Ep .5 - Oregon - From the Sky - Open!

[skydive]

-

He'd been following them for months, and every orbital cycle he spent trailing them, the more he realized they were on exactly the same course.

Skydive saw his target hit the planet's atmosphere at the same time he did, from several miles away. He'd been sure to hang back far enough that the ship's sensors shouldn't have been able to track him, even going so far as to hide behind moons to go undetected, but as their destination got closer, he found himself speeding up. There was no way to calculate the exact risks in attacking the Decepticon ship, so doing it blindly could get him in trouble. There was just he, and inside the ship he couldn't tell how many Cons waited for him, and there just might be fliers.

Most bots traveled the cosmos in ships when they could. It was safer as they offered protection from flares, space storms, and other phenomena. They also contained autopilot functions and comfortable berths to recharge on. They weren't indestructible but even to fliers they were a coveted item to possess for space flight. Skydive had had no such option when he'd left his last outpost behind. He had only himself, and had chosen to follow the Prime's transmission understanding the risks. He just hadn't expected to run into Decepticons on the way. It had been quite a while since he'd seen them...

The flight to Earth had been long and with rare opportunities to grab energon and recharge on the way, Skydive was close to exhausted. But he had plenty enough kick left and a small ration or two to tide him over into a fight if need be. Luckily, the Autobots would soon be in range for an assist. Unable to tell what or how much Decepticon activity there was planet-side, however, he kept his comm closed for now.

The warmth of the Earth's atmosphere encased him, heating up, the increasingly dense gases pulling at his frame and straining his wings. He slowed down severely, the speeds one could fly at in space unsuitable for responsible flight in atmo. But the hard part only lasted a few minutes.

Once he hit the cool, moist upper stratosphere he angled for the ship, adjusted his parameters for flight at this level, and then blasted forward, carefully following the ship via scanners to its landing.

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(OOC: If there was damage to the ship to the ship at all, Skydive is and has been far enough away that he couldn't see it. )

-

[Deleted]

There were plenty of ships in the universe custom-made to bear up under the terrific strain of atmospheric reentry. Legion had had the pleasure of flying a few in his lifetime, and the memories of soaring high over hard-fought battlefields were among his most cherished. He might have been sparked, built and trained for ground-pounding, but even front-line combatants were allowed to dream of the glories of flight.

There was, however, absolutely nothing glorious about this particular flight. In fact, calling it 'flight' in the first place was being generous. This was a textbook example of what the Aerialbots had so derisively referred to as 'falling with style', and it felt every bit as horrible as they'd sworn it did.

It wasn't his fault, really, at least not when you got past the whole 'you're piloting this deathtrap, of course it's your fault!' bit. The ship- Pit, even calling it a 'ship' was a stretch- technically wasn't his at all. The nameless hunk of glorified scrap metal had been a Decepticon troop-transport until he'd appropriated- alright, stolen- it for his own (mis)use some months before. Legion therefore had nothing to do with the absolutely horrific condition of the thing's engines, flight systems or databanks. He was blameless, really, even if he was the one to give the shuttle a last encouraging pat and tip it into the morass of conflicting air currents that was Earth's upper atmosphere. Innocent, totally innocent. Right?

He should've known better than to brave open atmosphere in a ship rated for spacefaring, but that warning, like so many others, had been merrily disregarded. Twenty-nine thousand feet above Earth's surface it came back to haunt him with a resounding BOOM. The secondary starboard engine made like a supernova, exploding with enough force to send the shuttle into an ungainly barrel roll.

"Oh, fok this."

The shuttle plummeted another eight or nine thousand feet straight down before Legion could wrestle it back on-course. Details of the land below were slowly swimming into view, fast-flowing rivers slicing through patches of bare stone interspersed with patches of primordial forest so thick he doubted anyone, be they Cyberontronian or organic, had ever set foot in them. Earth might have been trying to kill him already, but frag if the place wasn't the prettiest slaggin' thing this side of the Crystal Gardens-

Bang. The primary port engine followed the starboard's lead, making every rivet and weld in the poor abused shuttle groan in protest.

