NCC Coastline

It is a tribute to the construction of the city that they were successfully able to integrate a Cybertronian landscape into something as un-Cybertronian as a coastline. Regardless, as the city is in battle mode, one is not likely to be admiring the construction effort. Huge laser emplacements point out to sea, capable of sinking a battleship. Tiny point-defense laser turrets are placed along the sky-roads that lead deeper into the city, and missile turrets line the various spires of the city to protect against an aerial assault. As this is the gateway to the rest of New Crystal City, clearly it was designed to be a strong fortification. The weaponry is mostly for long-range engagements to annihilate foes before they even reach the island, but there are short ranged guns as well. Overall, this is a death trap to invaders. A huge strike force would be required to secure it.

Contents:

Catechism

Decepticon Advanced Troops 4758

Imperial Decepticon Mini-Sub <Mantis>

Imperial Vessel <Despoiler>

Obvious exits:

North <N> leads to NCC Central Hub.

East <E> leads to NCC Residential Plaza.

West <W> leads to NCC Spaceport.

Fly <Up> Ocean <O>

Verdant arrives from the NCC Central Hub to the north.

Verdant has arrived.

Out on the coastline there are a few irregular lumps where the Constructicons just placed metal over large rocks or the like rather than actually moving them. Fleet is now perched on one of the lumps, looking out at the ocean. He's still, but he has his normal air of trapped motion about him, like he's ready to take off like a rocket at any instance, as though he's having a hard time keeping himself from doing so right now.

Verdant arrives on the beach, noting, with some small measure of dissatisfaction, the lack of any plant life, not unlike the rest of the Decepticon base. He is itchy to explore more, to obtain samples so that he can begin his botanical work, but is nervous about venturing out alone. Perhaps Fleet would like to acompany him, show him around?

Catechism is out the ocean to look at it, really. It's so very strange to her. She did a little research on her Earth mode. 'Marine Corps variant'. Supposed to have something to do with water, but she can't swim anymore than any other unmodified Seeker can. Eh.

Several times, Verdant opens his mouth as though wanting to speak and gain their attention, but, as per usual for him with social interaction, he finds it difficult to get any of the words to come out, instead producing a somewhat audiable "aaaah"

If Verdant wants anyone else to help him out, he'll have to ask out loud, but Fleet is, indeed, a good candidate. The survivalist makes it a point to get on as well as possible with MSE, even those members that don't do repair work, due to the fact that so many of them do repair work and Fleet has long ago come to the conclusion that being well thought of the folks responsible for fixing him up is useful when it comes to staying alive. The yellow seeker does here the 'aaaaah' being, as he always is, balanced on an edge between flight and fight, and he turns rather quickly to the other, calming a bit when he sees that it is Verdant. "Ah. Problem, Verdant?"

"Er... yes," Verdant says. "I wish to go and collect some botanical samples to study, but I fear I do not know my way around this world well enough to make much of a go of it. I was wondering if, perhaps, you would mind accompanying me?" A small part of him, Decepticon instinct, balks at the notion of asking for help, but he has long since pushed most of that aside. One learns by asking questions after all.

Catechism notices the other Seekers, who are really more interesting than the ocean, in her opinion. The ocean is just a bad thing to crash into. Seekers talk! She waves in a friendly manner and queries, "What's up?'

Catechism's cheerfulness is still somewhat off-putting to Verdant, though he can't quite put his finger on why. "I was just telling Fleet," he says, "that I wanted to go and collect some botanical samples, but do not know my way around well enough yet."

"Catechism," Fleet says to the conehead by way of greeting. "I was just about to accompany Verdant on a trip elsewhere, so that he can gather botanical samples." An excuse to get off the island for a bit! Yes, a 'mission' for MSE will do nicely! He looks at Verdant. "Anything in particular you have in mind, or is this more a general 'gather plants' thing? We can go to just about any land mass on this planet and find a different collection of plants, not to mention the ocean itself, although we three are not exactly equipped for that."

'Psychotically cheerful' has a way of doing that to people. Catechism still seems upbeat, but she looks a little perplexed now. "Botani-whazzits? Oh, tech stuff. Nevermind. Need another for the trip?"

