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Encrypted Transmission from Trion:

>>”Ark-22, Guardian, this Commander Grimlock, captain of Autobot Battleship Trion. We Dinobots have arrived back in Sol System with most advanced warship from shipyards to help defeat ‘Cons. Me also bring with us entire army of Autotroopers asleep in stasis pods. They add to your weak warriors and match enemy vehicons. We now on approach. Request permission to dock with either ship. Me no care which one. Grimlock out.”<<

Medical Bay

Red Alert began to rouse in his CR chamber, slowing reactivating after Broadside’s less than pleasant handling of him. His memory was a bit hazy as the door hissed open, and the security officer stepped out.

>>Red Alert, your presence is requested by Ultra Magnus to join him and others on the Obersavtion Lounge on the Guardian.<<

He checked the source of the message. The Guardian. The voice…it was familiar. Hot Spot? What…what had happened? Red Alert stepped out into the medical bay proper and glanced around at the inhabitants. He saw some of the Wreckers standing around, Arcee and a femme that he didn’t quite recognize. Red was instantly suspicious of her. But…Ultra Magnus needed him right now. So he filed that away for later.

Wait an astrosecond. Where…was…the Fallen?! Red Alert whipped around, looking for him. Nowhere…in sight. Had…had Springer and the others coming aboard with him been a hallucination? Red sniffed the air. Wait. No. There it was. Hot Rod’s scent. He was here! But the others…they hadn’t killed him after incapacitating him. That likely meant that…they might not be under the Fallen’s spell? Gah! He didn’t know! And he sure as Pit didn’t want to hurt anyone else if he could help it. Ultra Magnus would have the answers.

Red Alert moved past the others, pausing for a moment as he passed Arcee. “Sorry…’Cee,” he mumbled apologetically before moving hastily out of the medical bay and toward the Guardian.

Bounce Chamber

Wedged underneath the control console for the orbital bounce chamber, the upper part of a torso was obscured from sight. A hand shot out of the hole and groped around blindly. It found a toolbox, positioned next to the lower half of the mechanoid currently submerged in the inner workings of the machinery. The hand felt the ends of each of the tools, moving on to the next quickly. After a moment, the hand seemed to find what it was looking for.

Snatching up the tool, the hand disappeared back beneath the compartment. The owner of said hand, Arclight began to hum to herself as she worked away on the machines. The teal femme was in her element. Her oil and energon. Well, she was covered in it anyhow. But she didn’t mind. Adjusting the light so that it illuminated the next section that needed work, Arclight pushed herself further and continued to make her calibrations.

“♪~Oh, darkness is at bay.
But not, for long this day.
Yet toil I must through fire and flames
And find a way~♪”

“Doo doo dum~♪,” Arclight hummed cheerfully, having initially missed the sound of the doors to the bounce chamber opening. Her humming died off as she began to hear footsteps. Pretty heavy ones too. This wasn’t Bumblebee strolling in. And she had been…singing. Oh, may the Primes help her.

“…Uh…” Arclight uttered involuntarily, her processor suddenly blanking. “Uhhhhhhhh….WAIT!” Arclight suddenly tried to sit up – also involuntarily – to stop whoever it was from accessing the console while she was still jammed up in it.

CLUNK!

“Ouch! Of all the blasted…” the teal femme muttered reproachfully as she stuck a hand out from under the console. “Hello! You out there! Doing calibrations! Won’t be long, promise,” she called with a little wave. Her hand retreated back under the machinery as she grumbled to herself, trying to fix the damage she’d done by smashing her head against this module. ”It’ll be longer now…Gah, Arclight. Why’dya have to be such a ditz…” she mumbled to herself.

Bounce Chamber

The green and yellow plated warrior entered the bounce chamber only to meet the same silence the rest of the ship carried. With a majority of the Autobots returning on the Longevity, the Guardian was the best bet to where they all were residing at the moment.

As Springer continued to step in, closing the distance between him and the control console, the faint murmuring of someone's voice halted him from pressing any of the keys. Shortly before-

CLUNK!

"What in the name of-"

"Hello! You out there! Doing calibrations! Won't be long, promise!" cried out a voice from beneath the floor paneling as an arm rose from the exposed internal maintenance compartment. Springer's brow rose slightly at the surprise as he tried to identify the busy engineer. Feminine voice really helped narrow his selection.

