The original Maximal base, the Axalon, spans a crevasse high above a winding river. It is a downed exploration ship with non-functional engines and a broken transwarp drive. It is intact, but completely grounded. It has a computer at Level 3; however, this computer is exploration and science-based and does not contain many weapons schematics or historical information.
In any story set after the episode "A Better Mousetrap" the Maximal defense system, Sentinel, is on-line. Sentinel arms the ship with autoguns capable of homing in on enemy signatures, which can attack from any side of the ship. Treat these guns as Plasma Cannons with five dice apiece to hit. There are also similar autoguns and security cameras lining the inside hallways of the base, quick to retaliate against intruders of any type. Sentinel also provides an energon force shield which can be activated and deactivated only by members of the Maximal unit. Once activated, it must be attacked with heavy firepower to bring down. Consider the shield to have 25 health levels, and a 5-die soak; even after destroyed, it may be reactivated from the inside of the ship so long as energon resources hold out.
The Maximals have a single CR Chamber, located on their bridge. An elevator from the bridge area leads both outdoors and to the lower, bunking area. Each member of the unit has his own quarters. Here there is also a cargo hold, and a small mechanical laboratory with energon-refining equipment. The hold, which was designed to hold stasis pods, is now largely empty, though it functions somewhat as a storage place for refined energon and excess supplies and weaponry.
The inside of the Maximal base is protected fully from energon radiation by a dampener coil attached to the hull. Directly outside the base, energon field readings are fairly strong. Characters will take one level of energon damage for every two rounds they spend outside the base in their robot modes. Consequentially, beast mode is the mode of choice for situations requiring travel. In the second season, area energon near the Axalon is stabilized, and no longer an environmental concern.
The Axalon is the home of the Maximals for the first two seasons. In "The Agenda," at the end of the second season, the Predacons pull it into the water.
The Predacon base, the Darkside, is, like the Maximal base, the remains of a downed ship. The difference is that, while the Maximal ship was designed for peaceful exploration, the Predacon ship is designed as a vessel of attack.
Having landed on a very unstable lava field, the Predacon battleship is highly damaged. To make up for its shattered weaponry, the Predacon force set up a system of auto-guns which stand up in the fields and surround the base, protecting it from attacks in all directions. The guns are set to seek and destroy all Maximal signatures within range. These guns are considered Plasma Cannons; they have four dice to hit, and up to three of them may fire at once. The Predacon autoguns, being ground-locked as opposed to attached to the base itself, are capable of 360-degree rotation. The hull of the ship itself is protected by a system of lasers, which have two dice to hit. The interior of the ship has no automatic intruder protection (the Predacons are sure no one will be getting that far).
The Predacon ship is larger than its Maximal counterpart; each unit member has private quarters, and the bridge and hold are extensive. However, the crash has caused much of the ship's flooring to be destroyed, and boiling lava leaks through the bottom, particularly in the bridge area. To counter this problem, the Predacons use floating magnetic platforms to navigate the ruined areas. Megatron has his own personal chair, set up for this function.
Several energon dampener coils keep the Predacon base radiation-free. Outside of the base, the local energon field causes damage at a rate of one health level per three rounds of exposure. Additional damage may be incurred for those pedestrians who step too closely to the lava fields.
The Predacon computer is Level 3, and set up for both exploration and military operations. The Predacon ship contains several Recovery Baths, including one in the still-intact portion of the lower hold, and Megatron's personal bath, in his chambers. In Season Two, the alien disks have allowed the Predacon computer a slight upgrade, to Level 4. Any time after the episode "Changing of the Guard" in the third season, the Maximals' Sentinel is attached to this computer. The base is finally destroyed in "Other Victories."
Note: The name "Darkside," though never used on the series, has been applied to this ship retroactively by most fan sources. Purists may prefer not to use a name for this base.
Tarantulas's Lair (Season One)
Tarantulas, who needs plenty of space to do his more secretive experiments away from prying Predacon optics, has fashioned for himself a lair, underground and a good distance away from the Predacon lava field. This Lair is spacious, and with good scientific equipment allowing for energon refinery among more devious things. The Lair has good, if imperfect, energon dampers; take energon damage every tenth round spent out of beast mode in the Lair. Tarantulas has set up his own personal web between stalactites and stalagmites within the cave, on which he catches his dinners and entraps his prisoners. A subterrianian network of tunnels leads in and around the Lair.
