Post by Lockdown on Oct 5, 2023 15:33:18 GMT -5
PLAYER INFO
Name: Knox
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Lockdown
Age: Early 60s
Gender: Mech
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Decepticon
Original Occupation: Unknown/Poacher
Occupation/Specialization: Mercenary/Bounty Hunter
Appearance
Lockdown maintains an above-average height for a grounder of his build, standing at Bulkhead’s height. Lockdown has piled on the armor over the years, lending to a top-heavy upper body and bulky reinforced look on top of what was once a more slender or prototypical medium armor frame. This modified look carries over into his altmode– a classic muscle car altered to fit the more modern specs of its peers, keeping his road performance on par with top contenders in his car class.
Altogether his color scheme is an even mix of black and lime green with silver and red accents. Chrome studs adorn his frame from head to toe, and reappear on his alt mode on the roof, bumpers, and wheels.
Visually, Lockdown has an unkemptness about him that denotes both the complacency of old age and a general disregard for overall personal hygiene. Rust collects in ungodly places, millennia-old oils still stain his frame– and that’s to say nothing about his smell should any poor mech get close enough to find out for themselves.
The crowning jewel of this mech’s frame is the infamous hook which takes the place of his right servo. Chrome, effortlessly sharp, and spotless by comparison to the rest of his unkempt frame, the hook is his pride and joy– he has an image to uphold after all.
Altmode: Grounder; Modified 1967 Mustang Shelby GT500 (CR 545)
Voiceclaim: Ron Perlman
Pertinent History
The Golden Age
For as old as he is, little is known about Lockdown, with few mecha still around to corroborate anything more than rumors as to the infamous bounty hunter’s true origin. Generally presumed to be one of the oldest Cybertronians still around, knowledge of Lockdown’s early years was kept firmly under wraps either through his own doing, or the gradual fading of such information to time.
The earliest references to a Cybertronian named Lockdown arose during the height of Cybertron’s Golden Age. A file on Lockdown began after he was incarcerated at the newly anointed Garrus-1 supermax. This followed a highly public trial exposing multiple prominent figures in the scientific community for soliciting the aid of poachers to secure specimens– Lockdown chief among them. While one may assume this mech would have been quickly forgotten within the walls of the infamous prison, Lockdown’s imprisonment here only introduced him to a wealth of future business contacts dealing in much darker criminal undertakings. His tenure at Garrus-1 was foggy from that point on, but eventually, Lockdown managed to get out and return to Cybertron.
Era of the Caste System
From then on, historical records have Lockdown dipping his peds in some of the most abhorrent black markets imaginable. Game poaching became alien trafficking, became hit jobs, and eventually full-on bounty hunting and mercenary work for whoever would pay the most. Multiple bouts in high-security prisons followed– including both break-ins and break-outs in between as Lockdown began building up his reputation as a ruthless and cutthroat bounty hunter, whose services were sought after by some of the most deranged names in the universe.
By the time the Great War was on the horizon, Lockdown was a trained killer of another caliber entirely. He’d built up his own gang of spacefaring pirates, murderers, and thieves with himself as its figurehead, and his criminal operations had spread outward from Cybertron into a network that spanned the stars. Late into his career, Lockdown was deadset on making a statement to all opposition. Whether the crimelords of his time liked it or not– he had himself in mind as their new replacement. And no one was going to get in his way without paying for it in blood.
Immediately clocking the rising violent Decepticon movement as something that would lead to war, Lockdown made his way back to Cybertron with key members of his gang in tow. At his age, Lockdown knew there was nothing more lucrative than war, especially in his line of work. Previously difficult targets were about to be made much more vulnerable to mecha like him, provided he made friends with the right people. Lockdown quietly pledged the support of his crew to Megatron behind closed doors in exchange for the chance to dispose of certain individuals both he and Megatron found common enemies in, and the promise of a comfortable position in Megatron’s army when war finally did come.
Lockdown would begin to work for Megatron as a hitman, remaining close to Cybertron and once more inserting himself into its criminal element in cities like Kaon and Tarn, silently clearing the way for Megatron by busting down opposition in the criminal underworld. The work of Lockdown and his crew further destabilized the southern territories of Cybertron, aiding Megatron in establishing his influence and eventually dominance over these areas once the war came. For Lockdown, it was the business partnership of a lifetime– one he believed would solidify his position on top of Cybertron’s criminal underworld for ages to come.
The War
When the war began in full, Lockdown excelled on both the frontlines and in special operations bagging and tagging Autobot HVTs. In a way, Lockdown finally felt as though he’d found his “people” amongst the rageful, violence-prone crowds of early Decepticon kind who had up until that point lived relatively peaceful lives. He loved every second of those first days of the war, and being in the good graces of Megatron left him with a relatively long leash to do as he pleased so long as it aligned well enough with Decepticon interests. Unfortunately for Lockdown, he could not have predicted then how long the war would really last, and just how little there would be left of his beloved stomping grounds even just a few millennia after it began.
