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Australia - Top of Ayers Rock

"Well that's something you don't see everyday..." Springer marveled at the sight of the fireball taking the shape of Ultra Magnus own visage above the Fallen's head. Quickly reacting, the green and yellow triplechanger grabbed Scoop by his shovel and wrapped an arm around Ultra Magnus' waist before utilizing the massive springs in his leg servos to leap from the crater the Fallen was dropping the Magnus Fireball into. Normally he could clear out from the area and by a thousand feet or so into the sky by now, but the extra height holding him back only gave him the clearance to escape the crater and avoid all three from suffering in a fiery death.

"You can reprimand me later for that," Springer stated as he rose back to his feet, "But for now, we need to get the kid back into his own body!" Holstering his rifle, Springer ran towards the shield the Fallen hid within while he was busy dealing with some Seeker on the other side.

>>"Hot Rod! I know you can hear me in there!"<< the Triplechanger began to holler as he cupped both his hands around his vocalizer to give his attempt at reaching the Autobot cavalier more volume. >>"Listen, kid, I know we've had our differences in the past and everything, but this isn't you! The Hot Rod I know wouldn't allow for his friend's to get hurt like this!"<<

This had better work, otherwise I'm gonna die by shouting nonsense at a demigod...

Australia - Uluru

>>"Satisfactory, Soundwave. Imperative: forward the full content of that transmission to Starscream. Secondary imperative: it will be necessary for you to continue to isolate and amplify the psychological phenomena that you detected within the mind of the Fallen. Do whatever is required to aid the Autobots in facilitating a psychological break between the entity and the Autobot cavalier."<<

"Acknowledged." Soundwave replied in a monotonous manner rivaling that to the mech that had just contacted him. He quickly downloaded his previous encryption and began to forward it to Starscream's comm systems, as requested.

Before Soundwave could carry out Shockwave's request, the seeker he previously had spied upon attempted to make contact with him. Curious as to what he had to say for himself, the communications officer opened the comm line.

>>"Soundwave, whatever you think of me and my actions, you know we cannot allow Prowl to gain control of Sixshot. It was never my intent; my only goal was to kill Starscream, and I couldn't do it on my own. So now I ask you to decide: is it best for the Decepticon cause to let Starscream hold Sixshot's leash? Or to let Prowl force it from his grasp? Because right now, I think we need him, both for this battle and for what follows."<<

The blue and white Decepticon remained silent as he let Bitstream ramble on with his plea, taking note of every word he said and calculating for any contradictions he may have stated in earlier recordings.

>>"So please relay a message to Shockwave, and ask him if he's willing to set a living weapon loose."<<

The communications expert shifted his gaze over towards Shockwave's position before staring up towards the sky and spotting the hovering seeker. There was a certain point he was making, and that was allowing an Autobot to set one of the Decepticon's greatest living weapons free from his hold and function, but this wasn't Bitstream's call to make. Sixshot was ultimately a weapon and creation of Megatron's, only he had the power to decree such an action. But what did he mean by allowing Starscream to hold his leash... Perhaps this is something he will have to further investigate after this battle is long and done for.

Still, for the time being something had to be done about this seeker trying to delve deeper in the overall infighting for Decepticon High Command.

>>"Starscream; Sending recorded communication file between Bitstream and Sixshot. Priority: Urgent."<< Closing the line, Soundwave immediately beamed the data file to the Seeker commander.

Australia--Uluru

Landgrab had to admit that he had gained a little bit of additional confidence since the return of a few additional Decepticons who acknowledged his presence as being something a little more useful than a drone. He couldn't expect that treatment from the likes of Shockwave or other suck big muck Decepticons, but it was nice to know at least a few in their ranks found some sort of use for him as anything other than a simple, mobile repair platform. A disposable function to say the least.

When Psychout had paired him up with Crueljaw, he tensed a little but did his best not to let it show. it was obvious that Crueljaw didn't like being around him, and Landgrab certainly didn't want to inconvenience other Decepticons who didn't want to be around him by being around them. But...orders were orders and he would follow through. He was about to head off and do his duty when a follow-up transmission came through--seemingly just to him. Weird.

>>"Landgrab, I have a secondary task that would be perfect for your specialist talents. I assume in amongst those repair bay trinkets of yours you have spectral and anatomical diagnostic equipment? I need a diagnostic schematic of that giant Constructicon for Shockwave. If I can present him with a viable working thesis on the altered assembly techniques and interconnectivity routines required for its active mechanical symbiosis, he may allow us leave to study it in more depth and one of those for Shockwave would be a huge advantage against leadership pretenders like Razorclaw and Thunderwing. Pick the opportune moment, and try and get a good clear schematic of as much of it as possible. You have until the end of the battle to complete this before we lose our window. Think you can do that?"<<

Oh, wow. That wasn't like some simply "and don't get blown up, Landgrab". That was, like, an actual mission.

>>"Uh...uh...sure! I mean, yes, I have those! I'll get it done! Sir!"<< Landgrab commed back dutifully. Crueljaw, it seemed, was already more than amped to get moving.

"Hey Landgrab this might help with them golems more than that standard rifle," Crueljaw said, handing him some weapon that he had never encountered before. It looked...hmm...destructive enough.

"T-Thanks," Landgrab stuttered. "Uh, Psych wants me to get some quality scans o-of..."

Landgrab's voice trailed off as he pointed in the distance at the huge Constructicon smashing its way through anything that was unfortunate enough to get in its path.

"...that."

Australia – Ayer's Rock

Scavenger was overwhelmed. There was no other word for it. He was actually one with his fellow Constructicons! It was like a dream come true! The ultimate acceptance. Oh, and together, they were strong. Unbelievably strong. Like...Scavenger had never tasted true power before in his life, but he expected it to feel like this.

Two fire birds whipped over Devastator's head, breathing fire on him. It...it hurt!

“RRRRRAAAAAAHHHH!!!” Devastator growled batting at the fire birds. He caught one with one of his hands, but all it did was reform and keep firing him! Hurt! The gestalt thrashed about, trying to kill these fiery pests with little success. Frustrated, he looked around for something to smash them with. He didn't see anything like that, but what he did see was a whole flock of those hurt fire birds swarming the top of the rock. He would smash them. Destroy them all!

Jumping onto the side of the rock face, Devastator began to climb up the rock, managing to get the the top with relative swiftness and much frustration from the glowing birds. At the top, the gestalt tore a chuck of the mountain side free and threw it where the fire birds' numbers were the thickest, which happened to be right at a flaming figure unlike the birds: The Fallen.

“YOU WILL FALL BEFORE DEVASTATOR!!!”

Australia—Uluru

The unwanted voice in Psychout's head was clear as a bell, and Shockwaves orders had agitated it. "Soundwave took your freedom from you!" "No, no he didn’t. That was Malware, and he is dead. I will never be a enslaved to another again." "Yes, you killed him didn’t you? You tore out his transformation cog with your own two hands, and now you want to do the same to Soundwave, don’t you..? I know. I can see what you have done..."

Psychout couldn't deny that was exactly what he dreamt of, but he also knew the Soundwave was an integral part of Megatrons vision for a united Cybertron, and – more importantly – telepathic so would know if Psychout even slipped a millimetre in his well exercised facade of flippancy, so those thoughts were mere fantasy. "For now...".

