| abstract
| - Monday, April 23, 2012, 8:34 AM Valles Marineris The magnificent Valles Marineris valley system is comprised of a multitude of valleys and canyons stretching 3,000 miles, from the Tharsis Planitia at the western end of the canyon system to the Elysium Planitia at the east end. The region is filled with extinct volcanos and other peculiar geological findings. The atmosphere is almost 80 percent carbon dioxide here, rising to well over 95% further east and making it hazardous for those who need to breath oxygen. Secret Underground Autobot Base This quick-and-dirty Autobot base rests at the bottom of one of the many canyons in the Valles Marineris valley range. The base is essentially a bunch of big holes in the ground, with tunnels leading from one big underground hole to other big underground holes. There's rudimentary walls, floors, and equipment in each of the 'rooms', as well as a high tech trap door to the surface with holo-camo to disguise the base from patrolling Seekers. The base includes a small launch hangar, a small radar dish, a barrack, stores, a missile silo, and alien containment. *cough*. Despite the holographically hidden missile silos, the primary defence of the base is stealth. Amber MacKenzie is atop the cliff east of the no-longer hidden base, laying on a pile of soft, fine Martian dust enclosed by a polygonal makeshift wall of rocks and watching for Decepticon activity. Her small camcorder has finally been fully recharged (it works on solar power, and the Sun isn't exactly bright), and she's using it to spy towards Trypticon. The stars are exceptionally bright tonight, making it easier to see. Thus far, she doesn't see anything unusual. Amber MacKenzie peers at a gathering of Decepticons far, far away. There's a few more than usual, and she resolves to keep a close eye on them. "A bit more activity than usual," she whispers into her comm. "I'm watching them." Just to cover her bases, she first makes a sweep of the rest of the horizon, but there's nothing else. Spinister watches the drones fuel the pieced together shuttle assembled for the mission. It's the airbourne version of a mullet: armor in the front, party in the back. It's basically made of junk, but it only has one purpose. Our enemies shall know FEAR! And through that fear, the galaxy's women shall know that I AM the most MASCULINE!" Singe announces, flexing and posing with a sword that he found...somewhere. Hairsplitter sighs. "Yeeahh...We're going to need to do three more checks on the propulsion systems...This thing has to do a lot of breaking." He explains to a gumby. And then takes his stapler. F-16XL Fighting Falcon is on escort duty for this shuttle. Feels weird, given that the mission involves letting the thing get obliterated. The jet is currently circling around above, keeping watch. Running mechanical checks on the shuttle bores him and both of his Targetmaster partners. Inwardly, they're chatting amongst themselves about how to survive this mission. Spinister made a big deal about how dangerous these assignments were going to be. Surely there's a graceful way to get out of the Mayhem Attack Squad that doesn't involve being turned into spare parts? Mecha Fenrir Wolf leans over a bit to sniff at Singe. "You still smell like fuel and cheap aftershave though," replies the robotic wolf with his usual toothy smile. Amber MacKenzie frowns as she watches from the top of the cliff east of the base, enclosed within a fence of oddly positioned rocks. She zooms in on her camcorder and frowns some more. "Even more of them assembling," she whispers into her radio. "A shuttle... They're going somewhere." She shivers on her bed of fine Martian dust. Scorn stands a few feet from the ship as it's checked and rechecked, the femme going over a datapad in her hands which currently have a simple layout of the temporary base they're about to attack. Hairsplitter's comment has her snort softly, subspacing the pad. "Well make sure the checks are fast. The humans aren't going to stay in one place forever, and I want this attack to be hard and fast." The Cyber-Jets cuts through the red planet's skyline on the opposite side of the shuttle on escort duty, and a cackle flows easily from the Seeker as he dips his wing at the pilot. "Mad respect for ya, Ace! Ready to die for The Cause! You're a true grunt, heheh. No guts, no glory!" Dangerous assignments were always his favorite, and Apex hadn't shut up about how much fun it was going to be to deliver such a blow to the enemy the only way that Decepticons ever should...Boldly. "I wonder how big the explosion is going to be... Think we'll be able to see the damage from orbit?" Hairsplitter looks blandly up at Scorn and nods, gesturing for the two gumbies to get moving. Singe saddles up to her. "Hard and fast! Yes my love, our rage will fall upon the Autobots and their allies with equal hard and fastness! It will be as hard and fast as my eternal love for you is nurturing and...taking it's time and playing it cool." Hairsplitter gives Spinister a wave, who nods to Scorn. "Lt. It's time." From Glaive II - Prototype , Nate Briar is currently hiding the Glaive in a sniper's perch. The Glaive is covered with the Martian dust to help it hide, as the pilot has the Armored Suit hidden behind enough rocks to provide cover until the pilot gets ready. Inside the Glaive, there is a picture of a damaged Shockwave in Australia and a giant red heart around his one optic. The pilot has an ear piece in that allows him to listen in to something special. "Snap your fingers, snap your neck." On his way up the ramp, Singe smiles big at Carnivac. "Wrong, my Fenrir friend. I smell like...VICTORY!" Strut strut strut. Mecha Fenrir Wolf would roll his eyes at Singe's flagrant flirting, but he only has a opti-band for superior field vision in this mode. So he just snickers a bit at the silliness of a fleshie in a robot contortionist suit flirting with the femmes. Though when he does pad past Scorn he learns over to her. "You better hope the gun doesn't shoot blanks." Followed by more snickering and trods off to get in the shuttle at Spinister's call. Scorn tries her hardest not to roll her optics at Singe, instead forcing a smile down at him. "If you really want to show your love, Singe, you'll bring me a little souvenir from the battle." She sends him a wink before looking up to Spinister, her expression immediately flattening and becoming more serious as she now turns to the others. "Alright, it's time to head out! You've all been debriefed on what to do, so I'm expecting no mistakes. Load up and prepare to strike fear into those pathetic humans as we decimate what's left of them on this planet!" And with that she rallies the team into the shuttle, letting the flight support remain on the outside as directed. The ship's ramp closes as the junker lifts into the air towards Needlenose and Apex: a flying bulk of armor with a spray painted Decepticon insignia on the front. It will reach the Autobot location quickly: SO quickly, in fact, that it will arrive as soon as the Autobots have finished posing their preparations! From inside, Singe scowls. "You know, we never named this thing. Should we name it?" Modified Starknight is standing at the top of the base, looking down at the defenses as his eyes survey the area. He finally sighs and looks at the officer beside him, "Are we ready to evacuate? We won't be able to hold here, we must inflict as much damage as we can and make sure to get everyone out of here fast." Modified Exo-Armor slowly paces about the area. One would think ninjas like to stay still but when he does not have to he enjoys moving about. "Sounds like a plan." he says about Momesa's instructions. Hikage loads up his crossbow and prepares for the coming battle. Warpath stands like a sentinel over the area, anticipating battle. "KaBLAM, if the Decepticons want to come here and cause trouble, why, we'll POW, hand their aft plates to them on a silver platter!" He rubs his hands together and then slips into Tank mode, the turret slowly panning as if the barrel is a camera. "Bloody hell," Amber whispers to herself as that shuttle is heading right in this direction. "Incoming. One shuttle, some escorts," she says softly into her radio, beginning to crawl towards the cliff edge. There's cover, which is why she picked this place, but she's shaking as she ghosts through the desolate Martian rocks, sand, and dust. Remedy is busy fixing things for the evacuation. She listens for the details over the radio, while fixing up stuff. F-16XL Fighting Falcon doesn't notice that Amber is spying on them. Is it because Amber is great at sneaking around, or because Needlenose is a terrible scout? You, the viewers, decide! Overhearing Apex, Needlenose groans inwardly. Argh, great, he's paired up with the patriotic guy. That's a surefire trip to dying a horrible death. "I dunno, explosions are pretty lame on Mars," Needlenose replies. "I think it's the minimal atmosphere." As the shuttle lifts off, Needlenose takes his position on its right wing. "If you're gonna name it, you better name it reeeeeaaal fast." Loadout was out at the opposite end of the base, beyond it in fact and currently looking over a faulty sensor array that continues to misbehave what with all the Martian dust that keeps getting kicked up. With hands set on his hips in frustration, the Autobot Technician was about to give up and just go and get a whole new sensor array to replace it, when word started filtering back to him that there was something up. Looks like this whole 'sensor array' thing could be an entirely moot point by now. Frowning to himself, Loadout turned and moved into a quick dash, followed by a careful skidding/sliding down the side of the Martian mountain as he made his way back to the base, kicking up rocks and dust galore as he went. "Ugh, this is going to take -forever- to get out of my joints later..." <> Fusillade says as she blows through Needlenose's and Apex's formation. "Your report sucked!" she shouts over her engines at Apex, in a good mood that any report got made. Mecha Fenrir Wolf takes one last look at the dilapidated nature of the shuttle around them as they take off, then grunts and grins. "Considering what we intend to