ANH 'verse. Bespin Station. Jailbreak!

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen walks seemingly absent alongside the Autotroopers escorting Arcee down the hall, the officer among them still holding Arcee after sounds of gunfire from behind forced the officer to restrain her.

Although the gunfire sounded a few minutes ago, the air still felt tense among the Imperials.

So it is no wonder that all of the Imperials snap to attention when a CLANG! suddenly resounds from the direction they had come.

The officer's face quickly turns from a serious frown to bored when he sees the cause of the commotion, and he sneers, "Walls jumping out in front of you, Baron Administrator?"

Smokescreen, meanwhile, sheepishly rubs his face after peeling himself from the wall he had run into. "Heh, heh. Whoops. I must have missed a maintenance check," he replies, cheerfully, patting the wall so that the thunk! thunk! of his hand against the metal echoes down the hall.

"Uh huh," the officer replies with force civility that failed to conceal how stupid he thought the other bot was as he points two fingers in the direction they were heading in before they were so rudely interrupted. The message is clear: Ignore the clown and keep moving.

One Autotrooper, however, does not move right away, staring at Smokescreen blankly as is the Autotrooper way but still managing to be clearly skeptical.

"He's done this before," comes the hushed and quick explanation from another 'Trooper. "Ignore him."

There are no further incidents once they start moving again. At one point, the Imperial officer appears to have received a silent communication because he relaxes and lets Arcee walk free--if still escorted by the Autotroopers. He also shoots Smokescreen a smug and taunting look, as if he just figured out what Smokescreen had been attempting with the running into the wall and knew that the message he figures Smokescreen tried to send would now never reach Hot Shot.

As if to confirm the officer's suspicions, Smokescreen merely frowns worriedly in reply.

Soon, the group begins to head for a large intersection of several hallways, brightly lit, with large vent grates positioned high between the hallway entrances. A few creaks and pops can be heard, which go largely unnoticed as the group walks towards the intersection.

What happens once all are in the intersection, however, does not go unnoticed.

The vents overhead burst open, shapes emerging from the vents before anyone can really react and falling upon the Autotroopers like pouring rain, the sudden attack disorienting the Autotroopers even further.

But in the next instant, it's all over, and the Minicons from the vents stand triumphantly on the shoulders of the Autotroopers as the Autotroopers themselves are surrounded by armed mechs from the station's own security force.

Smokescreen walks over and shoves the Imperial officer in the direction of one of the guards, who proceeds to restrain and handcuff the officer. The officer, managing to recover from the shock of the sudden ambush slightly, shoots Smokescreen a dark look to which Smokescreen responds by waving his arms in a kind of carefree "what can you do?" shrug, his eyes shining with quiet and momentary smugness. Smokescreen then proceeds to disarm the Autotroopers as most of the Minicons jump back to the shoulders of the security team.

Smokescreen does not seem to skip a beat as three other Minicons jump and hold onto Smokescreen's back armor while he makes his rounds.

Smokescreen gives most of the guns to extra guards before turning to speak to the mech who appears to be in charge of the guards. "Take them to the South security tower, and keep it--"

He does not get a chance to go further.

"Death to the Empire!" comes the enthusiastic shout in Basic from one of the security team's Minicons.

Shh! comes the unison beeping as the closest Minicon hits the troublemaker upside the head and gives him a 'what the heck is wrong with you!?!' look.

"Quiet," Smokescreen finishes. "We don't want this to get out." Smokescreen gives the trouble-making Minicon a warning look.

The head security mech nods in understanding, and he has soon ushered the other guards and their Imperial prisoners down the hall.

One of the Minicons who had grabbed onto Smokescreen's back now sits on one of his shoulders, looking down the way the prisoners went until they're out of sight. [Liftor's with The Silver Lining. He'll met up with us once we take care of business.]

Smokescreen nods slowly as he moves to hand Arcee one of the remaining guns in his hand. Footsteps can be heard coming from one of the other hallways.

Comments

[random_xtras]

It's a cautious elderly astrotech that peers around the corner as Rollbar grumbles sturdily down by his feet. Makeshift heard the signal, and the Minicons with him have told him that it's safe to come, but he didn't get to be this old by walking calmly into tense situations.

He even manages to keep from yelping with surprise as Arcee glomps onto him and hugs him hard. He does flail, though. Three of the four Minicons with him express quiet amusement at that. Airazor would rather cling to the wall and give everyone green-eyed ragemonster stares.

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen blinks as Arcee suddenly disappears before he is able to hand the gun over, and it takes him a moment to realize what happened.

Once he does, however, he shifts a bit awkwardly and makes a move like an organic clearing its throat. "Ahem."

Once he's gotten the others' attention, he'll say, "If we leave now, we can still save Jetfire before he leaves the city." He turns to Makeshift. "I realize you might not be keen on fighting, so Rollerball here"--he nods to the fourth Minicon that came with Makeshift--"can take you to the Falcon. It's your choice."

[random_xtras]

Makeshift sighs regretfully as he turns toward Smokescreen.

