The Intergalactic Highway

Dirge stood still, undertaking continuous checks on vital systems and his surroundings. His eye twitched slightly then he heard his commanding officer address him. He marched over to him, analysing his orders and then came to a halt.

"Yes my lord" Dirge replied.

OOC: Sorry for the delay! Lots of family stuff this weekend. Incidentally, it was Father's Day this weekend here in the U.S. so Happy Father's Day to any and all fathers out there!

BIC:

Arachnitron swung wildly at Ironclaw, not much caring if she landed any hits on the badger or not. With her vocalizer damaged, there was no other way for her to express her anger at being handled that way by the Maximal. His grasp on her neck had brought back far too many memories. Her anger only rose as the badger held up his hands to defend himself from the blows.

Suddenly, a large fist collided with Arachnitron's chest plate knocking the wind right out of her. She landed on the ground at the feet of the Maximal still looking up into his face fearlessly. She balled her fists in rage, but Umbra's voice interrupted her thought process.

Miss Arachnitron, we need to go. Enemy reinforcements are on their way.

Arachnitron shot the octopus an angry warning. She was kind of in the middle of something, she wanted to shout in protest! A thick, dark cloud of smoke covered the area rather quickly. She decided it was best to leave and followed after Umbra into the trees using the smoke screen to hide her from the Maximals' view. She decided her quickest route of escape was her grappling hook and used it to navigate the tree tops leading back to the Darksyde.

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"Orcariner and I are in the vicinity, Dinobot. I'm going to assume Tarantulas headed toward the Darksyde." If his presumption was incorrect, then the warrior could tell him otherwise, but at least now the lizard knew his team had help. "Do you know the name of the protoform?" he asked.

Dinobot continued his enslaught against the Predacons as he attempted to answer the gorilla.

"Yes! It's Ban---ooof!

The Predacon named Umbra was quick....faster than Dinobot who lumbered towards the group without even choosing a target just hoping to instill enough fear to cause the Predacons to retreat. He was taken aback as the octopus blocked the warrior's attack and then riposted with a pair of sharp slices to Dinobot's chest plate.

Dinobot stumbled back and fell in a slump against a near by boulder and prematurely ended his transmission with the Maximal commander. The pain from the toxins stung the wound on his chest. He saw the Predacon grab Cheetor and make a run for the tree line. Dinobot jumped up quickly....a bit too quickly....but ignored the dizzying feeling. He sent a few shots of his eye laser after Umbra, but a thick, black smoke impeded his view.

He attempted to run after the Predacons, but he lost sight of them in the smoke and tripped and fell over the hidden landscape in front of him.

"NOOO!!!" he screamed in protest.

"Dinobot, we must return to the base immediately. Does anyone on your team need a lift?" he asked through his comm. link as he and Orcariner hastily returned to their location on their way back.

Optimus' voice reached Dinobot's audio processors. He sighed as the smoke finally lifted and the Predacons were gone. Dinobot wasn't sure what kind of injuries Ironclaw sustained, but, assessing his own damage, he realized he would not be able to assist in getting both Frilla and Airazor to the base. The toxins from the poisoned dagger already were spreading through his systems. He'd need to transform to his beast mode and soon.

"Affirmative," he answered with an air of defeat in his voice as he struggled to stand. "We have several wounded including myself. A lift would be much appreciated. Dinobot out." he responded.

When he ended his transmission, he spotted Ironclaw and looked at him with a low growl forming in his throat. He did his best to occupy his hands as he put his weapons away; otherwise, he might just have tried to put them around Ironclaw's neck just as he had done to Arachnitron. Dinobot would have been disappointed if he had since he didn't have the strength to finish off the smaller Maximal.

"The battlefield is no place for bickering. Get in, complete the mission, and get out. There will be time enough to argue over tactics back at base, but until then, your squad leader makes all the decisions and you carry them out whether you agree or not!" Dinobot scolded. "You say you want to consider this a war and you a soldier in it, yet you continue to act as though this is all just a game to you. This is not a Maximal training academy. Your actions caused another one of our troops to be abducted by the Predacons! Now they have two of our own in custody! Two! If you had been more focused on the battle instead of arguing with me, you would have been more prepared for the Predacons' counter attacks and you could have been the hero you wanted to be!"

