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Post by Twister on Oct 21, 2009 5:09:41 GMT -5
It was an incredibly windy day out in Tanquility, and Twister was out just roaming. She no desire to get into a random fight with some Decepticon or even a fellow Autobot right now. She just wanted to let loose some energy and tackle the wind, which was blowing at about 9 knots, and gusting at 25 knots around the cliff-side. Twister was graceful with her hovering, she spent hours hovering with and with out tail rotor thrust thousands of times more than just today. She'd been a flier since she was sparkling-and always felt passionate about it.
Fighting the gusty wind, which sometimes seemed to be more than 25 knots and blew at random directions, she practiced hovering down the steep cliff (barely a helicopters length away from it), and practiced keeping her descent rate steady. She avoided a phenomenon known as settling with power at all costs-in this gust of wind, anything the caused her to drop like a rock or stall would be bad news and she'd be forced to transform. Promptly but carefully, she descended, avoiding any houses that might be just below her by picking a clear spot to hover in.
Then she turned back on the power and performed a maximum power take off, hovering vertically all the way up the mountain as she fought the wind. Her tail boom twitched from time to time, but other wise she was in complete control, and streamlined.
Once clearing the trees, she promptly accelerated to about 65 knots in a couple seconds as she ascended. She kept in a steady amount of manifold pressure and continued to climb once she cleared the trees, circling the area in a tight turn.
She climbed to about a thousand feet, and hovered again, this time she pulled way back, and slowed rapidly, keeping her nose almost vertical in the air, threatening a speed stall. With the wind actually pushing her around, she was able to stay there for several seconds. The wind gust actually gave her a little bit of 'forward speed', just enough to keep her form from stalling. Slowly, she lowered the manifold pressure (decreasing the power, aka descending), and descended vertically towards the ground, just a few feet at a time as she fought the wind.
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Post by Vortex on Oct 21, 2009 16:47:36 GMT -5
A dark grey SH-2 Seasprite helicopter flew lazily at 1500 feet. As it flew, it picked up an energy signature on its radar, and a disturbingly familiar one at that. Recognising the signature as an Autobot one, the copter leaned forward and quickened the speed of its rotors, moving towards the signature faster. Another helicopter became visible, at a lower altitude than the Seasprite. That was more than enough reason for the Seasprite to attack. "Say your prayers, foolish Autoscum!" The two, tri barrel machine guns on either side of the Seasprite's tail lit up as they fired, aiming at the other copter's rotors.
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Post by Thunderhead on Oct 21, 2009 17:08:54 GMT -5
[ I hope you don't mind being outnumbered Vortex xP ]
The skirmish about to flare up did not go unnoticed. Cruising at about 3000 feet, a Sukhoi Su-47 Super Flanker flew over Tranquility with seemingly no direction, its black profile and unique forward-swept wings making it stand out from the usual air traffic seen over the city.
At the risk of drawing the USAF's attention, Thunderhead had deactivated his IFF transponder and was operating on as little energy as possible so as to avoid detection from any Decepticons that might be in the area. In fact, right at the moment his energy was being routed only to his engines and radar, keeping the Autobot airborne and boosting his scan range. A good tactic, it seemed, for he was quick to pick up a pair of Energon signatures a few clicks East of his location.
Being so high up, the jet had a clear view of the location of those two signatures. Zooming in as far as possible as he flew, Thunderhead swept the area with his optics to acquire a direct visual. Off in the distance were a pair of helicopters, one of which was clearly armed and firing on the other. Their IFF signals told the airborne bot that the chopper doing the shooting was a Decepticon. Even from this distance he picked up the hostile's broadcast to their would-be victim: "Say your prayers, foolish Autoscum!"
Thunderhead didn't need a processor to know he needed to get in on this. He cranked himself up to his full energy levels, activating his IFF and weapon systems and screaming into battle. Bearing down on the Decepticon with blinding speed, he spooled up his chain gun and waited to acquire a missile lock. As if the ravenous roar of his afterburners hadn't already announced his arrival, he fired off a quick broadcast to his target.
"You first, Decepticreep."
