(NOTE: Any scenes in this chapter of the alien saga, as well as any others, that have JUST the aliens talking in them, are translated into English. The aliens are actually speaking in their own language to each other.)
Alien Saga,
Chapter
1: The Coming
By: Beastbot
“Hyperspace jump to planet 3.4562.89-1 will occur in approximately three standard Vexoran days,” the ship’s main computer rambled off to its captain.
“Excellent,” the captain said as he clicked his midnight black claws together. “Soon, very soon, we will remove these Transformer pests that are threatening the Project.”
The captain was just about to settle into his own thoughts when another of his race burst through the entrance bay doors. The captain reluctantly turned around to face the Vexoran that had interrupted his thoughts.
“Requesting permission to speak, sir,” the “intruder” said emotionlessly, saluting his captain in the standard Vexoran greeting by putting his two claws on his right lower hand on his chest and making a figure eight with them on his main body trunk.
“Proceed, Scarem.”
“Captain Tarad, I have two important things to tell you. First and foremost, Transformer 04 and Transformer 11 are ready for their departure. We have installed the program you recommended, sir.”
“Excellent. And the second?”
“Well, uh... we have located your brother Taran on the planet as well, just as you anticipated.”
“Even more excellent. My brother will pay dearly for his crimes against his people. Dismissed, Scarem.”
Cheetor gulped as the large black creature with four arms, each with two humongous claws on them, stomped up to Cheetor, an evil grin on its misfigured face.
Cheetor had been badly damaged in the fight with this creature in the canyon. He had discovered it during a routine patrol, and had tried to contact Optimus, but for some reason, no one had answered. Just as he was certain he wouldn’t live another second as the creature raised its upper two arms to attack him, the creature dissipated into thin air, and in its place was....Tarantulas?
Tarantulas leaned over to the bewildered Cheetor, until the two ‘bots’ faces were so close Cheetor could feel Tarantulas’ hot breath against his face.
“Beware, Cheetor! We are coming,” Tarantulas said, chuckling a bit as he did so. “And when we come, you are all doomed! Bwahahahahah!”
Cheetor screamed in terror as Tarantulas took out his chainsaw blaster and aimed it at Cheetor. Cheetor closed his eyes as he heard the click of the trigger, and....Cheetor bumped his head!?
Cheetor opened his eyes and rubbed his head, taking in his surroundings. He was in his quarters....it had all been a dream, just a horrible dream...
Or was it? Cheetor thought. It had been more real than the average dream…..more like it was a prophecy of things to come.
The Transmetal II cheetah quickly pushed the thought out of his head. There was no way a huge creature could morph into Tarantulas. It was just one of those things…
Deciding that he couldn’t go back to sleep for a while, Cheetor transformed to beast mode and walked out of his quarters, then down the main hall of the Maximal base, his metal claws clicking softly on the cold metal floor.
As he entered the main control room, he noticed that not even Rattrap was up at this late hour, the rat-bot asleep in his chair. Cheetor quickly checked out all the scanners- yep, no Pred activity. He then carefully snuck out the main entrance of the base, and into the cold, crisp air of the night.
Just as Cheetor was about to take a short walk around the base to relieve his nerves, he saw something a few meters from the entrance. It was a white form, with some silver and blue. It was in the shape of a…..falcon?
Cheetor squinted his eyes at the limp form, just to be sure of what he was about to say.
“Airazor?”
Buzzclaw hated his job. He, one of the smartest ‘bots this side of the Horse Nebula, was stuck mopping up the hallways of the Predacon base!
“RazzinfrazzinMegatroni’llgethimohandtheni’llriphimupinlittlebitsand-“ Buzzclaw was interrupted from his ramblings when he thought he saw a purple figure as he passed the window.
No one’s on patrol yet, it’s too early, he thought. Could it be a Maximal? No, none of them are purple…..
Buzzclaw looked out the window again, this time more carefully. The figure was not moving, and it was in the shape of a mechanical pterodactyl.
I’d better go tell ol’ Megs about this, Buzzclaw thought as he instantly dropped his mop and ran toward the Predacon leaders’ quarters, glad to take any excuse to get out of his job.
