StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Authors Note:
The following set of vignettes are from the Transformers: Steel Reign thread found in LibArc's Roleplaying section.

Basic Backstory: Steel Reign takes place during a GenOne-ish timeline - in it parts of Season One and Two of the cartoon occured, along with some borrowed material from the Dreamwave Transformers run (the Ark Two primarily). In on Sept 11, 2001, after a attack on the Decepticons by US Military forces, Megatron in a very public way, declared war on the human race, and his intentions to conquer the planet. Hope you enjoy.


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.:Beginnings:.

The moon was full in the sky over the Capital city of the United States. Coldly beautiful, it could be said, in the way the moonlight reflected off the gleaming spire of the Washington Monument, glistening off the reflection pool at it's base.

But the beauty of those sights were lost upon the three who strode through the streets, their armors glinting dully in the bright moonlight. Megatron stood forth, his cold white armor reflecting no light, the fusion cannon on his arm stood ready for use at the merest thought. Just to the rear of him, strode two of his most trusted warriors, Soundwave at his left and Onslaught to his right.

They encountered no obstacles as they marched inward from the edge of the city, Megatron had elected this route in order to let the humans see them coming, and know the fear of death as they strode by. The human city was of little consequence to him, he was here for only one reason.

"1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is being fortified, Lord Megatron."

Soundwave had spoken, constantly scanning the humans primitive radio communications, keeping track of what they did and planned. It would be child's play, for nothing the humans could bring to bear quickly, could hope to harm the three giants.

"What do they bring to challenge us Soundwave," he asked, after all, only a fool thought nothing could stop him, "do they call the Autobots?"

Of course, that wouldn't matter. Megatron had foreseen this, and sent a assault force to attack the Autobots. This were to go according to his plans today. There would be no interruptions by Optimus Prime at the last possible moment.

"Human police and local military units, they are bringing in artillery - E.T.A. fifteen minutes," the monotone voice spoke, "Starscream, Ramjet and Skywarp will be over the city in two minutes."

Megatron's smirk remained on his faceplate. Soon, this would be over, and the humans would know true fear. His ruminations though, where interrupted by Soundwave's voice again, "Human aircraft are lifting off from Douglas AFB. F-22 Raptors, ETA: five minutes."

Still plenty of time for their air cover to arrive. "Tell Starscream I want no aircraft left flying. Astrotrain, eliminate the human air base."

"With pleasure mighty Megatron!" Astrotrain's voice revered as antigrav thrusters activated, rocketing him into the air. It took only a astrosecond for the massive Decepticon to turn into his shuttle mode, and blast off towards his target. Megatron had little worry the destruction would take place, and there would be no further annoyances from there.

They were drawing ever closer to their destination, and a line of houses stood in their way. It would have been simplicity itself for the two to fly over the homes, and be done with it - but Megatron thought it was time the humans were given a lesson in terror.

Raising his right arm, Megatron leveled the fusion cannon at the homes, his mouth turned into a smirk, as the beam of purple energy erupted forth. The houses stood no chance, the beam smashing into them, atomizing stone and metal, consuming wood and mortor and flesh with seconds. Megatron swept the beam over the line of homes, opening a path wide enough for several Decepticons to walk with room to spare.

The sounds of jet engines in the skys above drew his attention for a moment, the whine of turbines interrupted with the sounds of combat - the explosion of jet planes as the fire blooms light up the night sky, lasers streaking a devastating path as humans managed to narrowly avoid death. The Decepticons were technically outnumbered 3:1 in the sky, but for the Decepticons, that simply meant it would take a few extra minutes to eradicate the humans.

Distracted as he was, Megatron had not detected the tank's round till it impacted with his ditanium chest plate. He grunted with the impact, even as he returned fire. The tank held for a entire five seconds, before the heat of the fusion cannon cause the fuel cells to catch fire, and explode. The two Decepticons moved on, as more tanks and humans wearing riot armor appeared. Bullets reflected harmlessly off the armor of the two titans, slowed them not a moment.

"Foolish flesh creatures. Do you honestly think your pathetic toys could harm us?" Megatron's voice rose out over the din of combat, "Soundwave, get rid of them."

Soundwave for his part, only nodded his acknowledgment, before raising his sonic rifle. Concentrated sound waves rushed forth from the barrel, ripping apart the streets, throwing humans, cars and tanks alike back like leaves in the wind. A stream of mini-missiles fired from his shoulder launcher, impacting into a approaching row of tanks, causing them to explode and act as a blockade to the others behind them.

Finally, Megatron and his escort arrived. The White House.

Home to the most powerful man on the planet Earth.

Unfortunately for the President, he was only a man.

"Now," was Megatron's only spoken word, before the White House vanished in a great implosion. Dust kicked into the air, and humans scattered as debris came crashing to the ground. Those defenders who remained, sought cover, knowing their weapons where now useless.

