The Energon Pub

The Nemesis--Central Interchange

It wasn't looking good, but slag, when had anything about this mission looked good? It was just necessary, that's all. Opportunities to take out a vessel of this nature did not come along very often, and obviously Prowl and co wanted whatever had been stashed away on this ship bad enough to take some major risks to get it.

"It would be better to take out those two coming our way first, quickly and quietly. 2 versus 2 sounds a lot better to me than 4 versus 2. After that...If some brave soul would go up there and give those two big 'Cons a target to practice on I can pick them off when they lower their shields to swing those hammers."

"Those Guardian Vehicons are gonna transform as soon as they detect any kind of threat. When they do that, I'm sure you remember how nasty they get. So let's just try to have that not happen. Like you said. Quickly and quietly."

But with the amount of optics that were wandering around the room, their chance to do anything quickly or quietly had diminished significantly.

"Provided we survive? Sure, why the frag not. I've got nothing better to do than paint a bullseye on myself," Elita said with a grin as her HUD blinked. There was a new arrival from the team aboard the ship--Nautica. She hadn't really wanted anyone else up here risking themselves, but if someone was doing that despite Elita's commands, it had to be for an equally serious reason. Elita transmitted a quick series of pulse bursts to Nautica that would hopefully ensure the other femme could find them. The last thing she needed was one of her team wandering through this eerie slagpit alone.

"We've got company. Yay," Elita deadpanned as she carefully watched the Guardian Vehicons round the corner, readying her weapon. "We get one shot at this."

Pulling back just a little, her audios were fully tuned to the pattern and approach of the clanking footsteps. Closer. Just a little bit closer. And...

"Now," Elita hissed, whipping around the corner and finding one of the Guardian drones exactly where she was hoping it would be, climbing its chest like a ladder, before unloading the first energy clip of her automatic rifle into its cranial unit. It struggled to get her off and began its transformation sequence to battle mode as she kept firing.

The Nemesis--Central Interchange

Roulette shakes her head. The two of them had being effective and a third was a complication. No time to worry about that too much, however, they had more pressing problems. She winked at Elita.

"Remember who you are talking to. One shot is all I need." She whispered.

While Elita was a bot of action, Roulette was one of precision. While the other Guardian Vehicon began to transform to help its partner Roulette stepped up, grabbed it by the right arm, and powered a shot almost point blank from her powerful sonic blaster in the opening created on the side of its chest as its transformed. No wasted effort, just a accurate shot into its body directed right towards its central power relays.

The Nemesis--Central Interchange

Elita's Guardian dropped to the ground in a fiery heap, still partway through its transformation sequence as it writhed erratically on the ground from the series of critical blasts it had taken.

Not even a moment later,' Elita noticed the targeting laser of one, and then two, of the wall crawler Vehicons on her torso, triggering her to quickly leap away from the downed Guardian just as a series of shots ricocheted off the floor and the upper torso of the mech. Like a rocket, Elita was dashing across the floor, before reaching up and firing a grapnel device she had packed.

Turning mid-way as the grapnel line carried her up a level, she fired a wrist missile at one of the wall crawlers as the other leapt through the air and began to scramble towards a different vantage point.

Like clockwork, she had drawn the Titan's attention just as she figured. The massive Vehicon Titan stalked to the edge of one of rail and began to unload the ammunition of its X18 Scrapmaker all over the surrounding area of the interchange as klaxons began to blare. Elita crashed over the railing and stealthily as she could, ducking as a hailstorm of plasma blasts ripped through the air overhead.

The Nemesis--Central Interchange

As Elita began her dance, Roulette knelt next to the smoking vehicon she had just shot and drew the sniper rifle from her back. He raised it towards the combat but she was not interested in the Titan Elita was fighting. Her optics were aimed towards its ally. She could sense Elita's continued movement but she did not let herself become panicked. Elita was a big girl and she could take care of herself. Hurrying now would only expose her rifle and make things much harder.

She patiently waited until the other Titan began to move. Time seemed to slow as it lowered his shield, raised his weapon, then a high speed explosive round slammed into his head.

Clemency – Graveyard

“No...”

"Heh...Hehahaha..." Chuckled the Predator commander as his chassis was torn and indented with bits of shrapnel, his metal charred and still smoking. "I must commemorate you on your feeble attempt, Autobot." Skyquake bellowed as he slowly lurked from the freshly made crater. "As impressive as a last stand that was, it appears I am the one who will be walking away from this little entanglement.”

Thunderclash grunted as he struggled to try to rise to his feet and fight again. A sharp kick from the Predator commander caused him to collapse, writhing in pain.

"Now this is a sight I can relish in!" Skyquake taunted as he circled his defeated rival. "THUNDERCLASH: THE GREATEST AUTOBOT WHO LIVED! HA HA! Not so great are we now, Hmm? Mhmmmhmmmhmmmm."

Thunderclash could not muster a retort. He could barely muster the energy to lift his head up and watch Skyquake as his long-time rival's jade optics beamed down at his broken form with pride and triumph. He had to do something...buy more time for the injured...They had to escape even if he could not. Thunderclash groped around blindly for a weapon. Anything he could use.

"So..." The Predator commander mused as he shifted his gaze to the skies above. The Turbomaster followed his gaze and felt his spark nearly implode as he made out the familiar gleam of an Autobot warship. "This is where your friends came from... Was this your plan? To try and vanish from under my nasal sensor again?"

“No...No! Don- AHH!” Thunderclash spasmed briefly in agony as Skyquake's heel came crunching down on his spinal strut. His nemesis's clawed actuators wrapped around his cranium. Thunderclash was helpless to even bat at his hands.

