Prologue... The Planet of Jupiter, Time Unknown... The raging wind raised torrents of blood red sand into the atmosphere, howling in an inhuman agony as the sandstorm tore through it's land while thunder boomed in the distance. Jupiter was a planet whose size was mainly contributed by it's atmosphere, but deep within it's Great Red Spot raged a terrible storm of untold proportions. But through the flesh rending curtain of acid, lightning, sand and wind were several silhouettes striding without purpose. They knew not how long they were walking across the surface of this blasted planet, sand jamming their pistons and gears as they urged their servos to take them just a bit further. The surface of their chasis, though made of hyper advanced alloys, were slowly corroding due to the unbarring downfall of acid. "This is madness!" Yelled one of the colossal silhouettes in exasperation, his voice barely audible over the roar of the wind. Thrust adjusted his optics to compensate for the haze of the storm and made out the others who had stopped and turned to look at him. He made out the forms of Ramjet, Thundercracker, Blitzwing and, wait, where was?... "For Primus' sake, Starscream! We've searched this planet long enough! It is a fool's errand to stay longer!" In the distance, the leader of the small group of Decepticons didn't even break stride. His red and blue armor made unrecognizable by being in this storm for Primus knows how long, Starscream couldn't even care less about the whining of one of his minions as he walked with his head up high, refusing to bow down to this, of all things. He wouldn't bow down to anyone, ever again, not since the time he- His thoughts were interrupted as Thrust clamped his hand hard on his shoulder. "Starscream!" Thrust yelled once more, his hand clamping down tighter "You will lead us to our doom. I don't care what supposed legends you have read, it is over! Megatron is dead! The Decepticons are no more! The Autobots are offering amnesty to any-" Starscream brushed Thrust's hand off his shoulder and delivered a powerful elbow strike right square on his minions face. Thrust was sent hurtling backwards, the blow caved in part of his face, shattering his left optical unit. Before he could fall on the ground however, Starscream grabbed his neck in one fluid motion and brought his other hand to strike the other seeker's torso. His fist tore through his chassis and he violently yanked out internal mechanisms of Thrust as oil and energon erupted from his mouth and gaping wound. His chokehold tightened as he grabbed Thrust's upper jaw with his defiled hand and ripped off the top half of his head. The others looked in awe and horror as Starscream tossed aside Thrust's corpse and slowly crushed his conehead in one hand, the lifeless optic glaring pleadingly at his companions before the pressure exerted by Starscream caused it to shatter. But it wasn't the gore that scared these hardened warriors. No, it was Starscream's blank expression throughout the whole act that sent a chill through their sparks. The silence was unbearable as the other Decepticons waited for their oil-soaked commander to speak, none daring to call the attention of Starscream for fear of catching any left over rage. They all stood there as the storm raged away, already consuming the corpse of thrust under the sands as lightning cracked and thunder boomed in the horizon behind their leader. "Lord..." He finally spoke, his piercing glare eliciting fear and confusion at his statement. "Call me Lord Starscream." The remaining Decepticons, warriors of the bloodiest campaigns could only reply in a meek, barely audible manner, stumbling over each other's words. "Yes, Lord Starscream." Thundercracker said as Blitzwing blurted out "As you command, my lord" While Ramjet merely mumbled something incoherent, but it seemed to satisfy Starscream, who turned and started to walk through the storm again, the others quick to follow at his heels. Megatron may be dead, but we are far from defeated, Starscream thought. Rejoice in your victory, Autobots, for none shall survive my reign... The storm raged on, and as the Decepticons disappeared behind the curtain of haze, a skeletal figure manifested from nowhere and loomed above the corpse of thrust. Though thinner, it was easily twice as tall as any of the decepticons, draped in tattered purple robes that concealed any distinctive features from sight. Blood red eyes glowed from underneath a dark hood. No sound came from it, but seemingly emanated from the surroundings. And in the storm of despair... Blood will seal the loyalty of his followers... Blood will harden his resolve... For the wheels of fate now turn... And light must now give way to the Ascendant... Light must give way for the Rise of Darkness... The heavens erupted in lightning and thunder, and the entity was gone, leaving the corpse of Thrust to be forever lost under the sea of sand. **************** The Rise of Darkness, Prologue A Fanfic by KingJace
Whoa! Fierce. This is one Starscream to be reckoned with. Sad to think that if Thrust had kept quiet and slipped away at some time, he'd still be alive. Seems as if the "legend" may not be so wrong after all.
