The Intergalactic Highway

Starshadow smiled evily as she looked at her attacks that were heading straight to where she wanted it to go. Her optics widen as Sonar moved to the targeted area with her attacks hitting him with big explosions.
"Whoops.." her ears drooped a little.
As the smoke cleared, Starshadow zoomed in to Sonar and found out he was already unconcious.
"Oooooh...big whoops." she smiled. It didn't matter to her if she shot either the ghost or the bat. All she wanted was to teach any slagger a lesson.

(( OOC: Good ideas, Alak. Thanks. I'll keep them in mind. ))

"I wish that were the case," "but my sonar is recreating a visual model on my interface. The cloaked warrior is physically identical. I'm picking up a dual-barreled, wrist-mounted weapon that has the same cover design as yours. While there is no immediate evidence, I'd say we should be cautious and assume that this guy's got everything you have. Considering his ability to conceal himself, it may not be a far-fetched guess that he may have even more utilities at his disposal."

Primal agreed. And most likely, like its cloaking ability, it had more tricks up its sleeves. Well, that was just prime.

"So, this is what I gather. Good news: since he appear to be a clone, we can assume that his strength, firepower, speed, and endurance are identical to yours. Bad news: his strength, firepower, speed, and endurance are identical to yours. We don't know who made him or how they had acquired your data. Therefore, it will be impossible to obtain a full analysis on the cloaker's intelligence and combat skills based on this sole encounter."

Impossible? Hardly. You would know better then us, that time you were captured by that Alien probe.

Optimus had an idea who created it, and it was the same people Icebreaker thought. Predacons were ruled out unless it was a good clone gone bad because it was also taking them out one by one. That left the aliens. The ones who abducted him and temporarily stored him in their probe. This is what they could do with data they extracted from someone? Who were these beings?! So, maybe not "impossible," but it was impressive.

It's like in that movie, attack of the pod bots. The aliens capture you and make a evil clone to replace you, that might be why it can turn invisible! Though why would they bother to send it now instead of back then?

The gorilla wasn't quite sure what movie the penguin was talking about. Optimus exercised his mind and imagination more in literature and theater than movies. Still, it did seem to have a strange resemblance to Icebreaker's reference. "Perhaps it takes time to make such an incredibly accurate clone, and equip extra specialties to it. Or perhaps they wanted a way of getting most of us here in one location to test its abilities on both Maximals and Predacons," Primal answered Icebreaker's question. At least it was what he could think of. "We better start mining this energon. The more Predacons that clone takes out, the less time we have before it notices us next. And once the Predacons have no one left to assist in the mining, chances are they're going to blow this energon field sky high."

Watching Sonar appearing to be used as shield against hia teammates' firepower was disturbing and merciless to Primal. That clone of his seemed to be on a war path and didn't let anyone get in its way. Primus. He felt bad witnessing Sonar being used like that. Even though they were Predacons, their enemy on this planet, Optimus couldn't help but wonder if it would be wiser to join the Predacons and fight off that alien clone together. But how far could you trust Predacons?

-----

A couple shots had whizzed by close to the Vok, one merely grazing his shoulder and another barely missing his lower leg. Sonar took the brunt of the firepower, which pleased the "ghost." As the bat fell limp in his hands, he held on to one of Sonar's wrists with one of his hands and spun in a circle in the air, throwing the Predacon at a high velocity right at Terrorsaur. Immediately after that, the Vok blasted off to find some cover a safe distance away from everyone, hopefully out of anyone's sonar range, and landed on the ground. Assessing his wounds, he thought it was an opportunistic time test his internal repairs, so he converted to his gorilla beast mode and sat in silence, going over his collected data and thoughts.

The battlefield grew quiet quickly. It wouldn't last for long, however, but in the meantime, both factions should take advantage of the time while they could.

-----

"I don't blame you, sitting back and doing nothing in a situation like this just normally isn't what I do either."

Tigatron nodded and said, "But it is our duty for the time being. We all have our places and purposes." And they had to trust their leader and his decisions.

"Guess it is kind of strange again actually. Mean I'm use to enclosures like this transport but lately I have kept away from the Avalon and been running around the wild of this planet. It's quite a beautiful place."

