A Most Ungraceful Landing {Ep 2; Closed for now!}

[Deleted]

Episode 2, week 2, day 3
roughly 9:55pm

The former dancer had been alone for such a long time now, that when she first heard the call to come to the little blue planet known as Earth? Well, she thought she was simply imagining things. That there was some sort of malfunction with her brain module. But no – a couple of breems later, she heard the message again. Her fingers tapped for a moment or two against her chair, before she set the coordinates that was given in Optimus's message. Oh how she hoped that it was really him, that she wasn't falling for some trap.

That thought, was certainly something she tried to get rid of and it was certainly something she failed at. Over the next several joors, she kept thinking about it, and she looked around her tiny surroundings before reaching over to pick up a small can of oil she acquired at her last stop. She was oiling her joints, making sure everything was in working order. She had always felt so...Stiff from sitting in the little ship for long periods of time. The can was set aside, the oil was rubbed into her finger joints, and she was grateful that soon enough? She would be able to truly stretch out and move going by the readings on the screen in front of her.

Though the thought of heading towards a trap, cropped up in the back of her head again and the femme shuddered. “Stop that, Rota...It'll be fine.” She muttered softly to herself feeling that it had to be. The sad thing, was that a small part of her wanted to run into anyone from Cybertron, even a Decepticon would be a welcome sight. Simply because it meant that there was still some of their own kind out there somewhere.

The message was playing again by this point, as she neared the planet it was clearer and soothing to hear. A little whir left the femme, before she flicked on a beacon to notify any Autobots on this planet. ::This is Rotary on the Soteria, if there really are some fellow Autobots on this planet...:: There was hope in her voice as she started to talk, but she was interrupted when she had to steer the ship slightly to avoid some satellite that almost nicked the wings of her ship.

::I will certainly appreciate any assistance on where to land and how to avoid all this space debris.:: Rota explained, her tone was light, patient for that assistance knowing she likely will be okay if Primus himself allowed it. Her optics did narrow as the clutter became evident around her little ship. Trying to navigate, was hard, and it was when she was trying to avoid another satellite, that one smacked against her ship. Something was broken off, what with how her lights flickered before shutting down completely.

Her spark fluttered, this wasn't good, she needed help and what she didn't realize? Was that her communications were now going to be static filled and she wouldn't hear anything from anyone. The emergency beacon was started, her optics darting about as she sorted the power into navigation – taking it away from the now useless lights.::I'm coming in just a tad bit quick for my liking.:: Rota started, not knowing that whatever was received on their end? Was broken up every other word. ::I need coordinates on where to land.:: The femme requested, panic was starting to creep up into her voice, she didn't want this to be a crash landing, but as her ship entered the atmosphere – and how it started to shake and rumble? It was certainly looking like it was not going to be easy.

::Can anyone hear me?! I need coordinates!:: For a moment, she thought she heard something among the static but that moment was fleeting as the ship shook more and more. The green femme was already muttering soft prayers and there it was, the landing, the crash...The feeling as the world turned this way and that way as she heard something snap and break both outside and inside of her ship.

She would have been thrown from her seat, if it weren't the belts that strapped her in. “Okay, you're alive. It's okay.” Rota mentioned trying to keep her cool. The belt was unbuckled, she checked the readings on the ship and her optics widened with some alarm as she realized there was some smokiness to the air. She grabbed the fire extinguisher and doused some of the flames that were in the ship, but it was outside that most of the flames were. Caution was used, for a brief moment until she opened the door and sprayed the foam onto those flames.

There was a mild assault on the senses too, from the smoke and fire to the sheer amounts of greenery around her. The smells that broke through from the fire were...Pretty was the best word to say it, even if several tree's were singed and broken. Her helm turned about and the former dancer's mouth opened slightly. “What?” She asked softly as she reached out to touch the evergreen plants, before withdrawing her servos and letting out a little whir of a sigh. This was going to take some getting used to, based on if she was found. She knew if she wasn't found soon, or if she didn't find a source of food on this foreign planet, she was going to starve.

Another whirred sigh left her as she re-entered the ship, the distress beacon was still up. ::If anyone can hear me, I've landed. Sending my coordinates...:: Hopefully that information would reach the Autobots, or whoever was here. Her coordinates shown she was somewhere along the Cascade Mountain Rage, which Rota wouldn't have any knowledge that was in Washington State. No, she just knew she was alone and that meant quit - something she was learning to hate.

