"Man, I hated being right." Smokescreen said self-admonishingly.
"Calm down Smoke. We know, the aliens are coming."
"Still, I hope they're forgiving types. I'd hate to see them punish the Maxies while the Preds walk away spot-free from the blame."
Predaking snorted. "As if a rabble of lowlives could just get away with their crimes, such as Blackarachnia controlling the island for herself." he commented.
"No one asked you, Predaking." blurted out Megatron.
Arcee placed a hand in his shoulder. "It will wait. You'll see. We'll just have to wait to see what's their reply."
"Primus help the Maximals..." muttered Prime.
"That aside, are you Auto-buckets going to watch the viewing with us?" asked Breakdown.
Bulkhead grimaced at the presence of his archrival and begrudgingly nodded.
"Omega Scion, if you may." Megatron requested.
"The Orb is ready. Please take your seats."
They all sat down, though the Autobots were rather uneasy, considering that the last viewing had them unaware of what exactly are the response of the aliens whose technology both Maximals and Predacons had involved in the Beast Wars. Counting down to three they sat down.
On outer space, a mysterious craft of untold origin has passed through an unknown variant of transwarp space and into the planet itself. It flew right into the planet itself.
[Alert. Power anomaly in Grid Trion.] the Axalon's systems caught wind of the system itself
"Display coordinates and cross reference energy signature with Datatrax Tau-7." Rhinox ordered.
[Energy signature identical with previous alien contacts.]
"Looks like our unknown "friends" have finally arrived." Rhinox notified as Primal caught up to Rhinox's station.
"Just what we need. A visit from the landlord." Primal expressed. He pressed the command table for the digitalized lay of the land based on the craft's landing proximity and detected two Maximal signatures.
"Rattrap and Airazor are closest. Tell them to check it out. I'll meet them there." Primal ordered.
"The Preds will have picked up this signal." Rhinox reminded.
"We still have a truce. I hope." Primal then propelled his jets, flying out of the Axalon.
"You have it while it lasts... yet be aware. The fools will dare violate it if you would not." warned Predaking.
Of course, Tarantulas in his lair had caught wind of the incoming spacecraft...
"They are here... As I anticipated, given the data I hacked from Megatron's private files. Computer! Calculate next stasis pod landing." he ordered.
[Stasis pod will achieve planetfall in 30.6 mega-cycles.]
"Slag, not soon enough. I must find another means of escaping this dirt ball." Tarantulas cursed then attempted to formulate an idea.
Before long, Blackarachnia found out about it by merely appearing in his lair. Tarantulas raised his weapon at her in response.
"And why would you want to do that?" she asked. "Partner."
"I'm not your 'partner'. Now go away!" Tarantulas demanded.
"Knowing her, she'd turned on him when she's through with him."
Megatron cursed silently at Arcee's assessment. Airachnid had attempted to double cross him once.
"Oh, you don't have a choice, legs. You don't want me telling Megatron about that Transwarp cell you stole, do you?"
Tarantulas grunted. Blackarachnia was attempting to blackmail him.
"Besides, you need me to get past the Maximal's defense shield." She offered.
"To what end? The Axalon will never fly again." Tarantulas pointed out.
Perceptor and the Aerialbots grimaced. Hearing that means that the Maximals have no way to return to Cybertron.
"Great! The Axalon's busted beyond repair. How the heck are the Maxies gonna return home now?" Cliffjumper asked.
"Don't despair, Cliffjumper. There may yet be a way for them to survive in that planet." Prime assured.
"Still, if the Preds are gone, what are they gonna do Prime?" Air Raid asked.
"Not like the Darksyde's any better either." pointed out Sideswipe.
"That I do not know. But I hope they will carry out our legacy to protect the inhabitants of that planet."
"Granted. But the Maximals have intact stasis pods." She riposted eagerly.
"A clever spider...one with a transwarp cell...might use such a stasis pod to create an escape ship." Tarantulas realized.
"Most of the Maximals are off chasing that power anomaly. We could have that pod in just under two mega-cycles. So what do you say? Partner." She continued to press her offer.
