The Energon Pub

Autobase Nu - Command Center

"Kup," Prowl acknowledged the old campaigner briskly, glancing up briefly from his contemplation of his preliminary post-battle assessment. His optics soon returned to the data streams flowing across the gleaming surface of the command console before him. "I'm afraid 'it could have been worse' is going to become my personal mantra before this war comes to an end. Mostly to distract myself from the fact that things could have been better out there, too." Megatron's appearance in the field, for example, had been such a remote possibility that they had added only the most basic countermeasures for dealing with such an eventuality to the Polyhex battleplan.

Entering a series of commands into the terminal, Prowl gestured to the display mapping the present status of the border between Nova Cronum and Polyhex. "We put a dent in the Decepticon's territory today, but I think it would be dangerous to presume they won't muster some kind of response. Despite our losses, I think it would be best to keep their attention fixed here--between Omega Supreme and the Maximus Line, we still stand a pretty good chance of chewing up any kind of punitive raid the 'Cons might throw together. Otherwise, trying to figure out where Megatron's going to strike is purely a guessing game."

Prowl, drummed his digits thoughtfully over the surface of the console, plainly ill-at-ease with what he was about to suggest next. "In any case, I think we should give priority to establishing some kind of patrol to support Omega and keep closer tabs on what the Decepticons are up to in Polyhex. And if a little sabre-rattling pulls a few of them into the range of our guns, so much the better. Do you have any idea what the Aerialbots present state of functionality is?"

Autobase-NU Recieving Area

WheelBar was relieved Archangel told him not to call nim "Commander". I still felt akward saying it. WheelBar was still new around here and didn't know quite how to address everyone by rank. So, as he decided earlier, he would just start with commander and either they would go with it or correct him. Apparently that plan seemed to work well. He heard Archangel's orders through the midst of all the confusion in the Med Ward.

"Yes, Archangel." He calmly stated. Yes. That did feel a lot better to say. Before he moved he took one more look around the room. Springer's injury was now a lot more obvious, along with Brewer's depression. He hoped that they would be alright, along with every other bot here...

(OOC - No probs Razorclaw, I'm just happy to have someone else to talk to amongst the Aerialbots apart from myself ) IC

Autobase Nu ~ Command Center

"I think I can probably answer that question Prowl Sir.." Silverbolt interrupted, hearing his team's name mentioned as he exited the elevator "..Apologies for interrupting Kup.." The Aerialbot Commander added, nodding in greeting to the hugely experienced Warrior "..Currently, Air Raid and Skydive are already down in the medbay recieving repairs, Slingshot and Fireflight are also on their way to recieve attention. None of their injuries were too serious, so I believe they should all be fully functional before too long.." Silverbolt finished with his answer, seemingly forgetting his own injuries, and took a look at the display on the screen that Prowl had been showing to Kup "..I'm assuming that you have something in mind for the Aerialbots Sir?"

-------------------------------
Autobase Nu ~ Receiving Area

"That's more like it.." Archangel replied to Wheelbar, noticing Springer make his way back into the recieving area, once again in his vehicle mode. As Slingshot and Fireflight came passed him with their 2 casualties, Archangel turned to Wheelbar and Sub-Zero and pointed at the next transport "OK you 2, that's our next stop, get over there and start helping out some of the less seriously wounded, I'll catch up with you in a moment" The Medic finished, beginning to move towards the slow moving Springer.

As he neared the injured Triplechanger, Archangel smiled before opening up the conversation "OK, enough is enough, we both know you're injured, so stop trying to be a such hero and get you're aft back into that Medbay, sit it down on one of the tables and let Minerva take a look at you.." The Medic paused as he grinned a sly grin and lowered his voice "..I like you Springer, I really do. But I won't hesitate to incapacitate you and drag your unconscious body into the medbay so we can take a look at you, if I have no other choice of course"

(OOC, could Skywatch’s owner come and collect him please! I’m about to re-activate him)
Autobase Nu - Medbay


Minerva turned towards the newly recovered Arialbot, who was inquiring as to how he could help.
'Air Raid before you go charging off just take it easy, run your self a system check, do some basic motor tests, and for goodness sake get some energon in you. The last thing I need is you collapsing on me right now’.
Minerva turned back towards Skywatch, now devoid of most of his damaged amour, but also deprived of the shrapnel that had lodged itself in his systems. Minerva began reconnecting wires that had been cut and replacing damaged circuits whilst the drones finished cleaning and welding the plating back together. This task done it was a simple job to place the armour back on. Minerva wished for luck under her breath as she fed Skywatch energon needed to restart his systems. Task done all she could do was wait to see if he came round.

