Transformers: World War II

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike was a clumsy flyer in his 'bot form, but a powerful one. The Decepticon's pushed his thrusters to near full burn and corkscrewed toward the Combaticon, evading Blast Off's fire. He had clearly disrupted Blast Off's targeting array, since the Combaticon's accuracy dropped through the floor. Heat distortion shimmered over the barrel of his laser. The longer it cooled, the deadlier his next volley could be.

Instead he fired two rockets into Blast Off's path. They were crude things, of human manufacture, but they were heat seekers. Ironically, such technology was in reach of the fleshlings of this world if should choose to accept it. Coming from a world where such technology was ancient, it had been relatively easy to manage.

Of course there were limitations. They were easy to distract, slow, comparatively easy to outmaneuver, and their warheads were puny. Blast Off didn't know that though and with his targeting sensors screwed up, he wouldn't be able to learn that for a few precious seconds. Tat he react to them for a few moments was all that Deathstrike needed.

The Combaticon adjusted course as the missiles rose up and twisted toward him. Deathstrike moved to full burn and flew straight. The distance between them vanished. Deathstrike's hand grasped Blast Off's leg. Contact. He raised his right forearm and brought it down like and axe blade, aiming at the Combaticon's hip.

[Charon]

Hunter got to his second position and brought up the second MAW and locked on Blitzwing's knee-joint for a second time. "Fuckin' robots could take a damn artillery shell and barely be phased..."

Hunter pulled the trigger, dropped the now empty container, and was moving again as the other MAW's launched into the air.

[SirNitram]

Overload felt the energy surge up through one side, crippling his battlesuit's systems. Auto-repair would be done in a few minutes, but he lacked a few minutes. As Blitzwing pushed, his other arm lifted and blasted his scrambler weapon at the triple-Changer. "All units! Brace for bombardment! Now we send these amateurs back to Hell!" Overload bellowed.

[LadyTevar]

Pathfinder hit the brakes on one set of treads, slinging mud as he wheeled around tightly. Swindle's first shot left a huge dent in Pathfinder's side-armor, but the next two hit the stronger front armor which held against the blasts.

"Pathetic? Pa-The-tic?" the tank rolled forward, transforming as he went from motorize cavalry to giant robot, the main turret moving up to Pathfinder's shoulder as the smaller machine guns merged into a multi-barrelled pistol. "At least I'm not a glorified pickup!" The last was thrown out as Pathfinder fired pistol and shoulder cannon at the speeding car.

[General Havoc]

Brawl evaded the Sabot round through the expedient method of flying. It figured. He rained shots down at Cavalier, who was still moving, concentrating not on dodging all of the fire (for that was impossible), but on keeping his thick, frontal armor pointed like a shield in Brawl's direction. The sloped turret and frontal body armor absorbed the shots as they were designed to do, and Cavalier swung a wide turn, making certain that Brawl did not get a good clean shot against his thin top armor, returning such fire as he could with his coaxial laser.

But as long as Brawl was in the air, Cavalier couldn't fight him effectively. Had Brawl possessed half a brain, he would have realized this and stayed up. Brawl however did not possess such a thing, and instead of remaining at arm's length, he made a catastrophic mistake, and landed again. No doubt he thought that he had a wonderful opportunity to blast Cavalier's thinner rear armor, or something. What he didn't appreciate was that Cavalier, unlike the human tanks Brawl had no doubt become accustomed to obliterating (as, in fairness, Cavalier had), Cavalier was run by automated systems many times faster and more efficient than his human counterparts'. His turret did not employ a hand crank or electric motor to turn. It employed an energon reactor. By the time Brawl had landed "behind" Cavalier, Cavalier, who had been concentrating on keeping his armored shield between his delicate circuitry and Brawl, had simply turned around.

The result was that Brawl landed straight on top of the heaviest firepower Cavalier had to offer, and did so while in a form that presented to Cavalier the least amount of armor.

Brawl pressed his sonic weapon against what he thought was going to be the back of Cavalier's turret, and was actually the front. The blow was like being struck by a locomotive, but Cavalier was not some Jeep or Kubelwagon to have its windows shattered by the force of the sound. He was a medium tank, armored, low to the ground, the perfect design to handle omni-directional shockwaves. The circuit breakers in his auditory sensors blew, pending reboot, his shock absorbers screamed in protest, and his sensor suite simply shut down provisionally, cutting the feed to his targeting computer pre-emptorily, but not even a point blank shot from the sonic cannon could actually flip Cavalier, not from the front and above. Brawl might be able to lift him physically. He could not do so by proxy.

And a second later, Cavalier showed him just how bad of an idea trying had been.

