| abstract | - Synopsis: An anonymous tip leads the Autobots to a mysteriously clean yet abandoned starship! Also, Powerglide gets an upgrade! Kup is standing at the entrance ramp of one of the many Autobot ships in the hangar bay, patiently waiting for Autobots to arrive. And by patiently, I actually mean he's scowling and tapping his foot. You receive a radio message from Red Alert: Do you still need the encryption? Fireflight strides in quickly, optics bright as he jogs towards Kup, smartly coming to a stop before running into anything. He folds his hands behind him to glance to the Oldtimer, then back behind him to watch others arrive. Lightspeed doesn't waste any time arriving on foot. Whatever was going on, he thought it was possibly about the Matrix, and that means more data about what it was, its true purpose, and what everything is going to be. You send a radio message to Red Alert: Yeah. With a grunt and a growl, Grimlock changes into a robot T-rex! Watch out. "RAAARGH!" Grimlock stomps into the room in his dino mode, "Me Grimlock ready to munch metal! Me Grimlock stop..." he pauses, and glances around, noticing the Hangar bay to be relatively quiet. "Uuuuh. There not stuff for me Grimlock to smash?" he asks, and scratches at his head. Sideswipe says, "doesn't come in on foot like the rest of you suckers. It's a autobot ship, Primus gave bot's wheels for a reason. He whips into the hanger bay from a secondary entrance so as not to run into any other entries.. or be stepped on by Grimlock. Enough with being a super sweet car however, Sideswipe transforms into a super sweet robot! "So what is it, Ninjas, Zombies, Zombie-Ninjas, Ninja Zombies?" he asks peering up at Kup expactantly." Powerglide takes his sweet time getting to where he's supposed to, like always. Some things never change, like reeking of cheap energon and crappy oil. "Okay, so, what's happenin'?" Kup squints at Sideswipe. "Ninja zombies ain't no laughin' matter, Sideswipe. Trust me. But I don't think they'll be a problem." From the sound of Kup's voice, he apparently did encounter ninja zombies on one of his many adventures. "Alright. Got an anonymous tip that a certain starship is driftin' around in this sector. Supposedly, it's powered by the Matrix." He lets that sink in a bit before continuing. "Apparently the ship is abandoned, but still operating under its own power, which doesn't surprise me if some jerk figured out a way to turn the Matrix into a power source. We're gonna board this ship, but you people be careful. Automated defense systems might still be active, and the Decepticons might've followed us." Kup looks around. "Any questions before we go? If so, make 'em quick." Powerglide raises his hand and wiggles his fingers around. Kup lets out a sigh. "Yes, Powerglide." Fireflight blinks a little "... A ship powered by the Matrix? " he pauses "... Rodimus lost the Matrix in that big Ship Graveyard." he comments to nobody in particular. Powerglide keeps his hand raised, "Uhm, yeah. Why would someone go through all the trouble of turning the Matrix into a power source, only to leave it behind after abandoning the ship?" Kup frowns. "That's what I don't get, either. It might not've been abandoned voluntarily, get my meanin'?" "Hmmm." Grimlock says, "Me Grimlock fly ship!" he says, and transforms to his robot mode, because, well, thumbs. "Is prolly not Matrix." Grimlock says, with zenlike certainty. "Me Grimlock bet ship is full of pirates or spiders or something. Thems drifty things always are." There's a flurry of moving parts, and Grimlock changes to his robot mode! What Kup said didn't surprise Lightspeed really. The data suggested that the Matrix could be used as such, but that wasn't its intended purpose. Hearing Fireflight, Lightspeed mimic Kup's sigh. Powerglide didn't help much either. "First off, odds are this is not -THE- Matrix, but one of the copies that we've been finding. And if the past is any indication, I don't think this will be something we will want active. The sooner we get, and destroy preferably, this Matrix, the better." Lightspeed said. Powerglide says, "No. Can you elaborate, sir?" Sideswipe pipes up, "I bet they all just stgepped out for a breath of air and forgot to leave the parking break on. Happns all the time out here." Kup yells at Powerglide, "THE SHIP KILLED THE CREW, YOU IDJIT!" Sucking a deep breath, he says, "Well, it might've. Who fraggin' knows. And Lightspeed, you and me are in total agreement. Which is why we gotta check this out even if it ain't the real deal. Alright, let's go, people!" Kup starts walking up the ramp... Fireflight jumps as Kup yells, ending up on the other side of Lightspeed. He inhales a little, glancing across to Lightspeed and nods, following Kup into the shuttle. He takes out his datapadd, tapping on it a little and murmering, already starting to drift off into other thoughts "Hrm... Country..." "Or spiders. Always is spider things!" Grimlock says, and stompstompstomps after Kup. "Me Grimlock fly spaceship!" he says with all the enthusiasm of a little kid. Lightspeed followed after Kup. The sooner they did this, the better, and the less likely the Decepticons will find out. "I call Shotgun!" yips Sideswipe, hustling up after Kup. Spectral Climbs Sensors suddenly flag all kinds of alerts, identifying a planet in the immediate vicinity, and it's on a collision course! An astrosecond later... it vanishes. Sensors, gravitational forces, even one's own visuals, detected the gravity well of a planet, but now there is only the vast blankness of deep space. An interesting if unnerving experience. The haunting afterimage of that ghost planet occasionally flickers on the screens - or does it? Contents: Starship Nico Decepticon Starship Autobot Flagship Obvious exits: Below Plane leads to Deep Space - Galactic Plane. Driftward leads to Deep Space - Paraplanar. Coreward leads to Junkion System. Rimward leads to Deep Space - Paraplanar. A sleek ship, drifting silently through space. Its running lights are on, but it does not appear to be operational. There are no life signs aboard, at least according to external scanners. However, there is a tremendous energy source within. The ship's interior is spartan and well-maintained, so much so that you can see your reflection in nearby metallic surfaces. Ship systems, computers, and door mechanisms all seem functional. However, crew members are not immediately apparent. Who's keeping this place in such good shape? Lightspeed has arrived. Sideswipe has arrived. Fireflight has arrived. Grimlock has arrived. Sideswipe totaly got Shotgun on the way over. Powerglide has arrived. "Hn. This no look so scary." Grimlock notes, tapping at the mirrored chrome bulkheads. "Unless...like, YOU really ugly. Then you see you self, and get scared. Of you self." He grunts. "Is good