The Intergalactic Highway

(Er.. Vena.. 1: Maximal transport does not fly high enough to go above trees. It's more akin to hovercraft technology, but with using "gravity lifts" and ridiculous armor plating. 2: Optimus Primal has not left the maximal transport and would be hard to see from the bridge in the distance unless your talking about the evil Primal clone Clear Convoy..Characters outside of the vehicles were:Terrorsaur,StarShadow,Tigatron,Feralnight,Icebreaker. 3:if Venatrix can see the transport, she's probably in radar range of Maximals and Predacons.. and they are already on high alert watching the radar from the random explosion that harmed Tigatron, so you may not be that stealthy. 4:The transport landed away from the woody area and hasn't gone close enough to it yet.

You may want to edit some portions of your post?)

((OOC: Welcome back, Venatrix!

Regarding Venatrix' post, I thought when she said, "Venatrix waited till the Maximals flew over her hiding place..." that she was referring to Optimus Primal, Feralnight and Tigatron since she had said earlier, "But her first contact with other transformers was with the Maximals Optimus Primal, Feralnight, and the seemingly wounded Tigatron."

I could, of course, be reading her incorrectly, but if she was referring to those three, then the Nomad's mode of transportation and distance wouldn't contradict what she wrote.

That having been said, it is true that Optimus hasn't left the transport yet, so he wouldn't be able to fly over her head either- just Feralnight carrying Tigatron.

On the note of Icebreaker having left the Nomad earlier- I think that fits his characterization. I understand that we don't want characters doing absolutely whatever they want so that we don't throw structure entirely out the window, and so that we don't end up with some of those characters dominating the role play. But occasionally spontaneous action, to me, seems natural in the ones who are written to be that way. And I think Icebreaker's actions provide opportunities for other characters. Optimus Primal could chide Icebreaker for leaving the ship in unstable, enemy-filled territory, Terrorsaur could begin to plot revenge for getting taken down in one shot, Cheetor could ponder learning a lesson without actually having to have been the one in trouble, Wintersong could similarly ponder the action and either deem Icebreaker in the wrong or feel like he's being misjudged and in so doing affirm for herself the good that solo action can accomplish since she cherishes her independence. Additionally, Clear Convoy has another running target to shoot at (which might make the thoughts and conclusions of the other characters even more resonant), and if that happened, Ocariner, Rattrap and Cheetor would all have something to do in the med bay, etc.))

(Ah, I see. And yes, that is Icebreaker's character, the more guts then brains type. I assumed it'd be more weird to let him just sit back driving, when he'd more likely just run ahead to protect his allies without caring about the consequences of reprimand.)

(( OOC: I haven't seen Starshadow lately, so give her a day or two to catch up. ))

((HOWDY BOTS!! I'M BACK!! (checks the pages) WOAH!! I've been offline for tooo long!! Sorry about that guys..I'm using my friend's computer because my mom took out the internet cable. I've been a bad kitty.. (reads the posts) Oh gosh...sooooooooooo llllooooooooonnnnnnngggg...anyway, I'm gonna be offline for a loooonnnggg time after this post. Must get back my internet cable.... ))

No, the Leviathan hasn't fired a shot.. Nor have the maximals from what we can tell. Can you walk or do I need to recover you?

Starshadow shook her head and ignored that. After she closed her eyes for a minute and opened them, the tiger was gone. She stood up and roared with rage. Her ears twitched as she heard footsteps. "WHO'S THERE?!" she snarled and hissed. Something decloaked infront of her and it looks exactly like the maximal leader, Optimus Primal. Her ears drooped as he aimed his wrist cannon at her neck then BAM!!

"RAAAOOWWRRR!!!" The panther flew to a large boulder and her body slammed on it. She did not know how Primal had a stealth device and why he was that aggressive but she would kill him if she ever see him. Standing up unsteadily, she stretched herself transforming into her robot mode and started walking.

Orcariner took a look at Tigatron's body as Feralnight handed him over to Optimus. The Maximal scout was still in beast mode but the explosion left several patches of his skin missing. It was an easy fix, but he had to be sure that Tigatron's beast mode dampers were still fully functional or else the radiation effects would no longer be shielded.

"Bring him over here," Orcariner motioned to the table.

He laid out the small amount of tools that they had with them. The giant had might as well do something useful. Icebreaker was usually better at field injuries. Since he was not available at the moment, Orcariner was the next best option.

