The Intergalactic Highway

(( No problemo, Jagna! Good to have you back! *hug* And thank you for posting. Now get some time to relax, you poor thing.

Is everyone ready to run after Cheetor and have a fun fight? I'm going to deal with Blaze first while I have time before I'm interrupted by Cheetor's and Waspy's fire power. Hint, hint. ))

"Oh, yes, SIR!" "Y'know, I feel just heaps better knowing that our lives are in your capable hands," "We're all gonna die..."

Optimus narrowed his brown eyes at Rattrap's negativity for a moment. It was true that Primal had signed up to lead this crew through exploration, not to lead them through a war. Perhaps some of the members' faith in his leadership was a little low but that didn't interfer with his confidence and his optimism.

"Hey,how da slag did I git here?!"

"I think we have a stowaway"

"Yes i think we do." "If i wanted to attack you, i would have by now. You can relax we're all maximals here, my name is Saber."

The gorilla turned away from the rat and looked over at the commotion, noticing an unfamiliar face. He approached the hyena, and the others around her, slowly and stopped a comfortable and respectful distance from her. After all, he didn't want to scare her or make her feel hostile.

"I'm Optimus Primal, Commander of these Maximals," he calmly introduced himself in his beast mode. "Are you injured at all from the crash landing?" the leader inquired. Maximal or Predacon, Optimus would show compassion to the unknown bot. He had no idea how this one snuck into the ship before they departed Cybertron, but she could have been hurt if she was hiding in a dangerous place, either during the fire exchange with the Predacons in space or when they crashed hard onto the planet.

Just a little farther... there!

"The name's Cheetor. What's shakin' cats?"

He didn't know whether to feel offended or frightened when the eyes on the two cheetahs to his right grew as big as saucers, and they growled in shock. They quickly left him in their dust.

"What, is it my breath? Hey, wait!" Cheetor continued his chase.

He watched as they approached a tree and paused suddenly. A giant insect came out of the cover of the tree branches, and the two cats growled at it, tensing for some sort of pounce. Then Cheetor showed up behind them and they dashed away once again.

"What? It's just a big bug!" Cheetor explained to them. But apparently, they would have none of it. He pondered this fact. "They way those two reacted, that's no natural life form." His voice got louder as he got more anxious.

"And if we're talkin' unnatural life forms, then we gotta' be talkin' about just one thing. Robots in disguise! Cheetor, maximize!"

He leaped into the air, flipping as he went. In the midst of this jump, a startling change occurred, and a robot landed on the ground.

"Time for this cat to pounce." He aimed his quasar gun and started firing.

(Excellent Razor One, I'm in awe of your reasoning for Scorponok, he's looking more like a genius and less like a thug the way you are writing him! And welcome back Jagna! I thought you were roleplaying Terry this roung, but you have a 'bursting-at-the-seams' schedule, so apologizes for heckling you. And OOP, Night-hunter, Blazemane and Venatrix, you guys rule!)

Dinobot transformed, going into full battle-mode. His rotating shield and blade where grinding at top speed, sparks flying as they grated together. His optical cannons power was at full, ready to blast away at any moment. He was a war-machine, ready to anhiliate with minimal mercy.

"Do you accept my challenge?!" He rasped, barely holding his murderous feelings in check. His code was strict. He wouldn't attack until his oppenent agreed to battle. A battle he was sure to win.

He overlooked Megatron's small speech of qualities of a great powerful leader, focusing on Megatron's movements. The tyrant was at ease, not even humoring Dinobot with transforming to bi-pedal mode. He simply talked in beast mode, turning his back on his second-in-command. Dinobot emitted a low growl, Megatron was taunted him, fueled by the knowledge that because Dinobot was bound by a strict code, he could make an elementry mistake, such as turning his back on Dinobot, without the worry of attack. This enraged Dinobot further, but the seasoned soldier held his position, watching the tyrant with narrowed optics.

Then one sentence managed to pierce his haze of bloodlust...

"Isn't that right, Scorponok?"

His CPU struggled to pull itself out of battlemode to decipher what the question meant. The answer became apparent as Megatron easily sidestepped, to reveal Scorponok, his claw snapping open to show dual missiles, already shooting toward him.

It was a new low for Megatron, and Dinobot froze, his lower jaw almost unhinging with the surprise of the unexpected move. Everything was happening in slow-motion again, the sleek missiles blasting toward him, slamming him in the gut, but, for some unknown reason, they did not explode. Instead, the missiles lifted him off his feet, and carried him off.

