Transformers: Steel Reign

[LadyTevar]

"Crimson, escort the men on foot to the base and return at best speed."

Crimson lifted her head, hearing BreakOut's command. Silently she transformed, not even bothering to rise from her seated position as she sent her pistols back to subspace. Her holoRider flickered into existence, the riding helmet open to show the face, as close match to her own and unintentionally attractive. The Harley rolled out, engine muted, meeting the human squad and falling in with them, her sensors active for any threats along the path of retreat.

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke transformed and rolled out behind Breakout, his guns firing at the drones, his main cannon blowing through the thin armoured drones. His machine gun spat lethal energy, peppering the drones.

His mind was focused on killing the enemy, but he did hear Breakout's orders to Crimson. He wondered if she was ok. He knew she was a civbot and that killing human, even if they were part of the drones, would take a heavy toll on her.

[LadyTevar]

Stryke would afterwards wish he'd been with Crimson, as her sensors identified danger heading for her little squad of Humans. "Incoming! SCATTER!" was all the warning she could give them as one of the few remaining drones strafed them from the air.

The squaddies would later describe it as something out of a Japanese anime. As the Drone swooped down the Harley roared forward, and both 'bots began their transformations at the same time; the drone jerking and snapping, while the Harley deliberately slid, smoothly changing and effortlessly rolling to a crouch with pistol raised.

Each 'bot fired off a single shot of their lasers. Crimson's armor on her left shoulder buckled but held, while her own shot popped the head right off the drone. Even before the head could start transforming, the fembot was moving again, crossing the distance to the crashing drone body. As the armored human was getting his bearings and pulling his pistol, Crimson was upon him.

With a backhand she knocked the armored human's pistol out of his hand, spinning him partway around before slamming into him with her shoulder. Off-balance, the human was easily tripped, and Crimson planted his face into the ground. The squaddies would later describe it as a schoolyard bully shoving a smaller child into the dirt and planting a knee into the back to hold them there. "Restraints!" Crimson shouted. "Give me the strongest ones you've got!"

In their report, the squad would state that it took five zip-ties to restrain the captive's arms, yet the female Autobot had only minor difficulties. What surprised the human command was why she took the risk of capturing one of them in the first place.

The squad leader reported her answer as given:

"Why? Because he's -Human-," Crimson answered. "Reformated, reprogrammed... but if we can find out how it was done, we can try to reverse it! And maybe this time..." she added softly, recalling a sad past. "... it will work."

[Dark Silver]

Deathstrike ahead of him, Sixshot focused on twisting and dodging the large warrior's energy blasts, and his engines working to keep his speed, utilizing superior maneuverability to keep his opponent off proper targeting-locks - though it also meant his own blasts would not properly strike. The two dodged each other, Sixshot's own form twisting and juking away - before a hailstorm of low powered lasers poured into his rear assembly.

The new stream of blasts only caused Sixshot to improvise on his evasive manuvers even more so. Eventually, Deathstrike and Sixshot crosses parallel points in the sky, then passed each other.

Once above Deathstrike, the six-changer showcased his superiority of forms, changing in less than a optics blink from the hypersonic interstellar spacecraft form, into the jet propelled laser gun.

Twin hypersonic particle concussion blast joined the particle blasters and photon burst of the normal weapons loud out. He snapped his targeting lock onto Deathstrike, then adjusted, aiming at the annoyance known as Hornet, and unleashed a hell storm of unbelievable firepower. The blasts continued for for a whole three astroseconds, before Sixshot transformed once more into his jet form, and blasted off - at full burn - to the Decepticon stronghold.

His mission was done.

[Cynical Cat]

Turning his back on Deathstrike was a fatal mistake. Changing course in a conventional manner would take too much time, Deathstrike had a faster method. The Decepticon warrior transformed into his warrior form and then back to starfighter, his engines burning at full power as he flew after Sixshot. Sixshot was fast, but to Deathstrike he was just another target to be overhauled and blown to pieces.

