| abstract | - Santiago Foundries - South America Ore, stripped from the base of the Andes, is brought here for proccessing and shipment. This is the Santiago foundries, largest in the world. Large slabs of steel, rock, and nearly every other building material is made here, and many rare elements used to make high impact metals capable of withstanding the cold of space and the heat of reentry can only be found in the nearby mountains. Obvious exits: North leads to Andes Mts. Southeast leads to Las Pampas. West leads to South Pacific - South American Coast. Fly Up. Halo has arrived. Halo has come here in search of a particular ore for a project. Glowing knives for Raid? Raid gets glowing knives. Halo does her best to look pleasant for the human touring her through the foundry. "Ah. Yes. Silver. Quite nice. But do you have what I've been asking after?" The man nods, and continues the tour. She sighs. With a campaign gearing up to strike against the renegade Deception Justice Division, Thunderwing, and Nebulans who Galvatron refuses to remember the names of on the latter's home planet, the Decepticon Empire is presently in a logistics shuffle, rerouting established supply lines from Earth to Cybertron and on along to Nebulos ahead of the assault. This dramatic shift in resource management requires additional supply sources to at minimum maintain current Decepticon holdings on Earth - and in this regard, Galvatron has himself descended upon this grotesque and misshapen sphere to locate and secure additional power streams. The Decepticon Emperor crashes into the Santiago Foundries like an unholy fireball slung from the bleakest depths of the cosmos, erupting into its facilities without any regard whatsoever to human life. Halo is ready to kill Yetson, the foundry manager, herself when she finds herself sheltering him from crumbling mountainside when the bomb hits. There's a moment where she's almost standing outside herself, seeing herself protect a human for the first time. "Are you quite alright?" She lifts him out, setting him on his feet. And that's when she gets a good look at the point of impact. Halo's optics go wide. Fear is not the most familiar emotion to her. It just knocked on her door and introduced itself. "Run. Get your people out and never look back, do you understand?" She hoped he did. Because death had come for them all. Wraith has arrived. Galvatron slowly stands amidst the death and destruction that he's torn into the mountain side, and with little in the way of dramatics or fan fare, the Tyrant King begins to pour down the slope like they very physical manifestation of a volcano's unbridled wrath. The Decepticon Emperor lifts his heavy cannon and obliterates a refinement complex in a single, brilliant blast. He then turns wordlessly and wipes an extraction and processing facility from the face of the planet. The only thing of note that registers on Galvatron's threat scan of the area is a single Autobot energy signature - weak, small, insignificant. Galvatron sneers, laying waste to everything before him to draw out the pearlescent femme. "Show yourself and meet your destruction with dignity!" Halo lets her optics close for a moment. Every word claws at her spark. Moments go by. A day goes by. Her optics open. She takes a breath, watching the shift manager loading his people into railcars. Time. Her time was up, but she could buy them more. She takes a step. "Are you quite done with this tantrum, then?" Hands on her hips, she tsks, looking around. "You have been naughty, haven't you?" Galvatron levels himself, regarding Halo with piercing red optics. "Nearly. I have but one task left before me, now." Galvatron takes a predatory, purposeful step foward, closing the distance between himself and Halo quite pointedly. "Your eradication. Give my regards to the oblivion, Autobot." The Decepticon Emperor lifts his arm cannon, setting Halo square in his sights. The end of the barrel begins to glow with an ethereal, phantasmic purple glow for a moment before discharging after the femme with a hideous clap that shakes some of the surrounding buildings into submission. Combat: Galvatron strikes Halo with his Fusion Cannon attack! [Pulled -10] Combat: Wraith slips into the shadows and out of sight... Halo tenses, and then prepares herself to die as best she can as the world goes purple. For whatever reason, the moment clicks by, and she's in her car mode, gunning past the mad emperor with EMP lancers blasting. She can't hold out forever... but she can give him a humongous recharge bill. Halo transforms into a stunning ALFA ROMEO PANDION! Combat: Alfa Romeo Pandion sets her defense level to Guarded. Combat: Alfa Romeo Pandion strikes Galvatron with her Twin EMP Blasters