Transformers: Steel Reign

[Cynical Cat]

"You're talking to a 'mech who specializes in killing heavily armoured targets," said Deathstrike with a smile. "He's just more dangerous than a mindless Guardian because he can think and has skills besides those preprogrammed into his systems."

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike lead Breakout deeper into the Ark, following the heat trail. "We're near where Diax bit it. Heat trail still fresh here." He kept every sensor peeled. Reaper was close.

[General Havoc]

Were that this was a normal assignment, where he could actually kill as he liked. Three Autobots had already fallen to him, two of which at least would not have survived had he the ability to eliminate them, but to kill them was to harm his goals, and his goals were still paramount. Sometimes, a warrior did not get to do as he liked. Part and parcel.

They were tracking him, he knew it by now, and the heat was the cause. He needed to shed the heat, and fast. There were three options. He could return to the overheated section of the Ark, but that would box him in. He could wander until it wore off, but that was unlikely to be accomplished before he was caught. Lastly, he could eliminate the heat directly. A bold move, but one that just might have some side-benefits...

He opened the door to the storage chamber he was in, glancing up and down. No sign of anyone just yet, though that would not last. Quickly, he darted down a corridor, around a corner, and up two other ones. He was searching for something very...

... got it.

He paused beside a massive pipe that was running at eye-level along the wall, a pipe that contained not chemicals or cabling, but coolant, simple everyday coolant, used to cool the reactors of the ship normally, and would suffice for cooling something else.

This would give his position away all right, but they were welcome to make any headway in the mess he was about to make.

With one strong slash, he cut a gash in the pipe large enough to stuff a human through, and pressurized water exploded through it, drenching him instantly. The coolant met metal in excess of 800 degrees outside of it's pressured lines, and instantly turned to steam on contact, billowing out from his location in a superheated cloud. The automated systems quickly shut the water off, but Reaper was ready for that, and moved up the pipe, slashing more gashes in the pressurized system, drenching himself again and again and again, as his surface temperature plummeted, and the steam erupted through the hallways like a cloud of poison gas. As he moved along, he hit door access panels, causing rooms to open up to be flooded with the superheated steam, spreading it as far and as wide as he could. Within the steam, his heat signature was significantly diminished, and given enough time, would match the thick clouds he would hide in.

And so after less than a minute's work, Reaper activated his antigrav systems, and flew up into the air, hiding along the ceiling of the corridors as he took a secondary hallway away from the strike point, no longer heated to the point where he stood out like a petrorabbit in a mechduck bin, and cloaked in a cloud of superheated coolant vapor.

The Autobots were welcome to try and find him in this soup.

And now it was time to stalk them back.

(GM Note: I made slight edits to this post. Originally stated water, changed it to a coolant. Also changed a bit of the line, edited part is in bold. Deathstrike will get a shot at Reaper in his next post.)

[Cynical Cat]

Reaper's plan was a good one, but overly ambitious. He had dumped a tremendous amount of heat with his coolant bath, but he was still hotter than the clouds steam that he had filled the corridors with. And he was a solid. Solids retain and transmit heat differently than fluids or gases.

Deathstrike stalked through the gas clouds with his sensors peeled. Tricks with gas and ice and steam were old hat in space warfare and he knew them all. Nor did he neglect the sealing where hot gases rose and dispersed, mixing with colder gases.

The heat blob that was slightly hotter than the rest and did not shift and distort he immediately recognized as Reaper. The assassin had fallen prey to the hubris. It had been hubris that had lead him to invade the Ark while it was on alert and it was hubris that lead him to attempt an ambush among rapidly cooling gases. He should have hid and waited for a megacylce or so.

Deathstrike didn't wait. A heat blob wasn't the most precise of targets, but it would do. He raised his cannon high powered pulses at Reaper.

[frigidmagi]

Breakout stayed behind Deathstrike and followed silencely. He pulled out his combat knife and waited.

[General Havoc]

The ventilation systems were more potent than expected. Reaper was considering if perhaps a lower altitude escape route might not be a better plan when all of a sudden, the plan exploded into laserfire.

Literally.

Lasers burst through the air in every direction, one of them burning into his left shoulder, the others tracing patterns on the ceiling. So sudden and unexpected were they that Reaper almost hesitated.