do with it, I suggest Crashcourse!" The Pretender starts snickering a bit, then spots. "Aaaactually, considering just that..." He summons his shell and locks down, just to make sure he actually survives the trip getting there to see the battle afterwards. Barkida looks up from fuelling up her rocketbike at the sound of a shuttle arriving, adjusting her rebreather and goggles. She needs her ride in good condition for the trip back to Earth, if things go as badly here as she fears. The humans have been resisting the Decepticon takeover of the Red Planet as well as they can, but they're so small, and so helpless, apart from the few of them equipped with robot suits and other combat vehicles. Modified Starknight looks up as Amber warns them all, "Here they are gentlemen. You know the drill. Everyone to combat station. Shoot those birds out of the sky!" Kenya runs a quick check on his armor before taking off to meet with Decepticons. Cyber-Jet circles around the hull of the shuttlecraft, hovering with the nose facing the large hunk of junk. "Helloooo in there! Hehehehahahah! Let’s get us some, Ladies!" Oh how he lived for this stuff. "The first and the last thing I wanna hear outta yer stinkin' holes is KILL KILL KILL!" Once the armored vessel has finished its lift and begins to move into the direction of the Autobot base, Apex swoops around the aft section of the shuttle and immediately jolts forward with the full force of his afterburners causing a loud BOOM in its wake as he moves to catch up. The hunk of junk was a lot faster than it looks! Needlenose's comments earn the F-16XL Fighting Falcon a reply, "Boooo... That's a load of scrap! Whatever though, it'll be entertainin' enough to fly over the remains of the Bot base later. If I'm lucky I'll even be able to go through the bodyparts and find some decent salvage for upgrades! Oooo-yeah! It's gonna be a gooood day!" As the crude shuttle makes its maiden voyage toward the base, Scorn assumes a position near the front, looking out the front window, a large, toothy grin lighting her face at the blips starting to show up on the sensors. "Looks like we've got a pretty good crowd lined up to watch the carnage." Turning, the femme nods to the others before taking a spot near the shuttle hatch, planning to drop out as soon as possible. "Get ready to bail, boys!" She grins at them now, sliding the door open to show the Martian scenery whipping by as they zero in on the EDC base. Spinister watches the approach through the cockpit window near Scorn, oblivious to the drone that will die in the crash. At Scorn's command, he moves to the back, Singe and Hairsplitter following him. Hairsplitter coughs. "Does everyone have their timesheets in order?" Singe says nothing. Scared? Probably. Time to put his money where his mouth is. Spinister leaps, followed by his Targetmaster companions, who transform into their weapon modes as their master flies towards the base. Once the Decepticons have made their jump, the shuttle slams through the false ground serving to cover the Autobot base, leaving a gaping wound in the planet as the explosives rigged into the hull go off, hopefully causing anyone nearby to take cover, giving the Mayhem Attack Squad their window! Fortress Maximus' armour plates splits open, accompanied by the distinct transformation sound, as towers and buildings rises up. Defensive batteries, communications and radar dishes can be seen emerging all over while the three main ramps can be see unfolding and extending down to others access to within. Soon the distinct form of a defense base sits before you. Loadout keeps skidding and sliding his way down the side of the hill towards the base's direction. That is, until the shuttle formerly packed full of Decepticons and now packed full of explosives proceeds to detonate against the ground in a huge fireball that rises up into the sky. Though Loadout is fortunate enough -not- to be in the vicinity of the blast, it's still enough to prompt him to skid to a stop and shield his optic visor with one arm, the other bracing against the ground to steady himself. "Ugh!" As the last of the winds from the blast relent, a feathering of red Martian dust plays over his frame, before he wordlessly finishes his descent, jogging the last short distance to the base perimeter and the defenders within. There's probably going to be lots of work for him in a moment. Modified Starknight shouts "Get the hell out of here! They're going to crash!" Obeying his own order, Kenya removes himself from the shuttle's trajectory. The shuttle passes him before crashing into the ground. Opening his commlink, he transmits, "Amber, NOW!". The benefactor position himself so he stands/hover between the base and most of the Decepticons, while making sure not to remaining in the line of fire of his allies. Raising his arm, towards the Decepticons, "Well, trashcans. Missed me?" he asks as the large gun on his arm starts to spit bullets at the Decepticons. Combat: Modified Starknight misses Space-Going B-1R Lancer and Spinister with its Heavy Bolter Area attack! Amber MacKenzie hadn't quite made it to the cliff edge, and a good thing, too, as a good twenty feet of the cliff face crumbles before her. She falls back on her aft as the ground shakes, and billows of dust and sand belch from the canyon. Scrambling backwards, she avoids going down with the rest of the avalanche, her heart pounding as she struggles between fight or flight. After the ground settles, she pulls herself together and crawls again towards the cliff's edge. If she gets trapped up here, she's dead. The cliff face has changed, and she slowly, carefully climbs downwards, keeping to whatever cover is left. Modified Exo-Armor sees the incoming Decepticons and activates his targeting system, looking for a juicy target. His computer randomly selects Carnivac as he closes in. He raise his arm selecting his medium-range autocannon. Once the cross turns red he fires off a quick salvo at the feral Decepticon. Combat: Modified Exo-Armor misses Giant Armored Timberwolf with its 15mm Autocannon attack! Barkida covers her face and dives to the ground as shrapnel whizzes through the air, slashing through her fatigues and scoring bloody scratches across her leather-thick skin. "Get to the ships!" she yells to the humans through her rebreather, but her voice doesn't carry far in the thin atmosphere. "It's the Decepticons!" As the shrapnel, flaming debris and body parts patter to the ground, Barkida climbs back to her feet and takes cover behind an overturned six-wheeled EDC rover, looking around for a ranged weapon. "I'll give it back afterwards," she tells herself as she braces her knee against the rover and rips the heavy mounted machinegun off the roof, charges the chamber and lets off a rattling burst at one of the incoming Decepticons! Combat: Barkida strikes Scorn with her M2HB HMG (Pistol) attack! From Glaive II - Prototype , Nate Briar spots Needlenose in the distance. "Oh, the Decepticon with the Fabio sidekick? What was his name? Glitter?" Nate smirks as he readies his sniperscope on the F-16 and keeps a chuckle as he traces the movements. He ponders trying to fire a small caliber round or a heavier round into the nosecone of his target as the Glaive's AI, AL, attempts to calculate a tactical point to fire. "Screw it," says the pilot as he fires his rifle into the vicinity of Needlenose and charges out of his sniper's perch. "Decepticon, I challenge you one on one." He grins from inside the vehicle as he calls out his dance partner for the night. Combat: Glaive II - Prototype misses F-16XL Fighting Falcon with his Auto-Rifle attack! "BAM, here they come!" the red tank exclaims, as the evil Decepticon hordes descend. His barrel points at Apex. "We have POW, tone!" Warpath takes extra time to aim his next attack. Defense Base powers up in response to comms activity, and both his and the base's perimeter defenses raises up from into standby mode, << Heads up, and get battle ready everyone. Remember the drills, keep a calm frame of mind, and always have a backup plan ready. >> Galen can be seen inside Fortress Maximus' command center working away at the sea of control panels, inputting commands in concert with the information being fed to him by the early warning RADAR systems, "Looks like a good mix of air power and ground support." Fortress Maximus' agrees silently and responds by adjusting his own RADAR dish towards the incoming aircrafts and begins feeding the Autobot and EDC forces combat telemetry data. Combat: Defense Base misses Space-Going B-1R Lancer with his Radar Lock attack! Cyber-Jet took his sweet time looking over the battlefield for a promising target, and none was quite so tempting as his old friend Aramasu Hikage. As the familiar autocannon sent streaks of hot lead flying toward Carnivac the Seeker couldn't help growing a tad bit jealous. "Hey! You didn't forget me that soon did'ja? We've got a fight to finish!" he barks at the EDC'er, and again a cackle flows from the belly of the beast while the charging hum of his primary weapon begins to permeate the skies. "Open wide and scream AAAAHHHHHHH!" Combat: Cybertronian Cyber-Jet misses Modified Exo-Armor with his Focus Beam attack! Giant Armored Timberwolf hits the ground with a heavy thud, a ring of red dust briefly flitting around him as legs flex to absorb the impact of landing, and then Carnivac springs off into a sprint towards the location of the not so hidden base. Jaws twisted in a manic grin as usual, sharp fangs bared and... Wait a minute! The beast abruptly leans back and skids to a stop, claws scraping for purchase as he brakes. Then lurches up, ears upright atop his head, eyes narrowing. Something was... off. He couldn't quite put a claw on it, but something was wrong about this situation. Abruptly more wary than usual the hulking Pretender Beast dropped into a slow stalk, ears and nose twitching. "Something wicked this way came, something wicked that way went...", he rumbles, almost singsonging... Until a string of gunfire stitches the ground nearby, only by quick reflexes and the modified hydraulics in his shell's legs does he side-jump out of the line of fire at the nick of time. Snapping out of the moment he swings his