*Authors Note*- As of this writing (12-10-98) not much of the long-term plot of the "War Planets" story line is known. If any inconsistencies appear in the future it is only because of this. For now, though, enjoy the story of the crossing over of the characters of the "Beast Wars" and "War Planets" story lines.

*Beastbot's Note*- This story does NOT take place in my series. It is also highly recommended that you know the basic War Planets characters and storyline before you read this story.

 “Bah nah weep grah nah weep ni ni bong,” Tarantulas said, nervous but not showing it, as he walked up to Karad and his troop. The Predacon’s hands were not at his sides, but up in the air, to show he was peaceful.
 At least for now, Tarantulas thought. If I can get these idiots to help me destroy Megatron, then I can kill them if I ever need to.
 “Ah, the universal greeting,” Karad stated, motioning for his troop to be alert, but to put his weapon-arm down. “Can..you..speak..Eng..lish?” he said slowly, keeping his eyes on Tarantulas the whole time.
 Tarantulas chucked to himself quietly. “Yes, I can speak English, but I think you might need to practice.” He stopped himself short as soon as he had gotten the sentence out. Making jokes with a race you’ve never encountered before was not exactly the way to get on their good side. “I’m…I’m sorry. I’ve been short-tempered lately. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Tarantulas, commander of the Pre-“
 “I know what species you are. I have encountered your kind before, Tarantulas.”
 Tarantulas cocked his eyebrow(well, if he had one, anyway) at the curious creature before him. How could this species know his race, but he not know this strange creature’s race?

 It was just another day in the simple life of the early days of the Beast Empire. Their null-matter race had conquered their entire planet, wiping it clean of all other semi-intelligent races, and now they ruled. They had met no major opposition, and were now in their early stages of the Space Age.
Kul’Nator was yawning to himself as he delivered yet another load of minerals to the space station, Jar’Natok, orbiting their home planet of Darkon. His life was so routine it was boring. Pick this up, deliver it there, drop it off, come ba-
 Kul’Nator stopped his thoughts as he saw a small ripple in the emptiness of space. In fact, it was so small, the only reason Kul’Nator noticed it was that the cockpit of his ship was facing the area. Kul’Nator barely had time to narrow his eyes before the ripple suddenly burst open, and some old, battered, and obviously mechanical, wreckage came through. What Kul’Nator did not know, however, was that the ripple was a disturbance in the space-time continuum. The ripple quickly closed after it had opened, leaving a huge head, nearly the size of the space station Kul’Nator was heading to, in orbit around Darkon.
 Kul’Nator was so bewildered he didn’t know what to do. It had all just….happened. He quickly radioed the space station.
 “This is Kul’Nator calling anyone in Jar’Natok. Anyone in Jar’Natok, please respond.”
 “Yeah, we hear ya. Are you callin’ cause you saw the same thing we did?”
 “Yep. What was that thing?”
 “I don’t know. I’m sendin’ someone to check it out.”
 Kul’Nator sighed as he turned off the com. Now that he had contacted the space station, he had more time to study the large object. It had two large horns connected to its head, making the upper portion look somewhat like a helmet. It had large, once-green eyes, both of them broken. It looked like it could have been as big as a planet, if it had had a body….
 Little did Kul’Nator know that Pandora’s Box had just been opened.

