Beast Wars Anonymous:

Beast Wars and all related belong to Hasbro. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Omega Supreme's Note: As of this writing (12-10-98) not much of the long-term plot of the "War Planets" story line is known. If any inconsistencies appear in the future it is only because of this. For now, though, enjoy the story of the crossing over of the characters of the "Beast Wars" and "War Planets" story lines.

Beastbot's Note: This story does NOT take place in my series. This is a stand-alone story. It is highly recommended that anyone who reads this not only has seen the episodes of Beast Wars and knows the characters, but also that you need to be familiar with War Planets.

Shadow of The Beast I
by Omega Supreme () and Beastbot (beastbot_x@hotmail.com)

 "Father, Father! I won't leave you! Noooooooooo!" Princess Tekkla awoke from her sleep, screaming in fear.

 "Princess Tekkla, your vital signs are irregular. Do you require medical attention?" The metallic Vox said, coming to life and hovering at her shoulder level.

 "No, Vox, I'm, I'm alright, I just need to take a walk, that’s all."

 Tekkla opened the door to her quarters and began to walk down the hall toward the outside window. She strode past the quarters of fellow alliance members Jade, Prince Pyrus of Planet Fire, and finally Graveheart. She stared out at the Night Sky on Planet Ice. The night was perfectly clear for viewing the stars. Just then a door opened behind her. She swiveled around to see a distraught looking Graveheart emerging from his quarters.

 "You couldn't sleep either, Princess?" Graveheart said, with just a hint of a smile.

 "No my friend, it seems none of us has rested well since I first brought you the warning of the Beast Planet," she said, somewhat insinuating that somehow this was her fault.

 "Princess," Graveheart went to console her, "When you first came to us you considered your warning a gift, and that is true. What good would it have been for us to spend the last few months of our lives warring with one another, and then await our doom at the hands of the Beast Planet? Now that our four worlds are nearly aligned, we do stand a chance, don't we?" A sense of fear swept over his face as he uttered those last few words.

 "I don't know," she said after hesitating. "Both Water and Tek as well as the other worlds of my system fought bravely, yet were unsuccessful against the power of the Beast."

 "Then is our cause without hope?"

 "No, Never!" Tekkla said almost defiantly, "I have sworn that the Beast would be stopped and it will be. Still, I have an idea I wish to suggest to the council at day break."

 "Okay Princess, that sounds fine, and besides, you have peaked my curiosity. But for now, let's just save what is left for the evening and return to our quarters."

 "Agreed, my friend," Tekkla said as they walked the few steps to Graveheart’s room.

 "Goodnight."

 "Goodnight Princess," Graveheart said as his door closed behind him.

 On planet Remora, the Beast forces were busy preparing for another attack, and, as usual, Blokk and Lamprey, who were chosen to oversee the conquest of the star system, were arguing.

 "My next plan to undermine the alliance will not fail," Lamprey argued.

 "Bah, we've heard that all before," Blokk said with nothing but insult in his voice. "It would be so much simpler to take an entire fleet to planet Ice and DESTROY them!" This sort of bickering was endless between the two. Lamprey, being the sort for covert operations and arousing distrust among allies, whereas Blokk was just a straight military machine. To overwhelm and conquer was what he did best. Lastly there was Void. Void never spoke, but he was the decision-maker, and neither Blokk nor Lamprey ever argued his verdicts. The argument reached an unparalleled tone, then, finally, a voice thundered through  "Enough!! Both of you be silent, or be silenced!" They both turned to Void in horror, not knowing that he could talk, but in fact it was not Void talking. He extended his arms and a being came through in similar fashion to the way Blokk and Lamprey came. The figure was not quite as large as Blokk, but certainly more intimidating. Blokk rose a hand toward him, but just then, a blast of energy sent him flying backwards. The female Lamprey chuckled ever so quickly before this new entity could notice.

 "Who, might I ask, are you?" she asked confidently, "I, Lamprey, am the one whom our master sent to ‘encourage’ you to speed up your progress. Call me Karad."

 "Karad, eh??" Lamprey said, moving from in front of his left to his right. "How come we have never heard of you before?"

