| abstract | - New England States(#6984Rnt) - North America The New England States are made up of Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. North and inland from the glitz and grime of New York City, the territory fans out into soothing vistas from the calm charm of the Connecticut River valley through the thriving forests of Vermont and New Hampshire's Green and White Mountains to the untouched beauty of Maine's remote wilderness. On the coast are the fisheries of Maine, the natural harbors of Massachusetts, including Boston, the region's largest city and one of the country's leading commercial and educational centers, and tiny Rhode Island. Though it may be the smallest state, its jewelry business is one of the largest in the world. Contents: Shockwave Fuel Tanker Trailer "EnerStar" Gas Station Obvious exits: East E leads to Northwest Atlantic. Northwest NW leads to Eastern Provinces - Canada. Southwest SW leads to Middle Atlantic States. Fly Up 3... 2... 1... FWOOOOOOSH! Mere seconds after the Olympics--and the truce--officially come to an end, a fire breaks out at the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey. The source is obvious, as a Decepticon shuttle hovers menacingly overhead. From its open underside, a squadron of Seekers fly out, swarming around the large, purple gun that's hovering just outside of the hatch. With the barrel still smoking, Shockwave reverts back into robot mode, smoke now transferring to his gun arm. "Decepticons, the outer wall has been breached. Retrieval pattern Delta-Seventeen," Shockwave orders, optic flashing. Half the Seekers shift into robot mode and head for the plant itself while the others take up a patrolling position, watching for Autobot or EDC interlopers while klaxons begin to sound at the plant. 5 HOURS AGO: In an Autobot City briefing room, Ultra Magnus scans a room full of military type Autobots (half of whom have fallen asleep), hands clasped firmly behind his back as he booms in an authoritative tone. "The truce ends in five hours, Autobots! And unless you signed up yesterday, you all know what that means! The Decepticons are going to strike, and they're going to come in hot! Firestar!" The Femme jerks upright (she may or may not have been sleeping), "Yes sir!" Firestar discretely wipes drool away from her lips. Ultra Magnus slaps a telescopic pointer at a projection screen because that's the kind of technology we like to use twenty years in the future. I don't know, ask Perceptor about it. "You're on patrol detail in the tri-city area! I know that's a lot of ground to cover for someone without wings, but we're all going to be stretched a little thin waiting for you-know-who to open up!" RIGHT NOW: From beyond the cool blue of her windshield, Firestar watches in horror as a Decepticon bird of prey descends in the distance, Shockwave and a fleet of Seekers in tow. Without thinking, Firestar shifts her transmission into high gear and powers towards the war zone. "Dammit, Magnus! Why do you always have to jinx me?!" <> comes the radio call from the cockpit of one of the F-15's currently circling wide around the power plant. Echo's sweep is a very active one, and it's likely that Firestar will recognize that she's been spotted. The picket scouts are acting as professional as Decepticons get, no doubt due to the influence of their current CO. On the F-15's wing are another pair of Seekers. 'I have one Autobot inbound. Identification confirmed as Firestar.' Echo knows the rivalry the femmes have with his CO, but he also knows that Shockwave isn't one to fly off the handle on grudge matches. <> comes Shockwave's calm reply. <> He doesn't want all his forces being lured away by just one Autobot. Echo transmits an 'ok' and banks left. The three Seekers bear down on the hover-truck, strafing at her and the rest of the roadway with laser fire. Back at the plant itself, Shockwave descends downwards, voice now booming. "Fleshlings, this is Shockwave! Leave all security arrangements and locks unengaged and evacuate your plant! No harm will come to you provided you do not resist." The plant is definitely evacuating--they're drilled for this sort of thing. But are they keeping everything nice and unlocked for the Cons? Cybertronian Transport violently slaloms through highway traffic on her way to the epicenter of the Decepticon presence - that looming beacon sitting ominously in the distance over the Delaware River. As Firestar nears her objective, it isn't long before a passing Seeker patrol strafes her position, no doubt relaying her energy signature and coordinates to Ol One Eye. With a grunt that translates to another transmission shift in vehicle mode, Firestar flies across the Delaware Memorial Bridge, powering her way down Route 49 through Salem and on her way to the plant. Just as she clears Salem's city limits, the rear of her chassis heats up exorbitantly as Decepticon laser fire licks at her tires. "Rrr!" the Femme growls internally, the missile launcher mounted on her rear fender pivoting about with a whirr of simple machinery before exploding with activity, sending a few pyrotechnic barbs up into the sky and after the wing harassing her position. As she approaches, Firestar will see the Decepticon shuttle hovering still while Seekers are ferrying