11849/Fishing for Data

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Fishing for Data
Date of Scene: 28 July 2020
Location: Earth Orbit
Synopsis: Lockdown spends the better part of a day preparing to do data extraction on Blurr... only to run into an entire Autobot operation in the Sol system. Shenanigans ensue.
Cast of Characters: Lockdown, Blurr




Lockdown has posed:
Sometimes, Lockdown would take prisoners for years at a time. Cybertronians were practically immortal after all; what was a decade or two in a cell?

This time, Lockdown could not afford to wait that long. No doubt events were going without him.

Blurr had been kept suspended in a stasis chamber designed to paralyze and drain Cybertronian chassis of all kinds. It kept anyone kept in them completely locked up, their chassis tricked into a pseudo stasis lock, and used a conduit to drain power from the limbs so the spark could not animate the body, giving redundancy in case one method of containment failed.

Being kept in the Tacticians prisoner deck... was very probably torture for the 'young' Cybertronian.

It had been a day since he had been locked into the chamber. Meanwhile, Lockdown had been scanning subspace and exchanging reports with various outposts to try to find any confirmation of Blurr's words. Lockdown knew what he was dealing with now after all, and knew what to look for.

Blurr has posed:
    Stasis field, of course. Blurr had expected something of the sort. He certainly hates it as much as the next mech would, but it's not the worst he has ever endured, either. Of course, he would be scanning everything within range for any kind of weakness, any hole in the Tactician's security that he might be able to take advantage of.

    Meanwhile, it takes some time, but Lockdown's search would indeed reveal that there are some Autobot IFF codes attached to heavily encrypted strings bouncing around subspace in the Sol System here. Each signal has been routed and re-routed through several recon probes and even human-manufactured satellites, some of which appear to actually be orbiting Earth just as the Tactician is.

Lockdown has posed:
The ancient Cybertronian had invested extremely heavily in security. Sensors would pick up state-of-the-art technology around him, designed as active defenses in case any prisoners got out of their fields. Electronet cannons, stun blasters, EMP mines. These were just the overt defenses. No doubt there were passive systems just waiting for Blurr to make a move elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Lockdown had been working on tracing those signals and capturing them. He had no interest in finding information on Autobot deployment in the system -he wasn't a scout reporting back to central command, after all- but he did need leads on where to find the data he was looking for... and Blurr was a last resort for interrogation. He needed to confirm Autobot activity before he talked to Blurr: He needed leverage.

Blurr has posed:
    Electronets, stun weapons, EMP mines. But nothing lethal, huh? Interesting. Blurr runs through different scenarios in his mind--but he'd need to find a way out of the stasis field first...

    It would prove rather difficult to trace the signals all the way to their original source, at least not without a hacker or comms expert. The recon probes were as far as he could get for now. But it would appear that there are more of them in orbit around this particular planet than most other primitive spheres like this one. And they are all very active. Almost as if there was some kind of operation going on here...

Lockdown has posed:
"What in the..." Lockdown's visual sensors focus, zooming in on the activity. "They have to know about the fuel. It's the only reason they'd have a serious presence here." Then, Lockdown starts to bring the Tactician around, heading for a recon probe... and jamming it as he tries to lock a tractor beam on it to pull it into his cargo bay. It's the last link in the chain.

Hopefully, it'll have answers.

Down in the prison deck, there are no visible lethal countermeasures... but that doesn't mean there aren't any in the outer prison. No one has been known to escape the Tactician yet... so it's a possibility.

Blurr has posed:
    The recon probe he is targeting doesn't exactly have any defenses of its own, so he is able to tractor it into the cargo bay without any trouble. Of course, this would certainly alert any other Autobots in the area to his presence. Presumably he knows this and doesn't care.

    Meanwhile, Blurr is thinking at a million kils a breem. He can't move his limbs, but his TechVolt is still folded up inside his upper arm. Not that he could get it out, but maybe he can reroute what little energy he can spare straight into the power cell. He -might- be able to overload it and send a massive jolt into the field generator itself, potentially causing it to short out. It would also hurt like slag and render that arm inoperable for a breem or so, as well as frying the weapon itself but right now his entire body is inoperable anyway.

Lockdown has posed:
Rerouting the power would work, but no doubt Lockdown has sensors to detect just that sort of thing. His stasis fields, after all, don't completely lock down the chassis... they just make Cybertronians keep a very low power state. drip feeding a small amount of power into integrated weapons is a common tactic to get out of low power fields, and Lockdown seems to know it.

