| abstract
| - Peaking high in the sky, there is not much to do on the Polar Glacier of Nepsa. Occasionally, one can hear strange whispers - whether these are echoes floating on the breeze, or something far more sinister, remains undetermined. Compasses spin from the magnetic force of the pole. At night, points on the glacier seem to glow from beneath, giving the whole mountain an eerie atmosphere that cannot be easily disregarded. The natives seem unable to bring themselves to scale it - they speak of the glacier in hushed reverence, refusing even to assign it a name. Could this place be more - much more - than meets the eye? Contents: Reinforced White F-15 Eagle F-35B Lightning II Race Track Blueshift Americon F-22 Fighter Jet Sweepcraft Your average everyday oval-shaped race track, with the accompanying grandstand. Bookies wander around offering shady deals to the multitudes of myriad aliens flocking to watch the competition. Blueshift stands in front of the glacier, slamming his fist into his hand. "I can't WAIT to beat everyone" he boasts. "Just like I beat /Redshift/" The blue Experimental F-15 warps, bends, and reconfigures itself into the form of Dirge, Decepticon warrior! Exo-Armor Talon Jet comes in for a landing! Incidentally, it lands near Blueshift, close enough that the pilot can hear the boasting. "Hey, why don't you brag *after* you win, huh?" Jase transmits. Although, if things go well like they did at the land race, that won't happen. But he doesn't say that. The race, more correctly, the flight race-- and Raptor was here for it. On the tarmac of the race, the F-22 sat, testing his wings and his thrusters. They tilt, and along with his own thrusters, which was a unique design of the F-22, this is also why it allowed the jet to be far more agile then most jets before it. Blueshift has reconnected. Fusillade has arrived. Exo-Jet Apollo Class wiggles it's various flaps and aeilerons and control surfaces, testing their range of motion. Waves of heat wash out from the engines as they fire up, then the panes at the ends of the engines swing up and down in unison. Inside, James looks over at Jayson Redfield's Exo-Jet and flashes him a thumbs-up through the cockpit canopy. Then the canopy polarizes so that you can't see inside. Blueshift leaps into the air, flipping into the form of a small spacecraft A track has been placed, somewhat comically, in the middle of nowhere on this glacier. There's stands, thousands of seated spectators, and even a... parade!? Yes, there's Shawn Berger, happily leading a Decepticon marching band, twirling a baton in his hands. Off to the side, a Decepticon cheerleader squad, consisting of four female Decepticons and one pink male perform various flips and stunts to amaze the crowd. Thrust is behaving. Fusillade leans forward, wingblades whipping out to their full span, even as her arms lock backward in place as the rear fuselage. Her torso folds out to the become the cockpit of a space capable B-1R Lancer, ready for flight! Space-Gun floats silently into position for the race. The Decepticon commander stays silent as meaningless banter and posturing mean very little to him. Like this race actually yet he is in. Why? Medals keep Galvatron happy and a happy Galvatron does not get on Shockwave's back. THERE's the logic. Raptor joins the race. Redshift comes careening down from orbit, heading towards the glacier, after just having been at the bizzaro trial of the dastardly criminal Monstereo. The ship flies towards it's blue double and transforms into the gleaming and handsome Redshift. "Blue, Blue, Blue... You're hee to join the cheerleading squad, right? You can't POSSIBLY be thinking you can beat ME in this race." Redshift transforms into his sleek spacecraft mode and takes to the air. Blueshift transforms, hovering at the starting line. "I can't wait to crush all the Autofools!" he emits. "Especially that Quockswotch, if he dares to show his fa-" He stops as Redshift appears. "WHAT? I thought I killed you?" A Sweepcraft arrives! But which one? He transforms briefly, enters his name, then transforms again, eager to start. Thrust flies in and adds himself to the race. Why? Because he is Thrust. The hovering jet moves around and ponders killing Silverbolt to make Raptor not so depressed. A dead Silverbolt is a happy Raptor! A dark blue Seeker alights gently on the glacier's surface, apart from the others. Staring balefully off at the expanse of the racetrack, he hisses softly, "And through the drifts, the snowy clifts did send a dismal sheen. Nor shapes of men nor beast we ken. The ice was all between." Dirge drifts slowly forward toward the starting line. In a flurry of arms, legs, and wings, Dirge reconfigures himself into the form of an Experimental F-15 fighter jet. Silverbolt transforms into his plane mode "Riiight. You keep on telling yourself that, Blue." Redshift replies with a sigh. Good evil brothers are so hard to find. "That fight was a SIMULATION, dolt." Redshift approaches the race track, eager to win yet another gold medal. He hopes he made the right bribes. Blueshift powers up his lasers. "Nnnn first I will crush the Autobots, then I will make you /cry/ Redshift! Like the Sweep you are!" With no flourish or time wasted, Geist transforms into the spacefaring Sweepcraft mode. Quickswitch runs up to the starting line in puma mode, claws clicking over the ice metallically. He chuffs impatiently, noting the sheer number of Decepticons present--all filed right and away--and then transformed in a jittery flurry of motion into his strange-looking jet form. He stares straight ahead along the sheen of ice, "Shall we get on with it?" Accelerated, Quickswitch transforms into a sub-orbital jet. Geist joins the race. F-35B Lightning II hovers into the area, because she can. Hovering is wonderfully ostentatious, and it feels so fantastic, bending the chill air of Nespa to do her bidding. She casts a dark shadow on the pristine white snow and ice. Catechism has topped up on de-icing fluid, and she's ready to race. Walking his way up to the starting line, Silverbolt just shrugs. "Good luck Raptor." he says before transforming into his own plane mode. From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield cracks his knuckles and waits anxiously... F-22 Fighter Jet pulls up to the starting line, his brakes keeping him on the ground for now and not crossing the line. His thrusters activated and idling, the soft whinning sound of the thrusters can be heard as the snow behind him seems to slowly melt from the sheer heat they are generating. "Thanks Silverbolt-- good luck to you as well." After several minutes of Berger's disgusting display, the marching band finally comes to a halt and shuffles off to the sidelines. "Welcome, welcome!" announces Berger through a wireless microphone. "The event for today is the air race, one sure to be won by the beneficent Decepticons! As you can see before me, there is a wide racetrack, here... but that's not where you will be racing! Oh, no, that was for the marching band! The REAL track is off in the icy subterannean caverns of this glacier! He waves to a Decepticon operator at a control panel, who presses a button. Part of the track suddenly lifts upwards, revealing a passageway into a cavern! A few hundred feet behind, another passageway opens up, apparently so the racers can return to the above-ground starting point. "This race will be incredibly dangerous by every stretch of the imagination! If the AUTOBOTS want to chicken out and run away, I understand..." Berger sneers. "So! Racers! ARE YOU READY!?" The noise of a weapon safety being switched can be heard...*CLICK* With engines idling near stall speed, Fusillade cruises overhead, before settling down to occupy one of the lower outside slots. She swings wings forward to their full 133 foot span, and doesn't seem too concerned about the grumbles elicited by those in the nearby starting catapaults. A pleasant chime rings out from her comm as she finalizes a list of priortized targets. She spares a flick of nose canards at Catechism, before her airframe sags slightly midair from the added weight of summoned jump boosters. Reinforced White F-15 Eagle arrives with a heady roar of his re-tuned engines and skates past Dirge's flank. "Charismatic as /always/, Dirge..." snorts the jet. Sliding toward the starting line beside his fellow jet, "Let's see if we can make a few deaths.. accidental," he says all chuckledy-chuckledoo to his Ace Second. Blueshift has reconnected. "Nnn at least they don't have yeti that leap out at us as we race!" Blueshift mutters, his scanners sweeping over Thrust. "That might help MY chances though..." Sweepcraft comes out of nowhere, decloaking. He's already at the starting line. Idle idle idle rev idle idle idle... From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield just flips off Berger, smirks, and remains silent. Thrust whispers to Blueshift, "Zamboni machines are going to attack us again. They better not steal my iPod!" Red Spacecraft frantically makes adjustments to his carefully-put together plan for the race... A subterraian /flying/ race is not what he had in mind. He adjusts flight surfaces and engine threshholds accordingly, and sidles up to the large form of the space-modified B-1 Lander. He hopes she fits in the tunnels, or wherever that ominous opening goes. "Ready for the race, Fusillade?" Did the Lancer just flick the F-35 off with the canards? Oh, snakes on a plane! Such an insult will not go unaddressed. However, there are plenty of Autobots and