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 "Divided".
Deep Trouble
By TVfan
Space
A small Maximal spacecraft zoomed at light speed with its transwarp drive, and heading toward a certain goal that the single pilot of the ship had.
"I will find you, X," the transformer growled, "And when I do, you better hope your death is quick!"
Sensor alarms then rang out all over the ship's control panel and the transformer hurried to try and determine the problem. It turned out to be a quantum surge going through space.
"Slag," the transformer cursed as the ship hit the quantum surge head on.
Secret Predicon Lab, Earth
Megatron lightly whistled as he set the two blank pods into a prepared position and began connecting various wires to them.
"How do you plan to activate them?" Ravage asked.
Megatron chuckled, "That will be a matter of time. These pods are blanks, so there is no need to activate them, especially since the energon levels on this planet were destroyed by the aliens. And the stasis field that the sparks I intend to use for these pods will hold indefinitely, I have the luxury to wait until the best possible moment."
"And when is that?" Ravage asked, "Despite losing the Axalon, the Maximals are in a very good position."
"Yes, and that is why my plan must be followed to its conclusion," Megatron finished, "The aliens are the ones who invented the transmetal technology that you and I now use. In the Beast Wars, transmetals were created by accident. But since these aliens invented transmetal technology, that means they must have some sort of driver. I can not activate these pods until I find that driver, if it is on Earth."
"And if it isn't?" Ravage asked.
"I prefer to think optimistically," Megatron answered ignoring Ravage's question, "The driver is here, and eventually my scanners will find it."
"And what is the point of the Axalon?" Ravage asked, "There is nothing there of value and the Maximals have moved to the Ark."
"There is Sentinel," Megatron answered, "The Axalon's shield and defense system. With it, the Predicon base will be unconquerable."
"Unless the Maximals manage to defeat their own shield," Ravage warned.
"True," Megatron admitted as he finished his work and shifted to his beast mode and prepared to fly out of the mountain cave that the lab had been set up in, "But the Maximals merely wish to capture us, and there is our advantage. They are less likely to attack our base if we have Sentinel."
"So that is why Rampage and Inferno have been sent to the Axalon's location?" Ravage asked as the transmetal panther shifted to his own beast mode and rocketed off after Megatron.
"Precisely," Megatron smiled.
The Ark
"If you'll excuse me for askin'," Rattrap began, "But what is the importance of the Axalon now that Megs has sunk it?"
"Sentinel," Optimus Primal answered with a sigh, "Rhinox has done a lot of work to get the Ark up and running again, but he's still having trouble with the defense systems. We need Sentinel, just incase the Ark's defense systems can't be brought online."
"And Megatron is likely to make his own attempt to recover the system as well," Dinobot snarled, "We can not allow him to recover it… or…"
"What are you getting at Dinobot?" Optimus asked.
"We could destroy Megatron's base while he recovers Sentinel," Dinobot offered, "Yes he'd have Sentinel, but it would be useless to him."
"No," Optimus said firmly, "Megatron would only destroy Sentinel to make sure we couldn't liberate it and use it on the Ark. Blackarachnia will build the submersible. Rattrap, you, will pilot it to the wreckage of the Axalon and recover Sentinel. That is final."
Optimus then left the room, giving Dinobot or Rattrap no room to argue.
Meanwhile, Rhinox was busy with work relating to the Ark's computers when a sensor warning went off.
"Warning," the computerized voice announced, "Unknown object beginning planet fall."
"What in the world?" Rhinox asked to himself as he left his work to inspect what was going on.
Rhinox walked over to the scanning console to see what the scanners had detected.
"What is it?" Optimus asked coming into the bridge.
"The scanners have picked up something coming in from space," Rhinox answered.
"Alien?" Optimus questioned.
"No," Rhinox answered, "But I haven't got the computer systems entirely up to date, so that's about all I can tell you."
"Any chance of it being a stasis pod?" Optimus asked.
"No," Rhinox shook his head, "They all crashed to Earth when the aliens tried to kill all of us, but then you remember that."
Optimus nodded, "Prime. As if we're not going to be extended enough trying to recover Sentinel. Where's it headed."
"Again, I haven't got everything up and running yet, so I can't be sure," Rhinox began, "But my best guess is somewhere in the ocean to the south of this continent."
"There are some islands out there according to the maps that were on the Axalon," Optimus mused, "Maybe it will land there. Cheetor can investigate that while the others recover Sentinel."
The Former Site of the Axalon
Inferno was the first to move out into the area where the Axalon used to stand.
