Chapter 9 - Baited

The sun glinted sharply off the MH-47G Chinook's scarred panels as it made it's way slowly and laborously towards a small encampment of green and grey shades of assorted tents that lay within the industrial wastelands that was slowly being reclaimed by the near-by forested area. A handful of different vehicles lay dotted about; small helicopters, light-weight tanks and vehicles for goods transportation uses. Ignoring all calls the Chinook descended into landing, all eyes falling upon the large chopper. One soldier, closest to the mechanical behemoth shouted something. He'd spotted the deep purple, scarred face style insignia it bore on it's nose, and a wave of panic rippled through his colleagues. Seeing no one onboard, the midday air was tore apart by shouts and the sounds of powerful shots slamming into metal as the Chinook seemingly folded in on itself, transforming and raising itself up on large legs, piercing red lenses scanning the fast growing crowd of military Humans, both men and women alike as large, alien weapons were unleashed upon the organic beings, hot plasma shots tearing mercilessly through flesh, blood and bone spraying the surrounding area. The death cries and screams and shouts of utter panic soon started to fade as the remaining Humans made their escape. Something beneath his giant, alien alloyed foot crunched horribly and a gut-churning scream was cut abruptly short. He peered down and watched blood seep across the shattered concrete where a soldier had once stood. He ignored the messy demise of the fleshling and continued on with his terrorising of the small make-shift base.

Most, if not all, would call this recent Decepticon attack mindless, needless. But to Krusher, it wasn't mindless. The sudden destruction had a purpose, one of equal cruelty. He wanted to lure the Autobots out into the open, knowing that their base was somewhere near his current location, but not knowing it's exact location frustrated him to no end, forcing him to come up with new and fresh ideas for bait. And he wouldn't stop his current rampage until Raid showed himself. He would give up the blocking code, even if he had to beat the damned tank into pieces.


''The Eastern military camp has just been wiped out.'' Flashpoint announced, not in the least bit surprised.
Raid stared at the large screen, the images the security camera they'd tapped into flickering angrily, yet showing enough information for a decided reaction. Standing in the center of the devastation, Krusher stood, the twin sets of Chinook rotor blades folded at his back like wings rattling and vibrating as more powerful shots were released onto the base. Then he transformed and the two Autobots watched as he took off slowly, ascending higher and higher until he was out of view of the damaged camera.
''Any ideas as to where he's headed next?'' Raid enquired.
A moment of silence, then the transformed fire engine spoke up.
''My guess? He's moving onto the next, closest base, makeshift or otherwise.''
''Call Galaxy in then meet me up on the surface.'' Raid ordered.
Flashpoint gave a brief nod and his bulky fingers skittered across the control panel, the scene of the destroyed camp vanishing into static before clearing back to the timid and tranquil view of space. The deep green and fiery orange shuttle was still there, waiting patiently. Then, a few moments later, a burst of blue fire, then another and another, and the alien space shuttle started forward. Flashpoint grinned.


Krusher landed once more, and for the third time that day, started further ruining the lives of the male and female soldiery that came within range. Through the explosions and screams and gunfire, a siren could be heard. A loud one, angry and obnoxious. To be more precise, it was the siren of a fire engine rushing to a new emergency. Krusher grinned. He knew who it was. And he knew that the vehicle following closely to Flashpoint would be a Cybertronian tank by the name of Raid. A group of fleeing soldiers swerved out of the way as the fire engine forced it's way through the main gates, soon followed by a large green and silver tank.
Krusher cast a look over his shoulder and spun around, swinging his arm up and firing at Raid and Flashpoint. A short streak of bright white collided with Krusher's own plasma shot, the perfect aim exploding violently, shredding the already damaged concrete beneath it to pieces and destroyed everything within range of the sudden spherical explosion.
''So you finally decide to show yourself after, how many years...? Three hundred and seventy eight?'' Krusher growled in anticipation.
''You missed me so much, that you counted our years apart? I never had you pinned as the sentimental type, Krusher.'' Raid said before performing a swift transformation, going from alien, twin cannoned tank, to alien, twin cannoned robot.
Both Autobot and Decepticon alike stood at a distance from one another, lenses locked firmly on one another. A few moments of silence passed.
''Tell me the blocker code you have used on the Space Bridge.'' Krusher finally growled.
Raid cocked his head. No more words were exchanged, not even on a sub-sonic level.

