| abstract
| - Like a shadow on the edge of one's consciousness, the darkling spires of New Polyhex rise up before you like the ethereal nightmare of some age, long past. There had been stories, rumors, perhaps, of the rebirth of this city. Foolish boasts of the glory of the new Decepticon capital. The sheer size of the city, the darkness of the towers and highrise buildings which compose the city, the efficiency of the troops marching in pristine order, to and fro, along the roadways... all of them symbolize but one thing: power. Sheer, and absolute power. The gates of New Polyhex are completely transparent, constructed of a nearly-indestructible transantium-di-polycarbate alloy. They have been shaped, by cunning hands, to mimic the Decepticon symbol in appearance when closed. Above this gate, an archway, connected to the walls of the city, is mounted. It is beautifully adorned with a >relief<. The archway and the walls themselves are constructed from a material quite unlike anything seen before... it is dark, completely black, yet at the same time bright and glittering. Obviously some mixture designed by the Constructicon Chemist, Mixmaster. There can be no doubt that these walls are anything less than indestructible... Ahh, Polyhex. Is there a greater example of the Decepticon's power? Maybe, but Polyhex is still pretty impressive. It's exactly what you'd expect from a Decepticon city: sinister-looking, dark, and packed with exactly the sort of people you don't want to mess with. No Autobot would ever dare come to this city unless they had a death wish or some kind of mental illness. Convieniently enough, Whirl just happens to have both. "Listen up, my fellow Autobots!" The baby blue Wrecker hollers as he paces around inside the shuttle he managed to get a hold of for this extremely dubious mission. A lit cigar is held tight in his pincher hand that he occassionaly brings up to his face, pretending to puff on it with his non-existant lips. "I respect you all too much to lie to you so I'm going to be blunt.." He stops pacing to face the gathered Autobots, a random assortment of individuals he either bribed or lied to in order to convince them to come along. "Some of you will die. Hell, most of you will die. This is Polyhex we're talking about, it's packed with Decepticons and there are like.. what? Six of us?" "Anyway, in exactly twenty five minutes, we will be right above the gates of New Polyhex and I estimate we'll have about thirty seconds before people realize who we are so we have to be quick." Whirl takes an imaginary puff from his cigar. "Any questions?" After giving orders to increase the guard and the patrols around Polyhex, Onslaught is now proceeding to an inspection of the city gates. At the moment he's disciplining a group of seeker guards who are not controlling traffic as efficiently as they should. "I want you to identify absolutly everyone passing those gates....inspect every transports. I want no surprise. If you screw up I'll throw you into the slag pits myself." "Yeah, I gotta question." Followed by a big metal hand giving Whirl a bop to the shoulder from behind, optic-band flashing in lieu of having a mouth to grin with at the other Wrecker. "How many 'Cons ya think we're gonna deal with? I wanna be sure I have enough charges to give them all fair share. Ya know I'm an equal oppritunity slagger." Wiggled his fingers a few times on the grip of his rifle in anticipation, waiting to open up a close to walking arsenal on some ugly purple. Ramhorn flicks his ears irritably. "Speak for yerself. I ain't plannin' on dyin' today." Elita One gazes out a porthole, watching Cybertron whip by. She places a hand on the viewport, "On Shockwave...we all know he's dangerous. Keep in mind a few facts in case we encounter him. Shockwave is extremely damaging against one opponent, but doesn't fare well against multiple. It's not that he cannot adapt, he just hasn't burst fire capability. Second, when he transforms he is quite vulnerabile. It's better to stay evasive and land a shot or two than to try to brave that cannon. Usually two good hits will force him to change modes." She looks over the flight plan, "We're taking the causeway?" She looks back to Whirl, "There's anti-air capability still up there, its mostly relics but they could get power rerouted if they get a heads up on us." She shakes her head, "There's a trench over *here* that might be better for assault, assuming it hasn't been sealed up. Last I recall the entire area was getting exposed to the Sea of Rust, but if its viable..." "Thank you for the question, Roadbuster. I suspect there will be AT LEAST a couple hundred Decepticons waiting for us but I've never been that great at math so give or take a few." When Elita-One starts talking about Shockwave and how scary he's supposed to be, Whirl just snorts and laughs. "Oh please, Shockwave is a total bitch. He's an old man who thinks he still has some use in the world despite the fact he is terrible and horrible in every way. Anyway, I doubt we'll even see him, doesn't he have a bunch of disposable troops to do his dirty work?" Shockwave bashing aside, Whirl does consider the femme's suggestion of using the trench but he doesn't seem completely sold on the idea. "Hmmm...I don't know. Storming the gates is so much more symbolic, you know?" As the bridge transforms into an extension, connecting the road to Polyhex to the Gates, a green and purple tank approaches. It's travelling at highway speeds, and bears all the correct access codes to get in. But the gates only remain open long enough for this individual to make his way in. Transforming back into his robot mode, Marauder greets one of the guards, "Has the Argosian Shipment arrived yet?" Polyhex is thriving like it hasn't thrived in over four million years. With Cybertron's rebirth, so too has the Decepticon capital. There's real commerce, real population, and a real center of activity now. The skies are filled with Decepticon fliers and the ground is covered with Cons going about their business. It isn't like the last time Elita One was here. Shockwave himself is on the Darkmount Landing Platform 80 stories up the tower. There's a starship there covered in scaffolding. Looks like the Decepticons are preparing for something. "I like hittin' gates," Ramhorn adds. "With my horn." "Rammin' em," he clarifies. "When the gates are eight feet of sheer crystalized sheet metal and have been upgraded to quad fire cannons, its not nearly as symbolic." She scowls, clenching her fist, "And trust me, if Shockwave were anything near the pushover you described, I'd have been able to eliminate him long ago...unless now you're underestimating me..." She lets the implied insult wash off, "Smelting pools, gladiator arenas, and the destitute, Polyhex is a nightmare of a province, I doubt the Cons have had enough energon to change too much of its base structure." It was an assault in her arena, and E1 was nothing but business when it came to these sorts of missions... "I like little red there's thinking." Roadbuster chuckles at Ramhorn as he shifts a bit to look out one of the view ports, the strategist under the that guts and glory warrior exterior making some calculations in his head. "Pink Lady may have a point, bro. As much as I love a gatecrashing, where's the fun if they blow us out of the sky first?" Pauses to think, tapping fingers on the top of his rifle. "Of course, we could give them something to think about first." Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter is headed toward Polyhexan airspace, just about to join the many other Decepticon fliers trafficking about throughout the dark city. He's been assigned to some boring job that doesn't involve shooting. Like inspecting shipments or organizing files. Probably both. He grumbles, of course, it had to be the one place where one -definitely- wouldn't see any Autobots to shoot at. ...Or was that a 'definitely'? "Wait, is that the one mech that has one optic like Shockwave does down there?" Blowpipe asks as they passes overhead on his way toward the city. "Who, Whirl? What the slag would he be doing -here-? He's an Autobot, glitchead." Triggerhappy scoffs. "And I thought you were like, smart, or something." But Blowpipe insists. "No, no, I swear, I saw him. He was with that big friend of his and a couple of others." "You're crazy, Blowpipe." Despite the insults, Triggerhappy knows well enough that Blowpipe isn't stupid, or crazy (like he hismelf is). So he slows down just a bit, to see if the Nebulan is right... "Woah, relax, lady. No one's underestimating you, trust me." Whirl would give Elita One a little grin if he was physically capable of doing so but he's not so he just sort of stares at her with that emotionless 'face' of his. At Roadbuster's comment, he takes another 'puff' of his cigar and laughs. "Funny you say that, my friend because I think I have just the thing we need." The helicopter Wrecker puts out his cigar and walks over to a suspicious pile of something concealed by an even more suspicious tarp. How long has that been there? The answer is: the entire time, it just only became important now. He grabs a corner of the tarp tight in his pincher hand and tears it off, exposing an impressive pile of C-4 explosives. "First off, none of you can tell Prime that I have this. Second, we're going to drop these onto Polyhex as we pass over and detonate them before we land for mass casualties. Any questions?" He doesn't even wait for anyone to speak before he opens the shuttle door, the lights of New Polyhex shining down below. "Excellent! Okay, let's get this party started. Roadbuster, start tossing those explosives out of the ship as fast as you can. We're going to light this place up!" Elita One exclaims, "There are still civilian bots in Polyhex, Whirl! You're ensuring military targets only, right?" "When're you gonna let me off the shuttle to ram somethin'?" asks Ramhorn, grumpily tossing his head. "Tell Prime that you have what?" Roadbuster replies with a faked deadpan, even as he steps up to the pile of explosives. Picks one bundle up and waggles his hand a bit, testing its weight. Grabs the bulkhead frame of the hatch with the other hand to brace his bulk as the thin winds bluster through the open hatch. "We'll -try-," he emphasizes to Elita. "... But it's enemy turf. If the civvies aren't smart enough to run for cover when bombs start raining down, well... War ain't a choosy mistress." Wrecker logic at it's finest. "Time to burn this baby, Wrecker style. Yeeah!" With a whoop and then a grunt of effort as he wings the explosive out the hatch towards the city below as the shuttle makes its approaching pass. In short order several more are close to follow. Aimed in general for structures and defense placements, but like the big brick of a Bot said, no promises... Onslaught is now done with the group of seekers. He returns them to their duties and proceed to walk around, checking on some other guards or looking at the horizon. He plans to remains here a little longer...after all, soldiers are always more efficient when their officiers are around. Shockwave steps up to the edge of the Polyhex landing platform past the Titanus and Invictus, 800 meters above the ground. He can see everything with his single optic from here. Guard slacking off in an open air defence tower. Traffic jam at one of the gates. Insignificant scuffle at one of the customs stations. Shockwave mentally puts orders into the Decepticon database for each of these. Building a city and lording over it with an iron fist... this is something Shockwave excels at. It doesn't take him long after the alarms start going off to identify the rickety looking shuttle that's following the same path as the explosions. "Decepticons," he announces, quickly springing into action. "We're under attack. Scramble!" Shockwave takes off from the platform, soaring towards the shuttle. In the city below both the shuttle and the landing platform, Decepticons are running away from the detonations, unprepared for this sudden raid. The Autobots have the initiative, but it won't take long before the Polyhex Guard recovers. They had better make the most of it! After discussing which supplies have, and which have yet to arrive, Marauder heads up towards one of the towers. Being Polyhex, he has to fly to get there, as there is no access for a ground based mechanism. Once there, he'll check in with the soldiers on duty. Surprised to see a Sweep serving with Seekers and what looks like a Breakdown clone , he decides not to ask. Scourge must have had a problem with this one. He will pace up and down the rampart, inspecting the soldiers, their weapons. As he paces, he folds his hands behind his back and adopts an intimidating tone with the Breakdown-looking Decepticon, "When did you last receive certification with the L1 Laser Rifle?" The Con responds, "Four decacycles ago, sir." Frowning, Marauder instructs, "Immediately after your shift, I want you to report to weapons certification, and if you happen to see a Targetmaster on route, make sure that they accompany you." Roadbuster stands on the end of ramp, the fires spurned by the improvised bombing reflecting in his opti-band briefly. Then he pushes his block-solid form fully upright. "Alright Autobots, this is it." There's an audible