The Intergalactic Highway

Rhinox rubbed his face as he noticed another pod on the computer. Oh no.. he then took the the corodinates and activated the comlink We have stasis pod now landing in sector 5 5 9, I guess the remaining team will be heading out to investigate.

He then got up from his chair and looked towards Rattrap talking to aurora. Hrm.. Starting to wish I left Icebreaker behind.. hope things are going alright with Cheetor and the others..

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Glowstick raised an optic ridge Ah.. no, a Starhopper can't hold many. Basically I plan to take the components from the Starhopper, and Cecelia's ship to make a new ship.

He then heard Cecaelia ,turning to glance into the distance. His optics dimmed slightly frustrated Another? What the heck is going on today..geez. Alright. Well we're almost there.. We'll take what we can get and then head off towards that pod. As for those two..er..

He activated his comlink Sonar, What's going on? It seems Starshadow is chasing you as usual.

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Icebreaker nodded to Cheetor, then raised an optic ridge as he heard Starshadow in the distance. Star hm? Yeesh.. that Pred.. Well, from what I can see here, that Ship isn't in good shape.. and I can't move it. I guess all we can do now is take you to our leader.
His eyes then narrowed as he started to see the Predacon transport floating towards their area Great, the Leviathan.. More Preds on the way.We'd better scram.

As Onyx was approaching closer to the signals one coming his way caused the friesian horse to pause, looking curiously for a moment in the direction Starshadow was coming and it seemed this other bot was a Predacon. So there were others and inwardly he smiled and started towards her direction in hopes of possibly meeting this fellow Predacon in the middle at some point, perhaps coming them would help assure them his landing had been a safe one. "Onyx to Predacon unit do you read?" He asked though his com, hoping the high radiation from the energon wasn't going to interfere much with his message though he wasn't about to get his hopes up.

Turning his head slightly he took in the new landscape around him, the gently high grassed plains had started to give way to shorter and greener grass with a few more trees then where he had come from before. It was amazing how the planet differed in certain areas, far more different then Cybertron by far which everywhere you look were cities and metal, nothing really new. Not to mention there seemed plenty of energon to excavate and use for energy, enough to power a planet for centuries much like his home and maybe that was the reason the Predacons and Maximals were here? Or maybe some other events had occurred he wasn't aware of?

The panther was running as fast as she could to reach to the pod. If only she had wings of an eagle.."Starshadow, terrorize!" she cried out as she jumped over a boulder, transforming in mid-air, landing on her feet.

"Hmm..it should be around here somewhere.."

"Onyx to Predacon unit do you read?"

"I hear you, honey. Momma cat's coming for you. Heh..just kidding. What's your position?" Starshadow replied.

((OOC: ))

She noticed the longing in her eyes. Whitegrazer looked at her like a mother would on a lost child, trying to find out who she was. From the passenger's eyes, there was a story inside them.

"Optimus Prime is your leader?! That's a little hard to believe."

Whitegrazer just chuckled, "No, not Optimus Prime." She was about to correct when Optimus appeared, "I'll let him introduce himself." She kept her smile.

"I'm glad all of you are all right. Nemesis has retreated,"

"All Nemesis wanted was the pod but since it exploded, there was nothing for her here anymore."

"I'm Optimus Primal, Axalon Commander of these Maximals. Your pod came down pretty fast, and it looks like you had a rough landing. You're lucky Whitegrazer and Wintersong were close enough nearby to assist you. I assume that this planet was not your intentional final destination. What happened here?"

She watched as Optimus Primal introduced himself and she waited to hear what the passenger had to say.

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"So he is already a Predacon?"

She shrugged then realized that since nothing is here for her, she really should get back to her little project with what she collected back in that underground cave. She didn't share what she found with anyone especially not to Megatron or Tarantulas. Oh, definitely not them. She needed an advantage over them and maybe that was it.

But it looked like Starshadow was after more than the person.

"You want that pod, don't you?"

Lately, everyone seemed to be after pods...Tarantulas, Nemesis...Starshadow and herself as well. Everyone wanted off this planet badly but Tarantulas seemed to know something everyone didn't.

Having the Maximals fawn over her like a family reunion was almost surreal. And more of them kept joining them asking her questions about how she got here and who she was. One even extended his hand for a handshake and had said:

Optimus Primal wrote: "I'm Optimus Primal, Axalon Commander of these Maximals. Your pod came down pretty fast, and it looks like you had a rough landing. You're lucky Whitegrazer and Wintersong were close enough nearby to assist you. I assume that this planet was not your intentional final destination. What happened here?"

