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[Hangar Epsilon]

Kup wrote:"Welcome to th' crew, kid,"

Alpha Bravo nodded brightly, happy to have received the acknowledgement of his team’s leader. It was a small team, but that meant that he could have a chance to play a larger role! He felt really excited to be going on a mission down to Sol-3 for the first time. It seemed like a nice planet from what he’d seen in the observation deck and he wanted to experience what it was like being down there. The CR chamber had fitted him with an Earth alternate mode already, so he hoped that it was going to be good enough. Gosh, I can’t wait!

Trailbreaker wrote:“So don’t act like Decepticons or we’ll all glow in the dark. Seems simple enough.”

Red Alert’s little briefing made Alpha raise a mental eyebrow. Nuclear? He wasn’t aware that the denizens of the planet were up to that kind of warfare, especially after what he’d read about them. They seemed a bit squishy for that kind of thing. Oh, huh... even they fight like us. Trailbreaker’s words were simple, but it was a bit funny. He giggled a little underneath his faceplate and gave the forcefield specialist a look of approval.

Kup wrote:"Alright, everybody, you heard Prowl. Let's get these birds some wings. We got ourselves a planet to keep outta the Decepticons greay claws."

”Roger that, sir!” He hopped into the shuttle right after Kup, with Trailbreaker presumably behind him. It was a smaller shuttle, maybe only made to hold about five mechs, but that was alright, they had the smallest team out of all the ones in the hangar anyway.

Alpha headed straight for the pilot’s seat, giddy with joy and enthusiasm. Being a flyer himself, he knew his way around the control panel of the piloting interface, and he promptly flicked several switches, rolling the landing gear forward a little bit. Alright, let’s see... navigation is preloaded, launch angle at negative 12°, fuel’s good to go, engine’s good to go, comms are... lambda-encrypted? That was probably Red Alert’s doing. It was probably also part of the new security measures. Alpha shrugged to himself and then continued going down his mental list of things to care of when flying. Heat shields are good to go... and I guess I just need to throttle retrograde at apoapsis to reduce the orbit. He looked back towards Kup and Trailbreaker and raised a thumb at them.

As the shuttle moved to the launch area of the hangar, Alpha noticed that there was a pulsing message notification on one of the holographic interfaces on the side of the shuttle. “Oh, hey, could someone check that out?” He wanted to focus on the flight for now, so hopefully either Kup or Trailbreaker could have a look at it.

Alpha slid the throttle key up, engaging the shuttle’s thrusters. Within microkliks, the shuttle had left Hangar Epsilon’s bay, on its way down towards the blue marble. For the few kliks that the shuttle was accelerating into retrograde, Alpha observed just how wonderful the view was. Star-dotted endless, black void to either side and a life-filled planet underneath them.

This was what he’d been waiting for. He grinned wide underneath his faceplate.

((OOC: To be continued in the Kashmir thread.))

Hangar Epsilon

Kup wrote:"Doin' good, lad.”

“You an' me both, lad.”

Kup was a mech of few words, sometimes at least. When he wasn’t about to get deep into one of his stories, the old timer would get right down to the point and he never minced words. Smokescreen liked that about him among many others things that made Kup one of the best the Autobots had to offer, both as a friend and as a soldier. The rallybot wouldn’t mind sharing another mission with him some day. There were few ‘bots he trusted more.

Trailbreaker then approached and offered Smokescreen a compliment. The diversion expert turned is attention to the Defensive Strategist and gave him a smile along with a nod of appreciation. Kup then moved over towards the shuttle that would take him and his team down to Kashmir, leaving Smokey to join his group that would be going down to Detroit.

Red Alert wrote:“Ah, alright everyone. That shuttle there is headed to Detroit, and Jazz is in charge of it, so if you’re going there, board the shuttle please, just do it. If you’re going to Kashmir, you will be in the second shuttle there, led by Kup. The team to Africa will be on the side over there, and Rook is in charge. If you were not assigned a mission, just check in with me first, and I’ll… yeah, I’ll take care of it.”

Smokescreen hadn’t even noticed when Red Alert entered the hangar, but it was good that the security specialist had finally joined them. Smokey was pretty much aware of which shuttle was his, but it was nice to have a solid confirmation. Once Red was done talking to the Kashmir group he came over to discuss things with the Detroit team.

Red Alert wrote:“Uh, yeah, s-so the Detroit mission will just be a continuation of what happened before with the previous team. The aim is to s-secure the storage facility permanently, to serve as an alternate resource cache for the Autobots. It should be… mostly simple.”

“Sounds good to me, Red,” Smokescreen responded with a quick salute as Red Alert quickly became occupied with other matters. The rallybot the turned his attention to Jazz who was the leader of the Detroit mission. “I’m ready, too, Commander. So, who’s going to pilot this bird anyhow?” Smokey asked, jutting a thumb towards their shuttle.
_____________________

Rook wrote:“Right here, sir. Good to see you again, sir. I was informed you will be joining us to oversee the progress, is that right?”

“That is correct, Rook,” Prowl responded even though the question seemed rhetorical in nature. “I will be overseeing things, but I especially want to begin work on the Autobot Phase Sixer project. I have the scans that I took of Sixshot during our encounter with the Fallen in Australia. They should enable us to replicate the process in order to create our own Phase Sixer once we have found the right candidate, of course.”

