Beast War Chronicles Confirmations By: Eliot Lefebvre (aka Stormcloud)
Out of all the forms he had had over the years, this one seemed to be the most useful. It was, of course. He had tailored it to 97% peak efficiency with his personal skills, and estimated it was at least 47.6% more efficient than his last body. And for the planet he had landed on, it was perfect. He shot up another log, balancing perfectly and rocketing into the sky. His paint shone in the sun, and would have provided a beautiful photo shot if anyone able to respect the irony in the photo, then he crashed down through the treetops and raced along the forest floor once again. Nearby birds and mammals squawked indignantly, annoyed at having their rest disturbed by this robot. He ignored them, and sent a series of mental commannds that began reconfiguring his body yet again. Wheels retracted, wings extended, and a small transatmospheric craft shot into the sky. He spied a small lifeform moving towards him. If looks were any indicator, it was a Predacon. He activated his scanner, just to double-check. Decidedly Predacon. He sped up and began to bring his weapon systems on-line. * * * * * * * * * * Lazorbeak glided low above the trees before the laser fire started. The blasts disturbed his otherwise peaceful thoughts. Looking up, he saw a purple jet diving at, laser fire spewing out of the ports. *Who the slag...* he thought, and spun upwards, laser fire roaring away at the jet. He barely even got off a second pass. The purple jet turned to face Lazorbeak and transformed into a cannon and blasted Lazorbeak squarely. Flaming, Lazorbeak plummeted downwards into the forest below. Lazorbeak transformed and grabbed onto a tree limb, just to keep from careening into the ground. He activated his internal coolant system, and the flames on him slowly died down. He looked up where the cannon had been only a minute before. Only it wasn't a large purple cannon anymore. It was a large purple robot. Lazorbeak had noticed a definite pattern of attacks, and dodged to the side seconds before the robot oblitherated the ground Lazorbeak had been standing. *Great,* thought Lazorbeak. *As long as I keep dodging every fifteen seconds, I'll live.* He looked up and sprang aside again as the robot blasted away. "My turn!" called Lazorbeak, and he flipped over his two shoulder cannons. Blasting twice, he then disappeared into the trees. Unlike most of the other Predacons, Lazorbeak had spent a great deal of time trying to keep himself agile on the ground, where he truly shone. He was not an air warrior, but a ground warrior. The large purple robot crashed through the trees, blasting with a cannon in place of his left hand. Lazorbeak, from a small enclosure, scanned every aspect of the robot he could - size, weight, electromagnetic emissions, whatever he could find. Halfway through his scan, he managed to pick up a single break in his otherwise smooth surface, a burnt-in sigil. A Decepticon sigil. *The ancestors of the Predacons,* thought Lazorbeak. Obviously, this robot was either a very old Predacon (which seemed unlikely, considering that he was attacking an obvious Predacon), or he was one of the renegade Decepticons. Lazorbeak decided that this was getting far more threatening by the minute, and turned to transform and fly away. Lazorbeak was lifted up by his neck. "You attempts at escape are admirable, but there is a 83% chance that you are unable to execute them," said the large robot, more focused on this fact then on the fact he was choking Lazorbeak. "There is a 78% chance that you are a potential threat, and a 89% chance that - ooof!" "Stuff it," said Lazorbeak, elbowing the large robot hard. The elbow wasn't very damaging, but the large spike that extended back out from it was signifigantly more useful. The robot dropped Lazorbeak in suprise, and Lazorbeak transformed and flew off. "Tactical analysis of opponent was incomplete. Updating data." The large robot reached into his subspace pocket for the parts to repair himself as he added everything he had figured out about his opponent. His opponent was escaping; it did not matter. He would have more than enough time to catch him later. *Don't know why he isn't pursuing,* thought Lazorbeak as he flew off, *but I'm not complaining.