Transformers: Steel Reign

[General Havoc]

Hornet thought about it for a second, then smiled. "Okay!" he chirped, clearly eager to get out of the hallway.

Hornet walked over to the doorframe and stood up on his toes trying to reach the keypad. He could just barely reach it to type in the code, but quickly did so, and the doors slid open and revealed Wheeljack's empty laboratory.

"Got it!" he chirped, and he hopped inside. "C'mon in!"

[LadyTevar]

"Ok, Hornet... since we don't know why he locked it, here's the rules," and Crimson prayed the teenybot would follow them. "You show me the paint and whatever he uses to paint you. We get you painted, and then leave, touching nothing else. We have to get things done quickly, because we're needed elsewhere. Understood?"

[Dark Silver]

To Optimus Prime, things where rapidly falling apart.

Reaper had assaulted the Ark, attacked and severely damaged two of his Autobots, damaged the volcano the Ark rested within, and threw the Autobot CC into chaos.

But it was a organized chaos that, and Ironhide and Optimus had taken it under command.

Already, Autobots were sent to search for Reaper, scouring the surronding countryside where the Decepticon Assassin could hide. Prime had no doubt Reaper would return to complete whatever mission he had come on. Rachet had already reported in, Blindside's Laser Core was located, along with the secondary memory buffers and personality core, with luck, he could be incorporated into one of the few remaining Protoforms left to them from the raid. Stryke, on the other hand, was being heavily damaged, but repairable. The older 'Mech had suffered mostly superficial damage to his structure, but the barrage of missiles had caused massive internal damage - including damage to his Transformation cog.

The primary concern, of course, was to keep Blindside's Laser Core functional - but it would take hours, if not days to properly reintroduce Blindside to a new Protoform and assure it was integrated correctly - Stryke, for now, was stable in Stasis Lock. At least until the next Solar Cycle, they were considered offline.

Ironhide coordinated the search mission, Prime had other things to concern himself with, "Optimus Prime to Breakout and Deathstrike, report to the Command Deck immediately."

TELETRAN-One was still on high alert, the Auto-cannons surronding the base were constantly on search for any unfriendly target.

With luck, they'd catch Reaper....

[Cynical Cat]

"Already en route," replied Deathstrike.

[Dark Silver]

Prime turned, and Breakout was already there, so absorbed in what was happening on the viewscreen, he had missed the arrival. Deathstrike's reply came a moment later over the comm system, and Optimus gestured Breakout towards a aclove they could speak in, without being in the majority of the way.

Deathstrike arrived a few moments later, and was shown where Prime and Breakout went, the two mechs were silent, even before Deathstrike showed up, and Prime gave the former Decepticon a few clicks before he spoke, "Do you want to tell me what in the name of the Pits was going on out there earlier Deathstrike?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Certainly Optimus," replied Deathstrike. "Earlier on, Slipstream had attempted to terrorize Hornet during a training exercise. Breakout had disciplined him for such behavior, but Slipstream remained unapologetic and insubordinate. I engaged him in discussion as Breakout's second and commander of his squad's air forces."

"It became clear to me during the conversation that Slipstream was not going to change his behavior. At the end of it he decided to buzz me. At that point I was convinced that drastic measures were necessary. I was in the process of overpowering Slipstream when he fired off his missiles. I hadn't transfered an erg of energy to my laser and my missiles racks were full and inactive at the time."

[Dark Silver]

"Overpower...."

Prime's tone was contemplative, and authortize as he repeated this word. His optics fixated on Deathstrike, his hands clasped behind his back.

"So instead of reporting to your superior officers, you decided to get into a fight with your subordinate outside the Ark..."

Optimus' gaze changed from Deathstrike, to Breakout, "Since Slipstream is being reported as a problem Breakout, what do you have to say about this?"

[Cynical Cat]

"I was his superior officer," said Deathstrike. "He was terrorizing a member of my team and insubordinate to me. Handling it was my job."

[frigidmagi]

"Deathstrike is correct in that Slipstream terrorized Hornet during a training exercise, shortly before Thundercracker's arrival. I had spoken to Slipstream about it and he was not open to amending his behavior and even seemed perversely proud of it to me. At that point I felt if he wanted to behave like he was in a Decepticon unit, he would be treated as such and I hit him and told him that his behavior would not be tolerated." I reported.

[Dark Silver]

Prime wasn't displeased...to say...but he had expected this to occur. That Slipstream had pushed both of his direct superiors to physical confrontation....said much about his behavior.

But then again, ever since Slipstream was recovered, he had been like that.

"I assigned Slipstream to your unit in hopes you could curb his particular attitude. I had faith you could straighten him, Breakout, if not make him a model 'Mech, at least teach him to respect his superiors. I'll reassign him effective immediately from your squad."

Prime turned on his heel, pacing away from the two for a moment, before turning back to them, "Punishment for the incident outside is still required. Deathstrike - your assigned to Omega Supreme's next maintenance cycle - which is in two weeks, local standard time. Grapple will inform you when to report for duty. Until then, your to continue your standard duties with your squad."