Rook wrote:“Red Alert let me in on this phase-sixer project, and it seems we have a suitable candidate. I am not well experienced with things of scientific nature, but he shares some of the characteristics as Sixshot, namely the ability to take on multiple alternate modes. Red described him to me as being a bit… turbulent, to keep things simple, but I’m sure we can iron out whatever issues are present later on.”

“Indeed?” Prowl said, having not expected that Rook would be one step ahead of him, especially in regards to having already found a candidate. The military strategist turned his head in the direction that Rook was now looking. A red, teal and gray mech had just entered the hangar. He seemed familiar but was still a stranger to Prowl nevertheless.

“This…is Quickswitch,” Rook finally said as the triple changer loomed over them both. Prowl turned his body towards Quickswitch, recognizing the name immediately, but having not actually met him in person before this moment.

“Quickswitch,” Prowl stated matter-of-factly. “I’ve heard of you. You’re a triple changer,” The black and white was not asking a question as he already knew what Quickswitch was from data logs he had read about him in the past. “I read your file once. If I remember correctly, you suffer from mood swings and are subject to, what some would call, chaotic behavior. Your emotional issues run deep and could become more problematic if additional alt modes are added to your frame. Of course, becoming a Phase Sixer is much more than just the number of modes you possess as the scans of Sixshot will show. Are you sure you’re up for this project, Quickswitch? We can always find another candidate if you have any reservations.”

Hangar Epsilon

AFTRHR wrote:“Ah, a-actually, there will be no need for you two. You two have been… chosen, for… a special combat unit. It’s been a bit of a last minute preparation, but we do need capable fighters to take care of a certain problem in case something comes up.”

“Dinobots?” That was certainly a name that struck Arbalest in some way. He hadn’t quite witnessed them in action yet, but he’d heard many a tale about the strike team. They were definitely a force to be reckoned with, and the skirmisher wondered what kind of “trouble” Red Alert was talking about.

“Aye, I’d be definitely down for that. Whadya say, Arbsy?”

He figured he didn’t have much to lose, and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I suppose I’ll be “down for that” too.” Arbalest grinned, having taken a jab at Warpath’s statement. “Will we need to prepare anything for this special combat unit?”

Hangar Epsilon

AFTRHR wrote:“I am inclined to agree. There are problems that remain unremoved, therefore they need to be taken care of first. However, yes, I believe that this would be beginning of the end, or so it’s said.”

Anomaly sighed. He couldn’t decide whether it was a sigh of relief or worry, but he was at least glad that things were happening. Whatever it was, he had a job to do now, and he was going to try and make sure he did his best. After all, whatever this mission he was going on was going to be about went straight towards contributing to the fleet.

The green mech looked around the hangar for Rook, who seemed to be talking to Prowl and some other mech. He patiently waited by the shuttle.

[Hangar Epsilon]

Prowl wrote:“I will be overseeing things, but I especially want to begin work on the Autobot Phase Sixer project.

Rook nodded in acknowledgement, and took a short step backward after Prowl had turned his attention to Quickswitch. He instead took a second to inspect the shuttle, and the few Autotroopers that were loading it with supplies. “Ah, yes, let me have a look,” he said as he was handed a datapad with all the list of supplies and the mission briefs. Rook’s occasional time in command had taught him quite a bit of things, and luckily he knew exactly how to manage and set up an outpost. Although the terrain was different to what he was used to, it shouldn’t be too terribly difficult, considering that the previous team that had arrived there had also begun some work.

Meanwhile, the triple changer was confronted with the one and only mech himself. Prowl wasn’t one to be messed around with. Quickswitch knew that. Everyone knew that. And so he was going to try his best to maintain his composure, because Primus, this is not going to be fun…

Prowl wrote:“I read your file once. If I remember correctly, you suffer from mood swings and are subject to, what some would call, chaotic behavior. Your emotional issues run deep and could become more problematic if additional alt modes are added to your frame. Of course, becoming a Phase Sixer is much more than just the number of modes you possess as the scans of Sixshot will show. Are you sure you’re up for this project, Quickswitch? We can always find another candidate if you have any reservations.”

He knows.

He fraggin’ knows.

What was he thinking? Of course he knew. This was Prowl - the mech with possibly one of the best processors in Cybertronian history. He’s in charge. Of course he knew. But the wires pulled themselves in Quickswitch’s mind. He tried. He tried so hard. So hard to resist the frustration of snapping. He knew he had mood swings. He knew he did. And he couldn’t fraggin’ control them.

And here Prowl was, reciting what he already knew, in the hangar.

Fraggit, why was I even picked for this?

While he was listening, Quickswitch’s vocaliser was trembling and twitching ever so slightly. It may have been blind to the casual observer, but anyone paying direct attention could tell that he wasn’t feeling the moment. When he decided to break the silence, he had to make sure he wasn’t going to land himself in the brig.

“This… whole Phase Sixer business… I’m not really sure what it’s about and all. I’ve heard the stories, and they don’t sound awfully great,” he said, “I’d rather like to know what I’m going to have done to me first, ‘fore I go for it. I mean, hopefully I’m not the only one who’s built for this kind of thing, right?”

With a pause, another twitch of the vocaliser, and a faint gleam in his optics, he aimed his gaze straight into Prowl’s optics and mouthed a few more words. I know. Please.

Rook couldn’t help but eavesdrop on the two talking. Once he had finished looking through everything, he looked up and spotted Anomaly waiting by the shuttle. Quickswitch didn’t sound ready. Rook stifled a sigh. I’m going to have to talk to Red Alert about jumping to conclusions at some point.