* He took a sharp left and headed towards the Predacon ship. * * * * * * * * * * "This time, it's going to be different," said Rattrap as he slid to the left. "I can't lose this time." Stormcloud blasted where Rattrap had been just scant moments before. "Don't be so sure about that just yet, Rattrap." "So you think that you're going to win?" asked Rattrap. He flipped a pair of missile racks onto his shoulders and fired twice. Stormcloud lept up and transformed into a small car and drove off to the left. "I didn't say that. I said don't be so sure about that." Stomcloud shot up a ramp and tranformed again in mid-air, this time to a large gun. "NOW I'm saying it," he said. The first blast burnt away most of what was recognizable. The second reduced whatever was left to trace particles. MYRIAD DEFEATS LOCKHEED MERCILESS! 78,000 BONUS POINTS MYRIAD WINS THE MATCH Rattrap slammed the controller into the ground. Hard. "It seems like I get worse, not better," he muttered. "How many times is that?" Stormcloud pressed a few buttons on a comp pad he had nearby. "With this loss, you have been hacked, mangled, destroyed, oblitherated, vaped, melted, shattered, and othewise killed by me seven thousand, four hundred twenty-three times. Counting total wins." Rattrap picked up the controller again. "One more match. This time, let me be Myriad, I think I can get his Merciless! move to work." Stormcloud looked over the comp pad again. "You said that in match #3405... #4569... #4725... #5382... #6676... #6677..." "No way! I never try the same trick twice in a row!" "Not according to this," replied Stormcloud, pressing a few more buttons. "You blamed #6676 on me cheating, and insisted a second try on that. Huh...#0421...#3432...#7011...#4826... #0008..." "I get the picture," muttered Rattrap glumly. Stormcloud punched a few more numbers into the comp pad, then sat silent. "Hey? Stormcloud? Big S? Stormster? Hello?" prattled Razorbeast as he waved his arms in front of Stormcloud's face. "Wha...oh, yeah, sorry, Razor," muttered Stormcloud absentmindedly. "What's gotten into you?" asked Armordillo. "Lately, you haven't been your normal, hyperintelligent, multi-faceted self." "Just...thinking about Vixen." Rattrap slapped himself in the forehead. "Why don't you try to get together with her? You two are obviously interested in each other." "I just...that is, I feel...in other words, I couldn't..." "Spit it out," said Razorbeast impatiently. "I don't KNOW why I don't! I just can't get the words out!" Stormcloud finally exclaimed out of exasperation. Razorbeast laughed. "You? The bot who tries to spend twenty- four hours of a day inside the computer with no contact with any living being? Has trouble with females? Now how ever could that happen?" "Sarcasm not appreciated," noted Stormcloud. "C'mon, we think you can do it," said Armordillo. Stormcloud looked at him. "With all undue respect, Armordillo, that really doesn't inspire confidence so much as nausea." Armordillo looked at him, blank-faced. "What?" he asked. "I didn't get it." Rattrap patted Stormcloud on the back. "Stormy, old buddy, old pal -" "Hand. Off. Now." Rattrap quickly withdrew his hand. "What I'm trying to say is that you should go for the gusto. Get with her. Y'know...wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more, nudge nudge." Everyone else was looking at Rattrap oddly. "Do the horizontal polka! Jump her bones! Get it on!" "He's finally lost it," said Armordillo. "Aw, slag it, just get together with her!" said Rattrap, waving a hand dismissively. Stormcloud began to walk out the door, then stopped and turned to face Rattrap. "Why are you giving me advice?" he asked. "Yeah, role reversal's a bitch, ain't it?" said Rattrap, smiling. "That wasn't what I meant," replied Stormcloud. "The only times you do things is when you want to, you don't have a choice, or there's some personal gain in it. So what do you want?" "Nothing! I'm doing this out of the goodness of my heart!" Rattrap said in mock innocence. "You told me it was because you were going to hack into the system and give yourself access to a shuttle temporarily," said Armordillo. Rattrap elbowed him hard. "That is to say, I didn't just say that - >ooomph< - I mean you didn't hear me - >ooomph< - I mean I wish Rattrap would stop elbowing me - >ooomph< - I mean that it's a litte late for this now." Stormcloud walked over to the console and keyed in a small subroutine. "There. You have access to the Nicodermis for 24 total hours, after which an alarm will trigger and you will have three hours to return it to the shuttlebay." Rattrap thought for a moment. "Yeah, that's good, even though fifteen will probably do it," he said at length. Stormcloud sighed. "I wasn't kidding about the bomb, either," he said, and walked out of the room. * * * * * * * * * * Vixen smoothed away the chair and