The Diego Diaries: Face Off (dd6 596)
I got so sick so fast last night and now nothing. :} Here we go anyway. :D:D:D
=0=Out there
The shoot out was short with two battle shuttles there, their guns pointing at the mechs floating around without protection, the remnants of ships that pissed off Xantium. Most of the survivors had given up since there was no place to really go but to the Pit. A couple were grappling with Raptor and Blackjack just because. Nearby, homing in like a guided missile, Ironhide was flying to their aid.
It would only take a moment before all of them were dragged aboard the two ships which would then head out in the general direction of Xantium to continue to sweep up the debris from his rather epic tantrum.
=0=Springer and his boyz
They flew out of their ship into the darkness around them as the shuttle disintegrated from flying debris. Springer felt a thud on his back when he was flung out as all around him the others were catapulted, too. Drift was nearby spinning wildly, then he slowed under thruster power. Others were suffering the same thing because he could hear them cursing and calling out to each other over the encrypted line. The problem with himself was that he couldn't move a slagging limb.
Not even his digits.
He cursed as well.
=0=Picking up the bad boys/grrlz
Lissie leaned out of the hatch as she watched her boys bring members of Pulsar's crew into the ships that were gathered. Several small fighters had caught up with the shuttles and two had gone ahead to marker the trail of Xantium.
Battered and some injured were dragged from space, most of them giving up with sullen discontent. They weren't hesitant with saying what they felt and there were a few skirmishes as they were pulled inside. Steiner was nearby collecting them along with Whirl and his crew.
Traffic on the radios was scratchy but slightly better. Apparently, the titans and Seekers had found a way to boost the signal of sensors and by extension the comm channels. As they chatted together trying to figure out who was here, who was missing and what to do next, Ironhide and his crew landed on the doorstep of Steiner and Lissie.
Stepping up and back, Jack glanced at Steiner. "Where's Sun?"
"He's with Springer and we don't know where they are. From what we can decipher from Prime, they took a hit and we have to find him and the crew. Three shuttles down," Steiner replied grimly.
"Frag. Where's Hercy and the Helex?" Raptor said as he helped pull slaggers into the ship. They'd be magnetized to the hull and brought along rather than sent back by ship board bridge. The energy outside was too weird to try that option.
"Out there," Steiner said as he nodded to the soup outside. "Some of this nebula is dissipated over the eons but most of it is still dense and the particle storms out here keep it iridescent. As long as it is, we can only bounce signals or get distortion to the point where its almost useless."
Raptor glanced outside for a look-see, then turned back to Steiner. "Do we have any Seekers for couriers?"
"I'll check," Steiner said as he walked forward to the flight deck.
"We better get the others and get this organized. I can't imagine Prime is too happy at this moment," Raptor said.
=0=Prime on Salton Sea
Prime wasn't happy. He stared at the screen as it mapped, filling in more bits and pieces of the nebula. It wasn't much visited, a remnant of an old disruption without much to recommend it. Nebulae were to be avoided in space travel. You only really needed them when you wanted to hide or ambush someone. Free space was the way to go if you wanted to get from A to Z safely and swiftly.
Prowl walked toward him from tactical. "We have two battleships damaged with 2 cruisers and a battleship confirmed destroyed. The battleships have taken hits in the stern and are heading away with Xantium in pursuit. Pulsar's battleship is destroyed, confirmed. He's in custody in bad condition, placed in medical stasis when picked up. He was squeezed by Xantium it would appear," Prowl said dryly. "The cruisers were destroyed by Xantium as well, their crews thrown out like … 'confetti' its reported.
"Two of our battle shuttles, City of Praxus and Impactor's Revenge are destroyed. It would appear that Springer's crew is still missing. Hercy and Whirl are still operational and commanding as of this report, though Hercy is not precisely located yet. They function along with Steiner and Lissie. They have gathered to get the survivors, then track the rest with Xantium. Fighters are marker buoying the trail as they follow him."
Prime nodded. "What is the estimated number of Pulsar's fleet? When can we get him back here to interview? Is he in any condition to be awake and aware and what are safety measures we can take while he is?" He glanced at Ratchet who was leaning on the command chair at the moment listening to the sit-rep from Prowl.
"Given that he was squeezed by a Supreme mechanism, we can expect intensive and extensive damage. But given that he's a phase sixer, its reasonable to believe that his self repair mechanisms are putting that to rights even as we speak. Understand, we're good but his will be on steroids.
"I do believe we can interview him under two possible scenarios. One, we remove his limbs. He's rather neutralized without them. He can't grow what he hasn't got and if he can't move, he can't hurt anyone. The other way is to disrupt his neural net so he can speak and is aware but can't move beyond that. I've never done that with a phase sixer so I'm not sure you can do it. He might be protected against medical paralysis or stasis programming. I haven't had a chance to study the ones we have. I'd prefer to remove limbs."
"That sounds ghastly," Prowl said with a slightly squeamish expression.
"I agree," Prime said. "However, we cannot have a phase six mechanism running rampant. Do what you have to do, Ratchet. I would need information as soon as possible. Something tells me that he attracted a large battle group. We have to account for them one way or the other."
