Banshee

"Schrie ich - du stirbst!" ("I scream - you die!")

BANSHEE is not the average Decepticon, if such a thing ever existed. Honourable, artistic, and with a passion for opera, Banshee is more cultured than most of her kin, painting portraits of her commanders and singing opera in her spare time. Her anachronistic Ju-87 altmode is surprisingly effective in the modern warzone, superior in agility to most jets in a dogfight, though of course she's much slower. Banshee packs a punch, carrying 250kg and 50kg bombs, R4M incendiary rockets, two Bordkanone 27mm cannons and a rear-facing 7.62mm machine gun, eschewing energy weapons in favour of old-fashioned cannons and bombs 'from a more noble era'. Unfortunately, her focus on agility and punch leaves little spare weight in her frame for armour, meaning she goes down easily... if you can hit her. In robot mode specially-modified vocal subsystems, originally designed to grant her perfect pitch and an enormous range for opera singing, have been turned into the fearsome, shattering scream that gives her the name Banshee -- systems she can use in both modes...

Description
Banshee is a tall, somewhat 'shapely' Femicon, with a sharp, authoritarian style. Her anachronistic altmode is made obvious by the folded wings of the Ju-87 Stuka on her back, and the fact that her head is the engine, gearbox, and propeller - the blades of which are folded, almost looking like pigtails. Her face is found between the two heads of the Junkers Jumo 213 engine - its inverted-V design forming the perfect place for it. She has red eyes, with the Junkers Motorwerken logo below her left eye as one might find the fleur-de-lis on a warrior-nun, and she's most commonly found with a pair of purple-tinted goggles pushed up onto her forehead with the straps dangling down on either side of her face - obviously held there magnetically. The straps wouldn't fit around her head anyway, due to its unusual shape. Her is head supported on a thick, cog-ringed neck and several hydraulic cylinders- an archaic, out-dated pattern that she seems to prefer.

Banshee has her own (themed) team of three Gumby attendants. As well as being excellent singers in their own right, the three help Banshee maintain her rather specialist ammunition stocks, as well as obtaining for her the very best refined energon whiskeys and brandies. They echo her Germanic styling.

Unteroffizier (Corporal) Sprocket is the smallest of the three. He is perhaps twelve feet tall when walking on two legs, and his altmode is an SdKfz 2, more commonly known as a Kettenrad. As well as the smallest, Sprocket is the strongest of the three, able to haul long trains of bombs, shells, bullets, and rockets between the ammo dumps and Banshee's revetment. His first response to danger is to cover Hannah and Magnus' departure with fuel, and then to try and get the ammunition he considers his responsibility out of danger.

Gefreiter (Private 1st class) Hannah and Flieger (Private) Magnus are a mini-combiner pair. Together, they form an SdKfz 251 "Hanomag" half-track, configured as a fuel tanker. Individually relatively weak, when combined they can tow Banshee around, if she is unable to move under her own power for any reason. Their first response to danger is to combine and flee, to get their precious, and rather volatile, cargo of refined energon and aviation-grade 100 octane gasoline clear of danger.

Pre-MUX History
Banshee was, once, one of the many generic legions of Seekers, assigned to Megatron as he pursued the Ark - her perfect pitch and singing ability were the only defining feature that set her apart from the others; not important, in the grand scheme of things. Somehow, her stasis chamber was knocked loose and remained buried under Germany, until she woke up during the 1940. Unable to pick up any Decepticon signals, Banshee heard the call of war, and decided it was best to blend in and find out what was going on... at least for a while. Assuming the form of a Stuka to remain hidden, Banshee flew for the Luftwaffe, flown by a barely-competent pilot who thought himself gifted, while waiting to hear from others of her kind. After the False Reich was defeated, she powered herself down to hide, letting herself be transferred to a museum - to hide, as Cybertrons always have, in plain sight.

To this day, the night guards of the |Imperial War Museum in London speak of hearing opera at night, around the Luftwaffe exhibit; legend states it's a ghost. It's not, though it might as well be. Low on power, Banshee is unable to transmit out to her comrades, though she can hear them now. She gathers the last of her strength, preparing to try and contact her people one last time...

MUX History
In 2013, IWM London underwent a major building redevelopment, transforming the museum to mark the Centenary of the First World War. As part of the renovations, Banshee was moved out of the vault. Receiving signals from active Decepticons, Banshee used some of her last energon to transform, where she was assisted by Mistress Armada, Slugfest, and a German museum worker to refuel and return to the Decepticons. She took part in the fight against the Quintessons soon after.

