[G1 RPG] Terminus: The Tempest (Protihex)

[Blackjack]

Constructicon Field Hospital

(OOC: Changed a bit of Hook's post around to fit better... although this is super-complex alien robot Chemistry, so we're allowed some leeway. )

Hook smirked with a hint of pride. "Mixmaster is equipped with a miniature oxygen furnace, among other kinds of forges and chemical equipment... it's amazing what a hyperactive, insane master of chemistry does in his spare time."

"Blows up his corner of the workshop most of the time, though." Long Haul chirped as he moved the Bonecrusher-containing CR chamber to one corner of the room.

Ignoring the needless blather, Hook processed Perceptor's input, and, without hesitation, opened the commlink channel to include the chemists outside, plus Scavenger. "Mixmaster, Quickmix, Grenade, are you hearing this?" Hook spoke to the comm channel. "I doubt that you would be able to locate the μ-class elements, but I am counting on the three of you to cook up as close an alloy or compound as possible. Scavenger, if you can locate Rhemanium for us, you may have saved our entire planet."

Hook reconsidered as Perceptor theorized about the new strain of the Hate Plague, pausing, once more, as he repaired Pointblank's cranial systems. At least, Hook had prevented Pointblank's brain from bleeding out to deactivation, and only needed to make sure that the Autobot rebooted correctly.

"An astute observation." Hook nodded, impressed by Perceptor. "I, indeed, have been wondering about it for some time, but have assumed that the Cybertronian Empire, with all its resources, have located another colony of the bio-technological spores... but... yes, yes..." Hook's optics gleamed. "If it was merely an electronic virus designed to mimic the original, it would be a matter of a simple counter-virus, something that would react with the nervous signalling systems of the Cybertronian form... why, a mere electro-magnetic pulse should be able to halt, or supress -- if not eliminate -- the effects of this New Hate Plague... yes, interesting..."

Swerve's call came in just then, and, Hook, closing up Pointblank's cranial armour, responded immediately. "A force field...? Sounds plausible, if we could scrounge up enough power."
_____________________

Hate Plague Danger Zone

"Curiousity." Barricade replied to Countdown. "I've read dossiers of your Autobot tech, pretty sweet stuff, actually. Geared more towards defense, while Skyhopper and Skystalker wanted quick hit-and-run ships. Personally, even though, I'm, you know, Decepticon, I think your bases made more sense."
_____________________

"Whatever he is doing..." Brawl gestured at Thunderhead when he saw Siren attack the Morphobots with sonic blasts., "You can also make loud noises. Help him!"

Thunderhead nodded, transformed into his assault vehicle mode, and joined Siren, sending sonic-based booms at the Morphobots.
_____________________

Hyperdrive, Detour, and the Combaticons looked up alongside Fortress Maximus as well. "Bloody hell." One of the former Autobots whistled. "About time, too."

"Aaaah, I've still got nightmares about those big blue monsters." Steamhammer muttered. "Why couldn't they have came when we were fighting the giant Thunderwings?"

"Better for them to be on our side, though." Brawl grunted. "Better now than never."

Hyperdrive clapped his hands gleefully, his manic face having the expression of a small child discovering candy for the first time. The psychotic Decepticon laughed happily, "Prowl's doing, Maximus? Well, remind me to give Prowl a hug if he shows up around here! What planning!"
_____________________

Detour wondered what was happening. He wondered what his name was. Memories, haphazard images, kept popping up in his head.

He knew this blue being carrying him. 'Hyperdrive', he was called. Detour was inexplicably afraid of him, yet Detour still felt... safe around this Hyperdrive. He frowned. How could one be afraid yet trusting of the same being?

And his name was... 'Detour'? It was what this 'Hyperdrive' had called him anyway.

The rain outside, Detour knew it would hurt, but he felt that this acid rain was friendly to him for some inexplicable reason.

He had a purple insignia on his chest. The big being that Hyperdrive was talking to had a red insignia. Detour was confused. His memory told him that the red-faces and purple-faces must fight each other. He had to hate the red faces.

But Hyperdrive was not fighting, neither was the giant.

Why was nothing making sense?
_____________________

Salvage, Steelshot, Deadlift, Brakedown and several of the infected Combaticons carried their fight away from Jackpot, Snarl, Drag Strip and the others. In fact, they were actually quite away from the Danger Zone.

Yet they kept on fighting, and several luckless Imperials and neutrals and Decepticons that ran onto them were soon infected.

The infection was spreading.
_____________________

Trion

"Right, Optimus." Windcharger said, obeying Optimus Prime without question. Such a long history of service under the Autobot leader had made Windcharger trust Optimus Prime without question. The Autobot hopped to his feet, walking briskly towards the drop pods. "Nice look, boss." He said nodding approvingly at Optimus' Apex Armour."

Warpath nodded as well, rapping the turret mounted on his chest. "To the drop pods! ZOOM!"

Searchlight nodded glumly, gazing at Sideswipe and Swerve, before shuffling after Windcharger and Warpath. Searchlight entered an empty drop pod, and Warpath squeezed himself into the remaining space beside the Throttlebot.

Windcharger glanced at Swerve as he spoke, then cursed. "Of all the time for Trailbreaker to be left back at Iacon babysitting Quick Switch..."
_____________________

Mirror-Manifold

"You know, Gears, you're a real joy-" Arcee nodded at Sprocket's intercom message, and glanced at Artfire and Gears, and nodded, expression grim yet calm. "Let's go save the world, then, boys and girls."