Venatrix had no idea what had happened, or what was going to happen if she kepped following Feralnight and Tigatron.
But as long as she stayed in beastmode, she would stay invisible to any of the Maximal scanners which would possitivaly identify her as a Predacon.
So she should be safe for a while, if she stayed at a far enough distance.
She not wasted her time away from the Predacons by just staying idle.
She was as sharp as ever.
Her sences have been trained, and she discovered a lot of extra qualities her beastmode brings.
While hunting, she learned to be even more silent.
While fishing, she learned to be even more patient.
Something would cross her path if she stayed patient.
Something always would. Whether or not it was that what she was looking for.
The black Predacon panther started to focuss her ears to pick up any transmitions the Maximal might be making with her fellow Maximals, or if Tigatron was still concious, with eatch other.
Every bit of information was useful as she was unaware of what was going on at that moment.
But she never lost her attention of her direct surroundings.
Every falling leaf was registered by her scences. If something out of place happened along her path, she would pick it up.
This while she was staying a safe distence from her objects of interests.

(Heh, I figured you were in trouble for something Star. Don't worry, you're character will probably just be recovered and left in the quarters to recover on the Leviathan. )

Icebreaker finished his slide, jumping up from the ground and landing on his feet for a sudden stop in front of the Leviathan. He then walked towards the back of the craft,out of view of Venatrix but for the reason of gaining entry to the vehicle.He glanced around the area a bit paranoid and still confused from the readings his visor displayed earlier, then walked up to the rear door. He inserted a passcode into a panel, causing the door to slide open. Then hopped up waddling inside of the craft, the door sliding closed behind himself.

Icebreaker, Maximize! he then said transforming to his robot mode, he reached on his back pulling out a large red pack of medical supplies, walking towards the table Orcariner set up. He set the supplies next to it Man something weird is going on.. How's Tigatron? he then said looking up at Ocariner.

NaitoKage wrote:Icebreaker, Maximize! he then said transforming to his robot mode, he reached on his back pulling out a large red pack of medical supplies, walking towards the table Orcariner set up. He set the supplies next to it Man something weird is going on.. How's Tigatron? he then said looking up at Ocariner.

"Stable," he replied, "Only the CR chamber can make him all prettied up again, but he should be fully functional. I taped up some wires that could be exposed to enemy fire, but he doesn't seem strong enough to go out into the field right now. It would appear that the unknown bogey had fired near him rather than making a direct shot. It's fortunate that Tigatron had only sustained splash damage. On the other hand, this bogey had the drop on both our guy and the Predacon. It was a shot intended to incapacitate both individuals instead of one over the other."

Orcariner placed the tools back in the compartment in the wall and closed the cover. The Maximal exchanged glances with Icebreaker, Feralnight, and Optimus Primal.

He continued, "It'd be a safe assumption to say that our bogey is planning on fighting both factions. The problem is that we don't know what it is... and we don't know how many of them are out there."

Cheetor didn't know much about field repairs (or any medical practice for that matter), so he sat back while Ocariner helped Tigatron. As soon as the large Maximal seemed done, he came closer.

"How're you feeling, big cat?"

* * *

Steelclaw still disliked Scorponok's command, but he figured it'd be better to just listen to him and and finish the risky maneuver with the greatest possible haste than to argue and slow it down- the commander clearly had no intention of deviating from his plan.

And as long as he was going to go along with it, there was no use in getting nervous about the danger. So he returned to watching the screen and looking for any opportunities to fire on the Maximals.

In the distance, he could see Starshadow. With a crew on the way to retrieve her, she'd be fine, so he focused back on the Nomad. But something moved in his peripheral vision and he was suddenly drawn to looking at Starshadow again. There, in front of her, was Optimus Primal. He reflexively began targeting the Maximal leader, but he was too late to help Starshadow who was hit not a moment later.

That was disturbing. It was one thing that Starshadow wasn't even close enough to pose a threat to Primal's crew. But Steelclaw was a sniper- he couldn't blame someone else for employing that tactic.

But she had already been hit. If attacking her now wasn't beneath Optimus, it should have been.

But as soon as Steelclaw considered the situation, Primal vanished. When had he gotten that ability?

He was about to speak up when Sonar left.

