by Aetrius » Tue Nov 30, 2010 11:02 pm
Autobot Command Bunker - The Folassian Forest
Vulcan was reaching forward to activate the bounce beams when a red light lit up on the control board. He paused, hand held above the controls and looked back at Spartan.
“They’re scanning our bounce beams, trying to get a lock on the ship in orbit.”
“Counter-measures,” Spartan replied, seeming for all the world as if he’d expected this tactic.
“Yeah,” Vulcan sighed. “I can bounce the signal through the Nebulan orbital network. It will buy us a few untraceable bounces, at least until they take out all the Nebulan satellites. We’ll have to come up with something else after that.”
“Indeed. That orbital vessel is too valuable a resource to lose at this stage. What about ingress and egress points?”
“Ingress is no problem. They’d have to be scanning this spot specifically at the exact moment we bounce to get a lock on us here. Egress is a bit more difficult. The best I can do is blanket the area in ionic radiation, just like the bounce beams leave. It will just make the actual exit point harder to pinpoint. Probably buy us a 20 mile radius.”
Spartan paused almost imperceptibly for thought then said “Do it.”
“You got it boss,” Vulcan replied, and matched deed to word. His fingers flew across the command console, and in mere moments the bounce beams engaged.
Artemis, Athena, and Roadbuster would be in for a bumpy ride, and a much longer one than they’d expected. Vulcan’s program sent the bounce beam careening seemingly at random through various Nebulan communications satellites, effectively masking the location of the orbital vessel, before depositing the three Autobots in their respective locations. Roadbuster appeared only a few blocks away from the action at the capital. Athena appeared in the sky several miles from Koraja. And, Artemis’ beam deposited him in a wooded thicket just over 200 miles from the battle site.
**
As the silvery glow faded, Athena wasted no time transforming to jet form. She had little time to waste since she was miles above the ground and in free fall. She ignited her engines, and with a thump of unleashed power, surged forward. The banshee howl of her jets accelerated her quickly to a speed several times that of sound, and in mere moments she was racing over the capital.
High above Koraja
The Decepticon presence was easily discernable, and though she itched to engage, her orders were clear. Paint the targets for Artemis and haul chassis. She was good, she knew she was very good, but the last thing she needed was to get in a dogfight with a numerically superior Decepticon force with no hope of back-up. Using her SALH system, Athena marked the targets for Artemis and sped off. The extreme height of her fly-by coupled with the speed of her pass should give her time to be well clear before the ‘cons could engage. She hoped so anyway.
200 miles southeast of Koraja
As soon as his feet hit dirt, Artemis transformed to his tank mode and trained his missile rack on the approximate area of the capital. All he was waiting for was telemetry from Athena, and he didn’t have to wait long. His teammate provided targets and he let fly, launching a full salvo of missiles at the capital. As soon as the missiles were clear, he retreated back into the trees found good cover, and powered down. Should the cons backtrack the missiles, he intended to be almost impossible to spot from the air. They’d have to come down to the ground and look for him.
Koraja
A full dozen missiles streaked from the sky and down around the capital dome. The Seacons were all targeted, as were several of the Decepticon fliers in the area, each with a missile headed straight for them, but two of the heavy warheads were aimed, not at Scorponok himself, but at the buildings around capital square. Athena had correctly surmised that the massive Decepticon’s armor would likely survive even the devastating firepower that Artemis could bring to bear, but hundreds of metric tons of steel and concrete falling on Scorponok would bring the giant down. It was unlikely he’d be hurt, but he’d probably be buried long enough for Highbrow and Rad to free Skyhammer and get the hell out of dodge.