The Energon Pub

Incoming Encrypted Transmission from Soundwave

>>Attention: Cyclonus and all Decepticon forces operating in the Tagan Heights. Megatron commands you disengage hostilities and regroup at Kaon. Purpose: reassignment.<<

Autobase Tau - Backup Generators

Skyjack was beginning to formulate a new plan for escape, when the other Autobot that he had seen earlier with Ultra Magnus came into view and started firing into his little hidey-hole. The first couple shots hit the wall off to his left, and Skyjack immediately dove to the floor to get out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, on his way down, he still took a couple hits. One shot tore a hole through his left wing, and the other grazed the plating on his left shoulder. The rest of the weapon fire passed harmlessly overhead as he fell to the floor.

He also received simultaneous comm. signals from both Cyclonus and Soundwave just as he reached the floor. Right. Escape and disengage. Easier said than done. Skyjack thought to himself. However, he did have an idea now that he really hoped would work out the way he wanted it to.

He pulled one of the explosive charges from his compartment and armed it before throwing it past his attacker and into the far side of the room. Now, the Autobots would either have to flee the room, or race to disarm the charge. However, this wouldn’t stop the one that was right in front of him from finishing him off first, so Skyjack activated his flight systems at the same time and charged straight at Monco, his right shoulder held forward. Either the Autobot would move out of the way, or he would shove him out of the way.

Outside Autobase Tau

Afterburner hurtled onwered, SixShot's sonic blasters hammering the ravaged terrain around him as Afterburner swerved wildly to avoid the shots, staying upright thanks only to the adhesive coating of his wheels as he jerked to and fro, valting over obstructions.

He was not unphased however, the sonic concussions battering him as he fought wildly to avoid the main brunt of the dammage, rattling his armor and jarring his internal mechanism, his gyro-scopic balance center sent whirling off kilter and causing the Technobot's vision to swim.

The wildly careening cycle almost seemed intent on locking the armored car into a game of chicken, Afterburner had a very brave spark.. but he was no fool. His vision steadied just enough for a evasive stunt. Jolting upwerds, Afterburner ripped his tires from the ground as he gained some air thanks to transformation boosters, propelling the Technobot just high enough so that when his feet snapped into place he was able to rush headlong over the top of Sixshot.

Yet unsteady, a misstep had Afterburner tripping over one of the many ridges in Sixshot's armor sending the Technobot crashing back to the ground with a pained bark and several curses as momentum bled off in a battering roll. Ignorant of Strafe's the wild gunner had almost tumbled headlong into Strafe's mine, fate stepping in and saving him by a matter of inches.

"That all you got, Jerkplug?!" shouted Afterburner as he staggered back to his feet, sonic blaster in his hand and already firing, the recoil of the sonic blasts further rattling hios already jarred systems, "I've seen half-programed Minibots do better!"

Autobase Tau ~ Backup Generators

Roadbuster grinned to himself as he recieved Magnus' reply, that was what the Wrecker liked to hear, he had a near enough free reign to do what he did best, within reason of course. As the talk between the City Commander and Skyjack continued, Roadbuster slowly began to make his way towards the source of the voice, creeping as best he could, through the darkness.

Catching sight of the direction Monco was raising his weapon in, Roadbuster slowly began piecing together Skyjack's approximate location, the sound of a body hitting the floor only served to further give away the infiltrators position. Planning to try and get round behind Skyjack, Roadbuster's attention was caught by something flying through the air towards the other side of the room, and the sound of thrusters powering up.

Quickly doubling back, the Wrecker made his way towards whatever it was that had been thrown, the little blinking light on the object giving away it's purpose very quickly "Oh slag.." Roadbuster mumbled to himself as he realised things were about to get worse. Without knowing how much time he had, Roadbuster did the first thing that came to him and grabbed the explosives up off the ground, and immediately made a bee-line for the blast door entrance, almost running over Ultra Magnus in his haste.

Slamming his palm down onto the door controls, Roadbuster waited as the doors slowly and painstakingly opened, and with the blinking light on the explosives getting faster as time advanced, he knew he couldn't afford to wait much longer. With the door opened enough, Roadbuster squeezed his arm through and chucked the explosives with as much force he could muster, out the door, and immediately dived back into the generator room.

