Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Bottom of Lake Michigan

Ironhide grunted when he got the message from Prowl. He had been looking for some sort of action, but now he was going to have to bail out on the middle of another mission. He did like leaving these other bots like that and he didn’t like leaving things half done. Still, he had gotten the orders and fighting the Decepticons was going to take precedence over this.

The red Autobot opened up a frequency to the rest of his team. >>”Alright Bots, Prowl is calling me away to help deal with some Decepticon actions on the other side of the planet. Continue with the plan we had set in place. Bring the ship up and drain the water outta the old girl. Make sure you’ve got the stealth systems working and just get her in orbit near the Guardian fer now. We’ll have to figure out where to put her back down later.”<<

With the others given the security mech leapt off of the vessel, transforming before he hit the bottom of the lake. His wheels spun uselessly for a moment, kicking up mud and sand before finally pulling him forward, the Autobot muttering curses along the way. Finally he drove out of the water, transforming back to robot mode as water dripped off of him. Sparing a quick glance around to make sure no humans were around he trigged the recall on the Guardian’s bounce chamber and disappeared in a beam of light.

Bottom of lake Michigan - On top of the Ark-19

Jazz continued staring at the Auto Turret when he received Ironfist's Comm Message that it was best that they come inside the Ark. Jazz swam down to an Airlock on the side of the Ark and turned the hatch, it opened to reveal a non-submerged room. Unfortunately the room quickly filled when Jazz opened the hatch. Jazz spun around when he realized what was happening and closed the door as fast as he could. Mustering what strength he could and pulled the door closed.

Jazz stood up in a half submerged room and opened the second door, letting the water equal out.

He sighed as he looked at his dripping wet body. He hoped his mega-woofers weren't waterlogged.

He waded his way down the hallway to Engineering when he heard the signal from Ironhide. Apparently there was a Decepticon attack and Ironhide needed to leave to join the counterattack.

"Good luck." Jazz said with a smile.

He continued down the hall and opened the door to Engineering just in time to hear Ironfist mumble something about a broken Shield generator. Wasn't this perfect!

"Anythin' I can do to help Ironfist?" Jazz asked as he slung his hand to sling off the water that was dripping from him.

Ark-19 - Bridge

Smokescreen reached the bridge just as he received Ironhide’s latest transmission to alert the team of his immediate departure. It was not surprising that old war horse had been chosen to help deal with the Decepticons as he was the best mech to lead a counter offensive. Smokey surmised that it was likely a fuel raid of some sort to help replenish whatever the ‘Cons had lost when their base exploded. Regardless, they would be in for a rude awakening once ‘Hide was on the scene.

Smokescreen didn’t bother responding as Ironhide had probably already bounced back to the Guardian and would therefore be out of comm range. Instead, he focused on what Big Red had said about making sure the stealth systems were fully operational before taking off. The pumps were now a secondary concern as it would be easier to drain the ship once they were airborne anyway. Besides, the external pressure on the hull would likely prevent the pumps from operating at full capacity, not to mention the lack of energon to power them sufficiently at the present time.

The diversion expert took a seat at the newly repaired engineering console and began accessing the stealth systems. Thanks to Ironfist, basic power had also been restored to the bridge and it was just enough to allow Smokescreen to initiate a standard diagnostic on the ship’s stealth drive. The program didn’t take too long to run as less than a breem passed before the results were displayed on the terminal's view screen. Smokey looked over the data and quickly found a place of concern. An error code indicated that part of the drive was damaged, preventing power from reaching the core. It would need repairing if the ship was to hide itself from human detection once they lifted off. Other than the one affected area, the rest of the device seemed to be intact.

“Looks like I’ll be getting wet again,” Smokescreen muttered quietly to himself as he knew he had to travel down to the engineering deck where the stealth drive was located and where the water levels were likely deeper than higher up on the command deck. Getting out of his chair, Smokey hurried off the bridge as he opened a comm line to the other Autobots that were on board:

>>”This is Smokescreen. I’m heading down to the stealth drive core to make some needed repairs. If anyone is free to lend assistance it would be greatly appreciated.”<<

Engineering Deck - Stealth Drive Chamber

A short time later, the Diversionary Tactician had climbed down to the opposite end of the engineering deck from where Ironfist was busy fixing the power generator. Remaining focused on the task at hand, Smokescreen made his way into the stealth systems chamber where the primary drive was located. The water level was not as high as he had expected it to be, but it was still plenty wet. Thankfully, the core was elevated high enough off the ground that it escaped being submerged even partially.

Smokey quickly pulled off the access panel on the side of the drive unit and immediately saw what the problem was. The primary power conduit had been severed, which would prevent any energon Ironfist could eventually squeeze out of the back-up generator from reaching the core. Therefore the connections needed to be repaired unless, of course, they wanted every human in a fifty mile radius to see an alien space ship take off out of Lake Michigan. Somehow, Smokescreen knew that would be an undesirable result.

Allowing his right hand to retract into his arm, the diversion expert produced a small soldering torch before quickly going to work on reconnecting the central conduit and all of the wiring found therein. It was a painstaking and time consuming task to be sure, but it was one that needed to be done per Ironhide’s instructions.

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist elevated his hand briefly from the depths of the cylinder that contained the main access module for the auxilary power generator. His fingers soon pinched along the lip of the frame and pulled downward, collapsing the sturdy metal piece off with a muted thud. With a burble of water and gas slowly escaping the new break in metal, Ironfist withdrew his new collected trophy back into the depths of the generator.

