*The small green femme digs franticly through the debris piles, hoping to find any other survivors. Her pointed audios spring up as she registers a familiar voice. Looking up, Swift turns around to see Minerva pull herself to her stablizing servos, thankfully online.*
"Minerva! Your okay! Man you had us worried.."
*She says, walking over to the medic. She notices her chassis has suffered only minor injuries, such as scrapes and dents, but nothing life threatening. Looking behind her, she sees Cambreaker's attention is quickly caught as he too, makes his way towards Minerva. All three of them look over at Dinobot as he carefully uncovers Blackjack."
"Looks like we found him. Better see if he's alright. We can't afford to lose anymore comrades ..."
Cambreaker runs to Minerva, and helps her stabilize her gyros. When Swift notes that Dinobot has found something... Cam and Minerva make their way hurriedly toward the site. Cam calls over his shoulder to Sideways
Sideways! Bring a stretcher! Quick!
Cambreaker lets go of Minerva and begins tearing through the rubble that has caved on top of Blackjack. He and Dinobot make good progress unearthing him, but Cambreaker's worry shows in the fanaticism with which he digs, hurling huge chunks of the second story's floor off into the distance, coolants leaking and streaming down his face and body.
On my way. Rev, drop me a stretcher and manuever the Maus for an airlift!
Rev acknowledges and the Maus turns and flies off into the distance, stopping near Cambreaker and the rest of the Autobots. Setting the Maus to auto hover in place, he grabs a stretcher from the medbay and brings it to the airlock. He yells, telling Sideways to catch as he flings the stretcher out. Sideways activates his capture beam and grabs the stretcher, lowering it down to the ground carefully in front of him. He deactivates the beam and grabs the stretcher with one hand and makes his way to the rest of the team.
One stretcher, ready to go. We'll transport him to the 'spite. You're free to catch a ride if you like.
Blackjack was silent for a moment, pondering the words of the phantom Roulette. He was still unsure if his own spark was still functioning or not. He thought about Cambreaker, Double Clutch, and Minerva his old friends. About Arcee who had also strangely vanished during their last mission. And about his new comrades Rattrap, Dinobot, and the Autobot Crusaders. Were they all still functioning as well?
So what about the Autobots? If the Decepticons are finished then what has happened to the Autobots?
Your Autobot friends still function. But you are mistaken about the Decepticons.
What do ya mean? You just said that the Decepticon leadas were all gone, that means the Autobots are gonna have no trouble endin' the war. I bet Cambreaka has done it already.
FOOL! The Decepticon leaders you know may be gone. But there are other Decepticons. Something will occur very soon that will shake everything you have known. That is why you are still alive.
I don't undastand any of this. Are they gonna get a new leada? That's fine, we'll beat 'em just like we always have.
For now nothing can be forseen. Just know that something is on the horizon, Blackjack. I will return you now to your Autobot friends. But you must remember what we have discussed.
The blue light shimmered harder. Blackjack took a step towards the being and tried to cry out, but his words were lost in the light.
Cambreaker watches despondently as his stasis-locked friend is loaded into the Maus on the stretcher by Rev and Sideways. Ripwing's anger, Minerva's hope, and Swift's encouragement are lost on his audioreceptors.
Unforgivable.
The word spills from his mouth the instant it crosses through his positronic brain. Sideways and Rev urge Minerva aboard, assisting her own injuries be tended to before she initiates any kind of repairs on Blackjack. Fetch sets to work extracting pieces of the Decepticon commander from the wreckage, and Ripwing collects them for inspection in Sideways' lab. Swift hangs around shyly, waiting for Cambreaker to leave his fugue. Eventually, he solemnly orders Crusaders to his office.
I want to debrief you all on your reported engagement with the Decepticons, and why you've returned to me lacking Starblast and his partner.
Swift, please go to Minerva, see to her repairs, and help her with Blackjack, if you can.
Cambreaker transforms and drops clutch, this "victory" and the disappearance or destruction of two of the top Decepticons feeling hollow. <Hang in there, Blackjack. Hang as tight as you can.>
With the assistance of Sideways and Rev, Minerva gets aboard the ship with the heavily damaged Blackjack.
She glances worriedly back to Cambreaker, having noticed some of his injuries as well. By a stroke of luck, Swift didn’t seem to have taken much damage at all, but she would still like to see both her and Cambreaker in a medbay as soon as possible.
Minerva is reluctant to tend to her own injuries first, as they are nothing compared to Blackjacks, but watching Sideways and Rev bring him in to the small medbay she knows that he’ll be in good hands.
Sitting down, Minerva tries to focus on the repairs, but is momentarily distracted by thoughts of the earlier events: How could this have happened? How could Galvatron have gotten into Iacon so easily? There were too many questions and she didn’t have time to dwell on them right now. She sighs heavily and tries to clear her mind before continuing to patch herself up, while giving Rev suggestions on how to best tend to Blackjack.
