| abstract | - Highroad What once was a splendid and grand highway has been shelled and bombed almost to the point of non-recognition. It is so cracked, potholed, and littered with debris that traveling it requires a great deal of coordination and even more concentration, a dangerous distraction when an attack could occur at any moment. The powerful bombs that hit this road so long ago were meant to cut off access to and from the city directly to the south. Impactor paces back and forth, listening to Fairway's rather eloquent and long speech about components and transistors. Honestly, the Wrecker leader couldn't care less. He just wants a base built underground, he doesn't want to know every square inch, nook and cranny that goes into constructing it. Glancing at Sandstorm and Broadside, Impactor sighs. "Yeah, yeah. Legbone connected to the hipbone and all that ... why don't you start tellin' me what we got instead of giving me an engineerin' lecture?" Pausing ever so slightly, Impactor looks at his data-pad to gauge the time. Fanfare is long overdue with their orange sheet metal supplies, he's almost a terran minute late. What? The Imp-man runs a tight ship! Sandstorm cant help but chuckle, "Because, Impactor," He says, "The brainy types want you to know every part of it whether you care or not." Indeed, the huge flaming-engined ship was just appearing over the horizon, cruising along at mid-speed through the air, the ground shivering around it as he passes by overhead slowly, tilting just enough to show off his side more than his belly as he ponders what sort of landing to do ""Ello Suhs!" Broadside, oddly enough, is actually /listening/ to Fairway's lecture, and taking mental notes! He gruffs when Impactor butts in, and folds his arms all mechly-like. "Hrnnn. Uh. Yeah. Brainy types, like Scattershot's nerd squad... Heya' Fanfare." "What we've got," Fairway says, growing the slightest bit impatient, "is a lot of planning to do, not to mention a lot of work. Luckily, we have plentiful materials." He points to his blueprints again, which are tacked up on a cork board. "Now, we can build a lift here, but that wouldn't leave room for the," he vents a sigh, "bar you wanted." "But bars are important, Fairway." Sandstorm offers as he looks at the blueprints. He understands them to a point but is really only interested in seeing it built not the scribbling beforehand. Impactor nods. "So what yer sayin' is, we gotta put in stairs so the bar can be kept?" Obviously, he's not too keen on leaving the room out of his new base of operations. A hand goes up to his chin, cradling his face trying to appear deep in thought. Then Fanfare flies in, and his moment of clarity is gone. " 'Bout time, was about ta send out Sandstorm to see what was takin' ya!" "Possible Enemies in the way. Had tae take a slight detour." The plane rumbles, starting to convert to hover-mode, a huge downdraft forming as he hovers a few hundred meters away, slowly extending his landing gear to land vertically. Fairway nods, crossing his arms. "Yes, we could put stairs there and keep the bar," he says, looking to his comrades, "though I insist on putting a training room here... where it appears as though someone has requested a 'wave pool'." Brainy types indeed! He frowns a bit, and then turns back to his plans. Broadside is mainly just concerned about the space inside the base. Should be pleeenty of space. He steps behind Fairway and peers down at the blueprints, unable to make heads or tails of them. "Wave pool... hnnn, wasn't me!" Sandstorm looks at Broadside and Impactor and shrugs, "I didnt ask for a wave pool...though it would be cool..." Impactor frowns, Broadside or Topspin are the only Wreckers with an aquatic altmode ... and the wave pool request is far too high for the Jumpstarter to reach. "Right Broad, I'll believe that one." he sighs, looking over to Fanfare's landing. "Well, what are ya waitin' fer mechs? That stuff won't unload itself? Fairway and I got portant stuff to go over!" Black Bodied CF-130 Super Hercules with Firey Engines slows down his props slowly as he lands now, starting to drop his rear gangplank and the tail even splits up and lifts so that even the tallest of mechs could reach into the cargo bay. Inside, his Autoarm (like the Canadarm) begins to move things towards the entrance. "Certainly not," Fairway smiles incredulously up at Broadside, "it must have been the other aquatic Wrecker." He pats his hands and steps across to Impactor's side. "I don't mind to help with the unloading," he says, "I've said most of what I have to say..." He fully expected to have to say it again. Impactor whispers, "Aw, come on Doc ... go over it one more time. It'll give me a reason ta shrug tha work." Straightening up, the Wrecker leader bellows. "What Mr. Brainy meant is youse mechs better run along, he's got some *secret* aspects to discuss wif me!" Broadside really didn't request it! He hates water! He scoffs and trudges over to help with the heavier materials. "C'mon Sandstorm, grunt work." More glorious sheet metal! ORANGE! Reaching into the cargobay, he takes out stacks and drops them haphazardly