trans_9 | We will all go together when we go [Closed to bomb teams]

"Yeah, you and me against the automated army." In any other situation he might have said that it was nice to meet her; he probably would have been interested in knowing how she was hovering and deflecting laser blasts; but now wasn't exactly the time.

"So let's be swift!" Ratchet swung out from behind his hiding space, transforming down as he went and peeled out against the walkway. "I've got approximate coordinates, but I can't scan for the bomb with all this noise," he called out, fishtailing to avoid a heavy round that buckled the flooring behind him. "Tell me if you see anything!"

"Agreed!" As she steeled herself, her companion transformed into a small automobile. That would most certainly amuse Beast Boy if he was here, but now was the time to focus. If they did not succeed, they and the others around them would die!

Calling on the determination bubbling up within, she was off, glowing green eyes scanning the area. It was a difficult task to roll and dodge every which way while looking, but nothing would deter her.

"These items would be arranged to deter us from every angle of approach, cor---eek!" One moment of delay and a laser nicked her. Time to move! Her eyes watched her companion when she could. Would he be all right?

"I shall approach the center!" And this was the deadliest portion. Things blasted her from every direction, and all she could do was shield and search for a sign. "Have you seen it?"

Ratchet wasn't overly worried about getting 'nickle and dimed' as the humans said; he could take his fair share of minor injuries without it slowing him down. He was more worried about Starfire--she seemed to be doing a fair job of holding her own, but she was still organic--and that damned bomb.

"No idea what it looks like. Fifty meters ahead, though- be careful!" He put on a burst of speed to catch up with Starfire, sensors flashing warnings all across his internal display that all boiled down to the fact that they were both charging right into the hornet's nest so to speak. He wasn't just going to let her do it on her own. He transformed and kicked himself up, a laser blast that had been aimed for his partner's back instead cracking into his armored forearm. "Fraggin' things-" He fired back, an explosion lighting up the dim cavern as one of the turrets went down.

"Keep going!" He scrambled out of the way of another volley only to be forced to soak up another to keep it from hitting the line of pods behind him. "I think I've got a lock: it should be smack in the center of the walkway up ahead!"

Except what Ratchet's sensors failed to pick up was that the bomb wasn't on the walkway... it was under it.

"Right!" She flew onward, grateful for his assistance. Another dodge-roll, and then---no! She had been forced in front of a pod by the last blast, and the next one impacted with her arm. She wasn't blown apart with her biological protection, but the pain was almost overwhelming.

"I am searching now!" Her words had a hard edge to them as she yanked her legs out of the way of another blast, scorching the walkway. "I do not see a bomb on this walkway. Do you---"

Another pause as she kept weaving around the blasts. "---have an approximation of its size?"

"You should be right on top of it!" The frustration was evident in his tone as he shot down another turret and transformed, plating smoking from the repeated laser fire he'd been taking. "Scanners read that it's about the size of a baseball!"

He moved to catch up once again with Starfire and found to his dismay that the sensor net didn't end when they reached the location of the bomb. The damned thing was surrounded by artillery! He transformed back upright and took a shot at another turret, but the blast went wide. "Search for it, I'll give you some cover." He activated his holoform as he spoke, the human-looking projection snapping into focus next to him before taking off down the walkway. It drew some of the fire, especially away from the pods, and the rest Ratchet either attempted to shoot down or soak the damage himself. He was going to be falling apart at the seams before this was over, he was sure of it.

"Oh top of it? But I see nothing resembling it!"

Her words were shouted in short bursts, always interrupted by yet another blast emergency. A few nailed her, because not even she could be graceful enough to twist around them all, but she found herself looking below. At the walkway. At the fact that more space existed below the walkway.

Taking a chance, she took a dive, veering out of the way of more blasters. She moved in a wide arc to avoid being hit in the face by something waiting just below the walkway, and surely enough...

"It is located!"

Ratchet took out another turret and found himself wishing, as much as it galled him, that Perceptor was here. At least he'd be able to hit these damn things. He watched Starfire disappear over the edge of the walkway and her notice was the first bit of good news so far.

"Does it look like it'll come off or should I start cutting from up here?" He switched his blaster to his other hand and retrieved the arc cutter from the forearm compartment of his now free arm. With any luck, Starfire would be able to get the thing off, though, and he wouldn't have to make himself a sitting cyberduck.

