Autobot raid on Charr

Crosscheck is sitting into the pilot seat of the Autobot shuttle expertly piloting it towards the spot he choosed as a landing field when he reached Charr's atmosphere. So far the decepticon code he used to diguise the shuttle seems to holding since they haven't been blasted out of the sky. His optical visor remains on the screen in front of him while he speaks to his fellow Autobots, "We're almost there. I know or main objective if to sabotage that mine but remember that I would really like to get my hand on a sample of Electrium 203. It's the only place in the universe where I know you can find some and I would really like to study it." Rodimus Prime walks among the troops on the shuttle, checking to make sure everyone's prepped and ready to go. He looks towards Crosscheck and inclines his head in a nod. "We'll get your sample if we can, but for once, it's *our* job to just focus on doing as much damage as possible." He turns towards the hatch, ready to charge out of it as soon as they touch down. "We've left Charr alone for far too long, and the Decepticons get far too much from this world. It's time for that to end." Rodimus Prime mostly repeats back what Crosscheck said to drill it in for the short attention spans watching at home. Decibel is sitting in a seat further back in the shuttle listening quietly to some music on his internal speakers so he does not bother the others. "Mine got it. Electrium 203 check on that too, not a problem." Flipping open a panel on his arm he starts making a few alterations as lines of text scroll across his chest display. They stop soon enough as he closes the panel and gives a thumbs up. "Play list set, I'm ready to get rollin' on this rock." Jazz is sitting in the back of the shuttle spraying some stuff all over his armor. It's not paint but the color is definately affected. "Right you are Crosscheck. I packed some explosives for the mine and a few extras just for fun...in case." He looks up at Rodimus's paint job...then back ot his..."Maybe I should have packed a few extra sprays." He smiles and turns to Decibel "What's on your playlist for this gig?" Blades peers out the closest shuttle window port from his seat. He's looking left and right from what limited field of visibility that the window port in front of him offers, attempting to spot for anything out of the ordinary. Too bad he doesn't have any fancy scientific packages equipped for his optics, it's a futile effort but it offers something for him to do while the shuttle flies towards its destination. "Eh, so what exactly does this Electrium 203 look like, Crosscheck?" Jetfire stands inside the Autobot shuttle by the door. The Air Guardian stands there and looks out front and then towards the door. Jetfire pulls down his armored faceplate as Rodimus speaks. The large white Autobot double checks his particle cannon and relaxes slightly. "Its nice to make an aggressive action towards the Decepticons." Somwhere else on this desolate, dim chunk of planetary real estate Redshift is busy trying to explain that he is far too important to go out on patrol like a regular goon. "Come on! I used to be the commander of the Decepticon space attack forces! COMMANDER! Now you want to send me out to patrol all those horrendously boring sectors on Charr? Come on, it's /Charr/, why do we even need patrols there? Oh no, somebody is stealing all our boring space rocks, boo hoo." "Like that will ever happen." Catechism is out on Charr because she came to this desolate, barren, blasted world to try to sharpen her /mind/, which while her /head/ is pointy, her /mind/ could definitely use the help. She thinks she's finally got it together, however. There isn't much on Charr to distract her from her thoughts. No Autobots to smash. No humans to rob. No aliens to oppress. Just dull, boring rocks. Motormaster is back in New Crystal City because only a supreme loser would get assigned a patrol out here in the middle of no-where. Currently Motormaster is sitting in the NCC Command Centre (aka the NCCCC) with his feet up on the console, watching something on the monitor. The thing on the monitor is one of those anti-drunk driving ads they show at driving schools where they scare people straight by showing them horrific crashes and the mangled remains of cars and people. Needless to say, Motormaster is watching it with a different frame of mind. As luck would have it, Shockwave is on Charr as well, responding to one of the neatly written and extremely thorough reports that cross his desk at regular intervals from High Auditor Ratbat. This particular report happened to mention that energy production on Charr is down by three percent over the last six megabreems, and Shockwave is here to set things straight. One of the 'extra Constructicons,' those from whose ranks luminaries like Tremor and Dredge are drawn, is sweating heat-exchanger condensation as Shockwave examines his team's worklogs /very closely,/ and in dire silence. Crosscheck briefly looks over his shoulder to reply to Blades, "It's a gray mineral...doesn't look like anything special really but you will get odd energy readings if you scan it." The scientist reports his attention back on the shuttle screen. He activates the retro rockets as he maneuvers the Sarikus for landing. After a slight shock, the shuttle stops moving and Crosscheck cuts the engines. As he rises from his seat, he reminds the others, "Our electronic camouflage won't hold much longer. We need to strike and retreat swiftly..." he almost sounds like a soldier there instead as of like a geeky scientist. "You heard the man, this is a hit and run," Rodimus calls out to the others, leaping forward into his vehicle mode to charge, full speed, out of shuttle, heading towards the nearby mines (you did park us close, right, Crosscheck?). "So let's hit it hard!" he calls out. He's probably setting off every sensor from here to Polyhex, but at this point, there's no more *time* to be subtle. Decibel grins and flashes the playlist at Jazz. Most people would be horrified at the mix that contains tunes from the likes of Judas Priest and Stevie Nicks to others like Rascal Flatts and The The but Decibel just grins. "I really couldn't decide so I grabbed a bit of everything." As the shuttle touhces down Decibel quickly gets to his feet and preps to head out, "Well this should be fun." Rifle, check. Scanner set to find special rock, check. "Looks like a gray mineral, eh? That don't give me much to work with." Blades furrows his optical ridges in response and he looks around his immediate vicinity, "I best be grabbing myself one of those fancy scanners that everyone seems to be carrying around these days. Damn good it'll do for me though since everything on a scanner looks freaking odd to me." The Protectobot leans over to a small tool compartment to the left of him and grabs hold of a field scanner. "Looks like a gray mineral, eh? That don't give me much to work with." Blades furrows his optical ridges in response and he looks around his immediate vicinity, "I best be grabbing myself one of those fancy scanners that everyone seems to be carrying around these days. Damn good it'll do for me though since everything on a scanner looks freaking odd to me." The Protectobot leans over to a small tool compartment to the left of him and grabs hold of a field scanner then departs with the rest of the Autobots. (Edit) Jetfire pushes open the door as Crosscheck begins the final approach. Jetfire looks out over the landscape of Charr as he prepares for departure. Jetfire immediately transforms as he steps out of the shuttle, launching himself into Charr's sky. "I'll provide air cover and see what kind of trouble I can cause in the sky." Jetfire quietly muses about the fact he's normally trying to stop this from occuring. Now he's starting