The defence strategist waved at Anomaly. "Ready to go, Anomaly?" he asked, "We've got a lot of work up ahead, and I'm glad you're joining me on this initiative to make improvements to our cause." Rook said every word and he meant it. He truly believed that this was going to be beneficial to the Autobost. "But you're definitely going to have to teach me some science on the way down, haha. I'm a bit rusty on some things."

[Bridge]

Hot Spot wrote:"I appreciate having my chair back, Ultra Magnus. Grimlock was a little upset to say the least on the rescue mission to Sol-4. We got there a cycle too late as the Cons left and as you know the Dinobots, they hate missing out on a good fight. I'll keep track of the remodel of the Guardian. If you need any of the Protectobots, outside of First Aid, for any mission they are yours. Last I knew, First Aid was still on the gestalt project."

Magnus stifled a sigh. Grimlock was problematic, but there was no doubt that they were by far one of the most effective Autobot units on this side of the galaxy. “I will be sure to keep that in mind, Hot Spot,” he said as he stood up, allowing for the command seat to be taken by the Protectobot commander. As he moved to the side, the overhead display showed a general plan of the ship, highlighting various sections of decks and parts of the hull that would be improved and/or refurbished. Some of the additions included encryption locks for… perhaps a bit too many for comfort, but that was likely Red Alert’s doing. “I am aware that it seems a bit excessive, and though I do intend to speak to our security director, these new modifications might contribute quite well to the overall alertness and behaviour of our forces.”

The city commander began making his way down towards the door. “I must make my way down to Autobot City. I will leave you in charge, Hot Spot. Relay anything you find or need to me through Blaster, please.” With this, the Autobot general approached the door with his large frame.

Ultra Magnus wrote:"Blaster, likewise, I need you to be in charge of being my optics and audios.”

While Magnus had been discussing matters with Hot Spot, Blaster had been setting up an additional set of relay networks and encryptions to go along with them. He had installed a program into his inner displays, as well as into several microchips, that allowed for direct access to data logs from the Guardian and eventually the whole fleet. He raised a hand to gesture towards Magnus, and held out the microchip.

“Magnus, this one’s for you. I figured I’d make a handful of these to give to everyone in charge so that we can know if anything goes wrong. Red might’ve wanted to use these as well, but it’s also probably good if we have them too just in case he does anything funky.”

Ultra Magnus nodded, with a single word as his response. “Understood.” He took the chip from Blaster, and proceeded out the door. The tides of the Autobot forces were going to be rising higher now. They were going to have to establish a stronger presence on this planet, if they were to defend against the combined strength of Megatron and Scorponok’s fleets.

[Hangar Epsilon]

Overclock was waiting quietly for the rest of his assigned team to get ready. Red Alert had briefed them down, the rest of the squad seemed to be prepared, and Smokescreen chimed in with the obligatory question.

Smokescreen wrote:“I’m ready, too, Commander. So, who’s going to pilot this bird anyhow?”

”If no one objects or has wishes to volunteer, I would be willing to take on the role.”

He gestured towards the shuttle. “After you, gentlemechs.”

[Hangar Epsilon]

Arbalest wrote:“Yeah, I suppose I’ll be “down for that” too. Will we need to prepare anything for this special combat unit?”

”Uh, nothing much! J-just be alert and make sure that all your systems are in peak condition, your ammunition is loaded, that you’re carrying extra ammunition and, and, and, and don’t forget to keep your comms open!” Red Alert hurriedly belted out all the information that Warpath and Arbalest needed to know.

Warpath chuckled and put his heavy hand on Arbalest’s shoulder. “Seems like a plan to me! Aight kew, we’ll wait ‘round ‘til the big lizards need some firepowah!”

Red Alert nodded and promptly spun a hundred and eighty degrees on his ankles, making a beeline out of the hangar and towards the bridge. Primus, I hope no one does anything wrong! Everything needs to go according to plan… or else, or else, or else, maybe the Decepticons will be completely upon us! Then we’ll be doomed!

As the red tank watched the paranoid security chief leave, he couldn’t help but laugh to the skirmisher beside him. “What a guy!”

[Bridge]

Red Alert immediately made his way back to the bridge. There was too much to do and there was not enough time to do it all on his own. He had to make sure things were going fast. The Decepticons could be right upon them! They could be armed to the teeth right now! Who knew, maybe they had more phase sixers than they could have ever imagined. Maybe they… Oh Primus, he didn’t want to think of all the horrors that could be happening right now. Gotta get to work, pronto!

Blaster looked down at Eject, who’d done as he had said. “All righty! Good job, Eject. You can go now, I’ll handle things from here.” He gave the little blue cassette a pat on the back and a grin. Not long after Ultra Magnus had left, Red Alert quickly came rushing in, looking paranoid as usual. Blaster smiled. What a mech…

Red Alert quickly spotted Hot Spot and Blaster in the room. Wait, are they conspiring something here? Huh? Why are the ship’s upgrade blueprints on the screen? What’s the meaning of all this? He rushed over to one of the consoles and quickly began keying in messages and data logs.

Blaster turned around, amused by the display. “What’s the hurry for, Red? Something else that you need a message for?”

Red Alert seized up for a second. Blaster’s going to be the death of me no no no I can’t let this happen this really can’t be happening right now oh Primus why-

He turned up from his station, meeting Blaster’s cool blue optics. “Uh… yes, I do have one, but…”

Blaster raised an eyebrow. “Red, mind if I give a piece of advice?”

The security director remained silent and only lightly nodded his head.

