The Energon Pub

Koraja - Capital Dome

Snapdragon had had no intention of getting up from his resting place until Sonicstorm's report came in. As lazy and rebellious as the Horrorcon was, the fact that if he was to stay here, he'd be forced to go through rigorous maintenance procedures which he rather avoided being subjected to. Perhaps there would even be a grease pit back in the base for him to relax in instead of sitting on remains of some auditorium.

As Apeface voiced his opinion, Snapdragon bounced up and stretched his arms. "Walk if you wish Apey, I am not going to bother." The powerful triplechanger snorted before transforming into his supersonic fighter form and heading out towards Fortress Tenebrous.

Korajan Underground--The Vault

"Peer Galen, we are receiving preliminary results," Arcana said as he approached and gave his Nebulan colleague a respectful nod. Galen followed him over to a bank of monitor screens within the lab division of the Vault. "As you can see on the screens here, his blood serum levels are all within acceptable ranges. Bone density, brain function, heart rhythm...all normal."

Galen rubbed his chin. Had he really expected anything different? Muzzle had suggested that there had to be a reason Duran was not attacked by the thing, and perhaps there was. They had just not looked at the right area yet.

"Make sure that he is washed, given a warm meal and transitioned back in to duty. He is likely more eager to get back in the field than even we are."

"Of course, my Peer."

"Peer Galen," a softer, feminine voice interrupted, "a warm meal sounds nice."

"I'm afraid I do not really have the time for...," Galen began but then stopped as he turned to see who was speaking to him. He had not immediately recognized the voice, and he felt like a fool for not doing so. "...a meal."

Llyra smiled back at him and they embraced for a moment.

"I...apologies...I just did not expect to see you for some time. I would not think that your father would have let you leave his side during a time like this."

"Am I the pet of my father?" Llyra said, still smiling. Galen's face became noticeably flushed.

"No, of course not," Galen quickly responded. He was undoubtedly happy to see her, but this was decidedly not a time where they could simply leave Koraja for less hectic surroundings as they often used to do. "But you had noticed that Nebulos was invaded, yes? Not really a typical passing of the sun, hm?"

"I had noticed that," she said, reaching for his hand. "Come. It's not the high tides of Splendora, but it will do."

Mount Melanos

"So let me get this straight..." Ironside stated and brought his face only inches away from Spartan's. "Nothing?! That's what we are going to do? Nothing?!"

The large Autobot straightened up and slammed his fist hard against the steel wall on his left, giving the stoic strategist a glare full of anger and frustration. "We are sitting cyberducks here Spartan! They brought Sweeps and you can hide from Sweeps for only so long. Only this damned dust storm is keeping them from tracking us down and you know it!"

Following his outburst, Ironside marched out of the room Spartan used as his command center, only to show up in Rad's makeshift lab sometime later.

"It is like talking to a wall Rad." The large Autobot groaned. "Doesn't matter whether you rage at him or attempt to be diplomatic. Whatever he is conjuring up inside his cranium, he is not sharing it with us. Is it really that impossible to get a message out of the system? The longer we wait, the more likely it becomes for Decepticons to track us down. Not to mention that it is only matter of time when the command sends scouts to check out why our outpost went silent."

Ironside clenched his fist and dropped his gaze towards the floor. "And those scouts will perish as surely as a drunken empty in a pit fight against Megatron."

Mount Melanos

Rad had been steadily familiarizing himself with the specifics of the Autobot beta site and its operations systems. He was fast learning that Teletran-7 could be a little testy. In form it was not all that different from the command bunker in the Folassian Forest. A majority of the Nebulos resources had been designed uniformly in order to facilitate the research being done. In function, Rad knew enough to know that every location had its own unique characteristics. It had already taken him a breem longer than normal to access the base’s internal video monitoring systems because of how well hidden they had been within the stacks of other functional programs.

He was just in the process of tracking some stray movement when Ironside came storming in to the room. He apparently had finished some form of heated conversation with Spartan. Rad listened patiently as Ironside vented. Lionizer lifted his head for a moment before getting fully to his feet, apparently sensing Ironside’s frustration.

“Spartan’s approach can be a little rough, and maybe a little secretive but he has our survival in mind,” Rad began, empathizing with Ironside’s sentiment but not wanting to fuel his frustration level any further, at least in regards to other Autobots. “We’ve got bigger problems now though.”

Rad briefly brought up the static-y, unanswered comm signal that he had used to try and raise Roadbuster earlier to no avail.

“Roady isn’t responding to our comms. Highbrow said he stayed back at the bunker to cover our tracks and secure our escape. That’s bad enough, but now Highbrow has gone off to get him. We’re losing ‘Bots left and right. If this keeps up….well….I’m tryin’ not to think about it too much. I might just go with him and get it over with.”

