| abstract
| - Ice Caves, Alkor Zephyr. The facility around the matter bridge has been rebuilt, only now the massive flux capacitor's been replaced by a containment field. The blue energy crackles and shimmers, its power levels dwindling. But that's what Perceptor is here for. He had anticipated this right from the beginning, and thus given himself plenty of time to replace the accelerator before it burned out completely. He is hoping that a more permanent solution to this situation will be discovered soon, however. Replacing the power source is going to be a very dangerous operation every single time it has to be done, as he is relying on the assumption that residual power still in the system will be enough to hold them over until the new reactor could be installed. And then there's the possibility of the Decepticons discovering and attempting to seize control of the portal on top of all of that, which he is well aware of the catastrophe that would most likely result if they managed to do so. Therefore, he's requested that the area be guarded by -someone- at all times. Preferably -more- than one someone. He enters the elevator from the reconstructed control room which is situated just above the large cavern where the portal is, instructing any fighters present to monitor the perimeter, and anyone with technical expertise to follow him down to the containment field. Bluestreak is one of those on guard, after hearing the request from Perceptor about needing someone to do so. So far, it has been rather uneventful, other than the more technically inclined bots coming in and checking on the portal and the accelerator, then heading off elsewhere. He straightens up as he sees Perceptor come back around. The tank splits down the middle, then rises up. The treads separate into legs and arms pop out of the sides. The head comes out of the top of the tank. It's Warpath! Contrail was somewhat out of it due to a radiation overdose when she first observed what the Autobots were doing in these ice caves and thusly mistakenly concluded that the Autobots were throwing a surprise horror birthday party for Wheeljack. Now that she's, er, radiation-sober, she thinks she'll be able to handle this situation better. She hides in the back of the cavern and says quietly, "Hrm. They're already here. Now, we can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way... Spinister, try to sneak Carjack into position with his device without the Autobots noticing. If the Autobots do notice... Misfire, be ready to blow them away." There, that's simple enough. Try sneaky, and if sneaky fails, try shooting people in the face. Spinister had sent Singe to do some scouting, and had already found a smaller cave entrance nearby that circled to the car end of the corridor where the Autobots had set up shop. The trio leas Carjack through, in compliance with Contrail's orders, Hairsplitter carrying equipment, Singe leading the way. Spinister brings up the rear. Misfire sits in the back of the cavern, whispering to Aimless, the little target master snickers as the pair continue to talk softly, they jerk up and looks at Contrail. "Uh, understood, ma'am!" He then starts arguing with Aimless as he forces Aimless into his weapon mode. Carjack is fortunate he has a wide footbase to handle this snow and ice terrain with, because he can't transform effectively with the equipment pack slung on his back, because it prevents his arms and funky shoulders from folding back in properly. Though at the moment he's fussing more with the tank built into his torso, to make sure it's not going to freeze up out here. "Okay, ready," he mutters in a whisper tone as he creeps after the nebulons, leaving the rear to Spinister. Just as long as he doesn't try to stab him in the back or something like that. Combat: Carjack deploys his reserve energon tank. Perceptor slowly makes his way down to the generator with the new accelerator in hand. Very carefully, he begins working the old one out of its compartment, knowing full well that the residual energy might not be enough. He would really have to make this quick... Warpath isn't bothered by how cold it is, but notices icicles forming on his legs. He shakes a leg to shake them off. "If the Humans came here, they could POW, sure take their fill of shaved ice and make snowcones," he says. He keeps watch out for evil Decepticons, panning the surrounding area by shading his optics. Contrail very carefully transforms into her jet mode, trying to be quiet about it. It has better sensors, and she wants to get an idea of what's going on with Perceptor and his strange collection of equipment. Then it belatedly hits her, She mutters to Misfire, "... your... be okay in... weather?" Hey, they take the things out in space sometimes, it /should/ be okay, but... Flipping into a modified F-35B Lightning II, the sky is not the limit. Combat: F-35B Lightning II sets her defense level to Protected. Misfire continues to remain crouched under his cover as he watches Contrail advance on the enemy. Clutching Aimless tightly, he slowly moves to a better position to provide cover fire....That is the play at least. He then speaks into his radio to Contrail. Singe halts, turning to Carjack. "This is as close as we get without walking right into them...work for you?" Hairsplitter and Spinister remain silent, ready to murder something at a moment's notice. Carjack stops, nodding to the nebulons and then leans a little to peer towards where the Autobots are working, then murmurs as he slides the pack off his back to set it lightly in the snow. Perceptor can be seen working as quickly as possible, sliding the plating back and pulling out the cables securing the old accelerator within. A low whirring sound is heard as it disengages, but the field doesn't disappear. At least not right away, anyway. Good, it appeared there would be enough residual energy still within the system and in the reserve power cells to keep it up and running for the next few kliks. Which is all the time he needs, hopefully. He opens a panel on the new power source and pulls out the right connectors, deftly plugging them into the right slots and interfaces. "Yo, Perceptor. You ok in there? You're not going to POW, get sucked into something, are you?" Warpath remarks, "I'll ZOOM, throw you a line if you need it." He still hasn't seen any cons. Moonracer keeps a keen optic on their surroundings, though the area itself is making that difficult. Twisty tunnels, falling ceilings, echoes, quakes... Reminds her of home on Cybertron, minus the ice! She grins mischievously, peering through the scope of her rifle and hoping for a target. An odd-shaped rock formation reminds her of ol' Shox, and she contentedly sights right where his beady little optic would be. "How long will you be, Percy?" she asks evenly, sweeping her rifle - and the scope - back and forth in a search pattern. "HEY!" Grimlock's voice booms and echoes from the walls of the ice cavern, causing icicles to shake precariously! "HEY YOU AUTOBOTS!" and he tromps in down a tunnel, heading in the general direction of the Autobot lab. "How come me Grimlock get sent to stupid boring science hole? Me Grimlock have better stuffs to do than be here! Where him Perceptor? Him need hurry up so me Grimlock can leave and go punch things!" Of course, the fabled punching time may come sooner than anticipated, as Grimlock stomps upwards...possibly, inadvertently flanking the skulking Decepticons! That is, if Grimlock can be bothered to notice. Spinister tenses as he hears Grimlock's voice rumble through the neighboring canyon. He glances up at Singe, who gives his commander a nod. Hairsplitter kneels beside the bag Carjack drops, and begins assembling components. Misfire senses a shadow that passes over his frame as peers upwards towards the source of the shadow. He lets out a gasp, his weapon starts shaking as the terrifying Dinobot leader is appearing very close to his position. He whispers into his comm and then holds still, very still...he heard Dinobots can only see movement... F-35B Lightning II is trying to be inconspicuous and hide out in the shadows, chilling (literally) with Misfire. But Grimlock is right there! She thinks to herself, /Slag slag slag!