"Look at it, what does it look like to you?" Skyquake taunted once again as he forced the Turbomaster commander to stare into the skies at the Avante Garde. "Does it look like Freedom? Hope? Salvation? I'm afraid for you and your friends however, that it isn't any of those things."

“No, no, don't. Please!” Skyquake's next few words were lost on Thunderclash as the regional commander stared helplessly into the sky at the ship that held his beloved injured crew. “No...No...Please don't do this...”

"And now we add another ship to this graveyard of a world!"

Time seemed to slow into eternal moments. The Nemesis unleashed its plasma batteries and laser cannons. The purple beams of light crept ever closer to the Avante Garde with each passing moment. The little Autobot ship immediately gave way to the barrage of weapon fire. It had stood no chance. It erupted in a burst of crimson flame.

Inside of Thunderclash, something broke. The light of the explosion shone down on them from the atmosphere like a ill-boding star, heralding their demise. The regional commander could only stare at it as their last hope, and his family, disappeared from this world forever.

"Where is your hope now, Thunderclash?"

Thunderclash did not answer. He could not answer. He was still in shock. The Turbomaster had never before experienced such lost. Sure, he had lost men before in the course of the war, but never like this. More than half of his crew. Gone in an instant. And he had sent them to their deaths. Thunderclash began to shake. It was a highly involuntary action. He couldn't stop. There was this...weight in his spark. Like a seed of blackness had been planted there, weighing as heavily on him as a metrotitan would.

“Gone. They're gone.”


“Thunderclash can handle himself, Falcon!"

“Haha...he can, can he?” Falcon chuckled with mirth as he scanned the debris for the Autobot, keeping his gun in line with his sights. He was quite enjoying himself. This one had some spunk. He liked that. The former predator commander would delight in taking her apart piece by piece.

“The real question here is..." Road Rage’s words trailed off for a brief moment as she transformed into her Cybertronian Sports Car alt mode. "....can you handle me, Decepti-slagger?!!"

The Autobot suddenly burst out of the debris in a terrestrial alternate mode and rocketed toward Falcon. The Predator's jade optics widened. Had she gone completely insane? Was she suicidal? There was no way of telling. Falcon's digit coiled around the trigger to the missile launcher but the Autobot was too fast! Too close!

“Hey, dumb-aft!! Yeah, I’m talking to you you stupid little piece of scrapmetal masquerading as a ‘Con! You ready to die, fragger?! Huh? Are you!?!! Yeeeeesssssss!?!"

“Wha-” Falcon barely had time to think as the femme launched magna bombs at him. He instinctively lurched backwards, but they connected with him despite this. Fortunately for Falcon, he was more than a little durable. Unfortunately for Falcon, this femme was suddenly both suicidal and homicidal for she drove through the aftermath of the explosions and plowed right into Falcon's torso, sending the Predator tumbling.

Road Rage trampled Falcon under her wheels, but her momentum kept her going while friction and the ground decided to have their way with him. He grunted as he skidded across the ground. As soon as his hands were under him, he pushed off and launched himself into the air, using his foot thrusters to stabilize himself.

“That...hurt...That actually hurt! What in Pit is wrong with you, Autobot?”

Snarling, Falcon hovered in the air, out of reach of the wheeled terror. He fired his missile launcher at her.

The Nemesis--Central Interchange

Those wall crawlers were pretty good shots. It was taking all of Elita's stamina and skills training over the vorns to avoid not being triple-tapped, but so far she had managed just a couple of stray burns on her armor. No big deal.

Avoiding most of the clamor and staying focused on her objective, she made a zigzagged, haphazard path for the secured entryway as the Brutes raised their warhammers and shields and prepared to engage her.

One of them moved to strike, and as it did, an explosive round slammed into the oversized Vehicon's head and detonated, sending a plume of fiery debris in all directions. Without even the slightest hesitation, Elita-1 turned all of her focus on the other Brute, scaling the warhammer as it slammed into the ground and slapping an explosive charge on the mech's chest. The Brute was equally quick to respond also, using its body weight and size to fling Elita off, forcing her to crash into a nearby wall before the charge exploded.

The Nemesis--Central Interchange

"Elita!" Roulette thought as she was slammed against the wall. She transformed into her car mode, her rifle tucked underneath, and moved quickly towards her. The wall-crawlers shot at her while she drove however her design while transformed her most important parts fully inside. The shots were wrecking the outside of her vehicle mode but the key systems remained untouched. All that kibble around her had its uses sometimes. She drove close to Elita and transformed back into robot mode, using her shield to absorb the incoming shots.

"Are you ok boss?"

Her shield would not hold forever. Hopefully enough to help out Elita though.

The Nemesis - Central Interchange

So this was the infamous Decepticon Flagship... The corridors were soaked in a pale violet light which only shinned off Nautica's already purple color scheme. The grip on her trusty wrench only tightened as she cautiously rounded each corner, each step filling her with more and more anxiety.

Her holographic HUD stated she was closing in on Elita-1's position, but as she trekked deeper into the battlecruiser's corridors, the more her chassis was filled with dread in being spotted. In fact, if there was anything to marvel at inside this ship it was how quiet it felt... She had been wandering the corridors for a few minutes now, and yet there hadn't been any sort of Decepticon presence spotted yet. Perhaps everyone was on their refueling break or something.

As the engineer tip-tied closer to her defacto-leader's position, she could faintly hear some clamoring and ruckus from one side of the wall. Curiously, she approached the wall and placed an audio receptor to the cold steel. Her perception hadn't cleared up, but a quick glance at her HUD notified that it was indeed the two Autobots she was searching for.

A gleeful smile presented itself on Nautica's gentle faceplate, replacing her former expression of fear as she continued to listen from across the steel panelling.