It took only a fraction of a breem before the clouds of dust settled, and the titanic form, one that dwarfed even Megatron and Soundwave, stood. Sheathed in gray and blue armor, the titan rose from the debris of the White house, and moved towards Megatron, being careful with the package in his clawed hand.

Megatron waited till the Omega Sentinel stood before him, before reaching for the human held there. The man fit easily within his black metallic hand, and Megatron brought the human to his optics.

The grayish white hair and pasty face looked in what could only be called horror, before some composure straightened his features, "Me...Megatron! Do you realize you just comm...."

The words were choked off as Megatron's grip tightened around the frail human, but his voice held not the slightest trace of anger, "Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to see me Mr President...."

The president's face regained some color, as Megatron loosened his grip, "M...my pleasure...Megatron.... What do you want?"

Megatron's grip was loosened, but never released, as he looked at the pathetic creature held in his hand. Flesh and bone and water, he could see the fear in the man's eyes. He would give him one thing, at least the fleshling didn't soil him.....well, he guessed he spoke to soon.

"It is quiet simple Mr President. Six months ago, I warned you - if your country interfered in the affairs of my Decepticons again...I would make you and your world pay."

Megatron's eyes glowed brilliantly for a moment, as the smirk on his faceplate turned to a snarl of anger, "Consider my good will terminated."

The President didn't have time to scream, as his body was crushed in the Decepticon Leader's hand, blood spurted out as flesh was ruptured, bones shattered into so much dust in his hand.

Megatron dropped the lifeless corpse of the POTUS to the ground, looking at the blood upon his hands, before turning to his Omega Sentinal, "Burn this city to the ground. Let it stand as the beginning of the end for the human race."

Megatron turned from the titan, and Soundwave fell into step behind him. The sound of laser fire and the explosion of a gas pipeline reached his audio receptors, and filled Megatron with a sense of warmth. "Soundwave," he spoke after several minutes of walk, "Phase Two...."

That was quite a start. Does the al-Qaida attack still occur in this universe?

As for Megatron declaring war on the US: I thought a state of war already existed during the events of seasons 1 and 2 of the G1 cartoon?

Sidewinder: No, the al-Qaida attacks do not occur, mostly because Megatron leads the Decepticons into an attack on the entirety of the Middle East. I prefer not going into the entire history here, but if you want to know more, you can read it here



Now, the second vignette, dealing with the Battle of Rome



.:When the walls fell:.


The sounds of machine guns and rockets screamed outside.

The explosion of the warheads, the screams of the dying and injured - both human and Autobot filled the air - and all I can do for now, is stay here, hidden.

Waiting.

We had been expecting a Decepticon offensive in Rome ever since Megatron started working his way west. Ever since he broadcasted the mechaforming of Qatar on all of the television frequencies, we knew he wasn't going to be satisfied with the Middle Eastern oil fields. In the weeks since, that metal bastard has been pushing his armies further and further out - gobbling up the surrounding countries as we would a hot dog.

If the World Security Council had listened to Optimus Prime, maybe we could have stopped their big push. But by the time they saw the wisdom in Optimus' words, it was to late. Prime had sent a couple of his Autobots here, expecting maybe a battalion of Decepticon soldiers.

What arrived was much worse.

The Autobots are out there, right now, facing off against Megatron's weapons - the Sentinel Robots. I watched as they came from the sky, dropping just outside our defensive perimeter. We tried hitting them with missiles, but it barely dented their armor. The Autobots tried everything they could; eventually, they even managed to take of the hulking brutes down. Unfortunately it took some of them with it - three Autobots fell as the Sentinel's energy beam gouged out the ground in front of it.

There were so few Decepticons out here, apparently Megatron wasn't willing to risk his living soldiers just yet. Though I managed to spy some of their Jets, they seemed to be lead by a red and grey colored one, I think I heard one of the Autobots call him "Thrust". The few Eurofighters we had in the air are long gone, mostly by his guns.

"Robby, how you hanging out there, brother?"

Lank's voice fills my ears, I cringe over the box in my lap, as a rocket explodes close to my hiding spot.

"How much longer?" I reply, trying to keep my voice steady.

"They're almost there, give them another two minutes."

I don't reply. I can feel the ground tremble beneath me with the steps of the Sentinel Robots. Another building somewhere explodes. The things are so massive, only our heaviest artillery has a hope of even scratching their armor - there's only one way to make sure they go down.

The scream of the Decepticon flyers fills the air overhead, their engines whining with barely contained power. The building shakes as one of them transforms and lands on the roof. I hear the screams of humans and the burp of heavy machine guns before the Decepticon opens fire. I see the green and blue blur of one of the Autobots as he climbs on top the building.

"Blow it! Blow it!"

