The hologram display flickers as Breig hits the tank.
SPARK IGNITION FAILURE.
REATTEMPT: Y/N
RESUME GESTATION: Y/N
Shatterpoint and the two scientists watch in silence. The captain hadn’t had much faith in cloning technology in the first place, while Sprocket was disappointed in the apparent failure of the chamber.
“Perhaps Zepar is right,” Grommet suggests. “A smaller creature might yield more successful results.”
“The, relatively, tamed Dark Energon in me may pose a problem…” He looks Shadowraker inquisitively, to which the tired Cryocondor responds by extending a wing, “She’s willing to donate some Energon to see if we can get a Cryocondor clone.” He told Grommet an Brieg, “As am I if we’re that morbidly curious to see what happens.”
“I don’t want to make something smaller. That’s not what these are for!”
Brieg shouted angrily. But with a few deep breaths he managed to calm himself down just enough.
“I’ve been working on this for longer than you can imagine. I take my prototype to the Conflux, hoping that may be the missing piece I’ve been needing. Only for this blasted ship to eat my work and make these non-functional wastes of space!”
“Perhaps the process needs to be adjusted; it’s easier to figure out how to make a small creation and then scale it up for bigger ones.” Zepar said.
“Right. Right.”
Brieg said, regaining his composure.
“Trial and error is the heart of science after all. If I have not succeeded today than I shall try again until I do.”
The four decepticons nodded and transformed into their respective vehicle modes, flying/driving after Zepar and Shatterpoint.
OOC: why is S hatterpoint being censored? ;-;
Topside transforms and follows the four.
“That is the spirit,” Shatterpoint says, unusually encouragingly. It even sounded strange to him, to hear those words leaving his own mouth.
“Grommet, I think the spy’s replaced our co-captain with an impostor,” Sprocket whispers to his portly companion. “Get Shockwave to ready up that Cuticle Physics thingy.”
“Quite so.”
Brieg said with a strong positive conviction. As he wasn’t as familiar with the captain, he didn’t quite notice how strange his response was.
“It may take a great deal of time and effort, but I will not rest until these cloning chambers are in full functioning order!”
Starchaser woke in her room. She had a pounding headache and was smelling fowl. She pressed a hand to her forehead as she sat up.
“What the hell happened…”
She groaned. She noticed the scratches on her decepticon insignia, and everything quickly snapped back to her. What she did to that autobot, her renouncing of the decepticon faction, and especially her fight with Broadwing.
One of the few other bots on this ship that bothered to talk to her, and she yelled at him and told him to leave. A pit sank in her spark as she quickly began to regret what she did. But those feelings were quickly pushed out as an impending fear set in.
“Mother of Primus I scratched off my badge!”
She shouted in surprised terror.
“Oh man the DJD is gonna kill me! What was I thinking!? Wait a minute, that must be what that attack was! WAIT THAT MEANS THE DJD ARE ON THE SHIP!”
Starchaser quickly dove out of her bed and rushed for the door, but managed to stop before she got out.
“Wait. No they’re not. If they were everyone would definitely be dead. But still, someone wants dead, and that means I gotta hide, and fast. I can’t go back to the engines… So I gotta find somewhere else.”
The decepticon said remorsefully. She discretely walked out of her room and looked down both ends of the hall. When she saw the coast was clear, she transformed into her space fighter mode and boomed down the hall. The screeching howl of her engines echoing far throughout the area. She made turn after turn, paying absolutely no attention to where she was going. How could an assassin find her if she didn’t even know where she was?
Eventually when she thought she had gone far enough she shifted back into robot mode and walked around. She came across a door labeled “Hangar 12” and figured it would be a perfect place to hide. She walked in and looked around. No one else around, lots of dark spaces, this would be perfect. She walked over to some huge odd looking machine in a dark corner, and sat down against it. She took this time to rest and breath. It only just dawned on her how much stress she had been in the past couple of days.
Suddenly two bright yellow eyes lit up above her and the machine quickly rose up. Starchaser fell forward and scrambled to turn around as a massive and imposing figure loomed above her. In a blind panic she scurried backwards, while the giant took one step after another to follow her.
“Decepticon Starchaser. Flying ace of the decepticon airforce. The devil over Kaon.”
As the giant stepped into the light, Starchaser could see a huge bright red autobot insignia molded into its chest.
The decepticon screamed in fear as she continued to back away.
“Hey! We’re in a truce now remember! That means you can’t hurt me! I-I don’t know if that applies to whatever you are, but I won’t go down easy!”
The giant took a step back. He seemed nervous.
“Be assured. I mean you know harm.”
“Oh. Okay. Then how do you know who I am?”
Starchaser asked. Though she realized how stupid a question that was as soon as she said it.
“Your reputation is significant. It is my duty to keep a file on all high priority Decepticons. I was stationed on this ship to help in our mission to save Cybertron, should we be engaged in heavy combat.”
The giant gently grabbed Starchaser by the waist and helped her up to her feet.
“Wow.”
The decepticon said in astonishment.
“So what are you exactly?”
She asked, now more curious then anything.
“I am designated Fortress. A semi artificial battle-mech. Part of the Autobot War Giant project. I am one of three. The other two like me are designated Bunker and Stronghold.”
