Planet Monster



Some time ago, during the "Galvatron Junior" incident, the Monsterbot Repugnus was disabled fighting off a bunch of hijacked robots, and sadly for him, this left him vulnerable to the "mercy" of the Decepticons. They messed him up quite a bit as a cruel prank--they pumped him up on the equivalent of robotic bath salts, which made him go crazy (well, moreso) and eat another Autobot's face. They also scribbled insulting things all over him. One other very important thing they did, though, was to put a tracking device on him. Since the installation of that tracking device, instances of gumbies going MIA have dropped sharply. So, Decepticon lives were saved and Repugnus's leisure time was ruined, all in one fell swoop.

Now the tracking device puts him on this planet, a planet that seems like an ordinary life-bearing world from orbit. And yet, anyone who arrives in this system is immediately accosted by warning beacons, which transmit in millions of languages warnings to stay away from the planet at all costs, and that death will ensue almost immediately if any landing is attempted.

Sounds like the perfect place for someone like Repugnus!

Another chance to get a stab at Repugnus? Scorn is all over that in a flash, which is why she's amongst the shuttle's group this mission. "It seems fitting someone like him would go to a place called 'Planet Monster'." The femme snorts softly in amusement while lounging in a window seat, sharp fingertips tapping at her chin as she stares out at their destination. "Is there a reason as to why we've followed him out to this backwater mudball?" A glance is sent to her compatriots with a quirked brow of curiousity. She wonders more on how Contrail and Backfire will fair on this world since a more.. beastly mode seemed more appropriate for survival.

Lamborghini Gallardo  is parked inside a shuttle along with her fellow Decepticons, the man-eating Insecticon Scorn, the man-frustrating Seeker Backfire, and the man-assassinating Casseticon Ravage. Contrail is /quite/ ready to bail if the situation becomes... untenable. She suggests dourly, "He's probably just trying to trap us with death to lead us to our deaths with dath."

Ravage is silent as the shuttle moves along, giving Contrail a quick glance before focusing on the mission at hand, primarily by watching the readouts that are detailing their approach as his dampening systems begin to activate. The fewer traces of Decepticons detected on the shuttle, the better.

"Or he's thinking that we're thinking that, so he's thinking about the opposite.." Backfire rattles off, attempting to wittle something out of a large chunk of oak. Almost carelessly, chips and peelings are littered onto the shuttle's floor. "So that means he's going to trap us with life to lead us to our lives with life."

A second passes while Backfire analyzes what he just said, a purse of his lips and a nod later.. and the idiot accidentally stabs into his hand with his wittling knife.

Upon breaching the planet's atmosphere, the Decepticons are immediately attacked! By... a swarm of ravenous avians? Yes, indeed, bird-like creatures screech in rage and swarm the shuttle in the hundreds, most obvious by the ones unlucky enough to be splattered across the windshield. The rest try scraping their claws across the hull, but it seems to cause no real damage. But it sounds *terrible* on the audials, that's for sure.

"HUNPH!" says Singewind, one of the gumbies that came along with the Decepticons. "You know, that Repugnus, he acts all badass, but he's just like this planet. All talk." He laughs, and the other gumbies join him in their chuckling.

Elita One has arrived.

Seemingly ignoring the wound/stabbing, Backfire stands from his seat and approaches the front of the craft to get a look out of the forward windshield. Flinching, as each individual bird-thing smacks up against the craft, the Seeker nervously looks over at the gumbies.

"Heh.. hehe.. haha.. hahahahahahaha.. heh." Backfire lets out a forced laugh, then a look of worry washes over his face. Stomping back towards the aft of the shuttle, his optics glance around.. from Scorn to Contrail to Ravage, then to the knife still stuck in his hand. "Was this part of the plan??"

Ravage perks up at the sound of impacts and scraping. "When is anything we do a part of the plan?" The feline stands and makes his way towards the back of the shuttle, looking at the gumbies along for the thrills as he plugs his tail into the systems. "After all, the best plan ever is only perfect until the first shot is fired."

Letting out a soft growl, he bypasses the standard power systems for the shuttle, rerouting interior lighting and (temporarily) the FTL drives to send a surge of electricity through the outter hull of the shuttle itself. "We should move along before these things sever something vital to landing."

Between Contrail and Backfire's banter Scorn just.. pinches between her optics and sighs wearily. She's thankful for Ravage's silence, at least. In her opinion the trip is going quite well. At least until the unexpected happens and their shuttle is accosted by birds! Scorn reels from the window beside her when one splats into it, nearly stumbling over the others as wings flare open in threat and face splits open to hiss dangerously. "Birds!" Shit, why did it have to be birds?? Horrible things, be they organic or mechanical! Yes, those are the Insecticon instincts at work.

Glaring to the pilot she hisses once more and barks at him, "Get us out of here! Hurry and get below the treeline!" She's kind of freaking out a little, that much is clear by the way she's close to standing atop Contrail's hood. Hopefully they wouldn't follow them all the way down to the ground.

Lamborghini Gallardo  sort of tries to ignore Backfire stabbing himself in the hand. Surely, it will have no further relevance to the plot! Instead, she pays attention to the birds slamming into the shuttle. Contrail suggests to the pilot, "Shoot the birds. Maybe they're full of acid and will ruin arour shuttle's armour if they splat against us."

