It felt like a short travel to the last known location of the two ships.

The trip went so smooth, everyone was perfectly cooperative. Sure, part of it was most of the crew being in stasis pods for the journey, the ship felt bigger, bots gave each other space. And yet, in hind sight, it was quiet.

Too quiet…

Apparently some of the Predacons on board were… “Decepticon Loyalists”; they had some kind of plan to take control of the ship, and… Who knows, but things didn’t go as planned for them, either.

They’d brought some of their allies out of stasis, and attempted a mutiny! The original leader of the mission (A Maximal, of course) tried to confront the "trouble makers" and put a stop to this before things really got out of hand. He'd attempted to appeal to their better nature, assured them he'd speak on their behalf, and push for leniency when they had to answer for what they'd done already.

Some hesitated, others looked to the self-identified leader, as if waiting to hear both sides before deciding on a response.

The chief mutineer made a show of hesitance, himself. He calmly approached, and stood before the bot that loomed large in comparison. Smiling coyly, "Perhaps an example needs to be made, Hm?"

Misinterpreting this, the Mission Leader shrugged a sigh of relief, and offered a hand, "Yes, exactly! There's no need for- !!"

In the same motion that the chief mutineer took his hand, he pulled it across his opponents chest, forcing an opening in his defenses; the other hand drew and projected the point of a collapsible javelin under his torso armor, right through his spark! He than let go of the hand he'd taken dishonestly, and turned his victims' head to face him, watching the light fade from his eyes as he spoke again.

"There! Now they know what it means to stand against us; way to take one for the team, and set the example!" With that, he withdrew the lance, roughly tipped him aside, pointed the lance at the onlookers, and screamed a battle cry, which seemed to stir his allies into a charge.

The Maximals on board, and those Predacons who refused to side with their "fellows", were pushed back to the bridge! They’d barricaded the doors, but it wasn’t going to keep them out forever.

Septishock stood at his console. As a science officer, he had been assigned to the bridge crew to man the sensors. Their search for the missing Maximal ship had led them to the end of the trail, the last known location of the vessel's communication pings. To continue their search, Septishock scanned for any energy signatures or plasma exhaust trails that could lead them further. However, it seemed some rowdy Predacons had ideas of their own and had caused something of a ruckus, pushing more and more unauthorized individuals to the bridge, seeking shelter and disrupting his concentration. Though the row irked him, he continued to focus on his task, deciding to leave the command and security staff to handle the situation. He didn't know what the Predacons wanted nor did he care, he wanted to locate the missing ships and find out the source of the mysterious voice that had been heard in the final transmission. However, if he deemed the handling of the situation to be...inadequate, Septishock might be moved to take matters into his own hands...well, hand. He just hoped that the Predacons weren't stupid enough to damage the ship's propulsion systems. They were far from any nearby gravity wells, to his knowledge, and the thought of being stranded and drifting for millennia was not very appealing, though in a pinch, he could threaten to sabotage the propulsion himself so he could at least afford a few moments of QUIET.

An unknown bot on the outside issued orders to the other seditious individuals, in a voice somewhere between gravelly and shrill, "I am your leader, and I order you to get this Primus forsaken door open!"

Another, presumably the one he was addressing, responded in something that sounded like dial-up, and got to work. A panel got torn open, wires got pulled and spliced, and the hacker worked furiously at the console panel next to the door. It made more noise over it's shoulder, prompting the first to screech,

"What!? Focus, you fool! We'll prevent a distress signal by seizing this vessel for the glory of Megatron; just get the door open! The rest of you, put your axles into it! We're not asking politely!!"

Honestly Blitzwing wasn't a big fan of the whole mutiny thing. He had no trouble with fighting the Maximals but a battle in the relatively cramped hallways of a spaceship wasn't his first choice. Still he ended up following the so called leader since he didn't want to join the Maximals or the faction deniers.

Trying to be clever he had offered to take the protoforms hostage in order to force the enemies to surrender with minimal risk towards him but his offer was rejected. So instead he was hanging out near the back, his rifle ready to fire the moment the door opened and himself ready to turn tail if the battle went south.

______________________________________________________________________

Einhorn couldn't believe the Predacons would do something like this, he figured that everyone who came along cared as little about sides as he did. Still the choice was obvious and he was more than ready to fight back. Unfortunately he was pushed back alongside everyone else not on the side of the mutineers but he was confident that they could at least make for a difficult fight. Since he was one of the stronger Cybertronians he had positioned himself right in front of the door, ready to bodyslam the first Pred that tried to enter the bridge.

