The Intergalactic Highway

((OOC: Don't worry about it Mystrea. Picking out the difference between player-will and character-will can be tricky sometimes. And as for the in-story part of it all, it makes a ton of sense to put a paralyzed guy into a CR chamber (especially when he sounds like he wants to get to back to work as soon as possible. Sometimes, the over-worked 'bots need to be told to sit down for a second). ))

* * *

Dinobot made his way to the bridge. He just made it in as Optimus started speaking.

Optimus Primal wrote:I apologize to everyone for my absense. I had some... unexpected business to attend to, but I'll get back to that in a moment.

That was intriguing. The alien signal had been unexpected, of course, but everybody in the bridge heard about it once the scanners picked it up. Optimus seemed now to be speaking of something else entirely. What had he been doing while the Dinobot, Ironclaw and Tigatron were returning from the dead signal?

Dinobot half-listened to the rest of his commander's words, not out of disrespect, but distraction. He still caught the last question, but that did him little credit- he knew as much about the beginning of the last battle as Optimus did.

* * *

Snow Trix wrote:Doing just fine Steelclaw, just surprised we're leaving this without a scratch on our part.

"Heh. Me too," he confided briefly.

Steelclaw waited in the bridge quietly while Snow Trix looked for Terrorsaur and talked to Glowstick. He easily noticed the bullet wounds on Cecaelia, who was sitting in the pilot's chair, so to ask if she was fine seemed like a dumb question. Somehow, a variant of that question still ended up voicing itself...

"So what happened to you?" he asked Cecaelia.

* * *

Airazor wrote:I wish I knew.

"Oh, I thought you were here the whole time, too," Cheetor answered. He finally realized he hadn't put his cannon away, so he reached over his shoulder and put it back in subspace.

Once he got on the bridge, he looked for somebody else to ask, but everybody looked busy. Soon Optimus showed up, too. Well, maybe things would get explained now.

And things kinda' did. Icebreaker, Rhinox and Orcariner were out. But, like... how Orcariner get hurt so bad? And were the Predacons just trying a general take-over-the-Maximal-base attack?

Cheetor, like Dinobot, had to stand silently with Optimus' last question. But he was looking forward to hearing the answer.

Aurora had remained silent as she watched the few remains of the battle left outside and merely tagged along with Whitegrazer as she made her way inside. This was the second attack made against their base that she had seen the aftermath off, and she still could not understand how it always seemed to come to this point. Some Predacons would attack and the Maximals would defend themselves, yet she still didn't fully understand why they were fighting in the first place. This planet appeared to be roaming with life and resources so these random attacks just made little sense to her. If not..

The Predacon from the first attack was still being kept at the Maximal base. Perhaps she had something to do with this event.

Through the corner of her eye Aurora scanned her environment to see if she could see any signs of massive injuries. But the others appeared to have been cleaning up the base quite a bit already so it was difficult to tell how severe the attack had truly been. Some Maximals seemed to be missing though, hopefully merely recovering inside. Rhinox, Icebreaker, and Orcariner were not among those assembled to hear Optimus' recount of today's events. The spider lady appeared to be missing as well.

Trying to keep her hopes up, Aurora cast a quick glance at Whitegrazer before she retreated to the corner so she could hear Optimus. The Maximal commander was standing a short distance away in the conference room, and he appeared more than a little annoyed at the moment. Rattrap and AirRazor were there too, along with a few other Maximals. Aurora smiled ever so slightly at her furry rodent friend before Optimus' voice cut in with the updates.

The little fuzor leaned against the wall for support as the leader updated them on the whereabouts and condition of the missing Maximals. At the conclusion of the update she merely looked down at the ground in front of her with a saddened look of confusion on her face. The attack had been worse than she initially thought, but at least the others seemed to be safe for the time being. She'd have to stop by to check for herself once all this was over. Unfortunately she had not been here during the attack so she didn't know what had happened, exactly, yet she was quite curious to find out for herself as well.

Ironclaw had been waiting in the command centre for a while now, slowly the other Maximals arrived and then Optimus arrived. He started talking about his damaged team mates. He regretted that they were injured but knew they would be alright. Just then Dinobot walked in and stood near him,he could see he was distracted but thought nothing of it. Ironclaw then found his eyes making there way over to Aurora who was in the corner. She still made him feel uneasy. He crossed his arms and refocussed on Optimus. He almost got irritated with Optimus, he'd had enough of this.

