Fading Starlight

Path shot up. "Alt WAIT!" He made a run for their position.

The explosive hit. The decepticons who were nearby were sent in every direction. The ground trembled with the shock. Path lost his footing as the ground beneath them began to crumble.

Altrock and Helixon ran to get away from the growing hole in the ground, alas they weren't fast enough to take a step or transform when it ground gave way under them.

Path scrambled away, barely managing to remain on solid ground. A huge cloud of dust and filth shot up as the ground vanished, sinking deep into the ground. The dust was stifling. "Alt! Helix! You two still alive?" He called over the comms, grabbing his rifle and trying to look down the scope into the massive hole that had just formed.

Helixon and Altrock stood up, immediately turning their backs to each other. They looked around, and Altrock got on his comms.

"We're fi-" Large bugs emerged from the darkness on all sides. "Nevermind. We aren't."

"This would not be a cool way to die." Helixon started firing at the masses.

Path immediately called back to base. "We need backup, we've got a whole swarm of insecticons trying to tear us apart!" He shot a few down, but they were difficult to hit. One had to hit them directly in the head to take them down. "Get out of there you two!"

Helixon transformed, and Altrock grabbed on not bothering to magnetize himself. A good grip would suffice. The two shot up out of the hole. Altrock let go and landed next to Path. Blaster fire followed Helixon, and successfully hit him. Helixon fell back towards the hole, transforming into bot mode as he fell to try and grab onto the edge. His hands hit the edge, but he failed to hold on. Altrock didn't even manage to grab his hand. He was horrified. Helixon had gotten injured before- it's no surprise. But facing an entire swarm of Insecticons alone? There was no one else that he worked better with, and there was no way he was just going to let him face them alone. He'd deal with Tarmac's rage later. He stood up. "I'm going in."

Path saw him fall. "Altrock! Wait!" Not breaking focus he continued to snipe the insecticons, but there were far too many. They eventually spotted him and charged, forcing him to resort to hand to hand combat. They were swarmed.

Several of the insecticons leaped towards Altrock and Helixon. One of them pinned Helixon to the ground and was only stopped from tearing him apart by Path's blaster fire.

"Bring them in alive!" A snarling voice came from the surging masses, but whoever spoke could not be identified.

Helixon pushed the insecticon corpse off and stood up. He brought out his weapons and fired furiously. Both had their backs against each other as they fought, lobbing explosives and in general putting up a good fight. A few times an insecticon got too close to Helixon, who in turn tore it to pieces. No way they were going with them dead or alive without taking a big bite out of their forces.

The swarm was overwhelming. Soon, Path could no longer see the other two members of his squad. "Mayday! We need backup!" He continued to call over the radio.

Several rushed the two autobots at once, falling into piles around them. But they just kept coming. There were too many.

"Next time Ironhide better send some real exterminators and not just us." Altrock said, smashing an insecticon against the ground. There was no quip to follow his. Altrock looked over to where he remembered Helixon being, and the spot was filled with insecticons rather than his partner. He was attacked from all angles and swept off of his pedes.

Huge metal claws grabbed them both and slapped them in binders. They struggled with the Autobots, who still fought despite being pinned down. One of the insecticons transformed and took a long spearlike weapon charged with electricity on one end. He spotted the orange bot first and shocked him, intending on stunning him enough to keep him silent. When he quit moving, he shocked the other one.

"Get them into the caves!" He howled, transforming back into his buglike alt mode.

Path was pinned down. They were swarming him now, and it was all he could do to keep them off. He was crouched against a rock formation firing at the bugs as the crawled up the sides towards him.

Helixon managed to laugh for a few seconds as he was shocked, only stopping once he was unconscious. With Altrock it took a few more seconds since he was generally in better condition than Helixon, but he remained half-conscious.

The insecticons drug them away. Autobot backup was coming, but they had their prisoners.

Path looked up as shots were fired from behind him. He saw a streak of blue as Blueshade shot in, knocking insecticons off their feet as he zoomed by them with his blades. Tarmac leapt in swinging left and right, sending the bugs flying. Several other autobots from the station surged forward, pushing back the hoard. Tarmac fought his way to Path and reached down to grab his hand and pull him up.

"You alright?" He turned to face the enemy, stepping a little in front of Path.

"I'm fine, but Alt and Helix aren't. They took them. I don't know if they're alive or dead." Path had several cuts and scratches from the insecticons but still stood as tall and straight as ever.

"Reverse! Scan for their signals!" Blueshade zipped by, shooting at more cons. Reverse was crammed into one of his compartments. Instead of training like Tarmac had told them, they'd been practicing moves and combinations of their alt modes.

There were some cool ones that Reverse had done with Blueshade that he personally liked. He also didn't mind how small the compartment was. "I've got them, barely."

"They're alive then." More insecticons came crawling up the sides of the sinkhole.

"We won't be if we don't move! Come on!" Tarmac turned and led the retreat, Path and Blueshade behind him.