Chapter 1: Front Line Blues The planet Chaar, located at the outer rims of Alpha Centauri, present day... ***** Hot Rod gritted his teeth as an explosion bloomed on his far right, his vis-sensors and audioreceptors momentarily lagging from shell shock as he crouched low against the pile of scrapmetal that gave him cover. The only way he could make sure he wasn't offline just yet was the feel of his rifle clutched tightly in his exhausted servos. The smoke was thick, smothering the battlefield in a proverbial fog of war that made their enemies all but invisible. "I thought the war was over!?" Hot Rod said over the deafening din of gun fire as he took aim over their barricade and fired several shots through the smoke. He would've been slagged by the return fire had his Sgt. Kup not pulled his head down in the nick of time. "Whoa!" "You tell them that!" The blue grizzled, veteran mech sneered as energy and solid rounds slowly riddled away their makeshift cover. "And for Primus' sake, keep your fraggin' head down!" It had been nearly a decade in Earth time since Optimus Prime declared the Great War was over, and the total vicory of the Autobot forces after the bloody battle of Iacon, ending in Megatron's death and the surrender of most of the Decepticons. For a time there was peace, until the 'Cons who had escaped that day started a series of uprisings, marking the beginning of the Peacekeeper campaign; an all out effort in hunting down, apprehending or eradicating any insurgents at the bud before another great war took root. "Thanks, Sarge!" Hot Rod replied as the thought of his very close call made him shake on the inside. Bits and pieces of metal rained from overhead as the barrier slowly started to give. "We gotta move, sir!" Kup reached in his pack for a Flashbang and loaded it into the grenade launcher slung under his rifle. "When the Flash pops, we shift our gears over to that fallen comm-array at our 2 o'clock! Spray and pray, kid!" "Copy!" Hot Rod replied and slapped a fresh clip on his rifle, a regulation CIG-14 (also known as sigs), a solid round type weapon that packed quite a punch and had a decent rate of fire which could be modified easily, such as Kup's. Kup nodded as he clicked his personal comm-gear on. "Nearby friendlies be advised, letting loose flash in the following coordinates!" "Copy that." Was the garbled reply that came back. Kup turned towards Hot Rod, "On 3..." "3!" they both yelled simultaneously as Kup swung his rifle clear of the cover and fired the grenade that exploded into a mass of light and sound. Hot Rod tried to steady his balance as he filtered through the white noise and ran after Kup. Both bots sprinted the first few yards, fingers glued to the triggers as they let loose a rain of bullets towards the direction of the well concealed Decepticons, before transforming into their alt modes and sped towards the fallen spire-like structure of the comm-array. Nearly three-quarters of the way there, the 'Cons began to regain their vision and quickly resumed to raining all hell on the Autobot duo. Hot Rod punched it and weaved in and out of enemy gunfire when Kup's voice came on the comm-link. "I see them! Uploading coordinates, steer clear of- incoming!" Hot Rod felt a chill in his spark as several rockets raced towards his position. Veering hard to his left, the first few blossomed just shy of his previous course and showered him with debris. "Slag!" He cursed as his only course of evasive action was to drive out into the open. The next one surprisingly went long, while the final one however made his systems go red. Warning! Missile-Lock Detected! "Kid!" Yelled Kup, who had reached cover and tried to take the missile out with bursts of gunfire, to no avail. Hot Rod was flaring at top speed as the rocket closed in, weaving in and out of the haphazard terrain, thinking he could throw it off. "Heatseeker!" He snarled as the rocket followed his movements precisely. His path had taken him way off course into the open patch of field that had separated them from the 'Cons. It would only be a matter of time now. Meanwhile, Kup could only watch in horror as he was pinned down, cursing as the 'Cons were probably focusing their fire on him thinking Hot Rod was good as dead. Those sons of gltches were probably taking bets on how long the kid would last. If only the two of them weren't separated from the rest of their 5 bot squad during planet fall... "Slag it!!" Kup roared as he returned fire. the poor kid was gonna die and it would all be his fau- "What the?" Hot Rod was now speeding towards the Decepticon emplacement, missile in tow. "Gotta time this just right..." He said to himself as he cut off the power in his engines and let sheer inertia propel him towards his target. At the last moment, he transformed and fired a signal flare towards the Decepticons, rolling off to the side just in time as the missile sliced past him and after the flare. The Decepticons scrambled too late as the missile erupted and engulfed them in flames. Hot Rod shielded his eyes as debris scattered everywhere then pumped