Ratchet nodded, then walked to the elevator to return to Phobos. As he disappeared, Prowl smirked slightly.
"What?" Prime asked as he turned back to the map.
Prowl walked closer to him, then went off line. :I know its nasty of me … but the idea of Pulsar being just a torso without limbs to make him what he is, a total fragger, makes me laugh just a little:
Prime grinned the smallest grin possible. :You are right. It is nasty of you. However …:
They grinned at each other as they waited for news that Pulsar was coming, that Devcon found the lost and that the size of the group and where it was could be accounted for and neutralized.
=0=Springer and Company
They flew toward a big section of someone's ship that was floating in a blob of ice crystals, dust and small rocky projectiles. Towing Springer, Drift made it there and pulled him onto the surface. :Magnetize, Springer: Drift said.
Springer who was feeling nothing activated his program but nothing happened. :Drift. I took a hard knock on the back. I can't move. I can't magnetize: he said with a gathering feeling of terror and doom.
Drift pulled him farther up, then roped Springer off hooking the lead around a bent piece of steel. The others, Sim the pilot, Shel and Boomer, both full time soldiers and their designated medic, Slate joined them. Sun couldn't be found in the chaos.
Slate crawled to Springer, then magnetized as they all did. :Springer, what's wrong?: he asked.
:I can't move my body: Springer said as Drift hovered over him with a terrorized expression.
Just as Slate subbed his kit to work on Springer, a ship bore down on them, then transformed. Floating through space, Devcon landed, magnetized, then hurried over to kneel beside Springer. :What's wrong with Springer?: he asked.
:He can't move: Drift said with ice cold fear flowing through his lines.
:Then let me get him out of here: Dev said as he stood. :I'm supposed to get everyone out that was shot up and find where everyone is:
:What about the rest of us?: Shel asked. :We don't know where Sun went. He floated off with his gun turret blazing:
Dev grinned at the image of that, then glanced around. :I'm going to marker you here with a beacon. The Seekers can find you and bring you in. Springer needs to go now. Right, Drift?:
Drift stared at him, then Springer. :Take him. We're right behind:
It took a moment to lift Springer, then fasten him in tow to the now transformed and sleek body of Devcon in ship mode. When he was secured, Dev poured on the gas and disappeared nearly immediately. Drift watched him go, then resolved himself.
Someone was going to pay.
=0=City of Helex
Hercy considered their predicament. He could feel sensors on his exoskeleton and deduced that the only mechanisms that could do that through all of this were metrotitans. Prime was seeking them out. What they would do in here was look for prey, their own side or leave. Given that they had no idea where they were the chances of accomplishing any one of those goals was 100%.
They motored along with guns online and sensors flung wide. That was how they noted a pair of battleships bearing down on them in the mess.
=0=Phobos
Ratchet got the word and thus found himself beside a gurney waiting on the hangar deck for the soldiers coming in. None of the first wave would be the enemy. These were theirs. One of them was Springer. It would be a tense wait before Dev arrived with Springer.
=0=Sun
He floated with his gun emplacement, the power pack still attached and the wiring repaired by he, himself, former electrical tech slash military hardware back in the bad old orns. Given that he was alone without conventional transport, he did what Immortals always did, took lemons and made lemon meringue pie. He sat on the seat with his gun ready to fire. The beauty of it was that there was enough weight in the section he was sitting in that he didn't spin in a spiral like a whirligig from the recoil.
As it was, he was pushed away from his target from the recoil like an octopus, spurting bullets to fuel bursts of speed. He literally pulsed through space. Around him, the cold glowed and there were frozen streams of liquids and parts of ships scattered in a wide field. At least, that would keep the slaggers from locating him. It would also keep the good guys from locating him.
He grinned slightly, amused by the situation and the stories that would be told about the time Ol' Sun rode off into the sunset on a big, big gun. He was pretty clear that in the commons room sitting with the punters shooting the shit, he would win the 'big gun' chat fest hands down.
Before he could do that, he considered, he would have to stave off the cruiser that was heading directly for him. With a steely optic and a slight grin on his face, Ironhide the Elder of Praxus, Immortal, General of the Army, brother of Hard Drive and Blackjack the Elder, all around sport, fragger and abba of peewees of all sizes began to lay down a steady stream of fire.
=0=Zee
He followed the two battleships, both of them wounded but not mortally. As he did, he noted a number of other ships that were nearby and mentally listed them.
Two or more battleships limping along ahead. Maybe as many as three more farther away.
A troop carrier with fighter capability.
Several battle shuttle sized fighter ships, number unknown at the moment.
Two or more cruisers, none of them injured.
Support ships, three of them he could detect, all heavily armed.
A fighter transport that had not launched anything yet.
He grinned.
Nine ships confirmed. Just enough for him. The rest of the armada would have to pick up the scraps when he was finished. With a maddened roar that only Primus could hear, Xantium Supreme turned on the gas and with his fist breaking trail ahead of the rest of him, he blasted off to punch a battleship in the ass.
Wreck 'n rule.
=0=TBC 2-18-19 2-19-19
Notes answered tomorrow :D:D:D