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.
Post by Thundercracker on Jul 2, 2023 18:29:58 GMT -5
“Copy.”
With that Thundercracker shifted both of his servos into weapon mode and took up a sentry position to make sure that no one decided to drop in on them unannounced while Nokta had his servos tangled up in trying to shut off the engine.
Nokta’s unfinished statement caused Thundercracker to both chuckle to himself and worry about the current state of the Decepticons. He hadn’t been on Earth when the Nemesis had gone down, but from what he’d managed to gather from Starscream and others, it had been quite the violent and terrifying day. He’d never been a big fan of the ship back on Cybertron with it’s eternal gloomy nature, but thinking back he had to admit that it was much better than what they currently had going on at Black Ridge.
Wouldn’t it be ironic though if the one individual they needed to get this thing working had been killed on the Nemesis? Like Primus punishing them for this war...
To be fair though...there might be others who would come later, much like what he and Nokta had done. But he doubted Nokta and Megatron would be happy sparklings waiting for such an individual to come along.
Sparkplug might be able to make it work...she was a mechanic...kind of.
Nokta tuned out Thundercracker after his affirmative response, choosing instead to focus on the remarkable abundance of displaced wiring that had built up under the engine’s plating. If Thundercracker were speaking, he’d have filtered any words out save for the typical verbal cues of incoming danger or attack.
Contrary to his blue compatriot, being able to walk the halls of the Nemesis for the first time had been something the lieutenant had been highly looking forward to on his hellish voyage to this planet. So to wake up and discover that the flagship was at the bottom of an ocean for the foreseeable future had not gone over very well with him. If his vitriol in securing this one small puzzle piece to see if it might fit into the larger one at hand was not enough of a sign of that, his rather bitter demeanor overall should have been.
"I think I’ve found an emergency shutoff," Nokta mumbled after a few minutes as he continued picking at wires with his thin digits. Sure enough, a knob just smaller than the size of his servo became revealed just a few seconds later. Painted around said knob was a diagram that displayed the various output levels the engine could manually be set to– from a ‘low’ setting all the way to the ‘bright red’ setting. Nokta was no engineer, but he didn’t need to be to know what bright red labels meant on anything.
"I’m going to turn it off now. Get ready."
Ready for what? He did not know. But it was better to be ready for nothing than not be ready for something worse.
Post by Thundercracker on Jul 9, 2023 23:11:32 GMT -5
“Understood.”
Ready for what exactly? Did Nokta want him to break out the high grade and celebrate him turning off the engine like he had just won the war? Or was this engine going to suddenly explode because black ops here pulled the wrong wire or pushed the wrong button? Not that there was anything Thundercracker could have done if the engine did blow up considering how close he was to it. He was fast, but not that fast.
Well...perhaps the Well of Allsparks would be a wonderful relief from what he was currently doing.
He kept his weapons activated, waiting for the Lieutenant to push the button and see whether or not they were going to die or not.
Pinching his digits around the dial, Nokta turned it as far left as it would go towards the emergency off setting.
After a moment of tense uncertainty, slowly, the humming of the ship engine began to stall into a lull, until it appeared to completely quiet down, the whirr of its internals coming to a halt.
Nokta stood up, taking a step away from the engine, staring at it for a moment, before appearing to test his internal communications array.
::Bridge, this is Nokta. Do you read me?::
Waiting another moment to listen for a click of affirmation from the other end, he’d be happy enough for a ping of acknowledgment from the other end.
“Comms are back up,” he would notify over his shoulder to Thundercracker, before patching back in to Blackridge’s Control Station frequency once more.
::Thundercracker and I need a small team of Vehicons on our coordinates to extract a ship engine to a secure location. Ensure they understand the machinery in question is volatile and damaging it is ill-advised.::
Post by Thundercracker on Aug 6, 2023 19:50:23 GMT -5
He waited...
And waited...
Even after the engine began to power down Thundercracker waited for the proverbial hammer to drop, but as Nokta stepped away from the engine he decided that Primus or whatever other being was up there deciding the issue had determined that now was not his moment to become one with the Allspark.
