(NOTE: As usual, any scenes of this story that have JUST the aliens talking in them are translated into English. The aliens are actually speaking in their own language to each other. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, Ceres is the largest known asteroid in the Solar System, being dozens of kilometers in diameter.)

 “Here we are, at the reactor chamber!” Taran said, huffing as he came to a stop.

 It had been a long haul for Taran, the captive alien Prometheus, and the Transformers. The alien ship they were on was huge, about the size of Ceres, and the reactor chamber was near the bottom of the ship, almost three kilometers away from Tarad’s main chambers.

 Three kilometers of running, three kilometers of dodging shots from Vexorans’ guns, and three kilometers of firing their own shots at the enemy aliens.

 Tigerhawk had gotten a few small laser hits, which was understandable because he was carrying the extra load of the ever-changing Cheetor on his back. Waspinator had been shot into stasis lock a while earlier, as usual, and Prowl and Gryphtron had been put into stasis lock as well. Sandstorm now dragged along Waspinator, Silverbolt carried Prowl, and Sigma Prime hauled Gryphtron along. Beastbot and Crossfire had the task of making sure Prometheus didn’t make any sudden moves.

 The Transformer’s losses were minute, however, when compared to that of the Vexoran’s. Dozens lay dead or injured on the floor, among them, Tarad.

 “Ramulus! Terrorsaur! Come here!” Taran commanded the two transformers closest to him, “I’m going to need you two to destroy the reactor, while I take the controls to assure that it doesn’t blow prematurely! The rest of you, make sure no other Vexorans enter the reactor chamber!”

 Taran cautiously opened the door with his passcard and peeked inside.

 “Looks clear to me. Terrorsaur, go in first.”

 “All right!” the dactyl-bot responded, “Finally, I get to do something important!”

 Just as Taran had anticipated, Terrorsaur carelessly romped on through the doorway. In Terrorsaur’s carelessness, he didn’t see the Vexoran clinging above the door, and thus, he got a swift kick in the head.

 “Surprise!” the Vexoran guard laughed, jumping down onto the floor as Terrorsaur stumbled onto his skidplate. The guard delivered another quick kick to Terrorsaur’s head, and the stunned Pred was out for the count.

 The guard’s victory was not permanent, however, as Ramulus quickly shot the guard in the chest a few times, vaporizing it on the spot.

 “Good work, Ramulus!” Taran commented, “Now, let’s go inside.”

 As Ramulus entered the chamber with Taran, the bounty hunter stopped in mid-step, staring at the reactor in the middle of the room.

 “Whoa….”

 The reactor wasn’t like anything Ramulus had seen before. It glowed a color that Ramulus couldn’t describe. Or did it glow? It glowed, yet it didn’t…..

 Weird….

 "Don't just stand there!" shouted Taran, already over at the controls furiously typing in commands. "Shoot it!"

 Ramulus willingly obeyed, though still partially mesmerized by the awesome sight.

 Firing at the reactor as quickly and as repeatedly as Waspinator gets shot in a battle, Ramulus pounded it with plasma bursts from his ramhorn-gun. It took a bit more time than the rambot had expected, but the reactor eventually switched from its regular color to a glowing, pulsing yellow-white.

 "Good, it's started to overload!" Taran said, typing in a few more commands to the control panel and confirming his selection. "There, I've set it to explode in about 5 Earth minutes. That should give us enough time to get out of here- and it shouldn't give the other Vexorans enough time to figure out how to cool down the reactor again. Grab Terrorsaur, Ramulus, and let's get out of here!"

 Ramulus quickly picked up the downed form of Terrorsaur, throwing the smaller Predacon over his shoulder, and ran out into the hallway, followed closely behind by Taran.

 "Ya got it yet!?" Rattrap asked, exasperated, "These aliens are really gettin' on my noives!"

 "Did we ever!" Ramulus replied. "We've got five minutes to blow this joint!"

 "What the... sure ya didn't want to cut it any closer, now!?" Rattrap asked.

 "Yo, guys!" Ramulus yelled to the other transformers, "5 minutes to get out of here! We gotta follow Taran! NOW!"

 Taran motioned for the transformers to follow him, them ran off down another corridor. The other transformers followed somewhat closely behind, still being shot at by a few leftover Vexorans.

