[BW] Cybertron: Prelude to Madness

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Heinrad
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Cybertron: Prelude to Madness

Post by Heinrad »

The time: 300 years after the end of the Last Great War

The Place: Cybertron, the Maximal High Council Chambers,
Plenipotentiary Session, One Megacycle following the
disappearance of the Axalon


The Maximal Elders looked at each other, their shadowed, ancient faces barely visible, the only light coming from their blue optics, all of them staring at the tall, proud.... and altogether odd looking Maximal standing in the spotlight.

One of them inclined his head, as if amused, and asked, "Why have you made those modifications to your exostructure?"

The tall figure shrugged, light glinting off of the gold plating on the tail hanging from his left shoulder and the massive, squared off lion's head on his right, mouth open in a permanent snarl. "There is an axiom that states 'To know the enemy, become the enemy', sir."

Another elder spoke up. "It's a sound theory, LioConvoy. But that's all it is. A theory."

LioConvoy shrugged. "Perhaps so, ma'am. But it has proved effective ever since I was appointed to this position."

The first voice spoke again. "And yet you didn't forsee Megatron's theft of the Golden Disks."

LioConvoy's optics narrowed. "None of us are Primus, sir."

The first voice chuckled. "Very true, very true." He shuffled some disks, finally finding the one he was looking for. "Here", he said, tossing it to the Maximal Covert Security director. "Your new assignment. Just be careful. This guy's nuttier than Galvatron."

LioConvoy cocked an eyebrow. "I didn't think that was possible, sir."

The Maximal elder shrugged, light briefly gleaming off of the tips of the chrome pipes on his forearm. "I didn't think Galvatron was possible. These things happen."
As a professional tanuki (I'm a Japanese mythological animal, and a good luck charm), I have an alarm clock built into me somewhere. I also look like a stuffed animal. And you thought your life was tough......

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Warcry
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Post by Warcry »

(OOC: If anyone's interested in joining in, drop a line to Heinrad or myself and we'll work something out. :))

He sat in the gallery, hidden in the darkest shadows, arms crossed.

There really was no need for the precautions. He was one of perhaps a dozen Maximals with security clearance high enough to sit in on what was, ostensibly, a sealed council session. Out of that auspicious group, he was the only one curious enough (or perhaps paranoid enough) to attend this particular sitting. Still, as the humans said, old habits die hard.

He was young, as far as his species went. And yet, at the same time, he was remarkably old. Professed athiest that he was, he struggled with the idea constantly, but it was true all the same. He'd never spoken to anyone about it, but a small handful had sensed something...off about him. Certainly the Keeper who'd overseen his emergence as a protoform had known. The name he'd chosen for the freshly-spawned Maximal illustrated that, if nothing else. He'd resented it at first, but as he'd grown older he'd come to accept that, yes, he was eerily similar to his renowned namesake. Eventually he'd embraced it, even going so far as to choose a vehicle mode similar to the 'original' him. After all, in his line of work it sometimes paid to be able to pass as a legend. Whether he actually was or not...well, if he was honest to himself the Maximal wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to that question. In the end, it didn't matter if he was that Prowl. He was the only one they had, and that would have to be good enough.

Once the council had given LioConvoy his orders, he rose from his seat, quietly slid out of the observation gallery, and waited patiently just outside the council chamber's main exit. The Maximals' Covert Security director had made use of his services before, and given the assignment he'd just been handed, it was only logical that he might need them again.


OOC: My Prowl's based on the TM2 version of the character. For obvious reasons he doesn't look like a giant deformed owl just yet, so I've rather arbitrarily picked this Prowl design to use as a reference for his body while he's on Cybertron. Without the giant Autobot symbols, naturally. :)

And, yeah, Hein, I know I told you I wasn't going to use him, but I changed my mind. :D
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OOC: I see no sense in holding back - not quite his style...

Post by Brave Maximus »

Cybertron: Crystal City - Maximal Park area

It was a quiet time of the cycle - Dusk, as the humans would call it. Groups of Maximals, Predicons and even the occasional Autobot walked around the park, coming and going from the various buildings. Most were heading back to their quarters for rest and relaxation cycles and more than a few were enjoying a walk through the crystal park - something that had painstakingly been restored since the end of the Great War.

No one saw it coming, most didn't believe it when it happened. One of the mid-sized residential towers exploded. First the windows of one floor, about a third of the way up blew out, followed by a ring explosion that ripped through several towers near-by. Next a pillar of flame continued up, ripping through the floors before bursting through the top of the building in mock-effigy to a volcano.

