Setting_Darkness

By Festus3 festus3@netins.net

Scene opens in the jungle, the morning sun is beginning to slice through the trees, a frog/monkey is swinging through the trees, it stops and stares at a black and gold heap laying facedown in the dirt, there is a thrumming sound, like a helicopter, the creature looks up and retreats at the sight of Transquitoe’s vehicle mode, he converts to beast mode and zings down next to him.

TRANSQUITOE: Terrorize! (He transforms and speaks into his comm.) Batteram, I found Drone, get over hear and help me get him back to the base. (Transquitoe rolls Drone over and looks at the damage.) Wow, you really got slagged Drone. (He reaches down and picks up the distress beacon lying next to Drone, he turns it off and puts it away, Drone’s dull eyes stare up at him.) Batteram, hurry up, he’s out cold, looks like most of the damage is structural, shouldn’t take too long, Batteram finally responds over the comm.)

BATTERAM: I’ll be there in a nano.

Scene goes to the Maximal base, Dinobot is dividing the troops.

DINOBOT: We’re one schooner short, so I’ve decided to cover the AV, my fliers will attack as planned. (He looks over the mix of soldiers and Maximals.) Dragoness, you’ll lead the aerial assault, take Waspinater, Whiplash, Pyereen, and Parrator, hit the Predacon base and proceed inside as soon as you believe it’s safe. Go. Now! (She nods to the other four and takes to the air, her cape flailing behind her, Whiplash lifts off the ground on his hover board, Waspinater converts to vehicle mode, his rotors thrumming the air, Pyereen converts to beast mode and spreads her wings, with a single powerful stroke her scaled tiger body leaves the ground, Parrator takes off right after her, as they disappear over the jungle Dinobot turns back to the remaining troops.) Alright, I need Filleen driving the AV, Vrock, you’ll have to work the scanners in the gunnery station, Pakandus, you and I will oversee on the ground. (Pakandus nods.) As for the rest of you ex-cons, obtain the highest powered weapon you can find and get into the schooner, Boomerang and Quadroblade, you’re external aerial support for the schooner, you cover anything they can’t. Panthor, Bambard, Shellshock and Tankeel, when we find a hole I’ll take you in and we’ll search for a center of activity. We’re not going to go any deeper than that, once we’ve marked it we’ll clear out. I want everyone ready to bail and go underground if something goes wrong on the surface, especially if Phoenix or Backdraft shows up. We’ll hit underground first, after we clear out the schooner fires at anything that comes out of the hole. (The soldiers look at him.) Am I understood? (The soldiers chime.)

ALL: Yes sir!

DINOBOT: Let’s get organized, we move in one hour! (He turns to Razorjaw who has been looking at him curiously.)

RAZORJAW: I notice that you omitted my name.

DINOBOT: Yes Razorjaw, I have a special assignment for you, are you up to it? (Razorjaw grins and the James Bond theme plays in the background.)

Scene goes into darkness, there are two voices, slightly muffled but they’re Tarantulus and Teraductile.

TARANTULUS: How hard did it hit them. (He sounds very excited about something.)

TERADUCTILE: Minimal external damage, but I think I finished one of them for good.

TARANTULUS: Only one of the soldiers? (Teraductile cuts in proudly.)

TERADUCTILE: No, one of the Maximals. (Tarantulus is silent for a moment.)

TARANTULUS: How do you know?

TERADUCTILE: I attached the slaggin’ bomb to her superstructure!

TARANTULUS: Hahaha! (Light pours in, the camera is showing Drone’s view from the CR pod, you see his hand push open the lid. The camera goes to a normal view and shows Tarantulus and Teraductile sitting at the table a few yards away from the CR pods, Drone lifts himself out, his left arm is still gone and his superstructure still dented.)

DRONE: What happened? (As he turns to close the lid he faighns a confused expression.)

TARANTULUS: You got pretty beat up. Teraductile said you two had a couple Maximals cornered when you got hit by surprise.

DRONE: Yeah, I guess I remember that, why didn’t you have the pod complete my recovery? (He moves his stump of a left arm.)

TARANTULUS: We didn’t have the time to wait, I want to be ready if they try to catch us off-guard, I just had the computers finish internal and anything that would greatly impair your capabilities.

DRONE: What happened with the battle?

