Con Comet Discussion

August 27, 2011, 3:48 PM
Back to 2011 Logs
Starscream Knifepoint Scientist
(Pinnacle of Polyhex)
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Starscream is up here, where he hopes to get some peace and quiet so he can redo the report he was almost finished with before Skywarp deleted it. He still has no idea how the black and purple seeker did that but he did. Smoking an enercig, the Air Commander is busy on a laptop sitting under the stars, enjoying the quiet as he types away.
Not far away on the pinnacle was the 'observatory', a large high tech telescope set up on Polyhex Pinnacle years ago. Right now a lone mech was manning it - most were recruited for the war, but he was here diligently as he types information into the giant telescope.
Knifepoint grumbles to himself as he makes his way out to the Pinnacle, pulling the package he'd been tasked with delivering out of his subspace. Of /course/ he had to be sent somewhere he wasn't sure he even had clearance for to deliver something to Starscream, of all mechs. Glancing about, he easily spots the Air Commander and starts heading over to the other seeker.
Starscream hears footsteps suddenly and looks toward the direction they are coming from. He sneers a bit when he sees it's Knifepoint. "What are you doing here?"
Rolling his optics at the sneer, Knifepoint waves the package in his hand around a bit. "Delivery for you, Air Commander, sir." He says flatly, holding the object out for Starscream to take.
The scientist looks up at the sudden speaking and blinks a few times, lifting an arm to wave "Good evening sir. Did you care to see the upcoming show? " he asks in a voice that carried clearly.
Starscream's optics perk up a bit. "For me?" He asks and takes the package. He doesn't recall expecting anything so this is indeed a surprise. Then he hears the other mech speaking and looks over at him. "Show? Explain." He says as he looks back at the package.
"He means the comet shower." Knifepoint deadpans, one wing twitching almost absently. "The one that grounded most of us so we wouldn't get slagged by giant pieces of ice and rock?"
The scientist sniffs in irritation "Whoever put out THAT order is a fool. The majority of particles will burn up quickly in orbit and will only cause a little bit of dust. They're also mostly ice, so there's not even THAT much of a worry."
Starscream recalls the comet shower suddenly. "I was just making sure you knew what grounded you." He says in some odd attempt to cover up the fact he forgot about the shower. He looks at the scientist then. "Dust can cause problems with a Seeker." He gives a side glance at Knifepoint. "And the order was to be expected. I have several new Seekers to keep in mind. You are a scientist and it's not your place to question orders from command..."
"This dust will hardly be one percent of the air sir." notes the Scientist "no more than a standard flight on a somewhat dusty day. " he pauses, nodding simply and not saying any more about it "Did you want to see it then?"
Knifepoint turns his attention to a miniscule smudge on his arm as he addresses the scientist. "Any order on such grand scale must have been approved by Lord Megatron, you realize. Surely you aren't calling our glorious leader a fool," Here he looks up at the scientist, not bothering to hide his smirk. "Are you?"
"Of course not. Only a FOOL would do it. The one who recommended it though to Megatron..." notes the Scientist, not at all panicked, mostly irritated.
Starscream shrugs. He didn’t recommend it and hes not in the mood to discuss the Slag Maker right now. He looks up into the sky. "Sure, I'm here. I would be interested in watching this 'comet shower'."
"...Is undoubtedly trusted by our leader, and thusly you are still questioning his judgment." Knifepoint picks up where the scientist left off, though most likely not with what he was going to say. He glancing over at Starscream with quickly-hidden annoyance, before turning his focus to the package. "Aren't you going to open that?" After all, he hauled his aft all the way up here, through Primus-only-knew how many security checks, just to deliver it.
"Its not happening yet, but the comets are beginning to form tails and shells that will grow as they hit Cybertrons' bowshock wave and begin to melt and energize. If we were near a sun it would be VERY spectacular. This will look more like a very rainy meteorite shower." explains the Scientist, ignoring Knifepoint.
Starscream glances at the package and then smirks. "No it can wait." It can wait because Knifepoint is curious as to what it is.
