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Ocean Floor - Near Crash Site

Distracted as he was by the surrounding sea life, the shellfish hidden among the seaweed, the fish swimming past, and the general stark beauty of the aquatic environment, it took Hound a while to realise what was going on. Eventually, the water-muffled sounds of gunfire reached his ears, and he circles about to see the fight, unfolding on the other side of the shio..

I think that was where Hardhead was meant to go. Thinking fast, Hound realises he can't just go rushing into the battle in case the Decepticons are trying to flank them. But he does drive closer to the ship, to give his friends backup.

Suddenly, the forms of Seaspray and the lesser known warriors Waverider and Splashdown emerge from behind the ship and head towards the Decepticons. It wasn't the most sophisticated of plans, but if it took the pressure off Hardhead, it would be worth it.

Ocean Floor - Near Crash Site

When his missiles where about to hit Skywarp, Blackstrike turned around and pulled out his Scatter Blaster. When Skywarp teleported to position the Seeker thought it was behind 'Strike, Blackstrike smiled. "So predictable."

As Skywarp shot at him, 'Strike managed to avoid the majority of the barrage of the rail gun fire, but it was hit by some of the shots. Without wasting time, the Aerialbot grabbed the Skywarp hand for a moment and pulled the seeker towards him, at the same time that he shot his scatter blaster in a semi point blank range, hoping that he would be able to hit the seeker and disable him from battle forever.

At the Coral Reef

Once again Blitzwing was saved by his reflexes. Unable to adjust his course much due to the speed he had already gained through using his anti-gravity boosters, the triplechanger managed to twist his body just enough to avoid the explosive shells fired by Hardhead from hitting hitting him. He did not even want to think what damage the shells would have done if they had hit him. Especially as the shells from Hardhead's 120mm cannon at this range would had enough power to rip through even his integrity field and protective armor while still being able to cause internal damage. Damage that would have been excessive considering that salt water would have been able to enter into his bodywork and get in contact with his damaged interior.

This time such thoughts were fortunately just part of a what if scenario. Following his warrior instincts, Blitzwing had rotated his torso in a manner that allowed him to take a swing with his scimitar at Hardhead as soon as he would reach the Autobot. With the momentum he already had it took only few seconds. With moving being difficult for Hardhead due to Ramjet still clinging on him and considering that the crazy seeker had been forced out of the triplechanger's way by Hardhead's elbow, Blitzwing took the opportunity. One well aimed swing, aided by his momentum, cleaved Hardhead's head cleanly off his shoulders, leaving Ramjet to wrestle with a headless torso.

Using his anti-grav boosters to bring his movement to a halt, Blitzwing ducked behind the same cover Hardhead had used and began to scan for new targets. "One slagger less... Hammerjet, stop wrangling with that carcass! There's plenty of functioning Autobots left to destroy!"

"Like those three!" Blitzwing roared and opened fire towards the holomatter illusions of Seaspray, Waverider and Splashdown whom his sensors could not confirm being just projections. Starscream had not yet signaled for them to start their slowed down withdrawal so Blitzwing was determined to make as much damage he could from his new cover.

[OOC: Outcome of this little exchange between Blitzwing and Hardhead was agreed on beforehand by players of Blitzwing and Hardhead. It is a powerplay that should never take part unless the players of characters involved have agreed on it happening. - Cry]

Inside the Autobot Freighter

Smokescreen had just left the bounce chamber once again with the two empty hover carts in tow when he received Prowl’s reply to his prior communication. Instead of attempting another energon grab, the military strategist wanted Smokey and Brawn to focus on splitting up the ‘cons in an effort to prevent them from securing the rest of the cubes. It was probably for the best as they couldn’t very well transport the energon and fight a battle at the same time.

Suddenly, Smokescreen heard a loud thud and spun around to see Starscream at the far end of the corridor firing off several rail gun rounds directly at him. With little time to react and few places to hide, Smokey quickly ducked down behind one of the hover carts as the armor-piercing projectiles shot by him. However, not all had missed their target. Some of the rounds penetrated straight through the hover cart and out the other side, whizzing right past his cranial unit and torso while another one tore through his right door wing.

“Slaggit!” Smokescreen shouted in pain, as he quickly examined his damaged wing. The wound was minor, but the potential serious damage these rail gun rounds could do was clearly evident. Realizing that the hover cart was not going to protect him, Smokescreen abandoned it and rushed back into the bounce pad chamber just as Brawn was running by him out the door. “Brawn, get back in here! Starscream’s out there firing off armor-piercing rounds! You’ll be a sitting duck-bot!”

The diversion expert then received a new communication from Prowl, asking him if he had the bounce coordinates from the last mission. Smokey quickly opened a secure comm line to the bridge:

>>”As a matter of fact, I do remember those coordinates, Prowl. I’ll set them into the bounce pad’s controls. If your plan is to try and bounce some of Soundwave’s minions to that location, then I’m all for it!”<<

Smokescreen closed out his comm line and quickly entered the prior mission’s coordinates into the control panel. He then activated his shoulder-mounted launchers and replaced both warheads with the net casters that Jazz had previously provided them. His launchers would make for deploying the nets quicker and easier.

