Piston thought some more. “Perhaps a diversion would work to draw the Terrorcons away, or a massive use of the Emberstone.”
“If we had the Emberstone,” replies Daybreak. “Unfortunately, it and a few other relics remained on the Excalibur when it departed for Trecedim.”
“Diversion it is,” Kukri infers.
On an observation deck, Ironclad, Razorwing, and Overgrowth admire the planet Cybertron below them. They had never seen the planet, and while they wished their first visit was under more pleasant circumstances, the three still found it every bit as beautiful as the historical records described. Seeing the Allspark flickering within the Well, they resolved to fight to ensure that they could see more of Cybertron in the future.
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Hammer and Hydro Rex still continued following her.
Piston nodded. “I can take some troops and create a large enough disturbance, and hopefully defeat the Terrorcons while we are at it. Myriad, another of Daybreak’s crew, could be of great assistance as well.”
The two are eventually led to the cavernous engineering section of the Stormbringer. Four massive sublight engines rumble steadily, blue lights along their casing shining a constant glow. The fifth’s lights, however, were a light orange, and its’ casing was badly burnt and warped. It produced shuddering, choking sputters, and near it stood an engineer with black and copper armor, possessing a mining vehicle alt-mode.
Kukri and the two tacticians nod and make further revisions to their plans.
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“This needs a replacement.” Hammer said. “Where do we find the replacement?” Hammer asked her.
“No, no, no,” Shockdrive replies, the three horizontal blue visors on his face flashing in tandem with his words. “The engine can be fixed easy; that’s not the trouble. It’s the fuel quills that need to be changed out.”
“Alright and how do we do that?” Hydro asked.
“Well, first we gotta remove the outer casing- which’ll be a glitch to do, as blasted as it is- and then it’s pretty simple. Spare quills are kept over there-”
Shockdrive points to the area in question.
-“and storage canisters for the bad ones are kept over there. Unless there’s anything else, I’m gonna go depower the engine now.”
Shockdrive scurries off to a nearby console.
OOC: GTG, going to go see the Bumblebee movie.
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“Alright do your thing.” Hydro said.
“And we will do ours.” Hammer ads waiting for instructions. @Chromeharpoon
Shockdrive shuts down the fifth sublight engine. Now the protective casings could be safely removed, granting access to the fuell quills. @MichaelTheLightBringer
In one of the Stormbringer’s medical bays, Chaplain sits cross-legged on a hospital bed as a medic tends to his injured shoulder. Captain Glaive had yet to awaken from stasis lock, and her current caretakers feared the possibility that her wounds might be… fatal.
Far below, the flickering, dimming light within the Well of All Sparks could be seen, as the Dead Matrix continues to siphon away the life-force of Primus. The many Hot Spots visible upon the titian moon of Hecate could also be observed to be slowly losing their blue-white glow, with some of the smallest ones seen from orbit already black and void of life.
A similar situation faced all the colonies of Cybertron. On Velocitron, the mobile cities that crawled along the desert surface faltered in their procession, and their inhabitants worked desperately to keep them out of the daylight’s searing reach. The cyberformed star that sustained Astrum flared as it slowly began to die, and on Spirabilis, the techno-organic foliage across the planet began to shrivel and wither away.
As the Excalibur continues to glide through Transwarp, Teletraan Iota begins to probe the ahead with the ship’s long-range sensory equipment.
On the ship’s bridge, Beta Maxx sits unusually motionless, his yellow optics dimmed still as his mouthplate hangs slacked. Liege Maximo leans against a weapons console as he watches the streaking, cool-colored patterns of Transwarp space. His face is a solemn mask as he worries for the fate of his people, and indeed all of creation should Nemesis Prime succeed.
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Piston continues to assist in battle preparation with Daybreak, while Myriad watches silently.
Whetstone stands on the bridge of the Excalibur, ready for whatever happened next.
Firestorm was looking like he was suffering from something trying to crush his Spark.
Seraphicon looked nervous, unsure what to do. “Beta, how are you holding up?” He asked, worried.
The Angelicons on Cybertron did their best to help heal the wounded and repair the ship and equipment. Several newborns were among their number; all with varying defects caused by the presence of Dark Energon so close to The Well when they were born.
Captain Kukri looks out the viewport at the ailing Well of All Sparks, and the similarly-afflicted Hecate.
“Can you explain what that’s about?” he asks, pointing. “It started happening all over the Commonwealth shortly before you lot showed up.”
OOC: I’ll leave this to one of the other PCs.
IC: [quote=“BlackBeltGamer98, post:10994, topic:46844”]
Seraphicon looked nervous, unsure what to do. “Beta, how are you holding up?” He asked, worried
[/quote]
Beta Maxx turns his head to look up at Seraphicon.
“Hn… fine,” he says quietly. “I’m hanging in there…”
The full extent of the Stormbringer’s medical facilities were available to treat the hatchlings. Commonwealth medical equipment wasn’t as suited for treating Dark Energon-related maladies as their Golden Age predecessors, however it wasn’t completely useless against them.
