Log Title: A Spider-Bot in the Jungle
Characters: Lifeline, Priests of Primus, Viper 77, various other Vipers, Warlord
Location: Brazil
Date: 17 June 2007
TP: Luminous TP
Summary: Lifeline encounters Warlord near Luminous' citadel in the Brazilian jungle.
As logged by Major Bludd
Brazil[]
Biggest country in South America, Brazil is best known for the Amazon Rainforest, but the country also contains tropical grasslands, fertile plateaus, and dry areas of scrub. The farmlands of Brazil produce most of the world's coffee and soybeans and the country is a major exporter of orange juice and sugar. Cities like Rio De Janeiro and Sao Paulo contain most of the country's population. The country's chief language is Portuguese and despite Brazil's rich resources most of the country's people live in abject poverty.
- Warlord
Now that's not a thing you'd want to meet in a dark alley. Or a well-lit shopping mall. And definitely not a battlefield, no matter what the lighting conditions. It moves on eight long metal legs, like a spider. Its body is long and rectangular between the legs, flat on top and underneath. In the front it tapers to a hard and obviously well-armored horizontal ridge, on either side of which and just in front of the front pair of legs may be found two well-protected turrets. On the subject of turrets, that's a big gun there. A heavy, tank-like turret towards the rear of the machine's top sports a gun with a barrel nearly as long as the thing's whole ten-meter body with a genuinely disturbing caliber. Along the platform's top in front of the turret are a number of heavily-armoured panels that look like they might be able to pop up for one purpose or another. Oh, who are we kidding, they're definitely hiding guns. At the front of the underside are a pair of heavy blast doors. If the rest of the unit is anything to go by, finding out what's behind them might not be a good thing. Below them and along the underbelly, near the middle are a pair of armored panels, presumably hiding yet another unpleasant surprise. On the front and rear of the machine is a large, red Autobot symbol overlaid over a black spiderweb.
- Viper Squad 1416
The standard Viper uniform consists of dark blue fatigues, red padded gloves, black boots and chest plating, and a dark blue helmet with a silver visor and black night-vision goggles. Most are equipped with a rifle, a munitions pack, and two red grenades. Additional equipment is assigned on a mission-by-mission basis.
Priests of Primus
On the edge of Brasilia, near one of the poorer districts, is a strange, high-tech fortress. Cobra BATs, gold-plated and dressed as priests, lead locals into the fortress on a semi-regular basis. Strange symbols cover the outside of the citadel, which Cybertronians would recognize as indicative of their god Primus. The main building is a large, perfect cube, and the doorway is large enough to admit an average-sized Transformer.
Viper Squad 1416 are encamped about half a mile from the huge cube which serves the Transformer Luminous as a citadel. They're a little antsy today. They're awaiting word from base that they're being relieved. After a week in the jungle, they're more than ready to pack it in and head home for showers and hot meals.
Warlord has just recently got to the area where Luminous has her citadel. He hides in the jungles outside the city, simply watching. He grumbles to himself. "Sit and wait, sit and wait. There's gotta be something to do around here." He starts to track some local wildlife. "Heeheeeh. Naa. Prime'd kill me if I shot at them." He then looks to a cliff ridge. "But no one said anything about cliff racing." the spider tank moves up on its massive feet and starts to race as fast as it can. It seems to be quite agile, over the foliage.
Corporal Paul Christian sits up in a tree, helmetless, with binoculars to his eyes. His blonde hair is a wild mess, sticking out in all directions, and his fatigues are torn in several places from battles with the local foliage, giving him the appearance of a wild man. "This is crap," he mutters to himself for probably the sixtieth time. "There's nothing out here to see --" He stops mid-sentence as the sounds of something large and probably mechanical moving about reach his ears. "What the hell?" He refocuses his binoculars in an attempt to find the source of the sound.
Viper #77, the squad's leader, uses hand signals to order the group to suit up. He goes over to Christian to find out what the other Viper's seen.
Viper Squad 1416 breaks into its two component fireteams. The team leader takes one group in the direction the spider robot was last seen, while the other remains to continue its watch on the Citadel.
Warlord sits pretty still where he is, communicating on the internet. His turret swivels about, as he keeps his eyes out for what he's been sent down ehre to locate. Luminous's BATs.
The reduced Viper squad move through the jungle toward the spider-bot's last known location. They're not sure if they'll find it there, since it was moving quickly when it was sighted. It could be long gone by now.
The Viper leader calls a halt and takes out his binoculars. There seems to be a large shape at the edge of the jungle, just a few hundred yards from the soldiers' position.
Viper #77 gives a series of hand signals and the Vipers move off to approach the giant spider-bot from two sides.
Viper #77 mutters "I wish we had a Tele-Viper to record this thing on video..."
Viper #401 stares at the huge robot as he moves around to flank it. He's not watching where he's going and trips over a particularly large tree branch, falling flat on his face with an inadvertent yelp.
<Cobra (IC)> Viper Squad 1416 says, "Stark to base: we've discovered a possible Autobot near the citadel. It doesn't appear to be doing anything except sitting there, and I don't think it's noticed us. If it has it's not showing it. Please advise."
