Transformers: World War II

[General Havoc]

"He is the enemy, Doc. Do you people let multiple-murderers out of prison the instant they say they promise not to do it anymore? Do you tell the police to stop wasting their time watching them once you let them go? Or is he 'different'? Does he 'mean it' this time?"

He rolled his optics. "When he decides to light a city on fire for the hell of it, or blow up a company of Joes because one of them didn't bow to him enough, be sure to remind me how little I was supposed to be watching him. Until then, I plan to spend a great deal of my time watching him, for your own sake and everyone else's here."

"And if you don't like it, Doc, file a complaint."

[Dark Silver]

Drake shook his head, the Autobots working with his team, having to work with a Decepticon, who was aligned with one of his countries allies.

With his Joes, he could order, even help them witht he idea of working with a enemy suddenly turned ally - but with the Cybertronians, he didn't know what to do with them.

"Hunter, get your crew good and settled withthose MAW's. I'll be in in the control room getting a SATCOM update. Everyone, get topped off and get the positions ready. The Krauts will be here before we know it."


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


Place: Allied Forward Command Base Coldstaph
Time: 1545h

They came by land.

The German military had at Coldstaph without hesitation. Primarily a mechanized infantry unit, they had few airtcraft to provide support, though somewhere above, the deep, thrumming sounds of what could onlybe a German bomber could be heard - though not yet seen.

The forces the Germans had commited to the attack on Coldstaph were impressive, as was the fluidity they moved. Armoured cars flowed in scouting lines, protecting the flank of the formation, halftracks carried men and equipment, while tanks, from the older Panzer I all the way to the Panzer IV made up the core. Mobile artillery stood in the very center of their lines, on occassion, the sounds of a explosive charge would be heard, and motors would fly into the air. Exploding into the ground half a mile short of the former Axis base, but getting closer with each shot.

Best estimates now had the Nazi's being within standard engagement distance of Coldstaph within thirty minutes if left unharrassed.

Fortunatly, such was not done.

Impressive as the Axis was, as manuverable their scouting lines had been, the Joes had planned ahead.

As they neared a cropping of trees, a line of armored cars vanished in explosions. Bobbytraps laid by Hunter and his team detonated, leaving the German vehicles balls of flaming wreckage. Other scouts rushed towards the scene of the explosions, only to be caught by periphery charges, more armoured cars and their crew going up in fireballs, flipping into the air, or crashing horribly into their brethern.

Utilizing the distraction, from the flank, the Russians attacked - a column of the Third Motor Calvary flashed in - machine guns and tanks chewing into the suddenly unprepared Germans.

By the time the German's began to react, the Russians were falling back, rushing back to the relative safety of Coldstaph. Overhead, American P-51 Mustangs buzzed, above the height of the german support aircraft. Under each wing, bombs were loaded, and summarily dropped. The distinct sound of the falling weapons whistled through the air, as the German aircraft pulled up, their guns blazing in a attempt to take out the Americans.

Below, the bombs fell into the midst of the German motorized artillery and detonated. Gaps where left, filled only with superheated, molten metal slagheaps and death. AA fire filled the air, but already the American's where turning away. Heading back to take on new ordinance and return for another run.

Though the losses were heavy on the German from the skirmish, taken by surprise as they were - the column did not stop moving. It reformed, falling in on itself becoming more organized, shifting just enough that anymore aerial assaults by bombs would cause less damage.

There was one German tank though, one of the newest models, who would not seem to let the Mustangs go free. While it could not have helped against the Russian calvary, it's gun transversed into the air higher than such a tank should have been capable of.

The explosion which ripped from the tan-colored barrel ripped into the air for ten meters, as the shell it dislodged broke the sound barrier. The unlucky Mustang caught in it's path crumpled like tinfoil, the explosion leaving nothing in it's wake.

The tank attempted a second firing, but the others had gone out ofit's range. The sounds of metal grinding and shifting roared out over the sounds of the German column, as Blitzwing took his robot mode. The tanktreads which became his arms gripped a odd looking rifle, the barrel of his tank-mode lifted over his head, mounted on his back.

"Forward you lazy Fleshlings! Press the attack!"

[Charon]

Hunter watched the explosions and dust through a set of binoculars. "Almost... Come on you bastards..."

A scout vehicle tripped another wire only it wasn't an explosion that rocked the air this time. Instead a flare launched up into the air. Hunter caught sight of the flare and grinned. He grabbed the radio and pulled out the long antenna, then flipped the switch.

There was a limited amount of radio detonators, but they had a number of nice features that Hunter was getting very happy about. So he had planted a number of them in a position that, by the time the flare fired out the rear of the enemy formation would be, approximately, on the explosives. Even if it didn't get any vehicles it would likely get infantry and scare the hell out of the Nazis.

