"Lacklustre?"

The voice ground. Like something that ought not to be a voice that had been bent to make words. Or like a vocal processor long worn out.

A severed lower body, drained of energon, but still dribbling its other vital fluids, fell from on high, and landed with a nauesous, wet smack.

From the shadowy hole in the ceiling it had fallen from, something dark and spindly entered the atrium.

"That could be because,"

Airachnid's eyes were dead and unmoving in their sockets, but there was still the very distinct impression she saw everything with them.

"You scavenged half of them from me.... Or someone else."

She gesticulated with a severed arm as she spoke, then bit down on it with horrible, needle teeth that came down and out like the jaws of a goblin shark. There was a hideous slurping noise, and then she shut her mouth again, and dropped the now-drained arm to land not far from the severed lower body. Sludgy, black drool trailed from one corner of the creature's pallid, mottled lips.

 

A distant buzzing could be heard. What this said to all who heard was that a certain swarm had become aware of a hunt occuring, and those that were buzzing wanted in on the action.

 

Twinferno turns to Airachnid
"Me thinks you both still don't see what the trouble is."

"Of course they don't. They still think primitively."
Carnivac states as he walks in his robot mode into the room
"Airachnid, Skulk, there are two sets of new visitors. Not one. A direct strike would possibly render ourselves closer to death than to take them out slowly."
Carnivac states in a smooth tone.

 

Airachnid make a noise somewhere between a rattle and a hiss.

"Who proposed the strike? Perhaps if you thought more, you'd know it was not I."

She raised a hand, and shot a strand of transluscent webbing to the plastiglass above her, then hung from it, slowly drifting towards the floor.

"I come only... To listen. And hear if any other knows what I do not."

Bonelessly, she bends back until she is looking Carnivac optic to optic. His, alive and fiery, hers lightless and still in her head. With no warning, she drops from the strand of webbing, limbs rotating with wet grinding noises to absorb the impact as if she had landed in a normal position, and not back-down, headfirst. Slowly, they rotate again, until she is upright.

"You greet our guests how you like. I will eat when I'm hungry again."

Tar glistens around the corners of her mouth, and at the edges of her optics.

 

A dark grey and red mech sat close by with his back to a wall. An ill-fitting gold faceplate haphazardly stuck over his mouth standing out against his faded color scheme. The faded colors only added to his sickly appearance, his armor covered in scratches, rust, and even spot that appeared to have dissolved. He looked up at Airachnid. "And.. and I'll get what's left, right? I just..can't live off this dead metal...I need fresh food..."

 

"May I remind you I am chief of this tribe as I am it's strongest warrior. You... you are but a lowly parasite with a taste for the living. I don't think you get to accuse me of scavenging. Every head you see here is another victory in combat."

"What you call primitive, I call sporting" smirks Skulk. "I have no qualms with letting the weak perish. They have no place as a warrior, and will provide even in death. We outnumber them, Carnivac. But I will take your advice none the less. My intention was to divide and conquer, anyway."

Scarem would stand up and walk over next to Twinferno, keeping his distance from the rabid red and grey mech in the corner.

"Do we have to have him around?"

 

"Count how many would be going with you Skulk, now also count all those who can defend themselves outside of direct hits. Plus, we don't know exactly how many there are. A second ship arrived a few cycles ago, meaning that we may have the direct advantage."
Carnivac states
"And I should know, I have been scouting them out."

Twinferno shrugs
"Master hasn't allowed me to kill him yet."
He states at Scarem

 

Skulk sighs.

"Do you at least know how many were on the initial ship during your scouting?


Scarem looks to Detour, then back to Twinferno.

"Is it possible to kill him?"

 

"Another victory in combat?"

The dead thing giggled at Skulk. It was worse than her hiss or her voice.

"Oh, yes, victories, but the victories of whom?"

She made a big, glittery smile that went all the way up the sides of her face and showed hundreds of angler-fish teeth, some still shining with congealed energon from her last meal. An awful sort of glitter.

"Call yourself whatever you want. Claim whatever spoils of others you like and name them victories. At the end of the perigee, when there is nothing else to eat, what you are..."

The smile vanished instantly.

