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Bridge

Jazz was just about to start playing "Crazy Train" when Smokescreen stated that the drones have arrived, and that they should send the Drones to their designated parts of the ships. Most notably, he stated that the Music would let the time go a little faster.

"Alright, lets go!" Jazz said as he followed Smokescreen down the ladder and to the Docking Tunnel.

Docking Tunnel Entrance

Jazz watched as the drones began to file in from the Guardian, each with different supplies in carts for specific places on the Ark-19. He looked at the label on one of their carts, it said, "ENGINEERING" promptly on one side with bold lettering.

He looked at the drone and said, "This cart is bound for Engineering."

The drone looked at him blankly and began to march off to Engineering as told. The drone made him wish that they would actually respond instead of nod or sometimes offer no look of understanding at all. It was sad, truly. Jazz shrugged off the thought and began to play his records. He couldn't wait to get to some Tostig Pop, but that would have to wait for "Won't get fooled again" by the Human band "The Who".

He tapped his foot to the music as he sent more carts down to various parts of the Ark including some living quarters. He looked to Smokescreen and arms up when the final "Yeeeaah" was sung. Frankly, he was enjoying himself. He was enjoying himself until a verse was said "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.", this spoke to him. The Autobots needed their leader back; if Prime truly was dead they needed a subsequent mech to fill in his shoes. He didn't want to think of anyone as "replacing" Prime, but they needed a leader that wasn't such an Egomaniac as Prowl.

"Hey, Smokey, who do you think will be our Temp Leader? I'm getting a bit tired of Prowl." Jazz asked as he sent a repair drone to the Bridge.

Docking Tunnel Entrance

As Smokescreen directed another drone to take its equipment down to the bounce chamber, he listened to both the music Jazz was currently playing and his question regarding who the temporary leader might be. The Earth-loving mech expressed his displeasure with Prowl, a sentiment that many shared and was understandable considering the standoffish nature of the military strategist. Smokey, however, held no ill will towards the black and white as he could only imagine the intense pressure their interim leader was under.

“Prowl’s not so bad, Jazz,” Smokescreen began to say as more drones arrived from the Guardian. “You just have to understand how he operates, that’s all. He’s very logic-driven and has a hard time being sociable with others. Many vorns ago, when I first met him, I also thought he was a real auto-prick. Being head of the security forces back on Cybertron, he more than once got in the way of my illegal street racing activities, arresting me on more occasions than I'd care to admit. Later, when the Decepticon uprising happened, it was Prowl’s influence that helped guide me to the side of the Autobots. I guess I just needed a good kick in the aft plate to steer me in the right direction and Prowl was that kick. He may come off as a jerk, but he does mean well and only wants to do what’s best for us.”

Smokescreen’s words trailed off for a moment as he guided more drones to their destinations around the broken down vessel. He then turned back towards Jazz and shrugged his shoulders. “As for who will be our next leader, I couldn’t say. I can’t imagine anyone replacing Optimus. Ultra Magnus or Fortress Maximus would be good choices, perhaps. I don’t know. Besides, I’m still not convinced that Prime is really dead. I just have this gut feeling deep down that he’s out there somewhere. With no body recovered there’s still hope, no matter how small, and I’m not willing to let go of that just yet.”

Docking Ring

A light chuckle came from Hoist as he watched Ironfist. Though the legendary rallying cry of the Wreckers may not have seemed appropriate for their upcoming task, he certainly appreciated the enthusiasm that the weapons engineer was showing.

"Well I certainly hope we won't be 'wrecking' too much.", Hoist kindly replied.

As he walked, mindful not bump into any of the drones, the maintenance expert checked his own tools. Raising his left arm up, he retracted his laser into his left wrist, then proceeded to extract and retract a variety of tools. Laser scalpel, arc welder, power drill, soddering gun, wire splicer, among others. Once Hoist had retracted his own spanner, he raised to in the air much like Ironfist had earlier.

"Repair and Rebuild!" Hoist enthusiastically called out, "So, who else is on the repair team?"

Docking Tunnel Entrance

Jazz looked at the label on the cart the drone was carrying, it was labeled: "MEDICAL BAY".
He looked at the Drone which was busy staring at Jazz and adjusting it's optical sensor like a camera would.

Jazz looked at the drone and stated, "This cart is bound for Medical Bay, man."

The drone stared at him for a second, then carried the cart to it's destination.

He leaned against the wall to listen to Smokescreen talk about how he had met Prowl before. Frankly, Jazz's idea of Prowl hasn't changed much over the years. He'd trust Prowl with a lot of things, but he just wasn't the leader that Prime was.

Jazz chuckled, "Hehe. You haven't heard him try to tell you to shut off the music and listen to his speech on strategies."

"Yeah, I was actually planning to go up to the Guardian and asking to look for Prime. I just need to know if..." He broke off mid sentence as his memories of Prime came into play. He missed his old friend.