"...fok me!"

Seven thousand feet to go and the shuttle's hull quite literally bowed to the inevitable. Plates above and around Legion buckled in as if punched, gale-force wind howling in through the newfound rents.

"FOK EVERYTHIN'."

The shuttle's steering systems were in open rebellion, ignoring every command the mech at the helm relayed as if their lives depended upon it. Slowly, though, every nut and bolt shrieking in protest, the shuttle's nose edged towards the horizon. Thirty feet above the whitecaps the shuttle finally- finally!- leveled out, wingtips clipping storm-tossed waves. Somehow, some way, he'd managed to bring the thing down less than half a mile offshore, well away from the prying eyes of curious organics. Beaches, it soon transpired, were excellent places to land crippled transports. Smiling broadly enough to make his faceplates ache, Legion cut power to the engines and coasted the final few hundred feet. The shuttle shuddered to a standstill half-buried in beach sand, newly-exposed internal systems sending up great gouts of smoke and steam. It wasn't a neat landing, nowhere close, but that didn't stop Legion from capering in delight as he worked his way free of his safety harness and out onto the night-dark beach.

"Any landin' y'ken walk away from. Don' remember who said that, but fok, they're righ'." Straightening- and unsubtly working out knotted-up linkages in the process, he cast his optics towards the sky in search of his pursuer. "Arrigh', wings, where th'Pit are y'?"

[skydive]

As Skydive closed in, he managed his first up close look of the ship.

The first thing he noticed was that it was a transport, and the second thing he noticed was that it was extremely run down. As it hurtled toward the surface of the planet, pieces were falling off, the atmosphere having torn it apart upon entry.

Skydive stayed behind it, at least until a rather large piece of the ship disengaged from the rest with a boom. It nearly hit him. Barrel rolling to safety, he pulled back, cutting off power to his thruster and coasting downwards in a wide arc.

He watched as the transport fell apart some ways from civilization and then he glided to a spot thirty yards up from the ship's location.

He landed with a flip into primary mode and alighted on a grassy knoll just bordering the beach. Behind him a thick forest stretched, but nestled inside was a sizeable human town, and Skydive had to wonder if they knew anything about Cybertronians. On a world with an indigenous population of intelligent alien lifeforms it was likely the Prime had some kind of contact, but the outcome... Were the Autobots disguising themselves here? Or could they walk freely?

He didn't know.

On the beach, something stirred, and Skydive turned to find one of the largest mechs he'd ever seen emerge from the ship and look skyward, possibly for him. Had the mech known he was being followed? Skydive couldn't help but feel some disappointment in himself, and a bit of frustration that he'd wasted energon and effort trying to be stealthy. But he shook his helm at this, as admonishing himself wasn't going to help this situation.

It was a Decepticon ship, and massive bot before him was surely one hell of a powerful Con. He made sure to to position himself behind the Cybertronian, sure to be unseen for yet a few more moments.

The Aerialbot's right arm shifted into a rifle while the other touched his helm lightly. He just wasn't sure what the situation on the planet was and he wished he had more information, but he'd rather take the risk calling for back up now before this bot spotted him and got any ideas. Quietly, he hailed the Autobot frequencies he knew and spoke.

"Autobot Skydive to Autobot Base, do you read me? ...I've tracked a Decepticon transport and its pilot to Earth and I require reinforcements."

He cut the line, hoping his message (not to mention his energy signature) hadn't gone detected by any other 'Cons in the area. It occured to him that he may be in a very very bad situation, completely ignorant of the Prime's standing orders or what threats may be found on the this planet. He had to be ready to both fight and to flee at once.

Tense and wings rigid, he continued to crouch on the knoll on one knee, weapon trained on the mech, watching silently.