thing me Grimlock no scared of anything! Also good thing me Grimlock super handsome." Fireflight follows along behind the others, optics glancing left and right. He chuckles a little at Grimlock "Indeed. Though if we were really ugly we'd end up shattering them and getting bad luck." he notes, optics roving constantly. Powerglide clasps his hands behind his head. "Why would you kill a bunch of people and just leave the ship there? Think you'd take the ship too, I mean, c'mon, it's common sense. This is dumb.." Lightspeed didn't say a thing about what Grimlock and Fireflight said. The most obvious questions popped to his central processor though, which are 'Who's doing the upkeep on this ship?' as well as 'How old is this thing really?' "If the ship is still in this good a condition, then it will make our job easier. It means that the computer files will still be intact and we can figure out what's going on easier." The Technobot said. "Modest as the day is long too, huh Big Guy?" jabs Sideswipe, cuffing Grimlock in the side. He's on the alert, his weapon already in hand as he keeps up at point.. only to hault as he looks at himself in one of the walls, "Jeesum, clanking, crow. My rear chasis is huge.." "Me Grimlock only sayin' true stuff. 'Cuz me Grimlock BEST AUTOBOT." he grunts, and brazenly heads down the corridor. "Me Grimlock no think matrix in here. Would be redder if matrix 'round." Kup steps off into the Nico, musket in hand. He grumbles to himself about the pilots kicking the old man to the side, but gets over it when he sees the inside of the ship. After getting a look at himself in the ship's be-chromed bulkheads, he scowls. Old. Battered. And still covered from head to toe in scratches from the zombie planet. "Ennh. Hate this place already." Frowning, Kup starts thinking. "Hm. Well, yeah, we can download the ship's logs, but we'd probably find those in the captain's quarters near the bridge. The engineering, section, is down the opposite direction in the back of the ship." "I think we should just take the ship home with us," Powerglide quips. Kup shakes his head at Powerglide. "Dunno if this ship is even safe, lad. Best to just get in, get what we want, and get out." Sideswipe peers around, "Six of us hear. Three for the engines, three up to the bridge?" Lightspeed nodded. "That is true, and while having those logs would be good, I would figure that engineering would have their own logs which would prove more profitable to our cause for the time being. Still, visiting the bridge wouldn't be a bad idea if we get the chance." Lightspeed didn't try to stop Grimlock. Best the Dinobot get shot first. He could take it better than the rest of them could. "This is your mission Kup, so up to you." Fireflight peers at Sideswipe "Why do we need to go to the engines?" he asks, stopping where he was. "Hmmm. Me Grimlock think him Powerglide have good idea! Why not we take this ship?" he pauses. "Gonna need give it new guns, me bet. And better name. Ooooh! We call ship 'Grimlock's spaceship is best ship evar 'cause me Grimlock fly it Around!'" They'll need a bit of paint. Sideswipe casts a glance to Fireflight, "Because that's where The Matrix would be if it's running this crate." he resist adding the 'duh' to the end of his reply. "Didn't we already have a ship like that?" Powerglide says, tapping his chin. "Whatever happened with that, anyway?" Fireflight ohhs and nods at Sideswipe "Good point." he states, still standing by the wall "I'll go to the engine room... Or the Bridge. Err." a pause "Wherever you may need someone to guard. " cause him and technical stuff dont mix. Just ask LIghtspeed. Kup frowns, watching Grimlock walk off. "WELL! It looks he's heading to the engine room. I want two of you people to follow him and keep him out of trouble. As for myself, I'm taking the remaining two Autobots to the bridge to get those logs. Lightspeed, I'm assumin' you're gonna be one of the guys on my team." Lightspeed nodded. "I'll be able to find the data that we need faster than Grimlock can re-paint this ship." He said. "Much faster that is." Powerglide waves his arm around in the air. "OHH! OOOOH! I WANT TO GO WITH GRIMLOCK!" Beats hanging out with Cranky McOld and a nerd. Fireflight murmers "Especially since Grimlock has no paint on him. I'll go with you Kup if you want." he offers. Kup begins stomping away, saying, "Then Lightspeed and Fireflight are comin' with me, Powerglide and Sideswipe are... oh, Primus... they're teaming up with Grimlock." He facepalms in mid-stride, and calls back over his shoulder. "We'll be back to bail you people out of trouble!" Sideswipe counts off the pairings in his head, "Right, I'll stick with the big guy then. I know my way around ships alright, should be able to handle any switch flipping." With that, Sideswipe falls into a brisk pace, catching up with Grimlock. This will not end well. This will end awesomely. Powerglide waves a dismissive hand at Kup, "Pfft! As if we'd need to be bailed out of anything! What could possibly go wrong?" And naturally, Team Grimlock encounters a most formidable foe almost immediately. And that would be a locked door. Sideswipe says, "The ship comes to life and tries to shove us all into a warp-drive reactor?" "At least we won't have to worry about them trying to take the ship now." Lightspeed said to Kup as he follows the wise one. Powerglide shrugs, "I've made peace with myself." Fireflight flinches and looks at Kup then "... I should've gone with them instead I think." he murmers simply. Then he nods at LIghtspeed. He turns around then to follow behind the two-
* WHAM* And the fun thing about having more than one bulkhead polished to a mirror? Everything looks like a corridor. X.x "Yay! Me Grimlock like this trip!" and with that, he stomps down a random corridor...and comes to a locked door. "Hnnn. Me Grimlock no want bash up me ship." he grunts, and starts poking at the featureless metal. "Open, stupid door!" Kup shrugs as he stomps down to the bridge of the vessel. "Eh, it's possible we can salvage this thing for parts if nobody owns it, or even retrofit it into a ship for our side. But yeah, we can't just dump this thing inside the Orion Pax until we know for certain it's safe. Fireflight! Watch where yer goin'. Easy to get lost in here." Sideswipe laughs out loud, "Hey, does anybody remember that living ship that had all of those tortured souls trapped inside of it? Those were good times!" Mr. Locked Door stands firm in its convictions and refuses to open, even to the most polite requests. Fireflight rubs his face a little, blinking his optics as he keeps one hand ont he wall to stagger after Kup "... Yes sir." he replies to Kup meekly, moving to catch up to the other two. "Don't worry Fireflight. This is rather disorienting to me too. Just have to proceed with it