The Intergalactic Highway

"Nightmist, Saber-Fang, Cheetor, Dinobot, and I will head for the stasis pod," Primal announced.

Icebreaker responded to Nightmist Hey wait up! Optimus is going to join up with you and a land party, ask Rhinox for more details if you want. I need to head out now if I have any chance of catching up.

"Roger that," Nightmist radioed back as she altered her course to meet up with the other Maximals at the base. "I will join you guys shortly!"

Snow Trix nodded, "Hey least we get a break from the bickering." She pointed out moving to take the gunner seat and sat down, looking up at the monitor. It would be odd that it was only two of them this time while most of the others were off to the plains to retrieve the pod, even being a loner Snow Trix thought it felt a little weird. Shrugging she only leaned back slightly and kept an optic on the monitor.

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Wintersong looked the best she could from the wind that came against them but she saw Tigatron was right, the station was quite impressive. Rhinox really knew his stuff. "Hopefully they will get our communication." She replied and kept watch on the area circling around the station to keep on guard while Tigatron tried to get through to the Axalon.

( Whitegrazer art has been posted Una. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3439 )

Rhinox looked up towards the radio as he heard Tigatron Your timing is impecable Tigatron. Icebreaker, Orcariner, and Feralnight are heading up to your position right now. Base is running a little light at the moment, that thing that crashed in your area knocked a Stasis pod down so everybody is making a race for it. As for what landed in your area.. even I can't be exactly sure, image scans showed a humaniod robot, possibly one of our ancestors but how or why or even if it's alive we don't know.

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Icebreaker looked as Feralnight started to pass them, he clenched his grip on the cable as his board started to move, picking up speed gradually, then soon catching up driving under Feralnight. Icebreaker waved up at her I said it might take a bit for us to catch up! he then shouted, then leaned down on his board speeding up ahead with Orcariner still in tow behind him soon passing Feral night as well.

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Glowstick nodded, then flicked a few final switches. The holographic display kicked in as a dome like image enveloped the cockpit and gunner seat displaying a 360 view outside of the Leviathan. The ship started to float into the air, then lurch forward as it floated out of the hanger, upon exit speeding up and taking off into the sky quickly gaining altitude. High in the air, he then leaned back in his seat with two squid arms behind his head while his other limbs operated the craft. Computer, activate laser pulse communication system. Target RO sector 42. he then said, a display window appeared as the computer responded "acknowledged, scanning..two maximal targets found. One identified as unit Steelclaw." Hm?.. Interesting... Fire laser pulse and begin communication.



Far off in the distance a beam of light desended from the sky onto the stasis pod near Whitegrazer and Steelclaw You know, if your going to go off that far you should of at least told me so I could equip you with better radio equipment Claw. Anyway, the others are coming up your way but I have no idea how long that could take, Snow and I are out for a nice picnic with a giant piece of space junk way up north east of your location and we were wondering....can we borrow your mini gun?

Whitegrazer wrote:Well, I don't plan on getting scrapped today by Predacons.

"We're in agreement, then," Steelclaw said with intentional redundancy. Then his expression became slightly more serious. "Don't worry. I don't see why either of us should have to get scrapped."

Whitegrazer wrote:Surely, we will have some backup approaching from our friends, yes? We better find some advantage if our enemies come first. We are so open here and I hate gun battles...

"Oh, yeah, we should be getting backup. But I don't know what their plan is specifically. I could only get to you this fast because I happened to be around here. But that also meant I was out of communications range with the rest of our team. Anyways, in my estimation, there isn't really any advantage to be gained out on these plains- we're really out in the open. I think our best move is to head North to the Axalon. It's the direction we're least likely to meet the Predacons going at, and the most likely to reach our own. If we don't meet backup, we'll just eventually hit base, which is just as good."

Steelclaw flinched for a moment as a laser pulse came down on the pod behind him.

Glowstick wrote:You know, if your going to go off that far you should of at least told me so I could equip you with better radio equipment Claw. Anyway, the others are coming up your way but I have no idea how long that could take, Snow and I are out for a nice picnic with a giant piece of space junk way up north east of your location and we were wondering....can we borrow your mini gun?