EMP blaster in one hand and flamesaber in another, Arcee headed off towards the open chute.
_____________________

Calabi-Yau

Pyro nodded. "Good luck to yourself too, Captain Kick-Off!" The Optimus-esque moved to the front of the front of the rest of the Autobot soldiers. "We are to drop now, right? We all know Prowl's orders -- neutralize the enemy base, do not let the infected leave Protihex!"

"I think so." Drift offered, his greatsword held in a two-handed grip, an EMP cannon strapped onto his back where his greatsword normally is.

"All right." Pyro said, and his optics narrowed. "Autobots, roll out!"

Pyro transformed into his fire truck mode, and drove out of the open hangar hatch, engines revving rather loudly. Drift and presumably the rest of the Autobots in the Calabi-Yau leapt out in robot mode after Pyro.

Jury Rig's projectiles, shooting down from space, zoomed in around Pyro as he descended. He felt rightfully heroic.

Hearing Optimus Prime's orders to destroy the communications tower, Pyro transformed into robot mode mid air, pulled out his assault rifle, his missile launcher locking onto place on his shoulder, and unleashed his firepower upon the communications tower. "You got it, Optimus!"
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(OOC: if it's more Predator redshirts we need... -browses alternate names- you know, I wish I hadn't killed Skyquake and Stalker so quickly...)

"Falcon, our landing site is under attack!" Trap squealed.

"Well? Get out there and kill them." Falcon's unsympathetic voice replied.

"But... but it's the Autobots!"

"So?"

"So... I'm still supposed to go fight them?"

"Clever boy. Not like your progenitor."

Trap winced. Being, like the late Flarejet, one of Snare's progeny, he clearly had not won favour in the de facto Predator leader's eyes after Snare's betrayal. He glanced at the other two Predator captains with him -- Hyena, Skydive's equally-mad spawn, and Buzzard, basically a duplicate of Stalker. "You heard him." Buzzard growled.

Trap sighed, transformed, and shot out to meet the Autobots, followed by a cackling Hyena. Buzzard rolled out in vehicle mode under them. Typical for a suicide run, it was raining rocks. Of all things, rocks. Trap saw Optimus Prime emerging from his pod. For lack of a better target (and actually hoping that Optimus Prime would show him compassion... or at least a quick death) Trap shot down towards Optimus Prime and opened fire with his missiles.

Buzzard and Hyena targeted the falling Autobots and opened fire. Hyena cackled wildly as one of his missiles slammed onto Drift, sending the former Decepticon slamming onto a ship, then onto the ground.
_____________________

Manganese Mountains, Steelhaven

Road Hugger kept silent as Ratchet ruminated upon the deaths of the other Autobots. Road Hugger understood. Decepticons tend not to care about their comrades, but there are some comrades that Road Hugger would miss... and mourn... when all of this is over.

Onslaught's death, for one, was a heavy blow to the Combaticon.

Suddenly Ratchet did not seem at all that scary to Road Hugger. He was still subconsciously afraid of Ratchet, after their first encounter, even though common sense told him that Ratchet was, in fact, a kind-hearted Autobot, but there had always been a subconscious revulsion of the Autobot medic... up until that moment, anyway, when Road Hugger felt he could relate to Ratchet.

Road Hugger refrained from saying anything a normal Decepticon would say... that death in battle, an honourable death, was what they would have wanted. Because, Road Hugger knew, that they would rather have Onslaught and Inferno alive rather than dead.

This unnerved Road Hugger a little. Was he turning into an Autobot?

No, not really. He was... a Combaticon. A Protihexian. A pragmatic Decepticon that saw no need to conquer, but a future in coexistence within the factions.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Road Hugger told Ratchet, optics glum, ashe pulled the cargo behind Ratchet. "I lost comrades... friends... as well... to my bastard creator. We'll make Thunderwing pay for what he did to Protihex."

[Chip1123]

Highbrow transformed, hooks dropping down to latch onto the shell and carry it beneath him. "You two will need to lead the way. My maneuverability will be almost non-existent while towing this monstrosity." He said to Moonjet and Darkjet as he rose and gained altitude. Fortunately, I can drop the cargo if we get in over our heads...

As the call from Swerve came in, Highbrow took in the computations. "I agree with Hook. We will need a significant power source to be able to put any kind of sustainable barrier around this city. We would also need to make sure it went underground incase someone were to try tunneling underneath the field and getting out using that tactic. I would think such a power source would also strain one individual unit's circuits past the ability to compensate. They may burn out if the load is not evenly distributed."

[optimusskids]

Swerve paused in thought.

"Well we are over a city and the inhabitants did restore the electricity grid for the bits they were using.I can see light on in various buildings so would we not be able to wire it into the mains?"

[Blackjack]

Battlefield

"Right." Darkjet replied to Highbrow quite briskly. He did not trust the Autobot; nor did he trust anyone else at the moment. "Moonjet, the bleeding's stopped a little. Can you transform?"

"I'll try..." Moonjet transformed into his jet mode, missing quite a bit from the right flank where Sixshot had blown off his arm, and wobbled unsteadily on Highbrow's right side.

Darkjet transformed into his own alternate mode, and, hoping that no one below mistakes him as Skydive, got ready to take off, as soon as Nightstick got on him, that is.
____________________________

Constructicon Field Hospital

Such schematics more of Scrapper and Long Haul's forte than himself (though, obviously, Hook himself knew quite a bit about force fields and construction), Hook turned his mind back onto the problem at hand... namely, how to most effectively cure the new Hate Plague, should Perceptor's theory that it was an electronic virus was on the ball.
____________________________

"Quite feasible, actually." Mixmaster told Swerve and Highbrow as he poked his head into Gravel's field hospital, having wandered over from Ironworks' station nearby.

The mad scientist's optics darted around until he found Bonecrusher in a CR chamber.