He didn’t know how he felt about that honestly.
“Good. Then we can finally get out of here.” Thundercracker replied as he folded up his weapons back into himself and returned his hands to their normal form. “Want me to fly up and check out the top of the engine? See how it looks up there while we wait for base to get back to us?” he asked.
Would be something to do in order to kill the time they would probably be waiting while Soundwave got an party of vehicons to come and do the majority of the heavy lifting.
Nokta would nod to the seeker upon his question, seemingly mirroring his eagerness to leave now that they’d successfully turned off the engine. "Sound plan. Maintain surveillance from on high as we wait for extraction."
Quiet had begun to settle over the impact site. No more low humming, no tingling or buzzing sensations mesh deep along their frames, nothing more than the howling of the high-altitude winds.
An eerie, all encompassing quiet. At least, for the time being.
For a long moment it would remain this way. Thundercracker hovered above, remaining their optics in the sky, Nokta remained below, standing beside the engine in wait.
And then the mountain shivered. Just enough to barely be noticed by Nokta.
He frowned, planting his hand against the engine beside him as if to feel for something. Nothing.
"Thundercracker–" Nokta began to ask if the jet's scanners had registered the seismic activity, only to bend at the knees as a second tremor nearly sent him off balance. The scout’s brow furrowed in discontent, immediately calling back in to base.
::Bridge, be advised we are experiencing seismic anomalies in the region, recommend proceeding with haste in organizing the extraction team.::
From his vantage point over the plateau surrounding the crater, Thundercracker would see them first. Starting with a single sphere bobbing its head up on the horizon, displacing the dirt from where it had been buried. A second would join it soon after. And then a third, and a fourth, fifth. Another, and another, and another until there were dozens, tens of dozens.
Scraplets.
Burrowing out of the mountain all around them and fast approaching the impact crater from the plateau surrounding it above. Before they had merely just looked like discoloration in the dirt and rock of the flat ground around the crater, but now it was clear to see from the many, much smaller basketball sized craters surrounding the main, massive one. These scraplets too had been detritus from the same ship that had deposited the engine here.
The scraplets had not yet noticed the two Cybertronians within the crater, the silvery masses walking towards them at a snail’s pace, from the ridge above they were out of sight. They still had time, but the smell of their potential prey was drawing their approach all the same.
Post by Thundercracker on Aug 27, 2023 19:47:36 GMT -5
“Understood.”
Thankful to be out of the hole and back into the open sky, Thundercracker transformed and climbed out of the vertical hole at a ninety degree angle before taking up an orbital path circling the mountain where they had been working, making sure to duck into the occasional cloud to obscure his visual presence in the area incase another aircraft came into their airspace.
It might have been boring to others, but Thundercracker would much prefer this to waiting around inside the mountain. Seekers didn’t do well in confined spaces...
He didn’t feel or hear the rumbling that Nokta did, but he heard the radio call and that caused him to look once again towards the mountain. However, what he saw caused him to swear under his breath. It seemed that either the scraplets from before hadn’t been deterred by the explosion of a missile, or they had been drawn to this area by the death of their breathern. Thundercracker wasn’t in much of a mood to find out at the moment. Despite not liking Nokta all that much or not really giving a flying scrap about the Decepticon cause, he wasn’t going to let Nokta die from scraplets. He wasn’t that sparkless.
::Nokta, be advised. There’s a horde of scraplets converging on your position.::
As soon as he radioed, Thundercracker rolled back towards the mountain and lined up on a path perpendicular to the scraplet’s travel. Using missiles would be a nogo at the moment since the mountain was probably unstable, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have other options available to him.
He lined up the reticle on his gunsight on the lead element of the scraplet horde and pulled the trigger, unleashing a long burst of 20mm high explosive cannon shells on the front of the formation before pulling up and passing overhead.
