Graves
Graves steps out in his mech and roars in his modified voice, "We’re willing to talk. I am Sergeant Grave of the UHF Armed Forces. Tell us your demands, and I’ll see what we can do for you!
Cargo
“I’m with you,” says Cargo, whirring the rotary chamber in his cannon as he draws it.
Cargo attempts to tag behind the group, looking for a chance to sneak past the chopper without being seen.
What, and miss all that fun?
Conjoint crouched down on his feet. Please be sober enough for this. His feet switched to vehicle mode, the wheels underneath propelling him sideways out the door. He’s forced to grip his knees tightly if he doesn’t want to skid out of control.
Buddy, I got a death wish. He glanced briefly back at Maccadan as he sped onto the street. Least I can do is enjoy it for the time being.
He had left shortly after Snowblind had, but it was still some little time before he arrived. There was a group of bots in front of some large building, making discussion about what was going on inside. Loud noises from beyond the entrance seemed to be the key motivator here, and one of them - a red-orange one with a flamboyant getup - marched inside, the rest following at her heels.
And then gunfire and explosions and shouting and- wait a moment.
Was that the bot from the bar slipping in a side entrance over there?
Only one way to find out. Conjoint grumbled as he took off towards the side entrance, hoping his obnoxious color palette didn’t get him killed before he arrived.
Firestorm decided to just have a day to fly today, just to look at the home he had missed for billions of years.
This was the point when Barrage waved Maccadam over.
ooc barrage wouldn’t inspect the boom boom on his own accord, so if you want him over there someone is gonna need to give him a reason
She doesn’t seem to notice his approach, focused intently on the confrontation outside.
If Conjoint successfully evades the authorities with his shenanigans, he’ll eventually roll quietly up behind Snowblind, keeping as low as possible to remain behind cover.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” He hissed under his breath.
She turns, trying to cover his mouth with one hand and motioning with the other to stay quiet. A quick glance over her shoulder and she leans in close, trying to stay to the shadows.
“THERE ARE HOSTAGES!” she whispers back. “I’M TRYING TO HELP BEFORE SOMEONE GETS HURT! WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? ARE YOU STILL DRUNK?”
The attempt to cover Conjoint’s mouth is enough to upset his balance and tip him over. “I REALLY WISH I WAS!” Conjoint replied. “MY LEGS ARE SO INTOXICATED THAT- LOOK IT DOESN’T MATTER, I’M SOBER, OKAY?”
He shuddered at yet another explosion from the scene in front of him. “HOW IN THE PRIMES ARE WE GOING TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT THESE HOSTAGES?! THEY’VE GOT GUNS AND STUFF!”
Snowblind raises an eyebrow, but merely rolls her eyes. “Eh, guns are overrated.” She grabs the end of her towline from her back, reeling it out so she has a bit of slack. “LOOK, SAFEST THING TO DO IS STAY HERE. DON’T GET THEIR ATTENTION, WE’LL TAKE CARE OF IT. BUT IF YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING DUMB, WELL, I’M NOT GONNA SAY NO TO THE HELP.”
“PAL, I HAVEN’T DONE A SMART THING IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.” Conjoint pushed himself back onto his wavering feet. “AND SAFETY WAS BRED FOR ANOTHER BOT.”
Conjoint’s chest transformed into the firing mechanism and barrel base of an anti-aircraft gun. “YOU JUST TELL ME WHEN I NEED TO KEEP BEING A PAIN.”
She nods with a smirk. “I’LL SNAG THE CLOSEST ONE FIRST; THEY’LL GET HOSTILE AFTER THAT, SO TRY AND KEEP THEIR ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE HOSTAGES.” Her eyes trace over the half-formed gun, goggles flashing bits and pieces of incoherent data as they try and make sense of it. “…JUST DON’T HIT ANY OF THE HOSTAGES.”
Firestorm couldn’t possibly miss the dire situation unfolding at the Hall of Records- a group of terrorists had taken hostages outside the building’s main entrance. Axis Prime appeared to be leading a counterattack, but the insurgents were threatening to execute their captives if she and her allies continued to harass them.
Maccadam approaches the bot, notably remaining calm while many of the others inside the tavern are visibly anxious.
“Something I can do for you?” he asks.
Kitai is one of the few people running toward the gunfire and threats of violence- most of the people he passes by are running quickly in the opposite direction.
The voice on the other end of the commlink groans, then mutters a curse under his breath.
“Alright,” the handler says, clearly unenthused with the direction this morning had taken. “XM-333, you are clear to engage at your discretion.”
Three of the spherical drones the terrorist leader had deployed each draw a bead on three of the little cars, and shoot at them with their laser weapons.
The officer who seems to be in charge is a blue and white cybertronian with four green eyes and the insignia of the Iacon PD engraved on the right side of his chest. As Axis Prime continues her attack, despite the threats from the terrorist leader, his shoulders tense and his face takes on a fearful expression.
“No, no, no!” he shouts to the Prime and the warriors charging into battle beside her. “Are you crazy?! Fall back!”
Then he turns his attention to Tokamak, and he only seems to become more irate at the racer’s request to bring another gun into the rapidly-deteriorating situation.
“Their leader’s threatening to kill the hostages if we keep this up- hold your fire, for now,” he says sternly. “Though I guess I should thank you for not just jumping in like our ‘esteemed’ leader and her lunatic friends.”