Yet they were in under Megatron's surveiliance.
"The inevitable treachery, yes." He hammed dramatically. He turned to another computer to check out the anomaly. "Properly guided, it should serve me well."
"Oh yes, because a weakling craves for power while the strong strive for it." Megatron spoke.
He later oversaw a recently restored Waspinator, now fully functional.
"So. Back online, are we?" Megatron asked.
"No thanks to Tarantulas! Waspinator find Spiderbot and tear him a new waste disposal unit!" the aforementioned Predacon cursed, hungry for revenge.
"I have no time for these petty squabbles now! No. Larger goals are at stake." Megatron belayed then ordered Waspinator "Proceed at once to coordinates 6-5-9 and secure the area. I will follow shortly."
"Not fair! Waspinator always gets slag assignments!" he whined.
"Oh shut your whining and do your lord's will, you pathetic miser!" barked Skyquake.
"May I remind Waspinator that the current cease-fire applies only in reference to Maximals?" Megatron placed off in a dangerous undertone. This frightened Waspinator so he complied. "Waspinator go." and departed from the Darksyde.
"That's better. From now on, I must play this carefully. Very carefully indeed." Megatron hammed dramatically.
"Good luck with that, provided the Maximals don't overtake you." Onslaught commented.
Prior to the spacecraft's arrival, Rattrap and Airazor observed from afar from the landing site while en-route.
"Looks like we found the source of the anomaly..." Airazor spotted the spacecraft.
"Lucky us. Now we can be the first to get vaped." Rattrap spouted pessimitstically.
"Do you ever think positively?" Airazor asked.
"That WAS positive, sister." Rattrap pointed out "Ya know, I coulda said: 'Now we can be the first t'get tortured and THEN vaped!'"
Air Raid scoffed. "That's so positive of you, rat. Thinking things would get worse."
"You're a real fun bot, you know that?" Airazor asked sarcastically. Upon arrival, they attempted to analyze the crystal.
"Strip my circuits and call me a toaster, this crystal's stable!"
"Then I should be able to scan it safely." Airazor transformed and attempted to touch the crystal "It's a field generator. And it's building up tremendous-" she was cut off when one of the landing claws struck at her with a bolt of raw Energon.
"No!" Air Raid shouted.
"Airazor!" Rattrap then looked at the crystal now retracting below "Oh no." as it then emitted a shockwave, sending the rat Maximal flying to a mound of mud. "Oh my aching coils!" he groaned.
He later saw the landing site emanate deeply with raw Energon gathered from the earths, then manifest to a dome of crusted jade make.
"What the heck are you doing?! Get in there and get Airazor out!" Warpath demanded.
"Cool it, kiddo. No way Rattrap's going to get his buddy out of that thing without help." Ironhide mediated.
"This is not good!" Rattrap squeaked. "Rattrap to Optimus..." he attempted to hail his leader "Come in Fearless Leader!"
"Optimus here." Primal replied "Have you reached the anomaly?"
"Have I ever! It's some kinda nutty alien bungalow. And it swallowed Airazor." Rattrap reported. "You better get your monkey butt over here before..." but comms were eventually cut off as Waspinator suddenly knocked him down.
"Rattrap! Rattrap!" Primal tried to hail, with no success.
Airazor woke up, but upon the interior of the dome, a mysterious voice spoke out to her...
(Shi tok, alokra tey fa. Nu krisk, lor a va dobro. Hhhirma, gull hhhiro. Kroat tah.)
Everyone was confused, unable to interpret.
"Perceptor?" asked Ratchet.
"That alien likely said that they are not pleased that their tech had been tampered and destroyed with in the Beast Wars, Ratchet." Perceptor spoke out.
"I'm meaning no harm." Airazor attempted to play reasonable, but the alien spoke again...
(Nok oura, kosh ja vey.) The crystal then catches Airazor in an it's powerful grasp.
"Let go of her, you overgrown rock!" Air Raid angrily shouted.
