Firestorm takes a deep breath and makes a note to inform those that pick this ship up to ensure this guy gets a proper funeral and starts looking for the ship’s blackbox.
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Firestorm finds the blackbox in a secure compartment, exactly where the mercenaries told him it would be. It appears undamaged.
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“Jackpot.” Dark growls.
“Let’s run a troubleshooting diagnostic before we try to read any of the data.” Firestorm says, running said program.
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“What did you find?” Kitai asks inquisitively.
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“Found the box, just making sure it’s safe to read; don’t want any viruses or erasure programs to get triggered and mess things up.” Firestorm says.
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“And the pilot?” Kitai asks, trying to get a look.
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“Dead, spike through the head and side.” Firestorm says, “if you want to examine the body, feel free.”
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Kitai tentatively pulls at the spikes, trying to dislodge them from the body
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LD-L1 swore under his breath. A union of flesh and metal, odd parts of his weapon combined with odd parts his body. Almost like someone tried to merge flesh and metal, then transform. Truely an abomination of the primes.
“One of you might want to come see this,” LD-L1said over comms “Whatever you find up there, this is something you should see as well.”
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Kitai rushed over, noticing the body.
“Why do you think this happened?” he asked, gesturing at the corpse.
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“seems like something, or someone, attempted to merge him and his gear together, somehow. Quite foul.” He made the sign of the Crux Primus on his chest.
Instead of dwelling on the body much longer, he decided to poke around further, looking for a cage or some other indication of something escaping from confinement.
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The program determines that the data within the blackbox is safe to access. Within is telemetry data from flights across human space over the last several months, along with recorded communications from that same timeframe. Among the logged messages are two from a party named “Gabriel”: one received just before the attack on the Hall of Records, and the other received shortly before the mercenaries attacked the Pulsar.
Kitai is able to dislodge the spikes without doing much further damage to the pilot’s body. The metal and bone are joined seamlessly, with the spiraling patterns on the former uncoiling and wrapping around the latter. The pilot’s blood glistens in the moonlight.
LD-L1 doesn’t find a cage, or a stasis pod, or anything else suggesting that mercenaries were holding another creature aboard their ship.
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Firestorm begins downloading and analyzing the data on the blackbox.
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“Certainly. It still amazes me how Megatronus’ followers were able to not only survive, but thrive on a planet so extreme.” The Prime replied.
“I have complete faith that our captives will be treated well under your watch.” She said to Overgrowth.
“You’re gonna love it, I promise.” She said eagerly. “Oh, since you mentioned Lunawing, be sure to let her know I’m on my way. And tell her I’m doing really well while you’re at it. You know how she gets. I don’t want her to worry too much.”
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Oreo walks over to the group by the wreckage. He notices the body Kitai has removed from the rubble, and stops short. It is a most unnerving sight, as no human should have metal sticking out of his neck.
“What the heck happened here?! Was he like this when you got here?,” he exclaims.
Razor arrives a little bit later, in her motorcycle mode. Transforming into robot mode, she is shocked by the corpse lying in the midst of them. It looks like some unnatural monstrosity from a horror movie, such as the Terminator series so popular in ancient times. Calming herself, the Mini-Con begins scanning the wreckage with an electromagnetic imaging system. It should be able to detect any active systems within the remains of the spacecraft.
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“Yeah,” Firestorm says, still combing through and analyzing the data on the blackbox.
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Most of the data on the blackbox is probably irrelevant to our heroes and their quest. The flight records show that this dropship has traveled across the peripheries of human space, no doubt on previous assignments from the Romulus Mercenary Company. The corresponding message logs mostly consist of banter between the craft’s occupants, orders from their superiors, and colorful threats made to their enemies. Human law enforcement agencies may find some value in this data, but it is of little consequence to cybertronians.
The more recent logs, however, pertain directly to the attacks on the Hall of Records and the Pulsar. This dropship was in brief communication with a Bellatoran gunship- likely the same one used by the thieves who attempted to raid the library- exchanging telemetry data and readiness reports after entering Cybertron’s star system. The two messages from “Gabriel” are also orders given to the mercenaries by a male-sounding voice. The first plays like so:
“The operation begins at seven-hundred hours. Hold position and await further instruction.”
The second message has a set of coordinates attached. Gabriel delivers to the mercenaries their new orders following our heroes’ intervention at the Hall of Records:
"Change of plans. Team One has failed and hostiles have seized the asset. They’re transporting it aboard a Constellation series luxury barge, flying west out of Iacon. Retrieve the asset and bring it to me. Fail me, and I promise you that my retribution will be far more excruciating than whatever punishment your superiors will give."
The controls in what’s left of the cockpit are still active, sustained by a backup battery that will soon run out of power. The rest of the ship has been thoroughly destroyed. The ship’s black box will also register on Razor’s scanner, as Firestorm is currently downloading its data.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Overgrowth says. She looks out the bridge’s viewscreen at the wreckage strewn over the hills, and the bots combing through it. She notes that several of them appear disturbed by whatever they’ve found.
“I think we’ve found something,” the Knight says to those around her.
“We’ll let her know you’re coming,” Gyro promises. “She’s out right now, but she should be back in a-”
The hologram freezes and distorts, and then disappears as the connection is terminated. Over on Eukaris, Talon cries out in frustration and kicks at the group’s ancient computer, causing it to emit a disagreeable buzzing sound.
“I keep saying we should upgrade, don’t I?!” the Predacon complains.
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Firestorm, using a closed frequency, sends the relevant data to Axis and the Knights.
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Seems as if something came from outside and killed the co-pilot, which spells bad news and could very well mean that whatever killed them could still be around.
“We shouldn’t stay much longer.” He said, snapping an internal photo of the body “Whatever did this to them could very well still be present.”
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Axis was already headed out of the ship to see what had been discovered amongst the wreckage. She calmly approached Firestorm and the rest.
“So, anything of interest?” She asked.
“Aww…” Honeycomb was visibly disappointed that the connection was ended so abruptly. But it didn’t matter too much. She’d be seeing them in person soon enough.
Now what to do until then… the young insecticon left her small room and wandered around the ship, looking for something to do.
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