Trypticon Training Room

This stark, spacious chamber is well-reinforced and shielded to stand up to the strain of many practice bouts. A training drone stands in one corner of the room, ready for a workout. The walls are sheathed in protective alloys that house sensors and cameras to project to the shielded monitors, allowing the combatants to observe their fight and progress. Off to the side are a few seats for spectators to observe the combatants and let out a cheer or two.

Contents:

Training Drone

Obvious exits:

West <W> leads to Trypticon Troop Quarters.

Arachnae enters from the Troop Quarters to the west.

Arachnae has arrived.

Training Drone strikes you with missile for 25 points of damage.

Your systems are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the damage.

Fleet falls to the ground unconscious.

Training Drone hovers over to Fleet and revives it with a quick zap of energy. "You require additional training to defeat this unit at this skill level."

Fleet is laying crumpled on the floor, trying to pick himself up after yet another sound thrashing by the drone. This... was getting old. But then, most of his opponents were considerably more powerful than he was, so there's not much for it but to pull himself up and keep trying.

Arachnae pads into the training room, honestly expecting to find it unoccupied. Instead, she catches sight of a yellow form being knocked to the floor.. and lying there for a moment. Wings flick behind her and she gives a thoughtful nod of her head, "Need a hand?" soft tone.

"Already got two, thanks..." murmurs Fleet before he looks up. "Ah. Arachnae. Sure," he answers, and will then accept any assistance she's willing to provide to stand. "Lower level, I beat it pretty consistantly... this level, that happens a lot," he says by way of explanation.

Catechism enters from the Troop Quarters to the west.

Catechism has arrived.

Arachnae half bends and offers a hand, giving the drone a quick glance at the drone. She shrugs, wings flexing behind her, "It's allright, happens to a lot of folk." Wings tuck behind her, "On that level it gives a lot of mechs a run for their credits."

Fleet nods as he heads over to reset his damage. Not that he really needed to be comforted like that... he doesn't embarrass easily. "Well, running is one thing I'm expert at," he murmurs.

Arachnae considers, "Done a lot of running away in my time. Nothing to be worried over." Faint smile as she pads towards the drone to reset it. "Mind if I give it a ride?"

Fleet shakes his head. "No, no. Not at all." He leans against the control console. "As long as you don't mind if I watch. I mean, I'm here to train, yes, but there's plenty to be learned from observation."

Training Drone comes alive with glittering lights as various weapons arm themselves. "Skill Level set to challenging," the drone emits. "Prepare for combat."

Catechism peeks into the training room. There's not much for her to do at the moment. Scientists can study the secrets of the universe, repair techs always have things to fix, spies are busy keeping tabs on their enemies, and so everyone has a place and a purpose. This semi-peace, however, leaves precious little for a warrior. Oooh, patrol. Guard duty. Yay.

Arachnae resets the drone and systems a level comprable to what Fleet had it at and takes several hop-steps backwards, wings flickng out around her. "This should prove to be interesting." Sideways glace to Fleet, "Or at least entertaining." Blades snick out of fingers and forearm, wings span out and she launches herself at the drone, slashing with those bladed hands.

Arachnae strikes Training Drone with Double-Blade Strike.

Training Drone emits, "9 points of damage done."

Training Drone strikes Arachnae with cannon.

Verdant enters from the Troop Quarters to the west.

Verdant has arrived.

Fleet watches Arachnae engage the drone, and then cringes when it hits her. At that level it would knock him out with a single hit - his only hope against the thing at this level, really, is to keep dodging it until it rain out of energy. He looks up as Catechism arrive and nods. "Greetings, Catechism."

Catechism is hovering near the doorway, just watching what's going on to get a gauge on the situation. She'll gladly do guard duty and patrol, but she does need something to fill up her own free time, and watching a fight in the training room may be as good a thing as any. Her name mentioned, she nods to Fleet and says, "Hi, Fleet."

Verdant enters the room and is perhaps a touch startled to find it so occupied already, not having expected such. In constant need to improve his skills so as to improve his usefulness outside the labratory, and thus prove his usefulness to some of the less... well, to some of the wilder and more warrior oriented members of the army, at any rate. "I had not realized," he says, "what a popular destination this was tonight."

