Orange flowed from the sky.  Howling winds shrieked against the starry
scape as the cloudy surface of the fifth planet of the Ska system came into
view.  Shrieking like a streaking beam of light, the gassy clouds opened and
enveloped the visage of a purple and silver shuttle, ripping a hole in the
atmosphere, allowing a smaller red and white jet to follow in the hole behind
it.

        The surface was passing rushing up quickly now, and the continents
could be seen among frothing, blue oceans of water.  The surface of the planet
was outlined in glowing fires, coming from the interior of the planet.  This
was a hostile world, not welcome to any forms of life.
        
        The shuttle hummed to a slow over a wide plateu, steam apparent in all
directions hundred of kilometres away.
        "Astrotrain to commander Starscream, the grid-data indicates we are
29.5 kilometres and closing in on target, on an azimuth heading northwest.
Request permission to land."

        The response over the communicator was quick and cold.

        "Don't you dare set down on the plateau!  We would be sitting ducks
for any military operation!  Set course past the objective and set down in the
volcanic area beyond it, from there we will approach the target."

        Starscream allowed his scope to pan the desert below him.  He chuckled
to himself at the desert landscape, so reminiscint of an Earthen desert.  He
swooped below and watched the dust swirl below his engines.
        The target was now below, Starscream turned upside down.
        Soundwave, who was riding Starscream in communicator mode was in
cyclical shutdown to conserve energy.  Suddenly he awoke, plummeting to the
planets surface.
        "Soundwave," crackled the voice of Starscream, "scout the target area,
report back to me every detail."

        Soundwave transformed in just enough time to allow his legs to hit the
ground.  His first action was to verbally curse Starscream and then instantly
confirm his orders through the communicator, "yes, commander."
        
        "Fine with me," thought Soundwave, happy enough to strike out on his
own, he didn't exactly care for Starscream in the least.  "I work better
without the direction of puny minds, he thought, opening his chest, and letting
out a sleek black cassete that transformed into Ravage the Jaguar.

        Soundwave stroked the metallic cat and scanned the horizon in all
directions.  Ravage suddenly stiffened and began to growl.
        From beyond a crevice in the plateau a shiny black creature rose.  With
spikes along its body and an enourmous mouth revealing hundreds of teeth, it
reached full height, almost thirty feet, howling a venemous hiss in Soundwave's
direction.
        
        Soundwave lost no time, he raised the barrel of his gun and locked onto
the head of the creature.  He fired, and the creature, screaming, split in
two and collapsed on the ground, apparently dead.
        Ravage trotted forward to investigate.  He sniffed at the carcass and
recoiled in pain.
        The creature's blood was acid!
        
        Soundwave looked around, seeing no other signs of life, he disregarded
the incident as insignificant.  Starscream, of course, would want this
reported to him so that he could come to that conclusion himself.  Soundwave
stuck towards the entrance to an enormous cave entrance at the horizon, by
earthling measures, a hundred stories high.  He delighted in a slight feeling
of ecstasy knowing that he was disobeying Starscream's direct orders.

        Ravage trotted along, scouting Soundwave's sides and rear, continuously
shaking his head, trying to remove the sting of the acidic burn on his nose.
        
**************************************************************************

        Starscream stood on the edge of a great rock overlooking the plateau
below, and surveying the nearby lavaflows.
        Astrotrain was humming to a landing behind him.
        The shuttle bay opened and Scrapper immediately leapt out.
        "By the Matrix!  He barked!  There is no way we are all going back in
this piece of junk shuttle, there wasn't even room to twitch in there."

        "FLY YOURSELF!"  Astrotrain replied.
        
        Hook followed Scrapper out at a leisurely pace and was quickly smacked
by Long Haul, Mixmaster, Frenzy, Rumble, and Ratbat in succession.  Behind
them all was Bonecrusher, pushing ferociously.
        "OUT!  OUT!  OUT!"
        While it was apparent that a case of clausterphobia had gripped the
decepticons, Starscream did not appear to move one micron, but continued to
glare at the lava flows that appeared to be spilling the interior of the planet
onto the surface of the plateau below.
        "Mixmaster," he ordered without looking around, "I want immediate
configurations of the stability of this planet."