Knifepoint gives Starscream another annoyed look, not trying nearly as hard to hide this one. "Because obviously a package hand-delivered to you in an obscure, high-secured part of Polyhex is unimportant."
The Scientist snickers a little, then coughs "Are you coming over to see, SIRS?"
Starscream fights to keep from laughing. He's annoying the other Seeker and is enjoying this very much. "Well it could simply be something from of my many admirers too. Surely you wouldn’t be interested in seeing that would you?"
Knifepoint ignores the scientist outright, turning his full attention to Starscream. "Well, sir, maybe then I'd have an idea of what to include when I write /my/ love letter to you." He barely manages to fake sincerity, that sickeningly-sweet smile from their last interaction returning.
Starscream snaps a look at Knifepoint. "Knifepoint, I didn't realize you felt that way..." He's fighting so hard to keep from laughing. He manages to win the battle but his lips do twitch in a grin a time or two. The Air Commander finally decides to open the box but he takes his time and is most meticulous about it.
"I'm very good at hiding my feelings, sir, even if it is difficult." Knifepoint answers, rolling his optics as soon as Starscream's attention shifts off him. He /is/ curious as to what's in the box, though, and watches Starscream as he slowly opens it.
The scientist is quiet now, merely enjoying watching the two jab at each other.
Starscream twitches his wings at Knifepoint's comment and then opens the box at last. Inside is... energonbonbons and a love letter. He pulls the letter out and reads it quickly. He raises an optic ridge and then sets the letter down and pulls out the tray with the energon treats. "These look good." hes trying so hard to keep a straight face and in a rare fit of generosity he offers the tray to Knifepoint. "Since you worked so hard to bring them to me, you may have one..." He looks at Knifepoint and is dying inside with laughter.
Knifepoint openly stares for a few moments, utterly confused. Wait, it actually /was/ a slagging love letter? Oh he was going to /kill/ whoever wrote that... Shrugging mentally, he nudges the box back toward Starscream, fixing that smile back onto his faceplates. "Thank you for the /generous/ offer, sir, but I couldn't. They were intended for you, after all..."
The Scientist was a little puzzled, and stares at the two. Then he goes back to his telescope in confusion.
Starscream shrugs and takes one of the energon treats. It tastes really good and he makes no attempt to hide just how good it tastes. Then he takes the letter and the treats and puts them in subspace and looks back at his laptop. "Since you are here. Knifepoint, you may stay and watch the comet shower." he smirks and starts working on his report again.
Huh. Knifepoint watches Starscream carefully for a few moments, having half expected them to be poisoned. He smiles again, though, only a small twitch of a wing belying his annoyance. "I wouldn't wish to annoy you, Air Commander, sir."
"Well if you're up here then you may as well look." notes the Scientist, waving both of them over.
Starscream shuts the laptop lid and gets up. "Did I say you were annoying me?" He asks with a cool glance at Knifepoint as he heads over toward the scientist.
Knifepoint tilts his head forward slightly, trying to look properly cowed as he trails after the Air Commander. "No, sir, but I don't want to be a bother, especially not to /you/, of all mechs..." Interesting as the comet shower may be, he isn't sure he really wants to stay up here with chunks of rock falling down, regardless of whatever the scientist says.
The mech brings it up on the screen. It wasn't a direct-visual telescope but an electronic one and he shows a picture of space "Its still a few thousand kilometers out. Should hit any day now." It was a rather hazy look, like fog.
Starscream studies it for a moment, "Have you traced the origin of this shower?" He asks idly as he looks at the image again.
"A dead star system not far away it looks like. This was their Oort cloud. I already studied the system for energy sources... Just a planetary nebula and rocks." admits the scientist.
Starscream gets a crazy idea suddenly and kind of thinks out loud about it. "A pity we couldn’t somehow harness the comet shower and guide it to pulverize Autobot territories..."
