IC Time on Earth: Sun Sep 22 17:08:26 2024

Sky above New Crystal City

The air above the island is rough and turbulent, but it does little to hide what lies below. Instead of the rocky islands typical of this region of the Pacific, there is an enormous, blueish metal structure of some kind, like an outlandish, oversized oil-drilling platform. Huge sparkling spires stretch up into the skies, massive squat domes litter the island, and tall sky-scrappers loom over the ground, all made of solid metal. The city is currently in battle mode, and one can see huge cannons and missile turrets targeting any invaders. The entire coastline has been lined with long-ranged weaponry to ward off any invasion.

Contents:

Wildrider

Obvious exits:

Fly <Up> Plaza <P> Spaceport <S> Coastline <C> R'Lyeh <R> Central Hub <H>

Wildrider glides up into the NCC sky, hopefully followed by anyone that was ordered to do the same. He grumbles and says, "I don't know why I have to watch for autobot activity around the central US, that's just stupid." The stunticon does a roll in the air and gives a dark chuckle to himself, well, if no one else is around for the job, maybe he'll just cause a little mayhem to go along with it.

Wildrider is, indeed, followed by someone who was given similar orders. Specifically, the seeker Fleet, who himself is less than pleased with the idea of a mission inside of United States territory. So far, most of the ones he's had there have ended in trouble. Well, except for the one to capture Jazz. Or Sideswipe. Or the time he and Arachnae stole a bunch of sand (sand?). "Sometimes that's just the way the microchips fall," answers the Seeker, employing a stereotypical lame cartoon techno-idiom while he's at it.

Wildrider hurms and grumbles about it all the same as he picks up speed to cruse over to the US.

* Spinny! *

North Central States

The North Central States encompass most of the Great Plains as well as the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. The Great Plains isn't just endless fields of grain in Nebraska and Iowa, it also includes the towering buttes of the Dakotas and the fertile river valleys that crisscross Missouri and Kansas as well. The Midwest is broad, clear horizons, a land of gently rolling landscape punctuated by rivers, woods, and trees. The Great Lakes states contain not only the huge metropolitan centers like Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis but big swatches of forest and lakeshore to the north, with gorgeous scenic drives along the Lakes and the tall bluffs of the Ohio river valleys.

Contents:

Wildrider

Warehouse - Metal

Des Moines, Iowa

Taco Farm!

The World's Largest Prarie Dog! 8000 POUNDS!!!!

Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota

Ohio

Statue of Vulcan

Monorail

Obvious exits:

North <N> leads to Western Provinces - Canada.

South <S> leads to South Central States.

Southeast <SE> leads to Southeastern States.

Southwest <SW> leads to Southwestern States.

East <E> leads to Middle Atlantic States.

West <W> leads to Northwestern States.

Fly <Up> Illinois <IL>

Wildrider glides in and lands on a hilltop over looking a northern missouri road. Should he rampage through it, or not? Well, if he did, the autobots would come running. A small giggle escapes his vocolizer as he thinks about this, but then his smile drops. What if Galvatron found out about it? Primus knows how much the humans like to televise everything. Maybe the humans are already filming him?! Wildrider spins around once, twice, then three times looking for the cameras. He calls out, "Hey! I know you're here, where are you!"

"I'm right here," answers Fleet, confusion evident in his voice. Which is handy, being as his face can't be seen at this point. He remains in jet mode for a bit longer, circling a little above Wildrider, before transforming and hovering. No point in trying to be stealthy here. Even ignoring the fact that he's running around with Wildrider, who's running around in robot mode, a pastel yellow tetrajet tends to stand out on planet Earth.

Wildrider looks around a few more times, then looks up at the seeker. "I know 'you're' here, but where are the cameras?" He runs over to a tree and yanks on it ripping it easily out of the ground and shakes it. "Maybe yer in here?! Hum? No? Slag!" he tosses down the tree. "Humans always seem to get us on film. I'm trying to find the cameras before that happens." he states with a twitchy optic towards Fleet.