Dinobot let his words sink in a minute before adding sternly, putting a halt to any further conversation from the badger, " Optimus is en route. Go help Frilla. I will see to Airazor," Dinobot commanded leaving the badger to either listen to him or not, he, frankly, no longer cared.

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Arachnitron continued her journey through the trees back to the Darksyde keeping her bad arm cradled against her chest plate.

"Arachnitron, Umbra, Spineback, report! I'm already back at base, where are the rest of you? Have you secured the prisoner?"

Arachnitron heard Tarantulas' voice on her comm link, but with her vocalizer still damaged, there was no way she could respond. But after a few moments, Umbra responded for her.

"Confirmed on route, there was a delay.. from the noises made from her, I can only assume Arachnitron's vocalizer was crushed by the maximal Badger "Ironclaw" but escaped his grasp. The prisoner is secured with me.. enemy reinforcements are on the way but those shouldn't pose an issue. Going into radio silence to prevent enemy detection."

Arachnitron jumped down from the trees to finish her trek to Darksyde.

She entered the base and headed to the command center where the other Predacons were gathered. As she entered, she caught the tail end of the conversation between Tarantulas and Umbra.

Tarantulas shook his head, "If that's the case then where is she?"
Umbra simply shrugged, "She'll be here, we can't all move as fast as you Lieutenant."
Tarantulas gave a frustrated hrmp, "She'd better."

By that point, Arachnitron's anger had subsided. The travel back to base had been enough for her to cool her circuits, but she hadn't been able to make any preliminary repairs since, with her damaged vocalizer, she was unable to make the command to begin internal repairs. Her optics, however, had returned to their green hue as they typically were with the Hybrid personality in control.

She entered the room favoring her injured arm, unable to speak, and still a bit winded from the strong punch to her chest.

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

The CR chamber eased open to reveal a repaired and fully functional Inferno. The red ant followed the sound of voices to the bridge where most of the other Predacons had been congregating.

"How may I be of service, my Queen?" Inferno asked with a salute.

(ooc: I like N-H's idea..)

Terrorsaur wrote:Whoa, The scanners have detected something coming in! Something big... Looks like another ship coming for a landing, not too far from the Maximal's base.

What?!


Megatron's visage turned into a frown upon hearing that bit of news. Reinforcements coming to aid Nexus Prime? It had to be.. And the thought of that left a bitter taste in the tyrant's mouth as he ground his teeth together.

"Terrorsaur, assemble a team and head out to investigate. If the ship turns out to be of Maximal origin, make sure they do not reach their target!"


As badly as the tyrant wanted to merely send all his troops, he had to remain at base for when Optimus and his mentor came to surrender. He could not afford to leave himself open to attack at this time, not when he was so close to achieving everything he'd worked for.

Nexus had left the Axalon and headed into a wooded area out of view of the base so that he could initiate the next phase of his plan. Hopefully the crazed bat scientist was wrecking havoc by now.

Wasting no time, Nexus opened a hailing frequency to Megatron. Although he remained in his current physical form, his voice still changed as he spoke.

"Darkwind to Megatron, I have some news that I fear you won't like. So when you get a moment, I ask that you view the video that I am in the process of transmitting."

More bad news? The tyrant had certainly had enough of those lately. And why was the newbie the one contacting him anyway? Nemesis had not reported in since he had assigned her to train the new recruit.

As he waited for the file transfer to complete, his loyal minion finally returned from his prolonged stay in the CR chamber, which would have brought a slight sense of contentment had Megatron's mood not been as foul as it was at this very moment.

Inferno wrote:"How may I be of service, my Queen?"

"See to it that the prisoners are locked up," the tyrant ordered, impatiently tapping his fingers against the armrest of his chair as he waited for Darkwind's file to finally load on the computer screen in front of him. Eventually the screen flickered online, showing a video of Nemesis.. calmly walking into the Maximal base!

"Figured you'd want to see what your loyal subject gets up to when she thinks the coast is clear..," Darkwind's voice cut in again, sounding more apologetic than anything. Megatron, on the other hand, found himself clutching his fingers so tightly around the armrest that it cracked underneath the force exerted on it.

