The Intergalactic Highway

OOC: Ooooookay....then I guess we had that conversation with one of the other ladies....probably Wildfire since she plays almost all male characters which would have lead us all to believe she was actually a he. That must have been it.....

Sorry for the wait.

Also, Just to clarify again, how Tarantulas was to get out of the situation was really not the issue. I had the utmost faith in Darkspark's creative skills. The application of rules was really more the issue. I mean, should it really have gotten to the point where "popular demand," as it was so eloquently put, was necessary? The player whose character was involved personally requested the post be edited....that really should have been enough to warrant an edit in my mind, but I suppose we shall have to wait to see what OOP says about the subject.

As for accusing Alak of not reading the post, that was uncalled for and I apologize. It should have been worded more carefully. It was, however, completely justified given the fact that he appeared to have missed not only something Darkspark wrote, but something I had written as well which would lead one to believe he wasn't reading posts very carefully. If the wording of the requests on Darkspark's behalf was the issue here all along, then Alak should have said so instead of continuing to deny Darkspark the right to decide the fate of his character for himself and brushing off the accusations of the god-moding.

BIC:

Arachnitron was actually surprised to see the transwarp drive drop out of Blackarachnia's hands. With the way things were going lately she was expecting her luck to run out on her as had been the custom lately. When she did drop it, Arachnitron managed to catch it in her hands and landed with a soft thud at Blackarachnia's feet.

Arachnitron watched from the ground as Tarantulas raced for the stasis pod. He turned to her and shouted over the commotion:

"Bring it to me!"

Arachnitron quickly scrambled to her feet and rushed to Tarantulas' side.

"The device Blackarachnia implanted on the drive is still on it!" Arachnitron reminded him handing Tarantulas the transwarp drive.

She kept an eye on the chaos that had just ensued in the cargo bay. Shots rang out, but she was under cover. She watched the things that were happening around Tarantulas as he worked with her weapon at the ready in case someone threatened his work.

Suddenly, from behind, the whale, Orcariner, had taken a few steps towards Tarantulas and was reaching out to grab him. Her first shots at the whale had been deflected easily, but she had no choice to try again. She actually considered for a moment jumping between Tarantulas and the Maximal so that he would grab her instead, but she hesitated. She couldn't risk being in the whale's grasp while Tarantulas finished his work. Then no one would be there to provide him cover fire. She had to resort to shooting him in hopes of slowing him down.

Arachnitron raised her cybervenom launcher and fired a shot high towards Orcariner's head. Then, anticipating him to deflect the shot, she fired another shot much lower. She hoped he would only be able to block one shot and not the other...and that her firepower would buy Tarantulas a bit more time to get away from the orca's large hands....

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With Inferno's entrance into the fray, all hell had broken loose. The taller of the two black widows had sailed backwards with his shot to her chest. The smaller widow dove towards her hands to grab something that no doubt had belonged to the royalty. Meanwhile, the giant Maximal had deflected the ant's shots as well as the little spider's. Other than the simple deflection, it had seemed at first that no one paid much attention to the red ant.

Then, the panther charged towards Inferno, grabbed one of his arms and pulled it forward. She slammed her elbow a the back of his head using all the strength to do so.

Taken aback, Inferno moved forward with her pull and actually was shaken a bit by her hit to his head, but other than that all systems were still go. Inferno laughed manically.

"Hahaha!!! You're no match for me!"

He spun around towards Starshadow and fired his weapon at her.

OOC: @ Darkspark.....are we ready for Inferno to burn Tarantulas or should I wait another post yet? If you're ready, then Starshadow might need to resort to letting her character get shot so that Inferno has a free moment to go over to Tarantulas for the burning. Of course, she doesn't have to be out of commission completely just long enough for Inferno to do his thing with Tarantulas. But if you're not ready, let us know....

(Well, it's been six days.. so..)

Steelclaw wrote:"Hey, I'm sorry about this, but I think it's time to call the match off. Doomsday device and all that. Y'know... big, alien weapon. It's ready to go."

Umbra tilted his head as he heard Steelclaw, but kept his gaze on Venatrix. Understood. he responded calmly, he then moved forward with all eight of his tentacles moving towards Venatrix surprisingly swiftly in an Itano circus style attack, each limb reacting to suttle movements making it difficult to respond as they wrapped around her body and pulled her towards him, each suction cup like a pair of hands gripping onto her frame and lifting her into the air.

