Another sandbox to play in.

[raisedbymoogles]

Pre-Ark-launch scenesquirrel. ;)

*

With no energy to spare to run data slates, Optimus Prime and Elita-1 resorted to using tokens, each marked with a glyph representing one of their soldiers, on the table between them. Elita reached out and drew two toward her. "I need Chromia and Dynia."

Optimus nudged the pile with his fingertips until he found the two he needed. "Ironhide," he said, "and Ratchet." Elita nodded thoughtfully. "And if you're thinking of taking Prowl, you'll need to take Bluestreak as well. The two of them shouldn't be separated."

Elita shook her head. "No, Prowl's needed here. I'll have less need for tacticians than I will for builders and explorers." Optimus hummed thoughtfully as Elita picked another token off the pile. "Firestar's experience in search and rescue will be helpful." Another one joined it. "And Moonracer's skills as gunner equal Bluestreak's. As for builders..."

Optimus winced. "I need Grapple and Hoist here, Elita. They're maintaining our bulwarks."

Elita sighed. "I understand. Dynia knows a team of Neutrals with building experience. I'll ask her to see if they're willing to be hired." She counted out five blank tokens and added them to her side, as Optimus pulled Grapple and Hoist's tokens to his own. "Now then, as for warriors..."

"Little shortage of that," Optimus admitted. "Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, perhaps? No, I forgot, they're on assignment and won't be back in time." The twins' tokens drifted to Optimus's pile as he sorted through them. Elita's fingers joined his, brushing warmly together as they searched out warrior tokens and divided them up.

"Avalanche," Optimus groaned, seeing whom Elita had pulled. "And Gladius too?"

"You took Trailbreaker and Cliffjumper," Elita pointed out with a laugh. "Don't be so stingy, Prime."

"Do you want Trailbreaker?" Optimus offered contritely.

"Mmm... better not. If we fail in our mission he'll be in worse straits than he is here, fuel-wise." Elita reached in again, took a couple of tokens and held them up to let Optimus see.

"Going from warriors to scientists, I see." Optimus's voice was warm. "That's Greenlight and Lancer - do you want Perceptor as well?"

"Primus no, two is exactly how many science enthusiasts I can handle."

"I'll comfort him in his sparkbreak." Optimus picked out a small handful of tokens, scrutinized them, let a few fall back on the pile and added the rest to his side. Elita leaned in to see who he'd chosen, then nodded and turned her focus to who was left. It was a frighteningly thin pile.

"Windfall, for air support," she said, selecting the named token. "And do you mind if I take Eclipse as well? Our mission will no doubt introduce us to new and unforseen stressors, and we'll need to be able to resolve them quickly." Optimus waved a hand magnanimously and Elita took another token. "Thank you."

She folded her hands, optics narrowing as she looked over her choices. "That looks like a good crew for the Ark," Optimus offered quietly. "You have your medic, your warriors, your scientists..."

"Mmm. And leaving you with enough troops to carry on," Elita nodded. "...are you sure I can't have Jazz?"

Optimus's hand came down over the tokens in front of him, one of which had Jazz's glyph marker on it. "Sorry, no," he answered, not unkindly. "With you gone, I'll need him more than ever. No one can run rings around Megatron and Shockwave quite like Jazz."

"I suppose that's true." Elita stood. "Well, then, I'll break the bad news to Greenlight and Lancer if you'll break it to Perceptor."

Remaining seated, Optimus covered Elita's hand with his own. "Elita... I..."

Elita turned her hand palm up for her Prime. "I know. Before I fling myself into the stars... I will miss you too."