Chapter Two
"Well this is just fragging dandy," Sunstreaker muttered as another rock flew up from his front tyre to hit his under-carriage, as they drove across the uneven desert ground. "I didn't volunteer for this mission just to have my finish chipped by a bunch of rocks." He swerved sharply to avoid another deep rut.
"Ah, quit yer belly-achin' Sunshine," Ironhide replied. "Y'think any of us wants to be out here either? Maybe y'd like ta suggest ta ol' Megatron ta plan his li'l hare-brained schemes some place more convinient for ya."
"Be quiet, both of you," Prime ordered. "Just because the light's fading doesn't mean they wont be able to see or hear us coming. So stop bickering and be alert."
"Roger that Prime," Ironhide replied.
Sunstreaker growled something about tubby aft-kissers and fell silent, focusing instead on trying to avoid anythng that might pose a threat to his paint-job – not an easy task since the sun had gone down quite some time ago and whatever moonlight there was, was obstructed by clouds. Add to that Prowl's advisement that they should drive without their headlights or the use of their satellite equipment, so as not to tip off Soundwave to their arrival, and it basically equalled to them going in blind. Sometimes he had to wonder how intelligent the intelligence department was.
The terrain soon became a lot more jagged. The desert ground fell away in places into deep canyons and narrow gorges, becoming more like ledges and cliffs than the vast expanse of flat ground they'd been covering before. Sunstreaker didn't like it. The whole thing just felt wrong, and he wondered why he'd even agreed to coming out here in the first place, instead of staying home and keeping an optic on his brother. he heard a dull thud and swerved sharply on pure instinct, screeching to a halt as a ball of violet flames took a chunk out of the ground where he'd previously been. Guess this was the place then.
"Autobots! Scatter and take cover!" Prime shouted as more flaming spheres burst amongst them, raising thick clouds of smoke and dust.
Sunstreaker didn't need to be told twice, he was already in the middle of doing just that. He heard the squealing and screeching of brakes as they were slammed on, and a pained cry as a couple of the others got hit and went down. Who it was exactly, he didn't know; he was too busy trying to avoid being hit himself which, after a while, became rather easy to do. He then realized that with all the dust and smoke being raised, his ground-hugging, low-slung Lamborghini form couldn't be seen as easily as an upright robot. It gave him half an opening to get closer and maybe take out whatever weapon was doing all this damage, provided he could get past the Seekers.
A purple sphere burst directly in front of his front bumper sending a wave of heat and flame washing over his hood and windshield. It hurt like hell, but his tough polymer armor withstood it. He winced, steeled himself and swerved to the left, trying to pin-point the direction from which it had come. He spun in a perfect 180 and stopped. A glint of silver. There he was.
The light, early night breeze cleared some of the smoke away to give Sunstreaker a quick glimpse of the situation. Three Autobots were down, a few of the others were injured – including Prime and Prowl – but were not out yet. Only Ironhide and himself were still functioning at full capacity, probably because of their tougher armor, something Megatron seemed to have overlooked.
Skywarp materialized and dived for the boulder that the old, red mech was crouching behind. Sunstreaker's blaster clicked into place on his spoiler, took aim and fired. The amber beam sailed clean over his roof and hit the Seeker square in the cockpit, sending him spiralling to the ground.
Ironhide looked back. "Thanks kid."
"Its up to us now old-timer," Sunstreaker said. "What do you say we end this and go home?"
"For once I agree with ya," Ironhide replied. "Take a look at the field kid. Ol' Megatron's gotten overconfident again, putting all his faith into his weapon, that he's only got his planes as back-up. If we can take out that cannon, our guys'll have a chance."
"I'll take it out," Sunstreaker revved his engine. "Just distract him long enough for me to get close and blow it up."
"Y'got it kid, just be careful."
"Just don't get hit."
"Don't intend ta." Ironhide transformed. "Here goes nothin'."
The red van drove out from behind the boulder, heading to where Megatron stood behind a rather large cannon, cackling maniacally. Ironhide skidded and swerved, enticing the Decepticon leader to try and hit him. Megatron took the bait, turning the cannon towards the red Autobot and away from Sunstreaker. The yellow Lamborghini sped forward, dodging shots from the jets with practiced ease. Guessing what the two were trying to do, Prowl called for the Autobots still standing to provide cover fire for the warrior.
The Seekers off his bumper, Sunstreaker increased speed just as Megatron got off a shot right under Ironhide's rear bumper. The red mech transformed and stumbled with a yelp, more affected by the force of the blast than the heat, and though not incapacitated, there was no way he could move fast enough to get out of the way of a second, more direct hit – one that could do considerable damage, toughened armor or not. With a final burst of speed, Sunstreaker reached the device, transformed swiftly and stuck his ener-dagger into the cable supplying the cannon with power.
Its outlet blocked, the resulting backlog caused the machine attached to the cannon to overload. Sunstreaker had just enough time to leap clear as the device exploded, and the resulting shockwave knocked Megatron away from the cannon.
"Autobots, FIRE!" Prime roared.
Beam after beam of golden energy hit the cannon as Sunstreaker picked himself off the ground, spitting and coughing to clear the dust from his mouth and air-intakes, just in time to hear Megatron's enraged bellow as the cannon went up in a ball of flames and smoke. He got to his feet and then registered the purple fusion-cannon energy heading right towards him. Reflexively he tried to leap clear, but groggy as he was from the explosion, he didn't quite make it all the way. The shot hit him square in the knee and he crumpled back to the ground with an agonized cry.
Megatron crossed the distance in three strides and hauled Sunstreaker up by the neck, tightening his grip around the warrior's vocalizer and cutting off any attempts to call for help, as he leveled his fusion cannon at the yellow mech's laser core.
"You will pay dearly for that, Autobot," he growled as Sunstreaker swung his good leg in a feeble effort to kick free. "And I will not miss this time."
"SUNSTREAKER!"
Prime ploughed roughly into Megatron, causing the Decepticon leader to release his hold on the warrior. Sunstreaker quickly rolled out of the way as the two leaders tussled, and tried to stand without putting too much weight on his damaged leg. That was when Starscream slammed into him at full force. The nose-cone of the jet driving hard into his mid-section. The warrior's second cry of pain was lost to the wind as Starscream rose, taking Sunstreaker with him.
"You may have escaped Megatron," the Seeker sneered. "But I still have a score to settle with you."
"Frag… you…," Sunstreaker snarled through clenched jaws as he gripped the jet's nose-cone to keep from falling. At the height they were flying, a fall could be fatal.
He tried to focus through the pain, wondering what the Air Commander was trying to do since they'd already left the battlefield behind. A hostage maybe, but why him? He had nothing to offer as a warrior. The answer came soon enough as the ledge fell away into a narrow gorge.
"So long Autobot," Starscream sneered. "Give Primus my regards."
He transformed in mid-air. Sunstreaker lost his hold and went plummeting towards the bottom of the gorge. The seeker fired his null rays after him, both of them hitting the yellow mech squarely, knocking him offline as the continued his downward spiral.
………