It comes off the taclines. It's time, I can hear the creaking of joints as the Sentinel Robots outside sweeping their weapons.

They have armor so thick, it takes a nuclear explosion's near miss to crack.

I flip the hood on the detonator switch.

The three cylinders in the building is half of the stockpile, all six warheads have been wired to the remote I carry in my hands.

The evacuation has had enough time, I hope.

God, please forgive me for what I'm about to do. I hope they got away.

"Ignition!" I scream, as I throw the switch.

I hear the whine of charging for a second, and then see the stream of purple plasma eject from the warheads.

The world disappears in the flames of nuclear death.

17 Decepticons died in that blast, right? Including Thrust? Good riddance, although it is a pity about the human cost.

The Battle of Rome ended with the termination of 17 Decepticons, 10 Sentinal Robots, 7 Autobots (including Tracks) and a little over 500 human military.

3 Autobots died fighting the Sentinel's outside of Rome, and nearly one thousand humans with them.

The Autobots and humans who gave their lives, were enshrined as war heroes, every last one - for their sacrifice allowed millions to escape Decepticon detention/imprisonment.

- Military might of the humans have been greatly diminished, the Autobots have not allowed their technology to be used to outfit human military aircraft or submarines, and the available "fuel cell".

- The Autobots have made agreements to assist the humans in finding and producing new oil prospects and Energon, as well as assisting them in researching new ways to produce and utilize Energon cubes in their technology. The Autobots refuse to help humans develop these technologies for war purposes.

- Autobot terraforming and irrigation sciences have been utilized to help increase the food output of human farms, helping to stave off the potential of mass deaths due to lack of food.

Considering what the Decepticons have been doing, I think this equates the Autobot brand with a stamp saying, "Jackass!" Seriously, don't the possibility that humans might use Cybertronian tech to kill each other pale in comparison to the fact that Decepticons ARE use their tech to kill or enslave humans?

That actually got turned around rather quickly - by the opening of the RP thread, the Autobots were helping humans develop weapons in order to bring them to utilization more quickly.

It should be noted, while the Autobots weren't helping them before, didn't stop the humans from developing Anti-Transformer weapons on their own with what they got from the Autobots and downed Decepticons.

And human pilots based near the Ark were getting in their hours playing 'tag' against a cheerful teenybot called Hornet.

.:Tear in Shiva's Eye:.


Just a few weeks before, the Decepticons had enslaved Pakistan.

Long had our countries been in a cold war with our neighbor, stockpiling and fortifying our borders against a totally human opponent - with human needs.

We waited for weeks after the conquest of Pakistan. We knew the Decepticons would come for us; India had a large pool of humans Megatron would no doubt desire as slave labor. The President declared we would not hold back in our efforts to oppose the Cybertronian threat, and we would even fight to free our enslaved Pakistani brothers and sisters.

The country swelled with pride, and the army was readied. We continued to fortify our western border.

We expected our defenses to not hold out against the assault forces the Decepticon leader would throw at us; we expected Guardian robots, legions of Decepticon bodies and weapons horrifying in their destructive capacity. We petitioned the Autobots for aid, and they arrived, lead by a headstrong, powerful young warrior named Hot Rod.

They rebuilt our defensive lines, utilizing Autobot technology - heavy laser cannons, explosive landmines far more destructive than anything we developed, even energy-shield hardened bunkers to fight from. The Autobots also, were expecting the metal titans the Decepticons seemed and employ in legion - what they used to decimate and crush our traditional opponent, Pakistan, inside a week.

We did not expect what came instead.

In the early hours of that Thursday morning, the ground shook violently, those who where in their bunks, sleeping, where thrown out roughly.

Screams came from outside, my tent, the scream of terrorized and dying men, yet I heard no gunshots nearby. I managed to stumble out, clutching my M16A1, Nah Pat was barely three meters from me, face framed with light as he exited his tent, then disappeared into the ground. His tent followed mere seconds later.

It was then the metal monster rose forth, black and purple body bearing the form of a cicada, and poor Nah Pat's torso sliding down what could only be called it's mouth.

I screamed in outrage. I had served with Nah Pat for years, he was a trusted friend - and in my outrage, I opened fire with my rifle.

The bullets pinged hollowly off the monsters corpse, only serving to draw his attention to me. The eyeless metal face turned to me, and I watched as metallic mandibles opened, massive gold colored forearms reached to grab a hold of me.

I was lucky, as a rocket propelled grenade impacted into the creature's head. The explosion threw me back and sent the metal monster scurrying into the ground with a insectial scream.

"Megatron had sent the Insecticons for your country?"

Yes...we only found out after the battle, what they were called. Some of the surviving Autobots told us so.

"Please continue."