Arachnae's blades strike home, slashing into the thick armoring of the drone. Unfortunatly, that puts her in point blank range for a return strike. And that shot packs enough of ap unch to send her flying backwards, heels over head, landing offbalance, skidding to a halt. Smoke wafts up from her chest.. "Forgot how much that stings..." Optics narrow, "Hmm.. Time to play hardball." Forearm blades retract as she draws a sword, flicks the blade once to ignite the energy field and charges forth once more.

Arachnae strikes Training Drone with Phase-Blade <Energy>.

Training Drone emits, "11 points of damage done."

Training Drone misses Arachnae with its ram attack.

Fleet further rests his elbows against the console and then uses his hands to support his head. He nods over to Verdant. "We low level military types need to keep up our abilities somehow, and there've been no raids for awhile." His head snaps back towards Arachnae and the drone. "Nice!" he observes appreciatively.

"Indeed," Verdant adds. "Most impressive." And certainly far beyond his meager combat skills. Sure, his rot ray makes for a nice ace in the hole, but even with such a "special power" on his side, it would likely be millions more years before he ever became the kind of warrior that would send Autobots scattering in terror.

Catechism knows that Arachnae's a rather impressive fighter, back from that mission to catch Sunstreaker. What ever become of that? It's not a warrior's place to wonder, though. She nods agreeably and says, "That's how it should go."

Arachnae smiles a tight smile as the energy blade slices through a side section of her 'foe', the femme dancing to the side and out of the way. Kicking upwards, she snaps wings outwards, electricity coalescing into a visible wavefront that pushes out at the drone. "Thank you Fleet. I rather need the practice myself. I tend to forget that I have these new toys."

Arachnae strikes Training Drone with her Electrical tun attack.

Oh, yes. She needs the practice /so/ badly. Now the yellow seeker cringes on behalf of the drone instead of on Arachnae's behalf, but still something seems wrong. "Why isn't it reporting damage level, or attacking back?" he asks, puzzled.

Catechism tilts her head to one side and takes a step away from the doorway. She looks over at Verdant and says, "Is it broken?"

Arachnae watches as her strike seems to outline the drone without much fanfare, until it pauses in it's tracks, frozed in a moment's overload. She chuckles softly, wings still aglow, "It isn't a malfunction." Optics gleam, "Simple energy overload, frozen for but a moment." The glow around her draws up, focused on tips of wings, the edge of her sword. "A slight advantage.." She whips that sword as if cutting the air itself, sending a crackling twist of electricity bent upon itself in plasmic folds at the momentarily stunned target.

Arachnae strikes Training Drone with Electrical Hellfire.

Training Drone emits, "15 points of damage done."

Training Drone strikes Arachnae with ram.

Verdant winces slightly as the drone rams into Arachnae, but this quickly passes as he once again stands in awe of her abilities. "It is enough," he says to Fleet, "to almost make one feel useless, is it not?"

"Ah, there we go," murmurs Fleet as the drone's behavior returns to normal. He turns to Verdant and nods his head. "No joke. But still, there is /always/ strength in numbers." He shakes his head. "Impressive array of weaponry, but not really what I need most at the moment."

"There's a use for all of us, or we wouldn't be alive," Catechism states almost automatically. She studies Fleet, although there's really no point to it, as he's a standard pyramid Seeker. Yeah, shiny electric swords wouldn't do him much good. He probably wouldn't have the strength needed for a good swing, and he's better at ranged combat, anyway.

Arachnae's wings snapback behind her after she releases that crackling moment of doom, mostly to evade being crushed as the drone whips about, ramming into her bodily. The impact sends her skidding back, shoulder guard bent, cracks showing in her armoring. "It's.. not a matter of what you ahve.. but how.. you use it." quiet tone. She gives a strange flick to her sword, the energy blade shining brightly before it reforms to a solid length of blue'd metal. She swings it, holding the hilt with both hands.

Arachnae misses Training Drone with her Phase-Blade <Solid> attack.

Training Drone misses Arachnae with its cannon attack.

Fleet eyes the drone with its cannon and such a little warily. "I beg to differ, Arachnae, but often it /is/ a matter of what you have. Now, granted, how it's handled is also quite important, and the aspect that I'm currently concerned with, but there have been plenty of times in our war where the battle is won by the biggest gun." And that's not even taking into account their Emperor's alt-mode.

