Transformers: Steel Reign

[LadyTevar]

Crimson winced at the sound of cannonfire. "Ok... enough of this..." she said, speaking aloud and not over the con. Swiftshot was a little too out of it to understand, so she thought.

"Overload, I think he's got some kind of grudge against DeathStrike," she said, sounding out her reasons. "Stryke recognized him instantly and called him by name. When DeathStrike surrendered, Stryke contacted me privately to verify, sounding like he was ready to aboutface and come put a shell in him right then."

The last bit was what she considered the kicker. "Last word he said on the matter, before Hornet pulled his trick, was that he'd never be on Deathstrike's side. So... am I backfiring here, or do you see the links too."

[SirNitram]

"He can ram it up his exhaust pipe." Overload said simply and bluntly. "I've got a few million years of stewing against various and sundry Decepticons. I'm not gonna break down and act like a stupid kid over it. Put Astrotrain on the rails in front of me and you might want to get clear of the inevitable explosion, but I won't endanger others, ignore orders, and generally be immature."

The grooves carved by his way here were something he could use, at least. Not true tracks, but it'd be faster. He'd need it, given he was now dragging Sureshot as he engaged his engine. "He's no different from the Decepticons if he lets his grudges and personal views rule him."

[General Havoc]

Stryke raced off in another direction. Hornet was mildly worried that he'd made him angrier than he'd intended to... until Stryke opened fire on a nearby hill...

The shock of seeing him do that stunned Hornet so much he almost forgot to maintain his altitude. He gulped audibly, despite not having a real throat, and left himself a wide distance away from Stryke.

Had he really made him angry enough to...

He tentatively opened a radio channel to Stryke.

"S... St...Stryke?" he asked very very tentatively, nervousness palpable in his voice. "I'm... I'm sorry.... I... I broke the... the sound barrier..."

"P... please don't shoot me."

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke's holo looked up at the jet, held the stare then looked back down to the ground. Hornet's words were ignored as he headed towards Overload and Crimson.

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike went along calmly with Wideload. He had no intention of being a problem. "Your prisoner handling technique needs work Autobot. You don't get that close to a prisoner with a rifle unless you don't mind losing it."

[LadyTevar]

There was something so pitiful about the quiet little plea from Hornet, and it brought out a brilliant memory of one of the miner's offspring saying something in a similar tone.

"oh.... slag me...." Crimson whispered... then opened a channel to Stryke and Hornet both. "He's not going to shoot you, Hornet. If he tries I'll shove a grenade up his tailpipe and put him in stasis lock." The threat was casual, but clear. "Get back to ShellShock as he ordered, Hornet. We're following."

[Charon]

Shellshock looked back at Wideload and Deathstrike, shaking his head some. "They aren't as used to this as you are Decepticon. Just be glad for now that we're putting you in a CR chamber."

Shellshock looked back out to where the rest of the group was, wondering idly what was taking them so long.

[General Havoc]

"Y... yessum..." replied Hornet nervously to Crimson, and he beelined it for Shellshock, still clearly not convinced, though it was a tossup as to whether he was afraid for his life, or for having made Stryke that angry.

He arrived near Shellshock, braked, and transformed back into humanoid form, landing next to the gigantic artillery piece, looking thoroughly miserable, his head lowered, casting furtive glances up at Shellshock to try and gauge how much he had messed up.

[Cynical Cat]

"You should reestablish communications with your comrades," said Deathstrike. "You have a Decepticon of unknown capability out there who you have lost track of and your group is fragmenting. This in an ideal opportunity to pick you off one by one."

[Charon]

Shellshock looked at the small bot beside him for a moment, his face completely unreadable. As the decepticon spoke Shellshock looked at him.

"I know what I'm doing, Wideload, please get him out of here faster."

Once the Decepticon was out of hearing range Shellshock looked at Hornet.

