re_alignment_logs | OPENING LOG: Awakening

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OPENING LOG: Awakening

WHO: Everybody!
WHERE: The Junk Pile.
WHEN: Right here, right now.
WHAT: Game opening! Our Heroes find themselves in a strange place not of their own world, however familiar (or not) it may be.

Consciousness is slow, and a struggle to obtain. The moments before darkness are hazy enough; a great vertigo, a twisting, and then, falling. Falling for what seemed like forever. And when you are finally aware of your surroundings, it is most decidedly not where you came from.

Instead, you are now in what appears to be a wasteland. A wasteland...of junk. Debris as far as you can see, heaped in mini-mountains that offer only so good of a view of the world around you. Perhaps in the distance, you can make out some flatter land, perhaps you can just make out what looks like a crevice - but it's difficult at best. The light here is all wrong, the two greatest sources being a white line in the alien sky that doesn't so much give off light as simply have it - and something in the south that glows like a setting sun.

You may or may not notice it at first, but you, too, have something alien - something on your arm, more likely than not. A marking that glows softly, but offers no clue as to how it got there - no pain, no sensitivity. It's simply there, as you are here.

So.

Now what?

((OOC: This is it, you guys! Have a blast! Please remember to keep everything under the first thread for now; we'll be adding the Firstforged in in a little bit...

OKAY There is now a second thread to post in! Feel free to make new threads there to react to the arrival of the Firstforged, or respond directly to the Firstforged themselves.))

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The only reaction to the comment - rebuke or not, since it was true - was a shake of his helm and lowering himself to be face to face with the mech. He could have landed, but since he had the possibility of conducting this conversation at the same height, he would take it.

It wasn't often anymore he met anyone who was taller than him, after the reformat, but this had seemed to be the correct direction to take to fulfilling his function as well as what he wanted out of his frame.

"Certainly not, on both accounts." There's a brief, infinitesmal pause where Jetfire deliberated between being direct, and less so. In the end, though, if the mech decided to lie, it would either be revealed by asking one of the others, or they'd all be upholding the lie.

"Our arrival here... was it an accident, or, ah... by design? Either way, I assume we're quite stuck for the time being, which won't kill most of us. I've noticed, however, that there's some organics present... If this is a Cybertron, how are they supposed to survive?" He hadn't had any greater contact with any of the ones that seemed to be organic... humans, but that didn't mean he'd be inclined to just let them slowly, or not so slowly, die, simply by the circumstances of the situation.

Liege had no problem with the direct-ness. For the moment, he had no issues with being seen optic to optic, either. It was natural that this mech would have questions, and seeing as how the Acolytes who would normally be answering such simple questions for Liege were having to travel by foot and wouldn't be here for a time, he would answer.

"It was by design, but not by any design of ours." He cocked his head upward, looking to where the Lambda cut through the sky. "Everything you see here came from that. It is a nuisance that I intend to put an end to...but...seeing as you're here now, you might as well get comfortable." He offered the nearby pile to the jet, if he was interested in height without hovering.

"The humans will live. I've had them before." His arms crossed, glancing toward the thickest part of the junk. "The last ones managed to find food somewhere in this mess, and they did quite well at thriving, if I do say so myself...but why are you concerned? You're Cybertronian, aren't you?"

When the pile was pointed out, Jetfire landed smoothly, a thoughtful frown directed up at the tear in the sky. He might not have talked to many as of yet, but he'd seen enough variations of those who were scattered about when scouting out the immediate vicinity that "inter-dimensional rip in space-time didn't seem impossible at all.

"An inter-dimensional and disruptive anomaly not just torn through this reality, then, but reaching into others. Is it stable or spreading?" Because, frankly, that seemed to be the most important point here, at least to begin with.

Looking back down at Liege, Jetfire tilted his helm into a nod. Even given the little over half a year he'd spent in the Keep around humans, he hadn't had much to do with them, but that didn't mean he'd wish them such harm.