"Sweet! Just a few more left turns and-" Nautica's voice trailed as she she began to lift herself from against to wall, only to find it splitting open like one of the blast doors she encountered before. The sudden surprise caused her to lose her grip and the quantum engineer stumbled forward, her chest connecting to the ground while her trusty wrench slid out of reach. As the newfound door opened up, a wall crawler vehicon fell to the ground shortly in front of where the purple and gold femme tumbled in.

Nautica slowly rose her head only to lock optics with the sole optic of the prone vehicon variant. The femme's optics widened in surprise before shifting over towards her wrench, then back to the crawler drone. The drone remained motionless as well before eyeing the femme gaze over to the wrench. The sole Crimson optic returned to its fixation on Nautica as the fight between the Autobot femme's and various vehicon drones continued to erupt around them.

Nautica could feel her sparkbeat pounding away at her armor, this was do or die time and she had to be quick if she didn't want to experience the latter. After sucking in a quick gasp of air to regain herself, the engineer rolled on her side to avoid the quick shot of the crawler. She scooped up her wrench and rolled over once more as the crawler attempted to regain its footing. Clutching her trusted tool, the purple and gold femme rushed up and swatted the crawler with the business end of her wrench, causing the drone to collapse back onto the floor. The wall crawler turned back and fired another shot from its optic, nearly striking the Nautica's left wing. While she had the advantage, Nautica brought the wrench up above her processor and took another swing at the vehicon, striking it down across the cranium. If only Chromia could she her now, she sure would be thrilled that she was finally getting into the action of things for a change.
The wall crawler attempted to scuttle away after its optic light flickered, only to find itself meeting Nautica's wrench once more, only this time in its chassis.

Nautica looked up from her victory against the drone to find Roulette and Elita-1 still entangled with some Decepticon security forces, only it appeared that the two were under fire behind Roulette's shield. Drawing the sidearm the paradon nurse gave her, Nautica began to fire upon the security enforcers lacing the corridor. Their toughened exteriors would only absorb the shots of a standardized weapon such as that, but at least it could draw their attention away from Elita and Rou long enough to where they can retake the offensive.

Clemency - Graveyard

“YEEEEE-HAAAAA!!!!” Road Rage exclaimed at the top of her vocals as the crazy femme’s car mode drove directly through the various explosions created by her magna-bombs. “Here I come you stupid fragger, ready or not!!” The former bodyguard yelled as she slammed her front end straight into Falcon’s torso. The shocked Predator was sent tumbling across the ground, but the crimson vehicle did not stop. No. Instead, she continued forward using all of the momentum she had already gathered and trampled the aerial ‘Con underneath her tires. “How’s that feel, you greasy paint licker! Feels good, doesn’t it?!! Hahahahaha!!!”

The unevenness of running over Falcon caused Road Rage to lose some control once she was off of him, forcing her to skid sideways and go into a tailspin. Dirt and debris were kicked up all around the fiery red vehicle as she finally came to a stop a short distance from where the impact with Falcon had just occurred. However, her enemy was no longer laying on the ground in a heap. He was airborne again, complaining about how much she had hurt him. “Oh, you poor dear. Would you like me to come up there and kiss your wounds to make them better? Oh, wait, I forgot, I’m not that kind of girl! You stupid piece of slag! How about you man up or go crawl back to Skyquake like the little cyber-rat that you are!”

Road Rage then let out another energon-curdling laugh as she revved her engines and readied her twin launchers for another attack. “And there’s nothing wrong with me, piston-sucker! I’m just fine and dandy! You, however, are about to become slag!! And I don’t mean the fraggin’ Dinobot, either!” She raced forward just as another round of missiles came straight at her from above. Another volley of magna-bombs left the confines of her launchers and reached into the sky, intercepting some of the Predator’s rockets while a few other magna-bombs continued to ascend towards Falcon, himself.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Road Rage felt the heat from the explosions caused by her bombs destroying several of her enemy’s missiles. Stopping in her tracks, the former bodyguard started to back away as shrapnel rained down around her. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing to come from the sky as one of Falcon’s rockets had made it past her magna-bombs and struck the ground to her left side. The powerful blast sent a fireball into the side of her chassis, the force of which propelled her through the air until she finally landed with a hard thud several meters away, tumbling end over end.

Coming to rest at the base of a wrecked shuttle craft, Road Rage transformed back into her robot mode and sat up, immediately realizing how careless and deranged she had just been acting. The insanity which had consumed her collapsed like a veil that had been shrouding her true self. It was hard to explain the feeling of being at the mercy of her car mode’s glitch. Anger, hatred, psychosis, it all invaded her processor suddenly, turning her into a wild hellion. She was still technically in control of her actions when that happened, but at the same time she was unable to stop herself. It was kinda like being really drunk on high-grade energon. All of her inhibitions were completely gone and only the most visceral part of her personality remained.

I’m glad none of my Autobot comrades saw me like that, Road Rage thought to herself as she regained a sense of calm along with her composure. Her body ached all over as her HUD displayed the extent of the new injuries she had sustained. The former bodyguard’s frame was littered with numerous dents, scrapes and scorch marks, some minor while other wounds were more substantial like her left wing which was still barely hanging on. None of that was as bad as the damage done to her right leg where her pain receptors felt like they were on fire.

Leaning forward to examine it more closely, the crimson femme could see that a piece of shrapnel was deeply embedded in the knee joint and there was energon seeping slowly out from around the exposed edges. For an astrosecond, she considered trying to remove the shrapnel, herself, but then thought otherwise. Road Rage was not a medic and would likely do more harm to her knee than good. Plus, the shrapnel was acting as a cork of sorts. If it was pulled out, the bleeding would probably increase which could eventually lead to stasis lock all the sooner.