"Hurry up, you," Inferno yelled back, "We must secure the shield to protect the colony."
Rampage walked out in robot mode rather casually, not really caring about Megatron's plans for Sentinel.
"You know, if it weren't for Megatron's little Energon cage, I'd kill you, right?" Rampage growled at the insane ant.
"I'm not afraid of you!" Inferno answered, "The royalty commanded that we retrieve the shield. We will retrieve the shield."
Rampage sighed and walked over to the cliff that stood over the river that the Axalon fell into. Once the crab reached the edge he turned back to look at Inferno.
"You know," Rampage muttered, "I don't even know why you're here. I'm the only transformer that can go underwater."
Just at that moment, a small spacecraft flew over them at high speed, heading in a southward direction. The craft looked to be on fire from passing through the Earth's atmosphere.
"What the devil was that?" Rampage mused out loud.
"A meteor," Inferno shrugged, "Retrieve the shield."
"That thing had an engine, you idiot," Rampage growled back.
"I will report this to the Royalty," Inferno replied, "You recover the shield."
Rampage sighed angrily and dove off into the water.
Predicon Base
"It crashed here," Tarantulus reported pointing to a spot on a holographic map, "There's no way to tell if it was Maximal or Predicon, but the energy signature was definitely Cybertronian."
"Inferno and Rampage are the closest units and you have Waspinator searching for any other stasis pods in Sector Helix," Ravage added.
"Royalty!" came Inferno's voice over the radio.
Megatron decided to answer radio message, "Yes. What is it?"
"A meteor with an engine just flew over our position here," Inferno reported while Tarantulus smacked his head with his hand.
"Has Rampage recovered Sentinel yet?" Megatron demanded.
"Not yet, Royalty," Inferno answered.
Megatron sighed before speaking again, "Very well. I'm giving you a new mission. You are to join with Waspinator and head south from your current position. I want you to investigate what that 'meteor' you saw was."
"At once, my Queen," Inferno replied over the radio.
"I wish he'd quit calling me that," Megatron sighed as the radio went dead ending the transmission.
Elsewhere
Optimus set the submersible down in the water while Rattrap and Blackarachnia waited to move on to the next phase. They were upstream from where the Axalon used to stand, because it was unlikely that the submersible would have survived if it had been dropped from the cliff. Once it was in the water, Blackarachnia began to go over a check list of different devices that need to be checked. Rattrap meanwhile clambered toward the pilot's seat.
"You did make sure this thing doesn't leak?" Rattrap demanded toward the female spider.
"I knew I forgot something," Blackarachnia smirked.
It took a short while for Rattrap to figure out that she was joking before he muttered something under his breath and pulled the hatch shut. Optimus meanwhile looked up to see a small spaceship fly over his head, and he immediately activated his radio.
"Optimus to Cheetor," Optimus spoke clearly, "The spacecraft that Rhinox detected earlier just flew over our location. Get ready. It's headed south!"
After Cheetor gave his affirmative, Optimus turned to Blackarachnia and motioned to the submersible that Rattrap was already taking down the river.
"Can he defend himself if he's attacked?" Optimus asked, "We have no transformers that can work underwater. That's why we're using the submersible."
"It has weaponry," Blackarachnia nodded, "I don't know if it can damage Rampage, since you guys didn't give me the time to test some of this stuff."
"We don't have the time," Optimus said firmly.
"I'm not complaining," Blackarachnia answered, "I'm going back to base. See what Silverbolt is up to."
The Spacecraft
The transformer inside the ship came back online very weakly. The last thing it remembered was hitting the quantum surge right after he had entered the codes for his ship's transwarp jump. Looking out the window, he found that his ship had crashed in a watery environment as the glass was already cracking under the water pressure and he could hear water leaking into the ship elsewhere. Quickly moving to the computers he quickly punched in a series of command codes he would need to survive when the water pressure finally broke his ship's outer hull.
"DNA and replication scan process, beginning," the computer announced in its computerized voice.
Above, Cheetor circled around a cluster of islands looking for any sign of the ship. Possible wreckage in the water or an impact crater to indicate where the ship had landed if it had landed on one of the islands.
"Come on, it's got to be around here somewhere," Cheetor growled to himself in frustration.
"You won't find it!" came a confident voice from behind him.
Cheetor turned his head to see Inferno in robot mode and Waspinator in beast mode coming down on him from above.
"For the glory of the Royalty!" Inferno announced as he began firing at Cheetor with his blaster.
