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Area 51

With Runabout and Runamuck secured, Blitzing transformed into his MiG-25 form and blasted off, heading towards the rally-point that Megatron had provided for them to fall back to. Blitzwing traveled with ease across the open sky, he had suffered almost no damage, but entered rather late into the battle.

Area 51

Blaster had been listening in, calculating his location to that of the wounded Autobots. Blaster was closing in on Aftershot’s last known position; finally he located the damaged Autobot and reported back to base.

“This is Blaster I got Aftershot and we are jamming out, over.”

Blaster said to let them know that he had found Aftershot, leaning down blaster picked Aftershot up and hoisted him over his shoulder. “You need to tone it down on the energon cookies.” Blaster said as he started to carry Aftershot on his shoulders towards the retreat position.

Approaching Autobot Rendezvous Point

Smokescreen made his way slowly across the desert landscape towards the rendezvous point. He was still in race car mode, unable to achieve more than a meak hobble on his damaged legs, and that wouldn’t get him anywhere fast. He was already frustrated with the slow speed he was forced to go now in order to conserve what little energon he had left. The Autobot racer wanted to speed along the open road in front of him, but he couldn’t risk stasis lock, not while there were still Decepticons in the area that could pick him off at a moment’s notice.

As he continued forward, Smokescreen began thinking about doing a cosmetic upgrade on his appearance when he returned to base. He had been considering it for several cycles now, ever since his fight with the battle chargers. After seeing how fast they switched modes, Smokey was looking specifically to shorten his transformation process. He also wanted to streamline and improve the design of his overall frame, making himself faster and more efficient. He loved his 350z alt mode. It was a great little race car, and it had always surprised him that the humans could build such a cool vehicle. However, there was still room for improvement. The CR chamber could do the modifications he wanted, but it would need to be programed with the specifications beforehand.

Arriving at the rendezvous point, Smokescreen transformed to robot mode and sat back against a nearby rock. As he waited for the others, some of whom were already approaching, Smokey pulled out a datapad and quickly began working on his new body design.

Approaching Decepticon Rendezvous Point

Skywarp listened as Thundercracker spoke. In all fairness, his seeker friend made some good points. Skywarp was more than capable of out flying and overpowering the Autobot flyer. But ‘Warp had underestimated his opponent and had become too cocky during the battle. Worse yet, he hadn’t learned from his initial mistakes after he first crashed out in the desert canyon. ‘Warp continued to be careless and reckless. But he wasn’t about to admit any of that to Thundercracker.

“Ahh, Aftershot just got lucky, ‘Cracker,” Skywarp responded, a bit annoyed. “I hit him plenty of times. The fragger just kept on coming. Like you said, he’s resilient.” Warp paused a moment before continuing. “And besides, I’m a bit rusty you know. Haven’t been in a proper air fight in a while. Stuck inside too much. I’ll tell you one thing, though. The next time me and that Autobot flier meet, the battle will end very differently. I’ll be better prepared. It won’t be me that goes down. It’ll be him that ends up full of holes.”

Area 51

Sludge didn’t understand Snarl’s sudden hostility towards their commander. Sure Grimlock was a tough mech to work for, but that’s what made him a strong leader. He expected you to pull your own weight, especially in battle, and he didn’t tolerate mistakes or weakness. Regardless, Grimlock was always dedicated to the other Dinobots even when he came off as arrogant or uncaring. Showing emotion was not something Grimlock excelled in, but that was also true for all the Dinobots.

“Hmmm, Snarl seems mad at you,” the Jungle Warrior said as he kept the Dinobot Commander from collapsing. “Him get over it.” It quickly became apparent that Grimlock would not be walking off this battlefield under his own power. He was far too weak and appeared to be on the verge of falling into stasis lock again. “You don’t look good, boss. I carry you from here.”

Having regained full motion in both arms, Sludge easily lifted Grimlock up and slung him over his shoulder. The Jungle Warrior slowly plodded forward. The extra weight made him slower than usual. After a few steps, Sludge stopped and looked around, puzzled. “Wait, which way we go?” The Dinobot said, as he caught sight of other Autobots heading off in one direction. “Hmm, I just follow them.”