Given Septishock's size Einhorn had half expected him to do the same but it seemed whatever the science bot was doing was more important. "No idea how long the door will hold, but once they open it they will have to get past me."

---

The situation was deteriorating rapidly. For once, Nautica wished that she did not have skills that were useful to the running of the ship as well as any groundside mission. Thsi would all be simpler if she was one of the protoforms frozen in stastis. At least I would have died in piece. Bah! she thought bitterly as one of the maximals announced the door would not be holding up for much longer.

Getting up form the console where she was trying to isolate and shut down power to the bridge door to prevent it from being hacked, she ran over to the Maximal. "Well, if the door is to fall any second, then let it at least be of one last use to us." she suggested. Reaching behind the shell on her back, she produced a rectangular device with a timer on the front. "Breaching charge. It will turn the door into a missile. It should be weak enough not to blast a hole in the hull... I think. Once we breach, we can either charge them, or stay here and defend whoever is not flattened by it. Which is it going to be?"

---

Farsight had been on the bridge of the ship, going over star maps, when the mutiny had began. It only took a few nano clicks for most of the Maximal crew to rush into the bridge, shoring up the door behind them. Racing over in his motorcycle alternate mode, Farsight quickly reached the barricade, before turning to a random crewman.

“What in Primus name is going on?” Farsight asked the fellow Maximal.

The crewman quickly said something about them being Megatron fanatics who were trying to take over the ship. Farsight’s optics narrowed at the mention of the Predacon terrorist. This misguided fool was the reason for the conflict brewing on Cybertron, the thing driving all Transformers apart. Part of the reason Farsight had even volunteered for this mission was for a chance to take Megatron down himself.

But Farsight was taken out of his musings by another Maximal, Einhorn was his designation as far as Farsight remembered, that he didn’t know how long the door would hold. Farsight had the impulse to help brace the door but found no room for even his small frame to fit as the biggest Maximals were already in the way. The small green Maximal took a step back, unsure of how to help.

A suggestion came from an unlikely source, a Predacon standing on the bridge. She suggested blowing the door away, using it as a weapon to flatten the marauding Predacons. Liking the ingenuity of the thought, Farsight retrieved his rifle from off his back and turned to Nautica.

“I’m ready to defend the bridge from my position,” Farsight said before looking back at the door, “But if we’re using that charge, we better use it now.”

Farsight then lowered himself to the floor, getting into a sniping position. Currently all in front of him was the mass of Maximals bracing the door, but with his keen vision, Farsight found the small gaps in between his crew mates. With a steady hand, Farsight focused his rifle, ready to fire the second the door went down.

Septishock's single eye twitched in annoyance. The ruckus had not yet been taken care of, and if blowing up the door was the next plan, then it certainly was not de-escalating either. Of course, he couldn't really blame anyone for ineptitude as the Predacons had successfully cut off their metaphorical head, leaving them to flounder without leadership. Furthermore, the others, at least, were trying; Septishock had not yet lifted a finger to help. Wordlessly, Septishock began soft-hacking the ship, first by letting it know that the captain had died, and then quickly subverting himself, as a science officer, into a leadership position with levels of command and access that normally exceeded his station. They were in disarray, and someone had to take control. Keeping his eye on the sensor readouts, his sole point if interest, Septishock routed control of the ship's reactors as well as the intercom system to his console.

"This is Science Officer Septishock speaking," his voice reverberated throughout the ship through the many emergency communication speakers, "Predacons, please state your demands and we will consider them. Your current violence is disruptive to my concentration, so I ask that you desist. I am currently poised to jettison the ships energon fuel reserves. Doing so will leave us all stranded in space, sentenced to drift aimlessly for an indefinite period of time, during which we will probably all kill each other until not a single one of us remains. I am sure this is a fate neither of us wants. Though our mission was to find the missing Maximal ship, doing so would inevitably give us clues as to the location of this so-called, 'Megatron', who I assume you are looking for. But we have reached our destination and the trail has run cold. So if you don't settle down and allow me to scan for our mutual objectives, we may never end up finding what we want."

The mutineers flinched and hesitated at the announcement, pausing mid action.

A very large Predacon looked over his shoulder, "Uuhh.. What should we do, Wingwraith?"

The would-be hacker chimed in with more dial-up.

Wingwraith was obviously trying to think fast; "They're... They're bluffing, of course! Pathetic Maximals, baring their teeth, but that's just because we have them cornered!" He shouted at the severely damaged door, "We're ready to hear the terms of your surrender!" He whispered behind a hand to the big one, "Never show weakness to an enemy, Gigatron; that's a free lesson in leadership!" He turned and pointed to Blitzwing, "You, there! Be ready to shoot the first Maximal you see! One way or another, we're going to be through those doors, any nanosecond!"

