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Tenebrous - Holding Cell

Scattershot glanced over at Nosecone. His expression remained placid and unreadable. No reason to give monitors any weapons to work with once the true interrogations began. Especially since those two pillars of personality, Cyclonus nor Scourge were very much in the business of intelligence. He shook his head momentarily as he glanced back at Lightspeed as the data collector searched his myriads of files and internal data tracks. "No Nosecone, There is nothing to apologize for. We were separated too soon in our engagement and we did not work in unison. For that failure I owe you and the others the apology. However, such a grand display will have to wait until we are out of this mess."

"For now we are all together, maybe not in the best of physical conditions, but we are stronger for it. We'll just have to think our way out of this mess. Including deducing who our most gracious host is and how best to exploit them." Scattershot made his way over to the powered force field and gave a shallow stare out into the cold multiple leveled hold. A prison as an after thought perhaps? It reminded the Technobot commander of the Castles of Pharodel VI, only with a few added amenities.

Internally Scattershot compiled a list of parts he could spare and still function at optimal levels. He did not like the idea of having to swap pieces with his soldiers, however the facts were the facts. When he took the team over, one of his first lessons and orders were to make the command staff and many of the other soldiers compatible. Once finished, he filed it away for a touch transfer protocol file and then returned his attention to the task at hand.

"Strafe, how are Nosecone's injuries?"

OOC: Sorry for the lateness -- PC issues and other obligations have kept me busy the last little while.

Tenebrous – Corridors

“Tolerance... I stand corrected, then.” Scourge is, apparently, accepting of Cyclonus’s explanation as they continue towards the command center. “It is, perhaps, a pity that Scorponok is no longer present here -- if only to keep Turmoil’s ego and ambitions in check. I suspect that if the Autobots do manage to stall us… well, you can imagine who I would be looking at in blame for such a catastrophic scenario.”

He grows quiet for a moment. “However, I’m sure Turmoil would disagree with you if and when the time comes to deal more permanently with the Autobot prey. His ego getting in the way again, I’m sure.”

Tenebrous - Holding Cell

“Somehow I don’t think the ‘Cons have an energon dispenser that make sundaes on the premises, Nosecone,” Strafe said as he sat next to his injured comrade in arms. Placing an arm around the driller’s shoulders, the aerial gunner did his best to keep his friend upright and alert. It would do Nosecone no good to fall back into stasis at this point. Remaining awake was the only way to keep his circuits from deteriorating even further and allow his internal repair systems to do their job. Primus knew that their captors would not provide any more medical attention no matter how much they begged.

Strafe’s attention was then drawn to Scattershot who quickly dismissed Nosecone’s apology and instead offered one of his own. The Technobot Commander clearly blamed himself for the capture of their unit even though they were on a planet crawling with Decepticons at every turn and had been seriously outgunned. “You’re too hard on yourself, Commander,” Strafe offered as he remained seated next to Nosecone. “You may be our leader, but we all knew the risks going into this and share equal responsibility for our current predicament. Besides, we were outnumbered and overpowered on a world filled with more ‘Cons than you can shake an energon cube at. We’re lucky we aren’t one with the Allspark right now.”

The anxious Technobot looked back at Nosecone when Scattershot asked about his injuries. “Well, his treads are a mangled mess so even if he could transform he wouldn’t make it very far. Otherwise, his circuits appear to be scrambled from some kind of EMP blast, probably from the same slagger that got me. Although, I suppose there could be more than one ‘Con equipped with an EMP weapon. Regardless, other than a few circuit boards that might need replacing, I think he’ll live.” Strafe gently patted Nosecone on the back and smiled, hoping to cheer up his ailing comrade.

Ocean Depths

It wasn't long before the submerged Autobots found themselves in an aquatic nightmare, surrounded by the Butcher of the Bogs and his notorious team.

"Of all the, ugh, slaggin' planets where we could have had a water landing," one of the Autobots grunted out, even as another one of the refugees fell to Overbite's attack. Others were not far behind, as they found themselves quickly and hopelessly surrounded.

These scouts from the Farstar hadn't been remotely equipped for a full-on Decepticon engagement. They were equipped for a rendezvous with an Autobot science unit that hadn't checked in with the command structure in a while. Big difference. It was no surprise then that they would begin to crumble--and crumble quickly--under any sort of organized threat.