The light of plasma torches soon flashed from the cylinder, nearly blinding any who dared to venture too close or not have their optics polorized... or both. In between bursts of the torch, the engineer heard the approach of Jazz. He knew it was Jazz from the accoustics of the surrounding metal he had currently buried himself in, as well as the hum of the deactivated side arm the mechanism kept.

Slowly he emerged from the depths, his dome and glowing blue optics casting an eerie ghostly shadow upon the deck. Slow as if he were one of the local zombies rising from the grave. Ironfist stopped his ascent just above his face plate mask. His optics scanned the room again, taking note of more materials he could use for this make shift repair. He needed a proper dry dock to repair this damage, or at least the benefit of Zero Gravity and a construction web. He decided against granting the obvious comments about how he could use some of the more versitile strengths of Wreckers such as Scoop or the twins, Twin Twist or Topspin.

"I need that stool... particularly the ball bearings. Also could use the Hydrogen Conversion Module from the mains. Its big and red." He dropped down back into his pit and resumed his cutting and fittings of materials within. He needed to break the seal on the bearings that helped the emergency energy generator blades to rotate and feed the power from the back ups to the main circuit. And once that was done... well good thing Jazz was close by. They were going to need a hell of a pilot to keep them from ending up in the local stellar body.

Main Engineering Deck

Jazz took quick notes of what Ironfist wanted, and quickly walked over to the main. He then opened the hatch and began to look through the seemingly random and jumbled objects in the compartment and found a large red object. At a glance it looked to be the object that Ironfist required.

On the way back he picked up a few ball bearings and a stool and walked back to the hole that Ironfist was repairing.

"Here's your, hehe, balls!" Jazz found this especially humorous, however he doubted that Ironfist would understand, "Anyway, here is your HCM and your stool, man."

He handed them down to Ironfist and suddenly began to blast "Freebird", a popular Human song, and tapped his foot to the beat.

[ooc: sorry, classes and more recently, a serious, snow storm have kept me from my lovely distractions.]

Lore-lock gave a twitch, as though some of his stabilizing actuators had suffered a minor short circuit. Then he saw Jazz, fetching the requested materials. He really was not doing well, since the battle at 'Con central. He wasn't sure as to way, but some things just felt out of place.

"I'm sorry Ironfist, I seem to be experiencing some personal technical difficulties, despite having cycled through a CR chamber on the Guardian. But my glitches are trivial. What do we need to do to get this bird airborne?"

Jazz's jokes were not lost on the scout, and a faint grin appeared on Lore-lock's face plate.
"I wish we could free this bird, and quickly," he commented, before going over to a console and sitting. He ran a quick diagnostic and didn't see anything troubling. If anything was truly wrong it would show up, and nothing was.

So having little to do about his own condition, he began to work on the larger issue of the flooded ship. He powered-up the terminal he was at, and ran a full system scan of the ship. If anything would know about the over-all integrity of the hull, the ship's own computer would. The scan yielded a report:


The report confirmed what Ironfist said, so much for sealing the ship with the shields. Things were not looking very up, from this bot's perspective.

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist accepted the stool and proceeded to snap off the seat part as well as the legs. He retrieved the bearings from the seat and threaded a copper wire bundle through the metal trunk of the former chair. With a smirk he chucked the stool seat over his shoulder and dove deeper into the bowels of the generator. Sparks soon followed as he activated his wielders and attached the make shift power conduit to the housing for the Hydrogen Conversion Module, which he proceeded to replace with the one harvested by Jazz.

The entire task took only a few moments before the engineer pulled himself out of the pit and flexed his arms in a mock stretch. "Probably going to need a swift kick from Omega Supreme." His face remained placid as he closed the reserve generator hatch and proceeded over to the damaged connector cables. He knelt down and proceeded to reroute the circuit around the damaged or destroyed bundles until he was satisfied that the power matrix would hold long enough to power the emergency launch thrusters.

He finished his repairs and returned to Jazz and Lore-Lock as he dusted his hands causing the water to grow thick with grime and lingering lubrication. "Given we lack access to a Guardian, we'll have to launch 19 the old fashioned way. I am going to need a pilot to man the helm and hold us steady. When we light these launch engines, we're going to be in for one hell of a ride. As far as what can be done, I will have to finish reconfiguring a console to moderate the fuel thrust ratio mix. If I get it wrong, Autobots are going to be looking for a new source of cheap jokes... I do hear Freeway is available somewhere in the galaxy."

He tilted his head and shrugged, unable to show his grin under his permanent mouth guard. But his gestures transmitted his over all tone. "Jazz, I realize you are probably the most qualified pilot here so I suppose that role falls to you. As far as Lore-Lock and I, we will work to restore helm control but don't expect much in the way of gravity. The back ups just don't have enough power to run more than a handful of systems." He turned to face the other Autobot Lore-Lock. "I'll hand you a checklist of systems and their power consuption statistics. You have to go through the ship and deactivate all of those not marked with a check. CR Chambers that may have been left on before the ship lost power, Energon dispensers and the like. If they are active when we hit the switch, we'll lose the chance to launch until the next nightfall comes around, and a new power generator is installed."

