Firestorm explains things to Overgrowth when they get to the yacht.
Seraphicon offers to carry Leslie until they can get her a means to keep up.
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Overhearing this, Defender smiles. It brings back memories of his time in the War. Memories of battles fought, won, and lost.
We need more people like him, he thought. If only…
He turns to find everyone entering the bridge, in a jumble of noise and colors that could hardly be found anywhere else.
“Thank you for letting me join you,” he says to Axis. “It’s not every day that I get to meet the current Prime.”
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Axis entered the bridge with the others.
“Think nothing of it. We’ll need all the help we can get after all, and I’m sure your talents will be more than useful.” She said to defender. Though the Prime then quickly noticed Overgrowth and her wounds.
“Primus almighty, what happened to you? Were you attacked?” She asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
“Never met. Just… thinking.”
Nova replied, making a point to use her heavy voice fter. She didn’t even bother to look back at the reporter as she walked towards the cargo hold.
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Leslie shrugs off this bizarre encounter- she’d been through weirder. She accepts Seraphicon’s offer and climbs up onto the Angelicon’s shoulder (@BlackBeltGamer98). While many humans might feel somewhat patronized when a cybertronian offered to carry them around, this reporter had no such reservations about giving her legs a needed break.
“Your friend said something about you guys shooting down another ship?” she asks Seraphicon.
“Fascinating,” Overgrowth remarks. “This planet, Lacuna- do we know anything about it?”
The Knight then straightens her back and takes her hand off her dented armor, putting on a more unbothered appearance.
“There was a stowaway aboardship, Axis,” she reports. “We traded words, then we traded blows, and then he left. I don’t believe he will trouble us further. My self-repair systems will mend my wounds in good time.”
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Seraphicon does his best to explain things.
Firestorm shares what little he knows of this world.
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Razor heads to a seat on the other end of the bridge. Sitting down, she begins disassembling her blaster. Once she has the main casing removed, she finds the plasma creating elements. Since the blaster is a small gun, it’s got a limited preventing the blast from being overcharged. Razor adjusts some circuits nearby in the gun, changing the weapon to use triple the power. Then she takes out some metal from her bag. Within a few minutes, the blaster is about the size of a submachine gun, with a modified ammo mount to allow the use of a larger gun’s ammo cartridge.
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“Romulus Mercenary Company, huh? Must’ve been some new recruits or something- their guys usually put up more of a fight,” Leslie remarks. “What are you going to do with them now?”
“That isn’t much to go on.” Overgrowth frowns. "
@ValkyriePrimal @MakutaOisli @ProfSrlojohn @DuneToa @BlackBeltGamer98 @Rukah
The Pulsar lifts off, and those who chose to board it might experience a brief bout of faint vertigo before the ship’s inertial dampeners kick in as Salvage guns the engines. The damaged yacht will reach Iacon in short order, unless Salvage is told to change course for whatever reason. Evening is beginning to fall over this part of Cybertron, casting long shadows over the hills. The planet’s twin moons have come into view in the sky: Hecate a copper-colored orb marbled with spots of electric blue, and Artemis a dull sliver of grey beside it.
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“We’ll bring them to Iacon and have them handed to the local authorities. They have concerns about their safety after the information they gave us. So I’ll make sure they’re kept under heavy protection.”
Axis replied.
Honeycomb decided to rest in one of the various vacant rooms. She sat down and pulled out her data pad. After being away from home for a few years, she was excited to see her friends again. Though it would be a good idea to call them and give a heads up.
Using her data pad she made a call to a comms outpost back on Eukaris. It was a little in the middle of nowhere, but at least one of them always made sure to stay by it while she was away. So she wasn’t worried about no one picking up.
Nova walked into the cargo hold and parked Gungnir in the corner. She exited the cockpit and went into her room, flopping on to her bed with a loud sigh.
She was hoping to get some isolated rest on the trip back to Iacon, but it wouldn’t last long. After only a couple minutes she heard a knock at the exterior door. With an irritated groan she got out of bed and walked over to the door. Opening the heavy bulkhead she saw Niko standing on the other side.
“You’ve got to be… how did you even get up here? That platform is like ten feet off the ground.”
The mikesu smiled and clicked his heels together, drawing attention to his footwear. “Special boots. Help me jump higher and climb things. They were a gift from my grandpa.”
“Of course…” Nova replied. “So what do you want then?”
“Well I just noticed you giving that lady the mechanical stink-eye. I just wanted to make sure everything was alright.”
“I barely know you. Why do you care so much?” she quietly muttered under her breath. “Alright, fine. Might as well let you in. It’s kind of a lot to explain. Or maybe it isn’t. I don’t know…”
She stepped aside to let Niko into her room. Once he was in she slammed the door shut and went to sit on her bed…
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“Sorry but it is what we have.” Firestorm says.
—————————
“We should also check out that crash site.” Seraphicon says, “leave no stone unturned.”
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“That’s rather kind of you, seeing as how they tried to blow you guys out of the sky first,” Leslie remarks.
Honeycomb’s datapad would not have been able to get a signal to Eukaris in a timely manner, but the terminals aboard the Pulsar are. Using the console within the room, the insecticon scribe is able to establish a good enough connection to her friends on the colony. A small hologram of a lean bot with gunmetal grey armor materializes beside the console.
“Hey!” Gyro says, smiling as he waved to Honeycomb. “Long time no see! what’s the occasion?”
“Perhaps Beta Maxx will uncover more,” Overgrowth says hopefully. “The archives on Primogenitum or Sophos may also hold records of the expedition.”
