Transformers: Steel Reign

[General Havoc]

Scared of combat or not, Hornet couldn't help but laugh and smile at Overload's comments. And he had to admit, being able to call down firepower like the sort Shellshock could deliver would be... well... it would certainly be different. He couldn't match one of Shellshock's shells with every weapon in his arsenal combined, nor even come close.

He turned to Crimson, who had suggested she also could spot for the artillery piece. "Can I do it Crimson?" he asked pleadingly. "Pleeeeeeaaaase?" He siled broadly to her, hoping it would help.

[Charon]

Shellshock grinned. "Like the time we shot those pilots out of the air. Oh the look on the faces of the gun crews..." Shellshock looked over at Hornet. "Yes, with your abilities as a flyer, you can spot while keeping away from the direct fire, with the help of Overload and Deathstrike to watch your back."

Shellshock was leading the others towards the Central command center as Stryke appeared. "One way or another Stryke, yes. But you didn't hear that from me." The old warbot smirked. If he had to, he'd do this without Prime's consent if he thought the other plan was crap. It was a fact that had kept Shellshock and Overload from getting promoted a number of times.

[Cynical Cat]

"I did not say this was a diversion," said Deathstrike. "I acknowledged the possibility it was a diversion. Shockwave knows threats are insufficient to cause Optimus Prime to surrender. In light of that, there are only two good reasons to announce the attack. One is as a diversion. The second is to cause morale damage when the defenders are revealed to impotent to stop the attack. In that case, the target audience would be humans and they are also the logical target for a massive Decepticon strike. Chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons are far more effective against organics and their infrastructure. The attacks will not only indirectly hurt the Autobots, but cause the human nations to reconsider the current alliance and thus greatly aid the Decepticon cause."

[SirNitram]

"Shockwave will indeed attempt to divide and conquer." Overload nodded simply. "However, it's important to obtain the initiative. Shockwave won't commit one big assault he then has to pause and recuperate from. He'll want an operational tempo which will not let Prime get one of his speeches out."

A pause, and a deep, quiet, brooding moment. "We need to disrupt his infrastructure that would support such an attack somehow."

[Charon]

Shellshock thought as he walked. "And if the Decepticons launched enough, there's little chance we'd be able to stop it all." Shellshock looked over at Deathstrike. "Biological and Nuclear are probably the most likely. Both have the devestating and long term effects that Shockwave would need for such a maneuver. It also follows Shockwave's tendency to prefer massive and overwhelming assaults."

Shellshock pursed his lips then. "But we're still missing the more subtle part of his strategy. Shockwave always has some second plan he's enacting behind the scenes."

[Cynical Cat]

"The Decepticon infrastructure is too robust for a short term attack to do enough damage. Engagements in Decepticon territory will favor the Decepticons and they will be willing to take casualties as long as they inflict them," said Deathstrike.

"Shockwave needs to limit vulnerability while in flight, which means he has to launch the attack from a nearby strong point. Otherwise Autobots could shoot down an unacceptably high number of his missiles. He also needs a space bridge, so he can swiftly deploy his missiles from their storage sites to his launch areas. Follow up attacks could occur at any time. He may delay them for the Autobots to go into disaster relief mode and then strike."

[Charon]

"I agree, a raid would do little to hurt the Decepticons unless we do a surgical strike. Our calculations showed that to do some damage we'd have to take out the space bridge network, or at least part of it. But right now that might not mean much as if he is doing this, he already has the missiles moved to their positions. So taking out a space bridge will only mean slower reinforcements."

[LadyTevar]

Crimson stood by Stryke and simply listened to the older WarBots argue out a plan. Hornet's pleading got a chuckle, however, but Shellshock spoke before she did. "Whatever Shellshock says, Hornet. He thinks you can do it, you do it."

Stryke, meanwhile, was following the conversation far more intently. "So, how many bases do they have within reach that would suit the parameters? And would he even attack this hemisphere, or go for one of the border areas?"

