Miners Vs Enforcers in Kaon

++ Kaon ++

One of the largest energon mining centers on Cybertron, Kaon is part of a

stretch of rough, difficult terrain known collectively as the Badlands.

Bordered by the seemingly endless orange desert of the Sea of Rust to the

east and south, this large, flat plain is almost sealed in by the rising

red-purple peaks of the Manganese Mountains to the north and west. Kaon

provides the central hub of activity and civilization in this area, while

smaller polities such as Blaster City and Tesarus have arisen at its edges.

Dark gray and black metal, tough and resillient against wear, form the main

colors of the city, its buildings in the shapes of domes, pyramids and

jagged peaks. All of them are aerodynamically shaped so that their edges

face the Sea of Rust, allowing the buildings to withstand the edges of any

storms that blow in from the oxidized desert beyond. The area is noisy and

dirty from the constant drumming of machinery: mining equipment, enormous

energon transport haulers and low-flying ore shuttles fill the air with

noise and lightly shake the ground as they pass. Heavy laborers, almost

always low-caste, toil away here either at the surface, or below the

ground, enjoying few comforts and fewer respites from their work. The slums

of Wreckage Row are home to Kaon's work force, while the edge of the

massive highway leading to nearby Kalis is guarded by the looming

mushroom-shaped fortress of Kolkular. Somewhere near the edges of the ruins

of Blaster City, an underground arena known as the 'Pits of Kaon' hosts

illegal gladiator combat.

Chaos. Carnage. Slaughter in the streets... So many harsh words that are being tossed about to demonize the happenings in Kaon. In truth, though, in the eyes of the yellow and black-plated condor hunched atop his perch, watching things unfold with casual ease, it is neither. No, far from indeed... The initial onslaught has faded. Now it is a policing action, a cleanup effort to finish what was started. Equalization. Comeuppance. Revolution...

Buzzsaw clicks his beak as he surveys the aftermath around him. Such lovely revolution...Hot Rod has connected.

Down below, amidst the dark metals and oxide-blown streets that's giving birth to an energon-pink Decepticon future is wandering a scienceformer whom admittedly looks a little out of place. Her paint isn't quite fresh anymore thanks to a number of scrapes, small cuts, and dirt, but she's not as weathered as most of the city's working class. The lack of treads or engines betray her as something other than a vehicleformer but her clawed fingers are a nod to the fact that she isn't completely harmless. Lacking either a Decepticon or Autobot stamp anywhere on her frame, the femme might be one of the many civilians caught up in the whirlwind.

If she is, she's taking it in stride, literally. Spectrum's optics sweep the streets as she looks around at the damage, debris, and dead that litter roads only partly known to her. It might have been madness to return to Kaon now of all times but the white and brown robot wanted to see things for herself. Her expression is muted awe more than horror as she takes in the scene and she pauses by a discarded arm. The femme crouches down and sucks on its exposed fuel lines, hoping for a moment's nourishment.

Buzzsaw snaps his gaze towards the movement, watching the strange, unmarked mech wantering through. Hmm... He spreads his wings before making a suicide-step off his ledge, relying on airflow from freefall to give him just enough lift to slow, angle into a sharp air-brake, and land nearby.

There's no immediate announcing of his presence. If she didn't see him, then that's her own fault. Not that he cares either which way. There's a moment to just sort of stare at the mech for a moment or two longer than might be properly needed. "You are scavenging in a dangerous environment."

Spectrum is wary of being jumped while wearing anything less than solid Decepticon purple so she keeps watch out the corner of her optic. Seeing a flicker of movement, she turns her head... and then looks down. While they've never met there's a flicker of recognition after a moment and the scienceformer takes her mouth off the bare tubing to reply, leaving pink and yellow fluids to dribble down her chin. "This whole polity is a dangerous environment right now," she notes.

Buzzsaw refolds his wings as he studies Spectrum for a good few moments... He never was one to wear purple, and those marks, the badges, haven't been placed just yet. No... "This polity is being liberated. The danger only comes for those who are opposed to the toppling of their precious upper caste and the rise of those of us from the bottom. To those who have been crushed under heel, kicked to the side and marked for death simply by virtue of being deemed 'lesser', it is a very glorious and liberating moment in time. Which one do you see it as?"