As soon as he had a lock, the Three-Second Man let off a pair of HE missiles. A helicopter flying in what was more or less open sky would be a sitting duck for a fighter.
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Post by Twister on Oct 21, 2009 18:04:51 GMT -5
[hopefully she won't. i know twister doesn't. i guess when Wulf needs to leave she can just have him exit the thread whenever she wants.]
"Slag, it's him." Twister muttered as she detected his spark signal approaching her vicinity immediately. She nosed forward drastically and increased speed, shifting to almost 100 knots in a matter of a few seconds as she accelerated ahead out of her hover. As she nosed forward to straight and level, she immediately sent out an EMP wave to Vortex, hoping to cut off his weapons systems.
Twister banked sharply to the right and pivoted around using mostly her tail rotor, keeping her speed up and drifted in Vortex's direction to stay aligned with him, as well as keeping up her speed. She attempted to do so while staying clear of him at the same time. Shifting into attack mode, she revealed two missile launchers and immediately powered up, locking onto her foe. The right missile launcher contained normal missiles while the one on the left contained Energon missiles. A gattling gun also appeared just under the nose of her form. Not ready to waste bullets from the gattling gun, she fired a single round of an Energon missile and a regular missile from each launcher, as she'd already noted that the other Autobot opened fire with two missiles as well.
"Thanks for assisting." While Twister appreciated the help, she was confident she could face her old friend alone if need be. However she was tired of always fending for herself, this was nice for a change.
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Post by Vortex on Oct 21, 2009 20:32:22 GMT -5
His radars picked up the four incoming missiles, though he could see two of them. With as much force as he could muster, he "threw" himself to the side, starting one of his crazy aerial maneuvers in order to avoid getting hit by the missiles. One of the two missiles fired from the helicopter Autobot scraped against his underside, while one of the missiles fired from the jet clipped his tail rotors, sending him into an uncontrolled spin. The voice from the copter reached his audio receptors, and recognition hit him. "Twister!" He shouted, transforming as the ground cams closer, landing facing them, his glue gun cocked, and smoke coming from his right arm. "Never thought I'd see your treasonous face plate again!" Taking aim, Vortex let fly a barrage of glue wads at Twister and the jet.
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Post by Thunderhead on Oct 22, 2009 2:02:14 GMT -5
If he could, Thunderhead would be smiling to himself right about now as one of his missiles clipped the Decepticon's tail rotor and sent it into an uncontrollable groundward spin. He killed his speed, ready for an attack, just as his opponent let loose a few globules of what looked like glue.
A glue gun? Thoroughly confused, but alert nonetheless, the bot threw himself into a barrel roll to evade the incoming glue wads. The Su-47 was renowned for its subsonic manoeuvrability, but Thunderhead had underestimated the velocity of these globs of glue. One such glob caught the tip of his right wing as he rolled; spoiling his lift, it sent him into a veering right bank. Cursing his lack of focus, he moved with the bank into a spiralling dive and transformed as he neared the ground, kicking up a dust cloud as his huge metallic frame came crashing loudly to earth. Immediately he turned to face the Decepticon and went back on the attack, letting fly with another missile and clicking off a burst of rounds from the chain gun upon his right arm.
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Post by Twister on Oct 22, 2009 4:38:24 GMT -5
Twister started to descend and conserved her energy and movements by twitching right then left, clearing the shots expelled from the glue gun only by a few mili-seconds or so. They used to bicker a lot in the past-and she remembered the weapon well; it was good for killing lift, distraction, and slowing down/trapping opponents.
As she dodged, she kept her nose way forward, flying at red line speeds straight for Vortex's bot form. With the gusty wind and quick descent rate, her main rotors were coning considerably. On her way down, Twister got some glue on her skids and nose, but it didn't matter much to her. As long as it didn't her rotors, she had no reason to flip out (literally and temperamentally). Luckily, Twister had a special type of tail rotor, a covered one called Fenestron tail rotor. It was basically like a fan, protected by a thick circle of metal around it (as shown in the avvy). EVEN if glue hit anywhere in that area, Twister would still get peeved, or worse.