 "Into the pod! Now!" ordered Scourge frantically. "The countdown computer says we've got only three minutes 'till this whole ship explodes!"

 "I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!" answered Scarem, "These pods are crowded! It takes a little while to get situated, you know!"

 "Well, you've had long enough, now let me in!" Scourge retorted, kicking his brother to one side of the pod and crunching himself in, as well.

 As soon as the two were situated, Scourge closed the seal to the escape pod.

 "Prepare for departure!" the older Vexoran brother said, activating the stasis fields that would keep him and his brother from getting splattered against their seats as the pod jolted from the ship.

 As soon as Scarem gave the OK sign, Scourge activated the launch sequence, and the pod shot out from the ship, straight toward the Earth.

 "Straight up ahead is the teleportation chambers!" Taran declared, quickening his pace.

 "And not a moment too soon!" Beastbot said. "We've got only about 45 nanoclicks left 'till the Big Bang!"

 The transformers soon entered the teleportation room, disposing of the few Vexorans desperately trying to escape from the ship.

 "There, I've set the teleporter to take you back to Earth in about 15 nanoclicks," Taran said as the transformers and Prometheus crunched onto the teleport pad.

 "That's just barely before the ship explodes!" said Tigerhawk, "Why can't you just teleport us out now?"

 "Tigerhawk?" Taran said emotionlessly.

 "What?"

 "I did it that way because of... this!"

 Taran quickly snatched the unconscious form of Cheetor from Tigerhawk's back. Tigerhawk reached out instinctively to grab Cheetor back, but Taran formed one of his hands into a long blade, and cut a long gash across Tigerhawk's beast face. Tigerhawk growled in pain, shrinking back.

 "Thanks for the Maximal, morons!" Taran cackled, "You should have learned never to trust a Predacon, even if he's a Vexoran! Bwahahahehehehe!"

 Before any of the Maximals could fire on Taran, the counter to the explosion reached zero.

 The last thing Optimus Primal saw before he was teleported back to Earth was a cackling Vexoran holding an unconscious catbot in his hands.

 "Good-bye, Primal! Don't worry, I'll take good care of your puddy-tat for you! Bwahahahaha...."

 The explosion quickly engulfed the ship, sending thousands of pieces of flaming debris streaming into space. It was quite a sight to see from Earth’s orbit.

 Which is exactly where the pod that held the Vexorans Scourge and Scarem was.

 “Well….there goes five years of hard work and planning, all wasted because of a leader that was too self-confident,” Scourge sighed, turning his head sorrowfully from the magnificent view of the blast.

 “Uh… Scourge…” Scarem stammered.

 “What is it?! I’m think-“

 “INCOMING!!!”

 “What!?” Scourge said, gasping as he saw one of the smaller bits of flaming debris heading directly toward their escape pod.

 “Gah!” Scourge yelled. “Brace for impact!”

 Both Vexorans cringed as the flaming piece of ship wreckage skimmed their ship, just barely missing a direct impact.

 The Vexorans weren’t about to get off easy, though.

 The projectile hit the engine part of the pod bad, causing the pod to spin out of control, heading quickly down into Earth’s atmopshere.

 “Well, this is it, Scarem…” Scourge said weakly, shaken by the impact. “….Any last words?”

 “Well, I’ve.. um… never told you this, Scourge, but, um..”

 “What?”

 “…I actually like you…” Scarem said, laying a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

 “Gah! Get off me, stupid!” Scourge said, shaking his teary brother off of his arm.

 Anything else that was supposed to be said was lost, as the pod began to enter the Earth’s atmosphere, and the sound of the friction between pod and air molecules became deafening.

 Within a fraction of a second, Optimus and his Maximal crew were transported back into their home base, in front of the ancient Autobot spacecraft, the Ark.

 “Rattrap, put the injured Maximals in the CR chambers,” Optimus said, sighing.

 “Eh… sure thing, Boss Monkey,” Rattrap said solemnly.

 “Maximals, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go to my quarters for a while,” Optimus said, his voice wavering.

 “Optimus, wait!” Airazor said, running in front of Optimus to block his path to his quarters.

 “Airazor, I really need to be by myself for a little while…I’ve just lost another crew member….” Optimus said.

