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Shoreline

Swindle gave Onslaught a broad smirk. He knew that when his commander gave praise he truly meant it. While he wasn’t the type to go sniffing for simple praise, he was more then welcome to hearing it. Maybe he would work that into some future sales pitches. ‘From Swindle, the Decepticon called by Combaticon Commander Onslaught as ‘impressive.’ Yeah, that probably needed some work, but it was a start.

“You won’t regret this boss, this is gonna be great!” The arms dealer flipped open a panel on the beacon and hit the activation button. The device lit up as it beamed a signal up to the Obliteration. Now they just needed to wait, preferably peacefully, of course with Brawl and Autobots nearby that just wasn’t going to happen.

Swindle backed off as Brawl threw a fit and Onslaught raced to stop him from doing something monumentally stupid. He was tempted to throw in a comment or two, especially since Brawl had been yelling at him not too long ago. He held his tongue this time though as it looked like he would be needing Brawl’s assistance in the near future. It was best to keep him as calm as was possible for the goon. The Combaticon would have to make sure to give him a simple assignment though, probably smashing or blowing something up.

The arms dealer’s optics followed Onslaught’s as he looked over at the two triple changers loitering nearby. Swindle came up next to his commander and whispered to him. “Boss, you want me to bring the triples back into the fold here? Do a little bit of negotiating on your behalf? I’m sure I can get them back in line, there probably shell-shocked after all that’s happened. I’m sure if we can avoid punishment this time they’ll be begging to get back in on our side.” Of course Swindle would have to work his own angle as well and score some sort of profit out of it. Of course Onslaught should expect that, but he’d still get the job done for his commander. He was still loyal, in his own way.

Shoreline

Like he usually did, at least when Onslaught forced him to, Brawl managed to pull through his own excessive degree of violence and vitriol and see reason. It wasn't ideal, but Onslaught would take it. The alternative would send the next few orns up in flames--quite literally.

Onslaught normally would have been relieved to get the status update from Blast-Off. Primarily, it confirmed that he hadn't done anything to get the Obliteration shot out of the sky by the Predacons' more powerful vessel, ominously under the command of Shockwave and Soundwave--neither of whom would likely hesitate to do just that if they thought their power base was being subverted. His Combaticon subordinate sounded no worse for wear, but the situation had indeed changed. Drastically.

It had, at least, pulled his attention away from the insubordinate triple-changers.

>>"Understood Blast-Off. Good work. Coordinate with Swindle. We're about to make our move. If you can get word to him in the same secure fashion, do it."<<

"Use haste, Swindle. It seems we may well be in battle as soon as I have access to that pod of yours. Maybe sooner. As for the triple-changers," Onslaught began. He didn't want to waste their talents, but there was also to be some degree of punishment that would be expected by everyone for the actions they had taken. Onslaught was not one to ignore it. "Proceed. They're yours to command for the time being. Have them do what you need them to do in order to get done what needs doing. Brawl will enforce your commands if needed."

This was it. All of his team had critical tasks to undertake, either to assist Razorclaw--and thus, themselves--or prevent their extinction at the hands of a Cybertronian legend. Neither were situations that Onslaught would have suspected he would oversee in any fashion not even one full vorn before, and yet here he was.

"Clear out so Brawl can do his work. And make sure you're loaded up. We won't be down here much longer."

Onslaught's gaze turned from the triple-changers as he crossed the water's edge and began trekking back down in to the depths where the Constructicons were likely still hard at work on what might well be their only refuge if things went badly.
___

"Deep slag," Astrotrain agreed, quietly hoping that Onslaught and Brawl would suddenly start pummeling each other right in front of them. That would've been a good show.

But it seemed to be all for not, as the Combaticon Commander's attention looked like it was being pulled in some other direction. Something was going on and Astrotrain had no idea what. He didn't like that. But Onslaught's attention didn't look like it was on them anymore, either. That works.

"Or...maybe not."

Shoreline

Blitzwing grunted. “Who would've thought, eh?”

Interesting. Instead of Onslaught screaming at the Triple Changers for their act of insubordination, probably sabotaging a detail here and there in some strategy he had in place, the Combaticon commander simply strode past the pair without a sound, and vanished into the sea. Blitzwing was happy about that.