Through the ringing in my ears, I could hear the sounds of conflict erupting, as my brothers and sisters snapped out of their initial fright, and answered back. Tanks and missile batteries erupted with flame, sending deadly munitions into our aggressors. Jets overhead unleashed their missile payloads into those Insecticons which leapt up to fight.

Autobot weapons were heard above the chatter of machine guns, in the distance, explosions lit up the night sky. It was glorious to behold.

But, for all it's glory, there was also terror. For every one of the Insecticons we downed, two more erupted from the ground to take it's place, a swarm like locust flew overhead, striking at out planes, landing upon and consuming our tanks and APTs. Even the Autobot's fortified bunkers where of little use against their ravenous appetites.

After hours of combat, the order was given to retreat.

In the brief lull, we questioned these orders, if we lost here, the Insecticons would move quicker than than we could, they would overrun us, devour our battle weary bodies, and then move onto the rest of India. The orders where unconditional. The Government had decided it was time for "Shiva's Wrath".

"The Indian Government decided to use Nuclear weapons?"

Yes. They did.

A small group of my battle brothers and some of the Autobots, including a particularly large green and white one, remained behind, to hold the Insecticons back. The rest of us fell back as best we could. A line of subterranean sonic buffers kept the Insecticons from proceeding underground - these were a Autobot ploy, just in case Megatron used burrowers on us. We didn't have enough to blanket our entire lines, so they were deployed to give us a fall back zone, where we could retreat.

We were orders only to take ourselves, leave anything we didn't already carry behind. If you were to injured to move on your own, you were left behind.

I dared not disobey, I didn't want to be one of those caught in the nuclear flames.

As we drove away, I could see the twinkle in the evening sky, moving faster than any star, glowing more brilliant with each second. Where one was, many more followed. The entirety of the Indian nuclear missile stockpile had been launched.

The first mushroom cloud came not from the missiles, but instead, from the field we just left. The ground erupted, and even from the miles we had already crossed, the irradiated dirt fell down upon us.

We later were told that nuclear landmines had been built and buried before our arrival. Those who knew of it, were sworn to secrecy.

The missiles struck where the landmines did not; I watched a particularly large mushroom cloud erupt, tinged in purple, as several of the Autobot's Energon stockpiles where detonated.

The loss of human and Autobot life was grand, though not as grand as the loss to the Decepticons. Our satellite surveillance noted no surviving Insecticons, the swarm had been obliterated.

But at what cost?

At what terrible cost......



The final death toll of "Shiva's Wrath" totaled 350,000 Indian troops, and over 400 Autobots lost. The Insecticon swarm, now numbered in the high hundreds of thousands to low millions, was obliterated. Millions of acres of India's western border became uninhabitable by both humans and Cybertronian's alike - and remain so to this day.

Bleak. Almost too bleak for me to continue reading.

Sidewinder wrote:Bleak. Almost too bleak for me to continue reading.

Sorry, the War tends to go very badly the first few years, before the humans and Autobots make it to a stalemate position. That's not to say the entire first couple of years were spent with the humans and autobots making sacrifices for Pyrrhic victories.

I'll see to make the next short show some of the true wins.

I've had a request also, to do the Fall of Qatar soonish.....while it won't be the next, it'll be one of the others.

Aside from the shorts, so far, being bleak.....anything else that needs improvement?

Bleak is good. More bleak please.

New Chapter - now with 75% less Bleakness!


.:Storm Fall:.


We've got incoming, three hundred kliks and closing."

"ETA?"

"One hour."

"Can we tell who it is?"

"Long range energy readings are consistent with Mechaniform 34."

"Plot their course, tell the Stormcatchers to prep. I want him. Yesterday. Destroy the rest."

"Yes Sir."


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Lt. Prestley Watchman smiled to himself. Finally, they'd get to test out the latest and greatest from the American's GM divisions. The Heavy Main Battle Tank was a massive beast, bigger than the Abrahms MBT, and packing the firepower of a entire armored division - a marvel of Human ingenuity with Cybertronian Technology. And he got to drive it.

It took a lot to let the Americans give up the plans for the tank, but it was simple enough for the British scientist to make some adjustments, up the firepower a tad, and convert it to a specialty job. The job he'd been training for months to do.

Capture a Decepticon flier.

"Anything on the sensors there Watcher?"

Prestley woke from his ruminations, his eyes glancing over the tac display and radar, "Don't see anything yet Cap. What about you Lizzy?"

The distinctly feminine voice replied, echoing in the comm band as she spoke to the pilot, "Affirmative, satellite sensors are tracking Unit Codename: Sunstorm - five-niner kilometers and closing."

Unit 435-LZY of the British Mobile Armored Corps - or Lizzy as her pilot had affectionately nicknamed her, was a top of the line war machine. Her AI was developed by human scientist, basing their programming off of captured Cybertronian personality core - allowing her a unprecedented level of individual activity and loyalty to her creators. She was front line, made for battle, and better able to do it than any other human device ever created. And she relished the challenge coming.