A whir left her as she looked around her ship, she started gathering up some of her items. It wasn't much, and most everything was able to fit into her subspace. She sat down again in the chair, worry was certainly creeping into her thoughts. What if, that message was old and it had been a long long time ago since it was sent out? Rota had no idea, but she tapped the computer screen that read there was some sort of connection she could access with ease.

As much as she wanted to look into it? The femme wasn't going to suck energy sources dry in the case it would be a long time before she was found. So, she did what she thought was the best thing to do, she started looking through an old tablet that had some old reading material stored on it. Books she had read thousands of times and magazines that had old silly quizzes on them about 'what does your paint color say about you'.

At least it was something to pass the time, right?

[Deleted]

Forty miles away, a man lowered his binoculars.

"Yes, sir, the smoke is visible now," he said. "The PPS uplink was a success. We were provided with coordinates within two minutes of the foreign object's detection, with minimal degradation. I'm guessing they're accurate within the parameters given."

He spoke into a small headset wrapped around his ear. His mask was off; it lay on the seat of the military helicopter behind him. The machine had landed in a small clearing in the trees. Both of its rotors were still. Heat waves still rose from the dark grey cowling that covered its turboshaft engine.

The man stood on the edge of a rocky ridge and looked out over the forest valley below. Pine trees rose up from the stony ground. A mud river bed wound through the bottom of the valley. Sunlight glinted off the thin trickle of water that flowed through it. Behind him the trees stood dark and thick. His dull grey and green body armour melded into the shadows between the trunks.

In the distance, a thin line of smoke drifted up from the trees. Already it was beginning to dissipate in the mountain winds.

The man stood and listened.

"Yes sir, I passed on the coordinates," he said. "The firing team is taking position. I've been informed the AR23-As are with them. Should be a good field test, providing this isn't a heavy unit. Argus-4 is in the air and will coordinate us."

He listened.

"Yessir. We'll stand by until aerial support requested. Maintain listening watch on channel 16 for abort, understood. We're launching now. Nike412 out."

The man turned back to the helicopter and rotated one gloved finger in the air at the two other figures waiting silently beside the machine's rocket pod.

Less than a minute later they were airborne, climbing slowly over the tops of the pines.

----

Inside her ship, Rota would hear something peculiar.

It was a faraway sound, quiet and muffled by distance and by the long green mountain ranges. It was a hollow thud-thud, like the fan blades of a turbine engine at full power.

It was growing louder.

[Deleted]

Oh if only the dancer turn counselor knew exactly what was coming her way.

Maybe then, she would of gathered as much as she could before getting out of there.

But as it were? Rota was unaware of the trouble that was coming her way as she quietly looked at the datapad.

A handful of minutes passed, and the most peculiar of sounds hit her audios. Her helm tilted, her optics glancing at the roof of her ship. The datapad was shut off, and she could of sworn the soft 'thud-thud' sound was getting louder as her helm tilted just a little more. There was a frown forming and she reached over to try and mess with the communication controls one last time. ::This is Rotary on the Soteria sending out my coordinates again, if any Autobot or...:: There was a pause in the communication if anyone was listening in on this, Primus help her. ::Decepticon mecha are out there, please reply.:: A little puff of air left her air vents as she sighed.

Nothing but static, or rather – nothing but static and the ever growing sound. ::If someone is coming to my coordinates give me some sort of signal, please give me some sort of signal. I hear noises out there, getting louder...:: Her fingers tapped against the council with a soft 'tink-tink-tink' sound for a moment or two. ::Either way I'd greatly appreciate some sort of notification, even if it's filled with static.:: Her voice was sounding a little strained for anyone listening on on this channel, she just wanted help and she just wanted to know she wasn't alone.

Listening in on the communication channels, she could of sworn she heard something over the speakers but, more static.

Okay, so...That might be her time to leave her ship again. Take a little look close to her ship couldn't hurt, could it? Besides the organic life around her little ship was interesting, and she let out another sigh and she tucked the datapad into her subspace before leaving her ship once more. She would leave the door open, figuring that this area was secluded enough to not worry about someone (or something rather) wandering into her ship.

Besides, it wasn't like they could make off with it – what with it's current wrecked state.

It was strange really, all this green around her and she could of sworn she heard chirps from some creature in one of the tree's nearby. Her servos reached out in order to touch one of the tree's her ship had crashed into and she wished she could of done things more...Delicately. Granted, it wasn't like it was her fault – what with the space debris that had hit her ship and how brutal the atmosphere was.

