"More Than Meets The Eye: Part I"

[Night-Hunter]

"That's cute..." Starshadow flew up to the skies to avoid the shots, "because during our last few battles, Sonar kept saving your aft. Now why's that? Too weak to fight to your death you had to ask a Predacon to help you? Now that would be embarassing..for a retired general like you!" she activated her galvaconduct driver, charging up her fists and fired off a few electricity bolts at Saber.

Saber growled before having to duck behind the large boulder again in order to avoid the electricity bolts fired at her by Starshadow.

"Come down here so I can show you just how weak I am!" She challenged before firing off a few more shots before shifting into her beast mode so she could find better cover.

((OOC: Hey, Starshadow! I was wondering if you can have your character break one of Saber's large fangs, I was thinking that maybe Star wanted another crack at the beast. It's up to you.))

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC: Sorry for the wait on Dinobot....lots of holiday stuff going on this weekend.

I'll post for my other characters tomorrow....my allergies are giving me trouble tonight. I just don't want to hold up Dinobot's little group any longer.

And yes, Worpex, I think that's right....Xychonia is Banshee. Why she has two names though, I'm not really sure. Guess Starshadow couldn't decide which one she liked best? Not sure...

BIC:

Now that Dinobot's little crew was together, at last, they geared up and stepped onto the lift which would take them out of the Axalon's bridge. Frilla hitched a ride on Cheetor's back and Ironclaw followed the group without a word. Airrazor took to the skies.

"I'll scout ahead and meet you at the pod." She spoke to Dinobot and the rest of the team. "Catch you all on the flip side!"

"Acknowledged," Dinobot responded. He watched as the falcon flew away swiftly headed towards the coordinates that Rhinox and Optimus had given him.

After several minutes, the group of Maximals arrived in the rain forest. It was so dense with vegetation that they were unable to see any sign of a fallen pod anywhere in the area. Dinobot found it difficult to see much of anything in the dark jungle.

"This should be the spot. It's too dark to see the preds like this and my jets will have be spotted a mile away. So I'll take the ground route, but you should be able to move in the trees to spot the pod easier without the Preds noticing, right?"

Dinobot heard Cheetor say to Frilla. Dinobot nodded his approval. Since they had not heard from Airrazor yet, they did not know what the surrounding area looked like.

Good thinking, Cheetor," Dinobot said. "From the tops of the trees, Frilla might be able to see the location of the pod. At the very least, she may be able to spot our enemies and alert us to their presence"

Suddenly a call came in over the comms from Airrazor.

"Airazor to Dinobot:" She spoke, directing her communicator to the team's leader. "I spotted the stasis pod a few clicks from my coordinates. No signs of predicon's yet."

"Acknowledged," Dinobot said back over his comms as he downloaded AIrrazor's coordinates. "We are on our way. Keep a sharp eye out for the Predacons. They are most certainly near by. What is the state of the protoform?" Dinobot asked her.

Dinobot sent the coordinates to the other Maximals as he waited for her reply.

"Cheetor, Frilla, Ironclaw....we are headed to Airrazor's coordinates. Proceed with caution. There is no doubt that Megatron would have sent his troops to the pod's coordinates as well. Frilla, head up to the trees. The Predacons may be planning an ambush. You might be able to see them before we do," Dinobot instructed.

Dinobot waved the others to follow him as they headed towards the coordinates that Airrazor had sent.

[Warwulf]

Bursting out from the forest behind Maximal lines and into the clearing, Tantrum transformed into robot mode. The Akira lay helpless and broken before him. And he intended to make it more... broken-er. He deployed his outriggers to stabilize his massive rail guns against the recoil. Loading in high explosive rounds, he took aim and fired his prodigious weapon with the shots slicing into the Akira amidship. He fired one salvo, and another, and another... intent on pouring on the fire until nothing remains but molten metal and glass. Each hole gored into the side of the Akira by Tantrum's high explosive rail gun exposing more of the delicate contents inside the hull.

"Boom goes dynamite, hahaha," Tantrum cackled inanely. "I break dees like leetle straw man house."

[Phoenix]

(ooc: Sorry about the wait.. We didn't exactly have much of an Easter this year. Work has been murder. Unfortunately this probably won't be my greatest post since I'm so tired but..

On another note, Xychonia is Banshee under a different name, I believe. Starshadow also had a different name before she crashed on Earth, and many of the beasties in the show took new names from their animal modes. )


Nexus only sped up as his target came into view, his wheels barely able to keep traction in the muddy terrain he had to cross to get to his foe. Still he persisted, never being one to give up whether it was against an enemy or the environment. Incoming shots bounced off his armor, stinging him a bit but fortunately his vehicular mode was designed to withstand even more powerful blasts like the ones Megatron was pummeling him with. Expecting more incoming fire, Nexus made sure to drive in a rather unpredictable pattern, only to find that the shots had stopped. An unsettling feeling began emerging from within, only intensifying as Megatron's voice caught his attention.

