Carbombya

The grassy hills and savannas in the east, bordered by ancient volcanos and sprawling lava fields, are the only part of Carbombya not made up of barren desert. Until recently, the country depended on meager livestock herding and subsistence agriculture, but upon the discovery of a huge reserve of very high-grade oil beneath the shifting desert sands, things changed radically. The struggling democracy weathered multiple coup attempts by greedy neighbors and other interested foreigners before finally succumbing to the tender mercies of a home-grown dictator. There are no refugees from war torn Ethiopia being taken in as slave labor, not here under the enlightened rule of President-for-Life Abdul Fakkaddi!

Contents:

Trypticon <T>

Carbombyan Palace

Obvious exits:

East <E> leads to Red Sea.

West <W> leads to Nile River.

Fly <Up>

F-35 <Catechism> soars down into view from the skies above.

F-35 <Catechism> has arrived.

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.

Catechism comes in, looking a bit sandblasted, which is understandable given the location. She transforms and lands with a solid thump, which shakes out a bit of the sand. The cloudy Seeker's nowhere as bad off as she was when she got hit by that sandstorm. This is mild, really. She glances around, grinning. Ah, patrol's over, and now she's got a bit of time. What to do, what to do.

Fleet, for his part, is finishing up a rather boring shift of overseeing Carbombyan slaves. As he's relieved of his post by a random gumby he takes one last moment to glare around himself menacingly before he heads off towards Trypticon and, therefore, a bit closer to Catechism.

Catechism shakes herself again. Yeah, there's a little bit of grit left, but that'll work itself out on its own. She glances up skywards. If nothing else, Catechism can return there. Then, she espies some random gumbies and, oh, Fleet and waves.

Waving is kind of a... funny act for a 'Con, when you think about it, but Fleet does at least nod at the conehead as he approaches. "Catechism," he says by way of greeting when he gets close enough to be heard.

Catechism is a funny kind of Decepticon, when one thinks about it, so it all evens out. She skips over a little closer to Fleet and looks at him up and down. Conversationally, she inquires, "You off, too?"

Fleet nods in affirmation. "Just got relieved." He gestures towards where the earth creatures labor over their energon. "Just making sure those things don't make any idiotic mistakes. They have to be watched rather closely, I find." He shakes his head and growls softly. "And the Autobots have these guys tagged as an /intelligent/ species?"

Catechism makes a face and laughs. She says, "Eh, I'm not sure that Autobots even count as intelligent. I mean, they could be Decepticons, and they aren't." Then, she considers for a moment. "If the xenos were smarter, I'd say that maybe they're being difficult on purpose, y'know."

Fleet snorts with amusement. "Well, considering they're the ones close enough to the energon to get blown up if a cube goes, I have my doubts about that."

Verdant has arrived.

Fleet is near the base of Trypticon, talking with Catechism. Within site numerous Carbombyan slaves are working to process and transport lots and lots of energon cubes and being overseen by an assortment of gumby seekers.

Catechism nods, agreeably. The cloudy Seeker, still a bit dusty, is standing around near Trypticon and chatting. She gestures grandly and says, grinning, "At least, under our rule, they serve a greater purpose. Anyway..." Catechism pauses and glances skyward. "Fancy a game of storm-tag? Ran into some wicked weather out on patrol, and it'd be a shame not to take advantage of it."

"Storm Tag?" a voice, Verdant's, questions as he exits Trypticon, something of a pleased look on his face. His experiments had been going well, and even though botany was his life, even he deserves a break. "I haven't heard that in a long time."

Fleet looks over at Verdant as he arrives on-scene. He refrains from pointing out that Verdant has been in stasis for a few million years, so there's a /lot/ of things he hasn't heard in a long time. "Sure, why not?" The yellow seeker responds to the blue, considering something. Then he looks at botanist. "Care to join us?"

"Certainly," Verdant says, agreeably. While he's certainly not the fasted or the most agile in the air, he had pletny of experience on organic worlds prior to being placed in stasis. And organic worlds, of course, have far more weather and more difficult to predict weather patterns than a metal world such as Cybertron. More old muscles ot stretch, more bonding with his fellows. It was all good.

Catechism glances over at Verdant, with a nod to acknowledge his arrival, and adds warmly, "The more the merrier." Yeah, she's pleased about the prospect of having more Seekers around to try to crash her, in addition to lightning, turbulent winds, and torrential rain.