flopped into it. Seachill was in the CR Chamber from the sabotaged arctic base (*Thank you so much for that, Iguanus,* she thought to herself), and Wingspan was still in the chambers from their all-too-recent battle with Primus Trion. He had taken more damage then the other members of Skyking, and that meant the entire gestalt was inactive until he recovered. The door hissed open, and Stormcloud walked in. "What's wrong?" asked Vixen, getting to her feet. "Nothing, nothing," said Stormcloud, almost defensively. "I just wanted to talk for a little while." "Why?" "Do I really need a reason?" "No." The two sat down next to each other. Vixen slumped slightly in her chair, while Stormcloud sat straight and erect. "How is everyone recovering?" asked Stormcloud somewhat meekly. "All right, I guess. I would've thought that Wingspan would've recovered by now." "Oh." The two sat silent for a long while. *Geez, this is stupid. I'm acting like I'm only four thousand years old,* thought Stormcloud. At length, he turned to Vixen. "The main reason I came down here was to tell you I-I-I-I-I..." he began shakily. "You..." said Vixen, making small circular motions with her hands. "I c-c-c-c-c-c-caaaaaaaa..." he continued. "Spit it out," urged Vixen. "I caaaaaaarrrrrrr..." he tried again. "You care..." she said, nodding impatiently. "I care about you!" he said at length. "I can't stop thinking about you! I spend my spare time calling up memories of you! Happy now?" Vixen said nothing for a momen out of suprise. Then she spoke. "You do? You really do?" "Yes," he replied. "Ever since I met you during the gestalt project." She looked at him oddly. "I feel the same way," she said softly. He ran his hand up the side of her face. Touching her...there were all the normal sensations there, but something else, too - an exhiliration he had never felt before. Somehow her face seemed to carry qualities it never had before. Her eyes...her body...her voice...everything about her seemed to strike another chord within him. They moved closer. He kissed her once, lightly. More sensations rushed through his body. "I love you," he said to her with a slight smile. They kissed again, and Stormcloud began to soar where not even his beast mode could. * * * * * * * * * * "Multiple transformation ability. High-powered weapons, equal to the force of Megatron's cannon. Advanced scanning equipment. And all of this under the sigil of a faction that barely exists anymore." Scorponok tossed the report down on the confrence table. "When I first heard about this, I laughed. Now, quite frankly, I'm scared. This guy is as, if not more, powerful as Inferno." Megatron picked up the report. "This is not a good thing...unless, of course, he really is an archaic Decepticon and he would ally with us." "I think we can safely rule that out since he attacked Lazorbeak," replied Scorponok. "What's more, most of the old Decepticons are with the renegade Decepticons, and they aren't at all pleased with how the Predacons are running things," added Taratulas. "So what you're basically telling me is that something with the transformations of Sixshot, the speed of Blurr, and the power of Bluestreak is coming to kill us all," finished Megatron. "Yep," replied Scorponok and Taratulas in unison. Megatron sighed, then grabbed the nearby Waspinator and smashed him into the wall. "Um, sir...why..." stammered Scorponok. "It's a release," he explained. "Wazzpinator - >hack< - have to find - >cough< - new line of work," stammered Waspinator as an indeterminite fluid hacked out of his mandibles. "If I were you," said Headlock, "I would try and emit a low-power energon field around him. With no beast mode, he may be able to hold out for a little while, possibly from an energon absorbtion field, but he would wind up going into stasis lock, at which point we could easily take him and imprison him." Megatron glowered. Actually, he was thinking of a frontal assault, hoping to overpower his enemy by sheer numbers. Headlock had only been with the Predacons for a few weeks, about the same time Juliet came to the Predacons permanently. He didn't ACTIVELY try to take the position of leader from Megatron, but through his machinations he made Megatron look like the subordinate. No doubt about it, Headlock could become a major problem. "Right," Megatron muttered under his breath. "I'll have someone realign the Soundwave's engines to produce the field." Headlock nodded. "Is there anything else you wish me to examine, my lord, or am I free to go?" Megatron nodded. "Actually, there is. There seems to be