Beast Wars Transformers: "The Beast Wars Begin!"

[Dark Silver]

Season 1, Episode 1 - "The Beast Wars Begin!"

The great placid depths of the Void is disturbed, a rippling pool of nothingness, distorting the field of stars.

From the distortion, a ship speed forth, like a great metal manta ray, cutting through space. Bolts of plasma and boiling energy rolled out past it, issuing forth from the rip.

Moments later, a second ship flew forth, weapons firing after it's quarry.

"Hull breach in sector seven. Guidance systems failing!"

"This is rediculous! This is a exploration ship, not a battle cruiser."

"No choice. We were the only one who could lock onto Megatron's Transwarp signature."

"Shields are doing a major fade!"

"Plasma cannons to full power."

The whine of energy flowing into the weapon systems issued throughout the entire ship.

"Darkside is slowing, coming up along side of us."

"Brace for impact. Prepare to return fire."

The Predacon ship revealed a new row of plasma turrents, their weapons firing, and tearing into the Maximal's hull.

"Rupture! The stasis hold is failing!"

"WE're going down..."

"Launch all pods, get them into safe orbit."

The Maximal ship tumbled towards the blue and green planet below, a stream of stasis pods drifting out from the rear hatch. Once the pods were gone, the ship righted itself.

"All cannons, fire!"

The Maximal weapons issued forth a stream of hot destruction, blasting into the Predacon ship. Both ships were grabbed by the planet's gravity well, and began to tumble down.

Two great fireballs streaked across the sky, smashing into the planet's surface. Within the hull of the Axalon, the Maximal bridge crew slowly got to their feet.

"Damage report..."

"Beleive me..you don't want to know."

"That's what I thought..."

"Sensor readings, where are we?"

"No clue....but I'm getting energon readings here."

"Energon?"

"To much of it....if we go out there in our current forms, we'll short circuit from Energon Poisoning within a few cycles."

"Alright then..we'll adapt our alt-modes. Begin DNA Scanning. Everyone to CR chambers."

Scanning beams spread out from the crashed Maximal ship, picking up animal lifeforms, scanning their bodies and DNA, and sending the info back into the computer.

"Scanning and DNA Replication of local lifeforms....complete. You may emerge"

"Hey!" a spotted cheetah spoke, looking at his reflection, "I'm a cheetah! No, I'm Cheetor!"

"mm..interesting" the hollow sounding voice reverbed in the CR Chamber.

"Interesting? Optimus! The word is spot on smooth!" Cheetor said

"Eh..tacky," a large grey rat spoke, "You never had taste did you kid. Now this, this is class is all about. Call me Rattrap."

"Oh yeah! How about I cut meeses to pieces!"

"Ease back Cheetor. Living large is for forms like me," a Rhino spoke, "Rhinox."

"Yeah..and just consider yourself lucky I didn't get rough on yas."

"Moderate your conflict circuits Maximals." Optimus spoke as the CR chamber opened, and the form of a Silverback Gorilla appeared, "Remember, these beast forms are to protect us from the long term effects of the energon fields out there. We may need Energon for power, but this is to much of a good thing. Our robot forms will start to short out after a few minutes exposure. This is one unusual planet....where ever it is."

[General Havoc]

"Can someone PLEASE put that damned fire out!"

Below decks was a complete madhouse, as usually occurred whenever things didn't go according to plan. And to say that this trip was not going according to plan was like saying that the planet Cybertron was slightly larger than a walnut.

What the hell had gone wrong?! Megatron had made no mention of any sort of attack on the Axalon! And yet it had to be him. Archon knew Megatron well enough to be sure of that. Only Megatron would have set this kind of an ambush, letting them get in this close before firing, battle tactics dovetailed neatly with Megatron's desire to watch the struggles of his prey. Megatron's signature. He had known it was Megatron the instant that word of the attack came through. He would say so to Optimus if asked. It was his job, after all, to know these things.

The computer screen showed nothing but problem areas, as people raced back and forth in no order whatsoever. Archon had no official standing of any sort, and he knew that at present he should be worrying more about how he was going to spin this out later, but for the present, he was a bit preoccupied with the threat that they were all about to die. And while he was just an intelligence officer, well Primusdamnit SOMEONE had to start trying to organize things below decks!

