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Within Cybertron’s Underworld

Blackwind glance back at Thunderwing when the scientist inquired about the seriousness of her injuries. She shook her head in response, “No, I’ll be fine. Although I’m sure I’ll have a headache tomorrow.” The Seeker flashed the scientist a quick smirk before she stepped past him and moved behind Weirdwolf, who had taken point in the tunnel.

As the group pressed on the lot remained quiet, unfortunately, the silence and the tight quarters only made things worse for Blackwind. She was used to open areas and bustling work stations, not this desolate tomb.

She brought her hand to her head, but her problem was not the pain from the blow to her head, but the thought of being trapped here without ever seeing the outside world again.

“Th…this shaft, once we’re finally in it, how long will it take to get down to the core?”

She lowered her hand from her head and gripped her opposite arm.

Within Cybertron's Underworld

Weirdwolf kept silent after Blackwind's question until he arrived back to the opening into the ancient cooling shaft he had found somewhat earlied.

"Know I do not." He finally said, shrugging his shoulders. "Laser distance meter of mine measure the depth could not. Huge our homeworld is. Surprisingly hollow too. Down to the core perhaps it goes?"

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

Thunderwing waved off Weirdwolf’s concerns. “The Demons have been down here before any of our recorded history. I imagine they have become very adept at hiding and hunting down here. To survive for so long they would have learned to avoid even the most sensitive of our scanning and tracking equipment. Do not let it concern you Weirdwolf.”

The Decepticon scientist gave a quick nod to Blackwind acknowledging that she was still functional. He didn’t want to lose any member of his team on this mission, particularly being directly under Shockwave’s always watchful optic. Blackwind in particular though was of some importance. Her intelligence, skill and rank set her ahead of the others, among other things.

Thunderwing refocused on the mission at hand as Darkwing and Dreadwind rejoined the group with Overkill and Beastbox in tow. The group followed after Weirdwolf as he led them to the cavern in question. He turned his scanners down towards the depths of the shaft, trying to detect where it ended. He was unable to detect where it ended, but there was a trace of an energy reading which could very well be there objective.

“Wherever it leads it goes down deep into Cybertron and that is where our goal lies.” He turned to face the other Decepticons. “I will take lead, the other fliers can follow me with Overkill and Beastbox riding with Darkwing and Dreadwind in their alternate modes.”

The two fliers exchanged grim looks. Carrying passengers at all was not something they enjoyed, but when those passengers happened to be psychotic midgets it only made things worse. Still they weren’t about to argue with Thunderwing.

“Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher will take up the rear. I doubt we’ll have many worries from attackers plunging straight down.” He nodded at them before he stepped off the ledge. He floated for a minute before transforming and shooting down the tunnel. Darkwing and Dreadwind followed, opening their cockpits to allow the cassetticons to transform and leap inside of them before racing after their commander.

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

With the arrival of Darkwing and Dreadwind, the entire group proceeded down the tunnel until they finally reached the ventilation shaft Weirdwold had come across earlier. Blackwind watched as Thunderwing moved to the edge of the shaft, scanning in order to detect its end point. To her dismay it seemed that even the ventilation shafts kept their secrets.

Blackwind’s uneasiness began to subside as she watched Thunderwing step off the ledge of the shaft and transformed before rocketing down towards the other end. Darkwing and Dreadwind immediately followed suit. She looked over her shoulder to Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf offering them a nod before she too stepped from the ledge, transformed and followed after the others.

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

"Heh, at least getting down will be easy enough." Skullcruncher said, flashing a grin at Weirdwolf before jumping down from the edge. Which was exactly what the tracker did as well.

"Most energy conservative way of moving free fall is." Weirdwolf replied back the larger Decepticon. Neither of the two Decepticon could really achieve much greater speed even through the use of their anti-gravity thrusters, so until their sensor began picking on obstacles they'd have to avoid, there was no reason to waste energon. It was time for the flyers to shine if anything were to attack them here.

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

Thunderwing rocketed down the tunnel at a rapid pace. With gravity and his engines working together he had a considerable lead over the rest of the team, as was his desire. He was best equipped to dive head long into whatever unknowns lay ahead. The Decepticon kept his sensors at maximum and his weapon systems at the ready as he plunged further down into Cybertron.

Finally he detected something up ahead, a mass of some sort. Sensor readings were growing increasingly fuzzy the further down they went, likely due to proximity to the planet’s core. He cut his engines and free fell the rest of the way down, transforming and landing with his legs bent before straightening. He then radioed the rest of his team. >>”I’ve located the bottom. I’ve activated a communication beacon. Slow your descent as you approach it and prepare to land.”<< The last thing he needed was one of his team slamming into the ground at high speed.

The Decepticon scientist began to study his surroundings, his natural curiosity taking over. This far into Cybertron and it vaguely resembled the inner workings of a Transformer. Certainly there were differences, and not just in scale, but he could see some resemblances to his own internal workings; conduits resembling hoses and piping and caves resembling internal structures. It was a pity they didn’t have more time to study.

Darkwing and Dreadwind came to landings next to each other behind Thunderwing. They two glanced at their surroundings, but not out of curiosity but out of a sense of dread.

“What do you think Dreadwind? If one of these tunnels collapsed would one of those creatures finish us off?”

Dreadwind shook his head. “I doubt even they come down this deep. No, we would be stuck down here forever, our corpses perfectly preserved forever, like a mausoleum no one would ever visit.”

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

Blackwind quickly transformed and rocketed after Thunderwing down deeper within the bowels of their dead planet. She hoped that with their gain from this mission Cybertron could be revitalized and then habitable once more.

