The Intergalactic Highway

I don't know if this thing is going to work.. but it's as ready as it'll ever be.

Still in hiding, Megatron overheard the Maximals. This was perfect. Although his reinforcements didn't arrive yet, if they arrive at all, it was four against four. The only thing that puzzled him was what the rhinoceros was talking about. Optimus Primal had vanished. He was surely terminated, was he not? He witnessed it with his own optics. But perhaps... perhaps he was inside the probe and these Maximal bafoons were trying to extract him. Well, not if Megatron could help it!

As soon as Rhinox was done speaking, Rattrap started sniffing the air, trying to find Predacon scents as his paranoia continued to tug at him. "Ehhh... Too quiet here," he said to the group. "I thought for sure the Predacons would be makin' for the probe." He glanced up at Big Green.

Megatron took the rodent's assumption for his cue. Terrorizing to his robot mode, he stepped out behind the Maximals with a devious grin and ready to fire. "HAH!" the Predacon leader bellowed. "An excellent prediction, Commander Rattrap!"

Gasping, Rattrap spun around and saw Megajerk towering over all of them. SLAG! He narrowed his optics.

"Let's see how you fair in the battle field!" the t-rex exclaimed, anxious to mutulate the Maximals for good. Lifting his t-rex head weapon, he began firing laser shots at the small group next to the pod.

Terrorsaur flew out and terrorized, following Megatron's signal, and started firing at the Maximals with his gun.

Rattrap immediately began return fire to cover Rhinox who needed to avoid injury and work on getting Optimus back. "Rhinox! Get Optimus out of that probe!" he ordered, firing at Megs and ducking his shots.

As Starshadow reached to the standing stones, she ran past Megatron's group to and jumped, transforming in mid air and pulled out her whip. Once the catbot landed near to the maximals, she whipped Rattrap's neck and pulled him to her.

"Have a nice day with my Boss." the cat threw the rat on the ground near to the preds and did handspring somersaults, returning to the predacons.

Rhinox moved as swiftly as his large body could manage, moving to the back of the probe. He stood holding up his right arm with the device pointed at the probe, then spoke up Optimus can you hear me?

A echoed voice escaped from the probe towards Rhinox with an ecstatic voice Loud and clear big guy!

I'm going to try and extract you.

Rhinox then raised the device hitting a button on the side as it projected a strange smokey like transparent energy towards the pod with a whirling sound emitting from it.

________________

Tarantulus sprung out transforming with the group, his spider leg machine guns spraying wildly into the Maximal group.

Wintersong kept running glancing sideways, turning her head just barely to acknowledge Icebreaker, "I prefer to keep to myself for now. The Maximals do not need the extra weight for someone who wasn't suppose ot be in the Axalon in the first place." She muttered.

It was true she'd made a stupid mistake and now was stuck here, probably until the others could find a way home. She growled and dodged the rock then continued on but heard firing in the distance. Seemed the party was just starting.

"LEt's shred some Pred!" She growled rushing forward until sh saw the Standing Stones, the battle already taking place. "Wintersong, maximize!" She growled and transformed.

Grabbing hold of her small rifle at her side hurrying down to join the other Maximals, firing at whichever eenemy was in sight.

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

Snow Trix's ears twtiched slightly as she ehard the firing and stopped for a moment watching the fight. On one hand she could stay and watch the fight, hoping the Predacons kick the Maximals to scrap or to join in and nd up scrapped as well. Well she didn't have anything to lose so what the slag.

"Snow Trix, terrorize." She muttered and sliding behind one of the rocks she took aim before firing a few times, trying to hit any that were close by.

So, Megatron was there all along. Dinobot was at least pleased to have the opportunity to take more shots at the treacherous leader.

Dinobot went for some cover, firing off lasers even as he ran. He would continue shooting, but unless he claimed total victory on the field (not likely, he was forced to admit), the rest was up to the Maximal scientist.

* * *

"Well," Cheetor said to Skyfire, "whatever you feel like doing." Then he went looking back at a monitor.

"Hey, that's weird." he said aloud. Then he tapped the screen a few times. That couldn't possibly be right.

"Predacon signature detected" the ship's computer announced.

"Yeah, I see that." Cheetor responded to the computer, as if he could argue with it. He turned to Skyfire.