[Cynical Cat]

"You've made your opinions real clear," said Stephanie. "Now why don't you stuff them up your exhaust pipe and go do something useful instead of strutting around like an overgrown peacock or a schoolyard bully you tin-plated-" the sound of a distant explosion interrupted her.

"Stephanie," said Deathstrike. "Get under cover. Now."

"Christ I thought they weren't supposed to be here yet."

"The Germans are victors of three campaigns. This is their fourth. They have more operational experience than the Russians or the Americans. They set their own schedule. The Russians are brave, but their command and communications technology is nearly nonexistent and their experience is limited. Even without Decepticon aid, they are in over their heads."

[SirNitram]

"I see Blitzwing! Get ready for airstrikes!" Overload said over the comms. The massive Autobot warrior drew his disruption rifle, keeping low to enjoy the cover of the base for now. "Hit 'em hard, everyone! Next one who bitches instead of engaging is my new CQC weapon!"

[Cynical Cat]

Doctor Killian broke for the interior of the fortress at a run. Deathstrike rose up on repulsor power and then kicked in his thrusters. Plasma flared from the bottom of his feet and the Cybertronian shot into the air, transforming into plane mode. "Of all the Autobot tanks I would have to go into battle beside, it would have to be Cavalier," he said softly. "Would Breakout be too much to ask for?"

[General Havoc]

As the young human doctor ran off, Cavalier could only shake his head.

"Right," he muttered. "He murders people for four million years and lays planets to slag, but I'm the bad guy because I said mean things about him."

Humans...

He turned away, the issue forgotten between one moment and the next. Long-range radios were broadcasting sounds of battle in Russian and German, along with background noise. The sounds of screaming shells and exploding tanks, jet wash and bombs falling. Music. And behind the frantic cries for help or cover or warning in three languages, he could hear something else, a deep, modulated voice screaming instructions to "fleshlings".

He wasn't entirely certain of who it was, but the voice sounded like Blitzwing's.

He flipped onto the Joe's frequency. "I hope you all are hearing what I'm hearing," he said, "because it sounds like we've got plenty of Jerries on their way, and at least one Decepticon with them. You want me to make a spoiling attack? Or wait here for them to show up?"

[Dark Silver]

Deathstrike was in the air, transforming into his spacefighter mode, when the first German aircraft arrived. There we Messerschmitt Me 410, twin propped fighters, their fuselage had a distinct oval shape, their engine pods mounted forward of the wings, on either side, twin guns mounted above the props. Their hulls were dark purple in color, with grey highlights along the wing in design.

On their fuselage, just beneatht he cockpit, were distinct symbols, on the wingmen was the hooded Cobra with the swatika craddled in the throat - red and purple in color on a black field.

On the lead, was a entirely different symbol. A deep royal purple in color, the etchings formed a distinct, facelike symbol. The symbol of the Decepticons.

At the sight of the incoming Deathstrike, the German planes peeled away, curving around the Decepticon fighter, staying out of it's direct fire, the Decepticon symboled Me 410 climbing into the air, going over and above the spacefighter, and performing a manuver no German aircraft should be able to do, stopped in midair, correct it's path, and came up behind Deathstrike, guns blazing.

No bullets flew from it's guns, instead bolts of pure energy traced the air, climbing slowly upward from the bottom of the curve, towards Deathstrike.

"Well, look what the Empty dragged in..." came a slightly clipped voice, not bothering with comm channels. The voice was unmistakable the voice of a Combaticon, "I never thought we would see you again....".

In a straight run, Deathstrike could outpace Vortex any day, but Vortex did not intend to outrun the Decepticon - he merely was going to out fly him.


The other three 410's had chosen not to follow Vortex into combat against Deathstrike - infact, they were ordered not to. They made a beeline straight for Coldstaph - their bellies heavy with twin bombs.

The Joe's were rushing to the AA emplacements, guns turning to track the incoming enemy fighters, flak bursting into the air as guns attempted to take their enemies down. The first Me 410 weaved it's way through the first hail of Anti-Aircraft guns, and released the first bomb, right towards the outer wall, before peeling away for a second run.



High above, nestled within the clouds,in a holding pattern where few could see or reach him, Blast Off waited. He tracked the German Me 410 Hornets on his own radar. He witnessed the release of the first bombs, and he witnessed the engagement of Deathstrike and Vortex.

"Such vulgar displays," he intoned in his cool, crisp way, like some high settled aristocrat, as he watched the display below him.

"Onslaught to Blast Off. Begin bombardment."

"Do note, your precious plan to assault Coldstaph and eliminate the American's and their Autobot allies would be a complete and utter failure without my invaluable aide."

The Combaticon sniper transformed then, from his Junkers Ju 290 vehicluar mode, into his robot form. The wings closed in on his back, as he hovered in mid-air, unaffected even by the air currents buffeting him.

