[IC] Transformers G1: Shadow of the Decepticons

[Kalamadea]

Shockwave
It's been countless decacycles since the fall of Iacon. Not long after the failure of the Ark, the ruthless Decepticons swarmed Iacon and crushed the Autobot defense. Shockwave proved to be a capable leader in Megatron's absence. With the fall of Iacon, the Autobots have gone into hiding. Fast forward a million decacycles, and the civil war has erupted once again, still in favor of the Decepticons. However, the resistance has managed to claim territory, and has guarded it well. They never take more than they can hold, which ensures that they rarely get pushed back. Wandering patrols that are unlucky enough to find themselves in resistance territory are quick to get their sparks extinguished, which, after sending countless raiding parties their way, finally convinced Shockwave that continuing to try to claim such a small piece of territory was not worth the effort, and the resistance once again faded into the back of Shockwave's CPU. The emotionless madbot stood within Iacon's command center, his single beady red optic trained on the monitors in front of him which showed different views of the resistance's territory. Even with all their surveillance, they still haven't managed to find where those Primus-forsaken Autobots have dug in. If the surrogate leader of the Decepticons had any emotion, he'd have chuckled to himself as he told himself they would eventually find and smoke out those pests. Yes, those Autobots who retreated would be wiped out in due time. Shockwave would make sure of that.

Darkstar
Darkstar's aimless wandering after being shot down seemed to never end. All he could feel was a burning hatred of Starscream as thoughts of his betrayal rose to mind. After an unknown length of time, however, a voice rang out from in front of him: "You lost, Decepticon?" Should his attention snap to the source of the voice, he'd see several Autobot guards standing before him, and they appeared to be well armed. "Don't you know this is Autobot territory?" They were standing at the mouth of a cave, which seemed suspicious at first glance. Why would a couple of Autobots be guarding a cave entrance?

Overboost
Overboost has been wandering for a while, and did not miss the Autobot patrol that was dispatched to do one final search for Crosswire's hideaway. He saw them on their way back to wherever the resistance was hiding, moving only under cover of night with no lights and hiding in caves during the day. To avoid making too much noise, they traveled only in biped form to eliminate engine noise as a possible method of Decepticons detecting them. It was a wise move, considering how deep in Deception territory they were. Overboost was not noticed, but a certain curiosity lightly touched him. Whether he followed this or not, when night fell, that same patrol was moving again. The horrors of Crosswire's true intentions were still fresh on Overboost's CPU, so perhaps grouping with Autobots still true to the old ideals could help him heal. Unlike Crosswire, they still proudly displayed their Autobot insignia, not even hiding it behind a rubsign like Overboost currently was. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that someone, somewhere, was leading a group of true Autobots.

Metalstorm
Metalstorm had finally found solitude, which greatly suited him. The last thing the paranoid bot wanted was company, so he was enjoying his solitude as he cruised through the air. It didn't last, however, because a squad of Seekers appeared on his sensors. They obviously sensed him as well, because a transmission opened up and a message was received. "Identify yourself, flyer. If you do not comply, we will open fire." They were rapidly closing into range and would be upon him within a few moments.

[MarsAdept]

DarkStar instantly and instinctively raised his gattling gun and pointed it at the Autobots before him. A simple calculation from his combat programs told him what he already knew. He was no match for these Autobots. He had enough energon to make one teleport jump if he needed, but to do so might send him into stasis lock on the other side. His damage was already extensive enough to prevent flight. Since they asked a joking question like that, DarkStar assumed that these Autobots were aware that they had every advantage over him. As he took aim at the Autobots, he called back in a show of confidence, "I am not lost Autobot. I know where I am. Cybertron is just bigger in the two dimensions compared to the three."

The sudden movement into a fighting stance that DarkStar made was too much for his frame. A damaged nut in his left knee gave way. He lost all function in his knee that supported his weight. He fell over onto his knees barely catching himself with his outstretched left hand. He quickly tried to correct himself as he once again pointed his weapon at the Autobots. With a pained chuckle he spoke, "Well this is embarrassing."