/ but maybe she should be thinking, /Grimlock grimlock grimlock!/ Grimlock may as well be a swear word, too. Now they have a dilemma. If she and Misfire pile on Grimlock now, they'll have the element of surprise, but they'll give away that the Decepticons are here, and then the Autobots might find Carjack and Spinister... Contrail settles on warily examining the dinosaur. Is Misfire seeing this? Combat: Contrail analyzes Grimlock for weaknesses Misfire can exploit. So far, so good. Just a couple of putzy Autobots and a big red nerd in the way of all that energy. They just need t -- Carjack looks up at the bellowing of the Dinobot from getting his gear together. ".. Crap." Perceptor finishes hooking it up, then pushes it into the compartment and locks it into place. The field glows brighter as more energy pumps into it. He glances up at the others. "I have installed the new accelerator, just a few more maintenance routines and I will be finished. And do not worry, Warpath. As long as the shield remains active, I will not be in danger of being drawn into it." he answers. As for Grimlock, everyone had to have a turn at boring guard duty, didn't they? And speaking of Grimlock, the vibrations from his stomping around within the fragile caverns of ice is causing the ground and walls around Contrail and Misfire to crack and tremble... Bluestreak watches what Perceptor is doing, curiously. "Yeah, if you need help, just say so, just... give us the instructions needed to do whatever it is." He tells him, more or less echoing what Warpath said. Hearing thunderous stomping around that point, Bluestreak tries to catch Grimlock's attention. "Er, softer footsteps Grimlock, this whole cave can fall in on us if it continues to be shaken up like this." Moonracer sees lots of falling stuff now, and the ground shivers beneath her feet. "Whoa!" Looking over her shoulder, she cheerfully waves a free hand to tall, dark, and Grim. "Hey, Grim. Looking good. Good enough to bring the house down! Uh, would you pretty please take it easy for us lesser 'bots?" Looking back again, she studies the tunnels with a slight frown on her usually cheerful face. There are just too many hiding places here to keep track of, so she watches for movement and/or something that looks out of place. "If you POW, say so," Warpath replies. He looks over at Bluestreak and Grimlock. "Yeah, we wouldn't want a POW, avalanche or something. We'd need to be dug out. I could probably BLAM, blow us out, but that might take a while." Grimlock remains blissfully unaware of the cowering 'cons...or, perhaps, he's just lulling them into a false sense of security so he can turn around and murder them EVEN HARDER. He is, after all, brutally cunning. He looks over at Bluestreak, and hmns? "Softer? How? Ice no am soft! It am brittle!" and, just to prove his point, Grimlock *THUMPS* the wall, causing an instant spiderweb of cracks to ripple outwards! He looks over at Moonracer, shrugs, and then tromps on further into the cavern, not too far from Perceptor. "Why am this important again?" F-35B Lightning II has to make a decision now that the ice is cracking. If they just sit where they are and ice cracks under then, they will end up buried under a bunch of ice, and that is Jetfire's job, not theirs. If they move, they might be noticed. So she decides to call for an attack while surprise is still on their side. Contrail transforms to robot mode to take advantage of her robot mode and charges forward, shouting, "Decepticons, attack! Show the Autobots the /true/ meaning of a white-out!" In a transformation that is harder than it looks, Contrail rises up into robot mode. Misfire continues to remain hunkered down, his optic bar flickers off as if he is summoning all of his concentration. Reflexively he grips his weapon tighter...the weapon emits an audible *yelp*. Misfire's optics flash back on. "*Slag*...Aimless..." Utilizing the targeting information he received from Contrail, he raises up from his position, leaping into the air, firing downwards towards Grimlock, Aimless emits, "I have feelings you know..." Combat: Contrail inspires Spinister and Carjack with heroic and patriotic words! Combat: Misfire misses Grimlock with his Close range can't miss right? attack! [Pulled -3] Quicker than you can say 'chee choo choo choo chee' (or in exactly that amount of time), Hairsplitter and Singe are duel weapons in Spinister's hands. The Decepticon steps out of cave, behind the Autobots, opening fire as Contrail gives the classic battlecry, fire and lasers raining down on the Autobots like firey and lasery death! Hrm. Flame thrower. Ice cave. This is probably bad. Combat: Spinister sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Spinister misses Bluestreak with his Flamethrower Area attack! Combat: Spinister misses Warpath with his Flamethrower Area attack! And while everyone else goes off to get into a fight and hopefully distract the Autobots, Carjack hoists up his gear by the convenient side handles and moves closer to the spacial disruption. "Pfft, energy shielding." At the flick of a switch several tentril like tubes extend out of the device, ends tipped in sharp little claws that snake out to grab onto the field and then extend syphoning probes from their centers to try and force through the shield and get to the sweet sweet energy antimatter within. "They always seem to think you need to -break- the shield off first. Ametures." Warpath manages not to get singed, but then the heat from the flames melts some ice above him and he gets drenched. "Oh man, I didn't want a POW, cold shower!" he complains, "Get outta here with that fire, you're going to BLAM, turn the entire cave into a river! As the coldness of the cave reclaims the air around the red minibot, ice starts to form on him. "I'll cool you off but good, what do you say to that, KAPOW?" He launches a freezing cold shell at Spinister, to counteract the heat blast. Combat: Warpath sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Warpath strikes Spinister with his Cryo Shells attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Spinister's Agility. (Crippled) Perceptor sighs, a bit annoyed at Grimlock's lack of cooperation. But it wasn't exactly any use trying to reason with him. Besides, this cavern had been reinforced fairly well. He didn't -think- it would collapse completely. And anyway, he'd tried talking sense into the Dinobot, before. It was useless. He finishes up the maintenance checks, but tenses suddenly as he sees Carjack's machinery extending toward the portal. "No! What are you doing? It's far too -dangerous-!" he cries out, quickly draws his weapon from subspace and squeezing off a quick shot at the other scientist. Combat: Perceptor strikes Carjack with his Quick and badly aimed shot! (Laser) attack! "Whuh?" Grimlock, through sheer luck (or perhaps unconscious