[New RPG] World at War: Panopticon

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Aero Blade
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Post by Aero Blade »

Soundwave Facility

Hound and Raiku would do their best to keep up with Red Alert and Roadbuster, guarding the rear from their pursuers since they were unable to go into their vehicle modes (or would not, in Hound's case).
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Post by Warcry »

Soundwave Facility

"Got it!" Red Alert peeled back at Roadbuster's instructions, his sirens wailing as he looped around Raiku and Hound. He was hoping to secure the attention of whichever beasts were pestering them.

As the group moved forward, they would see that the veritable forest of servers was thinning out, as if they were approaching the heart of it...
_________________________________

Kelex Space Station

Silverbolt's response to Arcee was curt, since he was in the process of hunting down a Predator who was trying to take potshots at the unshielded station's docking ring.

"Got it," he told her as he lined up a shot. He triggered his weapons circuits three times, sending a triple blast of lighting arcing into the Decepticon he'd been following. The other spaceship rippled with energy, then broke apart into a dozen pieces.

Silverbolt swung around the debris, then replied a bit more verbosely, "We'll do what we can, Arcee, but there's only five of us. I set the autopilot on our station to block their ship, so we won't have to worry about that at least. But their flyers outnumber us five to one. We have the element of surprise but that won't last for more than a few minutes. Move as quickly as you can, because once they regroup we're going to get slaughtered out here."
________________________________

Signal Flare lined his light cannon up on another vector and fired off the carrier signal. "How about that one?"

Skyblast shook his head. "Nothing."

"I'm aiming exactly where you said to," the other Autobot said.

"I know," Skyblast assured him. "The stations aren't there anymore.
________________________________

Offshoot watched the last of his group of civilians make it through the airlock, then stepped through himself. As he did, he saw that a blue-and-red mech was waving people through, pointing them down the hall to where a group of drones were breaking them up into groups and taking them to quarters.

"Doctor Smokescreen, I presume?"

The other Autobot looked up and smiled. "The one and only. And you would be...?"

"They call me Offshoot," the Omnicon said. "I'm one of Arcee's staff. She sent me on ahead to set up a command post...or at least try and coordinate our people so the civilians don't lose their minds." He winced. "No offense, doc."

"None taken," Smokescreen said easily. "Is this the last of them?"

"It's the last of the group I was with, anyway. There may still be stragglers."

"The S.P.R.E.E.M. drones can take care of them, if there's any more," Smokescreen said. "Gather up whoever you need, and I'll take you to the command centre. It's a bit outdated, like everything here, but it should suffice."
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Post by Blackjack »

Kelex Space Station

Arcee nodded as Silverbolt replied to her. "Good job. Do your best out there and try not to get killed, and we'll try to do the same on our end."

She switched channels and opened an open channel to the other Omnicons. "Status report. How is the evacuation going?"
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Post by Aero Blade »

Soundwave Facility

With the aid provided by Smokescreen, Hound and Raiku were able to get some space on their pursuers. Raiku took advantage of the breathing room, again searching with his vision to try to make sense of the maze of servers and power lines. Raiku would yell directions as best he could to Roadbuster ahead of them, while leading the others through the winding mess.

Eventually the cords and servers gave way to a small open area, where at its center was a convergence point of sorts. Every sort of cable imaginable, perhaps even every line in the station, came together in a tangled mess so numerous that it was impossible to see what they all attached to. Here was where all of the power in the station cycled through, this one single point, and because of it Raiku couldn't distinguish what might be underneath, not with either of his vision modes.
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Post by Warcry »

Soundwave Facility

The mass of computers in front of Raiku started to shift, with panels sliding aside and cables retracting as if of their own accord. The Autobot still wouldn't be able to see much of anything, but a vague, angular shape at the core of it all would be slightly visible. Moments later, a V-shaped red light would ignite, flickering slightly as if from disuse. It would look eerily like a set of optics.

Red Alert rounded the corner right behind Raiku and Hound, transforming to robot mode and drawing one of his pistols.

The mass of computer equipment shifted again, and a voice emerged. "You shouldn't have come here," it said, repeating Soundwave's words from the previous room. It was the same voice as the one that they'd heard over the loudspeaker earlier, but this time it was real, not synthesized by the base's computers. And without them it sounded...weak? Strained?

