As dusk feel on the blue planet, the Maximals had made their way through the forest and nearly upon the Predacon's doorsteps. All five remained in beast mode, so as to avoid whatever detection they could. If Megatron had his sensors up, it wouldn't matter, but they weren't taking any chances.
Optimus flew ahead as soon as the downed ship came into view. It was barely night, and his dark body was practically invisible against the starry sky. They waited patiently for his return, as the cold air blew through the trees.
"I don't like this..." Dinobot said slyly. "If the Predacons should detect Optimus..."
"He'll be fine," Rattrap said. "How many did you say there were, Cheetor?"
"There were five of them, as far as I could tell," he whispered. The fluttering of bat wings returned. Optimus landed next to them out of breath.
"There is one guard, standing outside the wreckage, near the rear," he reported. "The others must be inside."
"If we could quickly take out the guard, we should be able to surprise those inside," Razorbeast suggested.
"Precisely," Optimus Primal said. "Dinobot, be as quiet as possible." The large brown dinosaur winked. Then he sped off through the bushes with astounding quietude. It was only a few feet to the clearing.
"Dinobot, maximise!" he said as soon as he was out of the forest. He crept along the Predacon ship's hull until Waspinator came into view, standing with his dart gun in hand. The Predacon looked different than Dinobot was expecting. The thought occurred to him that the Predacons may have used their limited generator output for personal upgrades. Dinobot examined the situation and quickly devised a plan. He kneeled down and grabbed a rock.
He threw up and over Waspinator, to divert his attention. The Predacon turned his head at the sudden drop of the rock, giving Dinobot enough time to creep up behind him, sword in hand. Before Waspinator could know it, his dart gun was swiped right from his hand and he was face to face with the enemy.
Dinobot put one clawed hand over the Predacon's mouth, and positioned his sword directly next to his throat. "Hello, Predacon. Expecting some Maximals today?" Dinobot whispered.
Inside the now open air hold rushed Terrorsaur with an urgent message for his leader. They had used up all of the generator's energy for the moment, leaving nothing to spare, even for lights. "Megatron! Megatron!" he yelped, tripping over something.
"What is it?" the leader said quietly, watching over the few remaining stasis pods. He had a flashlight in his hand, which he presently shone right into Terrorsaur's face.
"Waspinator hasn't reported in yet," he said shielding his optics. Megatron looked up from his army-to-be.
"What? That fool, he is probably sleeping again. Go wake him," Megatron said. In the back of his mind, he knew that perhaps these were the Maximals he'd been waiting for. "Use your new disguise, why don't you," he said wryly, switching his flashlight off, leaving the hold pitch black.
Terrorsaur smiled and transformed into his new beast mode, flying into the air towards the gaping breach in the upended side of the hold. He was glad that they had used the energy for upgrades after all. It was good to feel the air on his new wings.
As he reached the outdoors, he immediately noticed that Waspinator was not even at his post. Deciding to investigate, he swooped down towards the forest surrounding the downed ship.
Razorbeast looked up at the strange object soaring in the night. It certainly didn't look friendly. "Optimus," he said quietly.
"Yes, Razorbeast?" the general said. Razorbeast pointed into the air and let Optimus see for himself. Sure enough, there was a fairly large winged creature circling directly above them. Terrorsaur suddenly caught a glimpse of metal. It was Waspinator, deep in the forest, being held tightly by...
"Maximals!" Terrorsaur screamed.
"Blast!" Rattrap said. "He's spotted Waspinator."
"Well, Maximals. No better time to move in," Optimus said as Terrorsaur started careening towards them. All save Dinobot, who was watching Waspinator, ran as quickly as they could towards the Predacon base. Terrorsaur was now in hot pursuit.
"Terrorsaur, terrorise!" he said converting into robot mode and grabbing his riffle.
Dodging laser fire, Rattrap transformed and covered his allies. "Get in there! I'll take care of this lugnut." The small Maximal fired up at the Predacon as the others ran right into the unguarded front door of the dark Predacon ship.
By now, Megatron had heard all of the commotion. He and Tarantulas knew what to do. They hid in the darkness, waiting.