 Over the course of the next thousand years, the Beast people had found out that this hunk of space junk used to be some intelligent creature of some sort. They pinpointed the damaged area, a faulty connection between about twenty wires that led to its “brain”, that had made it cease to exist, and reconnected the wires. The entire head came online, identifying itself as Unicron. The head told them of two other races, the Autobots and the Decepticons. It told them of the Great War. It told them of a great many things. In thanks for saving him, he taught them how to conquer, literally, systems. Since the Beasts needed no particular kind of atmosphere to survive, their empire quickly expanded to two systems, then five, then ten.
Then came the day Unicron’s head requested something in exchange for all the help he had given them. Since, by now, the Beast Empire looked up to the twisted Unicron as some sort of Supreme Emperor, they readily agreed. What the head requested was a new body. A body more powerful than his old one, and larger. One that could demolish planets easily, eating them up like food, incinerating them for his own pleasure.
 Over the course of the next hundred and ten years, the Beasts did just this. Then, they transferred Unicron’s core consciousness to the new body, and Unicron II, more commonly known as the Beast Planet, was born. Unicron II rarely transformed from his planet mode in his new body, but preferred his planet mode when eating planets. It was much more mobile and compact, and besides, it took a while to transform anyway. He eventually discovered that the space-time disturbance had dumped him far in the past, and he secretly led his Beast forces on a slow path toward the one planet that he wanted revenge on- Cybertron.
 Unicron II and his empire continued to take over more systems, and numbered almost twenty systems until they met the only group of planets that stood in their path to Cybertron- the Alliance planets, Ice, Rock, Fire, and Bone.

 “What do you mean, you know our race? Ours is not aware of yours,” Tarantulas asked, bewildered.
 “It…does not matter. Are you a Decepticon?” Karad replied.
 “No…I’m a Predacon, commander of the Predacons, in fact,” Tarantulas lied, slowly putting his hands down. There was something this creature knew that he didn’t, and he didn’t like it. “What do you want?” he continued.
 “I want to get off this planet, however, that does no seem feasible at the time,” replied Karad. “I would like, however, for you to help me find four aliens who crash-landed here.”
 “Their names wouldn’t be Optimus Primal, Rattrap, Cheetor, and Rhinox, by any chance?” said Tarantulas hopefully.
 “No, their names would be Graveheart, Chryos, Vox, and Tekkla.”
 “Oh,” said Tarantulas, his head drooping slightly at that. “Well, we Predacons would love to help you, but in exchange for…”
 “For what?” questioned Karad.
 “..for your allegiance.”
 Karad almost laughed out loud, but took control of himself before he could. This Predacon was even stupider than he looked. He would play it out, though, and see if they had anything that could help him get off this miserable dirtball….
 “Agreed. Now, do you have a base?”
 “Yes,” Tarantulas replied, “although it has been occupied by our enemies, the Maximals.”
 “Ah, enemies are an annoyance, aren’t they?” Karad said. He could tell that Tarantulas was lying- about whether the Predacon had a base, or whether it was occupied by the Maximals, he was not sure.
 “Yes, quite,” remarked Tarantulas. “Perhaps your friends are at the main Maximal base, about eleven klicks from here.” He had a feeling that the Maximals had found the people this person was talking about if the Predacons had not found them yet. “Let me just talk to my troops and have you meet them before we do.”
 “There is no need for that,” answered Karad quickly. “I just want to destroy these Alliance fools, then get…I mean, then work for you.”
 “Um…okay,” replied Tarantulas. He was unsure of this, but here goes nothing…. “This way.”
 Gesturing with his hands to follow the Predacon, Tarantulas led the other beast drones and Karad in the direction of the Maximal base.

 Optimus and his crew met in the meeting room at the exact time he had mentioned the night before.
 “Eh, why’d we hafta hold this meetin’ so early?” asked Rattrap, still yawning and scratching his skid plate. “I need s’more shut eye.”
 “Because, Rattrap, we need to get this crew that crash-landed here going back to their home system as soon as possible. From what they’ve told us, their entire system could be in jeopardy!” replied Optimus.
 “Ooo, I love that game show,” Rattrap remarked sarcastically, stumbling over to his chair in the meeting room and sitting down.
 “Shut up, Rattrap,” Optimus sighed.
 Just as Optimus and his crew were about to sit down and start the meeting, they heard a loud crash near the front of the base. Optimus, first on his feet, yelled to Rhinox in the command center.
 “Rhinox, status report!”
 “Optimus, there’s Tarantulas the base, and eight creatures made of null matter, similar to the ones Graveheart described, all attacking the front entrance!”
 “Well, that’s just prime,” yelled Optimus. “Cheetor, Rattrap, Silverbolt, with me. Rhinox, man the autoguns. Graveheart, Tekkla, Chryos, Blackarachnia, go out the back entrance and circle around for a surprise attack. Let’s move!”
 As soon as the word was uttered, everyone headed to where they were supposed to be-all, that is, except Graveheart. He stayed there, looking at Optimus sadly, who was just about to leave until he saw Graveheart still standing there.
 “What’s wrong, Graveheart?”
 “You need to be careful, Optimus. The blasts that the Beast drones shoot from their arms can be very deadly, since they are made of null-matter energy. One hit will easily disintegrate anything in its way. Any hits in the vitals, and you may be dead before you know what hit you.”
 “Point taken,” Optimus replied, turning back towards the entrance to the base and running towards it. “We’ll be careful. Now, catch up with Chryos, Tekkla, and Blackarachnia! We’ll need you out there!”
 “Yes, sir!” yelled Graveheart, carrying out his orders. 

