Transformers: The Lost Light

[General Havoc]

You never had to tell Hornet twice to go flying. Particularly not when it came with an actual mission.

He didn't even wait for a salute or a yes sir before he turned, and at a full run, transformed in one leap and rocketed into the sky of the alien planet. His sensors immediately analyzed the atmosphere for pressure, composition, wind currents, and likely flight conditions, but most of that information was academic to Hornet. To feel the air over the skin of his wings, to feel the force of lift keeping him aloft, this was what paradise was like as far as Hornet was concerned. Despite the circumstances, he laughed out loud, turning several corkscrews in his exuberance as he circled for altitude.

Only belatedly did he remember that this was a serious mission, and quiet down. "Um... Hornet here!" he chirped into his radio. "I'm starting the search!" And turning into the first leg of his spiral pattern, he flipped on all of the various sensor systems that Wheeljack had installed in him if only to convince Ironhide he wasn't useless, Hornet began scanning for any signs of life at all.

[rhoenix]

You never had to tell Hornet twice to go flying. Particularly not when it came with an actual mission.

He didn't even wait for a salute or a yes sir before he turned, and at a full run, transformed in one leap and rocketed into the sky of the alien planet. His sensors immediately analyzed the atmosphere for pressure, composition, wind currents, and likely flight conditions, but most of that information was academic to Hornet. To feel the air over the skin of his wings, to feel the force of lift keeping him aloft, this was what paradise was like as far as Hornet was concerned. Despite the circumstances, he laughed out loud, turning several corkscrews in his exuberance as he circled for altitude.

Only belatedly did he remember that this was a serious mission, and quiet down. "Um... Hornet here!" he chirped into his radio. "I'm starting the search!" And turning into the first leg of his spiral pattern, he flipped on all of the various sensor systems that Wheeljack had installed in him if only to convince Ironhide he wasn't useless, Hornet began scanning for any signs of life at all.

Novawing's optics blinked once at the sight of Hornet not even bothering to acknowledge Breakout before racing out the hangar bay doors. He then mentally shrugged, and nodded once to Breakout. "On our way," he said before engaging his jets in his robot form to race out the hangar doors, transforming smoothly in midair immediately afterward.

His engines, powerful though they were, took him a few moments to catch up to the smaller flyer's exhuberance. "Hornet, I'm sharing noosphere data with you for all the survivors I tagged when the breach happened - let's use that to guide our search."

Doing so, he marked the closest survivor according to the noosphere data, and banked toward the hapless Cybertronian, his engines pushing faster. Tough though Cybertronians were, an unassisted atmopsheric landing could wreak havoc on even the toughest - he could speak from personal experience that it wasn't something he'd wish on someone else.

Well, it wasn't something he'd wish on someone he liked.

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike headed over to the annex to check on Tailpipe.

[Dark Silver]

As the group began their search, the alien world opened up to them. Of course,they had no idea WHICH alien world they had ended up on following the unintended jump - but so far it looked like a world that had been untouched by the 4 million year Great War.

THe ground was rocky and orange colored, giant crags jutting up, with only the occasional bit of sparse blue and purple vegetation to break up the orange and brown landscape. The sky overhead was a greenish blue color - cloudless on this particular day, and left visibility open for Novawing and Hornet for many kilometers, even if they didn't use their sensors.

Swerve, for his part, road to the rear of Breakdown, the smaller bots truck form easily handling the rougher terrain of the apparently untamed world.

It would look like a peaceful search - relatively speaking of course - when a laser bolt barely missed Hornet's nosecone.

The hulking blue alien machine which fired the blast stood ten kilometers from Pathfinger's scouting position, and it stood slowly, as it readjusted it's weapons and took a second shot at Novawing.



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


Tailgate laid on the diagnostics bed he had been set in, the cool purple glow of the Fuel grade nucleon line patched into him slowly recharging his systems on the drip Rachet had set. He shared the Annex with the still unconscious Cyclonus and the only slightly less unconscious Whirl. Oddly enough, none of the rest of the ships wounded managed to be placed in here - yet. Maybe they wouldn't, after all, Rachet and his few medics were working hard on patching up the worst.

When Deathstrike entered the room, Tailpipe looked to the door, expecting to see Patch or Clamp walk in, but not a Cybertronian who was shorter than himself.

"Who are you?" Tailgate asked, he did his best to sit up, but the fact he was still legless hampered that some.

[Cynical Cat]

"I'm Deathstrike," he replied. The Decepticon climbed up onto the diagnostic bed. "Ratchet sent me to check on you."