"I see..," Megatron responded to Darkwind's report, barely contained fury dripping from his voice, "Keep me updated on her movements. And I expect a full report when you return to base."

"Certainly," the voice responded before the transmission was cut.

Nexus drew a silent sigh of relief as he started making his way back to the Axalon, confident that a potential obstacle would soon be removed before she could expose him. The Predacon commander had a reputation of giving traitors the swift death they deserved, not being one to give second chances unlike his Maximal counterpart. Smiling a bit to himself, Nexus then pulled a little data chip from the camera he carried in his Darkwind persona, studying it for a brief moment before putting it away. Disguising himself as Nemesis had not been nearly as difficult as he imagined, especially with about half of the Maximals already out on missions.

As he exited the forest, Nexus' attention was drawn to a flaming trail in the sky some distance away. It did not take him long to realize what the object was, causing him to roll his optics for a moment.

"Patience truly is a lost art..," he muttered as he made his way back inside the Axalon.

(Darkspark is going to be so confused when he gets back.*LOL*, Set up a team for Terrorsaur.. This shall be interesting, considering Star is going to be on vacation for a few days, Manterror is gone for now, Inferno is busy, and Nemesis unavailable.. the Preds have limited available resources.. think I'll have to pull out the extra and set up a small team. Also my hex code list is getting huge. *LOL*)

Megatron wrote:"Terrorsaur, assemble a team and head out to investigate. If the ship turns out to be of Maximal origin, make sure they do not reach their target!"

Terrorsaur cringed as he heard Megatron But.. I just.... Nevermind. He almost felt like crying considering he barely got an opportunity for repairs himself. Thinking for a moment he looked around to try to figure out who he could even take on a mission to take down a ship quickly.. with Inferno busy with the prisoners, Sonar gone,Manterror getting repaired, and Nemesis out training the newbie, and Waspinator being out.. he was out of fliers.

As Terrorsaur pondered, Waspinator buzzed into the room.

The transmetal wasp gave a salute with one of his legs Wazzzpinator reporting back from inzztalling jamming tower!

Terrorsaur's optics almost beemed with joy at the sight of Waspinator's arrival, while Nemesis was great to have as a wing woman, there was still no replacement for his old buddy. Waspinator old buddy! We got work to do.

Waspinator floated back with a surprised buzz Erh? But Wazzzpinator juzt got here!

Terrorsaur shrugged Orders are orders, we got a ship to take down. he then activated his comlink Terrorsaur to Buster, report to the hanger, we got a job to do.. Pack a parachute. he then gave a dark laugh. He then opened his comlink again Tantrum, we got another ship to take down. This one is still flying, but I'm sure you can end that quick, right?

(Edited due to request.)
________________________________________

Quickstrike raised out from the CR tank, crawling out of the tank and walked off towards his quarters.

Tarantulas observed as Quickstrike left, then saw Arachnitron arrive, looking must worse for wear then he remembered. Hrm.. The Cephalopod was telling the truth.. No matter. You should rest in the CR tank for now.

____________________________________

Umbra made his way out of the Predacon base, the octopus eyes on his legs observing behind him as he made his way towards the coast.

Optimal Optimus Primal wrote:"Hey, Whitegrazer, you okay?" Rattrap asked her when he had turned away from the pod that he and Aurora were studying and looked at her because she had been so quiet. She looked like she was lost in space, standing there with a blank expression.

Rattrap's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She shook her head then gave a reassuring smile, "I'm fine, Rattrap." Despite the dreadful feeling that clouded her spark, she didn't wish to say anything unless she was guided to do so. Also, what was she going to say? That she had a bad feeling?

Phoenix wrote:"Could it be related to the arrival of the Akira?"

She turned her attention towards the mysterious pod, looking at the designs a bit more carefully than before. She let her left hand graze the design when a flash of black wings and a smug face half covered in shadows. Black wings? She remembered when she first saw the black wings, warning her of Nemesis and Aurora's battle. And what of that smug face she saw? Who was that? No one she was aware of. Her thoughts were scattered around what she saw, but there was nothing she could do. She saw stuff, but like she thought before, she really couldn't say or do anything. It would be foolish of her to assume anything. All she could do was wait and that feeling was the only constant she had.