The explosion followed shortly after, rocking the walls of the room, and sending various bits of debris back through the still opening blast door. Kicking one rather large piece of wall off his leg, Roadbuster quickly got back to his feet and pushed the door control button again to close the doors once more, but they continued their slow progression. Hitting the button again with more force, Roadbuster cursed aloud as the doors once again refused to respond, leaving the only entrance to the room wide open...

--------------------------------
Outside Autobase Tau

"Eat missile fire" Jedishen mumbled to himself as his first launcher fired off a trio of missiles at Cyclonus. His journey had taken far too long for his liking, even though his injuries were legitimate, the Scout still blamed himself for not being quicker. He had forced himself to climb to the tallest building he could find to allow himself the best vantage point to carry out an attack on the 2 Decepticon flyers, leaving the single ground based 'Con to the others who had arrived on the scene.

As his second launcher followed suit and fired off 3 missiles at Scourge, Jedishen swore to himself. Under normal circumstances, the 2 'Cons would have had to deal with twice the amount of missiles, but the damage he recieved at the hands of the 3 Decepticons earlier had wrecked his internal systems, and so he had to make do with just a 3 lock system, which was better than nothing, but still not up to the Scout's own high expectations of himself and his abilities.

Dragging his leg behind him, the Scout made his way over to the edge of the building and steadied himself, before pulling one of his laser rifles from it's mountings on his back, his battered and broken visor flicked down, and attempted to pick up the 2 targets, but without any luck "Screw it" The Scout mumbled once more as he opened fire in the direction of both Scourge and Cyclonus, his missile launchers already slowly adding up another 3 locks, if he was going to be taken out in this fight, then he was going to do as much damage as he could before it happened.

Outside Autobase Tau

(NPCing Nosecone and Lightspeed)

Stormfire pulled up desperately trying to avoid the flying form of Afterburner, the damage was done though, the con had transformed and was on the move in a far sleeker alt mode, greatly reducing Strafe’s chances of hitting him. Spotting Missiles heading towards the con flyers, Stormfire scanned the area for the launcher, and got Jedishen’s signal back.
‘Jedishen, are you all right? What happened after the attack?’
Realising that the damaged scout wasn’t going to last long against two such powerful opponents, Stormfire contacted Nosecone and Lightspeed, ordering them to assist Jedishen. Stormfire levelled off and came around in mid air lining up another attack vector for Strafe to place a mine.

Nosecone received Stormfire’s message and surfaced. He quickly locked on to Scourge and unleashed a volley of missiles in his direction, Transforming, he raced behind a destroyed turret, providing him with some cover whilst he primed his X-ray laser.

Lightspeed was trailing Cyclonus as he moved overhead, upon securing a target lock, he unleashed a barrage of plasma fire and two missiles, he kept moving at almost top speed knowing his life may well depend on it.

Autobase Tau ~ Backup Generators

'Slagg.....out of shots,' thought Monco making the decision to dive out of the decepticon's way. Holding onto his revolver tightly, Monco went to the left to get out of the charging decepticon's path.

'Atleast that I won't Blackout now; that I'm no longer the Barricade. I'm glad that I dodge'd this Starscream wannabe. Also I ain't too good when in a Brawl, he looks like the type to go into a Frenzy. Thankfully he wasn't Megatron,' thought Monco narrowing his eye's at the con during his slight inner monologue.

Outside Autobase Tau

The fire of his rifle halted briefly as Jedishen caught Stormfire's voice crackling through his commlink. His first thought was to ignore it and just keep firing, but the Scout knew he couldn't continue trying to hide his presence from everyone, besides, he had almost emptied the ammo clip in his rifle and needed a reload anyway.

Dropping down into a seated position, his back against a small ledge, Jedishen opened a return link to Stormfire "I'm fine, just a few scratches.." The Scout lied, looking down at the various gashes and melted armor injuries that covered his body "..Now's not the time to be giving reports on what happened, lets deal with our 3 'Guests' first.." Jedishen stated quite bluntly, firing off the last few rounds in his rifle and releasing the now empty clip "..If we both survive this, then I'll fill you in on what happened.." Standing up and forcing another clip into place, the Scout took aim once more before finishing off his reply with a small smile on his face "..It's quite a boring story anyway"

Outside Autobase Tau

Strafe was grumbling about something as he lined up to place another mine on Sixshot. Nearlly hitting Afterburner had shaken him up quite a bit; Strafe was trying desperately to keep calm and to not panic; but it wasn't doing much good. He did manage to keep himself calm enough to do his job but he was almost shaking. Nerves had never been Strafe's strong point and they definately weren't improving now.