"We'll need manpower to connect the bloody generators, fix it onto Trailbreaker or Howlback or whoever has a Etha-class forcefield generator handy..." Mixmaster frowned. "Manpower we can provide, but we'll need somebody somebody somebody to create the actual forcefield, plus security to stop the Imperials from bombarding the hell out of it."

"What about right here? The Constructicons and the engineers with G-names, plus assorted Autobot engineers..." Long Haul said, moving and attempting to do his best to patch up Heavy Load.

"And make this place a bigger target for the enemy?" Tinker asked, frowning.

"Seeker's got a point point point. But divided we won't be able to hold both forts as effectively, will we?" Mixmaster said. "Decisions, decisions..."

[optimusskids]

Grapnel interjected.

" I think it a very positive plan , it will prevent further destruction and if we could bifurcate the shield we could use part of it to prevent the spread of the hate plague and the other half to protect the hospital."

[Blackjack]

Constructicon Field Hospital

"Won't bifuracting the force field draw too much power and resources?" Long Haul said.

"You would rather us be trapped under a forcefield bubble with the angry Hate Plague infested Imperials, Long Haul?" Mixmaster cackled. "Honestly, Haul, I'm supposed to be the insane one in our group! I say we trap the Imperials and the infected in the force field with nukes and chaosmaster bombs and blow it all off the face of the planet."

[zigzagger]

Constructicon Field Hospital

"If it is deflective shielding technology that you seek, Swerve, you need only look to the former Steelhaven site," answered Perceptor. "To bolster its defenses, Ratchet had installed several refractive field antennas around the Steelhaven, in addition to its own shielding. Though I have not yet returned to the site, I can assume they were left behind during the evacuation. Locate them, then reposition them...

"However," he firmly added. "Since we can no longer use the Steelhaven's reserves to power the refractive dome, I suggest tapping into the city-state's local electricity grid, as already proposed, to sufficiently charge them. I also cannot guarantee that they have not been damaged -- and while not all are required to generate the refractive dome, the more antennas that remain intact, the stronger the shielding's integrity will be. Especially if you intend to cover an area wider than a large starship."
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Imperial Landing Zone

Optimus Prime was not caught unawares when his armor's on-board targeting equipment alerted the Autobot Leader of Trap's incoming missiles. He somersaulted clear, springing up into a crouching position. The Imperial's projectiles peppered the ground next to him.

Oblivious to the Predator's reluctance to fight, Optimus swung around, gripping a rifle in each hand and returned fire, one particle charge for each of Trap's wings.

(OOC: Going to hold off and give Warcry a chance to make his update. Don't want to get ahead of myself -- Okay, more so than I already did )
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Manganese Mountains, Steelhaven

Ratchet pushed his barrow down the corridor toward the lift, partially listening to what Road Hugger had to say, numbed by the news of his friends passing.

"...I lost comrades... friends... as well... to my bastard creator. We'll make Thunderwing pay for what he did to Protihex.," the Combaticon Leader told him.

The Captain stopped and looked to Road Hugger, grimly answering him with, "You damn well better. And be sure to give Thunderwing one for me, would you?"

He then wheeled his cart into the elevator....

----

Hangar

When they arrived on the lower level of the Steelhaven, Ratchet guided Road Hugger through an unusually quiet hangar bay. Underground in a decommissioned stronghold, there were no vessels being sent out, and no transports being brought in. No crew members were frantically milling about, consciously aware of the conflict transpiring right outside the ship; no refugees huddling together in the corners, mourning the loss of their homes.

Just the echoing sound of Ratchet and Road Hugger's boot steps and the tiny wheels of their pushcarts rolling along the smooth metal floor.

They had little trouble locating Hoist among the parked vessels, who was idly standing by his waiting shuttle.

"Nice to see you again -- Road Hugger, was it?" said the Autobot mechanic. "Load on up." He jutted his thumbed back at the deployed boarding ramp. "I brought some additional medical supplies, should you need them."

[optimusskids]

Trion

Swerve's mind wandered.

"Steelhaven 's a great ship fascinating alloys in the armour, don't see the technology anymore. Diecast technology it's a lost art. So yes we have to cast the die take a gamble and bifurcate the shield . What do you think Dr Perceptor."

[Blackjack]

Constructicon Field Hospital

"Why can we not have the Steelhaven return here, to Protihex?" Hook asked. "It is a fast ship, is it not? Capable of interstellar travel? It should be a matter of minutes for it to return to Protihex from... from whatever place you Autobots saw fit to move it away to."

"They had to evac the refugees." Mixmaster said matter-of-factly. "Heard it from the wounded."

"Well, you could dump the refugees in, oh, Iacon or Tyrest or somewhere." Long Haul snorted, Bonecrusher's injury making the Constructicon even more irate than usual. "But still, we don't get to give orders to the Autobots. It's not like the Decepticons are sending their all into battle... oh wait, we are. All our forces are getting slaughtered, every single base, every single mobile battle station, Gigatron's bloody base crashed onto the Imperial's damned Warworld, while the Autobots take their good sweet time mobilizing their army so they can come like the god-damned cavalry and save our sorry Decepticon asses with their ships and shuttles and fresh soldiers while we've been dying, fighting with the idiot neutrals and a bunch of Autobots that actually have the guts to fight for their- our planet. You'd think that'd be enough, but nooo, they had to have their precious die-cast Steelhaven hidden off somewhere, while we have to figure out how to make the bloody force field work. I suppose when Optimus Prime opens the god-damned Matrix and kills Thunderwing, the Autobots want to be hailed as heroes too, right? Like, 'cause, if he could do it he should do it now. I mean, I can almost relate that you Autobots want us all Decepticons dead, despite the whole freedom crapshit thing you spout, but your own people are dying too!"

