Transformers: Steel Reign

[LadyTevar]

"Then let's get moving," Crimson said, dragging Stryke out the door and to IronHide's location.

[B4UTRUST]

About two weeks prior...


"Cloudraker, what's our status? How far out are we?"
"We're still about a joor out. The same amount of time it whas when you asked me a breem ago! And it'll still be about the same amount of time it is when you ask me a breem from now, Slipstream!"
"Primus, it feels like we've been out here a dekavorn already!"
"Just relax, we'll get there soon enough."

Slipstream just glared at the back of the head of the clonebot. Cloudraker's twin, Fastlane was acting about as impatient to get there as Slipstream was. It seemed only Devcon was unanxious to be free of the shuttle.

A little while later the shuttle began its approach into Earth's atmosphere.
"Devcon, we've got a fast mover inbound on our position. It's not responding to hail or IFF."
"Target it and prepare for evassive manuvers."
"It's on approach vector, still with us."

The shuttle rocked as the explosions ripped across the underbelly.
"They're coming around for a second pass!"
"Move it!"
"I can't, if we go any faster we'll burn up!"
"Pits... just don't let them get too clean a shot or we're all gonna look like burnt out toasterbots."

The shuttle rocked again.
"Controls are unresponsive! We're losing altitude fast!"
"Prepare to abandon ship."
"We can't do that, the supplies!"
"Are worthless compared to our lives. Lets get out of here. Cloudraker, grab Fastlane and we'll take him down together. Slipstream, see you on the ground."

The shuttle's engines flamed out as it lost power, taking a steep nose dive. The side hatch opened up with a hiss of escaping atmosphere as the panels blew out when the explosive bolts detonated.Three forms flew out of the hatch as the pair of decepticons came around for another pass. They let loose with a withering barrage of fire.

The two flying autobots held the third between them as they descended towards the ground, trying their best to manuver out of the way of the fire. They were unsuccessful as Devcon was hit with a blast on his back. His form went limp as he let go of Fastlane and plummeted to the ground. The sudden extra weight jerked Cloudraker's arm as he lost his grip as well. Fastlane screamed as he fell, unable to stop or slow his descent having no method of flying. Cloudraker took off trying to catch his brother but was picked out of the sky by another withering barrage of laser fire from the Decepticon forces.

Slipstream watched this through the windows of the shuttle from his position in one of the pilot chairs. His hands pulled in vain against the controls, trying to get them to respond.
"Come on, come on..."

The Decepticons, having finished with his comrades turned to assault the shuttle once more. Another pass only drove another nail in the flying coffin that was once an interplanetary transport. Emergency power kicked on, giving Slipstream marginal control. Pulling back hard on the stick he jammed the throttle wide open in a desperate manuver to escape the Decepticons and try to land the falling brick. Engine response was minimal but gave him enough boost to jerk his body around. Auxilliary readouts reported him near the Ark.

The shuttle was out of control as flight systems went on and offline rapidly at random, giving him only limited to no control of his rapid descent. He pulled back on the stick till he thought he would rend it from the console and then pulled some more. The nose began to rise marginally, setting him at a steep angle instead of the straight down nose dive he had been in. The shuttle began to level out more until he thought he had a chance. The engines gave one last shuddery jerk of acceleration and propelled the shuttle forward.

Slipstream threw his arms up over his face and braced for impact as the shuttle slammed into the ground. The nose crumpled inward and the force threw Slipstream against the back wall of the flightdeck along with most of the forward electronics. When the shuttle finally came to a stop it bore no resemblance to the shape it had started out as. Slipstream's body was half-buried under a mound of debris.

It was several joors before an Autobot rescue unit could get him out. When he awoke he was in the repair bay of the Ark.

"Ah, I see you're online. How do you feel?"
His optics were still blurry, not quite focusing properly.
"Like Bruticus just gave my chassis an overhaul with his foot..."
"Given the crash you were in, that's not far from the truth... You were pretty smashed up. We've taken care of the worst of the damage but you'll be in a CR chamber for about a week fixing the rest."
"Ugh...thanks. I think..."
He went offline again.

----------
Yesterday

The CR chamber hissed open as Slipstream stepped out. He rubbed his neck absently as his optics focused and he looked around. He was in the maintenance bay of the Ark.
"Welcome back to the land of the living-bots."
He looked around and saw Ratchet tinkering with one of the chambers, doing some routine maintenance on it.
"Thanks. What about Devcon and the others?"

