Transformers: Steel Reign

[General Havoc]

Hornet shook his head, rather grateful that the Decepticon wasn't biting his head off. "No," he said. "But... he's not in the building. I looked all over looking for either of you."

"So... what do you do when you fly?" asked Hornet. "Are you a fighter jet like me?"

He was perhaps stretching the definition.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke looked at her. "Your faster than I could ever be, Crim. Besides, I figured it would have been polite to stick with Overload." He said. "I mean, we can't all be as zippy as you." The warbot said to the civbot.

[Cynical Cat]

"Fusion torch interceptor and strike craft," replied Deathstrike. "Fast and easy to spot at anywhere near full power. I wasn't built for subtlety."

[LadyTevar]

Something about the way he said that made her look away. Once again, if she'd have been organic she'd have blushed. "Different Functions, that's all..." she said, covering the moment before she could look back at him.

"When they hit... I'm afraid I'm not going to be much help," she admitted softly, one hand running over the turrents. "This would probably do more good than I will."

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke looked at the turret. "It's only going to do good if they come from the west. You'll be fine, Crim. I'm sure you'll probably do as good as any of us. And if things get ugly and you don't feel safe, just find me and get behind me. I'll keep you safe." He said. "Wouldn't want to scratch your paint now, would we?"

[General Havoc]

Hornet wasn't entirely certain what any of that meant. His experience (such as it was) was with earth aircraft, not fusion spaceships or whatnot. He decided to ask further questions.

"So.... is that a fighter or a bomber?" he asked.

[Cynical Cat]

"Neither," said Deathstrike. "I was built to attack space ships and tough ground targets. I'm not maneuverable like a fighter and I don't have the big payload of a bomber." He paused for a moment and dumbed his description down even further. "I'm not that good against Seekers, but I'm good against Astrotrain and combiners."

[LadyTevar]

It was a nice image, she had to admit. She already knew he'd keep his word. The 'scratch paint' quip made her smile at him. "I just got this one waxed, so a scratch would be terrible," she agreed, trying to extend the joke. It didn't quite hide the nerves, though.

"You'd think I've never fought before...." she sighed, checking the turrent over one last time. "Maybe I've been away from the fighting too long." Fast-hitting raids had been Elita-1's style; hit the target, then fade away. Crimson knew her weapon wasn't powerful, but a laser shot from hiding was a very large distraction. She wouldn't call herself a sniper, but she could place her shots well.

[General Havoc]

Hornet could at least follow that much. "Oh..." he said. "Well um... I'm a fighter jet!" That was REALLY stretching the definition, but there wasn't another one to use. "An interceptor! And I do recon too... or whatever else they want me to do..."

"I shot Buzzsaw down just a little while ago!" he chirped, not realizing that would not likely impress a Decepticon like this one.

[Cynical Cat]

"Buzzsaw is a good flier," said Deathstrike. "Not very powerful, but swift and maneuverable. You did well to beat him. Did you kill him?"

[General Havoc]

Hornet's tongue (metaphorical tongue) caught at that statement, and a pang of regret shot through him. He closed his optics and forced it down. "I don't... I don't know..." said Hornet, without opening his optics back up. "Wheeljack says the missile wasn't strong enough to kill him... I hope I didn't kill him."

He shook his head and slowly opened his optics again, wondering what the Decepticon's reaction would be.

[Cynical Cat]

"Too bad," said Deathstrike. "Now Buzzsaw will have the opportunity to kill more Autobots."

[General Havoc]

Hornet's words died as Deathstrike replied with a simple statement he had not considered. He mouthed a few words, and then seemed to deflate completely. He was silent for a long time, but when he raised his head again, he was, for the first time, looking the Decepticon in the optics.

"... just like you've got?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Yes," said Deathstrike, "except I will be killing Decepticons, not Autobots." His voice was calm and level. "Keeping an optic on me would be wise. I assume I'll be monitored. That is right and proper. Prime is taking a risk by allowing me to join. If I was going to betray him, the logical move for me to do would be to take out someone valuable, but not to heavily armed. Such as shooting Crimson in the back at an opportune moment. Then I would burn for the Decepticon lines, probably killing you in the process, and give them all the defence data I have acquired before joining them in the attack.

"I won't be doing that," said Deathstrike, "but Prime is running the risk that I will do that."

[General Havoc]

"That's not what I meant," said Hornet, looking rather resolute given what Deathstrike had said. "I meant that Prime could have killed you, but he didn't, even though it meant you got a chance to kill more Autobots... to kill me. "So how do you know that not killing Buzzsaw means that he's gonna kill more Autobots, when not killing you doesn't mean that. If you wanted to kill us, you'd have helped whatever that Decepticon who was pretending to be Swiftshot was."

He crossed his wings and stared up at Deathstrike. "I'm not gonna kill Decepticons just because you're afraid of what might happen if I don't." he said. "If Buzzsaw comes back to try and hurt us, I'll shoot him down again if I have to, but I won't just kill him because it's easier to."