As for Lockdown; he's counting on it. He needs to know if the Autobots care about his presence in this system or not. If they do, they'll make their own presence known, presumably to rescue Blurr. They might have answers that Lockdown needs.

If they don't? He knows Blurr is considered expendable.

Locking the Tactician into a stable orbit and keying sensors to his arm pad, Lockdown gets up and starts to head down to the cargo bay.

Time to run his standard hacking gear, and see if this probe will require Soundwaves assistance or not.

The sound of a moving Lockdown can distantly by heard by Blurr as well.

Blurr has posed:
    Who ever said anything about drip feeding power? Blurr does figure Lockdown knows this is a common tactic. In fact, most people do. But the reason it frequently works so well for Blurr is because he can something most can't...he is not just a fast runner, or a fast driver. He's--well, fast -everything-...

    Lockdown would arrive in the cargo bay just in time for the recon probe to be brought in by the tractor beam. It appears to be the standard equipment, mostly manufactured in the Iacon district as is per usual for Autobot hardware. Unfortunately, the hacking resources Lockdown has isn't enough to crack the encryption on the data. No, this would require the expertise of Soundwave or Ravage.

    However, he might have other concerns. Before he had even finished running his own equipment, the Tactician would send him a proximity alert, informing him that 3 smaller vessels had entered orbit and were approaching. From the looks of it, they were FTL-capable interceptor craft, common among many space-travel capable altmodes.

    As perhaps was expected, they were already broadcasting Autobot IFF codes.

Lockdown has posed:
Lockdown peered at the control pad, then went back towards the bridge. It would be the height of unlucky if they could manage to get through his cloaking technology, but his ship was more than capable of withstanding interceptor forms.

It's the bigger ships that worried him, if the Autobots are in system.

Once he's back on the bridge, Lockdown watches the sensor grid. The probe was jammed locally, so they couldn't know where it is now... but they could make guesses where he was. Soundwave would have to wait.

The Great War might have just come to Earth.

Blurr has posed:
    Indeed, the interceptor forms start circling the area, searching the probe's last known coordinates. Soon, they start broadcasting.

    << This is Autobot Patrol Squadron A9-2 Cycle 12-6-8, Fifth Aerospace Division. Identify yourselves immediately. We know you're here. We -will- find you. >>

    Blurr heard Lockdown's massive feet clanking around above, moving over toward the bridge. And he heard that broadcast, too. As much as he hates doing it, he waits. He's decided to see what Lockdown will do...

Lockdown has posed:
Of course they know he's here. They'd have to be the worst protoforms in the universe to not notice a recon probe disappearing from their net.

Still, it's time to find out Autobot interests here. Even if they trace his signal, he can simply move away under cloak. If they trace him and open fire immediately, he at least will know they're hostile.

He presses the broadcast button. <<This is Lockdown, Captain of the Tactician, Cybertronian light cruiser. Licensed Cybertronian Bounty Hunter. I am a neutral entity in the great war currently on contract. State your business.>>

Blurr has posed:
    The squadron continues circling, but as they receive the transmission, they begin to follow the signal, closing the distance. << Acknowledged. You are in possession of Autobot property. Reliquish it immediately, or we will open fire on your position. >>

    Lofty threats from a few fighters who didn't know what they were up against...that is, unless the 'opening fire' part didn't mean just fire from -them-.

Lockdown has posed:
He needs answers more than he needs a recon probe he can't get into, so he dumps it out of the cargo bay with the tractor beam.

The probe is once again in space, and Lockdown makes no attempt to shift his movements. Yet. He can always go grab another probe with Soundwave around."

<<Request received and acted on. Requesting meeting with your Commanding Officer.>> Lockdown broadcasts back.

Blurr has posed:
    The squadron watches as the probe is quickly ejected, and it resumes its regular programming. They continue circling, but don't reply yet, as if considering. It would seem that the probe robbery had served its purpose. He'd wanted to draw them out here.

    << Negative. You will leave this system immediately. We have no need to repeat to you what will happen if you do not comply. >>

    Suddenly, another alert screams at him on one of the status panels. There had been a very abrupt power surge in one of the sections on the lower decks. Specifically, the brig where he no doubt knows Blurr was being held. The surge hadn't been huge, but enough to fry the power conduits to that room.