He hadn’t briefed the team on his full mission plan, Shockwaves timely assignment delivery allowed him to withhold that information securely, but he fully expected Soundwave to attempt to look at his mind. In fact, he was counting on it. "Maybe it’ll help confirm if this is real or a glitch..." "You. Wish. Surrender to your cowardice if you must, but I know what you desire, and I can help you gain it – you just need to give in, just allow me to guide your han..." "What? Not likely. Not now, not ever! Now back in your box – I’ve got work to do."

He opened a comms channel to the communications commander, allowing his team to hear his transmission >>Operative Psychout to Soundwave, Shockwave has assigned my team and I as your protection until you complete your task for him. I am heading to your position now.<<
Short and sweet, don’t give too much away...

He took off, following his team. He could see Soundwaves position up ahead which was mostly clear of the Fallen’s impromptu minions, but that was never going to last once the Demigod worked out Soundwaves importance. Why did I pick the position closest to the creepy claptrap? This is going to be a loooong battle...

Australia - Uluru

A burst of white light was soon followed by a roaring engine as Swindle drove through the plains. Up ahead, he saw the rock, and skidded to a halt. He transformed.

"Whoa."

Swindle stared at the battle raging around him, barely dodging a stray fireball. He needed to find Onslaught. "Onslaught, come in! This is Swindle! I repeat, this is Swindle!" He was about to radio his commander one more time when a club caught him in the back, sending him flying. He hit the ground hard. Standing up, he looked back. "Oh, scrap."

A rock golem was charging him, club in the air. Swindle barely stepped out of the way in time, and jumped onto the golem's back. Finding no other ready alternative, he started beating on the creature's head. "Call now, and I'll throw in another beating, absolutely free!" With those words, he blasted the golem in the back.


Jumping off, Swindle tried contacting his leader one more time.
"Onslaught, this is Swindle! Come in, Onslaught! Where are you?" Swindle was damaged from the club hit, and was still nauseated from the bounce. The sooner he got to safety and reported to Onslaught, the better.


((OOC: Please turn off your sig))

Australia – South of Ayers Rock

“Heyo boss! Looks like I made it just in time, huh? Hahahahaha!"

"Idiot." Motormaster snorted in total and utter contempt towards his underling before yanking Wildrider forcefully out of harm's way. His mouth having twisted into a vicious scowl, Motormaster stepped forwards to face the Fallen's damnable reanimated rock pile and drove his shoulder to its gut to stagger the rock golem backwards - before letting his atom-smasher rifle blast the rock golem that had reformed behind his insane follower into gravel once more from point blank range.

"So these things reform." The leader of the Stunticons growled and took a look around. It wasn't looking good. While there was still more Cybertronians on the field than 'rock lords', it couldn't last. How could it? The golems would wear them down. It was inevitable unless they could stop the Fallen somehow.

"Keep moving boys! These fraggin' golems reform! Don't waste your ammo and energon on them!" Motormaster began booming out command to the Decepticons around him, "We can outmaneuver them! We are going to take this scrap to the Fallen!"

Except nothing was ever so simple, now was it? For from the sandstorm surged forth birds of fire that went primarily for the fliers.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

Before Motormaster had even managed to formulate even the slightest idea of how to deal with fire elementals in addition to the rock golems that were already around - Prowl happened.

>>”Attention, everyone! This is Prowl! As you know by now these rock lords can reform no matter how many times we knock them down. Therefore, we must leave nothing left to reform. Our best option is to try and push them back towards the fire tornadoes and force them into those swirling infernos. With any luck, the intense hellfire will turn their sandstone bodies into solid glass! I don’t care how you all do it. Just work together and make it happen!"<<

"More like turn them into slaggin' glass golems." Motormaster muttered annoyedly, not seeing much sense in Prowl's announcement. If these golems could form out of solid rock and then recreate themselves from mere gravel, what good was turning them into glass going to do aside maybe slowing them down for klik or two before they adjusted into their new forms.

Having started to feel like a tactical retreat was in order to re-assess the situation where the Fallen kept conjuring up new enemies they simply couldn't match up against, Motormaster shook his head in disbelief and rubbed his forehead as if he was having a headache. "Anyone got a fire extinguisher?"

Australia – South of Ayer's Rock

"Idiot." Motormaster snorted in total and utter contempt towards his underling before yanking Wildrider forcefully out of harm's way. Wildrider was taken by surprise by the action and staggered a few steps before turning to see that the rock monster that he had obliterated before was now reforming. Wildrider scowled.

“They aren't supposed to get back up after I'm done with them!” he shouted to himself indignantly, wondering at the nerve of these rock things. He folded his arms over his chest and pouted as he watched Motormaster blast the thing into smithereens. Wildrider harrumphed and thought of how he could improve the situation. While he was doing that, Motormaster had also managed to think on his feet a bit faster than he had. Made sense really. Wildrider wasn't one for thinking. He mostly relied just on pure instinct.

"Keep moving boys! These fraggin' golems reform! Don't waste your ammo and energon on them!" Motormaster began booming out command to the Decepticons around him, "We can outmaneuver them! We are going to take this scrap to the Fallen!"

“Aww...but boss!” Wildrider whined out, upset that they weren't going to get to smash these guys more. While he was pouting, he noticed some fire birds descending from the mountain top. That was weird. Not exactly something you saw everyday. Kind of awesome, honestly. Then the Autobot Prowl had to pipe up.

>>”Attention, everyone! This is Prowl! As you know by now these rock lords can reform no matter how many times we knock them down. Therefore, we must leave nothing left to reform. Our best option is to try and push them back towards the fire tornadoes and force them into those swirling infernos. With any luck, the intense hellfire will turn their sandstone bodies into solid glass! I don’t care how you all do it. Just work together and make it happen!"<<

Which basically translated to a lot of yammering to fill in the basic message of 'use fire to make rock guys glass'. Which also meant...Wildrider could break the glass guys! They'd probably shatter with a satisfying KRAAAAAASSSSHHH and then maybe a quiet tinkling as the shards hit the ground. Yeah. He could get behind that.

Wildrider looked over to Motormaster to gauge his thoughts on the situation. He appeared baffled. GREAT! That meant Wildrider was free to do whatever the slag he wanted! Transforming into his alternate mode, Wildrider performed two donuts in the sand and zipped off toward the fiery tornadoes in the distance, making sure to antagonize every single rock monster along his way.

>>”Deadend, Breakdown! C'mon ya exhaust pipe lickers! EYAHAHAHA!! Let's cook us some rock monsters, then smash them up!”<<

Uluru--Top of Ayer's Rock

After the timely assist from Wipe-Out, Onslaught had done his level best to try and aid Razorclaw's continued assault against the Fallen. What was becoming painfully obvious was that no form of ballistic energy leveled against this entity was going to make its way past the Fallen's seemingly impenetrable shielding. A new strategy was in order, but Onslaught was going to have to clear his head somewhat in order to concoct and propose any kind of alternative. Unfortunately, this particular battle scenario was not one that allowed for "time outs".

Brawl's signal was registering as being close by, but Onslaught could not see him. Then, from his periphery, Onslaught noted that Brawl had managed to find his way into one of the fissures. The Combaticon Commander practically sprinted over to the serrated, rocky edge and shot an arm down to grasp Brawl's.

"Slacking again?" Onslaught quipped as he pulled his fellow Combaticon up and out of the many gaping maws that the Fallen had torn into the surface of this planet.

>>"Onslaught, this is Swindle! Come in, Onslaught! Where are you?"<<

This newest transmission actually caught Onslaught off guard. Swindle? Here? Hadn't he been off in one of these fleshbag sovereignties establishing them a fallback position?