A hail of plasma-fire from Niko’s mech hits the copter-bot in the tail, causing him to careen out of the path of Axis’s sword. For a moment, the airborne terrorist is caught in a mad tailspin, though he is quickly working to stabilize himself.
The grey-armored predacon snaps his pointed head in the direction the shots had come from. Snarling, he digs his claws into the ground as a mortar cannon rises from his back. The gun rocks back in its mount as it fires, sending an explosive shell arcing through the air toward Niko and Roaster (@MaxinePrimal @ajtazt).
Unfortunately, Cargo is spotted by the armored human woman working with the terrorists. Reaching behind her back, she brings to bear a metal box that quickly transforms into a belt-fed machine gun. She takes aim at Cargo and rattles off of a burst of lead in his direction.
This time, the green-armored terrorist carrying the black case was in Stonefist’s path. He too narrowly evades the rocky bot’s mad charge. Attaching the case to a hardpoint on his left thigh, he raises his built-in rifle and shoots a burst of plasma at Stonefist.
“Slag it, Turnpike, get a handle on this one!” he snaps. The red terrorist- Turnpike, apparently- shoots at Stonefist again, as well.
There is a flash of blue light that engulfs the drone momentarily as Aralysa’s lasers strike a previously-unseen energy shield around the robot, causing its geometric patterns to flare but not doing quite enough to break through it. The drone retaliates with laser-fire of its own, this time specifically targeting Aralysa’s legs.
Grave’s offer goes unanswered. The terrorist leader scowls as our heroes press their attack, apparently daring to call his bluff.
“Loader!” he snarls, turning to the burly blue bot with heavy armor on his back, “Show them we mean business!”
“On it.” Loader seizes a terrified hostage cowering beneath a console, lifting him up by a shoulder while a chainsaw slides out from a compartment in the terrorist’s forearm. The weapon instantly screams to life, and in a spray of energon and metal shards, Loader plunges it through the hostage’s torso.
The terrorists were all standing in the midst of their terrified captives- a careless attack could endanger innocent lives as well as those of the enemy.
From their hidden perch, Snowblind and Conjoint see Axis Prime and several of her comrades continuing to engage the terrorists despite their leader’s threat. Then, as the terrorist leader had promised, Snowblind and Conjoint see another one of the terrorists gore a hostage with a wrist-mounted chainsaw. The captive’s eye-lights flicker out, and the chainsaw-carrying thug drops his limp body onto the ground. Loader then eyes another hostage- likely his next victim, if this keeps up.
Conjoint would be able to hear the sound of grinding metal as Snowblind’s jaw clenches. “Scrap. Look, if you have anything for close combat, stick to that.” She stands, steps from cover, already twirling her towline in her hand. Just like she had done a thousand times, her goggles line up the trajectory, and she throws, aiming to snag the chainsaw-wielding murderer.
If she gets him on the hook, her towline begins to reel in, wheels spinning in reverse to give her more traction and speed.
“Copy that. En route now.”
XM-333 grimly sprinted towards the scene, loading up their cannon and minigun as they moved.
Upon reaching it, they scanned the area for the officers in charge.
Stonefist grunts loudly yet again as the plasma burst melts a small part of his shell, while Turnpike’s shots have little effect. In anger, he transforms back into robot mode.
“Alright, that’s it.” The rocky transformer grumbles, “time to get up close and personal. Good thing I’m good at that.” Stonefist finishes his statement by throwing a speeding roundhouse punch at the green-armored terrorist, hoping to slam his rocky fist into his face.
Meanwhile, Aralysa was busy dodging laser fire from the drone, and some of the laser bolts hit her legs, damaging them but not putting them offline. Her mood was about the same as Stonefist, and she growls as she locks her legs into place on the ground. Then, carefully aiming, she launches an explosive shell, which soars up into the sky in an attempt to blast the infernal drone to pieces.
Cargo rolls to the side, allowing only a few bullets to graze his shoulder. He lifts up an arm and catapults a flash grenade in her direction.
Firestorm sends Axis a request for a sit rep and for if lethal force is authorized.
Depending on what part of the car they’re aiming, they might miss. But it wouldn’t take long before they got struck and destroyed, lasting a minute at most if lucky. They aren’t very durable and one good hit is all the takes.
Tokamak keeps his weapon up, but doesn’t fire.
“Acknowledged, I’ll–”
Tokamak stops short as the terrorists start killing hostages.
“RUN!” Roaster shouts as the predacon fires. She bolts to the left, trying to avoid the shell’s blast radius.
“PIPE DOWN!” Conjoint hissed. “AND NO, I DON’T HAVE ANY KIND OF-”
Snowblind was aiming her nonsense hook thing at the most evil-acting member of the group - the one that had just gored another bot. Conjoint, not willing to see a scenario where this worked out well, made worried-sounding comments under his breath at the action.
Axis lands on the ground with great force, cracking the pavement beneath her.
She quickly looks up and lets out a shout of rage. She swings her blade at the copter bot, sending a burning wave of fire in their direction.
“Crap!”
Niko exclaimed as he noticed he had ruined someone else’s attack. Only for a frantic beeping to grab his attention as a shell barreled down towards him. Quickly he used Ferrex’s flight jets to dash backwards and away from the shell.