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>>36881305
You grunt in amusement. She grins as well. Honestly, Stiletto seems like a bright bot, you're glad she found honest employment. Well, more honest than what she used to do. New insights into Cogsworth, the bot who owns the ship and her employer, and his ambitions had you questioning his mental state.

"So where is your batch brother anyway?"

She turns away and her smile turns bitter.

"Still with the Cons."

>Ask why he's still with them.
>Talk about Cogsworth and his ambitions.
>Ask how she has been adjusting to civilian life.
>Other (please specify)

>>36881317
>>Ask how she has been adjusting to civilian life.
bro is probably a sore topic

>>36881317
>>Ask how she has been adjusting to civilian life.

>>36881388
"Family." You grunt.

You take a drink of your oil and would grimace if you weren't already. Stuff is barely above crude.

"So how have you been adjusting to civilian life. No more petty thievery."

"I hate it!" She slumps into her chair. "I'm not cut out for filling out two hundred forms a cycle."

"Yeah I always hated desk work."

"And Cogsworth just talks sooo much! He talks and talks and talks. 'Planet Xycon has seen an increase in red fender imports' 'Omnicron is n longer the biggest producer in microprocessors, we need a new supplier' 'Senator Argon's endorsing new reforms on trade to neutral worlds.' I can't stand it!" She says while waving her can of oil about.

"I'd think a former con artist like yourself would be eating this kind of info up."

"Former, like you said. I can't do anything with any of it."

You slouch in your chair. "Yeah I hear ya. I've spent to long doing nothing, and now the whole universes is spinning out of control."

"At least you're free to do what you want."

"Everything has a price. It's not like I can just pick a destination and say take me here. I haven't got a shanix to my name."

You take another drink.

"So where are we going anyways?"

"Our destination? It's uhh..." She slumps over the table and holds her drink out in front of her. "Planet Talgan LVII, near the Skomiloch Territories. Some trouble with one of Gyros' harvesting stations."

"Skomiloch... that's the place with the big particle cloud. We had a lot of problems with pirates in that area back in the day."

She shrugs her one shoulder and downs half her can.

>Keep talking with her about her new life.
>Ask what she knows about Gyros' problem.
>Talk about Cogsworths' ambitions.
>Time to go do something constructive, like beat up Swindle.
>Go and check on Pulsar 9, he should be done in the CR chamber soon.
>Other (please specify)

>>36882238
>Talk about Cogsworths' ambitions.
Curious what she thinks of his goals.

>>36882238
>>Time to go do something constructive, like beat up Swindle.
Drunken beatings here we go!

Didnt we eat his arm already?

>>36882639
Think so.
Though that does make me wonder why stilleto didn't get a replacement arm.

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Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>36882300
>>36882590
(sorry, computer crashed)

Rollan'
>>36882300
1
>>36882590
2

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>>36882836
"So, speaking of business." You raise yourself up and lean over the table. "What have you heard about Cogsworths' long-term goals?"

"What, the company he and Gyro are building? Looks promising. They have a few dozen harvesting stations, three really big processing plants and a small fleet of freighters. As long as they keep the Cons and pirates off their backs things should be good."

"Has he said anything else? Anything about... unification, or starting his own little empire?"

She scoffs. 'Well he does call it his little empire. But I'm not sure what you're getting at. He has been talking to a bunch of neutral parties. Worlds and colonies to far away to be affected by the war. Directly, at least. He is friends with a few former senators though, and he has some kind of freakish accurate information network."

"You know, he told me he had been planning on acquiring our new friend in the Medbay. He also wants to recruit Autobots and Decepticons who want to get out of the war."

"Well I don't know how long he'll be able to keep that up." She mutters into her drink.

"Worried about this DJD I've heard about?"

"Them yeah. The DSS as well, er, the Decepticon Secret Service. I mean, once the DJD show up things are already over, but the DSS are the ones keeping track of everything for them. They have spies moving all over the galaxy."

You grunt and finish your drink.

"Don't you worry. I even get a hint of someone spying on us and they're headed for the scrap heap."