near Fairway's little setup. page hinder=I wouldn't mind Andi, but no Cons. :( The secret base is to remain under wraps for now. Black Bodied CF-130 Super Hercules with Firey Engines remains still, as a rather interesting versoin of O Fortuna blasts from his internal speakers. Sandstorm nods and follows Broadside to help unload the cargo. He carries out armloads of whatever he can grab and dumps it near Broadsides pile, "So how long is this going to take -- building the base?" he asks as he goes back and forth unloading the material. Fairway vents yet another sigh. "All right," he says, "our main concern is buttressing - load bearing members - reinforcing the walls of this space so that we can actually start to make these plans real." He gestures toward his cork board, which has been considerately blown down by a haphazardly dropped stack of sheet metal. "Hey, you slackprocessors! Watch where yer stackin' that stuff, you just crushed his display!" Impactor yells, trying to stifle a giggle. Black Bodied CF-130 Super Hercules with Firey Engines remains quiet at all of this, continuing to hum along to the forboding-sounding chorus line. "You ain't discussin' anythin', BOSS!" Broadside gripes, hefting some huge, heavy strut out and nearly knocking down Sandstorm with it. "Shouldn't take too long, Sandy." Sandstorm pauses and looks back with a mock shocked look on his face, "I hope the base is sturdier then the diagram..." he dumps his pile of sheet metal with a clang and walks back to the hercules to grab some more. He looks at Broadside and grins, "Not with us on it it wont be." The arm continues to assist with the unloading unstacking crates and unstrapping them "You were sayin' perfessor?" Impactor offers towards Fairway, looking to his crushed corkboard. Fairway doesn't try to retrieve his corkboard. "We just need more support," he says, "Big beams, lots of metal. I'm worried about a cave in." He's getting a little snippy. He hopes to counteract that with a smile. "But, I'm sure that the plans I've drawn up provide for ample room to install buttressing. We may even be able to keep the pool." Broadside pulls out the last of the Junkion supplies (bless that planet!) and dusts himself off. He makes a sad attempt to straighten the piles, then shirks the duty off to Sandstorm. "Make the piles look organized so boss don't yell at ya'." ... "Oh for- I don't want the pool! We shouldn't have a pool! I'ma' void my tanks every time I pass th' damn room!" Impactor nods, trying to act like he understood every single thing Fairway just went over ... again. "Yes, yes. Buttresting is very very important, maybe more important than the bar?" he offers, returning the smiling gesture. Cocking his head to the side, he notices the very unorganized and sloppy piles of materials. While it doesn't make a whole hell of a lot difference, seeing as it'll only get moved shortly underground ... the Wrecker leader doesn't hesitate to discipline his slacking soldiers. "Broadside, Sandstorm ... Front 'n Centah!" Black Bodied CF-130 Super Hercules with Firey Engines waits until the music finishes, before piping up "All empt. " he notes, closing up the tail and transforming himself to stretch. Folding down and around, Fanfare transforms from a Black-bodied with hot rod flames on the engines CF-130 Super Hercules into his robot mode. Sandstorm was all set to walk away when Broad pushed straightening the mess off on him. "I wasnt the --- nevermind." he shoves the piles around halfaft to make them look somewhat more 'organized' and after a few minutes dusts himself off. "There ya go, boss, everythings unloaded." Broadside moves 'front 'n centah', hands on his hips. "C'mon boss, they's just gonna' end up all scattah'ed again. What's this about buttresses? What's a buttress?" Sandstorm hears the front and center and hurries up to stand beside Broadside, "Yea what he said, boss." he says pointing a thumb at Broadside but he stands at attention none the less. Fairway steps to Fanfare's side, still shaking his head at Impactor's mention of 'buttresting'. "Friend Fanfare," he says, "it has been some time! I am happy to see you again. Hopefully you understood some of what I was trying to say to the... illustrious Wrecker leader there." He looks to Broadside. "To buttress, dear friend, means to support or to prop. I'm talking about columns which will hold up the ceiling of the base. Building underground is dangerous business, I assure you. I have done my share of it." Fanfare smiles as he tips his head to Fairway "Aye, ah ken it. Ye want tae make sure the roof dun collapse." he translates easily. Fairway says, "Precisely!" "Ah, a'course!" Broadside palms his fist in realization. He learned a new word today, hot damn! "That makes no difference Wreckers. If you stack even half as well as you fight, I'm thinkin' we're all in a load of trouble!" Impactor bellows, pointing an extended finger towards Broadside. "Now. Git over there and restack it! I want it to be the most beautimous stack of orange scrap metal these optics have ever seen. Double time!" Impactor looks at Fairway and sighs, "Triplechangers, am I right?" shrugging