The Intergalactic Highway

((OOC: Just finished my final lab report!!! It's worth 250 points, so I couldn't afford procrastinating which ending up affecting my posting activity.))

Orcariner looked at the others and simply nodded. He was unsure whether or not the plan would work out for the best, but they did not have time to sit around and discuss the problem at hand. The only thing the killer whale knew was that Rhinox was the only one of them capable of saving the life of the protoform inside that pod. Everyone else was either guardian, scout, or a distraction. Continuing his radar up-link, Orcariner hoped that the others were still aware that a Predacon task force was on route to their position. The high concentration of energon would render robot-mode combat useless after a few cycles. Knowing fully well that his beast mode was equally useless on land, Orcariner had a slight regret that he did not volunteer to accompany Rattrap on the aquatic mission. Nonetheless, the Maximal would continue to serve as a buff for the others by giving them eyes where they could not see. Should the pod or Rhinox fall under any danger, Orcariner would not hesitate to use his own body as a shield to defend them.


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Making sure his team was behind him, Scorponok continued to crawl into the wastelands. The sporadic bursts of energon from the ground did not deter him from his mission. He was, after all, the squad's leader and must act like one.

"Leaders lead," he grunted, trying not to be shaken from a geyser that erupted nearby.

Terrorsaur squawked, "Eh?"

"Nothing."

Scorponok made it no secret that he detested everyone but Megatron. It got on Terrorsaur's nerves since he at least made somewhat of an attempt at cooperating with his teammates. Everyone had their egos and the flyer would not hesitate to admit that he would take down the saurian leader if given the opportunity. Still, they were stuck in a war and the key to winning a war was teamwork. Scorponok knew this, but his concept of teamwork was poorly executed time and time again.

"Flyers," came the team leader's voice, "Gain altitude and keep watch over our shoulders. I want us to have the element of surprise here. If the Maximals confront us on land, let Blackarachnia and I deal the first blow. Only come to our aid should we require it."

Terrorsaur shook his head. Once again, Scorponok formulated a plan that would split up the team. It would be more damaging to both body and morale should the Predacons strike together as a unified force. He chose not to question Scorponok's authority, however. Past experiences have told him it was a futile option.

(I wasn't posting to see if that would generate more posts.. apparently not! I assume the others are either busy like Alak was, or just bored. )

Rhinox slammed his fists down in frustration, then let out a sigh pulling out a cable and attaching it to the Stasis pod. He then opened a panel on his shoulder plugging the other end of the cable into the port. He typed into the stasis pod and spoke up Download sequencer program through my processor he then said, the stasis pod responding Warning! Process could cause damage to your circuitry

Rhinox then shouted in response, having just about had it with the frustrations the machine has brought him. JUST DO IT!

The stasis pod then started scrolling text as a loud hum was heard, Rhinox appeared to be shouting in pain as the system ran, a sudden surge then disconnected the wire and sent Rhinox flying back into the ditch wall, he fell to the ground as energon surges were seen washing over his body. "Circuit damage, Field dampers down,Energon surge,stasis lock imminent. "

Rhinox spoke up as he pushed himself up slightly Beast... mode... he said weakly transforming into his rhino form.

The stasis pod opened a panel as the scanner raised up from it DNA sequencers online. a beep sound emitted from the machine as it attempted to scan for a life form.
_____________________________

Glowstick looked at the datapad raising an optic ridge as he looked towards Cecaelia Er.. Well that wont exactly help me with improving this ship.. but it might help with morale around here I guess..Hm.. and to think I wanted my camera earlier..

((Woops, didn't see this post before, sorry!))



"Energon, repairs, and not being at the end of my gun when in conflict with the maximals seems like a bargain.. Wouldn't you agree?"

The mantis thought for a second if it would be a good deal or not. His eyes moved to his wings still lying on the ground. Repair did sound nice. He didn't care about being at the end of Megatrons gun, but Energon sweetened the deal. It would be perfect except for one thing. Looking back at the Dinosaur, he spoke. "Let me have the head of that lizard and you have yourself a deal."
---

"No compatible life forms in range. Spark will terminate in 4.3 cycles."

"Leaders lead,"

"Eh?"

"Nothing."

Waspinator tilted his head, he never understood why Scorponok liked being in command.

Pincer-bot is having a power trip. Waspinator thought.

"Flyers," "Gain altitude and keep watch over our shoulders. I want us to have the element of surprise here. If the Maximals confront us on land, let Blackarachnia and I deal the first blow. Only come to our aid should we require it."

Seeing how Terrorsuar didn't question the all mighty second in command's logic, neither would Waspinator.

