The Energon Pub

Autobase Nu - Command Center

Now that Springer had departed to assemble whatever Autobots he could to reinforce Kup's patrol, Prowl turned his attention to analyzing what limited data he had available on the situation on Nova Cronum's previously secure southern boundary. The sensor grid was still registering intermittent fire; however, the magnitude was a great deal diminished from what it had been previously. Certainly, it was not consistent with what he would have considered an all-out Decepticon attack. Still, he could take nothing for granted; it was entirely within the realm of probability that the fighting had moved to close-quarters, in which case energy emissions would be no accurate indication of just how precarious the situation truly was.

Proximity alerts quickly apprised the analyst of Air Raid's arrival, while automated emergency systems registered the Aerialbots call for repair pesonnel. This was a potentially critical development. The engineering staff at Autobast Nu was already extremely limited, and to the best of Prowl's knowledge they had been working almost non-stop since the battle in Polyhex. Engineering specialists were generally preferred over CR Chambers in such circumstances, as the expenditure of energy was far more efficient. With planetary energon supplies already dwindling again to near pre-Shutdown levels, conservation was considered an overriding priority.

Nonetheless, if their support staff worked themselves into total systems shutdown, they could find themselves in dire straits. One CR Chamber operating at full capacity would be far less a drain on their limited reserves than a dozen or more.

Prowl activated the inter-base communications array. >>Minerva,<< he began brusquely, >>I want you to get the damaged Autobot into the nearest available CR Chamber, and then refuel. If Kup's assessment of this attack is accurate, there will be far more casualties on the way. You'll need to be fully powered in order to deal with them all.<<

Autobase Nu - Medbay

Air Raid quickly helped Sub-Zero over to Minerva then they both lifted him towards the medical table. Air Raid released Sub-Zero onto the table before speaking to Minvera. "Decepticons, Minvera." Air Raid responded. "Weirdwolf and Skullcruncher jumped us on patrol. Is Sub-Zero going to make it?" Air Raid asked. Air Raid had almost depleted all of his energy to get Sub-Zero back to base as quickly as possible. "I have to go. Silverbolt is in trouble." Air Raid exclaimed before he turned, heading towards Command Center to find Prowl.

Autobase Nu - Command Center

Air Raid ran into the Command Center, trying to find Prowl. Once he found him, he started to explain the situation. "Prowl, the Decepticons ambushed us on patrol. Wierdwolf, Skullcruncher, and Mindwipe all attacked from the Rust Sea. There is something wrong with Kup, when I left him he was talking about Priest Kralix, the High Council, and something about pilgrims being slaughterd? Does any of this ring a sensor to you Prowl?" Air Raid asked.

Air Raid asked Prowl, however; he realized he didn't have time to discuss the issue. "I gotta get back Prowl, Silverbolt and the others are in trouble!" Air Raid expressed as he ran off towards the hangar bay.

Autobase Nu - The Western Exit

Juggernaut's giant hulking body arrived at the closest exit towards the shoreline. Appearently, the Decepticons had caught some of them in an ambush or something like that.

Jugger looked around, but could not see anyone else, except a few worker-drones here and there, as well as two Autobots working on a satelite disk close by. He was the first to arrive, it seemed.

Autobase Nu - Western Exit

Coming from the hallways leading to the western exit port of the Autobase stationed nearby the shoreline perimeter of Nova Cronum, screeching and sharp crackling could be heard, accompanied by loud roaring noise. A shape moved under the somewhat dim lighting of the corridor, a bulky, though somewhat curved one.

As it moved, it's outlines slowly became recognizable, taking the form of a vehicle of Cybertronian design, bearing a thick gunbarrel attached to its upper section, two pairs of tracks serving as running gear. The tank, with rumbling engines, made its way outside of the Autobase, coming to a halt near the hulking form of Juggernaut.