battle instinct) turns at juuust the right moment, which causes Misfire's blast to go awry! (Not that it takes much for that to happen). He soon forgets whatever technobabble Perceptor was going on about, and sights in on Misfire. "Oh! Maybe it no be so boring after all!" Grimlock says- and, with no small degree of enthusiasm, he brings up his double-barreled laser blaster and returns fire! Possibly a bit more accurately than Misfire (not that it takes much for that to happen). Combat: Grimlock sets his defense level to Neutral. Bluestreak turns just in time to see the flames coming at him. He ducked down, so the flames only hit the wall behind him. The walls made out of ice... that turns into water. He yelped as the walls melt behind him, making the cave more unstable than it was before. Seeing that the shot came from Spinister, he pulled out his pistol to fire at the weapons in his hands Combat: Grimlock misses Misfire with his Lasers! (Laser) attack! Combat: Bluestreak sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Bluestreak strikes Spinister with his Pistol attack! Decepticon shouting is the only warning, followed by a wave of hot air. Moonracer spins to locate the enemy, as the slagging caves still distort sound. There's much to see, and she scans the attacking 'cons for a target. Her blue optics widen as nature takes its course, and the melting ice floods this area, at least. She reacts as a proud native of Cybertron. Water! Water should be in a laboratory or on Earth, not flooding the ground! Annoyed, she picks a target and fires. "Hey, ugly! No, not all of you," she adds with a smirk and aims at Misfire. Combat: Moonracer sets her defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Moonracer misses Misfire with her Pulse Laser Grenade Launcher attack! Contrail transforms to car mode, pops out her machine guns, and decides that, clearly, there is not enough pain in her life, because she is going to try to draw /all/ the aggro down on her own head! The machine guns swivel as she tries to take a pot shot at each and every Autobot. As if that was not enough attention-getting, she yells, "Yeaaaahh!" Turning into a police car, Contrail fights crime! Wait, that's not right. Contrail causes crime. Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo deploys her reserve energon tank. Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo strikes Grimlock with her FN Minimi 5.56mm Light Machine Guns Area attack! Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo strikes Moonracer with her FN Minimi 5.56mm Light Machine Guns Area attack! Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo strikes Bluestreak with her FN Minimi 5.56mm Light Machine Guns Area attack! Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo strikes Warpath with her FN Minimi 5.56mm Light Machine Guns Area attack! Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo strikes Perceptor with her FN Minimi 5.56mm Light Machine Guns Area attack! Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo (Contrail) used "FN Minimi 5.56mm Light Machine Guns": A Level 2 AREA-RANGED attack. Misfire continues his ascent into the air, as he curses as he misses, no matter how many times that happens, he always seems surprised. "Focus Aimless!" He curses at his weapon, which then curses back at him. The weapon starts jerking the Decepticon who is holding him, "Now, I am in control Misfire!" The weapon emits. The benefit of the argument is that he manages to to dodge Grimlock's and Moonracer's blasts as he struggles with his weapon, the Decepticon forgetting his confined spaces, and preoccupied with his weapon, hits the back of the wall of the cavern. He then falls out of the sky and takes a swan dive towards the ground, just before he hits the ground his weapon fires off a blast towards Grimlock! Combat: Misfire strikes Grimlock with his Fallin' Blast! (Laser) attack! At the last moment, Hairsplitter takes matters into his own hands and blasts the shell Warpath fires, exploding the projectile right in front of the Targetmaster, sending him reeling. The force of the blast sends massive cracks into the ice cave walls. Spinister turns quickly as he stands, letting Bluestreak's blasts strafe across his back armor, before rotating back around returning fire with Hairsplitter. Combat: Spinister strikes Bluestreak with his Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah lasers. attack! Carjack grunts as a shot hits his protuding shoulder while he's working the machinery. "Too dangerous? No kidding! It's -freaking antimatter-. But yer just balling it up like a giant tupperware instead of, I don't know, properly -weaponizing- it. Total waste of perfectly good science." Shifting to brace the device under one arm so it can keep working, he uses the other hand to pull out his own gun and shoot a projectile needle full of who knows what vile concoction back at the big red nerd. Combat: Carjack strikes Perceptor with his Syringe Gun attack! Combat: Carjack (Carjack) used "Syringe Gun": A Level 2 RANGED attack. Combat: Carjack's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Perceptor. Moonracer scowls as Misfire's weapon jerks him out of her line of fire but has to giggle at the sight. What isn't so funny is the hail of bullets from Contrail as they chew away at her armor like a rabid squirrel. And water drips from the ceiling onto her rifle! Moving quickly to a better vantage point, she steadies herself, replacing the rifle with a light sidearm and fires on the ballistic Decepticon lady. Combat: Moonracer sets her defense level to Guarded. Combat: Moonracer misses Lamborghini Gallardo with her Pistol attack! Grimlock endures a decepticon assault! In a word: Tuesday. He grunts as he's assailed by the gunfire, but muscles through it! "Grr! Me Grimlock glad you showed up, 'cuz this gonna be pretty BORING otherwise! Haw haw haw!" Almost casually, Grimlock thumbs the fire selector on his gun to 'LOTS' and opens up, spraying laser fire haphazardly through the tunnels until the energy battery in his gun runs dry! And Wheeljack made sure to give Grimlock a very larger battery. "Hey! You Autobots!" Grimlock casually looks over his shoulder at the other 'bots present. "You gonna do anythings, or do me Grimlock get to have all the fun? HAW HAW HAW!" The ice that had melted from Spinister's flamethrower splashes down onto the Autobots, but it's so cold in the polar regions of Alkor Zephyr that it simply freezes up again upon coming into contact with just about anything, even the air. Chunks of ice rain down. But if Spinister decides to use that attack too much, he might just bring the entire cavern down onto everyone, including himself. Meanwhile, Perceptor is knocked back by Contrail's machine gunfire, but thankfully only takes minimal damage. However as soon as he recovers from that, he suddenly finds a strange and volatile substance spewing onto his armor from Carjack's syringe gun and burning through some of his armor. "I believe you have failed to realize the gravity of the situation that will result should your device cause the field to fail." Meaning this entire place would blow up, killing -everyone-. He charges his weapon again, but this time he's decided to make use of some experimental ammunition he's come up with, that -should- slow its victims movements. But who ever knew with these things? Combat: Grimlock misses Misfire with his Laser Barrage Area attack! Combat: Grimlock strikes Lamborghini Gallardo with his Laser Barrage Area attack! Combat: Grimlock strikes Spinister with his Laser Barrage Area attack! Combat: Perceptor strikes Carjack with his Slow down! attack! Combat: Perceptor's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Carjack. Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Carjack's Accuracy. (Blinded) The two attacks push Bluestreak back into the already weakened wall, causing the already weakened icicles to fall and just further any other cracks in the cave. Looking pretty ticked now, he sets his shoulder rockets to aim at Contrail, ignoring Spinister for now. Combat: Bluestreak strikes Lamborghini Gallardo with his Shoulder-Mounted Rocket attack! Warpath gets hit by machine-gun fire and turns his attention away from Spinister. "HEY, fill me full of holes, will ya? I'll BAM, blow a bigger one into your chassis! They'll be able to use you for a fountain decoration!" he shouts at his attacker, and fires a shell that on impact will release a sonic blast. "That'll POW, ring your bell, ha ha ha!" Combat: Warpath strikes Lamborghini Gallardo with his Sonic Shells attack! Misfire lands face first in the ground, the blasts of Grimlock, go right over him. He lets out a moan as the ice underneath him starts to crack and give way to his mass. Quickly he scrambles to his feet, running away from the cracks and into the fray...Aimless continues to fire lasers, in every direction, not really aiming. As the seconds pass, Aimless begins venting the excess heat, melting nearby ice formation, causing the pair to get shallowed by steam from the melting ice. "SLAG!!!" Misfire curses as he swipes his weapon in front of him, attempting to clear his area, after a moment, Aimless slips from his grip landing in front of Misfire, Aimless continues to fire as he emits a cackle of glee, without Misfire stabilizing him, Aimless spins in a circle, sending blasts in every direction. Combat: Misfire strikes Grimlock with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire misses Moonracer with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire's Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! attack on Carjack goes wild! Combat: Misfire misses Lamborghini Gallardo with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire strikes Spinister with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire's Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! attack on Bluestreak goes wild! Combat: Misfire misses Lamborghini Gallardo with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire misses Lamborghini Gallardo with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire strikes Warpath with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire's Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! attack on Perceptor goes wild! Combat: Misfire strikes Lamborghini Gallardo with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Misfire misses himself with his Spinning Aimless Rays of Death! Area attack! [Pulled -1] "And blowing up this worthless chunk of ice with a bunch of Bots on it!" Carjack pauses after his own ramble, considering it. ".. Actually, that's not a bad idea if this fails. Not that I need to -destroy- the field, just drill a few holes in i--ack!" The mad doctor reels backwards as instead of slowing down the attack scrambles his optical sensors a bit while he was talking. "Dammit! Don't interrupt the monolouging!" Hunkering down next to the machine he smacked the side of his helm a few times to try and clear it. Combat: Carjack sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Carjack takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Spinister moves quickly after he hits Bluestreak, stopping suddenly as a massive piece of ICE WALL collapses in front of him. The hesitation gives Grimlock a perfect target, and Spinister takes multiple hits from the Dinobot before finding cover behind the collapsed wall. Somehow, a few of Misfire's shots richochet several times in the cave and hit him in the head. He rolls his eyes as the Nebs reload. Combat: Spinister takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Lamborghini Gallardo swerves out of the way of Moonracer's shot, really, really wishing that she had snow tyres. She ends up skidding straight into the line of Grimlock's fire, and it definitely takes a chunk out of her. She keeps on skidding and skids right into Bluestreak's rocket... and Warpath's shell. Chunks of her armour fly everywhere. Contrail is an amazing success at drawing aggro, and yet... Carjack is still having trouble with Perceptor. Then Aimless tries to shoot her four times and manages to hit her once, blowing out one of her primary load servos. Clearly, Aimless secretly despises Contrail. Contrail transforms up into her jet mode. This is some tight, tricky flying, especially as she is now trying to be defensive given her injuries, but she examines Grimlock again, studying him for flaws. Flipping into a modified F-35B Lightning II, the sky is not the limit. Combat: F-35B Lightning II sets her defense level to Protected. Combat: Contrail analyzes Grimlock for weaknesses. Perceptor finds himself getting shot at by the random firing of Aimless as Carjack ducks down into cover. Seizing the opportunity, he rushes over to the mad doctor's machine and immediately begins attempting to figure out how to disengage it without leaving the containment field with holes in it. "Autobots, cover fire while I attempt to disengage the extraction device!" he shouts, glancing momentarily over his shoulder. Combat: Perceptor takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] And if that's not enough, a truly aimless Aimless hits Warpath! What a lucky shot. The minibot collapses into his tank mode and aims at Misfire. "Hey, maybe your gun should be POW, taken out and shot," he suggests quite seriously, though the swagger in Warpath's voice could indicate he thinks the idea is funny. "Here, let me ZING, help you with that." A laser blast lances from the tank's barrel towards the haplessly aimless targetmaster. Warpath folds down into his awesome tank mode. Combat: Red Tank strikes Misfire with his POW! (Laser) attack! Seeing the icicles still barely hanging on, Bluestreak makes a decision to try and hit the cons in the cave with them, if he can take down three all four at once, or at least, keep them down for a bit. With careful aim, he goes for the icicles. "I'm going to shoot down those icicles over there, take cover!" He commed to the rest of the bots as he fires. Combat: Bluestreak strikes F-35B Lightning II with his ICICLES! (Ruckus) Area attack! Combat: Bluestreak strikes Misfire with his ICICLES! (Ruckus) Area attack! Combat: Bluestreak misses Spinister with his ICICLES! (Ruckus) Area attack! Combat: Bluestreak misses Carjack with his ICICLES! (Ruckus) Area attack! Moonracer isn't having much luck today, and she finds that disquieting. She flattens herself on the icy ground - it froze up again - when Misfire's gun goes wild and attacks everyone. Normally, she'd laugh, but she's getting uneasy. Contrail is the most obvious target this time, and she carefully sights in on the femme with her trusty rifle, taking her time. Combat: Moonracer sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Moonracer takes extra time to aim her next attack. Lasers! Lasers everywhere! And for once, most of them aren't coming from Grimlock! That's...somewhat of a shame, really. Grimlock grunts as he's again struck by Misfire's surprisingly potent lasers- and then, there's the matter of Perceptor speaking up! "Me Grimlock no know what you doing, but me Grimlock just like the firing part!" And with that, Grimlock turns his optics onto Carjack- at which point he leans over and grabs for the mad scientist, attempting to *SLAM!