| abstract | - Folassian Forest -- Nebulos The Folassian forest stretches out for miles over the surface of the planet. Grassy fronds have reclaimed much of the devastation laid upon the world from the Decepticon occupation, and leafy trees now stretch high into the sky to swat at the sun. Raccoon and squirrel-like creatures scurry about collecting nuts and berries and birds sing sweetly in the undergrowth. Contents: Battlestation Punch Hardhead Autobot Heavy Cruiser Obvious exits: North leads to The Nursery -- Nebulos. South leads to Lookout Point -- Nebulos. West leads to Sunny Valley -- Nebulos. East leads to Koraja -- Nebulos. Battlestation slowly sweeps his main cannon back and forth over the trees, waiting for the next adventure in the war for Nebulos... Punch's last pose: "It's not about /winning/ but about winning properly!" Punch whines as he continues to grind his stress balls, and wanders off. How much of that is an act? You decide ladies and gentlemechs, you decide! Battlestation is battle-stationed in a clearing near the crashed ship. He slowly sweeps his main cannon back and forth over the trees. Occasionally a sensor dish activates and sends out a few scan pulses. Combat: Battlestation initiates a radar sweep of the area. Autobot Heavy Cruiser Before you hangs the Autobot Heavy Cruiser known as the Steelhaven. Shaped more like an ornate spire than a ship, this lance-shaped starship blasts through space with the help of the huge booster engine affixed to the back. Due to the design it is more suited to space flight, though it can handle atmospheric landings due to small tripod legs that can unfurl out. Only moderately armed, its main advantage is the extreme speeds it can reach, getting to scenes of trouble quickly to deal with what may lie ahead. First Aid falls forward, arms sliding in and legs flipping about, transforming into an ambulance. Hardhead is sitting on a fallen giant ancient tree trunk, home to perhaps hundreds of wildlife species. He is busily filing at one of his blaster barrels, working out burs caused by wear. Scattershot transforms into robot mode. Ambulance is making his way through the forest. This is not an easy drive, but luckily his Cybertronian tires are capable of handling such things so long as he doesn't push it too hard. The Protectobot is able to make slightly better time than if he were walking. He may or may not have other Autobots with him. The Steelhaven meanwhile remains where it crashed. A huge trail of destroyed trees and turned dirt follows directly behind where the ship came down. Clearly it skipped across the surface a short distance, wiping out the wildlife before finally coming to a halt. It appears Fortress Maximus's ship came down right-side up, though it remains to be seen how much damage it took when it impacted. A quick visual inspection shows damage to the front of the craft, and presumably its underside is battered even worse. Foxfire is not far behind First Aid, bounding through the forest as happily as a turbofox that's found a dead petrorabbit. He seems to be in a very good mood right now, and that probably means that no one is going to get pranked. He scrambles over a few fallen tree trunks and through thick foliage. Steeltread is...leaning against the Steelhaven. As First Aid pulls up....he stands up quickly. "Sir." Hardhead blows out the metal shavings residue and examines his work before resuming the filing . Scattershot transforms into robot mode, marches the short distance to the ship and then sizes up the approaching Autobots. "'Bout time we tried to get something useful out of this heap." He growls. He looks at First Aid, then turns to look at the ship. "Want one of us to kick the door?" Nightbeat is here to help. The forest isn't exactly the detective's natural habit, and salvage operations aren't in his job description, but he'll make due. He frowns a bti at Scattershot's idea of kicking the door in and crosses his arms. He risked his life finding this ship! Hardhead stands up and points at Scattershot. "Or just try the big gaping hole in the hangar, genius." Ambulance pulls up to Steeltread and transforms into robot mode. "Hmm?" he asks Steeltread, looking behind him as if he's not sure who the warrior is talking to. He and Foxfire are the closest ones, though, and as none of them rate as 'sir' type people, the Protectobot answers hesitatingly, "Hi there." He steps past and looks at the hulking ship in front of them. First aid runs his hand along the outer wall next to one of the airlocks, tsking. "Don't worry," he tells the Steelhaven, "We're going to get you back up to 100% capacity before you know it." He gives the hull a pat. "I don't think anyone is home to answer, Scattershot." He nods along with Hardhead's suggestion, though he doesn't approve of the tone the Headmaster used. Ambulance 's front section fold back as a pair of legs and arms fold out, transforming into First Aid. Steeltread chuckles at Scattershot. "As much as I like that idea, Scattershot.....I think finding a lockpick would cause a bit less.....noise." He then puts his rifle together as the barrel flips out from under his armpit. Foxfire peers closely. He sniffs a bit, then slinks closer to the Steelhaven, the gaping hole catching his attention. "Hey, guys...?" Scattershot turns to look at Hardhead, sizing him up. "Just thought I'd be polite, Sunshine. They tell me I need to work on my 'interperonal skills'. But I can see I ain't gonna get a lot of practice around you maint-droids." He turns and marches for the nearest gaping hole. Steeltread peers at Foxfire and walks his way. "Got something, Foxy-butt?" He says aiming his rifle into the hole. "yeesh. call me captain obvious, but something big went through this thing. This thing being salvaged, Hardhead?" Foxfire looks up and flicks his ears. "Yeah...you guys didn't notice this?" What would they all do without *him*? Nightbeat throws his arms up and protests, "Of course I noticed! What do you take