#surface-to-space ion cannon

[swtechspecs]

Kuat Drive Yards V-150 "Planet Defender" Surface-to-Space Ion Cannon

Source: The Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology (Del Rey, 1997)

[novaursa]

Of Gods and Men

Targaryen Spaceships

main list (where the story is)

This is Dune/GOT/HOTD/FAB/ASOIAF crossover AU that you've voted for. If you always wanted to see House Targaryen in space, I got you. Please note how some of the lore of both universes is bent to blend in both worlds. This is my original idea that I've been cooking for at least two years. Be gentle with my work, and enjoy the ride.

Targaryen Technology: The Dragons of the Stars

The Targaryen starships, like the family that commands them, are sleek, powerful, and imbued with an almost mythical presence. Crafted with a combination of ancient Valyrian technology and innovations developed in their centuries-long exile on Albiron, these ships are a testament to the Targaryens' refusal to fade into obscurity. Their dark, smooth exteriors and powerful engines make them some of the most advanced vessels in the unknown reaches of space, unmatched by anything within the known Imperium.

Starship Design

The hulls of Targaryen starships are a deep black, designed to blend seamlessly with the darkness of space. The sleek, elongated bodies of the ships evoke the shape of a dragon in flight, their surfaces polished to an obsidian-like shine. There are no unnecessary angles or protrusions; every inch of the vessel is designed for maximum efficiency and stealth. Their elongated frames make them aerodynamic enough for atmospheric entry, while their retractable extensions function as both solar collectors and atmospheric entry assistants.

Solar Collectors & Atmospheric Entry Assistants: The starships are equipped with large, wing-like extensions on either side of their main hull. These extensions serve dual purposes. In space, they act as solar collectors, absorbing energy from nearby stars to power the ship's secondary systems and boost the efficiency of its primary energy source: drakaon crystals. When the ship enters an atmosphere, these extensions retract into the hull, allowing for a smoother descent through planetary atmospheres without generating excess drag or turbulence. The retraction process is seamless and occurs at the precise moment of atmospheric entry, ensuring the ship retains its agility.

Material Composition: The starships are constructed from a blend of ultra-lightweight alloys derived from the rich mineral deposits found on Albiron, with an outer layer infused with a crystalline composite derived from the drakaon crystals. This crystalline layer not only enhances the ship's structural integrity but also makes the hull nearly impervious to traditional energy-based weapons, allowing the ships to absorb and dissipate energy from laser-based weaponry.

Weapons Systems

The Targaryens have never relied on brute force alone. Their mastery of both dragon-riding and advanced technology gives their ships a distinct advantage in combat. The weapons they wield are as precise as they are devastating, designed to strike with the fiery ferocity their family is known for.

Drakaon-Powered Energy Cannons: The main offensive weaponry of Targaryen starships are their energy cannons, powered by the same drakaon crystals that fuel the ship. These crystals, when harnessed correctly, can be used to generate an immense amount of energy that is channeled into concentrated beams of destruction. The cannons fire pulses of radiant energy that resemble dragon fire—bright, burning streaks of golden-red light that cut through enemy shields and armor with terrifying precision. These weapons are capable of targeting multiple enemies at once, with a tracking system that locks onto hostile ships and unleashes a volley of energy pulses that seem to follow their targets.

Ion Disruptors: In addition to their energy cannons, Targaryen ships are equipped with ion disruptors, which are designed to disable enemy vessels without destroying them outright. These disruptors fire bursts of ionized particles that interfere with the electronics and navigation systems of opposing ships, rendering them defenseless. While not as visually spectacular as the energy cannons, the ion disruptors are highly effective in neutralizing threats, particularly when the Targaryens want to disable and board enemy ships rather than annihilate them.

Plasma Missiles: For long-range combat, the Targaryen ships are equipped with plasma missile launchers. These missiles, encased in a crystalline shell, carry a payload of superheated plasma energy. Upon impact, the crystalline casing shatters, releasing the plasma in a devastating explosion that can melt through most standard ship armor. These missiles are often used to target capital ships or stations, as their explosive power is too great for smaller, faster vessels.

Defensive Capabilities: While the Targaryen starships are primarily offensive in nature, they are also well-equipped with defensive measures. The drakaon crystals embedded in the hull not only provide structural strength but also act as an energy shield. When activated, the crystals emit a protective field around the ship, capable of absorbing incoming energy attacks and dispersing them across the surface of the ship. This makes Targaryen vessels highly resilient to laser and plasma-based weaponry, though they are somewhat more vulnerable to physical projectiles such as missiles or railgun slugs.

Power Source: The Drakaon Crystals

At the heart of every Targaryen starship is the drakaon crystal, the key to the House's technological superiority. These crystals, discovered in the depths of Albiron, revolutionized their space travel capabilities and energy production, allowing them to operate independently of the Imperium's spice-fueled economy.

Energy Output: The drakaon crystals are unique in that they can generate massive amounts of energy when exposed to specific wavelengths of light or when placed under high-pressure conditions. The Targaryens have developed a process to harness this energy in a controlled manner, using it to power everything from their starships' engines to their advanced weaponry systems. The energy output of these crystals is far more efficient than melange-based technologies, and it is entirely self-sustaining, allowing Targaryen vessels to travel vast distances without refueling.

Space Travel: One of the most significant applications of the drakaon crystals is in space travel. The Targaryens have developed a form of faster-than-light (FTL) travel that does not rely on traditional spice-based navigation. Instead, their ships use the energy from the drakaon crystals to create temporary rifts in space-time, allowing them to "jump" across vast distances in the blink of an eye. This technology is far more advanced than the Guild's methods, and it is one of the reasons the Targaryens have remained hidden for so long.

Interior Design and Aesthetics

The interior of Targaryen starships is as striking as their exteriors. The corridors and chambers are illuminated by a soft, amber light that mimics the glow of Albiron's skies. The walls are smooth and seamless, crafted from the same dark, crystalline material as the ship's hull, giving the interiors a sense of both luxury and unyielding strength.

Command Centers: The bridge of each starship is designed for maximum efficiency, with sleek, minimalist control panels that seem to respond to the touch of their operators. Holographic displays project maps of the surrounding space and provide real-time data on ship systems, enemy positions, and tactical options. The seats of the command crew are arranged in a semi-circle around the central control station, where the ship’s captain—often a high-ranking Targaryen or a trusted vassal—oversees all operations.

Dragon Holds: Uniquely, Targaryen starships also contain specially designed dragon holds—massive, reinforced chambers where their bonded dragons can be transported when necessary. These holds are equipped with climate controls that mimic the conditions of Albiron, keeping the dragons calm and comfortable during long voyages. The dragons' presence on the ships not only serves a symbolic purpose but also provides a tactical advantage during planetary assaults.

[magnetarbeam]

Star Wars Technical Worldbuilding Notes 4

The Malevolence's ion web thing is a mystery in terms of what it was actually supposed to do. That ship didn't accomplish anything any other warship its size couldn't. If anything, it's a waste of energy because of how much of the web just travels past a target that's hit.

All I've really been able to come up with for how that weapon might be uniquely useful is against planetary shields. It'd have to be attached to a much bigger ship, but theoretically if you put enough power into that, you could take down the shielding across an entire hemisphere in a single shot. Still a very energy-intensive novelty weapon at best - the standard doctrine of a concentrated barrage to form a local breach and landing ground forces through the breach exists for a reason - but I can see it coming in handy against a layout of ground defenses that planned on an attacking fleet being able to breach the shield at only a few specific points.

Headcanonically, conventionally armed Subjugator-class variants did end up as the main CIS line cruiser for the rest of that war, because it's also just a better design for a warship. I admittedly have yet to do proper volume calcs for either of them, but no matter how many reactors and cannons and military-grade power conduits you can fit in a Lucrehulk, the firing arcs are still abysmal in comparison.

Fortifications on planets can inherently be much higher-powered than ships, because there's much more space for reactors and neutrino radiator banks and shield generators. The limit on the fuel capacity of ships is the mass of hypermatter, which is also of no concern to a planet.

Ecumenopolis worlds would be the hardest to take, and would probably require specialized tactics, because the amount of territory you have to cover is a matter of volume and not just surface area.

Shields should be present on all planets with access to galactic standard technology. Not necessarily shields that can stand up to a turbolaser bombardment, but they need to at least stop asteroids.

The relative prominence of Mon Calamari compared to Kuat in New Republic and then Galactic Alliance warship construction is something I wonder about sometimes.

Kuat, of course, has their giant fucking system ring and stuff, and is historically the dominant starship manufacturer. But I wonder if the political prominence of Mon Calamari due to their contributions from the Rebellion onward might lead to them getting more new contracts.

Come to think of it, I like the thought of whatever corporate entity probably handles the Mon Cal yards having subsidiary facilities specifically on other ocean planets.

Or maybe the Mon Cal yards are just completely nationalized. I can kinda see the Galactic Alliance, at least, wanting at least one major shipyard to be under their direct control, to limit potential interference from corrupt corporate executives. I don't think I've ever heard anything explicitly contradicting that.

Anything you might hear about pre-Endor Mon Cal designs, which are converted civilian stuff, being superior to their purpose-built Imperial warship counterparts is pure bullshit, for, I'd think, obvious reasons.

Realistically, I do think the New Republic would have started to show original purpose-built warship designs earlier than we see, and as I've talked about before, that's the niche that I headcanonically have brought in the Starhawk for (minus the super-tractor-beam thing, because I think it's dumb as shit). I've also thought of moving the introduction of the MC90 design generation a couple years earlier, like maybe 8 ABY, for similar reasons.

I think the Starhawk Mark II only exists in disney canon because of the stats in Armada, but I can maybe extrapolate it in here as a successor that the NR came up for the sake of quickly coming up with something to pay KDY for after they took the planet, to keep the company happy.

U-Wings also exist in my headcanon because I just like them, and a random piece of worldbuilding I've devised about it is that they're technically organized as NR/GA Marine Corps assets.

The way I understand it, the general basis for the NR and GA naval structure - four to nine numbered fleets at any given time, and most major engagements involve at least one of those being committed in full - comes from stuff set up in Black Fleet Crisis, where the new Fifth Fleet is the centerpiece of the plot and stuff. Some of the reference books elaborated on that in earlier periods, laying out some of the movements and positions of the First through Fourth in the first two years or so after Endor - but it's not as widespread as a point of reference in most of the New Republic-era books. I'd be pretty curious to learn what fleet Han's anti-Zsinj task force was drawn from, for example.

[pm-memeteam]

Following the blueprint of the initial turret design, I crafted a second variation, distinguished by its larger size and capability to unleash powerful plasma beams. This upgraded version not only enhances the threat level within the environment but also adds diversity to the challenges our duo will encounter.

In line with the development process of the initial turret, I created a rough low-poly animation to demonstrate its emergence from the environment. This animation provides a visual representation of the turret's mechanics and how it integrates seamlessly into the surroundings, adding depth and immersion to the gameplay experience.

I found Gabriel Radic's Ion cannon to be a particularly insightful reference that resonated with my design process. The intricacies and innovative features of Radic's work provided valuable inspiration and guidance as I refined my own concepts and techniques.

Further Notes

While looking at turrets and hard surface design I found a new Artist I really liked! Sabrina Garcia. I haven't seen her before, but her work was fronted on Art station and she seemed to be a newer artist rising up and making a name for herself. I thought her concept art was ground-breaking, and presented in a excellent and unique way.

I'm unable to upload it here but this Turret includes a video with sound, of how it open out from the wall. This can be viewed here:

I found it very impressive. The design boasts excellent shape language, and I believe my own turret designs would have benefited from discovering her work sooner. My turrets seem to lack the intricate hard surface detailing that makes hers stand out. However, I intentionally opted for a more minimalist design to simplify the modeling process for our 3D team and ensure timely completion.

While not a turret, another concept I truly admired is this sci-fi fighter/space jet cockpit.

This also has accompanying video's to compliment the concept, these can be viewed here:

I'll definitely keep an eye on this artist. She has set a new standard for presenting concept art, and I aspire to reach this level of quality in my own future presentations.

References

Gabriel Radic. (2019). Ion Cannon - Retractable Turret Test Animation. [Online Video]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARLOr9aOKCI [Accessed 11th March 2024]

Garcia, S (2024). FD-03 Point Defence Turret. [Digital Art]. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lD2k0z (Accessed 11th March 2024)

Garcia, S. (2024). Portfolio. [Online]. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/sab_3d (Accessed 11th March 2024)

Garcia, S (2023). SUPA-SONIC Cockpit. [Digital Art]. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/140YN2 (Accessed 11th March 2024)

[howtofightwrite]

Hi! I need some advice on how to write battle plans. Like in war and such. I’m also having to come up with terrain for this chapter I’m writing. This is a Star Wars story with two Jedi if that matters. Do you think you can help me?

I'm a bit under the weather right now, so this response is going to be fairly brief. We'll be back to our normal schedule as soon as possible.

The Star Wars part matters a lot. Most science fiction settings have specific considerations that heavily affect how combat encounters play out, and what needs to be considered for planning.

In particular, combat in Star Wars can be roughly broken down into three parts. Space, ground, and characters. The ground and characters being separate groups is somewhat artificial, but it does reflect how the films (and most Star Wars media, for that matter) is written.

Space combat has a lot of considerations and, generally, has a rock, paper, scissors relationship going on. Star Wars tends to split starships into three groups: Capital ships, starfighters, and bombers. This is less consistently illustrated on screen, and tends to be something that exists more in the support material. Basically, capital ships (usually) have heavy flak defenses against incoming fighters. Fighters have a significant maneuverability advantage over bombers, and bombers are (usually) equipped with long range ordinance to deal crippling damage to enemy capital ships. (Beyond that, there are a lot of ships that perform better in their role, or partially step outside of their role.) The resulting structure is that capital ships operate as the heavy firepower supported by starfighters who have the specific job of screening off any incoming bombers. (In the original Trilogy, the TIE Fighters, TIE Interceptors, and TIE Advanced are the Empire's fighters, with the TIE Bombers as their only bomber variety. The Rebels use X-Wings, A-Wings as their starfighters, with the Y-Wings and B-Wings serving as their bombers. If you ever wondered why the sent in Y-Wings on the first trench run, here's your answer.)

Star Destroyers (Imperial-Class, and the Executor SSD), Mon Calamari Star Cruisers (these are noted for not having a standard design pattern, so a lot of the weird globby capital ships in Return of the Jedi are all MonCal Star Cruisers), Corellian Corvettes, and Nebulon-B Frigates cover most of the capital ships you see in the original films.

If you want to expand beyond that, then the original Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn is a pretty good place to start. Thrawn is a very well written strategist, especiallyin his original outing, and Zahn introduced a lot of strategically interesting mechanics to Star Wars that hadn't been set up in the original films. This included the concept of interdictors which could create an artificial gravity well to force ships out of Hyperspace.

Moving on to ground combat, Star Wars is a setting that's usually pretty good about paying attention to combined arms. Most starfighters and bombers (including all of the ones I mentioned above), are able to provide close air support, and capital ships can provide targeted orbital bombardment (in the case of some larger capital ships, they can obliterate entire cities, and fleets effectively wipe out entire planetary civilizations. Usually the reason not to do this is because the faction in question is unwilling to do so, or the planet has some direct strategic value.) This is on top of a lot of atmospheric only speeders and walkers that exist. Also technology like energy shields which can (in some cases) provide full protection against orbital bombardment, and a heavily fortified planet may have surface-to-space  ion cannons and/or turbolaser batteries, which could make life very interesting for an invading fleet attempting to clear the planet.

A lot of the time, ground combat in Star Wars will either focus on the vehicle combat directly or mix between vehicles and infantry combat. Actually drafting up battle plans in situations like this is going to depend primarily on strategic considerations for where they're fighting. If repulsorlifts don't work on the planet, then T-47 speeders aren't an option, and everyone's restricted to walkers and treadded vehicles. If it's an exceptionally dense urban environment that needs to be taken (mostly) intact, then you're probably looking at normal infantry for a long drawn out campaign, where they're unlikely to use anything heavier than a concussion rifle. If the goal is to simply turn a facility into a crater, you can do that with a few proton bombs fired from a flight of Y-Wings.

It really depends on what you need done.

After that, the films have very strong focus on duels between major characters. Characters (especially Jedi) tend to quickly carve through, or easily evade, any ground units sent after them. If you're a named character in Star Wars, the real danger is another named character, not some random troopers (even if they should pose more of a threat.)

It might be worth digging up a copy of Empire at War. It's an older Star Wars RTS, but a very well made one, which embraces some of the setting's strategic depth, and has enough interesting concepts to get you thinking.

-Starke

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[swan2swan]

I love your acknowledgement of surface batteries in star wars discussions. Seems like most sw fans (and writers) forget that surface to orbit defences exist despite one appearing so prominently in one of the most beloved sequences in the series

And they're, like, ridiculously powerful.

The moment you pin a post-it note to your brain that says "A Rebel base with ONE (1) ion cannon and ONE (1) shield generator on a barren iceball could hold off the pride of the Imperial Navy indefinitely", you can put planetary invasion scales into sobering light.

A fortress world with twenty of those things on every continent? Haha, heck, no.

The problem is that spaceships, well...control space. So even if your planet is an impregnable fortress, you're stuck there. One Star Destroyer can still lock down a whole planet if there's only one habitable biome; keep a thousand klicks between it and the SA battery's range, launch fighter patrols, keep the bombers warm if anything tries making an overland trek...throw in a few frigates and pickets and the whole system can be locked down. Jam their planetary communications arrays and shoot down their satellites, and that planet becomes a red mark on any ally's map--after all, how do you know if they're still fighting, or if they can send aid to a space battle? If you lack space superiority, all the ground batteries on the planet won't help.

But...again...you can't forget the scale of antiorbital weaponry.

[swan-of-sunrise]

Taking Care of Business (Chapter Nineteen)

Summary: (Y/N), Din and the others recruit two familiar Mandalorians to help them rescue Grogu, and the pair shares a quiet moment before the siege on Moff Gideon’s cruiser.

Pairing: Din Djarin X Reader

Word Count: 4.2k

Warnings/Disclaimers: None

A/N: I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter Nineteen The Rescue (Previous Chapter)

“Maker, these Lambda shuttles are hunks of junk,” (Y/N) grumbled to herself, entering the shuttle’s cockpit and moving to sit in the main pilot’s seat. After checking that Boba hadn’t accidentally damaged any of its functions when he’d used the ion cannon or when he’d latched onto its roof, she began charting their course; they’d all agreed that if they were going to storm Moff Gideon’s cruiser, then they’d need all the help that they could get and Din was dead-set on a familiar group of Mandalorians. “‘Might of the Galaxy,’ my ass…”

Just as she finished prepping for the jump to hyperspace, Cara entered the cockpit and plopped down in the co-pilot’s seat. “I took care of the bodies, stowed their weapons in the back. How’d everything lookin’ in here?”

“There’s some very minor damages caused by that ion cannon, but nothing too serious. We’re just waiting on word from-”

“Come in, (Y/N).”

She pressed a button beside the shuttle’s communication radio and replied, “(Y/N) here. Is everything good on your end?”

“Yep, we’re ready to leave when you are.” Once she assured Din that they were, the shuttle shook as Boba unlatched the Slave I. “I’ll see you when we land. Cuyir morut’yc, alor’ad. Be safe.”

(Y/N) smiled at his parting words, the Mando’a making her heart warm in her chest. “You too.” Switching off the communication radio, her hands flipped several switches before settling on one of the main levers. “Jumping to hyperspace in three…two…one.” She pushed the lever up, sending the Imperial shuttle flying into space; glancing away from the shuttle’s viewport, she took in Cara’s tense demeanor and furrowed her brow in concern. “Are you okay, Cara?”

The marshal glanced up with a brief smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yeah, I’m good. One of those Imps said some things that hit a little close to home, that’s all.” Nodding, (Y/N) moved to turn her attention back to the shuttle’s controls but stopped when Cara softly spoke her name and asked, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but what made you decide to join the Rebellion?”

Biting her lip, (Y/N) hesitated for a moment before answering. “After my mother died and I left Naboo, I thought that I could turn a blind eye to the Empire and live my life the way I wanted. I’d spent my entire childhood under their control, after all; no one would fault me for wanting to enjoy my freedom. But the older I got, the harder it became to ignore all the suffering across the galaxy and when I caught wind that the Alliance Starfleet was looking to recruit smugglers, all I could think about were my mother’s last words to me…” Her fingers began playing with the bottom hem of her Shaak-skin jacket. “‘Choose courage over fear, and you can change the stars.’ So, that’s what I did.” She sniffed and let out an awkward chuckle before turning back to the controls. “I’m not sure if that’s the answer you were looking for, but it’s the only one I’ve got.”

“I just needed to be reminded of all the good people who fought on our side…so yeah, it was a pretty good answer.”

The pair spent the rest of the journey in comfortable silence, soon coming out of hyperspace and entering the planet’s upper atmosphere. (Y/N) landed the shuttle beside the Slave I and followed Cara out onto the planet’s surface, where Din and Boba were already waiting. Although they’d only been apart for a short while, (Y/N) felt herself begin to relax as her eyes met the visor of the Mandalorian’s helmet.