"I am. But they're here, now, and if it would be unavoidable in any way to keep them from starving to death, it should be done. Facing the possibility of slowly having your body give up on you from lack of sustance isn't... something I'd wish on anyone." Even with stasis-lock and suspended animation, if he and Omega hadn't ended up crashing on Earth, they'd sooner or later had had to face that reality.

Well, now, these were the sorts of questions that he liked to hear. Perhaps it had been worth it to come, today.

"From the readings I've gotten it appears to be stable. It fluctuates by .02% when objects are actively coming through it, and there is a visible shift in the light, but I haven't been able to record the degree to within my specifications." Mostly because he needed Solus to make a device that would be sensitive to multiple spectra of energy, and he'd had other, more pressing things to record than that. "It is not spreading, but neither will it close, and I cannot get near enough to take the readings I need." Even if he could get closer than almost any of his brethren save Megatronus...when Megatronus was willing.

He eyed this one's powerful thrusters, now, with intent. They seemed more than strong enough to break through the atmosphere.

"If you wish to help the humans, I am not going to stop you." He smiled, putting a few pieces together. "But I might be able to spare an acolyte to collect food for them, if I had someone to assist me in their absence."

Any of his own scanners were obviously not going to be enough to get any readings from the Lambda from this distance, but Jetfire shifted slightly nonetheless, casting a glance up at it mostly by just tilting his helm.

"I suppose individual readings haven't been a possibility yet, but perhaps any fluctuation might change depending on size of the object coming through... as well as the originating universe's distance to this one." Distantly, Jetfire knew he should be asking other questions as well, even if he had gotten some of his queries answered, but this was interesting. And it wasn't as if this didn't pertain to the reason they'd landed here.

He'd noticed the look, and while the extra attachments for the detachable pairs of guns that went on his arms that he'd found nearby weren't technically helpful in what he could surmise was being asked of him... He'd found his helmet, and if given some more time and proper energon, the shielding in his armour would be up to being fully functional again.

"... I am capable of both achieveing escape velocity, interstellar travel and atmospheric re-entry, yes. I wouldn't mind a closer look at it, if possible." He sighed, a faint expression of annoyance that went with a frown.

"There's energon, I hope? More than enough to support all of us present? I admit that I'll need some to boost my internal repairs. My interstellar radiation shielding hasn't been fully repaired for a while, due to... lack of resources." Really, they hadn't been starving at the Keep, but all available energon had basically gone to normal upkeep, and only the slightest trickle towards non-essential repairs.

"I had the same thought. There must be some correlation, and if I can find the correlation it might be possible to get the output under control by feeding the Lambda similar energy." He watched Jetfire, pleased to have a mech that understood his particular language. "It might be possible to control it, or prevent further entities from coming through."

And then he could use it for his own purposes, or at least use it to stop it from dropping Monsters down at inconvenient times.

"Oh, energon and repairs won't be a problem. This is Cybertron, and I do have a laboratory..." In some places, it was almost hard to keep the energon from flowing and disrupting things. There was certainly no shortage, here. "...provided that I can be assured of your cooperation, of course. Will you--" Ah, how did they say it, when they wanted something and were trying to ask nicely? "--help me?"

"Nullifying it," Jetfire agreed with a nod, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps it would even be possible to connect whatever's coming through with particular energy signature outputs and return anything that comes through that way, if this is something that could be read..." He trailed off and shrugged; speculating was well and good, but if none of them could reach the lambda, it wouldn't matter either way.

That, of course, didn't stop Jetfire from continuing to consider scenarios and possible courses of action.

"It was a while since there was more than enough energon available." It'd be... not a novelty, exactly, but certainly a relief to not have to save and ration. He looked up at the question, having, frankly, not considered not helping. Already thinking about it as being involved, because how could he not?

