“I’ll let Forcep know.” Zepar said, “If she has any information she’d like to share about this planet that she thinks could help us, we would appreciate it as well.”
“Excuse me for a moment.” He told Skitter as he contacted Forcep, filling him in on what he learned.
Skitter nods and begins to converse with the insecticon queen.
“Hm,” responds Forcep. “I’ll take that as a confirmation of my theory.”
“Thanks.” Zepar said.
“Getting the CNA samples we need is easy,” Forcep reports, “but harvesting split sparks and-or convincing insecticons from our hive to stay behind is proving to be more difficult.”
“I don’t think we should split Sparks; why don’t they want to stay behind?” He asked, his tone was curious.
“Some are willing, don’t get me wrong,” Forcep replies, “but others are hesitant for various reasons. I think I have just enough volunteers to save the planetside hive.”
Skitter was continuing to talk with the insecticon queen, their sharp clicks and hisses echoing throughout the cavern.
“Understood.” Zepar said as he waited for Skitter and the Queen to finish their discussion.
Skitter wraps things up and walks over to Zepar.
“That was… informative,” he says.
“What did she say?” Zepar asked, interested to hear what Skitter learned from the queen.
Skitter provides a summary of the insecticon queen’s story:
Long ago, “others” (a blanket term the queen seemed to use to describe anyone not a part of her hive) had placed her ancestors in stasis and sent them to a facility on this planet- a terrible war was raging on cybertron, and the “others” did this to prevent a possible extinction event. Something had gone wrong, however, and some time ago many of the stasis pods had failed and prematurely awakened members of a few hives, who quickly spread out and have been eking out an existence without a Well since.
OOC: Wait…would the Cube help act as a seed to create a Well on this world?
IC: Zepar looked crestfallen, “They’ve been existing like this for that long?” He said, “And that this isn’t the only hive suffering like this…”
Skitter nods.
“Yep,” he says sadly, “and she doesn’t know where they are, unfortunately.”
“Other hives… maybe wake…” the queen comments. “You others activate… sky bridge… we felt, and wake.”
“A Ground Bridge…” Zepar started as Shadowraker flew in to land on his shoulder. “If she felt the Bridge activate and woke up from it,…”
“…Then the other hives probably woke up, too,” Skitter finishes.
“Scrap.” Zepar said. Something in his gut gave him the impression that this hive was a lucky find that it was friendly and welcoming.
He tires to contact Grommet.
“Hey, no need to jump to conclusions,” Skitter says. “These guys were friendly, weren’t they?”
Sprocket was back in his lab, gushing to Grommet about the ancient facility: the plant and mechanimal specimens it contained, the ground bridge… for the Autobot scientist, today was the best of the whole darn trip so far. Part of Grommet wished his cohort would shut up, but he too was excited to study the plants that Arachnados had brought him. They were definitively worth four thousand shanix and a sharkticon.
Just then, Grommet’s communicator pings. Excusing himself from the lab, he walks out into the hall as Sprocket continues to chatter, barely noticing that the Decepticon scientist had left.
“It’s Zepar, the guy that picked up the Cryocondor,…” He gives Grommet a summary of what’s going on with the Hive and asked if he had any thoughts on how they could help this world and its Insecticon Hives.
“Hm, well, this is quite the unique situation,” Grommet remarks. There is a moment of silence as the scientist thinks.
“My partner has been yammering about some old Knight construct south of your location for the last ten minutes. Not only is it apparently a gift from Primus in his eyes, but it also appears to serve as some kind of ‘vault’ for endangered mechanimal species. If it’s ‘new blood’ these hives need, so to speak, then you might find some there.”
There is another pause as Grommet realizes he possessed another tool that could help.
“There’s also a… an artifact, that Wildsong and one of the Titan Squadron found on the Savant. Apparently it’s some kind of portable, artificial Hot Spot the Knights built to test new colonization methods.”
Zepar paused when he heard about the portable Hot Spot. “Wait, a portable Hot Spot?” He asked, he had a feeling that could work.
“Yes, I find it hard to believe myself,” Grommet admits, “but Sprocket apparently almost came to blows with someone over it, so if it’s not that, then it’s still worth something, I suppose.”