it. Jazz gives Decibel a thumbs up and activates his own playlist which starts with some Nina Simone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9AaKfAt3T8). Jazz checks his rifle and transforms.."This might not be as subtle as usual but it will be alot of fun that's for sure." Red Spaceship &lt;Redshift&gt;'s tirade about being too important is cut short as earning sensors go off all across the Decepticon base, and rumours quickly circulate of Rodimus Prime on Charr! As troops are deployed to respond, Redshift bursts into action, taking to the skies and careening through Charr's thin atmosphere. His super-speed wil l easily enable him to reach the target of the Autobot's strike force. As soon as Autobots start pouring out of what the Air Traffic Controller HAD thought was a regular Decepticons supply shuttle, alarms light up all over Charr's blackened surface. A yellow light switches on and starts spinning and whooping not fifty feet away from where Shockwave and Dirtboss are standing. "Invasion!" exclaims Dirtboss. "Indeed," replies Shockwave. "Alert the guards and patrols. Transmit a message to Earth Command. Instruct non-combatants to retreat to sealed areas and await the all-clear signal." Dirtboss salutes with what looks like relief and jogs off on his stubby little legs to go put all this into action, as Shockwave swivels towards the door. A dim blue light begins to glow brighter behind the translucent pink panel in his chest, throwing an eerie purple glow of filtered Cerenkov radiation as he steps out of the refinery and begins heading directly towards the alert sector, winding up his reactor with his long, smooth steps. Motormaster's video suddenly vanishes, replaced with a General Decepticon Alert. "What th-?" Motormaster says, sitting up straight now. &lt;&lt;Intruder Alert on Planet Charr!&gt;&gt; the computer begins blaring in its neutral tone. &lt;&lt;Numerous heavy Autobot forces detected.&gt;&gt; Motormaster stands up. "Oh we'll see about that!" He stalks towards the Decepticon spacebridge. Catechism is startled out of her contemplation by all the sudden chatter over the airwaves. Autobots? On Charr? It's more likely than she thought! But... of course! Autobots don't have to worry about any bystanders on Charr, so they're free to cut loose and be brutal in a way they cannot on Earth of even Cybertron. There are still a few pathetic neutrals on Cybertron, and if the Autobots wreck up the place, they have to rebuild it, anyway. She transforms to her jet mode, leaping up from the boring rocks where she was sitting, talking wing to seek out the Autobot invaders. Crosscheck jumps out of the shuttle /after/ most of the others. Not because he's a coward but because he realizes that most of the Autobots here with him are better fighter than he is so the best course of action is to let them do their job. As he steps out, he takes a good look around spotting the mine's entrance and the positions of the guards around it. "Good" he mutters for himself, "There is no Decepticon heavy hitter around." With a brief flash of red light, Crosscheck activates his ionic sword and charges towards the mine. Flying through the air at top speed, Jetfire begins looking for various defensive platforms and sensor relays. On finding one, Jetfire immediately begins a strafing run. Internally, he brings the particle cannon online and zeroes it in with is targetting system. He begins releasing the power from its charged capacitors. Particles fly down blasting up dust and debris as the Veritech fighter nears the sensor. Soon, particles hit the sensor relay... it explodes quickly. "Jetfire here. I just took out a sensor relay. Decepticons should be blind in zone 104 Delta 2." White Porsche 935 &lt;Jazz&gt; follows Crosscheck and heads towards the mine to give the guy some cover and leave a few surprises of his own. "We /really/ need to get you a moped or somethin'." The Porsche drives towards the mine at moderate speed so as to not kickup a huge cloud of dust and no music can be heard booming outside. Decibel follows the others out of the shuttle, "Don't worry Blades man I know what we're looking for." Shouldering his rifle he drops out the door onto the surface and takes a slow look around. "Ugh what a horrible planet. I can see why we never make a push for this place." Drawing out his scanner he sweeps it around before heading towards the mine. So far so good he thinks as they have managed to land and disembark without being shot at. Hearing that Jetfire has already made sure that the Cons know something is up he sighs and draws his pistol. Switching focus from scanner to checking for possible inbound targets Decibel prepares for the worst. Blades keeps up the pace with the rest of the Autobot strike force, occasionally firing off his photon pistol at some random Decepticon gumby security guard that might had ran in to investigate the cause of the alarm, "I guess Imma going have to stick around you then, Decibel. I honestly thought Crosscheck was going to make it easy for me by giving me a nice good picture of what that damn Electrium 203 is." He squeezes off a few more shots and then moves in front of the mine's entrance. "Anyone know how to bypass the security on the entrance?" Flamin' Winnebago &lt;Rodimus Prime&gt; has been charging towards the mine since last pose, which is why he's still charging that direction! He, uhm, really didn't have much else to be doing this time around, anyway. A new challenger appears! From the direction of the Decepticon Base, a large tractor trailer can be seen crossing the ridge, now rolling towards the mine. Motormaster, leading a squadron of Decepticon gumby aerials that are flying overhead, is heading straight towards the Autobot lines, attempting to intercept them right around the entrance. "It doesn't matter how far you run, Autobots! No matter where you face us, I'm always going to be there to hunt you down!" Motormaster can be heard bellowing despite the thin Charr atmosphere. XF-35B Astral Lightning &lt;Catechism&gt; was flying toward the Autobots, even as the Autobots were rushing towards the mine, so she catches up with Autobots. She screams by and then jinks back, using her hover fan to realign her for a strafing run. She sends a quick shot over at the Protectobot, because he was shooting at the random Decepticon gumby security guard and because he's still at the mine entrance. Not like the gumbies get hazard pay, but it is annoying to have to replace them all the time! Too cool for school and way too awesome to be a gumby, a small red and black craft comes speeding through the sky. Redshift's rudimentary sensors can pick up some gunfire going on below, at the location of a boring mine for boring rocks. Diving in towards the action, the red spaceship begins to open fire, blasting down on the Autobots. A broad autobot painted bright white sticks out as an easy target, so Redshift concentrates his fire on Decibel! Shockwave lays eye on Jetfire first, as he is both assaulting the Decepticon positions whose voices are loud in Shockwave's sensitive radio equipment, and streaking around over the terrain, exposed. He continues to move in the direction of the other Decepticon response, only his upper body turning towards the target as he glides along with his unnaturally stable stride. Flamin' Winnebago &lt;Rodimus Prime&gt; veers off from his headlong rush towards the mines as something catches his attention on the horizon. "Those of you who can, keep after the objective. I'll deal with the Stunticon," he says grimly. With those words, the Autobot leader starts steering directly towards the Stunticon commander. "Who said anything about running, Motormaster?" he shouts back. "I'll face you right here instead!" Crosscheck is passed by Jazz which makes him ponder about his lack of mobility for