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Shuttle Dauntless

Slag already was unfond of Swoop's piloting style after the flight from Iacon through acidstorms, and the rushed takeoff from Nova Cronum. The thought of actual combat manuvering at the hands of the smallest Dynobot wasn't something he was looking forward to. Better stop this quick before Swoop gets ideas about showing off.

"Come on, Swoop, it only one seeker! Can't be that hard!!" Slag hunted across the bridge dashboard, looking for weapons and testing buttons he couldn't figure out the functions of. After turning on and off the IR sensors 3 times and accidentally launching flares out the aft of the shuttle towards Shrike, he managed to find a turret-mounted autogun.

Pretty weedy, Swoops keeping all the good guns for himself, the glitch. Still, Slag grabbed the stick and began firing wild bursts at Silverstrike, using the stream of tracers to aim rather than the obvious targeting reticule beside the controls. Hardly an effective use of weaponry, but Slag counted the noise and recoil of the gun as signs of effectiveness as much as any hits scored.

OOC: Niether of those are truly serious attacks.

Uraya - Skies

Triggerhappy transformed and followed after Shrike in his aerial mode. Watching as the Dauntless opened fire at Silverstrike.
Watching the Dauntless's weapon as if Triggerhappy's own life depended on it, Triggerhappy took aim at it and opened fire. Scoring a couple of hits that chances are did no damage at all. Each time Triggerhappy took the data he received back from the attack, and carefully analysed it. Taking particular care to fire at different parts of the autogun, testing for where a weak spot could be found. Assuming it could be found...

Uraya - The Dauntless

"Ha! You Slag no have good aim. Me hit Decepticon more times if me were throwing rocks!" Sludge said to Slag, part joking, part trying to anger him. Although this seemed like the typical behaviour shown by the Dinoboots. There was actually some thought behind his quip. By angering Slag, Sludge hoped to improve the Dinobots aim, knowing how much Slag hated being mocked. Of course, Slag may just turn around and hit Sludge...
"Me Sludge show you how it done." And with that, Sludge got his own weapon out, holding it in one hand, and made a fist with the other. Turning towards the side of the Dauntless,Sludge raised his fist and was about to hit the ship when Ironhide cried out.

"Woah! Sludge, what are you doing!" Ironhide bellowed.

"Me Sludge make hole in ship for more to shoot out of. How else we hit Decepticon?"

Ironhide turned to a vacant autogun and pointed at it.
"With these." He replied. Watching as Sludge reluctantly headed over to the autogun and started firing at the Decepticon. Adopting pretty much the same method as Slag as he did so.

"That's more like it." Ironhide said, as he too headed over to an autogun and as he took aim, looked over to Kup. "Just like old times, right Kup?" Ironhide said smiling.

Shuttle Dauntless

Ah, finally some action, Snarl thought to himself as he headed over to an autogun. He grabbed the controls and took careful aim at the seeker. Unlike his Dinobot comrades Slag and Sludge, Snarl intended to make his shots count. Snarl opened fire on the shiny 'con with a barrage of laser blasts that seemed to annoy Silverstrike if nothing else. Some of his shots seemed to bounce off the seeker, causing little to no damage that Snarl could ascertain. Most of his shots missed Silver, but not because Snarl was a bad shot, but because the seeker was just too quick and agile.

"Me, Snarl, having tough time hitting seeker. It too fast." But Snarl refused to give up. The Dinobot continued firing as fast as he could, round after round. This is what he lived for. This is what he enjoyed doing more than anything. The heat of battle was his best friend, and Snarl would not give up until the seeker was a pile of melted scrap. "Die, Decepticon! DIE!!!"

Ruins of the Crystal City

As Silverstrike and Shrike began their attacks runs against the Lightning Strike Coalition's shuttle, Weirdwolf knew it was going to be only a short time before the Autobots were on the ground, one way or another. He made ready to receive them. A welcome warm receive shall they!

"Mindwipe brother my," he snarled cheerily, "hunting good may the Ultimate Warrior to you grant. Go I to encircle enemies ours."

With that, the tracker transformed into wolf-beast mode and loped off to find his ambush point within the Ruins.



Shuttle Dauntless

"Easy on the ammo, kid," Kup told Snarl as the Dynobot pumped round after round into the air above Uraya. "There might be more than two of 'em."

He glanced at a nearby scanner as the Lightning Strike Coalition's shuttle moved deeper into Uraya. There's gotta be more than two. The 'Cons aren't gonna waste their time and resources throwing two measly Seekers at an assault shuttle.

The fact that the scanners had not yet detected the others worried the old warhorse. I've got a bad feeling about this...



Tagan-Uraya Border

Rumbling along on six Cybertronium-belted tires, Roadblock's Pretender shell made excellent time as it roared into Uraya toward the location of Clench's team. Its powerful scanners watched as an Autobot assault shuttle - no doubt the shuttle carrying Grimlock and his Lightning Strike Coalition - was dogged by the two flyers that had been assigned to the Decepticon ambush team.

Can't wait ta try this mess 'gainst some real warriors...