"We're losing pressure in section 7!" he shouted into a microphone with as much authority as he could muster. "Evacuate it and seal the bulkheads or we'll lose half the damned ship!" This one they could hang him for once the crisis was over for all he cared, though he knew they wouldn't. Taking charge and giving informed orders was something they would expect from him. They would also expect him to defend his decisions later, successfully. By now it was second-nature.

A red klaxon alarm sounded, and Archon's attention was rudely re-directed to the computer console. His optics widened as he realized it was a collision alert, a very very imminent one.

"Collision alarm!" he shouted to anyone within range of the internal comms. "Collision alarm! We're crash-landing. All hands, brace for impact!"

[LadyTevar]

"We're losing pressure in section 7!" he shouted into a microphone with as much authority as he could muster. "Evacuate it and seal the bulkheads or we'll lose half the damned ship!"

"I'm trying! I'm TRYING!" the small fembot yelled back at the intercom, which probably wasn't transmitting back with her luck. She tugged and pulled at the stuck blast door that was supposed to be closing and shutting off Section 7 so the hull breech didn't depressurize the entire ship. If she didn't get it closed, SHE would be leaving the ship the hard way. "Shut You Stupid Piece Of ... SCRAP!?"

The last was understandably confused, as she was suddenly hauled up by her shoulder and dangling in mid-air. A large hand smacked the door controls, which reacted to the percussive maintenance by sliding shut with a resounding WHOOMP.

"Oh. NOW you work..." the fembot kvetched, crossing her arms and glaring at the doors.

"They're about to jettison the stasis pods," the large robot with the look of an Optimus or a Prime unit rumbled, setting her back on her feet. "That is a bad sign. We have to get to a protected section now."

"Well, now I'm glad I didn't go stasis for this trip," The fembot quipped as she followed, taking two steps for every one of the larger bot. "Medical Bay is probably the best shield --- Ack!" She slid sideways and hit the bulkhead wall hard as the Axalon shook under another pounding.

The larger Prime stopped and picked her up. "Up you go, tiny. Unless you want to hit every bulkhead between here and there."

"Uhh, ok.. whatever you say, sir."

[rhoenix]

The sensor room of the Axalon was more a nickname than an official function. It was rather cramped, particularly for a 'bot the navigator's size, but the navigator was not paying any attention whatsoever to the cramped conditions. The raw sensor data flowing in was more than enough to completely captivate his attention, as he watched with growing nervousness.

The chatter from the bridge really didn't help either.

Then, the frantic call came in. "We're losing pressure in section 7!" Archon shouted into a microphone with as much authority as he could muster. "Evacuate it and seal the bulkheads or we'll lose half the damned ship!"

That certainly got the navigator's attention, as the room with all the precise sensor consoles was at the far forward end of section 7 - right at the front of the ship.

At the last minute before leaving, he sent a priority message to all over active units within the ship. "All units, this is Wingslip - I'm abandoning the sensor room, and getting my chrome skidplate over to damage control."

Prying himself out of the sensor consoles, knocking some of them to the floor in his haste, he emerged from the room, and immediately felt the pressure loss pulling him toward the breach. Hauling himself with grim determination up the ladder nearby, he sealed the hatch once he was finished. The sensor area of the ship was now locked down, and safe from depressurization. With satisfaction, he sent out a second comm. "Wingslip to bridge - sensor room is cleared. I'm off to damage control."

Moving to the nearby control room for damage control for this section of the ship, he began rapidly locking down the damaged areas of the ship that Archon hadn't yet, after making sure each was cleared first. One of the monitors was fed by the ship's sensor array - more out of dread than anything else. The four-quadrant screen showed more than enough to give Wingslip a sinking feeling about this being a problem easily fixed, especially as the planet below them grew larger with each passing microcycle.

"Slag," he grumbled beneath his breath as he began quickly rerouting power from the sealed-off sections, and fed them back into the ship's power grid. If it provided even a few more seconds of shield power or a few more cannon shots, he had done his job.

"Alright bridge, you have all the extra power I can give you," he said. "And may Primus help us all," he added silently.

[Agent Fisher]

Howler slammed a button, shutting the bulkhead behind behind him, just as the compartment was lost. The young bot quickly moved through the compartments, locking each down as he left it.

