“You are in no position for demands here.” Zepar said, “Your best option is surrender, total and without question.”
His claws glow as his readies to raise two Terrorcons to prove his point.
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Starchaser looked at the warlord with cold dispassionate optics. She pulled out her anti-material rifle, and took aim at his head. It would be so easy, for the team’s sake, for her sake, just to end it now. But he did make a solid argument.
“Alright. Congratulations. You gave us a reason. I’ll see to it myself that you make it out of here alive.”
She quickly aimed her rifle down and shot at Bludgeon’s foot.
“I’ll even help you walk.”
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Bludgeon yelps as he is shot, and writhes in agony.
“I will repay you for that,” he hisses, glaring at Starchaser.
“But later. Your captain may be right: this universe has a most wicked sense of humor.”
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Spectrum continues working on Bludgeon until the majority of his injuries were patched up and no longer leaking energon.
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Zepar watched Bludgeon very closely.
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She stoed her rifle and extended a hand to help him up.
“Maybe. But I just had to make sure you wouldn’t just run off the first chance you had.”
She then cracked a sadistic smile.
“And I’m gonna be honest, that felt really good.”
Broadwing and Pipebomb both watched, growing concerned with their friend’s sudden change in disposition.
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With Spectrum’s help, Bludgeon is able to stand again.
He ignores Starchaser’s offered hand and lifts himself to his feet. He picks up his greatsword and sheathes it, and then walks over to the gateway seal with his key in hand. Topside grabs the other key off the second pedestal, and joins Bludgeon by the keyholes. The two regard each other with barely-restrained hatred. Bludgeon would destroy all who stood against him, while Topside desired vengeance for the lives the Decepticon had already taken. But fate denied them both their desires, and for the good of Cybertron, they share a nod and insert both keys into the seal at the same time.
Yellow and blue lights run through the complex filigree in the seal, as it caves inward and breaks apart. Behind its warding, a glowing red portal activates. Topside turns back to Bludgeon, to see the warlord dissolving into a tangle of holographic strings. He was but another illusion after all.
Spectrum waved at the illusion of Bludgeon cheerfully, before skipping up to Topside and grinning up at him.
The Splitter brothers followed cautiously, Vigor growling as Bludgeon disappeared.
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Zepar relaxes, glad that it didn’t come to blows and extinguished the flames around himself.
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“Primus d@mmit.”
Starchaser grumbled to herself.
Pipebomb walked up to her, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Hey… Normally I’d totally be throwing you an I told you so, but I’m a little worried. What the hell was all that?”
Broadwing remained quiet, but looked even more concerned than Pipebomb.
Starchaser sighed.
“I guess I kinda got lost in my own head for a bit. The decepticons started out with a good cause. It was a rights movement. A push for equal rights. Only for Megatron to twist it into an excuse for slaughter. Then Bludgeon comes and and takes an already twisted philosophy, and mutilated it beyond recognition. It’s slag like this that pushed me to renouncing decepticonism.”
She then perked up a little bit.
“Granted, I definitely joined them for the murder party. But I’ve gotten better since then.”
Broadwing looked at her with a trusting and understand expression. He smiled.
“I doubt you were that bad. Given all the good you’ve done for us, I can’t believe you’d be so vicious.”
“Oh no. I used to be a psychopath back in the war.”
She said bluntly.
"When you’re born in the middle of a savage war like that, you either have to hide, or you have to fight. So I fought, and I liked it. Autobots didn’t like the way I fought, the decepticons loved it. So I went with them.
“Rank, reputation, kill count, it meant everything to me. It was the only thing that mattered. Talking to Bludgeon like that, it was almost like slipping into old habits. But then the cease fire happened, and for the first time ever I had some time to calm down and think. And… I don’t want to say I regret what I did. I was still in a war. We all had to kill. But I wanted some change. So that’s why I joined Salvation. I needed something to do, and I wanted to do some good.”
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Without a word, Topside walks through the portal, to whatever challenge lay beyond.
Starchaser shook herself a bit. As if throwing off something that covered her.
“Well that’s enough emotional baggage for one quest. Let’s get a move on!”
She exclaimed eagerly.
With that she walked into the portal, and her two friends followed.
“So am I the only one around here without a dark backstory or what?”
Pipebomb said as he went through.
Epsilon and the Angelicons go through as well.
Our heroes emerge from the portal onto a frigid wasteland: a valley between opposing stretches of snow-capped mountains in the midst of a raging blizzard. The snowfall obscured our heroes’ vision, all but shrouding the scene in a near-total whiteout.
