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Tagan Heights- Deceptibase Tau

Like a shot of electricity through the air, she receives a report from a Sweep Patrol.

She sends word to Thunderwing, and Bugly. >>This is Discord to command! We have a large Autobot craft coming into Tagan Air space! It looks heavily damaged, and may crash! Requesting Permission to sic my hounds upon the Autobots!<< She certainly sounds eager to engage the enemy!

She begins mobilizing her ground troops for the coming battle.

Tagan Heights- Command Center

>>"Very well, Bugly,"<< Thunderwing replied on a closed channel. >>"I will heed your counsel in this matter. Bomb Burst may remain on active duty. But see that he is stationed somewhere far away from the command center."<<

The Valckastan Warlord acknowledged Discord's communique next. The comely Sweep was a marvel of engineering. Some of Scrapper's finest, if he said so himself. And he'd heard it said that she had quite a head for politics. He would have to make some time to see if that was indeed the case. >>"Very well, Subcommander. Please inform your master that I would like to speak with you both when time..."<<

No sooner had he sent his cordial transmission, than that very femme broke in with an urgent warning.

"Slag them to the pit! It must be the Dauntless. Clench and his ruffians were supposed to keep Grimlock -away- from my city for a time. Instead, they have brought them to my very door!" To think I let my daughter accompany them!

>>"Permission granted, Discord. The astrosecond that ship is down, attack. But beware. Unless I am very wrong, that vessel carries none other than the Lightning Strike Coalition!"<<

"Decepticons!" the Warlord shouted to the command center staff. "Action stations! Rouse the Constructicons, and send word to all new arrivals to prepare for battle."

His support personnel carried out his orders with the every bit of efficiency the Valckastan had come to expect, and soon alarms sounded throughout the city-state.

OOC: This post is as much for my own benefit than anything else, to keep track of my various characters here. This could get quite interesting...

Shuttle Dauntless

Slag finally managed to push Sludge off him, not an easy task in the shuddering, pitching cabin even with his Dynobot strength. He caught the news of their landing point.
"Hah! Them 'Cons usless at stopping us LSC. We be in and out of Tagan before cycle out if them keep helping us like this!"
Stumbling as best he could, Slag made his way to the nearest door at the side of the ship. "Tell me Slag when we close enough to ground! Us need to hit ground running!"

Deceptibase Tau - Main Gate

"Now what is that?"
Hearing the alarm, Banzai-Tron broke from his reverie, and, no longer hesitating, jumped onto the curtain wall. Climbing the last few megameters, he saw the new defenses turning from their normal positions and tracking north. Ok, luck on my part.
The yard became a hive of activity as decepticons everywhere rushed to respond to the alarm. Banzai-tron hopped down into the hubbub, heading for the main base. I guess this is what I came for...

Hangar Bay

"Sell my spark just for some piloting skills? I'm offended Blast Off, I'd get a much better deal than that." Swindle joked with his fellow Combaticons, but the instant the alarm rang he was reaching for his pellet-gun. "
"What?? It wasn't me, I swear!!!"

Rec Room
Scrapper had just been about to start his design blueprints when the alarm rang. He immediately patched into command to find out what was going on.
"I see....breaktime is over Constructicons, Autobots are landing in the nearby vicinity, and we're being called to attention. Lets go."
Scrapper lead his team towards the command center, as it's central location meant they could either receive direct orders, or move into the yard quickly. He fervently hoped they wouldn't be needed.
Unleashing Devestator here...It could leave things even worse than when we got here.

Hangar Bay

"Swindle, if this was your fault, we'd all be dead by now." Blast-off had his rifle drawn and ready, and his jets were warming up. "Onslaught, I could take a orbital sniper position. Or should I pick them off from where we are?" Oh, please be orbit. That way, I can solve this problem without you idiots fragging everything up. he waited for his commander's response.

Tagan Heights- Deceptibase Tau

>>Affirmative, Lord Thunderwing. I shall inform Scourge of your desire to speak with him once he arrives.<<

She sends a transmission to Macabre. >>It's show time. The Autobots are invading! Prove yourself to Lord Scourge!<<

Discord begins cueing up the patrols near by to go into formations of 5 units in a chevron shape with 3 slightly higher than the other 2 so the firepower might be spread out, and harder to avoid.
Her ground troops mobilize, and fly towards the Dauntless ready to open fire on the passengers as they exit.

