No Escape

Log Title: No Escape

Characters: Benin-Jeri, Dust Devil, Gusher, Pipeline, Power Run, Shockwave, Slugfest, Strikedown, Warlord

Location: Hydrax Spaceport

Date: September 13, 2016

TP: End of Days TP

Summary: Neutrals are trying to flee Cybertron. Megatron wants them to stay. Shockwave's been sent to politely reason with them.

As logged by Benin-Jeri - Tuesday, September 13, 2016, 7:16 PM

Hydrax Spaceport

The Hydrax spaceport was one of the glorious projects of the Golden Age of Cybertron. Bordering the Decepticon-occupied Badlands, it was of key importance, and the siege on it was the second engagement in the war. Decepticons marching from the newly conquered Fort Scyk to the east were held back by Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers, while Optimus Prime held off the southern advance in his first battle. But Hydrax was surrounded, with the Sea of Rust limiting Autobot support, and ultimately, the Decepticons won.

Captain Benin-Jeri

The spaceport shakes and outside, the Rust Sea boils, as yet another cyberquake strikes the Hydrax Plateau. Scared neutrals rush for what few neutral and Junkion ships are left available - one of which is the unlikely-looking V'ger, captained by space explorer Benin-Jeri. As the tarmac shudders, Ben helps a group of Transformers onto his ship, glancing nervously at the support structures straining to keep the ship stable during the tremor.

"I told you this was a bad idea," Strikedown, one of Benin-Jeri's new passengers, says to his nearest companion. He looks over the V'ger and frowns. "We're lucky to get into space at all on that thing, much less all the way to Antares 3. We're almost better off just staying here. I'd rather die on my homeworld than in the vastness of space."

Strikedown's partner, Power Run, seems much less worried about the situation. "Relax, Strikedown," he says with a smile. "It'll be fine." He pats his friend on the back, and the two of them head onboard.

Warlord is helping with the evacuation. Fire, earthquakes and danger and hes's not the cause of it. Sometimes that's still weird to him. "Allright, people lets line up in an orderly file." the spiderbot says. "We don't want to stay any longer then we have to."

What's that? You're leaving? But you just got here! How rude!

Rocketing in as a giant space cannon, Shockwave comes into view in the distance. Whether anyone sees him or not is unconcerning. After all, he is never going to be a stealthy individual, and he is definitely in a hurry. His orders came down from Megatron - stop the evacuation of the planet - and he intends to carry them out. He carries Slugfest within a compartment, as the adorable little stego had the misfortune of being the only Decepticon that Shockwave could snatch on his way out. That and he's travel size.

As the ship comes into view, he transforms, allowing Slugfest to fly free at his leisure with a very simple command: "Slugfest, sabotage their efforts immediately by any means necessary."

And so it is that a tiny stego, he of little processing power, tries to think of how to get the neutrals to stay. If he bes mean to them, they're more likely than ever to want to leave. So he does the most natural thing, he wags his tail and capers around the Neutrals, nosing at them and getting underfoot while being as adorbs as possible. Who wants to leave when one can pet a tiny stego?

Shockwave watches as Slugfest scampers off and does the first useless thing that comes to mind. That's fine. He only expected the bite sized dinosaur to be a distraction.

Shockwave raises his arm, bringing his weapon systems fully online and scanning over the structure of the ship, dilberately holding his fire while he seeks out weakpoints and vulnerabilities that he can exploit.

Warlord lifts a spider leg in a 'one moment' motion as he sees the Decepticons. "Let's see what we have coming in. Shockwave. Ah, Slag." he says. He ponders "But first let's take out the easy one." the Autobot starts to lumber towards Slugfest. He's not against taking out those weaker then himself. "Hey. Puppysaur." He says. "Bad stego. Don't bother poeple. Sit." He growls in warning.

Ben brightens initially on seeing Slugfest - after all, he did help Slugfest in the last few adventures, even if they didn't manage to successfully save the world. However, at Warlord's comment, Ben comes around from under the cargo bay doors and looks up to see the Decepticon commander scanning over the V'ger. "Oh, oh!" Ben quotes. "Spaghetti-Os!" Looking back at the collected neutrals, he quotes, "Get to the ship! It's our only chance!" He starts to shoo the stragglers quickly inside.

Slugfest squeals and runs around, trying to herd the Neutrals away from the ship by making them chase him!