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The consoles on the bridge all began to... Malfunction? screens became static, lights began to blink, systems began jumping from active to inactive and back again.

---

Nodding at her companions, Nautica started affixing the charge to the door, setting the detonator both to be triggered remotely and by a motion sensor to blow immediately if the door so much as started buckling or opening. She moved to the side of the door frame - the shaped charge should not threaten anyone on the bridge, however standing directly in the path of any intruders was not on Nautica's agenda. Instead, she drew one of her two blades, ready to part the first mutineer charging through from their head by a horizontal slash from behind the corner. She was a peaceful femme, but she was still a predacon. If there was a battle, there would be no prisoners.

Septishock's announcement gave her a pause, and for a few seconds she was glad she did not set the bomb on a timer, as there appeared to be a hope for a solution that did not involve spilling any energon. Well, other than potentially the ship's. Suddenly her personal hidden stash of energon gummies might gain significant value as one of the few fuel sources remianing. All hopes were crushed though as the power to the consoles began to fail, meaning that any second the scientist may actually lose the ability to deliver on his threat. Back to plan A. She took the detonator, flipped open the safety and looked at their positions. A sniper ready to take shots, herself ready to carve living mechs into dead spare parts, and a bulky maximal also next to the door. Not great, not terrible. She should really get a blaster installed.

"Clear the door and be ready! Take out anyone who so much as pokes a servo through! I wouldn't bet on them keeping anyone they don't have a use for." she said as loudly as she dared for it not to be heard on the other side of the door. Her thumb hovered over the detonator, waiting for any sign of intrusion or for the consoles to finally fizzle and die.

After hearing Septishock's plans to strand the ship and Wingwraith's refusal to surrender Blitzwing briefly considered to try and take out the so-called Predacon leader instead. However he quickly realized that most of his "allies" wouldn't take kindly to that and they were a much more immediate threat if angered.

So when he was ordered by Wingwraith to simply blast the first Maximal they saw, a plan that fit his tastes very well, he decided to just do as he was told. "Whatever you say, boss." He moved his rifle a bit so that he was aiming at the door instead of Wingwrait prepared to fire at the first sign of a suitable target.

___

After giving his opinion of the door Einhorn was a little glad to see that at least one Predacon was sensible enough not to mutineer. The fact that several Maximals were willing to go ahead with her plan was even better, he was less happy about Septishock's plan and hoped the Science bot was just bluffing.

He stepped aside so that Nauticaa could plant the detonator and being one of the bulkiest 'bots on the bridge made sure to be on the absolute fore front covering as many of his allies as he could after the door was fully cleared.

"If you're willing to discuss terms, then you are not so illogical as I thought, Predacon," Septishock replied, mistaking Wingwraith's demand for surrender as a desire for compromise and negotiation. "Very well, state your..." Septishock stopped suddenly as he no longer heard himself on the intercom. Looking back at his console, he noticed that all systems were unresponsive. Did the Predacons sabotage the ship before he could? He doubted they could work so fast and disable so many systems simultaneously; they so far had not demonstrated that level of competence, their only advantage having been the element of surprise.

"Slag..." Septishock cursed as he turned away from his console and aimed his gun-arm towards the door. With no way to carry on the discussion (and no way to carry out his threat of jettisoning their fuel), it seemed he was forced to resort to violence, though the aberrant nature of the ship's malfunction still troubled him.

Septishock had an unusual form when it came to Cybertronians. He had developed a penchant for self-modification, and in preparation of this mission, replaced his entire forearm with a beam weapon, knowing full-well that combat was going to be a factor. He had also deemed long ago that a 'face' was an unnecessary luxury, and replaced his own with a simple voicebox and a sophisticated scanner that looked like a single, recessed cyclopic eye taking up most of his head. Some of his fellows found it unsettling, but he only wanted to improve his function by modifying his form.

With the power fluctuating, Gigatron and 2 other Predacons (Strife and Bushwhack) actually started getting the doors open!

Just as soon as any of them could see through the crack, Nautica pressed the button and blew the door!

It was chaos- with the three combat bots against the door like they were, they took a heavy hit from the force from the explosion, but with the doors partially opened, much of it was also taken by the compartment frame the doors opened into, meaning the force did little more than knock them on their backs.

In the hall, Wingwraith (safe from the impact, but shaken by the incident) screamed, "Get up, you fools! Attack, attack!"

