Transformers: Steel Reign

[Charon]

Shellshock scoffed. "I knew Megatron as he was, a bloodthirsty, charismatic gladiator. And nothing has changed. The only future he leads his followers to is a future where only carnage and death exist, and that is if he wins. What we have experienced thus far is all that Megatron has to offer. He has no greater plan, even his talk of Quintessons and the betrayal of the Autobot Council was just a scheme of conquest and bloodshed to him."

It wasn't even a certain thing that Shellshock was talking to Deathstrike anymore, perhaps the ancient warbot still had doubts of his own on if he'd chosen the right side. "You talk of betraying your leader, and I tell you now that for all his military prowess, he is no leader. Megatron has never, and will never, feel sorrow over the death of one of his companions, as any of us have. He would throw every last Decepticon into the Pit itself if he thought it would further his goals, and that makes for a poor leader."

"You speak of what you lost, and what you lost was only those that followed you. You did not betray your 'leader', because how can you betray one that you had never chosen to follow? I, am a betrayer here, and thankfully the only one. You chose your path, and your friends trusted you more than they trusted Megatron, honor their deaths, do not dishonor their burnt out shells by saying Megatron could have done better." Shellshock took a step back from Deathstrike, "I will only say this once. A part of you still wishes he was with Megatron, that much is apparent, and that makes you as dangerous as Gridlock or Wideload in my optics. You have made your choices, and they always go against Megatron's will, why does a part of you still want to go back to him?"

[LadyTevar]

"Calm down, Crim. Tell you what, come find me," he said, telling her his location. "We'll go find Ironhide and you can explain whats going on, ok? No need to go glitchy."

"I am NOT Glitchy," Crimson hissed, in a tone that would do a PMSing human woman proud. "I'm on my way."

"Hornet, I'm going to find Styke, are you coming with me?" Crimson said aloud, giving the arguing WarBots a wary glance. "I don't think we're needed here."

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke just shook his head. Her tone suggested that she was a bit glitchy. He leaned against the wall, waiting for the red fembot to show up. "Things were so much simpler when I didn't let anyone in." Stryke mumbled to himself.

[General Havoc]

Hornet was once again at the point of despair, as the others spoke of things he only understood in part, but those elements he DID understand scared him half to death. Why was it that every time he listened in on a conversation between the others, someone suggested shooting another Autobot?

He nodded nervously to Crimson, so preoccupied with everything else that he didn't notice anything was at all the matter with her. Before he left however, he felt he had to say one thing, and turning to Deathstrike, he summoned up whatever courage he could lay his hands on, lifted his head to look up at the towering Decepticon flier, and said in as steady a voice as he could (which wasn't very).

"I won't let you shoot Gridlock or anyone else!"

And with that, he turned and ran after Crimson.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson was stalking down the hallway, heading towards Stryke, muttering to herself. When she heard Hornet's lighter footsteps catching up, she turned to look down at him. "Would you know where WheelJack is right now? Would you ask him if he has time to listen to us?"

If you're wanting to talk to Prime, you have to go up through the ranks. WheelJack was a good start. "Please, Hornet.. before this mess goes beyond talking and into something serious?"

[Cynical Cat]

"All of me wishes I could undo my disgrace," said Deathstrike. "But I cannot. I swore myself to Prime. By betraying Prime I would be betraying the mechanism who restored me and only compound my disgrace. I never had anything other than great respect for Prime and Ultra Magnus. I can and will serve them honourably, for as long as I live. Nor will I say Megatron was other than the mechanism I knew and served. The monster you have constructed in his place not the real thing, although it possesses many of his traits. The difference may kill you one day."

[frigidmagi]

This has all gone wrong. We are not doing this well at all. Warmachines are not meant to deal with deception and betrayal, we are meant to face our enemies openly and honorable on the battlefield and fight it out to the last. This is outside of our intended functions and thus we are preforming poorly. If this continues it will have less then optimum results (likely 87.91%)

I step between Deathstrike and Shellshock, to get their attention. I must ignore Hornet and attempt to explain to him later if I can. I place my hands on both of their chassis and hold them, it is a silly gesture, Shellshock alone is strong enough to tear me in half and I am not a weakling. But it will make the point.