"All right, then," replies Fleet. "Shall we be off? You said you were the one who found the storm, so..." And with that he takes to the air and transforms, but does something of a low level holding pattern as he waits for the others to do the same, and for the conehead to lead the way.

Fleet transforms from robot to pyramid jet.

"Let us take to it then," Verdant adds, leaping into the air himself, transforming and adopting a similar hold pattern as Fleet. Hopefull this will be a chance for him to show off his skills without earning any particular animosity.

Verdant compacts and folds inward to transform into an F-16 fighter jet.

Catechism leans back and pretty much falls into her jet mode. She jets upward, adopting a slightly ridiculous angle of attack. As the F-35 slices through the air, she transmits a set of coordinates to her fellows and heads off. Oh, this is going to fun. She can almost feel the tingle of a near-strike already!

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.

* Spinny! *

Congo Basin

In contrast to the great expanse of desert to the north, the Congo river basin is a vast, lush, verdant jungle, boasting a seemingly endless variety of plants, animals, and insects. To the south and almost drowning out the loud chorus of insects is the distant sound of bulldozers tearing down the last, small remnants of this rich and once vast ecoscape. Another disruptive element is the series of railroad tracks crisscrossing the besieged jungle as trains regularly haul supplies to the construction site, or to the mines to the southeast, or to and from the Merchant Republic. Other, less obvious anomalies are concealed in the central region of the rainforest, and the restless jungle can be most dangerous to those unwelcome here.

Contents:

F-35 <Catechism>

Decepticon Sensor #3152

Obvious exits:

North <N> leads to Savanna.

Southeast <SE> leads to Transvaal Uranium Mines.

West <W> leads to Merchant Republic.

Down <D> Fly <Up>

Verdant arrives from the Savanna to the north.

Verdant has arrived.

The sky roils and crackles, as lightning arcs between the clouds. The rain pelts down, as if to wash away the world, and thunder booms.

The F-35 is just delighted. Storms have all he unpredictability of combat and more; enemies can get set into patterns, but weather follows the whims of chaos theory. She calls out over the radio, punctuated by static due tot eh weather, "All right, we're *bst* here. Get ready!" Then, Catechism jinks off to one side, veering straight towards Fleet. One would almost think that she's set a collision course. Oh, looks like she has.

You evade F-35 <Catechism>'s ram attack.

"Oh-ho! I was already ready!" Fleet shouts as he dives under Catechism, deftly avoiding her attempt to knock him out of the air. He laughs over the radio for a moment, although it's interrupted by a lightning strike, one not headed for him, but for another...

You strike Verdant with Lightning From The Sky!.

The bolt strikes Verdant dead on, sending the botanist tumbling for a moment, but he manages to recover, regaining altitude, if a little shakey. "It takes more than that to defeat me!" he cries out against the storm, confidence actually entering his voice, even as another bolt lances out for yet another...

You evade Verdant's lightening attack.

F-35 <Catechism> flicks her flaps ambivalently as she jets clear past Fleet, without impacting him in the middle. Ah well, he is more nimble than she is. It figures. The air is alive with electricity, and she dips and twists to avoid it herself. Again, the sky lances out...

F-35 <Catechism> misses Verdant with its Thundershock attack.

The pastel pyramid laughs with delight as he speeds up just in time to avoid a close encounter of the fried kind. He pulls up sharply and then twists to the side, cheerfully reveling in this fist mist. There is a boom, the rain beats down on all the seekers, and the clouds, once more, seek a target...

You strike F-35 <Catechism> with Time To Fry.

Verdant dodges out of the way from the fire from above, climbing just before it strikes him and nearly getting a scorched underbelly for his efforts. Twisting and juking, almost orbiting on his axis, he plows through the storm, this time easily anticpating another electrical discharge, leaving it free to find another.

Verdant strikes you with lightening for 7 points of damage.

F-35 <Catechism> is struck by the lightening, too slow in a jink. That tell-tale tingle turns into a burst of pain as circuits sear and paint chars. She loops, trying to regain her bearings. It looks like the sky's rushing down at her as she starts the ascent, and that's why sight is not to be trusted in times like these. Don't trust the sky, either, Seeker or not.

You evade F-35 <Catechism>'s Thunderbolt attack.