He then turned running into the hanger, his left arm coming out of the mass of tentacles reaching for the hanger door lever pulling it down.

The Hanger door closed behind Umbra as he set Venatrix down on her feet in front of him, his tentacles retreating from her form and coiling themselves on his back. My apologies Lady Venatrix, I suppose we'll have to try another time. He brought his hands together flat in front of him and gave a light respectful bow to Venatrix, then walked towards Steelclaw and Nemesis.

Starshadow was hoping that her attack would do some damage but apparently it didn't since he laughed.

"Hahaha!!! You're no match for me!"

Yup, it didn't. As she had predicted if her elbow slam fail, he pointed his gun at her face. Her moves weren't as fast as his trigger finger this time. The burning energy from his gun made contact to her right side of her face.

"DARRGGHH!!!" She released her grip on him and held her face. Things are just drawn to it... First, scars and now laser burn wounds..

((Fire when ready Inferno! ))

Blackrosefencer wrote:OOC: I think Tarantulas didn't do it before because there was no time. Also if he were to take it away from BA, the device would have activated and destroyed the transwarp drive. He didn't want to risk the drive being destroyed. And I think BA had agreed to remove it once we all got to the axalon . No one was expecting to be doing this under fire.

OOC: So since she dropped it instead of it being taken from her, it didn't go boom, and since he has no other choice, he's free to try working on it?

Tarantulas: Damnit Arachnitron, I'm a mad scientist/double agent, not the bomb squad!

XD


At any rate, I guess it would be alright for Inferno to fry Tarantulas soon, I can have it that Big T finished his work on the pod if we're in a hurry to get Optimus into space, and we can focus on his disarming the bomb this turn so it can be used on the pod, and of course, when Blackarachnia awakens she can get into my head for the codes she needs to finish the ship.

Blackrose wrote: Arachnitron quickly scrambled to her feet and rushed to Tarantulas' side.

"The device Blackarachnia implanted on the drive is still on it!" Arachnitron reminded him handing Tarantulas the transwarp drive.

She kept an eye on the chaos that had just ensued in the cargo bay. Shots rang out, but she was under cover. She watched the things that were happening around Tarantulas as he worked with her weapon at the ready in case someone threatened his work.

Suddenly, from behind, the whale, Orcariner, had taken a few steps towards Tarantulas and was reaching out to grab him. Her first shots at the whale had been deflected easily, but she had no choice to try again. She actually considered for a moment jumping between Tarantulas and the Maximal so that he would grab her instead, but she hesitated. She couldn't risk being in the whale's grasp while Tarantulas finished his work. Then no one would be there to provide him cover fire. She had to resort to shooting him in hopes of slowing him down.

Arachnitron raised her cybervenom launcher and fired a shot high towards Orcariner's head. Then, anticipating him to deflect the shot, she fired another shot much lower. She hoped he would only be able to block one shot and not the other...and that her firepower would buy Tarantulas a bit more time to get away from the orca's large hands....

"Of course it is..." Tarantulas grumbled grumpily in response to the knowledge the explosive device was still on the Transwarp drive, a matter further complicated by the fact the witless widow had gotten herself in stasis lock to recover from Inferno's surprise visit.

He removed his head gear, having completed most of his work on the pod already except for some last few vital data tracks he could add later as soon as Blackarachnia's bomb was no longer a threat. If the bomb blew now it would most likely slag everyone in the room, and even if anyone survived the blast, they'd still be stranded on earth with no means of escape with the transwarp drive destroyed, not to mention all the pods damaged by the explosion. He cursed under his breath at the sight of Orcaliner's partially paralyzed hand and how close it had come to grasping him, ducking to the side while firing a missile at his chest, hoping the blast would blow him away from their position and do some damage to boot. With any luck, his firepower combined with Arachnitron's would finish Orcaliner off, or at least put him into stasis lock so they can finish their work in peace.

"Give it to me quickly and keep that leviathan off my back long enough to finish my work, or all this work would have been for nought" Tarantulas ordered, taking the transwarp drive from Arachnitron and quickly going to work on disarming the bomb attached to it.