“I have only myself to blame,” the former bodyguard muttered to herself as she then quickly realized that Falcon was still somewhere close by. She remembered that she had fired her magna-bombs at him, some of which collided with his missiles but others had kept going. Unfortunately, she was unsure if any of them had actually hit him or not. As a result, the crimson femme took out her plasma discharge rifle and managed to pull herself up to her feet, using the crashed shuttle next to her as a brace. A sharp, excruciating pain shot through her right leg, the damaged knee joint buckling from under her. Road Rage held firm to the side of the shuttle, using it to help her limp around and take cover behind the craft. She then dropped back down to a sitting position, letting out a sigh of relief.

Road Rage knew that if Falcon was still out there somewhere a counterattack was imminent. The femme also knew that in her injured state she would not last much longer against the aerial Predator. She desperately needed some back-up if there was any available. Thus, she opened a comm line on the Autobots’ emergency frequency:

>>”Hello! Any Autobots within range that can hear me, this is Road Rage. I’m injured and require assistance ASAP! I’m under attack from Falcon, and I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out. I’ve taken cover behind a downed shuttle craft. I’m sending my coordinates now. Please hurry!”<<

Cutting her comm line, Road Rage gripped her rifle in her hands and readied herself for whatever counterattack Falcon would unleash upon her. Hopefully, her Autobot comrades would get to her soon before it was too late.

The Nemesis--Central Interchange

Pretty much all of Elita's core sensors wound up being scrambled for a good few astroseconds, and she'd earned herself another scorch mark or two, but her systems were quickly recalibrating. A quick look told her the same could not be said of the Vehicon Brute. Well...that worked.

"Are you ok boss?" Came a voice. A reassuring voice, even if that wasn't exactly the intent. Roulette. Of course she wouldn't be too far behind. Thank Primus.

"I'll feel it in the morning, but I'll live," Elita said, pushing herself back to her feet and checking her weapons with the very little time they had before every brainless, sparkless Decepticon in this primal slagheap was all over them.

"We should get-"

Another series of blasts blared over Elita's words, nailing an approaching Vehicon. Elita-1 quickly moved to the rail and looked over. Yep, one of her crew. She motioned for Nautica to get up to where she and Roulette were before leveling her assault rifle at one of the approaching Titans so that the younger femme would have some extra cover while she moved. The Titan's X18 Scrapmaker continued to spray destructive ammunition all over the ship.

Another device on on Elita's frame began to vibrate. She detached and examined it. It was an energy frequency that High Command had calibrated into one of their scanning instruments and told them to keep an optic out for. There had been no guarantees that the frequency would ever register, but if it did--or anything similar to it did--act on it.

Elita could do that.

"Rou! I've got a signal match! Six-hundred meters down that corridor. Cover Nautica!" she yelled over the sound of blaster fire, both from her weapons as well as that of the Decepticons. "If you guys can seal the door behind you--great! If not, well, we'll figure it out."

And just like before, Elita was off in a mad dash.

She shook her head. Elita did not stay down for long not did she really expect her to do other wise.

"On it Boss!"

Roulette set herself in front of some of the rubble that had been created in the fighting. It was not much cover but it would have to do. She laid down on the floor and rested her rifle on top fot he debris before her.

"Nautica, get working on that door! I'll give you some cover!" Roulette yelled. She really was not much of a yeller most of the time but the noise at the moment necessitated it. She began to open accurate fire at the incoming mechs to cover her.

The Nemesis--Corridors

As Elita ran, a tremor rumbled its way from one end of the ship to the other, causing her to stop in her tracks. They hadn't set off explosives. There were no ships attacking outside that she was aware of. What the frag?

This ship gave her the creeps, no glitches about it.

But she couldn't let her mind linger on that for too long. Mission. Stay on mission.

And she was off again, now paying more attention to the frequency scanner she had been sent with. With every step, the frequencies she had been sent to find and the one she had now found were growing closer and closer in sync. Jogging up the last few meters to the next door, the signal frequencies were now in almost perfect harmony. This was it. Pulling off her slicer tech, she slammed it into the door control panel and began to let it do its work.
___

The Nemesis--Bridge

Various monitoring screens on the bridge began to receive a heavy static overlay, flicker, or black out altogether. Some returned to normal while others did not.

The Nemesis - Corridors

"Nautica, get working on that door! I'll give you some cover!" Roulette hollered over the gunfire as she dove to cover the violet and gold plated engineer. Nautica nodded to the sharpshooter as she magnetized her borrowed pistol to her hip plating and began to access the constructs of the Decepticon network via the terminal fixated alongside the wall of the corridor they occupied.

"Gimme a tick, fancy flagship has a totally different layout than your standard Decepticon vessel." Nautica informed her squadmates as her digits raced over the console keys. She located the control sequence to blast doors built within the walls and made a motion to close them off from their titan-classed attackers.

>>"HEE HEE TRY AGAIN"<< the terminal beeped in a rather upbeat and child-like tone while a red indicator light signaled the femme's attempt to seal the blast doors was utterly ineffective.

"What the hell?" Nautica reinserted her original command into the terminal panel only to receive the same annoying alert once again.

>>"HEE HEE TRY AGAIN"<<

"Spawn of a glit- Fine then, I'll do this manually." Ducking behind Roulette's shield even further, Nautica opened the manual access hatch bolted to the wall. Inside a giant lever was fixated in an upright fashion. The femme wrapped both hands around the switch and pulled down on the lever with all her might. Another faint tremor rolled through the corridor before screeching metal soon joined in the chorus of gunfire.

With the blast doors now closed shut and separating the Decepticon security forces and the small femme strike team, Nautica rose back up to her full height and shook her hands out.