a fist into the air as he lied on the ground. "Oh, yeah!!" "Nice one, kid!!" Kup yelled from across the battlefield with an unbelieving grin, completely forgetting about his communicator due to the moment. To think Hot Rod could pull something daring like that in the heat of combat. This warrior was going places. "Now shift your chassis back here!" He yelled into the communicator, returning to drill sergeant mode. "you're a sitting target out there!" "Copy." Hot Rod replied with a stupid grin which could only be achieved when defying death. But as he transformed and headed towards Kup's position, the burning wreckage he had made began to stir and something quickly shot into the air. "AUTOBOT!!!" Spinnister roared as he changed into chopper mode, his chassis a twisted mess but had somehow survived the major brunt of the explosion thanks to shielding himself with the body of one of his grunts. His sights were set on Hot Rod and he charged towards him when his ranged weapons were offline. "Aw, dear Primus..." Kup moaned as he trained his rifle towards the surviving Decepticon, only to have it explode in his hands. "What the-?!" In the distance, far beyond the ruined Decepticon emplacement, Reflector was crouched beneath camouflage as one unit held a high powered beamrifle while the other two units were handling sophisticated targeting equipment. "I don't think so, Autobot." He said in unison. *********************************** The Rise of Darkness A Fanfic by KingJace
Thanks for the feed back, man, glad you like it. This story is a re-envisioning of g1 season 3, set in a darker tone, and things you won't expect. Be updating one a week, please Read and Review
Chapter 1: Frontline Blues, Part 2 (AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just a little something-something to whet your literary fancies, enjoy.) That was the one thing about solid round weapons that always worried Kup, who was reciting a mantra of curses so fast it would make Blurr blush. He slumped back down as he clutched his left servo in agony; or rather, the sparking stump that used to be it. The moment the gun exploded, the rounds erupted and created a small explosion that ate away most of his left servo from the elbow joint down. "Nggghh... What I wouldn't give for a good old fashioned blaster..." He said as he let his left arm go limp and pulled out an energy knife and started hacking away at the wiring in his left shoulder that transmitted the sensory impulse from his injury, the cybertronian equivalent of pain receptors in humans. The Med-Bots had strictly advised against such on-field self surgery, but what did those pencil necked protoforms and their new-fangled diagnostic equipment and plasma cutters know about real war wounds? "Slagging... Sniper... Nggghh..." He grit his teeth each time he sliced, but the pain of his own knife was worth it when the pain fro his bigger wound started to fade. He felt a slight tinge of alarm when the pain subsided as he realized Hot Rod was alone with that Decepticon. And when he tried to peek up over the ruins of the wall that protected him, a white hot lance of blue laser enrgy streaked past his face so close, he felt his left cheek singe, causing him to drop down flat on the steel floor of the comm-array. "Gyaghh!! Damn, that sniper is good..." He grudgingly admitted, clutching his face with his right servo. "C'mon kid, you can get through this." Meanwhile, Hot Rod was revving his engine as he tore across the battlefield, Spinnister in hot pursuit, as he did his best to lead the enraged chopper away from Kup when his comm-link frequency went static. "Oh no you don't!" The decepticon growled as he sped up and transformed in mid air, landing in front of Hot Rod's path and pulling out his rotor-blade sword and brought it down in a slash meant to split the Autobot in two. Hot Rod swerved a hard right as the blade just missed him and transformed, quickly pulling out his sig and bringing it to bare on Spinnister's exposed flank. The Decpticon was thin and lanky for it's height, at this range he'd shred the glitch into scrap metal. He had barely pulled the trigger when the Decepticon spun around violently, kicking up dust as the sword rose in an upward arc, cutting the rifle into two and kicking Hot Rod square in the Autobot insignia on his chest, sending him, flying. "Are you a rookie or something?" The Decepticon said, highly amused as he slowly walked towards the still rising Autobot letting his sword playfully slash the air. "First rule of combat: Always press the advantage. You had a ranged weapon; you could've drove off just a bit further and opened fire. But no, you had to press me in close quarters. ME!? HAH!" He suddenly broke into a sprint and swung the blade to decapitate Hot Rod, who quickly ducked and rolled , but was again caught by another kick, this time to the gut, sending him flying once more, crashing into a pile of debris and kicking up dust upon impact. "I've chopped up a lot of your friends with this sword. Many, many of your friends." He continued, again calmly walking towards