Chapter Two
It was late at night. The perfect time to strike.
Under the cover of darkness no one saw the alien hovercraft traveling, its turbine jet engines propelling it swiftly across the terrain. The vehicle's brown colors were broken only by the darkened windshield and two small side windows. The intakes, set at a 45 degree angle against the tapered end of the cargo section, continually gulped in air from in front to feed the engines behind.
Dusty traveled most of the way to his destination using his engines, but when closing in on the power plant that Megatron was lording over, he shut them down and just traveled on his levitation units, manuvering by varying power to different units. The faint whine that they produced quickly dissipated with distance and would not alert any Decepticon guards.
Dusty reached a rock and brush-covered slope, and transformed. His upper legs telescoped out from his lower legs and as his feet unfolded and touched the ground, bringing him upright, his arms unlatched from their positions on the side of the hovercraft and fell to his sides. His vehicle nose split in half vertically, the upper and forward half sliding back inside the cargo area, while the lower half slid inside his chest. With no immediate need of his fins, he relaxed their position and they lowered down to rest against his arms and legs.
Kneeling down behind a nearby boulder large enough to provide cover for him, Dusty laid his rifle across the top. He leaned forward and cradled the rifle stock against his shoulder and cheek, then took careful aim through the scope at the wall of the power plant.
The power plant was well lit inside, but the windows were few and small and its concrete walls made it impossible to see inside...normally.
Without removing his visor, Dusty adjusted the knobs and switches on his rifle's scope, fine-tuning its sensors until the Decepticons' outlines were clearly visible through the wall.
He watching the activity going on inside with interest until the roar of accelerating jet engines broke his concentration. He glanced up at the skies above the power plant, seeking the source of disturbance.
There it was. The unique wing design and the faintly visible red markings told Dusty the object in the air as Thrust. He was circling the power plant in an obvious search pattern that was slowly getting wider. Dusty studied the fighter carefully. What or who was the Decepticon looking for? Whatever it was, Thrust evidently expected it to be very close to the power plant; therefore, he couldn't be looking for Dusty.
Still, no point in taking chances. Dusty crouched closer to his boulder and did his best to blend in with it, changing his colors to match that of the stone. The darkness would help hide him if the Decepticon should come his way, but given Thrust's search pattern, that seemed unlikely. But if Thrust did spot him, Dusty would make sure he got his intakes full of Mother Earth.
A semi and trailer left the power plant, the sound of its diesel engine reaching his ears as a distant purr. The Conehead poked around the plant for several more minutes under Dusty's watchful optics before gaining altitude and streaking towards the distant horizon.
Dusty waited for him to disappear, not bothering to lift his rifle. Thrust's time would come eventually--just not now. He turned back to the power plant and, after settling into a mantainable position, continued his study of the routine inside. He would like to know who he could be expecting to leave the power plant first.
After an hour of careful study he selected Soundwave as his first target. His detection abilities represented the most danger to Dusty at the moment. Besides, the communication officer was always alert, his sharp mind at work, while his cassettes made him a walking one-man army. Rumble and Frenzy were out and about, though he couldn't tell one from the other; through the scope, their silhouettes were identical.
Not that it mattered, they were both going down.
He checked his ammo and made sure there was a round loaded in the top barrel, then went back to watching Soundwave through the concrete wall, waiting in the dark for a clear shot.
Half an Earthern hour later, his patience paid off.
Soundwave came to a halt near a group of working humans, unknowingly facing towards Dusty's scope and giving him a perfect target silhouette. As the Decepticon made a threatening gesture with his laser pistol, Dusty squeeeeezed the trigger of his rifle.
CRACK!
The sound split the night like lighting. The shell slammed Soundwave back into a generator. He slid to the floor, the hole in his chest sparking in a way that indicated serious damage.
Bringing his gun back down from the recoil, Dusty settled his crosshairs on a nearby Frenzy, who was staring at Soundwave in baffled shock, trying to figure out just what had happened. Again Dusty's rifle cleaved the night in half as its AP shell ripped through the cold air. It punched through the thick concrete wall, melting it with a combination of speed, pressure and heat before it smashed into Frenzy, ending his futile examination and any coherent thought.
* * *
"Outside, you idiots!" Megatron snarled, jabbing a finger towards the still smoking holes in the wall as he came running towards the scene. "The attack's from outside!" He came to a halt and whirled to look down on the severely wounded communication specialist. "Soundwave, release Laserbeak and Ravage!"
Soundwave weakly lifted his hand and ejected the two requested cassettes. "Laserbeak, Ravage," he commanded, his monotone voice wavering more then normal. "Search and Destroy." The two cassettes transformed in mid-air and followed the mass of scurrying Decepticons towards the exit.
