Transformers: Steel Reign

[General Havoc]

Hornet had more time in the air than Firetrack, but not that much more. He committed too early, diving after Firetrack with his gatling lasers already spinning, but Firetrack's maneuver threw off his aim, and his underpowered shots went wild.

Fortunately, Hornet could match Vernier thrusters with a trick or two of his own.

He opened his throttle wide and swept his wings back as he pulled up hard and rocketed into the air like a cruise missile taking off, coming up beneath Firetrack. Hornet was lighter, smaller, and his engine blasted him into the sky at terrible speed, as he reved both gatling cannons and opened fire.

[rhoenix]

Just as Firetrack hit full speed going straight upwards, Hornet gained his tail. Firetrack was going through the motions of switching to his vernier thrusters and spinning out to a 90 degree angle when he was struck multiple times with Hornet's gatling lasers.

Filing the scenario away for later study, he called out through his comm-link. "Alright, Hornet tagged me - Hornet, that means you're 'it' now. You've got five kliks, Hornet!"

Exaggerating the spin he made with his vernier thrusters, Firetrack now faced Hornet directly, and hovered using his anti-gravity engines to remain motionless until the five count ended. "Five...four...three...two...one...NOW!"

With that, he lit his main engines at full blast, preparing to lock onto Hornet with his pulse lasers.

[rhoenix]

(At General Havoc's suggestion, I'm just going to proceed with the attack. Go go automiss!)

One little thing the training simulator didn't cover was wind currents, and how to deal with them. Granted, Firetrack's vernier thrusters alternating with his anti-gravity engines compensated for most irregularities, but those were specifically with flying. He had yet to master how to shoot with any degree of accuracy, let alone with the irregular wind currents. That said however, the mass of data he was recording from all his sensors, dumping to storage, and analyzing in the background would prove invaluable. In short, though Firetrack was none too impressive a marksbot or pilot currently, he was learning, and improving with every single mistake.

For the meantime however, his sensors recorded bluish-green streaks of his pulse laser fire missing Hornet completely. Fascinated, Firetrack fired a couple more salvos to attempt to hit Hornet, but mostly to test and recompile his new program to compensate for air currents.

[General Havoc]

Hornet swerved and danced through the air like a hummingbird as Firetrack shot at him. The shots were underpowered, but in real combat, Hornet had no armor to speak of, and Wheeljack had thusly made damn sure he would be able to at least evade casual shots. He jackknifed suddenly and dove, ducking under the last shots as he screamed towards the deck.

Evading Firetrack would not be easy, but what was odd about the circumstance was Hornet's dead silence. Not one cry of happy enjoyment, not one giggle or laugh, not a single sound came from his speaker. His flight showed no signs of his usual enthusiasm, no aerobatics, no spins, no freefalling dances undertaken just because he could. It was utilitarian, mechanical, almost automatic.

He flew low to the earth, and moved towards Slipstream.

[B4UTRUST]

Slipstream continued his holding pattern watching the fight between Firetrack and Hornet. Firetrack was doing about as well as expected and Hornet was blowing away his competition so to speak.

But then Hornet decided he had something to prove apparently, as he turned the game on Slipstream. Apparently the point of the exercise was lost. Slipstream was curious. Did Hornet really want to shoot him that badly? What would it prove, especially if Slipstream sat there and let him?

Slipstream maintained his holding pattern and watched as Hornet came closer.

[General Havoc]

Hornet was not trying to shoot at Slipstream, indeed he was not trying to shoot at anyone. He had a very specific intention in mind, and he flew towards it with single-minded determination. His intention was not to shoot at Slipstream, but to force Slipstream to shoot at him.

And to miss.

Accordingly he held his fire, blazing away at maximum speed. Mach 2, Mach 2.5, Mach 3 he reached, and still his single engine burned cherry-red, and his throttle was opened as wide as he could make it, flying towards Slipstream, hoping to force the Autobot to engage to prove his innate superiority.