Either way, the femme did hate the mess and she did hate not knowing if there really were other mecha on this apparently organic filled planet with weird noises that were getting even louder. Which thinking of? She turned her helm towards the sound and her optics narrowed as they zoomed in to find the noise maker in the sky above.

[Deleted]

The distant sound hummed through the trees.

It was close enough now that Rotary would be able to feel it in her struts. It droned in her metal frame like a struck bell, a soft vibration that tingled unpleasantly against her neural net. The birds in the trees went silent as it grew louder. A hundred feet to her left she would hear something flee clumsily through the underbrush. Crackle, crackle, rustle.

Her shuttle's decent into the forest had cleared a large patch in the pine trees above her. Through it she would see blue sky and white clouds. Over a steep and distant hill her zoomed-in optics would alight upon a peculiar shape. Further magnification would reveal it to be a flying machine of some sort, tiny and hovering. Its peculiar blades whirred above its fuselage.

Perhaps that was how it kept itself aloft. That was rather primitive, really. No-anti grav?

POCK.

A hole appeared in the trunk of a tree beside her head. It was full of splinters, and as big as her optic.

Well, that was curious.

[Deleted]

That vibration that she felt through her metal frame was...Unpleasant to say the least. It was certainly not something she had ever felt before, and it was something she hoped she wouldn't feel again anytime soon. It made her frame shake in an attempt to get rid of that feeling, to ignore it – but it wasn't much use to do such a thing at all. That unpleasant feeling was still there, but she didn't think whatever was causing it meant to make her feel uncomfortable.

Oh how wrong she was in that assumption.

For now, she looked up at the tiny hovering thing with curiosity. It was interesting, primitive, and different from what she was used to seeing on not only Cybertron, but on other planets. Her helm tilted, and she raised her servos in a friendly gesture to show she was friendly when that POCK sound hit her audios and her helm turned towards the tree beside her.

If others were able to see her face? They would be able to see the confusion and the curiosity on her face, especially as she reached up to touch the splinters that were created. Of course, the realization hit her rather hard that this was not what one would call a friendly gesture.

The femme turned, shaking her helm 'no' and putting her servos up in a clear surrender fashion. She didn't want to fight for Primus sake! “Don't shoot!” The words were simple to her, she was a friendly mecha – why shoot at her? But it was doubtful they understood the language she was speaking. Still? There wasn't much to be done, and it was already becoming clear to her that this planet? Was backwards, very backwards.

Speaking of backwards, she was backing up now and turning in order to leave, to seek cover in the forest that surrounded her. It would be safer in there, wouldn't it?

Though she wondered if there were any roads she could use sooner rather than later.

[Deleted]

It was lucky for Rotary that she turned.

It meant that the second shot went through her left shoulder rather than her chest.

It slammed into the plating that covered the joint with enough concussive force to stagger her back. Rotary would feel the metal cartridge punch through her armour and lodge somewhere in the rotating cuff underneath. It was not big or powerful enough to blast through her, but her left arm would go numb as the projectile tore through neural connections. An instant later she would feel an intense heat as something within the round ignited, blasting fragmentation deep into her shoulder joint.

A second later the sound of the shot echoed through the trees. Crack!

The injury was hot, and it was painful. If Rotary tried to move her left arm she would find it seized up at the shoulder joint, which felt like molten ruin beneath her armour. But there was nothing wrong with her other arm, or her legs, and roughly one hundred feet from her shuttle was a treeline of dense pine trees and underbrush. It looked thick and green enough to hide her from the sight of the mystery shooter, if she was quick enough to reach it before she was fired upon again.

There did not appear to be any roads nearby, unfortunately. But the terrain sloped gently downwards to the south, and in the far distance - between the mountain range, at the other end of a long valley full of trees - she would be able to make out the glowing lights of tiny scattered alien settlements. They looked quite peaceful.

[Deleted]

Few things had been as painful as this.

In fact, the femme could count on one servos how many times something was this painful and this was up there on that lovely little scale. Something that could only be described as a cry of pain with hints of a scream left the former dancer as her servos reached to grab her shoulder as the intense heat spread.

The loud crack echoed through the trees, and it was more of a reminder to her that she had been hit. Oh how she wanted to stay put, to curl up into a little ball. It sadly wasn't an option to do such a thing, and despite how the neural connections in her shoulder screamed at her. Any movement she made with the shoulder was something laughable as it halted despite trying to move it in order to run properly. Her servos grabbed her forearm, forcing the limp limb to move in order to not flail around and possibly damage the inner workings further.