EDC folks to draw her wrath. The idea of an enclosed race through ice tunnels doesn't bother her. Catechism has been specifically reworked for aerobatics. Even her airfoils are non-standard; they're symmetrical and allow her to fly upside-down more easily. Shawn Berger stands off to the side, smiling like the pompous idiot he is as he waves a checkered flag. "Then GOOOOOOO!" Blueshift blasts off from the starting line, his lasers tracking first Silverbolt, then Quickswitch, then Shawn as he goes. "Nnnn this will NOT take long. For me at least!" he cackles in the direction of Redshift. "Its okay, I'm sure you'll get a /wooden spoon/" Thrust bolts off like the plane he is. Oddly enough, he tries to keep up a pace with Raptor and nears him. His focus is not on attacking Raptor, or so it seems. Instead, he seems to be trying to keep Raptor away from Silverbolt for some odd reason! Concorde SST takes off almost immediately. He doesn't seem too worried as the race begins, but being one of the slower flyers, he really doesn't expect to win. However, he still flys at a rather steady and mostly fast pace.....and disabling his shortwave radio. He can now only hear Autobot signals. That's all Ramjet needed to hear. Engines roar, filling the air with such grandiose noise pollution and the White Devil rockets ahead. Within his cockpit, his flightstick jiggles -- wobbling his fuselage so that his razored-edged wings would make for an easy threat for anyone who'd dare to get too close to the Air Commander! Experimental F-15 's engines spin up rapidly, kicking up dust (ice dust) and rocks (ice rocks) and snow (ice snow). The air is filled with the sound of beings crying out in pain and despair. Yes, the racers have to put up with the sound of Dirge's creepily unbalanced engine sounds for the entire show, he can't turn it off. How annoying is that? The blue Seeker emits to the white one (no, the other white one), "The intent is not to kill, Ramjet, but rather to destroy. We will not be so gracious as to merely end their lives. We shall crush their spirits." Exo-Armor Talon Jet immediately takes off at full speed! While the pilot himself is not overly fond of heights, this isn't too bad. At least he's not super high in the air! And he's concentrating on the race. Lucky him. "Here we go..." The flagged waved and The thrusts slammed on, the break released, and the F-22 blasted off the race-track and into the air, heading right for the tunnel. A stream from the cool air can be seen made from the heat of his thrusters. His sleek, stealth form moving, and his HUD online and keeping up with the targets around him. "Yee-haw!!" He yelled as he kicked on the after-burners. Lets see how the decepticons do against the one built for this! Sweepcraft jets forth into the wild stampede of turbulence, stewardesses and lost luggage. Long live the air! He speaks not, merely flies. Soars. The wingless. He would really like to place over the Seekers. Exo-Jet Apollo Class takes off, swerving back and forth a bit as he tries to line up for a high-speed approach into the passageway. The craft rolls one final time so that it can dive down into the cavern inverted, then rights itself once inside. In the pilot's compartment, James splits his attention between what he sees out of his canopy and what his instruments tell him. The Sweep guns his ion drives the moment that the race starts. He wants to jump ahead quickly, and beat all these savages, especially that pompous Blueshift. Not to mention all the 'bots. F-35B Lightning II cavorts between ice stalagmites and stalactites as she takes off from the starting line. She flies as close to them as she dares, and she dares much. The heat of her exhaust melts some of the beautiful ice formations in seconds, which likely took decades to form. Well, looks like exchanging pleasantries with Fusillade will have to wait, there's a race to be won! Redshift's primary thrusters ignite, and launch the small red craft forward, skimming along just above the surface. He angles his nose down, and begins to descend into the scaaaary ice tunnels. Redshift would have preferred to fly in the oepn air, or even SPACE, but the added danger will only make his eventual win all the more spectacular! Flying Saucer hovers up into the air with a beedling sound, lights slowly spinning around his circumference. "All right, let's get this show on the road!" he exclaims cheerily in his weirdly accented voice, throws the reactionless drive into gear and hurtles away into the caves with a sonic boom and a whispering hiss. Space-Gun speeds off into the distance. The fact he flies and maneuvers strictly via anti-gravs gives him a rather unique maneuverability for something that big. The cyclops turned weapon of mass destruction runs a scan in order to spot everyone and possible nasty surprises ahead. Shockwave sweeps the area. Trying to treadmill along the various rumbles and turbulence and vortices, Fusillade weaves to the side to give the smaller spacecraft a whiff of room. <> She laughs unpleasantly. As air fills with a screaming cacophony of stampeding engines, Fusillade bolts forward as well. She hugs the ground, and summons forth hard ride settings in her terrain following navigation, the glitter of aerosolized ice crystals in her wake. The Decepticon cheerleading squad jumps up and down, thrashing their little pom-poms excitedly as the racers roar past them. The male, especially, is really getting into it. "Go, 'cons, go! Go, 'cons, go!" they cheer. Meanwhile, Berger watches smugly as he pulls a Big Mac sandwich out of his jacket and begins to devour it. Well, he had to keep it somewhere. A swift ignition of engines and Quickswitch is off with a mighty sonic boom, sending ice shards and melting them all the same as the sub-orbital fighter jet takes off from the ground. The targets were surveyed and noted, and the Sixchanger descended with a roaring, ghostly echo into the ice tunnels, twisting the length of his hull here and there to avoid the natural overgrowth of ice in this Primus-awful place. The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings... 12 Ramjet (lap 1) Sunder (lap 1) Dirge (lap 1) Raptor (lap 1) Fusillade (lap 1) 11 Exo-Armor Talon (lap 1) Exo-Jet Apollo Class (lap 1) Redshift (lap 1) Catechism (lap 1) 10 Silverbolt (lap 1) Cosmos (lap 1) Thrust (lap 1) Geist (lap 1) Blueshift (lap 1) 9 Quickswitch (lap 1) Shockwave (lap 1) From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield does not like the DARK, SCARY CAVE. But, for the most part, he keeps his concerns to himself. "This...is going to be a little tricky." Blueshift obviously needs to go faster since he's not winning at the moment. Not nearly winning! He blasts into an underground icy cavern, only narrowly swerving to avoid a yeti on a zamboni that sails out of the gloom at him. "CURSES!" he cries in anger and frustration. "Its getting hairy!" Space-Gun ponders crashing into the Autobot early in the race but sees everyone zipping past him with the Decepticons in the lead. He focuses on gaining some more positions. If the worse comes to worse he has a backup plan to get rid of the competition. The space-gun follows the track sticking close to the ground to avoid hitting the cave's ceiling. Red Spacecraft isn't so comfortable in the tight confines of the icy caverns... He had no time to prepare or practice on the track, unlike his run on the foot race track. He frowns internally as several racers get ahead of him, but only just barely. He does, however, take comfort in being ahead of his blue double, for now at any rate. Redshift channels maximum power into his thrusters, since he won't be needing his weaponry for this paticular race. He keeps his sensors wide open, as he swerves amongst the icy stalactites and the other racers. F-22 Fighter Jet ducks down into the tunnel, he flips with ease around a ice-sycle hanging down low. His internal systems making a map layout way ahead of him, as he zips about with ease, or so it seems. Though he wing does get close to the edge as he makes a sharp turn. The trusters on his backend, move up and down, sometimes to the side as he makes sharp turns, nearly seeming to slide in the air as he turns. Gotta love that F-22, or in the cons case, gotta hate Raptor for being one.. Thrust is actually behaving and not trying to do anything bad. He notices that Silverbolt is near him and he ponders cheating to take on Silverbolt but... instead... he avoids it! Why? Well, it seems Thrust is being good. Odd! What scam does he have in his mind? Flying Saucer darts through the cave in a zigzagging motion, flitting around other competitors and giant ice stalactites with that uncanny effortlessness. But maybe it's TOO effortless. Some folks seem to be trying a bit harder because they're passing him! Exo-Jet Apollo Class tries to fly ahead and slightly to one side from Jayson Redfield's Exo-Jet. Inside, James carefully uses the tactical display to closely match his speed to that of his fellow EDC pilot. The smalls radar-like screen shows a mass of purple 'hostile' signatures and a few red 'friendly' blips, and one lone EDC signal. James figures that if they get seperated, it would be next to impossible to find each other again in this swarm of speedy fliers. Reinforced White F-15 Eagle is all macho about how he flies. Stalactites? Stalagmites? Not an issue. What those razor-edged wings don't bisect, his dense nosecone handles the rest. Ice shatters against the White Devil and it sprays past his plating in a shower of glinting teardrops. Somehow, the