-

((OOC: I imagine this happening in late evening, with moonlight and the dull light of the town/city. dunno if that's what you had in mind so I didn't put any timing in there.))

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[Deleted]

Wings was a no-show, and so were all his little 'Con buddies. Offhand Legion couldn't decide whether the utter lack of opposition irritated or amused him. He'd spent the past way-too-fokkin'-long cooped up in a shuttle made for mechs maybe two-thirds his size- nothing would've worked out the kinks quite as well as a good ole-fashioned brawl. Since none seemed to be forthcoming, putting out the fires steadily trying to devour his scrapheap-on-wings noble conveyance would have to suffice.

A chill that had nothing to do with ambient temperature coursed up his spinal relays a few moments later, slowing his extinguishing efforts to a near-crawl. Legion might not have considered himself much of a soldier, but he hadn't survived quite as long as he had on good looks alone. The soldier's sense that had saved his aft a thousand times before gnawed at the base of his helm like a particularly virulent case of rust-rash, insisting over and over again that something out there wanted to kill him in the most spectacularly gory fashion possible. A surreptitious scan of the beach came back clean- well, as clean as any scan of an organic landscape could- but even that reassuring reading couldn't silence the voice of paranoia screeching in the back of his processor. Something was wrong, very wrong, and even as he returned to piecing apart the blazing shuttle he kept trying to figure out just what.

There. Well off the beach and out of easy grappling range, knelt down to minimize the target he presented, stood his shadow-in-mech-form, and unless Legion's optics really had gone to slag that really was a very large, very mean-looking blaster aimed square for his spark. WELL NOW. That changed things, didn't it? The shuttle and its fiery demise could wait; right now he had a mech to placate and/or bearhug into submission.

"...this jus' keeps gettin' better'n better." Straightening, Legion tossed the tools he'd been destroying aside and reached for the sky. "C'mon now, mech, don' shoot me."

[Deleted]

::This is Optimus Prime. We have your location and will be arriving in moments, Skydive.::

Airazor confirmed the ID from her position at the monitors as soon as the Autobot Commander closed the tranmission, moving swiftly to the groundbridge controls. Given the urgency of the request, Optimus only sent a notification to Jazz to alert him to the situation and request that he come up to oversee the groundbridge for their return.

Skydive - not a designation he recognized, but clearly still an active Autobot warrior if he had singularly pursued a Decepticon vessel to an alien world. And not one he would leave to face the enemy alone.

"Airazor, with me. I fear there is no time to wait for Jazz to assume the controls." The groundbridge spun up, the vortex as brilliantly light and fluidily organic as always. When the small femme was at his side and ready, Optimus lead them forwards, transforming mid-step.

"Roll out."

[skydive]

It took a few moments longer than he'd expected, but eventually the Con thought to look behind him. Even then, Skydive could tell he hadn't been spotted until he saw the other's optics alight with recognition, and he found himself very surprised. Through his visor, everything was tinted orange, but over the years he'd learned to distinguish most coloration through it. This mech had bright blue optics, not the deep red he'd been sure he'd find.

Faced with this new data, he looked over the mech more searchingly, looking for something that gave away his faction, but in the dimness of the evening light any sigils the mech wore were hidden by shadow. That and he was kind of far away.

"C'mon now, mech, don' shoot me."

Skydive did not. Even if the mech had been a Decepticon he likely wouldn't have opened fire unless the bot had attacked. The war was supposedly over, to shoot first was a crime in Skydive's book, so instead he likely would keep the other at gun point until reinforcements arrived.

However, Skydive knew full well that optic color wasn't always an indicator of faction. The giant's hands could at any moment turn into weapons, so Skydive kept his arm cannons trained expertly on the bulky shape.

"State your designation and allegiance," he ordered with conviction, but his voice still came out a tad unsure. Someone much older and wiser probably wouldn't have wavered, but Skydive was neither. "You look...Autobot, but I - "

::This is Optimus Prime. We have your location and will be arriving in moments, Skydive.::

The Prime's transmission honestly startled Skydive, although a swift and strong response was exactly what he wanted. Immediately, his servo flew up to acknowledge the Autobot leader's message.

