The Scheme

Log Title: The Scheme Characters: Soundwave Imager Location: Harmonex Date: 2018 TP: Harmonex TP Summary: Imager shares her idea for how to save Harmonex with Soundwave. As logged by  Imager

A low whirring sound, that of air turbines at work, can be heard as Imager does her bi-sweep patrol of the abandoned city of Harmonex. Abandoned might be too strong a word. The city had been reconstituted back to its Second Age form, it just didn't have any inhabitants.

There were those Cybertronians that felt that was for the best. Imager, former Maestro Secundae of Harmonex, was one of those people.

She has a specific location to check on, an out of the way box, about hyah tall, and nyah wide. As she approaches, the hovercraft transforms, her feet coming down, and the craft standing up into Imager's form. "Mkay.." She says to herself, "Lesse what we got."

There is something new in the box today. A silver box that looks antiqued and almost earth-like. Odd. Someone watches Imager land from the shadows behind the crystals. A dark, sinister being thought to be dead. Soundwave, the Decepticon intelligence commander stnads in the shadows, watching Imager's reactions.

Imager squints, and looks down at the box, "Huh. Wassit?" A bit hesitant, even with the initial non-aggression box usage working out, its not unlikely that this will end up being a trap down the line. At least, she figured, it would be worth a shot, and if anyone was to spring a trap, the toughest Femme in the service should be the one to hit it.

She reaches down to pick up the box, and examine it, holding it delicately in her big hands.

She reaches down to pick up the box, and examine it, holding it delicately in her big hands. The box has a lid on it, and odenst seem to be locked. Once opened it is shown to have a delicate mechanical motor, and a tiny holographic cube that plays a variety of ancient cybertronian songs, pre-war classical and haunting played by the small motor. The box has buttons on the side and seems programmable. A music box. "Sweet!" Her words are a bit loud for the abandoned place. The Sonic Canyons might pick up that echo and bounce it around for a while. Perhaps even a Singing Crystal will absorb the phrase, and add it to its own song.

She pauses, and looks around a little, before sitting. The Autobot refueler takes a precious few secods to herself, as she sees what songs are on it.

A song plays, and her optics raise up slowly, "Merry Rust Buckets....that's a protoform tune." She clicks to the next one and listens, " Lets see...that one's..." She thinks on it for a moment, letting the song play, "...Root Mode Band Boys, I think. Can't remember the name." And then the third song. It was one of hers. She manages a half smile, "The Empyrean Suite. Still everyone's favorite." She looks aside, a bit sullen, "Even after all these years. Some of em still remember before...." She trails off, lost in thought

Soundwave is somewhat surprised that someone else has an interest in music- the type of music that had not been played since before the war and most likely was outlawed in several Decepticon holdings- it was detrimental to war and a reminder of a time when it did not exist. Soundwave moves forward from his position, just enough to be seen in the shadows of the crystal. "Someone has an appreciation for classics." He comments, his monotone synthesized voice reverbing nearby. It is quiet and reserved, showing no intent of war.

And she just got snuck up on.

Imager stands and draws her shotgun as Soundwave makes his entrance from the dark. She's ready for the conflict that's bound to occur, her finger on the trigger of her triple barrelled plasma shotgun. The blockish form of Soundwave reveals himself, to Imager's wary look.

A grid pattern hologram comes forth, layering over the ground and shadows near the Spymaster. Holo-grids were adequate at finding hiding enemies, at least those who hadn't taken precautions.

"Soundwave...." She frowns, regarding him curiously, "Figured....I told that artillery Con you weren't dead." Her wary gaze doesn't change, " The truce still standing here, or is this part of some great master plan to...do something?"