He looked over down the tunnel and saw Ironfist and Hoist walking down the docking tunnel to repair the Ark. It was good to get another Engineer for an Engineer's job. He waved to them with a smile as he began to play Baba O'riley by the Earthen band The Who. The humans have a great taste in Music!

From the Guardian Side of the Tunnel

Sideswipe's advancement had Tracer stopping directly in front of the docking tunnel to the Ark – 19; with both ‘Bots standing at its entrance the steady stream of drones that had been moving into the tunnel were now cut off.

“Okay. So how about a raincheck on that drink? I’m sure once you get to know me you’ll enjoy my company.”

Tracer let out a heavy sigh.

“Look I’m sure you’re a great mech, but, really, I’m not interested.”

“Alright. So maybe a drink isn’t your think, we can do something else.”

“No thanks.”

“I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“Then take this as an answer. Back off! I already said I’m not interested! Keep it up and I’ll make sure you really get the hint!”

Sideswipe’s smirk grew, testing the femme.

“Oh, you’re the kind of femme to do anything rash.”

“Wanna bet?!”

Docking Tunnel

Smokescreen chuckled slightly at Jazz’s first comment. “Yeah, well, I’ve had to listen to quite a few of Prowl’s speeches whether they be on strategy or on obeying the law. Although, I’ve never been told to shut off the music as I’m not as in to that sort of thing as you are, Jazz ol’ buddy!” The diversion expert smiled and patted the white mech on the shoulder. It was then that he also noticed both Ironfist and Hoist making their way through the docking ring. Smokey stepped around one of the drones and entered the tunnel, himself, walking towards the pair of mechs.

“Hey, guys! Good to see you joining the team, Hoist. We could sure use an extra hand,” Smokescreen said, cheerfully, before looking over to Ironfist. “Jazz and I have been directing the drones to their proper sectors of the ship. All of the equipment should be in the proper areas soon and then we can get to work on repairing the old bird.” Smokey was about to turn back around and walk with the engineering duo when his audio receptors caught the sound of a vaguely familiar vocal processor coming from the Guardian side of the docking ring. It was distant, but the rallybot could’ve swore he knew that voice from somewhere. He had also noticed that there were no more drones making their way down the thin corridor, which seemed a bit odd as there had to be more equipment on the way. “Hang on an astrosec, guys. I’ll be right back.”

Smokescreen moved away from both Ironfist and Hoist, walking further down the docking tunnel towards the Guardian end and the sounds of a heated conversation already in progress. As he approached, the diversion expert could see that two mechs were blocking the tunnel, which was why no more drones had made it through. The very recognizable red form of Sideswipe was one of the pair. The “nicer” of the Autobot twins was speaking with a femmebot, putting the moves on her as the humans would say, but the crimson warrior was clearly having little success. In fact, the femme in question seemed downright hostile towards him. It wasn’t until she had turned her head towards the former street racer that he finally realized who she was.

“Tracer!?” Smokescreen exclaimed with both surprise and excitement in his voice. A rush of great memories suddenly filled his processor as he took several quick steps forward in order to make sure his optics weren’t playing tricks on him. Ignoring Sideswipe, Smokey stood next to Tracer, a shocked look clearly etched on his faceplate that was soon replaced with a big smile. “I can’t believe it! Is it really you?! I haven’t seen you since before the war broke out. How have you been?”

Docking Ring

Ironfist released a brief chuckle. "I suppose that will have to suffice, given the circumstances." He stepped off of the boon and made his way to one side where Jazz was directing traffic to the sound of something being thrown in a blender. The engineer never really understood the counter intelligence officer's affinity for human music. Most of it sounded harsh, chaotic and decidedly alien.

Without preamble the weapons engineer tossed Jazz a fresh packet of high grade energon, as he had promised, as well as a fully stocked tool sash. "For our repair party Hoist. Lots of non comps and a few others being transferred from the 22. Should they finally confirm their deployment rosters."

He glanced over at Smokescreen and then back to Hoist. "Regardless of the skilled positions, we'll need to be quick yet perfect. Slagging difficult tasks to accomplish."

Not wasting any further energy, he flipped a ration pack to the diversionary specialist before summoning two cargo drones to follow him. "Lets get down to main engineering. We have to get that power plant operational." He shot yet another glance at Jazz. "If you are done with your personal entertainment venture. We will meet you down there, once the last of the components for the generator have arrived."

With that the engineer jumped down a ladder chute and disappeared to the lower levels.

Docking Ring

Almost as soon as Smokescreen had greeted Hoist, the diversion specialist had left before Hoist could greet him back.

"I suppose it must be something important.", Hoist said, before addressing the special ops director, "Well, I certainly can't think of any 'bot who make the work go by faster than you, Jazz."

