Ep1 – “Take Back” – Closed

[Deleted]

It had been a while since Optimus had the privilege of taking something, anything, back from the Decepticons and it would have been a lie to say that he wasn’t enjoying this. He and Blaster had taken the quickest, least trafficked thoroughfare to one of the Nemesis’ data hubs and closed themselves into the minor maintenance room while the other Autobots made a real and pressing hazard of themselves. Optimus stood at the control panel, screen up, sypbols running across the display, hands at the interface pad. He was currently running a full system scan of the Decepticon archives. The Prime was absorbed fully: locating Iacon data markers and pulling any and all such records from the Nemesis onboard database directly into his own CPU.

Blaster was similarly jacked in; currently running interference for him, lest Soundwave detect their software sabotage and make it his business to hamper their progress. He’d found and pulled only one record thus far. The moment Soundwave began to counter code against Blaster, Optimus would abort and switch tactics to sabotage rather than data reclamation. Blue optics ran back and forth across the glyphs on the screen, picked out another half-dozen locators and pulled another single file.

Eons ago, at the height of the war just before the last dark epoch that pushed the Cycbertornian race toe the brink of extinction, the Iacon Hall of Records – once Optimus Prime’s home and place of purpose – was gutted by the Decepticons for its historical and cultural archives. At the time, the Autobot forces had begun to use the Hall as a repository of data both tactical and classified. During the critical failures of the Autobot forces to repel the Decepticon insurgence, Megatron had raided the Iacon stronghold and the archive vaults jettisoned their contents - Class A Decepticon weapons, cultural artifacts, data cylinders, and more - into space. The Decepticons had claimed all remaining records and the Hall itself.

The task set for Optimus and Blaster: recover as many of these stolen Autobot records as possible. Encrypted or not, the only thing that stood between Soundwave and cracking these codes was simply this: it would take all his processing power and 100% of his focus and that was not something Megatron could afford, ever. Certainly not for the duration required to crack Class A archivist-level encryptions. Optimus would know; he’d designed many of the ciphers himself.

He spared a single question for Blaster. “Any sign of Soundwave?”


((OOC: Blaster and Soundwave thread. Op's goal is to pull as many records as possible. Blaster's goal is to buy Op as much time as possible. Soundwave's goal is to stop these shenanigans. XD Go!))

[steele]

Blaster was already feeling around for Soundwave. He kept his visor down as it allowed him to better channel his focus. Obviously, this was a far more defensive position. If Soundwave got a direct hit on Optimus, Blaster knew that there would be a slim chance that his Prime would survive such an attack.

Of course, Blaster hadn't encountered Soundwave just yet. Oh! He KNEW that it was only a matter of time before his old rival would notice him. Poke Soundwave's digital nest enough (and it Blaster's case, it wasn't a poke as much as waltzing in with a massive steel girder and giving that "nest" a large dramatic "shove.") and they were liable to encounter that nest's owner soon enough.

"I don't see any sign of him yet. But give it a few moments and he'll show up. He always does. I'll give you a shout when he decides to show up," said Blaster.

[Deleted]

Soundwave knew the Nemesis's communication and security network just as any creature knew its domain and like the creature that knew its domain, Soundwave knew when something was amiss in the ship's grid. It wasn't so much an anomaly that got his attention as it was a strong sense of ~not right~ while he browsed though the readouts of his security programs. Everything reported back in the green, though, no reports of attacks from bots, spiders or any sort of illegal accessing program and his defenses quickly attacked and fizzled out of existence every out of place mote. The ships systems were preforming optionally. ...and yet it still didn't feel right. Unable to simply dismiss the feelings of malcontent, he eased himself deeper into the network, prowling like a cyber-shark down the digital corridors he ruled, searching for whatever it was that had him on edge.