Another, smaller and curvier shape sat on top of the turret, a fembot, her visor looking alive and alarmed, both of her hands held two guns with extended magazines. She looked around, scanning her surroundings as they passed the massive exit doors of the base.

"Ain't can believe it!" The tank form spoke, the voice gruff, but with an edge of gentleness, giving away suggestions that the vehicle actually was a female Transformer as well. "We have arrived before Sprigy did!"

"Yeah, the tripler show-off seems to be getting rusty, heh!" The sitting femme said as she hopped off the tank, arriving on the ground gently and with ease, her feet thudding lightly against the metal surface layer.

"I see some flashin' over there Glocksie," The tank spoke again, turning its turret into a particular direction, at a certain point along the shoreline. The smaller fembot's glance slid the same way. "But no can do shootin' from here. Would hit that old story-jukebox Kup or some other guy on our side fer sure."

"Relax for a moment, Ingram," The fembot standing next to the tank said. "If those Cons are tough enough to halt Kup and his whole team, we should move at them all at once. So let's wait for Springer and the rest."

"Right, right, just don't wan'em to get hurt...anymore than they are, that is..." The tank replied, revving its rumbling engines even more.

In fact, both of them had that unmistakable streak of urge and impatience in their voice that everyone had before rescue missions. Standind in one place and watching your mates take the fire could grind up one's neural systems.

Autobase Nu - MedBay

‘He’s going to be fine Air Raid’ Minerva said to the med-bay door. She knew at once she needed to say it out loud to convince herself. Sub-Zero’s armour was mangled beyond repair; she’d fit him out with something after she fixed him. She was in the process of cutting some lose plating off when Prowl’s transmission came through. Minerva wondered why Prowl even bothered, he was a being of logic, yet he still asked her to stand down from her work, surely he must know that Minerva could never do that, not whilst a bot needed her help. His argument was logical, but Prowl would never understand her drive, patients can’t be bunged into a magic get-well chamber and left unattended, anything could go wrong. Minerva simply continued to remove shredded armour from Sub-Zero, knowing Prowl would see her actions on the monitor. After this was over, she’d take the flak, but more important duties occupied her at the moment

Highway Grid - Shoreline

Kup had noticed Mindwipe attempting to do something - he wasn't sure what - to Silverbolt as the Aerialbot commander struggled with Weirdwolf. But whatever it was that the Decepticon had in mind, Kup wasn't about to let him do it unopposed.

Still, there was something familiar about this particular Decepticon. Almost like I knew him well...but not as him...Primus' primary waste processor, none of this makes sense anymore! I'm not making sense anymore! Kup struggled to understand the situation he was now in. Though hardly dimwitted, Kup was not the most cerebral Autobot, nor had he ever claimed to be. He was, at the core of his being, a mechanoid of action. Time may have slowed his reflexes and made his joint actuators a bit stiffer than they were three or four millennia ago, but he would damned if he was going to stand idly by now, confusing as all this was.

So Kup did what he did best. He took action.

"Hey, shrikebat," the ancient veteran growled. "Let's go."

Leaping at the low-flying Decepticon, he let his musket return to subspace as he attempted to bowl the hypnotist over with a vicious flying tackle.

No way in the Pit one more goes down on my watch, damnit!

Highway Grid - Shoreline

Mindwipe was deep in concentration, focused upon overpowering the Aerialbot leader's will when Kup approached. The old Autobot was a skilled combatant. It would have been small matter for him to strike the hypnotist down with impunity.

That is, until he spoke up. The shrikebat was annoyed at having been pulled away from his latest victim, but he was content to further torment the rusty old fool. Kup was strong, but age had made him slow. Rolling with the blow, the shrikebat ably turned the tackle aside.

"Age has made you pathetic...old friend. Yes!" He hoped the sound of his voice would further confuse Kup, and make his victory all the sweeter. Reaching out, he sought to dig his talons into Kup's back.

