[ INTRO LOG ]

[robotsatan]

You don't know how you got here. One minute you were walking, sleeping, maybe dead -- then you're here, your feet suddenly carrying you down an empty street. Where's here?

Any Cybertronian would recognize this as their home planet, Cybertron, but it's not a Cybertron they've ever known. It has all the familiar hallmarks, but none of the specifics -- the city isn't one anyone here could identify, and even at a glance it's obvious that no one's set foot on the planet's surface in hundreds of years. The city and its surrounding areas all bear the marks of devastating war, of dust and rust collected over centuries. With no one in sight -- right at first, anyway -- there's plenty to explore. In fact, if you start walking, you'll find that your feet may just carry you in one particular direction.

A) The crater.
On one edge of the city is a massive crater left by some wartime weapon that seems to have taken out a large chunk of the surrounding metropolitan area. At the center of the crater it's broken through the surface of the terrain to reveal what looks like it might be a promising energon deposit. There is some strange but native vegetation growing around the edges, too, that no Cybertronian would be able to identify -- small, metallic, brittle-looking sprouts that bear a curiously organic-looking fruit of some kind that doesn't look like it's intended for consumption by any natives of the planet. In one rocky nook of the crater, light catches on the surface of a pool of water, which seems strangely out of place on Cybertron. On closer inspection, it seems that somehow an underground water source has formed a spring in the crater.

B) The center of the city.
If you follow where your feet seem to want to carry you, you'll find yourself in the middle of the ruined city. It seems that the center of the city was once home to a massive forum, and some of the pillars and structures still stand. At the very center of the forum is a massive, elaborately constructed fountain, although it has now long since run dry of whatever used to fill it. One of the low, inner walls of the forum has a terminal embedded in its surface, although it looks curiously ancient, out of place with the rest of the city, and unlike the rest of the technology still left around, there doesn't seem to be any way to power it on or operate it. There are a few scattered pools of water and a few of the strange metallic plants in the city, too, but they're not quite as plentiful as in the crater.

The planet was obviously once home to a massive network of communication relays, but those have all been long since destroyed. However, with the bits and pieces left behind and a few determined minds, it wouldn't be too hard to build a working, if rudimentary, one...

Comments

[awwblammo]

Quiet introspection and progressive investigation is for suckers, apparently, because it becomes immediately apparent that this Autobot is, well...on the warpath. Immediately. Mostly do to the cannon fire that suddenly starts hailing around Megatron with seemingly no provocation.

The only key piece of evidence left in the immediate area are distant cries of "YAHOO!" and "KABLOOIE!"

[towardspeace]

Megatron raises an arm in defence, casting around for some sign of the perpetrator – some trigger-happy Autobot who hasn't got the memo, he assumes... or some bitter Decepticon who has.

He grits his teeth. He has no time for this.

"Stand down, you fool!" he barks in the vague direction of the cannonfire and the yelling – he's hoping for some kind of response, since going by the yelling whoever this is isn't prioritising stealth.

[awwblammo]

Warpath's aim is good enough that he can easily hit people from like a mile and a half away, so it's not difficult for him to take shots like this from the next rubble pile over. Maybe firing on someone because they basically look like Megatron, from a distance, isn't the best idea he's ever had.

But if calling him a fool was enough to make him stop, he would have quit being like this a long time ago.

He's rolling closer as he fires. Just because he can fire from a distance doesn't mean he wouldn't rather do it up close.

"WHAT'S THAT?" he shouts over the cannon fire. "I COULDN'T HEAR YA!"

[towardspeace]

An Autobot, he notes, without much relief, as Warpath gets close enough for Megatron to see him. He really doesn't want to get into a fight here – he isn't equipped for it, for one thing, with his strength depleted by fool's energon – so rather than pulling a gun on his assailant he jabs an angry finger at the badge on his chest and shouts, "I'm on your side, you idiot! Cease fire!"

[awwblammo]

Warpath does the tank equivalent of squinting, and actually hesitates briefly at that. He rolls to a stop, aiming his cannon carefully and peering at Megatron through his targeting lens. That's an Autobot symbol for sure.

"Now where in the hell did you get that?!" he yells back.

[towardspeace]

Megatron only allows himself to relax slightly when the gunfire desists. He scowls back at the tank.

"The same way you did, I'm sure. What's your designation, soldier?"

[awwblammo]

Warpath flips into root mode, still looking like he's ready to punch.

"That'd be Warpath to you! KAPOW!"

[towardspeace]

"Warpath," he repeats. The name isn't particularly familiar. "What's the last thing you remember before you found yourself in this city, Warpath?"