down empty energon cubes and the machinery needed to extract it. It's all very professional and methodical. Inside the plant itself, a Decepticon technician works the controls, hooking up the machinery to the generators. <> Shockwave doesn't fret at this news, as it was already considered as part of his calculations before planning this mission. Instead the cyclops absorbs information from his Seeker scouts. So far nobody has reported any disturbance other than Echo's team. Said team is now being shredded by pyrotechnic explodes. The Seeker to Echo's right gets his wings sliced off, and he transforms into robot mode. "ARGH! WITCH!" he draws out a massive autogun and fires wildly at her. Echo and his remaining wingman break away from one another, momentarily forced to go on the defensive to avoid getting blown to bits. Cybertronian Transport doesn't stop to volley a retort at the Decepticon that just insulted her, much less engage him in traditional fisticuffs - she's got a power plant to secure, and one real special optic to poke out! The Femme notes the imperial procession of machinery linking the shuttle to the nuclear station, a sight that only frustrates and angers her even more. Firestar whips over to avoid becoming a Cybertronian impression of Swiss cheese, Decepticon buck shot ripping up the road a mere meter away. The missile launcher attached to her rear end expends its payload, and a moment that is way too long for Firestar's liking passes as the eqiupment loads up another salvo. In her time of vulnerability, Firestar ditches traditional road ways and careens into the shallow tributary that surrounds the plant, off-roading her way to Hope Creek to hopefully throw a wrench into Shockwave's plans. The autocannon Seeker scowls in frustration, mouth twisting into a vicious sneer. He's only refraining from doing something stupid because he fears Shockwave more than he wants to gun down Firestar. "HEY! I'm shooting you! Come back here!" The Seeker chases after her, though he apparently can't fire his massive gun while on the move. Echo and the remaining wingman, however, can. Shockwave, still hovering over the plant just in front of the cooling tower, watches as Firestar approaches. He only calculated a 15.1% chance of them being able to waylay the femme, and so he is fully prepared and his arm cannon fully charged. SPLOOSH!!!! Shockwave lands in the tributary directly in Firestar's path. The water comes up to his knees. Unless she takes speedy action, his fist is going to come down square on her hood. Cybertronian Transport ramps up and over a curved barricade to sail through the air briefly before impacting the tributary below with a huge splash, and it is then that she sorely regrets not taking Wheeljack up on those hydrofoils that he was parading around the base a few days ago when he was offering them to anyone that would listen. They would sure come in handy now!, Firestar grumbles internally as she lurches up over one soggy bank after another on her way toward the power plant. Oddly enough, though, Shockwave comes to /her/ instead of the other way around. And, oh look, he brought his mean fist with him. Just before the Decepticon Military Commander's hand crushes her hood, Firestar's rear end is upended by the pursuing Seekers' attempts at taking her out before their leader can. Caught between a rock and hard place, Firestar thinks fast and uses the sorry situation to her own advantage. Thrown into the air, the flatbed truck whips end over end, transforming as it goes, and a split second later Firestar lands gingerly on top of Shockwave's arm. After popping off a quick, sarcastic salute, Firestar pirouettes on Shockwave's fist, sending a heel whipping toward his lack of a face. Cybertronian Transport transforms into her robot mode. Shockwave's fist slices through the air with enough force to sink a battleship, but unfortunately for him Firestar is no longer there. Instead the femme has jumped up just as laser fire rains down on the area in front of him. With Firestar perched on his arm, Shockwave shakes it quickly, trying to dislodge her. A split second later, he's bringing his arm down to smash it through the water and into the ground below in order to crush her. Alas, in that split second her foot is coming around and meeting his face. "Ngh!" Shockwave emits as he staggers back. Firestar's perch no is longer stable as he topples back into the river, splashing water all over the place. Despite the embarassment, this doesn't slow him down for an iota. Even while on his rear, Shockwave raises his now dripping wet arm and fires a single purple arm cannon blast towards her. Even as this goes on, the Seekers at the plant are continuing to unlock the generators and hook up the energon cube machinery. Shockwave knows this, and has no problem indulging Firestar here for as long as possible. Mentally, Firestar pats herself on the back as the sound of foot-on-face echoes across the relatively calm swampland. Coming around to face her opponent, Firestar lands in the water and sinks to about her midriff, wrenching her feet up one after the other as she prowls inexorably closer to the downed Decepticon Commander. Firestar oughta know better, but Shockwave proves once again why he's comfortable near the top of