POSSIBLE AUGUST HUGE PLOT
So you all know I've been mumbling about a plot for August.
Here is the tentative outline I've submitted to the moderators. It hasn't been approved yet.
Short version:
Starscream builds a robot army, then tries to simultaneously turn the population of the City into Cybertronian robots (human sized, but with sparks and alt modes), all the machines of the city into Cybertronian drones (bit like animals of various types), and brainwash them all into thinking he's awesome.
He's going to fail, because this is Starscream.
THE HIDEOUSLY LONG VERSION, IN WHICH I GO INTO PAINFUL DETAIL AS TO HOW THIS WILL ALL GO DOWN:
Obviously this plot comes in several stages.
STAGE ONE: ROBOT ARMY AND THE PLACEMENT OF THE VECTOR SIGMA DEVICE
The robot army is easy - Starscream's building a bunch of combat robots. They're quite a bit like Cylon centurions, if you've ever seen Battlestar Galactica - seven to eight foot tall humanoid fighting machines. They ain't complicated, they do as he orders, and yes, they can be hacked by talented hackers and/or technopaths. He's been working on the designs for months, and is trying to use the excuse of possible war on the HIVE to get delicious government backing to actually build them.
This robot army will be used to lock down a section of Manhattan surrounding the Empire State Building, and then to take the building itself. Any deaths caused during Stage One will be purely accidental or otherwise not Starscream's fault. Things like people falling off balconies or causing car accidents in surprise, or committing suicide. The battle robots are designed specifically to stun, not kill, and while they have the ability to knock out a person for several hours, Starscream will be trying to keep people alive, as he wants as many people as possible at ground zero for his device. The robots are also armed with EMP rays (much like Starscream's own) to short out pesky things like cell phones, security cameras, reporter's cameras, and so on. Security guards will be disarmed via use of stun rays.
The only exception will be heroes on the scene. Starscream knows better than to fuck around with imPorted, so lethal force will be thrown the way of any heroes that happen to be at the scene. If... anyone has any suggestions for making the robots more interesting/capable against super opponents, I am welcome to suggestions.
Also of note: Starscream won't be doing any gloating or announcing over the network at all. There will be no accidental video posts - heroes will have to find out on their own that shit is going down.
STAGE TWO - TURNING PEOPLE AND MACHINES INTO SLAVES LOYAL CITIZENS OF NEW CYBERTRON
Starscream himself will take the Vector Sigma device to the top of the Empire State Building, at which point he will activate the first part of it. This will unfold and turn the very top of the building into a giant platform surrounded by banks of computers, the centerpiece of which is a huge 3d representation of a hypercube. Zero, if this is OK with you, Waspinator will be dragged with him for this (possibly by Shockwave?) and then strapped to the device with a big ol' spike of raw energon poised above him.
Starscream's is to kill Waspinator by destabilizing his spark, which will then allow the device to trace the appropriate hyperdimensional coordinates to link back up to the Well of All Sparks, allowing Starscream to draw on its energy to fuel the device. The device will then send out shockwaves of Allspark energy throughout the city, bringing machines to life, and, through technology stolen from the Bioliberator (provided way back when by Courtney Gears), turn people into machines and their souls into Sparks (if they didn't have souls in the first place, they can either suddenly have sparks, or they can just. Be drones.). Soundwave then uses his powers (amplified via the Vector Sigma device) to hypnotize the resulting 'bots into thinking that everything is awesome and they should totally listen to their new rules.
Obviously, the heroes should stop this from happening. Ideally, what I'd love to see happen is this:
Heroes fight their way up through the Empire State Building, making up robot opponents as they feel appropriate.
Heroes then burst into the top chamber (or just fly up there, if they are awesome.) People then fight the lead Decepticons - Shockwave, Slipstream, Soundwave (if the players want to be involved in this foolishness, anyway), and any others we have by then. If the Honorary Decepticons (Chronos, Kiryu, Slade, etc) and mayyybe Sentinel (if Stars can convince him) want to participate as well, they're more than welcome.
Decepticons are defeated or flee.
Somewhere in the confusion, Waspinator is freed. I'm not sure exactly how it will go down, but, as I have discussed before with Zero, I'd like Waspinator to deal the killing blow to Starscream, using the very energon spike Starscream was going to use on Wasp.
OPTIONALLY, IF YOU GUYS THINK THIS IS COOL/FEASIBLE, Starscream's death could be enough to fuel the device, though the coordinates won't be perfect and it won't be calibrated correctly. The result would be random machines around the city turning into semi-sentient robots (a la the Mountain Dew machine) for people to fight (… or befriend, a la Mothchan, if anyone is so inclined), and random people turning into robots with sparks (totally up to the players if they want to do this, and obviously Grinbitch would reverse this later. Though I suppose if a soul-less character wanted to keep their newly found robot-soul, they could, if the mods don't object.) They wouldn't get any new powers, they'd just be robots (just like the last time the Bioliberator was used.)
… so yeah.
