22nd June 2014
14:00 GMT +5:30
"Ladies and gentlemechs. Thank you for coming."
The giant robots cautiously examining each other in the giant briefing room turn their attention to where Slipstream stands on the stage. Then they realise that she's not talking and move their gaze to
me, the tiny organic standing on the platform next to her.
"And for those of you who haven't visited before, welcome to Earth."
I tap a button and generate a hologram of my head to make things a little easier for them, prompting
Heatseeker to grin, then tap
Flywheels on their shoulder.
"Hey, check out how tiny that thing is!"
"The reason why we asked you here is simple: we are currently standing on a thin crust of rock spread over the recumbent body of Unicron. It's filled with dark energon-fuelled mechanimals and the local intelligent species -hello!- are worried about what happens if they ever get out."
Flywheels twitches, then slaps themselves.
"And why should you
care? Because there's quite a lot of energon on this planet and the locals are happy to mine it for you. They're paying a bounty for just about anything involving Unicron; for mapping his interior, recovering useful technology-"
Axlegrease…
Flexes her tools. Their placement seems almost random across her body, but they're clearly all plumbed in.
"-or just killing anything you find."
Heatseeker frowns, then takes a half step away and turns to his other side to ask if his
other neighbour has noticed how tiny I am. Unfortunately for him, his other neighbour is the recently resurrected and decidedly unamused
Dreadwing, who scowls and motions towards me with his head.
"More to the point, I imagine that you all have reasons to not want to be on Cyberton at the moment."
Dreadwing nods. Finding out what happened to his brother, then having Megatron execute him for trying to kill the one responsible… There are several good reasons why Ratchet was wiling to recommend him for resurrection. With Megatron inching his way back into a position of authority, Dreadwing has no desire to be on the same planet any longer.
"To be clear: this is a private enterprise apart from the Decepticon hierarchy that you're used to. You don't have to work here. If you work here for a while and later decide to leave, that's fine: you can leave at the end of the current mission."
Axlegrease shrugs. With transformer corpses across Cybertron being brought in so they can be destroyed if they were infected with dark energon or resurrected if they weren't, salvage options are running low for the first time since the war started. She doesn't really have anywhere else to go to get what she wants.
"And because this is a private enterprise, you get
paid." I press another button and show a price list, finally getting Heatseeker's attention. "Here's a list of bounties we've already been offered. The total bounties accrued on a mission will be split evenly between all participants."
"I don't wanna share with him." / "Well, I don't wanna share with
you."
The group… Stares at Flywheels for a moment. As a self-propelled gun/jet fighter Duocon, he's noticeably bigger than everyone else here, and it's more than a little unsettling to hear robots that size start arguing with themselves. We invited them because Shockwave asked us to, feeling… If not actually guilty, then at least accepting that their mental state is his fault. And naturally, not getting help from Shockwave is one of the few things both of them agree on. According to Shockwave, Flywheels and
Battletrap both had similar problems with their split form, but while Battletrap learned to cope, Flywheels got gradually worse. They function fine in actual
combat, but otherwise…
They slap themselves again.
Heatseeker frowns. "Okay, but seriously, does he get two shares or one?"
"One."
"Is that true for
all Combiners, because…"
"Flywheels isn't a Combiner, they're a Duocon. One transformer in two bodies."
Heatseeker takes a closer look at them as their argument continues at a mutter. "Doesn't
sound like one bot."
Slipstream shrugs. "He never said they
weren't crazy."
Heatseeker flaps his arms to the side. "Yeah,
'cause that's the kinda guy I want in charge of a electron breacher."
Flywheels turns their head towards Heatseeker, hefting both of their guns. "We shoot straight." / "Both of us."
"Sure, buddy. I'm
completely reassured."
Dreadwing looks thoughtful. "Breaching Unicron's interior took the combined might of Lord Megatron and Optimus Prime, as well as their most devoted followers. I am not convinced that this group will be able to replicate that feat."