Has he ever spoken to anyone in person before, Red Alert wondered, trying his best not to feel pity for the loneliness that this Decepticon had been subjected to by Prowl and his ilk. But try as he might, he found it hard to judge the other Transformer harshly for what he'd done. If he had been forcibly converted into a piece of equipment, Red Alert conceded, he probably would have joined the Decepticons and killed everyone who got in the way of his revenge too.

But that doesn't mean what he did is okay, or that we can let him walk away from this...
_________________________________

Kelex Space Station

Silverbolt blasted another Decepticon out of the sky, then responded to Arcee. "Will do. I hope. But be quick about it."
________________________________

Signal Flare and Skyblast stepped out of the airlock, unhappy expressions on their faces.

"No luck getting a signal out to the other stations, boss," Skyblast reported to Arcee. "As best as we can tell, all of the other stations within communications range have already been destroyed. We're heading over to the evacuation site now."
_______________________________

Omega Supreme

Offshoot conferred with Smokescreen for a moment, then responded to Arcee. "The last civilians are aboard," he told her. "The ship's drones are seeing them to safe berthing areas now. As soon as you and the rest of the command crew are aboard, we'll be ready to launch. And the sooner the better, if I may say so, ma'am. Because if what Skyblast says is accurate, someone will need to pick up all the evacuees from the nearby stations as well."

"There is one problem though, Commander." Smokescreen was loath to add to her worries, but it had to be said. "The ship is neither designed nor provisioned to carry that many people over the long term. If we can't safely land the civilians on Cybertron -- and by the sounds of things, we probably can't -- then we'll either have to find another safe haven for them or start putting people into stasis en masse. And after what they've already gone through today, I'm not sure the civilians will be willing to let us do that."
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Post by Aero Blade »

Soundwave Facility

Hound did not spend long looking at the computer core and whatever it was within it, just long enough to decide there wasn't an immediate threat from it, at least not in the form of weapons ore more drones. He immediately turned his riffle and attention back to the surrounding area, waiting for the drones he was sure were still coming after them.

Raiku recognized the voice all too well, from the one drone that had spoken to him out of the many that had tried to kill him. There was thousands of angry questions in his head that he could have asked Soundwave, but when he opened his mouth only a single statement of confusion emerge.

"Why are you doing this?"
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Post by Warcry »

Soundwave Facility

"Why? Why?" The deck plating rattled at the sheer volume of Soundwave's response, though his voice still showed very little emotion. "After all you've learned and all you've seen, you ask why? After what your leaders did to me, after what they turned me into, you ask why? You know exactly why! I could have had a life, a normal life! Instead they turned me into a piece of equipment! They used me! They grafted me into a space station and forced me to spy on an entire planet! Of course I betrayed them! Who wouldn't?

"The irony is, I don't even care about the Decepticons or their vaunted Megatron. Not really. They were just a means to an end! When your leaders started using me to watch them, I realized that they had a chance, a real chance, to tear this world apart. And I did whatever I could to make that happen. As for you and your friends, Raiku? Wrong place, wrong time. I bear you no malice, but you got in my way and needed to be dealt with."
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Post by Aero Blade »

Soundwave Facility

"For everything that you could have done, why didn't you expose them? Why didn't you reach out for help?! The media would've had a field day with this! The Temple Knights would've ripped the government to shreds for this kind of thing!"

Whatever scrap of pity or concern Raiku might've had for Soundwave was now gone, replaced just by anger. "They were wrong, but that doesn't make you any more right to do this! With all their resources they may have ruined one life, but you've destroyed thousands! You're worse than they ever would be!"
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Post by Heinrad »

Soundwave Facility:


Roadbuster, having transformed back to robot mode, stared at the computer core. He listened to what Soundwave said. He listened to Raiku's reply.

Then, he chuckled.

