"Bad Spark"

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"So.. who do you propose should be the one to do this? It seems right up Rattrap's alley."

Rhinox gave a low chuckle in remembrance. "Indeed he does. There was a time when I had been captured by the Predacons and reprogrammed. I had turned just about all of them against each other simply by spreading lies and using a little foul play. It almost cost me my life when Megatron realized what was going on, but by then most of them had already been slagged before I was rescued. They might suspect Rattrap, but I have a feeling some of them may be easily swayed to distrust one another."

"So it's probably heavily armed then?,"

"It's probably safe to assume that," the rhinoceros replied to Aurora.

"You know.. I thought they signed a peace treaty between the Maximals and Predacons on Cybertron.. Long before this vessel must have been developed. So why would they make a militarized ship when there was supposed to have been peace?"

"The politics involved were likely shady at the time," Rhinox explained to the young Maximal. And probably still are, he thought to himself. "Megatron once told Optimus at the beginning of our war here on Earth that although there had been peace on the Maximal side of the treaty, it was not so with the Predacons. They were taking the time to scheme, militarize and perfect their plans of attack. Many were fighting among themselves as well, but others, like Cryotek, had more ambitious ideas. Obviously, Nexus Prime was wise enough to consider these possible atrocities growing within the Predacons as they were oppressed by further and further by many Maximals, so maybe he thought it was best to develop a ship to defend ourselves just in case there was a war on the horizon. Well, I'm not sure anyone really knows the truth behind all of it. Not even Optimus." But maybe that journal in Zodiac's possession could shine some light on it.

"So you knew Nexus on a personal level?,"

"Not really. We crossed paths a few times in our professions of science engineering and biology, and we shared some meetings, but I didn't meet him until after he and Optimus had already been split up on separate projects."

"Have it your way then.. Is ignorance a phrase you prefer to describe your own inadequacies?" "You truly are pathetic if you think you can discourage me when I hold all the trump cards,"

Megatron ground his chrome teeth in rage, glaring at the shape shifter. And when Zodiac pulled out the half of Rampage's spark that was rightfully his, he growled deeply within his throat and balled his hand into a fist that wasn't holding his tail gun. The alleged invincible spark that almost cost him his own life... He was not about to let it slip away! The Predacon watched him squeeze it before he glanced at a monitor over Zodiac's shoulder that played the chaos going on outside with Rampage and the Viper's cannons. The crab could be seen suddenly grabbing his chest and snarling in pain while he was already on one knee with Terrorsaur and Quickstrike battling him. Megatron's optics had darted back to Zodiac in time to see him return the viced spark to his subspace. Was he just taunting the Predacon warlord or was he really trying to prove that he was capable of using it against Rampage like Megatron planned to. Perhaps it was a little bit of both from the pretender.

What you need, I will give.

Whitegrazer must have been referring to the energy he had pulled from her moments ago through their bond. Be that as it may, he didn't know what was involved with such an ability. Could it have weakened her if he had drawn too much? What could it do to his own spark, if anything? Without the proper training, he wasn't comfortable with the idea, and he hoped he wouldn't do it again.

Just as Zodiac's knee came up into Optimus's abdomen where it had already been cut, he felt the spikes penetrate his armor and growled with the pain. He needed Zodiac close for the taser, and this might have been the best opportunity. Zodiac was probably reveling in the stunt he just pulled but it also made him vulnerable to a counter attack. Each spike was like a knife stabbing the Maximal leader, but he only paused for a moment with a blank stare. Immediately following that he inhaled deeply and swung his arm toward the fake Nexus Prime's leg was injuring him, activating the taser and pressing it as hard as he could into his knee just as he pulled it away from Optimus, sending an electrical current into his nanobot technology in hopes of debilitating him if only for a short while. After witnessing the renegade use Rampage's spark, he had an idea.

"Enough!,"

The anger and force behind his fist was enough to propel Primal off of his feet after it connected with his chest and nearly knock the wind out of him. At least it showed that they were beginning to get on his nerves. Stumbling a little, Optimus managed to maintain his balance as he landed on his feet, but his chest and stomach throbbed in pain. He gingerly pressed one of his palms to his stomach. Pulling it away he saw the blood on his hand from the multiple stabbings, so he peered down to his abdomen to visually examine his wounds. Zodiac's spikes left several holes, but they weren't life-threatening and were only leaking a tiny bit of fluid. The best thing to do was to try to ignore it and not give Zodiac the satisfaction of damaging him both physically and emotionally. After all, in his disguise it was a little unnerving that it appeared as though he was fighting his mentor that had been such a big influence in his life. Optimus stood up straight and returned the club to his back but kept the taser in his other hand.

"Reactivate the blastoff sequence! And activate the weapons in the bridge as well to rid me of these fools,"

"Acknowledged."

No, not the launching sequence! thought the TransMetal ape. He had to delay it just a little longer, until Rattrap could confirm that he was ready. Watching the weaponry appear from their hidden panels, Optimus swiftly grabbed his gun from his hip and immediately targeted them firing each one at a time before they could lock on to him. His hand was steady and his concentration was firm to make his shots accurate and damage the guns.

Megatron, on the other hand, was bombarded by both Zodiac's shoulder-mounted weapons and the auto-guns that were still left after Primal had terminated the rest of them. He tried firing at them until the barrage of overwhelming firepower forced him to try and shield himself with his arm and tail gun and push him to move back. Eventually he had to turn around and use his back to absorb the brunt of the impacts.

Optimus targeted "Nexus's" head and fired one shot that was meant to whiz past right in front of his face to merely get his attention. Possibly without the impersonator noticing, the shot consequently took out the monitor that was airing what was going on in the engine room so that he wouldn't see what Rattrap was up to. "Zodiac, hold your fire! I have a proposition," he called to him over the gun shots.

"As seems to be the case since I awoke from my stasis pod." "Securing a perimeter will take a little time sir, but it shall be done...momentarily."

"Copy that, Tigerhawk. Just watch your back," Optimus returned as he withheld any indication of anguish in his voice.

"Well, that rather limits the options now, doesn't it?," "Can we shut it down somehow? Prevent it from launching?"

"I should think so, but there may already be a plan underway to do that," Rhinox answered Aurora as they lurked beyond the Viper's perimeter and did a mental head count.

"It appears the Predacon fuzor and one of the Predacon fliers are preoccupied with Rampage, and aren't exactly making a dent so they may need a hand. Optimus sounds like he's got his own hands full, probably inside the ship because I don't see him outside.""Rhinox, Aurora, there must be a way inside the Viper. Optimus isn't the only one not accounted for, it appears-" "It appears Megatron is likewise not present. And Optimus wants a perimeter secured, it just may be a little tricky with these defense systems operational."

"We've just arrived, Tigerhawk. We'll see what we can offer to help as soon as I understand the situation," the large Maximal responded even though he was already leaning toward subduing Rampage.

"Where's Optimus and Rattrap?,"

His thoughts exactly, along with what Tigerhawk had just reported to them. They needed to get in contact with Optimus to find out what exactly was going on here before they intervened with their own plans. Tigerhawk and Inferno were engaged with the ship's auto cannons, and Terrorsaur and Quickstrike were busy with Rampage. "Rhinox to Optimus," he hailed on his comm. link. "Aurora and I are on the scene."

Primal maintained a neutral expression on his face as he heard Rhinox's deep voice broadcast on his frequency. His optics didn't waver from the fake Nexus Prime's as he pressured him with, "My reinforcements are arriving, which means your window of opportunity is growing smaller by the minute."

Megatron had fallen to a knee after all of the damage he had taken, but he refused to surrender or retreat. Besides, Primal was up to something, and he needed to know that was. As the bridge finally quieted down, smoke and the smell of singed and burnt armor wafting from the Predacon leader whose purple and copper chrome was now tarnished, he involuntarily trembled a little from his body covered in wounds as he slowly stood up in defiance toward Zodiac's actions and turned around to face him again. The adrenaline and primal rage flowing through his body helped him disregard the anguish he was experiencing over most of his body. He was NOT going to fail this time!

"Rhinox, Megatron and I are currently engaged with Zodiac inside the Viper," the Maximal leader announced but had opened his transmission to include Tigerhawk. "Assist Tigerhawk and the Predacons by securing a perimeter and keeping Rampage from entering this vessel." He then added via a text message: Rattrap and Blackarachnia are also inside to deliberately sabotage the Viper. Do not enter unless instructed to do so. It's too dangerous. -End message- But Whitegrazer wasn't with them... Where was she?

"Let's give them some extra firepower," Rhinox said encouragingly to his little, Fuzor companion. While he wondered what Rattrap was up to, he had a feeling it had something to do with being a last resort. "We'll try those tranquilizers on Rampage first since it seems Tigerhawk and Inferno have the cannons covered. Rhinox, maximize!" The engineer transformed from beast to bot and wielded one of his chain guns as he started running toward Quickstrike, Terrorsaur and the giant crab.

"Rhinox, Wintersong and I will be at your location shortly. How's the situation over there?"

"Aurora and I are about to engage Rampage," he responded to Whitegrazer between breaths over his heavy foot steps and long strides. "Optimus, Rattrap and Blackarachnia are inside the Viper. We were ordered not to enter. Tigerhawk and Inferno are dealing with the ship's external auto guns."

"Oh, I question more than just your orders insect. Don't even get me started on the state of your sanity."

Inferno grumbled under his breath at Terrorsaur's remark. He ignored it, for now, until he could report his insubordination to the Royalty later.

"You, insect!"

How dare this Maximal address me as such! the flying ant sneered at the tiger with wings who approached him in the air. As much as he wanted to fry his feathers, he refrained from doing so simply because of their cease fire. Instead, he aimed his large gun at a pair of cannons and fired a rocket at them.

"Those cannons can't be taken out all that easy, perhaps we can cut some of their numbers in a different manner, which I suggest turning the defenses on themselves and maybe the ship."

Inferno immediately bared his sharp teeth at the Maximal Fuzor before giving his proposal some thought.

"Because if we don't do something swiftly no one will live to take this ship."

My Queen will live! he shouted in his head. Foolish Maximal! "And how do you suggest we turn its defenses on itself?" he asked him in his raspy voice while he followed him in his dive. He stopped short when he realized what the Maximal was doing in order to get the cannons to hit each other. Ah, of course! So, the Predacon flew off to another section of the ship that was about to target Rhinox, Aurora and Wintersong, and pulled the same maneuver that Tigerhawk did, narrowly escaping getting caught in the blast as he ignited his thrusters for a bigger boost.

Seeing these actions by their comrade, Tigerhawk, and Inferno, working together it appeared, Rhinox's confidence in their mission grew greater and he led Aurora across the beach toward the three Predacons. "Prepare your rifle!" he told her. "We'll keep him distracted while you take aim and fire. And stay close to me." He could take harder hits than she could, and it was no secret that all of the Maximals were willing to put their lives in danger to protect her. She wasn't the most well-armed on their team, but she did have clever inventions, tools and weapons at her disposal. However, she was petite and lacked the thick armor that was required to absorb most of the Predacons' firepower, especially Rampage's. So, the closer she stuck to him, the less likely she would get hit. Hopefully. Some of the Viper's cannon shots flew by their bodies and feet as they ran across the sand.

Optimus nor Megatron had the correct weapons effective enough to defeat Zodiac. High voltage was the only way to deteriorate his armor and delay his regeneration. Or a very big, fiery and hot explosion. They had neither of these at their disposal. Granted, Optimus was buying time for Rattrap to set up his demolition charges, but Megatron had no idea what his plan was, and hopefully Zodiac wouldn't catch on until it was too late. In fact, Optimus hoped he was too distracted now to even think about the signatures that had popped up on the Viper's scanners in the engine room. In any case, he and Megatron couldn't keep this up for much longer fighting Zodiac who also had the ship's weapons in his hands, so to speak. Time to try something else. Something that Zodiac just might fall for considering Primal's impeccable track record of honesty, compassion and extremely rare instances of manipulation.

Both commanding officers, despite their injuries, stood tall and defiant facing "Nexus Prime" as if they were trying to show him that they still had a lot of fighting left to give, which would further hinder Zodiac's efforts of escaping even longer should he choose to continue fending them off on his own. "We'll keep standing in your way, Zodiac," Optimus began, "and it would appear that you might be losing some ground here. Then again, we can't do this dance forever," he admitted and slightly gestured to himself and Megatron with his thumb after he put the taser away but kept his gun in his other hand. "So, here's what I'm going to offer. Return Rampage's spark to Megatron, because clearly he won't be accompanying you on your voyage." He glanced at the monitor showing his Maximals and the Predacons surrounding the crab despite Zodiac's earlier torment trying to get him to comply before his orange optics settled again on the shape shifter's. "And give me Nexus Prime's journal." Yes, I know you have it, he thought somewhat bitterly. "In return, we'll retreat and give you unequivocal passage with the Viper."

"What?! I did not agree to this compromise, Primal!" Megatron objected in an outburst to the Maximal scum's proposal.

If his reaction appeared genuine to Zodiac that's because it was, and hopefully that would help persuade the pretender to accept Optimus's offer which almost conveniently outweighed the greatest advantage of having a ship with the ability of aviation and navigation of space and time. Then again, even though Optimus was fully aware of Zodiac's intentions of traveling back in time to Cybertron and interfering with the peace treaty - unless that was just a lie to disguise his bigger ambitions - Zodiac should know how much that journal meant to him, and maybe that last physical piece of Nexus, his father figure, was more important to Primal than stopping him from leaving. "Everything you seek here, Megatron, belongs to someone else! You have no right to claim any of it! So, if you want to gain anything out of this mess, then you're going to have to give a little to get a little," Optimus told him firmly. "Well, Zodiac...?"

And from where did this journal originate? Megatron pondered. What kind of information did it hold? He could only imagine the secrets inside of it. As much as he'd like to know, it fell a few notches from the top priorities on his list. Is this what Primal was after this whole time? Foolish, Maximal sentimentality. The ship was far more valuable! The TransMetal Predacon kept his tail gun trained on Zodiac while he and Optimus waited for his decision.

Meanwhile, below deck in the engine room of Nexus Prime's vessel, Rattrap finished off the guns that had been targeting him and watched Blackarachnia struggling to avoid getting slagged by another one. "Why's dis thing so heavily armed? You'd think it was a Decepticon war ship," he joked to himself out loud. He gasped when he saw the spider's body fly across the room and impact the wall. Wait, why was he gasping? He cared about her as much as she cared him; which was not at all. Well, that wasn't entirely true, as a Maximal, he did worry about her... just a tiny bit, but it was probably because Optimus did. Rattrap waited long enough to make sure she was alright and got back on her feet before he went to work while she was distracted.

Moving about quietly, he stopped in his tracks when the engines grow louder. Slag! The Spy sprinted to another area and slid to a stop across the metal floor immediately dropping to his knees. Turning over his forearm, he opened up its compartment and pulled out a wireless, remote-controlled demolition charge and planted it on one of the wide pillars that was roaring and vibrating. The transwarp cell wasn't far from him either. It would be a real shame to waste it... But the Axalon was never going to fly again, and neither was the Darksyde, so there was no other ship to use it on. And if he didn't detonate it, the explosions from his charges might not be enough to destroy the Viper. Standing up, he hurried over to the cell and slapped another charge next to it. "I sure hope you know what yer doin', Fearless leader," he muttered to himself. He understood that they couldn't risk Zodiac or Megatron gaining control of this spectacular vehicle, but blowing it up meant that they wouldn't have a way home, and it might be their last opportunity at ever finding one again. It was hard to swallow, but the stakes were high. Rattrap gave a sigh before he turned around and hurried off to exit the room.

"The engines! They are starting up again!"

"You gotta knack fer statin' the obvious today, she-spider!" Rattrap taunted her over the noises of the cannons and the engines. He skidded across the floor when he saw Nemesis.

"What de heck are you doin' here?!" he asked the Decepticon-turned-Predacon. Not that he really cared to hear an explanation, his reaction was more of being surprise by her presence and hoping she hadn't seen him planting his bombs. He didn't think she could from her position though. He targeted her with his gun and his index finger resting on the trigger in case Blackarachnia's trick didn't work.

Outside on the lake's beach, Quickstrike watched Rampage retaliate against Terrorsaur's attacks until the crab turned his attention on him. "Uh oh." The little Fuzor gulped in his throat but kept firing his venom in hopes of slowing him down. But if he was capable of taking down Terrorsaur, who was admittedly a formidable soldier of the air, then Quickstrike wasn't going to be much of an obstacle despite how highly he spoke of his courage and firepower.

It was at that moment when Rhinox flanked Rampage and started firing at him with his chain gun as he charged toward him.

[Wintersong]

Watching his back was good advice, but in this moment Tigerhawk was more than willing to take a risk of being shot out of the sky or right off the ship itself from these cannons. His armor could take some damage but these cannons would prove more than capable of dealing him some punishment if he wasn't careful, nor Inferno for that matter. The unfortunate thing was, Tigerhawk was use to walking the razor's edge. He had done it more often than he cared to count in his career in Special Operations.

Still, he was relieved that despite the skepticism Inferno reacted with, the ant had gotten the hint of what his own plan was. 'They aren't totally devoid of reasoning.' Tigerhawk was thankful for that, but this was of course in the moment when the ceasefire prevented Inferno from turning his weapon upon the large fuzor and leaving him a sitting duck for the cannons to finish off. For the time being anyway. "We're getting as many of these cannons out of your hair as possible Rhinox, I think we are beginning to make a dent in the defenses."

Though, Tigerhawk was being rather optimistic considering the situation. Truth be told, the fuzor wasn't certain if they really were making a dent. They may be handling this weaponry, but what were the chances these cannons were just the first line of defense? Such a thought made TIgerhawk shake his head, hoping this wouldn't be the case. Shaking off such a dreadful thought, the tiger/hawk fuzor dashed across the ship's hull, dodging a few shots as he went before taking flight and twisting in the air while he transformed mid-flight, electrical cannons shifting outwards in his forearms and firing off several shots towards the cannons as he flew backwards.

Even the shots didn't destroy the cannons, perhaps the power would be enough to momentarily shorten some of them out and give some relief for his comrades and Inferno's own on the beach.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Terrosaur held nothing back as he moved closer, a fanged grin forming on his face plates with seeing Rampage crumble to the ground in pain from something. Perhaps the imposter of a mech Zodiac was doing them a favor for once, weakening the immortal Maximal mistake unknowingly while he was smack in the middle of nearly getting torn limb from limb. Yea, that would be a blessing. Maybe they could start with the legs...

Unfortunately, Terrosaur made a rather unfortunate miscalculation in the endurance of their opponent. He came too close for comfort for most, and so focused was he of burning a hole right down to that twisted spark he failed to take into account what Rampage could still do, moments later finding his vision going completely white and his optic lasers switching off abruptly. The force of the blow knocked the transmetal flier senseless, causing him to collapse to the sandy shore.

But just as the Maximals were getting their own back up, another player decided to make her way into the battle.

Spineback had lingered at the Darksyde for a while, monitoring the status of the situation at the Viper, but with the growing activity and warnings that the ship had begun to become active, the former Decepticon had left the ship in a hurry. It had taken her a little bit to get there considering her frame was larger than some, but nevertheless she had come from a different direction from the arriving Maximals, silently prowling the woods close to the lake side and observing from afar, assessing the situation and what action to take, just somewhat outside the boundaries of the ship's sensors. At least, she was assuming so when the cannons had yet to fire in her general direction.

