Transformers: Steel Reign

[LadyTevar]

She rearranged her position so she could use Stryke as a backrest as she watched the aerial display. "Somehow... I don't think that this would have happened without Hornet," she said philosophically. "No one else would have thought of it as a game, or possibly gotten the humans that excited about it."

[Dark Silver]

Decepticon Forward Command Base Pontifex

Starscream waited till Shockwave and the other four walked past, before making his way down the tunnel. The illumination levels were kept low, no Decepticon needed bright lights, and he made good time via ample use of his antigravs.

Seconds later, he was near the Spacebridge controls, relieved the Decepticon on duty, and looked down at them.

Yes, Shockwave would be in for a surprise. He undoubtedly expected reinforcements to arrive via spacebridge during the battle, but..well...

"So much for your reinforcements Shockie old pal..." the nullray fused internal linkages within the Spacebridge control panel as the bolt impacted the metal housing. The Spacebridge was for all intents and purposes, closed. It would take days for even Hook to repair the micro-damage.

With a chuckling cackle, Starscream leapt into the air. His foot thrusters empowered his ascent, as he transformed, flying through the stadium like structure, and into the air.

A quick course adjustment later he was heading away from the command base, and towards the Autobot/human staging grounds.

[Charon]

Shellshock nodded to Jazz, he'd figured that was going to happen, and it was certainly understandable.

He nodded towards Overload. "Make sure you have someone with more ranged fire watching your back before you go up there though."

Shellshock looked at the dispersing group of humans then walked out of the area, seeing the dogfighting planes Shellshock grinned some as he came up to Styke and Crimson.

"I'm going to assume this is Hornet's doing." The old warbot spoke up.

[LadyTevar]

Crimson looked up at Shellshock with a grin. "While Slipstream was badmouthing, Hornet was being himself. You should see his chassis, 'Shock. I swear every pilot up there stuck a decal on him."

[Charon]

Blah

[Dark Silver]

Silverbolt, Fireflight and Sure Shot remained near the edge of the Sentinel sensor network, the three interceptors had fled not long after the first missle had launched, and the Aerialbots were just remaining to make sure.

"You picking that up Silverbolt?" Sure Shot asked, "We got incoming, hard and fast at 3 o'clock, coming in at Mach 7 and accelerating."

The jet was a blurr as it passed the three Aerialbots, streaking off towards the human base.

"I think that was Starscream..."

------- 0 ------ 0 -------

Starscream continued accelerating, the ground beneath him a blur to human vision, yet he was navigating with the greatest of ease. So fast was he going, that the Sentinel missles that fired off impacted each other, causing a massive fratricidal explosion not even three miles from the base.

When the human jets in their game of tag, Starscream flew right through them, easily and nimbly dodging their slow motion forms, before performing a cobra turn, and transforming as he landed in the midst of the human runway.

"I, Air Commander Starscream, surrender myself to Optimus Prime."

[SirNitram]

A few meters from Starscream, the Venturestar began to unfold and stand up. Overload peered down at the Seeker, looking quite surprised. "Weapons on the ground then, nice and easy." The ion pistol was out, and Overload's sheer bulk meant he had a chance to bring down Starscream if he tried anything sneaky.

[Charon]

Shellshock looked up into the sky, his optics locking onto Hornet and zooming in. The decals and paint were everywhere, and Shellshock grinned some. "I doubt he even knows what that means yet..." Shellshock's old regiment signs still showed brightly and the 'bot got a far off look on his face.

Then he smirked some, activating his comm. "Hey Hornet. Up for a game of... oh what is it called... Pop Goes the Weasel? You fly boys see if you can keep from getting shot down by me, I keep from getting painted too often?" The channel wasn't private, and Shellshock spoke outloud, he was looking at Stryke as he made his offer.

His sensors picked up something moving fast and Shellshock's cannon was in the air before the alarms even started blaring. Shellshock locked his cannon onto the blur's movement and fired a few times, missing just barely in some cases. Before Starscream landed on the runway. Shellshock ran up, keeping his distance from Starscream still. When Starscream declared his surrender, there was only one thing Shellshock could say.

"Again?!"

[LadyTevar]

Crimson stood up, covering her audio sensors as Shellshock fired "What's going...." was all she had time to say, before StarScream danced through the dogfight and landed on the tarmack as bold as ever.

After a moment's shock and Shellshock's drawled 'again?', Crimson looked up at Stryke. "So... I guess he and Shockwave had a falling out?"

[Agent Fisher]

The warbot shifted slightly, putting himself between the 'con and Crimson. "I guess. It could be good for us or bad for us. Lets hope its the former."