Almost.

He whirled around without an instant's halt, and blasted away with the energon scrambler he called forth from empty space, dropping out of the air and firing on the move as he retreated back into the thick steam cloud. His intent was to put down a hail of fire that would keep the Autobots back for a few crucial astroseconds. He blasted away at whatever was shooting at him, for he took no time to identify it, and then vanished into the steam, darting down the hallway as fast as he could, through corridors and around turns.

It was time for plan D.

[frigidmagi]

I radio in a flash report.

"This is Breakout and Deathstrike, we have engaged the enemy, he is retreating and we are in pursuit!" I say as I duck and weave to avoid the shots. I do not return fire, it would be pointless without a target.

[Cynical Cat]

The Autobots would whine about collateral damage if he fired off missiles. Which was a pity because their armour piercers were completely unimpressive when he had deployed them against Chimera. The Ark had rammed a volcano after falling from space and survived mostly intact; a few missiles wouldn't do much collateral damage.

Unfortunately, the engagement restrictions were in his data banks. Sometimes he really missed serving under Megatron and Shockwave. He broke into a run, firing narrow beam high energy laser pulses that would burn through just about any armour. The energy expenditure was considerable and the heat built up faster than his gun could cool. It would offline if he kept this up much longer.

That wasn't a problem because he reckless advance which allowed him to keep contact with Reaper and pour fire at the assassin carried him into Reaper's own fire. Electron scrambler beams took him in the left upper arm and the right hip. Heavy armour took the worst of the beams, but didn't prevent localized systems disruption. The Decepticon warrior crashed face first into the Ark's deck.

[LadyTevar]

"Breakout, this is Crimson. I'm hearing shots fired, so I'm assuming you found him." The fembot had not moved further after getting her paint blistered over the comm. "I'm one floor below your current position." She knew that from squad telemetry. Her left hand started to glow as she concentrated energon into one of her grenades. "If you want him distracted, I can have a nasty surprise for him... won't put him down but it will give you and Deathstrike an opening since you'll be expecting the blast."

As she waited for Breakout's answer, she attached the grenade to the nozzle of her pistol. Crimson just had to find a place where she could get in front of the firefight and hopefully intercept.

[frigidmagi]

Primus defend me I am surrounded by crazybots! Crazybots pitbent on their own destruction! I bop up and fire a cannon shot at the assassin.

"Crimson are you crazed or just deaf?" I ask as I drop to the ground and roll to avoid return fire. I ought to disconnect her legs and wheels and leave her in medbay for a a whole Vorn! I should screw her head on backwards! I should paint her in purple and orange with yellow highlights and transfer her to Siberia!

"We're in close quaters, your grenade might effect us to. Plus there's the little matter of you being scrap metal if you miss him and he gets ahold of you for even a klik! Oh and let's not forget you left Hornet, the trouble magnet alone in while an assassin capable of killing warbots is running loose! What in Primus' name are you processing?" I snarl over the radio.

Yeah, sure nag at the civ bot bent on a messy death, but don't forbid her to try. What an aft you are a stubborn voice in my cerbro circuits mutters.

[LadyTevar]

"The grenade has a range of 50meters, Breakout," Crimson answered, looking for the next access ladder up while tracking the fight by the explosions and telemetry. "Outside that the EMP and Concussion's minimal. Deathstrike has experience with it, he so if you don't believe me ask him."

If she could get ahead of the fight, she could hit Reaper without hitting the team. It would work. "If you doubt my ability to get Hornet to stay in one place, stop assigning me to watch him. He's fine... you're the one taking heavy fire." The next ladder was still too far away ... if the 'Con even continued along the same corridor, she may not have the 50m safety zone herself when she fired. She at least would be expecting it, and was hardened against EMP. "I know what will happen if he gets hold of me, Breakout -- I'm not stupid. But he doesn't know what I can do to him, and he doesn't know I'm coming because he's focused on you and Deathstrike."

[frigidmagi]

I think he's closing on me and frankly the hallway isn't designed for a bot to dodge incoming fire. I shall have to speak to the next design board about that. I spring up, open fire and charge dropping into a roll. Reaper's fire is getting closer to me this is bad.