This trial’s objective presented itself as a fortress of stone atop a rocky bluff, built into the base of one of the mountains. Two towers rose on either side of an entryway into the peak. Between them, a tattered black banner bearing Megatronus’s emblem flapped in the wind.
Fires were lit in braziers and cressets along the fortress, and in the flickering light a squad of New Decepticon soldiers took up position and readied their weapons. Two snipers took cover at the top of the towers, while six ground troopers beneath them looked down their sights and started shooting at our heroes. Two heavy ground troopers lumbered behind them in robot mode, and a bulky New Decepticon transformed into a bomber and took flight.
“Think we’re supposed to make nice with these guys too?” Topside quips as he dodges a volley of hard light bolts.
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“Pipebomb cover me!”
Starchaser commanded as she dropped to one knee and took out her anti-material rifle. She began firing at one of the snipers. Pipsbomb started firing his grenade launcher at the gun soldiers at the front. He wanted to focus on the heavies behind them, but they weren’t close enough yet.
Meanwhile Broadwing took flight and ascended to the sniper tower Starchaser wasn’t firing at. The blizzard winds made maneuvering difficult, but he wouldn’t be deterred. He swooped down over the tower, and attempted to skewer the sniper on his bladed tail, lifting them up with him if successful.
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“Only use force as needed.” Garand says as Zepar takes off, his shield active and blocking shots, "Move!’ He calls out to the others.
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“It’s looking pretty necessary right now!” Topside calls back as he limbers his rifle. “Weapons free, team!”
The captain charges through the snow behind Zepar, firing a burst from his weapon that causes one of the ground troopers to stop shooting and duck behind a stone pillar for cover.
One of the Heavy Troopers deploys a Scrapmaker minigun and belches lead rounds up at Zepar. From the sky, Zepar could see three more New Decepticon troops within the fortress: two mercenaries and a Siege Walker mech in its vehicle mode.
The shot punches a small hole through the stone fixture the sniper was hiding behind, but the New Decepticon is unharmed. He peaks around it and shoots back at Starchaser.
The ground troopers stop firing as they all take cover, surviving the bombardment as the grenades go off. The New Decepticon bomber screams overhead, and drops a payload of explosive charges into the midst of our heroes, detonating as they hit the snow.
The sniper jumps out from behind his cover and draws his sidearm, and shoots a bolt of energon at Broadwing.
Starchaser rolls to the side and dodges the shot. She quickly takes aim again and fires off three more rounds.
Pipebomb transformed and drove backwards, avoiding the bombs.
“Starchaser! How quick can you get me to that bomber?”
The junkion asked.
Starchaser looked up and did some quick mental calculations.
“Pretty quick! You sure you want up there?”
“Absolutely! With all this snow, I’ll be able to survive a fall if worst comes to worst.”
“If you say so!”
Starchaser transformed into her dragon mode and came barreling down towards Pipebomb with extreme speed.
“Hold on. What are you-”
Pipebomb tried to say, but once again was unable to finish speaking before his friend took action. Starchaser raced past pipebomb, and twisted the rear of her body so that she could grab on to the junkion. Then turning around and using her serpentine body like a whip, she hurled Pipebomb up at the bomber.
“I really shouldn’t be surprised at this point.”
He lamented as he raced skyward. He came up just over the bomber, and then down, landing on top. He grabbed on to something to keep from being thrown off, realizing the situation he had put himself in.
“I did not think this through…”
The round went through one his wings, and he let out a bestial shriek of pain. The hole wasn’t enough to hamper his flight, but it hurt like hell.
He turned around and directly divebombed the sniper, putting his tail forward.
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Garand tries to knock out the ground beneath the three others while Epsilon goes into tank mode and fires at the ground troops.
The sniper ducks behind his cover again, but not before one of Starchaser’s shots grazes his rifle- it’s targeting systems are destroyed. The sniper transforms into its vehicle mode, a hovering attack aircraft, and flies out of the tower. He launches at missile at Starchaser’s position.
The New Decepticon bomber drops into a nosedive, plummeting towards the snowy earth.
Garand’s attack draws the attention of the Siege Walker; its plasma cannons target the angelicon and open fire. The two mercenaries take cover behind the mech.
One of the ground troopers is blown out of her cover and killed. Two others turn their attention to Epsilon; one shoots at him, while another chucks a grenade at the scout.
Broadwing skewers the sniper on the end of his tail; the New Decepticon drops his pistol and cries out.