[Dark Silver]

"Of course, just a moment..." Starscream smirked at the hulking Autobot with the ion pistol as he disconnected first one of the laser cannons from his arms, then the other, and layed them on the ground at his own feet.

When he rose up again, he fixed his sight on Shellshock, "Hello again Shellshock....it's been awhile. The Autobots must indeed be in dire straights if they dug up a old rust bucket like you to help fight for them."

Starscream didn't see Deathstrike yet, but he knew the traitor was around here somewhere...just where at.

"I demand to see Optimus Prime immediatly..unless that is you do not value the continued exsistence of yourselves, or your little fleshling playmates."

[General Havoc]

The dance of the airplanes continued relentlessly, as they spun through one another's circuits, tagging and retagging one another. Hornet was having the time of his life, and he could barely speak through the almost giddy laughter that roared out of his speaker every time he tried to speak. He was on the point of descending towards Stryke and Shellshock and Crimson and everyone else and rounding them all up for a game of "Pop Goes the Weasel", when one of the humans piped in.

"Uh, this is Eagle 7, does anyone else see that at four o'clock?"

The radio chatter died down, and pilot after pilot checked their radar.

"What the hell is that?"

"Is this thing reading right?"

"I've got... Mach Seven?! This can't be right..."

"Pipe down! Ground Control, this is Viper leader, I read a bogey inbound at Mach 7 plus, angels 5, compass two one zero, over."

"Ground Control, this is Eagle leader, I concur positive contact. Hornet, are you seeing this?"

Hornet was seeing this, but he was unsure of what he was looking at. Nothing could possibly move that fast. Not even Jetfire was fast enough to match that speed, faster even that the fastest missiles Wheeljack had been able to devise. Not even a Decepticon...

...

... oh Primus no.

"LOOK OUT!" hollered Hornet as the meteoric figure hurled towards them. "It's STARSCREAM!"

The humans did not know who Starscream was, and they did not have time to find out, as Starscream shot through their formation like a squirrel dancing through a tree full of sloths, passing barely a hundred feet from Hornet himself, who had banked right as hard as he could to avoid colliding with the Decepticon deputy commander. The human pilots immediately reacted in business mode, reforming into squadrons, the squadron commanders shouting orders to prepare to re-engage. They did not however shout commands to Hornet, who might have obeyed them if they had, occupied as they were with their own squadrons. Hornet blinked more than once in shock as Starscream motored past him like a missile passing a thrown rock, but then it occurred to him just what Starscream was, and what he was likely going to try to do here... and without an instant's hesitation, Hornet banked left after Starscream, and opened up his afterburners to full burn.

He could not have caught Starscream. Nobody could have. Hornet's top speed, blisteringly fast though it was, was barely HALF of Starscream's, but he had to try and do something, couldn't let the Decepticon shoot down his friends, new or old. Fortunately, no sooner had he turned to do this than Starscream braked, hard, and came down on a runway, shifted into bot form, and declared his intention to surrender.

...

Surrender?

Hornet braked himself and slowed to subsonic speeds, practically to stall speed, before coming about, shifting into bot form, and landing on the runway twenty yards ahead of Starscream. It occurred to him that this was a dangerous thing to do... if perhaps not HOW dangerous it was, and stopped, staring up at the most infamous of Decepticon fliers with a look that combined fear and awe.

After all... who hadn't heard of STARSCREAM?

It took several seconds before Hornet remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and without a better idea in his head, he raised both arms and pointed his gatling lasers at Starscream, not that they would have done much to the Decepticon's frame.

"D... don't... move!" he said nervously, conscious of the fact that the others were closing in fast, and equally conscious of the fact that by standing here, Starscream could probably vaporize him with a twitch.

He just wished he had thought of that before landing...

[Charon]

Shellshock didn't skip a beat in his reply. "Hello again Starscream... I figure you and Shockwave had a bit of an argument about who should be in charge so you're here to hide behind Prime until this all blows over and you can get back to your schemes?" Shellshock looked at Overload and nodded to him, an indication to scan Starscream and make certain he didn't have any weapons. "Hope you understand, standard procedure and all that." The old warbot was extremely calm about the whole matter.

Shellshock openned a private comm. to Jazz. "Jazz, this is Shellshock. Starscream is here, he's surrendered and unarmed, he wants to see Prime. Orders?"

[Dark Silver]

"Keep that tinplated turkey on ice, I'll get Prime and meet you there immediatly" came Jazz's reply.

[SirNitram]

Targetting optics online.

Overload's eyes focused on Starscream, performing an internal scan, the deepest he could without the all-too-satisfying feat of ripping out the traitorous Seeker's Cog out. It also provided enough data to toss to any missile launcher Overload could contact, but that would be for later.