His targeting computer was out, but he hardly needed it now, for Brawl was standing right in front of him, literally shoving the barrel of his gun into Cavalier's turret. Cavalier's autoreload systems had already shoved another round into his main cannon, another armor piercing sabot-discarding shell. Cavalier shoved the barrel of his turret straight into Brawl's chest and fired, an instant before he launched an entire salvo of high explosive rockets from the rails on his sides. Unguided though they were, the rockets could not physically fail to hit Brawl, who was forty feet tall and standing less than five feet in front of them.

Brawl was a serious danger up close, and could do terrible things to Cavalier if the fight degenerated into hand to hand combat. Cavalier however, had just thrown enough firepower into Brawl in a quarter second to sink a Destroyer, and had done so from lower to the ground and against lighter armor than the shots he had received in return. Assuming Brawl had even kept his footing after a barrage like that, Cavalier's internal magazines were already loading additional rounds into his cannon and rocket launchers, as he threw his transmission into reverse and began to back away from Brawl.

[Dark Silver]

Deathstrike launched missiles.

Admittedly, Blast Off had not been expecting this, he expected the warrior to lead off and continue firing from a distance with his x-ray laser. A quick scan told the Combaticon sniper that the missiles were standard Earth-tech, but heat seeking. Obviously the Autobots had helped the humans along a bit. Nothing the Decepticons had not done for their allies admittedly.

Unfortunatly, While he could get a basic scan, he couldn't get a target lock. Normally blowing the primitive tech out of the sky would have been easy as shooting protoforms in their stasis chambers, but Deathstrike's blast had fouled his targeting array. Several bolts of ionized energy shot out from his gun, and one of the missiles went veering away as the stabilizing fin was shorn off.

That Blast Off couldn't pick the other one off, meant he had to react to it, and for him, that meant going above and over it.

Unfortunatly, Deathstrike seemed to have the same idea in mind, and when they intersected, Deathstrike grabbed him.

Optics widdened slightly as the alert went off, the pressure felt in the grip meant Deathstrike wouldn't be coming off anytime soon. Threat analysis would mean Deathstrike would attempt to cripple him in close quarters, something Blast Off was not well equipped for - though he was well armored enough.

As the more powerful warrior attempted to smash his arm like a blade into Blast Off's gripped hip, the Combaticon brought his ion blaster to bear - twisting his body as best he could to get the best possible target - and pressed the trigger.

Two bolts escaped from the gun, even as he felt Deathstrike's arm smash into his hip - the armor twisted and deformed, then broke through and the leg went numb as the arm tore through the other side. Blast Off's bolts tore into Deathstrike, ripping a gouge into the upper left shoulder of the former Decepticon, and the second coring a three inch in Deathstrike's arm.

Then Blast Off was free.

Falling.

The blue and white sky swirled around Blast Off as he fell from the sky, mech fluid leaking from his torn off limb. He only was able to release a brief SOS, as he attempted to bring his anti-grav units to some sort of stability. He had managed to achieve something of a stable descent, when Vortex appeared below him, and the two Combaticons flew off from the battlesite - Blast Off riding Vortex's fuselage like a one legged cowboy on his horse.



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


The second MAW rocket exploded into Blitzwing's leg, right behind the kneejoint. Armor groaned and smoked as another two rocket's smashed into the same spot.

The humans were getting better with their aim.

The whistling sound of artillery filled the air, but Blitzwing smirked through his rage and pain, as the sound came from behind him. All around Overload, the ground erupted in fireballs as Onslaught's motorized artillery finally achieved position. Blitzwing took the distraction caused by the artillery, to move in, rushing the larger Autobot warrior, after having retrieved his Electro-scimitar.

Blitzwing raised his sword into the air as he charged, appearing out of one of the clouds of dust lingering in the air about Overload, swinging his sword for the shoulder servo.


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


Swindle laughed as Pathfinder transformed and opened fire, using his greater manuverability to dodge the Autobot's blasts.

"Of course you are, Pathetic!" Swindle laughed, ducking into a corpse of trees half blasted by his earlier shooting, Russian soldiers, the few left from the column, were now off the battlefield between the two scouts. Swindle transformed to his robot mode, scatter cannon mounted on his arm, while the other held his gyro-inhibiter gun.

"You think just because you have a nice shiney tank for a alt-mode, that your anything but what you were back on Cybertron? You were a materials hauler!"

Swindle stepped from behind the trees, having used his sensors to find Pathfinder, brought both weapons to bear, and opened fire full bore at the Autobot, before disppearing behind cover again.

