The Energon Pub

KillZone

Indeed, the Predacons were pretty thuggish, but anybody who could whip those disorganized brutes into a military unit worthy of the fearful titles of "warlords" had to be a menace unto himself. Razorclaw was that mech; the success of the Predacons was a testament to his own ruthless prowess. And he reveled in the power that reputation gave him. More than once he had bypassed a wasteful battle all-together just using the aura of fear he and by extension his team emanated.

Some Autobots were not intimidated by that though. Those were the ones who were eaither very powerful in their own right, or very stupid. From what he knew of Hardhead's reputation, it was a little bit of both. Razorclaw fired off another round of shots where he last saw the Autobot go down. This would be a most interesting match; it wasn't often he was in a fight with someone he was so evenly matched with.

[Suburbs of Polyhex]

The Autobots cover destroyed, Psychout stared with interest as the brave defender vailaintly fought to overcome the feelings of deepest loathing being implanted into its mind. As his opponent lost his concentration in the open, the cassetticon and his hologramatic duplicate shot away the pistol at brewers feet and both versions of him took a step forwards.

"Medical class?" the left hand Psychout yelled unbelievingly. "Autobots send their medics out in the middle of a war zone on their own?? And just who did you think they would send out to find you when you never returned? They have no idea of your value!

He reduced the aura of fear to a low low ebb but held his aim. The Autobot clearly wasnt a combat model and to Psychout killing a medical class transformer was like smashing a peice of fine art, they were too delicate to waste. This one intrigued him, he had an innocent curiosity, and, he hoped, an good scientific mind.

Addressing Brewer directly, Psychout switched off his projected duplicate and stared at him in silence for a lonf second, driving home his advantage, allowing the fear aura to make the confused captive feel enclosed and surrounded.
Autobot! This region is crawling with our soldiers and you are an obvious and defenceless enemy deep in the a war zone, left by your faction to die. Every second you stand there means more and more of my allies are picking up your scent and every minute means you are surrounded by more and more glorious machines of war... Machines of war that need designing and maintaining, building and modifying.

"My name is Psychout. You can try and out run them and probably make it to the edge of the battlefield before they find you, or I can keep you safe and away from this war where your abilies would be fully appreciated and you would have all the freedom you need to explore your skills. If you chose to come with me. Do you understand?"

Suburbs of Polyhex

"No, no, no!" Brewer gripped his head as if in pain, trying desperately to clear his negative thoughts. Those voices, though, continued to speak, giving him more choices to deal with. "I... I have no room for your kind!" He knew there was something wrong with these voices. And then they turned to one voice. What happened to the other?

Brewer looked up and searched around, only able to find one Decepticon. With the lowered frequencies from the enemy, he was able to think just a little better. To join this 'con, or try escaping? He could take some pretty good hits, especially if he kept moving. Again, the thought of the Autobot carcuss crossed his mind. Brewer needed backup - Forte! She was a warrior type. She could at least bring out her worth and distract this Decepticon until he recovered the body.

Without another thought, the S&R Specialist transformed, heading away from his enemies, and drove off, knowing full well - finally - what was going on. Hopefully, he would get out of range before one of them gave chase.

The Killzone

> the transmission ended abruptly as the artillery fire from Polyhex came down on Juggernaut, making the whole hill one damn fine light show.

"Jugger!" Dogfight yelled as he saw his commanding officer and friend disappear in a rain of fire.

(OOC: Dogfight is a generic Autobot that I just made up, no real NPC or anything. Just in case anyone wondered.

Oh, and Devastron... trying to kill my character off in his introduction post? :P )


Skies Over The Maximus Line

The Command Bunker was already damaged before the attack, but now it was unuseable as HQ after the bombing run initiated by Quantum. He and his squadron turned around to face a part of the Autobot air forces that seemingly was ordered to intercept before the bunker was hit. Their efforts came too late and the counterattack did not come as a surprise to Quantum. An Autobot flier had found the guts to challenge him for a dogfight by firing at him. Quantum quickly identified him as one of the Aerialbots; Air Raid.

> he ordered the others as the two air groups clashed.

(ooc:

kencyr and I have come to an agreement that Qauntum and his group was 'just' bombing the Command bunker, not directly targeting Skywatch. This shouldn't make it difficult to correct your posts)

Suburbs of Polyhex

Psychout chuckled to himself as Brewer fled and he activated his radio, a pointless exercise as Mal Practice was only on the other side of the wall, but he liked to feel important.
"Mal, did ya get a look at that rookie? Think of the fun we could have had with him? I'd guess he'll be back with some moral support in about an hour. Shame, he would have been a good one to recruit. How much longer do you need here?"