>>"Swindle? What in Primus' name-? Nevermind. You see that giant rock formation where all the weapons are firing? I'm on top of that. But don't come here. You're too vulnerable and one more rifle isn't going to do slag against this thing. Find Blast-Off and report to me on his condition. We may have to engage a tactical retreat soon."<<
___

Australia-–South of Ayers Rock

Breakdown was pretty much in full freak out mode right now. It was clear that the Fallen could pretty much summon whatever he wanted to destroy them. The planets oceans were going to rise against them next. And then the rust, oh god, supernatural rust. He couldn't take it!

"Keep moving boys! These fraggin' golems reform! Don't waste your ammo and energon on them! We can outmaneuver them! We are going to take this scrap to the Fallen!" the boss bellowed.

Breakdown transformed again, his tires screeching and kicking up a cloud of dirt as he did exactly that.

>>"Deadend, Breakdown! C'mon ya exhaust pipe lickers! EYAHAHAHA!! Let's cook us some rock monsters, then smash them up!"<<

Of course, Wildrider would be having the time of his life. Nutbag.

>>"Yeah yeah yeah! Just try t'watch where you're drivin', huh? I don't wanna spend orns in a CR chamber 'cause you didn't watch where you were goin'!"<< Breakdown commed back.

One of the firebirds soared overhead, blasting flames down at the ground as Breakdown sped forward, hitting the accelerator even harder, heading straight-on for one of the rock elementals. The firebird had come in just behind him and let loose with another blast of supernatural fire, scorching his aft slightly. Breakdown turned hard and the firebird didn't adjust course quickly enough, sending it slamming into the rock golem, exploding it in a blaze of fire and rock. Not quite what the boss wanted, but still fraggin' cool!

Australia - Uluru

Find Blast-Off? Okay, then. Swindle converted to vehicle mode and drove away, searching for the signal of his comrade. An explosion rocked him off of his wheels, and he transformed just a minute too late, rolling to a halt and landing on his face. "That...hurt." He transformed again and tore away, this time taking on a more careful approach. He did NOT want to get hit again, despite the fact that the warranty on his shielding was still effective. He found Blast-Off's impact zone...But no Blast-Off.

He examined the ground. Yep. Someone had definitely been here.

"Swindle here, Onslaught. I think someone already found and got Blast-Off to safety. Now what?"

Ayers Rock: Base Trenches

The rock titan took another full blast from Nova Strike's primary cannon, its left shoulder turning to a burbling sauce as it began to congeal along its side. Nova Strike brought is smaller though no less potent hand held weapons to the fore. He squeezed off another dozen shots, carving an staggering and uncanny Autobot Sigil in its chest before the thirteenth took off its head. The titan began to wobble backwards, its ankle teetering on the edge of the makeshift trench that had been dug before the battle had begun.

Nova paused his assault and released his right handed magnum to the exterior magnetic strip upon his hip. He tapped a control on his wrist and exposed a secondary access port to his vast internal armory of disposable munitions. Within a split instant his internal manifests located the desired piece of equipment and ejected it a meter into the air.

The silver sphere spun around at high velocity before it was plucked from the air and placed on the tips of his index, middle finger and thumb. It was a hold he had come to recognize from the humans popular game of... hit ball with stick... Nova didn't really get a chance to remember the name of the sport as it had been in passing. Still it would serve its purpose. With the pinkie finger he flipped off the detonator safety and started the countdown on the grenade.

A second passed and Nova leveled off his remaining magnum at the still smoldering sigil. The molten slag was still slowly oozing down its side as bits of dust began to consolidate into a chin like apparatus. The timer ticked away. Nova Strike waited a few moments more as the timer on the grenade ticked closer to zero.

Finally at the second to last tick of time, the Ranger pulled the trigger and sent a burst of energy straight through the heart of the sigil. He then launched the four seam styled pitch with all his effort. As soon as the grenade left his fingers, Nova immediately recovered his right magnum and spun around snapping off another set of shots, straight into the knee caps of the titan.

A fountain of rock and ash soon erupted from the ghastly crater in the heart of the titan. Its chest was a smoldering ruin with plumes of smoke erupting from its wounds. Slowly it began to sink to its backwards towards the flaming wall of destruction, the bursts from the weapons hastened its departure from existence with spectacular vengeance. Its remaining right hand reached out as if to prevent the inevitable, grasping at nothing but the thin mists of smoke and burning metal... and soon even as the fingers disappeared in the frothing foam of flame, the roar of the consumed remained in a haunting echo of the battlefield.

Nova Strike ejected the spent ammunition clips and allowed them to retract into two wrist mounted charging stations. Two fresh cartridges were ejected from his thigh holsters and were instantly plugged into the weapons. "So nice of both of you to finally join us working class celebrities."

He spun around and immediately leveled his three weapons straight at Sunstreaker. The guns were off center by three degrees to the left and at an elevation of 49 degrees on the Y axis. He gave an apologetic grin as he activated his combat computer's firing sequences and released devastating scarlet barrage straight into the crest of a flying flaming tempest. It was a like a volcanic thunder clap as the charged energy dissipated the slightly defined head of the bird in a shower of charged particles, ions and fire.

The two ammunition launchers within his holsters immediately activated and were loaded with two cylindrical canisters. He released his weapons back to their magnetic exterior strips and pulled the two smoke canisters as they tumbled end over end in the air. His apologetic grin towards Sunstreaker evaporated as he bit down on the pin rings and pulled both canisters away. His target reeled in the air briefly before it began to reform its head and parts of its body that had been dissipated by the Ranger's fire.

Nova threw both smoke grenades into a steep arc. They tumbled end over end, disappearing in the threads of flame and roar of the inferno. Nova Strike recovered his position and walked over towards Sunstreaker. "Wait for it..." The tell tale puffs and pops soon gave the signal that the canisters had detonated within the core of the beast. Sprays of smoke began to consume the creature from within, slowly extinguishing its heart and devouring its entirety. "How's that for an encore Sideswipe?"

The ranger turned in time to watch the Red Autobot Warrior begin bathing in a splash of stone and dust. "You know Sunstreaker, I do believe we've lost him again."

Australia - South of Ayers Rock

As Prowl continued to fire his missiles at the feet of the approaching trio of golems in an attempt to force them back into the nearest fire tornado, the military strategist received several new communications. Two of the messages originated from Ratchet and Hot Spot, both giving him an update on their current situations as the former requested cover fire. The third message was from Bitstream, who was now goading him into getting Sixshot’s code from the Seeker Commander, Starscream. The black and white quickly sent back a pair of non-verbal acknowledgements to his fellow Autobots while at the same time he completely ignored the seeker who was clearly a delusional mech and in desperate need for attention.

“Stupid fraggin’ seekers,” Prowl muttered aloud to himself as he unleashed a pair of missiles at one of the golem’s feet, forcing it to stumble to one side and away from the other rock lords, getting ever so closer to the fiery vortex in the process. The strategist was beginning to feel the heat intensify as he drew closer to the flames. Then, as if the previous communications weren’t distracting enough, Warpath appeared on scene, asking Prowl if there was a plan. Curiously, the tank-former had directed his question towards the combat trench where the black and white no longer resided. With all of the flying sand, glass and dirt from the storm it was hard to tell where everyone was currently situated.