“I love that you’re going all-in on this, but it wouldn’t hurt to just slow down for a second. You’ve been doing a lot for us, which I and others really do appreciate! But don’t overheat your processors. If ya need anything, you can always count on me.”

Red Alert sat back and thought about what he’d just been told. Blaster said he could count on him… but could he? Everyone could be a traitor here! Still, Blaster’s words did have some sense to them. Should he trust him? He sighed. Blaster was trustworthy. At the very least, he hoped that he was.

“Hnng… t-thanks, Blaster.”

The comms officer gave a thumbs-up accompanied by a supportive grin. “You know it, chief!”

The security director inputted a few things into his station’s console, and then turned to Blaster. “C-could you get me a one-way message line to the shuttle headed for Kashmir?”

The comms officer nodded, and typed in a few things. He made sure to add an additional layer of encryption, one that had previously-unseen code. It was an experimental prototype, but he’d been mentally figuring out different ways to encrypt messages ever since he left the meeting. “All good to go, Red. Speak away.”

Red Alert nodded, and began to speak into the microphone.

>>”So, uh, in the middle of the conflicts, within a small valley nearby a river channel, is a small village. Human maps won’t show this village, because of its obscurity and remoteness. The location is crucial to both the humans and also us. To the humans, because of its strategic location, and to us because of some… unusually potent readings.

I, uh, suspect that it might be a large vein of Energon. Whatever it is, orbital imagery gave me some, err, insight into the village, and they seem to have uncovered some of it. W-we can’t let it fall into the wrong hands, so we need you to retrieve and secure everything you can.

I had the shuttle equipped in advance with holo-camouflage devices… If you need to blend into the environment, and not let any humans or, Primus forbid, Decepticons see you. I also included a few additional files about the region, some cultural and species data for your holomatter avatars, and coordinates for the village and the closest m-military facilities of both of the nations. Uh, that’s just in case, you know, anything happens... Oh gosh what if something happens…”<<

Once the message was sent, he switched off the comm. He walked over to Blaster’s station, only just now noticing that Eject was also there. He hadn’t seen him previously due to being in a hurry on the way in, and also because Eject was small and couldn’t be seen from behind the seat. He was here the entire time?! At the very least, Hot Spot was up there on the command chair. But even he hadn’t said anything about Eject being there. Oh Primus…

“O-okay, Blaster, let’s start on those fleet-wide encryptions.”

Bridge

Things being what they were, Eject could think a a trillion other things he’d rather be doing. Usually he did one or two of those along with a boring task, but once again, what he’d been watching had ended and there was nothing else on. He made a mental note to redownload some of his favorites that he’d deleted for space reasons a few cycles ago.

Grumbling about fumbling on the one yard line, he guessed there were worse thing he could be doing. Looks like the kid’s been demoted to the Rudy role, he thought finishing the last section Blaster had asked him to do. Game called on account of the weather. Come back next week, folks, when we—

Blaster wrote: “All righty! Good job, Eject. You can go now, I’ll handle things from here.”

“Thanks, coach!” Eject hadn’t felt Blaster’s reassuring pat as he leapt to his feet, throwing his arms up to signal touchdown. “Fourth and eighteen and they run the draw play… and he scores! The crowd goes wild!”

With a quick twist, he jumped up, planted his hands on Blaster shoulders, and flipped into the air like a gymnast, twisting as he headed for the floor and landed with a quiet thunk. “He sticks the landing!” He held his arms up and hopped ina circle for all those to see his perfect dismount.

He noticed Red Alert as he finished his rotation. “Nice seeing ya, Red, but like the Stasney’s defecting to the Canada, I’m outta here,” he said, skipping past the defense specialist. “I’ll be in the showers if you need me, coach. Yo, Adrian! We did it!” he shouted as the turbolift doors closed behind him.

As soon as the door closed and he was underway, his processor buzzed with the thousands of choices waiting for him. “Just win, baby!” he shouted, jumping and fist-pumping the air.

Hangar Epsilon

Quickswitch wrote:“This… whole Phase Sixer business… I’m not really sure what it’s about and all. I’ve heard the stories, and they don’t sound awfully great,” he said, “I’d rather like to know what I’m going to have done to me first, ‘fore I go for it. I mean, hopefully I’m not the only one who’s built for this kind of thing, right?”

Prowl gave Quickswitch a reassuring smile as he placed a steady hand on the triple-changer’s shoulder plate. “I’m sure you’re not, Quickswitch, but you're all that we have to work with at the moment,” the military strategist replied as his smile began to fade away. “According to the scans that I previously took, Sixshot is constructed of a variety of exotic materials and advanced technologies. His armature is reinforced with super-dense metals from the core of a collapsed star. His power core also contains a dark matter fission cell capable of self-regeneration. This allows him to fight for extended periods of time without the need to refuel. Therefore, your frame will need to be augmented to a certain degree to address all of these additions along with six alt modes. Physically, I believe you are up to the task. It’s your emotional side I’m a bit more concerned about. Although, there are remedies for that, too, if need be.”

The black and white paused to allow Quickswitch to take all of what he just just in. After a few astroseconds, Prowl gave the triple-changer a hearty pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry too much. If it doesn’t work out we’ll just return you to your current state and move on to someone else.” The military strategist was lying, of course. Making those kinds of augmentations would not be easily reversible once they were completed if not damned near impossible. If the process was a failure and Quickswitch became unstable and/or dangerous, then he would have to be dealt with. Hopefully, it would not come to that.