* him into an icy wall! Let's...hope Perceptor was right about the risk of collapse! (Or lack therof) Combat: Grimlock strikes Carjack with his PUNCH attack! F-35B Lightning II gets shanked through the aileron by an icicle courtesy of Bluestreak. Dodging is going to be difficult now, with one of her flight surfaces damaged! She drops back down to the ground and transforms into her car mode, zipping over to Spinister to... pop a refuelling arm out of her trunk and try to stick it... somewhere? Spinister doesn't really have a face. Huh. This is awkward. Turning into a police car, Contrail fights crime! Wait, that's not right. Contrail causes crime. Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo refuels Spinister's energon reserves. "Hey! Hands off my -- whoa!" Carjack stumbles back as a falling icicle interrupts his interrupting the interruption. Wipes his brow off with one hand. "Whew. That was clos--" WHAM! Grimlock succeeds on doing what the ice chunk failed with his big fist, laying Carjack flat out on the ground. "Stupid Dinobots." With a growl he gets up... and scrambles back behind the extractor device. Which doesn't take all that kindly to being tampered with, as one of the tube-arms turns and takes a swing at Perceptor with its penetrating probe-claws to try and knock him away from itself. Combat: Carjack strikes Perceptor with his Self defense mechanism attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Carjack (Carjack) used "Jaws of Death": A Level 2 MELEE attack. Misfire continues to stare Aimless as if by magic, all of the blasts miss Misfire. His optics flicker. "AIMLESS!!! CONTROL YOURSELF!" He bellows at his weapon, his optics momentarily look at Spinisters companions. "Why can't you be like Singe and Hairsplitter..." He asks softly as he takes a few steps towards Aimless, to stop his weapon. First the blast from Warpath nails him in the chest, knocking Misfire off his feet, on to his back. Then an icicle falls all around Misfire, two just narrowly miss his head, as another pierces through his chest, Misfire lets out a scream. Aimless, after exhausting his ammo, stops firing as he reverts to his humanoid form, Aimless walks over towards Misfire and points and laugh! Misfire curses as he beckons Aimless closer. Aimless takes a few tentative steps, right before Misfire grabs his weapons leg, he then uses his repulsers to lift him off the ground, he continues to hold Aimless by his leg, upside down as with his other hand he pulls out a small hold-out pistol. He points it at Grimlock and fires at the Dinobot! Combat: Misfire strikes Grimlock with his Blast from the non-talking weapon! (Pistol) attack! Spinister spots Grimlock charging Carjack and is on his feet as Contrail lands next to him. Spinister cocks his head at Contrail. The face plate ain't opening. Mystery, lady. Remember? He takes the refuel patch, a compartment opening in his chest. Popping it in, he leaps into the air, transforming into ATTACK HELICOPTER mode, the ice walls really not liking it that much. The energon overload practically causes Singe and Hairsplitter to glow on his wings, both opening up on Grimlock with a massive burst of blue fire and laser energy! Spinister lifts into the air, transforming into an Apache Attack Helicopter! A MYSTERIOUS Apache Attack Helicopter! Combat: Attack Helicopter misses Grimlock with his Double Targetmasters: Engage! Form of Fire! Shape of Laser Death! GO! attack! The walls shake violently as Grimlock slams Carjack into one, and Spinister makes use of his helicopter form. The ceiling crumples downward in a V-shape, threatening to to cave in, but doesn't just yet. He may have been right, but just barely. chunks of ice and grey stone tumble down onto the fray. Perceptor notices a fairly sizable piece of icy stone falling toward him and is force to jump away from the device, but not before it managed to smack him in the shoulder, causing him to stumble backward. He fires off multiple shots in the general direction of the enemy before he smacks into a stalagmite in the ground. Surprisingly, Misfire manages to zap Grimlock with a non-nebulan weapon, which may cast doubts on the entire Nebulan process! Regardless, the dinobot just gives a grunt- and he soon transforms! Now in his even more murderous dinosaur mode, Grimlock growls menacingly- and, opening his mouth, he spits out a gout of flame at the last Decepticon to attack him- Spinister! And here he thought -HE- had a flamethrower! *FWOOSH!* Again, Grimlock looks over his shoulder, almost as an afterthought. "HEY. Perceptor! Am you done with scienceings yet?" With a grunt and a growl, Grimlock changes into a robot T-rex! Watch out. Combat: Robot T-Rex! misses Attack Helicopter with his Fire Breath attack! Combat: Perceptor strikes Misfire with his Semi-random firing (Full-Auto) Area attack! Combat: Perceptor misses Lamborghini Gallardo with his Semi-random firing (Full-Auto) Area attack! Combat: Perceptor misses Carjack with his Semi-random firing (Full-Auto) Area attack! Moonracer calms herself and focuses on one thing, and one thing only: the jet turned car. She's quick and agile to have done so much, and she feels a grudging respect for the other femme. That doesn't stop her from resolutely holding her aim and slowly squeezing the trigger, hoping that she doesn't let her comrades down this time. Combat: Moonracer strikes Lamborghini Gallardo with her Pulse Laser Grenade Launcher attack! "Hey, BLAM, that fire will bring the house down," the red tank exclaims. He lurches forward, gaining traction on the rapidly melting ice, "Aww, slag! Might as well BAZING, join 'em and flush em!" He fires a hot shell at the Decepticons, hoping to turn the tunnel to slush above and below them. Combat: Red Tank misses Misfire with his Thermal Shells Area attack! Combat: Red Tank misses Lamborghini Gallardo with his Thermal Shells Area attack! "Yes!" Bluestreak says to himself as the icicles pulled the distraction he was aiming for. As long as the Cons don't think he is a target worth hitting, he is willing to use the very icicles in the cave as an effective weapon strategy again. Until he saw that both Perceptor and Grimlock were targeted heavily. Deciding that Perceptor needs more time to take on the extraction device, he aims at Carjack. Combat: Bluestreak strikes Carjack with his giving time for Perceptor to mess with that extraction machine (Pistol) attack! Lamborghini Gallardo manages to dodge and weave to evade Perceptor's semi-random shots, her tyres squealing against the ice and kicking up clouds of snow. She is not so luck when it comes to Moonracer, the deadly sniper, whose shot manages to throw one of Contrail's axles off-kilter, making it difficult for her to drive. Despite this handicap, she manages to narrowly squeak past Warpath's shells. She transforms into robot mode and attempts to douse Grimlock in terrible acid. Everything has broken down into chaos. In a transformation that is harder than it looks, Contrail rises up into robot mode. Combat: Contrail strikes Robot T-Rex! with her Acid Strike attack! Misfire gets blasted in the chest sending the Targetmaster sprawling to his back, as he falls, his arms swing forward. The moisture in the cave, the momentum, and the damage cause Misfire to lose grip of his pistol and Aimless. Both items fly towards Grimlock! Aimless flails in the air with is arm and legs, his optics