Chapter 3: The Abomnicons

The Landing Site

Magmatron hefted his assailant off of him and shot a volley of fire balls his way. Scourge transformed and batted them all away with his axe. Dezaras watched his movements intently. He swung swiftly and with confidence. Crossblades had to snap him out of it.

"Sir! I think maybe we should start fighting back, sir!"

Deathsaurus turned to see the Abomnicons bearing down on the first line of Vehicons. He drew his rifle to provide cover fire, but the purple creature was already on one of them. He watched in horror as he bit into the poor trooper's side and began to pull.

"What kind of monsters are you?"

"Call him Blot outworlder," a sort of bipedal sea creature growled from where he was ripping into another Vehicon, "And I'm Rippersnapper. We're the Abomnicons, and we're gonna eat you dead. Hope you don't mind."

"We do, you filth!" a shout came from behind. The black and orange dragon, with the Predaknights behind him, were charging to meet their age old foes.

Magmatron was back in robot mode, blocking axe strikes with the jaws on his right hand. "What is this Scourge? Attacking out in the open isn't like you Abomnicons."

"Come now, your highness, did you think I'd let you hog these intruders to yourself? I'd sooner kill myself than let you bring in a ringer!"

"A ringer?"

"Outsiders are FORBIDDEN. Are you such a coward that you couldn't admit I was winning? You had to call in reinforcements!"

"Onyx above you're dim! I didn't call these bots here! I don't even know what they're doing here!"

They transformed again. Scourge belched a cone of green flame and staggered the Emperor, but he lashed out with his tail to Scourge him before he could close the distance. He beat his wings hard and lifted the two into the air.

By now all the other combatants were embroiled around the Decepticons' ship. Noctorro and Razorclaw were stabbing away at Hungurr, while Decepticons were trying to concentrate fire on Sinnertwin (Dezaras was learning names as he went along, so the diplomatic relations weren't a total wash, he tried to convince himself).
Everyone left Scourge and Magmatron alone, for obvious reasons. The Decepticon general was awestruck by the savagery of the combat he was witnessing. Burning, clawing, tearing. It was glorious. This was what the Jungle Planet was famed across the galaxy for. The Autobots wouldn't stand a chance with this ferocity on their side. Cutthroat swooped down on a group of Vehicons. Deathsaurus ran over with his melee weapon and started beating the flier back. He grabbed one of the troopers by the hand and pulled him up. "Get to higher ground. Half these rustbuckets aren't even flight capable."
The Vehicon nodded and took off into the sky.

High above them Scourge and Magmatron contained to rain blows across each other. With a growl Magmatron tossed Scourge into the open air. He grabbed for a handhold, tried to flap his wings but gravity won. In a last-ditch effort Scourge blasted one of Magmatron's wings before hitting the ground, a thud and a dust cloud his only company. His shot hit its mark though; Magmatron spiraled down out of the sky and landed on the other side of the hill in a heap.

Everyone stopped to look. Dezaras stepped forward. Blot and Cutthroat took the opportunity to pull Sinnertwin back; he was badly riddled with bullet holes.

Suddenly Scourge lunged from the smoke towards Dezaras, fluid leaking from his front paw and wing. He held up his minigun unconvincingly and fired a few rounds, but the dragon grabbed it with his teeth and tossed it aside. Dezaras backed up until he found the wall of his ship. He deployed a series of barbs from his wrist guard to fend off the beast. You could cut the tension with an Energo-Sword as the wounded Scourge readied to pounce. Dezaras was determined to face his death with his eyes open. But when Scourge leapt he stopped just short of Dezaras' head. He lurched back, teeth snapping shut before the Decepticon's face. Magmatron had appeared, grabbing Scourge by his tail. "No!" He wailed, willing a burst of flame in from his throat, but the Emperor yanked him backwards and threw him to the ground. He roared at Scourge, a powerful sound even in robot mode. Hungurr ran up and pulled scooped his commander up with his neck. The Abomnicons retreated, Razorclaw and Divebomb in pursuit.

The shadows of dusk were beginning to grow as Magmatron went back to Dezaras. He tilted his head towards the spiked implement in his hand.

"You maintained a respectable measure of calm in the face of a superior opponent."

"Um, thanks. And thanks to your men as well. We would have been in a sticky spot without them."

"Hn. Well. It's more of a reflex thing. The Predaknights have many a bone to pick with the Abomnicons. Any sign of them puts them on edge." Magmatron shuffled a foot and looked at the sun. "The day grows late, and we have wounded to tend to. What say we continue our conversation tomorrow, at first light?"

Dezaras looked over his detachment. At least 5 dead Vehicons, more wounded and lying in pieces. Crossblades had sustained a nasty gash to the shoulder.

"Deal. Decepticons! Prepare for exfil. We're heading back home."

The Dilong, later

"What do we call today Crossblades?" Deathsaurus asked as he looked at his lieutenant's shoulder.

"An adventure, sir?"

"I would have gone for a slagshow."

"I suppose diplomatic relations went south in a hurry. Shockwave will have the rest of our spark casings for this."

"Not quite. Shockwave doesn't need to hear about today. Besides. We're still alive, and we have an open dialogue with the ruling party. I call that an 'in'."

Rust Pass

Magmatron and Noctorro had parted ways with the Predaknights. With the Emperor's damaged wing they had managed to get to Rust Pass on foot. Noctorro had called for transportation from there.

"Why did Scourge attack us sire? Aside from the usual reasons I mean."

Magmatron chuckled. "He thought I was forming an alliance with outworlders to take him down."

"Hmph. He's the one that needs help in this little war of his." Noctorro paused. "But are you thinking of hearing them out?"

Magmatron looked up at the sky. The moons were rising over the pass.

"I'm not sure. It all seems a little desperate, does it not?"

"Well, if it tees off Scourge it might be worth consideration."

"Ha! I suppose you're right. There was something else too. Did you see the way he jumped to the defense of those generics? I wouldn't have thought that to be in a Cybertronian's character. They're strange folk."

"Well, it's important to get all the facts before you make house guests of them."

"Yes." Magmatron rolled the word around in his mouth; "guests."