Smokey then made his way back over to the bounce chamber doorway. “Brawn, if the opportunity presents itself, we need to try and lure Soundwave’s cassetticons onto the bounce pad. I’ve got the coordinates from the last mission to rescue Bumblebee programmed in there. If we can get at least some of them on the pad, we can then send those little slaggers straight back to that hilltop a few miles from their own headquarters. With them out of the way, maybe we'll be able to just concentrate our attack on the bigger 'cons.”

Smokescreen readied his electro-disruptor rifle and peered down the corridor, waiting for either Starscream or Soundwave and his minions to appear.

Ocean Floor – Near Crash Site

Skywarp frowned as many of his shots missed Blackstrike, but he became even more angered when the Autobot flyer attempted to grab his arm and pull him closer. “Get off me you filthy Autobot! How dare you touch an elite seeker of the Decepticon army?!” Warp shouted as Blackstrike fired his scatter blaster, taking the prankster by surprise.

As a few shots struck Skywarp’s chest plate, he teleported again to avoid the rest and reappeared directly above the flying Autobot. ‘Warp then fired several more rounds from his rail guns straight down at Blackstrike in an attempt to impale the top of his head.

At the Coral Reef

Once Hardhead had fired several of his 120mm explosive shells at the charging Blitzwing, he returned his attention back to Ramjet, who was still struggling with him. “Stupid conehead! You won’t give up will you?” He attempted another elbow hit to the back of Ramjet’s head, but his motion was cut short when he noticed that Blitzwing was suddenly upon him. The veteran’s shells had all apparently missed their target.

“Oh frag,” Hardhead was only able to mutter as Blitzwing used his scimitar to slice the green mech’s head right off his shoulders. The severed cranial unit fell to the seafloor, coming to rest in the mud and sand. Hardhead’s body then went limp in Ramjet’s arms as the Autobot warrior fell into stasis lock.

Ocean Floor – Near Crash Site



When everything seems like it's going perfect, that's when, invariably, things are about to go straight to hell. Hardhead had locked the 'cons in in the perfect position. With the team in prepared firing positions they'd have been able to rip the Decepticons to shreds if everyone had opened fire on command, but apparently they'd all gone deaf - either that or Prowl's damn toy wasn't just jamming the Decepticon communications frequencies. In any case, the hesitation had cost them.

Hellion had darted out of the immediate field of fire, and Ramjet and Blitzwing weren't pinned down anymore. In fact, Thundercracker had fired a torpedo at Ironhide's position while Blitzwing rushed Hardhead along with Ramjet. The veteran only had a microsecond to react, but luckily his old servos were up to the task. He fired a blast from his heavy laser cannon at the incoming torpedo in plenty of time to detonate it before it reached him. It was a good thing too, since Ironhide was sheltering under the freighter itself, a hit from one of those torpedoes had a good chance of igniting the energon stockpile and blowing them all to hell and gone.

The torpedo's explosion sent a shockwave across the battlefield obscuring Ironhide's field of view for a moment - a critical moment. The proverbial smoke cleared just in time for him to see Blitzwing cleave Hardhead's neck.

"Aw slag-it no!" Ironhide cursed, and opened fire once more, pouring every erg of energy his laser cannon could muster into a sustained salvo at Blitzwing. "Shotblur, Hound open fire damn-it! Harhead's down - take these Unicron spawned bastards out!"

***



Ramjet had just engaged with Hardhead, just traded their first set of blows when Blitzwing waded in and ruined the whole thing. It wasn't even that Ramjet wasn't elated to see one of the Autobot's heaviest hitters out of the fight, it was just that he hadn't been the one to do the damage. Blitzwing's gibes as he disengaged hadn't helped matters any either.

Oh he's going to get his, Ramjet thought as he clambered awkwardly to his feet, hindered not only by being wrapped up in Hardhead's still twitching appendages, but by the underwater environment as well. First Starscream and then ol' Blitzy too.

The conehead had hardly regained his feet when he saw a trio of Autobots bearing down on him. Ramjet had no way of knowing they were simply Hound's holograms, so despite what Ironhide may have thought, the little scout was in the battle and making a difference. Ramjet's guns were still offline, but the torpedoes were reading green, so the seeker dropped to his knee and let fly one of those straight at the holographic projections.

Ocean Floor

Krunix watched as Hardhead was removed from the fight, and would have been elated, if not for the trio of Autobot Aquatic forms bearing down on the rest of his comrades, and Ironhide and Shotblur seeming to join the fray. Landing, and taking a few precious moments to adjust himself after using his thrusters for an extended period, Krunix activated his comm.

"All Decepticons, this is Krunix. Set fallback point to Tau, Alpha, Gam-"

<<<SignalFrequency -weak/notfound- Setting Signal...>>

Then it was just static on all Channels. Krunix cursed. The interference from before had been replaced by a full jamming signal. Krunix prepped his aquatic weaponry. The best way to complete his objective now, of getting the Decepticons into a tactical withdraw for the purposes of demolition, was to get as many of them in one place as possible, and to neutralize the more active Autobot threats.

