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Post by Corvid on Nov 13, 2018 6:26:32 GMT
It happened quickly once he closed the gap between them. The two leaders were about to clash, and the Decepticon flier was the one who took the first shot. Slowing only enough to measure his assault, Airfoil initiated with a shoulder charge the moment he came out of transformation, only meters away from Quadrack. His free hand clutched his ready blaster, which he'd unload on the Demora leader the moment his shoulder made contact. He wasn't taking any chances.
A sniper's cover was taken down by Backbeat almost instantly, and the Decepticon marksman looked awkward once exposed out in the open. He managed to take cover again unharmed, and for the moment the heat died down on the small group of misplaced neutrals. The moment didn't last long, as other troops covered for the sniper while he reloaded his rifle. It wasn't ideal, but if there was ever a moment for them to get moving- with the attention of most of the Decepticons focused on Quadrack- now was their best chance.
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Post by sarune on Nov 15, 2018 21:23:34 GMT
There was little room for error in Airfoil's charge, with the shield still hiding Quadrack's form in a globe of thermo-energon that covered him entirely, there was little information on Quadrack's current state past the battle damage that had been spotted in the previous airstrike. Which was a tempting reason to strike as the injuries which had caused him to fall to one knee and deploy such shielding, where the closest to a sign of vulnerability most warriors were ever willing to show and often only for the sake of their survival when anything less would result in death. A high possibility considering the assault the recently deployed defence had protected against, although not without effort as seconds after the last strike the shielding wavered, not dissipating in glow but rather the output of heat which had originally melted some of the bullets by proximity alone and only now was a hot breeze as it continued to cool until even the glow began retreating.
It was the closest sign to the shield deactivating and at least in that case as good as anytime to strike an injured enemy.
If that was the case then when the shielding finally retracted, Airfoil's risky charge would have met a mech too weak to resist and an enemy easily gunned down.
Such was not a reality; for upon the disappearance of the bubble Quadrack stood unharmed, pieces of his frame shifting around as holes where covered up and only the energon that dotted his frame spoke of former injuries, alongside the corpse of the Decepticon who'd joined his shielding, who was now little more than a protoform ripped to shreds as though a gluttonous beast had taken great chunks of his armour for consumption.
By the time his frame was revealed, there was little time to retreat, and the mech who met the charge was eager to correspond. In no position for a shoulder charge of his own, rather Quadrack shifted his frame swinging out his hammer in a backhanded swing with one servo that a smaller mech would struggle to control. Certainly not with the speed behind his own movement, as the hammer whistled through the air towards Airfoil's shoulder and torso.
---
"It's the latter." Fallout declared to Backbeat without an inch of remorse as her own processor went through the best route out of the Demora district under the conditions of a fire-fight, a strange thought since she herself had never expected to see Quadrack challenged in his own domain. Never in such a scenario where his defeat seemed more likely than a victory of which she would be expected to remain and watch, this time though she was fleeing, certainly, it was the most reasonable decision despite her fears of Quadrack's revenge against deserters.
As long as The Crucible burned that fear would remain, even if for now it served as a good idea of how well a distraction her previous leader was providing. Even past the wall, the weapon's unique hum was audible like a final chant for the sinned before their execution.
"Listen, as long as he's alive Quadrack's going to be their biggest focus, he'd shrug off anything but a combined assault and even then usually I'd give him a chance. Decepticons are carrying a little better than most and a lot more though, so I'm not putting that bet in. If we can get to the cleaning tubes on the outskirts we could climb up assuming neither of you can fly or we drop down and find an elevator... scrap then I'm going to need a redeco otherwise I won't be able to show my face anywhere around here."
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Post by Backbeat on Nov 17, 2018 11:15:57 GMT
Backbeat shrugs as pops out again firing another volley at the Decepticon snipers, using the shot as a distraction to move up into new cover. He tosses the spent gun aside as he pulls a new weapon from subspace. This was a Laser beam blaster, capable of firing a beam that cut thru most materials. As Backbeat shows while firing at a pursuing Decepticon. Melting a hole thru his target.
' If you paint yourself black I'm not calling you Nemesis Fallout! '
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Post by Baku on Nov 17, 2018 15:18:35 GMT
Kiyu got up from his cover just enough to see a Decepticon barreling his way. Grunting a little he transformed back into his beast form before jumping on the 'Con, crawling all over him and ripping holes in the armor before letting his needle-like teeth nip and tear at internal wiring and mesh, all the while the mech he was attacking could be seen flailing and screaming in agony as he worked his way in and tore up some internals. Kiyu was done messing around. There was only one thing on his mind at this point: Survival... He knew he was a small target, hard for the snipers to hit, but he didn't want to risk a bullet bigger than his fist even getting close to hitting him as he jumped away from the now bleeding carcass and back to cover where he had hid Backbeat's shotgun, panting a bit as he cleaned the energon from his teeth with his glossa.