Ironclaw stepped out from the background and moved a bit closer to Optimus. He looked around the Maximals as he spoke, "I haven't been here very long but so far all I've seen is us sit here being attacked by the Predacons. When are we going to do something about it" his gaze finally landed on Optimus.

"So what happened to you?"

The stinging pain from her tentacles came back when she moved them. "Ahh ow ow owww....I took missles on my back and lots of bullets stucked in my tentacles. Now my armor is ruined by the big green guy..I don't wanna pull the bullets out before going inside the CR tank. I don't want!" Cecaelia replied. She knew she couldn't escape from painful repai- may be she can...by playing hide-and-seek in the base if she can keep her mouth shut from the pain.

"Airazor, It calms my wary spark to see you in good health."

"Tigatron!" Airazor exclaimed as the cat took her hand. She blushed slightly as she felt his cool green hand on her own black metal. It was nice to see him in good health, yet she wished he would be a little more subtle. The situation made her slightly uncomfortable with the others Maximals around and watching. She wasn't much for public displays of affection and while she silently wished to be with him, she would much prefer if no one else was around. Luckily, Optimus spared her from any embarrassment and got everyone's attention before things turned gushy. Letting go of Tigatron's hand, she turned her attention towards Optimus.

"I apologize to everyone for my absense, I had some... unexpected business to attend to, but I'll get back to that in a moment. Icebreaker has taken a serious injury to his head that resulted in immediate stasis lock. He is currently getting repairs and expected to make a full recovery, Orcariner was also inflicted with serious wounds and will be spending time in the CR. And Rhinox is suffering from some temporary paralysis. So, who can tell me what happened here? Did the Predacons attack first?"

"I haven't been here very long but so far all I've seen is us sit here being attacked by the Predacons. When are we going to do something about it"

"I can't say I understand the motive, but I know the weapon. The Predicons struck us first with their tank, i'm sure of it." Airazor answered using hand gestures to emphasize her words. She had been monitoring the radar at the time and had seen the predicons attack, not to mention felt the blast from its powerful weaponry. Nothing else could have caused such a violent shake in the ship apart from that.

Frilla nodded then stood as Optimus came in and started to speak, hoping the others would be alright though she wondered what sort of business Optimus had to attend to, wondering if maybe had anything to do with the alien signal they picked up on. Inwardly shrugging it off the frilled lizard heard the last question and spoke up,"Airazor is right, the Predacons took the first shot and the took down the Sentinal defense system which while trying to get it back up Steelclaw and Snow Trix must of snuck in."She added in and looked towards the monitor,"We still need to get it back up too, I can still work on that until Rhinox is back on his feet." Frilla said before looking back at Optimus knowing it wasn't exactly the best of news to hear but it seemed Glowstick wasn't out of tricks up his sleeve, metaphorically speaking. THough the frilled lizard looked towards Ironclaw,"And would you really want to try a counterattack with out condition Steelclaw? Three of our heavy hitters are down and some of the others are injured, not to mention that's not how we do things." Though at this point they might very well have done so just in retaliation for the unprovoked attack.

Feralnight listened quietly though didn't exactly have anything to add tot eh conversation. Really she was only half listening, sitting on her haunches near the others and keeping her attention on the ones who spoke though her gaze seemed distant again. Surely not the best time to be reflecting on things but her mind was wandering back so much she didn't make much of an effort these days to listen to everything and at the moment other things were on her mind.

Glancing around as the others gathered the white tigress remained in her spot as the conversation started, shocked that Orcanier and Rhinox had been taken down, though then again what had occurred had surprised all of them. Least the ones who had been in the battle. "The only reason Orcanier is done Frilla is because of Glowstick's odd evil twin of the orca, which if he can transform the part of the Levianthan like that again we won't stand much of chance next time without half the team going against it, hopefully it was put out of commission for good." She said before glancing towards Optimus,"And when our defenses were down we didn't have any choice but to engage the Predacons or we wouldn't have a ship right now."She put in.