Mal Practice replied from behind the wall. "Poser!"
"He's done, Ive glued him back together and have left a pleasant suprise inside for our medic friend when he returns. Hopefully it will help demonstrate to him the the errors of working for the Autobots."

Mal stepped out from behind the building, brightly coloured Autobot corpse slung casually over his arm like a cheap jacket. He dropped it unceremoniously onto the floor, a pencil-thin Y-shaped pathology scar ran from its throat to either side of its abdomen where the corpse had been delicately welded shut by a surgical master.

"Nice work Frankencon. So? Where to now?" Psychout quizzed his partner, he was beginning to get bored again, and he had recovered Brewers gun that he had left behind in the confucion. He reduced its power level back to minium and handed it to Mal.

"Well..." Mal turned back to his lab bench and began reading through one of the data screens "We've got reports of heavy fighting on the battlefield itself but few casualties that can afford the treatment, the aerial battle seems to be going well as we outnumber the autobots there significantly, so its go and check on the automated defences or wait here for our friend to return with his mates."

"Not too keen on the waiting idea. Lets leave our new friend his present and move on, maybe the auto defences could use some fine tuning?"

"Ok, hang on..." He used a surgical probe to fiddle with Brewers gun for a second. "They dont teach these medics how to maintain their weapons do they? If he had shot at you on that setting he was just as likly to have blown himeself up. Typical autobot weapons, cheap and nasty."

Mal arranged the corpse against a broken wall so it would be obvious to find and recombining with his lab-bench he transformed to his altmode of an armoured black-ops ambulance, allowing Psychout to climb into the drivers seat and put his feet up on the steering wheel.

"Get your feet of my upholstery and lets go and see how the Polyhex defences are holding out." He announced as they sped off into the distance. "...bloody cassettes, how in the pit did i get stuck with you?"

"Im spying on you for Soundwave?"

As ambulance and passenger argued into the distance, the dust cleared to reveal the dead autobot; its face fixed into an expression of relief and gratitude and laid on a sloping peice of debris, delicately positioned into a crude but obvious outline of the decepticon insignia. Next to its stiffened body laid Brewers now fixed sidearm and a small medical device, like a scanner or a timer, but it was difficult to tell. What it really was was anyones guess, but only a real medic would be able to use it...

(OOC - Just so everyone is clear, Superion has yet to be introduced, at this point, The Aerialbots are just a team of fliers OK, back to the fun) IC

Skies Above The Maximus Line

It seemed as though Skywatch's plan had worked beautifully, as Silverbolt emerged unscathed from the other side of the wall of fire. All those who were previously targeting the Aerialbot Commander had been deterred to continue doing so by the attack from the ground defenses, and as Silverbolt linked up with the squadrons he recently requested, he took the opportunity to reply to Skywatch in regards to his team.

"Don't take it personally Skywatch, certain members of my team often feel they know better or find orders boring and decide to carry out their own orders, rather than those given to them, in my experience, it's better to just let them do what they're best at, they've never let me down yet"

Silverbolt paused while he sent orders to squadrons 2 and 9 to link up with and assist Air Raid before returning to Skywatch.

"Thank you for your assistance in getting me out of my predicament, now it's time for me to help you out. When you get yourself setup once more, be sure to let me know, until then, we'll keep the 'Cons busy"

Silverbolt closed off the commlink to the young Airspace Control 'Bot and opened the taps on his engines a bit more to signify to those 4 squadrons following him to prepare for attack, 3 targets within his sights, Blink, Wink and his opposing Commander, Starscream, were about to get a taste of their own medicine.

Awaiting to see the effects of his strike on Thrall, Slingshot was unaware of the 2 Decepticons closing in on him until he recieved Skywatch's warning. "Decepticons behind me?" Slingshot thought, not yet realising just who those 2 Decepticons were "Probably a couple of lowly grunts with ideas way above their station as usual. I wish sometimes something or someone actually dangerous would come after me" The VTOL jet grumbled to himself, as he slowly turned towards where his attackers were approaching from.

The saying 'be careful what you wish for' suddenly flashed through Slingshot's circuits as he spotted Darkwing and Dreadwind lining up to blow him out of the sky "Wonderful, seems like I've gained the attentions of Happy 'Con, and his twin brother Optimistic" Slingshot mumbled to himself as he began to ascend directly upwards to try and escape the 2 Decepticons attentions.

Air Raid cursed as he saw he was too late to stop Quantum's attack on the Command Bunker, but was glad to see Skywatch make it out safely, and even happier when he saw the incoming Decepticon jets "Me, versus all of you? Now those are odds that I like" The black jet commented, before lining up the closest jet and hosing him down with gunfire, and charging head first through the rest of the squadron, emerging behind them, slightly scarred from fire.

