We are a literate, intermediate to advanced AU Transformers RPG Based off of the first season of TFP with dashes of other incarnations sprinkled here or there. Characters from any continuity are welcome however must be restyled to match the TFPrime universe.
Active, with ongoing plotlines, we are always willing to integrate new characters into storylines once incorporated into the setting.
For obvious reasons, the cassettes hadn't been able to groundbridge down after deducing the coordinates from the ship's log and locating the pod's unique homing signal. It had cratered in Mutuo, China - an area still wild and providing ample cover to mecha as large as Megatron with tall, tangled jungle.
Fairwinds circled the escape pod three times at a low altitude with Ravage mag-clamped to her back before landing nearby. Wings spread wide, she waited until the mech had dismounted before hopping back up with a short burst from her thrusters. Landing on the outer frame of the still-open door, she dipped her helm inside, optics flickering with scans.
"Master left not long after landing - everything in here's cold. Nothin's been tampered with, neither," Fairwinds announced, craning her neck about. She fluffed her plates, talons tapping staccato on the metal. "No sign of leaks or anything. He walked out on his own."
Ravage nodded, his sensors flung wide as Fairwinds had inspected the craft. "That is good news. He is not in danger of physically failing, at least."
The quadruped padded around the shuttle, finding nothing of interest. The shuttle itself was not damaged, except for its impact into the soft organic soil. "The shuttle was not attacked en route to here. Whatever happened, it appears that he got away from the Nemesis without meeting resistance."
That hadn't been a given, given the circumstances. The Autobots had been attacking, Ravage would bet his next vorn's rations that Megatron's strange behavior was the result of a Decepticon shooting him, and if all else failed, there was always the risk of the pod being detected and engaged by one of the native tribes with their primitive flight-tech.
Ravage had to give the organic planet one thing, though: it was incredibly easy to track on. Megatron's steps were easy to see, and even easy to read for velocity. He nodded in the direction they led. Unnecessarily, probably, as they were visible to even an untrained eye. "He went off alone...a brisk pace, but not running."
He swiveled his head back to look at Fairwinds. "Any sign of him through your bond?"
"No, he's not anywhere near here," came the unhappy reply, the avian cassette landing alongside Ravage on a breached tree root. Huffing with a perplexed scowl, Fairwinds took back to the air and, through unspoken consensus, flew above Ravage as they followed the tracks to a relative clearing and the site of far more activity.
Fairwinds landed in a sizeable impression in the mossy ground, dipping her helm down to scrutinize the flora. The moss had been burnt in circular patches, and the area as a whole was dry and dead. "Master knelt here, and there was either a welding arc or a cutting torch. I c'n tell."
She straightened with flared crests to look across to Ravage, currently prowling the ground a short distance away. "What you got?"
The site was a mess of prints, so Ravage circled around it, seeking the beginning and end of foot-trails. Megatron's path in was easy to see, at least.
"He paused up there...then moved down to meet someone here." Ravage's scanners flew over the mysterious prints, rather fruitlessly. He was equipped for listening and watching, not forensic analysis. "Cybertronian, heavy-class, and something...." He picked his way delicately into the fray to look at a few odd marks next to the mystery prints. The ground was indented here and there, where something thinner than a pede had been planted, and variable amounts of weight leaned on it. It always accompanied the mystery prints, within a certain distance, as if the mech were...leaning on it.
Ravage pointed the pattern out to Fairwinds, then followed the mystery mech's prints to right in front of where Megatron had knelt. He looked at Fairwinds, piecing the scene together. "He came to meet this mech, then KNELT...more than once...and allowed them to use a welder or torch on him."
Ravage's tail flicked restlessly, but the pieces only fit together in one way. "A medic. He met a medic here. A medic who is not Knock Out. Who either groundbridged in or...no, too much canopy to fly in, must have been a groundbridge."