"But the scanners are saying there's a Maximal signature too. Everyone we've got's on the field, aren't they?" he asked her for confirmation. "Maybe the system's got a glitch."

* * *

So far, so good. Steelclaw made it to the ship's hull, and after transforming, he stood on top of it. Deploying his PPC, he put it at a very low setting, and started slowly grazing the ship's metal with it. Most of the metal sounded back to him very deeply, but the pitch of the energy on metal eventually changed. He had found a hollow spot.

He set the PPC on a higher setting, but hopefully not a high enough one to make too significant of a sound, and started torching the metal off the hull.

Surprisingly soon, he'd carved himself a hole large enough to climb into. He pulled out his guass rifle, and set it to fire incendiary rounds. If the Maximals were (as it was possible) waiting for him just inside, he'd want to cause as much confusion and damage as possible to give himself time to haul himself away and run for his life.

So, he went in backwards, dangling with his legs on the hull and suspending himself upside down, gun at the ready, in what turned out to be one of the Axalon's hallways. Nobody was there, so he lowered himself all the way in, and set off with hardly a sound.

Focused on Megatron, Tarantulas and Terrorsaur, Rattrap hadn't noticed Starshadow jump in until it was too late. He gagged as soon as he was strangled by her whip, grabbing it with his free hand. Had he been bigger or stronger enough to resist her, he'd have yanked the crazy cat by her whip and thrown her hard into one of the standing stones. But since that was not the case for the small Maximal, he was pulled off of his feet and choked, dropping his weapon on impact as his chest met the ground. He felt the tight grip around his neck release as she bounced back away from him.

I'm going to try and extract you.

Thank the Matrix, thought Primal. It was a huge relief to hear Rhinox's voice and know that his Maximals were doing everything they could to rescue him. Unfortunately, Optimus also heard the battle that had begun outside of the pod and it was frustrating to not be able to help them. He felt helpless inside. If Megatron knew what was going on, he was certain he wouldn't hesitate to blow up the probe just to make sure the Maximal leader never stood in his way again.

"Have a nice day with my Boss."

Coughing, Rattrap gained his bearings and looked up to find himself in Megatron's shadow.

Megatron, who stood very tall over the little cheese-eater, deviously grinning at the temporary commander below, lifted his giant foot and proceeded to lower it onto Rattrap's back.

Gun. The thought suddenly popped into the master markman's mind. His weapon-wielding hand was empty and desperately looking for the lost object. Gun! Where's my gun?! Looking to his right, he spotted it a couple feet away, and just before Megatron's foot came down on him, he swiftly rolled out of the way toward his weapon and grabbed it. Laying on his side, he aimed and fired repeatedly at Megatron's chest.

The forse behind the Predacon's foot vibrated the ground and lifted up dust. Growling now out of frustration for the rodent's quick moves since he would've crushed him, his angry optics followed his roll right when he suddenly got pummeled by shots in the upper chest. Megatron stumbled backwards as he got hit, and then instinctively lifted his tail weapon up to block any more.

Terrorsaur saw what was happened between them and aimed for Rattrap's gun. One shot and it was a direct hit. The red bird laughed for his minor victory.

His weapon flying right out of his hand with a hot sting and landing several feet away with a clank on the ground, Rattrap glared and got to his knees. All right. Now I'm gettin' angry, he thought impatiently. Opening the small storage space on his forearm, he pulled out a demo charge, armed it for a two-second detonation, and threw it at the Predacons. "Yeah, Stardust? Why don't you have a blast?!" He was already to his feet and sprinting for the pod before the little bomb exploded in mid air. It was more for a diversion than damaging anything, although if the Preds were hurt by the explosion, it would be a plus. Rattrap had to find cover and get out of the Predacons' grasps. He picked up his gun on the way over to Dinobot's position.

Wide eyed, Terrorsaur was blown backwards into a stone from the explosion. But Megatron simply crouched from the blast and protected himself from debris, snarling under his breath. Before the smoke cleared, he was standing again and firing more fiercly upon the Maximals and the probe.

Finally arriving at the standing stones, Orcariner was not entirely surprised to hear the familiar booms of battle. He maximized and charged towards the location with both of his blades unsheathed. The pod was the first thing that caught his attention as well as Rhinox using some form of makeshift device on it.