Prime paced back up, till he was standing in front of Deathstrike, "This is not the Decepticons, we do not have the leisure of greater forces and technological base. We've still the humans to support - thus we cannot have Mech's fighting each other. Especially when the two have the possibility to send themselves to the scrap heap. Understood?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Correcting his attitude was worth taking him off line for a maintenance cycle," replied Deathstrike. "Otherwise I wouldn't have done it. I will report to Grapple immediately." He turned and left.

[General Havoc]

It was not a simple process to paint Hornet.

Ironically, given everything, Wheeljack's painting methods were decidedly low-tech, a spray gun, a compressed air cannister for drying, and decal applicators to get the finish and trim done properly. The difficulty was with Hornet himself. Try as he might, the paint applicators triggered whatever tickling algorithms Wheeljack had built into him, and he squirmed and struggled and giggled and laughed and rolled about helplessly, until Crimson was tempted simply to dump a bucket of paint over him. Fortunately, Hornet was not all that large by the standards of Transformers, and it wasn't TOO long before Crimson had him back in his bright orange undercoat of quickdrying paint, making him look rather like he was an orange popsicle.

"Do... do we have to do another coat?" asked Hornet, still trembling from the application of the first one.

*-------------------------------------------------------*

Deep within the bowels of the molten caldera, Reaper crouched atop the hull of the Ark itself, his hand pressed down against it, feeling the vibrations of the skin of the ship. There was no entrance here. All of the hatches had been fused shut in the crash of the spaceship years ago, and even had they not been, to open them would be to flood that section of the Ark with lava. Tempting as that was as a means of making a distraction, it would get him no closer to retrieving Thundercracker, nor to any of the other objectives he had in mind.

Everything had already gone terribly wrong. The Autobots were alerted, they were angry, and they were looking for him. Within the walls of that spaceship sat many of the most deadly Autobots to ever live. Optimus Prime, Shellshock, Ironhide, Jetfire, Grimlock, all to say nothing of Deathstrike, of Thundercracker himself, and of the dozens of other Autobots that would be found within. The two he had ambushed had been unknown to him, but one at least had been trained well in Metaliko. He had picked up that one's name from the radio. Blindside. The other one was still nameless.

Dozens upon dozens of Autobots searching for him, among them Autobots whose names were renowned for power and skill. Autobots who had the raw firepower to simply core him, Autobots whom even Megatron would hesitate before engaging directly. Thinking of all these obstacles, Reaper couldn't help but smirk.

It had been far too long since he had faced a real challenge...

[LadyTevar]

Crimson glared at the teenybot. "Hornet... I am one astrosecond from simply dumping you into a vat of paint," she said bluntly. "Unless WheelJack finds a way to shut you down during it, I'm never doing this again. You wiggle more than Denebian slime worms!"

[General Havoc]

Hornet lowered his head sheepishly. "Sorry," he mumbled quietly, staring down at the ground. "Getting painted tickles..."

[frigidmagi]

"Sir, if there is nothing else, may I request permission to join the search?" Breakout said after the silence stretched out for almost a cycle.

[Dark Silver]

Optimus looked to Deathstrike and then to Breakout, before nodding. "Both of you are assigned to join the search, keep in constant contact with TELETRAN-One and Ironhide."

[frigidmagi]

"Yes, Sir." I say withdrawing and taking Deathstrike with me. I don't speak until we're in the hallway.

"This infliratior took out two of our squad. Those were our mechs, however we feel about them as individuals. I want his head Deathstrike and I'm sure you agree with me." I say quietly.

[LadyTevar]

"So I noticed..." Crimson answered wryly. "Let's go meet up with Shellshock and see if he or Overlord need anything." She honestly doubted that she or Hornet would be allowed in the search for the 'Con. Compared to Strike and Blindside, both she and Hornet were undersized and underarmored. At best, she might get a shot off, or better yet, a grenade to the 'Con's facial plate. EMP blasts to the major sensory devices tended to do nasty painful things to Cybertronians.

She wanted to hurt this 'Con very very badly.

[Cynical Cat]

"What do we know about this warrior?" Deathstrike asked.

[frigidmagi]

"He is clearly a Stealth unit of fairly high combat power. I assume a decent mixture of range and hand to hand weapons. Given the causalities I believe it is not Ravage or other known Decepticon stealth units. I must therefore assume he is capable of killing either one of us on his own and I believe that it is logical to assume he is here for Thundercracker." I remark.

[Cynical Cat]

"That makes sense," Deathstrike replied. "The assassin might be Reaper, in which case he will not give up until he has eliminated his target."

[frigidmagi]

"Reaper?" I asked. I can't recall ever coming across the name, I am left wondering...

[Cynical Cat]

"A warrior who does assassination work for Megatron. Big, stealthy, carries an energon scythe. Good hand to hand. Extensive stealth modifications."

[frigidmagi]

"Ah." My processor takes in the new data... Chances of it being Reaper... 54.67%.

"I believe he might be the most likely candidate yes. We'll have to stay within sight of one another for now then." I say finally.

[Cynical Cat]

"Reaper will attempt to remain in the vicinity of the target," said Deathstrike. "He will move to a nearby location, one unlikely to be thoroughly searched and scanned. He will remain there until the search dies down and then he will attempt to obtain his target again." The Decepticon paused.

"TELETRAN-1, download a map of region, annotated with sensor locations and Autobot search patterns."