Writer's Note: Hasbro owns the Beast Wars, but the plot is mine and I’m making no money off it, so they can’t sue me! Nah-na-na-nana-naaaa!
Prologue:
Depth Charge’s arrival in the Beast Wars was more of a blessing than the Maximals originally realized. A tracking beacon in the ray-bot’s Star Hopper allowed the Maximal starship Cutting Edge to follow him through the time warp and find the stranded Maximals.
Naturally, this was bad news for the Predacons. Unable to fight against an entire starship and crew, the Predacons surrendered one by one. Waspinator was first, with Quickstrike right behind. Inferno was destroyed in a failed effort to rescue ‘The Royalty’ after Megatron was captured. Tarantulas fought to the bitter end, convinced that death was better than what the Tripedeacus Council would do to him. TM2 Dinobot was lured into a trap, but attempted to fight loose. During the fighting he copied a move by his former self and overrided his stasis lock. He became so damaged that the Maximal medics were unable to save him. They were, however, able to secure the part of his spark that was Rampage’s. The crab was forced to surrender soon after.
Now the Maximals and Predacons were on their way home...
Part One:
Depth Charge knew he should be happy. With Rampage captured and on his way to justice, the ray-bot should have been practically dancing with joy. Unfortunately, the latest orders were making him very UNhappy. "This is unacceptable!" he almost shouted, slamming a datapad containing the orders down on Captain Venara’s desk. He had just burst into her office, carried away with his anger.
Cutting Edge’s captain looked up at the fuming robot calmly but sternly. "They may not be acceptable to YOU, but they are my orders," she said firmly. She didn’t even have to glance at the datapad to know what he was talking about. When she had gotten the orders, she had known they would cause trouble. And not just with Depth Charge...
Captain Venara pushed those thoughts away to deal with later. "Depth Charge, I understand your frustration--"
"Obviously you don’t!" he hissed, leaning forward and interrupting her. "Putting Rampage away in this," he paused to remember the name, "A.L.H. Research Center isn’t a way to deal with him! He needs to be destroyed, not studied! Those scientists won’t know how to restrain him or something, and he’ll get loose again!" Depth Charge looked ready to rant on, but the Captain gave him a cold look.
"Do you even know what the A.L.H Research Center is?" she asked softly. Depth Charge gave a grudging negative, and Captain Venara sighed in exasperation. "It’s a high security facility with joint operation between the Predacons and Maximals. It’s so top secret I wasn’t even aware it existed until a briefing was given to me." She gave him another cool look. "No one but you and my Executive Officer have been informed of these orders, by the way. The security is that tight."
"Oh." Depth Charge’s eyes narrowed. "But, still--"
She calmly continued, "I’ve already sent your report and recommendations about restraining techniques and such to the Center, and they’ve assured me that they will be used and improved as necessary. Besides," she smiled unpleasantly, "we have a piece of Rampage’s spark, and we’ve already proven how effectively THAT can be used to control him."
For a moment Depth Charge’s smile matched hers. When Dinobot had been destroyed, Rampage had hidden. Apparently the raptor’s death had been an...unpleasant...experience for the crab, and he had needed time to recover from the shock. Time that none of the vengeful Maximals had been willing to give him. They had set up something similar to what Megatron had used with his spark, and the pain had driven Rampage to seek them out.
He had come to them, but even then Rampage had tried to free himself. He had drawn his missile launcher, and Depth Charge, who had been the one holding the ‘spark-box’, had crushed it. Since no one would accept that Rampage had surrendered until he made it completely clear, the crab had been forced to kneel and raise his hands in a time-honored gesture of surrender. Only then did Depth Charge let up on the pressure on his spark.
Still...
"Why isn’t he going to be destroyed?" Depth Charge asked more quietly.
Captain Venara’s eyes were sympathetic, but her voice was flat. "I don’t know. That wasn’t included in my briefing. All I know is that Cutting Edge is to deliver Rampage to the A.L.H. Research Center and then await further orders from the facility." She picked up the datapad she had been reading when Depth Charge had burst into her office. "Those are my orders, and I will obey them. Dismissed."
Depth Charge reluctantly came to attention, saluted, and walked out of the office. She WAS the captain, after all. She could have him thrown into the brig for insubordination if he argued further. That didn’t make him any happier, though, and Depth Charge strode off angrily as the door closed behind him.
In her office, Captain Venara remained staring at the data in front of her, but she wasn’t reading it. She was thinking.
She hadn’t told Depth Charge who the orders were from. She hadn’t thought it a good idea to tell him the Maximal High Council and the Tripedeacus Council were both cooperating to maneuver the Cutting Edge to this A.L.H Research Center. Why? Well, she thought there was a lot more than just Rampage to this. The entire operation was top secret! There was no logical reason for at least the recovered Maximals’ presence to be hidden! Didn’t they have anxious friends waiting back on Cybertron?
