The Intergalactic Highway

(The OCs are merging with the rest of the fold now. It just makes it easier for them to set up the next game.)

(Now I understand,thanks for clearing that up NK.)

So the Predacons from the Darkside had crashed on this planet after all, though Snow Trix had not expected to be meeting them so soon when they themselves had just arrived. Looking out of a window she observed the Predacons and right now they looked like a pile of scrap. "A bunch of Maximals really id a numbe ront hem." She muttered trying not to smirk at a possible defeat and looked away from the window leanign against the wall.

Starshadow returned, looked like as if she was beaten up badly and stood infront of the predacons with one hand on her damaged head, legs trembling.

She still had not recovered from the flashbacks she had earlier. Suddenly, she fell to the ground in an unconcious state.

Steelclaw, still in his search, was suddenly interrupted when some sort of craft flew in the sky above him. As near as he could figure, it was headed the direction of his team mates. The collected ones anyways.

"Steelclaw to Megatron."

He hoped he wasn't already out of range, but that was conceivable.

"There's an aircraft headed your way."

He hadn't had the time to scan any signatures inside- the thing had come and gone too quickly. No technologically capable beings aside from the Cybertronians seemed to reside on this planet, so the ship's occupants were, likely, Cybertronian themselves.

But they certainly couldn't have been the Maximals he and the others had just fought, and the only other transformers around were...

The stasis pods.

And well... it would be logical to assume that the protoforms on a Maximal ship would all be Maximals. And now they were going in Megatron's direction with speed- with purpose. He had half a mind to pull out his sniper rifle, but he knew the craft was already out of range.

Steelclaw found himself hoping Terrorsaur and Waspinator would be on their toes. He didn't want to fight a war by himself. Well, perhaps Venatrix would still be around. But even then, the odds were unfortunately stacked.

"Oh brother..." he allowed himself to mutter.

(( OOC: Sorry for the delay, guys. ))

Might not be perfect.. but theres no place like home..

An expression of sorrow washed over the ape's face as he took in Rhinox's words and looked at their crimpled ship as they approached. It would be a long time before they could even try to get the Axalon to fly again. Cyberton was very far out of their reach, and they were stuck on the planet with Megatron, of all Predacons. Could anything else possibly go array in their situation?

Hearing Dinobot snort, Optimus watched him break away from the group and examine the terrain near the ship. He didn't bother calling him back, especially since the raptor probably wanted some time alone after trekking all night and day with the Maximals. In his condition, Primal doubted Dinobot would go after Megatron, despite how weak he probably was, but it must have crossed his mind. Perhaps getting back at the Predacon leader wouldn't be the only thing on Dinobot's mind some day.

"So Optimus, after repairs, should we give the new guy the grand tour of the base?"

Yeah, right, thought Rattrap sarcastically while he kept an eye on Dinobot who secluded himself from the group. Just let the Predacon right into our home and show 'im all our weapons an' defenses. He still didn't agree with it. Teammate or not, you can't trust Predacons!

Optimus looked up at Skyfire and then back to Dinobot who was off climbing the rocks. "I have a feeling he won't want to see everything," he said. The raptor didn't seem to be the type to be bothered with the boring details of the ship, especially with a Maximal escorting him. "We can keep it brief to the important aspects of the ship." At least, those that still functioned. When Rhinox stopped near one of the platform entrances, the gorilla climbed down off of his back as carefully as he could. He stepped on the ground with his good leg first, slowly bringing his injured one over, and keeping his hands on Rhinox incase he lost his balance. Bending his leg was torture and it made him shudder, closing his eyes and letting a slow, deep growl of pain escape his mouth. Opening his eyes, he kept his bad leg from touching the ground, holding himself up with a hand propped on Rhinox's side.

"We can keep it brief to the important aspects of the ship."

"Yeah, like all our weapons and shields, an' everythin' else that comes useful to a Predacon hungry for power and leadership," Rattrap let out, stopping with the rest of the group underneath the Axalon. He watched Optimus cautiously climb off of Rhinox and was glad he wasn't suffering from an injury like that. Ouch.

The Maximal leader turned his head to the rat and said calmly, with more breaths from the agony, "I really wish... you could trust me on my decision... Rattrap."

"It ain't you I don't trust," said the rodent. "It's Chopper Face. You think he won't use us and all of this against us eventually? He's just gonna take advantage of it, and open the front door to all his Predhead friends, sayin', 'Hey, come on in! I got the Maximals all taken care of!'"

Primal simply stood there on one leg staring at Rattrap for a moment. "Probably," he threw at him as a taste of his own medecine. Optimus wasn't going to argue about it anymore. Only time could tell them if they could trust Dinobot or not, but they had to start somewhere and it might as well be now when he had no where else to go.

Rattrap, mouth agape for a second at his reply, sighed and suspiciously looked back at Dinobot again. "We're all gonna die," he muttered.

Might not be perfect.. but theres no place like home..

Saber couldn't agree more with Rhinox, she rolled her shoulders and felt some thing pop and sighed with content.