The young gray plated bot felt the gravity shift as the ship began to fall to the planet. Howler grabbed on tight to a ladder, clutching the metal with all he was worth. As the ship crashed, he was tossed free, slamming into the bulkheads before he fell to the floor.

"Ow." He said to himself and heard the announcement about CR chambers. Howler moved through the ship and entered a chamber.

As the chamber door opened, a large gray wolf emerged.

[Jason_Firewalker]

The ship shook, things did not look good. "For Primes sake, I'm a scientist, not a combat technician!"

As bulkheads sealed behind him he kept leaping through them to get where he needed to go. With orders to report to CR chambers for refit he was not happy.

Thinking to himself of how screwed he was for taking this assignment, he stepped into the CR chamber in preperation for Alt-Form editing. "Wow, I guess these alt forms will come in handy!"

A large orangutan stepped out of the CR Chamber Einsimian had entered and smiled a big orangutan smile.

[SirNitram]

With the tiny ball of mischief of an explorer secure in a CR chamber, Mammoth Prime scowled at his luck. He had come to see that Protoform dropped into one of the worst pits in the Galaxy, and now it was jettisoned and he was going down. Nothing for it, though. Even in the depths of his flash-memory training there had been nothing on 'How to keep half a ship up when it's orbit decays'.

Hunkering into a CR chamber for the crash itself, the luck only seemed to worsen as the computer's soothing voice warned him of high energon levels, sufficient raw crystals of the stuff to lock his servos and fry his circuits. "Sweet Primus... Had can this go worse?"

The computer chirped up. "Scan failed to locate bioform with sufficient internal volume. Widening search."

"..And this is what I get for daring the universe."

It took longer to find Mammoth a suitable form, the computer scouring both the surface and fossil remains, before settling on the massive wooly beast that would allow Prime to transform without wasting precious reserves on mass-displacement. The heavy armor plating of his tank form slid into the new shape of the beast's skin, with heavy fur over it to maximize defense. His weapons were sadly unlikely to be usable in his large form, slotted away and only availiable when he shifted back to Cybertronian. Still, the tusks and sheer mass suggested a possible substitute...

[rhoenix]

The great ship's orbit decaying rapidly, and with nothing else to do but prepare for the crash, Wingslip grimly ran to a nearby CR chamber, only to see the hallway ahead disintegrate under concentrated weapons fire from the Predacon ship. Growling, he hauled himself up through the hatch, and swiftly sealed off the breach. As he did, he saw that among the other stasis pods being ejected into orbit was a larger stasis pod along with them. One with a large, forbidding-looking "X" on it.

Shaking his head in disgust, he said nothing as he ran to another set of CR chambers, activating it as he did. Having the computer calmly inform him of the extremely high concentration of energon on the planet's surface, he shook his head slightly as his systems shutdown in anticipation for adding a beast mode.

Knowing a few programming tricks, he "encouraged" the CR chamber to look for a good flying form for him before he shut down completely.

A while later, he awoke, hearing voices outside of the CR chambers. Shaking his head vigorously to shake off the digitalwebs from his central processor, he instantly realized that his eyes could almost make out individual plates in the metal, so fine was their resolution.

As the CR chamber opened, a huge eagle walked out, looking at the others in silence. Tall enough in this form to look most of the other Maximals in beast mode in the eyes or even make them look up to see his, he extended his wings to test them out.

"Oh, hey now," he said, obviously impressed, as his wings contorted and moved. His wings fluttered once more before folding onto his back, a small smile appearing on his eagle's beak. "Yes, this will work out just fine. So," he said, addressing the others gathered, "now what?"

[LadyTevar]

"WOW!! You're HUGE!" a familar feminine voice exclaimed. It was coming from a pale tan mammal with huge dark eyes and faint stripes running across the back. The tail was tipped with black, with a paler ring circling just below the black. "You finally get to fly again, 'Slip? That's great!" the rapid-fire monologue continued. "What do you think of my new form? I think I'm going to call myself Ringtail..."

[rhoenix]

The smile appearing on the corners of his beak growing ever-so-slightly more wide, Wingslip regarded the small fembot, whose beast form was...a meerkat. His large amber eyes regarded her, unblinking.

"Hmm - not big enough for a meal. Pity."