The war was treated like a well-needed vacation from Lockdown’s usual “work,” but as decades became millennia, the initial high of the fighting began to die down. The war dissolved his gang, and what few members of his crew were left alive simply faded to obscurity as the war lessened the value of their past work and reputation. There was little ‘criminal underworld’ to speak of anymore, at least none that existed as it was in the early days of Lockdown’s time.
Things slowed, the Autobots became more tactical, and easy blood on the battlefields dried up. The young and impressionable youth of the early Decepticon cause grew jaded and numb to it all– or they died out altogether, too weak to keep up with the level of violence and ruthlessness that being a Decepticon required. As for Lockdown, there was no appeal to his work when everyone was now a killer.
Exodus
Eventually, the exodus came. Bored by the war, and certain this foreshadowed an end that would come not with a bang but a pitiful sputter, Lockdown did not follow the Nemesis to Earth. He needed to prepare for the opportunities of peacetime by securing his place at the top of what would become Cybertron’s new crime renaissance once it was resettled. Lockdown got in touch with some old contacts, as well as finding some new ones– doing hit jobs as he got the feel for the free market of the intergalactic criminal underworld once more.
He would remain on this self-imposed sabbatical from the Decepticons, keeping himself occupied by tearing slag up on unprotected and vulnerable alien planets– up until he began receiving signals from an organic planet in the Sol system. The Nemesis had in fact made it to Earth– and things had not ended in the ‘pitiful sputter’ he had foreseen. In fact, things seemed more tense than they had been in years, clear now that the Autobots were not going down without a violent, bloody fight.
Present Day
It was then that Lockdown began to realize something: he missed being a Decepticon. Perhaps he was growing sentimental in his old age– or perhaps he just missed the thrill of a challenge, for that was something that seemed to be present on Earth in spades. For the first time in thousands of years worth of war things were finally shaking up again. If there was anything Lockdown knew by now it was when change was in the cards for Cybertronian kind– and the potential for fresh chaos on Earth had reinvigorated the old mech with a lust for power that harkened back to the glory days of his youth. Before Lockdown could usher in his new, idealized criminal empire, he was going to have to officially come out of retirement– in style.
Whichever faction ended up losing this great long war, Lockdown had ensured his own win– that was the beauty of it all. He just had to give things a little push in the right direction. Safe in the knowledge that his spoils would await him on the new Cybertron that arose from the ashes of war, Lockdown would take the long trek to Earth in his own personal spacecraft, which he would keep hidden on the far side of the Earth’s moon upon arriving at his destination.
Personality
Crass, egocentric, vulgar, destructive, sleazy, unscrupulous, competitive, manipulative, generally unpleasant
In certain circles, it’s said that if one were to open the oldest Cybertronian dictionary in search of the word ‘bastard,’ they would simply be met with a mugshot of Lockdown, leering at the camera with a slag-eating grin.
Since before war was even a glimmer in anyone’s optic, Lockdown has been indulging in arguably one of the most violent and hedonistic midlife crises Cybertronian kind has ever seen. Back in the day, Lockdown set the standard for the foul-mouthed, cruel-minded, and black-sparked archcriminal. Today, he still considers himself the “Last Greatest Bounty Hunter of Cybertron” and would boast that unlike so many who were changed by the Great War– the war was changed by him.
Anyone who’s known him long enough would know that Lockdown was a piece of slag long before the average citizen saw enough battle to stoop anywhere close to his level. He has a frightening lack of empathy, caring for Cybertronian life about as much as he does personal hygiene– which is to say: markedly little at all. He easily amuses himself by getting under the plates of his compatriots and revels in tearing down those who still cling to their morals. For as long as he’s lived he’s made a frequent game of bringing others down to his level. So late into the war, there are few such innocent mecha left– making his attempted corruption of the feeble-minded an even more prized treat.
While the mech is effortlessly confident when it comes to his general temperament, he’s not immune to rare flare-ups in anger which reveal a more frightening overall immaturity beneath the surface governing his actions– despite frequently being the oldest mech in a given room, Lockdown’s proclivities can lead him to act like a mech about a third his age. This is due to any number of things– from his hyper-competitive drive to his lack of a filter to his rampant objectification of other mecha.
At the end of the day, Lockdown isn’t pretending to be anything he isn’t– unless it’ll bag him a sweet young thing to spend the night with. If rock bottom had morals, Lockdown would be the squatter living in its basement– and he’s loving every second of it.