[Deleted]

It had been centuries since Optimus did anything like this so, under the circumstances, he was willing to at least ignore his simmer of frustration at not being able to visually isolate the archival marking algorithms that had once been the centre of his life and function. That said, the longer he did this…the faster the glyphs were coming together. Cybertronian crypt script ran up and down the screen, characters lighting up red as he identified and pulled them from the code stream, reorganizing them on another parallel thread. The soft, rapid click of finger tips against the touch panel was deceptively calm against the explosions rocking the ship and the focus in the Prime’s field.

Another record found and pulled. He started on the next, this one pieced together faster from the code cascade. Part of him remembered, instinctively, how to do this and that was gratifying for no other reason than it was what he’d been made to do – and four million years of war hadn’t gutted him for that yet. Not entirely.

“Counting on you,” said Optimus absently to his comm officer, his optics flickering rapidly across the screen. ”Keep Soundwave out of this network as long as you can.”

[steele]

Blaster always knew what Soundwave felt like. He often compared it to a disturbing silence. A kind of silence that one encounters in a horror movie just slightly before something horrible happens. There was always this sense of dread attached to this silence. Blaster was able to pick it off. But the point of this whole mission was to remain unseen. To remain invisible.

Of course, it had the added benefit of driving Soundwave crazy. Something Blaster thoroughly enjoyed. Oh! He wanted to make his rival go in circles. The longer it drove his rival nuts, the better. If the situation wasn't so serious, Blaster would have almost found it hysterical.

"Yeah. I can feel him, but he can't see us. We're invisible to him for now," said Blaster.

[Deleted]

The specialist flowed though his network for a bit longer, still finding nothing out of place. But he just couldn't shake the unsatisfied feeling. Something was wrong, and though he had nothing more to support this thought than a mere ~ inkling ~, he knew it to be true. His self re-programming might have muted his emotions, but it hadn't touched his intuitive ability. Deciding to approach the matter from a different angle, the mech began unthreading his consciousness from the data streams, pulsing a call for attention down his cohort sparklines as he did so.

He got out a short unsettled subglyph before explosions started.

[Deleted]

Optimus inclined his head slightly at the sound of the explosion going off deeper within the Nemesis. He would have not been willing to bet which of his intell-bots had caused that devastation but in meant he needed to move faster. Trusting Blaster to keep Soundwave occupied, Optimus fully integrated his CPU to the task of downloading the massive data glut that was the Iacon database. Optimus had to partition a section of his mind, barricade his horror at just how much data the Decepticons had taken from the Halls, more than he could hope to download in the limited timeframe available to him. No time to think about it. Only do this.

The Prime’s optics refocused, the three screen monitors around him suddenly igniting blue with data and the whole of the Iacon database unfurled through his head, familiar code cropping up like radioactive glow in his mind’s eyes. Theses sections he immediately targeted and began funneling the files the external drive linked into the console. Optimus could have done all this manually, but an analogy physical interface was ten times slower than a direct neural interface. The once-archivist powered through the data, pulling it apart, putting it through partial ciphers, breaking it down, grabbing the sections that flagged hot and prioritizing their download in the queue.

It had been forever since he’d fragmented his thought processes like this, literally doing fifty things at once. He didn’t move, optics fixed on the glyphs scrolling on the screen, mind moving at a million miles an hour through the limitless void of cyberspace. He knew, in the back of his mind, however, that as fast as he could do this… that was nothing against how fast Soundwave could tear him apart if he got past Blaster.

[Deleted]

Ravage looked up from the intelligence data he was sorting at the tug on his cohort bond. ::Soundwave?::

Soundwave's glyphs cut off before he could do more than communicate unsettled wariness, but not the sparklines. Soundwave was usually placid as a pool of mercury, but what spiked through the bond now was distinctly unpleased surprise, followed by the vibration of weapon-grade explosives shuddering through the deckplates.

The halls would be choked with slow-moving drones. Ravage launched himself up and into the nearest entrance to the maintenance ducts instead. It would be quicker. ::On my way,:: he sent as he ran to join his carrier.