    Meanwhile, down on the prison deck, Blurr is lying on the floor of the now darkened section of the brig. The power redirect had forced him to a temporary stasis lock, but he had been banking on his unique physiology to reboot much more quickly than a typical mech would. Hopefully, fast enough to get out of the open before Lockdown came to investigate...

Lockdown has posed:
<<I don't answer to you, child.>> The broadcast is abruptly cut short as he shifts the orbit of his ship at the same time. They can fire where the Tactician was... but it's already gone. Now, he needed to follow them back to where they came fr-

Well. Slag.

Lockdown was already on his way down. He didn't need the sensors to tell him which cell was a problem; he knew Blurr had used something he didn't know about to overload, despite the his timetable for it. He would be at the prison block within half a minute.

Blurr has posed:
    Lockdown would receive no further reply from the squadron, nor would he witness anything opening fire on the Tactician's previous position. Perhaps they had some way of determining if the target was actually present at the specified coordinates or not. Or, perhaps they had been empty threats the entire time. At any rate, the only thing that happens is the three interceptors turn and fly off. One thing is clear though--there is no hyperspace window, at least not within detectable range of the ship.

    Back down on the prison deck, Blurr struggles back online, his optics flickering in the dark. A wave of relief passes over him as he does not see Lockdown in here just yet. Quickly, he moves over to any doors that lead into this section of the brig, destroying the control panels. The power is out, so they will be stuck anyway, but he figures Lockdown will probably have some kind of backup power source, so this was just to make sure he had as much time as possible to carry out what he has planned. He'd already identified the pile of EMP mines while he'd been stuck in the stasis field. The speedster gathers them up, and searches for a ventilation or maintenance shaft. A ship of this size had to have at least ventilation in every room...

Lockdown has posed:
Via the control pad, Lockdown set course for the Tactician to automatically follow the interceptor forms, intending to follow them back to their source. The sensors are tied into the control pad, but it doesn't matter. Blurr was the current priority.

Within five seconds, the backup generator turns on, and suddenly the prison block comes back to life. Two electronet cannons come to life down the hall, and aim for Blurr. Next, Stun fields started to come up all over the prison hallways.

One thing that Blurr will notice... is that is there is ventilation, it's not immediately obvious. Camouflaged? Seems so. There is probably a vent somewhere, but Lockdown seems to have thought up that possibility too.

Blurr has posed:
    Yep, Blurr knew about the electronet cannons, he saw them before. And he figured there'd be some backup generator. Still, he was banking on being able to dodge them all whilst scouring the entire section for an opening to a ventilation shaft, as long as Lockdown hadn't yet busted his way in.

    So he launches himself into action even as the cannons are power up, doing his best to twist and somersault between shots and stun fields before they could get their full coverage. He is actually looking for an opening in the floor or near the floor, and if he finds one, he'll immediately blast the cover off and dive straight into it--provided it's large enough.

    As for the squadron, they actually do not really go anywhere. Instead of leaving orbit or landing, they just keep circling the planet, and the Tactician does the same as it tails them. Perhaps they knew they were being followed. Or perhaps that's what they had been doing all along anyway.

Lockdown has posed:
This is a secure prison deck. There are no openings in the floor. It is, in fact, fairly reinforced by Cybertronian alloys enough to withstand Cybertronian weapon use.

Obviously, Lockdown expected breakout attempts from his prison. He keeps the worst of the worst in here. It's obvious he's sunk a fortune into keeping his reputation.

Unfortunately, that also means Blurr will have to take the hard way and brute force his way out into the hallways to have any chance of escape... and there's only one hallway out; right through the massive stun fields, even as he dodges the cannon turrets easily enough.

On the plus side, it also means Lockdown needs to either shut down or brute force his way through the defenses that don't have IFF, like the mentioned stun fields. Giving Blurr time to consider as Lockdown gets near the hallway.

Blurr has posed:
    Well, scratch the shaft plan, then. Fortunately, the electronet cannons are too slow for him, and he is able to dodge them easily. He knew his weapons wouldn't be strong enough to blast through any walls or anything, but maybe they're enough to take out the cannons. The speedster would attempt to take them out before Lockdown got here. But other than that, he makes no further attempt to leave, allowing the stun fields to block the way to the door. If he's lucky, they're not IFF-coded, and Lockdownn would have to shut them off in order to get past them himself...

