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Bottom of the Yellow Sea

Being forcibly ripped apart from their combiner form had more of a disorienting effect than Scrapper would have imagined as it took him longer than expected to come to his senses.

>>”Attention all forces, we’ve accomplished our objective here. Constructicons, fall back to the base. Everyone else outside of the dome, assist the Constructicons in their retreat and fall back yourselves. We’ll provide suppressing fire from the dome.”<<

Right. Retreat. of course. What else could be done now? Devastator still clearly had some flaws that needed to be worked out of the combiner process. But in order to get to those revisions, Scrapper needed to remain functional. And that was going to be hard with an enraged Dinobot charging his way.

“B-Boss! What do we do?!” Scavenger asked. Dutiful Scavenger. Even as Scrapper took his help, he was transforming into his vehicle mode.

"Run!" Scrapper said, knowing that he had no time for a fuller explanation with Grimlock on their heels. As his tires began to grind the oceanic silt, kicking up another cloud of debris, he roared off in the direction of the domes.

>>"Constructicons! Do as Flamewar ordered! Immediate fallback to primary dome. Now!"<<

"C'mon! Let's go go go!" Mixmaster said, also running past Scavenger and slipping into his own alt mode for greater speed. As his drum began to churn, its access port began to kick out a cloud of black, acidic materials that would hopefully interfere with the sensors of anyone that got directly behind him.

Alpha Dome

Battletrap was enjoying the fight in his dual mode. It been a while since he had a chance to go at it like this. The charging small beast bot hit the side of the jeep portion of Battletrap turning him enough for his laser fire to hit the wall. In response the copter mode continued to go after Steeljaw until new orders came through the Con channel. It bothered him that he couldn't finish the fight but at the same time felt it would be dangerous to leave the fight with both beast bots functioning.

>>Flamewar, it be problem to leave fight. Blaster pets still function. Other Autobots still function as well.<<

Battletrap usually doesn't disobey orders but this time it felt dangerous to leave.

Alpha Dome

Thunderwing unceremoniously approached Flamewar and the others within the confines of the primary undersea dome. The gestalt had underperformed his expectations. All the more reason he was convinced that the future of their species and critical energy shortages they faced would be solved by the cyberorganic technology that he had spearheaded.

Speaking of, this could have been an excellent opportunity to test his new body against the likes of some formidable Autobots, but there were too many variables to account for in this planet's undersea environs. It would be best to wait for a more opportune chance to strike.

"We have no time. The gestalt failed. This facility is a loss. We should return to the Thanatos before we suffer their fate."

Bottom of the Yellow Sea

"Run!"

“Ack! Y-yessir!” Scavenger’s hastily and panicked reply came as Scrapper kicked up a cloud of dust and left him in it. Hastily transforming himself, he glanced back to Bonecrusher as he did noting with dismay that his comrade was tussling with the big bad beast Grimlock. “B-b-bonecrusher! D-didn’t you hear the b-boss?! Let’s cheese it!”

With that said, he bolted after Scrapper, wishing that he had a faster alternate mode. Oh! Maybe he could use his claw to kind of roll for it faster than his treads could? Oh but. He didn’t wanna leave the others behind. So he continued to flee for the dome letting out the occasional yip as shots fired zipped over his head.

“Yikes! Those could hit somebody! What are they doin’ over there…?”


Alpha Dome

Frag. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. The Constructicons were starting to make their escape, but Battletrap refused to. Frustration momentarily flared up in her as she notched another energy arrow and let loose to provide more suppressive fire. Once she had suitably recollected her composure, she sent him a reply.

>>”That’s fine, Battletrap. We’ve accounted for that in our strategy. Follow orders and retreat. Take care not to sustain casualties as you do. Flamewar out.”<<

If Battletrap continued to protest, Flamewar would be far less even handed in how she dealt with him. At Thunderwing’s approach, she repressed the urge to groan as he stated the obvious. No, this one was not to be trifled with. She’d have to approach him more carefully.

“After we’ve secured the Constructicons, we will. They’re an asset that I care not fall into Autobot actuators,” Flamewar replied flatly, glancing to him, “This facility’s destruction was authorized. It’s merely a matter of minimizing our net loss by seeing what Autobots we may take with it. Feel free to retreat early if you wish. Of course, Lord Razorclaw may not appreciate that…”

If she could solicit his aid in fending off the Dinobots, all the better. If not, well, they were in the same position as before.

Alpha Dome

“After we’ve secured the Constructicons, we will. They’re an asset that I care not fall into Autobot actuators. This facility’s destruction was authorized. It’s merely a matter of minimizing our net loss by seeing what Autobots we may take with it. Feel free to retreat early if you wish. Of course, Lord Razorclaw may not appreciate that…”

The sharpened, metallic teeth of Thunderwing's new body pulled themselves into a macabre smile.