Hoist could hear the rhythmic sounds that Jazz was listening and working to- no doubt Earth music. Though Hoist didn't care much for many of the human's styles of music, he wasn't one to stiffle Jazz's passion.

"This certainly is an.... interesting piece.", Hoist said as politely as he could, not wanting to offend Jazz, "But if you happen to have anything less.... aggressive sounding, I'd be delighted to listen to it while we fix up engineering."

Hoist continued following behind Ironfist.

"Believe me, I'm no stranger to difficult tasks. But I'm sure that between us we'll have her engines purring like a cybercat in no time.", Hoist encouraged as he carefully climbed down the ladder chute behind.

Docking Ring

Jazz smiled as the repair team made their way over to him and Smokescreen, the latter went to go greet Tracer, who scurried off like a frightened mouse. Jazz was puzzled at first, but he knew the look of a couple when he saw one and Jazz knew he shouldn't get involved unless someone involved him.

His attention was brought to Ironfist who tossed him some high grade Energon. Jazz caught the packet and placed it in a hip compartment for safe keeping until later.

"The fun is never over!" Jazz responded to the engineer with a smile, and almost spitefully he played the music louder.

Jazz chuckled as his attention was then turned to Hoist, someone who asked if there was something less aggressive sounding on his records.

"Ah, sure man! There's lots 'o music to go around! Now lets see..." Jazz trailed off as he began to browse his records for anything "Less aggressive".

Aha! Jazz thought with a smile, There you are...

He picked out his song and played it with almost childish eagerness, it was a new song that was used in a science fiction series. Its name was Faith of the Heart by a human artist named Russel Watson. Jazz was enjoying the music as he climbed down the vertical Jeffries Tube.

He got to the bottom and his feet touched on the still damp flooring. He looked to Ironfist and asked, "What can I do to help?"

Jazz waited a couple of seconds before following up with, "Besides turning off my music?"

Engineering Deck

As Hoist went down the ladder his audio sensors felt some sudden relief- Jazz had ablidged to Hoist's request.

"Ah, that's much more soothing to the audio receptors.", Hoist thanked. Though Hoist didn't have nearly the same appreciation for human music like Jazz did, he found the current song more agreeable than the last.

As Hoist reached the bottom with the others he too noticed the wetness on the floor. He remembered that the Ark had been flooded, so this was to be expected. All around engineering was a big mess, which was also to be expected. Though Hoist wanted to get to work, he hadn't had a chance to read the data tracks or the reports about what happened, so he had a question or two before he started.

"My word, I'm not even sure where to start down here. Was the main generator shut down before the flooding, Ironfist, or was that what caused it to shut down in the first place?"

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist stepped over a large heated blower that had been installed before his departure to begin drying out the systems of the ruined chamber. It had been turned to full capacity turning the Engineering Deck into nothing short of a tropical sauna. The humidity was intense, and had it not been for the vents being in full operational position the engineer had no doubt that it would be raining much the same.

He stopped in front of a drone that had been assigned with the unenviable job of towel drying several system monitor screens. "Readjust task to damage extraction." He commanded the drone as he confiscated the fresh piece of super absorbent fibers. He tore it into thirds and tossed a fragment to Jazz and Hoist. "Most of the damage is a result of being shelled. The electrical damage was caused by power overloads through the shields." He dried his optical visor before activating his scarlet chest lamps to illuminate the dim chamber.

"The water just happened to finish twisting the dagger."

Sending a cascade of crimson light throughout the dimly lit room, Ironfist immediately identified a large bundle of crates that had been set down in the area of where the primary power core had once been located. Judging by the scrapes and broken bits of metal on the floor, the wreckage of the original core had been carted away fairly recently.

"Well Jazz, you wanted something to do, lets start breaking out those pieces. Hoist will be your guide. I am going to dive into the core and see if I can repair some of those connections before we get this thing installed." He grabbed a data slate and downloaded the new schematics he had worked on. Tossing it over to Hoist, he gave a simple nod and salute. Without preamble, the Weapons Engineer disappeared into the pit cut out in the floor.

Main Engineering Deck

Hoist wiped the moisture from his optics as he took a look at the data pad that Ironfist tossed to him. Hopefully the humidity would dissipate soon. Though ship engines weren't exactly his specialty, the maintenance specialist knew enough about what he was looking at and how to implement it.

Well, it would seem our resident weapons engineer has been busy working on improvements to the standard Ark engineering designs.

Hoist went to the crates of parts and equipment that the drones had brought down there. Looking over them he noticed that none had been marked with anything more specific than "Engineering". He opened up several of the crates to get an idea of what was inside which crate.

"Someone really should program those drones to label these better.", Hoist remarked, "But otherwise they seem to be properly organized."

Hoist rummaged through one of the crates that was filled with circuits, inspecting each one to make sure there were no defects. After a minute he was satisfied, and proceeded to go through the other crates.

