| abstract | - Wilderness Birds of paradise chirrup and display in the trees overhead, known and unknown animal sounds everpresent in the thickly wooded wilderness of Femax. The jungle is so dense and the trees so massive that even a Transformer could become quickly lost. Femax is a high-gravity planet and all the life forms, from the trees to the animals, are many times larger and stronger than they are on less dense planets such as Earth. Accordingly, even normally harmless native life forms such as tiger-analogues are a good thirty or forty feet long, capable of taking down prey as large as Transformers. You should be on your guard here. The barren wilderness gives way to the Hellbender's cargo bay deck, as the doors give way to the large ramp.. inching it's way noisily to the ground, scraping the not-so-supple soil the entire way. The Decepticon Warship had been orbiting for approximately thirteen cycles, awaiting reassurance from Sci-Tech that the effects of the Nega-Core have dissapated.. at least enough for their conquest to proceed. And so the unlikely crew of motley picked Decepticons begin their strut down it.. followed closely behind by a squad of three to four Sweeps and smaller gumbie disposable soldiers. Cyclonus plans to take Femax with this? Maybe the insanity didn't stop at Galvatron! Landing a ship such as the Hellbender in hostile territory is no easy feat. Not without support. And the Seacons have provided that. Hours earlier, Snaptrap and his Seacons launched themselves out of the ship in six hot drop pods, which were able to survive entry into the atmosphere, and when close enough, broke open to reveal the Seacon inside. They cleared a patch of any local lifeforms that could prove hostile, in preparation for the full liberation force. Snaptrap currently stands near the trees, adjacent to an open valley in the middle of the jungle, and speaks into his communications link, <> - A few hours ago, on Charr - Carjack recieves a 'request' (ie words you don't dare ignore) for a technician accompaniment to the Femax incrusion force, having gotten railroaded into doing paper work for MSE -again- with Harrow being holded up in some experiment or another. And promptly stamped his own name on it. ".. But what about Catechism?" the generic aide gumbie had asked. "What about her? She's not even suppose to be fixed anyways. And -you- piston heads all have jets or construction vehicles for alt modses! Not suitable at all for this sort of off-site, off-road work." And with that, grabbed the next shuttle he could to the Hellbender. - Femax, now - And that is why Carjack is now chugging down the loading ramp amongst the other soldiers. In vehicle mode, just to prove his point. Well that and because he was helping carry some of the deforesting equipment in his rear storage too, unjostled as he rolls off the ramp and jungle underbrush crunchs beneath his wheels. Let's see some stinking jet do -that-! Carjack hits the ground and folds into a rescue truck. Tentakil eventually emerges from the edge of the clearing and waddles up beside his commander for some reason not in his robot mode even with all the wobbling and apparent difficulty he has in simply walking. His toothy smile fixed in place as he looks around, "Hmmm looks like we really scared off all the locals, such a shame, i was just starting to enjoy myself." Tentakil transforms into his huggable Krakenoid mode. Slugfest trots down the ramp, pulling a hover lifter piled with crates by a rope in his mouth. Of course, he could also help deforestate, just by turning on his back plates and running through the trees. Backfire, chest puffed out, strides down the ramp with a chainsaw in one hand.. and his trusty Hypno-Ray Rifle in the other. Beaming at all the troops beside him, descending like the rest, the Seeker simpleton simply radiates with ignorant bliss. But such is his lot in life, and pointing out the inequalities would simply demean what -little- good he can accomplish. Which means other Decepticons usually just resort to big words he doesn't understand. Leading a squad of midget gumbie soldiers behind him, Backfire points out two locations to his right. "Raze the wilderness, zones four and five!" And as ordered, they do not hesitate to lay waste to the countryside. The Sweeps keep to themselves, off by the exit ramp.. nervously scanning the area and speaking in hushed tones. The other squads of small gumbies march up in formation towards Snaptrap, all either hefting deforestation equipment of their own.. or helping lug the Decepticon's oversized machinery next to them. Snaptrap turns to Tentakil as he watches the troops bring out the deforestation supplies, medical supplies, soldiers, and everything else they will need for the liberation and pacification of Femax, "Feel free to do another sweep of the area, Tentakil. I'm certain you'll find something worth your particular brand of . . . attention." And then he has to turn his attention back to the squadron leaders who have approached him, directing the pattern of where to set up. They will begin clearing this forest shortly in sprawling pattern, emanating from the ship. Others, begin establishing fortifications, creating a fallback position should the liberation go sour. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the dense jungle, a group of Femaxian refugees are being escorted from the Golden Realm now that it's no longer a safe haven. Far from it, the upper third of the mountain that houses the Femaxian fortress-city has been sheared clean away by the effects of the Nega-Core device, and consequently many of the Golden Realm's proud citizens are obliged to overlook generations-old vendetta and seek safety with rival clans. One of the warriors escorting the refugees is none other than the First One's Fourth-To-Die, the Olympian Barkida. She pricks her ears at the sound of wildlife stampeding away from the flamethrowers and chainsaws and earth-moving equipment the Decepticons are using to clear the area around their landing site. Words pass between her and one of the other escorts in their own language, and entrusting her place in line to one of her slaves, a sturdy spear-carrier named Aiago, Barkida sets off into the jungle with sword and shield to see what's upsetting the wildlife. The searing roar of jet engines can be heard overhead. They pass once, twice, thrice before a barrage of irritated swears filter down through the dense canopy. A few moments later, Fusillade plunks down in robot mode, holding half-folded wingblades in her taloned hands. Whacking at vines and shrubbery as she approaches the Seacon encampment, she mutters, "Pit, no WONDER there aren't any jets here. Can't get a decent line of sight on any hostiles through the plant cov--" She trails off, staring at Backfire's obvious presence. "Oh. You. Why am I not surprised?" "What a pleasure