The HMBT's were created for one reason, to combat Cybertronians on a equal footing. She believed, with appropriate backup, they would be successful in their mission.

"Target has now entered into long range sensor scans," Lizzy spoke, "Do you wish for this Unit to increase alert mode?"

Prestley patted Lizzy's command chair, before activating some of the command protocols. "Check in with Brad and Tank. I'll let the Captain know."

"Affirmative, Commander."


--------


The skies were clear, the sun shining through the air, warm upon his tritanium-steel hull. Sunstorm enjoyed the light of the sun, no matter what world he was on. It was comforting, and he often opened himself up to it's power, letting it fill his Energon reserves with it's pure, cleansing power.

True, he was chosen of Primus, chosen to spread the word even as he slaughtered his enemies with the neutron blasters Primus had bestowed upon him at Reformat. His only regret is that his dear brother held not the same beliefs.

At his flank, three other Seekers, Afterburst, Downwind and Long Range, followed; his ever loyal converts to the True Way. They were devoted followers, spreading the word as they went.

"Humans at eight o'clock," came the monotone voice of Afterburst.

"Change course, we will carry the Word to them," Sunstorm's voice was joyous and fervent as he spoke.

"And if they refuse?" questioned Downwind's awe-filled voice.

Sunstorm's jet form began to gleam, at first easily thought to be a trick of the sunlight. Seconds later, his body seemed to be enshrined in burning yellow flames, his voice sounding much like music, before dropping to a low, terrible timber, "Then, my dear Acolytes, they shall burn for their blasphemies."


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My sensors have been tracking the four Decepticons for the past 43.5764 seconds on my internal sensor network. Units TNK and BRD have already been informed of the battle plan after my Commander's approval. Utilizing subspace interlinks, we have been in near constant contact, our conscious cores always aware of the others, going over thousands of variations of the upcoming engagement.

We filed the most likely route to victory with our Commanders, and their Superior Officers, and have adjusted our battle routines accordingly. Unit Sunstorm and his escort are entering effective envelope for long range indirect fire, yet we hold out. Information on Mechanical Aero-Lifeform 34, Codename: Sunstorm suggest he will attempt to spread his message of religious dogma to the humans, in an attempt to convert them to worship, before utilizing violence. As such, all three Units of the Line will wait under holographic camouflage with minimum power consumption until optimal moment.

Sunstorm begins his descent and transforms a mere meter off the ground. I detect the sound of his audio processors , the waver in his vocal units as he speaks. Despite the lack of human emotion, I can tell the fervor in his voice, the Awe as he speaks of his Machine God - creator of the Mechaforms of his home planet. It is moving, and if I was not so indebted to my human creators, I might be inclined to listen for longer than .354 seconds.

As it stood, it was an Eternity for me.

"Now Lizzy."

My Commander has given me the order. I inform my battlemates as my vertical launch cells open. Three depleted uranium kinetic penetrator missiles launch, all targets locked onto the three escorts. As the holo-net drops, my treads bite into the hard packed ground, propelling me forwards at nearly 40 kilometers a hour, top battle-rated speeds, as my infinite repeating ion pods and coil-guns pepper Sunstorm. I estimate 34.6409% chance of such weapons being lethal to Sunstorm, whose armor has proven to be incredibly resilient to damage, though it will provide enough distraction to keep him off footing.

A total of nine kinetic penetrator rods fall from the sky, missing two of the escort Decepticons, while they pin the third down, then rip through his chassis. Battle assessment indicates the Decepticon will enter into deactivation with 2.564 seconds. I maintain infinite repeater bombardment on Sunstorm, keeping his distracted, while my fore coilguns begin to pepper the other two un fallen escorts.

A blast of high energy particles explodes through the hilltop to my right, as Unit BRD brings his main cannon into range. The two escort Cybertronians, already staggering back and showing armor stressing under my assault, begin to crumple with Brad's added firepower. They stagger backwards, before one manages to unleash multiple missiles and energy bursts at unit BRD. I hear the battle damage reports flow throughout subspace interlink - the missiles flayed off his external armor belt, while the lasers seem to be eating through his internal secondary armor. His commander orders continued assault, as Unit BRD's particle cannon switches into continuous fire mode, and unleashes it's firepower upon the brown and gray Decepticon.

"Downwind!"

I hear the voice of Sunstorm rise over the cacophony of infinite repeaters and human weaponry. Sunstorm's back has turned to me, to look upon his escorts. The Unit identified as Downwind falls to one knee, as his armor begins to crack visibly from Brad's assault. I swivel my main cannon, and unleash a continuous burst of fire at the Decepticon. A rush of pleasure flows through my primary core, as the Decepticon's armor fails, and both beams pierce him - the chest plate caving in, and the legs are blown away. The lifeless torso falls to the ground, twitches for l.659 seconds, then falls silent.