"I'm less then 50 meters away from him! Also I can't ask Deathstrike anything at the moment, he's kinda face down on the floor. If you insist on being on the radio however it would be pleasant if you gave higher a sitrep for me, it would help me concentrate on the beams of mech killing energy I'm trying to avoid." I hear moment... my processor paints the source and I fire full blast at it. The blast sears through the atmosphere and down the hallway. I got him... I think.

[General Havoc]

Breakout was wrong about one thing. Reaper was not closing on him, not even close.

One of Breakout's beams hit him square in the back, denting and cracking the armor and nearly causing him to stumble, but he recovered. As Breakout was busy diving to the ground, scrambling to his feet, and rolling about, Reaper was withdrawing rapidly, his energon disrupter firing blindly behind him down the hallway. Several more blasts flew past, another one hitting him in the back of his left shoulder, penetrating the armor, fusing several actuators together. He shifted effortlessly to backup actuators, and as he approached a perpendicular hallway, slammed his scythe into the wall point-first, providing an anchor-point for him to pivot his not-inconsequential weight and turn 90 degrees down the hallway without losing practically any speed at all, out finally of the line of fire for the moment. At a full run, he twisted and turned down hallway after hallway, always making sharp turns to avoid being exposed to pursuit from behind. The remaining pursuer had lost ground by diving and rolling about, and so he was exposed to no more shots from that quarter as long as he kept moving.

He hated to have to retreat. He longed to turn about and let these Autobots taste his scythe, let them fall before him, but he knew that the mission was the paramount priority, and doing this thing would not give him Thundercracker.

It was time to fall back and re-assess this plan entirely.

[LadyTevar]

Deathstrike down? ohh... that's not good.

She opened a channel to the command center. "Crimson to Ironhide, sitrep. Deathstrike down, unknown injuries. Breakout in pursuit of intruder, running firefight in these sections..." Crimson gave the position she had for Breakout, making sure to specify the floor they were on. "Additional orders, sir?"

Back on the squad channel, she readdressed Breakout. "SitRep sent to Ironhide. Do you want me to go check on Deathstrike where he's fallen?"

[frigidmagi]

The shooting stopped. I was wrong, he wasn't advancing. Be angry later get him now.

"Crimson count to ten, if you do not hear anything then advance to Deathstrike's position and do what you can. I am in pursuit."

I transform into my alt-mode, crank my sensors on full and go hunting. He left a clue as to his direction in the form of a rather large gash in the wall. I follow. I update Teletran I as to my position and intentions. Reaper will not escape just yet.

[LadyTevar]

"Understood."
one nanoclick, two nanoclick, three nanoclick...
Yes, it was cheating a little... but he didn't say ten -what-. When the choices range from nanoclicks to astroseconds to cycles, there's a lot of leeway.
nine nanoclick, ten.

Crimson backtracked to the ladder closest to Deathstrike's position, and gave another 10 nanoclick count before heading up, the grenade still attached to her pistol just in case the 'Con was able to backtrack. "Deathstrike? You functional?"

[Charon]

Shellshock never even twitched as he waited for movement, not just from the door, but anywhere. "Breakout, what's your position? What's going on?"

[frigidmagi]

. "Breakout, what's your position? What's going on?"

"My position?" I ask has I roll down the hall in my alt form, scanners at max. I have just hooked into the Ark's sensor net and am seeking out the scent of my oppotent.

"Moving. Reaper is moving, I believe towards you. Remain at high alert. That is all, Breakout out. " I instruct. Reaper passed up a chance to render me and Deathstrike into spare parts. Even though in direct confrontation his odds of success were only 42.98% even with Deathstrike down. It is clear he is heading towards the target (79.99%) and that target is Thundercracker (95.57%).

I will engage him again.

[Cynical Cat]

Primary motivator controls offline
Rebooting and engaging secondary systems
Operational
Rebooting primary motive system . . . .

Deathstrike pushed himself off the floor and began running. "This is Deathstrike. I am operational and combat worthy. Continuing pursuit of Reaper. Recommend emplacement of fire teams covering the Ark's exit and the volcano caldera to prevent Reaper's escape." In a few more minutes Reaper will have dumped most of his remaining heat and would be able to cover the rest with stealth systems. They have a narrow window.

Deathstrike intended to take advantage of it.

