Stonefist nodded, considering his offer. “Maybe, once we’ve got this job finished. Aralysa wanted to take me back to Hecate, but I’m sure she’ll be interested in someplace new–”
But just then, the Prime’s voice sounded over the intercom, and she didn’t sound very happy.
“What’s that?” Stonefist replied automatically, but Low-Tide responded.
“A fight? Well, it seems time I get going.” the rocky bot mused. Then he took off.
“Nice meeting you!” He called to the Eukarian as he rushed for the bridge, his heavy feet
plodding across the floors. Meanwhile, someone already on the bridge was getting ready for combat.
“That definitely doesn’t sound good.” Aralysa remarked as she monitored the other ships’ approach. Kitai had smashed his way onto the Pulsar’s hull, but the Hecatan was less willing to meet this new threat head-on. Still, she checked her lasers and activated her energy saber, ready for anything that might come their way.
Nobody in the cargo bay seems to have taken notice of Stopgap yet, hidden as he was. But the other people in the chamber appear to be getting ready for another battle following the announcement over the intercom.
Overgrowth draws her longsword from her hip and shouts a short battle cry in Ancient Cybertronian. Those who know the language would understand that she’s praying for Primus to show mercy upon the souls of our heroes’ latest enemies.
“Give 'em Hell, as the humans say!” Beta Maxx exclaims from atop an energon tank, raising his fist.
“Doors, people! Use the frakkin’ doors!” Salvage continues to rave. “I’m trying to fly the gorram ship here!”
The exterior cameras give Stonefist, Aralysa, Axis and Maximus, and anyone else on the bridge a view of the fight as it continues to unfold. Kitai charges at the human mech, while the Junkion ship shoots a laser at it’s back. Perhaps the pilot of that vehicle is an ally…
The laser strikes the human mech in the back, searing through a patch of its olive-colored hull. It staggers forward, its magnetic boots keeping it upright. It’s upper body twists, the pilot looking up at LD-L1’s ship through a dome-shaped cockpit. Blinking red warnings and damage indicators are reflected in the glass, before Kitai’s terrifying war-cry is carried through the wind whipping over the Pulsar’s hull. The mech turns back around and limbers its weapon: a huge nine-barreled rotary gun. The weapon roars like some fearsome nebulon super-predator as it sends a hailstorm of lead at Kitai.
Above the mech, the dropship’s troop bay doors swing open, revealing an armored human crouched behind a heavy machine gun mounted from the ceiling. The gunner opens fire on LD-L1’s ship, aiming right for the cockpit, while from either side of him, twenty armed humans pile out of the dimly-lit interior. Thruster packs in their suits cushion their descents as they too land atop the hull, securing themselves using magnetic boots.
The skimmer’s controls respond promptly to Ivory’s input, and the ship surges to life. The entire frame seems to come alive with the engine’s power.
As soon as Stonefist made it to the bridge, he announced to the others present:
“I’m heading out.” The second the stone-armored robot finished saying this, he headed out the nearest exit to join Kitai in meeting their new attackers head-on. Aralysa noticed the gray-armored warrior come onto the bridge, but was too late to warn him to wait before he ran out the door. She sighed.
“Always rushing into a fight, that one.”
Nova and Niko make their way to the rear entrance. Without a second thought Nova jumped out into the open air. Using Gungnir’s main thrusters she lifted up and landed on top of the ship, while Gungnir’s feet magnetized to the hull to help keep it stable.
Niko meanwhile nervously peered over the edge, looking out through Ferrex’s eyes.
“I don’t think Ferrex can exactly move like that. I’ll wait here in case they try to come inside.”
“Fine by me.”
Nova replied.
“I can’t let you go out there. Not while you’re still so hurt.”
Maximus urged.
“And what am I supposed to do? Sit here sitting on my hands while my subjects do all the fighting for me?”
Axis shot back, sounding quite upset.
“Yes! As the Prime it’s most important that you stay safe. This isn’t anything I can’t handle.”
The predacon replied. Clearly putting his foot down.
Axis was quiet for a long moment.
“… fine. I’ll stay. But the moment it appears you’ve lost control of the situation, I’ll be out to join you.”
Maximus nodded.
