| title= The Careful Art of Cooperation
| characters= Dirge, Shockwave, Arcee, Punch
| location= Stanix
| tp= I Slept Through The Apocalypse
| summary= A temporary cease-fire is (once again) established between the Autobots and Decepticons in the hopes that more progress can be made on locating the missing Cybertronians. Even so, there's some doubts on the stability of the truce, and the nature of the cooperation involved.
Barrens - Acid Wastes - Stanix
The Acid Wastes are a combination of pitted landscape and the occasional hill scarred hill. Naturally, it's not pretty. Wracked by acid rain and quakes, it appears as something found in the Smelting Pit, hellish and torn, and if splitting thunder and rumbling cannot be heard, then the faint, ever-present fizzling will be, as large-scale corrosion takes place. Pools of acid eat away at the metal, warping and ripping, leaving greenish-blue crust among rusted wedges of land. A thick, yellow haze covers the landscape, making flying difficult.
Experimental F-15 <Dirge>
Shockwave has arrived.
Punch has arrived.
<<Hnnnnggggg. I do not know what we are looking for, Lord Shockwave, but even with the corrosive atmosphere, as Head of Aerospace, I assure you that we shall find it.>>
Dirge had been prattling on endlessly since his promotion. He might as well have ended each line with 'this, I command.' The Fear Seeker roars across the Barren Wastes, scouting the location endlessly, his fear turbines in full effect, leaving a ghastly wail in his wake.
<<It is a pity though, that Blot has seemed to wander off yet again. Between him and that Sweep, we could manage a proper raid for Trypticon.>>
Doing an Immelman Turn, Dirge loops back around over the Wastes again. He'd been at it for a while now, simply refusing to give up. He was in charge, after all! Even if he was doing the work of a grunt.
<<Hrmm. Perhaps I see something after all...>>
A photorelay comes in, beamed across the +d channel to Shockwave, revealing a tall silver spire, about a Fachead's height, stuck partially in the ground, betwixt the rubble.
Shockwave is hovering in midair above the wastelands, his optic surveying the area and listening to Dirge. The purple cyclop has a precise idea of what he is looking for but he chooses to keep that information for himself. <<Keep looking Dirge. I know we will find it soon.>> He falls silent, computing the available data about Trypticon before adding <<Our forces are currently insufficient to reactivate Trypticon. Changing that will require time. Time we currently do not have.>>
Arcee has decided to return to the Wastes to compare older scans of the objects that were once discovered here with newer ones. She's mostly concentrating on looking around, and then glancing back down to her datapad to see if anything new has appeared since the last time a patrol came through this area.
Suddenly, her internal scanners begin warning her that Decepticons are in the vicinity. "<< Punch, we're not alone out here. Looks like there could be a Decepticon patrol just a few kliks from our position, >>" she tightbeams to the spy.
Punch, the consumate professional, is smoking an enercig as he looks around. Looking skyward he vent out a big cloud of smoke. This and his earlier attempts at using the mixture of the acrid gas and his cig's vapor for a contrast pattern pay dividends. "<< Standard search pattern by a seeker, I'd assume Dirge, and... hello? Is that? >>"
Punch daws and vents a second time to try and get a clearer view of the figure high in the sky, "<< Hmm. Looks like Shockwave's chosen to grace this particular seach with his own presense. Whatever they're looking for... it's important. How'd you want to play this? >>" As Punch stops transmitting he looks at their surroundings. As, depending on the next few moments, they may come into play more significantly.
Combat: Experimental F-15 <Dirge> compares his Intelligence to 90: Failure :(
Experimental F-15 <Dirge> lands, transforming as he does, his feet touch down with authority. Yes, the Seeker certainly is making his footsteps known with nobody around for competition. Life was good. His face always in the same stoic scowl, he reaches down to start moving aside the metal rubble of Cybertron. "Lord Shockwave. I cannot tell what this is..it must indeed be a clue as to the whereabouts of Warlord Galvatron and the others." He hefts the large spike up against himself, then plants it in the planet with authority. The large purple beacon atop it seems to have faded, but otherwise it seems intact.
It may be a bit of posing, or pride on his part to stand there, a hand on his hip, trying to be nonchalant when Shockwave joined him, but his attempted 'casual awesomeness' disappears as he peers into the distance. "I see movement in the distance..."
The F-15 folds up and separates into the mighty Dirge!