        Mixmaster took a sample of the planets surface material and transrormed
into his cement truck phase.  Rumbling, he began to spew out his calculations.
"Mean surface temperature: 86 degreees Celsius and rising, the presence of
electromagnetic radiation is extremely high, and seems to be graded more
predominantly in the planet's interior.  The scorched surface area indicates
that carbon based life form once existed on this planet, but was recently
exterminated.  Also indications of a rapidly thinnning atmosphere.  Volcanic
activity: Heavy."
        
        "Really," murmured Starscream, still transfixed on the distant lava
flow.  "Mixmaster, Hook, Ratbat," set up the converters on those lava flows to
tap energy from them, we must refuel.  The rest of you constructicons take the
metal on this surface, construct the boom crane above the cave entrance and
await further instruction."

        "Commander," said Astrotrain, approaching Starscream, "Soundwave has
just informed me that he has entered the cave entrance."
        "I see," Starscream grinned darkly, "apparently he decided not to
inform me directly?"

        "He is proceeding as planned, and is otherwise awaiting further
instruction, commander."

        "Ah," starscream sighed. " He will let us know when he reaches the
objective."
        "Starscream, commander, if you don't mind me asking, what signal is it
we have been tracking over all this distance?"
        Starscream chuckled.  "Why, an autobot distress signal, of course.  The
autobot is obviously injured, otherwise I would NEVER put Soundwave in such
a dangerous position by himself."  Starscream seemed to delight in the thought.
        
        "All this distance...for the head of an autobot...?  Is Megatron
insane?"

        "Ah, well, Astrotrain, there is something else here that was encoded
along with the signal.  If its true, then this could truly be a great day for
the decepticon glory."

*****************************************************************************

        Behind the second moon of the fifth planet of the Ska system, an
Autobot shuttle orbited in isolation from the decepticons above the planet's
surface.
        
        Perceptor stood over a panel of flashing data, numerical sequences
reflecting on his faceplate.
        In the shadows behind, the imposing figure of the Autobot commander,
Optimus Prime, stepped into view, along with the commicator, Blaster.
        
        "Your findings, Perceptor?," inquired Prime.

        "This is quite intriguing, Prime, quite."  Perceptor chirped.

        "It seems that Cosmos, in his preliminary data of this system
discovered that this is and extremely old system, in fact, the sun appears to
be on the verge of going supernova.
        Also, the fifth planet was once heavily populated by carbon life forms,
littering the planet with carbon crystals, also combined with a high surface
temperature, extremely high radiation readings, and extreme volcanic activity
for billions of years.  This is quite exciting news, and it would appear that
the decepticons are aware of it as well, and must have intercepted Cosmos'
transmissions, or they would never be this deep in the galaxy."

        Prime stood silent for a minute, and looked towards blaster to see a
hint of comphrehension, finding none, he turned back to Perceptor.
        "Er, yes, Perceptor, but what does this mean?"

        "Oh, of course of course of course, I didn't tell you that."  Perceptor
tapped his head feeling sheepish about his own absent minded-ness, and began to
chirp again.
        "The conditions on the fifth planet are just the right conditions for
the formation of adamantium, the strongest metal known in the universe.  It
cannot be produced by any artificial means known, since it must 'bake' in the
interior of a planet under intense radiation, heat, and pressure, for what is
believed to be five billion years.
        Megatron may be out to gain a supply of adamantum, and since the sun
is on the verge of exploding, he's taking a huge gamble by doing it, but one
that is sure to pay off if he can gain even a few tons of adamantum."

        "And the situation of Cosmos?  Do you know how he became disabled,
where is he?" asked Prime.