Mixmaster elbowed Hook, "I knew we kept him around for something, he's a marvellously rude bastard to the Autobots when we need him to be."

Hook gave Mixmaster a withering look. "And that is beneficial to our prolonged truce with the Autobots how, exactly?" However, Hook made no move to tell Long Haul to shut up. It was, after all, a sentiment Hook shared himself.
______________________________

Imperial Landing Zone

"Damn it." Trap spun around, Optimus Prime's particle charges barely missing him. The Predator opened fire again half-heartedly, knowing that whatever damage he did to Optimus Prime won't matter at all.... the Autobot leader was just too powerful.
______________________________

Manganese Mountains, Steelhaven

Road Hugger nodded glumly to Ratchet. "I will. Take care of the refugees- my people." He muttered, knowing with certainty that there was no Autobot (or Decepticon, for that matter) that he wanted to see dead as much as his thrice-damned creator.

Road Hugger was aware of the silence and the clang-clang-clang that their feet made through the empty hangar.

It also made him conscious that he was nearly alone with Ratchet,and he began to feel uneasy all over again -- damned phobias -- until he saw Hoist, and relaxed. Road Hugger nodded at the green Autobot, as he began to push his cart into the shuttle's hangar bay. "More supplies are always good."

[Warcry]

Trion

Sideswipe shrugged. "That's what the white and black is for, short stuff," he told Windcharger. Then he turned around and grinned at Warpath. "There's a mech who knows what to do in a fight," he said cheerfully. "How you been?"

Slinging an unwanted EMP rifle over his shoulder, he moved toward the drop pods...without saying anything to Optimus. After all, there were too many things that he could say...but it wasn't the time or the place for any of them.

Later, he told himself. Once all of this is over.
_______________________________________

Mirror-Manifold

Whirl's name made Artfire cringe a second time. A part of him wanted to ask Arcee if she meant that he was dead, but another part of him was afraid of the answer. Or at least, afraid of how he would feel when he got it. He didn't really want to know if he was the kind of person who'd take pleasure in someone else's death like that.

Besides, from the way the femme had been acting before he'd sedated her, Artfire was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

He set his jaw and told her stiffly, "Well, we'll just have to find out."

He just ignored Gears outright because...well, why would anyone want to talk to Gears?

When the drop chute opened, he was out the door right after Arcee.
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Constructicon Landing Zone

Scrapper nodded approvingly as Long Haul tended to Bonecrusher without needing any extra hand-holding.

"See? We'll make an engineer of you yet."

When Swerve's transmission came through, he immediately shifted tracks and started thinking about how to do what the Autobot was suggesting.

"Why not substitute another ship?" he asked. "The Autobots brought a lot of drop ships. Surely at least one of them would be serviceable as a power source."
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Battlefield

Needlenose groaned. "That's ridiculous," he told Misfire. "You're sure they're not puttin' something in the energon at Camp Starscream?"

Spinister only grunted. "Into the underlevels," he ordered the other Targetmasters. "We need to make our way toward the danger zone and do whatever we can to eliminate Thunderwing's insane experiments."

He strode into the sewer entrance, with Needlenose right behind him. Triggerhappy and Slugslinger exchanged a worried look before following along.
_______________________________________

Cyclonus nodded to Darkjet and Moonjet, then transformed to jet mode and resumed his aerial search for Thunderwing.
_______________________________________

Sandstorm shrugged. "No idea," he admitted to Broadside. "Like I said, we got separated from the others early on."

Twin Twist chuckled. "What he means is, he got his sloppy ass buried alive and I had to leave the fight to dig him out."

"Right," Sandstorm said testily. "Anyway. We haven't heard from the others since then. Roadbuster, Stepper, Whirl, Scoop and Overdrive were all in the city, but I'm not sure what happened to them. Springer too, actually."

The triplechanger shook the last of the dirt off of himself, then said, "I guess we'd better go look for them, huh?"
_______________________________________

Hate Plague Danger zone

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Dust Storm told Sandstorm. "At least, not flattery from someone who's too dumb to know when to use his secondary weapons!"

Then the conehead unceremoniously raked laser fire over his doppelganger's position.
_______________________________________

Bluestreak snorted. "You're behind the times, Siren. Things change quick out here, don't you know?" But when the Headmaster's sonic pulse sent the nearest Morphobot quailing, he grinned. "Still, you know...I'm glad you could make it back."

He turned to observe the ships that Fortress Maximus was watching, then nodded approvingly. "It's about bloody time," he grumbled. "Prowl's getting slow in his old age."
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"We can debate morals once we don't have to worry about the whole planet being infected," Skydive told Blast Off. "I mean, by all means, don't kill them if you don't have to...but if you have to, then do it."

When the other Skydive started ranting, he didn't bother to argue. He just fired a spread of air-to-air missiles at him, hoping to catch him in mid-cackle.

"Lipoles? Interesting. Not what I expected, although personally I prefer to use actual missiles..." he said as he dodged the swarm of bat-like creatures that were suddenly flapping in his way, keeping him from lining up another straight shot at the Imperial.
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The spasming Ruination fell apart. Target Hawk toppled over into the Hate Plague spores, roaring with murderous rage as his skin turned red. Leyland crawled away, but in his shocked state he was just too slow. Young Morphobots and wailing, acid-burned Scraplets set upon him and started tearing into him, eating him alive. A woozy Sandstorm almost fell victim to the same fate, but Shuttle Gunner -- the only member of the team who survived the death of their gestalt without serious mental trauma -- grabbed his commander and flew him to safety.

