robothell | [ INTRO LOG ]

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[ INTRO LOG ]

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...

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The Autobot is denied any explanation as he keeps a firm hold, a little annoyed by the struggling but not otherwise dissuaded.

He takes a glance at the wrench - the surveying interface didnt make much sense, and he doesn't expect there'll be time for a closer inspection.

"What planet is this? Where are we?"

"Cybertron! I'd have told you if you'd just asked. The tackle was not necessary!" Tendency to needle Rodimus aside, Megatron had seemed like a good captain up until this. It did not inspire continued faith in his leadership abilities.

In fact, it was so uncharacteristic that... "Are you okay? Did you hit your head on something?" Despite being thoroughly pinned, Nautica still tried, with predictably limited success, to wiggle enough that she could see him instead of the ground and check for obvious head injuries that might be affecting his brain module.

With enough wiggling, Nautica will find her would-be Captain staring back with a grim scowl, bearing worn and beaten armor but no noticeable head injuries. She'll find her helm buried a little deeper into the ground for the trouble.

The Autobot's concern from him was a little baffling, but it wasn't enough to abate,"Be more specific. Which state - which city?"

"Hey!" She yelped in protest at the uptick in manhandling (mechandling?) "This is completely uncalled for, and why are you asking me, anyway? You're the one who's from Cybertron! You tell me!"

These were two people not having even remotely the same conversation.

"I doubt Sentinel Prime would overlook equipping his Autobot forces with something as basic as a GPS*."

This officer's lack of answers was beginning to get frustrating. Little of what they said had any actual informational value, and the struggle was making a lot of noise. He was beginning to think simply verbally demanding answers would be waste of time.

*galactic positioning system and totally not what you were thinking of

Edited 2014-12-20 22:44 (UTC)

"Who the heck is Sentinel Pri--" Wait. Chromia might tease her about the incessant reading, but it did mean that Nautica could place a four million year-dead name as (in)famous as that one in roughly its proper context.

"--Megatron, Sentinel's been dead for millions of years! I work for you." That was technically the situation on the Lost Light, despite the general hot mess-ness of that ship and its entire crew. "What happened to you? We need to find you a doctor."

For someone currently pinned by a mech twice her size, that sounded strangely like a demand.

The grip loosens as the determined leer morphs into something between surprise and slight confusion.

Nautica wasn't quite let go, but she wasn't being pushed into the dirt quite as enthusiastically.

"He's dead? What about the Senate?"

Small favors, jeez.

"Dead! Well, mostly. There are a few survivors--like Crosscut, he's on the crew, too--but the Decepticons killed almost the entire Senate when they took Kaon, right at the beginning of the War."

Nautica disapproved of mass slaughter generally, but it really did sound like the Senate had had it coming. Granted, Megatron sounded like he had it coming as well, but he'd been perfectly fine as a crewmate. Up until now, anyway. Philosophical questions of the bias of the historical narrative aside, she really wanted to know what was going on here. And to not be losing a wrestling match anymore.

The weight finally alleviates, cautiously. He doesn't quite entirely trust this Autobot yet, and he was ready to spring forward again if they tried anything, but he is willing to hear them out.

"The last time I was conscious, 'Decepticon' was only a word that was used in secret. There was nothing resembling an actual war."

Not yet, anyway.

Nautica had been known to threaten people with the wrench, but really, that was more cute than anything else. If she were to get violent, she might succeed in scratching some of his plating before getting her wrench arm torn off.

"Oof." She immediately rolled over, propping herself up on her elbows, and got her first good look at Megatron, at which point her eyes went wide--not in fear, but in dawning comprehension. No badge from either faction, caution tape, scratched and dented finish that had seen far better days... "Oh. Oh."

Nightbeat might be the deductive genius in their partnership of socially awkward dorks, but Nautica could reason her way out of a logistical bind, too. "I think we're having some temporal issues."

No kidding.

And here he was be hoping that a little forceful interrogating would have made more sense of this situation. A location and a place to go - as well as an assessment of the enemy. Instead, it's just gotten even more confusing.

"Then this place is..."

The future. He couldn't quite bring himself to say it.

"The future? Weirder than that, I think. I'm from your future--I'm your chief engineer--" she punctuated that with a wave; hi Captain! "--and this doesn't look like the Cybertron I saw last, either."

It looked at lot better, to be honest. So far he was the only thing on this Cybertron that had thought about killing her.

He's slowly beginning to get a little more comfortable with believing her, if only because she seems just as confused about this situation as he was.

His first impulse was to consider asking how he ended up with Autobots under his command(?) at all, but four million years was a long time. The answer to that was likely long and varied, and would be unlikely to get them any closer to figuring out where they were.

"...You have a scanning device - didn't that give you any answers?"

"Sure, but I don't know if I'm asking the right questions." Nautica shrugged. "No radio traffic, no energy signatures except right here, no quantum anomalies, no life signs--wait."

She snatched for her wrench, pointed it at Megatron, and it immediately beeped. "Correction, two life signs. Let me expand the scanning radius to cover the city and we'll see if anyone else has popped in while we were talking."

Yes, Nautica. Talking. That's exactly what you were doing, and why your face is now covered in glittering metallic Cybertronian dirt.

There's actually a bit of an apologetic look back as she points the wrench at him. He had his reasons for what he did, but if what she said was true, it was certainly awkward to be pinned into the ground by the person who'd become your Commander.