Main Engineering Deck - Stealth Drive Chamber

Smokescreen carefully soldered together each and every wire, no matter how small, that made up the primary conduit to the stealth drive. It was extremely tedious to say the very least. Sometimes the connection didn’t hold and he had to redo it, all the while trying to keep his hands as steady as possible. In the end, though, it would all be worth it and allow them to finally get the Ark-19 airborne for the first time since the infiltration team’s initial arrival here more than five Earth years ago. The ship had served them well in its present location, but now things had drastically changed and their headquarters needed to be moved somewhere safer so that the Decepticons could not attack it again.

Finally, the last wire was soldered together, fulfilling the connection that would allow energon to flow freely into the drive core once again. The rest of the device appeared to be intact on the outside at least. Smokescreen would need to double check the systems again to be sure that everything internal was functioning properly. However, first thing’s first. The diversion expert set forth using his torch to seal the metal outer covering of the main conduit that protected the inner wiring. All that tedious work would be for naught if the small wires became damaged again because they were not adequately protected. Once that task was completed, the red and blue racer replaced the access panel and screwed it securely into place.

Standing from a kneeling position, Smokescreen stretched his joints a bit having become stiff from sitting in a crouching position for so long. He then walked over to a nearby terminal and brought it online. The diversionary specialist quickly rescanned the stealth systems to ensure that his complicated patch job had worked. The results were promising as everything checked out and there were no other issues detected that would require Smokey’s attention.

Now all we need is power, Smokescreen thought to himself as he began to reroute just enough energon to power the stealth drive sufficiently. Once that was finished, the drive core roared to life with a steady hum, lighting up the room beyond what the back-ups had previously managed. The diversion expert smiled as he locked down the control console and then moved to the doorway of the chamber. With one final look around the room, Smokey turned and made his way to the opposite end of the engineering deck where Ironfist, Jazz and Lore-lock were all gathered near the reserve generator.

“Well, I got the stealth drive working again per Ironhide’s orders. We should have no problems concealing ourselves from the humans during take-off,” Smokescreen spoke as he approached the group, looking mainly at Ironfist who was covered with grease and grime from being down in the bowels of the generator. The diversionary tactician had overheard the weaponry engineer mention something about a checklist of systems that needed to be shut down in order to conserve power. “I can assist Lore-lock in the deactivation of all non-essential systems if you want, Ironfist. It would certainly get the job done a lot faster considering the size of the Ark. Unless, of course, there is another task you need me to perform instead.”

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist bolted the last clasp on the access hatch and pivoted back towards the now trio of Autobots. Spinning a hyperspanner around in between his index and middle finger of his left hand, the engineer moved over towards one of the semi intact consoles designed to regulate power flow. He lodged the spanner into a bed of damaged wires like a sword stabbed into a mound of fetid flesh. A new voice broke into his concentration as he pried off the console cover.

Without looking over his shoulder he allowed his optics to catch the recognizable outline of Smokescreen. "That explains the dip in available power." He muttered as he reached into the mixture of wire, cable and cracked motherboards. "Thats probably a good option. Divide the list into two halves, upper and lower decks. When you two are done, head up to the bridge."

He yanked out a wad of gunk that had once been the power feed regulator. He chucked it over his shoulder towards the trio, heedless of whether or not it impacted against their ridged superstructures. He grumbled again as he forced himself back into shoulder deep confines desperately trying to reenergize the thruster control and power regulation station. "I should have enough energy diverted to the transfer systems to power the emergency lift off thrusters as well as emergency cargo release valves. Beyond that we will have limited helm control or stopping power. Jazz, while you are on the bridge I need you to set up a break protocol. Given we don't have breaking engines, you'll have to be creative."

OoC: Sorry for my absence!

Main Engineering Deck

Jazz chuckled at Ironfist's joke, and he smiled at the fact that he would be piloting the Ark. He was still a bit rusty, but he could manage. He then did a curt nod to show that he understood, then began to wade his way through the water and out the door.

Wandering through the hallways through all sorts of polluted water, this reminded Jazz of a movie that the humans watch. It is called... Deep Blue Sea. It was about a genetically engineered shark that broke free from it's bonds and began to feed on the crew. Granted, there was some amount of wildlife that flooded its way into the ship by the cracks in the hull, but there was no where near enough water to hold an extremely over-sized shark.

The feeling still did make him rather twitchy.

"And this bird you cannot chaa-aaa-nge..." Jazz sang, if not to himself.

Suddenly, it dawned on him. The walls were close enough together that he could... Yes...

He grabbed onto a pipe on the wall and pulled himself out of the water. He then leaped off the wall and began to rebound off each wall to give himself greater speeds on his trek to the bridge.

He was nearing the stairs to enter the Bridge and he gave a final leap! He fell to the watery ground on his face.

He moved his hand on the first stair-step and pulled himself moderately out of the water.

>>I'm, er, moderately on the bridge. Just give me a shout when you're done with everythin' and I'll bring this ol' bird up from this place.<< Jazz said through a comm link to everyone.

Main Engineering Deck

Smokescreen nodded when Ironfist instructed him to divide the list between himself and Lore-lock. “No problem. We’ll get right on it,” the diversion expert said as he took hold of the datapad containing the areas that needed to be checked and subsequently shut down. He tapped a few keys on the device which automatically rearranged and compiled the list into upper and lower decks. Once that was done, Smokey committed all of the info to memory before handing the datapad over to the scout. “I’ll take the lower levels, focusing on the training facility, computer labs and armory. Lore-lock, you take the upper levels where the personal quarters, med bay and mess hall are located. We don't have to worry about the bounce chamber as an earlier scan I did showed it was on a level that was mostly submerged. If you have any problems, just comm me.”

