Hard Landing (Closed)

[Burnout]

Okay, so the miracle planet did exist. And it did in fact have hordes of un tapped Energon. And that would have been great if that Energon was in the transport that Burnout and the other refugees from Cybertron were flying in. But it wasn't. It was on Earth so it could not help them as they hurdled through the emptiness of space. The engines choked, trying to breathe off the fumes of the remaining Energon.

Burnout was back in the engine room, working his hardest to maximize their fuel supplies. For the past week, the engine's fuel reserves had been running out, and the main engines were needed to land this hunk of metal without the ship being shredded by the atmosphere. They had to be close to be close to their destination, because if they were not, the ship and the crew might be lost to the depths of space.

"Not good, not good..." Burnout said to no one as he was the only one in the engine compartment. The majority of the other refugees were soldiers or politicians by function, no one that could really help Burnout run a outdated, half-junked hyperdrive engine. Scrambling to the wall panel, the Autobot Engineer pushed a button, and the auxilary power took over the critical functions. However, they needed the main engine to maneuver effectively. As the small blue planet appears on the monitor in front of him, Burnout could easily see that they were not on a proper entry course. Those on the bridge of the ship must have been seeing the same thing as the emergency systems exploded to life with a whirling of lights and sounds. The ship was headed for a crash landing.

On the American mainland, a burning star could be seen from those on the ground. Like a falling meteor, it blazed overhead before disappearing over the horizon. The emergency broadcast signal was sent out across the area as the wrecked ship crashed into one of the Great Lakes. The signal was sure to attract Autobots and Decepticons alike.

[Rodimus]

His systems kicked back on, one by one, his optical sensors slowly focusing on the ceiling of a corridor as they came back on. Commander Rodimus' spark still burned and that was more than he'd had a chance to hope for as... he gritted his teeth and took a diagnostic of his systems as he recalled the previous events from his memory core.

Rodimus had gotten tired of feeling his bolts rattle in their settings less twenty second in and, after admonishing everybody else to stay strapped in, had left the passenger bay heading for the command deck. When he'd been Hot Rod he would have been in a lot of trouble taking that walk (he'd have done it anyway) but after his rise to the leadership class it was merely an annoying inconvenience to drag himself up the bucking corridor to his destination. He'd burst through the door to the command deck and demanded a situation report from the ship's captain.

There had been a rude response of one sort or another from a bot with a too wide grin on his face to fall into the strictly sane range. An angry worded command that would have left little room for argument died in his vocalizer as a large body of water rushed at the forward view screen. What came out instead was a resigned "Lube me," before the body of water smashed through the view screens and smashed into him like a hammer. That was the last thing he recalled and, the walk down a painful memory lane handled, he pulled himself off the ground where he was laying amidst a puddle.

As Rodimus reached his feet he came to two realizations. First, the vessel wasn't on flat ground judging by the hard list to the left and slowly increasing backward lean he was dealing with. Second, the 'puddle' he'd come to a stop in wasn't a puddle. Rather, it was a small stream that was flowing toward the aft of the vessel. His eyes slowly followed the stream's path back toward the source of the water, his optics widening at the sight of water spraying through the seems of the door that had once accessed the bridge. Rodimus had no doubt that it wasn't there anymore, at least not in a form most would recognize.

He worked his way to a junction and slapped a flickering panel's emergency address button. Rodimus had no way of knowing whether or not the message got through, it was largely a one way system, but he gave his orders anyway. "This is Commander Rodimus. Abandon ship. I repeat, abandon ship. Bridge is lost, vessel is sinking. Abandon ship." Rodimus touched a button that would repeat the message over and over until the ship just couldn't manage it anymore. He took a moment to hope that everybody was already heading that way, nodding once to himself as he heard his own voice echoing from an operational speaker down a cross corridor.

It was time to get off that boat.

[Burnout]

Burnout had just managed to strap himself in when they broke atmosphere. Feeling the pull of gravity, the Mech could only hold on for his spark and hope they did not hit anything hard. The engineer Autobot did not remember landing. He just remembered falling and then waked up in knee depth water. He could see the cause of the flooding. A massive crack had formed through the thick, outer layer of ship. Even as he buckled himself to begin damage control measures, Burnout's audio receptors caught the Abandon ship alarm following by the voice of Commander Rodimus. The ship was sinking.

