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Post by Foley on Apr 22, 2013 13:44:48 GMT -5
Outside Cybertron Space sometime after of Optimus Prime and his crew on the Ark in search of energon, during the Great War.
The energy explosion of the laser canon blast was the worst one so far and caused the overhead lighting of the bridge to flicker out and not come back on. It was obvious that the Zodiak was in serious trouble.
Katana stabbed the comm-link on the arm of his chair, "Greasemonkey, you better give me some good news, dammit!"
"Don't bung up your waste port!" the fembot engineer's voice crackled back at him, "We still have full engines and weapons,"
"What do we not have?" half-asked, half-demanded Katana.
"I'd avoid letting them tag our hind parts with that canon for the foreseeable future!"
"Well, ain't that just prime" Katana swore, closing the comm-link and looking at the rest of his bridge crew. "Megabyte, who the hell we aggravate?!"
From the back of the bridge, the ship's data analyst didn't bother to look away from his scanners as he said, "Looks like a Decepticon Vicha-class battle frigate. They must have been hiding in the asteroid field near Moon Beta,"
Wormhole looked back over his shoulder at both Katana and Megabyte, "How is that possible?! It's not like they have enough energon to power a cloaking device! That's the whole reason the Ark and Nemesis left Cybertron in the first place!"
The ship's commander couldn't help but agree with his second-in-command, but another ship-jarring blast prevented him from pondering, let alone answering that particular question. Instead he asked, "Overall shield status?"
Buckshot looked up from the weapons control board to answer, "Sixty-two percent," another concussion forced him to grimace as he reread the indecator, "Make that fifty-eight and falling steady. Not to sound like a squeaky wheel, Skipper..."
"And yet you plan too..." Katana prompted quickly.
"We are a search-and-salvage ship," Buckshot continued with barely a pause, "We really don't have the shields and or weapons to properly combat a battle frigate, even if we had what is left of the Autobot fleet ready to come to our rescue."
Katana thought for grimly for a moment before slamming his fist into the arm of his chair with a loud curse, he then looked to his pilot, "Hyperspace, get us out of here."
The pilot worked his controls like a master concert pianist, "Gotta suggestion on what course I should take?"
"Evasive actions until your certain that they won't get a sensor lock on our head when we go to transwarp then punch it." Katana replied as he stepped down and moved to stand next to Wormhole.
"The Ark's original course?" asked Wormhole, "You sure that's such a good idea, given our current circumstances?"
Katana nodded, "Long range sensor scans show that there is several planets that are on the other side of a radioactive nebula. My hope is that even if our adversaries are crazy enough to chase us inside, they will lose us for good. At least long enough that we can find a planet somewhere so we can set down for repairs."
"And our mission?" Wormhole asked slightly anxious.
"Finding Prime and the other missing Autobots will have to take a backseat until we are back at one-hundred percent and not being chased across the galaxy." Katana replied grimly, "Otherwise someone will be sent out to carry out our mission with the added one of finding our remains."
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Post by Foley on Apr 23, 2013 13:15:00 GMT -5
Hornhelm watched the Autobot prey limp forward in a futile attempt to escape. When Shockwave gave him the assignment to hunt down some little energon-salvage scow, Hornhelm was originally insulted beyond belief, but he quickly learned enough to change his mind about just how much glory he would be able to reap from this hunt, and of course the added info did not come from the one-eyed, over sized calculator, but rather his own...well placed font of information. Watching the forward view screen, Hornhelm could not help but wonder what the mighty Megatron had been thinking by leaving Shockwave in charge. Hornhelm also wondered just how much of a reward he would reap by finding and rescuing the Decepticon founder.
"Report," he calmly called out, never taking his eye off the screen.
"Shields half gone," Nightmare replied from the weapons port, "Engines leaking drive plasma but still able to make transwarp if they wanted to."
"Their commander won't do that unless they manage to give us the slip long enough to make the jump," Hornhelm calmly replied.
"Which won't happen," the pilot Screwloose announced from the conn station. His maniacal grin unnerved most of Hornhelm's crew but there was no denying that he was the best pilot in the entire Decepticon fleet. "Not as long as I'm on their tail. He-he-he."
"We should take them now!" Nightmare turned from his station and gave Hornhelm a challenging glare, "Extrapolated course projections say they're are trying to make a run for it towards a highly charged nebula."
"Your point?" Hornhelm meet the challenge head-on.
"They go in there, our sensors will be next to useless and we will lose them!" shouted Nightmare, "Our orders..."
"Our orders," snapped the commander, "and how we carry them out is my business and my business alone. If I have to remind you of that again, Nightmare, and I will rip your fuel pump out through your faceplate. And don't worry about losing the Auto-jokes" Hornhelm added in a softer tone pointing dismissively at the screen, "No matter where they run, or how, or how fast they scurry off to whatever hole they manage to find we will find them. We will find them and we will crush them to scrap!"
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Post by Foley on Apr 29, 2013 1:03:39 GMT -5
Another ship rocking blast forced Buckshot to hang on to the armrests of his chair with a vice-like grip, "Don't know who they got manning those forward guns, but I'd promise Primus anything he wanted for the 'bot to take a leak!"