 "Fool!" he said, almost striking her, "I was overseeing the destruction of planetary systems for our master before you ever existed. I am here to put you back on schedule." Uncharacteristically, he helped Blokk get back on his feet. "It's time you both put your differences aside and get to the task at hand." Karad then produced a circular disk. "With this, you should have no problem conquering this system."

 "How is that thing supposed to help us?" Blokk protested.

 "Just watch, ingrate!" Karad roared and soon after an image appeared. It was of the Alliance council beginning a meeting.

"We can now see all their plans and act accordingly,"  Karad said as he turned to face Void. "But of course, as always, the decision to take this action is yours," referring to Void. Both Blokk and Lamprey were stunned. Even this "High and Mighty" Karad submitted to Void, it seemed. Void first looked to Lamprey on his left, then Blokk on his right, then to Karad in his center. Void extended his hand toward Karad. "Excellent, thank you. Today, the Alliance falls. FOR THE GLORY OF THE BEAST!"

 The Alliance members gathered in their usual fashion. All were sitting around a circular table, and yet, Emperor Femur of Planet Bone always thought he should be at the head, but where was the head of a circular table?

 "So tell us, princess," Graveheart started out, "What is the agenda for this meeting?"

 Tekkla then slowly rose and began her almost "prepared" speech. "Greetings my friends, as you know the Beast Planet threatens this entire system."

 "Yeah, yeah, yeah, blah, blah, get to the point!" Femur rudely interrupted. All in attendance gave him harsh looks as he lowered his ears in embarrassment.

 "Please continue," Chryos gestured in his usual well-mannered fashion.

 "Thank you. As I was saying, I believe in my heart that we have a great group gathered here. A strong group that has the best chance in history of defeating the Beast, but I wish to put a plan in motion that will give us added assistance."

 "And what would that be?" Prince Pyrus asked curiously.

 "To travel outside our system for help."

 "That is a noble idea princess, but we don't have the technology-" Graveheart was stopped short.

 "Perhaps you don't, Rocko, but I know who does," Femur said, proudly pointing at himself.  Tekkla continued.

 "After examining the data from each of your collective inputs, I have concluded that both Femur's and Chryos' space craft are worthy of interstellar travel."

 "But even so, where would we go? Not much is known to us about other planet systems," Prince Pyrus noted.

 "Ahh, but I believe I can help with that. Vox, produce image," Tekkla commanded her assistant as a star map came up above the council table. "Before our destruction, planet Tek had many allies and trading partners in other systems. According to your resources, I believe that Chryos' star cruiser has the greatest range. As you see here, we could easily make the travel to Planet Reptizar, and further out perhaps Planet Octozoid. Both are friendly races, and would be of great assistance against the Beast."

 "That sounds feasible. But, how do we decide who is going?" Jade asked, with a sense of skepticism.

 "Well, as you know, we all cannot go, so this is what I have decided," Graveheart said finally. "Tekkla will go because she knows these people, and Chryos will accompany her because it will be his craft we are using. Now all we need is a third member."

 "Well, I think that choice is obvious," Tekkla mentioned, "You will come with us," gesturing towards Graveheart.

 "Yes, I agree. Besides, I have no desire to travel," Jade mentioned. Femur was about to object to that, but then he thought about his opportunity to be with Jade and a huge grin crossed his face as Jade just shook her head in disgust.

 As the council adjourned, Karad and the other Beast followers watched closely with anticipation.

 “Perfect!” Karad began, “Now, here is how we will crush the alliance with one stroke. I will follow the scouting party to the system they seek assistance from. While I am gone, both of you (referring to Blokk and Lamprey) should easily be able to organize an attack against the alliance planets.”

 “And what do you intend to do after they arrive, Karad?” Lamprey questioned.

 “Oh, I have no intention of letting them arrive safely. Once they have entered the planetary system, my forces will destroy them, and the bonus will be, he he, our master will have it’s next target! Now, I am going to prepare my forces. Do not blunder this operation, for the Beast does not tolerate failure”

 “Rest assured Karad, it will be done,” Blokk said in a deep, confirming voice.

 “Final systems, check,” Chryos announced.

 “All is in readiness. Commence launch sequence,” Graveheart responded. The Aurora, Chryos’ flagship, was not much to look at, but it was a superior piece of technology. Its takeoffs and landings were hardly noticeable, and before they knew it, they were out of their own system, en route to Planet Reptizar. But what they did not know was that a sizable Beast force was following them, just outside of sensor range.

