The Energon Pub

Name: Ramplate
Allegiance: Decepticon
Sub-group: N/A
Function: Warrior
Alt. mode: Hovertank (anti-grav pods merge with extendable internal mechanisms from the sides to form treads and coverings, as well as to mimic an Earth tank's internal crew compartment)
Pic Here
Weapons: Double barrelled Mass driver (Cannon in tank mode, hand held in robot mode), Energon mace, twin shoulder-mounted pulse micro-lasers
Special Abilities: Distinctive ramplate becomes an arm-mounted ablative shield that allows for more protection when in robot mode.
Height: 35 feet
Quotes: "Hitting things doesn't take a quantum processor, it's just what I'm good at!"
"Hit fast, hit hard, leave nothing but scrap, and let nothing bar your way."

Rank: Determined by the staff.

Strength 8
Intelligence 5
Dexterity 4
Speed 7
Endurance 9
Courage 7
Firepower 7
Accuracy 6
Melee 8
Tech Skill 5
Charisma 4

Profile: Simple, direct, efficient.... brutal. These are the words that Ramplate lives by. To him, trying to explain what he does is tiring, distracting, and above all boring. If he doesn't like someone he's more likely to either walk away from them, or shoot them, he doesn't have time for trivial niceties. This is in part to a massive intolerance in regards to what he deems as obstacles. Whereas in most Decepticons though this could be a potential problem when facing opposition for a greater position, Ramplate seems to reserve this for obstacles to the Decepticon cause as opposed to individuals. To him, a fellow 'Con trying to muscle his way past him higher up the chain isn't an obstacle unless he really needs it, it's just the usual business. Otherwise, Ramplate has a 'Live and let live' mentality. If you're an Autobot on the other hand, you're nothing more than a walking piece of scrap that doesn't realize it's been smelted yet.

Abilities: Ramplate is a very tough nut to crack. His overly thick armor plating and integrity fields allow him to shrug off all but the most powerful of hits. His shield also allows him to barrel his way through enemies before laying into them with mace and weapons fire. In hover-tank mode, he can reach speeds of up to 250 mph on the ground, with a variable ground clearance between 3 and 30 feet, giving him the ability to 'jump' in alt mode overtop of most Transformers.

His main ranged armament is his mass driver rifle, which can fire pieces of shrapnel like a shotgun or a solid slug at speeds of up to Mach 2, either of which is enough to penetrate most armor plating. His shoulder-mounted micro pulse lasers are used to ward off enemy missiles as well as disorient and distract his opponents. Finally, Ramplate's energo-mace can be used to crush through the thickest of armor or batter down the strongest gates in time, its tooth-like projections tearing as much as it bludgeons.

Weaknesses: Despite his image as one of the toughest Decepticons, Ramplate actually has a number of vulnerabilities. His large size makes delicate work or grace impossible, and he can be a bit of a clutz at times. This is even worse in his alt mode, as turning at high speeds can easily result in skidding or rollovers that can cause severe damage, usually to others, but can be as hazardous to himself as well, depending on the conditions. Also, while his mass driver is powerful, its scatter effect means that hitting only a single target in a group is impossible, making it likely in a melee that he'd wind up hitting allies, and even in rifle mode is less accurate as a result of the requirement of using two types of ammunition (Effectively reducing his accuracy stat by 1). Solid projectile ammunition is usually looked down on in Cybertronian weaponry, but given how he can use scrap from fallen foes to fuel it, this isn't as much of a problem as others might think. His micro-pulse lasers are also underpowered, having only enough strength to act as a spot welder or laser strobe at long ranges, and even in close needs to be sustained to do any kind of horrific damage, which can overheat them.

Finally, his gruff mannerisms and distaste for explanations before action have a tendency to get him in lots of trouble with his superiors, especially when it winds up forcing them to set aside their plots and schemes. Cunning manipulators are the bane of Ramplate's existence, and they seem to share the same mentality towards him.