Ratchet simply looked down and shook his head.
"I'm sorry. They didn't make it. We still haven't found Fastlane's body. Primus only knows where it is at this point. But we're still looking."
"I see. Pits..."
"Yeah, you're lucky to still be functioning at all given your state when you were drug in here. How you managed to survive that crash is a small miracle in itself."
"I'll take what I can get. Am I alright then?"
"Good as new. You might want to report to Ironhide in a bit if you think you can manage it."
"Yeah, I'm sure he'll want a full report."
"He always does..."

Slipstream wandered out of the maintenance facility and made his way to finding Ironhide to debrief. The debrief was short and to the point. Ironhide, for once, was feeling generous and didn't demand too much of Slipstream. Once he had given his report he was assigned temporary quarters and sent out to familerize himself with the base.

------------
Present Day

"So this is called 'Techno'?"
"Yeup! It's a type of music here on Earth."
"I like it. Where can I obtain some of this 'Techno'?"
"Well some stores carry it, but it costs money and is sometimes hard to find. Or you could just do what we do..."
"What's that?"
"We download it from online! It's free that way."
"Really? That sounds great! Can we go download some of it then?"
"Sure, I'll show you how. Just watch the terminal and remember what I do..."

A breem or two later Slipstream was happily wandering around the Ark with his head full of this 'Techno' music the humans had shown him. He liked it. He liked it a lot. It spoke to him. Though he still wasn't quite sure why anyone would pay for it in a store if they could just go online and download it for free. But hey, he was the stranger here. What did he really know of Earth customs?

[Dark Silver]

As the Autobots group filed into the command deck, where Ironhide stood infront of TELETRAN-1 - the Autobot Supercomputer which was the holy grail of Transformer technology on the planet as well as the braincenter of the Autobot military complex. He say them in the reflection of the massive screen, even as he looked over the proposal for the next set of oeprations he'd be overseeing. With Optimus not at the Ark, and Ultra Magnus off evaluating the newly proposed site for Autobot City....it left him square in charge of Autobot Headquarters.

He let them all stand till for a few minutes, almost ignoring them as he watched the screen roll by. He pressed a button, and the screen blinked off, and he turned to them.

"What in the name of the Pits is you mechs thinking?! Comeone wanna tell me why I shouldn't kick you all in your candy-coated drivetrains and boot you into the Mt Saint Helen?"

It was obvious Ironhide wasn't happy...

[Cynical Cat]

"If Gridlock is innocent I am not a killer," Deathstrike replied to Shellshock. "Ironhide may think what he may. It does not change the facts. Those two 'bots are a grave danger to every mechanism and organic allied or part of the Autobot cause and need to be dealt with."

They walked into Ironhide's presence and the much vaunted TELETRAN-1. Deathstrike was unimpressed. Ironhide's tirade didn't much move him either. "I was thinking of saving the lives of my fellow Autobots," said Deathstrike.

[SirNitram]

"A nice change from 'bots half my age trying to lecture me, I'll admit." Overload's tone was as dry as a desert as he heard Ironhide's threat. It didn't seem to move him. "As for why, well, you woke me up from over a century of downtime and went to the effort to get Shellshock out of that tunnel. That strikes me as an act that demonstrates how bad the war is going. Now, before you seek to yell threats, have you actually computed the probabilities of what could have happened up there? Or are we going with the old 'Megatron could never, ever duplicate his Robo-Smasher' nonsense?"

[LadyTevar]

Crimson stayed quiet, not quite hiding in Stryke's shadow as IronHide let loose with one of his infamous lectures, and OverLoad calmly gave him backtalk.

[Cynical Cat]

"Programming is one of Megatron's skills that is easy to overlook," said Deathstrike interjected. "The Robosmasher was constructed by others, but its reprogramming techniques were Megatron's creation."

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke stood at attention, receiving the tongue lashing. He was tempted to mention that Crimson and himself had been the ones to pass the word. But he knew that would just cause more trouble.