Great Cannon, meanwhile, fell to the ground a headless, ruined corpse.
_______________________________________

Snarl roared furiously as Dune Runner's corpse knocked him away from Blurr.

"Do I look like a slagging Sharkticon?" he demanded of Jackpot. "Wait your turn. I'll kill you once I'm done with him." He glared at the Stunticons too. "All of you. Leave me alone!"

He fired his stolen cyclone cannon, trying to throw them away...
_______________________________________

...and sent the Hate Plague spores drifting father afield. Shaken by the force of the nearby comettary impacts, Ultra Magnus had only a half-second's warning before the red mist overtook his position and the burning, all-consuming hatred that was so familiar began to take control. He wanted so much to fight it, but he simply couldn't. Inevitably, the rage found a target in the nearest still-living mechanism to him.

"The only thing Decepticons should do, Sixshot, is die!"

He threw a haymaker at the sixchanger's face, hoping to catch him unawares.

Naturally, he didn't answer Prowl...but his actions would make his infected status very clear.
_______________________________________

Rage had only a second's more warning before the spores reached him, but unlike the other victims he did nothing to fight it. He knew hate. It was his friend, and he welcomed it with open arms.
_______________________________________

Imperial Landing Zone

Drill Bit made an annoyed noise. "I don't know, Buckethead. Did you ask the last squad of Imps for a full inventory of their invasion fleet?" Less sarcastically, he added, "As long as we can reach the controls, I don't plan to be picky. Especially not with a bunch of slagging Autobots dropping out of the sky."

He watched as several dozen Imperials disembarked from the landed ships, some of them opening fire with their sidearms and others transforming into flying alt-modes and engaging the Autobots' own aerial forces (he recognized Air Raid and Fireflight among the latter).

Some of the Imperials, however, seemed to be strangely preoccupied not with the battle but with guarding a large, blocky troop transport while a group of smaller, scientist-looking mechs ducked in and out.

"Ooh," he said, "I don't like the look of that one bit..."

He didn't like the look of the burning comets falling out of the sky toward them, either.

[optimusskids]

Imperial Landing Zone

Throttler looked up and then across at the Imperial Fleet.

"I so think we're in the wrong place."

~*~

The comets dropped lower impact was only minutes way.

[Blackjack]

Trion

"Hnn." Windcharger snorted at Sideswipe, glancing at Warpath. "Tell that to tank boy here, he barely has any whites or blacks."

Warpath gave Sideswipe and Windcharger two thumbs up. "Never better, guys. It's like, I'm sitting, bored, and ZIP ZIP POW we have another save-the-universe crisis. It never ends, does it?"

Windcharger sighed as he boarded another drop pod, while Warpath moved into his own. "You know, sometimes I wish it does. Just so that we could stop losing more and more friends because some maniac just wants to rule the world."
_______________________________________

Mirror-Manifold

Arcee glanced at Artfire, and bit her lip. Unaware of the tension that Artfire was feeling at Whirl (and Springer, for that matter), she merely assumed that she had been insensitive in delivering the bad news of a comrade's death.

Is there any proper way to tell someone else about death, anyway?

Deciding that not speaking is probably the best thing to do, she nodded glumly, then glanced at Gears. Arcee knew Gears meant well, that Gears had always been pessimistic so others would laugh at his pessimism and thus in a roundabout way bring morale up... but being a damn sourball all the time is such a pain.

"You know, Gears, we've got a world to save. Save the complaints after we stuff Thunderwing's head in a pike outside Autobase, hmm?" Arcee said, before landing and opening fire at the Imperials with her real laser blaster.

-This is for Whirl. And the Dinobots. And Vortex, and whichver else of my friends you Imperials killed today.-

Arcee's blue optics were devoid of mercy. Screw the Autobot code of honour or whatever, these Imperials took away her friends, and not even for a real political cause like the Decepticons. She was economical, a shot to the head for each Imperial Stormtrooper that came close.

She unsheathed her flamesaber, and began to behead anyone who came close to her and Artfire. And Gears, who had hopped out, muttering something under his breath and covering Arcee with his appropriated EMP blaster.
_______________________________________

Hyena cackled madly as he shot towards landing Autobots (Arcee, Artfire and co), launching missiles almost as randomly as possible towards them.

Buzzard, likewise, with no thought of collateral damage whatsoever, launched an IMBC at the Calabi-Yau. Which would have probably killed a fair few had Pyro not met the IMBC mid-air with eight missiles from his shoulder-mounted missile launcher.

"Surrender, Decepticon!" Pyro yelled, as he turned to face Buzzard, aiming his pulse rifle at the Predator. "You won't be able to win this fight!"

"Bite me." Buzzard growled, as he transformed and charged Pyro.
_______________________________________

Griffe and Demon, twin spawns of Talon, shot towards the dropships dropping from the Trion, and tried to shoot down Sideswipe, Windcharger, Swerve, Warpath and the other pods falling down, chuckling like the thugs they are.
_______________________________________

Constructicon Landing Zone

Long Haul broke off from his rant about the Autobots' selfishness to grunt at Scrapper. He still looked surlier than ever, but his optics brimmed with happiness. Scrapper had complimented his work! That was a first, that was a first!

"True." Hook said, taking the initiative. As much as he shared Long Haul's concern, politics are the very last thing they have to deal with right now, considering the fragile, hodgepodge alliance they had between the four... five? Six? factions. "Another drop ship, or possibly even if you Autobots saw fit to spare one of your Omega Sentinels -- which would be better, since they are semi-sentient and would be able to defend themselves with minimal assistance -- would be able to supply the power in order to replace the Steelhaven."