"He may well not," Thunderwing began, before moving closer. "But if you think I care one iota about what the beast lord does or does not appreciate, you overestimate his importance."

As another flash of blaster fire rang out against the surface outside the alpha dome, Thunderwing took a step back.

"But I concur with your initial point. I, too, have no desire to see our Constructicon comrades fall into Autobot hands. None who wear this symbol deserve such a fate. Forgive my moment of impulsivity."
___

As if on cue, Hook rolled into the alpha dome, still wet and damaged from the battle outside. As he transformed, he looked around, seeing no familiar green forms.

"The others are taking their sweet time, I see."

Near Alpha Dome:

As Flamewar's comm came through, Misfire immediately was greatful.

"Ack! Good! Done with this! You Autobots aren't fair!" Shouted Misfire as he transformed and took off towards where Flamewar was.

Alpha Dome

After being keenly reminded that Thunderwing cared little for Razorclaw, Flamewar suppressed a grimace, keeping her faceplate unreadable. That was perhaps something she could appreciate if not abide by. Yet, Razorclaw had managed to keep things from falling apart so far. Of course, he was always on the razor’s edge. Perhaps more than he realized.

"But I concur with your initial point. I, too, have no desire to see our Constructicon comrades fall into Autobot hands. None who wear this symbol deserve such a fate. Forgive my moment of impulsivity."

“Of course,” Flamewar replied politely, “Forgive my presumptuousness.”

Glancing to the side as Hook rolled into the dome, Flamewar heaved an internal sigh of relief. Well, that was one. Now they just needed the rest. She looked to Thunderwing, finding herself vaguely unsettled by the organic shell that he wore. Ugh. But, it supposedly must have its uses. Perhaps such things could be modified for infiltration purposes. Not that Thunderwing would easily relinquish the technology. As with all things in the Decepticons, it would come at a price.

Pushing such thoughts to the side for now, Flamewar sought to see if she could goad him into action. He had agreed with her initial point after all.

“How are your ranged capabilities in that new body of yours? See Grimlock over there? It might be an interesting field test of them.”

Bottom of the Yellow Sea:

As Bonecrusher flew towards Grimlock as fast as he could, Swoop ran and tackled Bonecrusher before he could reach their leader.

"YOU DINOBOT SCUM! I WILL KILL YOU! I WILL GRIND YOUR SPARK WITH MY BARE HANDS!"

Swoop struggled to keep Bonecrusher down as the green chunk screamed all sorts of anger.

"ERM- What if I- ERG- Don't plan for you to, huh?" Responded Swoop.

Bonecrusher pushed up with all his might, lifting Swoop with his arms and legs, and threw the Dinobot bird onto the sea floor.

"I WILL KILL YOU, DISGUSTING FREAK!" Shouted Bonecrusher as he jumped up as best he could to put the finishing blow down on Swoop.

Swoop with his peg for a leg was not as agile as he had been previously, but he was still more agile than a wounded Constructicon. Swoop rolled away as Bonecrusher attempted to stomp on the Dinobot's face.

"Nice try, birdbrain."

"LOOK WHO'S TALKING, BIRDBUTT!" Shouted Bonecrusher.

Bonecrusher leaped towards Swoop as the Dinobot unsheathed his sword, and sliced Bonecrusher's right arm off at the shoulder joint.

"AHH! FRAG FRAG! FRAG YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU YOU FRAGGING FRAGTARD!"

Bonecrusher grabbed his arm off the ground and attempted to beat Swoop with it like a club. Swoop then sliced the left apposing arm with his sword also at the shoulder joint, rendering Bonecrusher armless.

"AAHHH I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!" Shouted Bonecrusher once again.

Swoop began to almost feel sorry for the Constructicon. He was losing energon fast as he could tell, and Bonecrusher was definitely suffering greatly at this point. Might as well put him out of his misery.

Swoop sliced towards Bonecrusher as as the Constructicon barely dodged.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, AUTOBOT! YOU WILL DIE PAINFULLY!" Shouted Bonecrusher of course once again.

Swoop kicked Bonecrusher with his peg leg putting a dent in Bonecrusher's belly, and sending him on his knees.




...

Then, they both were quiet.

...


Bonecrusher was helpless. He never imagined a day like this. This was something he had never felt before. He for once felt like he was going to die. Why? His teammates had abandoned him. He was not able to transform without his arms...

Swoop simply stared at Bonecrusher like an executioner before releasing the guillotine.

