10565/Secrets of Vector Sigma: The Undergrid

Secrets of Vector Sigma: The Undergrid
Date of Scene:	28 December 2019
Location:	Starsreach Spaceport (ICN), Jan-Ja, Iacon, I. Plat., Cybertron (1623)
Synopsis:	Blurr, Doug, and Shannon venture into the deepest parts of the Undergrid.
Cast of Characters:	Blurr, Cypher, Nightingale

---

Blurr has posed:
    Not long after Blurr, Shannon, and Doug arrive in the Hadean System, and after a short pit stop at a fueling station in the outer rim, Cybertron looms into view. The metallic planet is quite massive, and -very- different from Earth! Lights are scattered across its entire surface, and deep chasms into the Undergrid that reveal more tiers than the Terrans can likely count are visible from orbit. Is it beautiful? To some perhaps, although it is not without its scars. The scars of a world at war with itself for millions of years.

    As for Blurr's organic passengers, he's equipped them with adaptive exos to protect them from an environment not designed to accommodate them, provide them with life support for their fleshy bodies, and plus a little bit more. Like thrusters in the feet to increase Shannon's flying speed, while granting Doug the ability to fly. Arm blasters and retractable blades attached to the wrists. After all, never know what you could run into down there...

Cypher has posed:
    "I see." Doug says, "A gigantic factory, that's been damaged, adapted, and altered so often that its purpose is all but obscured. Incredible."

He seems to catch on quick about how to use the suit, though there are some unusual... interactions between the suit and his techno-organic arm. Quirks of the system. "So where precisely are we going?" Doug radios to Blurr, as he enters the planetary orbit. "It only looks cold and mechanical," He radios to Shannon, "This planet is very much alive, I can hear the comm traffic."

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon can't help but stare out the viewport at the planet that looms up ahead. You'd swear she'd never seen another world up close before. Wait--she hasn't. It was so vastly different from Earth. A completely different race, different technology, different culture... so many new and different things to see and learn. But unfortunately, this time there wouldn't be a chance to see it all. She's worked her way into the exosuit, decidedly intrigued by the way it adapts itself to her wings, and allows for complete range of movement.

     The comms take her a moment, but she finally gets it, and her response is about as breathless and giddy as a child at Christmas time. "Cold and mechanical? No way. Just a different kind of life. This is bloody incredible. Can you even begin to imagine what other life is possible out there, just looking at this?"

     Creed, for his part, seems to be sticking pretty close to her, keeping his odd yellow eyes on his humanoid friend--almost as if he's protecting her.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr starts hailing Starsreach Spaceport in Neocybex, the main port of Iacon as the ship descends, reciting an IFF code and requesting permission to dock at an available station. Of course, Shannon, won't understand any of it, though Doug will! The spaceport is dome-shaped, with hundreds of docking platforms all around the outside. As permission is granted, the vessel moves in and maglocks to the deck with a slight jolt.

    The airlock opens with a hiss as the walkway extends out and attaches to the platform. "A factory, huh?" Blurr scoffs somewhat at Doug's comment. "I guess. We're going to the Undergrid." he responds to the question, though doesn't get any more specific than that. "Now, before we disembark, I need you to understand that...people here are definitely not expecting to see aliens so don't be too shocked if you get stared at. And don't worry, if anyone tries anything, I'll kick their afts 'til they can't move another servo."

Cypher has posed:
    "I'm surprised it hasn't occurred to your scientists. Yes, I can see how it all fits together. A modular multipurpose factory, capable of processing resources at a staggering rate. This is the sort of tool you'd use to build a Dyson Sphere." Doug looks up at Blurr, "I appreciate the sentiment, but this isn't my first encounter with extraterrestrial life."
    He moves into position, and follows behind.