“You three go ahead, Fennec and I can keep an eye on Pershing,” Cara gave them a brief nod before turning and boarding the Slave I, where Fennec was securing the clone engineer’s wrists in binders.

“Let’s hope that this idea of yours’ll work.”

Din’s hand came to rest on the small of her back as the three of them began walking towards the small outpost. “It’ll work, alor’ad.” They made their way through the quiet outpost and entered the nearly-deserted cantina, where two familiar Mandalorians were enjoying their meals in the back of the room; exchanging a glance with Din, (Y/N) followed him over to their table and watched as the one Din claimed was named Koska nudged Bo-Katan, who immediately looked up at them. “We need your help.”

Bo-Katan’s brow rose as she examined the three of them. “Not all Mandalorians are bounty hunters. Some of us serve a higher purpose.”

Frustration was evident in Din’s voice as he shot back, “They took the child.”

“Who?”

“Moff Gideon.” (Y/N) frowned, taking in the sudden shift of Bo-Katan’s demeanor. “What?”

The Mandalorian looked back down at the table before replying, “You’ll never find him.”

(Y/N) bit her lip to keep from saying anything derogatory and Din’s gloved hands tightened into fists, but it was Boba Fett who decided to speak up. “We don’t need these two, let’s get out of here.”

Din and Boba began turning away but (Y/N) froze, her eyes narrowing as she watched Bo-Katan look up at the bounty hunter with barely-concealed distaste. “You are not a Mandalorian.”

“Never said I was.”

Koska snorted in amusement. “I didn’t know sidekicks were allowed to talk.”

Chuckling, Boba stepped closer to the Mandalorian. “Well, if that isn’t the Quacta calling the Stifling slimy.” Koska quickly stood, her chin jutted out in defiance, and (Y/N) had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the scene the two were making. “Easy there, little one.”

“You’ll be talking through the window of a bacta tank.”

“All right, easy,” Bo-Katan commanded. “Save it for the Imps.”

After a tense moment, Koska sat back down at the table and (Y/N) sighed in relief as she focused her attention back on Bo-Katan. “We have his coordinates.”

The Mandalorian blinked in surprise. “You can bring me to Moff Gideon?”

“The Moff has a light cruiser; it could be helpful in your effort to regain Mandalore.”

Beside Din, Boba scoffed at his words. “You gotta be kidding me, Mandalore? The Empire turned that planet to glass.”

(Y/N) exhaled through her nose, crossing her arms over her chest as both Mandalorians glared at the bounty hunter; it would’ve been less of a hassle to visit Tatooine and ask kriffing Cobb Vanth for help, she thought to herself, wearily watching Bo-Katan level her hardened gaze at Boba. “You are a disgrace to your armor.”

“This armor belonged to my father.”

“Don’t you mean your donor?”

Din and (Y/N), who’d both started forward to break up the confrontation, both froze in their tracks; the bounty hunters shoulders were tense as he took another step towards Bo-Katan. “Careful, princess.”

“You are a clone,” Bo-Katan smirked and both Mandalorians stood, their meals long forgotten. “I’ve heard your voice thousands of times.”

“Mine might be the last one you hear.”

Boba’s threat spurred Koska into finally attacking and the two of them began to viciously fight. Wrapping an arm around (Y/N)’s waist, Din tugged her to his side and held her securely against him as they watched the fight, sighing deeply in frustration. “Mandalorians.”

“I told you that we should’ve gotten Cobb Vanth’s help instead.” At her words, Din grumbled something under his breath and all she could make out was something that sounded suspiciously like ‘flirt,’ making the corner of her mouth curl into a small teasing grin. “I never would’ve pegged you as the jealous type, you’re such a calm and level-headed man…”

She could feel Din’s arm tighten around her waist and she just knew that he was rolling his eyes at her beneath his helmet. “Mir'sheb.”

“I love you too.” They both turned their attention back to the fight and (Y/N) nearly facepalmed when she saw the pair ignite their flamethrowers. “Dank farrik, this is getting ridiculous.”

It seemed that the second Mandalorian felt the same. “Enough, both of you! If we had shown half that spine to the Empire, we would have never lost our planet.” Boba and Koska both extinguished their flamethrowers and as the bounty hunter got to his feet, Bo-Katan turned to face her and Din. “We will help you. In exchange, we will keep that ship to retake Mandalore.” The Mandalorian stepped closer to Din, and (Y/N)’s brow furrowed as she continued, “If you should manage to finish your quest, I would have you reconsider joining our efforts. Mandalorians have been in exile from our home world for far too long.”

“Fair enough.”

Din let go of her waist and was beginning to lead her towards the cantina’s door when Bo-Katan spoke up again. “One more thing. Gideon has a weapon that once belonged to me, it is an ancient weapon that can cut through anything.”

“Almost anything,” Koska interjected.

Bo-Katan nodded. “It cannot cut through pure beskar.” At her words, (Y/N)’s thoughts instantly went to Ahsoka Tano and her two pure-white lightsabers; why would someone who’s not a Jedi want a weapon like that, she silently wondered, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of her stomach. “I will kill the Moff and retake what is rightfully mine. With the Darksaber restored to me, Mandalore will finally be within reach.”

“Help us rescue the child and you can have whatever you want,” He nearly snapped, and (Y/N) could tell that Bo-Katan was beginning to frustrate him. “He is our only priority.”

“If we’re all done fighting with each other, we should head back to the ship.” (Y/N) interjected, turning and leading the way back to the Slave I; walking beside Din, she quietly asked, “Was it just me or was that whole Darksaber thing a little strange?” He nodded but remained silent, and soon they were all boarding the ship.

Bo-Katan and Koska joined Cara in pulling up a hologram of Moff Gideon’s cruiser and Fennec made her way over to where (Y/N) and Din were leaning against the wall of the ship. “These two seem like they’re fun to hang around.”

(Y/N) smiled in amusement. “Yeah, they’re a barrel of laughs. I’ve gotta admit, it’s a little aggravating that they care more about Moff Gideon’s cruiser and his Darksaber than Grogu.”

“I know, but we need them to get onboard that cruiser.” Din glanced over at Dr. Pershing. “Has he said anything yet?”

Fennec shook her head. “Nothing. Want me to make him talk?”

“No, it’s okay; I’ve got a feeling he’ll be helpful on his own.”

Bo-Katan called them over and they moved closer as she pointed to the hologram. “This is Moff Gideon’s Imperial light cruiser. In the old days, it would carry a crew of several hundred but now it operates with a tiny fraction of that.”

“Your assessment is misleading.”

(Y/N) turned around to look at Dr. Pershing; the clone engineer was staring at the floor, his mouth set in a firm line. He certainly doesn’t act like the typical Imp, she thought to herself while Cara scoffed. “Oh great, an objective opinion.”

Dr. Pershing’s eyes flicked up to meet theirs. “This isn’t subterfuge, I assure you.” He turned to (Y/N) and after taking a moment to examine his pleading face, she nodded for him to continue. “There’s a garrison of dark troopers on board. They’re the ones who abducted the child.”

Across from (Y/N), Cara began cleaning one of her knives with a spare rag. “How many troopers do they have armed in those suits?”

“These are a third-generation design; they are no longer suits. The human inside was the final weakness to be solved…they’re droids.”

(Y/N) nodded in agreement. “It’s true, I saw them when they took…when they took Grogu.” She turned back to the clone engineer. “Where are they bivouacked?”

Dr. Pershing got up from his seat and moved to stand beside the hologram. “They’re held in cold storage in this cargo bay.” He pointed to a section of the cruiser. “They draw too much power to be kept at ready.”

“And how long to power up?” Fennec asked, her eyes narrowing as she examined the hologram before them.

“A few minutes, perhaps.”

“Where is the child being held?” Din’s words were clipped and business-like, but (Y/N) could detect the pain in his voice as he spoke.

The clone engineer brought up a different section of the hologram that clearly looked like a cell. “This is the brig. The child’s being held here under armed guard.”

“Very well,” Bo-Katan examined the hologram while she continued, “We split into two parties.”

(Y/N) felt the smooth leather of Din’s glove brush her hand. “(Y/N) and I go alone.”

Bo-Katan sighed but nodded. “Fine. Phase One, Lambda shuttle issues a distress call. Two, we emergency land at the mouth of the fighter launch tube, cutting off any potential interceptors. Koska, Fennec, Dune and myself disembark with maximum initiative. Once we’ve neutralized the launch bay, we make our way through these tandem decks in a penetration maneuver.”

“And the two of us?” (Y/N) asked.

“We’ll be misdirection; once we draw a crowd, you two slip through the shadows, get the kid.”

Cara stopped cleaning her knife and glanced up at them all. “Those dark troopers are gonna be a real skank in the scud pie.”

Leaning closer to the hologram, (Y/N) observed, “Their bay is on the way to the brig.” She looked over at Dr. Pershing. “Can we make it there before they deploy?”

He nodded. “It’s possible.”

“Here,” Fennec grabbed a code cylinder from the clone engineer’s pocket and handed it to Din. “Take his code cylinder and seal off their holding bay. Anyone else, we can handle.”

Din clutched the code cylinder in his hand, the visor of his helmet looking down at (Y/N) while he replied, “We’ll meet you all at the bridge. Now, let’s start planning out Phase One…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After they finalized their plan, they all boarded the Lambda shuttle and entered hyperspace, closely followed by Boba in the Slave I. (Y/N) was seated in the main pilot’s chair at the others’ insistence; for their plan to work, they needed to look as if they were under attack by Boba’s ship, and there was no one better qualified to perform that type of flying than her. The others were keeping busy by cleaning their blasters and donning their armor, but Din was motionless in the co-pilot seat beside her; Moff Gideon doesn’t have a clue what’s in store for him when Din gets a hold of him, she thought to herself, her eyes still trained on the swirling blue outside of the viewport.

As if in-tuned with her thoughts, Din suddenly stood and asked her to join him in the back compartment. She followed him deeper into the shuttle and once they entered the compartment, she shut the door behind them; just as she was turning around to face him, she heard the unmistakable sound of his beskar helmet being removed and her heart leapt into her throat. She reached a hand out towards the control panel to dim the lights, but a larger hand appeared and halted hers; Din’s tanned fingers gently held her wrist, bringing it up to where he stood behind her and pressing his lips to her knuckles. “Please, I…I need you to see me, alor’ad.”

Taking a steadying breath, (Y/N) slowly turned around and looked up at Din’s face. Back in the refinery on Morak, she didn’t have much time to closely examine her partner’s features but what she had studied were his eyes; they were the warmest shade of brown and, much to her surprise, incredibly expressive. Meeting his concerned gaze had quickly calmed her down and made her feel safe in that mess hall, and the same was true in the shuttle’s back compartment.

Her gaze left his as she took the opportunity to examine the rest of him; his hair was also brown, the soft waves matted a little from the helmet, and his facial hair was neatly trimmed, the hair above his lip a little thicker than the rest of it. His brow and nose were prominent, but his jawline had more of a curve to it, and the last thing she looked at were his lips; they were chapped and his bottom lip was more plump than the top, something that she’d noticed whenever they’d kissed in the dark on the Razor Crest. As she watched, his lips parted and when her eyes flicked back up to his, he was closely watching her with nervousness written across his features. Smiling, (Y/N) rested a hand against the soft skin and stubble of his cheek as she brought his hand up to her lips, kissing each knuckle before finally speaking. “Mesh’la.”

Din released a shuddering breath as his eyes darted over her face. “You…?”

“That’s Mando’a for ‘beautiful,’ right? Oh Maker, I didn’t say an insult by accident or anything, did I?” (Y/N) rambled, her panic beginning to rise as Din remained silent. “Son of a-”

In a flash, Din’s lips were on hers and he was kissing her with an unrelenting passion as his arms held her close. (Y/N) got over her initial shock and began kissing him back, her hands moving up to his hair and carding through the thick locks; Din moaned as her fingernails lightly scraped against his scalp and before she registered what was happening, he was hoisting her up into his arms and stumbling backwards to sit on the edge of the bunk. She was straddling his thighs and their bodies were flush against one another when they finally broke apart for air, but that didn’t stop Din; while she struggled to catch her breath, he began pressing kisses all over her face and neck, finally pulling away after kissing her lips one final time. He was beaming up at her, his brown eyes bright as his smile widened, and one of his hands came up to caress her cheek.

“I’d ask if you really meant that, but I already know that you do.” Din’s hand trailed down her neck to rest flat against her chest, right above where her heart was. “Because of this. You have the biggest heart, alor’ad, the biggest heart out of everyone I’ve ever met. It’s just…I can’t help but think I don’t deserve the love you’ve given me.”

“That makes two of us, Din.” (Y/N) replied, watching his eyes flutter closed while her fingers brushed the hair away from his forehead. “Sometimes I feel that you’re too good to me.”

Din shook his head, the loving look he gave her when he opened his eyes almost making her cry. “You deserve everything I can give you and more, you and the kid…” At the mention of Grogu, Din’s smile dimmed a little and his hand moved away from her chest to rest against the side of her neck. “(Y/N), if I…if things end up going sideways, I want you to continue our quest. Find a Jedi that will train the kid; you’re the only person I trust to do it.”

Swallowing the lump in her throat, (Y/N) nodded. “Of course I will, but don’t forget what you promised me that day in the meadow. ‘Ner cyar’ika alor’ad, I swear on the stars I’ll never leave your side.’” She held his face in between her hands and lowered her head to rest against his. “Please don’t forget that.”

“Never, alor’ad,” Din breathed, pressing feather-light kisses to her lips that managed to soothe her shaky nerves. “I could never.”

They sat there in the shuttle’s back compartment for several more minutes, their arms wrapped tightly around one another as they took solace in each other’s embrace. But their peaceful solitude came to an end when Din suggested they return to the shuttle’s cockpit and with a final kiss, (Y/N) slid off his lap and he put his helmet back on before opening the compartment’s door. That wasn’t a goodbye, she sternly told herself while they walked side-by-side, even if it felt a little like one.

Once back in the cockpit, (Y/N) resumed her seat, methodically checking system functions in preparation for Phase One as Bo-Katan took the co-pilot’s seat beside her. I’m not sure if she can be trusted, she thought to herself, watching the helmet-less Mandalorian out of the corner of her eye; Bo-Katan was hell-bent on finding Moff Gideon and retaking Mandalore, and (Y/N) had an uneasy feeling that she didn’t care who perished in her pursuit for vengeance. Her suspicions were confirmed when Bo-Katan called out, “Moff Gideon is mine. Got it?”

“He’s ex-ISB,” Cara pointed out from behind them. “He’s got a lot of information, I need him alive.”

Bo-Katan merely shrugged. “I don’t care what happens to him as long as he surrenders to me.”

That made (Y/N)’s brow arch but she stayed silent, her hands continuing to fly over the buttons and switches; despite the seriousness of their situation, she couldn’t help but thrill at the opportunity to pilot a ship in a combat situation again. She sensed Din moving to stand directly behind her seat just as Boba Fett’s voice emitted from the communication radio. “Prepare to exit jump space.”

“Copy that,” (Y/N) replied, pressing a blinking button beside her before resting her hand on the shuttle’s main lever. “Get the hell out of there as soon as they clear us to dock.”

Beside her, Bo-Katan smirked to herself. “And your shots have to look convincing.”

(Y/N) heard Din heave an exasperated sigh as Boba chuckled. “Power up those shields, princess. I’ll put on a good show.”

“Watch out for those deck cannons, okay? They’re real pieces of work; I’ve seen them take down X-Wings with a single shot.”

“Don’t worry about me, Captain, I’ll be all right.” Boba reassured her. “Just be careful in there.”

Nodding to herself, (Y/N) gripped the main lever and announced, “Exiting hyperspace in three, two, one…”

She pulled the lever down and returned her hands to the joysticks in front of her as the shuttle exited hyperspace. Moff Gideon’s cruiser loomed ahead of them and her stomach clenched in fury, speculations about what they might’ve done to Grogu unwillingly filling her mind. Giving her head a small shake, she yanked the joysticks to the right and dodged the shots Boba aimed at them before connecting their communication radio to the cruiser. “This is Lambda Shuttle 2743, requesting emergency docking.” She swerved again, making sure that her flying didn’t look too skilled as she continued. “Repeat, requesting emergency docking. We are under attack!”

There was a brief pause before a female Imperial officer responded. “Copy, Lambda Shuttle. Request received. Stay clear of launch tube, deploying fighter squadron.” They watched as the one of the cruiser’s TIE Fighters deployed and with a sideways glance at her co-pilot, (Y/N) flew the shuttle towards the exposed launch tube; she winced a little when they were almost clipped by a second TIE Fighter and the female officer called out, “Request denied! Please clear launch tube until fighters deploy!”

“Negative, negative! We are under attack!” Flipping a switch above her, (Y/N) increased their speed and steered the shuttle towards the launch tube straight ahead. In all her time as a smuggler, she could honestly say that this was the first time she’d ever piloted a speeding shuttle directly into another ship and without a proper landing array; it’s like Ahsoka said, she thought as her forehead began to bead with sweat, good or bad they’re always memorable.

“Clear launch tube immediately!”

(Y/N)’s arms began to shake with the effort of holding the joysticks steady, biting her lip while Bo-Katan activated their landing gear just in time for them to speed into the launch tube. Behind her, Fennec shouted, “Hang on!” and Din’s gloved hands clutched the back of her seat when the shuttle bumped against the sides of the launch tube. (Y/N)’s hands were on autopilot as she flipped switches and slammed buttons and in no time, she succeeded in making the shuttle slide to a complete stop. Her chest heaved and she struggled to catch her breath as the others got up and gathered their weapons, a part of her in absolute disbelief that she’d succeeded in landing them safely inside the cruiser.

“Well, alor’ad, you finally convinced me,” Din remarked, watching as she got to her feet and drew her blaster. “Smugglers are better pilots than bounty hunters.”

That made (Y/N) smile. “I think you meant to say that smugglers are better at everything, not just piloting.”

“Don’t push your luck, mir’sheb,” He jokingly retorted, his gloved hand resting against the small of her back; the two of them made their way over to where the four women were preparing to lower the shuttle’s ramp. “Good luck.”

Cara flashed them both a brief smile. “You too.”

Once the ramp lowered, the four of them stormed out of the shuttle and began taking out the Stormtroopers that had surrounded them. Blaster fire and dying screams rang through the air while (Y/N) and Din waited to exit the shuttle, their free hands holding each other’s tightly until everything was silent once again; (Y/N) looked up at Din just as he turned towards her and gave him a firm nod. “Let’s go and get Grogu back.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading!

Mando'a Translations: Cuyir morut’yc, alor’ad-Be safe, captain Alor'ad-Captain Mir’sheb-Smart-ass Mesh’la-Beautiful Ner cyar’ika alor’ad-My darling captain

Chapter Twenty

Taking Care of Business Masterlist

Tagging: @remmysbounty​ @sinon36​ @seninjakitey​ @thatonedindjarinfan​ @ginger-swag-rapunzel​ @mostclevermiss @momc95​ @welcometothepedroverse​ @sarahjkl82-blog​ @zukoyonce​ @itsnottilly​

[capricornus-rex]

The Haunt of Redemption (7)

Sequel to: A Path I Can’t Follow

Chapter 7: What The Heart Beckons | Cal Kestis x Reader

Summary: It has been months since your last encounter with Cal, at that time he was a fledgling Inquisitor. In an ironic twist of fate, you cross paths and blades with him once again, and he’s keen on turning you into an Inquisitor as well—unless you bring him back to the light first.

Tags: Dark Side! Cal Kestis, Inquisitor! Cal Kestis, Redemption Arc! Cal Kestis

Also posted in AO3

Chapters: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 | Previous: Chapter 6 | Next: Chapter 8 | Masterlist

7 of ?

You apologize to Obi-Wan profusely for giving him this responsibility.

“Oh come now, there’s no need for apologies,” he smiled. “I believe there is a reason for all of this.”

“What is?”

“Everything happening right now, and I truly believe that there’s an endgame. Though, I can’t say for sure if it will benefit the good or the bad.”

“Well, the only way to find out is to see how it all plays until the very end. What I’m in is just another part of the game,”

“Indeed.”

He joined you outside his abode and taught you a shorter way to your ship, it was a path that leads you away from the places where the Tusken Raiders are more likely to be found.

“Just keep low by the rocks,” Obi-Wan added.

“Got it. Thank you, Master Kenobi,” you said as you slung your bag and headed downhill.

“Oh, and [y/n]?” his call stopped your in your tracks, you look back and find him smiling. “May the Force be with you.”

A load from your chest dissolved, your heart felt light after hearing those words.

“May the Force be with you, Master Kenobi.” You bid back and headed out this time for sure.

You were thankful that he gave you directions to a shortcut, which was significantly shorter in terms of travel time and easier to traverse on. There were no animals that you could tame and ride like the Varans; you could only see those large, brown beasts that move slower than a Slyyyg’s pace and gave up on searching possible mounts to make the trip faster.

Halfway in, you uncapped a bottle and brought its nozzle to your mouth—careful not to spill, you gulped every cold drop that frostbit the walls of your throat. You had to conserve the water while you’re still out in the open. Along the way, the tense heat has finally subsided—but it only meant that it’s getting dark soon. Gold and indigo colors mingled in the sky over the horizon, the twin suns changed from a harsh, blinding white-yellow light, it dimmed down to a soft orange hue.

