Bladestorm, the new mech, turned to Top Gun. "So, Top Gun, how're you enjoying being back? I guess you haven't had time to get out and see the sights... I guess I have to ask you if I can tag along on this maiden voyage of the Maiden Voyager here. So, can I?" As he finished talking, a drone came cruising into the scene, nearly hitting him in the head.
"Did you find it? Did you?" came a female voice from the drone.
"Watch it, Connie, you almost hit me!"
"I would never hit you, I just wanted to get close to you" came the response, slightly smug.
"You see what I've had to put up with while you were gone, Gunny? I've been going crazy."

 

Mach Dart and Ratchet both stopped and looked back. "If you really want us to go, then we will." The seeker replied. Both mechs headed back, only to see a small drone hit Bladestorm.

"Who is that?!" Ratchet asked. The medic got out an arcweilder, ready to throw and the strange drone. Mach Dart also got ready to attack. "If that thing is Decepticon, then we are in trouble." he growled.

 

Shroud spun at the female voice and her optics widened. "Primus!"

She spun her staff before getting into a battle stance, wings flaring menacingly, exposing the three funnels and the name Titanic flashing brightly. "Back off from Bladestorm, Decepticon!" she hissed, optics narrowing to almost mere slits.

 

(OOC: you kind of aren't supposed to know other people's names unless you are introduced or overhear them, with few exceptions [Optimus Prime and Megatron should know any Autobot's name, I think. It makes sense.])

Bladestorm started laughing at this show of force. "Relax, this is an Autobot drone, in a way. She's loyal to me. I really should come around more often, it's been... oh, nearly 60 years since I last checked in on things in the city. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that some people don't know about Connie's drones. She has to use them, she's kind of big." At this last remark, the drone bumped into his head in what could only be called a playful slap. "You don't have to sugarcoat it, Bladey. I'll show them what you mean..." A rumbling was heard as a large cargo ship flew as close to the ground as it could safely manage, passing over the Autobots who were gathered. "That was me, sort of. I'm the ship computer for the grand Cargo Ship 2, for now." Turning back to Top Gun, she repeated, "Did you get it? I hope you did. It took you long enough to get back!"

 

OOC: Sorry 

Shroud glanced up at the ship. "Wow. That thing is way bigger than my alt mode," she whispered.

 

"Sure you can come along Bladey," replied Top Gun, "It's always handy to have an extra set of blades around, especially since Obits appears to be taking a siesta."

As the large cargo ship flew over, Top Gun waved, and said "Hey Connie, long time no see."

"And yes, we did manage to find it," he continued, "We had to take out a Decepticon the size of a small building to get it, but we got it."

Pointing back to the Lone Ranger, he said, "It's in the cargo hold. Dusty can install it once he finishes with Obits."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Down in Scalpel's lab, DarkStar looked at the Autobot's head, and spoke to Scalpel, "I can think of a dozen Autobots that would personally thank you for what you've done to him. You wouldn't happen to have captured that other pesky mech, Blurr?"

 

"Just what are you guys talking about?" Shroud asked, wings twitching slightly. She began to suspect that it had to do with her recent mission...

 

"Oh, nothing important," replied Top Gun, "Just a part we picked up for Connie while we were on the other side of the galaxy."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Still in it's hiding place, RocketFire observed the goings on with some amusement, watching the seeker and ship-bot come and go. It wasn't happy that Mach Dart had survived the shot that should have permanently offlined him, and swore it would finish that job, if it was the last thing it did.

Peering through the scope of it's rifle, Rocketfire lingered on the head of Optimus Prime. It almost pulled the trigger, thinking how easily it would be to start a conflict between the Decepticons and the Autobots with that one move, and thus increase it's business, but held off.

RocketFire was a cold-blooded killer, and revelled in the thrill of the hunt, but it hated senseless death. Besides, if it killed Optimus now, it wouldn't get the contract to kill him from somebody else, and the one thing RocketFire loved above all else, was money.

 

Shroud nsuddenly tensed, her keen audios picking up the very faint charge of a fusion sniper rifle. She reached back and grabbed something from the rear of her alt mode. She drew it out to reveal a ship's propeller. Snapping it open, she twisted her body and threw it like a shuriken right at the spot, homing in on the sniper.

 

Watching the reaction of the ship-bot, RoketFire stared coldly at the object flying towards it.

Suddenly, RocketFire let out a shrill whistle, and a large black Panther mech materialized out of nowhere, leapt up, and caught the propellor blade in it's teeth.

It then reactivated it's invisibility cloak, and headed over to Rocketfires new hiding spot, where it had relocated during the incident, still cloaked. The panther then ground the propellor into metal fragments in it's teeth.

In a cold, metallic voice RocketFire spoke to the ship-bot, "I have no quarrel with you, femme, but if you attempt that again, I will kill you, regardless of whether I get paid for it."

 

"I wouldn't even try it, Decepticreep!" she hissed, wings flared menacingly, as if she were about to pounce on RocketFire. "And the name's Shroud! Remember it, for it may be the last thing you hear!"

 

Sensing an unusual signature frequency in the near vicinity, Soundwave immediately alerted all security personnel via a private radio broadcast of a silent intruder in the Landing Bay. He then advised the leaders and everyone else within earshot. "Security breach: probable intruder present."

As he, Jazz and Starscream prepared their weapons for a possible confrontation, all doors and exits to the Landing Bay began to seal shut, and an alarm began to sound, advising everyone of the intruder alert. They saw then that Shroud was in a confrontation with someone, and began to make their way towards her.

 

Hearing the ship-bot..Shroud's..blustering, RocketFire let out a sigh, and pulled a device off of it's belt. Suddenly, it sensed a heightened tension in the air, and saw the doors begin to close. Quickly, RocketFire sent Ravage throught the nearest one, and followed, exiting safely.

Just prior to stepping through the doorway, RocketFire actived the device, and threw it towards Shroud. It then called out to the group of meches, "I have two words for you; Thermal Detonator." It then laughed as the door slammed shut, sealing off the landing bay, with it safely on the outside.

 

Soundwave immediately sent out the command to reopen the doors, as he saw the intruder safely making his (or was it her?) escape. Running after him, he disappeared out of the Landing Bay and into the adjacent hallway in pursuit, whilst Jazz and Starscream, having seeing the detonator that had been thrown at them, quickly looked towards Macgyver, the MTSOT's explosives expert, for help.

 

Seeing Rocket Fire throw the thermal detonator, Macgyver flashed back to the last time he had encountered the bounty hunter mech. "Everybody, get close to Time Out!" he shouted, "Time Out, set up a time bubble with a five to one distortion ratio around the Lone Ranger, when I tell you to."

Macgyver then ran over to the detonator, picked it up, and threw it into the open cockpit door of the Lone Ranger. Connecting to the ship's computer via his personal comlink, he quickly ordered, "Lone Ranger: take off, cargo dump, and thermal lockdown, now." He then addressed Time Out, "Now!"

The Lone Ranger immediately took off, leaving all it's cargo on the landing bay floor, and a series of metallic shields surrounded the ship, cocooning it in solid steel. Time Out then activated a time bubble around the ship. As it hovered 50 meters off the ground, Macgyver watched as the Lone Ranger blew up in a huge slow motion fireball, spraying debris all over the place. "Dusty is not gonna be happy when he hears about this," he thought to himself.

 

Mach Dart growled as he watched the ship blow up. "A thermal detonator... those things are bad news." he snarled. Blurr, who had barely made it into the time bubble, nodded. "I hate it when mechs get hurt by that thing. Makes my job harder than it already is." Ratchet growled.

Then the seeker turned to face Macgyver. "Thanks for that warning there." he said. It was not often that Mach Dart thanked another mech or femme for help. "Rocketfire will pay for what it has done, and I will find out its gender if possible." he was silent bfore continuing. "Somehow I think that this is connected to our mission, so we should leave as soon as possible." The Seeker said, facing those that were assigned to go with him.

 

Shroud let out a sigh as she walked up to Time Out. "Thanks," she murmured. Then she grew serious again. "Looks like that that bounty-hunter mech, RocketFire, I think, wanted to try and take someone out. As to why, I have a feeling that we'll find the answers in Polyhex."
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OOC: Next scene should take place at the Philaxian Ocean, near the port of Neobai.