Discord herself takes lead of 4 other Sweep drones in a Chevron formation of her own.

It should be noted that patrols remain to cover the rest of the Tagan so they are not likely to be blind sided from Iacon, or elsewhere with any amount of ease.

Tagan Heights- Command Center

>>Acknowledged Lord Thunderwing!<< he replies briefly springing into action.
Bugly's pretender shell waggles the fang like protrusions as if expressing joy. His map of Tagan shows the Dauntless approaching.
He looks to to Blugeon. "You've arrived just in time to be deployed. See to it that the Lightning Strike Coalition receives a deadly welcome."

A radio transmission is sent to Bomb-Burst. >>It is time to test your new combat capabilities! The Lightning Strike Coalition will be assaulting Tagan Heights shortly. Keep yourself in check, however. Assaulting other Decepticons will not be tolerated!<<

He sees Discord handle the Sweep tactics, via his map, then goes out as a field commander, himself.

Shuttle Dauntless

Sludge picked himself off of the ground, where Slag had jsut thrown him and slowly attempted to gain some kind of balance. But just as his other attempts, he failed, and went tumbling towards Slag, colliding once more with his fellow Dynobot.

"Me Sludge sorry!" He cried out quickly as he flung himself off of Slag, before being thrown off again. Sludge then transformed into dinosaur mode. Hoping that four legs would be more successful in keeping him up right than two were.

"Not long to go now." Ironhide said to Kup, as he checked his weapon was fully loaded.

Tagan Skies, beside the Dauntless

Triggerhappy continued to fly alongside the Dauntless as it also continued on its path towards the Heights.
Triggerhappy checked his ammunition supplies, something he rarely did. However, he felt he needed to this time, he wanted to nail one of the LSC, nail him good. Then he was going to take their faceplate and keep it as a trophy, and then he was going to...
Triggerhappy was suddenly broken out of his line of thought by the sudden closeness of the ground.
"Aaahhh!" He cried, as he pulled up and away from the Dauntless, which was mere momwents from impacting with the ground. "Hehehehe. That was close. Now to go and make sure I'm there for when the Autobots get out..."

Rec Room

"Great." Hook said as the Constructicons got up to leave the Rec Room. "See what I mean Scrapper?" Hook asked Scrapper. "We're overworked."
It was then that the severity of this situation hit Hook, and turning once more to Scrapper, he said:

"You don't think they're going to unleash Devastator here, do you?"

Tagan Heights- Command Center

Bludgeon slammed his fist into his chest.
"Very well" he said to Bugly with his deep gravelike voice.
"I shall engage the enemy. Any specific orders?" he inquired.
After all he had only just arrived and he was hardly up to date on the details nor sensitivities of the local situation.

Hangar Bay

Rampage was happy to get off the shuttle and back onto solid ground again; once he was sure where he was he shifted into his cybertronian tiger alt-mode and started to carefully sniff around to get an idea of his surroundings. He shifted into a low crouch when the alarms went off and looked about snarling listening was hard with all this noise going on. At the moment perhaps it would be best to stick with the largest concentration of decepticons and hope the enemy found them first. Then he could finnally fight some autobots and hopefully some tougher ones than that last one; he could do with a challenge.

Tagan Heights- Command Center

Bugly pauses his exit to speak to Bludgeon. "You are under no special orders short of defeat the Autobots as you see fit, and follow orders as they come."
Bugly waits to see if Bludgeon ha any further questions staying patient.

The Skies of Tagan Heights ~ NW Border Region

Macabre's energon pump began beating heavily upon receiving the word from Discord that it was now time to engage the Autobots. It was sooner than he had expected, but as luck would have it he was ideally positioned to be among the first Decepticons to engage the shuttle Dauntless.

>>As you command Discord, this Scraplet will obey. I will regain my honour on this mega-cycle. Do we have a rendezvous point?<<

Now he had to select units to take with him. Although it was tempting to take them all to show the crushing might of the Sweeps, prudence dictated taking a single unit with a second in reserve and the rest gaurding the border. If this was an Autobot trick, Macabre would not be fooled into overextending his resources.