Having skirted around the battle field for a time, Spineback had decided to slip into the lake's depths, making use of her form's ability to make use of a watery environment to her advantage of not immediately being targeted, albeit still probably popping up on the ship's detection systems. She had barely poked the top of her head from the water so she could observe the battle more closely, eyes narrowing as this Rampage not only took out Terrorsaur but seemed to only be driven into a murderous rampage, no pun intended. "Terrorize![" Spineback snarled as she shifted to her robot mode, moving from the deeper part of the lake with her Plasma Shooter Cannon raised and powering up until she got within close enough range to fire a few quick shots at the transmetal crab to draw his attention from Quickstrike as Rhinox and the little fuzor, Aurora, came flanking him from the opposite side. "Looks like you could use an extra hand outside, my liege." Spineback commed to Megatron, the veteran stepping onto the sandy shore with narrowed optics.

"I'm beginning to think you younger bots are way out of your league."

+++++++++++++++

Vent her feelings...

That was an odd thought for Wintersong who had long since become use to keeping her feelings to herself or channeling them to something far more different, usually destructive ways. Unlike the rest of her comrades she hadn't exactly come from humble beginnings nor a decent life. She was use to keeping her emotions bottled up and surviving without expressing them. That had changed over time of course, but something like this seemed a little more difficult to vent or talk about.

Besides, they wouldn't hear anything different they hadn't heard from someone like Optimus himself.

"Whitegrazer, the subject of the Vok is nothing new for most of us by now. The things Optimus has encountered, what you and others have, they would be no different from what you have already heard or expected, so it would be a waste of time." The tigress spoke flatly, her ears giving a thoughtful flick, "But I know there will be concerns of getting through the experience as everyone has attempted to with Primal in the past, and that I will be grateful for. I just don't want the others making a huge fuss." She told the mare, figuring they had many other and far more important matters to concern themselves with. The Vok could be put on the back burner, and far as Wintersong was concerned could be pushed to the past.

Focusing her attention forward once more, Wintersong made it clear she wanted to drop the subject entirely for the moment, wanting to focus on helping their friends rather than her experiences. Upon arriving to the scene, the tigress made no hesitation to maximize to her robot mode, skidding to a halt at the edge of the battle field, growling as she had to crouch to avoid a shot from the ship's cannons. "Well, seems we're not too late for the party." She remarked towards the mare as the back of her leg shifted and she took out her Energon Rifle, thankful she still had some weapon options considering one of her usual favored weapons was missing. But as she removed the weapon she peered down where Rhinox and the others were, raising an optic ridge at seeing the king crab, " And these Predacons really keep getting uglier."

Wintersong wasn't exactly the humorous type, but thinly veiled attempts to lighten the mood seemed the best option to steer clear of talking about the Vok or her needing to rest up. But with all things considered, Wintersong knew for a fact she was exhausted, recalling from time to time she would regain consciousness but only at brief intervals before she was passing out again, and the use of her boosters earlier had drained some of her remaining energy. Honestly, taking a dip in the lake, despite her disdain for water, didn't sound half bad either. Nevertheless, she shook off such a desire before she was coming Rhinox and Aurora both this time, "Don't suppose you two could use a couple extra hands do you?" She inquired a little more cheerily, making her way to at last rejoin her fellow Maximals after so many weeks of being away.

((Hope you guys don't mind me throwing in Spineback, looked like the Predacons were a little short-handed. And for the first time ever on here I decided to give some of my other characters some color coding for their speech, seems like it might be needed from here on out.

Also I swear I've been slow all this time with just realizing this, but Spineback is officially the oldest bot in the Beast Wars! I know Nemesis is a former Decepticon as well, but I do believe you said she came online much later if memory serves right, Phoenix))

[Phoenix]

(ooc:

Also I swear I've been slow all this time with just realizing this, but Spineback is officially the oldest bot in the Beast Wars! I know Nemesis is a former Decepticon as well, but I do believe you said she came online much later if memory serves right, Phoenix))

Yep.. Nemesis was created a Decepticon, but she came from a small colony of Decepticons who had refused to undergo the change to protoform technology. She also never served under the original Megatron since he was long gone by the time she was made, but she obviously grew up with the stories of what he had achieved and those Decepticon ideals lived on in the future generations. Age wise she's probably not too far from Primal's age, old enough to have built up confidence but still young enough to be impressionable to those select few she deems worthy. She's a bit older than Zodiac, who lacks much of that wisdom that comes with age and experience.)

"Why's dis thing so heavily armed? You'd think it was a Decepticon war ship,"

The rodent's observation held some truth to it. Something told the former Decepticon that there was a good reason why this ship had been kept secret from everyone. It was a modern ship, very high tech, with an odd selection of memorabilia that almost seemed a bit out of place. Nemesis could only presume the latter was due to Nexus Prime's tastes, perhaps as an attempt to make the ship feel more like home. Yet the design work seemed rushed, as if it had been cut off in a hurry, for whatever reason. Honestly, Nemesis didn't really care. She was more concerned about all the technological wonders hidden within the ship. Even after having been submerged in water, there didn't seem to be much damage. Obviously it was a solid craft, one more than capable of bringing them back to Cybertron. And one that posed a serious threat if in the wrong hands, like Zodiac's.. She briefly wondered what other secrets did this vessel held. Surely there had to be more to it than the renegade wanting a way off this planet.

Nemesis kept her head low as not to reveal her presence to the traitorous spider and the rodent as they kept investigating the engine room before they got interrupted by the onset of shots from the newly activated autocannons. The fact that these two would work together was interesting to the avian female, if a bit annoying as she didn't especially care for either one of them.

Still.. they were here. And her orders were to not use her weapons against them. Of course Nemesis was a little unsure of how badly she wanted to carry out those orders. It wasn't really that she wanted to slay the two nuisances, not exactly. Well, perhaps a little bit of maiming could be entertaining for a while, but that wasn't why she hesitated.

No.. The issue was really that she worried what would happen if Zodiac managed to take control of the vessel and bring it wherever it was he planned to go. She knew Zodiac better than most, certainly more so than Megatron did. They had spent countless hours whispering to each other through the bars of their cells back when they were growing up. And the once seemingly innocent boy that Zodiac had been back then, before he was given a name, had drastically changed by the time he showed up here on Earth. Still.. there were some lingering tendencies that remained the same. That unpredictability, the pain he worked so hard to hide, and the unrelenting desire to break free were still present in him. In his youth Zodiac had expressed these desires to her, telling her about how he wanted to hurt those who had wronged them so. Yet as a child he lacked the courage and knowledge to actually act out on those desires. This was no longer the case..

And that is why she would rather see this magnificent vessel burn than let Zodiac keep it.

"Run, birdie, run!"

BlackArachnia's sudden warning came just a tad too late. Of course that was more than likely the widow's intention, as the shots from the autogun tore into the avian female's wings and backside a mere second later. Nemesis growled in pain as she quickly threw herself forward in a roll on the ground, the smoldering holes in her wings and dented backside bearing witness to what had just happened. Yet the wounds didn't slow her down much, her nanomachines were more than capable of healing her after all, and by the time she flipped back onto her feet with her weapon drawn and aimed at the autogun, her wounds were already covered in that all too familiar blue shimmer.

She fired at the autogun repeatedly, making sure it had been reduced to a useless pile of metal so it wouldn't attack her again before she made another roll on the ground in order to slip into a darker corner where she wouldn't be so easily spotted. She didn't make it that far as Rattrap's piercing optics settled on her. Letting out an annoyed but low hiss, she lowered her weapon.

Then another sound caught her attention. It was the sound of the engine growing louder, and moments later there was a jolt in the entire ship as the first of the thrusters kicked online. Hopefully none of the Predacons had been standing directly behind it on the outside of the hull when that happened..

"The engines! They are starting up again!"

"You gotta knack fer statin' the obvious today, she-spider!"

She stared back at Rattrap with narrowed optics, not budging from her spot. Her wounds were still healing, but within moments they closed up and again her armor looked brand new like she'd just been assembled. Her inability to form scars was a shame, almost, since she personally found such signs of having lived a life to be endearing. There were no words strong enough to accurately describe the horrors she'd experienced.. so she had nothing to show for it.

"What de heck are you doin' here?!"

Nemesis tilted her head, then suddenly made a leap forward towards Rattrap, ignoring the weapon in his hand that had been trained on her at the time. Her hand opened and she grabbed the rat by the throat as soon as her feet touched the floor again, forcefully pushing him out of the way. Just then another wave of shots from the until now seemingly deactivated autocannon came hurling towards them, hitting Nemesis who was standing right where Rattrap had been just now. The female staggered forward, pushed by the force of the shots impacting against her thigh, flank and shoulder, and for a moment she looked as if she was about to collapse right there.

Still, she persisted, using what energy she could draw on to take aim with her weapon once more and firing at the weapon that had just come back to life. It took several blasts before the shots seized and only then did Nemesis drop to her knees and her wings, that she had been using to shelter the rodent, fell limply to the ground as well. Sitting still like that for a moment, clutching a wound to her abdomen while breathing heavily, she took several seconds by this planet's time to respond to the rat's inquiry.

"Saving your skidplate, apparently..," she told him finally, the pain causing her words to sound quite labored until her repairs managed to fully kick in.

"Indeed he does. There was a time when I had been captured by the Predacons and reprogrammed. I had turned just about all of them against each other simply by spreading lies and using a little foul play. It almost cost me my life when Megatron realized what was going on, but by then most of them had already been slagged before I was rescued. They might suspect Rattrap, but I have a feeling some of them may be easily swayed to distrust one another."

Aurora blinked as Rhinox told her the story. She hadn't been aware of Rhinox having been captured by the Predacons and much less that it had gotten far enough that he was reprogrammed, as this must have taken place before the fuzor had even been given life. It was strange to imagine Rhinox as a Predacon, and perhaps even more so as a manipulative one able to turn them on each other.

"Wow..," she mumbled while struggling to let those words sink in. "That must have been an awful experience. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be a Predacon.. And honestly I'd rather never have to find out. Did your inherent Maximal programming re-emerge and is that why you played them against each other?" It seemed like something Rattrap would gladly do, so it was surprising to find out someone like Rhinox was capable of it as well.

"It's probably safe to assume that,"

Well, the sounds of the numerous autoguns firing upon Maximals and Predacons alike made this a fairly safe bet indeed. The sound was so intense that Aurora almost felt sorry for the Predacons who were close enough, as there were a lot more of them than Maximals.

"The politics involved were likely shady at the time," Rhinox explained to the young Maximal. And probably still are, he thought to himself. "Megatron once told Optimus at the beginning of our war here on Earth that although there had been peace on the Maximal side of the treaty, it was not so with the Predacons. They were taking the time to scheme, militarize and perfect their plans of attack. Many were fighting among themselves as well, but others, like Cryotek, had more ambitious ideas. Obviously, Nexus Prime was wise enough to consider these possible atrocities growing within the Predacons as they were oppressed by further and further by many Maximals, so maybe he thought it was best to develop a ship to defend ourselves just in case there was a war on the horizon. Well, I'm not sure anyone really knows the truth behind all of it. Not even Optimus."

"So Nexus took whatever information he had and just went with it, using his military background to devise counter measures against those scheming Predacons," the fuzor mused. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about that side of the admiral. Of course she understood why he would go to such a step to protect his Maximals, but it seemed like something Optimus would have wanted to avoid. Or at least the Optimus she knew.. Back when he was under Nexus, he might have acted differently. It seemed Nexus Prime was a bot of action more so than words. Perhaps that's why he was so beloved by his crew, as well as feared by his enemies.. and grew to be distrusted by the Maximal Council.

"Not really. We crossed paths a few times in our professions of science engineering and biology, and we shared some meetings, but I didn't meet him until after he and Optimus had already been split up on separate projects."

"Been split up.."

Her repeated words were little more than a quiet whisper. And she silently wondered what would have become of Optimus had he stayed under Nexus' command. Would he still have grown into the leader figure the Maximals on Earth had come to rely on and love? Would he still be the individual she personally viewed as a father figure? Or would he be someone else entirely? Obviously Nexus held a great deal of influence on Optimus, but it was becoming blatantly clear that Nexus Prime, much like the Maximal Elders, kept a lot of secrets.

"What was your impression of him?," she then said, referring to the ever more complex legend that was Nexus Prime. It was honestly starting to become a little troublesome to consider him as such given the many shady areas he was involved in. And how much influence had he had on Optimus himself when he got involved in some of those more dubious experiments?

She then looked down at the raging battle near the ship below them, again wondering how it had come to this. Somehow it all seemed to lead back to Nexus Prime. A decorated war hero and admiral who was proving to cause as much intrigue in death as he surely did in life. The fuzor felt uneasy about it all, but somehow the recent memory of Whitegrazer's comforting hug came to mind and helped keep her calm and focused.

Tigerhawk, the much larger fuzor who had recently showed up and joined them, was doing an incredible job of avoiding the many firing cannons that attempted to shoot him out of the sky. In fact the cannons didn't seem to stand much of a chance. Which was great news!

"Let's give them some extra firepower," "We'll try those tranquilizers on Rampage first since it seems Tigerhawk and Inferno have the cannons covered. Rhinox, maximize!"

Aurora nodded, doing her best to keep up behind the taller Maximal who ran in with his weapons blasting. She'd already been in robot form, so she quickly pulled out the tranquilizers while following in the rhinoceros' tracks. Hopefully they wouldn't be wasting all of their sedatives on the crab.. Would it even have any effect on the large creature?

"Prepare your rifle!" he told her. "We'll keep him distracted while you take aim and fire. And stay close to me."

She immediately dropped to the ground behind Rhinox, disliking having to use him as a shield but frankly.. he did have the build for it. Of all the Maximals, Rhinox was the most heavily armored and could certainly take more than a few hits from the best of them. She, on the other hand, couldn't. A single shot to her chest from the shapeshifter's sniper rifle had nearly taken her life. Granted, sniper rifles tended to be quite powerful if a bit slow to reload.

"Already on it!," she called back to him, unsure if her voice would even carry with all these gunshots all around them. Still, she did as she'd been tasked to do and loaded the rifle with the tranquilizer before taking aim at the large crab. She then fired two consecutive shots at him, hoping she'd be able to at least slow him down and prevent him from entering the Viper.

Zodiac held his position against the two unlikely allied foes of his on the bridge as the computer arranged for the autoguns to target them each in turn, albeit focusing most of their attention on Megatron since Optimus was otherwise engaged with whom the artificial intelligent presumed was Nexus Prime. The very same individual who had ordered and overseen the Viper's construction. Yet the computer's programming was limited in the sense it didn't question Nexus' orders, even when they went against what the real admiral would have wanted. The AI functioned more on a basic level, ill equipped to run more sophisticated thought processes than those required for it to appease its master and run this ship. Perhaps the real Nexus would have allowed for more intricate calculations if the Viper had been allowed to get fully finished by the time it got called into service. Either way, this was a positive fact for the pretender as it would have been impossible to hijack the Viper without the computer's cooperation. Ideally, of course, he'd be able to take off with Rampage aboard as well, but thus far the crab had ignored his summons much to the shapeshifter's dismay.

Although he wasn't opposed to a brawl here and there, Zodiac was in a bit of a hurry and the two enemies who were still in his way didn't seem willing to take his less than subtle hints for them to disappear.. or better yet fade out of existence. Whenever his position allowed for it, he had given the autoguns a hand by using his own shoulder mounted cannons against Megatron to discourage him from trying anything foolish, but it was proving increasingly difficult to devote his full attention to either of these stubborn fools given the fact they worked surprisingly well together. A fact that became abundantly clear when Optimus used the distraction to hit him in the knee with a hidden taser, resulting in the renegade letting out a pained growl as he was forced into a half kneeling position on the ground when his knee gave out from the electric surge a moment later. And for a moment, his leg changed its appearance and color, accompanied by a pained grimace on the shapeshifter's face.

Grabbing the wounded knee with both hands in an attempt to stabilize it, he glared in Optimus' direction, genuinely expecting the Maximal to take advantage of his temporary setback. Yet, much to his surprise, the Maximal Commander did no such thing. Instead he just stood there, staring back at the renegade, the taser still in his hand yet he made no attempt to use it again.

Albeit a bit shakily, the renegade used the opportunity to force himself up on his feet again.

"Zodiac, hold your fire! I have a proposition,"

The pretender's optics narrowed at the Maximal, the leg now resuming its normal coloration and texture for the disguise he was in. A proposition?

"If you plan to repeat your demands from earlier, you can save your breath," the renegade replied with an annoyed huff. "I still hold the upper hand and have no intention of surrendering."

But he still held up his hand in a gesture for the computer to seize firing, if only for a moment.

"My reinforcements are arriving, which means your window of opportunity is growing smaller by the minute."

Zodiac's gaze briefly drifted to the now non-functional monitor behind Primal. It had gotten damaged in the battle and thus Zodiac didn't have visuals of a large portion of the ship. The computer's earlier warning about other intruders was still very much so present in his mind, but at the time being there wasn't much he could do about it other than place his faith in the computer's ability to get rid of them. Afterwards, when he'd dealt with these two, he'd go to make sure. Besides.. what was the worst they could possibly do against a ship like this?

He shifted his weight, gesturing for Optimus to get to the point, his patience already running thin with this entire confrontation.

"We'll keep standing in your way, Zodiac," Optimus began, "and it would appear that you might be losing some ground here. Then again, we can't do this dance forever,"

"You'll both be dead at my feet soon enough," the renegade muttered in response, but it didn't come out as quite as confident as he would have liked. Hopefully Primal would get to the point soon, and it would be a proposition that would be beneficial to him. "Or have you forgotten that I already control the Viper and there is nothing either one of you can do to change that?"

His gaze drifted briefly over to Megatron as he spoke that last sentence, knowing full well that the Predacon leader would love to get his grubby hands on this magnificent vessel. Still, he wouldn't be able to. The ship would only respond to Nexus Prime, and as things were only the shapeshifter was capable of putting up that disguise. Still, Optimus' words held some truth to them, so the renegade impatiently waited for the Maximal to finish.

"So, here's what I'm going to offer. Return Rampage's spark to Megatron, because clearly he won't be accompanying you on your voyage."

The fake Nexus Prime let out a slight, and most uncharacteristic, taunting laugh upon hearing the first part of Primal's proposal. "Oh sure," he responded in a mocking tone of voice, "It would make perfect sense to simply give up one of my greatest assets. Heed my words when I tell you that Rampage will obey me, whether he realizes it right now or not."

His words held true. If Rampage didn't obey his wishes now, the renegade would certainly make sure he would in the future when they met again. Rampage wouldn't recognize him then, of course, but that was likely an advantage. Oh, the possibilities of having a ship capable of traveling to specific times in history were endless.

"And give me Nexus Prime's journal."

The laugh quieted down, only to be replaced by a bewildering smile as Primal got to his own demands. So Optimus was aware of the journal's presence.. Well, Zodiac might have been a little surprised by this but not overly so. After all he hadn't exactly bothered to hide his intentions when he roamed the Maximal base to obtain his prize. He probably got caught on their security cameras. No matter, that particular observation changed nothing.

"In return, we'll retreat and give you unequivocal passage with the Viper."

Now Primal finally had the renegade's full attention. The fake Nexus Prime's optics flickered a bit in recognition, the smile growing a little wider as he seemed to genuinely contemplate the offer that had been presented to him.

"So the spark and the journal in exchange for this vessel.. It would solve a nuisance for me, I suppose..,"
he responded while ignoring Megatron's outraged outburst. What the Predacon thought of this plan was really of no concern.