Tigatron smiled, agreeing with her opinion of the planet. "There are some remarkable and wonderous things about this world. But there are also mysterious and dangerous places as well. It is always wise to check in with our comrades once in a while, so they do not have to worry or be distracted wondering about our whereabouts." It was nice to know that someone shared the same interests of the planet. He stopped and watched the monitor, then looked our the bridge's window. "By the Matrix," he commented, seeing Sonar shredded and then thrown toward the ground like a toy.

Orcariner nodded and handed his teammates stacks of metal discs.

"Give them a squeeze and out pops a cube made of energy. It's not volatile at all so the cubes won't hurt you nor the energon. It's just a safe method of transporting the material back to the Nomad and an easy way to store them. I do, however, suggest that we use something other than our bare hands to handle the energon. Swords, shovels, or even our beast modes will be able to touch it without any signs of reactions."

Snow Trix looked around the place again before turning her head hearing Waspinator come at last. "To get to the energon field and back the others up. But watch your hide out there, seems we have an invisible enemy." She told him and began to take off towards the fields.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Guess so." Wintersong said ears going flat against her head for a moment knowing they would need to know now and again. Making a mental note to start being a bit social she looked back at the monitor and her jaw dropped a bit, "By primus....he got tore up and thrown off like an annoying scraplet." She looked at Tigatron then back at the screen, "What in the name of Cybertron are we up against?!"

Frilla looked at Glowstick, listening to the transmission. megatron did not seem pleased in the least of the report or the fact so many Predacons were being taken down and it seemed given the chance this 'ghost' would likely do the same to the Maximals. "Well that was pleasant."

There was something sad about Sonar getting blasted out of the air.

It wasn't that Starshadow and Terrorsaur had done something wrong. No one had died of weapons' fire yet in the Beast Wars, so he wasn't being sacrificed.

Furthermore, the scientist was very likely going to lose, and when he did, there was no telling if the Ghost would take the next step and kill him. Terrorsaur and Starshadow couldn't have (and obviously did not) anticipate the robot's reaction time, but even if they knew they were going to knock Sonar unconscious ahead of time, it would still have been for the best for them to make the Ghost realize he was a target while engaged hand-to-hand with the bat, and by instilling that fear, force it to cast Sonar away.

They had, very possibly, saved his life.

And they didn't know what effect their shots were going to have on Sonar. It made a great deal of sense, then, to accomplish the goal Sonar had set out with- to taken down the alien menace. In that mutual attempt, they weren't accomplishing something just for themselves. Sonar was going to wake up in a CR chamber (or perhaps even on the field) afterwords with a whole new cache of energon at the Predacon base.

It wasn't sad because of some injustice arising from the fact that the Predacon willing to engage the enemy was the one who got punished the most. Fighting an invisible opponent certainly required courage, but courage was only to be commended if applied to the right motives, Steelclaw reasoned. He wasn't sure why Sonar went out to fight, but he had almost jumped at the chance, an action that seemed in contrast to his more calculated, self-serving ways. Perhaps he had hoped to gain something from taking the alien down. Or perhaps Steelclaw was wrong and Sonar hadn't even wanted to bring it down, instead hoping to gain something from the mere encounter.

Or maybe Steelclaw was wrong in another way- maybe Sonar had no hidden motives and did just want to defeat the obstacle to the Predacons' mission.

Either way, he got shot by his own team mates and then thrown away. And it seemed unfortunate.

Megatron wrote:WHAT?! Who is even left?

The exclamation snapped Steelclaw out of his thoughts.

Glowstick wrote:Tarantulus and Blackarachnia, since Venatrix is still MIA.

Megatron wrote:Fine. Megatron out.

With that conversation over, 'bots would probably be moving out into the field soon.

Steelclaw hoped Glowstick was right- that the Ghost would be too distracted to notice a big ship flying above the energon field, but he doubted the possibility.

But since, as he had already admitted out loud, he did want to get in the air, he was actually in agreement with the plan. So there was no reason to voice further contention.

Glowstick walked back over to the pilot controls, then flipped a few switches turning the sonar system on. Far off into the distance the instance the system was activated a strong ultra sonic ping was detected by Orcariner, followed by lighter more rapid sound waves, while some of the maximals,predacons, and even the vok clone could feel their bodies to slightly rattle with plant growth in the area shaking. Active sonar was indeed not a stealthy thing.