a second but that's not the place nor the time to devise a new mode for his body. The scientist runs as fast as he can and soon the first decepticons gumbies move forward to intercept him. Crosscheck dives under the first blow before swinging his sword into an elegant arc that cut off the right arm of the closest seeker. Not wasting any more time with him, he keeps running toward the entrance of the mine. Decibel starts running for the mine entrance as he hears the faint bellowing and notes the incoming aircraft. "Oh great they're on to us and we didn't even make it in the door yet." He makes it maybe two or three steps before he's already dodging weapons fire. Firing back over his shoulder Decibel tries to force Redshift off a bit to give himself more time to ready himself for possible sustained conflict. Despite being on a strafing run, Jetfire keeps his sensors open for attacks. Detecting an incoming signal, Jetfire makes a hard break as the signal comes into range. The laser blast flies off into the horizon; the space fighter turns about towards the source of the attack. "Shockwave, I'm suprised to see you here on Charr." The white, red, and black fighter gets his nose facing the purple Decepticon. Then, particle beams stream from underneath Jetfire' alt mode. At least, a big gun Decepticon will be tied up with him, considers Jetfire. White Porsche 935 &lt;Jazz&gt; arrives at the mine entrance a bit before Crosscheck and begins to examine the hardware present. Caving in the entrance is just stupid they wil dig it up again. If he wrecks the extraction machinery...now that's annoying and time consuming. Jazz transforms and gets to work on the few mining machine present there. This will let him do something useful and keep an optic on the scientist should he need help. The entrance to the mines is plagued with the sound of constant error beeps from the security console that Blades is fiddling around with. "Dang it, come on come on. Perceptor makes it look so damn easy to open these blasted contraptions..." The Protectobot remains tenacious in keeping at with his futile efforts to open the mine's entrance but the error beeps continues... and tenacity alone doesn't do anything to keep the approaching Decepticons from stopping him and the rest of the Autobots dead in their tracks. One such Decepticon demonstrates that very effectively as it begins a strafing run towards Blades. Eventually the stream of bullets reaches Blades and the security console. Most of the bullets are deflected off by his ablative armour, but the security console on the hand ignites in electric fire, and crackles with blue sparks, giving Blades a shock. Somewhere, between getting hit by Catechism's bullets and being in contact with Blades' hands, caused the security console to short circuit and the mine's doors slides open. Meanwhile, the Protectobot stands in front of the door, a bit shaken at what has happened but is otherwise perfectly fine. Red Spaceship &lt;Redshift&gt; is not actually here to save the mine. He's just here to light some Autobots on fire! And shoot them. And make fun of them. Ect. Pulling up quickly, he avoids the poorly aimed little laser that flew up at him, and the swift ship comes around for another pass, preparing to unleash a belly full of high explosives! Some Decepticon gumbies see him coming and flee, but undoubtedly many of the miners will be caught in the horrific blast of fire Redshift is about to unlease. He swoops down, cackling madly as he drops a pile of bombs from his underbelly, each tipped with a special white-phosphorous tip that explodes in a blinding flash. It is frankly a bit amazing how many Decepticons were stuck on Charr, at the moment, Catechism reflects. This could have been an unmitigated disaster, otherwise. As it is... Motormaster wants them to save the mine? Fair enough. As the F-35B angles down, closer to the mine, she transforms, skidding to a stop, her feet leaving furrows in the baked dirt of Charr. She narrowly evades Redshift's bomb spread, but it looks like Redshift himself and Motormaster aren't so lucky! Straxus. Where do they FIND these people? Catechism lunges as Blades, trying to knock him away from the door. Shockwave steps swiftly behind a rock which absorbs the particle beam with a crack. On the other side he comes around the corner of a line of craggy, gravity-defying rock spires and comes into full view of the mine. His intricate sensors flicker over the visible Autobots, scanning each one in turn. Blades, opening the mine, slightly damaged and displaying backscatter from Redshift's targeting radar. Jetfire, still flying around overhead and targeting Shockwave himself. Two Autobot support units. And Jazz, the Autobot secret agent. Shockwave tabulates these as he closes in on the mine, accelerating into a jog and then a run. Jazz comes up at the top of his list. Shockwave opens his hand and thrusts it forward as he closes the distance to Jazz, reaching to try to palm his head like a basketball. 18 Wheeler &lt;Motormaster&gt; sees one of the Autobots break off from the rest. It doesn't take him long to see which one it is. "Alright, the rest of you losers, head up there and start messing them up in the mine. I'll deal with the flaming avenger here." The gumby Decepticon fliers increase speed, outpacing Motormaster and heading towards the mine, where they will surely be obliterated by the upcoming round of Autobot poses. He hears Rodimus Prime's whiny, grating voice (it sounds as such to Motormaster, anyway) as he rumbles down the ridge towards the mine. "Hnnn, I know a distraction when I see one, Prime. You just don't want me killing the f--- out of all those other Autobots you've dragged out here. Lucky for you, Prime, I care more about crushing you into dust than I do about some dumb mine." Motormaster doesn't hesitate in continuing to race towards Rodimus, even as explosions begin to go off in the area thanks to Redshift's incompetence with his fire explosives. The entire right side of Motormaster is engulfed in flames, but he sees Rodimus has been hit as well. He considers it even. Crosscheck is going to become the best autobot sprinter with all the practice he got recently. But it pays off as he manages to outrun Redshift's bomb. But it was close. Blades manages to open the doors just in time for Crosscheck to dive inside. "wwwoooof Safe for now." he says before noticing the gumby seeker who was hiding behind the doors. "Oh perfect" he complains before running his sword through the seeker who...falls over him. After a brief struggle he manages to throw the body away. Getting back on his feet he slowly descends into the mine, scanning the wall for the mineral he's looking for. "Shockwave, did you forget about me?" Jetfire follows Shockwave as fast as he can. The thin atmosphere still screams due to the fact that Jetfire is thrusting through it with his engines blazing a blue hue behind him. The Air Guardian isn't giving up on his target anytime soon; he will defend his peers during their mission. In an attempt to get Shockwave's attention back, the fighter releases a missile from its underwing pylong. As the missile drops away, the solid rocket engine on it fires off. The missile flashing towards old one-eye. "Man I swear I have the worst luck, every time I leave the base I get shot at. Every slaggin' time." Stashing his scanner in a hip compartment Decibel keeps making a run for cover as being out in the open doesn't offer him much chance if things start getting ugly. And ugly they get, as Redshift unleashes a barrage of phosphorous laden explosives. Diving behind a rusted out and abandoned mining cart Decibel expects to loose a limb or get charred at the very least. However when the dust clears not only is he unharmed but the rest of the Autobots seem to have weathered the storm