[Original RPG] Collapse: Descend the Shades of Night (Stanix)

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zigzagger
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Collapse: Descend the Shades of Night (Stanix)

Post by zigzagger »

Stanix – a city-state once conquered by the Decepticons has long since been abandoned, leaving behind the virtually inhabitable toxic landscape known as the Acid Wastes. Inheriting this dark legacy are the remaining neutralists, mutated and disfigured due to years of exposure to the territory’s noxious environments, struggling to survive in small settlements in the ruins of Yuss and in the abandoned Decepticon base Fort Scyk. With little to no infrastructure and no figureheads to guide the forsaken mechanoids, the state of affairs in Stanix is bleak with little hope in sight. However, a thought to be lost Cybertronian has arisen to reorganize the desperate people.
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Prologue

Post by zigzagger »

"....And if I take you with me, so much the better!”

And then there was darkness. I became nothing more than a phantom, lost and without purpose. A half-life. And my thoughts and all the little pieces that compose me….

“I know you would welcome death, welcome the relief from these ghosts that haunt your waking nightmares.”

They too disappeared into the darkness. For once in my entire, wretched existence…

So I intend to make your death’s slow and painful…and very long coming.”

I felt…bliss?


"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

But when my thralls dragged me screaming back into reality, though my thoughts resumed, the pieces were now realigned. I had gained more. It was the abandoned shell they found – my, what a marvelous thing. I’ve only begun to unlock its many secrets.

We share the same diseased mind.
It understands me. It welcomes me.


"Welcome to hell.”
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Post by 13thScorpio »

Shuttle

"Okay,you got me there."Growl replied to Skullcruncher."Not so good leader,but good in a fight.How in the frak does that help Gig's?Anyone ever tried to stir up the Empties or the religous types?Make them stupid fighting mad,and you gotta hell of an ally.'Cept maybe the Empties,thier not so good on the fighting part,but they'd make great cannon fodder.And besides,isn't Stanix an undead place?Sending troops into the city of the walking dead.....wanna put a sign on my back that says 'free food'?"He growled,holding his shotgun just a slight bit closer to him.Frightened barely began to describe how he felt.
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Post by Warcry »

Shuttle

Cyclonus kept a tight grip on the ship's controls as they passed over the Rad Zone, an area almost as dangerous as the Acid Wastes they were headed toward. The shuttle's sensors slowly filled with static as the ambient radiation started to overwhelm them, leaving the Decepticon to fly by sight and by instinct.

It will only get worse when we get where we're going, he told himself.

"It won't come to that," he told Flywheels. "We're not here to deal with whatever monsters may infest Stanix. All we are here for is the Decepticon Matrix. If the living dead or hideous mutants want to make Stanix their home, they're welcome to it."
__________________________________________________________

"Not so much dead as mutants, from what I hear," Skullcruncher shrugged. "But the rumours are a little jumbled." He shrugged. "Don't worry, boy. If it looks like they're gonna kill us, I'll eat you first so they don't get the chance."

He shot Growl a smile that was meant to be reassuring, but would probably come off as unsettling after what he'd just said. His mouth full of serrated, sharp teeth probably didn't help, either.
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Post by optimusskids »

Shuttle

Flywheels chuckled darkly

"If it comes to that Skully I reckon i can move faster than you can or Growl either."

Venom moved reptilianly

"I think even mutants or undead will not resist my stinger."
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Post by 13thScorpio »

Shuttle

"Next time then,I won't bring up the subject of food."Growl replied to Skullcruncher,his tone less then confident.He then turned his head to Venom and Flywheels. "I don't have poison,and I may not move that fast,"He grinned widely,"But I am at least damn sure I have firepower.Lots,and lots of it."
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Post by Warcry »

Shuttle

Skullcruncher laughed coldly at Growl and Flywheels' reaction to the idea of being eaten.

"Just make sure you aim all that firepower in the right direction, boy, and you'll do just fine," the Headmaster told Growl.

He shot Flywheels a grin. "Well, half of you can, anyway."
__________________________________

Cyclonus guided the ship into Stanix airspace and did his best to ignore the mindless banter coming from the passenger compartment.
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Post by optimusskids »

Shuttle

"Trust me if we're being chased both parts of me will find a way of staying ahead of the ravening hordes. You never know if they are mech eating mutants they might even make you king or smething Skully."
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Post by Warcry »

Shuttle

Skullcruncher shrugged. "Maybe, Flywheels, but I'm not keen to find out."

