"OC Episode #2"

[Alak]

Noticing that the drilling machine's load capacity was nearing its maximum, Orcariner stopped his work and approached Wintersong.

"Keep mining out the energon and have Rattrap load them into the cubes," he said, "I'll go ahead and take what you have now along with these two finished ones. Plus, it'll give me an opportunity to take a breather where the dampers are much more efficient."

Disassembling the trough, Orcariner hoisted it onto his right shoulder. Using his left hand, he tucked two of the filled energon cubes under his arm and proceeded to bring the load into the Nomad. Setting them into the cargo bay, the Maximal sad down on the bench and exhaled. They had amassed over two tons of raw energon thus far. Grabbing a lid, he sealed the top of the trough so that the radiation exposure would be minimized during the return trip. Otherwise, he would be spending the ride home in beast mode and that would be very uncomfortable with all this luggage.

"Almost finished," he said to Tigatron, "All we have to do is fill a couple more cubes and take care of this Primal clone and we're home free."

Orcariner realized that the way he said it made the mission sound easy. There was still the risk of the Predacons trying to interfere with their work. It was doubtful that they had the firepower to penetrate the transport's shielding and hull, but the workers outside are still in danger. Should a stray shot strike the field, that would be more than enough to tear the Nomad apart at this range. Furthermore, there was alien that they had to deal with. Orcariner had not heard back from Optimus or Icebreaker, so he was unsure of their situation. Cheetor and Feralnight were speed based scouts, so they would have been able to flee should the invisible transformer prove to be too much to handle. Then again, they lacked the durability to absorb more than a few hits before entering stasis lock. Perhaps Orcariner should had gone with them. He excelled at playing a tank-type role in combat. Even if he could not stand toe-to-toe with the clone, at least he would have provided a large, but durable, distraction allowing the scouts to escape. He shrugged that thought out of his mind. The energon would have brought him back to beast mode within cycles leaving him more of a liability than an asset. Optimus was right in ordering him to stay behind.

"Beast mode," he said.

Transforming back into his killer whale form, Orcariner hovered back outside towards the energon field. He may not be able to help them fight, but at least he will finish their original objective.

[Dannn Sanew]

Tarantulas's head peeked out of the oveerhead storage compartment in the carrier bay and went back to work on his device. He still needed to calibrate it before he could test it out. Doesn't Megatron realized that he had far greater tasks than this! Still it been awhile and he didn't know why he put up with such incompetent fools. They should had been done already, unless they ran into some Maximals. The spider decided that he would check out what was going outside in a few cycles.

[Night-Hunter]

"Mu-uu-ah-ha-haha-ha-haaaa...AAAAHHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I've finally have my revenge!!"

Sonar bit back his retort, right now all that mattered to him was getting repaired even if it meant having his pride trambled on by Starshadow.

"Just get your aft in the lift.."

He watched her for a moment before turning to look behind him, wondering if the Maximals had run into the Phantom yet.

The only mech that could possibly defeat that creature of would be Primal himself. Sonar thought.

He then looked at his claws and smiled when he saw that his claws still had bits of the Exoskeleton from his fight with the creature. Grunting he reached into his preson and withdrew a vile, using his sharp thumb nail he scraped the sample into the vile before sealing it and placing it back into his person.

It seemed getting my aft handed to me, paid off after all. he smiled before following Starshadow inside.

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

(( OOC: Interesting CSI move there with Sonar, N-H. I wonder what information he can gather with those samples from his nails. ))

My Tactical visor not only scans for energy signatures, but also sees thermal imaging as a means to see through smoke in case of a fire. My missiles and targeting system also work with thermal lock based from my tactical visor.

Hm. Useful indeed. Optimus was beginning to get some ideas.

I noticed before whenever that thing discharges a weapon or uses his thrusters he shows up with the area around him glowing, he can alter his own thermal signature, but he can't alter the effects it has on the air and ground around him.