<<Rail Systems - ACTIVE>>
<<Torpedo Systems - ACTIVE>>

Using his thrusters to carefully skirt the ocean floor, Krunix leveled his Railgun attachements at Seaspray and Waverider, and fired two shots in quick succession at the pair of Autobots...

Ocean Floor

"Frag, I got to make him sto-." Before Blackstrike could finish his thought, Skywarp appeared above and shot another round of rail gun fire. 'Strike was able to react fast enough and avoid some of the shots and thankfully, none hit his head, but most of them hit his left shoulder. "Arhhgg!" 'Strike yelled in pain, his left arm was hanging of his shoulder by little piece of metal. Before the seeker could teleport again, 'Strike shot at him with his scatter blaster. He knew that seeker would avoid then, but it would give him enough time.

If he wasn't able to outmaneuver his enemy, he was going to outsmart him. Blackstrike turned around and shot one of his missiles to the ground, creating a big cloud of sand, covering him and everything nearby him. He approached a big rock that was covered by the cloud of sand, and hid behind it. When he was behind the rock, he shot one of his missiles to air, hoping to give away his position. He also yelled at his foe. "Skywarp!!! You're kinda dumb aren't you? Why don't you come for me?, Are you afraid to face me hand to hand? You filthy coward!!" Blackstrike waited, he hoped that his enemy would fall on his trap.

Ocean Floor – Near Crash Site

“Guh!” Hellion let out a pained grunt as she was hit from behind by Ironhide’s blasts. A scowl formed on her face as she turned around. It shouldn’t have really been that much of a surprise that Starscream’s plan had gone to the pit so quickly. She was going to flank Ironhide but Ramjet, bright Decepticon he was, had done his own thing and charged right at him. That had left her hanging out in the water quite exposed to the attack she had caught. Now there were slagging Autobots coming out of nowhere to get the drop on them.

The seeker’s scowl turned into an angry snarl. This is what she had wanted though, a nice, nasty brawl. She could already feel her fuel pump beating faster in anticipation of the fight to come. Her optics glowed a dark red as she began to feel her rage taking over. They glanced around quickly and settled on the Autobot who had shot at her. She recognized Ironhide from their last battle and her anger only sparked more. She had embarrassed him last time and now he was out for payback. He could try and get it all he wanted.

The femme activated her thrusters and anti-grav unit to full and launched herself at the Autobot. She was hoping to shoulder slam Ironhide while he was occupied shooting elsewhere. It would knock him off balance and put her in position for a nice and up close kill.

*

Inside the crashed ship

Soundwave attempted to wave off the cloud of smoke that had enveloped him, but it was a cloying and billowing cloud and would not break up easily. It was fortunate that his skill lie more in the auditory realm then in the visual one.

In response to Starscream’s orders he gave a simple “Affirmative.” He waited until Starscream took the lead before opening his chest compartment. “Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage: Eject. Operation: Search and Destroy.” The three cassetticons flew up into the air, transforming and landing on their feet.

“Slag yeah! Finally we’re seeing some real action!” Rumble pumped a fist into the air, quickly joined by Frenzy. Ravage simply glanced around silently, his enhanced senses already going to work.

Soundwave ignored the comments and simply moved forward to follow Starscream. He continued attempting to brush off the smoke as he joined the seeker commander behind the cover of a corner.

Abruptly the communication’s officer stiffened and his optics flashed. “Autobots attempting full jamming of Decepticon communications.” The Decepticon paused for a moment, his full sensor and communication abilities turning to this problem. It was a short distance jamming field, planted before the had arrived and only activated now. Had it been a simple group of warriors attacking the freighter they would have been fully jammed. Unfortunately for the Autobots, Soundwave was present. It took him a few seconds to filter through the jamming but he was able to override it.

“Autobot jamming overcome. Relaying alternate communication frequency to other Decepticons.”

Soundwave sent out a powerful signal to the Decepticons outside the ship to make sure it got through the jamming field on traditional Decepticon frequencies. >>”Decepticons, switch communication frequency to indicated frequency to overcome Autobot jamming.”<< He passed along the appropriate frequency along with the message before turning his attention back to the battle ahead of them.

He glanced down at Ravage and pointed down the hall Starscream had been firing down. The cassetticon let out a quiet growl before virtually disappearing from sight, his stealth and silent running systems activated.

Ravage crept quietly down the corridor, listening for any sounds and probing the air with his olfactory sensors. He followed Smokescreen’s scent down another corridor, stopping as he located the Autobot peering out of a room at the other end of the corridor. He carefully backed up and signaled Soundwave.

The communication officer relayed the information back to Starscream. “Smokescreen has traversed down a corridor and is awaiting us in another room. Ravage detects the scent of an additional Autobot with him.” Soundwave paused for a moment. “Autobot signals emanating from the forward section of the ship have been detected. Likelihood of additional Autobots in that section of the ship: high.”

