The Energon Pub

Australia In the Air Above Ayer's Rock... At the Moment


Feedback was turning on his radar to keep tabs on everyone while he flew up as Starscream's howl of pain crackled through the communications link. He watched the blip that represented the Sky Commander shot towards the ground. "Commander?" He yelled while quickly changing his course and banking around to get a visual. He watched as Starscream hit the ground. He instantly switched on his team's frequency. "The Fallen is shooting some kind of deadly energy at us all." He called out to them. "Avoid it, I'm seeing the effects first hand, not good."

He didn't dare stop moving, though, the dark energies were seeking out any Cybertronian it could find, he had barely missed several blasts as he was so close to the source. Well, chalk one up for The Fallen, he didn’t quite out maneuver the last blast and got his tail singed.

There was little time for option weighing, the dark energies were fast, he couldn't outrun them. There was no getting away from them. His choices were limited.

He dived down towards Starscream, narrowly avoiding yet another bolt. No slagging so called god was going to take the life of a Decepticon if he could help it; especially that Decepticon, Feedback was a loyal Decepticon, the thought of the Fallen killing any of them was unacceptable.
Aiming for the ground behind Starscream; at the very last moment he transformed, hitting the ground hard, falling into a crouch, steadying himself on his feet with a hand in the red dirt covered earth.
He followed Starscream's gaze up to The Fallen. "Slag..." He whispered hoarsely. His gaze went back down from the burning demon above to the wounded Seeker in front of him. "Commander Starscream?" He was no medic, but he could tell things weren't looking good at the moment for the Sky Commander. "Commander, we need to get out of here." He said in a steady voice.

From above came a bolt of dark energy, striking him dead on. He let out a pained scream as he fell forward but caught himself by planting his other hand in the dirt. He shuttered for a moment, but used to overloaded systems, he took everything non essential offline leaving him the bare necessities to function.

He crawled forward to Starscream, every movement a new lesson in pain. "You're dead if you stay here." He said in a pained voice. "Can you move?"

Above the Fallen

Thrust swooped around dodging the dark energy, it was everywhere! Thrust then witnessed Starscream go down! He was going to go down and help until the other 'con flew down and did it himself, getting himself caught in the process. Thrust was going to fly back to get help until it struck his wing! He pulled forcefully trying to get free. He managed to slip out of it but it ripped off his wing doing so! Thrust crashed down onto the red sand and slid off the giant rock hitting the ground hard, he spat out the sand in his mouth and headed for the Decepticon medical center, hoping at least some of the Decepticons would help defeat that slagging Fallen.

He looked inside and saw Psychout, Landgrab, Mal Practice, Crueljaw and Blades along with Tantrum, Headstrong, Rampage, Blast-Off and Battletrap but they were injured or unconscious. He saw the body of Shockwave lying on the floor, he must of been struck by the dark energy.

"We need your help! The Fallen is attacking us with some sort of dark energy and Starscream and another 'con are down!" Thrust then pointed at his missing wing. "I can't outrun the energy or even use my alt. mode anymore until I get this fixed!"

On Ayers Rock

"I..." Starscream started to mutter. "I can do this."

He looked up at Feedback.

"How are your systems? I saw you take a hit." he asked. "Do you have circuit-scrambling capabilities? Could you do something to get The Fallen disoriented?"

Starscream propped himself up with his arms, and finally got to his feet. Everything hurt.

"We can't get back in the air." he said to Feedback. "We would just get struck back down."

He looked up, and saw Thrust overhead, managing to avoid the energy blasts.

"Thrust!" he shouted. "Get down here! It's safer!"

"And I need you as well for this plan to work." he thought to himself.

Australia – South of Ayer's Rock

As the rock monster raised its club, Crosscut found himself paralysed in fear. He would have put on his most determined diplomatic face, but something told him that these things couldn't be negotiated with.

He suddenly felt a blow of force against his side, and he hit the ground with a heavy thud. Just off to the side, he heard a heavier smashing noise as the golem hit the ground with unprecedented force. Looking to the side, he saw Skids by his side. Crosscut quickly assumed that the theoretician had saved him.

Yet again, he found himself in the debt of more capable bots.

Crosscut quickly returned the favour by scrambling up and offering a hand to Skids. "I'm not suited for a battlefield, my friend." he sighed, shaking his head.

Australia- Ayers Fragging Rock

Feedback internally frowned as Starscream starting muttering about handling the situation. However, he didn't say anything.

"How are your systems? I saw you take a hit."

"I doubt they're in any better shape than yours." He answered. "Slowly clearing, very slowly, I shut off my internal diagnostics for now though, and anything not essential, so I can't say anything more than 'slagging ouch'."


"Do you have circuit-scrambling capabilities? Could you do something to get The Fallen disoriented?"

At this line of questioning, Feedback was actually kind of happy he could not frown. Now he had to tell the Seeker he admired that he was, in fact, useless in this battle.
"Uh, unfortunately, I don't." He finally said. "My only abilities are radar, and communication jamming. I'm used to coping with overloads, is all, my jamming pods sometimes unintentionally overload my systems. Feedback loop."
He briefly looked back up at the Fallen. "The attacks are electrical it seems. And I'm not detecting any strong radio signals from that thing that I could be of any use interfering with."

He paused as Starscream struggled to his feet.

"We can't get back in the air." he said to Feedback. "We would just get struck back down."

"Well, to be honest, sir, you're not getting back up in the air if you wanted too or not, not without your wings. And we're not exactly safe here either." He responded with just a little bit of bite in his voice. "Those bolts look like their attracted to us. They're ignoring biological matter... and rocks... and honing in on metallic matter, it's going to find us down here too, if we don't attract the wrath of that first..." He pointed to the Fallen above them. "He doesn't seem to like our kind."