"One of the first things we should try doing is terminating his ability of flight. It's an acceptional advantage he has, especially when he's cloaked," Optimus suggested. If they could knock him down one ability at a time, then he wouldn't be as powerful as he was with all of his tricks. "Any ideas on how to take out his cloaking?" he asked Icebreaker.

Something in the air caught the gorilla's eye as he and the penguin approached the area with the two Maximals and the alien. "Feralnight," he said to Icebreaker. The way she flew, however, made her appear to be lame. Perhaps the clone had injured her already. Where was Cheetor?

The Vok had glanced at Feralnight as she took off. At first he thought of shooting her down. He didn't have to kill anyone, but if he did, it would save his race a lot of trouble in the future. He had no rules or consequences for his existance and what he did to the Cybertronians. Instead, he turned his attention back to the cheetah and was ready for anything he'd throw at him.

When Cheetor fired the shots and suddenly dashed off, the Primal clone immediately jumped to his left and landed on the ground on his side, just missing the shots that the young Maximal fired. And as soon as he hit the earth, he fired a few shots after the cat. Fortunately for Cheetor, the Vok underestimated his speed in robot mode and all of his shots fell short behind the Maximal's feet, blowing up the ground. Of course the crooked aiming didn't help. So the clone wasn't perfect after all. Springing to his feet, he took better aim at Cheetor's legs, raising both of his arms for his wrist cannons and fired at him as he ran.

Upon hearing the shots fired from both, Optimus grew extremely worried. Cheetor! Were they too late?! "Icebreaker, can you break off and pull around from behind them? I'll confront the clone and distract him while you take any means necessary to disengage his prime jets." Hopefully the alien wouldn't notice Icebreaker until it was too late. And hopefully Optimus could distract him with conversation to try and avoid heavy firepower even though it was almost inevitable. This way, even if the clone cloaked himself, Icebreaker could take his time finding him through his visor and opening fire while Primal used himself as bait.

-----

Almost finished," "All we have to do is fill a couple more cubes and take care of this Primal clone and we're home free."

"Understood, Orcariner," Tigatron responded. For a brief moment he felt some relief, but when he began thinking about the clone again, his thoughts were a little dampened. He hoped there was a way to stop it, even though it seemed untouchable, before someone might lose their life.

Returning to one of their leader's orders, the tiger was surprised he hadn't received a response from anyone at the Axalon. Maybe there was too much energon interferance. "Axalon, do you copy? This is Tigatron," he tried again.

"Keep mining out the energon and have Rattrap load them into the cubes," "I'll go ahead and take what you have now along with these two finished ones. Plus, it'll give me an opportunity to take a breather where the dampers are much more efficient."

After hearing the killer whale talk to Wintersong, Rattrap moved over to her and the drill with some discs and started filling them carefully with the energon she was uncovering. So far so good. But didn't the bad things always happen when things starting working out too good to be true? Despite his negative thoughts, the paranoid rat continued getting his "paws" dirty and loading the energon.

"Maybe we'll be lucky, Optimus, Icebreaker, and Cheetor together might be able to bring that cheating pile of slag down for good."

"You'd think that, what with the clone bein' all outnumbered," the rodent commented to Wintersong while they worked. "But I gotta bad feelin' about it."

[New Moon]

Frilla had landed the Levianthan to allow the others on and those damaged to be able to get repaired. Looking back she listened tot he two seem to bicker briefly before looking back to watch the scanner but knew Steelclaw had a point. Even with teamwork it may not be enough.

------------------------------------

Feralnight looked down, "Cheetor!" She called seeing the shots fired and growled despite how much it hurt. "I am going to regret this." She muttered and banked around before diving towards the clone and transformed back to robot mode firing her shoulder cannon knowing she'd only end up likely shot out of the sky. The clone just needed to be distracted long enough for Cheetor to take cover or for the others to get there and she intended to be that distraction.

[Lady_Jet2]

Rattrap heard the order and sighed leaning back a bit in the drill cabin. "Geeze...i need a break, this thing is cramped!" he grumbled opening the container and stretching out his legs quickly. He looked over. "glad someone else will be takin' care of that clone..." he muttered moving to do his job.