In the cockpit, Cyclonus took a tighter grip on the controls as they entered Stanix airspace. Storms started to toss them around, turning the previously-smooth flight into an amusement park ride. To make matters worse, the storm interfered with the shuttle's sensors and the sulphuric-yellow acid rain made it almost impossible to see more than an shuttle-length in front of the vehicle.

"Brace yourselves," the Unicron-spawned Decepticon told his crew.
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Post by 13thScorpio »

Shuttle

"Bracing sir."Stir Crazy.Growl told Cyclonus and held on as the shuttle went down.He didn't mutter any prayers,or yell,or anything else.He went out of his mind. When they landed,he wouldn't remember much of the trip.
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Post by Warcry »

Shuttle

As the winds started to throw the shuttle around even more, Cyclonus almost lost his grip on the controls. Realizing that he wasn't going to be able to keep her in the air until they reached their target, he started looking around for a nice, smooth section of ground to settle the ship down on.

There wasn't one. Everywhere he looked, the wilds of Stanix were covered with ruins, jagged plinths of rock and shallow pools of acid. Aiming for one of the latter, he vaguely wondered, Does this ship have a topside hatch?.

Then the shuttle hit the ground, and all thought left him.
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Post by optimusskids »

Shuttle

Venom transformed and gripped hard on to a surface with all his legs.

Flywheels safety belt jerked him to a stop then broke. He hit the back of the seat in front and split on half his tank half crumpling to the floor while his top half plunged forward through the windscreen in a shower of glass.
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Post by Warcry »

Shuttle

Skullcruncher picked himself off the ground, then comically patted around for a few seconds until he found his head and set it back on his shoulders.

"Grax, you moron," he muttered, "learn to hold on!"
__________________________________________

- ? -

Cyclonus was floating in the dark. All around him was emptiness, a vacuum so featureless and bleak that it really couldn't be described as space, because space only existed in relation to the things that filled it. And Cyclonus...Cyclonus had been here before. He knew that he wasn't alone.

"I'm waiting..." he thought curtly.

"Good for you, Cyc," Scourge's voice echoed through the void. "That's just great. The Cyclonus I knew, though, had a bit more patience."

"Has it ever occurred to you that I've changed over the last few years?"

"Not really," Scourge told him. The other Decepticon seemed to materialize out of thin air in front of Cyclonus, a few paces away. "But then, no one wanted to believe that I had changed, either." As he spoke, his body morphed from the light blue figure that Cyclonus was familiar with into a graceful crimson form that only superficially resembled his previous incarnation. The new Scourge shrugged. "But then, who am I to say? I'm not there anymore, remember?"

"Just because you're dead doesn't mean you can't be helpful," Cyclonus almost snapped. "Or am I going to be visited by annoying revenants every time I take a nap, now?"

"You really need to learn how to relax, Cyc. Has anyone ever told you that?" Scourge morphed back into his original form, then shrugged again. "But if you must be so rude about it, yes, I have something to say." His expression turned serious. "You have no idea what you're walking into in Stanix, my old friend. You will find nightmarish things here. This place will haunt you for the rest of your life. I won't be able to help you when the time comes, but I might be able to make it a bit easier for you to make the choice."

"What are you going on about?" Cyclonus asked his ex-partner's ghost. "Speak in plain language!"

"You can't trust anyone you meet here or anything you see," Scourge told him. "Nothing is as it seems."

"Is it ever?" Cyclonus asked. "Specifics would be nice."

"They aren't mine to give," Scourge said, his physical form quickly fading from sight. "When it happens, you'll know. Trust your brain, not your emotions, or you will lead your troops to ruin."

Cyclonus was about to ask him one more time for details, but the world started to grow light around him, and he knew their time was done.

"Good luck," Scourge's faint, disembodied voice called to him from the ether.

__________________________________________

Shuttle

Cyclonus groaned, then slowly started to feel sensation return to his body. The first thing he felt, when he was able to tell one feeling from another, was the distinct sharpness of broken glass.

Someone's hurt, he thought as he struggled toward full consciousness.
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Post by zigzagger »

Fort Scyk

(OOC: Muh ha ha ha ha ha!)

It didn’t take long for me to take up residence in Fort Scyk. It helps to have mindless sycophants willing to obey your every whim. Pathetic wretches, so desperate for someone to guide them.

-----------

Naturally, there are the occasional malcontents. Rebels fearful of change - 'tyrant' they’d call me. Aside from serving as examples to the masses or inquisitional purposes, they also provide me with endless entertainment. They become canvases, a means to express my artistry.


