Beast Wars Anonymous:

Soldier-Bot
by Tarx (sethg@rose.net)

On the screen in front of him, Megatron saw a blip suddenly appear. "Hmmm…what’s this? Computer, identify unit." The computer hummed for a second, and replied.

"Unit is a stasis pod. It will land in 5 cycles." His optics widened. Maybe I can do something with this one…yeeesss…

"Waspinator! You, Terrorsaur, and Scorponok come with me to retrieve the pod. The rest of you attack the Maximal base with FULL FORCE." Megatron rubbed his hands together and sneered. "Yeeesss…this will be the turning point of the war between the Maximals and Predacons!"

Waspinator disagreed. "Why doez Wazzpinator have to go?" Megatron whacked him over the head with his arm.

"Because Megatron says so! Now get moving!"

At the Maximal base, Rhinox also noticed the stasis pod coming down only a klick from the Predacon base. "Optimus! Come here, quickly!" Optimus Primal ran into the room in beast mode.

"What is it, Rhinox…?" And then he saw the screen. "Oh…that is just prime. There isn’t any way we can retrieve it, is there?" Rhinox looked at the tactical display again. After a few moments, he had an answer.

"Airazor can make it there within a cycle, but she’s the only one nearby. Cheetor can get there in 10 cycles at the most. Tigatron is busy to the north, but he can be down here in about 10 megacycles if push comes to shove." Optimus shook his head.

"I’ll take Rattrap with me to the pod landing zone. Us three should be able to secure the site before the Preds notice it is there." As he was saying this, Rattrap walked into the command center, complaining.

"Hey, listen, banana-boy! Ya can’t just take me on one o’ these wild-goose chases without askin’ me first!" Optimus snarled at him, which changed Rattrap’s mind. "But yer lucky today…I volunteered!" Optimus shook his head.

"Beast mode!" yelled Rattrap.

"Rhinox, open the hangar doors. Optimus, maximize!" After he was in robot mode, Rattrap scuttled over and jumped on his back just in time for Optimus to say, "Prime jets, full power!" With that, Optimus and Rattrap went flying off towards the pod. Rhinox jumped suddenly as the computer came to life.

"Intruders approaching." He sighed and took control of Sentinel.

Megatron was lucky, and had gotten to the pod first with his Predacon ensemble. He began to work on the pod, first by turning the DNA sequencer off. "Terrorsaur! Waspinator! Get in the air; let us know when the Maximals are coming! Scorponok, stand guard."

"Waspinator, terrorize!"

"Terrorsaur, terrorize!"

"Scorponok, terrorize!"

Waspinator and Terrorsaur saw a target only half-a-click away. Immediately they began blasting at Airazor, who rolled and dodged the incoming fire. Meanwhile, Megatron made some subtle adjustments to the pod, and called Tarantulus on his com unit. "Tarantulus! Come here and take the pod to our base, quickly!" Megatron joined the attack against the Maximal, Airazor, who had already scrapped Waspinator. He muttered something under his breath, and shot a clear shot at the bird-bot. She spiraled down with a scream, and as he gloated with pride, he got hit in the chest by one of Rattrap’s quasar bolts.

"The cavalry has arrived, Airazor!" Optimus began firing his arm-cannons wildly at the Predacon troops, who decided that today was not a good day to be scrapped.

"Retreat, Predacons!" yelled Megatron.

Back at the Predacon base, Megatron made more adjustments to the pod. He put a Predacon chip in, as well as a T2 chip. Finally he made one more major adjustment to the spark, adding a sliver of Rampage’s spark in it, and selecting a beast mode for it.

"DNA sequencing complete. Compatible beast form found." With that, a bot stepped out of the pod…

It was Predacon, no doubt, but something in its memory was messed up…and it wasn’t any animal. It was…well, a robot! And a large one at that, equal to Megatron’s size. Megatron grinned.

"Well, well…meet your new Predacon friend, my troops!" The bot jumped as Megatron talked, and pulled out a quasar rifle.

"Hey, listen…you tell me what’s going on here and I don’t blow your head off." He leveled the barrel at Megatron’s head, seething with anger.

"Relax…you are a Predacon, we are all Predacons, so don’t go blasting anyone, agreed?" The newcomer looked at his mech-body, and looked at the rest of the Predacons.

"I’m…I’m…a Predacon? Ok…my memory chip is working now…you must be Megatron, my creator. I’m Soldier-Bot, at your service. Or not." He still held the quasar rifle leveled at Megatron’s head.

"Is that his robot form, Megatron?" asked Scorponok.

"No, fool! Can’t you see? His…beast form…is…a robot. His robot form just adds more armor and weaponry, from what I understand."

"He doesn’t look so tough to me," growled Transmetal 2 Dinobot. At that moment, Soldier-Bot moved the rifle to Dinobot and pulled the trigger. A huge quasar bolt blew Dinobot against the far wall.

"Is that enough to justify your opinion?" he said ruthlessly.

"Ah…yeeesss…this is perfect." Megatron smiled, thinking of the destruction he would cause to the Maximals. "But get this straight! You won’t be blasting any of my troops! Understood?" While he said this he whacked Soldier-Bot over the head. Soldier-Bot frowned, and aimed the rifle at Megatron.

"Set weapon mode to energon pulse intensifier." His robot computer beeped in acknowledgement, and he fired at Megatron. Megatron was blown off his platform and was covered with energon electricity, signifying that stasis lock was imminent.

Soldier-Bot growled. "I’m going to the Maximals. Maybe they won’t try to order me around like you tried to."

"Soldier-Bot, TERRORIZE!" As Megatron predicted, thicker and denser armor slid into place all over him.

"Jump jets, maximum burn!" He lifted off of the ground and flew towards the Maximal base, not really thinking about an important fact…Maximals would not recognize him as an ally…yet.