"I'd just get in the way. The best way I can help the cowboy is to move my old chassis out of the way," he says quietly, his eyes going down to the little silver guide.

Rollerball, for his part, does a thumbs up, and then curls up into a gleaming ball, all ready to travel at speed while executing his task.

"Hurry," urges Arcee softly, grabbing the gun that Smokescreen had been offering as she watches Makeshift jog away after the messenger ball. She doesn't want to trust this guy, but she knows that Minicons don't tend to stay around untrustworthy people in the numbers that she sees here.

[random_xtras]

Arcee had been watching their backtrack after the little equipment haulers were out of sight, so she nearly jumps out of her brake shoes at sound of Smokescreen's challenge and whirls to point her gun at the cause of it. A firm small hand on her leg stops her short, and she frowns with surprise at the figure she sees.

[astrotechmech]

And there is a mech that Arcee has not seen in what has probably felt like a long time: Random. Though it might be hard to tell at first that it is the mech since the mud--which he had tried in vain to wash off--made him more brown than blue.

The once-blue astrotech, characteristically, has hands up and is stammering unintelligibly as he looks for a symbol on the orange and blue mech before him while the same does to him--and neither have found what they're looking for.

[random_xtras]

"Random." Arcee relaxes just slightly as she steps forward. "Where's HotShot?"

Down at Minicon level, Rollbar is examining Random's muddy lower leg and chuckling quietly as he hears a soft tap from the vent on the wall above Random.

[random_xtras]

"They said you make a good landing pad." The little silver girl vanishes back into the vent for a moment, then lowers herself feet-first from the vent as a brawny green, dark green, and dark pink Minicon lowers her by the hands.

Murphy's stopped reporting now and is giving instructions to the guy doing the lowering, who beeps an absent, "[Yeah yeah.]" at him.

[astrotechmech]

"I heard them." Smokescreen says, forcing a smile and trying to ignore Minicon giggling that erupts from his back.

Smokescreen takes hold of first her feet and then reaches up for her back as she is lowered down.

Once he has a firm hold of her, he sets her gently onto her feet.

His task accomplished, he looks back up at the vent to where Liftor finally has poked his head out after also giving instructions to the lowering Minicon. "You couldn't find anything closer to the ground?"

The partially face-masked gray and blue Minicon seems to snort. [Nothing that wouldn't arouse too much suspicion.]

[random_xtras]

"Ack!" Arcee's gun nearly flies as a soft squeal wisps past her, and then she's staring at the Kia who is now firmly fastened to Random's front in as massive a glomp as such a small femme can do. Minicon giggling from the floor vaguely registers on the edges of her sensors, but then she blinks and looks toward an urgent little signal that is approaching at speed. "Minicon detectors?"

[random_xtras]

"I hear something." Kia stiffens at the same time as the Minicons on the floor all turn to look the way that the group has come.

"What is it?" Arcee lifts her gun and looks that way as well.

Makeshift just scowls and looks at Smokescreen.

[astrotechmech]

"Our cue to get out of here," Smokescreen says, taking the piece of equipment Liftor took from a console of the wall and attaches it to his audio as Random looks at him with a puzzled look.

//Cloud City. This is Smokescreen. Listen up and listen well,// the orange and blue mech's voice rings over the intercom throughout the station. // The slimeball Imperials aren't going to keep their word about leaving us alone, despite what they had us do, so I'm issuing evacuation order 1-1-3-8. Repeat, evacuation order 1-1-3-8. On-duty staff report to your supervisors and off-duty staff report to your residential managers. Repeat, on-duty staff report to your supervisors and off-duty staff report to your residential managers. Now get out of here . . . and may Primus be with you.//

True to Kia's sensors, Imperial Autotroopers rounded a corner and started firing at them as Smokescreen made his announcement. Smokescreen motioned for everyone to get behind him if possible, or to find cover as he started firing at the Autotroopers with his gun.

Random took Kia and hid in the doorway, out of sight of the Autotroopers as they started firing.

As Smokescreen moved to detach the equipment he had used to patch into the intercomm after his speech, however, a trio of voices start demanding things of him over his personal line.

// Smokescreen, you and Liftor aren't seriously considering taking the fallout of this, are you? Don't be so stupid. // a rational voice exclaims.

// Sir! We can't let the Imperials get this station! Let's blow it up! // says another that was more enthusiastic.

// I don't think we should go as far as to blow it up, but I agree that we can't leave this station as it is. We need to sabotage it. // the third voice says.

some minutes later...

[random_xtras]

After all that excitement, the quiet of the bridge was almost a let down.

Almost.

[astrotechmech]

"Ow. Ow. Hey. Ow," a voice is saying.

"Hey, I know this isn't just about what I did ta ya, what's wrong?" the voice continues after a moment.

A Minicon speaks next. [Guys, I'm trying to fly.]

[random_xtras]

"[How the heck are you doing that?]" Comettor wants to know, his expressionless face in no way preventing him from emoting gobsmack and interest as he watches one of the Race Team float in mid air.

Arcee, meanwhile, has sat up very straight and is listening hard to something.

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen's very glad he took the controls as Liftor's become completely distracted by the sight of floating Minicon. And it seemed to be Rollbar causing it?