"Hmph, die cast construction I see, not bad, but this is the age of transmetals, Son of Primes, and you're simply obsolete, YESSS!"

A dinosaur calling him obsolete? The irony was not lost on Nexus as he suddenly found himself getting charged by the transmetal t-rex, barely giving him any time to prepare before the impact. The force was powerful enough to send him spinning out of control, his cannons immediately attempting to target the attacker but with Megatron literally on top of him there was little the cannons could do. And then the pain hit as Megatron's teeth sank into his armor as if busy devouring a meal, forcing a grunt out of the old soldier but he refused to give Megatron the satisfaction of anything more than that.

No.. That arrogant bastard needed to be taught a lesson.

Suddenly Nexus' wheels locked up, forcing his momentum to a rapid stop. This caused a mixture of mud and dirt to whirl up, shielding them both from view temporarily. At the same time the old admiral started transforming, his plates creaking as they moved against Megatron's locked jaw, the metal grinding underneath the teeth and tearing holes and deep rifts into his armor. This only increased the pain tenfold, part of the armor threatening to break apart from the rest due to the excessive force exerted on it. Fortunately Nexus managed to fully transform his arm, his hand gripping tightly onto his spiked mace as he slammed the weapon with as much force as he could muster against the side of Megatron's face in an attempt to get the Predacon to release his grip. Repeating the maneuver again and again until he managed to squirm free, the now damaged warrior took a couple of staggering steps backwards to put a little distance between himself and his foe.

As the dust once again settled, Nexus narrowed his optics at Megatron, the morning star still gripped tightly in his hand.

"Megatron, I presume?," the old warrior said, almost taunting, for a moment the voice sounding younger than the soldier's age would indicate.

"Aurora, we're under heavy fire out here. See if you can get the weapons on-line and target the Predacons,"

"We're trying!," Aurora responded, her hands working as quickly as they could to get the weapon systems back online. "Almost got it.. "

A powerful blast impacted the Akira only a short distance away, shaking the ship violently and leaving yet another large hole in the ship's hull. Aurora gasped in surprise, quickly glancing over to where Whitegrazer was to make sure she was all right.

"Try now!," she shouted to the other female, completing the last circuit which caused the console to come back online. Whatever they could get out of this ship, it would be short-lived given the constant shots hitting them time and time again. In only a few seconds they would have to evacuate before the entire vessel could collapse all around them.

Nemesis watched as the rodent made a run for it, deciding to change her tactics a bit. So instead of firing at Rattrap, she instead started firing at the rocky terrain he was fleeing through. With any luck she could bury the little cretin alive in a rock slide.. She tilted her wings, flying sideways as she fired several blasts at the rocky terrain in front and above the rat's current position. Upon doing so, she narrowly avoided the first incoming burst of fire from the much slower larger Maximal beetle.

Well then..


Deciding to use this opportunity before the rat managed to pick up too much speed, she extended her talons and picked up a tremendous amount of speed as she dove down towards the ground in an attempt to grab onto the fleeing rodent.

[una]

((OOC: It's all right, Phoenix! XD My post isn't that much better either. Just getting over an illness that I had for the past four days. Ugh. XD What a way to spend the weekends, huh? XD ))

Whitegrazer kept herself steady as she tried to fix some of the heavy weaponry. The ship shook violently among the firepower of the gigantic Predacon Tantrum. She checked up on Aurora to see if she was all right, but it seems the ship was the one who needed attention. Despite the blow in the hull, if they could get Tantrum out of commission, they may be able to make this ship last longer.

"Try now!,"

She had held over her head a big gun that needed to be reattached and attached it quickly when Aurora shouted at her from the bridge. Using the ship's own targeting systems, but because of the ship's horrible condition, she needed to rely on her own abilities. She closed her optics, concentrating on the battlefield outside. Searching through, keeping focus on her target, she found the Predacon in her sights. She felt his spark pulse. Her aim lowering further below. She still had her optics closed when she fired at Tantrum's stomach, which was less armored, twice. She didn't like fighting this way, but it was a necessary for the protection of her comrades. Once Tantrum was taken care of, she will focus on the others.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

((OOC: OUCH! Poor Blackarachnia! XDDD ))

Blackarachnia frowned when the mantis took her Maximal opponent. She decided to just shot one of her cybervenom shots at Wintersong when she was blasted a few feet away from the barrage of Terrorsaur's missiles. She hissed at the flying birdbrain, "Watch your aim, Ptedarycl!"

