Ep1 - 'Reboot' - 'Closed'

[Deleted]

Systems initialized ... stand-by

Core coding initialization ... Completed.

Systems check ... Connecting ... Completed.

Analyzing Systems:
Motor Function enabled.
Sensor net and navigation enabled
Communications enabled.
HUD online.
Self repair online.
Energon pump and lines at optimal functioning.
Hydraulics online.
Cooling systems online.

Initializing.

Megatronus onlined with a start, ingrained hydraulic-habit tipping him back over one shoulder to land in a crouch against the wall, one hand bracing against the warm metal for balance whilst sensors and optics flew about. His processor was a singular pulsating ache, a visceral sensation in counterpoint to the ghostly feel of his defiled core lying shredded, shorted and sparking in his chassis.

This was not Cleaver's workshop, and his systems were no longer reporting the myriad damage Crashmaster had inflicted to necessitate the visit to the surly medic. The gladiator rose slowly, determining from the architecture that this was some sort of advanced space vessel he'd awoken in the corridor of.

And that all Pit was breaking loose aboard it.

He knew the vibration of explosions like he knew his own mesh, high and tinny through the deckplates as opposed to the liquid rumble in the mines, and cast his optics about for a possible route away. Ahead and to the left was a lift down. Small space. Easy to get trapped in. Maintenance ladders were preferable.

He jumped the tight shoot down four flights before grasping the ladder to stop his descent, forcing the door open on to a new (quieter) deck. Still nothing familiar, though. The gladiator jacked into the first dataport he came across and found the schematics of the ship - Nemesis. Flight bays were of no use to him, and he'd never operated a ground bridge or space elevator before. Escape pods. That would do.

Copying the route to the underbelly of the ship, Megatronus withdrew from the console and turned to come face to face with a mechanoid. Spindly, small and mass-produced. A poor guard agains a mecha his size. Its red visor was fixed upon him.


<<OOC: Tag to Stark's red shirt Raddie!>>

[Deleted]

“Lord Megatron.”

The Vehicon in question backed up a single step immediately, if only because Steve and the others had been parroting for ages that they needed to just not be alone in a room with the warlord these days. That said, the massive mechanoid was looking slightly less… unhinged than normal. If there was anything that could focus the mad-mech it would be the arrival of Optimus Prime after all. Besides, Megatron had only been taking out his anger on the drones and non-sparks. He didn’t kill his own soldiers unless there was a point to be made and there wasn’t one so… he straightened up slightly, moving toward the warlord with an open shortwave report at the ready.

“Sir, there’s reports of Autobots in the upper decks. None down here. What are you –?” He stopped. The screen Megatron had up on the console was a path to… the escape bay? Confused, the trooper shook his head, visor flashing, EMF pinging baffled. “What are you doing down here?”

[Deleted]

Megatronus hadn't torn the spark out of such a weak chassis in so long that the ease of it surprised him, though the acrid flutter of fizzing and fading energy around his hand in the klik before the mechanism deactivated was reassuringly familiar and real. He didn't watch the frame drop, and discarded the crushed casing and connective parts haloing it with little than a cursory glance.

He'd barely absorbed what it had said, the words skimming through his processor and making as little sense as his circumstances and location. Of far more concern was whether this small mechanoid had managed to transmit an alert summoning more to converge on him. Its design appeared mass-manufactured enough that swarming was likely, finding strength in numbers rather than its own parts.

Megatronus left it at a run, pounding down the sweeping corridors along the mapped path out of this place, away from this apparent warzone, where he could focus and figure out what in the Pit was going on. Explosions became alarmingly frequent as he traversed the vessel, but they served to keep his path clear, and he reached the escape pods without encountering another spark.

As the cramped sphere jettisoned into an unknown atmosphere, the gladiator could only hope that the mechanoid's ilk wouldn't notice him leaving amidst the fighting.

And that they wouldn't want him back.