Transformers: Steel Reign

[rhoenix]

"Uh huh. W-what do you want, anyway? You got a good reason to interupt my drink?"

Looking at him in the optics for a moment, Firetrack wasn't sure how to respond at first. Then he shrugged. "Yeah. You're not going to drink all of that alone, are you?"

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream was momentarily confused. Then he felt the container next to his hand. He glanced down at it before picking it up, peering curiously inwards at its contents. Finally, discerning that it was indeed energon and good for him to drink he took a slug of it before offering up up to Firetrack.
"Hereya go, buddybot..."

[rhoenix]

Having refueled all his operating life on normal grade energon, Firetrack had, in no incarnation, ever tried the high-grade kind. However, there wasn't much left in the container of the pinkish-purple liquid energy, so he figured it couldn't be too dangerous. He took a slug of it, and shuddered, as he felt it buzzing within every circuit he had.

Handing the container back to Slipstream, he shuddered again involuntarily. "That," he pronounced once he was done, "was good."

The thought struck Firetrack at random as he blinked his optics owlishly, turning to look at Slipstream again. "Here's a question. What are vernier thrusters good for?"

[B4UTRUST]

"Vernier thrusters," Slipstream inquired, the term not registering immediately. Then it dawned on him as he drew up the information out of unwilling memory stores.
"They help you manuver. Make you turn better," came the slow drawn out reply.
"You don't seem too good with them though," he commented, snickering to himself.

[rhoenix]

"Vernier thrusters," Slipstream inquired, the term not registering immediately. Then it dawned on him as he drew up the information out of unwilling memory stores.
"They help you manuver. Make you turn better," came the slow drawn out reply.
"You don't seem too good with them though," he commented, snickering to himself.

It may have been the high-grade energon, but Firetrack laughed at this. "Yeah, I used them once earlier and got introduced to the side of the mountain - I haven't used them since."

He shook his head, looking a bit more serious. "Man, I didn't expect to come out a jet when I went into stasis lock. There's a lot I need to know and become good at."

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream laughed again.
"Yeah, flying's hard... Just ask the Te-teenybot. D-don't ask Deathstrike though. H-he hates, he hates things..."

[rhoenix]

Slipstream laughed again.
"Yeah, flying's hard... Just ask the Te-teenybot. D-don't ask Deathstrike though. H-he hates, he hates things..."

Firetrack shrugged. "I think Deathstrike's down. I heard someone say he's in deep stasis lock until they find more protoforms."

[B4UTRUST]

If Slipstream had been human he would have blinked in surprise. As it was, the news was still a bit of a shock. Not an unpleasent shock, mind, but a shock none the less. In fact...
"You don't say. Don't happen to know where they're storing his chassis, do you? I have a sudden urge to empty my botflush container on it and then dance," Slipstream commented sincerely, laughing maliciously.

"It couldn't have happened to a nicer 'con and I'll certainly drink to his continued stasislock, the prick," he stated coldly, grabbing the container and taking another gulp.

[rhoenix]

If Slipstream had been human he would have blinked in surprise. As it was, the news was still a bit of a shock. Not an unpleasent shock, mind, but a shock none the less. In fact...
"You don't say. Don't happen to know where they're storing his chassis, do you? I have a sudden urge to empty my botflush container on it and then dance," Slipstream commented sincerely, laughing maliciously.

"It couldn't have happened to a nicer 'con and I'll certainly drink to his continued stasislock, the prick," he stated coldly, grabbing the container and taking another gulp.

Grabbing the container again, Firetrack swished it around, eyeing it carefully . "One shot left," he said raising it up to the sky. "Here's to..." he paused, and then laughed. "Here's to vernier thrusters!"

With that, he took the last slug, and shuddered as before, blinking his optics a few times. "My memory tracks got shorted pretty good before I got my new form, so I don't remember him much. Not many people seemed to like him though, from what I do remember."

Shaking his head, Firetrack frowned. "This has been a really odd day since I woke up."

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream laughed at that.
"Odd day, yeah I can relate to that. And he...he, well I didn't like him, he didn't like me. Slag 'em! Now you... you, I like you..."

He looked at the empty container and frowned.
"I think we need more energon..."

[rhoenix]

Slipstream laughed at that.
"Odd day, yeah I can relate to that. And he...he, well I didn't like him, he didn't like me. Slag 'em! Now you... you, I like you..."

He looked at the empty container and frowned.
"I think we need more energon..."

Standing somewhat unsteadily, Firetrack shook his head. "You're cool, Slipstream. I'll walk with you back to the bar, but I have to get back to practicing, otherwise I'll never get the hang of this form before the waste gets stirred up again," he said with a smirk. "Besides, after I actually can fly well, I have to work on my aim. I seem to recall not being able to hit the broad side of Trypticon at point-blank range before."

[B4UTRUST]

"I remember that guy. He didn't seem to like me much either, come to think of it..."

Slipstream remembered vaugely that he had encountered a city-sized cybertronian that hadn't much cared for his prescense in its airspace and had attempted to forcefully remove him from it. He groaned in remembering it.
"Ugh, yeah, sure. Let's go to the bar. I wonder if Ratchet is still there."

