"Fallen Comrades"

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: From "Chain of Command," let's just say the Maximals found out that Glowstick and Steelclaw stole very important information, and the Axalon is free of little spies or bugs; if any were left behind by Glow because I can't remember. Also, Optimus did not interrogate Saber-Fang about Sonar. What they know about him is what they have observed and all that jazz.

Enter, the white tiger. ))

Out in the planet's orbit, already littered with debris, one of the Maximals' stasis pods grows closer and closer to it's gravitational pull as it rolls out of control. The pod, with the helpless Maximal protoform inside, quickly enters the planet's atmosphere and starts to burn from the speed of the fall. Like a shooting star, it crosses the star-filled night sky and alerts both crashed ships of its appearance.

[Venatrix]

Valkyrie sat behind the console, enjoying the quiet night.
After she took out a group of Maximals on a mission, and returned in stasis, she was placed in the CR chamber to recover.
She was filled in on the details that happened during her time in recovery, and was happy for the fact that Optimus was back in charge. She couldn't imagine how things where with Rattrap in charge.
Not that she did any better.
At least Rattrap's mission was a success, she had to admit.

She was on monitor duty, and used this time alone to adjust the autogun's programming, resulting in 2,3% gain in effectiveness and 2,6% loss in energon consumption.
The Maximal second in command, after Optimus Primal, moved her fingers over the keyboard, and watched the energon of the autoguns drop another 0,8%.
Thats when she heard someone walk into the control room, and greeted her fellow Maximal, without turning around to see who it was. "Hi there. Shouldn't you be resting like everybody else?"

But before he, or she, could respond one of the monitors on her left started bleeping.
When she activated the monitor, she saw that 2 of the number of stasis pods that they launched into this planet's orbit, where losing altitude and started to descend down to the planet.
Rhinox found a way to track down some of the pods in orbit and maintain, though not a stable one, and maintain a connection with them.
Valkyrie waited for the computer to calculate a proximate crash location, and when it did, she opened a comlink to all the quarters and other rooms within the Axalon.

Her voice sounded loudly over the ship's intercom system as well as the private emergency channels of every individual in range.
"Attention! This is a code yellow emergency! 2 stasis pods have been detected who have decaying orbits. One is calculate to drop in sector 11 Victor Alpha 17! The other in sector 34 Delta Charley 79! All Maximals report on the bridge!"

((OOC: Dunno who should be walking onto the bridge, but i guess its the one who posts after me. ))

[NaitoKage]

(No bugs were left behind, no worries. *cracks joints* Alrighty, here comes Rhinox..)

Rhinox walked up from behind Valkyrie and looked at the screen with some concern, from the confirmed distances while it was possible to get to either pod, they were nearly on opposite sides of the world. Getting to both as fast as possible would require fast planning. So much for resting..Looks like another All-nighter.

Icebreaker walked in from the hallway looking around at the sudden commotion, then leaned preening some of his feathers with his beak. His red penguin eyes looking towards the screen as it displayed the landing points of two stasis pods. Looks like my skills are going to be required today.. he then thought to himself.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Glowstick floated infront of the Communication station in the Darksyde, a light bubbly like gurgle of a snore was heard with calming lullaby music heard playing on the headphones around his neck, the image of glowing bubbles seen floating above his faceplate.

He then suddenly jolted up as he heard the computer start to make noise at detecting the stasis pods, he looked towards the screen rubbing his head with a tentacle Hmm.. Gah?! He leaned up and turned on his internal radio to all Predacon frequencies Attention Personnel, two Stasis pods have made land impact, locations Sector 11 Victor Alpha 17 and Sector 34 Delta Charley 79. Get to the bridge and await further orders from Megatron, Over.

[Night-Hunter]

Saber in her beast mode panted as she slept, her claws retracting as she continued to have the nightmare of the beast that she had no control over. As the nightmare continued her large knines started to shorten, her beast form started to get larger and more muscular, even her paws were getting bigger.

"Attention! This is a code yellow emergency! 2 stasis pods have been detected who have decaying orbits. One is calculate to drop in sector 11 Victor Alpha 17! The other in sector 34 Delta Charley 79! All Maximals report on the bridge!"

Valkyrie's voice over the loud speaker forced her out of the nightmare, she woke up panting her body slowly returning to normal.
"Maximize." She ordered.
After turning into her robot form she headed to the bridge, this was the thrid time she's had that same nightmare since the standing stones.

[Dalgaroth]

(( OOC: Ah, yes, another episode. Allow me to stretch my fingers while I squee in excitement.

