((OOC post, details below))
This post details information about the strayedaways crew both from the Blackflight and elsewhere. Unless otherwise marked, all of this information will be ICly visible to any pup who looks it up in the ship's records or happens to have access to corresponding Autobot/Decepticon records elsewhere. (Obviously, anything from Sellout or from Clarion's reports post-planetfall will only be accessible from their ship itself. Likewise for Decepticon reports by Inkcape after landing.)
If you have any questions or comments about anything in the post, the characters or the universe, feel free to comment here. The post will be edited as I get more profiles up, and to keep up with the story. Hopefully I'll have the rest of the cast listed in the next few days. Most of them are on NPC status at the moment, in any case.
Scanbar
“I laugh in the face of death. Then people yell at me.”
Function: Forensic pathologist/Diagnostician
Alternate mode: Medical scanning unit
Bio: Contrary to what his crewmates might tell you, Scanbar’s a competent medic… at least as far as diagnoses go. He’s long been barred from trying to repair living patients (or do anything more invasive than looking at them), and with good reason. Despite having a genuine gift for repairs, he’s never been disciplined enough to put effort into anything he’s not interested in, meaning that he passed half his training with flying colours and failed the rest miserably - 'the rest' being anything which pertained to fixing the fascinating problems he encountered. Scanbar is either too upbeat or too lazy to care that he’s only semi-qualified.
In the chaos of the war that followed his training, he was shunted onto the Blackflight where there was already a competent medic to take care of the real work. Clarion’s reports seldom mention his existence; according to Sellout, he spends most of his time closeted in his workroom.
Weapons and abilities: Scanbar is brilliant and reasonably thorough when it comes to investigatiof a corpse, and unfazed by dead people in general. His alternate mode is a medical scanning unit with powerful sensors capable of scanning a body inside and out. In robot mode, he has heightened sensors, mostly in the bars on his arms which correspond to his alt-mode’s sensor array; these are detachable and act as weak energy weapons or x-ray vision.
Weaknesses: A shortage of corpses to do anything with. A workshy nature that causes him to avoid non-specialised tasks he could help with. Although theoretically knowing anatomical theory and having an understanding of medical problems should give him at least some idea of how to repair it, his inclination to poke around to get a better look at the problem combined with an encyclopaedic ignorance of medical procedure actually make him dangerously incompetent with a repair kit.
He has a shamelessly insensitive sense of humour, seeing no horror in death or decay and with no ability to keep his mouth shut in front of the grieving. (And he was like that to start with: one can only speculate what his lack of socialisation over the last few vorns has done to him.) His weapons are so weak they’ll barely tickle a properly armoured Decepticon, his armour is thin and his strength unexceptional for his spindly build.
And a few Decepticons (their info is obviously more readily available from Decepticon records, though by this stage, a lot of the technical details can be picked up from Sellout's reports as well):
Inkcape
Function: Commander
Alternate mode: Submarine
Bio: The leader of the local Decepticons for the last few million years is a suitably fearsome figure, if you judge by Sellout’s log entries. Dozens of innocent adjectives have been used to describe him, and he’s come close to killing nearly everyone on the planet once or twice (per month, in the Autobots’ case). He transforms into a dark blue and black submarine with torpedoes, sonic cannon and the ability to function quite comfortably on the ocean floor. He seems to have a facility (in one sense of the word or another) for coming up with odd gadgets and weapons, his limited resources notwithstanding. He can release a cloud of sensor-smogging smoke from his hull that forms ink when underwater, and in battle he’s almost exclusively Sellout’s opponent.
Ashdasher
“Threaten all you like. The volcano doesn’t care..”
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Vulcanologist
Alternate mode: Dune buggy
Bio: Prior to landing on the planet, Ashdasher counted as little more than a Decepticon grunt - one with an exceptional stoic streak, maybe, but nothing more. Since then, he’s become a born-again vulcanologist, taking to his newfound specialism with a devotion that serves the Decepticons well. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending whose reports you read) his devotion to the war effort has suffered. It’s not that the wonders of nature have eroded his battle instincts; Ashdasher just sees battling Autobots as petty compared with the violence nature can dish out.