attack! Combat: You took 4 damage. Combat: Alfa Romeo Pandion 's attack drains your energon reserves. Galvatron growls something gutteral and furious as a foundry below him sizzles underfoot and explodes with enough force to knock him off balance. This bodes well for Halo, as she lives to fight another combat round. As the Emperor recovers to stabilized equilibrium, his systems spike with foreign electricity, and for the briefest of moments that horrible light within the menacing cannon barrel affixed to his right arm winks out into nothingness. But the optics... the optics remain a glowing crimson of pure hatred. Never quelched. Never sated. When again Galvatron recovers his motor skills, the mad king wheels around for the now vehicular-based combatant, his taloned hand having been hidden away and replaced with a photoluminescent mace that sings as it sails through the open air and down upon the Autobot. Combat: Galvatron strikes Alfa Romeo Pandion with his Epic Flail attack! [Pulled -7] Alfa Romeo Pandion made the mistake of a second pass. Stupid, Halo. So stupid. Stay away. Shoot. Hide. Focus, or you'll die sooner. The mace smashes into her hood, flipping the mechanical engineer into the air and into her robot mode, smashing into the gnarled wreckage of what was once a refueling station. Halo struggles to get to her feet and regain her bearings, firing a futile shoulder rocket to keep Galvatron off of her. Moments buy lives. Keep those moments going. Combat: Alfa Romeo Pandion sets her defense level to Aggressive. Halo twists from sleek car to flawless HEROIC AUTOBOT! Combat: Halo misses Galvatron with her Gyro Disruption Shoulder Rocket attack! Galvatron is disturbingly mute when his irradiated mace plows down with great fury into the Pandion, and again when a rocket sails for his face. The Decepticon Emperor plucks the munition from the sky as though it were a bothersome insect, crushing the tail end of it between two fingers and tossing the weapon aside so that it may wreak his own brand of chaos amongst this place. Galvatron stalks after the outclassed femme, mace shunting away with a holographic fizzle as his hand rotates from an enclosure once more. With this hand, Galvatron reaches out for Halo, grabbing her by the face, neck, shoulder, all in his mighty grip and meaning to crush her under the weight of his wicked strength. "You seem to have lost your impudence, Autobot. Perhaps you will learn one thing more before you are terminated - respect." Combat: Galvatron strikes Halo with his Grab attack! Halo is locked in before she can make her move. Struggling against against Galvatron's grip. She glares at him, struggling to speak as his thumb crushes her vocalizer. "Never...respect...blerk..." Halo, the usually snarky know it all, manages to make some defiant sounds. One shot at this before her energon conduit is severed: a flash of purple energy as the scramble blade hums to life on her right hand, which she attempts to jab into his neck. Combat: Halo sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Halo strikes Galvatron with her Scramble Blades attack! Combat: You took 0 damage. Combat: You can't seem to think straight... The faintest of smiles begins to tug at the corners of Galvatron's mouth as he basks in the image of his hand digging into the seams of Halo's armor, slowly sapping the lifeforce from her. A slow and gruesome process, to be sure, but a raw and exhilarating one as well. Galvatron begins to make a snarky remark of his own, though before his words can leave him he finds a knife jabbed into one of his neck cables. "*HRRK*!" is all Galvatron can expel as his digits work against the flood of energon that gushes from him, slipping fingers failing against an equally slippery blade. Galvatron's optics go wide, and in his rage he clenches a fist and punches Halo in the face. Combat: Galvatron's Punch attack on Halo goes wild! Combat: Galvatron strikes himself with his Punch attack! Combat: You took 7 damage. Halo isn't quite sure how she manages it, but her head hasn't been pulled from her body. Were this any other opponent, Halo would take a moment to happily note that her prototype weapon did indeed work- Galvatron's targeting systems are completely discombobulating and he's actually punching himself. But this is not one of those opponents. Halo takes the gift she's been given, and she hauls ass- wincing as she transforms into her Pandion mode and peeling out, showering Galvatron in sparks and mud and she creates some distance between the two of them. Just a little longer, Halo. Com still fried. You have to stay alive. Keep him away from the humans. And then you can die. But not yet. Halo transforms into a stunning ALFA ROMEO PANDION! Combat: Alfa Romeo Pandion sets her defense level to Guarded. Combat: Alfa Romeo Pandion takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass] Galvatron's renown for exploding into fits of rage are universal, and this capacity is on display in no shortened state here - except for one very particular outcome. Instead of decapitating Halo with sheer force behind his fist, Galavatron's own face feels the pain of impact, knocking the Emperor headlong into a burning effigy that was once a fuel depot. The structure crumbles underneath the Tyrant King, burying him in tons of concrete that light up an otherwise pristine, star-cluster-clouded night skyline. Combat: Galvatron takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Alfa Romeo Pandion transforms on a ridge overlooking Galvatron's new monument, and takes a moment to assess the situation. She could due for some repairs, or she could do some MacGuyvering to buy time. Looking around, she realizes she's standing in a graveyard for massive construction vehicles. Weapons it is. Halo goes to work, using a horrifying looking oversized chainsaw blade as her base... Halo twists from sleek car to flawless HEROIC AUTOBOT!
* KA-THOOM!* A brilliant beacon of purple-white explodes outward from within Galvatron's makeshift tomb, punctuating the evening as the blast escapes into the starry night sky to eventually punch another hole in Earth's already nigh nonexistent atmosphere. A moment later, the Decepticon Emperor claws his way out of his fiery casket like a tiger with his life at risk, rising up with murder on his face and slaughter in his optics. Standing tall, Galvatron surveys the tormented landscape set out before him, a land twisted by his own hands. The fires raging all about, combined with the aftereffects of Halo's EMP blast and scramble knives, has the Dark Emperor's targeting systems awry, and therefore unable to pinpoint her location. "YOU ARE ONLY PROLONGING THE INEVITABLE, WITCH!" *KA-THOOM!* A tunnel is bored into the mountainside. *KA-THOOM!* Another. *KA-THOOM* And another. "I WILL BRING THIS MOUNTAIN DOWN UPON YOU IF I MUST!" The Global Pose Tracker marks that Galvatron has 'skipped' his action for this round. "No need for that." Halo is standing before Galvatron, resting an absurdly giant sword made out of pieces of construction vehicles on her shoulder. It's no star saber, but it'll do. "I'm right here, so yes- let's END THIS!" Halo has never been a fighter. But at some point after the war started, she found it in her spark to be a soldier. An Autobot. As the last railcar evacuates across the valley, she sprints forward, swinging that insane looking sword down on the mech would would be ending her functions shortly. Combat: Halo sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Halo strikes Galvatron with the Halo-forged Brutal Chainsword attack! Combat: You took 12 damage. It is liable to happen whenever Decepticons show up on Earth... Alarms. EDC, NEST, whatever you happen to call them, tend to augment Autobot sensors very keenly... and it truly doesn't take much to get Autobot reinforcements in to investigate the site of the problem at hand. Though, it's not often that Galvatron is the one triggering ALL THE ALARMS. Wraith pauses as he peers around the corner at the fighting going on, taking stock of the carnage being wrought and...of all things, the lone Autobot duking it out... That won't do. Knowing his usual fear-inducing tactics are most likely predetermined to fail against the likes of Evil Overlord of the Century, Wraith really takes the moment to make the most of his position, slowly creeping in to prepare for a strike... << Halo, Wraith ... support coming in. Hold out just a bit longer. >> Combat: Wraith analyzes Galvatron for weaknesses. Galvatron's upper body rocks with recoil as the mountain range sprawling out before him begins to look something more akin to swiss cheese than any kind of terrain. The Dark Emperor lifts his arm to power another bolt through the landscape, weapon glowing with another potent purple blast bristling to fire - until a feminine voice rises above the din of warfare, and the Tyrant King begins his inexorable march after the femme. "For once, Autobot, our sentiments are identical." Perhaps it is his groggy targeting computer, the glare from the fires raging all about, or perhaps he wants to accept that blade - whatever the reasons, Halo's super-sized sword crashes into Galvatron's armor, digging into his shoulder. Galvatron glances to his left, evaluating the weapon for a time before turning back to the femme who wields it against him. "Like all your kind shall come to realize in their closing moments... your best shall never be /enough/." With an effortless