<<I'm assuming that in all that mess that Cat's prints are pretty hard to distinguish and possibly too light to really ping Ravage as something to pay attention to. He's not been on Earth long and hasn't had much interaction with humans.>>
Fairwinds left the other cassette to ruminate, tail apendage twitching and swaying in the moss and vines. She flew at a low height around the tracks he'd pointed out, then came to land over a strip of dried foliage where her scanners highlighted lingering traces of familiar energy.
"Master comm.ed someone, and they bridged in." She hopped a foot off the ground, optics still directed downwards. "Here in fact."
Scanning over their surroundings again, Fairwinds sighed heavily through her collar vents and looked back to Ravage. "I dunno about any other medics planetside than Ratchet, and I think Master's processor would have to actually be on fire for him to comm. an Autoslag medic for help, no matter how glitched he was."
Her wings sagged dramatically, optics flashing with childish frustration. "This is such scrap."
Ravage was inclined to agree. He also was not aware of any unaffililated medics, and the entire situation was awash with uncertainties. He didn't like it. They were obviously missing something important. Probably several things.
Luckily, he wasn't solely dependent on only his own knowledge. He went to sit on his haunches, then considered the utterly organic and rather...disgustingly disintegrating...surroundings and thought better of it.
::Ravage to Soundwave. Incoming data packet, analysis and recommendations requested.::
His databurst was met with the usual acknowledgment and "wait for response".
That wait took longer than usual. Not surprising, considering everything that Soundwave was no doubt dealing with on the Nemesis. Ravage sent a wordless glyph of calm to Fairwinds, huffed, and sat down on the organic detritus to ease the ache in his backstruts. Lying down would have been better, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it.
A few kliks later, Soundwave's response was simple: ::Medic possibility: Cleaver, Neutral. Location: African continent, recognized DMZ. Orders: investigate possibility of Lord Megatron harboring in DMZ.:: The sending was rife with links to more data about the places and femme in question. Ah, yes, he'd heard of her, both before Earth and lately. The femme with bearings of chromed steel who had walked out of Megatron's presence with a pledge to uphold her DMZ. Ravage wouldn't mind meeting her.
Especially, he thought as he heaved himself to his feet again, if she would fix him.
Ravage sent the information to Fairwinds even as Soundwave sent another burst of information. "...ah," he said. "Well, that might complicate matters. Starscream has thrown Barricade in the brig."
<<Figured that that bit of information might encourage them to split the party. Let me know if it's not in keeping with the timeline? ...actually, I don't think this thread is on the timeline....>>
The elation following the databurst from the other cassette (because Megatron had mentioned Cleaver before, and it had been positive glyphs that had gone with her designation) abruptly diminished with a cold stab through Fairwind's chassis at that additional comment, and she shuttered her optics in a kind of cringe. "Barricade's really not going to co-operate with Starscream lording it up as the new CO. And they've never liked each other." "Starscream might go for executing him for not shifting loyalties. Or for just being Barricade."
And if Barricade's spark was snuffed...
Fairwind's helm crests pressed so tightly that they became perfectly streamline, optics overly bright with a sudden, nauseating dread. She looked to Ravage, wondering if he knew about the sparkbond between Megatron and his Infiltrator, then decided that of course he knew - he was Soundwave's cassette, and Soundwave knew pretty much everything. Ravage would understand the seriousness of the situation.
She shook her helm rapidly, crests flashing loose again, and paced forward towards the feline cassette. "One of us needs to go back and bust Cade out before he gets killed."
With an effort to go against the spark-deep impulse to just go to her carrier, Fairwinds rocked her weight from pede to pede and really thought about the situation.
They needed to split up and get to both mechs as quickly as possible, and as they'd managed to sneak off the Nemesis solely because they hadn't used a groundbridge, it would have to be her to fly back to the ship. It would be easy to order a drone to do a planetside groundbridge, not including the crippled Nemesis in the equation, which would put Ravage at the DMZ with both a working comm. and a cassette-link with Soundwave back on the ship.
He could also use a sympathetic medic who didn't have a post-battle queue to deal with, and the DMZ was a legitimate go-to point for such a thing.
