some combat training ranging from melee, to unarmed, to ranged combat to improve his capabilities.
The sixth mission turned out to be the final part of a six phase mission. The scrap collected was for making containment units while draining the acid tank opened up a way to a storage vault that could only be accessed through one path that was at the bottom of the acid tank that had a very small drain. Unsure of what they were trying to get in the vault, Hazmat asked their escort and was given an alarming answer: the vault was actually a massive containment unit for a large supply of dangerous chemicals that is so deadly it could snuff out a spark in a matter of minutes. Decepticon escorts were trying to make a name for themselves by impressing Megatron by dumping the toxin under Iacon to poison all of the Autobots there. Hazmat couldn’t believe his audio receptors; the very toxin that they intended to transport to Iacon was the same toxin that Hazmat had brought the quarantine transport trucks for. He was now starting to wonder if the requisition for the containers had been part of this plan from the very start.
At that moment Hazmat decided he couldn’t stand being on the Decepticon’s side, charismatic leader or no, wrath of those around him or no… live through it or no, Hazmat couldn’t allow this mission to reach completion. As it turns out there was another custodian bot that similar thoughts and he had simply turned on his heels and started to leave the group. Knowing he couldn’t stop them all on his own, Hazmat stopped him from leaving and, with permission from the rest of the Decepticons, talked to him in private. The Cons thought Hazmat was trying to convince the bot that they were in the right, just as they had convinced him… though in truth Hazmat was asking for Buffer’s help in stopping the group, and Buffer agreed. When the group reached the bottom of the fully drain acid tank and opened a quarantine door at the bottom to reveal a toxin filled room, Hazmat decided to act once all of the custodians mechs had entered the quarantined vault… and brought his hammer down on the head of the lone Decepticon escort, crushing her. Hazmat then entered the vault and, alongside Buffer, used his steam hammer and shot cannon to eliminate the Decepticon custodians… though it was a 2 on 6 battle and it ended with both Hazmat and Buffer really banged up. Even so the two Decepticon traitors worked together to render the toxin useless. They couldn’t render it inert but they could leave the vault door open while they blasted the acid valves. The end result was the acid dissolving the toxin so it got mixed into the acid, resulting in the toxin becoming inseparable from the acid. No one had any hopes of transporting it now. That stuff was stuck in Kaon’s underbelly for good.
Alone, warn out, and their hazmat armor badly damaged, Hazmat and Buffer managed to find a custodian tunnel where the Decepticon recruiters weren’t located and managed to get out of Kaon. However as they traveled Buffer gave into his wounds and died. Hazmat continued to navigate the underground until he reached a small Autobot outpost where he surrendered. A Decepticon custodian was still a Decepticon so Hazmat was made a prisoner of war… one of the first to willingly turn themselves in without putting up any sort of resistance. While in prison getting treated for his injuries Hazmat asked about the Autobot cause, and eventually asked if he could join them. When asked why he wanted to switch sides, the custodian mech told the truth: he didn’t realize what he was signing up onto when he joined the Decepticons, and the moment he found out he tried to undo the damage he had done and then fled… an hoped that he could find redemption for his acts by fighting on the side of the Autobots.
The Autobots were suspicious at first and Hazmat couldn’t blame them, so when they interrogated him Hazmat not only fully cooperated but he volunteered anything he knew as well. This made the Autobot interrogators happy, though the thought of the Decepticons playing with such dangerous toxins was a bit disturbing though at least that batch of it was gone now. However the fact that Hazmat had volunteered the info involving the toxins was enough to prove that he was truly trying to turn over a new leaf, that and he didn’t consider him undoing the damage he had done as the redemption, but rather the first step towards it. Because of all this, Hazmat was given a pardon and allowed to join the Autobots.
Hazmat was given an Autobot crest and started off with simple tasks where he was watched, starting off with being the custodian mech for an outpost, though he had to be unarmed. As time passed he was trusted more and was allowed into other areas of the outpost, and in time was allowed to carry his shot cannon and steam hammer again. During this period he tried to look up Shale to see if she was safe, though when he found out that she was making a bundle off of the drugs being sold during the war he stopped digging because he was a little miffed over the idea of her profiting off of the war and he wondered if she had changed while he had gotten stuck in Decepticon territory. Hazmat was getting the trust of the Autobots he was with, but some still gave him a skeptical look. Fine by him; trust had to be earned and that took time… and from what he could see this war was going to last a long time. It wasn’t until the outpost was attacked by Decepticons that Hazmat’s loyalty to the Autobots was proven to be absolute when he dove head first into enemy fire to protect the outpost’s commanding officer, then took several more hits as he helped hold the Decepticons at bay while the outpost’s internal and external defenses were being brought back online. Once he was fully repaired the outpost’s commanding officer not only thanked Hazmat but promised that he’d start looking for an assignment that fit Hazmat’s still set. At first the custodian mech thought this meant he was going to be assigned as a custodian in a much larger base.
