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Beyond The Beast Wars:
The Battle Never Ends
Part 1:  The New Players

by
Ian Brazee-Cannon

     Powerglide sat back in the control chair and relaxed.  She had done dozens of recovery missions
before.  She knew how to wait for her pick up. This was one of those need-to-know mission, so she
was unsure as to who she was transporting and where.  She had been told to take all the time needed to make sure her passenger completed the task at hand.
     She had landed her ship Star Skimmer on the remote moon four days ago.  The first day she went through and made sure everything was ready for a quick take off.  The second and third days she rechecked all the systems.  On the forth day she got bored and neutralized her old transformation mode and started looking for a new one.  At times like those she was glad to not be like her ancestors, the Autobots, who had to be completely rebuilt in order to change to a new transformation.
     Powerglide was looking at pictures of the Tilk bird from the planet DyLypp and admiring its' colorful feathers when a crash outside the ship caught her attention.
     "This is The Passenger, code Alpha-nine, priority seven-prime," a voice came over the comm controls.
     Powerglide jumped from her seat and hurried to the airlock.
     When she opened the airlock doors she found a lone figure standing impatiently outside the ship.
     "About time," The Passenger remarked as he pushed past her and headed inside.
     "Now wait just a moment here mister," Powerglide commanded.  "This is my ship and you better
treat me with a little respect if you are going to be traveling with me."
     "Okay, young lady.  I apologize for my rudeness.  It is just that we need to hurry."
     Powerglide stood, a bit lost as to how she got her way so easily.  She had thought she was stuck
with another over barring high ranking official who always had to have his way.
     "Good then," was all Powerglide could come up with for a reply.
     The ship shook violently as laser blasts hit its' outer hull.
     "They did follow me then," The Passenger remarked in a low voice.  "Where are the weapons
systems?"
     Powerglide headed for the bridge. "This way.  Standard plasma cannons, but they should be
enough."
     "Let's hope so."

     On the bridge Powerglide sat down at the flight control panel as the Passenger sat at the weapons control.
     "Standard controls then?" He asked.
     "Of course."
     As soon as her passenger was buckled in Powerglide launched the Star Skimmer.  Three
Predacon ship loomed in orbit above the moon.  Powerglide danced her ship around the enemy fire.
     Two of the ships angled themselves in Star Skimmers path while the third ship came from behind.
     The Star Skimmer shot away from the moon only to have all three ship adjust their altitudes to
keep the her in the trap.  Powerglide then took her ship into a hard spin, only to find that the enemy
ships had once more compensated for her move.
     "Looks like we are caught," the Passenger remarked calmly.
     "I am never caught," Powerglide said smugly. "Fire the plasma guns in a wide sweep when I say
'now'."
     "As the captain commands.  But their shields will be able to handle such a dissipated blast with no effect."
     "I know."
     Powerglide slowed down and allowed the ship behind her to come in close.
     "This is Powerglide of the Cybertronian patrol ship Star Skimmer.  I wish to know the reasons for your unwarranted attack."
     "Maximal scum," came the reply. "You will drop shields and surrender or you and the worthless
spy of yours will be exterminated."
     "Give me a moment," Powerglide said as she turned off the communicator. "Now."
     The Passenger fired the plasma guns in a wide sweep pattern.  At the same time Powerglide hit
the switch which would eject the ships waste martial.
     In the moments of confusion Powerglide broke out of the triangle of enemy ships and headed
away from the moon.
     "Nice moves my dear," the Passenger remarked.  "But it will not take them long to resume the
pursuit."
     "I know."
     With in minutes the Predacon ships were back to firing on the Star Skimmer.
     Powerglide hit a switch on her control panel which looked out of place as though it were a
modification.  A blinding flash of light was emitted from the Star Skimmer.
     In what seemed like a dream to the Passenger, he watch as the Predacon ships chased after what
appeared to be another Star Skimmer.
     "And that was?"
     "A cheap drone ship I had specially made and in place as soon as I entered the system,"
Powerglide replied. "I keep at least three in my hold at all time, since they are nice and compact in
their portable stage.  I'll have to add the cost of that to your bill by the way."
     "Fine by me."
     "By the way, the name is Powerglide, yes Powerglide.  Named after the famous hero of the great
war, who sacrificed his life to save the crew of the Cybertron's Pride.  He was one of the first, and
few flyers that the legendary Autobots had...."
     "I am familiar with our history my dear.  My name is Nightglider.  Named after no one.  Now that introductions are out of the way, we need to got to Hexical to pick up my team and then we have a mission of great importance a head of us."
     Powerglide said nothing as she set course for Hexical.  She was puzzled.  Normally this would be near the end of her mission and she would be able to get several days off duty.  Now it sounded like she still had another mission to survive.