Though that was really all she could say, the rest of the battle she hadn't paid much attention to except for fending off Cecaelia and getting through the strange pain that came from her bite, which thinking about it now Wintersong glanced down at her right arm. But the venom she had expected wasn't anything like she had expected and the blade she had to add to it made it worse since she could hardly move. 'Seems the opposite between those two, Starshadow's bark is worse then her bite and the octopus' bite is worse then her bark.' She thought and flicked her tail in annoyance since she found them both annoying and Cecaelia a little cray but Starshadow was just psychotic. That was about the only differences between them in Wintersong's mind.

(( OOC: Sorry, Airazor. ))

Taking in everyone's expressions along with their silence, Optimus was beginning to wonder if anyone knew what happened at all. That was until Ironclaw spoke up, but what he said wasn't what the leader was expecting.

"I haven't been here very long but so far all I've seen is us sit here being attacked by the Predacons. When are we going to do something about it"

"And would you really want to try a counterattack with out condition Steelclaw? Three of our heavy hitters are down and some of the others are injured, not to mention that's not how we do things."

Looking at Frilla and Ironclaw, Primal's red optics settled back on the honey badger when he said, "I understand your frustration, Ironclaw, but we have been forced more into the defensive position of this war rather than the offensive. And while we don't typically operate that way, like Frilla mentioned, I do have something in mind and I think you'll be perfect for the job." Optimus managed a small, but sly smile to the corner of his mouth at Ironclaw. However, he didn't bother elaborating on that topic. Not yet. Instead he went back to address the rest of Airazor, Frilla and Wintersong had said.

"I can't say I understand the motive, but I know the weapon. The Predicons struck us first with their tank, i'm sure of it."

"Airazor is right, the Predacons took the first shot and the took down the Sentinal defense system which while trying to get it back up Steelclaw and Snow Trix must of snuck in." "We still need to get it back up too, I can still work on that until Rhinox is back on his feet."

"The only reason Orcanier is done Frilla is because of Glowstick's odd evil twin of the orca, which if he can transform the part of the Levianthan like that again we won't stand much of chance next time without half the team going against it, hopefully it was put out of commission for good." "And when our defenses were down we didn't have any choice but to engage the Predacons or we wouldn't have a ship right now."

Wintersong's explanation of Orcariner's injuries quickly caught the Maximal Commander's attention. An evil twin of Orcariner that was part of the Leviathan and could transform? "I will want more information on that transformable weapon," Optimus finally said. Whether Wintersong could help him with that or someone else or the Axalon's external cameras, he wanted to learn about it and make sure his crew would be better prepared for it next time in case Glowstick would be able to repair it and operate it again.

"Since Glowstick led this attack, I assume he jammed our communications again." Primal returned his gaze to the frilled lizard. "Frilla, getting Sentinel back on-line as quickly as you can will be your primary job after this meeting. I also have something else you might be interested in developing but I'll discuss that with you later."

Addressing everyone present again, Optimus said, "As most of you may know, I had set out earlier to investigate the mountain that our scanners picked up with alien activity. Before reaching my destination, my scanners indicated that the Vok signal emitting from the mountain had vanished. Not long after, Megatron contacted me and asked to meet privately. We did so because what he wished to discuss was a cease-fire. A truce. I agreed. This is why I needed to know who fired first here. And also why I have been less than tolerant toward the Predacons' actions. It's possible that Megatron might not have known what some his Predacons were planning, just like all of you didn't know about the truce until now, but I'm not taking any chances until I speak with him again about this. In addition to the Predacons' attack, Sonar foolishly refused to leave peacefully, so he has become another one of our prisoners. I've securely locked him up in our brig."

For Rattrap, this was a lot to take in. All of their heavy hitting teammates were down. The Leviathan had a controlable transformable weapon that resembled Orcariner? What?! Sonar and Nemesis were their prisoners. And Optimus agreed to a truce with that good-for-nothing Megatron? "A truce?!" he cried out in disapproval. "Are you kiddin' me, Optimus? Those Preds aren't gonna keep a truce! I mean, look at what they did here today. And fer what?"

"Rattrap, we're Maximals," Optimus tried to explain. "Even though I know Megatron is just trying to buy some time, we have to give peace a chance. Besides, it gives us an opportunity as well." Again, failing to elaborate. "By the way, what were the Predacons after? Or who?" he inquired.

"Optimus," Tigatron broke in after releasing Airazor's hand just as she had released his but remained by her side with his arms at his sides. "I believe you should know that I had arrived at the mountain with the alien anomaly just when Inferno had departed with something in his possession. We also believe that the Predacons may have come for Arachnitron. The Leviathan stopped just over the forest where she had run to in a very frantic manner. Frilla may be able to fill you in more with that."