attention in the direction the shots came from. "You threw off my groove!" If looks could kill, that pilot would be dead!... Unfortunately Carnivac's gaze isn't -that- deadly, but it does fire a pair of beams from his eyes at the attacker. Combat: Giant Armored Timberwolf strikes Modified Exo-Armor with his 20/20 Fission attack! Spinister catches sight of Kenya as he blasts towards the DIY entrance, courtesy of the maiden voyage of The Crashcourse. The first target sighted. The first to die. Spinister transforms, Singe and Hairsplitter attaching to his wings. "My lady Scorn demands a token, and I will take it from your hide, human!" Singe shouts, but it's Hairsplitter that takes the first shot: a crackling blast of energy erupts towards Kenya. Spinister shows no sign of slowing down as the Neb fires: Kenya is a target, but not a priority. Combat: Attack Helicopter strikes Modified Starknight with its TPS REPORTS ARE DUE! attack! F-16XL Fighting Falcon brightens up as Fusillade races up towards them. Heeeey, rock on, maybe we have a chance of surviving this after all! The Targetmaster gives Fusillade a friendly barrel roll as a hello. Course, her comment on the Decepticon broadband doesn't reassure him. Of the three, only Zigzag seems excited about this mission. "It's going to be great. Wiping out that base and all those Autobots is going to be easy." Zigzag's a moron, FYI. It isn't long until the Autobot base is clearly visible. Needlenose inches a ways away from the shuttle, knowing that it's going to be the primary target for any anti-air weaponry. The shuttle plummets towards the Autobot base and crashes violently, prompting Needlenose to call out, "Is it too late to name it? The 'Dead Weight' has a nice ring to it." Even as he chuckles at his own joke, Needlenose spies one of the exo-suits taking aim with that rifle of his. "What? One on one? Unfair!" he complains. "I see how it is: 'Hey, let’s make fun of the Double Targetmaster'." Needlenose dives downward, cleanly evading the shot. "No, human, one-on-one is not going to do." Needlenose shifts into robot mode, still hovering in the sky. "Now /three on one/? Papa Needlenose is down with that!" Needlenose, since his pose never actually mentioned it, is blazing away with both of his Targetmasters. Combat: Needlenose misses Glaive II - Prototype with his Firing Two Guns At Once Makes You Cool: Fact. (Laser) attack! Scorn bails with the others, cackling in delight at the sight of the explosion that lights up the horizon before choking it out with thick smoke. "Direct hit! Decepticons, attack them now!!" While descending she switches to her altmode, landing on her four feet with a light disturbance to the rust-colored dust. Insectoid head cranes in the direction of the oncoming forces, only to be met with a peppering of bullets from a Femaxian, of all things, making her lift her arm blades to try and deflect some. "Why is one of those overgrown fleshbags here??" She hisses, clicking her mandibles in annoyance as sights pinpoint Barkida. "No matter. That just means more spoils for me when this is over!" Mandibles open wide, Scorn emitting a hungry screech at Barkida before swiftly taking off towards her, nimble legs and microthrusters jerking her position now and then to throw off any attempts at aiming. To up her advantage she even fires off a wad of nasty, sticky, green substance at Barkida's face, hoping to blind her. If that stuff can melt metal, imagine what it does to organics! Combat: Robotic Praying Mantis misses Barkida with her Molten Plasma Spit attack! Robotic Honeybee has totally been here the entire time, she's just been really, really quiet or something. She's already exited the shuttle and watches it explode against the super secret (but not really because the Decepticons know about it) false ground with the fury of a thousand suns from the safety of the air. It's a pretty impressive sight, actually. Everyone seems to be pretty busy with blowing each other up so Buzzkill takes this opportunity to crawl into the burning, gaping hole the kamikaze shuttle created and start messing things up underground. Just a giant bee storming the base, no reason to be alarmed. After the shuttle detonates, Fusillade draws closer to the combat scene, wingtips aquiver in anticipation of finishing off the base. However, the Exo-Suits start their defense! The Lancer peels away from the black and white suit's small weapons fire with a whoop, "GET'im Spinister! GET'im GET'im!". The bomber tries to stabilize her flight path, evaluating the area for targets. However, her early warnings systems shrill at her, and with a sudden flare of wingflaps, tailslabs, and thrust vectoring vanes, she nearly stalls and cartwheels, changing trajectory. <> The rotary carriages clunk clunk within her as they ratchet into place to select a smaller yield bomb, which she proceeds to drop on the conning tower of the silvery Fortress! Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Defense Base with her 500-lb Mk. 82 Dumb Bombs (Laser) attack! With a metallic crunch Barkida punches through the roof of the rover and heaves it up in front of her, using its rollbar as a handle and its undercarriage as a shield to catch the hissing plasma glob. "I owe the Earthlings a debt of blood! What passes for blood in your kind, machine-woman? I am Barkida, Fourth to Die, Champion of the Golden Realm, and I will extract my debt from you!" Barkida jogs forward a few steps, spins, and hurls the Mars rover at Scorn as if throwing an oversized shotput. Combat: Barkida strikes Robotic Praying Mantis with her Crushing Challenge attack! Barkida's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Robotic Praying Mantis . Modified Starknight is struck right in the middle of its chest by the energy blast. Its armor partially melts but still deflects most of the damage. Looking at the targetmaster he comments, "Who the hell is that guy? Galvatron must be getting desperate..." Kenya starts to chase the attack helicopter around and once he gets a good line of sight, he lines up his bolter at Spinister's rotor and fires. Combat: Modified Starknight strikes Attack Helicopter with its Heavy Bolter attack! Combat: Red Tank strikes Cybertronian Cyber-Jet with his Conventional Shells attack! Modified Exo-Armor winces a bit as Carnivac's eye lasers burn a small scar in the exo-armor's arm. Hikage estimates the range to his target. Still have time for one more shot before this becomes a slugfest. He raises his left arm *CLICKCLICK*, a short crossbow unfolds across the left forearm. *SHLAK!* Hikage fires off an explosive bolt at the Decepticon wolf. Combat: Modified Exo-Armor strikes Giant Armored Timberwolf with its Forearm-Mounted Crossbow attack! From Glaive II - Prototype , Nate Briar manages to avoid the firing from Needlenose for once. The pilot readies himself by dashing over some Martian rocks that eat up most of the attack. "Oh, are you that Decepticon they call Misfire? That would make too much sense," retorts Nate as he is aware that this is not the Decepticon he speaks of but is trying to distract Needlenose. "So, how do you like my galaxy? It must be great to have an Earthy human vehicle mode over those great vehicles from Cybertron because my race is that much more superior than you!" The tactic of trying to distract Needlenose long enough to grant him a chance to battle the trio. "Man, it looks like your sidekicks are about my size. If you weren't so lame, Decepticon, you could have be in your quartet." The left hand of the Armored Suit retracts as an energy blade forms from the wrist mount. The goal is to start a small fisticuffs. "So, question, when one of you three says something smart, do the other two twitch?" And there goes the swinging energy blade! Combat: Glaive II - Prototype strikes Needlenose with his Energy Blade attack! Deep beneath the surface of mars, alien beings slumber. Something powerful. Something...angry. Something named 'Grimlock.' Though really, he's not nearly old or non-Euclidian enough for a Lovecraftian analogy, so we'll just stop there. Grimlock's pretty angry, at least, so that's a start? "Grr! Me Grimlock hate it when fight start and there am big cave in and then me Grimlock get late to punchings." he snarls, and storms his way through the corridors, stooping low in the process. He grumbles and growls to himself...and then rounds a corner underground to see...Buzzkill! "Hnf. Insecticons all them septi-cons send? This gonna be EASY." The radar dish on top of the defense base swivels left and right as it attempts to generate usable combat data to upload back to the Autobot/EDC combat info network, but it fails to produce any workable data due to ECW, << They're breaking through. Form up on the second defense line. >> It isn't long before the first wave of the attack begins and the bombs begins dropping down, some detonates on top of defense base itself. This prompts Fortress Maximus to transform back into his robot mode as he moves further down the line to support the base's defenders. It doesn't take long before the Headmaster leader notices a distinct pattern in Needlenose's movements, of which he soon relays to Nate Briar's targetting computers via tight-beam communication. Loadout ducks a bit as some stray munitions flies overhead, then goes into a full on run-and-vault over an unmanned EDC scout vehicle, landing with a harsh thud and a quick skidding motion across the Martian dust...that brings him right up next to Fortress Maximus' base mode. So much so in fact that he proceeds to rebound off the side of Max's armored frame with a heavy *THUD*. "Ugh!" Well it's one way to get stopped in a hurry. Bracing himself, Loadout's visor scans the incoming Decepticons, taking count where he can and then comparing the numbers to what they have here and now. "It doesn't look favorable for us, admittedly." He murmurs, raising his right arm and attempting to snap off a quick series of shots at Fusillade's direction from his forearm blaster. Although with the recoil kicking his arm around it's not like he's really aiming all -that- well. Combat: Loadout strikes Space-Going B-1R Lancer with his Pewpewpew! (Laser) attack! Amber MacKenzie climbs down the cliff and eventually reaches the