It wasn't a nice sound. It was pitiless, full of scorn. "That's the thing, Raiku. Everything he's just told you is an excuse. If he didn't want to be like this, tapped into everything, he'd be begging us to put him out of his misery. He wouldn't have helped the Decepticons. He's exactly where he wants to be." He raised his linear blaster cannon, aiming it at the central core of the computer. "Any last words, Decepticon?"
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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Post by Warcry »

Soundwave Facility

"You are hopelessly naive," Soundwave told Raiku. "I process every communications signal sent anywhere in the solar system. I know the media. They are useless. Owned by the same elites that own the Senate. They tell you only what their masters want you to know. The Knights are no better. Most of their leaders are politicians now, not holy warriors. A few reporters or knights would have spoken up in outrage, but not enough to make a lasting difference. There would have been a moderate scandal. A few minor functionaries' heads would roll. And six months later their replacements would have been doing the exact same things that put me up here to start with. The only way to make sure this could never happen again was to destroy the system that let it happen. Any deaths that happen along the way are necessary sacrifices to ensure that our race has a better future."

he turned his attention to Roadbuster. "Your arguments make sense. But they are based on an invalid premise. Because -- thanks to the Decepticons -- I am no longer stuck like this. I am free to leave whenever I choose. And now that my mission is, in essence, complete..."

The room's computer components reconfigured themselves again, providing at least some measure of cover against Roadbuster's weapons fire. At the same time, the sound of a million cables and connectors disengaging from Soundwave's body echoed through the room.

"...the time to depart is now."

Through the equipment, the Autobots would be barely able to see his silver and blue form falling free of the computer core. What came next was heard and felt more than seen. An emergency hatch behind the Decepticon rolled open, exposing the room to the vacuum of space. the rush of air grabbed Soundwave and shot him out. The last the Autobots would see of him was his body transforming itself -- slowly, as if his transformation cog had never been used before -- into a vaguely vehicular configuration and igniting a set of built-in thrusters.

Red Alert grabbed a nearby cable to use as a handhold, trying desperately to avoid being sucked out himself. "Hold on, guys!" he shouted, trying to be heard above the din of escaping air. "I'm trying to raise Barrel Roll. If he can bring the shuttle around to meet us, we might be able to pursue him!"
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Post by Aero Blade »

Soundwave Facility

Hound tried futily to shoot at Soundwave as he made his escape, but he got of little more than a couple of shots before having too grab hold to nearby equipment to keep from flying of with him.

Raiku with one arm down had much more trouble getting a grip, but managed to get his arm around a support beam, hugging it as best he could. His grip wouldn't hold out for long.
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Post by Heinrad »

Soundwave Facility:


Roadbuster scowled, pulling the trigger on his linear blaster cannon again and again as Soundwave left, cursing as the equipment kept moving to block his shots.

As the air evacuated into space, he subspaced the linear blaster cannon, grabbing a support strut with one hand and reaching out to grab Raiku with the other. "Get them here quick! I want to blast that Decepticon!"
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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Post by Warcry »

Soundwave Facility

Red Alert felt his grip loosening, but soon all the air had evacuated from the chamber, leaving them in a complete vacuum. He spoke to the others, but with no air to conduct the sound of course nothing came out. So he tried again, this time using his radio.

"I got through to the shuttle. They're going to come around and pick us up." The police officer roughly smashed aside some of the blasted, bullet-riddled server equipment, making room for them to reach the exit. "He's got a sensor read on Soundwave, but he's moving pretty fast. I don't know if..."

He stopped speaking once he was close enough to look through the still-open hatch. It was pointing "down", more or less, giving him a good view of Cybertron. Only the thing is, Cybertron didn't look like itself anymore. The great city-states were dark, aside from still-burning fires where the Decepticons had shelled them. And giant, unnatural promontories of purple crystal had torn their way through the world's mantle, reaching up as if to grab the sky. The great energon seas and reservoirs, once a brilliant pink landmark that could be seen from orbit, had gone dark and dry.

His jaw worked again as if he was speaking, but this time the absence of sound was simply because there were no words to describe what he was seeing. But he knew that with his perfect vision and eidetic memory, it was a sight that he would never forget.
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Post by Heinrad »

Soundwave Facility:


Roadbuster let go of the strut he'd grabbed once the air finished evacuating into space, moving over to Red Alert's location. "As long as they can track that Decepticon, we can hunt...... him..... down?" He stared out the hatch at the view that had stopped Red in mid-sentence, emerald green optic band narrowing.

His home was gone.

His planet was gone.

Everything he'd known was gone.

All that was left was corrupted ruin and death.

In that moment, his hatred crystallized. His anger focused. His vow was made.

