Energon. The planet pulsed with it; its every surface was saturated with it. The crackling crystals were sources of energy for the beings that had crashed all those months ago, but they were so much more. Energon was the planet's blood, its breath, its heart. That which reached the surface became unstable, a myriad of reactions that left it dangerous and volatile, but still a part of the planet. Beneath the earthen crust however, was a wealth of stable energy. Useable energy. Needed energy.
"How much further is it? This stuff is getting heavy," Terrorsaur whined, shifting his load.
"Wazzzpinator think spider-bot's readings are wrong," Waspinator added as they rounded yet another bend in the tunnels. The three Predacons were deep into a system of magnificent caverns beneath the surface of the planet, following readings of energon Tarantulas had picked up when he began expanding his lair.
"Waspinator thinks? I thought I smelled something burning," Blackarachnia muttered to herself, silently cursing Megatron for forcing those two on her. She consulted the device in her hands yet again, smiling to herself when the readings came up stronger. There was stable energon nearby, and lots of it.
"This way," she called back coldly, her voice distorted by the echoes of the cavern. Close now, so close. The trio at last came out of the dark, twisting maze of the tunnels, to be greeted by an awesome sight. The tunnel emptied into a cavern of mosterous proportions. The ceiling was lost to sight, shrouded in deep shadows, and the stone floor was worn smooth with age. The soft yellow light of their lamps was drowned by the subdued violet glow of thousands upon thousands of crystalline deposits of energon. The air of the cavern thrummed with untapped power. Blackarachnia slowly, almost reverently, reached out with one claw and lightly traced the surface of a large crystal before her.
"It's stable. It's all stable," she whispered. Then a dark and manic expression replaced her awe. "And it's *mine*."
"*Ours* you mean," Terrorsaur interjected slyly, yet another scheme of takeover seizing his mind, what there was of it. "What do you say? With this much energon we could overthrow Megatron easily."
Blackarachnia regarded him thoughtfully, then made a gracious sweeping gesture with her claw.
"Of course. *Ours*. But first, let's allow Megatron to get rid of the Maximals for us, shall we?" One did need underlings, after all.
"How doezzz spider-bot's machine work?" Waspinator interrupted further plans between the two would-be usurpers.
Blackarachnia sighed heavily. "I doubt you would understand. Scratch that, I *know* you wouldn't understand." She clenched her jaw and rubbed her forehead wearily. She was supposed to exploit this energy source with *those* two? They didn't have half a brain cell between them. They would be the first to go when she took over the Predacons.
"All right boys, welcome to Energon Mining 101."
As those last few words were replaced with the sounds of clanking machinery and thinly veiled insults to Waspinator and Terrorsaur's parentage, Megatron switched off his comm link and leaned back in his "throne", a thoughtful expression on his face.
"I really ought to do something about the... ambitions... of those two. Yes. Tarantulas!" He barked into another comm unit. The viewscreen in front of him flickered to life to reveal Tarantulas deep in the workings of their latest plan.
"Y-yes Megatron?" Tarantulas asked distractedly.
"I want you to keep an eye on Miss Arachnia. See that she doesn't get any ideas about what to do with that energon. And contact Inferno, I want him on constant patrol. Mustn't give the Maximals a chance to find us out before we have sufficient energon to power the weapon. No."
"Of course, Megatron." Megatron deactivated the viewscreen and engaged in his favorite pastime- daydreaming about the day when he would crush the life out of that fool Optimus with his bare hands.
"Anything new from the Predacons?" Optimus asked, though he suspected he knew the answer before Rattrap opened his mouth.
"Not a peep. Normally I wouldn't be complainin', but 'dis is startin' to make me nervous."
"Me too. Scans are coming up empty, Airazor and Tigatron haven't had anything to report. It's too quiet."
"I *really* hate it when people say things like 'dat."
"Well, Cheetor and Dinobot still haven't made their day's reports yet, maybe they'll have something." He doubted it though. There was something going on, and Optimus felt to the very core of his being that it was something big.
Glancing up, Cheetor saw a dark mass of flapping wings and feathers. He stopped and watched as the hundreds of birds wheeled madly though the air, heading deeper into the jungle. Come to think of it, a *lot* of the natural wildlife had been scarce lately.
"Must be migrating or something," he said to no one in particular, shrugging it off. He was almost back to the Axalon now, and he was sure Optimus would be disappointed when he had yet another report of nothing. His last communication with Dinobot an hour ago had confirmed that he, too, had found nothing. Zilch. It was as if the Preds had vanished. His paws crunched over dead leaves and branches. The trees and grass were already becoming brown and bare as yet another winter drew closer.
Sure enough, at the edge of the stream, under a humming black cloud of flies, lay a dead bird. A few dead fish floated further out in the sparkling water, their once vibrantly colored scales flaking off in decay. Dinobot sighed as he moved on. The animal kingdom was so much simpler. Only the strong survived.
