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Post by Foley on Jun 6, 2013 23:42:10 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Chinese highlands, Earth
1376 A.D.[/glow]
The valley was as quiet as a tomb, Cheng thought to himself as he tended to his sheep. Now that he had reached his thirteenth summer, his father had finally given him more responsiblity and allowed Cheng to take the sheep up into the valley alone. The air around him and his flock was cold, and even though winter was still some time off, the high mountain peeks above the valley were covered with snow. Grandmother had said over last night's dinner that the signs fortold a harsh winter this year, many of Cheng's villiage would not survive. She would tell Father later that the signs also said something dire was also on it's way from the stars, but she only said this when they had thought Cheng to be asleet.
Cheng pondered Grandmother's words. He remembered how her voice quivered as she spoke of the sign's dire warnings with Father and thought that that had been strange. Grandmother had seen many things both good and bad in the stars and signs of her magics and never was anything so horrible that it caused her to feel fear. Indeed the old woman was highly respected in the villiage and one of the most trusted elders. If something frightened her then Cheng felt it a good idea to be ready for whatever was coming. As the sheep muneched away on the valley's grass and chased one another around the cherry blossum trees, Cheng practiced the moves with his bo staff as Master Chi had taught him. Finally, as the sun began to set and Cheng's arms were wore out from his practicing, he began to gather his flock for the hike back home.
It was then a roar came from the heavens and tore through the valley and made Cheng's body vibrate. Before he could right himself or go after the frightened sheep a shaft of light blazed across the sky from the moon in the east to one of the highest mountain peeks followed by another thunderous clamor from the mountain itself that shoke the earth like a little quake and sent a huge cloud of snow and dirt into the air. Once the snow and earth came back down it triggered an avalanche down the side of the mountain, one that woould have reached the valley and the villiage on the otherside of it if it had not been for the foothills around the tall mountain.
Cheng rushed the flock of sheep down to the villiage and then went looking for Father. It seems that Grandmother's disaster had arrived far sooner then anyone would've thought.
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Post by Foley on Jun 7, 2013 0:28:40 GMT -5
Katana's processors slowly booted themselves back up bringing him slowly, if not painfully, our of whatever stasis lock he had been in. He remembered ordering Hyperdrive to activate the trans-warp drive while Buckshot laid down some cover fire in hopes to push back The Dagger's Tip, then something exploded behind him and then what felt like his spark being turned inside out before being twisted into a knot. After a few moments his optics reset themselves and he could see plainly. He then quickly wished they were still offline.
The bridge of the good ship Zodiak looked like it had been squeezed by the hand of Primus and flung into the side of a planet. The back part of the bridge, presumably were the explosion had happened, had a hole ripped through the bulkheads and the outer hull plating and was now filled in with a few tons of stone. Katana had hoped that Megabyte had managed to get away from the vacating section, but strongly doubted it since that was where his intelligence officer had been prior to Katana's being knocked out.
His internal systems told him that his arm had been severally damaged just about the same time as he looked down and it barely hanging onto his frame by a few cables and wires. With his good arm, Katana punched the comm button on his chair, "Squealer, if you and Greasemonkey still function down there you're needed on the," he snorted looking around again, "bridge."
All he got in response was a sharp blast of static. He'll check on those two after he made sure the rest of his crew that was up here with him were all right...or at least functioning in some manner.
"Anybody gotta status report?" he called out.
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Post by Foley on Jun 10, 2013 22:18:31 GMT -5
Wormhole shoved a fallen bulkhead away from where it sat on top of him and Hyperdrive, "At least two of us alive here." he said grinning at Katana.
"Dessspite a few dentsss and ssscratchesss," Hyperdrive added accepting Wormhole's hand up to his feet.
"And some damage to your vocal processor," noted Katana as he continued taking stock of ship and crew.
Another bulkhead on the other side of the bridge popped free allowing Buckshot to crawl out of the weapons port he had been in when the ship jumped to transwarp speeds. "I've had better landings," he smirked giving his commander a thumbs up sign, then looked at Hyperdrive, "Thought you could pilot?"
"I can," huffed the pilot.
"And not crash?"
"Thought you can ssshot," Hyperdrive retorted.
"I can,"
"And not miss the target?"
"Touche," Buckshot replied grinning.
His crew's banter back and forth was a good sign that they survived whatever happened relatively in one piece, but Katana was concerned about the rest of his crew. He reached down and toggled the comm-link again. "Greasemonkey, Oxide, Squealer, Steelspur, Firebrand. If any of you can hear me try and answer." He waited a few moments and listened to the static that filtered out of the comm's speaker, straining to hear any of his crew mates answer. "If your able, try and make your way up here to the bridge."
Buckshot had made his way around to the back of the command center as he was doing his own little inspection tour. He whistled at the sight of the haul breach and the tons of earth and rock in it's place. "Anyone seen Megabyte?" he asked.
"He's dead," Katana answered solemnly.
"You sure about that boss-man?" asked Wormhole skeptically.
Katana nodded, "Bridge isn't all that big and Megabyte was at his post the whole time we were running from the Decepticons. Not to mention whatever exploded through the hull came from his station. Megabyte has to be dead, either sucked out into space just before we went beyond lightspeed or his atoms were pulled like mercury when we did."
