by Insidious » Wed Feb 01, 2012 12:56 pm
- Motto: "Clarity of thought before rashness of action."
- Weapon: Oxidating Laser
Warden's Office
Elba. What a planet. It was so beautiful from his elevated distance. Night had fallen on this side of the world's nearest moon, bathing the Garrus-9 detention facility that had been constructed there in darkness. All was quiet inside, as it usually was. Save for the occasional flareup of tensions, those who had been detained here knew that if they treated the Autobot staff with some measure of respect, they would be afforded the same. It was typically only the new transfers who caused much of an issue. In their minds, the war was still happening, and Megatron would come along any second to free them all. Those that had spent any significant stretch of time on Garrus knew differently. The war was out there. What was in here was something entirely different.
“Commander, sir,” a young Autobot detention deputy by the name of Treadrock began, poking his cranial unit through one corner of the large entryway that lead in to an even much larger office space. It had been modified more than once to fit the needs of the current warden of the facility, an Autobot by the name of Fortress Maximus.
“Treadrock,” Maximus said, a faint smile gracing his metallic features for barely a nanoklik before returning to its standard stoicism. “What’s going on?”
“The techheads got something for ya, I dunno what. I listened to it. Sounded like noise.”
Maximus leaned back a little, wondering what exactly the techies aboard the Steelhaven might have stumbled across.
“Thanks,” Maximus said. The Autobot deputy nodded and backed out of the office doorway as Maximus turned to his personal station and initiated a link with his ship, which was completing a patrol run of the area nearby. It only took a moment or two before Max found the specific crewmembers that he was looking for, and a moment or two beyond that for them to respond. “I hear you have something for me.”
“Yes, sir,” the bridge officer who also headed up Max’s engineering crew said. Maximus’ office was then filled with the sound of unintelligible, low-pitched harmonics. The cadence seemed to rise and fall occasionally, like it might have contained words at one point, but no longer.
“And what exactly am I listening to?” Maximus asked, as the volume decreased back to acceptable levels.
“We believe it was a communiqué of some kind.”
“Was?”
“Well, yes sir. It’s impossible to know for sure. The transmission’s properties suggest that it was affected by a gravity well of some kind, though we do not know if it was naturally occurring or artificial.”
“So, you’re telling me that you’ve picked up something, of some kind, that may or may not have originated from somewhere?” Maximus asked, his tone becoming lower and more serious. The officer looked taken aback for a moment, his optics wanting to look anywhere but Maximus’ own. Maximus then smiled. “It’s alright. I’ve been expecting something from the science team on Nebulos. If that was it, I’m going to have to show Skyhammer how to write an actual mission log. Thanks for the heads up.”
The Autobot on the other end suddenly looked incredibly relieved. “Of course, commander,” he said, before his face disappeared.
Well, it wasn't everything that Fortress Maximus had hoped for, but it was something. Maybe he'd give it a look later and see if one of his guys here on Garrus could make something different out of it. Until then, a checkup on the captives was probably in order. Getting to his feet, the large Autobot ducked a little in order to get through the door without scuffing the metal and stepped out in to one of the connecting corridors of the facility.