TARANTULUS: A sort of draw, after you and Teraductile were hit we were intercepted and foiled at the Maximal base.

DRONE: Slag. (He sits down at the table with him, Teraductile gives him an almost unnoticeable suspicious glance.)

TARANTULUS: Teraductile managed to make the Maximals think twice though. (Drone looks at Teraductile, Teraductile has a proud, suspicious smirk.)

TERADUCTILE: I blew one of those piles of scrap all the way back to Cybertron.

DRONE: Who? (He struggles not to show the concern in his voice.)

TERADUCTILE: Oh, that leggy one, uh, Springblaster. (Drone’s world goes into a spin, he hears her screaming in pain, sees her body burning.) You should have seen it, man, I totally slagged her, I welded the bomb onto her back, she jumped like a leopard frog with a fire cracker in her mouth, ha ha ha! (Drone clenches his fist and closes his eyes, he opens them when Teraductile has stopped laughing, both he and Tarantulus are staring at him.)

TARANTULUS: We found you a long way away from where Teraductile went down.

TERADUCTILE: I sure didn’t see any trace of you in that hole. (Teraductile cocks an eyebrow, hinting he has more evidence than he’s sharing.)

DRONE: I don’t remember, I guess I could have flown out of the hole and made a run for it.

TARANTULUS: Your body didn’t have any blast marks on it, only blunt force damage, strongly resembling a fall.

TERADUCTILE: I know you shot me Drone. (Drone looks at him in shock.)

DRONE: Why the slag would I shoot you!? (The rest of the Predacons step out of various hiding places.) What is this!?

TARANTULUS: Darkrazor and I came to an agreement in your absence, we both traded information of interest to each other.

DRONE: What do you mean? (The other Predacons draw their weapons and prepare them.)

TARANTULUS: I gave Darkrazor the records of that creature that they created, all the scanner reports and video images, she was more than happy to give me a single video image that I found more than interesting. (He clicks a button on a remote and one of the large monitors on the cave wall lights up with a green night vision photograph, Drone’s heart falls, on the monitor is a perfect image of his from the Xeno-cam.) To think, one of my best, a Maximal accomplice, I knew something strange was happening that time in the North.

DRONE: What are you talking about? They could have doctored that image just to get the information from you!

TERADUCTILE: There was no sneak attack! You shot me in the slaggin’ back and helped the Maximals! (Drone stands up and pulls Teraductile to his feet with his one hand.)

DRONE: I did nothing you sadistic, slaggin’-

TERADUCTILE: You should have seen the panic in her eyes, she knew she was going to die- (Drone’s eyes burn with anger, Teraductile smiles.) I think I hit a nerve! (Drone lets go of his collar.)

DRONE: You think I give a slag what happened to that piece of scrap? (Tarantulus stands up.)

TARANTULUS: I thought you were loyal-

DRONE: Okay, I admit it, I shot that worthless piece of slag, I didn’t do it to help the Maxies, I did it to save my own skidplate! (Some of the Predacons around the room give each other second looks. A siren sounds, Chameleotron runs to a computer.)

CHAMELEOTRON: Slag, we got five incoming fliers. (Tarantulus turns to Drone.)

TARANTULUS: How do I know I can trust you?

DRONE: Let me prove it to you. (Tarantulus nods warily, Teraductile walks away fuming, Tarantulus steps up to the monitor.)

TARANTULUS: Five fliers, it must be a decoy.

CHAMELEOTRON: They’re clearing the tree line. (The camera skips outside to show the fliers open up in mid-air and fire. There is a rumbling through the cave.) I don’t think it’s a decoy, I think they’re actually hitting the base.

TARANTULUS: Where are the Viruses?

CHAMELEOTRON: Hiding- (Tarantulus doesn’t wait for him to finish, he speaks into his comm.)

TARANTULUS: Viruses! Don’t let them land!

Scene goes to outside, the morning beach is quiet, the bodies of soldiers and xenomorph still litter the beach, there are trails in the sand where some of the bodies have been dragged into the jungle, the two derelict schooners are still sitting at the water’s edge, the totaled AV’s lie lifeless in the sand, the fliers continue to pummel the base, Dragoness and Pyereen swoop down and prepare to land, something shoots out of the sand, before she knows it, Pyereen is caught in Asp’s jaws, she screams in surprise, a few meters to the left Dragoness turns and aims her rifle, four spiky arms shoot out of the sand and grasp her waist, the arms swing forward and slam her to the sand, Carnage’s two heads shoot out of the sand, it leaves two hands around her waste, shifting the other two to her head.

