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 immediately after "Rude Homecoming".
Discoveries
By TVfan
Resistance 'Safe House'
Optimus stood with Rhinox and the Resistance leader, Queen, to begin discussing the next major plan of action that needed to be taken.
"You're certain you can undo whatever the Tripredicus Council has done to us?" Queen questioned, somewhat forcefully.
"Fairly certain," Rhinox answered, "All we need to do is gather some basic diagnostic equipment. That should be able to figure out why you can't transform."
"And how do you suppose to power such devices?" Queen demanded, "We can't hack into the power network without the Tripredicus Council finding us, and even if we could do that, they have drones that patrol these sublevels. They'd find us before you would be able to finish. That's why we move from safe house to safe house. It prevents them from finding us."
"Don't you have any ability to hold one position?" Optimus asked.
"For a short while," Queen answered, "but they'd only cut us off from supplies, and we'd have to surrender after awhile."
"We're going to need a base that we can hold permanently," Optimus said firmly, "what do you do if one of your operatives gets damaged that his own body can't repair on its own? At least not easily?"
"We generally avoid such situations," Queen answered, "Hit and run attacks, and so forth. That way we inflict maximum damage with minimum risk."
Both Optimus and Rhinox sighed heavily.
"Is there any place where the Tripredicus Council won't look, or aren't able to look?" Rhinox asked after a few moments.
Queen thought for a moment an then sighed, "the only place that I could think of would be underground, and I'm not referring to these basement levels, but to down until we reach the floor of Cybertron, below our kind's buildings and their basements, and dig out some kind of bunker."
"Then that will be an objective," Optimus stated plainly, "We dig out ourselves a permanent base. Dealing with the power supply necessary to power the devices is a secondary concern."
"Can your followers do that easily?" Queen questioned, "Dig, I mean."
"Some can do that very well through their beast modes, and others will have to manufacture tools to do so, but yes we can," Optimus said, "It should all be very easy."
"And now we have the fate of your prisoners to discuss," Queen spoke in a firm voice, indicating that she wasn't going to allow the Maximal commander to avoid the topic.
"I'd prefer to keep them in their current state," Optimus answered, "Several of them are extremely dangerous, and a few of them are also fanatically loyal to Megatron."
"We need all the troops we can muster to defeat the Tripredicus Council," Queen answered, "and perhaps their 'beast modes' can dig very well. As for Megatron, he can remain a prisoner. The rest will follow me."
"You're certain of that?" Rhinox asked, "Megatron spent most of the Beast Wars looking over his shoulder to make sure they wouldn't turn on him."
"I am the legitimate leader of the Predicons," Queen answered, "they will accept that you won the Beast Wars and now we're fighting together against a much more dangerous foe."
"Legitimate, maybe," Optimus answered, "that doesn't mean that they won't listen to you."
"Then you can keep any and all who refuse to listen," Queen said firmly, "but I'm not about to trust a ragtag group of Maximals to defeat the Tripredicus Council."
Optimus glanced Rhinox and sighed.
"Very well," Optimus sighed, "You may question the Predicons that we captured and see which ones are loyal to Megatron."
"Thank you," Queen answered trying to sound polite.
Queen the very deliberately walked up to the line up of restrained Predicons that had been defeated in the Beast Wars. They were lined up against a wall and under guard by the Maximals on Optimus's side.
"Come to free me have you?" Megatron questioned as she approached.
"Stuff it, traitor," Queen growled, "attention Predicons of Megatron, I am Queen. Leader of the Resistance on Cybertron against the plans of the Tripredicus Council. Megatron is entirely the reason you are in the situation you are in."
"How dare you accuse the royalty!" Inferno roared from his position.
"If anyone here is 'royalty' it is me," Queen answered, "My name shows it."
She then paused for a moment while Optimus and Rhinox came to stand behind her.
"I have worked out a agreement with Optimus Primal, the Maximal commander, and his aide, Rhinox, that could allow your freedom," Queen continued, "with the exception of Megatron who will be tried for treason when this is all over."
"You'll free us?" Terrorsaur asked.
"If you decide to follow me, and allow Megatron to suffer his fate," Queen answered, "If not, you will remain as prisoners of the Maximals for as long as they wish to hold you."