 Two days of solid travel passed, and finally Graveheart and the alliance members had an approach vector for planet Reptizar.

 “Ahh, yes, excellent. Dive in and fire on my command!” Karad said as his slanted eyes widened with anticipation.

 Aboard the Aurora, every alarm that could sound was suddenly going off all at once.  “What is it, Tekkla?” Graveheart commanded.

 “A large fleet of Beast Drone ships closing in! They must have followed us,” Tekkla reported in disbelief.

 “That’s impossible, no one knew of this mission, not even my own peo- ahh!” Chryos was cut short as a blast hit their aft engine.

 “We’re loosing control, sublight engines are throwing us way off course,” Tekkla again announced.

 “No, No! You fools!” Karad roared. “You were supposed to hit them directly. Lay in a pursuit course immediately!”

 “Course is erratic, only a 75% chance of successful pursuit” the drone announced emotionlessly.

 “I don’t care. Lay in pursuit course now! Even if we are delayed, I will not lose my objective!”

 The Aurora continued to tumble out of control, occasionally entering, then exiting hyperspace. Finally, the auxiliary systems came online, and the ship slowly came into stability.

 “Damage report,” Chryos asked.

 “It looks as though our subspace capabilities are heavily damaged, we’ll have to set down for repairs somewhere,” Tekkla answered. “But the worst part is that we were thrown nearly 10 light-years off course. There’s no way we’ll reach Reptizar in this condition.”

 “Well, where is the nearest planetary system?” Graveheart wondered, looking at the starmap display in front of him. “Ahh, this looks interesting.”

 Graveheart punched up a display on the main view screen of a nearby system. Once they entered it, Vox made a thorough scan of the system.

 “Nine orbiting planetary bodies, only one- the third planet from the central star- contains life.”
Then, all of a sudden, Vox bleeped. Its circuits danced with light as it processed the information from the third planet. “Only two small clusters upon the planets surface contain sentient life with which we can communicate.”

 “By the Great Glacier,” Chryos said as his eyes scanned the information in wonderment. “We must have stumbled upon a planet whose populace has just begun to come into existence.”

 “Negative,” Vox countered. “Sentient beings are not of the same origin as this system. They are alien.”

 “As are we, it seems,” Tekkla motioned. “But you did say that we can communicate with them?”

 “Affirmative.”

 “Well then, it seems as though we are going to be paying these beings a call. I just hope they are friendly,” Graveheart said as he set in the landing coordinates near to one of the clusters on the third planet.

 The new Maximal base was under heavy construction. After the loss of the Axalon there was not much to work with, but the Ark’s technology did help significantly, even if it was ancient technology to the Maximals.

 “Oh, man!” Rattrap bellowed as a loose circuit sparked and caused him to favor his right hand for a moment. “Repairs, repairs, repairs, seems like that’s all we’ve been doin’ lately.”

 “With good reason,” Rhinox came over to assist his friend. “Megatron is more determined now than ever to get his hands on the Ark, and you know we can’t let him do that.”

 “Yeah, Yeah I know. It’d just be easier if--” His last words were drowned out by the sounds of alarms. Optimus and Silverbolt were out on a scouting mission searching for another Maximal who had just recently made his way to Earth, named Depth Charge. Now was not the time for a Predacon attack.

 “Primary alarms, stand down,” Rhinox said as Rattrap and Cheetor looked on in confusion.

 “Rhinox, what are ya doin?” Cheetor asked. “Those Preds are gonna toast us any second!”

 “Scanners show no Predacon signatures. It’s an incoming alien ship.”

 “Oh great, probably the Preds sent another ‘covert agent’ to help us out,” Rattrap reasoned.

 “I don’t think so, sensors show no match of any Cybertronian design to any faction. What’s even more curious is that it is landing in a standard formation, with weapons withdrawn, it appears even to be damaged.”

 “So, are we just supposed ta go outside and say, ‘Hello?’” Rattrap asked sarcastically.

 “That’s exactly what I’m gonna do. You can follow if you like.” Rhinox countered.
 Rattrap motioned to Cheetor, pointing towards his head and making circling motions as if to question Rhinox’s sanity. Cheetor just grinned affirmatively as they both hesitantly followed Rhinox out to meet their visitors.

