Transformers: Ashes of Victory

[Hotfoot]

The optics on the large ‘bot gazed over the keys for several moments, and then he nodded, remembering the source of the code. “Hmm, haven’t seen this used in ages. A leaking shame, too, it was when they knew how to make something that worked. It looks like we could spell out either “queryâ€

[Cynical Cat]

"I'm sorry," said Lifeline. "This unit has not heard either term used."

[LadyTevar]

"I wish you'd arrived before I started pushing buttons," Shimmer said wryly, looking up at Overhaul. "Which one is 'Execute', since I'm going on a guess."

[Hotfoot]

“This is the order for ‘execute’ is this sequence,â€

[LadyTevar]

"I knew you'd have the knowledge, Overhaul," Shimmer grinned, then punched in the sequence for Execute. "Would you check the other doors to see if they have the same one?"

[Cynical Cat]

The door slid open, revealing a small room with rack lined walls. The racks were full of weapons.

Not for this room was the terrible power of fusion cannons, heavy laser rifles, or cluster missile launchers. Weapons to be prized by killers such as the masters of this ship were mostly absent. Instead there were a variety of unspectacular or low quality weapons. Over sized and under powered neutron blasters, antiquanted particle beam pistols, chemical powered slug thrower, low powered ion blasters, and crude lasers could be found in abundance. Weapons cobbled together by desperate Cybertronians, the best efforts of less developed races, and low performing bottom of Cybertron's military production lines.

They weren't alone. Crude blades and bludgeons were also to be found, alone with improvised powered cutting blades and modified rescue equipment. Spikes and chains with connecting wires made sinister, if crude weapons. There was one other notable exception: the new arrivals.

Unsorted and very recently removed were the weapons of the mercenaries' latest victims. Evidently they had yet to be separated from the chaff. They had no power, but connecting back up with the owners would have solved that problem if their rightful owners had much power to spare.

[SirNitram]

Flamebringer surveyed the weaponry. "...Is that a slugthrower? By Prime, it's chemically propelled!" The young Seeker was shocked. He wandered in, finding his rifle easily enough. While it was largely normal, the oversized capacitors allowing for the huge energy blasts he normally could acheive made it clear. "If I had any fusiables, I could bring some trouble. Here, Hornet, let's see if we can find your rotaries.."

[Charon]

Medicon stepped into the room and looked around, frowning slightly as he looked over all of the weaponry. It didn't take him too long to find most of his medical equipment and he was quick to reattach it. Feeling much more like himself now Medicon looked to the rest of the group. "I can see to the rest of the required reattachments, we should leave quickly however. Before we run into any trouble."

[Dark Silver]

Shackle let others go first, continuing his watch, only sparing the occasionally glance into the armory to see if he could glimpse his own kit, while the others recovered their own weaponry.

when he heard the young flyer exclaim about the slug thrower, Shackle made a sound like a grunt, before continuing his watch. He'd let the others re-equip - then get his own weaponry. Someone needed to make sure they weren't taken by surprise.

[General Havoc]

The room was packed with weapons of every conceivable sort, so much so that it reminded Hornet of Wheeljack's workshop in its own way. That the weapons here were for the most part crude, cast-off piles of junk that Wheeljack would never have so much as deigned to glance at was neither apparent to Hornet nor relevant to his frame of reference. Piles of assorted weapons, many in states of disrepair, some nearly microscopic, others larger than Hornet himself, scattered around the room in racks. The setting could not have been more different, but the similarities were as apparent to Hornet as if someone had stenciled the Autobot logo on the wall.

"Here, Hornet, let's see if we can find your rotaries..."

Flamebringer snapped Hornet out of his memory search, and dutifully, Hornet looked over the racks trying to find a pair of small multibarrelled laser blasters, of a very precise sort and type, ones he would have recognized anywhere...

"There!" Hornet stopped dead in his tracks and pointed up at two small devices that looked more like human weapons than cybertronian ones, rotary barelled laser blasters encrusted with incredibly fine heatsinks, pressure modulators, and power interchange relays. Not that Hornet knew what any of those things were, but apart from the fact that the blasters were too small for anyone but himself, he'd seen them up close more times than he could count, whenever Wheeljack needed to perform "maintenance" on them, a euphemism used whenever Hornet crashed into something.

The blasters were mounted twenty five feet up on the top of one of the weapons racks, and try as he might, Hornet couldn't reach anywhere close to that high. After a few futile attempts to jump, he frowned and looked around to see if there was anything he could stand on.

[LadyTevar]

"Right in one," Shimmer said to herself, beaming as the others slipped inside to grab their weapons. Like Shackle, she waited her turn, allowing the fighters to get their weapons before she retrieved her own.

"Shackle, do you think it's worth opening the other three doors?"

[frigidmagi]

I've reattached my cannon and grabbed my missile launcher and my knife. I'm going to need more weapons. First make sure the others are armed. Seeing Hornet's problem I step over and pass him his weapons, grabbing a nearby neutron blaster along the way.