notion that Raptor is an F-22.. does not bother him. At all. The air compresses around Redshift as the swifter, smaller spaceship is suddenly passed by Fusillade's arrowhead silhouette. The pale magnesium white flare of her chromed engines gleams with the ruby reflection of the craft, complete with a sharp, reckless laugh as she barges through. So far, the opening stretch of the tremendous tunnel has allowed her to gallop forward. She gives a supple twist of airframe, and a strategic burst of maneuvering rockets recessed in her nosecone and forward fuselage to jink sideways out of the reach of raking yeti claws aimed her way. <> <> Fusillade adds, with a flex and twist of 36 foot wide tailslabs. Sweepcraft rolls and veers and slices through the course air. The cold having no effect on him since he's built to stand the extreme temperatures of space. Speaking of space, there are so many so close together fighting for space. Sweepcraft is not interested in crashing at the moment. He wants to grab an early lead. Crashing now could lead to reciprocation, which could be disastrous at this point. No, he'll only crash if he thinks it's safe to. The icebound underground racetrack intrigues him. he shortranges to Geist. For the Sixchanger, tricky it is not. Snapping around a series of looming and encrouching stalagmites with ease, whipping between then swiftly in his beast mode, optics bright slits in near darkness and then a transformation back into jet mode. The point to this futility was winning? This meant little to the Six Changer, who puzzled over it and looked on it as a live training exercise as much he could tolerate. An exercise with live enemies he was forbidden to engage. Frustrations grew. He found himself loathing the whole thing. F-35B Lightning II looks up. The horrible, horrible monsters always come from above. And indeed, above her, there is a yeti, hanging off an ice formation. She shoots at the ice formation, which will hopefully send the yeti falling to its doom. Perhaps the yeti will also conventiently hit Raptor. Ah, aren't F-35s and F-22s supposed to work together? Not today. Experimental F-15 leaps off the starting line, wing-to-wing with Ramjet and keeping pace with the leaders of the pack. Afterburners -- four of them -- glow bright white as his newly-christened SPACE JETS come online. "The race is indeed to the swift," he growls lowly over the radio. The blue jet disappears into the ice caves, wherein all are assaulted by hideous echoes from his engines. Catechism crashes forcefully into Raptor! Concorde SST is pretty far behind the pack by now. That's nothing new to him, since he wasn't built for speed. As they entered the cave, he zipped in and rather skillfully dodged spikes...but he still lags behind. why? he's not orbit capable. Inside the VIP box... A mysterious silhouette sits, watching the air race with binocular visor extended. "He's good," a female robot intones, gesturing to Raptor's position on the racetrack monitor. "No," a familiar voice corrects, as Rodimus leans back out of the shadow and retracts his telescopic visor. "He'll be the best... If they don't destroy him first." Flying Saucer doesn't have ANY engines. He's a maverick! From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield snugs Sixy. Everywhere Yeti's are shimmying down ice stalactites, trying to drop down on the racers. Down below, and all over the walls, the monstrous beasts leap up and down, hoping to catch an unlucky fellow or two. Up above, Berger, with half a bite of burger still in his jaw, says, "Mfff, *gulp* did I mention that the Pole here screws with navigational systems? I hope those guys aren't getting LOST down there!" The audience chuckles, werbles, chitters, and what-have-you. Hovering the track, a massive hologram, showing in real-time the underground race, keeps the audience informed and entertained. They "ooh" and "ahh" as the racers navigate the caves. Thrust decides to help Silverbolt lag even more by using his afterburners to thrust into the flying poopy pants Bot Squad! He has been in contact with Raptor and does his best tomake sure things go well! Thrust crashes forcefully into Silverbolt! The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings...======================[ Current Positions ]=======================
20 Quickswitch (lap 1) 17 Thrust (lap 1) 16 Shockwave (lap 1) 15 Catechism (lap 1) 12 Raptor (lap 1) 10 Silverbolt (lap 1) 5 Dirge (lap 2) 4 Ramjet (lap 2) Sunder (lap 2) 3 Geist (lap 2) Redshift (lap 2) 2 Cosmos (lap 2) Exo-Armor Talon (lap 2) 1 Exo-Jet Apollo Class (lap 2) Blueshift (lap 2) Fusillade (lap 2) Exo-Armor Talon Jet swerves around sharp corners and stalactites, showing impressive manuevers for a young, inexperienced pilot. He's keeping a closer eye not only on the track, but on his sensors as well. It makes him uncomfortable to be in the same vacinity as so many Decepticons... Blueshift has reconnected. Space-Gun manages to keep pace but his engines and shape were meant to travel in the void of space. He is not very aerodynamic...he's a friggin space-gun. The scan shows Catechism closing with Thurst and Quickswitch within firing range ahead. Shockwave sticks to plan and diverts power from his nuclear reactor to his engines hoping to gain a bit more terrain. Sweepcraft sights Ramjet up ahead and determines to dampen the outspoken decepticons day. He clips a Yeti and then bosters forward looking to cause a little mayhem in the Seeker's way. Geist crashes forcefully into Ramjet! Experimental F-15 breaks into the lead! SPACE JETS HOOOOO!
* cough* Excuse me. The blue F-15 rockets out of the cave and around the marker for the first lap. Ice melts in its wake and refreezes instantly in the frigid air. As it blasts pasts the stands -- completely silent -- it is completely out of sight and probably halfway through the cave again when the sonic boom hits the audience. Reinforced White F-15 Eagle is struck! He spirals viciously off course! Ramjet crashes forcefully into Redshift! Concorde SST is easily rammed by Thrust. Seekers can easily keep up with him, he never denied that. It takes a few skilled moves to right himself, but oddly....even as Thrust rams him...he comes out of the cave good as new. Flying Saucer flits around Yetis as they drop howling from the ceiling of the caves, whisking through the icy air. He turns up whatever mysterious thing makes him go, darting up to close in on the head of the pack with a pulsing whine. "Come ooooooon!" Blueshift screams as he takes a yeti on each wing, having to shake violently as he tries to power forwards. "I need to be at the front to beat those accursed Autobots and Sweeps!" he cries angrily, lasers glowing red, before a large snowman falls from the cave roof on top of him Exo-Jet Apollo Class passes up a few of the Decepticons who stopped to interfere with other racers (and also Blueshift!). It hugs the walls, flips over upside down and skims the ceilings, and occasionally adds a minute burst from the hovering thrusters along it's underside to make a quick vertical shift. It manages to evade the dangers of the course, inanimate or otherwise, but is slowly overtaken by the other EDC jet. F-35B Lightning II briefly considers trying to crash into Shockwave. She just loves crashing into things. However, SHokcwave has been decent to her and helped her with her plans. So instead, she tries to navigate the course, despite all the magnetic anomalies and the attack yetis. F-22 Fighter Jet was slammed into by a yetti! A yetti of all things, the claws of the beast scrap across his armor, he grunts in pain, but spins hard to spin the yetting off, and sharply turn hard. "Ok then-- wanna play hard ball.." He scanners search for targets, as he spins on his side and flies side ways, making his form a harder target by its thinner form like this. However it seemed, none were ahead of him. Once he was sure that clearing was good. He ended up flying then upside down, spinning once more to avoid some ice-fall, and blasting foreward again. He was starting to wonder, how far into mach could go-- before he lost control? Well, lets find out! Sweepcraft rumbles approvingly as Geist takes care of Ramjet. So far, he's been able to dodge leaping Yetis and flying Yeti crap. The Sweep hears Blueshift's complaint and is even more determined to win. Nope, still too early to do any crashing. If he crashed now, he would not be able to keep up with the current frontrunner, Dirge. Thrust is pleased that he has pieces of Silverbolt dangling from his wings. Just a small bit of scrap metal... But still enough to make him happy. And now.. A yeti jumps on to the back of Thrust. He continues to fly with it on and hopes to use the yeti for his own use! The pack begins to thin out as the other smaller space-modified jets pull ahead of Fusillade, her size starting to take its toll. Aww, shucks... she chugs forward gamely, the mapping fritzing on occasion, making her have to barrel-roll her multiton mass several times to avoid a sudden yeti onslaught and uncharted rock features popping up out of the ground. Light flashes bright, but fleeting as they swoop through the above-ground start-finish spot, and she sweeps her wings back in sudden fright as the smaller craft crash into each other, their velocities causing them to carreen helplessly into each other. <> Red Spacecraft notes to hang out in Fusillade's wake more often. The air dynamics rolling off her larger frame is helping to tug him along, and the view ain't bad, either! However, he /does/ have a race to win, and that trumps over getting a look at some bomber-booty, and he kicks his engines uo a notch as he gets used to the enviroment. He rises out of the tunnels long enough to pass the lap marker, and then dives back into the subterrainian corridors again. His excitemnt at going unmolested thus far is short-lived, as Ramjet comes careening his way. << HEY! Watch where you're GOING!