Bonecrusher stared back...

...


......

Then, Bonecrusher said only two words.

"Frag... you."

Swoop took his sword and then... something hit him. His swipe towards Bonecrusher's neck missed, and hit Bonecrusher in the torso.

As Bonecrusher fell over in pain and yelling in agony, Swoop turned around to see who had dared to fire at him...

Alpha Dome

Not long after Hook rolled in, Scrapper and Mixmaster did as well, transforming as they did. Hook look relieved, even if he didn't say anything.

"The others?" he asked.

"Scavenger was right right right behind us!" Mixmaster said as he and Scrapper turned back to look through the portions of the dome that had not been walled off with sturdier and less-transparent materials.

"Bones and Hauler," Scrapper sighed. He didn't want to have to go back out there when they were so obviously outmatched, but he would. He could see Scavenger closing in just behind them, as Mixmaster had said. The others, however, it was nearly impossible to discern anything in the cloud of silty debris that had been kicked up during the course of their skirmish down here.
___

“Of course. Forgive my presumptuousness.”

Thunderwing held up a hand of courteous dismissal, indicating that there was nothing to forgive. His attention, like hers, was more focused on the happenings outside of their soon-to-be-demolished undersea base.

“How are your ranged capabilities in that new body of yours? See Grimlock over there? It might be an interesting field test of them.”

"I had considered it. I thought it might prove ineffective within these environs, but.....as you say, perhaps a field test is in order."

Thunderwing readied his cyclone cannons and his quad-barrel laser and took a few steps forward. He had prepared to fire on Grimlock, but then his optics caught sight of another melee. The flying Dinobot, Swoop, seemed intent on taking out Bonecrusher. Thunderwing decided to see what he could do to assist.

The barrels of his quadlaser began to spin and then erupted in a torrent of laser fire.

Bottom of the Yellow Sea

Long Haul's visor flickered with renewed energy as the transporter regained singular consciousness. His joints ached and his chassis was tattered. Missiles, lasers, Dino-claws all left their mark on the Constructicon following the breaking of Devastator. He scanned the remnants of the undersea battlefield and noticed Bonecrusher being assaulted by the avian Dinobot while Grimlock made his march towards the dome. A barrage of red lasers soon filled his vision and hopefully gave the transporter some much needed time to not only grab Bone, but also get his own aft out of there.

"Hold on Bonesy," Long Haul struggled to spit out, his body sluggishly reverting to his alternate mode, "I'm on my way!"

Tires tearing up coral and kicking more seabed into the "air", the green dump truck of an Constructicon rushed forward towards Bonecrusher. When he was close enough, Long Haul's gray arm extended from his truck mode and grabbed Bonecrusher by the armor around his neck, pulling his poor brother in arms through the seafloor before managing to hoist his damaged chassis over the edge of his truck bed. Once in the bed of his truck, Long Haul high-tailed it towards the entrance to the dome.

Undersea Dome Alpha

Misfire had turned tail and bolted, Cloudbreaker firing off suppressive fire to allow Warwolf and Battletrap ample room to escape.

Warwolf continued to press his attack, despite his mentor's wishes. Blaster came charging at the lupine interrogator with a rarely seen punch. Before he could even properly react, a steel fist landed across Warwolf's faceplate, causing the lupine mech to stumble a bit backwards. Clawed actuators traced the wound on his faceplate, nothing serious but a minor dent was left in the wake. Warwolf growled behind his vocabulator.

>>"Understood."<< Warwolf snarled back to Flamewar before looking over his canine head-for-a-shoulder to see Misfire had already made his way to Flamewar and Cloudbreaker beginning to turn back. With his teammates already beginning to fall back, a panel opened alongside Warwolf's forearm. Three trick blades fell in-between the gaps of his clawed actuators. His visor glanced back up towards Blaster.

"You know, you strike me as a mech that likes to party..." he scoffed, activating the hidden explosives within each blade, "Allow me to leave you all with a few Party Favors!" In a flash, Warwolf launched each of the blades in an arcing motion. If none of them managed to hit the Communications officer directly, the resulting explosions would give the interrogator the distraction he needed to make a quick getaway. Not wasting another moment, Warwolf spun on his heel and made a bee-line for the corridor leading off towards Flamewar and the others.

---

Long Hauls tires came screeching into the facility, the transporter quickly offloading Bonecrusher's scarred chassis before quickly shifting into his robot mode to slow his speed, resulting in subsequent crash and tumble as he struggled to keep himself standing.

"Made it Boss..." Long Haul weakly called on as he took note of Scrapper and the others.

Moments later, Misfire and Cloudbreaker joined up behind Flamewar and Thunderwing.