"Everything you seek here, Megatron, belongs to someone else! You have no right to claim any of it! So, if you want to gain anything out of this mess, then you're going to have to give a little to get a little," Optimus told him firmly. "Well, Zodiac...?"

The pretender crossed his arms as he viewed the pair, his cannons still ready yet he didn't fire them just yet.

"Intriguing suggestion, Primal, and I must give you credit for making it," he said next, making it sound like he was actually going to accept this deal.

"But I fear there are certain things you may not be aware of that makes your deal invalid.. Things that your dear departed Nexus should have informed you, but apparently he failed to do so. Perhaps it would be best if I simply let him explain the situation you're in to you himself."


As he spoke, he pulled out the journal Primal had requested mere moments before. After flicking a few buttons, he held the journal flat in his hand so that the hologram of the real Nexus Prime could appear. Glancing briefly over at his Maximal foe, Zodiac's grin grew ever so slightly wider still before dropping it altogether when the hologram started talking.

This version of Nexus seemed strong still, despite his age, with no fresh injuries visible on his armor. It appeared this particular part of the journal had been recorded before Nexus got captured, before the stress of losing his protege and spending time in captivity had taken their toll.

"It has been a productive day," the holographic version of Nexus said, "And it appears my efforts are starting to pay off, at least as far as the Viper's construction is concerned. The chief engineer just informed me that they have successfully implemented cryo chamber technology into the weapon systems aboard, so the ship's weapons will be virtually indestructible as they can just regenerate themselves should any harm come to them. With any luck we'll be able to implement the same technology throughout the ship, thus truly making it the star of the Maximal fleet. My only regret is that the Viper's construction will not be complete in time for my dear Optimus' to receive his own ship and crew, but I have faith the Axalon will serve him well until such a time that I can award him command of the Viper instead," the hologram continued, the voice showing every bit of paternal concern and pride Nexus had become so renowned for showing towards Optimus.

Zodiac suddenly turned the hologram off and put the journal away, his optics focusing on Primal to see what reaction, if any, the Maximal had to all of this. As if on cue the computer then chimed in, letting them know that the repairs on the weapon systems aboard the Viper had been completed and all the weapons were again fully functional. The renegade's smile again appeared, turning quite a bit more wicked as he spoke again.

"So I'm afraid I'm going to have to reject your offer, Optimus.. For you see, I still have every advantage. You and your comrades and allies will succumb to this ship's firepower. In the meanwhile, however, we're going for a little ride."


Another jolt could be felt throughout the ship as the engines, now fully powered on, kicked into full power. The thrusters outside the ship all turned on as well, starting to lift the Viper off the ground as beach sand, water, and plant life rained off the ship onto the unfortunate beings still near it. At the same time the newly repaired weapon systems returned to life, again targeting the intruders and firing upon them with renewed vigor.

Zodiac chuckled as he witnessed it all go down, raising his hands to the side in a victorious gesture as the ship started gaining altitude. "Face it, Optimus, you and your purple friend here never stood a chance!"

It was a shame that Rampage wouldn't be joining him for this journey, but the crab had made his choice when he deliberately ignored both his summons and the spark squeezing. Besides.. Zodiac would get another chance to obtain his ally when he returned to Cybertron and changed the timeline. It would be interesting, for sure, to see how the past, yet still future, Rampage would react to getting his spark squeezed then.

Meanwhile, in the engine room, Nemesis glanced around as the weapon systems appeared to come back to life at the same time as the ship appeared to be moving. She briefly glanced over at where Rattrap had planted his explosives, taking note of the faint blinking lights, before turning back to the other two present. "We need to get off this ship," she told them both, or perhaps she was speaking to herself.. She couldn't really tell. This had been a crazy day and from the looks of it, it was about to get a whole lot crazier. And she really didn't want to get stuck in the middle of it, at least not until after the Viper had been brought down. How that came to being, she didn't really care either. Rattrap's explosives seemed like an as solid idea as anything else right now.

Again the weapons targeted all of them and started firing, as if to prove her point, targeting each of the intruders in turn.

[una]

((OOC: Sorry for the delay in my posting, guys. I hope I got everything. I sort of have to rush a bit because someone came up, and I didn't want to make any more excuses, and I didn't want to hold up the game anymore than I have, especially since, in the absentee thread, Wintersong has mentioned attened a convention between Septemtber 11th through 15th. So I'm sorry if this post is not up to par, forgive me for my lateness in my posting. ))

"It's never a waste of time to help a friend," Whitegrazer smiled, but understood Wintersong want for her to drop it. So she simply nodded, and continued determining to reach and help the others. Time after time, she gazed over at Wintersong to make sure she was all right, the female cat needed to pace herself, not exert herself too much. Also, she could feel the weariness dripping off the female cat. Making her feel like she made the wrong decision in bring her to battle, but the female cat probably would have done it by her own volition.

As she was headed in the direction, she felt a stinging sensation from her stomach and arm, wondering where she felt it before she remembered that Optimus and her were still linked. He must have been hit at those areas, and in a moment, in a split second, she could see Nexus Prime, no, can't be him, must be Zodiac in disguise, appearing right in front of her optics, spikes prodding an arm and stomach that wasn't hers, it was Optimus'. When Rhinox talked to her, she relayed the information back to Wintersong, "Rhinox and Aurora are engaging Rampage, Optimus, Rattrap and Blackarachnia are
inside the Viper, and Tigerhawk is helping Inferno fight the Viper's external guns. Optimus has ordered us not to enter the Viper." As they became closer and closer to the battlefield, they could hear the cannon shots, mumbles of conversation bursting out, and as she galloped, her spark pulsed, and pulsed hard. She felt both Zodiac's and Nemesis' nanomachines, controlled and wild, which were once a part of her, a piece of her and her spark, her presence as she transformed brightened, calling attention like a moth to a flame. A calmness, a still calmness rushed over the scenery around anyone in the vicinity. When they went to Rhinox and Aurora, Whitegrazer smiled at both, "Sorry for the wait." Then she remembered Wintersong didn't have info on him. "Be careful, he has an immoral spark and heals quickly. Don't get near him, keep your distant, and don't listen to anything he says."


Rhinox flanked Rampage, stopping dead in his tracks in his race to knock over Quickstrike's cover, hoping to squish, hoping to grab the fuzor by the throat and rip out his spark right in front of his optics before he was deactivated. Rampage growled harshly at the interruption, but then smirked. The rhino was bigger, much more filling than the tiny half-snake, half-scorpion Predacon. Rampage ran towards the rhino with a shout of rage and howling hunger, making a beeline towards him, his arm went to knock off Rhinox's machine of doom, and his other hand went to grab the rhino's head, so he could lift him up, and do to him what he wanted to do with the Predacon fuzor before he was so rudely interrupted. "My, my, my, what a big bot, you are..." His emerald optics glittered with hunger as he hissed "But you really shouldn;t interfere with the big, ad wolf's meal." He felt a presence, staring directly at Whitegrazer who had just entered the fray with a Maximal female cat, who he didn't know the name of. He didn't care, really. Rampage basked in the white mare's presence, her calm, serenity, and for a moment, felt bad for what he was about to do before his instincts clawed it's way back to the surface, hearing what the white mare said to the Maximal female cat, "Ah! A new playmate.. You should listen to her. She is very wise, but no matter how wise an individual, they can fall by the slightness push against their own weakness. And you have multiple around here." Rampage smirked, looking at Rhinox, then at Aurora, Optimus, who was farther away. "You know, for second there, back when my spark was being sawed in half, I felt him, through you. I wonder..." Rampage's optics brightened a bit.

But Whitegrazer lifted her hand up, at the slightest grip, at the slightest slither Rampage's own spark, trying to ease itself into her own power, trying to gain an edge, and she made a slicing motion in the air, a symbolic gesture, a physical motion, of her blocking, severing Rampage attempt to use her overwhelming, desirable power against her own friends, not again, never again. She began to converse with the king crab, trying to draw his attention away from any harm towards her loved ones, "If you wish, Rampage, you can stop this madness. You don't have to fight us anymore. Zodiac has helped you, but it looks like he is ready to take off with, or without you. Why continue this? We can help you, if you let us, if you let me." She glanced over, in the distance, feeling some from Optimus, remembering the fact that Zodiac was still disguised as his mentor. She wanted to help Optimus, but she needed to help the others, especially with someone as deadly as Rampage.

"Still want to help me?" Rampage tilted his head. "You are one of a kind. What a shame." Rampage, despite his anger towards Zodiac, still wanted him to succeed, in a way, but what kind of horror would Zodiac put him through if he got a chance to help him? What if... with that spark he decided to hold him like a slave, never actually helping release him from this pain. He already used it once on him, and Rampage wasn't stupid. He needed to grab that spark, for himself.

As the Viper's engines started, Rampage let out a roar and he made a mad dash towards the Viper's ship, to hitch a ride, after all, they were still partners, momentarily. "Don't think you are leaving without me, partner."


Blackarachnia, again, rolled her optics at Rattrap sarcastic wit at her, again, but she just ignored it. Since Nemesis' presence was now out in the open, whatever Nemesis was sent here to do for Megatron, since they were hooked up now, as it seemed to be, how cute, she told herself sarcastically. "Well, we couldn't allow you to miss all the fun. After all, we are at a truce, and there's no need to hide from us. After all, we all want the same thing, don't we? Blackarachnia sort of blanked out for a second, after her statement towards Nemesis. Her attempt to try and take this ship for herself seemed to dwindle by the second, and she despised that fact. With this ship, it would be easy for her to do whatever she wanted, a backup, in case, her plan A didn't work so well, but too many people were around, and Rattrap's set the explosives, and she had no time to get any of them off because of these stupid autocannons firing at them. She could become a strollway through if Zodiac and Rampage actually succeeded, but if they did, what would be her future? She wouldn't be.. her. She would be... a Maximal. She let out a disgusted groan. These Maximals were killing her. Her only shot was to make sure this ship didn't fall into everyone else's hands, especially Megatron's. Better it be destroyed than be in his hands, to be used against her, of course. She burned inside, as she dodged the autocannons attempts to fire at her.

"Yo! Ratface! Throw me one of those explosives!"

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"Wow..," "That must have been an awful experience. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be a Predacon..And honestly I'd rather never have to find out.

"It was... an experience," Rhinox had commented quite vaguely to Aurora, implying that it was neither good or bad. "I learned some things about myself that I never explored before. Nor would I care to again."

Did your inherent Maximal programming re-emerge and is that why you played them against each other?"

"Hard to say," he admitted during her little interview. "I don't recall much of what happened. I wasn't reprogrammed the traditional way which could be considered more manual. Megatron had some kind of contraption that shot beams into my body which distorted my processor, personality and even my appearance, according to the others. I think my Maximal programming had been completely blocked or overridden, so my behavior was much more cunning, aggressive and selfish. None of my Maximal logic was present. I had nearly overthrown the entire Darksyde crew. All I could feel after the whole ordeal was a darker part of me that I didn't even know existed. And I didn't like it." He grew quiet for a moment before adding, "It's still there, and I used to dream about it often in my sleep, but I've learned to balance it and only take advantage of the behavior during battles if it's required."

"So Nexus took whatever information he had and just went with it, using his military background to devise counter measures against those scheming Predacons,"

"It's possible. Perhaps the answers to our questions are in his journal."

"Been split up.."

The rhinoceros's ear had rotated in her direction when she whispered those three specific words that he had said in order to pick up her quiet voice. Was it a question? Or just a thoughtful statement? He decided to comment anyway in case she was looking for clarification. "After his apprenticeship under Nexus working on Zodiac's experiments, the Council reassigned Optimus to overlook the development of Protoform X, or Rampage as he's now called. I don't know if there was any underlining to their decision splitting Nexus and Optimus up. Sometimes I wonder if it was because they thought Nexus had too much influence over him and that they were concerned that he might stand up against their unethical ideals when he'd get wiser. Or worse, that they would stand up together."

"What was your impression of him?,"

"Most Maximals liked him immediately and respected him, myself included. I thought he was as honest as they came. But it's almost common knowledge that with someone so decorated and at his age, I could tell he had secrets. Not that he was obvious about it, but once I had met Optimus and we began working together, he had confirmed my suspicions about what he had been involved in with Nexus. He never said any specifics, but I could tell that it bothered him a bit."

-----

"We're getting as many of these cannons out of your hair as possible Rhinox, I think we are beginning to make a dent in the defenses."

Meanwhile, during the battle, upon receiving Tigerhawk's communication, the Maximal medic responded with encouragement and a grateful tone in his deep voice, "You're a tremendous help, Tigerhawk. Keep it up!" without realizing what was happening with the cannons inside of the ship...

"Whaaaat?!" Inferno suddenly announced near the large Maximal Fuzor. "The weapons!" he pointed to a set that they had destroyed just moments earlier but were now almost fully functional again as he hovered in the air with his big gun. "They're... repairing themselves! How is that possible?!" He hesitated to take them out again waiting for the Maximal's thoughts on the matter and how to move forward. How long were they willing to use their resources and ammunition in order to keep the ship's weapons out of commission?

"Already on it!,"

Rhinox could barely make out the ermine's voice over his own gunfire let alone everyone else's as she assured him that she was on top of what he had asked of her despite the day she and all of them had had already. He fired his chain guns at Rampage's knees to try and slow down his approach so that she target him easier with her tranquilizer rifle and hopefully reduce any intimidation she might have felt due to the large Predacon's stature and reputation so she could hold a steady aim. As his large weapon began to overheat and jam, a pile of shell casings already blanketing the ground next to his large feet, he was forced to stop firing and bang the weapon with the palm of his other hand. Unfortunately, that gave Rampage the opportunity to close in on the rhinoceros. Knocking the weapon out of his hand, Rhinox immediately swung his thick arm in a clock-wise motion to deflect Rampage's reach for his head. Then he quickly used the palm of his other hand and tried shoving with most of his weight behind it against the crab's upper chest to force him backwards and keep some space between them.

"My, my, my, what a big bot, you are..." "But you really shouldn;t interfere with the big, ad wolf's meal."

"Why bother with the appetizer when the entree is right in front of you?!" Rhinox taunted him without fear to maintain the diversion. Although he was indirectly assisting Quickstrike, his greater concern was keeping Rampage's attention off of Aurora.

"Don't suppose you two could use a couple extra hands do you?"

Despite the current situation, Rhinox offered a smile at Wintersong who showed up and was more than willing to help out even after everything she had just been through. In fact, there was still some residual biological matter on her tarnished armor that she hadn't cleaned off yet, and a part of him hoped there would be some left after this battle so that he could procure it and analyze it later. At any rate, he welcomed her with, "Yes, if you're up for the inevitable challenge ahead of us." She didn't look quite herself, but maybe she was just exhausted and required some much needed rest. It didn't even occur to him at that point that she might have been dealing with some left over effects after her interaction with the alien race. But since she was there, they might as well make the most of it. Of course, he didn't want her to be overwhelmed either.

"Sorry for the wait." "Be careful, he has an immortal spark and heals quickly. Don't get near him, keep your distant, and don't listen to anything he says."

There was a wave of tranquility that hit the whole area which alerted Rhinox to Whitegrazer's presence before she even showed herself. That level of touching everyone with that amount of positive energy still intrigued the robust Maximal despite knowing what the Empath was capable of. Fortunately, it also seemed to get Rampage's full attention. While the half Vok/half Maximal explained Rampage's unique abilities to Wintersong, Rhinox kept himself between him and Aurora ready to reach for his other chain gun that was still in his subspace.

"Ah! A new playmate.. You should listen to her. She is very wise, but no matter how wise an individual, they can fall by the slightest push against their own weakness. And you have multiple around here."

Rhinox glared at his words and balled his fists as he positioned his whole body into a defensive stance.

"You know, for a second there, back when my spark was being sawed in half, I felt him, through you. I wonder..."

Ever so slightly the engineer's red optics peered in Whitegrazer's direction wondering if he was correct in assuming that Rampage was talking about Optimus. But he had to have faith in her knowing how to control the links and keep them separated. It seemed as though she did as they watched her precise and deliberate gestures toward the crab's attempts of possibly hijacking her spark's abilities.

"If you wish, Rampage, you can stop this madness. You don't have to fight us anymore. Zodiac has helped you, but it looks like he is ready to take off with, or without you. Why continue this? We can help you, if you let us, if you let me."

"Still want to help me?" "You are one of a kind. What a shame."

Rhinox actually thought that there was more hope to help Zodiac than there was for Rampage. Whitegrazer shouldn't stretch herself so thin over so many souls that needed guidance. Zodiac, Rampage, Wintersong, Optimus? That was too many to handle whether she cared to admit it or not, and at least two of those had been tainted by the Vok now.

Just as the Viper's engines began to roar and the ship "shook" off the debris that was still on it, another voice joined the fray that made Big Green look in her direction as she emerged from the water of the lake.

"Terrorize!" "I'm beginning to think you younger bots are way out of your league."

Spineback? Rhinox could barely recall the last time he saw her outside of the Darksyde. It was interesting to see her along with Tigerhawk and Wintersong appear in this situation. Perhaps that made it all the more real and dire circumstance that it was with a vessel like this up for grabs. He had to admit that he had a certain respect for her. She was not too dissimilar from him when it came to their abilities and job descriptions, and she wasn't a loose cannon like Terrorsaur and Inferno were.

"Don't think you are leaving without me, partner."

"Stop him!" Rhinox pointed to Rampage who fled toward the rising ship as a notion for the others with functioning weapons to fire at him.

Quickstrike proceeded to come out from behind his cover and join the others in firing his vibrant, green venom at the crab's back.

There was a brief moment of satisfaction that Optimus felt as he watched the taser cripple Zodiac the way he hoped it would have. Maybe he should have been more aggressive with it and continued electrocuting him, but there was too much compassion in his nature. He didn't like to see anyone suffer, especially by his own hands. It was, as someone would claim, one of his weaknesses.

"If you plan to repeat your demands from earlier, you can save your breath," "I still hold the upper hand and have no intention of surrendering."

After the fake Nexus Prime's grumbling and grimacing in pain, Primal glanced at his gesture to cease the cannons' firing upon him and Megatron. Well, what was left of the functioning auto guns. And then he had given him his proposal. How could he still think that he had the advantage here when the majority of his internal and external weapons were already damaged, and the Maximals and Predacons were surrounding him? What was Optimus missing?

"You'll both be dead at my feet soon enough,"

Megatron scoffed at Zodiac's presumptuous words. "Unlikely," he commented. If Optimus didn't have what it would take to overthrow this inexperienced fool, then he would simply have to take matters into his own hands. Of course, he was quite damaged already, so it might be wise to get someone else involved in this confrontation. Someone who was not much different than Zodiac when it came to the nanotechnology and who very much wanted him dead.

"Or have you forgotten that I already control the Viper and there is nothing either one of you can do to change that?"

Optimus glared at the renegade. He must not have considered how far Primal was willing to go to stop him.

"It would make perfect sense to simply give up one of my greatest assets. Heed my words when I tell you that Rampage will obey me, whether he realizes it right now or not."

Megatron's outburst of laughter that was clearly meant to mock Zodiac's confidence in his abilities to manipulate the crab even made Optimus look over at him. "Yet here we stand, and there he remains," he pointed at the monitor that was showcasing he battle outside.

Primal cautiously looked from the Predacon leader back to the shape shifter.

"So the spark and the journal in exchange for this vessel.. It would solve a nuisance for me, I suppose..," "Intriguing suggestion, Primal, and I must give you credit for making it,"

Strongly against this deal, Megatron quieted down and listened while Optimus thought that Zodiac might very well consider his offering judging by his thoughtful tone on the matter and addressing him as such.

