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...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He hadn't expected to see a result yet after being approached about the bugs he'd led out, but it seems they've been of more use than the thought - even when he got to see part of the process.]

I'm pleased to see they could be of further use than originally made for.

[Jetfire smiles, having stopped in the air above the mountains somewhere between Liege and Megatronus' quadrants to observe the bloom of glowing bugs from Prima's light-tipped tower.]

As am I. It was a sound design; it merely needed some adjustments, mostly for longevity.

[The other details, she has already mentioned. Jetfire is lucky he can hear her at all, considering the sheer noise of tiny wings coming from the Prime's comm.

Meanwhile, the pixels begin to form trails down from the tower, several of which pass reasonably close to Jetfire's location. They light the way down toward the ground, in the unlit dark between the two quadrants. Will Jetfire follow?]

[He might have to work a bit harder to filter away the noise of tiny buzzing wings and rotors, but it's not impossible.]

That, ah... doesn't surprise me. I admit I'm not well-used to the sort of construction I was using, even less something that small.

[And they'd been small already for him, but even if they were even tinier for the Firstforged, they did have more recourse to handle that.

Even as he speaks, he resets systems to descend downwards, feet first, using hovers and his thrusters both to follow the little bugs downwards, careful to fly down between the columns of light.]

You still did well. Had it not been for the badlands, I imagine they would have proved much more self-sufficient.

[Jetfire seems to have chosen a far-ranging bunch; if he follows them all of the way to their destination, they will take him nearly to the edge of haven territory.

The area seems especially barren, which is a little odd, given the beautiful gleaming crystals that stud out of a single, isolated hill. The pixels seem to brighten as they flutter around, not-quite-touching the crystals themselves, but the area puts off a foreboding feeling...especially if Jetfire is paying any attention to his sensors.

That feeling...might explain the corpses at the base of the hill.]

Ah, point... I hadn't thought the Badlands might influence the integrity of their construction, since they didn't contain any cyberstatic energy at all; I wiped mine from the self-repair nanomachines I used as a substructure.

[Humming thoughtfully over that as he descended, following the bright streaks of light of uncountable little pixels. The crystals, when they come into sight, make him circle the area at first, and he certainly is paying attention.

If not to the foreboding feeling, then to the little bugs not quite touching, whereas they otherwise ought to be attracted to that glow and crawling all over the crystals, plus, well... the corpses. When he lands, it's a hopefully few safe frame-lengths away.

He feels like they ought to be familiar, but he can't put his finger on it.]

... A, ah, question. Do you recognise these?

[And let him just switch to video and show the crystals. Better ask someone who might know, after all!]

[Solus goes quiet for a long moment. Eventually, even the pixels fall silent on the other end of her comm.]

...Well then. So that is what happened to them.

[Jetfire falls silent as well, because yes... these would be former Refugees, wouldn't they? He'd completely glossed over them as anything but evidence that some care had to be taken.

... Oops.]

Ah. I, er... apologise. These would be a few of the earlier Refugees?

...Indeed. All had been seemingly Lost with the rest, but it seems these unfortunates met a somewhat different fate in the process.

As for the crystals... I had been lead to believe that we had eradicated all sources of that unfortunate mineral from the area, aside from a 'small' sample for scientific study.

I suppose these are the remnants.

['Small sample' her aft.]

Would you like them to be left where they are, or should I attempt some form of... ah, retrival?

[He carefully walks closer, but yet stops a distance away from the cluster, unconciously rubbing a hand down the opposite arm from the prickling feeling and, curiously, extending his EM field as far as it can go--- Which leaves him wincing when it reaches far enough and he automatically takes a step backwards.]

Hm. disruptive charge on just an electric field, I assume... it would be quite fatal for actual electric systems within reach.

[Video - Evening] Lights amongst the dark

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