(( OOC: Awe. Poor Starshadow.
Please read this post carefully, guys. There's a lot of jumping around in order to keep the small talk rolling.
And, OMG, Arachnitron! Just terrible. XD
))
"Go ahead," "But I think we both know you are not a killer. Nevertheless I'd be careful with where you point that thing. You've seen the results of similar actions before, and know that it would be no different this time."
Primal merely narrowed his red optics at Nemesis's words but that was all at the moment. He didn't think he'd ever fully understand her or her history as awful as it had sounded. And he was no better than the ones who had done that to her. Much of what he felt around her was guilt, but he kept it himself.
"Something tells me you're not kidding about this..," "Get moving!,"
No, there was joke to this threat. Leaving the former Decepticon alone as she pulled away, he sheathed his own sword and disengaged his missile launchers on his shoulders, retracting them to his back where they were stored and watching her grab her sai before leaving.
“You’re going to pay for that pussy cat!”
Upon hearing Megatron's bellow, Optimus immediately looked in his direction to find him battling with Cheetor until an energon surge started to rattle the tyrant's systems. Relieved that this battle was over, it was time for him and his Maximals to depart as well.
"Predacons, transform and retreat immediately!" "This isn't over Maximals."
The Maximal leader actually hoped that it wasn't over. He'd sooner continue fighting this war with Megatron rather than be wiped out completely by these merciless aliens.
"Good luck Maximals, think we'll all need it."
Nodding kindly to Onyx as he walked by, Primal repeated,
"Good luck," although in the back of his mind no one knew just yet how desperate the situation was going to get, but they were about to find out what the Vok had in store as a means of completely destroying this beautiful planet.
"I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING! WE WONT TURN YOU INTO GLUE! PUT ME DOWN YOU CRAZY MARE!!! PUT ME DOWN!"
Watching Manterror fly off of Whitegrazer, he was glad the mantis wasn't crazy enough to waste anymore of anyone else's time trying to defeat them despite how outnumbered he would have been by himself. Both factions had a much bigger problem to deal with now.
"Whatever that means, I think its time to hit the wind!"
"Eh?" Rattrap squeaked, for as soon as he had stood up after Optimus assisted him with Nemesis, his shoulders were suddenly picked up by very sharp talons.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" the rat whined, trying not to squirm which would make it worse.
"Easy with de claws! Couldn't ya have given me a little more warning?!" he snapped at Airazor before he looked down and watched everyone else getting smaller as the falcon lifted them higher.
"Whitegrazer, Cheetor, return to the base immediately! We'll meet you there!" Primal ordered them before he ignited his prime jets and took off to the sky in persuit of Airazor and Rattrap. Now it was time to make the call to everyone. It was time to make whatever logical preparations they could in order to survive or stop the aliens' insane ambition of terminating this whole world.
"Optimus Primal to all Maximals!" the Commander called through his communication link that suddenly linked to every Maximal frequency including the
Axalon's.
"Regroup at the base at once! Code X!" The chosen code supplied everyone as the utmost emergency and priority. A very grave situation was unfolding, and this was
not a drill.
-----
Meanwhile, the alien mushroom sending out larger pulses of light and energy, the top of the dome exploding into a hole from which it suddenly shot a steady beam of white and blue illumination that exited the planet's atmosphere and straight up to one of the moons. From there, the energy beam began revealing that moon's true identity, the very one Rhinox had first concluded long ago was far lighter than it should have been for it's density and diameter unlike its twin; as if this particular moon was hollow. As soon as the energy had touched it, it appeared to be "burning" off it's outter layer which then revealed millions of little arched pillars on the surface, much like the ones that had been associated with the dome. Then, all of those pillars lit up in a wave following the burning effect that swept what was now a fake moon. As if things couldn't get worse, an electrical current was sent throughout the planet's orbit, frying and electricuting all of the helpless stasis pods that were still rotating around the big blue world and would now be forced to crash quickly onto the planet's surface. This would ensure their destruction to be blown up with the rest of the planet instead of accidentally being thrown uncontrollably into space and rescued or possibly activated. These sparks that had been "dumped" there since the beginning of the Beast Wars where Optimus thought they would be safe in case the
Axalon and its crew didn't survive the crash were now threatened by death after all. Had it all been for not? The beam now engulfed the entire sphere, making the fake moon a very vibrant and bright ball in space with the energy stream still attached to it from the dome on the planet.