Likes: Credits, femmes, confidence, weaponry, violence, scars, showing off, cygars, booze, the strong/physically capable
Dislikes: Cowardice, sensitive mecha, outliers, cops, showering, high-caste types, sentiment, smaller mechs, the physically weak
Combat Armor:
Lockdown’s frame is reinforced with standard medium armor. Over the years additional armor plating has been piled onto his chest and back for extra protection to his sparkchamber. This extra armor plating is exclusively anti-explosive in nature and serves as a secondary protective barrier beneath his regular armor to guard the ailing mech against shrapnel and other debris.
Armed in the Teeth:
The most recent modification to his arsenal, Lockdown’s face transforms into a railgun, whose long-range and high projectile speed lends itself mainly to dealing with fliers and other long-range combatants. Just don’t tell him he’s compensating for anything.
A Killer Right Hook:
Lockdown’s infamous hook can peel most mecha like a can opener. Typically used to wither away stronger armor and maneuver his combatants at close range to get in dirty strikes with his shotgun. Its shape makes it excellent for slashing open light and medium armor. The hook can’t puncture heavy armor, but given some effort and leverage can peel away portions of it.
A Mean Left Jab:
Lockdown’s offhand transforms into a tri-barrel shotgun. The weapon is mostly inaccurate outside of close range, but when used in unison with his hooked servo can be deadly.
Poacher’s Penchant:
Lockdown has a laser wire net that deploys from a wrist mount on his hooked hand. Modified from nets designed to trap alien species larger than most Cybertronians, its thin wiring allows it to expand to cover a massive area, making it ideal for ensnaring a variety of frame types. Meant to incapacitate as opposed to injure, the laser wire is extremely hot as a deterrent to its victims' attempts to escape. The net will tighten around its prey the more they struggle, and Lockdown can manually control how hot– and by extension painful– the laser wire itself can get. Mecha unfortunate enough to experience the cruelty of this net on its highest setting are often left with crisscross scarring that is exceedingly difficult to buff out or paint over after the fact, leaving it a dismal calling card of Lockdown’s work.
Experience:
Despite his outward demeanor suggesting a general lack of refinement, Lockdown is no fool. He’s lived long enough to read the room just as well as he can read a battlefield. Lockdown knows when he’s being played, whether it's on a battlefield or during business negotiations, making him a highly dangerous force not to be underestimated.
Slow:
Lockdown’s heavier, more specialized armor leads to an inability to react very quickly in close-quarters melee-type situations. While his sturdy armor means he still packs a hefty punch, those smaller and faster than him will still maintain the advantage in a fight if they’re brave enough to get within striking distance of his hook.
One-Handed:
As Lockdown’s main hand is not capable of transforming into a regular servo, he must rely on his offhand for actions requiring the usage of an opposable thumb. As this hand is also the one that houses his shotgun, needing to sacrifice one of his only firearms to be able to use his hand in the middle of a fight is less ideal than he’d like.
Old:
Lockdown is an aging mech with a frame not built for war. He’s had to pile on the armor over the years to compensate for rusted limbs and general disrepair late in life. As such, he experiences medical issues more often than his younger peers and is more prone to the exacerbation of old injuries and easier formation of new ones on the battlefield if he isn’t careful.
Spark Injury:
Lockdown has danced with death more times than he can count, but there’s only one injury he ever received that put him firmly on the brink of the Pits, and keeps him with one ped in the grave to this day. A past shot to his spark from a mech Lockdown let get too close still debilitates Lockdown years later. While he’s taken care to armor up in every way he can to protect his sparkchamber, if his spark ever incurs this level of damage again it is certain to put him into immediate spark arrest.
Self-interested:
As egotistical as they come, at the end of the day Lockdown holds no candles for anyone other than himself. He will use and abuse those stupid enough to trust him and then stab them in the back the second he loses interest in them or they stop being useful. This makes him the kind of person incapable of netting very many long-term allies– often due to his own sabotage of these relationships.
Special Skills:
Tracking:
Lockdown is an expert tracker, a skill he’s honed over millions of years across multiple fields. He would boast there’s not a living target in any galaxy he couldn’t find and track down given time, and he likely wouldn’t be wrong.
Piloting:
Having experience transporting cargo across the stars since before most stars had even been charted, Lockdown knows his way around a starship, making him an especially formidable adversary when at the helm of a well-armed ship– and extra slippery in his own personal spacecraft.
Ship: "The Jade Dahlia II"
Type: Personal Transport
Size: Small
Weapons: None
History:
After the war took its toll on Lockdown’s operations and dissolved his crew, he had to downsize. Selling his gang’s starship– the original Jade Dahlia– after going solo once the Exodus moved the fighting off of Cybertron, he would keep a portion of it as a personal transport christened the “Jade Dahlia II.”
