Protihex-City state

[DarkXenith]

"Roger that, happy hunting!"[/color] Aegis offered an over-axis lateral roll in salute to the jet before carrying the maneuver through into a tidy 180* bank.

Levelling out, canopy down, she transitioned to a level plain on the right side of the horizon, opening a long-range comm to the Bloodrust:

"Ahoy Bloodrust. Acknowledge on comm, please. This is Aegis, ETA alongside: 16.6 nanoklicks.

New mandate: provide escort to RV with Laser. Flight path is clear of hostiles ahead. Are you airborne?"[/color]

[Towreck]

Towreck set aside the rifle, after he just put the cover on for it. He marked it ready for the makeshift range he had produced, and moved onto the final gun, which was in perfect condition, just needed to be cleaned. After cleaning away the rust and grime from the gun, Towreck was putting it back together when he heard his name called. "Huh?" He asked, looking up and seeing carmana. "Oh yeah, Towreck...thats me, the one and only from Iacon...well that is till the city got blown to ruins. So, welcome to my makeshift shop away from shop, seeing as its just a pile of rubble now. Oh look at me, I'm rambling on..." Towreck said, waving his hand. "So, what can I do ya for? Anything with the classification "Gun", I can work on."

[carmana]

Carmana walked in and smiled behind his faceplate. He set his pistol on the table top between them. "including this? I know it's older than I am but still...listen...there was an incident outside, don't know if you saw or not, but um...uh...I lost hold of my gun, and this pistol has very special meaning to me, I hold the memories it contains close to my spark, and loosing it made me loose my temper...badly, I was hoping you could modify it so another incident doesn't happen. Other than that if you can make this thing better in any way, I would really appreciate it...oh! I'm sorry, now I'm the one rambling, my name is Carmana."

[Bivile]

Watertight took a second to understand the gesture, before imitating the movement by lifting his closed first. Wow, he really did need to start talking to other bots.

"Hello," He offered, figuring he didn't need to give his name, since she fem appeared to already know it.

((lshort post of epic))

[Cutlass Rebooted]

Cutlass jumps up in his seat, having only been partially alert he only heard and understood the final statement from Aegis. "Scrap... Everyone on board now?"
"Affirmative Captain." Volca steps into the room as she speaks looking at a small screen in her hand which displays the location of each bot on board.
"Good." He turns his attention to addressing Aegis' query. "Sorry for the delay, we'll be airborne in 5 nanoklicks." Quickly turning to the controls he preps the ship for take off. In just short of five seconds the ship hovers and moves forward over the rooftops.
Volca sits herself down next to Cutlass and flips a switch on the controls. Around the ship speakers buzz softly into life ready to transmit her voice. "Welcome aboard everyone. For those who don't know me I'm Volca. Now as we're approaching an area containing hostiles, I would like to introduce everyone to a small but important part of the ship's security." She pauses and taps a small icon on the display in front of her. A holographic screen appears on the wall in each of the inhabited rooms. "Everyone is to type and then speak their name, as each of you do so the ship will gather identifying information about you. From then on the ship will allow you on board without the presence of the captain or other crew members, and will refrain from targeting you in defensive situations upon landing.
Jumpstart you and Silentsong will be prompted to add your information when the ship detects that you are able to.
Everyone else may proceed."
Volca switches off the speaker system and then proceeds to add a little more information about herself to her file. The ship thanks her for her input in a feminine voice.
"I was kinda wondering why the ship asked for my name when I named her, you never told me about that defensive system." Cutlass continues to focus on regulating the ship's flight pattern and taps a button on screen when Aegis appears on the sensors marking her as friendly.
"You didn't ask." She walks back to her room meeting Tecton in the corridor.
"Can I speak to you for a moment Volca?" He holds open the door to his room as this was more an order than request.

[concentratedrandom]

Starport was glad they were leaving Protihex. This place held lots of memories and he had been lost in them for a while now. Better to get back to the present, he was starting to feel like he'd never come back. Starting to make his way to the front of the ship, he opened up one of his storage units and took out every drop of energon he had. He then opened up a near empty create and placed it in. He didn't want to have another KO like in Iacon on this mission, and who every opened up the create would have a nice surprise. Once he arrived at the front, he saw Cutlass and his pirate partner. Seeing how the Volca was leaving, Starport walked up to Cutlass and started to laugh as he talked, looking at the controls.

"Can't wait to see what your ship can really do. Honestly, I think its name suits me due to the rust I've gained more than this new beauty."

Letting out a sigh, he stopped laughing and looked at Cutlass with a serious but friendly look.

"I don't know if anyone has, but I just wanted to thank you for helping us. You may not hold an Autobot symbol, but your spark sure seems like one. I have no idea what reason a pirate has to help us in these difficult times, but I'm glad you are."