Taking out another mine Strafe calmed himself down enough to focus on what he was doing. Ready he aimed and as Stormfire passed close enough deployed the mine as best he could on Sixshot's hull.

Skies above Autobase Tau

With a barrage of missiles coming in and orders passed down from Megatron himself to return to base, Cyclonus saw little reason to stick around. He had wanted to help extricate Skyjack from his infiltration mission, but he and the other two new Decepticons could not keep assaulting the Autobase forever. If he hadn’t already made his move to escape then he likely was doomed to death or capture, in his opinion.

The aerial warrior fired his thrusters to maximum burn, attempting to outrace the various missiles following him. >>”You heard the orders Decepticons, return to Kaon immediately.”<< He raced away from the Autobase, darting between buildings at breakneck speed until he had lost the missiles. He did not come out in perfect condition though as he had taken a bit of a pounding. Scourge pulled alongside him in similar condition.

Outside Autobase Tau

In an instant Sixshot was in his robot mode returning fire at Afterburner while running for cover. He could detect several more Autobots closing in on his location. Perhaps this would prove to be a bit of a challenge for him.

Before he could engage the newcomers he received the signal from Soundwave, followed shortly by one from Cyclonus. He let out a frustrated grunt, but he did realize his own energon levels were beginning to dwindle. It looked like these Autobots would continue to function for another day. He shifted to his starfighter from and took off after the other two.

Outside Autobase Tau

(OOC: there are no new decepticons, Stormfires flaw is making him see things.)

Stormfire watched in disbelief as the three cons suddenly pulled out of the fight. After inflicting such heavy damage and decimating the defences, they just decided to retreat? Stormfire was furious, and as he surveyed the scene of carnage, something inside him snapped, there was no way that the cons would give up now, it must be a trap, Stormfire’s eyes started to change hue, becoming a deep blood red as he succumbed to his programming flaw, it took control of him and Stormfire’s consciousness faded into stasis at the back of his core processor, something else took control, and it wanted to burn, destroy and ruin. Looking out of Stormfire’s eyes it located the hidden Decepticon ambushers, but it was even more aware of the enemy that was on his back. It flew up suddenly attempting to dislodge this menace, whilst acquiring target locks for the other machines in the area….

Autobase Tau – Backup Generators

Yes! Things had worked even better than he had hoped. Not only had the Autobot in front of him moved out of the way, but Roadbuster had opened the doors and thrown the bomb out. Though the bomb hadn’t damaged any generators, or killed any Autobots, the explosion did appear the have damaged the door controls.

Skyjack kicked off of one of a nearby generator, and with another burst of power through his thrusters, zipped past Ultra Magnus and Roadbuster and out the doorway. He didn’t have time to stop and marvel at how things had worked out for him, as he was still inside the base, and needed to leave as quickly as possible.

Skyjack planted his feet on the ground and slid to a stop at the end of the hallway. In order to reach the nearest exit from here, he would need to turn down the right hallway, however he had long ago planned other escape routes in case his cover was blown. He turned and ran off down the left hallway.

Outside Autobase Tau

Strafe had been relieved when the Decepticons had left no-one else was going to be hurt now. Well that's what he thought at first; but when Stormfire started to act strangely Strafe was immediately on edge. "Stormfire?!" Strafe first instinct was to grab hold as the flyer attempted to dislodge him. "What are you doing?!" Now Strafe might be a nervous flyer but he wasn't a stupid one. Something was up and he knew it wasn't good. Strafe held on as tight as he could despite his own damages; he also knew that if he did let go, the impact of him hitting the ground could very well knock him into next cycle.

Outside Autobase Tau

Jedishen watched on as his missile attacks didn't hit their respective targets, annoyed at just how outclassed he and the other Autobots in the fight had been by the 3 Decepticons. For whatever reason though, the 3 'Cons began an immediate retreat, the 2 airborne ones flying at full speed past the Scout, followed soon after by the ground based member of the trio, or he was last time Jedishen had seen him, as he too passed the Scout, he had somehow transformed into a starfighter.

