Transformers: Steel Reign

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke looked at the shrinking form of Crimson heading off into the distance. "Slag it, Crim." He muttered.

[Charon]

Shellshock put down a smaller turret he had been carrying and looked over at Overload. "When is Optimus supposed to be here again? You can bet if there are Casseticon's about, they'll know about it and a Decepticon attack is on it's way."

Shellshock then turned to Gridlock. "Might want to keep some kind of patrol out there to keep the casseticon's away while we finish building, that way we'll at least be able to give them some kind of surprise."

[SirNitram]

"Hours? Days? They don't tell me these things." Overload shook his head. "We better get ready. I hope the combining gear hasn't rusted to nothing. Because you know, a target this poorly defended, with Orion coming? They'll hit hard and fast."

[Cynical Cat]

"This does nothing to authenticate Swiftshot's story," said Deathstrike. "This only confirms that an Autobot named Swiftshot exists. The evidence for him being a Decepticon is damning and now there is proof Soundwave's hunters are on sight. We are in Megatron's sights. I can be of little use to you unless you allow me to rearm."

[Charon]

Shellshock almost grinned, his red optics shining for a moment. "War model tactics 101 dear friend. Of course, the beautiful thing about it is that Megatron and his lackeys are such fools that they either never bother to plan beyond the first ten minutes of any fight. If we can hold them off for that long without loosing any ground we'll be in the clear."

Shellshock didn't add in that those ten minutes would be the hardest fought ten minutes of their life. But those that had already fought Decepticons and survived knew that.

[Dark Silver]

Hornet's missle flew straight and true - right towards Buzzsaw.

The golden colored condor'bot watched the missle come towards him, closing distance faster than he could manuver, calculated optimum firing.....

and twin bolts of ruby lasers fired just short meters from being impacted.

The explosion was truly terrific, exploding in a round ball of flame and smoke. Radar in the area was scrambled for a few precious seconds while the chaff and wreckage fell from the sky.

Hornet's radar detected a direct hit, and the little bot's targetting computers told him the target was no more.

He'd defeated a Decepticon.....


Amoungst the wreckage that fell out of the sky, falling to the ground, was a single small cassette tape, the golden label shimmering for a second in the sunlight.....

as it neared the ground, Buzzsaw transformed, stayed below radar, and flew as fast as he could, away from the Autobot base.

[Dark Silver]

Gridlock looked up at Crimson's call, frowned, and then cheered for Hornet as the fireball filled the sky. His optics detected no sign of the condor, which he knew had to be Laserbeak or Buzzsaw...and considering the birdbot wasn't fleeing..he figured it was Buzzsaw.

"Is one less spy for Soundwave...I hope it hurt his audio sensors.."

Gridlock looked around, and muttered, going back over the comms, "Get back to work! If they are reporting, then Decepticons coming soon. Must have these defenses ready."


With that, the two russians were back hard at work, working faster than before, if that was possible.


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

Jazz and Springer shook their heads, as the senior officer, Jazz had rank at this point.

"Go get your guns 'Strike, but it's probationary until Prime arrives. Let's just hope the Decepticons don't pull any shinanagins until he gets here..."

[Charon]

Shellshock nodded, taking his work far more seriously as he moved through the facility, apologizing to numerous humans that he almost stepped on quite a few times as he went.

[LadyTevar]

Even Crimson was overjoyed. "YES! Good shot, Hornet!" she exclaimed, her holorider waving skyward at the little jet before pouring on more speed. She'd just reached the point to turn and start her inward circuit of the base, and marked the 'kill' on her internal map.

It would be foolish not to doublecheck.

[General Havoc]

The missile trailed off towards the Decepticon, as Hornet whispered to himself prayers that it would fly true. "C'mon..." he whispered, "c'mon, c'mon get him!"

The missile blossomed into a massive fireball, and the Decepticon vanished from Radar in a hail of debris.

Hornet caught his breath (figuratively) and then he let out a cheer that could have woken the dead. "I GOT HIM!!!" he cried into the radio. "I GOT HIM!!!!" Euphoria washed over him and he burst up into the air with his afterburners, spinning and twisting in a victory loop. He couldn't believe it! He had actually done it! He had shot down a Decepticon! So what if it was just a minicon or whatever, he had done it all by himself! He felt like he could fly... well he COULD fly but that wasn't the point! He had done it!