Given the order to evaluate, Burnout gave up hope of savaging the engine room as the cool water began to react with the overloaded engines causing steam to begin to rise. Fighting the heavy list, the engineer pulled himself up from the lower decks and sealed the hatch behind him. There shouldn't be anymore 'bots down there, but if there were, they could escape through the emergency scuttles. The sealing of the hatch would at least slow the flooding, giving others time to escape the ship.

Rushing up the ladderwells while fighting water pushing down at him, Burnout made it to the docking level. Already several other Autobots were abandoning the ship through the exit hatches. With just one more look around the destroyed ship that had been his home for the past cycles, Burnout filed into the line and got ready to exit the ship.

[Rodimus]

Rodimus knew it was time to be out but he couldn't bring himself to bypass a single door without making sure some bot wasn't trapped on the other side, greatly slowing his escape from the sinking vessel. It was a good thing too, because he found no less than six others in bad situations that he was fortunately able to help. Two of them were even soldiers, which gave Rodimus an idea. He ordered the two to follow him and went straight for the armory. If they got out of that ship there were going to be a lot of civilians standing around without much to defend them if what turned up wasn't friendly.

He and the two warriors dragged the inoperable doors of the armory open and went to work. Every Autobot was armed in some way but the heavy stuff wasn't just handed out haphazardly. "Grenades, mines, anything we can use to stand off a numerically superior force or a super-big. Grab field containers." The warriors came up with two crates apiece, three containers of grenades and one with a heavy auto blaster. Being larger than either of them Rodimus accounted for four crates all by himself. Crate of grenades, another heavy auto blaster, a surface-to-air missile launcher with ammunition, and a crate more of the missiles that would make the launcher more than a really fancy set of binoculars after the few missiles packed with it ran out.

With two of the heavy crates tucked under each arm Rodimus led the two warriors out of the armory and toward the docking bay, bursting in through a military access that to that point didn't appear to have been used. He found the surviving passengers attempting to do as he'd commanded, exiting the vessel through the various docking hatches. Upon spotting a superior officer several warriors broke from the lines and ran over, relieving Rodimus of his crates, freeing him to make his way topside. Rodimus went to one of the landing bay doors, almost climbing due to the list, and used his military override to blow the hatch open.

The soldiers followed Rodimus, bringing the munitions out into the light of day. He shaded his own optic sensors with a hand while they adjusted to the change in brightness, keeping his hand up as his eyes widened to see where they were. Whether sea, ocean, or lake, the shoreline was blessedly close. About forty yards off starboard, which meant the ship would be accessible assuming the body of water's bottom didn't slope off hard. There was still some Energon to be had in the stores and Rodimus' little impromptu team hadn't even gotten close to cleaning out the armory. "Get this gear to the shore, set up a beach head and secure it for the civilians. Somebody will come... but there's no telling who at this point."

As the warriors started dropping into the water with the crates held over their heads Rodimus turned to regard the gathering of bots on top of the vessel. "Everybody to the shore! Soldiers, find your officers once you're there and begin organizing the defensive position. Double time!" He turned his eyes to the sky in worry, knowing that was where the Decepticons liked to attack from when massed.

[Burnout]

Burnout stood patiently waiting his turn to exit the ship. His gear was secured on his person, in case any of his skills were needed. The Mech was surprised how few of the refugees were present. The group had departed Cybertron with dozens of Autobots, but Burnout estimated that there was only about fifteen of them in the hangar bay. He hoped that they were only delayed, not destroyed like the young Autobot feared. Seeing a passing superior officer, the mechanic followed him as the larger Autobot led some soldiers loaded with equipment to another door.

"Rodimus, I came from the engine department. It is flooding with water and building pressure. It might blow!" Burnout exclaimed. As if to emphasize his point, the ship rumbled slightly beneath the Autobots' pedes from a small explosion. Burnout knew it was only the beginning. The survivors needed to exit the sinking vessel, and fast.

