Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.
Note: This story takes place shortly after "Transmetal Madness".
Stasis
By TVfan
The Ark
Rapther sat quietly at her monitoring station that she had been assigned to for the night. Nothing much had been going on. The madness concerning the transmetal driver was over and both the Maximals and Predicons had moved on to the seemingly boring activity of their patrols. That left the transmetal female the freedom to ponder on things.
"What'cha thinkin' about?" Rattrap asked from the other station nearby.
"Nothing important," Rapther sighed back.
"I do that most of the time," Rattrap answered, "I doubt you're doing that."
The female raptor sighed again, "Well, if you must know, I was wondering about what we are going to do now."
"We fight Megatron, that's what," Rattrap answered simply.
"Yes, we will be doing that," Rapther nodded, "But what about the Axalon's stasis pods? Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, Inferno, Quickstrike, the new Terrorsaur, the new Scorpinok, and I were activated from them. How many of them are left, and where are they?"
Rattrap paused, "Well that certainly ain't unimportant. Unfortunately, I don't know."
"I guess it'll be something I have to bring up in the next strategy meeting," Rapther commented before returning her attention to the screens in front of her.
The next morning, the Maximals and Blackarachnia held their daily strategy meetings. This was usually when Optimus assigned patrols or who had monitor duty.
"First off, did the scanners pick up anything over night?" Optimus asked.
"Just da crickets," Rattrap answered, "Nothing ta get worked up over."
Optimus sighed, "Yes, Megatron is still being quiet. He's got to be planning something."
"We will be ready whenever he tries anything," Silverbolt vowed.
The Maximal commander nodded, "Any new business?"
It was Rapther who motioned for Optimus's attention. The Maximal commander turned his head to listen to what the femmebot wanted to say.
"What about the Axalon's stasis pods?" Rapther asked, "There's got to be more of them out there."
Optimus was quiet for a few seconds. After a short while, the Maximal commander began to answer the femmebot's question.
"I don't think we really know about what happened to them," Optimus sighed, "Megatron launched his massive offensives concerning the time stream and the transmetal driver, we haven't had any time to even consider the crashed stasis pods."
"We might want to take of that now," Rhinox commented, "Megatron hasn't done anything for a while now. Making sure how many pods we've found and how many have been activated and how many are left will be important when the Beast Wars are over."
"But the manifest that shows how many stasis pods were on the Axalon is currently in the Axalon's hard drive," Cheetor pointed out.
"And under water," Optimus sighed.
"Let fishface get it," Rattrap commented pointing to Depthcharge.
"Quit calling me that," Depthcharge growled at the transmetal rat.
"Wouldn't do any good," Rhinox commented, "The water has probably made the entire thing worthless by now anyway."
"If the water made the computer worthless, why did ya send me after Sentinel?" Rattrap demanded in an irritated voice.
"The computer itself is probably fine, but the navigation and manifests for the Axalon were in a section of the bridge that took the most serious damage from the ship's fall from the cliff," Rhinox explained, "The water has likely to caused problems with the electrical circuitry when all the airtight compartments were broken."
"But the computer is still in tact?" Optimus asked.
"Probably, since Sentinel was still in tact when Megatron stole it," Rhinox sighed, "But whoever tries to recover it is likely to be electrocuted trying to get it."
"Let's not do that," Cheetor commented.
"We'll just have to do some estimates then," Optimus sighed, "Can you get started on that, Rhinox?"
Rhinox nodded, "I should have everything calculated by this evening."
"What about dealing with Megatron?" Dinobot growled from his end of the table, "He is surely not to let the Ark go unmolested if we go on some search for the pods."
"They're Maximals, Dinobot," Rapther argued firmly, "We can not let them be captured by the Predicons or activate and leave them alone on a strange planet."
"Then we should worry about activating them after Megatron has been defeated," Dinobot retorted, "If we're scouring the globe for stasis pods, he could either attack the defenseless Ark, or attack us one by one. He has Sentinel and the program is working."