((OOC: I hope this post is okay. ))

"Affirmative," "We have several wounded including myself. A lift would be much appreciated. Dinobot out."

"Dinobot's team needs our assistance back to the base, Orcariner," Primal informed him. Just as he began his descent, he looked off in the distance and noticed something large entering the Earth's atmosphere. "You've got to be kidding me," the leader said in exasperation. Tired, exhausted, gravely concerned about Cheetor and Banshee's well-being, and still a little beat up, Optimus realized he was running out of a lot of options on this day that had quickly progressed to nightfall. Who was left for a mission like this? Just about all of his Maximals were injured and needed a rest, including himself. And he swore he could still feel a faint numbness or tingly feeling where Aurora had applied her nanogel on him but he tried ignoring it for now and pressed on.

-----

"That would be unwise, Maximal. I maybe blind, but I can still see."

Rhinox hesitated firing his weapon with Saber-Fang still draped over the bat's shoulder. His gaze drifted from her to Sonar's foggy optic sensors.

"Let me pass and leave this ship and no harm will befall Saber-Fang. Deny me this simple request and I promise it will not end well for anyone."

"I'm afraid I must deprive you of that privilege, Sonar. I don't know how you escaped the brig but you will not escape this ship," the larger bot threatened the Predacon while he continued to keep him in his aim of his heavy duty weapon as Sonar moved in closer. "Let her down and surrender or I'll make sure your temporary vision impairment is permanent."

It was then when an alert sounded at the consoles in the command center of an incoming vessel that had pierced the planet's atmosphere and was on a landing course not too far from the Axalon. Two ships in one day? How is this possible? thought Rhinox, his mind distracted from the situation at hand for a brief moment as he tried thinking of what to do. He had to alert someone about this ship, and about Sonar's escape, but he couldn't take his attention off of Sonar right in front of him who was threatening to harm one of their comrades. Decisions, decisions...

"Optimus, a ship has been detected falling toward Beta One-five-zero," he sent over his comm. lnk to his commanding officer but deliberately failed to mention the prison break since Primal clearly had enough on his plate as it was. No, he could handle Sonar himself.

-----

"Copy that, Rhinox. I have a visual on it. Optimus out."

"Rattrap, I need you, Whitegrazer and Aurora to check out the ship that's descending on Beta One-five-zero," he called on his comm. link. "It's coming in hot." Recalling how injured the rodent was before he left with Orcariner, Optimus knew he was asking a lot from his crew today. "See if you can safely find out who it is, and avoid any confrontations with the Predacons should they show up."

Lowering himself down with his hover board to Dinobot's location, the blue and silver ape took in the damaged area on closer inspection than the fly-by he and Orcariner made a little earlier, as well as his heavily injured Maximals. He gave a frown while he hovered a couple feet above the torched and mangled ground, and looked at Dinobot and Ironclaw. "Can either of you return on foot in your beast modes?" he asked as he motioned them with his hand to gather Frilla and Airazor. He could carry Dinobot and one of the females, and Orcariner should be able to carry the badger and the other female, but he didn't make it an order in case they could walk. After all, the more he and the whale carried, the more it would slow them down, but flying back to base was still the quickest option for all of them. All of them looked like they had had the roughest battle out of all the Maximals that day. It was tough for him to absorb on top of everything else.

-----

"I'm fine, Rattrap."

"You gotta know that nobody believes you when you say that, 'Grazer," he shook his head.

"Maaaybe, maybe not,"

Rattrap teasingly narrowed his optics at Aurora and was on the verge of interrogating her until she continued on with the pod. He rubbed his head a little bit from the headache that was still lingering from Terrorsaur's fist plowing into his face, and his chest was stiff and sore, almost feeling like leather stretching and pinching where he had taken a blow from the stupid Pred's laser eyes.

"Your guess is as good as mine.. But between you and me, I think this pod was empty upon crashing. But that raises the question of why an empty pod of unknown origin would simply crash here.. now. "

The Spy opened his mouth to say something but Aurora moved on to something interesting.

"Could it be related to the arrival of the Akira?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up the locomotive. The Akira? The Akira is here?" Rattrap was completely unaware of the mission she, Whitegrazer, Orcariner and Optimus had ventured out on earlier while he was stuck rescuing an empty pod and a protoform that didn't exist with his happy, little band of Maximals. "What happened to de ship?" he eagerly inquired. "And its pilot? Did he eject himself with a pod? You guys got some 'splainin' ta do!" he accused the femmes surrounding him.