[ooc] ready and waiting for Skywatch to come back online. I will post something substantial tomorrow. have company right now[/ooc]

Autobase Nu - Medbay

"You got it Minerva." Air Raid said as he stepped over towards a energon terminal, taking two long dark cables and connecting them to his power core. "Ah this will feel good." Air Raid said while energon started to flow into his power core. Air Raid continued to recharge at the energon terminal.

Autobase Nu ~ Receiving Area

"I stopped playing hero when I was five vorns old," Springer joked as he transformed. He stopped for a second while his face winced. "Big bots still play hide and seek, Arch. Guess I lost. Well, I'll just pick door number one in your game, chief. Heh, and if that's how you treat your friends, I'm wondering how you treat your enemies. Just glad to be on your nice side."

Springer began limping back to the med-bay.

"You heading over here too?" he asked Archangel.

Sub-Zero nodded eager to take on what ever job Archangel assigned to him. He motioned to Wheelbar that he was ready and moved to walk beside the other mech.
"Wheelbar, lets grab a medical table that has wheels incase we need it.”

The black and silver bot placed the palms of his hands on an unused gurney and caught up to Wheelbar again. Trying to make casual conversation he asked his fellow mech,
“So … which team were you assigned to when we were out there, maybe I saw you before? I’m trying my best to become aquatinted with all the units, especially since I make so many delivery runs. You know energon and ammunition, stuff like that.”

Autobase-NU Receiving Area

WheelBar was glad Sub-Zero thought up of the rolling table thing, it definately would help out with taking in the injured. He turned to the fellow Autobot to anser his question.

"Well, I just got out of training, so I haven't been around much, but I've definately met up with some of the older bots like Kup." It brought a smile to WheelBar's face amazingly. That bot sure can yell...He brought his attention back to Sub-Zero. "But anyway, I guess you could say that it wasn't really a team I as assigned to. Mostly because right before we were going to be assighned to our teams, this battel in Polytex broke out. We pretty much had to scramble us rookies and a couple senior officers and we were outta there..." WheelBar took a look around at the injured. "..But we were already to late to do any good. Now, I guess I'm just kinda stranded here till someone tells me where to go."

WheelBar smiled. "Sorry, I bet you didn't expect that big of an answer...What about you? Where are you from?"

((OOC: I'm back! Yay. And it looks like I didn't miss much.))

Autobase Nu - Medical Bay

Seeing that Minerva did answer Brewer for him to assist her, but figured he lost his welcome. He wasn't surprised, though. A medic didn't have time for someone who couldn't stay focused in such a situation as of now. It looked like Brewer would have to prove himself to re-earn the respect he once had. There were still a good deal of other bots that need attention, and the S&R Specialist took little time to scan out the one who need attention the most.

The one he choose was a bit dismantelled and had a few circuits broken. Nothing too challenging, right? "Let's get started, shall we?" Brewer took out his kit of medical tools and laid it across a bedside table, taking a miniature welding torch and a micro-nose plyer. "Just hold still. Looks like your tubes haven't been leaking, but we'll scan that in a bit. You're actually pretty lucky."

Autobase-NU Recieving Area

"Nah Wheelbar, it wasn't such a long answer. It was a truthful one.”

The Beast bot kept pace his hands still on the rolling table.

“As for me, You could say my spark is older than you, but my body is new, but I’m definitely not as old as Kup.”

He smiled.

“Not so long back my alt mode was a hover transport shuttle. I worked as a transport and guide before all this. After the war got hot I was sent on a spy mission that did not work out so well. I got too close to the con base and they shot my shuttle down, causing me to crash into the outer wall of one of their major computers. You know the ones that have their own defense systems. Anyway I guess this one had some hidden info from some strange organic planet. It caused my ship to go haywire and made my emergency alt-mode changer activate. It shot me, and let me tell you, you do not want to be online when your alt mode is changed. It’s like pure torture. I can’t understand how the cons can do it, when they sup up their bodies for war. So that’s how I came to be what I am now, and with the change came a change in function. I was reassigned as an ammo/energon relay for the front lines. Almost always assigned to run alone. But the truth is I don’t much like working alone.”

