Outside 
It hadn’t taken the seekers long to get into formation and start making attack runs. They were fast, no doubt about that, zooming in and out of range in a matter of astroseconds, but the speed that made them difficult to hit was a double edged sword. Their accuracy was hindered by it as well. Prime, and the cluster of Autobots at his heels were beyond the range of Starscream’s cluster-bombs when they went off, and thus clear of Slipstream’s strafing run.
As the seekers roared away, Prime spun and dropped to one knee, bringing his laser cannon to bear. In the blink of an optic, he had locked on to the control surfaces on the tails of the two trailing seekers,
Slipstream and
Thundercracker, and fired off a pair of shots. Most ‘bots wouldn’t have attempted an aimed shot of that type against moving targets, but Prime wasn’t most ‘bots. He was one of the most accurate riflemechs on either side of the conflict, and if anyone could make the shots, it was he. His goal was to disable their vertical stabilizers, making controlled flight impossible, and thus taking away their biggest advantage.
No sooner than the shots left his gun than he was back on his feet and running once more. “
Hardhead, transform and make us an entrance,” he bellowed to be heard over the tumult of the battle, and pointed ahead to the hangar doors that were the entrance to the Decepticon base.
Ironhide, slower than the rest of the group, wasn’t quite clear of the radius of Starscream’s cluster attack then the explosives went off. A patter of metallic shrapnel and fiery debris pinged off of his heavy armor leaving the old mech singed, but unharmed.
“Durn seekers,” he grumbled, stopping for a moment to aim and fire. He laid down a sustained burst from his heavy laser rifle at
Starscream then continued his run for the entrance of the base.
From his position at the rear of the first group, Ironhide could hear Jetfire calling a question to Prime, but it was obvious that Optimus couldn’t hear it over the din. “Go fer it
Jetfire, jus’ don’t get in over yer head,” Ironhide called, taking it upon himself to authorize Jetfire to go airborne and engage the seekers at their own level.
Thundercracker’s sonic boom would have probably been much more damaging had it not been for Blaster. The communications mech could see the soundwaves coming as soon as Thundercracker did his turn and burn routine to generate them. He immediately began analyzing the structure of the wave and transmitting a counter-frequency. The leading edge of the wave rocked some of the Autobots before he was able to counter it completely, but the fact that he did some good was quickly apparent as not a single Autobot fell to the usually devastating attack.
“It’s a good thing I can walk and chew bubblegum at the same time,” Blaster quipped, firing off several shots from his electro scrambler gun at
Skyjack while maintaining his sonic shield and running.
Sideswipe reacted instantly as
Hooligan flew by at barely more than tree-top height. He leapt skyward, activating his rocket-pack and attempted to land on Hooligan’s fuselage. If he was successful, he’d deliver some of his famous pile-driver punches to the mouthy Cyberjet. If not, well he’d be in a very bad position. Those were the risks you took when you were as rash as Sideswipe, but hey, sometimes you just had to go for it and hope for the best.
Ramjet, for once, was doing his best to follow orders. The Autobots, however, weren’t cooperating. He peeled off from his patrol route as soon as Starscream ordered it, and headed for the others with the intention of falling in behind Thundercracker to complete the formation. Unfortunately he’d never made it.
A blast from
Hardhead’s shatterblasters cut him off on his first pass, forcing him to roll right… directly into the path of
Sunstreaker’s electron-pulse gun. The rapid fire of the weapon left blackened scars all across the pristine white surface of Ramjet’s fuselage, but failed to penetrate his armor. Ramjet was so distracted, trying to get out of the path of Sunstreaker’s beam weapon, that he almost ran directly into the missile the Autobot warrior had fired.
He pulled up hard, yawing left, just as the missile exploded. The powerful blast still failed to penetrate his armor, though a direct hit likely would have, but the shockwave disrupted his gyros, sending him on a wild and largely uncontrolled ride towards Mt. Adams. He’d be back, he wasn’t really hurt, but it would take him a few moments to get back under control and back into the fight.
Bounce Chamber For once, Wildrider wasn’t laughing. Despite
Lore-lock’s attempt to prevent him, he had managed to knock Hex off of
Drag Strip, and just in time from the looks of things. Drag Strip’s face was an unrecognizable mass of shattered steel and sparking circuits, and his chest cavity was, if anything, in worse shape. Drag’s armor was ripped apart, he was leaking energon from more spots than Wildrider could count, and worst of all, his spark chamber was exposed and had taken damage. That psycho Autobot had literally tried to rip Drag’s life out with his bare hands. Sick.
Sick, but Wildrider could appreciate that. What he couldn’t do was much of anything about Drag’s condition. He was no medic. Medics were in short supply on the ‘con side of things anyway, most of those with the skill to do it had gone down other, more twisted, paths and had become interrogators or weapons designers instead. The exception was Hook, though Wildrider wasn’t quite sure that Drag Strip’s life was worth having to deal with that snobby prig.
Wildrider sighed in dismay, took one last look at Drag’s wrecked innards and decided he had no choice. >>Wildrider to
Hook. We’ve got injured in the bounce chamber, Drag Strip is leaking out, he’s hurt bad. There are others, but he’s the worst.<<