 “Optimus, I understand,” Airazor said, putting her hand on her commander’s shoulder. “Cheetor is like my half-brother! But you ca-“

 “No, you don’t understand, Airazor,” Optimus said, shaking off Airazor’s hand, showing an uncharacteristically angry side of himself. “As commander of this crew, I am personally responsible for each and every Maximal on this team. If I don’t make sure that you all are in prime condition, then I’ve failed as a leader. I’ve left Cheetor to a worse fate than death- a fate at the hands of Tarantulas. Who knows what kind of sick experiments that…that… PSYCHO… will make Cheetor endure. I’ve let my crew down too often lately.”

 “Optimus, it isn’t your fault,” Airazor replied. “You did what almost any Maximal would have done in your situation- you gave someone the benefit of the doubt, and trusted Taran. It’s not your fault that he didn’t keep his promise.”

 “Maybe it’s not,” Optimus retorted, “But I’m still responsible for the safety of my crew members, and I was a fool to think that a slagheap like Tarantul…. Taran could be trusted. I appreciate your concern, Airazor, but nothing you- or any other Maximal- can say is going to make me change my mind. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go to my quarters for a while. Figure out what to do with Prometheus, I’m going to my room until morning. Until then, Airazor, you’re in charge. Goodnight.”

 Optimus silently stalked off to his room, leaving a very depressed crew in his wake.

 A dark figure- with wings- silently watched Optimus Primal walk to his quarters from a pipe high above.

 Hmm…….this species seems to show an awful lot of emotion… not something we had expected of a species this primitive….

 Perhaps I have underestimated this species…

 ..I must learn more of their ways, since I have become one of them….

 ….Perhaps I will observe the command center for a while….

 With that thought, the figure silently spread its wings and took flight, headed for the command center..

 The dark shape silently engaged its stealth mode, not unlike that of Beastbot’s, and landed on another large pipe close to the ceiling, observing the events unfolding below it in the command center.

 “’Ey, Airazor,” Rattrap said, talking to his temporary commander, “We got some object coming down in Sector Gamma, near the ol’ stasis pod cache. About the size of a stasis pod, but not the shape ‘a one. You want me to send somebot to check it out?”

 “It must be some piece of burnt-up debris from the alien ship, Rattrap,” Airazor replied, preoccupied with something else. “Don’t worry about it.”

 “Well, it is kinda jagged… yeah, you’re probably right. Nevermind.”

 Airazor turned her attention back to the task at hand- she was conferring with Prometheus about how to get Rhinox’s spark back into a transformer shell. Grimlock was standing guard, to make sure Prometheus made no sudden moves.

 “So,” Airazor began, “You’ve done nothing to the core of Rhinox’s spark?”

 “No,” Prometheus replied, “Tarad and I merely extracted some information from it. We didn’t injure it whatsoever.”

 “Then why did you insist that ‘we’d never figure out how to put Unit Rhinox’s spark back in a body without your help?!’”

 “Eh, he did it t’ save his sorry skin,” Rattrap interjected.

 Prometheus merely nodded.

 Grimlock growled, and powered up his eye beams.

 “Wait, Grimlock!” Airazor ordered. “Prometheus may still be able to help us- he knows a lot about Vexorans, he may know where Taran went, and where he took Cheetor as well. See if you can’t find somewhere to put Prometheus- somewhere where he won’t be able to seep out of- and lock him up in it.”

 “Me Grimlock think you making big mistake, bird-lady… but okay.”

 Grimlock reluctantly motioned for Prometheus to follow him, and the Maximal showed the Vexoran to his cell, each one keeping a very close eye on the other.

 “So…now all we need to do is build our pal Rhinox…” Airazor said, motioning to the flesh sac that contained Rhinox’s spark nearby, “…a new shell.”

 “Are you kiddin’?” Rattrap said, turning around in his chair to face the temporary commander. “We don’t have the materials to build a full-fledged transformer shell!”

 “Then we’ll just have to make do,” Airazor replied. “It won’t help us much if our chief technician is stuck inside a flesh sac, now, will it? Now, Rattrap, once Prowl gets out of the CR chamber, I want you and him to see if you can’t build a makeshift body for Rhinox.”

 “I hope you know what you’re doin’, birdlady…”

The End

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