Rad leaned forward in his chair, resting his cranial unit on one actuator as he typed in commands with the other. He had thought about trying to get a distress signal out but whatever meteorological disturbances the Decepticons had wound up causing would likely interfere with that, too. Not that he wouldn’t try, eventually. It’s not like the whole planet was being consumed by this mess over the Arvassian mountain range—yet. He just wanted to wait until they had some sort of game plan. After all, there was still a lone Autobot ship up there in Nebulos’ orbit that was having to remain perfectly silent—in every way—in order to keep its position hidden from the Decepticons. And even more importantly, as Ironside had suggested, if they did manage to get a call through, Rad didn't want to be responsible for leading them in to some sort of trap, and their subsequent destruction. They were going to have to proceed carefully, there was no doubt about that.

“Wait a—” Rad stuttered looking at a monitor near the area where he had detected the stray movement. It appeared to be--smudged? He couldn't really see what was going on, but there were definitely stray indicators of movement from the tiny parts of the screen that weren't already caked over in mud. One of the workshops appeared to be…occupied. “—sec. Is that a Decepticon in there? Who’s been capturing ‘Cons?”

The Folassian Forest - Autobot Command Bunker

"So how far is the blast radius of this bombardment gonna be? I don't mind getting dirty. However being blown up...not on my to do list." Horri-Bull says as he walks, following Snaptrap.

(OOC: I already spoke with Insidious about getting back into action with Duros.)

Korajan Underground--The Vault

Duros observed as Arcana gave Peer Galen the results from the test made on Duran. Everything looked fine, nothing was out of place, but there was still something weird. They were missing something. But Duros couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Not that it really mattered. He was a soldier, not a scientist, and the discovery of what was happening would have to be made by minds greater than his.

Duros sighed as he saw Peer Galen talking with Illyra. He respected the man, probably more than any other Nebulan, but Duros couldn't help but to think that this wasn't the time to get all distracted by anything, even a woman. Especially a woman. They need to make plans for a counter-attack, and fast.

Speaking of which, he had something he wanted to say to Galen since this madness started, but it all happened so fast that he had forgot about it. And now that he remembered what it was, he was sorry, but he was going to have to interrupt them.

As he approached Peer Galen, he felt a little ashamed of what he was about to do, but duty comes first, and Duros was sure that after those metal men were completely and utterly destroyed, Galen and Illyra would have plenty of time to do whatever they wanted. Because if not, there wouldn't be much freedom to eat a lunch togheter. He only hoped Galen would see it that way.

"Excuse me Peer Galen, miss Illyra." He looked directly at Galen's eye. "If I may have a moment sir, there is something I need to discuss with you."

Fortress Tenebrous

One of Apeface's bulky fists crunched against some piece of shiny rock, one of many that had been displaced in the area to make way for the recently assembled Decepticon outpost. Several obscure Seekers and Sweeps whom Apeface did not recognize by name or care to learn patrolled the area, though most of them seemed to be engaged in little more than idle chatter.

Snapdragon had chosen to fly back, and had likely already beaten him here. Apeface had hoped that by taking the slower, ground path, he might encounter something of interest along the way. He'd had no such luck.

Transforming back in to his standard mode as he approached, one of the Seekers noted his arrival by allowing the Horrorcon a slightly wider berth of entry than the Decepticon likely would have normally allowed for one of the lesser grunts. Everything was positioning and intimidation within the Decepticon ranks, and neither of the Horrorcons had any problem with reminding the others of the status they'd earned when they had to.

>>"Apeface, reporting in,"<< the Horrorcon transmitted, just as gruffly over the comm as he was in person. Whoever was monitoring, be it Sonicstorm or some other flyboy, could go make themselves useful and notify Turmoil.

At this point, Apeface was just glad to have gotten out of the dust storm that Scorponok had apparently triggered. It hadn't been too bad where he was, but he could feel some grinding in his gears that hadn't been there before. Just one more annoyance that made him all the more likely to slam his fist in to the face of the first mouthy mech to cross him, especially if it was another one of those glitched up Insecticons.
___

Korajan Underground--The Vault

When Galen heard the voice from behind him, he quickly started chewing the bite of green fruit that he was holding. Llyra smirked as he turned to face Duros, his mouth still somewhat full.

"What is...?" he began, before realizing how ridiculous he must look and finished swallowing the bite. "....sure, friend. Take many moments. I would never think to ignore my head of security."

Though he knew it would be nice to get away for a while he had intentionally not gone far. After all, his responsibilities aside, he would not exactly be able to leave the Vault any time soon. That in itself begged the quesiton--how had Llyra arrived her unscathed? That would have to be a question for later. No World Watcher would have the luxury of idle time. Not for the forseeable future.