"Oh, man! This is definitely not my day!" Rattrap whined. He stood up to face his assailant.
"No. Waspinator secures area!" the aforementioned Predacon boasted, readying a weapon in case he has to.
"Maximal will leave or be scrapped!" Waspinator threatened.
"No chance, bugface. I got here first." Rattrap refused. "Besides, we gotta cease-fire goin', remember?
"So? Waspinator not shoot." he said not even raising a weapon to attack his enemy.
"Very smart. Knowing the truce would mean that you'd not bother attacking for once." Jetfire commented.
"Then again, there's the possibility that the Preds will break the truce, Jetfire." Jazz pointed out.
"I'm aware of that, Jazz, I just want to see how long that lasts before they start shooting at each other."
But Waspinator struck at Rattrap with a fist to his face. "Oh man, it's amazin' how sweet we're all being these days." Rattrap spoke sarcastically.
"Cheap shot! Fight Rattrap like a real bot, you coward!" Grimlock shouted.
"I'm surprised the truce doesn't extend to fists flying. That could have been a technical violation." spouted Wheeljack.
"Then again, the bug didn't even fire a gun at Rattrap, so who knows?" Bulkhead added.
Rattrap stood up again. He transformed and rolled to knock Waspinator down by sending him flying to the air.
"Problem is, ya fight a rat..." Rattrap then kicked dirt to Waspinator's optics then a knee to his unmentionables when the latter tried to stand up, sending a great deal of pain. "ya better fight dirty!"
"Ha! Kick his aft, Rattrap!" Grimlock cheered.
"Beat him down! Break his legs!" Warpath followed.
"Oh, yeah! He doezzzn't like that!" Rattrap said mocking Waspinator's accent and "Robo-noogie!" rubbed his fist around Waspinator's head sending sparks flying. Then released him spinning about looking underneath his legs as Rattrap's foot then sent him off several feet away from Rattrap.
"Now get lost!" Rattrap threatened.
"Heheh, Rat-boy's a bit too hard-set for something as childish as Waspinator." Smokescreen commented.
"Waspinator thinks area is secure enough." the wasp Predacon transformed and ran off humiliated.
"Come back when you got the manifolds to face Rattrap like a real bot, you yellow-plated waste of scrap!" Grimlock challenged.
"I swear, I can't take you anywhere." Primal commented upon his arrival.
"Just keeping the peace." Rattrap replied.
"So Airazor's in there, is she?" Primal asked putting his hands around the dome's make. Touching it didn't get the dome to open a door.
"Is there a way in?" he asked.
"You see a doorbell anywhere?" Rattrap asked back; he pretty much had recently discovered the dome without even finding an entrance.
"Try a cutting laser." Primal suggested.
"You got it!" Rattrap complied.
"Hurry up, darnit! Airazor's going to die!" Air Raid shouted impatiently.
Inside, under heavy torture from the crystal "B-Beast-M-Mode!" Airazor yelled, transforming to her Beast Form.
(Hak twa?) the alien voice spoke again.
"Cybertron!" She realized but passed out.
After attempting to break in with a cutting laser to no avail, Rattrap said "Nada. Whatever this is, energy beams don't mean slag to it."
"As I anticipated." Megatron said arriving with his lieutenant and his best flyer accompanying him.
"Megatron!" Primal barked.
"Holy swiss cheese, we're in for it now." Rattrap squeaked.
"Did you really expect energy beams to work? These aliens can create Energon itself." Megatron then continued "I suggest a different tactic."
"Huh, so these aliens are responsible for the creation of the very lifeblood of all Cybertronians. Convienient much, don't you think?" asked Knockout.
"If it were that convienient, Knockout, why would we exist in the first place?" asked Ratchet.
"Fair enough." Knockout shrugged.
"Biological?" Primal asked.
"Exactly. Scorponok!" Megatron turned to his lieutenant.
"One toxic sting, comin' up!" Scorponok transformed then elicited a poisonous sting that ate open a hole into the dome's walls.