Of all the stranded crew members, he’s the one who really keeps up with his upgrades, improving his performance and his systems solely with his geological work involved. After all, when your opponent is a volcano, you need all the help you can get. The effort has paid off, though: Ashdasher is right at home on volcanic ground, even in the midst of an eruption.
Weapons and abilities: Ironically, he’s both the most combat-ready Decepticon on the planet, and the one least interested in fighting. His dune buggy alt-mode is fast and durable, and his armour plating is exceptionally resistant to heat, pressure and corrosive gases. In robot-mode, he has a flip-down visor that protects his optics from hot ash and gas and boosts his vision in a number of specific ways, including heightened infra-red sensitivity. He’s picked up extensive geological reading and field experience, and the innate stoicism that once let him keep his head under fire has intensified with experience.
Weaknesses: He has a tendency to go incommunicado on extended field trips, with no apparent backup. His ranged weapons are rather outdated: volcanoes don’t care if you shoot at them, so he doesn’t see the point, and his hand-to-hand combat is merely acceptable. Due to the way he’s rigged it, his visor-enhanced vision draws power from his weapons, so he can’t use both at the same time. His disdain for mortal threats really isn’t the smartest attitude when faced with an angry commander. There’s also that tendency to run towards erupting volcanoes instead of away…
Blankscreen
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Communications
Alternate Mode: Cybertronian jet
Bio: Years of space travel and battle stress are bound to have an effect on a bot, as Blankscreen can testify. The Decepticon ship has been his shelter and home for so long, he can’t handle life outside it: anyone trying to haul him out of the airlock will be met with lethal force - or at least a blinding light to the face while he scarpers. Expect that to be followed by every monitor in the base displaying a blank white as he expresses his displeasure in the strongest way he dares.
In person, he’s a soft-spoken bot, often willing to assist his fellow Decepticons in order to gain their good opinion, and staying carefully neutral throughout any disagreement.
Weapons and abilities: He’s a competent communications officer, not least because he’s had vorns since landfall to learn the base’s systems inside out and in places adapt them to suit him better. He’s extremely comfortable fighting and working in close quarters, and he carries flash grenades which can temporarily overload optical sensors.
Weaknesses: His acute agoraphobia keeps him basebound and indoors, giving him horribly limited mobility; consequently his alternate mode and his heavier weapons are useless to him. He has little combat experience and as with many of those on the planet, the skills gained back in training have long rusted over. Blankscreen constantly fears the other Decepticons will deem him useless and shut him down for good, and therefore avoids confronting them directly. Unfortunately, the passive-aggressive tactics he favours instead win him even less respect from them.
Stingsong
“My ideals don’t need guns to fight yours.”
Allegiance: Decepticon
Function: Technician
Alternate mode: Spider tank.
Bio: Decepticon she may be in name, but Stingsong is, at spark, just an incredibly pissed-off academic. The war put an end to her engineering career just as she was hitting her stride; the way she sees it, the Autobots and Decepticons are equally responsible. It’s just that the Decepticons will let her lash out in revenge. She’s the avenger of Cybertronian science, and she aims to see every bot in both factions suffer for it the rest of their miserable days. Largely, this means pouring acid down their backs. (In ever more inventive ways, of course.)
It amuses her that being stranded on a hostile planet has forced her fellow Cybertronians to retrain as scientists and engineers to various degrees. This rediscovered kinship, however, doesn’t stop her going out of her way to aggravate everyone she comes into contact with (bar Splashflight).
Weapons and abilities: Studies on Cybertronian anatomy make her the Decepticons’ closest equivalent to a medic, though most of her energies are spent in manufacturing chemical-based ammunition. She has a knack for joints and an energy knife that gets mysteriously bigger overnight every time she meets a target with upgraded armour. Her spider tank mode is highly manoeuvrable and functions well on uneven terrain; in this mode her primary weapon is a long-range energy cannon.
Weaknesses: All her chemical supplies must be home-made, and her ammunition output is limited by their availability. Although she manufactures it, she hasn’t the weaponry to use said ammunition, so she’s dependant on fellow Decepticon Splashflight to put her work to good use. Although agile, her tank mode is slow compared to most other vehicles on the battlefield, which is a problem when she exercises her talent as a fire draw. Her cannon is good for roughly one shot a week, after which it requires maintenance and lengthy recharging.