Starshadow wrote: Starshadow chuckled and bit a claw nail, "I had a free pass to the maximal base."
"
Hhhmmm, yes, I see..." Tarantulas murmured, wondering if perhaps the cat tracked them all the way here or if maybe she'd been trying to cut a deal with the maximals for some unknown purpose...Either way it was ultimately irrelevant, she needed to die just as badly as the rest of them, he didn't have the time or the desire to build more than one escape craft.
She'd need to be taken out along with Blackarachnia, preferably as soon as possible so they wouldn't have time to rally against him and his partner, his usefulness to him would last for as long as Blackarachnia and Starshadow remained functional.
Blackrose wrote: While Tarantulas aimed his weapon on Blackarachnia, Arachnitron raised her cybervenom launcher towards Starshadow. She didn't want the other femme to try anything with the intentions of saving Blackarachnia with the hopes of leaving the planet with her. She looked at the panther sternly. "Don't move. Once Blackarachnia has handed over the transwarp drive, you'll be spared. Move before she does and you'll be scrapped." Arachnitron addressed Blackarachnia without taking her optics away from her target. "Give Tarantulas the transwarp drive or I'll shoot the cat. I'm sure you'd rather not be outnumbered again."
"
You heard the lady, hand it over, play time is at an end" Tarantulas cackled, pleased that events were playing out in his favor again so soon after Starshadow's unwelcome return.
He'd be off this rock soon and back on Cybertron, receiving a hero's welcome for accomplishing his mission despite the odds stacked against him.
Alak wrote: Upon hearing the Predacon spider utter those words to his partner, Orcariner now knew that he was witnessing a web of lies unraveling itself as their mission was coming to an end. He was not going to idly sit on the sidelines while a Predacon power struggle ripped the Axalon from the inside out. On the other hand, this was still potentially a four-on-one encounter. No matter how tough his armor was, the giant was still outnumbered against foes who were known to emphasize wits over brawn in battle. Orcariner's radar stretched outward to see how many reinforcements were nearby. Everyone in the ship was already downed, albeit alive, including the similarly bulky officer, Rhinox. Outside was a different story. Optimus Primal and his team were well within range to storm the ship if need be. Orcariner might as well call out to them prior to engaging this uphill fight.
Initiating share sequence...
Uploading Beacon 2.0 now...
"Optimus," he whispered into his radio, "Check your sensor map over the next 30 seconds. Four hostiles on my mark. Entering the back will be your quickest option. Orcariner out."
Standing upright, the Maximal soldier stepped around the Nomad and approached Tarantulas from behind. It looked like both of the Predacon spiders were already inside the bay while Arachnitron and Starshadow were just at the entrance. Any sign of aggression on his behalf would mean the latter two could easily escape out of the room, and the orca was not exactly built to engage in confined, in-door pursuits. He brushed off that concern, however, thinking that he would just tear down the walls instead. Optimus and Rhinox would have to yell at him later for the lack of finesse. Focusing at the situation at hand, Orcariner commanded out loud.
"Lights on!"
The entire hangar lit up, revealing the looming giant standing behind Tarantulas.
"You have two options, spider. Leave the ship voluntarily, or I send you out by force."
Both of his energo-swords were drawn out simultaneously from his gauntlets.
"Your choice."
Image
Tarantulas gasped and whirled around in shock at the presence of one of the maximals largest and most powerful warriors, standing right behind him!
"
Fools! How did they not see this THING sneaking up behind me?!" Tarantulas snarled inwardly, his rage overcoming his dread for the moment, amazed that something this size could be stealthy enough to catch him off guard.
He stared up at the massive leviathan and cursed every cybertronian deity he could think of as he contemplated his next action, one which would determine whether he lived to begin work on the escape craft or got cut in half right here and now before he even got the chance.
Una wrote: Energon was boiling inside Blckarachnia right now. Usually, she was calm and cold, but right now, her priority of surviving destruction to the point of impatience dealing with these two idiots was dragging her to the brink of insanity.