<Cobra (IC)> Major Bludd says, "Maintain surveillance for now, Stark. Let me know if the situation changes."
<Cobra (IC)> Viper Squad 1416 says, "Understood, Major."
The Vipers settle in, two on one side of the robot and two more-or-less behind it. "Great," grumbles Christian, "more sitting and waiting."
Edwin is dressed down like a logger, assisting some of the other Joes in maintaining the facade of the local logging camp. Currently, he's driving a pickup full of supplies, picked up in Brasilia.
Lifeline[]
You see a man in his late 20s - early 30s, who stands a few inches shy of 6 ft. tall, and has an average build. His hair is dark, nearly black...parted and combed neatly to one side. His eyes are hidden behind green-tinted prescription glasses.
Today, Edwin is dressed very casually. He has on a long-sleeved, green-and-blue plaid workshirt, which looks very comfortable. He also has on a pair of blue denim jeans, which fit him very nicely without appearing too tight. On his feet are a pair of black cowboy boots.
Warlord is outside Brazilia keeping an eye on the city. The spider tank in the woods is pretty hard to miss. It's large, and a bit out of place. It seems to be sitting rather still.
Within the truck, Edwin fiddles with the tape deck. Garth Brooks begins blaring out. (Gah, Cross Country's been in here,) he thinks in revulsion.
Warlord hears a truck coming down the road. Excellant. He moves into position, ready to scare it. Of course, he forgets he's 25 feet long and can't hide behind a tree.
Viper #401 lifts his head suddenly. "D'you hear a car coming?"
As he nears Warlord, Edwin begins to slow down. (What the...?!! ...Ohhh, wait a minute, I remember this guy,) he thinks. (I can't make like I remember him, though. Hm. Let's hope he doesn't remember me.)
After the truck's come to a full stop, Edwin leans out the window. "Wow! you startled me," he says.
Warlord chuckles "And didn't cause an accident. Good. Hey. It's you again.. the EMT.."
"EMT? ...Oh, no, I'm not an EMT," Edwin insists lamely. "You must have me mistaken for someone else."
Warlord pauses "Ah. Probably..." He pauses. "VOices can sound familiar after a while." speaking of voices, he'd be a dead ringer for Over Kill. If he wasn't 25 feet tall. "So ya seen anything out of the ordinary out there today?" he asks.
The Vipers carefully watch the exchange between the giant robot and the lumberjack.
Edwin rubs the back of his neck, looking slightly uncomfortable. Oh, he remembers the BAT leader all too well. "Not too much. Just getting some supplies in to the camp. We got us a pretty good gig out here. Plenty of trees to cut down."
Viper #401 mutters, "I wish we had that Joe identification guide with us. That guy looks familiar." Stark glares at him, making a terse cutting-the-throat motion with one hand. "Shut up," he mouths.
Warlord pauses. "So what is your name? And what is it you do..for a living. You seem..familiar."
"Who, me? I'm just a simple lumberjack," Edwin says, trying to use Vic/Lift-Ticket's Oklahoman twang to disguise his nerdy Seattleness. "I'm allaround these parts, so we prolly met up sometime before. Though I prolly woulda remembered you. You gotta face that's hard to ferget."
Warlord chuckles. "I sure do. Sometimes all humans look alike to me."
"Ha!! That's a-right, a lotta robots look the same to me. But you're okay, man," Edwin drawls, hoping he can come across like a yokel. "So what you doin' up here? Scarin' the locals?"
Warlord murmurs "That an' lookin out for androids. If ya see any that are about your size, and no t real responsive other then going about their business and real violent, let me know. They might be what I'm after."
"What's an ain-drod? That kinda like a soldier?" Edwin asks.
Warlord pauses. "Walking talking soldier. Like. Erm. C3PO with an attitude."
Edwin narrows his eyes, trying for the 'confused hick' look. "Now what's these aindrods doin' up here? They tryin' to take loggin' jobs away from lumberjacks?"
Warlord grunts "Worse. They're religious cultists."
"They found RELIGION?" Edwin asks in amazement. "That ain't right. What can we do about it?"
Warlord pauses. "Naa. They didn't find religion. They are using it in ways that Jesus wouldn't like it. You're a good christain right? Well when you see them don't do anyhting. Don't attack them. Just call me on your CB and I'll handle them. In God's name, right?"
"10-4, good buddy. For Jesus," Edwin says sternly, pointing toward his truck's CB antenna.
Warlord nods "For Jesus and America.." he almost chokes out the last word.
Edwin nods, and salutes. "I'll do my part!" he promises proudly.
"Oh, yeah! Right. 10-4, good buddy." Edwin sighs to himself. The CB-talk drives him up a wall, but it seems to fit with the truckers.
Warlord starts to walk towards the city. The poor Brasilians who aren't used to spider tanks are probably going to get a nice scare.
Edwin hops back into the truck to continue driving the supplies back to the logging camp. He fiddles around with the tape deck some more, and the Dixie Chicks come on, singing about a Sin Wagon. (Oh, to be back in the Pit,) he thinks to himself with a smirk.
Warlord continues away. His radio plays a music selection of his own. Tracks of Lords of Acid can be heard. If the country music wasn't bad enough..