Koraja—Outskirts

"What all of you are seeing here on film...it's real." It seemed Kreb had begun filming. "Koraja woke up this morning welcoming a group of robots calling themselves Autobots, aliens from another world, who said a war was coming and that they would protect us. Then, it came. It came, and then the war follows. Firstly let me say...nice job Autobots."

He then had clips run of Spartan's attack on the dome.

"You saved those guys from being killed by your enemies alright. Buy killing them yourselves? Thanks, we glad you were there to save those people. My lead cameraman was killed in that blast." Kreb shakes his head in disgust. "A moment of silence for Vosh folks." KReb hangs his head...for five seconds. "Anyways their foes, the Decepticons have basically begun an invasion. However brutal they are they have come forth with negotiations. Not the best of welcomes but let me ask you: Who do you trust more people? The man who says he'll shoot you dead if you disobey or the one who preaches peace and then plays the 'friendly fire' card?" He then motions them to show footage of Scorponok.

"This guy is the man in charge of this massive force of Decepticons. Scorponok,our new ruler." Kreb then does a bow. "He's offered peace for those who are willing to serve. Those who don't." He then flashes a picture of Gort, which then is comically ripped in half. "Well you get the picture so to speak. My show here,right now...is to show you the gritty truth of our situation. The Decepticons, Nebulos' new rulers. And all my little Kreb heads out there had better take note of what I show you and tell you because this is our future." HE then motions his crew to walk around.

"I got guys in key points across Nebulos sending me feed, I'm going to show you how their influence spreads even now, and to start this feed off is our very own Peer Soriza, not a new face to my show. She's been approached by the Decepticons by a representative by the name of Kickback." Kreb then shows footage from the room of Kickback in his burrow hole from inside the base, having had a hidden camera on him. "She's currently considering one of the hardest and bravest choices any of our council must make. Peer Soriza, can you give us your thoughts on this to help our viewers understand what is happening in these dark times?" He says, pointing the mic at her.

Mount Melanos

"I don't understand why Roadbuster stayed behind. We could have just used a timer to blow up the base. He took an unnecessary risk." Ironside grunted at Rad. "Wrecker bravado. Not something we need right now.

"Huh?" Ironside reacted to Rad's sudden show of surprise.

"Lemme look at it." The large Autobot said, making his way to Rad's work station. "Well I'll be damned. I think we have a Monsterbot onboard. Not sure which one of them but the style is theirs. Shall we investigate?"
_____________________________________

Fortress Tenebrous

"Heh, look at them slave away." Hacksaw chuckled to Contrail as the two Decepticons watched several Nebulans fit metal plates into the walls of large pools in the ground they had dug earlier.

"Pathetic fleshlings! Work faster!" Contrail barked at the Nebulans workers before suddenly feeling a painful, unbreakable grip having taken hold of his shoulder. "Snapdragon? What are y-"

Before he managed to finish his question, Contrail was showed into the pool in the making, like he weighed no more than a minibot. As he managed to turn to look, he could see Snapdragon standing on its edge, looking down at the smaller Decepticon with a baleful gaze before slowly turning to look at Hacksaw who quickly jumped down into the pool before being thrown in himself.

"Meatbags work too slow." Was the only thing the Horrorcon said but it was the only thing the two Decepticons needed to understand the situation. Either they helped the Nebulans to finish this grease pool or they would enter a world of hurt in the hands of the violent monster watching over them.

Koraja—Outskirts

Soriza had reluctantly given the famous—or infamous, depending on one’s perspective—media personality Kreb permission to freely record all that he may care to of what was occurring within the Nebulan encampment that had been established by the Insecticons. It was likely only the first of many others that either had been set up on Nebulos or were in the process of being so. After the recording device had now violated her own personal space, she was slowly beginning to regret that decision. Still, it was her hope that by not interfering with Kreb’s work, it would help prevent other Nebulans from taking any foolish actions.

“My thoughts are…immaterial,” Soriza began evenly, her gaze focusing on Kreb before turning directly to the recorder. “We are faced with an occurrence unlike any other in our recorded history. I only hope that our shared history vindicates the actions we, your Peers, take in the coming revolutions for the betterment of our entire world. We must all find our place in this new environment, even if it is one that we could never have imagined previously.”

Soriza truly did not know what to make of everything that was going on around her, but she refused to allow herself to become overwhelmed by it. This would be a profound period in their history, that much was unquestionable. What did remain in question was whether their species would survive to study it in the generations to come.
___

Mount Melanos

Rad nodded absently, resting his cranial unit upon his two actuators for a few moments before looking up again. Going after Roadbuster, and now Highbrow, would critically impair the Autobots on this planet if they weren't successful. Roadbuster was nothing if not a hardcore survivor. Rad had to trust that he would not only get himself out of that mess, but now get Highbrow out of it as well.