"Arclight? Is that you down there?" The former wrecker asked as he knelt down beside the hole in the floor.

Shuttle Serenity - Pilot's Cabin

Railway stared blankly at the projection the Aerialbot marksman had pulled up on this newfound Decepticon combiner they had construction. Devastator they called it, the latest project the Constructicons

"Wow." He marveled as he staggered into one of the seats, his processor throbbing from whatever had knocked him out back in the Australian outback. "I don't remember seeing that... What do you mean by- hmmph" he hissed with pain, settling back into the frame of the chair, "balance issues?"

Bounce Chamber

"Arclight? Is that you down there?"

“Huh?” Arclight murmured, something about the voice sounding particularly familiar. She slid out of the exposed internal compartment. Her faceplate lit up brightly as she saw the former Wrecker kneeling beside the opening. “Springer!” she said cheerfully, “I thought it was you! How you been? Oh, gimme just one more astrosecond!”

Diving into the compartment once more, Arclight hastily finished up her calibrations. “Yeah, so how you been? I heard that it got really crazy down on the surface. I’m glad you’re alright though, heh,” Arclight chattered cheerfully as she ran some final diagnostics on the system. Looking at the results and deciding that they were satisfactory, Arclight wiggled back out of the hole in the floor, replacing the panel covering.

“Alrighty, that should do it,” Arclight said as she began to put her tools away and picked up her toolbox. “Where ya off to? An exciting and death-defying battlefield?”

Bounce Chamber

"Man...I figured I'd be the first one here," Sandstorm said as he strode through the bay doors leading into the bounce chamber.

"Guess not."

Bounce Chamber

"Springer! I thought it was you! How you been? Oh, just gimme one more astrosecond!"

Springer rose from his crouched position and took a couple of steps back, giving the access panel some "breathing room" should Arclight come popping out from below his feet. He shifted all his weight to the side, leaning himself up against the side wall as he folded his arms over the bright yellow armor that decorated his chest.

"Yeah, so how you been? I heard that it got really crazy down on the surface. I’m glad you’re alright though, heh."

"You should have been down there to see it yourself." He said followed by a brief chuckle while his signature smirk etched across his faceplate. "Could have invented is a big spear or something we'd have been able to drop on him, heh. Plus, you ever seen anyone stay on fire for more than an hour? Beginning to end, he was burning like a Firecon bonfire."

"Where ya off to? An exciting and death-defying battlefield?" Arclight inquired having returned from her repairs and calibrations. Springer met her optics as he shifted himself back up to a proper standing posture.[/i]

"If you count strange anomalies beyond the nearby asteroid belt 'death-defying', then yes. But seriously, we're just gonna fly over and check out something Perceptor deemed as important. There's a small chance it could be Decepticon reinforcements, small chance it could be something else. We're just going out to do some recon to be sure."

"Man... I figured I'd be the first one here. Guess not." Came a familiar voice from behind the green and yellow warrior, causing him to pivot on his heel. His smirk was soon replaced with a delightful and toothy grin as he walked over to the orange and yellow triplechanger.

"You know the how the old saying goes; 'ya snooze, ya lose!'" He welcomed the warrior with a pat against the side of the shoulder. "Did'ja enjoy your little nap there? Because here I thought once we'd get a chance to do some recon work, you'd have been jumping up and down to go by now." Springer then turned to face Arclight once again, "What about you? Up to seeing what's out there in the great unknown? Could use somebody who knows a bit more about engineering than Sandy and I."

The Autobot triplechanger approached the bounce chamber console and set the coordinates for the Guardian into the system.

"You're more than welcome to follow us over, but you might not wanna think about too long, ship's leaving dry-dock soon. C'mon Sands'."

The green and yellow warrior was soon enveloped in a bright neon light before he disappeared through a successful transwarp-bounce.



((OOC: Springer moved to Guardian))

Bounce Chamber

"You know the how the old saying goes; 'ya snooze, ya lose!' Did'ja enjoy your little nap there? Because here I thought once we'd get a chance to do some recon work, you'd have been jumping up and down to go by now."

Sandstorm made his best attempt at pretending to lo9ok shocked and insulted.

"Hey. Hey! I'm jumping. See? Jumping," he said, chuckling as he bounced up and down lightly on the balls of his feet.

