A Team Effort
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| "A Team Effort" | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive) | ||||||||||||
| First published | September 23, 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Written by | Jesse Wittenrich | ||||||||||||
| Illustrations by | Casey Coller | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Wings Universe | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 42pp | ||||||||||||
A strange meteorite approaches Cybertron as the Decepticon Warlords struggle for power.
Synopsis
In a Decepticon bunker, three of Megatron's men, Abacus, Datamine, and Deadbolt are hunkered down. While Abacus goes off on a religious rant about how great their leader is, the other two aren't so sure, particularly as Megatron seems to be ignoring their requests for backup. While they're still arguing, the Autobots blow up the bunker.
The explosion is relayed to the Decepticon War Council, who discuss how the Elite Guard is seeking to wipe them out, and also discuss ways to destroy the Autobots first.
Elsewhere, Stealth Team member Sprocket has an imaginary conversation with Councilor Halogen, much to the annoyance of Rumbler.
The Decepticon Warlord Gutcruncher returns to his base from the War Council meeting and talks to Charger, who thinks he's pinpointed the location of a particular celestial object. He has already sent Take-Off to secure transport. Unfortunately Take-Off is an idiot.
Tap-Out, Rumbler and Sprocket join their leader Powerflash, who informs them that they have a new mission and presents them with a recording of Sentinel Major to explain.
In a neutral bar, Take-Off attempts to secure the help of Axer's ship. Unfortunately his ceaseless blabbing about the asteroid they're looking for and how great Gutcruncher is annoys Axer, who points out that there's an Elite Guard Autobot across the room listening to them. Needless to say, Take-Off doesn't secure Axer's services or ship, and the Elite Guardsman gets clean away.
The Guardsman in question is Delta Seeker, whose report is included in Sentinel Major's message to Powerflash's team. Sprocket thinks its a trap, but Powerflash has devised a plan, for which they'll need some electronic paint.
Sentinel Major meets with Magnum to report he's given the mission to Powerflash's Stealth Team. Magnum is pleased at the Elite Guard's progress in taking down the Decepticon Warlords, but not the recent loss of the Combaticons. Sentinel is annoyed that Magnum wants to take Metalhawk's Strike Team off the front lines, leaving Sentinel with only the Fast Attack Team in reserve. After Magnum leaves Sentinel's office, Sentinel literally runs into Ricochet, and finds that one of the datapads Ricochet is carrying is a acquisition request from Powerflash for a spaceship, with Sentinel's forged signature on it.
In preparation for their mission, Tap-Out and Powerflash are repainted, while Sprocket rambles about how he was taught to paint by Sensei Yoketron, despite Rumbler pointing out the flaws in his story. The repainting done, Powerflash and Tap-Out decide on their new identities as two neutrals, Bad Boy and Dealbreaker respectively.
Take-Off admits to Gutcruncher and Charger that he failed to get hold of Axer's ship, but claims to have a lead on another ship. He subsequently confides to Roadgrabber that he doesn't, and ropes Roadgrabber into helping him track down a ship.
Rumbler admires the Darklon, the ship Powerflash bought, while Sprocket claims to have made friends with the ship's computer. The pair take their hiding places in a fake chest in the ship's cargo bay. "Dealbreaker", meanwhile, meets with Take-Off to offer him the ship's services. When Take-Off starts blabbing again, Roadgrabber keeps him quiet and the two Decepticons take up Dealbreaker's offer. They head to the Darklon where the two Decepticons meet "Bad Boy". The disguised Autobots convince Take-Off of their veracity, and he and Roadgrabber report back to Gutcruncher. Charger is unimpressed that Take-Off didn't more thoroughly check it out, but all Gutcruncher is interested in is whether they can use it to get to the asteroid.
Gutcruncher turns out to be more than impressed with the ship once they lift off. Take-Off, however, reports that he may have momentarily detected two Autobot signatures in the hold. Gutcruncher orders him to get Charger to track down the signatures while he talks with the two neutrals. He proceeds to the bridge to find the two chairs empty and the auto-pilot on. "Bad Boy" quickly gets the drop on the Decepticon and reveals he's an Autobot before slapping a pair of stasis cuffs on Gutcruncher. While Tap-Out takes the prisoner to a cell, Powerflash heads down to release Rumbler and Sprocket. In the cargo hold, he attempts to bluff the three searching Decepticons long enough to get the drop on them, but blows his cover. He does manage to release Rumbler and Sprocket, however, and Rumbler's repeater sees the three Decepticons flee for their lives.
As the Decepticons run down corridors, Roadgrabber keeps firing behind them as "covering fire". Charge becomes so incensed that he mentally snaps, knocking Take-Off out and attempting to throttle Roadgrabber. When Rumbler and Sprocket arrive, he attacks them as well and is laid out by a punch from Rumbler.