"We're at war kid. We can't afford for stupid mistakes. Your going supersonic was heard at the station, and we're miles away. Any decepticon within a hundred miles would have heard that and been alerted to our presense. You potentially put the entire team at risk with your stunt. You wanna stay with us, you have to start being careful, and listen to us when we tell you something, because we're telling you for your safety and ours."

[General Havoc]

Hornet neither looked up nor said a word as Shellshock lectured him, looking as forlorn as he ever did. When Shellshock had finished, Hornet nodded and replied in a very small voice. "I'm... sorry..." he said. "I'll... I'll try harder..."

[Dark Silver]

Wideload, in the interim, was still escorting Deathstrike towards the base as Hornet and Shellshock lagged behind.

"Kicked is your ass" Wideload said in broken english, keeping his weapons trained on the Decepticon.

It really took them less time than one could imagine to reach the construction zone, and Maintenance Bay Five.

Wideload escorted Deathstrike in, as two other Autobots stepped out, well, they were Autobots in name only,obviously guard drones with Autobot symbols emblazoned on their chests.

They took Deathstrike from Wideload, and escorted him to Gridlock, who was rising from his position by the C.R. Chamber.

"Ah, is not little turncoat friend. Welcome to Autobot Hotel. Is have your room all ready, right this way Comrade."

Gridlock had a semi smile on his faceplate, as the CR chamber opened with a faint hiss, and small rolling clouds of vapor poured from the ground level. "Am already informed Prowl, who will notify Optimus Prime of request to speak with him, da? By time he arrive, repair cycle should be done."

[Cynical Cat]

To go into a CR chamber guarded by drones and sloppy Autobots was not a comforting experience, but Deathstrike had little choice. The Decepticon stepped into the embrace of the machine and went into stasis as it sealed around him.

[Charon]

Shellshock nodded. "Good, keep in mind that a lot of us are out here too and any of our actions can effect the rest of us. And we all screw up eventually. You just need to learn from your mistake. You'll get better at this eventually."

Shellshock looked around to make certain no one was around. "To be honest, I was there back in the day when Fearless leader still had fresh paint. Oh, that first battle I had as a subordinate of him was going beautifully. First time we were actually pushing the Decepticons back without paying for every inch badly. Then, Prime gets up on his piece of wreckage, getting us ready for the final push. He takes his first step, and his legs get caught up in each other and Optimus comes crashing down on the ground!" Shellshock was practically bursting out laughing by now. "Ohhh, it was really amazing. I mean, none of us really held it against him, and we still won the battle. But oh we made fun of him for that for a year straight."

Shellshock had been leaning down to be closer to the teenybot and now stood up to his full height again. "Now then, go see how the resident Russians are treating our guest and then make sure Overload knows where to put our injured ally."

[B4UTRUST]

Ice visably relaxed when the train didn't run him over. Not that he would have stood still to let the 'bot do it, but it still would have hurt like the pits.

"Thanks for the rescue," he spoke outloud in a soft voice, a little strained. "Not sure where that Decepticon went. He hit me and left. Maybe thought I was dead. By the pits, the way I'm feeling I'd almost think it was preferable."

He let out a self-depreciating chuckle then winced.
"Definatly a board loose somewhere in there. Comm's fried too. Not even sure about transforming, but I can give it a try. But right now I need to get a message to the installation commander. We need to prepare for an attack."

[LadyTevar]

"The trip will be easier if you have wheels," Crimson urged quietly. "And we can get back to base and you under cover faster. Don't worry about base, we're already on alert."

[General Havoc]

Hornet loved war stories, and drank them up eagerly enough to make the most grizzled veteran smile, but this was almost too much. Optimus Prime was revered by every Autobot, but to Hornet, he was practically a god, manifested among mortals. Hornet could not even conceive of Optimus falling over so spectacularly. To him, everything Optimus had ever done was self-evidently perfect, because if it wasn't, then Optimus wouldn't have done it in the first place!

