Flight Skill

The Aerialbots were in visual confirmation distance and closing into range when Starscream finally said, “On my mark, prepare to execute evasive maneuver alpha-92!”

Evasive maneuver alpha-92 was inexplicably not present in the database; Cyclonus realized an instant later that it had been deleted recently, just as Starscream said, “Now!” and the formation split from around him and fell away beneath a deep cloud bank, leaving him alone and entirely exposed. The Aerialbots opened fire simultaneously with the maneuver: Starscream’s timing had been brilliantly precise, which Cyclonus could coldly appreciate even while fury ignited his emotional circuitry. Fortunately, the instant’s warning had been sufficient: he simultaneously fired his retrothrusters at full power, and blasted directly backwards through the Aerialbots’ formation, angling just enough to pass between Silverbolt and Air Raid. The Aerialbots yelped as they instinctively tilted away from the force of his passage: then he was behind them, with a clear shot, and he had already mounted his missile launchers.

The concussion missiles went off directly amidst their formation, scattering them; Cyclonus then immediately targeted Fireflight, who as usual had been insufficiently focused on the oncoming battle and had taken evasive maneuvers too late to avoid being dazed by the missiles. Cyclonus accelerated full speed towards him, and as Fireflight frantically banked out of the way, Cyclonus fired a gravity mine that attached itself to his undercarriage and dragged him into a yelling wild tailspin.

“Fireflight!” Air Raid shouted, and executed a flip to fling himself imprudently directly towards Cyclonus, firing his lasers: Cyclonus ignored the pain and damage reports and permitted him to get into point-blank range before firing a single shot from his oxidizing laser. The blast coruscated over Air Raid’s surface and plunged within, fusing circuitry, and a moment later he was arcing down from the sky as well, streaming smoke.

The predictable move for Silverbolt with two mechs down was to order the remaining two Aerialbots to close into tighter formation while attempting to loop him. Cyclonus accelerated ahead of their flight path and then reversed backwards into the flank position Slingshot was aiming for. His aft engines were massively more dense than Slingshot’s relatively weaker frame, and Wheeljack had built all his armor twice over in the last four years, each time finding new atomic structures that were at once stronger than the armor he had once built for his Autobot companions, and light enough to meet Decepticon flight requirements.

The Aerialbot screamed aloud in pain as they collided and his nosecone crumpled into a solid block under his own momentum. Before the others could react, Cyclonus rolled over onto Silverbolt’s position, locked the Aerialbot leader’s wings to his with magnetic clamps, and ruthlessly flung them together into a brutally tight tailspin dive at near-escape velocity before disengaging with a jerk and peeling away to let Silverbolt continue careening dizzy and out-of-control towards the earth: his weak stomach for challenging flying was easy to exploit. Skydive alone remained, the most dangerous warrior of the lot, but isolated he was no serious threat. He had dived after Silverbolt, and on their separation he fired: the lasers scored a few sharp hits along Cyclonus’s wings, but nothing to impede his functionality. Cyclonus accelerated towards him, and the Aerialbot executed an elegant evasive maneuver—one which would have worked on an atmosphere-only fighter, but Cyclonus simply fired his z-thrusters and ended with one clear shot directly at Skydive’s undercarriage. He did not need a second.

He circled the area once to confirm that the Aerialbots had all been disabled: they were all either grounded or on the way there, and three of them, he judged, had taken damage that would require more than a month’s repair time. He banked and scanned ahead: the Decepticon formation had continued onward. He was far behind enough he would have to use his booster engines to catch up, and his temper was sufficiently roused that he deliberately fired them for five seconds longer than necessary. He overshot the formation with his full engines roaring and cut them to leave a cloud of smoke for Starscream to fly directly into.

“Cyclonus!” Starscream said, jerking aside slightly as he came through and found Cyclonus flying at his side. “How nice of you to rejoin us. You really should have spent more time reviewing the aerial drill. Did you have a difficult time losing the Aerialbots?”

“No, Commander,” Cyclonus said flatly. “As you gave me permission to engage the enemy if they fired upon me, I did so. They are all down. Three casualties, two disabled. My injuries are insignificant.” He fired his reverse thrusters and passed over the rest of the formation, dropping precisely back into his place at the rear.

There was a total silence on the shared aerial channel. “Is he just blowing smoke?” Blitzwing muttered to Astrotrain.

“I’m scanning for them,” Astrotrain muttered back. “They’re not in the air…” He trailed off.

“Well?” Blitzwing hissed.

“He’s not blowing smoke,” Astrotrain said a little blankly. “They’re all down. Three of them aren’t moving. The other two are in robot mode. Both damaged.”