In the years since the Exodus, Lockdown has made numerous upgrades to the small craft, including better engines and a defensive EMP generator. It’s a ship that prioritizes speed and evasion over fighting and durability, and its nimble overall appearance reflects this in nearly every way.
Appearance:
Unlike its owner, the Jade Dahlia II has an air of elegance and high class. Living up to its namesake, its primary colors are a striking emerald/jade green with silver accents. Its cockpit is tinted with a vibrant blood red. The ship as a whole keeps a thin and angular wedge shape very similar to an arrowhead if viewed from above. Unlike many ships, the cockpit sits towards the back while the wings begin on either side of the cockpit like prongs that protrude outwards a great distance in front of it. Four small engines sit stacked behind the cockpit, maintaining a thick and sturdy form in the back that smoothes out into its needle-like shape in the front. Keen optics will notice that the ship as it exists now was likely once a secondary cockpit designed to detach from a main battleship as a single-seater craft. The ship is enterable from the bottom via a large cargo ramp within the cargo hold.
Inside the ship, a makeshift brig has been fashioned out of the back section of the cargo hold, sized to fit at most a single large mech inside. The cockpit sits slightly above and to the front of the cargo hold and is accessible via ramp. The cockpit is significantly smaller than the cargo hold itself. Behind the cockpit and above the cargo hold is access to the ship’s engines for maintenance and fueling. A split-level ramp connects the engine room to the cockpit to the cargo hold beneath.
The rest of the cargo hold is sized to fit 4 average-sized mechs while standing. Most of it currently contains a plethora of scattered energon cubes, enough to feed Lockdown and a few prisoners. This area of the ship is currently scattered with all manner of unsavory accouterments as Lockdown has been using it as a temporary recharge station during his travels.
Speed:
The Jade Dahlia is capable of achieving Mach 3 within the Earth’s atmosphere but cannot currently exceed this speed due to safety issues. In space, Lockdown’s ship is on the faster end of personal crafts, allowing him to traverse the stars with relative ease, so long as it is frequently refueled due to the power of its engines.
EMP Charge:
Contrary to common belief, Lockdown doesn’t believe going in guns blazing is the logical conclusion to every problem. Which is part of the reason his ship has no weapons to speak of. Instead, he’s had the Dahlia fitted with a device capable of discharging a short-range electromagnetic pulse affecting anything within a 10-kilometer radius of his ship. The effects of the EMP vary based on distance:
The EMP generates charge overtime via solar panels attached to the hull. It can only be used once before needing to recharge and requires two and a half Earth days worth of fuel to recharge fully before it can be used again. Due to its drastic fuel consumption, the EMP is typically only used as a last resort.
The Dahlia is a small ship with a smaller fuel economy. However, due to its high fuel consumption, the Dahlia is capable of fueling via more than one method:
Armor and Shields:
The Dahlia sacrifices armor for speed, only having basic shielding to protect from being fired upon by infantry weaponry. The shielding can tank about one missile or other high explosive damage equivalents before it is disabled. After that, its hull is completely vulnerable to these damage types. The Dahlia’s hull strength is comparable to medium armor.
Occupancy:
The Dahlia was never meant to be more than a personal transport craft, meaning there is only one seat to be utilized in flight. The only other safe way to ride in the Dahlia during flight is as a prisoner secured in the brig.
Name: Knox
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Lockdown
Age: Early 60s
Gender: Mech
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Decepticon
Original Occupation: Unknown/Poacher
Occupation/Specialization: Mercenary/Bounty Hunter
Appearance
Lockdown maintains an above-average height for a grounder of his build, standing at Bulkhead’s height. Lockdown has piled on the armor over the years, lending to a top-heavy upper body and bulky reinforced look on top of what was once a more slender or prototypical medium armor frame. This modified look carries over into his altmode– a classic muscle car altered to fit the more modern specs of its peers, keeping his road performance on par with top contenders in his car class.
Altogether his color scheme is an even mix of black and lime green with silver and red accents. Chrome studs adorn his frame from head to toe, and reappear on his alt mode on the roof, bumpers, and wheels.
Visually, Lockdown has an unkemptness about him that denotes both the complacency of old age and a general disregard for overall personal hygiene. Rust collects in ungodly places, millennia-old oils still stain his frame– and that’s to say nothing about his smell should any poor mech get close enough to find out for themselves.
The crowning jewel of this mech’s frame is the infamous hook which takes the place of his right servo. Chrome, effortlessly sharp, and spotless by comparison to the rest of his unkempt frame, the hook is his pride and joy– he has an image to uphold after all.