logically though." Lightspeed said. He looked over at Kup, nodding some. "But yes, it wouldn't hurt to have another ship under our control. Providing it isn't already torn to pieces." "Lets hope we can also unlock all the doors from the bridge." Lightspeed then added. "ME GRIMLOCK JUST MAKE NEW DOOR!" The dinocommander's voice echoes through the corridors, at which point there's the a sound somewhat akin to an Energo-Sword stabbing into door-metal. Fireflight flinches "Let's h urry and get there first to find out." he adds in a rather nasal voice now, still holding his nose, hand trailing on the metal "... At least it wasn't a mirror that broke." Kup, after traveling down several corridors, soon reaches the bridge of the ship. While not as large as the bridge on the Orion Pax, it is much more spartan and shiny. There's a captain's chair and the stations one would expect for various functions. "Hm... now where would the stateroom be..." Kup says, squinting at some of the doors on the bridge. One of them is labeled: Captain's stateroom Fireflight peers over the other consoles, though he is VERY careful not to touch anything. Merely examining them. Lightspeed avoids stating the obvious, though does make a note in his processor to put in an annoyamous request to have Kup's optics checked. He heads over towards the Captain's stateroom, looking around as he heads over for anything that looks out of place any more than it does already. Lightspeed then stops and goes over to the consoles, checking for any signs of which one of them would unlock the doors first. "One of these should help the others out..." Sideswipe watches as Grimlock opens up the door like a can of sardines, "Need to get me one of those." he murmurs. "You Sideswipe no get mine!" Grimlock notes, and wrenches away the Grimlock-sized chunk of metal he's carved out, stepping through the produced hole. "Hnn...so, uh...what we s'posed to be doing 'gain?" he asks, glancing about. The locked door opens! Or rather, it is *sliced open.* The corridor beyond it appears to be a brightly tunnel of some sort. Numerous lights rest behind transparent plating, leading to another door. Hm. What is beyond? "WAIT! I propose we go with the safety first method!" Powerglide exclaims before pulling out his gun and firing a single shot down the corridor. "Okay, our job is done. Hometime." Kup steps right up to the Captain's stateroom, muttering, "Oh." He tries the door, finding it locked. "Eh, don't wanna have to smash this open. Lightspeed, see what you can do." One of the consoles appears to control ship security systems. Perhaps that would be the right. Fireflight continues examining the other consoles, mostly here for a (Not really adequate) guard. BZANG! Powerglide's shot bounces off of the door on the other side of the tunnel and bounces back towards Team Grimlock! OH SH-- Sideswipe is struck with a unsettling revelation.. he's probably the most together bot of the trio, "Scary.." he mutters to himself. "We're supposed to check out engineering. If the matrix is in there we swipe it, if not we snoop through their databanks." he explains, stepping in to the new corridor behind Grimlock. "Wow, Powerglide, you about to taske up Sunstreaker's paintjob instead?" he inquires of the shot and run mech, taking point and making his way towards what is now probably a laser scorched door. Sideswipe posted too so-BZAP! Sideswipe earns a hole in his shoulder and Powerglide loses SideswipeBucks. Lightspeed smiled some, quickly moving over to the console and accessing it as best he can. "Lets see here... disable the security shouldn't be too hard to do now. Just a process of elimination through logic." The Technobot said. He really needs to work on his infiltration skills, among other things, but its nothing he can't do in the long run. Powerglide hides his gun behind his back and whistles. "Woah Sides! Lovin' the new look." "Oooh, bouncy metal!" Grimlock says- neatly ignoring Sideswipe's pain. "...You Powerglide need be more careful. Careful like me Grimlock!" he says- and starts stomping down the corridor, whereupon he starts carving up a SECOND door. The second door appears to be much stronger than the first! Grimlock's ENERGY sword does not appear to have much effect upon it. Sure, he's putting some wicked scars into it, but that's about it. Then, suddenly, from the entrance to the corridor, a strange, magenta-colored wave of energy begins to move towards the Dinobot, and maybe the other Autobots, too, if they followed him in! Sideswipe rears a hand back, "Why I aughta-" he glowers.. and then Grimlock starts pissing off ALICE, "Ohsh-" Fireflight nods at LIghtspeed "I'll keep an optic out." he states, starting to exploe the room at large, careful not to touch anything. Yet. Powerglide begins to back away. Hopefully behind Sideswipe. "Not awesome.." Kup says, "Ah, that did it," as the door's lock gives way with a *pop.* He steps into the stateroom, looks around, and says, "Looks clear, lads." He steps inside, and notices an unsurprisingly clean room, complete with bunkbed (whose sheets are neatly folded), a table with everything on it carefully arranged, and a shelf full of books, all lined up perfectly. "Alright, now hack into that computer," Kup says, pointing at the computer on the table. "We gotta get some answers." Grimlock continues to hack away at the door- though he soon grunts, and puts his sword away, opting to just smash on it with his bare hands! "Hn, what you guys say?" Grimlock asks, not bothering to look back at the pair. "Me Grimlock busy!" Fireflight turns around, watching Kup. He then nods at that and notices the books, optics widening "Check the books too! maybe the Captain kept a handwritten journal." he advises, callng to Kup "Just a bit Kup!" Lightspeed said, going through and disabling the rest of the security. You know. Just in case. With that done, he goes off into the Captain's Stateroom and over to the computer. "Okay now computer. All I want is your data. So we can do this the easy way or... well, the only way." Lightspeed said before starting to work on the computer, bringing up all files on the Matrix, as well as what might have happened to the ship. If any exists that is. The Dinobot's big hands put sizeable dents in the door, but quite frankly, this door would rival the ones they put on nuclear bomb shelters. It was made to last. However, there is good news! Lightspeed may have remotely helped Team Grimlock. The magenta energy wave vanishes for now. "Pffft, written Journal." scoffs Sideswipe, who is on the other side of the ship and nowhere within earshot of the bridge or Fireflight.. "Huh?" "Huh?" Powerglide echoes. Grimlock grrhs, and poundpounds on the door a bit more. "Stupid....thing! Grrrh! Me Grimlock find OTHER way to go!" he says- and then starts off in the opposite