Ep0.5 - Utah - 'Scavengers' - Closed

[Deleted]

Whilst moving into the abandoned mine had removed the ongoing need to be constantly on the lookout for energon, the collection and deconstruction of parts was still a necessary activity in Cleaver's mind. With a coming sparkling that would need a frame built for it in the next year or so, a good stock of reclaimed biomechanical parts, lines, cabling and metal suitable for reforging were necessary beyond the ongoing need for repair and maintenance.

Cleaver had set up the energon scanner on a sheltered ledge a hundred yards above the main entrance to the base, concealed as it had been in the desert so that none of the visiting bots or cons could use the tech. A new marker in Utah had appeared with a scattered dispersal, indicating either one large mecha blown into many pieces or, more likely, lots of Eradicon drones left after a fight. She'd left the site a day to 'cool off', just in case the Decepticons decided that the parts were worth salvaging immediately after the fact. When the signal was still on the screen the following morning, she'd flown back down into the base, set the coordinates into the spacebridge and made her way through with a note left on the monitor.

Utah was seven hours behind the nuetral base's local time, putting Cleaver into near-perfect darkness with a brilliantly clear sky over the desert. Glancing over the stars with an appreciative hum, she transformed into her alt. mode and took off towards the energon readings at a low altitude. The Sea King's searchlight skimmed ahead across the sand, sweeping backwards and forwards for visual confirmation whilst her sensors remained flung wide. Her approach was slow and cautious - sensible practice when retrieving parts from the war's fallen fighters.

[steele]

Serotype was certain she was screwed. Matter of fact, her situation had been bad all around. She had chased Jeff and his crew around last night which she was certain she would have been screwed either by them discovering her place on their own or by the sheer virtue of her showing up to chase them off. She was certain she had set herself up for a Decepticon bombing run to seal off the caves and she wouldn't be too surprised if it would happen in the next day or so. Hopefully, they would get around to it later than sooner. As it was, between treating her leg injury and stuffing whatever she could in to her subspace, it was it was still taking too much time to get everything together so she could leave. She really would have liked to take a day to at least recover. But she was certain that wasn't going to happen. At the moment, she was limping around her soon-to-be-former home trying to grab what she could.

It only took one glance over her shoulders through the cave entrance to get her to freeze in her tracks. She was certain she saw the graceful sweep of a search light. A cold chill ran through her spark. Were there bombers near by? Were they looking for her? The light swept across her field of view again. Quietly, she hobbled towards the mouth of the cave and stopped. She didn't dare go any further than the safety of the shadows. She paused to listen and could hear the sound of rotor blades chopping at the air. It was a sound she was familiar with in her own alt mode. She ruled out bombers temporarily. However, she didn't rule out search crew.

[Deleted]

Coming upon the scattered remains, Cleaver landed a littel way off so as not to disturb them with the wind from her rotors, transforming smoothly up with the searchlight projecting from her chassis instead. Her opitcs had adjusted to see in the dark, but an inspection of the parts across a wider portion of the light spectrum was always preferable.

Kneeling in the energon-slick sand, the medic produced a metal crate, fluid cannister and siphon from subspace and set them down next to the first Eradicon. It was mostly intact, offlined by a few well executed slashes from a lethal blade. Its tank was still a quarter full, and Cleaver punctured the mech's side to feed the siphon inside and begin draining the precious fuel off. Whilst that was working, she began the methodical task of stripping away the outer armor to begin salvaging the cabling and micro-parts beneath.

It would have been safer to take the entirity of the remains back to the base and strip away what was useful there, but she was well aware that this was macabre work, and didn't want to do it in a public space where anyone could walk in. Better she return home with the useful parts, clean them up and put them into storage so that they were conveniently there when someone had need of them. Packing away the least damage metals and parts, Cleaver murmured a quick prayer over the torn protoform and untouched spark casing before picking up both crate and cannister to begin on the next.

[steele]

Serotype watched the searchlight sweep across once more before she heard the unknown helicopter leave. Quietly she peered out and watched it veer off behind her home straight to... where the Eradicons were. Or more accurately, where their bodies were. Powering up her VTOLs, she followed silently behind the other Cybertronian while remaining in the shadows. She only did give pause when she saw the helicopter stop, transform and investigate the Eradicon remains.