[Wintersong]

Despite Umbra telling her the interference was gone Spineback couldn't help finding this a little eerie in a way, wondering if it was the Maximals or just some creature they had come across that happened to be affecting Umbra's visor. Whatever the case the Spinosaur femme was on high alert more so then before as she nodded in acknowledgement and began following the cephalopod in front of her, stepping around some shrubbery and avoiding branches that were at her height, some that that octopus might have missed. All the while that they moved Spineback found it surprising they hadn't detected the Maximals yet which meant they must have beaten them this time.

Upon hearing Tarantulas though she smiled a bit at the fact they had reached the pod first after all, at least that's what it seemed like. "Seems luck might be on our side for this mission, that's if the Maximals aren't lurking about." She commented softly, at the moment not seeing the pod through the thick foliage that surrounded them.

[New Moon]

"No problem Cheetor, I was built for this kind of terrain." Frilla said as she hopped off his back and latched onto a tree close to the Transmetal cheetah. It was certainly like Primus was looking down on her today since this was the perfect place for her beast form. The thick foliage would easily hide her metallic green form and she was small enough the Predacons would have a hard time seeing her out right unless they detected her signature. With this in mind the frilled lizard quickly scurried up the side of the tree with ease, having had more than enough practice she never worried about falling as she might have at the start of this war. Not to mention her claws were meant for gripping, so the thick tree bark was easily penetrated by the sharp silver tips.

When reaching the top Frilla seemed to be completely lost from sight from her grounded companions until her small form could be seen leaping from tree to tree. But as the trees seemed to be further away at times she saw her chances to activate her gliding mechanisms and glided along when the distance required it so. Upon landing though she heard Dinobot's transmission and was about to respond before she heard something close by and immediately ducked down behind some leaves to hide and was surprised by the sight of Tarantulas landing on a tree not far from her, looking rather odd in his own Transmetal form when he jumped. She had to wonder if it was awkward for the maniac spider. "Guys, I just found Tarantulas, others may be enroute from the ground so keep your optics peeled." Frilla warned over the comms. quietly before realizing where the tarantula was headed.

Seeing him launch a web for the distance Frilla decided she had to slow him down and hope there was no one else with him, having yet to see Arachnitron at this point. "Oh no you don't spider, not today." She said to herself before she leapt from her hiding spot and glided towards Tarantulas as he was swinging from the web and opened her jaws as she got within range, spitting acid from her jaws where she formerly used ink upon the web in hopes it'd melt and send him falling to the ground as she glided past and landed on the side of another tree and looked back to see if her tactic worked.

((Got something to do then will edit to add Feralnight tonight.))

[DarkSpark]

OOC: Things sure are heating up! Legs vs Frilla, Megs vs Nexus, Terry vs Wintersong...ITS THE ULTIMATE BATTLE OF ULTIMATE DESTINY! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV4dtB5E134

New Moon wrote: When reaching the top Frilla seemed to be completely lost from sight from her grounded companions until her small form could be seen leaping from tree to tree. But as the trees seemed to be further away at times she saw her chances to activate her gliding mechanisms and glided along when the distance required it so. Upon landing though she heard Dinobot's transmission and was about to respond before she heard something close by and immediately ducked down behind some leaves to hide and was surprised by the sight of Tarantulas landing on a tree not far from her, looking rather odd in his own Transmetal form when he jumped. She had to wonder if it was awkward for the maniac spider. "Guys, I just found Tarantulas, others may be enroute from the ground so keep your optics peeled." Frilla warned over the comms. quietly before realizing where the tarantula was headed.

Seeing him launch a web for the distance Frilla decided she had to slow him down and hope there was no one else with him, having yet to see Arachnitron at this point. "Oh no you don't spider, not today." She said to herself before she leapt from her hiding spot and glided towards Tarantulas as he was swinging from the web and opened her jaws as she got within range, spitting acid from her jaws where she formerly used ink upon the web in hopes it'd melt and send him falling to the ground as she glided past and landed on the side of another tree and looked back to see if her tactic worked.

Tarantulas, only a few short swings away from the stasis pod, suddenly found himself falling victim to the forces of gravity as the webbing he'd been using to cover more distance between jumps gave way without warning, something that shouldn't be possible given it was several times stronger than a normal spider's silk and capable of restraining even Cybertronian servos and hydraulics.

"Tarantulas, terrorize!" the transmetal spider yelled as he transformed in midair and narrowly managed to land on his feet and knees before he hit the ground, rising upright with a groan of frustration and strain on his legs.

Whirling around to face behind him, gun in hand, Tarantulas spied the remnants of his webbing, as well as the substance that had burned through it, which was still sizzling on the foliage of the forest floor.

Activating his infrared visor, Tarantulas soon spotted his assailant hiding in the trees, the lizard Frilla, yet another predacon turned maximal, a testimony to Megatron's lack of control over his own troops.

""If you try to backstab a spider, don't be surprised when you get bit!" Tarantulas spat as he fired a barrage of missiles at the maximal reptile hiding in the trees.