Feedback paused as Starscream yelled up to Thrust, though it looked like it was the end of Thrust's luck too as a bolt hit his wing and downed the Seeker.

"With all due respect, Commander, I think our best option is to seek cover."

Above the Fallen

"Thrust!" Starscream shouted. "Get down here! It's safer!"

"Yeah, there's a problem with that!" said Thrust as he went down after the dark energy ripped off his wing.

Uluru

Bumblebee headed to the Decepticon medical center until he tripped over a dead transformer, he saw it holding a laser pistol.

"Hm...that'll do."

Bumblebee swiped the pistol from the body and headed for the Fallen, on his way he saw Thrust crash land into the sand missing a wing, he then transformed and stormed off to the medical center. Bumblebee then noticed the dark energy scouting the whole place for Cybertronians, he saw Starscream and Feedback get caught in it and go down. Bumblebee transformed thinking he would have a better chance to outrun the energy in vehicle mode, he then rolled around looking for other Autobots.

Australia – Base of Ayer's Rock

Arcee skidded to an uncertain halt at the base of Ayer's Rock. The pink warrior looked up the red rock cliff face of the mountain in distress as she saw some sort of dark lightning expand viciously outward from the summit of the mountain. That was markedly more active than it had ever been before. The chatter on the comms did nothing to relieve her anxiety. The Decepticons had unloaded on the peak. They wouldn't let whatever dark energy the Fallen had unleashed stop them for long.

“Need to...get up there...” Arcee muttered to herself. She glanced around to make sure that no rock lords were around. As she did, she noticed the familiar form of Ironhide who had apparently followed her from that Decepticon field med bay. Was he going to try and stop her? Or maybe help. Either way, Hot Rod needed her now and she couldn't wait.

Charging forward, the pink warrior clamped onto the side of the rock face and began to scale it in between two of the fire tornadoes. “Just...fight him, Hot Rod. Hold on...I'm coming.”


Skies

“Of all the idiotic...” Darkfire muttered as she watched Feedback swoop down to take out the ground beneath the Fallen's feet with Starscream and Thrust. That worked out about as well as the assassin thought it might. But swift came the Fallen's furious retaliation. The flaming demi-god shot off bolts of dark energy at Devastator and Shockwave. She turned to watch the energy shoot past and strike the purple scientist. Darkfire snarled in frustration and whirled back around to face the demi-god to open fire once more. Only. Now he had turned that same dark lightning on the rest of them.

“Slag!”

Darkfire danced around in the air with stunning agility, using her foot thrusters to propel her and bend and twist and twirl to evade the arcs of vile energy. Something eventually seemed to distract the Fallen after a moment or two, which caused the dark energy web to dissipate slightly. The assassin took this time to locate Feedback, his well-being her responsibility as his superior. Her faceplate contorted into an effigy of irritation as she noted him, having apparently been struck down by the dark lightning in an effort to assist Starscream who was similarly stricken nearby. Starscream. Of ALL Decepticons that Feedback could have a fixation on. Certainly, as a fellow Decepticon, Starscream needed to be assisted but...he was at the bottom of her priority list.

The assassin sighed in exasperation. Well, at the very least, she would go to collect the lot of them. >>”Psychout, Feedback is down. I am en route to retri- AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”<< Darkfire cried out over the comm in agony as she was blindsided by the Fallen's renewed assault. Her systems overloaded. The comm link was cut. She was falling. Unable to move. Darkfire crashed down hard on the summit of Ayer's rock as her vision began to grow dark.

“Slag...you...Feedback...fragging twit...”

Ironhide did all he could to keep up with Arcee. The smaller bot was faster, and she got to the base of the rock faster than Ironhide. He got there just as she started climbing. As he transformed, he looked up at the top of the rock.

"Arcee!" he shouted. "Do you think that's a good idea?!"

The fire tornadoes swirled around, and Ironhide looked up at the path she was taking. It was going to be very dangerous, And he thought she most likely wasn't going to make it.After a few moments, he shook his head and started climbing.

"I'm gettin' too old for this." he muttered to himself.

Just as he was preparing to grab another rock and take another step, out of nowhere Air Raid flew up to him.

"Need a lift?" he asked with a smile. "Or should I check in with the princess up there 1st?"

"I'm fine." Ironhide answered. "Yeah, check on her."

Air Raid floated up to where Arcee was climbing.

"Need help?" he asked with the same smile.



"Damn it!" Starscream hissed. "Damn it to Unicron's fiery bowels!"

Feedback was useless, and now Thrust got knocked out of the air. This put a serious crimp in his plans. But Stascream was nothing if not resourceful. But Feedback was right, the bolts targeted anything mechanical, leaving biological entities alone. Starscream gave a slight smirk.

"I never thought I'd see the day I miss being covered by layer of organic muckus." he muttered.

"Alright." he said to Feedback, as he leaned on him for support. "Let's go."

He started limping away from The Fallen's rampage, trying to stay out of sight and away from the energy bolts.

"We need..." he stopped as his leg almost gave out. "...to find cover. We can't leave this area. When the others attack, we have to be ready."

He looked at Feedback.

"Now is the time to show your true colors." he said in all seriousness. "If you're with me on this, and it works, we'll be the ones calling the shots. If not...well, there are worse things than dying."

Unuru - Medical Outpost FUBAR.

Psychout facepalmed so hard that he probably loosened a bolt or two in the back of his head.