A wild charge was initiated, followed by a mad struggle, bots fighting bots, consoles got damaged, when suddenly something happened-

A light burst forth in the middle of the bridge, but with no visible source; this wasn't coming from anything on the ship. It came down, through the ceiling, bringing with it some kind of floating head. It was silvery white, and superficially resembled a human skull, but one large cavity where eye sockets should be, with two motes of light for eyes, and some kind of tendrils or strands waving, flowing from the back of it. It was easily the size of any bot in the room.



It spoke up, echoing in the air, but also possibly in their minds? "Ah, I see... Cybertronians... What serendipity; of course, it would be your kind that would do something to draw attention to yourselves... So be it. Let the experiment begin."

In a bright flash, it was gone. At the same time, some kind of anomaly, or "wormhole", opened up, quickly pulling the ship in! In an instant, it was like they'd been thrown from a slingshot, the ship tumbling end-over-end, until it suddenly stopped, then proceeding to crawl along as though it had merely been adrift the whole time...

Seeing the door start to open Blitzwing prepared to fire as soon as he caught a glimpse of a Maximal. Before that happened though the explosion caused by Nautica threw him off balance and he fell onto his back.

To make matters worse by the time he had gotten back up and had a Maximal in his sights for an easy shot, the ship suddenly turned briefly turned upside down and he fell again towards the ceiling this time, doing his best to ignore the strange voice. He managed to spread his wings and stop himself right as she ship turned itself right side up. "I'm not gonna fall twice." Unfortunately for Blitzwing the ship came to a full stop just as he landed and before he could brace himself in any way so he went down again.
____________________________________________________________

Einhorn noticed Septishock get up presumably to join the fight, it was kinda hard to read him with that single red eye. He tried not to judge the purple Maximal on his appearance though, but at the same time Einhorn hoped Septishock was as strong as that one gun arm made him look.He didn't have long to wonder about the science bot's combat capacities as Nautica set off the charges.

As soon as the shockwave passed Einhorngot ready to shoulder tackle the nearest Pred, only to have to change his plans when the ship started tumbling and a strange alien began talking to them.

---

The skirmish was brief, but intense. As soon as she pressed the button, Nautica could feel her spark rippling with excitement. She dropped the detonator and grabbed her blade with both hands, swinging it mightily as soon as one of the rebels dared to poke their ped through. The screaching of metal. The quelch of severed fuel lines. The sight of the front of the ped flying off. She did not even know their name. She did not need to. The battle was all that was required to get her predacon spark exhilarated.

Despite herself, a grin spread across her face, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The battle continued, and Nautica scored good hits, while avoiding too terrible damage herself. She will have Gigatron's head though - The brute got in a lucky strike, sending her tumbling towards the bridge windows with four gashes across her chest plate to show for it. That's it. Your head will decorate the ship's signal mast! She thought bitterly as she picked herself up.

Before she could charge the colossal predacon though, an ethereal apparition tossed a spanner into the gears. And a short while after, they all found themselves tumbling from the floor to the ceiling and back. At one point, Nautica thought she would actually smash through the windows and be ejected into the vacuum of space. Then, just as suddenly as it started, it ended, with everyone being left in a pile of limbs. The bridge consoles were all thrashed - no one would be regaining control of the ship from here.

Using the confusion, Nautica quickly got to her feet and charged out of the broken door, blade at the ready, hoping to break through to engineering, where she could access all of the core systems directly and steer the ship.

As the doors burst open, Septishock fired into the group, aiming at limbs in an attempt to disable the mutineers rather than than kill them, not as an act of mercy, but that they were probably more useful alive than dead. However, the fighting was soom interrupted by the appearance of what looked like a talking skull.

As the image finished it's announcement and dissipated, Septishock called out triumphantly, "I knew it! Previously undiscovered sentient life!" but his victory was short-lived, as an external force seemed to grab the ship and fling it into some sort of space anomaly. However, control seemed to return to the consoles, so Septishock braced himself and quickly set the scanners to make a comprehensive sweep of the portal as they passed through before the g-forces became too much for him to resist and he collapsed to the floor; no point wasting this opportunity to study a subspace event first hand.

As the shaking finally stopped and the ship stabilized. Septishock pulled himself back up to the console, only to see a warning: "Starmap not found, calculating position."

"We're lost," Septishock declared out loud, with only a slight hint of concern, "We should cease our belligerence for now. In an emergency situation, a full crew is better than half a crew. Destroy us, and you lose half the skill necessary for running this ship, and my previous threat of being stranded in space forever will most likely come to fruition. You seem like a reasonable, though misguided lot; what say you?" Septishock pointed his gun arm at the core group of Predacons still huddled around the door, ready to resume combat, staring at them with his single, inscrutable eye, which, while incapable of expression, appeared threatening nonetheless.