Glowstick closed the door for a moment, then started to look around the screen which seemed to be viewed in green displaying the world without any shadows and only minor distortions from some random sounds in the background, he glanced to the right noticing in the distance that his estimation of Scorponok was correct. He then started to look around the area Not getting any major solid readings.. Looks like the Maximals are starting to move based off the Radar.. hm.. Looks like StarShadow and Terrorsaur are moving around again. Since we're on the ground the view range is limited but nothing seems to be nearby us.

Glowstick then stood up opening the door and stepping out of the pilot seat, he then looked towards Frilla making a gesture with his tentacles. The helm is yours, you both are in charge of the Leviathan. I'd take those goggles with me.. but they're useless to me. If that thing can bend light my weapons are worthless against it and as I'll be in beast mode while drilling, I'm more likely to be blown up before I get a chance to retaliate. So if the Ghost gets near by, feel free to shoot it before it gets me. If he breaks into the ship somehow, use the goggles as a last resort to exterminate him. Glowstick then turned walking away and exiting the bridge.

Moments later he was seen exiting the ship pushing four mining carts and the energon extraction machine outside of the transport, one of his feeder tentacles then swung out hitting a lever inside of the Leviathan, causing the doors to close. Beast mode. he then said to himself, transforming into his squid form. He then floated above one of the carts lifting the device out with his tentacles, his feeder tentacles gripping to the sides of a cart as he floated low and used his limbs to pull himself and the cart along the ground towards the Energon crystals before him.

As he came closer he then stopped, releasing the cart and floating downward towards a large energon crystal, examining it, then powering up the device starting to work at splitting it carefully from a cluster of crystals in the freshly made trench.

__________________________________

Icebreaker blinked looking at the disk being held by his flipper, he then folded the end of one of his flippers over holding the disk under his.. flipper Axila (had to look up the term for a flipper armpit..) as he carried it. Cubes huh? Just like our ancestors used to make. he then stated. While Icebreaker had of course used energon before, he really didn't know much about mining of it. So it was a new experience for him in the least.

NaitoKage wrote:Icebreaker blinked looking at the disk being held by his flipper, he then folded the end of one of his flippers over holding the disk under his.. flipper Axila (had to look up the term for a flipper armpit..) as he carried it. Cubes huh? Just like our ancestors used to make. he then stated. While Icebreaker had of course used energon before, he really didn't know much about mining of it. So it was a new experience for him in the least.

"Yeah. Believe it or not, I actually took the idea from a Decepticon officer," chuckled Orcariner, "I know know they were scumbags and all, but you just can't deny appreciation for good technology."

He then maximized into his robot form. As physically domineering as he was, Orcariner felt a bit of uncertainty as soon as he felt the radiation pressure hit his body. He would have to work faster than he had estimated before his dampers were overridden. Unsheathing his energon swords, the Maximal began to carve away at the base of the nearest deposit. It was easy to cut through since his weapons were laced with the same material. Being the size of a small Autobot did have its perks as it took quite a bit of battery power to sustain the energy output that keeps an energon blade, or two in his case, heated. Placing the crystals inside his cub to the brim, Orcariner finally decided to seal his cargo. The radiation was starting to slow him down, so the towering Maximal reverting back into this orca form and powered up his hover pads. He proceeded to push the cube with his nose back towards the bay entrance of the Nomad.


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Terrorsaur squawked as Sonar's unconscious body was thrown into him. The force of the impact threw him back into the ground and his missile launcher fell from his grip. Struggling to push the Predacon off his body, Terrorsaur let out an audible groan as energon radiation quickly consumed his circuits. Also in robot mode, Sonar's body sparked with excitement as his own dampers were failing. Unable to transform back into his pterodactyl form, Terrorsaur gave into darkness as he and his comrade in arms fell into stasis lock.

"To get to the energon field and back the others up. But watch your hide out there, seems we have an invisible enemy."

Waspintor nodded before heading outside not before muttering. "Waspintor should have stayed at Darksyde, at least then Waspintor wouldn't have to deal with Invisible bot, why universe hate Waspintor?"