The Insecticons may have forced me misjudge my actions, but the Autobots will have no such luck. They will experience the full might of the wary warrior. Let us see now what kind resistance these fools will attempt.

Relaying the commands to the Sweep drones, Macabre elected to take the 7th Sweep Drone squadron with him. There was a certain quality these troops possessed that impressed Macabre, though he would be hard pressed to articulate what that quality was. It seemed, to him at least, that these troops exhibited a ferocity that almost suggested the possibility of sentience. Macabre knew that this was impossible, but nonetheless he was proud to lead this particular group of drones into battle.

Tagan Heights- Deceptibase Tau

>>Negative on the rendezvous point, Scraplet. You are in command of your squadrons. You will lead them, and you will reap what ever glory or failure you create for yourself. You will not earn your name back if I hold your hand.<< she says with a cold, tough love, blunt tone.

Her squadrons, sans the squadrons still on patrol on the other borders of Tagan Heights, lead by herself begin taking positions for the Autobot assault by taking up a formation lending itself well to quickly surrounding the prey, and bombarding them from all sides, and foring them to fight on multiple fronts.

Shuttle Dauntless – Bridge

Grimlock let out a snarl as he struggled alongside Swoop to get some semblance of control over the shuttle. Their efforts were only meeting with slight success, turning a disaster into a mere catastrophe. It wasn’t exactly the grand return to Cybertron he had hoped for. He would never admit it to anyone, but he might just be the slightest bit rusty at this. Fortunately, Prime wasn’t the time to publicly call him out on that.

Of course, crashing into the most important piece of Decepticon controlled territory on the planet was going to leave an impression on everyone. It was most definitely going to lead to some heavy combat. They would be talking about his escape from the Heights for ages to come. What passed for a smile appeared on the Dinobot Commander’s face.

Of course, he was going to have to survive this crash. The shuttle had leveled out as much as it could without its main engines, but they were still dropping to the ground. It was going to be a rough landing but hopefully one they could all walk away from. “Everyone buckle up, we hitting the ground hard and fast.” Grimlock released the now useless controls and grabbed onto the console itself, his hands denting it as he hung on for all he was worth

Along side the Dauntless

Still hovering, the silver femme watched with distress as the Dauntless began its erratic decent into the borders of Tagan Heights, and worse yet straight towards their newly acquired outpost. She opened a channel to Clench.

>>Sir, the heading of the autobot shuttle is not in our best interest. Initiating pursuit of vessel.<<

Silverstrike transformed back into her alt mode, immediately opening her engines flying quickly after the ship. She was not quite sure what would happen if the Dauntless made it all the way to the outpost. She worried about the newly repaired generators, and the danger the now crashing ship proposed. Her internal fluids turned cold as a realization hit her, this situation put Thunderwing at risk, and she couldn’t allow that.

Just before she decided to contact her father she noticed the strategic placing of sweep drones along the border. Leading her to believe the possibility of Thunderwing having knowledge of the fast approaching shuttle. But Silver was never one to let assumptions pacify her, and opened a private encrypted channel to the Lord of Tagan Heights.

>>Father, The Dauntless is approaching in an acute manor. I’m following the vessel and I am aware of the sweep drones in place……….. I just wanted to be sure you are secure.<<

Silver was careful to keep her conversations with the warlord private, she rarely if ever called him father where others could hear her. Even this small concern for his safety could be interpreted as a sign of weakness by other decepticons. Even so the mirroresque femme tended to behave in a very undeception like manner.

Tagan Heights- Command Center

"No. That will be all sir. I shall rip them apart... piece by piece" the old Master of Metalikato said coolly to Bugly.
Turning around, Bludgeon left the room.

Leaving the H.Q., Bludgeon took in his bearings. Troops and drones were gathering to strike at the Autobot incursion.
Bludgeon merely chuckled and then transformed into tankmode.
Driving of... he would stalk and attack his enemies when the opportunity arose. Death always came unexpectantly when the old Master was around... .

The Skies of Tagan Heights ~ NW Border Region

>>A wise decision. Let us see what unfolds.<<

Macabre's reply to Discord had an unintentional double meaning. He was in fact in accordance with her orders. They were the orders he would have given too. Striking the Autobots in two groups would give them the capacity to attack in a pinser formation. They could, basically, herd the Autobots wherever they wanted. It was a strong military decision.

