Author's Note: I'm sorry about the delay, but a friend of mine died last week and I went to his funeral. So I had no time to write this chapter until today.
Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Metal and Neon
Chapter 8: Battle in the Desert
Gil Grissom stood outside the CSI headquarters, looking out over Las Vegas. The city had emptied of almost everyone; the only people left were those die-hards who wanted to protect their homes from looting, police officers, and military personnel. He'd never seen the city so quiet before, and had a hard time adjusting to the near-silence.
A vehicle roared past. Grissom recognized it as one of the Autobots, a hyper bot named Chase. He was in an even greater hurry than usual. That meant something was up. Grissom fished the communicator he'd been given out of his pocket and contacted Spike.
"What's going on?"
"The Decepticons are moving!" Spike had to shout to be heard over the roaring engines and deep voices of the Autobots. "They're heading for the Air Force base!"
A chill wound its way down Grissom's spine. The minor clashes with the Decepticon forces had been bad enough. Now those clashes were about to develop into all-out war. He hoped desperately that the fighting would stay away from the city.
"The Autobots will do what they can, but there are no guarantees. The Decepticon leader is completely insane, so there's no telling what he might do. Ultra Rodimus does his best to anticipate Galvatron's moves, but he can't catch everything."
Catherine darted across the street, another Autobot swerving in a squeal of brakes to avoid hitting her. The Autobot, one of the clones, the one named Fastlane, barely even slowed down, swerving neatly out of the way and then speeding off in an obviously practiced move. Catherine leaned against the side of the building to catch her breath for a moment, glaring after the Autobot.
"Why are they all in such a hurry?" she asked.
"The Decepticons are moving on Nellis," Grissom replied.
"Oh. And who was that?"
"Fastlane. One of the clones."
She shot him a look. "You memorized the entire personnel list?"
"I'd rather be able to tell who's who than mistake one for another."
"Good point. What do we do?"
"Stay out of the way. From what I've been told, the Decepticons have no problem with killing a human on a whim."
"Ah." She vanished into the building. "Then it's a good thing this place has a basement."
Grissom watched several more Autobots charge past, then followed.
Ultra Rodimus's engine roared as he increased speed again. Behind him, the other Autobots spread out into a V shape as the quicker ones came to the front and the not-so-fast ones dropped back. Magnus was keeping pace with his mate, but it wasn't easy. Ultra Rodimus was capable of a much higher ground speed than the others. The only reason he wasn't already out of sight was because he didn't want to plow right into the Decepticon army on his own.
Magnus took a quick glance behind him, watching curiously as the slower Autobots separated into pairs, one behind the other, practically on the other's bumper. He wondered what they were doing.
"Drafting," Bluestreak explained. "Like race drivers do. It helps both move faster."
"Oh." Magnus turned his attention back to his mate. He considered asking Ultra Rodimus to slow down a bit, but from what he could sense through their lifebond it would be hopeless to try.
The Air Force base appeared in front of them. So did the wave of Decepticons heading toward it.
Ultra Rodimus let out a low growl. The others echoed it, but didn't speed up any more. If they did then they'd run the risk of overheating.
Galvatron spotted them an instant later. With a scream of rage, he veered sideways and headed right for them, optics aflame with hate. Startled, the other Decepticons scrambled to follow.
"Attack!" both leaders bellowed in unison.
In seconds the desert was a war zone. Dozens of huge robots transformed into whatever mode they felt worked best and hurled themselves into the fray. The skies were full of planes from both factions, twisting around each other in a fierce air battle. Yellow and purple laser bolts flew in all directions, scorching armor, puncturing metal, shattering boulders, and leaving long, smouldering scars across the ground. Bits of metal fell like a strange rain, mixed with drops of dark blue Transformer blood.
At Nellis Air Force Base, stunned humans crowded around monitors and the gates, watching in shock as two giant races met in a terrifying battle. The devastation being caused in the opening stages of the battle made it clear what both of those races were capable of doing.
Ultra Rodimus twisted to avoid a shot from Ramjet, simultaneously lashing out with his battleaxe. He scored a hit on Dirge. The Decepticon jet fell back with a scream. Huge wings caught Ultra Rodimus's attention and he turned to see Mindwipe heading in his direction. Knowing that Mindwipe had the ability to hypnotize and control other Transformers, Ultra Rodimus roared his war cry and hurtled right at the bat Decepticon. Mindwipe saw him coming and tried to hypnotize him, but the attempt failed. The Decepticon only had time to scream before the Autobot leader's huge axe came crashing down, cleaving him in two.
Galvatron screamed with rage. "Combiners attack!"
The various members of the gestalt teams extricated themselves from the fighting and began the sequences of transformations that allowed them to merge into their various gestalt forms. The Autobots couldn't help noticing.
"I don't think so!" Inferno took aim and began firing, peppering the half-formed Bruticus with laser fire. The gestalt shuddered under the barrage and fell apart, various components too damaged to combine. The other Autobots followed Inferno's example, but the other 'Con gestalts managed to complete their merges.
"Aerialbots, Protectobots, Technobots, that's your cue!" Magnus yelled.
