| abstract
| - Outskirts - Nova Cronum Amidst the strange, sizzling waters is the island of Nova Cronum, a philosophers haven. Its held aloft on a plateau with steep, jagged cliffs of ruddy metal, one side occupied by the renowned Praetorus Wharf and the other bleeding into Thunderhead Pass. Contents:F-15E Strike Eagle Firebase SolaceFirebase SolaceA modest set of constructions to bunker in Autobots with air protection. It hasn't a lot in the way of firepower, but has a pretty good repair bay. The base itself is painted to match the hillside it is a part of, though not fully camoflagued. Americon has arrived. Space Shuttle soars along the orbit of Cybertron, surrounded by stars twinkling all around him in the void of space. But the Combaticon shuttle is not here for sightseeing, or even planetary entry or exit. No, he's finally going to do something he's quite capable of- but somehow rarely ever gets to do. Take out a target from space itself. There will be no warnings, no chance of escape- only cold, effecient destruction.The CO Of Aerospace is dealing with many things, and is ready to make sure the Autobots know that Nova cronum is a lost cause. It is time to let it go, fools. The Decepticons have won the city, but the Autobots keep trying to encroach... with little things like Firebase Solace and its twin nearby. They sit there, watching and infesting the landscape and trying to gain a foothold here again. Even Fortress Maximus often stands guard at the firebases. But today, he is gone on a mission- and the firebases are staffed with minimal contigents. A perfect time to end them once and for all- and make a point.At Firebase Solace, all seems well and normal. That is, until the entire area is cast in a strange blue light. The Autobots there feel a little funny, like the place is building up a charge of energy... and small objects in the immediate area begin to float up. There are only a few confused glances and a quick radio message to note the oddity, when ///KRA-KA-THOOM!!!/// ...a massive laserbeam devastates about a quarter of the Firebase with one well-aimed shot. Several shots follow in quick, precise succession, bringing more damage with every blast- which is coming up from such a high vantage point no one can see the attacker. It's like Primus himself has cast the FireBase down in a wrathful Judgement Day. And then there's Americon, sitting at the controls, yanking around the flight stick, and slamming buttons. Nevermind the controls are disabled. He's like a kid at an arcade machine... and without a quarter to his name. "YEAH! Take THAT, Autobots! I lit you up like the FOURTH OF JULY! Hey, Blast Off, I am disappointed, though! We did not one-shot them, what gives, man? We had better TWO-SHOT them on this next salvo!" There's really no predicting this, even from Air Raid's height in the stratosphere. He watches the beam of light streak down to seer straight into the firebase with an audial-shattering sound. "Gahh! What the frag!?" He radios to report what just happened, though he's not sure he believes it... Hellbender? Absolution? There's no way he can spot Blast Off hidden in the night sky, not yet anyhow. <> Raid eventually pitches skyward and climbs to investigate. Space Shuttle speakers come on and grumble at the Casseticon. <> Scrap, this is exactly why he doesn't *like* passengers- especially up /here/.... Good thing he had the control turned off once he knew Americon was coming. <>He takes a bit of time to power up his weapons again (and a Booster he had installed to expedite this mission helps, too..... Then proceeds to fire more orbital bombardments down to the planet's surface below. The destruction continues, and the firebase is beginning to crumble. The shuttle's wing elevons shift and he begins angling in for planetary reentry.... At this point the firey glow of immense heat and radiation hitting Blast Off's heat shields might be visable in the sky high above...... <Cybertron> Air Raid says, "Oooohoho, whoever you are, you best start turnin' tail 'fore I set it on fire!" Americon pouts. "I was helping! I mean, as an American, I am quite a skilled shot, you know, as all Americans are! Americans are terrorized by enormous Grizzly bears, so every man and child must learn to fire a gun before they even learn to walk! And I am just like that, which is why I hit that base dead center!" He frowns, trying to manipulate the controls without avail. "Hey, what gives? I don't want to descend into the scary atmosphere! It's way too hot!" F-15E Strike Eagle watches grimly as the base below erupts in bright orange flames. "...Slag. That was... kinda' important." Blast Off's heat shields do manage to draw his attention, and he continues to climb until the vague outline of a certain purple shuttle comes into view. "OF COURSE IT'S YOU, UUGH!" But actually reaching Blast Off is another matter. Raid hits a bit of a ceiling where the air is too thin to burn, and is left to shoot from a great distance. But he still shoots! Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle sets his defense level to Fearless.Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle strikes Space Shuttle with his DIRTY CHEATIN CON (Laser) attack!Space Shuttle siiighs and wonders how he got stuck with this particular Cassetticon again. Apparently Soundwave wanted to keep a direct optic on this situation and all his other Cassettes must have been too busy... or they were Rumble and Frenzy- and Blast off didn't want them back in his cockpit. Not after what happened /last time/.... <>Well, that's not all they take.... an Autobot flying in the atmosphere takes aim as the shuttle reenters orbit and with one shot, takes a nice little chunk out of Blast off's fuselage while he's busy trying not to burn up in the radiation. It's a bumpy ride, and he is a bit vulnerable at that time- unable to dodge the attack. <> Blast Off radios Raid. <> A laser shot shoots out from his wing cannons, right down towards the Aerialbot!Combat: Space Shuttle strikes F-15E Strike Eagle with his Making Examples attack! [Pulled -7] Americon's shoulders slump. "Ooookay." Glumly, he stalks back to the cargo bay, where he prepares to just lie on the floor or something. Then, a laser blast shoots through Blast Off's fuselage, and suddenly Americon is sucked right out the hole! "AHHH!!!" he shrieks as he tumbles through the sky, the air superheating around him. He descends towards Air Raid like a flaming meteor!Combat: Americon strikes F-15E Strike Eagle with his Ram attack! << I'm gonna' drop you so hard,>> Raid hisses. <> Blast Off promptly lasers his nosecone, metal plates peeling back from the heat. "PIECE OF SH-" he dissolves into some sincere swearing as he goes into a horizontal spin, only to collide with the fireball that is Americon. "Aaarrrgh!" With a collective CLACK, all of his pylons snap and launch a barrage of missiles. "DAMN TAPES!"Combat: F-15E Strike Eagle strikes Space Shuttle with his AIM-9X Missile attack!Americon doesn't want to fall anymore, so instead he tries to grab onto one of Air Raid aerilons and hang on for dear life! "Wow, that was a close one, Blast Off, I almost fell!" he says. "Say, you think you could land somewhere? This is really scary!" If you're wondering why Americon can't tell he's hanging onto Air Raid, it's because he's on fire. Yes, he's still on fire after reentry, somehow. Maybe his paint is really flammable. Space Shuttle notes that Americon gets sucked out his cargo area. Oh well. At least the tape can fly, right? ...If he remembers he can. Blast off shrugs internally, then finally gets past the bumpiest part of reentry- only to have Raid, /again/, add some bumpiness of his own, rocking the shuttle with a blast that does a significant amount of damage. "Gahhh!"Slag, that hurt. The shuttle's engines rumble with anger as he powers up another bombardment burst- a more powerful one this time, though he's still abit low energy after demolishing the FireBase. <> Combat: Americon's Got Your Aeiralireaons attack on F-15E Strike Eagle goes wild!Combat: Americon misses Space Shuttle with his Got Your Aeiralireaons attack!Combat: Space Shuttle sets his defense level to Guarded.Combat: Space Shuttle strikes F-15E Strike Eagle with his That HURT slaggitall attack! [Pulled -6] Americon, however, misses Air Raid's aerilons and instead tries to grab onto the real Blast Off's aerilons but he misses him too so that sucks for him! F-15E Strike Eagle is... mildly surprised his shots are landing. Blast Off must be very occupied. Americon fails to grab on, but it /does/ distract him enough to get smacked with another one of Blast Off's extremely painful beams. "Nnnghh-sunnuvaglitch!" Fuselage partially melted, he angrily shifts back into 'bot mode and reaches out to grab Americon as he floats around. If he's successful he'll just try to crush him in his hands! As crushing tapes is fun. Air Raid folds and compacts into his robot mode.Combat: Air Raid strikes Americon with his Smash attack! <Decepticon> Blast Off says, "Do you require assistance out there, Americon? Or is sky-diving one of those "American" things you do?"