me for? Sheesh." He then makes right for the huge gaping hole. Foxfire smirks. "Well, you didn't say anything, Mr. Detective." With that, he scurries into the large hole, quickly disappearing from sight. Hardhead grits and throws the file he was using on his blaster barrel into the hull beside the gaping hole Scattershot turns to go into. ~THOCK-twang~ "Salvage or repair, as long as the Steelhaven is put to some use other than landscape decoration. I hate to see it go to waste... Say hi to Fixit for me." "Ok, well we have our entrance," First Aid says, following Foxfire up to the gaping hole. He tries to change the subject before someone shoots someone over the inability of spotting said gaping hole. The breach is huge, easily being enough room for Scorponok. The doctor can see why the ship ended up in so much trouble. "Well, the hole is bad but patchable. It'd take more to take down a cruiser like this, so I think we can expect to see more trouble the further we go in." The Protectobot takes a few cautious steps inside. "Wow, they don't make them like this anymore, do they?" Steeltread snerks. "less sand than I'm used to." he says as he trots his way in. "Hey foxfire? lead the way?" Foxfire's glowing optics are visible from the dark shadows. After a moment he comes back into view. There's...a lot of spilled energon in here." He makes a face. "I don't like that scent..." Scattershot offers off-handedly, "You get used to it." Nightbeat boards Autobot Heavy Cruiser . First Aid boards Autobot Heavy Cruiser . Steelhaven - Hangar Bay ==============================[ The Steelhaven ]============================== The hangar bay of the Steelhaven is moderately sized, having room enough for several Autobot shuttles. A huge pair of airlock doors are inset against the wall, enabling either shuttle launchers or for Autobots to leap out into space. From the walls comes the loud humming of the powerful starship drive. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ External ship broadcasts for this room are ON Type +shiphelp for help This is a ship entrance/exit room. Use the AIRLOCK command to leave the ship for it's current location: Folassian Forest -- Nebulos ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Contents: Nightbeat Autobot Shuttle Obvious exits: North leads to Steelhaven - Laboratory. The Ol' Rusty, which Nightbeat used to fidn the Steelhaven, is still here and operational, he notes, though it has suffered some damage. He wasn't in the fight down here, though he certainly heard the action going down. the floor, he sees scrapes of yellow and blue - his own paint, when he crawled out of the Hellbender. The place stinks of burned circuitry and spilled energon. His lip curls in disgust. The smells are even worse for Foxfire, with his keen senses. He looks disgusted as he paws at his nose. "Gross! The sooner we can salvage this place, the better." He, too, spots the scrapes of paint. He gives them a sniff, and looks up at Nightbeat. Steeltread keeps his rifle raised as they make their way into the hangar. He keeps his optics peeled for anything or any strange sounds as Foxfire mentions the energon. "Can you filter that out, Foxfire? Hardhead, you have the codes to get through the ship? or do we have to use force?" First Aid enters and gazes at the hangar from the inside. It's clear there was a massive firefight here and the damage is extreme. The Ol' Rusty is still present and looks alright, though, and the Protectobot jogs over to the Autobot shuttle. With each step he has to be careful to avoid either fallen debris, shards of glass from the terminals, parts of the collapsed bulkhead, or in one grusome case, a severed robotic limb. "Ah ha, bonus," he says, "I bet we can get the Rusty up and running as well. Two for the price of one, as the Junkions say, right? It may be gross, Foxfire, but it's still an opportunity." Scattershot looks around at the aftermath of the battle with professional interest. Listening to his radio, he turns and announces to the others. "Heads up, heroes. We got a mess of Decepticons incoming. And I do mean mess. Nightbeat glances down and explains to Foxfire, "When the Steelhaven crashed, I was in the command centre. I had to... crawl out, when I went to Koraja for help." They all know how well that worked. He drops to his knees and points, "Can see my tracks, there." First Aid looks over his shoulder at Scattershot's proclamation even as he pats the poor Ol' Rusty. "We can't abandon the ships, Scattershot. If we do this just turns into a salvage operation for the /Decepticons/." Steeltread smirks at that.....then loads his rifle like a shotgun. "I've got a surprise for Abominus if they decide to use that as a trump card." Foxfire nods at Nightbeat's explanation. He paws at the floor. "Death and destruction...my senses won't be able to handle this for long. Do you remember your way around, Nightbeat?" From Outside: Abominus drops Gnaw. From Outside: Swindle drives as far ahead of Abominus as he can. 'Scouting' he would call it, if asked. 'Staying the hell out of the gestalt's way' in truth. From Outside: Vintage Army Jeep vrooms, etc. Folassian Forest -- Nebulos The Folassian forest stretches out for miles over the surface of the planet. Grassy fronds have reclaimed much of the devastation laid upon the world from the Decepticon occupation, and leafy trees now stretch high into the sky to swat at the sun. Raccoon and squirrel-like creatures scurry about collecting nuts and berries and birds sing sweetly in the undergrowth. Contents: Catechism Sharkticon Vintage Army Jeep Abominus Autobot Heavy Cruiser Obvious exits: North leads to The Nursery -- Nebulos. South leads to Lookout Point -- Nebulos. West leads to Sunny Valley -- Nebulos. East leads to Koraja -- Nebulos. Scattershot arrives from Autobot Heavy Cruiser . Nightbeat arrives from Autobot Heavy Cruiser . Foxfire arrives from Autobot Heavy Cruiser . Steeltread arrives from Autobot Heavy Cruiser . Scattershot's