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon just grins at Blurr, and chortles softly. "Trust me, I'm used to getting stared at. I'll probably wind up staring a little right back. This might not be Doug's first encounter with extraterrestrial life, but it'd be mine. Aside from you, I think." Following along behind Blurr with Doug, she reaches behind her to lightly pat Creed right between his antennae. "Stay close, okay?" It was odd, how an organic being could feel compassion and even friendship for one so very different.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr arches a brow at them. "Right then. Let's get going. We'll take the expressway to the outer sectors, there's a gravlift out there we'll be taking. Then I guess I'll tell you why we're here..." He disembarks the ship and moves into the station. The inside looks -huge- to Doug and Shannon, as they would find themselves on a balcony with a view of the entire structure. Of this particular module, anyway. All along the circular-shaped walls are hundreds of tiers of platforms connected to the various docking bays. On the ground floor are several main entrances, registration, information, cargo inspection, some vendors, and the like.

    The speedster doesn't go down there though, instead he heads for a door that leads to an elevated causeway out to the city. He transforms, folding up into the speeder form and opening the doors. "Get in." he says.

Cypher has posed:
    "Obviously this is made for life forms of an upscale size to the rest of us," Doug says, all curiosity, "But I can see your people are of variable size..." He climbs in. "It just makes me wonder how everything here fits together. Do you have a caste system, based on size or function?" He relaxes, in his seat, and looks over to Shannon. "Sorry, it's just... been awhile."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon giggles and climbs on in, scooting all the way over. Sure enough, right behind her was Creed, also crawling and clambering his way into Blurr's vehicle form--likely much to the Cybertronian's vocal dismay! It's a bit of a squeeze, with Shannon in the middle between Doug and Creed. She does her best to tuck her wings in behind her, and manages--just barely. "Been a while for you, but never for me. And heaven only knows when a chance like this will ever come again!"

Blurr has posed:
    "Used to, yeah." Blurr answers Doug's question about castes. "But that didn't work out so well, unfortunately." Though he doesn't elaborate much further on that topic, at least not yet.

    And then Shannon jumps in with Creed. Oh, -right-. That...thing. Ugh. Nearly forgot about it. He grumbles inwardly, but remembers that it could be useful, knowing what they might be up against. "I'm--glad you're enjoying yourself, Shannon." he remarks as the doors close and he pulls out onto the causeway, blasting off with a burst of supersonic speed.

    It's quite the view from here, though they would've at least gotten a glimpse of it from the ship earlier. The capital city of Iacon stretches on for as far as the human eye can see in almost every direction. Up, down, east, west, north and south!

Cypher has posed:
    "It's really incredible." Doug says, "It reminds me a little bit of the Dyson Sphere -- but that had been abandoned for millenia when we visited it. This planet is war-ravaged, but very much occupied." Then he looks up at Blurr, and says, "It's so interesting, I can see how everything here has alternate configurations."

"The entire planet might itself have a dormant alternate mode."

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon arches her brows at Doug. "Dyson sphere? I thought those were science fiction." Glancing around, she chuckles lightly to herself, very much like a child at Christmas time, or a nerd at the ultimate Geek-Con. "But then again, till a few months ago, there are a lot of things I thought to be fiction that are very real." It didn't seem to matter one bit to her that the trio were drawing their fair share of mechanical-eyed stares. If there were only time, she'd want to meet every single Cybertronian she could! A whole different race, a whole different culture, so many things to learn and exchange!

Blurr has posed:
    "The entire planet?" Blurr questions at Doug's suggestion. "Now -that's- an idea I haven't heard before." he remarks. Terrans are weird, but maybe there some even weirder Cybertronians who think that. "We have ships that do that, though."

    Zoom, zoom down the expressway they go, gradually descending through the multiple tiers of the city until they reach the outer region the Autobot had been talking about. He stops in front of an older looking structure and opens his doors again for them to get out. "So this is a shortcut of sorts. It'll take us into the deeper parts of the Undergrid without having to navigate some of the upper passages." he explains.

Cypher has posed:
    "Well yeah. I mean I can't see the planet in its totality but I can see how so much of this fits together. I don't know if it'd still work because of the damage to and repurposing of parts of the planet, but *maybe*..."
    Then Doug is studying the door. "What's waiting for us down there?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon clambers out right after Creed, staying close to Blurr and Doug. Stretching out her wings a bit, she peers up at the enormous entryway, keeping one hand just on Creed--but to reassure the Insecticon, or herself? "That's a big door," she murmurs, chortling softly. "Sorry... got to love Tron."