Sixshot wasn't fast enough to outmaneuver x-ray lasers. Deathstrike's cannon fired. One bolt caught Sixshot in the engine, another dead center in the fuselage. Both bolts burned through armour and into the Decepticon's internal components. Smoke pouring from his wounds, Sixshot fell from the sky.

[General Havoc]

The Decepticon finally noticed him.

Hornet had never seen anything move or change as quickly as Sixshot did, and the obvious interpretation, that he should run and hide and try and vanish in the radar haze that was below him, occured less quickly than it should have, so consumed was he with stopping Sixshot. It was not until Sixshot shifted forms into a gigantic gun, not until he was pivotting around to target Hornet, that Hornet realized what kind of trouble he was in, and winged over and dove.

... too late.

Hornet was speedy and small enough that the main weapons, the hypersonic concussion wave emitters, missed wide by inches. Had they not, the compressed sound waves would have burst him like a grape in a wine press. As it was, the damage was bad enough. One of the lasers creased his right wing, burning a trough into his wing from base to tip, covering the wing with boiled mech fluid residue. Even as Hornet cried out into his radio however, one of the particle beams struck him dead center in the middle of his fuselage, and his radio cut out as his transmitter evaporated.

Particle beams were high powered barrages of free particles, which annihilated matter they contacted. In a way, Hornet was lucky. Designed to defeat armor, the particle beam simply punched a six-inch hole straight through him. Had it been an ion pulse blaster or even a normal laser, the collateral damage from such a shot would have either disintegrated him or simply melted him to slag, but the particle beam passed right through him without so much as bleeding off 1% of its total power. That 1% however was more than enough. In an instant, a core sample of Hornet's fuselage was annihilated as if by magic. His engine caught, sputtered, and died, and without so much as another sound, Hornet's dive turned into a freefall, as he plumetted towards the ground, trailing smoke, mech fluid, and bits of debris.

[SirNitram]

Overload continued his ascent, spotting the fight around Sixshot. Just his luck: His automated 'Bug Out' program had thrown him towards the biggest transformer on the field. Above the field. Something. Pivoting while airborne, he matched Hornet's descent, and opened his massive cargo bay's top-side hatch.

It took precious seconds of exposing his unarmoured interior, but then again, Deathstrike had Sixshot's aft in his sights. Anyone who'd turn away from Deathstrike twice deserved what they got.

"Hang on, little guy. I got you.."

[Dark Silver]

Slipstream rocketed through the sky, closing in rapidly on the retreating Blitzwing. Even at Slipstream's immense speed, it took time for the Autobot flier to reach the triple changer.

Blitzwing's radar detected the rapidly approaching Autobot, letting the Autobot get into missle range, before dropping down, cutting his thrusters, and diving. The ground soared up quickly as Blitzwing went ground ward, and at the last possible moment, he transformed switching from jet to tank in a fraction of a second.

At the speeds Slipstream was going, he'd pass Blitzwing while the triple changer lined up his cannon for the shot. But instead, Blitzwing transformed again, switching to robot, and crouching into a kneeling position, making himself a small target, as his laser carbine was raised, waiting for the target.


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


Sixshot was damaged.

Smoking holes in his armor and internal components froze him in his hypersonic jet form, and quickly losing altitude. Rerouting the most critical damage to redudant circuits only partially damaged by the ionizing effects of the x-ray laser allowed him to limp on, only barely crossing into the secured border which marked the Decepticon's defensive perimeter - a place which would be suicide for Deathstrike to follow him to.

[General Havoc]

It wasn't clear if Hornet was still conscious or not, but Wheeljack's automated systems were. As soon as his engine flamed out and he was detected in uncontrolled freefall, an override code kicked in, triggering his transformation cog and shifting him back into humanoid form. This was calculated to be marginally better for crashlandings than his more rigid alt form, and seconds later, Hornet was tumbling out of the air, unable to move or shift again.

Fortunately, the crash landing question was not to be put to the test. Hornet plummetted down, but before he could hit the ground, Overload caught him. He fell straight into Overload's cargo bay, landing with a soft thud on his back. In humanoid form, the hole drilled through him was in his stomach, and a small puddle of mech fluid leaked out from it as he moaned softly. It was not clear if he knew where he was or what had happened.