Shockwave keeps scanning the area, this time by analyzing the energy emissions that his highly accurate senses can detect. What he's looking for will have a very specific energy signature. <<Dirge, focus your search on beta-sigma2.323-omega6.0.2>> Shockwave, still blind to the Autobots presence, heads towards the coordinates he sent. Dirge arrives first and the decepticon commander soon follow. Shockwave examines the beacon silently before turning his head to see what Dirge is talking about. "Do not engage. but do not reveal any information. I will handle this." He starts to work on the beacon, removing some essential component that could be used to identify its purpose. "There is another one like this. We need to find it."
"<< Let's go see what they're doing, >>" Arcee tightbeams to Punch, looking grim. "<< I'm not anticipating a warm welcome. But we really need to try and reach out to them. Let's go. >>" She transforms to vehicular mode, and begins crossing the barrens, following the Decepticons' signal.
Arcee darts ahead to gracefully transform into her pink Cybertronian Tech Car, engine purring, ready to go!
Already. So much of the fog returns, although, now, cut with a new light. Punch slights his cig away and grins before transmitting and transforming "<< On my way. >>" Opting for the more speed, jumps and style points than stealth approach Punch makes a more visible approach to the coordinates. "<< I'm making enough noise for ten here. So, if they want to start shooting they'll hopefully take first crack at me and give you a good line of sight for a return. If it comes to it. >>" Punch adds, as an afterthought.
Dirge 's eyes narrow as he sees two distinct...ground vehicles. He practically spat the words out as he thought them. Even the Decepticon ground forces could fly. He delays more than a few moments from replying as he watches the rustbucket Autobots approach. "Yes, Lord Shockwave...as you command."
His grip on the sensor node...or whatever it was, tightens for a moment as he notes that Arcee was en route. The Femme he just about killed when last they met...well, just about attacked. Attacking is as good as killing when you have FEAR on your side. He does hesitate on leaving Shockwave alone for the moment, though he does shift his position to allow Lord Shockwave the first strike. Needless to say, he'd be ready to follow up.
Shockwave completes his work on the beacon and looks at the component he removed in his hand for a moment. Then he closes his fist, crushing the electronic part before dropping them on the ground. He then makes a step forwards and remains motionless, waiting for the Autobots and trying to not look threatening...as much as he can do. <<Do not shoot unless I order it. Not even if they attack first.>>
Pink Saturn Sky <Arcee> continues driving at a steady clip across the Barrens until she gets to within conversational distance of the Decepticons. Then, she stops and transforms, leaving a 'comfortable' distance between them -- not close enough to be aggressively in their personal space, but not far enough to look cowardly. "Shockwave...Dirge," Arcee greets evenly. "I think we're here for the same reason."
The pink Cybertronian tech car splits apart to reveal Autobot Warrior Arcee! She's ready to kick aft!
Finishing his approach not long after and admittedly sideways Punch shifts back into his form more accustomed to smoking. Slighting the cig and taking a deep draw from it Punch smiles brightly and nods to each of the Decepticons in turn, "Nice day for it." He says to them, then taking another draw says happily, "Pay the Data Collator no heed here. Arcee's the ranking officer. I just do paperwork. All the important talking's gonna come from her." Now. As a spy... Punch can lie. Doing paperwork was a big one.
Combat: Arcee compares her Intelligence to 90: Failure :(
Combat: Arcee compares her Technical to 90: Failure :(
Combat: Punch compares his Intelligence to 90: Success!
Combat: Punch compares his Technical to 90: Failure :(
With precious little to do, Dirge glowers a bit more. He silently growls at the Bots sheer arrogance, but Punch sets him off. "Ahhh! Fool of an Autobot...I'll finish off what Counterpunch could not accomplish. Would that the order was given..." He shifts his gaze towards Shockwave, clearly referencing that Big Purple here was calling the shots. Did that make Dirge 'Bad Cop' then?
Shockwave looks down at the Autobots, "Arcee...Punch." Glancing back at Dirge, he adds, "Perhaps we are looking for the same thing. You want to know what happened to the missing Cybertronians as I do."
Arcee looks evenly up at Shockwave's single optic. "Absolutely. It would be more sensible if we shared our clues. Whatever or whomever did this...as you know, they left clues behind. The clues will point us in a direction we both need to go. And working together is the only sensible option, as working apart or withholding information is going to delay getting our collective troops back." She knows she's pretty much restating the obvious, but she's doing so to emphasize the logic behind her approach. "Punch and I located Blast Off in Retoris. Has he made contact with you yet?"
