At its location alongside the Polyhex Capital City, the Predacon shipyard was no quick excursion from the Warlord's palace. The hangars were bustling and brightly lit under the grey Cybertron morning, and mechanics and pilots were moving from hangar to hangar in flatbed transport trucks.
As Stormclaw and his followers approached Hangar One, where they were scheduled to meet with the Head Engineer, they were greeted by a beetle, rushing head-on in beast mode. He transformed into robot mode before colliding with the group. Paradox recognized the runt engineer, Blastoff, as an old shipyard acquaintance, but there was definitely something different about his appearance from their last encounter. ...Transmetal?
"Hey, it's Ppppparadox!" the engineer exclaimed with a skipping stutter. "You're with this group of people now? Man, you should have ssssstayed, because... we got ran through the...the... Ttttrans-thing. Boss said he was sssssick of organics, even bugs, sooo..." He paused, and coughed, getting his breath after the rush of sentences. "Hey, you remember Ripjaw, right?" He pointed off to a metal allosaurus, who was halfway leaning into a giant engine. "He got zapped and grew like a fff-ffff--- like half a meter! Lucky. Hey, Ripper, Paradox is here!"
The dino narrowly avoided crashing his head as he lifted it up, then took a few steps over to assess the group. His height gave him a vantage over all but Alpengeist, and he wasn’t afraid to use it, giving the commander the once over and taking a good long leer at Nightfall. "YOU GUYS is the team on the new Wraith?" he asked, in an urban accent. "Man..." He gestured his head toward Alpengiest... "Upgrade is gonna LOVE dis. Don't think we should be lettin' that one IN."
"Greasemonkey..." Nightfall muttered under her breath. Great, he wanted a fight... typical...
"No, no, probably not, or we're gonna haveta ssssssweep out the whole hangar again..."
"They'll have to sweep up your PARTS, insect!!" roared Alpengeist, punctuating his challenge with a swipe of a massive hand.
Paradox was amused at the whole thing: same old Blastoff. He began to laugh. "Just Just Just like old times, huh?"
"Easy, big boy..." Nightfall said, trying to step between them. "Let the boss handle it."
Stormclaw watched the situation carefully, but did not intervene as yet. Alpengeist was certainly a random factor to the success of his mission. A factor that would have to be brought under control as soon as possible.
"Grrarrgh!!" Alpengeist turned his fist on a passing cargo drone; it exploded, shattering completely with a pitiful squeak.
"Next time, INSECT," he growled, "that'll be your slimy parts!!" Alpengeist stepped back, but his optics were still smouldering, and his fists were clenched. "Proceed, Stormclaw."
"Hey...ya, ddddon't have to pick on me; I didn't say it! I didn't say nothin'!!" Blastoff insisted. "I'm just sayin' Upgrade's gonna... Ya know..."
"Upgrade's gonna WHAT now?" A tall insectoid Predacon stepped out around the two mechanics, looking first to Ripjaw and then to Blastoff with a serious scowl.
"Nnnnnothin', boss."
"Sure." Upgrade rolled back his shoulders, and stood to his full nine-foot height. Even with his back straight, his arms hung to his knees: the coloration on them was unlike the rest of him, and a living Transmetal II carapace clung to his chest, trying desperately to stretch. The evidence was clear that Upgrade had no reservations about using his own body as an engineering experiment. "Sorry 'bout that. As you can see, I work with IDIOTS."
He grabbed Stormclaw's hand and shook it roughly as a demonstration of strength. "So, you're the commander that's taking my ship, are you?" He stepped back and looked him over. "You some kind of CAT? With a beast mode like that, you're either a noble...or a MAXIMAL, but I like a Transmetal man, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."
The leader of the Predacon team eyed the other viciously, but maintained a completely still stance. "Well met... Upgrade..." he said.
Upgrade turned his attention to the rest of the crew...
At the sight of Alpengeist he let out a whimper, and almost tripped backwards. "W-w-w- HOLY HAIRY MOTHER OF PRIME!! What the PIT is that?! THAT...that FURBALL is NOT going on my ship!!"
"I tttttold ya he was gonna be ppppp-pp..." Ripjaw hit Blastoff on the back... "ticked off."
"Hey, boss!" Ripjaw added. "He broke your drone."
"He what? He WHAT?" Upgrade glanced over in the direction of the broken drone, then let out a string of almost unintelligible curses. His shoulders heaved along his back, and almost appeared to expand. "All right, Fuzzy Wuzzy," he snapped, "you STEP OUTSIDE and WAIT until I'm done here, you got it?
Nightfall sighed, shaking her head and rubbing her temples. This was just lovely... "Can we please try not to slag each other? It's a waste of a lot of big strong Predacons."