"Now is a exceedingly poor time to discuss the nature of Megatron and Decepticon forces. In fact it may be the worst time that could have been chosen. The issue here is how to limit the damage already done by Gridlock and stop any further damage. We cannot, I repeat cannot do this by screaming at each other like a convoy of organic scavengers. Enough for now." I must first pull them back from the brink of violence then we must determine what Crimson is doing. Also... What of Overload, has he been informed yet? If so what action is he taking and is it a good one?

[Cynical Cat]

"Crippling him and removing his memory banks is the optimum course," said Deathstrike, his voice full of false calm. "I have yet to hear effective counter-proposals. We have no hard evidence. We must obtain it."

[frigidmagi]

"We have explained to you repeatably that it will only result in sub-optimum effects. You will be believed to have tampered with the memory files. It will not work. If it would have I would not have bothered to suggest gathering additional evidence. Also Crimson is gone, we must determine her location and decide who else to inform, before we take action. Let us go find Crimson and Overload." I said. Is there a reason I have to repeat himself over and over?

[Cynical Cat]

"Not if someone else removes the memory banks," said Deathstrike. Did the Autobots actually understand what was at stake, that they needed to act soon and decisively? It seemed not. "Very well, let us find Crimson."

[LadyTevar]

Crimson was several dozen meters away, waiting for Hornet to get in gear and decide if he was going to go find Wheeljack or not.

[General Havoc]

Hornet looked very small and scared as Crimson turned back to look at him. Still, from her tone, he knew that this was serious. In fact even without it he would have known that. He was not so blind as to be able to ignore people threatening to kill one another.

"He's... he's in his workshop," said Hornet uneasily. "C'm... c'mon!"

Hornet ran off towards the workshop as quickly as he could, hoping that, as Crimson seemed to believe, Wheeljack would be able to make everything better.

[Charon]

Shellshock's optics narrowed down more. "Megatron has had many opportunitys to destroy me, and has missed them all, and I am too old to worry about death anymore, I have seen it too often."

As Breakout stepped between them Shellshock reluctantly took a step back, his circuits still burning in anger. "Overload is going to go do something rash about this. If anything, we should stop him first. As for Gridlock, we need more solid proof, and the only place we can get that without ending up slagged by our own side is Fort Maximal, although even that is fairly suicidal."

[Cynical Cat]

"Do we know who is in charge of Fort Maximal?" asked Deathstrike. He knew he was on the bottom of the "need to know" list. "Or the Decepticons in general?"

[General Havoc]

Wheeljack was standing in his workshop, true to Hornet's prediction, looming over a chemical synthesizer and making notes on a datapad as he watched two different bubbling mixtures interacting. As the door slid open and Hornet rushed into the room, Wheeljack gave a visible shudder.

"Wheeljack!" shouted Hornet in a panic. "Wheeljack!"

"Hornet," said Wheeljack as he turned around slowly, "I swear to Primus, if you broke something already..." He trailed off as Crimson followed Hornet into the room, looking scarcely less concerned over whatever the issue was than Hornet himself was. He paused then and set his datapad down.

"Crimson?" he asked. "Can I help you with something?"

[Charon]

Shellshock shook his head. "I've been keeping an eye on any reports involving Fort Maximal, every scout sent out that way hasn't reported in. I'd say it's a safe bet that the Constructicons have had a grand old time rebuilding the place, but that's speculation. No idea who's in charge there." Shellshock openned his internal comm. with Overload.

"Overload, hold on. Where are you? We've got some things we need to discuss."

Shellshock had looked like he was going over his memory banks as he'd spoke with Overload. "As for the Decepticons in general, Shockwave came here all the way from Cybertron to take charge while Megatron's recovering from the wounds he took in the fight."

[Cynical Cat]

"Shockwave? Shockwave is here?" Deathstrike said. Shockwave would know that taking back Fort Maximal would be a priority. He would also know that it had to be heavily reinforced and all evidence of the traitors' actions removed, in case it should fall. His eyes blazed. "For how long?"