Waspinator transformed behind him and added his firepower to the battle. Inferno's first three shots hit Cheetor in the side, and Waspinator's first shot hit his neck. The resulting blast sent the transmetal cheetah reeling. Quickly recovering, Cheetor made a desperate effort to get to the ground on a nearby island. Inferno and Waspinator did little real damage to his transmetal body, but he had no weapons in beast mode and he couldn't fly in robot mode. He had to land.
Waspinator and Inferno circled behind Cheetor, firing at the retreating Maximal as they did so. Cheetor managed to dodge most of the Predicon's shots, but finally, one of Inferno's shots hit and destroyed one of his engines. Cheetor, shocked by the sudden loss of power, lost control of his flight and plummeted toward the earth.
"We have you now!" Inferno smirked as Cheetor crashed into the sandy beach of an island.
The two Predicons then dove down on Cheetor as he scrambled to get into his robot mode. He'd just finished transforming when a shot from Inferno and a shot from Waspinator hit him in the chest, knocking him backward into a rock cliff that was near the beach.
The River
Rattrap carefully maneuvered the submersible up the river that had been carving a canyon out of the rock. The water was dark and the transmetal rat had to rely on lights that were attacked to the exterior of the submersible to even see. He had slowly maneuvered the submersible to the bottom of the river, since the Axalon was likely to have sunk all the way to the bottom.
Rampage meanwhile, had swum all the way to the bottom. Having the form of a crab for his beast mode, Rampage could see very easily underwater and had already found the hulk of the old Maximal base. Large sections of the ship's hull had been ripped away by rock when it had fallen off its cliff top perch. Walking easily onto the former bridge of the ship, Rampage spent a few minutes searching he found a computer panel that bore the Maximal insignia and the word 'sentinel' printed in all capitol letters on it.
"This is too easy," Rampage laughed to himself as he ripped the panel out of the housing.
Rampage emerged from the hulk of the Axalon to see the lights of Rattrap's submersible getting closer.
"This will be interesting," Rampage chuckled.
Rattrap felt the entire submersible shudder as a torpedo exploded above him. The transmetal scrambled to find the weapons trigger that Blackarachnia had installed in the submersible. Pressing it, Rattrap watched as a torpedo shout from the submersible toward where the torpedo came from.
"Rattrap to Optimus, come in," Rattrap yelled into his own radio as he saw the torpedo explode ahead of him.
"Optimus here, have you located Sentinel yet?" Optimus replied.
"No, but I did find trouble real easy for ya!" Rattrap answered as he caught sight of another torpedo coming at the submersible, "I'm under attack."
Rattrap managed to avoid being hit by the torpedo, but the tightness of his turn combined with the shockwave from the torpedo's explosion, the submersible was knocked into river bank that made up the side of the cliff. Many of the finer computer systems then promptly went offline with the impact against the rock. He fired of another torpedo, hoping he was hitting whatever was attacking him, he assumed it was Rampage.
"Can you get to the Axalon?" Optimus asked over the radio.
Rattrap managed to get the damaged submersible to dodge another shot fired at him by Rampage.
"I don't think so," Rattrap answered, firing another shot in return to Rampage's shot.
He heard Optimus sigh heavily over the radio, "Surface and come back to my position. I can cover you from the air."
"Rampage won't need to surface to fire on me," Rattrap reminded his commander.
He heard Optimus mutter something about cursing the ocean.
"Don't worry, Boss Monkey," Rattrap comforted as he turned the submersible around and speed back up the river, "No one needs to tell this rat how to escape a sinking ship!"
"Running away?" Rampage growled as he saw the submersible turn away and begin to go back up the river, "Too bad!"
Rampage began following the submersible in his vehicle mode firing a torpedo at the sub as it went. The pilot that Maximals had chosen had to be decent, since most of Rampage's shots succeeded in only rattling the vehicle. The transmetal crab did not give up however and he continued to pursue the craft.
Rattrap swore the entire way back toward where Optimus was waiting for him. Without the finer pieces of computer technology working, Rattrap found navigating the trench that canyon was to be far more difficult, and Rampage's fire didn't help much. As he finally got the submersible back to where it could be beached, Rattrap slowed the vessel to a stop in the shallows and opened the top hatch.
Rampage had to restrain himself from laughing as he watched the craft slow to a complete stop ahead of him. Yes the river was shallow there, and the pilot could escape the craft, but he could still fire on it from where he was, and it was deep enough to keep the Maximals from returning fire. Slowly he pulled the trigger that fired another torpedo.
Rattrap had just gotten out of the submersible as the torpedo got close. The transmetal rat was surprised by the sudden explosion and knocked face first into the water, while Optimus lifted an arm to shield himself from the flying debris and water.