[Rodimus]

Rodimus was busy looking out for the worst possible scenario coming over the horizon when it appeared under his feet. He heard a voice on his flank and despite knowing it wasn't coming from anywhere near his head-height he turned and looked straight on the horizontal plane. A moment later, he looked down. The engineer... Burnout was his name. That was when the ship vibrated beneath them. "That was timely..." he trailed off as he realized the rumble hadn't stopped and was, in fact, building.

Once again, Rodimus was certain his spark had been extinguished right up until he opened his optics. All he'd been able to do was grab Burnout by his chest armor, yell jump at the top of his vocalizer, and leap. Finding himself half in the water, half on soggy ground, told him he hadn't quite gotten clear before the engines had gone nova. "Thank the Allspark I'm not old..." He could see the sort of beating he was absorbing that day wearing on his chassis in a few stellar cycles. Rodimus rolled to his hands and knees and took stock of his surroundings. "Burnout... you alive?"

[Starscream]

The sky was clear, with only a few stubborn clouds to be seen for miles. Orange tones glazed the horizon as the sun was setting. The only abnormal thing about the perfect day was the smoke trail from a downed vessel, and the roaring sound of jet engines. Starscream had been tracking the ship’s trajectory for the past hundred miles. Decepticon radars picked it up as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere, and Starscream decided he would go himself. He soared high in the sky, a few thousand feet above the ground. The crash site was immediately spotted as debris littered the area around the lake. Parts of the craft stuck out above water, and soon Starscream spotted survivors too. With a sudden jerk to the right and nose pointed to the ground, the jet began a swift decent. The Seeker readied his weapon systems and powered up his thrusters. Streaking downwards, his systems picked up on the ship’s emergency broadcast. Encryption labeled the craft as Autobot in origin.

Perfect Starscream thought to himself. I love the smell of charred Autobots in the evening!

With no warning except the increasing hum of jet engines, Starscream rocketed over the crash site. Two of his four missiles streaked out from beneath his wings. They hit their target: Exposed areas of the ship. Massive explosions displaced great amounts of water and sent debris flying. Starscream flew straight for a few seconds, and then careened to the side in an attempt to do a second fly by. Aiming once more for the crashed shuttle, he flew straight for it. At the last second he pulled up, but not before depositing his last two missiles. These projectiles managed go deeper than the other two. The resulting explosion ripped the remains of the shuttle apart with a violent force. Content that he had killed most of the Autobots inside, the Seeker eased up on the throttle and began to head for the lake shore. Transforming mid air and landing quite dramatically (Starscream thought an exquisite Seeker as he should always have a graceful entrance) he viewed the remains of the burning hulk. Pleased with his work, he chuckled to himself as he casually examined his talons.

“They just don’t seem to make Autobots like they use to, eh?” He purred, looking up from his claws and back to the lake.

“They make this far too easy for me,”

[Burnout]

The rumbling built as bulkheads sagged and snapped under the growing pressure beneath their feet. The explosions created a chain reaction as other systems overloaded. Burnout suddenly felt weightless as the heavier Mech grabbed and threw him out the hatch. A massive explosion detonated in the belly of the ship, mostly like the main armory. The explosion shot fire and shrapnel up through the floor of the hangar bay. Burnout's dermal sensors felt the heat of the blaze before they automatically shut off to eliminate the Autobot's pain.

Off balance from being thrown out the hatch, Burnout had not landed on his pedes. Instead, he landed in more of a belly flop and disappeared beneath the waves for a moment. The impact caused an overload and it took until Burnout touched bottom for his CPU to process it all. His sensors jolted back to reality and he rose quickly from the water. He gave a metallic groan from the abuse his structure had sustained.

"I'm alive, surprisingly." Burnout said, uttering another groan as he jammed his rotator cuff back into its correct position. "You okay? What about the others?"

However, he was suddenly distracted by the sounds of a jet engine overhead. His vision sensors followed the sounds as the obviously Cybertronian transformed and landed on the beach. Burnout's sensors quickly drew the logical conclusion. However, his good manner betrayed his immediate judgment. He turned to the larger, possibly only other surviving, Mech.

"What do you think? Friend or enemy?"