As the filthy screen had now caught Ironside's attention as well, Rad looked back over.

"Monsterbot, eh?" Rad said, trying to get a better look, but it just wasn't going to happen until someone got in that room and cleaned that camera lens off. "I remember seeing their names on the duty roster. Don't remember seeing much about any of their activities."

Rad got up from the console, stretching a couple of achy joints before heading towards one of the auxilliary exits.

"I guess it won't hurt to have a look. I hope not, anyways," Rad said as he left the control room and started walking down one of the hallways with Ironside. The architectural design of the Melanos beta site somehow struck him as feeling more secure. Rad wasn't sure why. He only hoped that the feeling proved to be true in the long run. That had ceded too much to the Decepticons already in such a short amount of time. When they arrived at the door to the room in question, Rad hesitated. If the Monsterbot had muddied up the camera, he probably wasn't all too keen about having others interrupt whatever they were doing in there. Still, there were bigger stakes at play here, and if they had access to a live 'Con, that would only benefit them, right?

Tentatively, Rad reached out and pushed the chime signal on the door, indicating that there was someone waiting on the other side. No need to come across as overly hostile or judgmental, especially when dealing with a potentially hair-trigger Monsterbot.

Fortress Tenebrous - Command Center

The first signs of the incoming dust cloud could already been seen in the horizon with naked eye from the observation levels of Fortress Tenebrous' menacing central spire which at height of over 2 miles reached for the sky like no construct in the history of Nebulos. Whether or not the Nebulans were ready to accept it, the Second Expansion fleet's simple demonstration of their might was quickly becoming far more deadly than the Nebulans had expected when they had refused the deal High Commander Scorponok had offered them.

The Decepticons however had known how devastating a hit from the Semper Tyrannis' siege driver would be for an organic world such as Nebulos. And thus, Scorponok had left Turmoil instructions to offer the Nebulans another chance to surrender after the Nebulans had witnessed first hand how fragile they truly were.

"Sonicstorm. Take over their broadcasts." Turmoil commanded, now standing rigid in front of multiple large screens showing events all around the planet. Panic. Riots. Looting. Even a society as peaceful as the Nebulans appeared to be no less immune against their basic insticts when faced with question of survival. Megatron had been right. When it came down to it, everything was about survival of the fittest.

"Yes sir." The communications specialist replied quickly while working on his orders as fast as he could. In less than a klik, Sonicstorm had started a broadcast that overrided all Nebulan broadcasts, forcing the Decepticon symbol along within Cybertronian writing to every open Nebulan receiver. "We are ready sir."

"Good. Begin." Turmoil stated and few nanokliks later the Decepticon symbol on the screens was replaced by Turmoil's visage.

>>"People of Nebulos. I am the Vice-Commander Turmoil of the Second Expansion Fleet of the Decepticon Empire. By request of High Commander Scorponok I offer you one more chance to surrender. Fail to comply now and the second asteroid we ram into your world will send Nebulos into decades long winter, thus creating a global extinction event. Consider our offer carefully, the survival of your species depends on your decision. Work for us and we may even be willing to negotiate about preserving your way of life as long as our needs are met. You have 93 of your hours to reply."<<

The offer was considered rather lenient by Decepticon standards but the truth was that despite being able to easily destroy a world, the Decepticons lacked the numbers to effectively control one. If the Nebulans were to submit to the Empire now, it would make Decepticons far stronger than the alternative. A scenario where they could not effectively exploit the natives through peaceful means was going to require far more resources from the Decepticons themselves to be used on acquiring their objectives. Indeed, a surrender and cooperation with Nebulans was easily the best option.

Koraja—Outskirts

"Well it appears we need to reaffirm what we talked about with their comrade Soriza. As you're the present World Watcher, and since we don't know if the others are dead...or worse. It seems that the call is yours, exclusively here I would wager." Kreb says. "Do we really need 93 hours to have that cheery fellow who hijacked my bandwidth sit there angrily? if it were me...I'd not have him on my bad side."

Command Center - Arvassian Range Facility

The large Decepticon commander grit his teeth as he endured everything Turmoil had thrown at him. Black Shadow’s hands balled into tight fists before he hissed back his response to Turmoil.

>>”Of course, sir.”<<

Black Shadow smashed his fist down on the edge of the console effectively taking out a section rendering the station unusable until proper repairs were made. The Commander rose from his seat and turned to face Blue Bacchus his sneer quite evident on his face.

“Bacchus, get me all the information you can gather on Banzai-tron and his little Intelligence Services.”