Altmode: Grounder; Modified 1967 Mustang Shelby GT500 (CR 545)
Voiceclaim: Ron Perlman
Pertinent History
The Golden Age
For as old as he is, little is known about Lockdown, with few mecha still around to corroborate anything more than rumors as to the infamous bounty hunter’s true origin. Generally presumed to be one of the oldest Cybertronians still around, knowledge of Lockdown’s early years was kept firmly under wraps either through his own doing, or the gradual fading of such information to time.
The earliest references to a Cybertronian named Lockdown arose during the height of Cybertron’s Golden Age. A file on Lockdown began after he was incarcerated at the newly anointed Garrus-1 supermax. This followed a highly public trial exposing multiple prominent figures in the scientific community for soliciting the aid of poachers to secure specimens– Lockdown chief among them. While one may assume this mech would have been quickly forgotten within the walls of the infamous prison, Lockdown’s imprisonment here only introduced him to a wealth of future business contacts dealing in much darker criminal undertakings. His tenure at Garrus-1 was foggy from that point on, but eventually, Lockdown managed to get out and return to Cybertron.
Era of the Caste System
From then on, historical records have Lockdown dipping his peds in some of the most abhorrent black markets imaginable. Game poaching became alien trafficking, became hit jobs, and eventually full-on bounty hunting and mercenary work for whoever would pay the most. Multiple bouts in high-security prisons followed– including both break-ins and break-outs in between as Lockdown began building up his reputation as a ruthless and cutthroat bounty hunter, whose services were sought after by some of the most deranged names in the universe.
By the time the Great War was on the horizon, Lockdown was a trained killer of another caliber entirely. He’d built up his own gang of spacefaring pirates, murderers, and thieves with himself as its figurehead, and his criminal operations had spread outward from Cybertron into a network that spanned the stars. Late into his career, Lockdown was deadset on making a statement to all opposition. Whether the crimelords of his time liked it or not– he had himself in mind as their new replacement. And no one was going to get in his way without paying for it in blood.
Immediately clocking the rising violent Decepticon movement as something that would lead to war, Lockdown made his way back to Cybertron with key members of his gang in tow. At his age, Lockdown knew there was nothing more lucrative than war, especially in his line of work. Previously difficult targets were about to be made much more vulnerable to mecha like him, provided he made friends with the right people. Lockdown quietly pledged the support of his crew to Megatron behind closed doors in exchange for the chance to dispose of certain individuals both he and Megatron found common enemies in, and the promise of a comfortable position in Megatron’s army when war finally did come.
Lockdown would begin to work for Megatron as a hitman, remaining close to Cybertron and once more inserting himself into its criminal element in cities like Kaon and Tarn, silently clearing the way for Megatron by busting down opposition in the criminal underworld. The work of Lockdown and his crew further destabilized the southern territories of Cybertron, aiding Megatron in establishing his influence and eventually dominance over these areas once the war came. For Lockdown, it was the business partnership of a lifetime– one he believed would solidify his position on top of Cybertron’s criminal underworld for ages to come.
The War
When the war began in full, Lockdown excelled on both the frontlines and in special operations bagging and tagging Autobot HVTs. In a way, Lockdown finally felt as though he’d found his “people” amongst the rageful, violence-prone crowds of early Decepticon kind who had up until that point lived relatively peaceful lives. He loved every second of those first days of the war, and being in the good graces of Megatron left him with a relatively long leash to do as he pleased so long as it aligned well enough with Decepticon interests. Unfortunately for Lockdown, he could not have predicted then how long the war would really last, and just how little there would be left of his beloved stomping grounds even just a few millennia after it began.
The war was treated like a well-needed vacation from Lockdown’s usual “work,” but as decades became millennia, the initial high of the fighting began to die down. The war dissolved his gang, and what few members of his crew were left alive simply faded to obscurity as the war lessened the value of their past work and reputation. There was little ‘criminal underworld’ to speak of anymore, at least none that existed as it was in the early days of Lockdown’s time.
Things slowed, the Autobots became more tactical, and easy blood on the battlefields dried up. The young and impressionable youth of the early Decepticon cause grew jaded and numb to it all– or they died out altogether, too weak to keep up with the level of violence and ruthlessness that being a Decepticon required. As for Lockdown, there was no appeal to his work when everyone was now a killer.
Exodus
Eventually, the exodus came. Bored by the war, and certain this foreshadowed an end that would come not with a bang but a pitiful sputter, Lockdown did not follow the Nemesis to Earth. He needed to prepare for the opportunities of peacetime by securing his place at the top of what would become Cybertron’s new crime renaissance once it was resettled. Lockdown got in touch with some old contacts, as well as finding some new ones– doing hit jobs as he got the feel for the free market of the intergalactic criminal underworld once more.