The red and blue racer then turned and made his way through the knee high water and down the corridor until he reached a service ladder and began to climb to the deck above.

Lower Decks

Smokescreen first stopped by the computer labs where he had spent a good portion of his time during the early stages of infiltration on Earth. When he first arrived on this backwater world, there was little action to speak of, which often left him bored with the menial tasks that his commander saw fit to give him. He had never thought of himself as a computer techie, but learning a new trade managed to keep his processor from going haywire until something more exciting or interesting happened. How times had now changed.

Goring around to each terminal, Smokey made sure they were all powered down and shut off. He even made certain that the overhead lights were turned off as the Ark-19 needed as much power as they could muster in order to lift off without crashing right back down into the watery depths they were currently in.

Once his job was done in the labs, Smokescreen made his way out and down the corridor to the training facility. Here was another place he had spent some time blowing off steam and honing his diversionary skills. Holocons and drones were not as adept to fighting as the real thing, but they served their purpose well enough and allowed Smokey to stay sharp in those long cycles when the ‘Cons were seemingly inactive. Of course, the enemy was always active in some way behind the scenes whether or not there was any psychical action to partake in.

Again, Smokescreen ensured that everything was shut down properly, checking the control console and even disconnecting the primary power cable to the room. The holocons that were generated here could pull a considerable amount of power from the ship’s systems, so it was very important that the training programs were locked down and remained dormant until such time that the Ark-19 was in orbit with the Guardian and fully functional once again.

It was then that he received Jazz's communique. >>"No problem. I'll let you know when Lore-lock and I are done."<< Smokescreen commed back as he left the room and headed down the hallway where he found another service ladder that led up to the next deck. Once he had pulled himself up, the diversion expert found that this particular level had only a few inches of water covering the floor panels, which allowed him to easily jog down to the Armory. Here he found mostly empty shelves as a majority of the weapons and ammo had already been salvaged by those who were last to evacuate the Ark. Smokey quickly repeated the same process as the previous areas he had checked, making sure that anything which could draw power away from the essential systems was shut down or disconnected from the main power grid.

Smokescreen then went about searching the rest of the lower decks for anything else that might need to be checked which didn’t appear on the list. As he did so, the red and blue rallybot opened his comm line again: >>”Lore-lock, I’ve finished checking all of the main areas on the lower decks. I’m now doing one last sweep to make sure I didn’t miss anything. What’s your status on the upper decks? Do you require assistance?”<<

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist tightened a few more bolts along the face of a thick black electrical cable. A simple wiped a smudge of grease from his forehead. The water level had slowly been descending as the lower levels had been blown out and the pressure inside began to equalize. He spun the wrench in his hand before returning it to a sleeve in his left wrist.

Offering a brief squint at the over all connection of the cable into the back of his terminal, ensuring that all of the wires were joined to the appropriate routers and gauges, Ironfist opened a comn channel to the entire team onboard the striken vessel. "Alright gentle mechs. Power levels have finally dropped below the red line and are settling in the green, for now."

He pushed himself off of the ground and forced himself to his feet. He turned through the deck and futher bathed it in the crimson light of his chest lamps A few steps later and he was able to finish the connecting cables linking his regulation console to that of the Emergency Power Generator and the grid that powered the launch booster rockets. "Jazz, this is just like flying a combat shuttle over Deneva Persus IV." He flipped the switch to the generator and braced himself as the entire ship began to shake through the tremors.

Reaching his console he took note that the power levels had dipped to his predetermined optimal levels. They would be able to operate the thrusters and the boosters, all while maintaining the stealth drive. Of course without that piece, they would have been able to enjoy breaking thrusters and inertial dampeners. "All Hands. Lets get this boat back where she belongs." He flipped the switch.

Ark - 19

The water began to boil and roil as the emergency boosters began to ignite under the intense pressure of the lake bottom. Silt and mud of the lake bottom soon mixed with the churning blooms. The cones of the boosters angled through the broken or dislodged pieces of debris, before turning their jets. Soon the water raced away, parting like a high powered particle laser through a piece of aluminum foil. The Ark, one of the Autobot's primary workhorse designs, was tearing through the subsurface of Lake Michigan. Her rebirth was nigh.

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist darted from one station to another as consoles began to rattle themselves loose from damaged morings and straps that initially head them in place. "Power levels stable. Focusing all reserve power to primary booster..." He recovered his place in front of the terminal and turned several makeshift dials. The ship shuddered violently as they breached the mid layer of the lake's depth. "Damn it Jazz, keep us stable." He bellowed into the deactivated comm terminal.

Lake Surface

It was day time out in the winter lodgings of Lake Michigan. A thick fog latched to the surface of the water like a never ending blanket. Nature's perfect synthetic cover as the water churned below. Gases roiled and the seas parted. Metal soon broke the surface of the once placid region of the lake followed by a tail of ionized particles.

Graced by Gaia's cloak, Ark - 19 broke through into the atmosphere and rocketed towards the stationary orbit La grange 3 on the opposite side of the planet's satellite. Daylight would spare them no comfort but the fogs would cover their escape.

OoC: 'Tis a privilege to fly the Ark...