But he wasn't particularly happy about the instructions Onslaught had left Swindle to carry out. If he'd heard correctly, then—somehow, incredibly, inexplicitly, unbelievably, impossibly—that little cyber-weasel, Swindle, was on the verge of assuming command over the Triple Changers. Like telling them what to do right now.

What? Why? How? How?

Blitzwing sighed, a raucous noise that could have done with some toning down, if not only for the deliberate exaggeration that coated it. He would refuse to take orders from that pipsqueak.

“What the Pit, 'Train?” The look on Blitzwing's face-plate was anything but content. “Was Onslaught serious? Was he really? Do we seriously have to obey that oil stain?”

Treeline

It was a while until Ramjet showed back up on the beach. He had been planning and waiting until the time was right to make his presence known, and he had a perfect opportunity on his hands. It seemed that nearly everyone on the Ultrax went out for battle, somewhere. This left the derelict ship behind.

>>Waspinator? Do you read?<< Ramjet sent a signal to possibly someone who was on the Ultrax at the time.

He heard static. There was a chance that he was still there, but Ramjet wasn't sure if he was, anymore.

>>Wazzpinator readzz Ram-Bot loud and clear.<< Ramjet smiled.

Ramjet then quietly told him his plan, and how useful Waspinator would be in it, at least, for the time being. After his briefing, there was more static. Had the Insecticon hung up on him?

>>Ram-Bot... Need... Wazzpinator...?<< There was a sob over the static, it seemed that Waspinator was rather emotionally compromised at the moment. >>Wazzpinator aczzept. Wazzpinator get to work right away!<<

Suddenly, Ramjet heard some shouting. It was that of Blitzwing. It seemed he was not content with Swindle being their CO. Needless to say, Ramjet agreed. Strolling forward out of the woods, he made directly for the Triplechangers, just in time to hear the commando's question. Putting his hands over both of their shoulders, Ramjet prepared a smile for them, making it as genuine as possible.

"Of course not. Why take orders from him, when you can come with me?" Ramjet said, smooth and calm.

Striding up to Swindle, he glared at the black market dealer.

"I'll deal with this. You don't need to do anything with them. You have more pressing matters to attend to, obviously. Just tell the boss that you left them in good hands and that you are better suited by his side, or something." And with that, he left Swindle and went back to the Triplechangers.

Leaning in close to where only the two Triples could hear him, he said rather quickly, "If you wish to hear what I have to say, turn off your GPS beacons now. I already have. The Bounce will not pick me up."

Undersea Base

To say Bonecrusher was angry would be an understatement. He hated, and I mean hated to be left out on a chance to beat some faces in. He heard some murmurings of the Fallen, but he didn't care. Not. One. Bit. He wanted to blow something up...

But there would be a time for that.

Now is probably the only time that there could be a base built, not to mention an opportunity to build Devastator... Bonecrusher couldn't help himself from grinning a bit under his facemask. That was a name of power. Something that people would respect. No more were they just some construction guys, they were the Constructicons!

Needless to say, it made Bonecrusher a bit excited. Using his massive strength and the almost low-gravity of the sea, Bonecrusher leaped from his position on the front lines all the way to the base in a matter of instants. There was a cloud of silt that arose from his landing, but that mattered nothing to him. He was going to get this upgrade. Now.

"Hook! I'm up next!" Bonecrusher didn't care who is in front of him, or behind him in line, he was going to have that next spot and pretty much nothing was going to stop him.

Undersea Base

Working on a member of their team in such a delicate operation as this was precarious enough, but what Scrapper really didn't need right now were members of his team getting impatient and sabotaging any of the work they were doing, even if it was completely unintentional. They were on the road to greatness. They couldn't afford to veer off in to a ditch now.

"You will be next," Scrapper said, answering the impatient Constructicon that had addressed his demand to Hook. Scrapper hadn't even bothered to look up, instead moving a servo out of the way as Hook continued his own modifications on their fellow Constructicon. "But you have to wait. Just like Hook and myself. This is a process that can not be rushed, as much as all of us would like it to be. Especially now."