She was roused from her thoughts by the communiqué from Thunderwing. The Seeker femme homed in on the communication beacon and, as recommended, slowed her decent. She was surprised that her sensor readings were fuzzy. With the bottom of the shaft in range, Blackwind cut her engines and transformed back to her slim robot form.

With her feet firmly on the floor the Aerospace Coordinator made her way to Thunderwing’s side. She noted that from the shaft there was now only one way to proceed. With some luck their sensors would pick up whatever it was they needed to locate.

“It would appear that this would be our only direction,” she gestured towards the large blackened tunnel ahead.

“Let’s not waste any more time.”

Blackwind ventured forward. The sooner they got what they came for the sooner she could get out of this suffocating place.

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

Having been warned in advance, Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf began to slow their free fall with the gravity manipulators most Decepticons carried within their bodyframe. Not much later the duo landed several meters away from the others that had already reached the bottom.

"Strange this place is." Weirdwolf spoke out, looking around himself. "Detailed, far more so than I thought it would be. Almost the core of the planet after all."

"Yeah well. You can come sightseeing all you want after we defeat the Autobots." Skullcruncher grunted before turning his gaze Thunderwing. "What's our next move commander?"

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

Thunderwing waited as the rest of his team arrived. He smiled slightly as Blackwind quickly took the lead. Between her actions and the anxieties of the other two fliers it seemed that some Decepticons did not enjoy being enclosed in such a way. He might have felt the same if he had not spent all of that time inside his personal bunker on a dying world. As it was it was still somewhat disconcerting to be so far beneath the surface, but he did not fear it as much as the others did. Blackwind at least was able to still display some confidence while Darkwing and Dreadwind simply shared thoughts of doom between the two of them.

Once Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf landed Thunderwing gave out his orders. “The Chamber is likely through this tunnel where Blackwind is leading the way. This close to the raw plasma energy sensors are liable to be useless so we will move cautiously and together.” He quickly strolled forward to catch up with Blackwind. “Do not rush ahead too eagerly. You’ve already suffered some damage, a stray bolt of plasma energy could only make things far worse.” He offered her a slight smile before continuing forward.

They arrived in a gigantic chamber, at the center of which lied a large dome. Raw bolts of energy flickered over the dome, with bright light and flashes coming from the lone entrance into it. A long path led towards it, with a dark pit surrounding the dome and the walkway. Thunderwing smiled. “There is out destination Decepticons, the Plasma Energy Chamber.”

The Decepticon scientist knelt down on the ground and produced the devices he had collected in his lab. They were small flat discs with control pads on one side of them. He activated each of them, the devices forming an empty energon cube attached to them. “These are reinforced energon cubes I created some time ago. They should be adequate to store the plasma energy until we can reach the surface. There is one for each of us to assure we return with a big enough sample, with room for some error. We will approach the chamber and attempt to catch one of those bolts in each cube.”

He stood up and looked them all over. “Be cautious. Armor and even my carapace will do little to protect you from a raw bolt of plasma energy. At best it will knock you temporarily offline. At worst a direct hit will scramble your cerebral circuits permanently and overload your spark, detonating it.” He handed out the cubes to each of them. “Now follow me.” Thunderwing strolled slowly, but confidently, towards the chamber, observing the bolts as they flickered over and out of the chamber.

Within Cybertron’s Underworld

It wasn't long after Blackwind landed when both Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher arrived in unison. Once the entire team was gathered Thunderwing gave out his orders, and before he could even say anything, Blackwind was already headed down the hall leading to the chamber. As it was the members of the group were not the type of Cons she was used to being around. She belonged amongst the elite, among the upper class sect.

The disdain for Shockwave and his appointing her to such a potentially deadly task was growing when she was brought out of her musing by the arrival of Thunderwing at her side. She returned his smile gratefully. The scientist was certainly an interesting mech. He was capable of surviving on a dead world by manipulating his own structure. This was truly ambitious feat. She did, however, wonder why his research and recommendations were never heeded. Perhaps once this mission was finally concluded she could speak to Thunderwing about what had occurred. Besides, she did have a desire to become more acquainted with this particular mech. After all, he would need someone familiar with the new Decepticon protocols in order to fit back in.

Blackwind’s optics focused on the large dome at the end of the walkway as Thunderwing announced their location. As the scientist prepared the storage devices the lithe femme took a tentative step onto the walkway. She stopped and looked back once Thunderwing began handing out the storage devices. She made her way back to the group and took the cube when it was offered.

With the storage device in hand, the Seeker femme tentatively kept in step with the much larger Commander. When they arrived at the end of the walkway Blackwind made her way to the right of Thunderwing, far enough to be sure she was not going to be a hindrance to any of the others.
After a moment of thinking she should reanalyze her existence, she finally readied herself for her task. Lifting up the cube she waited as one of the plasma energy bolts was emitted from the top of the chamber and careened down toward her. She quickly averted her optics as the energy was pulled into the cube, trapping it for future study.

With the hum of the energy growing lower, Blackwind finally looked down at the cube in her hands. It was thrilling to be holding what could possibly be the end to this Primus forsaken war. A moment went by before she finally refocused her attention on the others and their progress. The alluring Seeker made her back toward the entrance at a brisk pace. Once there she let out a relieved sigh and placed the cube on the floor where they all had initially gathered.
Her attention was quickly brought to the form of Thunderwing as the scientist attempted to capture another sample. As she began to turn her focus on the other members of the group a stray plasma bolt was emitted and rocketed directed at her. With her attention fixated on the others, Blackwind was oblivious to what was headed toward her.

The femme had no idea what hit her, one moment she was watching the others and the next she was screaming in absolute agony. For the briefest of moments she caught sight of Thunderwing before her systems began to shut down one by one until there was only darkness.