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Off the Western shore of the Korean peninsula

The beam of light struck the ground, slowly pulling away to reveal an assortment of Decepticons.

Oil Slick glanced around, taking readings from his air analyzer with interest as he shook off the disorientation of bouncing. There were a variety of pollutants in the atmosphere, along with and abundance of moisture, due in part to the proximity to the high salt content water nearby. High concentrations of both would be needed to do any immediate harm to Cybertronian life. He filed the information away for future reference before transforming to his alternate mode.

*

Hook grunted as he materialized, never liking the disorientation. He always feared that it was throwing off some of his delicate internal systems. Some day he would figure out a way to removes those effects. For now though he had bigger and more immediate projects. He transformed to his crane mode and impatiently waited to get going.

Off the Western shore of the Korean peninsula

Scavenger staggered around for a few seconds, feeling somewhat dizzy from the bounce. Just as he gained his bearings he was looking down at the ground. Out of instinct he looked carefully at the ground, which was sandy with a lot of small rocks scattered around.

"Ooh, shiny!", the mining and salvage specialist exclaimed as he noticed some nice looking rocks- possibly gems as far as he knew.

We won't need these for the base, but maybe Starscream would like them for a crown.

Scavenger got down and scooped up some of the sand and rocks with his hand, carefully putting it into a small storage comparment. Satisfied with his find, he noticed some of the others transforming into their alternate modes. Scavenger followed suit and converted into his excavator mode.

"What are your orders, Scrapper?"

Off the Western shore of the Korean peninsula

The jolt of the Orbital Bounce did little to improve Scrappers mood. He paused a moment to reset his internals, and once again bit down his anger at the maddening situation. Megatron missing and presumed dead by almost everyone, Starscream in charge because of Motormasters posturing, and then to have Baneblade treat him and the Constructicons like dirt....

Scrapper walked to get a better look at the ocean of this muddy planet. It seemed like megacycles since they'd gone hunting in the wilds of Canada for Megatrons sample of Ore-13, and even then, Scrapper had wondered how any intelligent life had developed on such a rugged waste of a world. Looking out at all the water, and mud, and sucking in dirty air, it seemed almost impossible to make anything of this...

But we are the Constructicons, and nothing is impossible for us! We'll show those fools on that ship what we're made of!

"The first thing we do is make a full inventory of what we have. Scavenger, find us a cave, or dig one with Bonecrusher if its easier. We figure out how much of Mixmaster and Oilslicks equipment is robust enough to take under the water, to minimise the chance of human contact. Then we begin construction of a scaffold, possibly with a watertight membrance to make things easier down there. Once thats done we can really begin."

He turns to the two chemists. "We're low on metals and I don't want to wait for those boors to deign to send us any. Scavenger will find some given time, but in the meantime, how much polymer can you manufacture? It should be enough for the scaffold, at least."

Off the Western Shore of the Korean Peninsula

After the bright light that accompanied the bounce had receded Darkride steadied himself for a moment before the slight vertigo finally faded. A slight smirk was etched on his face as he moved past Long Haul and Bonecrusher to get a closer look at the body of water that bordered the land mass they were all standing on. The briny stench mixed with the fumes of the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere may have put off the others in the group, but the sadistic interrogator found it rather appropriate.

It was then that Scavenger chimed in and asked his Commander what their orders were. When Scrapper responded to the desperate excavator, Darkride flashed Scavenger a devious smile before he turned his glance to Mixmaster and Oil Slick. Since he was not assigned a task at the moment he decided to simply help the two chemists with sorting through their equipment. He was used to handling dangerous chemicals; his past dealings with Oil Slick assured him of that.

The interrogator slunk past Hook and Scrapper and stopped next to his old acquaintance.

“What in your arsenal could we possibly use to create this polymer, and how long will it take to create the metals we’ll need to build our new HQ?”

Korean Peninsula

Mixmaster took an astrosecond or two to allow his internal circuitry to recalibrate itself after the bounce. It always felt sort of tingly and weird afterwards. He liked it. He had certainly experienced worse things.

Once his systems checked out, he proceeded to begin inventorying his equipment, just as Scrapper had instructed.

“I should have enough monomer materials to form the necessary covalent bonds. Oil Slick surely isn’t lacking either. I packed just about everything we could take. Heheh, no sense in leaving anything of value on board the Stunticons’ little cyber-rathole.

Western Shore of the Korean Peninsula

Long Haul materialized alongside his comrades as the bounce beam then receded back into the skies above. The usual feeling of disorientation was not as bad for him since he was already in his alt mode and had all four tires firmly on the beach helping to stabilize him. They sunk slightly into the deep sand as the weird sensation quickly left his circuitry, allowing him to completely focus on what Scrapper was now saying. Taking inventory was a good idea and the green transport had even more equipment and tools stored in his truck bed.

The green-colored dump truck rolled towards Scrapper, kicking up a bit of sand behind him as he went. “Hey, boss, I might have some materials for the scaffolding in my rear section. I’ll transform and go through everything to see what we can use.”

