| abstract | - Ancient trees reach up from the ground, their roots an iron network that infiltrates the soil. Their thick, sturdy branches jut outward and their leaves form a dense canopy of green. Occasionally, a beam of light will focus through a gap or two, illuminating a particular patch of brilliant, exotic blooms. Keep your eyes on these blooms and you'll see a reptilloid or mammolok leap from a branch and gobble at the succulent fruits that hang from them. Razor-edged fronds arch out from the soil, threatening to nick and scrape any hardy adventurers on foot. Don't linger -- the vicious vulpinars, a predatory fox with nine tails studded in talons, might fancy you to be an easy snack! Contents: Control Bunker Reaver Shuttle Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Antispinwards Orbit leads to Dyson Ring Periphery. Shockwave leaves the Reaver Shuttle . Shockwave has arrived. Fleet leaves the Reaver Shuttle . Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus leaves the Reaver Shuttle . Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast leaves the Reaver Shuttle . Comcast has arrived. Harrow leaves the Reaver Shuttle . Harrow has arrived. Mixmaster leaves the Reaver Shuttle . Mixmaster has arrived. Brawl leaves the Reaver Shuttle . Brawl has arrived. Checking out another team's work is always a pain. Even if the other crew has done everything by the book, there are stylistic conventions that differ, and as far as this particular property goes... it is an alien artifact of staggeringly insane size that was most repaired by the Sweeps. Scrapper rubs his temples and stares down at his datapad. Right. Better start this now. He looks back at the ghoulish shuttle, the only one that was available at the NCC docks, and he looks across the vast, treed area, his building-sense pointing out that there is a bunker of some sort here. He points and barks, "First stop on the tour!" Covered in jungle foliage and a smear of a white foam over the edges is the Control Bunker. Once it was set amongst scenic surroundings, but now the jungle seems to have attempted to reclaim the building with all manner of jungle plants entangling the outside. Fleet begins following you. Cyclonus steps out of the shuttle and gracefully lands on the ground near Scrapper. He looks up around him, amazed as always by the size of the Dyson ring. What civilization was able to build that marvel of technology? The unicronian doesn't know but he is not the introspective type so his mind quickly goes back on more pressing matters : The inspection of a highly sensitive asset of the empire. He looks down at Scrapper, "I hope you will be able to make sure everything is in order here. Lord Galvatron wants to facility to operate at full efficiency... and he wants you to find out all you can about this place." Fleet is only marginally connected to the inspection team. He's mostly here as muscle, should it be needed, or just another pair of eyes. He tip-tap-tips out of the shuttle behind Cyclonus and glances around, checking to see where the other Seekers might be standing and intending to take advantage of the multiple-Seeker invisibility rule. Comcast is here should any of the radio equipment should need maintenance. But also because anything that gets him away from their beloved leader means he's less likely to get in trouble for throwing Reflector under the bus the way he did the other day. No, he'll be safe here... Except that he never realized /Cyclonus/ was going to be on this trip. Drat. For now he keeps quiet and looks as generically seekerish as possible. Shockwave follows Cyclonus, carrying a sampling case with built-in tools made especially by Shockwave for use with one hand. His highly acute sensors are on full alert, as in Shockwave's previous experience visiting this rather mysterious holding, the Dyson ring is not without its hazards. Only one of which is a lack of handrails. Mixmaster trudges along behind Scrapper, peering out from under his shoulder-mounted rack thing. His gaze falls upon the vast tracts of land, all of it filled with hideous trees and other biological lifeforms. "Hrmm, I do wonder if all this /organic matter/ is a requirement of the Dyson Ring's function... We could surely convert it's constituent hydrocarbons into fuel, and then use this space for something useful." Brawl is standing a couple of feet from all others, looking down at his feet shuffling back and forth. In reality, the Combaticon has no idea why he's here, maybe in the slim hope that some sort of conflict arise that requires his skillset. Looking up, Brawl inches towards Fleet and Comcast in an attempt to be overlooked as an ordinary generic Seeker. Scrapper withdraws that boring plain metal sword of his to hack his way through the brush, toward that bunker. Sure Cyclonus, no pressure, eh? Scrapper replies, keeping his tone even, "We'll do our best, sir." To Mixmaster, he sounds a bit more animated, "That's something we may determine today! Though I doubt we'll have enough time. However, the fact that the flora and fauna yet endures suggests that it might eb integral to the system design, repugnant as that may be..." And there, the bunker. Scrapper slips inside, eager to be out of the jungle. Jungles are always full of massive snakes that attack the nearest Seeker (or Brawl). The inside of the Control Bunker lies uncared for and rusted. At some point the airtight seals were broken letting moisture in. A seaweed-looking substance has started growing over one of the consoles, while another is brown with rust. Most of the solar-powered systems seem to be working however, with flickering screens showing the position of the central sun Yrral and the mechanical parts that surround it, while others show warning diagrams of what seems to be a blockage in the central pipelines of the Dyson Ring. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has arrived. Brawl has arrived. Cyclonus has arrived. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow has arrived. Comcast has arrived. Cyclonus begins following you. Comcast begins following you. Brawl begins following you. Mixmaster begins following you. Harrow begins following you. Cyclonus enters into a control bunker and proceed to inspect the installations. Apparently he didn't realise that Scrapper considers he's asking too much since he comments, "This bunker is in an unacceptable state. Evaluate his priority and proceed to the necessary repairs." Scrapper waves his sword around in disgust and exclaims, "This place is a mess!" He puts the sword away and tromps over to look at the control screens, clearly grumpy. He mutters, "Rust, rust, rust everywhere - the seals must be broken. Moisture from the jungle getting inside. And is that /seaweed/?" NCC has massive problems with seaweed, but NCC is /underwater/. Stupid alien artifacts. As Cyclonus seems to agree with Scrapper's dour assessment, he pulls out his datapad and taps down some notes, agreeing, "Making a memo of it, sir. We'll get a crew out as soon as we have one to spare," which may take a while. Shockwave simply produces a quiet *ding!* noise from somewhere inside his massive body as he confirms his prediction that the Sweeps would not, in fact, have fixed anything during their almost year-long run as the custodians of the dyson ring. Comcast approaches the console's radio unit, pressing a few buttons to see if it still works. Apparently the last person in here has the sound set to 'broadcast' and then didn't leave it tuned into any particular frequency. Deafening white noise gets played through the bunker. Comcast attempts to shut off the radio only to discover that is on of the buttons jammed in with seaweed. After several failed attempts at shutting it off, he quickly fires an arm-mounted laser as the console, making the noise go away finally. "Uh. I think there is some area for improvement in the comm systems here." Scrapper wonders what Shockwave was microwaving inside himself. Wait. Probably not that kind of ding. Probably also not that kind of microwaves, for that matter. He looks over at Comcast, and his shovel twitches. He writes down 'repair communications system', and then he points at one of the other monitors, "And a pipeline blockage, too? That's even worse than the handrails!" Brawl looks at Comcast's display of technological testing, then walks up to a console of his own beside the Seekers. Slamming a fist down into the keyboard, little pegs of numbers and letters fly out everywhere, sparks flying up from the array. "Brawl think this not work." he mutters to himself, looking wide optic'd at Comcast in that 'you should be proud of me' look. "Your assessment is both correct and sufficient, Brawl," declares Shockwave. "No more will be required. Proceed, Scrapper." Ancient trees reach up from the ground, their roots an iron network that infiltrates the soil. Their thick, sturdy branches jut outward and their leaves form a dense canopy of green. Occasionally, a beam of light will focus through a gap or two, illuminating a particular patch of brilliant, exotic blooms. Keep your eyes on these blooms and you'll see a reptilloid or mammolok leap from a branch and gobble at the succulent fruits that hang from them. Razor-edged fronds arch out from the soil, threatening to nick and scrape any hardy adventurers on foot. Don't linger -- the vicious vulpinars, a predatory fox with nine tails studded in talons, might fancy you to be an easy snack! Contents: Control Bunker Reaver Shuttle Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Antispinwards Orbit leads to Dyson Ring Periphery. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast has arrived. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow has arrived. You move to the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. The broken, shattered remains of buildings claw desperately at the poisoned sky in a ruined realm that spans an area the size of continents on Earth. Among the structures, which, upon closer examination, prove to be ancient, abandoned factories, rivers of toxic sludge run red. Zones the size of cities flicker continuously in pollutant-fed fires that have been burning for centuries or longer, providing a dim but inconsistent scarlet light to this region despite the constant covering of angry, rust-colored clouds. Nothing could have survived here long, and yet, in the shifting shadows of distant fires, it becomes so easy to imagine otherworldly creatures down every alley and through every fractured window. Contents: Decrepit Laboratory Transit Hub Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - New Plains. Antispinwards Shockwave arrives from the Dyson Ring - Jungled Region. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet arrives from the Dyson Ring - Jungled Region. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus arrives from the Dyson Ring - Jungled Region. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast arrives from the Dyson Ring - Jungled Region. Comcast has arrived. Brawl arrives from the Dyson Ring - Jungled Region. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster arrives from the Dyson Ring - Jungled Region. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow arrives from the Dyson Ring - Jungled Region. Harrow has arrived. In among the buildings is a nondescript building, stained grey and black. From under the main door, lurid, sticky chemicals leak out onto the road. A large cylindrical building that towers over much of the sector, the Transit Hub once had vast rails flowing off it, but now most of these have fallen down. Windows lie broken, and the main entry hall is shattered and weed-encrusted Cyclonus completes his inspection of the bunker. His face remains emotionless as usual but it is clear that he is not happy, "Is that the kind of...things... I can expect to see everywhere on the ring? I am...disappointed." Out of the jungle, into the toxic industrial sprawl. Scrapper proclaims, "Ah, now this is more like home!" He even glances over to the building with the chemicals leaking under the door, "...almost exactly like home. Mixmaster, have you been here?" He squints over at Mixmaster suspiciously. Scrapper rubs his hands together nervously, and he assures Cyclonus, "Well, you see, my lord... this is why we're doing the inspection now! To catch it before it falls apart entirely." "Although the structure is an excellent example of macroengineering, the Dyson ring has been abandoned for aeons," points out Shockwave. "Many of the minor mechanical components will inevitably have succumbed to time and the elements. Nevertheless, the Sweeps claimed over the course of their stewardship to have recovered a staggering quantity