a lava geyser directly under the Soundwave. I was wondering if you could think of a solution." Megatron almost smiled; there wasn't really any lava. He just wanted Headlock not to have the solution. Headlock brought up a holographic map of the Soundwave's current location. "If it were up to me," he said, thinking hard, "I would tunnel around these points -" he pointed at eight different locations, circling the Soundwave, "- at increasing angles,starting at about a 29 degree angle. That will decrease the pressure enoough so that the Soundwave can withstand any eruptions." Megatron gaped. He had double-checked with Tarantulas, and he was sure that there was no solution. He wondered if he should blame Tarantulas or Headlock. *Headlock,* he thought, and he turned to glare at the Predacon. "That will be quite enough. You are dimissed." Headlock nodded and walked out of the room. From her position in the shadows, Blackarachnia smiled. *Headlock makes Megatron feel threatened, because they think on the same wavelength. I will have to remember that.* Blackarachnia walked into her quarters. "How is the construct coming?" she asked Drill Bit. "Just fine," he answered, welding another plate to the massive object. "How would you know? You don't even know what it is." "How could I? You wouldn't tell anyone." Blackarachnia said nothing - he WAS right. She walked over to Juliet, sitting at a console. "How are the plans going?" "Fine," she replied. "If these schematics you gave me are correct, then the alignment I have it at ought to work just fine." Blackarachnia looked it over. "Yes, that should be fine." She began walking into her own personal room. Juliet turned. "A word, empress?" Blackarachnia nodded. "Speak." "If I could, I would like to preserve Tigatron." "Why?" "Personal reasons." Blackarachnia knew all too well about Juliet's past, so she didn't even question it. "Very well." Juliet smiled. Blackarachnia sighed and walked into her own room. Sitting down on her bed, Blackarachnia sighed and stared at her small Nightbird figurine. *What were you like, Nightbird?* she wondered for the millionth time. *You had the leader of the Decepticons in your hands. Did you want the power? Did you truly care about him? Will I ever have a chance know the truth?* Her mind drifted away. * * * * * * * * * * Stormcloud was exhausted. "God, that was exhilerating," he said in a gasp. "Tell me again what exactly it was?" Vixen smiled. "It's called Joining. It basically allows two Transformers to interact, sharing their mindwaves with each other. Originally, it was only for reproduction, but with the invention of the pleasure interface..." Stormcloud could finish the sentence himself. He began to get up, and promptly slipped and fell. He did a quick diagnostics check. "My energon is at unusually low levels," he said, puzzled. "It's the act of Joining," explained Vixen. "You see, it basically does more than the equivalent act of the humans by allowing complete interaction between the two praticapants on both a physical and mental level." She rose shakily to her feet and handed him an energon crystal. He accepted, and began to recharge. She sat down next to him. "When you...said all of that - did you really mean it?" "Of course I did," he replied, fully charged. "I wouldn't have said them if I didn't." "Then why didn't you say so before? What incited you?" "You aren't going to believe this...Rattrap." She did a double take. "You're kidding." "Not at all." She smiled. "I'm not sure if this is a sense of humor or seriousness, but it's amusing either way." She finished charging. "Rattrap?" "Yes. I think we've kind of beaten that routine into the ground now, don't you think?" She nodded and checked at the CR chambers. "Wingspan should be out pretty soon." Stormcloud smiled. He had done a lot of design on Magnaboss, but Skyking was his pet project, and he had been quite pleased with the gestalt's performance. The members all acknowledged him as a sort of "father" to them all - a role he adopted without reluctance. And therefore, he worried about them when they were hurt. Wingspan had him very worried for a little while. "I've got to get going," said Stormcloud. He walked over to Vixen and kissed her lightly. "Primal wants a report from his senior officers in a couple minutes." "Best of luck," she called to him as he left. * * * * * * * * * * Rattrap was nearly finished with the pre-flight check. In a few minutes, he would be off. "Hey, Razorbeast!" he called into his comm. "How's everything on the western front?" "If the camera's working