Lockdown has posed:
Finally, Lockdown come into view on the other end of the hallway, the stun fields in the way still. An ion blaster is already expanded from his forearm, but not aimed, yet. "You know I'm not just gonna let you go, right?" Lockdown casually notes as he watches the other end. "I have questions."

Blurr has posed:
    Assuming Blurr is successful in taking out the auto turrets, once that is done he would just stand there, on the other side of the stun fields, arms crossed. It would appear to the casual observer that as much as he is trying to put on a show of being able to 'tough' this all out, what he had done to himself to get out of the stasis field was taking its toll. He was shaking slightly, and sparks and smoke are coming off of him in various places.

    A bit of fuel trickles down and forms a small pool at his feet. Seeing this, he shudders and starts backpedaling into the far wall.

Lockdown has posed:
He's practically seen it all with this prison. From the berserkers to the icy cold pragmatists. Tough trying to escape? That's uncommon, but a thing. None of it draws any sympathy for Blurr, though.

Bringing up his right arm, he brings up the prison control on his control pad, turning off the first stun field set so he can walk in. Then, the next set of stun fields turns off as he hits another control button. Just before the final set of stun fields, Lockdown glances to him. "You gonna let me repair you, or do you want to leak Energon until you get stasis locked?"

Blurr has posed:
    Oh, smelt that! No way is Blurr letting some mercenary repair him! He backs all the way up against the far wall, waiting for Lockdown to shut off the final stun field. The Autobot leans against the wall, his knee servos buckling a bit as he lets his body fall into a partial crouching position against it.

    At the same time, he is looking past Lockdown out into the hallway behind him, searching for a stairway access or gravlift leading to the other decks...

Lockdown has posed:
Instead, he simply paces back and forth, his arms crosses his he watches the Autobot scout with a neutral expression. He says nothing, those red visual sensors keeping on him as he patiently waits out Blurr.

Lockdown has all the time in the universe, and the Tactician is busy following Autobot interceptors. He brings up the sensor display, checking the status of space.

Blurr has posed:
    The display would indicate that the Tactician is still tailing the other Autobots, and they are still just flying in circles about the planet, occasionally stopping to drift lazily about in orbit. Really not much to see there.

    Well, it's a good thing Lockdown is patient, right?

    Blurr doesn't move any more, instead he slumps against the wall. His optics flicker and go dark, his head flopping forward slightly.

Lockdown has posed:
Taking a chassis scanner from the wall, Lockdown turns off the last stun field, coming into the room. He keys the control to put the stun fields up again, as well as turn off the EMP mines. His other arm retracts the ion blaster, and his arm sickle springs up at his right hand instead.

He gets close, his left hand bringing the scanner over Blurr as he gets an idea of the damage, ready for a potential fakeout trap with his sickle at the ready.

Blurr has posed:
    To expect a fakeout was kind of a given. But exactly what -kind- of fakeout, is the question. The scans start, and although he doesn't appear to be in that bad of shape from the outside, whatever he had done to get himself out of the stasis field seemed to have done a substantial amount of internal damage. Lots of circuitry burns everywhere, but they are especially severe in the arm where the TechVolt had been, as well as the shoulder, neck, and upper chest. Further details would require a deeper scan. But this wasn't a patch-up job, that's for sure.

    Even as the bounty hunter is examining the readouts, abruptly there is the distinct sound of a T-cog churning, as the Autobot suddenly transforms and attempts to drive full throttle into him in an effort to knock him off of his feet and into his own stun field. Probably causing even more damage to himself. But at this point, what was a little more?

Lockdown has posed:
Being prepared for a fake out also means being prepared for a sudden transformation. Of course, Blurr is *FAST*, so even Lockdown almost gets caught by the car form Blurr.

Blur doesn't manage to drive him right inot the field, but he does get sent flying back into the opposite wall, one leg accidentally getting slammed into the field as he went.

There was a gutteral 'ARGH!' sound from Lockdown as a foot gets caught up in it and gets pulled out at the last moment. The damage was done though, that foot will be drained of power for a good thirty seconds while his chassis recharges it.