The skies of Uraya

She watched the flares fly from the rear of the craft. Flares? Why? They look like anti-heat Seekers instead of signal flares. I shouldn't be giving them a missile lock warning as I'm not locked on. If they're such a super team of Autobots, it's certainly not an S.O.S. But I can't let them throw off my mission what ever their meaning. An articulation of a thruster and her shield side is presented to the flares, deflecting them away from her via her mild barrel roll as she closes in on the ship from below.

Her assault mode limbs spread as if to give the Dauntless a bite, then she sinks their super heated blades into the armor like a set of great fangs. Or perhaps like the talons of a bird of prey seeking to secure the victim for death.

She latches on keeping her shield facing the nose of the ship. They might be on to her, and unable to do anything about it for the time being besides lob flares at her. If they somehow manage to shoot at her, her shield will let her weather some of the assault, and hopefully buy her needed time to initiate phase two of her plan.

With three limbs securing her to the ship, the 4th begins cutting a 3ft-ish round hole in the hull under the engine area like a surgeon. It's not large enough for her to fit through, but she doesn't want to enter the ship, and even if she tried the engines are blocking the way. No she wants to shoot through the armor after capping the hole with her 580mm beam cannon.

As far as she's concerned, there's nothing the Autobots can do to stop her now short of landing, climbing out, and shooting at her even if she is detected some how (Though she may be wrong.). A detection likely from sound, by a damage report, or those IR Sensors might give her away if the heat of the engines don't help provide cover.
Even if they do land, she'll likely provide excellent decoy maneuvers as she plans to keep firing on their engines making sure they're disabled.

It's rare she gets to flex her versatility, and use a more stealth based plan. She savors this opportunity to show the Decepticons her meddle.

Hopefully her fellow femme could hold out against the assault of the ship until she completes her mission. There isn't much she can do to help Silver out without jeopardizing her own mission.

Ahead of Shuttle Dauntless

The Silver femme held her speed, allowing the dauntless to edge closer putting her in weapons range. Now was her time to “shine” so to speak.

~Let’s see what this pilot’s made of.~

Silver knew of very few pilots that could handle a ship well enough to keep up with her, one of those pilots had graduated with her from space flight academy. She highly doubted this autobot scraplet was anywhere near as good as Divebomb, but she would let him think he was.

Suddenly the Dauntless opened fire, the silver femme banked to avoid the ill-aimed blasts. She twirled like a dancer, her jet form flashing under the laser light. Her armor was no better than that of the average con and she would not be able to withstand a direct hit, but she needed to make the chase worthwhile. As she spun she purposely allowed one of the rounds to graze her. Causing her unique coating to smoke excessively, using this show of “smoke and mirrors” the argent femme began to feign injury. The grace of her flight exploded into an erratic and frantic pattern as she purposely let her distress signal blare allowing the dauntless to pick up its transmission. She had confidence her own team would figure out her signal was a decoy and not attempt to help her. Silverstrike slowed further and a ripple went through her coating as her hull changed to its flux state. Silently she prepared to use her custom crated engines.

The skies of Uraya

Realising his attack on the auto turret wasn't working, Triggerhappy reobserved his surroundings. Silverstrike was doing her job, as was Shrike, Triggerhappy however, was proving less effective in his attempts to down the ship. Triggerhappy flew over to where Shrike was and transformed into robot mode, making sure he kept his jets working at sufficient power to keep him on the ship, but not too much to overload them.

"Need any assistance?" Triggerhappy asked Shrike, every part of his body willing himself to throw in some snide remark about... well anything. But he couldn't.

The Dauntless

Ironhide watched, perplexed as the Decepticon who had been firing at the auto turrets broke off his attack. And flew away from the turret.

"Strange..." Ironhide said out loud as he swivelled the auto gun around to follow where the Decepticon had flown off to, and almost immediately wished that he hadn't. "Ah frag!" He cried out loud in frustration. "Guys, we've got a problem... or two rather. That femme we've been shooting at, she's the least of our worries, there's two more of them trying to take our engines out!"

Shuttle Dauntless - Bridge

"Slag got it! Slag got it!" Slag shouted as the Silver Seeker began to smoke. True, you would think that hitting it with solid shot wouldn't give an effect so like a laser burn, but Slag never really learned to appreciate the ins and outs of ballistics. The important thing was that he'd fired the most shots, so it was only logical that he'd made the hit.
With the ammo indicator turning from green to yellow, Slag kept up the volley of slugs, wishing the Seeker wasn't acting so erratically. Then Ironhide began shouting back into the Bridge. "What that you say Red? Me Slag no hear you over sound of Me Slag winning war."

The skies of Uraya- Latched to the belly of the Dauntless at the aft section below the engines

What a happy little surprise! Shut down sarcasm processor. TriggerHappy needs lessons in being a flyer! Annoyance peaked, her combat computer starts compiling various small scale scenarios, then she speaks.
"Idiot! You're blowing my cover!" She growls out vocally even in her alt mode. "Didn't you notice the Autobots -not- shooting at me while I damage their ship?" She feels like she's pointing out the obvious.
What kind of flyer doesn't know the basics of dogfighting? You get behind the enemy, you shoot them from behind. You tend to win that way.
After what felt like forever for Shrike, she speaks again an astrosecond later. "Make sure none of the Autobots, or turrets shoot at me while I destroy their engines! I don't care if you have to tear the turrets from the ship with your bare hands!"