Power readings from Sunstorm begin to spike dangerously with this new development, his body becoming sheathed in a corona of plasmic energies. I inform Unit TNK to initiate Phase Two of the combat. Humans fall back, as my Commander calls for Phase Two's activation. Brad and I continue our bombardment, Sunstorm and his final escort continue to stagger under the maintained assault - though it seems the infinite repeater bursts are having less of an effect now that his power levels have risen.
I transverse my main cannon, focusing upon Sunstorm, even as he unleashes a stream of high density plasma from his fists. The plasma burns at my ditanium-flint steel armor, turning the armor designed to take sustained Autobot weapons fire for five minutes without major failure, slags and runs down my hull. One of the blasts tears into my outer starboard tread, fusing metal near instantly. My mobility has been depleted by 22.54%, and will require immediate refitting upon my return to base. I unleash my particle cannon at Sunstorm, momentarily forgetting my orders to "take alive", as I aim for his head.

The energy corona seems to deflect the brunt force of the blast, making Sunstorm simply step back. The look upon his faceplate would send dread through lesser beings, but I am not a lesser being. I inform BRD to continue the assault on the other escort, even as Tank's missile barrage falls from the sky. Depleted Uranium rods fall, creating a secondary distraction, as Sunstorm's corona magnifies. Those which would hit him dissipates meters from his frame. His escort is not so lucky - two of the rods falling in close formation impact with his cranial unit. The head crushes inward with the force of the rod impact, gutting the primary cortical system, tearing straight through the chassis before burying themselves in the ground. The Decepticon falls backward, it's chassis turning grey as all vital systems go offline.

Brad's weapon only completed the job, as each impact of coil gun and particle beams tear away the armor belting and metal flesh, revealing what remained of the robot beneath, before even that has been returned to basic constituent molecules.

Tank comes up over the western rise, infinite repeater ion pods opening fire onto Sunstorm. Brad's fire joins ours less than a second later, and Sunstorm staggers beneath the onslaught. The plasma field surrounding him cannot intercept all the incoming fire, and I detect the cracks in his armor. All three particle cannons are trained upon his chassis, yet he remains standing, bolts of superheated plasma burst out at us, and our armor takes it.

This is our chance, our mission.
Sunstorm is our Enemy, we will succeed.

The Enemy does something unexpected - the energy output spikes again, and the plasma corona flares brightly. The heat is great enough, from even this distance, outlying primary sensor pods melt and become useless. I've become temporarily blinded by the outburst, and dare not bring my secondary sensors online yet for fear that they'll be destroyed also. The pain sensors alert me of two aft repeater pods having been destroyed. I initiate secondary uplinks with the orbital satellite, and refocus it upon the battle site. I watch as Sunstorm began to move towards Brad, the plasma corona diminished enough that I can turn on my secondary sensors. Brad's weapons fire is consumed by the plasma corona, coil guns ineffective, ion bolts only barely pinging off the armor, and Brad's main cannon inactive as it has been melted by concentrated plasma bursts.

I roll forward, my treads ripping the ground beneath me as I rush to protect Brad, my creche-mate, my brother. But even at the speeds I'm able to achieve, with the weapons fire I bring to bear, Sunstorm is not slowed. Sunstorm washes plasma over Brad's hull, melting his secondary weapons, I feel his pain even as the damage reports roll through the interlinks. Secondary weapons, offline. Indirect weapons, offline. Main cannon, offline. Mobility reduced to 10%. Internal temperatures rising.

Tank wants to help our brother, but he must remain safe. It would be futile to risk two Units of the Line - we must be able to complete the mission. I hear the cries of Brad's Commander over the vocal tac-net, he's cooking alive within my brother. My Commander shouts a cry of fury, as he unleashes the safety interlocks on my particle cannon. Raw Energon floods through my systems, and I channel the new-found power through the cannon.

A stream of raw, unadulterated power erupts from my cannon. Sunstorm is struck by the blast - he does not even attempt to dodge, and the plasma corona breaks. Even so, it is to late for my brother. His pain centers have overloaded, his Energon supply growing increasingly unstable, his Commander died in the intense heat, and his primary and secondary computer cores are in terminal shutdown.

Sunstorm has killed my brother.

I join in the fury of my Commander, pouring every erge of energy I have into the firestorm I am unleashing. Sunstorm staggers back, his plasma field is being stripped away, his armor slagging under the firepower.

Unfortunately, my reserves are being drained rapidly by the sustained fire, the stream of raw energy beginning to ebb, even as the ion bolters and coil guns die out. My secondary munitions are depleted. My main cannon continued to fire, even as I feel my hull rupture. Sunstorm, bereft of his plasma field, has switched to his primary weaponry. The stream of neutrons rip into my armor, rupturing exterior coolant lines, and causing a drop in my power reserves. The Energon distribution system overloads in my aft-right flank, and explodes outward.