"We're done! Surrendering! Right here!" the seniormost member of the escape pod's little motley crew blurted out as fast as he could. Seniormost meaning he had a rank three posting to hold over his little squad of rank twos. It wasn't much, but it hadn't needed to be when they first arrived in this little isolated star system. "Please...!"

He didn't even know what to say, really, being so overwhelmed by the Seacons' attack. Hopefully one amongst their number would deign to show them some mercy. Or pity. Otherwise, it would soon be time to know what it was like to become one with the Allspark.
___

Tenebrous--Holding Cell

Lightspeed had been pouring over his internal data records as Scattershot had requested. Getting ahold of Decepticon intelligence, even basic data such as ship rosters and fleet assignments was a dodgy affair. But they had come in to contact with such information every so often, and so the Technobot Commander's request had not been an impossible one for Lightspeed to fulfill. In fact, with a little creative cross-referencing, he found pretty much the exact information that Scattershot seemed to be looking for.

"Yeah, Megatron wouldn't stray this far from Cybertron. Or that mudball in the Sol System, last I heard," Lightspeed began. "Not a lot of official records exist on these guys.....but....their most recent official commanding officer is Scorponok. The 'Con that big Max has been hunting for Primus knows how long."

Lightspeed leaned his head back. So, the research team on this planet had avoided some regularly scheduled check-ins. If this planet had gained the interest of the commander of the Decepticons supposed 2nd Expansion Fleet, that would definitely explain why.

"You suppose he's in here, somewhere?"
__

Pointblank began to increasingly regain his senses, only to find himself being taunted by a Horrorcon. As if this orn was just waiting for an opportunity to get worse.

Lucky me.....

The mention of the Simanzi Massacre had shifted Pointblank's mental gears though--from that of depressed resignation to steadily churning anger. Obviously the fact that they had been captured at all meant that someone wanted them alive. Pointblank didn't really care what happened at this point anyway, so he might as well get a little satisfaction out of the situation.

"Yeah, that's something...to be proud of, you oily slag. A 'massacre'. Where's....Megatron's lofty ideals...of revolution now?" Pointblank said, forcing himself to his feet again as he approached the boundaries of his cell.

"As for me? Guess I'm a little more resilient than you thought, eh mud munch?"
___

Rad looked up, catching some of the exchange between Pointblank and one of the Horrorcons. There was a significant possibility that this wouldn't go well, but slag, they were already beaten and battered and locked up in some Decepticon pithole. Death might be a release at this point.

"Easy PB," Rad called out. "These guys have short fuses. And short attention spans. And short battery lives. It's not a good combo."

Tenebrous - Interrogation Chamber

“Wow. He lasted a lot longer than I anticipated.”

The low drawl came from behind Black Shadow as he stood over the prostrate form of Tactical Response Team’s commander. Blue Bacchus’ statement was very true…Spartan had lasted longer than he had wanted, but the ‘getting there’ was so well worth the trouble.

Black Shadow let loose a low chuckle as he took to moving around the slab slowly, the entire time his optics bore into the Autobot. The one time Infiltration Unit Commander finally stopped his predatory circling at the head of the slab and brought his face down until his nose barely touched the beaten and barely conscious Autobot.

“I'm so glad that you decided to finally cooperate, Spartan. I really didn't want to have to resort to hurting you through other means.”

Black Shadow lifted his head slightly and flicked Spartan on the tip of his broken nose.

“Of course if you’re holding back on me, or worse lying to me then…”

The black and red mech let out a deep hearty laugh while he straightened back up to his full height.

“You know, I’m almost hoping you’re lying to me or holding back. I would love to dig into one, or all, of your teammates. How would you like that, Spartan? Think you could stand by and hear…NO WAIT! Strike that! Do you think you could stand by and WATCH as I tear one of them apart?”

In a flash Black Shadow was by the side of the slab, his face low and whispering into the Autobot prisoner’s audio.

“I think that scenario would be the most fun, don’t you? Picture it…you standing there, your optics glued to one of your own as their armor is slowly culled from their protoform. Listen. Can you hear them call to you for help? Begging you to make the pain go away. And you…you watch knowing the entire time that all you had to do was talk. Do you think they’d curse you to the deepest bowls of the Pit?”

The Decepticon moved in even closer, his vocalizer octaves lower.

“I’ll leave the choice up to you, Spartan. I only hope you make the right one.”

Black Shadow stood up fully and began to make his way to Blue Bacchus who had taken up a position against the wall…right foot resting against the flat surface and arms crossed over his chest. He never did like to get his hands dirty. Besides, Shadow had everything under control.