I knew this one would be trouble. Almost makes me wish I were ambitious and sought promotions so I can speak out my plans. Augh, what am I talking about? I told him to hit the Autobot Gunship from above! Not to check up on me and see if I need help and blow my cover! Did I not tell him I would be using stealth?! We had a plan... If it isn't for the fact that she is busy she would have rolled her optics.

She finishes peeling away a chunk of armor from the Dauntless, then Shrike repositions herself on the hull until her beam cannon is covering the hole in the gunship's armor.

From Pit's heart, I stab at thee!!! she muses to herself as she vents some anger. It's all too late for you, Autobots! The Beam cannon starts a brief charge, whirring with increasing pitch. Energy seems to be sucked from the air as a crown of energy spines form around the emitter.

Even though 580mm Beam cannon is relatively small, being less than 3 ft in diameter, and no longer than her abdomen, it's packs a wallop! An 8 second duration beam some 10 feet wide with a range of 2 miles is produced by her armor destroying weapon every time it fires.
Still, it has a downside. Shrike only has 4 rounds of fire with this weapon, so you can bet your butt-plate she'll make good use of them!

Speaking of her making good use of them..

BaaaWWWWWUUUNNNNNNN!!!!!! The sound of the beam being unleashed overwhelms nearby audio receptors as she fires point blank into the mechanics of the engine using the full force of her 'bot obliterating artillery cannon!

She angles her shot after blasting the sag out of the engine directly in front of her using the 4 other seconds to try and slice into the rest of the engine machinery maximizing damage done to the entire section.

The beam cannon's 8 second roar is music to Shrike's audio receptors as the blast funnels into the Dauntless through the hole in the armor like a giant plasma drill, punishing the engines with huge amounts of ferocity!
There's little doubt that the beam cannon's blast can be felt across the ship, and the damage done can be seen on the top of the Autobot ship, if the beam doesn't erupt through the top of the Autobot craft altogether.

That same sound of her beam cannon as it fires is likely in the key of -death- to the Autobots, especially when the source is so close to their ship followed by the damage from the blast.

I love my job. she thinks to herself as she eagerly awaits the end result of her assault since despite her potent weapon, she doesn't know how much damage it'll do, but her mission was a success in getting to this point.
Shrike can only hope at least one engine was disabled due to the unprotected, point blank shot through the hole she cut through the armor. Maybe one shot would be all she needs to destroy their engines, but if not, she can always adjust her angle, and fire again!
I'll destroy them all!

As she waits, she watches 1 of the 4 bars on her HUD empties denoting 1 of her 4 beam cannon's rounds expended, and she waits for the next round to ready, and the emitter to cool, or to release herself from the Dauntless should it start going down so she isn't crushed as it smashes into Cybertron like a brick.

All the while her combat computer gathers data on everything that happens to use for future battles.


In the back of her mind, she hopes to prove Clench wrong about her. It was a slap at her pride as a professional when he said she lacked the firepower to down the Autobot ship. That basically meant she couldn't do it as far as most of the less tactical Decepticons went. That she is a gnat in front of the ship's advantages unable to think towards the weaknesses of the large ship. Maybe this would show she is not a 'con to be underestimated?
She might not have the firepower to down the massive craft in a slug fest of a dog fight, but she doesn't usually slug things out. She likes striking with precision, and maximizing her destruction as opposed to pummeling a target into submission like a brute, and here she is doing something unexpected, and crazy.

Speed, and Violence of action! Wreak chaos among the enemy! That's her methodology. She yearns to feel the thrill of seeing wide eyed bots praying to what ever god they held dear for a deux ex machina as they realize they had underestimated her and stared deactivation in her face because of it. That thrill is even better than killing.

She can imagine the chaos now.
Klaxons are likely sounding around the Autobots, red lights a plenty reading large scale damage to the aft of the ship, and less professional 'bots are in a panic, with oil, and coolant dribbling down their legs.

Oh yes, if she dented their morale with the sudden assault, all the better! They will fight with the fear that a phantom menace could strike at them again! Ah, what she won't give to see the looks on their faces as they realize that the Decepticons have someone intelligent on their side.

Unlike in peace time when her mind is seemingly ever consumed with acquiring more power, now her thoughts are in another gear, and her desires are altered as glory, and the success of her mission now lie ahead. A harvest of pleasure awaits reaping as battle lies ahead.

Hopefully her fellow femme can hold out against the assault of the ship until she completes her mission. There isn't much she can do to help Silver out without jeopardizing her own mission.
Even more hopes are in Shrike's mind. Chiefly that the Autobot ship will crash in a good position, the Autobots will loose morale allowing them to be crushed with more ease, and that Tagan Heights is a bit safer now.
Oh yeah, and that She'll gain some respect, and maybe some upgrades.

Shuttle Dauntless – Bridge

There was only one problem with being in command of a space vessel. You couldn’t exactly fire the guns from the captain’s chair. He was used to leading from the front, to smashing craniums with his troops. Sitting in a chair giving orders was something he just didn’t have the patience to do for long, not matter how comfortable and throne like the chair may be.