series of clicks as he chambers the ammo feed of his rifle and his rocket rack locks into firing position. "That little fireworks show was just the start. If these purple plastered punks think we're gonna roll over and let 'em have Cybertron so easily just because they blacked out Earth, they've got another thing comin', because we're gonna make 'em fight screw and gear for every scrappin' milisector of -our- home planet, and ain't afraid to kick on their front doors to do it. We're delivering a message, and that message is Justice, with a generous side of skidplate kicking. So lets get down there and show em what we're made of!" He pauses a moment to hold up his other hand to fistpump one of Whirl's pinchers. "Let's rock this place, bash bro." Then jumps out of the shuttle. "WRECK AND RUUUUULE!" Ramhorn charges off the ramp into midair, firing retrorockets as he descends to slow his fall! He still lands roughly, but doesn't seem to be any worse for wear. Regaining his feet, Ramhorn charges and tosses the nearest thing that moves, which happens to be a recolor of Grapple with a Decepticon symbol. "Excellent throwing technique!" Whirl hollers over the sounds of Polyhex blowing up as Roadbuster tosses the explosives out one by one. "Okay, I figure we have about three seconds before the Decepticons start retaliating so everyone move your asses and get out there! The goal is strike hard and quick. Get in, destroy as much as you can, and then get out. This piece of crap shuttle can only take so much damage and we'll still need it to make our escape." He nods in approval at Roadbuster and returns his fellow Wrecker's fist bump with one of his own before leaping out of the shuttle. "WRECK AND RUUUULLLLEEE!" He lets himself plummet towards the city for a bit before transforming into his helicopter mode and flying through the air, shooting lasers and grenades at random buildings. "Take that, fascists!" Elita One summons her enormous cannon, hissing into existance from subspace. "Alright, we have to have a dedicated target here. There's security access within Darkmount Plaza. It's not enough to keep the city in lockdown, but it WILL keep Shocks interest, if he's not on site." Elita gracefully leaps out of the shuttle, tumbling forward a single time. Here, she is the enemy, the terrorist, the freedom-fighter. Some call her the Pink Menace, to others... Femakiin! A helpless gumby beneath her soon becomes her landing pad, sending servos and parts flying. She lands in a crouch, assessing the situation. Shots are fired at repeated gumby attempts to access one of the weaponstores in the area. Volatile explosions immediately afterwards ensure the armory is off limits for now! Onslaught acknowledge the attack and quickly spots the incoming shuttle. Judging he still have some precious seconds before the Autobots make contact, he turns towards the troops and starts handing out orders, "Man the weapon stations. Call for more troops from the barracks. Shut the gates and stand your ground. If a single Autobot sets a foot into Polyhex, I'll crush you with my bare hands!" To make sure no one underestimates his determination, he threaten the troops with his clenched fist as he speaks. Before Marauder can chew out the soldier any further, he is saved by the klaxon sound of the alarm. Hustling towards a nearby console, Marauder notes that an Autobot shuttle is on approach and has somehow already gotten past their mobile assault platforms. Clenching his fist, he slams it on the console before turning and heading out the door. He stands motionless, taking the time to aim. His railgun rotates independently of his shoulder, rising and moving to the left. "Adjusting for wind, compensating for drift, hmm, he has rudimentary inertial dampeners . . . and fire!" A moment later the troops follow suit, obviously not being too sharp if his earlier inspection was anything to go on. Triggerhappy hears the alarm as well as Shockwave's orders and laughs triumphantly. So Blowpipe had been right after all. "YES! Holy spawn of a glitched diode, I never thought the Autobots would be -this- stupid! Oh well, all the more fun for me!" He would have fistpumped if he were in his biped form. But he cackles instead and heads off at top speed toward the chaos created by the Wreckers and Friends. Surprisingly, he also remembers to reply to Shockwave's comm real quick. Well that was probably because Blowpipe had reminded him. "Shockwave, sir! I am -so- on it!" he responds enthusiastically, barely able to keep the laughter out of his voice. He dives out of the sky, photon-pulse guns already blazing. There's a trail of destruction and panicking Decepticons that follows behind the Wreckers shuttle. A few guardsmechs have gotten over their shock, but none of them are Wrecker-tough. One such trooper, a mere twenty astro-metres away from Roadbuster's eventual landing spot, pops around a corner and shoots at him with a low powered laser rifle good for keeping law and order amongst civilians, but not for gunning down the toughest of the tough. It is likely the trooper's survival time can now be measured in seconds. Fake Grapple lets out a cry as he gets a horn in the groin. Carried away by Ramhorn's ramming horn, the Decepticon pushes himself off and tries to run away from the Cassettibot. He tries to run into a bunker for safety, but before he gets there it explodes from one of Whirl's grenades. Several guardsmechs trying to re-arm are cut off by the pink femme Commander. Is this how you used to do it in your time, Elita One?! The Decepticons are slowly starting to get back in gear, with actual turrets and soldiers such as Marauder and Triggerhappy being dispatched. Onslaught's there There's some small arms fire from the ground sent up against the battered Wrecker Shuttle, but nothing that can penetrate even its weak h- Ka-BOOM! Fire and debris falls from the sky as the shuttlecraft's fuel tank detonates. The awe-inspiring sight of Shockwave's gun mode soaring through the flaming wreckage can be seen as he homes in on the Autobot raiders. The Military Commander pulls up along Triggerhappy's right wing. "The Wreckers," he emits, "Do not get overconfident, Triggerhappy. They are more than meets the optic." Ramhorn whirls around as Triggerhappy strafes him, lasers flickering on and sweeping through the sky to hunt out the jet fighter for the missiles waiting in his saddlebag racks. "Get down here, ya cowardly slag!" he yells, enraged at not being able to stab Triggerhappy with his horn. Missiles will have to do. Elita One opens fire using her forearm laser on several more gumbies, sowing confusion, disorienting them. A power station goes