[LadyTevar]

"So much for uninhabited," Pathfinder quipped. "Breakout, shooter is 10 klick from my position. So far he's concentrating on the fliers. Moving to flank."

[rhoenix]

As the group began their search, the alien world opened up to them. Of course,they had no idea WHICH alien world they had ended up on following the unintended jump - but so far it looked like a world that had been untouched by the 4 million year Great War.

THe ground was rocky and orange colored, giant crags jutting up, with only the occasional bit of sparse blue and purple vegetation to break up the orange and brown landscape. The sky overhead was a greenish blue color - cloudless on this particular day, and left visibility open for Novawing and Hornet for many kilometers, even if they didn't use their sensors.

Swerve, for his part, road to the rear of Breakdown, the smaller bots truck form easily handling the rougher terrain of the apparently untamed world.

It would look like a peaceful search - relatively speaking of course - when a laser bolt barely missed Hornet's nosecone.

The hulking blue alien machine which fired the blast stood ten kilometers from Pathfinger's scouting position, and it stood slowly, as it readjusted it's weapons and took a second shot at Novawing.

The first shot had given Novawing reason to begin a full active scan of the area; the second shot gave him reason to go hunting. "Hornet, stay on my wing, and keep your optics peeled," Novawing cautioned the younger flier.

"Novawing to Breakout," he said as he rapidly calculated the shooter's location based on the shots fired, "we have incoming fire from unknown hostiles. Hornet and I are going to investigate," Novawing said over the comm. Next, he dropped altitude, preparing to dive into the shooter from above and to the side.

As he lined up for his dive, Novawing fired two shots from his railguns toward the shooter's location, planning to expose the shooter more. If the shooter gets spooked by the shots and runs, so much the better.

[General Havoc]

Hornet had been enjoying the simple act of flying, perhaps a bit too much, as the laser that nearly shot his nose off went unnoticed until it was already past him. He let out a frightened cry over the radio and bucked like a horse, winging over and diving in one swift motion, before any others could be directed his way. Unfortunately, he did not even pause to listen to Novawing's orders until he'd already acted, leaving him several thousand feet below the larger flier, and utterly incapable of forming up on his wing.

Leveling off and triggering his afterburners to accelerate further, Hornet tried to remember what Jetfire and the others had taught him, weaving back and forth semi-randomly to throw off any additional AAA. As Novawing dove and opened fire with some kind of railgun, Hornet switched on his powerful active search radar, and the sensor systems packed into his tiny frame. He left them on for only a split second, any longer would invite more fire to be thrown his way, but it was long enough, given what he was looking for.

"I see him!" he chirped over the radio, as the radar pulse came back with a definite target lock. "He's not far away! Coordinates 135.832!" His voice was pegged halfway between excitement and fear. "I... I can get a lock, I think." A hesitation. "... should I?"

Hornet wasn't averse to shooting back at those shooting at him, but he wasn't certain if firing a missile off at an unknown target was the sort of thing they should be getting up to, even now.

[rhoenix]

"I see him!" he chirped over the radio, as the radar pulse came back with a definite target lock. "He's not far away! Coordinates 135.832!" His voice was pegged halfway between excitement and fear. "I... I can get a lock, I think." A hesitation. "... should I?"

Hornet wasn't averse to shooting back at those shooting at him, but he wasn't certain if firing a missile off at an unknown target was the sort of thing they should be getting up to, even now.

"Fire off a couple shots Hornet, let's see if the shooter gets spooked," Novawing replied, even as he neared the shooter's location, slowing before transforming, the railguns mounted on his arms aimed toward the shooter's location.

A moment later, he gave his full attention to the shooter, still hidden for the moment. "Hey!" he shouted toward the shooter's location. "Want to explain why you're shooting at us?"

[General Havoc]

"Um... okay..." said Hornet uncertainly, trying to work out what Novawing meant. His lasers did not have a ten kilometer range by any stretch of the imagination, and he was fairly certain Novawing didn't mean for Hornet to fire one of his very limited missiles just to scare the target.

Still, he was not feeling tremendously charitable towards a bot that had just tried to vaporize him, and so turned towards the target, accelerating to Mach 3, or what would have been Mach 3 on Earth. Closing at a speed of one kilometer per second, Hornet flipped on his laser blasters and spun them up moments before squeezing off a short, half-second burst from both guns. Even at that, no fewer than fifty laser blasts shot from his wingtips at the massive target in such a cloud as to constitute a nearly solid state beam. An instant later, and Hornet banked violently away, swinging back and forth to evade any return fire.