grim expression comes as close as most people would ever remember seeing from him to a smile. "Field of fire on that door Bots! As soon as you see a purple symbol, let 'em have it!" Scattershot transforms into battlestation mode. The Autobots are currently in the Steelhaven hangar bay in various stages of nervousness. It is badly ruined as a huge firefight took place there. Worse, there is still a gaping hole next to the main airlock where Scorponok's crew blasted through back before the crash. The Ol' Rusty is also in the hangar, and looks like it weathered the situation quite a bit better. For First Aid's part, he ranks fairly high on the nervousness scale, worried the Decepticons are going to grab two ships for the price of one. Thinking quick, the Protectobot snaps his fingers, "I have an idea. I'm going to head to the command centre and see what's what there." Vintage Army Jeep drives on up to about where the edge of effective weapons-targeting is on the Steelhaven, erring on the side of caution. There, he transforms and holds both hands up, turning on his radio. "Hey, uh.. Autobots. You on this channel? I got a deal for you, and you'd be crazy not to listen." Gentlemen, you've been had! That's no jeep, it's a Swindle! "ABOMINUS SMASH! ABOMINUS! SMASH! /ABOMINUS /SMAAAAAAAAAAAASH!" This is what is heard as the shape of the mighty, horrific Terrorcon gestalt emerges from the trees. Still out of range, but moving towards the Steelhaven at a good clip. Swindle looks to his right where the tree falls, and then deadpans into his radio, "And you should probably hurry." Grimlock arrives! For once, it's not with a bunch of stomping and breaking of things- though really, that's only because Abominus is so much louder. Grimlock stares impassively over the battlefield at the lumbering giant...and then to his forces. "Hnh. This bad." Steeltread kneels down in the hangar of the Steelhaven....in front of Scattershot's battlestation mode and literally tracks Abominus. "Nothing like someone smashing his way through the forest. Too bad he's too much of an idiot to realize he's walking into a trap. Reminds me of Grimlock. At least the Dinobot has more intelligence than Abominus." He says with a chuckle. Battlestation is inside the Steelhaven's hangar bay, main cannon pointed at the huge hole big enough for giant transformers to pass through in lieu of a door. "How 'bout you let me do my job, Steelhead, and you just worry about doing yours. Which in case you've forgotten, is the same as mine. Namely, to keep the Decepticons from taking another inch of this planet. And that sure as Primus includes an Autobot ship." Nightbeat peeks out from the gaping hole in the Steelhaven. he doesn't know much about ships, but he'd swear that they could get this one running, with a bit of love and a lot of elbow grease. Abominus wrecking it? Not his cup of tea, no sir. Sharkticon is sitting on Abominus' shoulder, in anticipation of being able to feed on Autobot scraps. Sort of a reverse role the Sharkticon is playing, given that it's usually Sharkticons that get hitchhikers like little cyber-remoras that scavenge whatever little remains after a feeding frenzy. Just call him Remora ! First Aid is the only one not running out of the gaping hole (the gaping hole has an intellectual significance to the Autobots. Ask Nightbeat about it sometime). Instead he is rushing through the ruined corridors towards the command centre. Having not been in a heavy cruiser of this class in millions of years, this might be easier said than done. Furthermore, a lot of the paths there have been blocked off by collapsing rubble. With the lights off, First Aid's blue optics shine brightly to provide some measure of illumination. Foxfire peers out from behind Nightbeat's leg. "Oh, man! What're we gonna do?" He is clearly panicked, but face it, it could be a lot worse. He tries to calm himself. "I *could* try to blow him up, I guess, but that's way too risky..." He looks over his shoulder, hesitates a moment, then takes off after First Aid. Swindle crosses his arms across his windshield, drumming his fingers impatiently. "Huh. That usually works better. Here I thought the Bots liked to talk. Oh well." The Combaticon glances over his shoulder back at Abominus. "Hey, big and uh.. nevermind. Hey Abominus," he calls to the approaching gestalt. "They aren't up to talking it over, so how about we just blow 'em up?" Swindle pulls a comically large explosive device out of.. somewhere.. and lobs it up at Abominus. A blinking detonator appears in one hand. "Okay, big guy. Just put the little boomy thing in that big hole over there and we'll blow 'em right out into the open for you to smash!" Abominus is, in case you didn't realize this already, huge, stupid, and pissed off for no reason. There's a reason why Galvatron never uses him. The monsterous combiner throws his massive, multicolored arms out to either side and emits an earth-rumbling roar. Argh, how dare the Autobots not give up what was obviously theirs? Of course, in Abominus' mind, this translates to 'ARGH. AUTOBOTS. ARGH.' The beastly abomination clutches tightly onto the ridiculous explosive and stares at it. Seconds tick by as he tries to come to terms with this new development. Go in hole. Go in hole? What? What does that even mean? "RAAARGH! AUTOBOTS GO SQUISH!" Abominus hefts the explosive over his head and /pitches/ it towards the Autobots. First Aid explains his plan to Foxfire as they make their way to the command centre, "According to reports, the Hellbender - the Decepticons' ship - was brought down by a final weapons volley from this ship before crashing." The pair round a corner, going through the darkened corridors, "So we know the weapons were online just prior to the crash. Hopefully some of them survived." They round another corner, but this time they practically run right into a huge blocked off passage. The entire corridor has collapsed. "Nuts," First Aid says. If the bomb does end