"I agree with the male Predicon on this," Depthcharge spoke up, "Let's beat Megatron and take care of 'X' first. It'll make things a lot easier."
"What if Megatron decides to hunt down the stasis pods himself?" Silverbolt asked.
"Dealing with that will be for a later meeting, after Rhinox has completed all the estimates that we will need," Optimus sighed, "Until then, it would be safest to keep up our patrol and monitoring activities and wait for Megatron to make the first move."
Predicon Base
Megatron paced inside his private office inside the Predicon base. The Predicon tyrant was still furious over his recent defeat concerning the transmetal driver. Yes he gained two new Predicons, and mad Waspinator and Inferno transmetal twos, but Dinobot, Cheetor, and Blackarachnia had also become transmetal twos and the transmetal driver had been lost to him. The device was somewhere inside the Ark now, and he knew that he couldn't assault the ship directly, without risking damage to not only the original Autobots but the Decepticons that were also in the ship.
It was the fact that he could not directly attack the Ark that frustrated the Predicon tyrant the most. It had produced a stalemate that would not bode well for him the longer it went on. Cybertron would never give up the hunt for Optimus Primal until they either found the missing Maximal or found proof that he had been terminated. In the meantime, there had been nothing that might help Megatron win the war against the Maximals. No new alien device. No recently discovered stasis pod, although none of the Predicons had been sent beyond areas that they had routinely patrolled earlier in the conflict.
Megatron was meanwhile left trying to think of something that could help him win the war with the Maximals.
"It's the Ark," Megatron growled to himself, "I've got to find a way to get them out of there."
Megatron continued his pacing as his thoughts continued.
"Of course, they won't leave if there is no reason to leave," Megatron thought, "And the Ark and specifically the destruction of Optimus Prime and the ancient Autobots was one of my primary goals. This means there is very little that I can do that would make them want to leave."
Megatron then continued pacing for a few moments before he suddenly stopped and snapped his fingers.
"That's it!" Megatron announced triumphantly, and pressed a nearby intercom button, "Ravage, call everyone in from their patrols. I have figured out our next plan."
"Very well sir," Ravage answered over the intercom.
Elsewhere
"You know, thinking about what Rapther said earlier has made me kind of curious," Silverbolt commented as he and Blackarachnia made their way along their patrol area.
"Oh not you too!" Blackarachnia sighed, "The last thing I need is more goody-goody Maximals to have around."
"Would you rather have several new Predicons that are all loyal to Megatron?" Silverbolt asked back.
Blackarachnia sighed, knowing that he'd have her beat there. After a short silence, she did speak up.
"We've looked all over the areas in this area," Blackarachnia commented, "If we go out looking for stasis pods we will be spreading ourselves out pretty thin and looking around the entire globe. That'll make finding the pods pretty difficult, and if Megatron isn't looking for them, it'll put us in a pretty dangerous position."
"In trouble if we undertake the quest," Silverbolt mused, "In trouble if we don't. It doesn't look like we have much of a chance of avoiding a risk."
"So what do you think we should do?" Blackarachnia asked.
"Right now, I'd tend to agree with Rapther," Silverbolt answered, "We ought to find the stasis pods now, before it's time to return to Cybertron. We're more likely to miss one if we wait till it's time to return home to start looking. Especially if we have to go around the planet."
"You're practicing that 'knight in shining armor' routine again," Blackarachnia commented.
"And who said being a knight was a bad thing?" Silverbolt questioned, "It gives one purpose."
"So you believe your purpose should be to activate every little stasis pod that we haven't found yet?" Blackarachnia questioned.
"At the moment," Silverbolt answered slowly, "Yes."
Blackarachnia sighed and followed him on his patrol.
"I can remember how many stasis pods were on the Axalon," Cheetor commented as he Rattrap made their way along the cliffs near where the old Maximal base had been.
"Dat is why we aren't doing the calculations," Rattrap answered him as he flicked a small rock down and listened to the splash as it hit the river water below them.