Ravage's idea works quite well--once the electricity runs through the hull, many of the birds are shocked right off, and the remainder cry out in alarm and fly away... though not very far, as they continue to follow behind. But the gumby pilot nods nervously as he complies with his orders. "Yes ma'ams!" he yells too loudly, bringing the point-defense systems online and setting them to "automatic," though this seems to make the guns shoot in every random direction. It may be they're surrounded by threats! And he does bring the ship below the tree lines, but he gasps in alarm as the situation detoriates further! The vegetation is quite dense and it seems that hardly a moment passes before they see some horrible new creature reach out from the trees at them. The ship shudders violently from multiple impacts. "Aaagh, that branch MOVED!" the pilot cries, pulling up over a branch that may indeed have moved--hard to tell.

The gumbies are shaken by the impacts, but Singewind laughs it off still. "Eh, no problem. I'll just get my flamethrower when we step out, it'll be no problem, right, Backfire?"

"Yeah, speaking of stepping out, you have to do it NOW," the pilot says as he swerves out of the path of some spiky vines which drooped down as if to try and catch them. "No way I can land here. This planet's nuts!"

Crap crap crap, Scorn doesn't like this one bit, no sir. The birds may be gone, but now the jungle is supposedly attacking, making the lurch during its decent. "Hngh, damnit, I really didn't want an air drop." The femme hisses lowly to herself. But the pilot had a point, this place was too dense. And so, gathering her wits the Insecticon steadily makes her way to the side hatch, grunting with effort as she pulls it wide open. "Alright everyone, looks like this'll be our stop! Try not to hit anything or get eaten when you make the jump, and keep radio contact open. And pilot, you pull out and maintain orbit for now until we need you!"

And without another word Scorn shifts to her almost and just leaps from the moving shuttle, likely ending up sticking neatly to the side of a giant tree to keep from landing hard on the ground.

Scorn crouches before shifting into her scythe-armed mantis mode.

F-16C Agile Falcon  says, "GUYS!" Backfire shouts, stomping up towards Scorn. "We should electrify the outer hull and kill the bird-things!!" the idiot shouts, waving his arms frantically for effect.

Then the shuttle plows into some vegetation planet-side, the turbulence sends Backfire off his feet and swiftly onto his posterior. "GAH!" he shrieks, bouncing off the ground and up against a seat when the ship jostles next. Scurrying up to his feet quickly, the Seeker approaches the front of the craft and nods to the pilot. "I concur.. do you concur?"

Without waiting for a reply, Backfire tucks Singewind under one arm and a couple of flamethrowers under the other. Kicking the side hatch release open with a toe, Backfire looks to the other passengers. "Check you on the flipside." he smirks, throwing himself out the shuttle all 90's action movie stylish like."

Lamborghini Gallardo  turns into a jet and bails out of the shuttle. Urgh, if she crashes due to birdstrike on this stupid planet, she... will be most vexed.

Flipping into a modified F-35B Lightning II, the sky is not the limit.

Elita One says, "oh, well it works because of how it started, heh >.>"

Time to jump? Wait...jump!?! Ravage frowns and resets the shuttle's systems so that the shuttle remains operationally reliable for the pilot as he disengages himself from the computer console. That much done, he makes his way to the door and looks down at the jungle below. Well, it seems most everyone is out, he lets his stealth systems kick in and detatches a bomb. He kicks it out the door to give it a pleasant enough head-start before jumping after. Explosions: the best way to kill anything hindering your landing...and a fantastic distraction to boot! And...yes, he did make sure none of his 'companions' were in the way. Their fault if they're not anyway.

Good news--Ravage's bomb appears to have cleared some of the vegetation--and who knows what's lurking inside--for a fairly good radius. So, the Decepticons can at least set foot for a few very brief moments before anything else tries to murder them.

"Okay, Scorn, I'll be waiting up in orbit!" the pilot says. "I'd admire you guys for going down there more if I didn't think it was completely nuts!"

"What the--HEY LET GO!" Singewind whines as Backfire makes off with him. "I can flame things myself, you know! I've done tons of bug hunts!"

Contrail might not have to worry about birdstrike so much--at least, the thing coming after her has wings, but it has the body of a magenta-colored sabertooth tiger! And it's NOT Grotusque--it's the actual, real deal! "GRRAAWWWWR!" it screams as it glides right at her.

Combat: F-35B Lightning II  compares her Agility to 60: Success!

With the others safely out of the shuttle Scorn turns about on the tree trunk she's affixed to, skitting around until she finds a thick branch to sit upon and sigh in exasperation. "Damn that mech for leading us here." She grumbles and looks out across the jungle floor below now, bobbing in her spot to try and spy out her fellow Cons. <> She better not be alone right now..

F-35B Lightning II  avoids the Grotusquimal flying right at her with no small amount of distaste. She flies over the clearing, doubling back to buzz past the other Decepticons.

"I'll have you know, I singlehandedly.. wait, that's not right. I had two hands at the time. Okay, take two. I doublehandedly saved Soundwave from an army of crustacean-like bugs on the planet Andellor." Backfire muses to Singewind, attempting to soothe his jumpy nerves.

Or to just hear the sound of his own voice. Yeah, probably the second option.