Bonecrusher was the strongest member of their team, and sometimes had a temper to match. Every so often he had to be treated with protoformic actuators in order to prevent him from going off like one of Motormaster's or Onslaught's more volatile mechs, but at the end of the day Bonecrusher was a professional, just as they all were, and Scrapper was fairly certain he would listen to reason. Scrapper cast a quick, askew glance at the progress they had made on the base thus far. It was impressive, but for the needs of the Decepticons, there was still more that would need to come. Eventually, they could requisition certain portions of typical facility structures from large ships such as the Thanatos, but not until they were assured that they were not suddenly going to be fired upon by members of their own faction--for whatever ridiculous political purpose it might serve in the heat of the moment.

Until then, they would need to continue expanding and fortifying what they had to work with down here.

"We need to plunge deeper in to the terrain here. The slopes leading up to the surface. The mineral beds beneath us. I want all the raw materials we can access. This polymer dome serves our purposes for now, but we're going to need to fortify it and any ancillary structures we might eventually build alongside it."

Undersea Base

Scavenger was a still unsettled about all of this Fallen business. The fact that not even Scrapper knew how they were going deal with it was impressive in itself, at least to Scavenger. Devastator was seeming more and more like their only hope. Scavenger looked down at himself. Devastator. Yes. The Constructicons could be more than just the construction workers. They could be a serious force to be reckoned with.

The excavator still hoped that they would still get the opportunity to work on their projects even with the power of Devastator at their fingertips. No one was better than them at construction. Plus, Scavenger loved digging too much to simply give it all up. He looked up as Bonecrusher pushed to a spot ahead, claiming to be next.

Scavenger could tell that his fellow Constructicon was excited like him. Fortunately, Scavenger had already had the modifications completed on himself. Scrapper wasn't long in responding to 'Crusher. As usual, Scrapper had already thought ahead. At the mention of the mineral beds beneath them, Scavenger's optics brightened. An opportunity to dig something valuable up! He would do anything for the approval of his fellow Constructicons. Scavenger fidgeted a bit, wanting to start excavation that very astrosecond.

Instead, Scavenger walked over to Bonecrusher and Mixmaster. The Fallen still nagged at the back of his processor like a ominous looming cloud. He was something out of myth. A legend that had long passed into the fog of time. The past was supposed to be just that. The past. And now they had a ghost of it come to haunt them.

"What do you guys...make of the Fallen?"

Undersea base
Mixmaster brushed off Hooks insult with a cackle as he knelt to pick up some armour pieces that had fallen to the ground during the various procedures. “Always interested in specimens that will produce new alloy’s” the glint of either genius or madness in his optic as he stood back up placing the armour pieces within a locker in his wrist. He looked about the medical bay Long haul was nearby and Scavenger approached babbling about the Fallen.

“The Fallen he’s a fairy tale something to scare protoforms as they come online like primus is a comfort for those not long for this world. I believe in scientific reason but if you get some armour shards or a limb off the fairy tale I’m sure we could get some wonderful new alloy’s and possibly prove his myth or bust it” Mixmaster sneered as he swung an arm around Scavenger's shoulders “Come on my superstitious friend you need to do some digging to calm your nerves and if there are casualties then it’s going to get a tad crowded” Hook might think that Mixmaster was slightly deranged he’d be right but Mixmaster had his lucid insights and this was one of them his reasoning Scavenger needed a distraction. The Materials expert was also subtly gaining even more armour flakes for his potential super alloys he really wasn’t picky where it came from.

Shoreline

Swindle nodded at Onslaught. He could tell that something was up, even more so then before and things were pretty high up already. Whatever had happened had put an added urgency on things. That just meant he was going to have to work his magic a little faster then he had planned, but that was fine with him. Swindle always delivered his goods on any reasonable deadline, whether it was spare parts, ammo or cooperation of some lunkhead triplechangers.

The arms dealer turned to the Decepticons in question, a smile plastered on his face as he approached Astrotrain and Blitzwing. He overheard the ‘oil stain’ comment but his smile didn’t falter. “Oil stain? Really guys? You hurt me, and all I’m doing is trying to help you.”

Unfortunately the Combaticon was cut off by the sudden arrival of Ramjet. Swindle never really head any problem with the various seekers, but he was always aware of their reputation as being a bit arrogant. Ramjet was apparently the worst of them all from the way he was acting. Swindle’s smile turned quickly into a scowl as Ramjet casually dismissed him and turned to try and take control of the triplechangers. It was like someone had taken the arrogance of Starscream and combined it with extreme stupidity.

