Huston, We Have a Problem (Open)

[Espionage]

Had she been in her bot for she would have fixed Red Alert with a glare. ~"I'm not looking to freeload. The best way to avoid Decepticons is to fly under the radar and hanging out at their enemy's base is not the best way to go about doing so. Sometimes I might need a little extra help but once I can handle myself again I'm gone, I never stay for long."~ Her engine revved in frustration and offense. ~"You Autobots preach about fighting in the name of freedom and yet here you are criticizing someone for choosing to be who they are instead of pretending to be what they're not and running off to get themself killed by doing so. And you wonder why some of us don't take a side in the fraggin' war. You know why the Decepticons go after neutrals instead of leaving us alone? Because they think that we should be on their side rather than no side at all, that we shouldn't have the choice of staying out of this war. So why don't you take a look at yourself and see if you're really on the right side."~

[Red Alert]

~"I never said you had to pick a side!"~ Red Alert retorted. ~"I'm stating that it gets difficult for us to support ourselves when we have Neutrals using up our supplies. If you don't want to hang around base, then fine! It's one less thing for me to worry about. I have enough as it is."~ He vented air in frustration, trying to calm himself down. It wouldn't be good for him to have an attack now, especially because he did not trust the femme at all. He did decide that he was now far enough away from the Decepticon base to risk communications. <~"Red Alert to base, do you copy?"~>

[Espionage]

~"At least you have supplies..."~ Espionage muttered. ~"I get that you need supplies for the troops and all but you'd probably be considered lucky by a lot of the people I've met. Most nuetrals who stay on the move so they won't be found have to scavenge for what they need to survive to the next day just to scavenge again and those who find someplace with enough resources to support them living there and take the risk of settling in one place live in constant fear of the day when their haven is found and an army comes to destroy everything they love and strip the area of everything they need. And one would be hard pressed to say if they're luck or not if they happen to survive that day. Given that it's a miracle that neutrals don't come knocking at your door more often."~ She tried to calm down a bit. Getting upset like this wasn't going to help at all, it would only add more stress and expend extra energy. Still, it frustrated her. At times it really did seem that the Autobots did not understand what most neutrals went through, as if not fighting in the war meant you carried no strain from it.

[Red Alert]

Red Alert vented air once more and grew quiet. He had other things that he should be thinking about other than making a verbal argument with a Neutral. He'd probably overstepped some lines, but he was already high-strung from space travel and his miscalculated landing. He muttered a quick ~"Sorry..."~ before turning his thoughts to his job. Without knowing what was already in place at their new base, Red Alert wasn't sure how much he could plan the security of the base. He could sense a meeting with at least Ironhide. Normally, he'd want to meet with Jazz, but Jazz had died just over twenty years ago. He offered a silent prayer to Pimus, as he always did when he thought of his old friend, that Jazz's Spark had found peace within the Great Spark.

[Espionage]

Espionage was stunned into silence for a moment, all too prepared for a shouting match by how things had been going. It was hard to tell by the mech's tone whether it was a sincere apology or not but if it was continuing the argument with the same aggression she had before would not help anything. Besides, he seemed to be focusing on something else. After a moment she vented a sigh. ~"Sorry, just seems like more often than not everyone assumes that by not taking a side in the war we aren't effected by it at all. It gets... frustrating..." She lowered her voice slightly as if the following was more being said to herself. ~"It probably doesn't help that I'm likely a bit on edge from relocating again and the area I was just in..."~ Her voice then slipped into a slight accent as she muttered to herself. It didn't seem particularly suiting but somehow it did seem more natural. ~"C'mon, girl, keep it together. Ya ain't dead yet and if ya want it to stay that way best to keep a clear mind. It'd be pretty embarrassing to lose ya life to a distraction because you were stressin' when ya weren't needin' to..."~

[Red Alert]

Red Alert continued driving throughout the entire day, not stopping for anything, and when night began to fall, he showed no sign of stopping for recharge. His thoughts were completely wrapped up, though he responded to any questions or comments that might come his way, and thoughts of recharge were not included. He could go a while longer without recharging, and it was likely that once he got to base and began working, he wouldn't recharge at least until he was done. ~"We're around halfway there, give or take some distance."~

[Twister]

About 5 miles to the South East from the shore of Alabama, Twister had recently arrived on Earth with a brand new alternate mode, and she was enjoying it! It was a black EC135 (Eurocopter) with gold stripes. The helicopter was fairly quiet for its type of aircraft; this was mainly because the fenestron tail rotor system.

The black Eurcopter buzzed along at a surprisingly low altitude and high airspeed, just a few hundred above the tallest buildings in the areas beyond the coast.

Despite the nice weather, Twister didn't feel so nice. Something odd was nagging at her processor, and boy did that make her irritable. She decided to make the most of the surging energy within her when she detected two Cyberronian signals a handful of nautical miles from her current position at altitude. It was time to get herself and Blackfire some action on this new, interesting planet.

Accelerating, she prepared for a rapid autorotative descent once she got within a mile from her target, choosing to land on a small building not far from where they were driving currently. Releasing Blackfire once a firm landing on the small store was established, Twister rolled and bounced off the building just meters from their 4 o'clock position. ~//"We got ourselves a lucky target today!"\\~ Twister commented to Blackfire gleefully over their symbiotic bond.

Blackfire soared high in an arc towards their 9 o'clock position, prepping to flank Espionage and Red Alert almost directly to their left. She let out screech as she got closer and expelled a breath of bright blue electric energy bolts from her her jaws straight for Espionage while Twister darted up on Red Alert's rear, firing her gattling gun on her arm for starters as she got ready for a direct assault.

