Shockwave enters from the Upper Hallway to the north.
Shockwave has arrived.
So much for secrecy!
Long Haul may not be the brightest LED in the circuitry, but even he can get a general gist for what sort of weapon they've been building now that it's been assembled. And he likes it! Sure, from what he can see, there's nothing particularly revelotionary about it, but hey, it's a big treaded thing that causes massive destruction. What's /not/ to like? The transporter is standing off to the side, in the work area, relaxing, sipping from a mug of energon, looking at the Constructicons' collective handiwork. Something about his stance indicates that he's having a very hard time standing still, like a child waiting in line for a cool new ride at a fair.
There used to be a plastic sheet taped to the mass launcher. It said, in untidy Cybertronian scrawl, 'water tank'. Given that it is patently obvious that this device is not a water tank of any shape or form, the plastic sheet has henceforth vanished, and just in time, too.
Scrapper's sitting on the floor, next to a chair. Why? He's using the chair as a makeshift desk and is going over a table of nigh incomprehensible values: servo step calibrations and the like. Why doesn't Scrapper just get a desk? It's better not to ponder these things.
The doors to the Upper Hallway roll back with a sudden, punctuated hiss. On the other end, the most unexpected sight of all steps foot onto the hangar bay: Shockwave. His unblinking eye fixates on Long Haul first, notating the Constructicon's affection for drinking fuel from a cup. Without even turning his hexagonal head, Shockwave becomes aware of his weapon second and Scrapper last. Is he pleased? "Commander Scrapper. Report construction status."
Shockwave's probably not /the/ most unexpected sight of all. Long Haul would be a /lot/ more shocked if, say, Optimus Prime had come strolling through those doors. But still, it is a surprise, one that leads the transporter to stand up very straight at attention. He would salute, but he's got a cup in his hand. Of course, Scrapper's technically of equal rank to Shockwave, and yet Long Haul wasn't bothered at all by his presence, but then, no matter what his rank is, he's still just Scrapper.
Scrapper sits up straight, his attention startled away from his table of calibration values. However, because he's sitting on the floor, he doesn't fall off his chair or anything foolish like that. Scrapper stands and clasps his hands together. He rasps and gestures to the mass launcher, "It's complete. Was just going over some of the calibration data. The air resistance is going to be different on Cybertron, so I'm just double checking that these conversions are correct." Scrapper points at the data tables on the chair. Nope, no catastrophic Imperial/metric errors here, no siree!
"Good." Shockwave emits. He continues to speak as he approaches both Constructicons, "For its intended deployment, you must ensure that the firing mechanism is capable of projecting its payload at speeds consistent with viable space combat. Until total completion, I will assist you in all calibrative and firing tests." Shockwave comes to a stop, his eye seeming to focus on Long Haul for the moment. "Trooper Long Haul, you have violated propriety protocol by failing to salute an arriving superior officer. See to it that you do not make this same mistake again."
Long Haul's optic band flashes briefly, and he tries to force himself to stand up straighter as he shifts his drink from one hand to another before rendering the proper salute. "Erm, yes sir. Sorry 'bout that. I'll be careful in the future." Unless, of course, the superior officer happens to be related to him. Then he'll just treat them like normal.
Scrapper glances over at Long Haul and shrugs slightly. It's not like Scrapper ever gets saluted by the hauler, and he should probably be annoyed by that, but well, there's a big purple guncon here to worry about. He confirms, "It'll be fast enough. I asked Airwolf if she had any expendable mountains out there, but that's not the case, so I've been limited to testing this thing on.... smaller targets and running simulations. Want to see the latest batch of data?" Scrapper snatches up the datapad from the chair, looking at the calibration data speculatively.
Interest in Long Haul soon dissipates and Shockwave is more attentive to Scrapper. "Affirmative," he tells him concerning the data.
Scrapper hands the data pad over to Shockwave. It's mostly just boring data tables that say that the thing fires reasonably straight for variable angles, payloads, distances, speeds, and voltage settings, in a given atmosphere, with a set of columns for the results converted over to different atmospheres.
Damn straight Scrapper doesn't get saluted by the hauler. And it's not gonna happen anytime soon, either! With Shockwave's interest now on Scrapper and the two going over all the dull technical gobble-de-gook, Long Haul relaxes his stance some and takes another sip from his mug. Yes, that's right. Without a mouth.
As he rifles through Scrapper's findings, Shockwave briefly considers testing the weapon against Devastator's chest. The idea alone makes his optic gleam dangerously. Several moments later, the Decepticon Commander depresses the datapad key with his thumb a total of three times before offering it back to Scrapper. Decrease final magnetic coil circumference by point zero-zero-six degrees and alternate magnetic field into a spiral design. Projectile accuracy will then fall within an acceptable range."
Scrapper takes the datapad back and studies it with a narrowed optic band. He scratches his head, mulling over what Shockwave just said. Of course, if Hook had said it, Scrapper would be arguing the points just for the sake of spite. Here, he just tries to make sense of it, making funny gestures with one hand as he thinks. Direction crossed with sign, according to the right hand rule... After a moment, Scrapper states, "Yeah, that checks out." He settles his gaze over on his brother and orders, "Long Haul! Some heavy gauge multi-strand wire!"
"Wha-huh-wh-!" Long Haul starts, voice obviously irritated, but with a glance in Shockwave's direction, he cuts himself short. The Constructicon takes one more sip from his mug before setting it on a nearby work-bench and plods off before stopping and tilting his head slightly, glancing back in Scrapper's direction. "How much y'need?" he asks. After all, if it's so much that he'll need to carry it in his truck bed, he'll /also/ need someone to load him.
Scrapper sighs and sets down the datapad on the chair. "Oh, a few of those big spools. You know, the ones with the little red markings." Right, and you know that thing with the stuff?
Long Haul does, actually. He's the one who carried the stuff over and organized it once it got here! The transporter shrugs and heads off. "Sure, sure... hey, y'know where Scavenger is? I'm gonna need someone to load me." Yes, that's right, folks, Long Haul's out to get loaded. Got a problem with that?