ANH. Imperial Shuttle near Imperial Blockade. Out of the frying pan . . .

[astrotechmech]

Random paces up and down the small "corridor" behind the pilots' chairs. It isn't enough that they're using probably very-much-illegally-bought Imperial codes to sneak past the Imperial blockade led by Nemesis Prime's imposing vessel and onto the forested moon holding the shield generator for Unicron's two bodies using Random's ship-clearing formula. But they're also doing it in a ship that he's fixed before while in Imperial service. Not the one he used to get his formula written, but it was still unnerving to be in a ship whose weak points you're all too familiar with.

Especially if you know where the Imperials need to hit in order to instantly blow it up.

All he needs to complete this nightmare is for his old Imperial CO to pop out of one of the shuttle's compartments.

Comments

[random_xtras]

The messenger ball gives a little twitch, and then transforms to a slenderish Minicon who looks at Random and Kia earnestly. "It's because sensors can't read me when I'm in my alt mode." Then he turns from Jetfire to Kia, looking worried. "Where's Bossbot? Isn't he with you?"

"Bossbot?" Ransack looks up from stuffing his cub butt first into a sack. "You mean that Bulk you used to work for, Rollerball?"

"Yeah," says Rollerball. "These are his friends. Some of the heroes of the Rebellion. I heard they got medals and everything."

Ransack looks at him, then turns and gives the three bigger bots a long look, scrutinizing look that seems to hold disbelief.

Then he slings the sack gently onto his back and sticks his arms through the straps. "You lot better come to the village. I think we need a planning session."

"Oh. Problem with that." Rollerball shakes his head. "The Imps've got the trail monitored. How're we going to get three Bulks through the bush tunnel around the camera?"

[astrotechmech]

That . . . explains why they couldn't tell he was a Minicon, but not how he got onto this planet without--Nevermind.

Okay, so this is the Minicon from Bespin then? The one who helped when they weren't sure how they were going to get to the Falcon safely? Well, one of them, anyway? Random can't quite remember since he had other things on his mind at the time. Namely, finally being reunited with Kia and getting off of that blasted station in one piece.

Ugh, the trail is monitored? This is just like Bespin all over again. Not what he really wants to--Hang on.

Random looks at the flowers again. Kia called them sweet peas?

That gives him an idea.

"Sweet peas, right?" Random looks at Kia for a moment before turning to Rollerball. "How high up is the camera? Can you reach it without being seen?"

[random_xtras]

Rollerball turns back to the blue Astrotech and tilts his head as he sees Kia nodding. "It's about face height for a guy like you, and if you push your back really hard against the bushes to the side of the trail, you might get right up to it."

"Wait." Ransack's patting himself as though looking for pockets, and then pulls out a camouflage tarp wrapped into a tight bundle that still looks too big to have been stored on the little bot's person. "Pull this around yourself, and nobody'll see you."

"Oh hey, good idea." Iceberg snerks. "It's too big for us, and too little for our pet Bulks, but I never thought of trying it on an Astrotech."

"That's because we didn't have any, bolts for brains." Dune Runner snorts.

[astrotechmech]

Okay. Kia's confirmed. Oh, Rollerball's wanting Random to do it . . . Guess he asked for that.

Random carefully crouches down so he can take the tarp, but pauses before he can spread it out to see how it'll cover. "'Pet Bulk'?"

[random_xtras]

"... Yeah, I wanna know that too." Jetfire's frowning.

"They're Autotroopers that a friend of ours repaired." Dune Runner pauses with a hand out for a corner of the tarp and looks up at Random.

[astrotechmech]

"Oh." Random frowns slightly as he tries to decide if he wants to know more, considering Iceberg called them 'pet Bulks.' Probably not. Random hands Dune Runner a corner before pulling on another with his free hand, being careful of the flowers in his other hand.