[Cynical Cat]

"The border won't do as much damage," said Deathstrike. "If he intends to attack he needs to hit hard in an area not psychologically prepared for it. He needs to hammer fresh territory."

"Launchers can't be set up over night and not all Decepticon bases will be suitable to launching a mass missile strike. We need to cull the list and do recon runs. And we need to do it now."

[General Havoc]

"Yay!" exclaimed Hornet, and as usual, he gave Crimson his trademark hug. Already he was feeling better, though the casulties from yesterday still hurt. In a way though, this might be the best way to make sure that no further deaths happened among his friends. Not that he was at all eager to KILL Decepticons, but they couldn't very well kill his friends while being pummelled by freight-train-sized shells now could they.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson slipped an arm around the exhuberant teenybot, giving him a half-hug back. "Just pay attention, Hornet," she said softly, her processors trying to think of where the Decepticons might strike.

Then a thought hit. "What about the Oil Pipe Line?"

[Charon]

"Launchers can't be set up overnight, but Shockwave has had two weeks to come up with this plan and get ready to execute it." Data ran in the background of Shellshock's computerized mind. "Using the standard model, he introduced himself to standard human warfare, examined his assets and weak points, and formulated a plan. This would take him five to seven days to complete. Giving him a full week to set up launchers. Do we know if the scouts have been detecting any unusual activity lately?"

Shellshock glanced at Crimson, having come to a stop a few dozen meters before the enterance of the command center. "What about the Oil pipe line? Which Oil pipe line?"

[LadyTevar]

"The Northern one, that supplies roughly 60% of the current oil to this country and us, and which has Fort Maximal sitting between us and it." Crimson said simply.

"We've had patrols guarding it, even before Maximal fell, to prevent Megatron from destroying it," she added. "but he seems to have left it alone for a while. Would that be a possible target?"

[General Havoc]

Hornet grinned as broadly as he could up at Crimson as she hugged him back. "I'll pay attention!" he insisted, "honest!" He did not notice if anyone rolled their eyes at that comment. Giving Crimson one more squeeze, he let go and ran off as fast as he could to ask Wheeljack if he had permission to go along with the others.

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream was continuing his one-bot party throughout the corridors of the Ark. So far he had managed to avoid bumping into bots and things. The unerring luck he displayed in doing this amazing feat, as it always seems to do, vanished in an instant as swiftly as it had came.

His music skipped and garbled as it hit a corrupted set of data in one of his files. When it did his rythem faultered and failed him. He stepped down and stumbled, lurching forward unexpectedly. He felt his leg collide with something.

His optics snapped back online as he glanced around to see if he had hit someone. Not seeing anyone, he looked down to see what it could have been. Much to his surprise there was a tiny Cybertronian at his feet. A really tiny Cybertronian. He bent over to get a closer look.
"Hey there little 'bot. Sorry about that!"

[General Havoc]

Hornet's exuberant run was cut short quite literally when he ran into something unyielding. He bounced off it like a rubber ball and fell back onto the ground, laying there for a second stunned, not sure what had just happened. When his optics focused once again and he looked up, he saw an Autobot he didn't recognize looking down at him, asking if he was okay.

"I'm... I'm okay..." said Hornet as he got back to his feet. He brushed himself off and looked up at the giant Autobot. He couldn't tell from here what type of bot this was.

"Who are you?" he asked, puzzled.

[B4UTRUST]

"You sure you're ok? I didn't mean to knock you down. I'm Slipstream. I, err, just transfered here from Cybertron. I was on the shuttle that came in about half a decacycle ago... I just got out of maintenance yesterday. But you know what they say, any crash you walk away from..."

[General Havoc]

Hornet could not possibly be mistaken for anything but a flier himself, what with his flight helmet, cockpit, and wings, but other bots were not so obvious. He looked up at Slipstream and grinned, trying to keep the wonder out of his voice as he tried to work out what this Autobot was

"I'm fine!" he chirped at Slipstream. "My name's Hornet! I'm an airplane!" He was not trying to brag. To Hornet, this was a perfectly valid means of identifying himself. "What're you?"