"Not very easily. The way we're going through the cloud will cause it to rain on most of Cybertron. That AND..." He sounds irritated again, "Save MAYBE one or two pieces, most will dissolve in upper atmosphere. There is really NO real danger to it. "
Curiosity overriding his annoyance, Knifepoint leans in for a better look at the image, only half listening to the conversation. "I'm still not flying in it." He mutters more to himself than either of the two with him, tilting his helm as he examines the picture.
"You won't have to. It will be individual evaporated molecules in the air and..." The scientist flicks his fingers "A little bit of dust. Nothing to be AFRAID of."
Knifepoint gives the scientist a dirty look, optics narrowing. "I'm not afraid, afthead. You obviously don't understand what dust can do when you're going at high speeds." He eyes the mech's rotors with disgust.
"I do actually. I've worked closely on the development of several jet engines. In fact, the dust you fly through on a battlefield is ten times thicker than what we'll experience." remarks the scientist smugly "I don’t know about high speeds, but I /do/ know about dust."
"What do you know about being drop-kicked off towers?" Knifepoint asks, the disturbingly sweet tone surfacing again as he smiles at the rotary mech. "Because I'm tempted to make you an expert on the subject."
"You could, but I'd just fly away." Remarks the scientist, "And then you'd have an unnecessary assault against you. " He was quite calm, his blades twitching. Did he have some secret?
Knifepoint stays silent for a moment, optics narrowing again. "...I'm tempted to risk it if you don't mute your vocalizer, you afthead." He snaps, wings twitching.
The scientist smirked a little bit, but shut up as he taps in, zooming in to show several more visible rocks now floating around.
Starscream watches the altercation between the two and smirks a bit. "Knifepoint, why would you pick on a .. scientist?"
"Because he's an aft who's asking for it, sir." Knifepoint answers, one wing twitching as he stares intently at the scientist. "And he keeps assuming he knows more about how a seeker frame responds to dust than an actual /seeker/. ...Sir."
"Just because I am not a seeker doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about their airframes. I compared the expected dust increase to standard dust storms on Cybertron and found the increase to be negligible. Ergo, since only SEVERE dust storms have 'ground warnings' for the Seekers, the dust from the comet shower will not be affected. Dust is dust - if a little bit of Cybertron dust wont hurt you, nor will a little bit of space dust. QED." The mech replies simply, folding his arms.
Starscream frowns suddenly. "Why did Megatron order us grounded anyway?" He looks at the scientist, "Are you sure this came from Megatron?"
"/I/ did not know about a grounding at all sir. Knifepoint I believe mentioned it." notes the Scientist.
Starscream snorts and glares at Knifepoint. "Where did /you/ hear it?"
Knifepoint scowls, wings twitching again as he glares back at Starscream. "Your /trinemate/, sir. Who heard it from the air controllers." He snaps, crossing his arms over his chest. "You were, in fact, standing right there as he and I discussed it. Sir."
Starscream frowns again. It's not like him to miss stuff like this and he seems to be missing stuff right and left lately. "I'm busy." he huffs. "And ..." He's not about to admit he tunes out his trinemates most of the time. "Which one was it?" He finally asks, giving up on trying to save face in this.
"Skywarp, though Thundercracker confirmed it. This was shortly after you three were shoving each other around like overcharged younglings, sir." Knifepoint barely manages to hide his smirk as he speaks. "And shortly before Skywarp began calling Echo a suck up."
Starscream shakes his head slightly. Hes tempted to get his systems scanned to make sure there no hidden MEGATRON damage or acid rain damage in him somewhere. He gives an irritated look at Knifepoint at his comment about younglings, but there's not much he can say in defense about it. Skywarp just loves to antagonize him and he falls for it every time.
Knifepoint offers up another one of those smiles, wings flicking in amusement. "You asked, sir. I was just trying to be as specific as possible."
Starscream snorts and then turns on a heel to head back to his laptop. "I just bet you were." he mutters.
The scientist is quiet, looking quite smug as Knifepoint gets a dressing down.
Knifepoint shrugs, not bothering to hide his smirk as Starscream turns away. "Of course, sir." He shoots the scientist another glare.
The scientist grins simply at Knifepoint and turns away too.
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