Blue Bacchus made his way to a nearby terminal and started on his assigned task. In the meantime Black Shadow proceeded to grumble under his breath while stalking to the large Command chair at the center of the room. He flopped down and quickly slid down the back taking on a sulking posture.

“Sir, I’ve gathered everything I could locate on Banzai-tron and the purpose he is serving on planet.”

Bacchus paused a moment while he compiled all of the information into a repost that would be sent directly to Turmoil. Once finished he looked back to his perturbed friend and continued on.

“From what I have gathered Banzai-tron and his group arrived a few cycles after the initial arrival of your infiltration team. He seems to be working independently of the command structure; however there was no more information regarding him and his team’s purpose. I’m sorry sir.”

Black Shadow growled lowly before he motioned with his hand signaling his acceptance of the report. He slid back up on the chair and got Blue Bacchus’ attention again.

“Blue, get that report done and be sure to let Turmoil know that the infiltration team had no interaction with Banzai-tron and his irritating Intelligence team.”

Blue Bacchus nodded in response and quickly set to work. Black Shadow finally stood from the command chair and began to make his way to the door. Before he exited he stopped and turned back around.

“If you need me Blue, I’ll be relieving some stress in the prisoner hold.” He flashed his second an evil grin. “Don’t disturb me.”

Once Black Shadow had made his leave Blue Bacchus finished the report and sent it along to Turmoil.

The Folassian Forest

After some time of tracking through the organic mess that covered this particular area of the planet and they weren’t getting anywhere near he wanted to be. Lockdown had made the decision to split the group up in order to cover more ground. At that suggestion Banzai-tron took Wingspan and headed off to the North while Lockdown led Treadshot and his little pet in an Easterly direction.

They had been traveling for just over two Cycles when Lockdown’s comm line began to buzz. The bounty hunter stopped in his tracks and played the message. His face twisted in annoyance before he turned to face Treadshot and Catgut.

“Well, I suppose this ends our little venture through this organic thicket.”

Lockdown scanned the immediate area but found no suitable location to hunker down until the ash and dust cloud past. Thankfully he had acquired a new scanning system and a top of the line optic magnifier to help in his search. Moments later his systems had fixed on a section of the forest set in a deep valley where a series of caverns were located. Lockdown turned to look over his shoulder at Treadshot, a broad smile etched on his face.

“There’s a valley not far from here. We’ll be able to take shelter in one of the caverns.”

Lockdown motioned for the two mechs to follow as he began to move through the dense forest once more.

Korajan Underground--The Vault

“Peer Galen, you must come now. You would benefit as well, Duros,” one of the other World Watchers interrupted. Galen nodded a polite excusal from his conversation with Duros and followed the fellow World Watcher in to a monitoring room. Various Nebulan programming had been on the screens prior. Now, nearly all of the screens were dominated with the visage of yet another of these metal men. Galen did not recognize this one.

>>"People of Nebulos. I am the Vice-Commander Turmoil of the Second Expansion Fleet of the Decepticon Empire. By request of High Commander Scorponok I offer you one more chance to surrender. Fail to comply now and the second asteroid we ram into your world will send Nebulos into decades long winter, thus creating a global extinction event. Consider our offer carefully; the survival of your species depends on your decision. Work for us and we may even be willing to negotiate about preserving your way of life as long as our needs are met. You have 93 of your hours to reply."<<

The World Watchers had been in the process of piecing together a suitable resistance. It was a more difficult process than Galen ever would have imagined. After so many centuries of peace, many of their massive-scale defensives had become obsolete, even by the planet’s standards. It was a daunting prospect, trying to find a way to drive these would-be conquerors away from their home. Daunting, but not impossible. Galen was confidant in that.

But now a new threat loomed over them. If what the Decepticon was threatening was true, could they afford to resist? How many lives would be lost? And yet what if the threat of the great asteroid collision was nothing more than idle bluster?

“I will not live in a world that is dominated by these….machines,” Galen said, looking at the ground. “We will resist. And we must do so within ninety-three hours.”

Galen could see that Llyra stood just outside of the room that he and the others had been swept in to, but she too had seen the man of metal’s broadcast. He wondered if she also felt the same sense of creeping dread that was slowly taking precedence in his mind: the sense that they might be living under the auspices of Nebulos’ final days.

___

Koraja--Outskirts

Soriza cast a baleful glance in Kreb’s direction but said nothing for the moment. Her attention—like the attention of countless others across the planet—was fully on the new man of metal that addressed them.

They watched in silence as the Decepticon addressed them. Now they truly were being faced with an ultimatum. A winter of the magnitude that Turmoil spoke of would be an automatic sentence of execution for many on the planet. What would be the point of living for those that somehow remained alive? Soriza was confidant that she had chosen the wiser course of action, even if that necessitated her spending the majority of her immediate future within this encampment.

