The Intergalactic Highway

((OOC: I'll give Venatrix a try.))

Venatrix readied her sword to strike down Saber, but the general's sudden transformation into her beast mode had caught her off guard. So had her sudden sharp turn.

Saber pinned Venatrix to the ground her claws digging into her shoulders.

"Dinobot! The shield's circuitry's hit! Get it back on-line!"

Rattraps voice caught Saber's attention.

"I am currently engaged."

Saber growled at Dinobot's comment.

Venatrix used the hilt of her sword to bash Saber in the head and then kicked the general off her.
"This is battle. Never take your optics off your opponent."

Saber just growled ignoring the pain in the back of her head then with a snarl attacked the Predacon she cat.

(( OOC: Thanks, N-H. I know it can be awkward RPing both characters fighting. ))

"I am currently engaged."

"Dat's an order!" Rattrap threw back at the raptor. "One more missile hit and our shields are gone for good!" It was going to be impossible to get Dinobot away from Megatron because he never surrenders or backs down from a fight. One day that attitude or aggression or "honor" was going to get him killed.

Megatron certainly was not going to leave Dinobot alone. He wanted to torture the traitor and pull him apart into hundreds of pieces by his own hands. Besides, if he kept him busy, it would give Terrorsaur a chance to destroy their shields. Pulling away from his opponent, the Predacon leader swung both of his arms up and to the right, high above Dinobot's head to gain more momentum and strength in an attempt to knock him off of his feet when he swung them back down toward the traitor's torso.

Rattrap continued watching the two fight. Of course the stinkin' lousy lizard wasn't going to obey him. His battle was far too more important than saving the Axalon from getting severly damaged. "Come on! Please?!" he begged. He was actually begging for Dinobot's cooperation! But being ignored, Rattrap sighed and decided to make a sprint for the controls on the lift.

Above, taking his time, Terrorsaur shot three more times at the Maximals' shields while he watched the rat make a run. Terrorsaur simply grinned in his mischievous way. He didn't have to worry about anyone shooting him since all of the Maximals were occupied. This is far too easy, he thought, anticipating success and praise for the shield failure. Just a few more hits.

"Dat's an order!" "One more missile hit and our shields are gone for good!"

Saber was getting irritated with Dinobot's disobedience she would do it herself but she couldn't get away from Venatrix.

"Come on! Please?!"

Still in her beast mode, Saber reared up on her hind legs and lashed out and smacked Venatrix across the face, then made a break for the ship. She didn't get far Venatrix who had turned into her beast mode as well leaped onto her back, sinking her claws into Saber's back tearing her away from her path.

'This cna't be good' Skyfire thought. She knew that one had to get to shield before they went, but of course the problem was, it would eb difficult to get over to them with out getting shot, especially since she had 2 Predacons firing at her and she was busy shooting at them while trying not to get hit herself.

Eventually one of the shots got her in the wing causing her to fall the ground. "AAAHHH!" She then hit the ground. "Owwww...."" she moaned.

Dinobot quickly dodged backwards, and stayed low to the ground.

When Megatron's arms swept by him, he reared right back up and delivered to upper cuts to his opponent's chest.

At this point he could only hear that Rattrap was saying something. Probably still asking him to engage the shields. Was he insane?

With Dinobot's blows to his chest, Megatron had no choice but to step backwards before losing his balance and falling on his back. But it wasn't enough to make him dizzy. He blocked the raptor's next move with his right arm, grabbing Dinobot's left fore arm with his beast mode's mouth, its teeth digging into his armor to ensure a tight grip.

Although his decision was already made, Rattrap hesitated to run to the Axalon's lift when he noticed Saber was about to do the same thing. She must have heard him yelling to Dinobot, and unlike that over-grown iguana, she was going to help instead. However, Venatrix stopped her in her tracks and prevented her from moving forward. Slag! Just before he was about to run off, he heard Skyfire get hit nearby.

"AAAHHH!" "Owwww...."

Crouching next to her, he saw the damage she took and said, "Hey, yer okay. You'll be fine," the rat assured her, as long as she didn't try flying, anyway. He grabbed her hand and gently helped her to her knees, keeping both of them covered behind the boulders as the Preds continued firing.

Opening a small compartment on his forearm, Rattrap pulled out one of his demolition charges and looked at the bald eagle. "Keep firin' at 'em, Sky," he said. "Ya don't have to hit 'em, just keep them distracted." With that, he activated the charge and turned around to see the Predacons' positions as he peeked over the boulder. Pulling his arm back, he threw the charge as far as he could. The little bomb exploded immediately on impact when it hit the ground right in front of Tarantulas's and Lineos's cover.