-----------

Earlier this cycle, my thralls brought in a band of mutineers, shackled and all lined up neatly. I prefer to use arcane instruments to serve as my brushes and paints. I prefer not to be desensitized to my work. Today I have plenty of materials to select from, so I am easily inspired. I hang one from a strappado, with weights attached to my subject’s boots. This one was not talkative…I prefer that. The subject’s body however revealed to me its secrets once I flayed away the metal plating corroded by the harsh environments, yanked away the foul circuitry and fuel lines one by one, and left the subject to be “blooded”. During the purification, I allow myself to be showered in the tainted neon-hued fluids and oils, bathing and drinking in it. I like to become one with my art.

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

Suddenly, I feel myself slip. As if my body had attempted reject me during my moment. Curiosity gets the best of me, and I allow it to happen for a moment to learn more, but I stop in fear of losing my spark in the process. I am allowed to control my destiny for one more solar cycle.
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Post by 13thScorpio »

Shuttle

When the shuttle 'landed',Growl was slammed foward and tossed around.He got back up,and gave a hiss. "Next time,whoever is flying this thing,knock me out first.Primus!"He took a glimpse of his surroundings,shaking his head. "Now,where are we?And why?"He asked Skullcruncher.
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Post by Warcry »

Shuttle

Cyclonus slowly pushed himself to his feet and looked up to see that, indeed, someone had gone through the ship's windscreen.

I hope they managed to land clear of the other side of the acid puddle, he thought.

Ducking his head back into the passenger compartment, he saw half of Flywheels and quickly put two and two together.

"Growl, Skullcruncher, grab him," he told two of his subordinates. "Everyone activate your protective fields, then follow me. We're going outside."

The powerful Decepticon turned his back and stalked back into the cockpit, then finished smashing out the pane of glass that Flywheels' upper part had gone through. That done, he ducked outside into the torrent of acid rain that was falling, trusting his environmental protection field to guard him from its damaging effects. Then he waited out on the nose of the shuttle for the rest of his crew.
______________________________________

Skullcruncher shrugged at Growl. "By the looks of it, we're in the middle of an acid swamp somewhere in north Stanix," he told the younger Decepticon. Following Cyclonus' instructions, he grabbed one end of Flywheels' tank and waited for Growl to get the other. "As for the why, don't ask me. I'm just muscle. Cyc thinks Galvatron died here, though."
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Post by optimusskids »

Outside

Flywheels groaned opening one optic. He flicked on his personal protection field then sank back down.
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Post by Warcry »

Shuttle

Skullcruncher dragged Flywheels' lower half into the cockpit and out onto the ship's nose without waiting for Growl, then grunted to Cyclonus, "What now?"

"Can you swim through this?" Cyclonus asked him, nodding down toward the acid.

"Yeah, sure," Skullcruncher said. "Why?"

"Transform," Cyclonus ordered him, "and ferry this half of Flywheels to the rest of him."

"Sure thing," The Headmaster said. He transformed to alligator mode and let the Targetmaster settle the half-Duocon onto his back. Then he jumped out into the acidic water and started to paddle toward the shore.

After he was gone, Cyclonus transformed and rocketed up into the sky, looping around to get as good an idea of the lay of the land as he could, considering the nasty storm conditions.
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Post by 13thScorpio »

Outside

Growl,growled as he activated his shield and walked out into the messy storm.A swamp,his aft end.This was a damn jungle.Not exactly great fighting conditions.Even worse,since his alt-mode was a land vehicle.He really needed to get a couple changes of tires for situations like this.Balloon tires or something of the like.He squelched onward,following after Skullcruncher and the tank half of Flywheels.Cyclonus was already gone,and it was just as well.

He was on a quest,of all things,to raise Galvatron from the dead,he remembered.He'd turn both crazies into nothing more then slag just on general princapals.He was begining to regret leaving the other two.And to top it off,he still had not gotten paid.Nor blown up the ship.But a shot at Galvy,well worth it.He found himself sinking in a hole that likely went over his head,and sank the rest of the way. He turned on his heat vision,and followed,grumbling the entire way as he moved so damn slowly.This was the last time he joined a faction without getting paid ahead of time.Lucky Bombshock,Dropshot and even luckier Tracer.He cursed them too.
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Post by Warcry »

Outside

Skullcruncher paddled up on shore, then rolled his shoulders, dropping Flywheels' lower half onto the ground. He glanced behind him to make sure that Growl hadn't gotten himself killed, then returned to robot mode and waited for Cyclonus to tell him what to do next.
____________________________________

Cyclonus, meanwhile, had located the other half of Flywheels. Seeing that the other Decepticon was rather the worse for wear, he unceremoniously grabbed him under one shoulder and started to half-carry, half-drag him to the rest of the group.
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