After a moment, he chuckled. "Overall though, not a bad choice, Ringtail. As for me, ever since my great grandfather Firetrack took to the skies, the rest of his line followed his lead - I can do no less. In fact, I intend to do a lot more."

[Charon]

A trundling massive spheroid that looked as though it could survive the Axalon falling on it came out of a nearby CR chamber. "This form should be adequate for our purposes on planet." The creature tried to look behind himself and found he couldn't. "Though there are going to be a few things that will certainly be annoying."

The creature looked over at the others. "Is everyone alright? We had a bumpy entrance there. The protoforms are secure and in good condition and should have a stable orbit." The beast trundled on a bit further before he came to a stop. "Why of course I had to pick the slowest animal form."

Gears clicked and whirred as the animal rose on two legs and arms extended out of it. The head spun around and sunk into the chest cavity as another far more robotic head came out. The robot still had a large hump for a back, but he was considerably sleeker looking, not that that was difficult. "You can call me Medidon I think. Seems kinda fitting right?"

[Dark Silver]

"Good to see your all awake Maximals," Optimus said, turning from a sensor read out. "Remember, we can't stay in robot mode for very long out there. But we'll be ok in the ship thanks to the Energon dampners."

"Now," Rhinox said slowly, "We just need to figure out When we are..."

"What?" Cheetor said flabbergasted.

"The Transwarp Drive travels through space and time. We were locked onto Megatron's Transwarp signature. There's no telling where or when we are."

"Well, I guess now would be a good time to go outside and get a look at our surrondings. Let's go Maximals."

With that, Optimus, followed by Rattrap, Cheetor and Rhinox all moved off the bridge, and headed to the lift which would take them outside.

Once they had left the ship, Optimus looked around, his optic sensors taking in the planet.

"Beautiful..." he said, moving off the lift so it could go back for the others.

[Agent Fisher]

*ignore*

[General Havoc]

Everything was going wrong. Archon had sprinted to the nearest CR chamber as soon as he had recovered from the crash landing, and ensconced himself within it. Plans and thought were all well and good, but when the alternative was being poisoned to death by Energon overload... well one sometimes just needed to act.

And of course it was just his luck to pick the one CR chamber that wasn't working.

Or at least so it appeared. The damn thing had been "processing" the information of what animal form to pick for a quarter of a damned hour. He had lowered his specifications, even told the thing to pick randomly, that he didn't care, and yet every time the green light came on to indicate a selection, it immediately clicked back off as though the stupid CR had had second thoughts. He was about ready to simply hack his way out of the chamber and find another one when it finally made a selection.

"Criteria match confirmed."

That one stopped him short. Criteria match? He'd never entered any damned criteria! What was this thing going on about? He hit the button to force the computer to list the 'criteria'.

"Inherent Predacon kinship."

He stared at the screen like he had just suffered a spark-lock.

"Commencing reformat."

"No, WAI-"

*----------------------------------------------------*

At the last second, a bird stepped onto the lift.

Archon's new form was a four foot reptillian bird-creature, emerald and turquoise, with golden tail feathers, and a clearly dinosauric look to his head and face. Any three-year-old human child could have identified him. He was an Archaeopteryx, the feathered link between birds and dinosaurs.

"Sorry I'm late," he muttered as he hopped onto the lift. "Damn CR door jammed in the crash. I had to tear my way out with an Arc Welder."

He gave no indication that there was anything at all odd about his current form, nor did he mention that, in tearing his way out of the CR chamber, he had vaporized the hard drive on which the 'criteria' it had used for making his animal form determination was stored.

Indeed, he had vaporized the very fact that he had let the computer choose for him.

"Well don't we look like a motley crew," he said with a beaked smirk. "Thought I'd try a flier... or at least a glider out this time. How 'bout the rest of you?"

[LadyTevar]

Ringtail just stared at the brightly-colored bird... reptile... feathered lizard... thing. "I think it really malfunctioned. You're a MisMatch!" She had been wanting to run off and explore where they'd landed, with the excuse of making sure they were stable, but now....

... now Archon was the center of her attention. He had such pretty feathers. Such... shiny... feathers......... oooooooooo....

It was close enough that she could reach out and start petting the soft, pretty, SHINY, feathers. "Oooooo......"

[General Havoc]

Archon cleared his throat.

