The Intergalactic Highway

OOC: Here's a post for Arachnitron. Will post for Inferno another time.

BIC:

"Ne-ver," she spat through the agony she was experiencing. "I will be free, one way or another!

"Release me from your hold, Tarantulas!" She was irritated by Tarantulas' stubbornness.

Arachnitron was shocked by Blackarania's tenacity. Despite the fact that she was vastly outnumbered, Blackarachnia was still clinging to this illusion that she could win this.

"Don't do this, Blackarachnia. It's not worth it!!" Arachnitron begged Blackarachnia to see reason and stop her assault herself.

"Fine then!" Tarantulas retorted, marveling over how incredibly foolish the widow was, choosing death over life, "Delete yourself for all I carrrrrrrrrrrAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"Cyberlink...Works...Both ways...I share her pain...No...NOOOOOOOOO!"

Tarantulas cried out in agony as he confirmed Arachnitron's suspicions. She could shoot Blackarachnia and stop this madness, but she would, as Tarantulas pointed out, hurt Tarantulas in the process.

"ARACHNITRON! KNOCK HER OUT! NOW"

Tarantulas ordered Arachnitron to act. She raised her weapon, but lowered it again. Maybe she should just throw a rock at Blackarachnia to stop her attack, but what if it wasn't enough to knock the other she-spider out?

"I share her pain but also her death if you don't stop her NOW!" Tarantulas insisted, normally pleased by her devotion to him but now her reluctance to act could cost him his spark.

Arachnitron could hear the urgency in Tarantulas' voice. The time to act was now. He was counting on her. She decided to aim for the dagger that held the energon cube hoping that the shot would startle Blackarachnia into dropping the weapon. Once she dropped the cube and the dagger, she could shoot Blackarachnia and aim for more vital circuitry without the threat of hurting Tarantulas in the process.

Arachnitron aimed and pulled the trigger of her energon pistol and cringed as she waited for Tarantulas' screams of pain.

Optimus Primal wrote:"Don't expect any of these Predacons to be imitated by you, Landslide. We've been stranded here for a long time now in a war of survival against Megatron and his troops, as well as an alien species known as the Vok. It has been very difficult for us considering we were originally an exploration crew. I've lost a few lives under my command already... Most recently one today. You must understand the seriousness of our situation and what I might ask of you when it comes to battle. We were work as a team."

Landslide gave a nod as he listened to Optimus I see.. it does seem most grave indeed. Have no worries lad, I follow the maximal code to the best I can.. United we stand, divided we fall..

Optimus Primal wrote:"Thank you," "That was probably the case," "I had dispersed all of the stasis pods on-board into the planet's orbit before we crashed here in case we wouldn't have survived the landing. It wasn't until much later when a planet-wide attack by the Vok had knocked all of them down, forcing them to be scattered all over the earth. That's why you awoke alone. It's usually a race to get to our pods before the Predacons do because they will reprogram the protoforms." "At any rate, make yourself at home, Landslide. I still have a team out investigating some Predacon activity. A couple are in the CR chambers for repairs, and the rest you've already met with the exception of one or two who are lingering around the ship. Questions?"

Landslide just stood there for a moment, taking in the information. They'd been attacked by alien forces with a planet wide attack capability.. There were only some moments in cybertronian history where such things had happened. Ah.. No, I believe that should cover most questions.

Aurora kept an eye on the blurry images that fed back to her computer through the little spider bot she had taken control over, tilting her head as Arachnitron's voice could be heard too. A few adjustments got the spider to turn in that direction so the Maximals could see for themselves just how the altercation between the spiders was going down.

Whitegrazer wrote:"Lots of tensions between those three. No one should ever have their free will stripped away."