"Yo' Flamey! What's the new plan, because we've got-" Misfire called out as approached the black and red operative, only to stop mid thought as he noted her taking arrow-volleys, "Oh, good. Yeah, shoot at the Dinobots, because that's worked before."

"You mean we're caught here in-between Warwolf's new friends and the Dinobots?" Cloudbreaker inquired with the raise of a brow, butting into the conversation. His optics averted to the Constructicons who looked tattered and beaten to high hell. "Of all the desolate little mud holes in this universe to die on. Oh well, 'bottom's up' as they say."

Footsteps from down the corridor took Misfire and Cloudbreaker's attention spinning back around from the way they came. Warwolf came bolting down the corridor with his pistol in hand.

"I bought us some time!" He exclaimed as he joined up with the other assembled mechs, looking over Flamewar's shoulder and firing off a quick burst of laser fire to assist his mentor in surprising the oncoming attack. "But I don't know how much longer we've got until they came charging through here. What's the plan?"

Under the Yellow Sea

Blitzwing fired another shell towards the desert warrior, only to be met with the Dinobot having changed his form and completely dodge the attack as his stumpy stegosaurus mode continued to charge. Aw Scrap...

With Snarl's massive and spiked tail coming around at him, Blitzwing did what he could to flip himself over and convert to his robot mode. The transition was easy, and he was able to dodge the desert warrior's wrath once more, however the spot where Snarl's sword struck him earlier began to spill out energon. Blitzwing cupped his hand over the wound now located on his shoulder as he received Flamewar's order to fall back.

>>"Retreat? Now?! Cmon, we haven't even put much of a dent in them!"<< Blitzwing whined back, not expecting much of a reply for he longed to continue fighting against the dumb ol' Lizard-bots. Still, Snarl seemed to be roughing him up better than Blitzwing did to him, so perhaps Flamewar had some sort of plan set in motion. Thunderwing however seemed to have finally decided to emerge from whatever rock he had crawled under because his torrent of laser fire burst across the seafloor in a splash of Crimson. Not wasting another astrosecond, the commando leapt up into the sea space around him and shifted to his jet form once more, rocketing his engines at full power and made a straight shot to the dome.

---

"That'll show em!" Hardhead cheered, watching the Decepticon's retreat into their domed base. The tank-former was ready to report in with Grimlock but was caught off guard by a couple of fusion bolts piercing his armor. Hardhead swiveled his tank-barrel to his right and noticed in the distance where the source of said energy bolts.

Several shells relocated themselves within Hardheads Arsenal as we ready to return fire, but another bolt struck his turret and then a barrage of crimson energy blasts showered over the battlefield.

>>"Focus the big one!"<< he called over the comm line to no one in particular.

---

The crocodile-former was saying a lot of big words, many of which Sludge barely understood directly. However, even the dim-witted Jungle Warrior was able to understand that scoffing tone within his taunts. After Sludge recovered from his stumbling, the grip on his sword tightened. A rarely seen scowl etched over his face as he brought his sword up. Slow, yet massive reaches for steps forwards propelled the Dinobot closer towards his target. With his immense strength, the Jungle warrior brought his blade down with the intention of lobbing off Skullcruncher's sword-wielding arm.

Bottom of Yellow Sea:

Oh lookie. Swoop could barely see who had fired a barrage of lasers at him. He didn't recognize the attacker, but decided it was best to charge after them. Whoever they were.

Swoop charged through the water, still with his peg leg, but he was getting used to it. Though, he thought that it might not end well if it was a highly skilled undamaged Decepticon. Swoop decided to slow down and take aim with his laser before going too close. If anything he wished to try and blind the attacker.

Alpha Dome

“Guys? Boss? Where’d you gooooo?” Scavenger called out as he rolled into the dome, swiveling his claw around. He transformed with his back to them, scanning around for his fellow Constructicons. “Sorry I’m late. Got a lil’ turned around. Guys?” It wasn’t long before Scavenger’s imagination got the best of him.

Oh no. Scavenger had failed them! Primus forbid. He had done…a bad! And they’d decided to leave him here with those Dinobots alone! That was it. Oh Primus. No! He hadn’t meant to get turned around! They…they got that, right? It could happen to anybody. Anybody!

“B-Boss…” he uttered in a fit of despair.

It was only when Scavenger was about to drown in his despair did he hear sounds coming from behind him. Voices. Familiar ones. He turned to look back.

“BOSS!”

Scampering over, Scavenger grabbed onto Scrapper’s arm with a dopey smile plastered on his faceplate. “You’re here!” He glanced around. So were the guys! Oh. “’Crusher don’t look too good, boss,” he commented, stating the obvious.