Blurr has posed:
    "Tron?" Blurr echoes the unfamiliar name, but it just sounds like the latter part of Megatron's name so he sort of makes a face at it. He accompanies the two Terrans into the fairly simple building, where there is just an elevator door at the center of one room. There's a lot of dust, rust, and dirt in here, as if this place hasn't seen a lot of traffic for a while. Yeah, not a lot of people liked to pay those parts of the Undergrid a visit, unless they had a -really- good reason to...

    He steps up to the door and signals the lift, and there is a groaning noise as it comes up from wherever it was. The doors retract, folding in on themselves in similar fashion to the way they've seen Blurr fold up into his vehicle form. As the speedster steps onto it, he nods to Doug. "Right. I was going to get to that part. Somewhere at the core of this planet is a powerful device called Vector Sigma. For as long as anyone can remember, it has given life to our kind all over the galaxy through some kind of pulsewave that used to go off every vorn or so. But lately they've become more and more sparse. No one knows why, but no one's really tried to tap into the thing before, either. To be honest, it's kind of a mystery."

Cypher has posed:
    Doug considers that, and then says, "Huh. Interesting. I'm guessing it has some sort of code key encryption on it none of your people have been able to break. And you're hoping I can."
    Then Doug mutters, "I heard a bit about how your people are regarded, galactically. You must've done something to earn that."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon frowns a little bit, glancing between Doug and Blurr. There had been that oddly long time Doug took in coming back to the ship when they made their pit stop, which had been just fine by her--it let her befriend Creed. Could that short span of time be what Doug was referring to? "Doug? What are you talking about...?"

Blurr has posed:
    The group enters the gravlift, and Blurr signals it again. It starts to descend faster and faster until it reaches top speed. They are really going -far- down. He shrugs at Doug's theory. "I don't know, honestly I don't even know if anyone's even -seen- it. It's just what's in the archives. Some of our scientists managed to comb through some historical data on the last pulsewave that went out, and trace the signal back to specific coordinates in deepest parts of the Undergrid. But yeah, given what you are, Doug...maybe it's worth a shot. Maybe we can--I dunno, learn something about what exactly that thing is, even."

    He sighs at that mutter about their reputation. "You're not wrong." he admits.

Cypher has posed:
    "And am I right in extrapolating that a lot of that reputation is bleed from your civil war? I've met Megatron, he didn't seem very enamored of organic life." Doug puts his hands behind his back. "So you're asking me to try and hack into Vector Sigma, whatever it is, to reboot the process that gives rise to new Cybertronians. Which will likely reignite the fires of your war, as both sides get fresh troops."
    "But if I don't, your race is at risk of going extinct."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon frowns even more deeply as she hears of a civil war, and the potential extinction of a whole race of beings. Beings which, oddly enough, she was starting to rather like, through Blurr and now Creed. "Okay, so a vorn is how long in Earth years? And you said the signals were becoming more sparse... by how much? And when was the last one?" Crossing her arms, she just stares into space for a few moments, deep in thought.

"Humans have had their share of civil wars too, Doug. And heaven only knows what the rest of the galaxy thinks of us for it. But don't forget there's two sides in a war. Peace shouldn't come at the price of extinction. They have as much right to live as we do, and have that hope to -live- in peace--which they can't do if nobody is left. How can we -not- help?"

Blurr has posed:
    "What? No--I mean, yeskindof? I don't know. I don't know anything about whatever it is. I'm just hoping maybe you could help us learn about it. Who knows, maybe we'll discover something that will actually -end- the war and end the suffering. You might be wondering why no one else has tried this given we know where it would theoretically be. And that's because we're all too busy killing each other." Blurr sighs. The lift finally stops, jolting a little.

    "And no, Megatron is definitely not enamored of organics, and frankly neither are most of us." Including himself. Though he is starting to warm up to them. Sort of. "I'm sure humans have had their share of civil wars. But I'm willing to bet none of them wiped out entire civilizations, planets, and in some cases, systems."

    He walks over to the door controls. "Anyway, before I open the door, I will warn you that it's pretty dangerous down here. Which is why not a lot of people come down here unless they have a -really- good reason..."