[Cynical Cat]

"Autobots," Deathstrike sneered. His glowered at Hornet in contempt. "How do you think you are going to win this war without killing? Prime spared me because he needs good soldiers, ones that can and will kill Decepticons. Maybe he also did so out of a sense of mercy, but he had solid military reasons for doing so. I will bring death and destruction to the Decepticons and prove myself in the only way that matters: the total commitment of battle. Go find Jetfire, little Autobot, and spew your weakness at him. I refuse to indulge it."

[General Havoc]

Hornet wilted under the barrage of vitriol from the Decepticon flier. His first instinct was to leave. No scratch that. His first instinct was to turn and flee as fast as he could. He did not leave or run however. Shellshock had gotten angry with him for this very reason. He had stood up to Shellshock then, and it had worked out. He had a fair impression that the same would not apply to Deathstrike, but for the sake of the fact that he was speaking of Optimus Prime.... he felt before he left that he should at least say something.

"Optimus... didn't let you join us just because you could fight," said Hornet quietly and softly, as if unsure if he was going to survive the next few minutes. "He let you go because you asked him to. He'd have done the same if it was Buzzsaw."

So sure of this was Hornet that he refused utterly to consider it could be any other way. Optimus was perfection made manifest. His motives had to be perfect as well.

"And if... if all you want to do is kill Decepticons..." he said, tears forming in his optics, "then you just don't understand us at all. You could kill every Decepticon in the whole world and you'd still never be an Autobot. It's not just about which side you shoot at."

[Cynical Cat]

"What makes you think I want to be like you?" growled the looming Decepticon. "I am Deathstrike and I am a warrior. I made my first kill one hundred and seven megacycles after I was activated. I have fought Ultra Magnus gun to gun and hand to hand and still I stand. The great Shockwave consulted me in forming Decepticon strategy and Decepticon warriors looked to me to lead assaults. I delivered victories to Mighty Megatron. Even the triple changers respected my prowess.

"Prime accepted me for his own reasons, but he knows I can fight and win. And he knows he will need every warrior he can get if he has any chance of defeating Megatron. I don't care what Prime and the Autobots stand for. I respect Prime as a leader and a warrior. I can serve under him with honour. I have been a survivor and that is not living. I am Deathstrike the warrior again and I will serve Prime as long as their is strength in my chassis.

"As for the greatness of the Autobot cause, it will not save you or anyone else. I have left a long trail of Autobot hulks on Cybertron and you had best pray to your precious Primus that I do the same to Decepticons here. Aubot nobility is no protection from Megatron's fusion cannon and if the Decepticons are not defeated and this war is not one, you and everyone you care about will just be slag. What will your precious Autobot morals be worth when Decepticon warriors are kicking the bodies of your friends into the slag pits? They won't save anyone. I can."

[General Havoc]

Hornet's tears broke forth and rolled down his face, and he never seemed as small or as frail as he did at this moment. What little courage Hornet might or might not have posessed was not evident now, his manner hesitant, reticent, even fitfully scared before the looming Decepticon. An older or wiser Autobot might have debated Deathstrike's position, might have returned his verbal fire with anger and outrage, upbraided him as a mercenary, a coward, or a perfect example of the degeneracy of Decepticons, but Hornet could not, Hornet would not do such a thing. It was not in Hornet's nature to fight like this.

... but nor was it in his nature to accept what Deathstrike was saying.

He backed away slowly from the raging Decepticon, his fists clenched, his optics dripping tears onto the floor. He had no conception of what he was saying, practically, just a loud angry rush of words that jumbled into his speaker.

"You're a LIAR!" he shouted at the Decepticon, like a child screaming at a raging elephant for all the good it would do. "You're not a warrior, you're just a KILLER! You just want to kill and hurt people because you think it makes you strong or important!" Tears ran down his face and body and dripped onto the ground as he shouted. "You don't want to save anyone and you don't want to help anyone! You just want to kill!"

He hesitated just a second, and then suddenly from deep within his spark he felt a wave of revulsion and anger that boiled up inside him and prompted him to scream, scream at the Decepticon as loud as he could, so loud that his speaker nearly overloaded and he practically jumped off the floor with the force of his own words. "Well I WON'T BE LIKE YOU!" he screamed, "EVER!!!"

And with that, Hornet broke down and collapsed into a heap on the floor, crying uncontrollably.

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike picked up the little Autobot with one hand and lifted him up until their faces were only a few centimeters apart. "I am a warrior. I am a killer. All my friends are dead. Dead because they followed me in abandoning the war, dead because we did not outrun it. Dead because our enemies killed them all and I could not save them. Dead because we had grown soft and used to peace."

He dropped the little Autobot. "I will live in glory again, with energon surging through my limbs and fusion fire in my thrusters, until I die. One lives more in a single astrosecond of battle than a hundred megacycles of peace. If there is more for me, I will find it in time. But I will not be less than I can be. Not again." He walked away.