Oh boy was Hazmat’s assumption wrong on that one! Hazmat’s combat abilities, hauling capabilities in his locomotive alternate, and proven loyalty made him perfect for taking part in convoys responsible for hauling supplies and troops to the front line and then pulling the wounded away from the combat zone and to field hospitals where they could be treated. However Hazmat wasn’t going to be an escort for a convoy: Hazmat became one of the convoys. Soon the aging Autobot found himself pulling flatbed cars mounted with swiveling turrets, controlled by other Autobots since Hazmat can’t control them himself while he’s hauling them. While some did argue that attaching mobile artillery units to flat cars pointless and a waste, they couldn’t ignore the results: the artillery were able to stay moving and firing without wasting Energon to move themselves, and the only thing consuming any Energon to move the long train of cannons was Hazmat himself, and he needed less Energon to move all the cannons then one cannon need to move itself! Mobile Artillery Unit 5567-Zeta had been born.
Thus Hazmat found himself doing what he was assigned to do for almost the entire Autobot/Decepticon war; pulling turret mounted cars across war-torn Cybertron delivering fresh troops and supplies to the front lines, then pulling the wounded soldiers away for treatment. It wasn’t like Hazmat went into battle every single time he hauled materials and troops to the front line. He always stopped behind the Autobot line to drop off troops and assisted in the unloading of supplies and loading of wounded, and then would pull out… though occasionally Hazmat did have to ready his weapons and hold his own if the Decepticons ever broke through the Autobot line when he was switching around his cargo… or when the Decepticons launched a surprise attack on his convoy and he had to help defend it but in those situations his job was to keep the convoy moving… he was the form of locomotion for the convoy after all and lacked weapons in that form… though he was an impressive battering ram.
During the war at one point Hazmat had actually managed to fine Shale… or more like came across her by accident when his convoy had to stop to hide from a rather large Decepticon force. Under normal circumstances Hazmat’s convoy could’ve handled them since they almost always has a full platoon of rested troops on board… unless they were hauling wounded which was the case here. While waiting for the Decepticons to pass Hazmat went on a patrol and ran into Shale, and asked her to join the Autobot cause, saying that he’d try his best to get her assigned to his convoy. He almost begged her to until he truly realized what he was asking of her; the femme had no combat experience at all though her greatest aspect was her strength, she wouldn’t get convoy duty but rather would get combat training and be sent to the metal shredder known as the front. When Shale saw the wounded in Hazmat’s convoy that clinched it; Shale wanted nothing to do with the war. Hazmat wouldn’t see her again till he got to Earth.
As the war continued, Hazmat had trouble ignoring the fact that all this conflict was starting to effect the planet in a negative way. His primary function was still that of a custodian mech and those built in talents were telling him that Cybertron itself was getting ‘sick.’ His hazmat sensors were confirming it by detecting higher levels of hazardous materials, some of it a byproduct of combat and some caused by the bioweapons used by the Decepticon. Hazmat found himself treating bioweapon afflicted Autobots more and more till every time he stopped at the front lines he was basically the bioweapon treatment specialist that everyone came to first. The war dragged on and on and Hazmat’s age was starting to act against him, ranging from having difficulty accelerating to the structural integrity of his joints failing due to overuse and old age. Only his growing combat experience, wisdom, and creative way of thinking kept alive in the waning cycles of the war.
He had become the commanding officer of the mobile artillery convoy Zeta and had fought in many battles, including the retaking of Decagon where the Zeta convoy kept the Decepticons unbalanced because they kept raining artillery rounds down on them from where it would normally be impossible to set up mobile artillery so fast… and by the time any Decepticons reached the location where the artillery fire was coming from Hazmat had already moved to another location and had resumed firing. The convoy also placed their turrets in hazmat cars that could be fully sealed or opened at the push of a button, then Hazmat pulled the convoy through quarantined areas to come out within Decepticon territory, opened up the hazmat cars to unleash a barrage of cannon fire to make the Decepticons think they were under attack from an angle away from the main attack group, and then the hazmat cars would close up again for Hazmat to push them back through the quarantined zones so any Decepticons that did find them couldn’t pursue. This method of guerrilla warfare kept the Zeta convoy active since nearly the beginning of the war till its very end. Hazmat wasn’t exactly a famous officer during the war since there were so many other famous heroes fighting on both sides, but he did get noticed occasionally.
Then finally it happened; the call to board the Ark had been sounded. With a full load of resources, Hazmat pulled his convoy towards the Ark, knowing full well that he was about to say goodbye to his home, possibly forever. He had no idea what became of Altruous and Shale, but he couldn’t worry about it. He had one duty, one purpose; get himself and what mechs and femmes he had manning the convoy turrets to the Ark with the full load of supplies the convoy carried.
He failed.
While crossing a damaged bridge the convoy was attacked by Decepticons. One by one the Autobots manning the convoy turrets were killed and Hazmat found himself facing a rather skilled Decepticon on his own. The battle dragged on, even as the bridge that the convoy had been crossing succumbed to its damage and started to crumble, Hazmat was unable to get an upper servo on his opponent but he wasn’t getting beaten either. The battle ended not when one of the two fighters fell, but when the Ark started to fly up into the sky. Hazmat had missed the last bus off of Cybertron. The Decepticon didn’t even have the kindness to finish off the stunned Hazmat, but rather left him alive to slowly die on a dead world.