Anything that large had to be well armored, and anything well armored would consider Hornet's laser cannons a minor nuisance at best. But hopefully it would get the idea across that Hornet did not appreciate being shot at.

[Dark Silver]

GM Note: I screwed up...Deathstrike should be checking on TailGATE, not Pipe. I'll go back and make edits as needed in the previous post.


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Legislators_MTMTE_HangersOn.jpg (118.03 KiB) Viewed 14456 times

(GM Note: The Machine your currently fighting is one of these.)


It barely flinched as the railgun rounds meters away from it. According to both Pathfinder's and Novawing's sensors, it was a purely robot being - much like a Cybertronian, but missing any identifiable Cybertronian materials. The rocky ground beneath it's feet deformed and allowed it to sink a few inches, as it took steps. While the near impacts of rail gun fire didn't much phase it, multiple tiny laser blasts scouring across it's armored carapace was noticeable.

It's left arm lifted, and another bolt of green plasma sliced through the air, missing the nimble flyer again.

As Novawing addressed it, the machine thing merely looked up, locking the hovering flyer in it's sensors, and issued a simple phrase, "Two Thousand Twelve."

Upon it's back, a large barreled laser cannon rose up, and belched purple plasma upwards at Novawing.


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

Tailgate looked at the smaller mech, "Deathstrike? That's a weird name for one of the Disposables. You're Rachet's Assistant?"

Not far from Tailgate's diagnostic bed, came a low chuckle, sounding half ragged "Deathstrike, a Disposable? HAH. He's one hard bastard to put down. Trust me, I tried."

Whirl was awake, sitting up in the diagnostic bed, his single yellow optic locked on Deathstrike from what was left of his head.

[frigidmagi]

Rust.

"Rodimus, Ultra Magnus unknown hostiles have engaged us. Coordinates to follow. I am moving to counter." I send a report and close the connection. I open a connection to my team.

"Hornet, Novawing, break off and circle to their rear, everyone else, break right and engage, do not close range. I repeat do not close! Medium to long range only!" I order as I open fire. I launch a pair of missiles at the lead hostile and turn violently to the right, firing bursts from my turret.

[rhoenix]

Rust.

"Rodimus, Ultra Magnus unknown hostiles have engaged us. Coordinates to follow. I am moving to counter." I send a report and close the connection. I open a connection to my team.

"Hornet, Novawing, break off and circle to their rear, everyone else, break right and engage, do not close range. I repeat do not close! Medium to long range only!" I order as I open fire. I launch a pair of missiles at the lead hostile and turn violently to the right, firing bursts from my turret.

Novawing was just getting ready to perform a textbook aerial assault when he received Breakout's message. He transformed again, his vernier thrusters maneuvering him rapidly before his engines lit to nearly full power from a full stop, launching him into proper atmosphere, and leaving behind a sonic boom in his wake.

Curving around in the air, he lined himself up for a good medium-range attack run, and broke into his attack salvo.

[LadyTevar]

"Acknowledged, Breakout," Pathfinder replied, breaking right and keeping formation. The target, while non-Cybertronian, had enough awareness to reply to questions, even if the answer was non-sensical. Pathfinder's turret rotated and fired, shooting on the run had become second-nature. When you spend a lot of time running from 'Cons who could slag you if they caught up, you learn not only to shoot & scoot, but to have decent accuracy over rough terrain.

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike climbed up the bed and began checking the lines and leads in Tailgate's lower torso and what was left of his legs. "The Autobots transferred me into this body after they took me prisoner. They have not seen fit to transfer me back or to a comparable body. That decision has probably killed two but more likely four or six Autobots that made reentry the hard way without me being able to save them."

He stopped. "I'm going to need different tools." Which meant jumping off the slab, walking back to Ratchet's med bay, finding them, coming back and climbing back up the slab. "I hate being short. I'll be back in a minute or two."

[Dark Silver]

Novawing's attack run went without a hitch - the bipedal machine rocked as the flier's rounds blew apart rock, then struck the impressively thick armor. The armor deformed and bent, but otherwise stayed unholed - until a round blasted through the right shoulder joint. The arm blew away and disintegrated - taking a third of the Legislator's weaponry with it.