"Well then, Jazz, let's get started. Any wires or pipes should be sorted by color, components sorted by their type of connection port. If it's small enough to fit in your palm leave it in the crate, after all we don't want to lose anything. Don't hesitate to ask if you need a hand, even though I only have one, ha ha ha."

OoC: Sorry for the delay! I debated putting the Red Solo Cup song in this as a song Jazz plays, but...

Main Engineering

Jazz chuckled at Hoist's joke about his cannon for an arm. He was going to make a joke on how Shockwave needed his cannon back, but he decided that would humiliate Hoist instead of make him laugh.

Jazz found the song to be short, much unlike Freebird, the song he had played earlier. Jazz rubbed his chin as he searched his music banks for anything fitting. But alas! He had surprisingly had not found one to suit the situation. He was rather partial to Stairway to Heaven by another Human band called Led Zeppelin, but either way, there was work to be done!

"So, any new projects recently?" Jazz asked as he grabbed a large pipe, he was trying to make good conversation to take away from the almost tedium and monotony of the task at hand.

Looking at the pipe, he found a green label with "PLASMA" written on the side with an arrow leading away from a fork on the end of the pipe. He placed the pipe on the ground where the rest of the green, presumably plasma related objects will go.

Jazz found a rather odd song in his almost subconscious searching of his records. Klingon Opera. He began to think of how that got in there as he placed several more green labeled objects in the pile, sometimes tossing them over his shoulder to kick it with his foot, knocking it over his other shoulder where he caught it with his other hand.

OOC: Such a shame, I was hoping to listen to "Aktuh and Maylota"

Main Engineering

"Ah, here we are.", Hoist gladly said to himself as he opened one of the crates, finding the outer casing for the main power core, "This is as good a place to start as any."

The maintenance expert picked the data pad back up and took another look at the schematics for many astroseconds, making sure he had it accurately saved to his memory banks. As he set it back down on one of the crates he retracted his laser hand. With a simple thought a laser welder came out of his wrist. Going back to the crate he started pulling out large, thin sheets of metal that were in a variety of shapes with various holes for pipes and wires in them. Leaning two of the sheets against the crates he started welding together the frame.

"New projects? Well, I suppose you could say this would be it.", Hoist replied to Jazz, "I spent the last couple of cycles running diagnostics on the Guardian, which turned out to be uneccessary, but it's better to be safe then sorry. To be honest there hasn't been much need for any new projects lately, I've mostly been fixing whatever needs repairs. But I'm perfectly fine with that, I'll gladly do whatever needs to be done to keep the Autobot cause running at full efficiency."

Hoist stopped welding for a minute to look on Jazz's progress. Of course there was nothing to worry about, Jazz was a perfectly intelligent bot who was more than capable of following simple instructions. He chuckled as he saw the special ops specialist doing small tricks with the parts, tossing and kicking them around in a stylish manner as always.

"The certainly looks fun, and I'll admit it's quite entertaining to watch.", Hoist kindly said, "But please try to be careful with those. We don't want a plasma leak to ruin our circuits now, do we?"

OoC: Hehehehehehe

Engineering

Jazz began to juggle small orbs that cut off some sections of the plasma pipes if they were not being in use. Jazz caught them all and placed them all in the pile of "Plasma" labeled pipes.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Better do that with the Antimatter Flow Module then!" Jazz responded to Hoist.

He looked through his records and began to dig around the "B" section of the alphabet for anything "easy listening" for Hoist to enjoy as well. Jazz felt a smirk come across his face, "How to ruin your life" by Ben Stein was in there. He didn't know how that came into his download of the music of planet Earth, but either way, he heard it was pretty funny either way.

He looked through and found some Billy Joel songs. Hm. Maybe later. Jazz continued on down to the "F"s and found some Frank Sinatra. Smiling, Jazz began to play New York, New York, a true classic!

Reaching in for the last of the Plasma Manifolds, Jazz dug down and found several T sections and four other types of intersections.

"I think that is the last of the Plasma parts. On to the next, eh?" Jazz gave Hoist a nudge and moved on to the Engine Coolant cart, the contents of which were labeled in blue lettering.

He grabbed two large pipes, long and straight, and tossed and caught them. Huh. Kind of a nice weapon if he needed one. Jazz huffed and placed them on the ground, which he proceeded to do with several other ones.

Engineering

Hoist had mostly completed assembling the main core's outer casing, stopping when he had two seperate halves finished. He set them aside and went back to one of the crates where he'd seen the assembly parts for the power core. As he took some of the parts out and began to put them together, he heard a new song from Jazz. Hoist liked it.

"I must say, the humans may be well behind us in technology, but they certainly have us beat in music variety.", Hoist commented, "I've never been to this 'New York', but it certainly sounds like a nice place."