Bridge

Jazz pulled himself to his feet after his humiliation at falling into the water face-first, then he jogged to the Pilot's Helm and activated it, he pressed a series of buttons as he activated his speakers and began to blast "The Final Countdown", another popular human song over the loudspeakers.

>>This'll be rough guys! I'd, er, brace yourselves.<< Jazz said as he turned on the Inertial Dampening.

Almost as if synced with the music, he pressed the button for maneuvering thrusters to come online and they slowly lifted the Ark off the ground and retract the landing gear. Immediately afterwards, he fired the main thrusters and the Ark was moving forward at a high pace.

"C'mon you old girl, get us up there..." Jazz murmured as he yanked hard on the joystick for turning and angling.

Ahead of him, he saw an underwater hill, covered in rock. The impact would destroy them for sure. He pulled even herder on the joystick and slowly, the Ark began to ascend.

"Come on... Come on... Come on!!" Jazz suddenly burst out as he kicked in the afterburners and the Ark was pushed above the rocky hill just in the nick of time.

He then activated the cloaking device as he lifted the Ark out of the water and into the open sky. The fog was dense, so much that Jazz could barely see much of his surroundings.

No matter.

He lifted the Ark higher until he turned her down back to the Lake, and, almost as if he was going to crash, he pushed down to do a backward loop, stopping when they were right side up.

Good thing Artificial Gravity is online. Jazz thought as he made the Ark do a Corkscrewing Loop, then after it was done, he turned to space and the Guardian for his fun was over.

"Thank you for flying with Autobot Airlines, please keep your hands, feet, legs, heads and firearms inside at all times until we are at a complete stop." Jazz said to himself, copying the Human rides they have. Oh how he misses just sitting there on the streets and taking everything in...

He entered the atmosphere and fiery waves of orange and red spun and twirled on the viewscreen, this was almost calming.

>>We've entered the Atmosphere!<< Jazz said over the loudspeakers as they continued into the Atmosphere for the last remaining seconds.

Then, space. They were free from the gravitational bonds of the Earth, and into the coldness of space. However, he found an almost freedom at the look of stars speckled on his Viewscreen. Jazz couldn't help but to grin as he moved the vessel near where the Guardian was located.

>>Guardian, this is Jazz speaking. The Ark-19 is reporting in, I repeat, the Ark-19 is reporting in!<< Jazz contacted the Guardian through the communications network. If one heard his voice, they would not mistake the sound of a smile.

>>Hey guys! Come on, you're missin' out on the view!<< Jazz used the shipwide communications to spread his message, he could not shake the smile from his faceplate.

They were finally in orbit.

(OOC: AshesOfPain gave me the go ahead to post Lore-lock's condition via PM)

Upper Decks

When Smokescreen hadn’t received a response from any of his attempted comms to Lore-lock, he knew there had to be something wrong. It was very unusual for the scout to simply ignore another Autobot’s transmission let alone several. Therefore, the diversion expert took it upon himself to head for the upper decks of the Ark-19 to see what exactly had happened. When he arrived in one of the corridors, the diversion expert found his answer and it wasn’t a good one.

“Lore-lock!” Smokescreen exclaimed as he rushed to the downed mech’s side. From all appearances, the scout had for some reason short circuited and fallen into stasis, his spark still intact. The red and blue racer thought he had overheard Lore-lock say something previously about having some technical difficulties, but he just dismissed them as idle complaints, not realizing just how serious it was until now. Unfortunately, the diversion expert didn’t have the time or physical strength to carry the scout down to med bay and therefore he was forced to leave him behind. “Sorry, Lore. You’ll be fine here until we get back to the Guardian where Ratchet or Axle can fix you up proper.”

The rallybot then opened a comm line to both Jazz and Ironfist: >>”Hey, guys, I’ve found Lore-lock in stasis on Deck 3. Not sure what happened to him, but it appears his circuits became overloaded somehow. No way for me to move him right now, so I’ll just take over his assigned areas on the upper decks. Will then rendezvous on the bridge.”<<

Cutting his comm link, Smokescreen stood and refocused his attention on completing the duties that Lore-lock had been given. The diversion specialist quickly made his way through the halls, stopping by each of the personal quarters along the way to ensure that all power units were completely shut down. His final stops were the med bay and the mess hall, where everything was checked to make certain that no power was being diverted from where it was needed during take off.

Just as Smokey exited the mess hall, he felt the vibrations through the deck boards beneath his feet as the engines powered up and ultimately ignited. Before long Jazz had piloted the vessel out of Lake Michigan and up into the atmosphere, his voice coming in over the loud speakers to confirm his status. Smokescreen hurried through the corridors towards the bridge as the water levels began to drop now that there was some place for it all to drain to.

Bridge

The diversion expert entered the bridge to find Jazz in the pilot’s seat, which was exactly where he expected him to be. On the main view screen was an image of space with the horizon of the planet Earth visible to one side. It was a spectacular sight to be sure even if it didn’t quite compare to the glory of Cybertron back before the war had transformed it into a dark, dead world. Thankfully, this blue globe was still alive and vibrant, but that won’t last very long if the Decepticons were not stopped from plundering it for their own nefarious purposes.

“You’re right, Jazz, that is some view,” Smokescreen agreed as he took a seat at the only other working station on the bridge, enjoying the visage for a few more astroseconds before turning his attention to his terminal. Once he had accessed the system, Smokey activated the primary pumps within the ship, allowing the water levels to steadily drop even further as the salty liquid was siphoned out into space. Soon, the Ark-19 would be dry enough to start making further, more permanent repairs to both internal and external areas.