This was Arachnitron's first time away from Cybertron....actually, it was Arachnitron's first time outside in general. She suddenly felt overwhelmed by everything that was going on. In that instant, almost as though someone had flicked a switch somewhere deep inside her, the aggressive, hateful, cunning and manipulative Predacon personality inside her took over the fearful, timid, guilt-ridden and emotional Maximal personality.

In response to Optimus' question, her green optics darkened in color. "It's classified," she snarled.

But she closed her optics and shook her head quickly. When she opened them again, her optics were a brighter green again. A second look would reveal that they had paled in submission. She had felt the rage coming...brought on by an emotionally trying day and her suddenly feeling so overwhelmed. She had to keep it in check. Logically, it made sense to spend some time with the Maximals at least until she got better control of her emotions. Her instabilities were a dangerous ally, but, on her own, they would make her easy prey.

"Uh...what I mean is it's classified to them," she said pointing to the ape-bot's comrades. "You, I assume, have the highest of clearances necessary. You, I can discuss this with in private."

What she would tell him she had no idea. But she was certainly not going to reveal that she was born a Predacon, abandoned at a young age, abducted from a Predacon orphanage, experimented on for the remainder of her life, went insane, destroyed the research facility and its records, damaged the scientists, and then crash landed on this planet...oh and had the situation been different, she'd have scrapped the Maximals that let her out of the pod. Yeah, that would definitely NOT be a good introduction. But at least she bought herself some time by claiming it was a classified mission that she could only reveal to their leader.

OOC: It's kinda like terminal PMS....

Sonar, What's going on? It seems Starshadow is chasing you as usual.

"Ah, Glowstick. So glad to see that your well. As for what's going on, another Maximal has landed and has no doubt joined the Maximal forces. Starshadow was chasing me, but I told her off. She even tried to trick the Maximal into thinking that she was on the Maximals side. She even used the name Nightstar to fool him." Sonar said, flying into a thick jungle.

Out of all the Predacons Sonar liked Glowstick the most, he didn't know why. He just liked the squid and he was glad to see that he had made a full recovery. He then used his echo's to locate his new lair, once he found it, he folded his wings against him and free falled into the the moss and vine covered trench. Once inside he transformed into his robot form and headed deeper into the cave, it was lit with raw energon giving the lair a strange errie glow to it.

"Ah, no place like home." He said with a small smile.

Nemesis arrived back at the crashed starhopper, circling far up in the sky to survey the area. It appeared she had beaten Glowstick and the others here, although she thought she could see something that could resemble the Leviathan approaching in the distance. From her location that high up she barely resembled a bird to anyone watching from the ground, yet like most birds of prey Nemesis had the keen eyesight needed to watch the going-ons far below.

While scanning for the presence of anyone, she started to descend. Even from up here she noticed that something had been stripped off the ship already, probably by one of the two Predacons she'd seen there earlier, but it was too early to establish exactly what.

"I am fine Cheetor, I need no medical attention from you" Ironclaw said to Icebreaker who he determined was the medical officer.

Ironclaw had noticed something falling from the sky and flying maximals or predacons heading towards it.

"Can we please go to Optimus so I can get my head around what is going on around here" Ironclaw said not wanting to be in another battle.

Wintersong only nodded as Primal introduced himself and the two femmes though remained quiet then. Something really seemed odd about Arachnitron, what it was the tigeress wasn't sure but even her sudden snarl made her ears go back. Something just wasn't right."Look we're friends and want to help, we aren't going to pry for what your reason is being here." Wintersong told the spider calmly. Alright so she was a bit concerned to what seemed to be bothering the survivor of the crashed pod so much but in all truth it would be up to Arachnitron entirely if she told them all what was going on.

Feralnight looked at her comrades then spread her wings,"You three go find primal while I keep the Levianthan distracted, sure could use the practice." She said and took flight heading right for the Levianthan though she noticed Nemesis not far away. How many could want the starhopper? Shaking her head the fuzor flew quickly towards the vehicle and flew a little distance from it."I don't suppose you really plan to salvage much do you Predacons? Your teammates Starshadow and Sonar seemed to trash the ship more then the crash did." She said over com-link knowing the Levianthan would hear.