Grimlock stood up from his chair. “Keep trying to shoot down fliers. They trying to bring us down, but they not have firepower for it out right. They sniping and picking at us, too maneuverable for ship guns and too in close to target. Me going to take care of that.” The Dinobot commander walked off the bridge to the hatch on the side of the ship. He popped it open and carefully leaned out, one hand gripping the side of the hatch to keep him from falling out. He spotted Shrike smashing away at the ship with her guns.

Grimlock would have smiled if he could. This is just what he had been looking for. He produced his double barreled rifle and took aim at the Decepticon flier. With a steady hand despite the rapid movement of the ship, he opened fire with a barrage of plasma bolts at Shrike.

The outter hull of the Dauntless

As her first beam cannon shot dies down she finds she made a nice crater in the Dauntless with her beam cannon.
I don't know how this junk heap is still flying, but I'll put an end to it!

Suddenly her agile frame is rocked as a plasma round crashes into her dense solid shield and starts to melt through it with considerable ease, but the other round misses!
She did foresee that someone would be shooting at her, and prepared for it by having her side mounted shield at the ready, but this is a lot of firepower to try and soak! Shrike simply can't afford to be shot again like this!

It's obvious who is shooting at her, though she doesn't recognize the Autobot.
It doesn't matter. The mission comes first! is her only thought as, instead of dislodging and fleeing, she slips into the upside down fox hole her beam cannon left her in the engine section of the Dauntless.
No monologuing, no witty one liner. It looks like she's taking cover and hiding more than anything. In her combat computer his location is noted for future reference.

Unfortunately for the Autobots it's far from the truth. Her alt mode is secured in the upside down fox hole by 3 of the 4 blade tipped limbs. She uses the 4th, which is her arm in robot mode, to equip the high powered energy rifle on it's hardpoint, which is a simple matter.

Her 580mm beam cannon is aimed at something else other than the engines, however. Someone else to be exact.
Yes, the mission comes first! But now I'm killing two cyber-birds with one BLAST!
The target is Grimlock himself who, based on the knowledge she gained when he shot at her, is hanging out of the hatch by one arm. That can't be good for mobility can it?

Another deafening roar from her beam cannon rends it's way -through- the less densely packed areas of the Dauntless, which are certainly less armored than the hull she had to cut and blast through to get this far. There's no telling what sort of damage it'll do to the Dauntless' ability to fly but she takes the shot!

The beam cannon isn't the strongest of weapons, but the fact it's a sustained weapon means it can pour it's power into an almost drill like 10ft wide beam made for penetration.

Though the 8 seconds of armor slagging energy beam isn't likely to kill Grimlock should it connect with him as he's heavily armored there is the fact it'll likely destroy what he's holding onto with the rest of the beam pulsing against his formidable armor all the while seeking to shove him out of the Dauntless completely!!
Will Grimlock be shoved from his perch by the sustained beam?
Will that fall kill Grimlock if he takes it?
Who knows?
Shrike will be looking forward to the trophies that the mangled SPLAT of a wreck will offer though!

Through the tunnel made in the Dauntless after the beam dies down, something else is heard, and it's chilling sound.

Laughter.

Crazed rapid-fire laughter from a femme's voice, and then an ominous threat. "You're all DEAD, Autobots! This Scrap heap of a ship is coming down one way or the other, and this lowly Decepticon grunt named SHRIKE will be your DOOM!!!" That femme's voice sounds completely unhinged of sanity as most Decepticons tend to be.
Psychological warfare or has she simply snapped having failed to down the Dauntless as she had planned? That's hard for the Autobots hearing this to know!

Regardless of her state of mind, she begins preparing her third beam cannon shot, while determining her next target, eager to do as much damage as she can.
She hasn't forgotten what's at the end of the tunnel though. She moves her shield from the side of her alt mode to a limb that makes up the other arm of her alt mode, and keeps it ready as she points her high powered rifle down the tunnel.

Naturally she's unaware of if she managed to hurt anyone at all with her grandstanding show of force, instead she just makes note of this location in Uraya to help her recover the daring Autobot's cranial unit should he have fallen to his demise.

Funny, isn't it? Shrike is completely unaware she just tried to kill the leader of the very team she's here to stop!
She doesn't even know his name.

OOC: Shrike doesn't have the firepower to be blowing holes in the ship like you are describing Rebel Raven. Firepower 7, even with a sustained beam, isn't just going to melt and slice through decks and hulls of ships like that. My post is going to correct some of that.

Shuttle Dauntless – side hatch

Grimlock grunted. Apparently the Deception had some sort of shield it had deployed that absorbed most of his shots. The femme then ducked inside of some sort of little hole it had punched in the ship. The Dinobot commander grunted again. The Decepticon would have been better off shooting up the ship from the outside. Inside, in close quarters, she was in Grimlock’s turf.

The large Autobot ducked back into the ship and sealed the hatch. He punched up a quick damage report on a nearby console. It looked like the Decepticon had managed to carve out a little hole in the ship and had been blasting away from it. Several shots were aimed at the engines but didn’t have the power to penetrate the heavy armor there. From the looks of the damage she was trying to blowtorch her way into the vital systems.