As he banked round to take another run at the next squadron, the 2 friendly squadrons sent by Silverbolt arrived to occupy the attentions of their decepticon counterparts, leaving Air Raid free to take on Quantum "Ah, there's nothing like a bit of one on one dogfighting to get the energon flowing, wouldn't you agree?" The Aerialbot inquired of the Decepticon jet, while readying his missile targeting systems for action.

(OOC - Luciferus, I was looking for a profile of Quantum to see what he's all about, but I can't find anything on him, is he a fanmade or a canon?)

----------------------------------------
The Killzone

As Hardhead barked a quick order at him, Orpheus accepted it and promptly got as much of his considerable bulk behind cover as he could "Preds, Preds, what are Preds again?" He wondered, searching his circuits for the answer, while firing off rounds from his shoulder cannons. Taking a quick break from his bombardment of the Decepticon lines, Orpheus looked over to where Hardhead was firing, and spotted 2 creatures, one who was firing back at the ground assault 'Bot, and another who was tearing through some of the enlisted Autobots nearby.

Even with his limited capacity, Orpheus realised that these creatures must be the Preds Hardhead had shouted about, and there seemed to be 2 of them, versus one of him. That fact was reason enough for the young Warrior to make a decision, and he quickly stodd up from behind his cover and began charging towards the Decepticon that Hardhead wasn't attacking, Rampage, firing as he went, absolutely determined not to let his superior get outnumbered.

The Killzone

Rampage was living up to his name quite nicely as he fought; he was litterally enjoing the feel of warm energon running over his metal skin and armour. However, he was so caught up in hacking away at some poor unfortuante autobot that he didn't notice immediately that Orpheus was shooting at him. Though when he did, Rampage's feral gaze landed on Orpheus and with a snarl he left what was left of the autobot he'd been dismembering and charged straight at him; wielding his sword like the force of nature that he was. Tearing through anyone who got in his way; the predacon was pretty much enjoying himself as he slashed and hacked his way through to the unfortunate person who'd had the audacity to shoot at him.

Though a gunner by training Rampage right now wasn't all that bothered with shooting; instead he was taking and was going to continue to take great joy in destroying the annoying pests that stood in his way. Finnally nearing Orpheus, Rampage used both his hands on his sword and aimed a direct hack towards Orpheus's midsection. A reather demonic gleam in his optics.

Skies Above The Maximus Line

Totally ignoring the other Autobots trying to intercept them, Quantum kept flying towards Air Raid and then suddenly and unsuspectingly rolled to the right, firing his heat-seeking missiles at the bottom of the Aerialbot so they would lock onto the heat-output of his engines, hoping to at least immobilize the mouthy brat.

"Chatting won't win you the war, Autobot" Quantum kept his professional attitude, unwilling to succumb to bloodlust like many of his fellow Decepticons often had the habbit to do in combat. After firing the missiles he made a daring reversed loop, trying to place him behind his opponent.

(OOC: check now)

Skies Above The Maximus Line

"Just once I'd like to meet a 'Con with a sense of humor" Air Raid thought to himself as he recieved Quantum's blunt reply in the form of 2 heat seeking missiles closing in on him "Hmm, heat seekers eh?" Air Raid mused "Well, lets give them some heat to seek shall we?" The black jet fired up the afterburners on his engine and began an attempt to outrun the missiles.

Air Raid knew that this was only a delaying tactic, and that he would have to figure out how to get out of this situation in a way that didn't involve him being picked up piece by piece off the battlefield below, and figure it out pretty quickly. In a moment of rare logic, for Air Raid anyway, the Aerialbot remembered a tactic often eployed by Skydive when he was in a similar situation, and he wasted no time in putting it into action.

Flying directly towards the battle between the Decepticon and Autobot squadrons, Air Raid locked onto the nearest Decepticon grunt and proceeded to fly directly at him at full speed "I hope to Primus I'm doing this right" Air Raid said to himself, as he fired off one of his own heat seekers, far closer to his target than was standard procedure. The 'Con jet didn't stand a chance, the missile blew him to pieces on impact, Air Raid cut off his afterburners, and flew straight through the explosion, followed quickly by Quantum's 2 missiles, which switched targets to the exploding Decepticon, and detonated on impact with some of the molten debris from the explosion.

The shockwave from the explosion caught Air Raid from behind, hitting him with some of the smaller pieces of debris from the inital explosion, damaging his afterburners, putting them out of commission "Ah slaggit, Skydive never gets damaged when he does it" Air Raid exclaimed as he fought to get a steady course back, unaware that Quantum was once again lining him for attack.

-----------------------------
The Killzone

The sheer number of Mechs present on the battlefield meant that few of Orpheus' shots actually met their target, but it had done the trick in gaining Rampage's attention, as the enraged Predacon charged towards the young Warrior, brandishing his sword. Continuing his own forward progress, Orpheus slung his laser chaingun back over his shoulder, it's magnetic clips automatically fastnening it securely to his back, and made his own preparations for some good old hand to hand combat.