Looking at the white tiger in robot mode who was standing next to Airazor, the Maximal leader nodded and said, "Then that confirms my suspicions. Megatron wants a truce so he doesn't even have to think about us now that he has that Vok device in his hands." But what exactly was it? And what could it do? "Arachnitron's capture is unfortunate, but that might not necessarily be a bad thing," he said rather thoughtfully. Still, he felt regret for losing Arachnitron to the Predacons. He had wanted to help her and protect her, but he failed. Again. On the other hand, the Predacons, as brilliant as some of their scientists were, might have a better idea to help her. ...Or destroy her, depending on how one looked at her condition. If Predacons were the ones who created her, perhaps they could save her.

"Oh great. Just great. Agree to the truce so old Megajerk gets all the time he needs to figure out whatever he's got in his hands," Rattrap protested, as if their fearless leader hadn't already thought it through. "And then they gain another member because we all know how much more aggressive Arachnitron's Predacon programmin' is than her Maximal."

(( OOC: I'll stop there just so the other Maximals can get a word in. Sorry about that. ))

(Heh, luckily for Optimus it took Glowstick.. 3 years to grow the one clone. There are no others.*L* )

As the Predacon transport moved through the air, Glowstick's optics shifted noticing Terrorsaur had gotten closer to them on radar. He moved into the gunner seat again, then moved his tentacles, reducing Cecaelia's air speed as Terrorsaur was seen coming above them and moving ahead, he then opened the Cargobay and increased the speed allowing the ship to catch Terrorsaur in a midair landing. the Cargobay then closed and the ship increased it's speed once again.



After a few moments, the Leviathan floated in towards the Darksyde, floating into the hanger. Glowstick's optics glanced towards the sigh of Starshadow. Well.. that's lucky.. he muttered to himself.

The Leviathan soon landed, the Cargobay door then opened. Glowstick floated out of the cockpit and bridge towards the crew cabin opening the door, he floated towards Manterror lifting his unconcious body up as he looked towards Arachnitron We've landed, your.. "sister" is outside waiting.. Her name is Starshadow. Follow me. he then started to float out of the room and into the cargobay.

Exiting the ship he looked towards Starshadow speaking up Hey, you have a guest. You can talk to her in Cecaelia's room.. since yours is usually too much of a mess.

Then he saw Whitegrazer who offered him a soft smile, and for a moment, all of his worries and anger vanished, enveloped with warmth and care. Primal briefly smiled back at her, wanting to embrace her, but instead returned to the matter at hand.

She still held her soft smile when he looked at her, sensing him being at peace and able to focus on what he needed to tell them all. He wasn't the only one who wanted to embrace. She was tempted to as he really needed a hug...a nice, loving one to add to it. Just someone to take the burden along with him, so he won't feel so pressured or worn down. Many commanders in wartime often feel the stress and no matter how strong-willed, it soon wears down on them like iron when a war goes for so long. Some commanders weren't as open as Optimus and she remembered watching them break from the despair of it all to the point they became so close to the war, it was all they knew, which pained her to see such great heroes fall. But despite it all, she believes in Optimus and always tells him as well as the others that if they ever needed to talk, she was there. Optimus has confided in her with things and some she just sensed and figured it out herself. It still surprised her that she had been getting attached to him and that he was to her. It just seemed like they connected. Almost like kindred spirits. It was just strange, but she warmly welcomed it.

Now, she was really feeling all warm inside now. Oh boy, she needed to get back to focusing on the situation. After all, she and Optimus still had a long way to go, but whatever memories, she looked forward to them.

Back at the task, now.

So her intuition was correct. Something did happen and her guess was right.

She nodded at Tigratron, "That was probably why they attacked our base to get Arachnition and Nemesis. They didn't get Nemesis but...I just hope Arachnition will be safe." She hoped they won't do anything against her will.

"Then that confirms my suspicions. Megatron wants a truce so he doesn't even have to think about us now that has that Vok device in his hands."

That could be why he mentioned some job he was going to explain to Ironclaw later. They were going to repay the Predacons attack on their base. In a more delicate matter, of course. There was a truce now.

It was the next logical step.