[LadyTevar]

"Oh Primus........." Crimson breathed as Hornet landed far too close to StarScream. "Why didn't I tell him to stay up and take patrol with the other planes?!"

Unthinkingly she moved out from behind Stryke, starting towards the teenybot, not realizing she was being as overprotective of Hornet as Stryke was of her. She stopped short as Stryke raised his arm to bar her way. "But... "

[Agent Fisher]

Stryke shook his head. "You can call him. You don't need to go to him." The warbot said, his arm lowering. "Besides, you'd only get in the way. We want to have as clear a shot at him as possible."

[Charon]

Shellshock cursed the pits, wishing he had a way to literally achieve the goal of keeping Starscream on ice. But you couldn't have everything.

"Prime is on his way. Just don't make any movements myself or my compatriots here don't like and we'll make certain that when Prime gets here you won't be filled with holes."

With that out of the way Shellshock could get down to other business. "Really, a rust bucket. Just remember that this rust bucket shot you down over Cadmus Prime, and beat you at Grande Rift."

That name was one everyone knew. It was the last great battle of the Second Cybertronian War, the battle that had seen the disappearance of Megatron. That Shellshock had served in that battle said many things.

[frigidmagi]

I transform, my alt form is more effective in regards to anti-air operations if Starscream changes his mind. It also presents a lower profile and smaller target.

Scanners do not show any other Decepticons approaching. Likelyhood of Decepticons in stealth and preparing ambush 25.12%. This is unlikely but possible. I do not lock onto Starscream as the others have him under control. Instead I move into a position to cover the best possible zones of attack.

[Dark Silver]

Starscream, of course, was clean, only the cluster bombs in his chest remained, and he couldn't very well remove those.

By the time this was done, the first human armored vehicle had arrived, a modified Abrahms tank equipped with particle cannons. The heavy barrel was aimed right at Starscream's head, but it didn't fire, humans armed with what looked like M-16's kneeled down into position, a firing squad prepared to add their own weapons fire to the Decepticon. Another rolled up alongside breakout, it's main plasma shell cannon lined up on the flier as well.

"Oh come now Shellshock...we both know you were lucky both times...Why, if I wasn't here on a peaceful intention, I could have razed this entire base - you included. But as it is, No...I'm not here to hide behind prime...I'm here to hand you Pontifex AND Shockwave's head....on a platinum platter. You see.....I disabled the Space Bridge...."

[SirNitram]

"You know, speedie, it's hard to buy that line of slag." Overload commented dryly. "I suppose, of course, you'll chalk up the time I knocked you down to 'luck' as well. Well, luck and Electrum..." The faceplate hid what was, from the sound of it, a savage grin.

"I see you still have your internal munitions.. But I guess I'll be nice and not rip those out. Could take a chunk of your more vital components too... So just stay still and hope Prime beleives you."

[Charon]

Shellshock smiled some. "Never questioned if you were here under peaceful intentions now. But I will grant you that you've given to me as often as I've done to you."

The second part of the statement seemed to catch Shellshock off-guard. "Well, that's a mighty generous gift there Starscream. My optics might be getting misty. Can you show to us that it is?"

[LadyTevar]

"they.... they're enjoying taunting him," Crimson murmured, listening to the older WarBots talk. But it was distracting StarScream from the tiny robot standing only 20 yrds away.

Crimson risked a private comm to Hornet. "Hornet? Would you mind backing up so some of us can get a better shot if we need it? You're in my Grenade range." She hoped that would convince the smaller bot to back off, since he'd seen what her grenades can do.

[Cynical Cat]

Hornet and the human fliers were playing games. Games! In a staging zone within Decepticon strike range. And no one did anything to stop it. The lack of sense and discipline was, depressingly, unsurprising. That Starscream was able to tear through them without anyone getting a bead on him did not surprise Deathstrike at all.

Deathstrike arrived just in time to hear how Starscream had betrayed Shockwave. The former air commander's plan was obvious. Help the Autobots just long enough to kill Shockwave and then defect back to the Decepticons in time to take charge. Of course, the Autobots were going to fall for it.

They were gloating. It was to be expected, although it was stupid. Starscream was a veteran of millions of years of war. They should be remembering how dangerous he was and all the battles he had won, not his defeats. Starscream's flaws were numerous, but so were his talents.

"Starscream," Deathstrike rumbled. "I see you have executed another piece of treachery."

[frigidmagi]

I see Deathstrike join the crowd around Starscream and stomp on my annoyance. There are to many people around him and not enough guarding the perimeter. I send a closed com message to Deathstrike.

"Would you join me, I have need of your sensors."