"Noted, Glowstick," he said with another chuckle. "Yeah, you can borrow the mini-gun. Say, would you mind telling Optimus that me and the new Maximal- that's Whitegrazer- are heading back to the base?"

Steelclaw turned to Whitegrazer.

"That's one of our communications experts. Obviously, the fact that he's out of my range doesn't mean I'm out of his. Well... shall we go?"

* * *

Dinobot and Cheetor joined Primal as he went down on the platform. Once they were on the ground, Cheetor was ready to go, which meant waiting sounded like a bad idea.

"Do we have time to wait for Nightmist?" he asked, meaning nothing against the other Maximal. "The Preds have got to be moving already. I could run on ahead and try to meet here and then we could both go to the site."

Orcariner watched as Feralnight called out to them and then proceeded to fly onward towards their destination. This was one of the many times that he wished he was a flyer. It was an envy that was getting quite repetitive but he just could not avoid entertaining the thought. Flyers were always the quickest and the most agile as well as being the hardest to shoot down due to their maneuverability. Granted, during the rare aquatic missions, Orcariner tended to fair much better than the rest of the crew. Still, flight was always a neat little fantasy. Perhaps someday a marine Maximal such as he would obtain the ability to fly. Glowstick was a squid and yet managed to chug his way through the air. Orcariner helped build the gravity lifts on his body as well as the Nomad. Perhaps after they get back he could play with the technology and develop a jet pack. The killer whale scoffed at the absurd thought. They definitely did not the supplies to build one that would support his weight, and Orcariner would probably use up at least a ton of energon within a week if he consistently flew around with it.

Being big sucks sometimes, he thought.

It was bad enough that he had to consume more energon than everyone else with the possible exception of Rhinox. Everyone also saved him for last when using the CR chamber due to his sheer size. To make things worse, he would have to get repaired one body part at a time, after which Rhinox would piece him back together. He did his job well, but Orcariner still had some feelings of embarrassment whenever he had to walk around without an arm or sit in the hanger without his legs. Then, there was the case of him being unable to properly move about on land. Even with his hover pads, the mass of his body made things a bit difficult to steer sometimes. Orcariner's thoughts were getting a bit depressing so he tried to shift them towards the positive side of the spectrum.

His dorsal fin shielded the antenna inside of it, and because it was so large the killer whale was able to obtain a wider radius of radar detection than any other Cybertronian on the planet. During the break from the last mission, he was able to install a high frequency driver into his vocal speakers. This would allow him to utilize his beast mode's sonar feature in robot mode whether it be through water or air. The more complicated features of the sonar such as stunning targets and his Beacon 2.0 ability were still beast mode specific. Although, Rhinox installed more fans and intercoolers so that the hot air would be ejected through his gravity lifts and not just his blowhole. Hopefully, Orcariner would be able to move about while utilizing his Beacon 2.0 unlike the last time he tried to pull it off. There was also something that the large Maximal wanted to try with his installed technology. When in robot form, the majority of his power is directed into power his field dampers, his energo swords, his radar, and most importantly of all: moving his body. With four new intercoolers and however many fans that Rhinox put inside of him, Orcariner considered using his gravity lifts in combat. Unfortunately, as he mourned over a few cycles ago, there was not enough energy to make him actually fly. In fact, using his gravity lifts in robot mode would still be detrimental to his power supply, therefore, shutting him back into beast form. However, and this was just a hypothesis, Orcariner believed that firing off his gravity lifts for less than one nanoclick would not cause any significant diversion in battery power. Overheating would not be an issue due to the short duration as well as the presence of cooling technology. That small boost could potentially be enough to enable him to lunge forward with an unexpected strike. The orca by no means had a short reach, but since he rarely used his firearm, the Predacons (with the exception of Starshadow) now realize his limitations in battle. If the boost does work, such a lunge could allow him to cover enough ground for a knock back attack.

Well, he thought with a grin, I'm on a mission right now. I need to test this idea. I like where this is going.

Turning his attention to Icebreaker, he shouted over the sound of the wind.

"Hey, let me know when we can go in the water."

Blazemane wrote:

Whitegrazer wrote:Well, I don't plan on getting scrapped today by Predacons.

"We're in agreement, then," Steelclaw said with intentional redundancy. Then his expression became slightly more serious. "Don't worry. I don't see why either of us should have to get scrapped."