He hadn't dared to try this before due to how little time he'd had to spare and not wishing to put his last hope for escape in unnecessary danger, but now that he had no choice he tore off the top of the explosive's plating and began snipping one wire after the other in quick succession. If he'd had more time he could have tried to ascertain the codes to disarm the bomb, ones Blackarachnia obviously knew, but again, there was no time, and BA could have rigged the device to explode if he'd made even one wrong guess. Thus, his only remaining option was to open it up and cut the right wires so it couldn't explode, using his pincers as surgical tools and counting on his reaction time being quicker than the bomb's programming.

Red, blue, black...The wires colors all blurred into one as he called forth everything he knew of explosives, which was considerable, and their various models, which he'd worked with often in his line of work, to discern which wires had to go and which would trigger the bomb and kill him instantly. One, two, three...One last wire to go...

"By the Pit that was close..." Tarantulas sighed in relief, having managed to cut the last wire in time, the timer having stopped and no explosion having followed.

He tossed the now disarmed explosive to the side and returned to the pod, installing the now safe transwarp drive inside.

Blackrose wrote: With Inferno's entrance into the fray, all hell had broken loose. The taller of the two black widows had sailed backwards with his shot to her chest. The smaller widow dove towards her hands to grab something that no doubt had belonged to the royalty. Meanwhile, the giant Maximal had deflected the ant's shots as well as the little spider's. Other than the simple deflection, it had seemed at first that no one paid much attention to the red ant.

Then, the panther charged towards Inferno, grabbed one of his arms and pulled it forward. She slammed her elbow a the back of his head using all the strength to do so.

Taken aback, Inferno moved forward with her pull and actually was shaken a bit by her hit to his head, but other than that all systems were still go. Inferno laughed manically.

"Hahaha!!! You're no match for me!"

He spun around towards Starshadow and fired his weapon at her.

Tarantulas had not failed to notice Inferno's progress and while he preferred the idea of him taking out Starshadow and all the other extra baggage for him, the ant wasn't taking much damage himself and he couldn't afford to be interrupted now while he was so close to success.

While the ant was busy taking care of the feline, and Arachnitron was focused on dispatching the whale, Tarantulas decided he'd have to take care of matters himself and fired a cybervenom dart in Inferno's direction while he was distracted by the task of slagging Starshadow. The ant would soon be poisoned and down for the count, his unnatural brute strength and firepower never even having had a chance to be used in his favor.

Just to be on the safe side, he followed up with some machine gun fire from his leg torrents...If the venom didn't kill him, the bullets would.


OOC: I think I've acknowledged just about everything that was going on in the room, but please do correct me if I'm wrong and I'll edit it. Feel free to catch Tarantulas's cybervenom dart just like Inferno did on the show if you like Blackrose, and we already know Spider bullets are ineffective against Inferno's bodyarmor....Oh boy, Big T is in for a bad day next update

(ooc: The actual posts have almost drowned in all this ooc stuff. Sorry for the wait, Blazemane. )

Cheetor wrote:"Hey, Aurora," "CR chamber?"

Aurora looked up as a voice she identified as Cheetor's sounded in the hallway. The cheetah and Whitegrazer were approaching, no doubt to help out. Aurora could not suppress the grateful smile as her team mates caught up to her and her two patients.

"Yeah..," she replied while glancing back at Ironclaw. "Better make it quick. They've both been poisoned. I think Wintersong will be okay and should recover on her own, but Ironclaw seems to have taken a much heavier dose."


She moved aside to give them some room to move the larger badger to the CR. Hopefully he'd be all right, yet Aurora could not help fearing the worst. She had gotten her hopes up before and got to experience first hand that the CR chamber could not always help those in need. Sometimes the help just arrived too late, as had been the case with Icebreaker..

The ermine sighed and diverted her eyes away as they took Ironclaw away. He was a good friend of hers, not long ago he had almost become more than that. She really hoped he wasn't beyond help.

* * *

Nemesis crossed her arms and stared off into the distance of the volcanic surroundings of the Predacon base. In the sky above the now dark shape of the former moon formed a menacing looking weapon aimed for the planet, preparing to seal their fate. And below, right in front of the base, Venatrix and the new recruit, Umbra, were busy sparring despite the overwhelming danger they were in.