"Looks like you guessed right, Megatron. But a Maximal is the one trapped inside. We go in first." Primal suggested.
"What's this WE stuff?" Rattrap objected, not likely to be a team player with the Predacons.
"Yess. But of course. Be my guest. We DO have a truce, remember?" Megatron reminded.
Primal transformed and warned "Just as long as YOU don't forget. All right, Rattrap. Let's go." and rallied Rattrap to get inside the breach.
"Oh man, I want extra hazard pay for this." Rattrap transformed and followed suit.
"This is a calculated risk." Megatron turned to his minions "We shall let the Maximals serve as primary targets. But if things go awry..."
"I got a mega-missile right here." Scorponok readied his missile array in his claw. "Can fire it right through that hole."
"Excellent." Megatron acknowledged. "Now, if only Inferno is doing his job as well."
"You slimy little warpjunk. You've planned this, haven't you? Using the truce to let the Maximals' guard down while you're at it and then spring a trap when they're not noticing...." Starscream deduced...
That left the Autobots on deeper unease.
In the interior of the dome, though Rattrap himself was frightened, Primal and Rattrap found Airazor out cold.
"Airazor!" Primal turned to rattrap and ordered "Get her out of here. Quickly."
"Man, you don't gotta tell ME twice!" Rattrap complied, pulling Airazor out of the dome/
"Optimus...! Don't stay..." Airazor weakly protested upon regaining semi-consciousness.
"I have to." Primal answered. "Since our arrival on this planet, we haven't exactly been the best of tenants. These aliens have a right to expect some answers." he said in a stalwart tone.
"Optimus... no..." Airazor tried to protest, but she was out of his reach by Rattrap.
Resolute, Primal called to whoever inhabited the dome "All right. Whoever you are..." but a set of wires grabbed and wrapped around him, restraining the gorilla Maximal and hoisted him up high.
"No!" said Prime.
It then attempts to reach out to him by two green firewalls of sorts to then pass to Prime as it's attempting to scan him while the Maximal leader groaned as his eyes and mouth glow green.
In the shielded perimeter of the Axalon, both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia regrouped.
"Once they've made it the walls..." He turned to Blackarachnia and challenged. "You said you could breach their shield. Prove it."
"You're not the only techno head around here partner." Blackarachnia replies to the challenge as she transforms and brandishes another invention of hers. Once she plants it to the ground, it opens a hole to their shield. "Spiffy little gizmo, huh?" she asked sarcastically.
"We'll move in by the roof hatch." Tarantulas said, prompting Blackarachnia to go in first.
"The Royalty was right." Inferno monologued catching up with them "The spiders spin their own web of intrigue." He tried to follow, but Blackarachnia's device shorted out. So he decided an alternative: digging his way under the shield.
"Clever insect." commented Knockout.
Meanwhile, Megatron overhears Primal's screams, apparently delighted. "Would I could have that sound to lull me to sleep each night."
"They're comin' out!" Scorponok pointed out as Rattrap dragged Airazor out of the hole nearby.
"We can't leave Optimus in there!" Airazor protested, though she was too weak to fight off Rattrap.
"Ours is not t' reason why, but t' blow this joint before we die." Rattrap replied, pulling her out just as the hole closes. But he notices the Predacons aiming their weapons at him. He sighed and said "Lemme guess. The truce is over."
Once the procedure was done to Optimus it revealed [Scan complete. This is the specimen we analyzed before.]
"Who... are you?" Primal asked.
Before his eyes, flashed before a form, a head, familiar to the leaders of the parties today.
"Unicron?!"
"Unicron?!" asked Prime, Megatron and Predaking.
Everyone was shocked at the presence of the ancient Transformer. The one that attempted to consume the Allspark.
"We have no physical form you could comprehend. We chose this figure of authority from your datatrax." Unicron replied.
"If you've scanned me...you know that we did not come to this planet by choice." Primal retorted.
"Yet you are here." Unicron riposted.
"We mean no harm." Primal reasoned. "To you -- or this planet."