((OOC: I'm going to deviate the Predacons' actions a bit from the episode since things are moving along quicker now. Sorry if this detracts from Cheetor's golden moment, but perhaps we can at least still have his duel with Blackarachnia. Airazor should keep her fight with Terrorsaur since that was her biggest moment of awesome in the series. Rhinox is out, and I'll find a way to excuse Orcariner from the fight. That should leave Waspinator vs. Valkyrie and Scorponok vs. Whitegrazer. If anyone has any issues with this change, I'm more than willing to comply.))

Orcariner gasped as Rhinox was violently thrown back into the rocks. Transforming into his robot mode, the giant felt a strain in his body. While he succeeded in modifying the radar up-link technology to perform in robot mode, it still expended much needed energy. The heavy spikes of radiation in the area required more power diversion to the dampers and movement of his massive frame meant energy was required for mobility.

"Computer," he commanded, "Shut down all weapon systems and redirect excessive power to field dampers."

The order was acknowledged and Orcariner breathed a sigh of relief. Running to his superior's side, Orcariner brushed the dirt off Rhinox's shoulder and pulled him out away from the wall. The Cybertronian rhinoceros was immensely heavy, even for Orcariner, and the fact that he was nearly motionless did not help.

"Are you ok?" he asked, expecting the obvious answer, "You did it, sir. The pod's sequencer program is active again."


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Meanwhile, the Predacon task force was making its approach within 100 meters of the the pod's crash site. Scorponok was rather surprised that the Maximals had not yet sent out scouts to confront them. The element of surprise would be in their favor. Grinning, he scurried on with a sense of pride of swagger. Scorponok was not as extensively armed for combat as he normally was, carrying a limited loadout of mega missiles in one arm and a bee drone in the other. He did not mind the light packing. This was a simple retrieval mission, and massive quantities of ammunition were unnecessary for a surprise attack.

"Blackarachnia," he said, "Prepare to ambush the Maximal team. Terrorize!"

Sending out the drone, Scorponok figured it would be best to scope out the enemy before engaging them. Lifting a claw, he signaled to Terrorsaur and Waspinator to maintain their fall back position.

"Hold here," said Terrorsaur to his partner, "They're scoping the area first."

The bee proceeded to climb into the sky as it passed over the ridge. Transmitting a visual feed directly in Scorponok's visor, the drone displayed a stream of the crash site. Scorponok reported his findings to the team.

"Rhinox is out," he whispered into his radio, "I see the whale who is busy attending to him. Valkyrie, Cheetor, and the horse are here as well. Should we strike quick and well, we may be able to rid ourselves of the latter three. Blackarachnia will move in to reprogram the stasis pod while the rest of us will eliminate Orcariner. The new Predacon will be given the honor to executing Rhinox."


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Pausing, Orcariner looked to the others. His fear for Rhinox's safety distracted him from his only remaining weapon: the radar.

"They're here," he announced to the group.

The radar showed the Predacon task force on the other side of the ridge, but was unable to detect the bee drone due to its miniscule size. Should the Predacons continue their approach, they would have the advantage of higher ground.

"Oh, and they brought flyers with them. Can't tell the altitude but they're currently above Scorponok and the other Predacon."

It must have been a soldier he had not encountered yet. Orcariner took a mental note to register its identity with its signature before the battle was over.

"Chances are they won't know that we're aware of their presence. We could probably use the surprise to our advantage."


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"The whale's talking to the others," noted Scorponok.

Orcariner seemed to be speaking with a sense of hurry and caution.

"Could he..."

The whale did seem to have an incredible sense of awareness at times. Did he detect the drone? Did he somehow detect the squad's presence? Scorponok was not sure, but given his string of failures in the last couple of encounters, he was not willing to take an unnecessary risk.

"Attention Predacons, there has been a change in plans. There is a possibility that the Maximals are planning on surprising our surprise attack. In turn, we will initiate a different surprise attack that will counter their surprise attack that is meant to counter our surprise attack."

There was some questionable chatter on the Terrorsaur's end of the radio.

"Shut up and listen!" Scorponok hissed, "I will initiate first strike with the drone."

"First strike is mine!" replied Terrorsaur.

"Shut up and do as I command, you inferior excuse of a bird! The drone will strike first! I want you and Waspinator to follow up with a bombing run. Do not directly engage the enemy and do not even dare to damage the pod. Blackarachnia and I will use your distraction to climb the ridge. With the Maximals distracted, we shall provide suppressive fire to allow you two to sweep up the kills."

Turning his attention to his drone controller, Scorponok ordered the bee to dive bomb towards the trio of scouts standing by the larger Maximals. The drone emitted a loud, audible series of beeps which progressively increased in tempo. It was going to self-destruct.