up going off on the ground or in the air near the Steelhaven, the entire ship shakes slightly, and First Aid holds onto a wall for support. As new orders come down the pipeline, the Protectobot motions to Foxfire, "Go ahead. I'll figure out a way through." "You Autobots have plan!" Grimlock yells over his shoulder at the Steelhaven. "Now is FIGHTY TIME!" and then Abominus hurls a bomb at the ship! Grimlock watches it sail through the air...and grunts, opting to sight in on the Terrorcon gestalt instead. "Him Foxfire might want get that." he notes. This done, he whips up his Galaxial Missile Launcher, and snaps off a shot, right at the center of Abominus' chest! Steeltread levels his rifle at Abominus as the big guy throws his arms wide. "Thaaaat's right....expose your chest, stupid." And just like that.....a loud bang can be heard from his rifle as the accelerants fire one shell from that rifle. Steeltread firing a shell....this means trouble, especially since the shell is ALSO aimed at Abominus' chest! Nightbeat thinks that perhaps they could use the terrain against their opponents, here. Crashing objects from space tend to pock the landscape, right? He looks around for any ditches or large pits... Battlestation adjusts his aim a few degrees, he thinks he sees a flash of Abominus' Blot-arm through the hole. Then the giant bomb sails in through that hole, and lands at the base of his battlestation form. "Oh, slag..." Members of channel are: First Aid, Foxfire, Grimlock, Nightbeat, Red Alert, and Steeltread Foxfire dashes out of the Steelhaven in time to see the bomb thrown. "Frag!" Acting quickly, he activates his anti-gravs, which help him jump up onto the ship with ease. Without missing a beat, he launches himself off the ship's surface to meet the explosive in the air, promptly latching onto it with his claws and causing it to drop out of the air like a rock, away from the Steelhaven. He may be small, but the extra weight proved useful. Not wanting to waste any time, he sets about trying to disarm it so that it will no longer be able to detonate. He's good like that. Swindle snickers quietly to himself, while flicking the switch. FOOM, there's a big poof of smoke and spray of confetti, and a digital fanfare that yells out, "VISIT SWINDLE'S EXPLOSIVES AND WEAPONS EMPORIUM AND GET AN EXPLOSION OF GREAT DEALS!" The Combaticon pockets the detonator and rolls his optics. "Ugh, like I'd give a -real- bomb to big dumb and drippy here. SO OKAY, now that I've got your attention, you people all have about fifteen seconds to clear the area before Abominus rips you a series of new exhaust ports, and I just used up ten of them explaining it. So.. uh.. shoo." Abominus forgets the big bomb almost as soon as it disappears. It was boring. It was uninteresting. It was Swindles toy, a distraction thus far. Abominus was here for a reason. If not for his instincts, his pea-brain would have him standing there drooling and scratching his aft. But his combined minds have the shared instinct that drives the beast. And as the big loud retard roars and leaves himself wide open like the barn doors exposing a hapless travelling salesman and the farmers daughter to buckshot, so does he reap the rewards for his bold nature. Grimlock's missile soars up and kabooms with a great and powerful explosive force, followed up by a rifle shell chaser into the flaming plume of disaster engulfing the Terrorcon Combiners upper body. When the smoke clears and the flames die down, Abominus is still standing there, staring down at his chest... stunned ... well, more just jarred in thought that someone thought after that big explosive missile, a rifle shell would be anything more than an after-tickle. Abominus giggles for the briefest of seconds and then frowns as his base-rage starts to awaken.... The Autobots have bought themselves merely a moment. The Sharkticon manages to stay balanced on Abominus' shoulder even as the Terrorcon Combiner throws things about and goes into a frenzy. No Autobot bits floating about yet...so he stays put. His beady glowing optics flicker in anticipation. First Aid reaches forward and tries moving several of the girders away from the obstruction, but they're in there pretty good. Craning his neck to see through the gaps, it is clear that the obstruction goes on for quite a ways. Forced to take the alternate route, he busts into the quarters wing of the Steelhaven and blow through the relatively thin walls with his decrystallizer cannon. Each blast reduces the wall to the point where he can just ram right through. One by one, he passes through the Headmasters' old quarties. First Aid does his best to ignore all the issues of playmech scattered throughout Hardhead's quarters. Grimlock grrhs, and soon transforms to his dino mode, growling in anticipation. He spares a glance back at the other 'bots hunkered down in the steelhaven- and then back to the Decepticons present. Hmm- an easy shot...and so, he takes advantage of it, opening his mouth to spew a stream of flame at the gestalt! Maybe that'll wake him up. With a grunt and a growl, Grimlock changes into a robot T-rex! Watch out. Nightbeat transforms to his car mode, not detered by Swindle's threads. He is a flashy blue car with flames. A Porsche. Expensive. He zooms out onto the battle-field, off in search of a pond or pit or ditch or something that eh could lure Abominus into tripping into. Nightbeat slouches down into Porsche 959 form. Time to roll. Battlestation also takes advantage of Abominus' moment of hesitation and opens fire with his massive main gun. He unleashes an optics-searing barrage of energy blasts that could melt a gumby transformer half into slag!...of course, against a gestalt it would at most just cause some discomfort. But Scattershot generally prefers to save such thoughts for later, after the shooting stops. Foxfire looks up at Abominus. Way up. He's not going to enjoy this. He sighs, lowering his ears. "Here goes nothin'..." Anti-gravs