08Sep2013 - Nightlash, following some errant Heavy Metal radio broadcasts, encountered the Decepticons Banshee and Rainmaker. Suspiscions between Rainmaker and Nightlash were high. However, there was only tense dialogue as Nightlash tried to find out the current Decepticon agenda. Rainmaker, however, refused to divulge any information on the matter and the two parted ways.

Aug 28 - Reportink for duty!
Banshee appears onscreen, freshly painted and repaired. She seems to be in the training room of Trypticon.

"Guten Tag. I am Banshee, formerly known as one of ze many, ze innumerable legions of Seekers we, er, used to have." She coughs. "As you can see, I no longer fit the description of a Seeker. When... whatever happened to the Nemesis happened, I was shaken loose. Awaken durink ze 1930s, I hid amongst ze humans, adopting a new altmode. One I have found to be most effective." Cut to a piece of black-and-white footage of a Ju-87 Stuka. The words on the plane's engine cowling make it clear who it is - Banshee. In some really nice editing, the footage fades smoothly into a video of her current look - she's wearing a variant of the German Home Defense livery, a smooth olive-green with yellow wingtips, nose, elevators and rudder, flying in the training room. Her Third Reich insignia is gone, replaced with Decepticon tags. "Ze Junkers Ju-87 stuka. Ridicule me for retaining zis altmode if you vish, but first before you cast judgement, observe." In the footage, she pulls a half-roll and dives, the sirens on her wings screaming as she lays a 250kg bomb square onto the top of the first training drone's head. The image cuts to an image of her letting fly with the newly-installed R4M rockets, saturating a cluster of training drones with flame. As a Seeker-type drone flies at her with guns flying, but she banks hard - showing off her superior maneuverability to the far-faster jet. She sits herself on its tail and fills the jet full of 27mm fire before it can turn around. Finally she drops a 50kg bomb on another cluster of Autobot drones, dropping to the ground and transforming. She starts to sing, a pure A-note as her moth-like wings spread to their fullest width, fresh R4M rockets appearing from subspace onto their racks. "Ich gebe zu, das Geschenk der Tod vom Himmel!" She sings, spreading her arms as the R4M rockets launch, nerbelwerfer-style - sounding almost like a church organ as the eight warheads whistle from their racks. The camera tracks them as they arc through the air to finish off the group that she'd previously bombed. She steps smoothly towards the camera, smoothly wiping soot from her shoulders with a soft smile. "As you can see, I am a capable airframe. Ja, modern Dusenmotor are faster, but you will be hard-pressed to find a modern airframe zat can carry as much hardvare as me in this compact a space, unt I have superior agility to your average seeker." She salutes. "I look forward to fighting Quintesson unt Autobot abschaum with you. Auf Wiedersehen! Banshee out!"

8/31 - "The Final Phase"
The Quintesson Sevax is being put on trial for incompetence. He allowed a Decepticon to escape captivity and damage one of their Space Bridges. In retaliation, the Quintessons have chosen to advance their plans to the final phase.

2017

 * March 9 - "Autobot Break Out" - Cons will be Cons.

Jun 09 - Insecticon Verschwörungen im Norden
Banshee's custom Luftwaffe-styled Decepticon eagle appears, followed by Banshee's face. She looks pretty beat up, with the exhausts on one side of her engine/head black and sooty.

"Guten Abend, Kommandeure und Führer." She snaps off a sharp salute, despite her battle damage. "I was out on rovink patrol today... zer simple north pole loop. I voz strugglink mit der vinds when I spotted somesink... upon movink to get a closer look I caught sight of two unknown insecticons unt Snaptrap... during vhot appeared to be ein prisoner exchange or meeting." She sags slightly. "Unfortunately, I vos not able to get further information due to beink discovered. Zey fired upon me unt I made to attack, however zer three of zem fired upon me unt... vell, I am not zer toughest airframe, unt heavily outnumbered I decided to vithdraw unt bring mein information back. I enclose ein sketch of zer two insecticons, and ein sketch of zer rough scene as I came upon it.

She straightens, and delivers a very politically incorrect salute. "Heil Megatron!"
 * Decepticon Spinny.

Banshee's sketches show off that she is a very good artist. There are busts of Flashfire and Underfoot, and actually they look pretty good. The third sketch shows Snaptrap removing some kind of collar from around the neck of Flashfire while Underfoot waits to greet her, rendered from about 500ft up and 3/4 of a mile away. Banshee's wing is in the bottom of the scene, and somehow the whole scene portrays a slight motion, as if the viewer were flying at around 350mph.