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]

"You missed." Airazor turns her head from where she's perched on her partner's right wing.

"Need to get higher to hit his mouth," opines Comettor from where he's jammed between the other wing and Jetfire's shoulder.

Kia grins as Softheart makes a question sound in reply to his name, hugging Random with her free arm as she watches the young toothcat look surprised about where he is and glance uncertainly toward the door.

"Our people have already been planning traps," High Wire tells Arcee. "But we couldn't shake the feeling that we were supposed to wait for something. The Bespin bots weren't it, but they told us that Primus had started to move, and that there were new Jedi."

[astrotechmech]

Mirage shrugs. [Would have hit the Baron.] He turns back to his examination of the fuel.

Random decides he's stood too long and carefully sits down on the berth.

Gears blinks and shakes his head at the young tooth cat. "Yeah, I'm talking about you." He scritches Softheart on the head. "You just now remember I told you to stay outside, little one, huh?"

[random_xtras]

"You threw stuff at Smokie?" Jetfire pauses in wiping his belly to give Mirage an incredulous look. "How could ya?"

Kia looks over from helping Random sit and seating herself beside him, then wings the cookie in her hand at Jetfire, who makes a little choking sound as his eyes flash with shock. Airazor and Comettor cheer.

High Wire and his team don't notice, they're intent on Arcee as she replies.

She holds up a finger. "Jedi. One. Kia's no jedi. She's Random's daughter."

"Mrrrr." Softheart rubs his head on Gears' hand, then turns toward the door, the tip of his tail twitching with chagrin.

[astrotechmech]

Mirage turns and frowns at Jetfire in some confusion before cheering himself when he sees that the young femme managed to hit the bullseye.

Random blinks at the cheering. . . . What'd his daughter just do?

Gears looks between the cheering and the young tooth cat. "Hey. Where are you going? You can stay."

[random_xtras]

Rollbar pulls down the side of the hammock and looks at Random, then chuckles and says gruffly, "She fed him a cookie while he had his fuel port open to lick his finger."

Softheart pauses and looks at his dad, then turns and comes back to rub his face on Gears', soft happy sounds coming from him.

"But I thought she hears Primus." High Wire tilts his head, radiating confusion.

"You can do that without being a Jedi." Arcee walks over to sit sideways in the hammock next to the one full of Minicons.

[astrotechmech]

Random nods. That's . . . Yeah. Kia's being bold again.

Gears steps back as Softheart's affection puts him a bit off balance. "All right, all right. Love ya, too, kid." He rubs the young tooth cat on the head.

[random_xtras]

"Youngbots can do that without being jedi," says Kia, wiggling around so that she can use Random's lap for a pillow, and then curling up and cuddling Murphy.

"So what're we plannin'?" Jetfire wants to know, as he tries to pretend the toss and gluck didn't happen and that he's just looking on the table to see what there is.

[astrotechmech]

Wait. Did Jetfire just say "what're we planning?" Ugh, they aren't going to get anywhere if everything has to get rehashed agai--And the reason Random can't get up is because Kia is on him. He'll just scoop her up, and then--

[Easy, mech,] Mirage soothes in Minicon, even as he throws more fuel at Jetfire--in the face this time. [Arcee hasn't told them our side of the plan yet.] The Race Team leader turns to Jetfire. [Stop bothering the astrotech.]

"Wait, Mirage?" Gears asks, looking away from Softheart and to the rest of the room. "What are you doing--"

[Long story, but the short answer is that we're here to help them.] Mirage waves vaguely at the bots he arrived with. [Do you guys know about the shield generator--]

Gears frowns, but replies, "You mean the one protecting the Thing in orbit, yeah."

"Two things," Random says, automatically, sitting and holding Kia close. The wait's really starting to get to him again.

"Two things?" Gears asks skeptically. ". . . Did they clone it?"

[random_xtras]

"Kiiinda," says Jetfire, absently wiping his face and hiding his fuel port with his other hand. He glances at Arcee and gets nodded at, then hunkers down and looks into a bowl on the table. "They built 'im a new body. They're plannin' on transferin' him pretty soon."

High Wire falls back with shock and dismay as his teammates both do similarly.

[astrotechmech]

Gears absently scritches Softheart's head. "How soon are we talking?"

Mirage glances at Random before turning back to Gears. [You don't wanna know.]

Gears follows Mirage's glance and realizes why the Race Team leader won't say it around the stressed astrotech. His curse is met by an empty bowl to the face.

[Not in front of Kia.]

Gears scowls into the bowl and relaxes when he sees that it hadn't contained any energon that could have gotten on Softheart. He looks up at Kia. "Oh, right. Sorry."

[You guys know what kinda security they have around the shield generator, right?]

"Yeah." Gears turns back to Mirage. "And you guys should probably take the backdoor."

[random_xtras]

High Wire nods in agreement to Gears's assessment. "They seem to think that if we can't see it we won't find it."

"They also seem to put the Autotroopers that sleep on duty there," opines Sureshock, pulling herself up to look over the edge of the hammock.

"They'd have to be, not to notice a little orange Minicon sitting on the roof and looking at them," adds Grindor.

Arcee is momentarily speechless, but then recovers herself. "If it's so badly guarded, why haven't you taken down the generator?"

"We were waiting, like we were supposed to," says High Wire simply. "But you're here now, so the waiting's over."

"Eesh." Jetfire opens his fuel port to put mush into it.

[astrotechmech]

[And this way, the Imps won't have time to fix the it before the fleet arrives,] Mirage beeps distractedly, eying the fuel. Jetfire's fuel port is quite the tempting target. Urge to throw rising . . .