PYEREEN: Ugly snake! (She uses her free hand to point her flamethrower at the cluster of eyes on top of the head, Asp gives an anticipating shriek as its face is blasted with a fireball, it swings its head and throws her to the side.)

PARRATOR: Hold on! (He swoops down and pulls out his feather throwing knives, he tucks his transmetal body and flies low, Carnage starts to pull Dragoness apart, she grunts in pain and reaches for her rifle, Carnage turns his head in time to see a rainbow streak through the air and turn at the last moment, Carnage’s right head falls to the sand, the snaky tongue trashing around. Carnage loosens its grip enough, Dragoness shoots her hand out, the rifle is in her grasp, there is a swoop of green and other various colors as Carnage’s top set of arms cut off at the elbows, Whiplash runs across the sand and draws his ligthsaber, Carnage turns his head and hisses.)

WHIPLASH: Yeah bring it! (The gangly, spidery hands fall away from Dragoness’s head, she takes aim and fires a spurt of ammunition, the shots splork into the side of Carnage’s head, it drops her, she continues to fire a solid stream, behind her Asp’s eye cluster melts back into place, it turns and stares blankly at Dragoness, drawing its body out of the sand, preparing to strike, Pyereen lifts her head from the sand and sees that Asp has changed its center of attention, she rolls on her back and levels her flame launcher, about twenty meters behind her there is a crashing explosion from the trees, she turns and sees the gorilla-like Vile lumbering toward the scuffle, he is closing the gap quickly, there is a twap and one of Waspinator’s stinger rockets hits the disgusting brute in the knee, it sticks in the liquid metal flesh and explodes, blowing Vile’s leg off, Vile looks up as Waspinater rushes it from out of the sun, it begins a bellowing, guttural roar when Waspinater fires another shot right into its mouth. Pyereen fires, just as Asp begins to strike the fireball enters the back of its head and blows its spiked muzzle apart, the blow sends Dragoness face-first onto the sand, as Carnage struggles to bring its massive, gangly form out of the sand Whiplash takes advantage of the current handicap and begins to hack at its other neck, Carnage hisses and tries to dodge the blade, its other head and arms have melted back under the sand, and the holes in its head are melting away.) You things don’t die do you! (He fires with the rattlesnake head protruding from his shoulders, the beam passes through Carnage’s head, Carnage flops to the sand and splashes into liquid metal, seeping back under the sand.)

DRAGONESS: I didn’t expect them to be here! (She turns and begins to open fire on Asp, who writhes and hiss/screeches in anger, Pyereen flips a switch on her launcher and takes aim at Vile, it brings up its massive, ugly head, glaring at her with its two, sunken eyes, she fires, a projectile exits the end of her gun and slams into Vile’s shoulder, nothing happens for a moment, the hole begins to melt closed when white-hot flames begin to shoot out of the capsule, Vile begins to screech and roar in pain as the fire burns hotter and hotter, his shoulder begins to lose its texture as the liquid metal becomes super heated, Vile attempts to get to his feet, pushing itself up with its gigantic, muscular arms, but the melted shoulder separates and the arms sloshes to the side and Vile slams face first into the sand. Asp’s flailing tail catches Pyereen and knocks her to the side, Parrator dives in to attack when he hears something to his left, about fifteen meters away, the Predacon base’s front is coming to life as autoguns are released from their hiding places.)

PARRATOR: Slag! (The autoguns start a rapid-fire dispersal of plasma shots.) We’re sittin’ ducks out here!

DRAGONESS: Scatter! Make it harder for the guns to find a target! (Every one takes off, except Pyereen who is laying on her side in the sand, behind her the camera shows the capsule in Vile’s shoulder go out, his body cools down quickly and it lifts its head, seeing Pyereen, a guttural roar escapes its immense jaws and it lumbers up to her, she reaches for her gun but Vile reaches down and rips her into the air, a few shots splash into its shoulder, Dragoness is firing her rifle at it, Vile steps back and holds Pyereen above and behind its head.)