Slipstream got to his feet then glanced over the edge towards the ground.
"I hope I can get down."

He activated his antigrav systems and made his way less then gracefully downwards, though still making it relatively safely to the ground. At which point he stumbled and crashed into the side of the Ark entrance which held him somewhat upright.
"A-alright. That went sorta like I plan, like I planned it."

[rhoenix]

Firetrack followed Slipstream downward, laughing at his less than graceful landing. "Like you planned it, huh? You planned on imprinting your chassis on the ground like that?"

Slipstream shook his head as if to clear it, and glared drunkenly at Firetrack. "Primus-damned kids. Yes. I did. I did? I need another drink..."

Walking with Slipstream inside the Ark, Firetrack was leaned upon for support more often than not as they moved down the corridors, ignoring a couple fellow Autobots' rather surprised glances as they walked.

Finally, they reached the bar, where Ratchet looked with half-open optics to see who had entered, and nearly spit out some of the highest-grade energon the Ark (and by extension, Wheeljack's still) could offer. He looked at the two with a look of utter confusion on his face, matched only by Wheeljack's equally shocked look. They exchanged glances, but didn't say anything as Firetrack helped Slipstream to a bench.

They took in Firetrack's mud-smeared chassis, a few small pine branches still sticking out of a few of his servos, and the smudges of green from pine branches he had encountered at higher speed, coupled with the equally shocking sight of Slipstream nodding his thanks to Firetrack, the two of them talking for a minute, and chuckling afterward.

"Well," said Firetrack to Slipstream, though Ratchet and Wheeljack overheard it, "I'd better get to the training simulator before I have another try with actual trees. See ya around, Slipstream."

"Sh...shee...see ya later, Firetrack," Slipstream managed in reply.

"Well," said Ratchet to Wheeljack in a low voice right before doing another shot, "Today's just been one thing I never thought I'd see after another."

Wheeljack nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Firetrack walked by the others of his team in the hallway, greeting them as he passed. His appearance did not escape them any more than it had earlier, when he was half-carrying Slipstream to the bar.

Walking to the training room, he looked through the training simulator programs, and to his delighted surprise, found that Wheeljack and Ratchet had uploaded a few with his name on them - specially made for fighter jets that had vernier thrusters, which made him smile. Beginning the first of the series, he transformed, and began the simulator, queuing the others in the series behind it consecutively.

[General Havoc]

"Wheeljack gave me a new chassis!" exclaimed Hornet proudly, as if this was some kind of badge of honor. "I'm made of ceramics now!"

This was not quite true of course. The new material Wheeljack had devised for Hornet was a polymerized ceramic webbing securing a polyluminium alloy that was heat-treated and inserted into the framework by accretion, hence the name "Cerasteel". Hornet however did not know the first thing about polymers, high temperature chemistry, or advanced metallurgy, and when Wheeljack had commented that the new material was a ceramic base, Hornet had naturally imagined Wheeljack shaping his frame out of clay, like a human making a pot. It had taken some time for Wheeljack to convince him that he wasn't going to shatter like a ceramic bowl the first time he tripped.

He still wasn't totally convinced.

"Do you get a siren?" he asked Stryke, his optics wide at the statement that Stryke had become a police car. "And flashing lights? I wanted a siren, but Wheeljack said that only Decepticons would put sirens on their airplanes."

This was also not exactly what Wheeljack had said, but the idea was there.

[LadyTevar]

"It's not ceramic, Hornet. It's a polymer of ceramic and metal," Crimson corrrected, AGAIN, in a voice that said she'd repeated this statement far too many times to the teenybot.

"As for Stryke's new body, he's got the flashing lights, and I was about to race him down the mountain and give him a reason to sound his siren."

[SirNitram]

"Everyone's off to rotate each other's tires." Overload shook his head. "I'm gonna go file my report and top off my internal tanks."

[General Havoc]

"It's not ceramic, Hornet. It's a polymer of ceramic and metal," Crimson corrrected, AGAIN, in a voice that said she'd repeated this statement far too many times to the teenybot.

Hornet had not the first conception of what a polymer was, nor how one could be both made of ceramic and metal at the same time, but he smiled and nodded to Crimson, and pretended to understand, fooling nobody. It didn't matter in the end, to him, what he was made of, so long as him and all his friends were all right, as Stryke appeared to be.

"Can I hear the siren?" he asked Stryke eagerly, stepping back to give room to transform.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke laughed, smiling. "Hmm, I don't know, Hornet." He said. "It might be too loud for you." The warbot teased the small flier.

[General Havoc]

Hornet, as always, fell for Stryke's teasing instantly. "I'll be okay!" he insisted. "Wheeljack put sound filters in my auditory sensors after that time in Seattle. Can't I see it? Please?"

What had happened in Seattle was perhaps best left unasked...