it is to.. serve, Snaptrap." Backfire smiles warmly at the Seacon Commander. The Seeker isn't without his ass kissery side, even if it isn't remotely sincere in the slightest. Snapping a salute up in a formal manner, Backfire accidentally triggers the Hypno-Ray weapon and smacks a gumbie right upside the head with a ball of CONFUSING plasma. Realizing Fusillade's entrance, he turns. "Executrix, hihi!" The dazed gumbie falls over on the ground, rubbing his headplate. Krakenoid giggles like a giddy child after several bags of sweets, "See that's why you're the best commander ever Snaptrap. I'm sure we can always hunt some new friends down." Turns and waddles back into the forest edge, he's hardly stealthy as he stomps and barges his way through the foliage. Once the other workers have unloaded the gear he was carrying, Carjack shifts around with the trademark click-click-clack-click to rise into robot mode... Just in time to hear the shout for a medic and hurries over. "What is it? Who is it?" Looks down at the gumbie. "... Is he important, or do I get to scrap him for parts?" The emergency response truck opens up into a robot. Fusillade shifts weight to one hip, lightly fanning herself against the moisture-laden air of the old-growth forest. With optic ridge arched at the figure, Fusillade remarks, "Alt-mode's not Russian. You can have him. As for you, Backfire, I'm almost afraid to ask, but... status report?" She glances over as Tentakil forges ahead. As ordered, the additional (non-named) soldiers filter out and begin either A) Burning down the surrounding jungle, B) Cutting down the surrounding jungle, or C) Ducking duties and playing cards in the jungle. The group of Sweeps have already fanned out, searching the other side of the jungle for anything to hunt down. Once Slugfest has carted the hover-trailer to some gumbies so that they can dig into the contents and start hacking away at foliage, the little Stegosaur-tape runs up to Backfire. "Me chop trees now?" he asks, "Or someone use me chop trees?" Backfire shrugs towards them both, looking back at Snaptrap. "He's the one in charge!" There is a metallic squeal of shock from the jungle as a huge hooked beak lunges out of the dense trees almost too fast to see and snatches the upper half off of one of the sweeps that got too far from the others. The legs wobble momentarily and then tip over with a dull crash. And that's not the only vicious predator in the jungle! Some sort of vast, predatory bird-of-prey swoops down onto Slugfest and tries to snatch him! Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle strikes Slugfest with his Oh it's just Americon (Grab) attack! Slugfest YEEKS as he's grabbed! "NONONO PUT ME DOWN PUT ME DOWN! UNLESS USING ME FOR CHAINSAW!" Fusillade says, "The snu snu birds are colorful and bold today!" Robotic Bald Eagle holds Slugfest upside down from his claws. "That's what I'm doing, pal! Go ahead and rev her up!" His flight's a tad wobbly with all the added weight, so this may prove to be a bad idea. In fact it most likely will. Snaptrap pulls out a fat, narrow tube of some sort. An analysis of the device would reveal its primarily composed of lithium and cobalt. He places it at a fairly steep angle, with one end slipping down under the mask he wears. "Backfire, if you're going to bootlick, I want to see my reflection in them." He lets Tentakil go off, although now he regrets not giving him implicit orders to be subtle. At least he's effective. Though when Slugfest comes up to Backfire and himself, he regards the little cassette, "Yes, Slugfest, you chop trees now. Why don't you partner up with Backfire, two heads and all that . . ." and he thinks to himself, might be as good as one Seacon. After several seconds the top half of the sweep can be heard yelling for help. Apparently the predatory wildlife doesn't eat metal but also isn't necessarily smart enough to tell the difference before biting it. There's a rushing sound from the forest that Tentakil disappeared into moments ago followed by a soft soothing voice, "Hello there, you're such a pretty pretty one aren't you, yes you are! Come here, come on yes that's it i won't hurt you..." There's a moment of silence followed by an energon curdling cry of shock and surprise as something dies horribly torn into myriad pieces. Carjack can just be heard snickering as he drags the downed gumby off, either to fix or to dismantle him. It can be a question left unseen until later off-camera. He comes back a few minutes later with more important things to do, so the fate of the fainted will have to wait until later. ".. No no no you morons! Cut the trees so they fall -away- from where you want to make a path! So you don't have to move them afterwards!" Pulls out his fireman's axe to demonstrate, so the sound of Sweeps screaming is lost for a moment as he's busy showing idiots how to do their job right. The other squads of gumbies, all the nameless disposable ones, can be seen in the distance.. turning tail and running back towards Snaptrap? Surely, there has to be good cause.. right? Over the horizon, a darkness fills the sky.. slowly approching the Decepticons and Hellbender. It's not for another couple of astro-seconds, that they're revealed to be.. birds? Standing beside the Seacon leader is a grey and black Decepticon, a tier higher than the gumbies.. but not much. Viewpoint tugs at Snaptrap's arm, pointing down to his scanner's readings. "Various seismic readings, sir.. some of them are off the chart. Orders?" The screams of the Sweep are drowned out, not only by axe or Americon.. but by the shrill call of the large predatory birds, flapping into the area. Like a swarm of bees, they start enveloping both squandrons of fleeing gumbies. Viewpoint asks again, looking nervous. "Orders, sir?" Femaxian Wildlife has arrived. Slugfest sighs in relief. Yes, it's just Americon. Fellow tape and creation of Soundwave. Also probably both assembled while Soundwave was drunk. "Okay!" he says, revving up his chainsaw plates and letting Americon saw through trees with him. Up until today, the world of Femax was still blanketed by electronic interfering radiation, one of many effects that are harmful to Cybertronian life, from the fall out of the Nega-Core bomb which rendered the planet incapable of being scanned from orbit. For one single Autobot, the last two days on Femax has been a test of endurance, wits, and luck. Mirage was sent down from the Steelhaven by Fortress Maximus in a specially modified escape pod with electronics capable of surviving the hellish environment (for a mechanoid) on Femax to get an early look at the situation below. Unfortunately his past time being a huntsman prior to the civil war, ability to create holograms, capable of cloaking from sight, and being an experienced intelligence gatherer made him a perfect candidate. Of course