"Is energon. And I speak to energon as I like. And if it musses up my...."

Airachnid looked at Detour.

"...Bait. Well. Maybe I use it to replace what it damaged. Or maybe I just drink it for the trouble."

Holding Scarem's gaze, Airachnid added--

"You'll get the leftovers, Detour."

 

Skulk focuses on Airachnid's head, examining every detail of it.

"Hmm."

Scarem nervously clinked his saw-scythes again.

 

At that point a nearby pool of water began to churn. Hammerstrike splashing out and propping herself up on the edge.
"You don't get all of them. Don't forget, one of the strong ones is mine."

 

Carnivac sighs
"The first ship had about eleven signatures on board. The second ship so far has had five more from what i had time to search."
He turns to Twinferno
"If Twinferno hadnt showed up and caused havoc, then i may have had a chance at a better view."

Twinferno glares
"Me no appreciate the blame."

"Truth hurts. Besides that, if we do strike, we need to find out what it is we will go against. So Skulk, why dont you look for our storm while i do further recon and Airachnid, if anyone leaves the area, go ahead and attack."

 

Airachnid exhaled, the noise communicating derisive amusement.

"The delusion of authority is a common one here."

The corpse folded her hands behind her back, and strode to Detour, and then right up the wall behind him, spidery extra limbs clicking against the stained, vine-entangled skeleton of the atrium.

 

" Carnivac sighs in disgust
"I was making a suggestion..."
He shakes his head

 

"Only in the same way I know you, Maximus - by sheer reputation. I suspect he'll have a great deal to tell me of his experiences on this planet."

 

"For our sakes, I hope you can get something useful out of him," Fort Max commented "I don't like the idea of spending much more time on this planet. Not after seeing that thing. And something tells me it won't be an isolated incident..."

Fort Max turned his attention from Gigatron over to Doomshot. "You!" He said, pointing at the lowly, grey Decepticon "You seem pretty accustomed to this planet. Almost as if you've been here for a while." He strode over to Doomshot and glared down at him "So tell me. What do you know about this place? And about that thing that attacked us just now?"

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Over at the Atrocities hide-out, another mechanical two-headed dragon made their way into the throne room. However, this one was a deep yellow and teal, as opposed to a dull grey and red

"Ooh, is this a hunt I hear talk of?" One of the heads hissed

"I think so, good chap! And of new prey, as well!" The other responded in turn

"Oh, sounds jovial!" The first head exclaimed "So good friends, care to fill us in on the current affairs?"

Sinnertwin's two heads glanced around the room, observing the other failed experiments stood around them

 

"Pfft, eleven. Sparkling's play. As much I respect your opinion, Carnivac, the 'storm' is too dangerous to attempt to recruit, even by our standards. We shall keep our distance from him. For now, take Scarem and assess the second ship. I want to know how big a hunt we will be going for."

Skulk turned his head to Airachnid.

"I do not, however, respect your opinion, wench. So stop interjecting and trying to assert your defiance. It's in poor taste."

"Hammerstrike. Sinnertwin. Twinferno. We will see this ship for ourselves. Bring the swarm."

At that, Skulk transformed into his demonic goat-like mode, and stride out, through a make-shift corridor formed from a collapsed maintenance shaft.

 

"Fine..." She sulked as she pulled herself out of her pool and began to follow.

 

From her small territory, Slice licked her chops and watched as Atrocities began to head in the direction of Dragon. They were probably curious too... and curiousity often led to hunts. Hunts were both good and bad. Prey could be herded into her territory which was good, or an atrocity could come skulking into her territory which would be annoying and perhaps in need of disposal. Or worse, the atrocities could come in a group and... Slice didn't like the idea of being cornered. It wouldn't be the first time she had to abandon a den because the head collector came with his posse in tow. Groups of prey were one thing. A hunting atrocity group together was another.

Slice growled in the back of her throat and left her tent to check on her traps.

 

"The hunt is on, it would seem," exclaimed one head

"Oh, I can't wait to let him loose!" chimed the other

With that, Sinnertwin made his way out of the Atrocities' hiding place, following along behind Skulk as they made their way to the crashed vessel