activated again, he extends his wings, giving him a rather batlike appearance (maybe he should be called Batfire), and takes to the air. "Heeeeey, Abominus!" he calls tauntingly as he starts to circle him. "Can't catch me!" Members of channel are: First Aid, Foxfire, Grimlock, Nightbeat, Red Alert, Scattershot, and Steeltread Steeltread slides forward as Scattershot fires and grins. "That should make Abominus a bit madder than he was." he then aims his rifle again. "Sharkticon on his shoulder." Swindle watches everymech and his bromech take off firing after Abominus, aka The Greatest Distraction Ever. "Well, looks like my work here is done. Time to start looting!" he cackles to himself, rubbing his hands together greedily as he casually strolls toward the big opening in the side of the Steelhaven. Swindle is heading for the opening in the hangar. He's a weapons-dealer, after all, and all the good stuff is usually close to the hangar. If Abominus weren't as epicly dumb as he is, he would remember a moment from a long time ago. Back when his Mominus told him, 'Never laugh while you're supposed to be beating the crap out of giant robots.' As it is, what little guard Abominus has is let down. Scattershot's barrage lands squarely on Abominus' Hun-Grrr chest. Grimlock's fire breath scorches the gestalt's Blot arm, igniting some of the noxious fumes Blot loves to excrete. The distractions of Foxfire and Nightbeat do just that to the simpleton, distract. Abominus is clearly confused and enraged. Not knowing what to do, he instead stomps furiously in a giant hissy fit, sending shockwaves through the ground. Oh Abominus, the things you could do, if only you had a brain. Sharkticon is barely holding his balance as Abominus stomps around. "Stomp on food?" he suggests. So far there is a distinct lack of damage to edible targets, and the little Sharkball is getting a bit impatient. A short time passes and First Aid makes it to the Steelhaven's command bridge. If it looks like it's in even worse shape than the hangar, it might just be because there were more interesting things there to be destroyed. First Aid tosses a battered science console that was, unbeknownst to him, used by Apeface to smash Cog's head in two weeks ago, the Protectobot manages to find the weapons stations. There's a soft hum as the console lights up. The bridge lights themselves then flicker as emergency power comes back online. The doctor's fingers tap the consoles as he initializes the targeting systems. Outside of the Steelhaven, twin laser cannons on the ship's side whirls to life, focusing and then refocusing on various targets, both Decepticon and Autobot. First Aid sees a list of enemies pop up. Unfortunately Swindle has just passed out of the laser battery's firing arc, and so First Aid directs the ships to aim for the biggest target here - these are anti-ship weapons, after all. The twin cannons stop turning, and then fire a pair of immensely powerful blasts. The ground in front of Abominus explodes, kicking up dirt and trees. First Aid re-configures the aiming solution and tries again. A deep vibration can be felt throughout the ship each time the weapons are unleashed. "OOOF!" Abominus' rampage causes Grimlock to topple down to the ground, landing with a heavy *OOMPH!* "Grrh!" he snarls- and he's pushing himself back up to his feet again, bracing himself once the shaking has passed. He snorts, and storms closer to the alamagrammated creature- he glances back at the Autobts, and snorts. "YOU AUTOBOTS KEEP SHOOTING!" he says. And with that said, Grimlock does the same thing himself, courtesey of eye lasers! Battlestation is rocked a bit by the shaking earth. Not in danger of falling down, not with the massive support from his mode, but shaken enough to throw off his aim. Especially when shooting at a moving target through a hole in the side of an Autobot ship that he doesn't want to damage any more than it already is. Finally, he just transforms into his cruiser mode and blasts off to take up a circling pattern around Abominus' head and shoulders along with Foxfire. But while Foxfire's providing pure distraction, Scattershot adds some artillery fire from his turrets. Scattershot transforms into battlecruiser mode. Foxfire keeps Abominus's attention. He hopes. "Always send the little guy to be the diversion," he grumbles to himself. Porsche 959 tries to drives around Abominus. Then, he pops into his robot mode and leaps! However, can blue Porches jump? He tries to slaps a tracking device on Abominus - but he might easily get stepped on in the process. The puzzle pieces of Porsche 959 rearrange into the hard-boiled Autobot detective, Nightbeat! Steeltread doesn't really have much in the way of direct fire in his robot mode. So he moves to the side and props himself against one of the walls in the hangar....and literally fires from cover. Surprising that a transformer can actually FIND cover for someone of his size. Steeltread, however, fires full auto at Abominus.....though the shots aren't very powerful.... Abominus recovers from his giant hissy fit as a few more weapon blasts smash into his torso. He is a pretty unstoppable thing though, and most of the actual weapon blasts do little bit pit his armor. One though in particular seems to enrage him. The weaponry of the ship blasts into the ground in front of him and blows a big divot of crap from the ground into his optics. His left hand covers them while the right sort of flails for a moment before he recovers and lurches forwards heedless of anything around him as he lunges for the ship. He is pretty fast for a gestalt. He also does two important things: The first one is that he tries to step on Foxfire on his way to the ship. Not really a stomp or anything, just an attempt to squish teh little blighter beneath his heel. The second is, no matter how retarded he might be he has seen his hero, Devastator, do cool things in battle videos. He remembers what Devastator did! Reaching