The sniper and the Lone Wolf

[Deleted]

Characters: Arcee & Perceptor
Location: Cybertron during the war
Content Warnings: Violence
Plot Summary: Arcee's mission runs into some big setbacks leading to her needing help.



The faint sounds of blaster fire reached Arcee's audio receptors as she made her way through the dark rubble and cybertronian strewn streets of Iacon. The capital had been a beautiful and shining place before the war. Now it was a crumbling shell of it's former self. So many had tried to defend the capital when the war broke out and most had lost their lives against the Decepticon horde. Arcee's optic's flicked down as she passed by a young mech and she felt her spark constrict in pain. The war was horrible and in many optic's had gone on too long with no regard for the lives being lost.

The femme knew Optimus Prime and those who followed him tried hard not to take lives and protect their brothers and sisters. Many of the Decepticion's didn't have the same feelings fueling Arcee's anger towards them. The femme paused in an alleyway letting her sensors scan for any threats. The large central square was a lot of open space but in order to reach her destination she had to cross it. The Iacon hall of records was still intact and Arcee was ordered to find if the hall had been infiltrated by the Decepticon's. Arcee remained in a crouch her optic's sweeping the darker areas around the square for anyone hiding in them.

"If I get through here without incident I'll thank Primus directly." The femme joked softly under her breath just to hear something besides the blaster fire and screams of the wounded and dying.


Venting a breath Arcee stood fluidly from her crouch and started to make her way across the square her blasters at the ready. She moved carefully scanning the area every few feet knowing she still had a long way to go. The femme got halfway across the square before the scrap hit the fan. Several Con's suddenly spilled from a half collapsed building heading straight for the smaller femme. Blaster fire rained around Arcee forcing her to back peddle and return fire. Blue optic's quickly took in the number of Con's moving to surround her and she knew she was outnumbered. Another sound sent a jolt of fear through the femme's spark and she lifted her gaze long enough to see the second wave of the threat. Several airborne insecticon's were heading for her position as well no doubt as reinforcements for the ground troops she was facing.

"Scrap...."

[Perceptor]

A Cybertronian tank sped across the landscape, its rocket thrusters boosting it to abnormal speeds for such a large, unstreamlined vehicle. Perceptor had left the Ark on a standard Wrecker spacecraft, which he dubbed the Event Horizon. It touched down not long ago and Perceptor left it for the other Wreckers.

But on his way, Perceptor saw a swarm of Insecticons flying towards one direction. He was intrigued. They rarely did that. He followed.

The Insecticons led Perceptor to an Autobot, surrounded by Decepticons. His cannon spun around, the telescope end zooming in on the Autobot. Lightly armored. His cannon would do too much splash damage. Perceptor transformed and pulled his sniper rifle from its back holster. Its barrel extended as an eyepiece came down over Perceptor's right optic. The telescope on his left shoulder and his rifle were both aimed at the Decepticons. After taking note of the wind conditions by observing the debris on the ground, he calculated the trajectory of his shot, taking into account air resistance.

Perceptor pulled the trigger as his scope swiveled slightly, aiming at another Con. During the shot's flight, Perceptor calculated the trajectory required to hit his next target. The first shot melted through two Decepticons, leaving gaping holes in their chassis. The direction of his rifle changed slightly and Perceptor fired it again. The shot tore through the Decepticon on the far side, and left a molten pit on the ground near them.

"Pulverized," Perceptor said with a smirk. The Wreckers did not seem to have gotten the memo about sparing their enemies. He stored away his rifle and retrieved his blasters. "Come on then! Pick on someone your own size!"

[Deleted]

The sound of a shot lifted Arcee's optic's to look in the direction the rifle fire came from. Some of the Decepticon troops turned to scan the area and a few of them ended up offline thanks to the mech arriving on the scene. Arcee took advantage of the distraction her blasters being replaced by her arm blades. She launched herself into the air quickly and came down on top of another Decepticon driving him into the ground. One swift movement later and the Decepticon had been decapitated.

"Thanks for the assist." She called out as the mech got closer to even the odds a little.

The femme never stopped her movement as she headed for another Decepicon. Those who were still standing divided their attention between the femme and the mech. The Insecticon's did the same several dive bombing Perceptor in an attempt to keep him from taking down the ground troops. Arcee continued moving letting her ally work finding herself facing down an Insecticon. The bug dropped from the sky with surprising speed slamming into the lighter femme.

"Get off me!" Arcee spat out struggling to push the much heavier Insecticon off her.

She felt her chassis scrap across the hard ground under her as the Insecticon worked to try and snuff out her spark. The femme's optic's widened in surprise as she felt one of the bug's legs rip into her shoulder spilling energon and cutting through wires. Her left arm twitched slightly from the damage but that didn't stop Arcee from fighting. The damage only angered her and she glared up at the Insecticon. Her good arm came up and her arm blade caught the bug in the face tearing through metal. The Insecticon reared back with a high pitched shriek giving Arcee time to get out from under it.