[Dark Silver]

Brawn and Windcharger charged down the hallways of the Ark's interior, heading for the forward sectors. Prime had diverted the two smaller bots from their own search patterns, and ordered them to reroute to backup Breakout and Deathstrike.

Ironhide received Deathstrike's sitrep, moments after Crimson's, before reporting back, "Crimson, get yu'r skidplate outta der. Ya ain't no match for that Decepticreep." He switched to a different channel, as he ordered the Aerialbots to watch the Volcano for a possible escape. "Brawn, Windcharger, Hound, Wheeljack, head your mufflers off to the cargo stores, we got the Decepticreep cornered. Overload and Shellshock, keep that repair bay sealed up, we'll get ya outta there after this is done. Wheeljack and Hound, head to Deck two sector Zed cargo holds. Nightswift and Toptwist, head to deck three maintence ladder to cover escape. Breakout, watch your speed! Dem halls ain't made for vehicle mode! Deathstrike, looks like the 'Con's gonna duck into a atmospheric processing facility - head there and be on the watch out. He gets int here he'll be in the walls."

Unfortunatly for Breakout, the sensor net in the Ark's sectors he was using to track Reaper in had been damaged, and never fully repaired in the crash four million years ago - they lacked infra-red capabilities, and visual feed was unable to be rerouted to his own processors. Without Thermal, even slightly damaged as he was, Reaper's stealth systems where more than adequate to keep him a step ahead of the military bot. Aside from the visual sensors Ironhide kept onscreen in the C&C in order to keep track, unfortunatly the visuals where scattered as the Coolant vapor had yet to clear out.

Brawn and Windcharger caught up with Deathstrike, just as the larger Decepticon got to his feet, "Which way did he go 'Strike" Brawn spoke, the smaller green and yellow Autobot's voice sounded the years, but carried a sense of authority with it, like he didn't expect to be questioned or backtalked.

[Cynical Cat]

"Follow me," said Deathstrike as he charged ahead in pursuit. "He won't leave an IR trail for much longer so we have to make every astrosecond count."

[LadyTevar]

Crimson watched Deathstrike jump up, gather Brawn and Windcharger, and take off running. "Yeah... you're functional," she said dryly, answering her own question since Deathstrike obviously had no time to acknowledge her.

Ironhide received Deathstrike's sitrep, moments after Crimson's, before reporting back, "Crimson, get yu'r skidplate outta der. Ya ain't no match for that Decepticreep."

Breakout she'd been trying to persuade. Ironhide ... well, the only Fembot that could persuade him of anything was still on Cybertron. Pity, the old warbot could use a visit from her, maybe it would loosen up some of the bolts he had wound too tight ....
"Understood, Ironhide," Crimson answered, not quite hiding the reluctance in her voice. She turned back the way she'd came, walking slowly as she carefully removed the Energon grenade from the tip of her pistol and started slowly reabsorbing the energy back into her reserves.

[Dark Silver]

The alarms were going off in the Ark, even as he moved through the halls. He moved with the same urgency as the other Autobots, moving the entire time with a purpose.

There was a Decepticon in the base.

When there were no more Autobots running by, he activated his antigrav systems, lifting silently off the ground, and moving at a greater speed. His purpose was secure, impowering, immediate.


He arrived at the security interface node with a few microcycles, removed the Identifier plate a quick peeling of ancient metal, and shorted out the interlocks.

The door slide silently as the figured entered, his frame fitting with the blackness of the shadows. His optics adjusted, night vision turning on as he moved to the control interface. Normally, TELETRAN could control every facet of shipboard security, but these nodes tied into TELETRAN-1 itself, allowing other Cybertronian's access to the security feeds, able to redirect sensors and get new readings for internal security sweeps.

As he stood before the control console, his arm raised, twin data uplinks slide forth, inserting themselves into a data-cube holder. His eyes gleamed for a moment, as the data was uploaded, the interlinks retracted into his arm, and he left the security node, just as he entered, leaving no trace.

Floating on silent anti-gravs, he made his way through the halls, a silent bird, a autobot laser pistol gripped in his metallic fist.

It was time to hunt.



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


Ironhide watched on the screens as Crimson did as ordered, moving back down the halls, even as Brawn, Deathstrike and Windcharger rushed head.