>Ask what she knows about Gyros' problem.
>Go see Pulsar 9. Invite Stiletto along
>Go and interrogate Swindle, he's got to know some useful things.
>Take Gyro back to her quarters. Then investigate her computer.
>Other (please specify)

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>>36883423

>>36883423
>>Go see Pulsar 9. Invite Stiletto along

>>36883423
>>Go see Pulsar 9. Invite Stiletto along
Maybe drop gyro off in her room on the way?

>>36883546
>>36883677
A quick check of you chronometer shows that several hours have passed since you left Pulsar in the Medbay and you reckon that if he was well enough to try to escape earlier he should be fully repaired now.

You shove yourself back and stand. "Alright, I'm going to go check on Pulsar 9. You wanna come?"

"Sure." She says then quickly finishes her oil.

"What about her?" She asks while pointing her thumb in Gyros' direction.

"I got her." You sigh.

The two of you go to drop the unconscious Gyro off at her quarters. Along the way, with the lanky brown bot thrown over one of your shoulders, you ask Stiletto something that had been bothering you.

"So Stiletto," You growl. "I've been meaning to ask. When they repaired you after escaping Cybertrpn, why didn't you get you're arm replaced?"

"Penitence." Is all she says.

You decide to leave it at that.

After dropping Gyro off you arrive at the Medbay.

You find Pulsar sitting on a bed with the medidrone running scans on his chassis with Glitch standing off to one side. He waves at you when you enter.

Your own greeting is interrupted by the sound of plastic cracking. To your side you see Stiletto standing on the broken remains of a model ship.

"My model..." Glitch whines.

"Oh no, nono no sorry. Ah slag it." Stiletto says while picking up the pieces.

You leave her to awkwardly apologize to the engineer and ask Pulsar how he is feeling.

"Fine." He says. "I suppose."

"It`s quite a shock, I know."

"Twelve million years." He says while looking down at his hands. "All of it gone," He claps his hands together with a loud crack. "Like that."

"We`re all in a flux here."

>Continued

>>36884627
He sighs while the medidrone fusses about moving during a scan. "So I`ve heard. Your nervous little friend, they said I cannot go to Cybertron, that it was off limits."

"Yeah." You say, unsure of how much bad news you should be dumping on him

>Tell him everything, as far as you know.
>Keep it simple; Cybertron is off limits, the war has everyone divided against one another.
>Change the subject, ask about what he remembers.
>Other (please specify)

>>36884650
>>Change the subject, ask about what he remembers.
I dunno if we should be telling the guy that cybertron is dead yet. Let him get his feet under him first.

>>36884650
>>Other (please specify)
Hey, you only lost some time. Try coming back from the dead, that really messes with your circuits.

>>36884858
This entire conversation needs something like this as a soundtrack

>>36885377
of course i fail to include the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obg6dzw-dlg

>>36884687
>>36884858
"Yeah, things are bad all around." You say eventually. "Be happy you still function. Going offline really messes with your circuits."

"Hmm yes. Knew a few fellows who went through that, highly disorienting they said."

You lean against the wall with your arms folded, the two of you watching Glitch and Stiletto trying to repair the plastic toy ship.

"So what do you remember anyway? WHy did the squids have you?" You ask.

"We were looking for something, something we had believed they had left behind while fleeing from our forces."

"What was it?"

Drumming his fingers on his leg he says, "Well I don't suppose it matters if I tell you. It is a relic, something they stole from Cybertron."

"Like... religious material?"

"Like an artifact forged by the Thirteen."

You raise your optic brows at that.

"Yeah I've seen some of those, back in Iacon." There was always debate about their nature though, and whether the Thirteen had existed or not.

"The stuff they left behind because they couldn't use them."

He falls silent.

"So what was it?" You prompt.

"The Emberstone."

An ominous silence falls on the room, only broken by Glitch saying 'No! It doesn't go there!'.

"I have no idea what that is." You say.

"According to the Covenant, it allowed the Primes to seed life in inorganic matter."

Well that sounds powerful. "But can it actually do that?"

He shrugs and the medidrone lifts away.

"That is what we wanted to know. Somewhere along the way though, we were attacked. It must have been Quintessons, but they hit so fast we never knew what happened before falling into stasis lock."

>continued

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>>36885811
"Bet the squids still have it." You grumble.

"A bet you would surely win." He sighs.

"If the Quintesson have it, then it would be on either the ruined Quintessa, New Quintessa, or Ultimecha."