next, it'll take four minutes for the backup relays to kick in. Suddenly, the first sign of things going bad happens. The Bot shuttle erupts into flames, a hot blue burn of plasma that starts careening into the cityscape. Her optics denote the target, Shockwave backlit by flames. She calls into the comm channel, < Elita leaps backwards, dodging gumby fire, and Triggerhappy as well, though she knew not the source. Purple haze whirrs as she summons a battle pistol, time to keep Shocks busy again. "For a Con with no emotion, you sure enjoy a dramatic entry, Shockwave!" She fires a flareshot towards the floating gun, just a tad bit over the barrel... Roadbuster unloads several bursts of fire from his rifle while in freefall, sending gumbie troops scrambling for cover and sprawling from the blasts. It comes to a brief reprise as someone takes a shot at him, tumbling mid-air a bit from the impact. Then reachs the ground with a cacophonic crash and enough force to splinter the metallic pavement in breaking his landing. A moment later Roadbuster hoists himself to his feet and cracks his neck-servos to the side slightly as he steps out of the small crater his landing made. The rallied soldiers open fire, but if the shots rattling off his armor is making any impression Roadbuster isn't showing it. Then again, he really only has slightly more of face than his teammate, and that gaze is already fixing on the sort of that railgun blast. "Guess I gotta go through the pack to get to the tasty middle." He pulls down on the trigger of his rifle, blast erupting from the muzzle as fast as it can chew up the belt of energy capsules from one end and spit out the empty casings from the other as he sweeps it across Marauder's position and whatever troops may be standing between them. Bell AH-1 Cobra is probably having a little more fun with this whole impromptu terrorism thing than he should. He gleefully flies over the city, setting it ablaze with the incendiary shells he fires from his cannon. So far everything is going perfectly until he finds himself under fire from a triggerhappy Decepticon who also happens to be named Triggerhappy. Fortunately, Ramhorn takes it upon himself to death with him, giving Whirl the opportunity to..watch the ship get blown up into a million pieces. "Son of a bitch! That was not part of the plan at all!" Of course, it all makes sense when he realizes Shockwave is behind it. That big-breasted, one-eyed bastard. Hopefully Elita One is man enough to put him down or else Whirl will have to go over there and take care of it himself. In the meantime, he returns to his rampage upon the city, shooting lasers at random people on the streets, one of which happens to be Onslaught. Onslaught takes a shot in the chest but his marmor protects him from any serious damage. He then positions himself in front of the closed gates before turning (thanks subspace technology) into a large battlestation. From this position he hopes to prevent any attempts to storm the gates. Not losing any time, he uses his highly sophisticated sensors to monitor the battle. <> It's prideful, it's powerful, and it's a badaft mother who doesn't take crap from anybody. Kicking his anti-gravity into overdrive, Marauder rockets up into the clouds, rising to the level of the shuttle. During his ascent, his left arm is singed and blackened, but he doesn't seem to have taken severe damage. Just a mesh wound. Once he reaches a position roughly central to the battlefield, he will assess the situation, slowly rotating in mid-air as he takes in the assault the Autobots have prepared. "Decepticons, standby for precise Autobot telemetry. Switch to frequency Skywarp Alpha Tango Seven." A panel opens up on the left side his chest that looks like some kind of supped up satellite dish. It rises above his head, and rotates, but doesn't seem to do anything, at least not to the naked eye. Those who do make the adjustment will see that the Autobots have been painted with a type of select radiation that makes them far easier to spot. Overconfident? Triggerhappy? NEVER! Ha. Blowpipe snorts at the idea. Maybe Shockwave had forgotten that the mech was practically the -definition- of overconfident. Speaking of which, Triggerhappy is still laughing like the madmech he is, despite Ramhorn's missiles scuffing a wing. Well, it hadn't done that much damage, anyway. "HAHAHAH! What'sa matter, Autoscrap? Scared now that your ride outta here's gone?!" He taunts, sending a barrage of high-energy photons at the smaller 'Bot. Laser Gun quickly sees the four main targets as he leaves the falling pieces of the shuttle behind him. "Elita One," he emits in his calm monotone voice. "I am surprised." There's a subtle hum as he powers up for another blast, but Elita chooses that exact instance to snipe him. The flareshot soars up into the sky, passing just above him... and hitting dead on against the translucent targeting array that sits just above his barrel. Shockwave's blast still goes off, but frazzled from the strike, it explodes harmlessly against the ground near the femme. Reconfiguring into robot mode to clear out the damage to his array, Shockwave takes aim with his gun arm. "This is counter to your normal strategy of stealth and deception, Elita." He glances towards Roadbuster, Ramhorn, and Whirl, drawingh is own conclusion. "There is a reason you never attacked me head-on during the Dark Ages: It would have been suicide. That fact has not changed." Shockwave fires just as he touches down in the streets of his city. "I ain't scared, I just got better stuff to do!" Ramhorn snarls up at Triggerhappy, flicking his ears in annoyance as he looks around for something he can get his horn into. There, Onslaught! That's more like it! Lowering his head, Ramhorn ignites his boosters and charges, knocking gumbies aside like an elderly driver in a street faire as he closes in on his target! The flare did some good work, but Shockwave responded too fast. She'd juke and jive, and he was there. Someone was sending him targeting data. Elita considers the possiblities, targeting dishes worked into the city? She afforded a quick glance, which cost her. Her armor sizzles as Shockwave took her to task. "And a brutish display of power is hardly your motif, Shockwave, yet that attack on Brussels was your doing." E1 skids to a stop backwards, a hand planted forward for balance, "We can communicate like that too, if that's your preferred way now." Her cannon glows a purple pink hue, "Here's one I wanted to pass along." That takes care of the squads, now where did their commander go?... But before Roadbuster can pursue that thought farther various radio comments