The Maximals worked quickly, knowing that Rattrap was having problems of his own outside. "Come out, Megatron! This is Optimus Primal! You're days are finally over!" There was no answer. They walked down the hallways carefully, searching for anyone or anything.
By the looks of things, nothing was on-line. Not even the lights in the crew quarters were lit. Finally, they came upon a long room, tilted at a steep angle from the crash. At the end of the room, the stars shined through the large hole. Not a sound was heard, and not a thing could be seen.
"It has suddenly dawned on me that perhaps no one is home," Razorbeast said trying to steady himself in the steep room. "The Axalon does remain completely unguarded," he said. Optimus shook his head in anger. He had been foolish to leave the ship unprotected.
"We'd better..." Cheetor started, but was suddenly thrown into the shadows.
"What the?" Razorbeast exclaimed, whirling around to see what happened.
"Tarantulas, terrorise!" came a hoarse voice. Cheetor screamed as Razorbeast tried to see what was going on. He grabbed his gun and fired into at the ceiling for an instance worth of light. It was all he needed. He immediately caught a glimpse of Tarantulas, and lunged towards the Predacon. Suddenly there was a scream from Optimus Primal. Laser blasts shot through the room, igniting a small fire. There was enough light to see now, although it wasn't pretty.
Cheetor was down on the ground, keeled over, and a long green reptile had it's teeth deep in Optimus's leg. It was thrashing back and forth, flailing Optimus like a rag.
Razorbeast blasted four shots into Tarantulas's gut and ran up towards Optimus.
"Back, Maximal, or your leader is gone," said the crocodile. "Megatron, terrorise!" with a whirring of gears, the beast had turned into a tall green menace, holding Optimus by the throat, a large riffle held to his head. For a moment there was silence.
Razorbeast checked his surroundings. Cheetor was still down, reverted into beast mode, Tarantulas limp next to him. Optimus quivered ever so slightly, while the cold Predacon at the other end of the rifle snickered. As far as Razorbeast could tell, the hold was... not as empty as he thought. Now he caught a glimpse of the far end of the hold, and two long pods.
"Move, Maximal, and your leader is rubble," Megatron threatened.
He pulled out his double-barrelled gun from his back compartment. He smiled and aimed directly for the stasis pods.
"The name's Razorbeast, and I think you'd better drop the gun," he said wryly. Megatron suddenly frowned. "I'll ruin your pods with one shot, Pred. Now hand Optimus over."
Megatron thought for a moment, and decided. He threw Optimus over to Razorbeast, toppling them both and sending them down towards the front of the hold. Slowly, Tarantulas was getting up next to Cheetor. Optimus was losing both blood and mech-fluid, and Cheetor was still out. Razorbeast suddenly felt outnumbered.
Now Megatron was firing his powerful weapon directly at Razorbeast. "Leave this place, Maximal. You're in over your head," Tarantulas said pulling his weapon out. Razorbeast slung Optimus over one of his shoulders and grabbed Cheetor's arm, dragging him down the hallway.
As laser shots came after him from behind, he pulled his friends out of the Dark Side and into the night. "Are you alright, Optimus?" Razorbeast asked.
"I will be fine in beast mode." The leader quickly converted. His backside was bleeding from Megatron's attack, but he could still fly.
"Dinobot! Rattrap!" Razorbeast yelled into the forest. Dinobot came rushing out in beast mode. He immediately looked surprised at his friend's predicament. "Give me a hand here. Where's Rattrap?"
"He is watching Waspinator and Terrorsaur. The mission has failed?"
"It has," Optimus Primal said as Dinobot transformed and picked Cheetor up. "Megatron and his allies have beast modes like us. They've used up their power supply for upgrades. We were overwhelmed."
"I see..." They walked back into the forest where Rattrap stood with his gun at Terrorsaur and Waspinator.
"There's another problem," Razorbeast said. "It looks as though one Predacon is missing."
"What?" Rattrap asked. Terrorsaur and Waspinator looked at each other slyly. "The Axalon!" He said suddenly realising the possibilities. Razorbeast nodded slowly. Rattrap turned to the two Preds and held his gun up to Waspinator's face.
"Where's the fifth Pred?" Razorbeast asked.
