re_alignment | [Video - Evening] Lights amongst the dark

[The camera clicks on, and two very different Primes appear. Solus Prime is kneeling down, examining what appears to be a large, metal container as she speaks with Liege, who watches on. A moment goes by before she gives the comm, held in unmoving acolyte hands, a glance.]

-Prima's Touch was a clever addition. It will be interesting to see if his boon will help them survive the wilds more readily- Ah, very good.

[She stands, dusting off her hands with the faintest of pleased smirks.]

In the interests of continuing our work, we have elected to make this next experimental addition for improving Cybertron a bit more...visible.

[She turns a bit somber, optics softening.]

It also happens that it has been an entire solar cycle since you all have started arriving here once more. Roughly. Perhaps that is not a cause for celebration for many of you, but it is still a significant occasion to be honored.

[She gestures to her brother, who rises the lid so she can reach into the container and pulls out...what seems to be a handful of light. In actuality, it is what appears to be little glowing robobugs. They skitter across her plating, varied in design quirks but largely resembling a cross between rotor-laden dragonflies and moths with delicate metallic wiring.]

[Liege reaches out, picking one up in-between his claws and examining it closely--it might be obvious to all who were present for it that these definitely have a relationship to Jetfire's glowbugs.]

It would be best if you left them alone to do their job. They are perfectly harmless. However, they are designed to seek out raw resources and other sources of energy, so following their glow could be quite...lucrative. Consider it something of a treasure hunt, if you will.

Among a plethora of other functions. They should also be able to give us more information about the boundaries and composition of the badlands, once they depart the Haven. Until then...perhaps some enjoyment can be found in their display.

[Solus shrugs faintly, before lifting the lid holding back the swarm and vanishes in the midst of the glowing rush of tiny wings.]

...

[For those not watching the communicators or happen to be outside...from the top of Prima's glowing tower, a different sort of light slowly emerges, and seems to balloon out. The cloud gets larger and larger, like glowing smoke, before breaking up and fanning out in all directions and lighting up the sky.

For the next week, the swarm of Pixels will flock around the Haven, highlighting various, previously unknown energon pools, crystals, and even some nice finds in the junkyard. Solus Prime will be releasing a new batch each night, adding to the swarm until they eventually depart, en mass, for parts unknown.]

[Note: Those who reply to this message with an in-character action of following the pixels will be rewarded with a small item! Be creative in specifying where and how, and see what treasure awaits...]

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[Cliffjumper had been sitting out on one of the bridges that spanned the gorge in Vector's temple, cleaning his weapons, when the bugs started to pop up.

He remembered the similar happening earlier, and, frowning, checked the Link. That frown then slowly went deeper, laden with suspicion as the bugs flew around him and in streams both above and below, through the gorge.

How much could this be trusted, promised useful stuff or not? Cliffjumper wasn't prone to trusting mechs he didn't know, even if these were some type of Primes...]

[Whether he follows or not, the pixel trail doesn't seem to be vanishing any time soon. Some flit across the length of the gorge, while no small number descend straight down into the unlit depths.

They light the way, but only just. It looks like a steep climb; will Cliffjumper follow?]

[He tries to ignore the trails of light for a klik or two, but it's slagging near impossible, even if everything is pretty bright out here, around the temple.]

... Fraggin' pit. Fine.

[With a scowl and brief rattle of his engine, Cliffjumper puts his weapons and supplies away and goes to get his jetpack; that sort of climb didn't look smart to attempt without security measures, so he went, instead, for the other option available to him - flight.

Eyeing the ones trailing along the gorge, when Cliffjumper jumps off the walkway, he aims downwards. He might also be carrying a gun, since well. He remembers what happened when he went looking for Blurr along the gorge and found some sort of... creature.]

[Brave mech.

The pixels continue on down, down, down; for a long minute, the flight down might seem endless. The sides of the canyon begin to get narrow in places, rocks jutting out irregularly; this is not the safest of flights, even with the dull white glow of the pixels leading the way. Then, abruptly, a different glow begins to appear as he gets closer to the bottom, which is very rapidly approaching.

Sticking out from the bottom of the gorge are absolutely massive blue energon crystals, bigger than gestalts are tall. The seem to line the entire length of the canyon, jutting out in all directions and casting a brilliant blue light along the walls. Despite their size, they can't be seen from the surface; Cliffjumper is very far down.]

[He doesn't like this. Not at all, but he follows, stubborn even when the gorge narrows around him. It makes him twitchy though, since this jetpack is larger than his old one, and at some points he mostly uses the jetpack to keep afloat, partly 'climbing' down along the gorge to keep both his jetpack and himself safely uninjured.

He's considering turning back up right around the time the glow from below appears, because this is taking too long...]

... Slag.

[Optics widening as he slowly gets closer, it's suddenly apparent how big these things are... and that they're energon crystals, which he frankly hasn't seen much of before he got to the negative polarity universe, and then only as the evaporation deposits around the Sea of Rust.

It makes his plating crawl and, the longer he stays, he sort of feels... itchy. His fuel systems seem to be glitching slightly as well.

It takes a few kliks before he catches on though, because frag those are some huge energon crystals. Not that... he knows what to do with that, but Cliffjumper soon realises that he should probably get out of here before he starts feeling worse.]

[Cliffjumper should have enough time to retreat. As big as they are, the distance between the minibot and the crystals is greater than it seems.

Even so, he should do it quickly. The amount of radiation is vast.

Unfairly, the pixels don't seem adversely effected at all. Their light just seems to glow more brightly.]

[At least there's some small relief in that, and the pixels, when he notices their brightened glow, get a grimace as he changes the jetpack's settings to let him fly upwards again.]

Yeah, yeah, you just do that. Ain't gonna help me.

[With a huff, he starts to ascend; not an exceedingly useful trip, but if nothing else if he's chased by something he'll know where to lead them and hope they succumb before him... or, if he gets some more protection he could probably get a piece or two...

Not that he's sure what he would do with pure energon crystals; he's not knowledgeable in the refining and processing of that into liquid such. Though small pieces could work as substitute bombs...]

[Video - Evening] Lights amongst the dark

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