“Wow. That sounds awesome.”
Starchaser said excitedly as she flew up and sat on Fortress’ shoulder.
“I bet you were a beast back in the war.”
“My active involvement in combat was… Limited.”
He said nervously as he thought back to the battles he had participated in.
(Cut to 2:50)
“My role was mostly troop transportation.”
While not an honest answer, it was the most he was willing to give.
“Aw. You’re big and you’re modest.”
Starchaser said, giving the giant a light and playful punch to the side of his head.
“Well I gotta lay low for a while. Mind if you stay here?”
“Due to my size, I am unable to leave this room and explore the rest of the ship. Because of this, my interactions with others are limited. Your company would be most welcome.”
“Good. I think I’m gonna like getting to know you.”
Starchaser replied happily.
Zepar seemed more confused than before.
Shatterpoint nods.
“I’ll leave you to it,” he says to Breig. “Zepar and I have an assassin to interrogate.”
“Oh? So the assassin has been apprehended then? Excellent news! Perhaps today won’t be so bad after all.”
Brieg said pleasantly.
“So what do you do around here? You gotta have some way to kill time.”
Starchaser said. She was laying on her back across Fortress’ shoulders, legs crossed and arms behind her head. She was looking up at the ceiling and bouncing her foot. Turns out hiding in a storage hanger like this got really boring really fast. Granted it was better than going out there and risking her life. But there still had to be something to do around here.
“When not needed for combat, or in the company of others, I pass the time in stasis… The majority of my time on this ship has been spent in stasis.”
“Are you kidding me? That can’t be right. Don’t you have any hobbies or something?”
Starchaser said, turning her head to look back down at Fortress. The giant in turn turned his head to look at her. His head was almost as big as her body, but that didn’t seem to change anything. Starchaser looked at him like he was any other bot. And Fortress, well his face didn’t allow for much expression, so it was hard to tell.
After the two of them looked at each other for a few quiet moments, Fortress turned his gaze back forward. Looking at nothing in particular.
“I am a creation of war. My only purpose is to eradicate the enemy. I am not designed to perform any function outside of combat.”
“Well that’s no good.”
Starchaser said, looking back up at the ceiling.
“But even if you were made for war, that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing you’re good for.”
“Elaborate.”
“Well, how should I put this. Even if you were made in some factory, you still have a spark right?”
“Affirmative.”
“And you have feelings right?”
“Affirmative.”
“Well then that means you can do whatever the hell you want!”
Starchaser said eagerly. She jumped and stood up on Fortress’ shoulders, standing just behind his head and pointing a proud finger to the ceiling above.
“I’m gonna show you that you’re so much more than what you were made to be!”
She then bent down and gave Fortress a gentle pat on the head.
“Don’t worry big guy. I’m gonna get you a hobby.”
With that Starchaser jumped off Fortress and landed on the floor. She then began looking around for anything that could be creative. Tools, building materials, even a few buckets of paint and a mop would work out.
“Better, if we can wring some answers out of him,” Shatterpoint agrees, gesturing to the stasis pod Switchable was held within.
There were some repair tools in a storage room on the other side of the hangar, sharing space with high-tech mops and canisters of cleaning solutions. Paint and other artistic supplies were nowhere to be found, however.
Starchaser frowned. None of this would work. I’m sure someone might be able to have fun with this stuff, but not with hands as big as his.
Starchaser then looked to see if she could find any large building supplies. I-beams, metal panels, even a large supply of scrap could work.
OOC: If I can’t do a Bulkhead, then maybe I can go Iron Giant.
“Indeed. Perhaps Shockwave’s new C.P.P could provide an effective means of interrogation.”
Brieg suggested.
These, Starchaser could find in limited supply, scattered around the hangar.
Shatterpoint nods his head.
“Zepar had the same idea,” he says, “and SideStep’s been tracking Switchblade and Bludgeon’s spy for weeks now. This is the break they’ve been looking for- the one we’ve all been seeking.”
Zepar looks for Shockwave in the lab.
Shockwave was just returning from the Conflux; he rumbles down the hall in his tank form, stopping when he neared the lab to transform. He’d leave Breig to busy himself over the new hyperevolution chambers; he needed to assess the new Cortical Psychic Patch.
“Who is he?” the cyclops looks down at the floating stasis pod, and the would-be killer trapped inside it.
“The Assassin that’s been causing problems recently.” Zepar said, “The captains have sanctioned the use of the CPP, if it’s ready, to extract information from them due to the urgency of our mission.” He explained.
“The patch has just undergone an upgrade, as circumstance would have it,” Shockwave says. “It should perform more reliably than the tests you and Epsilon-5 conducted.”
Zepar nods, “Should it be tested before we hook it up to our prisoner?” He asks.
“Perhaps,” Shockwave says. “but with only three weeks left to complete our mission, there is only so much time we are able to budget toward various endeavors.”
“Maybe we could consider this our first test,” Sprocket interjects. “What better way to break in a mind-reading machine than by interrogating one of the bad guys?”
The Autobot then cringes, realizing that some dark connotations could be drawn from that statement.
“N-not that I advocate experimenting on prisoners of war, or anything,” he stammers. “I mean, I realize that’s what it sounded like just there, but I’d never…”