Whitegrazer wrote:Surely, we will have some backup approaching from our friends, yes? We better find some advantage if our enemies come first. We are so open here and I hate gun battles...

"Oh, yeah, we should be getting backup. But I don't know what their plan is specifically. I could only get to you this fast because I happened to be around here. But that also meant I was out of communications range with the rest of our team. Anyways, in my estimation, there isn't really any advantage to be gained out on these plains- we're really out in the open. I think our best move is to head North to the Axalon. It's the direction we're least likely to meet the Predacons going at, and the most likely to reach our own. If we don't meet backup, we'll just eventually hit base, which is just as good."

Steelclaw flinched for a moment as a laser pulse came down on the pod behind him.

Glowstick wrote:You know, if your going to go off that far you should of at least told me so I could equip you with better radio equipment Claw. Anyway, the others are coming up your way but I have no idea how long that could take, Snow and I are out for a nice picnic with a giant piece of space junk way up north east of your location and we were wondering....can we borrow your mini gun?

"Noted, Glowstick," he said with another chuckle. "Yeah, you can borrow the mini-gun. Say, would you mind telling Optimus that me and the new Maximal- that's Whitegrazer- are heading back to the base?"

Steelclaw turned to Whitegrazer.

"That's one of our communications experts. Obviously, the fact that he's out of my range doesn't mean I'm out of his. Well... shall we go?"

She noticed that flinch from Steelclaw. Guess he was't expecting that, huh?

An inward smile crept upon her.

"Very well, Steelclaw. We should meet up with our comrades. I will be glad when we get back to the Axalon. Though, this area will be good place for me to teach hand to hand combat to whoever wants it."

She kept a steady walk, "I was an instructor back in the Maximal Military Academy. How about you, Steelclaw?"

She smiled, "I just realized that you weren't on the crew roster. Last minute addition or you came out of a pod yourself?"

Whitegrazer saw the herd of horses she had "talked" to and they were looking back at her.

I will have to come back to this area. So much grace and elegance here. Beautiful.

Looking back at Steelclaw, her optics stared down at his. It was her way of seeing him. Eyes were a window to soul as she always told her students especially in the feat of battle. In battle, all sorts of emotion flow through each Cybertronian. Battles unlocked everything.

But some students hated how she stared at them. It was, as one of her students complained, very weird as she didn't blink as she gaze at them like she was reading them or something. Gave her a laugh when she did a good guess at a student's activity which caught him off-guard and made him literally fall over. Well, now that she remembered those who complained were the bad students and disliked her style of fighting for it not holding up to the brutal and flashy moves from the other fighting styles they taught. Haha. Younglings. The good ones said that her stare was like a mother would give a child and it was a peaceful gaze that was very comforting, making them willingly talk to her. She really didn't pay attention at the comments, though she did know that her gracefulness showed through a lot. Others loved it and some thought it was pure weak.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

"Oh come on Icebreaker I was kidding! Wait up!" Feralnight called and flew faster catching up enough to fly near them. But she was hoping that the winds at the tundra were calm by the time they reached there otherwise she would have to go one by foot but she wasn't exactly putting herself at high spirits since it was likely going to be bad weather.

Scorponok gathered his items in his personal laboratory. There was no need for a drone bee since Megatron had sent forth Terrorsaur and Waspinator to recover the pod. With Sonar approaching from a different direction, the Predacons had nothing to worry about regarding scouting reports. Scorponok had no doubt that the Maximals will send in their forces, as well. Pod recovery was never easy, but that would mean a Predacon success would redeem the 1st Lieutenant's reputation. Both claws were now armed with mega missiles in pairs and he had enough to even bring down the stalwart Orcariner within one cycle. His tail was filled to the max with highly acidic poison. The Predacon also carried with him some tools in case no one else was capable of reconfiguring the downed pod's faction programming. Transforming back into beast mode, Scorponok scurried out of his quarters towards the task force that was ready to leave at a moment's notice.

Orcariner wrote:"Hey, let me know when we can go in the water."

