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Corridors

Astrotrain had been following Soundwave and his minions for sometime when he suddenly faced a sight that made him feel very uneasy. Blitzwing, a fellow triplechanger and a warrior far more skillful than Astrotrain himself was partly lying on the floor, partly leaning against the wall, limp and motionless. Closer inspection revealed major damage to the back and chest of the commando despite it appeared that nothing had actually punctured through Blitzwing's body.

Kneeling down before his fallen comrade, Astrotrain made a quick scan to determine whether Blitzwing was still salvageable or nothing more than scrap metal to be recycled. To his relief, Blitzwing's sparkcore appeared to be intact, having gone through emergency shutdown.

Sighing heavily, Astrotrain scooped the weapons of the fallen triplechanger and attached them to a magno-lock on his waist before lifting up Blitzwing from the floor and positioned his limp form on his wide shoulders. Securing his ion-displacer rifle with his free right hand, Astrotrain set after Soundwave again, hoping to make it out of the trembling volcane before it erupted.
____________________________________

The breach

"I'd agree with your assessment of the situation 'Warp. But there's still too many of ours locked inside." Thundercracker replied to Skywarp and fired a series of incendiary rounds towards the cover he had seen Blades peeking out from.

"Soundwave is still somewhere there as few others. You think Megatron is going to forgive us if he looses them because we couldn't hold the line?" He added. "No."

"Use your abilities to evacuate our troops left behind and then we bury the Autobots." Thundercracker added and fired few more rounds towards Blades' position as Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge joined him at the barrier made by the Constructicons and began firing at the Autobot positions.

Bounce Chamber

Ramplate had to compensate as his swing missed, and he felt Jazz's feet strike at his back while the mace struck the ground with a SPANG! The elbow didn't do anything but force the Decepticon warrior to brace his legs, staying up despite the blow. As he turned around though, Jazz's weapons caught him directly in the chest, the ion stream tearing a furrow in the armor down nearly to the frame while the flamethrower bathed him in yellow and orange wrath...

Wrath that the tank-former seemed intent on returning tenfold as he roared out his hate, swapping weapons again for the massdriver and lasers, filling the air with cones of razor sharp self-sharpening tungsten spray and pulses of deadly laser light, the flames licking at his torso making him look like something spawned from the Infernos of the Pit itself! First Jazz, then Blades, then Smokescreen would be the target of his fury, as he swept his weapon across the room...

Despite the seething anger though, Ramplate was no fool. Alone, he could still be ripped apart, so he switched on his internal comms to try and get through to the others around. >>"Decepticons, the Autobots have multiple wounded within the breach, it should slow them down... Converge and hit them with everything!!!!"<<

OoC: Two people in one day!? Lets keep this pace!

Bounce Chamber

Jazz's only hope was to bring the large burly 'Con down, that, however, didn't happen.

Just go down! For Crying out loud! Jazz thought to himself.

Just then, Ramplate fired his weapons, the lasers clipping his shoulders, and one of the massdriver cones spliced along his upper torso, leaving a long scar that nearly hit his frame.

He called out in pain as the corresponding processors sprang into action, bringing him off of the blue 'Con, and into a crouched position on the ground behind Ramplate.

"You picked," He grunted as he stood up, "The absolute wrong 'Bot to pick on."

He pointed his Ion Rifle at Ramplate's knees.

"Better cut you down to size!" Jazz mumbled.

He fired his Rifle at the burly 'Con's knees, two at each. With any grain of luck, Ramplate's knees should buckle, bringing him down.

(OOC: Whoa... Just noticed what you did there in your post, Cry. Will address that in my next post, if that's all right.)

Bounce Chamber

Blades couldn't take it any longer. The conflicts between Ramplate and several particular Autobots—Autobots he was supposed to guide to safety—had to cease. Little could be achieved against the Constructicons and their newly produced volatile structure, so the Protectobot permitted the Decepticon's bellicose entrance to occupy the bulk of his attention. Ramplate, with a tempestuous mixture of laser fire and streaking flames, appeared from out of nowhere, completely disrupting any designs Blades was about to set into motion. Who he was mattered none to Blades; what he would become was the more relevant concern.

He speared Ramplate with a prolonged gaze, his optics blazing with rage. Frag this and frag you, buddy. You want to come out of who-knows-where and ruin my mission? And parade around with a gun that creates nothing but a light show? You're scrap, you rust bucket!