Yes, Slugfest. Sow chaos by being insufferably adorable. Shockwave is sure that he has been noticed by now - it is of little consequence. If they hope to escape, they will have to do so in an enormous target. Unfortunately for them, he does not intend to waste his energy by firing haphazardly.

Ignoring the chaos below, Shockwave aims his arm cannon and opens fire. Let the Autobots try and thwart them if they dare - if he has anything to say about it, it will simply be too late to make any difference. After all, destroying them is not his directive; he merely has to ground them.

>> Shockwave misses Junkion Freighter <V'ger> with Laser <Medium>. <<

Warlord turns his own cannon to see Shockwave firing on the ship. "Benin, get the ships to the sky. I'll handle the ...Purple pistol." he swivels to shockwave. "Hey. Spockcannon!" he calls trying to distract him. "You know its not logical to fire on something that can't fire back. Try something armed, big guy!"

Ben sees the Decepticon commander raise his arm cannon to fire, and follows Shockwave's line to sight to see just where he's aiming - to disable the main engines, and ground the V'ger where it sits. Quoting Riker, he yells, "Shields up! Rrrrred alert!" A forcefield starts to shimmer around the V'ger - until it gets hit by Shockwave's laser and promptly collapses after one hit. Ben frowns, and draws his Junkion-sized replica Han Solo blaster pistol. He looks ready to take on Shockwave, but at Warlord's suggestion, he nods, and focuses on getting the neutrals to safety while Warlord distracts the Decepticons.

The neutrals, for their part, seem afraid of Shockwave and confused by Slugfest. Once Shockwave starts shooting, however, they panic. The closest ones escape into the V'ger, but the others - lured away from the V'ger by Slugfest - run for the edges of the Spaceport. In a very real fear for their lives, they abandon for now their attempts to leave the planet, and instead focus on getting to cover as fast as possible. Better to die in a cyberquake, apparently, than be blown apart by a Decepticon.

Slugfest eeees as the shooting starts, but keeps trying to herd Neutrals away from the ship. He does nip at a few ankles along the way.

Shockwave draws his arm back up to re-calculate his firing vectors as Warlord tries to get his attention. He tilts his cubical head down to regard the spider-bot and his single eye glows faintly.

"That is not a lack of logic, it is a lack of honor, Autobot. And you clearly have me confused with someone else." Shockwave ignores the neutrals that are fleeing the area, but their evacuation does prompt him to say, "Lord Megatron has decreed that all are to remain on Cybertron. Remain on this ship, and risk the finality of his displeasure." He pauses and adds to Warlord, "That, Autobot, is illogical. Note the difference." Then he fires again.

>> Shockwave strikes Junkion Freighter <V'ger> with Laser <Medium>. <<

Warlord sees Shockwave as the bigger threat. "Allright. I think I've given you enough warning." he fires in Shockwave's direction. "Leave."

Ben hurries inside the V'ger, powering up its engines and running damage reports to see if the shields are salvageable after being taken down with one shot. While he's multitasking, another blast tears across the ship - this one scoring the engines and causing a lot more direct destruction to the ship itself. "Lal," he quotes to himself, "I am unable to correct the system failure." One of his passengers, Power Run, sticks his head onto the bridge. "Relax, Captain," he offers in reassurance. "You can do this!"

From the cargo bay Strikedown counters, "We're going to die!"

Meanwhile, the other neutrals are successfully herded, hurried along by Shockwave's attack and guided away from the ships by Slugfest's helpful nips. At Shockwave's announcement of Megatron's decree, some of them start to give up hope.

"Leave and die. Stay and die," one of them laments. "I just don't want to see anyone get hurt."

"Quit whining, Pipeline," his partner, Gusher, barks angrily, "Or I'll hurt you myself." The two of them run for cover behind a large tanker truck fueling one of the neutral ships.

Junkion Freighter <V'ger>

The interior of the V'ger resembles something from a television junkie's nightmare. TV monitors are everywhere -- in the staterooms, on the bridge, in the hold -- and all are almost constantly on, tuned to various subspace stations, or just playing taped re-runs of favourite episodes. The bridge is designed on the lines of the original starship Enterprise, with a huge, comfy Command Recliner in the center of the bridge, facing a huge viewscreen, and various stations forming a circle around it. Each station is designed after a different sci-fi movie; below decks is the hold, containing thousands of tapes of prerecorded programming, and to the aft is Engineering, having the monitors and all-seeing eye from 2001, and from which ghastly clanging sounds can be heard. To make things even more surreal, it looks like the entire ship has been flipped upside down and then had chairs, etc, ripped out and bolted to the ceiling, with access panels rerouted haphazardly to work from the new positions. All in all, home to the average Junkion, but a scary place for anyone else.