"Tropical plants are the order of the day right now," Verdant says. "I've been studying the information on Earthern rainforests in out database, and they sound like they should yeild the most promising results." Truth be told, the entirety of Earth thrilled Verdant, at least a little bit. A world practically overgrown with vegetation in some places, much of it still waiting to be discovered... It was a scientist's dream

Fleet propels himself off his perch and is standing in one quick, sudden motion. "As it so happens, Fulcrum and I recently ran accross an interesting little tropical island that seemed completely untouched by the local dominate species, or by either faction. We spent a bit of time gathering energon, and I think that that somehow triggered the Autobots sensors, but a bit of plant gathering shouldn't draw any attention, and it's nice and out of the way."

Verdant allows a smile to cross his face. "That sounds simply excellent," he says. He does not mention, of course, his desire to avoid the Autobots. Though he is slightly more confident in his abilities as a fighter since his sparing with Fleet, warfare, even a running skirmish, is not something he is particularly fond of. And an uncharted island... Simply excellent. All ready, he has noticed how the humans were spoiling the world, destroying the much superior plants.

Catechism is just going to invite herself along, as she'd like to be doing something other than doing nothing. She smiles slightly and hangs back. Yeah, not terribly likely to need any heads busted in this trip, but she can tag along, look mean, and avoid small flying creatures. Shudder.

Fleet, for his part, is just working under the assumption that everyone's going to want to keep themselves in fighting fit for the invasion later on. He nods to Catechism. "No reason not to join us. Both of you, just follow me. We'll see if I can't find this thing again." With that he leaps into the air and transforms, making it all seem one fluid motion.

* Spinny! *

Beachside

It starts to get rocky just after the plains again. Just before it starts to rize up above the plains is a beach with trees and palm trees. The waves crash up on the ocean and the ocean spray is cool is it hits you. Seagulls fly around the air and flock on the beach. A shipwreck of many many years ago is on the beach rotted out, on the side S.S. Min..something it has been a long time since anyone really cared about the wreck. It is now a home for some of the animal life on the island.

Contents:

Flock of Chicks

Obvious exits:

East <E> leads to The Rocks and Plains.

Northwest <NW> leads to Rocky Cliffs.

Ocean <O> leads to Southeast Pacific.

Catechism has arrived.

Verdant has arrived.

Pyramid Jet (Fleet) transforms and touches down, gesturing around him as he does. "One tropical island, coming up!"

The yellow Cybertronian jet unfolds, revealing the robotic form of the seeker Fleet.

Catechism touches down heavily and looks around with more suspicion than one would expect. There sure is a lot of wildlife around here....mostly birds. Eeep. No, Catechism is not going to be taking any poptshots today. She says slowly, "I...I'm going to fly a perimeter loop around here, check the place out."

Verdant lands beside the others and looks around, eyes wide with wonder. Such natural splendor, such greatness of nature... all waiting to be explored, to be understood, to be made known... Perhaps this Earth assignment will not be quite so bad

Fleet looks to Verdant and searches around for a new perch. "So, is this what you were needing, Verdant? And if you can't get what you need here, we can go further in the island... and then we're all good for the big attack later on, so it all works out."

Verdant nods. "I would not mind going a bit further inland," he says. "But I suspect this will do for the moment. One should never turn down an opportunity to learn something new, after all." He walks a short distance and bends down near a growth of grass and a few other plants, tiny in comparrison to his Transformer-sized frame, and the delicateness with which he moves is quite surprising

Catechism jets up into the air and transforms. She hovers for a moment before pealing off to start a loop around the island. The F-35 climbs high, and one wonders if she can actually see anything useful from that height. She's almost acting avoidant. How terribly strange.

Catechism transforms into her alternate mode: a F-35, Marine Corps variant. Her feet flip up against her shins, her nosecone rotates through her body and out in front where it belongs, her arms tuck into her torso, and her wings rotate into position.

Fleet finds a sufficintly large rock and perches on it, nodding. "Well, I'll have to take your word for that. I'm kind of starting to have my own doubts. You remember that big old Sweep that came up and yelled at me a couple of weeks ago? That came from me /not/ turning down the opportunity to learn something new." Then Fleet looks curiously up at Catechism and radios, broadband so that Verdant can hear as well, "Problem, Catechism?"

F-35 <Catechism> rotates along her longitudinal axis, 360 degrees back to normal flight. Ah yes, she's up high enough that she doesn't need to worry about many birds now. The F-35 is relatively safe now. She radios back to Fleet, "Nothing. As I said, I wanted to do a sweep of the island first. You never know what might be out there."

Gently, more gently than one might expect a giant robot to be capable of, Verdant deploys small tools and works to carefully extract the largest of the plants in front of him. It is a slightly unusual looking thing, large crimson petals and broad green leafs, slightly sticky to the touch.