"I am not so certain," Verdant replies. "While superior numbers or firepower can be extremely useful, so can lesser actions, as when applied with the propper knowledge. A blow to a weak spot in metal, removing the cornerstone of a building... all can be accomplished by those of lesser ability, with no deficientcy in success." And, almost abruptly, he stops talking, as though aware that he was babbling.

Fleet sighs, shaking his head and tilting his optics ceilingward. "I'm not discounting those factors, either, Verdant. War is a complex thing. A lot of things play a part, and you can't really just say, 'Oh, it's not one thing but another.' Sometimes things like that apply to individual situations, battles, whatever, but on the broader scope, every bit counts, the weapons, the skill, the knowledge. All of it."

Arachnae spins around the drone after her blade is deflected. The cannon-shot singes where she had been but three steps ago. The spin ends in a high kick to theback of the drone, "Knowing weak spots is good tactics. knowing yor own weakness and moving through that is another."

Arachnae misses Training Drone with her Kick attack.

Training Drone misses Arachnae with its ram attack.

Fleet chuckles softly. "Knowing my own weaknesses is... one of my strong points, actually," he comments dryly. "In fact, I do believe this was one of the qualities of mine that helped to attract Geist's attention." Well, that, and his association with Arachnae herself.

"I too," Verdant says, "am well aware of my limitations. But as in science, one must ever be pushing his boundaries, striving to be able to learn and do more." Though it often seems, these days, as though he and Fleet are in competition for the "wimpiest Decepticon award", though for differing reasons. Of course, neither of them are likely to change, so it remains a friendly sort of "rivalry."

If Fleet doesn't change, he's going to be in big trouble with his trainers!

Catechism probably couldn't see her own weakness if someone explained it to her with an illustrated diagram. If asked, she'd probably point out her jet mode's low armour, which, while weak, isn't her most critical flaw. So she remains quiet and simply listens to the others and watches the fight.

Arachnae pushes off of the ground, wings snapping outwards before they wrap about the femme. She folds in on herself, engines kindling as she transforms into her alternate mode, rising up to circle the drone once before dropping like a falcon in stoop for prey. Wings pivot back, slimming the craft before she moves for impact.

Voidcraft (Arachnae) misses Training Drone with her Ram attack.

Training Drone misses Voidcraft (Arachnae) with its ram attack.

Thank you, Verdant. Fleet would never have thought he should be pushing his own boundaries or anything. I mean, it's not as though he's been enduring a rather difficult training regimen administered by a Sweep or anything. The pastel seeker glances at Verdant out of the corner of his narrowed optics, but otherwise his expression remains neutral. "Yes," is all he says, before turning his attention back to Arachnae and the drone, who have decided to start missing each other.

Verdant is /master/ of the obvious.

But is he going for that doctorate of the obvious?

But the drone has other ideas, evidently, leaping up to try and ram the rammer. The craft knifes off, peeling to her left only to bank about sharply, letting spit forth several hundred fletchette rounds.

Voidcraft (Arachnae) strikes Training Drone with Fletchette Rounds.

Training Drone emits, "11 points of damage done."

Training Drone misses Voidcraft (Arachnae) with its ram attack.

"Those drones certainly get repetitive," Fleet observes, pushing himself once more upright, remembering the time Catechism and he teamed up against one that continually used an energy-sword against them, even when it was obviously too far away to do any good.

Verdant nods his agreement. Inanimate AI is never as useful or as creative as a fully sentient, free-thinking mechanical being like a Transformer. "Indeed," he says aloud, declining to speculate further, for fear of venturing into babble territory again.

"Tell me about it," Catechism drawls, fervently nodding assent. And she's more interesting than a drone! Woo!

Voidcraft (Arachnae) wingovers, rising up to split asunder, wings refolding outwards, crackling with energy. "Now I'm feeling more of why Scourge wanted me to remake these things..." She flashes her sword out, the solid blade changing phase to energy to lead her dive and utlize momentum for added force behind the swing.

Arachnae misses Training Drone with her Phase-Blade <Energy> attack.

Training Drone misses Arachnae with its cannon attack.

Catechism nods to the others and shrugs. Without explaining herself, she slips out. Patrol, watch, whatever. If they're that interested in what she's doing, they can always check the duty rosters.