(OOC - I'm a tad confused, I posted a reply earlier in the week, but it seems it's gotten lost in cyberspace Sorry for the inconvenience)IC

Highway Grid ~ Shoreline

His thoughts were clouded, his actions halted, Silverbolt was trying to fight Weirdwolf, but something was telling him to switch targets, attack Wheelbar instead. His knee stopped in it's tracks, and dropped back down as the the Aerialbot Commander began searching for his gun, trying to look around him to see where it had dropped, still not quite sure why he was so quickly changing targets.

As he twisted to try and look further, the pain in his shoulder intensified, but the sight of his rifle caused Silverbolt to ignore the pain and begin trying to crawl towards it, intent on following the voice's orders and attacking Wheelbar. As he tried to shift the weight of Weirdwolf off of him, the hold that Mindwipe had on the Aerialbot Commander's thoughts was weakened as the Shrikebat was tackled out of the air by Kup, bringing Silverbolt back to some sort of clarity, and allowed him to refocus on his real enemy.

Once more staring at Weirdwolf, Silverbolt resumed his attempts to knee the Decepticon beast's body, this time putting all his force behind his attempted strike on his foe's body.

---------------------------------
Autobase Nu ~ Western Exit

Archangel arrived not far behind Brewer, the pair of them making good time on their journey to the western exit of the base, answering the call from Springer to assist the under attack ground patrol. It seemed the Triplechanger had yet to arrive at what seemed to be the meeting place as Archangel looked round, spotting Juggernaught, as well as a couple of others he didn't immediately recognise.

"Looks like we've got some decent firepower in this group.." Archangel said as he came up alongside Brewer "..Let's just hope it's enough to deal with whatever the 'Cons are hitting us with" The Medic finished, pulling his rifle out of subspace as he spoke, and slotting in the ammunition cartridge, a satisfying click signifying the weapon was ready to go.

Autobase Nu - Hangar Bay

Air Raid had just left the Command Center, after speaking to Prowl to alert him of the situation on the ground, running through the hangar bay, Air Raid transformed in mid-run into jet mode and blasted straight out of the hangar bay at maxium velocity, heading back towards the last known location that Silverbolt had been.

Highway Grid - Shoreline

In the distance sounds echoed of a jet engine, coming into view. Air Raid flew close to the surface as a wild gust of wind blew through the area, doing hard left roll and spinning once before he started to circle the patrol below to monitor the situation. It had gone to close combat and missles would be deadly to his friends on the ground, flying low to the ground Air Raid transformed before he could touch down, his thick metal feet causing sparks to explode on the thickness of the ground as he skidded around 20 yards coming to a stop.

Air Raid pulled his torque rifle to shoulder height and started to run towards the patrol group, sneaking up from behind the group. "Hang on Silverbolt! No piling on! Decepticons!" Air Raid exclaimed as two high powered blasts fired from his torque rifle, both of them aimed at the back of Wierdwolfs head.

Highway Grid - Shoreline

"Old friend? What the Pit are you jabberin' about?" Kup growled as he regained his balance after the tackle. The voice was familiar, somehow...but the old soldier ignored it. Everything was confusing, it seemed. So he did all he could do to deal with the confusion, and blocked out the voice.

It wasn't, at the bottom of it all, his job to diagnose what was wrong with his old processors, or to dissect the strange situation that had occurred this cycle on the shores of Nova Cronum. It wasn't his job to play amateur historian, or piece together the millions, perhaps billions, of individual events that comprised his more than four million years of existence. He did not yet understand what Mindwipe had done, or how he had been played for a fool. But figuring out a hypnotist's tricks was not his job. He was no detective like Nightbeat or a medic like Ratchet. He was a soldier, and a damn good one.

His job was to clobber Decepticons. It was that simple.