The Cybertronians in the park stood, staring in dis-belief. It wasn't until the first pieces of rubble started to rain down, did the panic set in. The first chunck, the size of a fist, struck a young intern in the head, sending his neural circuitry out of alignment, rendering him unconcious. The femme to his side stared at the fluid running from the wound on his head and screamed. This started a chain reaction and soon Cybertronians were running every way for their lives.

The femme bent down to check on her friend, when a massive chunk of crystal fell mere inches from them. She looked up and terror crawled across her face. Her mouth opened to scream, but only a small clicking sound came out - fear had overloaded her neural circuitry.

"Predicons! Ravage the area - take out anything that moves! Lay low those who cower in a false peace and security!"

Magmatron stood ontop of the cleaved crystal spiral - a black knight out of legend.

A silver dragon scale shield and black dragon bone sword, with bits of crystal still falling from it's blade. He was adorned in ancient style armour of dragon scales and fur. His legs were black lions fur, claws still attached and the other set around his ribs. His upper body was silver dragon scales and metal armour while his head was adorned with an ancient battle helmet. Beside his face was the dorment head of the silver dragon, his chest mounted a robotic rams head while his right shoulder mounted the still snarling face of a red lion.

Before the terror could fully sink in, Magmatron lept over her head, sword at the ready, and she watched as he cleaved a bi-stander in two, from head to gullet. Without a moments hesitation, he drew the sword out from his victim and spun it around, severing another arm and leg from two more victims. If he laughed, or made any sound at all, perhaps it would have been less to his victims. But he uttered no sound - he was violence and death personified and it was grim work.

The femme laid her head on the chest of her friend, pretending to be dead or unconcious, and did the only thing she could:

She prayed.


(OOC: Ummmmm, so I need a predicon or two. I have an idea for this - so once you get the ok from the bosses, please send me a line :D)
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Post by Warcry »

Crystal City

High above the chaos, Dead End floated in his flying saucer mode. The grizzled Predacon soldier had never had much of a taste for the senseless murder that his new employer seemed to relish, so he'd been more than happy to volunteer for spotter duty on this mission. If nothing else, it meant he was probably going to be the first Predacon to engage the Maximal security forces when they came. And come they would, he was sure. He'd seen that fairly obvious flaw in the plan from day one, but couldn't be bothered to tell his teammates. If they'd known what they were getting into, most of them would have bolted, and Dead End wouldn't have gotten a chance to beat the hell out of a team of Maximal guards.

Activating his comlink, he hailed the troops on the ground. "No sign of response teams yet," he told them.
______________________________

Council Chambers, Iacon

As he waited, Prowl's communicator buzzed for attention. The Maximal quickly checked to make sure no one was looking in his direction, then pulled it out. There were two lines of text showing on the screen.

Terrorist attack in Crystal City. Magmatron sighted.

Media control protocols now in effect.


Prowl switched off the device, put it away, and crossed his arms again.

That will change the game significantly, he thought gravely.
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Crystal City

Post by Brave Maximus »

Blade spinning through the air, drops of mech-fluid flying off, Magmatron opened a secure Comm channel to Dead End:

"Of course there's no reseponse. The Maximal Security is lax, we have at least 4 clicks until we can expect the beginnings of a response. Remember the mission though - and that it is your job to keep their attention."
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Post by Heinrad »

Corridor, Outside Maximal Elders chamber:


LioConvoy strode out, the disc already in a reader, optics narrowed slightly. "What kind of a name is Magmatron, anyway?" He stopped, the glittering chromed steel of the lions head snarling at Prowl. "I take it our target's shown himself?"
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Post by Warcry »

Council Chambers, Iacon

Prowl nodded curtly as he fell into step beside LioConvoy. "I would say that mass murder qualifies as 'showing himself', yes."

He handed the larger Maximal a datapad full of early news and intelligence reports on the Crystal City incident (all of which was summarized in a single file at the top of the list, automatically collated by one of Prowl's intelligence-sifting algorithms).