"Hope we can find them quickly," Cheetor sighed, "I wouldn't want to be out there alone and simply waiting to be activated."
"They ain't aware of how long they're in the pod, kid," Rattrap answered, "Besides, why would you want to find them quickly? Anxious to come back here and see nothing?"
"I'm not a kid," Cheetor growled back, "And Megatron could try something while we're out rescuing the stasis pods. That's why I want this to be a short mission."
The transmetal two cheetah's response was almost enough to make Rattrap scoot back a bit. Rattrap wasn't about to admit it, but the feline transformer had become slightly irritable at times since he'd become a transmetal two. That was more then enough to make the programmed rat 'instincts' that Rattrap possessed nervous.
"Cyber-puberty," Rattrap muttered as he continued to follow Cheetor, "Either way, ol' buddy, if we do go lookin' for stasis pods, I'd prefer that it take a while. Ya know what I'm sayin'? A nice vacation."
"A vacation?" Cheetor questioned, "You gotta be kidding."
"Yeah a vacation," Rattrap shot back, "The ability to just lie down and say, 'let someone else deal with it'. That's why I can't wait for the Beast Wars to be over."
Predicon Base
"The Beast Wars have currently reached a stalemate," Megatron began as he addressed his followers inside the area that had been the bridge of his ship, "Sentinel makes it impossible for the Maximals to simply try an assault against our positions here while the risk of damaging the Ancient Decepticons prevents us from assaulting the Ark."
The other Predicons watched on in silence as Megatron continued to explain his latest scheme.
"Since we have not found any new alien devices that could help us in our struggle and have lost the Golden Disks, which prevent us from knowing of the existence of others," Megatron continued, "We must take new tactics to win the current war with Optimus Primal."
"This better involve killing something," Rampage growled from his position, "You've lead us to defeat too much."
Megatron scowled at the transmetal crab, and then turned to Terrorsaur. The new Predicon opened a chest compartment and squeezed his own spark with a cruel smile. Megatron stifled a laugh as he watched Rampage cringe with pain at his feet.
"Do not challenge me," Megatron growled at the crab, "Now, as I was saying, our bases are protected by measures that neither I nor Optimus can overcome without taking serious risk. We can not risk damaging or destroying the Ancient Decepticons while Optimus can not jeopardize his mission when he interfered with my plans, beginning the Beast Wars. He wants to take us alive."
Megatron then paused for a moment and then began again, "But the Beast Wars will be ours, yes. We must lay siege to the Ark."
"What?" Ravage gasped, "You just admitted we couldn't assault the Ark and now you want to lay siege to it?"
Megatron turned to face the black panther transformer as Ravage continued.
"Wouldn't laying siege to the ship also risk damaging the Ancient Decepticons?" Ravage questioned.
"The siege will only be a diversion," Megatron explained, "Our shots will be aimed mostly at he ground around the Ark, but close enough to make Optimus think we're aiming for the ship. He will then send out his Maximals to take out our positions. We will in turn destroy them as they come out to challenge us."
"The Ark is out of the range of the Darkside's guns," Tarantulus pointed out.
"We can either move the guns we have or manufacture new cannons that have an extended range," Megatron explained, "We have the ability to power them. That is not the problem, no. The problem is in the manpower."
"We are all the Predicons on this planet," Rampage pointed out, "What do you plan to do? Hire those little organic apes?"
Megatron frowned and Terrorsaur tortured Rampage once again by applying pressure to his spark.
"No," Megatron said firmly, "The key to solving the manpower problem is from our first victory in the war. The shooting down of the Axalon."
"Axalon shot Darkside down too," Waspinator commented.
"Yes," Megatron nodded, "But the Axalon was carrying stasis pods and jettisoned them all. Thanks to the alien's first attack and the resulting quantum surge, all of the stasis pods are now on Earth. All we have to do is find them and reprogram them."
"What of the Maximals, royalty?" Inferno asked.