Their best chance of survival would be to seal themselves in the base at this point. Even that might not be enough, but at least it offered the comfort of a possible escape from destruction. It really was not that Nemesis feared death or the prospect of it. She had been in situations before where she thought she would never open her optics again, including the aftermath of the battle that brought her to this planet. That time her eyes had flickered back on and despite initially loathing her new life with the Predacons, she had eventually come to embrace it.

Not fearing death was not the same as welcoming it.

Steelclaw wrote:"Hey. You ready for this?"

The voice of the bear startled her.

As she focused her gaze on its origin, she saw Steelclaw return with Onyx, Umbra and Venatrix in haul.

"Is anyone ever ready?," the avian female responded rhetorically.

Her thoughts still lingered on what she had witnessed while watching Megatron for those few brief moments. It was a bizarre situation at best. Their best hope of survival could possibly be in the scheming claws of the spiders.

"We better seal up the base," she then told the others. "Things are about to get rough."

Venatrix stepped aside as the heavy tentacle slammed down on her.
Before she could counter Umbra's attack, she noticed Steelclaw approatching them.

Blazemane wrote: "Hey, I'm sorry about this, but I think it's time to call the match off. Doomsday device and all that. Y'know... big, alien weapon. It's ready to go."

The black female turned her attention upwards towards the transformed moon.
Steelclaw was right she concluded.
And so she turned to follow him when Ubra wrapped his tentacles around her and carried her along into the Darkside.

Whe she desided to just go along with it, she transformed into her beastmode and curled up like a lazy cat.
Not much later she was placed onto the floor and stretches her limbs before transforming back to robot mode.

NaitoKage wrote: My apologies Lady Venatrix, I suppose we'll have to try another time.

Venatrix returned the bow with equal respect befor turning her attention to the monitors.

"Hey, Aurora," he said, and then looked at Ironclaw again. "CR chamber?"

"Yeah..," she replied while glancing back at Ironclaw. "Better make it quick. They've both been poisoned. I think Wintersong will be okay and should recover on her own, but Ironclaw seems to have taken a much heavier dose."

She looked with concern at Ironclaw, placing her hand on his shoulder. He seemed to match Rhinox's condition by her own observations, but made graver by the way Putting her arms under him, she gently picked him up in a very secure yet tight grip.

"Don't worry, Ironclaw. You will be fine in a bit." Aurora wasn't very assured based on Ironclaw's injuries. Whitegrazer knew the pain, but she knew Ironclaw was tough. He won't give up. Still, seeing Aurora's faith decline after every little setback, every death that came to the group broke her spark.

"The girl has to hardened herself. It's going to get worse. If she can't deal with it, she will set herself up for a fall. And you need to stop coddling her...all of you, Maximals. That's only weakening her. You know that all too well."

She inwardly sighed to herself. He was right. She looked back at Aurora for a split second who had her back turned.

War doesn't discriminate.

She remembered the conversation she had with Optimus. Despite all of her stories of her non-lethal tactics in her centuries as a soldier, that was only half of her. The other half...she was careful with. After all, in war, survivial is above all else as was the mission at hand. She didn't regret it, but still, she had contempt for it. She wondered if she would be able to do it again.

Yes.

"Glad to see you three made it in one piece."

Whitegrazer smiled to see Wintersong all right. Beaten up, but alive.

"It's good to see you, but you should really take it easy, Wintersong. You and all of us are going to need all the strength we can save." She said this with a firm grip on Ironclaw, but gave a small smile before she walked through the corridor to the CR chamber where she put Ironclaw in.

As the lid closed to seal Ironclaw in, she whispered to all of her injured comrades a silent prayer and uttered one word, "Fight."
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((OOC: I'm going to keep BA unconscious until Tarantulas gets burnt. XD IF that's all right, guys.))

(( OOC: Wow. Gotta go back a few pages to find where I left off. If I miss anything or forget something, please let me know and I'll edit accordingly. It's a bit cluttered with all the OOC posts. ))

Feeling Whitegrazer's distractions, Primal's brown eyes fell on her past the holograhic image before him. He wanted to know what she was thinking or what she saw but he couldn't delay her from helping Aurora with Cheetor. Things needed to be under control again otherwise they wouldn't be able to focus on the greater threat together as a team. His eyes closed for a moment as his spark embraced her peaceful outreach, absorbing her compassion and affection. He wished he could spend more time alone with Whitegrazer. Time to talk and listen to one another.