Fleet shrugs. "What's the problem with that?" he asks. Still rather new to this planet, and it shows. "How can that hurt us?" Bullets, yes, those can hurt. Energy, yes. Cameras? Only if you have pride. Which Fleet doesn't. "Although..." he pauses, pointing at the tree, "if they aren't here already, won't that get their attention sooner?"

Wildrider looks at the tree and hurms, "Maybe? I don't know..." He reaches down and picks it up examining the ripped apart roots and soil. "Think I can put it back in the ground? They won't notice then." he ponders.

"I don't know anything about plantlife, Wildrider," answers Fleet, shaking his head. "That green stuff," he waves a hand dismissively, "is pretty new to me. I suppose you could always try..." he trails off and looks around. If someone Fleet is with begins acting paranoid, Fleet usually starts getting nervous himself. Well, nervouser than he usually is.

Exo-Suit <Glaive II> arrives from the Middle Atlantic State region far to the east.

Exo-Suit <Glaive II> has arrived.

Cargo Truck arrives from the Middle Atlantic State region far to the east.

Cargo Truck has arrived.

Foxfire arrives from the Middle Atlantic State region far to the east.

Foxfire has arrived.

Silverbolt descends from the skies above.

Silverbolt has arrived.

Wildrider hurms and shrugs giving the large tree he uprooted a mighty heave to send it flying into the roadway. Cars screech and a truck <not the convoy truck> slams into the tree exploding in a large fireball. Wildrider screeches with joy nearly jumping up and down like a giddy school at the destruction he caused by accident. He points towards the road from on the hill overlooking it. "Wow! Did you see what happend! That was great! I didn't even 'try' to do that! Mr High Explosive's got NOTHIN on Mr Tree now!" he says while pulling out a bomb with a smiley face on it. "See Mr High Explosive. You suck! Suck suck suck suck! Wait..." he puts the bomb to his audio receptor, "...are you ticking? Oh...no you're not. Good." He puts it back into his subspace pocket and says, "So, now what?"

Cargo Truck follows along behind a line of cargo trucks, driven by humans. "Let's just hope we don't run into trouble. If we're lucky, this'll just be a good chance to get out for a while." His engine revs down as he shifts gears, keeping pace with the trucks.

Fleet rubs the back of his head, making an electronic sighing noise. "Oh. Goody. Yes, that's /just/ the way to avoid media attention, I think," he mutters. Yes, he's new to Earth, but not /that/ new! Why, oh, why, was he cursed to be one of the only sane Decepticons? "Well..." he continues, trying to find an excuse to be moving on, "we should probably be continuing on our patrol. Hey! Perhaps we'll meet one of Mr. Tree's relatives on the way?" Time to humor the nutjob...

<Exo-Suit> Michael Briar flies along with the convoy of three or so trucks. Each are your standard military cargo trucks. Nothing fancy about them at all, besides the cargo they carry which is boxed up and piled full in each truck. The Glaive II does quick scans a head and picks up a large thermal reading. Because of the 'accident', the trucks slowly come to a halt behind a line of cars quickly forming. He clicks on his radio as he calls ahead, "Lead truck, what's the problem?"

The lead truck responds, "Sorry sir, accident up ahead. Looks bad."

Michael grumbles and says, "Fine...we can't divert from the road anyway. Hold positions." Then he lands and scans the area.

Foxfire continues keeping pace with Rivet, still right beside the larger mech. He nods in agreement, then suddenly frowns and darts away from the road. "Accident, huh?" he mutters to himself, and sniffs the air. The frown deepens, and he whips his head around toward Briar. "General!" he calls. "I'm picking up the scent of other Cybertonians! You see anything?"

Wildrider hurms and shrugs, "I suppose...down the road some?" He transforms and revs his engine. Being off a roadway isn't a problem for a stunticon. He chuckles, "Maybe we can find some of Mr Tree's family that wants to block off more of the road? YEAH, GOOD IDEA!" With all the excitement of a riddlinless child, he takes off down the hill and right turns to go down the road. Right towards the EDC convoy.

Wildrider spins around and lands on the ground to form into a black sports car.