"Blackarachnia," he said, "Prepare to ambush the Maximal team. Terrorize!"

"Hold here," "They're scoping the area first."

Waspinator flew backwards slightly to stop himself and hovered next to Terrorsaur.

"Rhinox is out," he whispered into his radio, "I see the whale who is busy attending to him. Valkyrie, Cheetor, and the horse are here as well. Should we strike quick and well, we may be able to rid ourselves of the latter three. Blackarachnia will move in to reprogram the stasis pod while the rest of us will eliminate Orcariner. The new Predacon will be given the honor to executing Rhinox."

Why does the new bot get to have all the fun. Waspinator thought crestfallen.

"Attention Predacons, there has been a change in plans. There is a possibility that the Maximals are planning on surprising our surprise attack. In turn, we will initiate a different surprise attack that will counter their surprise attack that is meant to counter our surprise attack."

What? The wasp thought slightly confused.

"Shut up and listen!" Scorponok hissed, "I will initiate first strike with the drone."

"First strike is mine!"

Waspinator agreed that the first strike should be Terrorsuar's, then while the Maximals were distracted the other two bots could tend to the pod.

"Shut up and do as I command, you inferior excuse of a bird! The drone will strike first! I want you and Waspinator to follow up with a bombing run. Do not directly engage the enemy and do not even dare to damage the pod. Blackarachnia and I will use your distraction to climb the ridge. With the Maximals distracted, we shall provide suppressive fire to allow you two to sweep up the kills."

Waspinator muttered some thing under his breath, he wanted to attack now and have some fun while fighting the Maximals. But they all had to follow the second in commands orders.

Inferno, if Steelclaw remembered the name he'd shouted upon activation correctly, was a little bit unstable. And that was fine. But Steelclaw didn't like being called a drone. And why would he have any reason to betray "the colony"? Inferno's look seemed to accuse him of being close to doing just that.

Steelclaw kept himself from saying anything back, but the new Predacon would take some getting used to.

Manterror wrote:Let me have the head of that lizard and you have yourself a deal.

"Which lizard do you mean?" Steelclaw asked. He was pretty sure Manterror was talking about Frilla, but he didn't know, and it seemed like a good way to introduce himself to the conversation.

* * *

Cheetor caught up to Whitergrazer and Valkyrie right Ocariner started saying where the Preds were.

"You think we should-" he started asking the other two, but he trailed off when he heard something buzzing and beeping. Looking forward, he saw something coming and narrowed his eyes, zooming in on whatever it was.

"Incoming!" he shouted. "Cheetor, maximize!" He had his gun in hand by the time he was standing up and he shot at the cyber-bee multiple time, more focused on speed than accuracy.

"Maybe Optimus but it could have been better." "Let's just say though I'd rather avoid insects for a while."

Well, what happened, happened. They couldn't have known that Manterror was going to be there and delay them. The outcome was not Frilla's fault.

"Perhaps the prey has become the hunter and the hunter the prey."

Tigatron let out a soft chuckle to Wintersong's suggestion. Speaking of the insect, besides the fire ant, going back to Frilla's comment, Tigatron looked from the female lizard to Optimus and asked, "Who is the mantis? I do not remember crossing paths with him before."

"Manterror," the gorilla answered the tiger. "I don't know when his pod fell, or where, but he's a dangerous addition to the Predacons. He had been assigned to the Axalon after the crimes he committed on Cyber-" Optimus was interrupted when Venatrix suddenly showed up.

"Yet another great opportunity arises for me to test my skills in battle with a warrior of your caliber. Will you accept my challenge Dinobot?" "Venatrix, terrorize!"

Stopping dead in his tracks, Primal immediately turned around to see Venatrix, baring his teeth for a few seconds as a low growl escaped his mouth. He was hoping their quiet retreat would leave all of the Predacons basking in their "victory" and paying attention to their two new comrades. Of course there had to be one still looking for trouble, but Optimus didn't speak for Dinobot.

"I suspect you have no intention of leaving me with a choice," "But many of us have sustained significant damage, and we are not far from Megatron's forces. He would surely take advantage of a delayed retreat. If you must have a duel," "I demand that we take it to neutral ground, where my comrades are under no strategic threat."

The Maximal leader was impressed with Dinobot's response. However, he was hesitant to turn his back to Venatrix and keep moving; they were nearing the edge of the small forest, and after that was a lot less cover and a lot more dessert-like terrain. Most of them were injured, some severely, and others, like Optimus himself, didn't have time to be exposed in robot mode to the energon radiation. Unless he wanted to risk slipping into stasis lock very quickly, he was forced to remain in beast mode, which meant he couldn't provide a good offense, if any, because all of his weapons were tucked away.

