Ep0 - Chernobyl - 'Dead Ground' - Closed

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The prickle was back, and Fairwinds huffed with irritation rather than concern, confident in the security of the Phantom's impregnable systems. She was coasting forwards now, maintaining a high altitude but positioning herself almost directly above Megatron and Optimus, ready and waiting to fire the weapon. Silently willing her dying master to deliver the order and get out of the way so that she could end this for him once and for all.

<<Uplink Connected: Frequency Authorization Confirmed>>

The collected moisture surrounding the Phantom abruptly disappated into a fine shower of rain as Fairwinds felt her systems stop. With the authorization granted, the code vanished into the depths of the suppressed AI and Fairwinds could barely follow it, trying to ascertain what it would do. The weapon was still online, and likely to be the focus of their attack. Fairwinds lunged for the carrier bond with Megatron, ignoring the searing maelstrom that lashed back. ::Master, the Autobots have hacked the warship. I'm trying to stop it, but please let me fire the weapon now! I can't-::

<<Upload Codes: Fail_Safe Resuming… Progress: 42.5645%>>

Her spark blanched. There was time for little else. Extracting her mind from the Phantom was near-instantaneous, but reassembling her body from amidst the Fallen warship's structure took longer. Fairwinds tore parts of herself still integrated away clawing down towards the escape hatch, her mind wholly fixated upon the one place she wanted to be. Master!

<<Upload Complete: 100%>>

Then nothing.

[Deleted]

Megatron's bellowed response to the obscene claim that he'd 'lost no one', delivered by Optimus Prime himself - a mech who had never alligned, never sired, only refused to die, was crushed by the shockwave preceding the roar of the explosion as above them the Phantom shattered.

The fireball was tremendous, sending flaming and scorched debris flying in every direction before the grass and shrubs had bent back from the initial blast. Megatron watched it from the crouch he'd been forced into, daring to linger his optics on it for the few seconds it would take Optimus to get back onto his pedes. Static fritzed at the peripheries of his vision in a constant blur, error warnings layering over the top in flashing red glyphs, and the black crack through his spark abruptly widened with in an agonised jerk.

::Fairwinds? Answer me!::

Nothing, and Optimus was moving again. Megatron twisted low, pede grinding a trench in the thick energon puddled in the dirt, and raised his sword again. Beyond words, beyond sense, the warlord lunged.

[Deleted]

The explosion blinded him. The world detonated and for a nano-kilk Optimus’ optics went dark and his sensor grid slammed with pain data and damage, knocking his senses offline and for a spinning, dizzy, desperate moment he lost all sense of his place in the universe. He hit the ground and felt it, the pressure, the hit, the vibration and the skidding rolling catch of having been knocked down but even when he felt that he’d stopped moving the world seemed to hurdling and spinning around him in the void of his sensory deprivation. System reboot slashed through the damage and booted again – c’mon… and then Optimus could hear the sound of the city crumbling, the roar of the aftershock and his optics onlined again. .

He attacked immediately, darted from his half-crouched and raced at the Decepticon commander, ducked a wild slash, twisted and put a fist directly into the side of Megatron’s helm, knocking the warlord staggering. This ended now. He was ending this now. Optimus fired on Megatron, clipped his shoulder, knocked his balance off again and snapped forward, combat blade angled to punch through the mad-mech’s spark and finish what should have been finished so many eons ago…

[Deleted]

Knock Out saw the last few exchanges in Prime and Megatron's fight in fast-forward as he ran full-tilt toward them. He saw Prime's punch, saw Megatron stagger once, then again, denta bared in bestial defiance, optics flickering wildly, saw Prime's arm draw back for another strike....

Knock Out pushed himself faster, his optics fastened on the Prime's arm, the extension of the joint, the places where plating gaped as hydraulics began to push forward....

It was not the best plan, Knock Out would admit. The angle was only so-so, his target moving, his prod a precision weapon that would be only mildly irritating if he missed the joint and skidded off the outer plating. He was NOT a heavy enough frame to be closing with a Prime, opening himself up for the Prime's next strike. His only consolation was that at this speed, whether he missed the internals or not, he was going to frag up the Prime's aim.

It was a bad plan. But there were no options.

Breakdown wouldn't clear the city in time. Reinforcements definitely wouldn't get there in time.