Fleet's optics flicker with surprise as he looks after Wildrider. Oh. Boy. Too bad the Decepticons don't have a word for "baby sitting," because Fleet surely would have employed it by now (not out loud, of course, as it's a good bet that Wildrider can whup him if it comes to that). Finally he gets his processors back in gear. "Hey, wait up!" he calls, transforming after he dives after the Stunticon. Sure, pyramid fliers don't blend in as well as cars, but the odds that Wildrider is about to draw attention no matter what he looks like are pretty damned good.

<Exo-Suit> Michael Briar snorts, "I don't pick anything up..." he says but then notices a car acting abnormal. "Why is that car running along the side of the road? And the wrong side at that?" He blinks within the suit and says, "Decepticons!" and points towards the car barreling along the road towards them.

Cargo Truck hits his brakes and slows to a stop along with the trucks. "Accident? Great, just what we.." he cuts himself short as the General shouts out the one word he could go without hearing today. "Great... great... just great... why did I even come online this morning?" he asks himself. "Foxfire, I think Rodimus is gonna take more than our armor plating after this.."

Foxfire, apparently echoing Rivet's thoughts, growls, "Great. Just what we need. Can you tell who it is?" He stays away from the road for the time being, having no desire to be flattened by a wild car. He sighs in response to the other Autobot and utters, "Not if he doesn't find out, at least."

Silverbolt approaches from the souteast, flying in at a high altitude. His flight is less than perfect, thinking about other things than flying right. The aerialbot commander quickly scans the situation, noticing the traffic situation ahead along with recognizable signatures. He drops his height, and starts to swoop down closer.

Ferrari 308GTB goes racing by the trucks. He does not even notice them as he goes by on the shoulder. The cars whizzing by him is more than thrilling for him right now. The stunticon does a quick recheck of what he thought was an autobot emblem, but nah, couldn't be that. Not here. He continues on past the convoy.

"Oh, great," Fleet groans. "Company." Being in the air, it was hard to miss the exo-suit. Well, maybe this wasn't all bad. After all, what else is the point of a patrol in enemy territory, if not to stir up trouble. But still... the last time he encountered an exo-suit, he was torn up pretty bad. Which means he should attack that first! "Wildrider, you wanted a fight, right?" he calls after his patrolling partner before opening fire on the exo-suit.

Exo-Suit <Glaive II> evades your ballistic attack.

Cargo Truck remains stationary, on the glimmer of hope that they might dismiss him as one of the convoy trucks. "Hmm hmm hmm. Just another truck on the road... yeah... nothing special here... hmmmhmmm hmmm." he mutters to himself, although his gas pedal is tensed to haul tail.

Foxfire catches the scent of yet another Cybertronian; while all the mechs may smell alike, he can often tell when there's more than one in the vicinity. "Glad to see you," he mutters to Silverbolt through his radio, before turning his attention back to the situation at hand. "What should we do, general?"

<Exo-Suit> Michael Briar goes into a bouncing run as ribbons of cannon fire envelope the area behind him but none strike the suit. He dives off the road and lands in a ditch filled with muddy water before getting up saying, "Damn it!" He gives a 'flap' of his wings to clean out the exhaust ports and blasts off with a spray of water that hits most around the convoy. He grins and takes off after Fleet. As if to answer Foxfire, he calls out, "Protect the convoy!" towards the bots below him as he looks up towards Fleet. "All right seeker, I 'was' going to go after Wildrider, but you'll do." He cranks up his speed and brings himself up and over the pyramid seeker to 'attempt' to land on him latching on with his clawed fingers. If luck works for him, he'll go for a wild ride in a few seconds.

You evade Exo-Suit <Glaive II>'s clawed hand of latching on +1! attack.

Catching his radio transmission, he chuckles to himself. General what, nevermind that there are more pressing matters at hand. "Protect the cargo trucks, and minimize all casualties. Give backup to the Exo-suit, as needed." Silverbolt finishes his broadcast, transforming in the air and landing behind all the excitement. He slowly makes his way forward.

Silverbolt flips up into his 'bot mode.