The explosion sends a waft of hot acrid smoke and air up at the descending Decepticons (say that five times fast). "Besides, can you even fly?" Backfire inquires of his passenger, activating boot thrusters to control their descent. Clicking to the recently scorched land below, the Seeker sets the gumbie down on his own two legs. Handing over a flamethrower, "It's dangerous to go alone, take this."

Ravage hits the ground stealthy, his armor shimmering to help bend the shadows around him as he retreats from the cleared blast area. He does indeed see that tiger...thing coming after Contrail, but ignores it in favor of following Scorn's call. The jet can fly. The tiger cannot. The fight is irrelevant if it continues.

<> Ravage continues along as he keeps a wary eye on his surroundings, gauging how well the stealth systems are functioning in this environment as he prepares another proton bomb for remote detonation.

Singewind glares at Backfire when he's finally set down. "Of course I can fly, I'm a Seeker!" He's a Seeker gumby. Probably should have mentioned that earlier. "Also, my name has 'wind' in it. Ever meet a guy with 'Wind' in his name who CAN'T fly?!" He also sighs at the flamethrower offered to him. "D--okay, I HAVE a flamethrower already. But... well, I guess TWO can't hurt." He takes the flamethrower in hand, and with one flamethrower in each hand, grins and turns towards the forest, and begins to hose it down with flame. "YEAH! Take that, Mother Nature!" he yells as trees and foliage burst into flame. But then something weird happens--the tree branches move, and actually begin beating out the fire! And they even seem to have a flame suppressant in the form of a non-flammable sap which the branches drip everywhere.

"What the--" Singewind blurts, mystified. He has little time to ponder the flora, however, before the branch Scorn is resting on suddenly swings down at Singewind, flattening him! But how does Scorn fare?

"Oh, geeze, we're all gonna die!" one of the other gumbies cries. He looks up, seeing the shuttle ascending for orbit. "WAIT FOR ME!" he screams, transforming into jet mode and flying after it. And then a swarm of ravenous birds intersects his flight path and he explodes.

Combat: Robotic Praying Mantis  compares her Agility to 65: Failure :(

"Hey, I didn't know I could fly for a long time." Backfire pats Singewind on the back, "It happens."

Brandishing his own thrower of flame, the idiot peers around anxiously.. waiting for the next shoe to drop. "ReWIND doesn't fly either." he says in all seriousness to the gumbie, flaming some nearby foilage as well.. just not yelling offensive things to Gaea like his sidekick. Then this thing called karma happened, and Singewind is squished by a tree!!

Rushing over, "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo, Sidewind.. you were my favorite." Backfire momentarily laments, making a mental note to raid the gumbie's room later.

Robotic Praying Mantis  just sits tight where she is so the others can make their way back and regroup. Oh how thankful she is that she doesn't stick out in this crazy jungle, her colorscheme doing quite well against the foliage. But the same can't be said for Singewind who suddenly gets a smackdown from a branch. Her branch. "Ack!" Scorn screeches, trying to hold onto the wood, but she's too slow and is flung off severals yards into the distance before landing in a dense pile of leaves.

"Hnng.." The mantis groans, sticking abodmen-up and all four legs wiggling. After a moment of effort she tumbles free and stands, huffing hautily and brushing herself off with her blades. "This is why I'm a city femme.." She grunts and scuttles back to the others, hoping they didn't see that. "Alright, now that we're back together, save the tragic loss of a few, we can continue the mission and hopefully get off this damnedable planet as fast as possible."

From subspace pops out a little device, likely the thing used to track down Repugnus, though she fumbles with it for a moment before it just falls on the ground and she grumbles in frustration. This is not her day. Shifting back she takes it up again and switches it on, ready to treck off wherever it leads. "Keep your weapons hot and optics clear. We don't need anymore surprises."

Standing up straight, Scorn shifts back into sexy robot mode.

Singewind's room, it will turn out, has an incredibly creepy shrine to Contrail in there. He has multiple wood effigies of her in there and seems to have a made a ritual out of burning them. But hey, he's dead now so that's at least one less deviant in the Empire, right? At least no other gumbies make an aborted attempt to flee for their lives. At any rate, the signal from Repugnus's tracker leads further down into the forest. No other creatures are attacking them for now, so maybe this is a good opportunity to make some progress?

Placing a foot on the back of Singewind's collar, Backfire bends down low and -tears- the gumbie's head from his shoulders. "I'm not leaving you in this Primus forsaken jungle, Sidewind!" he declares, the look of utter shock/surprise still stuck on the decapitated head of the Decepticon gumbie.

Padding his way back over towards the others, the Seeker cranes his neck to see the coward be devoured mid-air. "Yeah, definitely something amiss on this planet. Can't quite put my finger on it though.." he thinks, idly tapping on Singewind's head.

"Oh, I knew two heads were better than one!" Backfire exclaims, looking towards Contrail. "Do you think this place is like.. alive?"

F-35B Lightning II  would be sincerely confused where he got the wood, if only she knew. She swoops back and replies to Backfire, "What, like... are the pieces alive? Definitely. Or do you mean is the planet one big evil hivemind? Because that... could be a thing."