Cypher has posed:
    "...Civilizations, yes. We haven't had the means to wage war on that scale, yet. I can't point fingers." Doug says, "But I do have to consider the consequences of what I do." He puts his hands behind his back, and says, "Well, then, I guess we're putting our lives in your hands, buddy."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon looks up at Blurr with new appreciation and respect. Out of all the Cybertronians who could be doing this one thing to help his race, he was the only one known so far who had actually tried. True, perhaps there might have been others whose names and deeds were lost to history, but still...

"You're doing something that takes a lot of courage, Blurr. I don't know if you experience emotions or feelings the same way we do, but it's something at least most humans can appreciate." Squaring her shoulders and tucking her wings in close behind her, she stands with Creed, behind Blurr and Doug. "We accepted the danger by coming with you. Let's roll."

Blurr has posed:
    Weelll, they didn't really accept the danger by coming with Blurr because he didn't actually tell them what they'd be doing until just now. But never mind that! It's not relevant any more right? Riiight.

    "Heh, it's not as if I've never been down here." he remarks to Shannon's comment about being courageous. He hits the door controls and they open again, now leading out onto a very precarious looking walkway across a steep chasm the bottom of which is not even visible at this distance. The walls are a maze of machinery, like the inside of a giant factory.

    "Scrap..." the speedster mutters. "We'd best tread carefully."

Cypher has posed:
    "Right." Doug says. "Fortunately, I'm pretty good at evaluating the way walkways are put together." He starts off, across the walkway. "It'll hold our weight, and it should hold yours, Blurr, but I wouldn't linger on it." He pointedly doesn't look down. "Besides, if you fell, you wouldn't feel anything when you hit the bottom anyway--"
    He still holds his breath.

Nightingale has posed:
     Yeah. No. Shannon was -not- going to take a chance on this walkway. With a few strong downstrokes of her wings, she takes to the air, hovering just above the trio on the walkway--Blurr, Doug, and Creed. The less weight on that precarious perch, the better, even if hers was probably the least weight of all. "Let's get going. Tempus fugit."

Blurr has posed:
    Oh, right. The exos can fly. And also Shannon can fly with her wings. That's useful. But if any Cybertronian is good at getting across these things, it's Blurr. He is lighter than most, and more versatile. So the group manages to get to a tunnel opening on the other side with relative ease.

    It's pretty dark down here, although Blurr and the exos do have lights on them. But he stops a few paces beyond the bridge, frowning. "Stay back, I heard something." he warns, advancing carefully. Indeed, there was something...that sounded like some kind of clattering? Scurrying? A bit of both?

Cypher has posed:
    Doug looks up -- "I assume most life forms here are substantially larger than a human." He activates the weaponry on his suit, and then gets behind some cover.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon sees Doug fiddling with something on his suit, and also hears the odd metallic skittering. It does not seem to be coming from Creed, which leaves her to frown. What could be going on? She has a quick look at her own suit, and finds the controls to activate the arm blasters, keeping hers at the ready. She had no idea if she was a decent shot or not, but at least she could be one helluva distraction in the air!

Blurr has posed:
    Creed seems to also be aware that something is up, his antennae straightening nervously. Blurr advances down the tunnel a short ways, scanning in every direction carefully in search of whatever's lurking down here. But everything seems to have gone very quiet all of a sudden...too quiet.

Cypher has posed:
    Doug pauses, and then he thinks to himself. "Hmmmmmm." He gets up, and starts walking out into the tunnel. He'd heard a clattering, before. A clicking. He kneels down on the floor of the tunnel, and begins to tap with his finger. It starts out mimicking what he'd heard, and it gets more complex from there. "Language is just a sophistication on animal noises..." He murmurs. "I can communicate with anything capable of communication." Click click... click. Click.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon looks on with utter and complete fascination as Doug sets to work, trying to communicate with whatever it was that lay ahead. However, she had her reservations as to whether or no whatever it was on the other end of the line, so to speak, was friendly--or at least non-aggressive. Too, Creed's reaction has her attention, and she frowns, looking in the same direction as their Insecticon friend. "What's down here that could be setting Creed off like this, Blurr?" the young mutant inquires, keeping her voice low.

Blurr has posed:
    Click, click....clickclick. Doug keeps tapping on the ground. The noise comes closer.