Long Haul then slowly raised his truck bed up and allowed the equipment that he was carrying to gently slide out and on to the beach. He subsequently assumed his robot mode and knelt down in front of the pile, pulling out a data pad in order to catalogue each tool. He had welding torches, laser drills, cyber wrenches, balancers and a variety of nuts and bolts that would certainly come in handy during the early phases of construction. He quickly made a comprehensive list, noting the number of each item that he had on hand. It was amazing how much he could store within his truck bed, especially when a little subspace cheating was involved.

Once he had everything in order, Long Haul passed the data pad over to Scrapper. “Here ya go, boss. Got lots of useful stuff here to help us build the scaffolding. I should also be able to extend an air tight covering over my truck bed so that the equipment doesn’t float away or get water logged during our decent to the sea floor.”

Western Shore of the Korean Peninsula

Scavenger tried to ignore the look he was getting from Darkride. Apparently the excavator's earlier threat back on the Ultrax had done little to intimidate the interrogator. For now at least, Scavenger could forget about him. He and his creepy friend were Mixmaster's problem, and Scavenger had his own orders to follow.

Find a cave.... Find a cave....

Scavenger looked around. There were many hills in the area, but the nearest mountain was many miles away, probably too far away. As the excavator drove into some of the larger hills he activated his shovel's sensors, scanning the geological formation of the area.

Come on, come on, there's gotta be a hole or a tunnel I can use around here.

After a few minutes of scanning, Scavenger was disappointed to find the area was competely solid- no caverns, no tunnels, nothing that he could use. It looked like he would have to start things from scratch.

"Nothing nearby that's already made, Scrapper. Looks like we're gonna have to dig one out.", the mining-and-salvage specialist reported.

Scavenger scanned again, this time focusing on the geological composition, searching for minerals that would be sturdy enough. Eventually he came to a small hill that was surrounded by several larger hills, about 300 meters away from the shore. Scavenger was certain he had found a good spot and already started to break ground.

<<Bonecrusher, I've found a good place to dig. Can you come over here and give me a hand?>>

Western Shore of the Korean Peninsula

Bonecrusher had materialized with several tons worth of various equipment he was still carrying around for Mixmaster. Needless to say, he was fuming. Mixmaster however didn't seem to understand the situation. He would though. Sooner or later, the demolitions expert would have his revenge. First he had to deal with Scavenger's message. >>"I ain't moving a single servo until Scrapper gives the order! And weren't we supposed to build underwater anyhow?!"<<

Having replied to Scavenger's transmission, Bonecrusher finally decided to ask help from Long Haul.

"Long Haul! Do me a favor let me load this pile on junk on your truck bed!" Bonecrusher bellowed, still clearly enraged towards Mixmaster. "I need to introduce my fist to Mixmaster's face!"

Western Shore of the Korean Peninsula

At the sound of his name, Long Haul turned away from Scrapper and looked over at Bonecrusher, who was inundated with the mother load of the equipment. Whatever pittance the green transport had been carrying, it was nothing compared to what his clearly angry comrade was forced to lug around for Mixmaster. Long Haul didn’t understand why the demolitions expert hadn’t asked for help sooner, but that didn’t matter now. It was better late than never.

“No problem, ‘Crusher,” he responded to his teammate with a nod. “Just let me reload what I have on the beach here and I’ll be right over.” Moments later, Long Haul had reached down and scooped up his own equipment from the sand before transforming back into his dump truck mode, allowing the tools to carefully slide into his rear bed once more. Once that task was accomplished, the Constructicon transport rolled over to Bonecrusher’s position on the beach and backed up to the pile of ‘junk’ as his comrade had called it. “Okay, ‘Crusher, I’m all set. Load your stuff in whenever you're ready.”

Off the Western shore of the Korean peninsula

Scrapper nods at Mixmaster and Long Haul. "Excellent. You've shown the preparedness that got you on this team, as expected." In fact, Scrapper felt a little guilty for not having brought something himself, in his haste to leave. Then again, he was prepared in other ways.

He pulls out the datapad and begins working. "I'd estimate the main body of the Submersible would have to be 300 meters long, in order to incorporate sufficient engines, and room for the crew." And some lab space... "To this we can then add a construction module, which will then build additional storage, habitation and weapons modules. So the scaffold would have to scale to build the initial body, once it is complete the rest will be simple."

Then Bonecrushers growls alerted him to another situation. "Bonecrusher, calm down. We're all on edge, we've all been jerked around by these events. Now, I'm asking for a cave to be dug as temporary storage, no more. If Long Haul thinks he can carry everything without risk of water damage, thats fine. But ultimately, its our two chemists that make the call, whether they can work underwater or if we need to make the scaffold first."

Truth be told, Scrapper didn't have much hope of Mixmaster escaping without a dent in his faceplate, and the Constructicon leader didn't much care. He would certainly care if it became a fullfledged fight, however.