A little amused Onyx replied in response,"Only a few miles from you maybe just a bit less but trust me I won't be hard to miss." Onyx said before galloping that way. The femme seemed nice enough but he knew from experience to be cautious of even those who could be allies for they could easily turn on you in a blink of an optic. Though Onyx didn't take long to notice someone in the distance and tilted his head assuming it was the femme he had talked to.

"Onyx terrorize!" He commanded aloud and allowed his form to shift into his bipedal mode. Just transforming Onyx was still a muscular and bulky black mech, his alternate form's head resting on part of his chest and down to his midsection while the reman if areas showed dull gray armor and black pelvic plating square in shape. His front legs folded onto his back as his arms came from the sides also dull gray, the shoulders and back of his horse form remaining and his legs also shifted to reveal his regular legs.The front parts of his upper legs slid into the sides and lower legs the backs into the fronts, his hooves replaced by his feet. Onyx's head was shaped somewhat like a helmet and square along the cheek plating and above between the optics he had a chevron shaped like a V.

Blinking his dark blue optics for a moment he adjusted his gaze before heading towards Starshadow and waved a hand to catch her attention.

(( OOC: Terminal PMS. Greeeaaaat. As if Saber-Fang's condition isn't bad enough. Now OP's got another one in his ranks. ))

"All Nemesis wanted was the pod but since it exploded, there was nothing for her here anymore."

Optimus nodded to Whitegrazer. Hm. So Nemesis wasn't the cause of the explosion after all. It was a good thing he thought twice about chasing her down. And it didn't surprise him that she was after the pod; she probably wanted off of this planet as much as all of them did. Perhaps she retreated because she was outnumbered, or she decided to go after one of the other means of transportation that were all suddenly falling on to this world.

"It's classified,"

Primal almost thought he was seeing things when the new bot's optics seemed to dim or grow darker with the snarl in her voice. Instinctively, the leader tightened his body, preparing to defend himself and his comrades, but it wouldn't have been noticed by the those around him. And since she ignored his extended hand, he lowered it to his side and studied her very carefully. Could she be another case of what Saber-Fang was going through? Or something similar? How on Cybertron was he supposed to handle two Maximals who could snap in an instant while leading the rest through this delicate war?

"Uh...what I mean is it's classified to them," "You, I assume, have the highest of clearances necessary. You, I can discuss this with in private."

The Maximal commander suspiciously narrowed one of his red optics for a moment as she spoke and watched her optics return to their original illumination. Classified? Just who was this 'bot and where did she come from? What had she been through? From what event did she escape from? Was she a prisoner? Was this a trick? Perhaps she was a bounty hunter or an assassin trying to seclude Optimus from his crew with this "classified" nonsense. Primus, I'm growing more paranoid than Rattrap, he realized and gave a silent sigh to clear his mind. He had to give her the benefit of the doubt. ...One day his overwhelming trust might get him killed. After all, there were a couple red flags at high staff giving him warnings.

"Look we're friends and want to help, we aren't going to pry for what your reason is being here."

Glancing at Wintersong when she spoke, Optimus nodded in agreement and turned his attention back to the new female arachnid. "That can be arranged, if you wish," he told her, referring to her request for privacy. "We can discuss it back at our base." Stepping back from her, he instructed his computer, "Beast mode," making one quick leap in the air and converting to his gorilla form to save his energy from the raw energon fields. Upon turning around, Primal gave very quick glances to both Whitegrazer and Wintersong, his brown eyes firmly connecting with theirs, as if telling them to keep an eye on her while he took point, getting down on his knuckles and leading the group back to the Axalon. "It's a long trek back," he informed the new comer behind him.

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(( OOC: Is it Onyx's pod that we're talking about here with Frilla and Rhinox? Just for clarification. ))

"Yup, I sure did! Can't wait to go test your CR chambers out for myself,"

"Eh, they should be able ta handle it. I mean, look at Rhinox's beast mode. If dat don't break the CRs, nothin' will," Rattrap laughed.

"Did I hear that correctly or am I dreaming? You commented my work is surprising Rattrap."

Grinning at Frilla, Rattrap said, "Yeah, well, everybody gets one from me. But that's it, so treasure dis special moment."

"Hey another pod fell! A stasis pod this time."

Oh no.. We have stasis pod now landing in sector 5 5 9, I guess the remaining team will be heading out to investigate.