"Rattrap, are you alright?" Optimus inquired.
Rattrap stood up out of the water, spitting the water out his mouth, and answered angrily, "Sure. I'm just peachy!"
Optimus only sighed and then said weakly, "Hopefully Cheetor's having more luck with whatever that ship was."
The Island
Cheetor was trapped by Inferno and Waspinator against the cliff of the island that he had crashed on. Their fire was so intense that unless he found cover or help soon, he wouldn't be able to do much more than dodge their fire.
"You will burn, Maximal!" Inferno gloated as he continued firing.
The insane ant was then started by a new voice coming from behind him.
"Unlikely, Predicon."
Inferno and Waspinator turned to see a transmetal manta ray hovering behind them. It was mostly blue in color but there were hints of purple and silver in its armor.
"Fish can not fly," Waspinator exclaimed.
"I'm not a fish," the transformer answered, "Depthcharge, Maximize!"
Cheetor watched as the transformer shifted to its robot mode and pulled a large gun that looked like a shark out.
"You make me sick," Depthcharge growled at Inferno and fired.
The shot took out both Predicons and they crashed somewhere on the island behind Cheetor. Depthcharge then moved to land next to Cheetor.
"How are you, kid," Depthcharge questioned.
Cheetor inwardly flinched at the work 'kid', but answered, "I'm fine."
"I am to assume there is a Maximal colony here?" Depthcharge continued.
"No actually," Cheetor answered, "It's sort of a long story if you could come back to base with me."
"I might as well," Depthcharge answered, half to himself, "Let the commander know I'm here. Lead the way. Now."
Depthcharge moved to fly off, but turned after hearing a slight coughing sound to see the other Maximal standing there.
"I can only fly in my beast mode, and that was disabled before you arrived," Cheetor explained, "If you wouldn't mind giving me a lift?"
Depthcharge gave an angered groan but relented. Grabbing Cheetor by the shoulder, he flew off toward the continent to the north. It took Depthcharge about five minutes to reach the continent, but once he did he dumped the transmetal cheetah unceremoniously onto the ground.
"We will walk from here," Depthcharge said in a commanding voice.
"Okay," Cheetor muttered back, "So what brings you to Earth?"
"This is EARTH!" Depthcharge gasped and then thought to himself, "What in the name of the Matrix is X doing on Earth?"
"Yeah it is," Cheetor nodded, "Megatron came here after he stole the Golden Disks from Cybertron. Our ship followed him here and we've been at war ever since. So, why are you here and where's your ship?"
"I'm here on an extremely important mission from the Maximal elders that's all you need to know," Depthcharge growled back, "As for my ship. It was crushed under water."
The two continued walking in a rather uneasy silence.
The Ark
"Did you get Sentinel?" Rhinox asked as Optimus and Rattrap returned to the Ark.
"Megatron beat us to the punch," Optimus sighed.
"And I got a wetting for good measure," Rattrap added.
Rhinox only let out a depressed sigh, "I'd better get to work then. A Sentinel copy won't invent itself."
"What!" Rattrap gasped, "You could create a copy of Sentinel! And ya got me wet on top of it!"
"Sentinel was one of the most advanced pieces of technology that Cybertron has ever invented, Rattrap," Rhinox answered angrily, "It could identify and report threats. Sentinel can not only tell the difference between Maximals and Predicons, it can also tell the difference between individual transformers, such as you and Optimus. It could tell Cybertronian energy signatures from those of the aliens. Such programming is very complex. If this were Cybertron and I had access to all the proper tools, I would have advised that Megatron be allowed to have the original. We could easily build a new Sentinel on Cybertron and the original would likely to have been damaged. But here, here is a different matter. We don't have the tools or programming necessary to build a new Sentinel. Any copy made will not be as good as the original and will require more work and maintenance to operate. That's why the original was so important. However damaged it was, the original Sentinel would have been far more useful and effective than any copy I could make."
Rattrap quickly backed away from the larger transformer. He wasn't going to fight with Rhinox over the issue.
"If we only had a transformer that could work under water," Optimus intervened, "None of our beast modes can function under water. We may be able to swim, but going underwater is completely out of the question."
It was at that moment that Cheetor returned with Depthcharge close behind. The large manta ray transformer was quiet, while Cheetor announced his return.
"Then fear not, Optimus," Cheetor announced with a half grin on his face, "Meet the pilot of the ship that crashed… Depthcharge."
Optimus turned to see the transmetal manta ray and could only say, "Depthcharge?"