“Hey, Warpath, I’m over here!” Prowl shouted back as he resumed firing his rifle at the golems. “Yes, we have a plan! We’re trying to force these golems into the fire tornados so they’re either melt into nothing or turn into solid glass, rendering them immobile! However, I have a different assignment for you! I want you to go and find Ratchet! He’s heading towards Ayers Rock right now. Provide cover fire for him while he conducts his scans on the Fallen! This is very important, Warpath! Ratchet must be protected at all costs. If you need help, grab someone else to assist you. I don’t care who. Got it?!”

Prowl then returned his attention to the current rock lord of his obsession. Firing off another missile, the golem staggered backwards and finally tumbled into the fire tornado, disappearing from sight. However, within a few astroseconds, the sandstone beast tried to crawl out of the hellfire, it’s body glowing red hot. “You gotta be slaggin’ kidding me?!” Prowl shouted as the rock monster made it only a few feet before stopping. It then slowly cooled and turned into solid glass. “Thank Primus! It worked! Blaster, Eject, continue your assault on the others! Force them into the vortexes! I’ll be there in a moment to assist you!”

The military strategist then opened a comm line to Ultra Magnus on top of Ayers Rock: >>”Commander Magnus, it’s Prowl again. How goes the fight up there? Have either you or any of the others been able to get through to Hot Rod yet? If not, your final solution option may be the only other alternative we have!”<<

Communication from Wheeljack:

>>”Ultra Magnus, Prowl, I’m sending down a pair of freeze blasters, one to each of you. They run on nitrogen and should freeze anything on contact. They should work against both the golems and the fire birds. Use them carefully, though. They’ve not been field tested yet. I'm sending them now.”<<


Australia - Top of Ayers Rock

In a flash of intense light, a bounce beam struck the summit of the mountain, leaving behind one of Wheeljack's freeze blasters near Ultra Magnus' position.

Australia - South of Ayers Rock

Prowl had no sooner received Wheeljack's communication then the bounce beam slammed into the ground nearby, startling the military strategist to a certain degree. Quickly moving over to the spot where the freeze weapon lay, the black and white placed his rifle into subspace and then picked up the new gun, giving it the once over. "Never field tested, huh? Well, this thing better not blow up in my face that's all I got to say. Otherwise, Wheeljack's gonna suffer the consequences."

Turning his attention to the nearest rock lord, Prowl took aim with the freeze blaster and opened fire. A bright blue beam emanated from the tip and struck the golem dead center. Immediately, the creature began to ice over until it was frozen in place. It then toppled forward and shattered into dozens of pieces as it hit the ground. "Well, I'll be slagged. It actually worked! Now if we could only keep those pieces from melting...."

Pint K

Laserbeak silently watched Silverbolt from above, alighting some distance away on a rock.

"Okay, boss. I found Silverbolt. Now what?"

Australia - Uluru



"Excellent!" Silverbolt exclaimed as the data burst he requested from the Autobot ranger began to stream to him. The data-package was taking awhile to upload, a point in which Nova Strike had previously mentioned before sending the burst.

>>DATA BURST UPLOAD: 56%<<

"Come on... faster, faster!" The Aerialbot cursed as he soared over the battlefield, chasing what looked to be the "tail feathers" of a fire bird. The cannon extending from the tip of his nosecone disbursed another bolt of electrical energy at the avian elemental, sending the bird-like creature to erupt into hundreds of pieces of seared ash before it began to undergo the regeneration process.

>>DATA BURST UPLOAD: 73%<<

If he was in his robot mode, the Aerialbot commander would be rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers from sheer impatience. He made a mental note to be sure his team and himself should have their battling computers updated so important data can be sent and received much faster than his current compiling speed was taking. Then again, maybe asking for a typographical layout of the entire area could have been the main reason...

>>"Commander Silverbolt and Jetfire, may I suggest a slight modification to Commander Prowl's idea? Since we have the fire birds up here, maybe we should use them against the golems. If we can get the fire birds to run into the golems, we may do what the humans call getting two birds with a single stone."<<

>>"Silverbolt, may I be so bold for a couple of us to help the huge Construction out with his group and at the same time get as many scans of it for future use?"<<

>>DATA BURST UPLOAD: 96%<<

>>"Acknowledged, both of you."<< Silverbolt replied to his Aerialbot subordinates as he continued to watch the slowly ticking timer on his upload sequence clock. >>"Do whatever it takes."<<

>>DATA BURST UPLOAD: COMPLETE.<<

Upon completion, the data packet unfolded within Silverbolt's processor and the data immediately began to sync with his processing computers and targeting systems. He had complete clairvoyance over all his surroundings now.

"Yes! Finally!" Silverbolt exclaimed as he transformed mid-flight and hovered over the battlefield in his robot mode. "Now, let's try to isolate for... Yes! There!" Hovering over to an area a hundred meters or so from the nearest fiery vortex, Silverbolt shifted his engines off and touched down on the Earth surface once again but stared intensely at the red-dirt of the Australian outback.

"Now... How am I gonna dig this out..."



>>"Operative Psychout to Soundwave, Shockwave has assigned my team and I as your protection until you complete your task for him. I am heading to your position now."<<

Ah, Psychout, not that's a name he hadn't heard in quite some time. To be honest, the Decepticon Communications expert was somewhat surprised to his former Cassetticon still functioning. His status could wait though, Shockwave had assigned him and his unofficial band of Decepticon warrriors to serve as a means of protection. Can't argue needing an extra hand or gun to cover you while you run more technical advances in this battle.

>>"Acknowledged."<< was all the Decepticon stated as he approached the trench most of the warrior front was holding themselves down in. Before he could state his presence to the mechs around him, a comm from his own subordinate rang into his audio receptor.

>>"Okay, boss. I found Silverbolt. Now what?"<< Laserbeak squawked as he had done as Soundwave ordered and located the Aerialbot commander.

>>"Study the Aerialbot's actions in accordance to his need for the typographical data I collected from his transmission. Report back all observations."<< Soundwave then closed the line to his vulture-like cassette and returned his attention the bots surrounding him. Shockwave, Prowl, Warpath, and... Ah, just the mech he needed; Blaster.

The Communications expert's last attempt to read the Fallen's mind nearly burned a hole in his processor, an unexpected countermeasure the demi-god was able to deploy. As much has he hated to admit it, he would need his counterpart's similar skills in communication relays to increase his own effectiveness to try and isolate the Cavalier's presence.

"Soundwave Reporting. Security forces en-route to cover our location, but I will need the assistance of the Autobot's communications officer in order to amplify my telepathic abilities in order to isolate the mental state of the possessed Cavalier."



"So nice of both of you to finally join us working class celebrities."

"Wow you've got bearings, kid." Sunstreaker scowled as he leveled his pistol towards an oncoming rock golem and fired it with his ever-so famous precision. The neon-orange bolt of pressurized laser fire exited the marksman's barreled and landed fractions of a millimeter away from where the yellow warrior originally aimed for. "Well damn, I'm slipping."

As Sunstreaker spun around to issue a quip to his twin brother, he instead found himself facing down three different barrels from the blue ranger's weapon systems.

"Holy hell skippy, learn to take a freakin' jo-" The sound of Nova Strike's weapons missing the blazing yellow warrior by mere millimeters cut Sunstreaker off, only to be followed by the sound of screeching coming from the fiery bird Nova Strike was aiming for. When the ash settled and the smoke from his grenade cleared out, Sunstreaker remained frozen in his tracks as he patted himself up and down, checking to see if he had been shot by the youngest of the three warriors there.