Oddly quiet until now, Swerve finally spoke up, "Oh slag...Breakout! It's a Legislator!" While it might not mean much to some Cybertronians, Swerve - and he had little doubt Breakout as well - had run ins with High Justice Tyrest and the Galactic Council. The self named Tyrest Accords were, in fact, a deeply set part of the Autobot Code - though many Autobots did not pay more than lip-service to the Code or the Accords when caught in the War.

Still, Swerve was pretty sure Breakout not only knew the Code, but had run-ins with the mechanical enforcers of the Tyrest Accord.

Still, the shout was lost as Breakout's missiles caught the Legislator in the chestplate, and exploded, sending the yellowish-orange Enforcer backwards, it's armor cracked and in many places over it's torso, outright missing.


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

Whirl rose from med-slab, his damaged frame still movable - even with half of his armor belt missing from the explosion caused by Tailgate, and he only guessed at where he was. On a ship - and Cyclonus was in the room with him. The Autobot Helicoptor bent over, looking at the small grey Cybertronian missing it's legs, and made a grunt like sound, before turning towards Cyclonus "Gotta take care of some unfinished business...."

The pincer grips of his hand gripped a laser scalpel on the tool tray next to his own bed, and stalked towards the unconcious purple warrior.

"Wait..what are you doing?!" Tailgate blinked and reached a hand out, "I don't think you're suppossed to even be out of bed." It dawned on him a moment later as Whirl activated the laser scalpel and raised it, "Someone, HELP!"


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


"Understood," Ultra Magnus responded to Breakout's transmission, "I'll dispatch reinforcements."

Ultra Magnus was currently with Rodimus, in their own vehicle modes, heading towards a different sector to salvage their shipmates wreckage. He and Rodimus would not make it in time to assist, but he knew of one Cybertronian who could - and he was free.

"Outrunner, this is Ultra Magnus. Your assistance is needed with Breakout's team. Precise co-ordinates to follow, but they were assigned to quadrant 35-2 Bravo."

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike hadn't gotten very far, courtesy of his short and weak legs, when he heard Tailgate's cry. He spun and sprinted back, arriving in time to see Whirl standing over Cyclonus's body with scalpel in his manipulators. Whirl didn't have the hands or the inclination for medical work. Four million years pass and some things don't change.

"Still in the business of murdering the helpless Whirl?" Deathstrike asked, his voice dripping sarcasm. "Surely it's a moment to make Optimus Prime proud."

[SirNitram]

"Wait, are they under attack? I don't do attack, my weapons face the wrong.." A pause as Outrunner's brain caught up. Hornet was with them. Without waiting to object further, he dropped into vehicle mode and burst out of the ship, accelerating across the world towards the grid square. "No one is hurting my best friend. No one." He spoke with fervor that no bot alive had ever seen in the coward. Heavily employing drifting to compensate for his improper tires, Outrunner blitzed towards the attack site. "Hornet! Are you okay? WHat's attacking?"

[frigidmagi]

Novawing's attack run went without a hitch - the bipedal machine rocked as the flier's rounds blew apart rock, then struck the impressively thick armor. The armor deformed and bent, but otherwise stayed unholed - until a round blasted through the right shoulder joint. The arm blew away and disintegrated - taking a third of the Legislator's weaponry with it.

Oddly quiet until now, Swerve finally spoke up, "Oh slag...Breakout! It's a Legislator!" While it might not mean much to some Cybertronians, Swerve - and he had little doubt Breakout as well - had run ins with High Justice Tyrest and the Galactic Council. The self named Tyrest Accords were, in fact, a deeply set part of the Autobot Code - though many Autobots did not pay more than lip-service to the Code or the Accords when caught in the War.

Still, Swerve was pretty sure Breakout not only knew the Code, but had run-ins with the mechanical enforcers of the Tyrest Accord.

Still, the shout was lost as Breakout's missiles caught the Legislator in the chestplate, and exploded, sending the yellowish-orange Enforcer backwards, it's armor cracked and in many places over it's torso, outright missing.

"They fired on us without warning or identifying themselves Swerve, makes them viable targets. We're figure out what's wrong with them later. Right now, fry the sparkless malfunctions! I'm closing to medium range, maintain fire and separation. DO NOT BUNCH UP OR CLOSE! Hornet, Novawing continue hitting 'em" I veer closer, zig zagging randomly and firing with my pulse cannon. My secondary processor gives a slight sound when the missiles have reloaded and locked on on the Legislator still standing. I fire.

[General Havoc]

Hornet wasn't entirely sure what to do to be perfectly honest, he'd put on the afterburners and zigzagged in three dimensions away from the massive, armored robot. His lasers were highly unlikely to be of much use here, and he had only very limited munitions otherwise. Was he supposed to use them?