The Combaticon hefted his ion-particle pistol, taking careful aim as he looked down on the blue and white world below, and opened fire on their former residence of Coldstaph base.

[Cynical Cat]

"Vortex is here," said Deathstrike as the Combaticon rose above him to loop around him to come up behind him. That was fine with Deathstrike. He wouldn't be here by the time the Combaticon arrived and Vortex would be badly out of position to deal with Crosswind if the Autobot was worth a rolled up ball of aluminum foil.

The Decepticon fired thrusters and roared through the air on pillar of plasma and roared straight toward one of the German Me-410s. Violet light sliced through the air, the first shot missing. The second beam struck the fuselage and lasted for all of point five seconds. The German plane exploded.

Deathstrike turned away, a second Me-410 with a stream of superheated air and smashing it with a hammer of turbulence. Then his engines hit maximum safe power, which wasn't nearly as impressive as it could be when one of his wings had been rebuilt with the best alloys he could manage with human technology. He shot through the air, leaving Vortex to come up behind empty air. The Combaticon still had a view of his tail, but it was a long distance one instead of close up and personal.

[SirNitram]

The bombardment would tear the base apart. Overload simply acted. "Everyone, get away from the base or switch off your auto-aim." And then he demonstrated his source of his name. Disruption waves radiated out in all directions, an attempt to cover as much of the base as possible with sensor-scrambling white noise.

[LadyTevar]

Pathfinder was outside the base for the moment, using his speed to "shoot-n-scoot" along the flanks of the Cobra column. He'd moved in after the chaos of the Joe's explosive traps with the Third Motor Calvary, his cannon firing High Explosive rounds into the confused Germans. When the order came to pull back, Pathfinder voluntarily brought up the rear, covering their Russian allies as the Allied planes buzzed in.

Unlike the Russians, Pathfinder didn't fall all the way back, but used his advanced speed and cover of the bombing to rush to the German's other flank, where he again started taking HE potshots at the German tanks. The Autobot didn't stay in place long enough to even see the shots land, continuously moving. On Cybertron, his speed and maneuverabilty had been his strength -- Deathstrike had slagged him only by taking those away first.

[General Havoc]

While Pathfinder fought alongside the Soviet 3rd Motorized, on the opposite flank, a single tank was fighting a war all to himself.

The German artillery barrage had laid smoke and dust up throughout the air, as had the American fighter attack and the countermeasures the Germans employed. Into this soup poured the northern flankguard of the German assault, looking for Allied formations that might threaten the attack, spearheaded by a half-track armed with a 37mm AT gun.

The halftrack was the first to die.

A high explosive shell blew it to pieces without warning, before the unfortunate crew therein could even determine that there was an enemy out there. The tanks supporting it instantly raced forward, their commanders hunting for any sign of a quarry. For several brief seconds nothing moved, and then suddenly the lead tank, a Panzer III, was decapitated by an armor piercing shell, and then the enemy came into view.

A monster of a tank, its turret built forward as though eager to rush towards the enemy, it came churning out of the smoke and dust like a primeval monster, its guns swinging back and forth as it sought for targets and found them. Before the startled Germans could react, a volley of rockets flew off of the armored vehicle, screaming like banshees and casting up huge towers of dirt and debris wherever they hit. No tanks died to the rockets, unguided and inaccurate as they were, though one lucky shot exploded an ammunition truck which threw fireworks into the air and cast flaming debris in every direction like an erupting volcano, but the effect was even more overwhelming to the startled German tankers, who nevertheless began to fire back.

Cavalier advanced alone, over open ground, shells flying past him as he returned every shot with one twice as powerful, flinging lasers at any soft skin vehicle in sight, and armor piercing shells at his main targets, the enemy tanks. Shells whizzed past him as he advanced, several shattering against his front glacis plate, fired by Pz. 38s and short-barreled Panzer IVs. As he advanced, salvoes of rockets flew, decimating anything in front of him soft-skinned enough to be affected, and he blasted away with reckless abandon with his main gun, aiming at the largest, best-armored targets he could find, hoping to punch a hole through the flankguard and attack the real meat of the German assault force.

[Dark Silver]

Explosions ripped through the German formation, destroying armored vehicles - several tanks were caught in the secondary explosions of the radio controlled bombs. Infantry broke lines, vehicles rushed ahead, all kept on a tight schedual by the commanding voice of Onslaught, pushed ahead by promise of victory via the Combaticon's grand plan.

The flanking wing on the right crumpled in as the Italian forces crumpled against Cavalier's assault - soft skinned vehicles and men dying in balls of flaming wreckage and charred flesh. Tank armor caved under the cybertronian warmachine's shells, their innards being consumed by cleansing flames, before their armor slagged then exploded outward all within seconds.

