Getting on the Same Page

Log Title: Getting on the Same Page Characters: Delusion, Imager, Soundwave Location: Harmonex Date: November 27, 2018 TP: Harmonex TP, Dominicon TP Summary: Delusion finally meets Imager at Harmonex, and the two discuss the city's protection. As logged by  Delusion

Log session starting at 19:00:55 on Tuesday, 27 November 2018.

'''Delusion is in the city, working away at one of the shield emitters. She's replacing parts with precise, controlled movements.'''

'''The city being dead and all means that its pretty quiet, which means that any activity in the city, like say....a large turbine-engined hovercraft is easy to pick out. The large grey craft wobbles a little as it moves into the city, a big cargo tote on its trunk. Of course, the moment that she sees a Dominicon in the area, well, things change a bit. The storage trunk clatters to the ground as she transforms, a wary look on her eye as she slowly approaches Delusion. "Uhhhhhh...." Her hand drifts towards her shotgun, as she gives a looksee at the nearby area. "Whatcha.....whatcha doin here?"'''

'''Delusion looks up and arches an optic ridge at Imager. "We were invited," she says simply. "And as Knightmare once lived here, when it was a proper city, she wanted to help keep the crystals safe."'''

'''Imager 's skeptical look continues, as she approaches. "I see......" She continues to cross ground slowly, obviously concerned about some sort of ambush. "Soundwave huh? Yeah, For a slaggin spymaster he runs his mouth off to everyone." Imager's optics squint, "Don't you got enough things to do with Valvolux? 'magine tryin to claim two cities is pretty rough on your resources..."'''

'''Delusion exchanges another burnt out cell in the emitter and gives Imager a flat look. "Soundwave keeps saying that it was your idea. And, as you hadn't been seen in the area for a while, clearly you had abandoned your claim and we should all let him own Harmonex." She shakes her head and returns to her work. "Bad enough to have to constantly deal with -his- posturing. I'm not here to 'lay claim' to the city. Knightmare wishes the crystals protected. So I assist her in that. Ruling is another matter entirely."'''

'''An annoyed look crosses her face, "Of course he'd say that, he likes trying to make it seem like things are other people's ideas, so he's 'blameless'." She puts a hand on her hip, a little further away from her holstered gun. "Here's the problem though...I mean. Iffin everyone's actually on the level for once..." Imager's eyelights roll up as she rolls her eyes, "Which I am guessing we are not, but I'm going to pretend we all are...then that means that me, you guys, and Mister Personality all have a common goal. Problem is..." She gestures softly, "The more people have an interest in something, the more attention gets brought to it, and then someone decides to either..." She raises her hands up in some sort of mocking tyrannical motion, "Turn it all into some giant weapon of war, because war!....OR they decide that it all has to come crushing down, because nobody can have nice things." Her eyes return to Delusion, "Now, I sorta had a thing I was doing here, yeah, But the thought occurred to me that if I just start powering up shields and changing IFF frequencies, then people are going to start wondering WHY shields were up and 'what were /THEY/ doing in this abandoned city?'...I see now that the city's just going to be visible now...and Frankly I dunno what to do about it, to keep it from being colony dropped or neutron blasted..."'''

'''Delusion finishes working on the emitter and closes the panel. She shrugs at Imager. "It's shocking how pessimistic you both are about something you supposedly care so much for." Delusion starts tucking away the damaged parts into a little box. "You can only do and plan for what you actually can do and know about. That's more than enough for one day. Why borrow trouble?"'''

'''Imager shrugs, "Because....I already saw this city fall once. I was here when Trypticon attacked and leveled it all....spent all that time digging out bodies...including a few from under a statue of yours truly..." She exhausts a breath and looks around, " and I'm not sure I'm strong enough to let it all happen again." She manages something of a grim look as she surveys her home, " And then this miracle happens. A city of music, of culture, of something other than Primus-forsaken war comes back. An all I see is a repeat of things that already happened."'''

Imager looks over to Delusion, "If it happens again, then that means in six eons, we haven't learned a damned thing. It just means that we're going to burn ourselves right out again. Fighting until we're all dead. And I can't tolerate that stupidity in our race."

'''Delusion snorts a laugh. "Do you plan to exterminate ninety percent of us, then? That's about the only way to remove it." She finishes up and stands, dusting her hands together. "Life means loss, and pain, and suffering. That's what makes good things precious. They only last if continually protected and nurtured, and even then, sometimes they die."'''

'''Soundwave has been around, moving in and out of the alleys of Harmonex. He sees Imager and Delusion talking and moves almost silently into the shadows. He begins to eavesdrop> He reaches mentally to check for the emotions of the area. The telepath finds this whole situation...interesitng to say the least.'''

Imager manages a sour look, "No, but there are other ways to do things. Sheesh. Hide it for one. My actual plan here before I realized it was folly."

Back in Iacon, Folly raises her head as she stares at a light.

" was to get the main city shield up and running, you probably came across some of my work on that. And then me and Soundwave...which is really something I can't believe I say, we were going to change the IFF field" ((The field that decides who can go through a shield and who cannot, usually by faction orientation, which is why Megatron's attack on Autobot City was so deadly)), " so you needed both a Bot and a Con in proximity of each other to enter the city."

'''Delusion nods. "Only a few of the emitters were repaired. I've been doing what I can to fix the others, given that they're already here." She quirks a lopsided smile. "Before you can tune a shield's IFF, you need a shield." She takes her box and heads to another section, looking for the next place where an emitter should be buried. Her emotions are likely oddly flat to Soundwave- either Delusion is capable of hiding them from the spymaster, or she simply doesn't care as much as other people do. "Soundwave seems to think it a waste of time, but he's working from the assumption that at some point we'll all give up and let him take the city."'''