"Me - Even fresh from the assembly line, I am what I always was. The best salesman in the known universe. I can sell a mug of oil to a Slyverian Hydromucker. It's not my fault I also happen to be extremely good at killing things... Now Pathetic, what would a positron hauler like you know about killing things..."

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

Brawl wasn't exactly as stupid as Cavalier wanted to think, or believe. While Brawl was most certainly one of the loudest, most ornery of the Combaticons, and the one always singled out as the "stupidest", there was one thing Brawl was not.

And that was stupid.

He knew exactly how much he could take, and how much he could dish out. And fortunately for him, the rating was pretty high on both accounts. While his armor was not as powerful as it was in his tank mode, due to the slopped nature of the plates and the overlap granted by the mode, his armor was still second to none in his robot mode. And while Cavlier's weapons were indeed powerful, they only served to fling the Combaticon backwards, his frame smoking and dented, micro-fissures forming in the weaker joints, and soot coating him well. His chest, where the cannon had aimed, was particularly well dented - but there was nothing vital there for Cavalier to tear apart with his shots. And while Brawl was not in his fittest form, he was hardly down for the count.

Mech fluid leaked from several small fissures near his joints, and the Decepticon brand on his slopped chest armor looked to be near burnt off, dented in by the impact of the cannon's blast. Energon crackled as the Combaticon lifted his gun hand, and leveled his 10 megawatt-electron gun at his opponent. His targeting sensors where shorting out, and he couldn't get a perfect lock, otherwise he'd have gone for Cavalier's turret - but Brawl opened fire.

Three bolts flew from the gun, stitching a path into Cavalier's right tread. Cybertronian alloys melted and circuits fried as three more bolts stitched their way along the same tread. More shots fired off from Brawl's weapon, as he rose to his feet, and got into the air, and the shots seemed better than earlier, they were crisper, more defined and the grouping - even with the temporarily malfunctioning sensors, where much tighter.

Brawl didn't wait for Cavalier to respond to the shots, not staying in the same spot this time. The Autobot actually hurt him, and it was time for the battle to move into Phase Two.

With another group of three shots splaying out over Cavalier's turret armor, Brawl was flying off over the tree lines, as fast as his antigravs would take him, calling back "Hat to shoot and run Autobrat...but I gotta go and kill your fleshling buddies now!"

[Cynical Cat]

An ion beam wasn't the best choice of weapon for an armour piercing attack. An x-ray laser like Deathstrike's or a hyperkinetic weapon was far superior. However, there was a lot to be said for brute strength and the armour on Deathstrike's left arm wasn't in as good shape (hah!) as that on his right.

There were other things ion bolts did very well, like disrupt the circuits of what they hit even if they couldn't blow their way through armour. Blast Off's weapon was, overall, very effective. And Deathstrike's circuitry wasn't up to Cybertronian standards.

The Cybertronian systems overloaded and shut down. The cutting edge, Cybertronian assisted Earth constructed replacement parts fried. Deathstrike's left arm went limp, his missile launchers went offline, his comms shut down, the connections to half of his energy storage cells were cooked, and his autorepair system crashed.

At least his thrusters still had fuel, because his rudimentary repulsor unit was in lousy shape. Blast Off was falling beneath him. Vortrex was coming for an intercept. Deathstrike cut thrust and left the engines cycling on ready. He had pushed them hard enough as it was. He still had a shot.

He lined it up. He had given his laser time to cool. He fired a single high energy pulse at Blast Off's torso.

[Charon]

"Fucking artillery! Why the hell are our guys focusing on the damn Decepticon?!" Seeing that his target had now closed with Overload, Hunter took another look at the battlefield. The Germans were getting ready to cross, and that was really bad news. In the distance, Pathfinder was still fighting, but Cavalier's enemy had broken off and was coming towards them.

"Wish I'd had more time to plant explosives..."

Hunter popped out from cover so his two other Joes carrying rockets could see him and signaled for them to hit the new Decepticon target once it was in range. Then Hunter ducked back under cover and moved again, closer and closer. He needed to get a good shot on these Decepticons.

[SirNitram]

Clouds of dust did staggering little to Overload's close-combat scans, and he shifted to one side. Even with sensor-scrambling, the sheer bulk of the battlesuit meaning that he still took glancing blows on both sides, Blitzwing's blade and Onslaught's artillery. Momentarily dropping his makeshift weapon, Overload engaged in a classic Pit move in uneven matchs. Blitzwing, charging and outthrust, was grabbed and his off-balance stance pulled with Overload, now being used as a shield from bombardment.

The Combaticons communicated, so it would make the artillery hesitate, likely. The destructive effect of Overload's grip and the fact his scramblers were going off at full blast right next to Blitzwing's full receptor suite made awful things happen.