Trapped on Cybertron, Hazmat rendezvoused with the remaining Autobot forces and continued the war that had destroyed an entire planet. As one of the few Autobots with command authority the aging custodian found himself responsible for far more Autobots now they he ever had been in command of before the Exodus. Several battles were fought over the dwindling supplies that Cybertron had to offer, and in the name of the Decepticon or Autobot cause… and Hazmat was getting tired of fighting. However he couldn’t forego his responsibility to his troops either, which were starting to dwindle as well. In an effort to get resources Hazmat led his troops to the remains of his mobile artillery convoy in hopes of finding some usable equipment, and found that if they distributed the undamaged and repairable parts from the 30 artillery cars that had fallen a total of 7 of the artillery cars could be brought back online. Armed with mobile artillery units Hazmat renamed his post Exodus company Zeta Company after his lost unit. Using the cannons in several hit and run raids allow the Autobots under his command to make headway against the ‘Cons, but on the whole Hazmat’s advances were negligible. Battle after battle the war of attrition on Cybertron ended with both sides virtually annihilating one another and Hazmat was the only one of Zeta Company to survive the trip to Decon’s underground. During the final battle his shot cannon and hammer were destroyed.
Attempting to survive, Hazmat had to strip and scrounge for Energon of any type to survive. At one point he found a long range ground bridge that still functioned, but to survive he syphoned almost all of the Energon from it, leaving just enough for the bridge to give him one jump to another part of Cybertron if he needed to make an escape. The ground bridge became a sort of shelter for Hazmat as his desperate attempt at survival continued.
Hazmat’s living nightmare ended at last when the ground bridge alerted the Autobot of a space fairing vessel approaching Cybertron. Grasping at what could be a false hope Hazmat open contact to find that the vessel was being piloted by an Autobot named Kamal. Hazmat couldn’t believe his audio pickups, but what he heard was even more unreal; Kamal was offering to transport Hazmat to another planet where several other Autobots had gone to… including the last Prime. Hazmat accepted and used the last of the Energon to power the ground bridge to its maximum range, and limped through the bridge and onto Kamal’s vessel. Once Smokestack got to Earth and finally fixed up the damage that had been accumulating, Hazmat was more than ready see what this Earth had to offer. However when he saw that the locomotives on Earth were so restricted with their movement, Hazmat chose to move away from the locomotive form and took on a fire truck as his vehicular form. Now he was capable of driving where ever he was needed to go while still retaining his horsepower.
Hazmat’s long life story was far from over.
Personality:
If someone that knows Hazmat on a personal level were asked to sum up the Autobot’s personality into one word, that word would be chivalrous. Normally an honorable Autobot, Hazmat is the type of bot that you can trust just about anything with, be it your keys or your secrets or even your life. A social bot, Hazmat is usually up for a conversation whenever the need arises and is more than willing to offer his two credits whenever he thinks it’s a good time to do so. Oddly enough he actually likes making quips and puns, the worse the pun he makes the more he’ll smile at them. Diligent and dedicated to his work, Hazmat completes any task that he is given no matter the difficulty… but he isn’t above asking for help if he needs it. He knows the consequences of letting his ego get the best of him. However be advised that if mess up the results of his work just when he’s completed it he’ll make you help him fix it back up. Wise and resourceful, Hazmat actually has some experience in being a leader… not much but it’s there so if need be he can take charge of situations if there is no one else around to do so. When it comes to friendships though Hazmat is willing to give anyone a try at being a friend, but his respect and trust take time to build up. Once you have his trust and respect though he’ll always stand by your side. He occasionally acts a bit fatherly to those that are much younger then him, but then again there are few left that are close to his age so that pretty much means everyone gets the fatherly treatment… unless they are his commanding officers or they ask him not to.
Oddly enough Hazmat finds it a little difficult to communicate sometimes, even though he likes to talk. Sometimes subjects fly over his head while others he’ll misinterpret. The problem arises when he’s not aware that the misinterpretations are wrong, and will only realize it when someone points it out.
While on the battlefield Hazmat is brave, protective of his allies, and a bit ruthless. He doesn’t exactly back down from a fight unless ordered to, but he’s wise enough to know when a battle has become hopeless and will only keep fighting such a battle if there’s something else to aim for besides victory. However when it comes to being merciful to a defeated enemy… Hazmat is lacking in that department. He doesn’t like leaving an opponent alive to have them attack him from behind. However if he’s up against an opponent he fines honorable he might try to get them to join his side. Despite this he does like the occasional duel to keep his skills sharp, or to pass on what he knows.
However Hazmat isn’t without his faults. His temper doesn’t come out much but when he does lose his cool Hazmat’s anger could leave anyone in pieces. He’s also a little on the slow side when it comes to giving out forgiveness, and at times he when he does forgive someone he’ll keep in mind what they did to wrong him and will be slow to trust them again… if ever. He had other flaws besides his temper, such as being a little gullible. While Hazmat is wise that doesn’t mean you can’t pull the wool over his optics, if anything it’s rather easy to get him to fall for a prank or a trap.