We need to take the bridge and engineering. And quickly. If I was a Decepticon Warrior would I be on the bridge or engineering?

Engineering is a work space... These cons aren't Deathstrike's level. They would avoid it expect for the engineers. I can't afford to ignore one or the other. If I take the bridge, engineering scuttles the ship and calls for help. If help can be had. If I take engineering, the bridge uses whatever anti-invader measures and I have to scuttle the ship to prevent their victory. Either way, I end up marooned on this tin can. I have to take both. Need to split my forces and I need most of the muscle at the bridge. Still better give the others some fighting power.

"Medicon, Flamebringer, Hornet and Overhaul head to engineering. I don't expect you to take the place if it's well defended but try to keep them from scuttling the ship." Medicon is a pacifist, Hornet is to small. Flamebring and Overhaul will just have to do.

"Novawing, Shimmer and Shackle with me. We're hitting the bridge." I say. Shimmer will have to crack the computer systems and there is no way in hell I'm letting Shackle loose where I can't see him.

[Dark Silver]

Shackle was about to answer Shimmer's question, when Breakout gave his orders. Shackle had yet to move from his position as lookout, but from the sounds of it, most of the others had already got outfitted.

"Mind if I get my weapons first?" Shackle's tone was even, more so now that the entire rest of the group had weapons, he was defenseless, and it would be very easy for one of those who had extreme dislike for him to place a photon blast through his optic and core out his positronic matrix.

With that, Shackle went into the armory, his optics falling almost instantly on his own weaponry, ignoring the low grade chaff everywhere else. Within seconds, he had them back in his possession and he was armed again, before walking back out and waiting for Breakout's move.

[rhoenix]

Having finished replacing his missing components from the rack, Novawing looked down to see Hornet, looking vexed. The tiny Autobot appeared to be trying to find a way to get two tiny blasters from the top shelf, and so far, apparently unsuccessful in his attempts.

Once upon a time, leaving Rumble's weapons on the highest possible shelf in the medbay was hilarious fun, predictably creating hours of the usually aggressive casseticon turning into a whining, pouting accidental comedy machine. However, this small Autobot Hornet was a different matter entirely.

Though both Rumble and Hornet acted as if they needed to prove themselves, it was in very different ways. Rumble basically had a permanent chip on his tiny shoulder about his size, while Hornet acted like an eager recruit.

All of these things went through Novawing's mind in that moment, as he saw Breakout hand Hornet his weapons with nonchalance. Truly, Autobots were different.

He appeared to ignore Shackle trying to wheedle his way to unrestricted access to his weapons, watching out the corner of his optics to see how Breakout would handle the... situation.

Out loud though, he replied to Breakout. "Acknowledged. I will take rear guard."

(EDIT: fixed continuity issue; Breakout already gave Hornet his weapons and I somehow missed reading it)

[LadyTevar]

Before Shackle could answer, Breakout was issuing orders. Typical, but also so very Breakout. Shimmer wanted to smile, she'd missed him that much.

"Acknowledged, Breakout. Do you want to open the other doors here, or go for broke?" the fembot asked as she too slipped into the storage room and snagged her gear. Some of it, however, would need Medicon's help to reinstall, like her chameleon circuitry.

[Charon]

Medicon finished attaching his own equipment and looked around at the others. When Breakout spoke he took notice, and couldn't help but smile to himself slightly. He thinks that by removing me from the brunt of combat he can have his revenge as he pleases. With Shackle there as well it was certain to be a bloodbath.

Medicon considered things for a moment. "With my shield I could assist in defense during heavy assault. I may be of greater use at the bridge."

[frigidmagi]

"Acknowledged, Breakout. Do you want to open the other doors here, or go for broke?" the fembot asked as she too slipped into the storage room and snagged her gear. Some of it, however, would need Medicon's help to reinstall, like her chameleon circuitry.

"No, leave it for now, we take the ship then we worry about it." I reply.

Medicon considered things for a moment. "With my shield I could assist in defense during heavy assault. I may be of greater use at the bridge."

I consider Medicon's statement for a full 3 nanoseconds examining it fully before making my call.

"I thank you for your thought Medicon but I have sent less firepower to engineering and your knowledge may be of use there. Go to Engineering." I finally decide.

[Cynical Cat]

The heavy rumbling of the ship quieted, indicating that it had finished breaking atmosphere. The roughest part of the ride was over and the ship would soon be able to open a space-bridge and transition to where ever they were heading. It probably wouldn't be a friendly place.

[SirNitram]

"..Time to go." Flamebringer said, checking the capacitors which holds the rifle's energy. "...Three solid shots. Great."

[General Havoc]

Hornet beamed at Breakout when the larger bot reached over and passed him his laser blasters, so relieved at retrieving them that he either did not notice or did not care that Breakout had assigned him to the engineering bay team. The vagaries of battle strategy were entirely beyond him.