Sample Post:

Incandescent flames sparked and roared into existence, brought about as a beam of coherent light speared into the energon tank of the Decepticon warrior Darkstorm, causing the mech to let out a garbled electronic shriek as the multi-colored flames licked up into his internal structure and slagged his circuits and systems from within. As Darkstorm fell backwards, clanging off the ground behind the squad's makeshift cover with his optics melting out of his head, Ramplate peeked up over the edge of the debris, seeing the Autobot that had snuffed out Darkstorm duck back into cover. Grimacing behind the intake plate covering his mouth, the tank-mech ducked back down and looked at the other members of his unit still functional. Two car-formers and a rocket-vehicle. Cursing to himself, the tank-bot picked out the rocket-con, Salvo, and called out. "You and Nitro give us cover fire, while Bandit and I try to flank around them!" The other 'Cons nodded, before Ramplate and one of the car-mechs broke off from them.

Within seconds, Salvo and Nitro started firing at the Autobot's positions, while the two others crouched and shuffle-ran down the makeshift trenches of scrap. As they rounded a bend though, they came almost face to face with a trio of Autobots that apparently had come up with the same idea as they had! "Look out!" Bandit called, the red-painted car-mech taking a shot over the larger Decepticon's shoulder and tagging an Autobot scout with a bowl-like helm-design in the shoulder, wounding him but not incapacitating him.

In response, the lead Autobot, a gold-plated model that had tracks instead of wheels, fired with his own rifle, an antimatter weapon from the looks of it. The shot collided with Ramplate's shield, causing his arm to buck and almost slam back into him, and tore a deep chunk out of the heavy destronium alloy. This only enraged the Decepticon, who picked up speed and rammed both shield and shoulder into the Autobot, tossing him back off his feet. The last Autobot tried to grapple with Ramplate, but Bandit had taken the opportunity to close as well, drawing an energo blade and attempting to thrust it into the Autobot's primary fuel pump. Unfortunately, the red-plated warrior had underestimated his opponent, as the green-painted Autobot was able to grab onto Bandit's arm and use the leverage for a shoulder throw.

The first Autobot seemed to have recovered from his lapse and fired his blaster into Ramplate's side, causing the grey-and-blue warrior to grunt before turning, his energo-mace forming and unfolding from its carrier in his right forearm, and smashing into the Autobot's pelvic assembly, shearing through one hip and ripping the other almost completely off with the torque of the blow alone, causing the bowl-helmed 'bot to scream as energon flew out of his torn lines. Seemingly enraged by his brother's demise, the gold plated one roared out and charged, tackling Ramplate and pushing him into a wall. The two were of similar size, but surprisingly this Autobot turned out to be even stronger than he was! Pushing back against the gold-plated mech's hands, which slowly reached closer to the tank-con's ice-blue optics as his arms creaked, the Autobot's own eyes narrowed into green slits with a dark grin...

Too late though the Autobot realized that something had popped out of Ramplate's shoulders, and confusion gave way to sheer agony as the Decepticon fired his micro-pulse lasers directly into his foe's optics, melting the lenses and slagging the delicate electronics there. In a howl of pain, the tracked mech reached for his head, which gave the silver-plated tank-bot a clear shot at his chest, shattering that shiny gold with a swing of his mace that caved in the mech's chest. Crippled, the poor would-be hero wasn't even able to see the foot that finished him off, caving in his chest and crushing the spark case.

The last Autobot had managed to get the upper hand on Bandit though, and inch by inch was able to push the red Decepticon's own blade into his chest armor, causing the car-former to scream as he felt it part through his circuits, before it severed a fuel line. Within astroseconds, the light went out of Bandit's optics, and he slumped over, pinned to the wall by his own sword like a cyber-bee on display. Grinning in triumph, the green-painted Autobot turned... only to find himself staring down the twin barrels of Ramplate's mass driver. Not a sound escaped the mech's vocalizer, until it was torn apart in a spray of shrapnel that ripped the Autobot warrior's head clean off his shoulders.

As the broken shell fell to the ground, Ramplate looked down the trench. Seeing that no other Autobot surprises were there, he started down it once more, stomping along the path with a grim sense of eager rage....