I guess I'll start with defense duty, he thought.

Orcariner sprinted across the open middle, deflecting stray quasar shots with his weapons. Sliding next to the working scientist, he stood up and moved into a position where he could take any attack aimed for Primal's savior.

"How's progress?" he asked Rhinox.

"Yeah, Stardust? Why don't you have a blast?!"

Saber raised an eye brow but didn't say anything, instead she fired at Starshadow. After firing a few shots she went into her beast mode and attacked Starshadow while she dodged her blasts.
Dodge this She thought as she leaped.

Tarantulus tried to evade as he saw the explosive, but was caught up in the blast knocking him onto his back, he got up shaking his head rubbing it with one of his claws Oh what is with this day? he said to himself in his gravely twisted voice.

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Rhinox became frustrated as the device was not working, he looked towards Orcariner It's not working.. he then sighs stopping the device, re-examining it, he didn't like the idea of trying to modify it in the middle of battle but he may not have any choice. He examined the area wondering if the area itself was interfering with the device as well.

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As Icebreaker closed in he watched the struggle and explosion created by Rattrap against the Predacons, he leaned low gunning full speed on his board as he sprung up near the last second board first tackling with all his momentum into Megatron's side If your going to pick on someone, do it with someone your own size shell head!

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Glowstick watched as Steelclaw broke into the Maximal base, it was probably the least stealthy way possible.The squid sighed to himself.

His Spiderdrone curled it's legs under it's body, then sprung up towards the hole in the Axalon, it's legs struggling a bit but then crawling into the base behind Steelclaw, it moved crawling along a wall. Glowstick activated his radio sending a signal to Steelclaw You sure know how to make a entrance. I'm not sure how many are here, but they have radio chatter at a minimal. This toy I stole from Tarantulus has far less visual presence then you do, so I'll scout ahead towards the command center.

The little spiderdrone moves along the ceiling ahead of Steelclaw towards the end of the hall, turning and moving into the main hall leading to the bridge, the video feed from the drone only revealed two targets to Glowstick. Cheetor and Skyfire, he assumed Valkyrie was probably in the CR chamber so no worries there. Two targets, the cat you injured earlier and one of the female fliers. They look injured.

Venatrix leaped silently on top of one of the pillars before she could finally reengage the Maximal cat for a rematch.
In her last encounter with the Maximal who was known by them as Saber, Venatrix was beaten. This time, things will go quite a bit different.
Saber fired a shot at Starshadow when she leaped down the pillar and sank her teeth into Saber's weapon.
Her attempt to disable the Maximal's weapon should be effective, but still, she expected a counter attack that would be almost as sudden as her own attack.
This time, she was focused enough to react properly to this counter attack, while still keeping a part of her attention on everything else on the battle field.
This time, the more experienced Maximal cat wont end up the victor of this clash.

"Well," Cheetor said to Skyfire, "whatever you feel like doing." Then he went looking back at a monitor.

"Hey, that's weird." he said aloud. Then he tapped the screen a few times. That couldn't possibly be right.

"Predacon signature detected" the ship's computer announced.

"Yeah, I see that." Cheetor responded to the computer, as if he could argue with it. He turned to Skyfire.

"But the scanners are saying there's a Maximal signature too. Everyone we've got's on the field, aren't they?" he asked her for confirmation. "Maybe the system's got a glitch."

"I don't know. It could be a glitch" said Skyfire. "Considering that everyone did go the standing stones to help Optimus, that unless someone choose to stick around here. Anyway with some Preds coming our way, we have to put repairs on hold for now and get the defenses ready."

Venatrix's attack had caught Saber off guard, she turned her attention from Starshadow to Venatrix. She stood up on her hind legs and lashed out at the Predicon she cat.
Fine, you want a rematch. Then your going to get one. She thought wth a small growl.
She was determined to to once again win this round and she was going to give the she-cat a run for her money.

Starshadow was able to dodge the little bomb and Saber's attacks. She snarled as she got tackled by Saber. The maximal's giant pet cat was starting to annoy her and kicked her away with her good 'ol stiletto boots then charged the plasma energy from her mouth, creating a large hot ball and fired it on the maximal sabertooth tiger.