[Crasher]

Crasher wasn't far behind Starscream, Newly arriving on earth the psychopathic femme was pleased to have something to do so soon. To make it all the better it was a crashed vessel. Potentially an Autobot vessel, Oh she certainly hoped so! It had been so long since she had offlined an Autobot. Maybe she would get luck and Blurr would be there? Oooo! The thought simply gave her the surges! How she would love to simply rip apart the mech that ruined her racing career! But, as the saying went, business before pleasure.

Unfortunately the Porsche was no flyer, and keeping up with the Second in command was not easy. The ground Eradicons trailing behind her to provide the Air Commander with back-up, no that she thought he needed it, but because it was protocol. As as far as the black and white femme was concerned, they could just make sure no one escaped as her and Starscream picked Autobot's off... or on the chance they were Decepticons they could do the hard, boring work. As She saw the harrier fire she knew even before picking up the recording that they were Autobots. "Mmm hmhmhmhm Ahahahaha!" She cackled wildly speeding up towards their destination and leaving the Eradicons in her dust.

With in moments the Ex-racer was driving off over an overhang high into the air before transforming in mid-air and landing on the shoreline. Raising dramatically with a wicked grin on her faceplate, yellow optics gleaming with insanity. "Hello~ Everyone!" She said cheerfully. "Let's play!" She then roared Fiercely, demeanor changing completely ad she picked up her ped and slammed in into the ground to create a quake that cracked the very ground, causing it to split towards the Autobots.

[Rodimus]

Rodimus nodded when he caught Burnout's voice confirming he was alive. The sound of metal being reset said he wasn't without damage but it was good to know the one bot Rodimus had been in a position to help was alive enough to at least pretend to be well. Burnout asked about the others. Rodimus knew better than to look back into the water, he very much doubted anyone was there and he didn't want that failure to have a visual file. He looked forward instead, toward where he had a reasonable hope that the soldiers who'd preceded him might have escaped the worst of it.

He had just enough time to see three of his soldiers stirring, they'd been knocked over by either the pressure wave or the water wave generated by the explosions. Sadly, the others had been struck by shrapnel and appeared to no longer be functioning. Still, three soldiers, a leader class, and a mechanic was nothing to sneeze at for a team. "Lost a few, kept a few, by the looks of it," he responded to the question asked. Sadly, trouble came in threes. The wreck, the explosion, and then Decepticons. The mechanic asked a question and Rodimus could only shake his head.

Even as the earth trembled under the other con's stomp Rodimus knew they were in far more trouble than she presented. Every graduate of the Iacon Academy, Prime Academy, and any Autobot who wanted to call themselves a leader had to know the big players of the Decepticon leadership. Starscream was nearly as big as it got, easily the second most famous Decepticon of them all, only after Megatron himself. He spoke quietly, keeping his eyes on Starscream but speaking to Burnout. "The case with the red mark on the top, get to it and find cover. The weapon inside is pretty self explanatory. Shoot the flier."

The crack didn't stop until after one of his soldiers fell into it, the other two getting their feet back under them as they drew weapons, and Rodimus burst from the shallow water with his six arm mounted blasters flashing in sequence to make the space immediately around the two Decepticons the most dangerous space for a thousand klicks.

[Burnout]

Burnout did not like the answer to his first question. He had become close with many of the Autobots that had been riding on their transport, but their spark had been estinguished. Their deaths only added to the number of friends that Burnout had lost in this long war. However, the Autobot mechanic knew that there would be other times to mourn their death. Presently, they had to defeat themselves from the attacking Decepticons.

Nodding at Rodimus, Burnout pulled out his assault rifle and followed behind Rodimus as he blasted at the two Decepticons. As they approached the beach, Burnout broke off to the right and opened up firing with his rifle at the stomping robot. As he fired, Burnout spotted the before mentioned case. It was in the sand near the female Decepticon.