"So, what's next then?"

The Nemesis - Bridge

"What's going on?" Skydive quickly questioned the crew, taking a notice to the random shifting of visual screens around the bridge as the vehicons frantically looked over their information terminals.

"Running diagnostics now, commander. Perhaps it was just a short side effect from when Skyquake took control over the vessel?"

"Let's be sure that it was only that then," The Predator in momentary command retorted as he sat back in the command chair, "Skyquake leaves for a less than a breem and the ship's already starting to act up. Sent a notification to the engineering deck and maintenance officers, inform them to double their efforts in maintaining the Nemesis' prestigious status."

"Aye sir."

"If technical difficulties are beginning to arise, then we'll be sure to spruce this place up to 'fresh off the dry-docks' standards."

"Commander Skydive," a seperate vehicon adorned in a standard maintenance red color scheme began as he swiveled in his chair to face the Predator in charge, "I was answering a distress call from security on one of the lower decks when the line went cold. Should I reattempt connection or continue with your prior command?"

"Try hailing them again, might have just been another glitch in the system." The room fell silent once more before the vehicon turned back to Skydive.

"Cold again sir."

"Rule it as a glitch. Tell maintenance to double check communication systems while they're at it."

Clemency - Graveyard

While Thunderclash hurdled over in grief and despair, Skyquake relished in watching the Avante Garde come crumbling down into the wreckage, adding its yellowy-bronze mass into the sea of decaying starships. The metallic features of the Predator Commander's faceplating twisted as if a sinister smile had been etched beneath that permanent mouthplate of his. The battle continued to rage on around the rivalrous Commanders, Skyquake not taking so much as a glance to notice anything else but the Turbomaster Commander.

"Gone. They're gone."

Those broken words rang out like a symphony in Skyquake's audio receptors. Another satisfying and triumphant chuckle escaped the air commandant's vocalizer as he leaned down and grabbed ahold of Thunderclash's tattered helm, his pointed actuators clawing at his optical covers to force them open.

"And it was all your fault too." Skyquake added on to the Autobot's previous remark, "Face it, Thunderclash, you've finally been bested. Your latest plan to try and out run us has literally been shot down. Without aid, you and your fellow warriors will die here upon this wretched excuse you called a hideaway." Skyquake pulled Thunderclash's head back closer to his mouthplate so that his vocalizer was bit inches away from the defeated Sector Commander's audio sensor.

"You've reached the end of the road. Nowhere left to hide, nowhere else to run. I suggest that if you want to see this lot survive to fight another day, you withdraw them now and surrender to me. Otherwise..." His voice trailed as a technical readout of the Nemesis flashed on Skyquake's other arm panel, displaying how the weapon systems were still active and fixated on various areas around their current location.

"...You get to watch the rest of your crew slowly get picked off; One. By. One."

The Nemesis - Corridors

"Well.... how about we start by buying me a new shield?" Roulette looked at the sorry shape her arm shield was after blocking so many shorts. "She won't be blocking too many more shots not to mention that my alt mode will now look really, really stupid."

She looked towards Nautica.

"Lets go catch up with Elita before the 'Cons throw another surprise at us."

Clemency – Graveyard

This ignorant little femme! After firing off a volley of her magna bombs to intercept his missiles, Road Rage disappeared from sight, and some of the explosives still drifted toward Falcon. He rocketed away to evade them, firing off his missiles to destroy them. Shrapnel flew out at high velocities toward him. Fortunately, most missed or grazed Falcon. Unfortunately, one piece struck him directly in the shoulder. He snarled in agony and grabbed hold of the errant piece of metal. With it lodged in his shoulder, the former predator commander could not move his arm. He ripped it out and tossed it aside, energon now flowing freely from it.

“Oh little Autobot....where aaaaaarrre yoooooou? I have a little present for you. Why don't you come out?!”

Falcon launched off a volley of missiles at random around the area.

“If you surrender, I might not kill you! Haha!”


”I'll get you!”

“Eep!” Moonracer squeaked as Talon transformed and flew right at her. She transformed as quick as she could, but couldn't manage to complete the process before the Predator's blasters struck her. She cried out in pain and skidded off to the side, grinding to a halt amid ship debris.

The green Autobot femme reverted back to robot mode and lifted her sniper rifle up weakly in self defense.

>>”C-Chromia...h-help...”<<


Thunderclash had buried his faceplate into the dirt. It was too painful to look. To watch the remains of his friends and comrades rain down onto the Primus-forsaken dead world. He felt Skyquake's actuator latch onto the back of his helm once more, the Predator's vicious pointed digits forcing him to witness the aerial carnage. The regional commander's vision refused to focus on any one thing. The world was a hazy blur.

”And it was all your fault too.”

Daggers of grief pierced Thunderclash.

"Face it, Thunderclash, you've finally been bested. Your latest plan to try and out run us has literally been shot down. Without aid, you and your fellow warriors will die here upon this wretched excuse you called a hideaway." Skyquake pulled Thunderclash's head back closer to his mouthplate so that his vocalizer was bit inches away from the defeated Sector Commander's audio sensor.

"You've reached the end of the road. Nowhere left to hide, nowhere else to run. I suggest that if you want to see this lot survive to fight another day, you withdraw them now and surrender to me. Otherwise..."

S-Surrender...? Something stirred in him. Something like...like a dying fire stirred however briefly in Thunderclash's broken spark. The Turbomaster's fist tightened slowly, clutching at the dirt weakly. He managed to focus his optics onto Skyquake's proffered arm, which displayed the Nemesis's still very active weapons systems. They were locked onto their approximate location.

"...You get to watch the rest of your crew slowly get picked off; One. By. One."