Italian marked Panzers turned to face the oncoming attacker, main cannons firing. Powerful as they were, the shells impacted and brushed off the heavy cybertronian alloys which plated Cavalier's vehicular form. Though while a single shell proved little true threat to the Autobot war-machine, the number of them could eventually weaken his armor, and cause severe damage. Luckily, Cavalier's own weapons where making short work of the tanks - despite having Decepticon assistance, it didn't seem to affect the Nazi materials sciences.

That was, until Cavalier's weapon trained on, and opened fire on one of the newest models of Nazi tank. So new was the design, that the Autobot wouldn't even have it in his targetting database. The tank was massive, compared to other Axis tanks, heavy treads sunk nearly a meter into the ground, yet the thing still moved nimbly and with little problem. Even had Cavalier not been facing it, had not seen it on his targetting scopes...there was little chance he would have missed the behemoth's approach. The tank was not the least bit stealthy, everything from the gearing in it's transmission, to the creak of the heavy metal treads were loud, and as the tank's main cannon transversed, even that was audiably heard on the battlefield.

Cavalier's shell exploded on the forward, slightly slopped armor - not penetrating a inch. The armor was blackened at the point of impact, slight stressing would be detectable to those with instruments to pick it up - but otherwise the tank seemed perfectly fine - and the sunlight caught the purple emblem of the Decepticons displayed upon the turrent. Two more guns appeared on the turrent, seeming to rise from the rear of it, before settling upon Cavalier.

"That almost hurt, Autobot" came the voice of Brawl, "Let me show you how to really make some noise!"

With that, the smaller weapons opened fire, twin cones of pure, high frequency sound ripped through the air - the blast ceasing after five seconds. Like a tidal wave, it ripped through the atmosphere, German armor and bodies flying, armor crumpling and bodies rupturing by the pressure wave. Ground kicked up hard dust flying into the air, hazing the battlefield.

And through it all, Brawl's laugh and the sound of his treads closing in on the Autobot tank was audible.


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


As Pathfinder helped the Russians flanking attack, covering their retreat, a lone German armored car tore through a line of trees to the Autobot's current rear. It made abeeline, the 50 calibur gun mounted on it's rear opening fire, swinging to rip through the Russian lines, and against the Autobot's hull. While the gun looked and sounded like a a German 7.92mm MG34 machine gun, the bullets it fired were far different - acting more like a shotgun blast. Pellets tore into the Russian lines, exploding where they made contact with flesh and armor - acting like miniture frag gernades.

Swindle's cackling, swarmy laugh filled the air, as he used his speed to strafe the humans, and their Autobot ally.

"Wha's wrong Pathie?" the Combaticon shouted, cutting a sliding turn that slide him into a scattering group of Russians, flattening them beneath his hulk, before transforming - armor and components moving to his robot configuration, the scatter-cannon shifting to his right arm, his left hand holding his gyro-gun, the Decepticon symbol proudly displayed on his chest. A Russian T-34 opened fire on Swindle, the shell causing the Combaticon to stumble forward, before he turned, and his own cannon ripped through the tank's armor, turning it into so much swiss cheese.



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


"Blitzwing," Onslaught spoke over the comms, annoyance creeping into his vocal processor, "Leave the humans be, and take out the source of that jamming. Blast Off cannot perform his bombardment duties if he's being blocked."

Blitzwing growled, the hulking Decepticon warrior hefted his electron-scimitar in one hand, and his laser rifle in the other, red optics glowing. "Alright Onslaught.." the Decepticon Triple Changer said, massive strides taking him across the battlefield. Once cleared of the human filth, Blitzwing took to the air, antigravs pushing him from the ground, then transformed into his aerial mode. The jet-fighter tour off the slips of gravity, streaking through the air towards Coldstaph. Overload had knocked out Radar, and as Blitzwing neared the fortress, he flew towards the ground, and at the last possibly nano-click, changed to his King Tiger-tank mode. The impact shook the ground in all directions, as the 8.8cm turrent lifted, aimed at the fortress, and opened fire.

Blitzwing had a good idea of who was causing the transmission - there were only a few Transformers who could produce the kind of interference that jammed their radars over such a wide field, and even fewer who were on Earth or on the Ark - and Blitzwing seriously doubted Prime would have sent Blaster here...

"Come on out Overload.." the triple changer called out, another highly explosive shell ripped into the Joe defenses surronding the fortress, as the ground exploded around him from artillery and machine gun fire.


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



Deathstrike wasn't there.

Vortex mulled this over for less than a microsecond, as the traitor tore off on full burn, and ripped open two of his escorted fliers. Vortex watched with a somewhat sadistic gleee as the weak flesh-creatures which piloted the Me 140's died in their vehicles - not even being able to eject.

Again, Vortex knew Deathstrike could take him on any straight run, and while Blast Off's bombardment had ceased....it wouldn't be long before the traitor decided to go snooping in the upper atmosphere.

