Station Battle: Initial Troop Build-Up

[Sky-byte]

The fight cannot arrive any sooner for Sky-byte. Anything to take out his frustrations at a Certain-Decepticon-Wannabe-Leader...he's show them all. Argh, vehicles!

This black desert that they've traveled days for. Well, it makes flying certainly a bit easier and flying means a good excuse to lag a little behind or draw a little ahead.

As they get closer to their objective, Sky-byte tunes into the radio, amusing himself with the disjointed conversation there. It's when a familiar voice passes over the comm that he flails in mid-air for a moment. That voice! Where has he heard it before?

Autobots from his corner? Could that mean that perhaps he's not the only one in this anymore? He passes a glance at Wheelie. Well, almost not the only one.

Hmmm, if there's going to be fighting, confusion is imminent. Perhaps this can be his opportunity?

[Hook]

Hook has spent the last several days trying not to grievously injure anyone under his command. Alack, alas, this was why he usually wasn't allowed to lead, as he recalled. Scrapper had patience. Hook merely had patients.

Now, though, he can see the power station atop the mesa, can feel the metaphorical end of the road just within his grasp.

Starscream is the warrior-leader. Let him lead his troops into battle. Hook will see them fueled and cared for, and they will learn what the sharp prickings of gratitude are.

//Maps received. I'll take care of the power station.//

Hook has been a Decepticon for a very long time. If his fellows can't keep all the trouble at the station occupied, he still doesn't need them to protect him.

Besides, disassembling an Autobot might make the gratitude he demands from his Decepticons a little less sharp.

[Fleetwind]

All right. Time to get to work (and hopefully take Starscream's mind off his slip up over the radio waves). The pastel Seeker quickly approached the station, but did not pass over the group on the road at all. Instead, he flew straight for the enormous building atop the mesa.

And immediately regretted it.

"SLAG!" he shouts to himself as... laser fire? shoots up from the... defenses below. Fleetwind is a fairly nimble little jet, but there are just too many blasts coming his way, and one shot goes clean through the tip of his right wing. "Yarrgh!" he yells as he pulls up sharply, trying to get above the lasers' range. A thick, ugly stream of smoke spews from his injury.

//They've got some kind of defenses still online!// he reports, voice tight with pain and a touch of fear.

[Skystrike/Skylar Stringers]

There really are few things more amusing than watching your superior losing his composure and making whimsical threats. Skystrike didn’t have a death wish though and suppressed the urge to snicker quite well, only uttering a merry sounding static noise over the radio before falling quiet once again. Talking about covert operations in open radio, accepting brightly colored Autobots into their ranks and running about following orders of an easily agitated Air Commander. So this was what the Decepticon army had been degraded to; it would almost be funny if it weren’t so pathetic.

Skystrike metaphorically shook her head and brought her mind back to the present. A slip of concentration was not a good thing, not this close to the enemies when keeping her optics peeled on the ground and sky took a very high priority over distracting musings. Should she come in high or low? A hypersonic strafe near the ground would be far too risky, especially when the enemy already knew she was there. An attack from high altitudes seemed like a better option; scatter and confused the Autobots, pick a target and let the rest of the group deal with what was left.

This all, of course, hinged on whether or not Starscream would allow her to do that.

Skystrike growled softly to herself, feeling the frustration of suddenly being put back into a subservient position mounted again. They had to be quick and they had to strike hard before the Autobots had the time to orient themselves and before whatever back up they might have came and helped them. They had the advantage at this very moment, and they’d better not let it slip between their fingers so easily.

The blue jet sped up, and for the briefest of moments, the thoughts of simply ignoring Starscream slipped into her mind, but no. If this team was going to improve, she’d need to obey, at least to a point.

Fleetwind’s agonized voice startled her over the radio a moment later and she could see the bright flashes of laser dancing in the distance where the yellow seeker should be.

//“Orders, sir?”// Skystrike rumbled to the current Decepticon leader. She could see them now, the Autobots. Little specks of color in the distance. The shots would start soon.

[Starscream]

Starscream transmitted to the other Decepticons, //Fleetwind, Starfighter. Focus on the site defenses. I want a clear path for when Hook arrives, then I want you to help him with cube manufacture. Sky-Byte, Skystrike. Assist me in general disruption, we need to keep the Autobots distracted. Your priority is to keep the entry clear.//

Starscream went right past the building, and launched a pair of cluster bombs - perfect for instant destruction. He doesn't really aim it at anyone in particular, just the rough area of Arcee and Nightbeat.

