(( OOC: Orcariner! *glomp*
))
"There's trouble inside. Everyone on the bridge are either unconscious.. or worse." "Spiders!"
Primal bared his sharp teeth for a moment, releasing a deep growl at the news Aurora announced. Clearly the gorilla was very angry. Just as he was about dish out orders, he was stopped short by Orcariner's voice on his comm. link. It was such a relief to hear him that he immediately cooled down and regained his focus. He just hoped the larger Maximal wouldn't suffer the same malfunctioning as most of the rest of his comrades were.
"Oh, great!" Rattrap commented sarcasticly.
"Just when you think things can't get any worse."
"Optimus," "Check your sensor map over the next 30 seconds. Four hostiles on my mark. Entering the back will be your quickest option. Orcariner out."
As Orcariner promised, Optimus suddenly had an internal mapping of the base where Orcariner's impressive sonar was indicating the intruders' locations as well the rest of the Maximals. Primus, most of them had been temporarily incapacitated; most likely by cybervenom. NO! His fists curled into balls of rage but just getting mad about it wasn't going to help anyone. At that moment, the fake moon began to shift...
As the dark sphere beyond the atmosphere revolved, beams of white light began seeping out of the panels that were making up the outside diameter which started to retract. The entire fake moon opened up on two symmetrical ends as the panels continued to shrink and surround another sphere that was held right in the center of the transforming weapon. A gold beam bursted outward to the ring of panels and then changed itself into a rather menacing looking piece of destruction. There was a tube that formed right in the center that appeared to be the weapon's barrel, so to speak. The outter ring of collapsed panels rotated counter-clockwise while the center part of the weapon rotated clockwise. There it sat quietly again beyond anyone's reach to stop it.
Noticing the Vok-made moon shifting, it was obvious to Optimus that they were running out of time.
"Rattrap," he called to the rat, gesturing him to come back down. The Maximal Spy nodded and slid down the pole landing on the ground and waddling back over to everyone.
"I think so." "We met the aliens face to face. They weren't pleased with us."
Tigatron watched Airazor run her hands over her arms, giving her a thoughtful sigh about her statement, and then a frown of sadness and worry. For a moment, he placed one of his front paws on her hand as a means of comfort until she voiced an idea.
"I can take Rattrap and fly in through the roof hatch. We can lower the lift manually from there and pull it back up."
"No," Optimus denied Airazor's request coldly.
"You and Rattrap take the rear of the ship. The Predacons are gathering there, so Orcariner will need some back-up," especially with two Maximals who were more agile than he was against the spiders and Inferno. And Starshadow.
"Wintersong and Ironclaw may be unconscious there as well. Approach with caution and secure the cargo bay," he ordered them.
"Why not just let Sentinel handle 'em?" the rodent asked.
"We can't spare the power!" the Maximal leader made clear.
"So, we get to do it the hard way. ...As usual." With that little complaint, Rattrap maximized and drew his gun, ready for Airazor to pick him up and fly him over to the hangar.
"One more thing," Optimus added, watching the Spy wield his weapon,
"When you confront them, I want them functional." A dark glare crossed the gorilla's face. He wanted to know what exactly the arachnids were doing in
his ship and paralyzing nearly his entire team at the worst possible time. They must have had a trick up their sleeves. But what...?
Purposely sighing loudly, the master marksman whined rhetorically,
"You just have ta spoil my fun, don't ya?" Walking over to Airazor, Rattrap playfully patted Tigatron's head before motioning to the birdlady that he was ready to move out.
"Aurora," the gorilla called firmly for her attention as an attempt to keep everyone focused.
"Go with Airazor and Rattrap, and tend to Wintersong and Ironclaw. I fear they've succumbed to the cybervenom as well. I need everyone inside the base as quickly as possible. Be careful."
Judging by Orcariner's mapping, all of the hostiles had gathered in the cargo bay. For what purpose, he did not know, but since there was no threat now in the command center, he had to get the rest of his Maximals inside the base before that massive weapon above them was going to fire who-knows-what at the planet. There was no time to take the scenic route around the waterfall to get the grounded bots through to the hangar, and he didn't have the power yet to fly each one back and forth after having just reverted to beast mode to rebuild his energon resistance. Time to improvise. Taking Airazor's idea of entering through the roof hatch, he looked at Whitegrazer, Tigatron, Dinobot and Cheetor - before he noticed him a little distracted by something in the distance -, and simply said,
"Wait here." Using his beast mode to his advantage, he leaped on to one of the stilts holding up the bow of the ship, much like Rattrap had just done, and climbed up to the bottom of the
Axalon. Then he reached over and grabbed the outter edge with a hand, then the other and then using his feet to grab hold and help push up, effortlessly pulling himself up on the side and then climbing all the way up to the top of the ship above the bridge. Standing there, he remotely activated the roof hatch, opening it and hopping down inside of the command center.
There he found Rhinox, Frilla, and a new Maximal Optimus had not yet met all unconscious. They must have retrieved her from one of the stasis pods. This warmed his spark, even if just brielfly, minus the paralysis she had unfortunately succumb to. The smell of recent gunfire still wafted in the air. There were shells from Rhinox's gun scattered everywhere, as well as some bullet holes in the seats, consoles and walls. To imagine the struggle his friends went through to try and defend their base only to be easily pinned by cybervenom angered him greatly. They could have easily have fallen to stasis lock... or death. And if he had lost one more friend... WHY were the spiders there in the first place?! What purpose or advantage could the
Axalon possibly provide for them?! He couldn't dwell on that now, though, he had to help the others inside so that they could reclaim their base of operations and hold the arachnids responsible for their actions. It wasn't very long ago when Glowstick had attempted the same kind of infltration, and the consequences costed his life as well as Icebreakers. Once again when Optimus wasn't around to defend them. Protect them. Save them.
Quickly, Primal went over to the lift finding the controls damaged. Figures. They were trying to slow them down. Overriding the automatic demands to use the manual controls, he forced the lift downward as fast as he could. As it slid down, he stopped it just two feet short of touching the ground where everyone could easily hop on and crank it back up.
"Let's go," he told the others he had left outside not wasting any time, motioning to the them that the coast was clear and to get on. Then Optimus climbed back up the hydrolic shafts to get of their way and into the command center, ready to manually crank it back up.
(( OOC: If I missed anyone who is unconscious in the bridge (including any arachnoids/drones left over?), please let me know and I'll edit that part. And my apologies if I did. Very tired; been a long and eventful day.
))
Hope this is okay since I had to improvise with the whole active and inactive maximals plus the Predacons. If I missed anything let me know.))