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

[vosseeker]

[ Starscream's tone distills to something precise and dangerous. ]

Be very careful how you elaborate that question.

[abheirrant]

Are. You not. A construct. That would logically not have to eat. What else would call people 'fleshies'?

[Aside from things that are clearly not people, like constructs.]

[vosseeker]

If you mean in any vein similar to the drones that are stationed about the colony, then no... and should you imply so going forward, it will carry serious ramifications.

I am Cybertronian - we are an inorganic species. We are not constructs. We eat, think, require rest, have measurable life force.

The drones here in the colony are not alive, they are machines.

[abheirrant]

Right. Let's call it a 'collective adjective' then for you inorganic types. Nothing to be personally offended by.

[vosseeker]

They don't mean the same things.

[ Yes, he recognizes the hypocrisy. No, he doesn't care. ]

[abheirrant]

Oh, oh you're right. You and them aren't the same. The little constructs around here are actually helpful on occasion.

[Things Carlisle may regret saying one day: all of this.]

[vosseeker]

Those mindless little tin-pot trash compactors don't know the meaning of the term. They're only capable of doing what they've been programmed to do. I should step on each and every one of them.

[abheirrant]

[This guy would have to have pretty big feet to step on them, but Carlisle doesn't question it for now. He's too steamed up over ultimately trivial arguments, as usual.]

Right, of course. Then the living people will be dead after an explosion because some moron went and lit your food on fire, your fellow constructs will be gone because you'll have crushed them, and you'll be left to contemplate your miserable existence in solitude.

[Or maybe that's himself he's talking about.]

[vosseeker]

... If you'd intended that to dissuade me, you need to work on your technique.

[abheirrant]

If the solitude does not bother you, why return to this place at all?

[vosseeker]

[ There's a very tellingly long pause following that. ]

Why-- because I needed supplies.

Obviously.