He injected a vial of energon into the unconscious Pointblank, "Now, Perceptor, your Autobot compatriot should be awake and fixed. Of course, I would recommend not going out to the field, but no one ever listens to this particular advice anyway, so I shall not even bother to give it."
_______________________________________

Battlefield

"Mmm, probably. They've got bloody Cindersaur running the bar at one point." Misfire scratched his chin, but then fixed his attention back to Spinister. Shrugging, knowing that Spinister wasn't one to risk their hides for a lost cause, and not one to be argued with, Misfire followed Slugslinger and Triggerhappy, bringing up the rear.

Misfire noted the Targetmaster partners his comrades carried, and smirked.

Oh, he was free of that idiot, malfunctioning Aimless. Free, free, free free free!
_______________________________________

Darkjet and Moonjet hovered beside Highbrow, waiting for the Autobot to navigate.
_______________________________________

"Oh, Sandstorm, you bloody idiot." Broadside sighed. "You're a bloody shame to the rest of the Wreckers. Should've left him behind, Twin Twist, the damn fool's caused you to miss all the fun."

Broadside digested the roll call that Sandstorm and Twin Twist gave him. He expected the rest, it was as if he alone was left behind... then, "Springer's here?" Broadside said out loud, then shrugged. At least his old friend was fighting instead of hiding in whatever hole he's dug for himself.

Honestly, Broadside was not sure what exactly to think of Springer at the moment.

"Yeah, we probably should. What with all the Hate Plague brouhaha out there." Broadside flexed his arms. "Wreckers, sound off!" Broadside said once more into his commlink, trying to get one of the others to respond.

Not that it was ever an accurate way of telling who was alive, most of the time the Wreckers were always too busy dismembering and brutalizing Decepticons to bother reporting in.
_______________________________________

Hate Plague Danger zone

"Eh, two can play at that game, junior." Sandstorm said, twisting through the air, although not fast enough before Dust Storm's laser blasts tore onto part of his underbelly.

He armed missiles, and fired, while laser fire shot out randomly, aiming to at least disrupt Acid Storm as well.

"Tell me, are you my son?" Sandstorm chirped out. "Because, I mean, you do have the look, and I think I may have budded once or twice while I was on Cybertron."
_______________________________________

"Sonic weapons are the key!" Brawl yelled as Siren's sonic pulse caused the Morphobot to quail. "Thunderhead, you an' me, we're going to make some noise."

Brawl transformed into his extremely noisy tank mode and began opening fire with his explosive shells, aiming mainly to disrupt the Morphobots with the noise, although if they blew apart from his tank blasts, it's a good bonus.
_______________________________________

"True. Kill off your namesake first, hmm?" Blast Off replied to Skydive, but the Predator Skydive had sent Lipoles at them. "Oh, slag it-" The Combaticon moved away from the living missiles, but a shuttle is not as maneuverable as a jet, and several slammed and blew up on the Combaticon's hull.

At least the Lipoles are a species stupid enough to fly in a kamikaze run, it's not like Skydive sent Scraplets at him...
_______________________________________

Skydive's missiles would blew up inches from the Predator Skydive, as his forcefield shimmered.

"Tut-tut, you're going to have to be more creative than that... Skydive, isn't it? Well, I was actually hoping to fight your boss, but I suppose getting rid of a name-robbing pretender should suffice for a first course."

Skydive hummed, as he launched shrapnel missiles and acidic missiles at Skydive, the missiles zipping through Skydive's forcefield easily. Hopefully, if they didn't hit the far superior Skydive or that idiot Decepticon traitor Blast Off, one of the pathetic junior Aerialbots would be hit by his weapons.
_______________________________________

"Hmph." Falcon snorted as Menasor and Ruination both fell to him. Of course, the Hate Plague and Scraplets helped out some, but hey, target where target's due... he took out two of the Decepticons' most powerful gestalts.

Leaving them to their fate (they'll kill each other sooner or later anyway), Falcon shot off to kill other targets of opportunity.
_______________________________________

"Uh-oh." Hyperdrive glanced as Menasor and Ruination fell, then as Ultra Magnus, Rage and Sixshot succumbed to the Hate Plague. "Fort Max, Shockwave, I don't wanna make things worse, but our best field commanders are now walking infectious monsters, and our gestalts are now dead."

Hyperdrive sighed. He moved away, moving closer to Bluestreak and Fortress Maximus, not looking forward to be infected.

An infected Combaticon Minicon zigzagged through the ground towards them. Hyperdrive shrugged, pulled out one of his daggers and threw it. It slammed onto Backwind's torso, completely destroying the circuits inside and pinning the now-dead Minicon onto the ground, fuels leaking out.
_______________________________________

"Damn it. Damn it-" Wildrider roared with fury as he blasted apart the Morphobots with his scattershot gun, which was keeping the plants back but not exactly killing them. "Screw this! Oi, Breakdown, help me out!"

"I- I- THE PLANTS ARE ALIVE! PLANTS ARE ALIVE AND ARE LOOKING AT US ALL THE TIME!" Breakdown screamed, voice shrill and loud. Evidently, being separated while still combined as Menasor, and all the stress had gotten to the paranoid Stunticon, and he was blasting Morphobots and Scraplets left and right with his concussion cannon.

Wildrider sighed, as he saw Motormaster, then Dead End, die. He felt no love for Motormaster, but a pang of sadness as Drag Strip murdered Dead End. He didn't exactly like Dead End, but he felt anger, for the simple fact that Dead End was a Stunticon like him.

Breakdown transformed into vehicle mode, and activated his power to cause... well, breakdowns, in mechanical objects. It destroyed some of the Morphobots' tentacles, and the Stunticon zipped off in fear. Wildrider transformed to do the same, but a Morphobot's tentacle tore onto his shoulder.