Thunder rumbled across the cloudless night and Rumble, the first to set his feet outside the plant, was thrown back through the door and into the legs of the following group of Decepticons, tripping everyone.
Laserbeak flew above the pile of arms, legs and wings while Ravage bounded almost gleefully over the struggling mass, nearly stepping on several optics, and both sped outside, weaving to throw off any enemy aim while they headed for the surrounding hills.
Behind them their comrades had disentangled themselves with much cursing on one another's heads. The Seekers quickly took to the sky while the rest made tracks after them, ready to blast anything in sight...
Every nearby boulder, bush and any dirt pile big enoug to hide so much as a mini-Autobot had been melted to slag. They had been scanning, searching and combing the area for hours. And yet they still hadn't so much as found a track left on the ground or detected any readings that might indicate where their attacker was hiding.
Blitzwing had been struck a glancing blow in the back, but his tank armor had caused the projectile to angle off before it exploded nearby, causing only minor damage. Converging in the general direction the shot should have come from produced no results. Even Ravage could not pick up any scent to trace.
Needless to say Megatron was not pleased at their success.
He flew out of the power plant and landed on the ground near the searching Decepticons with a heavier than necessary "thud", an aura of displeasure crackling around him. "Spread out, you fools!" he commanded, immediately spotting a way to increase their effectiveness. "Spread out and search for that accursed Autobot!"
CRACK!
Megatron's head snapped around, first in the general direction of the sound, then towards the scream of the victim. Thrust, who had returned the runaway human to the plant and then joined the search in the sky, was no longer maintaining altitude.
Where his left wing had been was a short jagged stump from which smoke and sparks billowed out of as he plummeted down. Megatron narrowed his optics as he watched the red fighter dig a furrow in a nearby hillside, before he returned his gaze to where Thrust had been shot. His tactical mind spun into action, calculating, adding in possibilities.
Yes... he was beginning to understand where the shot could have come from.
Megatron looked back down at his army and found them either on their bellies hugging the dirt or peering from behind any cover they could find. Several of them were now wishing they hadn't been so thorough in destroying all the cover around them, leaving them open to an attacker they couldn't see, couldn't harm.
"Get up, you cowards!" Megatron shouted at them as the Seekers and Coneheads overhead quickly backed off from the area where Thrust had been shot and started circling above Megatron. Not eager to meet the same fate as Thrust, they were trying hide behind a more tempting target. "Get back to searching!"
"But mighty Megatron," Starscream transformed and landed near the Decepticon leader, "As long as we don't know where to look, he will keep picking us off. We can't keep searching like this!"
"Are you ignoring my order?" Megatron demanded, taking a threatening stride towards the other.
In mid-step he felt a burning sensation run across his shoulder before something exploded right behind him an instant later. The blast caught him off balance and threw him forward into the dirt at Starscream's feet, the ringing in his ears nearly drowning out the echoing report of the enemy's weapon.
Megatron pushed himself away from the ground, spitting dirt from his mouth. A glance up at Starscream showed the Air Commander wearing a snickering sneer on his face. Megatron's optics flared dangerously. How dare anyone make him lose face in front of Starscream!
"I will have his head!" he roared as he lunged to his feet. "No one fires at me and gets away with it!"
The clue he needed fell into place as he sighted the slope off to the side, his optics still glowing. There was only one area where a sharpshooter could hit a target in the air and within seconds shoot at him. That slope over there still had plenty of cover near the top and was half a mile away.
"Quickly, our enemy is over there!" Megatron never thought an Autobot could shoot so far!
"But Megatr-" Starscream began. Megatron cut him off by bringing his fusion cannon inches from the red and white Seeker's face and spat a last rock out.
"I want him found, Starscream," Megatron ground out. "And I want him found now. Or I'll settle for your head instead!"
Starscream's sneer was gone. Closing his mouth and giving Megatron a parting glare, the Decepticon took to the air, calling new orders to his flying comrades. The circling fighters broke up a few seconds later, spreading out and weaving in random patterns as they headed towards the coordinates that Megatron had pointed out.
Now, he had to mobilize his ground forces quickly. "Decepticons, follow the Seekers and surround our foe!" A few hesitated, but they got off the ground and quickly followed after the air support.
"Laserbeak, Ravage," Megatron called to the two cassettes. "Circle around behind. Make sure that he doesn't slip away without us knowing."
Laserbeak squawked in reply and flew off toward the hilltop, with Ravage following his grey shadow on the ground.
Megatron watched his forces move out before brushing dirt off his chest. He had better get back in the power plant and out of sight. He was obviously a prime target.
I hope I've gotten Dusty's alt-mode across to you guys in words, but if you would like to see a picture of him, please visit my web site! www.made4usa.com/shadowshock. No robot mode till one of us learns how to draw robots. =) Again, I just love to hear your guyz reactions!