Airazor woke up to find many unusual Maximals staring at her. The only ones she recognized were Rattrap, and…..Blackarachnia?!
Without warning, Airazor jumped up off the table she had been laying on, and maximized. The creamy-white transmetal falcon gave way to a feathery, brown-and-yellow figure with large wings, and talon machine guns under her hands. She quickly pointed those machine guns at Blackarachnia.
“Freeze, Predacon!” Airazor said, ready to engage her weapons at any moment.
All the Maximals looked on in surprise and confusion at Airazor, but Blackarachnia barely twitched.
“Easy, I’m on your side now, Feathers,” the former Predacon said smoothly.
Airazor held her machine guns up for a little bit longer, as if not believing what the Predacon said, but, after realizing that none of the other Maximals seemed ready to engage Blackarachnia, put her machine guns down in confusion.
Airazor was at a loss for words. What she had just witnessed in the last few seconds was pretty hard to take in all at once.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, Airazor,” said a voice behind her that sounded like Optimus’. “But right now, I think you should tell us what happened to you during your….absence.”
Airazor turned around to see where Optimus was, but instead saw a robot with a bat beast form. Optimus couldn’t change his beast form….could he? Just as Airazor was about to ask Optimus this, Optimus seemed to read Airazor’s thoughts and shook his head slowly.
“Later, Airazor. What you have to say may be important, and we need to hear it.”
“Okay,” Airazor said nervously. “Here goes…”
“When I was ‘abducted’, so to speak, I went unconscious soon after the vines grabbed me. I blacked out for a while, and when I woke up, I was strapped down to a metal examination table, it looked like. I was in a large metal room, large as a Terran sports stadium, almost. The structure was the same, too, with a large, open area in the center, where I was, and several rows of seats around the edges, each row progressing slowly toward the ceiling. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of creatures in these seats. They all looked basically the same, all like they were made of a black goo-like substance. They looked like they could shapeshift if they wanted to, but they all were in the same formation in front of me, which I only can assume is their original formation. They had four arms, each with a few claws on them, and two legs, again each with a few claws. Their body trunks were skinny, and seemed to do no more than connect their appendages. Their heads didn’t really seem to have any eyes, only a small mouth with a lot of sharp teeth in them.”
“As I looked around, I saw three other Transformers in the arena with me, all of them unconscious. They were Terrorsaur, Scorponok, and Tigatron. Don’t ask me how Terrorsaur and Scorponok got there, I don’t know.”
“I didn’t have any time to examine the room any further, because I was interrupted by a voice that came out of nowhere. It probably was from the alien version of a loudspeaker, because that’s what it sounded like. It said, ‘Now we will subject Species 5983291, Members 07 and 11 to the plutonium alloy 39482. Take notes on what the results are, and enter them into the databank as you leave.’ Well, it didn’t actually say THAT, it spoke in another language, but, after spending a year in an alien ship, you get to understand some of their language. After the voice said these words, a large machine-that’s all I can say, I really can’t describe it- materialized out of nowhere. The next thing I know, a bright light enveloped me, and then I blacked out.”
“When I came to, I was a Transmetal, as was Terrorsaur. Scorponok and Tigatron”- at this point Airazor would have had tears coming out of her eyes if she were human- “were taken apart, their parts strewn over their examination tables. Scorponok had just been taken apart into arms, legs, and whatnot, but Tigatron had been taken apart completely, and everything from nuts and bolts to heat sinks and memory chips were all over his table. I didn’t see his spark anywhere, so I assumed he was….dead.”
“The aliens then lead me out of the arena and through what seemed like endless corridors, until I came to a door at the end of one of the hallways. The aliens shoved me in it, closed the entrance hole, and left. Although I saw no lock, the door wouldn’t budge. Over the next year, it was just tests with me and Terrorsaur, then the room for a while, then tests, then the room. Some of the tests or experiments were while I was awake, some when I was unconscious, some painful, some not. I eventually learned some of their basic language after being stuck with them for so long.”