Getting much closer to him now, she settled towards the ground, watching her descent rate as she slowed below about 40 knots. "On the contrary, Vortex, I was sure I'd see your ugly face sooner or later." Twister transformed 40 feet down as she started to flare abruptly. Bouncing into a fighting stance upon landing with a thump, she summoned two somewhat short pole-arms (which could be put toether as one), which had fancy Energon blades at one end each. They glowed a golden color, similar to the strip of paint on her black Eurocopter form. While Thunderhead was recovering, she slashed outward with the left blade to Vortex's glue gun, swinging the weapon-wide and briskly with the flick of her left wrist. Almost simultaneously, she charged forward just as smoothly and quickly, stabbing forward horizontally with the right pole arm as she shifted into a right fighting stance.
"Sorry Autobot, I should have warned you about the glue!"she shouted to Thunderhead as she struck out."
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Post by Vortex on Oct 22, 2009 10:25:16 GMT -5
Vortex knew he was in no position to fight two Autobots at once, especially his old friend and comrade. Still, he'd gotten himself into this mess, and with his tail rotor out, a ground escape was his only option, which, against two Autobots still mostly capable of flight, would lead to deactivation or capture, and Vortex wasn't big on either.
"I can take off my mask and visor, Twister. What's your excuse?" He taunted back, part of him feeling like he was back on Cybertron, and this was just another one of their arguments. The organic life around him, and the Autobot insignia on Twister, however, reminded him that he wasn't on Cybertron, and they weren't having a friendly argument. They were on different sides now, and Vortex had to lock down his rotors to keep them from pulling him backwards as they spun in extreme irritation. Reaching back as they landed, he detached one of the rotors, a trick he'd installed without Onslaught's knowledge or consent, and held it lake a blade. There was only one in each set that could do it, but it was always the one that was still intact after a crash. Switching the hands that held his weapons, he held it in front of him like a sword, parrying Twister's attacks, and jumped to dodge the incoming fire from the jet, firing his glue gun at the jet's feet and hands in response.
(did they part ways before or after Vortex became a Combaticon, and does Twister know?)
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Post by Thunderhead on Oct 22, 2009 12:21:52 GMT -5
Again, a volley of glue globules. One found its mark on the end of Thunderhead's chain gun, clogging the triple barrels. Inspecting the mess as he strafed to the right to avoid the rest of the incoming globules, he disregarded the weapon for now. Holstering it, hoping to clear away some of the glue, he armed his Energon sniper cannon and locked onto the Decepticon, whose name, judging from the transmissions between the two helicopters, was Vortex.
This time, it wasn't a simple HE missile to be loosed from Thunderhead's launchers. Instead, he had decided to take no chances in eliminating the threat and fired a Sky Hydra multi-warhead missile. Halfway to its target, the missile's metal casing split in two and broke away, exposing the twenty small missiles hidden within. Twenty jet motors roared into life and the missiles were launched from within their carrier, swarming towards Vortex and bearing down on him with surprising speed.
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Post by Twister on Oct 22, 2009 17:52:21 GMT -5
(I think she probably would have known, especially if it was recent.)
Her red optics glared at Vortex as she leapt to one side of him and then flipped backwards to clear herself from the missiles in case they initiated a big time explosion. She had little time to speak immediately unless she wanted to be hit by them first. Having cleared the area enough-or at least she hoped it was enough, she was able to move a bit more freely now.
Twister wasn't too surprised by seeing Vortex use his main rotors as weapons, she'd seen Blackout and Grindor use them before too. Theoretically, she could use hers as a last resort as well, but she hated doing so while she still had her main melee weapons available. She readjusted her grip on the bladed pole arms, reactivating the missile launchers that were now located on each of her shoulders. She pointed her right arm forward, and from the lower half of it, there was a heavy mechanical whir as the gattling gun from her helicopter attack mode rose up and shifted into view, opening fire immediately.
While Vortex already had to deal with Thunderhead's missiles, she fired two short burst barrages from the multi barreled, rapid fire weapon at but mostly around Vortex to distract him and slow him down. "What's a mask have to do with anything? Have you been hiding your true self like a coward this whole time? I doubt anyone wants to see the real you anyway." Twister replied, uncaring if she was missing the point or not. Besides, she'd seen his mask and visor off before anyway, but only on few, rare occasions.