“Fine. I’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
With that Maximus rushed back to the main entrance, running past Ferrex and diving out just like Nova did. Seeing the predacon swiftly transform and fly up to the top of the ship, the poor boy felt particularly grounded.
Maximus transformed back into his robot mode and landed next to Gungnir, gauntlets at the ready. He took a moment to look over his opponent before charging into battle.
LD-L1 Veered the ship to the right, avoiding the heavy weapons fire. Punching in the coordinates for the port he hit the auto-pilot button. As the ship began to turn, LD-L1 slammed the door button then transformed. When the angle was right he tore out of the side door and tried to make the jump down to the pulsar below, wheels spinning at max RPM the whole way.
Ivory hit the vertical lift-thrusters and the ship began to float above the ground. He then eased the rear thrust and began a slow but rapidly accelerating take-off.
Sixteen of the twenty human troopers look almost identical. They wear red and black hardsuits adorned with ammunition packs, breaching charges, and knives, and thruster packs are built into suits’ backs. The troopers each carry an automatic rifle, some kind of micro-rocket launcher, and a submachine gun. Their faces are hidden beneath reflective blue visors, and an image of a rabid dog is scrawled on the sides of their helmets.
The other four troopers, though, have more unique kits. One is an eight foot tall giant of a man wearing what appears to be a slimmed-down variant of the suits worn by the others, though he carries the same arsenal of weapons as them. A white skull is painted on his suit’s breastplate. The second is also a larger fellow, though his size may be attributed more to the bulky exosuit he wears, which sports a laser weapon and a grenade launcher on the right and left shoulders, respectively. In his hands, he holds a wicked-looking machine gun, fed by a belt coming out of the back of his suit. The third wears a suit with larger thrusters than the rest, and has a grappling hook on his left arm. A large sword is also stowed on his back, between the thrusters. The fourth has a suite of high-tech scanners attached to her helmet, a wrist-computer attached to the gauntlet over her right forearm, and a pair of cylindrical pods are mounted on her thighs.
Behind the troopers, the enemy mech continues to do battle with Kitai. The hole cut into its back by the Grunt’s laser cannon smolders. Currently, it wields a huge rotary cannon in its hands, though it may have other weapons stored within its frame.
The troopers scatter as LD-L1 lands in their midst, using their thrusters to quickly jet out of the way, lest they be splattered. As the cultist’s borrowed ship peels away to speed back to Iacon, the troopers’ dropship eases back to put all of our heroes within view of its pilots. Its nose-mounted gun whines as the craft lays down a blanket of suppressive fire over the Pulsar’s hull. The troopers group themselves into two squads of ten, with the giant and the sword-wielder joining one squad, and the heavy gunner and the techie joining the other.
The howl of the skimmer’s engines briefly drowns out all other noise in Riveter’s spaceport, growing quieter as Ivory jets out over Iacon’s walls. It would not be long before the detective catches up with the rest of our heroes aboard the Pulsar, though he may have an unpleasant surprise waiting for him when he does…
Transforming quickly and turning on a dime, LD-L1 Sprints after the Second squad, his unnatural strength giving him considerable speed. He moves to grab the nearest member of the squad, a veritable death sentence for the trooper. Assuming he is successful, he would take the soldier, and sling him at the heavy gunner, applying his considerable strength to the action.
Upon encountering the warzone Ivory cools the jets a bit. Time to take stock of what weapons this thing had.
As Stonefist surveyed the battlefield, one of the approaching ships opened to reveal an odd-looking bot, apparently an ally, based on his attack on the hostile newcomers. The other ship’s passengers, however, wouldn’t prove to be so friendly, and it opened fire upon the four resisters.
Quickly, Stonefist shielded himself with his shell, the bullets not having much of an effect as they slammed against his armor and bounced off. Seeing as his new ally had attacked the second squad of soldiers, Stonefist decided to go after the first. The rocky bot transformed into his boulder alt mode, and, carefully reversing his antigravity devices to keep him from falling off the Pulsar, Stonefist started rolling towards his foes.
“Rule one of combat. Never underestimate your opponent. Keep thinking like that and they’ll tear you apart.”