Wildrider snarled and blew the offending appendage away with his scattershot blaster, but it was too little, too late. The opening created by Breakdown was now covered with Scraplets. And the acid rain's pouring down like mad and the Hate Plague is behind him and Motormaster's corpse was behind him...

Oh well.

All this crazy, all the noise, all the panic... music to Wildrider's ears.

He cackled madly. Like Rage, Wildrider didn't even notice as the Hate Plague drifted towards him and possessed him.
_______________________________________

"No, a Sharkticon's prettier than you! I'll kill you, imbecile, I'll kill you, I'll find a Sharkticon and kill him too!" Jackpot snarled, leaping aside as Snarl fired his cyclone cannon. He grabbed Steelshot by the neck, an easy manner considering his Nucleon-enhanced strength, and aimed the helpless Combaticon's cannon arm at Snarl and opening fire.

Blurr moved too fast as well, zipping aside and tackling one of the possessed Comabaticons, hammering onto him.

Drag Strip was not so lucky, though. The formerly-yellow Stunticon, the Hate Plague spores and Dead End's corpse was sent tumbling through the air towards Rage.

If Drag Strip still had his sanity, he would have tried to win, tried to convince the clearly insane Rage that only he hated Motormaster as much as the other Decepticon did.

As it is, though, anger, hate and rage took over, and Drag Strip snarled as he got up and charged at Rage.
_______________________________________

"Says you-" Sixshot was about to say more, but the Hate Plague spores likewise took over him. "Ah-"

Honor? Purpose? All was forgotten. Sixshot's mind always had a purpose, which was to destroy, destroy, destroy... anything which the Decepticon cause pointed him at... and now, he had to do the same thing. Destroy the enemy.

He had to kill. Kill!

Sixshot roared, transforming into his tank mode. Ultra Magnus' haymaker slammed onto his tank turrets ensemble, breaking off another one of his turret and denting his side, but that left him open for a shot... And he took six, firing six tank shells straight at Ultra Magnus.

"DIE, ULTRA MAGNUS! YOU ARE NOTHING, AND I AM THE STRONGEST DECEPTICON EVER!"
_______________________________________

###

It was no use.

The Captain had been infected by the plague. Sky was loathe to call it 'zombification', or the zombie plague or whatever the others called it. It was a disease, a neural disease, albeit spread by air and whatever.

He was part of a special ops team sent to purge all the zombies- the Infected- from this town. Kill them all, because nuking is too messy. Sh'yeah, the government can create a disease which basically makes single-minded killing machines out of people, which increases their endurance and blocks their ability to feel pain. The 'zombie' term, in short, is almost accurate, other than a crucial fact... the Infected are not walking dead. They are still very much alive, still thinking (if clouded) under the disease.

But the Captain of their squad, and the Biker Gang Boss, both of them, who had formed some sort of an alliance in order to kill the Infected plaguing the town, had been bitten. The Infected came in swarms, and bit them.

Sky had been fortunate enough to be on top of the building, but his weapons are having no effect on the Infected. Riddled with bullets, on fire, knives and debris sticking out of their bodies... the Infected felt no pain. Correction: they probably do, yet they ignore it.

The Infected were mutating too. Somehow they were able to shoot globs of goo, or throw stuff, some were even getting the hang of shooting guns, although mercifully they were more likely to blow their own faces off than shoot anywhere near him.

Damn it.

Time to call this in.

"Base, this is Insertion Team Beta. Operation Umbrella is a failure. The Captain has been infected, please advise."

###

Sky High hovered above the Hate Plague, out of reach, as he launched missiles, energy beams and cerebro-scrambling stun blasts at the Hate Plague with no avail. Bullets sailed past him. Ultra Magnus and Sixshot were infected.
He radioed Prowl. "Base, this is Advance Team Beta. Operation is a failure. Magnus has been infected, please advise."
_______________________________________

Imperial Landing Zone

"Um, nope." Buckethead replied to Drill Bit. "Reach the controls? Ha! Have you seen any Imperial Micros and Minis out there? Of course, best not to be pessimis... tic..." Buckethead trailed off as he saw the Imperials moving a transport.

Buckethead had the sinking feeling that they were in over their head, and nodded in agreement with Throttler. "That is probably not good news. Say, do you suppose... we tell someone else? Or do we just don't care?"

[optimusskids]

Sky

Overdrive looped round and headed for Sky High's position.

"We need to maintain containment and pick off any mech who looks like he might be widening the continment zone."

He paused

"Roger Broadside I am patrolling above the Hate plague zone."

Battlefield

Gigatron motioned to Spinister to stop

"I see you have found reinforcements. Let us take this fight to the heart of the enemy."


~*~

Swerve dropped towards the surface.

He opened a com link to the other scientists.

"I have had a thought , surely Thunderwing would not be insane enough to risk his command echelon. If we can capture one of his officers we can analyse his energon stream for signs of a vaccine. Oh and I was thinking of our Decepticon friends have any contact with their troops on the warworld. They might search for a lab. The Decepticons arrived on the Warworld and there might well be traces or some kind of record of the modified hate plague."

[Chip1123]

Highbrow watched in horror as Ultra Magnus and Sixshot were infected with the plague below him. His helicopter blades were forcing the wind, and therefore the plague itself, away from him for the time being, but he couldn't guarantee it wouldn't affect the shell he was towing. "This situation continues to deteriorate." He said to Moonjet and Darkjet as he tried to rise higher, away from the spores.

[Blackjack]

Battlefield

Well, that's new.

Broadside click his comms systems. "Good, Overdrive. Are you with any of the others?" The Triple Changer glanced around them. It felt... well, stereotypically too quiet for a battlefield.