“Fraggin’ Con!” Blaster snarled as the lupine Con that he had been fighting with threw some explosive projectiles at him. None of them hit their mark, but it was enough to daze him and knock him off balance. When he finally reoriented himself, the sight he was greeted with was something of a relief.

“That’s right, turn tail and run, Con!” he called after Warwolf, shaking his head. Steeljaw and Ramhorn were still dealing with that one Con, but it seemed like the majority had pulled back. He grinned. “Those lizards must be doing their job. Now to do mine.” Running off toward the terminal that he’d spotted earlier, he left Steeljaw and Ramhorn to handle themselves. He knew they could, plus Scoop and Getaway could back them up if needed.

Once he made it to the terminal, tucked away and out of both the line of sight and fire, Blaster set about to breaking into the Cons’ system. It took a while, but without active resistance from someone like Soundwave, it was a snap. What he found was dismaying.

“Scrap, the Cons got here first…” he muttered. He shouldn’t have been surprised. They’d set about deleting their information. Despite that, there was a good chunk left, which Blaster scanned for further Con tricks. And sure enough, there was a hidden nugget in there. A little virus. It was also responsible for deleting the database.

“Nice try,” Blaster smirked as he took care of it and downloaded the remnants of the database onto a drive. Comming the rest of the Autobots as he did, Blaster looked up from the screen.

>>”I’m grabbing some data from the Cons. They retreated away from us. I guess I’ve got you Dinobots to thank for that?”<<


Well, that had panned out better than Flamewar could have hoped. Thunderwing was actually being vaguely cooperative, and succeeded in allowing the remainder of the Constructicons to retreat rather handily. But their work wasn’t done. Not yet. Their forces were in full retreat. The Constructicons arrived in good time. Blitzwing was on his way. Good. As Warwolf arrived, Flamewar withdrew her bow, glancing at the assembled Decepticons.

“We fall back to the bounce pad,” she answered simply. It seemed that Warwolf and others had forgotten the briefing in the heat of the moment. “We want to draw as many Autobots as far into the base as possible when it self-destructs.”

Turning on her heel, Flamewar began the trek further into the base, knowing that Blitzwing, Skullcruncher and Weirdwolf would not be far behind the rest of the group. She glanced to them all.

“Thunderwing, I might suggest you returning ahead of us as your presence might put off the Autobots from pressing their apparent advantage. However, Scrapper, I’d like you and yours to stay until the final bounce. You’ll be the best bait to lure the Autobots in.”

Inside Alpha Dome:

As Longhaul entered the dome with the diced Bonecrusher in his vehicle's dump bucket, Bonecrusher moaned in pain. After entering in this air-filled area, slimey mucky water and lots of energon oozed out of the crevace slashed in his chest and the holes left at the connections of where his arms used to be. Only pain and rage were shown on his face. He didn't even consider his rapid loss of energon. He only wanted revenge.

"Scraps, I- I failed... To... A Dinobot... And to the bird one as well. I HATE THEM- mfff!"

Bonecrusher groaned as he felt his auto energon redirection work and the energon started to slow from draining from his open gashes. Yet, even though he was still alive, he was barely holding on to consciousness. His pain and want of vengeance were the only things keeping him from blacking out.

"I- I just wanted to... Hit Grimlock. Just once."

Bottom of the Yellow Sea

Sludge came at him again, putting all his strength and weight on one mighty swing aimed at Skullcruncher’s sword arm’s shoulder joint. It could have as well happened in slow motion.

Skullcruncher stepped aside, met Sludge’s sword with his own and directed all of Sludge’s momentum towards the sea floor where the large Dinobot went face first. To emphasize his point, Skullcruncher gave hard kick to Sludge’s aft, humiliating the large Dinobot even more.

”You don’t get it, do you? We could play this game until you ran out of energon or I grew bored.” He taunted, ”I am stronger than you. I am better than you. I-”

>>”Attention all forces, we’ve accomplished our objective here. Constructicons, fall back to the base. Everyone else outside of the dome, assist the Constructicons in their retreat and fall back yourselves. We’ll provide suppressing fire from the dome.”<<

A transmission from Flamewar calling retreat? Assist Constructicons in their retreat? Skullcruncher jumped away from Sludge and glanced towards the direction where Devastator had stood. The green behemoth was nowhere to be seen. Everyone else was scurrying back towards the dome as fast as they could.

”We will finish this another time,” he snarled, grinding his teeth together before transforming and taking off after the other retreating Decepticons with speed none of their possible pursuers could hope to match.