If there were any mecha around her? They would see the frantic and scared field radiating from her frame as she made a beeline for the woods. There was another shot, this one narrowly missing her right pede as she continued to run for her life.

Because one thing was for certain, she was running for her life and she slipped into the treeline as another shot ranged out. The gentle slope nearly made her lose her footing as her optics flicked about looking for a safe spot to go. There were tiny little settlements at one end of the long valley full of trees – she had no interest in heading there, especially if they were like the one that had shot at her and that she could still hear behind her.

Glancing towards the direction she came from, she was hoping she wasn't being followed – but she doubt they would give up that easily. Of course, it was a stupid mistake to do such a thing, as she tripped over a fallen tree. The wood cracked and splintered at the impact as she went tumbling over it, and down the slope. “OH PRIMUS!” The femme cried out and her injured shoulder smacked against the dirt. Everything was hurting now, or it at least that was what it felt like as she came to a stop on the bottom of the slope. Her teeth plates gritted together as she grabbed onto a sturdy looking tree in order to pull herself up.

If her shoulder hadn't been screaming in pain earlier? It certainly was now.

Tag: Toggs~

[Deleted]

Some signals were more difficult to detect than others. Some signals were more difficult to trace than others. Some signals, damn them to the Pit, were more difficult to identify as authentic Autobot distress calls than others.

Rotary’s calls had the misfortune of fitting into all three categories.

It had taken time - mere minutes, really, but still more time than Rotary could afford - for Red Alert to confirm the legitimacy of the incoming comms. He wasn't about to chance things, to risk chasing after a false cry for help set up by a scheming Con who somehow managed to gain access to encrypted Autobot communication channels. He had heard of such things happening before, to mecha who were less careful than he, who didn’t take the proper precautions before sending their mecha out to investigate the cry for help.

Red Alert was not keen on allowing mecha to be killed by such an easily avoidable mistake. Not on his watch, not when their numbers were already so few.

The moment he had confirmed the legitimacy of the call, however, Red Alert wasted no time coming for backup as he headed towards the ground bridge. Judging by the increasingly distressed nature of the femme’s call, he felt it was safe to assume she might need medical assistance. He emphasized this in his request for backup, hoping that Ratchet (or anyone else with medical expertise, really) wasn’t already preoccupied with something.

Unfortunately for him, it was not Ratchet who met him at the bridge, but Dusk.

Very little eye-contact was made between the two as Red Alert steadfastly kept his optics on anything but the other mech as he powered up the bridge, and gave a brief summary of the distress call he had received. He tried not to make it too obvious that he was avoiding having to look at the other mech. He wasn’t very successful, unless one considered looking uncomfortable and vaguely guilty while staring straight ahead to be a masterful example of inconspicuousness.

Thankfully, he did not have to stand in awkward silence for long. Soon the ground-bridge roared to life, its gateway opening a few hundred yards or so away from where he had traced Rotary’s position. The newly-repaired inner workings of his right arm hummed as the armored plates which made up his forearm shifted anxiously in anticipation, ready to transform themselves into an ion rifle at a moment’s notice.

Steeling himself, Red Alert took the first step forward, leading their party of two through the bridge.

[Deleted]

Dusk had silently filled in the role of on-deck-medic. Reluctantly. This was his area of expertise: in the field, patching someone up just enough to get them back to more expert hands, and he was good at it, he enjoyed it - to be able to bring someone back, protect them. He didn’t think that the chance to actually go back in the field would make him cringe.

As he made his way quickly into Control, he offered Red a glance and a nod, and quickly turned away. Their interactions had become a weird exchange of guilt, awkwardness, and embarrassment for reasons Dusk still wasn’t entirely sure he understood. His mere presence seemed to set Red into a state of discomfort, and so he could only, as apologetically as possible, try to condense his field and himself into as small a space as possible (which never worked anyway, but this seemed to become the dance they settled into for however many weeks after their first initial ‘reunion’).

He kept his face straight and professional when Red briefed him, pretended not to notice the lack of eye contact, the distance in his voice and field — they did their best to lessen the blow on each other as much as possible, it seemed, yet only made things worse for each other. Briefly Dusk wondered if this is what the rest of time on Earth would be like, if it would ever endanger a mission. This was the longest they’d even spent in the same room since that day, he thought.

“Well.” He said finally, trying to pick up the pep in his voice. But his field stayed flat and close. “Let’s go get ‘er!” It was met with awkward silence. Just as well, he thought, as he turned his full focus into bringing back the distressed Autobot.