He was definitely more than ready to go. That battle with the Fallen? It had only served to get his pumps and pistons going even harder. Next stop? Whoever's aft needed to meet his foot.

"You're more than welcome to follow us over, but you might not wanna think about too long, ship's leaving dry-dock soon. C'mon Sands'."

"Like you have to tell me twice, heh," Sandstorm said, walking quickly over to the bounce pad even as Springer ported away. Using those same coordinates, Sandstorm was gone in a flash too.

Shuttle Serenity: Cockpit

Slingshot looked over his shoulder only sparingly and grunted sharply before returning his attention to the forward viewers. His hand returned to rubbing his chin as the left hand ordered the replay to narrow and pause as the massive Constructicon behemoth threw its fist straight into the absorption shield of the Fallen. The sharpshooter leaned back again and remained silent for a few moments.

"There," he finally spoke as he considered his choice of words carefully. "The design of that thing, puts stresses on the knees as it overcompensates for the shifting masses on the upper body joints." He played the recording again this time at a slower frame by frame motion.

Why am I not surprised someone like this guy would miss a lumbering bean stalk in the middle of a rust red desert. He thought to himself and did little to hide it from his postures. Slingshot added a few smaller commands to the computer and narrowed the feed again, this time on the actual knee joint of Devastator as it twisted to hold the massive bulk of the torso square with the surface of the planet. It was slight, almost imperceptible, but the sharpshooter's keen optics noticed it. All a part of being one of the best marksmen in the whole Autobot military, to be able to tell when a single shot would cause the most damage to an enemy and its surrounding supporting units. "Unfortunately, I don't know what kind of gun I can get my hands on that can exploit this little finding... unless."

Slingshot shot up too his feet and turned to exit the shuttle, nearly bowling over the larger Railway. "Lets get you to sick bay and fixed up. I got something I gotta take care off elsewhere."

Bounce Chamber

"You should have been down there to see it yourself." He said followed by a brief chuckle while his signature smirk etched across his faceplate. "Could have invented is a big spear or something we'd have been able to drop on him, heh. Plus, you ever seen anyone stay on fire for more than an hour? Beginning to end, he was burning like a Firecon bonfire."

“Really?!” Arclight replied, optics sparkling with excitement. “That’s crazy! Slag, I wish I’d been there now! Primus…Maybe someone got some footage of it or something…Gives me a few ideas…” she continued, rubbing her chin.

"If you count strange anomalies beyond the nearby asteroid belt 'death-defying', then yes. But seriously, we're just gonna fly over and check out something Perceptor deemed as important. There's a small chance it could be Decepticon reinforcements, small chance it could be something else. We're just going out to do some recon to be sure."

“Knowing you, it’ll turn into a battlefield,” Arclight said with a light-hearted chuckle. She glanced to the door as Sandstorm rolled in. Huh. Two wreckers for the price of one. She smiled pleasantly if a bit awkwardly. She hadn’t been an Autobot as long as these guys had nor had she ever been a wrecker. Best leave them to do their exciting…things…While she stayed here. Doing maintenance. Sigh.

"What about you? Up to seeing what's out there in the great unknown? Could use somebody who knows a bit more about engineering than Sandy and I."

“Huh?” Springer seemed to be looking at her. She glanced around to check if anyone else was standing in her vicinity. By the time she looked back to Springer, he was already entering the bounce coordinates at the console.

"You're more than welcome to follow us over, but you might not wanna think about too long, ship's leaving dry-dock soon. C'mon Sands'."

“Huh?!”

Before she could get a word of response in, the bright light of the bounce enveloped her, and Arclight was gone.

Bridge

Skydive wandered the Ark after his interesting conversation with Cloudbomber. She did have a nice figure but a bit too much of a loner even if she did appreciate what the Aerialbots are able to do as a team. His wandering led him to a familiar location with hopes of finding his commander, Silverbolt. On the way up, he noticed all the bustling of Spring and Sandstorm along with a fembot he didn't quite recognize. As much as he enjoyed down time, the inactivity could get to him.

Bridge

Another spark erupted from the terminal causing the scientist to retract his hand quickly from within the console. A slight and non-toothy scowl etched on his face as he slowly reached back in to deal with the faulty wiring. Electrical engineering be damned!