Katana silently agreed with the sentiment more then the way it was put.
"They're hailing us!" Megabyte almost yelped from surprise.
Katana really couldn't blame him. Most Decepticons tend to shoot first and gab with their victems later if at all. Since he was pretty sure that his opponent did not have a firing solution that would have blown the ship to pieces, Katana was sure that they weren't wanting to talk terms of a peaceful surrender.
"On screen," he ordered as he sat up straight in his command chair. He had no intention of surrendering in any fashion, but a little parlay might give him a clue as to why they were after him and his ship beyond the Decepticon desire to destroy all Autobots and buy Greasemonkey time to fix up their failing shields and weapons systems.
"Greetings, I am Hornhelm, master and commander of the Decepticon battle frigate Dagger's Tip and I assume that I am speaking to Katana of the Autobot ship Zodiak?"
Katana's expression hid his surprise that he was known to this bot, considering he had never laid eyes on him before. "That is correct." was all he said in response to the Decepticon's opening gambit. "It seems my reputation proceeds me."
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Post by Foley on Apr 29, 2013 1:13:44 GMT -5
Hornhelm grinned almost as wide as Screwloose, his information concerning just how stern the stuff that Katana was compossed of was spot-on. Most bots in this position would allow surprise govern their reactions and Hornhelm loved surprising his prey, because oft times surprise lead to fear and fear lead to careless mistakes that would lead to the prey's fuel spilling onto the cold hard ground. Yes, it could be said that Hornhelm liked Katana from the start.
"I wouldn't say so much as your reputation, sir," Hornhelm said still smiling, "More like I have a preference in knowing as much as I can about the prey that I am stalking whenever I go on the hunt."
"So for some reason we are your current 'prey'?" the image of Katana asked from the viewscreen. "Can I at least assume that it's for some reason more then just for your amusement?"
Hornhelm stood up and took a few steps towards the forward screen. "That depends," he said lightly.
"On?'
"On just how honest and forthcoming you are about your current mission and the state of the Autobot Command structure in the wake of losing Optimus Prime." answered Hornhelm in a cool, almost frigid, manner.
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Post by Foley on Jun 3, 2013 17:19:37 GMT -5
A grim expression washed over Katana's faceplate. Going by the briefing he had been given prior to setting off on this hunt, Hornhelm was pretty certain as to just what type of answer he was about to receive.
Katana didn't disappoint, "Slag you."
Hornhelm leaned back in his command chair and gave off an exaggerated sigh and said with mock sadness, "Then you leave me no choice then to bring that junk pile you call your ship to a halt and take you down like a wild turbo fox."
"You can try, Hornhelm, you most certainly try. Zodiak out."
Nightmare snorted at his station, "That could've gone better." he then turned to face Hornhelm, "And they are still heading for the nebula." he added in a way the caused the commander to grind his teeth.
"Screwloose, increase speed! I want to overtake that scraplet's nest before they enter the nebula!" Hornhelm snapped, then turned and gave a cold stare to Nightmare, "Since you're sooooo keen on shooting off something, let's make something other then your mouth. Arm all weapons and take out their engines only!"
"Just they're engines, Commander?" asked Nightmare archly.
"Is there a problem with you doing that, Nightmare. I was told you are one of the best marksmen in the entire Decepticon army. Surely you can pinpoint your fire on their engines without any difficulty."
Nightmare bristled but did not take the bait Hornhelm had laid in front of him, "My question is why not just destroy them?"
"Because," Hornhelm answered as if he was talking to a newly minted protoform, "Katana and his band of salvage experts know where Prime and the Ark landed, and I want that information for my own. Besides, it's obvious that the only way we are going to get that information from them, once we capture them, is by...interrogation...and I intend to wring every single ounce of pain I can from Katana personally before I extinguish his arrogant, useless spark."
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Post by frayniac on Jun 4, 2013 7:00:59 GMT -5
'How did they know?' thought Katana as soon as the vidscreen cut out. 'How could they know?'
They could have detected the same faint radiation trails that the Autobot Science Commission had found, but then how would they know his name and the finer details of his ship and crew? Perhaps they were tracking the missing Nemesis and had stumbled upon them? No- same problem, plus not even the Decepticons sent a warship on a salvage mission.
'How are those engines of yours looking, Greasemonkey?' he called into the comm link, trying to hide any sense of desperation that may have sneaked into his vocal processor.'
'I need the one thing we ain't got!' cried the fembot over the sound of burning plasma and grinding metal- 'TIME! Output is down and there is a chance we'll explode whatever we do, so I suggest we just go for it! I await your orders captain.'
'I'll see if I can get you some of that time you're after.' Katana replied, and immediately switched channel frequency to the defence array housed on top of the ship- 'Buckshot, how are you feeling up there?, you looking for some excitement?
'You give me targets Captain, and I'll give you explosions.'
Katana couldn't help but laugh to himself- The ship was officially registered as having the bare minimum in weaponry- just enough to shatter a few asteroids on the way out of Cybertronian space and no more, but he knew that a mech like Buckshot wouldn't get into an old crate like the Zodiak without making a few improvements of his own. If the gunner was going to go down, it looked like he was going to go down fighting.