"Lay out a path for us, and I'll help clear it..." Kiyu snarled over the comms to Backbeat and Fallout.
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Post by Corvid on Nov 18, 2018 0:08:04 GMT
Sat atop their perch, the nega-seekers waited for Airfoil's demise to unfold.
Unfold it did. The well calculated charge turned wrong quickly, and with unparalleled brutality, the loud smack of Quadrack's hammer sounded the end of the Initial Response Team's leader. The momentum of his charge and the raw power of Quadrack's hammer jettisoned him into one of the flameless side walls, the flier's frame lifelessly thudded into a crumpled heap against it. The two fliers that had pursued their leader looked horrified, but nonetheless persisted in their own attack. Wisely, from a distance.
Unleashing a volley of laser fire upon Quadrack and giving him no opportunity to raise his shields again, the pair hovered in circles around him, at the ready to dodge any surprise assault from the single target, now utterly absent of allies as he stood solitary in the middle of the courtyard's field. As they did, another hail of fire accompanied their attack; another fly by from the team's aerial fliers.
Other groups of the team were pressing in now, sensing the end drawing near. Unfortunately for the three neutrals, Backbeat, Kiyu, and Fallout, they became the sole targets of the ground forces' assault. Several moved in at the sound of screams from their mauled compatriot, beginning to lay down fire on Kiyu, not even sparing their ally in the barrage.
Meanwhile, elsewhere:
The few remaining Demora members were taking full advantage of the time their leader's distraction had afforded them. With Quadrack's aid, they were making their escape through the mall itself after having reached the edge of the courtyard successfully. A few gave their leader somber looks before disappearing behind the first of many corners they'd have to turn if they were going to reach the back of the building. They hoped no Decepticon forces would be waiting for them, and to their relief there wasn't many in their path. Only one.
But that one was a triple changer. What little hope remained in them drained from their eyes as Osprey took down the first of the small group almost effortlessly, and proceeded to barrel through the rest. Completely at his mercy, the remnants of the brotherhood fell to their superior opponent.
Still utterly unphased by the battle below, Nullgust and Glidefeint watched discontentedly from afar, the only piece of action even remotely close to bringing them interest being a member of the formation of fliers assailing Quadrack breaking off, and joining them on their perch. They watched as they transformed, and soon after the little intrigue that the event had granted them was explained, the intrigue of the event lost as it became immediately apparent the purpose for this aberrant. A generic troop, he carried a sniper's load out. They didn't stick around to watch him began setting up his equipment. Instead, they decided to end this whole affair. Fighting an army was fun; but an army against a single bot was overkill, and frankly, pathetic to watch.
"The wall," Glidefeint told Nullgust, who silently got to work, in sync with her partner.
Flying wide of Quadrack and the current attack by Airfoil's fliers, the two transformed, and began setting themselves to task. Their cannons hissed to life, lost in the roar of flame and the loud weapons of their allies, they set to destabilizing the wall as stealthily as possible.
At the nega-seekers' former perch, one of the upper levels of the mall, a lone Decepticon sniper presided over the entirety of the courtyard. With the clearest vantage point of all the action, he settled into his nest and peered down his scope to the action below.
From here, he watched everything. The assault from the rest of his team onto Quadrack, the obvious point of contention; he set his sights on Quadrack's body, but unable to get a clear shot with all the laser fire, thought better of it. Then, he slowly focused elsewhere. He'd seen the two nega-seekers fly off, and though he wasn't sure what their intention, watched as they further prodded an already unstable structure. This caught his interest, and he let his sights linger for a moment as he tried to discern their intentions. Then, he moved on.
Finally, his sights set on something that he could put his skills to good use. The ground forces were engaged with what looked to be the final lingering members of the neutrals to be exterminated. There was a blur of motion caught his attention, and he zoomed his scope in to find one of his own being mauled by a small, reptilian-like bot. His trigger finger itched. Trying to get a clear shot, he focused... no. Not the right target. He moved on.
His sights set themselves to another member of the group, and here his scope stuck; Fallout. Fallout, he recognized as the Demora who he'd shot at- and missed- in the wall, manning one of the Demora's warp cannons earlier in the battle. Her friend hadn't been so lucky; Locksight had already fallen to his rifle, and so would Fallout. But he readjusted his sights one last time to train onto Backbeat. The amount of damage that mech was outputting, he needed to go. The sniper would get back to Fallout later.