>> He emits, as he gets stuck in a icicle while yetis throw snowballs at him :("Get out of my WAY!" roars the White F-15. Sheer dislike at all this propels the Sixchanger forward. The hideous jet races for the pale exit of the cave and around with a shriek of his engines, toward the starting line. He saw them in the distance and made a move to deal with one of them directly--if Silverbolt or any of the others had any complaints, well then, that was not Quickswitch's problem. Thrust has reconnected. Shawn Berger watches the holo-feed, and rants, "What are they doing!? They're attacking each other! No, no, attack the AUTOBOTS! I can't get good help these days, I swear!" Just then he realizes he was speaking into his mike, and coughs. "Ahem, at the very least, it looks we have a Decepticon--I think that's Dirge--in first place, with Ramjet and, uh, Scourge? Sure, Scourge right behind him!" The audience cheers, and gives an excited "WOOP" as they are assaulted by sonic booms. Fortunately for them, their stands are equipped with sonic shielding to protect them, and reduce the noise down to a more acceptable level, like what one might find in a movie theater. And then... down below... a swarm of something loud, and white, flies at the racers as they travel through the caves. They seem to be... giant killer bats?! As if the Yetis weren't bad enough! The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings...======================[ Current Positions ]=======================
19 Silverbolt (lap 1) 16 Dirge (lap 2) 14 Sunder (lap 2) 12 Cosmos (lap 2) Exo-Armor Talon (lap 2) Blueshift (lap 2) 11 Exo-Jet Apollo Class (lap 2) Quickswitch (lap 2) 10 Fusillade (lap 2) 9 Thrust (lap 2) 8 Geist (lap 2) 6 Catechism (lap 2) 4 Ramjet (lap 2) 3 Redshift (lap 2) Raptor (lap 2) Shockwave (lap 2) Red Spacecraft lets loose a series of choice epithets and threats to be inflicted on Ramjet's person in the near future... but for now, he has to get BACK IN THE RACE. The craft at last pulls itself free of the icy tomb, and begigns to fly after the others again, still swearing like a sailor. Flying Saucer pops straight up as the crashers slam into eachother ahead of him, streaks overhead and dips back down, careening into the caves. He collects a bat on his hull but the continual spinning flings it off like a centrifuge and it doesn't slow him down. Space-Gun watches helplessly as Thrust gains more ground and he gets passed by Catechism. He does manage to catch up to Redshift which is bad since Shockwave is amongst the last and has money on Redshift. There is an Autobot in range but so far from the first position. The juice is not worth the squeeze. A few blasts vaporize a pair of yetis set to throw boulders. This is starting to look like winterland Donkey Kong. Concorde SST keeps flying his own line around the course. It's not the fastest, but heck.....he doesn't have any sub-space afterburners... Blueshift jerks back and forth as the bats attack. One bat seems to have miniature bats riding on top that throw snowballs at him. "Nnnn foolish flying foxes!" he scowls as he starts to shoot the bats. But one of them explodes into mist, causing more snow to pile down on top of him, and icicles to fall like a deadly deathtrap F-22 Fighter Jet takes the hard turn, trying to push as hard has he can. He caught up with Shockwave and Ramjet, and noticed Redshift ahead of him. This was-- not a comfortable position to be in. As he comes around and watches out for a few leaping yettis, his thrusters moving side to side, as he seems to stryfe in he air side ways, and then makes a hard turn, his HUD locks onto what be the most-- promising target. Either he'll lose speed in doing this, or this will work. <<"Hi guys! Pretty cold right-- hehe.. then again, I bet all of you are to cold to even heat up! Maybe that is why your afterburners are running so slow-- here.. let me help..">> He spins, activing a missile, before firing it ahead, It explodes on the side of the wall, spewing out ice, shards of ice-- and yes, yettis! He was aiming at the Yettis! Raptor tries to ram into Redshift and fails. Sweepcraft dips under a bat, rises over another, and then spins to deflect a third that gets too close. Thrust is ahead of him now. Another Conehead Seeker. What is Geist doing? Is he targetting another Seeker? His boosters explode with another short burst and he tries to nudge Thrust into harms way. Geist crashes forcefully into Thrust! Exo-Jet Apollo Class tries to follow the EDC Talon through the turns and maneuvers, but is slowly left behind and then has to break off slightly to avoid colliding with Blueshift as the Decepticon passes by. Inside, James curses and lines Blueshift up in his targetting reticle. A low 'lock' tone fills the cockpit and he mashes a thumb down savagely on the firing stud...but of course his weapons are on safe, and don't fire. But it makes James feel better. F-35B Lightning II is too far away from any of the racers to touch anyone, which is no fun at all. She amuses herself with shooting at ice bats and imagining that they are Aerialbots. That one that she clipped on the wing is Fireflight, the one with the bad attitude is Slingshot, and oh, that huge ugly yeti that she just launched a rocket at is Silverbolt. Reinforced White F-15 Eagle sputters around for a moment, tumbling in mid air until his engines reassert themselves. He wobbles around violently, threatening anyone who'd dare fly near. Soon enough, he straightens out and propels himself forward. Experimental F-15 continues moving slowly away from the rest of the pack. His unparalleled skill in running away is being rewarded! The blue Seeker is best described as a blue blur (not Blurr) or a blue streak (not Bluestreak) as he starts to catch up with the Aerialbot Commander in order to pass him. Thrust was under the impression that Geist tried to damage Ramjet - - but now Geist attacks him. This annows the Jet as he decides to go give the Sweep hell. "Foolish Sweep. We were on the same team but this is why I will never like you!" He goes for his own crash. Thrust tries to ram into Geist and fails. Thrust tries to ram into Geist and epic fails. From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield lets out a short, sharp scream at the sight of the bats. No, he's not *afraid* of bats--he's just had bad experiences with giant killer ones. "Get AWAY!" he calls to the creatures desperately, his efforts futile. Maybe they're just after giant killer insects? No, the bats are definitely after you. The sub-orbital jet at best couldn't be bothered with the yetis and, at worst, found their presence inconvenient. Luckily, he supposed, he wouldn't have to deal with them. The targets hovered in front of him--he made a move, then fired at the cave cieling directly above Blueshift. This ought to be good enough and keep them from complaining, Quickswitch mused around a prickly mood. Quickswitch tries to ram into Blueshift and fails. Being able to dodge the wildly spinning debris only does so much to help Fusillade advance, and she ultimately finds herself in the same position. Well hnnnph. The harlequin patterned charcoal grey and alabaster Lancer keeps chugging along, more comfortable now that she's seen all of the track at least once. But with comfort comes carelessness, and as the squabbling on radio distracts her, she gets an entire cloud of bats in her left engine intakes. "YEEEEEEEEEK!" she doesn't bother with the radio this time as the mammals get cuisinarted into a salmon-colored spray over the other contestants!!! Sweepcraft huffs as he attempts to pass Dirge. But the passageway is cramped, and it's all he can do to keep from crashing into the sides. He bides his time, not close enough to crash the blue seeker if he wanted to. Berger scowls as he watches the holo-feed. "It looks like Dirge is still in first, with Scourge in second, and Cosmos, some EDC guy, and Blueshaft right behind them. It's a closer race than it looks people, but the Decepticons will surely win if they keep this up!" Then, he is taken completely by surprise when a HUGE ICE DRAGON bursts out of the exiting passageway for the ice caverns, rises above the track, then sprays down the Decepticon cheerleading squad with an icy mist. The mist freezes their cheerleaders together, as they stand on each other's shoulders in a pyramid formation. Then, with a loud roar, the dragon dives back down into the caverns, chasing after the racers. Oh, and Yeti's with snowballs and ice-javelins are riding on the dragon's back. The bats are still ticked off, too. Can it get any worse!? The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings... Concorde SST finally comes back around towards the cavern and.....actually spots Dirge behind him. Hmmm....what to do.....he thinks as he cuts Dirge off. Silverbolt crashes forcefully into Dirge! Space-Gun being among the last means the OTHERS will have to deal with the ice dragon for him. Despite all the efforts and power he diverts into his anti-gravs he is just not made for that. Still maybe he can exact vengence and blast someone clear from the race...Decisions decisions... F-22 Jet Fighter was now avoiding more yetis, he swore