Another tremor boasted to upset the scout’s footing as Thundercracker took to the skies, falling in and out of sight behind cloud cover. He didn’t, of course, have the same harrowing view Thundercracker did of the incoming threat– which made the seeker’s warning all the more surreal once it came. ::What!?::
Nokta’s disbelieving question would be met with the overhead thrum of the seeker’s cannons laying down their fire on the bluffs above. Unless Thundercracker was the type to fire at anything that moved when he got bored or threatened, this was all very much real. Though Nokta found himself wishing his companion was merely an itchy trigger finger as opposed to the dire alternative, his grim reminder of the container he’d found whilst scaling the mountain led him to believe otherwise as he frantically called back into Blackridge.
::Bridge, abort extraction and send another aerial unit, now! We’re being engaged by scraplets!:: His command was quickly and firmly shouted back into his comms as his optics scanned the ridgeline for the incoming threat.
The lieutenant’s question would swiftly be met with another surge in the mountain. As the dust cleared from Thundercracker’s explosive barrage– the sight was as expected. Dozens on dozens of smoking husks were revealed, and at the epicenter of Thundercracker’s burst there was hardly anything left at all. Those at the edge of the blast had their small limbs torn, their bodies battered by shrapnel. A dent had certainly made for the time being, but those returns would quickly prove themselves diminishing.
On the opposite side of the crater from Thundercracker’s target, the horde was forming in equal force. Even a half dozen scraplets alone could devour an unarmed mech to the point of fatal injury in not much time at all. Here, there were hundreds, if not thousands all converging on the same point– drawn to the crater’s center.
The horde undulated in unison, its silvery masses glinting in the sun. From the right angle, they would almost appear…agitated. Nonetheless, they persisted, still yet to go into a feeding frenzy. But that was liable to change once they got the grounder’s scent. Within the next few minutes the first of them would be at the crater’s edge, and with a clear line of sight of their prey.
Post by Starscream on Sept 8, 2023 14:16:38 GMT -5
Nokta’s communication and subsequent request for assistance had been met with confirmation by the lone Vehicon at the console, and a note that it would take a minute to reassign the necessary troopers to their location.
It was, however, the second communication and the need for further authorization to speed things along a bit that the Air Commander was pulled into play.
Long, clawed talons would deftly type on the console, pulling up the various schedules to see which troopers could be momentarily - and quickly - pulled off task and onto this new reassignment. Nokta had been vague, as while ‘ship engine’ was fairly self-explanatory he didn’t state just which ship it was. All the silver Seeker knew upon taking over from the previously stationed Vehicon was the general location, and that Thundercracker had been called in earlier, so clearly they had found something important.
The mention of seismic anomalies was curious, however, and he wondered if it had something to do with the volatile nature of the ship engine. Maybe they had attempted to move it themselves in an effort to speed things along and it’d gone badly already.
As if on cue, five Vehicons would make their way into the Control Room then - though then another, more frantic comm was sent.
What fortuitous timing that was.
::What?! Scraplets?:: he growled the word.
It was lucky indeed that he hadn’t opened a bridge directly upon their location as planned. Those murderous little machines would’ve been drawn to it instantly and swarmed into Blackridge Hold before they even realized what’d happened.
Regardless of location, Scraplets were not a good thing - and while he was certain that Thundercracker could hold his own, a part of him did find himself worrying somewhat for the other mech. It did not take much for the tiny machines to overwhelm in an instant, devouring an entire mech within moments should there be enough of them.
Typing a new set of coordinates into the console, he would open a bridge a good few miles away from both Nokta and Thundercracker’s current location. Dismissing the gathered Vehicons, he was quick to make his way through, getting a running start and effortlessly shifting forms within the swirling vortex, which closed swiftly behind him.
::I am en route. Do what you can until I arrive!::
Post by Thundercracker on Sept 10, 2023 18:43:36 GMT -5
::What part about a horde do you not seem to comprehend Nokta? Last time I checked scraplets didn’t stand up in parade formation to let you give them a headcount before they swarmed!::
Moron.
As Thundercracker banked and came around for another attack he thought through his options. Missiles were out because of the seismic activity. He could possibly fly low and pop the scraplets with a shockwave, but that would have a similar effect as a missile striking the mountain and could destabilize the area, maybe even burying Nokta. While Thundercracker didn’t exactly like the lieutenant, he didn’t want to bury him under a ton of rock.
He wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
So instead he lined up another attack run, coming in fast and low and firing another burst of his 20mm rotary cannon on the lead element of the scraplet horde, holding down the trigger for a few seconds again as cannon rounds ripped into the mountain. Just as he let up he heard who was coming...
Nokta gritted his dentas to keep himself from saying something unseemly to the blue seeker. ::You’d be surprised.:: The mech half-growled through his comm-link in response to Thundercracker's rather insubordinate remark. He had half the mind to remind the mouthy flier of the title that came before his name personally. But there were more important things afoot at present, and if the seeker couldn’t even give him a simple estimate count of the incoming threat, he’d simply have to take his word for it and assume that this was because the worst case scenario was fast at hand.
Thankfully, the scout’s call for aid had been answered swiftly, in the form of a far more capable mech. Or so he could only hope.
::Commander!:: He couldn’t help but let the relief show in his raspy voice as he hailed Starscream on the same line the Air Commander had just used. ::The scraplets awoke when the engine turned off, I’m going to try to turn it back on, but I need time!::
With that, he made his way back to the opened maintenance panel on the engine, a dour look crossing his face, but one of stern determination nonetheless as he inspected the unfamiliar machinery.
Indifferent to the Cybertronian’s fears, squabbles, and inner reflections, the scraplets pressed on towards the mouth of the crater. They numbered easily in the thousands now, the mountaintop bathed in a sheen of pure silver– the very image of a death sentence for any Transformer.
Thundercracker’s second volley did just as much damage as his first had, scorching the ground where the scraplets had been in a sizable line down the middle of the grouping he’d targeted. Just as before though, those that had not been struck by his attack quickly came to fill the gap that had been left by the dead scraplets.
All around the bluffs surrounding the crater they had begun to spread out now, any “lead element” that could be made out before was beginning to be lost to the swarm as their numbers spread out evenly on approach to the crater's rim on all sides. Quickly it was being made evident that this was not a threat that could be handled by one mech alone. Not before it cost the life of another.
Post by Starscream on Sept 28, 2023 23:54:22 GMT -5
A sharp hiss of pain went unheard under the roar of the Starscream’s engine as he soared upwards. Just two days prior he’d had a run-in with Optimus’ blade, and while their medics had patched the wound to the point it was no longer glaringly apparent he’d been injured, the hit to his wing had hurt far more than his pride.
Something he was only just realizing now that he had shifted into flight.
Regardless, the silver Seeker would push forward - angling his frame to account for his altitude, wanting to take advantage of not only the thinner atmosphere at this height, but the vantage point as well.
The relief in Nokta’s words came through clear, and he could only wonder just how many scraplets the pair had come across to incite such a reaction. The fact there were some of those vermin here on Earth at all was troublesome. He’d heard more than enough horror stories regarding the tiny menaces to be more than a little wary of their presence, and the thought of them running rampant was something that simply could not be allowed to happen.
::Myself and Thundercracker can give you time, just focus.:: he snapped, though it wasn’t out of irritation - purely urgency due to the situation at hand.
He had half a mind to ask if Thundercracker was alright - though this wasn’t the time nor place as they simply couldn’t waste time with idle chatter. The answer to that question would come soon enough, once he spiraled down through the clouds and into view, which he did with precision and haste.
Only to reveal just what a terrifying view it was.
A shimmering silver sea, almost, that rippled across the mountain top as the scraplets moved. The sight alone was enough to make anyone falter and turn back, though he kept going - making a point of staying a good distance above and away, hovering in place. He could outrun and redirect the horde with ease should he need to, though he’d rather not be the sole target of their attention in this moment.
His own focus shifted to his Trinemate, and the comm would click to life once more.
::Thundercracker! Is it presently safe to use missiles? How many are there?! It looks like thousands!:: While he had no qualms in shooting and decimating the vermin in an explosion and the resulting collapse of whatever organic land was hit, he did not know at present just where Nokta was amongst this mess. Still alive, yes, but where was an unknown. The other Seeker had been here from the start and as such had a better read of the situation, and while he would not accept orders from him? Some guidance as to how to swiftly deal with the issue would be welcome.