Bottom of the Yellow Sea

Grimlock charged forward through the murky water as the Constructicons and other Decepticons scattered like flies in his wake. Devastator had been defeated and the green mechs were all licking their wounds and trying to escape the mechanical Tyrannosaur that was looking to rip them to shreds further. They each managed to evade becoming the Dinobot Commander’s dinner as they fled back towards the Alpha Dome. The one exception was Bonecrusher, but before Grimlock could turn his attention towards the dimwitted Constructicon, Swoop attacked and managed to do some damage to Bonecrusher.

“Good job, Swoop,” Grimlock growled as he slowed to a stop and turned to face the primary dome where all of the Decepticons were now retreating to. >>“DINOBOTS, pursue them! Destroy every last ‘Con!!”<<

With his order given, Grimlock began a new charge towards the Alpha Dome. He remained in his T. Rex alt mode as a new torrent of laser fire erupted all around him. A single bolt struck the seafloor directing in front of the rex-former, causing an explosion that sent the Dinobot Commander tumbling to the muck-covered seabed. “Aaarrgghh!” Grimlock shouted as he reverted back to his robot mode and quickly returned to a standing position. Pulling out his rocket launcher, he aimed it directly at Thunderwing and unloaded a barrage of missiles at the carapace-laced warlord.
_______________

Slag frowned deeply as he watched Weirdwolf propel himself at the boulder before destroying it with his missiles. The lupine mech then continued his forward momentum, aiming his sword directly at the Dinobot flamethrower. “Faggin’ mutt,” Slag growled as he dodged out of the way, allowing the yellow wolf-former to flying past him.

Picking himself out of the slime of the seafloor, Slag brought his electron gun up to bare, aimed it right at Weirdwolf’s back and unleashed a volley of particle bursts which, with any luck, will tear through the lupine Decepticon’s armor like tin foil.
_______________

“Fraggit!” Snarl exclaimed as his spiked tail missed Blitzwing. The triplechanger had flipped himself over and returned to his robot mode in order to avoid being struck. Then he abruptly changed once again, this time into his jet mode and rocketed back towards the Alpha Dome. Snarl then heard Grimlock’s transmission and turned to watch the rest of the Decepticons flee, as well. “They’re retreating?! Cowardly ‘Cons! Hah!”

Snarl transformed back into robot mode as laser fire exploded in bright crimson all around him. Thunderwing had taken aim at them from the primary dome. “Heh, at least one of you still has some ball bearings!” The Desert Warrior then charged towards the Alpha Dome, unleashing laser fire from his long-range rifle in one hand and missiles from his launcher in the other.

Alpha-Dome

His blaster fire had seemed to do its work as effectively as he'd hoped. The Constructicons had managed to regain the one that had fallen behind. No surprise that it was Bonecrusher, physically the strongest out of the six of them. He was likely relishing this melee and had got caught up in it. Thunderwing could hardly begrudge him that. The thrill of combat was an addictive one, even when one's opponents were as formidable as the Dinobots and their assorted allies. But his attack had also provided the Autobots with a new target, and a flurry of missiles and other armaments fire was quickly thrown back in his direction.

As his immediate surroundings near the dome went up in flames, Thunderwing was sent reeling from the destructive power that had been leveled in his direction.

“We fall back to the bounce pad. We want to draw as many Autobots as far into the base as possible when it self-destructs," Flamewar said. Thunderwing gave her an appraising look. He could see now why this one had been selected as one of Megatron's black operatives. If she managed to pull this off, it would go from being a resounding defeat to a victory that future Decepticons would talk about in stories. The destruction of the Dinobots would be worth detonating several bases of this nature.

“Thunderwing, I might suggest you returning ahead of us as your presence might put off the Autobots from pressing their apparent advantage. However, Scrapper, I’d like you and yours to stay until the final bounce. You’ll be the best bait to lure the Autobots in.”

"Agreed," is all Thunderwing said, stepping way from the edge of the dome and breaking into a jog and towards the bounce chamber.
___

Scrapper was wholly relieved when Long Haul rolled in with Bonecrusher. With Scavenger, that had accounted for all of them. He quickly approached Long Haul's side and examined his injured brother.

“BOSS! You’re here! ’Crusher don’t look too good, boss."

"No. But he went down swinging. I would expect no less from him," Scrapper said, motioning for Hook to climb aboard Long Haul also. There was no better surgeon or impromptu field medic in their crew. Hook nodded and did so, intuitively knowing what Scrapper wanted of him.

"Scraps, I- I failed... To... A Dinobot... And to the bird one as well. I HATE THEM- mfff! I- I just wanted to... Hit Grimlock. Just once," Bonecrusher howled, a mixture of pain and anger evident in his voice.