[Mtntopview]

Metalstorm kept flying, and didn't respond, increasing his speed slowly, trying to distance himself from them. He tried in vain to calm himself down, thinking soothing thoughts, peaceful thoughts. However, the fear soon overcame him. It grabbed hold of him, pulling him down into a dark abyss. Decepticons ... threats ... kill them, before they kill me. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them. His vision became blurry, he let out a yell, "Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill" He shouted, his voice growing louder, "Kill them all!" He finally broke into action, stopping his engines and letting the Decepticons overshoot. He started firing his cannons, sending a flurry of projectiles past them.

((Hopefully good enough))

[Kalamadea]

Darkstar
As Darkstar thought, the guards did realize that the Con before them would be no match for them. They hadn't even raised their weapons, but their optics showed surprise when his knee buckled, and one of them actually caught him and supported him. "Hey, we'll get you patched up. It's the least we could do for a bot in need." Possibly to Darkstar's surprise, there was no sarcasm in the Autobot's voice. He was completely serious, they were really going to take him in for repairs. The other bot scoffed and said, "What in Primus name are you on about? He's a Decepticon! The enemy! We should kill him now and save ourselves the trouble of having to fight him later." Darkstar's new "friend" glared at his partner. "What? And be no better than they are? Why don't you go join them if you're so intent on killing an injured bot?" The bot helped Darkstar to his feet and got on his radio. "Hyperspeed, I've got an injured Decepticon up here. He's pretty badly damaged. It's like someone pushed him off a cliff... Understood." He got off the radio and turned to Darkstar. "We'll give you repairs, under one condition: turn your weapons control chip over to us. I'll take you down when you hand it over. If not... well, we'll just have to leave you to survive on your own."

Metalstorm
When Metalstorm dropped back and opened fire, the Seeker trio dropped flares to throw off Metalstorm's sensor and peeled apart, moving into a triangle formation with Metalstorm at its center. However, that was when a second cluster showed up on his sensors and began firing on the Seekers, forcing them to regroup. They were Autobots, that much was obvious. While they were more numerous, both sides were evenly matched due to the superiority of Decepticon air forces.

[MarsAdept]

DarkStar's lowered his weapon slightly as the Autobots argued. He had never heard of the an Autobot caring about wounded Decepticon. Autobots were not supposed to care about such things as honor. His Decepticon red optics glared at the Autobot. He opens his mouth to insult the Autobot or accuse the Autobot of deception but stops himself. It would not do him any favors to insult the one glitching Autobot who was defending him. He did not want to force the other one to follow through with his belief that all Decepticons are better off dead. He for a bit then reached into his chest and pulls out his weapons chip. He slowly hands the chip to the Autobot, "I do this in good faith Autobot. Get me those repairs."

[Zero Hex]

Overboost followed the autobot patrol though the barren wastes that had become the vast majority of Cybertron's scenery. He hated it. Being forced to crawl around as a rat dragging along a high powered bike, Road Gator it was called, for fear of being discovered; having to see his homeworld which he had never really appreciated reduced to a smoldering wreck; being a strange mutant to his own people because of a single madman; having been forced into a war he never wanted any part of in the first place. He was tired of it all.

He also hated the fact that he couldn't, wouldn't take the easy way out. A suicide charge into Decepticon territory, offlining as many of them as he could before his own spark was extinguished. There would have been a certain satisfaction in that, but Overboost wouldn't take it, even if he fought recklessly. He had signed up with the Autobots of his own free will and he had become a soldier for their cause. Not entirely willingly, but he would see the war through to its end, and for that he needed to live. To live and to find a leader he could follow.

Still, he was sick and tired of playing it safe. Of being scared and defenseless and duped. He wasn't Impulse anymore, he was Overboost, and even if he was a freak, he was a powerful one. No one gave the Dynobots or the Wreckers any scrap for not being subtle. Climbing on top of Road Gator felt natural, the roar of its engines gave him a primal sense of satisfaction as he roared down the most dangerous and unstable spots of the cybertronian wilderness, so akin to miniature Rust Spots. If anyone wanted to track him down or keep those areas locked down they were in for one hellish job, facing down a collection of hazards including active storms that disrupted communications and surveillance equipment.

