The Intergalactic Highway

Xzuk had followed his nose for about a mile, and sure enough, there was the waterfall. And Moonshine!

He walked up quietly and snuck up on the birdbot.

"PIYAAAH!!!"

She jumped and Xzuk smiled before scratching his ear.

"I followed your scent home. These organic abilities are quite nice. Have the others gone to retrieve some tech parts?"

He sat back and looked around thinking of just how much of a shame it was going to be to go home...

If we ever get home...

As the group came within range of the alien signal. Glowstick climbed down from Tantrum's back transforming to robot mode Alright, I'll investigate this-- he was then cut off as shots started to spray from the distance, Glowstick ducked and rolled as the shots sprayed to the right of Tantrum. What the?!

Glowstick got up running towards the shooting, a spray of wood fibers could be seen as the shots came out from a forest. One of the shots striking one of his tentacles causing the impact area to turn red and black. He swung his main tentacles as a narrow laser expelled from the end, the trees seen cut at the base and falling revealing a turret structure of sort. What the heck is that?! Glowstick then said, a shot then slammed into his chest knocking him flying backward onto the ground.

Orcariner flopped towards a small boulder in his beast form. Using his fins, Orcariner gave himself one final push until he was merely inches away from the rock. According to the alien map, the boulder hid a gun turret of its own.

"Orcariner, maximize!" he whispered.

In the middle of his transformation, the robot jumped on top of the rock with his right blade unsheathed. The boulder quickly split apart, undergoing its own transformation process, revealing a double barreled beam turret. Unfortunately, before he could strike, the weapon swiftly aimed upward and fired. Orcariner barely reflected the shot with his blade as he fell off from the unexpected reaction.

These things are smart and unbelievably flexible for their size.

As he fell on the ground, the Maximal quickly rolled backwards and reattained his battle stance, drawing his second blade out.

"Blast," he groaned.

The deflected beam flew back towards the alien turret and apparently destroyed it. The weapon was motionless with smoke rising from the top.

Well, if we can't use it for fighting, maybe we can study it.

Orcariner ripped the broken device from the boulder shell and carried it with him as he walked towards the next white icon on his map.

"Aye," Moonshine replied after calming down, not having heard Xzuk over the noise from the waterfalls.

"Our flippered friend went out to salvage pods, while Orcariner left as well. I hope they're ok.. The radio signals don't reach very far on this world at all."

She gazed into the distance, finding her surroundings quite beautiful.

"This planet is lethal, yet a paradise.."

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Some distance away Luna leaped to the side in surprise as the blast nearly grazed the bovine of the team. She'd been following a few steps behind the others.

"Watch your step," she growled, looking around with her ears pointed while attempting to locate the source of the blasts. The darkness had her mildly disoriented.

"Good thing we have our spotted friend over there whose gravitational pull will surely deflect the shots away from the rest of us."

"Orcariner to Xzuk and Moonshine, I've claimed two turrets thus far," the Maximal said, while walking through the forest, "I'm going to try to grab one more before returning to base."

The nearest turret was a full klick north of his position, and Orcariner did not want to carry two defunct guns over such a distance before engaging a hostile. An idea came to him as he approached a riverbed. Holding the turret pieces close to his body, the Maximal transformed into his beast mode. The process worked, as his killer whale form now contained not only his robotic features, but the alien technology, as well.

"Wow," he grunted, "I feel a bit cramped."

The whale kicked his tail and proceeded to swim up north. The feeling was incredibly awkward, and he noticed that it was much more difficult to move as agile in the river as he had before.

"I am definitely walking after this."

Xzuk barely got Orcariner's transmission... it sounded almost like rocks in a blender... but he understood him.

"Roger that Orcariner. Just be careful. Three turrets is more than enough to defend our base. Remember, they'd have to find the place first. And not everyone would look behind the waterfall."

He sat back again and watched the time go by. Every cycle on this planet he noticed something else that was worthy of praise. Although obsolete, organic lifeforms had to be praised for their simplistic beauty.

Icebreaker slowed down as he made it to the end of the river, at the beach a half frozen stasis pod sticking out of a iceberg was seen beached on the shallows. Time to get to work! he then said to himself as he walked over grabbing the iceberg, then started to push it from the beach into the river's path.

After pushing the mass of ice that the stasis pod was sticking out of, he pulled out some of his climbing wire wrapping it around parts of the iceberg, then transformed to penguin mode swimming up the current while dragging the iceberg behind him.

Floating in the calm river, Orcariner eyed the river bank suspiciously. According to his map, the turret was in front of him, but he had to consider his approach carefully. Being a larger Maximal, his transformation process took a bit longer than most of his peers which would give the turret time to pop out and attack him. Orcariner doubted the situation would improve if he transformed at the bottom of the river, since the water was not as deep as the it was in the southern regions.

I suppose I could try something different.

Pushing the bank's rocks with his tail, Orcariner began to pile them on top of the hidden weapon. He doubted it would provide him that much of a window, but he could use as much time as possible. As soon as he found the size of the pile to be sufficient enough, the Maximal overrode his transformation sequence to manual mode.

"Primus help me if this doesn't work," he said to himself, "Orcariner, maximize!"

Focusing all of his attention on keeping his body together, the killer whale only allow the right half of his body to transform. His right arm swung out of his side just as the alien turret emerged from the ground and swiveled to face him. Orcariner quickly unsheathed his arm blade which launched straight into the weaon's support stand, severing it. The Maximal smiled as the turret fell useless to the ground.