"I can cut it from the walkway from here, but I do not know how far the blast will extend if it detonates. Can it be handled safely?"

She flitted back and forth, trying her best to stay out of the way of any angle that would put her between the weapons and the pods.

"I don't know!" It was possible that it had a pressure trigger set to go off if it was disconnected from the walkway. Or some kind of gravity sensor that would trip if it was tilted or shifted off axis. There were too many variables, but they were going to get themselves shot to nothing if they hung around thinking about it for too long. They were going to have to go out on a limb here.

Now that he knew where the bomb was, he tried a quick scan for anything that might indication a motion trigger- liquids or gasses- but all he was picking up was the pods and the living tissue of Stacy herself. "Try cutting out the section of the walkway it's attached to. Unless you think you can disarm it from down there, we're gonna have to move it to safe location."

Edited 2010-08-29 02:34 (UTC)

"I..."

She hesitated, taking a few hits and being forced back in the meantime. She did not like that plan. If moved, would it explode?

"I believe it is safer to disable it. I can carry you here, or is there any way you can show me how to disable it?"

(Sorry about the derailing, but I've been told that it WILL explode if they move it. Recommended ways to deal with it are flying him or using a hologram to direct disabling.)

((Fiddlesticks. Oh well, no worries! I asked earlier about it but apparently the threat to make our lives harder was taken up. lol))

"Carry me?!" Ratchet scrambled to the edge of the walkway, hunkering down and letting off a few quick shots that knocked another turret off it's housing. "Unless you can lift a couple of cars worth of bulk, I don't think that's going to work." Frag. A quick internal command had the holomatter projection shut down from where it was currently running distraction and back him; he was going to have to switch places.

Transforming, he took off down the hallway, drawing laser fire as he went. Back at the bomb, the projection's head materialized through the bottom of the walkway. "Let's try it this way first. No need to make it harder than it already is." Through the datafeed from the hologram, he finally got his first good look at the bomb. It wasn't going to be easy, but he was... mostly sure he could talk her through it. If he could put a Prime back together from the component pieces then he could disarm a bomb. Hopefully.

"Let's get started..."

((Lovely. Ah well, here we go!))

She responded with a few starbolts toward the other turrets. They didn't seem to be triggering an explosion, so that was all right.

"I can, actually..."

But he was already putting a better idea into motion. Realizing the plan, she nodded and flew up to the bomb once more. So she would be his hands for this operation. "I am ready."

((Technobable and maybe some handwaving ahoy!))

Ratchet really preferred to keep his feet on the ground and this situation was stressful enough without having that to add to it. As a rule of thumb, you generally didn't want nervous wrecks handling your high explosives but if they had no other choice, it was good to know that the option was there.

"I'll keep that in mind but let's hope it doesn't come to that. Now over here, it looks like we can access the mechanism." He waited until Starfire had gotten the paneling open before taking a moment to think. "Primus, Wheeljack would love this. Alright." He started to walk her through getting through some of the redundant systems, trying to go quickly but carefully- a slip in either direction would have the thing blowing up in their faces. On the walkway above, there was another explosion as Ratchet managed to take out another turret, but for each one he shot down, the others were making up for the loss by increasing their energy output.

"I see."

Starfire worked diligently, ever-mindful of the explosions happening around her and how much damage Ratchet was sustaining. They really didn't have much time to succeed.

These systems were far more complex than anything she'd ever attempted to handle, so her trust rested with her companion. All she could do was follow him through the darkness, hoping---

"This one?"

She would ask every now and then, just to be certain. Her fingers couldn't slip, not even when she was grazed with more attacks. Everyone depended on this.

He was itching to give her a second set of hands but he had no idea what kind of reaction the bomb would have to the holomatter energy. All he could do was point out which parts to move and which could be taken apart with bare hands. The thing itself was relatively small, but it was packed to the rivets with all kinds of systems all of which were pointing to an incredibly powerful but compact energy source at the heart of it.

"You're doing a great job, Starfire. See if you can move that wire cluster out of the way..." He hadn't been able to spot anything that looked like a triggering system or detonator, which meant that they just had to go straight for the core.