Outside> The tiny stego keeps running around, though, nosing at the neutrals he's managed to herd, trying to get them to pick him up and pat him!

Outside> Warlord swivels to look at the stego. "That's the weirdest thing I've seen. Whose side is it on?" he asks. He then refocuses on trying to scare Shockwave. Raar.

Outside> Shockwave regards Warlord for a moment as the shots range between missing him entirely and scorching by rather close. Briefly, he considers having Slugfest try to gnaw his face off, but no. The little stegosaurus is being quite helpful and he has no intention of interrupting his fine work. Perhaps he should speak with Soundwave and suggest putting Slugfest in charge of the tapes. Surely no one would object.

On the subject of Warlord again, Shockwave gives a very thoughtful and introspective reply: "No. However, you seem impatient for a hero, Autobot. If you would prefer that I accelerate my operation, then I will indulge you." Swiveling, he begins to transform in the air. Once he has reconfigured into a much, much larger weapon of mass urgency, he hovers there, power beginning to charge, while his voice echoes: "Leave. Now. Return to your homes. This is your final warning."

Shockwave leaps into the air, his legs and arms fusing together as a silver cannon barrel appears from subspace and locks into place to form a flying space gun.

Dust Devil is knocked silly by the shot and is laying on the floor while his systems reboot. A hologram appears, "Please state the nature of your medical emergency." Dust Devil stirs slightly but doesn't respond. The hologram looks over and grins malevolently. "Oooh I finally get to operate!!" For some reason that gets Dust Devil rolling to his hands and feet. "Like slag you do....You've been told you aren't allowed to do medical procedures on living beins!"

Ben looks back and frowns, worried about Dusty getting hurt, worrying about leaving Warlord behind, and worried about the safety of his ship. Ultimately, though, he decides to follow Warlord's request and get the neutrals out of here. "All hands, man battle stations!" he quotes, and powers up the auxiliary engines. If he can at least break orbit he can make repairs outside of Shockwave's range - he hopes. "Pedal to the metal - let's go!" With a quivering wobble, the V'ger closes its cargo bay doors and shakily lifts off the tarmac.

Outside> One of the neutrals notices Slugfest nosing at him, and jumps in reaction. His partner looks at him in disgust. "Primus, Pipeline, it's just a tapebot! Grow an endoskeletron!" The neutrals continue to hunker down behind the tanker truck (probably not the wisest source of cover). Pipeline tries to shoo Slugfest away. "I don't want to hurt you, little robot. Please, just leave us alone!" Pipeline looks increasingly upset. Gusher just rolls his optics and keeps his head down.

Outside> Warlord starts to walk towards the neutrals on the ground. "Get to the ships. I won't leave without you guys." He looks to shockwave. "Yes." He swivels his cannon to shockwave trying to get between him and the unprotected ones on the ground. "Yeah. I'm not the most heroic hero. I get that all the time." he grunts. "Fly, Benin! Get er done!" him and his old earth sayings.

Outside> Slugfest squeals and tries to evade being shooed away! He LEAPS right into another Neutral's arms, giving the old puppy optics look.

Dust Devil gets back to his station and looks at the sensors, rerouting some of the energy to undamaged syndromes. systems

Outside> Shockwave observes the ship beginning to take off. He observes Warlord trying to project the neutrals on the ground.

"I did not come here to destroy any of your kind, Autobot," Shockwave intones as power begins to build to its critical point, "But you fail to listen and you waste your time. I am not here for the vulnerable." The cannon turns, calculations running swiftly as he prepares to fire.

"But Megatron has made it clear what is to become of those that turn their backs on their home." He fires - not at Warlord, and not at the neutrals who fled the ship, but at the V'ger. He aims for the engines, but with a whacky Junkion at the helm, who knows what he'll hit.

Outside> >> Shockwave strikes Junkion Freighter <V'ger> with Shoxcannon <Medium>. << Outside> Junkion Freighter <V'ger> is overcome by damage, losing altitude rapidly.

Outside> Warlord continues to gather the ground people and snarls as he sees the shot hit the ship. "Slag... come on lets at least try to salvage some of this."