“It’s beautiful, BD,” you sighed.

“Woooo!”

“Shame he’s not here to see it. He always liked sunsets. I wonder if he still does,”

The ridge where the Mantis sat by was close. Cere could see you from below, she’s sitting by the open entry ramp with Merrin and Greez waiting outside the ship. From where you stand, you slid down the slope of sand and jumped down at the end with the sand cushioning the impact of your landing.

“Gods, [y/n], what happened to you?!” Merrin exclaimed, the first thing she noticed was the purple patch on your face.

“I ran into some… locals. I don’t think they like visitors,” you blurted.

“I’ll go get some ice for that,” the Nightsister rushed into the ship and you could hear the clattering of the cabinet doors.

“Well, how did it go?” Cere asked.

“It went actually better than I hoped for. I’ll tell you on the way,” you shifted to Greez. “Can the ship make another jump?”

“Right, of course! Let me just fire the old girl up!” he dryly chuckled and then sprinkled in some extra grumbling as he waddled into the ship.

“He was more eccentric than I hoped,” you snickered as you and Cere entered the ship together.

You hopped right into your seat in the ship and typed another string of coordinates into the computer. From your periphery, you saw Greez peeking over your shoulder as a small image of the planet flashes on the screen.

“Where… are you taking us this time?”

“Alyon, it’s a remote planet. Tropical and temperate. You’d love it there, Greez!”

“Oh sure, I love overworking my sweat glands with severely humid tropical temperature!”

You shot him your smug face, “Punch it then.”

The Mantis appeared in the sky, Obi-Wan watched the ship fly away out of the atmosphere until it was nothing but a silver speck in the clouds. He gave out a resigned sigh, turned to the other side of Tatooine’s horizon, something about that small, white dome sitting in the middle of nowhere made him smile. He retreated into his cottage as the suns begin to sink.

Thankfully, Tatooine and Alyon are in the same system, although there was a stretch of distance between them; Greez said not to worry as the Mantis could cover the distance without overworking the lightspeed compressor.

Everyone won’t admit it, but they’re anxious once they’re in deep space. Greez was beginning to regret declining your offer in outfitting more powerful ion cannons on the Mantis, however, it’s doing well so far. The scanners weren’t picking up any blips, it was also negative on Cere’s side—she’s not picking up any Imperial signals.

“They can still calculate our last known trajectory, y’know,” Greez pointed out.

“Then it’s like looking back and forth on lines scribbled on paper: pointless.”

“I wish I had the same perspective, kiddo,”

You dismissed yourself to your bedroom and shed all over your outer clothes, exempting the tank top. You slouched on the bed and examined your once-messed up leg. BD-1 panned his scanners across your shin and beeped out his diagnosis.

“Really? That’s good to hear. I can’t fight our ginger Inquisitor with a screwed-up leg, right?”

“Wooo!” BD whistled in agreement.

It was another long trip, enough for Greez to keep the ship on auto-pilot while still travelling through hyperspace and whip up some snacks. You gave a hard pass. You decided to rest in your bedroom—suddenly, you weren’t so used to desert heat. You preferred the temperate kind all because of Cameegon.

While the others snack away with fruits and bread, you paid a visit on the workbench—particularly, Cal’s lightsaber. You shut your eyes and tried to recall everything, as if trying to recognize him by repeatedly playing all the memories in your mind: his dark-tinted hair, the stubble that tickled your cheeks and jaw, the way he spoke with his eyes, the trademark lightsaber of the Inquisitor and the fluid way he moved with it. Thankfully, the imprints on the saber remained the same—you’re still figuring out if there was a way to get rid of the negative feelings.

You passed the time tweaking and polishing both sabers. Every once in a while, you’d use his saber to practice dual-wielding—conjoined or otherwise. You’ve indulged so much in your pastime that you didn’t notice the silence.

Meanwhile, Cal has flown back into his command ship hours ago and is staying in his personal quarters after the garrison has been established. In the solitude of his bedroom, he allowed himself to lose control: his lightsaber flung across the bedroom, a clang vibrated across the stale metal walls, he swept away the glasses and pitchers littered on his island counter, the datapads and hologram pucks flew off from the table in a single swing of the arm.

From the outside, the patrolling guards stared at the door, listening for the muffled noises coming from Cal’s side. They traded slow, awkward glances at one another—the banging sounds made their shoulders jump with every impact, they’re somewhat anticipating for indistinct shouts and roars but none came.

“I think we should call the cleaning droid,” one Stormtrooper suggested.

“Yep. I’ll radio that now,”

Minutes later, a protocol droid comes knocking in and introducing itself while doing the work. The least the Eleventh Brother could do was be polite to it and not scare it off.

“My apologies for the mess,” he sighed.

“Oh, it’s not a bother, sir. I will have these broken items replaced immediately.”

“Thank you,”

The Eleventh Brother gave himself time to calm down in the presence of the droid—he liked his privacy too much for anybody or anything to see him be himself. The droid leaves after rearranging the things on the floor, though it avoided the lightsaber lying on the floor. When the blast door shut, the young Inquisitor brooded over everything in his mind: the thoughts before, during and after his encounter with you in the forest, his impression of you, and the feelings he’s repressed all this time.

The seething rage and anger—which he doesn’t know whom to direct it to—burned all over his body. It was so intense that it made him feel hot all over. He tugged at his collar, struggled to take slow breaths, and clear his mind. Those efforts proved to be futile. He propped himself against the edge of his holotable, staring blankly at the empty surface of the machine, and attempted to clear his mind once more.

A faint, soothing sensation entered his body out of the blue.

It was sudden yet gentle, like a quick jab that landed a careful impact. The sensation—its warmth—was familiar though he can’t point his finger on it. He couldn’t explain it.

The Eleventh Brother starts to seek it, surveying his bedroom to trace where that feeling was coming from—it was the Force that beckoned him, but it wasn’t the Dark Side, he knew it wasn’t.

He still hasn’t mastered how to revel in it the way he’s supposed to—the Grand Inquisitor saw that. The master also saw that his groomed fledgling is still clinging on to certain emotions.

“If you cannot bring yourself to let those feelings go, you will either grow weak or you will have to make yourself resourceful with it.” The lumbering Pau’an once lectured the boy some time ago in the middle of his training.

The voice of the Grand Inquisitor and his words on that lesson rang in his head, but it was short-lived. He kept his mind fixed onto that strange feeling that caught his attention. The idea of following it, finding it, sounded appealing to him—it was almost seductive. This spurred his curiosity and led him out of his bedroom. The young Inquisitor prowled through the hallways, ignoring everyone who bumped into him—the employees didn’t even greeted or nodded to him, they simply gave way.

It felt like the trail was growing colder, weaker, and he was inclined to think it was just the exhaustion getting to him.

Cal found himself in an empty corridor. Am I in a dead end? He pondered to himself.

“[y/n]…?”he dared to utter. He didn’t know why, he felt like saying it.

Oddly enough, you heard your name being called. You turned around and there was nothing. But the voice… You know that voice better than anyone. Just hearing it spiked your senses—especially seeing, hearing, and feeling.

The discovery made you drop everything you’re doing—you put down the rag and the lightsaber part you’re polishing to search for the voice that uttered your name. You didn’t respond and hoped it would speak again.

What’s this feeling I’m picking up? You wonder in the dead silence.

Cal turned his head the other way and saw you standing at the dead end, with your back turned to him.

“[y/n]?” he takes one cautious step close.

In Cal’s perspective, he can see you physically—it’s as if you’re standing in the corridor with him. You were moving naturally with the subtle head-tilts followed by the slight brushing of your ponytail against your back, the pivot of your arms and elbows, and the noticeable shine of the lightsaber nestled in delicate grip of your fingers. He gulped a non-existent lump in his throat when your tank top partially revealed your upper back and the strap slid off from your shoulder.

When did she get here?

The echo of your name rung again behind you; this time you decide to do it slowly—first, angling your neck until you could glance over your shoulder. All of a sudden, you find Cal standing in front of you inside your bedroom in the Mantis!

When did he get here!?

Normally, you would’ve jumped or screamed and literally dropped everything to the floor. But it doesn’t make any sense to you. How did he get past? Why didn’t anybody from outside warn you about him?

“You see me, don’t you?” he spoke.

“And you see me?”

“As clear as day.”

You shake your head slightly, “I don’t understand…”

“What’s going on?”

You didn’t answer—rather, you couldn’t answer and you looked for an answer. It was crazy, but you took a step forward—and Cal sees your every move from his point of view too, he didn’t even realize his feet have dragged him one step forward, past the small bed.

“Where… where are you?” you asked.

“In my command ship,”

He guessed that you’re in the Mantis. Where else would you be?

His eyes trailed from bottom up. He spotted the bruise on your cheekbone, by impulse he stepped closer with his arm slightly reaching for you.

“What happened to you?”

“Huh?” you instantly realize that you forgot that you’ve been struck by a Tusken Raider. “It’s nothing. I… I bumped into a wall.”

An unamused chuckle huffed between his lips, “You, of all people? I doubt it.”

“Look, whatever it is you’re doing, stop it!”

“I’m not doing anything. This isn’t on me,”

From that reply, the confusion just spiraled deeper.

“Do you think the Force connected us?” he added.

“But how did it…?”

You trailed off. Thinking about it more just gave you migraine. An inch was the only thing that stood between the two of you. This was the only docile moment you’ve ever shared. Standing so close to him made your chest constrict, hot tears welled up and stung your eyes—you got a better look of Cal, without violently flinging lightsabers at one another. Past that dark façade, you hoped that he’s still the same boy you still love.

The young Inquisitor fondly gazes back at the girl—his girl—standing in front of him; although he isn’t entirely sure whether it’s all real or just an illusion, nonetheless, it was something he didn’t know he needed.

Another step closer to you. He can almost feel the warm air around the Mantis and hear the machine hum.

“It’s still you,” you gasped.

“What do you mean?”

“I still see the real you. I still feel the good in you,”

He wanted to prove you wrong. But what good will his words do? Will telling you that he’s not the same person shake your resolve? No, even when you’re far apart from one another—he still knows you all too well.

You slowly hoist your hand, you watch Cal mirror you, and like magnets your fingers gravitated towards each other. The inches diminish every second.

To feel each other once more…

It felt like a sin. The thought of it. The act of it.

“Kid, get in here!”

Greez’s abrupt call through the speakers in the room startled you and faltered your focus altogether; in the next second you blinked, Cal was gone. You were all alone again in the quarters. You shrugged it off and decided that it was wise to keep it to yourself; you hurried to the cockpit and co-piloted from your seat.

As for Cal, he wasn’t sure what went wrong. His fingertips were so close to yours, in the blink of an eye, he found himself alone in that corridor. A lieutenant patrolling the area spotted the Eleventh Brother standing in the middle of the way, looking left and right for something.

“Sir, is there something wrong?” the officer initiated.

“Nothing, I just… took a wrong turn,”

Cal marched past the lieutenant and headed back to his chambers. Questions piled up in his head, followed by theories and assumptions that do more harm than good—it just made him overthink, and overthink he did when he shut the door behind him and rummaged through his small shelf of texts from the Jedi Temple ruins in Coruscant as well as manuscripts that the Grand Inquisitor loaned.

Crusty parchments rustled between his fingers as he flipped the page, every once in a while, his finger would run down the pages to find a keyword or a drawn figure—anything goes. Reporting this to the Grand Inquisitor treaded in a gray line between “do it” and “do not do it” for Cal. Regardless, he’s found another thing to while away: sticking his nose into the books for the sake of figuring out the answer to how and why the Force connected the two of you together.

[afterspark-podcast]

Let’s Play Transformers War for Cybertron, Chapter 4 Transcript

Episode

[This can also be found on AO3!]

[Intro Music]

O: Welcome back to our Let's Play of 'War for Cybertron'!  We are on chapter 4: Death of  

O: Hope.  Um, as always I'll be playing Megatron, and I'm Owls.

S: I'm Specs.

C: I'm Chezni.

O: And here we go!

O: I'm back with my asshole- S: The Death of Hope-

O: [laughs] What? S: THE DEATH OF HOPE!

O: Yes. S: Ahhh!

[Steve Blum: Zeta Prime is conquered.  But the device Megatron] O: Is he now?

[Steve Blum: believed to be the Omega Key simply activated the key]

C: He got his heart ripped out. [Steve Blum: Omega Supreme.]

O: Tha- that's dead!  That's different than 'conquered'. [Steve Blum: Megatron quickly discovers he can use the device to track Omega Supreme.]

[Steve Blum: And races above the skies of Iacon in pursuit of his quarry.] S: Well, I mean 'conquered' can be a euphemism for many things.

C: [laughs] O: Many things!  That's why I was laughing at it.

[Megatron: Maintain this heading!  The device shows the Omega Key is directly ahead!]

O: Wow, everybody drives but Megatron. [Breakdown: I thought Zeta said it was gonna come to US!]

[Soundwave: We are being intercepted.] S: Yeah.

S: Oh, who were the other characters available in this?

O: Oh!  Same two.  It's gonna be Breakdown and Soundwave for the next two chapters.

[Breakdown: It's coming right at us!] S: Okay.

[Megatron: Stay your course! Breakdown: We're gonna dieeeeeeee!]

C & S: [laugh] C: Deja vu.

[Megatron: Turn around and-- where did it go?] O: [laughs]

[Breakdown: He's gone!  What is this guy? You think he knows about the Omega Key?]

S: Uh... O: Yes.

[Megatron: No Breakdown.  HE IS the Omega Key!] S: Considering he probably... yeah.

[Omega: Identity: Omega Supreme.  Enemy Status: TERMINATED.]

O: That seems a bit... ya know...

C: Presumptuous? [Breakdown: What are we gonna do NOW Megatron?]

O: Yes. [Megatron: Silence!]

S: Yeah, I mean why didn't you just... [Megatron: This merely modifies my plan.]

S: Omega, why didn't you just hammer it against the ground!?! [Megatron: If Omega Supreme IS the key...]

C: Or sit on it! [Megatron: then I shall FORCE him to open the planet's core.]

O: [laughs] Like, really make sure he was dead, SUPER dead.

O: Also sorry, I had to- um, I had to close some things on my computer because they

O: were making noise at me.  So there's like a beep from Google Hangouts in there somewhere.  

O: ALSO why does Megatron keep waking up in a wrecked ship!?

O: [laughs] This is the second time! C: Yeah he really-

S: It's his equivalent of going on a bar crawl. [Soundwave: Megatron-- there is a Decepticon dropship]

C & O: [laugh] [Soundwave: across the bridge.  They appear to be scanning for survivors.]

[Starscream (COM): Come in Megatron!  This is Starscream, do you read me?]

[Megatron: Starscream!  I am 7 clicks north of your position!]

[Starscream: Megatron!] O: The fuck's a click?

[Starscream: I watched you crash and burn...] S: Oh god, another...

[Megatron: Enough!  Meet us at the bridge!] S: I'm assum-

S: [sighs] I don't know it could either be a distance  of measurement or a time measurement.

C: Well, a click is a shorthand for an 'astro click'-

O: UGH! C: -a uh, distant cousin of the 'astro second.'

O: Nooooooooo... [laughs] NO!

S: I don't like that they're just you know like, plexi- O: Astro-units!?! [laughs]

S: Well, I was going to say like, plexiglas panels that are part of the walkway.

C: It is a bit concerning. [Omega: Identification: Decepticons.  Action: Terminate.]

[Decepticon Grunt: Fall back!  Fall back and take cover!]

C: Omega Supreme is pretty.

[Decepticon Grunt: Help us!  Megatron!] O: Autobot scum.

C: He has big like, beam wings- what would you call those? [Soundwave: Our weapons are ineffective.]

[Breakdown: We can't fight this thing!  We've gotta get out of here!] S: [laughs] Well, I,

S: they're part of like, tracks in his-in G1. [Megatron: Stand your ground, Decepticons!  Destroy the bridge supports!]

C: Tracks? Oh!  The- the course, right

C: because you could race little cars around him. [laughs]

S: Yeah. O: [laughs and says something unintelligible]

C: Quiet you! [laughs] S: But if you did, I'm not terribly familiar with his toy.

O: Well, neither is Chezni.  Big boy fall down.

S: And this is why you don't have battles on bridges in the middle of- C: Ha!

[Breakdown: That did it, all right -- but there goes your Omega Key!] C: Yeah!

[Megatron: We can salvage the wreckage for what we need.]

[Omega: Target: Acquired.]

C: This has been uh, advice from Specs. [Omega: Mission: Destroy.]

C: Don't have epic battles on bridges if you don't wanna to fall down. [Megatron: Fall back.  Inside.  Quickly!]

O: Well, it- it's also that um, they forgot [the] he could fly thing. S: Yeah.

[Breakdown: We must return to the door!] O: Again, you know?

S: Yeah. [Breakdown: It's no use, Megatron!  The door's locked!]

[Soundwave: Suggestion: Use Dark Energon to open the door.]

O: [laughs] Soundwave's like, "UH, the obvious, please?" [Megatron: An excellent idea, Soundwave.]

C: [laughs]

O: Because Soundwave is the best!

S: Because somehow, Dark Energon is your lock-picking tool of choice.

S: It's such a... such a useful, uh... space crack.

O: Space crack doesn't just make you FEEL like you can do anything [Breakdown: Now what?  How are we gonna beat this guy, Megatron?]

O: it lets you do anything! [Soundwave: During our approach to this sector,]

[Soundwave: my scanners detected ion cannons near the top of the chasm wall.] C: If it was a DND ability it would be like-

C: pick a door as if a thief, only use your strength stat instead of dexterity. [Megatron: I see... We will lure Omega Supreme up there,]

O: Yeah!  Yeah!

[Megatron: and use the Autobot guns against him!] S: [laughs]

S: [laughs] That's funny. O: Very, very accurate!

O: And I mean, does that not fit Megatron in a nutshell?  I mean, let's be honest. [Breakdown: I don't like it.  It's too quiet.]

[Breakdown: Why the cease-fire?] S: Yeah, that's pretty 'Megatron'.

O: He- he doesn't know what picking a lock is, he just breaks the damn door down.

S: He takes it off- Well, yeah, Soundwave would either pick it or take it off its hinges.

O: I like that. S: Um, Megatron would just demolish it.

O: I-I like that- C: Breakdown [Knockout] would whine about not being able to open it until somebody blew it open for him.

O: Or he would like, try to out sex the door. C: [laughs]

S: [laughing] Out sex the door!

O: "Hey good looking, do you want to open up for me?"  It would be something like that alright?

S: That's a bard move. C: [laughs]

O: Okay, I know he's a healer, but I'm just saying- I don't think he should be a cleric!

C: Wai- wai- wait, so Breakdown's [Knockout's] a bard,

C: Megatron is the player who's playing a fighter or a barbarian but has strong-armed the DM by threatening him several times

C: into using multiple home brew abilities that let Megatron's character do whatever he wants when he wants to.

S: [laughs] O: Yes!  Yes!  You know, essentially how I play DND.

C: [laughs]

O: Am I wrong?

[Soundwave: Megatron, I am receiving a Decepticon transmission.] C: Soundwave is the one who's actually read all the rules and

O: Yes.

C: has min-maxed his character to be extremely specialized  [Starscream (COM): To all Decepticons who fight for the glory of Cybertron!]

C: and no one appreciates it.

O: No one! No one!  Like, the man has somehow wrangled out a summoner class- [Starscream: Megatron has fallen!  I Starscream, have taken my rightful]

[Starscream: place as your leader!] O: um, in like this, you know,

O: really basic rule set. [Megatron: Starscream, you halfwit!]

O: it makes total sense- [Megatron: I still function...]

O: everything is on the up and up. C: Yeah! [Megatron: a fact that you shall regret,]

O: But no. No one has uh, no one has done this, but him. [Megatron: when I choke the life out of you!  Now -- ]

[Megatron: I order you to deploy ships for immediate evacuation!] C: [laughs]

C: And like the the game- the game was never even intended to support a- [Soundwave: Starscream cannot hear you, Megatron.]

C: summoner class but he's made it work. [Soundwave: All communication to the surface]

O: Yeah!  Yeah! [Soundwave: has been jammed.]

O: Because he is fucking Soundwave and Soundwave does what he wants, [Megatron: Grrr!  Let's head for that lift, before that idiot]

O: but he does it legally! [Megatron: Starscream causes irreparable harm.]

S: I'm afraid that sort of um- O: I love that- Oh!  Go ahead.

S: Sorry, I'm afraid that sort of reminds me of when I did the summoner dog. C: Oh, yeah.

[Breakdown: Uh- oh... Here he comes!]

C: Uh, for the audience: Specs played a dog at one point. [Megatron: Keep moving, Decepticons!  We need to reach that lift!]

O: A talking dog. [laughs]

S: Whose name was- well... his name wasn't Rainbow

S: but he was an amnesiac and that's kind of what everyone called him, [Soundwave: This lift will provide passage to the surface when activated.]

S: despite him being a black dog.

C: Ah, so many elevators. [Breakdown: What's wrong with this thing?]

[Breakdown: Why can't we get it to move?] S: They just love elevators.

[Soundwave: The elevator is locked down.]

[Megatron: A simple solution, then.  Break the locks!]

C: [laughs] He does!  He just breaks everything! O: Yeah, he's like, "I'm not gonna wait!"