"Attention all units, we have unwanted company in the forest today, secure the pod and terminate anyone who gets between you and our prize!" Tarantulas ordered over the coms, watching the tree burst into flames and hopefully the maximal with it.

Una wrote: Blackarachnia frowned when the mantis took her Maximal opponent. She decided to just shot one of her cybervenom shots at Wintersong when she was blasted a few feet away from the barrage of Terrorsaur's missiles. She hissed at the flying birdbrain, "Watch your aim, Ptedarycl!"

"They're energy signature seeking missiles spider, even Waspinator can avoid explosives that hone in on enemy units, unless maybe you're not pred enough for them to tell the difference" Terrorsaur spat back over the coms as he looked down from his cover in the clouds to seek out the one who tried to blast him, ignoring the beetle Landslide for now.

"Hey widow, is the phrase "bombs away" enough of a heads up?" Terrorsaur jeered as he changed back to robot mode and fired several missiles down towards Wintersong, the maximal he deemed responsible for nearly slagging him if Blackarachnia's whining was any indication.

Phoenix wrote: A dinosaur calling him obsolete? The irony was not lost on Nexus as he suddenly found himself getting charged by the transmetal t-rex, barely giving him any time to prepare before the impact. The force was powerful enough to send him spinning out of control, his cannons immediately attempting to target the attacker but with Megatron literally on top of him there was little the cannons could do. And then the pain hit as Megatron's teeth sank into his armor as if busy devouring a meal, forcing a grunt out of the old soldier but he refused to give Megatron the satisfaction of anything more than that.

No.. That arrogant bastard needed to be taught a lesson.

Suddenly Nexus' wheels locked up, forcing his momentum to a rapid stop. This caused a mixture of mud and dirt to whirl up, shielding them both from view temporarily. At the same time the old admiral started transforming, his plates creaking as they moved against Megatron's locked jaw, the metal grinding underneath the teeth and tearing holes and deep rifts into his armor. This only increased the pain tenfold, part of the armor threatening to break apart from the rest due to the excessive force exerted on it. Fortunately Nexus managed to fully transform his arm, his hand gripping tightly onto his spiked mace as he slammed the weapon with as much force as he could muster against the side of Megatron's face in an attempt to get the Predacon to release his grip. Repeating the maneuver again and again until he managed to squirm free, the now damaged warrior took a couple of staggering steps backwards to put a little distance between himself and his foe.

As the dust once again settled, Nexus narrowed his optics at Megatron, the morning star still gripped tightly in his hand.

"Megatron, I presume?," the old warrior said, almost taunting, for a moment the voice sounding younger than the soldier's age would indicate.

Megatron's delight in the old maximal's predicament faded as he put into effect maneuvers to counter his own. Megatron stubbornly held on to his prey even as he tried to escape his iron grip by transforming, an act that hurt him more than it did Megatron, that is until he began beating the side of his face with a studded mace! Megatron even then held on despite the pain, like a rapid bulldog, but eventually even one as strong as he was forced to release his grip or risk serious damage, tearing away a piece of the admiral's hide as he did however.

Megatron, beast face scarred now, glowered at Nexus like a wary animal as he stood tall amidst the battlefield like an old hero of legend facing down a dragon...The sight SICKENED Megatron, fueling his desire to snuff his spark even further.

However, Megatron was not one to lose self control easily, and could not help but enjoy a little bit of psychological warfare when the opportunity presented itself, so before answering the admiral's question, he promptly gobbled up the chunk he'd ripped out of him, licking his lips as he replied "I am indeed, Yessss. Good to know you've been keeping up with current events, Nexus. Megatron, terrorize!"

With a roar like thunder the transmetal t-rex returned to robot mode, wielding his tail gun to serve as both sword and shield should the maximal charge, and said "Welcome to my domain, Admiral, what brings such an illustrious individual such as you to our neck of the cosmos? Besides an obvious stroke of bad luck of course. Pity about your poor ship, this planet is unkind to cybertronian vessels alas...Hope you weren't expected elsewhere for yet another medal, no."

Megatron fully intended to send this Prime spawn back to the Matrix, but first he might as well indulge in a little polite conversation and see if he could gleam any information out of him, namely if he had come here alone or was part of a larger search party, plus, it would have the added effect of rattling the old relic. Nexus was ancient, but he was a real military leader unlike Primal, so killing him would give him real recognition to the rest of Cybertron, but he was patient, and knew how to bide his time & throw his enemies off guard before he struck...A challenge befitting the future ruler of all Predacons and Cybertron.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: I'm moving on with Optimus (my last post with him was last Saturday engaging Inferno) since he needs to be more involved and active in this battle otherwise he'll miss bossing the others around and other opportunities.