He would remain on this self-imposed sabbatical from the Decepticons, keeping himself occupied by tearing slag up on unprotected and vulnerable alien planets– up until he began receiving signals from an organic planet in the Sol system. The Nemesis had in fact made it to Earth– and things had not ended in the ‘pitiful sputter’ he had foreseen. In fact, things seemed more tense than they had been in years, clear now that the Autobots were not going down without a violent, bloody fight.
Present Day
It was then that Lockdown began to realize something: he missed being a Decepticon. Perhaps he was growing sentimental in his old age– or perhaps he just missed the thrill of a challenge, for that was something that seemed to be present on Earth in spades. For the first time in thousands of years worth of war things were finally shaking up again. If there was anything Lockdown knew by now it was when change was in the cards for Cybertronian kind– and the potential for fresh chaos on Earth had reinvigorated the old mech with a lust for power that harkened back to the glory days of his youth. Before Lockdown could usher in his new, idealized criminal empire, he was going to have to officially come out of retirement– in style.
Whichever faction ended up losing this great long war, Lockdown had ensured his own win– that was the beauty of it all. He just had to give things a little push in the right direction. Safe in the knowledge that his spoils would await him on the new Cybertron that arose from the ashes of war, Lockdown would take the long trek to Earth in his own personal spacecraft, which he would keep hidden on the far side of the Earth’s moon upon arriving at his destination.
Personality
Crass, egocentric, vulgar, destructive, sleazy, unscrupulous, competitive, manipulative, generally unpleasant
In certain circles, it’s said that if one were to open the oldest Cybertronian dictionary in search of the word ‘bastard,’ they would simply be met with a mugshot of Lockdown, leering at the camera with a slag-eating grin.
Since before war was even a glimmer in anyone’s optic, Lockdown has been indulging in arguably one of the most violent and hedonistic midlife crises Cybertronian kind has ever seen. Back in the day, Lockdown set the standard for the foul-mouthed, cruel-minded, and black-sparked archcriminal. Today, he still considers himself the “Last Greatest Bounty Hunter of Cybertron” and would boast that unlike so many who were changed by the Great War– the war was changed by him.
Anyone who’s known him long enough would know that Lockdown was a piece of slag long before the average citizen saw enough battle to stoop anywhere close to his level. He has a frightening lack of empathy, caring for Cybertronian life about as much as he does personal hygiene– which is to say: markedly little at all. He easily amuses himself by getting under the plates of his compatriots and revels in tearing down those who still cling to their morals. For as long as he’s lived he’s made a frequent game of bringing others down to his level. So late into the war, there are few such innocent mecha left– making his attempted corruption of the feeble-minded an even more prized treat.
While the mech is effortlessly confident when it comes to his general temperament, he’s not immune to rare flare-ups in anger which reveal a more frightening overall immaturity beneath the surface governing his actions– despite frequently being the oldest mech in a given room, Lockdown’s proclivities can lead him to act like a mech about a third his age. This is due to any number of things– from his hyper-competitive drive to his lack of a filter to his rampant objectification of other mecha.
At the end of the day, Lockdown isn’t pretending to be anything he isn’t– unless it’ll bag him a sweet young thing to spend the night with. If rock bottom had morals, Lockdown would be the squatter living in its basement– and he’s loving every second of it.
Likes: Credits, femmes, confidence, weaponry, violence, scars, showing off, cygars, booze, the strong/physically capable
Dislikes: Cowardice, sensitive mecha, outliers, cops, showering, high-caste types, sentiment, smaller mechs, the physically weak
Strengths/Weapons
Lockdown’s frame is reinforced with standard medium armor. Over the years additional armor plating has been piled onto his chest and back for extra protection to his sparkchamber. This extra armor plating is exclusively anti-explosive in nature and serves as a secondary protective barrier beneath his regular armor to guard the ailing mech against shrapnel and other debris.
Armed in the Teeth:
The most recent modification to his arsenal, Lockdown’s face transforms into a railgun, whose long-range and high projectile speed lends itself mainly to dealing with fliers and other long-range combatants. Just don’t tell him he’s compensating for anything.
- With a 3-shot maximum, this weapon charges off Lockdown’s own energon supply. Firing two shots are generally always within safe energon consumption levels but the third depends on how much energon Lockdown has in his systems so he generally does not risk his third shot if he is already bleeding and has lost any amount of energon.
- One shot will punch through medium armor and has the potential to cleave limbs from light armor mecha. Managing to land two shots in the same general location on heavily armored mecha will puncture their armor in the affected area.
- Besides the low ammo supply and high energon cost, the main downside of this weapon is that it severely cuts off Lockdown’s peripheral vision for as long as the railgun is deployed, leaving him with a sort of tunnel vision until the gun recedes back into his housing.
