Ahoy Dust Devil!

Log Title: Ahoy Dust Devil!

Characters: Backblast, Dust Devil, Spike, Olin Zarak

Location: Plains of Thok, Nebulos

Date: January 27, 2018

TP: Nebulos TP

Summary: Dust Devil meets a pirate on Nebulos!

As logged by Olin Zarak - Saturday, January 27, 2018, 1:19 PM

Plains of Thok - Nebulos

 * The Plains of Thok are a central part of Nebulos where the Koraja, the capital city, is located.

Dust Devil isn't very far from the shuttle. He's currently working on the little drone that he's augmented slightly for better control and video capability. But for the most part its a junkion tech'd earth toy. He grins a little when he gets it hovering again. "There you go. Lets not crash into anymore trees I don't have all the spare rotors with me." He glances at the sky, enjoying the interesting weather patterns of the planet.


 * Dust Devil
 * Stunning.....this is probably a word never used on Dust Devil before...but now he has probably earned it. His helmet is dark grey, contrasting strongly with his silver and light grey face. Dark blue optics glow faintly as he regards those around him. His expression is normally goodnatured and cunning, this isn't exactly a mech to be pushed over, despite is slight size. HIs armor has been somehow reworked so that it is completely uniform under a midnight blue paint job. His tornado decal is now a silver blue, reminicent of his former shading. Both his hands and feet are dark grey. Silver blue runs up his frame, accenting his limbs and giving an impression of speed. Triangle comparments, highlighted in grey, house his turrets. A rebel insignia is proudly displayed on his chest. He walks with a slight limp and there is a lightsabre handle kept at waist. Overall this small mech seems to be built for speed, endurance and pestering.

As Dust Devil glances towards the sky, there is a ripple in the air above, and a massive airship lazily flies in from out of nowhere. A set of identical robot drones occupy the gunners' positions, and on deck is a flamboyantly dressed, green-skinned young man with long white hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. He waves down to Dust Devil in a friendly fashion, calling out, "Ahoy! Hello!"

Dust Devil acks to himself as he's spotted by the native. He keeps himself as calm as he can as the cloaking technology this world has becomes apparent. Schooling his features, he manages a friendly expression, "Greetings!"

Sudden static in Dust Devil's radio hints at a powerful jammer somewhere close by. At the same time, the native swings down on a mooring line and lands dramatically in front of Dust Devil. "Greeting as well!" he replies, giving Dust Devil a deep bow. "And welcome to our planet. I am Captain Olin Zarak. May I make your acquaintance?" he asks with a smile.


 * Olin
 * Captain Olin Zarak is a dashing figure with deep green skin contrasting sharply with his long white hair. His armored jacket is a rich tapestry of layered brown leather over shiny purple-embossed steel. A cutlass hangs at his side on one hip; a heavy blaster is holstered on the other. Forest green breeches are bloused over flared brown leather boots. A flamboyant sea-green waistcoat completes his attire. Olin is often seen with a cocky grin and a confident, devil-z-may-care attitude. Friendly or not, however, his hands never drift too far away from his weaponry.

A cloaked airship just suddenly appeared over the shuttle and started jamming radio transmissions. A local then swung down off a line to say hello to Dust Devil.

Dust Devil carefully stands so as not to startle the Nebulan. He does a partial bow in return with a slight incline to the head. "I am called Dust Devil, named after the little vortices that occur on my planet of adoption. You have a beautiful planet. The storm patterns are awe inspiring. I would have gone out to enjoy the winds, but I did not want to startle your people." Yeah he notices that his radio is jammed and this has him very nervous.

Backblast is in a hedge nearby, watching everything. He keeps hos scope on the incoming ship, and then the newcomer that steps out of it. He's about to report into the radio when the squeal of the jamming comes through, causing him to cuss silently to himself. Then he unfolds his radio set and begins working on breaking the jamming.

Captain Zarak grins, glancing around the plains around him. "Yes," he agrees. "The beta storms here can be devastatingly beautiful." He glances in Backblast's nearby hedge. "Your friend isn't going to shoot me, is he? We've only just met." Zarak laughs merrily, as if he finds the whole situation an exhilarating game. He's armed with a sword and a pistol, but neither are in his hands currently.

Dust Devil doesn't let it visibly phase him that they figured out Backblast was there. Hell, even if they did radio each other, they'd probably pick it up. "Nah...as long as I'm okay, I'm pretty sure he's content ta listen. We really don't like usin violence if its not necessary. Do those storms happen often? I'd love to see one again at some point."

Backblast blinks a little as the figure looks his way, scowling. He doesn't shoot yet, but nor does he move, yet. He frowns, starting to carefully pack up his energon stove as he continues to try and crack the jamming.

Captain Zarak continues smiling, glancing again at the heavens. "It's a little early the year for them but we've had a few already, so don't give up hope. How long are you planning to stay? There might be another in a couple of days." He cocks his head slightly as his gaze travels back to Dust Devil. "Is that a dust devil on your chest?" he asks curiously.

