Ep.1 - Welcome Wagon - Closed

[grimlock]

It was several minutes ago when Grimlock had landed on the third planet from this system's star, and so far most would say things hadn't gone well. His ship had crash landed in a desert, and he had walked away undamaged. He knew that if there were any Autobots on this rock they would have detected the signal from the ship, and the subsequent automated distress beacon it probably broadcasted after the crash. The landscape was further destroyed when a Decepticon had arrived on the scene first. The battle had been brutal with Energon being spilled across the desert floor, but Grimlock had proved to be the greater bot once again.

The Autobot base outside Jasper Nevada would have several readings to know that something was happening in the Mexican desert that afternoon. An Autobot ship signal followed by its distress signal would indicate someone crashed on the planet. If they were scanning for it, all the Energon leaking from the downed ship and offlined Decepticon by it would probably be picked up. Grimlock knew that it would take time to send someone to him. Prime was slow, thinking and considering when he should be doing. The fight had been a good welcome to this planet and way for Grimlock to assert his dominance on it, but now that it was over he was growing impatient again.

The Dinobot leader looked at the crater below him, growing increasingly irritated by the klik. If the Autobots hadn't picked up on anything yet, he knew a way to get their attention for sure. It just so happened to be a good way to hide all the evidence of his landing and battle in case there were any annoying sentient beings on the planet who were smart enough to understand what technology was. All it would take would be a good well aimed blast of fire to accomplish those goals.

When the ground bridge opened the first Autobots on the scene would be treated to a rare, but appropriate sight. Grimlock in his beast-mode covered in battle scars, with Energon splattered across his body, roaring at the sky in pure indignation. The Dinobot leader would be against a backdrop of blue flames from an Energon-based explosion that consumed his crashed ship and prey on this planet. Hopefully those that arrived would recognize the rage-fueled, fire-breathing, terror inducing, unholy abomination against Primus was in fact an Autobot... and not something that showed up and just ate one. He got that a lot though.

[league]

It had been a while since his last outing, mostly League was stuck on monitor duty which was where one of the long range sensors picked up something entering the Earth's atmosphere and crash. Scans pointed to the object being of Cybertronian make, but this wouldn't be the first meteor that sent team Prime on a wild goose chase. So the miner reported his findings and got some backup in the form of one of the other Autobots on duty at the time. It was a rather small force, but at most the object of that size might have three Cybertronians on it, less considering how violent these crashes could be. So a real group wasn't needed, instead a bored miner and little Bluestreak should be more then enough to check out the crash.

When the gate opened the hulking submarine transformer lumbered out of it and was greeted by a sight he thought was reserved for the bowls of Unicron. Now, the miner had seen some slag in his life and was rather jaded in general, not a whole lot could give him pause and rattle his spark. This however was on a whole other level. Slowly the mech came over the fish shock and pulled out his giant pickaxe and slung it over his shoulder as he began his slow march towards whatever it was.

"Ahoy there!" He called out, keeping a firm grip on his tool turned weapon, League was still debating if this was just a crazed animal from Cybertron, shot into space as a prank. In any case it wouldn't take him by surprise if it attacked "Oy! You! Perhaps I could get a name, faction or at least a slagging wave!"

[Deleted]

To say Bluestreak was excited was an understatement.Ou was little grey ball of bouncing sniper as they activated and went through the ground bridge. Not too excited not to have hir rifle out and ready though. For all they knew it was a trap.

The sight that awaited them as they exited through the other side was something out of an action movie. Fire and energon every were and the roars of SOMETHING who's shape ou couldn't quite make out through the flames.

"L-Leage wait for me!"

It really wasn't fair mechs with such long legs moveing so much faster than hir.

[grimlock]

The huge Dinobot turned its attention on the pair when League called out. Red optics studied them as if the beast was considering making them its next meal. The very earth trembled with the beast's footsteps as it stomped toward the miner and sniper pair. The good news was it wasn't charging at them for now. The closer he got the easier it was to tell that the recent battle wounds were caused by gunfire and explosives, and most of the fluids dripping down his body didn't belong to him. When it came to a stop it looked down upon League for a second before transforming. It would seem that the monster before them was more than meets the eye. While it still looked like a monster, it was in fact a robot in disguise.

Grimlock's transformation was quick and simple, but the notable thing about it was he got smaller. Even though he was smaller than his dinosaur-based beast-mode, Grimlock was still a very large bot, so large that only a small handful of others could be considered larger than him. The good news about it all was the red Autobot symbol in the middle of his torso. The symbol was worn out and scarred, but still very recognizable. "Me, Grimlock!" he exclaimed in his deep booming voice. "Leader of Dinobots. Who the frag you think me, Grimlock, am?!"

Given Grimlock's... condition, he was the only Cybertronian to have his particular beast-mode. He turned into a two-legged beast with massive jaws, Swoop was some flying thing with a beak, Slag turned into a beast with three horns, Snarl was covered in spikes, and Sludge was a long-necked lumbering creature. None of them looked alike, and nothing looked like them. If they hadn't heard about him by now through reports or rumors, then they'd soon find out just what sort of trouble just landed on this semi-peaceful blue planet.