 The three Maximals stood front and center as the hatch began to open. It was clear to them that these beings were smaller than they were, due to the ship’s scale exit ramp. The first out was Chryos, followed by Graveheart, then Tekkla. Rhinox was fascinated at their appearance, all being so diverse. Then the first one spoke.

 “My name is Graveheart; these are my friends, Chryos and Tekkla. We come hoping for your assistance. Can you help us?” Graveheart said this in a loud, slow, drawn-out voice as if he were talking to children. Rattrap smiled and was about to answer sarcastically but Rhinox covered his mouth and answered in a more dignified way.

 “Yes, we understand you perfectly well. I am Rhinox of the Maximals. This is Cheetor and Rattrap. I don’t know if we can help you, but we will give it our very best try.”
 Graveheart smiled, and looked to his left, then to his right, at his companions.

 “Thank you, Rhinox, you don’t know how relieved we are to here that,” Graveheart said, in a tone that reflected the truest expression of his demeanor that he could portray.

 Cheetor transformed to his beast mode, with jet engines swinging out of his sides. “Hop on, uh….Chryos,” Cheetor said cheerfully, forgeting the ice creature’s name for a moment. “We’ll take you back to the base. I’m sure Bigbot will welcome you with open arms, once he gets back from patrol.”

 Chryos twisted his eyebrows in confusion.

 “Bigbot? Is he your king?”

 “Commander, actually. We’ve crash-landed on this planet like yourselves,” Rhinox corrected as he transformed to beast mode, Rattrap following suit.

 “Hey, we goin’ or not?” Rattrap asked, already in vehicle mode and warming up his engine.

 “Yeah,” Rhinox sighed as Graveheart carefully got on Rhinox’s back in a riding position. Tekkla sat on Rattrap, and Chryos rode on Cheetor as the three headed back to the Ark. Vox stayed behind with the ship, doing a systems check, just in case.

 Karad yelled as the Beast ship entered Earth’s atmosphere. Since he and the Beast drones had been busy tracking the Alliance ship, they had not noticed a stray asteroid strike their ship. The asteroid had been destroyed, but it had taken a quarter of the ship with it. The Beast ship, on its erratic couse, got caught in Earth’s gravitational pull, and now Karad watched helplessly as the distance between the Beast ship and the surface of the Earth quickly lessened.

 Megatron stared at the main view screen. What he was seeing could not be true….could it?

 The scanners reported that a large object was entering the Earth’s atmosphere, its predicted impact point only a few klicks from their base. It wasn’t a stasis pod…all those had already fallen from orbit. The computer had said that  there was a 90% chance that the ship and its occupants were 99.9% null matter. Megatron was baffled that any ship, much less its occupants, would be made almost entirely of null matter. Still, he had to find out….

 “Inferno, Quickstrike, Tarantulas…”

 The three quickly came up to Megatron on their hover platforms.

 “….go to Sector Zeta, coordinates 5, 7, 86. There is a mysterious ship that is supposed to crash land there and I want to find out what it is, yes.”

 “As you command, Royalty.”

 The trio hovered out of the command center, ready to carry out their orders.

 Karad slowly stepped out of the ship onto the firm, dusty ground. He had a pounding headache from banging his head against a wall at impact, and a few of his Beast drones had perished in the crash. The remaining drones, seven of them, slowly crept out of the ship after him.

 “You fools! May the Beast have mercy on you! We are now stuck on this deserted planet with those Alliance idiots, who could be anywhere!” Karad yelled at the Beast drones, who were cowering before him, “And if that isn’t enough in itself, our ship is completely out of commission, and our radio transmitter is broken!”

 Karad sighed as he put his hand to his forehead to calm his aching headache and sat down on a nearby rock.

 A few minutes later, Quickstrike, Tarantulas, and Inferno stood behind a nearby hill, watching Karad yell at his troops. All were in beast mode.

 “Hey, this tinhorned toad ‘mind ya of someone?” Quickstrike whispered, chuckling slightly.

 “Megatron, no doubt,” replied Tarantulas, stating the obvious.

 “THE ROYALTY IS OUR COMMANDER! DO NOT TAUNT HIM!” Inferno suddenly yelled, more out of anger than common sense.