"Remake the drones, you mean?" Fleet asks curiously before pushing himself away from the console entirely. When a Sweep talks about remaking something, it's generally best to be very clear on what is being remade.

Catechism has disconnected.

Arachnae swishes past the drone, the two passing like two ships in the night. "Remaking the drones, yes.." Her optics flicker, "An interesting experiment, but one I had to shelve.. They were..deemed too dangerous for regular use." Wings snap out and she charges the drone, slashing with the leading edges.

Arachnae misses Training Drone with her wing-slash attack.

Training Drone misses Arachnae with its missile attack.

"Even the best systems can have their unpredictibility," Verdant says. "Were we to make the drones too smart or to effective... They might well get away from us." Granted, robotics and AI are far from his area of expertise, but he knows about unpredictibility in science. There are more than a few scientists and soliders, probably still in stasis, with cause to hate him from the time the morphobots got away from his control...

Arachnae chuckles softly, otptics gleaming.

"Oh, right!" Fleet says, watching another fun round of missy-missy. "I seem to remember you mentioning them before, when you had Fulcrum and I assist with that one strange little thing... the one that stuck to my back!"

Arachnae leaps upwards, tucks in, flips over and lands to the other side of the drone. A hand is raised, electricity dances down her forearm, wan in it's blue tinge before pulsing outwards with another twisting mass of plasma, "Well, Ai study is a pastime of mine actually." Calm as she can be.. "But yes, you don't want one... (several dozen) getting out of the lab..."

Arachnae strikes Training Drone with Electrical Hellfire.

Training Drone emits, "19 points of damage done."

Training Drone misses Arachnae with its cannon attack.

"Uhm, no." Fleet may be no scientist, but he can figure /that/ much out. He takes a couple of steps back and leans against the wall. That... was a good hit. He hmmms thoughtfully. "Almost surprised the thing hasn't run out of energy yet. That's the weakness it suffers at this level: it really only has high powered attacks, so it burns through them quickly."

Arachnae hops several steps back, wings folding behind her as the cannon streaks over her head. A shake of her head, her own aura dimming. "One of the downsides to this training system. They do not run out of energy.. While we.. do." A shake of her head as she checks weapons, frowns and shrugs, padding over to shut the sim down. "Pity, should adjust that.."

Fleet cocks his head somewhat curiously. "Indeed? But I've run it out in the past. It's the /only/ way I can beat it on this level. Maybe this is a newer feature, Arachnae?"

Arachnae has disconnected.

Fleet shrugs. Apparently Arachnae is out the door before she can hear. He looks at Verdant, shrugs, then reaches an arm towards the drone, his weapons clicking over to physical ammunition mode.

You strike Training Drone with Rail Gun.

Training Drone emits, "9 points of damage done."

Training Drone is deactivated under the fierce barrage of attacks.

Training Drone shuts down momentarily and resets as you succeed in defeating it at this skill level!

Okay, it's /not/ very impressive to defeat the drone after Arachnae just took it down as far as she did, but hey. Fleet still likes seeing the damn thing shut-down anyway. The yellow seeker then frowns as the drone resets himself, then turns to Verdant, continuing to frown thoughtfully as he regards the other seeker.

"Something on your mind, Fleet?" Verdant asks, in regards to the odd way his sometime wingmate is looking at him. He can't recall doing anything to antagonize the pastel yellow seeker in the recent past, but then again, Fleet's occassionally unusual--witness the laser-"fight" of the other day, but still...

"Just thinking of your reactions when we had to meet that Autobot..." Fleet pauses, and spits out the next word as though he cannot bare the taste of it, "delegation, Verdant." The pastel seeker shakes his head. "I'm not the most capable of warriors, but you were... awfully transparent, and it's a bad idea to let one's foes know you're that afraid of them."

"I had feared that I was," Verdant says. "As much as I have tried to familiarize myself with the threats we might encounter... there is much that still comes as a surprise to me. When I reach back in my memory... there were no Autobots of that scale, at least not that I encountered. I was...unprepared for it." A reasonable excuse, you could say. Verdant doesn't really /mean/ to be cowardly, he's just constantly being shocked by things his experiences tell him simply aren't possible.