“All right, Rook, if you and the rest of the team are ready, let’s get on board and get this mission underway,” Prowl said as he then turned and made his way up the ramp and into their designated shuttle craft.
_______________

Overclock wrote:”If no one objects or has wishes to volunteer, I would be willing to take on the role.”

“After you, gentlemechs.”

“No objections here,” Smokescreen responded with a wide grin. Once Overclock gestured for everyone to get on board the shuttle, the rallybot wasted no time in ascending the entrance ramp and finding a seat within the main passenger cabin. Smokey then noticed Bumblebee entering the shuttle and motioned for the minibot to join him.

“Hey, Bee, over here! I’ve saved you a seat,” Smokescreen called out as he patted the seat next to him.

Hangar Epsilon

AFTRHR wrote:”Uh, nothing much! J-just be alert and make sure that all your systems are in peak condition, your ammunition is loaded, that you’re carrying extra ammunition and, and, and, and don’t forget to keep your comms open!”

“I’m always ready to go in that case.” Arbalest nodded and chuckled at Warpath’s comment about the Dinobots essentially being large lizards. Red Alert was a curious guy, and he had his interesting quirks. Arbalest appreciated quirky Autobots like him.

AFTRHR wrote:“What a guy!”

”What a guy indeed!” Arbalest slung his weapons around the back. “And now we wait, heh.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hangar, Anomaly was approached by Rook.

AFTRHR wrote:"Ready to go, Anomaly?" he asked, "We've got a lot of work up ahead, and I'm glad you're joining me on this initiative to make improvements to our cause."

“Yes, sir! I’ve got everything I need.” Anomaly nodded. “And, uh, I’ll try my best to explain!” He had a thought in his mind that came up out of nowhere. “Sir, could I perhaps suggest an additional side project to this excursion? It’s not as major as the main projects, but I think it would help the cause.”

[Hangar Epsilon]

Quickswitch stood silently, listening, trying to soak in all the things that Prowl was telling him. His reassurances were… well, they could be better, but this was Prowl and not Rung. He wasn’t a psychologist. Some of the phase sixer things sounded a bit scary… honestly, slag it to the pits, he was going to do it. He was actually going to do it. If he was going to do one thing right, it was going to be this. He didn’t care that they were going to basically undo his chassis inside out to install the fission cells or extra alt modes or whatever. He was going to do it. He was so sure, he was so fragging sure.

Until he wasn’t, and then he broke with Prowl’s next few words.

Prowl wrote:“Physically, I believe you are up to the task. It’s your emotional side I’m a bit more concerned about. Although, there are remedies for that, too, if need be.”

DON’T. FRAGGING. MENTION. IT.

How many times in this Primus-forsaken universe was he going to be reminded of it? He knew already. He knew. He fragging knew and he was sick and tired and sick and tired of hearing it over and over and over and over and over again. It felt like a broken record playing, it really did feel like a broken record playing. And wow, this is just fantastic, now my thoughts are repeating just like how everyone else keeps repeating the fact that I CAN’T FRAGGING CONTROL MYSELF. I never CHOSE to be like this and I most definitely KNOW about this. PRIMUS, Prowl, why do you have to kick me when I’m down?

The push and pull of Quickswitch’s mind, thankfully, didn’t emerge on his visage, but his fingers had very, very subtly and slowly curled up into a fist. Prowl’s pat on the shoulder and reassurance snapped him back to reality. He didn’t feel that reassured.

He was so sure just moments ago. What happened?

He happened.

He didn’t say another word. There was no use for him saying anything. He was just going to let them do it. There was no point. Fraggit. With his mind defeated by itself, hee stepped into the shuttle, dragging his feet.

Prowl wrote:“All right, Rook, if you and the rest of the team are ready, let’s get on board and get this mission underway,”

”Roger that, sir.” Rook gestured for the rest of the folks and the autotroopers to get on board. He turned his frame around to see the Autotroopers loading the shuttle with the remainder of the equipment.

Anomaly wrote:“Sir, could I perhaps suggest an additional side project to this excursion? It’s not as major as the main projects, but I think it would help the cause.”

”Of course, anything to help would be good. What kinds of ideas do you have?” Rook was the last to step onto the shuttle, making sure that everything and everyone else was already inside.

War never changes, or so they say, but if there was one thing Rook could be sure of, it was that the toys that they played were definitely going to change. Everyone knew Prowl for who he was, and Rook was glad that he was on the same side as him. In the middle of the hot, fiery war, there was this cold war, the arms race, the race to extinction. He’d read about many of these kinds of scenarios, and he knew that ultimately nobody received any benefit from any of this. Mutually assured destruction, some texts had said.

Still, some people wanted to return to their old lives, but that was several vorns ago. Would anyone be able to return to it? Not with Cybertron in ruins as it currently was.

He sighed as he looked into the hangar one last time before the shuttle’s rear doors closed. Autotroopers took their seats and manned the stations. Quickswitch sat in the corner, expressionless. Time to go.

Bridge

Hot Spot felt comfortable in his chair once again until Red Alert came in a huff. He could admire the go get attitude of the security chief but sometimes he overdoes it.

"The plans are up there so I can have a much better view of the overhaul on this ship, Red Alert. I appreciate the additional security measures you have put in place especially around the main med bay and science labs. It will take a few vorns for all of this to be done but I know it will be worth it."

Hot Spot than noticed the decent of the Ark-22 on his sensors.

It seems they are going forward with the next phase of Autobot City. This must mean the construction of the city is stable enough to have the ark down there. It will be interesting to see how the Cons will react. We may lose a ship up here but have a much stronger presence on the surface.