one tried to bite his wing as he swooped low-- which would have been really annoying-- and probably painful for the Yetti. However-- Raptor then noticed a Yeti on a dragon? What the slag-- He spun over the Yeti and his dragon, avoiding a spear, and his belly now facing the cieling of the cave, being reflected by the shimmering ice, before he spun around the side of the side of the wall, maybe only half-inch away from it. He ride around the cave like this for awhile, before he came to another sharp curve, and blasted away, melting part of the wall, and he shoved himself down the tunnel, his afterburner throwing off enough power to cause a loud *BOOM* in the cavern, shaking everything around him(and anyone), and probably ticking off bats ahead! Flying Saucer stays neck and neck with Bailey as if they were attached with string. He's not placing yet but he does have a chance! Burn that Elerium-116, Cosmos! From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield contemplates getting a velocity upgrade for his exo. He swerves repeatedly to avoid the giant bats, while at the same time trying to stay away from the dragon-riding yetis. "No one ever told me about THIS part of the race!" Exo-Jet Apollo Class begins flying in a more aggressive manner, taking the turns a little tighter and not giving so much space to the other contestants as it passes them. It stays close on Blueshift's tail, following the Deception along and relying on the Decepticon's maneuvers and direction changes to give an instant's warning of what's coming up ahead. Inside, James watches his tactical display carefully, trying to make out the signature for Jayson's Talon. The magnetic interference and the preponderance of other aircraft in the area make it impossible to pick out though. Until he almost absently rolls to pass up the next flying ahead of him, only noticing afterward that it was his own comrade! Experimental F-15 doesn't quite make it past Silverbolt, banking left and right in an effort to find a clear path around the Bot's giant aft.. er.. I mean 'stately profile.' "Get out of my way, Aerialbot!" he growls, then smashes directly into the back of him when Silverbolt hits the brakes. Dropping off course for several critical seconds, he tries to disengage from the Bot and reignite his SPACE JETS! Sweepcraft finds himself in proximity with Ramjet as the Seeker catches up. "Fancy meeting you here, Air Commander." A javelin archs towards Geist and he rolls... in front of Ramjet's path looking to give him a taste of jetwash. "Having a hard time?" Geist tries to ram into Ramjet and fails. F-35B Lightning II is right next to Redshift, apparently. How did that happen? She scoots close to the cavern walls, trying to evade the ice dragon. She can see Quickswitch up ahead. He's that Autobot Sixchanger and a Wrecker, isn't he? She owes the Wreckers a whole lot of payback. Red Spacecraft is finally getting back up to speed, but there's still a lot of Transformers and even /bloody exo suits/ ahead of him. Damn that Ra,jet, and DAMN THAT SWEEP! He's better have a good reason to trying to make the Decepticon LOSE, because Galvatron will not be pleased. Redshift vents his rage by unloading his laser array at some nearby yeti, but his real goal is just to put on as much speed as his thrusters can manage. Catechism crashes forcefully into Quickswitch! Reinforced White F-15 Eagle slides his throttle to the side, sending him spiralling out of the way of the ice dragon. His afterburners kick in -- all blessed four of them, to provide him with some ample catch-up speed. "Out of my way, /loser/," declares the Air Commander, triumphant. As the field stretches out before her, Fusillade realigns herself on the course, as she grumbles a bit at the jostling and twisting about of the others ahead of her. A s the tremendous ice dragon emerges to menace the participants, Fusillade hisses to herself. <> There's an ominous chunk-CHNK as rotary carriages align, and with a prim flex of bomb bay doors, she drops down an armor-piercing bunker buster, the viridian canister of napalm attached to it. <> She lets fly with the munition, which whizzes past the path of a few other contestants, before detonating in a fulminous spray of flames about the beast. Bar-be-que? No time to check, there was more racing to be done. Oh Straxus, she hoped Redshift and Catechism were okay... After a while, Thrust finally calms down from Geist being the prick that he is. He uses the inertia on him to launch the Yeti into the air and shoots at it. Pieces of Yeti meat fly out and spray all over the place. Several poor races might have to use their windshield wipers to do this clean up! Thrust succeeds in grasping Sweepcraft , throwing him off-balance. Thrust succeeds in grasping Sweepcraft , throwing him off-balance. Thrust succeeds in grasping Concorde SST , throwing him off-balance. Thrust misses Sub-Orbital Fighter Jet with their grasp attack. Thrust shouts, "Hahaha! Yeti meat for you!" "Nyaaaaaaaaargh!" shouts Blueshift as he is clipped by a dragon-riding yeti, that seems to have teamed up with some bats and spiders and a small ant-lion to made some sort of 'legion of doom' to defeat him, and is is peppered with bits of animal and snow. "I hate dragons!" he cries. "Especially SPACE DRAGONS!"======================[ Current Positions ]=======================
20 Exo-Armor Talon (lap 2) 19 Fusillade (lap 2) 17 Quickswitch (lap 2) 16 Redshift (lap 2) Catechism (lap 2) 14 Ramjet (lap 2) Geist (lap 2) 12 Shockwave (lap 2) 10 Silverbolt (lap 2) 9 Thrust (lap 2) Dirge (lap 3) 7 Raptor (lap 2) 5 Sunder (lap 3) 4 Blueshift (lap 3) 2 Cosmos (lap 3) Exo-Jet Apollo Class (lap 3) Thrust ponders ramming Dirge... He whistles slightly. Sweepcraft has a nice big Yeti bone bounce off his hull. However, this does not slow him down. He mentally notes the location of where the bone lands, for later reference. He is relieved that Geist has done some more damage to the cause of the Seekers' bid for the Gold. Ice dragons and bats are no bother to the Sweep, as he ducks around and under them. A great creature in the distance, rapidly closing, registered to the Sixchanger--a large bomber ahead. He recognized it and felt a very familliar distaste pricking up--one femme was the same as any other in his mind, and that one happened to be Fusillade, and he, Quickswitch, greatly wanted not to see her in his twitching sights--he turns not in time to avoid the sudden crash of another craft he doesn't quite recognize--he'd make a point of reviewing the dossiers later. It, too, looked like a somewhat familliar femme and he felt annoyance rising with the abraisive crush against his hull--a swift transformation and struggling to maintain equalibrium in puma mode and altitude to avoid the pieces of yeti flesh--done. He found this entire state of affairs pointless and tiresome, though speaking to his superiors about it would not result in anything, he figured. And that damned femme. Quickswitch moved, twisted his wings and attempted to rake his jet wings along the length of hull. That should do it. A great creature in the distance, rapidly closing, registered to the Sixchanger--a large bomber ahead. He recognized it and felt a very familliar distaste pricking up--one femme was the same as any other in his mind, and that one happened to be Fusillade, and he, Quickswitch, greatly wanted not to see her in his twitching sights--he turns not in time to avoid the sudden crash of another craft he doesn't quite recognize--he'd make a point of reviewing the dossiers later. It, too, looked like a somewhat familliar femme and he felt annoyance rising with the abraisive crush against his hull--a swift transformation and struggling to maintain equalibrium in puma mode and altitude to avoid the pieces of yeti flesh--done. He found this entire state of affairs pointless and tiresome, though speaking to his superiors about it would not result in anything, he figured. And that damned femme he observed in the distance.... Puma Femme sits in the bleachers and drools as she eats yeti meat and wonders if Quickswitch is her man! Thrust sneezes. Shawn Berger is still gaping after what he saw just a few moments ago. "What the hell was THAT!?" he yells. "I.. well, alright. Uh... checking positions... Dirge is STILL in first place! He just might do it, people! Scourge and Blueshaft are still behind, him, though, so he can't rest easy just yet!" Down below the Ice Dragon closes on the racers, trying to freeze them with its frosty breath, but suddenly Fusillade drops a napalm bomb in its face. BOOOOOM! Once the smoke clears, there's a whole lot of melted ice... but no dragon. Did Fusillade kill it? That's one problem solved, apparently, but it seems that another new type of beastie makes it presence known, here--Ice Spiders! Yes, shimmering webs of incredibly strong silk have been placed at strategic locations throughout the caves! Can the racers dodge them, or will they be feasted on by the monstrous spiders for the next thirty years (which is how long it takes them to fully devour their prey)? The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings... Concorde SST :chuckles to himself. One seeker down, he thought to himself as Blueshift and Sunder started to come up on them. After a quick transmission to Quickswitch....he made a move for Blueshift Silverbolt tries to ram into Blueshift and fails. Experimental F-15 finally gets its engines back up to full thrust (not Thrust) and picks back up through the center of the ice caves, ending up right behind.. a Talon?