The maintenance specialist retracted the welder and extracted a small spanner. He took one round, almost clear sphere and attached one of the green plasma pipes, using the spanner to tighten the connection. Once the connection was secure he set the sphere on one of the crates, then pulled out a metal cube with a round connection port, attaching it the other side of the pipe. As he tightened the pipe to the cube, he looked around the engineering section, music filling the mostly empty deck. They had a lot of work to do, and between three bots it was going to take some time. He didn't know how much help the diversion specialist would have been, but he was now wishing that Smokescreen hadn't left earlier.

"I'm not one to normally complain.", Hoist said as he continued working, "But you would think Prowl or someone in command would assign more bots to get this girl back into proper flying condition."

Wheeljack’s Lab

Smokescreen had little to no trouble crossing the docking tunnel back into the decrepit Ark-19. Once on the other side he quickly and quietly made his way through the corridors and down an access ladder to one of the lower decks where Wheeljack’s old lab along with the adjacent computer room was located. During the first four Earth years Smokey had been assigned to this infiltration unit, when things were a lot quieter, he had occupied most of his time in the computer lab which was right near Wheeljack’s own work area. He remembered on numerous occasions hearing the mad scientist curse out loud when one of his inventions didn’t work as planned. Of course, there were also other times when he heard a lot more than cursing coming from across the halls in the form of small explosions when things really didn’t go as planned.

Still, many of Wheeljack’s gadgets operated just fine and were quite useful, especially the smaller, less complex ones. Smokescreen just hoped that the things he needed would be like those inventions and not blow up in his faceplate. Otherwise, him and Tracer would possibly find themselves in a lot of hot oil with Prowl if their excursion to Earth was ever discovered. That would not be good. It would be like the old days when Prowl would bust me for street racing or illegal gambling. Not fun at all.

Finally, the diversion expert reached his destination and found the door to Wheeljack’s old lab to be partially open, likely stuck that way from the previous seeker air strike. Smokey managed to pry the door open the rest of the way without too much trouble and quickly entered the room. Inside, he found the place to be in disarray with puddles of water here and there. Thankfully, the water level hadn’t gone more than a foot high and was now completely drained like the rest of the ship. It was just damp and a bit musty, but everything appeared to be intact.

Making his way across the lab, Smokescreen approached a work table where gadgets of all kinds were scattered about like a human child’s play room. The rallybot carefully sifted through the numerous inventions, both completed and partially completed, looking for what he needed to get him and Tracer down to the surface without being detected by any of the ships’ sensors. He really only had to worry about the Guardian and the Ark-22, as the Dinobots would by then be in control of the 19 and not be interested in his little trek with the troubled femme.

There you are! Smokey thought as his right hand passed over one of the gizmos he needed. He picked it up and examined it closely. The small device, a signature inhibitor, appeared to be intact and undamaged in any way. He tapped the button on the side and it hummed to life with a slight vibration coursing out of it and into the street racer’s actuators. Well, I guess I can live with a little vibrating just as long as it works, Smokescreen thought with a smile as he turned the device off again and searched for a second inhibitor. He quickly found another one and examined it as he did the first before placing them both into subspace storage.

Moving away from the work table, the red and blue mech found a storage container sitting off in a far corner of the lab. Smokey was certain of what was inside as Wheeljack had once shown him this particular invention during some downtime they both had shared. The container in question was supposed to be air tight and therefore water proof. Hopefully, the scientist was right and the apparatus inside would be dry.

Smokescreen carefully broke the seal and lifted the lid off of the container. Peering inside, the diversion specialist found what he was looking for to not only be dry but completely intact, as well. It was a small, portable cloaking device that had enough power to hide a small shuttle from detection. From what the rallybot could remember, Wheeljack never had a chance to adequately test it so there was no telling if it would work the way that it should or even at all. Unfortunately, Smokey had no other viable options at this point, so this would just have to suffice.

That and a little prayer to Primus, Smokescreen thought as he lifted the cloaking device out of the container with both hands. It was bigger than the inhibitors and therefore could not be simply hidden in subspace storage. Finding a metallic knapsack lying nearby, Smokey concealed the instrument within before slinging the satchel onto his back and securing it with straps over his shoulders.

Once that was done, Smokescreen grabbed a few more odds and ends that might be useful and hurried out of Wheeljack’s lab, heading back through the corridors and up the access ladder to the higher decks of the ship. He swiftly made his way towards the docking ring that would lead the rallybot back over to the Guardian and to Tracer. However, Smokey still needed to get rearmed before he returned to her quarters. Hopefully, the two Dinobots he had encountered earlier would be gone from the armory by the time he arrived there again.