PYEREEN: Oh slag! (Vile heaves her, her body flies through the air, she slams into Dragoness knocking her to the side and continuing her flight, she watches as the viewport of the Predacon base grows closer and closer, CRASH! Her body flies through the center viewport, slicing a hole through the glass, she slams into the captain’s chair, face-first, it rocks back, then goes back to its original position, throwing her to the floor in a heap, there is a clicking noise, Pyereen looks up to see Tarantulus’s wheel-gun a few feet from her, a shot flies through the air and hits her in the chest, scorching the red and black tiger stripe of her torso, she flies backwards and slams into a corner, wincing in pain, she looks up, Tarantulus, Transquitoe, Teraductile, Chameleotron and Drone are standing, watching her, All but Drone have a look of ravenous hunger and hatred.)

CHAMELEOTRON: I want to slag her! (He aims his chameleon-head hand at her.) I have a better idea. (He presses the button on his arm.) Pyereen. (His body shutters and turns into Pyereen, he levels the flamethrower at her, she stares at him, Teraductile pushes his arm down.)

TERADUCTILE: No, don’t do that, I’m sure we could find some use for her. (He raises an eyebrow at her, she snarls, contorting her beautiful features into a menacing grimace, she unfurls her wings and attempts to fly out the window, Teraductile’s arm snaps up and launches a bolt of electricity, stunning her and sending her clattering to the floor, Tarantulus steps up and shoots her in the side, rolling her a couple time until she hits the wall, sparks begin to shoot out of her badly damaged torso plate.) Or we could just slag her now. (Transquitoe fires his mosquito-head gun, slicing a solid beam through her shoulder, he turns and looks at Chameleotron.)

TRANSQUITOE: Could you please change that form, you’re creepin’ me out. (Chameleotron clicks the button on his arm and smirks at Transquitoe, whispering into it, his body shutters and changes to Transquitoe.) Funny. (They both aim at her and fire again, one passing through her stomach, the second banks the side of her head, she collapses to the floor, trying to protect herself, Tarantulus fires again with his wheel-gun, rolling her onto her back, he walks up to her, steps on her chest, and aims the gun squarely at her forehead, Drone turns away, pain in his eyes, Tarantulus moves his gun away, the camera goes to a front close-up of Tarantulus’s face, his visor shifts behind him, the camera focuses on Drone.)

TARANTULUS: Drone, here’s your chance to prove yourself. (The others turn their attention to Drone, he looks at Tarantulus and quickly covers his surprise.) You wanted to prove yourself, here’s your chance. (Drone’s eyes widen slightly and he looks at Pyereen’s battered body, she weakly stares at him, she watches him, Drone turns his eyes away.)

Scene goes to the AV, they are making their way through the jungle with Dinobot leading the way in vehicle mode, behind him the AV thunders through the underbrush, in its trail a panther and deer are jogging at a steady pace, a broad shelled monster is striding effortlessly on its extended legs, and following behind them, a rolling form propelled by two arms spins along behind as the trees above are slightly disturbed by the schooner’s presence. Pakandus, who is standing at his position in the front of the AV, turns back to Vrock.)

PAKANDUS: Vrock, find anything yet? (Vrock looks up from the gunnery station scanner.)

VROCK: Nothing, but my scanners only go about twenty feet down, and those readings are fuzzy. (Filleen watches as the AV plunges through the foliage, she dodges around trees, at least the larger ones, some of the smaller ones snap and crack as they move over top. Up in the schooner, the soldiers are watching out of the open door and window slits. Gasha struggles to see through the thick canopy, he turns and looks at the captain, a strange creature, mainly humanoid, a ridge of spikes down his head and back gives his uniform a finlike appearance in the back, the creature is using a displacement imaging program, Gasha can see a distorted image of the jungle floor, distorted but accurate.)

GASHA: That’s all we got to see what we’re shooting at? (The captains looks at him and shrugs. On the jungle floor Dinobot clears a log and scatters a group of chittering creatures, their giant yellow eyes are in no way proportioned to the rest of their bird-like, reptilian bodies. Pakandus suddenly yells from the front of the schooner up to Dinobot.)

PAKANDUS: Vrock has found something! (A few moments later Dinobot, in robot mode, is looking over Vrock’s shoulder, a subterranean image shows a worm-like tunnel.)