I'll also pretend that Rattrap didn't fire at Manterror trying to help Wintersong since it wasn't acknowledged and things have moved on.

Thanks for the info on Feralnight, NK. I'll wait for New Moon to respond with her before posting for Rhinox again. ))

IC:

"We're trying!," "Almost got it.. "

It wasn't long after Aurora confirmed what she and the mare were doing when Tantrum made his presence known with such an explosive and loud entrance.

"Boom goes dynamite, hahaha," "I break dees like leetle straw man house."

Stopping in his tracks, Optimus turned around and watched in horror as the cow/tank opened fire on the already badly damaged Akira. He was about to tell the female Maximals to evacuate when he saw some of the external weapons whirl to life and begin firing on the large Predacon. Hoping it would slow Tantrum down, he turned his attention to the distracted Megatron who wasn't far from him off to the side, chit chatting with Nexus. There was space between them now... Quite an opportunity, and Optimus was often an opportunist.

Dropping his "shield", the dual guns lifted up over his head and came down into their position in front of his chest. Holding his fists behind what was just his shoulder plates, Primal activated his targeting system and locked on to Megatron. A sudden burst of heavy fire power poured out toward the Predacon tyrant who had foolishly left himself open for an attack from the Maximal Commander's personal miniature auto guns. The force of the weapons made his feet slide backwards in the muddy dirt a little bit. However, this also left Optimus temporarily unaware of his own surroundings. Hopefully it would give Nexus an opportunity to do some damage as well and make Megatron retreat or provide cover-fire.

-----

So many things were happening all at once. As Rattrap sped away from Nemesis's onslaught of gunfire, his neon green eyes observed Landslide's attempt at blowing her off course and giving him some cover before his attention was caught by Saber-Fang not far from the rest of them who was still engaged with Starshadow. As a team leader, he had to keep an eye on his comrades and helps those who needed it if he could. Where had Terrorsaur flown off to...?

Looking forward again, he saw Wintersong and Manterror just ahead of him until he suddenly felt his wheels leave the ground and talons clinging to his sides. Rattrap experienced a moment of panic until he looked up and saw it was Nemesis who avoided the beetle's cover fire and was flying off with him as if he was her next meal. All he could imagine was those nasty, itty bitty, robotic nano fleas touching him and spreading all over him like a horrible bacteria. He tried whipping his tail around and stabbing her in the stomach with the spear end of it until there were a few explosions from Terrorsaur's missiles that rattled her grip on the rat, causing her to drop him and blow him away out of her reach from the impact. Falling helplessly once more - it seemed to be an every day ordeal for the Spy anymore - Rattrap lifted his wheels which lowered his little silver paws while tumbling through the air. Hitting the ground, he rolled sideways across the dirty terrain and then came to a stop. His tail was bent up at every link and the rocky ground had given him deep scratches and torn paint all over his body. "Slaggin' Predascum..." he muttered as he got up on all fours, regaining his bearings. He didn't know what or who had hit Nemesis but he couldn't sit around waiting to find out. Maximizing back to robot mode, Rattrap found himself closer to Landslide again and the damaged ground that surrounded him, so as soon as he wasn't so light-headed he hurried on over to his side, glancing at Blackarachnia nearby.

"How ya holdin' up, big guy?" Rattrap asked knowing the firepower he had been under. Fortunately, the beetle seemed to be fairing well in his first battle. That was encouraging. "We gotta take 'em down," he said, gesturing to Nemesis and Terrorsaur as he wielded his gun again. "They're our biggest threat right now. And it'd probably help takin' the heat off Wintersong's back." Aiming at the annoying TM Terrorsaur, Rattrap opened fire at him, targeting his weaker spots although it was difficult considering how fast the guy flew and how maneuverable he was.

[Phoenix]

"I am indeed, Yessss. Good to know you've been keeping up with current events, Nexus. Megatron, terrorize!"

The admiral merely stood his ground, for now ignoring the chunk of his cheek and shoulder that the tyrant had managed to tear off and promptly gulped down. The damages were not severe enough to pose a threat, and he certainly wasn't one to let vanity get in the way. So he merely shot Megatron an exasperated stare as the Predacon took to using words rather than actions. Not unexpectedly, the Predacon's words were full of malice even if he did disguise them with a certain level of courtesy. Nexus knew the type, however, and the more Megatron spoke, the more blatantly obvious his reasons for taking the original Megatron's name became.

"Welcome to my domain, Admiral, what brings such an illustrious individual such as you to our neck of the cosmos? Besides an obvious stroke of bad luck of course. Pity about your poor ship, this planet is unkind to cybertronian vessels alas...Hope you weren't expected elsewhere for yet another medal, no."

That last sentence brought about a chuckle from the old admiral.