crackle over his comm. Whoever that was is going to have to wait, he's got comrades needing a hand. With a grunt he turns and springs off in one direction, vaulting over some scrap burning from the explosives and darting between two structures. As he does so he flips his rifle over his shoulder to lock onto his backpack. Ramhorn barrels past on his path towards Onslaught, and just moments after Roadbuster steps out of the alleyway to intercept, raising a heavy pistol in both hands and opening fire on the Targetmaster. With the shuttle gone, getting out of here is going to be a little more difficult than originally expected but that's something to worry about later. Right now is the time for mayhem and destruction and making the Decepticons look stupid. The Wrecker soars through the air thanks to his sweet, bright yellow propellers and takes aim at the overly enthusiastic Targetmaster before unleashing upon him a barrage of deadly lasers. "Tonight, Polyhex belongs to the Autobots!" Battlestation is rammed...by a tape. Despite the size difference, Ramhorm manages to put a serious sent in Onslaught's armor but the combaticon commander remains focused on the battle. He sends squads of gumbies where they can be the most effective and he keeps tracking all the Autobots, "Marauder. Roadbuster is know to carry a large supplies of ammunition. Target those supplies could increase the efficiency of your attack and takes him down." "We all have our orders," Shockwave says, passing the buck on The Hague to Galvatron. Despite his comment, he did eventually come around to seeing the wisdom behind the attack. Shockwave is well aware of his weaknesses, and understanding the human condition was one of them. Driving a wedge between the Autobots and their native allies is a worthwhile objective, even if he wouldn't have thought of exploiting it in this way. <> Shockwave orders. The cyclops charges forward with a sudden speed burst, ducking just under the cannon blast. "Have you grown so overconfident that you think you can attack the Decepticons at their strongest and expect to live?" he demands. Bearing down on the femme with his immense height advantage, Shockwave swings his gun arm around to clip her in the head and hopefully knock her into a wall. Hit or miss, he glares in Whirl's direction. Oh how cocky the Autobots have gotten. But then other people are talking to him. First Shockwave and now Onslaught telling him who to attack and everything. Primus, why did the boring people always have to ruin everything? And the Combaticon leader had even sent him a bunch of targeting data. <> "And before you say anything, Blowpipe, I -know- he's right." He adds, this time to his Nebulan partner. The targetmaster flies toward Whirl, working to get a good angle on him. He has to suppress an urge to shoot Roadbuster. "Pfff, I would've thought you'd hit harder than -that-, you oversized garbage drone! You know, with how fat your aft is and all." Yeah, he'd gotten that one from Earth, all right. Figured the 'Bots would get it, since they hung out with umans so much. Insults were flung at Roadbuster, but the actual shots were flung at Whirl. Onslaught's orders were no doubt part of it, but come on, this is Triggerhappy we're talking about. Marauder has been rapidly burning through this arsenal. Soon, he may be limited to energon-based weaponry, but not yet. After 'painting' the Autobot intruders with a harmless form of radiation, he receives further information from Onslaught, "Understood, sir," he responds even as he is struck in the back by a laser. Turning in mid-air, he identifies the culprit as the Wrecker Whirl, "I shall remember that, but another time . . ." for his shoulder mounted railgun was already in the process of targeting the ammunition supplies on Roadbuster. "Locked on and firing." The simple steel projectile hurdles towards the Wrecker at incredible speeds. Those shots could beat a Seeker, and probably break orbit if they tried. Too bad they're not carrying any explosives. Oh, wait, that's the point, they're targeting explosives! Elita One tumbles behind the purple plated despot. "Gee, Shockwave, why would we attack Polyhex?" Her voice is almost chiding, "Why would we launch an attack on a stronghold like this, you're making it sound like we're diverting attention, or have an underlying agenda." Shockwave was quite right, the entire plan here was to send a message, but HE didn't know that, and she WAS known for her cunning diversions and misdirection. Anything that kept his brilliant mind distracted was an advantage. No doubt he'll process twenty things that never crossed Elita's mind. She smirks, this could actually be useful, if she played him right. "I mean, it's not as if you had any big operations going down or anything." Her thoughts race, 'Say something, you cyclops, feed me some intel.' The cannon fire afterwards was more for effect than anything. With a little fancy flying, Whirl manages to avoid getting hit by any of Triggerhappy's shots and he takes a moment to loudly mock him about it. "Boooo! You suck! It's no wonder the Decepticons suck so much with soldiers like you!" He hovers in place, cannon aimed at the Decepticon jet but an odd, intense feeling washes over him and almost instantly he knows who to blame: Shockwave and his creepy, overpowering glare. So Whirl does what anyone with his levels of sanity would do, he makes a B-Line for Shockwave. "Don't give her too much credit!" he hollers, transforming in mid-air and falling towards his fellow one-handed cyclops as fast as Polyhex's gravity can carry him. "I'm the one who lied to Autobot brass about my intentions so they would give me a shuttle! How do you feel about your precious little Polyhex know, you one eyed freak!?" Kind of hypocritical of him to make of of someone for only having one eye but whatever." Hilariously enough, he decides to be all bad-ass and macho just as Elita One fires her crazy plasma cannons so hopefully he doesn't get caught in the blast. And if he does, ah well, he doesn't mind too much. Ramhorn bashes his horn into Onslaught's battlestation mode, but (obviously, in retrospect) it's like crashing into a brick wall. Actually worse, Ramhorn can easily go through brick walls, yet Onslaught doesn't seem to be budging. He knocks his horn against the minibase a few more times before turning around and trotting away, head down, to charge something a little more inviting! Ramhorn does an awesome aerial lunge off a building to get to Marauder, and he makes it look good! Roadbuster covers the little rhino while he makes a big bash on the Combaticon with his pistol fire. Until with a little help from