<<I'm figuring that Ravage and Jazz's fight'll take place in a separate thread/story that I'll post separately. So, don't wait for Ravage in the thread, though feel free to have Soundwave poke him now and then. I'm figuring that Ravage will eventually have 'BOTS IN THE DUCTS to offer him and then, later, a whole lot of OW to report. >>

[steele]

Blaster gave pause. He could see Soundwave unthreading for a moment. That sort of thing always made Blaster a little uneasy.

"Optimus, Soundwave is pulling himself out of the systems. I don't quite know what it means yet. It could have been a reaction from the explosion to any number of things," said Blaster.

[Deleted]

Four datablocks downloaded thus far. Optimus continued to trawl the Decepticon database, pulling the lengthy info-streams from their networks, so focused on his task he only just registered what Blaster had said about Soundwave. The comm officer had likely run into a physical deterrent compliment of Optimus Prime’s own Autobots doing what they did best, namely, wrecking the place. He had very little doubt that with Jazz in the lead and clear objectives for everyone, that his team would be making life very difficult for every Decepticon on the Nemesis.

Optimus’ attention was diverted back to the data when a fifth coordinate block began to download. Each code block was a massive ice of encryption, near impossible to decipher, but Optimus knew that should they be deciphered, they would give up the geo-location of some lost Cybertronian artifact.

Or a weapon.

“Remain alert,” was all he said, optics never wavering from the screen.

[Deleted]

The first thing his rebooting mind registered was static. On every frequency, in every signal, static. His's mind was toned with it, it consumed everything. Slowly as each suit rebooted, he realized he was laid out on the floor. He didn't even remember falling, just an explosion and....

An explosion. That niggling feeling.

He'd known something was off.

Indignant frustration bringing to boil, he moved to push himself up off the floor only for a blitz of pain to pause him midway. His back. Something wasn't right with the right side of his back....sensors still clearing, he glanced down at the floor under him to find it slicked with energon. His energon. Then the error reports hit him.

He was injured. Very injured. A good section of his left side was gone. considering the extent of the injury, he was most likely in shock. He probably needed a medic...

Thoughts still choppy and hazy, he lowered himself back to the floor, but the specialist wasn't quite ready to give up.

-Ravage- he pinged for his first. --intruders--search--find-- he thought for a moment, this mind growing steadily clear with each passing second. --Blaster--caution--find-- and with clarity came the pain. Soundwave killed a handful input pathways, his left side going instantly numb. --kill--

He could sense his peripherals panic and concern now but brushed them away, steadying them. He just needed a moment.

[Deleted]

“He just dropped off the grid,” said Blaster, sounding suspicious.

The Autobot turned from the monitor he was gauging, the Nemesis’ cyber systems glowing three dimensional ice in the fore of his secondary processor. Optimus probably heard him, but from the fixed nature of his posture, the way his hydraulics had locked up and his optics fixed in some middle distance of the holo display it was obvious the Autobot Commander had diverted the majority of higher processes to the task of uploading the massive glut of data that was the Iacon Database directly into his own head. He was likely packing the data into hyper compresses code. Even so, one bot taking the whole of the Iacon Database into their own brain was a pretty function-specific ability.

You had to be built for it.

It was hard, but for a moment Blaster could see past the Prime to the data clerk he had been and wondered how long it had been since the Autobot leader had utilized his primary data transferal programs. There must have been a time that such a download would have been, literally, a day at the office. Blaster immediately went to work setting a series of firewalls around the system that Optimus was working in, the swell of lethal ice building and building, making it more difficult by the minute for Soundwave to launch a cyber-assault on his Prime.

“Soundwave is off the grid. I think maybe one of ours got him. Rockin’. Makes my job easier.” Optimus totally wasn’t hearing him so Blaster hacked the PA system and started pumping AC/DC through the lower levels. "Autobots, rock out."