"Here we are." The scientist-turned-sniper commented as his external optical sensor pinpointed the source of the prior energy burst. Gripping the slightly exposed wiring, he brought his second hand close and gently soldered the fray wire back into place. "Alright Silverbolt, give it another go."

At a secondary terminal, the Aerialbot commander entered several auxiliary commands. The room fell into silence for a moment before humming back to life once again.

"There! Good as new!" Perceptor cheered, pulling his upper torso from the access paneling and dusting his actuators off. "And new certainly is the right term. Half of all those mainframe units were absolutely totaled before we replaced them. Course this would have been done a lot faster had Mainframe been here to help us, his smaller chassis and electrical expertise probably would have solved this matter a lot sooner than the struggle we endured." He peered over towards Silverbolt as he snapped back to reality. "Thank you again for your help, Silverbolt."

The Aerialbot commander gave a brief smile towards the red and blue microscope, modestly holding up one of his hands as to show he didn't need the praise.

"No need to thank me. All I did was hit a few buttons and hand you a tool now and again."

Before Perceptor could reply, the main doors to the bridge slid open with a faint hiss. Skydive soon entered shortly after. Perceptor simply gave a small wave before he turned back towards the console he just fixed and began looking over the technical readouts. Ah, good. Energy levels have stabilized and all systems were back to green. His hand breezes over the holographic display as to clear his view of energy readouts and back towards the status of the strange source the 22 had detected earlier. Still couldn't determine the source of said signal, but he could see Springer was not falling behind on locating it as he noted the Longevity's signature wistfully fly itself towards the last known location of the anomaly.

"Hey Skydive!" Silverbolt called out towards his subordinate as he moved himself back towards the center of the bridge, "How you feeling bud? All rested and repaired?"

Med Bay

Railway groaned behind his protective mouthplate as he lumbered through the corridors of the ship. Slingshot had departed from the Serenity a lot faster than the bulky warrior could muster to keep up with. Didn't exactly state where he was going either... But he had a point, the medical center should be his top priority. Getting there without collapsing first, that was a whole different story.

The doorway hissed opened as the lumbering trainformer staggered in. Mechs he couldn't right out recognized filled the chamber, their voices sounding distant though they were only a few meters or so away. With two slow and sluggish steps, Railway threw himself on the nearest medical berth he was capable of carrying himself to, rolling onto his back with a drawn-out groan while his optics filtered off to converse energy.

"Finally... I can... Ressst..."

Bridge

Slingshot paused at the edge of the lift threshold as it waited for him to enter the command that would send him to his ultimate destination. He had no real reason for his hesitation, his observations were valid in their own right and they were based on his considerable experience and expertise. As the squadron's best marksman, hell the sector's best marksman, the ground supporter had the gift for recognizing potential weaknesses ripe for exploitation. Recognizing the weakness in the joints was elementary at best, even a protoform freshly brought online would have noticed the strain on them. But what he had recognized wasn't exactly the strain on the knee joints or the torso, but instead the subtle movements of the body that were made to keep the giant behemoth from toppling over against the excretion of gravity.

He finally reached up and tapped the lift control and ordered it towards the bridge where the squadron commander was last indicted via a computer check. As the doors closed ahead of him, Slingshot began to ponder other elements of the battle that continually replayed in his processor. This time his mind wandered away from the appearance of Devastator and towards the direct engagement itself. The hundreds of thousands of shells that were fired upon the Fallen's position, as well as the Tetra Watts of power that were lanced from various Autobot and Decepticon guns... enough firepower that would reduce even the most stout Cybertronian to bubbling slag at even have the price of expended resources. What bothered him was not the incredible endurance of the monster but the reverse shield that it employed.

The entire set of details boggled Slingshot's mind, and he really couldn't understand even the most hypothetical of scientific explanations behind such a shield. But what he could understand was, it made his life a great deal more difficult if the Decepticons were able to reverse engineer it before the Autobots could.

A muted hiss escaped the hydraulic piston as the dual doors of the lift slid back into their recesses as the car came to a stop at its destination. Slingshot rubbed the back of his head in a failing attempt to massage away the gnawing ache that was beginning to develop. Finally he looked up and scowled. Before him, gathered around some rebooting terminal, was Perceptor, Silverbolt and Skydive. Three characters who seemed to always rub the sharpshooter the wrong way. Still, he needed to confirm if his deductions were accurate.