Icebreaker nodded holding his hand up behind making a thumbs up, he then lowered his arm, he looked at Feralnight and smirked as she caught up Don't worry baby, I can't keep this up forever. You'll have us beat until we get there.. then Orcariner will probably reign when it comes to movement.. the snow can get super deep in some spots and I've seen you run on the ground.. You'll probably be riding on his back to get through swiftly. They were infact lucky they didn't have to take the Nomad, it's massive size made it difficult to get pass forests and slowing it down was a pain with Grav lift technology's frictionless movement. Orcariner on the other hand was like a micro hover tank making him more maneuverable, though not to the level that the giant would like.

Icebreaker then blinked and smacked his forehead as he realized something while moving. Ah.. I totally forgot to get one of those guns Dinobot stares at all the time.. Lets just hope no fighting happens out on the ice. It was a dark realization and a problem he had before in the energon field. Icebreaker's weapons caused explosions and wide spread damage, a stray or even a hitting missile would destroy the ice. Worse, Feralnight was in the same boat with her missiles, and Orcariner still disliked using his Carbine meaning if he wanted to get one of the enemy's he would have to charge on the ice in robot mode. He lowered his hand as his visor and mask slid into place. There was no helping it now.

(Heh, you know initially ideas for improving Orcariner's movements either involved a third mode, tank treads,internalized grav lifts or anti gravity generator like Glowstick's, or a flying harness. He could probably still go for the third mode if you want. but it will probably look as weird as B'boom's artillery mode.)

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Steelclaw wrote:"Noted, Glowstick," he said with another chuckle. "Yeah, you can borrow the mini-gun. Say, would you mind telling Optimus that me and the new Maximal- that's Whitegrazer- are heading back to the base?"

Glowstick kept himself from snickering and responded Oh yeah, I'll tell them. They'll be thrilled. he then paused his microphone and started snickering Oh what have you gotten yourself into now Claw? Computer, download data tracks from Stasis pod and open Maximal personnel files, passcode Harpoon. he then watched as multiple display windows appeared on the holographic interface showing various maximal personnel. He continued listening to Steelclaw and Whitegrazer speak as the computer worked. Great, now overlay the data and update. Hmm.. lets see what we have here.. Whitegrazer.. Maximal soldier.. Are any of them explorers? Yeesh. Hmm.. Oh, this is interesting.. The god of arms has encountered the goddess of unarmed combat.. he then started to snicker again and waved a tentacle as the windows and files started to close displaying the outside video of the Leviathan. Deactivate laser pulse and activate radio com, subject Megatron.

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Megatron continued running as he suddenly detected a radio message. Hey Megatron, it's Glowstick. I got in contact with Steelclaw, he's at the pod.

Megatron grinned as he heard his communications officer Excellent, and what of the Maximal protoform?

No good, from what I can tell she probably activated before he got there. He's playing her into coming to the base, from what I can tell she seems to be some sort of Drill instructor.

Megatron's smile soon became a frown Drat! Well.. at least Steelclaw has the decency to bring this maximal on a silver platter.. To her doom! he then let out a dark laugh. His plans of a new soldier may of been ruined, but if they put the Maximal offline, it will also ruin Optimus's plans for a new recruit as well.

Continue with your mission, Megatron out!

_______________________

Glowstick shaked his head Comlink off. Well I don't want to say them going out is a waste of time.. but it is. It'll eventually lead to a battle, which will require more repairs, and lead into another endless cycle. Oh well.. I guess when we get to our destination, we'll see how the weather is. If it's bad, we'll have to go out and do some scouting to get our bearings though I'd rather not try to fly through a blizzard if possible.. If we meet up with the maximals.. that is what the Minigun is for.

(Uh the Taskforce already left Scorpy. lol. And Terrorsaur and Waspinator were sent for a different task.. countering the Maximal fliers with Sonar. Hm.. they should be getting into a fight with Primal and Nightmist soon. )

Snow Trix looked at the display, only listening to some of what was said for a while and watching what the display showed for a while then glanced back. "Well if there is a blizzard we'll have some limited sight for scouting but we'd also have to worry about running unexpectedly into the Maximals." She said with a sigh. Looking back to the display she thought over the possible Maximals that would be on this sort of mission, one or both of those white tigers were probably a definite then there was their marine Maximal unit which one would be bad with just two Predacons. Taking on the killer whale would more then likely need the gun support from the Levianthan.

'That's if it can even last a blizzard.' She thought.

