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OoC: Sorry about the wait!

Shoreline

Ramjet waited for Swindle to disappear in a shaft of light before he made any attempt at standing. The absolute last thing he wanted to do was to make a fool of himself in front of the black market salesman. The effects of his destabilization dissipating, Ramjet began to stand, only to have Astrotrain begin to pull him into his cargo space.

"I appreciate the offer, but there is something I must do!" Ramjet stood up to his full height, shaking the cables off him and began to walk towards the water.

Pausing for a moment, Ramjet turned to the Triplechangers.

"Wait, get out of this place? That I agree with, but... Where will you go? With him?" Ramjet jabbed his right thumb at where Swindle once stood, "I could give you an alternative that would have a lot less doing dirty-work for our... Mutual friend."

*****

Seafloor

When Bonecrusher heard Scrapper say that it was his turn for the combiner treatment, he tried to hide his excitement. Keyword being tried.

"Finally! Finally, we'll get the respect we deserve!" Bonecrusher said, striding to the medical table at an excited pace.

It was a good thing Long Haul gave him a wide girth, for he stormed through the area and over to Hook as fast as he could without stirring up too much dust.

"Don't worry, 'Haul, I don't have any doubts 'bout ol' Hook! The wa'er in my circuits, though..." Bonecrusher replied to his transport friend.

And with that, he lied down upon the table and activated a screen showing schematics for Devastator. He didn't offline his optics. He wanted stare at Devastator in all his glory.

Shoreline

The cables continued to haul Ramjet into Astrotrain's cargo area. Or did, until he regained control over his many functions and systems, the effects of the gyro gun having apparently dispersed.

Good thing Swindle wasn't around to witness that, otherwise he might have shot Ramjet again for recovering so quickly. And to reinforce the notion of disrespecting a Combaticon, even the least militant of them, was a terrible one. Maybe a little of both.

A balanced mixture of amusement and suspicion had Blitzwing absorbing what the Seeker had said to him. He still wanted to go through with his plan, whatever it entailed.

Blitzwing tilted his cranial unit to one side, wearing a peculiar smile. “And where exactly do you want to take us, Ramjet?” He jabbed a digit at him. “Just what have you been up to lately? You sound no better than the Combaticon.”

He wondered if Swindle's gyro gun had scrambled something inside of Ramjet's processors. Perhaps not, but it seemed as though he insisted on the Triple Changers accompanying him.

Then again, Ramjet did plenty of crashing into objects, all of it intentional, and all of them starting impact with that thick helm of his. So realistically, he had to be messed up in there.

“I don't know about this.” Blitzwing turned to Astrotrain. “We're supposed to be going back down there to help the 'Structies or something, right? Help with the base or some slag like that?”

Truth be told, he didn't remember. For all he knew, he should have been bouncing to the Thanatos, along with the Combaticons.

“Look, I don't care where we go.” Blitzwing glared at Ramjet. “But if you get us in trouble, I swear to Primus the next serving of energon I have will come from you. I'll cut you wide open and drain you dry.”

So somewhat like Bomb-Burst, only he wouldn't look even half as grotesque as Blitzwing slicing Ramjet open with his scimitar and feasting on the energon inside.

“We understand each other?”

Undersea Base

Scavenger would have flinched when Mixmaster slung his arm around Scavenger's shoulder if it hadn't been for the fact that Mixmaster would have been prompted to do something only the Constructicon excavator would regret. Instead, Scavenger slowly tried to extricate himself form his deranged comrade's grasp.

All thoughts of escape, however, soon ceased when Mixmaster mentioned doing a little digging. Scavenger's optics shone just a little bit brighter. The Fallen became all but a distant memory, forgotten like a nightmare from a deep recharge cycle.

"Sure thing, Mixmaster, buddy! Where did you want to dig? My scanners are picking up mineral deposits over there and there and there...." Scavenger said, pointing at each subsequent location.

Shoreline

Astrotrain didn't even grumble as Ramjet freed himself from the triple-changer's assistance. That suited him just fine. Less weight he needed to carry to wherever it was they needed to go.

"He's still scheming," Astrotrain said, the front lights of his train mode flickering in conjunction with his words. "Not that I blame him. Who wouldn't, at least in passing, entertain the idea of assuming all the power that Megatron had? I've done it. The idea passes quick though, since there's a lot of strings that come with that power and I don't want to be the one holding them.

"I think Rammy here actually does though. I don't know if that makes him competent or crazy."

With a hiss, the doors to Astrotrain's posterior vehicle section sealed themselves off.

"That said....like Blitz asked, we gotta know what your selling, since Swindle's offer wasn't too bad. You've gotta do better."