[league]

Conflict and anger. Now these were what League could deal with and when the bot spoke he lost quite a bit of the odd sort of horrific aura that the fire breathing creature seemed to carry around him. He was a jerk, in short he was League's people and the sub knew just how to greet one of his own kind.

"You look like something Unicron shot out of his tail-pipe after ingesting Tox-En!" The miner shot back with his normal gruff voice, though he was a little less tense around his fellow giant. "I'm League, Autobot miner and aquatic expert." The heavy set mech growled out, after all he knew Grimlock's name and fair was fair. The sub then remembering that Bluestreak was also with him. While he wanted to glance back and make sure the little sniper was close at hand, League's instincts were telling him that taking his eyes off the strange Autobot was a bad idea.

[Deleted]

Shock and Awe. It was an old military term used to describe the used of overwhelming might to paralyze the enemy, making them loose their will to fight. If that wasn't what Grimlock had done he certainly did something a lot like it!

Though Bluestreak skipped the paralysed part and just skipped right to awe. Grimlock! Ou'd heard stories about him. Laying waste to entire battlefields of Decepticons.

"I'm Bluestreak, Wow! You're amazing! Did you do all this? Is that a dead con over there? What happened? Oh man This is so cool Ironhide used to tell me all about you!"
(Most of it not good but we'll leave that out for now.)

[grimlock]

Grimlock laughed at League. It took big bearings to stand up to the Dinobot Leader and insult him to his face, and it worked. "Ha! Must be good day for Me Grimlock to look so good." For the most part Grimlock had accepted his horrible appearance, and the various advantages he had because of it. How he looked wasn't so much of an issue for him as much as how he did in combat. "Optimus must be in big trouble to send a miner and a pipsqueak alone. Him need Grimlock's help like always." It was common knowledge that Grimlock was rather vocal about his opinion of the current Prime. Optimus had gone to several lengths to get that behemoth to join the ranks of the Autobots, but late in the war Grimlock and his Dinobots began to operate on their own without care of what the Prime said.

While League was in the clear with Grimlock for the time being, Bluestreak was not. He regarded hir with his cold red optic visor, unsure of what to make of hir enthusiasm. It wasn't every cycle that he was treated that way. He wasn't sure if ou was being bold, or just ingnorant to the about of danger ou was potentially in. "Puny Decepticon show up before Autobots. Decepticon look like truck with trailer, like Ultra Magnus or Motormaster, and Me Grimlock smash him to pieces then blow him up for good measure. Barely a challenge."

[league]

Well laughter and a semi-friendly rebuttle was not something League expected, he rather thought he was going to match the odd bot strength for strength before anything progressive happened. But the sub found it a little refreshing that something huge, lumbering and pissed off didn't want to eat his face-plate. Also, Grimlock was kind of a jerk, but he was League's sort of jerk, it reminded him of a few of his drinking buddies of his miner days and it made the heavy mech feel a bit at ease.

Then Bluestreak started spouting off this strange line of praise "What on Cybrton are you talking about? I've never heard of this slagger." he stated in a gruff manner. The bot wasn't too happy about the scrutinizing glance that Blue got, in fact he had to resist the urge to insult the giant and smack him up-side the head for looking at one of his allies that way. "Feh, big hype for an overside scraplet." He growled before holding out a hand and reaching into his sub-space to bring out one of his high-grade cubes, custom made with League's on system and potent enough that it could put just about any bot on their aft, including the heavy drinking miner. Holding the cube out to Grimlock he stated "Here, it's a long flight from Cybertron. Thirsty?"

[Deleted]

Well! Try to be friendly to a bot and this is what you get! Bluestreak was generally an easy going 'bot but even ou knew if ou let Grimlock push hir around NOW he'd never stop. Ou made a mental note to apologise for interrupting League later of ou survived this and placed hands on hir hips and hiked hir doorwings up high. Bluestreak stepped forward and fixed the dinobot with an equally steady glare.

"Hey, watch who you're calling pipsqueak Jaws or the next time you open your maw I'll pop a grenade in there."

Looks like that easy going personality came with a suicidal streak.

[grimlock]

"What that? Me Grimlock can't hear you up here." The Dinobot leader said before kneeling down. Even on one knee and hunched over Grimlock towered over Bluestreak. Hid red optics gave hir body a once over, recognizing her posture. Puny fliers liked to flare their wings out to make themselves look bigger and more imposing, a tactic that didn't work on something that didn't have fear. "Pipsqueak is tiny to talk so big. Cyberjets, Seekers, and Insecticon swarms can't hurt me Grimlock. You can't either." Grimlock was oddly calm about everything. It was like Blue's threat was so insignificant to him that it wasn't even cute. For those that had served with Grimlock, this was known as the calm before the storm.

Without warning he reached out with on of his large hands, snatching up Bluestreak, then threw hir straight up into the air with all his might as he rose to stand again. "Fliers should stay in air!" he called at what he thought was a small tiny flier being returned to its natural habitat. With that minor nuisance taken care of his attention was put back on League. "Energon, good. Need Energon to fight more Decepticons."