things hasn't went accordingly to plan for the Autobot spymaster, what with his radiation suit being torn due to a surprise confrontation with the local wildlife the late last night has left him exposed to some of the hazardous effects. Now Mirage sits crouched atop a tree in the dense jungle, his physical appearance altered to that of the local ape-like lifeform that frequents the tree tops. The Decepticons arrival has drawn his attention and for now the spymaster sits in the distance, watching as the Decepticon unload their troops, carefully recording anything noteworthy. Fusillade hums to herself. "Why DIDN'T Cyclonus inform Aerospace about the second part of the the mission? I mean, sure it's kinda hard to fly through all this..." She stares as the upright ratites strut in, optics locked on those slab-like heads tipped with hooked, servo-crushing beaks. "OH." She flies off. Fusillade leans forward, wingblades whipping out to their full span, even as her arms lock backward in place as the rear fuselage. Her torso folds out to the become the cockpit of a space capable B-1R Lancer, ready for flight! Barkida freezes as the flock of terror birds approaches! Being a native, she knows that their vision is based largely on movement. Breathing slowly and shallowly, she holds very still and hopes that the invaders catch the worst of it. Snaptrap looks up at the jungle canopy above, and the now departing Fusillade. He was about to answer her question, but when she flew off, there wasn't much point. "Viewpoint, kill them all. Everyone fights, no one quits, until those Terrorbirds are dead." It'll give away their position, but if they're big enough to munch Sweeps, then they are a viable threat to Decepticon operations. Fusillade launches back into space. Fusillade has left. That's okay, Soundwave does his best work while plastered. Or is that worst? Well, whatever. Americon flies towards the swarm of enormous birds, not by design, but by accident. He waves Slugfest around haphazardly, as if trying to cut trees or whatever foliage has the misfortune of being near. "Damn, hold on, Slugfest, all these birds are going to make this job REALLY difficult! Someone get some pest repellent!" Americon blithely continues to swing Slugfest around, then, possibly catching some of the birds on the chainsaw blades. Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle strikes Femaxian Wildlife with Slugfest's Chainsaw Plates attack! Slugfest is making sure he hangs on for dear life, well as much as his stubby little legs can cling to Americon, as Americon holds him. He sees the birds coming and revs his blades extra-loudly. It sounds like 'rrrrrrrrrrun, birdiebirdiebirdiebirdie, rrrrrrrrrrrrrun, birdiebirdiebirdie'. Competely aside the fact, that these birds probably don't do much actual running. And then Sluggy feels his blades bite into bird necks, wings, and torsos! "Oh no, now me got feathers stuck in chain," he mutters. The blades slow down as the gunk from the birds cycles through and is pulverized. Something hideous bursts from the jungle not far from Snaptrap a terrible mash of bright red and magenta draped with feathers, internal organs and tentacles. "Ooooh we found more? More friends? Save some for me!!!" Tentakil rushes past Snaptrap eager to make some more good buddies. Carjack looks up from chopping at the shouting about giant alien birds. Well that's going to make this a bit more difficult. "Draw back, draw back!" He motions to the gumbies he had been helping. "Form a holding position to support the defensive!" As they scurry about to do their job he switchs devices, a pair of crackling panels folding up over his fists. They're suppose to be defibulator pads... but Carjack overcharges the paddles and starts swinging at any of the uglies that get too close to the troopers trying to set up their defensive formation, using them more like electrified brass knuckles. Combat: Carjack sets his defense level to Guarded. Combat: Carjack misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Shock Therapy attack! Backfire doubletakes at the avian opponents soaring into view, snacking on their gumbies. "Hey, beak brains.. that's OUR job!" And before anyone can remind him that they don't actually 'consume' their troops, Carjack excluded, the Seeker is already firing off blasts from his trusty signature weapon. "THE SKIES BELONG TO US!!" Combat: Backfire strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his Hypno-Ray Rifle attack! The birds, who's largest easily dwarf a normal sized transformer, devour their way through the lower ranks. A bite here, two bites there.. they don't put up much resistance to the tide of avian monsters. Especially with their backs turned and their nerve nonexistant. If Viewpoint could swallow or sweat, he'd gulp while buckets of the liquid poured forth from his brow. "Uh, sure thing." he nervously manages to get out, sidestepping to the side. And like that, Viewpoint has ditched the scanner in the dirt and is in full retreat back to the shuttle. "RUN AWAY!" And with their snack devoured, the gigantic birds set upon the remaining numbers of Decepticons! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife's Epic Peck-ing! attack on Backfire goes wild! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Snaptrap with its Epic Peck-ing! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Snaptrap's Accuracy. (Blinded) Combat: Femaxian Wildlife's Epic Peck-ing! attack on Slugfest goes wild! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife misses Decepticon Heavy Warship Hellbender with its Epic Peck-ing! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: Femaxian Wildlife's Epic Peck-ing! attack on Robotic Bald Eagle goes wild! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Robotic Bald Eagle with its Epic Peck-ing! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Robotic Bald Eagle 's Accuracy. (Blinded) Combat: Femaxian Wildlife's Epic Peck-ing! attack on Snaptrap goes wild! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife misses Robotic Bald Eagle with its Epic Peck-ing! Area attack! [Pulled -1] Snaptrap ducks down, into the brush, weapon in hand, as the figure merges. It takes him a moment to realise that it was not a threat, at least not to him, and was the Seacon Tentakil. "Next time you pull a stunt like that, you're going to lose a Tentakil at the very least!" One of the beasts manages to emerge, mangling Snaptrap's arm as Viewpoint and a number of other Decepticons begin to retreat. "Decepticons, heh. Primus, I miss my Sharkticon troops sometimes!" He notes this, while firing both barrels of his cannons from his shoulders, and his rifle. Combat: Snaptrap strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his Atom-Smasher Rifle attack! Obviously suffering from radiation poisoning, the birds attack in less than conventional means.. or direction. The birds REALLY seem to hate Americon for some reason! Could it be because he's a rival bird, and carrying a buzzy hurty thing around? Nahhhhh. That's crazy talk. "Damn, sorry, Sluggo, but I'm going to have to drop you!" Americon says, wincing as he's pecked from every direction, and a flurry of feathers fills his field of vision.. "Your blades got jammed up! I'll set you down so you can clear it up, then I'm going to see about these birds..." And before Americon sounds too rational, he adds, "IN AMERICA!" Unfortunely for Slugfest, "set you down" really means, "drop you in mid-air," which is exactly what Americon does. The patriotic tape then begins to fire his eye-beams back at the birds! Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Laser attack! The camouflaged Autobot watches on as he observes the Decepticons making their way through the dense jungle foilage, making a mess of the local lifeforms while they cut through a swath through the sea of greens. That is until they've gotten close enough that even the birds around Mirage is flying away. One of them manages to fly right through Mirage's holographic disguise, causing his visual appearance to ripple like a pond after a pebble is dropped through to it. Normally Mirage would make an annoyed sound in response to this disruption, but his years of experience as a counter-intelligence specialist has taught him the discipline required to hold back his natural response. Instead, he quickly drops down from the tree top while glowing a cerulian blue hue before vanishing from sight. Mirage ducks into the thick foilage instinctively after looking down at where his hands should be and seeing an outline and a slight visual distortion whenever he moves it. It becomes apparent that his cloaking systems has suffered degradation from exposure to the disspating radiation last night. Slugfest is dropped! He yelps as he falls, and his chainsaw plates grind to a halt for a moment before a chunk of bird vertebrae *PLINKS* out and they move freely again. Unfortunately, that's about at the moment Slugfest hits the ground. So he digs himself in a few feet, legs pawing the air helplessly! "HELP ME STUCK NOW!" he says. Krakenoid is ignorant of Snaptrap's threat as laughs and jumps up and down trying to snag himself another feathered friend, unfortunately he's not that good at jumping and topples over onto his back, losing some of his entrails and feathers. "Whoops heheheh! Here birdies come to Tentakil!" Opening wide he showers the flock with black fluids, who knows he might get some of them to come down closer and that will be their mistake. Combat: Krakenoid 's Ink Cloud attack on Femaxian Wildlife goes wild! Combat: Krakenoid strikes himself with his Ink Cloud attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily affected Krakenoid 's Accuracy. (Blinded) Carjack growls as several of the birds decend on the workforces even as they're trying to pull back to hold defenses around the ship. ".. I guess I gotta get your attention the hard way!" With a snarl he drops down into truck mode, and deploys the turret from atop his cargo section. "Burn beneath the wrath of the Empire's might, fiends!" The birds are swarming all over the place, so he just start spewing blast of flame all over the clearing. Watch your heads! Carjack hits the ground and folds into a rescue truck. Combat: Crash Response Truck sets his defense level to Neutral. Combat: Crash Response Truck misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Scorched Earth Tactics attack! Backfire blinks, did the Hypno-Ray Rifle actually work? "Hahaha, die foul fowl! DIE!" he laughs, as only an idiot can, transforming into his altmode and fearlessly streaking toward the gargantuan birds. <> the Seeker so eloquently shouts, firing off a pair of highly concussive missiles. A shake, shudder, and shiver; and before your eyes BACKFIRE transforms into a F-16 Falcon! Combat: F-16 Falcon sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: F-16 Falcon strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his Bye bye Birdie! attack! Barkida notices something resembling a cloaked Predator drop out of a tree nearby and take cover. She draws her black sword, which shifts into a machete shape with a soft ringing sound, and swiftly advances on Mirage. "Name yourself, machine-man!" Barkida hisses under her breath. "Why are you hiding from the invaders? Are you friend or foe?" Half their numbers decimated by superior firepower, the birds collect as much remains they can manage in their large beaks.. and shy away, taking refuge in the nearby foliage. Endlessly wailing, their shrieks defy the Decepticon invaders.. for this conquest, laying claim to what is NOT theirs. But those cries aren't unheeded, from from the jungle.. a deep rumble can be heard, trees being toppled over, crashing to the ground in large reverberating *BOOM*s. Something is coming, and that something is loud. Robotic Bald Eagle fires but manages to hit little but feathers. "YEAH THAT'S RIGHT AND YO MOMMA'S FAT!" Americon yells at the departing flock of terrorbirds. He perches on a tree branch and wipes his brow with a wing. "Phew, glad that's over!" he says, oblivious to the rumbling. Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Crash Response Truck growls as the birds are already withdrawing, and something louder rumbles in from the distance. He rolls back a bit to get closer to the other Decepticons, and then transforms into robot mode once more. "Is anyone seriously injured yet?" he inquires while glancing over his shoulder, shifting back into medic mentality... And noticed Slugfest being stuck in the ground, so grabs the tape to pull him free. They're going to likely need every bit of oomph they've got here. The emergency response truck opens up into a robot. Combat: Carjack takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Snaptrap stops firing when the beasts escape into the temporary safety provided by the jungle trees. "Decepticons, reform around the Hellbender and reloa . . ." what could that noise be. Whatever it is, it's big. Carjack asks a question he himself would have, so he waits for the answer. He was taken by surprise by one of the terrorbirds, but he is still quite functional. Combat: Snaptrap takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Slugfest is pulled free! "Thanks!" he says. Once he's right-side-up, he feels the ground trembling. "Someone invite Trypticon or Predacons? Or is that earfquake?" Apparently when on land firing out a spray of black ink skywards from a prone position is not a good idea as air doesn't keep the stuff up and the once colourful Seacon becomes much more somber colour. "Pthaaa! What? It's all gone dark! Is this the end? Oooh tastes nice!" His tentacels still writhe and grasp at the skies trying to grab hold of something, anything, so