"Oh, for slags sake..." The Fallen, a being wreathed in flame, had shrugged off almost everything thrown at him. Of course, most were using incendiary or explosive ordinance which was never likely to do much to a being cloaked in fire, but the two team members he had personally equipped with specialist weaponry to deal with flaming creatures... had decided to use their normal payloads instead, apparently on the instructions of (ugh, who else?) Starscream. ”You should have traded those idiots for the guns instead”. Heh, yeah... he agreed before recognising the voice, Ah, crap. Now? He shook his head, the last thing he needed is was for whatever had infected him from his internet excursion a few years ago to distract him here. “Now what? Going to try and talk it to death?

His crumpled heap of his boss was 20 feet directly below him, part transformed and looking like an expensive piece of modern art. Two of his team were currently grounded and from the looks of it Darkfire was down seriously, Devastator had taken a massive hit, and the Fallen was currently in flight and off the top of that damned rock. Things weren't going so well so far. He shut off his own flight chip still in mid-air and jumped to the ground, deftly rolling with the landing over to where Shockwave was lying. "Commander?! Are you functioning still? MAL!! Get over h-"

"Get out of my way!!" the medic barked at the cassette as he barged on through, almost sending Psychout flying and he began to shove Shockwaves limbs in complicated directions in order access his T-cog. "Woah!" he stopped suddenly leaving the huge violet scientists limbs in a painfully contorted position and his chest plates open, "I’d heard about this Ore-13 stuff before you took your last cryo-nap, but missed the actual fun with it.
"This remarkable mineral appears to have absorbed all the energy from that creatures attack, pretty much saving the Commanders life - he's just scrambled from energy overload. I'll set him on a full reboot cycle to get his sensor's back online but he's walking statistic, with so much stored information to parse, who knows how long that will take? Here we go..." Mal slammed a shock charge into Shockwave's T-cog to activate the rest of his transformation sequence, urgently prised open a panel under Shockwave's head and using a tool extended from his fingertip made an extremely complicated gesture into a hidden socket. "Uh, don't tell anyone you saw me do that - it's highly illegal, even for us" he chuckled. He was having altogether way too much fun. It worked though, Shockwave's almost extinguished optic flickered almost imperceptibly and began to glow again, slowly building in intensity.
"...well, that’s the process started. You may have a bigger problem though; his beam is comprised of highly charged spectrally-dynamic photon particles, and if that fall has cracked even a single prism or lens then there is no way he will be of any further use in this battle, other than for his winning personality. I’ll need Landgrabs equipment to be sure, Crueljaw, help me lift the Commander back up onto Landgrab, we can monitor the reboot from there."

Psychout was dangerously close to losing his cool. He needed his team on the ground and safe, as whatever they were doing up there made them sitting duck, and this wasn't worth the costs. He activated his teams comm system as Darkfire herself was unresponsive. “Cloudbreaker, come in. Darkfire just took nosedive, so it looks like I owe you 30 shanix - lucky guess. Get over there and use your grappling hook to retrieve her from range. Be careful - those beams are homing in on us so use anyone near you as a decoy to give them another target, just keep out of that things sight!”
“Feedback! Get to some cover and USE THE SLAGGING GLASS GAS RIFLE!! At the very least it might put out some of those flames so we can hurt it some more and even if not it may slow it down for the others, then get back here for repairs if you still need them before Starscream gets you killed - or at least tell him to try his null ray!!”

This battle was a mess. Any kind of aerial assault was out, the Fallen’s fiery aura was preventing any artillery from doing any damage and the only real weapon they had that could hurt it, Shockwave, was down. He put his gun away, obviously no point trying to shoot the fragger again, this mess could be left to the bots to sort out once they had stopped their jaws from flapping and actually did something. He could see Ultra Magnus on the hilltop with his infamous giant hammer. He just hoped the joyless textbook would actually start swinging it soon.

As a final courtesy, he sent a message to the battlefield commander.
>>>Lord Razorclaw, Operative Psychout here. Shockwave is down. He'll live, but he's out of this fight. Data readings indicate that The Fallen is resistant to the damage from explosive- and heat-based attacks, recommend we switch to ballistic ordinance and you tell Magnus to put that stupid-looking hammer of his to some use!"

Australia- Below the [b]fallen[/b]

Feedback was relieved when Starscream came around to his way of thinking on taking cover. He supported the Sky Commander as he leaned on him, still a little unsteady from the overload, but at least he hadn't fallen out of the sky. Now to work on getting Starscream back to Landgrab where they could be repaired.

And that's when Psychout's communication came through.

"Feedback! Get to some cover and USE THE SLAGGING GLASS GAS RIFLE!! At the very least it might put out some of those flames so we can hurt it some more and even if not it may slow it down for the others, then get back here for repairs if you still need them before Starscream gets you killed - or at least tell him to try his null ray!!"

"Oh scrap..." He muttered as Psychout not so gently reminded him he had a gun that might be effective against the fiery demon over the private comm. "Yes, sir, sorry sir." He replied to Psychout and looked at Starscream as he stumbled a bit.

"My commanding officer reminded me I do have something effective against The Fallen."He said as he steadied Starscream and with a free hand, pulled the glass gas gun off his back. "One fire extinguisher... hopefully effective against demi gods. I'm not sure how long this scrap of a gun will hold out, but it's worth a shot. He also recommends that you try your null ray."


"Now is the time to show your true colors." he said in all seriousness. "If you're with me on this, and it works, we'll be the ones calling the shots. If not...well, there are worse things than dying."

Feedback almost sort of ignored Starscream's proposition for the moment. He made sure to steady the Sky Commander on the nearest boulder then he aimed the glass gas gun up towards The Fallen. "Let's hope this puts out his fire..." He muttered and pulled the trigger.