[General Havoc]

"Sonofabitch!" shouted Cavalier to nobody in particular as Brawl took off, having cut Cavalier's starboard tread to ribbons with his frontal shots. His targeting sensors were turning various loops thanks to the electrical charge that had been sent through him, but he ignored them, shifting back into humanoid form, seven different sorts of pissed off. Nothing made Cavalier angrier than an enemy who not only hurt him, but did so and got away.

"Sonofabitch" he yelled after Brawl, raising his right arm, sighting by optic down the line of the cannon built into it, and firing three rounds in quick succession after Brawl's flying form. He had next-to-no chance of actually hitting Brawl, but it made him feel a little better at least as he started to run after the flying Decepticon. Brawl had said something about it being time to go squish the Allied human forces, something Cavalier had approximately zero intention of permitting. Besides, with Brawl's retreat, the German flankguard had been crushed. The smart thing to do was to drive straight into the middle of the enemy and blow everything up.

That at least was what Cavalier told himself.

He picked up speed as he ran, bounding forward and carving foxhole-sized tracks out of the ground with each step. He neared the top of the ridge and crested it in a single leap, racing down towards the main center of the German assault force, already looking for tempting targets for either his lasers or his main gun.

[LadyTevar]

Pathfinder rolled backwards, dodging the worst of Swindle's fire. He let the big-mouth keep talking, firing a few bolts from his pistol at the trees Swindle was hiding behind.

Swindle was a big-mouth, and a braggart, and a used-oil-salesman. Pathfinder, on the other hand, saw his human allies had retreated in good order back to the main base. He let the big-mouthed Decepticon rant, which Pathfinder knew took little encouragement, transforming to follow the Russians back to base.

[Dark Silver]

And then there were no shots.

Swindle looked out from his hiding spot, to see Pathfinder rolling away at high speed. Swindle's flex-metal mouth smirked as he called it back to Onslaught, and transformed into his own vehicle mode.

Soon after, he was pulling up next to Onslaught, as the much larger Combaticon leader ordered the next round of artillery to fire.

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

Blitzwing's body shook as the impact of artillery shells and Nazi rounds poured into him. His armor was already cracked from fighting with Overload, and between the scrambling, and the hits of his own sides weapons fire, Blitzwing was rapidly approaching system shock.

"Warning: Stasis Lock Emminent." the computer voice in Blitzwing's head spoke, and before triple-changer could shout "Override", his optics dimmed, and he went slack in Overload's grip.


Behind Overload, the humans were making their move. Coldstaph fortress opened, between the actions of the Joe's overhead and in their weapons emplacements within the fortress - the humans were moving into position.

Russian armor and troops poured out along with Joe-driven American tanks. Mobile howitzers rolled from the main gate, and what would otherwise be considered a impossibility, as each cleared, rounds of explosive ordinance was launched at the Nazi lines.

Machine gun fire and tank cannons resounded over, as the humans charged their counterparts, occassionally the cries of "YOOO JOE!" and "For the Motherland!" breaking over.

As the artillery and tank fire waved from Overload and his improved Decepticon shield, Pathfinder and Cavalier neared him at almost the same time, as the sea of human military parted around them, their allied aircraft swarming overhead to drop their payloads of death.

Hunter's own team of Joes, carrying the MAW's brought by Deathstrike and his human partner. Massive German tanks rolled forward, on occassion, stopping to fire their main turrent, coming ever closer to their hiding place, within moments, they would be past, and the Joe's would have a prime shot for the Decepticon masters.


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

In the air, rising on Vortex like a cowboy would a horse, Blast Off registered the latest hit from Deathstrike's gun.

A single, powerful burst, struck him right in the shoulder, sheering through metal, gamme energy leaking through his circuits, causing him undescriable pain...then the arm was gone.

Blast Off slumped forward, smoke pouring from his now armless shoulder, a second stream of smoke pouring from Vortex's wing, as the two Combaticons flew off into the distance, soon coming far out of Deathstrike's range, and within seconds, were gone from the fight.

[Cynical Cat]

Deathstrike saw the limb fall away from Blast Off. Parts, precious parts. They wouldn't be in the best shape after hitting the ground, but the humans had a useful saying for situations like his. Beggars cannot be choosers. With the damage he had already sustained, the overall improvement in his capabilities after battle damage was repaired would be small, but it was a step forward instead of backward.

