Transformers: Ashes of Victory

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#76

Post by frigidmagi »

I stepped forward to the front of the group. I stopped on the way to give the small bot... Hornet (note to self find out what a Hornet is) a pat on the back.

"Don't worry, there will be a chance for you sooner or later." I tell him as I take my position. There is something decidedly uncybertronian about Hornet's behavior that is also strangely familiar I've seen this pattern before but I cannot place it. It may be an effect of Wheeljack, who while undeniably a genius seemed unstable at times. I shall speak privately with his sibling over this later.

I look over to Shackle, nod. I look behind where Overhaul is taking position. Hopefully he won't have to fight any rear guard action. I will want a bot I can trust to be more or less undamaged at the end of this.

"Shimmer, I'll need you and Lifeline to give us direction. Everyone, move as quietly as you can. Flamerbring, Novawing, if Shackle and I are forced to engage the enemy before the arsenal open, reinforce us. If the arsenal is open rearm first. That goes for you to Shimmer, Hornet..."

Prime, let me do right.

"Let's roll."
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
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#77

Post by LadyTevar »

Shimmer raised an eyebrow at Hornet's odd reaction, but let Breakout handle it. Right now, there was no time to figure out Wheeljack's latest experiment.
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"Ok, Lifeline, hold on tight," Shimmer said, taking hold of the door handle and sliding it open. That it actually opened relieved one big fear in her mind, but she kept silent as she visually checked the hallway for enemies. Seeing none, the Fem-bot slipped out into the hallway, expecting claxons to sound.

Claxons or not, she had point and a job to do. With a recall image of the map Lifeline had projected to follow, she silently moved towards the arsenal, and more importantly, towards the nearest computer console. The sooner she cracked it, the safer they all would be.
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#78

Post by Cynical Cat »

The ship rattles and shakes beneath the Cybertronian's feet as they enter the corridor. According to the schematics that Lifeline had provided rooms likely to contain weapons were forward while energon storage was likely to be below them and aft.
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#79

Post by frigidmagi »

"Forward, quickly now." Breakout ordered moving forward. They had to get armed and quickly. Surprise and speed were their best friends and time their worse enemy.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
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#80

Post by rhoenix »

Keeping passive sensor processes monitoring both Flamebringer and Hornet, Novawing kept close to them as the group moved with necessary speed through the ship.

They were now out of the relative safety of being undiscovered in the room where they'd been imprisoned, and now into the plasma fires of uncertainty.

Like many times before when he'd been a different robot, he was now involved in a small group charged with overcoming an enemy of unknown strength and numbers. Now, however, he was doing so to protect - not destroy.

That thought kept him focused on his charges, as they swiftly moved through the ship's corridors, following Breakout's lead.

Novawing had to admit, having a leader who naturally led from the front was rather refreshing.
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#81

Post by Cynical Cat »

The ship's corridors showed signs of the jury rigging that had turned a cargo ship into a hunter-killer. Pipes and cables were strung along the top, running power and data lines through the ship. The design was spartan, devoid of luxuries and support. The lighting was too dark for over ninety percent of the galaxies known sentient life forms, the environment too cold for most to tolerate for long, and the atmospheric mix was unbreathable for almost all of them.

Several side passages and doors pierced the corridor at odd intervals. The doors had manual controls and an interface pad. "Past these, past these," clicked Lifeline.
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#82

Post by SirNitram »

Flamebringer crept along, making sure to let Hornet keep up. He didn't like this. Too cramped, and he was low on fuel. Unarmed was just adding to it.
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#83

Post by LadyTevar »

The doors and corridors Lifeline marked off were noted as Shimmer slipped past; if the Arsenal also was manual with an interface, this might be easier than she thought. The tangled web of power and data lines made her wish she had more skill in cyber-infiltration. The placement of the data lines would have given a more skilled hacker full access, but Shimmer was limited to what she could do with a user-interface console.

Next upgrade, she promised herself. "You're doing great, Lifeline." The memorized image of the holograph Lifeline projected also showed Shimmer the doors and corridors, as well as where those corridors would intersect with others. Even so, there was only one target at the moment. "When we get to the Arsenal, we'll take care of the nasty computer," Shimmer whispered encouragingly, a grin on her faceplate.
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#84

Post by Charon »

Medicon followed quietly behind the rest, his optics keeping an eye out for anything that might look dangerous. The 'bot would feel much better once he had his equipment back on his person again.
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#85

Post by Cynical Cat »

"Past this junction," said Lifeline. "These rooms have thicker than standard walls and are close to the ships core. Rooms are locked and secured. High probability that they have high value contents."

There were two doors on the right and two on the left. The walls were marked by scuff marks and scars and the doors weren't fresh and new either, but the construction seemed solid.
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#86

Post by LadyTevar »

"Alright, boys, here's where it gets interesting," Shimmer said, kneeling to get a better look at the lock on the first of the right-hand doors. "Time to unlock a door."
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#87

Post by Cynical Cat »

The door is secured with keypad panel and thick enough to be a significant barrier to all but the most powerful of weapons.
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#88

Post by General Havoc »

Hornet followed along with all the others, keeping close to Flamebringer as he did so. He was no hacker, and knew of no way to open doors except by their proper functioning doorknobs and keypads. But it appeared that Shimmer and Lifeline had other ideas.