“One day, one of the aliens told me that I was to be sent back to the planet we call Earth, or Terra. They downloaded some information into me, information that I can’t crack, I can only transfer it to Sentinel......where is Sentinel, anyway? And, this doesn’t look like the Axalon...” Airazor said, looking around her at the yellow and orange walls.
“I’m sure you will all explain that later, anyway. Well, after that, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Again, I was knocked unconscious after the encoded information had been downloaded into me, and the next thing I know, I’m here,” Airazor said, motioning to the walls around her.
“Now,” she said, turning toward the rest of the Maximals, “what happened while I was away?”
The first thing Terrorsaur felt when he became conscious was a hard slap in the face.
“Terrorsaur, wake up!” a voice exclaimed, a voice that belonged to a person he hated- Megatron.
Terrorsaur opened his eyes weakly, even though he was wide awake and feeling strong enough to stand. Always the exaggerator, though, he decided to act like he was worse off than he actually was.
“Megatron, is that you?” Terrorsaur said weakly.
“Of course it’s me, you idiot,” Megatron said angrily, banging Terrorsaur in the head again. “Just because I changed beast modes doesn’t mean my face looks completely different. Now quit playing weak, even though you aren’t far from it, and tell me what happened.”
Terrorsaur stared hard at Megatron. Although Megatron still looked like his normal, cold self, Terrorsaur thought he saw a glimpse of something he had never thought possible on the Predacon leader’s face- fear.
“Sure...” Terrorsaur started, slowly standing up to his full beast mode height, which wasn’t more than three feet tall. “But let me change to my robot mode first! Terrorsaur, terrorize!”
The Transmetal purple-and-gold pterosaur with large green claws folded into a robot about as tall as Waspinator. The green claws had now become his hands, and Terrorsaur looked a bit more lithe than his old mode, and pointed. He had small pads on the bottom of his feet, which Megatron could only assume were exhaust ports for feet jets. They were to help Terrorsaur fly in his robot mode, since the pterodactyl’s wings had shrunk considerably in his robot mode.
“It all started when I accidentally fell in the lava,” Terrorsaur began. “I just started to feel the lava burn my outer armor, when, suddenly, I was in a large room, with that idiot of yours Scorponok. I eventually found out that I was in a closed-in room with just enough energon to keep us healthy, in some alien ship. We basically were just bored to death for the next few months, although the aliens had told us, in our language, that we would be having visitors soon. Finally, the aliens took us out of that cursed chamber and led us to a large area of some sort...”
As Airazor finished downloading the information she was given by the aliens into Teletran I, her eyes stopped glowing green and Teletran I droned on that information was downloaded, and that it was currently decrypting and decoding the information. The computer would have the information ready for displaying in about a cycle.
Airazor sighed. Things certainly were in full swing here. Some other alien, that wasn’t the kind Airazor had described, called Prometheus, had infested Rhinox’s body and taken control of it and allied with the Predacons. Prometheus’ host, at least, Airazor had nothing to worry about from, considering the bot was weak and had no weapons. Cheetor had turned into a Transmetal II, Dinobot had died and come back as a Transmetal II on the Predacon’s side, Blackarachnia had joined the Maximals, and the fuzor Silverbolt that Optimus had mentioned to her just a day or so before she was abducted had been reconfigured into an original Transformer. Optimus himself had changed twice, once to a humongous Transmetal when his spark united with Prime’s for a day or so, then he had been assassinated by a new transformer named Ramulus and had been given a new body, with his beast mode that of a bat’s. A large ‘bot named Rampage with an indestructible spark had come here a while back, and had recently gotten a little band together consisting of Dinobot Transmetal II and another new ‘bot, Crossfire. A rogue Maximal named Depth Charge had also come here seeking Rampage, and had recently gotten a little band together as well, consisting of another two new recuits named Cybershark and Claw Jaw. Ramulus’ partner in crime, Beastbot, had assassinated Megatron, and the Pred leader himself was given a new body as well, this time with the beast mode of a crocodile. Inferno had also been changed into a Transmetal and had been renamed Scavenger. Boy, and she thought a lot of things had been going on where SHE was.
