1030/Battleground: Nova Cronum 3 - 3

**Scavenger has posed:**
Scavenger is repairing the defenses. Again. Can they not just... keep the Autobots from tearing down all the work the constructicons put into this stuff? As of the moment, Scavenger is leaning dangerously over the edge of the defenses as he twists a panel back into place. Its that very angle that let's him spot... well, something. He doesn't have a clue what it is.

Squinting out into the distance, he sends up a comm message, "<< Uh hey, bat guy. You should go look out there, thought I saw something. >>"

Scavenger is busy actually being a productive member of the Decepticon army.

**Goth has posed:**
     Goth having been torn from his work in his lab, to be out on the field at Nova Cronum once more for the defences. He was cloaked high in the sky with his scouting systems training down on the attacking Autobot forces.

      "<<Quite ahead of you, corporal.>>" Goth would chirp. "<<It seems we have an autobot infestation on the way, I'd suggest taking control of the defences as soon as possible.>>" His scouter would zoom down, and in on one specific. "<<Given, it seems Prowl has decided to grace us with his appearance.>>"

**Prowl has posed:**
    Indeed, the Autobots are on the march toward Nova Cronum, with Prowl at the helm. He is coming in on a dropship, scouting out the best position to deploy while the infantry charge forward to meet the Decepticons' defensive line head-on. Plasma artillery explodes from cannons near the rear, lighting up the sky and quickly taking out frontline foot soldiers as the shells land.

    The strategist identifies a location where he believes his abilities would be best put to use, and orders the craft to descend. Scavenger might have noticed -something-, but Prowl has definitely already identified the Constructicon. Not that he's paying him any mind yet.

**Scavenger has posed:**
Scavenger squints as what looks like a dropship comes into focus- OH PRIMUS! Scavenger windmills his arms as the artillery shells shake the base. He tries to grab for something, misses, and one might be able to hear an audible THUD as the constructicon hits the ground below.

A very dazed excavator shoves himself into a sitting position as he figures out what the heck just happened. Right. Battle. Scavenger pulls out a pistol and begins firing towards the dropship and Prowl. He has to get close enough to introduce those auto jerks to his fists.

**Goth has posed:**
     A grin starts to grow on Goth's face as he's not detected, and makes a sharp banking in the air, attempting to get behind the Autobot SIC. "<<Incoming.>>" He'd warn in a whisper Scavenger as blasts started to ring out. After a moment of confusion of something said over the commlink, he'd refocuse.

      He would come up behind Prowl, and disengage his cloaking device and take a hard swing at the black and white bot.

**Prowl has posed:**
    Scavenger's potshot sort of...pings off of one of Prowl's shoulders. He barely notices it. Which is saying something because he usually notices -everything- that touches him. He jumps from the dropship along with a few other special infantry units, directing them to position themselves at strategic locations around the forward base.

    Then Goth appears and takes a swipe. The tactician quickly raises an arm, blocking the mechabat's claws and fully mitigating the damage. Arching a brow at the Decepticon scientist, he puts some distance between himself and his opponent. "Quite the risky maneuver there, Decepticon. Are you really that desperate?" he asks, keeping his tracking algorithms trained on the beastformer.

**Goth has posed:**
     Goth would quirk a ridge at Prowl, taking in a sharp vent, having more the prepared himself to take one of those damned fire grenades right away, but given the chance, he does take a risk. "Perhaps, perhaps not, but that is for I to know, and you to find out, yes?~" He'd chuckle, taking a few steps back, taking a defensive stance, sending a data packet to Scavenger.

**Scavenger has posed:**
Scavenger watches as Goth attacks... and misses. Good job, bat. Good job.

Its a good opportunity for the mech to charge forward, though. He grabs a weapon- a twisted beam of metal he had just tossed away earlier that day for being too damaged- and swings it at Prowl.

**Prowl has posed:**
    "Fine, I guess I will find out, then." Prowl replies. Heh, Goth expected him to retaliate immediately, didn't he? That look on his face said it all. Most people were -so- easy to read, just like a book. But the Autobot S.i.C is nothing if not patient.