He slowed his descent by firing a stream of plasma from his thrusters. With Vortex leaving the field, that left only inferior human machines in the air. He would retrieve Blast Off's parts and provide limited fire support for his allies. It was the best that could be expected in this situation. If the Autobot's wanted better, they could get that rusted hanger queen into the air and giving him support. He had narrowly avoided death twice, once by Vortex focusing on the humans and taking damage from lucky shooting and the second time by knocking out Blast Off's targeting computer in his initial hit. If he hadn't the Combaticon would likely have blown him off line and let the fall cripple him before finishing him off.

He lived because of luck and bad prioritizing by a Combaticon, prioritizing that was probably a testament to how low he had fallen. He was still Deathstrike, but he was a shadow of the 'bot he had once been. He could still keep what was left of his honour and die fighting. That was enough. It would have to be.

[Charon]

Hunter was a shadow as he moved through the debris and explosions, closing on the Decepticon artillery position. He only had one MAW left, but that was probably the only reason he was managing to get as close as he was. He had to take his time, moving in a circle to hit the enemy from the side where they weren't expecting resistance. He had a few grenades on him and a tommy gun, but those would only take him so far. Pausing and falling to the ground behind a fallen tree, Hunter let a group of Germans pass by as he wiped some sweat from his brow. This never got any easier.

Peaking up again, Hunter saw the coast was clear and moved again. The artillery was in view now, but it was gonna take him some time to get close enough to get a really good hit.

[LadyTevar]

Pathfinder, having made his retreat from Swindle, rejoined Overload at the gates of Coldstaph. "Nice shield," he quipped, optics looking over Blitzwing's lax chasis in Overload's arms. "Are we holding here, or joining the charge?"

As he asked, Pathfinder's turrent was already tracking targets amongst the German forces, sending a HE shell towards a cluster of vehicles.

[SirNitram]

"Well, we can stay here and get shelled, or.." Overload had taken off at a run, massive legs carrying him forward to shield as much of the human advance with Blitzwing as possible. The repair time for this shutdown of the triplechanger was going to be rather unpleasant.

But for now, the massive Autobot had one target. Onslaught.

[LadyTevar]

"CHARGE!!!!!!!" Pathfinder whooped, transforming and following in Overload's wake with a wide wicked grin, firing shots at the Decepticons as he ran.

[General Havoc]

Cavalier was alone, unsupported, and outnumbered some three hundred to one. Things were looking up.

He charged down the ridge into the middle of a cauldron of fire and destruction, an environment so target-rich that he scarcely knew where to begin. Having crushed the German flank-guard, and 'repelled' Brawl (that at least was how he was going to describe it to the others), he was now making his own, solo attack against the main thrust of the German formation. What was going on in the rest of the battle, he did not know. He knew only that before him was a mass of German and Decepticon forces and that he could not do wrong by blowing them off the face of the earth. Any unit he destroyed, broke, or even pinned down here, was one less that could hit the fortress.

And so, at a dead, run, Cavalier smashed into the German formation and went hog-wild.

He ran at a dead sprint towards the German forces, firing high explosive shells from his main gun as fast as his autoloader could ram them into his cannon breach. His twin lasers spewed a hail of energy blasts at anything soft-skinned enough to warrent them, trucks, Kubelwagons, even half-tracks. Shells burst around him, tracer rounds flew by, and some small calibre weapons pinged off his chestplate and limbs, but a second later he entered the clouds of cordite smoke and dust and set to work, incinerating a pair of Wurfrahmen 40 rocket launching vehicles with burst of laserfire before leaping on top of a StuG III Assault Gun. His main cannon was loaded with high explosive, which would not suffice against a fully armored vehicle, so instead he grabbed the lip of the turret and pulled as hard as he could, prying it off enough to jam his lasers into the turret and open fire, instantly turning the entire interior of the vehicle into a charnelhouse of exploding ammunition and flying human body parts. And then, leaving the German vehicle to 'brew up', he turned away, seeking to make as much of a nuisance of himself as he could, so as to force the Decepticons to divert more and heavier forces his way.

[Dark Silver]

And then they charged.

Onslaught watched as the Autobots joined the humans in the charge.

"So foolish...Brawl, Swindle. Greet our adversaries."

Brawl looked up the taller, more powerful Combaticon leader, nodded, and moved forward, transforming as he went. Within seconds, he was a hundred yards from Onslaught, and in his King Tiger II mode, sonic cannons exposed above the turrent.

Swindle took to the air, the boosters beneath mounted under his feet taking him into the air. The Decepticon brought his pistol to bear, targeted the rushing Autobots, and smirked as he switched from Gyro-inhibitor to Particle mode, and opened fire on Pathfinder.

There was no shouts, no cries as Swindle switched targets to the charging Overload, muttered a "Sorry Blitzzwing, I'll make sure to wring some emotion out when I sell you for spare parts..", and opened fire.