The explosions nearby pretty much gave all the confirmation that Astrotrain needed that the Combaticons were done here, at least for the time being and that this wasn't some sort of elaborate test of their willingness to comply with their new orders.

Tyranny was so much simpler. Megatron say. Astrotrain do. The more he was faced with all these choices, the less he liked them.

Shoreline

Ramjet listened to the threats of his friend Blitzwing and, on the inside, smiled. He knew there wasn't anything behind it, but still, he'd like to see the Triplechanger try. Either way, he had gained an audience from both of them, and that was this goal. Now was the hard part. Bluffing until he could actually find means to get back to the Ultrax.

Well, he was going to bluff until suddenly over his comm link, he heard the high-pitched buzzing of Waspinator, and this time, it was a welcome noise; the Insecticon had good news. Smirking briefly, he turned to Astrotrain when the word "crazy" was spoken.

"You know, maybe I am a bit crazy, maybe I am. I mean," Ramjet stopped for a moment to consider his next words carefully, "You gotta be a little crazy to do the thing I just did. Speaking of, if you tell anyone what you are about to hear without my permission alone, I will hunt you down and shove my head through your chest. But I digress. You see, there was a... A little vacancy on a ship in the deepest part of this mudball. It just so happened that I have a man already in there, and as it turns out, he got the Bounce Pad working."

Letting his words sink in for a moment, Ramjet continued.

"You heard me correctly. I got a ship, right out from under everyone's olfactory units. Now, in a location where no one will think of - Scratch that, a heavily armed location where no one will think to look, you won't have any worries again." Ramjet said with a gesture of his hand at the final notion.

Things were just falling into place...

Undersea Base

Scrapper looked over at Long Haul as Hook continued with his work.

"Help those two," he said, indicating Scavenger and Mixmaster. "Anything of value that Scavenger digs up and Mixmaster can't refine will need to be hauled away until we have more time to get to it."

Scrapper knew that the mineral compounds on this planet were rich and varied. Everything they could make use of would save them from having to draw from already limited Decepticon resources.

"Secondly, confer with them regarding additional structures this base needs. I'll listen to any proposals, provided we can acquire the corresponding resources in an efficient amount of time."

Scrapper already had some ideas about additional space this base would need and what it would be used for, as he knew Hook would as well, but he had no qualms about soliciting ideas from all the members on his team. What they ultimately wanted to do with this base and what they could work on right now were two starkly different things.
___

Shoreline

Astrotrain had nodded at Blitzwing's question.

"Yeah, something like that. Don't know what for. They've got that one that hauls everything. Don't know why they would need us."

His engines, idling, Astrotrain listened to Ramjet's ideas. He had a ship? What ship? What ships were assigned to this sector anyway? Astrotrain dug through his memory files until he found the answer he was probably looking for. That Stunticon junker? What a piece of--

--wait, that was probably where Octane got himself holed up. He sure didn't seem to be anywhere else.

Astrotrain had liked what Swindle offered up, but he wasn't seeing any reason he couldn't have his cake and eat it too, as these fleshbags liked to say. If Ramjet thought he could legitimately lay claim to the Ultrax, that meant all the other big dogs were playing somewhere else. Which meant the thing could be ripe for the stripping. Besides, it would be a lot easier to do business with a mech like Swindle if he and Blitz could procure some collateral of their own. Something useful, but also something likely to be overlooked by Motormaster for a long, long time, when and if he ever bothered to return to his junker.

More importantly, Astrotrain had actually listened to Ramjet's little threat. In most other circumstances, the triple-changer might have laughed at the black-and-white Seeker. But under the current circumstances, and given the specificity of the threat he had chosen to make his point, Astrotrain was actually pretty sure that Ramjet could well follow through on it. It was just as well, as Astrotrain hadn't really heard anything that he felt inclined to pass on anyway, except to Blitzwing, and he was already here.

"Hmm...gotta say, I'm actually intrigued by this. What do you think, Blitz? Swindle can always get a hold of us inside the ship once he finds out what he wants us to do to cash in our punishment."

Undersea Base

Long Haul listened as Scrapper gave him new orders that would require him to assist both Scavenger and Mixmaster, once again making use of the heavy lifter’s ability to lug crap from one place to another. In this case, whatever the excavator was able to dig up that was of no immediate use to the chemist would need to be taken elsewhere. It was more of the same old routine, except this time there was a secondary objective, one that would allow the green transporter to do something more than just carry loads of rock and dirt around. “Sure thing, boss! No problem!” Long Haul replied enthusiastically to the Constructicon Commander followed by a respectful salute. Unfortunately, he would now miss the rest of Hook’s operation on Bonecrusher, but orders were orders.