"It's good to see you as well, Frilla, and that you are all right, but I see you have endured alot. So have the others..."

When she spoke, Optimus opened his eyes and looked from Frilla to Whitegrazer, returning the mare's smile before taking a breath and realizing that he didn't want the newest member of their team to feel outcasted by him simply because he was too bothered by bigger problems to give her some attention and a proper introduction. There was always room to make time. Now that most everyone had a job to do and several of them had cleared out of the bridge, he would take this opportunity to catch up before things were about to heat up. Literally.

"Been in better shape Optimus but nothing serious, as for the Vok there wasn't much I could find on my end and I don't know what Rhinox found."

Frowning slightly at Frilla's answer, it seemed they were still at sqaure one with the situation. Nothing to use against the aliens. Nothing to stop them. Nothing to protect themselves. But at least she was all right despite her appearance. Nodding lightly, he thoughtfully looked over at Feralnight and Cheetor conversing.

"Would have made it easier to blame one of you for an accident if it had been Cheetor, but Arachnitron sent the Axalon a fake distress signal and I went to investigate, would up getting hit by one of Tarantulas's self-destructing arachnoids." "And now we know why."

"Arachnitron called you out there?" "I thought she was on our side... or kindof."

Shaking his head in disappointment about Arachnitron's actions and how it lead to Feralnight's injuries, Primal was beginning to see more of the spiders' scheme and what recently happened here. However, it also meant that she was likely inside their base with the other Predacons. But why? Why come to the Axalon? He hoped to get some answers soon. He hoped to find a way to stop this madness. Maybe that's what they had in mind...

"Nice to meet you Tigatron, I'm Silverstreak and I'm doing fine now. Little sore but nothing I can't handle."

Nodding to Silverstreak, Tigatron replied, "The pleasure is mine, Silverstreak," adding a smile that was warm enough to heal her aches and pains. He always enjoyed meeting new comrades and learning about them. Unfortunately, they were pressed for time.

"Tigatron , I know this may not be the best question to ask considering the situation, but how bad is it really? I mean with these aliens?"

The gorilla finally took it upon himself to jump into their conversation and meet this new Maximal while he still had time to spare. Those who were injured like her, Frilla and Feralnight he purposely kept with him at the command center so they could rest and heal a little before any more chaos might erupt. Stepping over to them upright in his beast mode, he extended his right hand - the one that wasn't scarred like his left hand courtesy of the battle between Nemesis and Arachnitron - out to her to shake it as he introduced himself in a confident voice. The scar on his chest near his right shoulder that also went through to his back, however, was visible. It was a reminant from his clone stabbing him some time ago with his sword. Sometimes severe wounds never healed and were left as a reminder of the anguish one once suffered or to make one stronger from surviving such ordeals. He sometimes wondered what Onyx had gone through with the scars he could not hide. "Silverstreak, I'm Optimus Primal, Commander of these Maximals. I'm sorry that you've joined us under such a time of desperation. Long story short, ever since we crash landed here we've been dealing with these aliens known as the Vok who have set traps for us around this world, tested us, experimented on us and have tried to kill us. This time they intend on destroying the entire planet and us along with it. They can't be reasoned with or bargained. We're fighting for our lives here, as well the planet's. But so far, we're coming up short with ideas," he explained with honesty. It was probably a lot for her to take in, and he wished he had brighter news. Primal's brown eyes held concern and some fear of the situation, but they also still held hope and the desire to save everyone no matter the cost. He wasn't about to give up. Not yet. Not while they could still fight.

Meanwhile, out in space, the quiet alien weapon began to show signs of activity again. A powerful, yellow energy winded through the tube-like center of the structure and powered up quickly before firing off a very large beam of it down toward the planet.