"To be fair it almost sounds like Arachnitron has given her free will up willingly.. if she ever truly had one," Aurora responded, the feeling of betrayal still evident in her voice. Arachnitron had left quite the impact during her brief time with the Maximals, and still.. despite all her problems with the multiple personalities.. it stung a bit to see her so blatantly loyal to a tyrant like Tarantulas. Oh well, perhaps this was what Arachnitron had wanted all along. And Aurora was not about to cut her any slack just because she'd been with the Maximals for that brief time.

Whitegrazer wrote:"Sounds like a good plan. But we must be cautious with all this energon around."

"When have you ever known me not to be cautious?," Aurora teased as she did some quick calculations on the weak points in the cave.

Whitegrazer wrote:"I will protect you."

Now those were words of comfort. Aurora smiled as she silently crept further into the tunnel.

Phoenix wrote:"To be fair it almost sounds like Arachnitron has given her free will up willingly.. if she ever truly had one," Aurora responded, the feeling of betrayal still evident in her voice. Arachnitron had left quite the impact during her brief time with the Maximals, and still.. despite all her problems with the multiple personalities.. it stung a bit to see her so blatantly loyal to a tyrant like Tarantulas. Oh well, perhaps this was what Arachnitron had wanted all along. And Aurora was not about to cut her any slack just because she'd been with the Maximals for that brief time.

The betrayal still hurt Aurora and it still echoed with the Axalon crew as well. She remembered the conversation between Aurora and Arachnitron before Optimus went inside the stasis pod to take care of the alien's planetary weapon. Maybe someday, the wound would heal. It may not disappear altogether, but maybe it would not hurt as it once did.

And for Arachnitron? Whitegrazer hoped she would get the answer she sought. Though, the company she kept were not trustworthy.

"When have you ever known me not to be cautious?," Aurora teased as she did some quick calculations on the weak points in the cave.

Whitegrazer just shared a goofy smile with Aurora, shaking her head.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Don't do this, Blackarachnia. It's not worth it!!"

Blackarachnia screamed in agony. Her body couldn't take anymore, but she wasn't going to quit! To her, it was worth all the pain towards herself and definitely, towards Tarantulas! All this was his fault! His! If he didn't swarm into her thoughts like a virus, like a worm, she wouldn't be doing this! This was one of these times she hoped Arachnitron didn't try anything. She just needed a little more time.

The gun that she held was shot out of her hand by a shot from Arachnitron. She narrowed her gaze at Arachnitron, "You fool!"

"Cyberlink...Works...Both ways...I share her pain...No...NOOOOOOOOO!"

She was getting desperate now, "Then sever the link, Tarantulas! Save us both! Or, we both will go offline! Tigether!" She allowed her agony to echo inside the cavern. She couldn't take much more. Circuitry's were overloading and her computer was losing it's sight.

Ironclaw ignored whatever Saber-fang had said and made his way to the cargo bay where he found open CR chambers. He made his way over to them and started the repair sequence on one. The badger got inside and began a much needed rest.

Saber gave an inward sigh of relief when Ironclaw left the brig door alone and headed off some where. She turned toward the door and growled softly, her optics flashing neon green for a split second.

"I know you can hear me through this door, Sonar. I want you to listen and listen will, I'm not going to be your victim anymore. We're done. I don't know what you told Optimus and I don't care, I'm done with keeping secrets from my own commander. I'm going tell him everything, even our shared past."

* * *

Sonar bared his teeth in a snarl before letting off a sonic blast in his cell, which wasn't a smart idea. He yelled in pain as white hot pain lashed his optics, within moments his entire world went black. He was blind, but only temporarily.

* * *

Saber jumped at the muffed yet loud boom from the brig, which clearly meant that Sonar had let off a sonic blast. Which no doubt would leave him temporarily blind from releasing a blast in such close quarters.

((OOC: I don't know if that would set off any alarms so I'll just let others in the Axalon decide whether or not alarms are going off.))