"Understood, sir. On standby."

His attention then returned to the mech on the beach. He debated announcing the Autobots' arrival, but decided against it. If this Cybertronian was hostile, his reinforcements would hopefully have the element of surprise.

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OOC: Btw, I don't think he's expecting a ground bridge. He thinks they'll be coming on foot. Just fyi.

[Deleted]

Score one for the bird-bot up on the hill. Through luck or skill he'd managed to place himself at just such an angle that viewers below him- crabs, for example, or seagulls, or pinned-down and down-on-their-luck frontliners- couldn't make out even the grosses details if their lives depended on it. That sameself glitchhumper mech had a clear bead on him, and though Legion was many things, fast was not one of them. There was no way short of divine intervention for him to make it to cover before a slug from that gun dropped him, and that rankled almost as badly as flying halfway across the sector in a shoebox had.

As perilous as the situation seemed, though, it could've been infinitely worse. Sure, there was still a work of art masquerading as a gun trained on his spark, and Legion was 99% certain that the 'bot up on that hill had either called for backup or was dense enough to make Starscream envious, but he hadn't been shot just yet. That, for better or for worse, was an improvement over something like seventy percent of encounters he'd weathered in the past. 'Unperforated' was a status the frontliner both coveted and desperately wanted to maintain, and if that meant leaving the funny business for later, so be it. He could play nice for once. It'd only hurt a lot little, right?

And so Legion stood, servos in the air, creaky limbs so still they ached, and tried to ignore the nagging sensation that he was missing a conversation he needed to hear. The big mech had long prided himself on staying far, far away from the poor unfortunate sparks sent off to do the Autobots' dirty work, but even he knew just how many spec ops mechs limped in from the field half-crazed from isolation. Now he had an inkling, however faint, as to why. Comm silence was unnerving enough when you knew you were well and truly alone, but being held at gunpoint and hearing nothing- nothing!- was enough to make Legion's plates crawl.

If he ever managed to track down the glitchfrotter responsible for wrecking his comm-systems, there would be hell to pay.

"That'd be b'cause I am," He replied simply, injecting a truly staggering dose of artificial calm into his voice. " Autobot Legion, reportin' fer duty. Fresh outta th'Teyonu sector, an' fok all if th'trip 'ere weren't sommat outta th'Pit. Y'have no idea how tiny those shuttles are, m'mech."

[Deleted]

Of all the things Optimus could have expected to be on the other side of the groundbridge, to mechs in what looked to be a rather awkward standoff was very low on the list. The second mech was not one he recognized as a known Decepticon, though that did not rule him out as a threat. He did not, however, look to be someone spoiling for a fight.

Motioning Airazor to hold as the 'bridge collapsed behind them, the tall mech took a step forward with both arms primed to weaponise in an instant. He did not, however, wish to escalate the situation if it could be talked out.

"Skydive, report." He did not take his optics from the massive mech, trusting Airazor to watch Skydive and their surroundings for any incoming attack. Though this was not a situation that felt on the verge of combat.

[skydive]

At Legion's words, Skydive wavered again. The mech's conversational jesting aside, he said he was Autobot and from Teyonu. Legion. He had a name, a faction, a history that could possibly be confirmed, and, apparently, a destination. It seemed this was just a matter of mistaken identity - the mech must have stolen a Deception transport to get here. However, there was always the risk he was lying, and the flier would rather have fellow Autobots here to help uncover the truth. If he dropped his guard, the mech could drop his ruse and kill him. Such a large bot surely had weapons that could deal some serious damage to a mech like Skydive.

The Aerialbot was not one to speak at length to the enemy. One of his old comrades might have had replied to the bot's comment about the ship, chatted it up on the beach, but Skydive wasn't like that. Instead, he settled to continue to stare silently.