Hot Rod. "Real big bots, too. They all thought they could take me as easily as you just probably did. They all thought me weak upon seeing my slim chassis. Their shells are still probably left unburied, somewhere out th-." "Oh, shut up!!" Hot Rod exclaimed as he threw off the rubble piling around him and clutched his aching torso, slowly standing up. "Listen, if you're gonna kill me, the sword would be soooo much more painless than your yammering." "...What?" "Yeah, you heard me." Hot Rod said, grinning. "You keep going on about how big and bad you are, I don't know if you're trying to convince me... or yourself." Spinnister stopped in his tracks as the sword stopped playing in the air, halfway towards Hot Rod. Just a little more, Hot Rod thought. "I mean really... Big sword you got there, bud. Too bad you missed me two out of two. Sure you got a wicked kick, but that sword sure must be compensating for something, cause you sure can't hit slag with i-" He stopped the sentence in it's tracks as Spinnister bolted towards him, face warped into a sneer and sword raised high in the air. Hot Rod smirked as he kicked the loose steel beam in fron of him, sending it flying into the Decepticon who easily chopped it into two with a swipe of his sword. "Damned Autobot!" Spinnister said as he twisted for another slash, grinning maniacally as he saw Hot Rod with his arm raised to shield his face, cowering in fear. "I'll teach you to make fun of me!!" As Spinnister brought the blade down, eagerly waiting for the oil and energon of his foe to shower him, something stopped the blade. Hard. "What?" Hot Rod grinned as he stared optic-to-optic at the befuddled Spinnister as his fore arm mounted saw blade ejected just in time to parry the blow. His opponents stunned look gave him enough time to kick him hard in the gut and put some space in between them, bringing his chain-saw weapon up in front of him, slowly revving to life as it started to spin faster and roar louder. "Round two, Decepticreep!!" *********************************** The Rise of Darkness A Fanfic by KingJace
Appetite whetted... Gotta laugh at Roddy and his unnerving sense of the absurd in the middle of a fight. I like the small nuances of character that you have given your bots. I believe that is what makes them appealing. Write on!
Chapter 1: Front Line Blues, Part 3 Runamuck huddled against the cover of a pile of metal beams as he reloaded a fresh cartridge in his blaster rifle, feeling his chasis rattle as the battle around him raged on. He wondered how it came to this; How the Decepticons fell from glory and reduced to little more than bands of pirates. He clutched his rifle tightly in one hand as he looked at the purple insignia on his forearm, tarnished by the fires of battle; ironically suitable for the current state of the ragged Decepticon warbands. It was all those meddlesome Autobots' fault, he roared in his head. His brother, Runabout, was beside him, peeking above the barricade and brought to bear a missile launcher. "Say goodbye." Runabout whispered as he locked in on his target and let loose the warhead, resulting in an explosion and a series of screams that was quickly deafened by the other melodies in the orchestra of war. "Haha! You should've seen that shot, Bro!" Runabout said to his brother, quickly straddling down to reload a fresh missile as the top of their cover sparked with return fire from the Autobots. "Hit that slagging autobot right in the ballbearings." He looked at Runamuck and added. "You okay, bro? You seem to be phasing out on me. Can't blame you though, not that I wouldn't be awestruck by my battle-prowess as well." "Oh yeah?" Runamuck replied as his rifle whirred with charged energies. "Watch this." He leaned out of cover and sprayed a volley of crimson light at a running autobot and watched him crumple down in a fiery heap. "Nice one!" Runabout said. "Haha, they'll be sorry they decided to come after us on our own turf." "Yeah..." His brother replied, once more blasting against the oncoming Autobots. "We try to start anew on the Outer Rims and these jokers come to crash our style. Again!!" "They can try!" Runabout said, always in high spirits while surrounded by chaos. He swung up once more with a freshly loaded missile when all of a sudden. "Oh SLAG! It's him, bro!" "What are you talking abou-?" Runamuck started as he slowly peeked at what his brother saw, only to cut himself short with a panicked: "Let's get out of here!!" and transformed, kicking up dust as his brother dropped the missile launcher and was quick to follow. "Wait for me!" A few meters away from them, a Decepticon named Screw-Loose was fidgeting with a stolen CIG-14 from a dead Autobot. "Wow, these things are sweet. Hey, where are those two going?" Half a second later, the same spot they were on began to crackle as a blinding blue light quickly raged from the distance. Screw-Loose and several other 'Cons realized what was happening too late as they tried to flee but seemingly got frozen in time as the light enveloped them, their silhouettes slowly fading as the light