Like any damn good soldier should be able to do, Kup could throw a damn good left hook. And that's exactly what flew at Mindwipe's faceplate, with all the force that the old warrior's exceptionally powerful actuators could muster. Balled up in Kup's fist was all the anger and frustration and confusion, like a sack of lead shot that made his hand all the heavier and harder as it rocketed toward Mindwipe's jaw.


"Weakling Autobot!" Weirdwolf grunted in pain, followed by a surprisingly composed, almost soft, "oof!" The tracker's bizarre speech patterns resulted occasionally in such odd sequences, even in the heat of battle.

The Aerialbot's knee caused Weirdwolf to release his jaws from Silverbolt's hide, but relief was momentary at best as the tracker utilized a typically unconventional tactic and transformed mid-struggle into robot mode.

Grabbing at Silverbolt's arm with one hand and producing his thermal sword in the other, the Decepticon attempted to use his tremendous strength advantage to pull the Aerialbot's arm into line for a dismembering blow with his sword. As he did so, however, Air Raid's fire rained down on the two combatants, inflicting additional damage to the tracker's heavy armor and, possibly, to Silverbolt as well. Air Raid seemed to have few qualms about firing into a melee involving his own comrades, even though doing so had already nearly cost another Autobot his spark in this very battle.

Weirdwolf snarled with pain and rage, his grab at Silverbolt's arm ruined by Air Raid's fire. Recovering as best he could, he attempted to swing his thermal sword down at the prone Silverbolt's torso, relying this time on brute strength and a sharp blade instead of an accurate blow.

((OOC: I deeply apologize for posting too much in one day that last time, and I promise you it won't happen again. Sorry!))

Highway Grid - Shoreline
WheelBar saw his moment as Weirdwolf was de-attached to Sliverbolt and took the opening. As Weirdwolf raised his blade to cause further harm to the aerialbot, WheelBar sped across the ground on the two wheels that used to be his feet.

He was planning to ram the Decepticon in the side where Sub-Zero had bitten him, hoping to cause further damage. It wasn't his strong point, tackling an opponent that is, but he didn't have much of a choice with the time given.

Highway Grid - Shoreline

Mindwipe was a skilled melee combatant. His talents with tooth and claw, fist and foot were reckoned on par with the mighty Predacons. He had studied esoteric mystical disciplines, mental conditioning and subroutine feedback techniques.

But right at that moment, all his skills agreed. There was no way he was getting away from that punch. The necromancer's head snapped around as Kup's fist connected heavily. Thrown to the ground by the sheer force of the blow, Minwipe decided it was time to change tactics.

As long as his foe was limiting himself to hand to hand, his own relative lack of firepower was mitigated. It was time capitalize on that. Transforming to robot form, he moved closer to his enemy, spinning around for a sweep kick.

The kick was a ruse. Already moving to take advantage of the feint, the hypnotist resumed shrikebat form, rolling under the Autobot. The hypnotist came up behind his foe, snapping his fangs at the actuators behind kup's knee.

Autobase Nu ~ Western Exit

"You, comrade" Juggernaut pointed at Brewer "you were the medic that treated my friend in the battle. Brewer, right?".
The larger Autobot towered over anyone else in the group and his voice was firm and hardened from a thousand battles, yet there was a slight hint of gentleness in it.
"Any idea how he is? And Maximus?"

Autobase Nu - Western Exit

With a glance at the three Autobots already waiting at the exit and a nod of agreement to Archangel, Brewer answer the comments made, "I'd be intimidated if I were a Decepticon. They look pretty battle-hardened." He had stopped, not too far from the three, and waited for his medic ally to finish catching up.

The sudden acknowledgement of himself by a deep voice, startled Brewer, though. The green mech pointed to himself in a silly gesture of asking 'Who? Me?' while never really saying it allowed. "I repaired Fortress Maximus a bit before he battled with Shockblast. Your other friend is Dogfight, correct? I... can't necessarily say how they are. I haven't seen or heard anything of them. Sorry."