An alert on the three-dimensional holographic image that Optimus had brought up on the center console indicated the sudden change of the fake moon, inevitably pulling the Maximal leader away from his discussion with Silverstreak and over to where he had been standing earlier. He watched in horror as the live feed of information showed them the ray of energy that was about to hit the blue world. Glancing at the scanners for a quick moment, all of his Maximals' signatures were within the base, which was a bit of important information he needed to confirm before his next command.

"Frilla, all available power to shields!" Primal ordered her quickly before the beam was about to hit.

"Alien ray causing planet-wide super heating," Sentinel announced on the bridge as the energy beam touched the world and engulfed it in its bright light and power. "External temperature 140 rads and climbing." Outside, some trees and brush began to burn as fires were sparked and spread out. Rock formations started to crumble and cause avalanches and rock slides on mountains. The entire planet trembled and shook causing both factions in their bases to experience what felt like a very big earthquake.

"By the Matrix, no!" Primal exclaimed in fear as he read the readings on the images before him and watched what was happening beyond the protection of their base from inside. "They're going to ignite the energon deposits!" This was going to break the planet apart and eventually heat up its core to the point of implosion. Energon blasts exploded all over the planet, steam and smoke rose from volcanoes and other vents.

(( OOC: The spiders still have time to fuss with things. Airazor and Rattrap should be showing up soon to help Orcariner. I'll leave that timing up to you, WorpeX. ))

((OOC: I'm just going to keep this post short and simple because we're still not sure if Airazor and Rattrap want to join the fray or if they just want to arrive just in time for clean-up.))

Orcariner still had his right sword adjacent to his vulnerable face, so upon seeing Arachnitron fire off a venom shot, he blocked the projectile with little difficulty. The paralytic hand was still on route to the working Tarantulas when the giant felt a vibration on his chest. With his energo-sword shielding his face, the Maximal was unaware of who fired that second shot. He was fortunate that his armor was strongest in the front, making it perfectly capable of tanking the hit without allowing any significant damage being done. The force of impact, however, steered his reach off course.

Blast it. Where is he?

Missing Tarantulas, Orcariner felt a third shot strike him in the chest. This one felt more solid, as if a harpoon had gotten through the first several layers of his armor. The orca knew it had to have been one of the spiders, but given the fact that there were three spiders present, narrowing it down was a bit difficult. Their combined rate of fire was surprisingly fast, considering the type of ammunition they were using, and Orcariner knew he had to remember not to underestimate that in the future. He was forced to protect his only vulnerability, but that left him blind.

Come on, remember the situation you're in.

He was still outnumbered. Any body he struck was that of an opponent's. Orcariner did not need to use his optics. With a loud battle roar, the titan charged forward into the fray.

OOC: Sorry for the wait. My turn happened to come up around the busiest part of the week for me.

BIC:

Tarantulas did not seem happy that Blackarachnia's device was still on the transwarp drive. He removed his head gear and took the drive from Arachnitron in an attempt to dis arm it.

"Give it to me quickly and keep that leviathan off my back long enough to finish my work, or all this work would have been for nought" Tarantulas ordered.

She watched Tarantulas nervously while keeping an eye on Orcariner. The whale seemed quite disoriented and was not making any threatening actions at present. In fact, he was just standing there, but Arachnitron kept an eye on him just in case. She even kept her cybervenom launcher loaded and her finger on the trigger.

Meanwhile, Tarantulas snipped the wires carefully and finally, the bomb was disarmed and the transwarp drive was safely installed in the stasis pod.

By the Pit that was close..." Tarantulas sighed in relief, having managed to cut the last wire in time, the timer having stopped and no explosion having followed.

"That's for sure," Arachnitron agreed sighing in relief as well. "Good work. Now we can leave, right?"

Arachnitron watched Tarantulas assess the situation. He pulled out his cybervenom and aimed for the red ant in the door way....

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With the shot Inferno fired heading towards the black panther and the panther seemingly doing nothing to counter it, Inferno figured it was time to deal with the others in the room. He turned his head towards the fray just in time to see one of Tarantulas' cybervenom darts heading his way. He raised his arms quickly and caught the dart in mid air. Chuckling manically, he threw the dart to the side and took a few steps towards the spider.

"The Royalty would be interested to know what you spiders are up to," Inferno pointed out. He pressed the button on his comm link to radio to the Queen, but was interrupted by the spider's leg turrets.