Vortex put on his best speed, even from a distance, he was spitting electron pulses from his weapons, trying at the very least to keep Deathstrike focused on him, where he could play his own game and outmanuver the larger, better armed Decepticon.

This was, of course, until he felt the pain of AA fire.

All about him, suddenly, the air was filled with Flakk. If he was in robot mode, Vortex's optics would have widdened. While his armor wasn't shredded, he felt the pain through his circuits as they stressed his armor. He frame rocked with each blow, and then he felt the bee-stings of human bullets stiching along his left flank.

Unknowingly, Vortex had been caught in Overload's radar scrambling field, and he hadn't seen the arrival of the Joe's second squad of Mustangs.

"Yo' Joe!" came the shout over the comms, as Flightstick - the Joe's Squadron Leader, stiched his guns along Vortex's side and then over the canopy.

Assaulted on all sides, a veritable choice picking for Deathstrike to one-shot out of combat, Vortex decided it was more prudent to run

"I'm out of here Onslaught, falling back for repairs" came Vortex over the secured comm, and he flew away, faster than the American fighters could keep up.

[LadyTevar]

"Wha's wrong Pathie?" the Combaticon shouted, cutting a sliding turn that slide him into a scattering group of Russians, flattening them beneath his hulk, before transforming - armor and components moving to his robot configuration, the scatter-cannon shifting to his right arm, his left hand holding his gyro-gun, the Decepticon symbol proudly displayed on his chest. A Russian T-34 opened fire on Swindle, the shell causing the Combaticon to stumble forward, before he turned, and his own cannon ripped through the tank's armor, turning it into so much swiss cheese.

"Not a thing, Swindle," Pathfinder replied with glee as he quick-fired two AP rounds from his main turrent at the distracted Decepticon. With Swindle's stumble and his back turned, Pathfinder just couldn't resist taking the shot. They were roughly equal in armor and power, so it was always amusing when Pathfinder ran into Swindle. Sometimes the quips and insults were the best part of the fight. "I thought you learned not to turn your back on me."

[SirNitram]

"If it isn't the two faced loudmouth." Overload rose from behind the fortifications, levelling his disruption cannon. "Hope you like the ground.. Your sensors will never fly you straight around me!" The static intensified as Blitzwing approached, as a massive kitbashed cannon was drawn. A 26-pounder British gun, it would probably not do as well against Blitzwing as a true King Tiger. But then again, it would be fun to see.

Aiming down at the tank, the makeshift shotgun fired an armour piercing round at the hatch of the cupola. With a disturbing KA-CHUNK noise, a new round chambered in.

[Charon]

Hunter swore repeatedly as a Decepticon transformed repeatedly before landing and shelling the fort. "Why the hell did nobody mention some of these assholes can change into lots of different things?!" Hunter eyed the position of the King Tiger-tank through binoculars, then shouted out the coordinates to the mortar teams.

Ducking low again as a shell blew up several meters away and rained debris on them Hunter cursed and ran over to the plunger that connected to the line of explosives he'd managed to get buried with the help of the Autobots. Whoever this was, he was well inside the line of defenses so it wouldn't do squat to hurt him, but it might get his attention, and would slow down reinforcements. Hunter primed the plunger and then shoved it down. Then he and three other Joes started to move under cover, MAWs in hand.

[Cynical Cat]

Back in the good old days the Seekers had flown with Deathstrike, tearing Autobots out of the sky and covering his attack runs before laying down some serious hurt of their own. Even's Starscream's odious personality was eclipsed by his flying skills.

Now? There were Autobot warriors he respected. Prime, of course. Ultra Magnus and Ironhide and Jazz. Jetfire. Breakout. Others as well. But who was he fighting with? Cavalier, a third rate, self righteous tank 'bot who couldn't sort his allies from his enemies. Crosswind, who was apparently such a hanger queen he still wasn't in the air and engaging Vortex. It was almost enough to make him believe he was cursed. Why did 'bots like Jetfire or Breakout only show up when he was fighting on the other side. At least Overload knew his stuff, but who would have imagined that he would end up missing Starscream of all 'bots?

Still, it looked like the human AA had scored hits on Vortex hard enough to scramble him up, which was a good thing. Deathstrike had no desire to play dog fight deep down in the gravity well against a more maneuverable flier with powers to use the atmo as a weapon. Air was for biologicals.

He lifted his nose and headed for the sky. The most immediate threat to Stephanie's life wasn't Vortex or Blitzkrieg, but the high altitude bombers. One of them was probably Blast Off, which under other circumstances would have been a favorable match up. He had been built to slag 'bots like him. Unfortunately he was in less than optimal condition and only had a few missiles worth shooting. Even without having to deal with Blast Off's German back up, that made things a lot harder. And that was without touching the issue of if Blitzwing's buddies Astrotrain or Octane was also up there, ready to give Deathstrike a reception he wouldn't survive.

