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.

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen sees that Makeshift is safely down the hall before turning to Arcee, Jetfire's Minicons, and Rollbar. "Cyclonus is leaving from the East platform. This way."

And so, Smokescreen begins to led the group hurriedly through the halls. One thing about the halls is that they're startling empty. No one else seems to be out and about.

Finally, they reach the door to the platform, where Smokescreen slams the button to open the door. The door opens, though in the necessity of speed it seems to do it almost too slowly, and behind the door, Cyclonus the bounty hunter's ship, the Slave-I reveals itself. And it's lifting off.

"Blast it," Smokescreen exclaims as he uses the gun in his hand to attempt to stop it, and he almost thinks he can hear the bounty hunter's insane cackling and mocking through the metal and glass of the ship.

Smokescreen looks disappointed as Cyclonus flies out of range, appearing to be missing something very dearly, and punches the wall. "Blast it."

[random_xtras]

"Airazor, come back!" shouts Arcee as Comettor and Rollbar wave and say the same thing in their own language. Then she too socks something as the tiny femmebot keeps going, only Smokescreen was nearer than the wall.

[astrotechmech]

Before Smokescreen can register that Airazor has left, still thinking that he would have really liked Liftor's help right now, Arcee punches him. "Oof!"

Smokescreen looks down and rubs where Arcee punched him. "Well, I was expecting something."

[random_xtras]

The pink and white femmebot growls at him, her gun absently half-lifted. "Now what, genius?"

And down by their feet, Comettor is having a bit of a breakdown while Rollbar pats him impatiently on the back.

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen is about to reply when gunshots from behind catch his attention, and as he turns the three Minicons who had been clinging on his back suddenly form into a shield in his hand. The shield glows yellow as he moves in between the Autotroopers and Jetfire's friends.

He shoots at the 'Troopers around the shield as he says, "After we take care of these guys, we get you and your friends back to the 'Falcon and out of this city."

[random_xtras]

Comettor has stopped flipping out and started swearing. After several pointed Minicon comments he abruptly produces a gun of his own and changes an Autotrooper into a smoking pile of ash.

Arcee's shots don't make so impressive of results, but her aim is just as good. She's using Smokescreen and his shield as cover.

[astrotechmech]

Between Smokescreen, Arcee, and Comettor--mostly the latter--the Autotroopers are quickly dispensed of, leaving only carnage.

Smokescreen sighs after the skimish ends and no more Autotroopers show up. He looks like he's about to speak when something comes to his mind. "She flew after him, didn't she?"

[random_xtras]

Arcee's face darkens at the reminder, and Comettor nods a little frantically. Rollbar's not so concerned. He expresses the opinion that the little flier will be able to take care of her self, and that she might prove useful if she's able to stay close to Jetfire.

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen sees the reactions and looks down at Rollbar. "That's what I was thinking. Assuming she doesn't do something stupid."

[random_xtras]

"She wouldn't still be around if she did stupid things," comes the gruff and very clear reply as the little tan mech bangs on Arcee's leg with his fist. Upon gaining her attention he beeps at her and is sworn at.

"Less talking and more walking," says the angry femme, her blue eyes snapping.

[astrotechmech]

Smokescreen frowns at Arcee's reaction, mentally struggling for words, before he finally says, "Right. This way."

After getting recently attacked by the Autotroopers, Smokescreen leads through the halls with a bit more caution than when the group was merely trying to head Cyclonus off before he took off with Jetfire. He keeps the shield up and out and he also looks up and listens to sounds from the vents as they go.

At one point, he hears some scuffling up ahead, and he motions for the rest of the gang to stop.

After a moment, he does not hear any additional sounds, and he motions the group to move on, if cautiously.

Once they turn a corner to an intersection, the group can clearly see a very large piece of equipment covered up in a tarp. Smokescreen frowns at this until some tapping from the wall catches his attention.

Just as suddenly as the Minicon ambush from earlier, Minicions seem to pop out of the wall, some of them nodding their greetings at their boss and his guests while others take the tarp off of the equipment to reveal a red and blue Minicion who had gotten stuck under the equipment when they had dropped it at the sound of Bulk steps.

The red and blue Minicon beeps grumblings at the ineptitude of his fellow Minicons and shakes his fist as his comrades take the equipment off. The Minicon stands up, brushing the dust off of himself and keeping up his grumbling as the other Mincions carry the equipment that is much larger than themselves off down the hall.

As the red and blue Minicon continues to grumble, one of the supervising Minicons came up by him and patted him on the shoulder to get him to stop, turning to Smokescreen to salute before guiding the grumbler Minicon to join the other Minicons who were continuing down the hall and eventually out of sight.

After the Minicons have all gone, Smokescreen blinks a bit before shrugging it off and motioning for the group to continue.

As they get closer to a vent opening in the side of the wall, Smokescreen warns, "We're going take a slight stop here, and--" Something catches his attention. "Hey, you! Who are you? Identify yourself!"