"I'M GONNA KILL EVERY DAMNED, STINKING DECEPTICON IN THE GALAXY!!!!!!!!!!"
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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Post by Aero Blade »

Soundwave Facility

Raiku had been grateful for Roadbuster's assistance, not sure if he'd have been able to hold on for long without the other Autobot's assistance. After he let go, Raiku held onto the support for a moment longer, getting his bearings a bit with his injured arm before pushing off the support for the newly made exit. He thought it felt as though his arm was feeling better now, but with the brace on he still couldn't do much with it. Or perhaps it was just the feeling of relief coming over him - wherever he was now, even though Soundwave was still out there, he was now cut off from his communication network. He was effectively powerless now.

And then he reached the opening, and saw the shattered Cybertron laid out before him. It felt as though all the feeling had drained out of him, like when the energon had been draining out of him in the alleyway. His mind didn't want to process what he was looking at. Had Soundwave done this? The Decepticons? The one last thing that had been pushing him on, the hope that there might still be someone he knew on the surface of the planet, or at least some innocent bystanders that Soundwave wouldn't be able to get it, it was all now gone. It didn't matter now that they'd evicted Soundwave, there was nothing left for them...

Hound was the last to the opening, staying back in the structure to scan for any remaining threats that might try to ambush them, but with Soundwave gone it seemed like the whole station was going dead. Hound stared silently out at the sight of Cybertron's purpled surface, confused and worried at the strange sight. He wished he could scan it, see what was going on, but his sensor weren't powerful enough to get readings from up in orbit. The curiosity trained into him as a scout would have to wait, Hound instead focusing on aiding Red Alert by putting out a homing beacon signal to help guide their ride over to them.
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Post by Warcry »

Soundwave Facility

"I...yeah." Red Alert wanted to argue with Roadbuster's fury, but found that he couldn't. Considering the global catastrophe they were seeing, the only alternative to 'furious' was 'numb'. He was drifting somewhere between the two himself. But eventually his sense of duty pushed both of them aside.

"Revenge will have to wait. Our first priority needs to be helping the survivors. Hound, once you're airborne, will you be able to use the ship's sensors to spot signs of life in the ruins?"

As he spoke, the shuttle drifted into view. Its airlock was open, and the pilot lined it up as well as he could with the small hatch Soundwave had escaped through.

"If anyone's left alive down there," Red said as he stepped the edge of the hatch, "we might be their only chance of getting out alive."
__________________________________________

Kelex Space Station

Although the Aerialbots had provided good cover, the outcome of the battle had never been in doubt. They'd moved their command post to block the Decepticon warship's advance, but that had only ever been a stopgap -- once the ship was able to maneuver around it, it would be free to fire and the orbital port wouldn't survive very long. The nose of the warship was just now swinging into firing position, and its commander didn't take his time. Missiles and fusion cannons began to pour fire into the station, tearing through its shields like they were little more than an air bubble.

But as the station was torn apart, the long, cone-tipped cylinder moored to its side broke free. Orange "claws" unfolded on the vessel's blunt end, and white-hot fire shot out between them as the fusion engines they protected came to life. Accelerating away from the wreck of the ruined, abandoned space station, the Omega Sentinel's own shields sprang to life and shrugged off the warship's fire, before returning a barrage of its own. Then it pushed past, leaving the Decepticons in its wake as it streaked back towards Cybertron with its' cargo of refugees.
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Post by Aero Blade »

Soundwave Facility

"On it," Hound responded to Red Alert, coming up behind him to prepare for their jump to their ride. Hound's attention briefly went elsewhere, realizing Raiku hadn't moved or said anything.

He took hold of the other mech's arm, gently pulling him a bit closer to the gap. This seemed to rouse the mechanic from his stupor, but only so much. He still seemed numb and despondent, like he was operating on autopilot. Hound was worried, but he stayed focused on the matter at hand, getting their group to safety and looking for others.
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OOC: Might as well move this over to the other thread now...I'm closing this one.

Post by Warcry »

Soundwave Facility

Red Alert hopped the gap into the shuttle, then stood to the side just inside in case Hound needed help wrangling the shell-shocked Raiku.

If Smokescreen survived this, I need to give him a call...

As he waited he shouted over his shoulder at the pilot, "As soon as we've got the hatch shut, floor it and get us back to Cybertron!"

Abandoning the pursuit of Soundwave stung him, but his training as a police officer was clear -- he couldn't pursue a single suspect, no matter how dangerous, if the pursuit put innocents at risk. That rule was created with dangerous high-speed chases in mind, of course, but the survivors down on the surface were just as innocent as the bystanders on a roadway would be. It was his duty to protect them if he could.
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