Now there was no more time to waste. As soon as the explosion happened, the small demolition expert had already left Skyfire's side and was sprinting toward the Axalon. His optics zoomed in on the shield's readings and they were dropping dangerously low. Slagging featherless freak, thought Rattrap as Terrorsaur hovered high above in the air.

Seeing the rodent make haste for the base, Terrorsaur narrowed his optics sensors and fired three more times from his weapon. That should eliminate the shields and give the Predacons the upper hand. The Predacon flier watched his shots closely, as if using his mind to urge them on to destruction. It created a distraction which the rat took advantage of.

On the ground, Rattrap heard three more shots. If they hit before he recharged the shields, they'd lose them for good. And that would lead to more damage to the ship, an interruption to Rhinox's miracle project, and no way of getting Optimus out of the alien probe. "Not this time!" Rattrap said while he ran as fast as he could, still holding his gun. The Maximals weren't going to lose this battle! Just before he reached the lift, he rolled on to his shoulders on the ground, and upon rolling onto his back in motion, he took a second to clearly and calmly target Terrorsaur and fire one shot at him. Then he rolled into a summersalt and quite gracefully came to his feet right up to the monitor attached to the lift. He laid the palm of his hand over it and engaged backup power to the shields. Immediately they were reinforced. Now it would take the Preds longer to try doing it again, but that wasn't going to happen because energon surges were going to shock their bodies soon.

Meanwhile, Rattrap's shot hammered Terrorsaur directly in his chest. The cocky Predacon was blown backwards in the air with a shriek, losing his navigation and aerial abilities and falling to the ground with a hard thud.

Tarantulus leaned up as he then suddenly got blasted by the concussion of Rattrap's bomb, sending him into some rocks with a scream near Megatron's direction.

Dinobot realize that, being unable to wrench his arm free of Megatron's grasp, he rather helpless against his opponent's lengthy reach.

He held up his hand to stop Megatron's hand-held tail from coming down on his head, but he couldn't keep it away indefinitely, and he was eventually hit.

Fine then.

He charged up his optic beams, and hit Megatron right in the chest. Eventually he gained enough power to blast the Predacon clean away- even making him release Dinobot's arm.

Saber landed on her back when Venatrix had stopped her, with a loud and vicious snarl, she used one of her large paws and smacked the Predacon she-cat in the side of the face face claws sheathed. The second the she cat was off, she quickly got to her feet, grabbed the scruff of the other cats neck with her teeth and tossed her away from herself.

Venatrix had been caught of guard by Saber's huge paw, she was left stunned only for a few seconds, but that had given the formal general enough time to grab her by the scruff of her neck and be tossed like a freaking rag doll. She had no idea that Saber was that strong, the impact when she hit the ground knocked her out cold.

Saber spit out tuffs of black fur from her mouth, she looked at the ship, its sheilds were back up no thanks to Dinobot. She turned her cold green eyes on him and growled quietly, showing her teeth.

Tarantulus leaned up seeming to almost pop up behind Megatron in the rocky cover. He looks towards the purple tyrant leader speaking up I suggest we width draw Megatron, The true prize and reinforcements await us at the standing stones!

Megatron's t-rex head chomped down one more time on Dinobot's arm before he whacked the traitor on his shoulder with the hand he gripped his tail in. Grinning, the Predacon's ego over the situation was clouding his judgement on the raptor. Just when he thought he was winning, he heard something charging from Dinobot and in a flash, he was blown backwards off of his feet by the traitor's optic laser beams blasting him in his chest.

Landing a good distance away from his opponent, burnt and feeling more pain than he thought he would after that fight, Megatron slowly sat up off of his back and looked at Tarantulas nearby.

I suggest we width draw Megatron, The true prize and reinforcements await us at the standing stones!

Ah yes! Of course. The arachnid was right. While these Maximals remained here to clean up the mess, the Predacons could regroup around the alien probe and take it for themselves. With Optimus gone, it would be impossible for those foolish Maximals to stop them in the battle field away from the safety of their precious base and their territory. The advantage would be on the Predacons' side.

"Yesss," Megatron agreed with Tarantulas while he got to his feet. "The alien probe. Withdraw at once!" he commanded, turning and converting back to his beast mode just before the raw energon fields tormented his body.