[Deleted]

Ravage stopped in his tracks, front paw lifted as Soundwave's end of the sparkline jerked and cut abruptly. --Soundwave?--

His ping returned nothing but the static feedback of an offline cohortmate. Ravage pinged for Mindrazor's location and picked up speed, alternately loping on four feet and transforming to biped mode to climb up through the Nemesis' maintenance ducts. He headed for Soundwave's last known position, sliding into the chatter of the general comm lines to figure out what the Pit was going on.

He'd swept up to the labs' level when Soundwave's sparkline came back online. Ravage nearly stumbled with the jarring jangle of pain and disorientation. Soundwave's pings were the same, stuttering like a system rebooting or power-starved or both.

Autobot intruders? BLASTER on the Nemesis? Obviously security had gone to the Pit while he'd been away.

--Find. Kill. Acknowledged.--

Ravage fell into a transformation to sprint down a straightaway through the ductwork of the lab section on all four feet. He could find and kill while ensuring that his cohortmate was not gravely injured.


<<The Prodigal Son scene and this one will take place at roughly the same time. Ravage is about to run face-first into Jazz, and that will be detailed in Prodigal Son. He'll pop back in here to alert SW to the encounter, but he's about to become v. busy for a few minutes.>>

[Deleted]

Was that....music?

Soundwave lifted his head from his repairs, long fingers stilling against the slick but bleeding-no-longer wound in his side. He'd managed to patch himself a bit, but two of his feelers--both primaries unfortunately, one front one back--were beyond his skill to repair. As it was, he'd simply cauterized or fused majority of the broken lines and wiring within the injury, his wound now a gouged slag-smear of silver and black. A crude, horrible looking fix he'd learned during his short stent in Kaon's arenas, but he was no longer in danger of bleeding out or damaging himself with movement.

And move was just what he needed to do.

He pushed himself to his feet and shut down the ships PA system with a simple command. He might have been out of the fight physically, but that wasn't his primary playing field anyway. He expanded back into his digital grid, ready now, his presence an inferno of boiling rage.

--Ravage: Report--

And as he waited for his cassette to respond, he fired a simultaneous ping to every system on the ship , a move no ordinary mech would have ever considered as the sheer amount of return would have been utterly overwhelming. An ordinary mind couldn't process so much data at once and would have been left reeling, if not totally knocked offline from the data storm. Soundwave's mind however, was not the least bit ordinary. Though the return wash of answering pings was indeed massive, he was a Mux, his mind naturally super-multiplex and able to communicate on thousands upon thousands of channels at once. Soundwave strained though wave of data, his hatred and anger boosting him further. And then he spotted it, a discrepancy, a single system that had not responded quite fast enough. It could have been a miscalabrated system, but now that he knew what he was looking for Soundwave could see his slip-gear rival's camouflage for what it was and took off along digital lines in that direction in a swirl of hate.

[Deleted]

“Okay, it’s entirely possible he just found us,” said Blaster, frowning at his screen.

Optimus didn’t break away from what he was doing. His optics flared briefly indicating he was, perhaps, overclocking himself. “ETA?”

“Oh… I dunno. Soonish.”

“Specify ‘soonish’, Blaster.”

“I’ll hold him off but he’s already on me and seriously eating through my defensives. He’s busting down these firewalls like he’s got a grudge which, when, I guess technically he’s got a bit of a grudge thing ‘gainst me’n you but I mean he’s really goin’ at it, boss.” Blaster grimaced as what felt like a viral spike struck at one of his proxy hardlines, frying it instantly. He glanced at Optimus who was still entirely engrossed in what he was doing, funneling data into his head at a maddening level and 100% not paying attention to his own security flags prolly. He was relying on Blaster to tell him when, exactly, Soundwave was too close. “He’s about four layers of ice out from you, boss. Err, okay, three layers… two and three-fours I guess…”

“Blaster,” said Optimus, and there was just a touch of ‘do not mess with me right now’ in his tone.

“When I say jack out, you jack out,” said Blaster, focusing, throwing up another layer of code between Sounders and the network Optimus was in. “Seriously. If Soundwave gets a direct line into you, he’ll scramble you hard.”

"Understood."