The four Decepticons, all in the same cell, are thought to be neutralized, however Charger's wild mental break seems to have made him immune to the stasis cuff's submissive effect. He shorts out both Gutcruncher's cuffs and the energy bars imprisoning them.
The Darklon arrives at the asteroid, and the Autobots establish that it does, as the Decepticons had suspected, contain a power source of immense proportions that is emitting dangerous radiation levels. Powerflash instructs Tap-Out to fetch Charger to help check the power source out. Charger, Take-Off and Roadgrabber are making their way to the ship's exit however, and Tap-Out finds the cell empty. He doesn't have time to alert the other Autobots before Gutcruncher renders him unconscious and rigs up an explosive that will destroy the ship.
Powerflash and Rumbler disembark from the Darklon and are ambushed by Charger's group who has availed themselves of weapons from the armory. Sprocket emerges a short time later with the tracking equipment to find his comrades at gunpoint, but confides to them that he neglected to recharge the weapons after their last battle. Gutcruncher announces over the ship's intercom that the Decepticons now hold all the cards. While Roadgrabber stays on the ship, the other Decepticons and the Autobots track down the source of the energy, a crystalline monolith in a crater. Gutcruncher is transfixed by the sight of it, and places his hands on it. Suddenly it begins glowing and emitting rays of light which zaps everyone present.
Gutcruncher recovers first, and the other soon after, but when he orders them to transform so they can drive back to the ship, no one is able to. They instead walk back to the ship, where Roadgrabber has Tap-Out tied up. The Decepticons board the ship, but the three following Autobots are able to stop the door from closing and force it open. Gutcruncher heads to the bridge to activate the ship's autodefences, leaving the other three Decepticons to fight the Autobots, but with four against three, and some strange additional strength bestowed on them by the crystal's power, the Autobots triumph. Powerflash confronts Gutcruncher on the bridge, however the Warlord reveals he's planted a bomb on the ship and attempts to detonate it. The ship isn't destroyed, much to his surprise, and Rumbler punches out Gutcruncher.
Back on Cybertron, Rest-Q checks over Powerflash and says he'll be able to transform again when the effects of the radiation wear off. Whenever that is. Sentinel Major congratulates the team on a job well done. Tap-Out reveals that he had relocated Gutcruncher's bomb from the ship and it had instead destroyed the crystal monolith. Sentinel tells them that the asteroid was actually a piece of Hydrus Four, and they're now on the lookout in case any of the pieces of the asteroid survived to plummet to Cybertron.
Elsewhere, Deathsaurus observes the latest Decepticon War Council meeting, now with less Warlords thanks to Gutcruncher's capture and several of the others joining Megatron's growing army. As Deathsaurus watches, his lieutenant, Falcon detonates a bomb, killing the remaining council members. This done, Deathsaurus meets with Starscream and promotes him to lieutenant.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons |
|---|---|
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Notes
- A poll was held on the Official Transformers Collectors Club' forums to choose which Elite Guard team would be the subject of the next prose story. The Stealth Team won with nearly half the overall votes, beating the Recon Team, Artillery Team, and the Fast Attack Team.
- It was presumably Padlock, the Artillery Team's sighter, who laser-painted Datamine before Halo bombed the improper fractions outta him.
- Fourteen Decepticon Warlords are identified in this story. Legonis, Octus and the previously mentioned Thunderwing and Blue Bacchus have already been dealt with. Hook and Reflector are absorbed into Megatron's forces. Gutcruncher, Preditron, Straxus, Zardak, Cannonball and Trannis are dealt with during the story, leaving only Megatron and Deathsaurus as rivals for power.
- Several details about the make-up of the Elite Guard are mentioned for the first time outside of the OTFCC panel at BotCon 2010.
- Seven Elite Guard squads exist, including the missing Combaticons.
- The Combaticons are also known as the Special Ops Team, in addition to Metalhawk's Strike Team, Powerflash's Stealth Team, and the Fast Attack Team.
- Roadfire and Halonix Maximus command two other squads which go unnamed in this story, although they were revealed at BotCon 2010 as the Recon Team and Heavy Artillery Team.
- The proper military designation for several squads is also revealed: the Strike Team (201st), Stealth Team (45th), Roadfire's squad (349th) and Halo's squad (116th).
- Thunderclash's Alpha Team is not mentioned in Sentinel's deployment. Possibly they're still on the space mission assigned them in "The Coming Storm: Part 2".
- Sprocket's imaginary friends include Councilor Halogen, Grandus, and Sensei Yoketron.
Real world references
- The story's title is a reference to The A-Team, a popular action show from the 1980's. The Stealth Team's make-up mirrors the A-Team itself, including a leader who uses unorthodox plans, a mechanic with an attitude, a pilot who is legitimately crazy, and confidence man.
External links
- Transformers Collectors' Club exclusive fiction (must be a logged-in member to access)