And nothing happened. Nothing fired.

"What the slag?" Feedback shouted and looked at the gun. He aimed for The Fallen again and pulled the trigger... again nothing happened. "Slagging piece of- Psychout!" He opened his comm as he shouted for his commander. "The slagging gun won't work! Swindle sold you crap, get your money back, he should be paying you to take this piece of slag off his hands!" He closed the comm and threw the gun at The Fallen, missed the darned demi god, and as it hit the ground it fired off a stream of nitrous oxide towards where the Autobots were mainly holding their ground.
He watched the stream go. "Aw scrap... that's the second time today something like this has happened." He muttered. "Here's hoping it doesn't hit a slaggin' Autobot... Hey AUTOBOTS! GET OFF YOUR SLAGGING BUMPERS AND GIVE US A HAND HERE! You good for nothing scraplets!"

Okay, so Feedback has lost his cool. It had been one horrible day for him, so he was just at his end. He looked at the questionable gun, the rocks down at his feet. The Fallen, then Starscream. Well, he couldn't make things worse, right? He couldn't hold back his frustration any longer. He grabbed a handful of rocks and started chucking them at The Fallen.

"Take that you slagging son of a glitch!" He screamed at the flaming god. "You know what, screw you! Yeah, I said it, screw you and your universe dominating plans! That's our job as Decepticons! We got here first! You can crawl back to where ever it is you came from and shove it up your tail pipe!" He ran out of rocks, at least that he could lift. "And your sense of style sucks! Flames? That's so last cycle! And whatever spawned you totally slagged it up, in fact, your creator is so ugly, the Big Bang had to happen to eradicate that nasty face, oh yeah, I brought your momma in it! Uh huh... what are you going to do, run crying back to your creator? You should, cause we got you beat! Oh yeah we do because we're Decepticons and WE DON'T GIVE UP! You're going to wish those bumper sitting Autobots were standing here instead because we'll eviscerate your tail pipe! Hey Autobots, slag this! Lazy bumper sitting glitches! Why don't one of you come over here so I can throw you at that Slag up there!"

As if on cue, a body dropped down from the summit above... of some poor Autobot soldier that had met a nasty end to an energy bolt.

"Well slag." Feedback said as the head came off and rolled to his feet. He picked up the head and looked at it a moment. "Ooo... you have a nice face, I could use that.... humm.... pity it will never be seen again!" He threw the head at The Fallen as it dissolved into the flames like everything else that had come close to The Fallen. "SLAG YOU FALLEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Finally, Feedback stopped his mostly verbal assault on The Fallen.

"Well... I feel better." He said and went to retrieve the gun, then picked his way back to Starscream.
"I'm with you, Commander." He finally said to Starscream. "Nothing else is going to work and if we're going to die, I'd rather die at least trying to blow that SLAGGING PIECE OF SCRAP BACK TO THE RUST AGE!" He directed the last part up to the Fallen. For good measure he aimed the glass gas gun at the Fallen one more time, and this time it fired when he pulled the trigger.
"Well scrap! It fired that time!"

Ayers Rock

Starscream leaned against the rock, watching Feedback's futile attempts at doing damage to The Fallen.

"This is no use." he said, as much to himself as to Feedback. "He can't be hurt with energy weapons. If anything, we're giving him more power."

Starscream then straightened up, and started walking towards The Fallen's position.

"Time to find out what this so-called 'god' is made of." he said defiantly.

Australia- and the futile attempt to harm the Fallen from beneath said Fallen.


"Time to find out what this so-called 'god' is made of."

"He's made out of scrap and slag!" Feedback yelled up to the demi god.

He looked over at Starscream.

"Sorry... I have rage issues." He said with a nervous laugh. "At least today..."

Austrailia Medical Centre Fubar

Crueljaw was stood looking at the scene that surrounded the makeshift medical centre autobots and decepticons where finally making a dent in the golems and the firebirds had retreated to annoy the huge Green and Purple Titan that was Devastator who slapped them away with a pressure wave that had everyone on the top of the rock clinging on for dear life.

The shield was cracking the coup de grace shattering the shield didn't come from the goliath but rather the Fallen himself. The bodyguard could only surmise that this Demi God was having an identity crisis either that or he just hated that staff of his. Dark energy bounced about the place Autobot and Decepticon bodies started dropping like rocks. One of these rocks was Psychout's boss Shockwave who hit the ground with a enormous wallop.

As he looked back up he watched as Darkfire was hit and started to fall "Hey boss the Aftassin got shot, what a nimrod" Crueljaw didn't even move to help as he heard his commander mention a bet with the newbie Cloudbreaker. "Hey Psychout he's about as coherent as the big boss is, with the amount of hi grade he's drunk, 20 shanix he misses with that grapple of his and Darkfire might need to be peeled off the floor. Which is such a shame"

Crueljaw was about to move further towards his commander as the various autobots cried about some punk called Hot Rod. He was wondering what all the yelling was about, When Mal Practice called out for his assistance in moving Shockwave to Landgrab the hulking bodyguard moved over to the big boss and lifted the torso of the Decepticon scientist "You know it wasn't that long ago that I was doing this exact thing up on the Thanatos talk about déjà vous"

Australia – Autobot Shuttle Longevity – Combat Casualty Care Unit

Axle waited patiently for Chromedome to give him an answer. He knew the mnemosurgeon would do what he had to do but he still had to be sure. Confirmation had to be had.

"I'll do whatever it takes..."

And there it was. Axle nodded and gently gripped Chromedome’s wrist. He released it, however, just as quickly.

Chromedome took Rewind’s digits in his hand before moving on to the prepared slab beside his conjunx endura.