He could hear more blasts and cackling echoing through the ship. It sounded like this particular Decepticon wasn’t fully with it. That was alright, all the noise she was making made it relatively easy to find her. He rounded a corner and there she was, yelling about something, apparently overly proud of her handiwork. Grimlock himself was less than impressed. “Get off my ship!” As he spoke he launched a punch at Shrike with one of his massive fists. The blow would likely be more than enough to knock her off the ship if it connected and, hopefully, knock her head clean off her body.

Ruins of the Crystal City - The Sculptor's Forum

Finally. The Dauntless was on his sights, only few astroseconds and the wait would be over. Judging from the chosen trajectory of the Autobot shuttle and the shots fired from it, the three flyers had done their job. As an amusing detail, the femme had caused enough ruckus to draw someone's attention. Quite regretfully, Clench's sensors could not identify the Autobot from his hideout at this distance.

With his targeting computer tracking the flight path of the Autobot ship, Clench's dual railcannon whirled to position. This would be his best chance of dropping the ship for it would give away his own position. After that dropping the ship would become significantly more difficult. This had to succeed. The remaining wait of 20 astroseconds felt like an eternity.

20... 15... 10... 5... Followed by ear piercing shriek, two hyperspeed projectiles shot towards the Dauntless, cutting the distance between Clench and the ship in a blink of an eye. A projectile pierced Dauntless through two primary engine blocks, causing a massive explosion in the rear end of the ship. For Clench's disappointment the other projectile pierced the ship harmlessly through the end of the cargo hold instead of hitting the engines or fuel reserves. He had been overly cautious, wanting to score two certain hits. One had to be enough. And by the looks of the raging inferno in the sky, the Dauntless was bound to crash in few kliks.

Sending out the only transmission to his troops the Lightning Strike Coalition was allowed to catch the massive hovertank moved out of his hideout and began moving towards the calculated crashing site of the Dauntless. There was just one thing left to do and that was finishing off the survivors. >>"Decepticons! Move in for the kill!"<<

Uraya

Spotting Grimlock well before he could throw the punch, even before he could speak, and realizing she's getting close to the Ambush spot riding the Dauntless like this, she launches herself like a squid escaping a predator using her limbs to throw her out of the hole she made which evidently lead somewhere.
As she leaves, and while Grimlock throws his punch, she fires her 580mm beam cannon at the Autobot commander, still unaware who he is, only wanting to blow him to bits! Some cold comfort in failing her mission to say the least.

Her high strength energy rifle fires an accompanying beam of green energy at Grimlock looking to add some insult to injury.

On the outside, she appears to be a calm, collected professional trying to wreak chaos among the Autobots, and is obviously failing miserably. Or Bi-polar.

Inside, she's boiling over in anger as she failed complete her mission, and now she watches Clench destroy the Dauntless with little effort, and maybe adding some pain to Grimlock as he's last seen near the engine block as she was.

It's maddening! What is she built for if she can't perform a simple task like damaging an engine?!

If anything this event destroys her confidence. She hates the fact Clench is right above all else! That even her intelligence could not overcome advantages like the Dauntless has on her.
It's a devastating shot to her pride, and arguably worse than any punch Grimlock could throw.
She felt like she could defeat anyone and anything with her combat computer plotting out as much as it could for her.

Her shield bearing limb moves to protect the rest of her alt mode, but it's shattered as a chunk of debris smacks it on a fractured, melted area, and one of her arms suffers damage as broken bits of shield leave the connector leaving her with only a small, rough square of defense. The shock wave of the blast sends her hurtling towards the ground frantically trying to right herself with her articulated thrusters.
Meters from the ground she barely manages getting righted.

She narrowly avoids going down with the ship from the looks of things. She gladly would have if it meant that she, herself, done the deed that brought the Dauntless down, but now she must fight on to redeem herself! Even if redemption only lies within her own spark!

She transforms, and lands in robot mode, looking up at the crashing Dauntless. A magnificent sight that appeals to her sense of beauty, but seeing as her mission is largely a failure it's quickly overshadowed. Her personal mission anyhow.
She Successfully ran decoy at the least. What a wonderful thing for someone of her talents.. She turns off her sarcasm circuit again. I could have done more. What went wrong?! I need to learn from this. I can't let this happen again!!

Her combat computer goes silent for once as it processes everything that happened, finding numerous flaws in her design towards utilizing her combat abilities.

With a sudden and vigorous shake of her head, snapping her out of the trance brought on by numerous emotions, none of which really good, she ignites her boosters, and then skis off on her feet at ground level to meet up with her allies the battlefield.

I've got to pull my weight. I will show the empire and the Autobots that I'm not to be underestimated!

She sends a communication via direct laser to Clench. >>On my way, commander. Death to the Autobots!<<

Uraya - Skies

Triggerhappy watched, overjoyed as the Dauntless was hit and then burst into flames!
"Ahahahaha! Pretty fire!" Triggerhappy cried in his usual insane way. 'Wait an astro second...' Triggerhappy thought. "I'm me again!" He screamed as he received Clench's transmission.

>>Hahahahahaha! Do I kill now, or when they crash?<< Triggerhappy asked Clench. Completely believing that he could make it through the holes in the Dauntless and single handedly take out the crew. >>Some of them might go offline before I can get to them if we wait! AAAAGGGGGHHH!<< Triggerhappy sent once more to Clench. Before spinning dramatically in the air, screaming after being shot by something...