OOC: Here's my post guys, will probably be my last before I leave for the convention this Friday. Have a great weekend everyone, & thanks Phoenix, glad you enjoyed the discussion with Megatron and Buster so far, hope ya like the next bit

Una wrote:
Blackarachnia screamed in agony. Her body couldn't take anymore, but she wasn't going to quit! To her, it was worth all the pain towards herself and definitely, towards Tarantulas! All this was his fault! His! If he didn't swarm into her thoughts like a virus, like a worm, she wouldn't be doing this! This was one of these times she hoped Arachnitron didn't try anything. She just needed a little more time.

The gun that she held was shot out of her hand by a shot from Arachnitron. She narrowed her gaze at Arachnitron, "You fool!"

"Cyberlink...Works...Both ways...I share her pain...No...NOOOOOOOOO!"



She was getting desperate now, "Then sever the link, Tarantulas! Save us both! Or, we both will go offline! Tigether!" She allowed her agony to echo inside the cavern. She couldn't take much more. Circuitry's were overloading and her computer was losing it's sight.

"No...No....NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Tarantulas howled, the pain growing worse by the nanoclick, knowing he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer if Arachnitron didn't hurry up and end this witch's madness before she took him to the pit with her...WHY DID SHE HAVE TO MISS?!

"ARACHNITRON, BY UNICRON'S BEARD, KNOCK HER OUT NOW!!! I CAN'T! I CAAANNNNN'T! AAAAAAAAARGGGGGHHH!" Tarantulas screamed, desperate for an end to this torture, wanting to maintain his control over Blackarachnia and not let her get away with this betrayal, but also understandably wanting to live through this ordeal as well.

If Arachnitron didn't do something soon, he would either die with the wretched widow, or would have to sever the link completely to save himself, giving Blackarachnia exactly what she wanted...For the short space of time before he rendered her limb from limb for putting him through all this, again, assuming either of them survived. He found himself cutting the link bit by bit, as a last ditch effort to hold on a little longer, lessening the pain by weakening the link, but hopefully not enough to sever it and lose all control over Blackarachnia. It was risky, but Arachnitron was taking her sweet time following his orders and he needed to do SOMETHING to drag this out until the younger spider did what she was told already, and counteracting the pain Blackarachnia was inflicting on both of them was the only way to cope without giving in to her demands completely.

Alak wrote: "She's my go-to weapon for the big boys. She has the option to switch between thermal lock-on or laser guidance, and I have taken apart aerial drones with a single hit! The bulkier ones like tank-bots and such may require a few more rounds, but I certainly carry enough with me on the field to sweep them off the ground!"

Finally, he pulled out a short, serrated knife.

"If I ever run out of bullets and rockets, I could always resort to this. It's strong enough to pierce standard Cybertronian infantry armor and it can definitely cause of lot of pain to the poor sucker who gets stabbed by it."

He placed it on the ground with the rest of his armaments. Dealing with weapons was one of Buster's few redeeming qualities. He knew that he had to make himself seem intelligent enough with something in order to be accepted by this merry band of Predacons. Hopefully, this did the trick.

With arms folded across his chest plate, Megatron listened in silence as the llama showed off his admittedly impressive gun collection like a sparkling showing off his toys, or worse, a salesman making a pitch, glad that the feeble little mammal at least possessed a decent arsenal to compensate for his obvious physical deficiencies. However, despite approving of Buster's arsenal, it did however bring an all too important question to mind that needed to be answered, and returned his attention to the main reason why he called Buster here in the first place, namely, his dismal performance in the field.

"Well well, you certainly know your weaponry Buster, and extra firepower is always welcome here in my crew, Yesss. However, and you must pardon me for saying so, its just that, considering your impressive background as a weapons specialist, and the diverse arsenal you have here at your disposal, I can't help but wonder... " Megatron spoke calmly as he casually began to pick up and examine Buster's weapons one by one, starting with the rocket launcher, then the rifle, and the pistol, tossing each of them into Inferno's arms after he was satisfied with his inspection of each of them, until finally settling on the knife, which he ran his fingers across smoothly and delicately, testing its sharpness...Before throwing it right into Buster's foot so he couldn't run away as he yelled "WHY DID YOU DISOBEY ORDERS AND FLEE THE BATTLEFIELD?!"