She was concerned, but determined that there would not be anymore lost sparks today.
As Cambreaker tells Swift to join them on the ship, she climbs aboard and they leave, heading for the Ætherspite.
(OOC): I will be offline for a little while to remodel my home. Its gonna take some time so im sending myself on a recon mission.
Just as the bots jump into the shuttle Dinobot speaks up.Cambreaker, im going to take my fighter and do another scouting mission, while you're gone. If I find anything of importance, I will contact you.Looking over at Blackjack,I hope you guys can fix him. Im tired of losing comrades.As he says this, Dinobot turns and heads to the shuttle near the base of Iacon's communication spire.
*As Swift climbs aboard the 'Spite, she takes one final look at Cambreaker. Her spark sinks at the sight of the large bot suffering miserably from the extensive damage he sustained. She looks back one last time before following Minerva closely. Not having being used to this much damage and action back in her own universe really spooked the small bot. Looking up at the exausted and tired Minerva, Swift looks over at the black mech lying on the stretcher.*
Sideways enters the room and looks at the 'bots assembled.
How's he doing? Let's get him unloaded and moved.
Sideways leaves the room and moves to his personal quarters aboard the Maus. He seals the door and moves to a desk with a computer on it.
I wonder where it is... I've been sensing it's presence ever since I returned to Cybertron.
Sideways turns on the system and loads a datafile for a body that is very familiar to him, it is the body he chose while on earth working for Unicron. Memories flood his senses as he relives the past and the horrible deeds he had done under Unicron's control.
I promised myself I'd never look for it, that I would never be subjected to the horrors that I had committed.... But yet, something that I cannot explain pulls me to go explore cybertron. I cannot do it... I cannot betray the Autobots, the ones who have taken me in and given me a home and a second chance.
Minerva looks up as Swift enters the small medbay. Just by looking at her, Minerva can tell that she's quite shaken by the situation. But on the other hand, who wouldn't be?
Putting a hand on Swift's shoulder, Minerva speks calmy to the smaller 'bot. Don't worry, Swift. The explosion caused a lot of damage, but he'll live. He's made of sterner stuff than you might think.
She points at the medical equipment now hooked up to Blackjack, making sure he was getting the support his injured body needed at the moment. That is going to keep him stable until we chan get him to the Ætherspite's medbay.
Sideways enters the medbay and gets the same information, before exiting shortly thereafter.
*Swift just nods back at the femmebot medic, glancing down at the brutally damaged Autobot. She shakes her head at the sight.*
"How far are we from the 'Spite?"
*Swift asks again, her words pouring out of her vocal processors so fast it's barely audible.*
"Gah! Sorry, I tend to talk alot faster when I'm kinda stressed, therefor, you can't hear a wordI'msayinganditcomesouttotaljibberishforwhichIappologizeandhowfardidyousay..."
*Swift continues to yabber on as Sideways facepalms and Minerva sighs.*
Sideways turns off his console and exits the room, making his way to the cockpit. He plops himself down in the pilot's seat and straps in. Taking the microphone for the communications system, he advises that everybody strap in. Having said that, he turns off the autopilot system and raises altitude and gets a fix on the 'Spite. He pushes the throttle lever to 70% and the Maus rockets away from Iacon.
As the light fades there is nothing but darkness. Then voices, flashbacks of times and places. A life well lived. His friends: Cambreaker, Minerva, Arcee, Roulette. The war. Then nothing.
Then the laughter. The maniacal, haunting laughter.
Muhahahaha!
He had betrayed them. He had led a Decepticon leader into the heart of Iacon. It was his fault. Whatever had happened was his own doing. He had trusted that madman and now they might all be dead.
There was a faint light. Suddenly he could see the metal walls. Straight ahead of him was all, he found that his head could not move and one of his optics was damaged. But the room seemed to be a medical bay.
As he looked about the ruined fortress, a sudden, audial receptor splitting roar filled the air around him. He suddenly jerked his head in the direction the sound came from.
Survivors.....at least I think so. Whoever they are I need to contact them and find out what's happened here and if I can help at all.
He transformed into alt mode and sped off after them, following the vapor trail the shuttle left into the upper reaches of the atmosphere.
He catches up with the ship. The holographic representation of himself standing in the bridge. The holograph looks through the window to the cockpit of the other ship, where he sees two unknown robots standing at the window, staring at him.
Let's hope I can still do this...
The holograph shudders for an instant, then disappears. Moments later, the image reappears in the bridge of the other ship behind the two Transformers. The image is strained from being projected so far from the source, and the voice emanating from it is also weak, fading in and out at parts as the holograph begins to speak.
Hello......I am The Last Autobot, The Soul of Cybertron, and, to some, The Ultimate Warrior.
..."