Airazor was interrupted by a loud beep from the computer. All the other Maximals, as well as herself, stared at the main screen as the computer displayed the information it had decrypted. It was a letter of some sort, presumably from the aliens, of whom Airazor had not yet learned the race’s name.
To: Transformer species, Maximal side
Greetings. I am sure Unit: Airazor has told you about her stay on our ship. We have sent her back for a reason other than to see you again, however. At approximately 11:20 A.M. Terra time, we will arrive at this planet. We will “abduct” you, so to speak, so that you will not ruin the Project any more than you already have. If we would have left you alone and if you would have behaved the way we predicted you would have, you Maximals would have won the Beast Wars and taken Unit: Megatron back to Cybertron, but you would of accidentally of left Unit: Waspinator behind with you. The early humans would have found Waspinator and would have worshiped him as some sort of god. He would influence human thinking, and he would indirectly cause them to be neutral during the 3rd Cybertronian War, which you all call the Great War. Thus, the Decepticons would have won, and, as you can see, this would upset the balance of history drastically. Thus, we must take you off this planet. Be prepared when we come for you. Resistance will not be tolerated.
The only Maximal to say anything after they read the message was Rattrap.
“Oh, slag.”
Megatron was not happy. First and foremost, the information Terrorsaur had downloaded into his main computer told him that the aliens would be here at 11:20 A.M., Earth time. His internal computer told him it was 10:55 A.M. That meant they had less than half an hour to get ready to defend themselves from the aliens.
Secondly, Terrorsaur was back. He had thought he had gotten rid of that traitor for good.
Megatron sighed. This was not going to be easy. On all his plans that had failed, they had failed because of one mishap or thing forgotten. This time, they would need a miracle to fend these aliens off. Megatron didn’t know how to do it, but he had to try. He would not let his promises of universal conquest be taken away from him so easily.
As Megatron came into the main room, he heard the familiar click of guns being loaded, ammo being stocked, and weapons being stored in subspaces. He looked around. Everyone except Tarantulas and Prometheus were here. Where were those idiots? Didn’t they realize the situation at hand?!
Tarantulas walked into his quarters, only to hear an echoing voice as he entered.
“How nice of you to drop in, Tarantulas. Want a spot of tea? If I were you, I’d enjoy these last few moments of peace while you can.”
Tarantulas turned to find the owner of the voice. It was Prometheus was sitting in robot mode on one of Tarantulas’ chairs, his legs crossed, sipping a cup of tea.
“What?! How did you get here!? This laboratory is protected by several security systems!” Tarantulas yelled at Prometheus, bewildered.
Prometheus just smirked, calm as ever. “I have my ways. Now, let’s not worry about that. Sit down, enjoy yourself. It’s the last few moments of peace you’ll ever get.”
Tarantulas, if he was a human, would be sweating now. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said nervously.
“Don’t play stupid, Tarantulas,” Prometheus said, suddenly serious. “Or should I say….Taran?”
Tarantulas’ eye opened up wide at the use of his name. Then he suddenly narrowed his eye again.
“And don’t think I don’t know what you are either, Prometheus. Don’t you think I’ve known ever since you broke off of Buzzclaw?”
Prometheus smirked again. “I know that, I’m not stupid either. I knew you were playing the ol’ don’t-tell-the-leader-cause-then-he’ll-ask-how-did-I-know game.” Prometheus than suddenly looked at his wrist, pretending there was an invisible watch there, and tsk-tsked.
“Oh, now look at that,” he said, acting saddened. “This time we’ve spent arguing has used all your free time up, because the ship is arriving right….about….now.”
“Optimus, get yer butt over heer! Something’s coming through the wormhole, and it’s big!” Rattrap yelled.
Optimus promptly ran over to the main screen, and took a look. A large object was making its way through the wormhole- scratch that, a very large object. Scratch that, an extremely large object.
The object finally came through the wormhole, followed by a few smaller objects, presumably smaller ships. The object was spherical-shaped, and roughly the size of Spain. It appeared to be the main alien ship, and it began to launch smaller objects, presumably fighters, as soon as it finished coming through the wormhole.
Rattrap gulped.
“They’re heeeere…..”