Scorn, before moving off, makes sure to salvage what she can from Singewind's corpse, snagging an arm to snack on and giving Backfire a narrow of her optics when he steals the head before moving off with the two in tow. It isn't nice to eat your fallen comrades, no, but the other two will be lucky when she has the gumbie to eat instead of them if they end up stranded here. "You just figured that out now?" She retorts to Backfire, not looking back and instead ducking low under some overhanging leaves. "Anyway, I'm glad the shuttle dropped us off where it did. We're closer than expected, so it shouldn't be long until we come upon Repugnus. ...And I claim his corpse. /All/ of it." Last bit is hissed softly to make intentions clear. Unless of course Contrail wanted pieces, then she couldn't rightly deny her. but she still gets the head!

Elita One goes home.

Elita One has left.

It turns out that Backfire jinxed them with that remark, because he's not the only one that thinks two heads are better than one! Coming up behind them are three double-headed dragons! Yes, they're actual lizards, and not Doublecross, but it doesn't seem to matter much as the three dragons begin to advance upon the Decepticons with a high-pitched screech! One of the few remaining gumbies panics and shoots at them, but to his astonishment, the dragon's thick hide does a good job of absorbing his shots. While it eventually goes down, by the time it does, the other two dragons have caught up to the gumby and begin pulling his limbs off. "AAAGH OH PRIMUS THE AGONY AAAAGHHH!"

"Sure." is all Backfire manages to Contrail, before the three doubleheaded dragons come stomping up. "Oh, since I have two heads.. everyone thinks it's cool now? Is that how it is??" he scours, firing off a bevy of shots and some flamethrower napalm-spurt to halt their charge.

A gumbie may or may not find himself enveloped in the array of firepower displayed.

At this rate it won't be long until they run into a family of Repugnus bug-things, jeez. At the stomp of feet and rustle of underbrush Scorn swings around to see the organic Doublecrosses coming up behind them, the femme cursing under her breath and drawing one of her plasma pistols and they decend upon the gumbie. "Rrgh, just leave him! He'll make a distraction. Now hurry before they finish, we're getting closer!" She only lingers long enough to leave one of the beasts with a few parting shots of hot plasma before picking up the pace and hauling aft. They'd lost three gumbies now, damnit. An acceptable loss, but still very annoying for a mission to kill one stupid Autobot.

F-35B Lightning II  just shoots at things with laser bullets. The beams are animated the wrong colours, too. She suggests, "We should look up how many enlisted usually die on missions against Repugnus..." The death total might actually be low so far?

When you factor in the lives likely saved by putting that tracker on Repugnus, it might come out even, actually--then again, the 'cons could have just killed him and spared themselves all the trouble in the first place. But maybe that wouldn't be as fun.

"It's okay, guys, I got this!" one of the gumbies says as he turns to fire at the dragons. Instead Backfire riddles him with blasts and sets him on fire. "GYAAAHHHH!!" he screams, stumbling at the dragons. They rear back in confusion--after all, just because the Monsterbot that copied them can breathe fire, it doesn't mean they care for it at all. The gumby, still on fire and running around in a panic, accidentally helps to chase the dragons off. Scorn's plasma shot nails one squarely in the chest, and Contrail's lasers skewer the other one, and that helps send them all running.

The tracker on Repugnus leads to, naturally, the mouth of a cavern. To say that it looks uninviting would probably be the understatement of the century. And you can hear what sounds like... wait, hold on... Terran curses? F***, s***, and worse. It sounds like hundreds of people are sputtering curses in there. What's going on in there?

[TPInfo] A new announcement has just been posted on +tpinfo about TP/RP: Crimson Dawn: Meet the Neighbours

Finally the danger is gone, for now at least, along with another gumbie. Ugh. But the final stretch of their mission comes forward at last in the form of a cave, Scorn hanging near the large mouth and uneasily leaning closer to hear the strange string of curses echoing inside. "...Do any of you have a light?" She gives a questioning glance to Backfire and Contrail while antennas flick in twitch at the depths of the cave, trying to listen more. She could likely traverse is in the dark with her hearing, but no way is she acctually going to do that. Better to light everything up to make sure there isn't an ambush about to happen. All the while she keeps grip tight on her pistol, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

F-35B Lightning II  turns into a car and flicks on her headlights, in reply to Scorn.

Turning into a police car, Contrail fights crime! Wait, that's not right. Contrail causes crime.

"I did it, I turned the tide!" Backfire smirks, turning towards the other two named Decepticons. Idly tapping away on Singewing's head again, the Seeker holsters the flamethrower. "So, you guys think this is some elaborate hoax.. or Repugnus is really here?

The cavern leads deeper underground, deeper and deeper, until the Decepticons happen upon a massive chamber within. There are many, MANY things within. The first thing the Decepticons might notice is the swarm of insect-like creatures prancing about. Scorn called it--they all look like organic versions of Repugnus, and somehow they seem even more fiendish and disgusting that way. They're all prancing about happily, chittering and spewing a stream of curses senselessly. Every now and then one of them will stab its claws into the ground, which then... bleeds?

However, unfortunately for the Decepticons, the only source of illumination in here comes in the form of Contrail's headlights, which might not help anyone's nerves much, and also draws the attention of the big-eyed insects, which all look up at the invaders and hiss. But that's not all!

"Oh, I'm here, Backfire," says a familiar voice, which steps forth from between the masses of insects. "What I can't believe is that even you Decepticons would be dumb enough to follow me here," Repugnus, shoving his way through to the front of the bugs. They don't seem to care much, and just happily cuss each other out at this mistreatment. "The Terrorcons mighta done well here, but you people? Closest thing to somebody who might survive here is Scorn, and that's not too likely even there."