Fleet begins tapping a few keys on the console. "I was active during the changes, although, until recently, I managed to keep a low enough profile to really keep from getting noticed. So I tend to forget how strange all of this can be. But still... we need to get you used to this." He taps another couple of keys, adjusting the level of the drone downwards. "You realize that the Autobots have a warrior every bit as large as our Trypticon, don't you?" he asks. As the drone adjusts, the hologram projectors give it the illusion of... Sky Lynx, in separate mode, lynx and bird. "In truth, this fellow could beat either of us easily enough, but here in the training room it's just a drone... but helps get you used to the idea of fighting something this size."

Training Drone comes alive with glittering lights as various weapons arm themselves. "Skill Level set to high," the drone emits. "Prepare for combat."

A slight change seems to come over Verdant, the steeling that comes about when he's too busy fighting to actually be afraid. It's a useful mindset, even if it sometimes leaves him feeling a little wiped afterward. "Metroplex," he says, supplying the name. "I've read the file... but even for his size, there is something infitnitely more disturbing about a primative of that scale than a Transformer of more normal design."

"Well, we /shouldn't/ ever have to fight Trypticon..." answers Fleet as he leaps from behind the console. He doesn't mention to Verdant that control of the city-former /has/ been lost in the past. No need to worry the poor guy anymore than necessary. "And personally I find the one trying to step on me to be the most frightening," he finishes as he fires on the cat side of the false-Lynx. "Verdant, assist me!"

Training Drone evades your Shoulder-Mounted Laser Rifle attack.

Verdant snaps up his arm, brining his weapon to bear and ready to fire. "I am on it!" he announces, needlessly.

Verdant strikes Training Drone with arm laser.

Training Drone emits, "7 points of damage done."

Training Drone strikes Verdant with missile.

The cyber-lynx easily ducks under Fleet's blast and bounds after him, swiping at him with his claws (not missile as it said) , even as Verdant's attack hits home against the bird side. In response the bird opens its maw and unleashes a stream of fire (not laser). Both parts do all this with a silence that would be quite uncharacteristic in the real Sky Lynx.

Fleet falls under the claws of the cyber-cat and smiles. He twirls in the air in a move that brings to mind the ice-capades, arm out and following the big cat. "Nice try," he murmurs, even as he realizes just how much that would have hurt, had it hit.

Training Drone evades your Shoulder-Mounted Laser Rifle <Pulse Mode> attack.

You evade Training Drone's missile attack.

Verdant rocks under the missile attack, retaliation for a blast from his own weapon, but manages not to cry out, instead letting the explosion blow him backwards, turning that into upward momentum he can use to get skyward to attack.

Verdant misses Training Drone with his disruptor attack.

Training Drone misses Verdant with its missile attack.

This time both components of the great bird-cat-thingy manage to avoid the seekers' attacks. Nothing that large should be that nimble! The lynx leaps to the side, ducking Fleet's pulse-laser assault and returning with a missile, while the bird flies over Verdant's disruptor and flies past Verdant, attempting to hit him with a tail sweep (not a missile, despite what attack the drone actually used).

Fleet seems to play leap frog with the missile. Okay, he's enjoying this not getting hurt thing, but they'll never get anywhere if they don't start some hurting in return. He transforms and dives for the giant, blocky cat, unleashing a rocket of his own before climbing again.

Fleet transforms from robot to pyramid jet.

Training Drone evades your Rocket attack.

Training Drone strikes you with electricity for 15 points of damage.

/This/ time, verdant is ready for the missile attack. His nerves are more steady, though tell-tale signs that another seeker might notice still portray some nervousness. Still, he thinks, think about /fighting./ Time for another attack, this one a big one.

Verdant misses Training Drone with his Rot Ray attack.

Training Drone strikes Verdant with electricity.

Once more both parts duck out of the way in a really spectacular way that the person typing for them is too tired to describe. For his part, Fleet's gamble did not pay off as he takes the attack intended for him, in low armor mode at that! "Gra!" he shouts, and then, "Scrap!" He transforms and lands by the console, shutting off the simulation. "I'm sorry, Verdant, but I've got to get out there on watch. I have some slaves to oversee, but I encourage you to get used to the idea of fighting some of the larger Autobots, okay?" With that he takes off, zipping out the door.