Sub-Zero did not mention how he could never feel comfortable with his alt-mode. In his mind it was atrocious, almost like how a human would feel about being a were-wolf. But he was always willing to work and use whatever skills he possessed to help out. Thank Primus he had not the need to use his absolute zero ray while on theses solitary missions or he would be one of the bots Minerva was working on or worse he could be dead.

Autobase Nu ~ Receiving Area

¨Ahhh,¨ muttered Springer. He couldn´t handle it anymore. Moving Autobots back and forth had somewhat distracted him from wound pain in his leg, but all the attention made the injury painfully clear to him. Still, he tried not to show too many outword signs of pain. ¨I´ll go sweet talk Minerva or something, thanks for the, uh, heads up, Arch. Heh.¨

¨Looks like all the work was done,¨ the tripelchanger chuckled as he walked back into the medbay. His servos sparked a little now. ¨Minerva, babe, long time no see.¨

(OOC - Sorry Armorwind, been ridiculously busy the last few days )IC

Autobase Nu ~ Recieving Area

Archangel smiled as Springer finally cooperated and limped off to get some long awaited treatment, the Medic though couldn't join him until his work in the recieving area was completed. Turning back towards the shuttles, some with a slow stream of walking wounded departing them, Archangel spotted Wheelbar and Sub-Zero heading towards one of the transports, the pair seemingly in conversation.

Not wanting to interrupt, the Medic dashed past his pair of helpers and onto the shuttle to begin prioritising the patients onboard, only to bump into one patient whom he had already seen "Hey Arch, knew you'd be here.." Orpheus commented, one patient slung over his shoulder "You know me Orph, I'm always lurking around places like this, anyone onboard in a bad way?" The large warrior paused as his systems churned their way through the question posed to him "..Uh, I think there's a little femmebot somewhere here, we picked her up from one of the bunkers along the Maximus Line as we returned, there was a lot of talk about her"

Archangel rubbed his chin as he listened to his longtime friend "OK Orph, thanks for the info. You get on down to the Medbay and be careful with your patient there, I'll be down as soon as I'm finished in here" Orpheus nodded and began heading off down the shuttle ramp. Archangel turned and began to look for the femmebot mentioned, one of the shuttle attendants pointing him in the right direction. It didn't take him long to recognise who it was Orpheus was talking about, the lavender and grey armor of Forte had been battered from her involvement in the battle.

"Wow, you look terrible.." Archangel joked, not sure if Forte could hear him or not, before he turned his head towards the shuttle ramp and tried to get the attention of his 2 helpers "Hey Sub-Zero! Wheelbar! Over here, I've got a patient I need you guys to get down to Medbay ASAP"

[ooc: gah wotta week. sorry I am late posting]

Skywatch took a while to get back online. most of his subsystems had been thoroughly drained, and recharging them safely took time. Reintegration of each functioning system in turn took yet more time.
Still, at some point internal autonomous diagnostics decreed that, yes enough systems were functional and working properly to commence a reboot. Slowly to the internal clock, yet swift enough to those nearby, his armored shell shifted from the grey of stasis lock to the normal hued luster of an operational resident of Cybertron.
Skywatch's optics reset and the first thing he noted was that he wasn't on the Binary Highway. In fact he was in some sort of mechanics bay. Did I get in a wreck? he thought. Don't recall hitting anything. Maybe my load shifted?
Slowly the confused Autobot sits up then almost topples over because his body wasn't reacting the same as it should.

Autobase Nu ~ Recieving Area

Juggernaut had just arrived a breem ago. The whole Autobot base at Nova Cronum was summing with life as their soldiers returned for repairs, refueling and whatever else they needed. The Autobots have had a minor victory today, despite the fairly large amount of casualties. The giant Autobot commander hulked towards the Command Center... and then he would, with Prowl's permission, seek out new info about the condition of his old friend and protegé, Fortress Maximus.