"But I fear there are certain things you may not be aware of that makes your deal invalid..

The Maximal Commander's hopefulness seemed to fade away rather quickly as he stood there with his puncture wounds that slowly seeped, the fluid trickling down his torso, when their opponent declined his proposal. He didn't understand. What 'things' could he possibly be referring to?

Things that your dear departed Nexus should have informed you, but apparently he failed to do so.

Now Zodiac had his full attention. Nexus... What did he mean by that? What didn't Nexus inform him about? Or was this just a trick with his mind games?

Perhaps it would be best if I simply let him explain the situation you're in to you himself."

Optimus blinked, bewildered by his words. Explain the situation himself...? He wasn't sure he was prepared to watch or hear anything from his former mentor... But Zodiac was going to go forward with it without even considering Primal's emotions. He inhaled deeply and held his breath as he prepared himself, watching Zodiac take out the journal that was so very precious to the gorilla and activate it.

"It has been a productive day,"

Primal stared at the hologram longing for it to be really him speaking in front of him. Nexus... he thought with sorrow. His voice, his appearance... It was exactly as he had remembered the Admiral before he had left Cybertron. His commanding personality, his strength and empathy...

Megatron watched them curiously but remained silent while he conjured up another plan of attack in his magnificent mind.

"And it appears my efforts are starting to pay off, at least as far as the Viper's construction is concerned.

Was that how Zodiac knew about the Viper; with the journal? And he had it in his possession after all this time. The Maximal clenched his jaws together.

The chief engineer just informed me that they have successfully implemented cryo chamber technology into the weapon systems aboard, so the ship's weapons will be virtually indestructible as they can just regenerate themselves should any harm come to them.

Primal's body language suddenly weakened from its once strong and tall appearance. His mouth relaxed and his shoulders sank because he now knew what Zodiac had been talking about. He gripped his gun tightly as he readied himself for more gun fire. And he couldn't help but glance at the weapons that he had damaged only to witness them undergoing repairs so they were fully functional again within minutes while the journal's video recording continued to play.

With any luck we'll be able to implement the same technology throughout the ship, thus truly making it the star of the Maximal fleet. My only regret is that the Viper's construction will not be complete in time for my dear Optimus' to receive his own ship and crew, but I have faith the Axalon will serve him well until such a time that I can award him command of the Viper instead,"

As difficult as it was, Optimus fought back his emotions. Instead of suppressing them, he accidentally rerouted a flood of them toward Whitegrazer so she could manage them through their open connection. Speaking of which, he could feel her presence closer now. He wanted to hold her, but at the same time, he wanted to be alone. Regardless, he left their connection open as he tried to accept the peaceful energy that she was offering to everyone at the scene. Primus, Nexus..., he thought while being taken aback by this turn of events. This was too much. This technology is excessive and complicated. Didn't you consider what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands? Nexus... That's exactly what has happened... You knew what Zodiac was capable of in his disguises. Not even your voice would have been enough protection. Primal was at a loss. He wanted to reach out and grab the journal from the shape shifter and hold it close to him where it was meant to be. But it was right then when the cocky bot turned it off and put it away. Optimus' fingers fidgeted on his gun's handle at his side, his index finger gently rubbing the trigger while he thought about his extremely limited options now, if he had any.

Megatron, however, took advantage of the situation and turned away from the two who were so engrossed with the hologram so he could send a transmission to his female accomplice who was else where in the ship. "Nemesis, report to the bridge at once!" There was grave urgency in his voice. "Zodiac needs to be put in his place!" if she knew what he meant by that. He couldn't do it himself, as much as he hated to admit it, simply because of the situation he found himself in now with the Maximal gorilla and the revelation Zodiac made clear to them with the help of Nexus Prime's journal entry. They needed to fight fire with fire, as it were.

"Face it, Optimus, you and your purple friend here never stood a chance!"

Optimus almost believed him. Why bother to keep trying at this point if he was going to blow the ship out of the sky? Would that even be successful if that cryo technology had in fact been implemented throughout the entire ship? It didn't seem that they have a choice. But something else in Nexus' message also gave him another idea. What if... What if Nexus had put in a security measure to include Optimus' voice? But what difference would it make at this point? Zodiac would be able to duplicate it and reverse the commands anyway. Well, it was worth a shot, anyway. One last attempt to salvage the intricate and unique vessel before it was blown to pieces.

As the auto cannons erupted again, Optimus raised his gun and fired at them with a little less accuracy this time than previously obtained when he had more focus and more confidence in gaining control of the situation. Seeing and hearing Nexus again lingered in his head now, distracting him and fueling his desire to have that journal in his hands. This isn't about me, he reminded himself. I still have Aurora's chip who needs it returned to her. And we have to stop Zodiac from...

A jolt through the entire spacecraft made it that more realistic of the Viper lifting off of the ground now. It was officially airborne, and that was not good. Noticing this caused Optimus to get shot in the shoulder right where his arm was attached from one of the small cannons in the bridge. With a growl of pain, he targeted it and fired at it repeatedly until another cannon fired and hit him in his abdomen where he had already been stabbed by Zodiac's spikes. He doubled over and fell to his knees from the angony before he noticed a console's extended desktop near him that would provide him some cover. He slid over to it, banging into the wall underneath and caught his breath. As the gunfire continued along with the fake Nexus' laughter, Primal decided to attempt something. "Computer, have any protocols been installed to recognize this Maximal: Voice Code: Optimus Primal?"

"All set here, Boss Monkey!" Rattrap finally reported to the Maximal leader over his comm. link. "Uh, why does it feel like we're flyin'?"

"Because we are," Optimus reaffirmed with him in a strained voice while he holstered his gun back to his hip and pulled out the taser again only using the arm that wasn't injured while the one attached to the shoulder that had been shot sparked at the joint connecting to his chest and sent some pain to his processor. "Damaging the auto guns is futile," he then explained to the rodent. "They can regenerate. You and Blackarachnia have to evacuate!"

"Hey, I ain't leavin' without ya, Fearless leader! Even with my wireless remote, dese bombs could explode at any time with all dis random cannon fire goin' on!" he argued.

"That's an order, Rattrap! I'll be right behind you!" he fibbed to encourage them to abandon the ship before they elevated any higher off of the ground than they already had since neither Rattrap or Blackarachnia were fliers.

"You better be!" Rattrap reluctantly obeyed.

Optimus took out the taser and lowered the voltage before he turned it on himself, pressing it against the side of his chest under his wounded shoulder, and zapped himself. As much as it hurt, he clamped his teeth and growled through them, but what he was doing was activating the experimental nanogel that Aurora had applied on him some time ago in order to effectively repair his severely damaged shoulder. As the tiny bots came to life with the electricity, which was the opposite occurrence when applied to Zodiac and Nemesis' nanobot technology, they illuminated and migrated to his injury that was close enough to reach without traveling too far. He felt that tingling sensation as they marched upward, swarming around the problem, and immediately started repairing his joint after he turned the taser off and put it back into his subspace.

Knowing they had a cease fire going, Rattrap hesitated to shoot at Nemesis after her wounds had just fixed themselves from the clever stunt Blackarachnia had pulled on her. He was about to strafe from her but her maneuver was too quick as she lunged at him and grabbed his throat, pushing him off of his feet. He gagged and fell to the floor out of the way of the gun fire that came at him from the auto cannon. Or rather that's what he thought had happened. It turned out that Nemesis had inadvertently taken the hits for him. Had it been on purpose? Or was it just an accident? He wasn't sure. Neither of them liked each other, so why bother putting herself in danger just because she could regenerate only to spare him the inevitable injuries? The same with Blackarachnia just minutes earlier who had also pushed him out of the way. I know I'm a ladies man, he joked with himself, but, come on. Not these two! He shuddered. Peering around her large wings which proved to be the perfect shields, he fired at the cannons while she also fired at another pair that were pummeling her. Together, they took them out before she practically fell on top of him from all of the impacts she took from behind. He watched her grimace in pain and frowned with some concern. Wait, why?! Why did he care?! Aye!

"Saving your skidplate, apparently..,"

"Yeah, well, nobody asked ya to!" Rattrap pointed out defensively as he got back to his feet and fired at the guns that had repaired themselves just like Optimus said they would. How could they even do that?! What kind of a ship was this? Was it possessed?! Because that certainly seemed like the most logical explanation... Insert sarcasm there.

"We need to get off this ship,"

"We were already ordered to," he told Nemesis as he whistled loudly using his thumb and index finger in his mouth at Blackarachnia to get her attention. "We're outta here, legs! Optimus' orders!" He fired a few more shots at the cannons nearby.

"Yo! Ratface! Throw me one of those explosives!"

"So you can slap it on my back and blow me ta smithereens? Yeah right!" he objected running toward her to escape the doomed vessel and dodge the cannon fire. "Besides, I'm out of 'em!" he lied but she couldn't know. He ran past her and hoped she'd just follow him.

Megatron had found some cover behind a broad pillar in the bridge as he stood sideways against it. Every so often he peeked around it to fire his tail gun at the relentless cannon fire, but for the most part this time he remained unscathed which was a nice change from the onslaught he had received earlier. "Are there anymore brilliant ideas you wish to implore, Primal?" he called to him over the gunfire when he glanced in his direction and spotted him under the console. "Or shall we resort to brute force and overthrow him?" he smirked ever so slightly when even that kind of maneuver may not work since they would still be targeted by the ship's weapons and Zodiac would still have control over the Viper. However, if he or Nemesis could get close enough to kill him, then everything would fall into place for the Predacon warlord.

Optimus rotated his shoulder and flexed it a little to make sure the repairs by the activated nanogel were solid after it had taken several minutes. It felt good. He grabbed one of his clubs and his gun and looked over at Megatron before he stood up and showed himself to Zodiac once more. The brightly glowing nanogel was just beginning to slowly fade where it had repaired him, but the wounds on his stomach were still quite evident and painful. Shot after shot came at him and he swung his club to ricochet them back toward the cannons or toward Zodiac. Then he would raise his plasma gun and fire at them before he would have to resort back to his club to deflect more shots. "We need to abandon the ship, Megatron!"

"Have you finally lost your mind?!" he inquired rhetorically between the gun shots. "You know as well as I do that we can not allow him to escape!" There was a brief moment when his optics were drawn to the glowing on the Maximal's shoulder before he had to address more gunfire.

Megatron didn't understand since he didn't know the ape's plan about blowing up the vessel entirely, but it wasn't Optimus' intention to take him with it, so he wanted to try and convince him to let it go. Zodiac could survive such an explosion, but Megatron would be severely or fatally scrapped. "Would you rather us deplete our ammunition and succumb to the Viper's and Zodiac's weapons?! Where's the logic in that?!" he tried reasoning with his nemesis while he continued alternating swinging his club and firing his weapon as needed. Every swing stretched his abdomen though and he cringed a little from it.

Grumbling, the Predacon leader said, "We know someone who can hold their own against Zodiac. Give her the opportunity!" And he wanted that spark back!

"There's no time!" urged Primal. The longer they debated the more altitude that the Viper was gaining.

"Looks like you could use an extra hand outside, my liege."

"Spineback!" Megatron acknowledged her transmission, although there was irritation in his voice. It wasn't directed toward her, of course, since she had proven to be a very loyal, competent and valuable member of his faction. It was because of Primal's inability to bend to his whim and the pressure they were under at the moment. "Engage Rampage! Do not let him board this vessel!" Even though they were already airborne, Megatron didn't presume to underestimate the crab's abilities to jump and grab on to the Viper some how seeing in the monitor how his attention was suddenly on the ship and the rest were apparently unable to stop him.

The Predacon returned his attention to Optimus after firing a few more shots at the cannons and Zodiac again. "Your lack of creativity in this very ominous situation disappoints me, Primal!" he cried out over the gun fire. "It is as though..." His deep voice trailed off when he recalled discovering the rodent's hub cap wedged between the door which had allowed him and Nemesis to enter the Viper. He gasped when he realized what the Maximal Spy was probably up to, imagining him planting his explosive devices in the engine room. "Do you take me for a fool?!" Megatron said after he had suddenly lunged at the Maximal and grabbed his throat, slamming him against the wall while the cannons continued firing in their direction. "You intend on annihilating the only functioning ship available to us in order to stop him?!" He squeezed his neck with rage.

Optimus dropped his club in haste but held on to his gun when his adversary caught him off guard with his reaction of fury and felt his fingers wrap around his throat and his back colliding with the wall. He choked a little as he grabbed the Predacon's wrist that was nearly strangling him and tried to loosen his grip. "And you," he admitted while glaring at him. "So, we either abandon ship...," he struggled to say between gasping for breath, "or we go down with it!" Optimus lifted his gun and pressed the barrel of it to Megatron's stomach to offer him further persuasion.

The TransMetal t-rex snarled with outrage, and he wildly desired to drive the clamps of his tail into the Maximal Commander's stomach to rip out his spark and crush it. Some how he managed to refrain himself from doing so. Perhaps it was because no matter what happened now, the ship was destined to be blown to scrap, and he'd rather not be included in that kind of destruction that could very well end his life. After all, he still had bigger plans to attend to in the future. At least with this happenstance, albeit unfortunate, he wouldn't have to worry about the Maximals gaining control over it either. "You continue to infuriate me, Primal, pushing me ever closer to the edge," Megatron said in his coldest voice as he released Primal's neck just as he began feeling the shots to his back. He turned around to redirect his rage onto the culprits instead of the Maximal, blasting the cannons away.

Optimus coughed a little and rubbed his neck while ignoring Megatron's subtle threat. Then he bent over and picked up his club to keep defending himself from the relentless barrage of firepower. "Optimus to Tigerhawk," he radioed to the Fuzor who he was still very glad to have around right now, especially as another flier. "Rattrap and Blackarachnia are going to need a ride," he warned him, implying that he was in fact their mode of transportation.

"Rattrap, we're a bit high off the ground, so coordinate with Tigerhawk for your means of escape," the gorilla informed him.

Tigerhawk?! Seriously? He was there?! This came as a surprise to the rodent. He may have had a somewhat rocky beginning with the Fuzor, but at the moment he was relieved to have a way off of the ship without having to rely on the monkey. "What about you?"

"I'm a little tied up at the moment, but don't worry. I'll be on my way out shortly," he assured him.

Of course, Rattrap wasn't entirely convinced, but with the remote detonation to his demolition charges, at least he'd able to control when to blow it up. There was still time before the ship would be out of range unless Tigerhawk could follow it assuming Optimus couldn't escape quickly enough. Right now, though, he and the black widow needed to hitch a ride with the flying tiger. "Yo, Tigerhawk, dis is Rattrap," he relayed to him over his comm. link. "Do ya see the main entrance of the Viper? We're headin' dat way."

"Disregard my previous request, Nemesis, and evacuate!" Megatron reluctantly radioed to her while his voice seemed to indicate a hint of disappointment and hopelessness as though he now knew what was going on. In truth, he was displeased with her inability to stop Rattrap and his plan, but it was difficult to be angry with the one Predacon he was able to trust his life with and who saved him after Zodiac had almost killed him.

(( OOC: If I've missed anything, sorry. But I've worked too hard and too long on this post to continue devoting any more of my free time to it.

EDIT: I added a some more to my post near the end here with Optimus talking to Tigerhawk and Rattrap. ))

[Wintersong]

The sudden jolt of the ship caused Tigerhawk to pause in his attack on the Viper’s weapons, glancing back towards the engines. Well, that wasn’t a good sign. ‘I don’t know what you and Rattrap are up to Primal, but hopefully you can speed this plan up.’ The large fuzor thought to himself, realizing they were quickly running out of time.

But, that didn’t seem to be the only concern from the ship.

Tigerhawk turned his attention back to Inferno when hearing him gasp about something, optics widening when he saw what the ant meant. Were the weapons repairing themselves?! What in the world had gone into constructing this ship? Truly whoever crafted it or commissioned for its construction had put much thought, time, and effort into making it formidable in more ways than one. “I…do not know.” Even Tigerhawk was in shock, never seeing anything like it in his long career nor his function. Though it did bring up his wonders if maybe there was something about this ship none of the Maximals had full knowledge of. And if this was of Maximal origin, what might the Predacons back home be cooking up on their side? ‘If this is what the Maximals back home have been aiming for, what could the Tripedicus Council possibly have in their arsenal?’

But Rhinox’s yell from down on the beach caused Tigerhawk to turn his attention towards his comrades, wondering what was happening. It seemed they had all made it at last, along with one new face for the Predacons. The calming presence that Whitegrazer offered, however, helped somewhat to ease Tigerhawk’s worrying thoughts, reminding himself to stay focused. He couldn’t start losing hope now. Instead, he focused back on the situation below, spotting the others firing at the one called Rampage…who was making a beeline for the ship! “Inferno was it?” Tigerhawk looked back at the ant, still trying to remember everyone’s names. “I think our objective is clear: we slow down that crab and keep him from getting inside the Viper. If he does our leaders and comrades may fail.” He told the red ant before diving down towards Rampage himself, “Sorry crab legs, this flight is at maximum capacity! Allow me to direct you to a new one!” Tigerhawk growled, flaring out his wings and aiming to kick the large immortal square in the chest, using the moment to both knock Rampage back a few feet or stumble at the least and pushing off to flip back, getting some distance in the process.

But it was as the fuzor fired his electricity cannons that Optimus commed him once more, "Roger that Optimus, I'm on my way." Tigerhawk replied before looking back at the others. There were several of them present attempting to take out Rampage, so perhaps him leaving shouldn't be too big of a concern. He had given the crab a swift kick to the chest and with that momentum he figured it would give the crab a brief halt. With some hope that the others could handle the psychopathic crab, Tigerhawk quickly took flight, flapping his wings as hard as he could to catch up with the ship, "Just a quick moment Rattrap, I should be seeing it...now!" There, he spotted the torn open area of the hull courtesy of Megatron's actions earlier. Diving for it, Tigerhawk landed right inside the ship, having to press his hands against the walls to prevent the movement from throwing him off balance, "All aboard the Flying Tiger Express." Tigerhawk commed to Rattrap, shifting to his beast mode to allow the smaller bots upon his back.

Despite the wariness Rattrap had shown him when he first helped his new team, Tigerhawk held no ill-will towards the rodent. With considering everything they had gone through he could respect Rattrap's concerns but right now those could be handled for another time as the fuzor had himself carefully positioned at the entrance, ready to take flight the moment Rattrap and Blackarachnia were on his back.

“You know me, this cat is always ready for a challenge.” Wintersong said with a grin despite her less than optimal state. But hey, least it was something other than being probed down to her spark by the Vok or sitting around the Axalon being on edge and not knowing if she could have done something to help her friends.

Luckily, Whitegrazer had never been far behind her, that calming, serene presence being unmistakable after all this time. At least, it should have been calming. But, that feeling lasted but for a split moment before the lingering presence of the other Vok within her core seem to recoil in revulsion and rage, as if appalled by the traitorous present of one of their own who had turned her back on them and preferred her Cybetronian state over being whatever it was these individuals were. Wintersong gave a small grimace, resting a hand over the area of her spark as a small throbbing pain followed the spiritual recoil she felt, the Vok presence blocking out Whitegrazer’s own, the reaction causing fracture like energy lines to appear on her chest over her spark and extending to the right side of her face, ‘Traitor…cannot be trusted…’ Came that faint voice once more, causing Wintersong to growl softly, ‘Maybe you should look in a mirror sometime.’ She mentally rebuked towards the presence lingering.