The speed that Rampage closed in on him suprised the black 'Bot somewhat, a reaction that only increased when he saw the sword being held by the Predacon heading towards his midrift at high speed. In an instinctive reaction, Orpheus activated the twin blades mounted on his forearms and moved them into a V shape in front of his midsection, catching the offending blade and preventing it from meeting it's target. The look in the optic of his sparring partner was one Orpheus recognised, he'd seen something similar in his own optics before, but not so primal, so dark, he wasn't sure why, but he didn't like it.

With a grunt, the Warrior lifted his arms up, pushing the sword back away from him, and followed that up with a blade strike of his own, aimed for the top of Rampage's left shoulder. Orpehus had never been technically gifted in the art of close combat, but his sheer size and strength, coupled with his vast determination and drive to win, had resulted in him becoming strangely proficient in close combat, though he had yet to face anyone of Rampage's stature.

The Killzone

Rampage's demonic gleam seemed to get worse finnally a challenge! he thought briefly as his blade was pushed back; the follow up attack he had expected from Orpheus wasn't fast enough and Rampage who never considered himself bound by the laws of fair combat was figuring exactly how he should dismantle this autobot. Dodging to the right, he moved out of the way and as he moved he brought his weapon up and struck. However instead of going for he opponents head or torso, Rampage aimed for his enemy's arms aiming to disarm Orpheus litterally.

The Autobot might be good, but Rampage was litterally a psycopath; he simply didn't care who he killed or how he did it. Therefore he wasn't hampered by anything and as such was pretty much a danger to everyone. Once he got into a fight he wouldn't back off, unless Razorclaw made him of course; even then it was difficult.

Skies Above The Maximus Line

"Ah!" Starscream kept getting fire around him from the Autobot ground units, including Skywatch, "Can't you see that I'm retreating!" Starscream kept ascending in order to get out of range from the anti-air weaponry that was threatening to pound him. He could possibly try his original plan to strafe the ground at full speed in order to 'outrun' and fire, but that was still full of risks and Starscream wasn't quite ready to make a brave stand here. In fact, he was content just to pull off and wait for the opportunity to strike at a Autobot target that had been weakened. He also decided to wait until the ground forces took out the anti-air weapons so he could do the easy job of picking of Autobots on the ground.

>>"Ground forces! Hurry up and tear apart the Autobots that are shooting at us up here!"<<

He ordered through his com-link in order to help 'motivate' the Decepticons down below.

Shockwave’s Tower – Command Center

A lone figure stared down at the battle brewing on the outskirts of the city-state. His eyes burned a dark red as he watched the struggle between the Autobots and Decepticons in the sliver of territory that separated Polyhex from Nova Cronum. Many Transformers had perished over that sliver of land before, and he could tell many more would die on this day. Unlike those other times however, Megatron was present to observe the proceedings.

The Decepticon Supreme Commander had taken his personal shuttle from the Kolkular fortress in Kaon to Shockwave’s tower. He had come alone and had not made his trip or presence in the city-state public knowledge, at least, not yet. While he knew his presence here would likely inspire a great many of his own troops to fight harder, some out of respect for him and others out of fear of him, it would also drive the Autobots to fight harder as well. He knew there were a few among their numbers who would gladly give their lives if it meant taking down Megatron as well. There had been such attacks from noble fools in the past. The fact that they had all failed didn’t seem to sway others from trying.

He did not fear for his own life though. He had kept his presence a secret to keep the battle in the current balance it was in. The Autobots had sent a considerable force to assault Polyhex, but it was not as overwhelming as it could be. Polyhex was virtually surrounded by Autobots. An assault from all sides could quite possibly overwhelm the Polyhex defenses. It was even possible that this assault from Nova Cronum would do that, but it was certainly not assure. Prime was holding some forces back, but for what reason? It was possible that the three newest additions to his army were still tying down Autobot resourced in the Heights, but that still left the considerable forces in Iacon. What was Prime planning?

The thought of the Autobot leader caused Megatron to clinch his fists in anger. The very idea that a powered up and glorified librarian could stop his plans for Cybertron, or even slow them down, had seemed laughable a millennia ago. Now here he was with his faction on the losing side of this massive war with the fate of one of their most important bases on the line. The situation was intolerable, but he was already making plans to change the status quo as it was now. He just needed to figure out how this attack would fit into those plans.