Engines roaring, he ground to a stop at a safe distance away from what he assumed was the entrance to the Autobot hideout. "WHO IS YOUR LEADER?" his voice boomed in the empty wastelands.

[Mtntopview]

Metalstorm's paranoia was inflamed by the new development. Of course they couldn't leave him be. They were all trying to hunt him down. He needed to kill them before they killed him. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. He increased his altitude. He soon found himself much higher than both factions. Metalstorm circled the commotion for a bit, then dropped down. Increasing his speed, he charged the Autobots head on, firing a flurry of missiles and cannon-fire at them. "Die, die, die, die, die, die, die!" He shouted as he charged, his only goal was to kill every last one of them. Kill them all before they could kill him.

[Kalamadea]

Darkstar

The Autobot took the chip and led the way into the cave, moving deeper and deeper into the ground. It was a maze of caverns, and it was impressive that the sentry didn't get lost. The path twisted and turned, leading ever deeper into the depths of Cybertron. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally stepped into a vast, open chamber. There was a mess of equipment scattered about this room, but what was really eyecatching was the number of bots in the room. There were a few hundred Autobots in here, but this was obviously not the only room. More tunnels branched out from the chamber, through which Autobots were constantly moving in and out of the chamber. The pair approached a small bot that was attending to a trio of technicians, but as they approached, he turned to face them. Even though this bot was considerably smaller than Darkstar, he showed no sign of fear in his optics. There was something that could only be called defiance in his optics, and a hint of hatred as well. The escort stood up straight and said, "Hyperspeed, this is that 'Con I told you about." Hyperspeed nodded and held out a hand. The bot handed Hyperspeed the weapons chip and dismissed the bot, who then began the climb back to his post. Hyperspeed then held up the chip and said, "You get this back when you're well out of our territory. Don't bother trying to call your little Decepticon friends, because it won't work." The reason for this wasn't given, but Darkstar didn't have the time to question it before Hyperspeed was already gesturing for the Seeker to follow.

Darkstar was led to another, smaller chamber, and even though the place was obviously cleaned up regularly, there was still a thin patina of grease lining parts of the cavern. Repair benches, which looked like they'd been forcefully ripped from a wall, were placed at regular intervals. Several of the benches were occupied, with mechanics moving between patients. They approached an especially large mechanic, who was as tall as Darkstar and much broader. "Spotweld! Got another patient for you." Spotweld, a deep blue bot with white highlights, turned to face them. A slight grin reached his face as he looked at the new arrival. "A Decepticon? Been a while since we managed to capture one. Have a seat." Spotweld nodded to Hyperspeed, who then returned to the main chamber to continue his duties.

Overboost
By the time Overboost reached the hideout, the patrol he was following had already entered the cave. Two bots stood guard at the entrance, and his shout caught their attention. One looked directly at him and said, "Who wants to know?" They walked over to him, and their optics widened when they saw what he actually looked like. "You're an Actionmaster. Follow me, Hyperspeed will want to speak with you." Just as with Darkstar, the bot got on the radio. "Hyperspeed, another Actionmaster turned up... Yes, of course." Again, the bot turned to Overboost. "Come with me." He walked into the cave, but whether or not Overboost followed remained to be seen. They made no move to deactivate his weapons.

Metalstorm
When the lone Autobot flier began attacking the other Autobots, the Seekers were concerned, but did not question it. Instead, they moved in to assist him, marking him as friendly and keeping track of his movements. With the scale tipped in the favor of the Decepticons, the Autobot fliers were quickly and efficiently shot down. The Seekers then pulled even with Metalstorm and got on their radios again. "Why did you attack them? Weren't they your allies?" There was confusion in their tones, but also gratitude.