On a private, secondary frequency, she sent Thunderhead a text: 'What's your name, Autobot?'
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Post by Vortex on Oct 23, 2009 10:12:44 GMT -5
Vortex was in deep slag now, and he knew it. He didn't have any time to attempt to replace his tail rotor, and wouldn't have been keen on trying it if he did have time. The missiles bearing down on him from the jet would impact in mere seconds, and he also had Twister's attacks to deal with. Slag it all to the pit! There's no other way... Replacing the rotor blade he'd been holding, he jumped into the air as high as he could, and transformed, putting out as much power as possible before his uncontrolled spinning caused him to crash. Some of the warheads missed him, some barely grazed him, and a lucky few exploded along his underbelly, bending his cargo bay doors inward, and damaging the underside of his tail boom.
He began losing altitude almost as soon as he'd gained it. Smoke slowly pouring our from his cargo bay and the gash in his tail rotor, he crashed back to the ground, being fortunate enough that his top rotors remained operational, for the most part. He didn't transform back into robot mode, however, which was odd. He seemed to be waiting for something...
(it wasn't necessarily recent. It happened before Arc was brought online)
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Post by Thunderhead on Oct 25, 2009 5:53:03 GMT -5
This time Thunderhead really was smiling. At least he hadn't completely missed, for a lucky few warheads had caught Vortex and sent him right back down to the ground as he transformed and pounded at his rotors to escape the attack.
For now, with that glue upon his wing, the Autobot remained grounded. He watched as Vortex, now in vehicle mode, thudded to the ground facing his opponents. He didn't revert to alt-mode. Odd. Was he waiting for something... or someone?
Keeping his sniper cannon trained on the Decepticon and boosting his scanner range in case Vortex had any reinforcements coming, he answered the private message sent to him by his ally Twister. "Name's Thunderhead," he began, keeping a close optic on his scanner. "Twister, isn't it? Judging from your radio banter, you and Vortex are old friends."
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Post by Twister on Oct 25, 2009 18:34:40 GMT -5
Twister watched one of her shots hit the lower part of his fuselage/underbelly, grazing the nearest skid, fairly satisfied at seeing having to go defensive for just a bit if anything else. "Aye, we practically grew up together. We know each other well. And nice to meet you." She kept her red optics on Vortex, watching his slightly smoking helicopter form wait on the ground, rotors at idle, waiting for something. Was he waiting for her to attack, or was he calling for back up? She knew the Decepticon frequencies, and thus far, she detected no transmissions taking place.
Twister spun her pole arms once with a brisk and patient attitude, flicking them around her able hands as she remained in her fighting stance. She did not deactivate her missiles. "What are you waiting for, ole buddy?" she inquired with a slight mutter.
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Post by Vortex on Oct 26, 2009 14:45:28 GMT -5
Vortex was going through his options. He could attempt to take one of them down, but that would leave the other to finish him off. Neither of them was close enough for him to try to subdue and use as a hostage/shield either. That left only a few other choices, all of them most likely leading to capture or destruction. Slag....well, I won't say I didn't try... With a whirring of gears and cogs, Vortex transformed, and started running. His glue gun was put into subspace as he ran, so he wouldn't lose it if he was hit, or if he tripped. This is not going to end well.... Vortex was sure he wasn't going to get away, but he was going to try to get away.
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Post by Thunderhead on Oct 27, 2009 6:56:17 GMT -5
"Wait... Is he trying to run?"
Thunderhead could barely believe his optics. Vortex was actually trying to escape on foot. It wasn't as if he had any other choice, of course, but it was still quite amusing to watch.
But then the jet realised that, for all the fun he was having watching this futile attempt to outrun a pair of aerial Autobots, he was letting the Decepticon get away. He raised his left arm, lining up a shot with his sniper cannon and charging the weapon. The muzzle of the weapon glowed with an intense orange light as he readied a shot, aiming for Vortex's rotors. With the target acquired and the hit all but assured, he opened fire, unleashing a fearsome bolt of Energon that left an orange trail through the air as it bore down on Vortex.
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