Autobase Nu - Command Center

"No apology necessary, Silverbolt," Kup said earnestly. He was glad at least one other ranking Autobot - well, at least one with his head module screwed on right - was functional and ready to work. With Fortress Maximus down...we all need to pick up the slack around here. He looked up at the large display again.

"If we were the 'Cons, and just had our vocalizers kicked in, what would our next step be?" he wondered aloud. "If Shockwave were still in charge in Polyhex, I'd guess a slow, meticulous, and really boring counter-offensive involving a lot of punitive raids to test our defenses before hitting us hard with whatever's left of the Polyhex forces."

He crossed his arms over his chestplate. "'Course, the big purple flashlight isn't in much shape to command right now, I'd say. So who's that leave in command in Polyhex, and what he gonna do?"

As Kup asked this question, possibilities tumbled around in his logic circuits. Depending on what Decepticon was now in control of Polyhex, the state of play could be wildly different.

Autobase Nu - Medical Bay

Minerva gave a small start when she turned around to see Skywatch attempting to sit upright. After he almost collapsed Minerva rushed over.
‘Hey take it easy; you were in pretty bad shape when they brought you in here.’
Minerva set a drone to run some basic diagnostics on Skywatch but before she had time to read the reports she heard Springer’s voice from the doorway
‘Hang on a bit Skywatch, I have a rogue patient to secure.’
She grinned at the bot and then turned towards Springer, mock surprise imprinted on her faceplate
‘Springer! This is a pleasant surprise. What brings you to my Med-Bay? Surely not some injury that has gotten the better of you.’
Unable to keep her face straight, Minerva burst out laughing.
‘Alright Springer go and pick yourself a table, I’ll be with you in a minute, Skywatch has just re booted.’

Autobase Nu - Command Center

Speak of the Fallen . . . Prowl mused as the leader of the team he had so recently been discussing with Kup arrived in the control room. It was uncanny, but would help to expedite matters neatly. He listened intently as Silverbolt provided a concise update on the various states of functionality of the Autobots under his command, nodding thoughtfully. Given the fairly substantial role the Aerialbots had played in the recent battle, he had actually been expecting them to be far worse off. Perhaps not all of this orn's surprises were going to be unpleasant ones.

The strategist's train of thought was momentarily diverted by Kup's very pertinent--if nonetheless in large part unanswerable, given the scarcity of hard data--questions concerning the state of the Polyhex command structure. A wry smile appeared on Prowl's faceplate as he brought up a list of the high-ranking Decepticons known to have been operating out of that area recently. "Your guess is as good as mine," he said to the respected veteran, spreading his hands with a helpless shrug. "Since we don't have any clear idea who's deactivated over there and who's still in working order, it could be just about anybody: Hun-Grrr, Quantum, Onslaught, Razorclaw . . . We've got reports of Starscream hightailing it back to Kaon with Megatron, so at least we can be confident it's not him."

Prowl shrugged. "But the pool's pretty substantial, and highly varied. Which means any attempt to predict the 'Cons next move is going to be a shot in the dark. The best we can do is be as prepared as possible; to that end, I'd like the Aerialbots to begin flying patrols over the captured territory in support of Omega Supreme as soon as they finish with their repairs."

Skywatch slumps a bit and looks at the medic "Wha...What happened? Where am I? " He pauses a moment while Minerva's words to the other 'bot presence sinks in.

"Med-bay? What's going on? Why's my chasis so off?" He voice rises to a slightly panicky pitch "I was on the Binary Highway..then..." he trails off

Autobase Nu - Command Center

"Sad but true, Prowl," Kup admitted as the strategist pointed out their lack of hard intelligence about who was leading the Decepticon forces in Polyhex. "We're as blind as a Tyrestian cavefish, and tough as he is, Omega Supreme can't hit what he can't see. Not to mention that we don't have the energon stores to keep him on patrol indefinitely."

It was simply a fact. Cybertron was running out of enery, yet again, and Nova Cronum was hardly spared from the crisis. The planet had revitalized itself after the Great Shutdown, but that was only because nearly all the Transformers on the planet had entered voluntary stasis to give the world a chance to reenergize. Kup somehow doubted such an epic shutdown would occur again. The War's burning too hot. We didn't do anything with all that energy the planet made during the Shutdown but dump it into the fire and jack the flames up even bigger.