Blurr has posed:
    There is an awful clang as metal connects with metal. Blurr slams into Lockdown, sending him sprawling, but he does not stop. The speeder just barrels forward brazenly, driving right into the stun field. He knows he'll get a shock, but he's counting on his momentum to carry him out the door and into the hallway.Hopefully the distance will buy him some time, and allow him to to recover himself before Lockdown does. It's the one advantage he always has over everyone--he's just faster at -everything-.

    He tends to think it can get him out of any situation, which is not always true...but it does get him out of a -lot- of situations. Which is part of the reason for the overconfidence.

Lockdown has posed:
There are actually three sets of stun fields that Blurr has to go through... and all three are keyed to motion sensors that he never managed to find a way to shut off; no time to do so, really. Each one in itself is capable of completely shutting some mechs that are far slower than Blurr.

Blurr? He gets the tail end of all three. His momentum does carry him through, but he'll nearly go into stasis lock all over again to do so.

Worse yet, Lockdown begins to *crawl* toward the hallway with his bare hands, and once he gets a clear line of sight, activates more electronet cannons at the end far ends of the hallway. The sickle is also retracted, and replaced by that ion blaster that Lockdown immediately begins to fire down the hallway at Blurr.

A three way crossfire, and Lockdown is already doing an emergency shunt to restore his drained foot. Blurr has seconds to pick a direction and try to go.

Assuming there aren't more protocols to contain him.

Blurr has posed:
    Whoosh! Blurr flies through the three sets of stun fields, feeling the massive feedback coursing through his systems every time. Not the most pleasant sensation, but as he had hoped for, his momentum carries him through. Unfortunately, it also means he slams into the wall at the end of the corridor, since the stun fields also meant he wouldn't be able to change directions.

    Blurr is momentarily stuck there until his systems cycle and reboot, although, as he had expected, his recovery time is faster than Lockdown's. However, Lockdown also starts shooting at him. And the electronet cannons down there also spring to life. He transforms and jumps to his feet just in time, barely dodging an ion bolt, and then another electronet. But he doesn't have another astrosecond to waste, bolting to the hallway on the right. All along the way, he is searching for a gravlift or stairs, or a maintenance shaft. -Anything- that looks like it might mean access to the other decks.

Lockdown has posed:
"Gonna have to design a new system just for this bucket of bolts later..." Lockdown grumbles to himself as he watches Blurr take off down the hallway. His foot is finally recharged, and Lockdown gets to his feet as he starts after Blurr, his left hand moving to the control pad to initiate ship lockdown.

As Blurr starts moving, the lights suddenly dim and red emergency lights pop up. "Emergency lockdown in effect. All prisoners are advised to keep close to emergency bubbles." Comes out of the

Down the hallway, Blurr can hear Lockdown already on his way... and in front of him, down the hallway, blast doors are closing *fast*.

Blurr has seconds before the entire hallway is closed... and only seconds after that to decide on a path.

Blurr has posed:
    "Come on come on--where the frag are the stairs??" Blurr mutters to himself, even as he bolts forward toward the closing blast doors, still searching everywhere for an access to the other decks. He had to get off the prison deck! If he manages to get through, he will move in whatever direction seems most likely to lead to anything that might get him out of the brig.

Lockdown has posed:
There are no stairs in Blurr's vision, per say, but he does spot what looks like an elevator built into the hallway. Unfortunately, Blurr can easily see the blast door above, where the shaft going upwards likely would be. There's a good chance there's one below too.

The only way to keep going... is forward, straight back to the aft section. The blast doors just keep shutting in front of him. He continues to have seconds.

Blurr may have lost track of Lockdown behind him through the blast doors, but no doubt that Lockdown is systematically opening those doors and shutting them behind him to follow the mech.

It's go forward, or wait for Lockdown and his ion blaster.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr hesitates for a couple of astroseconds, glancing back and forth at the elevator and the way forward toward the aft several times. But he doesn't have much time to deliberate. He tries signalling it first, but if it doesn't open instantly, he'll just have to keep charging forward. If it does open, he'll dash inside and close the door as fast as he can before attempting to direct it downward, toward engineering....

Lockdown has posed:
Indeed, it doesn't open instantly. Nothing for it, Blurr will just need to keep going.

As he keeps going, he turns a corner... and runs right into a prison deck escape pod; built for Cybertronians. The door on it is just about to close, too.