Inside the Crashed Ship

Starscream looked away once he saw that Soudwaveand his minions were coming up behind him.He glanced down the corridor once again and poked an arm out and fired a few more rounds down the hall to keep the Autobots pinned down. He listened carefully to the various reports from Soundwave and relaxed a bit when he reported that the Autobots jamming had been countered. Starscream then listened to the reports coming in via Ravage.

"Very well. Our first priority is to eliminate these Autobots ahead of us. We can then proceed to dealing with the rest, and destroying the energon." Starscream thought for a minute, and mentally chided himself for not having thought to bring any grenades. He then formulated a very fast and simple plan. "Frenzy, direct you to direct a concentrated sonic attack at the Autobots in that room and disrupt their equilibrium. Soundwave monitor Ravages reports, and once he confirms that our targets have been destabilized we will rush into the room and neutralize them."

Starscream readied his weapons and waited for Frenzy to carry out his orders.

Ocean Floor - Near Crash Site

As he set the holograms to take evasive manuvers and fire false shots in the general direction of the Decepticon, Hound is distracted by Ironhides command. Hearing that Hardhead may be injured, Hound hurredly complies. >>Moving to Aid Hardhead, sir, but be warned that we could be leaving our flanks open.<<

Driving through the murk into the dust-cloud that the fighting has raised, Hound continued to direct the holograms to avoid Blitzwings and Ramjets attacks, perhaps a little too easily, but when the scout sees whats actually happened, the shock causes the Holograms to freeze for a vital second, and Krunixs shots pass right through the illusions of Seaspray and Waverider.

Barely realising that his decoys have been compromised, Hound transformed and dove for cover, heading into one of the dustier regions for concealment as he launched a guided missile at Ramjet. As soon as he'd fired it, he'd basically forgotten it.

If I can get them away from Hardhead, I might be able to....I dunno, something!! Ratchet will be able to save Hardheads, right?

At the Coral Reef

Blitzwing had no time to notice the communications frequency's sudden change into static. With a gleeful grin on his face, the triplechanger commando had been busy trying to punch the trio of aquatic Autobots full of holes. However, even before Hound lost his focus on the holograms, Blitzwing had noticed his railgun having no effect on the Autobots.

"Hound."

His grin turning into a scowl, Blitzwing began to turn away from the forms of Seaspray, Splashdown and Waverider to face the real Autobot threat on the field. Only be stopped by multiple explosive laser blasts slamming into his chest and crazing his helmet from Ironhide's direction. While the lasers lacked the punch to do serious damage to him from this distance, especially underwater, the blasts unleashed enough kinetic energy to knock the triplechanger down on his back hard. "Slaggit!"

Feeling somewhat dizzy, he crawled back up to lean against the coral reef that gave him some cover from the Autobots Blitzwing couldn't avoid cursing aloud. He had deserved that from being careless. Well, Ironhide would not take him by surprise again, he just had to wait a bit for his audio receptors to stop ringing. However, due to Ironhide's attack, Blitzwing had not noticed Hound approaching his position.

Meanwhile, Thundercracker had decided to offer his brother some help by firing his railguns towards Blackstrike every opportunity he had amongst trying to keep up the rest of the battlefield while browsing through different frequencies in an attempt to establish a new communications link between the other Decepticons. Fortunately he did not have to do it for long when Soundwave's message came through and he was able to lock on the new frequency, allowing his attention to be focused better towards the battle at hand.

Almost every Decepticon expect him were locked in one on one combat with one with the visible Autobots. Thundercracker didn't let himself to get too comfortable though, all Autobots present might not have made their appearance yet and he was not keen on letting his comrades being surprised without at least someone being able to retaliate immediately.

Ocean Floor – Near Crash Site

Skywarp smiled widely as several of his rail gun rounds hit Blackstrike in the shoulder. But that didn’t stop the Autobot flyer as he quickly returned fire, which ‘Warp had anticipated and easily avoided. The teleporter then watched as his adversary dove down towards the seabed, firing a missile that resulted in a large cloud of sand. Blackstrike then taunted ‘Warp with insults, calling him a coward.

“Stupid Autobot slag! I’m not the one cowering inside a dust cloud!” Skywarp shouted as he dove down into the cloud with the intention of tackling Blackstrike. Instead, he was met with the sight of a large rock coming at him. “Fraggit!” Warp shouted as he threw his legs out in front of him and ignited his anti-gravity boosters, which enabled him to slow down some. However, it was not enough as he still hit the rock, but with a lot less force than he would have otherwise.

Unable to clearly see where his opponent was hiding, Skywarp teleported out of the cloud and appeared alongside Thundercracker. “This Autobot is working my nerve receptors.” The prankster said as he heard loud static come across the comm line. He then received Soundwave’s new message and changed his frequency accordingly. Once that was taken care of, Skywarp fired two torpedoes into the cloud of sand with the hopes of either destroying Blackstrike or at the very least flushing him out of hiding.