    "Oh, a number of things. A long time ago, a bunch of mechs stumbled on a pool of raw ener--" But Blurr doesn't even get to finish the sentence, because a dark figure that looks vaguely like some kind of worm or snake-like creature suddenly bursts out of a wall and grabs the Autobot, clamping its massive metal mandibles down onto his body before drilling into the opposite wall and dragging him off down into the tunnel it just created!

Cypher has posed:
    Doug straightens up, and then he says, "Well, that was unexpected. Still, I can tell what I did worked--" He stares after it, and then frowns, "...It didn't eat us."
    Then he squares his shoulders, and sets off down the tunnel, headed toward their goal. "Disappeared in the bowls of an alien factory-world... it's a better epitaph than before."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Aww, scrap!" Perhaps a bit of Blurr was rubbing off on Shannon in the form of some of his colorful metaphors. Tapping Creed lightly near his antennae, she motions towards Doug and the improvised tunnel. Taking off after him, she has no problem keeping pace; perhaps all those early morning runs back on Earth were proving helpful after all. "No it didn't. And it didn't touch Creed, either. So why Blurr, and not us?"

Blurr has posed:
    Well, at least the thing left a very obvious trail. It'll take the smaller Terrans a while to traverse it, but eventually they'd arrive in a large cavernous area with many holes all around the walls that look quite similar to the one they'd just come out of. There are also these huge egg-shaped sacs sitting on beds of rusted metal shavings, full of some kind of glowing green liquid. Some of them have faint silhouettes of something or someone floating inside of them.

    Oh, yeah and the monster is in here, too. With the lighting a bit better in here, they can see that it does sort of look like a mechanical worm with a big drillbit on its face and hundreds of short, sharp, segmented legs all along its body almost like a giant centipede. It seems to be...feasting on one of the weird glowing sacs.

Cypher has posed:
    "Ah," Doug says, "Externalized digestion. The use of corrosive liquids to dissolve a life-form into its mineral components, which the creature can then consume and digest. I suspect that it probably takes a long time for the enzymes to work, which is why it has to capture and immobilize its prey. Likely it primarily consumes metallic life-forms, which is why you and I don't register to it at all. It wouldn't know what to make of us."
    He begins inspecting those pods. "So Blurr should be in one of these."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Might not know what to make of us, but Creed's as metallic as anything else here." Creed was also a lot smaller, and perhaps stood as much of a chance as they did of skittering about amongst the pods with little to no notice. Shannon turns to their metallic companion and looks right into those glowing, yellow eyes.

     "We could use some help looking for Blurr, you up to that?" Motioning towards the pods, and hoping Creed understands, she herself takes to the air to see if she can spot anything from a little higher up, any indication of a more freshly created or placed pod that could potentially hold Blurr.

Blurr has posed:
    Amazingly, Creed does seem to understand something. If not what Shannon said, it seems to know they are looking for their companion that just got dragged off. It scuttles about, sniffing at the pods, until finally it nudges the young mutant girl and points one of its front claws at one of the fresher looking sacs. Well they can sort of make out a figure in there that looks vaguely like Blurr, and thankfully it looks like he's still in one piece for the most part, unlike some of the others that look like nothing more than protoforms and pieces of outer armor that were too tough to digest floating around.

    Problem is, that monstrous thing is sucking on the one -right- next to it....should they try getting that close...?

Cypher has posed:
    Doug lets out a sigh, and says, "Well, it found him. All right..." He says, "I'm going to distract the centipede. You cut him out of that, and then maybe he can help us chase it off." He looks up, and then he says, "I wonder. My right arm is mostly carbon compounds and advanced techno-circuitry." He seals his suit at the shoulder, and then removes the arm piece, before he waves it at the creature. "Hey. Hey, you. Snacktime! Get a load of this, big boy!"

Nightingale has posed:
     "I've heard of things costing an arm and a leg, but that's not meant to be so literal, Doug!" With Doug distracting the giant centipede, Shannon crouches down on the other side of the pod, keeping it between her and their opponent. Good thing, too, because it takes her a moment to find the controls to bring her wrist blades to bear.

     Hey, give the girl a break, this kind of stuff isn't anything she's encountered before!