Now is the time to strike.

"NOW!"

My Commander screams at Tank, as my brother launches a modified electron scrambler pod at Sunstorm. The mine impacts Sunstorm's back armor belt, and magnetically clamps there. Without the plasma field to grant him extra protection, Sunstorm has no way to remove the pod.

I watch as Sunstorm reaches around his back, trying to grab the pod, thoughts of his attack on me forgotten, however momentarily. It is as if he knows what is about to happen.

Even as he struggles to reach the pod, it activates. Energy crackled around Sunstorm's body, lighting bolts arcing over the dented and slagged chassis, as his eyes dim, and Sunstorm falls silent. The Decepticon slides to his knees, arms falling to his side.

We are victorious.

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


"Well, well.....we got him."

"Yes sir. the HMBT's managed to formulate an adaption to the intended battle plan while in field, which resulted in his capture. Hell, they did all the hard work."

"Our losses?"

"Unit 430-BRD. Sunstorm practically melted him. Unit 435-LZY and 438-TNK both suffered damage. 438-TNK will need his sensors refitted. Unit 435-LZY will need a more complete refit, Mechaniform 34 tore her up badly."

"What of our "guests"?"

The two figures stopped in front of a observation window, the battle damaged form of Sunstorm stood silently, no light showing in his eyes. Indeed, it looked like most of armor had been removed, exposing the Cybertronian technology beneath. Meters away, what was left of Long Shot and Downwind was being disassembled - the work progressing far faster on them.

"Undergoing reverse construction now. Our scientist should be able to make a good bit of headway now they have actual Cybertronian tech to toy with."

"Good work Simmons....keep me informed."

Excellent. Cybertronian\human Bolo.

Enigma wrote:Excellent. Cybertronian\human Bolo.

Bah, beat me to it .
Good shorts, I like them. Please continue apace

Before anyone questions it, yes, these HMBT's (despite in the game having been referred at least once as a Bolo, I want to find a different name for them) are alot smarter than what should be available in this time period.

But then again, these are a combination of Human and Cybertronian tech, with the humans having access to far better AI constructs than they should at this point in time.

As such, these are about equal in AI to a Mark XVI or XVII Unit of the Line.




And yes....I did all but blatantly rip off Bolo for it..because face it. If we had the fucking tech, and was going up against a far superior opponent.....we'd totally build Bolo's...

Not bad. Considering the Decepticon air superiority, I wonder if Cybertronian tech is being applied to human aircraft? Or is it currently too heavy to be fitted on a human aircraft?

Sidewinder wrote:Not bad. Considering the Decepticon air superiority, I wonder if Cybertronian tech is being applied to human aircraft? Or is it currently too heavy to be fitted on a human aircraft?

Mostly answered in the thread on LibArc.....

the long and short of it: China's been using Cybertronian tech in their jets for years now - mostly tech they got from the Decepticons when they allied with them. The Chinese have even gone a step further - they've developed the Headmaster process (Starscream and Shockwave may have helped a little...) - allowing what amount to reformatted pilots to become the head units for their jets, which transform into drone bodies.


In the rest of the free world, human aircraft have been mostly refitted with Energon-based engines, giving them more power and speed than before. While there's no DEW's on the aircraft yet, the human scientist managed to use Autobot-derived sciences to give their 20mm and 30mm vulcan guns alot more bang for their buck....enough to make them a threat in numbers to the Decepticons.

Infact, in the battle which occured over the Canadian Tar Sands (in the game thread), human jets where helping take down Decepticon flyers, as well as the MiG-29HMs (Terran Codename: Dreadwind).

.:Redboot:..




"Over here."

"What is it?"

"Found something. Big Something."

"That's a Autobot symbol...."

"Must be one of the shuttles stasis pods."

"Clean off that observation glass..."

"We got a live one. Looks like it's reverted."

"Found another one!"

"Anyone in it?"

"Yeah! We got activity on the scanners!"

"Turn off the scanners!"

"Load them quickly! Let's get back to base."




The voices are far off, distant - yet my audio receptors still detect them. I attempt to scan my surrondings, and find my sensors have been deactivated even prior to my long sleep. I try to access my primary memory tracks, only to find the cortical nodes leading to them have been shattered. I manage to tap into the stasis pod's sensors, I need to find out where I am, if I can emerge and repair. No sooner do I activate the scanners, they are shutdown. I'm blind, my internal computer barks a damage report which would drive even the most experienced repair-mech mad. The strain on my systems begins to grow to great, and my internal power supply informs me of low energon reserves. Darkness blankets my personality module once more, as stasis lock settles over me.