"What? Another one?" The short Maximal walked over to the monitor and watched the data pour in. "I swear, if I could go back in time an' stop Optimus from deploying all of those pods, I would tackle him to the floor and slap him." Rattrap sighed, distraught by having to chase every stasis pod that fell from orbit. Some that survived and some that didn't. Of course, some of them were blanks. But others had been re-programmed by the Predacons to join their own greedy ranks, and that did NOT sit well with him. Putting their own lives at risk, the Maximals spent a lot of time racing to retrieve their pods so Megatron wouldn't get his grimy hands on them and decide their fate for them. Sometimes the Maximals failed, and it was difficult to absorb.

"Seems its close to the sector Whitegrazer came online."

"Ooh, can I come with?! We're going to intercept, right?"

Hrm.. Starting to wish I left Icebreaker behind.. hope things are going alright with Cheetor and the others..

"We got no other teams near there?" asked Rattrap, looking at Frilla and Rhinox.

Turning to Aurora, he stated, "If yer comin', then you better pick a beast mode and climb into the CR. We gotta move fast when our pods enter the atmosphere 'cause the Preds'll be after 'em too." Rattrap walked over to her and started to usher her out of her seat and toward one of the CR chambers. At first he would've disagreed with letting her come along with a mission that required skill and speed, but they might need all the help they can get depending on how many Predacons would show. Then again, what if they lost her like they lost Nightmist simply because Aurora was new and inexperienced? She didn't know what she was in for, and if she came on this mission, Rattrap felt like she would be his responsibility, as well as the others. Ugh. What was he getting himself into this time?

"Who else is comin' with?" he asked the group that was occupying the command center.

((OOC: Poor Primal. So many crazies XDD ))

She watched silently as Arachintron's attitude seemed to take a 180. Is something wrong? Hearing that it was classified, her mind already thought either she didn't want to tell them or it was. She went with the former though. The look of shame on her face when they were recovering from the pod's explosion gave Whitegrazer the impression that something happened with her that she was too scared to tell them. It would explain how defensive she would get or suspicious.

Hopefully, they could earn her trust so she won't feel as uncomfortable as she was now. Whitegrazer gave a soft smile then nodded at Primal he glanced at Wintersong and her.

She walked beside Arachintron and Wintersong. Everything seemed all right now and a long trek back to base might be good thing. She needed to clear her mind alittle bit to at least know what she was going to say to Optimus when she had the chance to speak with him, privately of course.

What am I going to say? I hear voices? Haha. She laughed at herself inwardly to make her feel better about the situation despite how really she felt, "Naw, all I have to say is be careful and watch his back." She sighed softly and continued to keep her mind clear.

Aurora hurried to the CR chambers as fast as her legs would carry her. As she got there, she looked around briefly before settling on the open contraption she thought must be what she was searching for.

How does it work?

She took a step closer, inspecting the machine, and located the control panel mounted on the side of the chamber.

Oh goody!

The female swiftly let her fingers run over the screen with surprising ease, making her selections. Then she stepped into the machine. The chamber closed around her, leaving her feeling slightly uneasy about being trapped in the machine. But she calmed down quickly, letting the device analyze her and do the necessary calculations to start the process.

The process itself was surprisingly quick and painless. Aurora wasn't quite sure, but she assumed the machine functioned somewhat like a teleporter, able to rearrange her molecules to the desired new form. At least that's what she thought when the device started working. The actual process she couldn't tell much of, as the machine appeared to hold her in suspended animation until it was done. But after what Aurora conceived to be a surprisingly short time span, the machine stopped and the doors automatically opened.

She stepped out, a little nervous and feeling just a little bit different. Looking down she noticed white fur covering her arms and legs, and claws.. She had a fuzzy tail now with a black tip. Rushing to watch her reflection in the metallic surface of the CR chamber, she couldn't help but admire the furry creature staring back at her. A slender body, shorter legs.. Being an ermine was definitely her style! And in addition she had gigantic butterfly wings that changed color with the direction light was bouncing off them at.

"This is soooo cool!," she exclaimed, although she didn't think anyone were there to hear her.

She couldn't wait to show the others! If they hadn't already left to investigate the fallen pod that is..

Aurora once again rushed to join up with the others, almost tripping over her legs in the process.

"Not really..I just need a few parts from it." Starshadow replied while walking. A big bulky mech caught her attention. That must be him.. she thought as she walked towards him.

"My my...I didn't expect you to be so..muscular." she purred and touched his chest, "I'm Starshadow and this is Blackarachnia and- oh what nice scars you have." the catbot moved her hand to his scars then to his cheek.