Alpengeist folded his arms over his massive chestplate, not moving. "You'd prefer I broke your pet bug?" he said, his quiet tone contrasting with the menacing scowl on his face. "I'm part of this team, and I'm gonna stay and find out what I need to know." In Alpengeist's mind, the discussion was over, and he turned his attention to Stormclaw.
Stormclaw instantly responded. "We have no time for this. Upgrade, I suggest you tell us everything you know about the Whisper and then leave us to our tasks. Predacons, follow me to the ship."
"Wow," Blastoff said, "it's the world's only pppppacifist Ppppppredacons."
"They ain’t never gonna make it," Ripjaw added.
Upgrade sighed. "Look, maybe nobody TOLD you this, but I like to keep a clean hangar. And...people who SHED..." his heavy hands shook slightly... "REALLY grind my gears. You two!" he shouted at the other mechanics. "Brooms, dustpans, twenty-five feet behind him at ALL times."
The mechanics groaned.
Alpengeist complained. "I. Don't. Shed."
Upgrade looked at him again, and countered: "Just DON'T touch me."
Some of the tension held in the Head Engineer's body relaxed visibly as he approached a sleek, dark ship. Tall wings emerged from it at folded angles, and the body was narrow with a triangular beak.
"Nice design, cheif... Almost as pretty as me..." Nightfall smiled at him, hoping she'd be able to ease the tension a bit.
"THIS is a Wraith. One 'o mine," he began, with a hint of pride in his voice. "Full-size stealth model without the 'junk in the trunk' you're gonna find on a modded Ravager." He pushed a button on the side, entered a code, and the main door folded out from the ship and down to the ground.
Stormclaw nodded to Charmacon secretly, to confirm their agreement to change the code as soon as Upgrade had left. Charmacon, who had been silent the entire Alpengeist incident, because he hoped the engineers wouldn't recognize HIM, concurred, and revelled at the sight of the ship. He couldn't wait to investigate 'his' bridge.
The entrance was tall enough for Upgrade to pass without trouble, but he turned around momentarily: "Duck, bear."
The interior of the bridge was spacious. The main controls pointed in a harsh half-trapezoid, with a pilot's seat in the direct front, and multiple computer monitors to either side. "Nothing unusual about the pilot console, handles very well." Upgrade slapped a control panel on the port side. "THIS is your cloak. With a ship this size, you're SOMETIMES gonna get less of a radar fade than you'd like... we’re still... er...working on that bug. Anyone who thinks they're a bigger genius than I am CAN take power from the engines to double the cloak, but that's a fuel drain, so it's not exactly recommended. Anti-cloak's getting STANDARD on the Maximal ships: try to stay out of its range. If you can see their wings out your window, you’re WAY too close." Upgrade pointed to the opposite side. "Standard third-echelon computer."
The Predacon Commander looked positively impressed. He eyed Paradox, but hesitated to let him get used to the controls right there and then. Better wait till Upgrade was gone. Moreover, he did not want to risk damaging the hangar by letting Paradox getting too enthusiastic.
Nightfall strode over to the computer, looking over the interface. "Hello, sweet thing. You and I will be such friends..." She glanced over. "Is this the only console? I'll probably be down monitoring the engines most of the time, though I'm primarily the computer tech on this voyage."
"You got a console in the labs, and there's another interface in engineering."
Nightfall nodded. "Good, that will simplify things. Thank you."
"If you'll walk this way..." Upgrade turned and strolled down the main hallway, pointing as he went. "Bunks, labs... Engineering." He opened the door and pointed to a door in the back of the large engine room. "That's a warp core, for those of you that are hilariously unenlightened. You don't have Transwarp, so don't even THINK about breaking the time barrier unless you like burning out your drive."
Without entering engineering, Upgrade pointed to a lift elevator in the main hall: "Down below you've got your cargo hold, and you've got your stasis hold. Stasis hold's double locked: it takes TWO command codes to open 'er up, so use the buddy system. That's emergencies ONLY, and they didn’t tell ME what they put down there."
"Get comfortable with 'er, and we'll give 'er a final tune and drop her off at your sector heart in two."
"Excellent, Upgrade," Stormclaw spoke. "We shall indeed familiarize ourselves with the Whisper now. If we find any deficiencies, however unlikely that may sound, we shall report it to you."
Nightfall nodded, looking around. "Can I look over the computers? I want to get an idea what they gave us, and see if I need to request extra programming..." She smiled sweetly at Upgrade.