Also, I would just like to let everyone know that I am indeed a female. n_n Dalgaroth is not my name, it is a spirit friend's name. :3
Now, for my post. ))

"No...no...That's not it either...What about...?"

Megatron muttered softly to himself in various Cybertornian dialects as he worked tirelessly on hacking into a highly encrypted Maximal file. Not long ago, two of his minions had managed a copy of some important Maximal files. They were useful, yes, but there was one section in particular that looked promising; a dark secret he was curious to learn. The thing was hidden under layers of complicated Council endorsed code, however, and no matter what he used, he couldn't get in.

Open File: Max188377327PX
Identity Check: Optimus Primal, submit ID number now...
Override... Substitute ID...Optimus Primal...
Password Required.
Override Password...
Password Still Required.
Substitute Password: ***** ** ***** *******
Accessing Data...

"Success!" Megatron breathed, clenching a fist in victory.

Error: Corrupted File. Virus Detected.
89% Data Intact.
75% Data Intact.
40% Data Intact.

"BLAST!!" Megatron yelled, his voice echoing off his throne room walls. He punched the arm of his chair and attempted to save the remaining data, but in less than a few nanos, the data was completely gone. "Computer! Locate and destroy any virus that might have uploaded itself to the ship's harddrive from this data chip."

"Complying..."

Megatron seethed. He wondered if those two had managed to get inside that file. He knew they'd kept a copy for themselves. It wasn't what he wanted, but once he'd found that secret file, he'd let it be. If they could get in, it would give him the opportunity to find out what he'd missed. For now, that would have to placate him. Even so, he couldn't help but continue to boil, the reverberations of his growling permeating the air.

---

A few yards away from the steaming purple turkey sat Terrorsaur on monitor duty. About a megacycle ago, he'd gotten back from an energon break. About forty cycles ago, he'd gotten bored. The rest of his day-long shift would now be dedicated to looking busy even though he was sure cabin fever would get to him first. He hated this.

Megatron had been particularly sour since he'd attempted to take command and blasted Megatron to bits in the process. So angry, the tyrant was, that Terrorsaur was put on monitor duty since then, grounded.

Grounded.

He hated that word. It was so coldly direct in pointing out to any flier that they weren't allowed to fly. Who the slag told a flier they couldn't fly? It was their purpose. He wasn't built to stay indoors, cooped up in a hot room to bake over live magma. Normally, he could stand it. Really, he wasn't that bad. But it was too long, now. Too long! He needed to get out!

The scarlet mech sat hunched cycling air at an accelerated pace while his dark fingers gripped the sides of the monitor, his face a mere few inches from the screen. He was waiting for anything to happen, anything!

Suddenly the screen changed.

Warning: Stasis Pod Inbound. Tracking...

Terrorsaur stared.

"A stasis pod? Where?" came Megatron's voice from the head of the room. The flier squawked in surprise, having forgotten his commander, but turned back to the screen. "Where?"

"Computer's tracking it...It's coming over the north pole of the planet!" Terrorsaur replied in excitment. He changed the screen to show a map of the northern wastes.

He heard Glowstick yell something over the comm but didn't pay attention and Megatron ignored the loudspeaker. He was busy watching.

"It's comin' in for a landing!" Terrorsaur's voice flailed. He stood up from his seat and moved in close to the map. With action surely on its way, he managed to calm himself slightly.

Quiet...

"Impact!" Terrorsaur yelled. "Coordinates 617 by 885. 120 kilometers north. The other one is across the ocean, southwest. Shall we go!?"

Megatron thought. "No, not yet. The Maximals will surely attempt to dispatch their fliers out to reach the pods first, yes. Let us ensure that Primal and his two birdies encounter turbulance. Predacons!" he called, awaiting his sizeable group's arrival.



(( OOC: Sorry for the sloppy inclusion of Glowstick's announcement. Or him sleeping on the job. -_- Badbad. I didn't notice it until just before I posted this and I already wrote Terrorsaur.))

((OOC: Edited again. -_- Primus. ))

((OOC Again: I propose that no one who has those files access the hidden one. I'm thinking that's Protoform X and we don't want to intro him too early. The way I see it, if Megs didn't get it, no one else did. :/ ))

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

The Maximal Commander, in his beast mode, had settled in his quarters to rest. Of course, he wasn't spending his time sleeping. Perhaps he should have, but he was too busy filling out data logs. In his gorilla alternate mode? Why not? Sometimes he found peace with his beast mode while he was capable of using it for just about anything. It also preserved his energon, even inside the base. So Optimus continued working, or rather trying to work while his mind seemed to wander quite frequently toward his abduction with the alien probe. He could still feel the pain after being scanned and "absorbed" inside the space craft as if it had happened only minutes ago. The noises and voices he could still hear through his subconscious while he was trapped inside. He was lucky to be back in the Axalon. To be among his crew again. He was grateful for everything they did to get him back.