Transmission from Prowl:

>>”Jazz, good to hear from you and good to see the Ark-19 airborne once again. I can tell that there is a considerable amount of temporary patch work done along the outer hull. Good job to you and the others. Of course, as you know, permanent repairs will need to be completed before the ship can be relocated down on Earth. For now, though, bring the Ark into orbit alongside the Guardian and alert the rest of the team to continue with whatever work still needs to be done both inside and out. Time is of the essence so if you require any more tools, supplies or additional hands feel free to bounce over here to get what you need.”<<

Bridge

Jazz deactivated the main thrusters and activated the maneuvering thrusters as his attempt to brake the Ark - 19. It was moving at amazing speeds, so he activated most of the bow, and some of the aft thrusters at a lower level. Slowly, but surely, he began to brake the large starship.

His console went dark, he had suddenly lost control. Jazz acted fast by whacking it with his foot, and in an instant, it came back online and they were fully stopped.

Then Smokescreen came in, following closely to his signal about a deactivated Lore-Lock.

"Oh, hey man! How's Lore-Lock? I heard your communique!" Jazz asked as he activated more maneuvering thrusters to bring them, slowly, to the side of the Guardian.

It was then when he received the communication from Prowl.

>>I dunno Prowl, I don't think we have enough power to get this old bird to Bounce us. If anyone comes with supplies, it'll be a one-way ticket.<< Jazz said through a Comm link with the Guardian, >>We also need some Medical Attention for Lore-Lock, he was found in stasis in the lower decks, we still don't know what happened to him. Anyway, I think you should contact Ironfist about what supplies we need, sir.<<

He began crunching numbers, and he knew the fact would be that they are already low on power anyway, so they would have no way out unless they used escape pods.

Bridge

“Lore-lock should be fine once we get him to a working CR chamber,” Smokescreen responded to Jazz’s inquiry regarding the downed scout. “I know he’s been having issues with short circuiting lately. He appears to be in stasis, but he might also just come out of it on his own once his systems have a chance to reboot. Regardless, I’ll make it a top priority to get a CR unit up and running for him as soon as possible.”

As the diversion expert continued to monitor the decreasing water levels throughout the ship, he overheard the incoming transmission from Prowl and Jazz’s follow-up response. The white mech had a point about the Ark’s inability to bounce anything at the present time. The ship’s chamber would need to first dry out and then have the proper repairs made before it would be fully functional again. However, there was still the other frigate's own bounce system to consider. “You know, Jazz, the Guardian’s bounce pad is more than capable of getting whatever supplies and additional mech power back and forth to us until our own chamber is fully operational again. So, there shouldn’t be an issue as far as it being a one way ticket,” the red and blue racer pointed out with a friendly smile.

Smokescreen's attention was then drawn to the ship’s external sensors as they picked up the arrival of the Ark-22 from a rift in hyperspace. “Looks like Kup and his team are back from Cybertron. I’m sure Prowl will now have his hands full in helping to decide on the leadership issue. Therefore, I’ll just contact Ironfist, myself, and then relay the needed supply list over to the Guardian. Jazz, please let Prowl know that he can expect the list to arrive shortly,” Smokey said as he then opened his comm line down to the weaponry engineer:

>>”Ironfist, we’ve contacted Prowl. He said to get working on permanent repairs to the Ark ASAP. What additional tools or equipment will we require from the Guardian? I suggest we compile a supply list soon so that Prowl can get us what we need before he becomes preoccupied with other matters as the Ark-22 has just arrived in system.”<<

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist pulled himself out from a crease in between the bulkhead and one of the terminals that controlled environments within the crew level decks. His fingers were wrapped tightly around a large frayed cable. A mighty tug sent the engineer flying and the end of the cable whipping about the cabin as the connection feed between the emergency lift off boosters and the back up power generator was severed.

Landing on his left foot and right knee, the engineer swiftly reversed his momentium and reigned in the live cable. Tightening his grip around its throat, he drove the power connection into a secondary intake. Bypassing the damaged primary generator and repowering the internal lights and sensor grid. While many of the sensor nodes had been damaged or destroyed, Ironfist had determined that powering up this particular circuit; that also included gravity control and environmental controls throughout the ship, would be the larger benefit overall.

He pulled himself up from the ground as the lights ship wide began to flicker to life within the tight confines of the engineering deck and probably on the bridge itself. Rubbing his hands together to use friction to tear off a layer of grease and grime that had adheared to his palms, Ironfist made his way over to his multipurpose terminal that he had rigged underwater. A simple flick of his index finger upon the toggle labled emergency pumps, soon sent a loud rumble throughout the crippled ship.

Doors across the ship opened up. All of the higher level chambers that had been flooded with lake water, immediately drained into the halls and opened turbolift tubes. Torrents of water raced through the confines of the ship into the tight waterfalls down and down into the bowels of the Ark. The pumps soon kicked in sucking the liquids into the massive subspacial storage tanks for future conversion useage.

Now that the water had been taken care of, Ironfist deactivated the pumps when the sensor grid indicated the levels were at optimal. He flicked a switch to redivert power to the internal communications network, only to be greeted with static and a spray of sparks. It looked like they would still have to rely on short range devices. "Speaking of handhelds." Ironfist grumbled as the wrist communication flickered and sprang to life with reports from Jazz and Smokescreen.