((Chas said a Con was needed so here she is! ))

[Espionage]

~"Alright, thanks."~ Espoinage answered. She had calmed down significantly from earlier but she was a bit upset with herself. She had lost her head and that wasn't good. Granted she probably needed to vent a bit but she should have at least done it in private instead of getting in a shouting match. But for now she pushed the frustration back to stay calm and focused. Half way there, that was good, if things kept on this way they should make it there just fine.

Suddenly for seemingly no apparent reason her doors opened slightly and then closed again in a sort of twitch. Something wasn't right she could sense it. Even in her alt mode her doorwings remained sensitive and she'd trained herself to pay mind to changes in her environment. Twister was quiet for an aircraft of her type but her approach still disturbed the atmosphere enough that she would not go unnoticed by Espionage. {"Slag..."} she thought as she began to focus more on the disturbance. She got the impression the newcomer wasn't friendly. They didn't seem to be making any attempt to contact either of them, their signal was masked, they seemed to be keeping some distance but at the same time... yes, this person was stalking after them. ~"Heads up, I think we've got company..."~ she said quietly to Red Alert. As she said it she said it she picked up on slight sounds indicative of a second newcomer. She tried to keep track of both strangers without indicating that she was aware of them being there. Of course, that wouldn't last long, not with how the smaller one was now headed straight for her. She swerved suddenly and transformed going into a roll as the edge of the symbiote's attack hit her before she ducked behind cover and readied her null ray trying to get a view of Red Alert's situation and seeing the larger femme. By the looks of things she was going to need Red Alert's help getting out of this one, she wasn't exactly the most well armed femme, but at the least she could try and help him out. She aimed the null ray at the rotary framed femme and took a shot. Her aim wasn't the best so there was no real guarantee that it would help much at all but it was better than doing nothing.

[Red Alert]

Red Alert had heard the beating of the approaching rotors right as Starsurfer spoke about company. When Twister began firing at him, he transformed and turned around, bringing out his rifle to fire at the helicopter femme. ~"Where'd the second one go?"~ He asked as he kept his attention on Twister, at the same time listening for Blackfire. ~"We're going to want to finish this soon, before too much damage is caused to the city."~

[Twister]

Twister let on a cocky smirk as the attacks came at her. She was quick and nimble as they would soon observe; she was able to react spontaneously thanks to repetitive training and experience from lots of improvisation over the years on Cybertron even before the War, and having learned from some of the best Autobot fighters was a huge plus. Twister didn't need to execute too many flashy moves to avoid these return shots either, she just did a wide cross step, ducking low to avoid the null ray, while she narrowly dodged the rifle shot, which barely grazed her right shoulder.

Blackfire meanwhile, continued to move past Espionage for a moment or two and then angled vertically upwards to twist around and shoot an electricity blast at Red Alert's backside from almost directly above while Twister jumped over Espionage withdrew her left pole arm as she spun around 180 degrees in mid air and swiped at Espionage's left side from the rear.

Twister wasn't really interested in causing reckless damage to the city. She just wanted to smash around some Autobots, never minding that (one was a neutral of course).

[Espionage]

Espionage's doorwings twitched as she tracked the symbiote. ~"Above you!"~ she answered Red Alert as Twister jumped over her. She turned to face the helicopter only to see the attack coming at her. She quickly twisted and ducked down to avoid it, the pole arm clipping the corner of one of her doorwings and causing her to let out a small scream of pain. The sudden shock to her sensors caused her to drop her weapon and fall to the ground. She quickly sat up, watching Twister as she frantically felt around for her null ray. ~"I agree. If you have have any ideas about how to go about doing so that will end favorably for us I would love to hear them."~ She hoped she would not have to use her ability, doing so would blow her cover for sure. As paranoid and well informed as Red Alert was said to be he would surely know her reputation and hers was not exactly a common ability. But if it came down to it she would use it to possibly give herself a better chance. She'd survived this long, she was not about to lay down and die.

[Red Alert]

Red Alert moved as soon as Espionage shouted, turning and firing at Blackfire, then firing a couple of shots at Twister. ~"First one coming to mind for now is transforming and making a break for it."~ He was silently hoping that it was a random attack, and that neither Twister nor Blackfire knew who he was. He'd rather not deal with that right at this moment. ~"There's the possibility that they'll give up, or we'll find somewhere we can get out of their sight and mask our signals to hide better."~

[Twister]

Twister pivoted 90 degrees to Espionage's left, getting some shots bouncing along her upper chest plate and shoulders. Her upper arms tended to take a good bit of impact in fights as she turned about to move, as did the sides of her legs.

But she didn't let the piercing shots stop her. With a determined grimace on her face plates, she dove for a strike meant to be fatal.

Meanwhile, Blackfire almost got her right wing clipped as she tried to target Red Alert. Her mouth had opened prior to the return shots. She tried to keep Red busy while Twister focused on Espionage, but as a result her belly got grazed by a shot. She wavered in flight, the force of the blow affecting her structure and performance more significantly than Twister. The electric blast was delayed as she zipped over Red Alert's head then made a sharp angled u-turn back around before taking another shot at him.

Unless she was unable to fly, Blackfire refused to seek refuge from her master if the larger femme was fairing well.

[Espionage]

~"Sounds like a decent enough plan to me!"~ Espionage replied quickly as she continued feeling around for her null ray. When she saw Twister dive at her she ducked to the side and rolled to avoid the strike. It prevented the blow from being fatal it came at a price and she let out a scream as her left doorwing was pierced through and she found herself laying face down on the ground. It was then that she finally spotted her weapon and snatched it up quickly, twisting herself to fire a shot at Twister point blank, trying her best to ignore the immense pain caused by jarring her now impaled doorwing.