 Quickstrike and Inferno lay sleeping behind a rock, hours after Tarantulas, Karad, and the Beast drones had walked away. Quickstrike snorted a bit, then woke up. He looked around, expecting to see or hear Tarantulas and the other Beast drones, but instead heard or saw nothing. He nudged the sleeping Inferno behind him, who quickly woke up, picking up his gun lightning quick.
 “Wha-wha? Where did all the Maximals go?” Inferno asked, bewildered.
 “What Maximals?”
 “The thirty or so Maximals that I single-handedly defended the Royalty from.”
 Quickstrike shook his head. “You wer dreamin’, ijit.”
 Inferno looked down, depressed to hear that. He quickly got over that and looked around.
 “Where are the spider and the aliens?”
 “That’s why I woke you up. Where’d they go off to?”
 “They must have left already! Ooo, that traitor shall burrrn for this! The royalty’s direct orders were to have all three of us inspect the crash site, not one!”
 “Hey, don’t get yer gears in a grind! Let’s just go back to the base and tell ol’ Bossbot what happened. I’m schur he’ll scrap that ijit spider of ‘is when ‘ees finished wit’ him!”
 Inferno reluctantly nodded, and revved up his engines, taking off.
 Quickstrike realized what had just happened, and stood up, jumping up and down while yelling at the ant-bot, who was getting farther away by the minute.
 “Wait, ya tin-horned toad! Get back heer and pick me up! I don’t wanna walk! Awwww…”