"Oh sure, when did I get assigned as chief engineer to this generic?" He grumbled as he redirected his efforts to reallign the sensor network. It took a few moments for the network, at least working nodes, to send back new information regarding the interior damage to the ship itself.

"That list is already compiled Smokescreen. Managed to complete that during our launch, except for a few sections that remain deaf, dumb and blind." He walked over to the emergency generator to inspect his patch work and to ensure they were holding. Satisfied that his repairs were indeed holding, the weapons engineer made his way over to the primary for further inspection. Its damage was repairable but only if were being refurbished in a shipyard or factory. Given they lacked such facilities. He switched the channel over to Jazz. He gave his initial estimation regarding the damaged power grid. "We have enough fuel and power within the two remaining batteries to keep us functional for two days. Shields are a non problem until we get a new generator. The mains are also going to have to be refurbished, but I'll need help and alot more equipment than my tripod."

He shook his head as he lifted the primary hatch. "I'm going to need another set of hands down here. First Aid would be a nice bit of help. So too would Wheeljack. Just get me five more engineers or those experienced in following simple instructions and we can at least get this thing patched up." He forwarded the entire equipment list and supply request manifest to Jazz for future transmissions.

Transmission from Prowl:

>>”Understood, Jazz. Just extend the Ark-19’s docking tunnel to the starboard side hatch of the Guardian. That way you and your team can move back and forth freely without the need to bounce. As for Lore-lock, I’ll have a medical drone sent over to pick him up once we are fully docked. Also, regarding supplies, you can just send someone over and get whatever you require from the storage room.”<<

OoC: Sorry for my absence, Thanksgiving week was crazy!

Bridge

Jazz glanced around his terminal to make sure everything was A-OK. When he finished looking over the terminal, he looked to Smokescreen after his response about Bouncing and the Ark-22 returning from Cybertron.

"Oh hey! What'dja know, they're back!" Jazz said as a smile began to spread throughout his faceplate.

"That's the best news I've heard of the Solar Cycle!" Jazz said.

Then he suddenly received a message from Ironfist.

Ironfist stated that they had enough power to bounce there, and the Guardian was more than capable to bounce them both ways. The smile faded a small bit as he received the message, it made him unhappy that he wasn't correct in his statement to their Substitute Leader.

Before he could reply to Ironfist, he had a signal come from Prowl on the Guardian. Apparently the Ark-22 was going to dock with the Guardian so they don't have to use up any more power than they need to, and he suggested that they do the same.

>>Ironfist, I just got a Comm from Prowl, instead of Bouncing back and forth we could instead dock with them. Making the need to Bounce, well, obsolete. Who would you rather go to the Guardian to pick up supplies?<< Jazz asked Ironfist through a comm link as he began to activate the maneuvering thrusters to get them next to the Guardian.

He carefully and efficiently activated the thrusters as he began his steady movement to a position beside the Guardian, and slowly but surely, began to level the Ark-19 out.

Finally, after they had been fully stabilized, his hand hovered over the button that would extend the Docking Port to link the two ships. His pulse raced, he had the lives of many Mechs in his hands at this moment.

He took a steady breath in, then out to calm his senses.

>>Guardian, prepare for docking sequence. Oh, by the way Prowl, Ironfist told me he would like to have Wheeljack and First-Aid, and if possible, five other Mechs experienced in engineering to come over to help with operations, if it isn't too much trouble, that is.<< Jazz said through a comm link with Prowl, even though he and Prowl go back quite a ways, he still tried to be polite to his superior.

And after that, he activated the Docking port and the pneumatic hiss signaled that the large tube for docking had been released and then the low hum of servos signaled that it was extending.

Then, a final series of clanks, and then the two ships were docked.

>>This is your pilot speaking, we have successfully docked with the Guardian! Thank you for flying with Autobot Airlines!<< Jazz said over the Shipwide speakers to signal that they have stopped.

What next? Jazz thought as he relaxed back into his chair.

Bridge

Lore-lock looked around. At least as well as he could, considering most of his circuits had locked him out. One minute he was shutting down non-essential power feeds, the next he was getting a very close view of the floor. His radio worked, but for some reason he couldn't get a signal to go out. He knew things were bad when he tried to reply to Smokescreen, and it didn't go through, but he couldn't do a thing. Lore-lock was trapped in his own armor. He felt a minor surge of relief when the diversion expert found him, but more than anything he felt helpless.

After he was found the scout tried repeatedly to run any type of self diagnostic but the commands weren't going through. He couldn't even blink in a basic version of binary code. All he could do was watch and listen as things went on around him.

Main Engineering

Another grumble erupted through his vocorder as the link with Jazz returned with a rather irritating responce. Perhaps it was the matter in question, who needs what and who should go and get it. Or perhaps it was more to the point that Ironfist had banged his head as he attempted to clear the slag that had deformed the bolts that held the destroyed shield generator prisoner to the bulkhead. All in all there was not much he could do from this point forward, the Ark or as he was starting to call it Yorktown, based off of the lore he had read regarding the planet below and a legendary vessel that had taken a beating in battle during their own global conflict. Nearly destroyed after taking multiple bomb hits and torpedo shots, it limped back from its liquid battlefield in what locals called, The Coral Sea, to its home base in some island called Pearl Harbor. The 19 filled that role perfectly. A battlewagon she was not, but she was definately a ship who still held a fire in her anti matter power reactors.