He typed in a series of commands on one of the nearby control panels. A holographic representation of the battlefield sprung up in front of him, with various identified Transformers on both sides labeled. As much as he craved combat now, he could not join in this battle, at least, not yet. His presence on the battlefield now would rapidly escalate the battle, forcing the Autobots to try and match the power he brought to the battle, possibly even drawing out Optimus Prime himself. As much as he would relish the opportunity to do battle with him again, the Autobots could escalate this battle more than the Decepticons could right now. He could not risk drawing in additional hordes of Autobots that could overwhelm the Polyhex defenders.

All of this considered, he could still direct some of the defense of Polyhex from this command center. He studied the battlefield for a moment, looking for weaknesses in the Decepticon defenses and in the Autobots attack line. He quickly spotted his aerial attackers assaulting the hardened defenses of the Maximus Line. Apparently Starcream felt the need to fling his troops into the very maw of the Autobot defenses in some foolish effort to gain more glory among the ranks. Unfortunately for him, Megatron was not so eager to sacrifice his own troops in such an attack.

>>”Starscream, pull our air forces back from the Maximus line. You are to intercept any Autobot fliers trying to cross into Polyhex and support our forces in the killzone between the two city states. We are defending Polyhex, not assaulting Nova Cronum.”>”Onslaught, I want you to help direct Polyhex’s automated defenses. Send Brawl into the fighting in the killzone. Vortex and Swindle are to hold back behind the majority of the fighting and recover injured Decepticons. If they see the opportunity to move forward and take an Autobot prisoner, they are to do so. Blast Off is to go back up into low orbit and observe the events occurring in the Tagan Heights. I want to know how my newest troops are doing.”<<

With those orders given, Megatron returned to observing the battle via the holographic display.

As Blink and Wink dropped down on the Autobot jet they found them selves being shot at every direction. Multiple shots hit them. Blink twirls to the right as Wink twirls to the left. They both head to the ground, and Transform as they land.

Blink cliches her fist

"Blasted Autobots!"

Wink looks over to her

"What do we do know."

Blink looks towards the Autobot lines.

"We do another run, but this time we'll carpet bomb them."

"Where?"

"Where ever that fire is coming from!"

Skies over the Killzone

Darkwing and Dreadwind continued their pursuit of Slingshot. As the Aerialbot tried to evade them, they opened fire with their guns, trying to pin him down to a relatively straight course and an easy target for missiles.

“See Dreadwind, I told ya this would be easier.”

“Yeah, it’s nice and easy until his four friends show up and blow us out of the sky.”

Backstreets of Polyhex

Nova Strike had spent much of his time over the past few hours slugging it out with various non discript decepticon troopers and guardian labelled mechanisms. Not that they were guardian class, they just had the word "guardian" painted across their chestplates. The battle had been rather mundane to say the least of it, especially since he had been seperated from the bulk of the autobot forces. Their objective was already achieved, blow up a relatively unused Decepticon transit rail line that could have been used for reinforcement or retreat. Suprisingly enough during that initial advance, he had lost almost all communications with the rest of the strike force, aside from his three other companions; Airflak, HiroDias and Porkchop. Of the four members of the strike party, only Nova Strike and HiroDias were at combat readiness. Airflak was dead thanks to some faulty charge timers and detonators, and a little help from a squad of drones. Porkchop, the team's medic, had suffered an Electro Magnetic Scrambler blast at nearly point blank. It left him in complete stasislock and forced other two to drag him along till they linked up with the main forces.

"So here we are eh Hiro." Nova spoke with a grin as his foot connected with the head of a Decepticon trooper attempting to climb out of a spider hole.

"Yup." Hiro's responce was as quick and as to the point as ever. The shock trooper pulled a thermite grenade from the strap on his chest, pulled the pin and dropped it down the hole as Nova let the lid fall behind it. The sound of the muted explosion and microns of pain and suffering before death over came the wounded brought a smirk of satisfaction to his faceplate.

"How many does that make this time around?"

"This alley? 27 drones, 15 warriors, 12 decepticon armed guards and 2 service trollers."

"Geez so I slipped."

"..."

"Alright so I didn't slip, sue me then. Its not like we gotta answer to that stuck up scrapper Prowl for destroying a simple parked service troller."

"2 Service trollers Sir."

"What ever." Nova's grin was replaced by a faint sign of annoyance. He hated to have his misses pointed out especially when he couldn't help it. "Got a signal yet?"

"Nope."

It was getting frustrating. Hide nore hair of Springer or Impactor, hell even Hardhead would be a nice change of pace... especially if he still had his medical kit. Though with the thunderious roar in the distance Nova could tell they were still far off. "We got two choices, climb that survey tower and get our bearings or go underground and continue forward."

(OoC - Just taking Fireflight over for a little while, hope nobody minds)IC

Skies Over The Killzone

Having initially escaped the threat of missiles, Slingshot was rather annoyed to discover he was now being hosed down by laser fire instead "Argh, that's it, I'm sick of this, if I'm not going to get any help from my teammates, I'll do it all myself" Slingshot grumbled to himself as he banked hard right, planning to turn and face his attackers, so at least he'd have a chance in the dogfight.

