So I haven't updated this story in over a year simply because I had my other story to focus on. It's not a good excuse, but I've finally found a good balance so this will be updated much more often than a year at a time. I've had this chapter in the works since the last time I updated this story. It just never seemed good enough, until now. So here it is! Chapter 2 of Ship Under Siege.
Kup was the first to step into the hangar. There were blast marks on the walls. It seemed as if a battle had gone down since they left. The others quickly filed in, spreading out within the hangar. "Be on guard. We've got no idea what's lurking around."
"Death maybe?" Hubcap tightened his grip on the blaster in his hands. His first real mission and he gets stuck on a prison ship with loose inmates. It was a living nightmare for him.
"Maybe you're right Autobot." Hubcap spun around to have a fist plant itself in his face. He hit the ground and slid back on his skidplate. All the Autobots turned, guns at the ready. Standing there was a single Decepticon. This Con had an orange and black color scheme, with its chest having black stripes. His right hand was a missile launcher and he had a single green visor covering his optics. "Name's Hooligan. You are?"
Kup had his shotgun aimed directly at Hooligan's head. "Where are the other prisoners of this ship?"
"Now that's just rude. Did I show up pointing my weapon at you?" Hooligan motioned to the missile launcher that was his right hand. "No. I didn't."
Kup cocked his shotgun, steadying his aim. "I'm not gonna repeat myself."
Hooligan put his hands up the moment he heard Kup's shotgun. "Alright! Alright! Some of them are right there!" He pointed behind the Autobots. They turned to see three more Decepticons. There was a purple and red Predacon that appeared to turn into a Pteranodon. There was also a purple and silver Con that turned into a helicopter and had a blue visor over his optics. The third was a turquoise, purple and white Con with red optic lenses. They were Hydra, Blackout and the six-changer Sixshot.
"Foolish Autobots. You picked the wrong ship to help." Sixshot reached out and grabbed Downshift by the face. The Omnibot began to struggle against his grip as the Autobots opened fire on the other three Decepticons. Sixshot watched as they began taking cover behind some wrecked escape pods. Dowhshift's hands wrapped around his arm tightly. A blast hit him in the side, barely doing damage. The slight tickle of the blast annoyed him. He didn't enjoy being annoyed. He swiftly crushed Downshift's head and threw him across the hangar.
"No!" Camshaft yelled as he vaulted over the broken ship-wing he was taking cover behind. He leaned forward and an enormous blast erupted from the cannon positioned below the back of his neck. The force of the blast caused him to stumble back a little, but he caught himself.
"Oh no…" The blast hit Hydra and he was sent flying through the air. He crashed down against the opposite wall of the hangar. There was a dent in his chest from where the blast had hit. He coughed up some energon and slumped over. A few drops of energon fell from his open mouth onto the floor.
"Die Autobot!" Blackout fired at Camshaft. The Omnibot went to dodge the blast, but was hit in the shoulder. "There's no escape for you!" He began running forward, guns blazing.
"Move now!" Kup vaulted over his cover, firing a blast into Blackout's face. The Decepticon howled and fell over, motionless. "Move! Move! Move!" Camshaft, clutching his shoulder, was the first to run out the back entrance of the hangar. Offshoot and Signal Flare quickly followed. Overdrive and Hubcap stood at the doorway providing covering fire as Rollout pulled Downshift's lifeless corpse through the door.
The moment they were through, Kup grabbed a Fusion Grenade from his waist and tossed it at Sixshot. The large Decepticon sidestepped it, allowing the grenade to magnetically clamp to Hydra instead. He turned to see the grenade begin beeping as Hydra began to stir awake. "Move!" He spun on his heels and began to run for cover. "Hydra you idiot!"
Hooligan grabbed Blackout and jumped behind a broken escape pod. Sixshot took cover behind a support beam. Hydra looked around confused when he noticed the grenade attached to his chest. "Slag." The Fusion Grenade exploded, destroying Hydra in an instant. Flames and plasma spewed outwards in every direction. Sixshot felt the support beam shake against his back. Hooligan was using all his strength to keep the escape pod he was behind from being blown away. But it wasn't enough. The pod flew away, taking Hooligan and Blackout with it. The support beam which Sixshot hid behind also gave way. It came down, crushing the Decepticon six-changer.
The Autobots were sitting inside a dimly lit room with a table in the middle. There were three corpses which they had moved into a corner. On the table sat Camshaft. Signal Flare was currently trying to patch up his shoulder. "Hold still."
Kup and Overdrive stood over Downshift's corpse. "Kup, we're screwed aren't we?"
The older warrior took the cy-gar from his mouth. "Not if we can get out a signal to Cybertron. It's a longshot, but there might be something we can use back in the bridge."
"Let me go scout it out Kup." Rollout stepped forward, gun slung over his shoulder. "I can get there and back in less than a breem."
"I don't totally like the idea, but go. Take Hubcap with you." The rookie looked up when he heard Kup's words.
"Y-you sure Kup?" Hubcap looked scared. He had all the reason to be. He wasn't going to survive this mission. He knew that. He just wanted to survive as long as possible at this point.
"I'm sure. Now you two get moving. We'll need to figure out a plan of action soon." Kup pointed to the door and the two bots ran off. "I just hope they come back in one piece."
"Rollout will keep the kid safe. He knows what he's doing." Overdrive slapped Kup on the back, assuring the older bot. "We just have to make sure we're here when they get back."