* beep beep beepbeepbeepbeepBOOOOOO* Dirge acquires a missile lock on Jayson Redfield's Talon, just to unnerve him. The safeties on his weapons are still engaged, but no one -else- has to know that! F-22 Jet Fighter keeps flying along, breaking speeds probably dangerous for this course, but he had to make up, however while flying his internal radar, which was mapping ahead started to malfunction, "No.. no.. come on-- not now.." He mutters to himself, but instead of slowing down he keeps up. Avoids scyles, falling ice, speaks, Yetis, Yeti-s will balls.. clown yetis-- yea, all that stuff. From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield pales a bit at the sight of the spiders. A tiny whimper escapes him as he tenses, looking as if he's starting to lose his nerve. "Spiders...WHY did it have to be spiders?!" He's not afraid of spiders, either. Giant ICE spiders, on the other... Oh, and then there's Dirge! He scowls slightly and tries to get out of the Seeker's sight, heading downward to soar underneath one of the large spider webs. Space-Gun finally manages to tune his reactor just right for optimum speed and maneuverability in the current conditions. This allows him to pass Quickswitch and almost catch up to Geist and Catechism. He stays out of the broadband banter for now but intends to firmly apply discipline if something goes wrong...SOMEONE will pay and it sure as hell won't be him. Red Spacecraft finally manages to whip around the third lap, although nearly everyone is stil lahead of him. Redshift should be at the /front/ of the pack, not trailing along back here! He should have someone design an engine that makes him faster in proportion to his BURNING RAGE at being STUCK back here, while even his lazy, unscupulous brother is all the way up THERE. He opens fire on some nearby ice-spiders, slicing through the webs with his sickle-like wings. Sweepcraft pays the yeti guts barely any heed, the wind takes enough of it off to not be a problem flight-wise. Charming ladies, however, will be impossible. ICe Spiders show up on his radar and he sneers internally. Webs forming... more and more. He takes his full concentration for the moment to navigate around. He deploys his Stinger drone swarm and sends the glowing purple micro ammo to eat away at a cluster of yeti about to drop... they get picked away as if under a sandstorm. Reinforced White F-15 Eagle blasts along gingerly, catching up to Redshift of all Decepticons. He spins his rotaries in the direction of the webs and lets loose, peppering the webs with enough laserfire to blow them aside. The White Devil whizzes through, the occasional sticky strand cut asunder with his razor-edged wings. Flying Saucer burns through ice spiderwebs with flashes of his particle accelerators and twirls through the ragged remains of the webs, more or less maintaining his position behind Blueshift and Sunder. The chilling chitter of multiple fangs and chelicerae gnashing together begins to fill the air, almost drowning out the sound of engines. As Fusillade soars through a tight portion of the blue tunnels, the strands start closing in, shimmering like a lurid, deadly aurora. A few of the steel-cable strong strands snag on her fuselage and wings, slowing her progress. By virtue of her tonnage, she manages to punch through, although there are a few close calls with stabbing legs of the arachnids. This is a waste of fuel, Quickswitch's internals twisted and writhed out, but at least I don't have to deal with either of those femmes any longer. What did galactic peace have to do with running in circles and all but avoiding their enemies? He couldn't take it seriously--not even as a training exercise. At word of the Sweep behind him, Quickswitch cut his engines, banked, transformed so that, in the air, in assault beast form, the Sweep by-passed him just long enough for him to transform back into jet mode suddenly and--he sighed heavily--deliver a blow to the side of that freakish space-faring craft. Disgusting. Quickswitch tries to ram into Sunder and fails. F-35B Lightning II needs Geist for a mission she is planning, However, she is sick of Sweeps always going on and on about how Sweeps are so much better than Seekers. Sweeps and Seekers are simply group names. Some individuals in the groups are exceptional. Some, however, are not. The F-35 edges closer to the Sweepcraft and tries to tip him with a wing into a spider-web. Catechism tries to ram into Geist and fails. Okay, fine, FE-Male Cybertronians. FE-Male. From Exo-Jet Apollo Class , James Bailey continually makes micro-adjustments to his HOTAS controls and foot pedals. His Exo-Jet responds with feathery blasts of it's maneuvering thrusters and minute course corrections. He sticks right on Blueshift's tail, making a mental tally of the number of chances he's had to take a perfect shot at the Decepticon's back. The spiders, the other racers, the webs - those are all small distractions. He's just riding in Blueshift's wake, in perfect position to make a last-minute move to slingshot ahead. But he knows the timing has to be just right... Thrust tries really hard to get all the humans and Autobots to kill Sunder but fails. He continues to fly though. Blueshift rockets through the spider webs, his sharp wings cutting through the silk, but more strands proving harder and harder to cut, slowing him down somewhat. "Nnnn the humans must not win!" he cries, seeing Jayson nearby. "How is such a pathetic thing so fast? He must DIE!" He shoots his lasers in front of him, slicing through the webs as he goes======================[ Current Positions ]=======================
19 Thrust (lap 2) 17 Silverbolt (lap 2) Quickswitch (lap 2) 16 Sunder (lap 3) Raptor (lap 2) Blueshift (lap 3) 15 Exo-Jet Apollo Class (lap 3) 13 Cosmos (lap 3) 10 Exo-Armor Talon (lap 3) Fusillade (lap 3) 9 Dirge (lap 3) 7 Ramjet (lap 3) Redshift (lap 3) 2 Geist (lap 3) Catechism (lap 3) 1 Shockwave (lap 3) Sweepcraft is still unwilling to crash, just yet. A failure by the Autobot Sixchanger causes him to force more power out of his Ion drives, attempting to inch ahead as he's neck-and-neck with Blueshift. Instead of ramming Blueshift, however, he concentrates on dodging the webs. Disruptor blasts slice through the stringy traps like a hot knife through butter. Shawn Berger squints at the holo-feed. "Dirge has been forced behind the new leaders in the race, Scourge and Blueshaft, by some rather rough un-sportsman-like conduct! But that's just the way the game is played... Still, why can't they focus on the Autobots?! Bah." He grumbles and devours another burger from his jacket. From above the racers, long and thin white objects try to fall down on them. Upon closer inspection, they appear to be... snakes!? Snakes on planes! Wait, we already did that pun. Sorry. Oh, and remember the Ice Dragon? She's back, kinda burnt, very blackened, VERY angry... and going down the track the wrong way, right at you! "GROOOOOOOAAAARRRR!!!" The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings... From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield is a little unnerved. Not because he's currently in sixth place, but because there's a large, angry ice dragon heading in the direction of the racers! "Whoa!" he yelps as his Talon dips down to avoid the scaly beast of death. "Bad dragon!" Thrust decides to go full force and took down Sunder. Why? Because Sunder's friend, Geist... has been annoying. He uses his wings and allows himself to lose control of things so he can damage the sweep! Thrust tries to ram into Sunder and fails. Concorde SST is steadily avoiding the dangers by.....being slower than the main competitors. He cares not for winning. Even as the dragon comes back for seconds, he concentrates his efforts on Dirge.......and slowing his forward progress Silverbolt crashes forcefully into Dirge!======================[ Current Positions ]=======================
19 Ramjet (lap 3) Fusillade (lap 3) 17 Redshift (lap 3) 15 Geist (lap 3) 9 Thrust (lap 3) Sunder (lap 4) Shockwave (lap 3) 8 Catechism (lap 3) Blueshift (lap 4) 7 Exo-Jet Apollo Class (lap 4) Raptor (lap 3) 3 Quickswitch (lap 3) 2 Silverbolt (lap 3) Cosmos (lap 4) Dirge (lap 4) 1 Exo-Armor Talon (lap 4) Experimental F-15 rockets back up into the pack, sending a cacophonous wail screeching into the souls of his enemies! Oh, and he aims straight for Cosmos. Dirge crashes forcefully into Cosmos! Flying Saucer spins out of control as Dirge smashes into him, and goes veering off into a side cave which collapses after him! Oh no, Cosmos! F-35B Lightning II has three very tempting choices. One, she can try to smack into Sunder. He's always jabbering about dominance. In the world of Seekers, dominance is handed out at the point of a cone. Alternatively, she could tailsldie back and try to smack into either the human or the fake Seeker. The F-35's first duty is to the Empire. The human has the biggest lead. It's him, then, before she turns into Ice Snake on a F-35. Catechism crashes forcefully into Exo-Jet Apollo Class ! Red Spacecraft finds himself to be refreshingly safe from interferance by other racers. There's a sweep behind him that may or may not be the one causing trouble, they should get different colours and special powers so the rest of us can tell them apart. As it is, he's safe at the moment, so there's no use worrying about it. He would kill for better weaponry in his spacecraft mode, but hopefully the other Decepticons ahead, who have better killing-and-flying ability, can help to clear the obstacles and beasties on the track. Quickswitch not only disliked how plodding and pointless this whole thing was, he couldn't stop his thundering processes from ruminating over how Autobot medical would have deemed this of all things-- --a worthy reason and means to make up for his, in their closed-eyed percieved-- Right. Quickswitch snapped to attention and did the same trick as before, this time trying to slam into Dirge, adding what he hoped was insult to