01 ⚡ voice - un:starscream;

[vosseeker]

[ You'd be forgiven for thinking that this world had sent Starscream away, considering he hasn't been present in Anchor for a good while. Not down in the public park, not in the vehicle bays, not even poking around engineering. No word of a departure, no expected return.

And yet here he is! Spending an obscenely long time in the garage decontamination showers, until the systems check finally says he's free of dangerous radiation levels. Sadly, it seems Anchor is not yet free of him. ]

In all your little scurrying about and exploring this place, tell me someone has come across excavation equipment. Specifically rock drills and cutters. For that matter, are there any hauling carts? Mag-grav would be best, I'm not carrying this all back by hand. I'm not a mining drone.

Further, I require the following items:

[ He lists off about a dozen parts, which individually aren't that special, but combined sound an awful lot like he's building a distillation tank. ]

Finally, I have high fidelity scans of planetary areas outside the colony. In exchange for assistance with extracting my located resources, I will share them with the rest of you.

Comments

[audio; un: longinmouth]

[abheirrant]

[It's a good thing this is audio so Carlisle can't see this is a huge construct he's talking to. His life could use more mystery.]

Just what is it you're mining in this awful place? And why?

un: starscream

[vosseeker]

[ Holding the tiny communicator is something of a challenge, so Starscream typically defaults to audio feeds. ]

What does it matter?

[abheirrant]

I was just curious as to what uses mined resources would have here. It doesn't matter, I suppose, unless said resources are dangerous to the people here.

[A pause.]

They're not, are they?

[vosseeker]

"Dangerous" is subjective. Everything can be dangerous if applied improperly.

Look at water: you fleshies need it to live, you're practically walking sacks of it, but try and breathe it and look at that, you're dead.

[abheirrant]

[Another pause of a second or two.]

I'm sorry, what did you call me?

Audio @Spides

[itsnotaonesie]

I haven't seen any excavation equipment just laying around, but I can definitely take a look around. Same with that other stuff, might have a couple parts sitting around in R&D, I'll see what we can do about the rest. What'd you find?

[vosseeker]

[ Finally, someone who can report progress. There's a reason you're more tolerable than the others around here, Peter. ]

Anchor is built through lower levels, so there may be something functional in whatever passes for the colony's maintenance areas.

A sizable energon deposit, in an underground cave.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Daw, Peter would almost feel special if Starscream said that out loud.]

That is a very good point, I'll start there. it's also really interesting that there's some of that stuff here, good news for you.

[vosseeker]

Very good news indeed. If I can gather the components, the processing unit won't take very long to assemble.

[itsnotaonesie]

Odds are we can make the parts, too. I've got one of the printers up and running, we just need to program what you need into it and we're in business.

It's a, uh. Like a 3D printer, not like a paper printer.

@KaballsDeep | Audio

[kaballin]

What'd you find?

[he's trying to keep his voice casual but if he was there he would be throttling Starscream to get info out of him. Assuming his hands fit around him. Which they wouldn't. Point still stands.]

[vosseeker]

What does it matter? It's of no use to the rest of you.

[kaballin]

Who died and made you the lord of what the rest of us may or may not use?

[vosseeker]

[ speculatively: ] Why, is there a certain someone whose convenient death that would lead to?

[kaballin]

It's a phrase.

But if there was I woulda killed them already.

Why? Looking to do some murder for funsies?

[Cuz he can appreciate that.]

[audio | @SCARAMOUCHE]

[numerouno]

In exchange for our servitude, you mean.

[vosseeker]

Don't be dramatic. It's a simple contract of temporary employment.

[numerouno]

Is that what you call it?

Okay, babe, from the top: what's so special about these 'resources'?

[vosseeker]

Barter. Exchange. I have something your lot would benefit from, and I have a simple task I want done. Surely you don't need a more simplified explanation than that.

I require them to eat.

[numerouno]

[Scaramouche wasn't built yesterday. A simple task? A non-binding agreement? This cat's sounding more like Aku by the second, if Aku were half-baked and cut-rate. He's going to have to do better than that.]

And? What else?

[That can't be all there is to it.]

audio; @Qubit

[superposition]

[ Yeah, Qubit kinda did think Starscream had been Ported out! He's hard to miss, being a giant robot and all. (But also he's hard to miss, in the sense that Qubit didn't like him much and was not terribly concerned about his absence.) ]

Well, welcome back. Care to tell us why we're starting a major mining operation all of a sudden?

[vosseeker]

Thank you. You're the first person to say that.

I wouldn't call it major, more selective. And why, because I'm hungry.

[superposition]

Hungry?

[ Well, that makes a lot of pieces fall into place. He's a huge, complex alien machine. It's not at all farfetched that he would need specialized fuel, refined to an appropriate purity... ]

What is it you "eat," exactly?

[vosseeker]

[ dryly: ] Is that so surprising?

It is called energon. I found a deposit in an underground cave while scouting.

[superposition]

[ "Energon." Not a substance he's familiar with, at least not under that name. But he can make some educated guesses about its properties, based on the equipment Starscream needs to extract and refine it... ]

How far underground are we talking? Can we get heavy equipment into the cave, or would we have to bore from the surface?