[league]

Trying to remain calm, League just continued to hold out the cube to Grimlock, even through his little Blue-toss stunt which had the submarine glaring holes into the giant reptile. He was just six words away from opening up an explosive salvo at point blank range before golf-swinging the slagger back into the burning wreckage from whence he came.

"Mech, next time you feel like taking a pot-shot at Bluestreak or any other Autobot, I'll be bring in just your head in for Prime, I'm sure he'll get just as interesting a conversation out of it." Swinging his pickaxe off his shoulder, League then slammed it into the ground, sending chips of rock scattering off both his and Grimlock's armor. He then shoved the high-grade cube at Grimlock's hands "Drink up, after Blue get's back and shoots your aft, Prime is gonna want to chew it off."

[Deleted]

Going up hand never been a problem for Bluestreak. Much to Ironhides chagrin growing up ou had never had any fear of highs. Going down however, was another matter entirely. It was fortunate then that Bluestreaks life time of climbing ou had learned how to fall. Doorwings out to slow the decent, spotting Leauges still out arms and reaching to grab hold. Catching hir would probably break his arms but if ou used him like a bar to flip....Like So! and flip again and tuck and land and roll.

Landed it! And mostly uninjured too! Hir shoulders were screaming and ou would have to have ratcht look at them and hit legs but nothing major.

"Hey! Next time you throw a bot like that make sure you're gonna catch em!"

[grimlock]

While his reputation had made its way to Bluestreak, it obviously hadn't made its way to League. While he was entirely one to boast about himself, there were more pressing matters at hand. Story time would have to wait until later for the mariner to learn that he'd equate to being a speed bump to Grimlock. A big and annoying speed bump that could royally tick the Dinobot off, but Grimlock had seen worse than the likes of League, and was sure no miner or aquatic expert could best him on land. He had weathered just about everything that a Decepticon could throw at someone during the war, and walked away stronger. No telling how long that luck would last though.

Grimlock took the cube of high-grade from League and held it to his chest. A panel opened up to accept the Energon cube, and he shoved it in the opening. The visor and facemask on him didn't cover optics and a face, it was his face. "High grade..." he said in in his deep and rumbling voice. "Optimus won't like it if Me Grimlock show up hammered. Might break promise to him Optimus and extinguish him too soon." Yes, Grimlock had just said that he could perform attempted Pimeicide if he showed up at the base drunk, but he hadn't made good on that promise so far.

The Dinobot leader transformed back into his beast-mode, growing larger unlike most Cybertronians. A low growl emanated from the giant space T-Rex at the end of it, making things unsure if it was him or part of his transformation. "Call for Ground Bridge. Optimus and others will want to know Me Grimlock am here to pull their afts out of the smelter like always."

[league]

The mech was about to launch into a long winded rant of curses and threats, or at least he was until a lead weight crashed into his arm and seemed determined to try and unscrew the limb from it's socket. "Fragging hell!" the miner snapped as he resisted the urge to knock the small Autobot off his arm. It wasn't by far the hardest hit League ever took, but it was quite painful. With a grunt he shoved this aside and used his free arm to pick up his miner tool from the shattered earth. Shooting Grimlock a glare, League narrowed his optics "Bot, I don't care who you are, what you are or how much press you got. Prime can take care of his own aft and if you make any moves I don't like, your going to find yourself in an ocean of trouble and no floaties."

After growling and grumbling a bit, League commed back to base. "This is League to Prime, I'm sending in one very large, pissed off slagger that needs to be shot on sight and I ain't talking about myself." Soon enough there was a rift torn in the fabric of the universe, shimmering off to the sub's right as he refused to take his stare off the warrior. Grimlock was going to learn that he wasn't the big fish in a small pond anymore, not with him around and maybe Gasket to help League show this upstart some manners. He didn't mind swallowing his anger at Gasket to redirect it towards a more annoying threat.

[Deleted]

The groundbridge did not remain open for long. Almost immediately, from the white-green vortex a shadow three stories tall and Iacon-built came striding from the incandescent burn of the bridge, stepping down from the tunnel which hung open for only a moment before spiraling shut and leaving nothing but the dry air behind the Autobot Commander. He didn’t look happy. In a word, one might have said he looked mad, but there was too much in the controlled calm around the Prime’s frame, leashing his EM field to an unreadable flat-line vibrato around his body. For a moment he just stood there, blue optics glowing dimly, battle mask already closed.

“Grimlock,” he said, tonal glyph inflected fully with military hardness.

He appeared to be considering, for a second, what to actually say next and what he said next could be literally anything depending on how the wind was blowing. Grimlock and his Dinobots, for all that they were Autobots, tended to fall into one of those many murky sections in the chain of command that made every encounter between the Dinobots leader and Optimus… unique. They had literally fought each other before over differing opinions, usually to varying levels of standstill, sometimes not and if there was any variable that one did not want thrown into the mix without warning – it was Grimlock.

Optimus tilted his head slightly.

“You are on the KIA list. Did you know that?”