out to a damaged section of the steelhaven's hull he punches it -- hard -- and then begins to peel back the armor as shots rain around him, some leaving smoking fragments around his flank. "ABOMINUS......CRU.... DES..." He seems to be having trouble with this. "ABOMINUS HAVE TROUBLE KNOWING WHAT TO SAY. ABOMINUS... NYAAAAARGGH." And with that, he pulls a great section of hull armor away and hunkers behind it to use it as a shield for a moment and then -HEAVES- it at the closest major weapons turret. Swindle grins as he 'stealthily' hops into the hangar unmolested. He cracks his knuckle joints and then takes a quick look around. "What do we have here? Ooh, please tell me there's a working shuttle, or maybe a nice crate marked 'do not steal.' Heh heh heh." The Combaticon starts hunting around for anything valuable, like an armory door or a pile of warheads. Foxfire is, unfortunately, more or less crushed. Well, okay, not quite. He's flown a bit too low, and narrowly avoids being stepped on, but the force of Abominus's foot is enough to send him hard into the ground. His anti-gravs deactivate and his wings retract. He groans quietly, and lays still. Apparently he's been knocked out! "Rargh!" Yes, Abominus may be laying into the Steelhaven...but Grimlock's set to lay into Abominus! The dinocommander wheels around- finding himself right at the right level to menace the Sinnertwin leg...and so, Grimlock sets to menacing, stomping in, opening his jaws...and then, *CHOMP!* The Steelhaven's hangar bay has plenty of things to take, ranging from ammo crates to fuel barrels to various maintenance supplies. The Ol' Rusty Autobot shuttle is even there if Swindle was feeling really ambitious. It looks banged up but is likely salvable. In the command centre, First Aid looks over at the sensor console from the tactical station. He can see several flashing red lights detailing the damage dealt to Abominus. Suddenly the Steelhaven rocks, knocking First Aid off his feet and sending him crashing into Fortress Maximus's command chair. On one of the monitors he can see Abominus peeling away huge strips of hull plating. "Nuts again," he says. If the first hit wasn't bad enough, it is a hundred times worse when the bulkhead is hurled into the laser cannons, causing a massive explosion that takes out part of the ship's side. Swindle will feel it way down in the hangar bay. It'll make his job harder. Steeltread says, "FOXFIRE!" Steeltread calls out as Foxfire disappears from his optics. His visor then turns red as his attention turns back to Abominus. "You sunuva...." and he doesn't get to finish as he suddenly transforms into his tank mode......and aims his main gun at Abominus'.....ankle. Hopefully, the force of the shot will knock the leg out from under him and trip him.....perhaps falling on the gestalt's face." Falling forward, Steeltread's Rifle slides onto his backpack, with part of his body closing over the rifle and deploying it's weapons, revealing his other form to be a tank. Finally! The little Sharkball--emphasized as small against Abominus' large frame--spots a potential meal. Foxfire looks like easy pickings and Sharkticon bounces off Abominus, performing a great Swan Dive. Yes. Then he starts rolling the minute he hits the ground, trying to roll right into poor Foxfire. Battlecruiser activates a brace of jets along his underside and a few that point forward, even while his maneuvering thrusters angle slightly down. The combined effect of the various engines pointing in all different directions is to cause him to hover in place, with a hint of sideways sliding that lets him circle in mid-air around Abominus. He keeps his pulse cannon pointed at the combiner's legs at all times, pouring fire into the other leg. Nightbeat seems to have managed to have slapped the tracer on. Will it stick? He doesn't know. He backs off and turns back to his flashy car mode, trying to get Abominus's attention to draw him away from the Steelhaven. Nightbeat slouches down into Porsche 959 form. Time to roll. Swindle continues to rummage. Anyone paying close attention to the security cameras in the hangar will see him piling up loads of missiles and ammo belts and fuel cubes, and also what look like spare gun barrels and laser emitters and.. well, pretty much everything but the kitchen sink. He's loading it up onto a big tarp that he apparently intends to tie up and carry out of the hangar like some kind of evil robotic Santa Claus. Foxfire, at the moment, seems unaware of Gnaw rolling toward him. He's pretty out of it, only half conscious and completely dazed. Where is everyone...? Behind First Aid and out of his line of sight at the security station, the monitors are showing Swindle looting the hell out of the hangar bays. Opening up a comlink to the other Autobots he asks them about a new plan. While he waits for a reply he climbs back up to the weapons console. Those laser cannons were the best the Steelhaven had to offer, and it didn't even faze Abominus in the slightest! Swindle's no sucker! He transforms into a Jeep and gets ready to roll! TEAR. RENDER. SMASH. It's what Abominus does best. Did I say Abominus? I meant to say DA BOMBINUS! Get it? 'Cause he's da bomb? Shut up, it's hilarious. Massive fingers dig into the ships hull, creaking and wailing against the gestalts feral strength as he puts every ounce of his being into making the Autobot's lives hell. "Hrrrrrrrr, STUPID AUTOBOTS. STUPID SHIP. STUPID EVERYTHING. ABOMINUS IS KING!" His redecorating is interrupted, however, by that meddling Grimlock, that silly tank, and that disgusting Technobot. How dare they try to stop him!? How dare they!? Each shot, each hit, each barrage takes its toll on his Terrorcon legs the armor denting, scorching, and fizzling with exposed circuitry. "ABOMINUS WILL CRUSH YOU! ABOMINUS WILL-" He begins to lean back. No, he's not doing a fly jig, he's falling. Yes, the various impacts eventually send the mighty combiner down, down, down to the ground. Arms splayed, the ginormous beast is sure to land on someone, something, with a mighty crash. He definitely crushes a squirrel. He got what was comin' to him. "Ragrh! That right! Me Grimlock strongest there is!" And he storms forwards, transforming to his robot mode- he's got his energo-sword in hand as he makes a quick hop onto Abominus' chest, upending the sword so as to go *STABBY STABBY STAB!