Taking a seat on the ground, Spectrum leans back against a building and props up one knee as she turns to face the minicon properly and a little closer to eye-to-eye. "I see it as I'm hungry and politicians talk too much," she answers wryly as she wipes her arm across her face to clean it but mostly succeeds in smudging the spill. "I'm all for a better future, I just hope the liberators don't get too excited and waste too much energon. There's still a dozen more polities to liberate."

Buzzsaw clicks his beak lightly in thought. "Mmm, how noncommittal of you." He shuffles faintly. "So, what is your name, then, hmm? I do need at least something to go by, don't I? While I am no politician, I have a very keen interest in ensuring that things go well here."

"I don't have one... and no I'm not being evasive," Spectrum replies. The femme pauses and then offers the messy end of her snack. "Arm? It's not Kaon's freshest but it hasn't curdled yet."

"Suit yourself," Spectrum dismisses as she takes the arm back and sucks it briefly. "Hm? I'd expect them to yell something derogatory about birds or minicons not try to repent."

"Or just scream inarticulately," she adds after a moment's thought.

Buzzsaw chuckles. "That will, ultimately, be their choice." He thinks for a moment. "So, back to a question I'd asked earlier. You claim you do not have a name? So, none know you well enough to call you anything? I imagine 'hey you' wears thin after a while."

"I've gotten 'Scrapheap' a couple times but I can't say that's a personal favorite," Spectrum admits. "Call me Bloodhound if you want. it works as well as anything else."

Buzzsaw nods, making a few notations in his own mind's file... Did his optics just click-wrrrr? Yes. Yes they did. "I will make note of that preference, Bloodhound." He blinks and gives his wings a ruffle. "We could see about getting you a proper record and designation, you know."

"Soundwave beat you to the offer," Bloodhound nods and gives the bird a small but genuine smile. "Thank you for helping him, by the way."

Buzzsaw clicks his beak in amusement. "Great minds think alike. Soundwave is a good one to follow. I am quite glad to hear he made the same offer. Have you given it thought, then? Proper consideration? Perhaps there are reservations I could help assuage?"

"Good luck," Bloodhound grins dryly. "I'm not sure you're ilk are much more trustworthy than the Autobots - though I do like your more progressive agenda. Ravage has some nice teeth..."

Buzzsaw tilts his head to one side. "I am not sure I see the true logical reasoning in that assessment. Curiosity compels me to ask why you think that is."

"The trust or the teeth?" Bloodhound asks.

Along the main roadway which leads out toward some energon mines, a considerable commotion is taking place. Mostly, it's a lot of shouting, chanting...angry voices. Mining mechs who've suffered long enough under the current oppressive regime, and now a tiny mech by the name of Rumble has inspired them to quit their jobs and strike out at the Enforcers.

It would appear that Enforcers are arriving to quell the uprising, and now that weapons have been drawn, it only serves to make the crowd even angrier.

"You ain't gotta take this <CENSORED> no more!" Rumble bellows. "Megatron's set the example -- so follow it!! Let's make 'em bleed!!"

Then things get much louder, as miners clash fiercely against the arriving Enforcers.

Buzzsaw chuckles softly. "I am very keenly aware of Ravage's very useful assets. It is the distrust that I am curious about." He looks towards the sudden emergence of noise and his optics narrow faintly. Well, that was certainly a timely. "Sounds as though there is trouble."

Bloodhound pauses with the arm back in her mouth and looks in the same direction. "Noisy," she dismisses, not seeming terribly interested in getting involved. "We'll have a nice opportunity to pick off stragglers when they're routed."

The miners are very likely outclassed and outgunned. However, they outnumber the Enforcers and they're also more riled up than a shaken Insection hive. Rumble 'helps out' the miners by standing on one of the larger mech's shoulders and spraying the Enforcers with laser-fire.