"They have a new Quintessa?" He asks incredulously.

"Well you bots messed the first up pretty bad."

>Ask him about the Emberstone.
>He's already met Glitch it seems, introduce him to Stiletto.
>Time to set some ground rules with the old warbot
>He should probably meet Cogsworth.
>Other (please specify)

>>36885836
>>He's already met Glitch it seems, introduce him to Stiletto.

>>36885836
>He's already met Glitch it seems, introduce him to Stiletto.
She can bring him up to speed on what the latest batch of 'decepticons' have done to the name and legacy of his movement.

>>36886905
The civil war started as a rebellion against the excesses of the ruling classes, right? How did it turn into megatron vs everyone?

>>36886087
You decide to leave the talk of wyths and legends and wave Stiletto over. She leaves Glitch and they're broken model and walks over.

"Pulsar 9, this is Stiletto. A friend and employee aboard this ship."

"A pleasure." He says and offers a hand.

She shakes his hand and asks, "Sir, you wouldn't be apart of the Pulsar 12, would you?"

A look of surprise comes over his face. "Yes indeed."

"Then the pleasure is all mine." She says. "I've read the 'Architecture of Revolution' several times."

"Oh? More my brothers' work, but I'm proud to say I aided in its' writing. I'm surprised anyone still reads it though."

"It was recommended by a former commander of mine. They considered it essential reading."

"Ah, so I'm guessing you have taken part in this war the other one has told me about."

"Yes, but I'm trying to leave that behind me."

"Nonsense! You have to stand by your resolutions. You have fought alongside and against your fellow Cybertronians, to simply drop it like fried wire is unseemly. Why, I'm guessing your missing arm would..."

>continued

>>36887298
IIRC It started because the senators brutally oppressed everyone else, even lobotomizing anyone who dared to try to change their Alt Mode, or to use their Robot mode without permission. A nameless miner-turned-pit-fighter took the name Megatron and led a rebellion to overthrow the senators, but then he started going too far with his 'if you're not with us you're against us' policies and his 'we should rule because we're strong, and the strong should always rule over the weak, if the weak are allowed to survive at all' attitude.

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>>36887382
You silence him with a hand on his shoulder. "Some of us have done things we aren't proud of."

"So tell me, do you think forgetting it ever happened is the correct action? Noble Floron believe that one should never turn away, never flinch from your own actions."

"Even if they inspire atrocity?" Another voice interrupts.

At the door stands Cogsworth, his arms folded and a scowl on his face.

"While one should strive to inspire greatness, they cannot balk at the thought of veing misinterpreted." Pulsar counters.

"Such shallow thinking." Cogsworth says then looks to you.

"I have a pressing matter I would like your collective opinions on." He says. "Please follow me to the bridge. Glitch, I believe you have maintenance to perform."

"Sir." The little white bot salutes then runs off.

The three of you; Stiletto, Pulsar 9, and yourself arrive at the bridge behind Cogsworth and see a blurry orange/yellow image on the main screen. It is riddled with static but you can barely make out a triangular form.

"We have been enroute to one of our harvesting station currently sitting in the atmosphere of Talgan LVII, a world heavy in tibanna gas. It has been having troubles recently. Security breaches and satellites going offline. This was taken a few hours ago, just before we lost all contact with the station." He says while sweeping a hand in front of the screen.

"Pirates." You say without a thought.

"Pirates do not typically have cloaking devices or sensor dampeners this sophisticated." He says.

"Sophisticated pirates." Pulsar says.

He just shrugs when Cogsworth glares at him.

>continued

>>36887298
He gave in to the hate.

>>36887411
"If you please." The merchant says. His bodyguard, standing at a console infront of the screen, begins cycling through security footage. They all show metal corridors and rooms full of machinery, each full of orange/yellow gas. You can barely make out body shapes in the gas, and since you have damn good optics the being withing are probably very well hidden.

"These are what we received before the signal went dead." Cogsworth goes on.

"Some kind of specialists." Stiletto guesses.

>Does Cogsworth have any idea of what groups could be active in the area.
>So he has a bunch of blurry camfootage, what does he expect from you?
>We should just go there and find out.
>Other (please specify

>>36887442
>Does Cogsworth have any idea of what groups could be active in the area.