Inside Autobot Freighter

“I agree, Brawn,” Smokescreen replied to the minibot. “We need an offensive strategy for sure, and more help would be useful.” The diversion expert then received Prowl's response and opened another secured comm line to the bridge:

>>"Sounds good to me, Prowl. But, Brawn and I are going to need some help down here dealing with the 'bigger game'. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated."<<

Smokescreen switched off his comm and carefully stuck his head out the doorway. He took a quick glance down the hall and caught sight of something moving down the corridor towards their position. Smokey quickly withdrew his head back into the bounce room. “There's something out there. I couldn't make out what it was exactly, but I think it might be Ravage! Those stealth systems of his make him virtually invisible, especially in the shadows. If he is out there then we need to neutralize him now before he can relay too much information about us back to Soundwave and Starscream.”

Smokescreen was about to make his move when more rail gun fire came streaking down the corridor, striking the doorframe in a series of sparks. The diversion expert moved back further into the bounce chamber to avoid any ricocheting projectiles and patiently waited until all was quiet again.

Finally, Smokescreen returned to the doorway and looked over at Brawn. "I'm going to light things up a little around here. When I do, be ready with those net casters," Smokey said as he stepped half way out into the hall and transformed to vehicle mode. He quickly flashed his headlights down the corridor, hoping that if Ravage was there somewhere, the mechanical jaguar would become blinded by the bright light and be forced out of stealth mode.

Ocean Floor - Near Crash Site

"Slag" That was 'Strike only thought when his plan didn't work out the way he intended. He became even angrier when the Seeker teleported out of the dust cloud. "What I'm going to do? I can't hit him, everything he sees me and teleports away." Then, it became clear what he had to do, it wasn't going to be nice, but it was the only way he could defeat Skywarp. He prepared, he knew his opponent would throw him torpedoes. He grabbed his left arm, he had so much pain, and waited for the torpedoes. When he saw them, he threw himself to his right. He managed to avoid some of the damage of the torpedoes, but his left arm separated from his body. He shouted in pain, but was able to grab it.

Everything was going according to his plan. Taking advantage of the cloud of dust that was created by the torpedoes, he placed his arm in the edge of the cloud, hoping that his enemy would see the arm and think that 'Strike was dead. He then moved away the most he could from his arm, without losing sight of it, and waited for his enemy.

Somewhere in Mississippi

Blaster was getting irritated. His holomatter avatar had finally gotten far enough away from the incoming humans to allow him to resume his robot form, and even though the earthers weren’t breathing down his proverbial neck anymore, he was still cut off from the battle. There was nothing more likely to put the communications specialist in a foul temper than being out of the loop.

“Steeljaw, get back here. We’re far enough away anyone that if they see the bounce beam, it’ll just go down as another UFO sighting… nothing too out of the ordinary around here,” he transmitted, then opened a channel to the Ark. He was ready – more than ready to be on his way.


Ocean Floor – in the shadow of the freighter

Ironhide grunted as Hellion slammed into him at a not inconsiderable speed. The ‘cons might not be able to fly in the murky depths, but their anti-grav generators definitely gave them an advantage in speed and maneuverability – not that that was anything out of the ordinary. The old warrior was slammed up against the body of the freighter itself, and was forced by the more immediate threat to give up his continuing bombardment of Blitzwing.

“Oh ah remember you girlie,” he rasped locking optics with the female seeker. Ironhide could see the madness and battle lust in her glowing orbs, and for just a moment realized how she might have gotten the better of him before. He hadn’t taken her seriously – she was just a nameless seeker and a femme to boot, but he should have known better. Hell, if Chromia had ever gotten an inkling that something like that had crossed his mind she’d have his guts for garters. In any case, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

For moments that, as they often will in battle, seemed to stretch for an eternity, Ironhide circled the femme, looking for an opportunity to strike, and just as he saw his opening, he received two comms from Prowl in quick succession. Careful not to let his guard down, he opened a comm. and replied tersely “If you can get rid of Starscream and Soundwave great, but if not just kick their chassis. You have ‘em outnumbered – just don’t lose that energon. Ah’m a lil’ busy right now so deal with it.”

“Sorry about that. Ah wouldn’t want you to think ah wasn’t givin’ you my full attention girl,” Ironhide drawled then drove a thunderous punch at Hellion’s midsection.



Ocean Floor – near crash site

With it now apparent that the trio of Autobots he was attempting to engage were nothing more than Hound’s projections, Ramjet found himself without an obvious adversary for the moment. As he scanned the battlefield seeking out the rest of the Autobots in concealment, the conehead saw Blitzwing go down to a barrage from Ironhide. Despite his growing distaste for the triple-changer, he would have engaged the ‘bot who had taken him out had Hellion not beat him to the punch. As it was, the seeker had plenty of time to rub Blitzwing’s nose in it.

“Did you get your bell rung Blitzy?” he taunted. “Guess it’s a bit harder to fight when someone isn’t holding your opponent down for you huh?” Ramjet laughed derisively then kicked on his anti-grav units and launched himself skyward. He wasn’t waiting to see what, if any, response the foul-tempered triple-changer would make – he had more important things to tend to, namely getting his guns back online.