The two monolithic masses of alien technology swung into motion, heavily armoured limbs moving in an all too elegant fashion for such huge beings. Then metal collided with metal and the two leaders grappled, trying to topple one another in any way possible. A low electronic sounding growl and both sets of arms jerked to one side as a huge foot shifted position, slamming back into the concrete below, giving just enough leeway to topple the Autobot to one side. The panels on the fire engine shifted and rearranged themselves. Flashpoint stood upright, shoulder cannon readying for the shot. A deep green crane and a small digger of the same colouration came to life within the debris of what was once a small storage hangar, powerful diesel engines roaring angrily into life, the arms on both construction machines lowering and extending, swinging around together, slamming into Flashpoint's shins, sending him over, sprawling on the battered and torn concrete before he could line up a clear shot. Flashpoint grunted something from his position among the debris scattered on the ground and tilted his head to one side just in time to see a large steel hook flying towards him. Then a blur of static, swiftly followed by darkness.

Raid rolled onto his back, a chain gun emerging on his right forearm, pointing upwards, Krusher in his crosshairs. The large Decepticon loomed over him. But that was soon remedied. A harsh, shredding round of shots was let off, tearing across Krusher's chest plates, moving in an upward diagonal, sending some of the smaller, and somewhat weaker shoulder plates flying in a flurry of bullets and sparks. He rolled neatly out of the way again, narrowly avoiding a large foot as it came crashing down on the area of broken concrete where Raid's head had previously been. The tank rolled up and back onto his feet, a surge of anger and dismay as he saw, out of the corner of his optics, one of his oldest friends be carted away by a pair of battered, re-painted Constructicons. A momentary distraction, but enough of a distraction to give Krusher the upper hand. He quickly regained himself and swung around, hitting Raid hard in the side. Raid had been partially unprepared for this and stumbled. The kick he'd recieved was swiftly followed by a well aimed EMP shot. Raid didn't anticpate the move. He didn't know about Krusher's arm mounted EMP cannon. Very few did. Raid went down hard. The fight had ended as abruptly as it had started.


Two figures lay on their backs on a small square of greenery. The pair who lay in the small garden consisted of a grey Donkey with heavily pierced ears and a tattooed creamy white Hare. Both male. Both bored. They stared up, squinting into the spattering of fluffy white clouds as they played and skittered across the sun, imagining what the endless amounts of different shapes the thick masses of vapour reminded them of. They joked and laughed about how one of them reminded them of their second year math teacher, what with the large nose and beady eyes the cloud seemed to sport. Another cloud gained a string of crude jokes, some of which were aimed at the mail man and his tendancy to gain entrance into the abodes of the females he delivered to. The next cloud, a long, thin trail of white and grey almost gained a crude comment too. The comment halted in the Donkey's mouth, seemingly bouncing back off his teeth, ricocheting back down his throat. Something odd had appeared from the cloud. He pointed up and nudged his friend.
''Dude.'' He said slowly. ''What is that?''
The Hare squinted in the designated direction.
''Dunno.... Looks military...'' He mused, growing as befuddled as his companion.
They squinted harder, propping themselves up their elbows, finally maneouvering themselves onto their feet, paws shading their eyes from the sun. Whatever it was, it was flying low enough for them to make out a few details. The craft was small, bulky, yet held a relative streamline to it. Two small wings protruded from it's sides. It seemed to be a deep green, almost black.

''Alien?'' The Hare asked, squinting up.
''Nah. That's shoot. No such thing as aliens. Gotta be some kind of military test, y'know? They're more 'an likely testing a new type of plane, or summink.''
''Planes don't have propellers!'' The Hare said pointedly, spying the near see-through black circle that seemed to keep the craft airborne.
''Well, not anymore. I mean, those things were permanently grounded fracking years ago. Like, a hundred years ago.''
As the growing debate about long since grounded airborne crafts and avionics of old thickened, the unidentified craft moved on, heedless of the quarrel it had just started. And unbeknownst to the two teenagers, the craft had a name; Deadmetal. And Deadmetal was indeed alien, having travelled to their planet from its adopted home world, Earth in search of another like itself.


''Carjack's here!'' A voice said in near protest.
The suddenness of the exclamation almost toppled Deadmetal from the sky. He wasn't expecting Speeder to communicate quite so soon in the afternoon. The scheduled contact was another three hours away, at sunset. And he could tell by the impatient lilt in Speeder's voice that he was getting bored.
''Where?'' Deadmetal asked, hoping for a more informative string of words.
''A town called Bresham.'' Was his reply. ''In the west of Koli. I dunno what he's doing, but I've spotted Turbulance lurking about and almost ran over another Decepticon, one that I ain't never seen before.''
Absorbing the names of the location, he probed further about the new Decepticon.
''Dunno. Never seen 'im before. He's a spindly bundle of bolts for his height. My guess is, he's a runaway.''
''What makes you think that?''
''The way he was scanning the area as he ran.'' Was Speeder's reply.
''Right, I'll be there in about two days. Don't do anything stupid.'' Deadmetal said and headed for the new location that had appeared on his map.

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