Megatron glared down at the little llama like he were a disgusting little scraplet that had crawled out from under the couch, a filthy vermin that had no business existing in the same space as his regal self, his hellishly red eyes boring into the llama's own like they could see into his very spark...And for all Buster knew, he very well could.

The large commander paced himself in front of Buster's array of weaponry, inspecting them with a look of approval. The llama was sure that he had won the leader's favor back.

Megatron wrote:"Well well, you certainly know your weaponry Buster, and extra firepower is always welcome here in my crew, Yesss. However, and you must pardon me for saying so, its just that, considering your impressive background as a weapons specialist, and the diverse arsenal you have here at your disposal, I can't help but wonder..."

Suddenly, Buster found his own knife impaled into his foot.

Megatron wrote:"WHY DID YOU DISOBEY ORDERS AND FLEE THE BATTLEFIELD?!"

If Buster's robot mode had an anus, it would be clenched very, very hard right now to the point where he would be at risk from spontaneous hemorrhoid formations. Looking up at Megatron with wide open eyes like a frightened child, he struggled to form words.

"We... uh... well... I didn't... ya know... hear any orders... big monkey had bigger guns... just ran for my life... may... may have screamed a little bit too."

He tried his best to recall the events that had occurred earlier that day. The only two things that came to mind were his attempt to swallow grass and his attempt to run away from Optimus Primal's onslaught of cannon fire.

"Honest to Unicron, boss. He had guns THIS big!"

Buster held his arms as far apart as possible to emphasize the sheer size of the Maximal commander's artillery. Squinting his eyes now, the new Predacon realized that his foot was beginning to hurt. He just did not realize that before since his attention was completely drawn towards Megatron's big scary optics. He had to find a way to recover from this disaster. He had to get on Megatron's good side, just like Inferno had.

"Don't worry, he won't get the drop on us again. I'll be prepared next time. We'll destroy him for the colony!!!"

Yep, that should do it.

I see.. it does seem most grave indeed. Have no worries lad, I follow the maximal code to the best I can.. United we stand, divided we fall..

A small smile tugged at the corner of Primal's mouth for a moment at Landslide's words before his gaze drifted away a little.

Ah.. No, I believe that should cover most questions.

"In that case, you can either hang around here and get familiar with the bridge and its consoles and tell me more about yourself, or we can get you set up with your own room and let you settle in," offered Optimus. In the back of his mind, he couldn't help but wonder how Rattrap was making out and if Saber-Fang was all right. And then there was Orcariner's team who was still out in the field. Who would've thought that a simple investigation of an unknown beacon would tie up their entire day. He could understand if it was Vok related, assuming there was anything left on the planet from the aliens, but since it was the local Predacon arachnids, how involved could it be? At any rate, he hoped Whitegrazer and Aurora, Orcariner and Rhinox were managing.

-----

Hearing Ironclaw strut away without saying another word to the cat, Rattrap peeked around the corner and found the former General alone.

"I know you can hear me through this door, Sonar. I want you to listen and listen will, I'm not going to be your victim anymore. We're done. I don't know what you told Optimus and I don't care, I'm done with keeping secrets from my own commander. I'm going tell him everything, even our shared past."

Well, well, well. Now it all made sense. Shared past, eh? And Sonar was their prisoner. ...Again. The bat must have had a few screws loose in his head to come back here and get caught one more time. What was the deal between these two? Maybe that's what Optimus was trying to figure out. It would only be in Saber's best interest if she would just tell the monkey what her problem was. Besides the beast.