Here's a brief history of the region.

Neobai is situated right next to the Neobai Mountain Range, or what serves as a mountain range on Cybertron, on the edge of the Philaxian Ocean. The city was once a top port facility, bustling with over ten thousand Cybertronians. The port became a key player during the Great War, and the Autobots and Decepticons both needed it because it was located right next to the supply lines for both sides. The one other aspect that made it a key player was that it was connected to Polyhex through the Neobai Bridge, a bridge that spanned the Philaxian Ocean and crossed right into Polyhex's neighboring city, Kihrhugo. When the Decepticons took the city, the Autobots freed it and the residents pledged to fight alongside them. However, with the end of the Great War and the development of the spacebridge technology, the port city began to lose its primary business industry, cargo transportation. Cybertronians began to move out and it fell into a state of decline.

Now the city is in a state of decay, the buildings rusting and falling apart. Only a few Cybertronians reside there now, and those are the ones who can't make a living. The bridge itself has become a hazard, due to rusting, poor maintenance, and loss of funding to keep it up and running.

Local authorities say that a few rogue Decepticons on Cybertron still reside in the city of Neobai, able to cross the Ocean to get to Polyhex.

Hope you like this! 

 

OOC: That's a great description of Neobai, Titanic X! The detail helps give the setting a sense of realism.

~~~

Optimus, Megatron, Jazz and Starscream had made it to safety inside the time bubble. They watched the detonator explode, and as a result, the Lone Ranger blowing up with it. They all thanked Time Out for his actions and for saving their lives.

Starscream was then curious and asked Shroud to clarify. "What do you think we will find in Polyhex?"

~~~

Soundwave continued his pursuit, determinedly following the intruder around at every turn and not allowing them to escape his sight. Whoever, or whatever, they were after, he would find out.

 

Shroud sighed before speaking. "According to Optimus, there's supposed to be an old Decepticon base there. He wants us to go and see if this has anything to do with DarkStar, the self-proclaimed leader of the Decepticons. However..."

She glanced around before continuing on.

"...in order to get to the city, we need to go to Neobai and cross the Neobai Bridge, entering the city of Kihrhugo, which, as you may know, is a Decepticon province, so we need to move fast and effectively in order to get to Polyhex."
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OOC: Thanks! I guess I have a knack for writing like that! Anyway, I hope to see the beginning of the next segment, taking place in Neobai.

Oh! Here's a last tidbit of info on the city.

According to local reports, the city is also said to be home to several bounty hunters, one of which is rumored to be RocketFire, although local investigators have failed to turn up proof of this claim.

Enjoy!  

 

As RocketFire fled down the hallway, it could hear the footsteps of a mech in pursuit. It thought about having Ravage attack the pursuer, but didn't, as it didn't know the strengths of the pursuer, and didn't want to send Ravage on a suicide mission. Rather, Rocketfire transformed into it's altmode, fired up it's turbobooster, and quickly accelerated past the speed of sound, leaving the pursuer in it's dust.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the Lone Ranger finished exploding, Time Out gently lowered the time bubble containing the wreckage to the ground, and set it in a corner of the hanger bay. He then turned towards the qroup, preparing to say something humble, when he dropped to one knee. "Slayg, thet tuk mohr inurgun thin ah thaught it wud," he said, as he collapsed to the ground.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the med center, Dust Off hooked Obliterator up to various sensors and machines, and began an extensive diagnostic of his cerebral processor and internal memory storage. Several minutes later, he radioed Top Gun, "Gunny, Obit's CPU is scrambled, and his internal memory is severely fragmented. I'm gonna have to take him offline to do a defrag and restore his processors. This could take a while."

"Do whatever you need," replied Top Gun, "The rest of us are going on that mission that Optimus mentioned. Oh, and don't worry about fixing up the Lone Ranger. Some Decepticon attacked us with a thermal detonator, and Mac pulled an Omega IV."

"Slag," replied Dust Off, "I hope he at least got the cargo bay cleared out before he blew up my ship, otherwise, he gets to tell Connie that we lost her transformation cog."