"Was I shot?" Sunstreaker began to panic as his hands raced in a blur around his frame. "Chipped? Chinked? Scratched?" His gaze returned to Nova Strike through a series of rapid blinks before he stated something about Sideswipe losing himself in the fun he was having dropping rock lords like insections at a Dinobot buffet.

"Lose himself? Why of course he is little bro'!" Sunstreaker exclaimed as he shoved Nova Strike's shoulder out of his way, forceful enough to make the ranger budge but not enough to plant his aft in the dirt, obviously as a pseudo-revenge shtick for nearly shooting him. "See there's something you younger models come popping off the assembly line with fancier knick-knacks and whodunnits that you aren't programmed to truly enjoy the littler things in life." The yellow warrior began to explain as he followed after his crimson twin in leaping atop the golems and proceeding to beat the scrap out of each one. "Nothing's better than -URK- ripping your foes -GAH!- to tiny pieces after being cooked up in a ship for so long!" Pulling out his pistol once again, Sunstreaker open fired into the back of the golem, sending charred pebbles and debris bursting from its chest cavity as the yellow warrior rode the falling rock lord to its fall.

"WOO! And that's how we make the old-fashioned way look good! I'm already at three, what about you 'Swipes? How many have you sacked yet?"

Australia – South of Ayers Rock

Runamuck was not a member of the Stunticons, but had anyone been watching him, they'd see he was as kooky and reckless as they were. Scooting around in his alternate mode, then transforming to shoot the rock lords and fire birds, then transforming again to hoon and attack, then transforming back to robot mode to spray the spawns of glitches with his friction rifle—which he didn't quite do 'cause his aim sucked—he was having a ball.

He could totally pass as Drag Strip, who lay unconscious nearby and wasn't involved in this fight. If he was yellow. And had an oral cavity instead of a mask covering the lower half of his face-plate. And also if he talked slag like Draggy did. No, wait, he did, but a different sort of slag to Draggy's bragging.

Okay, so scratch that. Maybe he couldn't. No big deal. Life went on, and the Fallen's elemental creatures refused to take a hint and stay down.

Runamuck had lost sight of his brother. Wary but not worried, he quickly put that thought aside. Too much thinking—because thinking made him stop on the spot a lot—would spell A-F-T K-I-C-K-E-D. He'd rather that not happened to him. Besides, the telltale flash of that wicked x-ray cannon Runabout had brought with him would start brightening the place anytime now.

A rock lord came at him, its heavy tread shaking the ground with each step. Twice Runamuck's height and likely stronger than him by a Pit of an amount, he backed up and opened fire. One swing from that club and his cranial unit would go bye-bye.

“Take this, you freak!” Runamuck screamed as he blasted the golem. “Die! Die! Die! Woooooooo!”

Runamuck or Wildrider.

Who was more loco?

The Battlecharger or the Stunticon.

Care to wager?

Australia – Uluru, Soundwave’s position.

As he approached Soundwave’s position, Psychout could see a grouping of mechs all trying to look busy. Soundwave at least looked hard at work, and Shockwave (as far as he was concerned, anyway) was the mech in charge, but the Autobot’s present he was less than impressed with initially. Prowl he knew about, everybody knew about the chief big wig of the Autobots famed ‘bad ideas department’ and Psych wondered how many lives would be sacrificed pointlessly this time, although as long as they were Autobot ones he didn’t care enough to spend any time pondering it. He had no idea who Warpath was, but as soon as the big red tank said anything he was sure to work it out from his reputation.

Blaster, however, he knew a great deal about. Being a propaganda specialist himself, Psychout had spent megacycles at a time studying the early war broadcasts that were attributed to him, and he couldn't help himself but be slightly star-struck - this was his opposite number from the early stages of the war...

Landing gracefully beside Shockwaves feet, he ignored all the others present and acknowledged his superior. “Commander Shockwave, the team is getting into position now. With your permission, I’ll be covering them from here.” he paused for a brief second, gave Soundwave the briefest of salutes, turned and was caught off guard by the giant shadow of Warpaths gun barrel. He held his tongue, and looked up at Prowl whilst he continued to address his leader “We’ll be creating a cordon around this position to ensure your security and that of the Commander, and 'others', present.” He paused, looked at Blaster for a second as if he wanted to say something fanboyish, but continued "I also have a battlefield-surgery specialist unit standing-by on the ship that could be useful if we are expecting to take further casualties. Permission to call him in down?"

He took a final look up at Prowl. Superior tactician? Everyone knows you overload forcefields to cripple them. He just hoped that's what he was using the giant Constructicon for, as if not this was going to be a short field test. He turned back to Shockwave. “I assume this is otherwise all in hand Commander, and shall proceed as ordered.”

He effortlessly manoeuvred his small frame through the air and onto the rocky outcrop they were all hidden behind close to where Soundwave was working, and assumed the prone position whilst unpacking his specialist rifle. He zeroed it in on Landgrab and made himself comfortable.
As he did so, he addressed Soundwave. “Well commander, I know this is not the reunion we were both anticipating, but try not to be too upset. My team are now in position, so if you will forgive me not embarking down memory lane, I've got rock lords to kill..." He peered back down the specialist scope at Landgrab. There are so sparking many of them, how do I keep on top of these? Ah...

He turned and looked towards Blaster again. He would be listening carefully to what he had to say, it was not every day you got to meet your hero, especially when he is technically an enemy, but right now he wasn't the person he needed. “...I know you. It’s Eject right?” He addressed the cassette directly, briefly forgetting that not all cassettes enjoyed the same autonomy as he. “I need a spotter and I hear you’re the talkative-type. Get up here and call these things out whilst your boss is working, and maybe we'll have all have a better chance of getting out of here alive?”

All that we left now was to give his team the green light.
>>>Right, I’m in position over in killjoy corner, covering Landgrab and ‘Jaws with the Radrifle. Darkfire, If you need cover, call it, otherwise get out there and have some fun! Oh, and whoever gets the least kills has to cover Jaw's energon tab when we get back to the Thantos. Pew pew pew!!<<<

And then, without hesitating, he pulled the trigger.

>>>Landgrab, don't forget those scans. I'm calling in a specialist who may be able to help you.<<<

Uluru – South of Ayer's Rock

Pew! Pew!

“Haha! I love these things!” Frenzy said as he fired off his laser cannons. They took chunks and pieces out of the golems, but the things just reformed no matter how much he blew them apart. Frenzy charged them regardless, firing his laser cannons with wild abandon. One of the rock monsters swing its massive stone fist down at Frenzy who darted to the side as it smashed it into the sand.

“Nyah! Too slow!” Frenzy taunted before trotting back over to Rumble's side and tapping his long-time partner-in-crime on the shoulder. “Hey Rumble! Let's shake these bozos up!”

Whirling around so he and Rumble were back to back, Frenzy grinned as he warmed up his internal drum. Taking a deep breath for dramatic effect, Frenzy screeched. The vibrations dramatically peaked in volume as he directed them at the rock lord. At first, it seemed completely undaunted by Frenzy's vocal cacophony. Then bits of it began to flake off. Then larger chunks as the cassetticon adjusted the frequency. Soon, the rock monster collapsed on itself entirely. It immediately attempted to reform, but only managed to shift its crumbled mass around a bit.

However, another rock lord flanked Frenzy and brought up its stony fist to strike at the cassetticon. With a muted boom, its fist spontaneously shattered. More explosions peppered its frame and brought it crumbling back down into the ground. It soon began to move again however. Its movement was greeted by another peppering of proton bombs.