"Hold up." Backfire grumbles, setting Singewind's head on the ground. Placing his heel on the head, the Seeker manages to skewer it with a pike, then proceeds to pour liquid from the flamethrower tank on the head.. quickly lighting it on fire and holding it up.

With Singewind's dead expression of shock/surprise, easily makes it the creepiest torch ever.

"How do we know you're you? You could be a different you, you know??" Backfire questions, holding the torch high enough to illuminate the immediate area. "Prove you're the genuine article, like.. say something only you would know."

"Oh, he's here alright.. I can smell him.." Scorn replies quietly to Backfire's question before giving a nod to Contrail and turning to see what her highbeams illuminate in the cave. Does she really smell him? Maybe, who knows. She doesn't say anything more however and simply descends into the cave, subspacing the tracker and drawing her second pistol just in case.

And boy will she need it as they come upon the horde of Repugnubugs, Scorn's optics flashing bright in response to their hiss, her lower jaw splitting down the middle to click together and hiss threateningly in return. Bugs, man, they get each other. She opens her mouth again, to speak this time of course, though Backfire gets there first and she just rolls her optics. "He's the only metal thing among them, Backfire, I'm sure it's him. But that's beside the point." Stepping up to the ledge now she sneers down at the Monsterbot and his extended family. "After treking through this horrid jungle, almost getting killed a few times, and actually losing a few troops, you have me /painfully/ curious as to why you're here in the first place, Repugnus. And I highly doubt it's for a little 'family reunion'."

Lamborghini Gallardo  observes that the ground bleeds, and she files that fact away. Right now, she has bigger problems... or does she? the biggest problem, Contrail thinks, is that Backfire may be /right/.

 Contrail says, "The ground was... bleeding? Backfire might be right. This whole planet might be alive."

<Decepticon> Scorn says, "All the more reason to leave as fast as we can when this is done."

<Decepticon> Misfire says, "Unicron???"

"Well," Repugnus says in response to Backfire, "I'd do the Galvatron and Scourge Puppet Show, a piece of theatric brilliance which only *I* could perform properly, but that would require me to transform, and these guys like me better in this mode." It's just as well--Repugnus's puppet shows are always obscene in the absolute worst way. "Maybe some time later. And besides, listen to the insect-wench. How many bug creatures like me do you freaking know! Buuut that doesn't matter..."

He looks around the room, grinning toothily. "What matters is that I'm waking this planet up. See, the name "Planet Monster" doesn't refer to the inhabitants. Not exactly. See, this planet is itself one gigantic monster. And every now and then it'll wake up and, using its tremendous psychic powers, will transport itself to another planet to prey upon whatever is living there. But the process causes there to be a lot of stowaways, so, as you've seen, there's an EXTREMELY diverse ecosystem from all the aliens from all the worlds this thing has eaten. And only the strongest creatures can survive living here. Or the scrappiest, in the case of my little insect buddies. Anyway, you may be wondering why I'm waking this planet up. Well! Turns out, Charr isn't so far from here! So I figure, if I wake this guy up, he might travel to Charr and devour everyone there." He frowns. "Of course, there's a chance it might go to Cybertron instead, but you know what? I like Earth better anyway."

"Wait, let me get this straight." Backfire's brow furrows as he replies to the Monsterbot. "You went and found a Unicron flesh planet thing, and want to use it to destory Charr? Is that it, am I comprehending your grand master plan correctly?"

A mere moment passes before he speaks again, "That's just.. evil."

<Decepticon> Contrail says, "...uh. Misfire. You're closer to correct than I would like."

Repugnus twists and flips around into his horrific creature mode!

<Decepticon> Misfire says, "I'm just like a Broken Chronometer, sir. That, uh, sounds kinda bad...maybe y'all should go now? Living planets aren't, uh, forgiving..."

<Decepticon> Contrail says, "No, look, we need to kill this thing dead."

<Decepticon> Contrail says, "FOR THE EMPIRE"

<Decepticon> Misfire says, "For the Empire!"

<Decepticon> Ravage says, "Perhaps there is a way to disable its ability to move?"

<Decepticon> Misfire says, "Transforming Cog? The organics keep it in their ankle joints. Removing that really slows them down."

Ravage is here. He's always been here. It's just that no one has bothered looking for him, and he's fine leaving it that way. Caverns are his best friend, in that there's so little light the shadows are plentiful. He watches the surrounding area, listening in on the conversation before giving Scorn a quick tap on the...we'll go with leg for now, just to indicate him passing by as quietly as possible. Time to scout the cave... If the Big Ugly is waking the planet up, then the means for doing so have to be nearby. It is only natural such things are logically built that way, yes? Time for the scout to...well...scout. He moves beyond the group, letting them deal with exposition.

Wow. ...Just wow. Even Scorn is silent for a few moments from that little speech, just standing there blinking in disbelief. "Ha.. Ha ha.. Ahaha ha ha!" She's laughing now? No, sorry, cackling. She's cackling. Quite evilly in fact. And it doesn't help that she has the biggest grin she can muster with bright optics, showing off those nastily sharp teeth. "And to think you still won't join us! Really, I have to commend you, because that is the most magnificently evil plan I've heard from you yet!" Ah, a mech after her own spark, literally and figuratively.