Blurr has seconds to dive through the gap into the small craft.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr curses internally and charges down the hallway, rounding a corner....and finds an escape pod? On the prison deck? But--why? It didn't make any sense. Why would Lockdown put something like this here of all places, after all of the other careful security measures he had clearly taken to prevent his targets from escaping?

    Unless it was intentional.

    Suddenly he had a terrible feeling that the pod was booby-trapped, or some other nasty surprise was waiting for him. Couldn't the bounty hunter just blast him out of the void as soon as the pod deployed, using the Tactician's vast array of weapons??

    The speedster doesn't usually have trouble simply plowing ahead on split-second decisions--but not this time. He stalls in front of the airlock, looking wildly about for something else--anything else!

Lockdown has posed:
It's a chance Blurr will have to take, because he can hear the muffled sounds of those blast doors opening and closing behind him through the one that just closed. Lockdown is slowly but surely coming.

Blurr, once again, has seconds before the blast doors that leads further down the hallway closes... and about three seconds before the blast doors into the pod is sealed enough that he can't dive in.

Time to make a choice; the pod, or find another way out. After all, he can use those weapons no matter how he escapes the ship.

Blurr has posed:
    Frag it. Blurr can definitely hear Lockdown plodding toward him slowly (well in comparison to how fast Blurr's world is) but surely. He would be here in a few kliks. Though a few kliks is 'a while' for the former racer. Not a long while. But a while.

    It was true. Regardless of the how, if he somehow managed to get off the ship right now, Lockdown could simply blow him out of orbit before he could get out of range. He'd need an -extremely- fast fighter craft, or something with a cloaking shield, neither of which he had access to right now. Unless there was one in the cargo hold or something. Which was rather unlikely. He would've had to stealth his way off somehow...which would have been impossible unless he'd waited until Lockdown left the ship.

    Well, that's why he wasn't planning on getting off the ship. At least not yet. The pods had certainly tempted him and thrown him for a loop, as might be expected, but...

    The decision was made. He zooms past the pod, further down the hallway, still looking for stairs, or a shaft. Either one would be ideal.

Lockdown has posed:
Having to manually unlock and lock blast doors behind him over and over is slowing down Lockdown considerably... but Lockdown isn't in any hurry. He's put a good portion of his credits into making the inside just as much of a fortress as the outside.

Unfortunately for Lockdown, Blurr has a head start... and was ahead of him when everything was being bolted. It will take time to find Blurr now.

Blurr's 'patience' is rewarded when he comes across an elevator to the left and a tunnel to the right. The tunnel looks like a maintenance shaft, and he has seconds to choose between one or the other.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr instantly takes the tunnel. He can't be sure exactly what it is, but it looks like a maintenance shaft, and chances are it'll eventually get him where he wants to go. The elevator is more of a guarantee, but it's too enclosed--too easy to get trapped in there with Lockdown in control of the ship.

    Meanwhile, if Lockdown is paying any attention to the Tactician's progress in pursuit of the patrol he'd met earlier, he'd notice that the signal has suddenly disappeared. But their last known location doesn't appear to be in the midst of anything that would jam sensor array scans, and there doesn't appear to be interference coming from anything. It's just...empty space. Or at least, it appears to be. There are a few possibilities. The most likely of which is that they entered some kind of cloaking field.

Lockdown has posed:
Blurr disappears... then, there's a beep on his control pad as the sensors alert him to the disappearance.

What?

He stops just before another blast door. Blurr is contain on the prison deck, and the sensors have lost track of him, so he's in the web of tunnels. That makes him lower priority for now. He needs to investigate where those interceptor forms went.

He takes the elevator back up to the bridge, and rushes back toward it. Within a minute, he's moving forward, taking the Tactician into the area where the signal disappeared.

Time to take a calculated risk.

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr finds the shaft a tight squeeze, but he has always been more versatile than most. He listens for the roar of the ship's engines, scanning for vibrations as well and attempting to use the data plus his general assumption that engineering would be somewhere below to attempt to navigate there and find an opening into the engine rooms...

    A calculated risk, indeed. Given he does not know -what- exactly he's flying into. Granted, if he gets close enough, he may be able to pass through the field and get a look at what's there. But there's also the fact that if he does get that close, someone might see through -his- cloaking.

    Anyway, the Tactician makes steady progress toward the squad's last known location, and the closer it gets the more this is definitely looking to be a powerful cloaking field. The energy readings are very telltale. There could also be a shield...but maybe he'll get lucky.