His mind automatically swept the ship and almost without thinking he gave orders to the rest of his crew-
'Squealer, have the medbay ready for a worst case scenario. activate the med drones to help you, I can't guarantee there'll be anyone else. Firebrand, I can't tell you where to be, so you'll just have to be everywhere!'
'Oxide, Ramshackle, get yourself armed and prepare to recieve boarders.' He'd seen the two of them lift shuttles between them and tear open vacuum hatches with their bare hands. 'Primus only knows what would happen to anyone who gets within grappling distance of those two.' he thought.
'Sir' they both grunted in unison.
'Steelspur, ready the escape hatches and prime the explosives in pods beta, delta, and lambda. Lonewolf and Ratrun, get yourselves starboard and man the grav lifters, if we need to get in close out of the range of their turrets, that should help us do it quickly.'
'Hyperdrive, Wormhole, prep the ship for Transwarp travel, destination- anywhere but here. I want us moving as soon as Greasemonkey gives us the word.
'Megabyte- keep trying to contact Cybertron and let them know whats happening. If we can get through to Autobot Command and hold these Cons off for long enough then maybe some backup can arrive.'
He said the words but he knew them not to be true.
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Post by Foley on Jun 4, 2013 22:03:47 GMT -5
Megabyte nodded his acknowledgment and turned back to his communication board and tapping out the message he had been ordered to send to Iacon. From the way Greasemonkey was talking things on board the Zodiak were about to come to a head one way or another, and Megabyte had not signed on for a suicide mission. Making sure that everyone else was busy carrying out Katana's orders or just simply trying to keep the ship from exploding, he changed the outgoing frequency and tapped out a quick and simple message. He then reached into a hidden compartment under his chest plate and pulled out a small black box and attached it to the underside of the communications board.
Again looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was even looking in his direction, Megabyte slipped off the bridge and made his way to one of the handful of escape pods the ship carried and climbed in. When the thunderous clang of a hard hit echoed through the shaking ship, Megabyte stabbed the launch button, sending the pod and himself into space. As he hurtled away from the doomed Autobot vessel, he was sure it would be taken for granted that the pod had been blasted loose by the attack.
Megabyte smiled, the plan was going just as it was supposed too.
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Post by Foley on Jun 4, 2013 22:21:28 GMT -5
The universe is ultimately a funny place in that it can and often does, play tricks on one's mind and optic sensors. For example: one moment Hyperdrive was plotting a course for trans-warp while trying to keep out of the range of the weapon's fire that was trying to tear the ship and the it's crew to pieces just as Katana gave the order to engage the drive. The next moment a blinding white flash all but burns out his optics and slams him forward into the helm controls.
For a brief moment (when the universe still made sense), Hyperdrive struggled to right himself as the ship suddenly bucked like a wild stallion. That was when the unkind unfunny universe suddenly twisted in and around itself. That wasn't nearly as bad as the pain that ripped through his body with such intensity that it felt like it not only reached his spark, but the very core of the atoms that made up the metal of his body.
Then blissfully nothing...
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Post by Foley on Jun 4, 2013 22:56:36 GMT -5
"They're gone!" Screwloose exclaimed, not sure if his optics weren't playing tricks on him. A quick diagnostic on his eyes and on his controls confirmed that the ship he was trying to ram was no longer in front of him.
"What?!"[/i] demanded Hornhelm leaping to his feet.
Lockjaw, who had been manning the sensors, spoke up quietly, "Confirmed, sir. The Zodiak appears to have managed to jump to trans-warp."
Nightmare leaped to his own feet and turned angerly towards Hornhelm. "I knew this would happen! You and your 'Great Hunt', this need to engage a foe personally is a farce and now it's caused us to fail in our mission! I told Shockwave that he should have placed me in charge, that would've"
Nightmare did not get to finish the statement he began due to Hornhelm's fist backhanding the 'bot, sending him flying across the bridge and crashing to the deck with a thunderous clang. "That will be enough, Nightmare. I've grown tired of your caterwalling and complaints and out right challenges to my authority." A long sword emerged from a compartment in Hornhelm's leg and he grasped it, raising it over his head ready to sever Nightmare's head from body.
"Hornhelm," Lockjaw called out, "I'm picking up a small object to our port side. Looks like an escape pod and it's..."
"It's what?!" roared Hornhelm, whirling around to point his sword at Lockjaw, "Speak plain or join Nightmare in his coming execution!"
"It's transmitting a Deception distress code!"
The Decepticon commander threw his head back in triumphant laughter. "Bring it on board, Lockjaw! That is indeed an ally out there. One that gave me all the information we've had on our prey up to now and will allow us to succeed in our mission regardless to the fact that the Autobots managed to get away."
"You had a spy amoung them?" Nightmare couldn't believe what he was hearing as he climbed to his feet.
"Indeed," Hornhelm said smiling as he put his sword away, "As you can see, Nightmare, I plan ahead. And my spy will tell us where to find the Ark and Megatron, and you might just live long enough to see me elevated to his right hand!"
[/color]
to be continued...
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