Sighing whistfully as malicious laughter calms down Scorn just grins at Repugnus. "I'd approve, but since you're doing this against us, I sadly have to kill you instead before you put your little plan into action." Maglocking pistols back to her hips Scorn swiftly shifts back to mantis mode, hissing fearlessly at the lot of them, ready to fight.

Scorn crouches before shifting into her scythe-armed mantis mode.

Bug Creature <Repugnus> actually gives Backfire a surprised look. "Wow, you actually comprehended my plan? Backfire, are you feeling okay, buddy? Look, it's alright. What I'm going to do for you--or rather, TO you--is cut your brain open and see what's wrong with you. Or maybe I'll let these guys do it. Hey guys!" He points at the Decepticons with a claw. "*Decepticons.*"

And then the insects begin to chitter and cuss excitedly! "Decepticons! Decepticons! Maim! Torture! Kill! Maim! Torture! Kill! F***! S***!" They begin to chant like that over and over, snapping claws out and hopping about, psyching themselves up for the attack.

"Why, thank you, sweetie!" Repugnus says to Scorn. "Yeah, like you said, too bad a guy like me is working AGAINST you all the time, right? Except I could never work for that purple ass-clown you people call a leader. Do you seriously not get that he's just using the whole lot of you? Primus, so *dumb.*" And that's when the bug creatures finally attack in great cursing frenzy, biting and slashing. And it turns out that their claws are just as sharp as Repugnus's!

Looking closer at the ground, Ravage might realize that they're actually standing on a brain. Giving that the creatures had been stabbing it already, it seems to be able to absorb a lot of damage. And yet, there does seem to be a weakness--there's an orifice in the brain through which a lot of air is being sucked into and out of, like breathing. A passageway to its lungs?

Lamborghini Gallardo <Contrail> has to stop this... FOR THE EMPIRE! She declares, "I'm going to go warn Charr!" and she promptly turns tail and drives back up the tunnels.

She is definitely not running away.

Combat: Lamborghini Gallardo <Contrail> begins retreating, leaving herself vulnerable to parting shots from F-16C Agile Falcon <Backfire>

The F-16C Agile Falcon transforms with that ever-familiar sound to reveal.. BACKFIRE!!

"Ha, already been tried my not-friend!" Backfire laughs, pointing his free hand's index finger at his head. "Buzzkill and Scorn already poked around in there, lights are.." he trails, scratching his chromedome. "How's that saying go? Lights are home, no one is on. Yeah, that's it."

Then a bunch of scary bugs start crawling his way, the Seeker lashes out with his jury-rigged Con gumbie head-on-a-pike torch.

Lungs? Interesting... Ravage watches the passageway for a few moments. His tail-tip pops open, the myriad of manipulator tendrils snaking out to remove both of the bombs from his side and partner them together. All the while, he lets the...um...non-stealthy folk handle the fighting. Yup...let them do all that jazz.

While working on pairing up the bombs into one larger unit, he glances down the 'passageway', trying to gauge its depth, and even more importantly, the composition of the walls, strength of the suction... in essence, the probability of climbing back out should one go in. <<Found something. Doing something. We're standing on a brain, by the way.>>

The feline pauses a moment before injecting a healthy dose of his own energon reserves into the bomb to amp it up...because, well... it /is/ a planet-sized monster here.

"Such a pity.. Decepticons! ATTACK!!" Screeching a battle cry Scorn immediatly surges forward into the fray, the urge to kill flaming behind her optics. She may not get to Repugnus just yet, but cutting down his horde first is more than worth the effort. It's like killing him fifty times over! Heaven, I tell you! Though it doesn't help that their main light source is hightailing it out of the cave, leaving them with Backfire's macabre torch.

Let's hope Repugnus only taught them to curse and not fight properly against a Cybertronian, because Scorn doesn't hold back, swift as the wind and swinging scythes like finely honed blades that eviscerate, dismember, and behead any in her way. She even screeches hungrily and pounces a few to viciously dig snapping jaws into necks and torso, ripping out whatever catches between her mandibles. Damn that femme's crazy.

Depth? Well, Ravage can't see the bottom, let's put it like that. The suction is quite powerful, and if Ravage stands by the edge and doesn't dig in, he might get sucked in! The composition of the "walls" is much as one might expect--a long muscular tube, like an esophagus. And yet, it may be that getting a bomb down there isn't the real problem as Repugnus turns from Scorn and Backfire, waving his claws about suspiciously. "One of these things is not like the other... Do I smell a mean ol' kitty kat? Ravage? Where are you? Come on out, kitty kitty! Meowww!" Yes, Repugnus's keenly tuned olfactory sensors have picked up Ravage's scent, and it won't be long before he finds the cassetticon!

The makeshift torch scares the buggs off a bit--they keep just out of burning distance, cussing and hissing all the while. Finally, one of them gets a little braver and tries to slice the flaming head right off the pike. Uhoh!

Meanwhile, Scorn racks up a tremendous death toll. These creatures may be quite vicious, but like Repugnus, they have trouble with the concept of self-preservation, and even while she's gnawing their throats or gutting them, their creepily happy little smiles never seem to leave their faces. Soon a pile of dead bodies forms under her, but they keep coming, and every little slash that finds its mark brings Scorn one step closer to death!