 “Get back in the ship and see if you can somehow get it working ag-“ Karad was interrupted rudely by a loud shout from behind a nearby hill.

 “THE ROYALTY IS OUR COMMANDER! DO NOT TAUNT HIM!”

 Karad turned towards the source of the sound, his face twisted in a mixture of surprise and intrigue.

 “Hmm....perhaps this planet is not deserted after all.....you may yet live, my troops.”

 Tarantulas clamped one of his legs around Inferno’s mouth, just as the ant-bot got his last word out.

 “Quiet, you idiot! We are supposed to spying, not attacking!”

 “But-“

 “Shut up!” whispered both Quickstrike and Tarantulas at the same time. Inferno reluctantly obeyed.

 Tarantulas then quickly backed up, toward a nearby large rock. Quickstrike looked at him quizzingly.

 “What’re ya doin, Spidey?”

 Tarantulas sighed.

 “I’m going to hide, you idiot. You want to stay here and wait for those creatures to find you?”
 Quickstrike and Inferno both glanced at each other, then followed Tarantulas.

 After the shout, Karad heard some faint conversation near the same spot. “All right,” he whispered, turning around to face his drones, “Alpha, you take Gamma and Delta and head west about a hundred meters. Do NOT attack until we have confirmed whether they are....expendable or not. Omicron, you take Zeta and Nu and head straight east about the same distance as the others. Sigma, follow me and we will see exactly how intelligent the life is here. Go!”

 As soon as Karad uttered the commands, the drones quickly marched off to their respective positions. Karad and Sigma walked straight toward the area where he had heard the shout.

 Inferno, Quickstrike, and Tarantulas had all transformed to robot mode and were peaking out of the corner of the large rock outcropping. They saw Karad and another Beast drone march into view.

 Tarantulas turned toward his teammates.

 “All right, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to go out and converse with them, if they understand me. You two wait here, and if you see it isn’t working, start firing at the two creatures when I utter the word, ‘now’. Got it?”

 “Who are you to order a loyal follower of the royalty, spider?” Inferno questioned.

 Tarantulas ignored him and walked out into the open.

 Karad almost opened his mouth wide with shock when he saw the creature that had walked out from behind the rock, hands raised.
 He recognized the species.

 Optimus, Rhinox, Chryos, Tekkla, Graveheart, Cheetor, and Rattrap all sat around an ovular table in the command center, discussing the current situation.

 “So, you were being chased by these creatures made of null matter, who you call the Beasts, when they hit your ship, causing you to crash-land here?” Optimus asked.

 “That’s about the size of it,” Graveheart replied.

 “Well, we’d love to help,” Rattrap said, “we really would, but, eh, we’re kinda busy wit our own problems right now, if ya hadn’t noticed.”

 Rhinox, who was the closest to the transmetal rodent smacked Rattrap in the face softly.

 “Cut it out, Rattrap,” Rhinox said, picking up the conversation. “We’d help if we could, but we don’t have anything to get us off this planet, so I doubt we could help you.”

 Tekkla sighed.

 “But what about the Beasts? If we don’t stop them, they could destroy our entire system, and more after that!”

 “I’m sorry, Tekkla,” replied Optimus, “but we just don’t have the resources to get off this planet. The only robots on this planet that have what you asked….what is it….a standard 3X engine?……would be the Predacons, and they have it extremely well guarded, as it’s the only engine in their entire ship.”

 “Well, we’ll just have to assault their base,” replied Graveheart, standing up from his chair. “Otherwise, our entire system will be doomed without help, and billions will die.”

 Optimus thought for a moment.

 “Well, it’ll be extremely risky, even possibly fatal, but, as long as you can get back to your system safely, I guess. Meanwhile, let’s get some needed rest. Cheetor will show you to your temporary quarters. Graveheart, you’ll be sharing rooms with Cheetor, I’ll tell Blackarachnia she’ll be sharing rooms with Tekkla, and Rattrap, you’re sharing a room with Chryos.”

 “Aw, why do I have to-“ Rattrap groaned, interrupted by another slap in the face from Rhinox, a bit harder this time.

 “Rattrap, you have your orders. Obey them.” Optimus said, his voice a mixture of anger and humor. “Everyone, we’ll reconvene at 0900 tomorrow. See you then.”

 With that said, Optimus and the others got up and went to their quarters.

To be continued….