Swindle was perhaps the least likely of the Combaticons to resort to outright violence. It typically wasn’t in his nature. However, the Combaticon did possess a shrewd and sometimes brutal business sense and a competitor had just spit in his face AND turned his back on him. That broke so many codes of business and just general being a Decepticon that Swindle really had no option. The fact that he was going to relish it certainly helped though.

The Combaticon whipped out his gyro gun and opened fire on Ramjet’s exposed back. The unprepared seeker was pelted with shots and quickly tumbled face first to the ground from the loss of all sense of balance. With as many shots as he had pumped into him he was going to be getting up anytime soon. Just to be sure Swindle walked over to him and firmly placed a foot on the middle of his back.

He looked up at Astrotrain and Blitzwing with a smile again. “Now, you could go with Ramjet here, strike out on your own, I can understand the appeal of that. No one to answer to, I mean maybe aside from old Ramjet here. I’m sure he’ll come up with some good strategies for you, like ‘hit the enemy with your head as hard as you can!’ It works for him at least right? Of course you’ll be going with NO support system and NO back up of any sort. So, you know, just the three of you, led by Ramjet.”

“Now, let me make my pitch to you. Do you guys really think I’m gonna order you around, get you doing things you don’t want to do? I’m an arms dealer, not a general. You stick with me and I’ll make sure you’re well equipped and well fueled. I’m not going to be ordering your around in battle, you guys know how to fight better then I do. But when you go into battle, I’ll make sure you have all the best stuff. And, just to prove my point, here comes the goods.” Swindle pointed into the air as the escape pod flew down towards them. It hovered in the air for a minute before landing softly on the beach.

“Now that’s my personal mini-armory. Would you two like to take a look inside with me and get patched up, reloaded and refueled, or would you rather stay here with mister ‘I hit things with my head really hard’ here? Its up to you.” With that Swindle began to move to the escape pod, but kept an optic on the triple and Ramjet.

(OOC: Moderator making a called hit here as that was a bit much to insult Swindle and just expect to walk away like that. The shots scrambled his sense of balance pretty bad so it will take a little while for Ramjet to be able to get up and walk again. There isn’t any permanent damage though.)

Shoreline

Astrotrain had simply shrugged, sending a quick look of disdain in the Combaticon hustler's direction, quietly agreeing with Blitzwing's characterization of the mech.

Ramjet seemed to agree too. Astrotrain didn't know where the slag he had been for the last few breems, but he seemed intent on making his presence known again. He was determined. Astrotrain would give him that much.

To Astrotrain's surprise though, after Ramjet had finished disrespecting the little oil stain, said stain went and shot Ramjet in the back.

Rookie mistakes, Astrotrain thought, having seen Shockwave and any other number of "commandy" types navigate similar circumstances. You didn't insult a mech unless you were ready for a fight. Not in these ranks, and especially not with Megatron gone. Slaggin' everybody wanted to prove they were the top dog now.

And if you're gonna insult the guy, you don't turn your back after. Geez....

Astrotrain had seen some promise in the dogged black-and-white Seeker. Enough so that he had even contemplated getting behind his move for leadership. Definitely would've shaken things up. Astrotrain wouldn't have minded a little freshening up of the command ranks. But if he was gonna make moves like that, then it was clear his leadership goals still needed time to....to....one of those big words that Shockwave liked to use. Marinate? Close enough. After that move, Swindle had Astrotrain's full attention now. Decepticon politics in full display right there. One goes down in flames and another steps in to replace him.

And, he had to admit, the offer didn't sound bad at all. Maybe Onslaught's punishment would turn out to be less of one than the triple-changer had initially thought. Especially since the little glitch was already bringing down his own supplies.

"Eh. Alright," Astrotrain said, shrugging and looking over at Blitzwing for a second before following Swindle over to his pod. "So. You got, uh, more of the inside scan of what's going on around here? Me and Blitz weren't sure we caught it all. What are we doing? What should we be doing?"

Astrotrain knew that there could be very different answers to those last two questions, especially given who he was talking to. Who knows? Swindle might put their talents to better use than his unit commander or Ramjet would have.