Eh. Maybe she got in a little over her head, jumping in so suddenly like that. Even with the headlights before Scorn couldn't estimate how many creatures were in the cave, so with them continuing to spring up she just gets more and more fatigued and riddled with their slashes. Yanking her blade back from one of their necks, and getting a spurt of arterial spray on her for her troubles, the mantis springs backwards to give herself some room, venting hard. <<How many are there, they just don't stop. And where's Repugnus?? Backfire, Ravage, status reports!>>

That's all the time Scorn gets to tightbeam her teammates, forced to focus back on the fight when another organic Repugnus dashes in to get a slash or two in before she skewers her sickle down through its skull.

Ravage backs away enough to mitigate the risk of falling in as he thinks options over. But, then he hears his name and the traditional cat-call associated with it. The sabateur looks back over his shoulder, subdued optics narrowing. Well, so be it, then... He sets the primer and adds about...oh...two minutes worth of time before releasing the bomb down the tunnel and backing away.

The empty bomb cradles recess and are replaced by the far less intimidating pulse lasers. Well, at least he has some element of surprise still... He starts moving away from the tunnel and locks on the swarm converging on Scorn, unleashing a spray of rapid fire to help her out with the whole impending doom and all.

As for Repugnus' taunts? Totally ignored otherwise. Because he smells bad. <<My status? I will let you know in about a minute and a half. I advise not being in this cavern by then.>>

Caught off-guard by their sudden bravery, Backfire trips over his own two feet and falls to the ground. The flamethrower tank itself is sent across the room, faulty straps likely the villian of that mishap.

Doing all he can to fight from the ground, the Seeker madly swipes the 'torch' back and forth to keep the little devils from attacking him with hand-knives. If one were observant, OR COULD SMELL WITH THEIR NOSEY NOSE, they'd be able to pick out the distinct smell of the flamethrower's fuel slowly leaking.

Cut back to your boy Backfire, and the bravest Pugnus Jr. manages to slice the head off the pike.. off the head rolls, right into the lung hole.

You know, where that flamethrower fuel has been leaking into this entire time.

Scorn might be getting tired, but she's constantly up against bug creatures that aren't even feeling a little winded yet. That's the problem with cleaving through your foes too quickly! Finally, one of them actually manages to leap onto her back and tries to cling to it for dear life! Can she shake him?

While Ravage helps take the load off of Scorn by shooting some of the creatures, their number one imitator has zeroed in on Ravage and pounces at him with his claws! "I love you Cassetticons! So small, with your tiny little heads! If I snip them off I don't have to make much room in my collection for them! It's convenient!" He doesn't appear to have noticed the bomb going down the hole!

The flaming head drops into the lung hole, and Repugnus certainly notices that, and the fuel, and also the brilliant blaze of fire that almost immediately erupts! "HA! What are you trying to do, burn this thing to death? Idiot, you'll just wake it up faster! It'll take more than that if you're planning on knocking the planet out!" Even so, the bug creatures don't like the fire, and screech as they leap away from it.

A minute and a half? Well then, time to get out of here, because when Ravage says something like that you damn well heed the warning. With Ravage helping thin the herd Scorn quickly turns to leave, but is stopped short when one of the nasty things latches onto her back, the femme hissing and screeching in fury while shaking to fling him off. "Slag, get it off!" She snarls and reaches behind herself to try and slice into the back of the bug, the femme reeling this way and that, even trying to slam her back into one of the cave walls to crush it. <<Backfire, you heard Ravage, pull out now before this place blows!>>

With the audible crack of an exoskeleton her back soon becomes free of its rider, Scorn hissing and bending down to quickly slice off the pristine head and shove it into subspace. Another trophy for the head closet. It'll keep Repugnus' spot warm under she can get the real deal.

And speak of the devil, there he is now going after Ravage, Scorn skreeing at the Monsterbot and leaving any remaining bugs following her to go after him instead, looking to dig a blade in his side and distract him so the others can starting hoofing it out of here.

Ravage tries to focus on the bug on Scorn's back, but the shot goes wild as he finds himself on the receiving end of a tackle... No bomb, not yet...cursed reloading times. He flicks his ear at the voice and remarks about snipping heads and does what any self-respecting cassette would do in this particular situation...

He eliminates his head. That's right...suddenly, there is no cat. While that seems like a stab at some sort of crazy sci-fi trilogy, in truth it just means that, where once there was a cat, there's a cassette falling to the ground. Not the best choice, perhaps...but still, better than losing a head, and it may be at least somewhat confusing...perhaps? <<Get this bug off me! I don't have the energon to hold off attacks for long.>>

Wait...what's his timer at now?

<<Pull out? Not without Sideswipe, I won't!!>> Backfire declares proudly, throwing his entire frame into Repugnus in an effort to throw him off balance. While on the ground, the Seeker attempts to fling the Ravage-Cassette over towards Scorn.

"Not -just- flame, Monsterbot. That head was still alive, right now it's eating your planet's lungs and calling it bad names. Pretty soon, it'll be unable to breathe.. and be insulted, AT THE SAME TIME!!" Backfire cackles madly.