Primal found himself gazing out of his large window toward the night sky instead of entering data and notes into his computer when his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Valkyrie's voice.

"Attention! This is a code yellow emergency! 2 stasis pods have been detected who have decaying orbits. One is calculate to drop in sector 11 Victor Alpha 17! The other in sector 34 Delta Charley 79! All Maximals report on the bridge!"

Immediately shutting down his computer, Primal leaped out of his chair and skidded across his room's metal floor, stopping just before hitting his door. It slid open at his command and he hurried down the corridor on his knuckles and feet. Reaching the bridge after some of the others had already shown up, Optimus walked up to Valkyrie and Rhinox to observe the monitors.

"Heads up, 'bots! Get ready to move!" Primal announced, his voice echoing down the hall to those who hadn't made haste. With two pods, they'd have to split up in teams and get to them as quickly as possible. There was no doubt in Primal's mind that the Predacons would be after them as well. The Maximals had to protect their helpless comrades.

[Blazemane]

Very shortly after Valkyrie made her announcement, Cheetor came careening into the bridge. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was Preds getting their hands on his pals.

* * *

Steelclaw was woken from his stasis rest by Glowstick's announcement. After preparing his more convenient weapons in their various places on his robot form, he stumbled out of his room, almost loosing his balance. Ah, mornings.

As he got closer to the bridge, he could see through some holes in the ship's exterior that it was actually night time. Ah, mornings that weren't mornings.

"Steelclaw, reporting." he announced briefly to everyone present.

((OOC: Yeah, I meant for "science endeavors" to have information on Protoform X. It would make very little sense for the Predacons to figure out the Axalon had Protoform X before "Bad Spark", so I don't mean to have Steelclaw crack it. I was also thinking it might have information on Valkyrie's history, but she doesn't want her past revealed, so the Predacons can't crack that part of the folder either.))

[Night-Hunter]

Saber walked into the control room, she tried not to look tired but having those nightmare's were taking alot out of her.

"Heads up, 'bots! Get ready to move!"

Saber wasn't as hyped up as Optimus was not that she couldn't blame him, two pods had just fallen from orbit.

* * *

Sonar drummed his fingers on the desk of his lair trying to come up with some thing to use that could "help" Saber gain control over the creature inside her. So far his two test sujects were not doing so well. The Honey Badger he could captured was laying on its stomech drooling so much that some of the drool was on the floor, while the second test subject a bob cat was either dead or in a coma.
His alarm suddenly went, running toward the computer he typed in a few keys and saw that it was only two stsis pod.
"All this fuss over pods." He muttered going back to his chair to think of some thing.

"OOC: Don;t worry he;s coming to help the preds.))

[Alak]

Lowering his head to avoid hitting the doorway, Orcariner entered the command bridge ready to serve. He stood aside with this back against the wall so that the others could arrive unhindered by his large frame. Word had it that something was falling out of the sky and Optimus Primal and the higher ranked staff were adamant in alarming the entire team about it. Finishing up the gravity lifts inside the Axalon, the Maximal was not at his usual post outside at the waterfall. Had he'd been there, perhaps Orcariner would have had a better clue as to what was going on.

[NaitoKage]

Icebreaker walked towards Orcariner looking up towards the giant whale transformer " Hey, you missed the commotion. Looks like two pods crashed. I guess you'll be trying out your new parts sooner then expected Big guy."

Rhinox looked towards Icebreaker and Orcariner as they talked. They would probably do fine in the frozen area that one of the pods crashed, but they had an advantage that none of the other maximals had. Rhinox looked towards Optimus With the group's flying speed you should be able to make it to the pods fast, but I think we should send support groups on the fastest routes possible. If our Marine unit goes the ocean route, they should be able to keep up and make it to Point Delta faster then any land route possible.

Icebreaker looked towards Rhinox "Point Delta?" he then walked towards the screen looking at the map, his red eyes twitch as he points at the screen "Ah! I know that area. That's when we had to split up with the others. That area is horrible man, it's a vast desert with a spread of spikey plants.Just south of there should be the remains of that makeshift base we made."

Rhinox raised an optic ridge looking at Icebreaker You seem to know that area well.So that's near where a majority of those pods met up before? he inquired, the Penguin simply nodded.