“My path is clear. I am not so sure about the paths of the others,” Soriza said in response to Kreb’s initial statement. If the reactions of many of the other Peers within the Council had been any indication, they would intend to resist, even though Soriza had seen nothing of their efforts materialize. At this point she could only hope that they who had chosen wisely would be spared the Decepticons’ wrath and allowed to live in some subterranean commune while the endless winter ravaged the surface above.

“It is so odd to imagine that such a short span of time will forever alter the course of our future,” Soriza said, looking at Kreb.

Korajan Underground - The Vaul

"And how in the hell you are going resist Galen?!" Grax yelled at the leader of the World Watchers, his face turning red in anger. "I have been generously funding your organization for years and despite my pleas for preparing against a potential extraterrestrial attack, all development towards weapons was directed to other avenues! What are you going to do against these creatures that have the ability to devastate our world on a whim?!"

Pointing a finger at Galen accusingly, Grax continued his raving. "You are condemning us all with this obsessive resistance against a hostile species we cannot even hope to defeat! We need to surrender and we need to surrender now!"

Korajan Underground - The Vault

"We do that and they'll kill us anyways. Then they'll kill every one else who resists, enslave the rest and then turn their attention to the planet. Ten credits says they'll plunder our natural resources, build more men for their army and once Nebulos is sucked dry leave us with a dying planet...IF it's not already dead." Gort says, deciding to butt in. "You wanna surrender? Fine. Good bye, good luck and hope they don't kill you. Me...I'm kicking those metal bastards off my planet."

------------------------

Koraja--Outskirts

"It took them less time to invade, in hindsight it's kind of a nice breather." Kreb says, trying to be serious but he couldn't help state such an obvious point. "However...someone has to take the people into consideration. We need to show them that not all of us are gonna fight. Otherwise the children,t he infirm and the elderly will suffer alongside those that rebel. We don't want that." Kreb looks into the camera. "Do we folks?"

The Folassian Forest--Autobot Command Bunker

The missile came screaming into the command center of the bunker, and Roadbuster barely had time to dodge out of the way. The projectile began to turn to home in on him but collided with the ceiling and exploded, raining down a large amount of debris that partially buried the large Autobot. It took him several astroseconds to dig his way out of the collapsed debris and after he waited several more he could tell that his Decepticon adversary had vacated the area. With the self destruct counting down Roadbuster knew there was no point in staying any longer.

He transformed and quickly made for the exit the others used, his engine roaring as he pushed himself as fast as he could go. He cleared the base quickly and began to follow the trail the others had taken doing his best to get clear as fast as possible.

>>Roadbuster to any Autobots in the area. Base is set to blow, clear out as fast as you can!<<

Mount Melanos - Autobot Beta Site – Workshop

Repugnus cut off the power supply to his Decepticon captive, allowing him to fall into stasis lock. The Monsterbot wiped his hands off on a rag. He had gotten a good amount of information out of him. Unfortunately a lot of it was useless. You could only get so much from a random low level grunt. At the very least it had given him some practice with his interrogation skills. With all of this infiltrating and hiding in the dirt he was afraid he had gotten rusty, but apparently he hadn’t.

He looked over at the door as the chime went off. Apparently one of his fellow Autobots had finally installed the ball bearings to come and check on him. The Monsterbot was mildly curious to see who it would be. There were maybe a few Autobots on this world that he could work with for awhile. That was about the best he could ask for, as he certainly wasn’t going to make any friends or gain any comrades. Not many Autobots could tolerate his methods and actions for long.

Repugnus walked up to the door and tapped the control, allowing it to slide open. He frowned as he looked at Rad. This was not one of the Autobots he could see getting along with. “What do you want?”

*

The Folassian Forest

Treadshot grunted as Lockdown led the way. “Nice of them to provide some warning before they start rending so much destruction we happen to be on the surface of,” he commented sarcastically. “I do believe my fees just went up dramatically, if I even bother to continue with this mission.”

The gunslinger walked through the forest, various small animals scurrying out of the way as the vegetation crunched under his feet. There wasn’t any real need to be careful or subtle about anything now. With a giant ash cloud approaching tracking was going to be impossible for a good while. “So how badly is this bit of destruction going to set us back? Tracking the Autobots through a dust and ash storm is liable to be completely useless, not to mention the damage we might take from our systems getting clogged.”

The Folassian Forest--Path to Autobot Command Bunker

>>"About time Roadbuster. You took too long so I came back to render assitence...however my leg gave out halfway."<< Highbrow's voice came on over the comm. >>{i]"I am well enough to provide you cover fire, just stop and let me board you. I am not too far ahead."{/i]<<

(OOC: This will be my last post for Snaptrap as I am dropping him from my roster.)