"Remember that these jerks don't care how you been sufferin'!" Rumble tells the other miners. "They either want you smelted, or they want you to shuddup an' go back to work! Whatcha think about that??"

There's an angry outcry as a number of miners literally \*swarm\* one of the Enforcers. Many of them get seriously injured or killed in the resulting gun battle, but even \*more\* miners are pouring down the road to take their place.

Buzzsaw settles his optics on 'Bloodhound' thoughtfully. There's no hiding the silent contemplative look about him, either. "You are quite adept at avoiding questions. I won't press, though." He takes flight. "A brother is in danger... if you would excuse me, I cannot stand idle." He glides his way towards one of the enforcers from behind, aiming to take the brute by surprise. Which, for him, is quite literally burrowing through the chassis from a divebomb above.

-- Radio: d-chat -- Rumble says, "Awwww yeaaah...Kaon miners have found their battlespark!! They ain't takin' this <CENSORED> anymore! I got them fightin' Enforcers!!"

"I'll answer afterwards. I'm in no rush," Bloodhound answers as the Decepticon departs. She watches contemplatively, only to smile again as she sees the bird go \*through\* one of the Enforcers - there is an artistry to Buzzsaw's brutality...

The femme looks between the carnage and her arm a couple times before setting it down and standing back up. "When in Kaon," she shrugs before igniting her boosters and dashing towards the fray as well. The clawed scienceformer flexes the bladed points of her hands and then thrusts them forward as she reaches the Enforcer closest to her. Unlike the minicon she won't fit through anyone but she can at least leave a nice hole too.

"Yeeeaaahhh, nice hit, bro!!" Rumble cheers as Buzzsaw burrows clean through one of the Enforcers. The Enforcer targets Buzzsaw and shoots a number of well-aimed shots, although Buzzsaw is quite fast and can very likely evade most of them. What's more, the Enforcers did not anticipate having to quell a \*large\* number of riled-up miners /and/ a number of Decepticons coming to assist. So they have their hands full at the moment.

Rumble grins broadly, tossing some grenades at a wall of approaching Enforcers. "An' another one!! Heheheh. Come on in, it's a party!!" he exclaims as Spectrum/Bloodhound arrives on the scene. and that scene...is getting very chaotic now, with miners using their burrowing tools to puncture armor.

Buzzsaw expected retaliation, and he seethes as one bolt burrows through a wing. Though, he's not about to let such a thing go without returning it in kind. His time, his wings and beak aren't about to dig through his chassis and chest, he's going for the neck. Decapitation time...

Bloodhound doesn't quite restrain a smile of grim satisfaction as she feels her shiny claws slice into armor, struts, and delicate circuitry. They're not an original part of her design but they are her favorite. Having made quick work of one enforcer, she keeps one hand in his back as she crouches down to retrieve his gun and turn it on his allies. The femme backs up as she shields herself behind the mech's larger frame and takes shots wherever there's an opening in the miner-lead brawl. While not a crack shot, for a scienceformer her aim is unusually precise; it's not quite her first time holding a firearm.

The Enforcers are definitely not easy takedowns, and their weapons pack a huge punch. However, with so many targets to focus on, they're finding it increasingly difficult to contain this situation, as even more angry miners arrive on the scene to continue the mayhem.

When Buzzsaw actually manages to decaptitate one of the Enforcers, the miners cheer loudly and rush in to dismantle whatever's left. It's a pretty greusome scene as the remains are ripped apart.

Bloodhound will find herself in a shootout with her targeted Enforcer, who brings out a photon cannon and levels it at her as he struggles to maintain some semblance of order in this rapidly devolving situation.