One Wrecker, Knock Out sneered internally at the Prime's back, snapping out his prod. The weapon crackled with energon discharge, and Knock Out put on a burst of speed as he stabbed the fully-charged prod at the joint of Optimus Prime's shoulder.



OOC: I...hope that was clear. He's running from behind Optimus and a bit to one side, so feel free to have the impact do whatever physics you'd like to him (slam him into Optimus, tumble him over/under/around him, whatever) if needed.

[Deleted]

Peripheral sensors were at 45% operational capacity, all his attention on Megatron, so Optimus didn’t see the attack until his optical sensors picked up a flicker of light flashing up from his right and by then it was too late to dodge completely. The energon prod connected, a glancing but agonizing blow to the elbow but more immediately it electrified the shredded plates and proto-mesh of his torn up arm, activating a blaze of agony that jammed up his arm into his shoulder, pain twined with cold rimmed in red. His blow is thrown but not stopped, the blade missing the warlord’s spark but punching through at the seam near the shoulder, blade biting hydraulic and fuel lines.

Knockout, however, his shot half-deflected slammed into the Prime’s back knocked him forward hard enough to throw him into Megatron who shoved him back, Optimus’s blade (lodged then half in his shoulder) ripping free in a spray of transfluid and energon. The Prime caught himself, spun, slashed at Knockout but connected with nothing at that point, the medic having tumbled strategically away from the Autobot. The attempted strike did nothing but ignite a nerve-stripping shred of pain from the wrist rotor up, drawing a low, engine-rev rumble from the damaged Bot Commander.

Megatron was heavily wounded, still standing somehow, possessed by sheer force of hate Optimus felt. The sky was empty though. Optimus’ undamaged arm reformatted immediately to his blaster and he opened fire on both Knockout and Megatron, his right arm mangled past usage.

((OOC: Megs and KO through the ground-bridge should wrap this up. :3))

[Deleted]

Megatron's faculties were absent, lost beneath a dark-energon roaring haze the fuelled his systems raw. Instincts were circuit-deep to the former gladiator, however, and he automatically slammed his blade into the violently wrecked arm of his opponent as a means of inflicting pain as much as to deflect the shots. One blast clipped his shoulder still, the force of it turning him with a back-step towards Knockout.

He felt the medic's hand on his arm, a guide more than a restraint. Felt as much as saw the stats of his systems going critical. Strength was ebbing away rapidly, even despite the rage.

[breakdown]

Breakdown only saw the gory aftermath of Megatron by the time he got himself out of Bulkhead's grille and on the other side of the bridge.

He ran over to where Knock Out was trying to manage Megatron, who was, without having to use any diagnostics, down for the count. They needed to get him out of here, and he commed Soundwave to say so.

"I got this," he said to Knock Out. "Cover us." While Knock Out kept Prime busy, he took hold of Megatron by the arms. Anyone else he would just carry out of here. He took a nanoklik to consider a medical override -- and in the next had to dodge a blast from Prime that Knock Out hadn't managed to deflect. No override. He wasn't as fast as Knock Out doing them, and there was no time. "Sorry, boss," he muttered as he started to pull him along, looking over his shoulder for the bridge back that Soundwave would send... any nanoklik...

There. That settled, and going as fast as he could steering all of Megatron's weight, he ran a basic medical assessment, and that told Breakdown all he needed to know. Megatron needed the med bay, and now.

[Deleted]

Optimus fired one last salvo, resignation already registering through his mind and body as Knock Out defended his commander’s retreat every step of the way, Breakdown shoving the still rage-blinded Megatron through the green bloom of the groundbridge. The Prime still pressed the retreated, forcing Knock Out to deal with him until the sports car finally ducked out of the fight himself and made a break for the bridge which spiraled shut behind him. They were gone. Optimus cycled his vents hard, weapons powering down as overdrive faded rapidly from his battle-charged framework. Diagnostic reports began to hum through a secondary thought string, cataloging a list of his injuries while energon and transfluid dripped from the still sparking gash in his right arm.

He retracted his combat blade with difficulty, pain-data pulsing up the neural-lines in the damaged limb. A scan revealed most of the coolant lines in his wrist and forearm were severed. He opened a comm link to his team, querying their status, a fist of fear in his spark releasing slowing when all of them checked in okay. We’re okay, was his first thought, an ache of relief in his chest. They’re okay.

“Bridge back to base.” He looked briefly toward the empty street where Megatron had gone, then turned away. “I will join you shortly.”

fin