Looping over and descending towards the place that Buzzsaw would have had to have landed after Hornet blew him out of the air, Hornet excitedly keyed his radio again. "I'm gonna go get him and bring him back to base!" he said, it never even occuring to him that a missile that size would likely have smeared Buzzsaw all over the nearest county.

Hornet still hadn't quite realized that this was war, and that his enemy was not merely disabled and ready for capture, but dead.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke had kept his attention on the aerial fighting and had forgot to keep tabs on Swiftshot. He turned and looked at the 'Bot. Well, he was still here.

[General Havoc]

Hornet landed on the spot where Buzzsaw had to have fallen, feeling like a million bucks, as the saying went. He searched greedily for his fallen enemy, intending to drag him back to base as a captive by hand if he had to.

A few bits of debris, some metal fragments, that was all Hornet could find. Hornet couldn't see where Buzzsaw could have gotten to though. The explosion was so big that he couldn't have...

...

The shock hit him like a cannonball.

Buzzsaw wasn't here... because Buzzsaw was dead.

A wave of what a human would have called nausea washed through Hornet, and he fell to his knees suddenly as he realized just what his missile had done to the little Decepticon. He doubled over, landing on his hands and knees, feeling like his circuits wanted to expell themselves from his frame. Tears formed in his optics as he recalled in crystal clarity the blossoming fireball that had consumed the Decepticon. The fact that it had tried to kill him was immaterial. Hornet had never actually killed something before, let alone another Transformer, let alone the only 'Con in the universe that was as small as he was.

He felt sick, guilty, miserable, and he cried amidst what must have been the last remains of the Decepticon he had blotted out of the air. All mitigating factors were forgotten as he cried, feeling lower than dirt, feeling like a murderer...

... feeling like a Decepticon.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson was already on her second circuit of the base, starting to spiral inward with all her sensors hot. They painted Hornet as he landed, and she kept one eye on him as he seemed to be searching the area Buzzsaw went down in.

Then Hornet collapsed. "Overload? Shellshock? Something's wrong with Hornet, he just collapsed. Can one of you check on him?"

[SirNitram]

"I'm going." Overload was slow in his robot form, but faster than trying to roll on his wheels over this ground. When he finally found Hornet, eyebrows raised. "...Hey, little guy. You okay? It doesn't look like you sent him down for good.." Overload was a combat veteran. There had to be parts. There weren't any, so Buzzsaw had escaped. It was sensible. "Buck up. You taught him not to be so aggressive. We'll find him."

[General Havoc]

Hornet sniffed (a pure sound effect, but effective nonetheless). "But..." he stammered through his tears, "but... if I... if I had... gotten hit with.... with a missile like that.... there wouldn't... there wouldn't be any... anything left either...."

He sat down on the ground and lowered his head as he splattered the ground around him with wiper fluid.

"I... I killed... him...."

[Agent Fisher]

The green military bot turned and looked out at the tundra. He opened a comm channel to Crim when he saw her. "Crim, please, don't run off like that. What if there had been other 'Cons out there, ready to ambush. I may have been stuck keeping an eye on Swiftshot, but I'm still supposed to be in charge of your safety." He knew that he was probably overreacting to the smaller 'Bot going out alone, but Crim was the first 'Bot he had actually opened up to, and he didn't want to lose another friend.

[SirNitram]

"Nah. Transmetal takes alot to vaporize, Hornet. There'd be bits scattered for miles." Overload said, then frowned as the source of the crying became clear. The massive Autobot knelt down, one huge hand trying to pat the little flyer on the back without unsteadying him.

"Hornet. Shhh." He murmured. "Relax. You didn't." He said quietly; he knew how damn hard Soundwave's goons were to kill. "...But this isn't like training. It's what we have to do. It sucks, I know that. And if you can't do it.. We'll get you back to Wheeljack and I'll see if I can convince him to send you to grow up somewhere peaceful, like Nebulos."

