Fireblade: Hellbender's Breakthrough

[Hellbender]

Hellbender drilled through the rock, stopping now and then to allow his cutting heads to cool. The sedimentary rock beneath the river plain was easier going than the volcanic rock of the highlands, but it was still rock. His inertial locater told him that he was somewhere in the area of his target; time to surface and take his bearings.

To his surprise, he quickly broke through into compacted soil--the river sediments ran deep here. Hellbender tore through the ancient mud like one of Wreckage's swords through a Micromaster, sucking down the long-buried sediments and spewing them out his vents as he tunneled through the muck. It tasted foul; none of it was useful ores, so his sensors registered it as something undesirable. It was part of the job to be endured, like having no wings and boring his way through the earth was to be endured.

There was a hiccup and his cutter heads howled as Hellbender broke through into open space. Large, tubular void, his sonar told him--an aqueduct or storm sewer. He shut down the boring heads and crawled into the aqueduct; after a moment's listening, Hellbender picked a direction and slithered along the giant pipe. He just fit into it with his boring heads in their closed position.

Rodimus Prime's misdirecting signs meant nothing to Hellbender; he couldn't see them. He followed his sonar and his audials and Mirage-3's map of the sewer system. It's possible he tripped a few early warning sensors; no matter, his presence would soon be extremely obvious.

Above him, the noises grew louder and louder until he halted; in the dead city, the sound of vehicles and footsteps moving to and fro stood out, abnormal signs of life. Hellbender deployed his cutting heads and began to carve his way upward.

His cutters howled again as he broke through the floor of a building near the Autobase; he pulled back and plunged upward again, widening the hole until it was large enough for him and the others.

// Ah'm through, Commanders, // Hellbender radioed to Sky-byte and Starscream.

"CLEAR! Get your afts moving, ya bums!" Hellbender told the troops clustered in his wake. "Go, go, GO!"

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Any Decepticons that want to follow Hellbender's route into the ground attack instead of being in the air attack, join in this thread!

[Demolishor]

"Finally!" Demolishor was been tired of staring at Hellbender's back end and getting muck thrown in his turrets every time he got impatient and came a little too close to him. There were definitely better-looking and better behaved back ends he could have spent his time staring at if they hadn't come up with this weird tunnel plan. Now he could actually let out all his pent-up frustration on unsuspecting Autobots (and duck behind Hellbender if they got outnumbered again).

There was a loud but futile grinding noise as Demolishor in tank mode attempted to crawl up the hole made by Hellbender. Finally, he growled and transformed, half-crawling upwards with his crude hands scrabbling at the earth. One arm popped up out of the hole, fingers straightened and aimed, before he kicked off the last pile of scree and flopped over the edge onto solid ground.

[Runamuck]

If being behind the muck-throwing worm wasn't bad enough, being stuck behind the slow-crawling tank wasn't any better. Yeah, it made sense to get the guys who could give better cover fire out first. No, Runamuck doesn't care. He's only up front for others to follow his headlights anyway.

Then daylight breaks up ahead and the mud stops flying. With a loud woop of anticipated crushing of red frowny faces, Runamuck charges, scrambling up the tunnel (and literally climbing over Demolishor if the tank doesn't move quickly enough) and jumping into the open city. Even as he lands, he draws his friction rifle. A few graphic examples oughta help get the festivities started.

[Long Range]

Long range had been practically crawling along on his hands and knees behind the convoy that Hellbender was leading. He cursed having to move on his hands and knees in a dark tuneel, but the only other choice would have been to walk all the way to the Auto base, and for him it would have taken way too long.

Finally coming to the tunnel exit, he hauled himself out with great effort, the strain audible as he tried to keep a firm grip. Eventually he pulled his bulk out of the ground.

"I'm going to start setting up to shell the Auto base. If they do find us, try to keep off me?" he said to everyone in general.

[Rattrap]

The great thing about being his size and shape around a bunch of big robots that turn into cars is Rattrap doesn't really get much in the way of long range patrols anymore. The other great thing is when he does have a patrol, it's all in-city. He's a city kinda guy, so this works out fine and dandy. Even if the place is a little on the dead side. It's still got an atmosphere to it. It's still a city, it's still got the buildings looming to either side, still got the alleys and the gutters, the back-corner bars (he's found one or two, hasn't worked up the bearings to sample the fare left behind by the natives, even just to see if he can).

He can deal with the empty part. More quiet for concentration on what trap-laying he's managed to get done; explosives are explosives regardless of size, and he's tried to whip up some more potent charges – bigger, badder, buffer bots than the average Predacon to blow up – but testing has been… well, a little hard to pull off.