<Decepticon> Former Senator Americon says, "*Urgh* Sometimes!"<Decepticon> Former Senator Americon says, "I'll be fine, though, this isn't the worst injury I've received!"<Decepticon> Blast Off sighs. "Hold on, I'll shoot his arms...." Space Shuttle strikes the Aerialbot again, but meanwhile Americon seems to be in a fair bit of... distress. Not that Blast off really *cares* very much, but... Soundwave might be upset if he learned Americon died and the Combaticon hadn't even *tried* to help. At least a /tiny/ bit. So he radios the tape, gets a... confusing answer- and then Raid starts crushing the tape with his bare hands. Well, that won't do.Adjusting wing elevons, the shuttle dips down and rockets down rapidly towards where Raid is trying to crush the cassette. "Typical uncouth behavior, Air Raid. I am afraid I cannot allow it..." And he shoots at Raid's arms, trying to force him to drop the cassetticon! Combat: Space Shuttle strikes Air Raid with his Unhand Him attack! [Pulled -7] Americon kicks his legs as Air Raid begins to crush him. Eventually, though, he stops struggling even as his armor begins to buckle and cave in, and he looks Air Raid in the optics and says, "Go ahead and kill me, Air Raid, because you know what you can't kill?" His optics narrow. "FREEDOM." Then he tries to spit in Air Raid's optic. It won't hurt, it'll just be annoying. Combat: Americon strikes Air Raid with his PTOOIE (Grab) attack! Air Raid's optics snap wide when both of his arms light up. "YOWCH!" he yelps, releasing Americon juuust before the patriot tape spits in his optics. "You freaking little-! UGH!" Out comes the warbow, but he's got a little something made specifically for Blast Off. It's still a pretty rapid freefall but he doesn't seem to care about the approaching ground. An arrow that seems to be nothing more than a pipe of light is shot up towards the Combaticon, and after it trails a glowing line." Combat: Air Raid strikes Space Shuttle with the Apocryphacius-forged Tracer Arrows attack!Combat: Air Raid's attack has damaged your Accuracy!Combat: That attack has locked on Space Shuttle . (LOCKON) Americon dives after Air Raid, reaching his fists out to him like he's Superman. "I don't think so, Air Raid! You aren't going to blast Blast Off, because he's my pal and also my ride! And he's got much worse things to think about than you, oh no, there's a bunch of fanatic Decepticons out there that want to take turns torturing him until he wishes he was never created! You're nothing next to that!" Then he tries to slam into the fingers pulling back the arrow... while the bow is already aimed at Blast Off and fully drawn. He's helping! Combat: Americon strikes Air Raid with his HELPING (Punch) attack!Combat: Critical Hit! Space Shuttle succeeds in making Air Raid release the Cassetticon, but...slagitall- the Aerialbot strikes the shuttle *again*!!! What IS this? It's almost like Air Raid is full of righteous anger at the destruction of the Firebase and he /can't miss/. This is *bad news* for the Combaticon, who counts on his usually dependable ability to *dodge* Also... he didn't like the look of that arrow- or the glowing line that trailed after it. Not quite sure *what* that was, and getting hit left and right, he decides to transform into his better armored root mode and just fly in and grab the Cassetticon.Speeding down, he tries to grab the other Con and get back out of range quickly. This does enable him to hear what Americon says, however, and there's a..."...WHAT?!?" that almost makes him falter right then and there as he's half tempted to stop what he's doing and start searching the sky for the DJD instead.....Blast Off shifts into his battle-ready robot mode. Combat: Blast Off strikes Americon with his GOTCHA-now stop scaring me (Grab) attack! Air Raid doesn't quite understand what Americon' is referring to at first. "...Ohhh, hah! Those guys have ya' runnin' scared, huh! OW!" Americon bravely launches himself at Air Raid's hands, and he does a surprising amount of damage for something so little. "You broke one of my fingers you motherfragger!" He aims a kick at the tape but really can't steer himself very well without anti-gravs, and ends up spinning in place. "FFF!" Yanking grenade arrows from subspace with enough force to make the pocketing tech go POP, he flings a barrage every which way. Combat: Air Raid sets his defense level to Protected.Combat: Air Raid strikes Blast Off with his DIE ALREADY Area attack!Combat: You are very aware that your life is in danger!Combat: Air Raid's attack has damaged your Velocity!Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Blast Off's Agility. (Crippled)Combat: Air Raid strikes Americon with his DIE ALREADY Area attack!Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Americon's Agility. (Crippled) "I'm not scared!" Americon boasts as Blast Off plucks him away. "Because I am proud of my country and I know that we will win over the terrorists no matter the cost!" This speech may have lost most of its impact since Americon is in the process of kersploding from all the grenade arrows going off around him, so it mostly sounds like "Scared--" BOOM BOOM BOOM! "--terrorists--' BOOM BOOM BOOM! "--cost!" But he's ready to retaliate, whipping out his AMERICANNON and fires it at Air Raid! However, this could be a problem since, like Blast Off is holding him and the possibility of him being horribly injured is very real!Combat: Americon misses Air Raid with his Americannon attack! Americon is mostly just crushed into Blast Off's hand by the severe recoil. :(Blast Off manages to grab the Cassetticon (thus hopefully insuring Soundwave isn't going to be grabbing HIM later...) but that's when Air Raid unleashes his attack. And indeed, there was good reason for Blast Off to not like that glowing line. It seems to guide the grenade arrows right to him. His optics widen and go pale violet as he attempts to fly backwards immediately after grabbing Americon... which doesn't work out too well. He's too close anyway. The explosion damages his armor, shattering the heat shields that seem especially vulnerable to such attacks. "GAHH!"Now Blast Off goes spinning, as red warnings flash and energon gets sent raining in splattered circling twirls along with him. Americon goes on about... something or other, but the shuttleformer doesn't have much time to really listen right now as the Cassetticon shoots at Raid, misses, and damages Blast Off's hand further. "Slag it all!" He pulls his inhured hand away, letting go of Americon and letting him- do whatever. "Americon, you idiot- transform to your eagle mode at ONCE!" Then it's back to trying to stop spinning and get some distance from Raid- and trying to make a hit on the Bot. He pulls out his ionic blaster and holds it with the uninjured hand, firing. "Not bad, turbo-turkey.... but I shall send you DOWN!"Combat: Blast Off strikes Air Raid with his Go down to the ground like the Ground Pounder you REALLY are! attack! [Pulled -2] Air Raid is still fuming as he nocks, yanks and looses three arrows each shot. His scowl turns to a manic grin as the air blossoms into perfect spherical explosions all around. "Hahaha! You can't dodge forever Blast Off! My tracers are pretty ace, aren't they! Whoa!" Americon's cannon just barely singes a wing, and Blast Off's ionic blaster cuts across his torso, making more than just his paint boil. Face twisted up in pain, he jerks his bow up to sling the last of his arrows at the shuttle. "I've got plenty of time!"Combat: Air Raid misses Blast Off with his Torque Arrow attack! Americon blinks as he tumbles away from Blast Off. "Eagle... mode...?" Then, it finally dawns on him. "I have an eagle mode! OH YEAH, I forgot somehow!" Majestically converting to bald eagle mode, he rockets towards Air Raid with an incredible burst of speed! There's speed lines and everything! "Okay, Air Gay-ed, it's time for you to see what a little hard work and a LOT of patriotism can do! Taaaaaake THIS!" And he fires a tiny little eye-beam at him. That's it. Americon's robot legs pop out metallic feather-like objects as they and his lower torso split apart, also revealing an eagle head. The arms and robot head join the main body, and his guns convert into tail feathers and rocket launchers. Americon is now a bald eagle! Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle strikes Air Raid with his Pew (Disruptor) attack! Blast Off is in a good bit of pain himself now. He HAD planned on taking out BOTH firebases... but perhaps one is enough. ...For today. Wincing and holding onto his side with his injured hand, he glares at the Aerialbot-just as said 'Bot launches the last of his arrows at him. Which- *FINALLY*- he dodges! About TIME!!! "I can't dodge forever? /I JUST DID/." This has just been humilating.... he'll blame it on Americon. And he WAS a bit distracted, what with planetary reentry and worrying about the DJD, right?His systems are still flashing warnings, and he's leaking energon like nobody's business, and his hand hurts and.... it's probably time to call it a day. Yes. He made his point. "I tire of this... it is pointless to speak to someone like you, Air Raid. But take note, and tell your fellow Autofools... I /alone/ destroyed your Firebase... when I CHOOSE to use my systems at full capacity, from space, no one can stop me. Certainly no mere planet-bound mech. You'll never even see your death /coming/. And I will destroy MORE things if you do not back off! Learn to accept when you have LOST. Nova Cronum is OURS."He shakes his head at Americon, though at least the Cassetticon actually HIT Raid. "Alright, Americon, let us go. Well..." He stops and turns to shoot at Raid again. "Ok, NOW we can go....." Combat: Blast Off strikes Air Raid with his SPACE SNIPER attack! [Pulled -3]Combat: Critical Hit!Combat: Air Raid falls to the ground, unconscious. Robotic Bald Eagle caws out at Air Raid as he falls, "YEAH! It's our Nova Cronum and you can't have it! Wait..." He pauses, looking confused. "...what's a Nova Cronum anyway?" Even so, he follows after Blast Off as best he can... which is not far, because Blast Off is faster so eventually he'll have to slow down to let Americon in and shoo him out of the cockpit again and oh gosh Air Raid gets EYE LAZORED by a giant evil eagle. Metal. "Ow! OW! Rrrrgh, you've been QUITE an annoyance!" he snaps at Americon, then glowers as Blast Off lectures him. "Planet-bound... I'm bound by NOTHING! Unlike you 'con slaggers, slaves to your fragged up emperor! GO FRAG YOURSELF!" And for this, he gets shot, riiiight in the fuel tanks. It's quite an explosion, and Raid falls from the sky as Blast Off promised, to end up in a pretty gruesome crator in the shallows of Nova Cronum's fizzy docks. Blast Off does do exactly what he said he'd do, and with a smirk he watches the Aerilabot fall. He'll never get tired of that sight, either. Then he looks to Americon with another sigh. "It's where WE belong and the Autobots DO NOT." He then flies off, going a little slower than usual... though whether that's because he's letting Americon keep up, or he's weakened from loss of energon... that's anyone's guess. **Decepticon Spinny**Blast off appears on screen, hovering above the skies of Nova Cronum. Thick, black smoke billows up from the wreckage of... something far below. The Combaticon is heavily damaged, with shattered heat shields that continue to shed ceramic tiles as he moves and speaks... yet he looks quite self-satisfied. "CO of Aerospace reporting in to inform you all that I finally decided to quit wasting time waiting for YOU mechs to do something about this never-ending Autofool infestation near Nova cronum. So I took matters into my own hands and did what none of YOU seem to be able to do. I am a space shuttle and a /magnificent/ one at that, and quite capable of laying destruction on targets from planetary orbit itself. Something which, unfortunately, I do not often get to do."Blast off leans into the wind-buffeted camera. "That has, happily, been rectified. Both the lamentable /lack/ of precise orbital targeting /and/ the existance of FireBase Solace itself. All it required was some shots from my orbital bombardment systems and that base ceased to exist. They never even saw me coming. Air Raid attempted to stop me when I came back down into orbit to investigate. ...I made HIM cease to exist as well.... or something close. He fell from the sky to join the FireBase in ashes." Blast off glances off screen at someone, then shakes his head and looks back to the camera. "Oh, and Soundwave, you will be /delighted/ to know that Americon finally remembered that he has an Eagle mode and can actually *fly*." The Combaticon looks down at the wreckage below and appears to smirk under his faceplate- ego at full power- then shuts the camera feed off. ==============================================================================
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