[Megatron: Starscream -- come in.  This is Megatron.]

O: [laughs] [Soundwave: There is too much interference.]

[Soundwave: We must move higher to relay your signal.] O: "No, I'm fairly certain

O: he's just ignoring me, Soundwave." [laughs] [Megatron: Can this feeble Autobot mechanism]

[Megatron: not move any faster?!?] C & O: [laughs]

[Megatron: It appears we've lost that dull-witted brute, Omega Supreme.] C: "Too much interference?  Break the interference!"

[Megatron: Not that he stood a chance against my intellect.] O: "Uh, sir... that- that

O: would be the ceiling we need that." [Breakdown: Uh, Megatron...]

S: [laughs] [Megatron: What?  WHAT?]

C: "The laws of physics won't allow it!"  "Break the laws of physics!" [Omega: Target: re-acquired.  Weapons: engaging.]

O: "Sir, that's not how any of this works." [Breakdown: Wow...he looks REALLY angry.]

O: Why am I getting Bayonetta vibes? [laughs] C: Yeah, that looks scary.

S: Yeah! C: What the heck is going on?  Omega Supreme-

O: Uh, Omega Supreme is like, "I'm going to blow up everything." [Omega: Target identification:]

[Omega: Megatron, Decepticon leader.] C: Can he not aim!?!  Does he-

O: Apparently not! [Omega: Recommendation:]

C: What if he just pointed a little lower!? [Omega: complete termination.]

S: He may not be able to tell who they- or that [Megatron: You think you can destroy me, Omega Supreme?]

S: that's them. O: HA!  Megs is pissed!

[Megatron: You think you can destroy MEGATRON?  ...Do your worst!]

S: Or possibly he's just starting at the top and working his way down. C: Yeah, I think you're right.

C: Also, can we give props to Megatron for basically

C: laughing at the face of death in that laser? [Breakdown: We're still alive?  We're still alive!!]

[Breakdown: ...What happened?] O: Right, yeah like, I mean-

O: just like- "Oh, you think you can FUCKING kill me do you!?! [Megatron: Open fire on the emergency locks!  Destroy them!]

O: DO YOU!?!"  I'm like, that's- that's amazing. C: "You think that laser intimidates me?"

[Breakdown: Megatron -- all due respect, but are you CRAZY?] O: "That laser that's bigger than my entire body is tall!?"

[Breakdown: If we go out there, he'll melt us into scrap! Megatron: Would you rather face his wrath, or mine?  Now jump!]

O: [laughs] Sorry, I love how angry he is, about all of this.  This is a huge inconvenience to him and he hates it.  Also, where am I supposed to be going?

O: I have a feeling I went the wrong way. S: I think you turned around.

C: Oh, you're not supposed to go down? S: Well, maybe you are.

S: Oh.  That looks... mmm. C: Explodable. [laughs]

[Megatron: Move faster, Decepticons!]

O: Megs, wanna tell me- can you give me a little bit more direction there?

S: You do appear to need to go down. O: Hello-

O: We need to go down in a this-a-way direction, apparently.

C: As the heavy metal rock music plays.  O: It's his theme, alright?

C: Oh, Owls is using the game's worst weapon! O: Shut up, I don't have a lot of options.

C: Specs, you managed to make some use of the shotgun.

S: Maybe.  Umm, prob- mostly by luck?  It looks like there's some ammo? C: [laughs]

O: Yes, I'm loading my guns, so I get more ammo from them. S: Okie-dokie.

O: It won't load the clip you're using, essentially. C: Video game logic.

S: Ah.

[Decepticon Grunt 2 Weeks Away From Retirement: Megatron -- you're still functional!  Thank Primus we found you!]

O: Welp, they're going to die.  There we go. S: How did they get so far?

[Decepticon Grunt 2 Weeks Away From Retirement: AAAAAAA!!!] O: I'm-

[Omega: Decepticons: Located.] O: I-

C: Did... Omega Supreme just eat them with his hand? [Breakdown: He's trying to grab us!]

O: Uh... yeah.  Yeah. S: Yeah.

[Megatron: Stop whining and start shooting, Breakdown!]

C: Oh!

O: I think my question is- he's blowing up so much stuff  [Breakdown: Omega Supreme's right on our tails!]

O: that I'm like, how is he gonna know [Breakdown: There's got to be some way to shake him!]

 O: when he kills Megatron, anyway!? [laughs] [Megatron: Move back inside!  Perhaps we can avoid Omega's]

C: Yeah, maybe that's why he didn't aim when you were on the elevator. [Megatron: tracking systems.]

O: Yeah... maybe. [Soundwave: Fortified Autobot position located]

C: He just didn't know. [Soundwave: straight ahead.]

[Soundwave: Jamming Autobot scanners now.]

O: Ugh, all of my options are terrible! [Soundwave: Our approach should be undetected.]

O: I- I just want my sniper rifle back guys, I just- I just need my sniper rifle. C: [laughs]

O: I don't know what to do with myself without it. [Megatron: They must be coordinating with Omega Supreme,]

O: I don't remember what this is, but I guess I'll try it... [Megatron: trying to locate us.  Well, we'll give them what]

S: It's a mini gun, so it's prob- more like a gatling gun I think? [Megatron: they want... along with a painful death!]

O: Ah.

O: I love that Soundwave is like, motioning me forward.

O: I don't know why, it makes me laugh. [Megatron: Megatron has arrived!]

[Autobot Grunt 1: What's going on!?! Autobot Grunt 2: Someone's breaking in!]

[Autobot Grunt 2: Assume defensive positions!]

C: Ah, here we go- a true fire fight!

O: It's very much the spray and pray sort of... thing.

C: So it's a Specs' gun.

S: Ehhhhhhhhh....

C: [laughs]

S: ...yeah, I guess.

C: Hey, there's nothing wrong with spray and pray!

S: Yes, but the problem is I'm just- I am not good at first- I'm not good at shooting games.

[Breakdown: Now you're talkin'!  Weapons ready!]

C: Eh, it can take some practice.

[Autobot Grunt: Weapons overheating!] S: Yeah, I don't know and I just-

C: [incoherent] frustrating things.

S: Yeah, I don't play uh, honestly, games consistently enough... to get better at it- better at them so it's...

[Megatron: Excellent work, Soundwave now unlock the exit door.]

O: Hmph, what'd you say honey?  Soundwave still being the brains of the operation?

C: I mean, generally speaking he is.

C: In G1, uh, he certainly seemed to be the guy with all the plans. S: Yeah.

C: Although his- let's be real- Soundwave- early, early days

C: of Soundwave he needed to work on his operation names. [Breakdown: These guys don't know when to quit, do they?]

[Megatron: Smash through them!] O: [laughs] Yeah...

C: It was like- it was like, "Operation: Make a Tidal Wave." [laughs] O: Yeah.

C: "Operation-

O: -Destruction. C: "Open the Door".

S: "Operation: Ground Pound." C: Yeah! [laughs]

S: Though that may be a song name.

O: I don't think he ever actually did that one, but- but the problem is- that doesn't sound like one he *wouldn't* do?

C: Right. S: It sounds like something that Rumble and Frenzy would be involved in.

C: [laughs] O: Oh, DEFINITELY!  As they are with most bad plans.

S: Yeah. C: Like, I would never want him to use code words, or attempt to use code words

C: because it would be like he'd code- he'd code word things the way that Megamind code words things.

O & S: [laugh]

O: Yes!  He absolutely would. C: He'd be like, "Code: I'm going to go make coffee."

O: [laughs] Yeah!

S: "Code: Spy Mission." C: "Code: The Autobots will never suspect I'm sneaking up on them."

O: "The Autobots will never suspect I am in Ironhide's backseat."

C: [laughs]

O: You think I'm kidding. C: Well, to be fair though, they wouldn't!  Even if they heard him say it.

C: The Autobots, are completely inept. O: Dude, they- they saw him

O: and they didn't do anything!  I think that's the one that really kills me, is I'm like

O: that is clearly Soundwave!  And no one is doing anything about him being RIGHT THERE!

O: It hurts my brain, okay! S: Yeah...

C: Yeah, I think the episode you guys just uh, did that I edited- 33 Berserk or something?

O: Auto Berserk. C: I'm pretty sure Soundwave...

S: Yeah, that's the one where Soundwave was in um, the back of Ironhide's-

O: No it wasn't. S: No?

O: Uh, the one he just did, the one we released today was the one where it was the military guys because

O: they were trying- because the Cons were trying to uh, uh, steal that 'thing' the Autobots had come up with.

C: The Negaverse!

O: The Negavator or whatever. S: That is Auto Berserk.

O: Yes, but- but he's not in the backseat of Iron- he's not in Ironhide.  He's just outside and one of the military guys says, "Don't forget your tape deck."

S: Oh. O: Yeah.

C: [laughs] Oh right, that tape deck I never had. O: Yeah!  Yeah!

C: Specs, don't you also just walk around and be like, "Oh, that tape deck I never had."

O: Are- are there just... orphan tape decks must just be a problem in uh... [Soundwave: Megatron, the Autobot security systems are counter the effect of]

[Soundwave: Dark Energon.]

[Megatron: A futile gesture.] S: A very expen-

[Megatron: Decepticons!  Destroy the sentries!] O: In universe because like, he's- so many people take Soundwave home.

S: A very expensive problem.  They're obviously- obviously the reason people take him is because it's like,

S: "Ooh, fancy tape deck I don't have to buy something now for like fifty dollars." [Breakdown: Watch out!  Omega's mining the road ahead!]

O: Yeah. S: Or more.

O: Much more expensive at the time.

C: Yeah, that's a good point.  It'd be kind of more like finding a laptop- a laptop or a cell phone these days.

C & O: Yeah. S: Cuz-

O: Bigger than that.  I think like, 128 or something.  Something fairly large.

S: Yeah, I mean, he's basically engaging in passive social engineering. [Breakdown: HahaHAA!  Did you see me back there?]

C: [laughs] Wait, what? [Breakdown: Omega couldn't touch me!]

S: When Soundwave is just hanging out as a tape deck [Soundwave: Megatron -- scanners indicate a bridge nearby.]

S: waiting for people to pick him up he's engaging in passive social engineering.  [Soundwave: Crossing there will give us access to a second elevator.]

S: Basically, it's his method of infiltration. [Breakdown: Another elevator?]

C: Okay. S: He does it in the comics.

O: A lot.

[Breakdown: I don't know... the last one didn't work out so well.] S: Like he literally- yeah.

[Megatron: Do not test me, Breakdown.  My patience is a critical low.] S: He hangs out in, um...

O: [laughs] I'm using that at some point, "My patience is at a critical low!" C & S: [laugh]

[Megatron: This will channel my rage!]

S: Soundwave hangs out in at least one parking lot and military contractors decide to pick him up,

S: take him into their secure military base, and then put him in uh, their locker. C: I got it.

S:  And then he transforms and basically goes ham on the military base.

C: Owls finally has her sniper gun. O: It's not the good one.  I want the Null Ray!

C: We can't all have the Null Ray.

[Breakdown: We're pinned down!] O: Yeah, and Starscream has clearly

O: taken his back and is now pretending he doesn't hear me. [laughs] [Megatron: Starscream, do you read me?]

S: [laughs] Yeah. [Starscream: Megatron?  You're alive?]

C: He sounds... disappointed. [Megatron: Spare me your theatrics!]

O: [laughs] [Megatron: I need immediate air support!  Attack Omega Supreme!]

O: "Spare me your theatrics!"

C: Ouch. [Omega: New targets: Acquired.]

C: Wait, Omega Supreme FLIES!? [Omega: Initiating: Pursuit.]

O: YES!  That's why knocking him off  S: Yeah.

O: the bridge was so wildly ineffective! [Megatron: There, Omega Supreme is distracted!]

C: Oh, right, right.

[Megatron: Attack the Autobots!] S: I mean, he basically turns into a spaceship.

C: Yeah!

S: Though don't ask me how he works because like, bits of him detach in G1.

S: And I'm not familiar enough with this um, version to uh... [Megatron: Target the repair sentries, or we'll never destroy these Autobots!]

C: Yeah.

O: Oh fuck. [laughs]

S: Oh. C: Oh no!

O: Well, something was shooting me.

O: Again the whole, 'I can't see my own health when I am uh- [Soundwave: Megatron -- scanners indicate a bridge nearby.]

C: Yeah. [Soundwave: Crossing there]

O: Yeah, not- not great. [Soundwave: will give us access to a second elevator.]

O: Are you a Null Ray now?  No?  No.  I can dream. [Breakdown: Another elevator?  I don't know... the last one didn't work out so well.]

[Megatron: Do not test me, Breakdown.  My patience is at a critical low.]

C: That- S: Your patience is always at a critical low, Megatron.

C: [laughs] O: Okay, but also

O: Starscream is ignoring him and they're being chased by something the size of a size- a skyscraper for THEM.

C: Oh yeah, that's a good point  O: Okay, maybe not a skyscraper, but HUGE all right, he's huge!

S: Yeah. [Breakdown: We're pinned down!]

C: So if it's the size of a skyscraper for them, what would that be like for us? [Megatron: Starscream, do you read me?]

S: Umm... O: Oh god, so big.

C: Like, a mountain?

S: Mmm, maybe... I don't know. C: It's hard to put into perspective in your mind.

S: Five or six empire state buildings stacked on top of each other? C & O: [laugh]

O: Wow that is- C: What's bigger than a skyscraper?  Five skyscrapers!

A: [laugh] S: I don't know.  What's the tallest building in the world?  Let's go with like, five of that.

C: [laughs]

C: I- I don't actually know what the tallest building the world is.

C: Is it- is the Eiffel tower- O: I think- is it in Dubai?

O: I want to say it's in Dubai. S: Yeah, I think there's one- I think it's in Dubai, but I don't know what it called.

C: Gotcha. O: Are all the heal things dead now!?

S: Oh, I don't really see anything uh, hitting him that could heal him.

C: Wow, those guys are just uh, bullet sponges. S: Yeah.

C: Wait!  What?  You have something with a scope that's automatic? S: Oh, I guess that is-

O: Yeah, I don't like this one very well.  It's my least favorite scoped weapon.

C: I'm sorry Specs wha- uh what were you saying?

S: Yeah, it did look like there was a healing thing. [Megatron: [laughs manically] For glory!]

O: This is I think, Bumblebee's default weapon? C: So what is that, like an assault rifle?

S: Oh. C: Oh, it's Bumblebee's default?

O: Yeah, one of his, that's why I end up using Bumblebee in the Autobot campaign. C: Gotcha.

O: Because I don't like this one, but it's better than a lot of the other defaults. C: It's better than nothing.

O: Yeah, it's better than no scope. C: Ha!  No scope!

C: Sorry, uh... you know the whole nose- no scope 360? O: Oh my god, you stupid Autobot!

C: Oh great, he's taunting you. S: He's just dancing.

O: [laughs] I'm just like, he is just is constantly going back and forth- the frick!?!

S: Oh, it's crotch shot time. O: Aim for the crotch!  Aim for the crotch!

C: [laughs] I love it because this whole fight started out with you unloading like, the- an entire clip of a minigun into him.

C: And then you were like, "Okay, all these other guys are more important," and he's just been down there like, "Umm... what do I do?"

S: The thing is, that's not a Omega Supreme.  That's one of the people that he deployed.

C: Yeah.

C: It's just a... a bigger guy but not as big as Supreme. S: Yeah.

S: Like, I think in

S: Cyberverse that might be what Astrotrain's size is supposed to be, but I'm not sure O: Damn.

S: because I haven't gotten to that point yet.  C: I love the name 'Astrotrain,' I don't even know why. 

S: He's a train that's also a spaceship what's not to love? C: Yeah!

O: I just find it funny that you're like, all of your favorite ones are bugs. C: Oh yeah, no, Astrotrain's got nothing on the Insecticons.

O: Or Inferno? C: Oh, and none of the other Insecticons have anything on Inferno.

C: Inferno is the- is the cream of the crop.

O: Great, I'm like, completely out of ammo.

C: "Pain is my friend!"  He's the best.

S: Well, that guy's down. C: Oh wow.

O: Well, I think Soundwave or Breakdown did me a solid.

O: ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?! C: [laughs]

O: [laughs] Okay, I don't care.  I don't care.  I really don't care.  I'm just happy I've got my Null Ray back.

C: "Oh hey, did you know there's a Null Ray over there?"

S: [laughs] O: Yeah, you know what?  Knockout- not Knockout- goddammit.

O: Breakdown saw it, didn't say a damn word.  Because it didn't register it being important because he- he's kind of a dumbass here, not gonna lie.

S: Well, I think most of the Stunticons are generally considered to be not uh...

S: Not the brightest. O: I've got Null Rays for days, guys.  That one's also a Null Ray! [laughs]

C: Oh my goodness. S: Nice.

O: [laughs] I'm just glad I got 'em.  It's- it's really funny

C: Yeah, Breakdown kind of comes off as the [Megatron: I shall lead the way!]

C: whiny little brother who is gonna talk like they

C: can do everything without your help and then the moment they run into the most minimal of

C: obstacles they whine and cry because they can't get through it until you help them.

[Megatron: Bow in the presence of Megatron!]

O: Seriously, there was a 5x scope but no, I had to pick up that other one.

O: Okay guys, where are you?

[Autobot Grunt: Decepticons, ahead!] S: Over there, I guess.

S: Oh.

C: What do we call those ones? O: I don't know.

C: Halo boys?  Uh... bishop boys? O: Maybe, maybe,

O: I'm gonna need something to call them in the transcript that works as well as anything else.

[Megatron: Move quickly!  The bridge terminal is just ahead!] C: They have little like, rings over their head.

O: Yeah- S: For some reason...

S: Yeah, I don't know they kind of remind me of Brawn [Breakdown: There's Omega again!]

S: a little bit but I don't have a good reason for that. [Breakdown: He's getting ahead of us!]

O: It's the kind of bulky shoulders, maybe?

[Breakdown: Omega found us again!  We can't go that way... what do we do now?!?] C: I feel like this walkway would just be a nice place to casually still stroll through

C: during a non-war scenario. [Soundwave: Mapping alternate route now.]

S: Yeah. [Megatron: Let's get off this road and out of the open.]

[Megatron: We will find another way!] C: The glass window was nice.

S: I mean, honestly, we never see anything that even looks- [Breakdown: A dead end!  Megatron, we're trapped!]

[Megatron: Soundwave!  You led us to this place.  What is your explanation?] S: I mean, I know this is probably supposed to be a military facility

[Soundwave: Scans reveal poor structural integrity]

C: But we never see anything like a- a storage room [Soundwave: surrounding this maintenance access door.]

C: or a- or a break area or something like that. [Soundwave: Megatron -- these are Iacon power maintenance tunnels.]

S: Yeah.  Storage room, break areas um, um, barracks? [Soundwave:  Moving through them will lead to the bridge terminal.]

O: A normal office?  You- you know that- that people have to be office workers here or something. 

S: Yeah, or even like a commissary.  Well, I mean I guess technically that would be the

S: energon or like a med bay or even any place to- where you'd go and like... 

S: get entertainment. C & O: Yeah.

S: Or refreshments or- C: Or you know-

S: There's still going to be some sort of store, effectively.  At least I'd assume so. C: Wha- what is it called?  An energon bed?

S: Uh... C: [laughs]

O: I don't think the beds actually have names, you know? C: The- the nap in a bottle?

S: Recharge slab? O: Yeah!  Those.  I'm just dumb don't listen to me.

C: Recharge slab?  Sounds terrifying.

S: I don't know, there's a bunch of different- O: "YOU MUST RECHARGE IN YOUR SLAB!"

S: Uh, berth?  I could never- there's a bunch of different names.  I don't actually remember what the...

S: I think they're circuit slabs in IDW. O: Oh.

S: IDW 1, um...

O: Yeah, you know cause there's two,

O: you know, just to make that more confusing for people. [Breakdown: Oh no, you're not messing up this face!]

C: [laughs] For the non-initiated like myself.

[Autobot Grunt: Nooooooo!]

O: Pft, I'm sorry that is still the dumbest death noise! C: That was like an action movie shot  

C: too.  You like, shot him and he flew off into the lava... or well, the edge or whatever. O: HA!

S: I mean honestly- O: Sorry-

O: it wasn't red so he wasn't sure he could hit him.  So it always brings me great joy when I can hit them. [laughs]

S: Mm.

S: Like, if one of these areas was...

S: like, if you were getting something from something- er, place that was you know, like

S: not a military facility but was more of a public area?  Like, you never se- I don't- for some reason I just  

S: anticipate seeing something that would be more like a shopping area or something and  

S: I don't think they do that. O: Yeah.

C: Yeah. O: Well and like, I guess the the most like,

O: room that didn't seem war oriented that we've seen yet has really been the room with all the moons in the last chapter?

C: Oh, yeah. S: Yeah.

C: I mean... I don't have a perfect recollection of it but didn't-

C: didn't number two [Fall of Cybertron] change up the locales a little bit? [Breakdown: Look out!  Sentries above us!]

O: A little bit.  Like, you're in this like- you're in some ancient  

O: ruins and a few other things.  Which is pretty neat! C: Yeah, cuz I think- didn't you go to a museum at some point?