"Now for the hard part."

His right arm and right leg was still awkwardly propped out from his body. Pulling them back in was a difficult task, due to the two other turrets moving around inside, making the gaps harder to fill. Quickly losing patience, Orcariner switched his sequence back to automatic and felt his entire body shift into robot mode. The gun turrets popped out of his stomach and rolled onto the bank while the large Maximal laid flat on his back. The experience of completing a half-transformation was very unpleasant.

"Let's not do that again," he gasped, with sparks dancing from his joints.

Moving at a slower pace then he was before, Icebreaker eventually made it to a midway point in the river, then pulled the iceberg onto a bank along the river. He used the cables wrapped around the iceberg to tie it up to a tree to keep it from getting away.

He then stretched Going to be sore after this one. Here we go! he then tranforms to robot mode tossing his shield out, his fins on the board shift forward as he hops up onto the board. A track at the end of the board extends, then spins wildly sending up sand and grass, accelerating him at high speed.

He weaved the board around some rocks, then headed across a grass plain in the direction of Moonshine's stasis pod. Woohoo!

Tantrum was slowly getting more irritated. Finally, the turret shooting at him and the other Predacons was enough to send him into a rage.

"Hey...!" he yelled as he transformed into robot mode. "Stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP IT!"

Tantrum let loose a steady stream of lead from his center mounted vulcan cannon. He continually advanced towards the turret emplacement even as return fire impacted his armor.

Orcariner saw the waterfall come into view as he marched through the woods, carrying all three turrets in his arms.

"Orcariner to Xzuk," he said, "I got two guns in prime condition and another one that's a bit roughed up. I'm thinking we can use that one to perform the preliminary studies on."

Leaping down the grassy hill, he landed on the wet rocks below and continued to walk towards the waterfall. It was good to be back in familiar company.

Xzuk smiled as the familiar blip came up on his sensors. HE was within optic range moments later.

"Maximize."

He transformed and began helping Orcariner with the turrets.

"Nicely done friend. I have an idea for this third one.... it seems to be in good enough shape to make what we need..."

He smiled as he passed under the waterfall.

"Now, where is Icebreaker?"

Icebreaker slowed down making a turn around the Stasis pod as he came to a stop. He lifted the pod up onto his back. He then stepped up onto his board as it took off once again towards the river's direction These things are kinda heavy..

As he came to the river he slowed the board down coming to a stop, stepping off he turned lowering the pod on top of the iceberg. He pulled out his gun firing off a frosty white shot at the pod causing a layer of ice to form over it fusing it to the iceberg. Assuming they survived space and entry into a planet's atmosphere, being stored on a block of ice probably wouldn't effect them that badly..

Icebreaker then untied the iceberg and hopped on his board going off from land and onto the river, dragging the iced stasis pods up river.

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The turret in the distance suddenly exploded from the hail of firepower from Tantrum. A trail of smoke seen rising into the air from it's location.

Glowstick got up slowly with sparks coming from his chest Ug.. Good job. That thing.. didn't have a cybertronian energy signature. There maybe something else on this planet.. something far less primitive then we thought. Beast mode.. begin internal repairs.. Glowstick then transformed to his squid mode as his body began repairs to his damaged points.

Moonshine swooped down to assist Xzuk and Orcariner with the captured turrets. Perhaps she wasn't the strongest one on the force, but she wasn't about to make the guys have to do all the work.

"Good job!," she praised Orcariner as her claws wrapped around a section of the turret. "We may just get out of this one yet.."

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Luna watched in surprise as the bovine member of the team single-udderly took out the turret that had been shooting at them. Perhaps he wasn't as slow-witted and useless as she had imagined.. although she'd never admit to such a thing.

The wolf made a few quick leaps to arrive at the now smoking weapon. She was very excited by the strange alien technology. As soon as the others weren't looking, she snatched a small sample from the least damaged part of the weapon for herself for later studies.

"We should try to find more of these..," she said, openly admiring the ruined turret. "With some work these weapons can provide us with an excellent way to defend ourselves."

She then took a moment to sniff the smoldering turret, before sniffing the air. Her sensitive nose picked up the faint scent of another weapon built with this alien technology. It wasn't too far away..

"You better stay in beast form for now," she told the others.

In the distance of the maximal camp, Icebreaker was heard in the distance, then seen riding in with his haul of an iceberg. Coming to the shore he slowed down, then pulled the iceberg up onto the shore. Two stasis pods on the rocks coming up. he then stated, drawing his knife he striked at the ice, then preyed one of the pods free putting it on the ground, then started work on freeing the other pod. Not sure this trick would work on Orcariner's pod.. deep sea water has less oxygen in it.. But I think with two pods we should be able to set up.. something?


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Glowstick watched the wolf carefully Retrieve more turrets? Without a base or vehicle.. they seem almost useless. Particularly compared to the firepower exhibited by Tantrum. Well.. a vehicle.. Glowstick looked towards the stasis pods in the distance. Perhaps there are enough parts to build a rather crude and vicious hovertank..

Glowstick's optics glowed as he transmitted data collected from going around the area into a type of basic map from his flights over the environment. Alright.. With that map you shouldn't get lost I hope. Luna and Tantrum I'd like you to recover these turrets. Frilla, you'll be with me on Pod modification and collection. With enough parts around.. we should be able to build a sizable vehicle which may protect us from this planet's energon..