He's on his way back from one last check – he didn't get this good with demo work by doing anything halfway and slacking on the little things – and marking locations one more time for the sake of thoroughness when he hears… something. A rumble. Sounds like heavy machinery. That ain't right at all; or is there some glitching equipment running rampant around here? Rattrap pauses near a street corner and peers carefully around the corner of the building.

Street's empty both ways. He can still hear that noise, though. He tilts his ears this way and that, trying to pin down the direction it's coming from. He sniffs the air; his whiskers twitch and he chitters suspiciously.

"I got a bad feelin' about dis…." This is gonna be like that time on Ramlaw II with the ferrivorous earthworms, isn't it?

Maybe not. They didn't sound like jackhammers on high-octane fuel. Rattrap ducks and scrambles purely out of reflex when that mechanical howl splits the air and doesn't look out, eyes wide as they'll ever get, until it stops. Nothing in sight. What the slag is going on here?

Oracle's shout on broadband gives him warning; Makeshift's gives him an idea; the racket in that building across the street gives it away. Sure sounds like company alright. Rattrap makes his way over on tenterhooks, steps padded by his squishy little rat feet, and fits himself to the side of the building before creeping to a low-set window and peeking around the frame just enough for a sidelong look. Oh, man… the Autobots have got some ugly roaches in the basement.

[Sable Conolly]

OOC: Toting of Eye-Fire done with permission.

---

A gloss black tanker truck rumbles through the tunnels, his headlights on, muddier than he would like to be. He's driven for days with no company but the voices on the radio and the sniper rifle in his cabin. Do forgive Scourge if he wishes to kill someone more so than usual today.

His headlights shut down at the sight of daylight. There is a light at the end of this tunnel, it seems. Scourge hungers for action. He has grown restless in his downtime. The Sword of Fury keens to be wetted with the energon of his foes, and he will see it fed.

However, first, he does have an agreement with Eye-Fire.

Scourge does not climb out of the tunnel. With a cry of, "Scourge, transform!" He leaps out of the tunnel and lands neatly on his feet, surveying the area with a baleful stare from behind the stolen face of one of the finest Autobots ever to live. He reaches back, pops open one of his cab doors, nabs the rifle, and pops the door shut again. Scourge gets a proper grip on the rifle and stands in a half-turned stance, looking for the greatest threat of the target of most value.

[Grimlock]

With the call to arms, Grimlock was out as fast as he could get going in the air, when he spotted the building in question.

Time for a Traditional Grimlock-Style Entrance™! Grimlock draws his sword, accelerating for the building, and turning himself around feet-first for his impact. Rubble comes crashing down with him after he breaks through, clattering through the levels until he hits the bottom, landing in a big, dusty mess some distance away from the hole. In the darkness, his optic-band glows blue, and his sword red as he charges for the nearest Decepticon with his sword held overhead.

[Eye-fire]

Eye-Fire would kill to be able to transform and stretch out when Scourge hauls him out of his cabin. He'll still probably get to slag something, so he isn't too put out.

He doesn't want to say anything, even transmit over the broadband or local frequencies in case one of the Autobots can intercept such a communique and work out that he's slightly more than just a gun. It'd be embarrassing to go to all this trouble and then just be found out because he couldn't keep quiet.

... And then something big comes crashing through the roof. From what he can see through the dust, it looks like Grimlock. He hopes Hellbender eats him or something before some one gets a sword in their lasercore.

[Dead End]

Dead End waited stolidly for the rest of the crowd to get out of the way. Surprisingly, Hellbender's tunnel had not collapsed and entombed them on the way here, nor had the giant mining worm bored into the river and flooded them in water and silt. Now all that remained was for the Autobots to collapse the sewers on them.

His beautiful red paint was sadly marred by mud and earth dripped over him or splashed by churning tires, putting Dead End in a rather surly mood. Not only were they going to be obliterated by the likes of Omega Supreme, he was going to be obliterated while covered with mud.

Scourge, far ahead, climbed out of the breach, leaving room for Dead End and those who still followed behind. Dead End transformed and jumped quickly out of the tunnel--

Just in time to see Grimlock crashing through the roof.

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OOC: But he snuck out of the thread anyway

[Wheelie]

Deeper within the sewers, one of the smallest Autobots is on a mission. He's crept carefully, occasionally pausing to listen to the sounds above, and always prepared to stick it to them when necessary. Sadly, no such time comes.

It is a shame. Wheelie feels a strong need to hurt the Decepticons, Starscream and Spinister especially. They tricked him, lied to him, tried to turn him into something he wasn't. He could not allow that to go unpunished.