The Folassian Forest – Banks of the Korajan River

Snaptrap lumbered onto the shoreline of the river. He had been ordered to seek shelter from the coming dust storm and could think of no better place to protect himself than underwater where the ash and dust would not be able to infiltrate his systems and inner workings. As he neared the water’s edge, the Seacon leader received a coded transmission from Seawing, who was with the rest of his unit along the coastline. An emergency had apparently arisen that required Snaptrap’s assistance. >>”Hold tight, Seawing. I’m on my way.”<<

Snaptrap then turned back towards Skullgrin and Horri-Bull. “I’ve been called away on urgent matters that require my attention. Seek shelter quickly from the coming storm and then contact Air Commandant Cyclonus for further orders.”

The Seacon Commander then turned back towards the water and transformed into his shell-armored beast mode. He plodded down into the water and followed the river east towards the coastline.

The Folassian Forest – Banks of the Korajan River

[I'll kill that stupid turtle if he doesn't hurry up and make up his slagging mind where-]

SHUT. UP.

Skullgrin looks on the surrounding muddy terrain and the oncoming dust cloud with equal contempt, but the true hatred in his spark is reserved for Snaptrap and Horri-Bull, who seemed to be collaborating to make this assignment as pointless and demeaning as possible. He wondered if he'd ever get this organic filth off his wheels.

Finally they came to a river, and Snaptrap unceremoniously decided to abandon them both to return to his own team. Oh really? Fair enough, commander, lump me in with this walking greasestain if you will. I'll show you, by surviving this little trial.

With Snaptrap gone, the siege warrior points to a nearby ridge. "We'll need to find proper shelter facing away from the storm, so the other side of those dirt-mounds will be where we have to look. At worst, we'll have to blast some caves for ourselves in the dirt."

And don't think we're sharing the next hidey-hole, Horri-bull, you can find your own rut in the dirt to be at home in. [Get too close and we'll see what you smell like when you're aflame.]

"Come on, across the river. We don't have much longer." Skullgrin transforms and heads into the water, signalling his location to Cyclonus, along with a short message about where Snaptrap had gone.

Orbit—Bridge of the Perdition

>>“The Decepticon units should have reached minimum safe distance by this time, Reflector. Commence bombardment,”<< the disembodied voice of Air Commander Cyclonus said through the ship’s bridge comm consoles. Reflector acknowledged the command in his typical, multifaceted way. Spyglass adjusted the volume on the transmission slightly while looking over to Viewfinder. Spectro had readied the forward weapons array in response to Cyclonus’ previous transmission to the ship. Reflector had only been waiting for the word from below. Now that it had been given, the Viewfinder unit reached out and activated the forward offensive batteries.

“We understand. Firing now,” Reflector responded.

The bridge of the Perdition rumbled slightly as the weapons’ systems powered up and then released their destructive power on the targeted area of the planet below.

___

Fortress Tenebrous

It hadn’t taken long at all for Apeface to hone in on Snapdragon’s position. The fellow Horrorcon was unsurprised to find his partner at the edge of what looked like it would eventually become a good, old-fashioned grease pit. It’d been too longed since he’d soaked in one.

“Bout time we had one of these. Green-skinned pea pods ain’t good for nothing. Hurry it up!”

They kept him waiting for a good oil bath for too much longer and he was going to have to pass the time by eating one of them.

That would speed them up.

Koraja—Outskirts

“And that is why you have been given such unrestricted access, friend Kreb,” Soriza said.

She was almost starting to feel helpless here, as if the tides were simply washing her and her previous significance away entirely; however, that was not entirely true. She had been given an opportunity here. It was not the opportunity that she had expected, but she would make the most of it.

“We must ensure that the Decepticons see that there are those of us who will not stand in their way. They must see that there are those among our number who need not be chained and collared in order to serve the best interests of our planet. You will be the one who continues to makes sure the world receives that message. The Decepticons will as well.”

She looked over at a small grouping of the metal creatures—Insecticons, they called themselves—who still appeared to be engaged in some form of private counsel between themselves while their clones labored around them. She could not help but wonder if their plans were as lock-step with that of the other Decepticons as they let on.

___

Korajan Underground—The Vault

The debate playing out right in front of Galen’s eyes was the same debate he had heard when the metal men first appeared. It was a debate that had played out in his own mind many times. He knew that he had to be sure of his decision since there were many other lives that were in some way dependant on the course of action that he ultimately chose.

His commitment remained the same.

“The World Watchers were established to deal with threats to our way of life. I have seen nothing in my lifetime that fits that definition more than these metal…things. If my time to move on to the next plane of existence has come then so be it, but until then I will use what power I have to return Nebulos to what it was….what it was before this shared nightmare gripped our world.”