Thankfully, it was merely their reaction and not another attempt to invade her thoughts full force, but the energy fracture-like lines remained as Wintersong merely nodded, “Yea, no problem. I wouldn’t exactly call that a trustworthy face to begin with.” She responded towards Whitegrazer, turning her weapon towards the transmetal crab making his way towards the ship and firing on his back in the hope Tigerhawk’s and Inferno’s interference plus their own firepower would be enough.

Well, no wonder Megatron had shown such an interest in this newly awakened monstrosity. Rampage seemed to shake off anything thrown his way with relative ease as if he had barely felt a blow at all. “My, how experimentation has come far.” She said to herself with intrigue, vaguely wondering how someone such as the infamous mad scientist Shockwave would have felt about such a development. ‘And from Autobot descendants no less, the irony in everything going on at the present.’ To say the least, Spineback rather found it amusing at the turn of events.

The Decepticons had always been condemned for their lack of concern for life or playing Primus with it, yet here they were, facing an immortal sort of Cybertronian from the work by Autobot descendants. So much for untarnished reputations.

“Already being done.” Spineback acknowledged in response to Megatron, moving swiftly across the beach towards Terrorsaur as she fired upon Rampage’s retreating form towards the ship. “Terrorsaur, get up you featherless peabrain! We don’t have time for this.” The former Decepticon growled, seeing the rather nice dent in his helm from a well placed strike, shaking her head slightly at the Transmetal flier’s error in judgement. “Then again, maybe if you had half a processor working this wouldn’t have happened.” She sighed in annoyance, grabbing his unconscious form and throwing him over her shoulder before turning to join in on firing at Rampage once more. “I hope you have a long-term solution to handle this freak of nature while we figure out this ship situation, Maximal.” Spineback spoke towards Rhinox, optics briefly shifting to the ermine fuzor and back again. “I didn’t have time to grab much before I came this way.” She admitted, adhering to the ceasefire as ordered and figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask if they had something in mind.

Because with everything going on, they could use a miracle right now.

((Meant to reply last night as well, but got way to tired after the past two weeks of stressing over my presentation. Hope this is a good one! I know its a bit short.))

[Phoenix]

"My, my, my, what a big bot, you are..."

"It was... an experience," Rhinox had commented quite vaguely to Aurora, implying that it was neither good or bad. "I learned some things about myself that I never explored before. Nor would I care to again."

Aurora took a moment to let those words sink in. If Rhinox, who was normally quite well mannered and often functioned as the voice of reason in an otherwise chaotic situation, could operate and actually function as a Predacon and then return to his Maximal self, perhaps there was some hope for the remaining Predacons to do the same. Especially those who had originated from Maximal pods that had gotten hijacked and the protoforms within reprogrammed.

"I don't suppose you left any surprises for them before you returned to the Maximals?," she asked, a bit hopeful he'd actually say yes albeit she doubted it. Rhinox was less of an opportunist than some such as Rattrap, so it was unlikely he'd consider such an approach even in the state he must have been after his reprogramming.

The rhinoceros went on to describe how the experience had changed him, in some ways permanently, even if it wasn't necessarily for the worse. If anything he seemed to possess the rare ability to use something that would surely have caused anyone else to doubt themselves and instead use it as an inspiration to do better. It was quite a remarkable trait the rhino had there.

"It's possible. Perhaps the answers to our questions are in his journal."

Aurora tilted her head a bit. She, too, kept a journal, albeit hers was more to note the results of a number of experiments she was running since it was difficult to sort everything out in her head sometimes. No doubt her journal wouldn't be considered anywhere near as interesting should anyone happen to come across it, the techno babble within probably being enough to put off any and all snoops who would try to read it.

"That journal must mean a great deal to Optimus. It seems it might be the last piece of the real Nexus he has to hold onto. Hopefully we can get it back."


She genuinely hoped so, for Optimus' sake. As well as to keep additional secrets that may be within the pages of the journal contained within.

"After his apprenticeship under Nexus working on Zodiac's experiments, the Council reassigned Optimus to overlook the development of Protoform X, or Rampage as he's now called. I don't know if there was any underlining to their decision splitting Nexus and Optimus up. Sometimes I wonder if it was because they thought Nexus had too much influence over him and that they were concerned that he might stand up against their unethical ideals when he'd get wiser. Or worse, that they would stand up together."

Now that was an interesting thought, wasn't it? Optimus and Nexus standing together against seemingly impossible odds. And more than likely winning. A pity it could never happen now that Nexus Prime was dead.

"I know which side I would be on in the conflict that would no doubt happen if those two had been allowed to continue their uprising," the fuzor said with a smile. Although she'd stand by Optimus regardless. Their leader was now much more independent than it sounded like he'd been while serving under Nexus, so it was likely Primal would take on the task of confronting the council even if Nexus wasn't there to support him. Still.. she knew Optimus didn't especially enjoy leadership. In fact it was fairly obvious he considered it a burden.. but his burden nevertheless.

"Do you think we'll ever get to see him confront the council for what they've done and tried to do?," she then suddenly asked Rhinox, a bit more somberly.

"Most Maximals liked him immediately and respected him, myself included. I thought he was as honest as they came. But it's almost common knowledge that with someone so decorated and at his age, I could tell he had secrets. Not that he was obvious about it, but once I had met Optimus and we began working together, he had confirmed my suspicions about what he had been involved in with Nexus. He never said any specifics, but I could tell that it bothered him a bit."

The fuzor drew in a breath before she muttered a single letter to indicate she understood.

"X.."

Such a lethal sounding code name it was, quite fitting for the large crab. Or Rampage, as his name was now. And the fuzor found herself briefly wondering about the crab's origins, if he'd been physically created in the lab under Optimus' direction, or if he'd actually been someone before all the experimentation took place.

The battlefield they had just joined was chaotic. Gunfire from the many automatic weapons located on the Viper buzzed all around them, whirling up dirt and plants indiscriminately as it tried to shoot at each of them. And in the midst of it, the large red form of the mutant crab could be seen.

Aurora twitched a bit uneasily as the large crab came closer, a bit too close for comfort. No, that wasn't entirely accurate.. Far too close for comfort! His focus seemed to be on Rhinox though, which really didn't make the fuzor feel any less on edge. Honestly she was more afraid of seeing her family get hurt than herself, and Rhinox was very much so part of that family. He may be big with thicker armor than most, but she still cared about him very much.

"But you really shouldn;t interfere with the big, ad wolf's meal."

"Why bother with the appetizer when the entree is right in front of you?!"

Ugh.. could this guy possibly get any more creepy?? Aurora's finger lingered on the trigger as she did her best to keep her aim trained on the large crab. Not an easy task considering how she could almost feel herself tremble from time to time.

Fortunately their new companion, Tigerhawk, was flying above and helping them. And even the Predacons seemed to be focusing their firepower on the Viper and Rampage, upholding the bargain Megatron had made with Optimus. It was most surprising, really, given the nature of these Predacons. And for a moment, Aurora wondered if she'd been wrong about them.

She took aim with the rifle, firing the first load of tranquilizers at the large crab. Whether her shot missed or merely couldn't penetrate the thick armor, she wasn't quite sure. So she loaded the weapon and took aim again.

"Don't suppose you two could use a couple extra hands do you?"

Wintersong!

Aurora glanced over at the until now missing feline fuzor, only to gasp slightly at the sight of her. She looked as much of a mess as Whitegrazer had done after their previous ordeal with the Vok. If anything it seemed that Wintersong needed a cryo chamber and a long nap. Still.. the smaller fuzor was grateful and happy to see the other female, and perhaps even more so the taller white mare who was accompanying her.

If she hadn't been otherwise preoccupied, she would run to greet them both in person. But as things were, her hands were holding the rifle and she had to take another shot with the tranquilizers before Rampage caused some serious harm.. Or ran off.

She took the shot and waited, hopeful that the second dose of tranquilizers would be enough to at least slow the crab down. But to no avail. Moments later the crab took off running towards the ship.. Which was now taking off! The ground shook as the ship started to lift off, powerful thrusters lifting it off the ground and causing Aurora to gasp in shock.

No no no no..!! Her comrades were still on that ship! And there was no way Optimus would allow it to just take off like that, so that must mean that Zodiac was still in control of it. Or Megatron. Albeit it seemed unlikely the Predacon leader would simply uproot everything to make a sudden dash for Cybertron.. or wherever.. without making some comprehensive plan to do so.

"Don't think you are leaving without me, partner."

"Stop him!"

Aurora glanced over at Rhinox, not quite sure what to do at this point. The tranquilizer rifle wasn't really made for longer distances and Rampage had already put some distance between them and him as he darted towards the Viper. For someone so large and bulky, he was surprisingly fast on his feet. And seemingly invulnerable, indeed, since the tranquilizers hadn't even phased him yet.

Tigerhawk did the heroic thing and rushed off to try to help their friends, and Aurora was grateful to him for that. She'd have to give him a proper thank you when they got a chance to simply talk without gunfire constantly interrupting them. Speaking of which, the Viper almost seemed like it had sustained little to no damage to its weapons, despite the many times the Maximals and Predacons had fired at them. So the fuzor wasn't quite sure what was going on there. It was as if the ship was regenerating the weapon systems in a sense. Which couldn't be possible.. or at least shouldn't be. Right now the fuzor couldn't really tell given the chaotic situation they were all in.

"Nemesis, report to the bridge at once!" There was grave urgency in his voice. "Zodiac needs to be put in his place!"

Well.. great.. First Megatron tasks her with gaining control of the ship by sabotaging Rattrap, and now he wanted her to drop everything to take on Zodiac. Although it was tempting, for sure, but there just wasn't any way to satisfactorily do both. As things were, the Viper seemed like the best option they all had to get out of there. And Zodiac would no doubt take that chance and use it for his own gain only.. whatever they may be. He had proven that he didn't care about things that didn't directly affect him, so if he got a chance there was little doubt he'd use it to help himself only.


She held off on replying to Megatron as the automatic weapons in the Viper kept regenerating and then targeting them all again. From the sound of urgency in the Predacon leader's voice, he was in a similar situation right now as well. She would respond, of course, when she was able to.

There was a brief moment as the female bird of prey lunged herself at Rattrap, that the rodent almost looked as he was stiffening up. The look on his face wasn't surprising in the least, not when considering their past history. It wasn't as if the two of them had formed anything even resembling friendship, albeit at times there was an inkling of respect between the two.

The Predacon second in command wasn't expecting any gratitude from the rat for just having saved him, true, but some semblance of recognition would have been nice. Of course the rodent, true to his reputation, refused to acknowledge her sacrifice for what it was. And that was okay. She hadn't just saved him purely out of an innate desire to do good, after all.

"Yeah, well, nobody asked ya to!"

Nemesis' red optics settled on the rat with a look so fierce it was fortunate for Rattrap that she didn't have optic lasers built in.

"Are you always this grateful?," she snipped back before turning her attention to the autoguns that seemed to be healing as they spoke. And then there was the rumbling from the engines, of course, and the slight shaking as the Viper gained altitude. Of course Nemesis had no intention of letting this ship bring her back to Cybertron. Truthfully she had little more than bad memories from her visits to their home world, a place that was mostly alien to her given how little time she had spent there.

"We were already ordered to,"

The avian female merely stared at the rodent as he jogged past the two females on his way to the exit. She didn't waste too much time, however, and turned her attention to the two explosives Rattrap had left behind the moment he was too far away to really be able to keep track of her movements. Deciding she didn't have much time, Nemesis then proceeded to attempt to pry one of the explosives off. When that didn't work, she grabbed for her sword to assist her.

There was simply no way she was letting Zodiac escape with this vessel.. And it certainly seemed like a great prize to offer to Megatron. "I'll be right there," she informed Megatron as she struggled to remove the explosive without setting the thing off in the process.

"Unlikely,"

The disguised pretender smirked in a way most unfitting for the form he had taken, as the real Nexus Prime would never boast such arrogance.

"And how do you propose to stop me, Megatron? You're weak and dragging on in years. While you may think you're so magnificent, you fail to realize how expendable you truly are. A has-been too out of touch with reality to see it, that's what you are. But don't worry.. I'll show you."


His scornful remarks were followed up by a slight chuckle, only to replace it with another round of gun fire. He stopped when Megatron spoke up again, curious to hear what the doomed fool had to say.

"Yet here we stand, and there he remains,"

For now..

Zodiac didn't bother to correct Megatron on his wrong assumption that Rampage would be lost to the renegade if he had to leave him behind. Not at all, given the nature of this vessel and its capabilities. There really was only one outcome here, as these stubborn socalled commanders were about to discover.

While letting the hologram finish playing, Zodiac kept a keen optic on Primal to see what kind of reaction he'd get when seeing his dear Nexus again. And the look on Primal's face didn't disappoint as all the different emotions played across his features, truly showing his despair for losing his mentor. Zodiac tried to savor that look, wanting something to hold onto after all this was over. But the arrival of Whitegrazer which filled the air with a sense of peace was too distracting, even without their previously established link. The white mare had been kind enough to not force that connection back upon him, but he could still sense her presence from that aura she affected them all with.

But the renegade was quick to dismiss it, not needing the distraction.

The auto cannons were by now fully repaired and kept firing a steady stream of blasts at the intruders. And Zodiac was more than happy to join in, using his own shoulder mounted cannons to try to speed up his foes' departure from this world. He had been unable to overhear the conversation between his two opponents due to the noise.

"Disregard my previous request, Nemesis, and evacuate!"

The avian female halted her attempts to salvage the Viper as soon as she got Megatron's counter-message, immediately pulling away from the explosives. "I trust you'll be joining us?," she sent back to Megatron as she, too, started making her way towards the exit.

"Computer, have any protocols been installed to recognize this Maximal: Voice Code: Optimus Primal?"

Meanwhile, the computer responded to Optimus' inquiry again, the first response having drowned in the endless onslaught of firepower. "Affirmative, Optimus, you are recognized by the system. Welcome aboard!"

Zodiac heard the computer address something.. or someone.. but he'd not been paying attention, his optics were instead drawn to the monitor showing the security camera footage of the entrance, where Rattrap could be seen fleeing as fast as he could. And right outside, the sensors picked up another Maximal signal, a flyer that Zodiac had only briefly seen back at the Vok site.

But why was the rodent in such a hurry..? Surely Primal was aware of the capabilities of this ship, so would he truly be willing to risk everything so easily ..?

Then it occurred to him that Rattrap was a well known saboteur, and he had been snooping around the Viper and had clearly survived the assault from the weapon systems..

By the Pit..

Zodiac silently cursed himself for having been so careless as to assume the weapon system could take care of his little stowaways. And by now the Viper was getting close to the upper parts of the planet's atmosphere.

"Computer, prepare to make the jump to the preset coordinates. And could you repeat what you just said?"


"I confirmed Optimus' presence, Admiral Nexus Prime, as per your protocols, and granted him access to my systems."

Zodiac had been about to rush over to investigate what damage the rodent could have done while on board, but stopped in his tracks when he heard the computer's report. Wait.. what??

"Delay those protocols!," he snapped back at the computer, "Optimus is not to have access to anything!"

For a computer, the response sounded almost confused.

"But Admiral Nexus, you implemented those protocols yourself. They are part of my most basic functions."

"Override them!," the renegade shouted back, by now rushing out to get to the engineering section where Rattrap had come from. "It's a Predacon imposter pretending to be Optimus," he continued.

"A system reboot is required to implement change in protocols. Unable to comply while warp drive is activated."

The pretender sighed, rounding the corner before hurrying down the hallway towards engineering. Well.. that was unfortunate.. But fortunately, there was nothing Primal could do to stop the warp drive now. They would all get transported back to Cybertron in the future, and Zodiac would just have to deal with the trespassers then.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"I don't suppose you left any surprises for them before you returned to the Maximals?,"

Rhinox smiled lightly at Aurora's inquisitive mind but was sorry to disappoint her when he answered, "No. Megatron had shot me as soon as he reverted my programming, and the others had to pull me out of there for a retreat."

"That journal must mean a great deal to Optimus. It seems it might be the last piece of the real Nexus he has to hold onto. Hopefully we can get it back."

"Of that I have no doubt," he agreed with his small scientist friend. "Zodiac could easily be spiteful about it and destroy it before Optimus can gain possession of it, so let's hope that somehow he'll give up the journal or accidentally leave it behind." There could definitely be a lot of information with Nexus's recordings that would benefit Optimus, and maybe even his entire crew. But more importantly, it might offer some closure for their leader who has sacrificed so much already and lost a few souls under his command, which was a happenstance Rhinox was certain that Optimus had never wanted to experience.

"I know which side I would be on in the conflict that would no doubt happen if those two had been allowed to continue their uprising,"

The engineer's smile was a little brighter toward that comment. "Me too." It was clear that because of Optimus's compassion and optimism, he had some very loyal members of his team that would follow him to the end to try and make Cybertron a better place for both Maximals and Predacons. Well, Optimus would also do the same for any of them.

"Do you think we'll ever get to see him confront the council for what they've done and tried to do?,"

Rhinox's smile faded away as he pondered the Chief Biologist's question. There were a lot of variables to consider. "It's one of his priorities... if we ever make it back to Cybertron." He was careful to avoid calling the planet "home" since it wasn't really how Aurora felt about it. Her home was here on Earth, where she was "born". This lush world full of organic life, water, different terrains and weather. He didn't want to distract her thoughts by offending her or making her uncomfortable since he was addressing a completely different subject. "He should get the opportunity to do so," he went on, with the key word being "should". "But I fear due to some of his unorthodox decisions he could very well be court marshaled. Aurora..." Rhinox paused thoughtfully as he chose his words carefully, "...The Elders have had their own agendas for quite some time, and if Optimus shows any intention of interfering with them, he could be arrested. After all, they would be very serious allegations," he wanted her to understand. "To be honest, that could happen to any of us if we 'know too much' about the situation. We're all witnesses here. Optimus and I have already speculated that they tried exiling him when they noticed his revelations toward their immoral ambitions, which could very well be how we ended up here." He shook his head. "As much as I could explain it further to you, we don't have the time right now. Maybe later. I'm sure Optimus doesn't want to make this an open discussion among the crew though. The less involved some us are with this alleged conspiracy theory, the better."

-----

Rhinox lowered his hand to Aurora as a gesture to halt her fire on Rampage and stay put. He swapped his over-heated chain gun for the other one in his subspace just in case they needed to continue defending themselves. But the Viper was already pretty high in the air, so its weapons weren't as accurate despite that they appeared to be regenerating somehow, and Rampage was going to have even more trouble hitching a ride now. He looked over to his left when Spineback started speaking in his direction.

“I hope you have a long-term solution to handle this freak of nature while we figure out this ship situation, Maximal.” “I didn’t have time to grab much before I came this way.”

Truth be told, they were only really prepared to take Zodiac prisoner who was probably enough for them to handle at that point in time. Optimus might be willing to let Megatron take Rampage back due to their lack of resources. "Damage him enough and he'll weaken because it'll take time for his body to repair his wounds," he explained to her. "But whoever possesses the other half of his spark will have greater control over him." He peered upward to see the ship continuing to rise, and the hum of the engines suggested that it was ready for transwarp. Come on, Optimus... What's taking you so long? he thought worriedly. Tigerhawk could be seen entering the vessel high above, possibly to pick up Rattrap and Blackarachnia. Perhaps Optimus wouldn't have time to give them a ride, or they were one less thing for him to worry about once he had to evacuate.

“You know me, this cat is always ready for a challenge.”