“Krunix, this is Ramjet. I took a bit of damage from Hardhead. I’m getting clear of the battlefield long enough to see if I can’t get them working,” he transmitted to the battlefield coordinator. Despite being brash and more than a bit headstrong, Ramjet was a good soldier, and he wasn’t about to go anywhere without reporting his position. Well... not again anyway.

Incoming Communication from Ark-19

>>”You don’t give up do you? If you want to bounce you’ll have to say the magic word, and the dips at your illustrious landing sight have sent a few loads of Energon here. Now what’s the magic word?”<<

Ocean Floor – in the shadow of the freighter

A predatory grin spread over Hellion’s face as she tackled Ironhide, a slight sense of satisfaction coming over her as she heard him grunt in pain from her attack. She didn’t need any fancy specialized guns or extra equipment. Even underwater her fists and brute strength would be more than a match for any Autobot, even the vaunted Ironhide. Of course last time they had clashed he hadn’t exactly been that much of a challenge. Hopefully he would be more of a challenge this time, and if he wasn’t she would just slag him and move on the next Bot.

The two Transformers separated. Hellion watched as the Autobot circled her, she spinning around to keep her optics on him. She could feel the rage building inside of her, the urge to rip him apart and feel his vital fluids splashing on her hands growing. Her optics shone a dark ruby red as she prepared for her next attack.

The seeker didn’t get a chance to strike. Ironhide slammed his fist into her stomach. It was a powerful blow, causing her to nearly fold in half as it hit her in her midsection. She felt a noticeable dent form in her armor and was pushed backwards in the water. Snarling, she grabbed the Autobot’s outstretched arm and pulled on it, bringing them back together, while she fired off a punch of her own at Ironhide’s face with her other arm.

*

Inside Autobot Freighter

Ravage cocked his head to the side. He could hear the Autobots talking in the room they were holed up in. He couldn’t make out exactly what was being said, the noise from the battle outside making it difficult to make out, but he most definitely heard his name being mentioned. Somehow the Autobots had detected his presence in the hallway, as unimaginable as that was.

The casseticon bared his fangs. If his cover was blown there was only one real option left. As soon as he heard the footsteps of an approaching Autobot he took off at a run towards the bounce chamber. As soon as Smokescreen appeared outside the doorway, Ravage lunged into the air, hurtling towards him, claws and fangs ready to tear and bite into him.

As he hurtled towards the Autobot he did send a brief message to Soundwave. >>”Have been detected. Striking now.”<<

*

Soundwave listened to Starscream’s plan. It seemed a reasonable one, even if it did put himself and his minions at some considerable risk. Of course he knew they would all relish the opportunity and getting into a battle. It appeared that they would be getting their fill of it today.

The Decepticon straightened a bit as he received the signal from Ravage. He quickly motioned for Frenzy to begin his attack even as he contacted Ravage to inform him to deactivate his audio receptors. Ravage had been in enough battles with all of them to know what was coming and quickly complied. They didn't always appear like it but Soundwave and his minions were an effective team.

“Alright! Its time to Rock and Roll!” Frenzy had a huge smile on his face as he quickly dashed around the corner. He didn’t get into many battles, let alone ones where he could really cut loose. Rumble often had the more devastating power, and even Ravage and Laserbeak saw more action then him. He would have to give old Starscream some credit for finally getting him into the thick of things.

“Hey Autobots! Its time to get worked into a Frenzy!” He had been saving the line for ages. He lifted his arms and pointed them down the hall, his internal drum mechanism activating. The sonic vibrations quickly fired out of his fists and towards the Autobots as the walls and floor began to shake from his attack.

Inside Autobot Freighter

As Smokescreen sat in car mode, shining his headlights down the corridor, he received Prowl's latest communication. The diversion expert sent a quick acknowledgment back before opening a secured comm line to Jazz:

>>"Jazz, this is Smokescreen. Brawn and I are in the bounce chamber. Soundwave and Starscream are down the corridor from us towards the rear of the ship. I'm sending you all the necessary coordinates now. Be advised, Soundwave's cassetticons are most likely in the vicinity, as well."<<

Smokescreen then returned his attention to the corridor in front of him when suddenly Ravage appeared out of nowhere and leapt at the red and blue Nissan 350Z. "Brawn, there he is! Get him!" Unfortunately, it was too late for anyone to react as the mechanical jaguar avoided the bright headlights and pounced onto Smokey's roof where he began tearing into it with his jagged claws.

Smokescreen drove backwards into the bounce room and quickly transformed to robot mode as Ravage clung onto his back and began biting into his armor. "Ahhh! Fraggin' beast! Get the slag off me!" Smokey shouted as he continued to try and shake the four-legged cassetticon loose. Then the diversion expert felt the room begin to shake violently as a sonic wave struck from somewhere down the hallway. Frenzy must be nearby, Smokey thought as he began to stumble around the chamber. "Brawn, those vibrations must be coming from Frenzy! Quickly, use your net casters on him while I take care of Ravage!"

Loosing his balance, Smokescreen felt himself falling backwards towards a nearby wall. However, instead of trying to stop his fall, Smokey took advantage of the situation and used his legs to propel himself backwards even harder. As a result, the diversion expert slammed his back into the wall, hoping to either crush Ravage or to finally shake him loose.