Salvage brings the Pulsar down again as the wreckage of the mercenaries’ dropship comes into view. The enemy ship hit the ground hard, and flaming debris is strewn in a long trail over the hills. From the Pulsar, it can be seen that the dropship’s cockpit seems to be intact, though its canopy shattered in the crash. The Pulsar’s sensors detect no human lifesigns among the wreckage, though fumes issuing from the remains of the dropship’s engines may be interfering with the yacht’s rudimentary sensor suite. Our heroes will need to search the wreckage themselves if they wish to find anything useful.
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LD-L1 Looked down out the gangplank at the craft below, Leaning with his hand on the support strut. He looks back at those intending to investigate, then lets go, falling from the ship. He should be fine hitting the ground, his uncanny resilience protecting him
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“I want to see that they’re brought to proper justice. They will be punished for their actions, but it will be fair. And only delt after trial. I’m not going to leave them to be slaughtered by whatever cruel employer hired them.” Axis replied.
“Gyro! It’s good to see you. I have some great news!” Honeycomb said with great enthusiasm. “I’m gonna be coming back to Eukaris for a visit! And I’m bringing a wicked cool surprise with me too. Transportation is a little up in the air right now, but it shouldn’t be too long. I’m so excited to see you guys again!”
“Well I already told you I’m not really great around people. Not since… you know. But I didn’t really talk about how bad it is. It isn’t so bad in bigger groups or in public. I guess because it’s easier for me to disconnect or something. But when it’s just one or two people- they don’t even have to be talking to me. Just being around others makes me feel so sick and uncomfortable. And now we have this random reporter coming along and I just… I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it well.”
Niko pondered for a moment, thinking hard about what he was going to say. “Well, you talk to the bots just fine. I don’t see how this is any different.”
“It’s completely different! They’re machines. I get machines. My best friend- well, only friend- growing up was a robot. It’s just with other humans.” Nova replied.
“Well what about me then? You haven’t had any problem talking to me.” Niko asked.
“I mean, you have cat ears and freaky eyes. Maybe that’s enough to make a disconnect in my head? I don’t know. I’ve never really asked my mental health problems to be perfectly consistent.” Nova said, clearly getting frustrated.
Niko nodded. “You’re right, sorry. I can tell that this is really bothering you.” The mikesu walked over and sat next to Nova on the bed. “I’m not really sure what I can say that’ll help… but if you ever feel overwhelmed or just need to talk stuff out, I’ll always be here to listen.”
Nova sighed. “Thanks. That means a lot to me actually.”
Niko smiled. “No problem. It’s what I do.”
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“Right, let’s find the blackbox; should contain all the data we need.” Firestorm says.
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“I could take them to Primogenitum, if you would allow me,” Overgrowth offers, approaching Axis, Seraphicon, and Leslie. “I do not mean to disparage the Iacon Police, but I believe that the mercenaries would be better protected among the Knights of Cybertron.”
“That’s great!” Gyro says, smiling. “We’ve all been missing you over here. It’s gonna be great catching up.”
There is a rustling sound in the background of the transmission. “Move over!” another voice demands. A red-and- black hand pushes Gyro to the side, and a Pedacon comes into view.
“Hi!” Talon says, waving up at Honeycomb. “We’ve been doing pretty alright here, in case you were wondering. Lunawing’s keeping me out of trouble… unfortunately…”
A small crater is punched into the ground where LD-L1 lands, and the low ringing of metal hitting metal echoes into the hills. Nothing stirs within the wreckage in response to the sound.
On the ground, LD-L1 and any of our heroes who follow him can now see that one of the dropship’s pilots is still in the cockpit- still buckled into his seat, even. His helmeted head hangs down over his chest, hiding his face from view, and above him is an empty seat where his copilot must have been. Blinking lights coming from the controls illuminate the cockpit in intermittent flashes.
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Firestorm first checks on the pilot to see if they were alive.
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LD-L1 opted let firestorm check the pilot, and instead went for the Cargo hold, to check if anything was intact.
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Oreo heads to an exit as they near the wreckage. As he enters the hallway outside the bridge, he is joined by Razor, holding a larger blaster.
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“Thank you Overgrowth. That’s a wonderful idea.” Axis replied.
Honeycomb giggles at Talon’s remark. “I’m happy to hear you guys are doing well. I’ve missed the three of you so much. It’s gonna be so great seeing you again. I can hardly wait!”
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KItai quickly gets up from his seat, and heads down towards the ramp.
Alright, lets see whats here.
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No obvious threats present themselves to the duo. Our heroes seem to be the only living beings for many miles around. Both the Hydrax Plateau and the city of Iacon are far from view.
The pilot in the cockpit is dead. A jagged spike of black metal and bleached bone has been driven through his helmet’s visor, and its bloodsoaked tip erupts out of the back of his head. A similar-looking spike is embedded in the left side of the pilot’s chest. It also appears that an attachment on the right side of the pilot’s helmet has been torn off- either by the crash, or whatever killed him, most likely.
The dropship’s troop bay had been completely destroyed in the earlier battle, along with anything of value inside it. LD-L1 does, however, happen upon the body of the second pilot, laying on his back in a fire.
This pilot is also clearly dead. It appears as though his body, his suit, and a pistol he’d evidently been carrying had all been violently disassembled, and then thrown back together with every part in the wrong place. The gun’s firing mechanism is embedded in the man’s throat, his carotid arteries snaking through the metal, and the cylinder now forms the palm of his right hand. The fabric of his suit has been haphazardly woven into his skin, and the fire has melted the two together. Sections of his skull seem to blend into his helmet, which has a small camera mounted on its right side.
“They will be treated humanely, ma’am,” Overgrowth promises. “Bellator may be a more secure planet, but I do not believe that it is the most hospitable to human life.”
“Or any life, for that matter,” Leslie snorts.
“Neither can we,” Gyro says, squeezing himself back into frame as the connection begins to degrade. “We’re very excited for whatever this surprise is!”
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