Serotype wasn't quite sure what to think of this. On one hand, it looked like the unknown Cybertronian was simply scavenging for parts (which somewhat bothered her since the scavenger could end up scavenging her home at some point) or it could have very well a different meaning. Quietly she watched waiting for the right moment to act.

[Deleted]

The third Eradicon was largely intact, offlined instantly by a severing slash to its neck struts that had cut through every critical line and protected its processor from an electrical backlash. Cleaver opened its helm with steady hands, scanning over the CPU thoughtfully. After all the processor repairs that Barricade had needed, her limited stockpile had been almost entirely depleted.

Removing the useful components from a processor was too arduous and delicate work to do immediately, so Cleaver took a strategic grip and tore it bodily from its mounts. She put it in the collection crate after a cursory inspection for stress fractures from the removal.

<<OOC: Waiting on Type to make contact now. She's just gonna keep working, oblivious.>>

[steele]

It was difficult to remain stealthy with a limp. Serotype decided to simply just bite the bullet and walk up behind the scavenger. The scavenger wasn't too far from her location. If only just a few steps away. It was going to be a painful few steps. But the whine of her VTOLs would have given her away. She took her pain filled steps. Wincing as she walked. she drew her blades and angled them towards the back of the scavenger.

"Drop everything and put your hands on your helm. Don't turn around," said Serotype.

[Deleted]

Primus on a fraggin' piston...

Cleaver flicked her hands back into their natural configuration before raising them outwards, the sleek lines of the blades making it abundently clear that she was neither holding anything nor armed. Her circular saw was housed in her right arm, and was the closest thing she had to a weapon, but she had no intention to use it unless her spark (and thusly that of the sparkling's) depended on it.

Furthermore, she hadn't missed the telltale signs of a damaged system, and a quick flick of her dorsal sensors told her that, even old and unarmed, she had a fighting chance if this did turn into a scrap.

"Seems like you're more in need of a medic than a fight," Cleaver remarked, not turning as ordered though she was tracking the femme like a cyberhawk with a glitchmouse. "Not here looking for a fight, either. I'm a Neutral and a medic. Just salvaging parts, then I'm on my way."

[steele]

The scavenger was right, as much as Serotype hated to admit. More or less, she wanted to find another home to curl up and recover for a while. She didn't want to find herself chasing away unwanted guests all the time. However, she wouldn't openly admit this to a femme she had just met and knew next to nothing about.

The flicking of the dorsal fins didn't escape Serotype's notice. Her grip on her blades tightened. She really didn't like sudden movements right now.

"On your pedes and turn around slowly. I did not get this far by trusting everyone who claims to be harmless," said Serotype.

She was still on edge and quite touchy by any means. She wanted to see for herself if the scavenger had an insignia or not. She wouldn't have put it passed a Con to feign neutrality only to suddenly turn on anyone who may have been helping them. In fact, Serotype recalled that there were still Bots who didn't trust her who had held similar beliefs. Similar enough for her to have been chained to a medical berth and her weapons confiscated. In her current case, it didn't hurt to be careful or even paranoid.

[Deleted]

Cleaver vented a sigh, making minute adjustments so that she rose in one fluid motion, standing with her dorsal plates still turned to the femme holding a weapon. It took longer for her to muster the courage to turn around, feeling an alien spike of fear at exposing her front - and thusly the newspark. This was far from the first time she'd been in this situation, and a cool processor and easy motions had always seen it work out fine. There was no reason for this to turn out any differently.

Just so much more to lose if it did...

Finally, with quiet movements of her thick pedes in the sand, Cleaver turned to face the comparatively tiny femme at the demanded speed. Her blades still extended outwards, turned so that the wide, blunt sides were facing the (Con?) femme, Cleaver held her helm high.

"No weapons, no faction, and I'm on-record as a Neutral since Cybertron went dark. Had plenty of run-ins with Decepticons and Autobots, both. Sure you can find me. Name's Cleaver."

[steele]

Serotype paused for a few moments to search for the name in her databases. Being cut off from the Nemesis's databases meant that she was at a limit on what she did know. But that didn't mean that she wasn't without information. Everything did check out. Fortunately.