injury. The race is neering it's conclusion and Shockwave is rather annoyed at the turn of events but will wait until AFTER the race to deal with all that. Still that sweep Sunder is in the lead and has been relatively quiet so far while Geist had he attention focused on him. Pre-arranged teamwork against the other Decepticons? Perhaps but nothing concrete. The space-gun accelerates trying to at least catch up with Geist. Quickswitch tries to ram into Dirge and fails. With translucent wings crackling against the air, the dragon shakes loose hoarfrost, shrieking wrathfully. Some glimmer of intelligence glints in those faceted slate eyes, as she hisses and hurls forth a gout of absolute zero void at Fusillade. Space-hardened systems crackle and groan against the frigid onslaught, and the Lancer loses ground. <> A few sets of hydraulics cramp and fail, but she wobbily rights herself, and limps along, the others darting past and out of reach of any sort of collisions. She half-heartedly lobs a retalitory Hellfire missile in the subzero creature's direction. Sixshot vanishes out of reality. Sixshot has left. Sweepcraft seems to have mastered the dropping and weapon hurling yeti hoarde, the pesky swooping bats, and navigating the ice spider webs... his seeker drones not only eat a yeti here and there, but also suicidal snakes... why would they drop from such a height? And now that giant beast returns. And the Sweep has better things to do than pick on the weakling Seekers. He deploys his laser garrot and flies in daringly close, looking to slip in the snare line and slice through the dragon like a hot knife through butter. Hungry? Exo-Jet Apollo Class heads straight at the dragon's gaping mouth...but then it suddenly snaps a corkscrewing roll that sends it out of line. The EDC Exo-Jet flies above the beast, just skimming along and then swearving aside to avoid the trailinng tail that swishes back and forth as the dragon flies. When he's clear, the pilot releases a pent-up breath he hadn't realized he was holding...just in time to get smashed by Catechism! The craft rolls out of control for a moment before it manages to fire the thrusters along it's underside to stabilize itself. It's still moving fast, but the interruption costs it several places. Where is that Sweep? Ramjet wonders as he soars around the cavern, dealing with obstacles the only way he knows how: by slamming into them. Viciously. Inwardly, the Air Commander is snarling and shouting at his targeting systems. Where the hell is that weaponslock. This close to the end, Blueshift's scruples are falling away. Further and further, he is struck by the stupid objects from the sky, shaking and trying to blast away the debris. "I hate dragons!" he cries. "I hate stupid alien things, I hate Sweeps, I hate bats, I hate ant lions!" He starts to shoot at an ant lion that is flying alongside him holding a tiny gun made of ice. "I hate this planet!" F-22 Jet Fighter keeps moving, he kinda went blind for awhile, but now his systems were back to normal, he was kicking it into gear. Those thrusters were burning hot. He was flying as fast has he was allowed now. Perhaps-- dangerously at that, actually-- moving so fast, a poor bat who gets in his way, gets kicked by the jet-stream his sleek surface is creating and tossed back behind him out of control. "..come on.. come on.." Sweepcraft notes that for all Blueshift's ranting, he does not try to slam into anyone. Well, the race nears its end, and perhaps the little blue spacecraft knows that to ram at this juncture would imperil his own chances. With Geist taking all the heat, Sunder chooses not to engage, preserving some semblance of integrity as he surges ahead. Galvatron arrives from the Nepsan North Pole to the south. Galvatron has arrived. Shawn Berger announces, to roaring applause. "I can't believe how exciting this race is! Scourge is still in the top spot, Blueshaft and his ant-lion friend are right behind him, and Raptor and some human are making a close third. Dirge is slowly regaining his lead from before, but he'll have to do it soon!" The Ice Dragon hisses angrily as its arm is briefly ensnared on the laser garrotte, which burns its flesh. It manages to shake it off only to catch a missile to the head. Shrieking, the dragon collapses to the cavern floor and thrashes violently. And what is the latest horror to emerge from the caves? BEARS. Ice Bears. However, unlike the Yetis, the Ice Bears can't jump very high, so they must instead settle for waving their paws angrily up at the racers and making angry bear noises. The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings... Galvatron descends from Nepsa's grey skies, watching with an icy frown. He stands behind Berger, crossing his arms and offering no comment. Blueshift has reconnected. From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield eyes the ice bears. "Sorry, I don't intend to become your dinner." He pulls up, out of their reach. Hopefully. Shawn Berger is startled as something lands behind him, and turns around, being startled again as he says who it is. "Oh, ah, Mr. Galvatron! Uh, your racers are doing well, sir! Mostly. Eh... heh." He adjusts his collar a bit. Experimental F-15 breaks away from Cosmos and kicks in his SPACE JETS again! And he ponders shooting Geist with a missile. But mostly he just flies. Concorde SST actually kicks up the afterburners to try and catch Redshift.....and hopefully, nudge his nosecone under one of Redshift's Stabilizers! Silverbolt tries to ram into Redshift and fails. Blueshift has reconnected. As Blueshift crosses the finishing line, he transforms to robot mode, skidding onto his knees and punching the air. "YES! YES! YES! BLUE FOR THE GOLD!" He is then instantly swamped by ice bears. :(Flying Saucer bursts back out onto the track as he finds his way back from the side route that he had been knocked into, streaking dangerously close to Dirge in the process but evading him as far as it is possible to. Cosmos is a lover, not a fighter! "I'll have to give those ice bears a medal," Galvatron mutters. The spaceship flips up into the handsome form of Blueshift A bunch of Yetis try to shove their way towards Blueshift, hoping to get in on some of that beatdown that's going on. Yes, bears-- so scarey-- whatever. The F-22 known as Raptor zipped over them swiftly, his rpm was increasing with every second. The jetstream noticeable from the heat he was creating over his body. He was pushing his form harder then ever. From what he could tell Blueshift was on his way out-- he couldn't let other decepticons take advatage of it. He wanted to rub in there faces that an autobot could better them-- that-- he could be as good has the greatest of decepticons-- no, Better! He slams it, as he makes the tird, creating a sonic boom in his wake, and causing some bears to fall over by the sheer force and rumble. The question was-- how long could his body, his alternate form, take this kinda punishment-- he never pushed it to its max-- not at least.. since the stasis millions of years ago... or is it billions? Space-Gun has nobody interesting in ramming or shooting range so he just tries to make it to the finish line as fast as his mode allows it to. F-35B Lightning II realises that they are all doomed. Blueshift has won. Galvatron will murder every last Decepticon here. Groaning, she just flies on, good little soldier that she is. Red Spacecraft is, inwardly, glad to see his blue twin being the winner of the race, but right now he's too busy burning with unfocused rage to think about that. He flares his thruisters for one last big push for the finish line, and narrowly avoids getting his rearend knocked over from behind by Silverbolt, who is now on the to-kill list twice. Reinforced White F-15 Eagle pays other fliers little mind as he stews a plot within his cone. Thrust continues to fly and doesn't bother to attack anyone. As far ahead as Blueshift is, Fusillade doesn't get to see the bears -- just yet. The screaming from the race leader is curious. Wonder what she can destroy now? Curely it can't be worse than her draconian dance partner for the past two laps. The Lancer murmurs to herself, "Just a little bit more..." There's a faint groan from her airframe as she shoves herself bodily through the staid-resistance of the super chilled air. That Exo-Suit enhanced human was still off her left wingtip, and an ominously looming Ramjet immediately to her rear. Sweepcraft unleashes more swarms to take out yeti. This is a brilliant strategy of the natives to have Olympians control their wildlife population. But not that the dragon has disappeared, Geist can focus on others in the race... And there's a filthy human inside a flying metal casing just behind. The poser. James Bailey... One of the insolent germs who dared violate NCC and argosy airspace. Geist steers around a hanging stala-whatever and shoots it trying to get it to drop in Bailey's way. Geist crashes forcefully into Exo-Jet Apollo Class ! From Exo-Jet Apollo Class , James Bailey is nearly knocked into a wall again, coming inches from scraping a wingtip this time. He checks quickly to determine many racers have sped ahead during the time it took him to regain control of his Jet. Quite a few, with the only consolation being that at least Catechism is still somewhere behind him. James doesn't see much chance of catching up with the Decepticons, so he can only resort to trying to clear the way for his own comrade. With a faint clicking noise he shoves his throttle all the way forward, throwing out control and agility in the interest of raw speed. If he can cut off one of the Decepticons in the lead, he can slow them down, and if not it can't hurt his own chances too much. Sweepcraft momentarily regrets passing up his chance to knock into Blueshift. However, that is outweighted by the importance of his own finishing in the top 3. He pays no heed to any others, but rather focuses entirely on placing. The sacrifice of his wingsib shall not be in vain. Sheer loathing would have pulled back his lips as a frustrated undercurrent gripped ahold of Quickswitch. Most of the obsticles had been met and obliterated by those at the front of this 'race'--a looping chase that meant absolutely nothing to the Sixchanger--though he knew it meant something to the few other Autobots in attendance. He loathed it all the more when once again the cheers grated on him. He saw one of the spacefaring brothers in front of him. The red one. He surged forward to run smack into Redshift if he could not release his lasers on him. Quickswitch tries to ram into Redshift and fails. Shawn Berger grins at Galvatron, "See? One of your own got gold! Isn't that wonderful?" More loudly, he announces, "Blueshift gets the gold medal! Let's just hope he manages to survive the caves to enjoy it!" The holo-feed focuses on the poor Decepticon's brutal torment for a moment. "Eesh, wouldn't want to be him right now. And the silver and bronze winners are...." The racers speed around the track, and the scoreboard lights up with the new race standings...======================[ Current Positions ]=======================