"We're still repairing it's superstructure. The armor was heavily breached, and there are entire sections of it's protoformial nanostructures missing. We'll have to replace them somehow."

"How long?"

"To repair the nanobots? Depends if we have to build them ourselves..or salvage from one of the failures..."

"How long Doctor?"

"For both? Six months....."

"What about it's primary data center?"

"We've managed to access it....but the coding is far superior to anything we have seen."

"Can we obtain control of them after they are repaired or not?"

"It depends...I've never attempted to overwrite Autobot programming before!"

"There must be someway! The Chinese..."

"The Chinese had Decepticons working with them."

"What about that dealer? What was his name...Viper...Serpen..."

"You mean Snake. Yes...he did say he had a subroutine that would do the job we need..but the price...."

"Damn the price! Pay it!"

"I'll contact Snake..."




System Startup.....
Initializing Primary Personality Matrix.....Operation Suspended.
Initializing Domineus Program.....Program loaded.
Error Accessing Primary Datacore....Rerouting to Secondary....
Accessing Secondary Data Core....Successful.
Personality Core Accessed. Loading

I awaken from stasis lock once more, my cortical node aches like I've had to much Vodka last cycle. A quick systems scan indicates no abnormalities in any system - except for some corruption in my datatracks. I'll have maintence take a look at it later. I see the servicemen scrambling along the support structure, my optics scan each of them in turn, I recognize them each in turn. "Dimitri, Palov, Smirnov," I greet them each in turn. The support structure opens wide, and I step forward, my green armor gleams, the plows cover my legs like shinguards, waiting only for my transformation to tear through ground or rubble. I feel like a new mech.

The loud sound of a voice clearing on the raised platform catch my attention, and I snap a quick salute to Grand Marshall Alexie Solovyov.

"Sir".

"Name and Rank."

"Gridlock, Demolitions and Battlefield Construction. Russian Grand Army." the words roll off my flexmetal lips. They feel right. "I am ready to defend Mother Russia once more."

The Grand Marshall looks pleased as he issues my orders. Wideload will be back online shortly, and we've a mission to complete.




"Unit 001 and 002 are both functioning as expected."

"In the three months since we managed to bring them back online. They still retain their knowledge of Cybertronian technology. We've managed to fortify several outlying bases with cybertronian energy weapons."

"What of the Domineus Program?"

"Stable. Snake's program is working perfectly. Their Cybertronian Processing Systems are compiling and running them as expected."

"Prepare them for a combat mission."




Wideload paces behind me in his vehicle mode. We've crossed hundreds of miles os Seberian Tundra. Grand Marshall Solovyov himself has given us this great mission. Attack a Decepticon outpost and eliminate them. We've no backup, but that will not be a problem. We are grand products of Russian engineering, no Decepticon can defeat us.

We are just outside of the Decepticon's sensor range, when we stop and transform. Wideload looks to me and nods - he's never been much of a talker. We make the rest of the way on foot - keeping as low tot he ground as possible.

It's an hour later, when we make the attack. Our lasers and particle beams take out the first fortified construct, cutting into the Decepticon manning the laser cannon on it's roof. The alarms blare as Wideload rushes in, his black light laser pistol in one hand, his photon cannon in the other, striking out with electric death as he moves. I, on the other hand, transform into my vehicle mode. My dozer blades and claw arms are more destructive in close up. We have taken the Decepticons by surprise, they do not know what hit them.

We are about to attack their command bunker, when five bright green Decepticons rush out. My optics widden as I call out to Wideload. To his credit, he spins about to take his shot, as the Constructicons transform into their vehicle forms. Now is to the time to strike, before they can merge. Wideload's shots richoette off of Mixmaster's reinforced mixing drum, as the constructicons merge into their Gestault form.

It will take Devestator time to get his focus, and I react. I rush him in my vehicle mode, my dozer blades impacting his leg. The giant is rocked back, and starts falling. I transform, ion rifle in hand and energy tearing into the lime green armor.

Unfortunatly, Devestator has already recovered, and I cannot dodge his arm. I fly backwards, crashing into the command bunker. My optics begin to dim, and I see Wideload flying backwards as I enter stasis lock again.....





"Bring that Robosmasher in here quickly!"

"Easy now Hook, it's not exactly easy to handle since it's drive motivators where damaged."

"We should have repaired it first Scrapper..."

"No time, we don't know when these Autobots will get out of Stasis Lock...."

"Got it....Activating Robosmasher..."

"Ugh...this gives me bad flashbacks to Cybertron..."

"Silence! Megatron already approved of this!"




My optics come back online....I look up into the face of Hook. The smile crosses my flexmetal lips. I remember everything. He explains to me my new mission, and I accept gladly.

After all...I cannot wait to say hello to Grapple and Hoist again....