Chapter Text
Inspiration for this chapter comes from the poem Suicide in the Trenches by Siegfried Sassoon.
The battle was going as most other battles had gone on earth; in favour of the Autobots. By now the all familiar stage of "leaders wrestle while the rest of us miss the enemy by miles" had been reached.
Except this time it didn't quite happen that way.
By unspoken agreement, put in place when they had realised the problem of having a Combiner team with no mortal enemy facing them; namely friendly fire, the Combaticons were not supposed to be at the battle. The Protectobots were occupied on the other side of the Earth, a town there had been badly affected by an earthquake and it was in dire need of help. Optimus Prime had not, of course, refused and so the Protectobots did not show up for the battle over yet another power plant and the energy it produced.
Normally their counterparts on the battlefield, the Combaticons, wouldn't have shown up, instead somehow becoming occupied by something else. Maybe a business deal for Swindle or a tactical session for Onslaught. As long as they weren't on the battlefield anything would do.
How the Decepticons knew which Autobots were occupied at the moment was not really an issue (in any event it was usually the human information network that tipped them off, it was a topic persistently ignored by the Prime in order to preserve diplomatic relations with the humans), the system worked and that was all there was to it.
When Vortex and Swindle suddenly appeared to join the battle the Autobot officers didn't even think to worry. Notoriously disobedient team members of a psychotic combiner team showing up to a battle where they weren't wanted? Not unlikely.
When shots began firing from orbit they began to worry slightly, although Blast Off did show a preference for being as far away as possible from his team, preferably in orbit, and so his presence there was not too questionable as it allowed him to fight without having to be near anyone.
However when Brawl, known for being anything but stealthy, managed to sneak up to the sniping Bluestreak they knew that this had been planned, whether by Onslaught or Megatron they didn't know. After a flurry of communication between the officers, minus Prime who was still engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Megatron (who hadn't looked at all surprised when the Combaticons arrived), they ordered Sideswipe to back up their sniper. The frontliner had casually been shooting at one of the Seekers from behind a rock and had no problem with brawling with Brawl.
That was when the battle truly started to turn because as soon as Sideswipe reached the hollow in the cliff where Brawl and Bluestreak were fighting, Onslaught dropped in from above. If it hadn't been for his gladiator's reflexes Sideswipe could have been crushed under the tactician's heavy bulk and momentum. As it were, Onslaught didn't seem fazed by Sideswipe's quick roll and relentlessly pursued him. Brawl meanwhile, had basically put Bluestreak out of the battle by slamming the poor sniper's helm against the rock a few times and turned to help his team leader. Between the two, no matter how quick his reactions, Sideswipe wasn't able to dodge all their lunges and punches. He'd managed to get back on his feet by throwing Brawl off of his own when Onslaught managed the first serious punch to Sideswipe's helm, rattling him for a short moment. It only got worse as the fight between the three continued, Brawl managing to stand up again while Sideswipe was distracted. Sideswipe did manage to get a few punches in on the other two but eventually he was overwhelmed and the two Combaticons began mercilessly tearing into him.
Now, as mentioned previously, there had been by this point many unusual events in this particular battle on earth which did a lot to tip the delicate balance upon which the war rested, this time in favour of the Decepticons. If the battle had ended then and there it would have been a loss for the Autobots. Unfortunately for the Decepticons the frontliner two of them were presently trying to turn into scrap metal had a twin. A psychotic twin who was far more ruthless than the other and, when royally fragged off, even more prone to reckless action than Sideswipe.
Onslaught and Brawl beating his brother into stasis shot Sunstreaker's anger meter far past "royally fragged off" and straight into the danger zone of "psychotic rage".
The sound of Sunstreaker's wrathful, bloodthirsty roar signalled the beginning of the end of the battle.
Originally posted on ff.net.
Eli