Main Engineering: Engine and Power Generator Assembly

Ironfist cracked his knuckles again on the tight space between the plasma matrix cartridge and the intermix chamber connection grid. He stifled the urge to curse, deeming such an activity would be a waste of time. He reached in again and transformed the formation of his hand into a narrow wedge and pierced deep into the internal workings of the fuel manifold and finally reached the lynch pin to the entire block. With a grunt and the extension of portable visual probes into the dark, Ironfist extended a pair of vice grips from his finger tips and began to turn several key bolts into place. Once his systems confirmed the bolts were tightened to their maximum tolerance, he quickly extended a pair of high energy cables from two wrist clamps and plugged them into the appropriate ports behind the fuel mix chamber.

Retracting his hand the weapons engineer slapped off the particles of dust and grime that had caked his entire upper body. Ironfist had been in the bowels of the ship for what seemed like an eternity. He had installed the majority of the replacement components for the reserve power generator. While the primary power generator was nothing more than scrap, the reserve generator was more than capable of handling the next phase of construction. He had managed to reinforce the connections and rebuild several loose components that he had previously jury rigged into place.

He knew well enough that the ship needed to be set on the ground, or at least into some sort of shipyard rig for total repair. But he doubted that at present Prowl could afford to dispatch any ships to actively tow the wounded Star Ship back to the nearest orbital dry dock. Perhaps he could rig up something with the Ark 22 and construct some sort of temporary hanger on one of the asteroids that lay between the rocky planets and the massive balls of gas towards the outer reaches of the solar system.

Closing the service panel to the generator and adjusting the final connection to ensure a longer life span of the device, Ironfist made a mental calculation of the materials and time it would take to construct such a fortification. Practical yet time consuming. Humans didn't possess the probes necessary to investigate the entire asteroid belt, and there were plenty large enough to be hollowed out for such a base. But the energy necessary... he would have to crunch those numbers more thoroughly at a later time. For now however he had more important details to attend to.

Pulling himself out of the pit that was the Power Generator, the weapons engineer emerged onto the main deck of the Engineering level. He was caked in grime and freshly spread lubricants, including zero friction gels that made his ascent rather comical. He rubbed his chin briefly before sealing the chamber and twisting the latch to the locked position.

Turning his attention over to the console tower that he had erected an hour or so ago while he restored some of the more vital connections between the reserve generator and the primary engine couplings. While Transwarp was still a ways off, they at least had more than simple thruster modules to keep them stationary. Still he did not like the idea of using the engines until the primary generator had been restored. As of now however, the transwarp engine wasn't exactly on the forefront of his processor.

Ironfist cracked his knuckles again, this time by his own will, and pressed a series of keys on the new control console. A few moments passed as the reserve generator began to pulse and vibrate. Tremors soon erupted throughout the ship before a rather loud thud echoed through the hull. Soon after the lights began to flicker to life and systems that had been shut off due to lack of power now began to power up... and loud klaxons began screaming into the empty hull.

Main Engineering

Jazz just finished his Frank Sinatra song when Hoist began to express how he would like to visit New York someday. Jazz smiled and began to think about New York in all its beauty... Even after two of it's buildings were knocked down by a horrific attack it held strong...

"You'd love it, Hoist! Tons of Skyscrapers with no Plasma Turrets on top of them, no armor plating... It is home to one of the tallest buildings too. I'd think you would love it there!" Jazz said as he began to spin some other pipes around playfully.

It was then when the Klaxons went off, whirling around the echoing halls and filling Jazz's Audio Receptors with an unpleasant sound. Jazz's focus was lost suddenly and he dropped the pipes out of being startled by the Klaxons.

"Ugh. I'll take care of this." Jazz said as he transformed and began to make his way to the bridge.

He began to speed through the corridors playing a loud song by a Human Artist called "Ozzy Osbourne".

"'Cause I'm go-in' off the rails on a cra-zy trai-in, buh duh-" Jazz stopped short when he thought he saw something blue dart up a vertical Jefferies Tube.

Jazz silenced his music and transformed. His curiosity was too great, was this an uninvited guest? A stowaway? Was it Smokey coming back to help?

He stepped forward and looked up the Jefferies Tube and saw the same Blue Object dart off in another direction. Jazz grunted as he quickly made his way up the Jefferies Tube to find the culprit.

"Aha!!" Jazz cried as he darted around the corner to find-

"Whoa! Oh, hey Smokey! Jeez, you shouldn't dart around unannounced like that, you made me think we had a stowaway!" Jazz chuckled as he made his way to Smokey and pat him on the shoulder.

"Come back to help? We could use some more mechs in Engineering!" Jazz said with a grin, he was a bit suspicious of what the Racer was doing here, but Smokey must have been there for the cleanup job.

Corridor near Docking Tunnel

Smokescreen was taken a bit by surprise at the sudden appearance of Jazz behind him. The diversion expert had hoped to be in and out of the Ark-19 without being discovered by any members of the repair crew. Unfortunately, that was not the case and now he would have to come up with some kind of believable excuse as to what he was doing here and why he could not stay and give his assistance.