A Killer Right Hook:
Lockdown’s infamous hook can peel most mecha like a can opener. Typically used to wither away stronger armor and maneuver his combatants at close range to get in dirty strikes with his shotgun. Its shape makes it excellent for slashing open light and medium armor. The hook can’t puncture heavy armor, but given some effort and leverage can peel away portions of it.
A Mean Left Jab:
Lockdown’s offhand transforms into a tri-barrel shotgun. The weapon is mostly inaccurate outside of close range, but when used in unison with his hooked servo can be deadly.
- The shotgun is capable of firing one round at a time for ammo efficiency or all three at the same time for maximum effect on heavier armor types. Its ammo is stored internally within Lockdown’s left arm and reloads automatically via an internal mechanism in his “bicep.” Lockdown’s bicep has an ammo capacity of 12 rounds.
- Point-blank shots (<1 meter) will sear through light armor types in 2 rounds, medium armor in 3, and heavy armor in 4.
- Close-range shots (1-6 meters) will sear through light armor types if all three rounds manage to hit the same body part.
- The other major drawback to this weapon besides its poor range is also a side effect of its poor chamber size; Lockdown must eject each expended shell casing before he can reload again. A full shell ejection and reload cycle takes about 5 seconds, leaving an opening in between shots in which Lockdown is made vulnerable.
Poacher’s Penchant:
Lockdown has a laser wire net that deploys from a wrist mount on his hooked hand. Modified from nets designed to trap alien species larger than most Cybertronians, its thin wiring allows it to expand to cover a massive area, making it ideal for ensnaring a variety of frame types. Meant to incapacitate as opposed to injure, the laser wire is extremely hot as a deterrent to its victims' attempts to escape. The net will tighten around its prey the more they struggle, and Lockdown can manually control how hot– and by extension painful– the laser wire itself can get. Mecha unfortunate enough to experience the cruelty of this net on its highest setting are often left with crisscross scarring that is exceedingly difficult to buff out or paint over after the fact, leaving it a dismal calling card of Lockdown’s work.
- While highly sharpened knives and swords of the sturdiest alien metals can cut and saw through the laser wire with some time, it can quickly heat up to full strength in 10 seconds painfully crippling attempts to escape and further struggle risking guaranteed scarring at this point.
- The only way to turn off the heating mechanism within the laser wire is to target the control panel on the underside of his wrist which he accesses using his offhand.
- Lockdown has only one spare net, located on his ship. In the event both are damaged he will be without for a few days as he is forced to solder and tie the nets back together.
Experience:
Despite his outward demeanor suggesting a general lack of refinement, Lockdown is no fool. He’s lived long enough to read the room just as well as he can read a battlefield. Lockdown knows when he’s being played, whether it's on a battlefield or during business negotiations, making him a highly dangerous force not to be underestimated.
Weaknesses
Lockdown’s heavier, more specialized armor leads to an inability to react very quickly in close-quarters melee-type situations. While his sturdy armor means he still packs a hefty punch, those smaller and faster than him will still maintain the advantage in a fight if they’re brave enough to get within striking distance of his hook.
One-Handed:
As Lockdown’s main hand is not capable of transforming into a regular servo, he must rely on his offhand for actions requiring the usage of an opposable thumb. As this hand is also the one that houses his shotgun, needing to sacrifice one of his only firearms to be able to use his hand in the middle of a fight is less ideal than he’d like.
Old:
Lockdown is an aging mech with a frame not built for war. He’s had to pile on the armor over the years to compensate for rusted limbs and general disrepair late in life. As such, he experiences medical issues more often than his younger peers and is more prone to the exacerbation of old injuries and easier formation of new ones on the battlefield if he isn’t careful.
Spark Injury:
Lockdown has danced with death more times than he can count, but there’s only one injury he ever received that put him firmly on the brink of the Pits, and keeps him with one ped in the grave to this day. A past shot to his spark from a mech Lockdown let get too close still debilitates Lockdown years later. While he’s taken care to armor up in every way he can to protect his sparkchamber, if his spark ever incurs this level of damage again it is certain to put him into immediate spark arrest.
Self-interested:
As egotistical as they come, at the end of the day Lockdown holds no candles for anyone other than himself. He will use and abuse those stupid enough to trust him and then stab them in the back the second he loses interest in them or they stop being useful. This makes him the kind of person incapable of netting very many long-term allies– often due to his own sabotage of these relationships.
Special Skills:
Tracking:
Lockdown is an expert tracker, a skill he’s honed over millions of years across multiple fields. He would boast there’s not a living target in any galaxy he couldn’t find and track down given time, and he likely wouldn’t be wrong.
Piloting:
Having experience transporting cargo across the stars since before most stars had even been charted, Lockdown knows his way around a starship, making him an especially formidable adversary when at the helm of a well-armed ship– and extra slippery in his own personal spacecraft.