Onslaught a railgun round is planted in his back.. err, make that backpack. Which does happen to hold a lot of his ammo, autoloaders and the like, resulting in pretty vibrant explosion that plants his ni nonexistant face on the ground. And after a moment pushes himself back onto his feet, despite the smoke rolling off his back(pack). "I actually felt that, heh." Followed by a whoop and a "Nice one!" as Ramhorn makes some impressive hangtime to smack into the guy that shot him. Then turns his attention elsewhere. Despite how much that attack hurt, there's a more priority target present, namely one of the gestalt commanders. With a grunt he makes a quick run towards the outpost and with a whoop jumps to land on top of Onslaught and start slamming away with his fists. It may not do a lot of damage despite the Wrecker's strength, but it might get the guy's attention off helping his allies out so much! Marauder is surprised, astounded actually, when the little rhinoceros that could, actually manages to make Michael Jordan look like a poor jumper. Little does Marauder know that Ramhorn accidentally charged into a rapid asscention open air storage elevator, sending him up to the landing platform before he leapt off of it to hit the hovering Decepticon. Given all the random chance that came into play here, the Autobot was always likely to do no damage, or hit a major system. In this case, he did both. Although virtually no external damage was made, he did manage to jostle some internal parts, causing Marauder to spin, his equilibrium circuits going haywire, "Wha, whaaa, stoooop!" He takes a moment to clear the proverbial cobwebs, before he raises his Electron Cannon, a handheld device, and fire indiscriminately. Shockwave freezes. The possibility that the Autobots ARE just running interference is plausible. VERY plausible. Shockwave can think of seven thousand, three hundred and forty times in the past four million years that the Autobots have carried out an operation using some sort of diversionary tactic like this one. As his mind races through all the possibilities, Elita One uses his momentary lapse to tumble away, take aim, and hit him square in the chest. Shockwave falls backwards, collapsing against the wall of a ruined guard tower. Pushing himself back up, he eyes Elita One intently. But before he can work to demolish her, Whirl shouts at him. The Decepticon turns to face the charging Wrecker, spreading his arms out to meet the plummeting charge. "Typical Wrecker bravado! Are you so interested in increasing the already legendary mortality rate of your group? Polyhex has withstood Elita One's type before, and it will survive yours as well." Far from running away from Whirl, Shockwave soars up after him, attempting to deliver a flying uppercut to the falling Autobot. Regardless of how that works out for him, Shockwave is knocked silly by the collision and hovers in the air to recover. He isn't so high that someone can't reach him from the ground, though. Whatever will Elita do now? Nothing is going according to the plan and it's all Triggerhappy's fault for missing Whirl! Roadbuster lands on him, denting his armor even mode. The battlestation reconfigures itself into a missile trailer truck (hopefully throwing Roadbuster off in the process), "Do I have to do everything myself?" No, Onslaught is not in a good mood. The missile launcher raises and slowly turns as the combaticon commander locks it onto the Wrecker. However Roadbuster being a priority threat at the moment, Onslaught transforms once gain and attempts to slam his fist into the other wrecker's face.. Cybertronian Turbo-Thrust Jet Fighter curses as he misses Whirl, then flies after him as the Wrecker suddenly decides to attack Shockwave instead. It seems the Autobots have their fair share of crazy ones... "Ha! That was the lamest comeback I've ever heard. And I thought you were one of the best at comebacks, Whirl!" He again aims a shot at Whirl, attempting to pull his attention off of Shockwave who has stunned slightly by the attack. Ramhorn doesn't stand on ceremony, running away from his landing point after striking Marauder just to build up speed for another run at Onslaught! At least Onslaught isn't a building, now. Ramhorn might actually be able to trip him up, now that he has legs. Elita One looks up towards the Whirl/Shockwave encounter. The whine of an inbound missile gives her a chance to dodge a nearby explosion. "Keep him busy, Whirl! I'm heading to the objective." <> A second explosion from some launcher toting gumby gives her a smokescreen. To the underestimating, she could've been demolished by that rocket. It wasn't the first time people had thought THAT. Turning into her techcar, Elita roars into the armory...the very same one she ignited explosives in first thing...and out of the melee. Bingo! He got Onslaught to transform out of that annoying base form at least. Roadbuster staggers back a step as the combaticon transforms, steps in and slugs him across the face for being an annoyance! Wreckers were very good at being annoying. And dying. But we don't get into that. "Say hello to my little friend..." But its not his gun he's talking about as Ramhorn returns to the fray to trip Onslaught up! Roadbuster reacts on reflex, quick-drawing one of his pistols, shoving it into Onslaught's chestplate hopefully before he can recover and snapping off a quick shot. "Boom, baby!" Autobot teamwork at its finest folks! Whirl doesn't even get a chance to retort before Shockwave nails him hard with that uppercut, the Wrecker's armor crumpling around his fist. He's hit with so much force that it actually sends him flying back up into the air before he finally falls to the ground with a loud, painful CRACK just in time to get shot up by Marauder. And as if that wasn't bad enough, Triggerhappy starts shooting at him in an attempt to distract him but it's all for naught, Whirl wont let anything stop him from laying the smackdown on Shockwave (or trying to at least.) The Wrecker pulls himself up onto his funny-looking ski feet, glowing energon seeping from his wounds and dribbling down his body. "No offense to Elita, but she's nothing like me. I'm way crazier." And just to prove his point, he takes aim at Shockwave and fires at him with his sick photon beam. Onslaught is knocked off his feet by the tapebot. He falls onto the ground, but beside his pride, nothing his damaged. His optics flares as he turns his face towards his attacker. Before Ramhorn can run too far, he launches his right feet towards the tape, hopefully sending him flying away. Of course, by doing so he cannot deflect Roadbuster's arm before the wrecker