right," said Razorbeast with a slight hint of amusement in his voice, "then I would say Stormcloud and Vixen are most definitely getting it on. Or at least, they did." Rattrap smiled to himself. He fused one last joint and rolled out from underneath the ship. "I'm coming on, guys. Get ready to take off." Razorbeast nodded. "Prepping takeoff thrusters. Weapons and Nav on-line...all other systems powering up. Ready for takeoff in one minute." "Where are we going again?" asked Armordillo from the gunner's seat. "You'll know when we get there," replied Rattrap as he walked onto the bridge of the ship. "Take off when we're ready." Razorbeast nodded. "Takeoff in five...four...three...two...one..." The Nicodermis's engines kicked in with a slight hum, then roared to life as the docking bay doors opened. The ship drifted along at a low cruising speed until they cleared the docking bay. "Initializing full engines.." said Razorbeast as he flipped one last switch. A roar came up as a gigantic blast of flame erupted from the bak of the shuttle. Rocketing forward, the ship blasted right through the atmosphere as it shot into orbit. "We have established an orbital pattern," said Razorbeast. "Duh," said Rattrap. "What did you do - graduate from the Deanna Troi School of Stating Nothing Useful?" "No, the Rattrap School of Acting Like a Jackass." "Why, you..." "Calm down! We only have 23 hours and 40 minutes left!" exclaimed Armordillo. "He's right. Razorbeast, set a course for the second moon," ordered Rattrap. "Who made you Prime?" asked Razorbeast. "Just do it." Razorbeast muttered something inaudible and set the course. The ship's engines kicked in again and the ship rocketed along towards the second moon of the planet. * * * * * * * * * * Headlock could feel Blackarachnia's presence before she wanted him to. Within seconds he had his arm-mounted cannon on-line and aimed at Blackarachnia. "You'd better talk fast," he said to her. Blackarachnia was obviously taken somewhat aback. "I...just needed you to give me access to a shuttle." He lowered his cannon. "And why, pray tell, would I want to do that?" "Because you want to overthrow Megatron as much as I do." Headlock laughed. "God, you are disillusioned. I really couldn't care less if he's in charge. I will do what I want." "But Megatron thinks that you want him overthrown." "He knows that you do, too. He'll keep us around anyways, because the rest of his troops are dumber than a bag of rocks." "So will you help me or not?" "I will...but in return for a favor." "A favor? Is that all?" She laughed. "In that case, what do you want?" "I don't know yet. I want you to remain in my debt as long as possible. You will owe me a favor, and I will collect on it during some point in the future." "And if when you come to me, what if I refuse?" "Then I will tell Megatron you were given access to a shuttle without his permission." "He'll trace you to it." "Not if I use Tarantulas's access." He punched in a few keys, and sure enough, he was on Taratulas's account. A large picture of Blackarachnia was quite litterally sprawled across the desktop. "A moment of comprimising morality, from the looks of it." Blackarachnia glowered. "Cut it out. Just give me access." Headlock smiled slightly and typed in a few more keys. "There. You have access to the Chemosh for 48 hours, after which a one-hour timer will activate. When the countdown ends, it explodes." "Thanks," she said, kissing him on the cheek. "Maybe that'll help you make up your mind." She walked out of the room. * * * * * * * * * * He glided along the treetops, searching for a target. His recent loss to the Predacon was highly disappointing, and he decided that he would be faster to eleminate his opponent faster this time. He was a little worried about what would happen, but not very. *After all, who was commander of the Decepticons for four million years? Who struck fear into the hearts of Autobots? Who corageously survived Unicron's assault on Cybertron when everyone else thought he was dead? I did!