O: Ah, it wasn't a museum but I know where you're talking about S: Uh-

O: and why you thought it was a museum. [Soundwave: Caution:]

[Soundwave: any contact with the energy beams will cause severe] C: "You belong in a museum!"

[Soundwave: systems damage. Autobot Grunt: [screams]]

C: Oh geez!  That guy got vaporized! [Breakdown: You want us to go through that power conduit?]

[Breakdown: No way!  The Energon flow is off the charts we'll be fried! Megatron: Get moving, Breakdown!]

C: [laughs] O: I- I'm good with waiting until like, after it goes again.

O: I mean, like, I know what I just said but I'm not a complete idiot .

O: Because I'm pretty sure it goes every couple of minutes, yeah.  Or- er, seconds, whatever.

C: Well, actually that was a couple astro-minutes! O: Oh no- no, no, no.

S: [laughs] C: Depending on the fact-

O: No-no-no-no-no. [laughs] C: [laughs]

S: Okay, time to jet! C: Oh, that is not good!

C: Three, two one- [laughs] O: Oh, come on, move!

O: Not what I meant to do!

C: I'm not entirely convinced that your allies made it through. S: Yeah... yeah.

O: Oh god- stop shooting at me! C: Oh no!

O: There we go!

O: Oh thank you sweet health. S: I kinda want cake.

O: Cake? C: [laughs] You're in the middle of a Cybertronian war and

C: the first thing you think of is cake. S: [laughs]

C: Or not the first thing but... [Breakdown: Move out of the tube or you'll get fried!]

C: Oh no! O: SHIT!!!  I messed up!  I have made a mistake. [laughs]

C: Oh, I thought you're gonna live. O: I thought I just watched it go!  I think this one you have to let it  

O: go twice though or something.  Oh, Soundwave you're beautiful if- if I had a kiss button I would use it.

S: [laughs] O: [laughs] Mwah!

S: Press 'G'- uh, press 'K' for kiss?

O: That sounds like a Tina... a Tina thing. (From Bob's Burgers.)

S: Press- press- C: Press uh, press 'B' to show platontic affection.

O: Oh, that's why, it's right here, sorry. S: Press 'F' to pay respects.

C & S: [laugh]

O: I think it's more like, you know, press 'A' to- to tell Soundwave he's the best subordinate ever.

C: That's- that's an Owls mod that's-

O: Yeah, it definitely is. C: That's only a feature of the game after Owls modes the game.

O: Yeah... What- what am I doing?  Where's the button.  There's the button!

C: Specs, wasn't here to push the button. O: Yeah, yeah I'm not used to it, alright?

O: Oh no!

[Soundwave: Tube temperature will soon be fatal.] C: Wow, they really make you move fast.

O:  Ahahaha!  I did it!  Like, it was you know, *so amazing.* [Soundwave: The bridge is just ahead.  It may be necessary to extend the tube by]

[Soundwave: accessing the bridge controls.]

[Breakdown: I don't like it, Megatron.  It's too quiet.] O: Thank you, Soundwave.  Shut up Knockout [Breakdown].

[Megatron: And yet still preferable to your incessant chatter.] O: [laughs]

[Megatron: Now get to those controls!] C: Yikes!

O: He didn't say that to Soundwave, he just said it to Breakdown.  And I called him

O: Knockout again, I'm sorry.  You know who I mean. [Breakdown: Did you see that?  Those Autobots were CLOAKED!]

O: Oh, that's why I can't see them.

C: That's the invisible ones, huh?  I really did not like fighting these guys.

O: Me neither.

O: There always- there always feels like there's SO many of them!

S: Yeah, and I mean, oft- there have to be barracks or something considering how many...

S: Just how many Autobots there are. O: Yeah.

C: You'd think. O: Something.

O: Okay, is there health over here?  Because I'm needing it!

C: Oh wow. O: Thank you!

C: Kind of amazed you lived through that. O: Me too!

[Megatron: My rule is destruction!]

C: So, I've been trying to keep an eye out for it while Owls has been playing but  

C: Specs, have you seen any of the uh, Autobot symbols? O: Oh, I shot one earlier! [laughs]

C: Oh, did I miss it? S: Yeah, there was one a- a few minutes ago.

C: Dwah! S: Then there's one there.

O: Oh!  Well, that's not the one you shoot. S: Ah.

O: Or are you talking about something else?

S: Sorry, I was thinking about the doors.  Oh, EMP mine. C: Reboot!  404 blue screen.

O: [laughs]

O: The uh, image of an Autobot bluescreening is really funny to me right now.

S: Well... you know Swindle would blue screen if someone suggested you give them something for free unless  

S: it was Megatron in which case, Swindle would have- O: "Yes, sir!  Please take it, please take it, sir.  I don't need it anyway!"

S: "I got it for you, sir!  As a present!" O: Something like that.

C: The only thing that Swindle would give someone for free is an IOU. S: [laughs]

[Megatron: Activate the bridge!] S: Yeah.

O: Only after we find ammo ya dumbshit! C: [laughs]

O: This is how I would actually die, is calling Megatron a dumbshit. [laughs]

O: Okay, you're still not ammo.  But maybe if you're something you'll give me some ammo?  No, I'm good.

C: Love that name 'Scrapmaker.' O: Yeah, it's a pretty- it's pretty good name because  

O: it's like the Cybertronian equivalent of the 'Widowmaker'.

S: Yeah.... C: Right.

S: Or corpse maker. O: Yeah.

C: Oh, Megatron is uh- O: What do they have to do?  Like, reach into your brain to activate that, or what?

C & O: [laugh]

S: You might have to like, do an uplink to it, I don't know. [Soundwave: The bridge is extended.]

[Soundwave: We now have access to the other side.] C: Oh, I guess that makes sense.

[Megatron: Finally.]

[Megatron: Decepticons -- move quickly.] S: They're robots.

C: Yeah. [Megatron: We must reach those guns!]

C: Maybe it'd be the equivalent of like, a- well, no it wouldn't be quite the equivalent of a retina scan because retina scan is biotic to machine.

C: We don't really do anything that's biotic to biotic.

[Breakdown: At least get me out of the blast range!]

[Breakdown: There's Omega Supreme!  Watch out... Megatron: Faster, Decepticons!]

O: You're the slowest one here, buddy. C: [laughs]

O: I'm sorry but ya are!

[Breakdown: Heads up!  More mines!] C: Who keeps putting these things in here?

S: The Autobots?

[Breakdown: Is Omega still out there?  Did we lose him?] O: How- how do you think they control speed?

O: Like, these are speed traps, baby! C: [laughs]

S: They're kind of shitty speed traps.

[Breakdown: Guess not.] O: Well, I mean, you would pay attention to the speed limit.  If you didn't would explode.

C: [laughs] S: Okay, that's not so much a shitty one.

C: I mean that's a good point I'd have to imagine that people would [Breakdown:  We're not going to make it!]

C: be more willing to follow the speed limit if the other result was DEATH. [Megatron: You WILL reach the other side, or I'll have your head!]

C: I think Owls thinks the objective is to run into as many of them as she can. O: "We will reach the other side or I will kill you!"

O: I don't remember if this was the right thing to do! [laughs] C: Oh god.

S: Looked like, yes! O: Apparently, it was.

C: When in doubt.

O: When in doubt, just keep fucking going! [Breakdown: We made it!  I can't believe it!  WE MADE IT!]

C: [laughs] [Megatron: Yes, Breakdown

[Megatron: your constant whining saw us through.] C: Who do you have a picture up on your wall?

C: Right next to you.  Right now.

[Soundwave: Megatron -- the second cargo elevator is nearby.] C: Of- of the the robot that says, "Just get it done!"

[Soundwave: It will take us directly to the heavy ion turrets.] O: [laughs] It doesn't say, "Just get it-"

S: Ultra Magnus? O: Yeah

O: I've got a picture of Ultra Magnus and Minimus. [Megatron: Perfect.  We shall ascend, and Omega Supreme will follow...

[Megatron: to his destruction.] C: It- it sounds like, it's that- in line with that.

C: When in doubt, get it fucking done! O: [laughs] I mean...

O: Kind of... maybe?

[Autobots: [Growling noises]]

O: Is this more invisible fuckers? [Megatron: More cloaked Autobots!]

O: GOD DAMN IT. [Megatron: Destroy them!]

S: Yeah... [Megatron: Shoot anything that moves!]

C: [laughs]

O: Yeah, I could be done with these!  You guys can take care of them, I don't care anymore!

O: And I'm legitimately curious what's over here but...

[Soundwave: Autobot cloakers.]

S: Unfortunately, there is no cake.

[Megatron: All Autobots shall perish!]

C: Oh no, no cake.

O: "Megatron wants MEGA CAKE!" S: [laughs]

C: You know for being invisible they aren't terribly crafty. S: Mmm.

O: Yeah, I know, right?  Like, you would probably want to utilize different strategy than this.

C: "We're invisible!  Let's charge right at them!"

C: They were just putting on a concert!  That's the stage! O: No, no

C: Didn't you see that one dancing? O: it's a service elevator.

C: Wow that one died really quickly.

[Megatron: Autobot weaklings.  Onward, to the lift!] O: I hit it with the- I hit it with a mace.

O: I'm good.

O: So many elevators!

O: Why are there so many elevators!? C: Well, like Specs said-

C: Like Specs said, gotta reuse those assets!

O: [laughs] S: Yeah...

[Soundwave: Megatron -- I detect numerous Decepticon and Autobot signals a few dozen meters above us.]

[Soundwave: We are nearing the surface battle.]

[Megatron: Starscream!  Status report!] S: A few dozen meters...

[Starscream (COM): The Autobots are counter-attacking!]

[Starscream (COM): Retreat!  Decepticons, retreat!] S: And how tall are they?  How many meters tall are they?

C: [laughs] [Megatron: BELAY THAT ORDER!]

O: They're space meters, Specs. [Megatron: Decepticons, this is MEGATRON!]

C: [laughs] [Megatron: Anyone caught fleeing this battle will be]

S: Space meters! [Megatron: marked on sight!]

C & O: [laugh] [Megatron: Press your attack IMMEDIATELY!]

O: Goddamit, Megatron! [Starscream (COM): Attack?  But Megatron -] 

[Megatron: Especially you, Starscream!]

[Megatron: I order you to continue the assault!  Megatron out!] O: [laughs]

C: "Especially YOU, Starscream!"

O: "You pissed me off by ignoring me, asshole!"

[Megatron: We've reached the ion turrets.  Now-- let Omega Supreme come!]

[Autobot: Target the Seekers!  Get those Decepticons out of the sky!]

[Breakdown: Looks like the Autobots are still using these guns, Megatron.  Our Seekers are getting shredded.]

C: [laughs] Oh dear. [Megatron: Blast the Autobots and take those guns!]

C: So Specs, if there was going to be a commissary,

C: would it be in one of these buildings out here? [Megatron: Decepticons, follow me!]

S: Um, maybe?

S: There's an awful lot of like uh, weapons and placements for a commissary.

C: That's true.  I've always wondered why these weapons are here?

C: Like, I suppose- O: Maybe they were installed later, like after the war started?

C: That would make sense. S: Maybe?  It's just the thing is like,

S: it's a good 'dungeon' effectively, but I'm not sure what the point of any of these are because  

S: there aren't any offices right or anything. C: Right.

C: I mean maybe- maybe that is the answer is

C: that these locations have been just converted into a war zone.

C: Although, I do feel like it's a missed opportunity.  I think it would be pretty cool if you like, had

C: to fight in a library or something. You could even throw a O: The archives.

C: Right- right- right. O: I think you actually go into the archives in the Autobot level if that makes you feel any better?

C: Oh, okay.  Yeah, a little bit.

S: Yeah, that's interesting.  I didn't know that.

O: I might be misremembering, but I'm pretty sure that's where you fight Soundwave and his gremlins.  [NOPE.  I'm very wrong, I'm thinking of the prison level. ~O]

C: Gremlins?

S: Uh, Rumble and Frenzy, I think? O: Yes!

C: [laughs] O: They are TINY!  They're like half your height and like

O: you have to attack them. C: And you don't want to feed them after midnight.

O: Yes!  Well, I- C: You don't want to feed them Energon after midnight.

O: Uh, mistake!

O: Fuck you, whoever's shooting at me.

C: Like, uh, Ravage, Buzzsaw-

O: Say that again?  You cut out. C: Oh, I'm sorry.  Uh, so they- what are they called, minicons?

O: They're- well, minicons, the cassettes, either. S: Yeah. 

C: So out of- out of the ones that we know of, which one would be Gizmo?

S: Gizmo? O: Uh, from Gremlins.

S: Oh.

C: Oh, sorry- O: I- I don't think any of them are, sweetie.

C: Fair enough. O: [laughs] They're all just little- little gremlins.

O: Oh my god, I hate you ALL.

C: There's quite a lot of fire going on right now. S: Yeah.

S: I mean heck the way this is outside this looks like it could be

S: say, an outdoor shopping arcade or something, maybe.  Which...

O: Well, that works. [Megatron: Suitable for one such as Megatron!]

S: Makes me wonder like, whether the um...

S: say the medical packets, would be something like, whatever Energon goodies would be.

C: Yeah. O: Maybe?

[Soundwave: Megatron-- analysis indicates the firepower of those turrets is sufficient to damage Omega Supreme.]

[Breakdown: Speaking of Omega Supreme...] C: Well, Specs did say that the Nucleon

C: stuff was crazy powerful, so that kind of makes sense. [Megatron: Precisely as I had planned.  Decepticons!]

S: Yeah. [Megatron: Man the turrets, and blast that obsolete hulk out of the sky!]

S: Like, Nucleon was kind of the original Dark Energon [Omega: Targets: re-acquired.  Attack: commencing.]

S: plot wise for G1. [Omega: Decepticons: prepare for destruction.]

C: Okay. O: Oh god!  Why- why can he blast through the wall? 

O: Why-why can he pass through the wall guys!?! C: He has no clip turned on.

S: [laughs] O: That- that is cheating. 

C: [laughs]

C: You expect Megatron Supre- er, Omega Supreme to play fair!?!  I can't- O: Yes!  You're a goddamn Autobot.

[Megatron: Decepticons!  Repair your leader at once! Omega: Rockets: Activated.]

O: Yeah, Soundwave buddy, where are you!?

[Soundwave: That was extremely inefficient.]

[Soundwave: You must commence repairs on me at once.]

O: Soundwave, heal me!

[Megatron: Yes, this is a true instrument of destruction!]

O: Oh god. C: He's too excited about that turret.

O: Well, I'm gonna die so what's- what's Soundwave gonna do then? [Megatron: Attack, Decepticons!]

[Megatron: We defeat Omega Supreme here or we die trying!] C: Uh... stab Dark Energon into you in the hopes that it resurrects you?

O: I mean, I suppose that's still a better option than what Starscream did, sure.

S: Yeah.

O: Seriously, ahaha, sweet god- health!

C: So here's a thought, where is Starscream during all this?

O: Uh, up in the air fighting or he ran away [Megatron: Homing rockets!  Take cover!]

O: uh, because he didn't want to die.  One of those two.

O: I think there were other guns, I should probably get up there and use those, huh?

O: Hmmm, this is too high.

[Soundwave: According to my calculations, our chances of defeating Omega Supreme are... very low.]

C: Oh, you're dealing damage now.

O: Oh, dammit- I keep using the wrong button!

C: Mm, now you're mobile. O: I'm using a controller not a keyboard so

O; those buttons aren't the actual buttons for me.

C: Yeah.

[Megatron: Decepticons!  Omega Supreme has deployed Aerialbots!] C: So, on a normal day what would uh,

[Megatron: Shoot them down!] C: what would Omega Supreme's functions be?

O: Well, he protected the Crystal City in the original G1. S: Yeah.

S: Like, um, he was a guardian robot? [Breakdown: Are we making any progress at all here?  I can't tell!]

O: Yeah, like, they would protect uh, cities.

S: Yeah, in Animated they were made specifically, I think, for fighting the Decepticons.  Um...

O: Yeah, they definitely were.

S: And they weren't especially- I don't think they were supposed to be esp-

S: particularly smart, but I don't it's been a while- O: They were basically *only* weapons

S: Yeah. C: Gotcha.

[Omega: Target: re-acquired.  Weapons: engaging.]

O: But yeah, in G1, Omega Supreme was the protector of a city, essentially. S: Yeah.

S: And uh, that's uh, the Constructi- O: That frequently is his function.

S: Yeah.

O: And I believe it was in the IDW comics as well? [Megatron: Omega Supreme's main weapon batteries are charging!]

[Megatron: Prepare for evasive action!]

S: I... think so too, but I don't actually remember.  O: Yes!  I hit the right button!

[Soundwave: I continue to require maintenance.]

C: It's kind of a neat idea. Just that uh,

C: you have these robots which are already big, and even though they're larger than life

C: compared to us they themselves uh, utilize- O: Live in a world where they can be significantly smaller than...

O: than like, the other things around them. C: Right, they build their own versions of what are essentially our fantasy golems

C: to protect them.

[Autobot: AHHHHHHHHH!]

C: There's your death cry, Owls. O: Yeah, there it is again.

O: I'm gonna be not very nice.  I think his spaceship form is kind of dumb? [laughs]

[Megatron: Your power is failing, Omega.  Soon you shall bend to my will!] C: it kind of looks like a giant eyeball that's just floating out in space.

O: Yeah, yeah, like, it's not... it's not great, alright?

C: I know they wanted to make this a fancy boss fight and everything but like, [Soundwave: Warning!  Sensors indicate Omega Supreme]

[Soundwave: is powering up his primary beam weapon!] C: I kind of feel like it would make more- if he's gonna turn into like a flying thing  

C: it would make more sense if he turned into an aircraft.  Like a flying aircraft carrier?

S: Uh, he kinda is? O: Yeah-

C: Really?  Am I just not seeing it?

S: Well, he deployed all of those dudes. O: Yeah, he is deploying them.

C: Oh, he is?

C: Oh my goodness, you're right!  I just never even noticed! [Soundwave: Megatron -- sensors indicate Autobot fliers incoming.]

O: My name is Chezni, and I do not notice things. [laughs]

C: [sighs] I do tend to miss obvious things. [Soundwave: Scanners indicate Omega Supreme's power levels are dropping.]

[Soundwave: Omega Supreme approaches!]

O: Dead yet, Omega?

S: Uh, no. [Soundwave: Caution:

O: I know. [Soundwave: We are being tracked]

C: [laughs] [Soundwave: by multiple explosive projectiles.]

S: He's got... a shield. O: Yup.

O: Gonna wait for that to go away and for him to stop shooting missiles.

O: There we go.

[Breakdown: HAHAHAHA!  He's going down!  Eat THAT, rust-for-brains!]

C: Now that's just mean! [Megatron: Omega flees like a coward!  Now-- let's finish the job!]

O: You- you do know how many shots the guy took, right? C: [laughs]

O: I mean, he took a lot of shots there, buddy!

[Outro Music]

O: Join us next time for the last part of the Decepticon campaign- The Final Guardian.  Fitting name.  Uh, thanks for joining us, I'm Owls.

S: I'm Specs.

C: I'm Chezni.

O: Have a good day!

[Outro Music]

[stories-in-the-stars]

Kiss prompt #9?

9. one small kiss, pulling away for an instant, then devouring each other

~*~

They should’ve been exhausted. They should’ve been so utterly worn to the bone that it would be impossible to do anything but fall asleep where they stood. They had been awake for at least thirty hours now (although it was difficult to tell in space), and fighting for every minute of that time. They should’ve been tired.

But they weren’t.

Too many things had gone wrong, too many things could’ve gone worse. Every scenario, real or imagined, was whirring through Keith’s head faster than his own Lion. His anxious thoughts sparked lightning underneath his skin, making him feel jittery, restless. His restlessness had him sprinting out of the Red Lion’s hangar even more Red had landed completely. 

Too many things had gone wrong. Even now Keith saw the Blue Lion careen down towards the planet they were defending after taking a direct hit from an ion cannon. The silence had been utterly unbearable. Lance had come back online after only five minutes. Five minutes out of thirty some-odd hours. Five minutes too many.

Keith nearly crashed into Lance on his way. Lance looked about as highly strung as Keith, shoulders tense, posture unusually fixed. The gaze he leveled at Keith only served to hasten the sparking of Keith’s rapid-fire nerves.

They paused for only a second before wrapping each other in a fierce hug.

“Are you alright?” Lance asked first, running his hands over any part of Keith that wasn’t covered with armor.

“Me? I’m not the one who took a direct hit from an ion cannon and then crashed into a high-gravity planet from a high altitude!” Keith exclaimed, pulling back so he could remove Lance’s helmet and check for injuries.

Lance let him. “Sure, but I didn’t get harpooned and electrocuted--you were out for forever! They almost caught you!”

“But they didn’t. And I was only out for a minute.”

“Keith--”

“Lance, I’m fine, just let me--”

“Only if you let me worry,” Lance interrupted resolutely, grabbing Keith’s wrists to stay his fluttering hands. “Look, I know this--this isn’t easy for either of us. We both know the risks. If we keep biting each others’ heads off like this after every battle, we’re not going to last much longer.”

Keith relaxed marginally in Lance’s hold. He looked away, almost pouting. “I wasn’t biting your head off, I was just worried.”