Wintersong's voice to his right grabbed Rhinox's attention, and he watched her place a hand over her spark as though she was in some kind of pain. He immediately forgot about everything going on around them when his optics enlarged while witnessing the lines decorating her chest and up to the right side of her face. "Wintersong?! Are you alright?!" he asked her with concern. He was willing to bet it had something to do with the Vok considering her recent interaction with them. And that wasn't good. What had happened to her? What did they do?

“I…do not know.”

Bah! What good was this Maximal to him then! Inferno grumbled to himself as he fired more rockets at the ship's weapons, following its increasing altitude.

“Inferno was it?”

The tall Predacon suddenly turned his head in Tigerhawk's direction between his gun fire acknowledging him using his name.

“I think our objective is clear: we slow down that crab and keep him from getting inside the Viper. If he does our leaders and comrades may fail.”

Gasping loudly as he could only think about his Queen failing - which wasn't an option - Inferno nodded at the Maximal and followed him in his dive to confront the invincible crab below.

“Sorry crab legs, this flight is at maximum capacity! Allow me to direct you to a new one!”

After Tigerhawk went in for a kick, the fire ant thought it wiser to keep his distance from Rampage and merely did a fly-by with his flame thrower, hoping to broil the crab in the process before he landed next to Quickstrike and glanced over at Spineback with Terrorsaur and the other Maximals.

"Roger that Optimus, I'm on my way."

Not only had Tigerhawk arrived at the right time, he was proving to be very reliable and capable of the situation despite his long-term absence. And he was very grateful for his assistance.

“Already being done.”

Spineback. One of the few Predacons under Megatron's command that he could count on. So far, he was aware of them doing an excellent job preventing Rampage from boarding the Viper. Now, if only he could gain control of it himself. But if not, he would, at the very least, reacquire the spark stolen from him and anything else he wished to pillage from Zodiac.

"And how do you propose to stop me, Megatron? You're weak and dragging on in years. While you may think you're so magnificent, you fail to realize how expendable you truly are. A has-been too out of touch with reality to see it, that's what you are. But don't worry.. I'll show you."

The deepest, coldest growl rumbled in Megatron's throat toward Zodiac's remarks. HOW DARE HE! He wanted to rip his spark out and shove it down his throat! Then he would see just how weak and expendable he was! The Predacon unloaded even more firepower onto the fake Nexus Prime with his shoulder-mounted guns and his tail weapon, relentlessly blasting away.

"I trust you'll be joining us?,"

"YES!" Megatron angrily and impatiently hollered at Nemesis through their radio transmission as he verbally took out his frustration with Zodiac on her. He shouldn't have since she obviously held some regard of respect and concern for him or his leadership, but the shape shifter's ego and cocky words had finally gotten under his paint.

"Affirmative, Optimus, you are recognized by the system. Welcome aboard!"

Briefly, Primal's orange optics widened with surprise upon hearing the Viper's computer acknowledge his voice. Nexus had installed protocols that would respond to Optimus after all! This was a huge turn of events! Maybe they wouldn't have to blow it up.

Megatron halted his firing upon Zodiac when he exited the bridge and took a breather behind the pillar he was using for cover against the auto-guns. "Where is he going?!" he demanded to know from Primal.

Glancing up at the monitors, his optics scanned over them quickly and picked up Rattrap, Blackarachnia and Nemesis's movements hurrying out the engine room. "I think he's onto my plan." But Zodiac couldn't be in two places at once, even with the help of the Viper's computer.

"Do something about these auto cannons!" the tyrant said as the blasts kept coming at both of them.

"Computer, redirect the weapons to target Admiral Nexus Prime," Optimus ordered it. "And before you argue with me, I would suggest you scan for his identification chip. I am who I say I am. It's Zodiac who's disguised as Nexus Prime!" As the commotion died down in the bridge, Primal hurried to the navigation console and put his weapons away before he started typing in commands and trying different protocols.

Megatron emerged from behind his cover and approached the Maximal. "Clever, Primal," he gave him credit with a calmer voice. As intriguing as it was that Optimus was recognized by the computer which gave him access to the entire ship, Megatron also saw that as incredibly threatening to him and his Predacons.

"You asked for creativity," he commented as he noticed his adversary's voice get closer to him without looking over his shoulder to see him standing closer than he would have liked.

"We need to interrupt its projected course," the Predacon leader said as he watched over the Maximal's shoulder. His back throbbed in pain from all of the gunfire it had absorbed, but he tried not to let it bother him, especially now, when if he played his cards right, he still had an opportunity to commandeer the impressive vessel.

"I'm trying," said Optimus with some frustration and panic in his voice typing in command after command. "It's not responding." "Computer, override the current coordinates and deactivate the warp drive!"

"Are you always this grateful?,"

"Only with Predacons," Rattrap returned Nemesis's sarcasm. Was she actually admitting that she had purposely thrown herself between him and the gunfire to save him from being shot up? It just seemed very unlikely to him, and he didn't trust her intentions.

"Just a quick moment Rattrap, I should be seeing it...now!"

Running toward the exit and firing at the weapons that appeared along the way to target and shoot them, the rodent never thought he'd be so happy to see that big Fuzor standing there waiting for them. But where had his hub cap gone? And where was the door? Who cares! he thought because there was his ride!

"All aboard the Flying Tiger Express."

"Man, am I glad ta see you, 'Hawk! Let's get de heck outta here!" the Maximal Spy said as he climbed onto Tigerhawk's back eager to abandon the ship before he was going to blow it sky high. ...Preferably with Zodiac and Megatron still inside of it.

‘Traitor…cannot be trusted…’

There was a strong sense of the Vok that suddenly overwhelmed Optimus that caused him to gasp inward and he stumbled backwards into Megatron who stopped him from falling down as the Predacon grabbed his shoulder with his free hand. A flash of Wintersong appeared in his mind quickly followed by that strange orb again and mysterious whispers. Wintersong...? Was she okay? They had left her behind in the assumption that she had perished while encased in that alien cocoon. Why was he having visions of her now? Was it through Whitegrazer? Is that who he was sensing through her earlier?!

"What has gotten into you, Primal?" inquired Megatron while he glared at him from behind and his hand tightened on his shoulder while he subtly put his tail gun away to place his other hand on his nemesis's other shoulder as unnoticeable as he could.

Optimus bowed his head for a moment as he collected his thoughts pushing the Vok out of his mind and composing himself. The punctures in his stomach were still bleeding a little bit which was quite sore after that cannon blast it took as well. He went to step forward to return to the console but found himself stuck. What was going on here? He almost thought the Vok had somehow gained control over his body and he couldn't move, but when he tugged on his shoulders, then he realized that it was Megatron who had a hold on him. He remained calm. "I'm fine. Release me," he said slightly over his shoulder.

"I believe this would be the opportune moment to hand the Viper's control over to me. Yesss." He hadn't really cared what was wrong with him since he merely took advantage of the diversion. His hands tightened on his shoulders a little more and he applied pressure downward to make it feel as though he was beginning to crush the Maximal with his weight.

"Are you insane? We don't have time for this," Optimus reminded him as he struggled a little in his grasp. "We can't interrupt the warp drive, so we still have to destroy it!"

"No! Bequeath to me the command of this vessel, and we-" Suddenly feeling a sharp pain in his abdomen, Megatron released Primal and slightly doubled over with some coughing after Optimus had elbowed him as hard as he could. He muttered some cursing under his breath while the Maximal stepped away from him and spun around.

"I'm not doing this with you, Megatron! I'm prepared to decimate this ship with all of us on board, but I would prefer sparing our lives!"

"You would never be willing to take a life along with your own!"

"Wouldn't I?! To protect my crew and Cybertron?! Go ahead and call my bluff, Megatron!" Optimus threatened him. Then he opened his comm. link to his demolition expert without taking his optics off of the TransMetal t-rex in robot mode. "Rattrap, prepare for detonation."

Megatron glared at him with a sneer hesitant to push Primal further. Was this really worth it? He still had the alien orb, and his other plans that would ensure his victory. Zodiac may have had the right idea to travel back in time to Cybertron in order to prevent the treaty from ever being signed, but Megatron's scheme would take him back even further and erase all of this from history, maybe even Zodiac himself.

"You outta de blast zone yet?" Rattrap asked. He took out the remote that was linked to his demo charges as he looked around while on Tigerhawk but failed to see their fearless leader anywhere. "I'm ready, but I ain't seein' ya."

Optimus stared at his rival without responding to Rattrap whose voice could be heard over his comm. link.

The Predacon warlord stared back until he finally scoffed and said, "None of your Maximals have it in them to take your life. I am rather surprised that you would even consider putting any of them in that position."

"I can just as easily lie, and Rattrap will follow through with the order for the sake of everyone else's survival. Don't presume to tell me what my crew is willing to do." Optimus licked the scar across his mouth in anger before he addressed the TransMetal rodent again. "Rattrap-"

"Wait!" Megatron interrupted him. "Have it your way, Primal," he finally yielded with reluctance. "Just know that you are wasting the only prospect any of us have of returning home. We will be forging this war for many years to come."

"So be it."

[Wintersong]

Tigerhawk grunted softly as the ship jolted once more, causing him to bump into the ship’s wall, hissing softly from his wound. “I really hope this vessel was worth it.” He muttered under his breathe, using his shoulder to push himself back to his feet and trying to keep as stable as he could. But peering his head over the edge of the threshold, the large fuzor could see sooner or later they may very well run out of time or atmosphere he would be able to follow.

A few warning shots from the outside systems however made the fuzor his and pull his head back in until he heard the sound of rushed steps behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Tigerhawk smiled in relief to see Rattrap though Blackarachnia was yet another face he was not familiar with. “Give me some credit Rattrap, my power seems to be excellent timing today.” The fuzor mused, waiting to feel the two small bots become settled on his back before he moved closer to the edge once more, optics narrowing behind his bird shaped mask covering the top of his tiger head before launching himself from the ship, using his powerful back legs to get some much needed distance.

It was just enough momentum for shots to miss, albeit feeling the heat of the blasts come dangerous close to hitting him. Certain he was a fair distance however, Tigerhawk gave his wings a few hard flaps before banking around to see where the ship was and making a beeline to follow it.

But as he kept some pace with the Viper, his ears perked forward at attention, optics wide as he heard the engines, “Rattrap, the ship is preparing to warp.” Tigerhawk informed, expressing concern that they may have to act quite soon. As if on cue however, Tigerhawk’s ears swiveled back upon hearing Optimus suddenly speaking with Rattrap, indicating for him to prepare the charges the rat had planted. “We are running out of time my friends, if we don’t blow that ship in the next few minutes I will run out of atmosphere to keep pace or the ship will transwarp to Primus only knows where.” The fuzor prompted, voice urgent as he could feel the atmosphere becoming more difficult to fly through.

Wintersong didn’t answer Rhinox right away, the throbbing being rather distracting for her to pay too much mind. The Vok’s alien presence within her was admittedly terrifying, much as Wintersong hated to admit or show fear of any kind. She had shown panic of course, but there was a genuine fearful look in her expression along with the slight pain.

Why couldn’t it have been one of the Predacons instead of herself?

‘Come on, just focus.’ She told herself, ignoring the throbbing for a moment to focus on her own presence. They may have had her deep in their clutches but she was still there, still herself. She could fight this, fight them. These Vok could wait another time to be handled, her friends were the more important concern and so was their shared enemy, the imposter Zodiac. The transmetal tigress focused on that thought, feeling the pain slowly ebb away as she felt their influence wane somewhat and having to unfortunately block out Whitegrazer’s own calming presence, not wanting to risk drawing further ire from her brethren. She just hoped Whitegrazer could forgive her for blocking it her friend, knowing the former Vok was nothing like the two she and a couple of the others had encountered. She cared for her teammates and friends, but for now, until Wintersong could learn to block out this new foreign presence, she would have to do the same to her.

Finally shaking her head, feeling somewhat more clear of mind she finally spoke, “I will be fine Rhinox, just a reaction, that’s all.” Wintersong answered a bit shakily, but giving a quick but exhausted smile, “We got the Viper and Rampage to be concerned about.” She pressed, her own problems of little importance in this situation. But turning her gaze upward she wondered if they could salvage this situation, “That’s if we’re not too late to do something about the ship that is.” She observed with concern.

The tranquilizers would be temporary then. “I see.” Spineback answered, once more finding herself deep in thought over the situation at hand.

She had a feeling at this rate the Maximals May have no choice but to concede defeat in handling Rampage personally. The crab was already going to be taken down eventually, but it would be useless for something long-term if he just kept healing and being weakened. But Rhinox’s little tidbit about the healing and having to be weakened by constant attacks did give her an idea. And as if someone was reading her processor she felt Terrorsaur begin to shift, hearing the transmetal flier groan as he came to from the blow struck to his head. “About time.” The saurian femme made her way over to Quickstrike and Inferno, unceremoniously dropping Terrorsaur near them, “Terrorsaur, get in the air and see what you can do about helping with the Viper. Or at least give any of our comrades inside some cover, those defenses will still be targeting them.” The veteran spoke, raising her shield arm to take one of the mostly inaccurate shots to avoid her slightly smaller companions from being harmed.

“Tch! Who kicked the bucket and made you commander!” Terrorsaur growled, rubbing his aching helm but gulped as something came dangerously close to striking his shoulder, feeling a faint stinging sensation of the surface being grazed. Stabbed behind him in the dirt with enough force to tear into the more damp earth beneath the sand, Spineback gave a warning growl, her lance in hand by now. “Because at the present moment you’re the only other flier who can catch up with that thing, got it?” She growled threateningly, watching the pterodactyl gulp and nod vigorously, obviously getting the point as Spineback tore her lance free. “Be ready to give me some cover fire just in case old fashioned brutality doesn’t handle this psychopath.” Spineback indicated to the fuzor and red ant, finally turning her attention fully to Rampage.

There was no doubt he had to be weakened by now, and she intended to make it far more difficult for him to get up, literally. “Why not take a load off pal, we can get to know each other a little more.” Spineback spoke up towards the crab, twisting her lance so the point was facing down towards the ground before leaping and coming to land on Rampage, attempting to stab the crab through the upper back of his shoulder and in his chest, avoiding striking what remained of his spark within his spark casing.

Her goal was to keep Rampage from squirming too much and prevent his healing capabilities from reacting immediately.

Rubbing the small cut in his top armor, Terrorsaur merely shook his head in disbelief, “What’s with all the saurian types using threats to be in control?” He muttered to no one in particular, pushing himself to his feet and peering up at the ship, now no longer on the ground since he had been knocked out. With a grumble, Terrorsaur took flight and transformed to his jet mode, heading up to give the Maximals and any of his comrades some aid, firing some of his rockets upon the active weapons closest to the entrance.

[Phoenix]

(ooc: Well... Una pulled an Una again.. )

"YES!"

Nemesis had still been attempting to dislodge the bombs when Megatron replied to her, quite angrily at that, however she understood his predicament at the moment. Zodiac could be quite annoying, this much was true, and he knew just how to get under someone's armor. Therefor the female paid it no heed and instead focused her attention on the task at hand. Not that it did her much good and only a short while later she had to give up her attempts.

Zodiac had given Megatron a smug look as the tyrant's face changed to one of utmost rage, looking as if he was about to launch himself at the shapeshifter. In a sense it was a bit disappointing he hadn't since the renegade could then have used his nanomachines against the raging tyrant. But as things were, the Predacon leader chose another direct, but less intimate, approach to vent.

Another round of firepower came shooting at the fake Nexus Prime who barely had time to find cover behind a makeshift desk. Well.. almost had time would be a more accurate description, as his verbal provocation of the tyrant did end up with with a smoldering area near the shoulder. Zodiac grimaced a bit from the pain while pressing his back against the metallic desk, waiting until the initial burst of shots had quieted down before he called out to Megatron again. By the time his words weren't drowned by the sound of gunfire, his wound had fortunately almost healed up as well.

"Did I touch a nerve, mighty Megatron?"

It probably wasn't wise to keep teasing the tyrant right now that he was barely able to contain his fury, but the renegade couldn't resist. After all, Megatron had been Cryotek's star pupil.. for reasons Zodiac had yet to understand. In a sense, he probably never would, since in his mind his own unique abilities placed him in a league of his own.

An army upon yourself, are you?

Megatron's words from their first meeting briefly echoed in the renegade's mind.

Indeed.

Of course the whole scenario changed when Zodiac caught sight of Rattrap and BlackArachnia escaping the Viper and getting caught on the security camera while doing so. The pretender's smugness dwindled upon realizing the likes of Rattrap had more than likely been busy sabotaging his operations here, and he would have to stop it while he still could.

For that reason Zodiac rushed off to the engine room, leaving Megatron and Optimus in his wake. He simply didn't have time to deal with them right now, but with any luck the automatic weapon systems aboard the Viper would do it for him by the time he got back.

"Computer, redirect the weapons to target Admiral Nexus Prime," Optimus ordered it. "And before you argue with me, I would suggest you scan for his identification chip. I am who I say I am. It's Zodiac who's disguised as Nexus Prime!"

For a computer with no personality component or spark of its own, the female voice almost seemed to hesitate before responding to Primal's order.

"Unable to comply to your request. I detect Nexus Prime's identification chip's signature approaching the engine room. It goes against my primary programming to attack Nexus Prime. Can I be of assistance with anything else?"

"It's not responding." "Computer, override the current coordinates and deactivate the warp drive!"

"Warp drive activation is imminent. Unable to deactivate at present time. May I suggest that you and your guests take a seat in preparation for warp to initiate?"

"Only with Predacons,"

Nemesis did nothing to hide the fact she rolled her optics at the rat's reply. Not that she had expected much of the rodent, although a shred of gratitude would have been swell. Still, her supposed heroic act served its purpose and before long Rattrap was heading out in the corridors with BlackArachnia in tow. Nemesis, too, pretended to leave. Or at least she did after her failed attempt to separate the explosives from the warp core.

She didn't get far, however, before approaching footsteps alerted her she wasn't alone. Nemesis slipped out of sight only a moment before Zodiac, still disguised as Nexus Prime, came rushing into the room.

The shapeshifter looked around before his attention got drawn to the two objects that clearly didn't belong there. Rattrap's explosives.. Of course. His instincts on this matter were correct. Optimus' plan was to blow the Viper out of the sky. Well, their little scheme was about to fail miserably. Drawing in a deep breath as he approached the explosives, the renegade muttered to himself.

"Nice try, Maximals, but this is one party you will not ruin for me.."


He let the nanomachines flock down his arm as he walked, into his hand and through his fingertips, the hand taking on a more diffuse appearance as it started glowing. In some cases the simplest solution was also the best, as seemed to be case here. Prying the darn explosives off could easily damage the warp drive, or possibly even set them off. So his intent was to merely let his nanomachines consume the explosives, to strip them of their metal until there were no more functional components that could inadvertently explode.

Meanwhile Nemesis watched in silence as Zodiac got closer and closer to the explosive, her weapon already taking aim. "Time to leave.. now!," she told Megatron as urgently as she could. There really wasn't any time left.

"Warp drive activation in five seconds..," came the feminine voice of the computer, alerting everyone on the ship that it was time. Zodiac took note of this, of course, a hint of a smile creeping back into the corners of his lips. These pests were too late to stop him. Nothing could halt the process now.

"Four.."

He reached his glowing hand out towards the explosive, ready to engulf it with what remained of his fingers now that the nanomachines made up the majority of his hand. He could sense their hunger, their eagerness to serve him, and the warm sensation as his fingers touched the edge of the explosive and proceeded to devour it greedily.