* He had to remind himself every so often. He spotted some movement in the underbrush. He scanned briefly. A Maximal, but then again, that was even better. He zoomed down for an assault. * * * * * * * * * * "Holy slag!" were the first words out of Cheetor's mouth. The next ones were a little more productive. "Dinobot, get over here! We've got a situation here!" Dinobot sprang out. "Where?" He looked up to see the gigantic purple jet rushing towards them. "Ah, an honorable death!" he said as he transformed to robot mode. Slightly in front of him, Cheetor did the same. The purple Decepticon landed on the ground and converted into a large panther. Silently, he began to pace in front of the two Maximals. "What in the world is he doing?" asked Dinobot tensely. "We should attack!" So saying, he launched himself forward, rotor at the ready. Dinobot was swatted away by the large panther. Cheetor took the momentary advantage and sprang at his opponent, extending talons in his fingers and slashing at the large beast. The panther growled and transformed right underneath Cheetor, knocking him off. Shaking his head back into focus, Dinobot looked up to see a large purple Decepticon towering over Cheetor. The Decepticon was preparing to blast Cheetor with a cannon on his right arm. Lifting his sword, Dinobot gave a battle cry and rushed forward at the Decepticon. The Decepticon swung his cannon-hand up high to parry the slash by Dinobot. Whipping out his rotor, Dinobot swung low at the torso of the Decepticon. This time, the Decepticon flipped Dinobot over. Dinobot hit the ground hard, getting the wind knocked out of him. Gasping for breath, he barely rolled away from a blast of laser fire. Cheetor regained conciousness. Looking up, he saw Dinobot locked in combat with the large Decepticon. Grabbing his quasar cannon, he aimed and fired twice at the Decepticon. The shots seemed to have no effect - aside from making him angry. The Decepticon turned towards Cheetor and started walking over, blasting all the way. "Bad move," shouted Dinobot as he lept onto the Decepticon's back and thrust his sword into the Decepticon's back. Instead of falling over like most opponents would, the Decepticon lifted Dinobot off of his back, pulled out the sword, and blasted Dinobot in the chest. Dinobot gave a halfway suprised gasp, then rocket backwards into a tree, slumping over. Cheetor blasted over a nearby tree, collapsing it on the Decepticon. The 'con whirled around and blasted the tree asunder before it landed. Transforming back to panther mode, he stalked over towards Cheetor. And pounced. * * * * * * * * * * Vixen gaped over the two bodies. "Remind me again where it was you found these bodies?" she said. "As I recall," said Rhinox, "they had been strung up on a radio pole by the gaping holes in their chests. Dinobot's vocal output had been rigged to keep saying over and over, 'The Decepticons have returned...'" Skydive shook his head. "I've never seen anything this brutal in my entire career, not even when I was on Earth with the Autobots." "Will you stop talking about that?" snapped Vixen. Skydive shook his head. "Any idea who did this?" asked Vixen. "Probably a former Decepticon commander," said Onslaught from a far corner. "Why do you say commander?" asked Rhinox. "I used to BE a Decepticon commander, Rhinox. I know how they think. If I were in this Decepticon's place, I would have relished the opportunity. No, this was not some low-level lackey - he knew what he was doing." "Any idea who it was?" asked Rhinox. "Well, let me look at the wounds," he replied, examining the two of them. Rhinox raised an eyebrow slightly. "You guys actually had trademark styles to badly damage people?" "Oh, did we ever. Mine was to shear off the limbs. Megatron always prefered melting them, though...that's how he was nicknamed 'The Slag Maker'." Onslaught finished the examination. "Oh dear. This is very, VERY bad." "Who was it?" asked Rhinox. "That chest wound is typical of the commander of the Cybertronian Decepticons for over four million years." "Who???" asked Rhinox again. "His ruthlessness is well known throughout the galaxy, and his cold, calculating logic made him one of the most feared commanders." "WHO?" insisted Rhinox. "His powerful rule was -" "JUST TELL US WHO IT WAS!!!" bellowed Rhinox. "Shockwave," said Onslaught, with fearful reverence in his voice. It was the first time Rhinox had ever heard him scared. "Who's Shockwave?" asked Vixen. "Not a nice guy," replied Skydive. "He has a full range of electromagnetic projection weapons, transforms into a gigantic cannon, and is completely ruthless. I remember him from when I was on Earth with the..." Skydive stopped from a withering glance from Vixen. "...never mind, you probably know all of that anyway." "In any event, how is he able to survive without a beast mode?" said Rhinox. "It's been a while since I saw him. He might have installed an energon shield since then," replied Onslaught. "Energon shield?" asked Rhinox quizzically. "Fairly cutting-edge technology of the Decepticons when I joined the AutoCons, along with the rest of