At the same the feline jumped from Sonar's sonic scream, Rattrap had also heard it and his attention darted at the brig's door while he went to grab his weapon as if he was expecting the bat to escape. When nothing more happened, he lowered his arm and relaxed. "Hey, you okay, Saber?" the Spy asked as he approached her.

"Hey, You alright, Saber?"

Saber looked over her shoulder, surprised to see Rattrap. She gave a small sigh.

"Yeah, I'm alright. How much of that did you hear?" Her tone wasn't acussing, she was simply curious.

* * *

Sonar rubbed his temples to ease his splitting head ache. That hadn't been one of his smartest ideas.

For a supposed genius, you tend to make the dumb decisions when it comes to certain things. A voice mocked.

Sonar growled in annoyance, his blindness wouldn't last. All he had to do was wait.

Optimus Primal wrote:"In that case, you can either hang around here and get familiar with the bridge and its consoles and tell me more about yourself, or we can get you set up with your own room and let you settle in,"

Landslide nods Aye, I'll get acquainted with the bridge here.. I should probably put my codes in so the ship recognizes me. I also don't like to admit it.. but I think I'm too wide for alot of yer rooms, but that wont be a problem.

Landslide then walked towards one of the consoles, moving the chair back as he sat down, the cargo box on his back acting like a built in seat of sort. He then started typing into the Axalon's console carefully with his clawed fingertips.

OOC: Sorry for the wait. Got home Sunday from the wedding, then was out late that night at another event. Then, I was out late the next night doing dinner with my coworkers and then the following night celebrated my grandmother's birthday! Phew! It's been a busy couple of days.

((OOC: It's okay!  I looked at the PM conversation we had and we both seemed keen on the idea of the rock because we thought shooting would be trouble at the time. ))

We talked about so many other ideas, I wasn't sure if that was the one we had settled on or if we liked one of the others better. Sorry, guess I got a little confused and maybe just forgot what we had said.

BIC:

Arachnitron had managed to shoot the gun out of Blackarachnia's hand which was good, but not really a part of the plan. She hadn't expected Blackarachnia to move and avoid her shot. She thought perhaps Blackarachnia was too involved with Tarantulas to notice the other spider in the corner.

Blackarachnia was getting desperate now, "Then sever the link, Tarantulas! Save us both! Or, we both will go offline! Together!" She allowed her agony to echo inside the cavern. She couldn't take much more. Circuitry's were overloading and her computer was losing it's sight.

"No...No....NNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Tarantulas howled, the pain growing worse by the nanoclick, knowing he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer if Arachnitron didn't hurry up and end this witch's madness before she took him to the pit with her...WHY DID SHE HAVE TO MISS?!

"ARACHNITRON, BY UNICRON'S BEARD, KNOCK HER OUT NOW!!! I CAN'T! I CAAANNNNN'T! AAAAAAAAARGGGGGHHH!" Tarantulas screamed!

Realizing that Blackarachnia would probably dodge her bullets again if she tried to shoot her, she decided to go with the first thing she could grab. A large rock sat nearby Arachnitron's feet. Wanting to act quickly for Tarantulas' sake, she dropped her energon weapon (not even caring if it discharged accidentally) and picked up the rock. Hoping that she was acting too quickly for Blackarachnia to attempt to dodge or block the rock from hitting her, she heaved the rock over handed aiming for Blackarachnia's head.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inferno held his breath as he listened to the conversation between The Royalty and the new recruit, Buster. The ant had not been dismissed so it would have been wrong for him to leave his Queen's presence without orders to do so. The llama, disgracefully, stumbled on his words as he introduced himself to their commander.

Megatron was taking Buster's actions uncharacteristically well. He seemed friendly and interested in the new recruit's background and experiences. His tone was light and conversational. Where was this bumbling fools punishment?!

"Well well, you certainly know your weaponry Buster, and extra firepower is always welcome here in my crew, Yesss. However, and you must pardon me for saying so, its just that, considering your impressive background as a weapons specialist, and the diverse arsenal you have here at your disposal, I can't help but wonder..."