"Good riddance" Jedishen disdainfully commented as his missiles launchers deactivated their targeting systems, his rifle slowly cooling down after several minutes of constant fire. With nothing else to think about, and the energon that had been coursing through his systems driven by the battle slowing down, the pain began to once again filter through to the Scout's attention, reminding him that he needed to get seen to down in the medbay.

As he replaced his rifle back to it's mountings, Jedishen looked up into the sky at Stormfire, who seemed to be having some sort of problem, his flying was erratic and dangerous, and a small signal from somewhere in Jedishen's systems was telling him that something was trying to lock onto him. With all 3 Decepticon attackers gone, the Scout just dismissed it as a by product of his earlier damage and set about trying to contact Stormfire

"Hey Stormfire, you OK? Did you get hit by one of them as they retreated?"

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Inside Autobase Tau

"You have got to be kidding me.." Roadbuster grumbled to himself as he turned around just in time to see Skyjack burst past him and out the open door "..When I get my hands on him, I'm gonna squish his head flat, and then I'll question him"

As the Wrecker ran out the doors in pursuit of Skyjack, he soon realised that getting his hands on him was going to be more difficult than he first hoped. As he jogged down the corridor in the direction of where the infiltrator fled, Roadbuster soon accepted that he had lost his target, and as he came to an intersection in the hallway, he knew that he couldn't track down Skyjack by himself, he had to get some extra optics on the case.

"Uplink? This is Roadbuster, I need your help. The slagging infiltrator has made a run for it, and I lost him around the hallway intersection in sector G-27, are the security monitors up and running yet?"

Up in the Command Center, Uplink had had precious little to do for some time, so as the request came in from Roadbuster, the communications 'Bot was lighting fast in his reply.

"Let me just check Sir..." Uplink replied as he checked the status of the cameras in the sector specified "...Sorry Sir, the cameras in that sector have not yet been activated, but if you want, I can re-route some power from some of the base defences to the security systems, the 3 'Cons who were attacking the Tagan Province have retreated for some reason, so we're no longer under attack"

Roadbuster paused for a moment to take everything he'd just been told in before replying.

"OK, take the least vital defences offline for now, then take note of my position and begin activating the security cameras in the surrounding sectors, I need something on that little Fender-head's location and the direction he's heading in, and I need it quickly"

"You got it Sir, Uplink out"

Autobase Tau - Corridors around Backup Generators

In the darkness and shadows of the hallways that snaked around the Backup Generator chambers, a voice echoed around Skyjack. Perhaps it would be familiar to him, perhaps not.

"Bravo, Decepticon," the disembodied voice congratulated Skyjack. "You've managed to get behind enemy lines and sow quite a bit of panic."

Mirage doubted that the Decepticon dashing around Autobase Tau's bowels would recognize his vocal pattern, not that it mattered. So long as the Decepticon failed to recognize the source of the voice, Mirage was satisfied.

"You only made one mistake," the voice continued, from somewhere behind Skyjack. "You allowed your loyalty and devotion to your 'Cause' inspire you to new heights of sabotage and subterfuge, and in the process, you've gotten in over your head."

Footsteps clanked against the metallic floor somewhere behind and to the left of Skyjack, then faded into silence again. Once more, the voice.

"So now, you have a choice to make. You can surrender, and live, for the time being, or you can continue running. You might manage to escape Autobase Tau. But even if you do, I'll make it my professional concern to find you and render you non-functional. It won't be on a battlefield or in a melee in some dark corridor like this. It will come while you're just reviving from some cozy CR chmaber. A hand over your vocalizer and optics, the soft 'pop' of a sound-suppressed weapon, and everything will go black."

A sharp, short laugh accompanied this promise. "It's not that I like killing Decepticons, or that I even particularly care that you almost destroyed the generators. Consider it a matter of professional obligation. You came and played my game, Decepticon."

In the shadow-strewn corridor ahead of Skyjack, the blue-and-white form of Mirage materialized from the darkness.

"And I do not like to lose."