Likes:
Puns: Hazmat has a love for making puns, even if they are at his own expense. Now he doesn’t make them constantly, oh no! He knows when it’s time to stop making the puns, but that doesn’t mean he’ll stop making them out right. Some of them are good, while other ones aren’t so good. However most of them are only groan worthy. In a sense this locomotive’s jokes are running low one steam. GET IT?!
Imparting Experience: Like any old mech or old human, Hazmat has loads of experience he’s more than happy to teach it to others that ask for it.
Job well done: This Autobot doesn’t call himself a custodian mech for no reason. He likes to keep himself busy and get any tasks assigned to him completed.
Children: He isn’t quite sure what it is about humans, but something about them just makes him smile softly… and nothing gets him to smile more than human children.
Steampunk: While odd, Hazmat seems to have a liking to what humans refer to as steampunk. This liking to it comes from the fact that Hazmat believes that just because something, or someone, is old doesn’t mean you throw it away and steampunk has that same notion written all over it.
Rust Sticks: Hazmat has one heck of a Cybertronian sweet tooth, and always seems to have a few rust sticks on hand to satisfy a sweetness craving. As to how he gets these sticks with him being on Earth? The mech taught himself how to make them cheaply back when he was young.
Dislikes:
Water: Despite taking the form of a firetruck Hazmat has a fear of water. Small puddles or small ponds are fine... even a swamp doesn’t bother him… but if it’s deep enough for him to become full submerged then get ready to see this Autobot’s “NOPE” face.
Failing to protect those around him: Hazmat almost can’t handle it if he fails to protect someone from harm. If a friend of his dies at the servos of someone else, Hazmat might even go through Optimus Prime to kill his friend’s killer. Fighting the entire War for Cybertron from start to finish left it’s scars.
Ruining his work: While it’s true that Hazmat doesn’t mind dirt, he still prefers areas that are indoors to be clean. So if someone makes a mess of an area that he had cleaned within a few cycles ago, he has a tendency to get mad. However if you mess up what he had just cleaned on that very cycle… expect him to not only shout at you but for you to help him clean it all back up. This includes any repair jobs he’s done too. He won’t be mean about it, but he will insist.
Strengths/Weapons:
Hazmat Armor:The signature armor of Cybertronian custodians such as Hazmat, this armor allows those encased within it to handle environments that most Cybertronians would be terrified of. The outer-most layer is a hard metal shell for deflecting hard impacts that has been treated to withstand some hazards, such as acids, radiation, and viruses. The layers of insulation underneath that are meant to keep out the harmful environmental hazards that Hazmat might come across, such as electricity or extreme temperatures. The final layer of the Hazmat Armor is a network of processors that run throughout Hazmat’s body that make alterations on how the bot’s systems operate to give him the best edge in surviving hazardous situations; increasing the amount of coolant running through his chassis when encountering an extreme amount of heat, raising the internal temperature of his chassis to handle extreme cold, or activating countermeasures to deal with radiation or high amounts of electricity, or an electro-magnetic pulse.
Strength: Hazmat was originally built for hauling massive amount of cargo in his alternate form and that translates into his robot form in the form of great strength.
Wisdom: Having spent so much time learning from all of the experiences of his long life, Hazmat has become quite wise and knows how to use it both on and off the battlefield. He can think on his feet and can more than handle himself in a duel of wits. His wisdom also makes him an impressive teacher and quite patient when he needs to be.
Toxicologist: Thanks to the fact that Hazmat would be the first on the scene if a Cybertronian ever found themselves in a contaminated environment, he’s been trained to treat Cybertronian that are poisoned or contaminated. With a well-equipped lab Hazmat can synthesize most cures that the “sick” Cybertronian can either drink or have it injected into them.
Decontamination Emitters System: DES for short! Cleaning up hazardous materials is what Hazmat was built for… it’s his name for Primus sake! Most hazards for Cybertronians are solids that can get stuck within their tubing, but that also makes it easier to collect them. Now Hazmat has three ways of handling these hazardous materials in preparation for collection; spraying them with a neutralizing agent, coating them with foam, or emitting a spray into the air Hazmat calls the “clumping Agent” to deal with airborne contaminates.
To make the neutralizing agents Hazmat carries several small tanks of chemicals within himself that the DES can mix together to make the needed agent. Hazmat also has two large tanks, one for holding water the other for holding fire-suppressant foam. Now these tanks aren’t capable of transforming without spilling their contents so instead of them being housed within Hazmat they are shifted onto his back, stored in a backpack unit while Hazmat is in his robot form. The fire hose nozzles that were on the roof and front bumper of the alternate form are also located on the backpack unit, positioned to be fired over the shoulders. For suppressing fires it is possible to fire just water or fire-suppressant but there are far more ways to use the DES.