For now, however, he'll settle for throwing the switch for the mechanism he helped set up, flooding the sewers. Soon enough, it would seep upward into the other tunnels too.

Now he had to get out of here and back into the fray.


((Wheelie is heading back out)

[Barricade]

The rumble and roar of water rushing to fill the void of the sewers starts softly, and then grows swiftly as Barricade barrels along Hellbender's tunnel and into the swers and subways under the Autobot's city. He isn't certain what the sound herals, other than trouble.

// Time to head topside, // he transmits to Frenzy, long habit forged in battle urging him to radio rather than speak. // I want to play. Unfinished business. //

Unlike some Decepticons, Barricade hardly notices, and care about it even less than that, the mud from the tunnel clinging to his chassis as he bursts onto the surface, already scanning for a particular rusted out yellow form.

[Hellbender]

Hellbender rumbled and swung his head about. Himself and Big Scourge vs. Grimlock? Guaranteed to bring down the building and half the rest of the block. Big Scourge looked tough enough to take it, but some of the smaller guys...

Better if they had some warning.

// This building is unstable, y'all. Watch your heads and haul your afts, it's coming down NOW! //

He gave them fifteen seconds, then woke the cutters; metal wailed as Hellbender swung his head into the nearest major support between himself and Grimlock--

One support wasn't enough, though the ceiling groaned and debris showered down. Hellbender wasn't stopping, though; his blue-black forebody slammed into the outer frame and crashed through the wall as he dug into the foundation. One corner of the building began to sag, an inevitability in slow-motion collapse--

The great mining worm had business elsewhere; as he drove downward on the unused side of the double-wide ramp, a flick of his tail lashed out and smashed out the supports of the other adjacent corner--

Slow-motion collapse transformed into an avalanche of cermacrete and black metal; the building fell, debris bouncing harmlessly off Hellbender's armored shell as his arched body protected the ramp from filling up with debris.

Plunging back into the sewers--his target was over by the zoo--Hellbender hesitated as something teased his seismic sensors. He went forward, trying to sort out the sensations tickling his belly from the dying rumbles of the collapsing building.

Subsonic rumbling. Pressure changes. Something misting up his ground-penetrating radar....

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OOC summary: Cons in the area have 15 seconds to clear the building the tunnel came up in before the building falls (possibly on Grimlock). Hellbender keeps the ramp from being blocked by debris, so late-comers can still climb out, there's just no building overhead and a lot of rubble all around. Hellbender is back down in the sewers and is sensing the forerunners of the flood.

[Hook]

Hook reaches the surface...

Just as the building collapses. Hmm. Hopefully the other Decepticons were smart enough to get out of that. It was unlikely that most of them had Bonecrusher-grade armor.

... Perhaps he should room with Dead End a little less.

Hook rises slightly, touches down very briefly on Hellbender before the giant worm dives underground, and scans the area. Through the cloud of dust, he can make out Autobase. Visor-light goes up a level as he increases focus and crunches numbers and probabilities. How had they liked to build things in the Golden Age again...?

//Good work, Hellbender. Long Range, knock a few holes in the walls, then concentrate on knocking out load-bearing supports at the rear. If someone spots Autobot Medical, inform me immediately!//

He sets himself down on the rubble and consults the map in his head of this area. //Wildrider, Dead End, stay with me. Engineering Scourge, I trust you're prepared for your part in all of this? Excellent.//

Assuming the Stunticons do indeed stay with him, Hook transforms to crane-mode and rolls down the street towards the power-receiving station. Mind you, he lets the Stunticons go first.

---

Hook is off to a new thread. Yay, Hook. Hopefully with Stunticons and Little Scourge. Yay, Stunticons and Little Scourge!

[Wildrider]

Typical for Wildrider, you hear him before you see him. This is only made moreso by the acoustics of the tunnel, turning the rumble of his powerful Ferrari engine into the roar of some enraged subterranean beast. One that's drawing closer at alarming speeds.

Of course, all romanticism of his entrance is ruined the moment he launches himself out of the tunnel.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHAAAAA HAAA HAAAAAH!!"

Heralded by a hail of building materials, Wildrider hurtles through a wall of the already-crumbling building, landing outside near Hook. Not wasting a beat, he follows Hook.

"Right behind ya, Hook! Let's tear this place apart! YEAH!!"

[Mixmaster]

Mixmaster had slipped out directly behind the hyperactive Stunticon, dodging fallen debris with a delighted cackle as he transformed and followed Hook.

"Let the games begin-begin-BEGIN!"

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Following Hook