[MarsAdept]

Darkstar said nothing as the Autobot Hyperspeed as the bot took his weapon's chip and lead him to the mechanic. He assumed that he could not call his Decepticon allies because of how far down they were below the surface. Not like that mattered. Darkstar had already tried to contact the Decepticons for rescue. Either they did not care about him or the damage he took did in fact knock out his communications. Darkstar would have liked the latter to be more correct. Darkstar glared at the mechanic as he ordered him to sit on the repair bench. Reluctantly, he took his seat for the mechanic. The mechanic was right. DarkStar was a prisoner now and it is not like he gave the Autobots much of a fight. The Decepticons basically handed him over. NO! Not the Decepticons just one Decepticon... that Decepticon. Just thinking about what happened caused DarkStar to tense up with anger. He would find him and destroy him. DarkStar needed to get repaired, then he needed to hone his skill, gain valuable experience, and then ultimately support. Decepticons did not agree with murder of each other for it weakened the force, yet no one would argue against a death in a fair duel, because that strengthened the force. The Weak die and the strong stand tall. That was the Gladiator's way but it was an effective and honorable way to do things.

[Kalamadea]

Darkstar
Spotweld began working on Darkstar once he sat down, and because he was working so closely with the inner workings of the Seeker, he couldn't help but notice how Darkstar tensed up. "Whoa, easy. Relax. What's gotten you all tensed up suddenly?" He knew it wasn't the pain, since he'd disabled the Seeker's pain receptors. Something unpleasant was on Darkstar's mind, that much the mechanic noticed. As he worked, Spotweld grimaced at the extent of the damage. "What in Primus' name happened? You get shot down or something? The damage practically screams crash landing." He had started with the knee, and was currently replacing the damaged joint. "Well, I'm no Ratchet, but I should be able to get you patched up just fine." Ratchet, one of the bots sent on the Ark mission. It was a well-known fact that Ratchet was the best mechanic on Cybertron, and now they didn't even know whether he was online or not.

Spectre
Spectre has found herself stuck on a raiding party once again. She'd been stuck on a lot of raiding parties since she returned to the resistance, and there was a noticeable lack of respect for her when it was found out that she abandoned her initial function in favor of another, and the Autobots tended to not like that very much. The raid leader spoke up, saying, "All right, listen up. We've received the route of a supply caravan from one of our spies in Iacon. It's transporting sheet metal, oil, wiring, the like; it's mostly repair supplies. We'll move in, kill any 'Cons that might be there, and take the supplies for ourselves. We're running low now, so this operation's success is essential. Now, transform and roll out." The rest of the raiding party transformed, all land vehicles, and quickly drove out of the cave.

[Mtntopview]

Metalstorm didn't even respond to the Decepticons, it seemed that the skies weren't clear yet. He quickly formulated a plan, soon the threats would be nullified. He suddenly increased his speed, then transformed. He aimed to land on top of one of the seekers. Should he succeed, he would then start slashing at the con with his sword, hoping to do as much damage as he possibly could, then transform again and start going after the other two. He didn't have a plan much further than that. All he could really care about was killing every Autobot or Decepticon near him, returning the skies to the clarity that they should be. If his hopes were brought to fruition, then the only one leaving this battlefield alive would be him.

[MarsAdept]

DarkStar eased off his edge as the Autobot spoke to him. He was unsure of what to tell the Autobot. It was in fact embarrassing that he was shot down and even worse that it was done by a Decepticon. DarkStar spoke as calmly as he could, "Yes, Autobot, I was shot down, thanks for asking. It was not so much of a crash landing rather me trying to land as best I could without control. Do not take any pride in the fact I was shot down, Autobot, for it was not by your hands." DarkStar paused for a moment. What was he doing? It was the pride of the Decepticons in him that made him want to insult the mechanic in front of him for the mere fact that he was an Autobot. DarkStar was a prisoner and any information he said no matter how small could hurt him. DarkStar immediately tried to change the subject, "Hey, Doc, What was that Ship that launched not long back?"