Hornet didn't measure skill by how many people he could shoot down, mock or otherwise. But to run rings around Slipstream, to evade his shots and make him try and try and try again to hit him, and fail...

... well he could perhaps be forgiven for anticipating that.

[rhoenix]

As Hornet began to dive low, and pour on the speed, Firetrack smiled to himself and lit his thrusters at full strength. True, Hornet was faster - but Firetrack could, by virtue of his variable thrust angles, continue to salvo a withering stream of pulse laser fire at Hornet, even as the smaller Autobot began to overtake Firetrack in terms of speed from a lower elevation.

This scenario, like the rest of this exercise, was recorded and dumped immediately into his memory storage, being processed in the background for possible improvements of tactics and skill. However, the forefront of his mind was fighting down the urge to fire a missile or three at the faster Autobot. He would patiently wait until all three of them had the paint missiles loaded.

(EDIT: Clarity of last paragraph)

[Dark Silver]

Last time on Transformers: Steel Reign:

"Alright everyone, get on board Skylynx! Next stop...the North Pole..."

"You understand the battle plan Omega?"

"Affirmative. Resistance inferior. Destruction assured."

"Drop-zone reached. Prepare for disembarkment. T-minus .6 breems till zero barrier."

The Protectobots and Shellshock Hornet and Firetrack all jump from Omega Supreme's hatch, "Whoever had the bright idea of jumping from a perfectly good Transport should be shot!"

Crimson leaps from Omega Supreme, while Hornet's voice can be heard, "Don't worry, it'll be fun!" "You slagging peice of trypanthium zergnthx gongwangteg slagging empties!"

Camera closes on Crimson's faceplate, locked in terror, before fading to black.


Now the Continuation....

[Charon]

Shellshock's processors was busy keeping track of their landing zone, their ETA, where his squad members were, and if Omega Supreme and Defensor were going to be a sufficient distraction to let them land with minimal hassle. Shellshock had ordered comm silence just before they left Omega Supreme. So there was going to be a lot of quiet before the storm.

[rhoenix]

In his sleek jet form, Firetrack paced the others smoothly, keeping his passive sensors constantly recording and parsing data of the environment below as they descended. Respecting the radio silence, he constantly scanned for targets or anything of note while mapping the area as they approached.

[SirNitram]

Dropping through the sky with only adjustments from the pack, Overload was already busy. Targetting solutions were being plotted onto whatever weak points he could find in the opposition, shared with the rest of the Autobots. He couldn't fight something this big, so he fell into his natural support role.

[LadyTevar]

She wanted on the ground. No... scratch that. She wanted on the ground In One Piece. She just had to figure out how to do that with the Pits-be-dammed jetpack. Crimson was not a happy flier as her nervous overcompasations made her descent jerky and uncoordinated.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke touched down, his machine pistol at the ready. The warbot looked back, looking to see if a certain fembot had landed yet.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson was managing to get closer to the ground, but it was clear she wasn't sure how to handle the jetpack, or how close she could get to the ground safely. In the end, she muttered something to herself and slid out of the restraints, letting the jetpack run off wherever it wanted to. She fell about a hundred feet, transforming into her AltMode to absorb the shock better. She hit the ground and skidded, tearing up the summertime grass as she finally came to a halt.

"I'm never doing that again!" she vowed, transforming back to robot to pick tuffs of grass out of her chassis, dinged up, but not harmed.

[rhoenix]

Still pacing the others who hadn't made it groundside yet, Firetrack had stayed in his jet form, passive sensors on full scan (to avoid alerting any active sensor nets of the Decepticons'), and weapons on hot standby.

He was also constantly updating his stabilization algorithms using careful application of his anti-gravity engines and his vernier thrusters; it wasn't long before he got the hang of flying straight, level, and seemingly unaffected by air currents at this speed.

Crimson had decided to take the short route down, and Stryke appeared to be on overwatch for the time being. Taking his duties seriously, he paced Shellshock, Overload, and the others as they made it groundside, one by one.