[Starscream]

Upon closer inspection of the red mech which had emerged from the wreckage yielded a surprise for Starscream. Of all Autobots to come stumbling out of a downed vessel, it had to be him. The Seeker had never actually met him face to face, but he knew of him from stories as well as images. Rodimus, a top lieutenant of the Autobots. Should he survive the encounter, the red mech would cause no amount of trouble for Starscream. It was quite obvious to most Decepticons who partook in the assault on the Autobot base to realize that the Autobots were scattered and leaderless. This red upstart could rally their forces. Starscream was not going to have any of this. Things started looking more in his favor when a black Porsche rocketed up the shore and transformed into Crasher. The psychopathic femme would no doubt be more than overzealous to kill some Autobots. When Rodimus suddenly launched at the Seeker firing a mounted blaster, Starscream deftly jumped to the side with the aid of his thrusters. An unidentified Autobot was firing at him as well, while moving towards a suspicious case. Though Starscream could not identity what sort of crate it was in the heat of the moment, he quickly decided that if the Autobots want it, he needs to either capture or destroy it. He looked back at Crasher with a stern look

“Crasher, relieve that ‘bot of his precious crate and keep him busy while I teach junior here a lesson!” Once more jumping into the air, he transformed into his jet mode and rocketed towards Rodimus with gatling guns blazing.

(OOC: Troile, you can puppet Screamer a bit here to work out him flying into Rodimus )

[Crasher]

Crasher was a crazy femme to be sure but she wasn't stupid. When the blue and white striped Autobot fired on her she ducked and strifed towards the crate in the sand. It seemed to be important as she noticed the Autobot eying it even before hearing Starscream's command. The Harrier had only confirmed her thoughts on the matter. The Autobot's fire grazed her shoulder and helm, but rather than seeming up set at this "marring of her beauty" She grinned widely in excitement. She viewed such marks more as adding to her beauty than taking away from it and the thrill of nearly getting hit, of battle itself was very stimulating.

Needless to say she returned fire with her Negative energy blaster, as she secured the crate before her, using it as a sort of cover as the Eradicons that had been in tow behind her finally arrived. "Crate Secured, Screamy! Mmmmhmhmhmhm!" She replied with a haughty cackle. The black and white femme brought up her second blaster and started sending a hail of fire at the engineer, while gripping the crate with the sides of the arms and standing up from her previously crouched position.Crasher then started to back away as she fired hoping the Eradacons would close in and cover her while she got a chance to dig into the crate.

[Rodimus]

Looked like Starscream had worn his big boy servos that day as he took up Rodimus' challenge and transformed into his vehicle mode. He came on fast, no doubt about it. The jet mode had an even narrower profile than Starscream's robot mode, making shooting him down next to impossible. He was fast and the distance between them was short, even as fast as Rodimus was himself he doubted he could dodge the Decepticon entirely but he could sure as Primus alter the situation to his advantage.

Rodimus couldn't dodge but he could certainly accept the impact on his own terms. The big red warrior shifted to his left a half step, set his feet and arms, and leaped backwards to mitigate the impact as much as possible as Starscream slammed into him in jet mode. Rodimus had gotten just enough height to balance himself on the leading edge of Starscream's right wing, hooking over it with his left arm while wrapping his right around the cockpit section. "Bad move, laser brain!" Rodimus clenched the grapple, throwing his upper body back to drag Starscream's nose down while firing both sets of his forearm blasters at point blank range at the Decepticon's body and tail.

[Starscream]

Barreling through the air at high velocity with an unwelcomed cling on was harder than the Seeker thought it would be. The sudden jolt of extra weight caused him to tip dangerously to one side. When his wingtip connected to the ground, the inertia of a speeding jet suddenly stopping was disastrous. Both he and Rodimus face planted hard at speeds well over 400mph, and they tumbled tumultuously while ripping gouges into the soft earth. Starscream unconsciously began to transform back into his robot mode as he flipped head over heels for quite a distance. The Seeker finally came to his stop as his head managed to carve one more crater into the dirt and sloppily ended his fall. He slowly raised his head above the crater, blinking his optics rapidly. Face contorting to anger; he slowly rose to stand, coughing out loose dirt that had lodged itself in his mouth. Looking down upon his chassis revealed dents and gashes as well as clods of dirt and grass sticking out between plates. Turning to the Autobot lieutenant with murderous optics, he growled and was about to speak before he saw Crasher with the mysterious crate.

“Crasher, open the parcel up and see what out guests have brought us…” he coughed as he wiped his mouth with the back of his servo. Straightening to full height, he curled his talons menacingly

“I’ll take care of the up-start!” He hissed as aimed an arm missile at the red lieutenant and fired while cackling wildly.