unharmed as well. The Decepticons, well they were not so lucky as they seem to have taken the brunt of the assault. "Wow, that was just wow." Popping up from his place of hiding Decibel flicks the power setting up a notch on his pistol and takes another quick shot. Jazz fiddles around with the drivetrain for one of the excavator when Redshift executes a close pass and bombs the slag out of Motormaster, himself and the landscape. "Wow...Swindle must buy really cheap ammo." Jazz goes back to work when the little thing bugs him...a huge shadow looms over him with two tiny antanneas and one hand... The Autobot operative pushes hard on the excavator in order to roll backwards out of the way and just in time to see Shockwave's hand slap the excavator where his head used to be. "What are you doing here Shockwave? Managed to piss off Galvatron and he sent you here to this dustball. I...I gotta be honest with you. I was expecting to find a buncha losers here but I am pleasently surprised to find out otherwise. Unless of course you changed department recently." A flash behind Shockwave gets his attention as Jetfire well fires on the cyclops. Jazz rolls away and fires off a quick shot at the Decepticon commander. Flamin' Winnebago &lt;Rodimus Prime&gt; actually didn't get hit. Those flames are painted on. The young Prime continues to charge straight towards his opponent, heedless, apparently, of the potential pain of crashing headlong into Motormaster like this. Or so it seems. At the last moment, Rodimus transforms, hitting the ground not with his feet but with his hands. He pushes up and springs into the air, his photon eliminator appearing in his hand mid-leap, aiming to land on *top* of Motormaster, preferably the cab-section, and from such an position, to fire directly downwards. (Of course, if he doesn't manage to land on Motormaster at all, he'll just have to fire from the side). &lt;Uncoded attack&gt; Some black puffs of smoke is still emitting from some gap on Blades' back, but from the way he's acting, you'd almost think he just won the lottery instead of getting shot in the aft and electrocuted. "Hot damn, if anybody asks how a grunt managed to get this door opened, just claim it was all part of the plan." The Protectbot bellows out in laughter until he hears Redshift's annoying high pitched engines screaming across the air, and after recognizing the flight patterns he correctly reacts by diving for cover into a mining cart nearby as a wave of phosphorious fire engulf the area where he was standing, "Hot damn, you doing that again?!" The Protectobot shakes his fist in anger and leaps into the air-- "This time we ain't putting up a show for you, you shaft sucker."--- and transforms into his helicopter before gaining altitude, which fortunately brings him out of Catechism's path. A compartment underneath the belly of the helicopter slides open and a rocket comes out...  18 Wheeler &lt;Motormaster&gt; figured Prime was going to do something like this. Partly because Rodimus is a jerk, but also because he copies Optimus with his moves. The Stunticon manages to swerve out of the way of the leap, forcing Rodimus to land on the ground rather than on top of his cab. It doesn't help him from getting blasted in the side that Redshift already set on fire. The right section of the trailer erupts in shards of metal, and Motormaster tips over onto his side and begins rolling down the ridge. He manages to transform into robot mode part way through, but it doesn't slow his descent as he skids down the hill and towards the mine. Redshift's special phosphorous munitions can go a little crazy sometimes, it's true. Sometimes this is awesome. Sometimes this is not. Bombs go off all around the mine entrance, followed by billowing flames and smoke. Redshift himself is caught up in the explosions, and the ship tumbles to the ground in a painful crash. Not unexpectedly, his smoldering fuselage is targetd by the Autobots, Decibel's laser scoring a strike along one side. Scorched and scuffed, he transforms into his robot mode, narrowly escaping more damage from some kind of happy rocket. "Stinkin' AUTOBRATS!" Redshift snaps, still smoking from the misfired bomb. He levels his rifle towards Decible's hiding spot, and opens fire with his flamethrower to bath both the cowardly Autobot and his meager cover in big gouts of flames. "Jetfire made a similar statement," remarks the dispassionate voice emanating from Shockwave's chest, his eye flickering in time with the perfectly synthesized words. "It would be no significant disadvantage to me to explain to you that my duties as Director of Operations of Cybertron and head of general logistics occasionally necessitate a visit to our production facilities." Shockwave's statement here is punctuated by an explosion as a missile explodes against the back of his leg, but it doesn't seem to interrupt him, even though it buckles the plating and blows an ugly hole in one corner of the plate that it strikes. "Conversely, I did expect you here. Considerably sooner than now, bearing in mind our steady, if inglamorous, rate of energy and mineral production from the Charr installation. Presumably you were 'otherwise occupied.'" He stops moving briefly, his head turns up towards Jetfire, speaking of 'otherwise occupied,' and an intense beam of radiation lances out of his cannon arm, sweeping up towards Jetfire. Rodimus Prime isn't about to let up. He leaps over the ridge and slides down after Motormaster, on his feet at first as though surfing a wave, then, as soon as his balance allows for it, he switches to running, and while he wouldn't ram Motormaster head on, losing that game of chicken, he seems perfectly willing to charge into the Stunticon, as though he's *trying* to push the fight into the mines. Catechism growls, discontent, as Blades not only gets the door open, not only evades her punch, but also ditches her to go beat up Redshift. She waves her ams and calls, "Hey! Redshift can kill himself all by himself! He doesn't need help!" She ducks inside and sights Crosscheck, who is inside, swording up the gumbies. Catechism shouts, "Hey! Do you think those things grow on trees?" She chases after Crosscheck and sends a pot shot down the hall after him. Sometimes being daring is a good things. Other times, like now, its not so good. The blast of radiation hits Jetfire and arches across his shell. The Air Guardian lets out a scream as he transforms... his power relays sytems shorting out in various fashion. The large white Autobot lands, his feet leaving imprints in the ground as they hit. Jetfire slips back and attempts to recover from the hit; but, its obvious the radiation is hitting Jetfire hard. It appears someone's newest upgrades tend to be fragile to a certain form of radiation used by Shockwave. Jetfire finally gets his footing back before responding to Shockwave. "While I don't think in terms of pure logic like you do, Shockwave; I highly doubt you had actually expected us here. Save your grandiose statements to impress your own troops. I am not impressed." Jetfire brings up his particle cannon and fires at Shockwave again as he also uses his radio. Decibel watches as Blades takes to the sky to deal with the jet craft in their own environment. Stuck on the ground like most of the Autobots he was about to turns towards the mineshaft to give Crosscheck a hand, but that plan is quickly altered. As flames engulf him he stops, drops and rolls to extinguish himself. "Argh!! Man now look like an over cooked piece of toast. So uncool, how would you like it if I painted you blue? Huh? Yeah that's what I thought." Haven gotten to his feet while talking Decibel leaps up onto then off of the smoldering cart gaining a bit of much needed height he strikes out with a clenched fist. Jazz smirks and decides to mess with