"Any of us would have failed. Even to the 'winged one', heh. You did good. This just shows why we're better together. We'll improve Devastator and he'll be the force of nature we all know he can be."

Scrapper then clapped Long Haul's side twice, signaling he could head for the bounce chamber where Flamewar had ordered them to go.

"Do as she says, Constructicons. Just let the others bounce up first. Perhaps we'll salvage a victory from this mess after all."

Alpha Dome

Battletrap was still enjoying the fight but didn't want to push his orders any more. He also noticed the distractions his allies had given him. As much as he wanted to continue swatting these pesky animal bots, he decided to retreat as ordered. Before he got too far, he noticed the red Autobot Blaster using a terminal. Battletrap took a couple of shots at the Autobot and the terminal hoping to damage both before he could gain any useful information.

>>Flamewar, I head back now.<<

With the message sent he headed back towards the rest of the Cons. As he got closer, he could tell others had beaten him there and a few were not in good shape. Once he arrived, he overheard the reminder of trap and escape.

"Help give cover fire for leaving?"

Battletrap still wanted a piece of the action and hoped he can get a few more shots in the form of cover fire. He was one of the few Cons who were still in good shape.

Alpha Dome--Bounce Chamber

Thunderwing had picked up speed in his gait all the way until he reached the bounce chamber's control panel. Time was of the essence and he made no effort to hide that fact as his digits flew across the controls with practiced ease, syncing up this chamber with the one on board the Thanatos.

"Until next time, Grimlock. If you have a 'next time'," he said to himself, chuckling.

He then hurriedly approached the bounce pad itself, remotely activated the tech and was carried away in a flickering flash of white.

Under Yellow Sea - Outside Alpha Dome:

Swoop had begun to make his way torward where he was shot from. He could've killed Bonecrusher if it weren't for the distraction. Heck, he could've killed Longhaul as well if he had not been too far away by the time the Contructicon had gone over to his sliced up bozo brother. If Swoop were to lose the one that shot torwards him, he would kick himself hard.

As Swoop made his way closer to the Alpha Dome, he saw there seemed to be Decepticons still inside waiting for other Decepticons to enter in. Funny. Retreating they are inside their little hut? Ha, such cowards. They never fight till the end.

Swoop commed Grimlock as the deciding factor for attack,

>>Grimmy, do we go in, or we just destroy the dome from a distance? Me think... <<

Then, the Dinobot flier realized he was beginning to talk like Grimlock who he wanted to be like so much. He decided to keep going because "me can sound tough too"...

>>...Me think they got no hope. Then again, we can't just run in without knowing whether there is or isn't traps around. Me got shot once from there but it din't hurt. They distracted me from killing the Constructicon so they escaped into the dome. Sorry sir.<<

Swoop then took his rocket launcher and fired off two of his last remaining four rounds at the dome to see what blew up. Just for kicks.

Alpha Dome

Hook nodded as Scrapper confirmed Flamewar's orders and signaled Long Haul to continue on. With that, the Surgical Engineer could return his focus to his injured Constructicon brother. It had not surprised him in the least that Bonecrusher would have come out the worse for wear out of all of them. Apart from his primary function, he lived for skirmishes like that.

"I have no idea what gets into your head sometimes," Hook said as he produced a welding laser and began to seal off some of Bonecrusher's more pressing wounds until they could get to a proper cryonic regeneration chamber. "I could understand going after Bumblebee or Cliffjumper. Maybe Ironhide or Prowl on one of our good days. But one on one with a Dinobot? You're a brave glitch. Brave or foolish. After all these vorns I've not definitively concluded which."

Outside of Alpha Dome

Having landed behind the Dinobot Slag, Weirdwolf ordinarily might have pressed his advantage. As it was, it was time to retreat. A shame, really, but he wasn’t one to really question orders. There was some muttering and grumbling over the coms but everyone was falling back. Time to fall back then. Instead of whirling back around to face Slag, he began his retreat.

Suddenly, his sixth sense alerted him to an approaching threat. Weirdwolf dismissed it, merely putting more effort into gaining distance. That decision was met with several sharp pains to his back. He snarled wheeling around and firing off several volleys of missiles to aid in his escape. That attack had shredded much of his armor. He supposed it would teach him to assume.

Giving a big kick off in his lupine mode, Weirdwolf shot away and toward the dome where he could see the entrance awaiting him. Skullcruncher was just ahead of him. He was so agile in a liquid environment. It was good to see him so in his element. As he arrived at the dome behind him, he reverted to robot mode and looked to Skullcruncher.