stare at the pistol which spins next to him, "Homewrecker!" Misfire lays on his back, looking to the side, "Vera...Aimless?" Aimless hears this while he flys in the sky. "You called for her first Misfire, traitor!" Misfire has a look of horror at his weapons both approach Grimlock. Combat: Misfire strikes Robot T-Rex! with his Flying Bickering Weapons! (Punch) attack! Perceptor's wild firing pings off the exterior of the machine, but the lack of focus does little to harm the device, the extrator continuing to do it's job at penetrating the field and extract the anti-matter from the distortion within now that the primary threat has backed off. Carjack chooses the wrong moment to peek out to check the progress though, as Bluestreak's shot puts another hole in his chassis. He hisses and snarls under his breath, but ignores it for the moment, as the duty of a combat medic comes first. Instead he loads his gun, aims partway over the machine, and fires a vial of molecular restabilization agent at Contrail while she's trying to chase off Grimlock. Combat: Carjack quickly patches up some of Contrail's minor injuries. Attack Helicopter transforms, avoiding Grimlock's fire blast. Neb guns still aglow in energon overload, he fires a second massive TWIN DEATH BLAST at the Dinobot Commander! Spinister touches down on the ground, unfolding into his terribly mysterious robot mode! Combat: Spinister strikes Robot T-Rex! with his DUO-TECH:ENGAGE! attack! Combat: Spinister uses up a charge on his Double Targetmasters booster pack! The thermal shells miss the Decepticons, but the ice below the fighting mechs indeed turns to slush, reducing traction by a long shot and making it difficult to control any kind of quick movement, particularly if one were using a terrestrial vehicle form. The ice begins to freeze back up but this process is slowed by the amount of heat that has built up inside the cavern due to all the weapons fire. Perceptor, meanwhile manages to recover from the hits he's just received. Determined to deactivate that machine, he runs back over to it. Only this time, he keeps his weapon in one hand and hacks its controls with the other, ready to shoot any tentacle-like thing that might try to attack him. Or punch Carjack, if necessary... Being ignored is to his advantage, as he felt more comfortable shooting at a distance. He also notes that the cave will not hold up much longer if things kept getting fired in here. Nonetheless, he takes another shot at Carjack- he rather take out what could become a really big problem if Carjack managed to take out their only scientist on the ice planet. Combat: Bluestreak strikes Carjack with his Keep the Con away from the Machine! (Laser) attack! Robot T-Rex! is huge. That's...kind of how he was built. And, as such, he tends to get shot at. A lot. "Rargh!" Grimlock snarls, even as the Decepticon firepower pounds at his thick armor...which, while it buckles, it does not break! And...well, seems that getting shot so often just makes Grimlock -mad-. "Rrr! Me Grimlock gonna smash you now!" he snarls- and then he snaps his jaws at the nearest opponent- which, in this case, is Carjack! Should he get ahold of him, there will be much shaking and snapping, like a dog with a ragdoll toy! Grrrr! Combat: Robot T-Rex! misses Carjack with his SHAKESHAKESHAKE (Kick) attack! Combat: Perceptor takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Moonracer has to sigh in relief. At least she hit this time. Feeling a bit more chipper, she rises to a kneeling position and absently brushes some fallen ice from her green armor as she scans for another target. The sniper rifle is replaced once again by her pistol in the interests of conserving energy. She's feeling the draw now, but most people are already entangled with Decepticon fighters and doing all right. Focus, Moonracer, she tells herself as she zeroes in on Contrail again. That lady is impressive, if only for her endurance. Combat: Moonracer sets her defense level to Neutral. Combat: Moonracer strikes Contrail with her Pistol attack! Combat: Red Tank takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Misfire watches as his weapons both clatter off Grimlock's armor, falling helplessly towards the ground. Misfire pushes himself up as he scrambles towards Aimless. "Aimless..." he cries as Aimless lays on the ground. Misfire executes a slide towards Aimless, picking up his limp weapon, holding it limply. Misfire leaves Vera behind, alone, in the cold, darkness of this hellhole...of course Vera is just a standard pistol. Misfire clutches Aimless as he rocks back and forth, he pulls out a flask and pours the overcharged on Aimless. "Come on Aimless, wake up...we still need to blast our way out..." Combat: Misfire takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] There comes a time when even the doctor has to ditch his latest dasterly device... and this is one of those times. If only because he's got avoid the Dinobot stomping around. Unfortunately the melting slush of the floor ruins his tractions, and while he manages to duck and dodge the dino-tantrum, Bluestreak's marksmanship proves spot on in hitting him in the back and sending the engineer skidding across the mushy cavern floor. "Anti-matter be damned, if they break -me- there's no one to put you mooks back together!" Well no, okay, there's quite a few Con doctors, but that doesn't stop Carjack from using that as reasoning all the same as he half dives and half falls for cover behind some not quite so frozen rocks and takes a moment to do something about all the holes that idiot that's not even blue has been putting in him. Combat: Carjack quickly patches up some of his minor injuries. Contrail gets some wonderful medical care from Carjack. Gratitude shows on her face, but she only has time for a quick, "Thanks," because this is a crazy warzone of melting ice, dinosaurs, and antimatter. In fact, Contrail is shot right in the arm gun by Moonracer and glares at her. Who does that!? Stupid snipers, hitting targets. Ow. She transforms and drives over to Misfire to grant him the gift of booze. Turning into a police car, Contrail fights crime! Wait, that's not right. Contrail causes crime. Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo refuels Misfire's energon reserves. And then Spinister is in front of Misfire. He turns to his Mayhem brother, giving him a nod, and then twists back into the fray, gauntlet blasters giving Singe and Hairsplitter a break, strafing the cave to give Contrail a chance to recharge Misfire, and for Misfire to get Aimless out. Combat: Spinister strikes Robot T-Rex! with his GET TO THE CHOPPA! (Full-Auto) Area attack! Combat: Spinister misses Moonracer with his GET TO THE CHOPPA! (Full-Auto) Area attack! Combat: Spinister misses Bluestreak with his GET TO THE CHOPPA! (Full-Auto) Area attack! Combat: Spinister strikes Perceptor with his GET TO THE CHOPPA! (Full-Auto) Area attack! Combat: Spinister (Spinister) used "Full-Auto": A Level 2 AREA-RANGED attack. Combat: Spinister misses Red Tank with his GET TO THE CHOPPA! (Full-Auto) Area attack! Robot T-Rex! , despite causing more apparent damage to the caves themselves than the Decepticons invading them, still gives a content grunt as the Decepticons begin to break and flee! That is, of course, a glorious sight for an Autobot. What's an even more glorious sight for a DINOBOT, however, is a decepticon who's not fast or smart enough to stay outside of biting distance! And so, as Spinister makes his heroic stand, Grimlock moves to test that