direction- even tapping at the side of his head for a radio... Fireflight keeps a written journal! He continues staring about, inspecting buttons and readouts. Its only a matter of time no doubt before he's distracted enough. Sideswipe shakes himself out of his momentary oddness, settling into his normal sense of abnormality. "Woah, woah, woah!" he calls out over the ring of Grimlock's fist smashing against the door, "This thing ai-" and then Grimlock storms away. He squeezes past, moving to study the battered door and any consoles nearby. Kup nods at Fireflight. "Good thinkin'." He begins to rifle through the books on the shelves, and grumbles, "Ehhh, doesn't look like he had any written journals. Huh... but there is this technical manual.." He pulls a book out, and cracks it open. "Huh... Spark-15 technical manual?" The Technobot, on the other hand, will not find any mention of a Matrix. There are numerous logs made by the Captain, however. He appears to be some sort of bipedal insectoid creature. Most of the logs deal with boring day-to-day activities. "Spark-15 Technical Manual? That sounds like something that might be worth looking at, regardless of what else we find Kup. This though... we're dealing with an insectoid race here. That should help things out." Lightspeed said. He kept working on going through the log. Nothing on the Matrix, but maybe he had stuff on their engine or what happened exactly. "Come on now... past all these daily things..." Fireflight jumps at Grimlock's bellow, flinching as he puts a hand to his audial "OW!" Sideswipe soon forgets all about the boring way. He plants his feet and squares his shoulders, his hands curling up into black fists. And then he just cuts loose with both barrels, Punches, a lot of them, all crashing against the door, ten a second sent slamming forward, each hammering in with 8000 pounds of force. Grimlock pauses, and then glances back as Sideswipe stars pummelling away at the doorway with enough speed to make even Grimlock pause. "Me Grimlock could do that." he grumbles. "...if me wanted." Narrowing the search down to logs regarding the Spark-15 reveals numerous videos of the Captain gleefully talking about their new power source. Apparently, it is a living source of virtually limitless energy, and while he doesn't understand where that energy source came from, its performance is apparently amazing. However, the last few logs take on a darker tone. The Captain mentions that many of his crewmembers have gone missing, and that everything has become a little too well-maintained. And finally, the very last log... "I'm the only one that's left!" hisses the Captain. "It's that damn computer, it's killing everyone aboard, and wiping them away as if they never existed! I don't know why this is happening! Is it the Spark-15?" He turns around, and shrieks as he sees a tiny cleaning robot. "How did that get in?! Get away from me!" The Captain backs up and away from the robot. "Get away, get away!" Then... the log simply ends. Meanwhile, in the here and now, a little cleaning robot is rolling towards Fireflight. Fortunately for the Autobots (And Grimlock), Lightspeed actually puts two and two together very quickly. "Kup! The cleaning bots!" He calls out quickly. There's the Technical and Logical processes at works again. Fireflight blinks and looks down at the little cleaning robot, a bit of a smile on his face "So you're the one I should blame for my broken nose." he comments, then looks over "Huh? Oh, there's one right here LIghtspeed!" he calls, pointing down at the thing. Team Grimlock finally achieve success on their side of things. The stubborn, heavily reinforced door absorbs hundreds of punches from Sideswipe, but not indefinitely. Gradually, the door caves inwards, until finally the latches on the other side snap and the whole door simply falls out. And beyond is... the engine room! Here, in the middle of the engine room, surrounded by numerous control stations, an object that LOOKS kinda Matrix-y hangs suspended in mid-air by two cables. Kind of hard to tell what it is, it's shining very brightly. Painfully bright. Kup looks where Lightspeed is, and, thinking fast, grabs Fireflight's shoulders and pulls him away from the robot. "Get away from it, lad!" Powerglide winces at the light, "Ugh..Great. It's a good thing I always carry these with me." He pulls a pair of sunglasses from /somewhere/, outs them on, then snaps his fingers. "Ooooh! Is...thingie!" Grimlock says, shielding his eyes from the glare. He growls a little bit, and then glances at the be-shaded Powerglide. "Hnn. You have glasses- you get thing!" he decrees- and just to make sure the air warrior gets to it, Grim promptly attempts to pick Powerglide up by his cone-head and toss him over at the ...shiny thing! The cleaning bot rolls towards Fireflight, unconcerned by any shouts of warning. A hatch on its top pops open... Fireflight gacks as he's yanked back by Kup. Not one to not heed a warning, his gun appears in his hand and as he was pulled back (stumbling almost on the way) he lifts the gun to aim at the thing and FIRES. Preemptively. Sideswipe stumbles forewards as the door gives way, "Hoo!" he pipes as he catches himself, protecting his pride from a face first topple inwards. "Long time since I've done that." he confesses, aptly stumbling aside and away from the door, cringing away from the sudden bright light. Getting nothing else of use from this now, betting that Kup had what they would want in his hands, Lightspeed looked over at where Fireflight was, and down at the cleaning bot. "If... the Matrix, or Spark-15 I'm betting is what they called it, then it most likely gave these things sentience. And not the Autobot kind perhaps..." He said, backing away a bit. He didn't want to test his defenses against the bot. Then Fireflight fires. "Well, that will most likely get us labeled as grime and dirt to be cleaned." Fireflight's shot misses the robot, but it does catch the carpet on fire, and the little robot immediately turns to put it out with a little extinguisher. Tssst. Tssst. Kup rubs his chin as he watches this. "Huh." Fireflight lowers his gun, but flinches at Lightspeed's comment and puts the gun behind his back, still somewhat leaning on Kup as he watches the thing, optics wide to see what it would do next. Powerglide puts his hands up, "Woah there, Big Grim! I don't know who you think I am, but I sure as hell aint some sort of light..investigator..person, okay? Maybe we should-Hey! HEY! What are you doing!?" The minibot flails around when Grimlock picks him. It doesn't really help though, because he still gets thrown like a sexy, red ragdoll. Clang! Powerglide smacks against the glowing Matrix knockoff with a yelp and, after squirming around like an idiot, manages to grab onto the handles and save himself from