-----
As the pods spiraled out of control from their orbit and down toward the planet, alarms and scanner detections were sounding off almost simultaneously inside of the
Axalon, alerting the Maximals
((and particularly Frilla if Rhinox isn't around
)) inside what was happening.
"Massive energon surge emanating from Grid Trion," Sentinel announced inside the Maximal base as the monitors began flickering with interference.
"Communications impossible."
-----
"I've been sayin' it eva since we hit this mud ball!" Rattrap told Airazor and Optimus who flew beside them, witnessing what was happening to one of the moons.
"We're all gonna die."
"We're not scrap yet!" Primal assured the Spy, growing tired of his lack of optimism and positive attitude.
"Frilla and Rhinox will find a way to deal with these aliens." He hoped. What else could they do? But something else that struck Optimus now was that if one of the moons had been fake this entire time, and so much of this planet was far too similar to Earth to be coincidental, could they have actually followed Megatron back in time to Earth? If so, how far back had they gone...? And did this knowledge have anything to do with the Voks' "project"? But why? What was he missing? Unable to find all of the answers, Primal kept his assumptions to himself for the time being and focused on the matter at hand.
(( OOC: I'll leave it there for now before the beam disappears and seemingly the weapon as well, so the Preds have time to get back to base and everyone else can react to this sudden turn of events.
))
-----
"You don't understand," "One of them would certainly have been alive if it wasn't for my doing.. my mistake. Nothing anyone says will change the facts.."
Tigatron frowned slightly, watching Aurora curl up in her position that was now telling him how closed off she felt or uncomfortable.
"Optimus has been nothing but a gentle leader and a great role model. It just isn't right to place any blame on him. He may see it as his responsibility to carry the burden by himself, but I don't think it's right. We all need to face the consequences of our own actions. No single individual should have to.." "Well played," "But the situation is different when it's your actions that caused the mess in the first place."
The taller Maximal was about to give into her innocence and inability to understand at such a young age when her last words seemed to have caught on to his meaning, and inside he smiled at her maturing mind. However, she was still blaming herself. Perhaps because he didn't entirely know the details to what caused one of their deaths, he was actually the one running into this blind and missunderstood.
"Icebreaker should not have died.. I wasn't there to stop him from engaging the enemy. He could have.. He should have.. lived."
"That was out of everyone's hands," Tigatron finally spoke, avoiding the mentioning of the one who pulled the trigger because he didn't want to focus on that point and possibly make her dwell on revenge.
"If you blame yourself for not being present during that tragedy in order to prevent it, thinking Icebreaker was your responsibility, that can't be so. I could say the same thing, as could Optimus, and anyone else who would have given their life for him. Aurora, you were Icebreaker's responsibility and he was Optimus's. There is no fault in that scenario that's attached to you. It could have been anyone. His death may not have even been intentional." It was something to consider. He knew their leader did.
"What happened to Valkyrie.. the fault for that ultimately falls on me. In the midst of the aftermath of the battle, I forgot all about some alterations I had made to the temperature settings.. She died because of that.. and nothing anyone says or does will change it."
Now Tigatron understood a lot more about her emotions and guilt.
"Our sweet Aurora," he said softly in a warm tone while he pulled her close to him again with his arm around her shoulders to try and comfort her.
"Had Valkyrie not made the decision to disobey Optimus's orders and visit Nemesis alone for whatever reason she had in mind, whether she was thinking clearly or not, then she might not have found her fate so soon. And if stricter security measures had been made, the temperature alterations would not have made a difference. Do you see how many factors were in play? It was Optimus's choice to keep Nemesis in our brig despite the dangers he was well aware of. But it still comes down to Valkyrie's own irresponsible choice and making herself vulnerable to Nemesis. After that decision was already made, there was little else that mattered to the other contributing factors."
"Optimus Primal to all Maximals!" "Regroup at the base at once! Code X!"
Interrupted by their Commander's voice over the comm. link, Tigatron's attention was suddenly pulled to the side where a bright beam originating from the location Optimus and Cheetor had gone to rescue Airazor, Whitegrazer and Rattrap illuminated everything and attached itself to one of the moons, drowning it in the glowing energy.
"By the Matrix," he said with a quiet gasp as he watched this unfold. What was happening?! And was Airazor all right?
"The light at the end of the world," he muttered.
"Aurora, I can't force you to come with me back to our ship, but this looks like nothing I have ever seen before and Optimus might need our help," he pleaded, seemingly uncertain if her guilt would prevent her to accompany him back and disobey their leader's order.
))