    He had started to retreat toward a trench shield that had been set up, but Scavenger suddenly lunges at him, swinging a piece of debris. Pff, didn't the Constructicons have better than just makeshift weapons? Rightly predicting the mech's approach, he catches the beam at just the right angle as it comes down, grabbing it and throwing it off to the side. "Hasn't Scrapper taught you not to telegraph all your moves?" he inquires, as he loads one of those cursed incendiares into his missile launchers. He again puts distance between himself and the Decepticons, this time getting into the trenches. The rest of the Autobots are ordered to fall back slightly, and he fires the phosphex explosive at the base, aiming for the already weakened places. Burning debris goes flying, threatening to smack anyone who hasn't broken their line of sight to the target.

**Scavenger has posed:**
Scavenger swings and.... misses... What the frag! How did he miss this close- BAT MECH IS INFECTING HIM WITH BAD LUCK, THE RUMORS ARE TRUE! Scavenger doesn't have long to linger on that revelation just yet, though, as Prowl prepares one of those dreaded toys of his. He fires, it goes off, it sets fire to Scavenger and the base. Someone the BAT manages to escape. He will just have to swing again-

Wait, the base is on fire. THE BASE IS ON FIRE! Scavenger whirls around to see the defenses going up in flames. WIthin seconds he is breaking off as he skids to the bottom and immediately gets to repairs- stamping out flames, reinforcing where they had damaged the place, replacing bits too destroyred. The usual done with constructicon-esk efficiency.

**Goth has posed:**
     Goth hisses a curse and goes after the Autobot SIC on all fours, instead of in the air. "<<I'll handle Prowl, ensure he's not done too much damage to the defences.>>" He'd quickly state over the commlink in an attempt to help his defender in crime, given the FIRE on both him and the base! Goth can only surmise he's likely to be next, but he still goes for another hard swing at Prowl.

**Prowl has posed:**
    Prowl is slashed this time, spewing energon. He had been focused on getting the right trajectory on the defenses when Goth charges in -again-. Perhaps the mechabat truly -is- that desperate.

    Then, Scavenger goes and and undoes some the hard work he just did. He curses--this wasn't going well. Time wasn't on his side this time. So as much as he'd like to keep spending the time to scope out the best angles, it's looking as if he'll have to just fling them as fast as he can and hope for the best. He doesn't like that strategy, but unfortunately, it may be the best he can do...for now. Once again, he loads a grenade--but this time he doesn't fire it as far. No, this time he's aiming to do as much damage as possible to Scavenger and Goth.

**Goth has posed:**
     Goth is finally set ablaze, and the fire is doing it's work, with a screech of pain, parts of his outer armor starting to quickly melt or burn away, but he's up and standing! Somehow.. He was once more again, thanking Dustoff for his work and.. Does something unorthodox, he'd kick off into the air and make his way over to Scavenger, despite the trial of smoke and fire, and land beside him.. Doing what he could to at least patch some of the damage to the other bot, despite his own pained and wheezing vents.

**Scavenger has posed:**
Scavenger gets the base in a better condition than it had been, shoving the last panel into place as the fire is put out. A searing pain flares acros his backplates just as he manages to weld the final seam, ripping through and melting plating and wires as he collapses. That Auto jerk shot him in the back!!

Should he be impressed or enraged? Enraged fits the situation better. Scavenger painfully rolls himself around and grabs one of the fried base panels, angling it like a makeshift shield between them and the incendiary addicted autobot.

**Prowl has posed:**
    Well, that was a fair bit more satisfying. But Prowl is still acutely aware of the fact he's running out of time. Reinforcements are bound to be here at any moment, and the outer defenses, while damaged, don't look like they're going down yet. << Autobots, press the attack! We're almost out of time. >> he commands over the comms.

    One final grenade is left, and he loads it up quickly, lauching the projectile at the enemy once more. There's a lot of things on fire right now, and about to be more.