And then there were the rumors. Venara hadn’t been totally honest when she had told Depth Charge she hadn’t known anything about the Center. She had...sort of. Until now, she had thought it just a rumor. Good captains paid attention to rumors about areas where ships and their crews disappeared. Well, not all of them had disappeared permanently, but the ones who had eventually appeared again had no memory of where they had been...
And now it seemed that her ship was entering that same area. Captain Venara of the Maximal starship Cutting Edge straightened her shoulders and sighed. She had her orders, and she had to obey them.
She didn’t have a choice.
Rampage shifted and tried to settle into a more comfortable position. In the cramped cell he was confined in it was a hard task, especially since he was standing up. Not that he was allowed to move around freely in his cell. No, he was chained to the wall, denied even that small freedom.
Freedom. He shifted again, anger and desperation filling him at the thought of that. Most beings took it for granted. Rampage...his freedom had been brief. He had come online in a lab, treated as nothing more than a dangerous lab experiment. The Maximals, for all their much-valued ‘goodness’, had done things to him that even Predacons like Megatron and Tarantulas would have refused to do, and all in the name of science. After all, how were they supposed to find out if their experiment was immortal if they didn’t test his immortality?
Rampage shuddered in remembered pain, glad that he didn’t have memories from when he was just a spark. The tests done on him when he had been conscious and had a body had been horrible enough, but the ones done on him before then...he had heard enough about them to make himself sick. He was immortal...but at such a price of pain! It was no wonder he wanted to make the universe suffer like he had! Still, if what Depth Charge had been telling him all along was right, Rampage wouldn’t be immortal for long. Strange, he hadn’t actually ever thought of dying...
The door to Rampage’s cell slid open then, and Depth Charge stepped in, carrying Rampage’s spark in its little box. He looked willing and ready to use it. Rampage’s eyes narrowed in hate, but he also felt a faint sense of shame, and he looked away from his enemy. Having anyone see him like this was bad enough, but Depth Charge...
The ray-bot walked over to glare at him. "You should be happy," the Maximal said in a disgusted voice. "You’re not going to be executed after all."
Rampage glared back, but refused to be baited. If there was any shred of dignity left in this situation, he was going to salvage it. He would NOT ask what Depth Charge meant like some pathetic, weak-willed bot.
After a moment of mutual hate-filled looks, the Maximal continued, "We have orders to bring you to a research center for study."
Despite himself, Rampage’s eyes widened in surprise. More than surprise; shock. After the slaughter he had left in his wake, he hadn’t even thought about the possibility of being brought back to the endless tests and experiments. Now, as he did think about it, he didn’t like the thought. Sure, he would be alive to try to escape again, but...
Depth Charge sneered as Rampage’s mind looked over the consequences of the orders. "I’m going to do my best to make sure you NEVER escape again," he snarled. "Who knows? The facility might end up assigning me to keep guard over you." With that, he whirled around and stomped out of the cell.
Rampage was left behind, still thinking over what might happen. Another research center. More tests. The freedom of a lab rat. No one to fear him, no one to torture, no one to kill. Pain; inflicted on him, not on others. And he...would be just an experiment again. That had been one of the worst parts of his early life. At least when he had been out slaughtering people, they had seen him as someONE, not someTHING. In the labs...
He shivered again at his memories. He didn’t precisely FEAR what might happen, but he did have a certain...dread...for the future. Whatever happened, he had a feeling it wouldn’t be good for him.
Depth Charge strode down a corridor to his quarters, fuming to himself. The rare crew person who encountered him got out of his way. He looked absolutely furious.
He stormed into his quarters, startling his roommate to no end. "Eh! What’s da big idea--" Rattrap began angrily.
Depth Charge ignored his protest at his entrance. "We’re not going to Cybertron, mouse, " he said.
"Huh?" Rattrap’s eyes narrowed. "Why’s dat?"
The ray-bot sat down at their table and sighed tiredly. "Apparently Rampage is going to become a research project again instead of being executed like he should be, and this ship’s been chosen to take him to the facility." He rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward to cradle his head in his hands.
Rattrap watched him. "Dis is not good," he grumbled to himself. "Well, how long ‘til we get dere?" he asked more audibly. "Will dis take dat long?"
Depth Charge shook his head, still resting it in his hands. "I don’t know. We’re supposed to stay in orbit around the facility until we get further orders, and no one’s told me when we arrive there."
His room mate mulled that over. "Hmph. What’s da name of dis place?"
"A.L.H. Research Center." Depth Charge looked up at a startled exclamation from Rattrap. "What?"
For a moment, Rattrap stared at him, and his face showed fear. Then it was over, and he looked away. When he looked back, his face had settled into grim lines.
"What?!" the ray-bot in exasperation.
Rattrap laughed bitterly. "It’s like I’ve been sayin’ da whole time; we’re all gonna die."
And he refused to say anything more on the subject.