"DEATH TO THE AUTOBOTS!!" Starscream bellowed as he roared past. Superiority in numbers and the advantage of the sky has made the Air Commander more confidant than usual. But also the fact that he needs to keep them busy while his fellow Decepticons get fuel.

[Cannonball]

The explosion from Starscream's bombs is enough to rattle the somewhat-nearby Cannonball, who growls, turning his laser down some. "We're under attack!" he calls out, though it's rather obvious already. He points his left arm skyward, unleashing a barrage of laser fire at his 'commander'. "To the slag pit with you, Decepticon!"

[Perceptor]

Starscream! And additional aerial mode Decepticons from the look of it. He fires off a quick broadcast to Xaaron and the rest of the Autobots back in the city to amend his previous warning.

Perceptor doesn't have much time; he needs to learn as much as possible as he can in the moments stolen between strafing runs and before the other Autobots arrive with the wounded mech - if they are still planning on brining the injured mech to him.

He's in a terrible position, crouched there just below the last angle of the road that shields him from the sight of the plants. There's no cover to hide behind save the grade of the road's ascent itself - which is none at all to protect him from the Seekers screaming overhead. He transforms, shifting mass to his smallest form possible, hoping to detract attention from himself by both the Decepticons and the plants as he gathers what information he may. His weapons would be quite useful against the attackers, but defeating the facility's defenses is of a higher priority at the moment, and if he isn't firing on anyone, perhaps he may go unnoticed another few minutes longer.

The soil, as he rolls across it slowly, approaching the lip of the roadway, is curiously depleted of basic nutrients required for plant growth - depleted in such a manner that indicates that there had once been lush growth here before that had used those nutrients, but that growth had quickly died out. The field of laser-firing plants, perhaps? There had not been any other plant life for some distance around the butte. Perhaps the stations defenses had extended much farther than they do now.

What, then, had thinned and reduced their growth to such a narrow band around the facility? He pauses briefly to examine the soil in more depth, noting elevated radiation levels present in the soil. The levels are too low to pose any threat to any of their own construction that he has seen thus far, but the residual level may indicate that a level detrimental to organic life forms at some point in the past.

A weapon? A solar flare? Natural deposits of a radioactive material that had been disturbed by some process?

Perceptor's thoughts are brought sharply back to the present as an explosion not far off makes the ground shudder lightly beneath him. He trundles slowly forward, the tip of his scope just barely clearing the lip of the roadway to get his first glimpse at the flowers.

It's a brief glimpse.

Light, concentrated sunlight, much the same as he fires himself from his scope cannon, lances out from several of the nearest flowers - and flowers they definitely appear to be - to strike his exposed lens full on. He is lucky that that is where he'd been struck. His scope is designed to handle such intense bursts of photon energy, the lenses and prisms and mirrors designed to focus and direct a concentrated beam of light exactly like that which had been fired upon him. Not comfortable by any means, the beams are directed through the pathways his own light beams travel upon, only in reverse.

He ducks quickly back down again before incurring further wrath from the flowers. Though being struck through his light array is not precisely harmful, it is impossible to continue observations when his entire field of vision is being thus assaulted. He withdraws just far enough to safely transform, gathering up a handful of stones from the ground around him, which he flings into the air in a quick arc. Perhaps they are triggered by -

Light, swift and terrible shoots the stones out of the sky. Motion, then, appears to trigger them. This will require additional study, and the Decepticons are closing quickly. He transforms once more, as Small as he can be, and observes their flight over the installation, attempting to determine the range of observation the offensive flowers possess.

[Shortround]

Shortround is bringing up the rear of the Decepticon advance, taking the time to travel slowly and just float over the desert. However, he hears the sound of battle.

Not. Good.

"Aw slag..." he says, his plasma turret violently turning to see if anything moving is nearby. He doesn't want to deploy his missiles just yet, because they're his engines. He'll wait to see if anything attacks him first before attacking, however he continued forward regardless.

[Starfighter]

//Yessir!// Starfighter considered adding 'Decepticons forever', but coming from him it would sound rather weak.