The Dauntless

"Ha! Got him!" Ironhide shouted as he watched Triggerhappy get hit by his shot.

"That great Red." Sludge said to Ironhide. "But we been hit as well!" Sludge cried, stating the obvious.

"Good point... looks like the Decepticons got us good this time, Primus! I'd be proud of this ambush." Ironhide mused, as he watched Triggerhappy recover partially from Ironhide's shot, before Ironhide fired again, once more hitting Triggerhappy, this time sending him falling planet wards. "Fraggin' stupid 'Con." Ironhide murmerred to himself, laughing. "Swoop! what's the damage like?" Ironhide asked.

Skies

"Agh! What the frag was that?" Triggerhappy groaned as he steadied himself after being shot. Triggerhappy looked down at his chest, he'd only taken a glancing blow, but of course when its a glancing blow from a ship, it can cause quite a bit of damage. Triggerhappy barely had time to come to terms with his new hole in his armour, when he heard a click, looking up from his chest, Triggerhappy noticed he'd just been fired upon again...

"Fraaaaaaag!" Triggerhappy screamed as the shots hit him once more, this time just above his left leg. The shot severed several wires, making it so that Triggerhappy no longer had control of his leg, meaning he only had one leg keeping him in the air, and one leg wasn't enough... Triggerhappy started to plummet.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh! Transform, frag it! Transform!" He screamed as he willed himself to transform, but finding it difficult due to the damage he had received. "Aaaaaand...done!" He shouted triumphantly as he finished transforming and pulled himself out of the nose dive he had found himself in.

Uraya sky


The silver aerialist opened her afterburners, infighting her engines for just a brief astrosecond. It was enough to rocket her a healthy distance above the Dauntless. Any more than that and her specialized engines would have put her into the planet’s outer atmosphere, just as Thunderwing had designed them. Her long range reconnaissance designed visuals focused in on the drama below. Apparently Shrike had earned the attention of Grimlock luckily for her she wasn’t dead. Of all the Autobots Grimlock was the most threatening and possibly the most dangerous. Then she saw Triggerhappy had taken a hit and seemed to be having malfunctions. The argent femcon sighed inwardly, this was why she was forever grateful her father never put her in lead of a group. Still in her altmode she prepared for her final assault on the shuttle. She was aware of Clench’s firepower and the damage he had caused but ….. Silver knew the ship needed to be forced down. This was where her past days in the academy would prove useful. As a deep space pilot she knew if she disabled just one the pilot would be forced to land. He would no longer have control of the ship, and would be on a course to kiss the ground. Before setting into action she sent a signal to Shrike and Triggerhappy.

>>Triggerhappy, Shrike, we cannot take them in the air this is a sentinel class assault shuttle. It’s meant to battle other ships similar in size and power. Reconfigure for ground assault and combat. Do not take any more damage if you can help it………… The dauntless is coming down.<<

High above the shuttle Silver zeroed in on the primary port maneuvering thrusters. With uncommon grace for a machine, she sent her form into a spirited dive. The nose of her alt mode was precisely aimed at her target. Like a falcon (a bird they would learn of on earth) the silver angel descended on her prey, assaulting it like a true raptor. Her frictionless frame sliced through the air without a sound. At the last moment only a few meters from the ship she transformed with blade in hand. Using her momentum and the knowledge from the teachings of her father and mentor, she struck the small cluster of rockets, cutting into the core. The machinery exploded as the internal wires crossed and the fuel ignited.

Silver hovered in robot mode watching the fireworks, plainly visible to those inside the ship. Silently she hoped she had made her mentor proud. If she was lucky then Mindwipe would have seen her every move. The opportunity of working with Clench’s crew felt good. She was so sick of solo missions. Perhaps when this was over she would request to be assigned…. That is if the ex-pit fighter would have her.

Sword still in hand the glistening femme held back, noting the position of her teammates. As she did she noticed the approach of Roadblock’s shell. She cringed, the idea of such technology was unnatural, and disgusting to her. Secretly she wondered if the shell felt like her own liquid silver armor. Did it cause pain as hers did every time she went into flux? Did it sear the wearer’s servos the way her body did every time she became a statue of living quicksilver. She was sure Roadblock would never admit if it did, but it still worried her because Thunderwing showed an interest in it.

Shuttle Dauntless

Grimlock jerked back into the shuttle as soon as the Decepticon leapt away from it. He wasn’t going to stick his head out there to get shot off, not when the Decepticon was likely waiting for him. As fire poured in through the hole Grimlock knew he had been right.

The Dinobot commander was already making his way back to the bridge of the assault shuttle when the entire ship shook violently. He staggered down the hall a bit until the ship stabilized but he could definitely tell something was wrong. The ship had probably taken a major hit of some sort. “Scrap,” he muttered to himself as he began jogging to the bridge.

Shuttle Dauntless – Bridge

Grimlock walked in and took his seat back in the command chair. “I leave for few seconds and everything goes to Pit. Ship status report!”

Ruins of the Crystal City - The Sculptor's Forum

Skullcruncher had been uncharacteristically quite as he and his teammates waited for the order to strike. He had been mulling over there last mission together, one that had left him feeling fairly unfulfilled. Acting as a decoy or distraction force wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed or was good at.