"I will serve you," Spine spoke up as he stepped forward, "I have no wish of being imprisoned."
That brought Jawbreaker forward, and he kneeled before Queen. Stingfin quickly joined him. Terrorsaur took awhile to think it over, but eventually kneeled before Queen as well. Nightwing and Inferno, however, refused to do so.
"I refuse to serve anyone who allows a traitor to the Vok to live," Nightwing vowed.
Queen sighed, remembering what the Maximals had told her about the end of the Beast Wars and the battles involved against the alien Vok.
"Megatron is the true queen! And you will burn for not serving him," Inferno spoke.
Queen looked at Inferno, then at Megatron, and snickered. Megatron only groaned.
"First Waspinator deserts at the end of the Beast Wars and now you all follow the fool," Megatron grumbled, "It'll be a miracle if you all survive."
"It's a miracle you survived, considering your stupid plans," Queen growled back and backhanded Megatron, "Now shut up."
The freed Predicons soon gathered around Queen to wait for instructions.
"What is our mission?" Spine asked.
"Our mission is to dig into the dirt and 'earth' below Cybertron's basement level," Queen told him, "And you will all keep digging until we've dug out a new base to use."
"At once," Terrorsaur answered.
Hours Later
It took time for them to cut and manufacture shovels out of the pipes and pieces of the wall so of various parts of Cybertron's basement levels, but once they did, a spiraling tunnel began to take shape in the center of the safe house area. Most of it was being piled to a side, as Rattrap had come up with an idea to create a trap door for the group to put over their new 'base' when it was all dug out. Meanwhile, the fact that all the work had to be done to construct the base, not everything was calm.
"This whole thing about letting' the Preds go doesn't sit right with me, big bot," Cheetor commented to the Maximal commander.
"It doesn't sit right with me either, Cheetor," Optimus told the transmetal two cheetah, "but we have no choice. I'm not about to put myself under Queen's command and Queen won't put herself under my command. Right now, we need to work together to do things, and she's made it clear that she wouldn't compromise her position on the issue. She wanted any of the Predicons that served Megatron that would swear allegiance to her to do so."
"I know," Cheetor sighed, "but many of these guys were bad news in the Beast Wars. Dinobot and Rapther took heavy damage when they captured Terrorsaur, although Dinobot's was mostly from Scorpinok, but still… they're dangerous. And you have to know that Queen will turn on us the instant the Tripredicus Council is defeated, just like Megatron would."
"It's a risk, but one we have to take," Optimus sighed, "Hopefully the damage that has been done will leave enough work for everyone that Queen won't think to start a fight."
"I hope you're right, big bot," Cheetor told him.
Optimus didn't have time to answer as a sudden cracking noise followed by a terrified scream erupted from the bots digging the tunnel. A pillar of dust soon also rose into the air, and the sound of crashing echoed up to Optimus, Cheetor, and all the other bots who were either guarding the position or observing the digging.
"What in the name of the pit was that?" came Dinobot's growling question, "I heard screaming all the way out in the tunnels."
Others came quickly running to the sight of the noise soon after.
"What's going on?" Queen demanded as she approached.
"Something happened with the digging teams," Optimus answered as he began to make his way down the spiraling tunnel that had been dug so far, and was immensely thankful there was enough room for the tunnel to be dug wide enough so that he could use it, "I'm going down there to find out what."
Optimus and Queen then slowly began their descent toward the sound of the screams, and it did not take them long to figure out what was the cause of them. The tunnelers had hit the roof of a cave, and it wouldn't support their weight. As a result, they had all fallen to the floor of the cave.
"Are you okay?" Optimus called down urgently, hoping no one was injured.
He heard only a groan, and in response, activated his jet boosters and slowly lowered himself to the floor of the cave. He landed next to Rattrap who was trying gather himself back together.
"Are you all okay?" Optimus asked again to the group of fallen transformers.
"Peachy," Rattrap groaned as the group managed to get back to his feet.
The transmetal rat then took his robot mode to look around and gather his surroundings.
"Holy… this is a cave!" Rattrap gasped, astonished by the sight, "Cybertron doesn't have caves!"
"Apparently it does," Snowstalker commented as she got to her feet.
"But then how did it get here?" Rattrap asked, "Cybertron's been a mechanized planet ever since the beginning. How could a cave form?"