Decepticon Rendezvous Point

Megatron and Soundwave landed at the rendezvous point in short order. The Decepticon leader took the opportunity to examine his troops as they arrived. They quickly arrived after he did in varying states of disrepair. There were some in stasis lock but the majority appeared to still be active. The battle had not gone according to plan, but it had gone well enough. The human base had been destroyed and most if not all trace of their presence on this world had been erased. A few human witnesses might have escaped, but it was of little importance.

He looked over at the stasis locked form of Shockwave. That had been the real prize of this mission. What exactly the long lost Decepticon scientist had been doing on this planet was a question he very much looked forward to having answered. It would have to wait until he was fully repaired though. The humans had done considerable damage to him, more so than they had done to the Dinobots.

The Decepticon clenched his fist. It truly would have been a great victory if they had been able to eliminate or capture the deactivated Dinobots. The Autobots had moved too quickly though and reactivated them. Their reactivation had forced his hand in calling down the Predacons and largely stalemated the battle. A full victory had been within their grasp and then slipped away. He would account for the presence of Grimlock and his team in any future plans.

With another quick glance around Megatron confirmed that all of the Decepticons were present. He nodded at Soundwave and the other Decepticon sent the recall order to the ship in orbit. The Decepticons teleported away in a flash of light.

OOC: All Decepticons who were in this thread can now move to the Decepticon base thread, even if they did not post their arrival at the rendezvous point. Just assume they made it there and were teleported with the rest of them.

Area 51

After getting the message from Blaster about Aftershot and seeing that Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were able to get the help they needed, Wheeljack decided it was time to take stock of the situation. He knew many of the other Autobots in the field were busy helping recover the wounded, including Optimus Prime, and with the human strike force inbound time was running out. The engineer knew someone had to start coordinating the situation given that Prime was presently occupied dragging the still stasis locked Slag to the extraction point. Wheeljack opened up a wide beam com signal so all the Autobot's in the field could hear him.

>>"Attention all Autobots, this is Wheeljack. By my calculations we have about a breem before the human strike force reaches our location, we need to go to the extraction point now. By my understand all wounded have been recovered, if not sound off and give us your location if you can. If not any 'Bot who has seen a wounded comrade yet to be recovered report his position now. If not head to the extraction point."<< After that was done he opened up a private signal to Prime. >>"Sorry Optimus if you feel that undermined your authority, but I figured we were running out of time and that someone had to act so we could get out of here."<<

Wheeljack then turned to Prowl.

"Alright, lets help Sunstreaker and Sideswipe and lets get the frag out of here!"

The engineer then made his way over to the stasis locked Sunstreaker and bent down to pick him up. Give his condition he was going to have to be carried out of the area.

Area 51

Swoop's grip tightened on his sword as he felt it clash with the blade of Divebomb. He could feel the rising heat from its tip, the hum of energy as it grew hotter and hotter. He stared into the face of his adversary, seething with rage and contempt for him. In his optics there was only raw, vengeful anger. Then, a sudden pause, as Divebomb became distracted by something. The Predacon then pushed him away, signaling his retreat from the battle.

"What?! No! You can't," Swoop retorted, but was instead met with several blasts from Divebomb's laser rifle. He took a shot to the chest before he began to plummet through the air. Gathering his wits, he transformed back to his dinosaur form and quickly regained his place in the sky. He watched as the Predacon flew off far into the distance, back to the rest of his sorry ilk. The pterosaur let out a loud, blood-curling screech in defiance, for all that he could do.

The Dinobot eventually made his way down to the ground, close to both Grimlock and Sludge. Not taking any notice of them at first, he gripped his sword in hand and brought it down with a forceful swing to the ground. He grit his teeth enraged, having been denied a chance to redeem himself, and take his justice out upon the one who wronged him so long ago.

"Divebomb, one day you won't run from me, and on that day, I swear I'll have your head." He said to himself grimly.

The Dinobot picked himself from up off the ground, having just then registered the message put out to Autobots in the field. Taking in his surroundings he saw Sludge struggling to help Grimlock across the battlefield. Sheathing his sword and his attitude, he walked over to the two, offering to Sludge,

"Come on, let me help you with him. You can't do all the heavy lifting."

Autobot Rendezvous Point

As Smokescreen waited at the rendezvous point, he began to reflect on the day’s battle. Overall, it had gone well for the Autobots, if not for the poor humans whose base was now laid to waste. Even though the battle had ended in a virtual stalemate, the Aubobots managed to recover the long lost Dinobots, adding a much needed strength to their ranks. Likewise, however, the Decepticons had apparently recovered one of their own in the form of Shockwave. The one-eyed scientist was a force to be reckoned with for sure. He would certainly spell certain trouble for the Autobots in the future.