“A good time did you have?” Weirdwolf asked, “A while it has been since the Dinobots have we faced. Refreshing I find that lost their edge they have not. Shame it is that finish them ourselves we could not. But…suppose I do our commander in hand has it.”

Weirdwolf paused as his sense went off again. With a narrowed visor, he turned part way to see Swoop’s incoming attack. He sent off a retaliatory volley, which collided with one of Swoop’s rockets. The other rocket exploded ineffectively a bit further away. This was a base meant to withstand bombardment. What exactly had he hoped to accomplish?

Shaking his head, Weirdwolf pressed on further after the other Decepticons.


Alpha Dome

”Do as she says, Constructicons. Just let the others bounce up first. Perhaps we'll salvage a victory from this mess after all."

“Roger that, boss!” Scavenger replied dutifully, glancing at the ‘she’ in question. He had never ever seen her. But his memory probably wasn’t the best. Yet the boss was taking orders from her. But Devastator was supposed to mean that they answered to nobody. Right? Or. Maybe he was confused. Boss could fix it! Tapping Scrapper’s arm, Scavenger cocked his head.

“Hey boss…who is that she?” he asked pointing, “You seen her before?”

The ‘her’ in question was busy at the head of the group, watching Thunderwing disappear into the base ahead of them. Part of Flamewar didn’t like watching him go ahead of the group, but to best secure a victory out of defeat, his departure was necessary. She glanced to Battletrap as he finally returned from the second group of Autobots.

“Do it. But have a care not to hit our own or lag behind. Protect the Constructicons’ flank,” she ordered curtly.
Flamewar kept glancing back, looking for the remainder of their forces. Blitzwing, Weirdwolf, and Skullcruncher namely. If they dragged their feet for too long…Well. She wouldn’t sacrifice any more than she had to. The Autobots had already claimed the base. No sense in further increasing their losses by abandoning their own.

Alpha Dome

Scrapper continued to make a show of firing at the approaching Autobots, though he was now largely unconcerned with connecting with any of the external targets. If Flamewar's plan worked, they wouldn't have to deal with the Dinobots ever again, as well as a few other pesky Autobot interlopers.

“Hey boss…who is that she? You seen her before?” Scavenger asked.

"I've never seen her in person before her arrival here. She's one of Megatron's agents. A 'black operative'. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that actually entails."

He then opened a comm to Flamewar and the others.

>>"Long Haul, get yourself and the others bounced up. Scavenger, Mixmaster and I will serve as the bait. We're in position now. Just need the Autobots to press their advantage a little further..."<<

Alpha Dome

“A good time did you have?” Weirdwolf asked, “A while it has been since the Dinobots have we faced. Refreshing I find that lost their edge they have not. Shame it is that finish them ourselves we could not. But…suppose I do our commander in hand has it.”

Oh sure. Skullcruncher had had fun enough until he had realized how little attention he had been paying to the others and how badly they fight had gone to most of the Decepticons. Had they worked as a team instead of duking out individual Dinobots for cheap thrills they could have beaten the Autobots and dealt a huge blow against the enemy. Instead they had failed miserably so far.

”Bah. We were made to look like a damn joke,” Skullcruncher groaned in response to Weirdwolf while retreating towards the bounce pad.

”I may have made a fool out of one Dinobot but all in all we got our tailpipes handed to us,” he added, firing few suppressive shots at the pursuing Autobots without aiming much. ”Worst of all, they took out Devastator and they didn’t even need all the Dinobots to do so.”

”Some super weapon that is.”

Alpha Dome

Normally Mixmaster wouldn't vote for the idea of staying behind as "bait". If they messed this up, Devastator would be gone because half the team would get trampled by Dinobots. The chemical engineer could think of a hundred other ways he'd rather spend his orns on this planet.

"Y'think they're gonna come come come, eh Scrapper?" he said, still firing his weapon in the direction of where the Dinobots were last.

"We'll find out soon enough. Keep firing," Scrapper curtly replied.

Alpha Dome

Battletrap looked at Firewire and smiled. He was going to get a chance to have more fun. The biggest concern is the Dinobots and other Autobots figure out their trap and avoid it. As far as Battletrap knew, the Dinobots weren't overly intelligent. They were like many Cons more for the action instead of thinking. Battletrap wasn't sure if the rest of the plan had worked but he would leave that up to Firewire to decide.

"Protect flank, no hit allies, and lure Autobots. I hope I hit Autobots as well."

Battletrap raised his rocket launcher up and tried to aim down the hallway towards where he last remembered Blaster. He didn't like seeing the red bot at the terminal. A Con never knows what a bot would do at such things. Once Battletrap felt comfortable with his aim, he launched a pair of rockets.