Starscream pauses a beat, but knows from his own battlefield memories that is definitely Optimus Prime. He grits his teeth and asks lowly "Tell me something Scourge, if this order came from Megatron himself would you have obeyed it?"
Hotbox set down his weapon and raised his arms to block against the attacks. His armor was tough, but he couldn't keep this up forever. "Prime's over there, next to the tall monument. If you focus your fire on him and his crony, I can move to support us better."
Optimus Prime aims at Blitzwing's wing "Of course. But now tell me this, are you guys already situated with the energon transfer? Plus, is your ship prepped for being under the radar AND sonar of this planet?"
Hotbox's response came soon enough for Blitzwing to avoid the attack. He whirled around to face Prime and deflected the laser bolt with a vicious swing of his sword. Without putting any more thought into it, the brutish Decepticon uttered a thunderous battle cry and charged at Prime with the speed and power of an enormous bull, his rifle firing in one hand and his sword poised to slash in the other.
Taking advantage of Blitzwing's charge, Hotbox slung the Scrapmaker container over his back and picked up the rest of the containers from the ground. He hastily moved north, towards Virginia Avenue.
Optimus rolls out of the way of the shots "Fortress, go after the runner, I got this one." He turns and swings his axe to collide with the sword while swinging a kick.
"Already on it, sir!" Maximus shouted as he transformed to tank mode and tore down the lawn of the National Mall. Kicking up torrents of dirt as his treads shredded the ground, he fired after the fleeing Decepti-train.
Blitzwing snarled with rage as the kick landed and sent his rifle flying from his grip. He took hold of his sword in both hands and swung it brutally at Prime's neck.
Rampage, recovering from being blasted, stands up and fires his lightning rifles at Prime, sending powerful arcs of electricity toward him.
Hotbox grimaced as he took a shot to his lower back, but kept running. He skidded around the corner of the Pharmacy Technicians Certification Board building, finally out of the line of fire. He set down the containers once more and spooled his engine up. There was no way those two bozos were going to stand against Prime on their own, but he couldn't help until he had gotten this trigger-happy bot off his back. He had a plan.
Seeing his quarry flee around the building, Fort Max transformed from tank mode and walked cautiously forward as he levelled his path blaster and engaged his leg cannons. He glanced over his shoulder to check against an ambush, then, seeing it was all clear, he stepped out around the corner behind which Hotbox has disappeared.
As Fort Max rounded the corner, he would not find Hotbox, but instead, two shipping containers, stacked on top of one another. The one on the bottom seemed normal, but the one on top of it had unfolded and expanded slightly. Its doors had opened to reveal it was a large four-tube missile launcher, aimed squarely at him. Hotbox crouched behind the eastern wall of the building, his thumb hovering over the plunger of the launcher's remote control. His other hand rested on the final shipping container, which sat to his side. "Don't make any sudden moves, Autobot," he grunted.
Fortress Maximus tensed up and grimaced as he spotted the missile launcher. Letting his optics slowly sweep the area, he mentally triggered his targeting computer, which quickly acquired a firing solution for his leg cannons against the missile emplacement. As the two guns subtly angled upwards from their already extended position, Max growled through gritted teeth, "I admit; I'm impressed. Didn't think I had given you that much of a head start..." ((Made a little edit to my third sentence))
"I got enough torque to do nearly anything, once. I nearly bent a crankshaft haulin' my ass over here. If I tried that again, I'd end up as dead as you're about to be. Those missiles are armed. So much as spit on them, and they'll go up like a cy-gar in an Energon mine. Take another step, and I'll spit on 'em for you." Hotbox lowered his thumb onto the plunger, but did not press it. "A 'Bot like you only thinks with his guns. But I'm a logistics 'mech. I may not know a lot, but I know when things are going where."
Fort Max chuckled grimly. "Funny that the 'logistics mech' is hanging out with two violent idiots." As he spoke, he gently adjusted his leg guns to aim now at the container supporting the launcher. If he couldn't avoid making the missiles explode, he could at least point them away. He also lightened up his stance, in preparation to fling himself back around the building.
Starscream sucked in an intake and did everything in his self control not to rip into Scourge right then and there. For one simple reason. He wants to play it that way, fine. Die in combat. The Decepticons don't need a commander who is going to disobey orders and cause loss. With this single loss of men, he will die and the problem solved. "You leave those matters to me and do not change the subject. You are disobeying a direct order. You will receive no support from any other Decepticon troop stationed on Earth now. You will be on your own. And when you are defeated, you will have to pick yourself up and retreat. If you die, you will not receive a proper Decepticon burial. For you commander, will have sentenced not just yourself but all the men under you to death. Goodbye, Scourge." Starscream ends the comm. "Decepticons, let the message be dispersed that no aid is to be brought to this Deecee area and that all troops are to retreat. Any who follow Scourge to remain are on their own." orders Starscream. The message is dispersed among the ranks.
Scourge smirks at Starscream ending the comm "Someone doesn't like it when he is wrong." Scourge turns to the sonar and notices something picked up, and the shape was familiar. He types into the console to his right to cause the land bridge to open right under the shape. He turns to the bridge to see the body fall in.
Nemesis Starscream huffs and begins the process of bringing in shipments of energon for the ship and getting the detection shields back up.
The body would be that of Blackout in statsis lock with some minor damage. Also an octopus on his face.....life under the sea is not all that grand