That was, until the glow of something bright green startled him again. He really was rusty, with all these surprises making him jump like this! (It was probably also a testament to how tired he was, and how tense, but Skydive wasn't forgiving enough of himself to allow such reasoning. He only saw a fault and felt the need to improve on it ASAP.) At first, he'd thought it was an explosion, but very quickly amended that - a ground bridge? He hadn't seen one of those in a very long time.

Then the Prime came through, looking ready for battle with another flier in tow, and Skydive had to force himself not to break from his position to salute like some rookie. He'd never seen the Prime in person, and wasn't sure Optimus Prime knew who he was either. For all his creators' efforts on making Skydive an Autobot who could kick Seeker rear, they didn't exactly advertise their creation, probably for various important reasons.

"Skydive, report."

"Optimus Prime," Skydive started, but he realized his voice was perhaps too soft and he spoke up, projecting more certainty into the air. "I am Autobot Skydive, once a member of the Aerialbot subfaction, and this is Legion. He says he's an Autobot, but he crash landed here in a Decepticon transport. I was under the impression he was Decepticon, but it appears I was wrong."

As he finished, he dropped his weapon and stood, facing the surrendered mech properly.

-

[Deleted]

Outta th'scrap-heap, straight inta th'smelter. Fok me...

There were precisely three mechs in the world that Legion respected enough to fear. One was an Autobot medic notorious for throwing wrenches, another was an engineer who defined the term 'good things come in small packages', and the third... well, the third had just come barreling out of a ground-bridge ready to blow him into bite-sized pieces. As grateful as Legion might've been to see the Prime alive, well and ready to kick aft, he wasn't terribly eager to be the aft kicked into next orn.

"Used t'be one, but tha's ancient history." No point in hiding it; basic personnel files were public for a reason, after all. "Been workin' wif Blazewing's unit fer a few vorn now. Was workin' offa Teyonu lookin' fer energon deposits 'fore everythin' went ploin-shaped. This-" Fairly certain he wouldn't get shot for his efforts, he jabbed a thumb towards the wreckage of what had once been his transport. "-was th'first thing I could get m'servos on t'get out. Ain't sure who else got outta there, but I ken give y'names if y'want 'em."

[Deleted]

Sending Airazor a glyph to stand down and at ease, Optimus cycled his own weapon systems down. Snapping the battle mask back into its housing, he came to stand closer and between the two mechs, satisfied that they were both who they said they were.

"A full report would be appreciated - my team here doesn't receive much intel from outside this solar system." He raised a hand, having received the impression that Skydive was a by-the-book Autobot from his responses thus far. "It does not, however, need to be right now."

The Prime looked between both mechs, quickly taking in their conditions. Battle scarred, a little weary in field, but with a positive energy to their fields. It looked like Team Prime was to be expanding once more. "Are you both travelling alone?"

[skydive]

Skydive froze as the Prime raised his hand, as if to stop Skydive from speaking, and he had to concentrate to keep his EM field from spiking with the embarrassment he felt inside. Did he really come off that hard as a 'book worm'? That the Prime would supersede his word lest he started on a full report, right here, right now?

The Aerialbot had to think really hard to decide whether or not this was right.... If the Prime hadn't cut him off, would he or would he not have started his tale from the beginning? With a moment's reflection, he concluded that it was...possible. He wasn't that literal-minded, but they had just averted a potential crisis so a report might have been necessary. He just didn't know, but he'd watch for that in the future. He used to be teased about that, earlier in the war, but he thought he'd gotten better. He'd be sure to scrub that out.

Realizing he was self-analyzing at a time it was likely not welcome, he snapped back to attention as the Prime asked his next question.

"Yes, sir," Skydive replied, answering for himself. "I've been travelling alone for some time." After a moment's hesitation, he added, "I have not made contact with the other Aerialbots since being separated some time after leaving Cybertron."