"Most assuredly. It seems like it'd not just help those of us who end up here if more data could be gained from it, but all of you as well." Jetfire nodded vaguely in the direction where the silouhette of one of the other Firstforged could be seen among the piles of junk.

"... This Cybertron... what is the difference right now compared to others, if there's some quantifiable difference?"

"It should be possible. I won't know until I can get a voyager up there, though...but I'm willing to begin testing right away." After he'd compiled all of his data, taken the extra readings that he'd needed, and done a number of calculations. Still relatively right away.

"Did you come from the war, then?" he wondered, remembering tales of Energon shortages from previous occupants. "Nexus refines most of what we find here and shares it among us...though of course, it isn't difficult to find out in the fissures." He gestured in that direction vaguely, trying not to smirk too much when Jetfire agreed to assist him.

It wasn't every day that he got a laboratory companion and a subject, both in one.

"If you're wanting to compare this to your Cybertron," Liege started, "then the fastest explanation would be that mine is new. Primus has not yet come to inhabit it, yet." He felt that should have been sufficient explanation. Every Cybertronian ought to have known about Primus's cohabitation after all.

Jetfire wouldn't have anything against assisting in such a pursuit as soon as possible either, because this wasn't just interesting, it was quite possible it would have a direct impact on the world, in a way science sometimes didn't until after a while.

"I do. Apparently our war lasted enough planet-side it locked itself down... I left before that on a mission, but the energon shortage affected me and my companions as well." Jetfire's expression flattened out some, since it was really kind of hard not to be serious in the face of a remembered route to starvation and deactivation.

Jetfire made a mental note to explore (well, he would do that either way) and search out this raw energon... He wanted to compare.

Liege's amusement at Jetfire's easy agreement went unnoticed, especially with what was said next, and Jetfire stared, optics slightly wide.

He wasn't... Something had been in the core of the planet, yes. The Fallen had called what.. might have been a name, possibly. He just wasn't sure if it was that name.

"... I see." Jetfire's reluctance and mental fighting with himself finally coaleced into a non-commital acknowledgement of what had been said. However... "If this is Cybertron is young, still... I'm not in the habit of believeing words in a text, but with the facts that seem to be laid out... You and your companions would be among the first of us in this reality, then?"

The First Thirteen was as much myth and legend as Primus' existence was (mostly) unproven, but Jetfire wasn't... entirely as slow as he'd once been to accept something improbable, and this, at least, had more foundation than the existence (or lack thereof), of Primus. He'd said Cybertron was young, and their species had of course, started somewhere.

So maybe... here. Wonder, while tempered and kept down, curled somewhere around his spark.

"That war must have been of some length, then." Liege was aware of war, and the impacts it could have on societies as a whole. He'd seen it on planets that he'd visited. He'd fought in them, from time to time. Resources were often what wars were fought over, but if he remembered correctly from the previous Refugees, that hadn't been the cause. Just an effect. "If you are hungry now, I do have a small supply."

He took out a tiny cube, pink, of course, and offered it. This wouldn't have been the first time a Refugee was rescued in less-than-peak condition. It wouldn't be the last.

Liege couldn't have been more pleased at Jetfire's ability to recognize their origins, however, even if he was a bit put off by the reception. Awe should have been the appropriate response, he was sure.

"I am Liege Maximo." He introduced himself, perhaps a little slyly, wanting to get something more than 'non-committal' from this jet. "And my brethren and I are Primus's Firstforged. The prototypes, so to speak." The vastly superior prototypes. As far as he could tell, everything that Primus engineered later hadn't been built for fighting Unicron.

Well.

Until this one. It was close to the right size, at least.

"Millions of years." Jetfire sighed, static washing over his vocalizer for a moment and then reset. It wasn't as if there was anything to do about it now. It'd built up slowly, and no one had really seen it coming at all.

It wasn't as if he'd thought Starscream's forays into gladiatorial arena fighting was anything but an outlet. A way to expend some energy that couldn't be released in any other way, for Starscream.