Galen’s gaze firmly met that of the others for a few intense moments before he walked off. Time was counting down. After that, the metal men would want an answer for their latest threat. Galen intended to provide them with one.

___

“How dare you return to Koraja! You know full well that I expressly forbade all travel for those under my employ while this….this crisis….plays out. Did you not think that would apply to my own flesh as well?”

Llyra stared at the face of her father, currently displayed on the circular, handheld device she carried in one hand. Her expression was pained and when she started to speak, her voice cracked a little.

“I’m not trying to cause you any pain, father, but I could not leave Galen alone to deal with this. He…”

“…he is not alone!” Zarak interrupted. “Child…Galen is a World Watcher. He will not be alone for the duration of this occupation! He will be surrounded. You will scarcely see him. You only expose yourself to the same risks that he should have avoided. Do you not realize that Koraja has now been swarmed by these things? Have you not seen the images that have been broadcast? The Korajans have become mindless drones. How long before these compound monstrosities find you, hm? How long before their influence spreads to all the other cities? It will not be long, Llyra. Not long at all.”

“There is too much at stake for me to just hide. I-I’ll return as soon as I’m able, father.”

“Pray, then, that you will have such an opportunity,” Zarak said, before his face disappeared from the screen. Llyra pushed back tears as they stung against the sides of her eyelids. With renewed determination, she went off to find Galen again. They had more to discuss than whether or not they could find a few quiet moments to themselves.

Mount Melanos

Rad wasn’t really sure what he was expecting to be on the other side of the door. A Monsterbot, obviously. But the condition of the room, the Autobot, the equipment, the captive—there were any number of other things that Rad had just prepared himself to accept, whatever it turned out to be.

“Nice to see you too, sunshine,” Rad said, his voice flat and emotionless. None of the Monsterbots were known for their especially pleasant disposition. Rad didn’t really understand why any of them were Autobots. Given their anti-social personalities, all three of them would probably be happier as a Decepticon. Or living in a cave. Autobot morale would likely be the better for it. But that was neither here nor there.

“As I’m sure you’re pretty well aware, video monitoring to this room got a little interrupted. I need to take stock of everything that’s going on in the base so I can update Roadbuster when he gets back. Simple, huh?”

___

Folassian Forest

Once Cyclonus and the majority of the other Decepticons had reached a minimum safe distance, the sleek purple jet transformed and landed near the others. Scourge was lingering a little too closely to the blast zone for his liking, but the Tracker knew what he was doing so Cyclonus did nothing to interfere.

Only a few moments after the order had been given, a massive energy burst shot down from the sky. Unbeknownst to Cyclonus, the detonation of the base had begun only a fraction of an astrosecond before the Perdition’s orbital bombardment systems could do their job. It was disappointing that they had not encountered a stronger Autobot resistance here. Like any Decepticon, the 2nd Expansion Fleet quickly hungered for its next battle not longer after it had finished its last. In the Aerospace Commander’s view, however, their mission was accomplished. If the Autobot survivalist had planned to destroy the base, he had just been beaten to the punch and was now little more than a husk of smoldering wreckage somewhere within the charred remains of the bunker.

Cyclonus’ environmental scanners were picking up some of the subtle atmospheric changes that were occurring in the aftermath of Sonicstorm’s report. They were not yet interfering with his operational systems, but it wouldn’t be long before they did, especially if the particle count increased at its present rate.

“Remain behind,” Cyclonus said, turning to Scourge as the Tracker transformed and landed only a meter or so away. “Bring Roadbuster’s remains to Koraja. We will display them alongside Skyhammer’s.”

He then turned to face the other Decepticons.

“The Autobots have once again fled in the face of our combined might. Fuel does not drip from your fingertips, nor does the satisfaction of a successful hunt tinge your circuits, but we are victorious nonetheless. I’ve no doubts that our Vice Commander, Turmoil, understands your thirst for conquest. It will be sated before all is said and done on this world. Fortress Tenebrous awaits our return.”

Korajan Underground—The Vault

No. This wouldn't do at all. The insufferable wannabe martyr called Gort obviously did not know his place when addressing a high standing member of society like Grax. A slight nod was given as a signal to a towering man standing next to the industrial tycoon and in matter of seconds the situation grew from tense to violent.

"Krunk! Show him some manners!" Insulted Grax commanded and the large bodyguard obeyed. Moving surprisingly quickly for a man of his size, Krunk seized the hotheaded Nebulan into a rear naked choke while Grax - with a sneer on his face point the palm of his right hand at the back of departing Galen.

"Galen! I will not allow you to throw our lives away for an ideal you cannot uphold!" Grax shrieked, unleashing a stun beam from the small device in his hand towards the leader of the World Watchers.