Operation: Miner Issues
Happy Christmas everyone first of all. And for music I finally played through the RE4 Remake so The Bullet or The Blade*
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Robin Kuo, Hitman-4
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Since Breakdown's rescue a few weeks back, only 2 things have really happened these past few weeks.
A. Arachnid and MECH made a deal to try and get rid of Arcee and Jack, unfortunately this ended up bringing Jack's mother into the group.
B. A little while later, we had another run in with both Breakdown and Aracnid. This time Bulkhead, Arcee, Dip and Mic were sent to retrieve or destroy the Cybertronian Magnetic Weapon they had found. They ended up destroying the weapon but not before Dip and Mic got magnetized to each other. It was funny watching Ratched separate them.
At the moment however things were calm in the base, well, as calm as things get when you're fighting a shadow war. It's a little bit better than fighting a civil war, a little. We're waiting for Agent Fowler to arrive with some new intel, as we waited, I fiddled with a small memento that my family fashioned and shipped out to me a few years back. It's one of the few things I'll ever have left of them… Before I could start thinking about my family back home, Agent Fowler arrived.
Agent Fowler glanced around the base and said hello to the kids as he walked past their little area. Soon he was speaking to Optimus.
"Agent Fowler, everything here has been going smoothly. How are things going elsewhere regarding the Decepticons?" He asked before Fowler could fill us in on events outside of our base.
"While I don't personally meet with them the other off-worlders are laying down plenty of hurt on the Cons. Agent Rose tells me that the Ravens and Pixy have been putting down plenty of the Cons Airforce with some help from the new arrivals. However one of them discovered an old abandoned energon mine that showed some evidence of use fairly recently. Seeing as your team has an experienced wrecker, they believe that your guys should be able to handle it."
After that Optimus began to put together a team. Arcee and Bulkhead were selected. Jack and Miko also decided to join, only under the stipulation that they stayed out of the mines.
Before they started getting ready to leave I approached them and spoke up, "Would you four mind a tag along? I want to see how the cons run their mines more extensively, given the last raid I was a part of was reducing a refinery to dust from the air."
Arcee thought about it before she spoke, "Just don't use your missiles or railguns in there. They might cause the mine to collapse and I'd rather not have rock falling on my head."
With that Ratchet opened up a groundbridge for us and we went through.
We were soon on our way to the mine, it was fairly close but before we went in we had to confirm that the exterior wasn't a trap. This took a few minutes because the area is both large and we had to be extensive. We've walked/flew into too many ambushes to not be cautious.
I soon heard Miko griping about us being here. "We're supposed to be at a rock concert but all I see is rock."
Jack then spoke, "Relax Miko, the show doesn't start for two hours." As he said this he leaned back on a rock as Miko continued ranting.
"Do you know how long I've waited to see SlashMonkey?! Forever, and it's their only US date!"
"There's a shock, I mean who doesn't love obscure Bulgarian Shriek metal?"
As he finished, Arcee and Bulkhead walked back out of the cave as I was given babysitting duty. Arcee checked on the kids before turning to me, "By all appearances the mine's been stripped."
Bulkhead then chimed in while holding a scanner in hand, "I'm getting a signal. It's faint, but it's definitely energon."
"It doesn't make sense this operation has been abandoned for four, maybe five years. And Decepticons never leave energon behind." Arcee rumbled as she pondered.
I then proposed a possible answer, "Maybe one of the cons didn't mine it all so they could have some for later? I know that some of Sicario would stash food away when we had the chance."
However, before they could get a response Jack called out to us and then pointed at the fading form of Miko as she ran into the mine. Bulkhead went inside after her and then I followed Arcee and Jack into the mine after them, my pistol in my hand just in case.
As we continued walking trying to find Bulkhead and Miko in the labyrinthian mine. Arcee then got a call from Bulkhead. But all she got was static as she looked at the rock above us, "Scrap, the mineral composition down here is causing interference."
We kept walking through the mine looking for them. But we eventually wandered into Megaton about to execute Screamer. "You have ceased to be of use to me, Starscream. So you shall simply cease to be." Megatron said as he powered up his arm-mounted blaster. However, before he could shoot, Starscream looked over and noticed the three of us. Megatron noticed this, looked over at us, glared, and opened fire.
Me and Arcee then responded with our own fire after grabbing Jack and telling him to stay down, as my mask dropped down into combat mode.I reached at my back and grabbed one of my Canister GP as it transformed into a Cybertronian sized Benelli Shotgun. I shot at Megatron with it instead as the explosive rounds of my handgun could cause the mine to collapse.
As I did this I saw Starscream run away and while Megaton had his back turned to us we shot at him as we did this it caused a section of the ceiling to fall down on Megatron, possibly killing him but this also caused the floor to collapse as well as it collapsed we tried running but it didn't work so we began to fall.
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8 years before Cascadia
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The city my family lived in was on the Ring of Fire in Federation territory. One family among many in the massive Chrome Belt.