Extra Info
Type: Personal Transport
Size: Small
Weapons: None
History:
After the war took its toll on Lockdown’s operations and dissolved his crew, he had to downsize. Selling his gang’s starship– the original Jade Dahlia– after going solo once the Exodus moved the fighting off of Cybertron, he would keep a portion of it as a personal transport christened the “Jade Dahlia II.”
In the years since the Exodus, Lockdown has made numerous upgrades to the small craft, including better engines and a defensive EMP generator. It’s a ship that prioritizes speed and evasion over fighting and durability, and its nimble overall appearance reflects this in nearly every way.
Appearance:
Unlike its owner, the Jade Dahlia II has an air of elegance and high class. Living up to its namesake, its primary colors are a striking emerald/jade green with silver accents. Its cockpit is tinted with a vibrant blood red. The ship as a whole keeps a thin and angular wedge shape very similar to an arrowhead if viewed from above. Unlike many ships, the cockpit sits towards the back while the wings begin on either side of the cockpit like prongs that protrude outwards a great distance in front of it. Four small engines sit stacked behind the cockpit, maintaining a thick and sturdy form in the back that smoothes out into its needle-like shape in the front. Keen optics will notice that the ship as it exists now was likely once a secondary cockpit designed to detach from a main battleship as a single-seater craft. The ship is enterable from the bottom via a large cargo ramp within the cargo hold.
Inside the ship, a makeshift brig has been fashioned out of the back section of the cargo hold, sized to fit at most a single large mech inside. The cockpit sits slightly above and to the front of the cargo hold and is accessible via ramp. The cockpit is significantly smaller than the cargo hold itself. Behind the cockpit and above the cargo hold is access to the ship’s engines for maintenance and fueling. A split-level ramp connects the engine room to the cockpit to the cargo hold beneath.
The rest of the cargo hold is sized to fit 4 average-sized mechs while standing. Most of it currently contains a plethora of scattered energon cubes, enough to feed Lockdown and a few prisoners. This area of the ship is currently scattered with all manner of unsavory accouterments as Lockdown has been using it as a temporary recharge station during his travels.
Strengths/Features
The Jade Dahlia is capable of achieving Mach 3 within the Earth’s atmosphere but cannot currently exceed this speed due to safety issues. In space, Lockdown’s ship is on the faster end of personal crafts, allowing him to traverse the stars with relative ease, so long as it is frequently refueled due to the power of its engines.
EMP Charge:
Contrary to common belief, Lockdown doesn’t believe going in guns blazing is the logical conclusion to every problem. Which is part of the reason his ship has no weapons to speak of. Instead, he’s had the Dahlia fitted with a device capable of discharging a short-range electromagnetic pulse affecting anything within a 10-kilometer radius of his ship. The effects of the EMP vary based on distance:
- <500 meters = Cybertronians within range will be forced into a full-on 30-second emergency system reboot.
- <2,000 meters = Within this distance, seekers and other mecha with proper scanners can register the impending pulse burst within 10 seconds of activation to avoid the system reboot range.
- <5,000 meters = Will scramble all radar technology on Cybertronians and surrounding ships for around one minute.
- <10,000 meters = Will disable missile systems and other weaponry that require lock-on.
The EMP generates charge overtime via solar panels attached to the hull. It can only be used once before needing to recharge and requires two and a half Earth days worth of fuel to recharge fully before it can be used again. Due to its drastic fuel consumption, the EMP is typically only used as a last resort.
Weaknesses
Fuel Economy:
- The least efficient, via rerouting the solar panels used to charge its EMP into the engine instead. This is typically only done in emergency scenarios.
- For long-distance travel, the ship utilizes a built-in fuel scoop to absorb hydrogen gas from stellar bodies (like the Earth’s sun) and convert it into fuel, which is the most efficient and lucrative fueling method.
- Low-orbit transit is significantly less taxing on fuel as the Dahlia is not safely capable of exceeding Mach 3 in-atmosphere. The power cap on the engines enables them to subsist on energon as a fuel source but this sacrifices more fuel for the same amount of engine output. The ship can only cruise for about an hour on a single energon cube.
Armor and Shields:
The Dahlia sacrifices armor for speed, only having basic shielding to protect from being fired upon by infantry weaponry. The shielding can tank about one missile or other high explosive damage equivalents before it is disabled. After that, its hull is completely vulnerable to these damage types. The Dahlia’s hull strength is comparable to medium armor.
Occupancy:
The Dahlia was never meant to be more than a personal transport craft, meaning there is only one seat to be utilized in flight. The only other safe way to ride in the Dahlia during flight is as a prisoner secured in the brig.