A sustained burst came out of the pistol, plowing into Blitzwing's left hip, sheering through the damaged armor, and into Overload's own hip.

And all this was just distraction for the coming Brawl. Sonic cannnons opened opened fire, beams of sound focused into a weapon as lethal as any particle weapon blew forward, ground exploding into the air, humans and their equipment - Nazi and Allied - flew through the air, their bodies crushed by the pressure waves, tanks and jeeps crumbling upon themselves as they tumbled away.

Onslaught remained in the rear, watching from the back of the German formations, tending to his war. "Right flank is start to fall thin, reinforcements focus on the incoming Allied."

At that moment, Cavalier entered the fray.

The massive Autobot charged into the German lines, tearing the German warmachine apart with his weapons. hundreds died in the opening moments, and the entire flank collapsed as Cavalier worked his way inward.

"No...no...NO!!!" Onslaught's vocal processors increased to such a pitch that his booming, aristocratic voice drowned out even the sounds of war - the weapons fire from both sides of the human fight suddenly died as they covered their ears.

Onslaught's eyes burned a brillant, hellfire-like red, as he began to move, his strides taking him across the battlefield. Onslaught was a massive juggernaut of a Decepticon, He was taller than even Overload, his armor and strength unmatched in any of the Combaticons - for he formed the torso of their combined form, Bruticus. His battle plans were intricate, perfect, and so far, the battle had gone almost according to plan - the temporary loss of Blitzwing, Vortex and Blast Off were not unexpected - some of his simulation permutations had them going out of the fight - but none accounted for the utter collapse of the left flank. Not to a single Autobot.

The sounds of transformation was nearly as loud, as Onslaught shifted from robot mode, the machine he turned into was not seen before by either side, it looked like a cross between a flatbed Semi, but where the bed/trailer should have been, were mounted weapons - anti-aircraft cannons, and what looked to be a massive howitzer cannon. Onslaught continued to roll forward, picking up speed the entire time, wheels tearing into the soft earth beneath, trenches didn't even slow him, Nazi machines were brushed aside by his charge - a charge right towards Cavalier.

Onslaught was completely aware of the battlefield - he knew the location of every Autobot and Decepticon, even of the still descending Deathstrike. The Decepticon traitor could still cause unexpected trouble, and thus the AA guns on the trailer turned, and fired. The guns were deafeningly loud - and sonic booms spreading over the battlefield - a battlefield which was quickly emptying of Nazi troops. None wanted to be caught in the field any longer not when these metal giants were causing such devastation. The air around Deathstrike exploded - AA shells sending out white phosphorous into the air, which then ignited, slivers of shrapnel exploding out - more than enough to kill any human fighter plane, though he doubted it would do more than annoy Deathstrike.

His goal for now, wasn't to kill Deathstrike, it was to take out the one which caused his plan to fall apart. The massive, heavily armoured front grill was pointed right at Cavalier.

[LadyTevar]

Pathfinder jinked and rolled out of the way of Swindle's incoming fire, coming up to return fire and a snappy comeback. It was drowned out by the pressure wave of Brawl's sonic cannon, which Pathfinder's duck-and-roll had taken him straight into the path of.

"YEAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!" The Autobot's audio circuits shut down protectively even as the overpressure bowled his light frame over as easily as one of the human tanks. He tumbled without control for meters.

[Cynical Cat]

As powerful as he was, Onslaught was just one 'bot. Isolated from other Decepticons, he could be dealt with. With that in mind Deathstrike was lining up for a shot on Brawl's back. A single, high energy, broad beam pulse should punch through and do significant internal damage. He was lining up the shot when Onslaught opened fire.

The rain of shrapnel was nothing to hm and the buffeting impacts momentarily spoiled his aim, but it was the white phosphorous that was the most serious threat. Not to his armour, of course, but to his more delicate internal circuitry and systems. Enough heat and you could could a Cybertronian without breaching his armour, like a lobster in his shell.

Deathstrike tended to run hot, courtesy of his nuclear engines and was fairly well provisioned with heat dissipation systems. Unfortunately, most of those systems barely functioned at all and thanks to the damage from Blast Off's ion rifle most of those systems were offline or completely wrecked. The burden of descending on a column of nuclear flame were within their capabilities to handle. Barely.

Deathstrike lined up his shot and fired. He couldn't tell if he hit or not because the extra waste heat and mag flux from generating the laser pulse pushed his ion ravaged and overheated optics and targeting systems at the very moment he took the shots. In human terms, he went temporarily blind.