On the other hand, by forcing him to regain his honour on his own, she was distancing herself from any possible failures he might incur during the battle. Frankly, he couldn't blame his XO for that either. None of the Sweeps want any kind of failure associated with their name. Sometimes, that was the trouble in the Hunt. It could be difficult to distinguish personal failure from failure of the group. At least in Macabre's case it was clear cut. He had let his pride make him weak.

Tracking the trajectory of the shuttle with his sensors, Macabre made for the crash site determined to act efficiently and logically. He had to supress his emotions to allow him to think objectlively. When he achieved this he could be a ferocious warrior. He would show Scourge the warrior that he had made his XO at one time. Vastly more powerful than the mediocre assassin he once was.

Thinking about his previous life, an idea donned on Macabre. He would enter this battle mixed in with his sweep drones. The Autobots would have difficulty telling him apart from the others. Using some of the tricks he learned as an assassin would make him a much more successful combatant, and misdirection was one of those tricks that could sow confusion and uncertainty on the battlefield. He would need all the tricks he could get.

Thankful that the Constructicons had not given him a garrish colour scheme like some of the other Sweeps, he moved into the center of his 7th Squadron and assumed the mannerisms of a drone. Moving on toward the crash site, Macabre focused his sensors on the shuttle. He hoped to have a better understanding of his foe before he got there. Scanning the shuttle for life signs, he picked up eight energon signatures. Five of these were exceptionally strong. The upcoming battle would be most interesting.

Over the Rust Sea

Scourge blasted over the empty wastes of the Rust Sea, Rage and Carnage riding his contrails. The hemisphere-wide conglomeration of industrial run-off was possibly the one place on Cybertron one could get peace in this day and age, even if it was patrolled by the likes of the Seacons. Scourge failed to appreciate this chance for calm.
Coming over the horizon, Scourge was finally able to communicate directly with the Sweeps already in Tagan.
>>These facilities look adequate, Discord, have the nessecary equipment requisitioned and...What is all this traffic on the Sweep drone frequencies? Is something happening? Report!<<

Shuttle Dauntless

"AGHK!! SLUDGE!! WHEN WE GET OUT OF THIS, ME SLAG SELL YOU TO SCRAP MERCHANTS IN FILINGS!!!"
Slag and Sludge tussled at the port airlock, dents forming and rivets popping as Slag tried to find a grip. Hearing Grimlock giving warning, Slag realised there was no more time for his grand plan of leading the charge from mid-air.
This clumsy oaf is ruining my big moment! And Swoop ruined my shooting! This whole mission was doomed from the klik we got on this damned shuttle! From now on I walk everywhere!
Sludge had shown an uncharacteristic flash of brains however, in moving to the more stable Beast Mode. However, when Slag tried the same trick, he found he was on his back, his stubby feet pointed uselessly in the air. I'll wring Sludge's oevergrown neck... Finally he managed to brace himself, literally pushing off the wall against Sludges bulk. It would have made for a hilarious sight, in better circumstances.

Deceptibase Tau - the Yard
Well, look what the hydroweasel coughed up...
Banzai-Tron saw the outline of the infamous Bludgeon rolling towards the northern gate. A peerless martial artist like himself, although Metallikato was a much different art from Crystalocution. Both Decepticons were masters of esoteric and powerful martial arts, although in Banzai-Tron's case, it was more that he'd killed all the other masters of Crystalocution (bar one...). Bludgeon was certainly far more infamous than the more mercanery Banzai-Tron, but from the times he'd seen the Master of Metallikato in action, he thought they'd be pretty evenly matched. Not a good thing to test that though, fights on our level are quickly and deadly. And I only just got out of the medbay.
Banzai-Tron ambled up beside the tank as it ambled towards battle. The mercaneries Action Master enhancements let him keep pace with the others altmode*. "Greetings, Master of Metallikato. Might we be heading anywhere in particular? Action, perhaps?"

*:They've both got Speed 2, so they'd have similar overland speed.

Deceptibase Tau - the Yard

Banzai-tron... how unexpected.
Bludgeon knew the mercenary vaguely but had never truly interacted with him, only observed.
"Battle. We have Autobot intruders" he stated "And they must be terminated" the Master of Metalikato said. He was not a talkative 'con, so he said no more. His comrade at arms would probably know enough with that statement.
Behind them the Decepticon strikeforce began to move.