The process of Hazmat cleaning up contaminates starts by scanning the contaminates with his shoulder-blade mounted scanners ((mounted on the roof of his cab while in vehicle mode)) and thus identifying the contaminate so Hazmat can figure out how to deal with it. If the contaminate can be neutralized then the DES starts to mix the needed chemicals that Hazmat is carrying to create the neutralizing agent, and it is then mixed with water to dilute the agent since the straight agent would be harmful to Earth’s environment… and to stretch out Hazmat’s supply of chemicals. The agent is then sprayed onto the contaminate to break it down similar to the way enzymes break down food. If the contaminate will take a long time to break down then the agent mixed up with a foam instead so it will stick to the contaminate. If the hazardous material can’t be broken down then a containment solution is mixed up instead of a neutralizing agent and then mixed up with foam that will solidify on contact with the hazardous material, becoming a brittle clump that a human could break up into flakes, making it safer to move into a hazardous transport container so it can be moved into quarantine. The final method is used on airborne contaminates and almost all of them are handled in the same way; with a solution that Hazmat calls the “clumping agent.” Spraying this smoke like substance into the air, all Hazmat has to do is wait for the neutrally air buoyant particles of the agent to collect the airborne contaminants till they get too heavy and float down to the ground. Hazmat then just sweeps it up. This “clumping agent” has a short half-life so after about 30 minutes it dissolves and fades away. Spraying this agent into the air also makes a good smokescreen.
Weaknesses:
Unarmed:Despite having some impressive weapons during the Great War, Hazmat is now completely unarmed. He’s forced to rely on his strength in battle as a result. He does have his fire hoses that he can use to spray a distant target but they would be a non-lethal weapon since the most his hoses would do is push a light weighted Cybertronian off their feet and would do little to a medium weighted Cybertronian. Against a heavy-weight the hoses wouldn’t do squat. Also the range of the hoses is limited.
Non-combat armor: The Hazmat Armor makes Smokestack resistant to hazards… he is not immune. Eventually he’ll succumb to hazards like cold just like any other Cybertronian, it will just happen a lot slower. Also the networked processors that make up the deepest layer of the Hazmat Armor aren’t under Hazmat’s control. They’re like a human’s immune system; protecting the body from harm or invaders but completely independent of the host’s control. Because of this Hazmat can’t tell it to turn off when he wants it too. Say he got frozen in a solid chunk of ice by a cryogenic weapon, but saw an opportunity to launch a surprise attack if he waited inside the hunk of ice before using his Hazmat Armor to escape… the answer is he couldn’t go for that opportunity because his Hazmat Armor would already be heating him up to melt the ice to keep Hazmat alive. He can’t turn it on whenever he wants to either. Say he got caught in one of Arachnid’s webs and he could escape by heating up his Hazmat Armor to melt the webs, the answer would be a no because he can’t make his armor heat up at will.
Slow, Old, and Oversized: Hazmat is among one of the bulkiest Cybertronians around, but this comes at several costs. All of that weight and being a working mech since the golden age has worn on Hazmat’s joints, so a precise hit to say his knees, elbows, shoulders, or hips can damage those joints without the need to get through all of his armor. Secondly his heavy weight makes it hard for him to accelerate while in his robot form, and even then the most he can do in his robot speed is a jog with long strides. The only way he can manage to get to a running speed is by first charging at max speed in his vehicle mode then transforming mid-charge… but even then he can’t maintain the run for long. This slow speed and slow acceleration translates into issues while Hazmat is in hand to hand combat. He is forced to rely on building up momentum in order to move quickly enough to handle himself in a battle against quicker foes… but even then he’s at a disadvantage because if he loses any momentum it will take him time to regain it. Losing momentum is as easy as needing to change directions more than 45 degrees to avoid getting hit, while getting hit at the wrong angle will also result in the loss of momentum. It’s also lost if he uses all his built up momentum to land a powerful blow. Getting up from a fall is also in issue since gravity will constantly pull him down while he’s trying to get up. Lastly Hazmat sticks out like a sore thumb. He’s really big, he’s colored black and bright green, and he’s slow; all this translates into being a sitting duck.
Not a doctor: While Hazmat can treat Cybertronian illnesses and toxins, he’s not a doctor. Meaning that any repairs he can make are limited to patches.
PTSD: Having spent so much time alone on Cybertron where his only company were the corpses of fallen comrades and any Decepticons that had stayed behind only to attack him, Hazmat has nightmares whenever he enters recharge. A “goodnight sleep” is hard for him to get unless certain circumstances are met, such as a REALLY good day before starting his recharge cycle. If not, then he sometimes needs a recharge inducer.
Hunger: Hazmat is a very large Cybertronian. As a result he needs a lot of Energon to keep on running.
Short On Supplies: The chemicals that Hazmat’s DES uses are hard to come by on Earth, so he has to use them sparingly while on Earth. He also has a limited amount of the stuff in his tanks so when Hazmat is out he has to return to base to make more at a fully equipped lab… which the Autobots don’t always have. Refilling his water tank is easy but refilling his fire-suppressant foam tank is difficult since the large amount he would need to fill his tank can only be found at airports and military insulations… both of which would get suspicious if some random fire and rescue truck rolled up asked for a full tank of fire-suppressant foam. Finally there is no way for his chemicals to harm a Cybertronian… at all. He could take all of his chemicals, mix them in every conceivable way, and then dump all the mixed chemicals onto a Cybertronian and the only result would be a wet Cybertronian. The chemicals can’t even make their paint peel. A Cybertronian could DRINK these chemicals and be fine. Mind you they might ‘eject’ it afterwards because they can’t digest the chemicals but it won’t hurt them.