Oh. Well, of course, this time Silverbolt doesn't fall on Fleet. No, Briar does, or attempts to. What is it about pastel yellow that seems to scream "Landing Pad" to the opposition forces? Fleet tilts and then rolls, timing it so that the exo-suit just falls past, and then transforms, tumbling to face his opponent as he curls into a mid-air crouch. Perhaps he should have had some sort of snappy comeback in mind to the "you'll do" remark, but really, he's focused on hurting his opponent more than he's getting hurt. He reaches his left arm out and sights along it, once more taking aim at the Glaive II.

You strike Exo-Suit <Glaive II> with This Will Hurt You More Than It Hurts Me (I Hope)!

Ferrari 308GTB skids to a halt and turns around. He cackles, "Really? YEEEEHAWWWWW! Where did you find the bots?! I went right by them!" The sports car runs around fully and runs towards them, and Silverbolt, as he says, "Hey big white and stupid! Come taste my fender! Yeah, that's how you're gonna like it! You're gonna be my rubber!" His prancing stallion hood ornament leads the way towards Silverbolt, fully ready to do what stunticons do best.

Ferrari 308GTB misses Silverbolt with its Prancing Stallion attack.

<Decepticon> Wildrider says, "Hey! Hehehehe, come join the fun! We stumbled upon some trucks the bots and that stuuuupid human general Briarpatch. Central us baby! Yeah!"

Catechism descends from the skies above.

Catechism has arrived.

Cargo Truck throws himself into reverse, backs around to face the other way down the highway, throws himself into gear and revs himself up to speed, although slowly considering his bulk. "If you want to play chicken, boltbrain, try it with someone with wheels!" With that, he heads off down the highway, hoping to prove a more lucrative target for Wildrider.

Foxfire blinks. "Oh, right." He actually, dispite being somewhat worried, rushes back to the road and...leaps on top of one of the convoy trucks. "Hope you don't mind givin' me a lift," he remarks to the driver. "Might get better aim up here, if it comes to that." As witnessed in previous battles, Foxfire's not designed to combat as most of his comrades are, but he tries his best.

While scanning the wreck ahead he looks ahead towards the speeding sports car. That could be a terran, speeding away from the scene of a wreck. But at the last second, he recognizes Wildrider's alt-mode and jumps to the side. "Rubber, huh? Sorry to burst your bubble Stunticon, this 'bots not going to be rubber anytime soon!" he yells at the Ferrari, aiming his pistol all the while. "Why don't you try slowing down, your obviosly breaking the terran speed limit!"

Silverbolt misses Ferrari 308GTB with its Laser bolt barrage attack.

<Exo-Suit> Michael Briar tries to grab Fleet, and misses, instead he overshoots the seeker and gets into his sights. Stupid Briar, very very dumb. He takes a few of the shots in his arms but mostly they graze his legs leaving small marks in the armor. He growls and launches himself higher up into the sky forcing Fleet to come with if the seeker still wants to fight him. He ends up with his back to the sun and targets Fleet's wings, tails, and engines before firing. Several mini-missiles streak out from his chest. Each emitting a high pitched wail like a banshee.

You evade Exo-Suit <Glaive II>'s energon tipped mini-missile volley attack.

Ferrari 308GTB is going too fast for the blasts to catch up to him. Or Silverbolt just has the aim of a stormtrooper right now. The Ferrari dodges and serves around once again, dirt and soil kicks up from his tires. Wildrider cackles with glee as his engine revs before the sports car takes off again towards the aerialbot commander. But this time, he does not. With a soft glow on each side of the car, missile launchers appear which fire a pair of rockets towards Silverbolt. "Eat this fly boy, yeeeeahahahahaha!" he chants towards the unlucky autobot.

Ferrari 308GTB strikes Silverbolt with Hydra Rocket.

Fleet ducks, dodges, and dances around the missile onslaught as he swoops under Briar and then climbs up on the other side of him, stretching both his arms out as he does, hands relaxed, index fingers extended slightly more than the others. The General wants to keep this in the skies? That's fine! Fleet's never cared for the ground, anyway! Apparently the human has no snappy comment this time around, which is for the best, as Fleet wouldn't have had an answer, anyway, beyond his next attack.

You strike Exo-Suit <Glaive II> with Shoulder-Mounted Laser Rifle (Pulse Mode).