Nemesis hesitated, at least for that moment. If she set off the explosives, it would no doubt cause the Viper to spiral out of control and crash. But if she didn't, the activated warp drive would surely send them all to whatever coordinates Zodiac had programmed into the ship's controls. And if that happened, they would be too far away for Rattrap to activate his explosives. Then they wouldn't be able to stop the traitorous renegade from making his plans come to fruition.

Still.. The Viper was a marvelous ship.. a true treasure in its own right, loaded with technology almost unheard of on Cybertron, and it would definitely benefit whoever had control over it. And frankly Nemesis didn't really care too much who had possession of it, as long as it wasn't Zodiac.

"Three.."

Zodiac was so divulged in the delicate task of consuming Rattrap's explosive that he didn't even notice when Nemesis stepped out into the open, her weapon still trained on the other bomb. It wasn't until he heard her voice, one he immediately recognized, that he turned his head to look at her. And as it did, it was as if his entire body froze.

"Zodiac.. Megatron sends his regards."

"Two.."

Inadvertently, the shapeshifter's hand materialized and he held both of them out in a non-threatening gesture.

"Nemmy.. wait!"

His voice had reverted to normal, and if he had the time his appearance might have as well, if only to provoke some semblance of remembrance in the female. Memories of a time it had been just the two of them against the world, one long before treachery, lies and deceit had driven them apart. His optics told her everything she needed to know, and for a moment he looked almost.. lost.. and a little frightened, perhaps.

Nemesis shook her head, however, not interested in wasting these precious few seconds reminiscing.

"You had your chance," she told him coldly, discharging her weapon at the remaining explosive. She followed up with two more shots to make sure she wouldn't miss before turning tails and running off as quickly as she could.

Zodiac tried to stop her shots, he truly did. Using his body to try to deflect them, he tossed himself in front of the incoming shots, only to have the first of them strafe the side of his face before continuing on towards its target. Zodiac dropped his disguise as he brought his hand up to the gash on his face before whirling around to see where the shots had impacted, only to freeze again as he saw the sparks and smoke shooting out of the bomb.

Well.. crap..

The following explosion was almost instantaneous, and produced enough force to shake up the entire ship as it prepared to enter warp. An inferno of flames from the core spread out throughout the room, engulfing its remaining occupant, and continuing on down the hallways. The heat was so intense, it melted through the metallic framework, and again the ship shook violently before starting to take a nose dive as the first of the engines shorted out as well. The warp core was history, destroyed in the initial explosion. Surprisingly the shockwave from the blast hadn't damaged the hull which remained intact, but this had the effect of keeping the explosion locked within this area of the ship. Thus only increasing the damage done to the engine room and all its intricate mechanisms and electronics.

Zodiac dropped to his knees before collapsing entirely on the floor, flames covering his armor and wrecking havoc with his nanomachines within. The pain was devastating, so much so that he almost started to feel a little numb from it. He tried putting the flames out by rolling onto his back, but with the entire room burning he didn't have much success.

Nemesis had made it to the exit before she stopped to look around, checking if anyone else were joining her. But as she didn't see anyone, she passed through the doorway before the ship lost what little power it had left to keep itself afloat. Outside the fiery inferno that used to be the engine room, red warning lights were flashing throughout all the hallways along with a more subtle tone alerting the occupants that the ship's condition was critical. The remaining engines could be heard sputtering as the Viper tried its best to stabilize its flight, but the sound soon grew louder until another few, smaller, explosions were heard as those engines too died. And with the final engine shutting down, the Viper was no longer able to sustain any sort of flight. It glided through the upper atmosphere for a few moments before gravity started pulling the once mighty vessel back down to Earth.

In the meanwhile Aurora had stuck close by to Rhinox, keeping her mind distracted by talking to him as they went along.

"No. Megatron had shot me as soon as he reverted my programming, and the others had to pull me out of there for a retreat."

As soon as he reverted the programming? Megatron had done that? As happy as the fuzor had been to find out Rhinox had escaped virtually unscathed since he was obviously okay now, alive and talking, this seemed like a story she'd have to go into more details with Rhinox about later.

"Go figures the others had to pull you out. You were probably too busy kicking Pred skidplates," she commented halfheartedly. Her statement at least held some truth to it since Rhinox, peaceful as he seemed, could actually be a force to be reckoned with when he was in battle.

"Of that I have no doubt," he agreed with his small scientist friend. "Zodiac could easily be spiteful about it and destroy it before Optimus can gain possession of it, so let's hope that somehow he'll give up the journal or accidentally leave it behind."

Would he though? Zodiac had proven he was intelligent and willing to take advantage of most situations, but he also carried a vendetta bigger than most. And frankly he seemed to have a bit of an obsession with Nexus.

"As long as he doesn't manage to leave all of us behind," the fuzor said, indicating the black vessel that hadn't yet taken off at that point.

"It's one of his priorities... if we ever make it back to Cybertron."

The fuzor fell silent as the topic of returning to Cybertron was brought up. The metallic world was not her home.. and it never would be. Yet she was keenly aware of how the others felt about going back there, a fact that frightened her a little bit. After all, Earth was her home.. But the Maximals were her family. She didn't want to get in a situation where she had to choose between the two. To her that choice was impossible.

Still.. maybe at some point they would be able to make both choices. They could perhaps visit Cybertron and still keep ties with this planet.

"If Optimus can get his hands on this Viper, maybe we won't be forced to choose..," she said, a bit more quietly.

"He should get the opportunity to do so," "But I fear due to some of his unorthodox decisions he could very well be court marshaled. Aurora...""...The Elders have had their own agendas for quite some time, and if Optimus shows any intention of interfering with them, he could be arrested. After all, they would be very serious allegations," "To be honest, that could happen to any of us if we 'know too much' about the situation. We're all witnesses here. Optimus and I have already speculated that they tried exiling him when they noticed his revelations toward their immoral ambitions, which could very well be how we ended up here." "As much as I could explain it further to you, we don't have the time right now. Maybe later. I'm sure Optimus doesn't want to make this an open discussion among the crew though. The less involved some us are with this alleged conspiracy theory, the better."

Court marshaled? For what? For disagreeing with the crooked council that had somehow managed to get in a position of power and influence back on Cybertron?

"Don't they have laws and regulations even the Council have to follow? I mean.. surely they do, right..? From what I've been told, the Council has done some terrible stuff themselves.. So how can they threaten to court marshal Optimus for being a better leader than they are?"


She went silent for a moment or two, contemplating Rhinox' words. Politics was not a field she understood much about.. at all.

In the battlefield, the Maximals and to some extent also the Predacons managed to hold up okay. Or at least until the Viper took off and blasted into the sky at such speeds only a few could manage to keep up. The larger fuzor who had joined their team not very long ago was proving to have quite impressive skills, especially while flying. Aurora was a tad bit jealous to be honest.

Still.. Tigerhawk seemed like a nice guy and the smaller female fuzor had to hold her breath more than once as she watched him do his aerial acrobatics while battling it out with the ship's weapons.

On the other hand Wintersong seemed a little worse for wear, but still she managed to pull on the strength to join the fight. Aurora watched her in silence, wondering if the other female would even let them examine her much less repair her after the trauma she went through with the Vok. But for the time being she seemed to hold up okay enough.

Then.. a loud noise from above caught the fuzor's attention. She looked up, squinting her optics to see what was going on so far above them, only to see what looked like the Viper in fast approach. In fact, it looked as if it was descending out of control. Aurora gasped when another loud bang sounded, only to realize it must have come from an explosion aboard the Viper.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

"Go figures the others had to pull you out. You were probably too busy kicking Pred skidplates,"

Rhinox had chuckled at her remark. "Without them, I would have been scrapped, even if Megatron was the last one standing."

"As long as he doesn't manage to leave all of us behind,"

The engineer had sighed thoughtfully at Aurora when she pointed out the vessel. He had faith in Optimus's plan to prevent that, of course, but sometimes wrenches were thrown in when they weren't expected which could have shaken things up.

"If Optimus can get his hands on this Viper, maybe we won't be forced to choose..,"

He could sense the reluctance in her voice. She didn't want to leave Earth, and he couldn't blame her. "I understand your hesitation, Aurora. This is a beautiful planet, but we can't stay there. Well, that is if we can ever find the means to escape assuming we lose the Viper. The planet needs to live through its own evolution without us interfering. Its predetermined history needs to run its course, and it shouldn't include us." Per say... Hadn't they already interfered though? Were they meant to be there for some mysterious reason?

"Don't they have laws and regulations even the Council have to follow? I mean.. surely they do, right..? From what I've been told, the Council has done some terrible stuff themselves.. So how can they threaten to court marshal Optimus for being a better leader than they are?"

Rhinox admired Aurora's innocence some times. But she had a lot to learn. He gazed at the wrapped wound on her head for a moment before explaining a little more to her. "They are powerful and influential. In public, the crowds view them as wise and compassionate because that's the facade they portray. But behind closed doors, there's manipulation, criminal and unethical activities, and vindictiveness. Some are paid to keep quiet, whether in monetary means or materialistically. Some are never seen again. And some are bribed, which is the avenue Optimus took, I believe. He was given his own ship and crew, and the status of a higher ranking officer; all of which he dreamed of having and had worked hard to acquire. For the Council, it was an easy way to get him off of Cybertron for extended periods of time and to entrust him with Rampage's fate. Who knows what Nexus Prime must have done to try and find him after our signal was lost through the transwarp jump. Well, he obviously attempted to search for him... us, because here stands the very ship he designed." It was almost heart-breaking to think about how close Nexus was to rescuing them. Where did it go wrong? Could it have even been before Zodiac tracked Nexus down and killed him? Would the Council had forbid the Admiral to search for Optimus?

-----

“I see.”

“About time.”“Terrorsaur, get in the air and see what you can do about helping with the Viper. Or at least give any of our comrades inside some cover, those defenses will still be targeting them.”

“Tch! Who kicked the bucket and made you commander!”

“Because at the present moment you’re the only other flier who can catch up with that thing, got it?”

“What’s with all the saurian types using threats to be in control?”

Big Green looked from Spineback, who appeared thoughtful on how to handle Rampage, and raised a brow at Terrorsaur who flew off toward the Viper before eventually settling on Wintersong again.

“I will be fine Rhinox, just a reaction, that’s all.”

Rhinox's accusing optics toward Wintersong suggested that he was not convinced, and he would demand a full examination of her once they had the chance to do so back at the Axalon. What he witnessed her struggling with was entirely unnatural and clearly compromised her health.

“We got the Viper and Rampage to be concerned about.” “That’s if we’re not too late to do something about the ship that is.”

He slowly shifted his cautious gaze from the tigress up to the Viper that was too high now in the air to bother targeting them on the ground. They were way out of range. "Optimus has a plan to take it down if he can't stop Zodiac." He lowered his weapon to his side and watched anxiously... waiting.

“Be ready to give me some cover fire just in case old fashioned brutality doesn’t handle this psychopath.”

Although Inferno was hesitant on following anything Spineback ordered them to do, he knew that the Royalty respected her and valued her intellect and skills. So, in this situation, it was probably best not to argue and just obey to see how it would play out. If she failed, then he would gladly take charge without question and help their Queen lead them to victory.

Quickstrike, on the other hand, didn't care who commanded who. He just wanted to kick some skidplates and show that crab who was boss!

Both of them armed their weapons and prepared themselves to provide her with the cover fire she may have needed as they ignored the Maximals nearby.

“Give me some credit Rattrap, my power seems to be excellent timing today.”

"I'll give ya even more if we land safely on the ground after all of this is over!" he told Tigerhawk as he held on to him with one hand while holding the wireless detonator in his other. He still hated flying. It was a long way down shoul anything happen to Tigerhawk.

“Rattrap, the ship is preparing to warp.”

"I know!" the rodent said as his audio sensors also picked up the roar of the engines. But Optimus hadn't given him the signal yet, and he watched the climbing ship worriedly as Tigerhawk desperately tried to keep up with it.

“We are running out of time my friends, if we don’t blow that ship in the next few minutes I will run out of atmosphere to keep pace or the ship will transwarp to Primus only knows where.”

Rattrap glanced down at the remote in his hand, his thumb gently rubbing the button on the side as he grew extremely indecisive before looking back up at the vessel.

"Did I touch a nerve, mighty Megatron?"

That sniveling, cocky, immature, inexperienced, fool! If only Megatron could get his beast mode's teeth wrapped around his head to crush it! He should have chased him out of the bridge and stalked him to the engine room!

"Unable to comply to your request.

Optimus's optics searched the empty space in front of him with confusion. Before he could ask the computer why, the female voice went on to explain.

I detect Nexus Prime's identification chip's signature approaching the engine room. It goes against my primary programming to attack Nexus Prime.

He has... Nexus's identification chip...? Primal's spark sank and his legs almost gave out, but he grabbed the console to catch himself. "He killed him... and he took it... He took it from him..." he repeated quietly in disbelief. He couldn't help but imagine how he pried it out of Nexus Prime, disguised as Optimus himself after he murdered him. Taking his mentor's life wasn't enough. No, then Zodiac had to go and steal his I.D. chip. It made sense if he was going to steal the Viper and pass himself off as the decorated Admiral. But it didn't make it right. It was an incredibly disturbing thought to him.

Megatron remained quiet and maintained a stoic stance in the room as he listened to Primal. He showed no sympathy or empathy, but nor did he take advantage of his long-time adversary's vulnerable state. For all he knew, one wrong word or motion could send Optimus into a frenzy. He recalled the time Scorponok's cyber bee had the alternative effects on the Maximal leader, turning him into his own personal guerrilla warfare who managed to infiltrate his base and take out all of his Predacons. He could only surmise that Primal did have a breaking point, and it may come soon after all of this. He'd rather him take it out on Zodiac than himself since Megatron was already fairly injured. Even his twin engines had been damaged since his back had taken so much cannon fire.

Can I be of assistance with anything else?"

Optimus didn't even hear the additional question from the computer during the shock he was trying to comprehend. He didn't see or comprehend anything around him. He was stuck in a void of emptiness, sorrow and anger.

"Warp drive activation is imminent. Unable to deactivate at present time. May I suggest that you and your guests take a seat in preparation for warp to initiate?"

"Time to leave.. now!,"

Nemesis. Was she still on board? Was she going to confront Zodiac?! "Primal," Megatron attempted to gain his attention with a firm voice. "Give the order."

The ship, the journal, Nexus's chip... Optimus was going to lose all of it just to stop Zodiac. He was going to destroy their only means of getting back to Cybertron. It was a huge sacrifice. His thoughts went deeper, and Megatron's voice hadn't even registered in his audios.

"Warp drive activation in five seconds..,"

"Did you hear me, Optimus?!" Megatron almost pleaded. Nemesis's voice had more urgency in it than he had ever heard before, which made him wonder if she was going to take matters into her own hands. If the rodent had set some explosives in the engine room, was she going to detonate them with Zodiac as close to them as possible? Would that explosion be enough to end his miserable life? But what about her? If he lost her, he'd have one less really valuable Predacon under his command.

"Four.."

Finally snapping out of his trans, Optimus turned and looked at Megatron for a moment before telling him, "Let's go. Now!" he ushered the Predacon out as he followed him. He would have to leave it all behind. He would have to remain there on Earth with his Maximals battling Megatron and possibly the Vok for who knows how much longer.

Megatron spun around and made a dash for the exit where Tigerhawk had picked up Rattrap and Blackarachnia just minutes prior to their haste.

"Three.." "Two.."

"Rattrap, bl-" Optimus was about to command his demolition expert to set off the explosives when the entire ship shook violently, the alarms immediately sounding off, and sending both leaders tumbling into the wall and onto the floor, interrupting Primal's communication. Heavy debris like light fixtures, steel panels and pipes started falling from the ceiling. One pipe collided with Megatron's head, instantly knocking him unconscious when they were just several feet away from their escape route. Primal witnessed this happen, narrowly rolling out of the pipe's way and scrambled to his feet to hurry and assist Megatron. He grabbed his shoulders under his arms with both hands and started dragging him to their exit, the wind from the opened doorway forcibly whipping inside the corridor like a hurricane.

Again a huge jolt rumbled throughout the Viper from more explosions, rattling Primal's footing but he used a hand to brace himself against the wall for a moment before continuing to move Megatron. Optimus didn't bother wasting time trying to understand what was happening. The ship wasn't going into warp, that was for certain, but why Rattrap didn't wait for him to evacuate and give the word was a little disconcerting. Optimus pulled Megatron closer to the edge of the doorway and draped the upper half of his body outside of it, allowing gravity to do the rest for him as the tyrant slid out and fell lifelessly from the sky. After dragging his nemesis' weight around, Primal's stomach throbbed from its puncture wounds and seeped a little fluid again. In his weakened condition, he wouldn't have been able to haul Megatron with him in his robot mode or his vehicle mode, but he was certain that if there were any Predacons nearby, they would catch him. Before he, too, jumped out, the Maximal Commander looked over the vessel that was literally falling apart before his very optics. Wherever Zodiac was... If this didn't stop the shape shifter, then nothing could. The Viper was probably the last piece of Nexus's legacy that was left, assuming he'd never acquire his journal, and he couldn't even hold on to it. Turning, he finally jumped out of the doomed aircraft fearlessly, the very ship that Nexus was going to hand over to him later in his career... the very ship that had already been installed with the newest technology available on Cybertron and recognized his voice commands... No way home now...

Another explosion had erupted near the exit, blowing part of the ship off and catching Optimus in its fiery range. The force of it blew him into air so hard - albeit further away from danger - that the sudden g-force and whiplash caused him to black out, and his limp body began tumbling downward helplessly before he had the opportunity to alert any of the Predacon fliers of their leader's unconscious condition.

"What, Optimus?" Rattrap wanted to confirm over their transmission finding his sudden cut-off quite odd until the sound of his charges inside of the Viper caught his attention. "Ya read me, Boss Monkey?! What's goin' on in there?!" But there was no response. It wasn't Rattrap, he hadn't pressed the remote's button yet. Something or someone else had set off his demo charges, and his optics searched frantically for anyone who might have been trying to evacuate now. He even watched for Nemesis even though he was certain she'd be okay because she could regenerate her wounds, but even though he had put on a tough-guy appearance of depreciating her selfless act of protecting him against the cannons, he was hopeful that she'd make it out in one piece. He would have liked to have made sure that she had escaped before he would've blown it up, but now it was out of his hands.

"There!" Rattrap pointed to Nemesis from Tigerhawk's back as soon as he spotted her leaving the Viper. Then Megatron emerged, but something was wrong. He was't flying, he was falling. Well, honestly, Rattrap couldn't care less about him. Surely, his faithful minions would save his sorry butt. Where was their fearless leader?! He thought he spotted him at the ship's entrance before a blinding explosion made him avert his gaze momentarily. Immediately looking up again, he could see Optimus's body falling erratically. No! Rattrap gasped, tossed his remote over his shoulder and held on to Tigerhawk with both hands as he straddled his back. "Optimus! Catch 'im, Tigerhawk!" It would have been a lot more added weight for the big Fuzor, but hopefully he could maneuver with his passengers enough to grab him with his paws... or claws. Whatever he could use! Unless one of the Predacons stepped up, no one else was going to be able to help him. They were all he had.

From the ground, Rhinox held a hand above his optics to shade them from the sun and watched everything unfold. There were explosions now from the Viper, but it was difficult to make out any particular bot up there, except for Tigerhawk. Even he appeared quite small. "Something's wrong," he observed to those around him with his red eyes zoomed in as far as they could. He wanted to contact the cat-bird Fuzor but the distance would have been too great with too much interference. "Watch out for falling debris!" he warned them. The vessel was descending dangerously quickly now.