"What if we put a few more boots on the ground beyond the Maximus Line?" he ventured. "Normal-sized 'Bots need a lot less energon than Omega, but he'll still be there to back us up if we find something nasty that needs stepping on. We could cover a lot of ground between a scout team and the Aerialbots."

Autobase Nu-Recieving Area:

"Wow...uh..sorry you had to go through that..." Was all WheelBar could think to say. He hadn't known real pain yet, except for training at the academy, but they said that that was nothing compared to the real thing. And yet he was standing next to some bot who had gone through a world of pain WheelBar never hoped to have to deal with.

He heard Archangel's call and turned to Sub-Zero. "Well, looks like we'll put this rolling table to good use! Let's go!"

Sub-Zero's blue optics glowed kindly,
"Nothing to be sorry about. The ordeal hasn't changed my values nor my personality, thank Primus. But I'm hoping to get a group assignment this time....."

Sub-Zero stopped as Arch called for he and Wheelbar. Nodding to Wheelbar's comment about the table, he started over to Archangel. The Medic stood beside a lavender and grey femmebot. She appeared to Zero to be in a delicate state. He carefully swung the table into position and knelt beside the femme Autobot, pausing for either Arch or Wheelbar to help him move her. Speaking to Archangel he tilted his head,

“What’s her name?”

He figured she would feel more comfortable if he spoke to her as they transported her to the med bay but “Hey You” was not and appropriate way to address a fellow soldier. Her had asked Archangel because Zero was unsure if she was even functional to speak.

((OOC: Thanks a bunch, Davekma, for getting Forte back in the game. XD You're doing great to keep things moving! Wish I still had the creativity... lol))

Autobase Nu - Receiving Area

She had been in stasis lock since she was transported by First Aid. Her systems were shut down entirely - no way to hearing or seeing what was going on. At least her spark was still functioning properly - there was hardly any damage to it at all besides the fact that she strained it by going into Bezerker mode. In the current stage she was in, the fembot had a chance to survive, but there was always the possibility of her completely shutting down... permenantly.

Medical Bay

The little ruccus from Skywatch was all Brewer needed to be distracted for only a nano. The green mech glanced over to see if everything was fine - it was. No, others didn't need his help. They never did. Strangely, that was okay with him. Brewer was use to it. He continued working on his currect patient, making sure all systems were in check and stable again, then reattached what components were dismembered.

"Looks much better. Let the welding cool a little longer and I'll get you refueled while you wait," he attached the energon tube to the bot, turning the on switch to a slow pace of pumping. "I'll come to check on you in a bit." He wasn't worried about overfilling the bot, for the machine could detect when the user was properly filled.

Autobase Nu - Command Center

"I'd be only too happy to put another team in the field to support the Aerialbots and Omega Supreme, Kup," Prowl replied, dismissing the intelligence data concerning the ranking Decepticons in Polyhex from the display. Until they had hard data upon which to base a hypothesis, the question of who had taken over for Shockwave was more a distraction than anything else. Their approach had to be as balanced and as versatile as possible in order to cope with the staggering variety of possible counterattacks they were facing.

Much as he might have liked to maintain Omega in the field as a permanent bulwark against renewed Decepticon activity along the border, Prowl recognized that such an approach simply wasn't feasible. Kup had spoken truly when he'd mentioned the vast energy requirements of keeping the Guardian on active patrol; even outside of combat, his need for fuel would quickly outstrip Nova Cronum's energon-production capabilities, even if they put every other Autobot in the city-state on strict rations. Eventually, they would have to pull him back for less energy-intensive duties. Establishing a zone of defense beyond the Maximus Line would be a vital step toward mitigating the consequences of that eventuality. And before that could happen, they would need 'Bots to secure the area, on the ground and in the air.

"Do we have enough functioning Autobots to deploy a proper patrol? And will they be able to cope with the strain of returning to the Killzone so soon after combat?"

Autobase Nu - Command Center

Juggernaut silently walked in, at least as silent as the giant Autobot could be. Luckily most rooms was build so that larger bots as Fortress Maximus and himself could enter them.
Several administration-drones and sentient Autobots was puzzling around to keep the whole base running. In the center stood Prowl, Kup and a few other commanders, discussing something, probably the next course of action.
"Comrades" he gave Prowl and the others a nod.