Buckshot stared at the earth wall again and whistled, "What a way to go. Shame we didn't know all that well being a new assignment and all to cover for Bamboozle being on another gig."
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Post by frayniac on Jun 12, 2013 8:49:58 GMT -5
Ratrun was alive, of that he was sure. He knew this because he was pretty sure that your body didn't feel like this when you were dead. He felt like the armour had been burnt from his body.
Another sign was what he was hearing. He doubted that Primus welcomed your spark to the afterlife with a stream of Cybertronian language quite that blue. No, that was Ramshackle he could hear, and it sounded like he was alive and in pain too.
Ratrun was the smallest of the crew and always had been able to squeeze into places that the others could not- that's why he was there- if they were salvaging a ship then it was always good to have someone around like him to scout out the place before the bigger mechs got to cutting and hauling. He pulled himself up to a sitting position and noticed his leg. Or rather he didn't notice it, as it was no longer there.
'Crud!' he groaned, mourning the only part of his body that hadn't been hurting. 'That would explain it' he thought.
He dragged himself towards where he thought the corridor towards the Medbay and where Squealer was. Wherever he was aboard ship had taken quite a beating- the bulkheads were all bucked, the lighting rig was no longer operational and the chamber was filling with thick smoke from a fire somewhere behind him. He could only tell which way was up by the direction the oil and coolant was taking as it left the numerous wounds on his body.
'Crud' he groaned again, and made his way towards a gap that had been torn in the wall plating by the explosion. It was a tiny gap and he'd have to get through it, it was the only way out of this room before he was baked alive. He thought he could squeeze through it though, as what with the missing leg and sections of dermal plating, he was a fair bit smaller than he was when he got on the ship that morning.
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Post by frayniac on Jun 12, 2013 9:44:08 GMT -5
Squealer wasn't entirely sure what had happened or what was happening, so his analytical mind just concentrated on what he was sure of.
-They had been in space, in a battle, but they weren't anymore. The rock formation that was jutting diagonally across his Medbay would suggest that they where on a Litho-class planet, planetoid or moon, possibly even underground.
-He was alone, but could hear movement around him, coming from numerous directions. That meant survivors. The comms-unit on the wall had been smashed, but the green 'receiving' signal was flashing in an irregular pattern, so it appeared that someone was at least trying to contact him from somewhere. At a push he'd guess the bridge.
-He was stuck here. The doorway could no longer be described as such. It was buckled beyond repair and there was no way it was going to be opened soon, even if he could reach it. A reinforced
durillium support beam had detached itself from the hull above him and now lay across the doorway too.
-His equipment had taken a beating- instruments, and parts of instruments, were scattered on the floor all around him. He was surprised to see that one of his Diagnosis beches was intact, but was now somehow now buried in the wall. It's 'operational' signal was lit, but faint.
He would investigate it- He had nothing else to do and it was in his nature to repair things after all. It's journey across the room and into the wall had caused the table's field to become misaligned. Instead of focusing its beam upon the table, it was weakly casting its beams everywhere but the table, effectively trying to give the entire ship and surrounding area a diagnostic report.
Squealer tapped at the keypad with his massive hands and told the device to focus on the spark wavelengths of his crewmates. He then prayed to Primus before wearily pressing /DISPLAY REPORT/ and read off the data.
<Subject- SQUEALER. Signal 70%. Internal damage. Optical systems damaged. Decreased mobility.>
<Subject- GREASEMONKEY. Signal 58%. Fire damage. Immobile. In temporary stasis buffer.>
<Subject- FIREBRAND. Signal 72% and falling. Vacuum emitters offline. Internal processors leaking.>
<Subject- STEELSPUR. Signal 54%. Internal damage. Decreased mobility.>
<Subject- RAMSHACKLE. Signal 83%. Exoskeleton incomplete.>
<Subject- OXIDE. Signal 67%. Paralysis in left side. Drive train inoperational.>
<Subject- LONEWOLF. Signal 95%. Operational. Exoskeleton incomplete. Mobile. Internal horizon misaligned.>
<Subject- KATANA. Signal 83%. Internal damage. Decreased mobility.>
<Subject- HYPERSPACE. Signal 76%. Internal sensors misaligned. Teleporter inoperational. Vocal processors failing>
<Subject- WORMHOLE. Signal 82%. Internal damage. Aural systems damaged. Decreased mobility.>
<Subject- BUCKSHOT. Signal 69% Internal damage. Exoskeleton incomplete. Right leg severed at ankle joint. Decreased mobility.>
<Subject- MEGABYTE. Signal 0%................>
<Subject- RATRUN. Signal 61%. Internal damage. Exoskeleton incomplete. Fire damage. Internal processors failing. Multiple Energon leaks. Missing left leg. Decreased mobility.>
'Huh,' said the medic, 'Looks like Megabyte is either missing or dead, and Ratrun has taken a hell of a beating.'
'Tell me something I don't know' said a burnt, twisted shape as it clawed through a crack in the wall. 'Looks like Megabyte struck it lucky!'
Squealer limped over to his crew-mate and hoisted him up on to a workbench. He knew he'd have his work cut to get everyone patched up, even if he had a fully operational workspace available. It might just be easier to get the bay's reformatting suite patched up to the diagnosis bench and rebuild everyone from the ground up.
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