Tagan Heights- Skies of Tagan Heights

>>I apologize for not informing you immediately, Master Scourge. An Autobot task force is en route to crash into Tagan Heights via shuttle. Macabre and I are mobilizing a Sweep Drone assault force in response due to this surprise. We have left drones patrolling the other sides of Tagan Heights so we are not caught in a pincer assault unprepared.<<

Well, her wonderful mind is not perfect. She forgot to report this to Scourge, and no doubt it would be a black mark on her record. Still she shows initiative, and hopefully some impressive prowess.
Her fleet hovers in formation waiting like a pack of wolves for the crippled Autobot ship to drop.

Tagan Heights- Command Center

Bugly watches Bludgeon leave, then he deploys as well heading for the battlefield as he feels more comfortable arranging tactics on the fly for optimal effect. He might even get his new shell dirty and kill some Autobots himself, though, really, the numbers of capable Decepticons here are staggering. The Autobots have next to no chance to survive the battle.

Elsewhere in the Skies of Tagan Heights

Shrike enters Tagan Heights in robot mode with thoughts of energon weighing heavily on her mind. She could refill, and regain her beam cannon rounds, and fight at optimal levels though her shield is mostly missing with only a chunk left at the hardpoint.

Still, would it be kosher to ask? Would it not be best to press any advantage they have?

She used to be so sure of herself before the run in with the Dauntless. It's frustrating to question one's self.

Regardless, her combat computer continues churning away at plans of assault. She burns with the desire to do something towards proving herself.

Tagan Heights- Over the Rust Sea

Rage flies behind Scourge silently, not one to speak when she has nothing to say. That helps keep her calm, and helps keep her from becoming annoying.

Near Refinery Complex Three

The Dauntless hurtled downward toward the industrialized plains of the Tagan Heights, engines belching smoke and fire as it careened toward Cybertron's surface. It very nearly plowed into a sizable factory's roof before touching the ground and launching into a long, hard skim, skipping like a stone across a lake several times before finally bleeding off sufficient momentum to go into a slow spin, skidding to a halt at the foot of a massive industrial complex.

Just a few hundred meters distant from the downed shuttle loomed the enormous edifice that was Refinery Complex Three, one of the Tagan Heights' vast energon production facilities. Core taps led down from the Refinery into Cybertron itself to draw upon the planet's naturally occurring energon. The raw energon was drawn up, processed and purified, and then stored in massive spherical tanks around the Complex and throughout the Heights.

Within the Dauntless, Kup found himself a bit shaken up but none the worse for it as the shuttle finally came to a halt.

"I've seen worse landings," he said, pulling himself up out of a broken seat and recovering his musket laser from where it had landed near him. "We'd better get our act together quick, lads. Company's coming!"

The old warhorse headed for the nearest hatch to see if it was still functional enough to allow the Autobots to get out of the Dauntless. If it wasn't, Kup had five very big and very effective can-openers on hand to help make a new door.

Over the Rust Sea

"Oh, good, something's happening already?" Carnage asked Scourge. "It's about time." Maybe it's an Autobot Strike force. Or maybe there are some rouges. Oh, this is so exciting! I haven't had fully functioning test subjects in deca-cycles!

Over the Rust Sea, approaching the coastline

>>Very well, Discord, we shall be there momentarily. I expect you to acquit yourself well.<<
In some ways Scourge was glad of the impending battle. It was were mechs of his construction were meant to be, expressing themselves through death and destruction, not micromanaging drone patrols and organising recon data. Yes, a good hunt was just what he needed right now.
"There are Autobots in the Hieghts, Carnage. Our objective should be clear. If it is feasible, try to take one alive to be sent back to Iacon, babbling our names as a warning." With this, Scourge's afterburners activated, and he flashed over the coastline. He didn't even need to say to Carnage and Rage that they were to follow him: This was the direction to the prey, there was no other way a true Sweep could go.