falling. "Gaah! THESE SUNGLASSES DO NOTHING!" Lightspeed was feeling relieved some now as the cleaning bot went and did its prime directive. "Well, as long as we... oh Primus... those three are most likely the safest bunch on the ship right now." He said. Sideswipe shades his eyes from the glare, "Come on, Powerglide, turn that thing down! Dim our brightest hour!" Fireflight notes "You know, we could probably make small 'messes' to keep them distracted from trying to clean us." Fireflight says, "if it tries to that is." "Grrh! Maybe you Powerglide need get better glasses!" Grimlock says. He's....sort of peering through cracked fingers at the shiny, shiny thing. "Oooh! Me Know! Me Grimlock find light switch!" And with that said, Grimlock starts blundering around, blindly smacking one hand into the wall as he searches for a switch or something. Lightspeed says, "When was the last time Grimlock was cleaned though?" Kup nods. "Yeeeah... Fireflight, set that bookcase on fire before it realizes it has to clean us again. Alright, download those logs, Lightspeed. Then we're outta here." Fireflight glances over his shoulder at Kup, shocked "burn BOOKS??" The cleaning bot has just finished putting out the first fire, and is now rolling towards Fireflight. "Do it, dammit!" Kup barks. "I'm tryin'! I'm tryin'!" Powerglide whines as he dangles uselessly off the Bizarro Matrix. Hanging on with one hand, the other hand paws around all over the damn place, searching desperately for a way to turn it off. All this moving, however, is putting a lot of pressure on the cables. All two of them. "Hrnrnghh.." Lightspeed nodded. "Right Kup, and keep that Spark-15 book. It'll have what we need." The Technobot quickly went to work on downloading what files and logs he could from the computer. "They won't be forgotten now." Fireflight flinches a little, but his gun wavesr away from the book case (Which was too close to Lightspeed anyways for his taste), so he aims at the nearest chair, hoping its' flammable as he fires at it. The Matrix knockoff is STILL EXTREMELY BRIGHT! And Powerglide just might hear something. It sounds a bit like someone's whispering to him. The rest of Team Grimlock will notice cleaning robots helpfully pouring out of nearby maintenance tunnels. By the dozens. "ATTACK DRONES, SCRAP 'EM!" shouts Sideswipe, his rifle brought to hand and leveled on the little machines, popping laser fire at the little buggers one shot at a time. Kup nods, holding the Spark-15 manual up. "Yeah, still got it." As he watches Fireflight set the chair on fire instead of the books, he sighs. "Dammit, lad, the books would've burned longer and brighter. But whatever, it worked. Let's get outta here." He stomps out as the cleaning robot rolls up to the chair, revealing its fire extinguisher again. "Oh hey! Little thingies!" Grimlock says, peering back into the hallway- it's easier on the optics, at least. "You little thingies know where light am light-" he pauses, however, as Sideswipe goes to town. "...Them no LOOK like attack drones to me Grimlock." he notes. Fireflight grumbles "Books are still useful." He notes, and sets a second chair on fire, just to be sure. "Arrrggahhahhgh! It's like staring into a thousand suns!" Powerglide exclaims, now pounding on the KO Matrix with a fist. He contemplates letting go, but he'd either get horribly maimed by those little robots or Grimlock would just throw him back up there. After getting the logs, Lightspeed made his way out of the room as well. "It seems like these Matrixes are just doing nothing but creating dangerous things Kup. Given what I know of them though... its not surprising." The Technobot said, looking around for any more cleaning bots that might be showing up. The cleaning drones (they only clean, honest!) under assault by Sideswipe are blasted away into little plastic-y bits, and he manages to keep them at bay. Grimlock, unforunately, is soon surrounded by them. Dozens of them take up positions around, and little ray emitters pop out of their tops. These emitters fire a magenta-colored energy at the Dinobot, and it feels... strange and unpleasant. It's like someone is constantly peeling away his skin. That is, indeed, pretty much what is happening to him. Meanwhile, Powerglide's ill-advised punching of the knockoff Matrix causes its glow to change from an ice blue to a crimson red. The entire engine room looks like a stage from Doom3, now. Worse, the ship begins shuddering like crazy, and klaxons start to go off. Sideswipe isn't giving them the chance to prove him right.. or wrong for that matter! Taking time from shooting what may be simple, innocent janitorial units, Sideswipe looks to the swinging cables that now support Powerglide. Hed can hardly make them out through the glare. The fact that he might accidently hit the red-flyer isn't lost on him, if anything, it's a added bonus! Besides, he could always say the matrix made him do it. Whipping his weapon around, Sideswipe cracks off several shots towards the cables. Kup nods. "Yeah, every single reverse-engineered Matrix we've found has turned out to be more trouble than it's worth. And it bothers me that some Autobots ain't learned their lesson, yet." He spots a gaggle of cleaning drones waiting for them on the bridge, but diverts their attention simply by spitting on a wall. The drones are displeased by that, and begin rolling towards the oily glob. Fireflight stands on his own now, and fires at the carpet again as he backs towards the corridor "Let's get going then!" he states "I'm running out o fthings to burn." a flinch "Silverbolt would kill me if he knew..." Powerglide continues punching the Matrix in its stupid face. "Oh, now you're going to glow red? Yeah? YEAH? HUH!?" He wiggles around violently, "Yeah! You just /hate/ that, huh? Yeah, well, screw you too!" As for Sideswipe's shots, they hit the cables and cause them to release the Matrix. And Powerglide. "Thanks," the minibot scoffs from a heap on the floor. With the cables severed, the "Matrix" in Powerglides' hands falls to the ground. Since Powerglide is holding it, he presumably falls as well. Once this is done, however, the ship goes completely black for a moment. You can still hear the cleaning drones' engines whirring away, though. Battery-powered, apparently. "Ow!" Kup yells as he walks into a wall. "Dammit, can't see anything!" Fireflight calls back to Kup "Transform! Use your headlights!" he fires again, to set something else on fire. "There's more than that though Kup. Someone else is making most of these. As far as I know, Maxitran only made two, so unless there were other files elsewhere that I haven't had a chance to go over, we've got another player in this." Lightspeed said. The lights going out, though, causes Lightspeed to run into Kup from behind. "Ugh... NOW they get it out..." He