Beast Wars Transformers: "The Beast Wars Begin!"

[SirNitram]

"Perhaps you can control yourself." Mammoth turned to look at Ringtail. "Seeing as how there's still the matter of the ship which shot us down. Or is that not important?"

[General Havoc]

Archon got back up with as much dignity as he could still muster. Which wasn't much. He twitched his tail to reset the remaining feathers into some semblance of order, and watched Ringtail obsessing over his feather.

"You know, there are some cultures where that's considered rude," he said, before glancing back up at Mammoth.

"I didn't get a chance to see anything from below decks except a lot of fire. What in the name of the Pits happened up there?"

[Charon]

Medidon watched as the others went down and sighed to himself. Then the medical 'bot transformed back to the lumbering beast and went down in time to watch Ringtail pluck one of Archon's feathers.

"That wasn't very nice at all Ringtail. You should apologize."

[rhoenix]

Still gliding in a wide circle around the base, Wingslip was quietly reveling in the feeling of the wind coursing around him, though still paying close attention to the others gathering below. After hearing Medidon, and Archon's question, he spoke up over the comm.

"Howdy Medidon - I have a project for you and I once we're back inside - my sensors don't work very well past 100 meters due to the energon interference, and I suspect the ship's sensors are the same way now," he said calmly. His voice was more relaxed than the somewhat short-tempered manner he had while aboard the Axalon - flying always relaxed him.

"And Archon," he continued after a moment, "what happened was that our ship and the Pred ship shot each other full of holes, we jettisoned all the stasis pods, and both ships crashed here. It sure was exciting there for a few nanocycles."

[Jason_Firewalker]

"Small mammals and their need to aquire shinies... What is it with members of the weasel family and that?" Out of the CR chamber was a large male Orangutan. "I am going to call myself Einsimian. I will probably regret that later but for now it suits my purposes. Now Ringtail, apologize to Archon." Reaching with his long arm he quickly grabbed for the feather taken from Archon.

[LadyTevar]

The feather was plucked out of her grasp, and Ringtail's head jerked up in surprised protest. "Hey! That's my Shiny!"

[Dark Silver]

"Calm down Maximals," Optimus said over his shoulder, his optics scanning the area. Normal visual sensors worked fine, but he couldn't see anything beyond the standardgreater than 50 meters out.

"Wow..." Cheetor said with a growling purr accompanying the words, "Look at those..."

Optimus' scaned the field of vision, till he saw two cheetah's running at high speed across the prairie. "Yes..their fast..you picked a good beast mode."

"You think their fast? Watch this!"

With that, Cheetor had run off, before Optimus could even tell him to be careful.

Primus knew if the Predacons where near by yet.

[LadyTevar]

Ringtail went quiet, as ordered, but glared at Einsimian before she started exploring the area around the Axalon. The deep gorge they were parked over got her ful attention, ringed tail straight up in the air. "Wow... that's deep. Wonder how far it goes...."

She obviously knew better than to fall over, as she started following the river back towards it's source, scampering along as she mapped out the area.

[Charon]

The huge shell turned and the tiny head looked at Wingslip. "I'll see what I can do with Einsimian's help." The Glyptodon turned towards Ringtail.

"Watch it, that's a long ways down and I'm not sure the medical bay is at full functionality yet."

Medidon kept an eye as best he could on the other Maximals as he slowly trumped over to a field of flowers, examining the lifeforms.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Reaching over with the feather to Archon, Einsimian extended the feather to its first owner. "Keep it."

Looking around he quite enjoyed the scenery. His optics picked up dozens of different lifeforms. He was happy. Life was good here.

[Dark Silver]

Cheetor had caught up with the two cheetah's he had seen in the field. His legs churned, the sight of the grass and trees blurring past him.

It was almost like flying. It wasn't his old vehicle mode, but this was defiantly a close second.

He caught up with the two prairie cats, and pulled even, grinning a cat grin to them. "Hey cats! How's it going."

Unfortunately, he said this in Cybertronian.

The cheetah's looked at each other for a moment, and let out shriek's of terror, and ran faster.

"Hey! Wait a minute!" he cried, moving his limbs quicker to catch up.

Suddenly, the two cat's seperated and ran off in different directions. Cheetor skidded to a stop, as he looked around, "Hey, where you guys going?" Cheetor looked around, before a buzzing sound filled his audio receptors.

Looking up, he saw a large yellow green and black wasp, and a slightly smaller yellow and black bee of some sort hovering in the air.

"They're just giant bugs.......and if their scaring the local lifeforms, then maybe there's more than meets the eye..."

As if in response, the yellow and green hornet dipped a bit, "Wazzzzzzzpinator, Terrorize!"

"Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Saw, terrorize!" the second Predacon joined out, their weapons drawn.

Both Buzz Saw and Waspinator fly above Cheetor, the wing's on their back buzzing loudly as they swooped down. Waspinator's sting-gun launched miniature stinger, each missing Cheetor.

"Predacons!" Cheetor cried out, leaping out of the way of one of Buzzsaw's stingers. "Cheetor, maximize!"

The cat did a backflip, as portions of the Cheetah's hide slide away, revealing smooth blue metal, the cat head slide down onto his chest, and the forelegs became arms. Quasar blaster in hand, Cheetor began to fire back on the Predacons.

"Cheetor to Optimus! I'm under attack! Two Pred's and their pinging me hard" Unfortunatly, all Cheetor got back was static.


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

At the Axalon, Optimus was still taking in all his eye could see, when he saw plums of smoke and the faintest sounds of weapons fire in the distance.

"Cheetor's in trouble!" he cried out, begining to run off, "Maximals! Fall out!"

With those words, Optimus, followed quickly by Rhinox, ran as fast as their Beast modes could take them, in the direction Cheetor had run off.

Rattrap, for his sake, stayed by the ship, "If you think I'm going after that underaged cat-bot....eh, yous gots another thing coming."

[Agent Fisher]

Howler took off running, his legs carrying him away from Optimus and Rhinox, their beast modes just couldn't match a gray wolf in speed.

"Cheetor, I'm on my way." He announced into the comm. This was his chance. His chance to show Optimus and the others how good he was. And he wasn't going to mess this up.

As the young bot neared the firefight, he shouted out. "Howler, maximize!" The gray wolf's form shifted, revealing Howler in his bot form. His rifle came up, finger pulling the trigger, sending bolts of deadly energy hurling towads the predacons.

[LadyTevar]

Rattrap, for his sake, stayed by the ship, "If you think I'm going after that underaged cat-bot....eh, yous gots another thing coming."

"And here you were saying how brave and strong you were, RatTrap," Ringtail retorted, running after Rhinox and Optimus as fast as she could scutter. "I though you were trying to impress me..."

[Charon]

Medidon looked up from the flowers toward the direction everyone was going. The medical bot sighed to himself and started trudging towards the battle at an amazingly slow pace.

"I'll catch up to you guys."

[SirNitram]

Mammoth grunted simply. Predacons. At least the day wouldn't be entirely boring. "We need to find you wheels, Med." He rumbled, before starting a charge. A mammoth's body, once set into a charge, becomes quite fast. And the tusks were ready for any Preds near the ground.

[rhoenix]

Already in the air, Wingslip simply seemed to roll over in the air, now facing the direction the others were heading, and began following Cheetor and Howler from above, at still the same altitude. Something momentous was about to happen, he could feel it in his armored joints.

He flapped his wings faster, increasing his speed. They would need air cover, unless he missed his guess.

[General Havoc]

With Ringtail distracted and Einsimian having withdrawn the feather from her possession, Archon finally had a moment's peace to consider the situation. He thanked Einsimian for the feather, but he did not re-insert it, merely storing it against the risk that Ringtail should desire another "shiny". He was in the process of frowning at the apparent lack of cover and the ease with which the Predacons might be preparing to ambush them, when the call came out that the ambush was already underway.

Lovely.

The others transformed and charged towards where Cheetor (of course) had gotten himself under attack. Archon's new Beast form was not built for speed, by any stretch of the imagination, and so he elected to hitch a ride upon something that was, while he made a judgment about how to engage. There was no question that he would engage, and full-throatedly too. Most of the Predacons (all of them, far as he knew), had no idea where his true loyalties lay, and even if they had, his goal was to remain a sleeper agent, not merely assist in every half-cocked skirmish that went down. He had plenty of Predacon blood on his claws. He had no objections to a little more, if it made things easier for his overall mission.

Such, at least, he told himself, as he hooked Mammoth's fur with his wingclaw as Mammoth was passing by, and lightly flipped himself up on top of the charging Pachyderm's back.

"Howler, slow down!" shouted Archon into his radio as soon as he saw that the young wolf was rapidly outdistancing the others. "There's multiple hostiles ahead and you can't take them alone!" There was a better than even chance that Howler would ignore him, but that couldn't be helped. Archon looked about for Ringtail and the others as Mammoth charged towards the enemies. He did not maximize yet. It would be the height of incivility, after all, to do so while perched atop Mammoth.

[Dark Silver]

Cheetor was pinned down, Buzzsaw and Waspinator, despite being about the same size and marginally less armed than the cat, where quicker and more agile in the air.