"Ahem... I am not a mismatch! I am an Archaeopteryx. The first bird to ever exist, and the link between avian and... reptilian... forms..."

Archon trailed off as Ringtail got that look and started to gently pet his feathers. Archon knew that look a mile away.

"Oh scrap... Ringtail... those er... those are mine."

He started to slowly slide towards the edge of the lift.

[SirNitram]

The last CR chamber opened. The massive form of a wooly mammoth lumbered out, examining it's surroundings, then trying to examine itself.

"...Big enough, I suppose. Took forever to get one big enough." An annoyed grunt from the Prime, as he steadily walked towards the lift. Looks were sent to the others.

"It would seem.. I'm not a passenger anymore. Come on. Best to get a look around for some way to defend this place.. In case the Preds are still around."

[LadyTevar]

"Oh scrap... Ringtail... those er... those are mine."
He started to slowly slide towards the edge of the lift.

"They're pretty..." Ringtail said, all but mesmerized as she followed him. The two animals were built differently, but the Meercat and the Archaeopteryx were roughly the same size. "Pretty... Shiny feathers..."

And that was the point where anyone who'd ever traveled with her before would start to feel very sorry for Archon. What Ringtail found 'Shiny' usually wound up in her quarters as the latest centerpiece of her collection.

[Agent Fisher]

Howl emerged from his CR chamber, walking on all fours down the hall. He spotted the meercat and the bird talking to each other.

"Hey guys." He said, almost bouncing with energy and excitement. "Pretty cool huh?" The wolf asked, spinning around, chasing his tail for a few moments.

[rhoenix]

Watching the others, Wingslip was thankful his own plumage was decidedly more drab than Archon's. Speaking of Archon, his beast form was...a little peculiar. He made a mental note of it, and dismissed it for now.

Walking onto the lift and descending down to the surface with the others, he walked a short distance away, testing out his sensors before clacking his beak with a snap of annoyance. "The ambient energon is affecting my sensors beyond more than a hundred meters or so, just like our comms. I'll have to take a look at that later. For now..."

He walked a short distance away from the others, and unfurled his wings. With a small leap and a sweep of his wings strong enough to create a wind gust, he quickly rose into the air, spiraling upward until he was approximately 90 meters off the ground, beginning to glide around the group in a circle above. He admired the view of this strange, beautiful world, as he looked carefully all around the ship. "It's a strange world alright," he comm'ed back to the others as he searched, "but the view's nice."

[General Havoc]

Archon retreated quickly as Howl providently appeared, now in the form of a Grey Wolf. He darted behind the wolf, trying to avoid Ringtail's acquisitive gaze, but he knew this to be foolish. Ringtail almost never gave up on the object of her collective intentions. All he could do was stall for time and hope something shinier showed up.

"Not er..." he said to Howl, clearly distracted, "not bad. Could certainly come in useful in a fight." he peered over Howl's back at Ringtail. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Maybe she'd find the wolf's coat shiny?

[LadyTevar]

"Hi Howler... you look nice," Ringtail said to the younger 'bot as she walked around him, following Archon's tail. "Isn't Archon just a mismatch of things? Body like lizard... feathers like bird... Bright... pretty feathers....."

And she leaps for the golden tail feathers. "SHINIES!!!"

[General Havoc]

Archon had been moving to try and keep Howler between him and her, but apparently not quick enough. She had lunged at him by surprise, and he froze momentarily, which was just long enough.

"ACK!"

Archon was about the same size as Ringtail, but much of his bulk was feathers and wings, and Ringtail managed to slam into and bowl him over. He landed on the floor of the elevator on his stomach with Ringtail perched triumphantly atop him.

"I need those!" he yelped in way of protest, not that it would do much good. Honestly he wasn't even sure if he did need them, but he had to make SOME kind of attempt.

[Agent Fisher]

Howler stopped chasing his own tail, backing up with Archon, trying to back up from the meercat. "I think he's fine, not really a mismatch..." He trailed off, watching Ringtail tackle Archon. "Hey, he might actually need those." He said then stopped, deciding not to get involved for fear that the excitable meercat might take an interest in him.

[LadyTevar]

*Poink!*

One of the golden tailfeathers came free in her nimble little paws, and Ringtail bounced up and off of Archon, grinning wildly at the shiny feather.