Axle waited until he was settled and he released the locks on his chestplate. He’d need access to Chromedome’s spark in order to perform the procedure.

"Ready when you are, doc."

With a slight nod Axle moved to Rewind’s side and manually manipulated the little mech’s chestplate open. He found the connections he’d need and moved to a cart nearby. Two large clamps connected to a heavy wire were brought over to the unconscious archivist. Axle carefully attached each clamp and moved back to the cart.

At Chromedome’s side, Axle repeated the process to the mnemosurgeon’s spark. He checked the connections to be sure everything was in its proper place and then stopped by the head of Chromedome’s slab.

“It won’t hurt. You’ll just experience several jumps…so to speak. Your body may lift slightly off the slab but that’s normal." Axle paused a moment to let what he said sink in. "Here's what I'll be doing. I'll send a series of three pulses from your spark to Rewind’s spark. After that I’ll take a few readings to be sure everything went okay.”

The former surgeon smiled gently and nodded acknowledging that he would begin. With a flick of one switch the pulses were sent from Chromedome’s spark and on to Rewind’s.

It took less than a breem. Axle kept the connection in place as he stepped over to Rewind’s side and ran his internal scanner over the archivist’s little frame.

____________


One moment the blue and white femme was in orbit above this blue ball and the next she had her feet planted on its surface. It never ceased to amaze her.

Tracer shook the thoughts from her mind and refocused on locating Smokescreen.

Wheeljack had said he was in the Longevity…in the Combat Casualty Care Unit. A feeling of dread washed over her at the thought of what she might find in that particular location.

She forced herself to remember that Jack told her that Smokescreen’s signature was in that location. So if his signature could be picked up that meant he was alive. In what condition she wasn’t sure.

Tracer quickly made her way into the ship. Her movements became a jog as she wove in and around corridors. She dodged several drones and mechs as she caught sight of the door to the hanger that housed the makeshift medical bay.

The scout didn’t wait for the doors to fully open, stepping through the thin space anxious to find the mech she’d come to see.

Tracer looked around but when she didn’t catch sight of Smokescreen she grew worried. What if something happened in the time it took her to get here?

“Smokescreen?!” She called out.

“SMOKESCREEN?!” even louder this time.

Australia – Base of Ayers Rock

Ratchet’s conversation ended and he and Trailbreaker were back on their way toward the Longevity. So far they were making good time with the only reason being none of the golems of those fiery buzzards had spotted them.

The CMO cursed a blue streak when the duo hit a small snag. Trailbreaker was low on fuel and he was running lower.

“Whoa! Hang on Ratch. I just can’t go that fast. I do and I’ll be on empty in no time flat.”

Ratchet moved behind the larger mech and began to shove him toward a ravine in hope that it would provide them with some cover and time. The CMO would need some time to come up with a way to get them both back to the shuttle in one piece.

“Here. Sit. Stay.” Ratchet grumbled as he took a look out over the battlefield. None of the Fallen’s lackeys had spotted them.

“How do we look?” Trailbreaker called out.

“We weren’t spotted. But that could change any minute.” Ratchet let out a heavy, angry sigh before he looked his comrade up and down. There would be no way the defensive specialist would make it back on his own power. No, he’d have to find a way to transport Trailbreaker there and not be seen.

"Hey..."

Ratchet swung around, his static laser gun at the ready.

"I Uh... I picked up a weak energon signal around here and I was sent to h-hic!-help..."

Must be a ‘Con. The guy’s a moron, Ratchet thought. The CMO raised his weapon higher and took a step forward. “Sent to help, huh?” Ratchet eyed the mech suspiciously. “Why are you really here?”

Cloudbreaker held up the container and gave it a gentle shake, displaying he had a little left of his own stash to offer them. "Eh?"

It was Trailbreaker who noticed the offering of energon. His optics lit up ever so slightly as he watched the flask closely.

The force field specialist reached out and jostled Ratchet’s elbow. “Lay off him, Ratch. He said he’s here to help and he’s brought some fuel.” Trailbreaker nodded at the flask being held out by Cloubreaker. “I’m low and it’ll definitely help.”

‘Breaker smiled at the clearly intoxicated ‘Con. “Much obliged.” He reached out.

Australia – Not far from Shuttle Longevity

The Decepticon chemical expert took a moment when Skywarp arrived back with Drag Strip to eye the Seeker carefully up and down. He was quick; Oil Slick had to give him that. But it was probably only due to the fact the air warrior was used to his…unique ability. Such a shame it was wasted on such a waste.

“Got him. None of the Stunts complained, but then again I didn’t hang around long enough to hear any."

Oil Slick said nothing instead the domed mech simply stared.

“So, now what? You wanna send the bounce codes up to the Thanatos so we can get the frag outta here already? I'd do it but, well, I can't seem to remember them off hand."

The chemist repositioned Darkride before cocking his head slightly to one side. Either Skywarp actually did forget the recall codes or he was actually attempting his hand at sarcasm.

It had to be the former.

“Now, as Lord Razorclaw has decreed, we take our quarry back to the medical bay on the Thanatos.” Oil Slick raised his free hand where a small panel opened up on the back of his wrist. He looked up at Skywarp, a neutral expression plastered on his faceplate.

“It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Information such as that is difficult for anyone with limited memory capacity to maintain.” From Skywarp’s face Oil Slick looked just over the Seeker’s shoulder. In the distance he noticed the approach of two figured. They were moving at a quickening pace.

“It would seem we’re about to have unwanted company.” The chemical expert gestured behind the black and purple warrior. “Best step in if you do not wish to left behind.” He intoned.

A moment later Oil Slick was sending the recall signal back to the Thanatos. They would be back on the ship in mere seconds leaving behind the incoming mechs.