[Charon]

Shellshock lowered himself, skirting the ground for a few seconds before he lifted his feet and came down on the ground after shutting off his pack. The autobot immediately transformed into his alt. mode, passive sensors reaching out farther than the others as he tracked the movement of Omega and the Protectobots. They'd know when contact was made from the sound of the explosions, and then they would give the big guns enough time to get everythings attention before they went about their business.

[General Havoc]

Hornet landed alongside the others, shifting back into his robotic form as he did so, landing with what passed for poise and grace, insofar as he did not destroy a tree in doing so. Covering Crimson from above, he had seen her jettison from the jetpack, which had promptly spiraled into the ground nearby and switched off. Already slightly peeved at not having been permitted to take a jetpack himself, Hornet couldn't resist landing next to Crimson's discarded one and hoisting it up. Sized to fit the larger Crimson, the jetpack was disproportionately bulky and heavy for Hornet's lighter frame and weaker actuators, but he managed to slip the shoulder straps on, only to fall backwards onto the ground like a turtle on its shell. Several attempts to right himself failed, until an all out effort permitted him to roll over onto his hands and knees, a position from which he slowly managed to stand up. His balance was completely thrown off by the bulky jetpack, and given their situation in a combat zone, even Hornet wasn't fool enough to want to trigger it immediately. Instead, he wanted to take it back home after the mission was done.

The fact that as an airplane, he could already fly, was completely immaterial to him. This was a new toy to play with.

Setting the jetback on his back, the weight of it forcing him to hunch over forwards so as not to fall over, Hornet trudged over to where the others were, grinning happily at everyone as he re-appeared with Crimson's jetpack.

"So which way are we going?" he asked, as though they were proposing to take a stroll down to the nearest human town.

[Dark Silver]

Several kilometers from where the jetpacked Autobots where making their landing, flying some 10,000 feet above the ground, was a insect. Not just any insect, but a black, red and gold colored wasp. The buzzing whine of it's wings didn't travel very far due to it's small size, but the calm winds allowed him to move freely.

The wasp was enjoying itself for a change. Nothing else around to bother him, no Sentinal Robots to avoid getting trampled under, no Decepticons pushing him around - the wasp was completely at peace.

"Wazzzzzzzzpinator happy" the Predacon-turned-Decepticon sighed. The truth was, no matter how much he prefered the Decepticons over the Predacons....he still hated to fight. He was immensely happy when Megatron stationed him in this remote outpost, a little guard shack in the middle of nowhere on Modern Earth. Of course, it wasn't middle of no where to Waspinator - he had been to this exact spot over 100,000 years ago.

During the time of the Beast Wars.

Back when getting blown up by friendly and enemy fire was a hourly thing to him. Back when the rat-bot kept picking up pieces of Waspinator for his collection....back when the Universe truly hated him. Now, it didn't hate him so much, it just liked to take the random potshots at him. Remind Waspinator that it still knew he was around....and was waiting to use him as a whipping boy again......


But out in the middle of no where, with no battles being fought, no weapons being shot - Waspinator was safe.

The tiny Wasp transformed back into his full robot mode, hovering in the air on the antigravs that where apart of the new Decepticon body. True, he was bigger than his Predacon-form....but he wasn't that much bigger. But he certainly was more powerful.

But that didn't matter to Waspinator, he manuvered himself to where he was looking up at the blue skies, closed his optics, and let out a pleased sigh......

Shortly before the five Protectobots sent him tumbling through the air towards the ground as they flew past him on their jetpacks.

"Why Universe hate Waazzzzzzzzpinator?!" the red and black Decepticon cried pitifully, as he fell onto the grass covered field below....


----------------


Omega Supreme had flown hard after dropping off the Autobots behind him. His rocket form rapidly outpaced every other Autobot, and he was primed for his target. half a kilometer out, well within their sensor range, Omega had transformed.