     She jabs hard into the membrane of the pod, dodging slightly to the side to hopefully avoid the worst of the outflow of goopy, glowy digestive fluid. Who knew what the stuff would do to their exosuits, if it was enough to digest a Cybertronian! "Come on, Creed, it'll go faster with two of us!"

Blurr has posed:
    That certainly gets the creature's attention. It turns toward Doug, staring at him for a moment as if unsure what to do with an organic wearing metal armor, but it's not exactly the smartest thing alive either so it dives at him with its giant drillbit head.

    The blades dig into the membrane, slicing it open. The glowing liquid inside immediately starts leaking out all over the the ground, and Creed quickly starts to help her as well, slashing at it with its claws. Still, the thing is pretty huge in comparison to them. Hopefully Doug can keep this up for a while without actually becoming a snack...

Cypher has posed:
    Doug seems to be good at distracting critters. He waves his arms at it, and then says, "Hey! Hey! Your face looks like a Brood's BUTT. Over here! Whoooo-hooo, that's right, DEFINATELY LOOK AT ME." He goes rolling out of the way, and then breaks into a run. "That's right! I'm WAY more interesting than that other thing."

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon wasn't quite sure how much time Doug was going to be able to buy them to free Blurr from the pod, so she worked frantically to slice and slash at the membranous shell of the gross, disgusting thing. As the fluid goes oozing all over the ground, she has to take to the air to keep from slipping and falling flat on her face. There's a bit of resistance as she keeps her wrist blades digging into the membrane while rising skywards, in a bid to try to 'unzip' it and get Blurr out of there. "That's it, Creed, keep at it!"

Blurr has posed:
    The creature misses Doug, because he's kinda tiny compared to it, and ends up smashing its head into a wall instead. It hisses at him, and several sharp tentacles come out from behind its head, covered in bladed segments. They lash out at the mutant, attempting to stab at him or grab him!

    The sac finally comes apart copmletely, the liquid flowing onto the ground and dumping Blurr with it. He doesn't move, though, and his optics are darkened.

Cypher has posed:
    "Could sure use some help--" Doug says. Too late -- the creature lunges out in front of him, those bladex extended, and then Doug throws his arms out in front of him--
    And the techno-organic matter of his right arm suddenly forms itself into a bubble-shaped shield, blocking those pincers.

Nightingale has posed:
     Scrap. Darkened optics could not be a good sign. As soon as Blurr was on the ground, Shannon can catch a quick breath. At least he was free. Doug, however, was in a bit of a bind. And she wasn't trained as a fighter. However... if there was one thing a creature would no doubt dislike, it was a threat to its food source.

     "Doug? Think you can help Blurr? I'll see about distracting this centipede!" She might not have much, but she did have flight, a bit of speed, and arm blasters. If this thing wanted to save its dinner, it would have to deal with her.

     Flying higher, she takes aim at one of the pods a short distance away, one of the ones that looked a bit older and very likely ready for the creature's consumption. She takes a shot at the membrane, and by some miracle, actually manages to hit her target. "HEY! Big guy! You might wanna come protect your food source!"

Blurr has posed:
    While the shield does well to block the stabbing, it doesn't stop them from wrapping themselves about his legs. However, when Shannon starts shooting and shouting, the tentacles suddenly retract as it turns its attention her way. Indeed, the threat to its food source definitely has it raging. Even moreso than Doug had earlier. It shrieks and...oh are those machine guns, emerging out of both sides of its body? Yup, definitely. They open fire at her with twin barrages of superheated plasma. The thrusters on her feet will certainly help her move a bit faster, but how long can she keep it up??

Cypher has posed:
    "Evolution on this planet sure is FUNNY." Doug says. As the creature moves, he scans the way its body is put together, the way it moves. The pattern of the interlocking armor plates... "Bingo." Doug levels his arm that still has the gun attachment on it, aims for a flaw in the joints just behind the creature's head, and fires. Ptchow! Pttch-ch-chow! "Dig those retro sound effects!"

Nightingale has posed:
     "FRAK!" One shot gets a little close for comfort to Shannon, and she darts between the pods, weaving in and out and keeping them between herself and the centipede. In essence, she is forcing it to shoot up its own food supply. Oddly, it reminded her of the one DR session with Megan, Bean, and Kurt, when she was having to fly between city buildings in increasingly narrow spaces...