* * *

Saber had only slept for ten minutes before she woke up and started pacing around her quarters in her beast mode. She had a gut feeling that some thing was going terribly wrong with the mission, the more she thought about, the more irritated she became. But thanks the Sonar the creature was sadated and she didn't have to worry about it rearing its ugly head at the moment.

I should have gone with them, they would have needed my skills just in case there was a nasty fight. Saber thought, the fur on the back of her neck standing up as she continued to pace around her quarters.

((OOC: I'm debating wheither or not I should have Saber some how sneak out of the base and head toward the Enegon field, then get her butt handed to her while she's there.))

Black Arachnia rubbed her throught and caughed as her mechfluid started to flow through her neck again.
She watched Megatron get up and leave to find Tarantulas.
The Predacon she-spider raised back onto her legs and walked towards the exit.
The only thing that was mildly entertaining from her experiance a few moments ago, was that Tarantulas would get an earfull from ol' grapeface.
Plus she's finaly going to do something more then babysitting a few glowing crystals.
Black Arachnia transformed into her beastmode, and headed for the location Megatron sent her to.

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Valkyrie turned towards the always friendly Rhinox, and gave him a weak smile.
She could lie, and tell him that nothing was wrong with her, but that would be counter-productive.
So the Maximal female turned her chair around to face the large green Maximal, who Rattrap often refers to as Big Green.
"I think i've experianced a few eary memory fragments from before my spark was found by Maximal explorers on Cybertron.
I think these memory files where created a very long time ago, as i've seen what seemed to be a slave drone that carried the insignia of the Autobots.
Its master was a scientist of a soort.
However, there was a feature i remember quite clearly. It had five faces.
What was that creature?"

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Venatrix suddenly heard the jets move away from the battlefield.
Who or what ever it was, she felt like she'd definitely would be noticed by it, or the Maximals, if she would move to see.
So the black panther stayed perfectly still, and concentrated on her ears.
It was a lot to take in. Focusing on the Maximals and, who she'd believe was the one who was an almost perfect copy of Optimus Primal.
The Maximal leader she saw leaving the Maximal transport, so the copycat was the one somewhere behind her.
She didn't know how far away it was, but kept her ears sharp if anything changed.
For now it stayed silent, as if it was resting or something.
One way or the other, the Maximals she was watching should have heard the jet-engines as well.
So again the best thing she could do was stay still, and wait to see what would unfold around her.

(( OOC: Ven, just FYI, most of the other characters aren't acknowledging the clone's jets when it flies around because it has a sound-reducing function. Unless certain bots have a beast mode that can hear noises VERY well, or if a bot is right up next to him, they aren't going to hear him flying about. And perhaps I should have been more specific in the direction he took off in since I didn't really have him land near the Maximals or Venatrix, but I guess I thought my being vague on it would give the hint; otherwise I'd have specified him flying toward Ven's direction or whoever else is near her. Sorry about that. He's not in their vacinity at the moment but he will be.

holding the disk under his.. flipper Axila (had to look up the term for a flipper armpit..)

LoL Nice, NK. I had no idea there was a name for that. Research your characters' beast modes, people!

N-H: It's up to you. Personally, I think we have enough bots out there right now. ))

"Give them a squeeze and out pops a cube made of energy. It's not volatile at all so the cubes won't hurt you nor the energon. It's just a safe method of transporting the material back to the Nomad and an easy way to store them. I do, however, suggest that we use something other than our bare hands to handle the energon. Swords, shovels, or even our beast modes will be able to touch it without any signs of reactions."

Handy, thought Optimus as he took a disc from Orcariner.

Cubes huh? Just like our ancestors used to make.

"Yeah. Believe it or not, I actually took the idea from a Decepticon officer," "I know know they were scumbags and all, but you just can't deny appreciation for good technology."

The gorilla smiled lightly at their conversation. Both of them were quite resourceful and perceptive. Without wasting anymore time, he picked a spot and started digging up some crystals carefully with both his hands and feet and storing them safely. He also maintained a watchful eye on their surroundings. While it suddenly appeared to be quiet after Sonar's lifeless body was thrown from the sky, his clone was still out there. Somewhere. "Optimus to Wintersong. Status update, please," he asked over his communication link. He wanted to know what was going on with the Predacons, if the Nomad's scanners could pick up their signatures. Hopefully their enemy was keeping their distance from them.

