“Destroy them!” Motormaster bellowed.  “Breach their defenses, and tear them apart!”  From his position near the front, he could see that the Autobot forces were holding, despite all expectations to the contrary.  He couldn’t understand how Optimus had managed to get so many forces in there without his knowing.

     “Sir, the fortifications are too much for the troops to destroy on their own!” Break Down shouted.  “They’re getting cut to pieces by the cannons.”

     “Then perhaps we should reinforce them!” Motormaster cried back.  “Stunticons, form Menasor!” he bellowed, and the other three Stunticons hurried to his position.  Though they hated him deeply, they knew he was powerful enough to simply force them to do it his way.

 With shifting of parts and the grinding of gears, the four remaining Stunticons formed into Menasor, minus his right arm, unfortunately.  Motormaster was still extremely upset over that, and the way it affected Menasor’s combat abilities.

     Still, a gestalt is a gestalt, and Menasor lumbered forward, shrugging off laser cannons and ppc blasts.  Reaching out with one hand, he crushed one of the emplacements before it could shoot him in the face, then turned his attention to the wall in front of him.  Pulling his arm back, he let fly against the barrier, a satisfying crunch echoing from the wall.  Several other emplacements turned their fire on him, and he staggered under the combined firepower.  Soon, however, it ceased, and Menasor looked around to see why.

     “You didn’t think we’d let you have all the fun, did you?” Devestator asked.  The lime green gestalt had also formed up, and was busy smashing away at the defenses.  The walls began to crack under their combined pounding, as three massive fists crashed down again and again on the fortifications.

     “Sir!” Prowl shouted.  “We have a problem!”  Of course, what that problem was was easily guessed, considering the terrific pounding that the walls were taking and the way the command tower was shaking.

     “How many, Prowl?” Opimtus asked, dreading the answer.  “Two!” his chief operations officer replied.  Hmm.  That was less than expected.  Where was Piranaking?  It wasn’t like the Piranacons to miss a fight.

     “Slag.” Optimus said under his breath.  There was no way Rubigen could stand up against two gestalts for long, even if one of them was wounded.  Already the walls were starting to give, and the Decepticon troops were rallying around the behemoths, waiting for the defenses to give.  And once they did, the Decepticons would swarm through the breaches, causing massive damage to the city.  That could not be allowed to happen.

     “Where are you going?” Prowl asked.  Optimus had bolted up out of his chair and was already halfway to the door when Prowl asked.  Prime turned back to face his COO, his face set.

     “To even the odds.”

     “Man, they just keep coming!” Kobal shouted.  Decepticon troops were starting to reach the walls away from the two gestalts, using their dead for cover as they came.  It didn’t look like it would be long before they were assaulting the defenders directly.  Which was something the group of four was definitely not looking forward to.

     “Just keep shooting.” Cable replied.  “They can’t last forever.”

     “Yeah, but neither can we.” Chamber said.  Already they were almost out of recharged clips, and it wouldn’t be long before they could do nothing but watch their enemies advance.

     “Well then,” Dogfight said, popping a fresh clip into his weapons, “Let’s make these shots count.”  Taking aim, which was rather unusual for him, Dogfight fired, picking off a ‘Con who had almost reached the wall.  Two more were dropped by Kobal and Cable, and a fourth was blown apart by Chamber.  For all that, however, it seemed the Decepticons were in no mood to fall back.  They continued to advance, taking no heed of the casualties they were suffering.

     All over the city, such scenes were being played out.  Though the Autobots gunned down dozens of Decepticons, more simply came to take their place.  Fighting on, despite the seemingly unstoppable horde of Deceoticon troops, each and every Autobot there that day knew there could be no retreat.  The Decepticons here would take no prisoners, allow no quarter.  And though their leader would never have approved of it, the Autobots each made similar vows to themselves.

     “All right guys, here we go.” Dogfight shouted, as the first Decepticon made it to the wall.  The lead trooper to top the defenses was massive, a hulking behemoth armed with a pair of shoulder-mounted laser cannons.  When his head rose above the top of the wall, he let out a huge laugh when he saw the defenders.

     Of course, Chamber and Cable weren’t about to put up with that.  Dropping their weapons, both laid into the ‘Con, forceful blows slamming into his head.  The Decepticon’s gloating laughter died quickly, as stars appeared in his vision.  Grunting in pain, he relaxed his grip on the edge, toppling onto the ground below.