"Ah... thank you." A bit surprised by the offer, he would hardly say no, to energon. He wasn't starving, no, but the amount of energon available in the Keep hadn't been... a lot. And what proper energon he'd had on the Orion before the Sunstorm business and being pulled to the Keep? He'd more or less burned through while fighting Sunstorm.

As Liege's introduction came at the same time Jetfire took his first sip and realized that the energon in the Keep had been vastly inferior to this, the widening of Jetfire's optics was as much for the energon as the name being dropped.

That was... indeed... one of the names mentioned in the Covenant, as far as he remembered it.

"I... well." It took a moment or so, Jetfire quietly staring down into the small cube and trying to collect his thoughts. "There seems to be some commonalities between this reality and mine... Hm, though that would make sense, if the first were the same across..." Trailing off thoughtfully as he actually considered it, Jetfire nodded slowly.

If Primus existed as described - he knew there was something, yes, but couldn't, wouldn't, say more than that - it would then carry over Primus existed in probably any and all realities Cybertron and cybertronians existed in. Thus, then, it wouldn't be impossible if the first ones... being singular enough in a similar way to Primus, were all mirrored as well.

If that's what it was, and Jetfire wasn't sure. But if it was... what about--- He shook his helm and turned his focus back on actually drinking the given energon.

"Millions?" To think, that Cybertron would endure that...

...or hadn't, based on the emotion in the jet's voice. "It sounds to me like you could use a break."

Jetfire seemed to be taking one, too, in some ways. He certainly was appreciative enough of the energon to satisfy Liege, who watched him drink. The surprise had been finally satisfactory, as well. Not one to necessarily preen, the chords of his engines did, nevertheless, switch to a softer tune.

"Most mechs who arrive here have heard of Primus, at least. I would be surprised if he did not spark the beginnings of Cybertronians of every type, in some way or another." Granted, these 'all-spark' theories he'd been hearing had been unsettling, to say the least. He was sure Primus had to have made such a device, somewhere along the line. He watched Jetfire...

...and he watched Jetfire, as well, curious. Something felt different about him.

"In fact, you seem...to have had some encounter with him. Haven't you."

He merely nodded at that, and while, perhaps, they hadn't been fighting continually for the eight million years the war had technically lasted over... Even Shockwave's little pause hadn't lasted.

However they had all originated, though if these large cybertronians were indeed the first - and some of the names implied it - they would at leats have drawn design elements from them for those who came after---

Jetfire might have responded to that in some way as soon as he'd come up with a way to tackle and formulate a reply, but before he got there, Liege made his... observation.

Sputtering on the energon Jetfire pulled the nearly-empty cube away, embarrassed even as his optics stayed slightly widened and he couldn't completely face Liege.

"Ah... Well. I wouldn't go that far, since there was no proof as to what it was, and it was a long time ago, but, er. Yes, I've had an... encounter of sorts." Frowning, Jetfire finally looked back at Liege, wings twitching slightly but remaining in their usual diagonally upright position.

This... wasn't what he'd expected to happen. And how---

"How can you even... tell?" He steadfastly ignored the urge to lift his free hand to shield the part of his chestplates that led into his spark chamber. He remembered well what the Fallen had said, but that... he wasn't sure he believed that either. Not all of it at least.

"A long time ago? Hardly." Liege Maximo chuckled, enjoying the direction that the conversation was taking. He appreciated not having to argue the truth about his reality, but still being able to introduce a bit of shock. It always satisfied him, somehow.

"It's something like a resonance." His optics glanced to the wings when they twitched, then moved back to meet Jetfire's frown. "A color. The way the light moves around you, bounces off of you." Those who Primus had touched had a 'glow' about them, in some ways. Prima was proof enough of that. "Its not precise. But you've had some encounter recently, I believe." Otherwise it wouldn't 'smell' so strongly.