-----

After some rest, the Vok, still cloaked in his beast mode, climbed up a large rock that pertruded from the ground to oversee what was going on at this point. A familiar female in the sky caught his attention near the Maximals. Feralnight. It looked as though she was alone but he doubted it. Let's pay a little visit, he thought. Springing off of the rock, he landed on his feet and knuckles and took off through the energon field toward her and Cheetor's general direction, unknowing that Venatrix was around there somewhere as well.

-----

"By primus....he got tore up and thrown off like an annoying scraplet." "What in the name of Cybertron are we up against?!"

"I... I don't know," Tigatron replied, glancing at her. "I have only seen such ruthlessness from Megatron. This being may be just as cruel as he is, if not moreso." He had only met the Predacon commander once so far, and it was quite an unpleasant encounter. It was a good thing it didn't seem he was present on this mission with his Predacons. The tiger grew quiet when their leader's call came in for the tigress.

With the rest of the Predacons gone, Steelclaw looked to Frilla.

"Well," he said, "I guess we should take her up."

* * *

"Woh," Cheetor remarked to himself as he watched Sonar get taken out of the air. Then he got on his com-link to talk to Feralnight. "That's definitely one less Pred to worry about, and Terrorsaur might be down for the count too. Do you see anyone else from up there?" he asked.

He wasn't normally glad to have another Maximal sharing recon duties with him since most had a tendency to slow him down. But Feralnight's flight made her an even match in terms of speed, and now the benefit of having a partner could be more easily enjoyed- another pair of optics to do scouting and cover a wider area, another armed robot to help defend against danger...

"Feralnight," he suddenly spoke again as he realized something, "stay alert. Now that the invisi-'bot is done with Sonar, there's no telling where it'll go next."

Grabbing the cube with his mouth, Orcariner used his tongue to push the storage device into the cargo bay of the Nomad. There was still a vast area of empty space in there, but with three workers and an equipment operator, it should not take very long to fill the entire transport up at its maximum capacity. Hovering back to the field, the killer whale pulled up his readings on his dampers. Being the only Maximal who had to work in robot mode, Orcariner was also the only one who was using up his dampers. They were still recharging and although he could still work in robot form, that would lead to him having to take a break from mining after packaging the second cube.

"Hey, guys," he said to Optimus and Icebreaker, "Why don't I go ahead and leave these discs for you two. That way you both can continue filling them up, and I'll just push the finished ones back to the Nomad in beast mode. I'd figure it'll be better for me to be working continuously without having to sit out every couple of cycles."

"That's the last thing we need." Wintersong said genuinely worried now before hearing Optimus, "Well besides the fact of the bat and Terrorsaur being knocked out so quickly and having no clue where the invisible slagger is the Preds haven't made any motion to attack as. At least three others came out but besides that nothing else is going on Primal." She reported. She had took note of Waspinator and Snow Trix coming out then a little shortly after the squid called Glowstick. "As far as I can tell they are preparing to mine and possibly see what this enemy is." She said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Should have thought of that before taking a nap in the arms closet sherlock." Snow Trix said overhearing Waspinator shaking her head. As they reached the field she tried to listen for anything of the invisible bot but even while she strained to hear there didn't seem to be any audible sounds from it unless this ghost was hiding.

"Seems a few more Predacons came from their transport but besides that nothing else has happened." Feralnight replied over the com-link flying a bit over the place before banking around to the left before hearing the next transmission. She had not considered that at all. "Good point Cheetor, didn't even think about it. But your right we really do need to be on alert." She said ears going back. This odd enemy they faced really was unpredictable and now there was no telling if it would come for them now.

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Frilla nodded, "Yea but I warn you I'm no pilot so this might be a bumpy flight." She said to Steelclaw before taking Glowstick's place at the controls. Taking a bit to remember which control was used for what she finally got the Levianthan going and began to move it along, bringing it up to a altitude so they could get a good visual on the area while also making sure not to not hit anything at the same time.