* There's a flurry of moving parts, and Grimlock changes to his robot mode! Assault Battle Tank takes this chance to zoom out of the Steelhaven. Now he simply wanted to give the combiner a headache....and a headache he would give him. In the form of a tank being able to move at 300 MPH.....heading straight for the combiners head.... First Aid is still trying to figure out what to do on the command centre now that the guns are totalled. His plan wasn't well received, so it's time for him to get out of here. Luckily, there's a nice hole in the command centre for him to leave by, and he does just that, winding up outside again. The Sharkball continues to roll towards Foxfire like a big spikey Bowling Pin Of Doom(tm)! Will he catch the Fox? Or will he suffer a Wile E. Coyote-esque fate? Vintage Army Jeep drives out of the hole in the side of the hangar, with the green camouflage tarp tied down over his cargo area to hold the loot in place. But is that really Swindle? Instead of shiny purple Decepticon patches, he's wearing shiny red Autobot patches (ed. note: by the way, someone may notice a few decals missing from vehicles in the hangar)! Well, sort of. If you look closely you might see the edges of the Con logo behind the Bot logo. Also, he's wearing about fifteen extra Bot insignia, pasted pretty haphazardly around on his chassis. In an attempt to seem somehow less suspicious, he's got a green-painted 'Nebulon' mannequin velcroed in place in the driver's position, utilizing the latest in Cybertronian Seatmaster technology to effect his disguise. The jeep books it back towards the forest. He might just run over a certain fox on the way out of the area. Then again, he might not. Battlecruiser thunders, "-Not! Leaving!" As if he'd started to say a sentance over the comm-link and bellowed the last few words out loud. His engines adjust their angle and send him streaking to the ground near Abominus' feet. He transforms again into his battlestation mode, plowing a huge furrow into the ground as he slides to a stop almost directly between the giant gestalt's legs. "NOT WITHOUT MAKING A MARK!" He screams the last part, then at point blank range fires up at his most hated enemy, Abominus. Scattershot transforms into battlestation mode. Abominus is just about to layeth the smacketh down on the so called strongest one there is in the form of a swat when the Dinobot leaps upon him and drives his kitchen utensil into his chest plating where, oddly enough, a nipple would be on Gulliver. Abominus instead reflexively brushes at the stabby-blade and the stabber as he roars in sensative pain, "MAAAAAA-GROPE!" His outcry cut short with a grunt as the ridiculously rapid tank rams into his head. Abominus' optics see static stars explode in his vision in that instant of impact. His head whips away to the side and is about to reflexively snap back in a side-headbutting when that dirty bastard Scattershot fires like a heavy cue shotgunning a cueball into a racked set of billiard balls... and considering the chosen targetting, is not far from that simile that does not make Abominus smile. His whole body convulses at the midsection and then his seperate Terrorcon parts shatter apart, scattering in all different directions. Abominus drops Blot. Abominus drops Sinnertwin. Grimlock is swatted away! FAR away, in fact. He lands some distance away with a *THUD!*- plowing up all kinds of earth and rock in the process. "...Ow." he mutters, and groggily gets back to his feet, rubbing at his helmet. "Me Grimlock still 'live, though. That good!" Abominus drops Hun-Grrr. Abominus drops Rippersnapper. Hun-Grrr takes Abominus. Mechanical Orthrus rolls around on the ground for a bit, holding onto his head. "Hrrg...m-merging..." He sits up and gasps, "RUN AWAY!" Sinnertwin unfolds into his robot mode. Egads! Lean Mean Eating Machine lands on the ground as a torso for a moment, then transforms and begins to fly away slowly. "TERRORCONS! WE RETREAT!" Hun-Grr rises up on his dragon heads to form feet as his torso rotates to form a menacing robot! Foxfire is very delirious by now. He hasn't moved from his place of impact. Vintage Army Jeep doesn't drive over Foxfire, then. Off to the trees! Blot looks confused as he demerges. "BUT.. BLOT... Ugghhh." He moans as he follows he Terrorcon brothers, transforming and flying off. First Aid climbs down from the Steelhaven's command centre onto the ground. It's all been turned up from when the ship crashed in the forest. The Protectobot gets a confusing call from Foxfire that he translates into 'fix me!' Following the direction of the transmissions, the Protectobot eventually finds Foxfire and sets to work, kneeling before the Cassettibot. A small blue laser shoots out of his index finger, serving as a scalpel as he works. "You're going to be just fine," he assures Foxfire. The monstrous head-nose of Blot folds inward as his head pops out the top. Robotic legs and arms erratically explode from the creature's body, flinging disgusting amounts of oil outwards. Battlestation groans from where he's lying on his side in the crater where Abominus demerged. He starts to make transforming noises, but has to try a few times before he's able to reassume his robot form. He still rubs his head, and his optics seem to flicker and dim a bit. "Anybody know what just happened?" Scattershot transforms into robot mode. Rippersnapper tumbles and ends up eatting a bit of forest ground in the process. Feeling the after shocks of what Abominus just felt. He too transforms and flys away, cursing all the