They were only a bunch of automated guns with no apparent form of superior AI. Starfighter knew Shockwave's defense system layout to the point where he could fly through it with his sensors offline, this couldn't be much harder.

But he still kept himself just far back enough so that Skystrike would approach the site defenses before he did.

[Demolishor]

Demolishor's top half swiveled from side to side as he rolled along, looking for faces to rearrange. The Autobots weren't coming close enough to get slaughtered fast enough, and it was pissing him off.

//So what the heck are we supposed to do, then? Sit here?//

"Screw this," he muttered, and fired off a few long-range shots in the Autobot's direction, more for show than anything else.

[Nightbeat]

Nightbeat had spent much of the intervening time between their arrival and when the attack started doing what he does best: thinking.

Every little piece of information that they'd gather was sent coursing though his mind, to be mulled over and considered, weighted and tagged appropriately. He'd have to sort more of it out later, but he largest fact currently remaining was simply: he didn't have a slaggin' clue.

All of which meant that he is grateful for the break caused by being attacked. Transforming to his robot mode, he aims skyward toward their attackers and opens fire.

[Arcee]

"Well, well, if it isn't Mister Shot Himself in the Foot!" Arcee calls out, as she transforms and executes a perfect backflip dodge in sequence. It carries her away from the explosion of the cluster bomb and gives her a chance to draw her pistol.

"Let's see if I can't shoot you there too!"

[Sky-byte]

There! Autobots ahead, well, that's what Sky-byte hopes he sees. They're definitely not any sort of Autobot that he recognizes. Red, pink, blue, and black. The black being Cannonball, how droll. He might have passed some others, there's scuffle going on somewhere, but it was quite a bit...dusty. Sky-byte wasn't able to see much there. Oh well, distraction running it is.

With a roar he lunges ahead, jaws wide open as he descends towards the clustered Autobots.

Mouthful of Autobot or sand, he won't know the results until he gets it.

[Hook]

[Private to Starscream]: //I will begin energon cube production as soon as I am able. However, it would be best for us to take control of the entire facility. Not merely raid for it, but control it and use it as a tool.

The Autobots are likely in the same situation we are - they need energy. If we deny it to them...//

Starscream is a smart mech. He can end that thought for himself.

Reports of the battle have been mixed, but he has not heard a word of the one Autobot that would be impossible to miss.

Hook darts forward all of a sudden, skirting around Demolishor. Is is true-? He must see for himself. He must see the battle with his own visor. He must!

There, ahead, at the bottom of the road leading up to the powerstation was a blue Autobot. There, ranging up the road between him and the top of it was a pink one and Cannonball. The jets swirl and fly in the air, lasers and bombs smashing against the red, broken rock all around.

There is absolutely no sign of Omega Supreme.

Hook transforms, and though he faces away from the battle, there is a smile on his face. It is sharp and too pleased by half, the glitter of a metal blade about to be bloodied.

He turns, and somewhere between facing Demolishor and facing the Autobots that turn becomes flight. Hook naturally assumes that Shortround can follow him up this way.

The vertical, craggy face of the mesa looms ahead of him. Until he reaches the top of it, he is a bright green target, and he is nowhere near as maneuverable in the air as a jet.

//Fleetwind! Provide me with cover fire. Also, information about the power station's defenses would be greatly appreciated.//

[Fleetwind]

Fleetwind is just trying to get AWAY from the killer flowers of laser bright deathidy death (he may not know they're flowers yet, but the 'killer' and 'laser bright deathidy death' bits still apply) by flying almost directly upwards when both Starscream and Hook are ordering him to go back towards it. He repeats a mantra of, "Better than Unicron, better than Unicron," to himself as he transforms, pulls his knees to his chest, spins in the air and then, once his head is facing downward, straightens and transforms again, turning his speedy climb into a sudden dive.

As Fleetwind dives, he starts to pull up, so that by the time he's level with the mesa's top he's a good bit away from it. With a sharp aerial turn, he's once more flying back at it, his vector likely to take him directly over Hook's head. He skims low, altitude just above the top of the plateau, and his wing-mounted lasers begin blazing just as soon as he's passed over Hook. The idea? Move too fast for these things to get a proper bead on him, and blow them up in the process.

In all this, he does take time to report over the radio,

//Sir, all the information I have is that they hurt when they hit.//