Disassembling a single rotor blade from his back, the Protectobot fashioned the deceptive-looking weapon in his grasp, the smooth surface of the rotor reflecting gleams of light from it. Not only was this Decepticon encumbering Blades' exceedingly difficult task, but he had just contacted his fellow Decepticons to merge with him at his present location. If that were to occur—well... Blades' situation was already disastrous enough; he did not need any further complications injected into the equation.

Activating his form into motion, he approached Ramplate with brisk footfalls, intent on eradicating the tank-former with his rotor. “Move it or lose it, Jazz! I'm gonna wipe this fragger out!”

Bounce Chamber

Ironhide didn’t have too much trouble dodging the big Decepticon’s charge. He wasn’t exactly quiet, smashing through everything in his path. The old security mech was quick to place himself between the wounded and the bots tending to them and the incoming fire. Ramplate’s weaponry wasn’t the strongest though, or the most accurate. His tactics seemed to be to rely on his bulk and noise to carry the day while using the ‘spray and pray’ method with his guns. It was pretty typical bully tactics of a Decepticon, the type of stuff that worked really well on rookies and non-combatants. Unfortunately for Ramplate, Ironhide was far from either of those things.

Still, Ironhide had other concerns. He had come along to rescue these Bots, and he’d be slagged before he failed in that mission. He listened in on all of the shouting and communications going back and forth and formulated a plan. >>”Alright Bots, here’s the plan. The Cons are expecting us to go out that breach, so we aren’t gonna do that. Hound can whip up some holograms to go through and we can detonate whatever goop they’ve sprayed out there with a laser blast. That’ll keep the Cons confused for a few minutes while we bust out own hole outta here. I figure between my ‘waterguns’ and all of the weapons the Protectobots and the rest of us are packin’ it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll get us started and then move on to takin’ care of big and ugly here with Blades. Hardhead, you feel free to throw in too if it looks like we need ya, otherwise cover the rest of ‘em as the bust outta here.”<<

With the orders given Ironhide began to put his plan into motion. Sliding his hands into his arms he produced his chemical emitters. He sprayed a blast of concentrated acid on one of the walls adjacent to but far away from the breach. It rapidly began eating away at the metal, revealing the hallway behind it and hopefully what would be an outer wall they could smash their way through.

With that part set into motion it was time to take care of Mr. big, loud and noisy. Ironhide walked towards Ramplate, his fired bits of shrapnel and lasers bouncing off his tough hide, with the occasional hit scorching or nicking his armor. He had been in enough battles to know how to deal with these loud bully types. You just had to walk up and punch them right in the mouth, and that’s what he was going to do.

Out of the corner of his optic the security mech spotted Blades making a move towards Ramplate. Hopefully his attack would give the Protectobot an opening. Ironhide walked up to Ramplate and grabbed his gun, shoving it aside. “I’ve had just enough of you Deceptichump!” With that he launched a vicious uppercut at Ramplate’s chin with his right fist.

*

First Aid nodded at Axle’s assessment. “I think if we can get him back to the Guardian I can get him back up and running in time. The tough part is just getting him out of here.” The doctor hit the deck as Ramplate came blazing in, forcing Ironhide to protect him with his own body. The move was appreciated by First Aid, but made him wince at the same time. He was going to make sure Ironhide got a full repair treatment when they got out of here.

He grabbed Hot Spot’s feet as Hex grabbed his upper half. “Oh I know, this isn’t exactly the first time we’ve had to carry him off the battlefield, sometimes he’s even conscious and still insisting he can fight," he replied to Hex. He carefully placed him on the bed of Axle’s alternate mode. He then produced a can of hydraulic fluid from his repair kit and tossed it to Lore-Lock. “Hope that’s enough for now.”

It was then that the Protectobot received the signal from Ironhide. As far as he could tell it was a solid plan. He watched as Ironhide sprayed some acid on the wall to start their new escape plan. “Alright Axle, that’s where we’ll be going out. Now just let me add what little help I can offer.” First Aid transformed and fired his decrystalizer cannon at the second wall, weakening it. “Now we just need someone strong enough or well armed enough to blast through that weakened section and we are out of here.”