bottom. She's confused but strangely calm now. Going into shock, maybe? She uses all her skills, the skills she's been practicing daily ever since she came to Mars to work her way past the rockslide debris, past various lines of missed shots to reach a carefully-hidden console nearby. She almost falls again due to the extra ground shaking provided courtesy of Grimlock, but she finally gets there and fumbles with the controls. This was her idea, but she never expected to be the one to use it. Looking away towards the smoking base, she chooses her targets. Combat: Amber MacKenzie misses Needlenose but strikes Carnivac and Fusillade with Perimeter Traps 's Razorwire Nets Area attack! That attack has temporarily affected Carnivac and Fusillade's Accuracy. (Blinded) Remedy looks out at what's happening, "Hey, if possible, make it to lee of Fortress, and I'll do my best to fix you up." Needlenose is unaware of Fortress Maximus's /total cheating/, but if he were he'd remind Nate about the whole one-on-one thing. Cursed humans! Still blazing away with Sunbeam and Zigzag, Needlenose isn't aware that he's been missing until Nate mouths off. "Dude? Dude? Dude. C'mon, dude. That ain't cool. Any other Decepticon would be /really/ pissed at you. Honestly, you guys make it preeeetty hard to appreciate your culture when you say dumb stuff like that." As Nate dashes towards him, Needlenose holsters his Nebulons. "My what? Quarter? You talkin' crazy!" The human lashes out with the energy blade, but Needlenose blocks with his forearm. That just means that his arm gets hacked up instead of his chest, so it's technically a net victory. Speaking of nets (see what I did there?), Needlenose just happens to be in the right spot to see the compressed net soaring towards him. He leaps to the side, but quickly rolls back up to his feet. "I know what you're doing, human. The whole Spider-Man quip thing. Ain't gonna work on me, though." Needlenose punctuates this by sending his foot flying for Nate's face. Combat: Needlenose misses Glaive II - Prototype with his Kick attack! Robotic Praying Mantis grimaces as best as her severely limited facial expression can allow when Barkida blocks the acid spit, hissing angrily as the gap between them closes faster, "Your flesh is mine, giant!" Well. It would have been if Barkida didn't suddenly chuck the entire rover at her, the spindly Insecticon's antennas perking upright a second before impact, slamming her hard and tumbling her back quite a bit. Facedown at the end of her long skid trail, Scorn groans, sparking in one of two places while a mangled wing twitches uselessly at her side. "Ergh...." She vents, slowly trying to drag herself somewhat to her feet while crawling behind a Martian boulder for temporary cover. That hurt her way more than expected. She seriously wasn't built for such strong assaults. Shifting painfully back to her robot mode, Scorn draws her pistols while peering over the boulder, activating her comm and firing a few stray rounds of plasma shot. "I need assistance over here. This Femaxian hits way harder than I thought." Combat: Scorn strikes Barkida with her Plasma Burst Pistols attack! As soon as Buzzkill is in, she does what any good Insecticon would be doing in this situation and that would be eating stuff. She stands completely vertical along the wall of one of the many corridors, horrible bee mouth parts chewing away at the metal of the wall itself. Storing away energy for the inevitable confrontation, perhaps? Whatever the reason, it's only a matter of time before some straggler Autobot stumbles upon her. Why oh why did it have to be Grimlock? "Dinobot!" Buzzkill flies off the wall and transforms, landing before the massive Autobot in her robot mode, trusty grenade launcher brandished in her hands. "Don't think I've forgotten our last encounter. You might have gotten away consequence free then but you won’t today!" She opens fire with a smoke grenade. Scary! Combat: Buzzkill strikes Grimlock with her Smoke Out attack! That attack has temporarily affected Grimlock's Accuracy. (Blinded) The red earth flies skyward in large plumes of dust and debris as the Focus Beam slashed its way across the Martian landscape, but unfortunately there would be no screams to accompany the attack. "Blaaahhhh! Lucky little Fleshie," the Cyber-Jet growls only to chuckle as he pulls up slightly and rockets past the crater that their 'fire and forget' shuttle had made out of the Autobot/EDC base. While glancing over the rubble for signs of the helpless and dying that could use a nice mercy shot to the face the Seeker couldn't help noticing little old Mister Loadout as he begins to fire on Fusillade. "Oh yeah, Pipsqueak? I don't think s-" WHAM! PLOW! Rocked by a tank shell, the Cyber-Jet's intent falls short and his engines whine under the stress of trying to keep himself airborne whilst dealing with a damaged thruster. The Decepticon grunt growls and snarls as he fights against the violent jerking and whipping of an inevitable crash landing. <> he calls before transforming just moments before his legs absorb the sharp impact against the ground. "I HATE tanks..." Brandishing his trusty Harasser Gun, Apex immediately dives for cover but not before firing off a blast or two at the offending Autobot! Combat: Apex strikes Red Tank with his Harasser Gun attack! Ptchang! Loadout's coverfire bites into Fusillade's armor, causing the bomber to dip one wing curiously at him. "Nnn, I have other objectives," she hisses. However, as she resumes her trajectory to the base, a flicker on her visual sensors suddenly develops into a binding, blistering, bite along the leading edges of her wings, before sizzling along her tail. With a sharp series of curses, she tilts toward the ground, activating retrorockets with barely enough grace to avoid crashing. The bomber plows a long rake in the ground, one wing carving up a plume of regolith, shrieking as she tries to right herself. <> The aircraft strains to clear her landing gear and bomb bays clear of the ground, before dropping her bomb bay doors open and swiveling what is most certainly a -missile- in the direction of the nearest, previously inert, perimeter emplacement! Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Perimeter Traps with her GBU-27 attack! Attack Helicopter struggles to maintain control as the bolts pound into his armor. Singe shrieks and Hairsplitter tsks about repair costs as Spinister turns , smaller turrets opening fire on Kenya to keep him off guard. Traps begin going off around the Decepticon, razor wire flying everywhere! "They knew we were coming! They KNEW it!" Singe shouts. "Spinister, I'm so TORN! Scorn clearly needs our aid, but alas for my bombastic beauty Fusillade!" Spinister has no reply. He just shoots. This base has to be scrapped. Combat: Attack Helicopter strikes Modified Starknight with its Laser attack!
* THNK* The crossbow shot hits the Pretender, sticking out at an odd angle as it managed to wedge between the armor plating covering the shell's exterior. "Hey, I'm trying to do something he--" Then his head snaps up at hearing some unseen device firing. "--ITS A TRAP!" The wolf barks. But not before getting snagged in one of the fancy nets himself. With a growl he chomps down on the net and starts to tear it off, but a few sparks fly from his back as bits of wire get jammed in the machinery of his cannon. "Fine, we'll do this the hard, FUN way!" With the net still half tangled around him Carnivac propels himself at the offending Exo, trying to slam into it with the spiked pauldrons of his shell. He'll get back to the defenses in a moment, first he needs to deal with this annoyance harassing him. Combat: Giant Armored Timberwolf misses Modified Exo-Armor with his When Animals attack!
* POMF!* Buzzkill's grenade smacks Grimlock right in the center of the chest! Smoke billows out, and Grimlock just gives an annoyed growl. "Me Grimlock no even feel that." His voice rumbles out from the smoky darkness like that of some disembodied barbarian ghost. But then, Grimlock proves himself to be very, very substantial indeed! He stomps out of the smoke cloud, and grabs at Buzzkill with one massive hand- aiming to just drag the bee along with him as he makes for that shuttle-sized hole in the base! Combat: Grimlock strikes Buzzkill with his Walk this way! (Grab) attack! Modified Exo-Armor smile a bit as the animal seems to go berserk and leaps at him "Oh it will be fun." At the last second Hikage side-steps and thrusts his leg out sideways in order to kick Carnivac and push him a little bit away while the Decepticon is still in the air and has no traction. From Modified Exo-Armor , Combat: Aramasu Hikage strikes Giant Armored Timberwolf with his Kick attack! Remedy almost cackles as she looks through the display, and finding the right sector, triggers a cluster of mines... which happen to be right under a certain cyber wulf's backside Combat: Remedy misses Giant Armored Timberwolf with Perimeter Defenses 's Be careful where you're sitting! attack! Barkida flattens herself to the ground in an alert crouch, steel-toed boots grinding into the regolith, and springs like a catapult being released. Her own planet has six times the gravity of Earth, and Mars has one third the gravity of Earth, nearly giving her the strength to fly on the Fourth Planet. Plasma bolts burn holes through her fatigues and leave ugly red welts underneath, but her trajectory is ballistic and she's committed now, however much it might hurt. Spreading her arms, she spins with the expertise of a seasoned low-gravity fighter as she hits the apex of her arc and opens fire with the "borrowed" machinegun. The belt wrapped around her arm snakes in towards the gun, drawn by the racketing action. Brass chugs out of the ejection port, streaming out behind Barkida in a glittering trail as she sails over the battlefield towards the temporarily groundbound Insecticon. Combat: Barkida strikes Scorn with her Plunging Fire (Laser) attack! Loadout would probably take some satisfaction or some pride in that he actually hit what he was aiming at. But he's not that sort of Autobot. Really deploring violence in any form whatsoever, he just watches grimly as Fusillade suddenly encounters