heroism, bearing down on him with all of his bulk- and, even more importantly, all of his teeth! CHOMP! Combat: Robot T-Rex! sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Robot T-Rex! strikes Spinister with his biting! (Kick) attack! Perceptor is not having much luck with the hacking...such things took time and concentration that this type of situation didn't exactly allow. Especially since the device itself kept swinging at him. And with each weapon that's fired, the heat in the cavern continues to increase. They wouldn't be able to stay in here for long without getting crushed, at the rate this was going... Suddenly, he is struck by Spinister's strafing run and once again knocked away from the device. "Agh!" he cries out, hitting an already unstable wall. Combat: Red Tank strikes Spinister with his PCHOO PCHOO PCHOO (Pistol) attack! Combat: Perceptor sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Perceptor takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Bluestreak sees the medic scurry away to hide, giving him a moment to focus on everything else. He can't shoot icicles down again as it was pretty much turning to slush aeound him. He aims at Contrail now, noting how she was the one helping with the refueling. Combat: Bluestreak strikes Lamborghini Gallardo with his Volt Beam attack! Combat: That attack has locked on Lamborghini Gallardo . (LOCKON) Well, no matter how many times she shoots her, the Decepticon lady just keeps on ticking. Moonracer shakes her head in disgust and slinks from rock formation to icy stalagtite to a cavity in the tunnel wall, moving slowly to keep from losing traction on the ice. Staying in one place after you've taken a shot is foolish, unless you're someone like Grim there, who can shrug anything off. She settles in her new vantage point and tries for a more difficult shot, that being Perceptor's bane over there. Combat: Moonracer sets her defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Moonracer strikes Carjack with her Pistol attack! Heroics. One minute you're defending fallen allies and the next you're in a T-Rex's jaws, getting swung around while a red tank with speech problems is shooting at your head. Singe and Hairsplitter fist shake at Grimlock, having been dropped by Spinister when the Rex charged. Hairsplitter transforms, taking shots at Grimlock's (hopefully) softer underbelly. Lamborghini Gallardo has the heck zapped out of her by Bluestreak's volt beam, and she decides it is time to draw attention to herself again, given that poor wee Carjack is complaining. She rises up into her robot mode and draws her electric whip. Contrail takes a moment whirling the whip through the air, getting it up to speed, and she looks at each and every Autobot. Then she casts her line out. In a transformation that is harder than it looks, Contrail rises up into robot mode. Combat: Contrail sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Contrail strikes Robot T-Rex! with her Whiplash Whirlwind Area attack! Combat: Contrail misses Moonracer with her Whiplash Whirlwind Area attack! Combat: Contrail strikes Bluestreak with her Whiplash Whirlwind Area attack! Combat: Contrail strikes Red Tank with her Whiplash Whirlwind Area attack! Combat: Contrail strikes Perceptor with her Whiplash Whirlwind Area attack! Combat: Contrail (Contrail) used "Whiplash Whirlwind": A Level 5 AREA-MELEE attack. Combat: Contrail's attack has damaged your Firepower! Aimless sputters and spits out part of the Energon Misfire is giving him, the tiny weapon bashes Misfire with a soft punch. "The cheap stuff? Augh, I *thought* you liked me more than that..." before Misfire can respond, Contrail comes and restores Misfire's reserves. He looks at contrail. "Ahhh...that hit the spot, thanks Boss!" He looks at Spinister, smiling at him as he gets to his feet, scrambling backwards...forcing Aimless to transform back into gun mode, giving cover fire towards Grimlock. Carjack manages to stop himself from bleeding energon and internal components all over the ground, but still gets shot in the shoulder -again- for his troubles. This time from one of those damned femmes instead. "Ooo.. that is -it-." He grunts as he pushes himself up, back to the outcropping for the moment. "I have had it up to -here- with you low chrome half-glitchs getting in the way of scientific progress in the name of universal conquest." Then darts out from behind the melting ice and charges towards Moonracer as his multi-tool extends from his arm, and then spins out to form a giant buzzsaw. "So how about a little *de*constructive surgery? You look like you could use a nip and tuck and loose a few pounds." The giant buzzing blade is swung at the femme. "From your life!" Combat: Carjack sets his defense level to Neutral. Perceptor realizes with dread that attempting to deactivate Carjack's extraction device is a lost cause, as it has, by this point in time, already gathered a good portion of its capacity in antimatter from the other side of the portal. Besides, he has more pressing matters to attend to...the icy cavern is going to collapse, and if the generator is not protected, the field would vanish and destroy all. He needed to program the generator to extend over itself as well. He makes his way over there, but finds himself getting lashed in the back by Contrail's whirling energon whip. He is thrown forward, toward the generator. It puts a long, nasty gash in his back armor from his shoulder down to his waist, but at least it got him there fast, anyway. However, before he starts working with the generator's controls, he decides to attempt to stall Contrail with the same servo-jamming ammunition he'd tested on Carjack. Perhaps this time it will have the desired effect. He would take note of the results later. Combat: Perceptor sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Perceptor strikes Contrail with his Let's see if it works -this- time! attack! Combat: Perceptor's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Contrail. Combat: Contrail has been temporarily incapacitated. Moonracer dodges Contrail's fiery whip, but that pins her in her tiny alcove, enough that she can't get out of the way of the angry techie's sudden rush at her. Wincing as the blades dig into her armor right where Contrail's bullets did earlier, she reacts instinctively, shoving at him and following up with an attempted punch. "No thanks, Doc. You do shoddy work!" Combat: Moonracer sets her defense level to Neutral. Combat: Moonracer strikes Carjack with her Punch attack! The attack makes Bluestreak fly back, sliding across the slush. Unfortunately for Carjack, and maybe fortunately for Moonracer, he slides into the Decepticon medic. If it hits, then at least there was a positive benefit from getting hit from the whip, it took down Carjack's assult on Moonracer. Combat: Bluestreak misses Carjack with his The Cybertronian Hockey Puck! (Ram) attack! In the din of the battle, it's easy for even a veteran warrior like Grimlock to get confused! He shakes himself like a damp dog, getting shed of some of Contrail's acid- only for Aimless to zap him yet again! Grr. "Hey." Grimlock rumbles in Perceptor's general direction. "Who you want me Grimlock to smash?" He doesn't wait for an answer, however, as the epiphany strikes him immediately: "Wait, me Grimlock smash EVERYBODY! BEST IDEA!" and with that, the dinobot lurches into the attack! He snaps his jaws at Contrail, first...and then, pushing through, he snaps at Spinister as well, and then storms forward, possibly stomping