Ironfist rubbed his dome before surrendering to the frustration that he could not accomplish this particular task without assistance. Still he had managed to return power to bridge and internal sensors, as well as a couple of positioning thrusters. It was going to be a long haul, and they needed to hurry before the emergency generator they were relying on would be forced to deactivate for a cool down period. It did little good for them to get the ship into fighting shape only to lose it because a generator blew.

Besides he needed more tools. "Jazz, I'll head over to the Guardian for supplies. Just send them a warning. I don't need to get waylaid by autograph hounds," he paused. "Again." It was tough being one of the top weapon designers in the military. There were those who were always looking for an excuse to get him to tweek their weapon systems for better performance. I wonder if Impactor has to worry about things like that.

He set a soaked rag down on a deformed console top and proceeded to exit the main engineering deck. Turning the corner and climbing a pair of ladders, due to the inactivity of the turbo lift network, Ironfist emerged on the mid section deck. The ship vibrated as the docking boon locked into place. The tube hissed as it pressurized completing the seal. Shaking his head from side to side, watching sparks fly as the doors smoldered open and stuck half way. "Figures." He maintained an equal emotionless tone as he stomped down the bottom lip of the door and punched the upper half to a height that would not hinder his passage. Pressing the communication link on his chest plate back to the bridge. "I'll keep in touch Jazz, I might even bring back a few cans of Crudes Electrogon."

And with that he disappeared through the threshold and made his way through the tube that linked the two Autobot ships. He pause halfway...

TBC: Autobot Frigate Guardian.

Message from the Ark-22

>>Ark-19 this is Ark-22. Looks like you’ve been in a scrap recently, what happened? Do you need any assistance?”<<

Bridge

Jazz smiled with Ironfist's response, he could use a drink about now.

>>That'd be pretty sweet, Ironfist! See ya when you get back, man.<< And with that, Jazz closed the transmission and reclined into his Chair.

He then began to browse his records for anything fitting of the situation. He was narrowing his search down when he heard the Ark-22's transmission, and Springer's voice asking if they need assistance.

>>Well hey there Springer, nice to hear your voice again! Yeah, the Decepticons blew a hole in the side of the Ark-19, flooding the old bird; She still flies though. We could really use the specialty of a few Engineers over here, could you talk to Kup for me and hopefully get Wheeljack or someone over here.<< Jazz responded as he finally found a song to play.

He then began to blast "Lean On Me", a Human song, over his speakers on the bridge. He was too preoccupied with the Music to not to see if Smokescreen was bothered by it.

Bridge

Smokescreen sat at his station running a series of diagnostics on the various systems ship wide all the while Jazz was blasting human music over the loud speakers of the bridge. Smokey found it a bit hard to concentrate on his work at times, but thankfully these diagnostic programs basically ran themselves so the loud noise didn’t interfere with his current responsibility too much. After a while, it had become easier for the diversion expert to simply tune out the songs and just focus on the tasks at hand. He didn’t want to say anything to his Earth-loving friend as he knew just how much the white mech loved the local music assortment.

As some of the more basic diagnostics came to an end, Smokescreen noticed on the barely functioning sensor grid that a series of over two dozen drones were making their way across the access tube from the Guardian, carrying with them what appeared to be a load of hardware and supplies that would be needed for a proper restoration and refitting of the Ark-19. “Looks like Ironfist is sending over the first wave of equipment to help in the permanent repair work, Jazz. We should probably head down to the docking tunnel and sort through what the drones are bringing over. We can then send the mechanisms to the proper areas of the ship depending on what supplies and tools they are carrying. Let’s go. These diagnostics can finish without us being here.”

Smokescreen then stood and flashed Jazz a friendly smile. “And no I don’t mind you continuing to play your music as we work. It might actually help pass the time better.” With that said, the red and blue rallybot turned and quickly left the bridge, assuming his comrade would be close behind.

Deck 5 - Docking Tunnel Entrance

Climbing down a ladder from the deck above thanks to the non-functioning status of the turbo lifts, Smokescreen leapt down with a quiet thud and swiftly made his way through the corridors of the central deck he was on until he finally reached the entrance to the docking tunnel. Several drones were already there each with a hover cart in tow filled with all kinds of supplies and materials they would need to finally get the Ark-19 up and running at full capacity.

The diversion expert immediately approached one drone and inspected the contents of it’s cart. “This stuff should go to main engineering on the lower decks,” Smokey instructed the lifeless mechanism, which promptly did what it was told, disappearing down the corridor. Smokescreen then moved on to another drone’s container as even more began to appear from the docking tunnel. The hallway was quickly becoming crowded, but thankfully the sorting process would go smoother than expected thanks to the fact that each drone had supplies for a specific area of the Ark. If everything had been haphazardly mixed together then it would take a lot longer to go through everything.

“Hey, Jazz, it seems each cart has equipment for a particular section of the ship,” Smokescreen said as he then instructed another drone to take it’s cart of hardware down to the medical facility. Looking back at his approaching comrade, Smokey smiled as the sounds of music began to fill the corridor. “This shouldn’t take us too long at all. Once all the drones are sent to their respected areas with their loads we can then get started on some minor repair work until Ironfist returns with some more able-bodied mechs to help us.”