grew brighter. As the dust cleared, the entire spot seemed to have been erased from existence as not one trace of life was left. "Autobots, advance!" The battle raged on, chaos erupting on all sides as Ultra Magnus raised his Bio-Force Gun and cut a swath into the rebel vanguard, vaporizing them with barely enough time to scream. Rebels, not Decepticons, he told himself as he cocked the huge cannon and reloaded a fresh round, standing calmly as enemy fire showered him with death but left him unflinching. The Decepticons all surrendered a decade ago and are undergoing reprocessing to integrate into the Autobot, no, the Cybertronian society. "Cybertrons..." He mused to himself, trying out how the revamped name that Optimus Prime proposed a few cycles ago to the High Council sounded. He was brought back from his thoughts as a priority alert rang on his HUD, causing him to turn towards the skies and point his BFG at a speck in the distance. "Impossible! Intel clearly stated that-! How?" He exclaimed, voice laced with surprise. "He is the one leading this warband?!" In the distance, Skywarp grinned smugly, crossing his arms as he hovered in the twilight skies, flanked by his lieutenants. "Well, well... Looks like I've become big enough of a threat to warrant the attentions of Ultra Magnus' Elite Guard." He uncrossed his arms and reached at his back, drawing out a long, black sword, crackling with dark energies. "I've waited for this day... Warp out!!" And with that, the space around them distorted as Skywarp and his retinue vanished just in time as a blast from the BFG roared pass. *********************************** The Rise of Darkness A Fanfic by KingJace (Author's Note: I was gonna go into the Hot Rod/Spinnister sword fight but felt like I should post a little backstory on this chapter's current crisis. We are introduced to the two rival commanders and one hell of a cliff-hanger. What happens next is based on my whim, muwhahahahahaha!!)
Chapter 1: Front Line Blues, Part 4 "GYAAGGHH!!" Hot Rod roared as he swung his saw-blade, sparks flying as it came into contact with Spinnister's sword. "Come on!!" He yelled over the din of his weapon as he drew back and began a ferocious barrage of swipes, all of which Spinnister side-stepped with ease. "Don't get cocky, Autobot!" Spinnister said as he twisted and swung his sword in a wide arc around him, bringing it down to slice Hot Rod neat in half, who parried once more with his saw-blade, letting the sparks rain above them. "It's skill, not the sword, that wins these kinds of battles!" "Would you feel better if I fought with one servo tied behind my back then?" Hot Rod smirked. "It's not my fault your motherboard never loved you." "Die!" Both simultaneously kicked each other in the gut, sending each back and creating space between the two combatants. Spinnister spun the blade in his grip and held it tight with both servos as he charged towards Hot Rod, who recovered just in time to parry the blow. Hot Rod twisted and redirected the swords force with the saw blade, exposing his opponents flank to him and gave him an elbow strike to the face, followed up with a knee to the gut. As Spinnister staggered back, and brought the sword up as Hot Rod swung the saw blade down, blocking it and overpowering Hot Rod's slash, throwing the Autobot back. Dust started to fly as both bots exchanged blows, both just barely missing to make contact with their opponent with their swords. Spinnister added more and more power to each strike, wanting to wipe that aggravating smirk off that Autobot's face. To think that this rookie protoform was matching him in servo-to-servo combat was annoying him to no end. "I've been around longer than you, kid, you won't win this." He said as he charged at Hot Rod and jumped into the air, spinning as he slashed his sword downwards. "Not by a longshot!!" "That a fact?" Hot Rod replied as he dove to the side, Spinnisters strike making an unforgiving slash into the ground he was on just a second ago. He stood back up, spinning around as he slashed in a wide arc, nitching the 'Con in the left arm, watching with satisfaction as the blade dug deep as sparks flew and jaggedly hacked off Spinnisters left servo at the shoulder joint. "ARRRGGHHH!!!" SPinnister yelled as he jumped back, leaving his severed arm behind, which Hot Rod crushed under his armored foot. "Oops." Hot Rod smirked on the outside, but he was starting to get nervous on the inside. He was doing his best to keep this 'Con off-balanced to maintain the advantage by keeping his temper at boiling point. Truth was, that was more luck than skill, and it was taking more than his A-game to keep up his defenses against those powerful slashes; one slip and he'd be more off-line than the last bot Kup cornered to tell his war-stories to. But something was starting to worry him as his vis-sensors analyzed his opponents sword. Not a single scratch was on it's immaculately smooth surface. At this rate, he'd wear out the teeth of his saw-blade first. "That all you got, skinny? This is a great work out but I got places to