VROCK: The nearest point is about ten feet.

DINOBOT: Are there any life forms?

VROCK: I can’t scan anything organic. (Dinobot stands and turns to Panthor, Bambard, Shellshock, and Tankeel, all four now in robot mode.)

DINOBOT: We’ve found the back door, we’re going in, as soon as Filleen blows it. (Inside the cockpit Filleen flips open a switch panel, a panel slides open on the bottom of the AV and and impact launcher slides down. The camera moves into a pitch black area, the outline of a xenomorph is made out scurrying down the tunnel, there is a sudden muffled explosion, a pillar of white hot flames pours down into the tunnel, the xenomorph is thrown several yards down the tunnel, it apprehensively turns, and creeps up onto the ceiling, something on the surface moves and dim light comes into the hole and makes a webbed circle on the floor, a shadow drops in. Dinobot draws his raptor-head gun, two beams of light shoot out from the eyes, he draws one of his samurai swords in his other hand. he steps forward and four others drop down, one after the other. Dinobot surveys the tunnel in the opposite direction of the xenomorph, it is about ten feet in diameter.)

DINOBOT: Let’s move. (They begin to walk away down the tunnel, Tankeel in the back, the camera goes to the xenomorphs vision, it quickly creeps along the ceiling, hesitates and looks up out of the hole, the canopy, it moves around it and is over top of Tankeel, keeping pace with her.) Since we have no clue where the Titan base is we don’t know if we can actually blow the center of activity on the first try. (He instantly spins around and fires over Panthor’s head, Panthor jumps, behind him Bambard hits the ground, the impact of the hit sends a dark, spidery form flying down the tunnel, Tankeel turns and sees the xenomorph behind her in the dim light of the hole, it stands and hisses menacingly, its right shoulder oozing acid blood. Tankeel raises her gun hand, she about to shoot it when-)

TANKEEL: Look how it stands.

PANTHOR: What do you mean? (There is no time to respond because the nightmare suddenly goes headfirst into the ground, Pakandus’s spear pinning its head to the ground, Pakandus jumps down next to it, he takes no time in blasting it with a sparkling ball of energy, he pulls his spear out of the dismembered head and waves Dinobot on.)

PAKANDUS: We’ll make sure this exit stays clear sir.

DINOBOT: Thank you Pakandus, we won’t stray too far. (They continue down the tunnel.)

Scene goes to the Predacon base, in his right hand, his only hand, Drone has his turbine gun, he is barely able to hold it in one hand at arm’s length, the quad turbines are spinning while the green pilot in the back of the barrel begins to glow with power.)

TRANSQUITOE: You don’t need to charge it just blast her! (A hunger is growing in his eyes, Teraductile hits him in the shoulder.)

TERADUCTILE: No, this’ll be more messy. (Tarantulus speaks into his comm.)

TARANTULUS: Bombshell, Anacronda, Batteram, get out there and help finish off the Maximals! (Anacronda responds over the comm.)

ANACRONDA: Yes sir! (Tarantulus turns to Drone, he then looks down at Pyereen, she is huddled against the computer console, her body badly burned and dented.)

TARANTULUS: We’re waiting. (His eyes look Drone over curiously, Chameleotron returns to his normal form and stares at Drone, Drone flips a switch with his thumb and the turbines intensify, there is a humming noise. Pyereen looks into Drone’s eyes, she looks at the green glow of his eyes, his eyebrows flutter, gently, furrowing in frustration. He closes his eyes and screams in rage, he fires, the beam of light passes over Pyereen’s body, enveloping her, the flash is incredibly bright, the other Predacons shield their eyes, Tarantulus turns back to see the muzzle of Drone’s turbine gun in his face. Drone clicks the search light button off with his thumb and fires, Tarantulus leans his body back and to the left just enough to dodge the majority of the beam, the green pulse slams into the back wall panel, the other Predacons reel back as the green light fills the room. Drone throws the gun to the side, time begins to move in slow motion, Pyereen, still flinching under the console, no more damaged than before Drone had fired, looks up, Drone grabs her shoulder and rips her out from under the console, he turns his body, then releases the power of the turn and hurls Pyereen across the bridge, she breaks through the hole she made on her entrance. Drone turns just in time to catch the blow of Teraductile’s bolt of electricity. Time returns to normal, Drone reels back and hits the console, he remains standing, leaning his back on the keys. In front of him the four Predacons have their weapons leveled at Drone’s chest) I should have expected it from one of Starscreem’s henchmen! (Tarantulus fires his wheel-gun, just as Tarantulus’s finger pulls the trigger, Drone’s foot comes up and hooks on a chair, Tarantulus’s first shot grazes the side of his head, the chair is wrenched from the floor and lifts into the air, the second shot ricochets off the chair as it lifts between them, Drone dives under the chair, the chair slams into his previous position. Drone turns in the air and slides on his back, he reaches for his gun, there is a crackling explosion, Drone is wrenched by massive amounts of electricity and lifted off the ground. Teraductile turns and carries Drone through the air in a bolt of electricity, Drone slams into a wall and falls to the ground, coughing, his joints sputtering sparks.)