He pulled out his vibro-ax with his free hand and gripped it tightly.
________________________

Gigatron. Ah, at least Gigatron was actually doing something instead of parlaying with weak enemy commanders like Starscream was...

Misfire resisted the urge to say 'hi, Gigatron!', which would probably sound stupid.
________________________

Construction Field Hospital

Long Haul snorted at Swerve's comment.

"My dear, dear, Autobot, you certainly do not understand how the Decepticon mind works. Such naiviety inspires me to murder more of you Autobots once this is over. Even the most honourable Decepticon would release a plague without a second thought for his troops-" Long Haul glanced at Mixmaster, Hook and Scrapper. "-My dear, dear comrades certainly would without a second thought for poor little Long Haul."

Mixmaster cackled. "True true true!"

"Of course, if we are able to catch Thunderwing's top scientist... intel suggests that the Predator Skydive has been seen in the battlefield." Hook said. "While Thunderwing is indeed a terribly shoddy commanding officer, I doubt his troops -- at least an academically inclined one like Skydive -- would enter the fray without immunisizing himself. That is, if he knew about the Hate Plague to begin with."
________________________

"You don't say." Moonjet snorted, as the party of four shot towards the Constructicon Field Hospital.

"I'll let you handle the instructions. I look like Skydive, Moonjet looks like Falcon, and they'll probably shoot us down." Darkjet told Highbrow.

[Ulcrain]

(OOC: Here I come)

Imperial Landing Zone

Mindset stood on the distance, watching the carnage caused by the Autobot renforecements unfold around him. Standing next to him was his subtorites, battle happy tank Treds and pessimistic jet Bad Boy.

The duty was his. Many of the dying troops were his responsibility. It was time.

Mindset started with looking to the small Autobot Gears with his plasma coil sniper rifle and fireing at him before turning to his troops.

"Ready?"

"I'm always ready" Treds joked with his tradmark humor

"Acid bombs prepererd Sir" Bad Boy said with his tradional element of stern words.

"Good" Mindset said before turning to the battle field "Let's go"

They jumped towards the battlefield, prepering to kill every Throwback they could find.

"For Lord Jiaxus!"

___________________________

Treds gunned his way through the battle, wanting to get target. And then he saw he saw one. Kick-Off.

Turing to him in the Calbi-Yu, Treds unleashed his arsenal on him. His shoulder mounted miniguns, his bulit in missile lunchers and the rifle he held, the works. Treds always liked over-kill and this was the perfect way to do it as he launched the heat seeking rounds at him.

[Blackjack]

Imperial Landing Zone

The surly Gears grunted as he barely managed to roll aside when the blasts from Mindset slammed onto the ground where he stood a moment ago. "Damned Imperials and their snipers..."

The Minibot raised his EMP blaster, aimed at Mindset and opened fire, sending a stunning pulse at the Decepticon.

"Jhiaxus is here?" Gears asked out loud. "Great. As if the douchebag Decepticon concentration in this city isn't high enough."

"Jhiaxus can be reasoned with, at least." Drift told Gears as he dashed past them, launching one of his short swords at Treads, aiming to send the blade slamming onto the Imperial's shoulder. Drift was not sure what the thuggish Imperial was trying to do by shooting at the Calabi-Yau... as if a single Imperial soldier would be able to bring the ship down. Damage it, probably...

Still, better not take any chances.

"Bah. Any Decepticon that leads a massive murdering army is as bad as another." Gears grumbled. "Present company excluded, of course. Wouldn't want you stabbing me in my sleep."

"But of course."
______________________

Warpath and Windcharger's pods slammed onto the ground, and Warpath barely managed to scramble out of his pod before Demon and Griffe blew it up. "Hey! That was rude! KA-CHOW!" Warpath launched an artillery blast at the twins, forcing them to pull away.

"Swerve, Sideswipe, you guys okay?" Windcharger called out, as he raised his fingers. With ease, the pod he was just in floated up the ground, and the Autobot launched it into the air with a flick of his wrist. It slammed onto the communications radar complex on top of an Imperial dropship, which erupted in a beautiful explosion.

"CHOOM! CHOOM! CHOOM!" Warpath yelled, as he kept the two Predators at bay.

[Ulcrain]

Imperial Landing Zone

Treds turned around just as his radar snse kicked in, allowing him to grab Drifts sword in his hand.

"Maybe you should try someone else, after all, I'm the artillery expert" He chukeled as he threw the sword back at Drift.

____________________________________

Mindset douged Gears shot and shot back at with three blasts from his hand mounted gaulting gun before turning to more signigant matters.

____________________________________

Bad Boy swerved through the carnage in the air before fireing at the Omega Sentinel 03 with three acid bombs, two smaller ones aimed at the knees and the large one for the cranial unit. He then swerved his way through the sky, guns fireing all the while.

[Chip1123]

Highbrow would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so grave. "I will make sure that doesn't happen." He said to Moonjet and Darkjet.

Highbrow keyed in the communciation frequency of the field hospital. "This is Highbrow. Will be arriving shortly with the damaged Thunderwing Shell. Imperial defectors as escorts. Please do not kill them. Sixshot and Cyclonus would not be happy about that."

--------------------

Thrust had finished a dogfight with an Imperial soldier and clicked over on his comm channel to his leader. "Starscream, the Autobots are finally here. You want us to pull back and let them take the brunt of this for a while - spare our own units?"

[optimusskids]

Imperial Landing Zone

The rocky meteorites slammed into the Imperial Landing Zone

THUMMMPPP, THUMMMPPPPP , THUMPPPPPPP, THUMPPPPPPP< THUMPPPPPPPP, THUMPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP