Echon Ruins

[DarkXenith]

The minibot muttered something incomprehensible at being both out-logicked and ordered around by Wraith. Narrowing his optics, the black and white went about his appointed business as the two shadowdancers left to go on their zombie hunt.

It wasn't that he particularly wanted to join them - far from it, in fact! - in his relatively short service so far in the Autobot ranks, he'd done nothing other than take orders from others and now ex-Con's were trying the same tactic? He could take care of his own affairs and had until he'd enlisted. There was a big difference between supervising a factory floor team and working in a militarised unit though and sometimes the little black and white was too spunky for his own good. This appeared to be one of those times.

Moving back to the first console he'd rigged up, Chance easily disconnected the explosive charge and retrieved and 'spaced the DSM plus a few other useful components from the interior of the cabinet before systematically making his way around the room to repeat the process on all but the mainframe.

Flexing his digits, he crouched down to inspect the interior of the cabinet for damage to any of the major components. Seeing none, he got to his feet and set about patching into the mainframe master control system to bring the drones back online. Luckily, the earlier system access was still active and beyond that the file structure didn't appear to be overly heavily encrypted so he was soon into CLI figuring out the necessary switch configuration to complete the task.

One by one, drones around the building began to twitch and return to an operational state...with one fundamental difference. Chance now had control of them and had managed to program them to activate the tower's automated defenses in a bid to assist with zombie clearance.

Keeping drone control to hand on the display immediately in front, he routed camera feeds to the neighbouring monitor and grinned beneath his mask.

"Show time.... gonna nail me some slaggin' empties!"[/color]

[Cutlass Rebooted]

Wraith looks up hearing the building's defenses power up. Sounds like we have some backup...
Two more of the zombies appear, one falling from the ceiling the other popping up through the floor attempting to grab Whysp.
Whysp stamps on it's head as it crawls forward and stabs it's chest twisting the blade around to destroy it's flickering spark.
Wraith shoves his hand through the second zombie's chest ripping out the spark. "21." He drops the broken spark pieces and sends a message to Chance. "We're going right down to the lowest floor to work our way up, perhaps using the defenses you can meet us halfway?" With that said Wraith puts his arm around Whysp and allows them both to fall through the floor until they reach the lowest floor of the tower.

[DarkXenith]

"Gotchya! Give ya some cover an' den work top-down."[/color] Chance clipped back, via the tower's intercom. It seemed the minibot was systematically working his way through the controls with the aid of the drones, bringing them back online as soon as he was able. This was evidenced by the tell-tale electro-static discharge sounding from a wall-mounted laser cannon a few hallways away from Wraith and Whysp and covering fire that followed the two as they 'ported through to the lower levels.

[Cutlass Rebooted]

The second Wraith's feet touch the ground on the lowest floor he releases Whysp from his grip and dives forward ripping out the sparks of two more of the zombies.
Whysp barely managed to duck under his arm as he dives forward. "You really are starving aren't you?"
"Yes." Wraith looks around and out of the only door. "We should get this done quickly, otherwise I fear that the autobot might become my next feed..."
"If it's that bad you could take some of that energy from me."
"No. I won't do that again. It leaves you weak, that won't help down here."
"Okay. We best hope we run into someone or something you can drain." Keeping her eyes locked on Wraith she smiles and shoots blindly into the darkness hitting and destroying the spark of one last zombie. "Any more on this floor?"
Her third shadow steps out of the room darkness spreading from where it stands. No more on this floor. All have moved up. It seems they are more interested in Chance.
"I'm sure he would be thrilled to hear that..."
Wraith sighs. "Back up again... Which floor?"
"Three up from here." She waves her hand and the shadow disappears reappearing with the other two in the first room.
Wraith takes them both up three floors.
Whysp immediately kicks though the chest of a zombie she rose up next to. "17 to go..." She smiles darkly.

[DarkXenith]

Four or five levels up in the command centre, Chance's optics were locked to the monitor feed from cameras on the level below. Several contorted figures had dragged themselves from the shadows of doorways and air ducts in the hallway and were shambling in the general direction of the stairwell. Muttering to himself - one of many habits peculiar to the black and white - he allowed a seldom-seen frown to narrow his optics and tried to bring the guns on that particular level back online, failing for the third time in succession.

"Scrappit...stupid t'ings."[/color]

Well, the defenses may be down but that didn't mean he was out. Oh, no.

Quickly switching what systems he'd managed to get working to 'auto', the mini slipped down from his console-side perch and headed to the far end of the room, to the offending stair-well. He imagined his olfactory sensors picked up the faint twang of stale fluids tainting the dank air in the passage below. He couldn't dwell on that fiction though, or the distant scrapes of the approaching derelicts.

Wraith could teleport - or phase at least. Chance wingflicked as he reasoned through his dilemma. He and Whysp would work around this situation. So, if he barricaded himself in an air vent with the sniper rifle and left a little something for the approaching hoard by way of parting gift to prevent them getting into this vital area, well it was all good.

Decision made, Chance quickly unspaced the tools of his trade and the drone he'd salvaged earlier from Stockpile along with a proximity mine or three. Spot-welding the latter to the former, he left the hostile device at the top of the stairs ready to bring it back online at the appropriate moment and darted over to the opposite side of the room to hole up in said air vent with his new rifle...not before he'd spot-welded the air vent grate shut behind him.

"C'mon den, slaggers.... 's be 'avin ya."[/color]

Anything that got past the drone would meet a decidedly quick end at the business end of a sniper rifle toting minibot as of now.

[Cutlass Rebooted]

Wraith rips through the chests of the last two on that floor. "14 more to go, where are the rest?
Whysp closes her eyes focusing her energy into commanding her three shadows.
The shadows search the building by looking through every shadow in the place.
First shadow: There are three more above you Mistress...
Second shadow: ...two more above that...
Third shadow: ...the next floor is empty...
First shadow: ...four on the floor above that...
Second shadow: ...and five heading this way...
Third shadow: ...we will aid in Chance's defense.
"Well?"
Whysp snaps out of her trance. "Three above us, two above that, skip a floor, four more above that floor then five making their way towards Chance."
"Right then, we'll have this clear in no time." Wrapping his arm around Whysp's waist the pair rise up and begin to hunt the three on that floor.

Five floors up:
Two zombie bots smash through a wall at the far end of the floor joining the other three that are slowly dragging themselves over to Chance's hiding place.
The biggest of the three in front moves slowly towards the drone.

The three shadows prepare to fire at the zombies, should Chance be unable to take them down fast enough.

[DarkXenith]

The minibot stilled his ventilation systems as two of the empties burst through the adjacent wall, the slightest obvious movement would compromise his security at this point in time. Very carefully, he fed the end of the rifle barrel through the grating in front of him and checked his line of sight.

He had a clear shot on one of them at the moment, but taking it now would alert the others to his whereabouts.

Remote linking to the drone at the top of the stairs, he took control of the device and slowly raised it from its resting place on the floor, guiding it toward the middle of the room before setting it into attack mode. It was, of course, a distraction first and foremost... set up purely to mask his own whereabouts and allow him the time to pick his targets to the best effect.

The drone's laserfire cut the air in the room as the other three empties entered the area, lighting into those closest with pinpoint accuracy and severing various appendages in the process. Two of the creatures slowed, reduced to crawling torsos by the loss of their lower limbs. Two were out of range and the remaining larger one lumbered onward, obviously made of sterner stuff than the others.

Back in the hole Chance waited, adjusting his position fractionally to line up on the two downed creatures... slowly, very slowly, the minibot teased the trigger with a single white digit and took a calculated shot. It tore through the thoracic armour of the nearest of the crawlers, making it's mark on the exposed spark. The creature was deactivated before it had time to register the hit.

Chance grinned triumphantly, charging the rifle for a second shot. Taking his mark on the second crawler, the black and white loosed the shot as the creature rose on it's arms, staring directly in his direction, it too fell to the floor, spark extinguished.

...Two down, t'ree t' go...Now 's time f' some fireworks...[/color]

Shifting slightly and easing himself further back into the safety of his 'den', Chance activated the three proximity charges welded to the drone. The first of the empties to trigger the charges would be reduced to scrap and spare parts... and then there'd be two. He just hoped that the larger of the three would be the one to fall prey to his handiwork

[Cutlass Rebooted]

"Where are they?"
"I don't know... My shadows are never wrong. Perhaps they're hiding?"
The two silently search the floor.
"This is weird... They should be here..."
"...unless..." Wraith randomly punches his hand through the wall next to him pulling away part of it revealing a zombie robot that just sits there looking at him. He smiles and goes to kill the creature.
Whysp grabs his arm. "Why isn't it trying to kill us?"
"How should I know..." With his other hand he rips out the flicking spark of the creature.
"Maybe they're finally acknowledging that you have no spark?"
"Hmm, maybe, but then why would they not attack you?"
"Perhaps it's because we're connected."
"Find another one, I have an idea."
Whysp rips the cover from a vent and pulls a zombie out.
It simply sits where it was dragged and vacantly looks at them both.
Wraith approaches it and it attempts to flee back into the vent. "Where do you think you're going?" He grabs what appears to be the remains of an arm, he partially phases his hand through it allowing the shadow substance to taint what little energon remained in it's body.
The zombie screeches but doesn't move.
"There is another of you here where are they?"
The zombie screeches and turns towards the far wall.
Wraith releases his grip on the zombie and charges forwards ramming his hand through the wall connecting with the hidden zombie's spark.
"You're staying with us..."
The zombie squeals in response and attempts to follow them.
"11 more..."
The two of them move up a floor leaving the zombie to make it's own way.

Five floors up the large zombie reaches for the drone...

[Silverflare]

The first thing Swiftwhisper knew was that she was falling, well plummeting was a more accurate description of it. The floor had just given away underneath her feet, her sensors failed to detect the weakened area. It was her own fault really, she had not been cautious enough. Still though, time to stop the fall. She drew her whip and spotted a tower that she had the luck to be falling down next to. There was no time to question why a whole tower might be down here, only time to use it to stop her fall. She cracked the whip forward and it glowing blue coil wrapped around a jutting pipe. The sudden explosive deceleration jolted her right arm agonisingly, her momentum however still carried her towards the building and she crashed through a wall, sliding across the room, whip trailing after her to crash through another wall bouncing across the room before impacting none too stealthily into a third. Well that worked. She lay there for a while, stunned, inwardly she screamed desperately wanting to move just in case the Decepticons lurked nearby. Her entrance could hardly not be missed.

[Cutlass Rebooted]

Wraith and Whysp look up as the newcomer crashes through the wall of the floor above them, at more or less the same time the zombie three floors up detonates the explosive drone.
"I thought you said there were none on that floor?"
"There isn't... That also sounded like an explosion..." Whysp stabs the flickering spark of one of the two zombies.
Wraith concentrates and detects the energy of another living bot. "I may have my opportunity to feed after all..."
He rips through the second zombie. "Where did our pet get to?"
The zombie he was referring to drags itself clumsily up the corridor towards them.
"Up another floor slow one..."
The zombie makes a sound that would suggest complaint but continues to drag itself onward.
Once again the pair rise up through the floor.
The dust from the wall not yet settled, attracts Whysp's attention. "Looks like something crashed through the wall up ahead."
Wraith leans in close to his partner as he whispers and blends into the darkness. "Stay here..."He silently glides over to where Swiftwhisper lies. He looks down at her keeping hidden in the darkness. "Now who might you be? Autobot or decepticon?"