Unseen by Slingshot, the help he had just been 'Requesting' was just about to arrive in the form of the often erratic Fireflight "So this is what I'm supposed to be learning, how to get shot eh Slingshot?" Fireflight chimed in as he flew directly at Darkwing and Dreadwind, not quite realising just how close he was until moments before he almost took Darkwing's tail off, just avoiding disaster in typical Fireflight fashion.

"Very funny, crashed into any good walls lately?" Slingshot retorted "Just keep them occupied until I can get them in my sights will you, then you can watch and learn" The smug Aerialbot replied, a reply that was ignored by Fireflight as the resident Scout of the Aerialbots began to bring himself around to take on whichever of the 2 Decepticons would attack him.

No sooner had Silverbolt got ready to return fire then his 3 targets had disapeared. Starscream had headed off in an attempt to escape the constant anti-air fire, and Blink and Wink had retreated back behind the Decepticon line.

"All squadrons, abort attack, seems like our enemy has retreated, for now at least.." The Aerialbot Commander spoke across the Commlink, noting that the 2 squads he sent over to assist Air Raid could do with some assistance themselves "...Squads 3 and 7, relieve 2 and 9 in their battle, the rest of you stay in formation, those 'Cons will be back, and we'll be here waiting for them" Silverbolt finished with the orders, watching the 2 squads break off and head into battle.

---------------------------------------
The Killzone

Orpheus' only weakness in melee combat was already surfacing: When faced with a quick opponent, he sometimes found it hard to actually connect with his attacks, just being purely outpaced by his foe. As Rampage easily avoided his strike, the Warrior couldn't react quickly enough as the next attack from the Predacon was incoming, this time impacting on it's target.

As the Thermo Sword came into contact with his right arm, Orpheus let it be known that it had caused him some pain as he let out a roar of pain as the searing heat from the sword cut through his thick armor and came into contact with the delicate circuits underneath. As the pain coursed through his circuits, Orpheus reacted in the only way he knew how, retracting the blade on his left arm, the Young Warrior swung his left arm in a wide arc towards Rampage's head, attempting to make contact with the back of his now clenched fist.

The Killzone

Thrall grunted as Bane suggested he killed the fleeing Autobot, and simply raising his neutron cannon, opened fire, blowing the unfortunate mech to smithereens. However, his joy was short lived, as he heard the tell-tale sound of weapons fire heading in his direction. In fact, all he could do was glance in the right direction as Slingshot's Mortars hit home, blowing him back several dozen feet into a nearby wall, smashing it entirely and causing the crumbling reminants to cave in on himself.

For several seconds, there was no movement, but then came a loud growl as the Corrupticon righted himself, his entire left side blown open. Even his faceplate was on it's hinges, revealing his voice box.

"zzzxxx... bladdy amateurs..xxzz" he replied, his vocal unit obviously broken as the decepticons around him stared on in amazement: a blast like that would of finished any of them.

Obviously they didn't know the Butcher's legendary endurance.

As they watched, the fluids that were dripping from his side slowly filtered to a stop, and if one were to look closely, tiny wires had extended to the opened peices of metal, the microbots in his system already forming tensile chains to begin repairing his fractured frame. With a grunt, he brought up his hand and slammed his faceplate back into position, striding with a slight limp back towards their position.

"Whichzzz waaaayyzzz now Bane?? xxszzzz..." he asked, cold fury in his eyes after the blow, hefting his immense axe onto his shoulder.


On the Autobot side, Fortress Maximus continued his steady advance, firing his entire arsenal into position after position, decimating the decepticon ranks. Ducking into some cover, he then paused to relay orders and recieve status reports on the battle. So far, most of the Autobot detachments had maintained the battleplan so far, with moderate losses, a few too many to be considered acceptable, but their assault was still as sharp as the moment it had begun. They were almost at the main defensive line.

Thinking back, he noted that their infiltration teams, of which Nova Strike had lead one must of managed to punch through into the main lines through stealth and drop pods, and hopefully weren't taking too many losses. He needed them to weaken the defensive lines for when the Autobot army hit it, hard.

Already, heavy weapons were firing into the decepticon positions, making sizeable dents in the defenses. Above them, Autobot aerial squadrons lead by Silverbolt were providing covering fire, but occasionally a decepticon would slip through to decimate a team. Such was the way of war.

Reloading his photon cannon after a moment to catch his breath, he motioned to an autobot squad to his left to move forwards as, stepping out from cover he provided covering fire, his leg mortars making short work of another position. He had to admit, he was wondering if Shockwave was truely leading this battle. It lacked... his efficency. Instead it seemed to be relying on individual heroics, much like his own combat style, as well as Optimus Primes.

