We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
Vision was getting worse as mist cascaded down from the open crevasse and into the small passageway Nokta made his way into. Thundercracker said something and it came up nothing but static.
::Thundercracker?:: Nokta keyed in through their comms, once again met with static. “Damn it to the Pits,” The mech growled to himself as he glared at the passage ahead. The jagged pathway was thin and winding enough to left and right with rocky protrusions that he couldn’t make out what lay on the other side.
Nokta sighed, allowing the buzz of his outlier ability to wash over his frame once more. He couldn’t risk making his presence known if he was to go it alone. He was barely able to fit in this passageway and there was no way in hell someone Thundercracker’s size would make it through without drastic noise signaling his approach to Primus knows what lay ahead.
::bzzr–S-S-Seeker, if you can he–fzz–ar me, get down here once there’s a c-c-c-c-BRZZR–learing l-l-large enough for you to fit.::
Unbeknownst to him, there was such a clearing up ahead. With a rather sizable piece of Cybertronian machinery lodged in an even more sizable crater– the crevasse opening up to a bowl-like formation on the mountainside. Where natural formations ended and the impact crater began was unclear even from a bird’s eye view, but it was most certainly there, and evident to the naked optic.
Nokta was only a short minute’s hike from this impact site.
Post by Thundercracker on Mar 12, 2023 20:40:38 GMT -5
Still nothing...
Thundercracker didn’t like this. While he had operated solo before, when he was partnered up with someone for a mission he placed a high emphasis on radio contact, especially if they got separated. Otherwise there was always the chance of either being picked off one at a time by an especially cunning enemy, or possibly shooting each other in a friendly fire incident.
::Nokta, repeat!::
There was something that he was barely able to make out, something about a clearing...
He descended lower in order to try and close the distance between the transmission point and the receiver, but then suddenly saw a clearing...that looked partially unnatural...
Whatever it was might be coming from down there...
::Nokta, if you can hear me, I found a clearing that appears to be a clue to our objective.::
In fact, he could hardly even hear himself think, with all the static ripping through his commlink. With a staggered growl, the scout cut the feed to his long-range communicator, there was no point now. A wordless status report had already been sent to the control room at Blackridge notifying those on staff of the situation at hand. At least, the lieutenant hoped the report had made it through– though whatever was causing the abhorrent feedback loop only seemed to have begun once he began his trek into the mountain pass, and the report had been sent just before that.
But blind hope was never advised.
He was nearly through now– white light shimmering through the fog denoting a break in the tight crevasse he’d been walking through. Whatever was causing the feedback loop was strong enough to make his very frame buzz with discomfort, static jumping along the surface of his armor. No– not just his armor, his helm was now throbbing, pain biting with every step. Something was wrong, very wrong here. But he had to keep going. Just a few more steps…screaming now, his processor in dire agony. He couldn’t even think, what in the blazes was causing this!?
But then: salvation.
Nokta broke through the crevasse, falling to a knee on the snowcapped clearing from the sudden malaise that had overtaken his frame. But it was gone. All of it. The buzzing, the pain, the exhaustion.
He’d made it to the clearing– rather, the crater– and was now in clear view of the object which had caused such a massive deformation in the mountain.
A large, cylindrical object coursing with vibrant blue energy– in bad shape from its fall to Earth to be certain, but still very much online, emanating an ominous hum.
It looked to be an engine of some sort.
Still recovering from the assault on his frame, Nokta would slowly rise to his peds, finding that all signal interference had vanished.
Post by Thundercracker on Mar 19, 2023 18:22:17 GMT -5
Still nothing...
Well...he could either sit here like a moron waiting to get picked off by an enemy he could neither see nor hear, or do the smart thing and jump in and hope there was a beneficial change. Well...smart being a relative term here. Honestly this was something that Skywarp would be advocating for, which usually meant that it wasn’t a good idea. But honestly he couldn’t think of anything better.
With a sigh he flew into the clearing and transformed, using the motion to plant his peddes in the direction of his descent and fired his thrusters to slow his descent, landing in a crouch and standing upright as the snow melted around his feet from the heat of his thrusters and skin.
First thing he noticed was that he could finally think again. The second being that Nokta had apparently had the same idea somehow and followed him in.
“Good to see you again.” He said simply to the other mech before fixing his eyes on the third thing that he had noticed.
“Well I’ll be damned to the pit...” he muttered.
If that wasn’t a piece of a spacecraft, he’d let Skywarp paint him hot pink for a year.
Nokta had been staring intently at the engine when Thundercracker arrived, his processor moving at a mile a minute in an attempt to parse how they would secure it safely. As the seeker spoke a greeting, Nokta would give nothing more than a curt nod in the blue mech’s direction.
“That engine is still scrambling comms. We’re going to need to find a way to turn it off without destroying it outright if we want a bridge out of here.”
Well, if he wanted a bridge out of here. Thundercracker could easily fly out. But then again, neither of them should be itching to leave behind a valuable piece of cybertronian technology when such things were so hard to come by these days.