the bad guy food chain, sending a laser lance at her. "Hrrk!" Firestar winces as the purple projectile impacts her right shoulder, knocking the armor away easily and melting delicate internals as the heat of the blast dissipates. "Still as venomous as ever, Cyclops!" Firestar admits, before jumping out of the muck and landing once again in her more terrestrial-capable mode. "As much as I'd love to stay here and chop you to pieces, I've got all your pretty plans to foil!" With an insulting honk of her horn, Firestar throttles off and power slides around Shockwave, jumping through the chain link fence behind him and screaming off to the nuclear facility beyond. Firestar transforms into her Cybertronian Transport mode. "Alright!" one of the Decepticon technicians from within the facilities shouts, pumping his arm in victory. The monitor in front of him has gone from red to green, and soon energon begins flowing from the generators and into the waiting cubes. <> he happily exclaims. Unlocking the humans' security codes took twenty seconds longer than Shockwave estimated. A flaw in the calculation or a flaw in the mech doing the unlocking, he wonders. Something to consider for later when conducting the post mortem on the mission. Fow now, Shockwave has femme trouble to worry about. Standing upright, with water pouring from his body, Shockwave ignites his boot thrusters and soars after Firestar. The three Seekers that comprise Echo's team fall into formation--all of them nervous about what will happen to them should they fail. "You under-estimate the lengths I will go to in order to see you destroyed, Firestar," Shockwave intones from above. "I will raze this entire facility to the ground if it means your destruction." This is actually a bluff. Shockwave cares more about the energon than Firestar's life, but you wouldn't know it from the way Shockwave and the three Seekers are pouring laser fire towards the slippery transport truck. Cybertronian Transport eventully lands on a lengthy swath of gravel, furious tires grabbing for purchase and slinging up twin rooster tails of dust and debris as she zips off after the reactor complex. Firestar does her best Chromedome/Stylor impression, ass-end slinging wildly back and forth as she dodges the majority of the carpet-bomb campaign from the Seekers pursuing her. Shockwave's threats do more damage to her than anything the Seekers can throw at her, though. If she had a face right now, it would be wrought with worry and creased with self-doubt. But the Femme reaches down on calls on four million year's worth of experience dealing with Shockwave, that fact alone enough to find her resolve and drive solvent again. Firestar knows Shockwave on a rivalrous level, better than any other Decepticon in the Empire. Drawing on that experience, she regains her confidence and steels herself against his verbal barbs. "You and I both know that's not true!" *BOOM* Firestar is slung around, but like a professional on a closed course, the Femme easily transitions to reverse, her missile launcher spewing a half-dozen javelins up at the aerial calvary dogging her before she crashes through the facility's front doors, backside first. The javelin barrage flies up towards the four Decepticons on Firestar's tail. There's a series of explosions followed by the cover of smoke and fire. Only one Decepticon emerges from the inferno... unfortunately for Firestar, it's the one most likely to put a gamma ray beam through her cab. Not bothering to refute her denials, Shockwave watches as she smashes through the front doors and gets inside. There she'll find that Decepticons are already ferrying glowing pink energon cubes up through the breach in the ceiling towards the waiting Decepticon shuttle. The technician that handled the security unlock whirls around, optics widening. "Oh no, Chromia!" he exclaims before firing a rinky-dink laser pistol at her. Firestar is only going to have a few moments before Shockwave bashes his way in and makes with the annihilatin'. The technician is shooting at her, other Decepticons are manning the machinery, and others still are hauling it upwards. What's she going to do? Cybertronian Transport arrives in the foyer of the reactor plant just behind a cacophonous shower of glass and twisted metal, crunching over a pile of smoldering Seeker parts on momentum alone. Quickly, the flat bed truck bodies up into Firestar's lithe robot mode, which is only greeted by a few stinging shots of some low-power laser fire. "'Ey! Watch where you're squirting that water gun!" Firestar growls as she whips around, her own pistol drawn and braced over a forearm. She draws a bead on the technician tickling her and pulls the trigger, disarming him with a crackshot to his hand. "Firestar, actually!" she huffs at him, standing up and hustling over, moving the barrel of her gun over to his forehead. As she draws close, she plants the end of her weapon onto his steely cranium, pointing at the console he had just been working at. "Turn it off!" she demands, either to keep the other Decepticons at bay by taking him hostage or merely speaking to him directly as the others do not care at all about his safety. Either way, Firestar jabs her pistol into the technician's head to illustrate her point. Cybertronian