Nova replied. She preemptively raised Gungnir’s shield to cover the mech’s mid and upper torso. The machine then raised its two heavy laser cannons at the engines of the human ship. Once the targeting system had a lock on, she fired.
Maximus took a defensive step forward and raised his fists, ready to engage as soon as the enemy made a move. As he lacked any form of ranged weapon, he would have to wait until they came to him to make his first strike.
The first thing was pain. White. Hot. Pain. The next was fatigue. The need to stop,
and the final was something strange. An odd feeling. Emptiness. A void.
A sadness. Then rage. Pure anger enflamed to the hottest degrees, and in his fury, he charged the mech, reenacting the very scene sigma had shown him what seemed so long ago.
LD-L1 is able to sprint up to the second squad with blinding speed, and snatches up one of the troopers before he can react. He’s crushed in LD-L1’s grip, and his limp body is thrown into the heavy gunner, staggering the heavily-armored soldier.
The techie takes one of the canisters on her thigh, splits it in half, and throws one section into the air. It transforms into a small drone. The second squad’s visors darken a shade, before the little robot emits a bright flash of light. Two of the remaining seven troopers raise their rifles and shoot at LD-L1’s face, while a third launches a micro-rocket at the cultist’s chest. The other four follow the techie and the heavy gunner as the latter recovers from being nearly bowled over, and they run away from LD-L1.
The first squad disperses, quickly stepping out of Stonefist’s path. The giant and three of the troopers draw their rocket launchers and each fire a shot at Stonefist as he draws closer. Meanwhile, the sword-wielder motions for the other five troopers to follow him, and these six begin to sprint further up the Pulsar’s hull.
There is a flash of blue as the lasers strike the dropship- or, more accurately, as they strike an energy shield over the dropship. A hexagonal grid pattern flickers over its hull as the craft re-aims its minigun to focus fire exclusively on Gungnir. Bullets ricochet off the mech’s shield, and the dropship fires a missile at Gungnir’s feet.
The mech’s rotary cannon retracts into itself, and the robot stores the weapon on its back. It sidesteps, narrowly evading Kitai’s charge, and on each hand, it deploys a row of short, hooked blades over its knuckles. It raises its fists as it turns to keep Kitai in its line of sight.
Unfortunately, the skimmer has no weapons. However, neither our heroes nor their enemies seem to have taken notice of Ivory yet.
luckily for LD-L1, not having eyes make him quite resistant to flashbangs. Instead of the expected stagger, LD-L1 charges, hands up to cover his face but otherwise ignore the bullets, his body highly resistant to projectile weapons. The micro rocket, now that is a much more concerning threat. He slid underneath the rocket, relying on its lack of targeting systems to avoid it. When he recovered from his slide, he contined to sprint towards rhe remaining soldiers. Assuming he cought them, he’d grab or punch any in reach, leaving behind a flurry of crushed or crumpled bodies and gore in his wake.
Gungnir jumped back, letting the missiles strike the Pulsar’s hull, then landing a few feet back.
“It looks like we’ll need to be more direct if we want to get some damage done.”
Maximus turned and grabbed Gungnir by the chest.
“Hey! What do you think you’re-”
“ALLEYOOP!”
The predacon shouted. With his mighty strength he lifted and threw Gungnir at the ship.
Nova screamed in anger and confusion as her mech turned end over end through the air. She quickly managed to right herself however, and used the momentum to fly the rest of the way to the ship. Once she got close she aimed her shield cannons at the underside gatling gun, and fired two shells.
Stonefist activated the sonar devices built into his shell, and they revealed the presence of some very unwelcome explosives, and that the squad he had went after apparently decided to split up. Grunting, the rocky robot changed direction and began rumbling towards the other six, in an attempt to stop them and evade the quartet of missiles.
The three troopers weren’t expecting LD-L1 to barrel right through their barrage, and are caught off-guard. One is crushed like a tin can in LD-L1’s grip, while another is punched right off the Pulsar’s hull. If the blow somehow didn’t kill him, the fall to the ground below the yacht certainly will. The third, however, is able to scramble out of the way and run around to flank LD-L1, launching another rocket at his back.