A call from Outrunner came in all of a sudden, a personal transmission, not the orders everyone else was issuing. Hornet banked hard, moving through a small forest of dry buttes and weathered mountains as he came about behind the massive armored target.

"I'm... I'm okay!" he chirped into his radio, bouncing the signal directly back to Outrunner. "There's some kinda big... thing out here and it started shooting at us! Somebody said they were called um... 'legislators'?" The term meant strictly nothing to Hornet, but it evidently meant something to everyone else. "I don't really know what those are..."

He came out from behind the mountain and found himself in exactly the position he was supposed to be in, a long run up towards the legislator's hopefully less-armored back.

"Hold on, Outrunner," said Hornet, in a tone of voice that was perfectly normal, "I gotta launch a missile."

His airspeed accelerated to past local Mach as he closed on his target, mentally shifting his radio over to the broad channel and belatedly remembering how the milspeak was supposed to go.

"This is Hornet," he said, as he primed the launch sequence for one of his four dual-purpose ATG/ATA missiles, "Rifleshot, Fox 3!"

A milisecond later, one of Hornet's four missiles screamed off of his wing at Mach 5, streaking towards the target.

[LadyTevar]

"Legislator? What in Prime is a Legislator?" Pathfinder asked, as he slewed around a clump of native flora to line up a second volley on the giant robot. BreakOut's reply (given as an order) told him all he needed to know. "Sparkless malfunctionals. Gotcha." As soon as Pathfinder had a good line of sight, he again fired his cannon on the run. There was going to be a lot of incoming ordinance from the other 'Bots, so Pathfinder made sure to keep his shot on-target. Friendly Fire Isn't.

[Dark Silver]

The Autobot weapons impacted the Legislator - it's armor already severely damaged, vital internal components visible and vulnerable to weapons fire, the Cybertronian Machine short circuited, doubled over on itself, and exploded outward as internal power conduits ruptured catastrophically.

Within a few moments, it was all over, the head landing only a few meters ahead of Pathfinder.

Swerve skidded to a halt, transforming to his robot mode, and blinking several times as he looked at the smoking crater that was the orangy-bronzed robots resting place.

"What the hell was THAT?" he wondered a loud - Legislatures were for all intents and purposes knock off Guardian Droids utilized by Chief Justice Tyrest.....or last utilized several hundred years ago. No one had really seen them in Vorns and Vorns - unless they had not been decomissioned properly.

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

Whirl stopped a mere moment from plunging the laser scapel into Cyclonus' unconcious chest, and spun when Deathstrike spoke.

"You! Deathstrike the Mini. Hehehe. I'll get to you in a bit half-stack. Got unfinished business with the 'Con here." Whirl's ruined faceplate turned away from Deathstrike, focusing back on the unconcious purple Cybertronian on the medibed, "Now where do I break open first?" he mused out loud.

[Cynical Cat]

There was nothing Deathstrike could physically do to stop Whirl, but he was still armed with contempt, hate, and an extensive data files containing terms of abuse. "He's not a 'con, but he is helpless, so I guess that makes him exactly the kind of victim you're capable of taking on. Beating helpless prisoners to death while they lie shackled in cells was kind of the high point of your fighting career, but you screwed that up too you sparkless piece of scrap. You're walking proof that what the Autobots really are is a new paint job on old Functionalist thugs."

[frigidmagi]

"What the hell was THAT?" he wondered a loud - Legislatures were for all intents and purposes knock off Guardian Droids utilized by Chief Justice Tyrest.....or last utilized several hundred years ago. No one had really seen them in Vorns and Vorns - unless they had not been decomissioned properly.

"Good questions. We'll have to worry about it later, we got Bots in need of rescue and they come first. Everyone back to the search! Fliers back to spirals, everyone else back in formation, keep your sensors peeled though, there may be more of these... Things. I'll call it in." Breakout said, pulling away from the combat.

"Rodimus, Ultra Magnus, Breakout reporting. Both hostiles have been rendered inert. Be advised at this time they seem malfunctioning Legislators or legislator-like things... I'm continuing the search will keep an optic peeled. Over." Breakout reported over radio.

[SirNitram]

"I think they're some kind of Guardian knockoff, used to enforce the Tyrest treaties?" Outrunner had run from every legitimate government in the stars, so some idea. He used a handbreak turn to park next to the head. "Did it say anything? Like 'Stop, you're in a restricted zone, I'll shoot?'"