be." He chided once more, bringing the saw-blade in front of him. "SHUT UP!! I'll show you!!!" Spinnister said hysterically, vis-sensors wide open and mouth in grimace as his wound sparked and dripped energon. With that he twisted his sword and it once more reverted into the four-bladed rotors of his helicopter mode. He plugged it into his fore-arm and Hot Rod watched in trepidation as it slowly started to spin. "You think you're better than me, Autobot?" Spinnister said as the blade spun faster and faster, "You all do, don't you??! Well I'll show you all!!" The blade was kicking up dust now as it roared louder than Hot-Rod's weapon. Then, the Autobot thought it maybe too strong as he noticed Spinnister doing his all to keep the weapon from taking him into the air, visibly strainig against it's force. "You plan on running away? Yeah, that'll show m-" Hot Rod stopped his words, smile fading as Spinnister drew back, the rotor creating a small vortex of wind from it's sheer power, then throwing it at the Autobot like a giant shuriken. "Slag!!" Hot Rod yelled over the thunderous buzz in the air as he dove to the right, the spinning blade slashing the ground, creating a hazy storm of dust as it stormed past diagonally, missing Hot Rod only by a few inches. "Okay.. Maybe ticking him off wasn't a good idea." he said to himself as he got up and ran out of the dust, "At least he threw away his- oh slag." He said, watching the blade spin back towards Spinnister who caught the barely visible spinning blades with ease in the rotor-port. "Hey, Autobot." Spinnister said with a maniacal grin, drawing back once more. "CATCH!!" The blade roared with power as it shot towards Hot Rod. *********************************** The Rise of Darkness A Fanfic by KingJace (Author's note: How did you all like them apples?? And yes, Spinnister is a Decepticon cyber-ninja. I loved the concept in Animated and figured that the Autobots wouldn't be the only ones who had a roster of them. Hot Rod is just a rookie but is using his street smarts to keep the much more powerful and experienced Spinnister on edge, which is how I portrayed them to be a bit more equalled.) READ AND REVIEW That's always appreciated
Chapter 1: Front Line Blues, Part 5 "Dagnabbed 'Con sniper..." Kup muttered as he crawled across the rubble, keeping low and close to the relative cover of the ruins around the terrain. Not so fun with only one working servo. His body bore the smouldering marks of near fatal tags, but far from anything that can crash his systems. Seeing a gap in the cover before him, he psyched himself and leapt, barely dodging the lance of pink light that streaked past him. "C'mon, I need to find some decent cover he-eeere!!!" A loud clank followed as he unknowingly tripped into a deep dug foxhole. "Heh, ask and you shall recieve I guess." He said, standing up and quickly looking around for a weapon. Finding a small cache, he quickly rummaged through to find an appropriate weapon for the situation. "Solid round, solid round, solid round, not enough range, solid round... Well, hello there, gorgeous." He said, tone changing as he hefted a long barreled rifle from the cache and tested it's weight in one hand. "Ahh, a good old fashioned XLMR-35 with Sniper System attachments." He propped it up and set the bipod on a high surface to test the scope. "Hmm, nice and clear... could use some modifying though..." He said as he eyed the decepticon insignia etched on the scope with disgust. His grip on it wobbled a little as he tried to keep his aim steady. The crosshairs were wobbling awkwardly as he tried to fix unto one of the other guns lying on the floor. Too shaky. "Slag..." Kup slumped against the wall of his cover, dumping the rifle beside him and taking out a psygar module from his beltpack. He bit on one end of the module and ignited the other end, taking a long intake of the energies and closing his eyes. Not many bots got to be his age. He lived a life longer than any soldier should, fighting the good fight while generations of friends and allies died all around him. Too long, he'd use to think while in between deployments, sitting on his usual spot at his favorite pub, swigging down some high concentration energon. He was beginning to think he would live to see the end to this conflict. "Too bad..." He mused, puffing out a grayish blue smoke, his arm picking up the rifle once more. He held it in front of him and aimed at the opposite wall, his grip still shaky. He thought of his squad, not just the current ones in it, but those before this batch of eager kids. "I'm sorry boys, I might just be too old for thi-..." His voice trailed off slowly as his eye caught a large metal case half buried underneath rubble with HIGHLY EXPLOSIVE labeled across the side. He left the rifle and crawled towards the case, clearing off the debris from the case's surface and turning the locking mechanism open. The lid hissed out pressurized air and split open, revealing a fully charged rail blaster and harness. Looks like it wan't quite his time just yet. *******************************
