Transformers: Steel Reign

[SirNitram]

"At least one Decepticon bad guy has come through here, right?" Overload said, still walking. The ease of getting the kid to rebound was on his side; now, he just needed to find the patience in this warzone of a planet to channel it. "Someone needs to get up there and keep an eye out. I can't do that; look at me, do you think I could fly?" He grinned.

[General Havoc]

Hornet nodded eagerly. "No but... I can!" he said happily. The thought that they were trying to get rid of him clearly did not cross his mind. "You want me to watch for Decepticons incoming?!"

[Charon]

Shellshock was walking by, carrying a load of crates that was to be delivered when he heard Overload and Hornet talking. "Might want to check that with Gridlock first, though if the long range sensors aren't up yet it would seem like a good idea."

[SirNitram]

"You go and ask Gridlock if he needs help keeping an eye on the skies, little guy." Overload smiled. "But you gotta be patient and quiet while you're up there unless there's something that looks like trouble. But if you can do that, you've got a good beginning to a career in the skies, Hornet."

In truth, Overload wasn't trying to just 'get rid' of Hornet. He was hoping to get the little bot used to some responsibility and duties that were up his particular alley.

[General Havoc]

"Sure thing!" chirped Hornet, and he raced off as quickly as he could to go ask Gridlock if he could do what Overload had suggested. Rather than tying himself to walls, this seemed a much better way to help out in his mind.

As soon as he spotted Gridlock, he raced over to him. "Gridlock, Overload said that maybe I can help out by watching out for the Decepticons! I can fly overhead and use my radar and make sure that they don't surprise us!"

Oddly enough, that was more coherant than he normally would have been.

[B4UTRUST]

Ice, still in the guise of Swiftshot for the time being, though wondering when he might need to literally cut and run, had started lifting and carrying the supplies where he was directed too. The loads he lifted were rather less then what his enhanced frame could carry, but they didn't know that. And right now, he firmly believed it was a good thing they didn't know that.

[Dark Silver]

Gridlock looked down at the diminutive form of Hornet, who was at the moment trying to saw something. When he finally figured out what the littlest Autobot was saying, Gridlock seemed to smile, "Dah, is good idea Teennybo t You go in air, and keep lookout. We make you Warrior yet! Watch now, am needing to weld joint."

With that, Gridlock went back to welding the outer plats of the laser turrent he was working on. So far they had made progress, and with luck - they may get the defense perimeter completed today.


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

"This is like watching petroleum jelly run" Springer said, his optics still on the screens.

They had been watching for several hours now, and still no moves were made against the CR Chamber holding the holomatter Deathstrike.

"You seemed pretty sure Swiftshot is this turkey Black Ice" Jazz said, having taken a position near the comms panel, waiting to hear back from Prowl. "I put a request to Teletran-1's uplink, to check for any Autobot on Earth designated Swiftshot...just gotta wait for the results."

[General Havoc]

Hornet nearly jumped for joy. "Great!!!" he said in his usual hyperexuberant way. "I'll be really careful! No Decepticon will get anywhere near here without me seeing them!"

If he only knew that he was standing ten feet away from one...

He took off at a sprint around the corner and out the door, and raced into the flatland surrounding the power plant. He hadn't taken more than a dozen steps before he jumped into the air as high as he could and transformed in mid-jump. As he neared the top of his arc, his afterburner exploded to life and he shot off like a rocket, rapidly clawing for altitude as he spun upwards to one thousand, two thousand, three thousand feet before finally levelling off and begining a large, wide circle around the base, flipping on his active radar and watching for anything in the air or on the ground.

[SirNitram]

"The kid could make a great asset one day." Overload sighed with a wistful noise in his voice synthesizer. "Remind me to smack Wheeljack for having him in the middle of this war, though. It's no place to raise the next generation, this mess. Poor humans.. They don't even have the choice to hop to another system away from the front."

[Charon]

Shellshock smiled as he looked over at Overload, setting down another stack of armored plating for the defensive grid. "You really think they would, even if they could? You remember what they were like. They're as stubborn as you or I."

Shellshock looked up at Hornet as he circled above. "And the teenybot there seems more and more like them every mega-cycle I see him.

[LadyTevar]

Abut a breem later, Crimson came out of the building and approached Overload and Shellshock. "Have you seen Hornet?"