The misty white of the ground bridge engulfed their frames and let them out somewhere amongst greenery and pines. It was easy now to forget their had ever been anything awkward between them, slip into the professional focus of a warrior, and get the job done.

His left forearm was already primed, unsure of what was waiting behind the pines. The transmission said Decepticons, and his audio receptors picked up the buffeting sound that followed propellers, suggesting the attacks were from the air. Peachy. Good thing Red was a good shot.

[Deleted]

The prickle of energy shed from the ground bridge receded behind them as the portal whirled shut. It deposited the two Autobots in the middle of a small clearing, where a receding sunset had already dragged the last red light from an evening sky. Above their heads the first stars twinkled, wan and dim.

In front of them was a crumpled shuttle. Its nose had dug a deep furrow into the earth. Smoke drifted up from its crumpled plating. Behind it was a trail of smashed trees. White mulch from snapped trunks was visible against the mangled foliage.

All was quiet, save for the soft tick-tick of the cooling shuttle. No shots rang out. No voices could be heard through the trees.

There was only a thin blood path, fuel glistening in the light of the rising moon and stars. It dappled a path into the darkling trees, where an injured Cybertronian had fled.

Over the distant hills, helicopter blades beat the air.

[Deleted]

As she got up to her feet, Rota's optics were on the darkening sky that peaked out from behind the tall trees that surrounded her. She could hear the blades chopping through the air, but could she see the thing that attacked her? No, she couldn't.

And the femme was unsure if not seeing it, was a good or a bad thing. In all honesty, she would be just fine if she didn't see it again and she would be just fine if she could get out of here. Which of course – given how thick and dense the forest was? Wasn't exactly...Likely.

A huff of air left her, and she kept her optics on the sky though not for long. Something distracted her from looking up, back towards where she crash landed. Light, and a lot of it – though it was brief and already whirling away as soon as it appeared. Was that what she thought it was? Oh Primus, she hoped so – but what side did that ground bridge belonged to if it wasn't just a figment of her imagnination. Another huff of air, and the femme slowly made her way back up the hill.

She didn't want to, after all it was where she had just been attacked. But if fellow cybertronians had opened up a ground bridge and sent a rescue party for her? Heading back there was her best bet of getting out of these woods in relatively good shape.

Or so that was her hope, and her field was filled with anxiety as she climbed, though her pedes sunked awkwardly in the upturned dirt. “Primus...” The word was under her breath. “Please, let them be Autobots.” Now that, was something that was going to happen. “And please...Let that thing leave.” That on the other hand? Was something that was bit of a toss up and who knew if it was going to circle around in order to weight for her.

There was a pause in her climb as she heard the helicopter again, and it left her unsure on her plan to go back up the ravine.

Was it really safe to do so? Or was it a trap?

Primus, she just wanted to be around other Cybertonian's again. Was that too much to ask for?

[Deleted]

It was always a bit disorienting, traveling through a ground bridge, especially for someone whose senses were as keen as Red Alert’s. A whole new wave of sights, sounds, scents, and other stimuli flooded his sensors, making it difficult for him to adjust to his new environment as readily as the average bot. He took a moment, after exiting the bridge, to simply stand in place and allow himself the time to process everything, to give his senses time to filter through the various stimuli they were being bombarded with, so he could narrow down the sensory information he was receiving down to what was relevant to the situation at hand.

Smoke in the air, blood on the ground, the sound of approaching helicopters in the distance - he frowned unhappily, not liking the scene one bit. The scent of smoke was acrid, it burned his olfactory sensors, and the spilt energon decorating the grassy floor did not bode well at all for whoever crawled out of that ship.

Not even a minute out of the bridge, and already Red Alert could feel a cold sense of dread creeping in.

Jaw tight, he cast Dusk a sideways glance, jerking his chin up briefly as he nodded towards the sky above them.

“Sounds like we’re not the only ones who’ve come to investigate the crash.”

He didn’t think it was necessary to say who their unwelcomed guests could possibly be. There were only two feasible options: MECH or the Decepticons, or God forbid both of them at once. It didn’t matter which group it turned out to be; neither one was a welcomed sight, especially not when in the middle of recovering a fellow Autobot.

One who--judging by the blood Red Alert could see on the ground, smell in the air, and taste in his mouth--was potentially injured.