upon Misfire if he's not fast enough! As for Carjack? Well...there -are- those delicately balanced icicles... Combat: Robot T-Rex! strikes Carjack with his Dino Rampage Area attack! [Pulled -4] Combat: Robot T-Rex! strikes Contrail with his Dino Rampage Area attack! [Pulled -4] Combat: Robot T-Rex! strikes Misfire with his Dino Rampage Area attack! [Pulled -4] Combat: Robot T-Rex! strikes Spinister with his Dino Rampage Area attack! [Pulled -4] Combat: Spinister falls to the ground, unconscious. Misfire looks forward as his blast hits the Dinobot, he cheers for a moment as Spinister falls in front of him, "NO!!! Spini..." His words are cut off as a moment later, Grimlock stomps him on his chest, caving it inwards. Aimless emits laughter as Misfire lays on the ground. "Must...trans..." With great pain and deliberation, he reverts to his Plane Mode. Aimless attaches to Misfire's plane's roof. Quickly, Misfire flies towards Spinister and Weapons. He hovers Spinister long enough for the two Nebulons to climb on him, a small magnetic grapple comes down from the plane which clamps on Spinister. "Don't worry Boss...I'll save you..." He then flies back into the darkness from whence the 'Cons came. The robot Misfire seems to rise slightly in the air as his legs fold upon themselves and two large wings begin to appear the robot continues to fold into a compact plane. There is now a non-terran plan with two meancing spires. Combat: Twin-Nosed Jet begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Shi-Lai Deathship Carjack takes a punch from the femme, but just turns his head back to her with a wicked smile that shows those needle-like teeth he has for no other purpose than to look damn creepy. "Cute. But not enough." He hoists the still buzzing saw over his head.... And then has to step back to avoid Bluestreak skidding past. "ENOUGH OF THE DAMN INTTERUPTIONS ALREA--" Cue the icicles toppled by Grimlock's rampage smashing down on top of him. Then fall to pieces in a blast of fire from his flamethrower after transforming underneath the pile. Once free Carjack puts the pedal to the metal and peels up, throwing a spray of slush behind him. "Suckers! My alt mode is -made- for horrible off-road terrains!" He skids around his contraption, long enough for an arm to extend out of the back of the truck and grab it, then reel it onto the truck even as he finishes the snow-drift and speeds off for the cavern exit. Carjack hits the ground and folds into a rescue truck. Combat: Crash Response Truck sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Crash Response Truck begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Moonracer, Shi-Lai Deathship, and Twin-Nosed Jet Contrail got shot. She got stunned. She got her arm gun bitten off by Grimlock. Contrail comes back to consciousness, a little dazed and in a /lot/ of pain, just in time to realise two things: 1) she is absolutely terrified of Grimlock and 2) Spinister is unconscious. So she does the decent thing and tells the Decepticons to retreat. Once she sees that they are doing so, she transforms into a jet to make good on her own escape. This antimatter had better be worth it... Flipping into a modified F-35B Lightning II, the sky is not the limit. Combat: F-35B Lightning II sets her defense level to Protected. Combat: F-35B Lightning II begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit. <> Contrail's words are the last Spinister hears before Grimlock more or less bites him in half. He hits the ground, Singe and Hairsplitter in full panic mode. Moonracer doesn't like being called that. She really, *really* doesn't like it. As the Decepticon gets distracted by Bluestreak, and then by falling ice, she has to hastily duck back to save herself, but that doesn't mean she can't step clear of the alcove and aim the pistol in her other hand at the fleeing creep. Combat: Moonracer sets her defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Moonracer strikes Crash Response Truck with her Pistol attack! Combat: Crash Response Truck falls to the ground, unconscious. The cave is really starting to collapse in now, as the V-shape in the ceiling begins to fall inward at an even steeper angle. The entire cavern groans as more and more ice melts... Perceptor works frantically at the controls, hoping that the upgraded power source he's installed will allow for this. He quicky programs the shield to extend around the entire apparatus as soon as he hits 'execute', then retract once the stress it will be forced to endure as the cave collapses has ceased for more than 1.344 breems. "Autobots, this area has been compromised. We must evacuate immediately!" Perceptor shouts as he hits the execute key and begins booking it out of there as more and more ice and stone crack and fall around everyone. Combat: Perceptor begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Moonracer, Shi-Lai Deathship, Twin-Nosed Jet , and F-35B Lightning II Bluestreak groans as he got up, leaking energon from that last attack. Hearing Perceptor's call for a retreat, he transformed, albit painfully to boot. Bluestreak transforms into his Datsun 240z mode. Combat: Datsun 240z sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Datsun 240z begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Shi-Lai Deathship, Twin-Nosed Jet , and F-35B Lightning II Crash Response Truck ends up eating his last words as a well placed shot takes out a rear tire and sends him skidding out of control down the cavern. "WOO!" Grimlock's taken quite a beating this battle- but, thankfully, he's able to endure it! As things rumble and rattle around him, Grim gives a grunt, and looks around. "Oh, that sound like something gonna break. Me Grimlock know that sound! It mean time for leaving." he nods sagely, and then ambles down a tunnel that probably leads to the surface! He's entirely casual about it, but then again, he -does- have a flamethrower in his mouth, which makes an ice planet a little less intimidating. "You Perceptor know how find good place for fight!" he says, entirely genuine in the compliment. F-35B Lightning II doubles back to rescue Carjack! She owes him! The jet zooms down and drops down a grappling hook, which circles around Carjack several times. Then, her engine protesting loudly, Contrail lifts back off, dragging the SUV and his precious payload. As she flies off, she is pelted with ice. Life is wonderful. Twin-Nosed Jet continues to fly out with Spinister and company. Being focused on the task at hand is all good and well but not when the vicinity is falling apart. Moonracer looks up and around in dismay. The sky is falling! The sky is falling! A piece of a stalactite - fortunately of ice, not stone - beans her on the helmet. "Owwwww," she complains as she blurs into a transformation. They need to get out of there fast! And there before her, in all his Dino-ish glory, is Grimlock, clearing the way. He's slow as a river of petroleum jelly, but he make a great snowplow. Moonracer transforms into her Cybertronian Car mode. Perceptor looks back at the cavern as he's leaving it behind, relieved to see that the explosions he'd witnessed before have not begun once again. It appeared as if his plan had worked. The containment field was stable once again. However, the Decepticons had gotten away with their payload, hence accomplishing their objective, though at a heavy price. He sighs, shaking his head. "The Decepticon will most likely find a way to weaponize the particles..." he mutters.
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