the purple giant "Just because there was no report does not mean I was not here recently. You of all people can appreciate careful planning and execution." Jazz leaps back at Shockwave with some form of a leap kick aimed at the gun-hand. With a bit of luck it help Shockwave miss. He notices Catechism who went in after Crosscheck and begins pondering his options. Crosscheck is shot right between the shoulders by Catechism and he falls forward on the ground with a smoking hole in his back, "Hrrrmmm." Knowing very well that if he don't get up soon he may never get the chance to do it. "No I doubt you clones grow on trees...fortunately." Suddenly he springs back on his feet and charges the Decepticon! Sikorsky S-76 Spirit &lt;Blades&gt; banks around as his rockets goes wide off, "Zippy as always, damn blasted shaft sucker." The helicopter was about to go falling to an attack vector behind the Decepticon until he a chance glimpse of Motormaster entering the mine shaft changes his mind, "Hey folks, hate to say this but we got" the rest is muffled by the sound of his rotor blades sweeping across the air. The nose of the helicopter dips down and lets gravity boost its velocity while the rotors rotates the direction of the helicopter clockwise back towards the mine shaft. In a short amount of time the Protectobot finds himself back at the mine's entrance again, in his robot form, of course, and enters. Blades glances around and tries to locate Catechism and Crosscheck. Motormaster leaps back up to his feet as he runs out of momentum. He's now somewhat near the mine. Those there could shoot at him or Rodimus and vice versa, but Motormaster is instead focusing only on Rodimus Prime, knowing it'll take all his concentration to take him on. Seeing Rodimus 'surfing' down like Legolas, the Stunticon scowls, drawing out his Atom-Smasher Rifle. He holds it with one hand. Wordlessly, Motormaster squints, firing off a potent blast in an attempt to stop Prime in his tracks. Even while pissed off and smoldering, Redshift is still a fast little bugger. He watches Decibel's daring flying leap and leaps aside at the last second, smirking at the Autobot's poor performance. "Ha, even /Blueshift/ could've dodged that one! Useless!" Redshift doesn't waste any more time trying to taunt the white and gold mech, instead he takes aim with his rifle, switching it up to full power with an ominous *hummmm*, before firing a wide blast of super-charged plasma at the larger Autobot. Shockwave takes a half-step back, the well-executed kick throwing back his arm, knocking him off his balance for a moment and forcing him to shift his weight to compensate. The laser cracks into his side, but Jazz seems to have his attention for the moment. Shockwave's eye flickers silently as he calculates before he speaks. "Although there is a high probability that you are bluffing in an attempt to seek a 'psychological advantage,' I stand corrected. It is plausible that you, acting alone and covertly, are the source of the reduction in production which I arrived here to investigate." Shockwave turns at the waist (although his upper body remains immobile), his left leg rising and kicking out, then down, in a stepping double heel crush. "In light of the possibility of that scenario either having already occurred or occurring in the future, it behooves me to crush you." Catechism does not notice that Jazz has noticed that she went in after Crosscheck. She snaps, "I'm not a clone! I came off an assembly line, like anyone! Straxus, you Autobots are so /ignorant/. Invading my planet, insulting my method of manufacture..." Catechism deftly ducks under Crosscheck's punch, continuing their epic battle of the Cs. Since he has closed range, she tries to wham her elbow into his neck, unsuspecting that Blades is sneaking up on her! Rodimus Prime is blasted in the right shoulder, a shot that blows him back off his feet. This has pretty ruinous effects on his forward movement, as he had been sliding-running down a ridge. Now, he's really more butt-sliding down the ridge, which is a lot less dignified. "Nice shot, Motormaster," he growls as he works to get his sliding under control, eventually managing to twist forward in order to transform and *roll* down the ridge instead. Which is much more dignified than butt-sliding. "But not good enough by half," he adds, steering directly towards the Stunticon. Oh, so NOW he wants to ram. Crosscheck closes combat is something that Crosscheck is used to...unlike gunfight. He jumps backjust in time to avoid the elbow. Seekers are usually not very strong but despite his taunting, he knows that Catechism isn't a standard model. Not wanting to let her get back into firing range...not since help is on its way, Crosscheck moves forward and swings his sword towards Catechism. The eergy blades slices into a wall before continuing his way towards his target, revealing a large chunk for gray metal behind the rock. Decibel flails helplessly in the air a few moments before falling back towards the surface. Somewhere along the way a bit of the fuel he was doused with ignites again and he is forced to quickly pat the flames out. "Why? Why do I even bother to leave the base? Seriously, who gets out of their recharger and says 'gee I think I'll get set on fire today?', fraggin' Cons." Scrambling back to his feet he is quickly blasted again by Redshift and is knocked off his feet. Hitting the surface hard he shakes his head to try and clear it as he draws his own weapon. "Oh now that does it! Look at this, you can't even see my display anymore! Time to hit shuffle." Snapping his rifle up Decibel takes aim and fires. Jetfire smiles underneath his armored faceplate as his laser hits true. The battle seems to be going well as Jazz and Jetfire combine on Shockwave; however, Jetfire knows he's needed in other departments. Jetfire runs past Jazz and Shockwave attempting to get to Catechism. As he moves by Shockwave, Jetfire throws out his elbow in an attempt to nudge Shockwave out of his way and also distract the Director of Military Operations from his fight with Jazz... maybe giving the super-cool operative an edge in the fight. Blades finally locates Catechism and Crosscheck in the shaft ahead, not like it was really that hard of a matter seeing as the mine shafts have been unsually linear. A hint of opportunity comes to mind as Blades realizes that the Decepticon ahead of him has no yet realized his presence and is fixated on bickering with the Autobot scientist in front of her. The Protectobot resident angry bot carefully detaches the rotor blades from his back, slowly making his way over to the Decepticon, striking at the last moment, "Surprise!" Nudging Shockwave is like nudging one of those industrial robots that assembles cars, apart from this one has a laser on the end of the arm instead of a paint gun. He just rocks back and forth an inch or two but seems otherwise unharmed. Jazz dives off to the side and narrowly avoids being crushed by Shockwave. "You ARE smart. Yes maybe I am playing you and maybe I am just bragging. I guess it will be up to you tro prove one theory or the other. That's a flip of a coin." Jazz aims his rifle at the Decepticon's Mr. Spock. "Guess we are even, it behooves me to confuse you with my witty banter haha." The blast of soundwaves strikes Redshift in the leg, knocking the red spacer off his feet. Uncooperative servos grind and squeal as Redshift struggles to get to his feet, his blown-apart thigh revealing critically damaged circuitry. "HEY! You blew up my LEG you slaggin' piece of crap!" Redshift snaps through gritted teeth. He struggles to his feet, firing off a poorly-aimed blast from his depleted rifle as he tries to not fall over. Catechism suffers just as the wall suffers, as the ionic sword ionises a great gaping gash into her torso! She