The rocket disappeared, as his tank form rolled over the ground. Weighing in at over 6000 tonnes, Omega Supreme's tank form was almost unstoppable to any conventional military. Heavy laser cannons swiveled about, as his primary plasma cannon unleashed long range hell upont he Decepticons. Three of the Sentinal Robots assigned to this area where within range, and taken by surprise with the opening shots.

Their armor crumpled beneath the onslaught of energy Omega unleashed upon them, their armors slagging and their circuits melting to nothing. Others moved to take their place, and while their weapons where not as powerful as Omega Supreme's, there were far more of them, and they were each powerful in their own rights.

With less than 100 meters to go, Omega transformed once more, into his robot mode. The yellow, red and grey titan closed the distance between himself and the first of his opponents quickly, the massive claw coming up in a shatter haymaker, impacting the Sentinal in it's chestplate. The robot drone staggered back, energy crackling from it's armor. A laser burst into the weakened armor section blew right through the inferior drone's systems, coring it completely.

The alarm in the base was raised, Decepticons started to swarm out, a full fifteen strong, many some to the the manned defensive weapons, while some rushed to meet their enemy on the field of battle. They worried not, for they had the firepower of their outpost to add to theirs, no Autobots would be able to reach them to be a major threat.

Unfortunatly for them, they didn't notice the Gestault landing behind them. The closest weapons tower exploded as 20,000 degree jets of plasmic flames consumed it, with Defensor holding the weapon. Decepticons screamed, automated and manned defensive platforms turning to met the new threat, their laser fire bouncing off of Defensor's energy shield, giving the titan a few seconds of breathing room, before another bolt of plasma flame was unleashed upon the base..


The battle was on...

[SirNitram]

"Straight to the front lines!" Overload bellowed, his vehicle mode engaging all eighteen wheels and roaring forward as he dropped to the ground and transformed. It was a straight line, which basically meant he'd easily outpace all but the flyers. The trick would be stopping, but his sensors were already telling him plenty of Decepticons had rushed out to fufil their duty as his brakes.

[rhoenix]

Many millennia ago, when he was originally known as Firetrack, he would have done something fancy to show off, or tried to draw attention to himself in some way, all while being no help whatsoever in a real fight.

He did not remember this, however, which was possibly for the best. His response now was still a stark contrast to those who expected differently, however.

Flying only a few feet off the ground and still in his jet form, Firetrack acquired a missile lock on one of the emerging Deceptions, reset the tracking software within the missile to strike at a specific set of coordinates instead of at a specific moving target, and fired at the coordinates the Decepticon currently occupied. After the missile was fired, he unleashed a withering hail of pulse laser fire at the same Decepticon.

An odd phrase arose spontaneously in his mind: "Whichever combatant controls the rhythm of the fight will emerge victorious."

Noticing a group of Decepticons moving toward the encroaching Autobots, the phrase suddenly made sense. Locking onto the Decepticon unfortunate enough to be near the middle of the group with another sizable medium missile, he again altered the missile's tracking to aim for a set of coordinates, not a target's signature - and fired. Given the explosive warheads on the missiles, it should at the very least cause the Decepticons to scatter. If the Autobots could keep the Decepticons guessing as to their next move, then the Autobots would win.

If that meant being..."unusual" with their tactics, then so be it.

[Charon]

Shellshock lumbered forward slowly in his alt. mode. "Stryke, take point with Overload. Keep up with him. Crimson stay with me for now. Fliers, bring down their forward troops. Hit them fast autobots."

As he gave commands out his system filtered through the images that had it had taken while in the air of the base. His heavy missiles picked targets, and six missiles fired from their pods, streaking out towards the bunkers and weapons emplacements of the Decepticons.