the Combaticons," replied Onslaught. "The idea was to absorb discharged energon into an internal power bank. Useful with all of the energon caches that were being destroyed. Around here, it would be like the energon on that floating mountain 24 hours a day." Rhinox whistled. "I'd say that puts us knee-deep in slag." "Say, where's Rattrap?" asked Skydive. "We could use some information from him." "I...might know," said Vixen sheepishly, remebering what Stormcloud had said. "But it really isn't a problem, is it?" "No," replied Rhinox. "How would you know, anyway?" Vixen thought back to the Joining. *The best I've had yet, if memory serves,* she thought, and she felt herself blush visibly. "Umm...does...it...really MATTER how I learned it? Right?" She could feel herself sheepishly grinning. Rhinox leaned over to whisper to her. "You Joined with Stormcloud, didn't you?" She nodded, also rather sheepishly. "Doesn't matter a bit," said Rhinox aloud. "We'll just have to wait until he gets back, and try to hack in until then." Vixen thought again of their Joining, and shuddered slightly in delightful rememberence. She discreetly stopped and focused her thoughts back onto things like death. * * * * * * * * * * "Retrothrusters on," announced Razorbeast. The Nicodermis landed softly on the second moon. "In case you hadn't already figured it out, we're here." "Duh, pighead," replied Rattrap. He walked over to the htach and opened it, then stepped out as the plank slowly lowered. "Now, let's get cracking." "What are you doing?" asked Armordillo tenatively. "Looking for energon materials," replied Rattrap, converting to rat mode and sniffing around. "Errr...don't you mean energon CRYSTALS?" asked Armordillo, also transforming and landing clumsily on the ground. "No, I mean materials," replied Rattrap. "See, before energon was found to exist in a stable - well, relatively speaking - crystaline form, we compiled various energy sources to form energon cubes. Crude, but very effective, both as nourishment and -" at this point he smirked maliciously "- weapons." "And you know how to make these?" asked Razorbeast, remaining in robot mode. "You got that right," he replied. "Soundwave showed it to me back when we were still kickin' it in Vilnacron. Man, those were the days - pillage a little here, plunder a little there, and you've got it made. At least, as long as Megs didn't catch you goofing off, in which case the days were far from good." "I think I found something!" exclaimed Armordillo. He rushed over, arms full of small shining rocks. "Yeah, you found something all right," said Razorbeast, his voice dripping with cynicism. "They're called rocks. Y'know, the little hard things that are inside your skull." "No, no, no! My scans showed trace elements of uranium." He looked at Rattrap expectantly. "That is GOOD, isn't it?" "Yes and no," replied Rattrap. "Uranium's a great way to make energon cubes, but it's not a very good idea to keep around your beast mode - it really messes up organics. Put it in the hold - that's lead-coated." Armordillo nodded and walked into the ship. "Hell-o! My scans are reading so much energon nearby, it makes the Plasma Energy Chamber look like a battery!" Razorbeast double-checked his scan. "Yup, no doubt about it. North by northwest." Rattrap nodded and scurried off in that direction, Razorbeast close behind. The two of them crouched down behind a large outcropping of rock, and peered out. "By Primus!" exclaimed Razorbeast. "Who the slag is that robot? And what in the world is that thing towering over them?" "I don't know," replied Rattrap. "But I'm not putting any money on it being a good thing." * * * * * * * * * * "Are these schematics as you specified?" asked Blackarachnia of the large robot in front of her. Shockwave gave them a once-over. "Yes. The structures is 98.4% correct, and will operate at 99.2% efficiency." Blackarachnia smiled and cocked her head in suprise. "Really? They did that well? In that case, I'll have to be a little more lenient." She thought for a moment on the decision. "Nah." "Humor not registered," said Shockwave, examining the towering structure again. "Is payment prepared for this?" Blackarachnia nodded, and she handed him a small subspace access device. "This pocket has all the parts you requested. Also, any Maximals that fall are yours to do with as you wish." Although Shockwave's face was not able to display any emotion, he seemed to smile. "You are quite compotent, Blackarachnia. Perhaps it is logical that you rule the Predacons." "It most certainly is," she replied.