Bang.
A shot fired from the sniper toward Backbeat, aimed squarely in the shoulder of his firing arm. The bot wouldn't be able to react in time to dodge, or even minimize the damage. The sniper was sure for a guaranteed hit.
Reload, aim again. The sniper's next target would be Fallout.
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Post by sarune on Nov 18, 2018 2:20:17 GMT
Quadrack the undying, would not bow. He would not fall and he would not go quietly.
His war-cry reverberated across the battlefield, a primal thing brought upon by years of resentment for his own decline and a frightful need for battle such as the conflict he now found himself in. Surrounded by all sides by warriors who took his melee weapon as a sign that he was defenceless at range, the next time he swung the Crucible it pulsed, a flare of plasma bursting from the head of the weapon which quickly consumed one flier who wasn't prepared for a ranged attack. One which at least a few where prepared for as the duo who'd once been led by Airfoil at least dodged his next burst, which left him open.
A momentarily sign of weakness that was pounced on as bullets shredded against his armour, repaired wounds quickly reopened and even more added as the world around him was brought to life with the glare of more than a dozen blasters taking their chance. Each just a drop in the water that soon became a tidal-wave as even the once powerful warrior was overwhelmed, his frame buckling but not falling as he gripped the burning Crucible, wisps of fire and plasma still emitting from it's centre before in a desperate strike he slammed it down. The ground around him cracked, allowing plasma to slip in like glowing veins, before they burst open shooting geysers of plasma into the air that caught more than one aerialbot and many, many more grounders in its range.
Still by now, though it was clear, lost in his rage of killing and killing as bullets brought him close to falling but never succeeded in that final moment, Quadrack was fighting without a plan, only content to take out as many of those around him as he could. He paid no attention to those retreating or moving away from the coming waves.
"Do you think your numbers mean anything against me? That I shall fall when all you bring to face me is but the scraps of our race? Where are your warriors, where are your champions? Have they looked upon this battle and seen the futility of your struggle in my field of power, is that why even now I cannot find a single mech upon you who shall face me alone?"
---
"No time for joking, we need to get out of here." Fallout announced to Backbeat, ignoring the weird joke she could only assume was meant to somehow be funny due to the tone he had said it with. If anyone asked then she was perfectly aware of the sniper shot heading towards him and not merely annoyed with his humour, when she kicked him in the aft, sending him down a waste chute as she grabbed a hold of Kiyu by the scruff of his neck and shortly after took the plunge herself. The new attention of so many Decepticon overriding her original plan to reach one of the elevators that would have left them stuck in a much more drawn out and riskier conflict.
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Post by Backbeat on Nov 19, 2018 5:42:56 GMT
Backbeat to his credit had been thrown down far worse waste chutes by far prettier ladies. But not enough to develop any skill at either avoiding it much like the sniper shot that had nearly skimmed his shoulder, or gracefully recovering from it. He bounces of the pipes as he tumbles down, trying to position himself so the landing won't be painful. He looks up to see his two friends falling after him.
' Please tell me this doesn't lead to the incinerator! '
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Post by Baku on Nov 20, 2018 1:15:34 GMT
Kiyu suffered a good bit of shrapnel damage from the flak heading his way, that was for sure, but that nonetheless didn't stop him from being suddenly mech-handled in his reptilian form. Screeching a little before he realized who grabbed him and what was happening, Kiyu curled himself into a more portable fetal/ball position in Fallout's grasp. Figuring the femme knew what she was doing, he was not about to even respond to Backbeat's comment of an incinerator at the bottom of this chute for Fallout.
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Post by Corvid on Nov 21, 2018 4:51:38 GMT
Calmly, the Decepticon sniper refocused. His targets suddenly lost in a surprising manner, he pulled away from his scope to check his vision before returning to the scope, again finding the space his targets occupied empty. An inkling of frustration rose in him, but his sights didn't linger long on emptiness. Instead, he looked in on the ongoing battle...
Burning, crumbling, the wall was on its last legs. A few struts snapped as large portions of the wall on two distant sides were sliced by the the lasers of the nega-seekers' weapons.
Airfoil's fliers wavered for but a moment, taken aback by Quadrack's mighty war cry. That was all the time Quadrack needed to take them off-guard. With a powerful slam of his hammer to the ground, molten slag kicked up and caught the two fliers wings, dragging them down to a plasma bath that consigned the fliers to their shrieking end.