((sorry about leaving again, so yeah...i have no clue what rattrap is suppose to do since no one told me last time i asked so i'll just have him follow the orders that he would have gotten from Windsong or whoever was talking to Orcanier...))

[Wintersong]

Wintersong nodded at Ocarnier before he left then went back to mining for a moment listening to Rattrap, hating to admit he might be right. "Guess we can only wait and hope they come back in one piece or well for the most part anyway." She sighed and added, "And Orcarnier wanted you to load the energon into cubes." She said and went back to drilling. But she didn't have too long before the radiation would hit her circuits already feeling the first affects of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snow Trix dragged Terrorsaur in shortly after Starshadow and Sonar, which luckily was just before the radiation about hit. Setting him down the fox femme rolled her shoulders since they felt sore and tired, Terrorsaur was heavier then he looked and weighed more then she did. Glancing back outside She couldn't shake the feeling something was about to happen but couldn't tell what it was.

[NaitoKage]

"One of the first things we should try doing is terminating his ability of flight. It's an exceptional advantage he has, especially when he's cloaked," Optimus suggested. If they could knock him down one ability at a time, then he wouldn't be as powerful as he was with all of his tricks. "Any ideas on how to take out his cloaking?" he asked Icebreaker.

Icebreaker nodded Well, if I hit it in the back with a ice shot or ice missile it should have the same effect that it had on Terrorsaur, could even cause massive damage to the rocket motor from either clogging the cooling system, shattering the parts in his back from rapid cooling and cause a explosion from hitting his jet wash.. As for cloaking.. I have no idea. I have a rattle can on me, but I'm not sure painting him will work. he then said.

He looked up as Optimus mentioned Feralnight, then looked ahead as he heard the shots in the distance. He nodded to Optimus and parted ways from him heading into the woods near the energon field, taking cover behind some bushes and rocks as he attempted to get closer to Cheetor and the Vok Primal's location without being spotted.

_____________________________

Rhinox looked up as he suddenly heard Tigatron's voice on the radio and clearly.He promptly activated the ship radio. This is Rhinox, we copy. What's the situation Tigatron?

__________________________

Glowstick floated towards the carts unloading more Energon, then blinked noticing the group had shown up. He floated inside of the Leviathan transforming to his robot mode, then looked over the area. He was surprised to see Sonar standing again, then looked at Terrorsaur in his stasis lock state. He walked over to Snowtrix lifting Terrorsaur up I'll help with that. he then said, his limbs moving Terrorsaur to be carried behind him by one of his tentacles on his back. He walked over to Sonar, then stopped turning his head to look at Tarantulus When did you..how did you...?Okay.. Nevermind. You're just the bot I wanted to see! Blackarachnia will be showing up shortly but.. here. This requires repairs. There's tools and parts all over the Cargobay. His tentacle then swung from his back holding Terrorsaur in front of himself in a slumped over position, then set him on the floor in front of Tarantulus.

Glowstick then looked to Sonar Good to see your back online,I doubt you want me fixing you up unless it's dire. I'll fill you in on the situation. That Invisible Alien Primal clone you fought is currently fighting the Maximals, we have decided to name it Ghost. We modified the Leviathan's sonar to operate in the air using some information based off your echolocation, I also got out the two Sonar sensor goggles I was working on for my amphibious project. Thanks to you, we're able to now monitor that creature. You can fix yourself up with this. Glowstick then sent one of his arms out extending it to grab a med kit from the wall of the Cargo bay, then handed it to Sonar. Though the ship was filled with tools and spare parts, Glowstick still found it handy to have the essentials in a quick and easy to access pack.

Glowstick then looked to StarShadow, then scooped her up over his shoulder with his tentacles Alright, lets go get you repaired now Kitty cat. I'm sure I can get it done faster upstairs and let Sonar get himself fixed up in peace.
he then floated from the floor before she could protest towards and up the stairway.