while. "Razzlefrazzledirtystinkingsonsofglitchesfragheads..." Standing up and the main turret uncovering a backpack with a rifle to it's side, the body of the tank seems to shrink into the lighter, faster form of Steeltread. Rippersnapper pauses in mid air, looks back and whistles, "Gnaw, come on boy..." Steeltread flips over as he nails the head of the massive combiner....but in the end...he transforms and watches as the Terrorcons fly away. "How's Foxfire?" The Sharkball hears his fellow Shark calling to him. "Coming," he says, "Going to go eat food?" Thus being totally distracted from Foxfire and the thought of eating the Foxtape. Oh well, Foxfire was just a light snack size anyway. He waddles after Rippersnapper. Sinnertwin flies into the air, grabbing onto his head. "UGH. I MERGED WITH BLOT!? THE HORROR! THE HORRORRR!" "Not good," First Aid replies, "I'm going to take him into the medical bay for work." Shifting down into ambulance mode with Foxfire on top, First Aid heads back to the Steelhaven to use its medical supplies. Swindle moves west to the Sunny Valley -- Nebulos. ================================= Decepticon ================================= Message: 2/86 Posted Author BIG SALE Sat Feb 28 Swindle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Swindle appears on the viewscreen. "Hi guys! I just stumbled into a big supply of weapons, parts, and ammo, and I'm looking to unload. So for the next solar week I'm having a huge blowout sale! Get it? BLOWOUT? Heh heh! Seriously, folks, catch me in the Absolution or on the radio, and I'll hook you up with whatever you need, at discounts up to twenty-five percent off my usual prices! You want bombs, I got bombs! You want bullets, I got bullets! You want inverse beta tachyon particle projection flux coils, I got inverse beta whosits! Don't keep me waiting, at these prices it'll be like -you're- stealing from -me-! And that's just absurd, right? Swindle OUT!" Swindle's grinning face is quickly replaced by the Con logo. ============================================================================== ================================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/171 Posted Author Steelhaven status Sun Mar 01 Nightbeat ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is Nightbeat! It is Nightbeat covered in mud, like he fell down a pit. He reports, "Uh, Abominus, Swindle, Gnaw, maybe a few others hauled out to harass the Steelhaven's wreck yesterday. Under Grimlock's orders, I slapped a tracer on Abominus." The detective looks rather dubious that this will do any good at all. "Not sure how the battle turned out," because he fell down a pit. "I have reason to believe that Swindle may have looted the Steelhaven." Super-hearing, go! "So I'm gonna suggest that we just stuff the Steelhaven inside the Orion Pax's shuttle bay. It'll fit - it's only about four shuttle-lengths long, and Paxy-baby's /huge/. It'll give us a safe place, away from Decepticons, looters," okay, so Mishap will still be around, "and the weather, to work on rebuilding the Steelhaven. Just land the Orion Pax next to the Steelhaven, hustle the Steelhaven inside, and book out before any /more/ Decepticons can cause trouble." Blip ============================================================================== ================================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/173 Posted Author Steelhaven Status Sun Mar 01 First Aid ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** TEXT ONLY *** Per Nightbeat's report, the Steelhaven is a real mess. Its hangar bay is trashed and the command centre ruined, though still somewhat functional. The cruiser's underside has had its hull nearly completely stripped away. Abominus dealt additional damage, destroying the last remaining laser battery that was working and tearing a strip of armour off the side. In the hangar it seems Swindle took a small amount of miscellaneous equipment, mostly weapons and munitions. He also seems to have stolen the Autobot insignia stickers off the Ol' Rusty for reasons I'm not clear on. I concur with Nightbeat's request to move the Steelhaven into the Orion Pax and unload all material. Right now the Steelhaven is not a secure place to defend. If we donate the considerable amount of needed resources to the project, estimated time to have the Steelhaven space-worthy again is one to two weeks. I await Command's decision on this. - First Aid ============================================================================== ================================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/174 Posted Author Re: Steelhaven Sun Mar 01 Grimlock ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Me Grimlock say spaceship fixing can wait 'til we crush septi-cons! Move bullets and guns and stuff, but no put hull in Orion Pax yet. Us needs big ship for 'splodin' stuff." ============================================================================== ================================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/175 Posted Author Briefly.. Sun Mar 01 Jazz ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Text-only message* Grimlock, we need to rap. Name the place and I'll come holla at ya. -Jazz ============================================================================== ================================== Autobot =================================== Message: 3/176 Posted Author Addendum. Sun Mar 01 Jazz ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Spinny --> No Spinny --> Jazz. He seems to be at Grapplebee's. Grimlock and Punch can be seen behind him.* "Cats and kittens, just had a gab session with the G-man, and we're changing lanes. Operations, I need the hull of O-Pax cleaned out, and make preparations to load up the Steelhaven, and the sooner the better. We're going in as soon as someone gives me the word that we're ready. You know where I be at."
* Spinny!* ==============================================================================
|