<Decepticon> Catechism says, "Seeker Catechism answering. I'll be arriving... now. Just what is our goal here?"

F-35 <Catechism> answers the radio call to 'join the fun'. Despite recent events, the Decepticons still do have patrols on Earth, and Catechism was assigned to one. She stays high in the sky and circles, trying to get tabs on what the situation is. There's Wildrider and her fellow Seeker Fleet and...quite a few hostiles. Well, then, figuring out what exactly is going on can wait until later, as far as this Seeker is concerned. Catechism notes that winged Autobot - Silverbolt, was that his name? - is here. He's as good as a target as any, given her limited grasp of the situation. She aims for one of his wings, fires, and returns to acclimatizing herself to the current state of affairs.

F-35 <Catechism> strikes Silverbolt with pistol.

<Decepticon> Fleet says, "Don't die. And cause as much problems to the other side as possible. They seem to be transporting something... might not be a good idea to start concentrating fire on their trucks, breaking whatever it is that they feel requires so much protection."

Battlecruiser arrives from the Northwestern State region far to the west.

Battlecruiser has arrived.

Cargo Truck turns himself around, and as he does, opens a hatch on the top of his cargo box and extends a laser turret. Sighing to himself, he gets a bead on Wildrider. "I'll do it... but I'm gonna hate myself in the morning." Tensing himself, he opens fire at the reckless 'con.

Cargo Truck misses Ferrari 308GTB with its Laser Beam O' Doom attack.

The rocket lands directly on his shoulder plate, causing minor damage. It does however, spin him around and knock the Aerialbot Commander on his aft. I hate it when they call me fly boy, damn I despise it! He tries to get to his feet, when his rear wing is struck by another shot. This one even less damage, much like a rock bouncing off of him. It doesn't falter his stance, as he soon reaches his feet. "Foxfire, what is the situation over there?" shouting into the radio, running towards Wildrider. He pulls out the sword, and aims for the tire "Halt!"

Silverbolt misses Ferrari 308GTB with its Energo-Scimitar attack.

Foxfire continues standing on top of the truck, scanning for any threat to come near the convoy. "It's good," he returns to Michael, "for now." He's ready to defend himself, and the convoy, if necessary, but hopefully it won't be.

<Exo-Suit> Michael Briar is getting pissed at this seeker. So far, he hasn't done a whole lot. The laser pulses blast into the Glaive II's back armor ripping off dollar sized chunks. Luckily, it does not hit the engine pods. Michael frowns and says, "That's it...no Mr Nice General..." he reaches behind his back to where his rifle is kept and pulls it out. He brings the long weapon around and into each hand before bringing it up to aim while dropping. A long burst of slugs rocket out at supersonic speed towards Fleet. This ain't gonna be pretty.

You evade Exo-Suit <Glaive II>'s heavy rail gun attack.

It is, as a matter of fact, rather pretty, if one were in the mode to appreciate such things. The dancer manages to duck and dodge the lead intended to scar his pastel yellow hide (and worse), ending in a twirl from which he starts to dive. Something has just occurred to him. He can get more out of this than annoy his enemies and get shot up in the process. He can damage whatever they're protecting! He transforms once more as he dives in order to bring his rockets into to play, unleashing them against the convoy. He's fairly indifferent to whether or not damage is done to a certain fox-tape standing on top of one of the trucks - right now the trucks are the target.

Foxfire evades your Convoy Seeking Rocket attack.

Ferrari 308GTB has become the stunticon target! Well, that's fine with this stunticon. He transforms skidding to a halt and pulling out his scatterlaser. Charging up, he lifts it and starts well, scattering lasers. They hit everything. Trucks, transformers, cars, even a few people. If you're lucky, not you. Wildrider cries out, "Why am I being attacked so much!? Why why why! You're ALL against me, aren't you! That's it! NYGNH!"

The ferrari 308GTB lifts up and spins around shifting his parts till he forms the stunticon terrorist Wildrider!

Wildrider unleashes its Scattershot Rifle (full auto) attack on Catechism, Silverbolt, Foxfire, Rivet, Exo-Suit <Glaive II> and Fleet, striking Catechism, Exo-Suit <Glaive II>, Fleet, Foxfire and Rivet.