shoots him right into his previously wounded chest. Shockwave watches as Elita One suddenly vanishes into the smoke. That doesn't stop him, though. His radar-like senses track her as she attempts to sneak off. Motioning to a pair of Decepticon troopers, Shockwave blasts off after the techcar towards the armoury just as Whirl scores a glancing hit on him. The Decepticon stops, turns, glares at Whirl, and emits: "Onslaught, hold the line here. I will ensure she cannot cause further trouble. Marauder, Triggerhappy: Destroy Whirl." He then vanishes into the armoury, using the time to recalibrate his battered sensors as he goes. Don't think this is a full reprieve though, Autobots. Shockwave will return. Use the distraction to your advantage! "Scoooore!" Triggerhappy hollers as his shots finally hit home. "Hahahahh!" <> He asks over the comm, and he would've been smirking if his face were visible at the moment. Now this was cause for a celebration. And just how does Triggerhappy celebrate? That's right, by wildly shooting at everything and everyone in range. He cackles maniacally as he transforms and turns in a full 360, firing in all directions at random. Ramhorn flips end over end and has to laboriously scramble back to his awkward feet, beady eyes squinting with rage. He's got a big, foot-sized dent in his flank, and he keeps catching stray shots from that jet that's been strafing the Autobots, but more importantly, he's far enough away from Onslaught that he can get up a good head of steam this time! He fires the rockets on his booster packs and charges at the head of a wake of white exhaust smoke, tossing his head furiously! For a moment, Whirl considers giving chase to Shockwave but as crazy as he is, he's not stupid; taking advantage of the time Shockwave isn't trying to kill him is one of the best things he can do right now. And so, the Wrecker transforms and takes to the air in his helicopter form to deal with the obnoxious jet currently spinning around and shooting randomly in every direction. "I admire your style, it's very crazy." The helicopter launches a shell from it's cannon. "But I have things to do and you're kind of getting in the way." "Incoming scatter!" Roadbuster tries to warn the others as Triggerhappy starts spinning around and unloading, even as he dives and rolls off to the side. But it's not enough to keep from getting several shots riddling through his already battered form. Several red warning lights flicker at the edges of his internal HUD in a combination of structural damage and several shortouts in some of his weapon systems. That targetted shot did a number. With a grunt he pushes himself onto one knee, then kicks off into a sprint to get going. *cue classic transformation sound* And then there's a big battlewagon roaring down the street of Polyhex. Making an indirect way towards the 'back door' Elita arranged. Indirect because he's taking the oppritunity to roll over or through everything he can with his off-roading skills, crunching metal under wheels and sending stray patrols scattering. Though honestly, with the sort of crap Wreckers normally go through, this is practically a leisurely cruise. <> Onslaught replies to Shockwave before taking shots from Triggerhappy, "No I'm not you fool! Watch what you're doing before I turn you into a piece of scrap!". Thanks to the targetmaster, he doesn't see Ramhorn until it's too late. This times, the impact is brutal and the combaticon commander crashes into the ground. Onslaught transforms into his missile trailer mode. Its turret slowly turns...better take cover... and the with a loud bang, two missiles are fired and head towards both Ramhorn and Roadbuster. From the armory comes the sounds of laser blasts being fired this way and that. Shockwave can be heard shouting orders to his soldiers, and one of the soldiers can be heard replying by screaming in laser-pistol-derived agony. Meanwhile, more Decepticon soldiers--real *soldiers*--are starting to pour into the area, trying to close in around the Autobots in order to prevent them from escaping. Triggerhappy's shots fly everywhere, hitting a bunch of people, including his own comrades. Blowpipe sighs, exasperated. But he's used to this sort of thing. Now, what had Shockwave said? Oh, yeah. Whirl. The one who was talking to him, now. Onslaught was talking to him, too, but...<> He turns toward Whirl with Blowpipe aimed at him. "Hey, thanks." he grins at the Wrecker's mention of the crazy. "Maybe we can be crazy together with a bottle of engex sometime when we're not busy shooting each other!" he says a bit sarcastically as the Autobot's missile hits him in the wing, doing a sizeable amount of damage. It hurts like slag, but he just laughs. "Still, I like this better. Sorry about that little interruption there, by the way--getting right back to ya now!" Marauder responds to Shockwave in a low, guttural tone, "Marauder acknowledges." He turns his attention on the Wrecker who thinks that he can emulate Shockwave. Flying towards a nearby outcropping from one of the many defensive structures, Marauder transforms into his alternate mode, a green and purple camouflaged M1A3 Abrams Main Battle Tank. Although an Earth-based alternate mode, it packs a surprising punch. The railgun that had been mounted on his shoulder shifts, his head moves down, and he lowers. This new form is far more stable, and when the railgun engages, it sizzles with electrical energy, a bubbling and churning noise emanating from it before a blast of pinkish light races through the air, separating it into two distinct sections as the projectile at the head of the blast makes its way ever closed to the Wrecker. "Clamp onto my tail!" Ramhorn shouts in Whirl's... well, Whirl doesn't have anything approximating ears, but he shouts it into the side of Whirl's weird square head. Ramhorn shakes his tail, which is more like a trailer hitch, at Whirl impatiently. Hardcore Battlejeep rumbles through the streets of Polyhex even as more troopers are being called in. As much as he'd love to go a few more rounds of headbusting, unlike some of his crewmates Roadbuster at least is smart enough to realize he's pretty messed up internally due to that sharp shot to the back and his main weapons cache. Fortunately, his linear turret in this mode is still working for the most part. It swings towards one of the gathering squads as the armored FWD turns the corner, and fires! But instead of a scattering of gumbie parts, it looks like Roadbuster is living up to his name. That is to say, busting a big hole in the road, the rubble making a haphazard but effective ramp down into the underground tunnels that will