 Optimus ran out the entrance just in time to see Cheetor destroy a Beast drone. It was apparent, however, that the Beast drones, Karad, and Tarantulas were winning, as they were slowly pinning Cheetor, Rattrap, and Silverbolt back into the base entrance.
 “Remember, Maximals!” yelled Optimus while transforming to aircraft mode, “Hit their container units! That’s where Graveheart said the drones are vulnerable!”
 As soon as Optimus had finished his sentence, he heard a moan come from Cheetor. He quickly looked around to see the cat-bot slumped against the side of the base, his left arm disintegrated, while two Beast drones slowly marched up to him, charging their weapons.
 “Hey, over here!” yelled Optimus, trying to get the Beast drones’ attention. Considering that Beast drones are not the smartest creatures in the universe, they turned toward the source of the noise, only to find a large aircraft with its guns pointed straight at their container units. The two drones saw a large flash come from the guns, and then....blackness.
 Rattrap picked up Cheetor and carried the larger Maximal inside the base, while Optimus and Silverbolt tried to fend off the remaining enemies. They managed to destroy on more Beast drone before Tarantulas’ chainsaw-gun downed Silverbolt, leaving Optimus the only Maximal left. He gulped and transformed to robot mode as the remaining three Beast drones charged up their weapons, preparing for the final blow.
 “PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS!” a voice yelled. Optimus turned towards the voice to find a very unexpected owner- Karad.
 The Beast drones immediately obeyed, while Karad walked slowly forward to Optimal Optimus until he was only about a meter away.
 Just as Karad was about to speak, Tarantulas rushed up and stood between Optimus and Karad, facing Karad and putting his hands on his hips.
 “But you said we were going to destroy the Maximals! You said-“
 Tarantulas was interrupted by Karad reaching out quickly and touching the Predacon’s arm. It glowed pink for a second, then exploded. Tarantulas didn’t even have time to scream in pain before he went into stasis lock, slumping to the ground next to Optimus’ feet.
 “That’s right, I said, not promised,” said Karad, looking down at Tarantulas’ unconscious form. Then he looked back up to Optimus before continuing. “Now, unlike this idiot here, we do not want to destroy you now. All we want is the Alliance traitors, and we will leave.”
 “I can’t do that,” said Optimus sorrowfully.
 “Well, then, I guess we’ll just kill you and take them anyway,” replied Karad, motioning for his Beast drones to charge up their weapons again. “Good bye.”
 Just as the Beast drones were about to fire, two laser beams appeared from behind a nearby rock and destroyed two of the Beast drones. The remaining one looked around for a second, confused, before it too was shot by a laser beam and destroyed. Chryos, Tekkla, Blackarachnia, and Graveheart appeared from behind the rock, weapons ready.
 “Blast! This is the last time you will ruin the Beast’s plans, you fools!” yelled Karad, charging at the group. The group, not expecting this, fired at Karad, but to no avail, as his container unit was very small and did not get hit.
 He rammed into the rock the group was hiding behind, making it explode dramatically, showered Blackarachnia, Tekkla, Chryos, Optimus, Karad, and Graveheart with small pebbles.
 “You’re next, Graveheart,” threatened Karad, then lifted up his hand to strike the Alliance leader, just in time to be hit in the back by a blast from one of Optimus’ guns. He turned around to face the Maximal leader, only to be fired on again by the group behind him. He screamed in frustration right before one of Chryos’ shots hit his small container unit, and Karad ceased to exist.
 “Thus ends the Beast presence on this planet,” remarked Tekkla gladly, putting her gun back in its holster. The other Alliance members followed suit.
 “Well,” exclaimed Optimus, “Now that that’s over, let’s see if we can get that part you needed.”

 “YOU IMBECILES! YOU FELL ASLEEP ON THE JOB!? HOW DARE YOU!” Megatron roared.
 In the Predacon base, Inferno and Quickstrike cowered before Megatron, who looked like he was about to strike his two minions unconscious.
 “R-r-royalty,” Inferno stuttered.
 “WHAT?!”
 “T-t-tarantulas had betrayed our colony to join the a-a-aliens, it seems. Although I take full r-r-responsibility for our sleeping, I think he may b-be planning something against us. I-i-if it would please you, royalty, we could bring the t-t-traitor back to the colony for execution.”
 Megatron considered the the thought for a moment, calming down, then shook his head.
 “No, not now. I want to see exactly what he has up his sleeve, yes. Computer, display coordinates of unit Tarantulas.”
 “Unit: Tarantulas in stasis lock. Last coordinates 8, 9, 76.”
 Megatron smiled wickedly.
 “Ah, so it seems that our treacherous arachnid has had his plan backfire. And in front of the Maximal base, too. He finally gets what he deserves, yes....”
 As soon as Megatron finished his sentence, the alarms all around the base went off as the room shook from a blast.
 “Warning,” the computer stated monotonously, “Maximals attacking base.”

 Rhinox sat in his quarters, looking at the only piece of furniture in the room other than his bed, his computer. He was typing on it furiously, trying to break the codes of the container unit he had taken from the late Karad. It had some important information in it, he was sure of it. All he had to do was decode it....
 Rhinox pressed the Enter key.
 There, he thought as the computer now displayed the long list of all the information the container unit held. Now it’s time for some heavy reading...

 As Rampage came charging up to Depth Charge, weapons ready, the metallic manta-bot pulled out his twin shark cannons and fired in a one-two motion, knocking the crab’s weapons out of his hands. Rampage paused for a second, as if trying to see if his weapons were still in his hands.
 “I don’t need weapons to kill you, fishboy! HA HA HA HA OOO!!” yelled Rampage, jumping on Depth Charge as he laughed.
 The two tackled each other, continuously pounding each other with their bare fists for over two minutes. Just when it looked like they were about to both die from sheer damage at the same time, Depth Charge managed to fire one of his disks, blowing Rampage back several feet and knocking the crab into stasis lock. Depth Charge moaned and stood up slowly, but it was clear he wouldn’t be able to fight anymore without some serious time in the CR chamber.