Now that the order had been given the swamp warrior spoke up. “Finally! This time I won’t leave until I’ve had my fill of those disgusting Autobots!” The Decepticon began jogging towards the rapidly descending vessel. He would take to the sky once he saw it actually crash so he didn’t get hit by any debris or stray shots from the ship or other Decepticons.

Shuttle Dauntless- Bridge

"Aw Frak," Swoop muttered as the ship's sensors informed him of the artillery fire mere nano-kliks before it tore into the shuttle. Amidst the tremors, the fire, and the veritable forest of warning lights on his console, the Dinobot pilot fought to maintain a controlled descent. Sure, things were bad. But no worse than that jury-rigged hunk of slag they'd come back from Earth in, and he'd managed to land that wreck! He was certain he could land this one as well.

Then, things had gone from bad to worse.

Ironhide was asking about the damage. The port thrusters went up in flames. And now Grimlock was demanding a sit rep.

Okay. He asked for it.

"Our aft is completely blown to slag, The main engines are GONE, port attitude control is dead, half the ship is on fire, and we're hemorrhaging fuel. So basically...we're frakked, Boss."

"Me Swoop just detailed her, too," the pilot added sullenly.

Uraya

>>Understood.<< she replies in a calm tone to Silver despite the pain she feels inside at being rather useless as far as she's concerned.

A soldier trying to find her way among the big bots. To find out just what she's good at besides slicing things up. There has to be something.
Her mind almost goes into a philosophical mood while her combat computer tracks the descent of the Dauntless, but she prevents it so her mind is clear for the battle ahead.

She needs to destroy someone. The taste of victory might bring her out of the slump she's in even if she leaves one foe on the ground in a heap. That's all. She needs to feel useful. To -be- useful. To be more than a mindless drone that can only shoot.

All the while she moves across the surface of Cybertron in her robot mode at a few dozen mph. using her ever present unchanging engines to push her along with her high powered rifle, and 4 blades at the ready.

There's not a whole lot of point in staying airborne and assaulting a ship like the Dauntless right now. She threw her best at the craft, and did nothing of note to it. That fact will eat at her sanity, surely.
More fodder for her obsession with more power. More facts for her combat computer to pour over.
Some might call that combat computer something like voices in her head.
A voice that rarely ever shut up from cycle to cycle. A voice that isn't hers. A voice that reminds her that she's got potential to fulfill, and that if she can't then she may as well walk into a smelter.

She laments the loss off 3 of her 4 beam cannon rounds. She threw them away, it seems trying to do something that was indeed impossible for someone like her. She hates wasting her ammo to say the least.
Firing the 4th shot means she can't perform that energy reroute she had done in the taking of Tagan if push comes to shove so she needs to save it. Save it for an assault that mattered.

So she got the attention of Autobots. What'd she do with it? What could she do with it?
Those questions got her cranial unit aching as her combat computer strives to answer them even they come to the obvious conclusion. She did what she could. If she didn't do what she did when she did it, she'd be caught in the explosion caused by her allies.

Dauntless - Bridge

"Well, better go ahead and brace for impact, lads," Kup said, retrieving his musket laser from subspace. He knew full well that when they hit the ground, they'd need to come out fighting.

If the old warrior was the least bit panicked, he certainly didn't show it. He had been through this and worse thousands of times, and the thing that had kept Kup alive and able to come back for more was a cool combat processor and a steady hand actuator when it was time to fight. It was one of the things that couldn't really be taught. All those vorns at the Academy, the training cadres...you can teach technique and procedure, but you can't teach bravery. That gets learned out in the field, or it doesn't get learned at all.

"C'mon, you old bag of bolts," he told Ironhide. "Whaddya say you and me take point once we touch down? Been a while since the two of us were first out the door on a raid."

He had no doubt the red Autobot's zeal for a good tussle was just as great as his own.



Outskirts of the Crystal City

While his vehicle shell continued its steady, rumbling approach to the likely crash-landing point of the Dauntless, Roadblock himself arrived in his air cruiser, cutting altitude to come in low over the ruins of the Crystal City. He had no desire to expose himself to an Autobot assault shuttle's guns, even if the shuttle was crippled and going down. As he entered the area, he opened a comm channel to Clench.

>>"I'm here," he informed the formidable commando leader. "Got some kinda plan fer this party, or are we just steppin' in an' startin' the killin'?"<<



Ruins of the Crystal City

Success! Leader fearless our it has done! Down come the Autobots!

Weirdwolf loped toward the edge of the ruins as he watched the badly damaged shuttle shudder and hurdle down toward the surface. It wouldn't be long at all now. He primed his triple-stage missile launchers and kept on advancing at a brisk pace, his powerful sensors already attempting to ascertain just how many Autobots and of what sort the commandos were going to face.

Hope I they brought their warriors best! He let out a maniacal, growling laugh as he galloped forward. Need them they will!

Dauntless-Bridge

"What do I say?" Ironhide replied to Kup, smiling wildly. "I say, lets send them back to the pit! Who's with me?!" Ironhide cried, hoping to distract the rest of the crew from their impending crash. And, just about managing to stay stood up, Ironhide pulled out his Liquid-Spewing Rifle and turned to face Kup. "Bet I can take more out than you can, you old rust bucket." Ironhide said to Kup, looking forward to the little competition, should Kup agree to it.