"Alas I have left all that behind," Nexus responded, the serious tone in his voice returning, finding no reason to conceal what was common knowledge to his friends and foes alike. His hand clutched the morning star a little more tightly as he eyed Megatron's sword. "As for my reasons for being here.. that much should be obvious, should it not?"

A teasing gleam appeared in his optics, revealing that despite his rank and advancing age there was still life in this old bot yet.

"Please do not insult me by feigning interest in the well-being of me or my ship, we're both aware of your true intent for coming out here. However there is one little.. shall we say.. miscalculation in your plan.."


He paused for a moment, eyeing the stream of heavy fire power that now came raining down towards the tyrant.

"You forgot to account for the fact that Maximals look out for each other."

He waited for the bombardment to hit its target and as it did, his own shoulder-mounted cannons suddenly took aim at Megatron's kneecaps and fired several blasts.

Nemesis had reached a high enough velocity to go unnoticed as she extended her sharp talons and wrapped them around the fleeing wheeled rat, straightening her wings out to ascend rapidly into the air once more with her prey caught in her clutches. Sure enough, the little vermin tried to squirm away but her grip was solid enough to withstand it. He then attempted to stab her with that tail of his, but her larger size was an advantage and the few hits he made merely bounced off her transmetalized hull.

Oh she was in for a treat tonight! She wasn't quite sure whether to simply kill the rat now and get it over, or if she should bring him to Megatron as a present. As obnoxious and rather foul smelling as the rodent was, he held a high ranking position among the Maximals. In fact he had even been in charge for a while during Primal's absence, or at least that's the impression she had gotten during that final battle before Optimus had unexpectedly returned.

Yes, a present for Megatron sounded like a good idea.

Unfortunately she wasn't given the opportunity to delight in planning the rat's demise any further, her current course having taken her straight into the path of Terrorsaur's incoming missile attack. One of the missiles rammed straight into her backside, extracting a loud yelp from the transmetal female as the resounding explosion sent her crashing down towards the ground again. In the confusion she also lost her grip on the rodent, who'd been shielded from the explosion by her larger frame. She barely even had time to register the ground rapidly approaching before she slammed into it, metal twisting from the severe impact. Completely dazed by the sudden change of events and the severe pain that followed, Nemesis lay perfectly still on the solid surface.

[NaitoKage]

(It has nothing to do with inaccuracy... though missiles aren't the most accurate weapon,though more accurate then rockets.. But, you're firing a weapon that is designed for area of effect in multiple amounts. Missiles explode with a wide range,Terrorsaur's could easily hit a target up to 40 feet away of the explosion. Thus you may be aiming for Wintersong, but Rattrap, Nemesis, and Manterror are next to Wintersong. You will hit ALL of those targets. When you attacked Landslide with missiles, Blackarachnia was trying to trip him up, then tried to deal with Wintersong but she couldn't get too far away from Landslide, thus she got caught up in the explosion.

This is why Landslide has been shooting them down and why he shielded Rattrap from the missiles and exploding stasis pod, since there would be no way Rattrap could get away from the blast radius when that happened. It's also why Proximity explosives like Aerostriker's or Buster's missiles are good against fliers.. they can't dodge them, but they're useless when allies are around because the risk of hurting your allies. Either way.. I wouldn't want to be in Terry's boots back at base with Nem,Manterror, and Blackarachnia out for him..)

Landslide observed as Nemesis rolled with ease avoiding his burst of firepower, about to adjust and follow her when he noticed Terrorsaur came back to attack once again, sending a salvo of missiles towards Wintersong and the cluster of cybertronians around her. He wouldn't be able to keep firing on her. Rattrap on yer six lad!

Landslide adjusted his aim firing onto the missiles, sending down range about 100 rounds a second from his anti air guns to counter the missiles, but only managed to take out a few missiles as they flew past.

Landslide let loose a low hiss as he looked up towards Terrorsaur in the sky, not that Terrorsaur would be able to hear it as the flier was little over a mile above the battle ground. As he prepared his guns, he heard Rattrap sliding near him, looking towards his smaller commander as he spoke up, seeing Nemesis on the ground somewhat surprised.

"How ya holdin' up, big guy?"

No need to worry about me lad, it'll take more then that to bring this old bug down..

"We gotta take 'em down,"

Aye.. that we do.

"They're our biggest threat right now. And it'd probably help takin' the heat off Wintersong's back."

Landslide nodded I can't promise anything.. He then looked towards Rattrap as he drew his heavy chainsword But I'll see what I can do.

Landslide started to walk forward, then activated his thrusters taking to the sky while blowing up some dirt and debris. He couldn't match Nemesis or Terrorsaur when it came to speed, but he had his own advantages. Flying up to Terrorsaur's altitude, the heavy giant looked towards the spindly young Predacon swinging his heavy sword against his shield with a very loud clang, then pointed it towards Terrorsaur as he spoke up That the best ya got lad? Surely even a scrawny welp like you can do more then spam missiles hiding behind the clouds.. Or are ya so scared yer going to hide behind the skirt of that lady friend of yer's while she does all the work?