Groove and Streetwise moved to help Hound, Lore-Lock and Smokescreen get to the new opening, taking occasional shots at Ramplate and out of the original breach to keep the Decepticons busy.

*

Outer Breach

Hook rolled behind the improvised cover Bonecrusher had created for them. “Elegant as ever Bonecrusher,” he commented dryly. He knew the sarcasm was liable to fly right over the other Constructicon’s thick cranium. He peered around the cover and fired off a couple of shots before overhearing Mixmaster’s comments on his chemical mixture. “Ah, excellent. I’m glad to hear such information before I decided to return fire at the Autobots,” he sneered at Mixmaster. “Its only because of my precise aim that I didn’t detonate it already.”

*

Corridors

Soundwave came to a halt as another tremor shook the base. The continuing trend of these tremors was troubling. The base had already seen severe damage. It was possible that the detonations and energy discharges had affected the surrounding terrain as well. The volcano had registered as dormant when they had arrived on planet but they had never planned for a major battle to take place inside of it.

It was obvious now that the base would not survive this confrontation. There were too many variables at play for him to feel comfortable remaining inside of it. He altered his course and began making his way to the nearest exit, his cassettes, Ravage now joining them, trailed behind him. At the same time he sent a signal out to Megatron. >>”Megatron, volcano growing unstable. Likelihood of eruption: high.”<<

*

Slipstream saw Soundwave pause briefly before changing direction, heading for an exit. She was more then happy to follow him. While this might be home for some of these Decepticons it was just another backwater infiltration base to her. The sooner she was out of here the sooner she could be somewhere more glamorous and interesting.

*

Mountainside

Megatron grunted as Prime slammed into him. He quickly grabbed a hold of the Autobot leader, twisting himself around so that he guided both of them towards a wall of the base, smashing through it and back inside of storage room. The Decepticon leader pushed off from his Autobot counterpart, a sneer on his face.

“It will take far more then that to send me to the Pit Prime.” He smiled at his old enemy. “Even if you succeeded I would find a way out. I clawed my way from the very depths of Cybertron society to rule our people, to fulfill their rightful destiny as conquerors. You have proven only to be a stubborn obstacle in my path Prime, and once you are removed their will be no one to stop me.”

Megatron received the signal from Soundwave and quickly developed a plan around it. Should all else fail today, he would still be assured of putting an end to Optimus Prime one way or the other.

Outside

"Two can do that...wait. Maybe it's Two can play that?Whatever that saying is I can throw mine too." Space Case take his club and throws it towards Sideswipe...only for it to strike the other club. "Uh oh..." He is then caught in the explosion and goes flying back through a tree.

Mountain Side

Skywarp listened to Thundercracker as his buddy told him what he needed to do. The idea of using his teleportation abilities to evacuate the rest of the Decepticons still trapped inside the mountain was something that had not previously occurred to the prankster. Of course, why would it? ‘Warp wasn’t usually one to come up with such ideas as more often than not he needed constant supervision from his superiors to be completely effective at his job. Thankfully, he also had his blue friend to keep an optic on him and guide him in the proper direction.

“Good idea, ‘Cracker. I’ll get right on it,” Skywarp responded as he received Nightraven’s communiqué, calling for help. “Heh, looks like I’ve got my first customer!”

The teleporter then opened a comm line back to Nightraven: >>”No problem! I’ll be right there.”<< With his response given, Skywarp disappeared from sight.

Corridors

Skywarp reappeared beside Nightraven, who was standing over a stasis-locked Hellion. The concern on the purple femme’s face plate was obvious even to a prankster like ‘Warp. He actually felt a sense of sympathy for Nightraven which was something he rarely felt for any other mech even Thundercracker. But there was something about ‘Raven that had always attracted him to her even if she didn’t share the same sentiment back. ‘Warp was, after all, more concerned with playing pranks on others than caring about how they felt. Nightraven was different, though, and perhaps now was ‘Warp’s chance to show her that there was more to him than the immature prankster everyone wrote him off as.

Skywarp placed a gentle hand on Nightraven’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’ll get her out of here safely.” The teleporter gave her a wink before bending down and picking up Hellion in both arms. “Thundercracker wants me to get everyone out before the volcano erupts. That means you’re coming, too, Nighty.”

‘Warp moved in close to Nightraven, allowing his one good wing to come into contact with her slender shoulder. Without further delay, Skywarp and the seeker sisters disappeared from the wrecked corridor.