Slipstream nods. "You haven't met Nova Storm or Pull yet, but you're right. We wouldn't be able to fly right to Unicron's core while he was trying to stop us. But we don't need to. Unicron's consciousness isn't there anymore. As far as we know, there isn't anything coordinating whatever's in there, and we're not in any kind of hurry. Our only objectives are, most importantly, not dying, and secondarily, making money." She shrugs. "If we see something we can't fight, we mark its location and pull back."
Dreadwing nods. "I am not familiar with Nova Storm and Pull. What are their capacities?"
"Nova Storm is a light frame flier like me. Pull is a heavy transporter. Strong, tough, and… A little slow."
"There is enough space inside parts of Unicron for aerial manoeuvring. But there are also far narrower spaces, as well as sufficient quantities of foes to swarm the larger chambers and hem in attackers." He looks around the group. "I am concerned that we are a little light-frame heavy."
Yeah, it was a blow that Munitions didn't want to take part, even
after we made it clear that we could bridge him back to Cybertron after each mission. Dreadwing is a heavyweight flier and Flywheels has a middleweight ground component, but only my Pull body is a true heavyweight. Area effect attacks would be extremely dangerous… If this was a battle. And if Unicron's subsurface parasites were intelligent enough to realise that.
Fortunately, this came up in our rehearsals with Nova Storm, so Slipstream has an answer prepared. "That's so that it's easier to pull out. This isn't a war, and we're not trying to hit a specific objective. If we have to retreat early the only bad result is that we don't get paid as much."
Dreadwing bows his head slightly. "You are correct. I am… Unused to such mercenary behavior."
"And if things
do go to the Pit, we just have to make sure we get the body back to Cybertron for resurrection."
Dreadwing's head comes back up, his humour noticeably worse. "And ensure that they are not infected with
dark energon."
Slipstream nods sympathetically. "Yeah. Megatron personally infected most of my old team's bodies with dark energon when he tried to overrun Earth with Terrorcons, so I know how you feel."
Dreadwing nods, mollified. "I apologise for my presumption. I thought that you were making light of my loss. I should have appreciated that I was not alone in that regard."
Heatseeker waves at the price list. "What does any of that even mean?"
I glance at it myself. "That's the reward for taking part. The quantity of energon, because I assume that you want to stay fuelled and since this isn't a
Decepticon operation, you don't get your expenses covered. Anything you earn
after that, you can do what you like with it."
Slipstream nods. "
I bought luxury accommodation with a team-sized oil bath, but I'm sure you can work out
something to spend it on."
Now he looks interested. "Oh? What are the
roads like around here?"
"Human labour is cheap, but they're not exactly Constructicons. It takes a lot longer to lay roads down."
"O-
kay." He nods. "I'm interested." He looks at Axlegrease. "But what does the walking scrap yard bring to the table? Doesn't
look that tough."
She waves a hydraulic cutting tool attachment. "I'm a salvage engineer. We're getting paid for the salvage we bring back. You don't even have a tow bar."
"I don't even
want a tow bar."
"I can also work as a medic. Taking things apart is a good way of learning how they go together."
Heatseeker doesn't look impressed. "I-."
Dreadwing lays his right hand on Heatseeker's left shoulder, silencing him. "A useful combination of skills. Flywheels, have you made a decision?"
Flywheels goes quiet for a moment, then closes their eyes. Gradually, both hands come up with their thumbs raised.
Slipstream smiles. "Great. If we're all agreed, I'll talk to the others and arrange a planning session for our first journey into Unicron."
"Great!" Heatseeker turns to leave. "I'll be-."
I shake my head. "Staying here until I finish your orientation lecture. If you're going to be staying on Earth, you need to learn things about how everything here works."
He sneers at the idea. "Skew
that. I'm not going to be lectured to by a squishy."
"They have
fission bombs, Heatseeker." He stops. "And they will use them on you if you become a problem." And they will. By hiring Slipstream and I to deliver them, but there's no need to mention that. "I have to tell you how to behave
once, then you're not my problem."
Dreadwing nods, gripping a little harder with the hand on Heatseeker's shoulder. "You will remain and you will listen."
Heatseaker turns back, shaking his hand off. "
Fine. But this
better be
interesting."