"Yes-s-s, Nightfall," Charmacon said, "I think I will join you upon ins-s-specting the computers-s-s aboard this-s-s s-s-ship. Who knows-s-s, they might be compatible with my internal s-s-system. But firs-s-st, I will ins-s-spect the bridge. Keep me informed on the hardware and s-s-software." "Dear Upgrade, could you es-s-scort me to the bridge?"
"Hey, WATCH that. I ain't nobody's 'DEAR' nothin'. 'Course, I'd be happy to supervise." He turned to lead the pair back to the bridge.
That said, Stormclaw looked straight at the mechanics, almost as if posing the silent question as to what they were still doing on the ship.
Blastoff nearly dropped his dustpan, then stammered, as usual. "Bbbboss has...allergies."
"Yeah. He's alloigic to IDIOTS," Ripjaw snarled.
"Now that ain't true, or what the PIT would I be doing standing around here with you bozos?" Upgrade pointed to the exit, then turned back to the bridge, and began to leave. "We'll give it a FULL VACUUM when they're done."
Both mechanics cringed at the order, and exited.
—AF, LB, CB, DN, MdJ, BB
Paradox ran up to catch up with his old comrades. "Wait up, we got something to talk about real quick." Paradox walked beside Blastoff and Ripjaw. Paradox looked behind him to see if anyone cared. "So, Transmetaliods, I'm about to embark on a dangerous and risky risky risky mission. We may never see each other again." Paradox slighty smiled and continued, "...it just gets better and better." Paradox changed his mood and stared at the two intensely, "Is there anything about this ship that you didn't tell them but that you'll tell tell tell me?"
"Ehhh...nothin' too fishy," Ripjaw supplied, after a moment's thought. "But... the enviro-scanners are WHACKED, we know that. You got a scan for atmosphric viruses... And you got DOUBLE the normal radiation shieldin' we put on any other Wraith. Seems like some kinda warnin' to me."
Paradox scrached his head, he wasn't too keen to this kind of thing, "Ya Ya Ya sure, I guess so." Paradox tried to think but he couldn't put any of the pieces together. "Oh well, a lot lot lot of help you guys are." Paradox saluted the two before saying his fanal words to them, "If you have any new ino about that ship, you know where to reach me." Paradox waited for them to say their goodbyes.
"Catch ya later," Ripjaw said.
"Yeah. Dddddon't...get lost out there."
"You never know..." He said as he walked away and let the two return to their buisness. Near the ship he noticed Charmacon asking for an escort to the bridge. "Hey wait up up up, I'm going too, want to check out my piolt controls." Paradox got very excited; nothing beat the feeling of handling piolting controls.
—BB, AF
Stormclaw was not pleased at Paradox's sudden departure. He looked at Charmacon for answers.
Charmacon saw the worried expression on Stromclaws face. "Don't worry, Lord S-s-stormclaw," he said "These are old 'acquaintances-s-s' of ours-s-s." He shuddered as he looked at them; he never did like those 'simpletons,' even though Paradox seemed rather attached to them. "I highly doubt it they will tell him s-s-something of importance you don't already know."
The Predacon Commander decided to deal with the situation when Paradox would return. Meanwhile, there was enough preparation to be done by the rest.
"Nightfall, I will take your report on Engineering and the computers in thirty cycles. Also, I want to test the communications channels in this ship. Plus you are to monitor the systems when we start up the Whisper."
Nightfall nodded. "Understood. I'll start down here." She slipped into the engine room, looking over the systems, checking the status on every board.
He turned around and looked at Alpengeist. The large Cybertron barely fit on the bridge. "You will investigate the cargohold. We will be loading our equipment in tomorrow when the ship is delivered. You will be looking over the effort. Return here as soon as you're done to get a quick rundown of the Weapon Systems by Paradox."
"You want me to look for anything special?" Alpengeist asked.
Paradox ran onto the bridge, "Alright I'm back at last last last! Just had to say goodbye to my old comrades. So where's the piolting seat on this baby?" Paradox rubbed his hands together and smiled, ready to take it on.
Stormclaw thrust his flat hand into Paradox's chest as he tried to walk off.
"Halt!" he hissed. "First there is an issue I want to take care of."
The Commander met his subordinate's gaze, then continued. "I shall not allow any more random acts from you, Paradox. If you don't remember who is in charge of this mission, or what your duties are, reprimands WILL follow. Is that clear?"
Paradox gave a loud "Gulp" while several thoughts hovered in his head.
The mission hasn't even started yet, and no one exactly ordered me not to visit those two. But I'm not used to this commander yet; never too early to start kissing up.
"Very clear sir, no no no more random acts from me sir, unless you order them, that is," he said very confidently. Paradox was not a rebel; he just had a way of "accidentally" disobeying. But he knew his piloting skills were vital to this mission.
—DN, BB