     ...which meant she was going to have to watch her airspace, and not let this creature flush her out so easily! In addition to forcing the centipeded to shoot its own food pods, she breaks out her wrist blade and starts slicing them open, using the bite of the blade into the membranes to swing herself around, much as if she were running one of the ring courses for flyers in the DR. Never had she been so thankful for the training, and never would she argue about its necessity!

Blurr has posed:
    Well, if the creature seemed to care about the pods before, it doesn't seem to give a scrap any more. All hell breaks loose as it simply fires indiscriminately at Shannon, the sacs bursting open and sending the green substance flying everywhere. Bits of debris fly too, as the shots score the walls. A well placed shot from Doug does cause a signifciant leak, a lavender-colored liquid streaming out of the injury, but the thing is just so -huge-....

    Unfortunately for the young girl, a piece of debris is loosed from the ceiling and knocks her to the ground. In seconds, the creature is on top of her, rearing back and about to impale her with that drillbit head, but at the last moment, Creed lunges at it, latching onto the monstrosity's face with all his claws and mandibles as hard as he can! The centipede like creature screeches in pain and flings its head against a wall, trying to knock the Insecticon off.

Cypher has posed:
    Doug looks up at the serpent, thrashing around -- and then he looks over at Blurr. "Okay, you giant toaster, now that we need you, you're sucking ants out of your pillow--" He looks around, and says, "Of course you'd be too sophisticated to have an on-switch--"
    Doug kicks Blurr a couple of times. "GET UP!"

Nightingale has posed:
     Dazed though Shannon is from being knocked down, the second that Creed face-hugs the giant centipede, she rolls out of the way and gets up. Nope, nothing broken, thank god. Pure luck saved her skin that time. Her exosuit might be a little dinged up, but thankfully life support was still working, and so were her arm cannons, by some miracle. Taking to the air once more, she flies up behind the creature, looking for a weakness, anything that would help her bring it down....

     ...and there it was. The very place Doug had shot on the creature marked her target. But could she hit it? One shot in the same spot might have only wounded it slightly, but would a second shot worsen the injury, and perhaps incapacitate the creature? She hated firing, hated the idea of taking another creature's life, but at this point it was self-defense. Taking aim as she hovers behind the creature, she fires, hoping and praying the shot finds its mark.

Blurr has posed:
    No, Blurr does not have an on switch. Unfortunately he is not as simple as a giant toaster, and he remains motionless despite Doug kicking him. Especially since he's a lot smaller than the Autobot.

    Shannon fires at the injury. It hits somewhat in the area, causing the leak to worsen, but the creature doesn't seem to falter just yet. Though it is distracted with thrashing about trying to get Creed off of itself. Finally, the Insecticon is knocked free, landing on his back but scrambling to his feet quickly and making a beeline out of the cavern, back toward the tunnel they came out of. Its attention now focused on Shannon's new pet, the metal monstrosity shrieks again and takes off after him, leaving Shannon, Doug, and Blurr to themselves. But should they go after it?

Cypher has posed:
    "Aw, damn it." Doug says, watching the snake go away. "Okay." He says, "It's going to come back--" He looks down at Blurr, "And I have no idea how to fix you, or if your self-repair is running, or what." He looks up at where it chased the Insecticon off to, and then back, and then he runs his hand over his visor. "I don't suppose you have a glove box with an instruction manual in it?"

Nightingale has posed:
     As much as Shannon wanted to go after the fleeing Insecticon, right now that little guy was all that was keeping the centipede away from the trio. And if she wanted to make sure his help wasn't for nothing, she had to see what she could do to assist Doug in getting Blurr back on his feet. So she backwings into a fairly graceful landing next to the two, and starts looking Blurr over for any obvious sign of damage, anything that might indicate what had knocked him out. Puncture marks, sign of impact to the cranial area, anything. Sure, there were some fairly obvious differences between Cybertronians and humans, but surely there had to be enough similarities to suggest a course of action...?

Blurr has posed:
    From the scratches and dents on the outside, it looks like Blurr was grabbed around the right upper arm area and dragged. Although most of this damage appears to be superficial, and the rest of him looks fine. Well fine as in the same as it was before. Which meant that most of the problem must be internal...

