Chapter 1: A New Scheme

"Oh my aching servos, I can't wait to get back on the ship" I muttered to my fellow vehicon, H-43. "Stop complaining, T-7. Starscream's ordered us down here for an important reason, remember?" He scoffed at me. H-43 and I looked around the partially forested cliffside that we had been sent to scout under the darkness of night, to make sure no Autobots had gotten there first, courtesy of our leader, Starscream, and his orders. The moon shown brightly on us, illuminating our purple paint jobs. "We've been down here for almost fifty cycles" I heard H-43 pipe up. "Time to report in."

"The coast is clear, Soundwave" I spoke into my mic. "Send in the reinforcements."

As soon as I finished speaking, a groundbridge portal, the same that was used to send me and H-43 to this area, opened up behind us and eight more Vehicons exited through it, followed by our leader, Starscream himself. "So, what do you two have to report?" he asked in an impatient tone as the portal closed behind him. "Lord Starscream, we found the mineshaft that we were told about in the briefing" H-43 responded. "H-43 and I have confirmed that there are no signs of Autobot activity around the area, and we're waiting for further orders" I continued. Starscream walked past us with his hands behind his back, and looked to the sky, as if in deep thought.

"The sudden reappearance of autobots on earth has forced us to speed up our plans by a significant margin" he said, breaking the silence. "I have brought you all here to guard this area as I go talk to Shockwave"

"But... Sir" H-43 suddenly spoke up. "Where is Shockwave? You told us only to secure this mine shaft. Is he down it, or something?"

"Yes" Starscream replied in a slightly annoyed tone. "His new lab here was a secret, and I didn't want any of you to know about it until now, just in case one of you had the urge to betray me and join the Autobots... Like Knock Out did"

All the vehicons and I looked at each other and nodded in an understanding way. "Come, this way" Starscream spoke as he pointed toward the mineshaft. "So, Lord Starscream, what has Shockwave been working on?" I asked as we walked toward our destination. He remained silent for a few seconds until he looked up at me and eerily whispered "You'll soon find out"

I really miss the ship I thought as soon as I heard Starscream say that.

As we approached the mineshaft, our leader suddenly jolted forward and scanned the side of the mineshaft. He soon found what he was looking for, and stuck his hand in a small, easy-to-miss hole in the wall, and appeared to be feeling for something. He must have found what he was looking for, because he made a pulling gesture, and we heard a loud rock-on-rock grinding noise coming from the Mine's entrance.

Before we knew it, we saw a large, blue, cybertronian-style elevator pop up in the entrance of the mine, pushing rock and wood aside as it was raised. "Oh, that's a clever hiding spot" I heard a nearby soldier whisper.

"You two, accompany me down" Starscream ordered as he pointed at me and H-43. "The rest of you... Stay guard here, and by the landing site!" We both quickly went into the elevator, followed by our leader. He typed something into the controller on the wall, and we were soon on our way down.

After a few seconds of waiting in the dark, we soon landed on the right floor, and were illuminated by its blue light. I could see the dark outline of Shockwave a few meters away from where we exited, and he was apparently busy looking over his table, probably reviewing data. Looking around, I could see that this lab had a whole hall filled with large tanks, each one filled green chemicals with what appeared to be creatures inside of them. Predacons.

"I've been expecting you, Starscream" Shockwave abruptly spoke as Starscream walked up to him. "As you can see, my experimentation with these predacons has provided quite fruitful results." "Good work, Shockwave" Starscream piped up, a large grin on his face.

"Once these predacons have grown out of their tanks, I'll have secured Predaking's loyalty, AND amassed a most powerful army! Megatron was a foolish to have the Autobots destroy the first batch, but now that that paranoid fool is gone, I seem to be making all the good calls around here!" He said with much pride in his voice.

"So that's why Predaking didn't scrap Starscream those few months back" I whispered to H-43. "He must have made this deal with him to get Shockwave to clone more predacons for him. No wonder it took Shockwave so long."

H-43 whispered back "Do you think it's the right choice to have these things, T-7? Megatron did say that they could possibly overthrow the Decepticons, after all..."

I was about to answer back, when suddenly Starscream's mic came on, and a Vehicon on the other end yelled in it in a panicked tone "My lord! W-we've spotted appears to be an Autobot, I repeat, an Autobot!"

"What?!" Starscream shrieked, a look of surprise and confusion appeared on his face, replacing his previous composure with a look of terror. "What do you mean soldier? Speak!" He screeched. "We're being intercepted! Backup required! Backup re-" The soldier's voice was cut off by a loud clashing of metal, followed by a muffled scream, and then static.

I was utterly stunned by what I heard, and I could see H-43 already shivering in fear. "H-how could they have found us? This location was secure!" Starscream sputtered as he looked at Shockwave for guidance.

"It is doubtful, but possible that they may have been keeping watch on this particular area. The last time you came down here was two weeks ago, and it is quite logical that they may have detected the groundbridge at that time, and have been monitoring the area since then."

"My lord, what do you suggest we do?" I asked in much calmer, yet shaky voice. "Yes... I presume that the Autobots have only discovered our location, not Shockwave's" he said in a much more levelheaded voice as he paced around. "They will most likely not be able to discover the lab itself, or the extensions needed to access it" Shockwave added. "If you leave now, you will likely be able to keep me and the lab a secret. The Predacons will be ready in one more month. Report back to me then" he finished in his monotone voice, as if oblivious to the situation.

"I guess you're right" Starscream muttered. "I'll be back in one month, but only one. If you are discovered, blow up the lab with whoever's inside it." He said. "Both of you, follow me now!" He ordered to the two of us as he headed toward the elevator. He didn't have to tell us twice.

After we got in the elevator, the doors closed, and we could feel ourselves getting lifted up to the surface again. While we were heading up, I could hear Starscream bark orders to the Vehicons on his mic, telling the ones guarding the mine to leave it, and enter a different location where they wouldn't stumble upon the lab. When we reached our destination, the door opened and we exited in haste, just as the elevator descended again, erasing all evidence of it being something out of the ordinary. "Hurry, we must get to the location where the others are waiting and bridge out of here!" Starscream ordered as he transformed into his plane mode.

H-43 and I transformed into our plane modes as well, and we quickly moved out, flying low over the trees to avoid detection. "How do you think this happened, T-7?" H-43 asked me nervously. "I don't know" I answered back. "But I think Shockwave may have been right."