[Open] The Case of the Missing Memories and an Unfortunate Number of Bodies

[discountstarscream]

WHO: Investigators of a crime scene
WHAT: Three bodies, one witness with no memory, and a whole lot of violence.
WHEN: Right now!
WARNINGS: Mentions of violence

The first thing Ratchet notices when he's jerked back to consciousness is the gun in his hand.

The second thing he notices is the stump of his leg, torn off at the joint, and that's when the pain hits him. Air shudders in his vents as he shakes the gun out of his grip into the spreading pool of energon around him and looks around. He can see Riptide and Getaway, motionless, and Anode under a pile of... something, his vision fritzes and he realizes if he doesn't start patching leaks he's going to pass out. Maybe that's why he can't remember anything about them besides their names.

He hasn't completely lost his senses, however--he bats at his comm to open a link to someone else--himself?--even as he transforms a soldering iron out of his other wrist.

"Ratchet," he says, his voice hissing static and his hands barely trembling at all as he starts cauterizing lines as fast as he can find them. "I'm in a, a supply room, I think. I can see three other casualties. I need... I need help."

Crime Scene

From there, people are alerted, others stumble across the crime scene on their own volition. And, before long, a small group of people had gathered outside the energon-soaked store room. It’s a grim scene, bodies, energon, and junk from the struggled scattered everywhere. The three bodies of Getaway, Riptide, and Anode have not yet been touched or examined, and there’s a strong odor of chemicals in the air, yet it is not entirely clear where it comes from.

Welcome those who are participating in the investigation! For convenience sake, everyone will be starting out outside of the storage room in the East Hallway that the bodies are in. Ratchet is sitting in the East Hallway outside of the storage room as another Ratchet tends to his immediate wounds.

The immediate details are as follows:

• In the doorway of the room Riptide’s dead body lies there, blocking the door from closing.
• Energon footprints appear to be coming from the North Hallway to the entrance of the Storage Room.
• The Storage Room is roughly 80ft x 90 ft in dimension.
• Upon entering the room by stepping over Riptide’s dead body, the spot where Ratchet had woken up is marked by a small puddle of energon.
• Next to the puddle is a small and almost inconspicuous gun with a strange design.
• On the left side of the room lies Getaway’s dead body.
• In the far right corner there are Anode’s small green feet poking out of a pile of junk that had fallen on top of her during the fight.
• There’s a bunch more junk and a variety of boxes scattered about during the struggle.


How does all this tie together? That’s for you to find out! I, Lady, shall be your DM for this adventure and will be the one giving descriptions and clues. Remember! Ask specific questions if you want more specific answers and all that.

If you have any questions about how any of this works, feel free to ask me in discord.

Comments

[legalcy]

[First things first - the scene of the crime must be roped off. Nothing must be disturbed. Ultra Magnus grabs a roll of high visibility tape and marks the floor around the bodies and disturbed boxes. Naturally, this brings him to the footprints out in the hallway.

He'll follow them, putting down tape as he searches for their origin.]

[discountstarscream]

[The first thing Magnus might notice is that, while at first it was hard to tell, there are two sets of footprints coming down the hallway and a large amount of energon pools that surely came from more than one bot.

The footprints go all the way down the East hallway and turn down the North Hallway. From the corner, Magnus can see that the footprints come from a door about 50 feet down the hall.

The smell of chemicals is very strong here, despite the distance, and get stronger as he approaches the room.

Do you open the door?]

[legalcy]

[Magnus approaches the door, but not before checking the size of the footprints. Are they the same size? Could they belong to one of the smaller or bigger bots?]

[discountstarscream]

[One set of footprints are very large, probably belonging to Riptide. The second pair are from an average sized mech, but it's hard to tell who's it could be just by looking at them. The answer to that likely lies with the bodies in the storage room, one way or another.]

[fastandcurious]

[ When that message reaches him, Drift doesn't wait--he transforms in an instance and peels off down whatever corridor he's in directly towards Ratchet. He screeches to a halt, the scent of burning rubber pervading the air as he transforms again and throws open the door to the medbay and barges in, heedless of disrupting anyone at work. ]

Ratty?!

[botopsy]

[despite the sudden and loud entrance, ratchet manages to avoid flinching while he's working on... ratchet. he almost activates his forcefield out of sheer habit of being fired on while working on someone.]

What the-- [he looks up from what he's doing with properly stopping energon flow aside from the temp patch job ratchet (ratchet... prime? ratchet one? ratchet decides if anyone is ratchet one it's him, because he was out the space bridge first thank you very much) had done himself.] --Can you not wait ten fraggin' minutes?! I'm trying to stop a buncha leakin' here!

[fastandcurious]

I'm not going to wait, that's my conjunx endura on the slab!