**Scavenger has posed:**
Scavenger misses, curses, but doesn't have much more he can say than that as Prowl fires one last grenade on the mechs. He tries to pull up their makeshift barrier but its too late, the grenade explodes, everything is even more on fire, and Scavenger finds himself thoroughly unconscious by the end of it.

Looks like Goth is on his own now.

**Goth has posed:**
     Goth vents another pained screech and wheeze as the fire eats through his armor, but he doesn't stop, he is the only thing standing right now between Prowl and Nova Cronum, in an ironic twist of fate.

      He'd push himself up and stumble over get Scavenger over one of his shoulders, and stumbles to the controls, still in bot mode! and deploys the defence drones.

**Prowl has posed:**
    Drones fly out of the lower bays, but those automatons are easy to read. Prowl has seen their schematics before, so he manages to accurately predict their movements and avoid them, even tricking some of them to shoot each other down.

    At this point it has become clear that the defenses aren't going down before reinforcements get here, so instead he focuses on Goth, who is the only mech of note left standing. Surely, if the more notable one goes down, the rest of the cannon fodder will retreat. He chases after the beastformer, his shoulder-mounted missiles ready to launch. "Clearly, you're runnning ragged, Decepticon. You know well and fully, that while your reinforcements may get here in time to save this city for Megatron, they will -not- be in time to save -you-. Are you ready to lay down your life for a cause that claims to be noble, but is just as depraved as those it hates?" The projectiles fire and whistle through the air, closing in on Goth.

**Darkstar has posed:**
    Nova Cronum was a mess... Who'd of thought that Goth and Scavenger would have come up against this much devastation while attempting to defend the base. The Autobots had been hammering the defenses for some time, the flames were everywhere, the Decepticons in charge of base defense were falling like meteors. Darkstar having developed a new sense of how to play the chess-game that is surviving the Decepticons breaks onto the scene via the space-route, himself puncturing the atmosphere like a falling star. The Arrowship was moving fast-- already aware that the base was due to fall and so the space-alt had one mission and one mission only...

**Goth has posed:**
     Goth lets out a shout, but with Scavenger on one of his shoulders, he's much to slow and is caught in the explosion, and in his root-mode, easily thrown a fair bit away, and everything quickly becoming dark. He's down for the count.

**Darkstar has posed:**
    Darkstar Transforms and drops from the skies, landing in front of where Goth had fallen beneath the guided missile attack. Superhero landings were his thing, and the hero thing while not exactly his thing definitely had enough glory attached to it to warrant the mech's sudden appearance. He didn't have time to dally, and was quick to grab hold of the mechabat first before magnetic locks secured the Beastformer against his frame. "\*Much\* easier with the right equipment!" he notes, as he'd made it a point never to forget the mag-harness when in the field after the incident that left Blast Off and Vortex captive on Garrus-1. Moving swiftly, the spacer looked around for signs of Scavenger...

**Prowl has posed:**
    With the two mechs on point down and the base on fire, the rest of the Con forces retreat swiftly, allowing the Autobots to rush in and size control of the city. Prowl notices Darkstar's arrival, but decides to leave him be, instead moving to direct his troops in properly taking possession of Nova Cronum.

    Even if the Decepticon spacer doesn't find Scavenger, he needn't worry, medevac crews are already combing the battlefield, searching for the injured in an attempt to rescue them before the 'Bots can take any of them prisoner. Plus, he's big and green. No way they'd miss him!

**Darkstar has posed:**
    There he was, not far from where he'd found Goth. Scavenger was in equally poor shape, and the space-alt had to move quickly before Autobot reinforcements arrived to potentially pick off or imprison the fallen. "C'mere, Constructicon..." Hefting the other mech up and over his shoulder, he locked Scavenger to the mag-harness and began to make tracks away from the engagement area. The medical evac crews arrived just in time to provide a good distraction for Darkstar to make his getaway with the brave defenders of Nova Cronam in tow.