Near Refinery Complex Three

Straining against the bulk of Sludge, Slag squeezed forward, digging his new horns into the port airlock of the Dauntless. Crunching, twisting, growling, the Airlock finally popped off, and Slag fell out, finally able to ventilate properly.
"...uugh...scrappit Sludge! Urgh...Hey, Us LSC make it! And there refinery right there. Quick, someone get demo charges, we make fireworks!!"
Then Slag noticed incoming shapes in the air. Odd, box-shaped, three-engined somethings were approaching. "Stop lying around, rustpiles, they got some kinda new seekers coming. You slowpokes get in gear and set charges, me Slag not gonna cover for you all day!!!"

Deceptibase Tau - Command Centre

"I hope not Hook, I hope not..." Scrapper said back to his second-in-command as the Constructicons reached the command center. Scrapper instantly saluted, the others took an astrosecond or 2 to respond in kind (Bonecrusher took 5).
"Lord Thunderwing, the Constructicons are fully fueled and ready for...anything. Do you wish us to reinforce the base or..."I don't even want to say it. Well, one guilty part of me does, but..."Would you prefer we were deployed in a forward position?"

Near Refinery Complex Three

Grimlock found himself flung around the bridge, the console he had been hanging on to having ripped from the floor. He slammed into the walls, floor and ceiling of the bridge, not to mention the various other Autobots bouncing around as well. The ship hit the ground and Grimlock hit the floor. He continued to slide around the ship until it finally came to a halt.

The Dinobot commander pulled himself back up to his feet. The emergency beacon would alert the other Autobots to their plight. It would also alert any Decepticons nearby as well, but since they were shot down by Decepticons that seemed a moot point. Now they just needed to fight their way to whatever Autobots were on the way or to fight their way out of the Heights. Either way, they were in for a battle. Fortunately the Lightning Strike Coalition was the best group of fighters in the Autobot army.

Grimlock stalked over to the hatch that Kup was having trouble with. Producing his energo-sword, he jammed it into the hatch lock. Combined with a swift kick broke the hatch was opened. He turned back to the other Autobots. “Get out quick and form a perimeter. Decepticons likely be here soon and we need to be ready to fight our way out of here.”

Shuttle Dauntless

As the shuttle streaked towards the ground, Snarl made his way to the nearest seat and attempted to strap himself in. The Dinobot fumbled with the buckle unable to make the connection. “What wrong with this stupid thing?” Snarl grumbled under his breath before realizing that he had one end backwards. “Duh, stupid me.” He was about to buckle himself in nice and secure when the ship hit the ground hard, throwing the Dinobot from his seat. Snarl landed on his aft with a thud that could be heard over all the noise and commotion of the crash. He tried to stand, but with no luck as the shuttle bounced and shook violently as it skidded across the ground.

Taking a cue from some of his Dinobot comrades, Snarl transformed into Dino mode and planted all four feet on the shuttle floor to better stablize himself. At first, it was working. But then another hard bump sent the Desert Warrior tumbling across the ship and right into Smokescreen. “Sorry, Smokey! Me bad!” The robotic Stegosaur was now lying on his side. “This not work like me, Snarl, had hoped.” The Dinobot then began sliding across the floor and away from Smokescreen as the ship shifted to one side. Snarl quickly whipped his tail up and then down hard, imbedding all four spikes into the floor like an anchor. “Ha ha! Me, Snarl no slide no more!”

Near Refinery Complex Three

Finally, the Dauntless came to a stop. Snarl righted himself onto all fours and watched as his commander forced the shuttle door open. Grimlock barked orders to everyone to get out and create a perimeter and Snarl was more than happy to oblige. Except he had one small problem. His spiked tail was still embedded in the shuttle’s floor and the dopey Dino couldn’t seem to get it loose!

“Need help! Me, Snarl, stuck!”

Tagan Heights- Skies of Tagan Heights

>>Understood, Master Scourge.<< Discord replies calmly. She opens a data feed of her situation and the positions of all the Sweeps in Tagan. It's likely apparent that Macabre has a considerable degree of autonomy along with almost half the drones of Tagan under his direction.

Discord hovers in her alt mode using her sensors to sweep over the area and monitor movement, and energy to help ensure that she isn't caught off guard. She sends word to the Sweeps under her command to do the same.

She has a portion of her units train their weapons on the door of the Dauntless with others to open fire on anything that comes out with no mercy.