He felt a bit shamed that he - a medic - didn't know about all of the patients. Though, the bots spoken of were most probably in a different area that Brewer hadn't visited. He only hoped any news about them would be good.

Autobase Nu - Western Exit

A small red and blue Autobot stood on a high vantage point near the western exit of Autobase Nu, trying to make out of what in the abyss was going on in the shoreline. All he could see were flashes from weaponfire and an odd explosion here and there. Not like it mattered much. Kup's team was clearly under attack but by how many Decepticons? Clearly not enough to break through, otherwise they'd have done so already. Propably ground units too for there were no seekers soaring across the skies. All hinted to a diversion, it had just taken too long and even he hadn't missed the news of Tagan Heights being attacked by Decepticons. Maybe just a small group of Decepticon commandos to keep Autobots busy here. Maybe just small group... that's almost as bad for us as larger attack. We are being played. Gears couldn't but hate it.

"You two are so miserably cheerful." He muttered under his breath to Ingram and Glock. "You shouldn't be so hyped up on running into the fray. Too many never come back. And with that crazymech Springer leading you the chances are you won't make it back either."



Rust Sea - Several miles from the Shoreline

Unknownst to the Autobots fighting against Mindwipe, Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf, the three Decepticons had not come alone. A large black and purple Decepticon was observing the fight at the shoreline underwater, safe from the Autobot sensor arrays. While his position did not allow him to see or hear much through his own receptors, he wasn't as blind as it appeared. For each of the three Decepticons that were engaging Kup's group were sending him video and audio data through their own sensors. And by the looks of it, they weren't in deep trouble. Yet.

While his battlelust was difficult to keep in check, he knew this operation was a diversion and his sole reason being here was to make sure that the three others would get their chance to withdraw when the time was up. There was no sense wasting three perfectly good Decepticon warriors. And so, he kept observing.

(OOC: NPCing Springer until Armorwind gets back.)

Autobase Tau - Western Exit

"Now that all of you have finally found your way here..." The all-familiar voice of Springer came from behind the gathered unit. "...we should proceed to help out a few comrades."

The green form of the well-known Triplechanger stepped out from behind a wall, easened and seemingly lightly, radiating calmness and confidence and his tone indicating that he had been there way before even the first of the squad arrived. He did not stop to act triumphant about it, though, it was not his style to belittle others.

"Forward!" He shouted aloud, then stepped forward, and throwing himself on the ground, he transformed into his rocket car mode, and with his engines rumbling, he shot off towards the bright flashes along the shoreline, to join the fray.

"Arright, arright!" Came another shout as the Triplechanger sped away, followed by another roar from another engine as the tank in front of the Autobase exit turned into direction and as smaller fembot hoppen up on its turret again, it rolled out after Springer, its tracks screeching against the ground.

"You can be the first one to care about whether we get back or not!" Glock shouted loudly back at Gears, aiming to dismiss all the moroseness of the small Autobot, before they disappeared behind the dust cloud Ingram's tracks kicked up from the sudde acceleration.



Highway Grid - Shoreline

The green rocket car form of Springer came in with tires screeching as it drifted and skidded through the relatively short distance to the Autobot patrol engaged with the Decepticon unit. Relatively short, defined by proper speed, of which Springer suffered no shortage, in neither of his alternate modes.

"Hang on, help is here!" The Triplechanger said as he transformed, picking up the momentum he still had, and grabbing at his energy saber, and stepping over to Orpheus entangled with the beast form of Skullcruncher, he brought down his weapon at the rear of the beastformer, rather to make him let go of the smaller Autobot than to inflict critical damage.

Slower, but not less steadfastly, the tank form of Ingram followed after the sleek and swift rocket car, its tracks thundering against the planet surface, pulling a long drawn out cloud of dust as it rolled forward.

"Tattada-daa-daaa, tattada-daa-daaa," The female tankformer voiced, coming as close to singing as she could. "Time fer some indiscriminate justice!"