___________________________________________________

Glowstick floated towards Megatron floating near eye level, looking towards him Work on the Leviathan is complete, it's untested but I would like to propose using it on this mission. With it's capabilities I'll be able to take myself and a support group on the fastest route possible towards the farthest pod and bring it back in complete order. I also have experience in that area.

Tarantulus floated into the area on a hover platform, slightly annoyed at being requested to leave his lair. He overheard Glowstick speak and smirked That would be rather beneficial to bring the pod itself..So that little glitchy transport of yours is now in complete order? But I didn't notice any weapons..

Glowstick looked towards Tarantulus, That wont be a problem, if we're attacked on open water it'll still be a ship full of trigger happy Predacons, But I do always keep a backup plan..

Tarantulus shrugged Peh, sounds fine by me.

[Lady_Jet2]

"Awh-Geeze! When it rains it pours!" Rattrap lamented as he dragged his fuzzy pink behind out of bed and ran down the hall transforming in mid stride. "So what's the hubbub?" Stretching out his joints and feeling his struts go back into place he looked at the screen and sighed. "Two pods? Geeze...so then what's the plan? We gotta split up if we're gunna have a chance at either of these." He asked looking to Rhinox and sighed. "So who is gunna stay here at base? We don't need another incident like last time." he said leaning up against the central command table.

[Dalgaroth]

Glowstick floated towards Megatron floating near eye level, looking towards him Work on the Leviathan is complete, it's untested but I would like to propose using it on this mission. With it's capabilities I'll be able to take myself and a support group on the fastest route possible towards the farthest pod and bring it back in complete order. I also have experience in that area.

Megatron nodded, his optics narrowing in thought.

"Agreed. You will take Sonar, Starshadow, and Steelclaw to retrieve the pod in the West," he ordered, looking over at Terrorsaur.

"You and Waspinator will buy them a head start - go to Maximal base and hide just outside their door. Wait until the fliers emerge and then..." He smiled and held up a hand as if to prompt.

"Blast them into scrap!" the pterosaur exclaimed, swiping a fist at the air.

"Precisely. Now, go!"

Terrorsaur nodded and waited for his fellow flier before transforming into beast mode. He commanded the overhead door hatch to open and with a few mighty flaps he was soaring into the evening sky.

(( OOC: If I missed someone or if I named the peeps going and those people aren't going or if someone else was supposed to tag along with Terry and Waspy, then let me know. n.n ))

[New Moon]

((Just a quick update from Wintersong, she called me earlier and said she might be a while before she gets back on. Having som account problems so she hasn't had anyway to tell anyone. Just letting you all know.

Anywho here is my post with Frilla.Though not quite sure if Feralnight could make an appreance yet.))

Frilla gave a loud sigh, having lost complete track of where everyone was now. She guessed most likely with the other Predacons by now which was turning out to be a pain to find. "Where in the name of Cybertron are...hm?" She cut off mid sentence, raising her head to see two streaks across the night sky, the closest one catching her interest. It was a bit a ways off but she certainly was looking forward to seeing this.

Standing on two legs she took off in a run, using the speed she normally would use to make a run from enemeis to hopefully cut some time from walking and by some lucky chance meet up with a Predacon patrol.

[NaitoKage]

Glowstick nodded, then floated towards Steelclaw Bring some spare ammo and any weapon you think could work against an enemy in water or air.. I don't want to be caught too off guard. Bring them to the hanger, I'm going to get the others and some supplies. He then floated into the hallway, his tentacle knocking on StarShadow's door Hey Kitten, wake up! We have a job to do.

One of his limbs moved to the side of his head as he activated his communication system Sonar, bring your gear and report to the hanger. We're deploying.

[Blazemane]

Steelclaw saluted Glowstick briefly and informally before heading for his room. He had already been prepared for a fight for the stasis pod, but he was fine with bringing some additional resources.

Getting in his room, he opened the panel behind which his weapons were normally stashed. The mini-gun gleamed back at him, well-polished and ready for a fight. Steelclaw opened the pouches where his ammo was stored, and then froze for a moment in thought. Then he closed the pouches and just took them right off the magnetic rack. Having fully restocked them a short time before from an ammo bin hidden elsewhere in the room, he knew that he now possessed exactly 75 standard rounds and 75 incendiary rounds for his rifle, as well as 30 tironium sniper rounds.

Then he lifted the mini-gun from its spot and closed the panel on his wall. He walked out of his room, which locked after him, and started for the hangar.