>>”Lure them to the fire vortexes or they'll keep getting back up,”<< Ravage rumbled to the other cassetticons.

>>”Yeah, yeah,”<< Frenzy transmitted non-verbally, >>”Hey boss! When are we goin' after the big flaming guy? We can take him!”<<

>>"Yeah yeah yeah! Just try t'watch where you're drivin', huh? I don't wanna spend orns in a CR chamber 'cause you didn't watch where you were goin'!"<< Breakdown commed back.

>>”Pfff....”<< Wildrider commed back as he darted between a rock lord's stumpy legs, shooting straight up to the stone golem, effectively shattering its lower half, >>”You insult me, Breakdown. You say it like I'm in control of my actions! Hehehehe!”<<

Up a sand dune Wildrider suddenly went, launching himself up into the air. His gun swiveled around on top of his trunk, doing a 360 of death. It swiveled around back to the front as he was mere feet away from a golem and shot rapid-fire, blasting away a rather large hole through it.

Wildrider skidded to a stop on the other side, slightly scuffed and scorched but nothing he could be bothered to care about. He took this moment to transform and make faces at the holey rock monster. He took stock of his current predicament and surroundings, holding his hands like a camera lens.

“Hmm...”

Oh, hey look. There was Runamuck being awesome. Why couldn't Breakdown or Deadend be more like that? Always so whiny and- Oh. Oh dear Primus. Yes. Yes please. Wildrider transformed and shot off toward a fire vortex, a rock lord slamming his fist down into the sand where he had just been moments before. The train of rock monsters lumbered after him, intent on his squished-ness.

Up ahead, a fire tornado loomed. Wildrider was headed directly for it. His wheels chewed up the ground beneath him. “Whooooooo!! YEEEEEEEEAHHH!!!” Wildrider vanished into the fire vortex only to swiftly pop out of the other side, and spin out into a donut to bring himself to a halt. Transforming, Wildrider did a victory dance as the rock lords lumbered into the fire tornado behind him, appearing on Wildrider's side as molten bits of earth which soon cooled and solidified into glass. The Stunticon popped off shots to shatter them as they appeared.

“Yeehah! Like shooting sharkticons in a barrel!”

Australia - Uluru

"Keep moving boys! These fraggin' golems reform! Don't waste your ammo and energon on them! We can outmaneuver them! We are going to take this scrap to the Fallen!" Motormaster ordered only to be essentially echoed by Wildrider.

>>"Deadend, Breakdown! C'mon ya exhaust pipe lickers! EYAHAHAHA!! Let's cook us some rock monsters, then smash them up!"<<

Well, Wildrider sure as hell was getting a kick out of this Doomsday nightmare. Dead End holstered his weapon back into subspace storage before dragging himself into shifting to his Porsche alternate mode and kicking up a cloud of dirt following his trail as he followed behind Breakdown. His vision drifted off to watch as his fellow Stunticon rocket himself through one of the fiery vortexes surrounding the Fallen's stand on the mountain top.

>>"Great idea, Wildrider. No, really it's a terrific plan. We should all drive through those fire tornadoes and just end it all, I've been thinking about doing it ever since we got here..."<< While Wildrider was dealing with the golems directly and Breakdown was trying to out maneuver some of the elemental birds flying overhead, Dead End found himself carelessly serving around the slower paced golems.

"C'mon... Do something..." the maroon Stunticon warrior whinned as he began drifting lazy donuts around the nearest Rock lord. The Rock lord tried chasing the direction of the Stunticon's path, only to find itself slowly spinning around in place. "Primus you're dumber than scrap..." Unleashing the tow cables he had used for Drag Strip's retrieval, Dead End fired the hooked cables towards the lumbering golem using his roof-mounted cannons, latching the tether around what looked to be the ankles of the elemental entity. Dead End continued to race around the rock lord, each pass he made shorting the length of his tow cable while also tightening the make-shift lasso he had wrapping around rocky creature's stumps for legs.

"Wow... I'm actually shocked I got away with doing that." The warrior stated in his usual deadpan tone, "You had several chances to swat me away and out of this hellish fight, but you let me go round, and round, and round..." Coming to a halt in the Australian outback, Dead End set his sights back towards Wildrider, who looked as though he was... Is that dancing? Is he seriously dancing on the other side of that fire tornado? "Oh you've got to be kidding me right now." Dead End nearly cursed as he sent his tires screeching off towards Wildrider's position, lugging the Golem behind him as it attempted to swing at the Stunticon, only to no anvil.

>>"Hey, Dancitron."<< Dead End began as he closed in on the terrorist's proximity. >>"...Catch."<< Dead End turned his wheels hard to the right, nearly tipping over the Maroon Porsche as he avoided the fiery blaze surrounding Ayers Rock. The golem, following the momentum of the turn, was tossed straight into the blaze. Dead End cut his cable-line just as the rock lord was flung into the tornado so that he wouldn't find himself catching on the elemental's oppositely propelling force and find himself being pulled along with it as it went sailing into its doom.

"Well I'll be damned..." Dead End murmured as he rolled out of his alternate mode and rose to his full height in his robot mode and began to feel the heat from the tornadoes clashing against his chassis.

"That was actually... Kinda funny. Heh."

Australia – South of Ayer's Rock

>>...Darkfire, If you need cover, call it, otherwise get out there and have some fun! Oh, and whoever gets the least kills has to cover Jaw's energon tab when we get back to the Thantos. Pew pew pew!!<<

>>”I heard you the first time,”<< Darkfire commed back sounding as grumpy as ever. The femme jet-former roared overheard as she surveyed the field below. Rock monsters everywhere! Seemed like a couple were being disposed of thought. The method involved a lot of heat generally.

Then, there were the fire birds that were causing her to constantly adjust course to avoid them and their fiery breath. No one seemed to know how to get rid of them. Wait. Someone on the summit of Ayer's Rock fired something bright down onto a stone golem. It had caught the attnetion of a fire bird, and the avian apparition nosedived to pursue it. The rock monster and the fire bird collided. Part of the golem had been turned into glass by the collision, and the pheonix had not rematerialized. Good to know.

Flicking by one of the fire birds, Darkfire drew its attention with certainty as she heard its screech and felt its flames licking her afterburners. Diving down at one of the rock monsters near Soundwave, Darkfire darted to the side and pulled up at the last possible moment. The fire bird crashed into the rock lord, turning part of it into glass as well.

>>”Fun enough for you, Psychout?”<< she asked as she took wing to the skies once more.


Blaster has been listening to a play list of some of his favorite kick-aft songs from Earth while also keeping tabs on Prowl and the rest of the goings-on. He backed a rock monster into one of the fire vortexes by shooting at its feet like Prowl had before him and watched it cook next to Prowl's rock monster kill. At some point, Warpath had bounced down and was now yelling into the trench where he and Prowl used to be.

“Warpath! Primus, it's great to see you!” Blaster called cheerfully.

“Thank Primus! It worked! Blaster, Eject, continue your assault on the others! Force them into the vortexes! I’ll be there in a moment to assist you!"

“Yeah, working on that Prowl!” Blaster yelled back to the black and white strategist, still firing away as the heat from the firenado warmed his metal plating. He was also multitasking by monitoring and securing confidential communications. Namely, ones between Prowl and Ultra Magnus. With Soundwave so near, he really had to be on the top of his game. So much for that morale boosting broadcast he'd planned.