Sludge wobbled around as the ship began its descent towards the ground, and after much resisting, clumsily fell back into Slag.

"Oops. Sorry." He said to Slag, as he picked himself off of his comrade and started to wobble again, and then overhearing Ironhide's cry, Sludge clumsily turned around and tripped again, falling back onto Slag. "Me with you Ironhide!!!" He cried.

Uraya-Skies

>>Ow... spoil sport...<<Triggerhappy replied to Silverstrike >>Just wondering, but does a half severed leg count as too much damage, or do you expect me to carry on...<< Triggerhappy asked, although he almost knew what the answer would be.

Triggerhappy continued to fly alongside the Dauntless, it seemed that the Autobots inside were no longer interested in shooting at him. 'Yay...' He thought.

Shuttle Dauntless - Bridge

"AAARRGH, Swoop, you pointing shuttle wrong way!! Me Slag can't get a shot!!" Slag seemed oblivious to the chaos in the rear of the shuttle, the conversation around him, and the ammo indicator of his weapon flashing 'EMPTY'. "Turn it up! UP!!!"

It was only Grimlock's return to the cockpit that shook him out of his singleminded desire to relocate the Silver Seeker. "WHAT!?!?? You Swoop done it now! It supposed to be my job to set things on fire 'round here, but maybe we give that job yYRK!!!"

....

"You Sludge get off!!! You....hanf in my face...MMpphh...GRRRAAAAGGH!!!!" Slag grabbed Sludge and pushed, aiming to throw his 'friend' out into the passenger area. Or maybe through a wall. He wasn't in the mood to aim.

Outskirts of the Crystal City ruins

Clench had noticed Roadblock approaching before the ground forces commander had opened communications link between the two. If he hadn't, it would have been unforgivable carelessness from his part. Roadblock's airborne position allowed the use of direct laser linking for communications and rather than endangering Dauntless picking any messages before crashing, Clench decided to the said way of communications while blowing through the ruins of once magnicifent city. Even though he really did not believe he had to worry about the Autobots picking up any radio communications in their current peril, Clench was not one to take chances.

>>"We go in fast and strike hard before the Autobots recover from the crashlanding. That's our only chance unless you have reinforcements to throw in. We are speaking of those damned Dynobots after all. Tough slaggers. You are welcome to join the assault. I wouldn't mind seeing your new toys in action."<<

Shuttle Dauntless – Bridge

“Scrap.”

The shuttle was going to crash, there was no avoiding that. The Decepticons had damaged the ship beyond any hope of keeping her airborne. Now all they could do was try to make it a crash landing and not simply slam into the ground like a meotorite.

Grimlock jumped up and staggered to the helm in the bucking and shifting ship. Normally he trusted Swoop and his piloting expertise, but the bombardier was going to need an extra set of hands with this one. The Dinobot commander punched in a series of commands on the console. “Shifting power to landing thrusters. Should help slow descent a bit. Bring ship down with that and whatever thrusters you have Swoop. Not matter where we land as long as we walk away from it.”

As the two Dinobots worked to bring the vessel down it began to drift away from Uraya and towards the Tagan Heights. With so many thrusters damaged no one could control where it landed now.

Ruins of the Crystal City - The Sculptor's Forum

Mindwipe watched the aerial sortie with gret interest. Silverstrike had done well. The hypnotist was well pleased with his protegee. In truth, Shrike performed admirably as well, but Mindwipe's sentimental pride in his student somewhat outweighed his his appreciation for the other femme's actions.

Triggerhappy was an entirely different matter. The fool had exposed Shrike's position, and had proven little more than a nuisance. It was regrettable that he did not have the megacycles necessary to rewire shootist's faulty neural net.

When the order came to attack, the apostate remained still while his more boisterous comrades shouted their battle-lust to the skies above. There was no doubt Mindwipe shared his brothers' enthusiasm for the coming conflict. However, he was, by and large, the most cautious of the three, and something was amiss. His notorious optics were trained on the enemy vessel above. Or, more acurately, upon the trail of smoke and fire the plummeting craft left in its wake.

While the Dauntless' path was quite erratic, one very important detail...

"Sir," the shrikebat said to Clench. "I believe we have...a slight complication. Yes."

Shuttle Dauntless – Bridge

"On it, Boss." Grimlock's rerouting of the remaining engine power helped. The Dinobot leader's massive strength pulling at the copilot's stick helped a lot more. It was beginning to look like they'd be safe on the ground in no time, and kicking some Decepticon aft. Swoop was a bit possessive when it came to the LSC's transportation. The Bombardier was eager for a little payback.

Now that he had some help muscling the ship's nose up, he tried to get a handle on where they where going. It was surprisingly easy to determine. And the news was decidedly NOT good.

"Uhhhh...Boss..." the pterodactyl began. "We got a problem. Telemetry's back online, and Me Swoop got a pretty good idea where we're gonna end up."

"Somewhere in the Tagan Heights."

(OOC: The next poster in the LSC can move us to Tagan.)