"He is not here," Waspinator said vaguely. That was enough information for Razorbeast. He calculated the odds that the Axalon was safe. They weren't good.
Dinobot growled. "Leave these two. We must retreat. The Axalon is our one true advantage at the moment," Optimus said. Dinobot quickly converted into his velociraptor mode and slung Cheetor's limp body over his back. Rattrap safely stored Waspinator and Terrorsaur's weapons and transformed too. Razorbeast shook his head and looked back at the Predacon ship. The failure was eminent.
With Cheetor on his back, Dinobot was keeping them from moving very quickly. It was decided that Optimus and Rattrap would go ahead to see what was going on back at the Axalon. In the meantime, Dinobot and Razorbeast walked slowly in the night.
There was a quiet hum inside Cheetor's body. Repair systems were working hard to get him back on-line. It took a full half-hour before the cat finally woke up.
"Where am I?" he asked getting off of Dinobot.
"We've retreated. The Predacons have upgraded their systems, and possibly attacked the Axalon without our knowledge," Dinobot said. Cheetor looked down at the ground.
"I fell so stupid. That spider had me pinned with some sort of paralysing dart. I'm okay now, I guess."
"Don't worry," Razorbeast said. "If the Axalon is okay, we'll make some bombs and take him out from the sky."
"If the Axalon has flight capabilities when we return," Dinobot said. He didn't sound very optimistic.
Iguanus stood blasting the outer hull. His weapon was strong enough to pierce anything, and his work was almost done. The propulsions systems had been ruined, the outer weapons were no more, and the hull was burnt to a crisp. Unfortunately, Iguanus hadn't enough time to break into the Axalon. Inside, he could do real damage.
"Hey!" yelled someone from behind. Iguanus turned to find himself at the wrong end of long sword. He backed up and transformed into his beast mode. He quickly slithered into the tall grass, knowing the Maximals would not pursue him. They simply stood sadly, inspecting the damage. He flicked his tongue in joy to see the look on their faces before turning for his base. His job was done.
As Cheetor, Dinobot and Razorbeast came out of the forest, and into the grassland, they could just see the Axalon on the horizon. It looked terrible. Rattrap and Optimus Primal were fixing whatever they could, and assessing the worst of the problems.
It only took a quick look at the engines to realise they were stuck where they were, on this primitive planet. Iguanus had done just enough damage to ruin their only advantage over the Predacons, flight. Razorbeast sighed on inspecting the propulsions. He wouldn't be piloting the Axalon again for quite some time.
Cheetor stayed up that night, since he was the only one somewhat recharged. He quietly watched the sensors. At least not all had been lost. The others headed to their new quarters. They'd work on the propulsion systems in the morning. Razorbeast liked his new room. It was nearly identical to his place back on Cybertron.
There was a sudden knock on the door as Razorbeast put his weapon on his night-stand. "Yes?" he asked. The door slid open to reveal Optimus.
"Just thought I'd drop in," their leader said. "I wanted to see how you were doing."
"I am fine," Razorbeast said simply. "You have recovered?"
"Yes. Megatron took quite the chunk out of my leg, but the CR chambers are still functioning at peak performance."
"That is good to hear," he said sighing. Optimus shrugged.
"I know this is tough to grasp," he said. "But I think this planet will be our home for quite some time."
"I know," Razorbeast said. He had realised this the moment he laid eyes on Iguanus's work. The two Maximals stood silently for a moment.
"It's good to have you on my team, Razorbeast," Optimus said with a smile. Razorbeast bowed ever so slightly.
"Glad I can help," he responded. With that, Optimus Primal, the leader whom Razorbeast had already saved from death once, turned and exited. Although the mission had failed, for now, Razorbeast felt almost proud. He'd saved the life of another Maximal, his leader, which was something he hadn't done in a long, long time.
He thought to himself that things weren't all that bad. He suddenly realised that he didn't have to wake up in the morning to wash patrol ships. Of course, there were far more important things to do now. He laid down on his bed. For an instance before letting himself fall asleep, he tried calculating what might happen within the days to come. It took him only the slightest moment to realise that it was impossible to even guess. Anything could happen, and probably would. He shut down his optics and let his dreams sort out the rest.
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Waspinator: Escapade