grunts in pain, and she reveals that she hasn't just brought fists to a swordfight and that she isn't solely limited to ranged combat. She withdraws her two-tailed electric whip, which crackles and smells faintly of ozone. She just about ready to try to snare Crosscheck's ankle when, suddenly, Blades hits her in the back! She grunts again, and she quickly chnages her tactics, flicking the whip quickly at Crosscheck before whipping it around at Blades, ending so that she can watch either out of her peripheral vision. Motormaster would do it. He would meet Prime grill-to-grill, but this is not situation he wants it in. Rodimus Prime has the altitude advantage sliding down the ridge, and the velocity speed for the same. Thus, Motormaster declines the offer, tucking and rolling out of the way from the sliding Autobot leader. Rodimus Prime slides past him and is now between Motormaster and the mine. Motormaster rises back up to his feet. "If you need another demonstration, Prime, then here you go!" Motormaster fires another series of Atom-Smasher blasts, returning the favour from when Rodimus shot up his trailer. The Stunticon isn't in a great position to save the mine, but he has his priorities. Shockwave does seem to be moving a bit slowly. Of course, he's never exactly reflexive, as he seems to have no reflexes and one can almost hear him going through drop-down menus in order to control his own body's countless features. But maybe Jazz actually is slowing him somewhat by making him think about other things besides the most efficient means to destroy Autobots. "Let us assume, for the time being," Shockwave continues in his lecturing voice, "the worst-case scenario. Even allowing that you are able to infiltrate and sabotage Charr at your discretion, you must have some reason for coming here in an open, disorganized assault with what I will generously refer to as 'soldiers' who are infinitely inferior to yourself in every measurable degree. You must be here for some other purpose." The solar ray scores a nasty melted line across Shockwave's torso, leaving a glowing mark. He extends his arm and closes his hand into a fist, cocking it back and advancing on Jazz pitilessly. "As Charr has been producing energon at a more or less steady rate for many macrovorns without this kind of Autobot incursion, your timing must be significant. It is logical to presume therefore that developments on Earth either require you to reduce our energon production temporarily at a critical juncture, or there is something here that you require now that you did not require earlier." His torso spins between his immobile waist and head, fist looping around in the kind of accelerated roundhouse punch that one can only perform if one has no particular sentimental attachment to a humanoid body shape. Crosscheck is whipped! Judging by her optics, he thought that Catechism was going for his ankle but when she changes her mind, he's caugh off guard and the whip slashes into his chest. He falls on the ground as he tries to avoid it and that's when he finally spots what he came here for : a chunk of Electrium 203. The scientist launches himself towards it and grand the piece of metal. Then he rolls over to his side to get away from Catechism. Decibel is be grinning ear to ear even with his faceplate that totally obscures it. "Aww I'm so sorry. Maybe you should have thought of that before you set me on fire." Sidestepping the latest blast of flame sent his way he starts moving forward. "Yeah, see I figure if I need new paint we can come out even if you need a new limb or two." He starts chuckling a bit as he continues, "Ya know, I have to thank you cause man this is such a better stress relief than that stupid stress ball I have on my desk." Close enough at this point Decibel kicks out trying to knock poor Redshift even more off balance. Jazz sidesteps forward and well into Shockwave's physical range and sends a weak uppercut on the Decepticon's chin. More an attempt at mocking and annoying. If I can make him angry I am sure it will be worth a couple of points on the scoreboard. "Calling my buddies inferior is not very nice. They put their lives on the line for me when I need it and I do the same for them. I will concede on one point I was not involved in the planning stage of this thing. My stuff is usually more subtle at the beginning but I always like to end it with a 'BANG'." Jazz cranks up the annoyance one more notch by activating his external speakers so Shockwave can hear the music as well. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7re_u5m4wMk&feature=fvst) "NNGGHH!" Rodimus Prime grunts as the blast slams into his side, sending him skidding into the side of the mine's mouth, an impact that shakes the entrance itself as well as the supports holding the mouth open. Rodimus transforms and looks back towards it, now concerned - he doesn't want to bury his own troops in here. On the other hand, there are ways to take advantage of the instability of the area *without* endangering them. "Gee, thanks, Motormaster," he gets out, pained. "I never realized you were so accommodating!" He draws his photon eliminator and begins firing... over Motormaster's head, further up the ridge that the two had just slid down, in an attempt to trigger a rock slide. "But now it's time to ro- no, I can't say it." Boy! What is it about these battles that seems to encourage the really, really cliche puns? Shockwave seems stymied by Jazz's continual outfoxing of him; like his own name Jazz's fighting style is so natural, so flowing and improvisational, that Shockwave has a hard time predicting it and striking in the correct place to smash him. Shockwave takes the uppercut on his chest (which sticks out quite a bit further than his 'chin') and takes several steps back, guarding himself with his raised hand. He is temporarily silent, trying to come up with a solution to the problem of Jazz's highly organic technique. "Didn't see that coming now, did ya? There's more where that came from!" The Protectobot sneers in delight as he returns to an attacking position and is readies himself for an overhead chop with both of his rotor blades against the Decepticon but Catechism proves that she's the faster one of the three. Blades frowns as he sends Crosscheck onto the ground, "Hey! Leave this defect to me" he watches as the whip makes a trip over towards him and he counters by slashing it away with his rotor blade and using the momentum of his swing to spin his body around and throw the one measly small bomb that he was entrusted with towards Crosscheck. "Take care of my lil' present, will ya?" Yeah. Like that thing will really do something in the overall grand scheme of things, hah! The Protectobot readies himself again, satisfied that he's done his part, and still oblivious to the impotence of the bomb he just provided to his comrade. "Y'know, you can still back off if you want. I ain't going to lie when I say I'm going to enjoy kicking you around along with my other buddies when they get here." Blades then pulls out his photon pistol and squeezes off a shot. The kick shatters Redshift's elbow, knocking him over in the process, his blasted leg unable to keep him on his feet. Setting Decible on fire is little consolation when the Autobot is still winning. He flails around, until he forces his broken limbs to transform into thier proper placement as he assumes his alternate mode. His engines roar to life, and the little red ship tries to slam into Decibel. Motormaster instinctively ducks as Rodimus yanks out the Photon Eliminator. He's been on the receiving end of that weapon more than enough times to know how painful it is. But Rodimus Prime shoots... and misses! Motormaster is visibly surprised at this fact, and grins. Prime must have had his targeting system hit during that last