"Where's he going?" he asked no one in particular.

His audio receptors twitched. Scorponok quickly turned as he heard Steelclaw pose an undirected question. Sonar had already left the Leviathan and had begun flying off towards Starshadow's position.

"Get back here you flying rat!" he yelled.

It was too late. Sonar was long gone and Scorponok had zero faith in his combat abilities against the proven Maximals. He had only intended on using the bat as a way to transport the panther back to the ship. He turned to Glowstick and a growl.

"I'm going after him. Continue the mission when I leave. You're temporarily in charge of these guys."

With that, he switched to beast form and crawled out of the hatch. What was supposed to be an easy mission quickly became complicated by the incompetence and insubordination of this band of losers he was stuck with. Megatron will surely read of this in his report.

(( OOC:

Wait, you have the Clear Convoy toy? Wow. Though strangely not as surprised as I should be, what with you being the biggest Optimus Primal fan on the planet.

Let's not get carried away, NK.

As for Star, she said on Facebook she might not be on for a few days, I assume probably grounded and had her psp taken away again.)

Tisk, tisk. I remember those days.

And yes, that is Icebreaker's character, the more guts then brains type.

Ah. I understand now. My bad.

OOC: Sonar has a death wish XD

Yessss, N-H. Yes, he does. Mwahahahahahahahaha!

Welcome back, Ven!! ))

Roger.. I'll return at-- Er.. At once.

Good, not that it sounded like the penguin had a choice in the matter. If that unseen being went after him, he'd be in a great deal of danger now.

"There. We're landed, safe and sound."

"Well done, Wintersong," Optimus nodded to her. He knew she'd be able to handle it. It was a nice and smooth landing.

"Just hold Tigatron."

The big cat smiled lightly to Feralnight, grateful for her kindness and assistance.

"Seems he got a good hit Optimus."

Primal carefully took Tigatron out of Feral's arms and in to his own. "Thank you, Feralnight," he said, relieved to have him back for repairs. "Good thing you remained in beast mode," he told the white tiger.

"Indeed," Tigatron replied. "My internal repairs have already begun, although it feels a little more serious."

"We'll have you checked out and back on your feet in no time," Optimus assured him.

"Bring him over here,"

The leader glanced at Orcariner and turned to carry Tigatron over to the make-shift medical bay. Cheetor and Rattrap had done a decent job setting things up for emergency repairs. Optimus cautiously set the tiger down on his side on the table and stood back to give the whale room to examine him.

Icebreaker, Maximize! Man something weird is going on.. How's Tigatron?

Primal watched Icebreaker enter the Nomad and approach them surrounding the injured cat. While relieved that he returned safe and sound, he was not happy about his careless act of running out into the unknown. But now was not the time to yell at him since he was busy helping Tigatron.

"Stable," "Only the CR chamber can make him all prettied up again, but he should be fully functional. I taped up some wires that could be exposed to enemy fire, but he doesn't seem strong enough to go out into the field right now. It would appear that the unknown bogey had fired near him rather than making a direct shot. It's fortunate that Tigatron had only sustained splash damage. On the other hand, this bogey had the drop on both our guy and the Predacon. It was a shot intended to incapacitate both individuals instead of one over the other."

The Maximal leader agreed. Whoever, or whatever, it was out there didn't appear to be playing favorites. And because it appeared to be invisible made it even more difficult to defend themselves.

"It'd be a safe assumption to say that our bogey is planning on fighting both factions. The problem is that we don't know what it is... and we don't know how many of them are out there."

"I'm sure we're going to find out," Optimus commented, although there was some uncertainty in his optics. Gathering the energon was critical for them, but at what cost? And what were the chances of this unknown object, or objects, showing up when the energon field was uncovered?

"How're you feeling, big cat?"

"Not too bad, Little Cat," Tigatron smiled at Cheetor. He was glad to see him. "It could have been worse." He growled a little when he moved his front leg. Sighing he added, "I'll be all right, thanks to everyone." His green eyes full of hope and gratitude glanced at those around him.

"Tigatron, do you remember what happened?" inquired Optimus.

"Vaguely," he answered as the event slowly came back to him and replayed in his mind, looking at their commander. "I... remember watching the Predacon circling me around the rock, and then... I looked up when I heard a shot but no one was there," the tiger explained. "That was all. I did not have time to move or defend myself."

