Fading Starlight

"Yep okay." Altrock gave him a thumbs up. "Oh what's this? Never mind, it's a piece of scrap."

Shouts came from down the hall. Tarmac snarled as he found the item he needed and quickly stored it in his chest compartment. "Altrock, give me a grenade!" He took a grenade in his hand and made a run for the door. "Let's blast our way out of here!"

Altrock tossed him one, and followed with his weapons out and ready.

"Hey boss, you got more incoming out here." Helixon reported.

"Thought you were supposed to be distracting them!" He lobbed a grenade down the hallway just as a load of cons came barreling towards them. "Let's move! Helixon! Path! Make us an exit!"

Path set his scopes on the southern exit of the base. "Brace for impact, Reverse. This rifle's got some kick to it."

"I'm distracting most of them!" Helixon replied, in the middle of doing fancy maneuvers to avoid fire, and taking the opportunities he could to fire back. He swooped down towards the base.

"I'll be fine." Reverse answered.

Tarmac began to run, using his blasters to clear a path for their escape. Several smaller cons stepped in his way, only for him to mow right over them. He picked up one and used him as a melee weapon, knocking down other decepticons and blocking blaster fire with his husk. He'd admit it any day; he loved doing this. For each decepticon he crushed, he felt as if he was paying back the lives of all the soldiers who'd fallen during this war.

Altrock threw grenades over Tarmac's head at a few more decepticons who were approaching. "See? This works much better since you're able to use a corpse as a shield."

"Well he's kinda disintegrated now." Tarmac threw what was left of the husk at a con and kept moving. The exit was close.

Path steadied his rifle and took out a con with a shot to the head. Then a second. Then a third. The blasts were strong enough to send even the largest cons into the allspark.

Blueshade was eager to join the fight. Path could see him fidgeting where he was. If he could see him, the cons would too. "Blueshade! Be still till I give the order. Then you'll go down and help them out."

"Kept you intact though, yes?" Altrock was close behind.

Reverse continued to do his work with comms, keeping theirs private while trying to get into the 'cons.

"Uh, Tarmac, there's a big guy getting ready to jump you on the way out of the gate. Let me get him." Path looked down his scope. There was a huge decepticon sneaking out from one of the other entrances, walking towards the southern gate to block Tarmac and Altrock's escape. He was tall, maybe even taller than Tarmac. His shoulders were broad and his armor was unusual, covered in hundreds of little ridges that looked like the edges of blades. He must be one of their lieutenants.

"Not for much longer..." Path said, but before he squeezed the trigger, he heard a whistling pass overhead. Abandoning his spot, he jumped up and dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a rocket.

"Path!" Blueshade said over the comms, "Path do you read?"

"I'm fine, but our cover is blown. Big and ugly's still on the loose!" He picked up his rifle and took a shot at the large decepticon. It winged his shoulder. The con was visibly maddened by the wound and suddenly all of those little ridges stood on end, like so many quills extending from his arms, legs, and shoulders. "Blueshade, backup is now!" Path transformed, dodging more rockets and drawing their fire as Blueshade zipped down the hillside to aid the others.

Reverse was chilling in Path's chest compartment, half worrying.

"Who's this big and ugly guy you're looking at? I wanna see. I've got boring guys over here." Helixon asked. How come the rest of the team was having all the fun?

Tarmac skidded to a stop at the end of the hall. Blocking their path stood a huge decepticon. His armor was covered in spikes, and his hands had both transformed into blades. He spoke.

"I didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon." The con snarled, his faceplate twisting into a savage smile.

"Altrock, do we know this guy?" Tarmac felt uneasy, as if he'd met him before. He kept his weapons aimed at the con, both of his hands still transformed into blasters.

"I can't get a clear shot! Helixon! Get in there and even the playing field." Path called over the comms. Blueshade was almost there, dodging shots from the cons.

"Apparently he knows you." Altrock replied. Definitely never seen a guy who was spiky before, but bots can have their looks changed. He didn't sound familiar either.

"Yeah, let me blow these guys up and I'll be right over." Helixon replied. He ended his fun quickly and shot over there.

The con laughed. "Really? I've gutted enough of your friends for you to never forget me." He stalked closer, his blades dragging on the ground and sending sparks into the air.

Tarmac's optics widened and he took a step back, speechless. "I...killed you."

"Guess again." The con went to charge the two autobots, but was struck from behind by Blueshade at full force. The smaller autobot yelped and scrambled out of the way of the con, several sharp spines stuck into his own armor. Tarmac charged, locking blades with the decepticon.

"What's going on?" Path ducked under a ledge, pinned down by rocket fire. "Reverse, I need you to get out and start shooting at these guys. I've only got two hands."

Altrock cursed, optics also wide. He'd heard small bits, but not much about this guy. Just that he should be dead.

Helixon neared. He couldn't get a clear shot from this angle. He'd have to come back around. Blasts came up at him and he had to pull maneuvers. Now he was getting annoyed. He transformed, and started falling. While falling he turned mid-air to fire at those 'cons, who scattered, then transformed back into his jet mode and continued.

"Eject me." Reverse replied.