[SirNitram]

"He's on sentry duty." Overload replied simply as another heavy load was hoisted up. "And hopefully, it'll help ease him into being a soldier."

[LadyTevar]

"Sentry duty?" Crimson asked, confused. "Where?"

[SirNitram]

"In the air, of course. He's a flyer." Overload shrugged. "It lets him fly, he isn't likely to run into something, and he'll be able to be useful. He seems eager to prove he can be."

[LadyTevar]

"I wish I'd thought of that...," she sighed, walking towards the storage buildings. "I hope we brought enough wiring... I had to cut him out of a tangle and wasted 8 meters."

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke kept building, his mind on other things. He looked back over his shoulder at the Maintenance Bay, holding the CR chamber and Deathstrike. He shook his head and resumed working, keeping an eye on Swiftshot.

[Dark Silver]

"Attention Jazz."

The voice which sounded over the comm link in the Comms room was monotone, obviously made by a computer, though it sounded near human.

"Important Communication from Autobot Headquarters. Priority One."

Jazz looked to Deathstrike and Springer, who both looked absorbed in the security monitors, then turned to the communications panel.

"Identify - Designation: Jazz Alpha-Echo-Foxtrot-Niner."

"Identity Confirmed. Personel Report - Subject Swiftshot. Autobot Scout - Status - Missing. Last Known Mission - surviallance of human base in southeastern United States. Current location: Unknown."

Jazz turned to look at Springer and Deathstrike, knowing they undoubtedly heard Teletran-One's communication also. "So...his story at least partially checks out.."


"Priority Communication: Springer and Jazz. Optimus Prime is enroute to Fort Maximal. Current Estimated Time of Arrival - Seven Hours. Accompanied by Jetfire, Ironhide and Wheeljack. Optimus Prime requests prisoner Deathstrike be released from CR Chamber pending arrival."

------

Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, two of Soundwave's "pets", had the Autobot base under observation for days now. Even without the arrival of Black Ice, the two expert spies had listened to incoming communications, listened to conversations around their hidden locations, and even managed to find the holes in the partially completed sensor grid.

They hadn't both observed at the same time, no, that would be foolish. They took shifts...and Laserbeak's was soon up. Buzzsaw would be making his return flight soon, and Laserbeak would be heading back to make his report to Megatron.

And what a report....Optimus Prime was going to be at the nearly undefended base. True he would have a honor guard of sorts...but this would be the golden moment, for the first time in months, Prime would be a relatively easy target...


Laserbeak took to the air, even if Buzzsaw was ontime, the information was to good not to report immediatly. With the right plan, the Decepticons could behead the Autobot cause, and move to finish their conquest of the planet. With a loud squawk, Laserbeak took to the air, his antigrav thrusters gaining him altitude and speed quickly - little did he know Hornet was in the air looking something like this....

To bad for Hornet, Laserbeak's partner in crime was also coming up fast on him...


Buzzsaw, the yellow version of Laserbeak, let loose a audible squak as his twin lasercannons opened fire. He didn't know if the little Autobot had spotted him on the radar yet, but he was taking no chances....at the very least, this would give Laserbeak a distraction to get out...Ravage could always come back in for a stealthier bit of spy work later...

[General Havoc]

Hornet was cruising at 3,000 feet above the ground, passively scanning his radar looking for any sign of the Decepticons, spotting nothing. With a contented sigh, he relaxed into his flight pattern, doing what he did best (the only thing he did remotely well in fact), and was about to begin daydreaming again, when suddenly all hell broke loose.

An alarm screamed out of nowhere as his radar showed a Decepticon that had apparently materialized BEHIND him. He gasped audibly and hesitated in mid-air, giving the Decepticon behind him a chance to open fire.

THAT fixed his attention.

Red lasers flashed past his fuselage and wings as he instinctively dove for the deck, barely avoiding a pair of shots that passed just beneath his right wing. Hastily he opened his radio up to the Autobot channel they were all using and cried into it.

"DECEPTICON!" he yelled in his high-pitched, normally chirpy voice. "Decepticon! He's shooting at me! Help!!!"