[frigidmagi]

"It could not have been very long. The raid Rodimus and I did would not have succeeded if Shockwave was here." I point out.

[Cynical Cat]

"Fortifying Fort Maximal and eliminating all evidence of treason will be top priorities of Shockwave, once he puts Starscream back into his place," said Deathstrike. "Which won't take much time at all. Shockwave can't inspire mechanisms the way Megatron can, but he is greatly respected and feared. It will give Megatron time to mend while Decepticon operations continue under a proven leader. We have no time. We must act quickly."

[Charon]

Shellshock shook his head. "Shockwave's not that good Breakout, if he was he'd have taken charge of the Decepticons long ago. He's something we need to worry about, especially because he'll be far more eager to use Fort Maximal to it's full extent than Megatron would likely be. That means retaking the fort is going to be hard, if not impossible. It's definately sounding more and more likely that we'll have to destroy the fort."

[Cynical Cat]

"Do not, under any circumstance, underestimate Shockwave," said Deathstrike. "Shockwave can't inspire warriors the way Megatron can and lacks Megatron's ferocious killer instinct and aggression. He is well aware of his lack, but there are good reasons why he is the head Decepticon strategist. He is extremely intelligent and calculating, a master of get the best possible result out of available resources. With Fort Maximal being increasingly less likely to supply the proof we need, we must consider alternate means of obtaining it."

[LadyTevar]

"Crimson?" he asked. "Can I help you with something?"

What could she say? It was all sounding glitched. "Overload wanted me to give a message to Optimus," she started. "He wants Optimus to open his service records and review them."

Scrap, this wasn't working, Crimson started pacing, just to -do- something as she spoke. "BreakOut and Deathstrike were discussing how Fort Maximal fell so quickly. They... They're glitched. Or I'm glitched." Crimson whirled, throwing out her hands. "I know Gridlock stopped me from checking on the Oil Rig. I can't prove it, but between the time he left the C&C, and the time he told me he'd completed it is only a couple of breems -- not near time enough. Now the others believe Gridlock's a traitor, and they're talking of removing his memory unit to prove it!"

[General Havoc]

Wheeljack did not react immediately to Crimson's semi-coherent declaration. Ignoring Hornet for the moment, he stepped forward and looked down at Crimson, trying to sort things out.

"Hold on a nanosecond," he said. "Start at the beginning. What happened with you and Gridlock back at the base. I was told the demolition charges either failed or were set in too much haste. I heard nothing about traitors."

[LadyTevar]

If she was human, she'd have taken a deep breath. "After I left you, I saw Shiftshot being led away by Gridlock. Then Hornet caught up to me and we talked for a time before I started walking towards the Oil Rig. I got nearly there, and Gridlock stopped me."

Her optics unfocused a little as she accessed the memory. "He asked if I was going to work on the oil rig, and not to worry, it was all taken care of," she said, paraphrasing since she did not have that atrocious Russian accent. "I asked if he minded me checking it over, since I wanted to make sure it couldn't go off prematurely. He said it was voice-activated by Prime, IronHide, or BlueStreak. He then asked if I was insulting his honor as an engineer, doing shoddy work."

The recitation was mechanical now, a verbal report of the recording in her memory banks. "He said he would have Wideload look it over, doublecheck it. I should not worry, I should be pouring vodka and producing little protoforms. Then, he put his hand on my shoulder, and guilded me away from the oil rig, all the way over to the Western Defenses."

Her optics cleared with what could have been a blink as she ended the playback and looked up at WheelJack. "I never got back to the OilRig to check on it. There was too much to do on the Western Defenses .. and then the Decepticons attacked."

[Charon]

Shellshock nodded at Deathstrike's cautioning about Shockwave, it was some herdlearned experience that the old warbot had had to obtain himself once, and he was not eager to repeat it.

Suddenly Shellshock came to a dead stop. "Crimson said that there was only a breem or two between the two times she saw Gridlock right? We know that isn't enough time to set charges properly. But that's what we could get him on couldn't we? If Gridlock is accused of gross negligence in the handling of the explosives on base, that will at the very least tie him up and keep him from doing anything else until we can get proof of more."