smack, Galvatron casts the blade away from him with the back of his hand, vaulting then into a back-flip to land as another weapon altogether. "May the Dark God torment you always, on the other side." Combat: Unicronian Artillery strikes Halo with his Galvcannon attack! Combat: Massive damage! Halo has a moment, swinging that absurd junk weapon into Galvatron, where she thinks she could win. Humans safely evacuated, Galvatron's internal systems still reeling... She could do this. Halo pulls the sword out of Galvatron's shoulder, the blade swinging back up over her head and down. Her weight follows the blade and she goes down with it. It's the only opening Galvatron needs. That burst of purple. It's there again, but this time it's joined by searing pain, intense heat. Uncontrollable fear for an instant, then acceptance. Pieces of Halo hit the ground before most of Halo does. Her optics scan up towards the valley, the railcar safely on the other side. <> No, the job is done. She doesn't need to hold out anymore. Combat: Halo takes extra time to steady herself. [Pass] Wraith watches in abject horror as the cannon-of-doom opens up and takes that as a good sign to 'go'. He powers on a locator beacon, tossing it to the side before charging in headlong to give what is, quite possibly, the ONLY thing on the battlefield that might cause him to shudder... and that says a fair bit. Electricity crackles and pops as capacitors overload for the explicit purpose of unleashing a massive charge of energon-laced electricity at the imposing form of Galvatron. "Come now, you had your fun. My turn for a round or two, what say you?" He glances at Halo, just to get a feel for how the other mech is fairing... Probably not well. Call it a hunch. Combat: Wraith appears from the shadows... Combat: Sneak Attack!! Combat: Wraith strikes Unicronian Artillery with his Aurora Ominae attack! Combat: You took 33 damage. Combat: Wraith's attack has damaged your Firepower! Fathom has arrived. Autobot Heavy Cruiser arrives from stormy Aquantis. Autobot Heavy Cruiser has arrived. Fathom shifts back into his root mode. With a loud hiss of pneumatics, two powerful anchors extend and clutch the ground, anchoring Galvatron into place. Then then entire cannon barrel set before Halo is illuminated in a bombastic explosion of light that refuses to be held by any law of physics. And then there is an explosion - so powerful, so dense, so world-defyingly absurb that it whites out the area for dozens of miles. In the aftermath, when the light dies down, when the dust and fire and ash settle, there is Galvatron and there is his opponent - or what remains. The barrel screams with overheated, stressed metals, white-hot and sizzling with a gasping smoke tendril that escapes into the night sky. Before Galvatron can transform and relish in his abuse of the femme, he is assaulted by yet another Autobot who pours super-charged electricity in him, taking advantage of his being trapped in his least agile mode. The cannon is wracked with damage, panels shaking open and smoke billowing up as the bolts arc through him until they finally dissipate into the ground. With a howl, the Lord Tyrant rises shakily up into robot mode, a whirlwind of hate and anger as he staggers to send a hard-light mace smashing into both Autobots! Unicronian Artillery transforms and rises up to assume the robot form of , RULER of the Decepticon Empire! Combat: That is not an area attack. Combat: Galvatron strikes Wraith with his Bare Hands Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Wraith's Agility! (Crippled) Combat: Galvatron strikes Halo with his Bare Hands Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily limited Halo's Agility! (Crippled) Combat: Halo falls to the ground, unconscious. If Halo wasn't already urgently in need of medical attention, that final mace blow settles things. Her back splinters apart when the blunt weapon connects, shattering her armor into pieces and sending up internals and exo systems in a shower of sparks and fluids. Halo's optics were already out- now the lights that keep her going inside are rapidly winking out. Wraith can see it coming, but that doesn't help at all. He gets bowled over and sent careening into what might possibly remain of the ... no, wait. Who are we kidding. There's nothing left here... It's just debris, rubble, and ground. And all of those three are eager to meet him when that mace drives into him. But...props to the electrician, he's pushing himself to his feet and giving Halo another glance... "...slag...." Alright. Win the fight, pull out the wounded... help should be coming. So long as that beacon's working... He digs his feet to charge headlong at the Decepticon leader, leaping and trying