There were fates worse than death. He had lived one for four million years. If he died here and now, it would be paying back a debt of honour and as a warrior. Not a pathetic scavenger, not a labor 'bot grinding himself down to make another rich, not a gladiator fighting for the amusements of his betters but as Deathstrike, the warrior.

That was not such a terrible thing.

[General Havoc]

Well, he'd gotten their attention.

Debris and dust flew in every direction as Brawl turned on his sonic emitters and simply blew everything in front of him at Cavalier. Cavalier ignored the majority of it. An armored vehicle was one of the most durable objects on earth vis-a-vis omnidirectional shock waves, a fact that Brawl never seemed to learn, too impressed with his own presumed capabilities.

"Noise is all you're good for, Brawl," he shouted back, though given the deafening racket Brawl was making, he had no idea if Brawl even heard him.

In the end it didn't matter. He wasn't here to debate one-liners. He was here to hand Brawl his Decepticon ass.

A volley of rockets flew forth blasting dirt and debris into the air to add to the chaos that Brawl had kicked up with his sonic blasters, as Cavalier floored his motor and raced obliquely to the approaching Brawl. He fired another shell while on the move, largely a distraction effort as he knew he couldn't punch through Brawl's frontal armor, not at this range, and closer in Brawl's main gun could punch through him like paper. He needed to get a shot in on Brawl's side or rear armor. Brawl was advancing towards him, eager to blow him to pieces. He needed to let Brawl think he was about to let him do that.

As rockets were readied, he unloaded them in the general direction of Brawl, hoping to confuse him long enough to get the flank shot he needed. Every time the smoke cleared, he re-oriented himself to aim directly at Brawl, and every time the smoke kicked back up, he zigzagged to Brawl's left. Hopefully Brawl would interpret it merely as evasive maneuvers designed to avoid being shot (which they partly were).

And if not, well... there were other options.

[Dark Silver]

The 28-pounder recoiled in Overloads grip, even as the shell autoloaded into the makeshift shotgun. Blitzwing rocked with the shell's impact, Cybertronian armour taking the hit and being able to simply withstand the kinetic force the explosion rolling over the Triple-changers hull and dispersing.

With the appearence of Overload on the battlefield, Blitzwing transformed once again, treads shifting outward, seperating - the heavy Tank's center mass shifting about to it's robot configuration. The tank's treads were apparent on Blitzwing's arms and legs, the turrent so capable of lobbing explosive shells on his back - the cannon pointing skyward - both hands gripped a weapon - a crackling electro-scimitar in one,photon-electro-disruptor in the other. "Come on down Autobrat" the Decepticon shouted, hefting his gun and opening fire, even as he began circling the Autobot warrior. Dodging around the humanaks massed artillery.

He never even noticed the Joes.

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

Swindle nearly cut a front flip as Pathfinder's rounds struck his back. It was all he could do to stay on the ground, instead letting his gyro temporarily disable, and falling forward on a group of russian infantry who were to slow.

The wet meat of the fleshlings which smeared his tan armour were unnoticed as Swindle rolled onto his back, audio receptors on their most sensitive to listen for the distinctness of Pathfinder's treads, brought the arn mounted weapon to bear and fired his scatter gun in the general direction of the Autobot scout.

Ground and humans were caught in the blast, explosive pellets turned meat into a fine red mist and kicked dirt into the air. Swindle fired twice me, seemingly randomly, as he rolled right and back to he feet, purple optics scanning the battlefield for his Autobot opponent.

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

Deathstrike rocketed through the atmosphere, winds buffeting at him, but not enough to cause him structural concern yet. Despite his sole purpose, Deathstrike wasn't without some form of stealth, his armour normally obscured the rebounding signal from ranged detection systems.

Unfortunately, due to the patchwork nature of his repairs, Deathstrike's natural stealth features were impaired. Anyone looking would note the movement through the air mass, the heat coming off the full burn of his nuclear engines, and the sensor shadow which screamed "look at me!"

Which is exactly what Blast Off did.

Normally steady and secure in his shots, the Combaticon sniper released his first two shots to soon, the blasts missing Deathstrike by a good margin. By the time Blast Off had lined up his third shot and fired, the bolt missed the nosecone, and instead tearing a deep gouge into the left wing strut, tearing through armor and supports. In space, the damage would be negligible, with no atmosphere to put extra stresses on Deathstrike's airframe, but in the atmosphere, he would be a lame duck, unable to maneuver in fighter mode without causing tremendous amounts of new damage.

He would have to go into the fight in his mech-mode.

"Deathstrike," Blast Off said, his voice never betraying any anxiety he may be feeling, "I did not expect to see you on this primitive mudball of a planet. Fighting for the Autobots no less. Don't worry, I will put you down like the mechano-dog you are."