Special Skills:
Custodian: Hazmat’s main function was decontaminating toxic areas, but he’s also good at cleaning in general which he does with cleaning tools he brought with him from Cybertron. These include a rotary scrubber, a mech sized mop that has a telescoping handle so it can be used by others smaller then him, wet vac, and several other tools for keeping things clean.
Extra Info:
Hazmat has begun to study human culture and wanted a way to interact with humans if he has to. So, he has become rather proficient at using his holoform. His holoform is a strong male in his prime, wearing brown firefighter’s jeans with a T-shirt, and combat boots. Hazmat chose this holoform to intimidate humans so they wouldn’t try to touch him. Too bad Hazmat’s voice isn’t gruff enough to match the holoform… because of this the holoform Ben comes across as a big teddy bear.
Sample RP:
Cold… it was always cold on Cybertron now a cycle. Most planets were warmed not just externally by the sun they orbited, but also internally by their molten cores. The metal planet was no different for a time since its core also internally heated the planet, sending it’s ‘hot of the plate’ Energon coursing through the planet for the population to consume. However Cybertron’s core was no longer functioning, thus it was no longer internally warming the planet. As a result the metal planet was colder now, but as one of the last Cybertronians on the planet looked up at the star filled sky and let out a sorrowful sigh. At that moment he would’ve preferred the sun going dark instead because the Energon that came from Cybertron’s core was also the only fuel that Cybertronians could consume.
And within 10 square clicks there wasn’t a drop of Energon anywhere. The only living Cybertronian within that large area had picked it clean.
Hazmat shook his helm as he rolled his right shoulder as he gazed up at the star filled sky. If he focused he could pretend that he could make out what was left of the exhaust that the Ark had left behind as it had taken off… without him. A low angry growl escaped his voice box as his right servo tightened into a fist. A long duel with a skilled Decepticon that had slaughtered his entire squad was responsible for that… not exactly the ‘Con but rather the duel itself… and Smokestack’s anger about losing the convoy that the squad had been guarding. The old Autobot could’ve retreated from the battle if he had moved fast enough, and then he might have made it to the Ark before liftoff. But no, he had to avenge his fallen comrades even though their last words were for him to run, and that led to one of the longest one-on-one duels in his long life against a much younger ‘Con that was clearly skilled. The duel ended when the sound of the Ark’s first stage thrusters coming online and lifting the last hope of all Autobots into space... leaving the old mech behind on a Primus forsaken wasteland. He fought alongside the other Autobots that got left behind but in the end Hazmat was the only mech left standing in the Deacon’s underground.
Hazmat wasn’t sure what became of the Decepticon that had caused him to miss his only way off of Cybertron, but at the moment it didn’t really matter. So he relaxed and let tightened digits of his servo go slack. He was here, and he’d have to deal with it. With that Hazmat returned to the task at hand; attempt to figure out how to climb down the collapsed tower he had climbed a few hours ago. He squatted down, the hydraulics and joints making up his legs groaning slightly under his weight, to get a closer inspection of the remains of the elevator shaft that he had climbed up to get up the tower in hopes of finding any Energon up there. He had gotten lucky and scrounged enough to fill two cubes… but while he had been scraping the last few drops of Energon into the second cube his audio pickups heard the sound of a crash, and when he got back to the elevator shaft he found that there wasn’t any shaft left.
Which left him a bit of a problem; the only way down was to either take a flying leap and hope he’d handle the long drop, or try to climb down the rusty support beams and hope they could handle his weight along with the weight of the building they were still holding up. Of course Hazmat went with the latter since it was a really long fall, and carefully swung his heavy chassis over the edge and planted his pedes on the first support. It held, much to the old Cybertronian’s relief. He then slowly removed one pede from the support and bent the leg that was now holding all of his weight, lowering himself towards the next horizontal support while his servos loosely held onto the vertical support on his right in case he needed to suddenly grab onto it. The pistons in his bending leg groaned and blew out steam but held as his free hanging pede found firm footing on the lower support. This time shifting his weight to the leg that was now on the lower support, Hazmat pulled his weight off of the bent leg and let it slowly extend to place it on the lower support and firmly planted that pede onto the support. This pattern continued as Smokestack slowly lowered himself from one support to the next, making his way downwards to safety.
It was working until he was two thirds of the way down when he heard a SNAP! One of the bolts of the support he was standing off had sheared the moment his full weight was on it! Hazmat tried to shift his weight to the next support beam, but there wasn’t enough time to… only for his green eyes to widen in fear.
SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!
”SCRAP!”