>>36887442
>>Does Cogsworth have any idea of what groups could be active in the area.
Lets try to get a more comprehensive briefing this time before kicking the tiger.

also,
>"Sophisticated pirates." Pulsar says.
Copper would've liked this guy ;_;

>>36887405
So the autobots are what, offshoots of the decepticon uprising?

>>36887599
They were was a faction of good guys within the senate who were actually pretty ok guys and they were trying to reform it from within by playing spy games. They weren't doing so good though. Then Megatron said fuck it and just tore the whole thing down.

>>36887497
>>36887503
"So do you have anything to go by? Who else is operating in that neighborhood?" You ask.

"The Decepticons have a minor presence in the area." He says

"I heard rumors about an Autobot detention facility in the Skomiloch Territories. Apparently they were using the particle cloud to mask it from sensors." Stiletto adds.

"What is all this dust in the shots?" Pulsar asks.

"Stardust." Cogsworth replies. "There is a super massive star at the center of the cloud that is on the verge of death. It has obliterated a number of the celestial bodies in its immediate area. The dust, combined with radiation from the star, plays havoc with all forms of sensor arrays."

Pulsar looks thoughtful for a moment.

"If you let me look at your ships' sensors I might be able to whip something up to penetrate the cloud. It woud most likely be incredibly short range though."

Your frown deepens as you glare at the screen.

"So what it seems like, who ever it is, is highly skilled and or equipped, and they probably know what they want. What makes you think they're still there?" You ask.

"That is what I would like to find out." Cogsworth replies.

"You sure we could take 'em?"

"You don't think you can?"

"Hey I like picking hard fights as much as the net bot, but I doubt you would enjoy the collateral."
>Continued

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>>36888247
After a moment he says, "Gyro tells me you made friends with the 'Monsterbots' I believe they were called..."

"Yeah they were some ok bots. But they'll cause a mess."

"If you could get in contact with them I would be most grateful. They would be strictly last resort, but I will pay them well."

>We should wait for Pulsar 9 to see if he can improve the sensors before we get anywhere near there.
>I'll call the Monsterbots, we should get some help just in case.
>How about me? I'm not putting my life on the line for nothing.
>Isn't there anyone else we could contact?
>You get me close, I'll go in myself.
>Other (please specify)

>>36888268
>>We should wait for Pulsar 9 to see if he can improve the sensors before we get anywhere near there.
>You get me close, I'll go in myself.
I don't think the monsterbots are strictly necessary here

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>>36888366
You wave him off.

"Na I don't think you'll need them."

"Then what are you thinking.?" He asks and you catch him watching you with interest.

"Well," You say. "We wait for Pulsar to finagle us a better sensor array, if he can, then we see what we can see. Then most likely I'll go done there myself."

"That is a little reckless don't you think?" Pulsar asks.

"You can come with if you want. Doubt Gyro will want to sit out either."

"Yes. You have been a bad influence on her." Cogsworth says while turning back to the screen. "You should know, this station has been a significant investment of our. It would be a terrible blow if it were to be destroyed."

"Set your big plan back would it?"

"Yes."

"Well I suppose I should get to work then." Pulsar says.

"Ask Glitch to help you with anything you need." Cogsworth calls over his shoulder.

Stiletto leaves the bridge with Pulsar 9 to show him the way, leaving you with Cogsworth and his rotund bodyguard.

"So that's it then?" You ask. "Not letting us grab the aloygators' tail without knowing this time?"

"I assure you I'm as in the dark as you are."

You grunt and turn to leave.

"Kracken." Cogsworth calls to you.

"Yeah?"

"I had eight employees on that station. I hope you find them. If not..."

You leave the bridge with a deep frown on your face. Cogsworth had a hard edge in his voice at the last part, and you have no doubt what he would like to happen to whomever attacked the station. You're roll in his grand scheme is getting clearer the more you talk to him.
-----------------------
Sorry for the short thread, but I'm gonna have to end it here tonight.

Questions, comments, concerns all welcome.

>>36889456
Thanks for running

>>36889456
So cogsworth wants us to be the bogeyman, basically.

Kraken seems very well equipped for that role, but at the same time I think he'd be happier on the serve and protect side of things rather than the rip and tear side of things.

>>36891051
We're the Krampus then.