Smokescreen, himself, had not done too badly in battle, either, especially for a mech with limited strength. With the help of Aftershot and Trailbreaker, Smokey had managed to take down Astrotrain with a shot to the faceplate, but not before Smokey’s legs were partially crushed by a large boulder. The red and blue racer had also knocked one of the battle chargers into stasis lock before the other one struck back. The diversion expert ended up falling down into the crater, effectively ending his participation in the fight. All in all, Smokescreen had certainly taken a beating, but he was fortunately still functioning. The same couldn’t be said for some of the others.

Smokey looked down at his datapad where he had begun sketching out a cosmetic upgrade to his appearance. It seemed rather trivial now, considering what many of the others had gone through and sacrificed. Some of the Autobots were currently trapped in stasis lock and would require far more than just an upgrade. Who do I think I am? Sunstreaker? The diversion expert thought. Most would expect the golden twin to be overly concerned with his outward appearance, but not Smokey. He was never one to care about that sort of thing. Besides, now was not the time to think about an upgrade. Perhaps later he would revisit the idea. For now it was time to think about the others who were in worse shape than himself.

Smokescreen then received Wheeljack's transmission. Shutting off his datapad and putting it away, he opened a comm link to the inventor:

>>Wheeljack, this is Smokescreen. I'm at the revdezvnous point. I didn't see any other wounded Autobots on my way here that weren't already being taken care of. Unfortunately, in my condition, I wouldn't have been much help anyway. Over.<<

*********

Sludge plodded towards the rendezvous point with Grimlock over one shoulder. The extra weight was beginning to take a toll on the Jungle Warrior, his feet sinking deeper and deeper into the sand as he went. He normally wouldn’t have a problem with carrying a large mech like Grimlock, but Sludge’s energon levels were lower than normal and making it increasingly hard for him to continue on.

It was then that Swoop arrived and offered to help carry the Dinobot Commander. Relieved, Sludge looked at his comrade and smiled. “Thank you, Swoop. At least you still care.” Sludge carefully laid Grimlock down on the ground and pointed at his legs. “Grab his feet, Swoop. Me got this end.” Sludge then took a hold of his leader by both shoulders and lifted his upper body back up. He then continued forward, hoping that the rendezvous point was not much farther.

(OOC: I modified my post slightly for content.)

Area 51

Prowl lsitneed ot Wheeljack give instrucitions and apologize to Optimus. He honestly knew Prime well enough to know that an apology was not necessary. Optimus would know Wheeljack was only trying to help coordinate. He always felt good communication was key to teamwork, especially in recovery situations where coordination between team members was a necessity to locate and extract downed Autobots. Only a Deception would take such offense to subbordinates giving out orders and the result was usually a brawl, or termination, depending on the Decepticon.

"I wouldn't bother with the apology Wheeljack. If I was more knowledgeable about the overall situation here, I'd probably have done the same thing." he exclaimed.

He grabbed the other arm of the downed Sunstreaker and helped Wheeljack hoist him up. "No problem." he said, despite sensing the irrationality of what he was doing. Now he had an Autobot and a half to carry all the way back, which would slow their walk even more. And worse, the added weight was slightly stressing his frame.

He was rarely ever one to complain. In fact, he could not even process the last time he had actually complained about something. But in a rare moment of wishful thinking he thought "If we only had somoene who could transport our wounded for us." But he kept his thoughts to himself, maintaining his composure as the two active and two inactive Autobots made their way towards the rendevouse point.

Autobot Rendezvous Point

It had taken some time for the Autobot Leader to make it to the designated point; having Slag in tow made it somewhat difficult to move swiftly. He grunted slightly as he lowered the Dinobot to the ground. Prime straightened and watched as his team came together at the desired meeting point.

They arrived with wounded in tow and once they stopped near Prime they each placed the wounded on the ground. Once they had all shown up Prime nodded and sent a recall order to the Base. In a flash of light the entire group of Autobots and recovered Dinobots disappeared.

(OOC: All Autobots located in the Battle can now post in the Base thread even if you didn’t post your arrival at the rendezvous point, just assume they teleported with the rest of the team.)