Down he went, falling like a sack of spare parts, the old Cybertronian fell the rest of the length of the tower and landed on his pedes with a thunderous thump! that echoed for almost a mile. The instant he hit the ground a stream of error message scrolled across the Autobot’s field of vision as Hazmat’s right leg started to burn with pain and couldn’t support his weight anymore, and he tipped forwards to end up on his servos and knees. ”Great. Just great.” Hazmat grimaced as he rolled onto his left side and then onto his aft and quickly sat up to look at the damage done to his leg. There was a crack in his Hazmat Armor’s outer shell running along the front of his right leg, just below the knee. Tiny bits of gold coloring could be seen in the crack, revealing the underlying insulation of the Hazmat Armor, along with a few drops of Energon leaking out of the crack.
Acting quickly Hazmat aimed his left forearm at his leg as the medical scanner extended from his forearm and started to scan his damaged limb. The beam was blue as it passed over his upper leg, but the moment the beam crossed the crack it turned red. All the while he was keeping a close eye on the scan readouts that were starting to scroll across his HUD on the left side. The results made him frown even more; the crack in his armor was caused by him hitting something on his landing that was hard enough to not only break his armor but to pinch one of his primary hydraulic lines. No hydraulic fluid was going down to his pede.
It would be an easy fix since all he needed to do was open up the armor an free up the line… but was one thought currently scrolling through Hazmat’s processor on repeat: Frag…
He was about to pull his leg closer to start working on it when the sound of a crunch drew his optics off to the right as his left servo quickly reached down to his left hip and curled around the grip of his Shot Cannon if he needed to draw it. He didn’t need to pull the grip back to load an Energon shell… it already had one loaded. Hazmat kept it loaded in case something came out of the darkness to attack him. One good close range shot normally did the trick, and if not it would stun any single target enough for him to either load another shell or grab his steam hammer. However now would be the worst time for something to try to attack him since he was currently disabled and unable to move. His head on a swivel, Hazmat surveyed his surroundings and found the source of the sound; a hunk of the broken elevator shaft had been crushed by a falling piece of debris. There was rust floating in the air so it was easy to tell. Hazmat would’ve relaxed slightly knowing that there wasn’t any danger but his leg was still broken so he wasn’t out of the pit yet.
Looking back down at his wound, Hazmat reached into his subspace and pulled out what looked like some type of stun gun. It was a medical device used to make the pain receptors in his leg go numb so he could repair his leg without screaming his voice box out, but still this self-surgery wasn’t going to be pleasant. However there was a downside: his Hazmat Armor made him resistant to it so the pain killer wouldn’t last long. After using the tool on his leg a few times, each time resulting in a small electrical discharge that made Hazmat flinch, he carefully opened up the damaged armor plating with his fingers to see the pinched hose, stuck between his armor and frame. The pooled up Energon in the wounded area quickly leaked out. There was no way he could to a proper repair, he just didn’t have the tools to do so… but he could patch it enough to get to safety. Gritting his teeth, Hazmat carefully used his servo tips to grab the hydraulic line and carefully pull it open at the pinched area to allow hydraulic fluid to flow through it again… but not much. This was followed by reconnecting the leaking Energon lines. Finally Hazmat closed up his Hazmat Armor, one layer of insulation at a time. His right servo retracted into his hands and a welder extended out in its place and he began to weld his armor shut. By the time he was finished with the last weld Hazmat was gritting his teeth in pain since the pain killer had worn off. If only he could tell his armor to turn off occationally!
But the repairs were done and it was now up to his auto-repair systems to fix the rest of the damage. It could do it but it would take time. Retracting his welder so he could use his servo again, Hazmat slowly rose by placing his weight on his left leg, than slowly applied weight to his right leg. It held. He tried to take a hesitant step, only to find his right ankle joint was weak due to lack of hydraulic fluids reaching the pede. It was going to be a long limp back to his shelter, and since he had to climb over some debris transforming into his alternate to get there wasn’t going to be an option. Seeing no other option, Hazmat right servo reached down to his right pede and grabbed a piece of metal to use it as a crutch. It held his weight, but barely.
It was a long and hard journey but Hazmat finally managed to get back to his shelter. It wasn’t much, or at least it wasn’t much now. Before it had been one of the many reclamation centers that dotted Cybertron’s underground. Now it was just another destroyed structure. Well, okay not entirely destroyed since it’s lower levels were still fairly intact, thanks to the fact that this reclamation center also served as a hub for custodial mechs to dump their detoxified cargo, get backup for a rather large cleanup job… or get repairs after running into something or someone rather bad in Cybertron’s underground. As a matter of fact this particular reclamation center was the closest one to the Decagon, though Hazmat had only been here once which was to refuel while on his way to Kaon with a shipment of hazmat cars. It wasn’t long afterwards that the Great War had begun and Hazmat temporarily joined the Decepticons before coming to his senses and switching to the Autobots.