to hook an arm around so he can latch himself onto the most loathed back out there... "Hah... probably gonna hit every single 'I dare you to-' on the board with this one.... Bet you still can't finish me off, tin can that you are." And he then promptly goes to sink his teeth in for a bite. Because...when you're gonna die? You might as well go out all the way. Combat: Wraith sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Wraith strikes Galvatron with his You just got Nosferatu'd! attack! Combat: You took 3 damage. Combat: Wraith's attack has damaged your Accuracy! Combat: Wraith's attack drains your energon reserves. Fathom is not piloting this giant beast of a cruiser, he's no pilot. But he did direct operations to rally and send reinforcements to Earth. Several shuttles and an impressive amount of troopers are waiting to be dispatched from the airlock, and somewhere around 20 mechs man the circular consoles in the bridge, or work the turrets. <> warns Redtail, the pilot at the helm. <> Galvatron, though overcome with customary rage, still derives a great sense of satisfaction in both pulverizing the pestilent Halo into a hundred scattered, broken parts while simultaneously introducing Wraith to the turf - face first. The Dark Emperor rises up, slowed in his movements, but now bowed. His optics burn with unsated hatred, a foul sneer scarring his features. The mace-hand settles onto the ground with the unnecessary sounds of rattling chains, and Galvatron drags that heavy photonic weight across the dirt as the Autobot vampire approaches. "I have everything I need to see your breed burned to ashes, Autobo-OUGH!" Galvatron grimaces as Wraith dives at him, latching into exposed internals and - feeding?! The Tyrant King erupts again into fury, wrenching on arm up to grapple at Wraith, ripping him free of his unholy Unicronian-built circuitry. Galvatron staggers some, his neck already having been damaged earlier in his battle with Halo and this turn of events with Wraith leaving him even worse for wear. Galvatron evaluates the coalescing number of Autobot forces that now seek to drive him from this place, and though he would love nothing more than to beat them all into dust with their own limbs - he has an EMPIRE to lead, and a strike against an entire planet to prepare for. With a scoff and a glare of narrowed optics at his most recent foe, Galvatron escapes into the sky upon powerful boot-jets, seeking altitude and distance, firing off a salvo at the shuttle to ensure that it does not pursue. Combat: Galvatron strikes Autobot Heavy Cruiser with his Fusion Cannon attack! Wraith drops to the ground once he's managed to properly infuriate Galvatron, wiping the corner of his mouth with his thumb while he's at it. "Is that all?" He smirks right back at Galvatron's glare...but he knows the fight's not his to press on. There's some heavy fire support coming in, and he's got a downed Autobot to take care of. As Galvatron turns to head one way, Wraith is going the other to stabilize and get Halo out of the impending line of fire and to a safe spot where the inbound medical teams can treat the damage done. Wraith transforms from a robot into a sleek Lamborghini Aventador in one quiet, fluid motion. Combat: Lamborghini Aventador sets his defense level to Guarded. Combat: Lamborghini Aventador begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Autobot Heavy Cruiser Galvatron's fusion blast digs a nice hole in the fore of the ship, incinerating whatever mech happen to be near that section. The Steelhaven lurches as it twists to avoid Galvatron's trajectory, the heavy turrets swiveling to follow the bead they've got on him. It's a cruiser meant for sweeping bombardment and other large targets, not a flying warlord. So when Wraith prompts the crew, they send a barrage of seering plasma towards the Earth, and hopefully catch Galvatron in it. <> Combat: Autobot Heavy Cruiser misses Galvatron with its Point-Defense Lasers attack! Galvatron does not look back at the Steelhaven. He is not threatened by it in the slightest. A whale of a ship crewed by scores of Autobots too afraid to step foot on the field of battle and get their hands dirty. Instead, he continues in his pursuit of the nearest Decepticon base of operations to see about repairs before his Empire descends upon Nebulos. Though this area's excess in natural resources is catalogued and uplined to Soundwave for future exploitation. The Warlord, however, has bigger fish to fry. Combat: Galvatron begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Lamborghini Aventador and Autobot Heavy Cruiser Autobot Heavy Cruiser soars upward to the Skies above Western South America.
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