Soundwave approaches. "Reports of Soundwave's desmise: Premature and overestimated." he says in his normal monotone. He doesn't raise his weapons. "Harmonex is neutral territory as decided before." and he doesn't look like a dead mech either. As a matter of fact, hes been frehsly painted and moves as a fully functional mechanical does. He looks to the Shotgun. "That will not be necessary. Soundwave: was sure you of all people would appreciate the box. It is his donation to this display of peace." he says. But that tower he built isn't coming down. Still he is here alone and without a team to take control of Harmonex. That in itself may show his words are for once true.

Imager lets out a long sigh. "....well." She manages a half-hearted shrug before she holsters her weapon. "Its actually good that you're here. I found a way for you to put your shanix where your faceplate is." The big Femme jerks a thumb at the city walls behind her, "A way that'll restrict motion into Harmonex proper, so neither side of us get to just waltz around in there and do Primus knows what." Satisfied with this challenge, she watches the unchrasimatic one for his reaction. Soundwave tilts his head. "Soundwave: is listening." he says, looking to the large Femme. He knows that the crystals will not be protected without the combined efforts of both sides. "Before we begin there is something you must know. Someone else knows of Harmonex now." He says. Imager puts a hand on her hip. In a restrained voice, she says almost sing-song, "I thought we agreed to try to keep Harmonex off the map as much as possible." Her words turn a bit biting, "Did this...chain of command issue of yours put my entire damn city in danger?"

Soundwave pauses. "Your city is not in danger. So far, the potential threat has found no interest in controlling Harmonex." He says. Chain of command issue. Thats one way to put it. "There is no issue. Soundwave's place is assured. There was an incident with command but it has been resolved. Soundwave was not permitted to deactivate." whatever that means. "Too much work to do."

Imager seems a little mollified, as she crosses her arms, "We'll see. Just means my time table gets pushed up. Alright, Spy-mech, here's how this is going to go. You're Intelligence, I'm Operations. We both got different abilities under our belts to work with, so lets put them to use."

Her Helios Array glows as it projects a bit of Harmonex' infrastructure. Its nothing Soundwave hadn't seen before, but its a good visual.

"So, you probably know this part, but Imma explain it anyway. IFF tags...Those are the Identify Friend-Foe tags that we use to ID ground troops and the like." She gives a gesture to Soundwave, "Yours are keycoded to your encryption, Blaster does ours. The same old song and dance that you guys do for comms systems. Well, what you may not know is that those IFF tags also work on shield systems. Like..." She shows a picture of Iacon, with its dome shield up. A small jet flies towards the shield. "If you have Con IFF tags on you and attempt to enter Iacon's shield, you get rebuffed. If you have Bot tags, you get let in. The shield systems, rightfully one of the most advanced systems both of us have to work with, is a staple of keeping out problems. Sure there's ways to infiltrate, but for the most part, the shield discrimination system works out pretty well."

She motions to Harmonex, "I say we activate Harmonex' shield system. There's not a lot of power being used in the city as it stands. Now here's the trick. We tag the IFF system so that to enter the shield, you need /both/ a Bot and a Con within five yalms of each other. See? This way we both have to agree to get inside? Any duo really, but it helps ensure that nobody's sneaking around doing anything funny, because there's always someone of your own faction there to keep an eye on em."

Soundwave pauses. "To reiterate" He considers a moment. "An Autobot cannot enter Harmonex without a Decepticon present?" he asks thoughtfully. "Sounds logical but there are sure to be times when members of either faction would prefer their friend to accompany them rather then enemy."

"But this way, we're ensuring that neither side can just 'take the city' from each other. I can't march in with sixteen Wreckers, and you can't set this place up as a Seeker base. See? We verify each other every time, because we've got to be near each other." She points at Soundwave, "Now, I can get the shield system up, and you can use the Con encryption key for IFF signals. I'll use mine, and then later, we'll get Blaster and one of your own operatives to come here and repeat the process so we're all on the same page." She remains silent for a moment, "Harmonex can stay free and clear like this. No worries about stray weaponsfire, no deceit...because we're policing each other. So are you in, or was this entire thing a big ruse on your part?" Soundwave nods "Soundwave: is in agreement." he says. "This should work well along with the other plans." He had other plans? "Soundwave was planning to install one of the towers he has at the four corners outside of Harmonex. Two towere controlled by Autobot encryption. Two by Decepticon. Perhaps we could use that for additional protection. Especially when the construction begins."