He laughed again continuing to approach Tarantulas unfazed by the bullets that were sailing towards him.

"You're no match for me either, Spider! I will put an end to your treachery, but first....your little minion.... " Inferno turned his rocket launcher on Arachnitron and fired. The shot collided with Arachnitron's stomach before she realized that by "minion" Inferno was referring to herself. The powerful shot sent her flying past Orcariner's leg. She slammed into one of the stasis pods behind them and slid down towards the ground with a grunt. She sat on the ground with the room swaying a bit from the impact and her cybervenom launcher, having fallen out of her hands, was sitting about two feet in front of her.

But Inferno wasn't done. For Tarantulas, he pulled out the big guns....literally. He laughed again as he pulled out his flame thrower and powered it up. "Burn, traitor, BURN!!!!"

He sent red and yellow spitting flames at Tarantulas....

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It was about at that moment that Arachnitron looked up and noticed Orcariner gathering his wits a bit better. He let out a loud roar and charged towards the bots in the middle of the room.

With Inferno and his flame thrower standing in front of Tarantulas and Orcariner charging at him from behind, the fate of her ticket off of this planet was definitely in jeopardy. Arachnitron shook her head to clear her vision. She knew she would be able to stand in a few moments, but for now, she was a bit too rattled from smashing into the stasis pod. At the risk of sounding like a devotee, as the ant had implied, she shouted to the other spider to warn him of the colossal Maximal approaching him.

"TARANTULAS!" she called out weakly. Her cybervenom was too far away, but she pulled out her energon pistol instead. She fired several shots at the whale wincing as a result of the fresh wounds, but seeing as it was not a very powerful weapon, she didn't imagine it would do much to slow him down.

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Inferno, too, noticed the whale. He took a slight step to the side without letting go of the trigger on his flame thrower. He was a bot who laughed in the face of danger....not to mention, Tarantulas would probably take the brunt of it.

(ooc: Well.. No response for 4 days plus so..)

As Steelclaw lead the others inside, Nemesis cast another glance at the as of yet peaceful night sky outside. She drew a sigh and was about to close the hangar doors when a bright, powerful beam of light ejected from the alien weapon towards the planet's surface.

It was time..

"Hopefully no Predacons are stupid enough to remain outside the base," she muttered to herself and anyone close enough to overhear as she hit the button. The large hangar doors started closing, blocking the path of anyone who had not gotten inside yet. They simply did not have time to wait any longer.

Not wasting time, Nemesis rushed to the computer and flopped into a chair. "The external temperature is rising rapidly," she commented as numerous reports flashed across the screen. "Computer.. revert all available power to boost the shields."

Some of the computer screens began flickering but enough of the image remained to see glimpses of the vast energon deposits igniting from the increased temperatures. A few of the monitors then went black as the surveillance cameras went offline.

"Shut down the CR chambers, labs, and all non-essential functions of the ship if you must but get those shields more power!"

Her voice sounded a bit strained.

"Megatron," she then said, "I'm sure you are aware of what's happening. Any specific orders aside from shields?"

((OOC: BA is waking up now. I hope this post is all right. ))

Her black optics flashed along with a whisper of a groan from her. Keeping herself in the position she was in, she assessed the situation swiftly. Orcariner, that big lug was still fighting with every inch of his life. Arachnitron and Starshadow looked damaged. Inferno was distracted...trying to burn Tarantulas!

That dumb ant is going to ruin everything!

She reached for cybervenom, reloaded it, and fired at Inferno. Hopefully, she stopped his little flaming rampage if not, with Tarantulas down--the only person who could finish the pod--, that weapon was going to fire and everyone was going to die! And she wasn't going to! Not like this!

Blackrose wrote: With the shot Inferno fired heading towards the black panther and the panther seemingly doing nothing to counter it, Inferno figured it was time to deal with the others in the room. He turned his head towards the fray just in time to see one of Tarantulas' cybervenom darts heading his way. He raised his arms quickly and caught the dart in mid air. Chuckling manically, he threw the dart to the side and took a few steps towards the spider.

"The Royalty would be interested to know what you spiders are up to," Inferno pointed out. He pressed the button on his comm link to radio to the Queen, but was interrupted by the spider's leg turrets.