He took a step forth, wanting a better look at the object. Either the pain neurodes in his helm had been fried entirely, or whatever was causing the mind-numbing agony had finally stopped. Either way, it was clear this engine was the cause.
It wasn’t massive enough that it wouldn’t fit through a ground bridge, with the proper supplies. But how volatile it truly was had yet to be seen. They wouldn’t exactly be sung heroes if they brought back something that fried the base's systems entirely once it made it through the other end of the bridge.
“Are your scanners working again? Check for radiation. Something in the mountain was reacting to this.”
Post by Thundercracker on Apr 23, 2023 23:16:27 GMT -5
Well...nice to see you too...
Thundercracker didn’t attempt any more niceties with the lieutenant, merely giving the other mech a nod as he began to visually examine the engine again. Thing was though...this thing shouldn’t be interfering with their comms if it was a normal engine. To Thundercracker that meant one of two things: either there was something else that was messing with their systems, or this engine was more than meets the optic.
Based on his interactions with Nokta, he was willing to bet the later. The lieutenant seemed hellbent on giving Soundwave a run for his money as the most cloak and dagger mech in the army...
“On it...” he said in reply to Nokta’s command for scanning which he did, beginning to scan the area around them, looking for anything that stood out to him. As he did it, he broke the silence again and spoke to Nokta.
“Look, I’m willing to deal with death and dismemberment, it’s a part of life for us. But is there anything you want to tell me about this ship or its cargo before I stumble across it blindly and get one or both of us killed?”
If the lieutenant hadn’t entirely been focused on the objective before, he was now. Thusly, Thundercracker’s sudden verbal interjection was unwelcome, to say the least.
“You were given ample opportunity to ask your questions earlier,” Nokta replied in a stern tone, sounding mildly irritated by Thundercracker’s weariness to investigate further. “The engine survived a drop from orbit. It will hold. Proceed with your scan.”
Unless Thundercracker was itching to disobey a direct order, he would follow the lieutenant’s command.
Should Thundercracker choose to scan the engine more indepth, it would appear Nokta’s original suspicion that it was causing some sort of magnetic interference was correct, as the engine seemed to produce its own strong electromagnetic frequency, hence their scrambled comms, and almost certainly the anomaly within the mountain as well.
Post by Thundercracker on May 21, 2023 17:02:55 GMT -5
Fine...be that way.
If we get blown up, it’s on your aft.
Of course Thundercracker didn’t say any of this, instead merely content to let his silence speak for him. If Nokta wanted to play his game of being all mysterious and coy with information in an attempt to seem cool, that was on him.
He would give it a deep scan though, as he was looking for anything that could come back and bite them later on down the line. His lips pressed together in thought as he realized what was going on.
“I’m not seeing any radiation, though it looks like this thing is producing a strong amount of magnetic interference. Probably what has been messing with our comms...”
And probably what tipped Nokta off about this whole thing, if Thundercracker was betting on it. But he kept that idea to himself for the moment.
“This thing goes through a groundbridge in its current state...” he trailed off for a bit as he continued scanning for anything else that was unusual.
"The engine will need to be powered down before it is ferried through a groundbridge." Nokta spoke after a moment, perhaps in affirmative response to Thundercracker, or perhaps coming to his own conclusion sans listening to the seeker’s own observations. From his tone of voice alone this was not clear.
Then, without further ado, Nokta sauntered towards the engine, seemingly confident that they were not in any immediate danger.
"I’d advise avoiding the surrounding rock formations until that happens," He continued. Hopefully he hadn’t sustained any lasting damage from the strange interference that had felt like it was scrambling his processor in the mountain pass. But he didn’t want himself or the seeker for that matter undergoing more of that torture just to find out.
"Engines like these would need frequent maintenance…should be somewhere for technicians to get at the internal components, likely hidden to prevent tampering by the wrong parties." Nokta spoke, though not like one would to a partner in conversation. He spoke in hushed, mumbled tones, as though he were thinking aloud.
"Seeker, scan for abnormalities in the metal of the engine’s exterior. We’re looking for an access panel of some kind." Nokta called from the opposite end of the engine, its sheer size blocking him from Thundercracker’s view as the smaller mech ran his digits along the engine’s exterior, feeling around for creases in the metal.
Post by Thundercracker on Jun 4, 2023 16:57:34 GMT -5
Well good thing to know that they were all on the same page...
“Good point, no telling what could have happened over the years this thing has been here...” Thundercracker trailed off as he continued his scan, making sure to stay clear of the area Nokta had advised him to avoid. For all they knew the magnetic interference could have interacted with some unknown metal in the mountain and all it needed was a bit of energon or contact with a Cybertronian’s frame to blow the mountain to pieces, and then with it.
He didn’t hear much of what Nokta said, but he caught the jist of it. Look for maintenance panels.
Despite what the Lieutenant said, it was unlikely they would be concealed. Thundercracker had known a few mechanics in his time, and if those mechs hated anything it was when someone overcomplicated a simple task. It was much more likely that the panel would be easier to find because the mechanics would do that themselves.