"Security forces have cordoned off a ten-block radius around the attack, but I ordered them to hold back. Checkpoint was furious, but the Maximals under his command were trained as police, not soldiers. Magmatron's force would tear them to pieces and kill countless civilians in the process."
__________________________

Crystal City

"Naturally," Dead End told Magmatron. As he hovered in place, the Predacon flying saucer began to spin. The edges of his vehicle mode were serrated and sharp, turning him into nothing less than a flying saw blade. "They will pay as much attention as they can manage, what with me killing them as soon as they show up."
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Post by Heinrad »

Council Chambers, Iacon:


LioConvoy nodded. "Call in the troops. I'll go in first, see if I can draw their attention. I want snipers if you can find any. If nothing else, we can show any other Preds who feel like empire building are going to have to deal with." He looked at his hands, clenching them in anger. "Times like this I really hate the Pax Cybertronia.... it's hard getting good help." With that, he transformed, the tracked turbo ATV engines spooling up, treads digging in as he took off, waiting until he was outside to kick in the jet turbines, mechafangs bared as he roared towards Crystal City.
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Post by Warcry »

Council Chambers, Iacon

Prowl watched LioConvoy roar off, a bemused expression on his face.

Far too eager for battle, that one. He's going to get himself killed one day.

Activating his comlink, he sent out a coded transmission on a secret Maximal frequency.

"Prowl to all available Covert Security operatives. Assemble on my beacon and prepare for battle. A more detailed briefing will be given as we're enroute to the target. Prowl out."
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Crystal City, the devastated streets

Post by verytired »

CatSCAN bounded from rubble to wreckage, his own body armour dented and cracked beyond easy recognition: his sensore were scanning the area as fast as he could push them, looking for survivors.
CatSCAN had been on his way to report to his new medical corps leader when the attack had come: his unfamiliarity with the city seemed almost a blessing as the populace had panicked with Magmatrons attack. Whilst the civilians had tried to escape through the usual methods, he had been forced to evaluate the situation.
A noise to his right caught his attention, barely audible over the attack: he raced over to the pile of detritus twice his hieght:
"Hello? Sound off if your in there! I'm a medic, can you-"
Before he could finish the sentence, an Enegon line blew up nearby and sent the world white, and shaking the building shockingly.
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Crystal City

Post by Brave Maximus »

Were he any other Con, Magmatron would have smiled as chain explosions rocked around the city. His operatives had done their job well in placing the explosives - the City was in chaos and the meager city constabulary had been thrown into such dis-array that they offered no resistance.

But Magmatron was not a normal Con, the pleasure would only be allowed later - the mission was still on and soon, he hoped, the real resistance would come....
*************************

Maximal Concil Representation Building: Crystal City, Floor 37, hexagon 3.8 - Communication Records

Gore oozed off the beak of her right hand. Today she had earned her name once again, but the Maximal Security posted here had proved no match.

Killerpunch began syphoning through the tera-bytes of recorded information that the Maximals maintained. The attack had been precise, while security was knocked out - communications was left intact. a Cyber-diving Visor slid down over her face as she started her true mission.
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Fast Approaching Prowls beacon

Post by DBF »

Apelynq had transformed to his hover car mode and was tearing down the skyways of Crystal City to the rendevous point: his research into ways of tracking down Magmatron could prove obselete, and he had left the open lab in a state of disarray.
He carrened and slalomed around corners and debris, before he had to use his flight abilities to leave the shattered bridge altogether and take a more direct route to Prowl...
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Post by Heinrad »

Closing rapidly on Crystal City:


LioConvoy's turbines keened through the night as he linked to one of the orbiting satellites over Crystal City, seeing the carnage, tail lashing in displeasure. "I don't care what the elder said. Galvatron couldn't have been this bad." A plan already forming, he activated his commlink. "Prowl, I want a total datafeed blackout covering Crystal City. Nobody outside of the government knows about us, and I want to keep it that way. If you can, jam all incoming and outgoing transmissions as well."
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Post by Warcry »

Rendezvous point, outside Crystal City

Prowl clicked his comlink over to a scrambled frequency to reply to LioConvoy. "My agents in the city are already arranging it as we speak," he told the other Maximal. "Full-spectrum media blackouts are standard procedure whenever there's a terrorist incident like this. The last thing we want is for the population to find out what's actually going on before the government can set it to rights." There was a trace of irony in the strategist's voice, but only those who knew him very well would hear it. As happened all too often in this business, expedience won out over righteousness in this situation.