Megatron impaled Buster with his own knife! Inferno tried to hide his surprise. Relieved to see his Queen back to his old self.

“WHY DID YOU DISOBEY ORDERS AND FLEE THE BATTLEFIELD?!"

Inferno had been looking at Megatron the entire time he was conversing with Buster giving his full attention to the Royalty, but now, he couldn't help but turn his gaze upon the llama as he struggled to explain himself.

"We... uh... well... I didn't... ya know... hear any orders... big monkey had bigger guns... just ran for my life... may... may have screamed a little bit too."

"Honest to Unicron, boss. He had guns THIS big!"

"Don't worry, he won't get the drop on us again. I'll be prepared next time. We'll destroy him for the colony!!!"

Buster's mention of the colony snapped Inferno to attention once again with his gaze set firmly on The Royalty. He thew his hand up for a salute, but let it remain in salute formation until he felt the moment was right.

(OOC: Since Dinobot wasn't involved in any plot points specific to this episode nor was he in the middle of a conversation, I'll go ahead and post for Dinobot in the new episode when I get caught up on all of those posts)

((OOC: Our little spat will end now! XD))

Blackarachnia could feel herself wavering, but so did Tarantulas. She felt like she was getting some sense of control of her own thoughts. Tarantulas's link felt looser. It's grip tearing away from her core processor. The image of his face, his claws fading. Though, it wasn't complete. She struggled to squeeze the cube in her hands. It was getting difficult to keep a handle on it. It wasn't too far now! She had to keep going! Keep going!

"Sever it! SEVER IT!!!!"

She screamed in fury at Tarantulas's stubbornness, "I SAID SEV-"

The rock Arachnitron threw smashed into her head. Her body flung across the cave, hitting against the adjacent wall. Her optics went dim as stasis lock took hold.

The three pong knife fell from her hands.

OOC: Oh thank goodness, now we can move on to kickings of the butt, Quickstrike should like that lol. Should Tarantulas' arachnoids alert them to the intruders at least or should Quickstrike or Arachnitron have the honor?

((OOC: Our little spat will end now! XD))

Blackarachnia could feel herself wavering, but so did Tarantulas. She felt like she was getting some sense of control of her own thoughts. Tarantulas's link felt looser. It's grip tearing away from her core processor. The image of his face, his claws fading. Though, it wasn't complete. She struggled to squeeze the cube in her hands. It was getting difficult to keep a handle on it. It wasn't too far now! She had to keep going! Keep going!

"Sever it! SEVER IT!!!!"

She screamed in fury at Tarantulas's stubbornness, "I SAID SEV-"

The rock Arachnitron threw smashed into her head. Her body flung across the cave, hitting against the adjacent wall. Her optics went dim as stasis lock took hold.

"RRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!" Tarantulas yelled in agony one last time before the source of his pain was finally put out of commission, the cube she'd be squeezing safely out of her grasp and the treacherous widow herself out cold.


Tarantulas opened and closed his clawed fists in frustration as he shook off the after effects of the cyber link's torture, almost like waking from a bad dream, or getting over the worst possible hangover imaginable.

"Well done Arachnitron...Rasp...Not a nanoclick too soon" Tarantulas wheezed, resisting the urge to snap at her for taking her sweet time as he observed what she had used to incapacitate Blackarachnia...A rock...He'd laugh at how simply and crudely Blackarachnia had been dispatched if he hadn't nearly evaded certain death for the second time since the incident with Inferno on the Axalon...Something he still needed to punish the ignorant ant for.

However, first things first...He had a traitor to punish, and punish he would.

"Thought you could force me to relinquish my control over you or pay the ultimate price did you? Well, YOU WON'T SURVIVE TO GLOAT ABOUT IT!" Tarantulas ranted, kicking BA's unconscious form across the cavern, the tips of his claws clicking together as he fantasized about taking her apart circuit by circuit with his bare hands.