"Rattrap, I need you, Whitegrazer and Aurora to check out the ship that's descending toward Beta One-five-zero," "It's coming in hot." "See if you can safely find out who it is, and avoid any confrontations with the Predacons should they show up."

"Fer bootin' up cold!" he cursed while throwing up his arms in the air as if to say he was giving up on everything when he heard their Fearless Leader's voice on his personal radio. He was in no mood for leading yet another team out in the field, but since this was another ship... possibly another way off of this world that imprisoned them with Megatron, perhaps taking a peek would be beneficial. But like Optimus said, he would do everything in his power to not fight any more Predacons at this time.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're on it," he returned to the gorilla with a lot of reluctance and irritation.

"Come on, ladies. You heard de monkey. Pod's gonna have ta wait," Rattrap sighed and started walking to the hangar's large cargo door.

(( OOC: I really don't want to drag out this mission because we need more Maximals at the base to spread the virus, and most everyone is injured anyway, and since the ship is carrying two Preds, it will likely be identified as such on the exterior and then the Maxis won't have to hang around for long anyway. Seems redundant to send them at all but since the vessel is landing closer to the Axalon, at least it won't be a long trip to and from. Phoenix and una, if you disagree, then feel free to say so and they can stay longer to battle it out. ))

"I'm afraid I'm a deprived you of that privilege, Sonar. I don't know how you escaped the Brig but you will not escape this ship."

Sonar grinned, baring his fangs.

You should check the camera, you might be surprised as to how. He wanted to say but thought better of it.

"Let her down and surrender or I'll make sure your temporary vision impairment is permanent."

Sonar chuckled and shook his head. "I'd love to see you try. As to surrendering, you're going to have to shoot me, but you might hit Saber-Fang by mistake."

Sonar knew he could easily get past the large green Maximal by firing a sonic blast at him, but where was in the fun in that?

(I didn't realise that Dinobot was taller than Ironclaw. I'd assumed Ironclaw was the same size or taller. Though I did see the numbers were not in my favor. I did change the number bit only because I'd always thought he was)

After having dealt with the she spider, Ironclaw turned to his second opponent who had already downed Dinobot. He was about to engage when the octopus let out a cloud of smoke. The badger leapt forward trying to attack his enemy, swiping his claws through the smoke. As the smoke cleared, he was able to see Dinobot. His so called squad leader was looking behind him and started to scream. Ironclaw span round and caught a glimpse of an escaping Predacon and he noticed that Cheetor had gone, most likely taken by the Predacons. The badger growled then started to peruse them but came to a halt when Dinobot spoke to him in a sour tone. The Maximal soldier didn't turn at first, he simply listened to the condescension and the accusations from is incompetent leader. Ironclaw balled his fists and closed his eyes, surprisingly these words got to him. Usually it wouldn't phase him but he refused to be spoken to like this by such an individual. Ironclaw span round and locked his optics on Dinobot. He marched towards him not caring even when Optimus arrived from the sky. Dinobot had his back to him as he approached. The badger spun the velociraptor round and pushed him hard to the ground. Already suffering from the poison, it didn't take much to put him down on his behind.
"Don't you dare blame the failure of this mission on me!" Ironclaw told Dinobot, pointing his finger at him. "A game!?! I'm not the one playing with a sword, spouting ideas such as honor, you treat it like it's some sort of rule book. And you know as well as I do... They don't play by the same rules." The badger stopped, gave a single look to Optimus then turned around and walked away.

Rattrap wrote:"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up the locomotive. The Akira? The Akira is here?"

Aurora paused to look at Rattrap for a moment before it occurred to her that they had not gotten the opportunity to debrief everyone about all the stuff that had been going on. She sent Rattrap a slightly apologetic look, realizing just how confusing this must all be for him, in fact she was still trying to digest all of this herself as well. Needless to say, the rat was not done with his questions just yet..

Rattrap wrote:"What happened to de ship?"

Shifting her gaze over to Whitegrazer for a moment, hoping for some reassurance from the other female, Aurora was honestly not quite sure how to explain all of this and make it sound believable.