"So Optimus, after repairs, should we give the new guy the grand tour of the base?"

"I have a feeling he won't want to see everything," We can keep it brief to the important aspects of the ship."

Saber nodded in agreement, Dinobot didn't seem the type to give a slag on small things about a ship, you've seen one ship you've seen them all.

"Yeah, like all our weapons and shields, an' everythin' else that comes useful to a Predacon hungry for power and leadership,"

Saber closed her eyes and sighed with irritation, she wasn't in the mood no did she have the energy to snap at Rattrap.

"I really wish... you could trust me on my decision... Rattrap."

Yes would it kill you to trust Optimus once and while? SHe thought almost wanting to say it out loud.

"It ain't you I don't trust," "It's Chopper Face. You think he won't use us and all of this against us eventually? He's just gonna take advantage of it, and open the front door to all his Predhead friends, sayin', 'Hey, come on in! I got the Maximals all taken care of!'"

I doubt that. Saber thought.

"Probably,"

"We're all gonna die,"

Saber had to resist the urge to throw some thing heavy at Rattrap, as she made her way toward her quarters.
"If any one needs me i'll be in my quarters." Saber said to who ever was listening she doubted that any one heard her.

It's been a little while since Valkyrie vanished into the crashed ship she once was second in command on for a while now, but it was for a good reason.
A hatch opened on top of the ship and Valkyrie crawled out of the opening holding a small remote.

"Yeah, like all our weapons and shields, an' everythin' else that comes useful to a Predacon hungry for power and leadership,"

"No worries Rat-on-a-stick. We're getting there. I cannibalized some parts from the belly plasma canon and used those to repair this canon here."

She activated the canon with the remote, and it swirled around, lifted the barrels and finally engaged the targeting system.
The canon gained a target lock on Rattrap, and Valkyrie pressed a button to command the canon to open fire.

The canon however didn't release a dose of concentrated plasma energy at the rat, but a slight clicking noise is heard coming from the canon.
"The mechanism is working perfectly, but it didn't have a link to the plasma energy chamber that usually powered the canons. I think I need to talk to Rhinox to figure out a way to build something that could manage the energy consumption of the canons. The plasma chambers are all functional, and have a large amount of plasma energy inside, but that's all we have. So we'll need to make maximum use of the smallest amount of plasma energy, so we can use these canons longer before they run out of plasma to fry some Preds."

She knew they also needed to use metal from other parts in the ship to fix the holes made by the Predacon ship after they arrived in this solar system.
They had a lot of work to do.

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

Venatrix crawled out of a pile of rocks that landed on top of her after the explosion of the mountain.
She was damaged, but not enough to stay there and wait till the auto-repair protocol repaired most of her damage.
She opened a communication line to contact her predacon teammates on a predacon secure frequency.
"This is Venatrix. Any Predacons functional? Send me your coordinates and the current situation."

((Could Steelclaw reply if Megatron isn't around, or interested? And please relay Venatrix the details of what's to come.))

Venatrix wrote:This is Venatrix. Any Predacons functional? Send me your coordinates and the current situation.

So there she was.

"This is Steelclaw." he spoke into his comlink.

"Megatron and the rest of the crew are en-route to the Darksyde. I had been sent to search for you and Starshadow, so I am not with them. I have found her, and she is headed their way, if she isn't there already. We may have a slight problem, since an aerial craft of some sort recently passed over me and is heading straight for the others. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea who, what, or how many can be found within it."

He broke off for a second, thinking.

"As for coordinates..." he trailed off, looking at his internal computer's display. "2-3-5." he finally announced. "But coordinates can only be so precise on a planetary scale."

"Are you able to walk? Our com-links, Tarantulas tells me, have an extremely limited range, so we must be close to each other."

Megatron slowed his walking to pick up the chatter around him. He raised his head to find a ship landing and he took a step back in surprise. With a blink he realized it was a Predacon ship.

Terrorsaur also noticed the ship - it was hard to miss, afterall. His optics watched it warily and, without much thought, he transformed to robot mode, his shoulder cannons popping out and leveling with the ship's hatch.

(( OOC: Uh, before I continue - so Megatron knows these Predacons or no? How'd they get the ship? Where did they come from? Should we be surprised or not? .....and the ship gets destroyed right? >_>))

Glowstick looked at Terrorsaur popping his guns out and sighed I've had enough Maximals shooting at me today, try it and I might just bother to use you for spare parts. Glowstick then hopped down from the craft I am Predacon Communications Officer Glowstick. My crew here is escaped Predacon refugees which were released from stasis pods.. From what I can tell, you must be the reason why they were all dumped on this planet.. ex Predacon millitary commander Megatron I presume. I believe we have much to discuss.. and many to acquire from the sounds of the radio.

the music from the craft cut out as Venatrix and Steelclaw's communications are heard coming from inside the craft.

Tarantulus looked puzzled at the freakish newcomer, on closer inspection the craft they had landed was while cybertronian in nature seemed rather strange and cobbled together..

he moved closer as he examined the parts and construction It appears you.. made this from the crashed stasis pods?..A rather unique idea..