“I was worried too.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

They pressed together for a kiss, small and unassuming. Their lips were trembling even as they did, still on edge. When they pulled apart, it was as though a fire had caught between them. Keith was the spark, Lance was the fuel, and they were burning.

Keith grabbed Lance around his waist pushed against him with a bruising kiss. He felt his bottom lips catch between their teeth in their fervor, but he couldn’t be bothered to care, not as Lance responded in kind, grasping Keith with still shaking hands so tightly as if he feared Keith might be snatched right out of his hands.

They nearly fell over, the adrenaline that kept them on their feet now rapidly fading. They stumbled into a wall, kissing clumsily but caring not at all. They parted with a simultaneous gasp. Now they were shaking from the sheer effort it took to keep them standing. Lance leaned heavily on Keith, arms still loosely circling his waist. His thumb drew idle circles along the surface of Keith’s suit.

“We should probably sleep,” Keith murmured as his eyes fluttered shut.

Lance hummed noncommittally.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Keith said, pressing a soft kiss to Lance’s cheek.

“‘M glad you’re okay too,” Lance mumbled.

With great effort Lance picked himself up off of Keith and studied his face. He drew a finger lightly over the cut on Keith’s lip and chuckled.

“Figures that after a hard fought battle you come away without a scratch but then you get back here and this happens,” he noted.

“Guess that makes you more dangerous than an entire fleet of Galra,” Keith said without thinking.

Lance laughed as he pulled Keith along by the hand. “I’m going to remember you said that.”

“I’m not,” Keith teased.

“Well I am, so the next time you think I’m in over my head I’m absolutely using that against you.”

“Then next time you’re in over your head I’m going to be right there with you,” Keith assured him.

“Oh, I have no doubt,” Lance replied.

They were finally, properly exhausted. Side by side, hand in hand, they took a long and well deserved rest. Too many things had gone wrong that day, but here was something that was finally, blessedly right.

[baedechaleur]

Ionic

Skies of smoldering crimson, and a muted ash stretch across the open view; explosions not so far in the distance are the background noise, setting the tone for the orders being barked throughout the battlefield. 

It had been months.

The chaotic forces of the NOD had been laying siege to the GDI outpost to utilize it for their own military presence. It’s location, a key position for keeping the western front from being reduced to Red control. 

“Take cover, command is reporting an Ion Cannon is preparing to fire!” the officer roared, the subordinates following only as the azure light spontaneously erupted.

 It was too late, the dusky atmosphere came to life in an instant.

Over billion volts, shattering the very fabric of space; screaming before even the soldiers could recognize their fate. The entire base, eradicated from existence with a single strike, along with a whole battalion of NOD Soldiers. The smell filling the air in an instant, if any were left alive to smell it.

Ashes to ashes, the war torn surface of the planet bore the markings of the constant attack--craters and ash for as far as the eye could see, around the glorious GDI compound.

The outpost was safe, for the time being. 

But at what cost?

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x12 – “The Zenith” (part 2)

8x12 – “The Zenith”

Because of how long this commentary is, I decided to post it as two parts. Here’s a link to the first part.

Picking up halfway through the episode, Voltron moves through the second rift.

Coran, Sam, and Slav are on the pyramid. Coran touches the two pillars of the pedestal. Only Allura and Honerva have ever been able to operate pedestals like this, but somehow, Coran can now use the pedestal too. Slav says, “If we hit [the rift] with enough energy, it should seal.”

Coran asks, “Are the Alteans in place.” I have no idea who actually answers Coran. Some ethereal, disembodied female voice says, “They’re set.” Is the Balmera talking to Coran? This is so absurd that I am literally laughing out loud.

Voltron arrives in another reality and there is yet another rift there. So, Pidge’s comment a minute ago that “the rift must lead directly to the reality Honerva’s been looking for” is now conclusively untrue. The show gives literally no explanation for why Honerva tore through all these other realities. I have never seen a story treat alternate realities like rooms of a building where you have to go through multiple rooms to get to the room you want to be in. This show treating alternate realities this way makes the whole premise simplistic and silly.

Allura gives us some sophomoric foreshadowing: “I fear [Honerva] has started a chain reaction that can never be undone.” Voltron flies through the next new rift.

The Balmeras send their energy into the pyramid, which redirects it to the rift, and Coran says, “It’s working […] holding the rift together.” Coran’s earlier stated goal wasn’t to hold the rift together but to keep the universe from collapsing. The presence of the rift was supposedly what would cause the universe to collapse, but now he’s trying to hold the rift together? Wouldn’t they want the rift to cease being open because it being open is what’s causing the universe to collapse? Also, the other realities Honerva has tore through are deteriorating rapidly, so why isn’t this main universe in a worse state of collapse than the other realities we’ve now seen since the rift has been tearing through reality here longer than the rifts in the other realities have existed?

Voltron makes it into the next reality, and Honerva’s mecha is floating there, waiting for them. She hits them with a wing-blade. Keith yells, “Countermeasures,” but I don’t know what he means by that because Voltron doesn’t do anything in response to him saying it. Then there’s a dark bubble around Voltron that Honerva created, but I don’t know what precisely it does beyond make Keith briefly grunt because she stops creating the bubble so that she can tuck her mecha into a ball and roll herself into Voltron, sending Voltron slamming into the ground. She then throws a ball of wispy black energy at Voltron. Keith yells, “Form sword” and volleys the ball back at her like they’re playing tennis. Honerva dodges out of the way. There’s a really, really large arch or some kind of structure above them that the ball hits and it explodes.

The combined form of Voltron and the Atlas does actually look cool.

Sam says, “Our current power level isn’t enough to maintain the rift.” I don’t understand why they’re holding the rift open if the existence of the rift is the problem. It feels like something is missing. Again, Coran coming here was supposed to be him working a plan to solve the collapse of the universe. But now that he’s here, his goal is holding open the rift.

Now, Coran says, “Then we’ll hold it as long as we can. Every tick gives Voltron a chance.” Something is definitely missing, or this episode is made out of different stories spliced together. What their goals are now are not the goals the episode had them speak about and act toward earlier. This is the first time that anyone has said anything about the goal being holding the rift open for Voltron. Coran’s actions are supposed to be about closing the rift, not keeping it open.

In warps several Galra ships. Krolia, who would have no idea Coran is leading this effort, calls out to him, asking what they can do to help. Remember the big war meeting at the beginning of last episode? Remember what Krolia said she was going to do? She specifically said that she was going to go get a zaiforge cannon to use in the fight against Honerva. Guess what the show has forgotten about: the zaiforge cannon. Just like the weapons’ upgrade and the needed Balmeran crystal to power it, the zaiforge cannon is now completely forgotten.

Coran tells her that they need more energy. How can Galra ships generate enough energy above what nine Balmera can? Coran says that they’re trying to “prevent the rift from expanding further.” But just a few seconds ago, they were trying to hold the rift open, not keep it from expanding. Sam had said that they didn’t have enough power “to maintain the rift” now they’re back to trying to “prevent the rift from expanding.”

This episode cannot make up its mind what is actually happening. What are these characters trying to do?

Krolia orders the Galra fleet to shoot their ion cannons at the pyramids. So, no zaiforge cannon.

Honerva flies up in the sky, spreads her wing-blades, and the tips of the wings shoot many energy blasts at Voltron. The multitude of new weapons and attacks being used in this episode is overwhelming. It makes me want to give up trying to follow the combat because there’s always going to be some new, random thing that they can do that has no set-up. Voltron again slams into the ground.

Voltron swooshes away from where Honerva’s blasts are targeted and then blasts at her in return with Voltron’s chest. They don’t hit. Honerva hits Voltron with another ball of black energy and then slams Voltron into the ground with her tail. She pins Voltron down with a couple of wing-blades and then draws energy out of Voltron.

This reality starts to disappear starting around the horizon and moving upward through the sky toward a rift in the sky that has not been there until right now. If Honerva had made it to this reality but ran out of energy and thus had to drain Voltron and use that energy to create another rift, then maybe that would explain why she was just waiting here to fight Voltron. But, Honerva is not shown creating this new rift. So, either this new rift comes out of nowhere without her having to create it, or the rift has existed the whole time but somehow was never shown and she had no reason to wait here to attack Voltron.

Honerva moves up through the rift. Voltron remains on the ground. Voltron is given time to pretend that this is the end of the heroes, the villain’s won, Voltron can’t move, the Paladins themselves are weak, and this reality has nearly disappeared. Nearly everyone – Lance, Hunk, Shiro, Allura, and Pidge – makes a statement of failure or doom, but then Keith gives the rallying speech. Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery wanted Keith to be the main character, and here he is being the main character. It will always just emphasize for me how much Shiro and Allura were the leaders of this team in seasons one and two, and then both of them were demoted so that Keith could ascend to be the main character. There is nothing about Keith’s story arc though that makes this plot and this battle have anything to do with him. Plot and character in this series is, or at least has become, completely disconnected from each other.

The big rallying speech should produce an uplifting feeling in the audience, but it actually makes me feel even more exhausted.

Voltron gets up, its wings open up, and Keith orders “fire boosters” and they fly upward.

Meanwhile in the main reality. The Galra and the Balmeras have run out of energy. The pyramid starts exploding. Sam says they can’t “contain the rift,” so their goal in this moment is not to hold the rift open. Coran’s plan fails. Regardless of if his goal was to contain the rift or to keep the rift open, they’re not now able to do either. So, what was the point in all this time spent doing whatever they were doing if it’s achieved nothing? There’s a bit explosion and everything goes white, and the main reality seems to have been destroyed.

Voltron is flying toward the rift in the reality they’re in. Reality is disappearing faster than Voltron is moving, so there is no way at the depicted rate of movement that Voltron could get through the rift before reality is gone. Also, what exactly is Voltron supposed to be in as it flies toward the rift if the only part of this reality that’s remaining is the area of the rift itself? How is there still space between Voltron and the rift for Voltron to be flying through?

Everything goes black before Voltron can go through the rift.

Cut to somewhere in space. Honerva is calmly, quietly flying to somewhere. She is eventually shown to be heading toward this reality’s Daibazaal. How did she select this reality? Why didn’t she just directly go from the main reality into this reality. Why does this reality look stable even though she would have had to tear a rift into this reality to be able to get in. If the existence of a rift causes a reality to disintegrate, then why isn’t this one disintegrating? Also, why is she going to Daibazaal? She had specifically gone to the location where Altea had been in the main reality to tear out of reality into the others there. All the other realities she’s been to, she’s been at Altea. But now, in the reality she wants to go to, she’s not at Altea. If she’s been headed to a version of Daibazaal this whole time, then why didn’t she go to where Daibazaal had been in the main reality? Why hasn’t she been at other Daibazaals as she went from one reality to the next?

There is nearly no logic to anything that has happened in this episode.

On the surface of Daibazaal, Zarkon and some other Galra are sparring. Honerva arrives. She teleports out of her mecha and onto the ground outside and walks toward Zarkon. Zarkon points his sword at her and tells her to identify herself.

Honerva says, “You don’t recognize me?” Uh, she’s wearing a weird outfit that covers up her chin, jaw, forehead, and part of her nose, and she’s some distance away from him, so I’m not surprised that it’s hard for him to tell who she is. “I’ve searched beyond the stars to be here, to be with you—” and she is shown walking out of a shadow cast by the setting sun being directly behind her, obscuring her face in the glare, so there’s even more reason for him to not recognize her, making her having said “you don’t recognize me” seem silly. She finishes, “—and to be with my son.”

Zarkon now recognizes her as Honerva. I don’t know if she is delusional here and thinks this is her Zarkon and that this reality will have her Lotor, or if she’s lying to them in hoping that they’ll think that she’s their Honerva.

Cut to inside a space ship. They’re heading to Altea. It just seems so weird to have presented this whole episode like Honerva was trying to get to alternate Alteas, only to then, when she finally gets to the reality that she’s chosen, go to Daibazaal, but then now they’re going to Altea. It makes this episode feel like it’s running around in circles. Zarkon says, “I vowed to raise our son as you would have wanted. He excels in his Altean studies. Lotor has his mother’s intellect.” Of course, this is meant to contrast with how the main Lotor was subject to brutal Galra studies, as seen in 8x02 “Shadows.” It just reminds me of how Lotor was abused by his parents.

On Altea, Alfor and his wife welcome Honerva. Allura steps forward to speak, and Honerva glares at her like she wants to attack her. If an alternate reality has an alternate Zarkon and an alternate Lotor, and an alternate Alfor, why would she be surprised that there’s an alternate Allura? Allura escorts Honerva to Lotor. Here, Lotor is a little kid. He runs toward Honerva but stops short. Honerva asks him to come to her. Lotor says, “No.” Zarkon tries to tell Lotor that his mother has returned, but Lotor says, “She’s not my mother.”

I really like little Lotor. He’s something I can say that I like about this episode.

Honerva tries to convince him that “her love for [him] is that of a mother for her child.” She then turns to the same old Honerva that she’s always been, that she was long before she was poisoned by quintessence and possessed by a rift entity.

Speaking of rift entities, notice how the one in Allura is now completely ignored.

Honerva grows a bit angry, “Come to me!” Lotor stares her down and firmly says, “She is not my mother.” Zarkon tells him, “Don’t speak like that.” It’s amazing that this Zarkon just trusts a woman who shows up and says she’s his long-lost wife. In a well written story (I’m thinking of a specific one in particular that I love), if a long-lost wife showed up out of nowhere, the husband would insist on a lot of tests to figure out who she is and what happened to her. Zarkon does nothing like that because this show doesn’t have people behave rationally.

Honerva says, “Please,” and holds out her hand. Lotor rejects her, “No! My mother is dead, and you cannot replace her.” Zarkon tries to say that Lotor is just overwhelmed. Honerva glares at Lotor. Little Lotor is clearly scared since he’s holding onto Zarkon’s leg for protection. Zarkon kind of pleads with Honerva and says, “If we had some time.”

That’s not acceptable to Honerva. I guess she thought this would be instant satisfaction for some reason. This show has acted like she looked through a lot of different realities to find her perfect one, but this one doesn’t work for her. Did she only just look no further than to find a reality in which that reality’s Honerva was dead? This falling apart so quickly makes it feel like she didn’t bother really looking at all.

She says, “Time? You speak to me of time? I’ve spent lifetimes trying to get back.” What is she talking about? She hasn’t spent lifetimes trying to get here. At most, she’s spent four years. How am I supposed to take her character seriously when her dialog and actions are written in such defiance of what the show has already showed? Just because this Honerva has lived for 10,000 years doesn’t mean she’s spent that time “trying to get back.”

Also, if she didn’t mind having an alternate reality version of Zarkon and Lotor, then she shouldn’t have minded having a clone of them either. So, why did she decide on the much more difficult tearing through other realities until she got here instead of the comparatively much simpler cloning method?

She continues, “Countless worlds have fallen in the wake of my efforts to return to you. And this is how you welcome me.” She creates a ball of black energy in her hand. Maybe this is supposed to be some kind of depiction of her getting what she wants only to have it not be what she wants, but this doesn’t work like that. For that kind of development to happen in a story, the thing that the character wants has to actually be acquired. She hasn’t actually gotten what she came here for. That kind of development is born out of showing how a character has changed internally between when they set the goal for themselves and when they achieved it. But Honerva hasn’t changed. She’s still the same, mean, brutal dictator that she’s always been.

“My own child, my own husband question who I am. I have sacrificed more than you will ever know.” No, she has not! The way she’s speaking right now is exactly how an abusive spouse and/or parent talks. (Trust me, I know.) It is so frustrating that this episode is reaffirming how abusive Honerva is only to come to the end next episode and absolve her of her behavior.

There’s a sound. Surprise!twist Voltron made it through the rift. So, the depiction of the rift closing and everything going black before they could go through was all just really transparent fakery. It makes that fake moment of them not getting through absurd because of course the conflict isn’t finished yet. Voltron’s arrival does not have a sense of a new surge toward victory for the protagonists. It’s more that it leaves me wondering what took them so long to get here.

Honerva’s eyes go wide. “No! It cannot be!” Why not? They’ve followed you through other realities before this, why is their coming through one more so impossible? I mean, I guess she thought she left them absolutely powerless in the previous reality, but really. They were chasing her before now, it shouldn’t seem weird that the chase isn’t finished.

Also, given the other realities disintegrated quickly, why hasn’t this reality disintegrated? It’s not even showing any signs of disintegration. Of course, the entire premise of realities disintegrating because someone tore into them is contrived and fluctuates depending on whatever the creative team wants to be happening at any given moment.

Zarkon yells at Honerva, “You brought this abomination upon us!?” Why would he think Voltron is an abomination? He yells some more, “You are not the Empress! You are not my wife!” He yells for the guards.

Honerva scowls, “If there is no place in this universe for me, then there will be no universe at all!” She teleports away. That’s cliché. Whatever complexity the writers thought they have been adding to Honerva’s character, this scorched-earth simplicity erases all of that. She’s back to being nothing but the uninteresting 80s cartoon villain she was as Haggar in the beginning of the series. She hasn’t actually developed as a character whatsoever.

Speaking of character, notice how this episode is concluding without any connectivity of this series’ plot connecting to any of the main characters. Literally everything in this plot now is driven by Honerva and her desires. None of the main characters have any desires beyond stop-the-villain. This is a huge part of why this show has fallen apart. The executive producers and the writers absolutely lost sight of the show’s main characters. This story has become the Honerva Show. She is not compelling enough to carry the show, especially since she’s not the protagonist.

Everyone in the Altean city seems to be freaking out over Voltron landing. There’s a twinkle in the sky above Voltron. It’s Honerva’s mecha, which lands near Voltron. She can apparently call her mecha to her from millions of miles away. She teleports into her seat in her mecha. There’s an awkward split-screen stare-down between Honerva on one side and the Paladins and Shiro on the other. The lighting of the various images used for Team Voltron and the different facial expressions don’t create a sense of unity of emotion among the six of them. It again looks like they just took six random pieces of animation and used it here. The episode ends.

This episode is a disaster. It is so hard to follow what’s happening, why it’s happening, what characters are trying to do. Characters’ goals fluctuate from one scene to the next. The entire inner story of the episode is given to Honerva, making the actual protagonists kind of superfluous. This episode could have the protagonists in this episode be literally anyone, and the story would not change.

Given how much of a mess this episode is, I can totally see how people think there has to be a late-production re-edit. I definitely get a feeling that this episode is made out of parts. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a sign that there was a concentrated re-edit effort. But there are definitely times in this episode where it feels like two separate versions of a script or multiple different episodes are being stitched together. There is a severe dissonance in how things some dialog doesn’t match other dialog, how events have a discontinuity with other events.

Something went wrong with this episode’s production. 

[dalekofchaos]

How the Empire could’ve won the war

Imagine if The Empire had competent military leaders and decided to bypass Palpatine’s overconfidence and incompetence. These are ways I think the Empire could’ve won. Before anyone calls me out, this is just for fun and I do not believe they should’ve won, I just think if more competent Imperials were in charge aside from Thrawn, The Empire could’ve won.

Better PR. Seriously, The Case for the Empire lays out an excellent defense for the Galactic Empire. Basically, the Republic was rotting, everyone saw that. All the Empire had to do was take power and not make people desperate enough to rebel. Keep the peace, enforce the law and not be so heavy handed.

Do not be dependent on fear. When Palpatine ascended as emperor, ended the rotting Republic and ended the Clone Wars basically everyone was happy. However in only 20+ years he went from most loved person in the galaxy to the most feared/hated one. There was no need to build the Death Stars and such a massive military. Those were necessary for rule through fear. But instead of fear Palpatine could’ve ruled by love. He was definitely cunning enough to fool the galaxy further. Instead Palpatine’s, Vader’s and Tarkin’s methods led to a creation of a giant rebellion that brought the Empire down.

Act like a real Empire with no Xenophobia. Induct alien races into their empire and continue their expansion by conquering territory while promoting their way of life over others. Their downfall was being dogmatic and authoritarian to the point that everyone rebelled against their regime.

Don’t terrorize other species. Whether Palpatine genuinely hated other races than humans or just pretended to do in order to divide his potential enemies it was a bad move. Excluding non-humans from the upper echelons of the Imperial military and power structure (Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor or Mas Amedda excluded) limited the Empire’s power base. Terrorizing other species created more enemies the Empire had to deal with and which helped to brought it down.

Krennic’s survival. I fee like the Death Star might not have been destroyed in A New Hope if Orson Krennic was still in charge. He was far more in tune with the battlestation’s capabilities than Tarkin ever was. I feel like he would have recognized the threat to the base sooner and squashed the Rebel fighters in the trench sooner He wasn't afraid to get into the battle and it really wasn't his fault that the plans fell into the wrong hands, the Rebels just outclassed the Empire during that sneak attack. Tarkin's blind arrogance and underestimation of the Rebels is what allowed the Death Star to be destroyed.