of energon, although it should be noted that this supposed wealth did not have even a fractional effect on the course of the war or the status of the Decepticons as a whole, casting their accuracy or their honesty into doubt." After Brawl's enthusiastic 'me too' moment, Comcast resigns himself to keeping quiet for now. He sidles up to Fleet. Quietly, he mutters, "Usually these sorts of trips mean getting away from high command for a while. What are Shockwave /and/ Cyclonus doing here?" Cyclonus proceed as he did in the bunker and he closely looks around him as he walks into the industrial zone. He nods at Scrapper, "Good. But I'm not willing to wait for a team to be available to ensure maintenance here. You are going to assign a maintenance team to the ring at once. I don't care from where you pull it." He glances towards Shockwave, "The Sweeps did as they were ordered. I suggest you refrain from judging their acts." Hook has arrived. Fleet tilts his head and offers Comcast a confused, innocent look. The pastel yellow helps make him look more innocent. He shakes his head and gives a faint shrug. "Wouldn't know," he answers softly. "Why don't you ask?" "Your suggestion is noted and filed," announces Shockwave's perfectly synthesized voice. Hook begins following you. Scrapper hates himself as he says this, but his ethical integrity as an engineering (yes, he still has some, despite being a Decepticon) demands it. So he says quietly, "Lord Cyclonus, sir? I am afraid to say that this inspection does indeed amount exactly to judging their work." ...and then Scrapper ducks off into one of the buildings, courage over. This building once houses a pristine laboratory. Now, it is a shattered mess. Glass litters the floor. Decayed massed that might once have been corpses are strapped to tables that have started to buckle. Monitoring equipment flickers and buzzes erratically with weed growing over the circuitry. The laboratory computers seem to have been smashed. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast has arrived. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow has arrived. Hook has arrived. Comcast has partially disconnected. "Because I don't want to accessorize my current looks with some blaster damage, that's why not!" Comcast whispers sharply to Fleet. He cautiously looks over his shoulder to ensure that they don't have a Combaticon sticking around nearby pretending to be a Seeker and messing up their ability to be ignored. "Ugh the computers are smashed. Either the Sweeps don't know what to do with those, or security needs to be bumped up here." Hook was there all along hanging around the back and writing some notes in his PDA. This place is awful...shows it was not him who was in charge of the place else it would as clean as the workshop. Scrapper glares to see a laboratory so smashed up! Laboratories are the best! He can vivisect people and do unethical experiments in laboratories. He sighs and looks to see if anyone is following him (like an angry Cyclonus, ready to make Scrapper into a scrap). And there is Hook. Who was always there. Hook is always there. Always. Especially when you don't want him. Brawl is standing off to the left of Comcast, sulking. If he didn't smash that computer console, he could probably still be lurking in the background as another random Seeker. Cyclonus walks into the laboratory, crushing the pieces of glass, that are covering the floor, under his heel. He ignores the buzzing monitors as he walks around wondering what discovery were made here in the past. He chooses to ignore Scrapper's comment since Sweeps are not exactly engineer and he has other things to do, more important than protecting the Sweeps reputation. Shockwave leans forward slightly so that he can see the floor over his own awkwardly shaped torso. He holds forth his cannon arm and projects a sweeping laser beam from it which scans up and down the thing he's looking at. It appears to be a large plastic cylinder, capped on the end resting on the floor. A small pile of bones and perhaps hair rests inside. "All buckets must be clearly labelled," declares Shockwave, pointing out that no one has labelled this bucket. Fleet offers Comcast a faint shrug. "This place has enormous energon potential, Comcast, and since the Autobots don't even seem to know about it, we've got free reign here. Is it any wonder that High Command should be interested in this area?" Hook passes Scrapper and mumbles something to him. He mutters to Scrapper, "When you... called a 'sweep'... to... use... sweep up all... scrap." You sense Hook passes Scrapper and mumbles something to him. "When you are called a 'sweep' I would expect them to at least know how to use a broom to sweep up all this scrap." Scrapper pulls out a marker and labels the bucket 'cheetah'. The bones look kinda like Ravage's internal struts, the hair is kind tawny and black... it's a cheetah! A dead alien cheetah. Then, he adds some notes down on his datapad, suggesting, "Perhaps the workers here didn't want their data discovered and broke the machines when they left. Kinda silly to break the monitors, though..." Shockwave tilts back to his normal posture and walks off to look at other parts of the laboratory, apparently satisfied. Scrapper mutters to Hook, "I... name them. I... Killtrondeathmongers2000." You whisper "I didn't name them. I woulda called 'em Killtrondeathmongers2000." to Hook. Hook looks at Scrapper as if struck by inspiration. "What a wonderful name for some new combat drone we could build. I think you need to trademark it brother." Scrapper tilts his head to one side and asks, "You really think so, Hook? Hmm!" He finally sighs and admits, "Better keep covering ground." The broken, shattered remains of buildings claw desperately at the poisoned sky in a ruined realm that spans an area the size of continents on Earth. Among the structures, which, upon closer examination, prove to be ancient, abandoned factories, rivers of toxic sludge run red. Zones the size of cities flicker continuously in pollutant-fed fires that have been burning for centuries or longer, providing a dim but inconsistent scarlet light to this region despite the constant covering of angry, rust-colored clouds. Nothing could have survived here long, and yet, in the shifting shadows of distant fires, it becomes so easy to imagine otherworldly creatures down every alley and through every fractured window. Contents: Decrepit Laboratory Transit Hub Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - New Plains. Antispinwards Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast has arrived. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow has arrived. Hook has arrived. This vast, cylindrical room appears to be the hub of some ancient transportation system. The walls are filled with rows and rows of large round holes, giving the room a honeycombed appearance. Each hole is the mouth to a tunnel of seemingly endless depth, the blackness of the unlit tunnels swallowing up any light that shines into them. In the center of the room is a huge machine, a multi-jointed construct of cables, hydraulics and pistons, supporting a large tube of foggy, transparent plexi-steel. The machine's purpose seems to be to position the suspended segment between two of the tunnels and complete the circuit. The weed-ridden floor of the room is filled with littered with vehicles that seem to have plummeted from the tunnels above, scattered about like broken toys. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast has arrived. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow has arrived. Hook has arrived. If Cyclonus is bored by this long inspection, he doesn't show any sign of it but since he's all about business, maybe he is NOT bored. He looks down at the Constructicons, "Since it's not all our troops that can get around easily or efficiently, you must give a high priority to organize transportation around the rings. If you think you can do something with this place without wasting too much ressources...do it." Scrapper comments, "That's the thing. The main reason why we care about this place is not what we put into it but what we get out of it. And what we get out of it is energy, mostly. If we wanted to, it also prepresents a vast source of refined materials on a truely staggering scale." Scrapper stares down at the holes and tunnels, and he comments, "Definitely needs handrails." "Again with the flora infesatation.." Comcast says to noone in particular as he tugs at one of the weeds on the ground with his foot. "What /exactly/ did the Sweeps do here? Judging notwithstanding... how did they improve Dyson's fixtures and fittings?" Hook nods "Indeed...The sheer quantity of transparant plexi-steel in a single tube could make lots and lots of blast-proof windows." Hook frowns at the flora..."Needs more chlorine and maybe a touch of low intensity flamethrower to burn that disgusting vegetation." Scrapper's shovel skews a bit, and he suggests, "Well... it could have been worse?" He looks left to right, as if expecting something that is indeed worse to happen. Hook looks at the tubes up and high in case of them decides to drop a hovercar transport or something. In the middle of all these tubes almost feels like being in a giant pinball machine of death and not knowing where the ball might come from. Brawl nods at Scrapper and the others comments as if truly digesting them all and coming out more knowledgable. In reality, he's thinking how better their smartypants faces would look punched in. Astrotrain has arrived. Scrapper doesn't have a face. He wins! Of course, Shockwave is better at not having a face, but Shockwave is usually better at everything, annoyingly. He suggests, "Better get going, before I regret my words." Astrotrain begins following you. The broken, shattered remains of buildings claw desperately at the poisoned sky in a ruined realm that spans an area the size of continents on Earth. Among the structures, which, upon closer examination, prove to be ancient, abandoned factories, rivers of toxic sludge run red. Zones the size of cities flicker continuously in pollutant-fed fires that have been burning for centuries or longer, providing a dim but inconsistent scarlet light to this region despite the constant covering of angry, rust-colored clouds. Nothing could have survived here long, and yet, in the shifting shadows of distant fires, it becomes so easy to imagine otherworldly creatures down every alley and through every fractured window. Contents: Decrepit Laboratory Transit Hub Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - New Plains. Antispinwards Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast has arrived. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow has arrived. Hook has arrived. Astrotrain has arrived. You move to the Dyson Ring - New Plains. An enormous mound of gentle vegetation that reaches high thrives past the Broken Terrain. A thick carpeting of soft, tall grass extends as far as the eye can see. Occasionally, a slim tree or two breaks up the land, their branches short but eager for the sun. Herds of strange beasts, rhino-like with rows of knobby horns on their heads and protruding fangs, roam the plains in search of the tastiest of grass shoots. If you follow where they graze and look just close enough, you'll find the strangest chunks of metal and cement. If you look closer, you might even find the remains of a well-constructed foundation or two... Contents: Spaceport Ruins World Tree Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Antispinwards Orbit leads to Dyson Ring Periphery. Shockwave arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Comcast has arrived. Brawl arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Harrow has arrived. Hook arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Hook has arrived. Astrotrain arrives from the Dyson Ring - Industrial Zone. Astrotrain has arrived. At one time the primary entry point to the Dyson Ring, the Spaceport is accessed through a series of huge loops built into the side of the Ring floor. Humming with power from some unknown source, the loops form a giant linear accelerator that allows incoming ships to accelerate themselves to match the Ring's 770 miles-per-hour spin. Half the rings have crumbled and rusted now, jutting at angles and coated in a slimy seaweed substance rendering hazardous any attempts at using the loops in their current state. The Spaceport itself is a shelf jutting into the void, gutted hulks of ancient spacecraft littering the landing strips. An osmotic force-field shimmers over a huge inset bulkhead, obviously an air-tight portal to the interior of the Ring. Akin to the