A sense of dread suddenly filled him, as he considered the alternatives to Shockwave. Thunderwing? He was slightly more tactical than this, moving his troops in a more co-ordinated style Scorpanok? No, it would be more brutal otherwise. Somehow, this battle was being fought with the best of all three commander's abilities. It was being fought by someone who was better than the three of them combined...

The final alternative both frightened him, and gave him a sense of anticipation.


Further back still, Hardhead barely had time to throw himself out of the way as Razorclaw once again attempted to blow a hole through his chassis. Ducking into cover, he quickly reloaded his shatterblasters, and ducking out, fired again, surpressing Razorclaw until he could manage to reach a decent enough position to fire his main cannon.

'Lets see ya take this on for size..' he thought to himself with a smirk, loading an incendary round into the bore of his gun.

Backstreets

It had all gone straight to hell.

Impactor had been in the turret controls when the Decepticons had attacked. He hadn't seen them coming, as the bombs had fallen, he had done his best to scramble clear of everything he could, but every twist and turn had been blocked off by more explosions and debris.

His first move had been to the armoury, where he was fortunate enough to liberate a perfectly working laser cannon and some photon grenades before another lucky shot had nearly turned him to molton slag. Finally, after an unbearable run through the bunkers and corridors, Impactor had finally made it to the surface.

Impactor kept the laser cannon strapped to his back, he wanted to keep the weapon as a last resort. He resorted to commando tactics, knifing the Decepticons and their troopers in the back with his harpoon hand, collecting what weapons and ammunition he could.

Then, as he cleared another street, he finally saw a familiar face.

"Nova... HEY, NOVA STRIKE!"

Shockwave's Tower - Command Center

The entrance door slid open, giving a swift, hissing sound, allowing some if the lighting from the corridor to slip into the central chamber.

Then as the shape appearing at the doorway entered and the doorwings slid back to place, the light scattered and gave way to the flashes of the holographic display in the center of the room. The red, blue, green and silver tones representing unit movements in the surrounding area danced on the surfaces surrounding the console, their flickering reflected in two crimson burning optical sensors that were set on them.

The mechanoid who had just entered focused his own, sole optical unit on the sturdy, white-gray figure observing the holoimage, and stepped forward.

The white mechanoid radiated might, power, and inspired fear and respect. Not in a visible way, rather, it was felt around him. He was one of the legendary characters of Transformer history, but the kind of legend that still walked the face of Cybertron. A legend of reality. A legend named Megatron.

To Shockwave, all that mattered little. To him, Megatron was just the most logical of all choices, the only one who possessed more power and more assets to bring order, than himself.

His steps measured, he moved up to Megatron's side. The Decepticon Supreme Commander did not give any sign of noticing him, but the tall, purple Transformer could give a 100% calculation that he did not escape the mighty Decepticon's attention.

Remaining silent, Shockwave stood firmly before Megatron. His sole optic shifted slightly, observing the displayed image before them, moving from one point of the displayed battleground to another, but still did not say a word.

"Shockwave reporting, Lord Megatron," his voice finally came from his vocalizer unit, his tone cold and monoton.

The Killzone

After a longer struggle to further herself into the battle, Forte finally made it to the most deadly part of the fields - The Killzone. Did she really want to be in such a dangerous place, though? It would be possible to actually get 'cons that were far more worth the while. The fembot took cover behind a nearly obliterated corner of some unfortunate building and looked over it every once in a while to see what she could get accomplished. There were mostly just random Decepticons that needed attention now; the other Autobots had already claimed the better enemy.

"Forte!" A male voice called from somewhere in the distance.

Forte looked around, then straight ahead of herself, where someone might actually see her. A good ways away, she saw her favored ally - Brewer - rushing in his vehicle mode toward her. What was he up to?

Once Brewer finally made it to her, Forte pulled him down so he wouldn't be shot, "Back already?"

"I need your help. There are some 'cons in the suburbs that have a corpse. I need to retrieve the Autobot before they do something I really hope that haven't already accomplished." Brewer crouched as he was pulled down.

"And that would be?"

"I'm not too sure, but if my thoughts are correct, they're a really intelligent pair of 'cons. They may want the 'bot for research on our faction."

"And you need my help cause you can't kick skidplate, right?"

"Exactly."

Forte stood and transformed, followed by Brewer, "Lead the way, big and green!" They sped off, dodging the turret fire and missiles crashing around them, and made their way back to the suburbs that Brewer had spoken of.

The Killzone

After shredding the poor Autobot to pieces, Bane transformed back to his robot-mode to witness Thrall being blown into a nearby wall. Bane knew that this couldn't shut down the Butcher and patiently waited for his brother-in-arms to rise again. Which he did. The Corrupticon wasn't in the best condition after this little explosion and Bane silently cursed the Autobot who had done this, as it meant that he had to waste time on repairing the severe damage on the exterior of his bulky friend.