He hoped.
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#89

Post by Dark Silver »

The trek from the "hold where they were, to the first door didn't take very long, and while Shackle appeared non-chalante about the entire thing, his every sensor was on alert and he was moving with the same efficiency and stealth as he did on any hunt for a bounty-head.

As Shimmer set down to work with the AI droid on the door, Shackle took up a position of watch for down the hall, focusing most of his attention for any noise to sight that could be heard or seen coming from that direction.
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#90

Post by LadyTevar »

Shimmer looked over the keypad intently. There were several ways of handling this, since she didn't have the time to sweet-talk it out of a willing companion. Social engineering was a wonderful skill most 'Bots overlooked. The next option was to see if heavy use had let tell-tale damage to certain keys, which may give clues to which numbers were used.

Removing the cover and hot-wiring the door was the last option, as that could set off a warning to the computer system. Shimmer's optics narrowed and focused on the numbers, hoping for clumsy fingers and easy passcodes.
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#91

Post by Cynical Cat »

The keypad was a five by five arrangement using symbols from a minor machine language that hadn't been in common use on Cybertron since before Megatron's uprising. The keys were battered and scarred, but Shimmer was able to discern than five of them bore fresher marks than the rest.
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#92

Post by LadyTevar »

"This language is older than *I* am," Shimmer muttered, her optics adjusting and re-adjusting until she found the five that had the freshest marks. "Nearly got it." She pointed to the five keys that had the freshest marks.

"These are the ones used most recently, Lifeline. Unless you happen to understand the language, I'm going to have to try to work out which five-letter word they're using, in a language I've not seen since Megatron left the fighting-pits. Either way, do you think you could work on possible combinations?" Shimmer was also setting a spare processor towards the problem, trying to match the language with meaning.

She looked over to the other 'ancient' bots, and realized that Breakout and Medicon were both too young, which left .... "Overhaul, Shackle, either of you remember this language?"
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#93

Post by Dark Silver »

Shackle looked to the aforementioned number-pad and glanced over it for a few seconds, before turning back to keep his watch, "Looks familiar, but nothing I can read Shim," was the simple reply, and it was true. He'd probably come across the language, or similar, in his "adventures", but he couldn't read it.
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#94

Post by frigidmagi »

"Overhaul, come up and check the door." Breakout said as quietly as he could down the passage.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
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#95

Post by LadyTevar »

"Forget it, Breakout," Shimmer said, shaking her head. "Time to go blind." The fem-bot stood up in front of the door, her hand raised to the keypad. It was going to be a guess of social engineering -- what 5-number combination would be the fastest and easiest for the average 'Bot to type naturally. Her fingers hovered over the center strip of 5, then moved to what felt like the most natural key order.

Beep Boop boop beep blep



((If you need an example of what i'm trying, think of someone typing on a number pad, using three fingers to hit 123 456 789, the pinky to hit the + - = / and the thumb to hit 0 . and space. So if you want to type 5+2=7, you're using your fingers in a natural pattern on the keys.

GM God willing, this will work.))
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#96

Post by Cynical Cat »

Shimmer tapped the keys. A light flashed just above the keyboard and nothing happened.
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#97

Post by LadyTevar »

"well... scrap." Shimmer muttered, and then tried another pattern, just to test her theory again. She knew if she actually sat here and went through all the possible combinations it would take far more time that she had, but one more try, and then she would give in and pop it off the wall to hotwire it.
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#98

Post by Hotfoot »

Through the dark ship, Overhaul made mental notes of its construction, all while making sure the group did not have any unhappy surprises from behind. The work done to the ship was sloppy, it needed an actual mechanic to look at or it would likely fall apart. He hoped that this wasn’t a transformer they were inside, he could only imagine the pain it would have to be in.

Overhaul wished he had access to his systems, he could work his way through the door with his energon rescue spike, or even attempt some sort of override with his TOWLINE, perhaps even rewire the panel with some spare parts, but his normal set of tools were elsewhere, and wishing never made things so. At the urging of the others, he moved up to take a closer look at the door’s arcane panel, accessing his memory banks for any information regarding the language, and what the five marked symbols might mean in that language.
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#99

Post by Charon »

Medicon moved through the ship quietly. Not having to wonder what would become of his captors if the rest of this rag tag group managed to get their weapons. Medicon took another look at the rest of the transformers around him. Mostly Autobots. Mostly machines of war. There had been a time long ago when the Autobots had been peaceful. When they had not shot first and asked questions later. But those days seemed dead now. They lived only in the memories of the oldest of bots. Now the Autobots took after those like Breakout. War machines more like the Decepticons than most would dare say.

Medicon was lost on his thoughts so much that when the group stopped he almost ran over Hornet. That was perhaps more like the Autobots had been. But few of these bots could work together properly. They had very nearly killed Shackle when he first showed himself. Medicon remained silent though. There was no point in voicing his concerns.
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#100

Post by Cynical Cat »

Overhaul examined the keys. There were two possible combinations that could be made using the letters. "Execute" and "query".
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