Terran Oak, this tree has grown fat from millennia of unchecked growth and nutrimental supplements. Extending its ancient arms into the sky, this tree reaches almost two miles high, each gigantic branch developing its own ecosystem. The roots of the tree sprawl out in a huge radius of over a mile, across the land and deep into the soil of the Ring. Some roots have even reached the substructures below and are somehow feeding off some of the power, causing the pear-like fruit on the tree to glow with an unearthly light. Scrapper looks at his datapad, and he announces, "And that tree, there, would be one of the primary sources of the energy that we extract from this piece of junk. The fruit, apparently, converts easily to energon. One weed we won't be whacking." Cyclonus frowns...fruits converted into energon, "This is interesting. Have we tried to duplicate that tree?" He's asking even though he knows that if they tried, they didn't succeed! "And do we know how is that even possible?" Astrotrain has totally been following along the whole time. Why is he here? Probably to serve as transport for anything important that needed to be brought back. It sure beats the alternative job he could have had, that being to babysit tapecons that Soundwave doesn't have time to look after. Scrapper comments, rather loudly, "Mixmaster could tell you more, but most fuels are just hydrocarbon chains. Rather than saccharides, the 'fruit' there is more straight-chain hydrocarbons., Cracks down into energon pretty easily. Comcast rolls his optics. Sure, when Scrapper says to harvest fruit there are sound practical reasons to do that. But you order a raid for /one/ farmers market...! Scrapper comments, rather loudly, "Mixmaster could tell you more, but most fuels are just hydrocarbon chains. Rather than saccharides, the 'fruit' there is more straight-chain hydrocarbons. Cracks down into energon pretty easily." He rubs the back of his helmet and admits, "Actually, you can crack any organic matter into energon. This one is just a lot easier than most." And that is where Comcast fails. He points over at the spaceport and suggests, "If we had that running, this would be a decent base of operations... if we cared about anything in this area of space." Hook never understood the whole organic thing and is not really a fan of something that upgrades itself through a random evolution process. Astrotrain does find the part that millions of rejects have to die to result in a viable example kind of hilarious at least. Shockwave takes a sample of the fruit and stores it in his stasis-generating sample case. "If this could be grown on Earth it could prove fruitful," he says. It's impossible to tell if he deliberately made a joke just then or not. "I am also intrigued by the possibilities of producing this fruit as a specialized food for Powermaster components." Scrapper then considers, "You know. We used to have a Seeker who did plants. Wonder what ever happened to him?" He shakes his head. "Ehn. Plants. I'll see if Mixmaster can... photocopy it. Or whatever it is you do with plants." He looks up at Shockwave. Shockwave does plants? Oh, of course. See: above, Shockwave being better than everyone at eveything. "Feeding the squishie engines? Now there's a thought! And what's over here..." You move to the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Something has gone wrong in this part of the Ring. Carefully sculpted riverbeds sit dry and empty, while vast, stinking swamps spread like a cancer over once fertile plains. Vast swathes of land the size of Europe are arid, lifeless deserts. Parasitic plants spread in deadly, continent wide-patches. Weird, stationary storms hang above the tortured ground. Strange mountains like oversized stalagmites rear without warning from the Ring floor, one in particular so large that it almost hurts the eye to take in. Contents: Eyestorm Hammer of God Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - Great Ocean. Antispinwards Shockwave arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Comcast has arrived. Brawl arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Harrow has arrived. Hook arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Hook has arrived. Astrotrain arrives from the Dyson Ring - New Plains. Astrotrain has arrived. Some distance away from the Hammer of God is another awesome sight - a gigantic blue and white eye hangs balefully in mid air over a tall mountain, glaring at the distorted land below. On closer inspection, the eye is comprised of a swirling vortex of cloud similar to the hurricanes and tornadoes of spherical worlds, but tilted up on its end, with a swirling trail trailing down to the peak underneath. The cause of the eyestorm lies at the summit of the mountain below, a small puncture in the Ring material allowing air to escape into space in dramatic and dangerous fashion. The largest mountain on the Ring - perhaps the galaxy - Hammer of God is so tall that its summit extends above the atmosphere and is wide enough at the base to contain a modest sized planet. The lower slopes of the titanic peak are home to sparse forests and scrubby vegetation which quickly gives way to bare rock, then to the glittering super dense grey material of the Ring floor. At the very top of the mountain lies the secret of its birth. A gigantic hole sits like an inverted crater at Hammer of God's summit, the legacy of the asteroid impact that struck the Ring from below some time in the distant past, impacting with such force that it first created the giant peak, then tore through the material of the Ring itself. Comcast just about snorts at Shockwave's punny remark before he thinks better of it. This manifests itself by looking as if he just imbibed some energon with the bones still in it. And then, as they approach the vast expanse of the broken terrain, Comcast just about does it again as his processers struggle to comprehend the view they are taking in. Astrotrain suddenly perks up, "That reminds me. Hey Shockwave, I got a mathemalogical type question for that huge processor of yours." Fleet was one of the early scouts in the system, and so he's *seen* the Eyestorm and the Hammer of God before, and as before, he is awed by the sight. The Seeker follows along the others, staying near Comcast while avoiding Brawl, still trying to play Generic Background