Hazmat winced as he stepped down on his patched up leg once again, and looked up at the large contraption that he had set by the only entrance into his shelter; one of the last remaining remnants of his military carrier during the great war, a turret car which Hazmat had pulled himself during the great war. It was the only part of his convoy that had survived during the battle that ended with Smokestack missing the Exodus and all of his troops dying. Not knowing what he would be up against on this dead world, Hazmat had kept these turret cars with him during his travels throughout the dead planet’s destroyed surface and underground… only to run into only corpses that were already gun-metal gray or others that were so much worse off than him that killing them was more like putting them out of their misery then an actually battle. Eventually when Hazmat found this reclamation center and made it his shelter, he simply parked the turret car by the entrance into the shelter to act as means of self-defense if someone tried to attack his shelter. However after so many vorns went by without anyone showing up, Hazmat drained them of their Energon for his consumption. Now it was just an ornament that was rusting and gathering dust. The old Autobot limbed up to the mobile artillery and placed his left servo on it for support while he continued to limp into his shelter. So much time has passed, and I’m still relying on my allies for support… he thought as he carefully let go of the car and then placed a servo on the wall of the rectangular corridor that lead into his shelter. As he did so the only thing he could hear was the clunk clunk clunk of his large feet, along with the occational clang of his make-shift crutch.
At the end of the corridor was Hazmat’s shelter. As he limbed his way into the shelter he eyed everything carefully to make sure it was all still in place and functional, even with a big gun sitting on his front door that didn’t mean it would deter everyone that was desperate. The shelter was fairly drab but it was clean and livable… it was the home of a custodian after all. The room had been fashioned with a Cybertronian-sized couch and a few tables, a pair of Energon processors, couple of other medical tools, and some other repair tools… all of which Hazmat made use of. The couch was where he’d lie down to recharge… if he could get himself to recharge that is since he had some much trouble doing so since he always had recharge-mares. The tables acted as work benches since sometimes the custodian mech needed to make repairs to parts of his shelter… it was partly blasted apart. He had also made some modifications to one of the Energon processors using an emitter and several filters he had salvaged from a dead custodian bot he had found at one point, converting it into an Energon filtration machine. Hazmat carefully walked over to the filtration machine and leaned his waist against the table so he could use both servos instead only using one servo and having the other one occupied with holding himself up with his crutch. Reaching into his side mounted compartments with both arms, Hazmat lifted out the two cubes of Energon he had managed to salvage from the tower he had climbed. He placed them both down on the table and carefully removed their lids to reveal the Energon he had found earlier and frowned as a stream of golden light was emitted from his eyes and scanned the Energon for any contaminants… and found plenty of rust flakes. If he drank it like this his body would reject it… followed by him ‘ejecting’ it through regurgitation. He never experienced it and he had no plans too. So instead he simply picked up both cubes of Energon and slowly poured them into the Energon filter, closed the lid, and turned the device on. The filtration process would remove any contaminates from the Energon making it completely drinkable… though it would take quite a while.
With nothing to do but wait, Hazmat started to turn around and limp over to the couch but stopped half way over to glance at what was sitting in the back of the shelter, and the reason why he picked this as his shelter instead of somewhere else; the long range ground bridge that was still functional. When he first found it Hazmat had drained it of nearly all its Energon to stay alive, but when he realized that he just might have to make a run for it through through the bridge he left just enough energy in it for him to make a getaway. He wasn’t an expert on using ground bridges, but he had an idea he left enough Energon since the machine had a gauge. While it didn’t do much else to help Hazmat stay alive, he did occasionally glance at it to see if it’s radar was detecting anything he should be concerned about.
Which was why when he glanced over at the ground bridge while walking towards the couch he stopped. Every single time he had looked over at the ground bridge the displays had looked the same every time… though this time there was a new red light, and it wasn’t coming from the radar. Puzzled, Hazmat started to limp over to the ground bridge, his patched leg letting out a groaning sound each time he took a step. He was figuring the system was having an error and it needed to be repaired. Why not? It had gone without repairs for ages and that was before he found it… and without having anyway to fix it he just kinda left it. He was still surprised it was functional at all, let alone at a good efficacy. However when Hazmat had gotten over to the ground bridge control panel, his jaw nearly fell off of his helm; it was the ground bridge’s comm relay that was blinking! ”That can’t be right…” Hazmat said, thinking out loud, as he activated the diagnostic cycle for the ground bridge. After a moment the readout of the diagnostic’s results were deplayed, and Hazmat’s optics widened… and widened… and widened till they were about to pop out of his helm.
The ground bridge was receiving an incoming message from orbit! The ground bridge terminal had been broadcasting a signal this whole time and Hazmat didn’t even know it… and it was receiving a return signal on that broadcast! Hazmat wasn’t sure what to do! For all he knew this could’ve been a Decepticon contacting the ground bridge… or maybe it could’ve been an Autobot… or maybe a living Priest of Primius visiting Cybertron to see how the dead planet was doing and just happened to detect the ground bridge signal. Or maybe it was some passing none Cybertronian ship. Whichever it was, Hazmat wasn’t going to let an opportunity to leave Cybertron to pass up and he pressed the transparent blue button on the display to activate his end of the comm.
”This is Hazmat, commanding officer of Autobot mobile artillery unit 5567-Zeta, and the Zeta Company. To whom am I speaking with?” was what came out of his vocalizer. Now… to wait for a reply from whomever was on the other end of the line.