Tarantulas has his own computer, provided by Tripredicus, which is of Level 4 and has good scientific, historical, procedural, and mechanical information. He will provide either side with his knowledge if he feels he needs to impart it, but mostly operates according to his own agenda.
The downside to the Lair is that while it is well-hidden, it is poorly defended, and very dark. Only simple spider-traps prevent intruders from entering the Lair once they have located it, and, once it is found, intruders are very hard to spot. Seeing any distance at all within the Lair requires advanced Spectrum Vision.
Tarantulas's Lair (Season Two-Three)
At the end of the first season, Tarantulas's orginal Lair is destroyed during the transwarp explosion. Luckily, Tarantulas's drones were able to salvage most of the wreckage from the lair. When Megatron alerted his troops to an energon-rich cave, Tarantulas decided to set up his lair there. He managed to convince the other Predacons that the cave was destroyed by blowing up the entrance; other entrances exist on the sides and the ground outside (some of Tarantulas's original tunnels still survive).
This Lair is not as spacious as the original, but is better defended and better stocked. The cave has no unstable energon nearby and requires no dampening. In fact, the concentraction of naturally occuring stable energon is so great here that there is practically no chance that Tarantulas will run out of the fuel. His computer has been salvaged and set up once more. At any scenarios prior to "Other Visits," alien data tracks have allowed Tarantulas to upgrade this computer to Level 5.
After the Axalon was destroyed, the Maximals set up its wreckage on the inside of the active volcano, right outside of the crashed Autobot Ark.
The Ark itself is impenitrable without the access codes. Between the episodes "Coming of the Fuzors" and "Crossing the Rubicon," Blackarachnia is the only character with the access codes for the Autobot ship. After "Crossing the Rubicon," Optimus can also access the codes. As long as someone with the access codes accompanies the Maximals, they can enter the Autobot ship. Within are the slumbering forms of Cybertron's greatest warriors: including Optimus Prime and the original Megatron. The Autobot computer is Teletran One: a Level 5 computer with complete information. The Maximals use knowledge from this computer to upgrade their own to match, though the Autobot computer has better resources overall.
The Maximals still reside within their same quarters, though transported and somewhat rearranged. The Axalon bridge, which has been positioned over the lava fields outside the Ark, is still intact.
The outside of the volcano has only one entrance. After being dug out by Silverbolt and Blackarachnia when they first approached the Ark in "The Agenda," the entrance was sealed with two large iron doors. The doors, which are capable of scanning for enemy energy signatures, are defended with a ring of automatic guns: treat these as Plasma Cannons with four dice apiece to hit. There are also two manned guns flanking the outside of the doorway. Maximal sentry duties are rotated. Treat each of these guns as a rack of Automatic Machine Guns, x 10.
There is no local energon radiation directly outside the volcano.
Because certain objects are highly crucial to the Beast Wars, the statistics for all important Devices are listed below, as well as notes regarding other Devices which are acquired by the Beast Wars cast. Characters have not paid "purchase costs" for unique Devices which change hands over the course of the series.
Recurrance: Unique
Level: Five
Appearance: The Golden Disk, a Maximal artifact of immense value, is, as its name suggests, a flat, round, golden object, inscribed with grooves and ridges on one side, and arcane Earth symbols on the other. The Earth instructions printed on the surface of the disk include directions to the planet, which can be followed from any area in the cosmos.
Abilities: As well as a supposed map to the planet Earth, the Golden Disk is rumored to contain important information about Earth and the Great Wars. Its significance as a symbol of the once-good relations between Earth and Cybertron, and as a unique Maximal artifact, make it extremely important.
Megatron spends his time decoding the information on the Golden Disk, and copying anything of importance to his personal files. Among this is vital information about the future of planet Earth, including the evolutionary history of the Human race, which he assumes will be invaluable to him once he is able to correctly follow the map to Earth. Also encoded on the Disk is a message from Decepticon commander Megatron to his future followers, and the access codes to the Autobot Ark. Megatron II has listened to his forefather's instructions, and examined the included codes, but has not shared them with his followers, nor downloaded them to his own memory banks.