Terrorsaur, laying on his chest on the ground, heard Megatron's order and lifted himself to his feet. So the Maximals won this round, he thought angrily. They won't win the next one. With a screech, he transformed to his beast mode and flew off after Megatron.

As the Preds retreated, Rattrap ran up to Dinobot and Skyfire, glancing over his shoulder at Saber-Fang. He couldn't believe it. The Predacons were leaving! We won! But before there were any celebrations for their victory, the energon fields began shocking the rodent's robot mode. "We've... been in robot mode too long," he pointed out. "Beast mode!" Reverting to a rat, he fell to his four feet with a quiet sigh of relief. Now it was over. Maybe it was overwhelming surprise that the Preds were retreating that made Rattrap state the obvious but he was also extremely relieved that the Axalon was still in one piece and nobody died. This leadership role was a pain in the skidplate and Rattrap really, really hoped they'd get the boss monkey back. And soon.

"We've... been in robot mode too long," he pointed out. "Beast mode!"

Skyfire had to resist the urge to roll her optics when Rattrap made thta comment. Way to point out the obvious she thought. It's not not like any of them haven't experienced something like that before. Skyfire returned to beast mode, and cringed when she looked at her wing. Even in beast mode the damage could be seen. Looks like I'm gonna be in the CR chamber for while she thought. But at leats the fight was over, for now anyway.

Saber saw Rattrap look in her direction, rolling her shoulders she walked over to him.

"We've... been in robot mode too long," "Beast mode!"

Saber rolled her eyes, she didn't do any thing seeing how she had fought Venatrix while in her beast mode. She narrowed her eyes when she spotted Dinobot and she quietly growled at him.

Dinobot had noticed Rattrap's actions in the middle of battle, and he was suitably impressed.

"You were selfless in putting that shield back on line. I ought to have followed your command." he admitted. "I... am dishonored."

But he had also seen the daggers Saber-Fang was shooting at him. Her teeth had even been showing at one point.

Not subtle. And certainly infuriating. As he demonstrated, he was capable of realizing his own errors. He did not need this over-zealous Maximal general turning her disapproval into such inappropriate (and rather ineffective) menace.

He had just apologized to Rattrap, but he allowed himself to growl back at the tiger to show he was unphased.

"You were selfless in putting that shield back on line. I ought to have followed your command." "I... am dishonored."

Dinobot's "apology" took the rat by surprise. He honestly didn't know what to say. "Deeehhh... eh, next time," Rattrap stammered. It must have taken a lot for him to admit what he did, and it almost showed a side of Dinobot that the rodent hadn't seen before.

Picking up Saber-Fang's growling, the temporary Maximal Commander looked at her and the raptor and thought it wise to break in and distract them. She was probably upset about Dinobot's disobedience and was hoping for a punishment as a consequence. Rattrap always suspected that she thought the way Optimus handled things like this was too lightly. Now he was beginning to understand the ape's perspective on the matter. What Dinobot said was enough for Rattrap to drop it. They didn't need anyone punished or anymore arguments on the matter; they needed their leader back and everyone's help to do it.

"Come on," said the rat as he turned around and headed back for the Axalon. "Let's see how Rhinox is doin' on that extraction device. I'm bettin' those Preds are headin' for the probe next and we gotta get there before they blow it up."

Glancing at Skyfire, he added, "And you could probably use a little time in the CR, eh?" If she did, then they would be one more short against the Predacons, assuming they would attempt a battle at the standing stones. Not such a good thing to think about but it was reality. Rattrap continued to waddle his way on to the lift and headed up inside.

"What's the sitch, Big Green?" the little brown rat inquired, walking over to him in his beast mode. They still hadn't heard from Valkyrie's team and Rattrap was beginning to get worried.

----

Megatron slowed to a walk but kept a steady pace for the probe's location. Something was nudging him in the back of his dark, scheming mind. Most of the Maximals were probably on that wild goose chase where he had several of his Predacons interfer. The vermin was intent on securing their base's shields, as if protecting something of significant importance inside. Perhaps an injured Maximal? Or one with a task of significance. Had the rhinoceros been sent with the others to investigate the crashed ship? Megatron didn't think so, not a bot built for science and engineering. What were those Maximals up to? If only Terrorsaur hadn't been meandering with his shots. They could have destroyed their sheilds and taken control of their base! The large t-rex growled under his breath in frustration, briefly moving a bright red eye in the 'dactyl's direction.