She remembered something and comlinked the bat.
"Miss catgirl to Sonar, get your aft to my co ordinates. NOW!! Megatron would appreciate more help."

"Well, I hate to admit it," Steelclaw replied quietly on his com-link, "but you credit me with the bat's shot."

He took one of the left turns in the hallway after he noticed a bright blue light emanating from it. Before long, he was in the room the light came from- a strangely shaped place with glowing lines on the wall designed for some sort of technological use. And in the center was a supercomputer.

He quickly went to the edge of the moat of disruptor fluid surrounding it, and after staring at the fluid almost vindictively, he jumped over it.

It didn't take him long after being around the computer to decide he couldn't do anything with it.

"I found the ship's main computer, but downloading information off of this would be nigh impossible for me. I'm going to have to get to the bridge itself- it's system would be a lot more understandably interactive, and I could still access all the information stored here over there. Keep me apprised on anyone leaving that room."

He wanted so badly to trash the computer right then and there. But that would be counter-productive to acquiring the knowledge he was after, and after observing the metal on it for a few moments, he concluded it was built to stand up to weapon's fire anyways.

So he made his way out of the room and went down a different hallway- one that seemed to go the general direction of the bridge like the first hallway had done.

* * *

Skyfire wrote:Anyway with some Preds coming our way, we have to put repairs on hold for now and get the defenses ready.

"Well, the shield is up, so what else do we need to do?"

Then the Maximal signal disappeared from off the screen.

"What?" Cheetor almost declared more than asked. "The Maximal signal is gone. Hmm... Computer, pull up perimeter surveillance footage of the back of the ship, or... wherever you've got the Predacon signal showing."

The computer complied immediately, but all Cheetor saw was land and water. This pointed even more towards the system glitching, but he wasn't satisfied to just relax.

"I'm going to the back of the ship to check this out." he said resolutely. "Cheetor, maximize!" After his beast mode made a short growl, he stood up, pulled out his quasar rifle, and pumped it once.

* * *

Dinobot was actually quite impressed with Rattrap's reaction to being pushed into the Predacons, but he was angered that the two panthers had decided to gang up on Saber-Fang. So he took direct aim at Starshadow and fired off his eye lasers before getting out his spinning tail shield and his sword.

Terrorsaur slowly got to his feet and shook his head. Slagging Maximal, he thought angrily.

Megatron paused his firing and looked over at the red flier. "Terrorsaur," he called for his attention. When he looked over to his leader, Megatron motioned him to sneak up behind Rhinox and take him out.

Nodding in acknowledgement, Terrorsaur flew upward and around the large stones. He landed quietly on his feet behind one of the standing stones and began sneaking around, getting closer to Rhinox and trying to avoid any Maximals that might see him. (( OOC: I'm basically having Terry play Waspy's part since Waspy isn't there. ))

Just as Megatron was about continue his raid of fire to keep the rest of the Maximals distracted, he heard a voice approaching him rather quickly.

If your going to pick on someone, do it with someone your own size shell head!

The large Predacon suddenly found himself flying through the air and landing with a thud on his back, his side aching in pain from Icebreaker's hit and his external armor scratched and dented. So, the Maximals had reinforcements after all. But if Megatron's were not all present at the standing stones, then perhaps they were using this opportunity to their advantage else where. Or perhaps they were too damaged to fight. He would not tolerate any other excuse other than those.

Holding his side for a moment and growling, he got to his feet and fired a missile from his tail cannon at the ground directly in front of the penguin and his board. "It does not matter who I battle, nooo! For all of you Maximals share the same fate!" Megatron bellowed.

It's not working..

Not exactly what Optimus wanted to hear from his friend but what else could they do? Maybe it had something to do with the stones since that was where the whole situation started in the first place. But then everything was so alien to them.

Rattrap saw Orcariner and Icebreaker arrive, greatly relieved for the help. Now the Predacons were outnumbered. The odds were in the Maximals' favor. They could still win this! Standing beside Dinobot and lowering himself to a crouch, Rattrap targeted Tarantulas and fired several shots, wondering at the same time what was taking Rhinox so long to get their fearless leader out of there. Maybe the device wasn't working. Then what? Don't panic! he told himself. If worst comes to worst, we can still fight off the Predacons an' worry about extracting Optimus afterward.