Seeker as he waits to hear about the safety hazards of having a hole in the Dyson Ring. Comcast sighs audibly at Astrotrain. "This out to be good." Scrapper looks left. He looks right. He pulls out a mug and takes a drink. Finally, he decrees, "Whelp. We're gonna need handrails around /that/." He rubs his chin. "...or maybe we should just patch it, but... with what?" He holds up his hands, considering the scale - how strong the steel would have to be! Brawl stands there speechless, unaware if acting like a background Seeker has avoided attention, or the fact that he's pretty much useless with all the techno babble being thrown around. Either way, the Combaticon is happy that he's been ignored for the most part. That is until the real Seekers posing as generic Seekers creep off without him. Hook is in awe...but tries not to show it too much. Usually words like 'awe' are for people who are looking or talking about him. Still can't help but feel small next to something to so....vast. Cyclonus shakes his head, "That would be a waste of ressources. We can all fly above that terrain. I see no point in wasting time or ressource repairing it... unless we discover it has some use." The unicronian seems to be getting impatient, "Let's proceed with our inspection tour." You move to the Dyson Ring - Great Ocean. A sea big enough to swallow whole worlds, the Great Ocean stretches from rim to rim in one titanic expanse of salt water. Great swells longer than the distance from Earth to its Moon roll along its expanse, while continent sized clouds rage in strange patterns above its surface, the lack of a Coriolis Effect creating river-shaped storms unique in all of known space. From high above, the ocean seems to contain several chains of islands separated by large expanses of featureless water. Closer to the Ring floor, however, the scale resolves itself, and what once seemed to be mere islands are revealed to be huge continents, each grouping the size of a planet's surface laid flat. Those with space faring experience or interstellar charts might find each pattern of land strangely familiar. Contents: Map of Beest Map of Earth Map of Nebulos Map of Nepsa Small Drone Obvious exits: Spinwards leads to Dyson Ring - Scrapyard. Antispinwards Shockwave arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Shockwave has arrived. Fleet arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Comcast has arrived. Brawl arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Harrow has arrived. Hook arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Hook has arrived. Astrotrain arrives from the Dyson Ring - Broken Terrain. Astrotrain has arrived. "Unless it is another request for an Earthling lottery prediction, you may proceed," Shockwave instructs Astrotrain. Scrapper soars over the ocean, thanking Primus that he is a Decepticon and therefore gets all the cool toys, like antigravs. He has a fair amount of experience as a space pilot, and the layout of the landmasses below is really... what? Scrapper groans, "...oh, come on! That is /not/ coincidental!" "It isn't!" Astrotrain reassures, before looking off to the left. "...this time. So like, here we are, we can feed ourselves with the same energy we use and produce for our machines and weapons, right? And then you get the squishies who get all uppity and try to get all greedy with the same energy. Except they waste it making more squishy type plants and animals for them to eat so they can fuel themselves. So like, what's the difference lost in energy with us and them? We eat the energy directly, they waste it to make more squishy critters. It's gotta be like, a bazillion times right?" "That was my assessment as well," says Shockwave. "While curious in the extreme, I have not as yet been able to determine a reason for the landmasses' configuration." "This is impressive." That's all Cyclonus has to say about this very impressive room. If the Decepticon second in command is impressed he doesn't show any sign of it. "I wonder if those who built this place have anything to do with the Cybertronian... though there is no "map" of Cybertron here." Shockwave turns to consider Astrotrain as he flies along the interminably long distance that it takes to cross a space longer than the circumference of several planets laid end to end. "To render your question more precisely, you would like to know an estimate of the percentage of energy lost in a solar-to-plant-to-herbivore-to-Earthling refining process, as opposed to solar electric generation?" Astrotrain blinks. To be honest he was just looking for something he could throw in the humans' face about how bad they are at processing fuel consumption. Like 'alot', but hey he -did- ask Shockwave didn't he? "...yeah sure." Hook is impressed by the exactitude of the replicas. "Have we ever bothered I don't know...prospecting the 'maps'? I mean if they are so accurate, accurate enough to support life and such. Could the ground not have some minerals we could mine or fossile fuels we could drain?" Scrapper can fly. But he is not the best flier, it should be noted. He was one of those annoying ground-pounders before he became a totally awesome Decepticon. Something like a hawk-sized dragonfly, with a few aeons of evolution slapped on it, smack into Scrapper. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that one of those aeons of evolution electrified it. And so down he goes! Toward the map of the one planet that seems completely out of place. The 1:1 scale representation of Beest is in many ways, is similar to Earth. There are landmasses with lush greenery and mountain ranges. Huge bodies of blue representing great oceans surround them, distancing them from far-off poles capped in frost. Yet entirely different from Earth are those very same landmasses -- two huge super continents, each dominating the eastern and western hemisphere. A far-off continent, some northwest, glints when seen at an angle. It looks far more metallic than the earthy browns used for the mountain ranges on the super continents. The flora is almost exact replicas to the kind found on Earth, although the fauna is beyond one's wildest dreams. Contents: Monolith Shockwave has arrived. Fleet has arrived. Cyclonus has arrived. Comcast has arrived. Brawl has arrived. Mixmaster has arrived. Harrow has arrived. Hook has arrived. Astrotrain