His optics flickered off, but just before he went into stasis, he distintly heard Megatron's hated voice.

"Loser."

DT

((*OOC* Sorry that I've been gone ... life exploded last week and last weekend. I've a possible boyfriend, school, work, and life ... oi vey, it's been a crazy week. So here goes. Combining both Rhinox and Agui in this post to save time.))

Having seen stowaways before, and enjoying how some of them were actually very helpful in times of need, Rhinox didn't move closer, since, well, he was slaggin' huge. Granted, he didn't harbor any ill will towards the little hyena, but he was still bigger than them. Hearing Optimus speaking about injury, knowing that some femmes got finicky about getting repaired by mechs, he looked to Agui. She was totally unconcerned about an extra passenger to the casual eye. But being her mentor meant that he knew she was paying very close attention to the newcomer, and probably already had a scan. He released a low huff.

It got the tiger rolling onto her white paws lazily, walking over to drop back onto the dirt beside the hyena, leaving three feet of space between them. He smiled to himself, moving away slightly, looking towards where Cheetor had run off to.

Agui spoke, not looking at the newcomer, giving her space. "If she was injured, Primal, she has the choice of CR chamber or medic to assist her."

Some bots loved the personal attention of a medic that could repair them, reassuring them. And others preferred the impersonal assistance of a CR chamber, where they didn't have to answer any questions, they don't want to be reassured. Agui loved being an emergency medic because her patients then didn't have a choice. If it was a medical center, she would be elbow-deep in a chassis before they had a chance to opt-out, not knowing how bad their wounds were since of course, they were not medics. But seeing as they had already seen combat ... she was going to enjoy being on the battlefield.

Because Agui, unlike many, knew what it was like to be repairing dying mechs that were casualties of a physical conflict, not an accident; those who were deliberately maimed with the intent of imminent death. She prayed to Primus that she wouldn't have to deal with too many cases of that during this war.

(( Thanks, Tor! You rock! Keep it up. ^_^ ))

"If she was injured, Primal, she has the choice of CR chamber or medic to assist her."

The gorilla's eyes shifted over to Agui when she spoke. "Of course," Optimus agreed. He was aware of that but before they could make that assessment, they needed to know if she had sustained any damage. It didn't appear that she was hurt, but it was a simple standard question since they weren't even aware that she was on board. Before he could ask her for her name, his audio sensors picked up a familiar noise in the background...

"Time for this cat to pounce." He aimed his quasar gun and started firing.

Picking up the gun shots in the distance, Primal's attention shot in the direction that spotted cat had run off to. "Sounds like Cheetor bumped into some unwelcomed company," he commented. "Agui, Skyfire, stay here with her," Optimus ordered, referring to the hyena. "The rest of you come with me. Cheetor might need backup." Chances were that the rest of the Predacons weren't far behind who ever the cheetah was defending himself against.

(( Sinead, do you still want OP and RT to ride on Rhinox like they did on the show? Personally, I always liked how Rhinox bulldozed through the rocks and showed the brute force he was capable of in his beast mode. But it doesn't matter to me. Valkyrie can take to sky if she wants, and Saber can follow. I just want everyone to show up at the same time because they're supposed to get there right before Megs and his minions do. ))

"Alright, you guys becareful" Skyfire said to the others.

I know I should be glad, that I'm not gonna be thrown into battle quite yet, but at the same time I don't really just wanna wait around here and worry. But Optimus told me to stay, and he is the charge, so I'll stay. Looks like I might need to learn somethings about combat if I'm gonna last out here, and I certainly don't want to be a burden anyone. She though to herself.

She then turned her attention to the hyena, and though maybe it might be a good idea to ask her some questions about why she even on the Axalon in the first place.

"Like Aqui, said if you're hurt in any way she can either treat you or you can use out CR Chamber." she said to the Hyena. "But if you're not hurt, would you mind answering a few questions?"

"I guess that makes you the new second in command, aint it, Scorponok?"

Scorponok pondered this notion briefly. To be second only to Megatron himself! All Predacons aspired to power but few if ever were faced with the oppurtunity to seize it or be bestowed it.

Would he... could he... should he? The very moment the thought of seizing power for himself entered his logic circuits he banished the notion from his mind. He would never betray Megatron!