[ Drift does his best not to be aggressive. Does his best not to come off as aggressive. All because he wants not to make people wary of the big bad ex-'Con. In this moment, though, with emotions running high, his voice comes out in almost a possessive snarl. ]

[intelligenceofficer]

[ The first thing Longarm would like to do is inspect Getaway's body to try determine cause of death. ]

[discountstarscream]

[Carefully stepping over Riptide's body, Longarm approaches Getaway's body and examines it. The first thing he notices is that Getaway looks very beaten up. There's no part of his body that doesn't look like it was pummelled by somebody. It's likely that this is what killed him, but only an autopsy would know for sure.

Is there anything else you would like to examine? For example: the energon pools, specific parts of Getaway's body (like his hands), or check to see if he has any items on him?]

[intelligenceofficer]

[ Longarm leans down to inspect the energon pools. ]

Oh the Mechanical Mayhem!

[playfultyrant]

[ It's the commotion that lures Megatron to the scene. Standing at the wires and looking over with a lazy glance. Lots of death here, nothing he hasn't seen or done before. But if there's someone here killing behind the curtains, he wants to know.

They could be a hindrance or an ally.

He looks carefully over the crime scene, to see if there's anyone here to stop his investigation. The storage shed looks like a good place to start to be honest. First though he'll check Riptide's body for clues. ]

[discountstarscream]

[Riptide's body is VERY beaten up and stinks very strongly of chemicals. One of his arms is missing, and it is very clearly not at the crime scene.

The door keeps attempting to close, but keeps bouncing gently off Riptide's side.]

[playfultyrant]

[ An absolutely abysmal display. Disgraceful even. Anyone who dies in such a way must have been a pathetic slop of a warrior. But still, even Autobots deserve some dignity, and Megatron forces the door shoved open. So that the annoying sound would stop and he can get a proper look at the husk at the very least, starting where his join where the missing arm would be. ]

[grimgrams]

[Ratchet is in trouble. As soon as Grimlock receives the message, his bestial instincts take over. He tears through the hallways like a maelstrom, smashing down the first door he encounters. He moves on when he can't find Ratchet. It takes two more tries before he arrives at the right storage room; he always did have a better sense of direction than the other Dinobots.]

[With an energo-sword in one hand and a twin-barreled rifle in another, he makes for a half-imposing, half-comical figure. He ignores the scene of carnage to focus on Ratchet alone.]

Me Grimlock! Protect Ratchet!

[Never again will he lose friends as he did in the Battle of Autobot City.]

...Ratchet?

[He scratches his head with the tip of his sword. He could swear his sensors placed Ratchet around here just a moment ago.]

[Only now does he turn his attention to the mound of bodies. He pokes at the unfamiliar mech lying in the doorway with the tip of his sword and finds him dead. He kneels down grabs the corpse by the head, and looks it over to try and see what killed him.]

[discountstarscream]

[Riptide's head is pulled back as Grimlock examines the hydrobot's blank dead face. That would have been fine and good, but due to the severe beating that Riptide took during the fight, his head isn't quite as firmly attached as it really should be.

Meaning that Grimlock pulled Riptide's head a bit too hard and accidentally separated the head from the body.]

[grimgrams]

[Well, that was a bit surprising, but Grimlock has seen all sorts of injuries on the battlefield.]

Killer strong.

[That is his only takeaway as he sees the injuries on the dead mech. He throws the head aside and dips his fingers in the energon around the corpse. Lifting his hand, he takes a quick whiff of the fluid]

[How much of that energon came from the dead mech, and how much from anyone else?

[whoyouknow]

Wasp had only heard of it second hand. Whispers, talking- He avoids most of the crew when he can. But he's got a good ear. It doesn't take long for him to hear it in hushed tones, murder and blood and all the things that shouldn't have happened on their precious ship.

For Wasp, it should have been just a cue to hide better than he already did.

But the names stop him dead. Some aren't important - he has no clue who Getaway is - but the others- The medic who'd been nice to him. The boat who'd told him in no uncertain terms that he would protect him. The neutral flier who'd let him know he was more than just a broken cog. Wounded. Dead.

It's no wonder he bursts into medbay, venting hard just from how fast he ran here, hands on the doorframe. Blurting out, voice desperate (and Primus, how young he sounds when distressed), "Where's Boat-bot and Anode!?"

Hoping, for some slight silver lining. Some chance.

[botopsy]

Oh, Hell. Ratchet hasn't quite finished with the autopsies yet-- the greyed out bodies of all three victims are laid out on a couple slabs. Getaway first, then Anode, then Riptide (who's decapitated head Ratchet is currently sawing open to inspect the bain module.)

The voice is young, so he quickly pulls a sheet over what he's doing to hide the active gore, but he can't hide the splatters of energon on his chest and arms from where he'd used the saw - he approaches Wasp slowly, hands held up.