Buzzsaw will keep the head. This head is his...he shall make good use of it in the future, too. He makes sure to place it somewhere that can be easily accessed for retrieval later, circling back around to survey the remaining mess. << Rumble, would you mind explaining what sparked this? For the archives and inevitable report? >>

"<< Yeah! This crew...I worked with 'em on a few jobs, >>" Rumble explains to Buzzsaw on the radio cheerfully, while smashing in another Enforcer's chest armor with his pylons. "<< When you're in the mines, you don't get no kinda news. You don't know about nothin' goin' on until you get outta that place, so I decided to go down to the Kaon worksite an' let these mechs know about what happened in the Senate, case they hadn't heard! Well as you can \*see\*...it went over pretty good! >>"

Bloodhound keeps herself crouched behind her make-shift shield as she fires back, using his body to soak up any high-energy responses. Unfortunately the femme isn't as sturdy as her first kill and in the face of continuing fire even he's not that tough. As her cover is shredded the force of the impacts knock her skidding backwards until her boosters fire again to absorb the recoil. Her optics widen as she sees the business end of a photon cannon and she dashes forward on instinct, shoving 'her' Enforcer's body into the line of fire before vaulting into the air, hoping to pass overhead and come back down with claws bared.

Buzzsaw has his new toy in a safe place and circles back around to size up the enforcer that has Bloodhound occupied. Things are exploding, mechs are shooting...and he's just very calmly quiet and collected about it all. That's not normal, is it? But Bloodhound seems to have everything in order, so he won't intervene. Not yet...

The Enforcer who is facing down Bloodhound doesn't expect such a bold attack. "Halt, cease immediately or you \*will\* be terminat--"

The Enforcer is cut off suddenly as yet another factor comes into play: about half a dozen large miners begin assaulting the Enforcer, keeping him extremely distracted and making him an easier target for Bloodhound to hit.

Rumble's a little bit surprised at the sheer rage these miners have...he wasn't expecting them to actually /take on/ the Enforcers. He did expect them to yell, scream, protest, maybe throw some rocks. Nothing like /this/. Far as he was concerned, /this/ was way better. "THAT'S IT MECHS, might as well take back /your/ city!! It's yours now!"

With her gun discarded mid-leap, Bloodhound lands in a crouch with claws outstretched for the enforcer. Her mouth opens in a wide smile as she vents hot air and looks around. After a few helpful slashes she leaves the Autobot in the mammoth hands of the miners before dashing off in another direction in an effort to tie up another. While one of the battlefield's weaker combatants, the scienceformer's light frame grants her an advantage of speed and she puts it to use with hit-and-run tactics on the Enforcers less occupied already. Her optics shine with fresh life and she laughs in exhilaration as she soaks in the chaos while swiping at another mech. For a neutral she's starting to enjoy herself.

The chaos continues unabated, noise of weapons-fire and bellowing, belligerent miners nearly deafening. And the Enforcers, with all of their superior firepower, have managed to injure or kill a number of mechs, but overall...the mechs continue to pour into the streets. Finding themselves far outnumbered, the remaining Enforcers do a strategic withdrawal, quickly heading off to regroup and perhaps return at another time with many more troops. But for now, they're forced to leave.

A rowdy cheer begins echoing throughout the streets, as the crowd turns from troublesome to triumphant. Many of the miners head off to the Jump Joint to celebrate this as a victory, although Rumble stays behind to meet back up with Buzzsaw and Bloodhound. "WOW. Just, wow. Whatta rush," Rumble exclaims. "We're livin' in great times. This place is lit like a fuse."

Buzzsaw lets out a soft hiss of satisfaction as he perches nearby Rumble. "Liberation continues as it was meant to." He looks at the hole bored through one wing accusingly. It will pass, and be repaired... eventually.

A number of Enforcers have just been repelled by a HUGE crowd of angry miners, who very possibly had some assistance from a few nearby Decepticons. In the aftermath of the brief, yet fierce exhange, the Enforcers are forced to retreat and regroup when they underestimate the sheer anger and yearning for vengeance from the crowd. Now, these miners are jubilant, cheering and celebrating as they make their way through Kaon's streets.

"Ah, one of them tagged you -- did I see you rip off a head??" Rumble asks Buzzsaw, clearly impressed by she sheer viciousness of that move.

By the end of the fighting, Bloodhound has begun to look quite a bit more like her name. Hot oil and energon are splattered across her frame from the close in and visceral fighting and there's a literal buzz to the femme as she cycles quick, warm breaths to cool her systems... then again that might be a damaged inductor. Her own voice joins the chorus as the Enforcers retreat and she gives a nearby miner a friendly whack on the back in congratulations, but like Rumble she hangs back from the celebratory drinking.