He looked to Legion, then the mangled ship, and he concluded it unlikely the other mech was travelling with company. It was most probable the mech would admitted such by now if he was.
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[Deleted]

Crisis averted, and without a single shot fired. Either Prime really was the miracle worker his subordinates seemed to think he was or the mech thought on his pedes fast enough to make a whole contingent of tacticians green with envy. Legion was rather too busy reveling in his still-unperforated status to give the matter more than a passing thought, at least until Optimus set a question for both the new arrivals.

"Been alone since Teyonu," Legion confirmed, a faint edge of tension creeping into his low voice. The front-liner handled isolation about as well as Megatron tolerated dissension from any source other than Starscream; even a few months alone was enough to make him more than a touch space-crazy. That, however, was a topic to be broached with somebot that wasn't the Autobots' Fearless Leader. Legion might've been touchy-feely to the extreme, but he still had his pride, and said pride would not tolerate cuddling up to Optimus, or a winger, for that matter.

...not unless there was a hell of a lot more high-grade involved, anyway, but that was an experiment for another orn.

There was talk of Aerialbots and reports and desperately-needed information, all things he felt he should chip in on, but Wings Skydive seemed to have the situation well enough in-hand without help from an unneeded- unwanted?- quarter. Legion could add his teammates' names to the list of honored dead at some later date. For now the big mech held his peace and turned back to his shuttle. His earlier extinguishing efforts hadn't gone entirely unrewarded; he could count the number of tiny fire still blazing here and there on one servo with a finger or two left over. An easy enough fix, for all that it raised all sorts of Very Important Questions about just where the Pit they were.

"I ain't up t'date on much o'anythin," He rumbled, humorlessly, shouldering aside a particularly recalcitrant chunk of half-melted metal. "Jus' how worried d'we need t'be 'bout this hunk o'scrap gettin' found?"

[Deleted]

Jazz, meanwhile, had been listening over the open comm, checking out their newcomers. From his seat at the mainframe console, he pulled up service records for "Skydive" and "Legion". Skydive, Aerialbot, combiner, vocoder match, looked good....

Legion.... Well. A fellow signia switcher. Jazz dug just a bit deeper. It might be biased of him, and particularly ironic given his own situation, but he knew from experience that a mecha who'd switched sides once could do so again. As he skimmed Legion's file, he noticed something ELSE interesting. Teyonu, hmm? That name sounded familiar from another file he'd skimmed through, right after he'd gotten here, out of curiousity and a desire to fill in the gaps in his knowledge of his cohort.

::Hey, Blue. I say the name Legion, what's it mean to you?::

Evidently what it meant was a flurry of excited glyphs and some squealing of high enough pitch to shatter most Earthen glass. Jazz had to put the rest of the response through a half-speed filter before he could catch it all, but he smiled. ::Good guy, huh? All right, all right. Yes, he's on Earth. Prime's talkin' to him. No, not here yet. You can glomp him when he gets here. YES, you'll be the first to know.::

Jazz switched frequencies. ::Prime, vocoder prints and schematics confirm those two are who they say they are. Blue even vouches that Legion is one of the "most awesome mechs ever". Both our newbies are clear, s'far as I can tell.::

[Deleted]

True to his reputation, Optimus did not convey humour at Bluestreak's assessment of Legion across the comm. ::Thank you, Jazz. I shall extend the invitation to join our team.::

To the largest of the two new Autobots, Optimus sent a quick field-pulse of reassurance. "Do not worry about your ship, Legion. We are quite experienced with salvage. In fact, if you would be wiling, there is an established Neutra base on this planet that is always in need of parts. That's a discussion to be had back at the Autobot base, however."

The tall mech straightened fractionally, formalising his next. "You are under no obligation to join the team stationed on this planet, but your skills and experience would be a great asset to us in the war against the Decepticons."


((OOC: Sorry for the weak tag. Not been well lately and Optimus is a git to write at the best of times. ^^)