Piston sighed. “I myself so not know exactly, although Captain Daybreak might. I do know that it has something to do with the heralds.”
“The Darkest Hour,” Auros said as Eclipse was behind him, bringing newborns to the ship. “On Aevum, the colony world of Vector Prime, Nemesis shattered The Matrix and was able to access what little remains of Unicron’s power housed in the Dead Matrix.”
Eclipse nods, “If what you say is true, then that must be why the Allspark has been fading; Unicron is trying to consume it and Primus through Nemesis.”
The afflicted newborns near Eclipse huddled close to him, fearing the name of the Chaosbringer and what was happening to their home; one had a design similar to Optimus but was a bit more boxy, his shins and forearms had mild Dark Energon scars on them. (Basically, it’s ROTF Rollbar)
“Be still, young ones.” He said to them, a kind and comforting tone to his voice, “Have faith and I promise, there shall be a dawn in our coming days.” He then began to guide the newborns to the sickbay to get medical help. The treatments there wouldn’t cure them, there was already permanent damage, but it would help minimize their pain.
“Those that did not return with us are on their way to restore our hope.” Auros said, “We need to buy them time to restore The Matrix of Leadership and bring forth The Next Prime.” He then explained how Primus told him of this and emphasized the importance of keeping the Heralds occupied and hopefully weakened until help arrives from Trecedim to ‘light their darkest hour’.
Firestorm groaned in pain, “Primus.” He gasped as he clutched his chest which was still pulsing with pale purple light in response to the Dead Matrix’s signal, “This really hurts.”
“Make it stop; please, somebody, make it stop.” Dark whimpered.
Seraphicon looked for something to help Beta Maxx and Firestorm; there had to be some way to help them.
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Kukri’s optics widen.
“Primus…” he swears.
“Right,” Drill nods. “Yeah. That’s what Piston’s been helping us out with.” @meepinater
The holomap changes to show a simulation of the coming battle. The fleet, led by the Stormbringer, advanced upon Unicron’s sparkchamber, using Cybertron’s moons for cover, as Piston had suggested. As the two forces engaged in battle, some of the Commonwealth navy hung back to try and draw some of the Terrorcon titans away from their posts over the mysterious pit. Some of the ships began to deploy various troop carriers to deposit ground forces upon the sparkchamber’s surface.
The medical bay which held Chaplain and Glaive had enough space to treat the afflicted hatchlings. The captain of the Javelin awakens from stasis lock, weak from her injuries.
Doctors kindly guide the hatchlings to hospital beds and begin to examine their maladies, hiding much of their concern at being unable to properly treat what the Dark Energon had done to them.
Some of the nurses decide to help calm the new Cybertronians by attempting to name them.
Beta Maxx was suffering so because of his connection to the Allspark; he served as a partial extension of Primus’ life-force, not so much unlike a Well, and now that connection was causing him to share Primus’ plight. To that end, the only thing that could truly help the Minicon would be the destruction of the Dead Matrix.
For Firestorm, on the other hand, there might be some methods readily available on the Excalibur to at least ease his pain somewhat. There might be a way to apply the Emberstone’s life-giving powers, somehow… or maybe the Forge could make something…
Throughout the colonies of the Primes, the Knights of Cybertron rally an army from all eleven worlds to come to the aid of our heroes and fight for the future of the universe.
In the space between Cybertron and Velocitron, the fleet led by Refuse and Autobahn were still held up by Terrorcons, unable to make contact with friendly forces over Cybertron.
Firestorm tried to access the Emberstone’s power to ease his pain while Seraphicon went to find some raw material to build something that may help the Knight.
Eclipse watched as the newborns’ wounds were treated, they seemed in pain but that pain lessened after a while.
Auros watched the simulation with a pained look on his aged face, “The odds are not in our favor but they rarely are.” He said, referring to their history.
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The Emberstone activates, attempting to sustain Firestorm’s dark counterpart as best it could. This wasn’t exactly what it was designed for, however, so its’ effectiveness was… well, it was better than nothing, one could suppose.
There was plenty of raw material in the hold.
Bootleg and Salvage enter the room. Glaive, upon seeing them, smirks and allows a faint chuckle to escape her vocal unit, though it soon gave way to a fit of coughing.
“Hey… it’s you guys…” she weakly says. She turns to look at Father Eclipse and nods respectfully.
“Father,” she acknowledges his presence.
“Like you said, our objective is just to buy time for the rest of your party,” responds Bit. “Do everything we can to keep the Heralds occupied- maybe even slow them down a little, who knows…”
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Firestorm had a coughing fit before relaxing a bit, the pain becoming lesser than before.
Dark almost leaped with joy and relief as the energy from the relic entered him, “Yes, sweet relief.” He said. He was still in pain but it was more manageable now.
Seraphicon hefted the Forge of Solus Prime and swung at the materials, hoping a device to help Firestorm and maybe Beta Maxx would be made.
Eclipse looks at Glaive, “Try to rest, your wounds are very severe.” He told her in a gentle tone.
Auros nodded, “That is the plan but I fear what the cost of this diversion would be; every one of us that falls is another servant to the Heralds.” He said.