[En Route to Bounce Chamber]

It was time. Magnus had Blaster’s chip installed, with all the live feeds going directly into his HUD. The city commander watched as the Ark’s descent into the atmosphere was underway, and how various locations on the Guardian were being monitored. Missions were underway. Progress was being made. Good.

It was time. Omega Supreme was next. Sky Lynx was back too. But the ranks of the Autobot forces would have to be more prepared than just relying on the heavy hitters.

Magnus punched in the warp codes, and stepped into the bounce chamber.

[Hangar Epsilon]

Once the whole team was in the shuttle, Overclock tugged on the controls. Destination: Detroit, Michigan, United States of America, Sol-3. Interesting. His movements around the controls were planned, calculated and efficient. He wasted no time, he would spend no time pondering over the controls. No time for that.

The shuttle rolled slowly into the main bay area, and Overclock turned to Jazz. “Ready for liftoff, sir.” He gave Smokescreen and the others an ‘okay’ gesture, before sliding the thrust controls up all the way. This little bird was going to fly out now. There was resolve in his optics as the black void of space welcomed him. He was going to make this mission work. He wasn’t going to allow any mistakes. None. Not this time. Mistakes cost a lot, and he couldn’t afford them.

(OOC: Nudging along, if you were on this mission assume you’re on the shuttle now. To be continued soon in Detroit.)

Training Room

The training room on the Guardian is a bit smaller than on a standard ship. This doesn't stop Blades from taking out his frustration on the training bots which barely able to stand up to his barrage of slashes from the training swords. Groove and Streetwise watch their fellow Protectobot beat the oil out of the training bots. How such violent and hot tempered mech got attached to the unit was beyond the two understanding.

"Hey Blades, you might want to take it easy on those bots. You aren't the only one who uses this room."

Blades looked over to Groove with a mad expression and tosses a piece of a training bot at his Protectobot brother. He then continued to whack at the bots while Groove jumped out of the way of the training robot chunk. Groove looked down at the piece and than back at Blades.

>>Blades, Groove, and Streetwise, did you all make your report about our last mission? The Guardian is starting its refit so things might get a little hectic for the next several vorns. Your shift on the bridge will be starting in the next couple of cycles.<<

Blades didn't respond as he continued to take out his frustration on the training bots.

>>Groove here and we did make the report. It wasn't much of a report since most things went smoothly. We will be there on time, Hot Spot. Blades is taking out his frustration so he might be a bit late.<<

[Hangar Epsilon - Liftoff]

With the team all on board, Overclock sat in the pilot’s seat, ready to roll the ship out. He didn’t look back at his team, because there was no time to waste. Efficiency was key. He’d memorised all the controls beforehand, so he flicked switches without spending much time looking at them, and not long after, the shuttle was rolling out of the hangar bay.

Time to free fall towards Earth. Destination: Detroit.

((OOC: To be continued in the Detroit thread.))

[Hangar Epsilon - Liftoff]

As Anomaly entered the shuttle, the rear ramp and door closed up like folding panels. With several Autotroopers ready for action and all sorts of supplies loaded up, this mission was starting to really take shape.

Rook quickly went through the list of things and people that were supposed to be here. Anomaly, Quickswitch, Prowl, Autotrooper squadrons… check. Supplies? Check. Preparations in anticipation of other Autobots who will be arriving here? Check. If Autobot City was going to be their primary base of operations, they needed a solid place to test all their little science projects. Wouldn’t want anything or anyone blowing up. Hah.

Quickswitch, in his corner, looked at Prowl and grimaced. That was all.

Just as the shuttle rolled into the launch bay, Rook addressed everyone. “Alright, we’re going to get things up and going for the rest of the science department, so that they can come in and immediately get to work. And, of course, whatever else command has in mind,” he said, looking at Prowl and then the Autotroopers.

And with that, the shuttle was off.

((OOC: To be continued in the Egypt thread.))

[Bridge]

Hot Spot wrote:"The plans are up there so I can have a much better view of the overhaul on this ship, Red Alert. I appreciate the additional security measures you have put in place especially around the main med bay and science labs. It will take a few vorns for all of this to be done but I know it will be worth it."

”O-oh, yes, right, yes it’ll all be worth it soon.” While Hot Spot got busy working with his Protectobots, Red Alert leaned in close to Blaster.

The comms officer gave a thumbs-up. “All ready to go, chief. Where should we start?”
“Um, let’s start with the cameras and the audios first… c-could you enable simultaneous display so we can… work t-together?” That was a partial lie. He wanted simultaneous display so he could keep an eye on what Blaster was doing. He didn’t want any part of his plan going awry. No, not in a time like this. He had to make sure everything was as it was supposed to be.

Blaster nodded and started getting to work immediately, while Red Alert took a seat in the station to Blaster’s left. He cast a nervous over at the comms officer, and then looked back at his screen. Wasting no time, he immediately began rifling through the technical data for the Trion, what could be considered their most advanced ship at the moment. It didn’t take him long to find data about the ship’s sensors, weaponry and interior facilities.

Oh, slag! Grimlock is in charge of that ship?

It would be a terrible fate if something were to happen to that ship. Oh no, there was no way he could allow that ship to be lost. He downloaded everything he could remotely, saving all the schematic data that he could find.

And then there were some of the more encrypted files. No, no, no, no…! He needed those files. Needed them. He couldn’t let go of these files, not in a time like this!