her own problems what with the perimeter traps and all firing off their nets and her getting caught up in them in the process. The radio chatters away in his audials, and he peers over just in time to see as one of the emplacements is blown to smithereens by Fusillade's retaliatory strike while she's still dealing with her own problem. There are other emplacements of course, but the problem is the grid now has a big gap opened up in it and certain parts are now shorting out without a connection between them. This is what a technician was made for! Dashing away from Fortress Maximus' side, Loadout seizes up both ends of a severed heavy duty cable, the two sparking evilly as he concentrates and does his best to mash them both together in an explosion of sparks and flame. "Gnngh, well let's see what I can do with a little hotwiring then!" Loadout may or may not totally look like Doc Brown putting two pieces of a live cable together at the last minute right now. A shot lands on the red tank's chassis, and he laughs out loud. "That all you ZING, got? Here, have some POW, more!" A laser blast lances forth from the barrel, homing in on Apex. "Come on out and KAPOW, meet your doom!" Combat: Red Tank strikes Apex with his Laser attack! From Glaive II - Prototype , Nate Briar manages to avoid the kick by shifting his rifle in to block the kick. The problem is that his cartridge inside is now dislodged. "So you read Spider-Man too? We might be not that different, Needlenose. Why don't you come to Earth. Your crew and I can go hang out at San Diego Comic Con. We'll get you a nice My Little Pony con exclusive and something from Michael Bay's Gobots movie." Nate smiles from inside the Glaive, "Do you like Dave Chappelle? He's the second best comedian in history. Right after Mitch Hedburg." Nate takes a step back, and readies the Glaive to punch in his target's face. From Glaive II - Prototype , Combat: Nate Briar strikes Needlenose with his SLAP! (Punch) attack! Within the rubble of the base, a tiny rattle occurs, then another rattle, then another. As the battle unfolds, the rubble pile continues to shake and shake until a fist punches through. Then another fist punches through, the groaning and creaking of metal occurs, when all of a sudden the rubble separates as Hardhead pulls himself up. Hardhead's armor is dented, scratched and crackling with electricity as he surveys the battle occurring around him. If it is possible he seems even more surly and angered. Quickly calculating the tactics he makes his way towards the flank in order to reinforce the weakest point in the Autobot's battle lines. Fortress Maximus observes grimly as the energy blades from Nate's exo-suit makes contact, he's done what he can for the EDC commander for the time being and begins trekking onwards as he is content that his Terran ally can handle the situation. It isn't long before Fortress Maximus encounters several Autobot defenders taking shelter behind cover, but it quickly becomes obvious that they'll be outflanked soon. Unacceptable. Fortress Maximus quickly leans and puts a hand on the shoulder of the closest Autobot defender and barks out, "On me, soldiers! Stay here any longer and you're going to be showered with bombs by the next wave of carpet bombings!" The Autobot soldiers give Fortress Maximus a startled look at first, but they soon understand the gravity of their situation. They quickly pack up the heavy rapid-pulse cannon and falls into formation with the Headmaster leader. Fortress Maximus expertly guides the squad of Autobots behind him as they advance forward in concert with the deafening booms of the Headmaster leader's photon rifle shots which drops Decepticon invaders that has breached into the base. The line of defense seems to be holding up well in that area of the base until suddenly an explosion rocks the western side of the Autobot base's walls. AMBUSH! From behind no less too! Soon Decepticon invaders flood in from both sides! Fortress Maximus grits whatever is the Cybertronian equivalent of teeth and barks out to his team of Autobots, "Spread out and take cover behind me!" Having said that, the Headmaster leader rapidly expands back into his defense base mode and begins laying down artillery fire at the newly breached section of the base. While all this is happening, Gasket and Grommet can be seen zipping out of the defense base's garage and speeding over to assist Loadout in his structural repair efforts. Amber MacKenzie watches the progress of the webs with a sick fascination, her stomach queasy at just what razorwire can do. She closes her eyes briefly and fights the urge to hope they survive. She's sure she'd regret it if they did. A moment later, it's confirmed: she regrets that they survived. There's a bit of heat coming off the console, which is worrisome, but she switches to another trap. She watches the fight with narrowed eyes, looking for a target. The sickness rises again as she realizes that she's deciding who is going to die, but she forces it down again. Pressing several keys, she selects the traps and executes, maybe literally. At various places surrounding the base, covers hidden beneath holographic images slide away, and black chasms await below. Combat: Amber MacKenzie misses Giant Armored Timberwolf with Perimeter Traps 's Pits of Doom attack! Spinister's laser slice into Kenya's exo-suit partially damaging some minor systems. He dives under the targetmaster to get away from his weapons, "I see you are bonded with Nebulese... How unwise of them...". He takes a moment to glance around to see how well are the others doing. So far everything seems to going as well as he could hope. The base is lost as expected but their resistance stalled the Decepticons. The benefactor nods his head as he receives information from Fortress Maximus, <>. As he speaks, a little cannon pops from his exo's shoulder and fires a burst of laser bolt towards Spinister...but the lasers miss him and fly straight towards Fusillade! Combat: Modified Starknight strikes Space-Going B-1R Lancer with its Multilasers attack! Loadout gets the two cables together, though there's an enormous explosions of sparks all around him in short order. Not to mention he suddenly lights up like a holiday tree in a beautiful kaleidoscope of pretty colors. If he had a skeleton, it'd be showing in comical fashion too! He does hold the cable together long enough for Fort Max's drones to get it merged together however...at the price of knocking the poor Autobot technician completely offline and sending his blackened hulk crashing over backwards onto the ground with little more than a faint twitch. "Bzzzrtk!" Remedy moves to help keep Fortress Maximus working, mainly by extinguishing the bonfire previously known as Loadout. She kneels down, possibly in los of a con, as she works on getting Loadout the barbeque briquette back online "Uh, actually, we are pretty different," Needlenose retorts, grunting even as the extremely nimble human gets his rifle up in the way of his awesome flying kick. "For one thing, I'm way cooler than you." Needlenose takes a step back, regaining his footing as Nate throws a punch his way. He awkwardly blocks it, but the powerful hydraulics behind the Glaive's strength means the Decepticon still felt it. "Second of all, I only hang out with the good kind of humans. The kind that don't go attacking me for absolutely no reason at all!" Behind him, the Decepticons continue to try and ravage the Autobot base. "Thirdly, Decepticons are AWESOME, and the EDC? Only /meh/." In front of him, he's got a good view of Fortress Maximus and the human operating the controls. He can't do anything about it right now, but soon. Soooooon. "And lastly?" Needlenose says, refocusing on Nate. Clasping his hands together, Needlenose swings them for the Glaive, trying to smash the little human into the dirt. "Lastly, Gobots suck." Combat: Needlenose strikes Glaive II - Prototype with his Double Fisted Smash (Kick) attack! Giant Armored Timberwolf leap is off because of the netting, making it easy for his intended target to sidestep and give him a boot in the side. Carnivac is sent sprawling across the ground before he finally stops, growling as he gets up. Only to yelp and lurch to the side as a blast spits out of the ground right next to him! And then hops back in the other direction as another one goes off, the shrapnel ping-panging off his armor. "Time to get out of here!" Followed by a demented cackle as he hops and jumps to get clear of the detonating landmines. Just a little farther-- Oh slag PIT!" Claws dig into the red soil and a comical screech can be heard as Carnivac skids to a stop, lurching forward -right- as the edge as the pit crumbles open just in front of him. The giant beast teeters a moment before quickly scrabbling backwards to keep from falling in. "Okay, that is it!" Despite the snarling he's still grinning as he pushes himself back onto his paws, ears swiveling to the sides, the IR sensor module in the front of his backpack lighting up ominously, as does his eyes. Nostrils flare as he inhales, taking in the battlefield with senses and sensors alike. Tactical hardware quickly does its job, trying to pick out as many of the 'fake' defenses and defenders before sending it off in shortwave packets of data signals to the other Decepticons. Combat: Giant Armored Timberwolf misses Barkida but strikes Perimeter Defenses, Modified Exo-Armor , Modified Starknight , and Red Tank with his Infrared Targeting Area attack! That attack has temporarily limited their Agility! (Crippled) Rocks and debris fly over Apex's head as he is held in place behind the large residual boulder just outside of what remains of the Autobot/EDC base, his own chassis covered in a thick layer of red dust. The earth rumbles beneath his feet with every nearby explosion, and the Seeker grins broadly and he chuckles to himself after being knocked to the ground by a direct laser blast to his chest. "I don't know what I've been told..." he starts to sing, snickering as he rubs the barrel of his Harasser Gun. "...But taking cover's getting old!" Kicking up to his feet after scrunching his knees against his chest, the Seeker quickly leaps onto the half of the near decimated