 Cheetor continuously pumped plasma blasts from his hands at the airborne Pred named Waspinator, but the wasp-bot was just too agile to get hit by any.
 “Stay still, you demented bug!” yelled Cheetor in frustration, gritting his teeth.
 “Hehehehehe!” Waspinator laughed in his high-pitched giggle. “Cat-bot cannot get Wazzpinator!”
 As soon as Waspinator finished the sentence, he got shot in the right wing from one of Cheetor’s plasma bursts.
 “Nooooooooooo—dar!“ was all Waspinator could yell before his body slammed into the ground almost ninety feet below him and he went into stasis lock.

 Rattrap unloaded his machine gun ammo into the dead tree that hid Quickstrike, but to no avail. The tree was just too thick and strong to break through.
 As soon as it was clear that Rattrap had used up all his ammo, Quickstrike poked his head and snake arm out from behind the tree.
 “Take this, ya diz-eased garbage pile!” the fuzor yelled, sending a few poison blasts in Rattrap’s direction. The transmetal had no time to duck before they hit him, sending him into stasis lock while small, green electricity discharges swirled over his body, indicating he had a cyber-virus.
 Quickstrike only had time to chuckle about his hit before he was surprisingly blown into stasis lock with a few plasma blasts in the back from Cheetor.

 Optimus continually fired with his front cannons at Inferno, but the ant-bot was too fast and evaded all of them. It was harder to hit Inferno when you were trying to protect the area right underneath your weapons- the cockpit Graveheart was in. Optimus would have left Graveheart on the ground, but he would not risk having the leader of the Alliance blown to smithereens.
 Inferno, concentrating all his firepower near Optimus’ cockpit, knew he had Optimus right where he wanted the Maximal leader. He aimed quickly just as Optimus turned away predictably from a shot on the other side of his body, a stray blast from Cheetor. Optimus turned around to face Inferno just in time to see a fireball launch from the Predacon’s gun, slamming right into his cockpit and breaking the glass, sending Graveheart flying out toward the ground below. Optimus, who had taken a direct hit in the chest, plummeted down to the earth also, and crashed, so hurt he was only able to move his head. Just as Graveheart was about to slam face-first into the ground, Silverbolt flew out of nowhere in beast mode and grabbed the Alliance leader’s feet with his front talons, preventing the Rock being’s demise.
 Gently laying Graveheart down behind a nearby rock, Silverbolt transformed to robot mode and fired upon Inferno, knocking the Predacon into stasis lock, who had still been celebrating his victory over the Maximal leader.

 Graveheart awoke, somewhat fazed and with a burnt face but otherwise okay, laying on a hard rock. He looked at the battlefield around him, and saw Inferno, Waspinator, Quickstrike, and Rampage, as well as Rattrap, Optimus and Depth Charge, in stasis lock. He looked up to see Silverbolt staring down at him.
 “Ah, good, you’re awake,” the fuzor said, “The battle went well in our favor, comrade, but not as much as we had liked. As you can see, all the Predacons outside are destroyed, but Megatron still remains inside with the piece of the ship you seek. Rattrap, Optimus, and Depth Charge are in stasis lock, and Tekkla, Chryos, Cheetor, and I will be bringing them back to the base. Optimus had told me that in case he was....not available at the time you went into the Predacon base, that you should take at least one other Maximal with you and go in. He insisted that you go in because you will be the one who will know what part of your ship you will be looking for. My love, Blackarachnia, will be accompanying you. Good luck.”
 Before Graveheart could reply, Silverbolt quickly flew off, obviously in a state of worry about his injured comrades. As he stood up and dusted the soot from the cockpit explosion off his pants, Blackarachnia walked up to join him.
 “Look like it’s just you and me, Boulderboy. Come on, let’s get this done so we can go home already,” she said.