No, his place was not to lead, but to support. Megatron would be the leader of all Predacons in the fullness of time and to challenge him now was not only suicidal it would also doom the Predacons to continued maximal slavery.

He would back Megatron all the way. He would be a loyal soldier and Second in Command if Megatron so wished it.

"I guess so," said Scorponok in as neutral a tone as he could muster.

"I guess so," said Scorponok in as neutral a tone as he could muster.

Though her emusement couldn't be seen on the outside, in her mind she chucled lightly at Scorponok's attempt to make his words sound neutral.
He failed ofcourse. But it made no differance for her.
"In...." Venatrix wanted to comment to Scorponok, but was halted by a formiliar sound in the distance.
Weapons fire!
But according to her readings, these blasts originated to far away for her scanners to register..... But then she realised that this happened a few moments earliar as well. She heared Megatron and Dinobot's conversation, while she was to far away to have heard it before she reseaved this upgrade.
Her hearing had been improved quit significantly.
She could smell far better, and although there's hardly any light in this sector, her vision was as clear as if was daylight.
Then she remembered Waspinator heading towards that area a few moments earliar.
"Megatron! My audio reseptors caught sounds from the area Waspinator flew off too. These sounds are identified by my datafiles as weapons fire from a Maximal Quasar gun. What are your orders?"

Venatrix silently hoped for him to order them to support Waspinator. Yes he was an idiot, but she would realy liked it if she could give this new body a good work-out. And slagging Maximals was what she signed up for.
She was anxious for combat, and her body language betrayed her mindset to those who could see her.

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

"Sounds like Cheetor bumped into some unwelcomed company," he commented. "Agui, Skyfire, stay here with her," Optimus ordered, referring to the hyena. "The rest of you come with me. Cheetor might need backup."

Valkyrie nodded and glanced up into the direction the young cat ran off to, and ajusted her optics to get a more detailed discryption of what Optimus Primal just mentioned.
"Cheetor seems to be firing on a large flying incect. If my calculations are correct, it could be even slightly larger then Cheetor himself. Possibly a Predacon unit. Identity cannot be determend as of yet. I'll go on ahead and provide Cheetor aditional support untill you arive, or if the situation is in need, extract him out of the conflict zone, and retreat to a better defendable possition."

Valkyrie already calculated the chances that other Predacons where converging on Cheetor's possition, and couldn't see him, or if she reaches him in time, them both stend up against a Predacon assault group of 2 or more.
Her datatracks indicated that the Predacons where vastly more superior in strength and fire power on an individual level, which ment that if more where comming, they would be outgunned.

Optimus selected her to be amongst his crew on the Axalon, not just because she was with the ship sinds it's maiden voyage. He selected her for her ability to calculate and adapt to situations easiar then most others.
And her calm character was one even he couldn't match.
"I will report more details of the situations to you when i'm able too."

Valkyrie gained more speed while flying higher.
Soon she was little more then a tiny dot in the sky.

(Wow everyone! You all are doing beautifully!)

Blaze aka Cheetor wrote:"Time for this cat to pounce." He aimed his quasar gun and started firing.

Waspinator was incredibly confused. One minute he was looking at the funny, sticky creatures, then the next the branch he had been roosting on, exploded with the energy of a quasar burst.

He buzzed end over end, a green and yellow blur, before righting himself in mid-air (later he wished he could duplicate this move, it could've been extremely useful for when he was falingl from the sky). He bumbled unhappily, his scanners zoning in immediately on the Maximal signature. It had been one of those sticky creatures! So the maximals had survived!

The Maximal began rapid fire. The wasp-bot zipped in erratic figure eights, to counter the erratic shots, "Wazpinator under attack!" There went his big mouth... stating the obvious, "Waspinator, TERRORIZE!"

Waspinator stopped a second to examine his new robot mode. It was a bit bulky, but his alt's abdomen had to go somewhere.

Now for the Maximal. Still pleased with himself for transforming without falling out of the sky, he pulled out his gun. He was expecting his dual blitzer gun, with a target laser and a couple of rifle scopes, for show (plus Waspinator definitely need extra target practice). Instead he pulled a modest weapon not even a foot long. It had a long sharp-looking stinger at the end. He was tempted to prick his finger to see exactly how sharp it was, but something told him to wait until he wasn't in a gunfight with a armed Maximal. So he just pulled the trigger, not even trying to aim. Of course his shots went wild, but as soon as the stingers made contact, they exploded. Scorponok had missiles like that. Frog... or something like that.