Blaster was busy looking through the live status conditions of every camera, microphone and comm-link aboard the Guardian. He was in the process of starting on the Ark’s systems as well, when Red Alert interrupted him.

“Blaster! Why are these files about the Trion encrypted so much? You need to de-”

Before he could say another word, Blaster put up his hand and chuckled. “Aye, why wouldn’t they be encrypted, Reddie? Surely we don’t want just anybody walkin’ into these files. But hey, I’ll have a gander through those too.”

When Blaster opened up the encryptions, he stifled a sigh, and began working. This was an extremely dense cipher, and it’d likely take him a long, long time. Thankfully, it had some top level Autobot encryptions, likely a product of Grimlock’s crew helming the ship, so it would’ve been extremely unlikely for someone like Soundwave to take a crack into this, no matter how good he was at hacking.

At least Blaster hoped so.

The next few cycles would be a few long ones, but Red Alert and Blaster would make sure to go through many, many different files, uplinks and connections, to make sure that the systems were on their way to being as robust as possible.

There could be no shortcomings here. They had to make this count. It was now or never.

Bridge

Hot Spot continued to watch the various upgrades through the main viewing screen. Blaster and Red Alert was still in the process of connecting the ships together. Security will always be a high priority for the Bots and Red was probably right about how relaxed they had gotten. One good thing about the ship upgrades was they included in the recommendations Red had suggested for all the ships. As he continued to watch, the rest of the current Protectobots walk onto the bridge. They take their respective spots on the bridge with Blades still having a scowl on his face. Hot Spot shook his head hoping that one cycle Blades will lose the extreme craving for combat. It still didn't feel right now having all of his team on the ship but the gestalt project is a top priority for high command.

"Hey Blaster, any word from First Aid or Jetfire about the project they were working on? I hope it goes well for their sake and everyone else who will be involved in it."

[Bridge]

Hot Spot wrote:"Hey Blaster, any word from First Aid or Jetfire about the project they were working on? I hope it goes well for their sake and everyone else who will be involved in it."

”Seems like the project’s been going well, at least from what I can see on the logs. I’m sure Jetfire’s doin’ a swell job down there. Silverbolt’s squad is going to be mobbin’ out at any point, heh.” Blaster tuned one of his internal radios to catch an Earth frequency, one of the stations he’d found to be pretty solid. It had that heavy, riffy set of songs, and they were all a little groovy at times too. This was concentration music for him, and as long as he was working with Red, he’d need it to get through all the various things.

The encryptions had all been put into place now, and now every console and panel was going to be logged. In a way, it confused both Red Alert and Blaster why such a thing hadn’t already been done before, but better late than never.

Red pulled up some ideas he had floating around from earlier, namely one about improving their Autotrooper forces. Though Autotroopers were fine, they were all land-based and made for roadways more so than any other terrain. This limited their effectiveness in other situations, considering that the Decepticons had the Vehicons effectively as direct counters and then the Seekers as slightly better cannon fodder.

No, if they wanted to gain the edge in this war, they’d have to make sure that the foundations of their army were solid enough. They needed to have mass-produced troops that were capable of operating in rough terrain, water and, most importantly, air. Otherwise… they could land airstrikes on us at any time! Red Alert’s internal sirens began to blow up.

“H-hey, Blaster, Hot Spot? What do you think about… uhm, upgrading our Autotroopers to be better suited for other situations as well? And also just giving them a general boost in power?”

Blaster lowered the volume on his internal radio when he saw his fellow officer talking. “Oh, that sounds rad! I don’t see why not, that just makes things more groovy for us. Whadya think, Spotty?”

[Bridge]

Red Alert had been scanning and reading and double-checking and scanning and reading and double-checking and scanning and reading and double-checking. He had to figure out the details of how Megatron could have possibly escaped. And what did these coordinates lead to? Was Megatron in the same state of insanity as Prime? But how would a sane mind have been able to key in such specific coordinates?

There was definitely something off about it. His paranoia was being held against his cerebral cortex like a gauss rifle at maximum charge. He needed to figure out what those coordinates led to first. Yes. That would work. “Blaster!”

“What’s up, chief?” the comms officer responded, looking up from his intense data and communication logging. He’d managed to figure out a few ciphers of his own, including diving a little bit deep into the Autobot encryption codes and trying to weed out faults from it. If he could crack it, then the Decepticons would definitely be able to as well. “Restricted access will be ready to go in about a cycle and a half. I’m going to try out a few of my own custom ciphers and encryptions on this.”

“Oh, uh, that’s good. B-but! We need to figure out where Megatron went! That could be the key to this whole operation! Look, I’ve gathered all the data, including the surveillance camera footage, of all the coordinates he pointed into. The satellite drones don’t show anything there… I-it’s just an empty region of space…”

Blaster shifted his focus and furrowed his brow, looking intently at the coordinates. “Wait a second,” he said, an idea snapping into his mind, “The drones don’t show anything? Because even if mister slagmaker hopped on downtown to the middle of nowhere, the drones would still pick up his heat signature before he sputtered out. There’s no way he would’ve made it into atmospheric reentry without any of the other satellites picking it up. I ain’t buyin’ it. He’s still out there, and those codes don’t seem all that random to me…”

He cross-checked the data, and quickly rummaged through bounce chamber data for the entire fleet. At the very least, code shuffling was enabled, so they would be fine if someone tried to come back, because they wouldn’t be able to. He looked through past bounce codes, trying to piece together their patterns. Not an easy task considering they were so distinctly randomised with each bounce that none of them really seemed to belong together.