     On Earth Waspinator sat on a cliff side watching the primitive humans who had worshipped him like a God just days before. He had been happy for the first time he could remember.  The Beast Wars had ended and all the others involved had either left the planet or been killed, he was left alone to enjoy the primitives and their worship or him.
    Then Waspinator made a small mistake and angered the primitives.  They had chased him away.  He was now alone and far from home.
     "Is this the proper way for a Predacon to act?" A voice from nowhere asked.
     Waspinator jumped up panicking.
     "Who's there?  Waspinator does not recognize voice."
 A giant lobster emerged from the trees.
     "I am called Sea Clamp.  I have been sent by the Tripredicus council to tie up all loose ends here.
And it would seem that you fall under that category."
     Waspinator stood straight looking at the lobster.  There was no hiding the fear in his eyes.
     "I am curious as to why the primitives are using parts of other Predacons as tools,"  Sea Clamp
inquired.  "I would think a truly loyal Predacon would have stopped such disrespect."
     "Uh.  Waspinator not know what he was doing.  Waspinator's logic chips must have been
scrambled during battle.  Yeah."
     "The council has decided to overlook your foolishness of working with the traitor Megatron, if
you will help us with the mission at hand."
     "Waspinator is a loyal Predacon.  He only followed Megatron because Megatron threatened
Waspinator."
     "I am sure that is what must have happened."
     Sea Clamp transformed into his robot mode. He clicked one of his giant pincer hands together
loudly.  From the trees behind him emerged a black beetle, a green fly and a large Mosquito.
     "Cicadacon, Transquito please gather up all the part of our fallen comrades and take them back to the ship for repair," Sea Clamp instructed. "Ram Horn, you are with me and Waspinator.  We are going to go on a little scouting mission."

    "Powerglide, I would like you to meet my team." Powerglide and Nightglider stood on the bridge of Star Skimmer in front of six other Maximals.
    "First we have Magnaboss, the team leader."
    "A pleasure to have you joining us," Magnaboss, the largest of the group stated.
     "This is Ironhide, our brute strength," Nightglider motioned to the heavy set maximal.
     "Hi," he said with a silly grin on his face.
     "Next we have our military strategist Prowl."
     "Greeting," Prowl said with a nod of his head.
     "Here is Pride, he's our movement coordinator."
     "Hello my lady," Pride said as he took Powerglide's hand and gave it a polite kiss.
     "I shall warn you to watch out for he ego." Nightglider and Pride exchanged friendly glances.
    "Here is Wolfang, our soldier boy."
    "Yeah, hello."
     "And last, but not least we have Silverstreak, our aerial combat specialist."
     The grim figure of Silverstreak nodded.
    "Now that introductions are done let's get done to business," Magnaboss stated. "Nightglider and Powerglide have already set our coordinates.  We are headed to a prehistoric Earth.  According to the Predacon computer that is where the exploration ship Axalon crashed there and we need to retrieve its' crew and cargo."
     "Why not just send a simple rescue team?" Wolfang inquired. "We're a special missions unit, not a escort patrol."
     "Axalon was the ship on which mission Protoform X was to be handled.  It looks like the Predacons may have inserted spies onto the Axalon to try and steel X for their own purposes.  But when the renegade Preds blasted by the sector, it was the only ship that could pursue. It has left a big mess, which we now have to clean up."
     Looks of shock were exchanged between the gathered Maximals.  They all knew that traveling to Earth had been declared forbidden.  Strict consequences for going to the planets past were suppose to be enforced.  This was the first time those regulations had been lifted for any reason.