I still remember my 19th Birthday, that day the city was hit by a pretty big earthquake. It was the day when my twin, Kestrel, and I were out shopping for presents when the quake hit. The building we were in collapsed around us. I still don't know how either of us didn't get hurt or worse when it collapsed. But we managed to crawl out through the rubble.
"Robin!" Kestrel called out to me, "When we make it out of here. W-What are we going to do? I doubt this building is the only one like this. This quake was a big one."
After she said that I paused in my crawling and called back to her, "What I always do Kes! Keep moving onwards and Upwards!" As I said that, I pushed another piece of rubble out of my way. Kes followed quietly behind me through the rubble, we were both still shaken by what had just happened.
I stopped after it got too quiet, "You ok Kestrel? You normally can't stop chatting, are you hurt?"
When I said that I swore I heard some sniffling from her and in the meekest voice that I've heard from her since she had accidentally stabbed me with a pencil years ago she answered. "We nearly died sis. How can you still smile in a situation like this?"
"Because I know we'll make it out fine. We always have and we always will." I replied in the best calming voice I could muster at the time.
It took some time, but we managed to get out of the wreckage in time to see federation and mercenary cargo planes airdrop a legion of first responders as all sorts of fighter jets, federation and mercenary ran escort. After all, the Cabal had only been destroyed a few years ago so the Mercs and the Federation were still a bit jumpy.
That sight was the reason why I decided to become a pilot. Being a merc just meant that I wasn't bound to one place.
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Present Day
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When I woke wherever we landed, I noticed that my thermal vision had turned on and looked around. On one end of the cavern was a wall of fallen rocks and in front of me a passage just big enough for me to squeeze through.
My thoughts went back to my sister, the last time I had seen her was a few months before I joined Sicario and earned my wings. Ma had told me that she was fine and doing well in her career. These memories of home brought a pain that I hadn't felt in a while. A longing for my family outside of Hitman Team… "Calm down Robin you're fine, Kes is fine. Everyone is alive and well." But that was before Cascadia and… Prospero… before that horrible orange light that killed thousands burned the world once mor- "No, stop thinking about it. They aren't here, they can't set the world on fire anymore…" I snapped myself out of it before I began to look for the others. I felt the time pass as I searched for any sign of them. I eventually heard the sound of a drill running in the distance. Hopefully it was either Jack or Miko trying to free the others. But I finally found Arcee as we wandered through the tunnels, it only took an hour or two to link back up with her.
"Arcee! " I cried out to her as she noticed me, "Are the others with you?"
She shook her head "So far I've only found you."
As we walked through the uncollapsed sections of the mine, we eventually heard Starscream and Bulkhead speaking to one another and we gave each other a small nod before quietly walking up behind the seeker with weapons drawn.
"Don't move Starscream." Starscream froze as we entered the area, I took note of Bulkhead's situation as Arcee pointed her blaster at him. I noticed a way to keep the mech tied busy while we got Bulkhead out of his current situation.
"Starscream," I said as he looked towards me only to see my shotgun in his face, "Hands in the air, the only reason why I'm not collecting your bounty is because we need to get our Wrecker out of here."
With a fearful expression that reminded me of the time a group of idiots tried hitting on me and Comic in front of Monarch. He then groaned as he raised his hands to the ceiling, "You have to be kidding me…" Bulkhead let go of the ceiling and immediately Starscream was left struggling to hold the roof up. We transformed and left the chamber as Screamer held up the roof. We eventually came across Miko and Jack who had hijacked a con mining rig.
The sun rose as we looked back at the mine, "You know, we could finish this here and now." Arcee thought aloud as Bulkhead thought about it.
He slammed his fist into his hand, "A shame we didn't bring any grenades." I agreed with his sentiment. But before I could remind them I still had my missiles, Jack spoke up.
"Would Optimus finish them?" Jack asked.
Arcee shook her head and then replied, "No, he probably wouldn't. Not like this."
"Kaiser wouldn't either. He was always one who wanted to go down in history. Trapping an enemy leader in a mine to kill them isn't exactly something that gets put in the history books." I said noting how the old boss would be acting in this world.
Miko then spoke, "But Optimus wouldn't rescue them either right?"
Bulkhead gave a sigh as he started walking back to the ground bridge, "Let's go home." As he walked by me he whispered," You know, a lot of Mercs sided with the cons during the war, though a few more noble ones ended up working with the wreckers. Glad to see that you folks haven't all kicked the bucket."
I snorted, "Well Sicario isn't like most outfits, we've been through too much together to not sell out." I could still see the orange glow as I spoke.
I then looked back to see Arcee looking at the mine before she sighed and walked off towards where the groundbridge would be.
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Megatron
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I had heard the little mercenary's panic from where I lay trapped, and with what little knowledge I had gleaned the outlines of a plan had begun to form… Besides, this planet was already slated to burn for its insolent resistance… I let loose a small chuckle as I began to free myself from this rocky tomb. It seems we need to do a little investigation into these mercenaries. After all, any force that is able to burn a planet, would be quite useful as a pawn in my grasp…