He pulled up hard to avoid slamming into the ground and shot off like a rocket to avoid the assault that was materializing behind him. He did not take the time to notice that the flier behind him had nothing close to his top speed, and he had rapidly outdistanced it. It wasn't until several seconds had passed that he noticed how rapidly he was pulling away from the Decepticon... and how small the Decepticon in question appeared to be. In fact his radar reported that it was (slightly) lower mass than Hornet himself.

Puzzled at this, and relieved to find that he could escape from the slower flier, Hornet calmed himself down, trying to remember what Jetfire and the others had told him about fighting Decepticons. "I'm... I'm okay!" he said into the radio, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice. "I'm engaging!"

He banked hard, gathering altitude as he did so, and turned 180 degrees, flipping around and heading straight for the Decepticon. Too close for missiles to work, he activated his gattling lasers on his wingtips, and opened fire with a blistering hail of green energy bolts, flailing at the Decepticon flier, covering the air with his shots in the hopes of hitting a vital point.

[Dark Silver]

Buzzsaw was outpaced by the Autobot flier, and he managed to dodge out the laserbolts. Buzzsaw had broken off pursuit, and started back towards the main portion of the base, when the whine of jet engines and the sounds of the gatling lasers drew his attention.

Hornet's peppering of the air with the green bolts made the yellow condor-bot jump, as it where. He flew upwards into the air, away from the shots, turned on his own axis, and opened fire again with the twin lasers on his back.

All during this time, staying well away from what he could hear was a battle, Laserbeak flew below radar range, and away from the Autobots.

[LadyTevar]

"DECEPTICON!" he yelled in his high-pitched, normally chirpy voice. "Decepticon! He's shooting at me! Help!!!"

The wire bundles were discarded as Crimson rushed out of the supply building, pistol drawn and her optics searching the sky for Seekers or the Copter. "Can you see him, Overload? Slag-it! How are we going to help him from down here?"

"I'm... I'm okay!" he said into the radio, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice. "I'm engaging!"

"Illioutkh! He's Joking!"

[SirNitram]

"Hornet, you got a targetting laser on you? Peg the badguy with it!" Overload rumbled into the radio, simply nodding to Shellshock. "If he does have one," He explains. "We can clip some wings from here. Alert the Russian-bots! Where there's one, there's always more!"

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke jerked his head up, scanning the sky. He opened a comm to Hornet. "Try to get him back over the base so we can shoot him, Hornet."

[General Havoc]

The Decepticon dodged upwards, using an antigrav system of some kind, spun about in mid-air, and fired back, but Hornet was closing at more than six hundred miles per hour, and the hasty shots missed him by several dozen yards. He turned a barrel roll, passing beneath the Decepticon and jinking left and right as Jetfire had taught him as he broke the sound barrier and zoomed away.

With an idea of what he would do next in mind, he took the time to call out something more coherant on the radio. "It's... I think it's a minicon..." he said. "It's a bird or something, even smaller than me. I don't think it can catch me. I'm gonna try and take it down."

He flipped up into a loop, far enough away now that he could bring his heavier ordinance into play, and dove back towards the Decepticon flier as he activated one of his four wing-mounted missiles. He considered firing an aspect-seeking missile, but he wasn't sure if the missile would track a bird, so instead he activated an active radar-guided weapon, and waited as patiently as he could for a lock. This was literally the first time he had ever fired such a weapon at a live Decepticon enemy, and he desperately tried to force himself to remain calm. Fortunately, the enemy was so much slower than he was that its manuvers couldn't throw the lock off much at this range.

It seemed like an hour before he finally heard the loud tone buzing in his auditory sensors, and he flipped on his radio long enough to speak words he had been waiting to say for real since he had first been built.

"This is Hornet," he said, nervous excitement written all over his voice, "Fox 3!"

An instant later a full-sized Air-to-Air transformer missile burst off of Hornet's wing and screamed towards the Decepticon's radar signiature.

[SirNitram]

"....Cassetticon." Overload said simply, looking to Crimson, then Stryke. "There will be more nearby. Those little toys always move in packs." He said simply, already running in the direction of the commotion.

[LadyTevar]

"Thank the Matrix it's not a Seeker..," Crimson said, relieved. She transformed into her faster Alt-mode. "Gridlock, Jazz; I'm heading out 2kilometers from Base, Spiral Search inward for more Cassetticons. Crimson out."

She took off in the direction of the initial contact with a roar... In theory if there was another one it would be out in the same area.