barrage. Cracking his knuckles loudly, Motormaste advances on Prime, feeling he has the advantage. But suddenly he hears a low rumble behind him. Motormaster turns, looking up the ridge. "Aw no..." Motormaster mutters as a dark shadow falls over him. Motormaster runs, and the broken rocks and dirt chases after him. The debris overtakes Motormaster and sweeps him aside, burying him under tons of the dull grey coloured rocks on Charr. The landslide (Charrslide?) covers Motormaster up despite his attempts to punch his way to freedom. The end result is Motormaster's hand barely sticking out of the dirt with the rest of him out of sight. Thus all he can do to Prime is give him the middle finger. Which he does. When Motormaster is out there, facing down Rodimus Prime, Catechism really can't complain about dealing with two Autobots. Especially since one is just rolling around on the ground and grabbing metal, but... Catechism tries to think. What /is/ the Autobot objective here? Do they just want to destroy the mine, as Motormaster suggests? Or is their true purpose more sinister? Could destroying the mine be a ruse to cover their true intentions? Wait, did Blades just chuck a bomb over at Crosscheck? She dives after the bomb, in what looks like a stupid move, but she has to see if she can defuse it of she's going to need to tell everyone to bail and fast. Her dive takes her facing away from Blades and his blinding gun. Crosscheck catches the bomb and he's about to throw it farther into the mine but he suddenly examine it. It's hard to read his expression especially since it only last for a moment before he throws the bomb as far as he can. "Run!" he shouts at Blades. Hopefully this will fool Catechism and allows them to escape the mine. The scientist burst out of the mine and quickly provide cover fire for Jazz. Decibel should know better than to gloat or to get too close to a foe that still has some life left in them. Perhaps being stuck in the communications center for so long has started to effect his judgement. It really doesn't matter the reason, what matters is he just got run over by a spaceship. Struck hard in the torso Decibel goes flying up and over the craft crashing down with a heavy thud. Twisting as he slowly clambers to his feet the communication engineer seems very vocal about the new dents he has and even more so about the cracked chest plate that serves as his display in his alternate mode. "Son of a...you piece of...I'm going to stomp a mud...Ahhh!!" Seeming to being finding it difficult to pick just the right insult he opts for the tried a true, hit them back approach. Drawing his pistol he tries to get a lock on the target through blurred optics before depressing the trigger switch. Jazz runs away from Shockwave on the other side of the excavation machinery. Nooo he's not running just momentarily trying to hide himself or hamper Shockwave's view of him and that's never good. Jazz pulls out a small box from subspace. The box contains 3 tubes half filled with liquid. He screws a small cap on top of the one already there. With a small hiss the liquids from the cap and tubes begin mixing. "Compound is active." He punches a few keys on the keypad and the lights begin to blink faster and faster. He puts the bomb on the machinery facing the entrance to the mine. With some luck the blast will wreck the excavator and block a bit of the entrance...and probably hurt alot of people around. Rodimus Prime looks almost surprised for a moment that that worked. Hey. Wow. That worked! While it's best to assume that won't hold Motormaster long, he's got a request coming through for cover-fire, and since he, like Jazz and Shockwave, were fighting relatively near the mouth of the cave, he's in a position to provided it. Rodimus spins towards Shockwave, firing quickly and without taking the time to aim - he just has to keep Shockwave busy and away from Jazz, after all. Blades watches with confusion as Crosscheck bolts out of the mine instead of going any further, but he figures the Autobot scientist knows something more than he does and quickly follows behind, "Meh... smeg this, if that thing is going to blow up, I'd rather it happen when I'm out of here." The Protectobot turns and runs out of the mine, fortunately the distance in between isn't far at all thanks to Catechism interrupting most of Crosscheck's progress into the mine. Blades pops out of the mine and fires at the first target of opportunity he sees. Catechism scrambles after the 'bomb', because she needs to either defuse it or get it out of the mine, one way or the other. She /is/, however, a trained demolitionist, and if she can actually get her hands on it, it won't take her long to discover that she's been tricked. What really makes it worse is that Jazz has a /real/ bomb upstairs. If only she knew! Shockwave bends down, Crosscheck's beam whistling past over his head as he picks up a piece of earthmoving equipment almost the same size as he is. Shockwave's feet crunch into the rocky soil under the increased weight as he raises the earthmover and uses it as a shield against Rodimus' photon eliminator pulses. Shockwave's head turns towards Jazz, his single eye focussing on the thing in Jazz's hand. "Jazz is preparing a hypergolic explosive mixture," announces Shockwave, in his usual dry voice, but amplified many times. "Decepticons: stop him." With a flex of his unreasonably powerful single arm, Shockwave braces himself and sidearms the bulldozer through the air towards Jazz. Diverting power from his weapons to his engines, the battered spacecraft manages to avoid another attack from Decibel, tilting his wings to change his silhouette. to make matters worse, Blades zaps him with a laser, blasting a fresh hole in his already battered armor. Redshift is in rough shape, but he's determined to return fire on these pesky Autobots. Reeling around for another attack, Redshift opens up his bombbays yet again, dropping the last of his stock of ammunition, hoping he doesn't blow himself up in the process. Motormaster is currently digging his way out of the mess Rodimus Prime got himself into. There's movement that can be seen underneath all the dirt, so there's no question that he survived and is still aiming to rejoin the fight. Crosscheck fails at provinding cover fire. He's about to make another attempt when Jazz sends a "friendly advice" on his radio. Leaving Shockwave alone, the autobot scientist run for the closest rock large enough to provide some cover. He dives behind it and gets ready for the big BOOM. Decibel sighs as he misses his shot but can't be upset long as Blades lands a clean hit upon returning from the mine. Giving a quick thumbs up he starts to scramble as he spots the bomb bay on the spacecraft open again. "Oh crud." Picking up the pace he turns back to check distance just in time to notice the munitions take off in a totally different direction. "Geez this guy is a menace." As the broadband crackles Decibels wastes no time and breaks into an all out dash towards the shuttle, the closest source of cover he can find. Blades fires off his shots and quickly clears the mine entrance, mindful of keeping himself exposed in the open for too long as he had earlier. He also receives the same "friendly reminder" from Jazz and begins looking for cover to hide behind. He was about to duck behind the same rock that Crosscheck had just dived behind. Realizing the particular mess he is in, the Protectobot franctically searches for another way to save his own aft. Blades eventually notices the mining cart that he had hide in earlier and decides to make due with what he's got. He runs towards the mining cart and pushes the mining cart forward, giving it as much momentum away from the mine as possible before diving inside. Hey. At least he didn't dive into a freaking