Punch nods once at Dirge then shakes his head slowly. After a suppressed chuckle Punch doesn't reply. He just takes another draw from his cig and vents out shaplessly. Punch finds a smaller rock to sit down on and finishes one cig just to light the next. While messing about with cigs and venting out plumes of smoke he's working his peripheral vision hard. He want's to get as good a view of the the thing, people and everything, while the situation's still fresh. You never know what'll come up later.
"Blast Off? No he hasn't reported yet." Shockwave launches some calculation subroutine to take into account these new data. "As far as sharing data, I agree with you." He pauses for a moment before adding, "I discovered that Cybertron was threatened causing the faction to call a truce. I suspect that what ever threatened us is responsible for the disparition of our fellow Cybertronian."
"Hm. When Punch and I encountered Blast Off, he was functional but disoriented, and he insisted upon leaving our territory on his own accord, so...hopefully he'll report in to you at some point," Arcee says with a slight frown. "He probably didn't believe us when we told him of the situation, so he could be visiting each polity to see the reality of it for himself." She glances back at Punch briefly, then decides that since Shockwave is in agreement with her, it might be best to leave things be for the moment, and contact the Decepticons again at a later time. "Thank you, and I'll tell the other Autobots the truce is in full effect. Should you locate any Autobots in your travels, please direct them to Iacon. We'll be in contact again."
Shockwave nods at Arcee and makes a mental note to see if he can spare some resource to look for Blast Off. Since he probably was part of the "space team" he may have more data that could prove useful to Shockwave. "Very well. I however expect total access to your data. I am your best chance to recover your friends." This is said without any kind of pride, he's simply stating the facts since as far as he knows, the Bots didn't recover any of their scientist.
Inwardly, Arcee /really/ wants to inject a bit more sarcasm into this exchange, but she's intentionally holding back on doing so for the more neutral approach. "Of course. And that naturally works both ways. We have scientists and computer subroutines ready to dedicate to this problem as well. This problem is bigger than our current conflict. Coercion will not be necessary. Both of our sides are equally motivated to have our armies back," she tells Shockwave.
"Then we have an agreement." He takes off and hover just above the ground, "We will arrange a meeting to exchange our data and we will see from there. In the meantime I'll maintain the ceasefire negociated with Ultra Magnus. All communication with our faction will be through me." Then without adding anything, he flies away.
Arcee watches Shockwave leave, not taking her gaze off of him until he's completely vanished from sight in the distance. Then, she turns back and makes her way over to Punch. "That went a little better than expected," she admits.
Punch, still sitting, gives Shockwave a salute as he departs. Making sure the Decepticon Commander's well out of view, Punch takes a couple of carefully timed draws from his cig, timing the extra range that Shockwave's enhanced sensor could still be listening then he stands. Looking over to Arcee and smiling brightly at her he nods and says, "And how. There's this beacon and... can you see that? On the ground? the bits of something chuckes broken there? Means there's info he didn't want us to find. Intel. Wow. I wish we could talk to the intel CO for the Decepticons. As he'd be acting head at this point..."
Arcee narrows her optics and stares at the broken bits on the ground. "Oh, those turboweasels," she grumbles. Then, when Punch mentions the Intel CO of the Decepticons, she grins slightly, her expression lighting up. "I see what you did there," she chuckles. "So you think Dirge was smart enough to upload whatever that was before he smashed it?"
Punch looks around at the scene as it was in his mind, not as it is now, and says, "Nope. The big purple one worked on it directly. He hardly let Dirge near it. Showing up in person too. He's a numbers guy. There's no way he'd be out in the field himself if it weren't something big enough he doesn't even trust the other Decepticons with. Whatever he's got is good. Big."
Through the haze of another outward vent Punch says, "Usually beacons are used to aid the landing of something. They use triangulation though. Three beacons and, from the relative signal strengths, you can pinpoint exactly where you are." Punch grins broadly as he shares his other thought, "Which means, if this is one of them... maybe the first they've found..."
"Oh, I see...I'm glad you managed to spot that. I was more focused on their position and their intentions than what they were actually doing," Arcee admits. "That's just from years of dealing with them shooting on the spot. I wanted to be able to get us out of there quickly if it became necessary. Anyhow...let's talk beacons, and Shockwave's intel. He keeps his intel close, like you said. Do you really think you'd be able to find out what he's already discovered? Is that something he'd actually give to Intel, even in a dire situation like this?"