"Woah, woah! Calm down, okay? Their bodies are here," he says, not quite... realising exactly how young and inexperienced Wasp is. "You gotta wait to see 'em, though, I still got work to do. We'll be able to have a service soon..."

[whoyouknow]

Wasp instantly backs up, away from that sight, away from the grey and the spatter and everything, including this not-quite-Ratchet who had been- Who had been-

More reflex than conscious thought, he brings up his hands to protect his chest from the medic, a strangled, buzzing sound of distress forcing itself out of his vocalizer. Even with Riptide covered, Anode's form is still horrifyingly in view, greyed and gone. Gone.

Wasp's never even seen a dead body before. And now, here's three. Three, and two of them the very mechs who he had entrusted his safety to. Longarm was still on the ship after all, Longarm was still possibly a traitor, Longarm got to live while Riptide and Anode-

The buzzing sound only starts to climb, in both distress and volume.

For Ratchet(s)

[becomeyesterdays]

Megatron arrives in the medical bay shortly after people start waking up. He's rather grim-looking and imposing in all of his largeness, but he doesn't seem to be interested in causing trouble. Quite the contrary in fact.

"I understand there have been deaths and some additional casualties. Is there anything I can do to assist?"

He does have medical training now, after all.

[asafepairofhands]

Ratchet, to his credit, does not shoot Megatron in the face immediately.

He does make a noise like a trash compactor full of glass in horrified surprise, and jerks so hard he topples over the side of his slab to clang onto the floor. This is undignified, but he's too pissed off to care as he tries to fumble for weapons he currently doesn't have.

"What the hell are you doing here? What are you doing in the medibay?"

[becomeyesterdays]

That's not the reaction he expected. Megatron just stares at Ratchet for a moment, looking a touch confused. They'd had a perfectly civil conversation not that long ago, hadn't that?

"I'm here to help, of course," he replies, as if it's the most self-evident thing in the world. He slowly approaches, keeping the slab between the two of them as he peers over it at Ratchet.

"Let me get you back onto the slab."

[asafepairofhands]

Ratchet is up and about now, after having a little more time to practice on his crutches and get used to the idea of only having half a leg. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much the only thing he’s been able to get used to.

Even after everything—the talk with Drift, confirmation from Magnus, the other Ratchet giving him all the medical data he could process—it’s still hard to believe. And Megatron’s little update had been the most unbelievable of all of them.

There was a small, sensible part of Ratchet that knew he could be wrong. That everything he’s been told is true and the only problem is him, having forgotten it somehow. But his anger at Drift still feels justified, and nothing will change what Drift or Megatron have done no matter how sorry they are or how much Ratchet forgives them later. Does he even have the right to forgive them? An uncountable number of patients, dead under his hands no matter how hard he worked—he can’t exactly ask their opinion about forgiveness. About whether saving the life of the mech that killed then had been the right thing to do. He could hate Drift just for that, for making him question whether or not he should have repaired Drift all those years ago, when he just turned around and did… that. He’s never hesitates, but the idea that maybe he should have makes his insides crawl, Delphi or no Delphi.

And just because Drift saved his life and his job and his… everything doesn’t mean Ratchet should forgive him, selfishly. And just because Megatron thinks he can tinker around in a medical suite and happen to not break something doesn’t mean… anything. Or, it shouldn’t. The small, needling doubts just make him angrier, with them and with himself, and eventually it boils over.

“Are you still knocking around in here?” he asks loudly, his shaking hands tight on his crutches and his jaw set. He hasn’t really spoken to Megatron since their last, very awful conversation, but Ratchet’s frustration and helplessness need an outlet and Megatron has been foolish enough to come back while Ratchet is conscious. “I’m surprised you haven’t actually broken anything yet.”

[becomeyesterdays]

Megatron, for his part, has been trying to avoid Ratchet. He's been taking inventory (again) and trying to make sure that things will be ready if they incur more casualties. Things like that. He can hear Ratchet clunking around on his crutches, but he's tried to put the medic and his words out of his mind. There's nothing to think about, is there? It isn't as if Ratchet considers him trustworthy, after all. No, what rankles more is Ratchet's attitude toward Drift.

He straightens as he hears Ratchet's voice and he turns to face him, expression cool.

"I'm not clumsy, Ratchet. Give me some credit."

[asafepairofhands]

"Right, since I'm still supposed to think that's a good idea, too," Ratchet says, shaking his head as he sorts through datapads on his desk, struggling to focus. This probably isn't a good idea but he can't quite help himself, like picking at a fresh weld.

"I don't understand why you're doing this," he says finally, frustrated, straightening to look at Megatron again. "You can't think it's going to make a difference, any more than Drift should now that he's had his charming little epiphany and found Primus, or whatever."