The blazing Decepticon landed blind on a column of fire, like a fire giant descending the Bifrost Bridge from Muspelheim to wreck havoc on Midgard. The German soldiers near his landing point had been culturally programmed to perceive Deathstrike as a bringer of Ragnarok, but it was equally likely that the desire to escape a hostile alien robot was what drove their flight.

The cut off of his nuclear engines didn't solve his heat problems, but it did lower the rate of temperature climb. His response time slowed and his limbs were sluggish and weak. Sensor and targeting data flashed in and out of resolution with overheated systems breaking down in bursts of static and corrupt data. His laser wasn't able to transfer heat to the rest of his overloaded heat sinks and thus its ability to dump heat was impaired. With his missiles offline from Blast Off, he was effectively unarmed.

Deathstrike took a lumbering stride towards the Combaticons. Then another and another. There was still life and his circuits and he was still Deathstrike.

[SirNitram]

Damage alarms blared at Overload, indicating that his armor was absorbing punishing fire. Given the strength of Combaticon weaponry, this wasn't surprising. Swindle was a pain in the processors, but he had a crude way of returning this battle to the ground.

He flung Blitzwing's inert body at the Decepticon, and followed it up with sensor-scrambling which would be like hurling salt into the eyes of any Decepticon stupid enough to have gone to active sensors. Like those mapping the battlefield or flying.

[General Havoc]

Cavalier was in his own version of Heaven. He was inserted inside an enemy column and enthusiastically tearing it to ribbons. The armored spearhead of the German force was ahead, nearer the base, but this was it's guts. Here were the logistical troops and supplies, the fuel dumps, the soft-skinned transport vehicles that kept that spearhead driving forward. Here were the artillery and rocket formations, so devastating to the frontline troops, so helpless in direct combat, that ensured that the spearhead would get through the Allied defenses. Here were the command and control vehicles, the regimental HQs, the radio vans and transmitters, that directed its inexorable thrust. Here, in short, were the vital organs of the German assault force.

He laid them to waste.

Flame and shellfire poured off of his weapons as he carved a path of ruin straight through the unprotected flank of the enemy formation. Artillery and self-propelled guns disintegrated before high explosive shells. Ammunition dumps and fuel depots brewed up like miniature apocalypses at the slightest glance of his lasers. The German rear echelon forces, like all German troops, were well-trained and brave. They fought desperately, despite their lack of weapons that could hurt him, for all of those were up at the front. One enterprising group even tried to direct-fire a 200mm mortar at him, but the first round landed hopelessly far away, and they did not get the chance to fire a second.

And then, suddenly, he heard Onslaught.

He heard him at first, stopping his rampage only long enough to turn and see what was making that roaring, grinding sound. Was it a battalion of tanks? Was it an armored train?

The answer was yes to all of those things.

Onslaught charged across the open steppe towards Cavalier like a nightmare wrought in metal. Flames danced from his exhaust stacks and sparks flew from his suspension. Neither truck nor train nor armored vehicle but some twisted combination of the three, he roared straight at Cavalier like a ballistic missile, casting everything in his path aside. A fully-established German Regimental CP was crushed to mulch beneath his churning wheels, and all of a sudden, Cavalier realized that he had made Onslaught very, very angry.

Perfect.

Not for him of course. Even Cavalier knew that he was no match for Onslaught directly. But Onslaught was a very senior Decepticon. If he had attracted his personal attention at a time like this, it meant that the German and Decepticon forces fighting nearer the front were now completely bereft of leadership, and could rely on no command, logistical, or fire support from Onslaught. Even distracting Onslaught for a while might be enough to turn the tide of battle. And besides, one did not acquire a reputation for doing amazing things without taking on opponents far above one's own station. Most human warrior societies had known that, and Cavalier could not agree more.

Sighting down the barrel line, Cavalier fired an armor-piercing shell straight at Onslaught's charging grill. He knew it had no chance of penetrating, but he wanted to signal that he accepted Onslaught's implicit challenge. He wanted Onslaught angry and vengeful, and focused only on himself. He reloaded automatically, and fired again at the approaching juggernaut, and then, just at the last second, as Onslaught raced straight for him, he dove to one side, hoping that Onslaught's momentum would carry him on past him, and that he would get a shot at Onslaught's less-well-armored rear or truck bed.

And if Onslaught beat the paint off of him... well... it wouldn't be the first time.

[Charon]

Hunter was crouched low behind a fallen tree, controlling his breathing and being careful to not make any noise or movement, even in the chaos that was unfolding around him. He closed his eyes and focused, slowing his breathing and keeping a steady head.

He peeked his head out from cover and took a quick look around. He had wrapped around the right flank of the enemy and had managed to get close to the Artillery position without being seen. He only had the one MAW left, so he had to make it count. That was when he was treated to the most glorious sight he had seen so far today. In their haste to set up and their arrogance, the Germans had left a large pile of artillery ammunition out in the open.