[Dark Silver]

"Omega destroyed the last Smasher Megatrahon made. He hasn't made another, wha makes you think he suddenly had another one? Ya ain't got no proof. None of ya'll. Ya'll just coming in making wild claims without no proof. "

Ironhide stalked over towards Overload, optics staring up at the big bot, "I known you since the old days 'Load. Why you doing this? We got no proof, we got our tailpipes kicked good back there, I'm not afraid to admit it. When was Gridlock suppossed to be turned traitor on us?"

Ironhide then walked to Deathstrike, "And why am I gonna take the word of a turncoat Decepticon that one of the 'mech's I've served with for years is suddenly a traitor? The only proof you got to show me is the fact you wanna shoot Gridlock and rip through his memory cores."

[SirNitram]

"So you haven't run the numbers. You've not checked times. You've not considered anything but that Gridlock's a buddy." Overload scowled. "I think he's got another one because the other option is that someone did it willingly. The explosives weren't in the Primus-damned rig. Either they weren't put there, or someone removed 'em. You're smarter than this, Ironhide. We got beat, but the charges should have blown the entire extraction rig to bits."

[Cynical Cat]

"Of course I want to rip out his memory cores," said Deathstrike, barely leaving the "fool" unspoken. "It would provide hard evidence. Do you believe Megatron incapable of constructing another Robosmasher, especially now that he has the services of the Constructicons to call upon? Think.

"Why did the base defences suddenly shut down? Why did Black Ice think his identity wouldn't be seriously questioned or checked? Who escorted him to the CR chambers, which failed to hold him? Why did the Decepticons blow the maintenance bay up after he had been freed? Why did the explosives he planted fail to go off?

"The Decepticons have superior number and a fortified foothold in our territory. You cannot allow either of them to run loose to do more damage. The only responsible answer is to restrain them and pull their memory banks."

[LadyTevar]

She had to speak up... even if it meant getting the full force of IronHide's intimidating focus upon herself.

"Gridlock prevented me from checking on the oilrigs," Crimson announced. "Within a breem of leaving the C&C, he was intercepting me and prevented me from checking on the OilRig to make sure it was set to go." She gave the WarBots a wary glance before looking back at IronHide. "It had been bothering me since I got out of repairs. Gridlock couldn't have set the rig to blow in only a breem, yet he did his best to assure me it had already been done, and then personally escorted me over to the Western Defenses ... the far side of the base from the Rig."

She looked down, guiltily. "I never got a chance to go double check the rig. I was kept busy on the Western Defenses from that point on."

Her head came up again, her optics glancing at the WarBots standing over her. "Whether that makes him incompetent or not is one thing. I can't make the leap of logic to him being a traitor."

[Dark Silver]

"The last time Megs had that thing built was to reinforce his numbers, back before his army was any strength. But...your right. The extraction rig didn't blow...I don't know why though. We can't just go about pulling memory cores, we don't do that, it's not the Autobot way. Damage to the memory cores, even on accident, could wipe out Gridlock's personality circuits. That'd be like killing him."

Ironhide seemed twisted for a moment, before looking at the group, "Get back to your duties, or whatever you were doin. I'm gonna call Repugnus and Nightbeat to get to the bottom this. Pahrime will be back tomorrow, we got things in the works till then. Dismissed."

Ironhide went back to TELETRAN, pushing a button, and speaking low, ordering the detention of Gridlock for inquiry.

It sounded like the hardest thing Ironhide did in ages.

[SirNitram]

"So don't pull his memory. Level 4 programming diagnostic; I do one every human month, what with all the age in my circuits." Overload suggested quietly, and left Ironhide to his unpleasant duties. He strode out, waiting for the others.

"I wish I hadn't had to do that." He sighed softly. "But you war-bots need to stick it into neutral. This is serious stuff, and no one takes you serious if your first reaction is to deactivate and yank."

[Cynical Cat]

"Shockwave is here," said Deathstrike. "Time is luxury you no longer have."

[Charon]

Shellshock had been about to speak, but it looked as though Overload and Deathstrike had taken care of it for them.

"That went better than I thought it would." Muttered the old bot under his breath.

When Overload spoke up Shellshock turned to him. "I'd never suggested we do that, that was all Deathstrike. And as for you, cool your jets. Much as I may agree with you there's not a damn thing we can do yet. Even in top shape our squad alone is nowhere near enough of what would be needed to take out Fort Maximal, pits, best we can hope for now is that Megs used as much of his resources in taking and rebuilding the base as we're going to need to use to retake or destroy it."