        "That I can't tell you," furrowed Perceptor, troubled at the unkonwn
fate of his friend, the autobot scout-craft, cosmos.
        "I can tell you, his last transmission before he was obviously disabled
mentioned that he ran into some kind of a hostile situation, as he was entering
a cave searching for geologic evidence of the planet's interior.  I fear that
he may have succumb to the possibly intentse radiation present there.  It could
be anything from a Decepticon probe to a cave in."
        "I just hope,..." Perceptor choked on his words, not wanting to accept
the mortality of Cosmos.
        
        Optimus placed a reassuring hand on Perceptor's shoulder.
        "Blaster," he said quietly, "I want you to find Roadbuster and take a
strike team to the planet's surface.  Approach from the far side, do not engage
the decepticons until it is necessary.  If Megatron has begun extracting
adamantum from the interior, let him do the work, and we'll surprise him and
take it for ourselves.  I want no casualties on this expedition if it can be
prevented, even at the cost of the adamantum.  Your first priority is to keep
it from falling into the hands of the decepticons, your second is to rescue
Cosmos, only the third objective is to secure it for ourselves."

        Roadbuster was oiling his rifle as Blaster played back the mission
imperitives to him.
        Roadbuster guffawed.
        "I'll tell you something, autobots," he drawled, "I've said many times
that I would give up my life to destroy the decepticons, and this adamantum is
the best bet I've seen yet.  We're not leaving that planet without it."
        The team of Jazz, Blurr, Skids, Hound, Beachcomber, Bluestreak, and
Trailbreaker chuckled at Roadbuster's apparent cavalier-ness.  Only Blaster
thought to himself that Roadbuster's insubordinate snub was indicitive of
greater problems to come.
        The strike shuttle landed, it had been skimming the surface of the
plateau, approaching the decepticon position under its radar.  A great dust
storm had helped to shield the autobots from possible detection.
        "This will be a great day, indeed, soldiers, we will have many a
decepticon carcass to decorate our trophy rooms."
        The autobots left the shuttle in a crevice and transformed and
proceeded in vehicle form, with Blaster riding on top of Trailbreaker.
        "How far to target vehicle, Blaster," asked roadbuster over the dust.
        "On our current azimuth, approximately 16 kilometers, and I would like
to refer to the uh...target, as Cosmos, not merely as a vehicle.  Sergeant
Major Roadbuster.   Sir."
        Roadbuster chuckled to himself.  Such compassion a grizzled warrior
like himself could hardly appreciate.  His body already quickened at the
thought of battle, he was beginning to feel the anticipation growing happily in
his limbs.

*****************************************************************************

        Soundwave was now starting to become curious.  He had followed the
interior of the cave for several kilometers and it had become increasingly
narrower.  He was particularly intrigued at the organic material that now
seemed to coat the cave on all sides for the past two kilometers.  Ravage
continued to explore, but growled every time he approached the dripping,
plasmatic material.
        The spotlight from Soundwave's forehead gently brushed along the
interior,  wafting illumination one spot from another.  The dark was
insignificant to him, however, as he relied on radio waves and infrared as
his primary senses.  Ravage was satisfied with his own sense of smell,
already dancing ferociously at the amount of organic material all around.
        Soundwave began to lose himself in grand thoughts.
        "Indeed, Starscream thought that I, the decepticon communicator, would
not recognize an autobot distress signal!  In his obvious condition, this
autobot will not pose much of a challenge, and I will hardly be running
back screaming in terror as Starscream would so much apparently like!  No, I,
and I alone will bring back this autobot's head, and Megatron will see who is
invariably more courageous and loyal!"


        Suddenly, something moved.  Soundwave stopped.  All around, the organic
material seemed to mass together in pods.  He wondered if this material
would pose any kind of a threat, or at least one like the one he had
encountered on the surface.
        
        Ravage growled.

        Soundwave stopped dead in his tracks, his beam focusing on the tiny,
 green body of the autobot, Cosmos, impaled in the organic wall, covered in
the slimy material, having parts of it sprouting from the interior of his body.

        The autobot slowly turned a rusty head in Soundwave's direction.

        "Get out of here, Decepticon.  Run, and save yourself.  You have
seconds before they get you, too."

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