((I'm kinda confused.. Megs is going for Nem or Whitegrazer?))

(Megatron is going for Whitegrazer, Glowstick is going for Nemesis. Whitegrazer was the priority because she was in a stasis pod, Nemesis was the side mission because she was a giant corpse smacking into the planet. )

Scorponok scurried out into the hanger.

"I'm ready for departure, Lord Mega-"

He stopped as no one was around. Eyes darting back and forth, Scorponok slowly grew more anxious.

"Hello?"

His voice trailed and echoed, but only the sound of molten lava and random electronics replied. He was alone.


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NaitoKage wrote: Ah.. I totally forgot to get one of those guns Dinobot stares at all the time.. Lets just hope no fighting happens out on the ice.

"No worries," said Orcariner, "We're swimmers remember? There's nothing but water underneath the ice shelves in the arctic, so if worse comes to worse we can just cut through and play some guerrilla warfare. We just have to remember to stay away from big guns and stick with knives."

((OOC: I think I'll just wait until season 2 before giving Orcariner another mode. He can just man up about the whole not-being-able-to-fly thing until then.))

Nightmist arrived at the Maximal base just in time to see Cheetor eagerly wanting to start ahead without the others.

Flapping her wings to come to a rapid halt, she called down to her comrades below.

"Are we all set? The Preds are probably well on their way there already, so we better get a move on it!"

Her assumption was closer to the truth than she realized.

(( OOC: The Preds are EVIL! LoL I love what you guys are doing with them. Poor Whitegrazer. ))

"Do we have time to wait for Nightmist?" "The Preds have got to be moving already. I could run on ahead and try to meet here and then we could both go to the site."

While Optimus agreed with Cheetor that they had to make haste for the stasis pod, he didn't want to jump into it without some sort of plan. Besides, with the power he had in his prime jets, he could easily make up for lost time.

"Are we all set? The Preds are probably well on their way there already, so we better get a move on it!"

Glad to see Nightmist show up, Primal finally spoke to everyone around him. "Cheetor and I will take point," the leader explained. "Megatron will be sending fliers to the pod, and likely any other Predacon deemed unsuitable for the mission to the unknown object that landed in the tundra. I want the rest of you to hang back a little until we draw out the fliers. If we'll be outnumbered, hopefully we can still take them by surprise when you conveniently show up a little late behind us." Cheetor was the fastest ground unit in their group, and Optimus figured he would enjoy running at his top speed in his beast mode. Both of them would arrive quickly to the pod, assuming they wouldn't be ambushed too early. Optimus would be purposely placing himself in the front and in view of any Predacons that might try to crash the party. Using himself as bait would alert his Maximals of the Predacons' locations. "Secure your communication links if you need to use them amongst each other," he added.

"Let's hit it, Cheetor," he said, looking down at the cheetah. He prayed the pod wasn't harmed. That was one of their crew members out there, alone and possibly damaged, vulnerable to Predacon tampering against its will or Predacon attacks. "Prime jets, on!" he announced. As his thrusters ignited, he spiraled straight up into the air in seconds and blasted off in the pod's direction, expecting Cheetor to follow as quickly as he could on the ground.

-----

"Hopefully they will get our communication."

Tigatron nodded to her over his shoulder.

Your timing is impecable Tigatron.

Success! The tall teal Maximal smiled, but it faded as Rhinox continued.

Icebreaker, Orcariner, and Feralnight are heading up to your position right now. Base is running a little light at the moment, that thing that crashed in your area knocked a Stasis pod down so everybody is making a race for it. As for what landed in your area.. even I can't be exactly sure, image scans showed a humaniod robot, possibly one of our ancestors but how or why or even if it's alive we don't know.

Tigatron listened carefully despite the distracting wind gusts and swirling snowflakes. "Understood, Rhinox. Wintersong and I will continue our voyage to the crash landing with caution and reunite with our fellow Maximals once they arrive. Tigatron out."

"Beast mode," he ordered his internal computer and the Maximal shifted to his white tiger mode, blending in with the terrain. "Well, it would seem we have another interesting day ahead of us," Tigatron said to his fellow feline. "It is good to know we have friends on the way. Let us travel with haste and hope through this weather." With that, he leaped over a snow drift and began trotting through the snow.