Seeing Tarantulas aim at her for the transwarp cell, a twitch came upon her right optic. She was ready to blow a circuit and about to scream when another big lug of the Maximals came at them.
All right, she was ticked.
"What are you two doing? We outnumber him four to one. SHOOT HIM!" She screamed at Tarantulas and Arachnitron. She was ready to fire or whatever when her mind began to plot. Maybe she should just get rid of Tarantulas and Arachnitron right here right now? They were nothing but nuisances to her now! They planned on killing her anyway! What was the point of letting them two survive? Maybe it was too late to do anything to escape now and the better option could be to side with the Maximals. It didn't matter what they did now! They could probably be nanoclicks to destruction! But then she rethought. She needed Tarantulas, but not Arachnitron. Arachnitron was just a pawn like she was. Well, she just needed his mind. Nothing else.
She needed to be careful in her next move. There was a dark smirk she gave to Tarantulas behind his back.
"
Easier said than done widow, you're not standing within reach of his blades" he hissed at her in irritation, knowing he needed to act fast but knowing it was likely they couldn't take the brute down in one shot, not daring to take his optic off of him, he wanted to be ready to dodge when and if those blades came for his head.
His best bet was his cybervenom launcher, which would at least slow him down even if it didn't knock him out immediately...He'd have to draw VERY quickly to shoot the maximal before he eviscerated him.
Blackrose wrote: Inferno watched from the hallway. Tarantulas' guns were aimed at the taller she-spider. The little she-spider's guns were aimed at the cat. And suddenly out of nowhere, the aquatic Maximal showed up to the party. He chuckled quietly to himself as he sat concealed in the hallway. No one knew he was outside in the hall following the spiders.
"Inferno, terrorize." the ant murmured quietly.
He transformed and landed on the ground in the door way to the cargo hold and fired his rocket launcher at Blackarachnia and then proceeded to fire at Orcariner with no regard to the fact that he was vastly out numbered.
"All enemies of the Colony must be terminated!!!!"
He threw out a military salute before raising his weapon to fire again on the enemy....
"
The ant too?! What's next? The ghost of Optimus Prime himself?!" Tarantulas cursed as he used the distraction caused by Inferno's unexpected arrival to draw his gun and fire one shot at Orcaliner before running for cover behind one of the stasis pods.
Blackrose wrote: As Arachnitron still contemplated what to do, another figure appeared in the doorway and fired his weapon at Blackarachnia and also Orcariner claiming that all of them in the room were enemies of the colonies. Arachnitron narrowed her optics at him musing on the bug's logic circuits and wondering at his identity. He must be crazy to take on all five of them on his own with no back up, but she knew now was not the time to take out the red ant. She had about a split second to take advantage of this situation. Blackarachnia was distracted!
She turned her weapon on Orcariner, fired her cybervenom launcher and then dove towards Blackarachnia reaching out to grab hold of the transwarp drive she still held in her grip.
Tarantulas had noticed Arachnitron going for the transwarp drive even as he made his escape, simply yelling at her to "
Bring it to me!" as he began his work on the first stasis pod he could get his pincers on, hoping the two giants Inferno and Orcaliner would keep eachother busy and scrap Starshadow and Blackarachnia for him, and hopefully eachother.
He normally wouldn't risk something like this under such heavy fire, but the immanent destruction of the very world upon which he stood was a powerful motivator. Even if he destroyed the others now, he was doomed if he didn't get the escape craft working, thus it took priority over everything else.
He put on a visor over his optics with cables that ran into the pod itself, his tool filled pincers moving faster than they ever had before, reworking the pod for space travel even as his mind began the tricky task of reprogramming its computer for space travel and navigation. He was putting his spark into this task, appropriate given it was at stake if he failed.
OOC: WHOO! Done, hope this works for everyone, as always, I'll edit if I goofed somewhere "goes out to lunch"