[General Havoc]

Unfortunately for Hornet's plans of rocketeering, the Decepticons waited for no Autobot, and reluctantly, he slid the jetpack back off, making sure to put it aside for safekeeping later on. He still could not see what was happening, but Overload and the others were racing off to the fight, and so he would have to as well. Rapidly, he sprinted towards an open field, one large enough for him to take off once he attained jet form, his system already preparing to transform.

... and then something landed on him.

For a split second, he caught sight of a figure looming overhead, and the next thing he knew he was laying on the ground on his back, pinned underneath someone else, his gyrocompass spinning like a top, his optics rolling about inside his head, trying to figure out which way was up. Unsure of what had just happened, for the moment he could only lay there, stunned, unable to process what would have immediately come to any of his friends...

... the thought that whatever had landed on him might not be friendly.

[Dark Silver]

Waspinator was falling.

That much he was certain of. That and he was screaming at the top of his vocal actuators.

It took a few moments, but suddenly it dawned on him.

"Wait a minute...Wazzzzpinator is a fli....."

Unfortunately for Waspinator, the realization came to late, and he smacked right into the jet formed Hornet.

The two bots fell a new, with once again, Waspinator screaming out "why Universe hate Wazzzzpinator!"


When the two finally hit the ground, Waspinator took another moment to realize he was still alive.

Even more important, he was still in one piece.

Even more importantly, whatever broke his fall was still under him.

Waspinator leaped to his feet, fixed his multi-faceted eye upon the form of Hornet, and nearly squeeled.

"YAY! Jet-bot save Wazzzzzpinator's life!"

With that, the not much larger than Hornet Waspinator grabbed up Hornet and hugged him tightly, almost seeming to dance with the little Autobot.

"Wazzzzzpinator thank Jet-bot!"

[LadyTevar]

Crimson shifted again to her bright red Harley Altmode and pulled alongside Shellshock's mobile artillery, stretching her sensors so she could give the older 'bot more firing options. But something was conspicuously absent from her sensor data.

"Shellshock? Where's Hornet?!"

[General Havoc]

A Decepticon.

Hornet's IFF decoder transmitted the electrifying information straight to his processor and set off all manner of alarms inside his head. His optics flew open as he froze, still pinned down by the Decepticon flier that had landed on him, and he tried to think of what to do, whether to scream for help or try to escape, or try to blast the Decepticon off him with his gattling lasers. Fortunately for all concerned however, before Hornet could do any such thing, the Decepticon righted itself, stood up, and turned a multi-lensed optic down on him.

"YAY! Jet-bot save Wazzzzzpinator's life!"

And then something really unexpected happened.

Without warning, the Decepticon reached down and pulled Hornet to his feet by his wing, before delivering a massive bear hug with all four of its insect-shaped arms, spinning around and laughing, spinning Hornet about and completely throwing his gyrocompass into loops and spins again, to the point that by the time the Decepticon finally released him, Hornet swayed dizzily and nearly fell back over. He shook his head a few times to try and stop the world from spinning, before blinking his optics back into configuration.

Waspinator (that seemed to be its name) was obviously a Decepticon, the markings were all over, the logo stenciled prominently on the Transformer's body, and moreover the IFF scanner was still screaming incessant warnings that this was a Decepticon enemy about to blow him up. Fortunately for all concerned however, Hornet was not a normal Autobot, and even though they were literally in the middle of a war, with fighting erupting on all sides, Hornet simply quieted his IFF decoder for a moment, and adopted his trademark beaming smile, and as soon as he was reasonably certain he wasn't about to fall over again, hopped back over to the ecstatic Decepticon flier (larger than he was, but only by a little bit), and returned the greeting.

The thought that the Decepticon might simply vaporize him never even entered his head. Indeed, between one instant and the next, Hornet had already pushed out of his mind the fact that this was a Decepticon. To him, this was automatically superseded by the possibility that this was a new friend, and you could never have too many of those.

"Hi there!" he chirped at Waspinator in his eternally friendly voice. "My name's Hornet. Are you okay?" He rubbed the back of his head where Waspinator had landed on him. "I think you might have crashed."