"They are of no major concern," Megatron waved them off, "For the moment. Your primary objective is to find and activate as many stasis pods as possible. Even if it means going around the globe to find them. It will lull the Maximals into a false sense of security."
"I'd best get to work then," Ravage commented, knowing the story of how the Predicons had detected the pod that resulted in the activation of Rapther.
Ravage knew that the Maximals had received a lucky break when Dinobot had stumbled across Rampage activating the pod, and knew that the Maximals lacked the technology to really track down the remaining pods, even if Blackarachnia shared the same story with the Maximals as Megatron had shared with him. Even if Megatron's idea of a 'fake' siege wouldn't work, searching out the other stasis pods would increase the Predicon forces and give Megatron a better chance at winning the Beast Wars.
The Ark
It was well after dark when Rhinox had finished all the calculations involving the Axalon's stasis pods. Optimus had been sure to make sure that all the Maximal's patrol groups returned to the Ark when the sun had set. Once again, the Maximals and Blackarachnia gathered in a large room that they had decided to use as a conference room.
"I've finished all the calculations required to know the scope of the mission we will eventually have to face concerning the Axalon's remaining stasis pods," Rhinox announced as all the Maximals gathered inside the room.
"So what do you have?" Optimus asked.
"Well," Rhinox began, "As we know, the Axalon was a Skybox Class Exploration ship. We were actually on a deep space exploration mission when we learned that Megatron stole the Golden Disks."
Rhinox glanced at all the original Maximals, to get nods of agreement and remembering the original mission that the Axalon had sent on. Rhinox then looked down toward several datapads that sat at his end of the table and then looked up again.
"Please keep in mind that these are only estimates, since we can not get the Axalon's manifests," Rhinox sighed, "Okay, the maximum number of stasis pods that a Skybox Class ship can carry is known to be one hundred. Of these hundred, it is common that half of the protoforms are actually blanks, having no spark. Now, not all ships carry stasis pods with blank protoforms, but the Axalon for obvious reasons wasn't one of those ships, so we must assume there were fifty blanks and fifty active pods launched when we were forced to crash land the Axalon."
"Why that many blanks?" Cheetor asked, "Did the bots who wrote the manual expect a lot of incidents like the one Optimus got into when he destroyed the alien 'death ray'?"
"Situations where a transformer is seriously damaged and his body can not be repaired by the CR chambers and must have his spark transferred to a new body is actually quite rare," Rhinox answered, "The use of blanks is mostly an alternate method of producing new transformers."
"Alternate?" Silverbolt asked, his own curiosity awakened.
"Traditional Cybertronian 'reproduction' involves the activation of a spark and specialized manufacturing of a body on Cybertron or on a world directly controlled by either Maximals or Predicons," Rhinox explained, "The problem is that Cybertron maintains several different colonies or outposts on planets that it does not control. And since the 'factories' required to build the body and the link to the Oracle and Matrix to activate a new spark take time, colony populations remained relatively static until the present transformers could finish constructing the devices."
Rhinox paused for a moment before continuing, "Then thirty years after the Great War ended, science advanced. Modern protoform technology was invented, which didn't require a massive factory to build a body, especially since it doesn't take much to manufacture the various pieces of nanotechnology that make up a protoform. This reduced the amount of work that needed to be done on colony planets. This wasn't the only development to occur."
Rhinox sighed before continuing, "About fifty years after protoform technology, a certain discovery on an obscure Maximal colony changed all thoughts about how and where new transformers can come from."
"What?" Cheetor asked.
"Didn't ya pay attention in Cybeology class, kid?" Rattrap taunted, "He's gettin' ta the Fertex discovery."
Rhinox nodded, "Fertex was a Maximal leader and very much in love with a femmebot that lived in the same colony. About three months after their joining, Fertex and his partner appeared at the protoform 'factory' requesting a protoform be made for immediate joining with a spark. This confused the workers since they weren't to begin doing this until after the link with Matrix and Oracle had been completed, but then to their further surprise, Fertex's partner produced an active spark from a specialized chamber that she had been carrying with her."