[Cynical Cat]

"An enemy with superior numbers and resource base has had two months to fortify a fortress that was made easier to take by sabotage," said Deathstrike. "Your hope is irrelevant. Planning and action are essential and soon."

[SirNitram]

"Planning we have. The problem is we have no intel." Overload replied simply, sighing. "I'd suspect at least an Omega-S in the area. That means we try and fight normally, we're toast. We could try bombardment."

[Cynical Cat]

"Reduction of Decepticon air power and the fortifications is necessary for the attack to proceed without heavy casualties," said Deathstrike. "Forces them to either endure bombardment, or leave the fortifications to fight us without being able to hammer us with air power. Combiners and Guardian robots are powerful, but they can and were defeated. I was built for that. Megatron's early victories left shattered Guardians scattered all over Cybertron. What we can't do is surrender the war to Shockwave's time table."

[SirNitram]

"We're lucky he thinks on such long periods though; I remind you he kept Cybertron in virtual stasis after the Ark left." Overload commented dryly. "With a few more flying lessons I can get our ground-pounders there fast. I'm hoping for less combiners; Menasaur and Predaking at once do bad things to my armour belt." A groan of remembered pain. "Wish we knew who was there. Psych-warfare works wonders on most of the psychos we have on this world."

[Cynical Cat]

"We need recon," said Deathstrike. "We need to know where the defences are so we can pound them easily from a distance. We need to know what air power they have so we can counter it. Free me up from fighting an ariel engagement and I can hammer the big ones from above."

[General Havoc]

Hornet stood quiet and forgotten in the corner as Ironhide, Overload, Deathstrike, and the others yelled and stormed over what to do and what was to be done. He had difficulty following the conversation, but it appeared Ironhide was (for once) taking much the same view that Hornet had been earlier, specifically that Deathstrike was at best insane, and at worst intentionally trying to find excuses to kill the remaining Autobots. He did not however say anything as Ironhide turned to communicate over the radio, and instead sadly filed out the door along with the others, feeling very small, ignored, and like he should be doing something but couldn't determine what.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson was quite happy to be small and ignored at the moment. If she heard the names right, IronHide was calling in a very nasty 'Bot to talk to Gridlock. "Stryke...? Did IronHide say he was calling in ... Repugnus?"



Repugnus was Not A Nice Bot. In fact, he'd been kicked out of the Autobots more times than the Dinobots, for doing things that several Autobots would swear even Decepticons wouldn't do. Repugnus was rude, crude, socially unacceptable, and enjoyed getting down, dirty, and mean. Assassination, torture, sabotage, spying: Repugnus was the best at counter-intelligence because he enjoyed doing the same things to other 'Bots ... perferably Decepticons, which was possibly the only reason he was still allied with the Autobots.
((from GM Notes))

[General Havoc]

As always, Hornet was listening into things he probably shouldn't have, but in this case, when Crimson came up with a name he'd never heard of (and frankly, which sounded rather non-Autobot), he felt he had to ask her.

"Who... who's Repugnance?" he asked, stumbling a bit over the word. It wasn't as though Autobot names all followed a theme, but they didn't tend to have such negative connotations. Of course Hornet himself was named after an insect that was both annoying and vicious... but he tried not to think of that too much. Ironhide did a decent enough job of reminding him how much he took after his namesake after all.

[Dark Silver]

Redzone and Bebop answered Ironhide's summons, and went to work. Within moments, they were headed for Gridlock's last known location.


They didn't have weapons drawn, who honestly thought they would need them in the middle of the Ark? Security override caused Gridlock's door to slide open, and the two Autobots were greated by a hail of laserfire.

Redzone crumpled to the ground, before a blast took off his head, then pierced his Spark Chamber. Bebop had just drawn his electron concussion rifle when Gridlock's big hand grabbed him, and dragged the Autobot into the darkness of the quarters. Sounds of stressed and screeching metal and pain filled the hallway, before Gridlock stepped out, Bebop's weapon held in one hand, the rest of his heavily armed robot form stomped out.

His cover was blown, well, he would take as many Autobots down as he could before he made his way back to his former command.

Laser and bolts of what looked like lighting left his weapons, as Gridlock began a running battle to the main exit.