 Graveheart and Blackarachnia entered the dark Predacon base entrance carefully, being sure there were not surprise attacks. They crept down the main hallway and turned a corner that Blackarachnia said led to the engine room. As soon as they had done so, Megatron stepped out from the cloak of the darkness. Both stopped in their tracks and gasped.
 “Ah, so Optimus is as stupid as he looks, yes,” Megatron exclaimed, slamming Blackarachnia into a wall and knocking her into stasis lock with a flick of his powerful hand against her face. “He sent only a Predacon and a small Rock-man to take on me, the Predacon leader?” he gloated.
 “Megatron, why must you bother these Maximals?” Graveheart said, his eyes narrowed, his hand aching to grab hold of his gun, but his brain knew better. “They’ve done nothing to you.”
 “Ah, but they have, my dear….what is it…Gravedart?”
 “Graveheart.”
 Megatron slapped him across the face.
 “Never correct me, you piece of dirt,” he sneered. “The Maximals’ ancestors defeated mine in the Great War, a war that is beyond the magnitude of your puny one. Thus, my kind have been made mere slaves to these Maximal idiots.”
 “Did you ever think that your kind might have deserved it, after what your ancestors did to theirs?”
 “GRR! You’ve tried my patience, Rock-man. Prepare to meet your doom,” Megatron roared, charging up his tail-gun and charging at Graveheart, who was dwarfed by this Predacon.
 Graveheart made it look like he was going to run towards the right, but then ducked at the last second, swinging his leg out and tripping the charging Megatron, sending the Pred commander flying more than ten feet down the hallway. As soon as Megatron hit the metal ground with a satisfying thud, he picked up Blackarachnia’s limp body and threw it over his shoulder, running down the hallway, hearing Megatron’s curses and threats as the Predacon slowly got back up and gave chase.

 After dodging a few blasts from Megatron’s tail cannon, Graveheart came to the engine room, complex pumps and mechanical contraptions all over the place. He hid behind one of the larger contraptions, about five meters from the entrance, that had one of the parts he needed. He snatched off the part he needed, and placed it in the unconscious Blackarachnia’s subspace. Just then, Megatron ran into the room, then looked all around, trying to find Graveheart.
 “You can not hide from me, Rock-man! I’ll stomp you into pebbles!”
 Just then, Graveheart poked his head out from behind the large machine.
 “Neither can you from me,” was all Graveheart said before he fired at a pipe behind Megatron. Before Megatron could react, the laser hit the pipe, sending out an enormous stream of steam. The pressure from it all blew Megatron across the room, making him crash into the wall on the opposite side. The Predacon moaned in pain as Graveheart escaped from the engine room, carrying Blackarachnia over his shoulders.
 “Blast….” Megatron cried out weakly. 

 “Are you sure you won’t be coming with us, my friend?” Tekkla said to Optimus as Chryos, Graveheart, and Vox boarded their newly fixed ship. The rest of the Maximals were standing next to Optimus in the clearing, ready to say final farewells.
 “I’d like to,” said Optimus, “really, I would, but we have to keep Megatron from messing up our future. If he ever gets to the Ark, or even enough energon, he could conquer the galaxy.”
 “Very well,” Tekkla sighed, “but we cannot thank you enough for your kindness in help getting our ship repaired. Many thanks.”
 As Tekkla waved and turned to go back into the ship, Rhinox held up his hand.
 “Wait!” the rhino-bot yelled.
 Tekkla turned back from the entrance.
 “What is it?”
 Rhinox walked up slowly and gave her Karad’s container unit.
 “I’ve decoded some of the information in Karad’s container unit. It has some interesting information on the Beast empire, as well as some of the Beast Planet’s weaknesses. I’m sure you’ll find it very useful,” Rhinox said, handing over the container unit carefully to Tekkla. “Just plug it into your ship’s computer on the way home, and you can read everything.”
 Tekkla was delighted by the news.
 “Thank you, my friend,” she said, “This will help all of us in our battles. Our kind will always remember yours.”
 With that said, everyone said their final good-byes as the Alliance crew got back into the ship. As the ship blasted off, Optimus wondered if he’d ever see their kind again….

THE END

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