"It.. blew up," she finally said after a brief pause, not getting a chance to explain further before Rattrap asked more questions.

Rattrap wrote:"And its pilot? Did he eject himself with a pod? You guys got some 'splainin' ta do!"

"The pilot is functional," came a deeper voice from behind them, causing Aurora to look up from behind that white furry curtain that obstructed much of her face. Nexus Prime stood in the doorway, not far from them, ever stoic aside from perhaps the faintest trace of a smile. Height wise he towered over the likes of Rattrap and Aurora with only Whitegrazer coming close, his armor still looked battered but he was in fairly good shape all things considering. For someone as large and bulky as he was, he had walked in on them surprisingly quietly, or at least Aurora had not noticed him coming.

"Rattrap, I need you, Whitegrazer and Aurora to check out the ship that's descending toward Beta One-five-zero," "It's coming in hot." "See if you can safely find out who it is, and avoid any confrontations with the Predacons should they show up."

Rattrap wrote:"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're on it,"

"Sounds intriguing, mind if I tag along?," the old warrior intervened, apparently not phased by the stares. He was used to them, after all.

Rattrap wrote:"Come on, ladies. You heard de monkey. Pod's gonna have ta wait,"

Realizing she'd been staring at Nexus in surprise, Aurora quickly averted her eyes and headed towards the exit. Being smaller than even Rattrap, she had to walk faster than the others just to keep up. "For Optimus' sake I hope that ship contains the shipment of bananas he's been waiting for..," she teased.

Nodding his head in acknowledgement, Orcariner descended towards the ground and hovered several meters from the dirt. The propellers were loud, but the helicopter did his best to yell over them. Several harnesses dropped from his pectoral fins down towards the injured Maximals.

"Hey, guys," he said, "Strap yourselves securely and I'll take you home-"

The sky lit up and distracted Orcariner from finishing his thought. Looking upwards, his optics widened at the sight of what appeared to be a fiery object descending from stars. Whenever a pod drops from orbit, the Axalon usually radios in a warning as well as the coordinates. Nothing was reported this time around so it was safe to say that whatever shooting down from above did not belong to their jettisoned cargo.

"Primus, more unexpected visitors?" he muttered to himself.

"You gotta know that nobody believes you when you say that, 'Grazer,"

No. She knows that, but it doesn't matter. There... There are certain things she must keep to herself. For everyone's safety.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up the locomotive. The Akira? The Akira is here?" Rattrap was completely unaware of the mission she, Whitegrazer, Orcariner and Optimus had ventured out on earlier while he was stuck rescuing an empty pod and a protoform that didn't exist with his happy, little band of Maximals. "What happened to de ship?" he eagerly inquired. "And its pilot? Did he eject himself with a pod? You guys got some 'splainin' ta do!" he accused the femmes surrounding him.

Whitegrazer put her hand up with a smile that looked like she was about to crack up, "We do have an explanation." She was about to give it when Rattrap seemed preoccupied with something. Maybe he was getting a call from Optimus? Her instinct proved accurate as they were being sent on any other mission.

"The pilot is functional,"

She was feeling something crawling on her, but she was feeling that for awhile and that was from Optimus. So she paid it no mind when Nexus' deep voice drew her attention. She examined his form. It wasn't as batter as it appeared when the battle was done. He actually looked pretty good despite not using a CR chamber. What did he use to heal himself? She really didn't think he had time to get something from his ship or maybe he did and they didn't know? He didn't seem to want to bother with their healing equipment.

"Sounds intriguing, mind if I tag along?," the old warrior intervened, apparently not phased by the stares. He was used to them, after all.

"You look better than when we last saw you, but are you sure? We don't know what we will be encountering, and I don't want anything to happen to you. We have lost enough people as it is. We don't want to lose more." She didn't want anyone especially Aurora and Optimus to experience or see anymore death. Nexus was someone Optimus care for and if something would happen to him... Optimus was strong but to have someone like Nexus die, it may be more than Optimus can handle.

Everyone has a breaking point. No more how strong they are.

"For Optimus' sake I hope that ship contains the shipment of bananas he's been waiting for..,"[/color] she teased.