"It could be possible that Cybertron was in fact an 'organic' planet before the Matrix created the Cybertron as we know it," Rhinox commented, "No one has come down fare enough to gather any evidence of it."
"So this is ancient history? Going back even before the Decepticons and the Autobots?" Runner asked.
"Has to be," Rhinox answered, "there is no other logical explanation."
"Whatever the explanation," Queen commented as she jumped down into the cave, "this does reduce the work we have to do. The 'base' part of our base already exists. Now we can build the trap door to hide it."
"Just one problem with that," Rattrap commented, "How the hell are to get back up to the top there? We kinda fell into the cave, not came in through the side wall!"
"We have flyers," Queen shrugged it off.
"Wouldn't be enough," Rhinox told her, "We'll either need to construct a staircase or a ladder leading to the spiral ramp we've already dug out."
Optimus nodded, "If we rely only on our flyers it would be easy for the Tripredicus Council to trap us down here by focusing on them. At least with a staircase, we can all counter attack."
"Very well," Queen responded, "So what do you plan to do?"
"Having the flyers scavenge metal parts and pieces we could easily jerry-rig a staircase," Repair commented, "and we can even use parts of the cave for supports. It'll take time, but it should work."
"Then get busy," Queen ordered, "We must have the trap door finished before the Tripredicus Council finds out where our present 'safe house' is and thus, our 'base'."
"At once," Grease answered.
Tripredicus Council Chambers
"I believe it's safe to assume that Primal's group have found the Resistance," General Seaclamp sighed, "There is no sign of them on the surface."
"Have our tunnel drones found the Resistance, yet?" General Cicadacon questioned, "Whether or not Primal is with them or not is irrelevant. If we catch the Resistance first, Primal and his group will be lost without information, and eventually they will land in our lap."
"Not yet," General Seaclamp grumbled in a frustrated voice, "the Resistance leader has kept them on the move so much that we've never been able to figure out where they're operating from, just where they were last."
"What is the status of Vile and Curser?" General Ramhorn questioned, "We will need all of our available transformers to deal with them."
"They still need time in the CR chambers," General Cicadacon answered, "besides, we can't attack if we don't know where they are."
The others nodded.
"It might still be wise to try and figure out what Primal will do," General Seaclamp commented, "that way we can learn how some of their transformers have had their armor advanced beyond the standard level."
"What will he do?" General Ramhorn asked, "None of us have ever faced Primal. The only one who has that we have, we can not risk activating."
"He'll probably seek information about what happened while he was away," General Ramhorn commented, "other then that, I don't think we can really guess anything other then directly attacking us."
"A Maximal would be that aggressive?" General Cicadacon asked, "I highly doubt that."
"He might if the Resistance leaves him no choice," General Ramhorn told him, "they do not know our plans, at least not entirely. He might attack us only to try and learn of our plans, and I'm certain the resistance will urge that he attack us directly."
"We will double our strength around our headquarters here," General Seaclamp spoke, "and send some groups out to scout out the rest of Cybertron."
"We should keep our drilling drones searching through the underground for the Resistance safe houses," General Cicadacon spoke, "Otherwise, they'll just hold out down there."
General Ramhorn nodded in agreement.
Tunnels under Cybertron
Dinobot stood silently on guard in one of he tunnels around the safe house waiting for an indication that the new 'base' was ready and that they could attack the Tripredicus Council. He heard a great deal of rumbling and rummaging as the work crews were busy with whatever they were working on in the safe house. He stood quietly for a few moments and listened quietly the sounds of the work going on in the safe house.
He was soon distracted by a different rumbling, which was soon added by the visible vibration of the pipes and wires running along the top of the tunnel. Then all of a sudden, the wall in front of him suddenly collapsed as a massive object moved through it. It was a cylindrical object with what looked like a drill on the front of it. Once it was in the tunnel it seemed to detect and follow the transmetal two raptor. It was clearly another Tripredicus Council drone.
"Maximal signature detected," the drone announced in a robotic voice.
The drone then produced several laser cannons from inside its drill piece and began firing at Dinobot. Dinobot quickly dove out of the line of fire, only to feel the vibrations of another drilling drone approaching in his direction.