Depthcharge's own optics widened in surprise at the word 'Optimus' and the sound of the large ape transformers voice, but he quickly recovered and growled in a voice that betrayed a lot of anger, "Primal."
"What are you doing here, Depthcharge?" Optimus demanded, "You were assigned, last I knew to guard of Cybertron's colonies."
"I did, until your friend X destroyed it," Depthcharge yelled back.
"Did I miss something?" Cheetor looked up at his commander.
"Years ago the Maximal Elders commissioned the creation of a murder known as Protoform X," Depthcharge growled, "It was done and let lose on Cybertron…"
"We know Rampage's history," Cheetor interrupted, "Why are you fighting with Optimus?"
"You didn't let me finish," Depthcharge scolded, "I saw the damage that this monster did to Cybertron. When X was finally captured I urged the Elders to destroy it and save all of Cybertron from its evil. But Optimus had to save the greatest evil by allowing it to go into exile. Eventually it escaped and destroyed the colony I was guarding. I'm here to rectify the mistakes that…" Depthcharge then pointed an accusing finger at Optimus, "this idiot made. I'm going to destroy X and rid the world of his evil."
"First of all Depthcharge, I did not try to 'save' Rampage," Optimus answered, "Everyone has some amount of good in them. Even him. If we killed him as you suggested, we would have become him and gone against everything that the Maximal faction has stood for."
"Yeah, they stood quite well when Rampage escaped and killed every colonist and left me alive as some sort of cruel joke," Depthcharge snarled, "And why do you keep referring to X as 'Rampage'?"
"Because that is his name," came Dinobot's voice from behind him.
Depthcharge turned to see two raptors standing behind him. One was brown and male. The other was a forest green transmetal female. The female he didn't recognize, but he did recognize the male by its voice. Before anyone could stop them he pulled out his shark blaster.
"Take this Predicon!" Depthcharge roared and blasted Dinobot squarely in the shoulder.
The male raptor was knocked back into a wall and fell offline shortly after.
"Dinobot!" Rapther screamed in surprise looking at her fallen companion and then snarled at the manta ray.
"I got plenty more where that came from," Depthcharge snarled as his weapon reloaded and was aimed at Rapther's head.
Depthcharge didn't get a chance to fire again as a large hand came over his shoulder and crushed his weapon.
"Dinobot is a Maximal," Optimus said coldly.
Depthcharge pointed at the fallen raptor, "That is a Predicon. I read the reports. He is one of the Predicons that stole the Golden Disks! He seriously wounded two of the Maximals that were guarding them!"
"He also defected and recovered the Golden Disks for us," Rapther snarled, bearing her teeth, "And I ought to kill you myself you trigger happy lunatic!"
"You let Predicons into your service now?" Depthcharge roared turning on Optimus, "First you let X live to kill my friends and then you let Predicons join your group! What next? You gonna let Megatron destroy the Ark?"
"Dinobot may not be the traditional Maximal you expect, but he's a Maximal now, nonetheless and has fought bravely for the Maximal cause," Optimus said in an authoritative voice, "If he were a Predicon I would have him locked up to return to Cybertron for trial."
"That's what he is, Primal," Depthcharge growled, "He can't escape his past as a cold blooded murderer as you can't escape being an idiot!"
Optimus glared at him, "I won't stand for this…"
Optimus didn't get much of a chance to finish as Rapther transformed and used her beast mode's tail as a bullwhip and wrapped it around Depthcharge's neck.
"You will take what you said back," Rapther growled, "Dinobot is not a murderer. And no transformer even has blood."
Depthcharge winced in pain from the energy running through Rapther's tail whip. He found it hard to struggle, and if not for Optimus, he might have choked to death.
"Release him Rapther," Optimus ordered, "Depthcharge, I'm going to offer you a choice. You can fight with us against Megatron, or you can continue to fight against us and be imprisoned for treason. If Rampage destroyed the colony you were guarding you should have gone to the Maximal Elders with the issue..."
"I did," Depthcharge interrupted, "And they told me to go somewhere and recover. I will have my revenge on that monster and I will report you to the Elders for letting Predicons join your ranks."
With that Depthcharge abruptly turned, shoved Rapther aside and left the Ark as fast as he could.
"Can you say wako?" Rattrap commented after a short silence.
"Shut up, Rattrap," Optimus groaned.
"We're gonna have to go after him, you know," Rhinox warned, "Rampage's spark can't be killed and you know that Dinobot isn't going to take Depthcharge's assault on his person lightly."
"I know," Optimus sighed, "And with Megatron still out there, this is the last thing that we need."
To Be Continued…