Outside Autobase Tau

"Y'yeah, you better run, defective peice of Decepti-junk, you tangled with the wsrong Autobot this time!" bellowed Afterburner once he got to his feet, armor cracked and shattered from Sixshot's returned salvo befor he left.

Ba\ttered but unbroken, Afterburner took note of the surrounding area, "Keh, they might aswell have stayed and finished the job." he grumbled as he holstered his blaster and got on the horn.



It is then that Afterburner's transistors start to tingle, that old feeling of trouble, a muttered griunt of question and he turns his view upto the antics of StormFire and Strafe, the two of them jerking around in the sky like a pair of Seekers making out, "What are you two wing heads doing up there!?" bellowed Afterburner, shaking a fist, "We just got our afts handed back to us on a cybertronium platter, now aint the time to gedt frisky!" he continued to shout, "Friggen flyers.."[/b]

Outside Autobase Tau

It was bored of this puny thing clinging to it’s back now; it wanted to get rid of it. It activated it’s lightning gun and at this range there would be no escape for Strafe. As his aural sensors registered Afterburner’s speech, it arced round, and unleashed it’s lasers at the Technobot, but it tired of shooting, it wanted to get in close to rip and break and to hear the screams of the dying. It turned, and headed straight for Jedishen.

Autobase Tau - Corridors around Backup Generators

"Neither do I," came a voice from behind Mirage. Ultra Magnus emerged from the room, his gun pointed directly at Skyjack's back.

Outside Autobase Tau

Strafe huffed a little indignantly at Afterburner's less that friendly shout. It was hard enough holding on as it was; he didn't need a certain annoying team-mate to compound to his problems; not to mention yell obsecenities at him. "Somethings wrong with Stormfire!" he shouted back " He's acting wier...." Strafe shout ended in a scream as Stormfire's lightning gun struck. He tried to hold on; he really did, but Strafe's already damaged systems simply couldn't handle the assult. So he slipped and in no time at all suddenly found himself falling. "Oh...slag" was all he said as the ground rushed up to meet him.

Autobase Tau - Backup Generators

Groaning slightly, Monco picked himself up from the floor and positioned himself with his back on one of the generators.

Bringing his right hand up; holding his revolver tightly, Monco opened the release, swinging the revolving chamber out and pulled on it, taking the chamber completely off the firearm. Reaching into his subspace compartment, Monco pulled out a fresh new chamber and reloaded it back into the gun, successfully reloading his revolver.

'I'm right behind you Magnus,' thought Monco, cocking back the hammer and followed Magnus out of the room, with his revolver up, ready for any surprises.

Outside Autobase Tau

"Strafe!?"

For all his bluster and bellowing, Afterburner -liked- his team mates, they were his buds one way or another and he didn't like seeing them in trouble.. or hurtling towards the ground from great heights.

"Glitched out peice of turn-plating scrap heap, double-spy I'll scrap his defective aft for this!" snarled Afterburner as he burst into motion, racing across the distance on foot, steps smacking heavily against the battle torn field befor he lept up, flipping into a transformation befor he went roaring away on two wheels, thrusters on full burn.

He barely swerved around Stormfire's electric discharge, feeling it crackle against his hull. He was in a race against gravity, luckily gravity didn't have a turbo-powered engine and rocket thrusters.

Afterburner hit his transformation boosters, a nudge up from the ground and he was transformed once more, his brick like physique breaking Strafe's fall and nearly himself, Afterburner laying beneath the flyer, a pained snarl etched across his features.

"Thought you sparking flyers were supposed to be light!?"

Outside Autobase Tau

Strafe had by no means enjoyed the fall but for once was glad to hear and at the end feel Afterburner. Though he did wince as he hit the ground; the force of the impace was greatly lessened and instead of possibly costing Strafe his life; meerly costed him one hell of an amount of pain.

"Ow..." he muttered as he tried to re-orientate himself; however due to previous damages and his fall Strafe systems really weren't in much condition to allow him to do anything. Disorientated and pain fogged he couldn't really move he heard someone ('Afterburner' his memory supplied) comment on his weight and grumbled something barely discernable in reply.

