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Date Posted: 17:52:52 01/18/02 Fri
Author: Lady Embyr
Subject: "Maneuverability...yes...but evacuation at such an early stage..."
In reply to: Lord Lye-Onitron 's message, "I am loathe to suggest it..." on 13:43:59 01/18/02 Fri

Embyr, floored, trailed off. The cursed Maximal senator had chosen just the right words to quietly attack her weakness, her dependence on her hoverchair to move about. 'Maneuverability' indeed--she knew the kind of games he played. But this was a trivial aside, nothing compared to the information Betacron had supplied. She studied his readings once more. Four planets. A Star. All five gone. Something about that number haunted her and she found her thoughts spiralling once more, her focus draining away. So much didn't make sense. Why was Betacron replacing her chair? With all that was on his mind, his choosing to ignore when Hegemon and Schism addressed him directly, his outburst moments earlier, the replacement of her destroyed chair was a truly selfless act of kindness. It fueled her with hope that the Predacons, descended from her own faction, might still carry within them the same sense of honor that select Decepticons carried. Of course, having the chair delivered to her quarters would pose a problem down the road when she required it affixed in the conference room with the other senators', but it was the thought that counted.

A small star system was gone. A derelict starbase was in danger of falling under the control of rogues bearing her faction's insignia. Someone had scaled their building in a failed and yet explosive assassination attempt. Mobs gathered in the streets below. There was unrest among their people. Talk of abandoning their homeworld was being thrown back and forth across the table. Four unidentified masses, possibly the cause of such unprecedented destruction, were on a trajectory for their position. She wondered if anyone on the moon had seen any sign of the approach. Was the fleet ready? Did Betacron have as much sway with the military as Lye-Onitron seemed to? Had he made preparations? Once more, Embyr found herself internalizing the barrage of data. She closed her optics.

"Your greatest strength is your mind."

She opened her optics once more and regarded the room with the penetrating stare of a lioness. For a fleeting second, Lye-Onitron saw not the doddering old woman the centuries had resulted in, but the fierce female seeker who had hunted her Autobot prey ruthlessly with little hesitation, and far less failure. From within a rusted husk of a body she spoke strongly and clearly, so that all gathered could hear.

"Fellow senators, of all that we have faced this day, we would be fools to ignore the facts as Lord Betacron has presented them. I for one support his proposition to recommission our stockpiled arsenal. Though the instruments of war are a grim reminder of our violent past, we cannot discount the old models as valuable assets in the fight for peace and survival.

Evacuation is not an option. Not until we know our enemy. We know a star system is inexplicably gone, be it destroyed or removed somehow. We know something was in its vicinity, and that four such somethings are headed our way. Betacron, I do hope that you asking Quickstream to ready a departure form the Jaunt Bay doesn't mean you'll consider leaving. I for one welcome the comforts of home to some degree, having spent so long wandering. The fuel of a Decepticon flows through you, Predacon though you may be. I thank you for your generosity in the matter of my chair's mysterious suffering. Clearly this impending threat, a weight which you have borne alone and not without feeling the effects, is all-consuming, and yet you took time for such a small thing. Hegemon, your fellow Predacon, is correct. We didn't flee from Unicron, and the chaos-bringer's orbitting head is a reminder of what a united Cybertron can accomplish.

Once we were divided as Autobots and Decepticons. Now, if we stand united as Decepticons, Predacons, Vehicons, Autobots and Maximals-- A light cough from Shelley's direction gave her pause, if for a second "--and of course our human friends, think what we can withstand? I vote for us to stand our ground. Surely Velocity is prepared thanks to Nav-Ops foresight. Though it might not hold back the threat it will buy us time to implement Betacron's plan. And if it does come down to a question of maneuverability, we can always rely on the option of Pegasus Hub as am alternative to Lord Onitron's Transwarp Gate recommendation. I have travelled, Senators, and I know how fragile space is with all the corridors, wormholes, and other spatial manipulations caused by the immense traffic out there among the stars. Why, it's nothing short of miraculous the SPUniverse never crumbled, though I'm certain our more scientifically verbose would sneer at my crude warrior's terminology. No, I believe the resources at hand may serve us fine."

There. She had said her piece, and had no doubt the other Senators would soon join in. And she had directly opposed Lye-Onitron's last suggestion as well. No games, no mixed words, simply stating her opinion and presenting the alternative. The last detail which gnawed at her spark was the matter of Shelley.

Much like Moloch, she had noticed the fleshling's need to have a slice of every dessert, so to speak. At least Onitron had some technological aspects and a shared origin. What bonds did the humans have to Cybertron? How had befriending her enemies centuries prior entitled them to spread forth from Earth like a Scraplet infection, inserting themselves in every moonbase, starbase, and colony they could find? Humans barely lived a century, a speck of dust in the lifetime of a Cybertronian. And one sat on the Senate now. Rumor had it, he had placed a relation in the council!

One thing at a time. First they would deal with this threat, as Cybertronians often did. If her painful longevity had taught her anything, it was that the big things were often trivial and never as bad as anticipated in hindsight, and that the small things were the ones that, if you missed or ignored, could snowball into something major. She thought once more of Betacron's attention to her chair in the midst of all the serious matters, and realized that besides Decius, there might yet be another senator who percieved the SPUniverse the way she did. Time would tell whether or not her assessment was erroneous...

"What is youth except a man or woman before it is fit to be seen?"
-Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966)

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