Dramatis Personae:
Impactor => M1128 Stryker (Mobile Gun)
Springer => AH-64 Comanche
Grimlock => M3 Bradley
Bludgeon => Cybertronian Tank / Hummer H3
Shockwave => Sentient Computer
The scene opens in a dense urban setting such as inner-city New York. Soldiers are moving down the street in columns, accompanied by a handful of armored vehicles. The city is eerily quiet. The squad sees overturned cars, burning buildings, ash and cinders in the air, but no people. They turn a corner and find themselves staring at a brick wall. Body parts are scattered around the pavement. The words "All are dead" have been burned into the wall.
The camera looks at the soldiers front-on as they stare at the writing. Then, a building explodes in a cloud of brick, mortar, and dust. Bludgeon, in the form of a Cybertronian tank, rolls into the middle of the street and opens fire with some kind of energy weapon. He immediately blows up a Bradley, and sprays the soldiers with machine-gun fire and grenades as they run for cover. A second Bradley fires a tow missile into Bludgeon, and he quickly fires back and blows up the second tank.
As a M1A1 moves into position, Bludgeon transforms into his pretender mode. He stands two stories tall, with a gleaming metal skull and quasi-samurai armor. Drawing his sword, he dodges an depleted-uranium round in slow motion, then leaps onto the tank and destroys it with his sword.
While Bludgeon wreaks havoc, the surviving soldiers put in a panicked radio call. "Contact confirmed!" the RTO shouts, "Bring support at Delta-Charlie-Four-Eight-Six-" He gets halfway through his coordinates before Bludgeons spots him and blows him up, too.
Now Bludgeon stands alone, surrounded by flames and burning wreckage. A Stryker and another Bradley approach. We see soldiers retreating. The Stryker transforms into Impactor and the Bradley reveals itself as Grimlock. Grimlock goes straight from vehicle mode to Tyrannosaurus mode, resembling a dinosaur skeleton made out of tank parts.
Queue some knucklehead John Wayne officer who says "Take him down, boys" or something equally inane.
Impactor opens fire with his shoulder-mounted cannon while Grimlock charges. They battle, and at first Bludgeon's acrobatics appear to give him the advantage. However, after a few seconds of smashing cars and buildings, Impactor scores a hit and Grimlock attacks ferociously.
Bludgeon retreats by scaling the side of a building. Impactor fires again, but Bludgeon leaps from one sky scraper to the next. Burning rubble falls down around Grimlock, who shakes it off like an oversized dog.
The camera switches to a AH-64 orbiting the battle site. It does a fly-by on Bludgeon, peppering the side of the building with rockets. Bludgeon is clearly damaged. As Bludgeon returns fire, the helicopter transforms into Springer, who falls through the smoke (making some nice coriolis vortices) and joins Bludgeon on the side of the building. Bludgeon and Springer leap from rooftop to rooftop, exchanging a ridiculous amount of firepower, before Springer finally hits him.
Bludgeon falls to the ground. His exo-armor is battered and sparking. Springer, back in helicopter mode, circles overhead. Bludgeon uses his cannon to blow up a building, and hides himself in the cloud of dust and debris. The camera follows him as he sheds his pretender armor. It falls off of him in chunks, like leaves falling off of a tree. Free of the exo-armor shell, Bludgeon looks unscathed. He transforms into an ostentatious H3 Hummer and makes his escape down the empty city streets.
Impactor finds Bludgeon's pretender-skull, and gently picks it up. Over one shoulder we see Springer land and transform, and over the other Grimlock prowls like a hunting dog.
Change of scene. Bludgeon stands in a darkened chamber the size of a warehouse. Wires and cables snake all over the floor. A hundred computer screens flicker to life. Every one displays a purple hexagon and a single yellow dot. Shockwave chastises Bludgeon for being defeated by the Wreckers. Bludgeon asks how Shockwave how he knew the Wreckers were present. Shockwave reveals that he is the final evolution of the sentient computer virus Frenzy introduced to Earth's computers in TF1.
All of the wires and cables suddenly come alive, like animated tentacles. Bludgeon stands perfectly still while the cables weld and attach pieces of metal to his body. In a matter of seconds we see that Shockwave has completely reconstructed his pretender armor, saving his skull helmet for last.
-J
[ Click to attempt signal recovery... ]