All the while, she keeps a comm. link open to the patrols near the Iacon Border, as well as the rest of the borders of Tagan Heights. She does this as a precaution as she doesn't fully expect another assault on Tagan Heights, but she's not taking the chance. Certainly the firepower from those drones could be useful here, but getting caught off guard is simply stupid.

___

Elsewhere in the skies of Tagan, Bugly takes a good position to survey the scene with his compound eyes, watching, and waiting for the first shots to be fired while monitoring the communications as best he can. So far Discord has done a fairly good job in protecting their flanks while staying ready to bombard the Autobots mercilessly. A crude tactic, even with the formations, but it's none the less effective, and admittedly (though only to himself) hard to improve upon short of something even cruder.

If he were the main man in charge here, he'd have ordered all the soldiers here on the triple time to bring the Dauntless down around the Autobots while they're still recovering from the crash.
Infernal drones don't have the firepower to destroy the Dauntless, however. he says with disgust. To fire on it is almost a waste of energon. he sighs slightly.

He sends a general transmission to all Decepticons in Tagan Heights. >>This is acting XO of Tagan Heights, Bugly! All units under my command short of the Sweeps Drones are to prepare for combat, and hurry to the crash site of the Autobot ship, and form a tight perimeter, on the double! Have your weapons ready, and be ready to fire on any Autobot you see with no mercy! They will no doubt seek to escape the wreck, and we need to crush them before they can gain any momentum in the fight!<<

Over the Rust sea, Nearing the coastline of Tagan.

"Leave an Autobot alive? Hmph." Rage grumbles a bit. "As much as I'd like to simply leave all of their carapaces mounted on the walls of the base as a warning, and use their innards as desert toppings, I'll do as you say. I just hope we can get some fine trophies off of them." she cruises along, eagerly anticipating the coming battle. She doesn't know who she'll be fighting, and she doesn't care. Biting into the spark case of one Autobot is about as good as any other, so long as they're dead, dead, dead.

Deceptibase Tau - Command Centre

"Well, I suppose that that's your answer Scrapper." Hook mumbled to Scrapper as he received Bugly's broadcast. "Now to see whether we're sent out there as ourselves. Or as... him." Hook said, resisting the urge to shudder as he mentioned Devastator.

Shuttle Dauntless

Ironhide watched as Grimlock broke the hatch open and was about to run out when he heard Snarl shouting. Turning around, he saw that the Dynobot had gotten his tail stuck in the floor of the now downed Dauntless.
"Don't worry!" Ironhide shouted over to Snarl as he ran towards him. "I've got you covered."
Ironhide started to heave at the Dynobot's tail, and got nowhere.
"I haven't got time for this!" He cried out as he strained to release the Dynobot. Then an idea struck him. And taking his weapon in his hands, Ironhide opened fire on the floor surrounding the Dynobot's trapped tail. Eventually freeing the tail... albeit with a small chunk of the floor attached to it.
"You can get that off yourself." Ironhide said as he stood up and hurriedly exited the Dauntless, just behind Slag.

"Hahahahaha!" Sludge said to Snarl as he walked past his likely extremely embarrassed comrade. "You Snarl better be more careful with weapon." He added as an afterthought, somewhat pleased with his wit.

Sky near Refinery Complex Three

Triggerhappy watched as Slag exited the Dauntless and looked around, probably looking for Decepticons. However, the foolish Dynobot did not think to look in the air behind him.
"Perfect..." Triggerhappy mumbled to himself. 'Now is the opportunity to get the recognition that I truly deserve, by taking out that Dynobot.' Triggerhappy thought. Just before Ironhide exited the Dauntless and stood next to Slag. 'Even better. Now I can get the recognition I truly deserve by taking out two of the LSC.'
After hearing Bugly's transmission, Triggerhappy decided to update him.
>>Sir, the Autobots are exiting the shuttle now, so far I see a Dynobot and a red Autobot. I can't tell if they've suffered any casualties, but all in all, they look to be in a good condition.<< Triggerhappy transmitted to Bugly. >>But not for much longer,<< and with that, Triggerhappy dove out of the sky, still in jet mode and opened fire on Slag and Ironhide from behind with his two twin side mounted photon pulse guns. "I don't know which two Autobots you are!" Triggerhappy screamed at them. "And I don't care! Prepare to feel my wrath!!!" He screamed at them once more.