boulder that is still intact and then launches himself into the air to transform. "Ain't all I got, Warpunk! Buuuut... Squad leader be cryin' fer help over here, so I guess it's raincheck fer our fight. Toodles! Mwahah!" The afterburners of the Cyber-Jet roar loudly as Apex rockets away from his engagement with Warpath, the targetting reticle within his HUD lighting up as it finds a new target by the name of Barkida. <> Combat: Cybertronian Cyber-Jet strikes Barkida with his Focus Beam attack! "You're not supposed to feel it, it's just smoke," Buzzkill explains matter-of-factly, taking a couple steps back from the smoke-engulfed Dinobot to line up another shot. "Good luck trying to see through it. You're as good as mine!" Of course Grimlock bursts out of the smoke and grabs her right after she says that, making her look like an idiot but whatever, there's no one else here except them right now and she's not concerned at all about impressing him. "Get your nasty hands off me, you primitive savage!" Buzzkill swings her arms around as the Dinobot drags her away, trying to land a couple good hits on him with the bulk of her grenade launcher. Combat: Buzzkill strikes Grimlock with her Flail (Punch) attack! Fusillade's form glitters in a criss-cross pattern as she cruises back into a holding pattern, beads of energon oozing from the nicks of the now-destroyed trap's wires. She doesn't have time to dwell with any satisfaction at the Decepticon shock troops that pour into the break she made in the defense perimeter, nor the injury to Loadout, nor the distraction to Fortress Maximus that it has provided. The bomber is, instead, absorbed with the volley of laserfire that inundates her flight path. "SO terribly sorry I didn't pay you an attention earlier, hyooman. Your suit isn't impeded by this wretched planet's paltry atmosphere, I see. So -HERE-, think on this for a while, and don't say I never got anything for you!!" The bomber goes easy on the space-equipped suit of Kenya's, winging off a series of small flechette rockets in his direction. Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Modified Starknight with her Flechettes (Laser) attack! Barkida strikes the regolith in a puff of dust, skids momentarily, and turns the skid into a sprinting lunge. Her left hand is outstretched, with her right elbow cocked back to smash the Insecticon across the face. One wouldn't expect something that big could move that fast, but Barkida is on Scorn in moments. Combat: Barkida strikes Scorn with her Close Quarters Combination attack! Barkida's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Scorn. Amber MacKenzie's trap fails this time, and she waffles on what to try next. What is she doing here? She was lousy at video games! Settling down, she decides on... What the bloody hell was that?! Some other lights start flashing, and the smell of something burning does not reach her through her space suit, but the sight of smoke does. Bugger! She turns to a small, less complex console and studies it for a moment. Her decision is made, but she has to do something first. Hardhead continues to watch the battlefield as he continues to guard the flank. He seems to stumble slightly as he moves, the explosion has disoriented him to the point he does not feel confident firing into the fray. Catching a tactical layout of the battlefield, he begins to move towards a better support position. Modified Exo-Armor gets makes a run for Carnivac "Let's see how sensitive that nose of yours really is." The ninja leaps raising both fist and tries to slam them down on Carnivac's nose. Hikage hears the warning and tries to move away after the hit. Combat: Modified Exo-Armor strikes Giant Armored Timberwolf with its Double-fisted slam on the nose (Punch) attack! From Glaive II - Prototype , Nate Briar gets slammed down pretty hard by the Decepticon. But that's not enough to keep a Briar down. If anyone knows their history, it is that Briars get killed at least four times a year before they finally stay down. Clutching his own head and feeling a little dazed, the younger Briar readies a missile set for Needlenose. As the target systems starts to lock on to the Decepticon, all Nate can do is provide banter. "Where'd you get that helmet? Did you steal it from Super Grover? And if you are cooler than me, how come I am respected in my faction? I get to be a leader. Galvatron sees you a peon. I see you as a warrior and want to show you that we are equals." He lets the missiles volley at Needlenose, "See, I could kill you if I wanted to." Combat: Glaive II - Prototype strikes Needlenose with his Anti-Aircraft Rockets attack! Modified Starknight is overloaded by a burst of data forcing Kenya to reboot it, which leaves him unable to dodge the incoming flechettes. They slice into his armor as he crashes into the ground below, "Hurg... What the heck was that?" He reactivates his thrusters and goes right back towards Fusillade, "Feeling generous? That's unusual for one of your kind. Let me return the favor." His shoulder-mounted cannon turns as he aims it at Fusillade. Energy starts to build up at its tip before it seems to explode and fires a burst of plasma towards the Lancer. Combat: Modified Starknight strikes Space-Going B-1R Lancer with its Plasma Cannon attack! Barkida smashes Scorn into the dirt, yanks her back up, and smashes her down again. "Do you yield? Do you yield?!" she shouts through her rebreather, hauling the Insecticon up again. Remedy finds she can't do much to get Loadout to reinitialize, but the scans say he'll start up on his own, in his own time. She goes to fix the massive base where she can, though, her awareness of what's going on, may put her in danger "Aw, hell no! You don't POW, get off so easily!" the red tank says as Apex flies off to help Scorn. "Here's a little something for your afterburners, BAM!" A blast erupts from the barrel again. Combat: Red Tank misses Cybertronian Cyber-Jet with his PEW PEW PEW! (Pistol) attack! Grimlock drags Buzzkill out into the Martian air! The flailing and beating she rains down on him doesn't phase Grimlock in the slightest! Instead, he just watches the mayhem with a critical optic, and grunts. "Hnn. That it?" he says, "Them septi-cons no even bring Devastator!" Casually, Grimlock flings Buzzkill in the direction of a handful of Decepticon gumbies, and then he lays into the entire group, smashing, punching, and slashing with his Energo Sword! "Good thing me Grimlock here, or else Autobots REALLY be in trouble!" Combat: Grimlock misses Buzzkill with his Thrown into a group of faceless minions! (Kick) attack! Loadout is thusly handed off to a pair of generic troopers to get him to the evac shuttles in short order. Each of them takes an arm and drags him off, his feet carving furrows in the red Martian dust as he's pulled away to safety. Well, there's been worse ways to get taken out of a fight! Combat: Amber MacKenzie missed Apex but strikes Buzzkill, Carnivac, Grimlock, and Barkida with Perimeter Defenses's Minefield Area attack! Explosions and various weapons fire is poured indiscriminately onto the point of the newly breached spot in the base perimeter, but it the situation is akin to a sinking ship as more and more leaks appears in the form of more breached areas in the wall. This doesn't deter the defense base efforts, but the results gradually becomes ineffective. Needlenose finally gets some satisfaction in smacking the little human around. He raises an optic at the diss to his helmet. Needlenose always thought it had an Optimus Prime quality to it, but he doesn't mention that here. His fellow Decepticons wouldn't appreciate the reference. "Galvatron placed me in the HIGHLY RESPECTED Mayhem Attack Squad!" Pretty sure Galvatron's only vaguely aware of the squad's existence. "That's because he knows how elite we are!" Nate takes a risky gambit, firing his rockets at such a close range. Lucky for him, it pays off. The Targetmaster finds himself in the middle of a half dozen explosions. When the smoke clears, Needlenose is... nowhere to be found? Suddenly, there's the sound of an F-16 jet engine roaring overhead (that probably sounds like a TIE Fighter for some reason). "Rockets? You wanna play with rockets? Hey, no problem dude. You can't say I'm not accommodating." From under his left wing, a single proton missile streaks down towards the Glaive. Combat: F-16XL Fighting Falcon misses Glaive II - Prototype with his Proton Missiles attack! Scorn's mind is pretty much running with expletives as she watches Barkida launch into the air like some sort of superhero and begin a barrage of bullet fire once she clears Scorn's cover. This really isn't her day. With wide optics, Scorn tries to dash between any cover she can find while still firing, completely pinned down by this beast of a woman. This becomes literal however when Barkida knocks her square on her back, pretty face now caved in on one side as energon drips from her mouth. And it doesn't help that Apex's attack does nothing to stop Barkida, who now tries to smash Scorn's face into a paste against the regolith while her internal systems blaring at her now critical condition. However, stubborn as ever, her cracked optics glare at the Femaxian whenever she has the chance to look up, spitting some energon on the woman's shoe to represent her answer. Amber MacKenzie receives a radio message from Kenya Momesa: We're about to be overrun. You should make your way to the shuttles... "First rule of chess," Cyclonus muses as he soars overhead in his starfighter mode, "Send in the pawns first." And he begins to drop down rapidly towards the Autobots, strafing several Autobot gumbies--and even a few Decepticon gumbies, he doesn't care--on his first pass. As he flies by, he notices Grimlock trashing his men and decides to deal with him personally, opening up on him with a volley of lasers. "AUTOBOTS! Galvatron has commanded that this facility burn til naught remains but fading memories! And so it shall! Look around you, YOU ARE BEATEN! The Decepticons are VICTORIOUS!" Cyclonus booms over the crackling sounds of his laser blasts. Combat: Starfighter strikes Grimlock with his Oxidizing Laser attack! That attack has temporarily impaired Grimlock's