Hunter grinned as he ducked under cover again. There were ten Germans in place, he could guess that several of them would be killed by the explosion, the others would be distracted by the explosion, so he could take them out. He had his tommy gun on him, as well as several grenades, that would hopefully be enough, if it wasn't then this was going to be a real short glory run.

Hunter popped out of cover again, holding up the MAW, he took aim at the artillery ammunition and pressed down on the firing pin. Even as the rocket was screaming towards the target, Hunter was already tossing the MAW aside and getting back under cover. If this worked, then it wasn't going to be safe to be out in the open.

[Dark Silver]

Hunter's rocket flew, corkscrewing through the air. His aim was honed from practice and usage of the MAWs, and without the worry of Decepticons nearby to impede or intercept the projectile, it struck true.

The rocket impacted into a stack of crated artillery shells, cooking for a few seconds before its warhead ignited. The explosion of the rocket would be immensely, and immediately satisfying to Hunter, while horrific to the Germans. The ground welled up as the heat cooked off several of the artillery shells in their crates, gunpowder and ignition fuel catching within seconds. Soon, a cascade reaction occured, the artillery ammunition going up with the sounds of hundreds of small bombs going off, debris and sharpnel filling the air. Fuel drums and other ammo stockpiles cooked off from the intense heat suddenly there - bullets flying through the air tearing through diesel drums spilling their contents, and spreading the fire.

The right flank was already wavering with the appearence of Onslaught on the battlefield, tearing his way to Cavalier, already the forward thrust and the left flank had crumbled and were in retreat from the Mechnical monsters and the Allied forces - the explosion of a ammo depot, and the chaos it insued as the fires spread and near a second, nearby stockpile, caused them to break apart.

Without looking back, the Nazi troops were leaving the battlefield in droves, those who managed to survive the withering gunfire still being delivered by the Allied troops, despite the horror of what Onslaught was doing across the battlefield.

Swindle for the moment, had relished scoring a hit on Overload, and was preparing to line up a shoot through Blitzwing's center mass, when the heavily damaged hulk of the Decepticon Triplechanger was flung at him.

The Combaticon Scout didn't have time to dodge, as Overload's sensor scrambler flooded his active scanners. Swindle barely had time to scream in pain and frustration from the sudden white noise, when Blitzwing's hulk smashed into him with such force, his armor cracked, and the due was hurled backwards.

The last seen of Swindle, was his smoking chassis, grasped tight to Blitzwing's body, falling over the horizon.


Brawl was kept on a constant move, never stopping his advance, his main turrent cannon launching explosive shells, his sonic blasters repositioning and releasing a burst of high intensity sound waves off every second or two. The fact that he had thrown Pathfinder registered, but didn't bother him. The little Autobot would be down while his system rebooted, and Overload was the target.

That was until Deathstrike's blast gouged into one of his sonic cannons, causing it to short out, then overload. The weapon shattered with a explosion that scorched his armor, melting and warping a section of the drab green metal near his turrent, causing the transversing motor to short out.

Brawl c eased his weapons firing then, transforming into his robot mode, and scanning with his bare optics for the signs of Deathstrike, only to come up empty handed. Brawl spun on his heel, and took off at a run for Overload, pulling out his proton-rifle at the same time.

"I'm gonna slag every one of you Autobots good!" Brawl shouted, lifting his pistol-rifle, and squeezing off three running shots at the massive Autobot.


Meanwhile, Onslaught and Cavalier had closed in on each other. Cavalier's anti-armour shell struck Onslaught's front grill, exploding off the Combaticon Leader's heavy armor, barely phasing him. Cavalier threw himself to the side even as Onslaught approached - and despite his rage - Onslaught slammed his brakes, and throw himself in the oppisite direction.

Wheels locked, tore into the earth, and kicked up waves of dirt, as with the wrenching turn Onslaught conducted, his trailer swung around....right for Cavalier. The armored flatbed and weapons came to bear, one AA gun brought down on the angle, and one shell impacted against Cavalier's chest, causing little phsyical damage - it didn't even dent the chest armor - but coating the Autobot in White Phosphorous. The armored rear, in actuality Onslaught's own lower half in robot mode, slammed into Cavalier with outstanding force, the impact ringing out over the sounds of fading human battle, and hurled the Autobot tank through the air, and into a corpse of trees a quarter of a mile away. Onslaught himself transformed as he came to a stop, already on his feet and rushing at his Autobot foe, solar-beam rifle already in hand, to take his shots once he had his targetting solution.