F-35 <Catechism> sees the truck convoy that the others had mentioned. Just beating on Autobots is all well and good, but thwarting Autobot goals is even better! Thus, she turns her attention from Silverbolt to the convoy. The F-35 dives down, and so intent on attacking the convoy, gets nailed by so-called 'friendly fire'. Wings rattling from the fairly minor damage, she transforms to robot mode and fires at a truck with her arm guns, picking one at random.

F-35, Marine Corps variant, transforms into robot form. Catechism's feet unfold, her arms unfold out of her body, her nosecone rotates through her body and ends up on her shoulders to expose her face, and her wings rotate into position.

Foxfire lowers his ears, eyeing the rocket. "Aw, slag." He fires off a laser blast at it, destroying it before it hits anything, and then Catechism's attack, which hits the fuel tank of one of the other trucks, causing an explosion (luckily, the driver was able to dive out the other side just in time) catches his attention. "Oh for the love of Primus!" His good mood seems to have left for the day.

Catechism has disconnected.

Silverbolt ducks the crazy gun fire from Wildrider. Beyond from the damage, the Aerialbot commander is bedazzled. Attacking your targets is one thing, but spraying everything in sight? Turning around, he quickly asses the situation. What's more important, taking down the mad con or trying to protect the cargo. He decides the latter, and dashes back towards the action. This time, without thinking he pulls out his electron rifle and shoots a spray of electricity towards Fleet. "Protect this cargo at all costs!"

Silverbolt strikes you with Electrostatic Discharger Rifle for 17 points of damage.

Cargo Truck is slammed by Wildrider's lasers, putting a series of holes in his cargo box. "ARGH." he yells as the pain reaches his sensors, but it doesn't deter him from his new target, Fleet, who has just gotten Rivet's attention by attacking the convoy. "I really didn't need this today... but it seems I have little choice..." He swings his turret around to bear on the yellow Seeker, and opens fire.

Cargo Truck strikes you with Laser Beam O' Doom for 10 points of damage.

Since Fleet's two companions seem to have suddenly flickered out of existence (damned animators!) everyone focuses their attention on him. First he takes a spray of electricity along his right wing, then he suffers a laser gash along his underside. Fleet decides that it's time to once more make good on his name and turn tailfins! Ah, well, at least Catechism managed to destroy one of the... whatevers. He isn't risking his life over the rest, especially since he doesn't even know what it was! He doesn't transform - he's already in his fastest mode, and it might hurt to attempt it right now, anyway - instead taking to the air at top speed, the boom as he breaks the sound barrier leaving a fading echo behind him.

Fleet retreats from the area swiftly, outdistancing all pursuit and parting shots.

Cargo Truck watches as the Seeker retreats, and pulls to a stop next to the remaining convoy trucks. "The General's not gonna like this... but I have a feeling that Rodimus is gonna be worse to deal with." he says, shuddering a bit.

================================= Decepticon =================================

Message: 2/6 Posted Author

Convoy Thu Jan 27 Fleet

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

A pale yellow and white Seeker appears on the screen, battered and unhappy. Seekers are common enough, but since only a limited number come in pastels, this is probably Fleet. The Seeker rests an elbow on a nearby counter as he speaks, using his forearm to prop up his head.

"While on assigned patrol in the North Central United States, Wildrider and I encountered a military convoy heavily guarded by EDC forces and the Autobots. Opposition included General Michael Briar, the Aerialbot Silverbolt, the cassette-bot Foxfire, and an unidentified Autobot who remained in vehicle form. Enemy forces were engaged, and part way through the encounter Catechism arrived on-scene to assist. Of the three trucks being guarded, one was destroyed, but due to the nature of the encounter, we were unable to determine just what it was that warranted so much protection before we were overwhelmed and forced to withdraw." This last due partially to the fact that Catechism, Wildrider, and Briar all turned into pumpkins at the same moment, leaving the remainder of the Autobots free to concentrate on Fleet. The Seeker reaches for a button, pauses, says, "That is all," and then shuts off the recording. Cut to spinny.

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