With that, Blast Off stood upright, seeming to hover in mid air, as he lined up his shot again, and fired.

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


Cavalier's rockets and gun fire exploded around Brawl, and the Decepticon heavy warrior reveled in the feel of flames over his hull. This is what he lived for, and as the Autobot tank juked and jived over the battlefield, Brawl was pouring on the speed, his own main gun answering, sonic disruptors pulsing in second intervals - disrupting rockets and causing them to fly wide.

Within minutes though, Brawl was transforming, his sonic disruptor rifle in hand. He switched the weapon to ion-blast mode, and began strafing Cavalier instead of taking the shots where he stood.

"You can do better than that Autobot! You had better if you don't want to wind up as tinfoil!"

Purple bolts of ion energy flew about Cavalier, tearing into the ground and causing the air around the Autobot to ionize with each bolt. If anything, it seemed like Brawl was a horrible shot in robot mode.

[Cynical Cat]

Pain shot through Deathstrike's tactile receptors as half of his left wing tumbled away. The old wound. Again. The one that had forced his retreat at Styrex and the one that had caused him to crash while attempting to entry to Earth's atmosphere. He transformed back into mech mode.

"How gracious of you Blast Off," he replied as he twisted hard to the right and raised his laser. While Deathstrike flew best in vacuum, atmo cut both ways with his laser. The thicker it was the more energy it absorbed, but it also helped the mechanism dump heat.

Normally this kind of fight was one he would do well in. He was a good shot with an effective long range weapon and heavy armour. Unfortunately, a third of his armour was human plate and too many of his laser's components were jury rigged repairs and replacements. He was a clumsy flyer in mech mode and he no longer had the advantage of speed.

He was, however, still Deathstrike and until the last bit of current ceased to run in his body he was still dangerous. He fired his thrusters at full power and rose up while dodging to the left. His laser fired, a brief cutting beam at mid power. It probably wouldn't breach Blast Off's armour if he hit, but it would damage it and the x-ray penetration and ionization effects would damage and disrupt some of the Combaticon's circuitry. Hopefully that would give Deathstrike a temporary advantage that he could exploit.

[LadyTevar]

Swindle's first blind shot sent dirt flying in Pathfinder's wake, but the next shot got lucky as some of the blast hit Pathfinder's side tracks and armor.

Smarting from the sting, Pathfinder snarled. "Still using that scatter-gun, cause you can't hit otherwise, Swindle?" the Autobot taunted, his cannon tracking and firing more AP shells at his rival. "Let me show you real targetting!"

[SirNitram]

Overload took the cheap shot, right into a transforming section as Biltzwing shifted modes. "Oh please. Can't the mighty and glorious decepticon warriors do more than run their vocal circuits?" The big armoured bot had seen the Joes, and never took backup for granted.

[Charon]

Hunter ducked low under some wreckage and checked to see that the other Joes were in position. Seeing them where they needed to be, he nodded to himself and lifted the MAW up to his shoulder and took aim, right at the joint where the leg met the torso. He gave a few seconds for the other Joes to line up their shots and then pulled down on the trigger. The rocket launched from the tube and sped for its target.

Hunter didn't stick around to see if it hit, he dropped the empty tube and was off running to his next position.

[General Havoc]

Brawl transformed.

Cavalier could barely believe his optics, but it was true, Brawl transformed before his very eyes and resumed shooting at Cavalier, his accuracy more terrible even than usual. The reason Cavalier could not believe his optics was because the prospect of Brawl transforming at distance had not entered his head. And the reason it had not entered his head was because it made no damned sense for him to do it.

Brawl was a penultimate tank, armored to the nines, well armed, and almost impossible to kill, yet part of the reason tanks, even Cybertronian ones, were so heavily armored, was because a tank was physically a damned difficult thing to blow apart. Tanks were built to present nothing but a solid wall of sloped, impenetrable armor to the enemy at all times, with no weak points and no vulnerabilities. As long as the tank was a tank, that was easy to do, just keep your front pointed at the enemy, and baring a complete mismatch in quality of weapons and armor, very little harm could come to you.

Once Brawl had shifted into a humanoid, all bets were off. It didn't matter how heavily armored Brawl was, or how invulnerable his frontal plates were, in humanoid form, a robot had far more surface area to cover and it was absolutely inevitable that the armored protection would be less, if only because there were so many joins, limbs, and other vulnerable places that simply physically could not be armored. Obviously, being in humanoid form was useful when the time came to beat the oil out of your opponent physically, but by transforming like that at range, Brawl had done nothing but cut his relative armored protection in half, while giving himself no greater chance to damage Cavalier than he had possessed before.