A broad smile creased the black and red Decepticon’s lips as he raised his hand and began to lower one digit at a time until he reached the last one. Before his forefinger lowered a low raspy voice called out.

“W...wait.”

The smile that had crept onto Black Shadow’s visage broadened when the sound of Spartan’s desperate plea met his audios. From his claimed spot overlooking the entire room, Blue Bacchus flashed his partner a sinister smirk.

Without a word Black Shadow made his way to Spartan’s side and cast his gaze upon the pitiful creature strapped and helpless.

“Yes? Is there something you wanted to tell me?”

The black and red Autobot offlined his optics and finally gave in to the demands of the deranged ‘Con.

“Out…outposts…on ssseveral other planets. Salvvatan VI – Commanding officer…Actuator. Bhul – Commanding officer…Tach. Buras – Commanding officer…Redbird.”

The serene expression that had taken possession of Black Shadow’s visage immediately melted and was replaced by a reassuring smile. The large Decepticon drew in a deep intake and placed a hand on Spartan’s mangled shoulder eliciting a strained groan.

“I commend you my friend. You made the right choice in providing me with this bit of information. Thank you. Your contribution to the Decepticon cause will be rewarded.”

Spartan strained to raise his head off the slab to catch a glimpse of Black Shadow making his way to Blue Bacchus.

“Y…you’ll spare my team then?”

Black Shadow quieted down and cast a fleeting gaze over his shoulder a broad disturbing smile spread over his face.

“Only if what you gave me pans out and I'm sure you’re still not holding anything back from me. Then I’ll...think about it.”

“But I’ve told you everything I know!”

Blue let out a snort and shook his head. Shadow turned to look at his partner and furrowed his brow.

“How do you even make that sound?”

From Blue Shadow looked back over his shoulder at Spartan.

“We’ll see, my friend. We’ll see.”

Unwilling to answer any more redundant questions Black Shadow shoved Blue Bacchus off the wall and gestured for him to watch Spartan while he made a call to Turmoil, who he knew would be more than happy to hear what he had to tell him.

>>”Commander Turmoil. This is Black Shadow. I've good news. It seems that our resident Tactical Response Team commander has provided us with the location of several Autobot outposts. And he was gracious enough to include the names of each ones commanding officers. I truly believe he deserves a reward. Of course I’ll leave that decision up to you.”<<

Tenebrous--Holding Cell

Scattershot mulled over the brief smidgen of information his data collector had managed to provide. Scorponok. A Decepticon few Autobots wanted to tangle with, size was one thing but the cunning and guile of the Decepticon fleet Admiral was something entirely different. Add to that came the list of other potential list of problems. The very mission of the Farstar had been to hunt for leads regarding that particular Decepticon. Well maybe not its primary objective in coming to its final doom in orbit around this planet, but the underlying operations remained true. Find rumors, leads, anything to help bring that monstrosity to justice.

The Technobot Commander folded his arms over his chest as his optics darted back and forth across the brig corridor. "Scorponok." He let the name simmer in the air as he connected dots about who he had encountered so far. While knowing that there were many more Decepticons within the fortress, he had to give the assumption that he had already encountered the major players here. "I am not going to bet in favor of that guess Lightspeed. I don't think we'd be functional if he was present."

He looked back at his second in command. "What do we know of Scorponok's command structure? If we're still functional I am going to take a wild off the bulkhead guess, there's a reason."

Tenebrous--Holding Cell

Soul Siren smiled as she continued to gather her things and prepare her questioning station. A rather nasty looking chair was brought in with spikes protruding from the seat and arm rest area. They were not enough to kill but would be a most painful experience. Meanwhile a case was brought to her and she began to take out A collection of rather nasty looking instruments, all terrible mockeries of medical instruments.

She moved slowly, allowing her captives the opportunity to speak to each other. She wanted them to see just what they would be facing and to renew their friendships. It would make what would come all the more potent. She thought about who would be the best of Scattershot's soldiers to begin with and considered Reflector's report to her. She giggled as she saw the whispering. It was such an adorable act of defiance. Still, it gave her the inspiration she needed.

She outstretched her arm and pointed towards Lightspeed.

"Bring me that one. Make sure he is comfortable in the seating we have provided."

She said in a cool voice to the rather large jailers that shared the room with her. "Now the dance begins..." She thought.