Fleet, for his part, has little to no interest in plant life. But it's here, and it's something the Decepticons have to deal with... at least until they pave over the planet, or suck it dry. Since Verdant has gone into quiet little scientist mode he instead turns his attention to Catechism. "Point," he radios back, and he's not talking about the one on her head! "After all, I did encounter two of the Aerials and that fox cassette last time I was out here." With that he looks at Verdant, as though suddenly remembering something. "Oh, yeah. Warning. They've got flying Autobots these days."

The news is enough to knock Verdant out of his scientific stupour. "Flying Autobots?" he says, incredulously. "Flying Autobots, Decepticons with wheels... You go into stasis for a while and the universe turns about on it's head by the time you get back."

Fleet snorts. "Sometimes you don't even need to go into stasis for a few million years for /that/ to happen, Verdant." Fleet looks back up, absently tracking his coneheaded companion.

"I suspect there is some truth to that," Verdant replies. His attention shifts back to the plants, slightly. "Still, it is nice to know some things in the universe, whatever surprises they may throw at us, still follow recognizable and logical patterns." Carefully, he pulls the plant from the ground, making certain to keep it's root system intact. Opening a small sample case, he places the plant inside and holds it up to eye level to watch for a moment.

F-35 <Catechism> finishes the first sweep. Okay, it's an island. There are plants and stuff and far too many birds for the conehead's liking. She really has no excuse to do a second sweep. The F-35 does it anyway. This time, however, she can't help from tossing in a little loop here and a wee roll there. The F-35 radios back to Fleet, "Good to know."

Fleet, who generally considers himself a fairly level headed sort, has frankly had a hard time lately discerning the patterns that used to come so easily to him. He stops to think about what does still work. Autobots fly. A Sweep has decided to take a Seeker as a friend and student. A certain yellow /Trooper/ can't seem to avoid receiving personal attention from the Constructicons if he walks into medical with more than two of them present... so what does still work right? "Well, gravity still works and all, I guess..." he murmurs. Then he looks up and radios to Catechism, "Well, as long as you're enjoying yourself..."

It is, of course, too early for Verdant to tell too much about the plant--that will require cutting it up and studying it, as well as taking seeds for future study--but his well trained botanist's eye is all ready able to tell him some things about the plant. "Facinating," he says, even as he rubs his index finger and thumb together, grinding off the remains of the stickiness.

F-35 <Catechism> suddenly plummets, transforms, and hits the ground, in the vicinity of the other two Seekers. It's a very ugly landing. To someone who knows aerobatics, it was, in fact, too ugly. The F-35 had to have gone out of her way to perform a landing that particularly ugly. She's still going to have to walk a while to reach the others, but she's not to far off. Now, Catechism radios them both simply, "Perimeter sweep completed. Nothing interesting."

F-35, Marine Corps variant, transforms into robot form. Catechism's feet unfold, her arms unfold out of her body, her nosecone rotates through her body and ends up on her shoulders to expose her face, and her wings rotate into position.

Fleet hnhs softly. "Well, I'll have to take your word for that, too," he says to Verdant. You just can't figure some people, but then, if seekers really were the drones so many seem to assume that they are, there would be no compensating for one's weaknesses with another's strength, and things of that nature. He gives Catechism a slightly askance look, then considers... the loud, ugly thump of her landing seems to have frightened off a lot of the local wildlife.

Verdant is about to elaborate as to just what he finds facinating about this particular plant, but manages to check himself. Fleet and Catechsim are both decent sorts, but obviously uninterested in botany, High time he learns that not everyone is as interested in plants as he. Still, the sticky fluids this plant secreets may rub off well enough, but if applied on a larger scale, chemically reproduced, it may have other uses as an adhesive. Something to examine later, for sure.

Oh, like the Decepticons around here don't have a bad enough history when it comes to adhesives.

Catechism might have planned on scaring off the local wildlife. It's possible. She might have had some ulterior motive. In any case, Catechism gets to hiking over to where the other two Seekers are. It shouldn't take her too long.

Stowing his sample safely away, Verdant moves on to the next item, a slightly more agressive-looking one, if such terminology can be applied to plants. In fact, the plant almost seems to have teeth. "Absolutely facinating," he says. Certainly, he has encountered similar plants or read accounts of them, but he would not have expected a carniverous plant to flourish on such an animal dominated planet.