fridge to try to save himself from a freakingly large blast. Rodimus Prime's lip pulls back in a frustrated snarl as Shockwave continues to focus on Jazz. He starts to rush the earth-moving equipment that Shockwave is hiding behind, then suddenly stops. His optics open wide and, spying Crosscheck, makes a grab for his fellow Autobot and tries to toss the other in the ruined remains of his trailer while he transforms. Then he hits the gas, moving out at his best speed back towards his shuttle, probably driving over the remains of that landslide he just created, since that would be his most direct path back! Jazz is lucky that Shockwave missed him with the flying bulldozer thing and even luckier the vibrations from the landing projectile did not set off the bomb. ooohhh Did I manage to get him angry? The Autobot runs away from the bomb as the timer goes down. He will not be fast enough...Not many people will be fast enough but that's them breaks. "Until next time Shockwave!" The Autobot makes a dash worthy of the Olympics but...it probably won't be enough. The timer BEEPS loudly as the detonator sends an electrical current in each othe three vial causing the bomb to explode in a very loud *dry* explosion. Not alot of fire but lots of shredded metal from the machinery, shrapnel, dust and concussive force. *KRA-TOOOOM!!* As Rodimus Prime transforms into vehicle mode and roars over the landslide he created, Motormaster's hand ducks underneath the rubble, vanishing from sight. Then, without warning, Motormaster bursts upwards, Atom Smasher in hand as he stands in Rodimus Prime's way. There's a deep snarl on his face as he takes aim and fires shot after shot, trying to shoot Rodimus and his new passenger down before he can be run over. Somehow, somehow, Redshift misses SO BAD that his bomb ends up in vicinity of Catechism. And then misses her, too. What actually happens is that the bomb knocks into the dirt above the mine shaft and rattles the mine below. She grabs the 'bomb' down in the mine, and she realises that, gentlemen, she's been had. Whatever the Autobots are up to, this/ was a ploy. She opens her radio. Then, the roof that was shaken earlier by Redshift's bomb comes down entirely, courtesys of Jazz's bomb. (So many bombs...) Catechism is, miraculously, unharmed, but she /is/ pinned inside the now-ruined mine. Shockwave is blasted backwards by his proximity to the epicenter, scraping a trench through the rocky grey soil until he fetches up against a cliff face and stops moving. He sits up a little jerkily, pulls a boulder in front of him for cover, picks up his lower leg (the one Jetfire damaged earlier) from where it's lying near him and reattaches it to his knee. The wobbly and broken spaceship is glad to see someone other than himself blowing everything up. With Autobots running everywhere and the explosion ripping the mine apart, Redshift decides to surrepticiously slink off, since there isn't a whole lot left to be done. Crosscheck is grabbed and end up into Rodimus' trailer before he gets the chance to realize what's happening. He manages to get back on his knees and to look behind...just in time to see a big explosion followed by a wave of fire that's coming his way fast...too fast, "Oh crap. Faster Rod Faster!" Thanks to his cheers, Rodimus (and Crosscheck) manage to escape the explosion. Decibel had been high tailing it towards the shuttle when the blast went off and could clearly see his destination. Then the charge fired and Decibel got to the shuttle real quick as the blast force sends him hurtling through the air into the side of the very craft he was trying to reach. Having made a very distinct impressing in the side hull of the Sarikus a very damaged Decibel falls to the ground below with a rather undignified thud. Trying once to get to his feet the now burnt and busted engineer topples over and resorts to crawling towards the ramp. Sparking he leaves in his wake a mixed trail of broken armor and leaking energon. And Rodimus Prime takes quite a few hits before he gets close enough to try to run Motormaster over - and really, he's not *trying* to run the Stunticon over, he's just taking the most direct route out of the area, which happens to be through Motormaster! Blast after blast rips into his cab, shatters his windows, tears at the front section of his trailer, but while he keeps moving as straight as possible, he does veer as much as he can to keep the shots from hitting the rear section, where Crosscheck is, taking as much of the punishment on himself as he can! "I know! I know!" he shouts back, the fire on his proverbial heels, as he drives right towards Motormaster, no sign of stopping. &lt;No !retreat to give Motormaster a chance to respond, but will be next round&gt; The explosion the erupts from the mines and almost immediately hits the mine cart that Blades was hiding in. Blades stares with unease as he lays with his back against the bottom of the cart at the fiery blaze that is now sweeping across the area from. Soon the shockwave comes and picks up the mining cart, sending it crashing and rolling across the ground until that too finally ends and a shaken Blades finally climbs out from the bent up mess that formally resembled a mining cart, "Ugh... I didn't think that'd work." Blades does a quick survey of the area, and when it looks that the primary and secondary objective has been accomplished tonight, he too decides to transform and make his way over to the Autobot shuttle. Jazz gets blown away from the concussion. His hud registers a loss of pressure in his actuator again. Always the same thing. Got to have those replaced instead of patched. Jazz looks up at the damage to the machinery and the mine entrance. The mine will be open in no time but replacing that thing to dig and process the minerals will take time, parts, people and energy. He spots Decibel who seems to have been hit as well by the blast. Jazz makes a run for his buddy and helps him towards the shuttle. "Come on buddy we got to get a new travel agent. Charr really sucks as a plance to unwind." Motormaster grits his teeth, keeping his finger on the trigger of his rifle, but Rodimus Prime does not slow down, and ultimately runs right over Motormaster, knocking him back down into the relatively soft dirt from the Charrslide. Motormaster is lucky he's on Charr and not Cybertron, where the ground would not be so forgiving. The end result is Motormaster laying spread eagle in a ditch shaped exactly like a spread-eagle-Motormaster. "I hate that Autobot," he comments to nobody in particular. Red Spaceship &lt;Redshift&gt; has sneakily snuck away from the scene of the battle, hopefully lost in the chaos of the explosion's aftermath and any surviving mine workers who survived the initial assault. Catechism is buried in a collapsed mine. It is dark and oppressive. The rocks have fallen just so such that she isn't being crushed to death or anything, but it is exceptionally uncomfortable. This will go down in Catechism's book as one of the most terrible ways to spend a night. And... doesn't Charr have leeches? Oh dear. Shockwave straightens up eventually on his repaired leg, but by then the Autobots have successfully rolled out, leaving destruction and confusion in their wake. "I must calculate. Jazz is too dangerous to remain a formula un-solved." "Ow!" Rodimus shouts as another piece falls off him, one knocked loose by Motormaster's blast. Still, he makes it out and retreats towards the shuttle, bringing up the rear. "You doing okay back there, Crosscheck?" he asks as he flees. Crosscheck is driven away by Rodimus Prime. Talk about first class travel! "I'm fine. Thanks for your concern Rodimus. I took only moderated damage. Nothing my self repair systems can't heal." The scientist just sits back and relaxe as they head towards the Sarikus.