However, she wasn't totally at ease with this new femme, Cleaver. For certain, she wasn't prepared to give her name. She was only at ease enough to reattach her blades to her back.

"Take what you can carry and only take from the beheaded Eradicons. The others are infected with weaponized rust rash. I hope for your sake you didn't touch any of them," said Serotype.

she glanced around briefly looking for somewhere to sit. Finding a large boulder, she sat down.

"Just be prepared to leave quickly when you're done," she quickly added.

[Deleted]

"Thanks for the warning," Cleaver replied, desert-dry though there was a thread of genuine gratitude in there. Rust rash was a familiar medical condition, but weaponizing it was new, and she hadn't thought to scan for it. Fortunately she hadn't laid hands on any of the apparently infected mechs - and now that she knew to look, they were heavily infected.

Moving back to the body she had been working on, Cleaver settled back on her knees from the other side so that she was facing the other femme. No telling how long she'd be allowed to stay, so best to get as much as she could, as quickly as she could, and try not to torque off her watcher in the process.

"Want me to take a look at you when I'm done?"

Fraggit. I did not just offer aid to a strange pointing a weapon at me...

[steele]

Serotype was a little taken back by that. After all her warnings and even threatening Cleaver, she still offered to... help? That was something somewhat unusual. Although, one thing she could say was at the very least Cleaver wasn't threatening her life at the moment which was a considerably different chance of pace from her most recent, and currently deceased or frightened-away, "guests." This was better by far.

Serotype had managed to patch up her leg. Although, if she were to consider it, it was for the most part a quick patch and go job. She hadn't anticipated staying long to look after it. Just enough to get her from point A to point B wherever "point B" happened to be. She could allow Cleaver to have a look at it. If things went south, Serotype could quickly grab a canister out of her subspace.

"I suppose.... there is no harm in looking and acquiring a second opinion. But albeit with care," said Serotype.

She gave Cleaver a curious look.

"It is usually considered bad luck to disturb the dead. What is it that you're trying to accomplish?" asked Serotype.

[Deleted]

"Entire castes lived on the salavaged parts of the dead for a long time," Cleaver reminded, frank and clipped. "Hard work and short lives called for a lot of parts that weren't going to be constantly fabricated just to go down in a mine, or work in a slagging pit. So long as the sparkcasing was left, and the parts treated with respect, this practice is older than me. Definitely older than you."

Setting the last of the useless parts from this body into the crate, waiting for the energon syphon to finish emptying off the fuel, Cleaver sat back and met the femme's gaze. "And this is survival. Stockpile when you can, because opportunities don't come up often. Got myself and a couple others to look after."

[steele]

"I am--- was a scientist. We didn't scavenge for much at all," said Serotype, "Most of what we needed was in the lab."

She had felt that saying "scientist" was more or less a safe answer. Circumstances had radically changed for her causing major alterations to her lifestyle. More or less by her own doing. Even still, she hadn't really found herself raiding dead bodies. As she well aware, there were a lot of hazards in doing so. One of the first things that came to her mind was fluid-borne illnesses. If one didn't have a proper medical history written up on the deceased, there was any number of risks that could be had. Hence it being a rather unlucky thing.

"A couple of others? Has there been a neutral territory established on this planet already?" asked Serotype.

[Deleted]

Cleaver's hands paused over the body of the next Eradicon, momentarily but long enough to be telling of her hesitance. The DMZ was a free zone - a haven from the fighting that was open to all. Even femmes who snuck up on unarmed medics in the dark. She exvented quietly and cracked open the mech's chassis in one sharp pull.

"Better. Got an honest-to-Primus DMZ set up in the Sahara. Fully sanctioned, and word's starting to spread, so getting more traffic coming in. Hence the need to stock-up." That and it was just habit. Cleaver had made something like a hobby out of hoarding - parts, equipment, energon, human credits through online ventures. Now with a significantly larger Medbay in which to store things, the temptation to fill it with shiny parts for every eventuality was too great to resist.

She scanned over the Eradicon's fuel tank, grimacing at the contaminated energon before dismissing it as beyond salvage. Turning her attention to the arms and hands, she began unscrewing, clipping and popping out a myriad of micro-components that had universal applications and ran out too quickly for it.

"You were a scientist for the Decepticons?" Cleaver said it without looking up, no inflection of judgement in her tone.