he can hug it and squeeze it and call it dead. Eventualy he stops flailing about pointlessly and starts flailing about and trying to get back on his feet, something big is coming and it sounds like it needs a hug. <> Backfire gloats high in the sky, spraying machine gun fire into their temporary nesting spots. Pulling up and away, the Seeker lands near Carjack and transforms. "Hey, what's that noise?" The F-16 Falcon transforms with that ever-familiar sound to reveal... BACKFIRE! Combat: Backfire takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] One lone Decepticon gumbie looks up from the mess, out in the clearing alone and surrounded by pecked over carcasses and dead friends. "Commander Snaptrap, I made it!" he yelps into the personal comlink, crawling his way to the top of the pile. The sound of thunder gets ever closer. Krakenoid gives up on trying to get upright in his current mode and transforms before running back to Snaptrap a big smile plastered on his face, "Well that was fun, i wonder what else is coming? It certainly wasn't here when we cleared the place that's for sure, hopefully it'll be a much more worthy prey." Tentakil transforms into his charming robot mode. No one seems to be severely injured yet, so Carjack sets Slugfest back down on his feet and goes back to standby... until the thumping starts. "I don't know, Backfire, and that's the -problem-... You idiot!" He belts out suddenly at the gumbie's emergence. "Get out of the line of fire before they come back! All workers and field engineers get back onto the ship until the area is secured again!" For whatever lackluster generics are left. On the other hand, there's a lot of corpses for him to salvage afterwards. Correct that, no one with a NAME and IMPORTANT was severely injured yet. "Idiot? How am -I- the idiot, I'm still alive!" Backfire berates Carjack, before lowering his head to the ground. "HEY, IT'S GETTING LOUDER!" he yells, unaware of the volume of his voice. "WHAT IS?" Americon yells over the rumbling, still perched on his branch. Eventually his branch snaps and he shrieks as he tumbles to the ground. "I don't know if you're a foe yet, but I sure won't be friendly for much longer if you keep on approaching me with that machete of yours." A disembodied voice responds in return to Barkida before the vestige of an explosive dart rifle, with its barrel pointed right back at Barkida, materializes just enough for the outlines to be seen. Mirage is far from being the most friendly Autobot around, abrasive and selfish, it's a good thing that his abilities allows him to work alone often. "Now if you can tell that I'm hiding from these Decepticon goons, then you can probably tell that they ain't going to let us get away with our heads intact if they see the both of us and you're making it awfully easy for them to see us approaching me like that." Mirage raises his left hand and does a shooing motion just in time for his cloaking system to glitch out and deactivate momentarily, allowing Barkida full sight of his actual form and the Autobot insignia on his chest before the cloaking system sputters to life again, "If you're afraid of me invading your territory, you don't have to worry. I'm going to be out of this place once I can figure out how to get pass these idiotic brutes and get to my escape pod. I don't need Fortress Maximus and Galen bitching at me for getting some local native killed in the process." "I was yelling at the survivor. NOW I'm calling you an idiot for getting confused, idiot." Carjack retorts, smirking a bit. It doesn't last though. And while he does activate his primary weapon, he also makes sure to stay clearly behind the larger Seacons who are more suited for actual offensive combat. He's just here to make sure they come back in relative one piece. Combat: Carjack sets his defense level to Guarded. Barkida glares at Mirage, sizing him up. She feels like she could take him at this range, gun or no, but that ability to disappear is beyond her. How do you fight something that can become invisible? So she fades back into the jungle. "If you know Galen," she says as she backs off, "tell him we need him. The invaders are more than we can fight alone." Tentakil smiles warmly at Carjack as he cowers behind him, "I wouldn't worry whatever it is it probably just wants to say hello and be our friend. It's nice to make new friends don't you think?" Thankfully Tentakil isn't as gore soaked as earlier so it makes his calm, pleasant manner just a little less creepy. The lone survivor of the avian assault manages to limp away, having clawed his way up from the pile of corpses. "I made it, I can't believe I really made it!" More limping ensues. The trees around the ridgeline smash violently to the ground, allowing a charge of super sized wooly Mammoths with four tusks and armored Rhinos with no tusks (loopy right?) to stomp into the clearing. Once their sights are set on the lone survivor and company, all the heads are lowered and the vigor renewed. The Decepticons have met the natural defenders of Femax. Frantically peering behind him, the lone Decepticon gumbie doubles his pace.. but to no avail. He soon trips over his own mangled legs, swiftly squished into the ground with one stomp. And so the charge continues, impacting against the initial Seacon front first. Combat: Femaxian Wildlife misses Snaptrap with its Stampede! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Tentakil with its Stampede! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Snaptrap sighs as he sees a Decepticon, fully capable of flight, get trampled as he ran from a ground-based threat. "I suppose such things are to be expected, considering Motormaster was responsible for the training of these troops." Snaptrap of course, knows better, and just flies up, above the herd, grabbing onto a nearby tree branch, and flipping up so he now rests in the trees. Hitting the herd is easy, hitting the ones in front, knocking them down so that they will stunt the rest of the herd in its tracks is hard, and that is what he aims for. "Decepticons, kill those in front and to the sides first, and we will drive the them back into the jungle!" Combat: Snaptrap misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Stunted Mammoths attack! Slugfest runs around frantically. He doesn't want to get trampled, so he lifts off so that he's hovering, and out of reach of the stampede. From there, he starts firing at the beasts with his lasers. "No stomp me!" Combat: Slugfest misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Laser attack! Robotic Bald Eagle stares at the mammoths. "Uh. Wow! I'm not sure what to do, except for... FIREWORKS!" Then, he pulls from... somewhere?... a whole bunch of fireworks, ties their fuses together, and tosses them at the mammoths. Or at someone else. Anyway, a bunch of fireworks going off should be REALLY distracting. Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle 's FIREWORKS attack on Femaxian Wildlife goes wild! Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle strikes himself with his FIREWORKS attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Robotic Bald Eagle 's Agility. (Crippled) Robotic Bald Eagle throws it too short! "AAAAHHHH THE COLORS!!!!" Mirage gets onto his feet as he watches Barkida beginning to fade back into the jungle, "Yeah yeah, he's just going to love hearing about what's going on down here." The Autobot spymaster steps out of the foilage just in time for his cloaking system to sputter out again, except this time it doesn't regain its functionality again. Mirage quickly ducks back into the dense foilage again, his back against the wall, if he was a biological lifeform he'd be sweating fairly intensely right about now, "Frag it... getting off this mud ball just got a whole lot harder." Even now, the Decepticon gumbies continues to get ever closer towards their location. Mirage might be a skilled scout, but even he wouldn't have the intricate knowledge of the terrain to bypass the Decepticons that would come from nearly a life's time on this planet. Unfortunately turning to try and calm down Carjack or perhaps creep him out means that Tentakil is oblivious to the charging animals right until they're on top of him. Oddly as the charge hits it almost looks as if Tantakil is trying to hug the giant mammoth creature as it barrels straight through him. Eventually Tentakil lets go and rolls clear of the herd, drawing his blasters he lets loose on the rampaging creatures. "Oooooh they're so soft!" Combat: Tentakil misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Slime Blaster attack! Backfire rises into the air, firing off auxillary fire from his laser cannons. "Take to the SKIES! These simple creatures cannot hope to contain us in our natural ELEMENT!!" the Seeker shouts out. Combat: Backfire misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Laser attack! .. Ah, slag, stampede! Carjack remains where he is behind the other Decepticons as the beast barge in, not making himself an obvious target. At least until they get close enough to be in range. Then he fires his anti-gravs for a sort of 'rocket jump' in a way to vault over the larger Seacon and aiming to land on one of the rhino's back. "Time for a little biology research!" he cackles, and tries to tear through its armor plating with his crusher weapon. Combat: Carjack sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Carjack misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Disection attack! Ignoring the attacks completely, the indigenous brutes of Femax buck and stomp ever forward.. toward the remaining Decepticons and their luxury cruiser, the Hellbender. One particularly large Mammoth takes to Snaptrap's tree with a passion, trying to knock the entire plant over and squish the Seacon in the process. The Rhino, either out of complete shock or violent tendacies.. just rolls over. As for the aerial combatants, they're more or less left to themselves.. but their absence on the ground gives them an mainly unimpeded march on the Hellbender. Combat: Femaxian Wildlife sets its defense level to Fearless. Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Snaptrap with its Stampede! Area attack! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Carjack with its Stampede! Area attack! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Tentakil with its Stampede! Area attack! The felled tree knocks Backfire out of the air, and into the same rut Snaptrap is in. :/ Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Backfire with its Stampede! attack! Snaptrap's tree is struck, and he falls. Before he can engage his anti-gravitational systems, he is scratched and bunted by a Mammoth, hitting a rhino, and then a Mammoth, finally falling underneath one. Between all the damage taken, it'd like have flattened several small towns worth of gumbies. But after it all, Snaptrap staggers to his feet, flipping one of the stampeding Mammoth's onto its back by the tusks, and then tries to use it to clear a small hole in the stampede with himself at its centre, "Enough!" Combat: Snaptrap strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his Butcher Of The Bogs attack! Carjack is so busy trying to cut into the rhino's thick hide that he doesn't realize it's falling over until its already on top of him. "Waugh!" *THUD* The rhino rolls over the rest of the way, leaving the crazy medic half imbedded in the ground. "Stupid animals," he rumbles, pulling himself up. Activating his flight systems and pulling into the air again, he pulls out a couple of his needle guns, one in each hand, and starts firing repeatedly into the rampaging horde. Maybe he'll luck out and one of the assorted chemicals will react like a tranquelizer to these things. Combat: Carjack strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his Needle Barrage attack! Combat: Carjack's attack has strange and mysterious effects on Femaxian Wildlife. Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Femaxian Wildlife's Agility. (Crippled) Tentakil frowns momentarily as he misses the entire herd but then grins broadly as it wheels and heads back towards him, "They do want to be my frie..." He doesn't get to finish as one mammoth flicks him through the air with its tusks and he crunches into the side of one of the rhinolike creatures. "You'll be my friend right?" He ask as he clings on and transforms, "I can feel your warmth, your strength, your unparalleled ferocity, what majesty! Let me bathe in your power!" With that Tentakil firmly plants his tentacles and flexes pulling in every direction in an attempt to pull the beast appart. Tentakil transforms into his huggable Krakenoid mode. Combat: Krakenoid sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Krakenoid strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his Tentacruel attack! Slugfest misses and d'ohs! "You no get away! Me slice and dice!" He dives down, flying upside-down with his chainsaw plates revving furiously. Now he's in the perfect position to carve himself up some mammoth or rhino. Combat: Slugfest misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Aerial Jason Impression sans hockey mask attack! Robotic Bald Eagle squawks at the top of his vocalizer and fires rockets everywhere, as he's unable to see what he's shooting at anyway! Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Rockets' Red Glare attack! Backfire realizes the game at play here, a little too late apparently.. as he's sideswiped by a tree and flattened into the ground. Trampled right next to Snaptrap, the Seeker cries out in anguish. "Litl." *STMP* "Hlp." *SQSH* "Hre." *THNK* "Plz." And even when the Seacon rises, he leaves Backfire impacted into the earth. The simpleton finally manages to pry himself away from the earth and makes a play for the Hellbender. "Keep these cretins at bay comrades!" Combat: Backfire sets his defense level to Guarded. Combat: Backfire takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] The simplistic creatures continue their charge, redoubling efforts and trying to pound these Decepticons into the ground.. and wreck any chance they have at getting off the planet. Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Slugfest with its Tooth AND Nail! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: Femaxian Wildlife misses Carjack with its Tooth AND Nail! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Snaptrap with its Tooth AND Nail! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Krakenoid with its Tooth AND Nail! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Robotic Bald Eagle with its Tooth AND Nail! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Backfire with its Tooth AND Nail! Area attack! [Pulled -3] Slugfest misses the femaximals, but ends up getting butted in mid-air! He goes tumbling, chainsaw plates still revving. As he hits the ground he curls into a ball and rolls along! Maybe he'll get a chance to nick some wildlife while doing an impression of a circular saw. Combat: Slugfest strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his me cut you! (Kick) attack! A monkey covered in horns jumps out of the air and onto Americon! Mirage grits his teeth as the wild life stampede threatens to overtake him as well along with the rest of the Decepticons. A quick glance around his surrounding quickly provides the Autobot spymaster a clue as to what to use to get him out of this jam. The blue Autobot ducks down, his holographic system kicks in and he promptly takes the shape of a grey sharp edged boulder, diverting the flow of the stampede and preventing what would have been a quick and messy end. The Decepticon gumbies that were preventing Mirage's path doesn't fare as well though as they're swept away by the flood of angry mammals. Krakenoid finally shows just why he's one of the mythical terrors of the deep as he tears into the animal it's bodily fluids bathe him as it is rent asunder, a few chunks of meat are still clutched by his suction cups as he turns to look at the remainging creatures. "Oh look, there are still so many of you wonderful creatures left, come to me, yes that's it come..." And come they do striking in number with their tusks and teeth, one of Tentakil's tentacles goes limp and a large hole has been punched in his side from a tusk. A single tentacle lashes out towards the nearest beast it gently caresses the side of the magnificent creature and then there is a large discharge of energy. Combat: Krakenoid misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Electrically Charged Tentacle attack! "Keep them away from the ship!" Carjack growls at no one in particular, seeing as everyone is really more focused on fighting the things.. a little more order would be nice, but hey, they're Decepticons. Spotting Backfire getting heavily trampled in the background the medic drops down next to the Seeker while evading any more direct trampling, already swapping his weapons for his tools. Hopefully whatever he shot those things up with will keep the out of the way for a few moments. "Hang in there soldier, this fight isn't over yet and we need every mech on the field we can muster!" Working with frevor as time is of the essence, Carjack sticks to just patching up the most obvious of the Seeker's wounds. Combat: Carjack quickly patches up some of Backfire's minor injuries. Robotic Bald Eagle flies above the herd now, and begins to fire down at them with seismic torpedoes! "You guys like shaking things up so much, then why don't you try this?" Well, after being horribly trampled, first. But Americon is pretty good at bouncing back. Combat: Robotic Bald Eagle misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Seismic Anti-Giant Torpedo attack! Amongst the confusion and chaos that going all over the place, one might notice a speeding boulder racing through the jungle. Yes. A speeding boulder. It continues through some of the Decepticon ranks towards the direction of a steep cliff side. With his temporary patching done, Backfire flies off towards the Hellbender. Already the herd is knocking at the exterior, easily smashing through the weak defenses at the ramp and making their way into the cargo bay. "Blast it all!" he seethes out, opting instead for the hatch above the warship. Slinking through the duct, the Seeker rushes through the hallways towards the artillery room. Inside, gumbies are frantically milling about.. unsure just what to do. "Curs, prime Hellbender's main cannons and fire on my mark!" And with the message delivered, Backfire makes a break for the elevator and the upper tier of the craft. As soon as the doors open, he busts in and hits the Command level button. "Attention crew of the Hellbender, prepare for emergency firing sequence.. Operation: Turf Burn!" With a *DING*, the elevator deposits Backfire into the command level. "Sir, systems at nominal operational standards." a gumbie salutes and reports, turning away from his station. "Begin firing sequence!!" OUTSIDE the ship, the exterior lights of the Hellbender go dim while it charges up a shot. And in a flash of light, the ship shudders the ground around it as a stream of super heated plasma is shot forth from the four points.. one beam of destructive power! Combat: Decepticon Heavy Warship Hellbender strikes Femaxian Wildlife with its Hellfire attack! The beam from the Hellbender cuts a violent path through the herd, a last second sensor report manages to avoid any valuable (named) Decepticon losses.. but at the cost of peak firing efficiency. The corale of no horned Rhinos and quad horned Mammoths is decimated, all but the small numbers on the cusp of the ridgeline or ones too close to Decepticons are spared.. and they continue their charge, to the last. Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Snaptrap with its Last Hurrah! Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Snaptrap's Agility. (Crippled) Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Slugfest with its Last Hurrah! Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Slugfest's Agility. (Crippled) Combat: Femaxian Wildlife strikes Krakenoid with its Last Hurrah! Area attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Krakenoid 's Agility. (Crippled) "Good work, Backfire." That statement even surprises Snaptrap, but he can't fault it, using the Hellbender's weapons against those beasts was a highly effective manoeuvre. He fires off a few blasts, taking out some of the survivors, young or old. He's like that. "All Decepticons below level 1 grade, report to the Hellbender. The rest of us will take care of these beasts." What's next, a flying hippopotamus? Combat: Snaptrap misses Femaxian Wildlife with his Hello Bambi I'm the Hunter attack! Slugfest is knocked sideways! He spins helplessly like a discarded hubcap, still revving his chainsaw blades! "OW OW OW! ME TAKE ALL DOWN WITH!" he shouts. Combat: Slugfest strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his minor saw cuts (Punch) attack! Carjack is satisfied in making sure Backfire got onto the Hellbender safely so he can fire that brilliant display of Decepticon firepower, leaving only stragglers left with the herd. Putting his tools away, one more he pulls out his hydrolic weapon instead. "Fires of conquest, burn and crush! Stop not until they're nothing but mush!" Lunging down from the air he tries once more the plunge the weapon designed for ripping apart metal and armor into one of the remaining mammoth's thick hairy hide. Combat: Carjack sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Carjack strikes Femaxian Wildlife with his Jaws of Death attack! Krakenoid is still plugging away at the stampeding creatures and for what little worth it might have he's keeping them occupied and hopefully stopping any serious damage from being inflicted to the ship. He is tossed into the air again as another charge hits but this time he transforms mid fall and stops as his flight systems kick in pushing him into the open airspace of the clearing. Tentakil is clearly in a bad state as he holds his arm to his side and another tentacle is limp, "Such pretty creatures, don't worry i won't stay up here for long, we'll be able to play soon enough." Tentakil transforms into his charming robot mode. Combat: Tentakil sets his defense level to Guarded. Combat: Tentakil takes extra time to steady himself. [Pass] Utilizing the same escape hatch as before, Backfire soars from the Hellbender.. the craft dim of all power, having spent it's last fuel cell on that charge alone. That's one fact he'll oh-so conviently leave out for now. "I aim to please, Snaptrap!" the Seeker smarts off, floating to the ground with a wide grin. Eyeing Slugfest on the ground, Backfire dashes towards the steo-tape and puts out a foot, stopping his endless spinning. "What you need comrade, is direction!" Flipping the mini-chainsaw up into his grasp, much like a skateboarder flips his board to his hands, the Seeker revs the blades and charges at a lonely Rhino.. no more than two years old. "And now.. WE AIM TO MAIM!" Combat: Backfire strikes Femaxian Wildlife with Slugfest's Chainsaw Plates attack! Combat: Femaxian Wildlife falls to the ground, unconscious. Blue Ligier JS-11 manages to speed off down the cliff side and into the ravine where the escape pod that he had left under cover is placed. Soon the holographic disguise over the Autobot spymaster disintegrates into nothingness as he removes the various camouflage pieces covering the entrance of the escape pod. Eventually the hatch of the escape pod opens up, allowing Mirage to slip inside, before it promptly slams shut again. "Well, managed to get back into this flying coffin somehow." Mirage comments dryly as he begins powering up the escape pod's main power plant and entering in the coordinates into the navigational computer. Blue Ligier JS-11 transforms into his Robot mode. Backfire spasms suddenly, as the armor piercing attack from before continues to damage him.. and he falls on his chest. Did I mention Slugfest was still in his hands? Combat: Backfire damages himself. "ARGGGAHHHH!" Robotic Bald Eagle flies about, cawing loudly as all the aggressive animals appear to be dead. "HURRAY! We won! And nobody we care about was seriously harmed!" Slugfest eees! He feels his chainsaw blades cutting into Backfire a little too late, after feeling the elation of chopping into femaxian rhino hide. "Oops, sorry!" he says. Quickly he shuts down the blade action before it can do more damage. The Decepticon counter assault is felt, down to the last offspring apparently, as NOTHING makes it out alive. The field that was hastily cleared by the bad guys earlier, is filled to the brim with mangled corpses of gigantic birds, mammoths, rhinos, and underneath it all.. like four layer chip dip, is a fine layer of Decepticon gumbie. It's proably ground to slag by now, especially after the charge. Sorry Carjack. Tentakil drifts closer to Americon somehow still smiling even with his grievous injuries, "You are a cheery one aren't you Americon, yes it was a nice victory, everyone did spectacularly if i do say so myself. Though of course we couldn't have done it without Snaptrap's masterful leadership skills." Robotic Bald Eagle smiles at Tentakil, oblivious to his creepy ways. "Well, I just like to stay patriotic at all times!" he explains. Carjack clunks to the ground, paying no mind to whatever gore and mangled gumbie remains he's standing in. "Stupid animals. Maybe they'll leave us alone after this so we can worry about blowing up the people we came here too!" That done, he looks over the other Decepticons present.. and taking note of the extensive damage Tentakil has taken trots over to do something about it. "Hold still a moment, soldier. Let me get you patched up. No one important has died out here, and I'm not about to let it stop happening now!." Combat: Carjack quickly patches up some of Tentakil's minor injuries. The escape pod rumbles to life as its booster engines kicks in, rocketting the spherical-like pod into the skies. Mirage looks out from one of the many port windows lined across the escape pod's hull, looking down at the destruction below, his expression is icy as usual despite witnessing the tragedy below, "This place just turned into a war zone. The head honchos got something else coming if they think they'll be able to put down this invasion half afted." The Autobot counter-intelligence specialist mutters to himself before slumping back into his chair, looking at the navigational computer's displays as it begins travelling towards the pre-specified pick up point with the Steelhaven up in orbit. Tentakil lands amidst the gore and death just before Carjack gets to him and smiles broadly seemingly taking in the scenery as if it was a glorious vista to behold and to a Seacon it probably is but could do with a bit more floty to it. "What? Oh Carjack, i disagree we lost a lot of important people, but i suppose there are always more, we just didn't lose anyone with unique abilities." Backfire rolls over, forcibly pulling the stego-saw from his injured chest. "Ahahaha, I am a genius." The Seeker then faints from Energon loss. Slugfest is pulled free! He looks at the fainted Backfire, then grabs the seeker's toe in his mouth and pulls him towards the ship. MUCH MUCH LATER! A lone Decepticon claws his way through a pile of corpses, "I made it!"
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