Landslide swung his heavy sword onto his shoulder, then started to laugh a heavy throaty laugh at the Predacon.

______________________

Umbra heard the message on the radio, then glanced back as he heard Spineback speak up.

"Seems luck might be on our side for this mission, that's if the Maximals aren't lurking about."

He noticed the smile, almost surprised to see one as most the Predacons rarely did other then some of the twisted grins Megatron or Nemesis had pulled off, or the rare smile Cecaelia would manage. Maybe.. he responded, heading in the direction of the pod, he then heard another message on the radio.

"Attention all units, we have unwanted company in the forest today, secure the pod and terminate anyone who gets between you and our prize!"

Umbra shaking his head Seems luck favors the desperate more,Doctor. Hm.. these trees should be strong enough.. Umbra looked up observing the trees, then looked towards Spineback smiling How about we take a shortcut?

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"Good thinking, Cheetor," "From the tops of the trees, Frilla might be able to see the location of the pod. At the very least, she may be able to spot our enemies and alert us to their presence"

"Airazor to Dinobot:" She spoke, directing her communicator to the team's leader. "I spotted the stasis pod a few clicks from my coordinates. No signs of predicon's yet."

"Acknowledged," "We are on our way. Keep a sharp eye out for the Predacons. They are most certainly near by. What is the state of the protoform?"

"Cheetor, Frilla, Ironclaw....we are headed to Airrazor's coordinates. Proceed with caution. There is no doubt that Megatron would have sent his troops to the pod's coordinates as well. Frilla, head up to the trees. The Predacons may be planning an ambush. You might be able to see them before we do,

Cheetor transformed to his robot mode listening to Dinobot and Airazor, he nodded in agreement and followed Dinobot into the woods, bringing his hands together in their gun configuration aimed towards the ground, just to be prepared if they were attacked.
______________________

Quickstrike having recovered from his mishap with Silverbolt's missile, got up and started running towards Silverbolt Come ere' you, I'll tear the fur and feathers right outta you! Quickstrike then screamed in frustration, then pointed his snake arm towards Silverbolt, firing his Cybervenom blast.

[Mystrea]

(In regards to the Terry missiles thing. I think DS should dictate the aoe of the missiles. NK makes a good case as usual but maybe they just assumed. Be more specific maybe? Not sure)

Ironclaw continues to follow the team in silence when a few status reports came in from Cheetor and Airazor. The badger thought not much of it. Dinobot led on as normal, taking the necessary procautions, it seemed like it could be just a boring retreval mission. Then Frilla called in saying she had spotted Turantulas. One of the spiders... This terrain may work in his favor. He narrowed his eyes and looked at his surroundings. A momen passed in which nothing happened and then suddenly an explosion went off in the distance. Ironclaw reacted instantly by transforming into robot mode and stood, body tensed and ready. "We've engaged the enemy" the soldier said to no one in particular.

[Wintersong]

Wintersong's gaze remained fixed on where Manterror had ducked down for cover, her gun still aimed in his direction and awaiting for the mantis to come out so she could hopefully try and get him to back off. Luckily it seemed Blackarachnia was busy with other things which gave her a chance to focus on one of the Predacons, least that's what she had been expecting since she figured Terrorsaur would end up stuck with one of the other Maximals who were on the battlefield. But even with her gun trained on her current foe the transmetal tigress reached back with her left hand and drew the sword she had from her left shoulder, just in case she ended up engaging Manterror in close combat rather then distance the complete time. And no sooner had she drawn it did the bug mech fire two saw blades towards her making her react immediately to lifting her sword and blocking them, gulping as they came rather close to her face, too close for comfort.

"He's a better fighter then he looks," She muttered to herself as Wintersong lowered her blade and began to fire a few shots towards Manterror, and only a few was all she could get out before she heard something approaching. Glancing up the tigress had no time to get out of range of the missiles, least the ones that remained from Landslide's attempts to stop them and she soon found herself blasted off her feet with a growl, flying backwards and slamming into a rock with enough force it sent her weapons flying from her hands and sliding across the ground. Groaning slightly, it took a little time for Wintersong to recover from the explosion, having been a while since she had been caught in an attack like that. "I hate fliers."

((*blows up evil homework with mini-missiles*))

[Blackrosefencer]

OOC:

( To answer, yes Xychonia is Banshee. Star named the character based off on how some transformers happen to change their names when they acquire a new transformation. examples: Hot Rod becoming Rodimus Prime, Unit 2 becoming Tigatron, Chromia 10 becoming Airazor, Megatron becoming Galvatron, Bumblebee becoming Goldbug, etc... So Xychonia=Cybertronian original name, Banshee=Beastwars name. )

Oh! I see! I always wished we got to know more about the characters when they were on cybertron.