Well, that outruled Starshadow and the Predacons' transport. It was definitely someone who could cloak and someone neutral from both factions. How do you fight someone who was invisible? Unfortunately, it wasn't a lot of information, and since there was nothing else to go on, they might as well get started on the reason they were there in the first place. The sooner they were done, the better. "Wintersong, stay on the bridge and monitor the scanners. Very closely," he ordered her. "Feralnight and Cheetor, you're on recon. Report anything unusual or suspicious, and don't wander too far alone." Then he looked at the rest and said, "Rattrap, Icebreaker, Orcariner, let's get started on mining that energon."

-----

The invisible "Vok Primal" landed on a large rock that pretruded from the ground. As he took a moment to rest and assess the activity in the area, he watched Starshadow slowly walk back to the Predacons' transportation unit. Sure enough, others would be heading out to assist her and Terrorsaur. Looking toward the Maximals' transport, it seemed to be quiet. The last Maximal was gone. For now. More would be out soon to do what they came here to do despite that they knew there was danger here. He wondered how easy it would be to infultrate their transports. Not now while several were still inside, but when one or two were left by themselves.

While he waited for more activity, he converted to his gorilla beast mode to get a feel for it, looking at his hands and feet and wiggling his "toes." It was intriguing to him that he could use his feet like his hands; an acceptional quality for a beast form. Fortunately, it wasn't long when he spotted a Predacon in the air leaving its miniature mobile "base." He grinned and cracked his knuckles, watching to see where it was heading.

Sonar knew that he would get his aft handed to him when they returned to the Darksyde, but that didn't matter, what mattered was dealing with the phantom. If it continued to live it would ruin everything and he couldn't allow that. He circled the area where he last saw the creature on the minitors, he knew he couldn't see it with his optics, but he would be able to see it with his echos, he opened his mouth and sent out a wave of sound on his right. When nothing came back to him he sent out a wave of sound below him, he narrowed his eyes when he saw a figure that looked like Optimus Primal in his beast mode.

There you are. He thought.

"Starshadow, if your still online stay where you are and don't move!" He ordered before continuing. "You may have fooled every one here, Phantom. But you haven't fooled me, I may not be able to see you with my opitcs, but I can see you with my echo's."

Sonar wanted to provoke it and see what it could do. "Are you nothing but a coward? You seem to be one to me, seeing how you attacked these bots while cloaked. So it your not a coward show yourself and fight like a real mech!"

((OOC: *face palms* slaggit! I can't control Sonar when he gets like this!))

Feralnight landed for a moment a bit tired from the flight, "Beast mode." She said with great relief to allow her systems to rest from the radiation of the energon and give her wings a slight break. She turned her head to listen to the others, wondering like the rest who this invisible enemy could be. "Maybe we'll be lucky enough this cloaked figure will reveal themselves." She said with a sigh before hearing Primal again, "You got it." She said ready to go, and luckily her form was for both lad and air so a good walk would help until her wings weren't feeling so heavy.

----------------------

Frilla rolled her eyes, "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm about ready to get just mine this energon, blast this place to oblivion then get out of here. This is starting to get a bit weird." She said. The frilled lizard wasn't keen to go out and mine the energon now, if something was there and cloaked then this would make their task all the more difficult. What was concerning her though was who exactly these aliens were. And could this unusual cloaked figure have a connection to them?

Wintersong stood and came over watching the others for a moment, just listening about this cloaked figure and what they would need to expect. "Very well Primal, but if things get hairy out there I'm not going to sit back and watch." She half growled then returned to the driver's seat but remained standing, too restless to sit still now. if anything she wanted to go out there and find out face to face who this cloaked figure was and to why they were attacking. As much of a loner she had become Wintersong still worried for her fellow Maximals, even if it didn't really show much.

((OOC: I'm usin the school's computer.))

Starshadow put a claw on her head as sparks emitted out of her helmet, groaning in pain, her neck was aching too. It felt like someone slamed a large sledge hammer on her head.

"Starshadow, if your still online stay where you are and don't move!"

"Pffft...since when you're so concern about my safety, bastsy? I still haven't forgot about that unpleasant pain-in-the-foot incident. Don't bother looking for- GAH! AHHHHHH!!" Now her head was feeling painful, as if her circuits were about to explode. She held her head and squirmed on the ground, growling in pain.