Seeing Dinobot move on, with or without Venatrix in tow, Optimus turned and continued walking with the group in the Axalon's direction. Tigatron grew wary of the Predacon's presense as well, but followed his leader and started limping again, hanging closer to Wintersong and Frilla.

(( OOC: Sorry, I don't have time to post for Rattrap tonight. Didn't realize how late I'd be getting on here. My bad! Will post for him tomorrow sometime. ))

A little unsure of the Predacon's next move Wintersong slowed her pace enough to drop back behind Tigatron and Frilla just in case and to give some added defense of Venetrix decided to attack them. Her chest and shoulder hurt but the safety of her teammates were far more important to her and Wintersong would gladly get in the way to protect them. Seeing that they were coming to the edge of the forest the help would likely be needed.

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Snow Trix by now was heading away from the sight, ears twitching at some sounds here and there but assuming she had not been ordered to return she just kept walking. Going to base wasn't exactly her destination at the moment and she just went wherever her paws would carry her.

((OOC: I'm going to post in response to Cheetor's actions so that Whitegrazer, Valkyrie, and Cheetor will have more freedom of what to do instead of waiting to see what happens to the bee.))


The drone accelerated downward with a loud buzz from its fluttering wings. The feline Maximal had without a doubt the quickest trigger finger among them all. For what he lacked in accuracy, the sheer amount of volleys made up for it. The bee traveled in a linear path and was incapable of avoiding the shots. It exploded above them, raining down small amounts of harmless debris.

"Let's go!" said Terrorsaur to Waspinator.

Surging forward, he flew towards the Maximals with his shoulder cannons drawn.

"Well, the Predacons will be heading from that direction I'm sure of it. Though, I wonder how many...four or five. They may have flyers or at least one. Either way, you and I must delay them from here at least until that protoform is well and picks up a beast mode to waken up for us to see our new comrade. We will divert their attention, keeping them away."

Whitegrazer looked around and zoomed out alittle, "This place is full of rocky..."

"See that cliff over there?" She cranked her neck and nodded towards a stable cliff that was not far from the radar but a pretty distance from the pod, "I will go and meet these Predacons on ground head on, be a decoy. If there are flyers or any others, I want you to draw their attention with whatever way you choose but try to lead them around the area where those geysers are. Outmanvearing them and use those geysers to your advantage as you can. I will use those rocky pillars as cover to defeat the ground forces."

Valkyrie nodded her sharp beaked head. It was as good a plan as she would come up herself.
"Agreed. We need to keep as many Predacons at bay as possible. Hopefully we can keep them all at bay."
She spread her wings and flew upwards, checking the immediate area for any Predacon activities, when Cheetor joined them.

"They're here," he announced to the group.

The radar showed the Predacon task force on the other side of the ridge, but was unable to detect the bee drone due to its miniscule size. Should the Predacons continue their approach, they would have the advantage of higher ground.

"Oh, and they brought flyers with them. Can't tell the altitude but they're currently above Scorponok and the other Predacon."

It must have been a soldier he had not encountered yet. Orcariner took a mental note to register its identity with its signature before the battle was over.

"Chances are they won't know that we're aware of their presence. We could probably use the surprise to our advantage."

As Orcariner announced his observation, Valkyrie already spotted Terrorsaur and Waspinator.
The bee-drone that have been fired by Scorponock was to fast for her to intercept it, so she had to rely on Cheetor's speed to disable it.
Her first job would be to engage the wasp and the winged lizard, and keep them from giving their comrades on the ground any air support.
And the best way to do that was from even higher in the sky, and strike at them from above.
Terrorsaur shouldn't be to much trouble, but Waspinator is much more maneuverable then she was, so he would be her first target.
She quickly gained altitude and flew into their direction, till they both where directly below her.
She folded her wings and dived down towards Waspinator, with her claws aimed at him.

((will add more later))

Whitegrazer saw the drone flowing around, she still kept herself in beast mode as she looked back at Orcariner, "Orcariner, you should stay back and keep an eye on Rhinox and the pod."

She transformed and watched as Valkyrie start her attack on the flyers. Two on one was not an even fight.

It would be a real miracle if we get another flyer. She thought to herself.

Because of the drone, Scorponok was there as well. He was going to be her target. She had learned about him from the Maximals so she at least knew what to expect.

___________________________________________________________________

Blackarachnia made a hmph noise. She used her scanners and smirked as an idea popped inside her head as her eyes saw a nearby pillar close to the kitty cat and the horse lady. If she timed it right, she could jump one of them. Probably the cat.