He laughed again continuing to approach Tarantulas unfazed by the bullets that were sailing towards him.

"You're no match for me either, Spider! I will put an end to your treachery, but first....your little minion.... " Inferno turned his rocket launcher on Arachnitron and fired. The shot collided with Arachnitron's stomach before she realized that by "minion" Inferno was referring to herself. The powerful shot sent her flying past Orcariner's leg. She slammed into one of the stasis pods behind them and slid down towards the ground with a grunt. She sat on the ground with the room swaying a bit from the impact and her cybervenom launcher, having fallen out of her hands, was sitting about two feet in front of her.

But Inferno wasn't done. For Tarantulas, he pulled out the big guns....literally. He laughed again as he pulled out his flame thrower and powered it up. "Burn, traitor, BURN!!!!"

He sent red and yellow spitting flames at Tarantulas...

.



Tarantulas was surprised by Inferno's skill as he caught his cyber venom dart out of thin air, the ant having always come across as being a mindless bruiser. Even more disturbing was how his machine gun bullets had zero affect against his exoskeleton, bouncing off of him harmlessly without even slowing him down. Most disturbing of all however, was the stream of superheated flame that was now threatening to envelop him.

"Unicron's beard..." Tarantulas cursed, his last coherent thought being the irony of how a predacon he'd brought online was the one to destroy him rather than the alien device, Megatron, the Maximals, or even one of his rival schemers...After that, all he knew was pain as Inferno's fire consumed him, burning his flesh and super-heating his metal.

"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Tarantulas screamed over and over again as he flung about out of control, dropping to the ground and rolling to the side in a vain attempt to put out the flames, but to no avail, the flames were too intense and his mind was too far gone to think straight, not even noticing he'd evaded a near collision with Orcaliner, Arachnitron's words to him falling on deaf ears.

Invigorated yet driven mad by the pain he dragged himself to his feet, his gun turrets firing wildly in all directions, as if he could make his agony go away by shooting at the flames, running past Inferno and Orcaliner without a passing glance, howling like a dying beast. So wrapped up in his own suffering was he that Tarantulas wasn't watching where he was going as he ran down the hallway, smacking his head against the bulkhead and falling flat to the ground...Only then did the flames die out, his body a blackened husk of his former self, his only comfort being the security of the shadows he'd called home, his last words being an agonized wheeze, "A bug...A filthy bug...," before his brilliant yet psychotic mind slipped into nothingness.


OCC: poor Eight Legs...sniffles...I salute you!

Sorry for the wait

The darkside started to shake more violently when raw energon deposits started to explode closer to the ship.
Venatrix balanced herself out on her Own 2 legs as the tremors gotten stronger.
She turned her head to Megatron.
"Have anything planned that wouldn't involve us being blown to scrap?"

Another explosion rocked the base, forcing Venatrix to bend her knees a slight bit for a more stable stance.
This explosion was close enough, and powerful enough to force a monitor down from the sealing.

Airazor and Rattrap proceeded down the hallway slowly. Holding her gun out in front of her, the Falcon kept calm and focused on her job. They checked every hallway for enemies before moving on passed it. It was as if they were a trained infiltration unit. They knew that the spiders were capable of being almost completely silent and they didn't want a surprise cybervenom shot, especially now that the truce was over.

Explosions from outside the base rocked the ships interior and encouraged the two to move faster. "That can't be good. Airazor shook her head, before moving down yet another hallway. They likely only had a short amount of time to find the intruders before the entire world explodes. It sort of made this whole mission fruitless, as even if they found them, they were going to blow up anyway. The only comforting thought was that Optimus never let her and the team down before. If anyone was going to figure out a way to save this world - it was him.

Finally, Airazor heard a scream coming from the Hanger. Looking towards Rattrap, she motioned in that direction with her weapon and proceeded towards it. As they got closer, more gunfire and shouts could be heard. There must have been a huge battle in there! Hopefully they didn't walk into something that they couldn't handle and hopefully what ever maximal was trapped in there was alive and well.

As she approached the Door, Airazor looked towards Rattrap again as if to ask if he was ready. When he confirmed, she looked back at the door and shot it down with her talon blaster. She liked making a big entrance, and hopefully the distraction would give Orcariner a chance to act!