Transport transforms into her robot mode. "Ieee!" the technician screams, clutching his smoking hand and falling to his knees in pain. He doesn't comment on the name correction as she marches on up to him. He winces and closes his optics when she puts the gun up to his head. The other Decepticons fueling up their energon cubes hesitate, but then think better of it. "Sorry Fairweather," one of them says, apparently to the technician. Two of them train their guns on Firestar but don't attack. While they aren't willing to disobey Shockwave's order and ruin his mission on Fairweather's behalf, they would prefer not seeing their buddy's lasercore splattered all over the place. Fairweather on the other hand puts his own life at a much higher regard. "Ok! Ok! I'll shut it down. Just don't shoot!" Under Firestar's watchful optics, the technician stands up and, using his good hand, taps several buttons on the controls. The monitor stays green, however, much to his confusion. "I-i don't understand," he stammers. "These codes were working an astrosecond ago!" The hole in the ceiling suddenly becomes larger as Shockwave bashes his way through. He lands next to the two Decepticons that already have their guns trained on Firestar. "Did you really think I would put the keys to my success or failure in the hands of another Decepticon?" he asks both Firestar and Fairweather. "The datajack supplied to you automatically changed the codes." Shockwave taps his own noggin. "*I* am the only one that can shut down the machines safely." What would 'unsafe' mean? Firestar regards the other Decepticons that have now drawn their weapons on her cooly, doing her best to stay poised and looking like she knows exactly what she's doing despite the heat those sights bore into her armor. Firestar follows the technician back to the console, pistol now at the back of his head, watching him work feverishly under pressure and feeling the same through osmosis herself. She grimaces shortly after as he wheels back around in panic to relay the bad news. And shortly after that, Firestar also wheels back around in panic as Shockwave thunders into the facility, adding about a million layers of S.O.L. to this escapade of hers. Not good, she mutters under her breath. Firestar grabs the technician by the scruff of his metal collar and holds the feeble Cybertronian up in front of her, though the tactic seems to have lost its usefulness once Shockwave reveals that the little guy is now basically worthless. Slag. Compltely improvising now, Firestar bodily chucks the technician at Shockwave before turning and emptying one entire photon clip into the console. "You know what they say, Shockwave - the more delicate a thing, the easier it is to break!" *PEW PEW PEW* Fairweather shrieks as Shockwave makes his arrival. If he wasn't screwed at Firestar's hand, he's probably screwed at Shockwave's. Panicking far more than Firestar is, the technician covers his head with his one good and one bad hand, trying to shut out the world. It doesn't help when Firestar grabs him and hurls him at Shockwave, and it /definitely/ doesn't help when Shockwave fires an x-ray beam that hits the technician in mid-air. Fairweather glows purple and then vanishes, completely disintegrated by the beam. Then the entire facilty shakes as Firestar takes out the controls, causing several smaller explosions throughout the plant. The machinery dumping power into the unfilled energon cubes splurts and gurgles. The cubes are now being filled at a quarter of the rate they were before. Shockwave points at Firestar once he and the two goons regain their footing. "Terminate her," he drones, optic flashing. All three cut loose, firing maximum powered blasts towards her and the now useless console. Firestar's dainty feet wobble out from under her as the entire facility lurches, and she ends up on her skidplate as a result. Dull thunder reverberates in the distance while Firestar claws along the floor, the Femme quickly taking cover behind the control console. "Sounds like I messed something important up real good!" Firestar shouts at Shockwave, clearly in an attempt to antagonize him. The three Decepticons' combine to present Firestar with her personal firing squad, lighting everything up around her and causing her to hunker down meekly behind the console. She notices the braces of the thing have been shot through, and inspiration sparks. Firestar kippups to her feet, wrenching the entire console free of its moorings and using it as a makeshift shield. Now running, Firestar advances towards the trio, the slab of metal in her arms being eaten away and quickly as she approaches. With little of the bulwark left, Firestar tosses whatever's left at the two goons, hopefully knocking them both on their afts in the process. With no time to make sure of it herself, Firestar pounces at Shockwave, her fireman's axe slicing the air as it comes sailing around to his single optic. Shockwave cannot be antagonized. The console Firestar uses doesn't last long under the Decepticon onslaught, but it gets her in close enough to hurl the molten slag at them. It hits all three Decepticons, burning them as it turns into red hot goo. The two thugs reel back, with one of them catching fire. Shockwave on the other hand, fully capable of