"Worthless!" Starscream thought to himself. "All of them! Even our so called 'leaders'! They take forever to do anything, and they're surprised that they're losing! Idiots."

He looked up at the Fallen, who wasn't doing much either, but still had the upper hand in this fight, Primus knows why. Surely, he could have been beaten by now, or at the very least taken some damage. But no, he was just there. Wasting time. Why?

"FALLEN!!!" Starscream bellowed as loud as he could. "Is that the best you got?! Just some fancy tricks and a light show?! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO FIGHT?!"

Starscream then turned back to Feedback.

"Are your systems functioning?" he asked. "Or do you require more time for repairs?"

He was tired of waiting around for everybody else. If they weren't willing to make an effort, he'd do it all by himself.

Australia - Ayers Fragging Rock, Still

Starscream then turned back to Feedback.

"Are your systems functioning?" he asked. "Or do you require more time for repairs?"

"I'm functioning at the best performance mark I can without assistance from a medic." He replied.

"Just as well." Starscream replied. "This is going nowhere anyway. Nobody seems to know or care what's going on. This might be a lost cause. Let's just hang around and see if anything happens. Maybe our esteemed leadership will think of something useful to do."

Australia- Ayers Slagging Rock

Feedback felt bad that Starscream felt defeated. He looked up at the Fallen. "Stupid slagging Fallen." He muttered. "Commander, sir, we have a medical outpost set up not far, we could head there and at least watch this play out in some comfort."

Australia – Ayers Rock

“WHAT IN THE PIT?!” Brawl rumbled out his frustration as the shell he had fired at the Fallen ended up causing only a dent in the demigod's armor plating. And why had it exploded? He hadn't fired an explosive shell or had he? An armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot with a tungsten core did not slagging explode. An APFSDS went through things, much like that irritating midget's depleted uranium rounds did but with far more penetrating energy given the greater size of both gun, muzzle speed and the ammunition itself. Not even Optimus Prime could take a hit like that with such indifference.

“AAAAAARGH!” Brawl was losing it. Why nothing he tried was doing anything? Was he supposed to drop a fragging meteor made of iridium on the flaming madmech to flatten him? If only Swindle had an access to something like that. Oh well, a Con could only dream of such things.

The next round was ready. It better had to be a right type this time. And there was it. A perfect opportunity. The Fallen had turned his back on him to deal with a far more larger threat that was the Devastator. Well, Brawl certainly wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. And so he fired another kinetic penetrator at the fiery monster from Cybertron's ancient history. Slag no he was going to stop now despite the Fallen's counterattack.

Heck, the shield was gone too, was it not? That meant he didn't have to hold anything back right? Well, he was not going to wait for someone else to tell him whether or not it was so. And thus, Brawl added the power of his twin sonic cannon to his attack. The Fallen certainly heard them, exchanged insults with them so far - so it kinda made sense to the Combaticon bruiser to think that a sonic attack could at least disorient the hovering bogeyman if nothing else.

Except. The Fallen wasn't quite attacking just Devastator anymore. He was now turning his attention on everyone else as well – Brawl included.

“SLAG! SLAG! SLAG!” Brawl cursed out loud. He wasn't afraid going out with guns blazing but slag no he wanted any part of an attack that had knocked out Sixshot, dropped Shockwave out of the skies and clearly had hurt Devastator too – though to what effect he wasn't quite sure about.

Too bad he was in no position to dodge the current of dark energy lashing at him. A tank was never the most agile vehicle to move out of the harm's way on a moments notice. And as the torrent of Fallen's mystical energies hit him, Brawl could only roar in pain and hope someone stopped the Fallen's attack before he joined that crazy seeker in the scrapyard for good.

Top of Ayers Rock

Swindle didn’t care that there was lightning everywhere, that Shockwave had been fried or that Devastator had just become the world’s biggest lightning conductor. ...although that technology could net me a fortune... Nope. All he cared about was that Blast-Off had already been shot down, and he was slagged if he was going to be letting another of his team anywhere near that weird medical station and its tiny despot commander.

He wasn’t the fastest of Decepticon’s in any mode, but he had a good run up the hill and arrived at the top to see his good buddy, Brawl, finally lose it. He knew Brawl needed to be on top in a fight, when he was losing it was bad for the entire team. Cresting the top of Ayers Rock, he was starting to lose his momentum but had a clear view as the Fallen’s attention turned towards the latest in the line of aggressors and the urgency set in. “OH FRAG! This cannot be good!” he yelled, as he pushed through the pain barrier in an effort to aid his teammate, sprinting even harder.

He was mere feet away by the time the Fallen’s powerful weapon struck the stocky tankformer and the small jeep braced himself. “BRAWL!!” he bellowed... “I’m coming buddy! Swindle will save- YOOOOF!!”

Even Feedbacks insults towards the Fallen were drowned out by the sound of the collision.
Swindle was by far the smallest of the Combaticons. Brawl may not have been the largest, but he sure was the stockiest and Swindle had put everything into his run up. His full-speed dive connected perfectly with Brawls midriff with an impact enough to knock even this tank off his feet. The Dark Energy weapon of the Fallen coursed through Swindles body for an instant as their dermal platings connected and the energy bounced from circuit to circuit supercharging Swindle's insides, but then it was gone. They both crashed to the ground, rolling and rolling and sliding to a halt in a huge cloud of dust, clear of the Fallen’s death beam of dark energy.

“...OW!” The impact with Brawl had damn-near torn his shoulder off and probably cracked a few torso struts too, but a quick inventory check told him nothing 'important' was broken, just some serious denting and a headache that would take weeks to shift. “That’s gonna leave a mark" he chuckled, "that’s, what? 9 you owe me now, big guy? Brawl? Hey... BRAWL?”