Ignoring the purple ionization that Brawl saw fit to rain indiscriminately down on the ground, Cavalier lined up his next shot carefully, firing another volley of rockets at Brawl as a distraction. Brawl seemed to be either unable or unwilling to aim properly, but even if he did suddenly start firing straight, Cavalier gauged that so long as he remained in tank form and kept his strongest armor facing Brawl's weapons, he could take it. Meanwhile, he loaded a sabot-discarding shell, a silver-bullet, and lining his cannon up, bounced an invisible, infrared laser off of Brawl's faceplate. His targetting computer used the laser's rebound to calculate wind conditions, atmospheric pressure, and other pertinent figures, and then an instant later, Cavalier screamed to a halt, rocked back once on his suspension, and fired a tungsten-cored, armor piercing shell at Mach 3 straight at the where the bridge of Brawl's nose would have been had the Decepticon been a human.

And no sooner had he fired than Cavalier revved his engine once more and was doing fifty miles an hour again, moving obliquely to Brawl as his autoreload systems slammed another shell into the breach of his cannon. Brawl's aim was horrible right now for some reason, but there was no sense giving him an easier target.

[Dark Silver]

Brawl had indeed transformed - while his tank mode was more heavily armored and secure, his robot mode was far more agile and responsive.

As Cavalier aimed, Brawls internals registered the targeting beam, and when he calculated the optimal moment - when Cavalier would fire - he activated his anti-grav thrusters.

The shell launched at Mach 3, but Brawl was already risen into the air, the bolt missed Brawl, who was already flying over Cavalier, and unleashing bolt after bolt ionized energy into the turret and body of Cavalier. After a few precious seconds of the fire, Brawl landed, right behind his Autobot opponent, shoved the barrel of his sonic weapon against the back of Cavalier's Turrent, and opened fire with a sonic pulse.

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

Pathfinder fired off in succession, and Swindle showcased why his mouth was not his most agile component. He twisted around the first, ducked under another, and fell to the ground so the others flew over his head. He lined up Pathfinder's course, and opened fired with three shots in rapid succession from his arm cannon. The pattern for the pellets were tight, almost like a solid shell this time, instead of the wide indistinct pattern of before.

After the shots were fired, Swindle transformed, switching to his armored car mode, wheels biting into dirt, and roared after Pathfinder, "See, this is why your Pathetic," Swindle called out as the gun auto-trained on Pathfinder, and opened fire again, the armoured car moving in a deep curve to get around the tank.


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

Deathstrike was clumsy in mech-mode flying, Blast off was used to it. He angled himself properly, using his anti-grav thrusters to maneuver in the air, and opened fire on Deathstrike from a distance. The first two shots went just wide, missing Deathstrike with ample room to spare. The next shot struck the Decepticon flier in his right shoulder, one of those still having Cybertronian metal. The bulk of the energy from the blast glazed off, but enough remained to heat the armor and cause pain in Deathstrike's sensor-net.

So intent on his shot, Blast Off missed the shot fired by Deatshtrike's x-ray laser cannon. The blast was aimed true, and struck the Combaticon sniper in his torso. Blast Off's armor was designed to withstand the intense heat and pressures of atmospheric re-entry, and was particularly effective against energy based weapons - to a point. Thankfully, in Deathstrike's weakened condition, the x-ray laser which would have cored out a hole in his torso, simply consumed a few milimeters into it. The ionization effects which traveled through the armor though, energy surges causing glitches in his secondary processor extranious sensor package. Blast Off was down to only what his Optics could see, and his primary targetting computer could compute.

Which for him, was still enough to deal with Deathstrike.

"Give yourself up Deathstrike," the sniper spoke, "I do not relish your destruction - but I shall dispose of you in due course." Saying that, Blast Off was raising himself higher into the air, moving in a arch that would take him over Deathstrike's current position, and bring him up behind, every two seconds, the Combaticon Sniper was taking a shot, if only to distract his former compatriot - making sure to occasionally hit Deathstrike in the parts which held the stronger armor.

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

Rockets struck Blitzwing from the rear and side, even as the shell from Overload's 28 pounder blasted into his right shoulder, fracturing the armor and shattering the tread.

Blitzwing roared with the pain, dropping his Electro-saber as the pain short through his internal sensor net, and his auto-repair systems went to work rerouting energon flow and electrical impulses.

Blitzwing didn't scream though, as he hefted his gun, and opened fire directly on Overload. Pulses of purple particle energy flew from the barrel, striking Overload along his right leg, and stitching a pattern up to the hand which held the modified artillery piece.

With Blitzwing's push forward, and the rerouting of artillery to attempt to strike at hime, German armour began to pour towards the front, halftracks stopped as Infantry unloaded, motorized howitzers took up a shelling position and a line of tanks came into place.

And behind them all, striding like some gleaming metal god, twin barrels rising from his back into the air above him, Onslaught stood.

In his hand, a massive weapon was held, one he raised up, and called for the charge.