He turned the blasters over in his hands. Small though they were, the workmanship in them was apparent even to Hornet, a complex matrix of interlocking micro-manufactured parts, studded with chip sets and connectivity points. At several places, logos were stenciled by laser into the metal, either the Autobot logo, or the simple mason's mark that Wheeljack often used to denote his own work. Though none were visible on his skin and paint, Hornet knew that his own chassis was riddled with such marks.

Just thinking about them made his spark start to ache.

Hornet knew nothing of engineering, nothing beyond the fact that lasers shot and that engines produced power. Moreover, his own systems, he knew, were extremely complex even by the standards of Autobot technology in general. He had about as much chance of being able to perform field repairs on these blasters, or his own chassis' capacity to use them, as he did of spontaneously raising the dead. Medicon, given time and a workshop and access to all of the various rare materials and devices that Wheeljack had often mentioned but that Hornet didn't know the purposes of, might have been able to fix the blasters, were they broken. But none of those things were available here.

He sighed, softly, closing his eyes, before he turned one of the blasters over in his hands, and slid it into the open hole in his wrist. Even if it didn't work, it was worth having. Some things didn't need to work to be valuable. They didn't need to be important to anyone else. Some things only needed to exist.

"What're we gonna do in the engine room?" whispered Hornet to Flamebringer as he turned away from the weapons rack. "Are there gonna be - "

*Click*

It wasn't loud enough for anyone to notice really except Hornet, indeed he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all save for a strange, electrical sensation in his fingers, and when he looked down at his opened wrist, he saw a hundred tiny mechanisms, some so small he had to use his optical magnifiers, wriggling about inside his chassis like worms. Like a ball of squirming insects they danced, intricate and chaotic in equal measure, swarming over the blaster. He had no idea what they were, he had no auto-repair system and small as they were, they were too large to be nanobots anyway. But seconds later they locked into place and ceased to move, a thousand fiber-width power connections that plugged themselves into the blaster like parasites on the carcass of a host.

And a second later, Hornet heard a soft beep in his head, as his own systems reported that his weapon was armed and ready for use.

It had all happened in a fraction of a second, a process so intricate and complex that his processor was still spinning thinking about it. All before his very optics, within his very wing. And though he was no engineer, it occurred suddenly, to Hornet, just how intricate such a process had to have been, and what immense efforts had to have gone into producing it, and an image of Wheeljack testing and retesting its every motion suddenly appeared before his optics as though conjured up by magic.

But the only sign Hornet gave externally of what he was thinking was a soft shudder and a sound that might have been a sniff, had the person producing it been organic, as he closed his optics to stop up the wiper fluid already forming there, clicking the other blaster into place as it did so.

Some things only needed to exist, after all... but even now, Wheeljack had done more than what was needed.

[Charon]

Medicon was quiet for a moment before he nodded. "Very well, Breakout. If that is your opinion I shall follow it."

Medicon turned and paid greater attention to Hornet now. He was an extremely odd 'bot. Something he had never seen before, truly. The 'bot had gotten quiet suddenly though. "Is something the matter, Hornet?"

[General Havoc]

Medicon's question popped Hornet out of his thoughts. He blinked several times to force the wiper fluid back into his optical reservoirs, and turned to look up at the medical bot.

"Um... no," he said after only a fraction of a second's hesitation. "No, I'm okay." He sniffed again, or the equivalent, as he gently folded the torn back skin of his wrists over the blasters, rubbing them gently with both hands. "I was just thinking... about Wheeljack."

[SirNitram]

Flamebringer reached down to touch Hornet's shoulder lightly. "Let's go make him proud, as he watches from the Allspark." A murmur. But for the little 'bot, or for himself? "We need to get into the engine room.. And stop anyone there from doing anything. We might have to use violence."

[LadyTevar]

"you make violence sound like a bad thing," Shimmer quipped, settling what looked like an ancient arc-wielder on her hip. The kind of arc-wielder meant for slicing thick metal plates. It looked very out of place on the lithe Fembot. Coiled on her other hip was a length of power cord inserted into a handle. Only those who'd known her well would know how dangerous Shimmer could be with that whip, scrambling circuits of those caught within it's coils.

[General Havoc]

"Wheeljack's not dead," responded Hornet instantly. Hornet might have been young, but he was not stupid, and he knew what elocutions like "he watches from the Allspark" meant. The very notion conjured up all kinds of immediate, visceral arguments against such a possibility, ones Hornet had been repeating to himself more or less nonstop ever since. They weren't all complete fantasy. Whatever Hornet was, Wheeljack was a veteran Autobot engineer and soldier, more than capable of handling himself in any combat situation, a fact proven by his having survived dozens of such situations over the course of millions of years. Flukes like Hornet aside, it was physically quite difficult to actually kill a Transformer in any event, and they had a rather pronounced habit of materializing good as new years and even millenia after they had been thought and pronounced dead. Lest anyone dismiss that as wishful thinking, it appeared to be what Breakout had just done.

Not that Hornet had one shred of evidence in favor of this theory of his, but that was hardly the point, now was it?