“No...” Thunderclash coughed out weakly as a gob of energon flew from his battered lips. “No. I will...-gak- comply...” The regional commander opened a comm on a frequency common to all Autobots.

>>”Autobots...This is Regional Commander Thunderclash,”<< the defeated Autobot uttered with as much dignity and fire as he could muster, >>”Stand down. Repeat...stand down and surrender! We've lost this day, but there's no reason for any more of you to lose your lives.”<<

Thunderclash closed the comm line with a bitter taste left in his mouth and twisted slightly to glare up into the sneering, gloating faceplate of one of his oldest enemies. “Call your forces off...I, in the names of my men, surrender...”

>>”C-Chromia...h-help...”<<

“Moonie!” Chromia gasped aloud as the younger femme's distressed vocals buzzed over the comm lines. In response, the chrome femme immediately reached out to Firestar and Lancer, the former of which had just finished loading up Thunderclash's injured forces onto the Avante Garde. >>”Moonracer's in trouble. If you're not busy with something else, go and assist her!”<<

Suddenly, some bright flash lit up the sky. Instinctively, the battle hardened femme's head jerked skyward to scan for oncoming missiles. Her optics widened in shock and despair at the sight that actually awaited her. The Avante Garde. Destroyed. The crew...Nautica! Nautica?! NO! Was she still?! How many had...?! Chromia shook her head violently to clear it. Focus. What...what should be done now? No way to escape or inform Elita...so...

>>”Autobots...This is Regional Commander Thunderclash. Stand down. Repeat...stand down and surrender! We've lost this day, but there's no reason for any more of you to lose your lives.”<<

Chromia scowled at the order. But...bereft of other options...it seemed like the only course left to them. And Elita would never forgive her if she got everyone killed trying to buy her more time for an escape that couldn't be made. She threw her weapons angrily onto the ground and held her empty hands up, standing stock still.

>>”That goes for you too, ladies,”<< Chromia barked out over the comms to the femmes, >>”Stand down.”<< The silver femme glared venomously at Skyquake. Elita, oh for the love of Primus, do not get captured.

The Nemesis--Antechamber

The Decepticon flagship was one terrifying surprise after another. Had Elita not been as battle-hardened as she was, as well-prepared as she had been to undertake this specific mission on behalf of Autobot Command, she was pretty sure the oppressive nature of the ship itself would have swallowed her up within a breem or so of boarding. There was just too much.

But they had fought their way through slag and magma and she had finally found herself outside what appeared to be the room she was looking for. It was nondescript, tucked off to one side of this latest, winding corridor she had navigated. But it was secured. And, more importantly, it was giving off the kinds of readings that Autobot Command had prepped her and her equipment to identify if she was lucky enough to make it this far. Luck had played a role, undoubtedly, but preparedness and experience had carried this day.

So far.

With a final, telltale *whir-click*, the locks on the door released and Elita quickly removed the code-slicer from the door panel and reattached it to her arm. Handy little gadget. One of Brainstorm's undoubtedly.

Stepping inside, the room was black and bare. High-walled and smooth. No crevices or crannies for threats to hide. Just a black rectangle. And in the center? Not a superweapon. Not the Magnificence. Not any of the litany of things that had crossed Elita-1's mind that she and her team had been sent here to retrieve. Instead....a sarcophagus? Was that what that was?

What in the world did you send me here for? Elita thought as she stepped cautiously into the dimly-lit room.

Clemency - Graveyard

Road Rage curled up into a tight metallic ball as Falcon taunted her, unleashing a new volley of missiles. Those taunts were quickly followed by explosions erupting randomly around her position behind the downed craft. None were close enough to cause any major damage, but it was enough to make her overly cautious just in case one of them hit the crashed shuttle. The former bodyguard could, however, feel the heat from several of the detonations, but it was nothing that would injure the crimson femme further than she already was.

As the explosions ceased for a brief moment, Road Rage relaxed a bit, leaning her back against the side of the wrecked shuttle while still clutching her plasma discharge rifle in both hands. She had thus far not received any communications back from any of her Autobot comrades regarding her plea for help. That was not a good sign as it could indicate that the rest had been either captured or killed. Hopefully, that was not the case, but that hope soon faded when she finally received a message from Thunderclash. The Regional Commander was ordering everyone to stand down and surrender.

“No...” Road Rage muttered quietly to herself, unable to believe what she was hearing. The thought of surrendering to this lot was a disgusting one to say the least. Ironically, Falcon had said moments ago that he would consider letting her live if she gave up. Of course, that was not a promise as much as it was a taunt. However, the situation had now changed and not for the better. The former bodyguard had been given a direct order by her commanding officer, one whom she trusted with her life and had great respect for. To continue fighting now could very well not just place her own spark in further jeopardy, but those of her Autobot comrades, as well. Not to mention the crimson femme was in no condition to continue fighting as her damaged right leg still had shrapnel deeply embedded within the knee joint. Thus, she had no other options but to obey her leader.

>>”Understood, Thunderclash.”<<

Pushing herself up to her feet, Road Rage placed the majority of her body’s weight onto her left leg while holding on to the side of the shuttle with one hand. “ALL RIGHT, FALCON, YOU WIN! I'M COMING OUT! DON'T SHOOT ME!” The former bodyguard yelled as loud as she could, throwing her plasma discharge rifle out from behind the craft with her free hand before detaching her magna-bomb launchers and tossing them away from her, as well. She then slowly limped her way around to the front of the shuttle, keeping one hand up in the air while still supporting herself with the other against the hull. The crimson femme peered up at the guerrilla tactician, a look of disdain clearly etched across her visage. “I’m unarmed and wounded, not that you care. Regardless, I....sigh....surrender.”