    "So here is lies the historic Autobot Ark," Sea Clamp remarked as he looked at the large yellow vessel. "We will leave it be for now.  We are under orders to not follow in Megatron's mistakes in trying to alter time."
     "Then why you bring Waspinator down here?"
     "We are looking for something in the Maximal base that was here."
     "I have found it," Ram Horn announced as he emerged from the ruined Maximal base.  Ram Horn held up a spherical device that was glowing with an unearthly energy.
     "The Transmetal Driver," Waspinator said quietly.
     "Yes.  We have been watching Megatron's little games for a while now.  We have a good idea of what he could have accomplished if he had tried."

     "Entering Earth's orbit," Pride said looking at the view screen.
     "I would advise caution," Prowl stated. "We do not know what precautions the Predacons may have taken already."
     "I am picking up two objects in orbit near us," Wolfang said looking a the scanner console.  "They are Stasis Pods from the Axalon. Readings indicate that these are the only tow that are still in orbit."
     "Are the Sparks still alive?" Magnaboss asked as he moved over to look at the console.
     "There is too much interference to tell."
     "Is either one a modified unit?"
     "No."
     "Then X must have made it down to the planet.  Let's pick up these pods and then land."
     "Already got them," Powerglide remarked. "This is my ship remember.  I usually stay a few steps a head of everyone else on board."
     "We got trouble," Pride said in a panic. "Predacon attack ship coming up from Earth's surface."
     "What!!  evasive maneuvers," Powerglide commanded. "This wasn't in your briefing."
     "The Predacon ship that the Axalon followed was suppose to have crashed," Magnaboss explained. "It was not an attack ship anyway.  There must be more Preds down there now.  This is not good."
     The Star Skimmer flew in a standard evasive pattern as the larger, more powerful ship closed in.
     Powerglide took the ship up breaking from her pattern.  The Predacon vessel followed, coming closer with every second.
     "Their not giving me space to maneuver," Powerglide said in frustration. "That is one good pilot in there.  We're going to need something more than the Star Skimmer has."
     "Silverstreak, you're up," Magnaboss said.
     Silverstreak got up from his seat, nodded to Magnaboss and Powerglide then left the bridge.  A moment later a Silverstreak appeared outside the ship and transformed into a silver fighter. Powerglide pulled the ship away from Silverstreak.
     The Predacon ship continued to follow the Star Skimmer.
     Silverstreak got behind the attack ship.  Several large plasma blaster emerged from his wings.
     Both Silverstreak and the Star Skimmer opened fire together.
     The Predacon attack ship turned in an attempt to take out both enemies.
     Silverstreak and the Star Skimmer flew in a circular pattern around the Predacon ship, making it hard for the weapon to get a lock on either of them.
     A clean shot by Silverstreak took out several of the engines while the Star Skimmer was able to disable the weapons systems.
     As cheers went up on the bridge of the Star Skimmer, Powerglide shook her head.
     "They got some good shots in.  We have to land immediately, or we are going to crash."
 The crew became silent as they returned to their work.  Emergency lights were flashing on every panel.