But there was one slight similarity and that was all Blaster needed to ascertain that the code Megatron had inputted led straight to another bounce chamber. “Chief,” he spoke, lowly, “I think you hit the motherloadin’ jackpot.”

[Bridge]

Red Alert was flabbergasted, excited, horrified and paranoid all at once. “T-that’s exactly what we needed! Megatron’s gone to another ship! Blaster, can you try and locate particle trails in that region? S-surely the ship must’ve, uh, used its thrusters at some point, even if just to keep it in active orbit!”

“I’ll keep looking, chief. Anything else you need me to do in that meantime?” Blaster replied.

“Uh, yes,” Red Alert handed Blaster a small disk, “Keep going through the projects. Whenever they’re ready to be started, contact all the n-necessary parties.” Red Alert quickly grabbed the files he needed, loading them into a chip, especially the ones he had just typed up about Megatron’s mysterious disappearance. He flipped into his alternate mode immediately after that, and pushed his acceleration to maximum, hastily racing out of the bridge and towards the bounce chamber. No time to lose! I need to show this to Magnus and Prime!

Meanwhile, back at the bridge, Blaster was already setting up scanners for that field of space where Megatron had bounced to. He received a comm at that point… from Optimus himself.

Optimus Prime wrote:>>“Blaster… can you send out a long-distance communication to any and all Autobot ships this side of the galaxy? I would like a gauge of our numbers here.”<<

>>“Aye, I can do that. Most of the outer companies should be active, but I’ll double check and let you know soon. Catch you ‘round, Prime.”<< Blaster shook his head. He hadn’t checked in on the other ships, what with this madness he had to deal with here, but he knew he could multitask. With one hand, he opened up the long-distance frequencies, applying the new patch of encryptions he had prepared. He uploaded details of the galactic sector they were in as well.

>>“Attention, all Autobot ships. This is Blaster, speaking from the Guardian. If you are within the locality of the following sector quadrant, please respond immediately. This is an order from Optimus Prime.”<<

For a few minutes, there was a noticeable silence. It would take that message to get to the outside of the Sol system. Blaster stared at the screen for the first few moments, and then went back to work on the scans.

But soon, a message.

>>“This is Camshaft, speaking from the Iron Hope under Omnibot commander Overdrive. We’re in this sector currently.”<<

A smile crept across Blaster’s face. He knew what Prime was getting at here. He’d seen all the reports. The Iron Hope would be the first of many to respond. It was quickly followed by others. The comms officer was going to send the reports to Optimus after he had completed the scans as well. All the news, all at once.

Now, if Star Saber and Metalhawk’s fleet were to respond… then that would truly be some of the best news.

Bridge

A dangerous game was being played here. Blaster was attempting his best to juggle all the tasks he had at the moment. Trying to triangulate the location where Megatron had bounced to, attempting to send highly specialised encryptions of outreach messages to other ships and fleets in the local galactic sector and trying to coordinate the communications of the Sol-3 sphere, this was a lot on his shoulders at the moment.

Thankfully, he had most of his cassettes to help him out with the various tasks at hand. So it made things a little bit easier. That was a good thing.

As the shuttles from Detroit and Kashmir arrived with their crew, Blaster also received the summons alert from Ultra Magnus with a high priority tag. He figured that since Kup and Jazz were just arriving fresh, it would be a good idea to notify them about the plans at Autobot City as well.

>>”Welcome back y’all! Please upload your mission reports, that’d be real nice if you guys got that done right away. I got your comm from earlier, Alpha Bravo, I’ll forward it so that a dispatch team can go collect the materials from the surface. Ultra Magnus recommends that everyone help out in some way, either in defense, upgrades or otherwise. We need all hands working!”<<

And in a separate, significantly more confidential comm, to all members of high command and others who were of great importance to the war machine, >>”Ultra Magnus has summoned you to join him at Autobot City for an urgent meeting. Please make your way as soon as you can.”<<

The cassettes were monitoring the incoming comms, if any, from other ships, noting their responses. Though there hadn’t been that many responses, the few that they had received seemed to be from individual isolated ships, though there were a few notable exceptions. The Iron Hope, helmed by Omnibot commander Overdrive, had been the first to respond, and seemed to be the closest in the vicinity. Among the fleet of the Iron Hope were ships such as the Daybreak and the Valiant, commanded by the commanders Rapido and Speedstream, respectively. But it would be a long time before they reached here. Hopefully, that long time would be enough for them. They could not rely on them, however, they had to make do with what they had.

There was still no response yet from Star Saber or Metalhawk.

Blaster decided to check in on the Trion’s logs, seeing that Grimlock had not received the high-priority comm that he had sent out to all the commanders. The Dinobot commander had stormed off earlier, and Blaster had been quite preoccupied with all the tasks he had to be able to check what had been happening. With a few clicks through the system and checking the logs remotely, he found that… the Dinobots were not on board.

And instead, a shuttle had gone down to the surface. The exact location hadn’t been logged, but it seemed to be somewhere in the middle of the continent known as Africa, in a region known as the Congo. What are they doing? He had to let the others know. He sent a priority comm to both Ultra Magnus and Prowl to inform them.

>>”Magnus, Prowl, the Dinobots have left the Trion with a shuttle and headed for the surface. It is on the same continent as the research outpost, just further south. I’m trying to pinpoint their exact location, but if they’ve gone down to the surface, they’ve likely gone with a reason. What would you advise right now?”<<