(( OOC: I'm moving on with Optimus (my last post with him was last Saturday engaging Inferno) since he needs to be more involved and active in this battle otherwise he'll miss bossing the others around and other opportunities.

So sorry about that OOP. I remembered a post where he attacked Optimus, but I hadn't realized how long ago that was. Now that I think about it, I made a post one night, but that was the night that my eyes were really bad and I couldn't finish. Guess I forgot to go back and finish the post I started. Sorry again. It's also been one of those long weeks at work.

BIC:

Inferno had been shooting at Optimus as Megatron, his Queen, handled things with the stranger. Inferno didn't recognize the stranger nor have much of a memory for history or data tracks so he wouldn't have even known that the stranger's identity was a significant one even if he had mentioned it, but somehow Megatron seemed to know him. So Megatron wanted that prize to himself.

Optimus ran towards the red ant on foot using a part of the fallen ship as a sort of shield. Inferno shouted out in anger as some of his shots ricocheted off of the shield and others were avoided. Inferno dodged Optimus' return fire although one of the shots landed near enough to him that the impact knocked him off balance. He very nearly wasn't able to dodge the next shot and thought he most certainly was rolling out of the way into the path of another shot, but to his surprise, Optimus suddenly stopped shooting at him.

Inferno looked up to see what had drawn the Maximal's attention away from him. He watched the large Predacon, Tantrum, send a barrage of missiles to the fallen Maximal's ship. He laughed at the horror on Optimus' face, but his delight was short lived. As the other Maximals fired back, Optimus turned away from their plight and set his sights on Megatron. He set up his personal auto-guns and sent their weapon's fire to Megatron.

"ROYALTY!" Inferno cried out. Knowing that he must protect his Queen, Inferno fired a few of his rocket launchers at Optimus!

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"Yes, I see it now, excellent work my dear. Tarantulas to Umbra & Spineback, we've located the fallen stasis pod, follow us on foot and keep a look out for any unwelcome company, or for the protoform if its already come online. Tarantulas out" Tarantulas ordered his team, scanning the trees for signs of cybertronian life.

"Lets keep moving Arachnitron, the sooner we recover our fallen friend the better"

"On my way," Arachnitron nodded. Using her spider webbing she traveled from one tree to the next in the direction of the stasis pod keeping close to Tarantulas, but on the opposite side of the path.

Suddenly she noticed Tarantulas falling from his webbing onto the forest floor. She wondered what caused him to fall like that. A few seconds later, Arachnitron heard Tarantulas' voice over her comm link.

"Attention all units, we have unwanted company in the forest today, secure the pod and terminate anyone who gets between you and our prize!"

Arachnitron scanned the treetops spotting the Maximal who must have been responsible for Tarantulas' fall from the trees. It was Frilla using a similar tactic as the two spiders of using the tree tops to spot the stasis pod. Arachnitron wanted to help Tarantulas, but he had made it quite clear that he wanted everyone to head to the pod. Tarantulas fired his missiles at the little lizard and set the tree alight. He didn't need her help, so instead of engaging Frilla, Arachnitron sped off in the direction of the pod hoping to find the protoform and hoping that the tree tops would continue to conceal her from the other Maximals and get her there faster.

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Dinobot cautiously led the small group of Maixmals through the rain forest area to the coordinates that Airrazor had sent to them. Suddenly, a transmission over the comms from Frilla broke the silence.

"Guys, I just found Tarantulas, others may be en-route from the ground so keep your optics peeled."

Frilla's transmission was followed by missile fire. Ironclaw snapped to attention and transformed to his robot mode.

"We've engaged the enemy" the soldier said to no one in particular.

"Yes, I believe we have," Dinobot answered. Thinking about Airazor and knowing Cheetor's superior speed, Dinobot turned to the young cheetah Maximal. Cheetor," he said. "Head to Airazor's location. The Predacons may have reached the pod before us! You can reach her faster than we can." Dinobot then turned to Ironclaw. "Let's go see if we can provide back up to Frilla." Dinobot hurried off in the direction of the missile fire.

[starshadow]

((OOC: Sure thing!))

"Come down here so I can show you just how weak I am!"

That just made Starshadow chuckled, "Oh...acting tough like a stupid cat. Come to think of it, a little doggy should've been your beast mode," she dived down, her wings repositioning to the sides, spreading out as their electroblades were formed. She predicted that Saber would just leap up and clamp her jaws somewhere on her body. Of course Starshadow would not allow that. Electricity was seen emitting out of her body and the glowing parts of her armor just glowed brighter, "now you'll see how WEAK you are, Saberfang! Shocking, isn't it?!"