Kup picked up a fallen chair and put it upright. He sat in it facing the door, shotgun on his lap. The others were resting up, waiting for their scouts to return.
Rollout and Hubcap were prone underneath some floorboards. Many of the floorboards had small cracks in them, just enough for the two of them to see what was above. "You hear that Rollout?" Hubcap whispered, trying not to alert anyone who might be nearby.
"Yeah, keep quiet." Rollout finished his sentence with a shush as loud footsteps began approaching rapidly.
"What the hell was that explosion!?" A deep voice yelled down the hall as whoever it belonged to ran above the two Autobot scouts.
"Skyquake is pissed!" Yelled another Decepticon with a raspy voice as it ran over their hiding spot.
When they were gone Hubcap spoke up. "We gotta get back to the others. We need to figure out just how many Cons are loose on the ship."
"Yeah, let's go." The two began to shimmy back the way they came. They were afraid to think of what would happen to the others if they didn't let them know this information in time.
Kup heard steps making their way towards the room he and the others were held up in. He stood up and kicked the chair he had been sitting on backwards, startling the others. He raised his shotgun and got ready to fire. Everyone else raised their weapons, ready to attack.
Blackout came stumbling into the room, his optics broken. "Hello? Hooligan?" Kup fired, splattering energon and brain module pieces all over the wall across from the door. The shot rang through the halls. Blackout fell forward, energon leaking from the remains of his cranium.
"Holy slag Kup!" Overdrive ran over and looked at the corpse. "He couldn't even see!"
Kup put his finger against Overdrive's chest and pushed him away. "Right now kid, it's us against them. We've got one dead, now they've got two dead. You wanna survive this? Then ya gotta kill." He rested his shotgun on his shoulder. "Now, we better fortify this room, cause someone probably heard that shot."
Over the next few minutes, the Autobot group fortified the room. Signal Flare helped Offshoot weld some broken pieces of metal, from various items, to the frame of the door. They left small openings for blasters, but otherwise there was no way in or out. Camshaft helped Kup set up a small ammo cache in the corners of the room besides the door. They gathered the ammo and weapons from the corpses in the room, placing them in the caches.
Camshaft was messing with his gun while Kup finished setting up one of the caches. "Think we got a chance of getting off this floating death trap?"
"Would you believe me if I said we'd all survive?" Kup used a welding tool to fix a semi-broken gun.
"Should I?" Camshaft turned his attention fully towards Kup. He watched as the older bot stood up and faced him.
"We're all going to survive." Kup walked past him and picked up the chair he had been sitting in. "Now, we wait." The others sat down or leaned against the walls of the room.
No more than two minutes later there were voices outside the doorway. "Autobots! Come out with your hands up and we won't kill you! Yet..." It was a voice Kup recognized all too well. Someone he tangled with many times. Razorclaw.
"So, Razorclaw, you're working for Skyquake now huh?" Kup stood to the side of the doorway, turning his head towards it as he spoke.
"Ah. Kup. Everyone's favorite windbag. Got a story to tell me?" Razorclaw laughed.
"No. You're living one right now."
"Yes, but who will get to tell the story is the question." Razorlcaw was baiting him. Trying to get him angry. But Kup kept his cool. Across from the doorway, Offshoot was on one knee, taking aim at the doorway. He was finding a good line of sight through one of the openings to shoot Razorclaw.
Kup threw up some hand signals and Signal Flare moved a table a few feet towards the doorway. Offshoot nodded and Kup nodded back. "I will." Offshoot pulled the trigger and shot went perfectly through the opening.
"Gah!" Razorlcaw screamed in pain as he got hit in the chest. "Decepticons! Open fire!" Laser bolts and flak blasts shook the doorway. The fortifications wouldn't hold for long. The metal beams crisscrossing on the door were slowly warping.
Kup ran to the backside of the room along with the other Autobots, taking cover behind tables and ripped up pieces of metal flooring. "Overdrive! Offshoot! Now!"
"On it!" Overdrive grabbed a photon charge and tossed it at the fortified door. As it flew through the air, Offshoot took a broken slab of metal and threw it at the photon charge. The two items collided as Offshoot and Overdrive took cover. The impact caused the photon charge to explode and the entire room was engulfed in an explosion.
The pieces of metal and junk that were bracing the door flew off and into the Decepticon forces as they were knocked back by the explosion.
Razorclaw used the wall of the hallway to brace himself. "By the pits of Kaon, someone bring me the head of Kup!"
"Here it is!" Kup came running out of the room and slammed his head full force into Razorclaw's face. The Predacon leader's optical visor was shattered, revealing his tiny red optics underneath.
"Move! Move!" Rollout yelled as he came running up with Hubcap, providing covering fire for the other Autobots to escape. He was using a common path blaster to fire at the Decepticons.
"Check out what I found Cons!" Hubcap slid to a halt in front of Rollout, pulling a white minigun from his back. It began to crackle with electricity as it began to spin and get ready to fire. "Get behind me!"
Kup, in the back of the group, ran past Hubcap. "Just hold them off, follow the moment you start firing."
"Get some!" The minigun began firing at full force. Hubcap yelled as shots rang through the hall.
"Retreat!" Razorclaw grabbed Nacelle by the wing, using him for a shield. The Seeker was mowed down and became dead weight in Razorclaw's hand as he and the other Decepticons got into a nearby room and shut the door.
"I like this." Hubcap put the minigun back on his back and ran off after the other Autobots.
So that's chapter 2 complete! Chapter 3 should be out before March is over, so watch out for that!