Agility. (Crippled) Amber MacKenzie sends a radio message to Kenya Momesa: Sounds good to me. Now to find a ranking officer to order the retreat. Enemy fire from the rear nearly catches Apex right in his afterburners! "Yeee-hah! Nice try Warpunk, but it looks like yer aim ain't quite what it used to be! Hehe-hahahah!" A barrel roll rubs the miss in just as a plume of fire and smoke erupts skyward behind the Cyber-Jet as the perimeter defense mines set up by the Autobot's and the EDC go BOOM. Shards of red earth pepper the purple and black Seeker's frame, but thanks to the efficiency of the explosives only the tinest of pebbles actually strike home leaving him unscathed. "Wah wah waahhh- heheh! Looks like your explosives could use a dose of viagra!" Rocketing past where Barkida continues to make Scorn look like an ant that picked a fight with a badger the Cyber-Jet comes about quickly and the humm of his Focus Beam fills the air yet again. "Man, that's what I call wildin' out.. Hahahah!" Apparently everything that has to do with destruction is funny even when it's one of his own team that's taking the brunt of the assault. <> Combat: Cybertronian Cyber-Jet strikes Barkida with his Focus Beam attack! Amber MacKenzie receives a radio message from Kenya Momesa: Briar is the highest ranking officer here. It's his call. Something else starts to rumble through the ground, a tremor that starts subtle at first, but grows more and more prevalent with each passing second. Soon, the entire area is shaking slowly, but steadily, as the tremors grow worse with each passing second. Martian dust is kicked up in small clouds, rocks rumble and bounce down the sides of the nearby mountains, and finally...one entire mountainside suddenly collapses outwards, exploding as something from -within-, having excavated its way forward, suddenly erupts from under the Martian surface. It's obscured at first, lost in a huge red dustcloud that starts to drift over the battlefield, obscuring vision and clogging sensors where it touches. But soon, there is the sudden sound of heavy transformation, a faint sign of green armor on the move...and a gigantic open hand emerging from the side of the hillside as it collapses all around its huge and unstoppable former occupant. Devastator has arrived. Buzzkill is thrown towards the group, but the gathered gumbies step aside to let her sail harmlessly past them and she lands somewhere amongst the dusty, red sand. Jokes on them though because they're all brutally maimed by Grimlock in a matter of seconds. Buzzkill manages to find her footing in the sand and rises to her feet only to be rocked by the explosions of the activated minefield all around them. "Ugh! Of course they would litter the place with mines. Sneaky bastards." Buzzkill jumps into the air and transforms into her totally awesome honey bee form and rushes towards the Dinobot with the buzzing of her wings. While Grimlock is dealing with Cyclonus' laser fire, she tries to land a hit on him with her stinger. Combat: Robotic Honeybee strikes Grimlock with her Piercing Sting attack! That attack has strange and mysterious effects on Grimlock but leaves her temporarily incapacitated! Amber MacKenzie sends a radio message to Kenya Momesa: Looks like he wants to puff up his chest and wave his guns around first. I'm going for the tunnel. I can't do anything more. Amber MacKenzie receives a radio message from Kenya Momesa: I agree. Go back to safety, we will slow them down and I'll drag him to the shuttle myself if needed. Giant Armored Timberwolf sees the Starknight coming out of his peripheral scanning range, but while trying to focus on feeding the other attackers targetting help he can't really do a lot to dodge. "Alp!" The fists to the face do good to cut off his focus and the sensory feed as he stumbles. "Grrra ... huh?" He looks down just about the same time as the *BOOM* comes up, surrounding the Pretender in smoke and flames as mines go off underneath him. A few moments later the blast cloud clears, and the wolf now nicely scorched and smoldering a bit. "Oh look, party favors..." Unfortunately, getting blasted hasn't really deterred him any. Sharp teeth are bared in a mad grin as a stalking pace scrapes claws across the ground. "Now that my duty is done to the cause..." Then abruptly instead of charging he leaps upward, propelling himself into the air long enough for anti-gravs to kick in as he sheds the shell and transforms. Cannon appears in his hands as he points it down at the exo and fires the power blanching weapon at the combat machine. "Time to stop the search and begin the DESTROY!" Combat: Carnivac strikes Modified Exo-Armor with his Anti-Thermal Cannon attack! That attack has slowed Modified Exo-Armor , making it less efficient. Kenya's speech certainly ensures that Fusillade's attention is fully on him. And that she knows where the plasma that chews into her forward fuselage and left wingroot. "GYARRR!" the bomber barks in alarm, before clawing her way up to gain altitude, "Well in -THAT- case, allow me to share the wealth!" She then proceeds to spam JDAMS. Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer misses Remedy and Scorn but strikes Warpath, Grimlock, Hardhead, Fortress Maximus, Barkida, Amber MacKenzie, Perimeter Defenses, Perimeter Traps, and Buzzkill with her More Bombs than God Area attack! Amber MacKenzie is shaken by the minefield explosions, the consoles falling off their makeshift stands (empty boxes), but she herself was braced and ready for it. She sighs and rises unsteadily to her feet, just standing for a few minutes to wait for the blood to circulate again. It's then that the fireworks hit. She is thrown back, hard, into the rock wall of the crevice, and it's only thanks to the fact that she was facing sideways that her spine wasn't cracked. She hits with a muffled *crack* as something breaks. It's followed by a sudden hiss, as her suit is breached, but the self-sealing nanites repair it quickly enough to save her life. She is barely conscious, though. Her helmet held up, but that didn't stop her from getting a major whack on the head. Shaking it to clear it is a big mistake, and she groans. Barkida grabs her side, hissing through her teeth as a laser beam punches into her like an arrow. She glares up at Apex, whirling around, but she's losing blood and the humans are falling back- she needs to get back to her bike, get her suit on and get out of here. This thought is reinforced by a sudden dizzying blast of overpressure which tears almost all of her fatigues off and leaves her dazed and bleeding from the ears. "Agh! Machine-woman, the debt is not paid! Your kind is not free of me yet." Barkida doesn't know if Scorn can hear her- she can't hear herself, with the ringing in her ears from the carpet-bombing. She points two fingers at her cool blue eyes, then reverses them to point at Scorn's glittering compound ones, in what's apparently a universal gesture. "Wait for me. I will be back for you someday." Bounding away over the terrain, she makes her way quickly back to the base and climbs painfully onto her rocketbike, ripping away over the terrain. She'll have to bind her wounds and unpack her space suit for the ride back to Earth somewhere safer; there's no safe place left here. Remedy listens to Fortress, "Okay. Let’s see if I can go and support one of the flanks." She moves to the west to look for any cons moving to cause a problem Grimlock is stung- and then blown up! A lot. "ARGH!" Grimlock snarls- thankfully for Amber, Grimlock just assumes it was more of Fusillade's bombing, as opposed to some puny human hitting the wrong buttons! And, as if it couldn't get any worse, Devastator shows up! "Hnnn. Maybe it time for leave now." he grunts- and then transforms to his dinosaur mode...at which point he stomps backward a few steps, and fires off a gout of flame at Devastator! More on principle, than anything else. That's a dinobot for you, putting the 'fighting' in fighting retreat! Combat: Robot T-Rex! 's Fire Breath attack on Devastator goes wild! Robot T-Rex! strikes Defense Base with his Fire Breath attack! From Glaive II - Prototype , Nate Briar is a little quick faster than Needlenose gives him credit. As he manages to bounce himself into an airborne position, He swings the rifle into position and finally adjusts the cartridge as he pings Needlenose's position. "Reports, AL." The blinking LED that indicates an incoming message finally goes off. Nate tosses the empty cartridge into the air and finishes taking his aim at Needlenose. Firing a round hopefully into Needlenose without any banter buys his troops the time they need. Combat: Glaive II - Prototype misses F-16XL Fighting Falcon with his Auto-Rifle attack! From Modified Exo-Armor , Aramasu Hikage is hit by Carnivac's anti-thermal gun. The exo-armor's joint seem sluggish. The EDC's resident ninja slowly draws his sword... The he hears the message over the channel. Hikage frowns but obeys nonetheless. Aramasu quickly returns the sword to its scabbard, transforms and retreats. "Another time beast, I will have you for a carpet." Modified Starknight breaks off from combat. The base is gone and now a gestalt just joined in. Remaining here to fight is now pointless. The benefactor hovers for a moment, as he looks at the fighting around him. He's about to order everyone to disengage when Briar finally gives the order. "About time" he mutters before heading towards the shuttle as fast as his exo can fly. Hardhead continues to jog West to reinforce that position, the ground underneath him begins to shake, causing him to stumble. He lets out a grunt. "The Slag?" His optic bar flashes as Devastator raises from the sands. "Ain't that Prime..." He attempts to stand, when suddenly the world goes bright as the sound and the fury of Fusillades bombs explode around him. He curls into a ball as the flames and explosions overcome him. As the barrage ends, a tank appears where once Hardhead stood. He begins rolling towards Ms. MacKenzie's position as fast as he can, which is pretty slow as he arrives he pops open his canopy. "Remedy, is she stable to move?" More and more Decepticons now pour in through ever increasing amounts of breaches everywhere in the wall. What was once