"You're on, I'll get the winged creep, you put the little cyberdoggy out of comission." Glock nodded in agreement and bending her whole frame deeply, she kicked herself away from Ingram's chassis, and with a long, easy leap, she arrived just before Kup and Mindwipe.

"Where's your respect for the elders?" She smirked and launched a straight kick at Mindwipe's upper torso, in an attempt to keep him away from sinking his teeth into Kup's leg.

Ingram rumbled onward, in the direction of Weirdwolf, Silverbolt and Wheelbar. Accelerating, she transformed into robot mode and with all her momentum, rushed at the Decepticon and swung a double axer blow at his head, aiming to help Wheelbar knock him away from the wounded Aerialbot commander.

Highway Grid – Shoreline

Skullcruncher clung to Orpheus’s arm even as the Autobot began striking him in the head. He had finally sunk his teeth into a tasty Autobot and he wasn’t going to let go so easily. He continued to grind his teeth into the arm, hoping to maybe bite it off so he could truly eat it.

It was more out of shock then pain that caused Skullcruncher to release Orpheus when Springer struck him. The reptilian Decepticon turned his head to glare at the triplechanger. His glare was quickly followed by a swipe of his tail at the offending Autobot. He didn’t like having his meals interrupted.

Highway Grid – Shoreline

Mindwipe's fangs snapped shut short of their mark as Glock's foot impacted with his chest. Once again he was knocked to the ground. This was getting frustrating. He had half a mind to tear open and drink her energon on principle. Still, two against one would quickly become unpleasant for the necromancer. He checked his HUD.



I need time,the hypnotist thought. I shall have to chance it.

Returning to the air in a flurry of wings, Mindwipe circled low and close. casting his gaze on Glock, his eyes began to glow. "Impudent femme! This is between myself...and Kup. Yes! Are you too cowardly to face my brethren, or do you merely think Kup too...feeble to defeat me?" He focused all his mindbending powers on his next words. "If you have any respect for your elder, you will not interfere in our duel!"

Swooping towards Kup, the shrikebat hoped his powers would be enough to buy the time he needed.

Autobase Nu - Command Center

>>Minerva,>I gave you a direct order. Secure your patient in a CR Chamber and refuel. If you work yourself into primary systems shutdown before the majority of the casualties even get here, then--<<

The tactician was cut off suddenly by a series of automated alerts. The regular status update from Autobase Tau indicated that the Tagan Heights had come under attack from a powerful Decepticon assault force. None of the projections gave much indication that Ultra Magnus and his garrison would be able to hold out without the commitment of additional forces.

Even worse, there were reports that Optimus Prime had journeyed to Moon Alpha to conduct negotiations with Megatron and was now likely under fire, as well. All in all, Prowl's bad orn had just grown inconceivably worse.

Setting aside the problem of insubordinate medics and excessive energy consumption, his digits practically flew across the input panel of the command terminal before him. With their forces now severely out of position and tied up in fighting off the Decepticon incursion from the Rust Sea, they were in no position to offer support to the Heights, or to Prime. It seemed impossible that Megatron should be able to pull off such a coordinated and comprehensive offensive push in the wake of the debacle at Polyhex, but the facts did not lie.

"What is going on here?" Prowl murmured to himself aloud as his processors struggled to cope with the sheer magnitude of the disaster which had--against all dictates of logic--befallen them.

Autobase Nu - Medbay

Minerva was set slightly on edge when Prowl’s message came to an abrupt end, nevertheless she removed the last piece of damaged armour from Sub-Zero’s body. Minerva had been grateful to find that it had taken the vast brunt of the damage. Still there were multiple tears in Sub-Zero’s joints and frame, but worrying Minerva most of all was the fact that despite the energon now pumping into Sub-Zero, the bot was still losing more, and at a rate faster than could be supplied, slowly his life force was fading. Minerva activated all the scanners she could, desperately searching for the source of the leak. When at last she found it, she almost let out a cry of despair. It would take a long time to fix the leak, and she didn’t know if Sub-Zero had enough time left. Throwing precision aside, she began to seal the leak as fast as she could, a proper repair could come later, under better conditions. Deftly Minerva continued to seal as her patient’s time ran closer to zero.