withstanding such temperatures, seems to weather it well. Behind Shockwave, the machinery that was filling up the energon cubes sputters and goes completely dark. "Commander!" one of the refuelers shouts, but Shockwave doesn't need to turn to look. From the sound, he can tell that the machine is totally off line. Far too focused on Firestar to try and fix the device, Shockwave doesn't reply just yet. Instead there's a fire ax coming straight for his face with enough force to puncture a foot of trithyllium-steel. The tip of the ax comes to a halt a mere inch away from his optic. Shockwave has grabbed the shaft with his hand, and now it's an arm wrestling battle of brute strength. "Gather what energon remains," Shockwave orders, not turning away. "I will finish the Autobot." He throws his weight into it, trying to slooooowly out-muscle the femme and push her back and down. Firestar growls fiercely as her vicious axe-chopping tactic is prevented by the Military Commander, fighting against the Decepticon for ownership of the weapon. Firestar, locked in the struggle, regards absent-mindedly upon how oh-so close she was to cracking the bulb of an eye right open. 'Going to have to wait for another time', Firestar internally laments, also realizing that there is quite possibly no way she can win in an outright show of strength with Shockwave. That much she knows. Being present for the status report, however, gives Firestar another idea. "Awww, did I break your new toy, Ugly?" Firestar laughs, supressing her nervousness with sarcastic humour. Firestar looks down at her hands wrapped around the axe handle, jockeying against Shockwave's. "You know what, you like it so much - you can have it!" And then Firestar... just lets go. This is a time-honored school-yard-bully tug-o'-war tactic. Firestar hops back from the Military Commander, landing on the deck in not-hovertruck mode, and throttles back out of the smashed facility entrance - but not before driving right through (and by through I meant into) Shockwave's legs in her speedy getaway. Firestar transforms into her Cybertronian Transport mode. "Your attempts at humour..." Shockwave drones as he focuses on pushing Firestar and her ax back down. "...is in conflict with your mortal peril." The ax gets pushed further and further, and there's a none-too-subtle humming noise coming from his arm cannon as he charges up for a maximum powered blast. "Elita One will be interested to hear how you faced your death." Then Firestar lets go and jumps away. The ax is driven into the generator room deck, burying itself all the way to the shaft. Shockwave's momentum goes with it, and he attempts to yank it back out even as he glares at the transforming Firestar. He finally breaks it free--bringing chunks of the floor along with it--back up and swings for the femme, but by then she's in truck mode and smashing against his legs. Shockwave topples against the machine that was filling the energon cubes, damaging it further. If it could have been fixed before, it sure can't be now. Rapidly climbing back up to one knee, Shockwave hurls the ax at the truck, sending it spinning through the air. For the second time in as many moments, it buries itself into something. In this case, it's the wall right behind Firestar. Cybertronian Transport shoots past Shockwave and ramps back out of the facility, evading a swipe at her by Shockwave with her own axe that she is completely oblivious to in her haste to retreat. As she exits, she can hear a powerful crunch of metal on metal, but she doesn't turn back to investigate. "Well I'll tell her not to hold her breath!" Of course, that entire idiom is most likely completely lost on Shockwave. In any event, with the real mission accomplished, Firestar will just have to come back at some later point and hope that her axe is still somewhere inside the plant. She had pushed her luck far enough in even attempting this entire stunt - trying to retrieve it now would just be asking for termination. And that's just not something that Firestar's too keen on happening anytime soon. At least, not before Shockwave kicks the bucket, anyway. Courtesy of Firestar, of course. Combat: Cybertronian Transport begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit. Shockwave gets the general gist of the insult. Though Firestar is gone, he orders several Seekers to hassle her all the way until she either reaches safety or meets up with reinforcements, at which point they'll peel off and return to base. Undaunted by the damage he's received and the partial failure of his mission, Shockwave turns to the two thugs who are just now getting back up. "Retrieve Echo's team and return to the shuttle. As soon as we are aboard engage the stealth devices and set course back to Trypticon," he orders. The thugs, though damaged, take off to do his bidding, leaving Shockwave alone. He glances at the energon dispenser, and the one look is enough to tell him that it cannot be salvaged. He turns and looks at the doorway that Firestar vanished through. The ax is still there, but after a lingering look he decides it isn't worth doing anything to. With his mission concluded, Shockwave activates his rocket boots and flies up to the Decepticon shuttle.
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