Quietly he approached the trio with a wave of his hand, and a slightly mocking salute to the higher ranking officers. "Hey, Fearless leader, glad you finally got out of your comfortable hiding chambers." His voice was laced with sarcasm as he allowed his hand to fall to his side and a self important smirk flickered at the edge of his lip. He did not wait for permission before he drew a slug from his wrist compartment and spun it around in his fingers.

As the monitor flickered to life and began scanning the computer core for input. Before it established its link, Slingshot shoved the slug into an access port and stepped back as largely restricted or at least unpublished recordings of the battle on the Earth's surface began to come into focus. Immediately it began to play in sequence, flipping from various feeds and angles but always filling in the blanks and questions that would possibly arise. "Pretty impressive huh?" Slingshot rubbed his knuckles against his chest as if polishing them. "Not even released to Quarts Display yet. Rare footage and of course a few selected highlights of yours truly."

Medical Center


This why I hate med bays, Groundbomber thought as she snapped to. Unfortunately, she had froze, a side effect of her blowing her top and getting injured because of it. She look around and saw that Skydive had left.

Damn, I was actually enjoying a conversation for once, she thought as she ran out, looking for the Aerialbot. She used her internal comms and called him up, saying, "Hey you. Where did you run, er fly off to?"

Bridge

Skydive looked at the image Slingshot produced from the fight against the Fallen and more importantly the images of the new Con gestalt, Devestator. The angles weren't the best but considering the craziness of the fight, it is understandable.

"The gestalt was an impressive creation by the Constructicons. The challenge now is how we bring it down. Do we make our own gestalt or make a large cannon?"

Upon further observation, Skydive seen some imbalances in the weight distribution as the creature moved.

"Hmm, like any Transformer, the joints are the weakest point. In this case, they might lie where the individual pieces come together along with improper balancing with the movement."

Skydive walked closer to the image and pointed as he mention the movement and balance issues. he then received a private communication from the good looking Groundbomber.

>>Groundbomer, I'm on the bridge with Silverbolt, Perceptor, and Slingshot. If you want, you probably can join us or I can meet you somewhere shortly.<<

>>Groundbomer, I'm on the bridge with Silverbolt, Perceptor, and Slingshot. If you want, you probably can join us or I can meet you somewhere shortly.<<

Corridors

"Ah, the Bridge is fine," Groundbomber said. Good the Bridge. A commanding officer should be up there. Even of one wasn't, she'd be able to hopefully be able to use her skills to benefit the Autobot Alliance. That, and she'd be able to meet Silverbolt, so Groundbomber made her way to the Bridge, following the direction of various crew members.

Bridge

The large Bot found the group that had gathered around a monitor. Walking over to said group, she looked over their shoulders at the huge Cybertronian on the screen. Crossing her arms, Groundbomber said, "What the hell is that thing, a d tell me that we have one of them as well."

Med-Bay:

Fireflight awoke out of the CR chamber after he got his repairs. "Uhh, my head." said he, as he glanced around the room looking for his other brothers.

Fireflight then saw Groundbomber running out of the room, "Uh hey! Uh..." as she left hearing range. "Dammit," said Fireflight to himself, "I hoped that I could talk to someone who was not either busy, or passed out in a chamber like Railway."

Fireflight then got up and ran after Groundbomber, "Hey Groundbomber! Have any idea where my brothers are?" Fireflight then looked down in a bit of a pondering mode, "Man that battle with the Fallen really did take a lot out of us, I wouldn't blame them if they were just off somewhere relaxing with some cups of energon. Wouldn't you agree?" Fireflight then remembered that he could've just used his com to contact his brothers but "na, I'm okay about chatting with Groundbomber, she's cool."

Bridge

Groundbomber glanced at the mention of her name, allowing the experts on the....thing on the monitor at it as she looked at the Aerialbot who requested her attention. She pointed to Skydive and said, "Well, two of them are right here. I have no clue where the rest of your team are. I presume that you are Fireflight?"

Bridge:

"haha yeah my name is Fireflight," said he, "eh hehe hi Skydive, uh didn't notice you there."