Autobase Tau Corridors

"You got a visual on him yet Uplink?" An increasingly impatient sounding Roadbuster asked "Well, yes I have Sir, but it seems we're a bit late.." Uplink replied as he looked upon a grainy image feeding back from the security camera "..What the slag does that mean kid?" The Wrecker inquired bluntly "Well, it seems that Commander Magnus has already located the 'Con, and he's not the only one, though I can't make out who the other Autobot is..."

Roadbuster stopped his constant movement as he placed a hand to his head, listening to Uplink's words "How in Primus' name did Magnus find him so quick?" Was the first question that ran through Roadbuster's thoughts, but the first thing he actually said was quite different "Thanks for the info Uplink, if Magnus is there, I think this situation is pretty much solved, you can go ahead and return the power from the security cameras to the defences, if anyone asks where I am, tell them I'm down in the Medbay, Roadbuster out"

After a quick response from Uplink, Roadbuster relaxed for the first time in some time, and began to head towards the Medbay for some repairs, stopping in to pick up the fallen Straightline from the Generator room, still confused as to how he'd been beaten to finding Skyjack.

------------------------------------
Outside Autobase Tau

There was no reply to his question, there wasn't even an indication that the question had been heard, the erratic and dangerous flying continued though, and what came next confused Jedishen even more. He watched on as it looked as though Stormfire attacked Strafe first, sending the technobot plummeting towards the ground, and then Afterburner immediately afterwards.

"What the?" Jedishen said to himself as he tried to take in what he had just seen, before once again trying to contact the flyer "Stormfire! Come in, do you copy?! What the slag is...." The Scout, his voice now raised, trailed off as he noticed that Stormfire was now headed straight for him. Without knowing what exactly was going on, Jedishen did what came naturally to him when something was heading straight for him, he readied himself whatever was about to happen. Placing one hand on one of his energon sabers, and the other on one of his automatic laser pistols, the Scout waited for what Stormfire was going to do, knowing that he would only bring his weapons to bare if the flyer left him no other choice.

Outside Autobase Tau

It was pleased that this one would fight, even though it stood no chance, he knew he would not fire at his friend, but he didn’t know his friend was gone, what looked out of Stormfire’s body was not even related to Stormfire, it was something angry and prone to rage, allowing it’s desires to direct it, and right now it wanted to destroy the threats around it, to kill all the Decepticons, unlike Stormfire, it wouldn’t fail. It came to a stop just in front of Jedishen, as hate filled as it was it had little respect or time for honor. It drew it’s first light sabre sword form sub-space and held it upright as it activated the blade, and began to move towards Jedishen

Lightspeed and Nosecone had raced over to Strafe where he had fallen. Whilst Lightspeed tried to help the battered bot to his feet, Nosecone asked the question.
‘What in great Primus’ name just happened?’

Outside Autobase Tau

Strafe whimpered in pain as he was helped up; looking about in mild confusion he couldn't quite seem to get where he was and what was going on. Then again he had hit his head pretty hard; so it took a little while to get some semblance of what was happening back. "Urgh; Stormfire just started acting up when the con's left. I dunno why though..." he trailed off mumbling and leaned against Lightspeed for support.

Autobase Tau

Is that Mirage? Skyjack had never seen that particular Autobot with his own optic before, but he had read the files, and this ‘bot certainly matched the images. The thing was, Mirage, if that was who he truly was, was right. Skyjack had gotten in over his head. His mission in this sector was a simple information gathering mission. Really, he should have used the cover of the attack to return to Decepticon territory with the data he had collected, but instead, he had tried to go for some sabotage. He had run sabotage missions before, but he always took time to plan them out so that he could do the damage he was supposed to do and escape unnoticed. Instead, he had rushed right in without any real plan.

This then went from bad to worse. While he might have been able to take on Mirage by himself, the arrival of Magnus tipped the odds too far against him. How the slag did he catch up so quickly?! However, he couldn’t take their offer to surrender. However, he had another idea that would hopefully buy him a little more time.

“Okay. You got me. I surrender.” Skyjack held his hands out to his sides as he slowly turned around to face Ultra Magnus. He then quickly lifted his right arm to point it towards the Autobot and released a missile from the launcher housed inside the limb. If he was really lucky, the missile would kill the Autobot commander, but he would be satisfied as long as it bought him a smidgen of breathing room.

Just as his missile left the tube, Skyjack leaned back and lit off his thrusters again, launching himself backwards down the hallway.