In the second season, when the Predacons and Maximals realize that they are indeed on planet Earth, the disk's abilities become extremely important. Megatron hastens to use the Disk's information on the Human and Autobot races to allow the Decepticons to win the Great War.
Timeline: Megatron steals The Golden Disk prior to the Beast Wars, and its recovery is the main focus of the Maximal forces. Dinobot recovers both Golden Disks during a raid of the Predacon base during "Coming of the Fuzors, Part One." (Season Two) Rather than share the disks with the other Maximals, however, he hides them in separate locations. The original Golden Disk is hidden in under a rock on a cliff on Maximal ground. The backup copies of the Disk's information are downloaded into Blackarachnia's memory in "Coming of the Fuzors, Part Two," and promptly destroyed, leaving Dinobot with the only copy. During "Maximal No More," Dinobot returns the Disk when he temporarily places himself under Megatron's command. The Disk's potential for predicting the future of Earth is explained in "Code of Hero." When Dinobot discovers Megatron's plan to destroy the Human race with the Golden Disk, he destroys it.
Recurrence: Unique
Level: Five
Appearance: This Disk, though constructed by an alien culture, is very similar in appearance to the Golden Disk constructed on planet Earth. It is the same diameter, though slightly thicker. Both sides are engraved with alien symbols of unknown significance.
Abilities: The alien disk seems to have encoded information based on a strange and heretofore unknown race. Among this information: the locations of several undiscovered alien artifacts, greater in power than those that are already known; and information that points to this race creating the planet for their own experimentation. The disk also seems to have a power regarding the usage of one of the alien devices, but how to apply it is unclear at this time.
Timeline: In the episode "Before the Storm," (very late in the season) Inferno discovers the Second Disk in an underground cavern on the planet Earth. Not knowing of its importance, he delivers it to Megatron, who stores it with the other, as well as copying its important files to his own computers. In this same episode, Tigatron discovers Megatron's files, and makes a third copy, so that the alien information is known to all in the Beast Wars. Dinobot recovers this disk along with the other during "Coming of the Fuzors, Part One." This disk is hidden within the Maximal ship, the Axalon. In the episode "Other Visits, Part One," the disk is recovered by a Predacon raid on the base. Megatron attempts to use the alien weapon to return to Cybertron, but the teleportation sequence is interrupted. The device returns to the alien world, along with the Second Disk, still within.
Recurrence: Unique
Level: Five
Appearance: A small box with two equally sized halves and opened sides. The inside of the chamber is lined with tiny blades of raw energon, and the box itself contains the core of a single spark. The two halves of the box may be squeezed towards the center until the blades touch the far sides, sending their energy through the spark within. The box springs back to its original state when not compressed. It is clearly marked with the Predacon symbol.
Abilities: The core of the Spark of Protoform X, called Rampage, is contained within this box. This device is used as a mechanism for controlling the powerful Predacon; when Megatron compresses the box, Rampage feels terrible pain from the damage to his dislodged spark. Threatening Rampage with the box does well to convince him to follow the commander's orders.
Timeline: This Device is constructed by Megatron during "Bad Spark," and used throughout the second season. In the Season Three episode "Feral Scream," the spark is removed from the box and placed inside the body of the Transmetal II Dinobot (who can torture Rampage of his own accord).
Recurrence: Unique
Level: Five
Appearance: A cold, hard metal sphere, decorated irregularly with red gems. The Driver radiates a glow, through the gems, and around the outside of the device.
Abilities: This driver, created by the aliens, is the only known item that can create a Transmetal II Cybertron. The Device must be used in conjunction with the Transmetallization Procedure, known only to a few.
Timeline: This Device is discovered by Megatron sometime before the episode "Feral Scream." During this episode, he uses it to create a Transmetal II Dinobot. Cheetor is also exposed to the Transmetal II Driver, and becomes a Transmetal II. Blackarachnia eventually gains control of the device. In "Crossing the Rubicon," Blackarachnia becomes a Transmetal II, as well, before the device is destroyed.
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