She chuckled at Aurora's statement and decided to add alittle bit of humor herself, "If there is, don't tell Optimus when I pick up a few."

Whitegrazer, you are blind.

The comment her master made troubled her. Blind? What do you mean?

"Truth is there, but you see yet don't observe.

What did he mean by that? No. No. she will focus on that later.

(( OOC: I'm assuming Ironclaw is walking himself back to base, or wherever. ))

"Don't you dare blame the failure of this mission on me!" "A game!?! I'm not the one playing with a sword, spouting ideas such as honor, you treat it like it's some sort of rule book. And you know as well as I do... They don't play by the same rules."

Primal's gaze shifted from Dinobot to Ironclaw and back to Dinobot when the badger started to walk away. He couldn't care less about the blame game while he hovered there watching their squabble; it didn't change the fact that they obviously failed as a team to get the job done. And neither of them were going to pay for Cheetor's and Banshee's kidnappings; Optimus and Nexus were. Since he wasn't sure what exactly happened here, he decided to leave it alone and move on with what was more important now because he didn't have the time to waste on lecturing anyone that he had already lectured in the past. His patience was wearing very thin. Dinobot could fill him in on the matter later so that he'd have a better understanding on the situation.

"Hey, guys," "Strap yourselves securely and I'll take you home-"

Optimus glanced at Orcariner and the harnesses he lowered for those who needed a lift. The gorilla took Airazor from Dinobot so the velociraptor could then help Frilla and strap themselves in to the TransMetal helicopter whale. Then he propelled himself upward and blasted off toward the Axalon with haste.

-----

(( OOC: N-H, you're not giving me much to work with here. ))

"I'd love to see you try. As to surrendering, you're going to have to shoot me, but you might hit Saber-Fang by mistake."

Sonar was right, with the weapons Rhinox had he was likely to hit the former General because they weren't very accurate. However, he still had his brute strength and other objects on his person to use. Slowly, he reached back and returned his heavy gun to subspace, but then calmly slipped out a data pad and then threw it against the wall to make a loud noise in order to divert the bat's hearing as it shattered into several pieces that blew apart in all directions upon its impact. As soon as Rhinox threw it, he charged at Sonar with a fist pulled back and then threw it forward with power aiming for his collar.

-----

"It.. blew up,"

"We do have an explanation."

"Oh. Fantastic," he said sarcastically as he paused and turned around to look at them. As much as he wanted to know what had happened, they had to get rolling.

"The pilot is functional,"

Rattrap looked over to find a tall figure in the doorway and suspiciously narrowed his optics for a moment before he realized who it was. "Nexus Prime..." he muttered quietly in disbelief.

"Sounds intriguing, mind if I tag along?,"

"You look better than when we last saw you, but are you sure? We don't know what we will be encountering, and I don't want anything to happen to you. We have lost enough people as it is. We don't want to lose more."

"Uh... I guess," he allowed looking between Nexus and Whitegrazer. The guy looked a little beat up but then again who didn't by this point? The more help they had the better. He just didn't want to be responsible for anything that might happen to the old bot. He was well aware that Optimus had trained under him but he didn't know how close they were. However, he did know how close Whitegrazer and Optimus were, so there was another one he had to make sure made it back alive. Rattrap respected the Admiral but he would treat him the same way he did everyone else. "If you can keep up," he added a tease.

"For Optimus' sake I hope that ship contains the shipment of bananas he's been waiting for..,"

"If there is, don't tell Optimus when I pick up a few."

Smiling at Aurora and Whitegrazer, Rattrap said, "I think he's gonna need a lot more dan bananas ta get through this day. A bath couldn't hurt." Rubbing the injury on his chest, he shifted around in his shoulders and transformed once more into his beast mode that was still missing a rear hub cap. "Let's move it, guys," he told the other three, leaving the hangar and driving off toward the falling ship.

((OOC: Sorry about that, had a minor brain fart while writing. Btw, should I wait to release the virus or just let it rip now?))

Hearing something hitting the near by wall and shattering made Sonar turn his head at the sound, he bared his teeth a growl and was about to fire a sonic blast when the sound of heavy but rapid foot steps caught his attention.

