War cries filled the air, while battle wounded air warriors streaked the skies with energon. Little was done to prevent their falls from being painful. If a fallen seeker did not die in the crash, the surrounding Autobots would mercilessly drown his spark in agony before they offlined him. In this case, Starscream would rather have been taken offline.
Since most of Cybertron was Decepticon territory, what still remained Autobot ground was heavily populated. Those who couldn't fight were safely inside Iacon borders. Scientists roamed free from lab to lab, trying desperately to formulate a cure for the bots that were overexposed to Dark Energon. Among these scientists was none other than Skyfire. Even Skyfire, the most successful scientist of the lot, was dumbfounded at the properties of such energon as Dark Energon.
Occasionally the thought of trying it crossed his processor, as he was dangerously low on energy. Recharge did nothing if he had no fuel, but he had little of either right now. Despite the shortage of energon, even with a synthetic energon being processed, he still worked. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. Scientists were few, while an overwhelming number had been contaminated with the substance Dark Energon. As of now, no amount of reinforcements could be too much to handle. Even though he could be of use on the battlefield, his efforts in science were devoted, so still he worked. Through all the chaos, surrender was not an option.
Megatron's army of Decepticons had no reason to surrender; why give up when you were so near to clasping your hands around victory? But there had been a few "problems" with his senior staff. Soundwave, who had been with him from the start, was nothing to worry about, as well as his mad-scientist Shockwave. The two of them got along just fine. It was Starscream who concerned him the most. If anyone was to make a good traitor, it was Starscream. Treachery was only one of the naughty things he was good at. Messing everything up added to his lust for Megatron's position and the power that went with it.
"You wouldn't last one day in the pits," Megatron once spat at his second.
And his position; SIC. If that wasn't enough for him already, than only Primus knows where his limits would stand. Megatron's suspicions were aroused even more after he detected records of a hidden transmission with Optimus Prime.
Optimus; yet another expert at treachery.
Megatron hadn't told Soundwave to record all terminal history for nothing. Sooner or later, at least one warrior was bound to stray from the Decepticon cause. It was common knowledge that one warrior would expand to an enterprise of rebels in just one solar cycle. But, as always, Megatron had everything covered. He knew his trusted TIC Soundwave would do his job.
At this point rank was irrelevant, because if a second in command was not loyal, then he had no right to have authority. Soundwave's working knowledge of the Autobot archives guaranteed his ability to recognize when one's identity was false. Being Megatron's favorite and most loyal servant granted him access to nearly as much as Starscream, if not more. Starscream outranked him by only one position, but nevertheless, Starscream treated Soundwave as if he was a mere Eradicon, just like he treated everyone else.
Fortunately, Soundwave had the same ides as Megatron; "Frag his rank, he will pay."
Arrogance pulsed through Starscream's fuel lines, while his energon was tainted with his lust for power; a hazardous combination. 'Cons who paid attention to the little things were noted as worthy. Soundwave accomplished such worth by working under Megatron's command.
His skills would be put to use on Starscream.
Regrettably, Starscream's transmission with Optimus Prime had been encoded, making it difficult to comprehend. Even Soundwave couldn't put the puzzle together. Just when the mingling voices started to make sense together, a piece would pop up out of nowhere and form a sturdy barrier, preventing any progress form getting around its strength.
The end result was merely static.