[Zero Hex]

Well, that had been easy. No threats, no demands, not even surprise over a cybertronian using a vehicle to get around instead of his altmode. They'd just called him a something-master and offered to let him through no problem. He'd been ready for a standoff or...something, anything. What had happened to him wasn't normal enough that they could just slap a name to it all and just walk him to their leader. The guard at the entrance had said "another". Others like him? Others that had survived the Nucleon? He wasn't even the first one to turn up? As he pondered all of this he jumped off Road Gator and walked towards the autobots as if in a daze. "Imp...Overboost. I used to be Impulse but I'm Overboost now. And they say all the best names are already taken, right?"

[Kalamadea]

Darkstar
The mechanic paused when Darkstar mentioned it wasn't an Autobot that shot him down. So he'd gotten his first taste of Decepticon betrayal? But he didn't push any further when Darkstar changed the subject. It was obviously a tender subject. "Oh, that? That was the Ark. It was supposed to find a new source of power, but we lost contact shortly after its launch. Optimus took the best of us with him on that ship, and now, well, you can see what followed." By then, both knee joints were replaced and new armor bolted onto Darkstar's legs, and Spotweld had moved on to the arms. "It's not the most ideal way to live, but at least we're online. Hyperspeed makes sure we get what we need, so repair supplies aren't too big of a problem. The only real problem is getting energon. Shockwave guards the energon refineries well and tracks all output, but we manage to skim off a bit every now and then." Of course, by a bit, he meant a lot. Shockwave often finds that a refinery produces far less than ideal every now and then.

Metalstorm
The Seekers obviously were not expecting the attack, and the one he targeted went down fairly easily. By then, though, the others had caught on that this was not a potential ally, and split off from each other to give two separate targets rather than a cluster, making them a tougher fight. Machine gun fire came from two different directions, and alerts went off in Metalstorm's systems that a lock-on was in progress. But with one of their wingmen down, the Seekers were already a truncated force, as Seekers worked best in trios rather than pairs.

Overboost
Overboost was led underground, through the same cave system Darkstar had been led through. When they reached the main chamber, Hyperspeed was waiting for them. He looked up and down Overboost, and a sort of sadness was in his optics. How could Crosswire even call himself Autobot while denying several Cybertronians their transformation? Not even the Decepticons were as cruel as that as far as he knew. "I just want to say I am very sorry for what that madbot did to you. We did our best to find Crosswire before the damage was too great." He nodded to the guard, who returned to his post. Hyperspeed gestured to Overboost to follow. "You're probably surprised to find you're not the first. We've come to call your kind Actionmasters, due to their greatly amplified combat ability. But even though we've given them a name, we've only seen three others before you, and only one remains at this moment. He was the only one that could deal with being unable to transform. The other two... well, it wasn't pretty." He stopped and turned to Overboost. "I hope you'll consider joining our resistance. You'll be happy to know we're not like most remaining Autobot groups. We don't mindlessly charge Decepticon strongholds and offline as many as we can until we're all offline. Our goal is not to kill Decepticons for the sake of killing them, but to stay alive as long as possible, and hope the Ark's crew contacts us soon." After a million decacycles, though, most had lost hope of contact. Even so, they weren't about to go mindlessly raiding strongholds.

[Zero Hex]

"I don't like that name. I'm a Transformer that can't transform, I'm not a master of anything. Don't ever call me that". It was true that his new form was powerful and his link with Road Gator had given him access to an admittedly rather enviable arsenal which he got a good mileage out of, but he hadn't chosen to be what he was and would've gladly traded his newfound strength for a chance at being normal again. "In fact, don't ever mention anything about my condition again. Then we can get along just fine, boss-bot. I don't expect a message from the Ark but this is the best setup I've seen. Too many suicidal idiots out there, no chance of winning the war with bots like those in charge. Just one thing, I'd like to talk to this other...nucleon-powered guy."