Lockdown has posed:
He brings the ship to a full halt. Either way, he's going to be detected. Best to do it in a way that allows him to get away quickly.

Taking a moment to program a probe for a timed repower, he sets a course just a bit away from the field... and drops the probe. Ten seconds later, it powers on and launches itself directly into the field.

If there are any weapons used, at least the Tactician won't be in the area where it launched from.

Blurr has posed:
    The probe is launched, but its signal is lost immediately as it enters the cloaking field, just as that 'Bot patrol had. Whether it had been stolen, destroyed, or whether there is some kind of jamming field scrambling the signal in there is impossible to tell...

Lockdown has posed:
Nothing for it. Ready to set the shields at the fore to max in an instant, he turns the Tactician and heads right for the field, slowly, but surely.

Blurr has posed:
    Here goes nothing, right?

    The Tactician burns sublight toward whatever may be behind that cloaking field. Finally, it passes through, and proximity alerts immediately start screeching. Multiple collision courses are likely, and -some- kind of impact is imminent. Looked like the Autobots kept this thing pretty tight.

    Quite suddenly, an orbital outpost twice the size of an Ark--the 'Bots signature flagship--looms into view. It is shaped like a ring, with watchtowers armed with turrets arranged in a six-point hexagonal shape around the circumference.

    Right in front of the Tactician now are 2 docking bays that jut out of a shielded hangar where the patrol must have gone. Unfortunately, the ship is much too close to the bays to make a proper landing. It will either smash into them, or smash into the shield protecting the hangar.

    There's one good thing though...it seems that the Autobots have not yet detected his presence as they have neither attacked nor attempted to hail him. Although that probably won't last long.

Lockdown has posed:
A full stop is immediately set, and thrusters are engaged to move to the side with less likely collisions.

"Well, there goes any hope Earth had of staying out of the great war." Lockdown noted, aloud, as he just... stared, as the sensors worked up a profile for everything in the area. "Even for the Autobots, this seems overkill... are they mining?"

Blurr has posed:
    It -was- rather strange, wasn't it? Wasn't Earth some backwater planet? What exactly were they doing out here? There weren't any mining ships in the hangar or mining equipment around that he can see, though right now isn't exactly the best time to be doing recon.

    The ships slows. Fortunately, Lockdown's reaction time was enough to prevent a -total- catastrophe. However, it was too late to avoid a collision altogether. The bridge is jarred as the Tactician smashes into one of the docking bays, causing part of it to break off and fall back down toward the planet in pieces. The jagged, broken end of it digs into the ship's hull with an awful grinding noise that reverberates through the walls.

    More warnings shriek. And there is a new one: "Warning: Target lock detected."

Lockdown has posed:
The shields are immediately set to max, and Lockdown is already working on getting the ship out of dodge. "What in the Allspark is going on? This is a massive investment. I'm going to have to talk to Soundwave about this."

There was no chance of the Tactician not taking a couple hits from the Autobots, and they clearly had no interest in talking since they just immediately locked onto him. You don't weapon lock for diplomacy, and the Autobots have made it clear they consider this sector theirs and don't seem interested in allowing neutrals in system.

Too bad for them Lockdown doesn't care what they think.

Blurr has posed:
    To be fair, there had been -some- debate. Which was the reason for the delay. Not that they didn't see him. However, they recognized his ship and they know who he is. He may not be a Decepticon 'officially', but as far as they are concerned he may as well be.

    So as it is, the turrets have already opened fire on him, the bolts slamming into the shields hard. More of them rotate to face in the Tactician's direction as well, so it won't be long before he'll be taking even -more- heat. Talk about firepower. It was an investment indeed. And it will -definitely- be news for Soundwave. Assuming he gets out of this in one piece...

Lockdown has posed:
He hits the broadcast button. "Cease fire now, Autobots, or the second I'm away I tell Soundwave about this operation. Keep firing, and I sell the location of this outpost to the Decepticons. Stop, and I consider a parley with your leader to discuss my current contract. This ship is custom tooled. I guarantee you I have the survivability to get away."

"Make your choice."

Lockdown is already burning his engine, and starting evasive patterns. The shields will probably buckle, but he just needs to run.

Blurr has posed:
    As Lockdown starts broadcasting, the bolts continue to slam into the shields, threatening to deplete them.

    'Make your choice.'