"On it!" Hot Spot shouted back. "Groove, First Aid, Streetwise, Blades, let's do it!"
The other Protectobots converged on their leader and began their own merge. Moments later, the blue, white, black, and red gestalt Defensor lunged straight at Abominus. The Terrorcon gestalt saw him at the last moment and barely managed to block Defensor's first blow.
Next to show up was Superion, the Aerialbot gestalt. Since two of his components had an intense dislike for Motormaster, Superion promptly charged Menasor. The two were swiftly engaged in their own brawl.
Devastator took a step forward, but found himself facing an old, powerful enemy. Ultra Rodimus hadn't had to tell Omega Supreme to attack; the huge Guardian robot held a deep hate for the Constructicons and went after them without needing any prompting. A flash of fear crossed Devastator's face moments before Omega Supreme slammed into him, howling with rage. The Constructicon gestalt had no choice but to try and defend himself against the rampaging Guardian.
"So that's why Prime brought Omega," Crosshairs muttered to himself.
"Yeah," Freeway grunted, shoving Octane away from him and into Springer's waiting attack. "Apparently Omega Supreme used to be the Guardian of Crystal City. The Constructicons lured him away from the city and destroyed it. Ever since Omega's been after them."
"Oh."
Buzzsaw, circling above, saw an opportunity and dove toward Magnus, wanting to sink his sharp beak into the Autobot Prime's mate. Unfortunately for him, he didn't go unnoticed. Ultra Rodimus saw him from the corner of his eye and launched himself into the air, snatching the unprepared cassette right out of the air. Buzzsaw caught a glimpse of Ultra Rodimus's face, twisted into a snarl of rage, and realized that he'd made a very big mistake. He had only a moment to ponder that thought and feel the resulting fear before he was thrown to the ground. The cassette was about to try and flee when Ultra Rodimus brought his foot down on top of him, crushing the cassette buzzard into the dirt. Magnus, hearing the sound of smashing metal, turned to see his mate viciously grinding what was left of Buzzsaw into useless scrap, his mind seething with rage. When he finally stepped back, all that remained was a small heap of twisted metal, crushed circuitry, and shattered components. It was clear that Buzzsaw was beyond all hope of repair.
Soundwave screamed in agony, clutching his head and falling to his knees as he felt his 'child's' death. The shock surged through him and into his other cassettes. Ravage stumbled and fell. Rumble collapsed, twitching weakly. Frenzy staggered, whirling to stare back at his master. Laserbeak's wings folded involuntarily and he fell out of the sky, crashing hard and bouncing before winding up in an unconscious heap. Ratbat flailed wildly, crashing into Darkwing's nosecone and knocking him out of the sky. Overkill, the T-rex cassette, was distacted long enough for Grimlock to sink his teeth into the cassette and bite him almost in half.
Galvatron looked to see where his combiners were. Menasor, Devatstor, Abominus, and Piranacon were occupied. Bruticus had been disabled before completing the merge. Then he saw Predaking stomping toward the battle and a cruel smile crossed his face.
The battle was about to heat up.
To be continued...
And there is the next chapter. Hope you like it. Send reviews and I'll see how soon I can get the next one up.
Fenestrae: There you are. I was wondering if you were still around. Tantrum is a bull, not a rhino. And I'm glad you like CSI. It's one of my favorite shows.
Gromia: Yeah, that does tend to put a damper on one's imagination. I hope you get that mental brawl straightened out before it drives you nuts, if it hasn't already.
New Dye: Yeah, Galvy's getting more than a little peeved, but the real reason the Autobots win so many battles is because Galvatron himself is utterly insane and cannot adhere to any plan. He also beats up on his own troops. And I can assure you that I am no genius or pro writer; I can't write an essay to save my life. I just have a really active imagination and a tendency to daydream, incorporating ideas from books, movies, TV shows, etc, into the plot. I come up with some really odd plots that way. The number of chapters in a story depends on how many ideas I have for the story. I never know how many chapters a story will have; I just run with it until I run out of ideas, then end it. 'Cyber Stargate' has 15 chapters because I had enough ideas to write those chapters, but you can pretty much tell that my idea tank was running on empty when I reached the last chapter. As for the numbers of Autobots and Decepticons, I'm not really sure. The numbers vary. But the 'Cons have about 6 gestalt teams, two with 6 members, the other four with five members. Plus a whole lot of other warriors. Around a hundred 'Cons, give or take. Once I'm finished listing them I'll be able to give you a better count. There are even more Autobots. Cybertron's repairs will be slow and move from the inside out; there isn't much point in repairing the surface if there's nothing underneath to support it. And as for how Ultra Roddy and his 'Bots are gonna get the 'Cons back to their own dimension, you're gonna have to wait and see.
Chiomon: Thanks. If Greg's Sideswipe, then Ecklie's Sunstreaker, only not as vain, but with an attitude that's just as bad.
Quillian: You have the same opinion of politics as I do. Here's the first part of the battle. Hope you like it!
Remember, reviews equals more chapters, so you know what to do!