Still, it didn't sound like Shellshock was overly angry with him, and that much was a relief. He calmed down slightly and even managed to look up at the towering Autobot artilleryist. "Y... yes sir," he chirped, his voice caught between timidity at having messed up and exuberance that he was apparently not going to be slagged for it... not by Shellshock at least.

He morphed seamlessly back into a plane and took off for the repair bay where Wideload and Gridlock were helping out the newly captured Decepticon, Deathstrike.

A hundred yards or so from the repair bay he braked and shifted back to his robotic form, then ran inside to see what was going on.

"Shellshock wanted to know if he's okay," he said to Gridlock. "Is he gonna be all right? Can we fix him?"

[B4UTRUST]

Ice nodded and pushed himself up slowly.
"Primus, that con did a number on me. Still not sure how he got up on me like that. You guys are ready for the attack? Good, that's good. Haul got through to command then... Have the others gotten here yet? Pits, forget it. We'll discuss this at the base. Please tell me there's cold energon on tap somewhere close..."

Ice slowly stepped out of the building to open ground.
"Well here goes nothing."

He began his transformation sequence, and halted it a quarter way into it, grinding gears before reverseing back to his robotic form. He started it again and let it go all the way through. His body elongated as his head sunk into his torso and his arms shifted and merged into his body. A few seconds later he was in his car form, though slightly banged and bruised and a bit less then pristine. But still pretty to look at.
"Alright, that hurt a little. Lets get out of here before my muffler falls off of something..."

[SirNitram]

"Heh. Don't complain or I'll subject you to the story of how I had to pull Shellshock for a few megakliks with his gun falling off." Overload engaged his engine and towed the now-rolling Sureshot along.

[LadyTevar]

The gear grinding made Crimson wince in sympathy, but she was relieved when Swiftshot was able to do it. She moved in carefully, helping Overload's holomatter hook towing cables to Swiftshot's rear axle and get him ready to tow.

"Your muffler's fine, in case you're wondering," Crimson said, talking more to keep Swiftshot calm, although she was admiring his alt-mode. It was a nearly Cybertronian. "There... Overload, start pulling. I'll follow behind." She transformed into Alt-mode, but kept the motor to a quiet idle.

[SirNitram]

Wheels turned. Steam pumped. Overload began moving. It was slow going, but the lack of serious weight was a welcome relief. "Didn't get any advance warning about you coming this way. Can't say what the Russian nutters will think of this, but we'll have a CR tank standing by for you."

[B4UTRUST]

"Five minutes out of battle and I'm already being submitted to the torture of warstories. Primus, first Kup and now you. By the matrix, spare me from old war stories..."

His rear end was picked up and he began to be drug away.
"This is humilating you realize. Feel like a pit's damned invalid.

"I have to say though, if you had known I was coming I would be greatly surprised and a bit paranoid. I've been hauling tailpipe for about an orn and a half trying to stay off of the Decepticons' radar. Looks like I didn't pull that one off either."

[SirNitram]

"Humiliation or laying prone in a shack, waiting for another attack." Overload chuckled. "I'm sure you would pick the humiliation any day. Anyway, it won't be far. Just keep your eyes peeled while I focus on getting us there faster."

[B4UTRUST]

"Well I see Crimson's tires. And some ground. It looks hard. Not sure how much help that is, but it's what I'm seeing. Not complaining mind you, but having one's tail pipe five foot in the air doesn't do much for one's view."

[LadyTevar]

Haul. Kup. He was naming off other Autobots, but Crimson hadn't heard of them. Then again, she had not been on Earth that long ... the ones she knew of best were of course Prime's own command squad. At least Swiftshot was talking. He should come out of this fine.

"Don't worry, Swiftshot," she said soothingly. "I've got my sensors going and we have an eye in the sky." But there was nothing there, as if the Decepticon had done its job and gone. It was very unsettling.