At the suggestion though, he feels a little unsettled at the thought of sitting there in the open and waiting for her device to do... whatever it does. He rises to his full height.

"You should run scans from the city," he gestures a thumb to the distant buildings,"It's more likely people are going to explore the ruins than stay here."

And there's more cover for him should any hostile surprises decide to spring out of this weirdness.

Her wrench did everything. Nautica scrambled to her feet after him, briefcase in one hand and beloved wrench in the other.

"Sure, might as well. There could be records, too." If that turned out to be the case, Megatron was going to need that enormous strength advantage to drag her out of the library.

"Oh! I'm Nautica. Nice to meet you." She meant it. Obviously there had been a misunderstanding, but that was all cleared up now. No hard feelings.

Amazing what not fighting a four million year war did for someone's personality.

Or not living on a Senate-controlled Cybertron, because the fact that she got over it so quickly was still a little odd.

He'd reply with his own name if she didn't make it clear enough that she'd already known him at some point anyway. So instead, she gets more questions:

"The Senate and Sentinel must have been guarded with a formidable force. What happened in the battle?"

Given that it was Nautica, it was possible Caminus was just as bad in its own way and she'd simply failed to notice.

"Well, mind you, I wasn't there for any of it, but my understanding is the Decepticons infiltrated the Senate on a ruse and took them by surprise, then later you personally killed Sentinel." And built a throne out of his body, not that she knew that part. Hardcore, dude.

It wasn't particularly satisfying to hear the Senate being talked about like it was ancient history, but he's thankful to know their due date for a well-deserved overthrowing wasn't too far off.

"Earlier - you'd said you weren't from Cybertron."

Their planet was a lot of things, including insular as hell. And he's not entirely sure how she'd managed to be born off-world, but it's definitely something picking his brain.

"Are there colonies, then? We've spread to other planets after the Senate was taken down."

"Oh, no, not like that." She shook her head, emphatically denying the misconception. "I'm from Caminus. It was colonized by a Metrotitan millions of years ago, long before there was a Senate or anything. We fell out of touch with Cybertron after Caminus became too weak to use his space bridge, and just recently made contact again." Nautica was worried about her homeworld and the crippled Titan who formed its heart, but Windblade would find a way to take care of things, she was sure.

"We arrived on Cybertron after hostilities had ended." Well, official hostilities. Everyone was still pretty hostile. "Everything I know about the War is from reading history books."

O-kay. That was something he was definitely not expecting. But compared to his arrival to this place, it seemed downright normal by comparison.

"You're rather fortunate to only experience something like that from a book."

He had no presumptions that an overthrowing of a government as deeply ingrained and corrupted as the Senate wouldn't have some ugly violence in it - needless to say of what happened before.

He was glad for her, in a way. Perhaps even a little envious.

"We should pick a place to meet again in case we need to split up."

Nautica may have her wrench, but he was devoid of any sophisticated communication tech.

"I--yeah." No point in denying it just to be nice. Megatron of all people didn't need to be reassured about his society. "We have our problems back home, but I'm not sorry we missed out on yours."

Anyway. Nautica straightened up. They had practical matters to worry about.

"It should be somewhere in the city, I guess, but I haven't explored any of it yet. You don't have on-board?" She tapped the base of the antenna on the right side of her helm to indicate her built-in radio. Prior planning wasn't as important if you could just pick up the phone, and it wasn't like they were going to have their comms tapped and need to be hiding from the police. Optimus was Prime now, and he was pretty relaxed about Megatron, she'd noticed.

There's an uncertain pause from him at the question. Even for manual class, not being equipped with at least a basic radio would be considered wholly under equipped. Yet -

"It's limited. And hasn't seen maintenance in a long time. I'm not sure how reliable any connection would be."

Keeping a contingency in case whatever failing device had finally sputtered out was something of a habit.

Nautica hadn't wanted for maintenance a day in her life, and as awful as she knew, intellectually, that the Senate and its enforcers had been, it hadn't occurred to her that the pre-War rulers would let an entire class of people go to scrap simply because of their alt modes. Granted, Megatron was one of the most troublesome members of his class and they'd probably stuck him in a hole somewhere and hoped a tunnel would collapse on him, but still. Lousy way to run a government, if you asked her.

"Oh." Though she was taken aback for a second, Nautica shifted mental gears readily enough. It wasn't Megatron's fault his society withheld basic medical care, after all. "Well, if gain's a problem on your end, I can pump out a lot of power--radio attenuates fast underwater--but we can still pick out a meeting place as a backup."

She was thinking a park bench, or maybe something near a nice conspicuous landmark. When Megatron tried to pick a drainage pipe or something they were going to have to do some negotiating.

Edited 2014-12-25 08:35 (UTC)

Fortunately, Megatron only likes to lurk around in drainage pipes when necessary. The city seemed utterly devoid of life save for them, so finding an empty building was sufficiently cautious for him.

As they get closer to the city, he attempts to run power to his own internal comm unit. It's been a while since he's used it (external ones were much easier to come by), but it managed to sputter to life and begin to feed back diagnostic results.

He stops though, at a rather familiar looking, if decrepit oil house. Looks like this Cybertron and theirs had similar tastes in energon brews. A hand reaches to stop Nautica from continuing onward so she can take a look.

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