mutters. Fireflight is backing up towards Lightspeed, gun still raised in the dark, although some red light was coming from the smouldering bridge as he bumps into Lightspeed. "Sorry1" "Ow!" Grimlock gowls, and gets chipped away at. "Grrh! Me Grimlock SHOW YOU!" and with that, he transforms to his dino mode! His blue optics glow in the dark for a few moments...but then, Grimlock finds a way to solve both the cleaner problem, AND the light problem. Fire breath! With a grunt and a growl, Grimlock changes into a robot T-rex! Watch out. Kup grunts, as he pushes off of the wall, "Nah, I got a portable flashlight. I ain't drivin' in here. Too cramped." He rummages around inside of his chest, then pulls his flashlight out and points it down the hallway they were trying to walk down. Numerous cleaning drones are driving past, but they seem intent on putting out Fireflight's latest fire. "Ehhhhgh. C'mon, let's go!" Kup follows his own advice, and hustles down the corridor. Fireflight nods and fires one last time, then turns to run after Kup and Lightspeed -
* WHAM* "... I hate mirrors!" His footsteps scramble though to catch up. Powerglide takes the Matrix in both his hands and raises it up over his head. "I MUST DO WHAT I WAS CREATED TO DO!" He then begins to beat it against the floor. Kup muses, even as he runs, "Yeah, that makes sense. There's too many of these knockoffs runnin' around for 'em to be isolated incidents. There's gotta be some common thread, but what?" "Sorry 'bout that Kup." Lightspeed said, refering to running into the other Autobot earlier. He does keep up with Kup, ignoring the cleaning bots for now. "Other than the destruction and causing inanimate objects to come to life... We really need a copy to actually study to come up with anything though." The Technobot said. Fireflight staggers after the other two, dripping a bit of fluid from his now quite broken nose. Think nothing o-" replies Sideswipe only to ber cut out as the light dies. He's quick to activate his chest-mounted headlights and begins to feel a .. tingly feeling in his leg. "Sonuva-!" he mutters stomping on a Jani-droid. He keeps up the firefight, only to notice teams of them gathering around the rubble and ruin of blast marks and other droid bits. He suddenly stops caring about aiming and just begins to spray fire wildly, trying to keep them occupied with picking up each other's bits and cleaning scorch marks, "Told you!" he shouts out to Grimlock as he starts up a barbacue. There's few better sources of lighting and heat than Dino-flame, and Grimlock indeed readily provides both. The engine room is lit up in a warm, orange glow, and dozens upon dozens of cleaning drones are instantly vaporized. Sideswipe also maintains a high kill-score against the drones, but somehow, they are still pouring out of their maintenance hatches. Powerglide hefts the Matrix over his head again. "Ugh! Stupid, annoying...THING!" He begins to pull on it, as if to tear it apart. "ARGH! THIS is why I don't go on missions anymore!" Robot T-Rex! growls, and glances around- distastefully smashing one unlucky maintenance drone flat. "Hnnn. This stupid! Me Grimlock say bring stupid matrix thing back to ship, and we smash later! So follow me Grimlock!" and with that said, Grimlock wades towards the sea of cleaning drones, cutting a swath with great gouts of fire breath! "Forget about it," Kup says, not pausing for an instant. "Maybe we'll maybe to keep this one, but that ain't seemin' likely." The three Autobots eventually reach the Tunnel of Doom, but Kup pauses just at the entrance. He frowns. "Huh." Then, emergency power seems to come back on, with dim, red lights illuminating the ship. Fireflight skids to a halt quickly "What's wrong??" he asks, wondering why everyone had stopped Lightspeed also stopped, looking down the tunnel. "That's what's wrong..." As Powerglide sllloooooowwwwly opens the Knockoff Matrix, a brilliant object shines from within.... (skip to about fifteen seconds into the video) Kup looks suspiciously down the corridor. "I dunno... this don't look right. Looks like a Laser Tunnel. And the power came back on. Tread carefully." He stomps ahead. Lightspeed nodded a bit, trying to move inwards carefully. "The others went down this way, didn't they? Maybe they're on their way back now, if not swamped with cleaning bots trying to clean up their mess..." He said. "Arrrghh! Screw you!" Powerglide exclaims as the light shines directly into his eyes. "I'm going to rip this stupid thing apart and then get someone to fart on it," he growls, pulling on it with even more strength and gusto than before. Fireflight holds his face still, no doubt leaving a trail as he walks behind the others, gun still drawn and ready. Sideswipe zap, zap, zaps the Jani-droids! "The Finger holes!" he shouts as he lifts up on jet-thrusters, hovering over the floor, sending a barrage of laser-fire at the droid hatches, "Use the Finger holes!" "No! That's stupid and just looks incredibly stupid!" Powerglide shouts back. He does it anyway though. Something AMAZING happens! Powerglide starts to grow in size, eventually standing as tall as Rodimus Prime! No, even taller! And he looks totally badass! Then he rips the Knockoff Matrix apart. Woops. Well, he still seems to be uber for the moment. However, after the Matrix was clumsily destroyed, something poured out of it. It looks like a blue, luminescent stream of vapor. It swirls around the room, crackling with energy. Powerglide just stares as he holds two halves of the Matrix. "...Huh.." The cleaning droids are not impressed and begin to attack Powerglide, too. Grimlock and Sideswipe are still being assailed, but it seems like the drones have backed from them for the moment, as if their programming is confused. Kup stomps down the Tunnel of Doom, eventually entering the Engine room. "Good, the trap didn't go off and... WHAT THE." His jaw drops as he gets a look at Powerglide. "*Oh no.*" Fireflight can't see, from behind Kup and Lightspeed. He turns instead to watch the way they came, and blinks at the trail he left "... Uh oh." "Hi Kup!" Grimlock says, between fire blasts. "Me Grimlock no want this spaceship no more! It dumb!" just to switch things up, Grimlock switches to some eye-lasers, neatly a-sploding another hapless drone. Lightspeed sees Powerglide as well, when he comes upon the engine room with Kup. Logic quickly goes and asserts itself. "You did something that you really shouldn't have, did you? You destroyed the Matrix before we could figure out what it was doing, didn't you?" Sideswipe takes a pause in his flying and shooting, "Hey... Didin't Unicron blow up when they opened the Matrix inside of him..? Powerglide throws the pieces onto the ground with a huff, "That was a complete waste of my time." Then it dawns on him... and he snickers. Then laughs. Then full-out GUFFAWS. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAA! I AM KING! EVERYONE MUST BOW DOWN TO ME, POWERGLIDE PRIME! AHAHAHHAHAA-Agh!" He's then mugged by a bunch of cleaning droids. Kup gives Powerglide a disgusted look. "Unnngh, I'm gonna have a headache. You know what, I totally agree, Grimlock. This ship's fraggin' stupid. And I dunno if it's gonna explode, but I think we got what we came for..." Just as Kup turns to leave, though, the luminescent vapor floating above everyone... speaks!? "I do not know who you are, but thank you for releasing me from that prison! Oh, that was horrible. Every day, in and out, they would drain me of my life-force. You have no idea how awful it was." Fireflight leaps sideways at that, staring up and ... all around "... Uhm. you're welcome? " he states "Sorry about the carpets and chairs though..." "I knew it! Who are you? Who made you? It couldn't have been Maxitran who did this. We have to know to put a stop to all of this." Lightspeed said, obviously seeming to know more about what's going on then anything. Sideswipe 's beginnings of escape are halted, :"Um.. hey.. no biggie.." he replies, looking about, "So.. are you going to blow this place up, Mister/Miss voice from inside the matrix? "No." Grimlock corrects Sideswipe. "Him Unicron a-splode 'cuz me Grimlock KICK HIS BUTT." a pause. "...Him Rodimus might helped. A little." he glances over at the glowy vapory stuff, and grunts. "Uuuuh. Kay. Can me Grimlock go now?" And, without waiting for an answer, he does! "Me Grimlock say somebody else make report!" "Hahaha, it was MY pleasure, voice-thing!" Powerglide says, trying to kick the little droids away. "So, do I get three wishes now? OKAY! My first wish is that I'm the owner of a sucessful magazine and live in a HUGE mansion with a bunch of hot girls!" "Oh, that's alright," the energy cloud says to Fireflight. "I hate this place anyway. And no one made me. I am an energy being known as the--" It emits an ear shattering noise that sounds like BREEEEEEEEEE! "--and I was captured by some terrible people and placed in that containment unit! Then, they used me to power this space ship! As for destroying the ship, well, I suppose I should, once you all leave." Its reaction to Powerglide is, simply, "Huh?" Fireflight flinches at the sound and puts his hands over his audials. Then he nods "Oh, okay." a pause as he looks back towards the bridge again "Those books would be destroyed too..." Kup grimaces and put his hands over his audials. "Gah... fraggin' loud..." "Can I have five bucks atleast?" Powerglide says. The energy cloud still seems confused. "What are bucks?" Lightspeed winced at the noise, but shook it off. "So... others know how to... Red's not going to like this." He said. A moment passes. "Rodimus is going to be furious." Sighing and shaking his head, he looked at the energy cloud again. "Can you at least tell us who they were, or where they come from or something like that? They've made a lot of these containment units and none of them have been good. We want to stop them, but with out knowing where they are or from, its not easy." Powerglide scratches his chin, "Uh, nevermind.." Fireflight looks at Powerglide, then at Kup a moment, then asks in a soft voice "Before you destroy the ship, can I salvage those books? They may be valuable to someone." he suggests, hopefully. Grimlock has left. Fireflight then flinches as one starts to try stipping his foot and he kicks it back towards the others "OW!" "Oh, hey.." Sideswipe complains, clean-rayed again, replying with lasers, "CVan we do this when we arn't trying to be murdered by disgruntled Willies?" "The books?" the energy cloud says. "Oh, my, you don't want to go back down that way. The cleaning droids will disintegrate you. Well, yes, they're still trying to do that, but there's a lot of them there, in the bridge, and along the way. It would be best if you left and let me blow up the ship. As for who did it, it was gentlemen like those, right there." It points a tendril of vapor behind Kup. The old mech turns around, and sees, a squad of evil looking aliens, armed to the teeth, apparently led by someone in a business suit! "Thanks for recovering our energy unit sucker--" the business suit wearing man says, then looks up at the energy cloud and gasps. "You... opened it!?!" Fireflight looks somewhat dissapointed that he couldnt rescue the books, but nods at the energy thing. THen he blinks and turns towards the Aliens there, lifting his gun once more "Yes, we did! Dont you know that imprisoning people is a bad thing??" "Yes! It was I who opened it!" Powerglide shouts, even going as far as to strike a pose. "No need to thank me, hehheh, but if want to, well, go ahead." Sideswipe zap, zap, zaps more droids, stabbing a finger towards, Powerglide, "He did it." Lightspeed turns around and faces the aliens. "So... you all did this?" Fireflight had the right idea. "They will thank us with our deaths, Powerglide." Lightspeed said, pulling out his own weapon. "Though I think that they need their own repayment now as well. What they do is more than anyone wants." Sideswipe takes a momentary pause in Droid murder to fix Lightspeed with a look, "Dude, Technobots are hardcore. Even their nerd will murder you." The evil business alien snarls, "Fools! You were supposed to retrieve the Spark-15, not destroy it and release that priceless specimen! Do you have any idea how much that thing was worth!?" He grits his teeth for a moment. "Oh, yes, we made that power unit, and trapped the specimen inside. It would've powered the ship for centuries! And what do we care of the creature within? It's just another commodity. Not that it will matter to you in a moment. I, Director Arrz of Powercorp Intergalactic, will make you pay for this! Men... prepare to fire." Kup scowls. "Feh. Looks like that tip wasn't so anonymous after all. That's what I get fer trustin' strangers." Fireflight blinks at the mech, scowling. He mutters something, then lifts his gun to fire!