Without further delay, the heavy lifter excused himself and made his way over to where Scavenger and Mixmaster were conversing with each other. “Hey, fellas! How’s it going over here? I got new orders from Scrapper that says I’m supposed to help you guys lug away whatever can't be refined. I’m not overly excited about that part, but the boss did say that I’m also supposed to talk with you about any additional structures for the base. He said he’d listen to whatever we came up with just as long as we can get the materials quick enough. I’ve got a few ideas of my own if you guys want to hear them.”

Long Haul wasn’t expecting his fellow Constructicons to take his ideas seriously or even listen to them for that matter. The transporter was just a mere grunt whose job it was to do what he was told and not to think about things too much. He wasn’t stupid by any means, but most mechs just expected him to do his mundane job and keep his mouthpiece shut. Even if no one wanted to listen to his thoughts now regarding the undersea base, at least he had Devastator to look forward to. Soon, very soon, he would be a part of something greater than anything the Empire has ever seen before.

Shoreline

So Ramjet had a plan, after all, not some little tactless suicide mission where he intended to drag Blitzwing and Astrotrain along with him to die in unrivalled stupidity. One for the history data slates, that would have been. Right up there snuggling with Ramjet's other ill-advised ideas, all ten thousand of them.

Fortunately, that wasn't the case this time. Ramjet possessed a half decent proposal, something with a degree of consideration injected into it. Miracles did exist.

Blitzwing flashed Astrotrain a grin. “Sure, why not? I'm game. Let's see how far ol' Rammy can take us. And like you said, Swindle can get a hold of us easy enough. When he decides to spare us a thought over his schemes.”

Yes, his plan would turn out just fine. Why? Because if it didn't, if it fell through, Blitzwing could either bail when it was looking dubious or shift the blame on Ramjet if they were discovered. With Astrotrain in his corner, he could tack the fault on the Seeker easier than he could get Drag Strip to accept his challenge to a race.

But if it did work out okay—well, that would be a whole lot better.

As long as Ramjet didn't threaten to shove his cranial unit through Blitzwing's chest-plate again. Because if he tried such a thing, he'd find his cranial unit shoved up his aft, friend or not.

Blitzwing did not take too kindly to threats, particularly when he'd been on the receiving end of them on numerous occasions. He couldn't help it if his personality didn't appeal to everyone, and he sure as the Pit wasn't going to change for some whiner.

“All right, Ramjet. Let's do this thing before Phase Five hits this mud ball and I miss out on all the fun.”

Beach

Ramjet couldn't help but to smirk. Not only did he have a heavily armed ship, but he had two extremely useful lieutenants. Slipstream was probably not on that list, and Waspinator wasn't exactly as useful as Blitzwing and Astrotrain, but still. Good fortune indeed.

"Excellent. We're gonna do great things, boys, great things. Now get back to the Ultrax where Waspinator will be waiting for you. Fix what you can. I'll brief you when I arrive." Ramjet ordered his new soldiers, standing briefly in one place, then turning to walk down into the water; where he last saw the Constructicons.

Breaching the water, Ramjet felt the unpleasant cold and the salty brine wash over his body. Disgusting. You know what? The whole planet was disgusting. Even the skies had bits of smog and whatnot thrown in. Filthy. Just filthy.

Carefully thinking about what he was going to say, Ramjet walked down and almost into the clearing when he stopped and hid behind a rock. What were they all doing? Grouped around one of their members whilst Hook was working on him?

Gazing into the tent with zoomed optics, Ramjet saw parts being put inside Bonecrusher. Added and not replaced. This was beyond odd; it was downright suspicious. Looking about the tent for anything to tell Ramjet just what the Constructicons were doing, Ramjet was sure that one of them was looking at something. Plans for something perhaps? Taking a quick mental snap of the Constructicons gathered around Bonecrusher, Ramjet rose from the rock and approached the Decepticon construction team.

"Heya fellas! What're you up to, eh?" Ramjet said, trying not to coin the famous earthen phrase "Lucy, you've got some splainin' do to".

Shoreline

Astrotrain was glad enough that Blitzwing had agreed with the general direction things were going for them, especially since he didn't really have any better ideas at the moment. Between lining some things up with Swindle and indulging some of Ramjet's command fantasies just to shake things up some more, Astrotrain was all in all content with events as they stood.

"Right," Astrotrain said, firing up his thrusters. "Wait, Waspinator? Oh...man. What a little glitch. Oh well. Ultrax it is. Last one to find Octane has to shine Waspy's aft-plating, heh heh."

The triple-changer lumbered forward in his locomotive mode as gears and plates shifted, completing his transformation as he moved before launching himself up into the air and off in the direction of the Decepticon vessel via the signal provided by Ramjet.