[MarsAdept]

DarkStar watched the Autobot mechanic work on the repairs. If Prime had taken off in pursuit of some potential energon source among the stars, it would be an absolute certainty the Megatron left to pursue. If the Prime took his elites, then so did Megatron. This was not good news for DarkStar. This meant his quarry was not on this world anymore. If the Air Commander was extinguished in battle out there, there would be no way to get his revenge. DarkStar needed power now. He needed to have the strength to challenge the Air Commander once he returned to Cybertron. DarkStar could not reason out how to do it, but he would do it. DarkStar looked at the mechanic and gave a small smile. He spoke hoping to get an emotionable response from the Autobot, "It sounds to me like your noble Prime has abandoned you? There are no known energon sources among the stars thus no guarantee of success. He knew he could not hold Iacon so he took his best bots and ran away."

[Kalamadea]

Darkstar
Darkstar did get an emotional response, but it definitely wasn't the one he expected. The mechanic paused in repairs and actually burst out laughing. When he'd calmed down, he said, "You think that thought hasn't crossed our CPU's? I can tell you with honesty that every bot you see here thought that at least once. But waiting a million decacycles will make you think differently. Now we just hope the Ark will contact us with word of a new source of energon. I mean, Cybertron couldn't be the only source of energon in the entire galaxy. There are billions of planets out there. Surely there are other sources out there." However, Darkstar would notice in Spotweld's optics that the attempt to anger him hadn't been missed, but that also brought up another issue. "You spoke of the launch of the Ark as if it were recent. That must have been some crash, to put you in stasis lock that long. I'm surprised it didn't kill you. I've had to replace almost every joint in your body." That was when Spotweld patted Darkstar's shoulder and said, "All right, time for the paint job. You've got a lot of new metal there, and it'll need some protection from the elements."

Overboost
Hyperspeed paused a moment, obviously thinking. "Sorry. The others felt a bit more comfortable to have a name put to them, but we'll avoid it around you if you want. And I figured you'd want to see the other guy. Roughneck!" A very bulky bot turned at the mention of the name, and his optics caught Overboost in their gaze. After a moment, they lit up. "Oh, another Act-" That was when Hyperspeed held up a hand and simply shook his head. "I see. Another Nucleon-powered individual? I thought I was the last one." There was relief in his optics, possibly at the fact that he's no longer the only one there who can't transform.

[Mtntopview]

Metalstorm dived towards the ground, pulled up last minute and proceeded to turn around. All the could think about was killing these two decepticons. Kill them before they kill you. Kill them. Kill them. Kill them. He wouldn't tolerate any other flier than him in the sky. They were all threats. They all needed to die. He unleashed another flurry of missiles and cannon fire, targeting the nearest Seeker. Take this one out then move onto the next. Kill them one by one. Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them all!

[Zero Hex]

"Yeah...yeah I guess there's two of us huh? Rather surprising. Relieving too. It's...how do you put up with it? I don't even feel like myself anymore, not even like a Cybertronian. I changed my name because of it all, it just felt right. And the others? Who were they, what happened to them?". Overboost couldn't help himself. He had to vent to this bot, perhaps the only bot that understood how he'd felt ever since he'd exploded out of Crosswire's lab. Others had undergone equally horrifying experiments, certainly, but they had retained their ability to transform. To not be able to do that was crushing, like an integral part of him had been destroyed and yet he could still feel it with him while knowing it wasn't there anymore. Completely ignoring Hyperspeed, he practically dragged Roughneck to the side to have a chat with him.

[cunfuzzler]

Spectre couldn't help but feel like someone up the chain of command had it in for her, any time there was a potentially dangerous mission, she was there. Not that she minded any, destroying Decepticons was one of her favorite pass times, she wasn't about to argue if someone was willing to oblige. She transformed, and peeled out of the cave, quickly catching up with the others and passing them, putting herself at the front of the group as they came within sight of the caravan, she took a little bit of pride in leading the charge on attacks even though she wasn't in near as much actual danger as others would be thanks to her shielding unit., She trained her turreted blaster on the caravan and prepared to activate her shield if need be. "If there is any 'Cons, I am calling it right now, dibs."