Ocean Floor - Near the Crash Site

Skywarp watched as his torpedoes struck the dust cloud that Blackstrike was still hiding in. Consequently, even more sand and debris was thrown up, increasing the cloud's size. 'Warp readied his rail guns as he kept his optics peeled for any signs of the Autobot flyer. Once the dust began to settle, the teleporter noticed a severed arm laying at the edge of the cloud. "There! I got him, Thundercracker!" Skywarp shouted as he pointed down to the damaged limb. "I'm going in for a closer look. Cover me in case the Autobot still functions."

The black and purple seeker then descended to the seabed and snatched up the arm. "Hey, Autobot! You lose something?! Hahaha!!" Skywarp taunted with delight as he peered ahead. The teleporter could just make out the faint outline of Blackstrike, who was still hiding within the dust. 'Warp dropped the severed limb to the ocean floor and stepping on it before pointing his rail guns into the cloud. "I see you, Autobot! Come on out of there and get your arm! It's right here waiting for you!"

Ocean Floor

Krunix, moving a few meters closer to the ongoing engagements, tapped his comm line active, " Ramjet, message recieved, fall back to just beyond my location, and I'll cover you." Ramjet, like many Seekers Krunix knew, was a thug and battlefield bully, but he was a fellow Decepticon and he knew when to fight and when to fix. That Krunix could respect, given the overzealous nature of most Seekers.

Krunix tuned his comm back up to the Decepticon-wide Bandwidth, "Skywarp, Thundercracker: The Autobots are using holograms in the field. Chose targets carefully. Blitzwing, suggest moving to assist Hellion with her target, if you're operable enough. If not, fall back with Ramjet for field repairs. No further orders from Starscream or Soundwave."

Krunix consulted his HUD and looked over the data-stream from the battle so far, then flipped his comm back on, "Be advised, battlefield telemetry suggests that there is one, possibly two, Autobots currently unaccounted for outside of the ship. If anyone spots the hologram-operator, suggest engaging immediately above all other targets."

Surveying the site, Krunix couldn't help but feel that, no matter what damage the Decepticons inflicted here, they wouldn't be leaving with the mission's primary objective...

Incoming Transmission
>>Brawn, I'll move the energon to a storage room here and then bounce over to you. Assuming there is still fun to be had.<<

OOC: No Sigs in RPG forums please -Devastron

Ocean Floor - Near the Crash Site

The first thing Blaster realized when the silvery light of the transport beam disappeared was that he was in the water, not on the bounce platform of the freighter as he’d expected. The second was that there were Decepticons everywhere. The communications expert wasted no time with curses, though he fully intended to let Hex have it when he got his hands on the little jerk, he just ran for cover, ducking behind the first rock he could find.

When no immediate fire blasted his location, he quickly took in the battlefield situation.
Ironhide was locked in combat with a female seeker. Blitzwing was in the middle of what was obviously the center of the battlefield, not far from - damn - Hardhead’s stasis-locked, headless body. Further back, he could see Skywarp and Thundercracker engaged with some ‘bot he wasn’t familiar with, and beyond them a Decepticon newcomer and Ramjet. He knew Hound was present somewhere from monitoring communications earlier, but, for now, the scout was nowhere in sight.

“Well this is just wonderful,” he muttered, then forced a grin and stepped into the character that everyone expected from him, the heroic and unflappable Voice of the Autobots.

“DON’T WORRY THE CALVARY’S HERE!” he bellowed, amplifying his voice so it could be heard all over the battlefield. He fully expected to draw fire, but that was all part of the plan, since he really was a walking squad of reinforcements. “Okay guys get your butts out here,” he said in a more normal tone, opening his chest cavity and ejecting his cassetobots. As they transformed, he began issuing orders, “Eject help me keep Thundercracker and Skywarp back. Ramhorn see what you can do with Blitzwing. Rewind, Steeljaw, see if you can get to Hardhead and get him out of here.”

“’Bout damn time,” Ramhorn growled, as he lowered his horn for a charge straight towards Blitzwing’s prone form. Only seconds later, Blaster and Eject rose up and began firing at Thundercracker and Skywarp, the range and environment would decrease their weapons efficacy, but they were just trying to keep the seekers busy and away from Blackstrike. Meanwhile Rewind and Steeljaw crept off through the seaweed and coral, attempting to circle around without being seen to rescue Hardhead.

***

Ironhide’s head snapped to the side as Hellion’s fist slammed into the side of his face. The femme was strong, especially for a seeker, and there was no doubt that she hit hard, but she could pound her fists into his armor from now until entropy set in before she’d ever penetrate. They didn’t call him Ironhide for nothing.

The old warrior waded in again, swinging a massive roundhouse at Hellion, but her superior speed combined with the drag of the water on Ironhide’s blocky form allowed her to duck under the blow. She launched herself upwards driving her fists into Ironhide’s middle, but once again his armor held, though the force of the blow lifted him from the ground.