He eyed the sky warily, scanning briefly for any sign that the helicopters were closer than they sounded. Seeing nothing (at least, nothing that could be seen past the treetops), Red Alert continued forward, rifle at the ready as he began to follow the trail the ship’s occupant had left behind.

“Keep an eye on the air.” He warned, over his shoulder. “It doesn’t sound close, whatever’s out there, but that doesn’t mean we should take our time. Let’s find what we came for, then get the hell out of here.”

His rifle hummed softly at his side, the glow from within its barrel illuminating the ground faintly as he moved onward. Not that he needed the light - he was following the trail of energon more by scent than by sight.

[Deleted]

There were no more shots from the trees.

The forest was silent.

Save for the sound of night birds in the thicket, and the soft crackle of brush as Rotary pushed her way through it. The pine boughs were resilient and flexible, but even they caught in the gaps of her armour and snapped off, or were crunched beneath her feet.

It was dark, but she would be able to struggle through the dense trees by touch. The rugged ground climbed steadily beneath her feet. Through a gap in the branches overhead she would be able to make out the sight of the evening stars, glittering wanly over the treetops. It was going to be a clear, fine night.

Noise erupted.

All at once a dark shape wheeled above her, black against the night sky. No navigational or beacon lights strobed from its fuselage as it swung into a stationary hover directly above her. Only a faint red glow was visible from its cockpit area. Debris flew into the air and the treetops shook violently back and forth as its turbine engine roared and its blades beat the forest below with a fierce downdraft.

The machine circled over Rotary. A harsh white light flared to light and directed its beam down upon her.

[Deleted]

There was a moment of silence save for the wildlife in the thickets or the soft crunch of brush as she made her way through it.

Which, if she were to get out of here in one piece? Well, it was certainly going to be a pain in the rear end to remove the various vegetation from the gaps in her armor. Primus, it was making her itch and wanting to flop down and pick it out now if it weren't for being in such a strange place or that thing lurking somewhere.

The light of the stars was nice to see at the very least, and they were almost soothing to see as she had spent so long looking at nothing but stars.

That little moment of silent climbing was interrupted by noise as the dark shape wheeled above her, the downdraft made her stumble – her hand wrapping tightly around a trunk o a tree that started to crack under the pressure. “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!” The femme cried out as the harsh light made her optics hurt. “PLEASE!” The word was screamed out with desperation. Was it too much to ask? Apparently so as the beam of light was directed down at her.

Rota was moving again in order to continue climbing up the hill before another shot was taken at her. Which meant the moment her hand was free? She was reaching for her other arm in order to pull out one of her knives. As she removed it from her arms frame, a jolt of electricity flickered across it before her optics looked up at the hovering creature above her. The knife was thrown, though she wasn't really paying attention to her aim as she had thrown rather blindly at it.

She just hoped she nicked it, and that it had no magnets of it's own as she raised her hand to retrieve the thrown knife in order to truly get moving.

[Deleted]

There were a few benefits to being as…Red Alert, as Red Alert was, the first and foremost being that, when slag inevitably hit the fan, he was never caught unawares. He made a point of going into situations fully expecting (and subsequently preparing for) the worst, so things like an untimely explosion or the sudden appearance of an enemy rarely put him at a loss for what to do.

That didn’t mean they didn’t give him a terrible start when they first happened, though. Especially when they happened suddenly, and loudly, when he was already a bit keyed up in the first place.

The eruption of noise, the swaying of the treetops, and most tellingly the femme’s desperate screaming---together they painted an ugly picture which made Red Alert’s spark skip a pulse as it pieced itself together inside his mind.

He he looked sharply over his shoulder, optics wide as he flashed the other mech an alarmed look before whipping back around and racing forward, his ion cannon humming to life as he prepared for what could only be a violent confrontation. He did not feel the need to check behind him and make sure Dusk was following - the femme’s distress was so apparent that there was no need to point out the urgency of the situation.

Branches scratched against his plating as he pushed past them, dirt and leaves being kicked up into the air as he thundered through the underbrush, leaving several unfortunate, trampled plants in his wake. As he moved his ion cannon charged, the heat of it bleeding through the internal mechanisms of his arm and into the protective armor plating encasing it. He rolled his shoulder as he ran, then leveled his arm, aiming the end of his barrel towards the treetops as he fired a warning shot into the air.

A red stream of energy crackled through the sky, nowhere near the MECH aircraft, but hopefully close enough to their line of sight to warn them that reinforcements had come, and that it was in their best interests to leave before the next beam of ion-particles tore their aircraft apart.