WingWraith wobbled as the rest got to there feet, trying to collect themselves and decide what they were doing, now. He found himself staring down Septishocks weapon.

"I-"

Just then, the ship lurched forward, and began spinning sideways! The emergency systems and lights began flashing, a voice announcing over the comm system, "Warning- total failure of multiple systems; propulsion and navigation: Disabled. Approaching planet; crash probability: 99.9%. Emergency procedures strongly recommended."

WingWraith managed to keep his footing, this time, and was quicker to act. "Predacons, retreat!" He and a handful of others beat a hasty retreat down the corridor before anyone could stop them.

While the conflict seemed forgotten by the other mutinous Predacons (fleeing for the stasis pods, presumably), the ship called out again: "Warning; emergency launch of stasis pods imminent. All pods unoccupied at time of atmospheric entry will not be launchable; repeat: safe evacuation will not be possible upon entering atmosphere- all nonessential personnel must immediately enter stasis pods, or risk severe injury/deactivation!"

Mere moments later- "Warning! Entering planet atmosphere; scout craft launch is ill advised!" An explosion later, "-Hull Breach; sealing off launch bay-"

The comm's crackled to life, and WingWraith called out, "See you in the Pit, Maximal scum!"

After hearing Septishock's spiel Blitzwing aimed at his weapon at Wingwraith again, he had no desire end up stranded in space after all. Luckily he once again didn't have to risk angering anyone as the ship's com systems confirmed what the Maximal had juts told them earlier. Not needing to be told to head to the statis pods twice Blitzwing took off as soon as the order was given.

Despite being one of the first Predacons to reach the pods Blitzwing didn't enter one immediately. After all he wouldn't get the chance to take down a Cybertronian again this easily. Before he could choose his victim though the ship entered the atmosphere and part of it exploded. This was enough for Blitzwing to cancel his plans and get in a pod while Wingwraith taunted the Maximals one last time. "Ugh blowhard."

Septishock stood, seemingly calm, at his station, though that was only how it appeared. Inside, his mind was racing. He had decided to stay here in the ship, not out of a sense of loyalty or bravery, but because how else was he going to study anything without the ships impressive array of sensors and research equipment?

"I will stay here and attempt to minimize the damage from the landing," Septishock declared, "If anyone wishes, you may evacuate, but do try to reconvene at the ship as soon as possible. There is research to be done." He then strapped himself in and tried to regain some semblance of control over the ship.

---

Mercifully, Nautica made it to engineering uninterrupted. However, even on her way there, she noticed that whatever the ethereal alien caused did a number on the ship. Conduits were hanging loosely in the hallway, still live and sending sparks. That was okay, that could be fixed. When she came upon a giant girder skewering one of the hallways though, she saw the writing on the wall: The ship broke it's back, and it was never going to transwarp again. Not without disintegrating upon warp exit.

Still, there was some life left in it, hopefully enough to get them to safety. As she heard the announcment, her spirits actually lifted up - A planet was a good deal better than being stranded in the void of space. She quickly moved to the consoles that were still active, pulling up the damage control screen and patching into communications. "Bridge! This is engineering, is anyone receiving? I have some control over the systems. Main propulsion is gone, but I can give you the maneuvering thrusters, is anyone at the helm?" She asked, unaware of how the engagement with the predacons went.

If there wasn'T, or if her message did not get through, she wondered what she could do. Pulling up the sensor feed that still worked, she took a look at the readings of the planet. A lot of water, good, good. Maybe if I fire the thrusters at the last second manually, I can turn the fall into a glide at the last minute and splash down. Hopefully somewhere close to shore. Then she had another thought. "Ship, are the weapons operational?"

The ship replied, "Weapons systems are not currently energized, but functional. Do you wish to divert power from the thrusters?"

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With thrusters at least, Septishock was able to attempt to negotiate a landing they might walk away from!

"Warning: We have fully entered the atmosphere. All occupied stasis pods successfully launched, and damage from the hull-breach has been quelled.

Brace for impact."

The atmosphere wasn't so dense that they couldn't see a land mass becoming clear- the ship clipped some kind of glacial formation, and spun counterclockwise partly before beginning to glide on water! The ship made a big splash before flipping, twice, and finally hitting ground below water, coming to a rough stop on a shore, with the bridge portion fulling submerged!

"Status Report: The ship has come to a full stop. Hull integrity at 60%; launch bay doors: Destroyed; interior explosion. Forward wing on the port side: Destroyed; collision mid-landing. Aft-starboard main thrusters: misaligned and severely damaged; impact with celestial body, probable.

Initiating environmental scans... Scanning... Scanning... Scanning..."