has arrived. The monolith towers, foreboding, mysterious, and silent. It is black and non-reflecting, seeming to gobble up light. The monolith is fashioned to exacting 1:4:9 dimensions - curiously, the squares of the first four integers. It emits a strong and anomalous magnetic field. What might it contain inside? Scrapper is built Tonka Tough. But still, impacting the ground from many thousand feet is going to be a pain for almost anyone. So the crumpled figure that is Scrapper says, in a daze, "Ow." He seems to be completely oblivious to the fact that he has landed in the shadow of a monolith. "Quantum dot-based nanomechanical photovoltaic cells, such as we utilize, achieve a solar conversion efficiency of approximately seventy percent," Shockwave replies after a moment of rapid ticking. "The solar conversion rate of an organic food web is many orders of magnitude less. While not being precisely measurable, it is no greater than one ten-millionth of one percent." Astrotrain would almost, -almost- have smoke coming out of his audials at this point. He's pretty darn close in fact. Maybe he should have taken notes. Nonetheless, after a few moments he considers, then adds, "So uh, whaddaya think would happen to a squishy if we made him drink energon? Think it would make a fun experiment right?" "Take care, Scrapper," points out Shockwave, touching down not far away with a deep thud and pointing out the Monolith. "From my research on the fifth planet of Earth's system I have observed that these artifacts can have unpredictable effects on sapient and some sentient life, which may not necessarily exclude us." Astrotrain adds, "Maybe they'd melt." Cyclonus has disconnected. "I hypothesize that the Earthling would die, and the energon would be wasted," Shockwave calculates. Shockwave attempted a landing on Europa. Astrotrain lands not far from the others, taking a look at the surroundings, and processing Shockwave's recent answer, rolling it all over in his head. "...is there anything you -couldn't- calculate before, Shockwave?" Scrapper snorts and gets to his feet, looking not-so-great. He reaches out a hand to lean on the nearest thing - the monolith. And the darkness of the monolith grows, the magnetic field spiking. Spiking into something decipherable over the radio. Where am I now? Upon whom to bestow, The Secrets locked inside. The universe I hide. Hook steps back with a mixture of fear and surprise. "Scrapper...tell this is just a recording and you were aware of it and thought to you could make a bad prank." "Yes," calculates Shockwave. "Excuse me, I must cut this conversation short as it is inane and Scrapper may require aid in the eventuality that he is drawn into the infinite." Turning aside, Shockwave bends a tree over with his foot, strips it of branches with a skinning motion of his hand, then snaps it in half and reaches out with it like a giant mophandle with which to try to shove Scrapper away from the Monolith from a safe distance. Scrapper takes a few steps away from the monolith, staring at it with an accusing optical band, but it remains as it ever is, aloof. He protests, "No, Hook! If I was going to pull a prank, it'd involve thirty gallons of bees, Elita-1's bumper, and some glue. This is... maybe the only thing on here that works? Er, hello?" But the monolith is silent, and the electromagnetic fields do not spike, when Scrapper addresses it verbally. So Scrapper is indeed shoved to a distance by Shockwave's prodding. But is it a safe distance? Scrapper drops to his knees, clutching his head in pain. The monolith twists the electromagnetic fields again, radioing, "LEARN TO SPEAK." Shockwave analyzes the ELF waves, replicates them, and sends them back, electromagnetizing his antennae to transmit pulses of EM interference. "Salutations, entity," Shockwave transmits. "You are located on an artificial ring-shaped megastructure constructed occupying a stable orbit around a G-class star in the Pleiades." "In answer to your second question," continues Shockwave, "we are Cybertronians, machine life from a heavily modified rogue planet. Having discovered it with no inhabitants strong enough to contest our claim, we have laid claim to the structure that you find yourself on. I am Shockwave, a scientist. You may bestow your secrets upon me." Scrapper just sort of falls over in the dirt, evidently released from his pain now that Shockwave has 'learned to speak'. Scrapper moans, "Oooouuugh..." The monolith is quiet for a long moment. Then, Shockwave will find directed at him more information that anyone could ever hope to handle at a baud rate that seems to be patently impossible. It is almost as if the monolith /wants/ to overload Shockwave with the vastness of the infinite. But more likely, it simply doesn't care. Shockwave replied and specified no conditions, no qualifiers; this is the answer. Mixmaster has disconnected. Hook watches the events unfold and ponders his next course of action should Shockwave be placed out of commission due to his very selfish request. Shockwave just stands there for a long while, his eye strobing in a way that would give Pokemon fans seizures, and producing a low buzzing square wave. After eight seconds he stops. Another twelve seconds go by. He just keeps standing there not doing anything. Astrotrain looks at the monolith, then back to Shockwave again, then back to the Monolith and fiiinally back to Shockwave when he goes all quiet and statue like. Being the only other Decepticon currently present that can actually stand on optic-to-optic level with Shockwave, Astrotrain leans left, then right, studying the one-eyed one-armed flying purple people eater carefully. "...Shockwave?" A pause, and then he leans forward, waving a hand in front of that single optic. "...uh, yoooo hoo. Shockwave?" Another twenty seconds go by. Shockwave emits a quiet electronic *bong* sound as he reboots and slowly runs through his lengthy boot sequence. Shockwave has a lot of extensions. While Shockwave is standing there, having an epileptic fit or the like, one of the denizens of the map has been lured closer by all these strange sounds. It has no fear of strangers, as strangers are so very rare. It looks something like an ambulatory mattress crossed with a bunch of feather. And it lunges suddenly, looking ready to engulf Shockwave! If only someone could