"It is too late." Unicron replied. "You and your enemies have already contaminated the project. The harm has been done. That which does not become part of the One shall become void."
"No! Wait! We can fix whatever damage was done!" Primal offered.
Prime was slowly losing his cool, his teeth clenched. If there was anything he learned the most about Unicron, is that he was always malicious and unforgivingly ruthless.
"We are not interested. The experiment will be sterilized." Unicron replied in an ironclad tone.
"You can't do that! There are living creatures here!" Primal protested. "You, with all your power even you have no right!"
"Say it right to his face, Primal!" Bumblebee cheered.
"We have no choice. There is more danger than you know. Begin termination sequence." Unicron disappeared.
"Unicron... you..." Prime tried to curse.
"NOOOOOOO! Optimus Primal -- MAXIMIZE!" He broke out from his restraints and transformed.
This emitted a light intriguing the Predacons. Rattrap saw his chance and then twisted Scorponok's weapon to turn to Megatron, forcing him to accidentally let loose the missile that struck the Predacon lord instead.
"Ha! Megatron's blasted off again!!!" quipped Warpath.
"Brilliant, rat, real brilliant." Arcee stated.
"Why, ya little..." Scorponok tried to fire but Airazor cuts him short "Back off!" by firing her wrist flechettes at the scorpion Predacon, eliminating him. Terrorsaur raised a gun in her head but Rattrap transformed and fired his gun at Terrorsaur, knocking him out of action.
They soon saw Primal having boosted his way out of the dome as it began to glow a bright chrome light and regrouped with him.
"Hey, big banana! What's the haps!?" Rattrap asked.
"They called it a termination sequence. We'd better get out of here."
"You just said my favorite phrase!" They immediately fled the scene.
"Fortunately, there is still another hand to be played." Megatron stated as he saw the massive build-up of Energon never comprehensible before and left immediately.
"Uh oh, when the Preds and Maxies start running you know scrap ain't doing good this time!" shouted Warpath.
The dome glowed an intense build-up so much it released the stored Energon and bursted it right into the sky and into outer space. Passing through the rings of the stasis pods, the burst struck at the moon, the energies burned and swept through the entirety of the planet, revealing it to be another planetoid that it had the same obelisk claws as like the one that struck at Airazor before. In a line, they all glowed light as if they are now activated. The result had the planet burst out Energon like a bridge connected with power in unimaginable levels, causing the stasis pods to shorten out and spiral uncontrollably towards the Earth.
[Massive Energon surge emanating from Grid Trion. Communications impossible.]
"Can you track the stasis pods?" Rhinox asked.
"Scrap! That Raw Energon's blocking the comms! Rhinox can't reach them!" Bulkhead cursed.
"Thanks, Mr. Obvious." derided Breakdown.
[Negative.]
"Divert all power to space scanner!" Rhinox ordered. "Lock on their beam and ride it!"
[Boosting power...Interlocking...] The computer revealed an Energon bridge between the moon and the planet itself. [Lock achieved. Imaging...]
"What the slagging..." Rhinox was shocked. But by then, he saw Blackarachnia attempting to breach. He grabbed one of his chainguns and fired, but he was quickly eliminated by the black widow Predacon.
"Invaders!" Dinobot shouted upon arrival, but he was soon eliminated by simultaneous gunfire by both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia. Having secured the breach, they looked to the Axalon's computer which began beeping at an alarming rate.
"When I get my hands on those bugs, I'm gonna rip all eight of their legs off!" Grimlock cursed.
"You and me both, Grimlock." Arcee joined in.
"Save some for me! I wanna break their legs!" Warpath followed.
"What is it?" Blackarachnia asked.
"The beginning of the end." Tarantulas answered.
The planet began to glow white in it's hilts.
Doomsday had come to the planet. Unicron has made his choice... to wipe it clean of it's life.
The Audience was now completely stunned and utterly shocked.
"Unicron... what mad experiment do you have for that planet... I hope the Maximals will come to end your scheme..." Prime cursed, his cool slowly depleting to anger.