Clemency – Graveyard

"Ha ha!" Talon laughed roughly as he transformed into robot mode and landed in front of the Autobot.

"Dumb Autobot girl. You don waist my time like that." He angrily swiped at the rifle with the back of his left hand and reached to grab her head with his right.

Clemency – Graveyard

Bumper had been sprinting towards Moonracer when the call came in. She'd saved his tailplate and taken enough time to smile at him-Him! Getting a thumbs up from one of the best sharpshooters in Cybertronian history!-before rushing into the fray. Bumper left the relative safety of Thunderclash's base component after Chromia had bounced out the last injured bot, and pulling his large pistol he made a dash for where he saw Moonracer engaged with Talon. He...he had to do something, right!? She'd helped him and...

Bumper was almost relieved when the call to surrender came down. He had closed the distance, and that guilt pang of relief when he saw Talon seemed to still be engaging the sharpshooting femme.

*KER-CHAK*

Bumper's hefty pistol was leveled at the much larger Con flyer, unwavering even given the situation. There'd be time to be scared later.

"Put her down!" Bumper shouted, "We surrendered, fight's over, so keep your hands to yourself!"


--- ---

Lancer, who'd spent the majority of the fight trying to bullseye a high flying bright pink Con weaving through the air above the battlefield, was trudging up to Chromia on her way to Moonracer when the call to stand down came in.

Lancer's face, the face she made at Chromia, likely would've been the same had the blue Bot slapped her with a rusty mechanafish.

"Stand down? You cannot possibly be serious!?"

Despite her grumblings, Lancer was already lowering her massive weapon and powering it down. Dropping it, though? ...It may just take Elita shouting it in her face to make Lancer do that...


--- ---

The fight seemed, for the most part, over. Good. The Decepticons had won. Ra Ra Ra Go Team, Snare supposed.

But how much of a victory on top of the literal corpses of so many of your own dead?

Snare had spent the majority of the battle harassing the heavy arms femme that had bounced into the scrape, followed by ascending higher up and justifying it by beaming up to date battle telemetry directly to Skyquake. Otherwise, he'd taken a few pot shots at the trailer with the little annoying yellow one in it but, honestly, how hard was he supposed to fight to total what amounted to a field hospital!?

Snare lazily dove to the ground, transforming and landing good and far away from the rest of his teammates. This didn't feel like a victory. So little did these days....

Clemency – Graveyard

"Dumb Autobot girl. You don waist my time like that." Talon angrily swiped at the rifle with the back of his left hand and reached to grab Moonracer's head with his right. The green femme recoiled but couldn't escape Talon, clawing at the arm that head her head. The call to surrender came but she hardly noticed. She had a faceful of Predator thug to deal with.

She heard someone coming to her rescue. Moonracer turned her head slightly to try and see who it was, but she couldn't through Talon's actuator. It wasn't a voice she recognized.

“I-I g-g-give up...Please...”


"Stand down? You cannot possibly be serious!?"

Lancer. Sounding about as unhappy with the situation as Chromia felt. Looked it too. Chromia could only offer the orange femme a grim nod. “Dead serious,” she replied as Lancer lowered her massive weapon. “We don't have a way off this rock anymore.” Chromia nodded up to the debris cloud visible in Clemeny's atmosphere. It was all that remained of the Avante Garde. All that remained of their Autobot comrades still left aboard the ship.

“Frag that Skyquake. Frag him to the Pits and back,” Chromia growled, glowering at the Predator commander.

Clemency – Graveyard

“ALL RIGHT, FALCON, YOU WIN! I'M COMING OUT! DON'T SHOOT ME!"

What?

“What?” Falcon muttered, echoing his thought aloud. One of the quirks of Autobots was that they didn't give up or surrender. Especially not those under Thunderclash's command. Yet the femme's weapons skidded out from behind a wrecked shuttle. Falcon lowered himself closer to the ground and watched as the femme limped around the front of the shuttle to look up at him with the disdain he'd come to expect.

“I’m unarmed and wounded, not that you care. Regardless, I....sigh....surrender."

Falcon alighted on the ground, his weapon still trained on Road Rage. He had a look on his face of someone who was examining some bizarre creature for the first time. He walked up to her and pressed his weapon into her torso while reaching out to grab her face and twist it to the side for a closer examination.

“Ah, that saps some of the pleasure out of our little encounter...” Falcon thought aloud, sorely tempted to do the now helpless Autobot some harm. “Oh, but aren't you a most tempting little target. Well, as much as I'd love you listen to you scream, we should be on our way back to Commander Skyquake. There will be time for us to get...ah...acquainted with each other further on the Nemesis.”

A cruel grin spread over Falcon's faceplate as stepped back and gestured for Road Rage to march toward where Skyquake and the broken Thunderclash undoubtedly awaited them. “After you,” he said, still pointing his missile launcher at the femme. “You know,” Falcon mused, “It's rather fortunate you aren't a Turbomaster. I don't think I could have spared you.”

Clemency - Graveyard

Road Rage had a scowl on her faceplate as she kept one hand held high into the air and the other one pressed up against the side of the downed shuttle craft. Surely, the aerial Predator would see that she needed to lean against something to keep from falling thanks to her knee injury. Both hands were clearly visible with no weapons. There shouldn’t be a problem. Then again this was a Decepticon, one of Skyquake’s minions. They barely followed their own protocols let alone the protocols of surrender. Still, as Falcon landed on the ground a short distance in front of the crimson femme, she held her chin guard up high. She was an Autobot and damn proud of it even in desperate times such as this.

The former bodyguard remained steady as Falcon approached her with a quizzical look on his visage. “What’s the matter? You never seen an Autobot give up before? Well, don’t get too used to it. It won’t become a habit.” Road Rage’s tone was less than giddy as she found this particular Predator to be a disgusting example of a Cybertronian. Unfortunately, she was now his prisoner and would have to deal with the cretin for the time being.