"You look like a mess" he took a look at Thrall who had now got troubles with his vocal unit, sounding like a mix of Soundwave and an Insecticon.

With still a few Autobots around, Imploder and his team had been constantly busy pushing forward.

"Imploder, rally your troops. We will keep up the pace until we meet real resistance" Bane ordered the demolition expert.
"As you command" the other Decepticon respectfully replied and began giving orders to the surrounding Decepticons. The Corrupticons were known to improvize a lot in combat-situations. They were not soldiers after all, but gladiators.

[/u]

The Killzone

"Zzz.. just a metal wound..xxzz" Thrall growled, the holes of his armour slowly and surely begining to close up. In truth, he had no idea how much damage his specialised repair system could actually take, as he had rarely been close to death. Even then, he had lost limbs, even half his torso and yet still managed to pull himself back together, although afterwards he needed many cycles in a CR chamber to reset the damaged joints and connections. Such a little blow, if it hadn't killed him right off, was unlikely to slow him down for long.

As it stood, Thrall glanced over to the decepticons starting to move forwards. Glancing to Bane, he then growled.

"Gonna need a minute..zzz... ter let my.." at that point he paused, as there was an audial blip in his audio systems. "Systems reset.. about bloody time my vox system reinitialised... that was startin' ter get annoying.."

Just then, a barrage of fire hit the decepticon position, and Thrall imediately ducked behind some cover. Imediately, he glanced across, and realised that there was a good-sized force of Autobots coming at them, fast.

"OI! Bane!" he called out. "Fastball special???" he asked. Instinctively he knew the best way to deal with a rapidly advancing foe: attack them from the front whilst hurling Bane so that he could attack them from the rear, aiming with his neutron cannon, he fired off a series of successive shots against their newfound opponants.



Elsewhere, Maximus suddenly realised he had a series of transmitions from Juggernaught, which had suddenly been cut short. He was one of the other bunker commanders who was leading the fight with his men to their right flank, and also one of his personal leutenants.

Opening a channel, he then send a message to him.

>>>Juggernaught.. THis is Maximus.. what's your status? Please comply!<<<

The Killzone

Rampage was thrilled to hear the autobots cry as his sword cut into his arm. With a growl he tried to avoid the swipe that was aimed at him but due to his sword being in the autobots arm the blow landed on his shoulder as he pulled himself free. With a hiss Rampage rotated his shoulder that hurt he grumbled to himself. Aiming truly evil glare at Orpheus; Rampage crouched ready to spring. Finnally when the right moment came (which for Rampage wasn't all that long since he couldn't stand still all that long anyhow) he sprung aiming a powerful blow with his sword towards the neck of his opponent; aiming to decapitate.

Rampage was enjoying himself; even getting a bit whacked didn't bother him. It was rare he was allowed to go out full throttle against an autobot and right now; he was doing just that, a full, no holds bared fight.

Skies Above The Maximus Line

"What?! Megatron?!" Starscream said to himself as he got the transmission. The Autobot fliers where here though and Starscream felt it better to head them off before they entered to killzone. Still, as much as Starscream wished to argue it was Megatron who was going to be to blame if the strategy failed. It made no difference to the seeker commander where he would destroy the Autobot sky invaders.

Starscream opened a comm link to all the Seekers and other Decepticon air fighters in the area.

>>"Pull back to the kill zone. Stay in a close formation around me. If any Autobots flyers follow we'll destroy them!"<<

He banked off and set a course. "Just like Megatron to sit around, bark off orders, while I end up leading our forces in combat to victory!"

[Subburbs of Polyhex]

The night's silence was broken by the screeching of tyres and the clang of high speed fender on an unprepared enemy. Amplified by the enclosed alleyway between two burnt out buildings into which a vehicle had just rammed, thick smoke bellowed from the gaping mouth of the inpasse as an eeire red light flooded the immediate vicinity, illuminating the accrid smoke with a menacing hue.

A deep mechanoid scream flooded the air, chilling the spark of all within earshot and resonating in the wind. Then it halted as abruptly as it began...

Voices argued. A heavy object was loaded, Van doors were slamed shut. An engine revved into life. A small figure could be seen through the smoke getting into the vehicle.

Then, tyres kicking up dust and screaming on the metallic ground, a blacked-out ambulance shifted into reverse and sped recklessly out of the alleyway. It squealed around 180 degrees in a handbrake turn and fired off and into the night leaving nothing but a smoke filled alley and dust in its wake.

The smoke clears and all that is left is some mechanical fluid, the remains of a broken pistol and the return to silence.