    As soon as those words come through the transmitter, the turrets stop, and suddenly there is silence.

    Nothing happens. At least, not yet.

Lockdown has posed:
With that, Lockdown sets a holding pattern, ready to evade again at any point, and sets the shields to recharge.

"Good to see someone over there isn't a total bucket of bolts. Let's talk. How do you want to do this?" Lockdown transmits.

Blurr has posed:
    There is no reply. Instead, the Tactician's sensors would detect something big powering up. Something is moving at the center of the ring--a circular hatch of some kind on top of a structure in the middle. It opens, and three warheads deploy from it. The target lock warning flashes again--they're headed straight for him. It's a good thing he was prepared for evasive maneuvers, because he's going to need them right about now!

    Meanwhile, it's just Blurr's luck that he had been in the section of the ship that had gotten jabbed with the broken dock. If Lockdown hadn't been focused on avoiding getting blasted out of orbit, this probably would have been a fool's errand, but as it is, he manages to jump off the ship and activate re-entry shields before allowing the Earth's gravity to pull him down planetside.

Lockdown has posed:
Unfortunately for Blurr, he has more than one turrets, and auto sets one of the slower cannons to try to at least knock Blurr off course.

Those warheads? He turns on point defense guns to try to shoot them down even as he evades.

"By the Allspark, you mechs are dumb as Brawl. I wasn't joking. Guess Sol is about to become contested turf."

He suddenly afterburns towards the atmosphere, not bothering to hide his ship as he enters the atmosphere so the missiles follow him down to the surface.

Time to find a populated area... and hope the Legion isn't paying attention.

Blurr has posed:
    Some of the blasts do hit Blurr--unfortunately since he doesn't have a space flight-capable alt mode or a jetpack, he can't dodge. Still, the impact isn't enough to knock him away from the power of a planet's gravity, though they do take some out of his re-entry shields, meaning that landing is going to -hurt-. More than he'd expected, anyway.

    Evading and shooting at the same time is no easy feat, if possible at all. While he does manage to get a few shots off, it's not enough to blow up the missiles. In fact, they seem to have stronger armor than usual.

    Down, down, down they go after the Tactician as it burns through the atmosphere, hot on its tail, especially since he has not bothered to attempt to hide from them. As for aiming for somewhere populated, he won't have much time to do it. The distance between him and the explosives is closing every astrosecond, and the population density of Earth is actually quite low compared to most spacefaring homeworlds. Chances are, anything coming from space would just land in an ocean.

    Although, given what he knows about Cybertronian weapons in comparison to Earth's...wherever it lands, it's bound to draw attention, especially from the authorities of developed nations, and from the more well-known hero groups/organizations. If he hadn't succeeded in gaining an audience with them before, in just a few seconds, they'd be flocking to -him-.

Lockdown has posed:
He aims right for one of those areas, and just as it looks like the missiles will be overtaking him in moments, he turns the cloak on, disabling the lock on, and turns away.

Someone in orbit is going to have some explaining to do... because Lockdown will most definitely talking to the Legion about what happened...

Well, he will be, once he sells the outpost location to Soundwave. No doubt a Decepticon assault will be incoming in days.

Time to head to a subspace tear.

Blurr has posed:
    Well there will definitely be some officers who will not be happy. Because the station will have to be relocated within two megacycles and that's always a pain. But at least the bounty hunter was fool enough to reveal himself, which means his intel will be useless by the time the Decepticons can act on it.

    As for the missiles, two of them make a -lot- of waves as they splash into the Pacific and explode, while the third strikes the Rogue River-Siskiyou Forest area near the Oregon-California border, creating a massive crater. But, due to Earth's rather low population density, not much damage was actually done to any civilized areas. Still, it's bound to draw attention--and perhaps that is exactly what Lockdown wants.

Lockdown has posed:
Again, Lockdown broadcasts towards the station. "Not only are the Decepticons gonna know about your presence, but you also just made an enemy out of the locals, and I'm gonna make sure I give them the logs so they know it was you who did that crater." There's a sadistic chuckle from Lockdown, "*You* are the reason Cybertronians are hated across the galaxy. I would have stayed silent."

He leans forward, giving the station a good visual, "Now, you just brought Sol into the great war. Have fun."

With that, Lockdown heads for the nearest subspace tear. He mutters to himself, "Time to get a bonus from Soundwave."