Lake Nimbus

The persistance of these two Autobots was starting to border ridiculousness as far as Barrage was concerned. Granted, they really had only two options - to surrender or fight to the bitter end. And neither option guaranteed survival. Still, what had overtaken their logic circuits for them to think they could sneak into Koraja and make it out of the Decepticon controlled city with Skyhammer without being seen? The chances of that happening were about as high as the chance of Lugnut petitioning to join the Autobots. It simply wasn't there. And yet, the Autobots kept fighting as was evident from the amount of poorly aimed laser blasts that poured out of the vessel and even caught some diaclones in their wake.

Out of sudden, an explosion rocked the fishing vessel that was now lying on the shore surrounded by the Insecticons. While it was no where near powerful enough to tip the situation to the Autobots' favor, it was enough to remove any remaining restraints Barrage had had.

Before the explosion had barely died out, the merciless Insecticon gunner turned his massive arsenal towards the fishing vessel, nearly hitting Bombshell in the process. In mere seconds the furious onslaught of sonic blasts shattered the upper half of the Nebulan construct to dust and scrap metal. Nightbeat was only barely saved from Barrage's attack by having ducked down earlier to protect himself from his own makeshift explosive. Hosehead however, was not as lucky.

The rescue worker lacked Nightbeat's experience and combat instincts. He simply had been too slow to react to the detective's command. First it was Nightbeat's makeshift explosive which caused Hosehead to lose his balance but before he even had a chance to recover from it, his torso was penetrated by dozens of blasts of concentrated sonic energy by the courtesy of Barrage's sonic machine gun. Next thing he knew - was all of his systems going critical, optical data turning red, a flash of the sky above and ceaseless barrage of weapon fire pouring over him. And then - darkness.

OOC: With Trickster gone again, Hosehead is taken out of the game for now.

The Perdition--Bridge

Reflector's individual units each had various holoscreens up in front of them. Each of them, almost simultaneously, flipped form one to another: an Autobot in a prison cell, another Autobot in a prison cell, a team of Autobots in a prison cell, Seekers strafing over Tenebrous, the progression of their vaunted shipyard, Nebulans scurrying about one of their last major sanctuaries--Splendora. Each image seemed to be more satisfying than the last.

Except, however, for the last screen to come in to the Viewfinder unit's view. That screen held the image of open space. Open space and the thus-far undetected Autobot vessel that still lay hidden somewhere within. It had been a source of frustration for the Decepticon surveillance specialist almost since the onset of their work here. The crew of that vessel were intelligent. They had done nothing brash since Spartan's last major offensive and they were wise to do so, lest the Perdition's advanced sensors isolate their position and blow them out of the sky. Alas, events had not played out to Reflector's favor in that regard, and so on he searched.

They would not evade him forever. In that he was sufficiently determined.
___

Lake Nimbus

More than one insecticlone felt the fiery wrath of either Nightbeat or Hosehead's resistance. But the swarm was overwhelming. Bombshell had counted on that. Numbers would always be on the side of the Insecticons'.

Detonating energon rations was a novel approach. Bombshell had to commend the tactic, as it certainly took down more than one of the diaclones. But it, too, was for naught.

Barrage had pressed forward, unbidden, and delivered a debilitating--and potentially lethal--strike to one of the resisting Autobots: Hosehead. And the diaclones continued to push in further. As they did, Bombshell himself took the opportunity to advance from his position of cover.

"Surrender!" Bombshell shouted.

"Surrender...." the various Bombshell-based diaclones echoed eerily throughout the room.

"Or...join your Autobot comrade in death," Bombshell finished. The other diaclones did not echo this, but rather chittered and clicked eagerly as they closed in on their Autobot prey.
___

Tenebrous--Approaching Command Center

"On that, old friend, we are in complete agreement," Cyclonus said in reference to Scourge's mention of Scorponok's absence. "I thought Turmoil to be a wholly unworthy replacement for the High Commander's oversight of this operation. His recent actions in the field have dissuaded me of that opinion....but only slightly."

Those who knew Cyclonus knew him to be little involved in the political machinations that tended to run roughshod throughout the ranks of the Decepticon empire. If he saw his commanding officer as worthy--as he did Megatron--the lithe purple warrior put little thought into anything outside of carrying out his function. To a lesser degree, Scorponok had enjoyed that same degree of loyalty. Others, however, were highly unlikely to be as fortunate. Cyclonus' loyalty went only as far as a commander's perceived capabilities. And in Turmoil's case, it was not going to extend nearly as far as the bullish commander would like.