"There goes one of those annoying cats. Shall I blast him?" Blackarachnia inquired, as Cheetor's spotted form came into view.
"And ruin the surprise, Miss Arachnia? I think not. No." A purplish Tyrannosaur answered, his gleaming red eyes trained on the ship below them. "Tarantulas, is that contraption online yet?" Megatron barked to his resident scientist. The purple and green robot tapped a few final sequences into his device and chuckled softly.
"Ready Megatron. The Maximals won't know what hit them."
"Ah good. Now we just wait for that traitorous Dinobot and the fun can begin. Yes. And speak of the devil, there he is now." Megatron continued as Dinobot entered his field of vision. The raptor disappeared into the ship and the shimmering green shield blinked into existence.
"Looks as though they're expecting something." Blackarachnia noted.
"For all the good it will do them. Terrorsaur, Inferno, Waspinator, get into position."
"As you command, my Queen." Inferno growled before taking to the air, with Terrorsaur and Waspinator close behind him. Megatron sighed wearily and turned to Scorponok.
"Would it really be that hard to call me King?" he asked rhetorically.
"I still don't understand why we don't just annihilate them! We have the power!" Blackarachnia hissed suddenly.
"Now Blackarachnia, where's the fun in that? I have bigger plans for the Maximals...Yes." Megatron answered, his voice soft and dripping with malice.
"Anything new to report?" Optimus asked Dinobot, though it was just a formality. He was not surprised when Dinobot shook his head.
"Nothing."
"Great, just great. 'Dis is gonna be *really* bad when they *do* decide to show their ugly faces again."
"You have an astonishingly firm grasp of the obvious, vermin." Dinobot muttered sarcastically.
"Oh yeah? Well at least I'm not a-WHAT THE SLAG!" Rattrap's retort quickly turned into an exclamation of shock as a tidal wave of force slammed into the Axalon, sending its inhabitants crashing to the floor and shaking it to its very foundations. Alarm klaxons blared out their piercing song as system after system showed damage. The Maximals had barely recovered from the first blast when another unleashed its fury upon them.
"The Preds! It has to be!" Cheetor shouted above the growing din of sirens and alarms.
"No, ya think?" Rattrap yelled back, fervently trying to coax some readings out of their damaged sensors. "Man, oh man, we got fliers comin' in fast. Sentinel's holdin' 'em off, but shields are at 65 percent and droppin'."
"Prime. Rhinox! I want you to work on getting that shield back up; Rattrap, stay with him. The rest of us will try to force them back. Maximals, Maximize!"
"Megatron, their shields are down. We should attack!" Scorponok shouted, turning to his leader with a beseeching look. Megatron merely shook his head.
"Not yet. Get the weapon back to base, and radio the fliers to cover our retreat." With that, Megatron turned and stalked off, leaving his lackeys shocked beyond belief. The shock of the Predacons, however, was *nothing* compared to that of their foes.
"I don't get it Big Bot, they *had* us. Why'd they run?" Cheetor asked, voicing the question in everyone's heads. Optimus sighed and pressed hand wearily to his forehead.
"I have no idea. I do know that this was planned down to the smallest detail. They wanted to show us they had a new weapon. The fliers only put up token resistance, it was a *show*."
"That's not Megatron's style, he wouldn't pass up an opportunity like that unless he was sure there'd be another one." Rhinox said slowly from where he sat, trying to repair the damage done by the Predacon weapon. The shields were completely down for the moment.
"With a weapon like that, there is no guarantee there will not *be* another opportunity." Dinobot rasped.
"But where are they getting the energy to power it?" Airazor decided to join in the conversation.
"Rhinox?" As one the group turned to their resident scientist.
"It would take massive amounts of stable energon to create a ray of that intensity. I don't know where they could have gotten it though. We've mapped all the stable energon deposits around here, there's nothing that big."
"Wait, Quicksilver's files on the Tenacious! They said there were massive deposits of stable energon underground, right?" Airazor said suddenly, not noticing the small shudder her words elicted from Cheetor and Rattrap. None of them liked to be reminded of *that* particular event. Rhinox considered this for a few moments.
"You're right, it's possible the Preds found one of those deposits."
"And that means they could possibly have access to a near-limitless supply of energon." Optimus said grimly.
"So what do we do Big Bot?"
"For now? Nothing. I hate to say it, but the Predacons are holding all the cards. Airazor, Tigatron, I'd like you to remain at base until we know where we stand. In the mean time, I suggest you all get some rest. I have a feeling we're going to need it."
Outside the Axalon all was quiet. Not a sound broke the still night air, save one. At the edge of the nearby plains, another few plants withered, their stalks drooping, their blooms falling lifeless to the ground. A crashing could be heard through the tall grass as a deer staggered out into an opening. It stumbled about blindly before collapsing in a heap on the browning, dead grass, and lay panting.
After a few moments, even that small sound ceased.
Help me It whispered. Help me