Though this raised a question in Thundercracker’s mind.
“If this thing’s been running for so long, why is it in pretty decent condition without being maintained?” he asked Nokta as he began searching for the abnormalities to find the maintenance hatch, a bit annoyed by the term ‘seeker’.
Would Nokta prefer to be addressed as ‘grounder’ or ‘afthead’? Seemed pretty apt descriptions.
“If this thing’s been running for so long, why is it in pretty decent condition without being maintained?”
In reality, Nokta cared little for titles. Only that they finish the mission before anything else unexpected happened. So, upon the flier’s question, the scout peered over the engine at the other mech, his optics narrowing from the nagging weight of the seeker’s incessant questioning.
"Good thing I’m an engineer so I can answer that question for you, Thundercracker." Finally using the soldier’s name, albeit coldly, and far more uncaring as he’d been up until this point. If it wasn’t clear by now, once Nokta’s mind was set upon an objective, there was little else he cared about until completing it. And thus, he continued his search for a way inside the engine’s internals.
"We don’t know how long it’s been running," Nokta responded after a moment, sounded at least slightly less agitated as he continued running his digits across the metal exterior of the engine, searching for seams that felt out of place.
They didn’t know how or why it was running, only that it was. And that made it valuable.
"All the more reason to turn it off before it’s rendered useless altogether."
Post by Thundercracker on Jun 18, 2023 20:48:13 GMT -5
Well...that was progress at least...
“Right...but how did it turn on? These things don’t exactly just turn on...and it would have to have been recently otherwise we or the Autobots would have picked up on it sooner, right?”
By this point he was thinking out loud more than anything, trying to distract himself from the multitude of questions that were forming in his processor, and the fact that Nokta was being what Thundercracker had determined was his usual self wasn’t helping matters. Something just felt off about this whole situation. A perfectly running engine that just recently happened to come to their attention near a nesting ground of scraplets?
Something else was going on here. He knew that much after having been around Starscream all this time.
His musings were cut short though once he found what he was looking for. Or at least, something that was similar to what they might have been looking for.
"You’re correct. The ship crashed to Earth not too long ago. Given how sturdy this casing looks, it’s possible it never turned off at all, depending on what mechanism is powering it from the inside." Nokta replied with a grunt as he crouched down, searching the underside.
That their own comms frequencies were scrambled even in close proximity to the engine should have obviously explained why there wasn’t an Autobot presence here already, and so the lieutenant did not dignify that question with a response.
Upon Thundercracker seeming to find the access panel, Nokta rose to his peds once more, walking around to the flier’s side of the engine. “Good,” he responded plainly once he saw what the seeker was referring to. He began sliding his spindle-like digits into the various arcs and crevices of the panel to attempt to pry it loose.
"Simply put, this kind of sustainability is well-suited to powering some of the equipment that will be needed to recover our flagship." He spoke as he did this, hoping that the line of thinking there would at least begin to dawn on Thundercracker. "If it can be replicated by an engineer at Blackridge, reclamation efforts could be aided by their implementation. If not, this engine still has some life in it yet."
Post by Thundercracker on Jun 26, 2023 1:32:38 GMT -5
Not too long ago?
That wasn’t at all specific. For Cybertronians, not too long ago could be anything from a solar cycle to a century. Though when Nokta said it this time, Thundercracker was willing to bet that it was on the lower side...since otherwise as he previously mentioned the Autobots or the humans might have found it.
Recovering the Nemesis? Well...Thundercracker would love to get out of those caves and into something that was actually liveable. Being underground never sat well with Seekers, they needed to be able to see the sky which was their domain. Leave the underground to the grounders.
He stood back to let Nokta work, folding his servos over his chest as he watched the Lieutenant struggle with the panel.
“Do we even have the resources to replicate this thing?” he asked, arcing his brow in confusion.
Last Edit: Jul 2, 2023 18:22:50 GMT -5 by Thundercracker
“We’d better,” the lieutenant growled under his vents in response, in a way that would only subtlety reveal the unspoken second half of that sentence– ‘if someone doesn’t want my ped up their aft.’
For all the trouble they’d gone through to secure this piece of technology, it would be unacceptable to think that there wouldn’t be some kind of use for it at Blackridge or elsewhere. At least, the lieutenant would settle for no less. He knew a potential asset when he saw one. And with how their army was looking these days, they’d be needing all the assets they could procure.
The maintenance panel in question popped off the side of the engine, exposing its underside to the prying optics of the pair. What they were met with, however, was a veritable frenzy of cords and wires bilging out at the seams, obscuring any internal controls there might have been to manually turn off the engine.
Nokta sighed.
“Optics peeled while I untangle these, please.” This time at least, it seemed the lieutenant had found the capability to ask respectfully. And with that, the mech got to work, thin, needle like fingers working to gently untangle the masses of cords so that he could get at the controls beneath.