Walking back over to the minicons once she spots them in the thinning crowd, Bloodhound crouches down to their level and rolls the joints in her neck. "Still not sure what to think of me?" She asks Buzzsaw after a pause. The little piledriver gets a nod. "Rumble."

Buzzsaw nods. "I did. Yes." He looks at Rumble and, well, he's hardly impressed by himself. In fact, the admission to taking a head is rather dry. To Bloodhound, he gives a rather steady gaze and then shakes his head. "Still not sure, yes. Though I am getting a better picture. You can ask Soundwave or Rumble, I tend to not snap to judgement very quickly. But when I do reach them, they are quite sound."

"Good fightin' all around. Ain't like the Autobots to be underprepared like that, though. Think they just came out here thinkin' they could push around a few miners like usual. They weren't expectin' the whole operation to empty out an' come topside to push 'em back," Rumble admits. He's a little bit scraped up, but in otherwise good condition.

As Bloodhound approaches, Rumble grins. "Nice fightin' you did there. So you joinin' up with us or what?? C'mon, you know you wanna be in with the winners."

"Good," Bloodhound affirms simply. It's the answer she wanted from the condorcon, honestly. "I've got an offer from Big Blue, I haven't accepted yet," she replies to Rumble, amused that the minicon's enthusiasm lives up to her expectations.

Buzzsaw looks at his wing again before just folding both of them against his side so he can stand upright better. "This is the dawn of the revolution. I do not anticipate swift upheaval and resistance just yet. Give it time, there will be a larger push...and then we shall see who is strong and who is weak."

"Big Blue himself gave you an invite? Oh, then you got, like, the VIP pass!" Rumble stares at Bloodhound as if to ask, what's stopping you?? But he doesn't actually say it. Buzzsaw's comment gets a nod from Rumble. "Good. I can't wait for that larger push. Cause there's a lotta grudge out there that needs an outlet."

"It's still more likely than not that you'll all be crushed by the SecF," Bloodhound notes factually. "Most of the houses are unharmed save the heads, which the Council can replace in a session, and without Helex you'll have a lot of flightless, undisciplined civilians for troops, few weapons to share, and a target-rich environment for air strikes. You've got an uphill battle that's going to need luck."

"And you'll have to watch out for shady types ready to sell you out the microsecond they get a better offer."

Buzzsaw turns to, once more, look at Bloodhound. "What is your function, again?" He asks, letting curiosity show, and then just chuckles softly as he shakes his head. "No worry, I'll figure it out eventually."

"Yeah, I ain't gonna say that we got it 100% in the bag now," Rumble admits. "But did you \*see\* how mad those miners were?? So mad, they were \*pullin' apart\* Enforcers! That's gotta count for somethin'. I mean, that's one a'them unexpected things that causes the tides of battles to turn. So odds don't tell every story."

"Like my name?" Bloodhound retorts with a taunting laugh. "Good luck."

"It also means it would be really, really easy for the Autobots to slip in a spy amongst them who acts the parts," she adds to Rumble. "But that was fun to watch..."

Rumble chuckles. "Don't sit on the fence too long, cause you know what happens with windows of opportunity! ...Welp, I think I'm gonna go havva round or three with the mechs at the Joint," he says. "Thanks for helpin' out. Catch you later!"

With that, Rumble strolls off into the still-crowded streets.

###### ====================== Teletraan-1 <IC News> =====================

Message: 9/28                      Posted        Author

Civil Unrest in Kaon               Fri Apr  3    Arcee

Autobot Enforcers responded today to what began as an angry protest outside of the Kaon energon mines, and erupted into a full-scale street battle. Several Enforcers and civilians were killed in the ensuing violence, and witnesses state that the fighting was apparently encouraged by a couple of Decepticons and-or sympathizers in the crowd.

The Enforcers were forced to retreat, and the miners continued to parade in the streets for some time afterwards.