[DarkXenith]

Jumpstart paused momentarily at the info-comm from Volca, glancing upward at the holographic display as it faded into view on the wall. He'd encountered similar systems before, usually when working in 'secure' establishments. Smirking slightly, he wondered if the ship would allow him aboard again once it had digested the contents of his personnel file? Then again, it was crewed and captained by pirates. For all the chequers in his past, he was fairly certain whatever he'd done or been involved with prior to joining in with this escapade, certain members of the crew aboard Bloodrust had doubtless done far worse.

Venting a low sigh, he returned to the intricacies of surgery, re-mapping the few remaining severed cables and minor fluid lines with a steady hand. From the read-out on his HUD, the medic could see his patient was responding well to treatment, she'd lost a considerable amount of fluids from the wound though and would take a few cycles to fully recover from it.

Checking the energon feed he made a minor adjustment and moved on to the final stage of work, delicately sealing the tear in the femme's flexi-plate armor with a fine weld. Smiling very slightly, he looked Silentsong over as he finally downed tools, breathing quietly, "C'mon girl, come join the world've workin' mechanisms again…"[/color]

Now it was a waiting game.

---

Aegis continued in on the same heading, making the outskirts of the city she gained distant visual on the Bloodrust as the ship rose from the desolation of Protihex.

"Understood, Bloodrust. I have visual on you at 10k. Will close to 5k and maintain distance. Follow my lead, track on orange smoke if separated.

Advisory: Rust storm reported at destination. Suggested altitude to avoid inclement conditions: 3k. Please acknowledge and advise cruising speed."[/color]

The femme had to admit she was a little frustrated at the ongoing delays, timing was mission-critical in this instance. Opening a secondary long-range line to her wingmate, she advised:

"Laser. Transport status: Now green. Repeat: Transport now green. Retrograde heading in place. ETA follows once optimum speed attained. Advise status ahead please."[/color]

[Laser]

Copy that. I've advanced 30 cybermiles...skies are clear and grounds are safe. Radio interference coming up within the twenty-five...recommend adjusting speeds to optimum knot capacity within reason of escort. RV 6 cy-mi's outside the LZ as discussed earlier. Party will arrive only nano-kliks before the storm. Bloodrust MUST be Oscar-Mike. We cannot afford any more delays.

Laser out."

**************

Beam smiled during what seemed to be the most awkward introduction ever.

"Sooo...." She blinked a bit and twiddled her feet. "What's your specialty?"

[Cutlass Rebooted]

Cutlass quickly looks up from the ships controls at Starport. "I don't know why I'm helping you guys out either, it only seems to be serving to delay me from my fortune and adventure."
Looking outside and occasionally down at the controls he takes the ship's speed up a notch but can't help but think they'll arrive too late if forced to maintain this pace. He opens a channel to Aegis. "Must we really be flying so slow? Sorry Miss I didn't catch your name earlier. I fear that we're most likely going to leave you behind, I'll advise you to come aboard while you still can." He flips a switch to his left which slides open the door. A one way energy field flickers into life maintaining the internal air pressure and aerodynamics along that side of the ship. "You've got around 60 nanoklicks to come aboard. If you ain't aboard by then I'll have to close the door." He starts preparing the ship for a sudden speed boost.

Tecton's quarters:
"I may have uncovered some vital information about Shadow. I don't want to give too much away until I have done further tests, but from what I've found so far we best be on our guard should we meet him again." He picks up several small boxes and holds them out to Volca. "This is the other reason I wanted to talk to you." He pauses as Volca takes the boxes from him.
"What are these?"
"You know how paranoid I am about my lab getting broken into. It's the same with the ship. I want you to attach these to certain points in the ship. They should stop anyone from boarding by any other means than the doors and windows."
Volca just looks at him.
"Don't give me that look Volca. We should be expecting just about anything these days."
She shakes her head. "I won't argue, just tell me where I should put these."
He smiles and hands her a small screen displaying the layout of the ship with several markers for the boxes as a guide.
"I'll be getting to work then." With a smile and a short sigh she walks out of the room carrying a stack of nine small boxes. I swear he's getting more paranoid every day, I hope he isn't returning to his old ways... She looks down at the screen the first two markers are in the cargo hold. She turns around to head down there almost dropping some of the boxes.

[DarkXenith]

"Oscar-Mike is confirmed, transport airborne and proceeding as agreed,"[/color] Aegis' response to Laser was more a courtesy than a necessity.

Closing to 5k, she awaited a response from Bloodrust. When she did gain return comm from the ship, the request to board came as a surprise. Then again, could the femme really hope to keep pace with such a vessel? She thought not. Doubling back to an adjacent course, she returned:

"Ident: Aegis. Will accept request to board in order to minimise delay. Guardian advises 30 cymi lead on current position. Clear ahead, radio interference at 25. RV is 6 outside of drop zone. Now level and coming aboard."[/color]

As she closed, Aegis banked in tight alongside the ship, flaring all trim to break mid-flight and running full reverse engine to stop. Effectively dropping out of the air and onto the waiting deck of the Bloodrust.