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike wasn't inclined to let his prey escape him nor was he inclined to avoid battlefield realities. He still had lock on. A heavy armour defeating missile launched from his weapons bay and Deathstrike turned his nose to the sky, climbing back into the upper atmosphere and away from the Decepticon base.

The missile was an armour piercer and while it would cause massive damage if it hit, the damage would tend to be localized. Sixshot could survive a hit, if he was lucky. If luck favored Deathstrike on the other hand, what was left of Sixshot would rain down on the heads of his fellow Decepticons. More often than not, luck favored Deathstrike. Or to be more exact, Deathstrike's skills resulted in fatalities.

The Decepticon rose into the sky. Whether or not Sixshot survived, the battle still had to be fought and won. His place was in the sky, waiting to kill again.

[Charon]

Shellshock saw Blitzwing go to ground and grinned ferally as the fighting broke out around him. The drones were dying even faster now, and were focusing on other targets. Shellshock transformed to his alt. mode. His cannon raising high into the air as his radar picked up Blitzwing's position.

He noticed Sixshot's limping form, still in the air and visible and grinned as well. He may be free from direct confrontation. But it was amazing how often the Decepticons had forgotten about Shellshock's ability to, well, shell.

The gun turned towards Sixshot, plasma began to build up, filling a specially designed shell as Shellshock took his time aiming. Sixshot was limping at a highly reduced speed, and he wasn't expecting trouble, chances were high that he would be able to achieve a critical blow.

Precise targetting equipment narrowed in on the holes in Sixshot's armored torso. There was a loud belch of an explosion as the large plasma shell shot out of Shellshock's cannon, barreling towards Sixshot. Assuming Sixshot was unable to get out of the way, the shot would slip most of the way in one of the holes Deathstrike had made and explode inside Sixshot's critical systems, spewing the extremely hot plasma inside the shell throughout the Six-changers interiors.

Only moments after that shot was fired, Shellshock fired again. This was far less precisely aimed, a normal armor-piercing shell aimed at Blitzwing. It was likely to miss, but if it didn't it would give him more time to hone in on his grounded target.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson heard Hornet's aborted cry, despite being busy man-handling her captured drone-human back to base along with the squad of humans she was sent to protect.

"Was that Hornet?" she radioed to the Convoy. "Is he functional?"

[SirNitram]

"Hornet's with me." Overload spoke over the comms as he fought for more altitude, trying to keep well clear of Deathstrike and Sixshot. "He took a nasty shot from Sixshot up here, but he's in my bay. Moaning and in pain, but functional. My internal scanners say his vitals are okay."

[LadyTevar]

"How soon are you landing?" Crimson asked still over the Convoy's open comm. Her optics turned skyward to try to spot Overload overhead. "I'm on my way to the command center with a prisoner... I can meet you and unload Hornet as well."

And as soon as she said that, she started a mental countdown of astroseconds before the Convoy started asking about the Prisoner and why she had one.

[Cynical Cat]

"Deathstrike to Crimson: advise downloading Mandarin and Cantonese language files for interrogation of the prisoner, if you haven't already done so. It is unlikely that the prisoner desires the process to be reversed."

[LadyTevar]

"Deathstrike to Crimson: advise downloading Mandarin and Cantonese language files for interrogation of the prisoner, if you haven't already done so. It is unlikely that the prisoner desires the process to be reversed."

That made Crimson pause, as bad memories of reprogrammed FemBots surfaced briefly. "Not my function to get answers, Death," she answered sharply, pushing those memories back to storage. "But I hope to Primus that humans can survive reformating better than 'Bots!"

[Cynical Cat]

They would not listen. Not to him. Deathstrike tried again. "High probability that the cyborgs are volunteers that were physical disabled or suffering from organ failure. Data on the Chinese government indicates they are likely to be willing to test the procedure on otherwise healthy individuals, but it is likely that they would start with the disabled."

[SirNitram]

"Deathstrike's projection matches existing cultural records gathered during recon." Overload rumbled from his position as his engines quietened a bit, reaching a semi-stable LEO. "Now cut the chatter. There's a battle going on. I'm gonna stay topside until it's safe to bring the wounded down. In the meantime... Targetting data for those what want it."