[I'm not surprised,] one of the other shield Minicons says while the one floating in the air gripes about wanting to be put down. [He is, after all, Scavenger's Minicon.]

[random_xtras]

Arcee's still standing there at the start of the corridor when Smokescreen gets there. She looks up at him when he reaches her, blue optics searching.

"How is he?" she asks quietly.

[astrotechmech]

"Delirious," Smokescreen says, simply, seeming a bit distracted. "And missing a hand. Other than that, I can't say. I was about to get him some energon."

[random_xtras]

Kia gives a little cry at the lurch, but then she doesn't seem to notice the exchange that follows. Instead, she's staring at the wall with wide, startled eyes as Murphy does the same.

//Random,// she says softly over closed comms. //There's someone here.//

[astrotechmech]

Despite the tense situation, being able to hear Kia again makes Random so happy.

Random looks to Kia, confused to see she's not moving her mouth until he realized she just commed him. He then looks to see that she is looking at the wall and turns back to her. // What kind of 'someone'? //

[random_xtras]

That gets Random a deep frown. "You should eat."

[astrotechmech]

"Y-you're r-right," Random replies, after a moment. He finishes the panel attachment and stands back up, offering her his hand. "W-why d-don't we find some?"

He tried to smile, but it probably wasn't too convincing.

[random_xtras]

The outburst gets a slight frown from the little silver lady, and then the offering to Random of a scrap of some of the delicious flavoured fuel wax she'd been sharing with him before Smokescreen came in.

[astrotechmech]

Random accepts the scrap from her, if just because he hasn't had the spark to tell her that his squishy feeling insides has kinda made him lose his appetite--and he thinks at this point, it's not just because he watched that Minicon shock the other one with a tool earlier. Blerg. What the heck did that crazy Seeker feed him?

Random shifts a bit to try to hide his disgust--but that just makes it worse--just to see that the strange orange and blue mech was still standing halfway in the room, thinking.

Or, Random thought the mech was thinking. For all he knew the mech was sleeping standing up and frowning a bit thoughtfully.

Random started as the mech suddenly turned and gently placed the Minicon he had been sporting on his arm onto a storage self. Then Smokescreen reached into one of his storage compartments.

Smokescreen seemed a bit puzzled when he saw that Random had tightened his grip on Kia during his startle, not sure what the other mech was doing.

"Don't know what she's told you," Smokescreen says, "but Jetfire wasn't expecting anything of what happened and it probably wasn't pleasant for her, even if she stayed out of most of it. Mind if I give her something, as an apology for my part of it?"

And Random sees something he has not seen in a very, very long time.

"Sunrise?!" Random exclaims, and he takes the yellow and orange, softly glowing rock that Smokescreen hands him. He turns it over in his hands, examining it closely and taking in the delicious tangy scent.

"Where did you get this?" Random asks, continuing his examination. "And with such a thick shell? I remember the shells of the ones Sneaker brought me when they were nearly impossible to find and they were not nearly this thick and hard."

"Omnicons." Random hears Smokescreen say, missing the mech's slight smile as Random continues his examination. "We have--had some on the station. Probably not as good or the same as the brand name but still quite good."

"Like I say, it's been a very long time since I've seen a Sunrise half this good--and I know how hard Sneaker tried to get good Sunrises." Random paused for a moment, reflecting how he once told the mech that he was just glad to have anything even resembling Sunrises and not to be too concerned if they were not as good as they were in the past. Random frowns as he remembers this, but then he looks down at Kia, remembering the reason the Sunrise was brought out. He takes the candy and hands it to her, treating the Sunrise as if it were something very fragile and precious--and not like something that's normally eaten like any other fuel.

[random_xtras]

More of that gentle frowning as she replies promptly and simply. "Primus put me there." Then she's earnestly quoting something she once heard Makeshift say to one of his men. "I think you need to shut down before you fall down."

[astrotechmech]

"Primus put ya in a debris field," Smokescreen repeats absently. "Unexpected. But clever. Imps hate getting their hands dirty."

Random highly doubts that Smokescreen had actually fully processed the things he said, but Random doesn't care, for he has realized something even more important: Random is the first non-Primus mech to take care of Kia. No one had failed before. Kia is his.

In a matter of speaking.

Random pulls Kia into a hug that she might not be able to understand, relieved that he can finally put the nagging doubts in his processor to rest.

It takes Smokescreen a while, but the orange and navy blue mech finally lets Kia's last comment and Random's new position sink in.

"Well," Smokescreen says, finally. "I think I've taken enough of your time. Have a good downshift."

It takes another moment for Smokescreen to start making his way to the door, however. During this time, Random's attention is once again caught by Smokescreen's odd posturing with the blue and gray Minicon on his arm.

Smokescreen's processor miraculously catches this and deduces the meaning of the glance.

"Minicons weren't meant to be always hidden away," Smokescreen supplies as a somewhat cryptic answer, but Random gleans that safety is somehow involved. Smokescreen nods in another farewell . . . and nearly clips the door frame on his way out into the hall.