As he descended, he drove an elbow into the back of the femme’s head, but she seemed little worse for the wear from the powerful blow, accepting the hit and spinning round slashing at Ironhide with the razor-like edges of her wings. The old ‘bot got his guard up just in time, blocking the edge with his fore-arm and suffering no more damage than some chipped paint.

Despite the situation, Ironhide was actually enjoying the fight. The femme was durable enough to give him a good tussle – it reminded him of sparring sessions with Chromia long ago back on Cybertron. He fully expected the fight to last a while and was just warming up to it when an internal alert flashed in front of his optics.

<<Warning: Seal compromised. Leak eminent.>>

As he continued to trade blows with Hellion, the old mech ran a quick diagnostic. The damaged seal was in his neck. It was the cybertronian equivalent of a rubber gasket, and had likely torn in the first seconds of the battle when Hellion had snapped his head around. In a normal environment, it wouldn’t have mattered at all, but in this watery hell, a minor failure like this one would lead to salt-water invading his circuits and probably major systems failure. That all meant one thing – he had to end the fight quickly.

“Yer real good girlie,” Ironhide said, catching one of Hellion’s arms with his right hand as he retracted his left, bringing his famous watergun to bear. “Thing is ah fight dirty,” he added as shoved his left arm forward, holding the barrel of the chemical-inducer only centimeters from her face, and firing a stream of molten lead.

OOC - the exchange between Ironhide and Hellion was agreed upon by Devastron and I.

Inside Autobot Freighter

Frenzy laughed as Brawn began charging at him. “Stupid slaggin’ Autobot, guess you feel like getting deactivated today huh?” The cassetticon focused his sonic attack on the approaching Autobot. The virbrations intensified, the decibels reaching the hundreds in volume. It was likely more then enough to blow out a Transformer’s audio receptors, let alone cause plenty of physical damage. The effect would only intensify the closer Brawn got.

*

Ravage clawed and bit Smokescreen, attempting to inflict as much damage as he could on the Autobot even while still somewhat blinded from Smokescreen’s headlights being flashed at him. Being smaller and possessing only four legs somewhat limited his fighting ability, but he more then made up for that with ferocity, speed and skill. He was making some progress against Smokescreen when the Autobot attempted to slam him up against the wall. The cassetticon attempt to scramble out of the way but his he was slow to see the attack coming due to his still dazzled vision. He took a bit of a blow as his rear legs were sandwiched between the Autobot and the wall.

The cassetticon quickly slipped loose, his rear legs dented up a bit, slightly limiting his mobility. It didn’t slow down his attack however. With a snarl and growl he leapt at Smokescreen again, this time at his front side, aiming to wrap his jaws around the Autobot’s neck.

*

Soundwave wasn’t happy at the progress Ravage and Frenzy were making. They had apparently underestimated the Autobots pitted against them. It wasn’t impossible that Ravage had not detected all of the Autobots. The communications expert did no there was at least one other group of Autobots on board the vessel, it could be possible that they had somehow gotten around them. While Starscream seemed unconcerned about this other group of Autobots they remained in the forefront of his mind.

The Decepticon looked down at Rumble who was impatiently waiting to join in the battle. He gestured down the hall towards the battle. Rumble smirked and grabbed his twin lasers. He charged down the hall blazing away, but careful to avoid shooting Frenzy.

As Rumble charged off to join the fray against the Autobots Soundwave detected something coming behind him. His auditory sensors picked up faint footsteps after he filtered out the residual sound of Frenzy’s attack. Hefting his concussion blaster he opened fire at the corner Jazz was hiding behind. “Autobot!”

*

Ocean Floor - Near the Crash Site

Hellion relished her battle with Ironhide, the fuellust inside of her boiling out. Back and forth the two warriors went exchanging blows. It seemed as if this time the Autobot would live up to his name as attacks that would have cut down most other Autobots only nicked and scratched his tough armor.

Her own armor was holding up well enough, if not quite as well as the Autobots. She was collecting her fair share of dents, dings and scratches. There were even a few cracks here and there, but the extra water sealant patches kept any water from seeping into her internal systems. Not that she really noticed any of the damage she was taking. She was in battle, and all that mattered was victory.

Ironhide said something to her, she couldn’t really hear anything aside from her own fuel pump beating loud and fast. Then she was looking down the barrel of a gun, and then it fired. The molten lead slammed against her face, scorching and melting it even as it rapidly cooled. Her optics cracked and her vision went dark as they were covered in the lead. She screamed and clawed at her face as she lashed out randomly, attempting to take some sort of vengeance on her attacker who was now completely unseen.

Ocean Floor - Near Crash Site

Shotblur sat tight, even despite his superior's orders. While his firepower was needed, experience dictated he needed to wait. He opened a com-link to Ironhide and offered a response after some time passed.

>>Acknowledged, Ironhide. Sorry for the delay in response--picking targets is difficult. I will be in the fray in just a moment.<<

Quickly, he scanned the battlefield for eligible targets to disguise as. Time was of the essence, but he needed to get a good look at his mark before he attempted to impersonate them. His bright red optics flipped between multiple Decepticons as he processed what was going on around him.