He muttered unintelligably as the dotty Maximal rolled and dived and ducked. It wasn't fair. Usually he had a big gun that caused wide spread destruction. Now he had to aim?! Quickly he accessed his weapons catalog to see if he had any other weapons in his pocket. Nada. Maybe a built in weapon? His CPU found what he needed. Optical weaponry.

Waspinator was thrilled, now all he had to do was look at something and sizzle! He wouldn't do his happy dance though. Not here.

Now the spotty Maximal was rushing toward a rocky gorge.

"Wazpinator will follow, Maximal, and Wazpinator will zcrap!"

DT

His assets: Well, not so much under his own control, but essentially, the liabilities of his opponent were his assets.

The bug's aim was terrible.

Unfortunately, Cheetor had to work with two dimensions to dodge, while his Waspinator had three. At least, that's what Cheetor told himself. He didn't want to think he had bad aim too, but after all, neither of the combatants had hit the other yet.

Rolling to the side of a laser pulse, he leaned on his back and made some more shots which the bug annoyingly avoided. He scrambled to his feet and started running away.

Nearby, there was a hill. He started running up, and just when he reached the crest, a torpedo exploded close enough to his heels to send him careening over the edge.

But cat's always land on their feet. Or at least, one foot and one knee. Now there was a bigger problem.

"Grr, off all the times for a quasar jam!" Cheetor observed as he pulled some rods in the barrel and hit the gun repeatedly in exasperation.

((On it, OOP. Was waiting for a few more posts, and they were posted.))

~*~

Ears perked, focusing on the direction that the gunfire was clearly heard from, Rhinox moved not as he had before, not with the ambling nature of a rhinoceros, but more along the lines of what he truly was: a machine. His feet swift and sure, he got to Optimus' side. "It might be faster for us all of you hop on. I might not be as fast as Cheetor or the other small mammals, but I'm faster for long-distance in comparison to you and Rattrap. You can hop on." He indicated with his large head up to his shoulder, eyes firmly locked on his commanders.

Primal was a young leader, just hitting his prime years of life, and he had proven himself in many ways. He was compassionate and headstrong, fair and yet as unbending on a command as any general or commander that Rhinox had seen or heard of. But Primal was still young, and Rhinox had only served with him on one other project, one that they all had been paid a lot of credits to forget about. One that they had stowed among other Stasis Pods.

Unlike Rattrap and Agui, both of whom he had worked with extensively on two facets of his life, personal and professional respectively, Rhinox didn't have as long a history with Primal, just hearsay about the mech and his accomplishments.

"That is, unless you fly, but I would advise that you err on the side of caution for how much exposure to the unstable Energon fields you take on." He had spoken quickly, his thoughts taking microseconds to process.



Agui watched her mentor intently, her striped tail twitching lightly. She knew that there would be some damage to repair at some point, but until then, she wasn't really that useful. In fact, she was grateful to Primal for giving her the order to sit out.

She didn't want to show him that her true loyalties lay not with the Maximal cause, but to life itself. Not so early in the game. Not with that snarkbucket of an idiotic rat hoppin' all over everyone for the smallest things that were totally out of their control. Lips curling involuntarily, Agui snorted once before grooming a paw and using it to clean some dirt off of her face, looking back down to the stowaway. Was the hyena in shock already?

Saber followed close behind Rhinox easly keeping up with the Rino she stayed near his right flank, she knew that they would need her help, there was no way she would let Optimus have all the fun.
~It won't be fun when he arrives, Saber.~ Said a small voice deep in her mind. She just ignored the voice and kept running, what had the cub done now?

(( No worries, Sinead. It was worth the wait; great post! In fact, everyone is doing a fantastic job! Rock on. ))

"Alright, you guys becareful" Skyfire said to the others.

Optimus returned a light smile to Skyfire as acknowledgement and assurance before Valkyrie grabbed his attention. He had his reasons for his orders, which normally shouldn't be questioned, but there were some among the group who throught it right to speak up and disagree, or simply offer a different idea.

"Cheetor seems to be firing on a large flying incect. If my calculations are correct, it could be even slightly larger then Cheetor himself. Possibly a Predacon unit. Identity cannot be determend as of yet. I'll go on ahead and provide Cheetor aditional support untill you arive, or if the situation is in need, extract him out of the conflict zone, and retreat to a better defendable possition." "I will report more details of the situations to you when i'm able too."