eventually connect to the ones Elita One tipped them off to. "This way!" He rolls down in, a few more gunshots echoing up as he blows out another wall or two to make their escape route. Bell AH-1 Cobra is pretty sure that he'd have a lot of friends if he was a Decepticon, it seems all of them are varying degrees of insane and he seems to get along well with that type for some /strange/ reason. "Hey, don't take the compliment too far. Your technique could definitely use some work," the Wrecker says, smoke spewing from his chassis thanks to all the firepower he's taking. He prepare for a counter-attack and perhaps a witty insult but he's suddenly rocked by Marauder's railgun, the shot punching right through him and making him explode almost as fantastically as Polyhex did earlier. He falls right out of the sky, spiraling out of control with a thick cloud of smoke trailing behind him. Using whatever bit of strength that still lingers inside his battered and broken body, Whirl transforms into his robot mode just in time to slam hard into the ground. Getting knocked out behind enemy lines, especially one such as this, is a pretty terrifying thought no matter who you are but thankfully Ramhorn is here to save him. "Ohhh Ramhorn, if I had a mouth I would kiss you right now.." he chokes out, his optic glowly fainting before finally fading out, the Wrecker slipping into unconciousness. When he wakes up, he's going to do everything he can to make Ramhorn an honorary Wrecker, the little guy deserves it. Ramhorn hooks his tail onto Whirl and jogs off after Roadbuster, dragging Whirl bumpily across the ground behind him. "S'okay, you can skip that part," he reassures Whirl. "Wish they hadn't blown up the shuttle," he adds as he strains to pull Whirl over a speed bump. Shockwave emerges again from the armory, gun barrel smoking and showing a few more dings and scrapes. Elita One is not with him, as she's made good on her escape in one of the tunnels. Having constant air superiority does have this one limitation. The Cybertronian Commander steps out into the destruction that is this entire sector, taking off and flying after Roadbuster and Ramhorn. Roadbuster escapes down a tunnel, but Ramhorn (and Whirl, who Shockwave has come to learn was the 'mastermind' behind this brazen attack) lags behind. Shockwave fires repeatedly as he strafes the pair. "Do not let them escape!" he calls out. He and a swarm of other Decepticons are closing in on the tunnels the trio are using to flee. Triggerhappy looks almost disappointed when Whirl is knocked into stasis lock, and even more disappointed when the other Autobots appear to be retreating as well. "Awww, I was hoping he had more fight in 'im!" Really, he really had enjoyed fighting Whirl. That is, even more so than most Autobots. At least Whirl didn't have an horrifyingly ugly face like Repugnus. No face is better than an ugly face, in his opinion. And then Shockwave is ordering him to shoot more. YAY! One more shot! Not as good as a full-fledged fight, but better than nothing! "Commander Shockwave, Whirl has been neutralised. His carcass lies motionless at the following coordinates . . ." He gives an exact position for where Whirl fell, and then transforms back into his robot form, and fires upon Roadbuster, as he is an active target. Using his Electron Cannon, he lights up the night sky, but then he sees what's going on below, "Decepticons, we must prevent the Autobots from collecting their wounded!" Shockwave is already on it, as he lands next to Marauder, firing his arm cannon the whole way at the fleeing Autobots. Although it's impossible to tell from his lack of a facial expression, one might get the impression that Shockwave is pissed. Once Ramhorn has dragged Whirl down into the tunnels despite being under fire -- now that's stubborness worthy of any Wrecker! -- Roadbuster stops and turns his turret to fire one last time, knocking down the tunnel behind them so the Decepticons can't follow them easily. Then transforms and hoists Whirl up onto his shoulder. "Good job Ramhorn. Ya'd make any Wrecker proud to have ya fightin' with us. Lets catch up with Elita and get a lift outta Con-land. Marauder contemplates firing off another volley of his railgun, but thinks better of it after doing a quick self-diagnostic, "Damn, I will only get one more shot before I have to replace the coltan ion casing," so he continues to fire from the platform as Shockwave joins him, hitting a few stray Autobot gumbies, but the well known Autobot members of the strike team seem to be getting away. "They're heading for the tunnels. Who do we have in position to close in from the other side?" He's asking, as he is not privy to that information. "You said it," Ramhorn agrees, trudging along through the tunnel with bulky ol' Whirl rattling behind him. "I will send in a team to strike at them from the other side," Shockwave replies, holding his gun arm aloft, "But the tunnels veer off in countless different directions. I calculate less than a 18.3 percent chance that any of our teams will encounter them." The Decepticon turns away from where the Autobots made good on their escape. He's seen this sort of thing replay over and over during the Dark Ages. Triggerhappy transforms and joins Shockwave and Marauder once he's taken his final shot. "Well, that was fun! We gave them a good smack in the skidplate!" He laughs, then sobers a bit. "What do you think they were after?" The question is mostly aimed at Shockwave. "Something underground?" Shockwave considers Triggerhappy's question. "Unsure," he admits. "This may have been a genuine raid to cause damage, or there may have been an ulterior motive. Elita One suggested as much during the battle... but she may have simply been attempting to cause a distraction." Shockwave is displeased at not knowing what's going on. Marauder nods his head, "In that case, and with your permission, I will begin a survey of the damage, coordinating with Logistics to develop a timetable for the repairs. A cursory glance would suggest that the damage was superficial, but it will take a more in depth review to determine the full extent of the damage." He notes that there are a few Seeker casualties, it's a good thing that they have an endless supply. "Do it," Shockwave orders before taking his leave. He'll be back to perform his own survey of the area and to decide how best to rebuild. Triggerhappy is a little -shocked- (ha ha) at Shockwave not knowing. Shockwave always knew -everything-, right? He finds it disturbing that the scientist doesn't know. "Wait, did you just basically say 'I don't know'?"
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