20 Exo-Armor Talon (lap 4) Fusillade (lap 4) 19 Redshift (lap 4) 13 Silverbolt (lap 3) Dirge (lap 4) 12 Cosmos (lap 4) Geist (lap 4) 11 Quickswitch (lap 3) 10 Sunder (lap 5) 8 Blueshift (lap 5) 7 Exo-Jet Apollo Class (lap 4) Raptor (lap 4) 5 Catechism (lap 4) Shockwave (lap 4) 4 Thrust (lap 4) 1 Ramjet (lap 5) Experimental F-15 aims to put Silverbolt into the wall, out of spite. Dirge tries to ram into Silverbolt and fails. From the pile of bears and yeti comes Blueshift's scream. "My medal belongs to Gaaaaaaaaaaaalvatron!" Concorde SST is actually able to move out of Dirge's way as he tries to ram him.....and goes to ram him in return! Of course.....all of this is after the leaders clear the way for the both of them! Flying Saucer tries to snatch up Geist with his tractor beam and fling him backwards as they make their way towards the finish line! Just for fun, at this point. Silverbolt tries to ram into Dirge and fails. Cosmos crashes forcefully into Geist! Sweepcraft feels the pull and tries using his garrot line to pull Cosmos with him Geist tries to ram into Cosmos and fails. Shawn Berger squints, then announces, "Ramjet takes the silver medal, and Jayson Redsomething and the bomber chick are tied for bronze! Well, at least the AUTOBOTS got nothing but my bitter contempt! Haw haw haw!" Flying Saucer zips away with a loud deedling. F-22 Jet Fighter had failed, in his own mind, however, he kept flying hard. At least finishing the race would be good... Sweepcraft is victorious! OK, well, he's victorious in getting the Silver. At least no Autobots placed, and that's all that matters right now. "I wish the Yetis would devour him and his medal," he mutters under his breath, as he sees the obnoxious gold-winner get mobbed. Sunder shifts into his fearsome-looking robot mode. Suddenly, as Ramjet tails a Talon and a Lancer, all four of those afterburners kick into high gear. Energon burns as an aura of blue flame surrounds the trails of fire, enabling the White Devil to /dust/ both of the jets in the lead. "THEY CALL ME AIR COMMANDER!" And you're all sucking on his exhaust fumes. Sweepcraft shortranges. "Sunder. Put fear upon that stupid human." F-35B Lightning II calls Ramjet Ishmael. When he's not looking. Shawn Berger blinks as he gets a call on his earphone. "Er... I mean. SUNDER gets silver, and Ramjet gets the bronze! Eheheheheheh..." Sunder growls softly until the correction is made. What, had he suddenly acquired Geist's invisibility cloak for a few minutes? From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield crosses the finish line! Close, but no cigar. He slows down, eventually coming in for a landing, which happens to be nearby Berger. The Talon's hatch opens and he pulls himself out of it, then calls out, "Hey, Berger!" And then...he flips him off! Again! Flying Saucer zips across the finish line too late to place, and hovers around aimlessly. No winner's circle for the Autobots this year, try as they might. Concorde SST chuckles lightly. "I will say one thing.....at least Ramjet didn't take the gold. I almost prefer Blueshift's loudmouth over Ramjet's. Cuz Blueshift can actually be quiet sometimes." He says as he pulls up close to Raptor. Yes, finishing the race would be good....placing isn't in his mind right now. Blueshift has partially disconnected. With the traditional sound, the space-gun unfolds into Shockwave's robot mode. "Out of the way, /failures/." Ramjet chortles as he zips past Raptor and Silverbolt. Oh he is so mean!! Concorde SST doesn't bother moving out of Ramjet's way.....he'll have to shoot him first. He still stays with Raptor....in clear defiance of the 'Air Commander's' order. Or it could be he still has his short wave radio off. If Silverbolt thought Blueshift was /quiet/, he obviously didn't know him like Sunder knew him. Experimental F-15 pulls up and away, twisting and coming back down to land on his feet.. The blue Experimental F-15 warps, bends, and reconfigures itself into the form of Dirge, Decepticon warrior! Shockwave transforms back into his robot mode and looks at the scoreboard. 3 Decepticons, 3 medals. Can't get much better than this, I mean if you forget all the trash talking and all on the broadband. Red Spacecraft flies away to go kill something to vent his rage at the early upset that (possibly) cost him the race. Geist is now number one on the to-kill list. Exo-Jet Apollo Class touches down next to the EDC Talon. After a second it also pops open it's canopy and James flashes Jayson another thumbs-up. "Nice moves in there, kid." Blueshift has partially disconnected. F-22 Jet Fighter crosses the line and transforms, he hovers there a few feet off the ground, before he floats over to the cons who one, clapping his hands gently, "Bravo, bravo. Great race-- really great.." Raptor transforms swiftly into his robotic form, with his optics for a split moment flashing vividly. From Exo-Armor Talon , Jayson Redfield cracks his knuckles and flashes a grin at James. "Thanks. You were pretty awesome, too." The Ice Dragon ROARS as it bursts out of the cave, spoiling for a fight. It swipes a claw at the frozen Decepticon cheerleading team, and they are smashed into fragments. "Activate the Ice Dragon defense system!" Berger yells into a mike. "Do it now, for the love of God!" Then, an image of a cartoon frog appears on the holo-display above the track. It sings: Hello! ma baby Hello! ma honey Hello! ma ragtime gal The Ice Dragon watches the hologram for a moment, then happily bobs its head up and down in tune with the music. Silverbolt changes into his robot mode. Silverbolt flys down and smiles to Raptor. "Don't worry about it Raptor. The Decepticons are only good at one thing anyways." "Yes," affirms Ramjet as he transforms. "/Winning/." Reinforced White F-15 Eagle is more than meets the eye! Wings seperate and flip forward as engines seperate and extend into legs. Powerful arms fold out and the cockpit turns in and twists out, completing the transformation into the Decepticon Ramjet! Exo-Jet Apollo Class moves north to the Nepsan North Pole. Exo-Jet Apollo Class has left. Raptor smiles at Ramjet, "Well-- you did a /wonderful/ job at it.." Exo-Armor Talon moves north to the Nepsan North Pole. Exo-Armor Talon has left. Quickswitch breaks away from the course immediately and touches down next to Raptor, relief washing the tension from his systems. He looks downward at Raptor. He finds himself unable to say much, clearly seeing that this somehow meant a lot to the Seeker-patterned Autobot, yet knowing nothing about why.. He wasn't programmed to understand culture--though he sensed it everywhere around him, and certainly, Raptor looked like he was feeling it now, "You'll be able to prove where it matters most," Quickswitch offered the 'Seeker' with a quiet sureness, not at all platitude from his quiet, light vocalizer. Quickswitch springs up into his massive robot mode. Silverbolt just ignores Ramjet. "Come on Raptor, Quickswitch....you guys did a good job. Let's head back. At least Fusillade didn't place. I don't think I could stand hearing her vocalizer if she got a medal." He says quietly before looking to the sky. "let's go." Quickswitch 'blinks', "What's going on out there--?" Silverbolt transforms into his plane mode Silverbolt moves north to the Nepsan North Pole. Silverbolt has left. Raptor hovers there in the air, locking one leg behind his leg as he rubs his chin, "Ya know-- I bet, if we had another round, just say you and I-- you could probably beat me." He address Ramjet on this. "Can't help but wonder how well you do without your.. team..." Ramjet snorts. "Yes. Prove your worth by kissing my engines a bit longer, won't you, Obsolete?" He brushes by Raptor, not-too-casually slamming his shoulder against his own as he walks by. "Remember. Whatever pretentions you have about us.. you're a failure." Raptor watches Ramjet closely before landing down, picking up some snow, rolling it into a ball, then chucking it at him. Hey, it was just snow! Raptor succeeds in grasping Ramjet, throwing him off-balance. "I couldn't stand hearing that femme's vocalizer under any circumstances," Or any of them, really, on either side of the war-- Quickswitch's optics slit into a glare. The next moment, he cocked his head, "Raptor, what are you doing, man?" 'Snow?' Raptor cants his head over to Quickswitch, "Its called a snow-ball, totally harmless. Something humans do.. either to start a fight-- have match offs.. or have fun." Piff! A snowball splatters against Ramjet's back. He doesn't notice. Because it's snow and he is made of metal. Lobsters are made of meat. Write this down, it's important. Raptor places his hands behind his back and looks upward, "..One day--" He whispers, before he kicks on his anti-gravs and takes off.
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