16th Transmission - Video

[heavyweaponsbot]

[The video feed opens on Ironhide, looming large... and standing fully upright, in the keep's courtyard.]

[There appears to be a small tree, ripped from the woods themselves, and planted in the ground -- or propped up, it's hard to tell which. Either way, the old Autobot is watching it with an even stare.]

[And without warning, he kicks the tree, savagely, the motion accompanied by a rev of a massive engine. The tree shatters in an explosion of splinters and wood chips.]

[He draws himself up, and snorts.]

Yeah. Hip works all right. This will do.

Comments

[heavyweaponsbot]

Do what?

[water_and_earth]

Kill that tree.

[heavyweaponsbot]

Just a plant.

[water_and_earth]

And you're just a machine.

[heavyweaponsbot]

[He snorts.]

Your comparison is foolish.

[water_and_earth]

No more foolish than your callous disregard for other living things.

Then again, why should I expect something made of metal and gears to understand?

[heavyweaponsbot]

It is a plant. It lacks sentience. It lacks pain receptors. More useful to the other humans like this, anyway.

Heh. Insults supposed to make your point more valid?

[water_and_earth]

It lacks sentience as you understand it, perhaps. That does not mean it isn't alive. It's a part of the world. And you killed it for no good reason - you're not even going to use it for tools or to build something. You just destroyed it because it made a good target.

No, but it might drive the point home.

[heavyweaponsbot]

Then someone else will use it. Plenty of organics in this place looking to do something. If you are so broken up about it, you go play with its parts.

Nope. It did nothing. Good work.

[water_and_earth]

_{[Iramaat scoffs.]}

You really don't respect anything, do you? It's all about what you can suck out of the earth, no regard for what harm you might do....

You're so much like the out-landers from back home. Only. More metal.

_[Hmmph.]

I thought it worth the effort.

[heavyweaponsbot]

I give respect where it is due. To whom it is due. A tree has done nothing to earn respect.

And neither have you, at this point. Just some organic shoving their faceplates in where they are not wanted.

[water_and_earth]

Besides help grant the world life. I suppose that's a small thing.

[heavyweaponsbot]

There are more of them. They are not a finite resource.

And someone is bound to make use of its parts. No problem.

[water_and_earth]

Of course they are finite. All life is.

[heavyweaponsbot]

Plenty of trees out there, shooting off more of the same.