"Soundwave Reporting. Security forces en-route to cover our location, but I will need the assistance of the Autobot's communications officer in order to amplify my telepathic abilities in order to isolate the mental state of the possessed Cavalier."

“What?” Blaster suddenly wheeled around as his long-time rival mentioned him assisting the Decepticon Communications Officer. “Amplify...” Blaster shook his head in disbelief and marched over to Soundwave's side. “Assist you how exactly? I don't possess your telepathic abilities, and I'm fairly certain it's not the same as boosting the frequency. Unless...”

Blaster trailed off into thought for a moment. He immediately began encrypting vast quantities of information in his own processor. If this was going where he suspected this was going, Blaster wanted Soundwave nowhere near the confidential information in his head. The Autobot CO wasn't even sure if Soundwave's powers worked like that, but it couldn't hurt to be certain. As he was doing that, he looked with narrowed optics to Soundwave. “Have you ever done something like this? Any precedents?”

To say that Blaster did not like the direction this conversation was going was an understatement. He respected Soundwave with a rare admiration as his competitor in the communications field. But as his rival, Blaster also felt a special kind of loathing toward the blue Decepticon. And...a strange kinship and camaraderie as well? Blaster couldn't quantify it nor did he care to. He had a fellow bot to save.

Hang in there, Hot Rod, Blaster thought, We're coming.


Steeljaw slunk up to Blaster's side with Ramhorn, both of whom were covered in scuffs and minor injuries from combat with the rock monsters. Ramhorn instantly charged at the first rock golem that came into view, keeping them from approaching Blaster. Steeljaw, on the other hand, padded quietly over to Eject who was being called over by some cassetticon that he didn't quite recognize.

“Eject,” Steeljaw said by way of greeting and watched the Decepticons around them apprehensively.


"That was too close!" Getaway exclaimed as he took the two other Autobots into a dug out trench. "Didja see that thing? Looked like a Mega-Constructicon!"

“You're telling me. How about we never antagonize the triple changers again?” Skids added. The theoretician peeked out of the trench to get another look at the giant Constructicon. Yep. That was terrifying. They needed one of those. His optics flicked up to the fire birds and rock monsters looming about the area. Skids ducked back into the trench and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

>>”Attention, everyone! This is Prowl! As you know by now these rock lords can reform no matter how many times we knock them down. Therefore, we must leave nothing left to reform. Our best option is to try and push them back towards the fire tornadoes and force them into those swirling infernos. With any luck, the intense hellfire will turn their sandstone bodies into solid glass! I don’t care how you all do it. Just work together and make it happen!"<<

"Well there's a thought." The escape artist commented as he looked over towards his fellow Corpsman, "Any idea how we should approach this?"

“Hmm...perhaps if we lured them toward the flame vortexes, then Chameleon can trip them...” Skids frowned as he tried to think of some better options. “Maybe...No...” Skids looked up at the fire birds in the sky. “If we could just get the fire birds to attack those rock lords, we could take down two birds with one stone...”

Australia Ulurha

War was a wonderful thing in Crueljaw's optics do what you want bust as many heads you want crappy living quarters and usually short lifespan's if you met a Dinobot on an energon rush. But the message from Psychout brought some elation to Crueljaw as he got to really let loose on the Stone Golems that where advancing on him.

His fiery sword was ablaze in his right hand as he retrieved his shotgun and placed it within his locker. Gladiator's had a certain style of fighting and when you where fighting superior numbers the best defence was to get in among them. With a roar Crueljaw took off at a sprint heading straight for Landgrab he took a small hop jump planted a foot on the larger mech's shoulder and pushed off. the resulting jump was higher than his usual jump "Bombshell's away" Was the battle cry as he hurtled towards the ground his arm swung in a large arc throwing out his remaining melta bombs from the St Hilary's job all with a few cycle count down.

"Watch out for the melta bombs Landgrab they will make a mess of your paint work worse than my foot"

Crueljaw gripped a golem that he'd landed next to by its centre mass and threw it towards the now exploding melta bombs.

>>Hey boss these fireworks are fun you going to give us a real challenge at somepoint?<<

Australia--Uluru

>>Landgrab, don't forget those scans. I'm calling in a specialist who may be able to help you.<<

Don't get blasted. Don't get stepped on. Don't get incinerated. Don't forget the scans, Landgrab thought to himself, sort of creating a mental checklist as he went along, while also trying to aid the Decepticon offensive in whatever way he could. Granted, it wasn't much.

>>"A specialist, you say? Why's he so special? A-ha ha. Ah hahaha."<<

...

I suck

Before he could even get an answer, Landgrab felt a small surge of pressure against his back and shoulder joints and figured he'd been a little too oblivious and that grim death now awaited him. But...no. It was just Crueljaw. Awesome.

"Watch out for the melta bombs Landgrab they will make a mess of your paint work worse than my foot," Crueljaw had said.

Landgrab didn't mutter a word of protest as he moved to put some additional distance between himself and the rock golems before-

*KLAPA-CHOW!!!!!!!!!!~*

-before finding himself covered in dust and rocky debris. He tried to wipe some of the grit away, but wasn't having much luck rubbing metallic compounds against other metallic compounds. He'd have to go for a wash if he survived this thing.

Oh! Scans...

"Hey 'Jaws, I gotta go head towards the big, green thing t'try and get a better look!" he said, before dashing off.

Australia--Uluru-Top of Ayer's Rock

A blast from above rocked the surface near where Onslaught was standing, sending him staggering back further. He looked up to see Divebomb soaring past, a pair of firebirds seemingly in his line of sight.

>>"Careful, bird. I should be an easy target to avoid,"<< the Combaticon Commander transmitted to the Predacon Aerial Assault Specialist. He did not have to wait very long at all before a response came back.

>>"And you, master Combaticon, should be careful of your tone. The Predacons are the chief warlords of the Cause now."<<

And so it begins, Onslaught thought ruefully.

>>"Swindle here, Onslaught. I think someone already found and got Blast-Off to safety. Now what?"<<

>>I want a visual confirmation on that, Swindle. More importantly, I want to be assured he is not being tinkered with by some Autobot quack. Find him."<<
___

No sooner had the small cache of weapons materialized on the top of Ayer's Rock than Sandstorm's optics widened. New goodies. Sweet.

"Dibs!"

Sandstorm broke away from Magnus and co. as he caught sight of one of the firebirds bearing down on his position. Diving for the weapon, the firebird began to blast the terrain behind him. Sandstorm had no idea what the gun did, but it had a trigger. He would figure out the rest when he fired it.

Blasting upward, the firebird that had circled back on him soon found itself encapsulated in an instantaneous ice field. No. Even better. Turned into ice. It dropped to the ground like one of those rock golems and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

And these ones weren't coming back together.

"Ohhhhh yes. I love you," Sandstorm said, kissing the weapon before taking aim at the sky again and finding the next firebird. Blast. Crash. Repeat.

Australia – Ayers Rock

"Slacking again?

Brawl was seeing red. Not only he was humiliated by being unable to damage the Fallen despite all of his firepower - he had also fell into a thrice damned fissure in the summit of Ayers Rock. As if he was like some wet behind the ears rookie, like he had heard humans say in one of the fleshings' war movies he had found himself watching during his spare time.

”#%¤& you boss!” The Combaticon bruiser growled while giving Onslaught a substantial help in pulling himself out of the fissure. ”This is like trying to punch through a Metroplex's forcefields with a slagging laser pistol!”