He shoved his buddy, getting slightly panicked (although he would never ever admit that.) He couldn't tell if he was only stunned, unconscious or just plain dead. ...at least his shells will be worth a bit... he caught himself thinking. NO! This was no time for business! he chastised himself for the second time in as many minutes. Now beginning to becomes properly panicked, he tried a different tactic; “BRAWL!!” He yelled, mimicking the voice of their commander, Onslaught, in the hope that if it was just a daze it would snap the unmoving warrior out of it.

“On your feet, Soldier! No one gave you permission to lie down!!”

Ayers Rock: Summit

A thin curtain of red ash and dust slowly cascaded down the scorched silver and white missile battery as it began to shift its position. As the dust and debris crumbled down from the fringes of the blackened crust that coated the instrument of battle, small arches of electricity jumped from warped and disfigured breaches within the armored housing. Traces of black and violet fluids slowly oozed from small fractures that latticed the silver structure.

Small electrical discharges leaped across the broad chest plate of broken glass and spider webbed fractures. Glimpses of white poked through the dust caked blue and red armor that had taken the brunt of the close range concussive shock wave. Ultra Magnus did not recall much from those precious moments, not as though there was much for him to remember. He had been near ground zero when Devastator had emerged from the wall of flame.

First came a narrow slice of light emerged from the darkness. Color was absent in the gray scale of shadows and highlights of harsh crimsons that pervaded with each re-established connection. A secondary command swiftly pierced through the crimson fog ordering the field of vision to disappear once more. Three seconds ticked off the unseen internal clock before a following command ordered the system a full restart to the optical system.

Ultra Magnus memories slowly began to resurface as the image of Devastator advanced on the levitating form of the Fallen. He could remember the terrible voice that sounded like a cursed bellow from hell’s wide breadth. He groaned as he flexed his fingers underneath the crust of baked dirt. He could feel the stings of surging energy that flickered across his torso where powerful bursts of wind and charged energy collided… and sent him and a few of the other Autobots who were close enough, tumbling end over end towards the opposite side of the summit.

Dust and red stone crumbled away as he slowly grimaced in pain. He pushed himself out of the small shallow trench that had been carved by his impacting body. A surge of electricity coursed through his body as he forced himself to his feet, his armor compensating for the damage as it reestablished pathways around the damaged circuitry. The Autobot commander forced back a wave of nausea that threatened to over take him.

His optics immediately shifted from the distant shattered wall of flames, now only smaller swirling pyres of flame that were slowly losing their cohesion and intensity. “So that is Devastator,” his voice was low and yet sounded so distant to him. Perhaps it was the damage done to his audio receptors, though he doubted it was as serious as the fractured hydraulic canisters that lined various chambers and compartments on his apex armor… particularly the massive shoulder launchers.

His field of vision finally filtered out the last of the crimson hue of pain that had continued to leak into the visible spectrum. He pulled himself to his standing height in time to witness the possessed body of Hot Rod take another blow from Devastator. Magnus instinctively winced as the powerful fist crashed down upon the shield once again causing it to splinter and fracture. While the echo if the collision swarmed through the summit like a plague of beryllium scavenger bats, Magnus could not help to sense time slow down to an almost imperceptible crawl. His optics drew in the brief moment where Hot Rod regained control… control that would come at a terrible price.

The scepter was split in half as the wrath of Devastator continued to breach the shield. In tandem the destruction of the scepter and the power of the mighty amalgam was enough to cause the shell to shatter and enough to send the possessed crashing to the surface. The smoke was not an allowance for reprieve, as before Magnus could respond and assess the sudden change in the combat conditions, Razorclaw had announced his determination to exploit a perceived opening.

Streaks of lethal ordinance lanced across the skies, turning them black in ashen gray contrails that blotted out the blood red sun. Rockets and missiles from around the sandstone formation exploded into view before arching downwards towards the impact site where Hot Rod had landed. Black acrid miniature mushroom clouds erupted from the stone as each explosive pounded their target with vicious intent to end this charade once and for all…

His jaw steeled like granite stone and locked into place as his optics narrowed at the conflagrations that peppered the coordinates. He had approached the situation with calm and reserve, the intent to bring this to a head without sacrificing Hot Rod… the truest of victims of such perversions. And while he could not inwardly fault the logic of Razorclaw’s order to obliterate the target with all available firepower, particularly given that the shield had just been breached, Magnus could have easily guessed what would come next. Fallen was now in a corner, it was hurt and it was facing the wrath of an entire combined species that it was hell bent on trying to destroy.

Magnus immediately polarized his armor, sending a low voltage current over the breaches to cause static cracks and snaps as the circuit was completed. His optics were still transfixed on Hot Rod as the mutilated body deftly displayed an enhanced agility that was native, in part, to Hot Rod’s original design specifications. The Autobot Supreme Commander stomped on the edge of his hammer that had buried itself into the loose ash of the rock summit. The massive weapon flipped twice into the air before he pulled it from the sky and spun it briefly before settling it into his right hand. “You want to know what to do Hot Spot?” He spoke slowly, his voice laced with an unseen anger.

His foot cracked the dirt as he stepped out of the small trench. “We plow the road. Protect Hot Rod from getting killed…” His grip tightened around the handle of the weapon as a snarl crawled across his faceplate. He barely turned his head to catch the concerned Protectobot’s optics. “This ends now. Switch to the most retardant chemical you have available in your tanks and follow my advance.”