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream chuckled at the exuberance of the tinybot.
"Well, glad you're ok at least. Like I said, I'm Slipstream. I guess you could call me a flier. Not sure what type I'd represent on this planet, but I fly. I'd transform and let you see so you could tell me, but I don't think there's enough room here...I'd hate to accidently knock you over again or something!"

[General Havoc]

Another flier! Hornet was now very interested. Most fliers from Cybertron were some sort of futuristic superjets. Very few of them were actually atmospheric craft like Hornet was, for the simple reason that Cybertron (best as he could tell) had no atmosphere.

"Well," he said, "I've gotta go find Wheeljack and ask him if I can go on a mission right now. Wheeljack built me, and I have to ask him whenever I go do anything that could be dangerous. They said I can spot for Shellshock this time! Shellshock's an artillery piece!"

Hornet had no idea how little sense he had just made.

"But after that, we can go outside and see! Are you a spacefighter?! Wheeljack made me to fly in atmosphere, but some people can fly in outer space with antigravs!"

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream just stood there, his processor whirling as he tried to figure out what the microbot had just said.
"Ssssure. That sounds fine."

He knew who Wheeljack was. Shellshock he wasn't familer with, though the name was familer to him for some reason. Probably a fragmented data file in his memory. He had found a few of those, much to his dismay. The techs back on Cybertron had told him it was mostly likely due to the damage he had suffered and the extended stasis lock he had been in. Parts of his memory files had degraded, leaving small holes and junk data in spots. He probably would never recover the original information, but he could write over the garbled parts as he pieced together bits and pieces to try to patch the problems.

What he really couldn't grasp about the tinybot's statement was that he was built. What reason could Wheeljack have in building such a obviously underarmed, underarmored, undersized autobot during such a long-waged war? It seemed like a gross waste of valuable resources. But he supposed Wheeljack had a reason. But he'd be taken by the Pits if he could figure out what it might be.

[General Havoc]

If Hornet noticed Slipstream's discomfiture, he didn't make any indication of it, which was a pretty decent indication that he had, in fact, not noticed at all.

"Come on!" he chirped to Slipstream, "I'll show you to Wheeljack! He'll want to say hi!"

[B4UTRUST]

"Sure," Slipstream said simply. He was still trying to wrap his mind around Hornet and it just wasn't adding up. Maybe Wheeljack could provide answers?

He simply followed Hornet where the little bot lead him. Some would probably call this an act of the suicidal but Slipstream was not aware of the the little bot's reputation for finding trouble.

[General Havoc]

Hornet did have something of a reputation for finding trouble, a well-earned one at that, but fortunately for him, in this case, he found Wheeljack first.

The doors to Wheeljack's workshop slid open, and Hornet rushed though it without hesitation. Wheeljack, as always engaged in some other kind of work, turned resignedly around, but was clearly surprised to see that Hornet had brought someone else with him this time.

"This is Slipstream," explained Hornet. "He's just arrived from Cybertron. He's a flier!"

Wheeljack, inured to Hornet's odd turns of phrase and inability to parse one sentence from another, merely nodded. "Really?" he said. "And you decided to show him to me?"

"Um... no..." admitted Hornet. "I er... wanted to know if I could go on the next mission, whenever it is. Shellshock said that I can spot for him! Pleeeeeeeeeease?"

Hornet grinned like a kid asking for a cookie, and Wheeljack couldn't help but laugh. "Well I'll consider it," he said, "but first let's see about your friend here. Has Hornet got you correct, or is he fabricating things again?"

[B4UTRUST]

"More or less, I suppose. My name is Slipstream, I am a flier, as he says. I did just recently transfer from Cybertron, though I've been on this world for fourteen of its daycycles according to records.

"I was onboard the shuttlecraft that crashed. We came under Decepticon attack, probably thought we were carrying valuable supplies from Cybertron to here. We did have some but it was primarily a reinforcement run. A few of us were transfering from Cyberton. Well, I suppose this front has at least one new body..."
Slipstream shrugged, not sure of what else to say.