Highway Grid - Shoreline

Mindwipe's claws had done some damage to Kup's extremely durable hide, but Glock's quick attack had saved his knee actuator from the Decepticon's bite. It was probably for the best; whenever Cybertron shifted into its third lunar season, Kup's old joints seemed to creak and stiffen a bit more than usual, and it was that time of the vorn. There was much more than mere old age to worry about at the moment, though. Mindwipe appeared to be attempting to influence Glock somehow, and Kup had no intention of letting that happen.

"Enough with the mumbo-jumbo," he told Mindwipe, drawing his musket again from subspace and swinging its butt at the hypnotist as he swooped in at the old soldier. Using his weapon like a batter swinging at a baseball, Kup had all intentions of knocking Mindwipe down again before he could use his powers on any other Autobots.

Primus knows he's done enough already...sneaky sack of no-good Terrorcon turds...


Ingram's double-axehandle blow caught Weirdwolf on the shoulder. He had managed to turn enough to avoid taking the full brunt of the attack, but even still Ingram's great strength ruined his attack on Silverbolt. Armor plate in Weirdwolf's shoulder buckled somewhat but held for the time being.

"To the left of me Autobots!" he snarled. "To the right of me Autobots! Land a blow cannot without ruined my aim by Autobots. I!"

He swung his thermal sword in a wide arc designed to drive his multiple opponents backward, and then opened fire with his triple-stage guided missiles and photon pistol. Homing projectiles and blinding photon blasts filled the air, hopefully confusing as well as damaging the Autobots around the Decepticon tracker.

"Withdrawal perhaps time it is for," he called to Skullcruncher and Mindwipe. "Brothers!"

Highway Grid - Shoreline

"Too late" Juggernaut transformed to his robot-mode and prepared to swing his shockhammer down on Weirdwolf. The veteran soldier was not going to let those Decepticons get away intact. Even if he didn't hit him, he would create a small earthquake on impact on the ground.

Rust Sea - Several miles from the Shoreline

It was becoming too clear to him through the video feed Mindwipe, Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf were sending him. Despite all of their power the three Decepticon were starting to get overwhelmed. Especially Mindwipe seemed to be in more of a trouble than his physically stronger partners.

Proceeding as planned he opened an encrypted comm-link between himself and the three Decepticons at the shoreline. >>"This little diversion mission is over. I will start bombarding the shoreline in 20 nano-kliks. We will proceed as planned and withdraw to Tyrest. Timer is running."

Autobase Tau - Western Exit

"Oh great. This is just a one big joke to you. I suppose it takes a fusion cannon blast tearing your best friend apart before you realize this is war." Gears muttered to himself as Springer and his team of reinforcements disappeared into the horizon.

Not much later his keen optics could notice the intensity of firefight increasing, clearly Springer's reinforcements had joined the fray. Kup. You better make it old goon. There's been enough misery in this... war... what the slag is that?

Almost as a reflex, Gears launched himself high into the air to get better look at the Rust Sea for he could swear he had seen something rising from the brown liquid. To his horror his optics hadn't betrayed him as the dark figure several miles of the shoreline opened fire and the shoreline was soon enfulged by smoke and bright flashes that hurt his Gears' optics even from this distance. Prowl and Springer had to be informed and quick.

>>"Prowl, Springer! Gears here! The Decepticons have reinforcements! Can't see more than one yet but it is one of the worst kind! For if my optical sensors are not malfunctioning our troops at the shoreline are being assaulted by Clench from the Rust Sea!""<<

Highway Grid - Shorline

Grinning triumphantly as her kick struck home, Glock assumed a stance and moved forward to follow up with a series of straight, swift punches.