So be it.

"That he may. And the time may come when he is to be removed from operations on this world. For now, I would see exactly how far he may veer us off course."

As the two Decepticons' approached, the internal systems scanned Cyclonus and Scourge, accepted their internal and external signatures and allowed them entry in to the much larger command room.
___

Tenebrous--Holding Cell

Lighspeed nodded as Scattershot indicated his relucatance about Scorponok physically being present somewhere within the facility. Lightspeed was not so sure, after all his lieutenants seemed to be present in full-force; however, he had seen no hard evidence one way or the other, so he certainly wasn't going to make an issue of it with Scattershot.

"Yeah. Would be nice though, eh?" Lighstpeed said, before beginning to look up information regarding Scattershot's next question.

"Our data regarding the structure of the 2nd Fleet is pretty limited. Some of the faces we've seen, like Cyclonus and Scourge and the Horrorcons, all have significant ranks. Black Shadow is supposedly assigned to this fleet, and he's a pretty nasty Phase Sixer. Turmoil's ship was assigned to this fleet as well. I have no intel over who exactly is in charge of who, but you can certainly make guesses..."

Lightspeed stopped and looked up as the energy field to the cell deactivated and several Seekers and a pair of Sweeps surrounded the exterior of the cell. Two of the former stepped forward and seized Lightspeed by either arm.

"Yer presence is 'requested', heh," one of the Seekers said, chuckling.

"Be nice to him. Just like Soul Siren said."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go."

Tenebrous - Command Center

Directing dozens of simultaneous operations taking place around Nebulos required far more focus and patience most Decepticons had to offer. These were often the key elements which separated the flock of wannabe leaders from those few that actually could deal with the responsibilities of such position. And even among those few only a handful had what it took to be more than a unit leader. Truly successful military commanders were rare among both factions and High Commander Scorponok was lucky enough to have two of them under his command - Cyclonus and Turmoil. The great irony was that like with so many high ranking Decepticons, the two could barely coexist, let alone cooperate efficiently whenever one was placed in command of the other in Scorponok's absence. Or at least Cyclonus couldn't - at least if one asked for Turmoil's opinion.

And yet, despite of Cyclonus' lack of commitment towards the operation led by Turmoil, the Decepticons had been able to achieve much with remarkably short amount of time. They had subjugated a world protected by the Autobots. Forced its inhabitants to serve the infinite hunger for resources and energy of the Decepticon war machine.

The Autobots had fought valiantly but courage alone did not win battles. Not when you were pressing against impossible odds. Now only few Autobot stragglers still roamed free. And how long they could keep going until making that one last mistake that would lead to their doom? As for the original inhabitants of the planet Nebulos - perhaps some of them still trifled around with the notion of underground resistance. In the endgame however, whatever resistance they could muster - was going to be proven futile.

The success of the Nebulos operation had finally given the 2nd Expansion Fleet a chance to lick their wounds and regroup. With abundance of energon and raw materials flowing into the hands of the Decepticons - they had been able to put the industrial capability the Cybertronians were known for into use. Tenebrous was not a mere stronghold anymore. It was evolving into a city with full speed. Factories and refineries were being constructed all around the fortress to give the Decepticons the ability to turn the natural resources of Nebulos to a proper form for them to exploit. And under a force field erected over the now abandoned city of Koraja, foundations were being constructed for a shipyard to allow the mighty warships of the 2n Fleet finally to go through much needed maintenance and repairs instead of the Decepticons being forced to scavenge their own ships to keep even some of them functional.

>>”Commander Turmoil. This is Black Shadow. I've good news. It seems that our resident Tactical Response Team commander has provided us with the location of several Autobot outposts. And he was gracious enough to include the names of each ones commanding officers. I truly believe he deserves a reward. Of course I’ll leave that decision up to you.”<<

And apparently for Turmoil's delight - the interrogators were finally starting to get results. Or at least one of them. For all of his faults, Black Shadow was very gifted with certain tasks. Interrogation was certainly among those abilities. Unfortunately though, this particular victim of his had only some useful intelligence to share and none of it included the highly sought after access codes that would allow the Decepticons hack into the Autobot defense network.

>>"Commendable effort Black Shadow. The intelligence you gathered will be provided to the Secret Service. As for Spartan, you may reward him however you see fit. Save the rest of his unit for later though. After all, it is a rare event we acquire this many test subjects."<<