by Smokescreen85 » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:29 pm
- Motto: ""A look can be deceiving; a touch can be lethal.""
- Weapon: Twin Shoulder-Mounted Rocket Launchers
The Past
Initially, Sludge and the Dinobots had the upper hand in their battle against the Decepticon Shockwave. They had taken him by surprise and confused his logic circuits with their erratic attack. At one point, the Jungle Warrior even thought they had won, but Shockwave had not yet been beaten. He struck back against the Dinobots with a fury, transforming to gun mode and blasting away the synthetic flesh coverings of their newly acquired beast modes. Sludge remembered falling to the ground, all of his vital systems quickly shutting down as he was overcome with excessive energon radiation. As he fell into stasis lock, the last image he remembered was that of Grimlock reaching for Shockwave and then......nothingness.
Area 51 - The Present
Sludge’s systems began to stir again after thousands of years of slumber. One by one they each came back online, powering up thanks to a fresh infusion of energon. Sludge’s optics flickered as his vision and consciousness returned. He found himself in a dark place, not unlike where he had just been for countless stellar cycles. He raised his head and long metal neck and peered around the room. Wreckage lay everywhere, but it wasn’t caused by anything he had done. Not this time, anyway.
A bit confused, the giant mechanical Apatosaurus came to realize that he was in some sort of artificial chamber, far from where he had previously been. How he got there and why he was there were irrelevant questions to him. He didn’t care. He just wanted to get back into battle. But, how long had it been? Was Shockwave even still around or had he escaped? His internal chronometer was still resetting itself, but it seemed to indicate that he’d been in stasis for quite some time.
Sludge could hear laser fire and explosions coming from above. He looked upwards to see a bright source of light at the very top of the chamber. The Dinobot forced himself to his four feet, determined to enter whatever battle was currently going on. It was then that he noticed his comrade Swoop slowly powering up nearby and just beyond him were two mechs clearing away debris that was covering Slag.
The Jungle Warrior transformed to robot mode and drew his energo sword. If these mechs were Decepticons, he would make quick work of them before they reached the Flamethrower. Making his way over to the pile of rubble, Sludge spotted the Autobot symbols on their chassis and quickly lowered his weapon.
“May I help?” He asked Wheeljack and Bumblebee, looming over the small ‘bots.
*******
Divebomb felt his blade dig into the Autobot’s arm. It was a good feeling that the flying Predacon relished almost as much as taking out a target from above. However, this feeling quickly went away when black smoke poured from the wound he had just created. “What manner of weaponry is this?” Divebomb bellowed, withdrawing his sword before it melted. He quickly backed away to avoid serious damage from the toxins as Pipes opened fire on him again. One blast struck his chestplate, causing little damage.
Divebomb returned fire on the Autobot before transforming to Eagle mode and taking to the skies once more. This is where he should have stayed and not gotten involved in a land battle. His specialty was aerial assault not ground assault. Divebomb circled around his smoking prey before diving down towards Pipes and unleashing a new shower of laser fire on the small minibot.
*******
With his gun blazing, Smokescreen raced in his alt mode towards the oncoming Runabout, avoiding most of the Decepticon's laser fire as he went. A few blasts ricocheted off the hood of the red and blue race car, but nothing too serious. The humans would call this a game of chicken where two vehicles headed towards one another and the first one to dodge out of the way lost the game. Smokey knew that playing chicken with Runabout was a losing scenario for him. The battle charger had better armor plating then the diversion expert and could withstand a head on collision easily. He had no reason to move out of the way. Smokey’s armor, while capable of enduring some damage, was not able to take a direct impact like that.
Smokescreen was also concerned about the ramifications of trying to dodge Runabout. If he did so, the battle charger could simply match his move and they would still collide. Runabout wanted to hit the Autobot that was for certain. Smokey needed to avoid this at all costs. Even if it meant that he looked like a coward in the process.
As the distance between him and the Decepticon grew smaller, Smokescreen took action and turned his front end abruptly to the left, which caused his aft end to fishtail and skid sideways to the right, spinning him around 180 degrees. The loose sand under his tires aided in this risky manuever. Now, with his back end facing Runabout, who was dangerously close to him, the diversionary tactician quickly unleashed a cloud of magnetized smoke directly at the battle charger. Just like your brother, the Autobot racer thought, as he peeled out and zoomed away from his opponent to avoid a rear end collision. Once he was far enough away, Smokescreen spun around again and fired several laser shots into the smoke cloud with the hopes of hitting a potentially blinded Runabout.
*******
Skywarp dodged the initial stream of laser fire from Aftershot before returning more fire of his own. He watched as the Autobot flier turned up and then quickly down, going into a nosedive directly at him. More shots came the seeker’s way, striking him again in the chest plate and one grazing the right side of his head. “Slaggit! You fraggin Autobot!” Skywarp shouted as he placed one hand over his ringing audio receptor. The right side of his face and head were scorched from the blast and his hearing was now impaired on that side. Thankfully, his optics were still intact, but things were not looking too good for the teleporter.
Skywarp attempted to return fire again, but Aftershot was now gone. ‘Warp had lost sight of his opponent while dealing with his damaged head. “Where’d you go, Autobot? I’m the only one that teleports around here!” He soon had an answer as several lasers struck him from behind, knocking him for a loop. Aftershot had gotten beneath him somehow and wasted no time in opening fire. It was a similar move that Skywarp, himself, had made countless times before, usually right after teleporting. But the seeker was not in that position now. This time, it was the Autobot that got the drop on him.
As Skywarp tumbled through the air, he began to lose altitude and landed with a thud on the rooftop of a partially destroyed building. It was then that the black and purple seeker received Thundercracker’s transmission. Slowly sitting up, ‘Warp opened a comm. link to his wing mate:
>>Roger that, 'Cracker. Unfortunately, I’m already down, and I’ve sustained too much damage to continue fighting without risking stasis lock. Hopefully, my internal repair cycle will have me back in action before long. Until then, Aftershot’s all yours. Take him down, buddy!<<
And with that, Skywarp sat back and watched the fireworks begin.