Cypher has posed:
    "I'm not a mechanic." Doug says, "I build computers, not robots. God damn it--" Doug says, before he glances back up, and then he exhales, sharply, and says, "Last ditch," he says, "Maybe I can use the cannon on this," He starts fiddling with his gun and powering it up, "To generate an electric charge and it'll jolt him awake. Stand back!" Having toyed with the settings on the weapon accordingly, he levels it on Blurr and gives him a shock.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon gets back immediately, giving a healthy distance between Doug, Blurr, and herself. She hoped to all that was holy that the liquid from inside the pods wasn't conductive, or this could go south /real/ fast! She glances back at the tunnel where the centipede and Creed had disappeared, hoping her little friend might be back, but has a feeling they might not see him for a while....

Blurr has posed:
    Doug may not be very strong in comparison to everything else around here, but he still has his wits and his resourcefulness. This would be one of the times that is going to pay off. The voltage travels from his exo and into Blurr's systems, and he jerks up, his optics flickering on. His ventilation systems cough, and suddenly he purges his tanks, the strange green substance spewing out of his mouth and onto the ground. Well who knew robots could vomit. Sort of. He pushes himself up against cavern wall, looking somewhat dazed and confused.

Cypher has posed:
    Doug lowers the exo-cannon, and says, "I can't believe that worked." He looks up, and says, "I don't like that little fella's odds against that thing, but he bought us some time, so--" he says, "I hope he makes it." Then he pauses, and says, "Hey Blurr. Those Insecticons... do they gather in colonies?"

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon breathes a sigh of relief as Blurr is shocked awake, and nods in agreement with Doug. "So do I. And... if he doesn't come back, maybe he'll find others of his own kind to be happy with. Still, got to admit I hope he comes back."

Unfortunately for her, she's right in the 'splash zone' when Blurr starts coughing and... well, throwing whatever passes for a respiratory system into reverse. Ewww. "Slag!"

Blurr has posed:
    "..." Blurr takes a moment to finally regain his composure and remember what the slag just happened to him. What the smelt were these fleshy things doing here? Oh. Right. He stares at the destroyed pod that he was just in. Wait, did they just--?

    "Wh-what--Insecticons? Oh uh--no, the ones Creed came from were failed experiments by some Decepticon scientist. No idea how that one ended up on that fueling station in the outer rim, but they don't exactly have a 'natural' habitat if that's what you're asking."

    He rubs his damaged arm, groaning. "Fragging smelting pits..." he murmurs to himself. "Maybe we shouldn't have come down here--what happened exactly, anyway?"

Cypher has posed:
    "Cause if I was a scrappy insect trying to run off a bigger, stronger predator -- or better still, eat it -- the first thing I'd do is lead it into a colony of--" Doug pauses and squashes that thought.

"Oh. Some giant robo-centiped put you in a puddle of goo, I assume to dissolve you into your constituent minerals so it could drink you." Doug says, helpfully.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon smiles, seeing Blurr coming back to himself. "Glad you're alright," she offers. "Yeah, a giant centipede decided you'd make a good snack. We had other ideas. Creed helped free you, too." Her smile turns to a concerned frown, and she sighs lightly. "Well, failed experiment or not, let's hope he's got his wits about him, and he's leading that centipede into more than he bargained for. Think you'll be okay?"

Blurr has posed:
    "Huh." Blurr is...intrigued that they came after him, and put themselves in danger on top of it. Even though he kind of tricked them into a situation that was far more than what they'd signed up for. And...even the Insecticon? He'd never thought he'd live to see the day. "So he drew it away? I--wow. Well, I hate to break it to you guys, but I doubt he made it." he sighs. "I guess we've come this far, might as well just go the rest of the way and at least attempt to do what we came here for." He checks his nav systems and starts toward one of the exit tunnels.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods, and smiles grimly, following along behind Blurr and Doug. "Told you. Friends look out for each other. Doesn't matter where they come from." She sighs lightly and nods. "Yeah... I'm not sure about his chances either, but there's this pesky little human thing called hope. I hope he does make it. Now... let's see this thing through."