“Oh, hey Jazz!” Smokey exclaimed as he came to a quick stop just a few feet from the docking ring, his head looking around to see the white mech approaching him. Jazz patted the rallybot on the shoulder plate and asked if he had come back to help out with the clean-up. Smokescreen turned to directly face his friend and regarded him with a genuine smile as his processor frantically searched for an appropriate and plausible lie to tell. The street racer decided to keep it simple and vague, mixing in a small amount of truth in an otherwise outright falsehood.

“Yeah, sorry that I startled you there, ol' buddy. It wasn’t my intension,” Smokescreen began, adjusting the right strap of his backpack. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid I won’t be able to rejoin the repair crew just yet. I kinda promised I would do something for an old friend first. As to why I’m over here, I just needed to grab a few personal belongings from my old quarters that’s all. Thankfully, they weren’t too water logged.” Smokey chuckled a bit as he turned and moved closer to the docking ring.

Looking back at Jazz with a guilty conscious beginning to weigh on him, the rallybot smiled again before shrugging his shoulders. “I’m really sorry. I wish I could stay, but I shouldn’t be too long and then I’ll come back and help out. I promise.” Without waiting for further questions or a protest from Jazz, the red and blue racer hurried across the threshold and down the docking tunnel to the Guardian, knowing full well that he had just made one promise he would not be able to keep.

Engineering Deck

As Hoist finished assembling the new power core, Ironfist rose from below deck and made his way to one of the consoles.

"Goodness, you could certainly use a steam bath.", Hoist commented on the weapon engineer's dirty appearance, "But I assume everything went as well as it could down there."

A few seconds later, Ironfist had power back on. The room filled with light as the loud hum of power filled the room. The few consoles that were intact flickered on, though a few sparks shot out of one of them. Hoist would check that out soon.

"Well that's much better.", Hoist gladly said, "This should make things a lot easi-"

Before Hoist could say much more he was interrupted by the klaxons blaring. Before he could say anything, Jazz had already left to check what it was. Hoist wasn't too worried, though.

"I'm sure Jazz won't have any problems.", Hoist assured Ironfist, "It's probably just a malfunctioning drone that got lost, or perhaps another Autobot here to fix the ship who wasn't expecting the security monitors up."

Though he normally kept a calm demeanor, the alarms were starting to get on Hoist's nerves. Carefully setting the power core down he went over to a communications console that was thankfully still intact. Punching in a few commands, the engineering deck went silent, except for the still present sound of energy flowing through the systems.

"All right then.", Hoist said relieved, "While you were down there I assembled the new power core. Hopefully I've integrated your modifications correctly, feel free to take a closer look to make sure. If it's to your satisfaction, I'll start connecting it to the rest of the ships systems."

Docking Ring

Jazz stood there, suspicion rising of what Smokescreen was up to. He was certain that his friend wasn't lying to him. He must have caught him off guard or something... But the doubt was still there in the back of his mind.

'Old Friend'? I'm guessing that 'Friend' is that Femme I saw earlier. But wait, why would he need something from his quarters to accommodate such friend? Just what was in his quarters? Unless it was- He stopped himself from going any further, as he trusted Smokey an he didn't want to believe that there was something else going on.

Jazz sighed and began to play Crazy Train some more as he climbed back down the Vertical Jefferies Tube and transformed. He sped off towards the bridge, splashing some puddles on the damp floor. He transformed and grabbed hold of the wall, using his momentum, he spun around and launched from the wall and transformed again, making a fast time to the bridge.

Bridge

Jazz transformed and leaped up the stairs to the security console where he punched in several commands. His Audio Receptors breathed a sigh of relief as the Klaxons turned off throughout the entire ship. He would have to come up again when Smokescreen came back, as he did not have the Clearance for the deactivation of the Security System.

>>Jazz to Hoist and Ironfist, I found what caused the Klaxons to go off. It was Smokescreen, if you could believe it! He said that he would come back later, so I'll stay up here and keep an eye on things. Tell me if you need some systems tested.<< Jazz radioed the repair team as he relaxed into the Console's Chair.

Whether if he liked it or not, something was odd with Smokescreen's behavior. He was no Nightbeat, but he knew when something "Smelled Fishy".

Main Engineering Deck

Ironfist smirked with satisfaction underneath his mouth guard. He wasn't exactly a fan of being covered head to manifold in grime, being a specialist in weaponry design and construction rarely made such necessary for him to delve so deep in machinery. Of course that rare exception was definitely reserved for those big reflex cruisers he had heard being designed in Kryflux IV Orbital Testing Facilities. He inwardly smirked at the idea of getting his hands on one of those ships. Mostly gun capable of shattering a rock the size of a small continent. Course the problems of the designs were the power generators currently in service were inadequate for the task of running those big artillery batteries.