"You go to Megatron, find out what's going on, get fixed up and get Soundwave updated. I'll go back to the Nemesis and put an optic on Cade. If Reflector survived the Autobot attack, I can talk to Cade through him and we can work out a plan."
Ravage nodded. Fairwinds' own position as Megatron's cassette would make her job that much more difficult, but there was only one of Ravage, and his ability to communicate seamlessly with the Nemesis from planetside was an incredible advantage. "A good plan."
He looked down at Fairwinds for a moment, considering. His job was likely the less-dangerous of the two. "Here." He shuffled through his subspace. "Breaking Barricade out of the brig would be easy for Soundwave, if that was all there was to it. He will no doubt have multiple factors to consider, though. Still, consult him when the time comes. Hopefully I will be there to aid you, or will bring Lord Megatron back to--" He couldn't help the dark smile in his field. "--sort this out himself."
Finding what he was looking for, Ravage nudged a small packet out of his subspace. With only a little wincing, Ravage transformed a hand out of one paw, rolling out his lockpicking packet. "Take what you need and can use from this." He pointed out the esoteric bits that Fairwinds might not recognize, sending her specs on their usage. Given her lack of hands, some tools were beyond her, but a few of the small charges and the EM-based codecrackers might come in handy.
Ravage imagined that physically breaking Barricade out would be the least complicated part of Fairwinds' mission. The politics would be more complicated. Keeping Barricade alive and getting him somewhere safe afterwards would also possibly be trickier. Still, Soundwave had control over groundbridging. Once they got Barricade out of the brig's dampeners, Soundwave could open a bridge under the infiltrator's feet if he wanted.
With enough eyes in place quickly enough, Ravage foresaw little difficulty in securing Barricade's safety. He projected that confidence into his field in an attempt to reassure Fairwinds.
Fairwinds butted the flat of her helm into Ravage's neck with a grateful chirr as she absorbed the specs, optics flicking over the tools before taking up the codecrackers, charges and one of the picks that her versatile tongue couldn't emulate. She couldn't decide what was more likely to succeed: a low-key breakout using lockpicks and misdirection, or throwing Arma at the brig door and running like Unicron was after them. Preferably into a groundbridge that put them at Megatron's pedes.
Tucking the equipment into her own subspace, she conceded that until she got back to the Nemesis and made a bead on the situation, there was no way of knowing what degree of force, if any, would be necessary to get Barricade out and off the ship.
"Thanks Ravage." Taking resolve in his sturdy assurance, Fairwinds glanced about the jungle clearing again. Her optics lingered on the dry strip of vegetation where Megatron had stepped through a groundbridge perhaps only hours ago. "M'sure it'll be fine. Maybe you'll be able to 'bridge him straight out of the Neut base onto Starscream's stupid face."
She rocked sideways, wings tightening as her helm dipped. An exvent, and because Ravage was a cassette he would get it, she added quietly: "Can't lose another Carrier, y'know."
Ravage's hip screeked in disrepair as he shifted to reroll the packet and stow it away.
He was not a cassette in the same way that Fairwinds was, but he understood. As partners-of-convenience as his gestalt was, their lives had revolved around each other for a long, long time. One got used to that, started to dread losing it. When Soundwave's sparkline had started fluctuating at Mindrazor's budding, Ravage--so very out of the loop half a galaxy away--had been concerned.
In the dark of space, in radio silence...worried.
Not to mention the utter spark-dropping free-fall (hah) when the Autobots had attacked and Soundwave had dropped out of the bond like being sucked out a black hole.
Ravage had never thought that he'd come to enjoy the connection the bond had provided. The sense that one was never truly alone or adrift.
He knew better than to offer false reassurance, but he laid his chin briefly on the top of Fairwinds' head. Support.
Then, sitting up again, urgency. "Let us go. The sooner to have things back to normal."
Though he had to admit that normality plus a flattened Starscream would be an improvement.
~FIN
Last Edit: Aug 15, 2012 17:14:01 GMT -5 by Deleted