Once he was upon her, the Predator pressed his weapon into her torso, eliciting a slight grunt from her vocalizer. He then grabbed the femme's face and turned it sideways as if to examine her for some unknown reason. Before she could say anything further, Falcon’s words bore into her as his stale breath invaded her olfactory sensors. She did all that she could to keep from purging her tanks at the stench. Road Rage managed with only a slight hint of nausea on her faceplate.

Finally Falcon let go and gestured for her to march back towards where Skyquake and Thunderclash were located, uttering some nonsense about not letting her live if she had been a Turbomaster. “Lucky me,” Road Rage muttered as she staggered away from the side of the crashed ship, now with nothing to hold on to for support. The crimson femme limped forward, slowly making her way around a pile of debris, one of many she would surely encounter. She used the junk to lean on briefly before moving on.

“You know, Falcon,” Road Rage paused as she glanced back over her shoulder at the Predator. “My knee joint’s in pretty bad shape. I doubt I’ll be able to walk all the way back on my own.” The former bodyguard knew she would get no compassion from the Guerrilla Tactician and thus she did not even wait for a response. It would likely be a maniacal laugh followed by some sort of nasty, insensitive comment. Rage would just have to make do as long as she could, ignoring the slagger as she went.

Unfortunately, her joint injury was not going to cooperate today, not even for a little while longer. As Road Rage looked ahead again and stepped forward, her right knee completely failed and gave way beneath her, sending the femme faceplate first to the ground. She felt metal tendons snap in two and servos break off within the joint as she landed hard in the dirt and grime. “Aaaarrrgghhhh!!!” The pain had been bad before. Now it was excruciating.

Road Rage waited for her captor's laughter to begin as she rolled over onto her back and quickly sat up, clutching her broken knee in both hands. Peering up at Falcon with a pained expression on her visage, she managed a slight chuckle when she realized what he would have to do. “Well, this knee joint is totally shot. I won't be able to walk on it at all now. Looks like you’re just going to have to carry me the rest of the way. Surely a big strong mech such as yourself shouldn't have a problem with little ol' me. Right?” The crimson femme smirked as she waited for Falcon's reaction. That smirk immediately turned back into a grimace as intense pain washed over her again. It was now that she wished she had been a Turbomaster. At least then Falcon would've killed her and her suffering would be over.

The Nemesis - Antechamber

Nautica let loose a long and exaggerated whistle as Elita's band of infiltrators entered the room her locating device had pinpointed for her. Inside lay only a large black rectangle, a surprise that left Nautica wondering what kind of supposed trophy room this even was suppose to be.

"Well would you like at that." The engineer murmured as she was still left fascinated with the lone black object center in the room. "Ya know, I think it might be one of those 'astral-obelisks' I've read about. They say it has many unknown qualities that temper with the temporal fabric of space and time itself..." The purple and gold plated femme stated as she approached the strange shape with her wrench held out in front of her. When she was mere meters away from the container, she gave the lone rectangle a tap with the business end of her trusty tool, only to hear the sound of a faint metallic echo upon connection. "Okay, so maybe not as cosmic as one would've hoped to see."

"So what is it were suppose to be looking at here?" Nautica asked Elita-1 as stood beside the black rectangle as she studied its surfacing. "Command wouldn't send us on a wild bantha chase if this thing wasn't that important."

Clemency - Graceyard

Skyquake stood proudly with his boot placed against Thunderclash's back, his main weapon pointed to the back of the regional commander's processor should he muster the strength to try something while the cease-fire was in place. Autobots may have a stronger morale compass, but most could still prove to be tricky. The Autobots as it seemed were still working their way out of their hiding spots as Skyquake's forces sought them all out.

"What a glorious sight to behold." the Predator commander mused, "An Autobot surrender, truly a rare thing to witness." His words stretched out across the littered starship-graveyard, though each word he spoke was indirected to Thunderclash's failure.

"Commander Skyquake!" Stalker shouted as he approached Skyquake's elevated stand, pushing the blue femme known as Chromia up forward. "Our battalion has nearly finished gathering the Autobot forces."

"Excellent work, Stalker." Skyquake congratulated his communications officer. "Hail the Nemesis and have them ready the brig for our distinguished guests. Be sure they make it exceedingly comfortable.

"As you wish, Conmander."

"And you," The Black and Green Decepticon barked, his jade-green optics shifting over towards Chromia as he dropped down to ground-level where his Autobot captives were beginning to gather upon. "You and your kind I know were not apart of the Turbomasters' crew when I tracked them down to this wreckage of a planet." Skyquake let his thought linger in the air for a moment while he awaited for some kind of retort, perhaps an outcry of rage for having been the one to have pulled the trigger on blowing their ship apart, or maybe even some plea for mercy to spare the rest of her femme force from being wiped back into a more rare sight in the Cybertronian evolutionary chain.

"So tell me, runt, are there any more of you running about or did the rest of you die in the ship's explosion? And please, lie to me. I want to see if you're stupid enough to seal away the fate of your fellow Autoscum."

The Nemesis - Antechamber

Roulette sighed in relief. For a moment there she thought Nautica was about to start speaking her scientific nonsense that no one else would be able to understand.

"Can this really be what they want? I would have thought the 'Cons would have had something big and mean to defend it in here."

She asked curiously.

Clemency – Graveyard

Talon looked at Bumper saying the fighting was over like if he could not understand the meaning of the words.

"Yo say fight over but you still aim gun at me." He said in anger. "You dumb!"

He threw the female he was holding at the one aiming a gun at him.