Fireflight then looked at Groundbomber and said, “man, ya know, ahh how do I say it… “ he looked down a little like if he was embarrassed, “um, what I’m gonna say may seem random, well, I’ve been wanting to say this for a little while now, but I haven’t been able to, well, meet you heh.”

Fireflight glanced over at Skydive, then back to Groundbomber, “Well, uh I just wanted to say that, I notice sometimes when other Bots say that you are not a bright soldier, but I also notice how you do things. I just have gotta say I don’t agree with them. You are smarter than they think, and I actually kinda admire your tactics.”

Fireflight felt a bit embarrassed about what he said, “ehh, sorry if that was kinda random, I just wanted to say it while I could. I just feel that you go through the same things I do sometimes. Since I sometimes have an easy time getting distracted and have ended up crashing multiple times because of it in the past, I have grown a reputation of being a stupid flyer.” Fireflight’s facial expression changed a bit, “ehh don’t take this the wrong way or anything haha, I am not trying to hit on you or anything, I just wanted to say to keep up the good work, and don’t let the insults get to you, I have heard you have internal heat challenges and just wanted to show my concern. Believe me I have challenges and secrets of my own.”

Bridge

Groundbomber raised an eyebrow. By the looks of it, someone had actually looked at her profile. It wasn't often that someone had, usually she was taken for face value, and that was that.

"Am I imagining this, or are you a fan?" the commando asked Fireflight. She chuckled and continued, "And here I thought I was the one who was among fans."

Bridge:

If Autobots could blush, Fireflight would be doing a lot of it at this point.

"Um, yeah I am a bit of a fan *chuckle*." says Fireflight, "Since both Autobots, and Decepticons usually take me also at face value, and usually end up calling me a 'reckless moron', I have a hard time taking others at face value too, so I always read profiles and see them in action, and at least try to talk to them before deciding. Really only those Autobots in authority and my brothers are the ones who actually know who I really am."

Fireflight then looked up, and then back down, “Just like me, most Bots seem to take you at face value, but what I admire about you, is that you don’t seem to care. You may know that; and I don’t usually like to talk about it; that I am quite sensitive to when Bots call me what I am not. I may seem like a bit of an emotional basket-case, but I am not… ehh I don’t know what I am…” Fireflight then came back to himself, “ahh, uh, yeah, basically I just look up to you I guess. That’s all.”

Fireflight was known for being embarrassed, but this was the first time he actually opened up to someone other than his brothers. Fireflight didn’t know whether he was doing something stupid (again), or if he was doing the thing he needed to do for a long time, “I am not looking for mental or emotional help Groundbomber, I am just a fan, that’s all."

Bridge

It wasn't often that Groundbomber found herself impressed,surprised, or even humbled, but Fireflight did just that. However, she kept it hidden as she smiled and said, "Hey, it's no problem, though I wouldn't consider myself as a role model."

Bridge:

Fireflight looked up as if he was recalling something, “Optimus said once, ‘It’s not what problems you have that decides who you are, but how you deal with them.’ I must say I agree."

Bridge

"Nice to see you join us up here, Fireflight and Groundbomber. I'm curious, Fireflight, what did you think of the fight down there against the Fallen and the Cons new monster Devestator? It was a fight like no other from my recollection. Slingshot believes he was able to capture a possible weakness in the monster's form. Hopefully Perceptor will be able to figure it out better than any of us. If we can find such weakness, we will be able to exploit it."

Bridge

"It's a good philosophy," Groundbomber said, agreeing with Fireflight. She sighed and said, "Only in my case, my version of 'dealing with problems' usually includes smashing it in the faceplate."

She looked back over to the screen with the big behemoth on it when Skydive spoke. With a bit of curiosity in her voice, Groundbomber said, "A Combiner, eh? Before I was put on ice, I read something about these bots of ever they were built. Like all of us, they have stress points where joints met. However, due to their size and more moving parts, these points would be more...stressed."

She found a computer terminal beside the group. After fumbling around on it for a bit, she found what she was looking for and continued, "Unfortunately, those points would be hard to find with our conventional weaponry, so it'd take another bot with that magnitude of strength to tire that Combiner out, or we could use this."

She pointed to her screen, which showed a long black rifle. Groundbomber continued, "This is a stress fracture cannon. It will automatically target these weak points on anything. Unfortunately, due to the power it takes and its huge size, there's a good chance that only another Combiner can hold it."