"I'm going to take you apart, piece by treacherous piece" Tarantulas promised, looming over the helpless widow like a fairytale boogeman, the light of the energon cubes casting his malevolent shadow far and wide like a demon straight from the Pit itself.

Alak wrote: If Buster's robot mode had an anus, it would be clenched very, very hard right now to the point where he would be at risk from spontaneous hemorrhoid formations. Looking up at Megatron with wide open eyes like a frightened child, he struggled to form words.

"We... uh... well... I didn't... ya know... hear any orders... big monkey had bigger guns... just ran for my life... may... may have screamed a little bit too."

He tried his best to recall the events that had occurred earlier that day. The only two things that came to mind were his attempt to swallow grass and his attempt to run away from Optimus Primal's onslaught of cannon fire.

"Honest to Unicron, boss. He had guns THIS big!"

Buster held his arms as far apart as possible to emphasize the sheer size of the Maximal commander's artillery. Squinting his eyes now, the new Predacon realized that his foot was beginning to hurt. He just did not realize that before since his attention was completely drawn towards Megatron's big scary optics. He had to find a way to recover from this disaster. He had to get on Megatron's good side, just like Inferno had.

"Don't worry, he won't get the drop on us again. I'll be prepared next time. We'll destroy him for the colony!!!"

Yep, that should do it.

Megatron listened to Buster's pitiful excuses and observed as he tried to describe how outgunned he'd been, Megatron's anger reaching its boiling point as he replied, "Ah, I see, perfectly understandable then. However, Buster, next time you consider fleeing from Primal's guns before the battle is done, you'd do well to keep in mind THAT MINE ARE BIGGER!" Megatron bellowed, firing his own fusion cannon inches away from the llama's face, the blast hitting the wall & burning right through it, the heat discharge & sound of the weapon's fire had to have been quite unpleasant even if the shot itself hadn't struck him.

"As a weapons expert, I trust you're familiar with my weapon of choice" Megatron continued, speaking calmly again as he lay his still superheated cannon atop Buster's shoulder, "And thus can take solace in the fact that no one on this planet possesses more firepower than myself, or could destroy you quite as utterly if you fail to live up to my STRICT expectations of what constitutes a good soldier, correct?"

A maximal fool like Primal may have tried softer tactics to get the best out of his troops, however, when dealing with cowards like Buster, Megatron had learned that teaching them to fear death by his own hands over those of the enemy was more than effective in getting them to straighten out their acts on the battlefield.

OOC: Hope this is okay with you guys, I can alter my post accordingly if anything's amiss.

Tarantulas was just about to wreak terrible, completely warranted justice on the treacherous Blackarachnia, only to receive coded transmissions from several of his arachnoids...A countermeasure he had implemented should they ever be hacked by enemy forces, and sure enough, when he switched to a live feed of those arachnoids still under his control, he was able to spy several maximals who had infiltrated the cave while he'd been preoccupied with Blackarachnia, and had knocked out the fuzor as well...As if this situation wasn't already irritating enough!

"You see what you made me do foolish widow? You distracted me from the big picture!" Tarantulas snarled as he whirled around, quickly spotted one of the hacked arachnoids watching them, and crushed it underfoot like the tracer he'd brought with him earlier.

"Grab the witch and carry her out of here, we have a maximal infestation that needs to be dealt with" Tarantulas ordered Arachnitron, running up ahead to take point, already deciding that the mine was too valuable to him to lose but who's continued existence could not be trusted with the rest of his team, except for perhaps Arachnitron.

He would force the maximals out, and blow the entrance, from there he could make up any scenario he wanted to cover up the truth from maximal and predacon alike, it could be an accident or brought on by maximal fire, or even done deliberately to stop it from falling into maximal hands, either way neither side would be the wiser and he'd be the only one to benefit from the mine.