(( OOC: una, did you see my previous post with OP? Just wanted to make sure so you'd know OP hadn't ignored Whitegrazer when she arrived. Never!

Thank goodness for that, NK! ))

((OOC: Oh I totally forgot about your previous post. *facepalm* I will have to edit my post then.

Oh! OF course, I know Optimus wouldn't ignore her. She is kinda hard to ignore, being ten feet tall and white...

Optimus, why do you have to be so good?!! She just wants to hug you too, gorillabot ))

They were back after hours of boredom.

Hey, you have a guest. You can talk to her in Cecaelia's room.. since yours is usually too much of a mess.

"Gues- Don't even think about it...we still have to talk you know...." Starshadow narrowed her red optics. The cat have a few things to discuss with Glowstick. Not only about Visia, but her ship.

Cecaelia got up from her seat and slowly made her way outside, "I'm going to the CR owwie..." she said and walked away.

Arachnitron spent the entire trip back to the Leviathan sitting upon a web in the corner of the crew's quarters. She regained her strength quickly.

Soon, the Predacon called Glowstick returned to the crew's quarters. He snatched up the mantis who had been lying unconscious for the entire trip and then looked up at the spider in the corner of the cabin.

NaitoKage wrote: We've landed, your.. "sister" is outside waiting.. Her name is Starshadow. Follow me.

She gracefully slid down to the floor and transformed without speaking an activation code. She crossed her arms over her chestplate. "What makes you think I want to meet this other Hybrid? Or that she would want to meet me?" she questioned, but didn't press the subject. She figured his motives had nothing to do with introducing two potential friends....he most likely just needed a place for her to go and he needed someone to watch her while he briefed their leader on the battle. So she responded with her usual sass, but obediently followed him out of the ship.

Once outside, he directed her to one of the crew member's quarters. On the way he and Arachnitron passed the bot in question, Starshadow. Glowstick called to her, but they were moving so fast that Arachnitron didn't get a good look at her.

She didn't know what to expect. She had no idea that this kind of thing could happen naturally. She was under the impression that the only way to create a Hybrid like herself was artificially. Perhaps this other Hybrid was created artificially as well. Perhaps this other Hybrid was involved in the same experiments that she had been a part of. Nevertheless, she assumed that, like herself, Starshadow was going to be just as reluctant to partake in this meeting as Arachnitron was.

(( Well Preds time to face the boss, might as well be now. I guess those cameras will come in handy!))

Long as the trek had been Onyx finally saw the Darksyde ahead and pushed forward to his full gallop, taking longer running strides to the base as he saw a glimpse of the Levianthan landing within the hanger which meant his fellow Predacons had returned and it didn't seem they faced much damage to the ship itself. He was likely to find out when he got there and when he reached the crater in which the ship rested he slowed to a canter, going around the lava pools that bubbled and gave off uncomfortable waves of heat. He really didn't understand why they stuck there but he didn't argue and just continued on into the hanger, by now slowing to a walk.

Though as he was arriving Onyx took notice of a new femme among his comrades, tilting his head curiously at seeing Arachnitron and wondered if the mission had been to get her or rescue her. Either way it might prover to be helpful on their side perhaps. Walking towards the others he didn't speak immediately and observed them for a moment, it did appear some of them took quite a bit of damage,"I see you guys came back in one piece. Doesn't seem my assistance was exactly needed considering the fire power you were packing."He remarked before transforming to his robot form looking up slightly as he heard the com-system go off.

Megatron had long since returned to base during their absence, quietly watching from his throne in the main bridge and keeping an eye on the hanger, which at first it didn't concern him only seeing Starshadow. Tilting his head back slightly he raised an optic ridge as his underlings at last arrived, though seeing some of the damage a few of them had made him rub his chin in slight curiosity more then worry. With this he activated the com-system and spoke to the crew not busy getting repairs or unconscious,"Well,well if it isn't my crew who has been MIA the last couple cycles, if you wouldn't mind I would love to hear of your little adventure. Of course when most of you are able to get to the bridge or inform me now of what has occurred."He said in a rather calm and pleasant tone.

Such a tone normally wasn't a good sign, not when it was Megatron using it and it always had something to follow. Though this time Megatron would wait to see if his temper really would rise or he could make a rational decision from their actions, depending on what they had done. Not to mention he had a little truce to inform them of.