"Dinobot to Optimus," Dinobot spoke into his radio as he destroyed the first drilling drone with his own optics lasers.
"Optimus here," came the Maximal commander's answer, "What is it?"
"What is the status of the 'trap door'?" Dinobot questioned as a second drill drone came through the wall of the tunnel and began firing on Dinobot.
"We're about done, why do you ask?" Optimus asked as Dinobot slashed the drill part off of the second drone.
Dinobot could now hear many drill drones coming. He was confident that he could beat them, but he didn't know how long it would take them to radio for help, and he was certain he couldn't defeat all of the Tripredicus Council's soldiers on his own.
"I have been found," Dinobot answered simply as another drill drone came through the wall and began firing on him, "They are some kind of cylindrical drilling robot."
"Tunnelers!" came Queen's voice over the radio, "Hold them off now! We're almost ready!"
"We're close to being ready, Dinobot," Optimus spoke, "Hold on for awhile and then pull back quickly to entrance. Make sure they don't see you enter the new underground base."
"Understood," Dinobot answered as he blasted another 'tunneler' with his optics laser.
Two more suddenly appeared, and the male raptor quickly dove away as they began firing on him.
Meanwhile, in the cave, Optimus gave a frustrated sigh. He had hopped that they would be able to complete the trap door before they could be attacked by anyone. Especially since they would need to complete a lot of work just to get everything working that would be needed in the long run.
"This is why we move around," Queen answered, "They have a habit of finding us and forcing us into defensive battles."
"And as a result of constant movement, you lack any ability to repair yourselves," Optimus answered, "Which means that unless you've left your wounded to die, you can't repair yourselves. That generally means you can't attack the Tripredicus Council in a position that would be important to them."
Queen was silent. Optimus was right. The resistance had seen some rather great battles in the beginning, but she had no way to repair damaged bots, and those that weren't captured by the drones or Tripredicus followers were killed when they struck again. She did want to argue that she did what had to be done, but she sensed that Optimus had her cornered. Her forces were down so low that they couldn't do much more then run. Optimus's argument had brought that issue to the front.
"Be thankful that Dinobot is Cybertron's bravest warrior," Queen then spoke, "Regardless of which faction he follows."
It was then that Rattrap and Repair came down the makeshift staircase that lead up and out of the cave.
"We got the mechanism that will operate the trap door done," Rattrap reported, "Now, could you explain what is going on?"
"Tunneling drones have run into Dinobot," Optimus reported, "I need you to send a radio message to our sentries and tell them to fall back to the trap door as quickly as possible."
"What about Dinobot?" Repair asked.
"Dinobot will hold them off until everyone is safely in the base and we can begin to try and figure out what to do next," Optimus told him.
The tunnelers had only one thing in their favor, as Dinobot sliced another of them in half with his talons. That advantage was numbers. Nearly a dozen of them had either followed the first tunnelers that had arrived, or came though the walls of the tunnel on their own. Their lasers were only as strong as a standard laser weapon, many of which were scaled down versions of weapons used in the Great War. His transmetal two armor was far stronger then them, an he could afford to take a hit or two, but he knew that through sheer weight of numbers, hey could eventually overwhelm him.
He turned his head and blasted another of them with his optics laser and growled as he heard and felt the vibrations of more tunnelers approaching. This was another thing he hated about fighting underground. There was no possible way he could try and figure out how many opponents he was facing. Above ground, he'd at least have a clearer line of sight. Down the tunnels he would have to check every previous entry hole and hope that there was only one tunneled coming in it. The fact that the industrial muck and debris hid the tunneler's scent did not help either.
It was then that his radio came to life again.
"Okay, Dinobot, begin falling back to the trapdoor," came Optimus's voice, "It's time we see how well it works."
"On my way," Dinobot answered, and began moving through the tunnels toward the trap door, leaving trail that the tunnelers would be sure to follow to the room the door was in.
He arrived at the tunnel entrance to find Rattrap waiting with the door handle in his hand.
"How far behind you are they?" Rattrap asked.
"Far enough to know I came into this room," Dinobot answered, "but not close enough to know about the trap door."
"Good," Rattrap answered, as he shut the door over them and they made their decent into the new Maximal base.