'''Imager raises up her hands, suppinated. "Femme, I'm in Operations. I know what a city shield needs. I was working on the main reactor first. Get this. The reactor was reformatted to second eon Harmonex like most of the city, but three of the main conduits were third eon work. I was..." She pauses, "Why am I justifying myself?"" Her optics squint again, before she withdraws that topic. "I dunno what he thinks. He started yelling at me for all this anti-Functionalist movement nonsense, tried to get me to fac-change. I nearly caved his head in. But yeah, he's playing some sort of stupid con...I mean its in their faction name, for Primus sake. The problem here is that the Bots can't take up residence, because then its a base and Megatron has to blow it out of the sky, but there's only a handfull of you guys..." She hems a bit, "And frankly, I guess i'm okay with how Valvolux is going, but I just don't think one combiner team is going to be enough to discourage whatever that mech thinks he's doing."'''

'''Soundwave continues to watch and probably record. He stays perfectly still, just part of the scenery. This is the way he learns about what the other side thinks when hes not around.'''

'''Delusion shrugs, moving some rubble aside as she looks for the buried emitter. "We all know that we can't protect Harmonex in the same way we do Valvolux. That doesn't mean what we can do is entirely ineffective. Every cycle the crystals remain singing is a victory." She smirks. "Besides, telling Soundwave repeatedly to stop acting like an idiot has its charms. After all, he used to be one of my commanders."'''

Imager gives another non-commital shrug, "So whats the plan then? I want this city standing as much as you do, if not moreso, and I've been working on the same systems. I want in."

'''Delusion shifts enough aside to get at the panel on the shield emitter and waves Imager over. "Even reformatted, these have all had at least minor damage. A few blown capacitors and damaged wires, mostly. So I've been making those repairs- it's simple work, something that I can do between patrols." She takes out some replacement parts and places one in Imager's hand. It's slightly larger than the part it's supposed to replace. Delusion arches an optic ridge at her but waits to see if Imager spots the differences.'''

'''Imager regards the sensor, "Its about two microyalms too long, but it should connect in." SHe looks towards Delusion, "I guess it'll do, I haven't really looked into this part yet but I'm guessing that it's been retroengineered to work with the old tech, like what I was talking about in the reactor room?"'''

'''Delusion nods. "It's a bit more efficient, which leaves some power for other uses." She starts replacing parts. "Honestly, I couldn't care less what scheme you and the others agree to with the IFF so long as my teammates and I can get in and out if we need to. But even with a shield, sooner or later somebody's going to try to attack the city. All the muscle in the world won't help if they don't know they're needed. Why not let the shield call for help? It'll be the first thing impacted."'''

'''"Yeah, again, just having a shield up on its own, without people in range, it just makes it a target. So the idea is to just base at Valvolux and come roaring over here if the shield gets pinged?" She puts a finger to her chin, " I think after the first time you do that, you're going to get ambushed en route by some sneaky so and so who thinks they've got your number." She upturns her hand again, "But you guys probably see that happening too. Well, honestly I ain't too worried about much more efficiency here. Mostly because there's so little powered up right now that the reactor's just going to feed the shield system....but I'll help in this little endeavor. And maybe I'll talk to the Great Blue Monotone and continue our programming idea...prolly'd need erm...your comms Femme...Still till then, I'll see if I can finish up that reactor work. Like you, I've been coming here on my off-duty time." She gives a vague salute as she turns around towards her trunk. Imager pauses as she walks away, she's quiet for several seconds, "......kinda nice workin together with people to save somethin for once."'''

'''Delusion nods. "I have tried both methods for making a better world. Generally, I have had better results in building up that which I cared for than the other way." She waves. "Good hunting, Imager."'''

'''Soundwave knows he'd be missed eventually if he didnt come out. He gathers up some cabling and comes out from his little spying place. "Cabling to underground generators almost complete." He says as if he just arrived.'''

'''Delusion tinkers in the shield emitter. "And here you'd been saying she'd abandoned the place. Not everybody is as comfortable shirking their regular duties as you are." She doesn't seem surprised by Soundwave's appearance.'''

'''Soundwave nods "Ah, she's back." He says trying to sound surprised that Imager is here. "My duties are taken care of, rest assured." he says. "Imager's ideas have merit." wow. Hes admitting that today.'''

'''Delusion nods. "It rests yet upon the execution, but something is better than nothing."'''

Soundwave nods "Soundwave will assist to the best of his abilities. But as you said. You know where my loyalties lie."

'''Delusion finishes replacing parts and begins packing up the damaged discards. "Yes. And perhaps some day those will be put to the test. But not today."'''

'''Soundwave nods "No. Not today." he says. "Today we work togehter. What is the current project?" he asks.'''

'''Delusion chuckles. "Minor repairs are all I have time for, I'm afraid," she says as she stands. "I brought enough for two, maybe three nodes, and have run through my supply. That's nearly all the emitters functional, though. They'll soon be ready for power."'''

'''Soundwave nods "I will do a supply run tonight. I trust the security of the city in my absence." He nods. "It is good. There are many threts approaching Harmonex and she will be ready to defend from them all."'''

'''Delusion arches an optic ridge. "Well, perhaps the old mech can learn," she comments. "I have a patrol to finish, but I'll be around. Good hunting, Soundwave."'''

Log session ending at 21:43:04 on Tuesday, 27 November 2018.