A New Hope 1. Recover any jettisoned escape pods right away, otherwise destroy them: Some see this a major plot hole. I'd say people (and imperial personnel, for that matter), do make mistakes. To avoid those, they should have had a pursuit protocol: Pull the captured ship in, then close the doors, maybe have two or three squadrons of TIE fighters doing the rounds, in case a escape pod gets out before the doors are closed and, more important, have some recovery ships out, so that fleeing pods can be captured instead of just blasted into oblivion. A captured pod can be searched. As far as we know, only one copy of the plans was made. 2. Disable the Millenium Falcon: You just captured a ship that matches another ship you were chasing, no one is inside, at the very least, take the keys off the ignition, remove the battery, maybe secure it with a chain and a lock. And they had time to work on it, enough time to install a tracking device, anyway. However, I'm willing to give them this one: Let's say they were absolutely sure the Rebellion would not find anything useful by looking at the plans, so it was fine to let them escape with them, make presumably a hundred copies and spread them across the galaxy. That level of confidence in your development and validation teams is amazing. Not only do you think a potential enemy will not find any flaws, but you're also convinced they won't try to build their own space station using your plans. Bravo. 3. Build an Imperial blockade of Star Destroyers around the Death Star. 4. Send the Imperial Fleet to Yavin IV, not your ultimate weapon: The Death Star had just accomplished what it had been built to do: It was a last-resort enforcer of policy. They destroyed an entire, fully populated planet, because Tarkin wanted to do a demonstration. That was stupid, but effective anyway, it would definitely make it into the news all over the place. Then you put the gun away, hopefully never to use it again. Any opposition in the galaxy would have crumbled at the chance of seeing that thing show up in the sky. They had tracked the Millenium Falcon to Yavin IV, but the Rebel Fleet was clearly not there. The attack on the Death Star was executed with thirty small ships, hardly a major engagement (unlike the battle against the second Death Star). If anything, the Battle of Yavin could have been compared in size to the Battle of Hoth, which was dealt with using a subset of the Imperial Navy, plus infantry. In the meantime, they could have done some additional vulnerability analysis with the Death Star well hidden elsewhere, find the exhaust port and maybe even other vulnerabilities, and put torpedo-proof blinds on it.

Empire Strikes Back 1. The Battle of Hoth: There are eight Star Destroyers (Executor, 6 smaller but still impressive Star Destroyers of two classes and one Victory class) involved. Executor closes with the planet and proceeds to blast the surface with their turbolaser batteries, ignoring the shield generator. Eventually the base with flood (with magma or ice). The two Imperial-1 class destroyers fly interference for the Executor, keeping fighter wings in the air as well as intercepting anything attempting to escape. The four Imperial-II class destroyers blockade the planet: One at each pole, and one either side of the equator to watch for trickery. The Victory class destroyer is a mobile interception device for capital ships and corvettes launching from Hoth. Now all they need to do is wait. They'll either pick the base off piecemeal, destroy it with Turbolaser Terraforming or the rebels will attempt to flee: In which case, the remaining destroyers will pick them off. The Ion Cannon doesn't act as a permenent 'disable', the base has a limited power generator and there are too many ships for the Ion Cannon to cover for. The planet will give way long before they starve the rebels out. Hell, the 501st had elements in the fleet sent, they could have just left everyone in orbit and stuffed Vader with them into a drop pod, unleashing on the base instead of the costly assault. 2. On Bespin: A heavier hand. The figurehead of the rebellion and five of its greater heroes were present.. and all of them got away. As soon as the trap was sprung, simply moving in with heavy interception cover would have been enough to decapitate the Rebellion. They had, at the bare minimum, twelve fighters: Three ties, 8 tie-interdictors and at least one Tie Defender (Which was probably capable of destroying the Falcon alone). They'd surrender before dying, so Vader gets his apprent-er, 'the emperor's prize', the Rebellion gets executed in a suitable gory fashion on Galactic Holovision and the Rebellion ends. 3. The Falcon, a known dangerous and rebel-owned craft, was sitting on its landing pad the whole time. You've got EIGHT Tie Interdictors (bombers) prowling Bespin. Maybe one could spare a second to drop some ordinance on the powered down craft? The one on a pad with no supports barring its umbilical, about 50-100m out from its parent building? 4. If you won’t destroy the Falcon, criple the Falcon. Seriously, cripple the Falcon: The same technicians who disabled the hyperdrive could've taken a few more minutes to mess up the rest, making it unable to take off. Leia, Chewie, Lando and the droids were already surrounded at the landing platform. It would've ended up in a horrible standoff or maybe even a peaceful surrender. But it would have ended there. Afterwards, Vader would've sensed and captured Luke, making sure he was given top-notch medical attention and a high-end replacement hand. Then, who knows, maybe he could've have enjoyed some much-needed face time with his dad and get things off to a better start.

Return Of The Jedi 0. Jabba The Hutt is smart. Jabba does not hold a grand execution. He has Luke, Han, Leia, Chewbacca, Lando and the droids at his mercy. He plans to offer them up as hostages to the Empire. Since it's established that Vader and Jabba became partners in the new canon comics, I could see The Empire paying Jabba's demands. Jabba’s demands are simple. Money, a replacement Rancor and Princess Leia as his personal slave for the rest of her life. The Empire is more than happy to oblige. Vader comes to Jabba’s palace and takes the Rebels. The droids are dismantled.  Han, Lando and Chewbacca are executed. Leia remains by Jabba’s side as a slave. Now that Luke has nothing left, he embraces his destiny and joins his father. They take out The Emperor and rule the galaxy as father and son. 1. Stop and arrest the crew of the stolen imperial shuttle: Part of this is pure speculation, but I assume the crew led into Endor by Han Solo had no way to let their fleet know that they had made it. So, as a perfect corollary to a great plan to force the Rebel Fleet into a decisive battle, set up an ambush to capture the advance team on the ground on Endor as soon as they set foot on it. Of course, it would be a lot easier to just blast the shuttle before it even lands. The thing was loaded with explosives, even a humble stormtrooper with a thermal detonator could have done the work. Of course, Vader would have been upset because of his insistence in mixing family and business. In any case, the generator shield would have remained intact, with the second Death Star being fully operational: It did manage to do a lot of damage to the Rebel Fleet, and the Imperial Navy could've done the rest once they started fighting at close range. Also, think of the fact that the Rebels would've had Lando Calrissian insisting that they should wait on Han to blow up the shield. At that moment, Han would've been either dead or sitting in a cell. And the assault on the Death Star II would’ve been a failure. 2. Vader tries to convince his son to join willingly. Vader does very little to connect with his son. He wants to call him Anakin? That's fine, let him do it. In fact, Vader could have used that to tell him his story, after all, the Jedi were indeed very arrogant and unfair towards Anakin, let Luke know that. Maybe even tell him about Padme, he seemed very curious about his mom, he would've listened to that. Same goes for the Emperor, instead of antagonizing Luke from the beginning, he could have asked him about the things he disliked about the Empire. What reforms would he support? Would he be willing to lead some of those reforms from the inside? Just because you're bad, doesn't mean you need to be crass. Also, Palpatine was friends with Padme, right to the very end, bring that up as well. 3. Exterminate the Ewoks. The Empire is not above genocide and would showcase even more reason to want to take them down. They're a warrior culture. You know it, they know it. Your first expedition to Endor was nearly foiled by the furry little bastards, who were surprised and outnumbered. You know, the one where they were looking for a site to set up the shield generator for the second Death Star? Or don't even bother! First, glass the area with turbolasers. A quick planetary firestorm and you've got a nice wasteland to build your facilities in. Suddenly, no ewoks. You can see the rebels coming a few kilometers away. Problem solved, no exploding battlestation.

Build the Death Star II around Coruscant. This is the heart of the enemy. It's in the galactic core, there is plenty of space for a shield generator and it is HEAVILY defended. Not only is it heavily defended, it's even further into the Core than Coruscant and Palpatine is even more powerful there. He can very literally puppet a good portion of the population.

Practical Mass Production Vs. Egomaniacal Engineering. Bigger is not always better. Constantly seeking to build bigger military weapons takes time, money, and resources all of which could be used towards the mass production and perfection of smaller weapons. For example, how many millions of Republic credits does an Imperial AT-AT walker cost and how completely unnecessary is a vehicle of that size on the battlefield? The Empire already has a fighting force a million times larger than any other in the galaxy, why does it need to waste time on things like Death Stars and Super Star Destroyers? Building smaller fighters and ships is the better way to go. Build more Interdictor-class cruisers. These ships used mass shadow generators to literally pull ships from hyperspace by projecting an illusion of the gravity well of a planet. In Star Wars a ship cannot go into hyperspace while inside a planet’s gravity well. This means that any rebel ships that unwittingly raid an Imperial facility where an Interdictor class vessel is present are sitting ducks from the moment they are sucked out of hyperspace. In the Imperial Handbook: A Commander’s Guide, Princess Leia writes that “if the Empire had known how to build smart instead of big they would have built thousands more Interdictors.” She goes on to claim that, if they had, the Rebel Alliance “might not have survived.”

Give Tie-Fighters armor and shields. Sacrificing armour and shielding for maneuverability and speed is gross incompetence. With armour and shielding plus the talented Imperial Pilots, you have an Imperial Navy that is a force to be reckoned with.

Do not sacrifice quality for quantity for the Stormtroopers. They are as they are meant to be, elite soldiers of the Imperial Military. So do just that. Make them elite, feared and powerful. Only recruit the best. Give better protection and the best tech. Give the quality of the Clone Troopers, but improve on that for the Stormtroopers and you have an army worth fearing.

Continued Production Of Dark Troopers. Sometimes a top secret expensive weapon can give you an advantage in war. One that the enemy will never see coming and not have the slightest hope in the universe of stopping. Enter the Imperial Dark Trooper, a seven-foot tall robot who fights better than any human being, has a jetpack, fast, fires a supercharged weapon that shoots both high concentrated plasma and rockets, and is considerably scary looking. A simply platoon's worth of these guys is enough to wipe out entire outposts and bases of their enemy. They work fast and leave nothing, but death in their wake. After a few minutes whatever was their target is gone, reduced to smoldering ruins. Sometimes their victims don't even have time to make a distress call. Needless to say, they're bad news, though they remain pretty much unheard of. Fortunately for the good guys, the Empire never got around to truly deploying the Dark Troopers in great numbers like the Trade Federation did with their goofy battle droids. You may already know the history from playing the classic first-person shooter Dark Forces, of course: the mercenary Kyle Katarn was able to locate the secret production facility for Dark Troopers in space. Once aboard the Arc Hammer, he destroyed the ship and the Dark Trooper menace was put out of commission to almost never be seen again. If they did have more than one facility, and use Dark Troopers solely in their battles and invasions, keeping the regular storm troopers in reserve, The Rebels would not have a hope of winning.

Design better Death Stars. This might be the single most obvious and easiest solution to them all. If you build a planet-sized space station, then you don't leave a small hole two meters wide for the enemy to launch torpedoes into. Now the idea of a Space Station needing an exhaust port does make sense in that pseudo sci-fi way. Don't want our Stormtroopers dying in the middle of the night to carbon monoxide ventilation problems, do? But why not place a metal slab with slits over it? Or raise the metal slab so the vents are on the sides? Or make the ventilation pipe more crooked inside so it's not a straight shot to the reactor core? What if? What if? What if? There are so many painfully simple solutions to the problem. I can forgive the idea of the second Death Star being blown up because it was still under construction, although - I'll say again - if the exhaust system leading to the reactor core isn't made in a stupid straight line then a ship isn't going to be able to pass through it.

Make Thrawn the commanding officer on Endor. I know what you must be thinking, Thrawn was sent away via Rebels finale. Let’s just say this is a scenario where Thrawn was successful on Lothal. Thrawn would have shown up weeks before the battle, taken one look at the "primitive natives" on Endor, and figured out a way to stop them from beating up AT-STs with giant wooden logs or killing stormtroopers with rocks. The Death Star lives, the Rebel fleet gets completely wiped out. Mobilizes the fleet comprised of Interdictor-class cruisers and Tie-Defenders. Thrawn would be smart enough not to allow Luke anywhere near The Emperor. Thrawn would successfully either destroy the shuttle or capture the landing party. Thrawn would convince Palpatine it is safer to execute the Jedi and Palpatine agrees and if Vader objects, Palpatine would just unleash a storm of force lightning killing Vader and securing victory for the Empire once and for all. 

[magnetarbeam]

Since this post, I've finally managed to get it through my head that Star Wars as a story is not hard sci-fi, and being consistent about this stuff is, more than anything else, a limitation on the kinds of stories you can tell. The kinds of stories I want to tell, I think, would not be served very well by that kind of a number spread between ships' power levels. So it's not the best thing to use in fics, but running these numbers and overthinking the tech rules is fun for me by itself, so I still like to do it.

Also, some of my headcanon numbers used in the original post have changed. Currently, I have the Imperator-class destroyer at a peak reactor output of 1.05e25 W in a 9743976-cubic-meter reactor, as the number I use for annihilation rate per cubic meter has changed recently. The T-65XJ X-Wing now has an output of 4.19e17 W and 1.17 shots per second on each laser cannon.

But generally, more rules about how I think this stuff works:

A deflector shield uses energy from its own charge to convert the energy from an attack into heat that the ship then has to store or radiate, along with waste heat from the other systems. Among the circles that think in these terms, it's the general consensus that radiators in Star Wars dissipate heat as neutrinos, which pass through almost all forms of matter, so they can be reasonably layered, and covered by some degree of armor. The neutronium used in the construction of spacecraft is notably far less permeable to neutrinos, which is why starfighter-sized craft have to mount radiators externally, limited by surface area. Capital ships have the internal space to mount layered radiator banks internally, with their emissions radiated through exhaust ports that can be almost arbitrarily small in most cases, but do have a minimum effective size that increases in proportion to the amount of heat it has to radiate. To put it as explicitly as possible: Thermal exhaust ports are a necessity for all large spaceborne constructs. The Death Star's exposed port was large enough to present a vulnerability because of the magnitude of energy involved. It's also possible that that particular port had significantly less emplaced defensive firepower around it than any others.

Another advantage capital ships have in this area is internal heat sinks that can safely store a certain amount of waste heat before it must be radiated.

It's been theorized that part of the mechanics of a deflector shield involve particle decay of an energy beam that hits a shield, meaning some of the attack's energy is just scattered in random directions and it doesn't all transfer to the shield. I'm not learning quantum mechanics just to be able to put qualified numbers to that, but I do use it as an excuse to have essentially overly complicated damage multipliers for how efficient various weapons are against a shield:

The final energy transferred to a shield, meaning the amount of charge that must be expended to repel the attack and the amount of energy converted to heat buildup, is the energy of the incoming attack, divided by x^0.5. The variable x is the efficiency rating of the type of weapon in question:

Lasers: 2.5

Ion Energy: 1.1

Proton Explosives: 1.9

Concussion Explosives: 2.1

Impacts of Solid Objects: 3.0

So in this system, ion weapons are most efficient at damaging shields, and kinetic attacks are the least efficient. Now that I think about it, I might just change it to a flat percentage or something. I don't know why I made it this complicated.

The strength of a shield is measured two ways: The maximum charge its capacitors can hold, and the heat the emitters can transfer to the radiators or internal heat sinks while remaining functional. A shield's heat transfer is measured in watts, and is effectively the required short-term input for an attack to penetrate the shield. If the shield takes more damage in one second than its heat transfer capacity, the shield shuts down momentarily and the rest of the attack's energy continues past it, but a second later, the shield will be active again. Total shield failure is when the capacitors are drained to zero charge.

Most space combat doctrine emphasizes short-term shield breaches as the primary objective of an attack, since they are far easier to inflict than a total shield failure. A capital ship's shield capacitors can contain energy of hundreds of seconds of its reactor output (headcanonically, 240 seconds for an ISD), but almost all capital ships have an overall shield heat transfer of less than twice their reactor output.

So I guess this is the thread where I infodump my ideas about how the magic space technology works in Star Wars, on the off-chance that anyone cares.

The first thing to know in terms of ships is that volume is by far the most important dimension. Almost all other characteristics of a vessel's performance are limited by its volume.

The primary characteristic of that performance is the reactor. The recorded performance of Star Wars ships demands the use of some kind of exotic matter in power generation. This is known as hypermatter. A common Imperator-class star destroyer is understood to generate approximately 1e25 watts - the power of a small star - in a reactor of several million cubic meters. In my current headcanon, the exact values are 1.07e25 W and 3053628 cubic meters, respectively. The relationship between reactor volume and maximum power output is constant and direct, and a hypermatter annihilation reactor can be turned down to zero or near-zero output if you need to save fuel or something (in fact, warships pretty much never operate at maximum output outside of combat), but it can never exceed the output determined by its volume.

It's commonly assumed that all hypermatter annihilation reactors are spherical in shape.

In this context, a proper warship is a vessel that is able to easily divert any or all of its reactor output into any of its major systems at the discretion of the crew. The output of the reactor is the primary comparison for if a ship is overgunned (the combined yield and thus power draw of the energy weapons is more than a second of reactor output, necessitating the guns to be charged over a longer duration) or undergunned (the opposite of that), and the capacity of the shields and power flow of the thrusters are also measured relatively to the reactor.

Small craft have inherent limits on power flow due to the limited size of power conduits, which is the reason that a T-65XJ X-Wing, with an overall output of 4.03e17 W, only mounts four 30-kiloton laser cannons capable of firing one full shot every 1.35 seconds, which draws far less than a percent of the full output. On ships the size of starfighters, the reactors are built directly into the ion engines, whereas capital ships have the reactors more centrally located.

A purposely and professionally constructed capital warship is expected to be able to divert all power into weapons, thrust, or shields, though secondary cannons are afforded a smaller maximum power flow than primaries. Retrofitted civilian vessels like early Mon Calamari combat ships or pre-Clone Wars Lucrehulk configurations have less extensive power transfer systems.

Fuel is a serious concern. A tonne of hypermatter yields 9e19 J when annihilated (this derived directly from the RotS Incredible Cross-Sections entry for the Venator), and on capital ships, the fuel mass at a full tank is several times the dry mass. An Imperator, in my current headcanon, carries fuel for 5400 seconds of full output. In basically any noncombat situation, these vessels operate at power levels many orders of magnitude lower, to conserve fuel. Volume of fuel storage is so poorly defined in Star Wars that I ignore it entirely, but more fuel means significantly more mass, and that makes the ship slower.

For fighters, fuel mass is much less of a concern, but that's mostly due to the smaller craft being meant for shorter flight times.

In order to simplify things, I calculate the acceleration of Star Wars ships based on reactor power-to-weight in most cases. The ion engines on most ships are able to take the full output, and I haven't yet done the calcs for any that can't, but as mentioned, that can and does come up.

The total and reactor volumes of ships vary by multiple orders of magnitude. I currently have the Executor-class at a peak reactor output of 1.95e27 W, and the far more voluminous Mon Cal Viscount-class at 2.87e28.

Among the known performance features used for the Imperator's estimates is the ability to completely glass the surface of a common habitable planet in an hour. Just as a point of reference.

[goldstonegolem64]

Hope returns Book 1  Chapter 34 Vanguard part 2 Halberd and Wardog

A twenty minutes before the colossus appeared 

Beauregard was flying the ship at top speed as La-Sai had jumped into the one of the defensive terminal  in the bridge and activated the disk shape turret ands started firing on the squadron  

“ OK Beau what's the plan here?” 

“ Well we use a wormhole to get out of here but there is one problem” Beau said as he sharply turn the castile of lion to avoid an ion cannon blast 

“And what Is that?” La-sai  asked

“ I can’t make wormholes” Beau said 

“ Oh That's not good” La-Sai said 

“ Yeah I know. Hey Coran How are the Flux Generator Plates doing?” Beau asked as a screen appeared in the bridge showing Coran as he slipped in and out of view 

“ We can jump about two to three more times before any of the plates break “ Coran said as he spited out of sight again 

“ OK then. to the rest of the crew how long till any of you get to the bridge most importantly Allura?” Beau Asked over the comms  as he started redirecting his bodies to other defensive terminals  through the ship.

“I’m almost to the bridge” Allura said as she Shay and Nyma were booking it towards bridge 

“ were almost there as well”  Adam and Shiro said in unison  

“  i m here “ hunk said has he ran into the bridge 

“it will take  Me and Keith a little bit because we don’t now how to get ou” the ship started to shake followed by lance and Keith  yelling in surprise and the sound of water splashing around and bodies hitting the floor “ Never mind “ Lance groaned 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JQ820nUujk

In the quintessence rejuvenation chamber Zarkon and Haggar stood there  watching as the castle of lions was running away from them again.

Haggar looked towards zarkon . “    Lord Zarkon do you wish to send the twins  now before they have a chance to escape” She asked 

Zarkon  ponder this for a moment “ Sent Quinn he is more level head then his sister but keep her on stand by just in case he doesn't his own against the Valkyrie “  ZArkon said

 “ Alright my lord “ Haggar replied then she turned on her commas “ Quinn get to your mech and Harley  stay behind and be ready to back him up in case he gets into trouble.” Haggar ordered 

“ Yes lady Haggar”  Harley said 

“ As you command Lady Haggar” Quinn said he looked over to his sister “ looks like i’m up to bat “ Quinn said 

“ just stay alive out there brother” Harley said as she started walking towards a pod as she walked towards hers  

“ i will try but remember what mother said” Quinn said 

“ Never make promise you can't keep. Just try your all i have left  “ Harley said 

Quinn quietly noded to his sister as he and her climbed their re pod that a loud him to control the his mech called nemesis A-1 beta or as he called it The halbird. It was small them the other four but that was the point it was made to fight voltron in a one on one do to it’s smaller size and speed  it would easily be able to dodge any attack that voltron or valkyrie  would use against him.But ever if he was build to handle both of them. He he would prefer to fight voltron over then valkyrie to it being the base of what he was going to be piloting and after seeing what it could do to a squadron of warships inthe reports he would rather fight the slower bulker mech that had five people piloting it that could start arguing if stressed enough compare to the faster smaller one that had one guy who would not stop until he was dead no matter how stressed he got  .But thats where is sister would come in  if he ran in to it he thought as the both pod  were slowly being lower out of the room and into the hanger that held held  the halberd.