PUNCH it while Shockwave can't defend himself... Astrotrain is totally busy trying to see what happened to Shockwave, he isn't even aware of the impending MATTRESS ATTACK! He's even leaning forward, tilting his head to one side to listen to Shockwave's chest, as if he were listening for a heartbeat. "...was that the Windows startup theme?" Scrapper continues to be somewhat useless on the floor, before finally pointing out, weakly, "...Hook's the CPU surgeon. Don' look at me." Brawl surges forward, catching the feathery mattress thing and tackling it to the ground. Throwing a multitude of punches, he laughs "You pick on one optic guy, he has no PEREFFERAL VIZION!!!" The mattress goes down. It's a mattress-creature. What does anyone expect? However, it does wriggle the feathery extrusions, trying to wrap them around Brawl, as if to immobilize the Combaticon for easy digestion, like a jellyfish. Where Brawl's punches connect, it leaks out a clear, viscous fluid. Hook approaches Shockwave with caution and runs a scan over his nuclear reactor to make sure it was not affected in any way by the discharge. The constructicon swaps datapads and pulls out another one with some wires attached to it. He places one electrode on Shockwave's...hexagonal cheek? Another on the chest and begins to run a few tests to see how the CPU is handling eveything and if all the systems are ok. "Shockwave...blink twice if you can hear me." Shockwave finally finishes booting back up and then of course has to go through the whole 'resume last configuration' process. He declines to revert to his last known good backup as that would mean forgetting everything that had happened in the interim, including the infodump from the Monolith, so there is a bit more flickering of the eye as he has to normalize his resolutions. Brawl continues punching, clear viscous fluid flying everywhere. Suddenly, the Combaticon realizes he's being pulled in tighter and tighter struggling against the creature. "Brawl has two optics, all the more to see fist fly through FACE!" he gloats, slamming a punch down at what he thinks is the creatures head. <> Shockwave transmits back to the Monolith as soon as he's done with that, firmly pushing Hook away for the moment. <> Hmm, Brawl is wrestling some kind of wild mattress. That's our Brawl. Hook is shoved away "HEY! I think something must be wrong. I asked him to blink twice and he shoved me. Maybe that was just too much information." Astrotrain is totally oblivious to Brawl showing how Decepticons say hello to other members of the interstellar universe out there. He leans back as Hook begins to do his own inspection, until Shockwave comes back online and pushes the constructicon away. "Okay that was...unique." Shockwave is running a bit hot and has to keep venting steam but seems to be okay otherwise, at least to a casual observer. His voice is a little slower than normal. The mattress creature has no head, just a top and a bottom, and even those are relative. It is has a distributed nervous system, which means it isn't very smart, but it is also pretty hard to kill. Cut it apart, and the pieces will just develop into new copies. Brawl's struggles just seem to make it hungrier and grabbier - but if he keeps up, he'll eventually punch it apart. The monolith observes over EMF, somewhat cryptically, "The format suits the function." Harrow vanishes out of reality. Harrow has left. <> concurs Shockwave, cogitating on the significance of this truth. "Decepticons, assist Brawl with the organism to prevent damage. Do not attempt to communicate with or touch the alien artifact. I am returning to the shuttlecraft." Brawl punches into overdrive, because if he has any philosophy whatsoever, it's punch something until it ceases to function. "Brawl need no help against jellymattress, see?" he offers, holding up a fist covered in the viscous liquid. Shockwave walks off with a slight hitch in his stride and soon lifts into the air, transforming to fly away in the direction of their ship. Scrapper is, at least, listening over the radio, despite his pounding headache, and he asks fuzzily, "Format? Function? What?" He looks over at Shockwave who is, at least, not dead. He shakes himself and get to his feet, as Brawl... Scrapper stares, and he looks to those still here, "You heard Shockwave! Don't mess with the monolith!" And yet, Scrapper wants to mess with the monolith. Phoo. Fleet is still here, and still in the background. He does frown thoughtfully as he watches Shockwave fly away, head tilted in consideration. He looks at the Monolith, then looks after Shockwave. Finally he shrugs, deciding it's not really enough to trigger his Faustian tendancies. "Uhm, yes, sir," he tells Scrapper. He doesn't move to help Brwal, because Brawl says he doesn't need help! Astrotrain also watches Shockwave fly off, before turning to look back at Brawl as he...punches the squishy thing. "Fer cryin out loud, Brawl. Set the thing on fire or somethin and let's go! Smashin squishy organisms is a waste `o time anyway! Not to mention messy...ya don't know where that disgustin thing has been." Shockwave goes home. Shockwave has left. Shockwave enters the D.Ops' office. Brawl finishes pulverizing the creature, standing up and giving himself a quick look down. Yep, he's completely covered in the gooey stuff. Looking up at Astrotrain, the Combaticon shakes his head. "No, where it been?" Glancing back at the puddle that once was the dreaded jellymattress, he smirks and pulls out his electron rifle. "Brawl know where it going, to it maker!" he laughs, pulling the trigger and blasting the puddle into oblivion. The mattress is finally punched apart by Brawl, in a sticky, oozing, viscous mess! Some of the feather-tendrils may end up stuck to Brawl. Yeah. And then it explodes! Scrapper looks over at Fleet. He looks left. He looks right. Scrapper sneaks a bit closer to the Monolith, and his curiosity killing him, he gives it a poke. Scrapper promptly falls down, wracked by pain again. He manages, "Aaaa-ck. Bad... bad... bad idea." Fleet observes Scrapper falling down, and decides that it's *really* not worth messing with. Brawl has disconnected. Astrotrain is totally not the sympathetic sort. "Maybe ya should try talkin to it the way Shockwave did!" He offers not-so-helpfully.
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