     "You allowed a Maximal ship onto the planet!?" Sea Clamp was clearly not happy with the report from the patrol ship. "You are to get your engines running again and return to base."
     Sea Clamp turned to look his assembled team.  Inferno and Quickstrike had been revived and were standing among the team he had brought from Cybertron.
     "What troubles you, my new queen?" Inferno asked as he stood at attention.  Sea Clamp ignored the comment and turned to Ram Horn.
     "Have we discovered what the problem is with his personality matrix yet?"
     "It would appear that Tarantulas did not know that he was already a Predacon," Ram Horn explained. "Inferno and Quickstrike were two of our spies of the Axalon."
     "Bug-bot and Two-head were already Predacons?"
     "Yes.  And by putting a Predacon shell program over a Predacon core, which had been altered to register Maximal, the personality matrix was scrambled.  And thus you end up with what you see before you."
     "Will you be able to remove the shell?" Sea Clamp inquired as he looked closely at Inferno and Quickstrike.
     "Not without destroying his spark. Tarantulas has made sure of that.  He is loyal and his quirks are harmless.  Besides we have matters of higher concern right now."
     "As always you are correct Ram Horn.  Have you figured out how to work the Transmetal Driver yet?"
     "I will need a few test subjects before I know how to work it."
     "They will be provided. All the flyers will come with me," Sea Clamp commanded as he headed out the door. "Just prepare the device for when we return."
 

    Outside the Star Skimmer Powerglide was taking a break from her repair work when a humming bird flew by. The bird was attracted to a coolant spill and hovered above.
     "Now that's a flyer," Powerglide remarked as she neared the bird. "System scan lifeform."
 Powerglide stood still as a radio pulse emitted from her.  Moments later her body melted and then reformed.  She now had colorful wings that matched the wings of the hummingbird.  Her chest was the head of a humming bird.
     "Now let's see what the beast mode is like.  Beast mode."
     As Powerglide flew around in her new form, the scouting party of Nightglider, Pride and Wolfang returned.  All three had taken on new beast modes themselves.
     Magnaboss stood at the ships ramp.
     "It looks like everyone has found a new form that fits them," Magnaboss commented.
     Nightglider switched into his flying squirrel mode and glided around for moment.  His brown fur was clean and smooth as he glided with grace.
     "There does seem to be some worth wild creatures on this planet."
     "You are kind of cute in this new form," Powerglide said as she landed.  Both of them transformed to robot mode. "And the brown fur seems to work with our robot mode as well."
     "You flatter me my dear."
     "Enough flirting," Magnaboss interrupted. "What did you find on you scouting mission?"
     "We have found no trace of the Axalon's crew, or the Predacons even," Nightglider explained. "Though I do believe we found the remains of some base.  My guess is that we missed the action."
     "Could the attack ship we encountered have been the only Predacon team?" Asked Pride.
     "That doesn't fit their tactics," Magnaboss explained. "Nightglider, I want you to take Prowl to the remains.  He might be able to access any computer files that might have survived.  The rest of you back to work.  We need to get this ship space worthy."
     Nightglider and Prowl took to their beast modes and took flight.

     "This is interesting," Prowl said as he examined the computer screen. "These Predacons were not the most effective fighting team.  I guess they had a problem with the chain of command.  Half of them wanted to be leader, so there was constant fighting.  I would bet that they would have been a powerful group if they could have figured out how to work together."
     "That is nice to know," Nightglider replied as he looked through the rubble. "But, that does not tell us anything we can use."
     "We do know that X had been activated and that Megatron had control of him somehow.  This Pred computer was heavily damaged when the base was destroyed.  I am lucky to have found the journal entries."
     "What have we here," a voice said from behind the two Maximals.
 Nightglider and Prowl turned, drawing their weapons.  Sea Clamp stood ten feet away looking at them.
     "A couple of Maximals going through Predacon property.  I'm afraid I can't allow that."
     "You seem a little out numbered here," Nightglider stated as he prepared to fight.
     Sea Clamp clicked his pincers together loudly.  Inferno, Waspinator, Cicadacon and Transquito flew up in a circle surrounding Prowl and Nightglider.
     "It is you who are outnumbered," Sea Clamp announced. "Now attack, but we do need them alive."
     "For the Royalty," Inferno announced as he began firing. the other quickly joined in.
     "Ram Horn," Sea Clamp said in to his communication panel as he walked away calmly. "I have the test subjects you requested.  They will be in you hands shortly."
 

To Be Continued

Part 2 :  Life, Death and Change

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