Mountain Side

Skywarp and the sisters reappeared outside a short distance down the hillside from the breach. He placed Hellion down on the ground before looking back up at Nightraven. “She should be safe here. I’m going back in to evacuate more of our troops. You can either remain here or reinforce our troops at the breach.” The teleporter then flashed a smirk at her before vanishing once again.

Corridors

Skywarp reappeared in a different corridor from before. Here he found Astrotrain carrying a deactivated Blitzwing while looking for an exit. “Okay, I’m your ticket outta here, Astrotrain. Hold on to Blitzy and we’ll be outside before you know it!” The prankster grabbed a hold of the triplechangers and teleported them to safety on the mountain side.

Bounce Chamber

Hardhead grew impatient as he waited for a response from Jetfire. Perhaps the scientist was in a dogfight with Starscream which prevented him from answering. Regardless of the situation outside, Hardhead wasn’t going to just sit around inside the enemy’s base and twiddle his thumbs, not while Jazz and Blades were engaged with a very large enemy in the form of Ramplate.

Thankfully, Ironhide had come up with a plan and quickly went to work on creating a new breach on a neighboring wall far down from the first breach. His acid emitters had succeeded in melting the bounce chamber’s wall while a follow-up shot from First Aid’s decrystalizer cannon had considerably weakened the second, outer wall.

Hardhead knew that he possessed the strength necessary to break through to the outside and thus his talents were wasted on providing simple cover fire as Ironhide had suggested. Therefore, the stubborn warrior looked around the room and found that Smokescreen was up on his feet again. “Hey, Smokey, I need you over here. Cover us while I go make us a new exit!”

Without waiting for a response, Hardhead moved away from the breach and headed across the chamber towards the weakened wall. Once there, the big mech backed up as far as he could and then charged straight ahead with all of the speed he could muster. As he quickly approached, Hardhead leaned forward and plowed head first into the damaged wall, smashing right through and onto the mountain side beyond. He stumbled a bit on the uneven ground, but managed to remain upright.

Light streamed in through the second breach as the green soldier turned back around and reentered the bounce chamber, brushing rock and dirt off of himself. “That’s why I’m called Hardhead,” he said, banging his head twice with his fist. “Now let’s get everyone out of here before we all end up as molten stew!”

******

Hearing Hardhead’s call for assistance, Smokescreen moved to the first breach where he took cover behind the fallen debris. Popping his cranial unit up for a moment, he fired off several shots at the Constructicons and Seekers that blocked their way from escaping. As return fire streaked back at him, Smokey ducked down and watched as Hardhead made short work of the weakened wall across the chamber. “Damn,” was all the Smokey could mutter under his breath at the sight of the big green goliath smashing through, allowing light to pour in from the outside.

Time to detonate that sticky slag the Constructicons smeared all over our original escape route, Smokescreen thought as he waited for his opening. When it came, Smokey popped back up and fired numerous shots directly at the edges of the breach, which quickly ignited Mixmaster’s volatile chemical.

“Fire in the hole!” Smokescreen shouted as an explosion erupted at the first breach, sending debris flying everywhere. The diversion expert dove to the side to avoid the direct force of the blast, but still found himself covered with bits of rock and metal. Nothing too damaging, however.

Smokescreen slowly got to his feet and stumbled over to Hardhead’s side, where he leaned his battle-damaged body against the war veteran for support. Looking at the newly formed breach, the diversion expert smiled. “So, that’s why they call you Hardhead, huh?” Smokey asked in a teasing manner. The green mech’s response was a simple nod followed by a wide grin across his face plate. “Yeah, well...” the red and blue racer continued as he motioned back towards all of the smoke and dust that surrounded the first breach. “That’s why I’m called Smokey.”

Outer Breach

Mixmaster brought both actuators up to either side of his auditory sensors as an explosion rocked the other side of the barricade that Bonecrusher had erected. Bits of debris had crumbled to the ground, but the barrier had held up, if only barely, given how hastily it had been thrown together.

“Ooooh…I wonder who bit the scrap on that one. Chaos chaos chaos, heheheh” Mixmaster chuckled, before beginning to spray a non-combustible concrete sealant in the cracks and other loose areas within Bonecrusher’s barricade.

His internal sensors informed him that his raw materials were beginning to run low. He made it a point to remember to refill on something—or someone—at his next available opportunity so that he could get his numbers back up to where they needed to be. Especially since their current location seemed to be drawing all sorts of unnecessary attention. Not to mention the fact that his sensors had also registered another tremor, one decidedly unlike what he had felt when the explosives on the other side of the barricade had been detonated. Surely he hadn’t been the only one that felt it. It would probably be a good idea to take the party somewhere else.

“Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now.”

Bounce Chamber

Ramplate watched as Ironhide made his way towards him, knowing that this was going to hurt. Ironhide had a reputation as one of the Autobots' true heavyweights, and as strong as the Decepticon was he knew that a fight with the old timer would not be in his favor. Regardless, it wasn't like he had much choice now. As he prepared to face off against the red-plated mech, Jazz's shot tore into his left knee from behind, causing the tank-former to stumble to his other knee in pain. He had just enough time to look up and see Ironhide's fist connecting with the faceplate of his helm, sending his optics out of focus for a moment, even cracking part of his jaw!

As awareness returned, he detected Blades coming up and him as well, and decided that desperate measure were indeed required. Ramplate let himself fall forward, then activated the anti-grav pods that made up his thigh and back components, feeling some of the diamond shards digging in as the vents switched open for a fraction of a second to send the 'Con slamming forward towards Ironhide at speeds similar to his vehicle form, hopefully sending both Decepticon and Autobot flying away from the other combatants. It caused vibrations to ripple through his superstructure painfully, but Ramplate hoped that this would work, as it also took him away from the wounded Hot-Shot, a plan the warrior hoped would mean that the 'Bots would focus more on escape than pursuing him. Ironhide was going to be enough trouble alone after all....

OoC: YEAH longest post ever! By the way, if carrying Prowl is illegal, tell me and the changes will be made, and you get to reserve the right to call me an idiot! Which I can goof up sometimes, so, be forgiving!

Bounce Chamber

Jazz was watching the hulking form of Ramplate, and not the Constructicon Barricade.

He listened in to Ironhide's plan, and gave him a quick nod of understanding. An explosion then followed, it was not Ironhide's punch, it was the C4 that had just exploded that Mixmaster had sprayed.

Jazz covered his head on the ground in a ducked position as the shrapnel and dirt covered his body. There was little damage, just simple denting and scratching of paint.

He stood up and looked around in the smoke and saw nothing, so he turned on his sensors to try to find where everyone. He found the Constructicons and the Autobots, but found one far off, it was Prowl.

>>Prowl is away, I'm going to go get him, just leave the door open, kay guys?<< Jazz said through the comm link to The Autobots at the doorway.

He jogged to, what seemed to be, the place where he had come into the Decepticon Base.

Glancing around he caught sight of a corridor that was consistent with Prowl's reading.

Thankfully, the smoke in this place was thin enough for him to be able for him to see.

Corridors

Jogging through the corridors, looking for any signs of the white mech. All hope seemed to be lost, but then as another tremor shook him to his frame, he caught glimpse of a white object out of the corner of his eye, it was Prowl! He lay slumped on the ground, unconscious, though still functioning.

"Jeez dude, what did you get yourself into?" Jazz said to him as he stuck his arms under the fellow Autobot's armpits, and lifted him, just enough for him to lay on his shoulder.

Jazz grunted under the weight of him as he stood up, another tremor, it was getting more frequent. The Volcano was waking up, with Jazz and Optimus Prime still in it!
Realizing this, Jazz put in extra effort to lift Prowl with all his might, and hurried him out of the corridors, and into the Bounce Chamber.

Bounce Chamber

Dashing through the chamber, Jazz carried Prowl through the chamber, servos creaking under the weight, and his wound leaking energon on Prowl.

Another tremor, now it was getting urgent that everyone (except Megatron, of course.) was to be evacuated. Immediately.

Straining to jog across the room, Jazz carried the unconscious white mech to the opening Ironhide and Hardhead had just created.

"*Whew* Hardhead, I could use a little help..." He said to the green warrior.

He managed to point his Ion Rifle at Mixmaster, and fired it three times at his barrel, with any luck at all, they would hit and explode the substance inside of him.

He felt Prowl's weight become more and more pronounced, so he put his other had to hold up the white mech.

"Now would be preferred..." Jazz said impatiently to Hardhead.