Overload wasn't a ranged combatant, but mileenia at Shellshock's side had equipped him to hand off targetting solutions like a pro, as he locked onto Blitzwing.

[General Havoc]

Hornet slowly sat up within Overload's cavernous (to him) cargo bay, wincing and groaning with the pain of his damage. His radio was gone, his radar malfunctioning, and his damage control systems were still trying to figure out the extent of the damage. Serious though it was, it did not appear to be immediately life threatening, not now that Overload had caught him.

Soaked in mech fluid, most of it someone else's, Hornet's optics were filled with tears, the shock and the pain of what had just happened slowly bleeding back into his consciousness. Outside, the others, his friends, were still fighting against the enslaved human drones, still killing and being killed, but he could no more transform back and fly out to help them than he could lift up a cathedral. His engine refused to start, energon leaked from his ruptured primary fuel tank, and his hydraulics were completely unresponsive. He was as useless as a stone statue, locked within Overload's cargo bay, unable to do anything but remain seated and cry, his tears rolling down his face not due to his own damage, but because of the humans that were being horrifically slaughtered out there. Not even in this terrible, brutal moment, could Hornet actually bring himself to wish for the deaths of the Decepticons responsable...

... but he found himself hoping that his distraction had enabled Deathstrike to hit Sixshot hard enough to make him feel it.

[LadyTevar]

The idea that the reformated humans were less than whole to begin with just made Crimson's processors work harder. On the one hand, it was freedom from a lifetime of pain or perhaps a death sentence. On the other hand, this was assuming these were just the first test subjects.

"Roger, Overload. Handing over prisoner now, and then I'll rejoin the convoy on the ground," she answered, having reached the command area with her squaddies. Looking down at the humans, she gave them a small smile. "I've got to get back to my convoy, gentlemen. It was nice working with you."

She transformed, her holoRider flickering to 'life', and with a salute like she'd seen the human soldiers use to higher ranks, she accelerated back to the front lines. Amusingly, Stryke seemed to have been too busy to worry about her for a moment, so she commed him privately. "He dented my new shoulder before I got him, Stryke. How're you doing?"

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke fired at a drone, when from his left a laser blast tore through the space occupied by his holomatter gunner. He swung his turret and machine gun around as more laser blasts left scorch marks on his armor. The warbot unleashed lethal energy on the drone, cutting him down. He heard Crimson's message.

"Little busy right now, Crim, but I'm ok. Few scorch marks, but ok." He replied, focusing on shooting down the few drones left.

[General Havoc]

Slowly, painfully, Hornet managed to get up onto his knees. His balance wasn't functioning perfectly and it hurt badly to move, but he managed to move over to the side of the cargo bay. "O... Overload?" he said uneasily, pain evident in his voice, but not enough to reduce him to a sobbing wreck. There were plenty of other reasons for that. "What's going on?" he asked. "Is everyone... is everyone okay? Were those things really humans?"

[SirNitram]

The internal comm clicked on, as Overload's engines quieted. They hadn't reduced in power, but less air meant less noise. "You're conscious. Good to know. Everyone's still fighting. Sixshot's in full retreat now. Those things.. They were human. Use the past tense."

[General Havoc]

Overload's voice piped in from over his internal comm, and Hornet looked around, not sure where to look to talk back to Overload. He assumed that Overload could simply hear him, as he could hear a human (or at least a human child, as no adult human could fit inside him) in his own cockpit, on the rare occasion when he had a passenger.

"But... but how could they be human?" asked Hornet, in total ignorance of just how naive he was being. "The humans... they're... they're our friends! What happened?! What did the Decepticons do to them?"

[SirNitram]

"If it makes you feel better, move towards the front. The view's great." Overload's comm commented. The massive hauler was in low orbit now, not too far from Deathstrike. "The humans on the continent we were on are allied to us. But humans aren't all the same. There are some that, like the Decepticons, will do alot of very nasty things for power. That's my guess as to why they'd fight alongside them. We'll find out more soon."