In vengeance for his mocking laughter, the storm goes after Fleet, ticking his nosecone and triggering damage warnings as it does. "Grah!" he cries out, but is able to keep control of himself enough to twist to the left, avoiding the second bolt nature has seen fit to throw his way. Ha! Take that, nature! And once more, the sky opens up...

F-35 <Catechism> evades your Lightning From The Sky! attack.

Verdant swoops through the sky, untouched by the lightning for the moment. If one was to listen carefully, one could almost pick up a subtle laughter, the laugher of one surrounded by danger and, rather than panicing, simply letting events take their course... Though this, of course, does not make him perfect, far from it, as a bolt lances down toward him...

Verdant strikes Verdant with lightening.

F-35 <Catechism> dodges that fateful tingle and lets out a victory whoop, sounding eerie and distorted by the storm, an alien cry echoed off the clouds. She notes that he fellow Seekers are not escaping unscathed and lines up for a ramming run. As she does, the F-35 feels that warning prickle, and dives down and left, hoping to avoid what's coming as surely as the rain.

F-35 <Catechism> strikes F-35 <Catechism> with Thundershock.

Pyramid Jet (Fleet) evades your Time To Fry attack.

AAAAAND the pastel yellow jet almost makes it's through scott free for the next few moments. Almost. Then there's that tingle, that tickling of electronics, and he sharply increases the power to his thrusters, leaping out of the way of strike just in time. He spins on his axis, flinging drops to the wind and laughs. "Better luck next time," he taunts the raging fury of the storm.

Verdant misses Verdant with his taser attack.

As though sensing something and, indeed, sensing the change in air pressure immediately prior to a lightning stikr, Verdant banks hard to the side, pulling an aerial U-turn that gets him going in the opposite direction that he was, followed by another hard ninety-degree turn, bringing him about once more, as the air explodes around him with electricity. "Not so easy, is it?" he asks the storm.

F-35 <Catechism> misses F-35 <Catechism> with its Thunderbolt attack.

F-35 <Catechism> flicks her flaps with pain as the storm smites her once again. Oh come on, she's got to do better than this! Furiously vowing this to herself, the next time she feels that give-away shiver, the F-35 pulls up and twists, executing a violent, fast Immelmann. The lightning passes by her, and she savours a momentary victory. Indeed, she even kicks into an upward zoom, as if daring the sky.

Pyramid Jet (Fleet) evades your Lightning From The Sky! attack.

Again the sky reaches to touch the alien yellow craft, trying to remove this outsider from itself, and again the craft, warned by the change in pressure, ducks away from the attack, nosediving for a bit before pulling up sharply. No words this time, only another peel of laughter. He had forgotten how wonderufl this feels!

Verdant strikes Verdant with lighting strike.

Verdant lets out a shriek as the lightning bolt tears into him, sending sparks dancing around his super-structure, but quickly quites it, recovering as best he can. His flight path is a little less stable for the moment as his system reset themselves, but the botanist has not fallen yet. Not does he intend to.

F-35 <Catechism> has just had a rather lucky run. The lightning has spared her. She lazes in the sky, considering her options. Fleet's tricky, so perhaps she should ram that scientist? After all, if anyone around here would enjoy crashing into a jungle, it'd be Verdant, yes? Course set, the F-35 dives, entirely unconcerned about the thought of possibly injuring one of her fellow Seekers.

F-35 <Catechism> strikes Verdant with ram.

Apparently the sky has given up on Fleet, leaving him to his own devices, and so he spends these few seconds dancing in the winds, doing turns and barrel roles and whatever else, laughing simply for the joy of being alive even as the storm turns its loving attentions to someone else...

You strike Verdant with Lightning From The Sky!.

Verdant falls to the ground unconscious.

Verdant is sent soaring end over end from the impact, his metal skin giving heavily under the blow. Even as he soars, jets firing hard as he tries to right himself, his well-worn sense of danger lets him know something else is about, that... And then comes the lightning, blasting into him hard and scattering the thoughts from his mind, tumbling to the ground below.

F-35 <Catechism> sighs with contentment as she crashes into her fellow plane. Then, she watches the lightning take him out. A bit fragile, is he? She'll have to remember that. Hrm, given that this was her idea, she calls out over the radio, "I'll get him back to base. You enjoy the storm." She extends a tow hook to nab Verdant and flies off.

Verdant has left.

F-35 <Catechism> takes Verdant.

F-35 <Catechism> leaves to the Savanna to the north.

F-35 <Catechism> has left.