[LadyTevar]

The green military bot turned and looked out at the tundra. He opened a comm channel to Crim when he saw her. "Crim, please, don't run off like that. What if there had been other 'Cons out there, ready to ambush. I may have been stuck keeping an eye on Swiftshot, but I'm still supposed to be in charge of your safety." He knew that he was probably overreacting to the smaller 'Bot going out alone, but Crim was the first 'Bot he had actually opened up to, and he didn't want to lose another friend.

"I'm pretty sure it was just the birdie, Stryke," Crimson sent back privately as she started the next loop around the base. "If it was me scouting I'd have rabbited, using the attack on Hornet as a distraction. But if I didn't make sure and we got attacked, it'd be my fault."

She paused in this loop, pulling up next to Hornet and Overload. Her sensors could pick up the metal debris and told her the whole story. "So... you singed his tailfeathers, but he got away?" she asked softly.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke looked over towards where Crim, Overload and Hornet were at. He switched his comm over to Hornet, so the others wouldn't hear. "You did good kid. Dodged when you needed to and knew how to take out that 'Con, don't sweat it if the 'Cons gone, you did your job."

[General Havoc]

"You... you think he's.... he's not dead?" asked Hornet, tears still rolling down his face, as if he could only barely dare to hope it. Not that he wasn't glad that he had stopped the con from killing him or hurting his friends... but... well this was somewhat complicated.

Overload suggested Wheeljack send him to someplace more peaceful. "N... no!" he said quickly. "No I... I'll be... I can do it..." He tried to force his tears away and failed. "I just... never.... I never thought.... I'd... I'd actually... be able to kill..."

Crimson showed up, and Stryke chimed in over the radio, and Hornet cursed himself for crying uncontrollably, but he simply couldn't stop.

"I... I'm sorry..." he said weakly between sobs.

[SirNitram]

"Kid... Don't try and force yourself if you're not ready." Overload said quietly. "You can't take that step back, once you have taken a life. Not if you try for whole mileenia." The train had picked up human words, and this was a time he used one without thinking. "Do it when you know you're ready to face up to what it means. In the meantime.. Let's find the little cassette. His friends will be around."

[General Havoc]

Overload's words were so serious that Hornet nearly fell back into crying again. As it was, tears kept streaming down his face silently and he shook as he tried to supress his sobs. "I don't..." he said in a voice so quiet it was barely comprehensable. "I don't want to kill anyone..."

[SirNitram]

This was not where Overload wanted to have this conversation. A Cassetticon had been in the area, so there were more. But Hornet needed at least some help, even if he didn't seem to be helping. "Then fly back to base, and warn everyone there that there's Cassetticons around." He said gently. "Get the humans somewhere safe if you can. Killing... Isn't something anyone should want to do."

The train slowly straightened up, gripping one of the sets of wheels and bars that he rolled on in his alt-mode. He pulled it free and it snapped into a straight, blade-like setup. "But sometimes, it has to be done. Best done by those of us already lost to the Matrix for our misdeeds."

[LadyTevar]

"No one does, Hornet," she said, her holoRider reaching out to touch the little Bot's face. "Overload is right ... It's never easy to kill." Her voice was soft, the holoRider's face hidden by the helmet. "When in the midst of the fight it's you or them ... but you always ask yourself later if there could have been another way."

She looked up at Overload. "Maybe that's another way we're different from the Decepticons." She looked back at Hornet. "There is just one way to do it, Hornet... just like you did up there. Line up the target and take them down fast."

[General Havoc]

Hornet sniffed and blinked his tears back as Crimson's holographic rider touched his face (not that he could feel it). He nodded slowly. "I... I know..." he said. "I'm... sorry..." He looked up at Overload. "I'll... I'll help... look for the Decepti... Decepticon..."

He felt terrible for making such a scene, and yet he felt even worse at the prospect of what he had just done. He got the sense the others were trying to cheer him up by saying that the con was still alive... but Hornet didn't believe it. He knew that if it had been him struck by the missile... he would have left barely a trace.

"I'm sorry..." he said, wiping the tears out of his optics, though they were replaced by more. And then he shifted into airplane form and took off, all signs of exuberance or happiness at his first "kill" burnt right out of him. Even his wings seemed to sag as he flew up to five hundred feet and slowly began turning around, looking for any sign of the cons.