"Good luck, shellhead!" Blackarchnia said as she let out a little wicked laugh, heading out with her own plan leaving the scorpion alone.

If she could get to the pod...it would be nice to have someone loyal to her. Her mind ran with possibilites but she had to focus on getting rid of the Maximals.

"Copy that," replied Orcariner.

With his weapon systems down, he had no access to his energo swords. He considered using his gun, however, even if it had a limited charge to it. The orca figured he could manage enough shots to keep anyone at bay should they attempt to attack the defenseless Rhinox. Orcariner's attention moved to the sky as Valkyrie engaged Waspinator in a dogfight. Terrorsaur had already sped past her and was on route towards their location.

"Heads up!" the killer whale yelled.

A barrage of missiles rained from the sky. They were dumb fired and had very little accuracy put into them. However, the threat was still very real and chunks of dirt and debris erupted from the ground. Orcariner raised and arm to shield his face while using the other to find his carbine. The giant grunted as he struggled to pull out his firearm. It had been ages since he used this weapon due to his obvious favoritism for melee combat. He was surprised that he even remembered where he had the weapon withdrawn.

"Gotcha!"

Swinging the gun in front of him, Orcariner grabbed the under-barrel with the weapon and raised it to eye level. Despite going several missions without its use, the orca still remembered the private lessons Icebreaker and Rattrap gave him. His accuracy had much improved since his arrival on this planet, and the high rate of fire on the weapon made up for the accuracy that had yet to come. He also figured that it should not be too difficult to shoot something that was bright red.


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The run was effective as Terrorsaur succeeded in providing a distraction for the crawlers to make their approach to the ridge. The bird had already went on the offensive and engaged Waspinator, but Scorponok paid no attention to her. Both of his flyers were quicker in the sky, therefore, the Predacons would assume aerial dominance throughout this engagement. Looking over the ridge, the 1st Lieutenant skimmed the field. To his surprise, he saw Whitegrazer looking at him as if he was already designated as her opponent. Scorponok gulped as he had heard reports from the previous battle that she was a combat instructor from the military academy.

"Like I'm going to let you get anywhere near me," he muttered.

Opening his left claw, Scorponok fired off his first mega missile at her. He would have to do everything he could to keep the horse as a reasonable distance.

"Let's go!"

Waspinator nodded then transformed into his robot mode and followed his companion with a sparkling like giggle. He fired off a few shot of his own giggling again as he did so.

"Wazzzpinator slag Maximals before they slag Wazzzpinator!!" He announced gleefully firing off another around making sure he didn't hit the pod.

He turned his head slightly when he heard some thing behind him, he turned around to see Valkyrie coming straight at him. He let out a shriek of surprise before moving out of the way seconds before she hit him, the second the bird was infront of him, he fired off several shots all aiming for her wings.

Blazemane wrote: "I suspect you have no intention of leaving me with a choice," Dinobot fired back before transforming to beast mode. "But many of us have sustained significant damage, and we are not far from Megatron's forces. He would surely take advantage of a delayed retreat. If you must have a duel," he said, pointing up with a claw, "I demand that we take it to neutral ground, where my comrades are under no strategic threat."

Even before he heard her answer, he continued walking in the Maximals' direction. Venatrix would follow or she would not.

Venatrix watched Dinobot walk away and glanced at the glances the Maximals gave her.
She couldn't care less right now about these wounded Maximals. She was there to test her warrior skills against her self proclaimed teacher.
Yes, he never acknowledged her, but that was a lesson on its own.
A warrior never challenges an other who's weaker them him- or herself. A warrior is to be patient, and wait for the right moment, to engage into honorable combat.
But still, she needed to sound like a Predacon should. So a well placed insult towards the Maximal weaknesses would be a smart move indeed.
"Hmpff.... What honor is there in mopping the floor with you're sorry excuse for slaves."

As she transformed back to her beastmode, she was thinking about how that insult must've sounded fake, but she decided that it wouldn't move her at all.
Venatrix stayed behind Dinobot, just to be sure she could keep the Maximals in her eyesight, so that if any of them would be foolish enough to attack her, she had enough time to have that unfortunate bot meet with her powerful jaws and razor sharp claws.
She moved her sight from one Maximal to the other, storing their beastmodes in her memory banks to study later on, when her sight stopped at the large Maximal commander, Optimus Primal.
She saw him defeat Dinobot quite profoundly a while back, shortly after they all crashed on this dirt-ball.
Maybe one day she could engage in a dual with him. But that time is still a long way from this day.