On the bridge, the squid drone detached itself from the maintenance computer, then turned to face Frilla and Steelclaw's position on the bridge. The radio chiming up from an internal broadcast on Glowstick(Meaning no external sound from his face while speaking) Sonar is back online it seems, and Tarantulus was hiding in the Cargobay. I swear.. never a dull minute. I'm going to repair StarShadow in the quarters, Waspinator should be returning soon with Scorponok. When we have them up to to snuff, I think we should plan out some new tactics for collecting energon.. as well as an offensive against the Ghost.

[Blazemane]

Cheetor felt a small amount of vindication as the first attack went behind him, but it wasn't long-lived. The next shots took his legs right out from under him, and he plowed into the ground in a forceful, uncontrolled heap, kicking up dust with the impact.

Before his frame even ground to a stop, he started picking himself up again, and he turned to face the alien once again. But once he was off of his hands, and only on his legs, he found them severely weakened, and he stumbled. Still, he fired at the alien before running a little ways further and falling over again.

He wasn't going to last long like this.

Something caught his eye- Feralnight.

No. Cheetor had wanted to keep the alien away from her and then run away. Neither Maximal gets hurt. The running away part obviously wasn't working so well, but now she was going to be in danger again.

It was his department to take stupid risks.

* * *

Steelclaw watched as the other Predacons came into the ship.

"Sonar," he remarked, "how're you feeling?"

He looked like he was in bad shape, but Steelclaw wondered if he would be any good for another trip outside...

[Night-Hunter]

Good to see your back online,I doubt you want me fixing you up unless it's dire. I'll fill you in on the situation. That Invisible Alien Primal clone you fought is currently fighting the Maximals, we have decided to name it Ghost. We modified the Leviathan's sonar to operate in the air using some information based off your echolocation, I also got out the two Sonar sensor goggles I was working on for my amphibious project. Thanks to you, we're able to now monitor that creature. You can fix yourself up with this.

"I've been naming that psycho Phantom. And you're welcome." Sonar growled swiping he med kit from him.

Alright, lets go get you repaired now Kitty cat. I'm sure I can get it done faster upstairs and let Sonar get himself fixed up in peace.

Sonar couldn't help but smirk at the Squid's antics.

"Sonar," "how're you feeling?"

Sonar had resist the urge to flat out punch Steelclaw in the face for his stupid question.

"I feel like I had been used for a punching bag. Other then that... i'm fine." He growled, wincing as he sat down so he could repair himself.

OOC: Interesting CSI move there with Sonar, N-H. I wonder what information he can gather with those samples from his nails.

((OOC: Thanks, it just came to me, and neither can I. ^_^ ))

[Optimal Optimus Primal]

Watching Cheetor fall and struggling to get back on his feet, the "Ghost" lowered only one of his arms, but kept the other targeted on him. Not quick enough, he thought with an expressionless face peering at the yellow Maximal.

Suddenly, an unexpected shot from Feralnight hammered the clone's shoulder from behind. "Argh!" It spun him around and knocked him off of his feet. As if it was automatic from the hit, he vanished, cloaking himself again. Moving off to the side so he wouldn't be in the same location he was when they last saw him, he recomposed himself and got to his feet, rolling his shoulder and examining the damage. The Vok had taken a hard hit but it didn't leave him incapacitated. He could use still use his arm but it was painful. Perhaps this Maximal wants to be terminated after all, he thought. Pulling out his mace, a spiked ball composed of metal attached by a thick chain to a stick, the Vok Primal ignited his prime jets and flew straight up at Feralnight. Moving his good arm in a circular motion to gain momentum swinging the spiked ball on the chain, he aimed it for the female's chin for an upper cut, flying right at her. He intended on knocking her unconscious and letting her fall to the ground.

Well, if I hit it in the back with a ice shot or ice missile it should have the same effect that it had on Terrorsaur, could even cause massive damage to the rocket motor from either clogging the cooling system, shattering the parts in his back from rapid cooling and cause a explosion from hitting his jet wash..

That sounded well enough for Optimus. Icebreaker certainly had some unique weapons.