The klaxon finally abated and the swift appearance of silence snapped Ironfist out of his daydream. It was a beautiful scene, shame it had to end and reality had to invade. There was still work to be done, this ship was not going to repair herself nor was she going to go anywhere until the final connections between the Transwarp Cells and the reserve power generator was restored.

Still something bothered him regarding the sounding of the Klaxon and over all security system. He had not actively restored the general sensor network outside of the bridge, docking hatches and engineering. And even those connections were spotty. He knew full well that when he reported to Prowl, in the next cycle or so, he would have to recommend something that he would have rather not had to endure. Land the ship and prepare for total reconstruction. If that was an nonviable option, which he was fully prepared for, he would have to... no focus on the here and now.

"Indeed. A sonic shower and a nice oil bath may help break off this lubricant jacket I have appeared to acquire." He finally responded to Hoist as the engineer made his way over to a portable monitoring station. "We need to get ourselves off stationary thrusters and get this ship back under her own power. By these gauges we are running low on propellant." He turned over to his maintenance friend. It was a simple task that both had performed during their days in training. Connect a few cables, replace an entire transwarp coupling grid. Reconstruct an Impulse Drive from scratch. Oh nothing but a walk in the parks of Praxus.

He cracked his knuckles and extracted a micro torque wrench from a tool box. He flipped a spare over to Hoist. "While Jazz is taking care of the helm connection, we'll get all the fun to ourselves."

Main Engineering Deck

Snarl slowly climbed down an access ladder, his tail wings scraping along the narrow sides of the jefferies tube. He wasn’t made for these enclosed spaces like the other puny Autobots were. The Desert Warrior was meant to be out on the open battlefield fighting ‘Cons of all shapes and sizes, not stuck inside some rust bucket of a ship that was on its last legs so to speak. Swoop, on the other hand, was having a much easier time of it as he was the smallest and thinnest of the Dinobots, which allowed him to maneuver through these tight spaces with few problems.

Once he had reached the main deck of Engineering, Snarl was able to stretch his limbs out fully before motioning for his flying companion to follow. Walking down the corridor with a series of loud clanks from his heavy footfalls, the Desert Warrior’s audio receptors strained to pick up the sounds of two mechs talking nearby. “We close, Swoop,” Snarl muttered aloud as he rounded a corner and finally saw the source of the voices he had heard. The plated Dinobot somewhat recognized the green maintenance mech from some encounter in the distant past, but he was completely unfamiliar with the smaller weaponry engineer. It didn’t matter as these were the only two down here and should be relatively easy to kick off the ship.

Approaching both Hoist and Ironfist, Snarl came to a stop and stood ominously over them. “Attention, there been change of plans. Dinobots put in charge of Ark-19. We ordered to take her for repairs elsewhere as refitting cannot be done here. Prowl want us to go ASAP. You fixit ‘Bots need to leave ship now. See Prowl for further orders once you back on Guardian. Understood?”

Snarl glanced back at Swoop who stood silently to one side before returning his gaze to the pair of tiny Autobots in front of him. Hopefully, neither one would try to contact Prowl at this point and instead simply wait to speak with him in person, which of course would require them to leave the damaged Autobot vessel first. Once they were off, the docking tunnel could be disengaged and the Dinobots would be on there way. But maybe not home free, the Desert Warrior thought as he waited for the two repair mechs to respond to his demand.

Engineering Deck

Catching the wrench that Ironfist tossed to him, Hoist went to grab some of the cables that Jazz had sorted out earlier.

"Well you know what they say, the worst day in engineering is better than getting slagged by Decepticons.", Hoist humorously replied, "All right I'll admit, no one has ever said that until now. But it doesn't make it any less true, now does it?"

Taking one of the cables to the newly assmebled power core, Hoist extracted a clamp from his left wrist and securely gripped the cable with it. He started fastening the cable when he could hear large metal footprints coming toward them.

"Ah, could that be some much appreciated help coming here?", he said to the new arrivals, still focusing on his work.

Hoist stopped what he was doing as he heard Snarl make his announcement. It most certainly caught the maintenance specialist by surprise; Prowl knew the state the Ark-19 was in, it didn't seem likely he would send a combat-unit like the Dinobots alone to take a ship that could barely hold itself together. For that matter, it wasn't like Prowl not to inform them of any such orders. Still, Dinobots or not, Hoist wasn't about to start mistrusting his fellow Autobots. More likely there was some miscommunication, maybe Ironfist got the order while he was below deck.

"I'm terribly sorry Snarl my friend, but I wasn't aware of any such orders.", Hoist replied in a friendly manner as he continued working, "You're the ranking officer here, Ironfist, did Prowl try to contact you while you were fixing the backup generator below?"