"If you can find Checkpoint or one of his security officers," he added, "they should be able to give you a sitrep when you get on-scene. I'm only reading one signal inbound to my position so far, so it might be a while before any backup gets to you."
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Crystal City

Post by verytired »

CatSCAN rubbed his optics as his vison returned: the flash of the igniting Energon feeds had temporarily blinded him. He had been blown out of the building he was in, but he had recived minimal damage.
He got up purposefully, and surveyed his drastically changing surrondings. There were sounds of battle to the East; his confused brain relied on his medical corps training, and transformed (to his minimally armoured ambulance mode) and drove at high speed toward ground zero: that was where there would be most likely the need for his skills.
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Post by Heinrad »

Rapidly approaching Magmatron's location, Crystal City:


LioConvoy sighed, registering the damage to the city as he sped forward. "Do what you can, Prowl. I'll try to keep the lunatic busy until the sniper teams get here." Deactivating his commlink, he hit a piece of debris, shooting up it like a ramp, flying through the air, transforming mid-flight, and landing in a crouch behind Magmatron, the bulky side panels on his forearms opening, his particle cannons locking into position on the sides of his arms. "This ends NOW!" Aiming at the center of the larger Predacon's back, he opened fire.
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Crystal City

Post by Brave Maximus »

Early warning was always a must for these operations and Magmatron had plenty of warning that this particlar Convoy was on his way. The fact that he heard Lio Convoy launch himself in the air and land, yet did not turn around - should have said quite a bit to the Maximal commander. What Magmatron did do (though not easily seen) was dig his foot talons and heels into the ground and braced his body.

When the two shots hit, they burned the outer layer of his armour and left two circular burns in the subsequent armour beneath. But, through sheer force of will and solid titanum bearnings, Magmatron didn't move, nor did a sound escape him, other than the sizzling of armour.

After a nano-click, Magmatron turned and looked at Lio Convoy in the face, smoke rising from his back, wafting around his hear armour:

"No, Maximal Lackey, it has only begun!"

With lightning reflexs and skill, Magmatron snapped the guard of his sword up at Lio Convoy's arm cannons, attempting to force them up and out of the way. At the same time, his left arm came forward, attempting to grab his opponent by the neck.
*********************************************

Comm Records

Killerpunch knew the Maximals were on to her, she could see their security systems snapping into place. But, she had the head start and was dancing around them, keeping just one step ahead. The problem was, she was forcing the neuro-net connection to stay open and she knew the maxies would be able to trace it. She didn't have the time to cover her tracks, nor did she think their lax security would leave this alone.

She opened a secured Sub-neural link to all the members of the assault team:

I've got a line on the Information we're after - but, it's going to take me 2 or 3 clicks to secure it. Keep those Maxies off my back until then!
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Post by Heinrad »

Crystal City:


LioConvoy backflipped away, blades flipping out from the undersides of his forearms and locking into position, and landed in a crouch. "Not if I have anything to say about it, you maniac." He opened fire again, aiming at Magmatron's face this time.

--------------

Halfshell, sitting off to the side in tank mode, activated his commlink. "Not like there's a lot of targets out here, Killerpunch. Which, I'd only complain about if I was gettin' paid by the body. Take yer time, it's Magmatron's money. And only one Maximal's shown up here."
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Brave Maximus
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Crystal City

Post by Brave Maximus »

Magmatron kicked to the right, and moved his head, allowing the blast to go between his shoulder and head armour. He pulled his shield from sub-space and attached it to his arm. As both feet hit the ground from, he kicked off and into the air.

"There is your problem, Maximal. For some reason, you think you have a say in the matter. Allow me to educate you: You don't!"

The mouth of his Goat head opened up and released a shower of razor sharp Ice crystals, each as hard and sharp as those of the famed city they were in.

**********************************

Comm Records

Only part of her mind was on the "real world", the rest was wandering through Cyberspace.

That's the problem with Maxies, Killerpunch responded via the previous comm. They're like rats, where there's one, there's thousands
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Post by Heinrad »

Crystal City:


LioConvoy turned, the mane of the robotic lion head on his shoulder seeming to flip open, then started to spin, forming a vortex of wind, blowing the shards back at Magmatron as two sections in the front of the mane popped open, twin particle cannons blazing at the enraged Predacon. "Pathetic. You should have been lobotomized years ago." He activated his internal nonvocal commlink. "Apelinq, this is LioConvoy. There's a Pred in the air. Swat it down, if you can." Then he switched frequencies. "Prowl, any sign of the sniper teams yet?"

----------------

Halfshell just continued watching, not really caring which of them won. As long as he got paid, that was all that mattered.
As a professional tanuki (I'm a Japanese mythological animal, and a good luck charm), I have an alarm clock built into me somewhere. I also look like a stuffed animal. And you thought your life was tough......

3DS Friend Code: 1092-1274-7642
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