Ben tries to, in fact, 'Git 'er done', but before he can get the ship up and out of range, Shockwave's blast totals the ship and it's all Ben can do to keep it from crashing into the Rust Sea. As it is, he relies on Dust Devil routing all power to control systems and spins the ship around, tilting it just enough to crash at the very edge of the spaceport, taking out one of the support walls and landing just shy of a fuel depot that would have caused disastrous results if hit.

It's quiet a breem, and then from within the V'ger's cargo bay Strikedown's voice can be heard saying, "See? I told you it was a bad idea!"

Outside> Pipeline shrieks as Slugfest leaps past him and into Gusher's arms. Gusher holds Slugfest a moment, looking surprised and confused at the tapecon's big, pleading optics. "What is it?" Gusher asks, his course exterior partially melted by the dinotape's cuteness. "Did you want to come with us?" Them Shockwave takes out the V'ger, and everyone starts running. Warlord's efforts help direct the panic into something of an orderly retreat, and the neutrals run - Gusher still holding Slugfest. <-- Outside> <OOC> Shockwave says, "And Slugfest gets kidnapped again. Probably ends up at a ToysRUs." -->

Outside> Slugfest is carried, though if he's carried in the wrong direction he'll squirm and wriggle out of Gusher's grasp.

Outside> Shockwave hovers there briefly after the ship is shot down. When he eventually transforms, he looks down at Warlord and the panicking neutrals. "Let this be a message to all others. Cybertron is your home, and you have not been granted leave to abandon it. See to your comrades, if you feel yourself a hero." He then turns in mid-air and dispatches a radio transmission to everyone's favorite stegosaurus: "Slugfest, we are done here. Return to base." The barrel of the flying space gun launches free, shifting into subspace as the rest of the giant weapon splits into the cyclopean form of Shockwave.

Outside> Warlord grunts "Right. Looks like All there is to do is clean up." He starts to go help the neutrals get someplace safe.

Ben slowly crawls out of his damaged ship, and frowns, looking it over. He then immediately heads back into the ship and starts pulling people out - neutrals, mostly, although he also casts about for his First Mate Dust Devil. As he rescues Transformers from his downed starship, he patches up the injured and directs them over to Warlord's group. Apparently they're not getting off this rock, but for now, at least they're safe.

The neutrals gather together in fear, one of them carrying Slugfest as long as he lets them (and quickly puts him down if he starts to squirm). They follow the directions of Ben and Warlord, moving away from the burning wreckage and calming down once Shockwave delivers his message and turns to leave. Even at a safe distance, the neutrals look miserable - this was their own chance off the planet, and now it's literally in flames.

Slugfest noses at the face of the disappointed Neutral that's carrying him, and licks sympathetically!

Gusher looks surprised to be nosed and licked, and seems confused at how to respond. He tries to lower Slugfest down onto the ground, while other neutrals look at him darkly - after all, the Decepticons did just destroy their own exit off this dying planet, and now Gusher is cozying up to one.

Pipeline looks around and holds up his hands defensively. "Oh, hold on, guys," he says. "This Decepticon didn't hurt anyone. Let's not blame all for the actions of the few."

"Come to septycons! We have cookies!" Slugfest says to Gusher as the mech tries to set the stego down.

Gusher holds the wriggling stego over the ground, waiting for him to get his feet under him so he doesn't drop him on his side or back. He frowns. "I'm sorry, little guy, but I'm not joining the Decepticons. I don't want any part of your war."

Pipeline nods in agreement. "Yeah. We just want to leave. Why won't you just let us go?" Pipeline looks to Slugfest to explain the Decepticons' position, which might be a little above Slugfest's paygrade.

"Why want go?" Slugfest wonders, staring up at Gusher and Pipeline, as his lil feets find the ground.

Gusher sets the dinotape down and straightens up. He frowns. "What are you, a moron?" he asks caustically. "Cybertron is doomed! No amount of Decepticon aggression is going to change that!"

Pipeline's optics widen. "That kind of language isn't helpful, Gusher!" he snaps. Looking down at Slugfest, he says, "I apologize for my friend. It's just been very stressful, and now we might be stuck here while the world ends." He sighs, looking miserable.

Slugfest cocks his head at the pair. "How is doomed?" Slugfest nips at Gusher for calling him stupid!

Gusher eeps as he's nipped, and takes a quick step back.

Pipeline frowns. "Cybertron is dying. We can all tell. Maybe you Decepticons have a way offworld, but now we don't." He sighs. "Maybe you should go." The other neutrals nod in agreement, and slowly they disperse, some heading back to the Neutral Territories, and some just wandering away, despairing at what to do now that they're trapped on a dying world.