He continued his scans, always looking for signs of the assassin-bot. The grizzled mech stopped as one by one, the video displays began to flicker, and the last few astroseconds of footage, complete with timestamp, replayed.

And replayed...

And replayed.

"TELETRAN-1, report!"

"Security breach. Sensor protocols, corrupted. Attempting reroute"

Prime was behind Ironhide a second after, watching feverntly for the sensor feeds to be restored. He swore as the seconds ticked past....

"TELETRAN, status" he asked impatiently.

"Sensor repairs will take approximately 1.5 Breems."

"Optimus Prime to all Autobots, internal security sensors are down, pair up and don't seperate from your partner. We will not be able to track you from the C&C."

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike consulted the Ark schematics as he moved. Reaper was fleeing, barely ahead of pursuit and running down short length of corridor to prevent anyone from getting a good shot at his back.

Reaper should have been dead or dying now, of course. Two beam volleys at point blank range, in a corridor, with Deathstrike holding the initiative. and max power. Needle beams to bore through armour. Each hit would do only a limited amount of because of narrow beam, but he should have scored enough hits to cause severe damage and then finished him off. Instead he had scored one while read lining his laser and Reaper, taken by suprise and fleeing, had managed to score multiple hits.

He was missing too many easy hits. Had to be an internal glitch, but the CR chambers weren't catching it. Probably an interface fault. Fraxyl's designs were non-standard and something probably wasn't meshing right right with this Autobot rebuild. He would have to go through the code personally. Not even Fraxyl new his code as well as he did, but that was to be expected. Thousands of vorns of exile and not much else to do while drifting through space.

But that was for another time. Reaper was still leaving an IR trail and his movement options were limited by the defensive strategies he was taken. Deathstrike had other options, faster ways of going from point A to point B. He took one. Inteception in fifty astroseconds, give or take.

[General Havoc]

This was madness. Reaper longed, burned to turn and fight, to strike Deathstrike down with his scythe and show the ex-Decepticon traitor just who was the master between them. He did not do so, grinding gears internally as his autorepair systems went to work on the slagged actuator and broken armor that the traitor and his Autobot "friends" had inflicted with their wild shots. Had they been able to establish a direct sight-line, rather than the indistinct mass of heat they were no doubt firing at, or worse yet (pits-forbid) a targetting lock...

Well no use thinking about that. They had many times the firepower he did. His only recourse now was abject withdrawal, distasteful as that was, but to do that, he would need to get those damnable Autobots off his tail.

He had an idea for that though.

He popped a chamber on his right forearm as he ran, and quickly removed three warheads from his slender-remaining stock of Pyroclasm rockets. With a press of a button, he flipped the warheads to a motion-sensor proximity charge, with a two second time-delay to allow him to get out of the way before they were armed. Without further ado, he dropped all three warheads on the ground behind him as he sprinted, before turning one more corner and arriving at his intended destination... such as it was.

A ventilation processing room was not precisely where he had envisioned himself winding up, but no matter.

He slid the door open, raced inside, and slammed it shut again. No doubt they would know where he had gone, but hopefully the warheads would slow them a bit. And none of them could do this...

He levitated up to the ceiling with his antigravs, where one of the massive air throughtake vents was located, and with a slash of his scythe, tore the covering and fan from the ceiling, letting them crash down onto the ground. He passed by them up, up, up, and into the Ark's ventilation system, relying on his antigravs until he finally reached a bend in the cavernous tunnel and managed to squeeze into it and crawl up the shaft away from the ventilation chamber. He pulled up schematics for the Ark on his computer display as he did so. Old ones, yes, but he doubted seriously that the Autobots had altered the duct-work since then.

And if they had... well there were only so many contingencies one could plan for. The benefit here was that nobody without antigravs or a lot of time on their hands could follow him. Just in case however, he dropped another proximity warhead behind him as he crawled away. Let them follow if they chose...

They could of course just track him by sound and shoot through the ceiling (inaccurate though that would be), but the duct he had selected was not one that led anywhere near inhabited areas, and veered quickly away from the main hallways. It was a ventilation duct that would lead him to near the surface of the Ark, near enough that he could hack his way out of the vent grill (which was no doubt fused shut with molten rock).

As to the ignominy of this... well... he would simply have to live with it for a while.