Up ahead, the heavy gunner seems to give an exasperated sigh before turning back around. The grenade launcher over his left shoulder rises in its mount and lobs a capsule at LD-L1’s feet. It strikes the hull and explodes, releasing a thick cloud of nanobots that begin to swirl around the cultist. The techie recalls her drone as the heavy gunner revs up his machine gun and shoots at LD-L1’s legs. Two more troopers from the second squad remain at his side and ready their launchers.
The giant and the three troopers launch another volley of rockets after Stonefist as he changes course, and they apparently advise the other six members of their squad that the rocky bot is targeting them. The sword-wielder and his group disperse, and the former draws his weapon. Flashes of electricity pulse over the polished steel as the vibrating blade hums to life.
The dropship banks to Nova’s left as she sails through the air, narrowly evading the shots fired from her shield’s cannons. The gatling gun swivels and continues to shoot at the mech’s torso.
The techie and the other two troopers from the second squad, along with five from the first, sprint through the chaos around them and gather around one of the Pulsar’s maintenance hatches. The techie deploys her four drones around the hatch as he pulls a data spike from a compartment over her stomach, and jabs it into the nearby control panel. The seven troopers form a circle around her as she hacks the controls.
“Oh great, more missiles.” Stonefist commented. “You don’t give up, eh? Well, neither do I. Too bad for you.” the rocky bot grumbled. At this rate, fighting in his alt mode was a losing battle. Transforming back into robot mode, Stonefist swung a low punch at the group of annoying humans. If that succeeded in getting rid of a few, all he would have to worry about was the missiles. The gray-armored bot grunted, but then an idea came to him. Using his antigravity devices in a way he had never done before, Stonefist attempted to repel the warheads with them. If that failed, he’d take 'em. He was tough, after all.
Nova quickly raised her sheild to cover Gungnir’s torso, keeping pace with the ship as they moved through the air.
“Sure! Just throw me at the ship. That’s a perfect plan! What could possibly go wrong?”
Nova loudly complained. She rushed forward and tried to barge in through the open under-hatch, where the other mech had come out. All the while keeping her shield between her and the gatling gun.
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing!”
The predacon ran at the human group. With one hand he tried to back hand some of the troopers away, while with the other he tried to grab the techie and lift her up.
He stopped suddenly, realizing what he said. It was the voice from his nightmares.
“Razor, we’re under attack,” he said into a comlink on his left wrist as the humans landed on the ship’s hull. Without listening for a reply, he drew his Overcharger, loading it with a large Energon cartridge.
“Stand back!!”
He aimed the weapon at the human dropship, its empty cargo bay an inviting target.
The sword-wielder deftly steps to the side, then swings his sword at the elbow of Stonefist’s outstretched arm. Behind the rocky bot, the giant and the three troopers around him run up to circle around the cybertronian.
The dropship is not large enough for Gungnir to fit inside, but Nova is able to grab onto its tail. The dropship lurches, its pilots now having to struggle against Gungnir’s added weight, while the gunner inside the troop bay opens fire upon the mech’s head.
The dropship’s pilots now target Oreo with the craft’s nose gun, but their aim is thrown off by Gungnir attempting to board their vehicle. Bullets rake across the hull by Oreo’s feet, but leave him unharmed.
The techie slides a finger across her wrist-computer, and one of the drones darts in front of Maximus. It projects a hard-light shield in front of the predacon, which catches his fists before they can strike their intended targets. Two of the troopers peak out from behind the shield: one shoots at Maximus’s eyes with his rifle, while the other launches a micro-rocket at his torso.
Bullets pelt against the machine’s face, covering it in dents and scratching the paint. One lucky bullet managed to go perfectly through its left eye, shattering the lense.
“Oh come on! I just fixed that!”
Nova furiously shouted. With her free hand grabbed on to the tail of the dropship, she tried to drive the bladed end of her sheild into the ship’s engines.
Maximus put an open hand over his face. The large size of his gauntlet adding an extra area of protection.
The micro missile struck his gut dead on. He stumbled a step back and doubled over just a bit.
The predacon’s face sneered into an angry growl.
“Lousy tricks!”
Once there was a break in the fire he balled up his free fist, and threw a full force gauntlet clad punch into the energy shield.