Dust Devil glances down at his own chest, a faint smile appearing. "Yes...though they don't normally have the cunning smirk and eyes in their natural state. They occur in drier areas and just kick up dust. They're rarely big enough to do any real damage. Not like their bigger variety, the tornados and hurricanes."

Not far from the shuttle, Dust Devil is talking with a native. Backblast is trying to break a jamming field coming from a flying airship above them."

Captain Zarak smirks. He places his hands on his hips, right above his saber and low-slung blaster. "And how about you, Dust Devil? Are you big enough to do any real damage?" He glances back towards Backblast's position, and then at the Autobot shuttle nearby. "Should I worry that we have giant robots visiting us from another planet? It's not every day our world gets such impressive guests."

Spike must have been tired! He took another nap. Then, when he heard of the commotion outside, he quickly donned his diplomatic gear and ran down the ramp toward the others.

Backblast continues to try and break through the jamming, scowling. After a moment he grins and begins talking on the Autobot band.

Spike takes a quick stock at the current situation and pulls out his communicator. He activates his communicator "Crosscut, I don't know where you're at, but get your aft nearby the shuttle NOW." >>**Static**<< Spike frowns at his communicator. "Lovely..." Spike spots Dust Devil and quickly runs toward him.

Captain Zarak apparently hears the attempted request for assistance. He turns and his eyes widen when he spots Spike in his neutral space suit. Zarak is wearing anything but neutral colors, resplendent in his layers of purple and green. "My, my," he says with a wide grin. "All manner of aliens visiting our humble little planet." He comes to a form of attention and gives Spike a salute. "Greetings from Nebulos!" he announces. "I am Captain Olin Zarak. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Dust Devil shrugs a little, playing as down key as possible, "WHy would I want to. I mostly came on the joyride ta get away from home fer a little bit. Not sure how bored you get at times." As Spike shows up he smiles again, "This is my friend Spike. I've been hanging out with him on his planet fer a while which is where I got ta see the dust devils in action."

Backblast layers several encryption protocols onto the local loop. It'll certainly be possible to triangulate his position, but recovering anything useful from the signal now will require breaking Backblast's custom pseudo-analogue encryption. << He knows where I am, you want me to stay hidden or reveal the big guns? I probably shouldn't do much talking. >>

Spike feels an uncertain...chill, nearing Zarak's near robotic tone. But he quickly steels his posture and gives a respectful nod to Zarak. "As Dust Devil just said...I'm Spike...Spike Witwicky. I'm from a planet called Earth. I'm a humanoid from that planet." He adds "It's a pleasure to meet you. And I'm guessing you've already heard this, but we come as explorers, we come in peace."

"You come in peace?" Zarak asks. "Splendid! Well, peace you shall find. Nebulos is known for its peaceful society. Harmony and amity as far as the eye can see!" He doesn't explain, then, why he's carrying both a sword and a gun. "Well met, Spike Witwicky. It's an honor." He offers the traditional Nebulan fist-bump.

Spike guardedly accepts the fist bump offer. "Thank you." He clears his throat and looks back at the shuttle. "Our PRIMARY or CHIEF diplomat is...off...but he'll be back soon." He gives a nod of respect.
 * GAME: Spike PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of High difficulty.

Spike squints at Zarak and gives an educated guess "So...you're of...the Hide I take?"

Spike looks at Dust Devil and gives a worried 'what did I do?' 'did I say something wrong?' 'What did I just say now?!' 'What did you mean by that?!' look to Dusty.

Dust Devil refrains from facapalming and just smiles. "Is there any cultural significance or natural phenomena that would make this a bad spot to remain at Captain Olin Zarak? We don't want to cause anyone any undo stress by our presense."

Olin give Spike a smirk. "You mean the Hive? I've always hated that term. Seems so... unsavory." He sighs dramatically. "No, I'm not really part of the Zarak Consortium, in spite of my name. That's my dad's business. Running the world... it all seems so tedious. I'm not sure why Aimless is even involved." He grins a knowing, amirite? smile. Olin glances up at Dust Devil, and assures him, "No this place is fine... as long as you stay here, no harm should come to you." Zarak then smirks as if he's reached some sort of objective known only to himself. "Well, I must say," he declares, looking around at the gathered visitors. "It was most excellent to meet you all. I'm afraid I must take my leave now, but I assure you - stay long enough, and I'll be back!" He gives a grin with just enough teeth that it's hard to tell if that's a friendly promise or a dark threat. He gives a yank on the mooring line, and the airship pulls him back up and inside. Assuming no one takes a parting shot, the ship seems to dematerialize again, and disappears into the aether.

Spike closes his eyes for a brief second and then sees Dust Devil effortlessly segue into a logical extension of a conversation - talk about the lay of the land, then setting accommodations. Dust Devil seems like he's a damn natural at this. He slowly slinks back behind Dust Devil.