But somehow, as she met Mindwipe's gaze for an astrosecond, she suddenly began to feel dizzy and heavy. At the verge of her consciousness, she realized what was happening, and snapped her own optics downwards to escape the hypnotic attack, but she could not shake the effect off entirely.

Noticing, however blurryly, that Kup was already moving in to strike the batformer Decepticon, Glock slowed her advance, and made like being far more disoriented by the hypnotist's powers than she actually was, waving her body slowly left and right, lowering her clenched fists as if she would come to a stop.

But the instant Kup's strike hit the target, she would also dash forward and show that her fists were also as well trained as her legs. And hoped that her concentration wasn't thrown off enough to miss.


--------------------


Ingram smiled widely as her hands clanged hard against Weirdwolf's shoulder, throwing the Decepticon back a step or two.

"You two a'ight?" She asked from WheelBar and Silverbolt, sparing them both a brief glance.

But as she did so, her guard fell for an astrosecond. Weirdwolf's wild slashing with his sword almost struck at her cranial and midsections, forcing even the bulky fembot to make a few steps of retreat.

And at bringing out ranged guns, Weirdwolf also seemed to be quicker. His missile and photon fire peppered Ingram's frame with bright, orange spheres of flame and blue flashes, and though did not deal any significant damage to her armor, threw her back loosing balance and falling on the ground.

Dulling her fall with one hand, Ingram thudded on the ground, but not suffering more than a few scratches, she began to push herself up, drawing a heavy chaingun from subspace.

"Gun-totin' some, I can do too!" She smirked, subconsciously mimicing Weirdwolf's way a speaking.

But before she could release her own firepower, a wide bombardment of smoke and flash grenades streaked across the shoreline, followed by bursts of chaingun fire.

Ingram threw herself back on the ground, covering her cranial section with her hands. Bullets whistled and kicked up dust all over her, some even grazing or actually hitting her frame, peeling off some of her armor plates.


--------------------


It seemed Springer achieved his goal. The monstrous Skullcruncher let go of Orpheus and turned his attention to him, giving the smaller Autobot a chance to save his own chassis.

Springer stepped back and having no time left to escape the tail swipe Skullcruncher attacked him with, he lowered his arm beside his midsection, and braced to withstand the blow.

Even though he did so, the force of the impact struck him back and sidewards with a loud clang and threw him off balance. The Triplechanger made a roll to avoid falling down on the ground, and stood up to face his opponent again.

Oh, just great. He said as he received the incoming transmission from Gears, and as his sensors registered an unidentified craft starting to move in a distance. Gotta keep these Cons away and get out of here with our boys.

The shoreline came under heavy smoke bombardment and weapons fire the micron the thought crossed the Triplechanger's mind. Wasting no more of the time they were already short of, Springer leapt forward and slashed at Skullcruncher's head with a forceful blow, to push the reptilian Decepticon back.

Highway Grid-Shoreline
WheelBar could only cross his arms in front of his head in defence of Wierdwolf's blade. He felt the searing pain as it cut into his left forearm, only the gun compartment concealed inside saving the more important motor functions of the rest of his arm. The force knocking him back, WheelBar landed hard on his back almost with a loud "Thud!"

Before WheelBar could shake of the pain and return to attacking the Decepticon, a series of flashing lights and explosions scatterd his optic and audio sensors, stunning him for the moment. And that's when he felt it.

Peircing shocks of pain shot through his right shoulder and ran down all the way to the end of his right leg. His eyesight started to come back, which is when he say the bullet holes running all the way down his right side. Then, ironically, his hearing came back and he could sense the gun turrent firing farther off, probably injuring more of his comrades.

WheelBar had to get up to help them, someone had to be worse off than him! But nothing moved. At least, not on his right side. He looked over for a second time. His arm and leg were limp.