The femme's optic's swept the area landing on the mech that had come to her rescue watching as the remaining Con's and Insecticon's worked to close in on him and cut off any retreat. Arcee's blasters came up and she sent a few volley's toward the Insecticon that had damaged her. The shot from her left blaster ended up going wide because of the damage caused nearly hitting Perceptor in the process.

"Scrap....." The femme cursed under her breath. She switched her left blaster to her blade and used her right to continue to pelt the Decepticon's with blaster fire. Some of them turned to try and engage her but the rest remained focused on Perceptor raining blaster fire down on the mech.

[Perceptor]

Huh, Perceptor thought. He didn't expect the attackers to stop focusing on Arcee just because he said so. Given her light armor, killing her first would be the most efficient strategy. He was thankful for their irrationality though. It gave Arcee time to escape. "No problem," Perceptor called out to the fembot.

The Autobots' chief scientist aimed his blasters at two mechs, pulling the triggers and blasting their heads clean off. A few shots hit his chest. A reasonable choice, given the information available to them, but they were blocked by his diamond chestplate. The faint increase in scattered infrared radiation revealed the temporary increase in carbon dioxide concentration, which meant that his chestpiece wasn't entirely unharmed. He fired off another two shots, which ended badly for another two of their attackers, and hid behind some cover.

That cover did nothing to deter flying Insecticons though, so Perceptor set about fixing that. After sliding his blasters back into his leg compartments, he pulled his sniper rifle back out and fired at the swarm. Another trigger pull, another hole carved through a Con.

Peeking out from behind his chosen piece of debris, Perceptor saw that the few melee ground troops were getting a bit too close for comfort. Transforming and backing up a bit, he waited until they reached the wall, and fired. The wall fragmented, knocking back the Decepticons. Transform. Blasters. Headshot. Headshot. Headshot. Three down, approximately a million more to go, apparently. His telescope, still angled upwards, saw another Insecticon aiming its horn's blast at him. He raised his blaster, optics focused elsewhere, and blasted the Insecticon. The Insecticon jerked its head away reflexively, and the shot landed nowhere near. A few more blasts, and it was hurt enough that it tried to fly away. Perceptor, knowing what he knew about Insecticons, wasn't about to let it call for reinforcements. He swapped his guns out, and another melting corpse landed with a loud crash.

The Wrecker moved over to Arcee, firing shots to distract their assailants. "Let's get you somewhere safe," he suggested. "You could use someone to patch you up, and I know just the place."

[Deleted]

Arcee was impressed with Perceptor's capabilities and wasn't above admitting she had needed the help. If he hadn't come along when he did she would be joining the All Spark and her body left here to rust. As she got closer to where the mech was she continued to take down Cons. It wasn't as easy with the damage that had been done but Cybertronian's were tough and could take a lot of punishment.

"You lead I'll follow." The femme replied when he suggested that they get out of here and he knew someplace safe.

The two wheeler glanced back in the direction of the Iacon hall of records and cursed again under her breath. She needed to complete her mission but she also knew trying that now was suicide. With the number of Cons crawling around the capital Arcee knew that it wasn't going to be easy to try and come back. The Cons that had attacked continued to rain hell down on them but between the two warriors their ranks thinned enough for them to eventually retreat. Arcee watched them disappear back into the ruins of the capital and she shook her head in disgust.

"Cowards..." She mumbled. Her good hand rested against her damaged shoulder her fingers stained with energon and she scowled down at the wound. She knew it was a fact of life when you fought a war but that didn't mean she liked it. She prided herself on being able to keep out of harms way. This fight had shown her once again that despite her skills and training she could be overwhelmed and that ending up wounded would happen.

"Thanks again for the save." She replied to the Mech at her side turning her optics to get a good look at him. He was an Autobot that much was obvious but she wasn't placing who he was specifically at the moment.

[Perceptor]

Having been focusing too much on far-away enemies, he missed one sneaking up and denting his rifle. He tried turning and firing, but the sensitive mechanisms within failed to activate. He threw the damaged rifle at the Decepticon, grabbed his blasters, and killed her while she was distracted. He picked up his unusable rifle and transformed.

"Climb on," said the resulting hovertank, being much larger than the ninja-like fighter. He can't help but smile at Arcee's comment. "I'd much rather they be cowards than have to fend off Decepticon hordes while carrying an injured Autobot."

Perceptor didn't introduce himself, nor did he make a beeline towards a Wrecker stronghold. Arcee had a minor shoulder wound. It wouldn't kill. Probably. Information hygiene would be something to observe, considering the number of Decepticons around. Even if they were captured, they wouldn't be able to provide any useful information about the other's mission, or who he was. He knew who Arcee was though. He faintly heard Arcee thanking him. "You're welcome," he said subconsciously.