"Arcee, we've known each other for a long time now. Out of all the questions you've never asked me... there's one in particular you've never asked me that I wish you had. What my primary remit as a doublespy is, in this case. If you were to ask I'd say... well. I'd make a few jokes and mess about first." Punch admits with another draw of his cig and a shapeless vent.
"Then I'd explain that it's my job to profile every single Decepticon, physically and psychologically. There's many amongst their ranks I know better than they know themselves. Shockwave is numbers. If it makes better statistical sense to tell Counterpunch something, bearing in mind Counterpunch doesn't appear as a threat to him as he's completely insane... then Shockwave'd tell me his own self destruct codes."
Punch pauses and looks down at the ground. He then winces, "I never asked for this. There are times that I hate it, hate myself, because of it. However, I've been remade for it. They done a good job take me and making their clockwork spy. So, yes, I can do it."
Arcee smiles, and places a supportive hand on Punch's arm. "Hey...you're the consummate professional. I have no doubt in my mind you can do this. And once we find out what he's been withholding, we'll be even closer to figuring this mystery out."
Punch looks up and clears his vocaliser, "Sorry. It's just sometimes... Now? I'd pay the price to do what I do and I'll continue to do so until things work out whatever way. Even now... just would've been good to have been asked is all." Punch relaxes a little, maybe not enough to be visibly different, but he relaxes all the same. He looks at the beacon and says taking refuge in the shop talk, "Well, with the place as live as it is, moving the beacon by air's out. Best thing'd be to maybe lash it to me, transformed, and drive it out of here. When we're moving it, that is."
Arcee looks confused. "I...thought you were volunteering to do it? Look, if you can't or don't want to do it, Punch, I'm not going to order you to do it," she insists. "That's not how we work."
Punch looks at Arcee and realisation dawns, "Arcee, I was talking about when I first became able to transform into Counterpunch. It's not an ability I had from when I was first built. Some kind of accident happened and I ended up with this extra mode. There was a decision and it was that I was too useful to be restored as I once was. They decided I was going to be Counterpunch."
"Only one person I know of objected. Ever since that first day, I don't really know much else past that. I've took this burden and ran with it. Do some good. Save some people from death, or worse. That was my choice... but I never asked for it. Command just made the call."
Arcee is quiet for the moment. It dawns on her that she's thinking of the here-and-now, and Punch was referring to his altmode -- one which he never asked for. "...Forgive me, Punch, my thoughts are all over the place right now. I didn't mean to sound insensitive," she admits. "I'm just trying to figure out how to best proceed from here, because obviously, the Decepticons are going to pay lip service to the idea of cooperating, but their actual intention will be to take our intel and move with it. I'm not even sure at this point that they'll give any located Autobots back to us. I'm hoping that they do."
Punch smiles brightly, "Of course they will. What with their own energy problems..." Punch draws from his cig before explaining, "...as machines of war they burn through energon at a higher resting rate than Autobots, Blast Off gunning for Dirge to get his title back for pride's sake and the other Decepticons, who remember were slaved to Megatron, or Galvatron, whatever you want to call him, now free to think for themselves whether they want Shockwave as leader or fancy the job for themselves... there's utter chaos."
Pausing for another draw Punch says confidently, "I didn't ask to become Counterpunch. However if given the choice now... I'd have volunteered. So I'll find out what Shockwave's up to and anything else that we need to do to get the others back. If I ever think I can't take on a mission or do a task, I'll tell you. I promise."
Arcee smiles. "Okay. And...thank you. I probably don't need to tell you how grateful I am, but I'm telling you anyhow."
Punch smiles warmly, "We're going to get them back. No matter what." Punch then looks to the beacon, "Okay, so there's the dancecard. We need to get people looking for those other beacons before the Decepticons find them, get Blast Off to help us search space, get some kind of results back on those samples and on this beacon once we get it back, find out what Shockwave's up to and get closer to getting the others back whilst hoping the young insecticons don't eat everything. Anything I missed?" Punch chuckles, "I'm going to need a drink before the end of this."
"Simple as that!" Arcee exclaims, laughing. "Come on, let's go back and have a round at Maccaddam's. Need to file a report at some point as well."