Purple energy bolts flashed from Waspinator's eyes and struck the ground just onside of Cheetor, when Howler appeared over a ridge and Maximized.Buzzsaw took the hit from Howler's unexpected attack, and screamed in pain. The more heavily armored of the two Predacon flyers, Buzzsaw spun in midair, and returned fire onto Howler.

"Howler! Get down!" cheetor called out, diving behind a rock.

"Yessss...do get down..." a deep voice spoke, smooth in it's delivery.

"I would listen to the pussy cat, Yes. Yes I would."

Over the ridge, appeared the large purple form of a Tyranosaurus Rex. Soon, six other massive animals flanked the T-Rex, looking down on both Howler and Cheetor.

"Excellent work to both of you, Waspinator and Buzzsaw. I did not expect the Maximals to be found so soon. They look...." the t-rex's head grinned slowly, "delicious..."

"Stand down Megatron!" came the voice of Optimus Primal, as he and Rhinox appeared on a oppisite ridge, "We don't have to do this. Return the Golden Disc, and surrender."

[Agent Fisher]

Howler followed Cheetor's suggestion, diving behind another large rock. And then he froze, peeking over the edge, looking at the purple dinosaur. "Oh Primus." He said softly, clutching his rifle, looking back over at the ridge with Optimus on it.

[Charon]

Medidon heard in the distance that the fighting had stopped. The medical officer sighed in relief, hoping that Megatron had decided to stand down. He could see most of his team now, though they still weren't very distinct, and when he zoomed in with his optics he could see the giant purple dinosaur on the other side of a gorge. Medidon nodded to himself as he continued trudging towards the site.

[LadyTevar]

Ringtail scrambled up the ridge and looked across at the Predacons lined up on the other side. "Well... guess they all survived too..." she muttered. Somehow, she didn't think Megatron was going to listen to Optimus.

[rhoenix]

Upon seeing the Predacons ahead even through the energon static in his sensors, Wingslip dropped altitude as he approached, his body smoothly changing as he did. "Wingslip, Maximize!"

The wings remained in his robot form, helping him stay aloft as he unstrapped a large and heavy rifle from his back, and looked through the scope on it into Megatron's right eye. He was still aloft in the air, now above and slightly behind Optimus and the rest.

"Yeah, keep talking, chuckles," he said quietly with a smirk, waiting for the Predacons to do more than posture threateningly before he shot their leader in the face.

[General Havoc]

Of all the people Archon didn't want to see...

He stayed where he was atop Mammoth for the time being, watching the Predacons to see what would happen. That they hadn't erupted into an attack immediately was... interesting. Megatron was not generally the sort to refuse to shed blood at the drop of a hat.

Still, at present, the best plan was to wait and see if he would need to test his Arc Welder.

[Dark Silver]

As the other Maximals gathered around Optimus and Rhinox, Megatron looked focused his attention away from Howler and Cheetor in the defile below.

"We don't have to do this Megatron," Optimus said, remaining in Beast Mode. "There's been peace between the Maximals and the Predacons for centuries."

Megatron's beast mode smirked, before rearing up, "Peace perhaps on your side Maximal scum" the word was spoken with such vitorol as to be a curse, "But not on ours. Permit me to inform you that a enemy that appears....peaceful...may be merely bidding it's time."

Behind his cover, Cheetor fiddled with his Quasar Blaster, the weapon having become jammed. Soon, the weapon unjammed, "Finally."

"But we Predacons," Megatron continued, " have never abandoned our goal of Universal Conquest! No! We have merely been waiting for the right moment....to strike!"

With those words, Cheetor popped up, aiming his Quasar blaster, and shouting, "Like this?" before releasing a pulse energy into Megatron's beast mode frame.

At the same time, Wingslip's sniper position, tenuous as it was in mid air, came under fire from Terrorsaur, who had drifted up into the air above. The first bolt missed, but the second struck the right wing actuator on Wingslip's back, causing it to freeze and for the Maximal sniper to lose flight.

Megatron was barely phased by the weapon, "Ahh..a deceitful underhanded sneak attack. Oh..I like you pussycat. Yes. But it will avail you not! For the power Gauntlet has been cast."

Megatron seemed to grow fiercer, as he shouted the command, "Predacons! Terrorize!"

Optimus looked to his gathered Maximals, "Do it! Maximize!"

In turn, each of the Predacons called out their command codes, shifting from beast to heavily armed robot. The Maximals in turn, did likewise.

"Now!" Megatron shouted, "Obliterate them!"

And weapons blazed.

[Charon]

Medidon heard weapons fire and swore vehemently in a manner most unbecoming of him. "Medidon, Maximize!" The slow Glyptodon shifted and turned and transformed into robot mode and Medidon started running towards the fighting, hoping to get there in time to help.