* BLAM* Lightspeed smirked, filling the names away now. "I thank you for that bit of information. I will be sure to use it well." Lightspeed is a nerd, but he is also a nerd that carries a big weapon. Such as his Light-burst gun, with laser settings. "Now..." He said, as Fireflight fires. The Technobot fires as well on the aliens, focusing to try and hit the Director. "Now you will pay for destroying so many lives..." Sideswipe pitches his two cents in, his two cents actualy being a powerful missile rocketing over the heads of Kup, Fireflight, and Lightspeed and into the midst of the industrial mercenaries. "Ahhh!" cries Director Arrz as Fireflight's shot impacts against the bulkhead behind him. "You tried to shoot me!" he yells, shocked. "I will most certainly file a complaint against the Auto--hrrkk!" His eye twitches as Lightspeed's laser burns a hole into his chest. "Hrrk! I... I... uhhh... unnnnhhh..." With a flop, he falls forward. His guards, now leaderless, look down at his dead body, then at each other. "What should we do--" one starts to say before Sideswipe's missile explodes in their ranks, knocking them all down and taking out several of them. Kup aims his own musket at the survivors. "Alright, you jerks, your clever little plan has failed. Now drop yer weapons before we blast the rest 'a ya." Powerglide shrugs. Everyone else is shooting stuff, he might as well too, lest he be considered a loser. Pew pew! He fires his little laser at /the suits/. Fireflight turns then and fires at the cleaning drones again, to keep them occupied. One of the guards begins to stand up, hands raised. "Okay, I surrender!" Then Powerglide shoots a hole through his hand. "AAGGGH!" Kup facepalms. Sideswipe says, "Meat prisoners are kind of annoying.. I mean, we'd have to feed them and keep their cell preasurized."" Lightspeed feels better now. Granted, he could have gotten more information out of him, but knowing the group and all, he could easily find their plans, and destroy them. "That's that then. I don't care what happens to the rest of these guys, but we do have work to do, Kup." "Well, that was unpleasant," comments the energy creature, still floating overhead. "I should really leave, now, my friends. Thank you saving from them, and probably more than once. Now, I must leave the ship. I'll destroy it once you've left." It begins to stream out of the engine room. Several minutes later, it streams back in, saying, "Oh, I almost forgot something." The energy creature wraps itself around Powerglide, and he slowly begins to shrink back to his normal, less badass size. "There we go. He still had some of my energy. Well, goodbye, everyone!" Then it streams back out again. "WHAT? NOOOOO!" Powerglide falls onto his (short) knees and throws his hands in the air. "I WAS SO CLOSE TO FINALLY BEING THE BEST! SOOO CLOOOOOOSSEEEE!" Sideswipe promptly, and by prompt I mean he hauls aft, departs the ship. Fireflight is too distracted by the chatter to do anything, not even firing on the cleaning bots anymore. Lightspeed nodded, grabbing Fireflight and dragging him off to the ship. "Someone Sideswipe, get Powerglide and lets go." The Technobot said. Kup nods to Lightspeed. "Yeah, like takin' these files and gettin' outta here. We got what we need, and I don't wanna get zapped by these damn drones no more. As for these guys, eh..." He nudges a living guard with his foot. "I don't think we should even bother arrestin' 'em, Sideswipe. I'm sure they got their own transportation." Following Sideswipe's lead, he runs out of the engine room, muttering, "And it's a good thing we avoided THAT disaster..." This being directed at Powerglide. Fireflight GACKS and stumbles as Lightspeed pulls him. He yanks his arm away "I can run on my ow-"
* WHAM* Powerglide throws himself dramtically on the ground and brings a hand to his forehead. "IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME..." "I like that idea!" calls back Sideswipe, "I like that idea a lot!" Kup growls, halting in the middle of the Tunnel of Doom, turning around, and attempting to grab Powerglide and throw him over his shoulder. "Let's go, dammit!" Fireflight stumbles along with the others, this time just letting himself be dragged. For his own safety. Powerglide is pulling a Shinji Ikari and is easily flopped over Kup's shoulder like an overly cooked noodle. SPINNY! o/~ Dun dun dun da dun, dun! o/~ Powerglide has left. Sideswipe has left. Lightspeed has left. Before you is an awe-inspiring sight to many - a kilometer-long starship. Cast in the golden-orange hues of traditional Autobot spacecraft, this Ark II-class transwarp space carrier represents the top-of-the-line in current starship engineering technology. Resembling a giant Terran aircraft carrier, its long bow is a flat launch deck, with spaces for a number of smaller spacecraft and vehicle-mode Transformers to park, refuel and rearm. A bridge tower rises up from the rear quarter of the spacecraft, bristling with various communication and sensor antennae. Proud, crimson Autobot symbols have been applied to appropriate areas of the spacecraft, making its allegiance no matter of doubt. Inscribed on the bow in English, Cybertronian and Galactic Common lettering is its name: "ORION PAX."========================[ The Orion Pax ]=========================
This yawning chamber is the reason the entire star carrier exists, and runs a substantial portion of the length of the kilometer-long starship. In fact, if certain cargo modules were moved around, one could stow an entire Nimitz-class aircraft carrier within the Ark II's hangar hold if one so chose to do so. (Or if Broadside just wanted to stretch his legs, so to speak.) The area is a flurry of activity, offering sensory overload to any one individual who attempts to track all that is going on here at any given time. Several gleaming orange Autobot shuttles rest in parking booths, with a number of umbilical fuel hoses attached to their ventral connection ports. Service vehicles (and possibly vehicle-mode Autobots) wiz back and forth, and the constant hiss and clanging of machinery fills the air. From time to time, warning lights flash as a ship taxis towards one of the massive airlock-lifts, which lead to the carrier's surface deck. External ship broadcasts for this room are ON Type +shiphelp for help This is a ship entrance/exit room. Use the AIRLOCK command to leave the ship for it's current location: Spectral Climbs Kup phews, stepping off of the shuttle. Outside, past the pressure field sealing in the hangar's oxygen, the Starship Nico explodes. "I ain't never gonna trust a clean ship again." Sideswipe follows out after Kup, "From now on I like my ships like I like my femmes, Dirty and not filled with murderous Jani-droids." "Yeah. We should also double check our sources as well. You know, to avoid having to kill them afterwards." Lightspeed said. He just shakes his head at Sideswipe, sighing. Fireflight is led along hopefully, now holding his rather dented up faceplate now in discomfort. Kup shakes his head at Sideswipe, as well. "Something's wrong with you and your brother, you know that? And yeah, well, at least we got more clues on the real Matrix. And that's just Prime." He laughs uproariously, even though the joke wasn't really that funny. Powerglide just scowls at Kup. Sideswipe laughs aswell, just like the good old days, everyone laughing at Powerglide! Lightspeed sighed a bit, shaking his head. "I'm going to go look up more on that company for now. Have to keep them from making any more of their containers now, right?"
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