KA-ZAAAM! Another volley of electricity charged at Fallen's from Brawl's electron gun with no visible effect. ”Aaaargh! If there ever was time for one of Swindle's contraband experimental weapons I'd say this was it boss!”



“Sheeaaaaaargh!” Headstrong screamed in agony as he fell a victim of a dark energy blast the Fallen had fired towards the Predacons. He was not quick enough to evade energy blasts. In normal circumstances his sheer toughness made up for such minor flaws in one's design but there was nothing normal about this.

The pain was unrelenting, quite like nothing the Predacon had ever experienced. And he had been mutilated, skewered and blasted apart more times than he cared to admit during the countless vorns of battles he had actively sought to be part of. Headstrong felt his whole body to momentarily black out and that was all it took - for maintaining his position in the air had suddenly became impossible.

With a loud clang, Headstrong's limp body hit the facade of Uluru twice before rolling into the base of the ages old monument of nature.

Australia—Uluru

*BAMF*

A blacked-out boxcar ambulance appeared behind a bunch of rocks and screeched to an abrupt halt. “What. In. The. PIT??!” Mal Practice; specialist field surgeon, evil engineer and firm believer in ‘ethics-free scientific testing’ was actually speechless at the chaos he was witnessing. Autobots and Decepticons fighting alongside each other against flaming eagles and stone automatons? Through the dust could he could make out the giant pillars of fire and the brawling group of suicide types atop the giant rock, many of which he recognised from his old red-badge days. And then he saw Devastator...
He scanned for Psychout in amongst the carnage, but the dust was too thick, so he set of towards the green behemoth.

>>>Psych, I’m here. You didn’t tell it was this crazy! Where are you, and where do you need me?<<<



From his perch on top of a rock by Soundwave, and still awaiting a reply from Eject, the cassetticon Psychout had begun to take out the targets with depleted uranium applied liberally to the face, and was getting quite into the battle when Mal’s message finally arrived.

>>>About time, where in the slag have you been?! Get up front and support Landgrab. I’ve sent him up to use his medical scanners on that Constructicon Maximus thing over there. Go and make sure he doesn’t get trodden on, and see what else you can get from it. ‘Jaws will try and cover you both whilst Darkfire and I stay here. Oh, and don’t bother with your rifle, these things need to be frozen to glass or melted to kill them. They’re persistent but stupid, and I doubt they can dent your solid aft.<<<

Psychout turned back to the battle and watched as his team laid waste to the creatures approaching, and chuckled to himself. He’d not had a team like this since the Seeker incident, and it was good to be among people he could trust. He glanced up at Darkfire, a modified seeker but still a member of the team. Oh, he’ll still make them all pay for what they did, but there was something about her that set her apart from her kind, though he had no idea what it was yet. He’d work it out eventually, for now they had a job to do...

Eject still floundering, clearly he wasnt used to having questions asked of him, Psychout had a quick look around for targets. It was pretty clear by the bunker with Prowl, Blaster and Warpath also clearing a space so he zeroed back in on Landgrab and melted another golem with a high-speed radiation facemask delivered at 3000ft/s before it could attack the big guy.

>>>Go for it ‘Grabbers, we’ve got you covered. Don’t forget the rifle Jaws gave you! Mal Practice will be along with you shortly, just you wait ‘til you see what he can do...<<<

Australia – Top of Ayer's Rock

"AARRRRRGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Shrieked Warwolf in pain as Flamewar lopped off her former pupil's arm and tossed it aside. The screams of a fellow Decepticon were never ones that she wished to hear. And especially not those of her former student Warwolf. "Argh...Wha-What are we to do now?" He asked looking up to Flamewar, grunting in pain as he slowly tried to rise to his feet.

“Focus our attacks elsewhere. We're not even phasing him,” Flamewar answered offering Warwolf a hand up. Of course, as if everything else weren't enough, the Fallen actually summoned more atronachs to fight for him. This time, they took the form of flaming avian creatures. Her optics narrowed.

Whipping out her fusion crossbow, she fired off an energy bolt into one of the fire birds only to see that it had little to no effect other than draining her energon reserves slightly. “Tch,” Flamewar's optics darted about to assess the situation. Much of the top of Ayer's Rock was cracked with fissures, some almost reaching their position.

Reaching into her subspace storage on her hip, Flamewar drew out a specialized bolt from her store and set it onto her crossbow. She looked over to Warwolf, still holding out her hand to help him up, then back to a fire bird that seemed to have them in its sights. “Go on and get medical attention. Once you're patched up, deal with the rock things and fire birds however you can, understood?”

Lifting up her crossbow, she aimed for the flaming eagle and pulled the trigger, sending her bolt tearing through the air toward it. It opened its beak and exhaled a tongue of flame. The bolt exploded in a white hazy mist as it enveloped the fire bird, freezing it in midair. It fell earthward and shattered upon impact. Flamewar watched it to see if it would reform. When it showed no signs of doing so, the black operative relaxed fractionally.

“I don't have very many of those. Come, Warwolf,” Flamewar said, turning back to her former student with her hand still extended.


“Point made, Weirdwolf," the Predacon lord replied with a nod as the wolf-former took aim at a golem and fired. The resulting light burst drew the attention of a fire bird which then dove down and slammed into the stone warrior, transforming part of it into glass. “Excellent idea, Weirdwolf. If only all of my warriors could think out of the box like you."

“Idea? The only thing to do it was,” Weirdwolf replied in a very matter-of-the-fact tone, before it struck him that he might have come across ungrateful. “Thank you still I must king of beasts,” he added as he watched the feline warlord disperse but not dispose of another of the rather pesky fire birds.

“I already have another option available to us. It’s a last resort. Right now, the Thanatos is maneuvering into position directly overhead. If all else fails I will order us all out of harm’s way and direct an orbital strike from the warship’s primary weapons array. The Thanatos is far more powerful than anything we have in our personal arsenals. The Fallen’s shield should finally crack under its intensity. Thus, we will obliterate this entire area, taking out the Fallen for good....and maybe, if we’re lucky, some of the Autobots, as well."

“Think you not the Autobots have considered a similar measure?” Weirdwolf asked of Razorclaw as he fired his photon pistol at a few more rock golems, attempting to draw the ire of some of the fire birds. “Should...? Uncertainty lingers still. Methods conventional to us have had little effect. Changed what has that a bigger bang should do better what we could not accomplish together?”

“YOU ARE NOTHING BEFORE DEVASTATOR!!!"

Weirdwolf looked off in the direction of Devastator who seemed to be somewhere near the southern base of the mountain, judging by the acoustics. Ah, yes. There stood the green and purple gestalt. The sight struck a chord within the lupine thespian. Hope? Perhaps yes. It was such a reassuring thing to see that five Decepticons had rise up together to stop this flaming force of destruction. Razorclaw, however, seemed to feel differently.

“Seems Scrapper has been hiding a few things from me this whole time," the Predacon Commander growled under his breath.

“Hrm...” Weirdwolf rumbled thoughtfully. “Leadership was only very recently won, my lord. The possibility exists an asset they are indeed meant to be. In any case, a gift now they are we in no position to spurn are.” As Razorclaw launched himself into the air, so did Weirdwolf, firing a barrage of missiles to dissipate the phoenixes while firing off his photon pistol to drew the reconstitutes birds away and down into the sandstorm.

>>”Skullcruncher! Melted by the flaming vortexes were you? Or perhaps fate otherwise cruel befell you. If not, then a space slug have you for a alternate mode, clearly,”<< Weirdwolf griped at his long-time friend and comrade.