a gradually ineffective effort by Fortress Maximus to suppress Decepticon invaders' movements on the northern side is now a fruitless endeavour. The breach is successful and steady stream of Decepticons flows into the interior of the base facilities! "Alright, follow what we've been drilling for the last week, mechs--- youch" Fortress Maximus comments ends prematurely as he is burned from stray fire from Grimlock, but regains enough composure to continue, "Evacuate immediately, that's an order!" Having said that, the defense base climbs up and resumes robotic form that shepherds the Autobot soldiers towards the landing pads. As Amber is loaded into Hardhead, he seals his canopy and takes off after the Autobots, probably lagging behind Fort Max. Duros straps in Amber. "Safety first." Remedy turns and runs off, delaying to check to see that the bots make their way out F-16XL Fighting Falcon can't blame this one on his Nebulons. His missile flies wide, unable to track the Glaive as it soars into the skies. "Dangit! Dangit it all! Dangit it all /to heck/!" he complains. On the plus side, Nate doesn't do much better, and Needlenose barrel rolls his way to freedom, evading the round of laser blasts. By the time he rights himself, Nate will have time to heroically run away, if he so chooses! Starfighter regains altitude, pulling up and up... then he levels out, and sees the smoking ruin of the Autobot base below. Is it enough? "No," Cyclonus says aloud, "It is NOT enough. Not enough for mighty Galvatron!" Louder, "FOR GALVATRON DEMANDED TOTAL ANNIHILATION, AND HE SHALL HAVE IT!" He roars back down to the ground, his bomb bays opening and, as if the Autobots weren't shell-shocked enough as it is, rains incendiary bombs down upon them as they retreat. "There is no escape, Autobots! And there will be no mercy!" And as the bombs hit the ground, great plumes of flame roar across the Martian terrain, engulfing the slow and unwary alike.... Combat: Starfighter misses Scorn, Fortress Maximus, Barkida, and Apex but strikes Buzzkill, Hardhead, Grimlock, and Devastator with his Incendiary Bombs Area attack! Scorn doesn't really know what's going on around her at this point, her mind feeling like it's wading through quicksand. When Barkida stops though, she strains to look up, spotting Apex providing some cover fire before Fusillade releases the bombs, the close proximity explosion making her audials ring, though thankfully Barkida takes most of the blast and soon takes off. After issuing the Insecticon a threat, of course. With a soft grunt Scorn tries to crawl away some distance, but she's lost too much energon as it is, having to stop after a short way before begrudgingly tightbeaming a message to Apex. She /really/ didn't want to, though she'd get picked off fast if she didn't. <> That 'please' is more or less forced, almost like it pains her to ask for his help. Devastator finishes emerging from the tunnel that the Constructicons had tirelessly dug out the instant that the attack had been announced. What Galvatron wanted from them was nothing short of a miracle, making an underground excavation to their target location in such a short time, but they had several factors in their favor. One was that the Martian surface here is softer and easier to dig through...two is that Galvatron can be a -really- good motivator when he's got that crazy look in his eyes. Either way, the colossal Constructicon Titan fully pulls himself out of the hole, the entire hillside collapsing behind him as he begins to plod forward towards the base. Of course there are minefields, of course there are weapons being fired in his direction. The behemoth ignores them all, mines detonating under his huge feet seemingly to little effect as he plods forward. Honestly, by now the Decepticons are pushing that much harder, and already well ahead of him, but the giant's presence is sort of a final word to the Autobots and humans to get while the getting's good. Fusillade's powerful bombing run seems to almost frame his arrival to either side, like she and the other Decepticons were laying out the red carpet and Devastator were rolling it up behind her to make sure there's no stragglers left behind. It looks rather epic and pretty! "FLEE PUNY ONES, ALL TRACES WILL BE DESTROYED!" And as if to punctuate his words, the combiner brings one foot down on the remnants of a blackened bunker that was still standing after the earlier bombardments, crushing it into so much debris and a cloud of red Martian dust. The process of complete and utter demolition of the base has begun. Robotic Honeybee looks up just in time to see the B-1B Lancer drop her load all over the place. It would be a beautiful sight if it weren't for the fact she was at ground zero at the time. "No, wait! I'm still down here!" The robot bee struggles against Grimlock, pushing on him with all six of her legs to free her stinger from his thick, Dinobot armor which she eventually does but only after getting blown up by Fusillade. A perfect example of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. The Insecticon leaves Grimlock to deal with Devastator and takes to the air, watching the combined Autobot/EDC forces make their retreat. One thing in particular catches his attention, and it's the tank lagging behind the rest of the group. Like a true villain, Buzzkill shoots it with lasers from the safety of the sky. Go Decepticons! Combat: Robotic Honeybee misses Tank Destroyer with her Being a Jerk (Laser) attack! "Now THAT was what I call a big explosion!" the Cyber-Jet shouts from the skies as he finishes his strafing run on Barkida just in time to avoid being engulfed in flames by Fusillade's bombing run. Coming about for another attack run on the Femaxian, Apex snorts as he sees her taking flight away from the engagement area. "Whaaat!? You gonna let a little thing like being carpet bombed run ya off? Stay put and take your lumps like a REAL warrior!" he shouts after the massive organic, but to no avail. It looked like the Autobots and the EDC'ers were preparing to retreat, which left Apex the pleasure of swooping in on Scorn to see how the insecticon was doing. Dropping from the sky, the purple and black Seeker landed in a crouch beside the other Decepticon and a smirk formed upon his face as he lifted his Harasser Gun just in case the enemy decided to get cute. "Need a hand, lil soldier?" he offers, along with his grip to pull Scorn over his shoulders and escort her from the immediate field of battle with a series of anti-grav leaps. Carnivac flicks a speck of dust from his optics as Fusillade bombs the everliving slag out of pretty much everything still on the ground. "It's so beautiful..." The sentimental moment dissolves into his usual manic laughter moments after though. "That's right. Flee, flee! You can run, and you can hide, but you will never escape in the end! Waahahahahaha!" Sigh. His job isn't nearly as fun when everything is already destroyed, and both Cyclonus and Devastator are going to finish laying the place to waste. And sure as hell isn't getting to the ground while they're doing so. There's nothing left for him to play wit... oh what the hell. "Who am I kidding?" He swings around to aim his cannon at Grimlock "Crumble, Dinobot! Not even you can stand up to the fury of the Empire. Allow me to show you the way to Hell, courtesy of the Mayhem Attack Squad!" The malevolent grin never leaves his expression, even as he opens fire. Combat: Carnivac strikes Robot T-Rex! with his Anti-Thermal Cannon attack! Space-Going B-1R Lancer, having emptied out her bins, dips one wing and banks in a loitering pattern. Barkida spots Cyclonus in her rear view mirror and cranks the throttle of her rocketbike, outracing the swirling firestorm to the relative safety of the cold and silent Martian plain. Lasers and bombs and all sorts of firepower are thrown his way, and the dinobot remains on his feet...almost with an indignant expression on his fangy face! He doesn't bother shaking his tiny clawed fist at the 'cons, or wasting exhaust on some sort of taunt...instead, he just turns about and lumbers off after the other Autobots. Disappointed? Probably. "Next time, Me Grimlock smash you all." he mutters darkly, even after some gumby's laser *PINGS!* off his armor. Carnivac doesn't bother shooting any farther. Even to him there's no point now, the job has been done here... though at the thought he glances around a few times, and scratches his head. "Spinister pulled his disappearing act again didn't he...." Devastator would possibly have been willing to speed along Grimlock's retreat from the battlefield, preferably by physically propelling him over the horizon. But Galvatron's orders were absolute, and long after the Autobots and EDC personnel have withdrawn from the field, the green titan is still thudding around, crushing and stepping on buildings and discarded vehicles. And when the most obvious targets have been destroyed, they proceed to demerge and begin melting down/burying what's left. Galvatron's orders were -very- explicit afterall. Not only does Buzzkill miss a really easy shot, but she gets herself caught up in Cyclonus' bombing run. That's twice in the span of a few minutes that this has happened, and it's not boding well for the honey bee. She does her best to stay out of the way of future friendly fire. Scorn simply gives a soft grunt of pain as Apex lifts her over his shoulder, carrying her out of Cyclonus' range of fire. Though she does mutter a small 'Thanks' before her systems force her into stasis to try and stay alive despite her injuries. Starfighter surveys the destruction from overhead, enjoying a pleasant feeling while he casually reviews the various medals to award, allocates the proper one to Apex, and schedules a ceremony which he doubts anyone, even Apex himself, will attend, all the while utterly heedless of any Decepticons he might have injured below. Apex continues to bounce away from the site of the now decimated Autobot base with Scorn in tow. "Hah, just doin' my job, Scorn! If I didn't pick ya up then who could I count on to issue orders and take the blame fer failures when things DON'T work out so well? Mwahah!"
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