( Only Predacons Megatron might know are Snowtrix and Lineos in the group, otherwise they were criminals in Stasis pods or hired as maximal labor. They landed mostly in South America, the Pacific ocean/japan, Alaska and so on.. so the only way they'd get to finding the other Predacons was through developing the technology they had around..

Funny thing about the craft. Basically it's a "armored personnel carrier" made from 6/7 stasis pods, one of which was the size of a 23 ft cabin crusier boat. The Maximals made a waterfall base, the Predacons made a mobile base. Since he couldn't make wheels,Glowstick used all the thrusters to make it float or temporally fly.

As for destroying it, it's possible. the defense system on it is fairly resistant to energy weapons, but physical attacks like bullets will shred it or missiles aimed at the right points IE. not the sides or front with the improvised cage armor. )

Frilla flicked her tail only listening to the talks of the Predacons she had come to join, which from the sounds of it was not all she ahd expected this faction to be. It seemed msotly made up of criminals or runaways, possibly other types of bots not known for their good qualities. The thought made Frilla intimidated and a little uncomfortable for she was neither. Just a mere bot chosen for stasis back on Cybertron, once only neutral. And from the looks of it she would have to toughen up fast or learn to avoid the other Predacons seeing a more peaceful side of her.

'This will be harder then I thought.' She thought to herslef looking back at the screen, typing a few codes in.

Starshadow got up slowly, being all dizzy.
"What hit me...?" she walked towards her group unsteadily.
"Could anyone be a sweetheart and do some repairs for me?" she purred, hoping that someone could repair the damages that her beast mode as taken in.

"If any one needs me i'll be in my quarters."

Optimus watched Saber walk by before looking at Valkyrie on Rhinox just as Rattrap did.

"No worries Rat-on-a-stick. We're getting there. I cannibalized some parts from the belly plasma canon and used those to repair this canon here." "The mechanism is working perfectly, but it didn't have a link to the plasma energy chamber that usually powered the canons. I think I need to talk to Rhinox to figure out a way to build something that could manage the energy consumption of the canons. The plasma chambers are all functional, and have a large amount of plasma energy inside, but that's all we have. So we'll need to make maximum use of the smallest amount of plasma energy, so we can use these canons longer before they run out of plasma to fry some Preds."

"Hey, pretty slick, Val," Rattrap admitted. "Do me a favor an' keep it targeted on Lizard Lips, would ya?" he grinned. Wasting any plasma energy on him would be worth it.

"Seeing... as you're so worried, Rattrap," Optimus broke in, "why don't you assist Valkyrie in repairing... the ship's defenses?"

The rat looked at their leader. "Ah, gee, ya know, I'd love to, I really would. But I was really lookin' forward to some sleep, Boss Monkey."

"I insist," Primal added with a colder tone. Before the rodent could talk back, Optimus went on, addressing the group. "We need to make repairs on the ship's breached hulls. And the shields... need to be operational as soon as possible... as well as the scanners." He examined them for a moment, taking in those who had sustained more damage than the others from the last battle. "Rhinox, Rattrap, Skyfire and Cheetor, the four of you can get started on those. Valkyrie, you may do so as well... if you're feeling up to it. I'm afraid I'll need some time in the repair chamber... before I'm of much use. Someone can escort Dinobot to his quarters." With both Primal and Wintersong occupying the CR's, the raptor would have to rely on his internal repairs in the meantime, and could rest in his own room if he wished.

Well, if that don't cut the cheese! Rattrap thought. Man, all I wanted ta do is sleep! Now grumpy and not looking forward to the labor, the rat sulked his way to the platform after Saber-Fang and stepped on, mumbling incoherently to himself as it lifted him up into the base. Stepping off, Rattrap maximized and sighed, looking around at the mess and wondering how long it was going to take them to finish that list that Optimus gave them. The platform descended back to the ground for the next Maximal.

"Skyfire, would you mind giving me a hand?" asked Optimus with an exhausted tone. Him and Rhinox together on the lift would be cramped, but Skyfire on the ground would be a good "crutch," so to speak, for Optimus to lean on with one hand, and use his good hand and leg to walk on, or rather limp, to the platform and in to the other CR.

"Rhinox, Rattrap, Skyfire and Cheetor, the four of you can get started on those. Valkyrie, you may do so as well... if you're feeling up to it. I'm afraid I'll need some time in the repair chamber... before I'm of much use. Someone can escort Dinobot to his quarters."

"Yes, sir" replied Skyfire.

"Skyfire, would you mind giving me a hand?"

"Sure thing, sir" Skyfire said and she went into robot mode so it would easier to help him along and began to help support Optimus so that he could make it on the platform.

Repairs on her back and shoulders were almost done, and Wintersong flinched now and again but was just glad the pain was going away at least mostly. Hopefully it was going to be done soon so the other Maixmals, when they returned, could get repaired as well. Not quite comfortable in being in such a small chamber the feline hoped the repairs were about done.

'Things could be worse I suppose.' She thought.