Above them, the tunnelers arrived to find an empty room. There were two passageways that lead out of the room, but there was no obvious sign that their target had left the room. They thus assumed that their prey had moved on and was well ahead of them. The tunnelers then resumed a basic search routine.
Tripredicus Council Chambers
General Seaclamp slammed his fist down as he saw the tunnelers go into their search routine. It indicated to him that their target had escaped.
"Blast," General Seaclamp growled, "and that was one of the more advanced transformers, and we almost had him."
"Had him?" General Cicadacon grumbled, "He destroyed half the tunnelers in that patrol while only sustaining minimal damage. His own internal repair units should be able to handle the damage they inflicted on him."
"But he didn't stand and fight," General Seaclamp argued, "He pulled back. They had to have done something right."
"More then likely, he retreated to avoid risking taking any real damage," General Ramhorn spoke up, "Our advantage is that of numbers. The victory we won in tonight's battle was that the tunnelers accentually found one of our potential targets. That is certainly a step up from the Resistance constantly avoiding them."
"It is a step up, yes," General Seaclamp sighed, "How much of a step is debatable."
"Have more tunnelers patrol that general region," General Ramhorn ordered, "and tell some of our followers to patch themselves in to their feed video feed. That ought to boost our reaction time to when we find one of Optimus's followers."
The others quickly agreed and nodded.
Underground Base
The Maximals gathered around Optimus in a crowded half circle the resistance members formed the other half of the circle around Queen. The purpose of this meeting was to announce the coming plans of what needed to happen next.
"While finding these caves and building a trap door and staircase were both a stroke of luck and an excellent display of teamwork, Maximals," Optimus spoke in a confident voice, "now comes the tough work."
"You promised us to find out why we either can not transform or even have an alternate mode anymore," Queen spoke up, loud enough so that the others could hear her.
"And to keep the scanning equipment working, we will need a source of power to operate from," Optimus spoke, "In addition to all of that, we will require basic computers and the equipment necessary for CR chambers. This is going to require a lot of work, and I will need you all to split into teams. Each team will be responsible for gathering what we need to get this base functioning."
"One member of the resistance will escort your teams to their respective targets and will identify the type of drones you encounter," Queen added.
"Dinobot, Rapther, Rattrap, and Mammoth," Optimus spoke, "You are to go to the shipyards. We're going to need several of their battery units to power the devices we need."
"Wired will go with you," Queen spoke.
"Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, Depthcharge, and Stagstripe," Optimus continued, "You will head toward the repair centers and gather up the scanning equipment that will be needed to make sure we can adequately diagnose what is wrong with Queen and the other resistance members."
"Repair and Grease will escort you," Queen told them.
"Cheetor, Squeak, Airazor, and Cybershark," Optimus continued, "You are to head for a different ship assembly point and try and see if you can scavenge the parts to build a CR chamber or two. Be warned, you may have to take them apart and make multiple trips."
"Runner will escort you," Queen spoke.
"We're doing this all at once?" Rattrap asked.
"It should keep the Tripredicus Council off balance," Optimus answered, "Given that their drones have proven completely ineffective and their followers that are transformers haven't been much better then the drones, striking at multiple targets should be able to disorient them."
"What about the rest of us?" Bomb asked.
"The rest of us will be exploring and mapping out our new base," Optimus answered and prepared for an argument.
"Exploring!" Queen erupted, "This dump?"
"Yes" Optimus answered, "according to all 'experts' on Cybertron's geology, a cave should not exist, yet, here we are in a cave."
"Interesting, how does that help us?" Queen demanded.
"Perhaps there are things down here that might be of use," Optimus answered, "Perhaps there is an exit that leads to the surface world we didn't know of before. Perhaps there are chambers that we can use as rooms to recharge in instead of 'sharing' this one massive chamber. We won't know unless we look. At the same time, the rest of us will need to do something while the others acquire the equipment we need."
"And if they require help?" Queen demanded.
"Our radio signals aren't slowed down by he rock/metal," Rhinox spoke up, "Not as sophisticated as one would expected, but we should be able to communicate with each other for a good many miles."
"And you will all go to help if there is trouble?" Queen asked.
"Appropriate reinforcements will be sent as necessary," Optimus promised the Resistance leader, "but they won't be idly waiting for trouble."
To Be Continued…