Y/N/Suggestions/TEAL WTF
*e* approved for august 2nd
Here is the tentative outline I've submitted to the moderators. It hasn't been approved yet.
Short version:
Starscream builds a robot army, then tries to simultaneously turn the population of the City into Cybertronian robots (human sized, but with sparks and alt modes), all the machines of the city into Cybertronian drones (bit like animals of various types), and brainwash them all into thinking he's awesome.
He's going to fail, because this is Starscream.
THE HIDEOUSLY LONG VERSION, IN WHICH I GO INTO PAINFUL DETAIL AS TO HOW THIS WILL ALL GO DOWN:
Obviously this plot comes in several stages.
STAGE ONE: ROBOT ARMY AND THE PLACEMENT OF THE VECTOR SIGMA DEVICE
The robot army is easy - Starscream's building a bunch of combat robots. They're quite a bit like Cylon centurions, if you've ever seen Battlestar Galactica - seven to eight foot tall humanoid fighting machines. They ain't complicated, they do as he orders, and yes, they can be hacked by talented hackers and/or technopaths. He's been working on the designs for months, and is trying to use the excuse of possible war on the HIVE to get delicious government backing to actually build them.
This robot army will be used to lock down a section of Manhattan surrounding the Empire State Building, and then to take the building itself. Any deaths caused during Stage One will be purely accidental or otherwise not Starscream's fault. Things like people falling off balconies or causing car accidents in surprise, or committing suicide. The battle robots are designed specifically to stun, not kill, and while they have the ability to knock out a person for several hours, Starscream will be trying to keep people alive, as he wants as many people as possible at ground zero for his device. The robots are also armed with EMP rays (much like Starscream's own) to short out pesky things like cell phones, security cameras, reporter's cameras, and so on. Security guards will be disarmed via use of stun rays.
The only exception will be heroes on the scene. Starscream knows better than to fuck around with imPorted, so lethal force will be thrown the way of any heroes that happen to be at the scene. If... anyone has any suggestions for making the robots more interesting/capable against super opponents, I am welcome to suggestions.
Also of note: Starscream won't be doing any gloating or announcing over the network at all. There will be no accidental video posts - heroes will have to find out on their own that shit is going down.
STAGE TWO - TURNING PEOPLE AND MACHINES INTO SLAVES LOYAL CITIZENS OF NEW CYBERTRON
Starscream himself will take the Vector Sigma device to the top of the Empire State Building, at which point he will activate the first part of it. This will unfold and turn the very top of the building into a giant platform surrounded by banks of computers, the centerpiece of which is a huge 3d representation of a hypercube. Zero, if this is OK with you, Waspinator will be dragged with him for this (possibly by Shockwave?) and then strapped to the device with a big ol' spike of raw energon poised above him.
Starscream's is to kill Waspinator by destabilizing his spark, which will then allow the device to trace the appropriate hyperdimensional coordinates to link back up to the Well of All Sparks, allowing Starscream to draw on its energy to fuel the device. The device will then send out shockwaves of Allspark energy throughout the city, bringing machines to life, and, through technology stolen from the Bioliberator (provided way back when by Courtney Gears), turn people into machines and their souls into Sparks (if they didn't have souls in the first place, they can either suddenly have sparks, or they can just. Be drones.). Soundwave then uses his powers (amplified via the Vector Sigma device) to hypnotize the resulting 'bots into thinking that everything is awesome and they should totally listen to their new rules.
Obviously, the heroes should stop this from happening. Ideally, what I'd love to see happen is this:
Heroes fight their way up through the Empire State Building, making up robot opponents as they feel appropriate.
Heroes then burst into the top chamber (or just fly up there, if they are awesome.) People then fight the lead Decepticons - Shockwave, Slipstream, Soundwave (if the players want to be involved in this foolishness, anyway), and any others we have by then. If the Honorary Decepticons (Chronos, Kiryu, Slade, etc) and mayyybe Sentinel (if Stars can convince him) want to participate as well, they're more than welcome.
Decepticons are defeated or flee.
Somewhere in the confusion, Waspinator is freed. I'm not sure exactly how it will go down, but, as I have discussed before with Zero, I'd like Waspinator to deal the killing blow to Starscream, using the very energon spike Starscream was going to use on Wasp.
OPTIONALLY, IF YOU GUYS THINK THIS IS COOL/FEASIBLE, Starscream's death could be enough to fuel the device, though the coordinates won't be perfect and it won't be calibrated correctly. The result would be random machines around the city turning into semi-sentient robots (a la the Mountain Dew machine) for people to fight (… or befriend, a la Mothchan, if anyone is so inclined), and random people turning into robots with sparks (totally up to the players if they want to do this, and obviously Grinbitch would reverse this later. Though I suppose if a soul-less character wanted to keep their newly found robot-soul, they could, if the mods don't object.) They wouldn't get any new powers, they'd just be robots (just like the last time the Bioliberator was used.)
… so yeah.
Y/N/Suggestions/TEAL WTF
*e* approved for august 2nd