Rhinox then glanced at Optimus for a moment, and continued, "The workers completed the requested protoform, on the condition that the spark and the resulting transformer could be analyzed. As a result, they learned the transformer had physical similarities to both Fertex and his partner, and his spark had energy signatures to that of Fertex and his partner. This led to a further investigation of all Cybertronians, especially since the studies with Fertex showed that spark that his partner produced was 'descended' from Fertex and his partner."
Rhinox sighed again, "The research discovered that male and female Cybertronians have the ability to produce a spark on their own, which means that a 'link' with the Matrix and Oracle are not entirely necessary."
"Showing why there are bots and femmebots," Blackarachnia commented, "What does that have to do with our CURRENT situation?"
"I was merely answering a question," Rhinox sighed.
"It's off topic," Dinobot growled, "What is our strategy?"
"Rhinox hasn't given all of the information given the situation concerning the Axalon's stasis pods," Optimus said firmly, "Let him explain."
"Back to the subject at hand," Rhinox sighed, "When the Axalon crash landed, we left at most one hundred stasis pods, with at most fifty blanks and fifty active protoforms. Here is a list of the known active protoforms that were activated. Tigatron, Airazor, Silverbolt, and Rapther were all activated as Maximals. Blackarachnia, Inferno, Quickstrike, and Rampage."
Rhinox then picked up another datapad, "Of the blank protoforms that have been activated, we used one to transfer Optimus's spark from the location that the transwarp explosion had sent it to bring Optimus back and Megatron used two to activate the new Terrorsaur and Scorpinok. That makes eleven total stasis pods activated, mostly active protoforms. There should be forty two active protoforms left and forty seven blank protoforms left. All of which are scattered about the planet."
"I'm going to assume that since we're still talking about this, our next goal is to retrieve those pods," Blackarachnia commented, "Do you know how to find them? It could take years with all of us searching aimlessly."
"I was actually hoping you could answer that question," Rhinox sighed, "After Rampage's pod was found, we suddenly lost all radio signals from all of the stasis pods that landed on Earth."
"We first assumed that all the protoforms had been worn out from either exposure to the quantum surge or nearby energon," Optimus commented, "But, then Dinobot discovered Rampage trying to activate Rapther's pod."
"You guys didn't detect the pod's radio signal?" Blackarachnia asked.
"No," Optimus sighed, "Dinobot only found and activated Rapther because he happened to be in the area."
"Now that's strange," Blackarachnia said, "I was on monitoring duty on the Darkside at that time. I picked up an obscure radio transmission coming from a jungle region, not too far away from where the Axalon was. After analyzing the signal, I found out that it was in fact a stasis pod, but I still couldn't explain why you didn't have at least three Maximals around the pod."
"What was the radio signal's frequency?" Rhinox asked.
"I can't remember the exact number, but I do know the signal was somewhat weak and the pulse was very slow," Blackarachnia answered.
Rhinox made an 'um-hm' noise and began to look at his datapads.
"What is it, Rhinox?" Optimus asked.
"Nothing," Rhinox answered, "The stasis pods have only moved on to their chief security program. The radio signal automatically changed after they hadn't been activated after a certain time, to make sure that someone who wasn't looking for them wouldn't stumble upon them and take the pod with them."
"That will make the job easier then," Cheetor said hopefully, "Just run a scan on that radio frequency and we'll know the location of the pods."
"It's not that easy," Rhinox sighed, "the Ark has the power to scan the globe, but it can not pick up the radio signals that the stasis pods are now using. Its technology is simply too old for that."
"Prime," Optimus sighed.
"All the more reason to focus on defeating Megatron, first," Dinobot growled, "And worry about the pods later."
"But the protoforms in those pods are other warriors too," Rapther argued, "We can't let them just lay out there alone and vulnerable to Megatron."
"We don't know Megatron is looking for them," Depthcharge pointed out, "I'm with the Predicon on this one. It's a diversion. I would much rather be hunting down 'X' then these protoforms."