"Are...You...Binary?"

Her voice raises, "You want to draw Operations from both sides here? add /more/ work here? Raise towers? We've got enough of a problem with that damn sat-tower that you said you shut down." Her skepticism on that is obvious. " And you want /four/ towers added here? You think the Seeker squads aren't going to notice the city having construction? Or the Bot outposts during radar sweeps? We have got to keep this as low key as possible if this has any chance of working."

Soundwave pauses. "The military on both sides will know. It won't be long before the Autobot side does as well. The Decepticon who already knows about the crystals is: Shockwave." he watches Imager's reaction to this. If hes angered for Shockwave finding out or how Shockwave found out in the first place-- all of this he keeps to himself.

Imager remains silent for several moments.

"Shockwave. Shockwave knows about Harmonex. So he knows that we're trying to keep it off-the-grid. So its worth nothing now." The frustration builds in her, as she paces. "Shockwave hasn't a damn weld in his frame that cares about the arts. Its...Its just going to be another giant superweapon, or some horrific destruction. Like before!" She turns to Soundwave, getting right up on him, "How could you be so damn careless? Your little stunt, whatever it was, just damned the city because of him, didn't it?"

Soundwave pauses. "It was not intentional. Shockwave was the one who reactivated Soundwave after...an incident. He read the most recent files. Do you think I would have wanted him to know?" He shakes his head, not moving as Imager approaches. "He has shown no signs of aggression towards Harmonex. But this is not something we should...trust."

Imager turns away, still frustrated. "There's no telling with that mech. You could play it off like it was nothing, and he might pretend to fall for it." She shakes her head, "No respect for anything, that one. He'd drop a satellite onto the city if he thought it'd accomplish one of his goals."

She kicks a piece of debris. "Schemers!" She kicks another piece of junk, "Warmongers!" and starts to just break it into scraps beneath her foot, "Won't be happy until we're all dead!"

She looks back to Soundwave, "How are we going to fix this?"

Soundwave pauses. "That is one reason to keep the tower active. And others. As well as the field you suggested. Perhaps he does not think it is that important. But as stated: We cannot rely on this. Nothing changes. Harmonex will be protected. However, defense measures must be put into place with priority." Soundwave has partially disconnected.

Imager regards Soundwave coolly, "So you want to put up these towers as a smokescreen? To make him think that thats what you're up to?"

She pauses, scrutinizing the Spymaster, "Do you really think that will work?"

Soundwave pauses. "It was a suggestion. Unless you have a better one." Hes not going to admit he was defeated by shockwave. Hes not going to admit the information was pulled out of him while he was being 'repaired'. Noope.

Imager sighs again, trying to process. "I don't know. You know him better than I ever will. I'd just try to scrap him if I came across him....for all the good that'd do me." She quiets down, then adds, "I don't /want/ to tell High Command about all this. I don't /want/ Harmonex to become a tactical location. Not another Valvolux, not another Retoris, or Fort Stanix." She points empassioned to the city, "The one place where we can say 'Hey...look what we did. Look what we accomplish together.'"

The fool Femme was about to cry, so frustrated about it all. She tears herself away from Soundwave, and moves to walk off. "Whatever. I've done so much right now, trying to keep this city safe. Maybe its about damn time you did something. Prove you mean it."

Soundwave pauses. "It may have to be." he says. "You and I both know that peace wouldnt last forever." he doesnt say anything agaisnt scrapping Shockwave. As far as knowing him? Well who does? He looks to the Femme. "Do not hold so much faith in peace. It never lasts."