There was something faintly that felt the opposite, as well...but he did not want to mention that. It was too obscure, and much too old, and he didn't trust himself to identify it.

"Just what were you up to, before you came?"

Oh, he wasn't... Staring, Jetfire realized he wasn't talking about the past, then, but the... well, near-present. He wasn't sure what to think about that either, even if Sunstorm had obviously not been perfectly... natural.

The description about how Liege could tell that he'd had... ah. Some very probably supernatural occurences was met with a blank stare. That was a bit... Well, no. His energy signature might actually have taken impression of Sunstorm's presence even if that was more or less a stellar cycle ago.

And even further back... Well, he had been standing in a small place with a containment field when the... ah. Energy. Precense had erupted.

"Previously? Another place where multiple realities met as well, though the one who was seemingly in control claimed the whole multiverse had been destroyed." Jetfire shrugged, shaking his helm slightly and clearly not beliveing that at all.

"Before I ended up there? An altercation in my own universe with a clone of Starscream who exhibited some... preternatural tendencies." He wouldn't have been able to fight Sunstorm as he had, had he not upgraded and reformatted himself during and before Operation: Containment.

He chuckled, amused by the first description. "Obviously he was lying to you...though it might as well be destroyed for all that we can access it." The Lambda always weighed on him. Losing the old Refugees had been a blessing and a curse, in one...he'd had more free-time to himself, but he had also lacked in assistants, and gained a significant spark-ache at their disappearances.

This time, he was not eager to repeat the incident.

"Did you suspect there was something different about this clone, then?" He wasn't sure who 'Starscream' was, but that fact didn't really matter much. What was important, after all, was learning how Jetfire had interacted with this Light of Primus's.

Oh, and, of course, there was the other thing he'd nearly forgotten about. Unhooking it from his side, he held out his hand in offering to Jetfire.

"Take this. You can upload the communications software from it so that you might access the Link Network. It also serves as a translator, which you might find as helpful as I do." Resting in his hand was an ancient-looking data-stick, covered in lines and scroll-work that seemed to match the aesthetic of the Firstforged. Conveinently, it had a universal plug at the end.

Taking the data-stick, Jetfire turned it over in his hands for a moment before plugging in, optics narrowing slightly at the program downloaded and then was installed.

"All of us figured as much; the situation in general and the fact that people kept arriving didn't match up. Even if he had access to a single moment to travel around and save some individuals as their realities were destroyed, we kept arriving for well over a year... A moment would run out, sooner or later." This had simply cemented his pretty firm theory that Lord Deior had been lying, one way or another...

Or, for another angle, believeing he was right, or doing the right thing. Either way, that didn't have any bearing on the present situation. Turning the data-stick around in his hands again, Jetfire frowned.

"He was putting out more power than the experimental solar fusion reactor that powered him ought to be able to give, and while he had a substance similar to electrum that protected him from burning out, he possessed some remarkable self-regeneration..." Jetfire looked up and Liege as he finally handed the data-stick back.

"Capable of recovering from what ought to be fatal or near-fatal injuries within moments, even if it took him longer to reboot. He was also capable of more speed than the standard Seeker is, and he... claimed he was following the will of the Oracle and the light." He shrugged, frown deepening briefly as he remembered the... anomalous data he'd experienced during recharge at the Keep a while ago.

His... possible death after Sunstorm's explosion, and---

"There was also the fact that he led Starscream to a cybertronian sigil on a planet that oughtn't have it, under which laid a cave with a pit of energy of unknown composition," Jetfire said, giving a basic rundown of the events... though ommitting a few things, for brevity if nothing else.

"Starscream kicked Sunstorm into it during the altercation, however it happened, something within Sunstorm reacted with said energy, causing a standard binary-agent reaction. I'm not presicely sure what happened, because I was taken to this keep before I managed to confront him, but I hope time does not flow as normal, or events turned dire soon after I disappeared."

He didn't like thinking about that.