A devastating crack, followed by a creaking that was only outmatched by Quadrack’s voice, sounded the bot’s nearing end.
Separating, the nega-seekers executed the final steps of their plan. Glidefeint took a wide turn, flying back toward the mall to get some distance between Quadrack and herself. Nullgust remained behind, transforming to her bot mode and firing cables from her wrists, the piked ends of which embedding in the unstable wall. Nullgust was already pulling down on top of Quadrack with her cables. Chunks breaking off, still ablaze- even crushing some of the Decepticon Initial Response Team members not fortunate enough to have evaded the scene, and splashing down into the areas of exposed plasma around Quadrack. He was in position, but not nearly. He needed a gentle nudge in the right direction…
Glidefeint obliged.
“Oh, shut up.” Swooping in at breakneck speed, Glidefeint transformed just short of Quadrack to solidly plant her peds in the sturdy mech’s chest in an effort to push him back- right into the path of the wall to bring the mech to his end in a spectacular blaze of glory.
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Post by Backbeat on Nov 30, 2018 4:50:52 GMT
Backbeat notices they continued to fall.
' So... How long is this thing anyway?! '
He groans, some how he's more bored than anything.
' Seriously... '
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Post by sarune on Dec 3, 2018 0:20:43 GMT
Freefalling in the air, it became clear quickly that the maintenance shaft was massive, reaching deep down as the group fell without an end in sight despite travelling at blistering speeds. It was only a youth of testing such mechanics that didn't have Fallout utterly panicked in fact as her emergency thrusters where revealed, pulling back the metal casing around her heels in preparation for her attempts to slow their descent.
"Not the time, Backbeat."
Even now however using her thrusters, would be useless and a waste of fuel as they continued deeper, it was only a few minutes later that the entire metal plating around them began to alter from a dirty slate grey to a mix of that material and what appeared to be cybernetic devices including a scanner which began tracing them and their fall with a blue light.
Only to bring them to a gradual stop, as anti-gravity technology activated, slowly their fall till they remained floating only a few inches from a conveyor belt beneath them, one which Fallout had no intention of getting stuck to as she grabbed the two again activating her thrusters just as the anti-grav shorted out sending them over the belt and to a work floor below that was covered in liquids but little else worth mentioning.
"Don't touch the belt," She said as she began to move, aware they where long out of the Decepticons grasp but having no intention to linger in the real lower levels any longer than necessary.
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Post by Baku on Dec 3, 2018 0:36:58 GMT
Kiyu stayed curled up in Fallout's grasp, even after their long fall had been completed. He figured it was a little easier to carry him around like a minicon attachment rather than a dangling ragdoll from her hands, like Backbeat appeared to end up like once the anti-grav was off and Fallout started hovering. He only let his reptilian head pop up from the mass he had made himself, looking and darting about from side to side curiously as he wondered how much deeper they had ended up. "Not to be too curious about this seemingly bland area, but where exactly are we..?"
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Post by Backbeat on Dec 7, 2018 19:43:49 GMT
Backbeat rises out of the muck, he's just landed in with a mix of disgust and relief.
' That was terrible... But we survived... So net win I guess? '
Backbeat shakes the muck off himself as he looks around, activating all of his vehicle mode lights to illuminate the area around him. He waves at his two traveling companions.
' We got away out of... Of... Where the hell are we? '
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Post by sarune on Dec 10, 2018 23:49:43 GMT
OOC: I'll probably move these posts to a new thread at some point since this isn't actually part of Floor Fifty-Five but I figure it's better to get a post out than leave people hanging.
Now much easier to carry, Fallout had little difficulty handling the minicon as she made her way through the maintenance floor, only giving a glance for the furnace at the edge of the room when it erupted, the fire inside disintegrating the junk that had been thrown into it just as it would have done to them. Just as it had to some of her former and highly overcharged companions a few decades back, which was one of the many reasons she hated coming here despite how it had saved her life in this moment.
"One of the maintenance levels, never really counted which one, they all get around the same after floor fifteen. Best not to linger though, some of the maintenance bots around here are missing a few logic circuits and they'll happily see you as scrap metal for the recycling plants."
Shivering in memory of a past incident, Fallout's servos shot to the door and their best bet at freedom.
"They drag you that far and you're a goner."
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Post by Baku on Dec 11, 2018 23:39:01 GMT
Kiyu nodded as he hissed a little when he saw the furnace, tilting his head in Backbeat's direction before looking back at Fallout.
"If the lower floors are maintenance and recycling, then what does that make the core..?"
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