TERADUCTILE: Gotcha! (Drone looks up at him in rage. The base shutters with an explosion. Tarantulus looks out of the viewport, the Maximals have all taken to the air, Whiplash is now hovering in the back, holding Pyereen, on the ground Vile, Asp and Carnage howl and snarl in anger, Anacronda is carrying Bombshell while Batteram, in vehicle mode, is firing with his miniguns.) I’m gonna’ love slaggin’ you! (Tarantulus watches Batteram go down and crash next to Vile, who looks down in a moment of curiosity, his head is blown in half by one of Waspinator’s missiles. Anacronda and Bombshell dodge a stream of shots from Dragoness, Bombshell fires back wildly with his grenade launcher, a line of holes appears in Anacronda’s hang-glider-like wings, he drops Bombshell, who turns on his back and tucks his body in, the hard shell absorbing the impact on the sand, he rolls as a stream of fire cuts a line in the sand, Anacronda careens off to the side of the beach, he crashes into the jungle and out of Tarantulus’s view.)

TARANTULUS: Teraductile, come with me outside, we have to help them out. (Teraductile looks at Tarantulus.)

TERADUCTILE: But-

TARANTULUS: We’re going out there! Transquitoe, Chameleotron, take him to that pit in the third cave, blow him to pieces and throw them in, oh and, (Tarantulus opens a panel in one of the consoles and brings out a tubed spark extractor) bring his spark back to me. (He hands the tube to Transquitoe. Reluctantly Teraductile flies out of the viewport, Tarantulus jumps out after him and slides down the front of the base.)

CHAMELEOTRON: Rhinox. (His body swells and turns into Rhinox, he uses his massive green hand and grabs Drone by the leg.) Come on, let’s get this done and get out there. (Transquitoe follows him down the hallway leading to the cave. On the beach Parrator takes a bolt of electricity to the chest and goes down at the water’s edge, Carnage sets out at full sprint, running on all sixes, as he bounds across the sand Waspinater fires, the shot explodes at the base of Carnage’s necks, the two heads fly in different directions and the body goes down hard on the sand, sliding to a stop a few feet away from Parrator.)

PARRATOR: Jeeze! Thanks Waspy! (Waspinater looks back at Parrator.)

WASPINATOR: Birdy-bot say thank you. No one ever say thank you to Waspinater. Waspinater is goodguy now haha! Waspinater is- (A shot from Tarantulus’s wheel-gun hits him in the shoulder and he goes face-first into the sand next to Parrator, Parrator pulls him behind a rock, the sand explodes where he was a moment before from another shot. Parrator leans his head back and opens his eyes, Asp is curled over the top of the rock.)

PARRATOR: Watch it! (They dive to the sides as Asp’s spiked muzzle strikes between them from over the rock, they both take to the air again, Anacronda fires a burst from the trees at the edge of the jungle, Dragoness swoops down and avoids the hit, the shots passing by her and disappearing in the distance, she turns, her beautiful face in the center of the camera.)

DRAGONESS: Beast mode! (She turns into the four-winged reptilian bird, in a flourish of scaled feathers she powers her sleek body through the air, she closes the gap between herself and the edge of the jungle in seconds, Anacronda leaps through the air and catches the branch of another tree.)

ANACRONDA: Beast mode! (He transforms into the massive anaconda and disappears into the foliage, Dragoness shoots up into the tree after him.)