He nodded up briefly. “Springer, regroup… Battle of Alje’ IV.” The infamous tactic employed during a chaotic battle on a floating Decepticon fortress asteroid. A Wreckers assault that was meant to not only defend themselves and their target from external threats but also meant to contain their primary target without killing it outright. It also meant that ranged weapons were not exactly ideally suited to go and get up close and personal with their objective.

The rubber tires lowered from their hatches at the bottom of his feet as he returned his attention back to the regrouping Fallen. This battle was nearing its climax, and it was now time to ensure that their comrade won out, and the threat posed by the dispossessed spark was extinguished. Magnus activated the independent drive shafts and began shunting power from reserve batteries into the electric engines. The polarized armor crackled as dust began to pelt his surface, his tires pealing into the crust and rock. Magnus’ glare fully bored through to the Fallen as the wounded monstrosity began to summon his own ultimate attack.

The brakes were released and as if on massive rollerblades powered by automated engines, Magnus launched forward with hammer in hand. “Wreckers! We End This Now!” As the last word flew from his vocorder, Fallen reached his final height and gathered a powerful sphere of dark energy into the palm of his hand. Magnus increased his speed, eating the distance between himself and his prey.

As Magnus neared his target, the Fallen unleashed a frenzied rain of black electrical death to flood the mountainside and wash over the Cybertronian survivors. Cursed arrows of energy speared the ground and punished those who were unfortunately struck by them. He could hear the explosions, the cries of agonized pain, and the pleas for mercy… the horrors that would come from the relentless desperation of the disposed tyrant. A bolt of black energy struck to the left of Magnus, narrowly missing him but sending a fountain of rock into his path. He ignored it and pressed on as the final micro seconds ticked away to bring the Wreckers into position.

Magnus skid to a stop and cocked his right arm back. He poured a large amount of energy into his hydraulics and pistons as he dug his tires into the dirt. He said nothing, his anger and irritation making idle threats impractical. Instead Magnus finished polarizing the batteries within the hilt of the weapon. He then threw the weapon into a tight spinning whirling miniature vortex of its own. Blue electricity coursing through its extremities as it rotated on an oscillating axis. It would prove difficult for most to deflect the power thrust into the weapon’s launch, almost impossible for the standard level soldier. Would probably be enough to ring even the mighty Shockwave’s proverbial bell.

The Autobot Commander attempted to reposition himself; he activated his tires and shunted more power from his damaged laser batteries to his armor plates. A bolt of black lightning arched from an unseen vantage point and drove straight down into Magnus’s path. The resulting explosion sent Magnus flying, shards of sandstone shot gunned his left side, tearing through his exposed rubber tires causing them to burst. He landed hard with muted snaps of internal struts fracturing and searing pain further coursing through his body... but was still alive, and he was not going to withdraw until he was one with the all spark.

Ayers Rock: Summit

The fight was going badly on top of the rock the shield was unbreakable to conventional weapons and only the Angry Green Goliath Devastator was just about able to crack the shield. Broadside wasn't really going to be able to get involved in this fight he wasn't going to get involved in that smash frenzy. Thou the angry birds had other idea's as they swarmed the massive machine with the annoyance of a normal sized transformer walking through a rain shower.

The way the giant reacted thou caused the ones closest to him alot of problems as the shockwave kicked up a ton of dust and debris. Broadside brought one of his massive hands up to shield his optics from the debris his axe he embedded into the rock to use as a makeshift anchor to keep him standing up right.

Broadside's attention was turned to Ultra Magnus as the Autobot Commander got to his feet with the speed of a Snailabot. "He's milking that for what it's worth" grumbled the Wrecker as the false winds died down. Broadside raised his rifle and started blasting at the mutated form of Hot Rod friend or not they were in it for the species if they saved him great if not at least the universe was safe. Magnus gave an order to Hotspot thou the dust was making it hard for Broadside to see where the Protectobot was then he gave another to Springer.

“Springer, regroup… Battle of Alje’ IV."

"What! hell if I know how we did that I was offline for most of that fight"

Then the lightening started flying Broadside watched as the bolt flew his way his last words before it hit where

"Oh crap thunderbolt and lightening very, very frightening me .........."

Ayers Rock

"What is that idiot doing?" Starscream muttered as he watched Magnus try and fail. "No wonder he couldn't lead them before. For all his problems, Rodimus would have had this situation handled already."

His systems were back up to nearly full operations, and though his wings were damaged beyond repair, he could still fly in robot mode. He was a Decepticon, after all. Speaking of whom, where were the others? He looked over at Feedback.

"How are you doing? Your systems back up yet?" he looked back at The Fallen. "That idiot is either going to die trying, or he might actually succeed. Either way, we need to be ready to swoop in and clean up. I want The Fallen's power for myself! If I can't have it, NO ONE CAN!"

Australia- Ayers Rock

"How are you doing? Your systems back up yet?"

"As good as I'm going to get..." Feedback muttered in response. He followed Starscream's gaze up to Ultra, Slagging Magnus.

"That idiot is either going to die trying, or he might actually succeed. Either way, we need to be ready to swoop in and clean up."

If Feedback could have made a WTF face, he would have right then. "Really, Commander...." he said in a very frustrated tone. He gestured towards FUBAR. "But we could go back where it is safer, Mal has the bubble! Not fond of it, but at least he could..." He sighed not bothering to finish his sentence. "My self preservation programming has kicked in big time and I'm think-...."
"I want The Fallen's power for myself! If I can't have it, NO ONE CAN!"
"And you're not listening to me...." He finished. "I'm rolling my optic! Seriously! I know you can't tell, but I am!" His gaze went to the ground, his head following suit as he stared at the sand. "We're all going to die."