Before he was able to send out a wave of sound a large fist hit him full in the chest. Causing him to not only let go of Saber who dropped like a sack of potatoes but be sent flying down the hall and landing on his back with a loud grunt.

"Ugh, that was a cheap shot." He coughed as he stared up at the ceiling.

The ceiling? By Primus he could see again! He had no idea why the punch had caused him to see again, at the moment he didn't care.

"I have to say I'm impressed, being sucker punched like that is a first for me." He stated as he sat up.

((OOC: I am not entirely sure that I would detect the Maximals yet. So I am just going to cover the Predacons for now. Also I am not entirely sure what the ship would be capable of. I don't want it too dangerous, but it is a Predacon ship.))

As the Ambition began landing procedures, Night Terror prepared himself for a possible fight. He checked all his internal systems, he tested the balance his sword. He checked everything. This new form needed to be battle tested. He was practicing with his sword when the ship's sensors alerted him to incoming Predacon signatures.

"It would seem that some are still up and about. The Predacons have sent a welcoming committee, shall we introduce ourselves Dirge?" Night Terror said while rubbing his hands together.

He grabbed the controls and turned the ship to face the oncoming Predacons. Now let us see exactly what these Predacons are capable of.

Tarantulas observed as Quickstrike left, then saw Arachnitron arrive, looking must worse for wear then he remembered. Hrm.. The Cephalopod was telling the truth.. No matter. You should rest in the CR tank for now.

Arachnitron nodded. She had finally caught her breath, but would need the CR tank in order to repair her vocalizer and her injured arm. Though her beast mode might be able to do some of the repairs, she thought the CR chamber would do a more complete job.

She dismissed herself from the bridge and got herself into one of the unoccupied CR tanks.

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"See to it that the prisoners are locked up," the tyrant ordered, impatiently tapping his fingers against the armrest of his chair as he waited for Darkwind's file to finally load on the computer screen in front of him. Eventually the screen flickered online, showing a video of Nemesis.. calmly walking into the Maximal base!

"As you command, my Queen!!" Inferno said with a salute.

The red ant lifted the unconscious cheetah onto his shoulders and used his other hand to drag the other Maximal to the holding area.

Once there, he heaved the bat into a cell and locked it tight. Then he did the same to Cheetor locking it as well. He double checked both locks that they were secured and made his way back to the bridge for other instructions.

(OOC: Hope that's okay.....if their players need me to edit or anything, let me know. Not sure if you wanted your characters to get locked up completely or if you wanted them to have an opportunity to escape)

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Dinobot had been walking away intending for the conversation to be dropped, but Ironclaw felt differently. He spun Dinobot around to face him, but the poison that was still coursing through Dinobot's systems made him light headed and dizzy quite easily. He lost his balance and landed in the dirt behind him.

"Don't you dare blame the failure of this mission on me!" Ironclaw told Dinobot, pointing his finger at him. "A game!?! I'm not the one playing with a sword, spouting ideas such as honor, you treat it like it's some sort of rule book. And you know as well as I do... They don't play by the same rules." The badger stopped, gave a single look to Optimus then turned around and walked away.

Dinobot growled at the badger and stood up shakily.

"And the fact that they do not play by any rules, permits us to ignore rules as well? Well, I believe Optimus shall be the judge of that," the raptor responded acknowledging the arrival of the Maximal commander. "But as for the mission, let us not forget which of us was giving the orders and which of us was defying them. That in and of itself speaks quite clearly as to who is at fault." Dinobot left it at that and turned to address Optimus, "I shall be making a full report of Ironclaw's defiance back at base, Optimus, when you have the time. Perhaps he is not ready for missions that involve the battlefield."

"Can either of you return on foot in your beast modes?"

Dinobot frowned at the question.

"Yes, however, I cannot return on foot AND assist in helping our comrades,

"Hey, guys," "Strap yourselves securely and I'll take you home."

Dinobot looked up at Orcariner as he descended from the sky.

"Your help would be greatly appreciated," Dinobot nodded. He wasn't usually one to allow the others' assistance, but he knew it was the quickest and easiest way to get the injured Maximals back to base. Dinobot lifted Airazor up to Optimus who then headed off to the base carrying his passengers. Dinobot then grabbed Frilla and climbed aboard the helicopter whale and strapped himself and Frilla in.