Fleet props his head up. He doesn't look bored, to be honest. He might be bored, but it doesn't bother him, as boredom is rather safe, and he can sooth himself with the knowledge that later on he will have a chance to fly and fight anyway, but still, he has little to contribute to the discussion of botanical samples. So instead he concerns himself with practical matters. "Verdant, have you been familiarizing yourself with our recent historical tapes while back at base?"

Verdant nods. "Somewhat," he says. "I am amazed at all the changes that occurred in such a short amount of time. The end of an era for both factions and everything that came after... It is a lot to get a handle on." If the green seeker seems worried by any of what he's read, he does not show it. Then again, it is unlikely he would. As long as there are people giving orders, there will be people following them, and Verdant is ever a follower.

"And Trypticon? You know about him, too, right?" asks Fleet. Verdant had better know about him! He might well see the city-former in action just a bit later, after all.

Catechism pushes her way through the brush, careful not to disturb too many trees, because, horror of horrors, birds fly out when she disturbs trees! She finally finds her fellow Seekers and stands back to let Verdant work. Catechism waves to the other two and makes a generic wind-noise to let them know she's there. It could probably be loosely translated as 'hi', but it has even less real meaning than that.

Again, Verdant nods. "Indeed. The idea of a Transformer that is also a city is... disturbing, to say the least. I find something unnatural about occupying a living being, like some sort of parasite," he says. Truth be told, it had weirded him out more than he was saying, to learn of such Transformers. But worse than Trypticon were the records of the Autobot's Metroplex. Guardian Robots had been bad enough, but the thoughts of a city-sized Autobot gave him the surges.

Fleet acknowledges Catechism's return with a slight nod of his head, then turns his attention back to Verdant. "Disturbing? Perhaps, but at least it's on our side. And he's set to be part of the attack tonight... this'll be my first time witnessing him in action, too, and I've been in him enough times." For some reason Fleet is a lot less bothered by the whole affair... perhaps because he had been active through these developments. That, and of late things have gotten so strange to him that hey, what's a giant transforming city thrown into the mix?

"Some of the archival footage of him in action is...interesting to watch, to say the least," Verdant says, even as he works on collecting more samples. "A shame we did not have the likes of him in the old days. Things could have been settled much more swiftly." Of course, such would have been impossible, for much of the history of the war, with energy at such a premium. Frankly, he was surprised they had the ability to keep such a being powered and maintained now.

Catechism shrugs. "I don't think it's creepy. It's just another example of what glorious heights out cause can reach." Her optics light happily. "I mean, there are transport Decepticons...why not whole cities?"

"Yes, but one is not meant to inhabit a transport," Verdant says. "It is a fine example of what our technology and power can reach, but I cannot help but wonder if it is not an overextension. What if Trypticon were to turn rogue? There would be little we could do against him."

"Well, we don't have the resources to keep him operational all the time," Fleet explains. "That's why he's sleeping most of the time. It's also why we're invading tonight, for that matter." The pastel seeker leans back at that point and glances upwards, not pointing out that at one point, the cities did turn rogue... but they were able to get them back. What he does do is comment, "You guys know the Junks have one too, right?"

"The Junks?" Verdant asks. "I am...unfammiliar with that term, I am afraid to admit." He remembered, from long ago, rumors of a planet made of junk. Perhaps some relationship existed between what Fleet had said and that?

Catechism leans back and scowls. She comments briefly, "Junkions. Autobot-kin." Doesn't look like she likes this topic much.

"Junkions." confirms Fleet. "Autobot allies. They seem to be an off-shoot of the species, but they're made of... well, junk. Anyway, they've got a cityformer, too, but it's on Cybertron. Named Cineplex or something. It was some concern during the Hate Plague, but I don't think we've given her much throught since."

"I see," Verdant says, trying again not to let his nervousness show. So much to still learn. It would seem the war had only escalated around him, rather than dwindled.

Verdant clicks his last sample case closed with a satisfied grin. "I think," he says, "that shall do for today. I have filled all of my sample cases with the best variety I could acquire. Of course, I will need to do much more studying back at the base... but I believe what I have found will yield promising results."

Catechism clasps her hands altogether and glances around. No birdies crashing into her? No birdies crashing into her. Good deal. She nods to Verdant and comments, "Fair enough."

Fleet pushes himself up and directly into the air. "All right, then," he answers, hovering a bit. It was a nice break, but now he needed to prepare for later. He easily flicks himself further into the sky, taking for granted that the others will follow, or make their ways home on their own, and transforms.

Fleet transforms from robot to pyramid jet.