"Clever," Liege said, simply. This was the first time he'd dealt with a Refugee who had been to a different universe before this one, but in some ways that made it easier. There was so much less he had to explain.

This 'Sunstorm,' however, was another point entirely. From what Jetfire was explaining, he sounded like an excessive force for their world...and the light reminded him all-too-much of Prima.

"I would be interested in the data you collected from him," he said, curious about how similar it might have been, but also very curious about the mention of Electrum. That was pertinent to his current line of research.

So were sigils of Cybertronian origin that appeared on other planets. That seemed like just the sort of thing that he would do, while out on one of his explorations.

However, something in the story did not make sense.

"You're aware of events after your departure?"

"Ah, of course..." Jetfire murmured, optics dimming for a moment as he brought up all the relevant information he and Ratchet had managed to get from observation and the fragments of Sunstorm's armour that had been scraped off onto him during their fighting.

He hesitated a moment, and then simply compressed it and tested both his access to, and the function of, the network by sending the file over to Liege then and there.

"It's not a lot, since what I had to work with was observation and fragments of armour, but I hope it can be useful."

Liege's question had Jetfire quieting, and then he looked off, arms folded over his chestplates.

"Not as... such. Sunstorm was going critical the moment I was taken from; unless time stands still and without my interference, he would have exploded in low-Earth atmosphere." He shook his helm and looked back to Liege, having... ah, slid over the maybe-not knowledge from the dream he'd had at the Keep.

He still didn't know how to approach that, so for the moment, it was neatly tucked away.

"The binary-agent reaction was detoriating his phyical stability as well as his mental one, and he intended to cause as much harm in general as he could at that moment, so I can only assume that's what either has, or will, happen, without Sunstorm being forced into the upper parts of the stmosphere or beyond."

Liege nearly stopped paying attention to Jetfire's words, entirely, when he received the packet. There was not as much as he was hoping for inside, but it was more than enough to distract him with considerations and comparisons, making him itch to return back home and start dissecting it.

But no.

He was here, in the junkyard, and he still had Refugees to speak with.

He was, technically, speaking with one now.

"A reaction like that in an oxygen rich atmosphere?" He laughed, softly. "There might not be a world left when you return."

It wasn't funny, precisely, but it was ironic. "Now. I should be moving on to collect whatever other...beings...might be mine to collect. If I give you coordinates, do you believe you could make your way to my temple?" He's seen you fly, and now you've been refueled. "My acolytes there can show you to a room. After that, you are free to explore, provided that you come to assist me in my lab when I need."

Jetfire frowned at the comment, optics dimming slightly. That had been his theory as well, and it didn't please him at all to have that (maybe more than) possible outcome be the actual one. Hopefully time did not synch up, and there was still time to return and do what he might have to do...

(He'd rather sacrifice himself than a whole planet, after all.]

"Perhaps. Do you know if the time here flows the same as elsewhere, or if all realities are... ah, temporally disconnected from each other?" Even as he asked, Jetfire nodded and warmed up his flight systems, rising up from the pile he'd been standing on and hovering above it, ready to take off when Liege left.

"Certainly, and I... look forward to rendering what assistance I can," Jetfire said with a dip of his helm. He was looking forward to it, but he'd noted the choice of words and felt some faint impulse of wariness bubble up.

No reason to do anything further about it than note it and consider it in the context it came up; there was no proof for anything else.

"Since no one has been able to return, I can't give you information on the timestream one way or another. However, I suspect we'll find out, once we begin working on controlling the Lambda."

He can certainly tell the reason you are asking. In his experience, most mechs don't relish the idea of destroying an entire world--especially through their absence.

Still, he does appreciate your relative eagerness.

"I look forward to your capable assistance, as well," he smiles, managing what actually seems to be a comforting smile. He wants to keep you, so he sees no reason to scare you off just yet.

"Until then." And he'd nod to you, once, before moving off further into the junk.

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OPENING LOG: Awakening

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