"On top of it," Blackarachnia added, "Megatron has Sentinel. He'll know if we leave the Ark and he'll have a fairly good idea as to where we're going. If he believes the Ark to be lightly defended, he'll assault it in full force once all the search parties are far enough away and try to kill Optimus Prime again."
"Which we can not allow," Optimus sighed and then turned to Rhinox, "Is there anyway you could rig some small tracking device that could pick up the radio signal from the stasis pods?"
"I could," Rhinox sighed, "But I think we only have enough raw materials around here for two or three, and they'll take time to manufacture."
Optimus sighed and then looked down at the table, deep in thought. After a few moments, Optimus decided to voice his decision.
"Knowing the importance of protecting the Ark, we can not allow it to be lightly defended," Optimus sighed, "but Rapther's point is also valid. Those are Maximal stasis pods out there, and they shouldn't have to be vulnerable to discovery by the Predicons. Especially since Megatron may decide that he can only achieve victory through numbers and may begin his own search."
Optimus sighed as he watched Dinobot and Depthcharge both frown.
"Since we only have the abilities to make a small number of tracers, only three Maximals will go out to look for the stasis pods," Optimus said firmly, "Silverbolt, Depthcharge, and Cheetor, recovering the pods will be your job. Cheetor can run faster then any other transformer here. Silverbolt and Depthcharge's ability to fly will enable them to cover more ground faster. Depthcharge's ability to go underwater will also help in recovering any pods that went under water. The rest of us will remain close to the Ark and make sure that Megatron doesn't try anything to attack it."
"I'd better get to work on the tracers," Rhinox commented as he got up and headed for his own private lab that he had set up.
"You'll head out on the mission once the tracer's are ready," Optimus spoke to Silverbolt, Depthcharge, and Cheetor.
Predicon Base
"I've completed the scan along the radio frequency that Blackarachnia found when Rapther's pod was discovered," Ravage commented, "The total number of signals matches the number that you predicted."
Megatron smiled and took the datapads that Ravage handed him. He looked at each, chuckling as he did so.
"I should have thought of this a long time ago," Megatron laughed, "Since the Maximals have made no effort to recover their lost stasis pods, we will soon have quite an army, yes."
"Yes," Ravage nodded, "I have also marked the locations on a map of the planet. Everything is ready."
"Excellent," Megatron smiled and then turned to the other Predicons who were standing behind him, "You will all divide into teams of two to begin hunting down the stasis pods. If you run into any Maximals while you're out, destroy them."
Inferno took one and left with Waspinator following closely behind. Terrorsaur took one and lead Rampage out, while Scorpinok took one and lead Tarantulus out.
"I seem ta be the only one left," Quickstrike commented, seeing that there was no one else around, "Unless Ravage is going."
"You will be coming with me," Megatron informed the smaller fuzor, "Ravage will remain here to guard the base and keep Sentinel running."
"Okay, boss," Quickstrike answered, sounding excited to be going somewhere, "Let's go!"
The fuzor then scuttled as quickly as he could and in a very excited manner. Megatron only followed in a slow and patient pace.
Far Away
"Their war continues," an echoing voice spoke over through what looked like a massive nebula, "And continues to change the future as we planned it."
"The Transmetal Driver was not intended for Megatron and his forces," another added, "Or his Maximal enemies."
"We may need to intervene directly in their conflict and bring it to an end," the first said firmly.
"Megatron's base will be easy to destroy," the second agreed, "But the Ark can not be attacked. We will need to destroy the Maximals outside their base."
"We'll need an army for that," the first pointed out.
"The Maximals's own stasis pods will serve that purpose," the second said confidently as a small orb of some energy came and floated out above the nebula, "It will bond with one of the their pods and will raise the army that will defeat our enemies."
The orb then began flying away from where the two voices where speaking.
"Then we will need to begin work on the army's leader," the first voice said in a confident voice.
To be Continued…