As for cloaking.. I have no idea. I have a rattle can on me, but I'm not sure painting him will work.

"Could be worth a shot, as long as you can do it safely," Optimus told him before he watched the penguin dart off in another direction. He prayed they could cause some significant damage with their plan.

Watching Feralnight suddenly turn back and start firing her shoulder cannons, an expression of worry and fear washed over his face. Feralnight! He galloped as quickly as he could on his feet and knuckles, dodging several random energon crystals that stuck up out of the ground.

(( OOC: Just giving New Moon a chance to respond to the Vok's action with Feralnight; and Cheetor if he wants to do anything. Then I'll have OP show up! ))

-----

This is Rhinox, we copy. What's the situation Tigatron?

Thank the Matrix, the white tiger thought. "Rhinox, we are currently stationed at the energon field, but an alien being has arrived with it and it's taking down both Predacons and Maximals one by one," Tigatron explained. "It's an exact replica of Optimus. We don't know why it is here, but we're having difficulty defeating it. Optimus is requesting reinforcements for the energon mining in case the Predacons attack."

(( OOC: Sorry, LJ. All Rattrap has to do is grab the raw energon that Wintersong is drilling with the drill and store it in the cubes that Orcariner is providing so he can transport them back to Nomad. ))

[New Moon]

(Optimus clone with a spiky mace flying upwards plus the flying dog flying downward, I foresee a major headache if it hits. )

Feralnight growled, frustrated that with one hit the clone took the chance to cloak itself again making it much more difficult. Stopping she glanced around searching for signs of the clone and turned in place before flying slightly out of the path of the approaching invisible Vok Primal, not aware of the mace he swung that had been intended to knock her out. A pained howl came from the fuzor shortly after the mace made contact with her wing, the spikes cutting into the metal beneath all the feathers and 'skin' causing her to instinctively recoil and drawback from it. The most vulnerable spot unfortunately was the wings on her back and such an attack as this could be excruciating and it was close this time, enough to force her to lower her altitude instea dof trying to attack the invisible Primal.

[starshadow]

Alright, lets go get you repaired now Kitty cat. I'm sure I can get it done faster upstairs and let Sonar get himself fixed up in peace.

Starshadow's ears drooped after Glowstick carried her.
"Bleah..." her optics dimmed as the squid bot brought her to the quarters.

[Dannn Sanew]

Tarantulus was intrigue by the mention of this "Ghost". Technology always fascinated him, alien technology even more so. He needed to see this creature first hand and it seen like he would soon get a opportunity to do so. As the spider worked on Terrorsaur he began to ponder what did the Alien apperance mean.

[NaitoKage]

Glowstick floated into the Quarters, the room was about as wide as the bridge, but not nearly as long. On the side walls contained triple bunk beds with a closet between the beds filled with ammo and weapons. Glowstick set her down on the bed on her stomach, then started examining her back and head Geez.. how do you keep getting up after suffering damage like this? You have concussive damage all over your back and the back of your head. I guess your just lucky you have all these superficial accessories to take some of the damage.. Oh well. I'll see what I can do. You'd better go offline for now. he then said.

with a sigh, StarShadow complied. Her optics turning black as she powered herself down with her head laying down on the bunk bed. (StarShadow lost her net cable so she may not be on for awhile, so it's been agreed to leave her asleep in the crew quarters on the Leviathan.)

Glowstick opened the medical kit on his back, his tentacles then reaching in pulling out a few tools and supplies as he then started to disassemble StarShadow's back, neck, and the back of her head. His optics and squid eyes seen moving as he surveys the damage with the pieces out of the way, his lasers then shined firing highly focused beams as he started work repairing some structural points inside of her, while other limbs work on taking the dents out and filling in the holes on her armor. She'd probably have to spend a few cycles in the CR tank Glowstick thought to himself, but that was common for her anyway.

_______________________

Rhinox listened as Tigatron told of the situation. He then looked towards Valkyrie I'll keep looking things up here, You should take Saber and go meet up with Tigatron and the others.