[General Havoc]

Hornet's optics nearly popped as Deathstrike picked him up. He squirmed and struggled as best he could, certain that he was about to be torn in half or worse. Deathstrike however refrained from tearing him to bits, instead speaking directly into his face of the deaths of his friends over the course of the war.

But as Deathstrike dropped him back to the ground, Hornet, to whom the shock had actually managed to rouse him more than intimidate him further, merely spoke softly a single fact.

"Your friends all died because they tried to enslave everyone else, and kill everyone who wouldn't obey them," said Hornet. "But you don't care about that. You just care that you get to hurt people some more."

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike turned back to Hornet, rage filling his face. "My friends died because they had faith that I would lead them well. That I would do a better job than Megatron. That it was worth betraying Megatron to follow me. They died because they were wrong. For as long as I live I will carry the weight of that failure with me.

"And you, who don't even know their names or the planet on which they died, will not speak of them with disrespect. You know nothing of them and heap scorn upon them. What gives you the right, little Autobot, to judge those who you know nothing about? To call them criminals when you don't know their deeds? Is that the Autobot way? Ignorant, self righteous superiority?"

He shook his head. "Prime would not say such a thing." He began walking away. "Tell Jetfire I'll be with Breakout if he has orders for me."

[Dark Silver]

Astrotrain hovered through the air, holding at a flight ceiling of 45,000 feet. Just as Megatron had ordered him.

"We're here Megatron," Astrotrain's resonate voice echoed through his hull.

"Good work Astrotrain. Open the side hatch."

Astrotrain did as he was told, the side hatch sliding open, as Blackout stepped up. A moment later, he was floating in air, next to the massive Decepticon shuttlecraft, transforming into his massive helicopter form. The Decepticons disgorged from Astrotrain, and loaded into Blackout, as the passenger section remained open, as if in wait.

"Chimera, you shall go with Dirge and Ramjet, begin the attack. I want the head of the traitor Deathstrike. Optimus Prime is mines.."

Chimera placed his fist across his chest, crossing his fuelpump, "Of course mighty Megatron. It shall be done."

Chimera leapt from the passenger compartment, followed closely by Ramjet and Dirge. The two Seekers and the Abomination transformed midjump, and streaked through the air, down towards the Autobot base, only a few thousand feet below....


------- o ------

The Autobots had been working on the base defense grid for the past two hours, with the extra help from Prime's group, the defense grid was much further along than possible.

Swoop, along with Jetfire, Hornet and Deathstrike had been assigned to keep watch in the air, as a early warning system.

Swoop, unfortunatly, had only time to scream a primary scream of pain as the opening volley of laserfire from Dirge tore into his armor, and clipped the antigrav unit in his wings.

"RAAWWWKKK Swoop attacked! Decepticons!" he managed to shout through the comms, before crashing into the ground below.

[Cynical Cat]

The attack came from above, as Deathstrike had expected. The ground pounder Autobots didn't really understand air warfare and had kept him close instead of letting him soar. Too late to change it now, but battle had been joined.

His engines roared to full power, or as close to full power as he could reach in his current state. He pointed his nose almost directly up and rushed to meet the descending Decepticons, his nose cannon flashing rapidly as it sent out lethal beams of x-rays. A plasma trail illuminated his path into the sky.

He would pass through their formation in a few moments and then continue climbing, using raw power to seize the heights and then drop down on the Decepticons below as he had once done to the Autobots. This was the best moment of the last million years.

[frigidmagi]

I wait. The Con attack is sudden and violent taking out Swoop. I consider going out to retrieve his wounded body but decide against it. My chances of success are only 15%. Also Swoop is in real danger at the moment, making the risk not worth taking. My scanners inform me that Deathstrike is boosting higher, likely trying to get above the Con strike force. I know very little of atmospheric air combat, but it seems to me a good tactic. I hope Jetfire and Hornet follow his example.

I am transformed in my alt mode, it is easier to shelter from overhead attack. I have backed into a reinforced dug out position created by Gridlock and Shellshock. I estimate it will offer moderate protection against any but the most powerful con attacks. Is Megatron here? Lack of data no point in conjecture.

Astrotrain is here however and where one of the first two Con triplechangers is the other is not far behind. My circuits warm at the idea of catching Blitzwing unprepared. I owe him for alot. The human regiment that ended up pulling me out lost 70% of it's personale, I lost both legs and an arm... I had liked that arm, but the lost of the men is worse. Men I knew, men I liked, worthy but tragically underequipped fighters. Worse they were lost to a never be damned enough drone. Drones have no place in combat, combat is a place for warriors. I thought Blitzwing would have understood that. I misjudged him. I have fought him for over a million earth years and I misjudged him. I dial back the rage, Prime taught me rage can cloud judgement and he was right.

I cannot effectivly engage air targets at their height and speed. I remain hidden and hold fire. Con's are naturally arrogant and filled with a need to kill close up, they will land. They always land. At that point I will engage the enemy with a full volley and hunt down Blitizwing.

I will erase the folly of my misjudgement. I will avenge the regiment.