     “One down,” Cable said,  “And only dozens to go.” Chamber finished.  He brought his fists down on another Decepticon’s head, sending him dropping down.  Beside him, Dogfight popped off several more shots, and a few more ‘Cons dropped, one screaming as everything below his waist was melted away.

     But no matter how hard they fought, no matter how many Decepticons fell to Autobot laser fire, the defenders could not hold them off indefinitely.  At last, they crested the defenses in force, no longer coming over in ones and twos but in dozens.  The Autobots were forced to fall back to the city, abandoning the fortified defenses and retreating to the streets.

     At the same time, the two gestalts finally managed to pound through the wall, ripping huge entrances for their smaller companions.  The Autobots nearby toppled from their posts to the ground below, or were crushed as Devastator and Menasor compacted the walls, squeezing them together.  Cheering for the gestalts and howling their own war cries, the Decepticons swarmed into the city, shooting up buildings and Transformers with equal abandon.  Faced with multiple breakthroughs and Decepticons in the city, Prowl was momentarily stunned.  Fortunately, he did not allow himself to stay that way for long.

     “All units, fall back!” he cried into the comm line.  The message went out to the hundreds of Autobots still fighting on the walls, who were shocked at the order.  Many of the troopers here were younger Transformers, built after the end of the Great War, and with little experience in battle.  Of course, not everybody could be so described.

     “Fall back three blocks, and set up a defensive perimeter!” Ironhide cried, gathering together straggling groups of soldiers.  Many were unknown to him, and they, in turn, only knew him by reputation.  But he was widely known as a fierce fighter, so the Autobots he gathered together agreed, without saying a word, to follow his lead.

     Scenes like these were being played out all over Rubigen.  While the Decepticons could often crush isolated pockets trapped on the walls, most of Rubigen’s defenders were able to fall back into the city, from which they launched vicious counterstrikes.  Decepticon forces trying to enter the area were destroyed by booby traps and snipers, or caught in the combined fire of separate groups.  Though the outer defensive ring may have been lost, Rubigen was far from taken.

     “Wait for it.” Dogfight whispered to Kobal.  “Wait…”  They were watching yet another group of ‘Cons stream through the walls, holed up in a building which was little more than rubble.  Across the street, Cable and Chamber were also watching, waiting for Dogfight to give the signal.  At last, the last of the group hurried through the wall.  Dogfight was glad they all looked to be normal Transformers; nobody there his group couldn’t take.

     “Now!” he yelled, and he and Kobal burst out of their hiding place, weapons blazing.  Seeing them, Cable and Chamber followed suite, Chamber’s massive weapons making short work of the Decepticons.  With the element of surprise on their side, the Autobot quartet managed to wipe the Decepticon squad out, and with out taking any return fire.

     “All right, you know what to do.” Dogfight said, and the others immediately leapt to it.  Examining the Decepticon corpses, they searched for spare powerpacks, clips or weapons.  At one time, they might have felt odd about rifling through the dead’s belongings, but now they couldn’t care less.  They had a job to do, no matter how distasteful it might seem, and they were going to get it done.

     After a moment, they were finished searching.  All told, they had managed to get six new powerpacks and a dozen clips, plus a more powerful assault rifle for Cable.  Dogfight grunted and started off, motioning for the others to keep up.  Chamber matched his stride with Dogfight’s and leaned over towards him.

     “I think we have a problem.” he said.  Dogfight looked at him as though he had just Chamber had just told him the world was round.  “I mean beyond this.” Chamber continued.  “Sure, we can hold off a couple of squads of troops, and maybe delay the ‘Cons from taking the city for a while, but there are two giant killer robots out there.” he said, pointing towards the area where Menasor and Devastator were.  “And there’s no way we can stand up to them.”

     “I know.” Dogfight replied.  “But there’s nothing we can do about that.  All we can do is what we’re doing; our best.  We can’t fight gestalts, but we couldn’t fight an entire army either.  That’s what backup’s for.”  Slapping a fresh powerpack into his arm, he flipped out his rifle, checking the charge.  Almost full.  Good.

     From off to the left came a huge explosion, and they could all see a plume of smoke rise up over the tops of the buildings.  “Primus.” Chamber breathed.  “That was near Ironhide’s position.  Think the gestalts are advancing?”

     “I’d bet on it.” Dogfight replied.  Motioning towards the area, they both watched as a lime-green fist smashed a building aside, revealing Devestator in all his glory.  This was definitely bad.