As for Harley she was  lowered into the hanger that held the nemesis A-2 bate or as she called it war dog. It was the biggest of the four and it was armored to the teeth with twin rail guns on  it’s shoulders it’s top two hands held two blades one was a sword that looked like a nail  the other was a war hammer as the lower two could grab either to massive chain belted slug throwers, two more rail cannons, two corrosive gas throwers and another blade and an Axe.it also had to missile Silo on it’s back that could replace the shoulder canons and if all that fail the ion core that powered the wardog could self destruct and the power from that explosion could destroy a planet .But The downside to all this was  It’s armor it  was heavy duty made to withstand a fall from orbit or the surface of a star but do to that the war dog was super slow and a massive target either of the two enemy mechs but they would have to get passed everything she had and her brother.

Haggar watched a screen as watched as the two pods each holding a different twin were load into the mechs. She turn her attention towards another screen that showed how the synchronisation between mech and pilot.  She watch how the synchronisation screen intently as it showed how fast the twins had synined with their mechs . As she watched she thought back to her first mech she had made with the gladiator Myzax and how fast he was beaten because of his hated toward the black paladin. Then she thought about project beholder. it was made by mutating a lizard like beast  it was built to handle multiple target at once but it was defeated as well do to do votron gaining a new weapon and then there was prorok a failure from the start . each one of them failed and made voltron and the valkyrie stronger. But she didn't care about  those failure because with each one she gained new information that she could use to made the next mech she would create would be able to handle what every those two would throw at it. 

  As she thought this both wardog and the halberd were fully charged and started to leave their hangers. A smile creeped across her face as she though how Voltron and the valkyrie would handle the twi and what new information she would get from this encounter. 

In the living room of the prometheus jay was asleep on the couch with Fitz sleeping next to him. He felt at peace until he heard Val’s voice in the back of his mind

“My pilot something is on it’s way here “ Val said worried 

Jay started to stir from his slumber as he did he could hear the sounds of explosions from outside of the hanger. “ Ok let me guess we were found by central command again and were about to jump again” he guess as he gently moved Fitz’s head off his shoulder and got up from the couch and start to walk out of the living room  and into the hanger  

“ Your are right about that but I’m picking up two new energy signatures and one is staying close to central command and the other is coming towards  us at breakneck speed. it’s right on top of us.” Val said 

Jay looked towards the hanger’s enters and time seemingly slowed down as he watched as a mechanized giffin the size of the black lion and Val in her dragon mod fly by the enters. An just as quickly as it appeared it flow out of sight. Jay felt a chill run down his spine as he run back into the Prometheus to get his Bayard and a shirt

in the bridge

“ Coran how long till we can make a jump” Allura said as a screen appeared show Coran 

“ Right about now” Coran said as a new wormhole appeared a half a mile away as it appeared Jay’s voice came over the intercoms with a little bit of fear in his voice “guy’s we’ve got trouble.”  Everyone has was confessed by this until the ship started shaking

“ What was that?”  Adam asked 

“Barrier integrity at 96  .” Beau said the ship shack again “ barrier integrity  at 82%”  

“ What is hitting us” Allura asked as she fired the castle’s thrusters to the limit 

“ Don’t know give me a second to find out” Pidge said as she rapidly tapped away at the console she was sitting at. “Got it” Pidge said as the castle of lions   entered the wormhole. A new screen appeared at the front of the bridge and showed a silver blur flying around the ship every so often fire a bolt of plasma flow out and the ship shouk again 

“ 72 %”  

“ Should we go out there to fight it?” Kieth asked Allura a little consurend

“ 69%″

“ Not until were out of the wormhole. Because if that thing hits you you’ll might be thrown out of into a random part of space.” Allura said

“ 60%” 

“ Then what do we do just let it hit us ?” Lance asked

“ 55%”

“ We Wait a few more seconds” Allura said as the castle of lions exited the wormhole 

a few seconds before exiting the wormhole 

in the halberd Quinn was having the time of his life as he flow around and fired upon the castle of lions. He felt like he was back home racing with his father and aunt. it was a feeling of true bless as he flew the halberd as he flew a warning appeared on his screen telling that he was about to exit the wormhole. He readied the  tracking beacon that was build in to the halberd. HE stopped firing and braced for where ever he was going to end up. As both the halberd and the castle of lions exited the wormhole . As he exited the wormhole he found himself in the middle of a swirling dust vortex 

“ Ok time turn on the beacon” Quinn told himself as he started to turn on the beacon but he notice that there was no signal coming from it. “ Well it looks like i need to get out of here  before i can call in the cavalry. “ Quinn said  he looked around the vortex and saw an opening at the top and started to move toward it  .But before he could moving toward the vortex’s exit a warning appeared in front of his screen warning him of an oncoming attack. He turned towards the castle of lions and saw a huge beam soaring  towards him  quickly dodge the particle beam that would have seriously damaged him if he didn’t dodge that hit. but only seconds after the beam disapped hundreds of smaller plasma bolts flow towards him and bolted toward the exit at the Halberd top speed . As he was flying away from the onslaught of plasma bolts and dodge another particle beam another. But after a few seconds the bolts stopped flying passed him and then a another  warning appeared telling him about an object flying toward him at faster then he was flying towards him. the moment it was right on top of him i went passed him he looked to see what it was in front of him and saw a huge metal woman facing him as it flow backward it’s spaer in one hand and a staff with a small glowing ball at the top of it in the other.

Quinn quickly fired a few shots at it. the first three shots were batted away by the valkyrie‘s spear. the next two shots were blocked by the wings as they closed around the valkyrie and for a brief second the valkyrie stopped. Quinn saw that as his opportunity to get passed them and in doing so He pushed the halberds thruster beyond their limits as he rocket toward the exit of the vortex  

“ Ok that was close but as long as i keep a good distance i can get of he-” quinn was cut off by several warning signs of oncoming objects 

in the cockpit of the valkyrie   

“ there is no way in hell your getting away from  me birdy ” Jay yelled as he launched a energy ball straight at his fleeing as the ball flow Jay pointed the spear and fire three bolts to follow the ball. “ val put that counter into are speed “ He ordered 

“ on it my pilot “ Val replied  as a green aura appeared around the valkyrie. it rocket toward the fleeing mech 

Quinn saw the oncoming attacks an dodge the ball of energy. it soared passed him but the bolts Were much fast then the ball and his only option was to test out that counter Lady haggar told him about. He quickly turned the Halberd around and closed the wings around him and blocked the three bolts . a smile crept across his face as diverted that power to the halberd’s speed and turned it back around and started flying away twins as fast as before   

Jay and Val looked on dumbstruck as their target just straight up copied one of their abilities “ this is bad. “ JAy said as opened a com channel to the castle 

In the bridge of the castle of lions. 

Shiro was taking to  matt over the ships comms 

“ How are the plates holding up ?” Shiro asked 

“ Not good one more jump and were going to be stuck there with no way of escape” Matt SAid as Coran slide behind him 

“ Okay then but when can we jump again.” Allura asked 

“ Well we need to let the plates cool down which will take a few minutes.” Matt replied as coran slide back into view.

“but what if the galra find us?” Keith asked

“ We would still need to let the plates cool down because i don’t know what will happen if the plates brake mid wormhole jump.” Matt replied as he remembered what happened to ships that had their warp engines explode while in warp space.

“ Alright keep us posted “ Shiro said 

 “ will do and Hunk “ MAtt said

“ Yeah what is it?” Hunk asked 

“ Those cookies you make earlier today have  small cases of skulltrite in them.So they can be used in one jump before they break. So thanks for that “ Matt replied 

“ Your welcome” Hunk replied

 “ Alright then Jay how's it going with dispatching of this new robeast?” Shiro asked 

“ UH not Good turns out this thing is just like the valkyrie in more ways than one. See as it just counted my shots and gained a speed boost from it So i think will need to jump as soon as possible if i can’t destroy it in time “ Jay said 

“ Do you need Assistants?” Shiro asked 

“ Yessss” Jay replied 

“ Alright team suit up and get to your lions “ Shiro said

Jay and val pov 

“ How the hell is this thing faster than us?” JAy said as he slammed his bayard into the slot and turned it 

“well are speed boost was smaller than others before and it had a head start on us “ val replied as both the spear and the staff disappeared. and what took their place was the bow. Val pulled back the bows string and an energy arrow  appeared . She head on to it letting it charge up to full power and to let her target systems lock onto their target .then she release it the Arrow anit  soared across space    

Quinn’s pov 

“ Just a few more seconds and were out of here “ He said as he was getting closer to the vortex’s exit. He could see that the tracking beacons signal was getting stronger the closer he got. The another warning appeared on his screen again. Quinn groaned “ What is it this time “ He looked at the screen to see that he had something flying towards him in a straight line . He move to the side to avoid it. But as he did the object moved with him. “ Quiznak i’ve been locked on to” He looked the halberd side to side trying to shake off the thing flying towards him. As he did this he noticed that his speed was decreasing and was ever targeting him was closing distant. “Shit Shit Shit i’ve come too far to die here “ He growled as he stopped trying to shack of the incoming object and just straight gunned it out of the vortex.as he did the tracking beacons signal was no longer being block and he heard his sister voice over the comms “ Found brother were on are way” a smile creeped across Quinn’s face only to stop as the energy arrow slam right into the Halberds back exploding on contact leaving the Halberd powerless 

The valkyrie moved slow closer to the seemingly lifeless mech.the bow disappeared and the spear reappeared they used the tip of the spear to pock it. the mech slowly started to float away from them. Not moving at all  

“ my pilot why are you not destroying that thing?” Val asked 

“ Sorry i’m just thinking that if we bring this thing back to the ship maybe we can reverse engineer this thing and get another mech that Adam could pilot. So he can stop using my house all the time. “ Jay said as he was about to summon up the whip. But before he was doing this Val whipped round and her making a growling sound that Jay had never heard before. “ Hey buddy what’s wrong?” Jay asked worried 

“ there coming get ready for it” VAl said as two warships appeared followed by a few more then more and after each one appeared fighters started to pour out of them.After the last ship appeared Galre central command appeared behind all of the warships . Jay felt fear run down his spine as he looked appone the monolithic fortress. As he stared at it his comms came on 

“ Jay were on are way n-” Shiro was cut off by Jay as he yelled 

“No fall back fall back to castle and get ready to aaAAaaaaHhhhh” he was cut of by something impacting  the back of the valkyrie’s head followed by two more impacts to the lower back . Jay whipped the valkyrie around and swung the spear for the spear to be caught in the hand of a mechanical woman that was in the place of the griffin once stood.This new foe looked like Val in her human form but with one thing that was different and that was the face of a harlequin mask with a painted on smile. Then jay saw that someone was trying to contact him. He hesitated for a second  before for patch the commutation in

“ UUUh hello” Jay said confused 

“ Hi there pilot of the Valkyrie. I’m Quinn pilot of The Halberd it’s nice to meet” Quinn said with joy in his voice

Jay was super confused by this and decide to stay silent and sent a message to the other to just leave him behind and he will find a way back to them. But what he got back from them was no were on are way

“ So your going to stay quiet Ok then”    

The Halberd kicked the valkyrie square in the stomach area causing Val to let go of the spear and sending her backward and as they were flying back. The turned the spear pointing at the valkyrie and charged at the valkyrie trying to stab right through but as he got close the spear disappeared and reappeared in the valkyrie’s hands She thrust the spear forward and stabbed the halberd in the shoulder stopping them in their tracks. Quinn Felt pain shot into his shoulder. He yelled out i n pain 

“ Brother are you alright?” Harley asked with a mixture of Worry and anger

“ I’m fine how are yo-” He was cut off when he was the spear disappear and what took its place was a energy whip that whipped around one of the halberds right are and the valkyrie started to spine. Quinn tried to to break free of the whipped grasp but it was to late and he was now spinning along side the valkyrie and after a few second of being spun around the whip  that wrapped around the halberd’s arm unwrapped and sent them flying in to the side of a nearby warship. Quinn’s head slammed into the back of his seat 

“Is that all you got you bargain bin rip off “ JAy yelled 

A smile crept across Quinn’s face “ NO It’s no but thanks for asked . Hayley Now” Quinn Yelled

“ Harl-” A massive explosion engulfed the Valkyrie followed by a second, third and a fourth . After the dust and debris cleared It showed a damaged Valkyrie one of it’s wings was disconnected it’s armor was dentend it’s body was  sparking the spear was broken apart and it was floating there lifeless 

On top of a nearby Warship the wardog with all for railguns drawn and smoking  

“ HAHAhAHAHAHA” Harley was laughing her lung out at the sight.

“ Calm down sister we need to keep this thing intact and leave the pilot alive. Well in one piece at least” Quinn said as he moved the halberd closer towards the valkyrie just to make sure that the valkyries was truly offline  

“ Sorry brother i just was really wanted to see what would happen to something if i hit it with all four of my railguns  at once and it did not disappoint” Harley said as she moved closer to the valkyrie as well 

“ Good to know. “ Quinn said as moved the Valkyrie around and after he made sure it was offline he started to order fighters to move in on the Castle off lions.” Now sister take that thing back to central command and when your done come back and help me “

“ Will do “ Harley said as she grabbed The valkyrie the the detached wing. 

As Quinn watch his sister slowly fly away he heard screams over the comms coming from the fighter that had gone into the vortex . He turned around and looked down into the vortex and saw voltron booking it towards him. He quickly pulled back an barely dodged the sword swing that could have easily cut him in two if he wasn’t careful. He had to keep on dodge each swing of voltron blade. “ Hey sister i need you help over here.”

In side of voltron 

“ Keith calm down “ Shiro said as his little brother violently swung his blade with reckless abandon

“ Why should i this thing For all we know Killed Jay “ Keith yelled 

“ We don’t know if Jay’s dead or not.” Lance said

 “His comms might just  be down or he might just be” Pidge was trying to calm keith by giving him reasons onto way Jay was responding to them. But then hunk spoke up 

“ Uh Guy i hate to be the bear of bad news but look” 

A screen appeared in front of each of the pilots it’s showed the valkyrie’s wing  being held by a  four armer robeast. They watched as it turned around and what they saw next sparked anger in all of them as they saw the damaged body of the valkyrie motionlessly laying there. 

“ Ok let’s not jump the gun here we still need a pla-” Shiro  was cut off when Keith  let out a roar of anger as he started to wildly swing the sword again trying to hit the Smaller robeast that was still in front of them 

in the cockpit of the valkyrie 

Everything was muffled as Jay’s ears were ring from the multiple explosions that when off right on top of him.As he was just sitting there regaining his senses he felt something wet  going down his forehead. He didn’t even need to guess what that was. Jay grabbed onto the control stick’s of the valkyrie 

“ HEY VAl YOU UP?” Jay Yelled

“ I’m up but i need a few seconds to reboot the VAlkyrie systems “ Val said 

“ GOOD To know “ Jays hearing returned to normal then another loud Bang  when off . Jay grabbed his ears as they started ringing again “SHIT, FUCK,DAMMIt Quiznack “ He yelled  “ Why is there sound in space” as he yelled that he felt his whole world start moving on it’s own “ HEY IS THAT YOU Val?” 

“ No that is not us .I think we're about to be thrown at voltron. So brace yourself” Val said as the whole world blurred out as the Valkyrie was throw straight at voltron. Unaware of what just happened Keith was still trying to cut down the Halberd well the other were trying to calm him down and after another missed swing the Halberd rocketed downward to reveal the offline Valkyrie as i soared towards them. The team didn’t have time or know how to react to this as the valkyrie slammed into voltron’s chest. knocking Voltron back 

“ Ok is everyone ok ?” Shiro asked 

“i’m fine “ Pidge said 

“ Same here” Hunk and lance said 

“ i’m ok  “ Keith said

“ OK that hurt but i’m alive how are you ” Jay said over the comms 

“ Jay” they all yelled 

Jay winked at his name being yelled “ok hi nice to see your still here despite me saying retreat”

“ Sorry not sorry but were not leaving you behind” Shiro said

“ And we were worried after you were cut off as you were yelling at us not to come help you ” Lance said

“ Good to know”Jay saids A smile appeared on his face as the valkyrie’s power came back on. He switched  the wings for the drills wing causing the dettacked to disappeared from the war dog’s hand and then he slammed his bayard back into the slot As he was doing this the comms came to life 

“ Sorry to interrupt but were fighting or what “ Harley said as she moved the wardog closer 

“ Yes i would like to finish this before lord Zarkon decide to just bombard you with ion cannons and plasma fire ” Quinn said as a sword and shield appeared in the Halbers hands

Voltron and valkyrie looked at each other before turning back to their opponents

“So how do you think were going to get out of this one guys”Jay asked as he wiped sweat and blood from his forehead

“ Don’t know but will think of something “ Lace replied 

“ Coran Allura Beau How long until the Flux generator is ready ?” Hunk asked as he removed his cracked helmet

“ It will take a few more minutes so just hold out until then   “ Coran said

  “Well if we can’t hold out till then it’s been fun fighting alongside you guys and it’s been an Honor  serving you princess Allura and take care of the boy for me “ Jay said as he pointed the bow at the bigger of the two Robeasts 

“ It won’t come to that. Now get ready for what this two do next “ Shiro said 

But before any one could do anything Warning appeared across everyone’s screen As a  bright green triangular worm whole appeared in between the four mech as the upper  body of a colossal mech crawled out and turned to look at Both the Valkyrie and Voltron 

to be continued in part 3 

[livzthekid-blog]

A Klance Fic

(inspired by this post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmlXRLNHMKd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link )

Keith watched out the window of the red lion as a battle raged on next to him. Galra ships were exploding left and right as the lions of Voltron took the lead in the battle.

“You got a squad of fighters coming towards you Hunk!” Pidge said through the coms. Keith watched as a blur of yellow and purple whizzed passed him.

“We all need to focus our attack on the cruiser,” Shiro commanded, “Everyone on my position to form Voltron.”

Keith caught up with the black lion and held his position. Hunk and Pidge joined them quickly, but the blue paladin was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Lance?” Shiro asked.

“Right here, captain.” Lance said as his lion appeared from the battlefield. Before Lance could take his position to form Voltron, Keith felt a hit on the right side of his lion.

“You got a fighter on your six Keith,” Lance said with a smirk on his face no doubt, “I’ll get ‘em.” Keith repositioned his lion as Lance took a shot at the fighter.

“Loverboy Lance saves you aga-“. Lance’s voice went silent as he noticed what was ahead of him. The ion cannon on the cruiser was glowing bright purple, ready to fire, and aimed at the red and blue lions.

“Lance, move!” Keith yelled as the cannon fired. Keith tried to escape the blast, but he wasn’t quick enough.  Right before he was hit, something moved in front of his lion, blocking the shot.

The blue lion was sent flying through space after a direct hit from the ion cannon.

Keith regained control of his lion after the blast and looked out his window to see the blue lion flying towards a nearby planet, the force of the blast pushing it towards the planet’s surface. The lion wasn’t responding, and all of its lights were off.

“Lance!” Keith yelled. He began to pilot in the direction of the blue lion, blocking out the sounds of Shiro telling him to come back to the fight.

Keith pushed Red harder as he came closer to the planet; his only thought was Lance being hurt. Once the red lion landed next to the blue one on the planets rocky surface, Keith jumped out of his lion and ran towards Blue’s mouth.

“Please let me in,” Keith said to the lion, “I can help him.” Blue opened her mouth hesitantly and Keith ran to the cockpit, spotting Lance as he dashed in. He was unconscious in the pilot’s seat, his bayard on the floor and head resting on the back of his chair.

“Lance, wake up.” Keith pleaded as he unbuckled the paladin’s seatbelt and fell with him to the floor. Keith ripped Lance’s helmet off. “Lance!” Keith yelled now. The blue paladin slowly opened his eyes and blue eyes met violet ones.

“Keith?” Lance said in a hoarse voice, barely able to keep his eyes open.

“You are going to be okay,” Keith said, not completely believing his own words.

“Keith, I…” Lance coughed out. His eyes began to close, and his breathing slowed.

“No Lance you can’t die on me,” Keith said, cupping Lance’s face with his hand.

“It’s okay Keith,” Lance said, “If there was anyone in this galaxy I would want to sacrifice myself for, it would be you.” Tears began to roll down Keith’s cheeks.

“You were supposed to be my future Lance,” he whispered, pulling the paladin closer to him.

Lance reached a hand up and touched Keith’s scar slowly, still gazing into his eyes.

“Now you can be the world’s,” Lance whispered. His arm fell slowly off of Keith’s face and he went limp into Keith’s arms as he breathed a final breath. Tears streamed down Keith’s face as he slowly brushed Lance’s hair aside and kissed him on the forehead before calling the team for backup, even though he knew it was too late.