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream returned to conciousness after a short maintenance cycle perhaps an hour or so after he had entered it. His first reaction upon wakening was very much an instinctual one as searing pain stabbed through his optics and even the soft constant background hum of electronics in the Ark seemed like a hellish cacophony. He frantically tried to remember the discrete codes for his optical and aural systems to shut them down. Finding them he returned himself into the blissful oblivion of no input.

'By Primus' Prodigious Processor, what did I do,' he thought to himself, at the same time offering up a prayer to the same god to spare his spark. A short while later, however, that prayer turned to one of pleading that his spark be taken now. He found his prayers to have gone unheard, however, as he continued to function. He was not overly estatic about this, at that moment.

Once the pain lessoned and he was fairly certain that he was not going to shuffle off the mortal coil, prayers or no prayers, he reactivated his sensor systems and managed to find his feet. He found himself in his quarters, unsure how he arrived there but he had the vauge recollection that he had been assisted by someone, though damned if he could remember who.
"Ugh," he stated blandly to himself. "I'm never doing that again..."

[rhoenix]

Firetrack walked out of the training simulator room looking somewhat tired, but certainly not weary. As he walked toward the cleaning room, half of his attention was on all that he had learned in the past hour. He thought about his HUD capabilities now, and how a note from Ratchet had warned him to keep an eye on his engine heat levels.

As he went through the cleaning cycle, robot arms picked out the pieces of pine tree that still stubbornly were lodged in his chassis before doing a deep scrubbing. Stoicism he didn't know he had enabled him to keep quiet as the brushes scrubbed the dried mud and pine streaks out of his painted skin.

As it finished, he told the automated maintenance system not to give him a new paintjob for now - he was going to practice what he learned in the training room outside the Ark, and he knew better than to assume he wouldn't have another...mishap.

Walking toward the entrance, he passed a few he knew, and said a few words with them, or exchanged smiles and nods, or gave them in response to odd looks. Once he passed the entrance to the Ark, he transformed - lifting himself into the sky with his anti-gravity engines that sounded like a loud wind through the trees, he turned on his HUD, again marveling that he didn't know about it before. Using the peak of the mountain the Ark was embedded within as his reference point, he began to practice what he had learned in the training simulation. Observers would note that he looked much better than he had two hours ago, though still didn't have the smooth grace the other Autobot flyers had yet.

He did fly a bit too low while practicing a few maneuvers, and clipped the top off of a few trees. Chuckling to himself, he knew he'd be back into the cleaning room again when he was done.

[Dark Silver]

With the team as back together as it would be for any length of time, time moved quicker. Gone where the interminable periods of waiting and praying their friends were alright, or would pull through.

Breakout was transferred the beginning of the next day cycle, leaving by shuttle to assist in the war effort there against the new Insecticon stronghold in the Amazon. What was left of Deathstrike was held in a CR chamber, the Chamber stabilizing his condition and allowing a deep stasis lock to set in. It would be long before he could be refitted to new action.

Changes where made, Slipstream reassigned to Jetfire's direct command, Shellshock promoted to Commander of Battlesquad Ico, with Stryke being named his second. They would be reassigned soon, to put them back into the combat.

Thundercracker was released from his own CR Chamber, and met with the Autobot High Command. He spoke of tiring of existence under Megatron and Starscream's rule - he was tired of the war. He wanted to put a end to it, and have a reason to fight other than being a thug.

Fortunatly, he also brought with him a data cube, stored within it's optical columns was information about vital strategies and plots Megatron was working on, the weak points in various Decepticon defense networks....

All exploitable if the Autobots moved quickly.

It wasn't even five hours later, that Rodimus approached Prime with his plan, and gained approval the next day.

Two days after the reactivation of Firetrack and Stryke, Optimus had reissued new orders. All Autobots at the Ark were to be gathered, as he reassigned his armies, adapting for the new plans.

In the briefing room, where every Autobot at the Ark was currently gathered, Prime started the meeting, "We're going to take out Trypticon and the Nemesis....."

[rhoenix]

His optics widening in surprise, Firetrack was certain he heard Optimus Prime outlining an extremely audacious plan - to take not just the Nemesis or Trypticon, but both. He didn't say anything, but just continued listening with the others gathered as Optimus Prime explained further.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson had to shake her head in admiration at the audacity of the plan. To her, it had 'Rodimus' written all over it. It also made her think of Deathstrike, who'd complained that the Autobots only reacted defensively. She'd have to stop by his CR chamber and share this plan, if she got the chance. The Decepticon probably wouldn't hear her in shut-down, but it didn't feel right to Crimson not to stop by and check on him. He was a squadmate.

With Deathstrike down and Breakout gone (and she still didn't like his excuse for leaving), Stryke was now second-in-command, under Shellshock. The squad was now down to only six members: Firetrack and Hornet for air-cover, Overload and Stryke for warriors, Shellshock for artillery and command, and herself for recon (and Hornet-control).

Somehow, it didn't seem enough for what Prime was talking.

[Charon]

Shellshock, once again standing in the back of the room only nodded with a small smile on his face. "About time..." Shellshock then took a quick notice of the reactions of the rest of his squad. That just caused him to smile more, and with that he focused on Prime again, intent on learning just how this plan was supposed to happen.