...Which, when he could finally get a good look at it, turned out to be some kind of fission engine, but on a scale smaller than he'd ever seen before. "You're gonna need tools to do this. I'll be right o-" Above, there's the sound of an explosion on the walkway and Ratchet's holomatter projection suddenly flickers and vanishes mid sentence. The sound is immediately followed by several angry sounding Cybertronian curses and laser fire from the Autobot, who's holomatter generator had just been shot out.

((I figure we're almost done- just need to shut down the wee little bomb core.))

"Yes", she nodded, slipping her small fingers in and shifting it aside.

"Which tools should we---" Her sentence cut off when his did, the shock of the nearby explosion drawing her out of that concentration. "You are injured!"

She aimed some rapid-fire starbolts carefully, trying to deflect and absorb any other fire. "Should I carry and protect you?"

She could, somehow. One hand and her eyebeams should do the trick.

((Got it! Keeping our fingers crossed now.))

Ratchet was hunkered down nearby, a sparking hole in one corner of his chestplate and an agitated expression on his face. "I've had worse, but yeah- looks like you're gonna have to carry me." This wasn't going to be fun at all and he'd honestly have preferred to stay out with the autoturrets than have himself dangled over that bottomless pit of a pod cavern.
Never mind the fact that every bit of logic said that there was absolutely no way someone with Starfire's build could begin to think about even budging him, let alone carry him. But he was going to have to trust her just like she had trusted him not to get them blown up.

"Just... keep me steady and we should be okay." He stood up and steeled himself. Just don't think about the drop... slaggit, he was built to keep his feet on the ground. "Ready when you are." He had no idea how this was even going to happen, but he was going to have to deal with one way or the other.

"I will do it."

And that was that. Starfire rocketed up over the walkway, deflected a few more shots, and lifted him...well, not quite effortlessly, but she was nowhere near her limit yet. She could still fly reasonably fast.

She brought them down to the bomb with just a few scrapes, holding steady and using her eyebeams when she could. "Go."

He had to fight down the wave of panic that sprang up the moment they went over the edge of the walkway and the depths of the cavern yawned up under him. Just stay calm... Starfire had a good grip; she had things under control. Oh Primus it was a long way down...

Having the bomb to stare at helped him shove everything else away and Starfire didn't have to tell him twice to go. He went to work immediately, surgical tools getting into the small spaces where his larger fingers couldn't; laser scalpels and picks doing the work of clippers and pliers; optical magnification cycled up to see the details. He almost wanted to save this thing- there was so much potential knowledge in this tiny little machine. If only it wasn't set to kill them all.

He worked as quickly as he could, carefully isolating the generator, coaxing it into a redundant loop, stepping it down. With the materials stabilized, he moved to disconnecting the entire thing from the bomb housing itself, silently praying to a god he was pretty sure wasn't listening anyway that he wouldn't accidentally trip some kind of fail-safe. What was the human saying? Everyone becomes a believer when the plane goes down?

Finally the generator slipped out of the casing and into his hands and at the same time, all the turrets suddenly went dark. Had their power been linked in with the bomb? Made sense.

"It's done. Please put me back on the ground."

It was difficult to hold her position. Before the task was finished, she absorbed a few more shots aimed at Ratchet's back, but it was necessary. If they did not succeed, countless people here would die. That could never be undone.

She knew she mustn't waver, so they soon saw the task through. Every second, she focused on deflecting turret shots and hoping that she was giving Ratchet enough support. Finally, the terror ended temporarily. By the heavens, they had a chance to escape this!

"I am relieved." She immediately complied with his request. "We are to report back, yes? But what about the others?" Other bombs were still here. That was her main worry.

He felt the tension practically drain out of him the moment his feet touched back down. Thank the Source for small miracles; relieved didn't even begin to describe it.

"I don't know where the other bombs are. Trying to find them on our own wouldn't do any good." He managed open the storage compartment on his arm and secured the little generator under the charred paneling. "And we can't help anyone wandering around. Let's get out of here and contact the captain." With that he transformed down and took off.

((I figure we can move over to the other thread from here since you've already set up a nice header there. :3 ))

"You are right." Fighting down the feeling of dread in her stomach, she took off. If they could help over there, it would be worth it. Surely the others could save themselves?

((Works for me!))

We will all go together when we go [Closed to bomb teams]

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