Broadwing had a few automated drones to spar against, as well as some non-lethal weapons to try out, such as stun batons and pistols. Technology had not yet advanced enough to produce the hard-light projection technology that ships in the far future would use in their training rooms, but a control panel did allow Broadwing to modify the shape of the floor to an extent- at the moment it was simply flat, but sections of it could be elevated and depressed.
The drone does not react. The control panel for the room could activate the machines, however.
“Man, I’m telling you, something bad is about to happen any minute now,” Thrift promises a customer at his store.
“I’ve figured it out; it’s like a TV show: every time we come out of transwarp somewhere, something’s gonna happen. Bludgeon attacks, transporter accidents, black holes, monster of the week, spacetime shenanigans, whatever- something happens to put the ship and her crew in imminent peril and we gotta fight our way out of it. Rinse 'n repeat for however long this mission’s gonna last.”
“…Uh-huh…” the customer responds, raising an eyebrow.
Some of the insecticons begin to wake, emerging from their pods and sleepily wandering around the cavern. The miners give them a wide berth, trying not to provoke them.
Sprocket had several different windows open on the console: four showed summaries of the vital statistics of the comatose mechanimals in each hall, another displayed the facility’s inventory of plant samples, and the rest presumably related to the ground bridge. Sprocket frowns; there was a lot that was difficult to understand, and the language barrier was not helping one bit.
Gronius decided to do what he left the hive for. He transformed to dragon mode and swooped outside the building before landing in front of an Energon crystal and trying to take it out of the ground.
“Don’t do anything to provoke them,” Forcep advises. “Maybe try to establish communication with the sapient ones- do you see the queen anywhere?”
Sprocket looks over at the bird.
“Yeah,” he sighs, “it’s pretty complicated. But if I can figure out how the ground bridge works more-”
Ironically, Sprocket accidentally activates the machine right at that moment. Anyone in the main chamber was instantly teleported to Little Iacon’s city square in a flash of white light.
Zepar looks at Skitter, “Forcep asked if there is a queen or sapient Insecticons visible in this hive.” He said.
Shadowraker was surprised but managed to recover as she fell. She circled around for a bit and then landed near the others to see if they were alright. She gives a sarcastic sounding caw at Sprocket as if to say “Careful what you wish for.”
Skitter looks around, before pointing to a massive insecticon- the largest in the hive.
“If that’s not the queen…” he says.
She hung above the ground, suspended by cables plugged into ports along her back and strands of biomechanical material. Her six legs were working in tandem with many smaller appendages extending from her thorax to build the beginnings of a body of a new insecticon around a small, faint, flickering spark.
Sprocket sits up, rubbing the back of his head and glaring at Shadowraker.
Zepar tries the Universal Greeting again, lowering his volume a little bit from before so as to not startle anyone as badly or set off any cave-ins…again.
Shadowraker gave him a look that said, “Well, you did want to know how that console worked.” then she flies off to find Zepar.
Zepar nods, speaking Ancient as best he could, “We from very far away, vessel damaged and restoring with Energon from here.” he began, “Found you asleep and stopped mining, afraid we were stealing.”
He explained as best he could their situation and hopes to maybe help this hive flourish again.