(( OOC: Don't worry, as soon as Megs and Optimus are safe, they'll regain their consciousness. ))

[Wintersong]

((I’m back home at last! And whew what an evening yesterday, even if it was a poster I was nervous as heck! But lot of people seemed interested!))

The large fuzor could feel his wings beginning to ache from his struggle to maintain a decent speed with the ship. But it was quickly gaining distance between them, making Tigerhawk growl in frustration under his breathe. If he had a vehicle mode perhaps he could have kept better pace, but at this current rate he would soon have to give up the chase. Not that it would probably last, sooner or later it would warp and this chase and wait would have been for nothing.

‘Come on Optimus, where are you?’ The fuzor was genuinely concerned for his new commander, wondering if something had happened to delay his escape or detonating the ship.

No sooner had those words crossed his processor, however, before a new sound caused him to perk up, ears swiveling forward at attention. That sounded like explosions from within, causing the mech to tilt his head to peer over his shoulder. No, that hadn’t been Rattrap’s doing. He seemed to be contemplating the act still, and he highly doubted the rodent would have recklessly pressed the button without notifying Optimus or listening for his signal. Someone else tampering with the explosives perhaps? He would likely find out soon enough as more explosions followed the first and the engines began to fail, causing the fuzor to stop in his tracks as the Viper was now falling from the sky.

Zooming in his optics briefly, he noticed movement at the entrance he had been a few minutes before when getting Rattrap and Blackarachnia. It was the avian female from the Predacons, one he had once more only seen briefly. He couldn’t help wondering if these explosions were her handy work somehow. But the thought crossed his mind in passing, now turning his attention to watching for their leader, beginning to descend after the bow damaged ship as gravity began to drag down from the upper atmosphere.

His attention though was soon drawn to the entrance, frowning in puzzlement when he saw someone pushed out slightly in the entrance, “What is going...” That thought trailed off when he realized it was an individual, Megatron to be specific. But he looked unresponsive, and was soon pushed completely from the ship to drop in a free fall and, for a brief moment, Tigerhawk caught sight of Optimus himself before a blinding inferno caused the fuzor to turn his gaze away to avoid being blinded. It was Rattrap’s worried gasp that made Tigerhawk whip his head back to figure out where the transmetal gorilla was, spotting Optimus seconds later in a free fall of his own. “Hang on tight!” Tigerhawk called before he went into an even steeper dive, his wings pressed against his side, paws outstretched as he dove for Optimus.

With a final push, the tiger-hawk fuzor snagged the unconscious Maximal leader, digging his claws slightly into armor seams for a firmer grip. But the additional weight briefly yanked him down along with Optimus, threatening to send them crashing to the ground, but with a quick flare of his wings fully and giving them a hard few flaps, he managed to catch himself and veer away from the ship careening towards the ground below. “Think I got the best catch of the day.” He grunted softly, slowly making his descent to the ground but his side now throbbing from the jarring catch.

Terrorsaur had barely made ground to catch up with the Viper himself before he heard the explosions, causing the transmetal pterodactyl to pause with surprise. Now where were those explosions coming from? It sounded from inside but there was no visible damage to the outside itself. “Huh, some engineering.” He grudgingly had to admit the Maximals knew how to build an impressive ship. But he wondered if this was the Maximals’ doing or their own considering both Megatron and Nemesis had gone to handle the renegade and the ship itself.

The mech had failed to see Nemesis exit the ship, his attention focused on watching what unfolded. By this time, he had shifted from jet mode to that of his beast mode, flapping his wings to hover in place before further explosions could be heard. He realized then that the ship’s engines were failing and the entire thing was coming down! Optics widening slightly, he barrel rolled towards the left to avoid the underside of the ship hitting him in its descent before straightening out to see where it was going and in the process spotting his seemingly unconscious leader free falling from the ship. Quite the welcoming sight to see for Terrorsaur, amused at the thought of letting Megatron become slagged from such a massive drop.

Yet, at the same time, he was well aware if his teammates found out he had allowed Megatron to become offlined this way and could have done something he would be next. “Ugh, can’t believe I’m saving this sorry sack of scrap.” He mumbled, diving down to get ahead of Megatron in a steep dive before carefully timing in moving under the tyrant, grunting softly as the heavy weight of the t-rex fell upon his back, causing him to have to flap his wings harder and faster to maintain his altitude. But that left one person missing, “Where are you avian? Do you still even function?” Terrorsaur commed towards Nemsis, wondering if she had made it out or was caught in the now blazing inferno of the Viper.

Wintersong kept her gaze focused on the action unfolding above them, feeling Rhinox’s accusing stare. The rhinoceros had more than made it clear it had been best she returned to the ship and rest, but her old stubborn side had been kicking in since she had realized the others were safe, for the most part. But now, she didn’t want to admit that the larger Maximal had been right, she shouldn’t have come along after all.

By then, the green energy lines had begun to recede back to where her spark was, far fainter markings being left in their wake but difficult to see right away. And doing so she could feel a greater drain than before, the exhaustion beginning to catch up with her. “Warning: energy levels at forty-five percent.” Wintersong cringed as her internal warning system only further confirmed her worry. The Vok seemed to draw on her energy in that brief flare up, causing her to wonder what sort of taint they had left in her systems but it would have to be something to check on later if they got through this first. “Beast mode.” She muttered, reverting back to her tiger form to conserve her remaining energy, only to glance up with surprise to hear the distant explosions. That was Optimus’ plan?

“If Optimus’ plans included dropping a whole ship on our heads, mission accomplished.” The exhausted tigress remarked, but glanced at Rhinox once more. Something wasn’t right? “What do you think is going on?” She inquired to the others there, squinting her optics and seeing quite a bit of activity occurring above them but not quite making out what all was going down. Had that been Optimus and Megatron just now falling from the ship? Were the others alright?

The explosions above caused Spineback to briefly turn her attention away from the immortal crab. What in the world was going on? The former Decepticon had no inkling of what could be causing the Viper to suddenly go up in flames and neither could she actually inquire about it. Megatron and Nemesis were too far out of range and trying to see anything above was extremely difficult due to altitude and the sun bearing down on them, obscuring their vision.

But the distraction was enough. Rampage, for the moment groggy from the several doses of tranquilizer, whose effects had been rather slow to settle in thanks to his thicker armor and unnatural healing abilities, saw his chance. Pressing his hands against the sand, the king crab shifted one of his feet under him, hissing slightly as the lance lodged in his body agitated the puncture wound as he moved, he finally found the leverage he needed. Albeit, his entire frame was sluggish and responded slower than he wanted.

With a primal growl, Rampage pushed himself up with enough force and strength to throw the veteran off balance, giving her no time to catch herself as he backhanded her upon pushing himself fully to his feet. “Nice try, but you’ll have to do better than that.” He sneered, ignoring Spineback’s weapon and the descending ship altogether, giving a slurred maniacal laugh as he began making his way towards Quickstrike and Inferno, his movements uneven but never losing that hungered look in his optics.

((Let me know if you would prefer Nemesis to get Megatron Phoenix, I can edit this post to allow her to do so instead.))

[Phoenix]

"Without them, I would have been scrapped, even if Megatron was the last one standing."

Aurora stared up at the sky above where the Viper had disappeared beyond the scattered layer of clouds and the flyers had followed it in hot pursuit. It seemed unlikely that they would be able to catch up let alone actually bring the vessel down from the outside, so the only real hope remained with those Maximals and Predacons who had managed to sneak aboard.

That, of course, was a very dangerous game to be playing, so Aurora felt fortunate that Rhinox was able to keep her mind off it with his stories.

"You don't give yourself enough credit. Even Megatron has shown he respects your might in the battlefield," the fuzor commented. And she wasn't entirely off either.

"I understand your hesitation, Aurora. This is a beautiful planet, but we can't stay there. Well, that is if we can ever find the means to escape assuming we lose the Viper. The planet needs to live through its own evolution without us interfering. Its predetermined history needs to run its course, and it shouldn't include us."

The fuzor looked a bit confused. Everyone kept telling her they couldn't stay here on this beautiful planet called Earth, but she still couldn't fathom why that was. The planetbuster was gone now, so why couldn't they just live here in peace instead of returning to the cold metallic world of Cybertron?

"But.. why?," she wanted to know, "Why can't we stay? You already told me that if we go back, we all risk being prosecuted by the Maximal Council of Elders? So why not just stay here, hidden away on this magnificent world?"

"They are powerful and influential. In public, the crowds view them as wise and compassionate because that's the facade they portray. But behind closed doors, there's manipulation, criminal and unethical activities, and vindictiveness. Some are paid to keep quiet, whether in monetary means or materialistically. Some are never seen again. And some are bribed, which is the avenue Optimus took, I believe. He was given his own ship and crew, and the status of a higher ranking officer; all of which he dreamed of having and had worked hard to acquire. For the Council, it was an easy way to get him off of Cybertron for extended periods of time and to entrust him with Rampage's fate. Who knows what Nexus Prime must have done to try and find him after our signal was lost through the transwarp jump. Well, he obviously attempted to search for him... us, because here stands the very ship he designed."

Some were never seen again..

Those words resonated with Aurora and frankly hit a bit closer to home than she cared to admit. Was this why the council kept the likes of Ironclaw working for them? As sort of a cleaning squad they could send to deal with their little messes.. How many like Ironclaw were there? And what other little mishaps were they trying to hide?

And then there was the fact Primal was given a bribe to leave Cybertron.. Why had he been chosen? Part of the fuzor felt the closeness between Optimus and Nexus Prime might have had something to do with the Council's decision to send him.

"I thought the Council oversaw the creation of Rampage in the first place..," she finally muttered after a brief pause, "Seems like they do nothing but play games."

Dangerous games..

By now the Viper was fading into the background, seemingly well on its way to its destination. Aurora was getting more than a little nervous it would actually succeed.. and take her friends with it on its journey.

"Optimus has a plan to take it down if he can't stop Zodiac."

"It might be time to implement that plan soon," she mumbled, mostly to herself, after overhearing Rhinox talk with Wintersong. Oddly enough the rhinoceros didn't seem overly concerned about it, albeit Aurora couldn't really think of a single time when he had seemed anything but calm and collected. He seemed to have the utmost faith in their leader.. Not that Aurora didn't, but she was still worried something would go wrong.

And then the explosion happened far above them. The first one with others following shortly after.

"Something's wrong,"

Wrong? Aurora squinted her optics, trying to see more clearly. She could see the Viper and it seemed to be in an uncontrolled descent. But there was something else too.. Some small dots, too tiny to make out any details, but she could only presume it was the Maximals and Predacons who had entered the ship earlier.

"What's going on?," she asked, not really expecting an answer since it was anyone's guess at this point. Hopefully it was nothing too..

"Watch out for falling debris!"

No sooner had Rhinox said those words before the first parts of the Viper came crashing down near them. Aurora jumped as one of the engines impacted with the ground with a loud rumbling sound. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at the part in awe, wondering what exactly was going on up there. Another glance upwards revealed that the Viper was about to meet the same fate as it, too, came crashing down towards the planet's surface again.

"Optimus!! Rattrap!!," the fuzor cried out in desperation.

In the skies above, Nemesis had converted to her bird mode and hovered nearby as the Viper started falling. She watched intently for any sign of survivors emerging from the ship, a wish that was granted when suddenly Megatron became visible.. Only to plunge to the ground, seemingly unconscious. Primal showed up next in a similar situation. Nemesis didn't hesitate and went into a dive to catch up with the falling pair, but she then halted her own descent when the large Maximal fuzor suddenly showed up with Rattrap on his back, just in time to stop Optimus' uncontrolled fall. And at the same time Terrorsaur, of all bots, swooped in to grab Megatron.

Drawing a silent sigh of relief, however surprised she was to see Terrorsaur help their leader out of this predicament, Nemesis then turned her attention to the still crashing Viper. There was no sign of anyone else emerging from its depths, and also no doubt the ship was going to crash. Perhaps this truly was the end of Zodiac? Dared she actually hope for it?

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: That's great, Wintersong! I'm happy to hear that! ))

"You don't give yourself enough credit. Even Megatron has shown he respects your might in the battlefield,"

Rhinox sent Aurora a small smile for her compliment. While the engineer was a force to be reckoned with, he certainly didn't perceive himself that way. Well, not usually. Maybe on the battle field when he could use it to his advantage and intimidate their enemies, but underneath all of that thick armor and muscle was a gentle giant who loved science and horticulture and preferred more peaceful solutions.

"But.. why?," "Why can't we stay? You already told me that if we go back, we all risk being prosecuted by the Maximal Council of Elders? So why not just stay here, hidden away on this magnificent world?"

The rhinoceros gave a chuckle at her child-like and innocent pleads before he grew somber with his explanation. "There will be many more wars waged on this planet. Destructive wars that will take many lives, both innocent and guilty. But they're not ours to fight, Aurora. And we can't save everyone." It was a gloom reality, but what concerned him the most was her witnessing such wars - very violent, bloody and gruesome wars - with much more fragile creatures; humans. The humans who had yet to evolve. Although they could be a magnificent species, too many cared too little for life and took it too easily with little to no remorse. Granted, those wars were eons away, but they would need that time to figure a way to get back to Cybertron. It was probably confusing to Aurora, but Rhinox didn't want to reveal too much information about events that hadn't even occurred yet. "This planet needs to run its course... assuming the Vok don't destroy it. And we have our own business to attend to on Cybertron, whether we're arrested or not. It's what we all must face. We can't run away and hide from our problems. We must be strong." Which was probably easier said than done, especially for someone as young as Aurora. He understood her reluctance, and he wouldn't blame her if she was scared.

"I thought the Council oversaw the creation of Rampage in the first place..," "Seems like they do nothing but play games."

"It was their idea," Rhinox added. "But they use their scientists like puppets. The development of Protoform X was assigned to Optimus after his exceptional work under Nexus Prime despite the mishaps that occurred with Zodiac and Nemesis. I'm not sure what happened between then and how he feels about it now; that's a question only Optimus can answer. But some where along the way, when X was deemed a failure and after he had decimated Omicron, the Council had X subdued, put into frozen stasis lock and loaded on to the Axalon. Optimus created him, so, inevitably, they thought it ironic for him to be the one responsible for his fate. Did they actually think Optimus would go through with it and succeed with his mission?" He shook his head with uncertainty. "We don't know. Optimus was young and inexperienced with a crew for deep space exploration... It was the perfect combination for mistakes that would lead to disaster. Maybe they planned on X escaping and killing all of us. Maybe they simply planned on us vanishing after chasing Megatron, which would have solved a lot of their problems." Cowards, he thought of them. Immoral cowards.

"It might be time to implement that plan soon,"

The ermine/butterfly Fuzor was right. It was now or never. He watched anxiously toward the sky as his optics followed the Viper growing ever smaller as the distance increased between it and them.

“Beast mode.” “If Optimus’ plans included dropping a whole ship on our heads, mission accomplished.”

Rhinox glanced at Wintersong who was wise to return to her beast mode considering the very abnormal behavior of health on her chest. At least, he hoped it would help her. She appeared exhausted and a little distraught. A part of him wished she had remained at the Axalon, but that may have made her worse off. At least here they could keep an eye on her. And if her condition worsened, they could act fast.

"What's going on?,"

“What do you think is going on?”

Both Aurora and Wintersong sought answers from him. "Tigerhawk is struggling to keep up with the climbing ship," he told them as he looked upward again. "He should have dropped away from it by now if Optimus, Rattrap and Blackarachnia escaped." What were they waiting for? Had Zodiac stopped them from interfering? If so, what did that mean for them and the rest of them that were still on the ground? After the explosions happened high above them, that's when Rhinox started to get nervous. Some bodies could be seen falling, but it was difficult to tell who they were so far away. The only thing for certain was that the vessel was going down, and Zodiac nor Megatron wasn't going to be fleeing the planet after all.

"Optimus!! Rattrap!!,"

We don't know anything yet, Rhinox told himself as he tried to remain calm for the rest of them surrounding him.

“Ugh, can’t believe I’m saving this sorry sack of scrap.”

Megatron's systems desperately continued their reactivation after being unconscious, which allowed him to vaguely comprehend what that very annoying voice said. He could tell he was still in the air. How, he didn't know. Was that Terrorsaur? Was he carrying him? He was the last bot whose hands he wanted his life in! ...Besides Tarantulas's. But he had no choice in the matter. Where was Nemesis? Had she escaped?! The last thing he could remember was something large and heavy hitting his head. Had Primal attacked him from behind and knocked him out to leave him on the ship to die?! There was a fairly substantial dent on the top of his head where the pipe had dropped on him, but he didn't know that. Megatron grumbled incoherently under his breath as he slowly started gaining more awareness, his optics flickering on and off while his vision was having difficulty sharpening. His beaten body still laid limp in Terrorsaur's grasp, and his head pounded.

“Hang on tight!”

"Whoa!" Rattrap yipped as he suddenly grabbed a tighter hold on Tigerhawk's shoulders in his dive for their leader. It was so quick and steep that he was starting to come off of the Fuzor, which was a feeling he absolutely hated and always made him panic. "Don't you have seat belts?!" he half joked holding on for his life until the larger Maximal caught Optimus and managed to slow their fall while flapping his wings.

“Think I got the best catch of the day.”

"Heh heh heh," the rodent snickered with extreme nervousness and terror in his voice as he tried to cope with what just happened until he gave a huge sigh of relief. We ain't gonna die! "You got him? Right?" Peering over Tigerhawk's shoulder and around his neck, he could see their fearless leader in his grasp. "Phew. You alright, Cat-bird?" he asked him. Looking around, he saw Terrorsaur had caught Megatron and Nemesis was not too far. At least it seemed that the Preds were still upholding the cease-fire.

"They got Optimus," Rhinox said with great relief, pointing up at Tigerhawk. And as they quickly descended, Rattrap could be seen riding on his back too. Thank the Matrix. "He looks injured and unconscious though," he said to no one in particular. Just thinking out loud, really.

“Nice try, but you’ll have to do better than that.”

Then the engineer glanced over at Spineback who was struggling with Rampage who now had his sights on Quickstrike and Inferno. Of course, those two wouldn't stand a chance against him. Putting his chain gun away, he reached down and grabbed Aurora's tranquilizer rifle from her. "See to Optimus," he told her as Tigerhawk made his decent to the ground with his passengers and the Viper continued to free-fall as well a little further away. It would be good practice for her to hone her medic skills on the field. He also motioned to Wintersong and Whitegrazer to follow her. Turning away from the three females, he started walking toward Rampage and the other Predacons to join them as their last defense.

"You will BUUUUURRRN, crustacean! For the Royalty!" Inferno announced as he engaged his flame thrower, blowing immense heat and fire several feet ahead of him to keep the crap back or at least slow his approach.

Quickstrike began relentlessly firing his venom again from his cobra head at Rampage to slow him down.

Rhinox loaded the rifle with two more darts as he took a position next to Quickstrike. Lifting the weapon and targeting the large, invincible, hungry crab, he took his time to aim at his neck and then squeezed the trigger. His chain gun was a last resort, and he didn't want to use it with Spineback so close since his weapons were not meant for accuracy and any stray bullets might hit her. But at the moment, he and the ant and the Predacon Fuzor could keep Rampage distracted while she could compose herself and try another technique assuming she had any more ideas on apprehending him. Either way, they had to get him under control before he could start attacking everyone.

[Wintersong]

((Will make a post slowly today guys! Got sick over night this past week so I’ve been out for the count for a bit. But nevertheless, you will have a post from me today!))