his shoulders. Broadside almost pouts. Almost. "Frag. Dis is yer' fault Sandy," he snorts, and shakes a fist. "Here you take that pile and I'll... take this one over... here." The triplechanger saunters over as if it pick up a stray strut, and abruptly gives Fanfare a playful punch to the shoulder, "Wanna' arm wrassle? Don't be a wimp!" Fanfare erps as the punch rebounds off his shoulder, pausing. HIs optics flicker "Arm Wrestle? Well uh, perhaps when ye done, a'hm kinda outa practice." he notes with a weak grin. Fairway stands clear as Broadside punches Fanfare. "Triplechangers indeed," he laughs. He approaches a pile of sheet metal and sets to straightening it, as meticulous as he always is. "My fault?" Sandstorm stares at the fist, "Is that suppose to scare me?" he starts to straighten a pile and sees Broad and Fanfare talking suddenly, "That doesnt look like stacking to me...." he mutters and works on the stack in front of him. "Less talkie, more stacky!" Impactor shouts, briskly striding forward and inspecting the new piles taking shape. Broadside huffs, "Mech, Fort Max won't arm wrestle either! C'mon, what's with all the huge wimps around here? Don't mattah if yer' outta' practice. Bahh fine." He waves Fanfare off and moves to hijack Sandstorm's pile. "Got this one," he insists. Sandstorm doesnt budge, "Naa I got it, take that one over there." He points and shoves Broadside over to a nearby pile. Fanfare folds his arms a little defensively, optics dimming as he stares at the ground "... Ah ken later Broadside. Ah promise." he finally amends Broadside doesn't budge as well, but Sandstorm's nudge is enough to make him sulk off to his own pile. Wreckers can't be bullied! His pile eventually gets organized, and he calls Impactor over to have a look. "Behold!" "Fanfare," Fairway calls, struggling to lift a particularly large piece of sheet metal, "May I request your assistance? And friend Broadside... perhaps later I shall arm wrestle with you. Is that satisfactory?" Fanfare looks up finaly at his name, but then turns immediately to walk towards Fairway, crouching to heft the peice up "Where do ye want it?" he asks, happy again Broadside guffaws a little too loudly, then smiles behind his mouth guard. "Uh, sure Fairway. Yeah." Fanfare looks over at Broadside, then at Fairway, murmering to him quietly Surveying the work, Impactor slowly nods. "Alright, they look good ta me. Now, we need to get em underground before a Decepticon patrol notices them. Let's get to it Wreckers!" Walking forward, he picks up a stack of orange sheet metal and moves to the temporary pulley loading system they set up. Fanfare nods "That make sense." he notes, setting the metal down with the rest now. "Wot next?" "I'll stay topside, if thas' alrigh'," says Broadside, hefting his pile of supplies after Impactor. "Wouldn't mind if a 'con came along though, we'd sure put a whoopin' on him with the mechs present, yep." Fairway turns to Impactor now. "Shall we go below, friend? Move these stacks into place? I should like to mark out where I believe we should place the supports. That's really the most important step. Sandstorm grabs an armload of the stack he just straightened and follows Impactor the pulley loading system they have set up to help get this stuff underground. He looks up into the sky and scans the area, "Let em come." Sandstorm says, "Any time is a good time to beat on a Decepticon or two..." Impactor nods, "Okay, okay. Sandstorm, you drew the short end of the stick today. You're gonna have to ride down with tha sheets and make sure they git unloaded proper." Loading up the pulley's platform the rest of the way, he waits by the controls for the orange triplechanger to jump on top. Sandstorm gives Impactor a glance and then gets onto the platform to ride the load down to unload it. "Lets go." he says when hes ready. The sooner he can get this done, the better. Whirl walks in from farther down the highway. "Lookout duty has to be the most boring duty known to the Autobots," he complains. "Anything exciting going on over here?" Fanfare moves to help winch the metal down carefully, humming lightly as he does so. Broadside sets his load near the platform and waits, idly glancing around. "Whirl, you sunnuvaglitch, c'mere so I can step on ya'!" He attempts to nudge Whirl over with a digit. Impactor lowers the lever, which in turn starts lowering the platform and Sandstorm down into the chasm's depths. "Just radio us when you're good to go lil buddy!" he notes, glancing at Whirl's sudden arrival. "You twisted one eyed Wreckin' masheen, where ya been?" Whirl accepts the nudging good-naturedly. To Impactor he shrugs. "Oh, you know, the usual. Monitor duty, lookout duty, aerial overwatch duty..." he trails off, interest captured by the platform and the disappearing Sandstorm. "Oh yeah...sending Sandstorm in first, to do some reconnoitering?" "Whirl," says Fairway cheerfully as he stands near the egress holding a stack of sheet metal. "I don't believe we've met." He turns to watch as Sandstorm descends, thinking it a bit unfair to send only one down first. "I'm Fairway, engineer." Fanfare giggles