"Acknowledged," Primal called to the eagle. Although he wasn't sure if Valkyrie had heard him in the acceleration that she took off from. She was far into the blue sky when Rhinox approached him quite quickly.

"It might be faster for us all of you hop on. I might not be as fast as Cheetor or the other small mammals, but I'm faster for long-distance in comparison to you and Rattrap. You can hop on." "That is, unless you fly, but I would advise that you err on the side of caution for how much exposure to the unstable Energon fields you take on."

"I agree," the commander said, holding the strong eye contact with Rhinox. "We need to conserve our energy incase we run into heavy gun fire." Optimus hoped that wouldn't be the case but Cheetor's and the large insect's current interaction was surely to draw more attention from the Predacons, if they survived and were already searching for the Maximals or for energon. No, he wouldn't revert to robot mode unless it was necessary. Besides, Valkyrie was already on her way from a good aerial vantage point.

With little effort, Primal leaped off of the ground and hopped onto Rhinox's back as if mounting a horse bareback. "Let's go, Rattrap!" the gorilla ordered. Judging by the rat's laziness and smart alec remarks, he had a feeling that this particular Maximal was going to give him a lot more grief during their stay on the strange planet than Optimus really needed to deal with. But at the moment, their focus should be on Cheetor and extracting him from his current situation. His eyes glanced at Saber as she came up behind the rhinoceros he was sitting on before they honed in on Rattrap again.

(Blazemane I must be dumb or something but I don't what that means..... and OP since things are slowing up, I can post for Dinobot...)

Dinobot's CPU switched on, slowly dragging his core-conciousness online. Optics flickered to life, blinking several times as receptors resynced themselves and were able to interpret the reports his sensors feed them. He was lying akwardly on his stomach, his right arm and leg hanging freely over an rocky edge.

Another thing, his superstructure was starting to overload on Energon. Crackling waves sizzled up and down his frame.

"Energon buildup, convert to beast mode," informed his on-board computer.

Slowly Dinobot raised himself on one arm, and stopped; he was staring over the edge of a narrow, thin, and unstable land bridge. It was a wonder how he didn't land into the rocky chasm below. Silently he thanked Primus, then he climbed to his full nine and a half foot tall height.

With a murmered command he changed back into his beast mode, balanced on the bridge. In a second, with his scanners on full, he was facing the north. If he was correct, the maximals would use this land bridge as the fastest way back to their base. It was crucial that he meet Optimus Primal face to face as soon as possible.

Then, he would repay Megatron in full.

DT

((Nyerg! I don't even know what planet I'm on, OOP! Let alone which pineapple I'm supposed to pluck!

Yes, sorry. Not so much this week, but in future if you find that the RP is going at snail place because of me, just go 'on with the game'...(omG that's the title of one of the Yr11 plays! They've infiltrated my brain! Abandon shop! This is not a daffodil! I repeat: this is not a daffodil!)...Just PM and let me know, I'll be alright with it. It might even be for the better. Coursework is coming up and preparations for the written segment of the course needs a lot of focus. These kids won't teach themselves. plus, I've got a lot of film editing and post production to do....

Bah, i digress..........ON WITH THE GAME! (Curse you, Y11...) insanityYAH))

"Let's go, Rattrap!" the gorilla ordered. Judging by the rat's laziness and smart alec remarks, he had a feeling that this particular Maximal was going to give him a lot more grief during their stay on the strange planet than Optimus really needed to deal with.

Boy, had he got that right, or what?

Go where? You expect me teh follow that freckled menace into trouble 'cause he can't operate his own logic circuits? No way!

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

The ground started to shake behind him. It wasn't the gunfire...well, it wasn't just the gunfire up ahead that made him say, "Uh-oh..."

...It was the hand that grabbed his neck, 'informing him' that they were headed into battle. His tiny legs flailing above the ground, he squirmed as much as we could before giving up, allowing himself to be flung onto Optimus' back, wondering what his life would have been like if he had chosen the career path of a bank clerk.

((Wow, what a bad post. Still not over the initialy shock of the end of term, I guess. And Tor...I don't understand what Blaze wrote either. Either we're both idiots, or he is supa hip with the lingo!...sorry, I've been haning around Omer too much...don't sk, innit.))