Bug Creature <Repugnus>'s blades come down... and whiff through the air! "What?" he says, but his enhanced vision quickly reveals the problem. "OH! There you are, Ravage!" he says, grinning down at the cassette tape. He raises a foot up. "Yeah, turns out, getting smaller just makes you more vulnerable, though..." But he doesn't have the time to finish the job as Scorn digs a blade into his side! "GAH! You wi--" He turns to stab her in kind, but Backfire slams into him next, and bumps him towards the flaming lunghole. "What--enngh..." He teeters at the edge, windmilling his stubby arms to keep from falling in. "...nnnnghGAAAAAHHHHH!" But just then the lunghole sucks in air, and pulls the Monsterbot down inside! It's just as well--he wouldn't have understood what Backfire was rambling about anyway.

Meanwhile, Repugnus's organic kin, while they don't care about being stabbed, do seem to mind being burned, and seem to be scurrying out of the cavern as quickly as they can before the flames consume them.

Is Scorn sad to see Repugnus fall into the hole? Actually.. yeah, she is. Mainly because she won't be able to recover the body. And also because he was fun to taunt and stab, I guess. Holding the Ravage tape against her chestplate with blade arms, though if he wants down he's more than welcome, she can only give a low chitter before turning on a heel and fluttering fast in the wake of the Repugnus creatures to get to the surface. "Contrail went topside to radio the shuttle, so it should be waiting for us, hurry!" And while they all saw the Monsterbot likely fall to his doom, she gets the inkling that isn't the last of him. He's too stubborn to die, in her opinion.

Ravage is flung by Backfire... oh, rest assured, if this ends up in the report heads will roll. <<Thirty seconds... Where is your head of a friend anyway, Backfire?>> He refrains from shifting since Scorn's got it all under control, right? Besides, he dumped a fair bit of energon into that double-bomb and would rather not waste what remains. <<Get us out of here, Scorn. There is no time to truly wait. Let Backfire do as Backfire is wont to do.>>

Daring a moment, Backfire peeks down into the lung hole.. getting his face scorched to hell in the process. "You served the EMPIRE bravely, Sidewind." he departs to the decapitated head of Singewind.

Getting up to his feet, the Decepticon quickly transforms and rockets for the exit. <<You dimwits, what are you still doing in here?? We gotta go, I have a feeling Sidewind had dynamite for brains.. that guy, such a loyal Decepticon.>>

A shake, shudder, and shiver; and before your eyes BACKFIRE transforms into a F-16C Agile Falcon!

Combat: F-16C Agile Falcon <Backfire> begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit.

Thirty seconds pass, and the bomb goes off! Scorn and Ravage just might be able to make it out in time, but they'll be followed by a powerful blast, spraying flaming napalm right out the mouth of the cavern! The forest is set ablaze in the process and the trees set themselves to busily smashing the fire into submission. Fortunately, this causes most of the wildlife to scatter to avoid being crushed, and this includes Repugnus's little friends.

But what about Repugnus himself? Was he caught in the flames and the blast? Did he die in there? Dare the Decepticons check to make sure?...

Robotic Praying Mantis <Scorn> sadly isn't as fast as a jet, and she isn't interested in getting singed wings. So when Backfire begins rushing up to pass she flits up and immediatly drops just as he goes under so she can land atop his back, digging in with pointed feet and the tip of a blade to keep her from falling off her free ride. They may not get scorched, but it's still hotter than she'd have liked until they burst from the cave mouth, Scorn quickly ditching her mount once they're clear and hovering aloft with buzz of wings to survey the cave belching smoke and fire. "Nh.. I have a weird feeling that he isn't dead, but.. I'm not in the mood to go back in there. Hm, I suggest we head back to base and make our report. Maybe set up a larger team to scout back later. Any objections?"

Ravage is along for the ride. Totally along for the ride. What better way to not get singed than let those carrying you be the nice big wall between all that fire and yourself? <<I purposefully built that to make sure it was beyond standard warhead yields. My concern is not Repugnus, though, but the planet. It needs to die, or at least be rendered immobile permanently.>>

<<So I was watching the human history box, and like.. William Smith infected this spaceship with a virus. Like, I heard humans get them all the time too.. so I was thinking.>> Backfire emits, making his way to the shuttle and transforming.

<<Think we can give this planet herpes or something?>>

The F-16C Agile Falcon transforms with that ever-familiar sound to reveal.. BACKFIRE!!

Once outside they can see the shuttle above the treeline, but fortunately the flames and smoke seem to be scaring off most of the birds for now. It's likely Contrail is there waiting for them.

Is the planet dead? Well, the Decepticons feel a great heaving and shuddering from the planet after the bombs do their work, like there's an earthquake, but then it stops. Perhaps the bomb worked, at least for now.

<<I don't think planets can get that, Backfire.>> Scorn sighs at his suggestions and transforms back to her base mode, being careful not to drop Ravage. <<But I agree, Ravage, we need to render the core inert. But we'll need backup for that. This place is too dangerous to do it ourselves. And besides, if that doesn't work we could just call in an orbital nuke or something.>> She smirks toothily at the thought, taking a moment to watch as the ground shudders below. "Hm.. This'll make an interesting report, that's for sure..." She mutters to herself, but doesn't give it another thought and instead makes her way back to the shuttle with tape and idiot in tow.

Standing up straight, Scorn shifts back into sexy robot mode.

<<Are you sure, that'd be a good achivement to accomplish.>> Backfire adds, vanishing inside the shuttle.

Ravage appreciates the ride. Truly. <<Perhaps we can convince Shockwave to send his precious new Predaking here.>> That draws a soft chuckle from the tape. <<That might prove entertaining. For now, though, rearm, recharge?>>