suddenly, grinning at Whirl as he whispers, so only those on the surface hear it "... Fishin!" "Fishing, huh?" Whirl repeats. He peeks in after Sandstorm, then shrugs. "So that makes him the bait, and what, us the crab pot?" Looks like someone's been introduced to archived episodes of the Deadliest Catch. "Well, if it helps with the excavation efforts down there, I'm all for it..." Impactor shakes his head. "Nah, were just gettin' this stuff underground ... so any Decepticon patrols don't see it, 'n put two and two together ... you catch my drift Whirl?" Sandstorm rides the platform to the bottom then hopes off to unload the sheet metal. He glances around as he does so and takes a visual scan of the area but sees nothing but an unbuilt bass so to speak. Shortly he unloads the last of the sheet metal and then steps back on the platform. "Alright, bring me up." Sandstorm says as he tugs on the cable. hops* Broadside feels that has done enough work! And moves off a bit to recline on his flight deck and doze until someone prods him. "Take my pile down, Whirl," he gruffs. Fairway stands, awkward, shifting his weight from foot to foot. He crosses to the opposite side of the egress and leans over to see if he can see Sandstorm. "The coast is clear, friend?" Impactor knocks the lever up and the pulley starts lifting the platform topside. "Copy Sandstorm, bringin' ya up now." Whirl nods uncertainly at Broadside. "Uh, sure..." he looks around and hopes that someone will tell him what he's supposed to do, or else that he can fake it convincingly. Sandstorm comes up to the surface and once the platform is stopped he steps off and nods at Whirl, "Hey there." he says and then wonders if hes going to be the one taking it all down. Fairway is eager to get underground. "Well done, Sandstorm," he says, "I assure you that I shall participate fully in this build." He moves to stand on the platform. "I can take these sheets down," he says to Impactor, "and then stay below to make my marks if that is acceptable, friend." "Certainly. Load 'er up mechs!" Impactor grins, giving Fairway a corny thumbs up pose. Broadside starts humming the tune to whatever Fanfare was playing earlier, continuing to loaf about. Fanfare looks to Impactor then, leaning agianst the Winch a bit "Ah'll ready." he states, then looks at Broadside, flashing a grin "Brace yerself." Impactor warns, hitting the lever once again. The platform lowers into the depths of the chasm, swallowing up Fairway. Turning to look at Broadside, "Whatchya think yer doin! Git off yer aft and help out over 'ere!" What exactly the behemoth is supposed to assist with, is unclear. Fanfare assists Impactor with the wench though, ensuring the cables went down smoothly without twisting or swinging too much. Broadside finally rocks up and gets to his feet, stomping on over to loom. "A'ight a'ight, guess I'll... stand guard!" The big mech turns and looks diligently to the sky. He makes a invisible rifle with his hands and 'shoots' down the stars that were appearing. Whirl looks at Broadside, then up at the sky. "You know chief, if you really want to keep a low profile...I dunno if we should all be standing out in the open like this. I wonder if we can move this whole operation underground?" He edges towards the opening eagerly. Fanfare hums somewhat as he works, some strange tune as he works, the cables still lowering down, oblivious to the world around him now as the blades on his back give a spin. "Can't right now, I've got a /strategic/ planning meeting with Grimlock in five. Right now I just wanna assure that this mess gits picked up. Speakin' of which, start gettin' that scrap metal ready to cover this hole." Impactor gruffs, looking around him. "The rest of ya, fan out and make sure our tracks are covered." Fairway is now in the throat of the egress. He looks left and right, scans the floor below him. With his combat visor lowered, he can see and record the mineralogical structure of the rock in this cavern. This shall be a suitable place for a base... it was indeed a stroke of luck to have found it. Sandstorm is busy getting the piles of material stacked over to be loaded on the platform. From time to time he looks around just to make sure they arent being discovered. He hears Impactors words and puts the last of the sheet metal on the new pile and then sets about getting rid of any sign they were there. Broadside does as he's told and heads off to the north, scoping out the area. Oddly enough they were pretty discreet. Wreckers discreet, who woulda thunk it? Whirl moves out to the south, covering the opposite side from Broadside. Sandstorm heads off to the west and starts taking care of any sign they were there. Impactor hits the lever, bringing the platform and Fairway back to the surface. "Okay Wreckers, I've got to git a move on. Make one last sweep of the premises and make sure to take down the wench before departing." With that said, the Wrecker Leader stalks off towards Iahex and his meeting with Grimlock. He idly wonders if they'll be talking about punching rocks or LAZORing rocks today.
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