Despite whatever belief, Skywarp and Thundercracker were both very content to be warriors in a world at war. They enjoyed their martial state for almost each of its aspect. Being Decepticons allowed them to do almost whatever they wanted, the only condition being that orders were followed accordingly. And that, really, was not that difficult. They weren't given high responsibility duties anyway; those were the air commander's problem, not theirs. They just followed.
They loved to fight, loved to kill. There was a rumor going that Thundercracker loathed to kill alien beings, that he had a soft side for squishies. That was only partialy true; yes, he didn't like to kill humans, but only because he didn't see the point to waste energy on such insignificant creatures and he didn't like to squash them, because their disgusting insides remained stuck under his foot and in his thruster, which was tough to clean. But aside from that, Thundercracker found his pleasure in killing and destroying as much as any Decepticon did. Skywarp and Thundercracker never even considered regret to have joined Megatron and they were both amongst those soldiers that were endlessly loyal to the cause. They believed in it, fought for it, and loved every nanoklik of it because it was that fun.
And unlike most of the neutrals that had refused to be involved in a war, they were never empty.
Their life were just that easy: fuel, fly, fight, get repaired perhaps, re-fuel, recharge.
Skywarp and Thundercracker also liked each other. They were friends, best of bestest buddies to an extend that made the limit between love and friendship almost nonexistent. They shared everything: their sky patrols, their shifts, their energon, their quarters and, often at night, they too shared themselves in wonderful interfaces and delicious overloads.
They didn't call themselves lovers though: love was for weaklings and Autobots. In that line of thought, they had never bonded.
Nonetheless, Thundercracker and Skywarp loved the war that had allowed them to meet each other.
____________________________oOo_________________________________
Decepticon underwater base, late evening.
"TC..."
"Hmm?"
"I'm cold."
"What do you want me to do about it, Skywarp?"
There was no answer from the other's berth side, but Thundercracker could hear Skywarp squirm in his berth uncomfortably.
"Oh, alright! Come here!" The blue seeker shifted his position and patted the small space left next to him on his berth, a hint of false annoyance in his voice.
Skywarp didn't have to be told twice and teleported at his friend's side. "Thank you!" he said cutely, snuggling as close as he could to Thundercracker.
Thundercracker just grunted and placed a hand on Skywarp's back, right between the wings, to drag him closer to his frame. They tangled their legs, taking in each other's warmth as much as they could. Skywarp sneaked an arm around Thundercracker's waist and made himself comfortable as he rested his head on the metal of the berth.
Thundercracker's hand drifted from his friend's back to trace the length of a black wing. Upon reaching the tip, his digits curled and clawed lightly at the metal as his hand made the travel back. Skywarp emitted a long moan and took his revenge by scraping his fingers against the glass of his blue friend's canopy, then made the touch drift down along his hip. Thundercracker bucked against him and their legs tangled a little more, their pelves brushing against each other in the movement.
Both moaned at the pleasant contact, Skywarp's mouth touching Thundercracker's. The blue seeker slid his tongue past his partner's lips…
Suddenly, their room's intercom buzzed with the - seemingly irritated - crackling voice of their supreme leader.
"SKYWARP, THUNDERCRACKER! REPORT TO THE CONTROL ROOM IMMEDIATELY!"
Both flyers moaned again, but this time it was in frustration. They had done no wrong, neither of them. They knew it and they knew that Megatron knew it as well. There was only one reason for their leader to call them this late. Megatron and Starscream must have had another one of their 'discussions'. And now they had to go and pick up the pieces. Like they always did.
They untangled themselves reluctantly and stood up to leave.
As expected, they found a control room devoid of any Decepticon except for a fuming Megatron, fusion cannon still smoking, and an unconscious air commander curled in an awkward position against a wall. The Decepticon leader didn't greet them and simply pointed at the still form of his second-in-command.
"Get that out of my sight!" he spat, disgust and anger dripping through his voice.
Thundercracker and Skywarp nodded and took each an arm of their commander to drag him carelessly out of the room. Once out of Megatron's visual range, they readjusted their hold, supporting the unconcious weight of Starscream between them, his arms flung over their shoulders. They took the way to the air commander's quarters, intending to just drop him there. After all, his injuries didn't seem that life-threatening, He would be alright the next morning, except maybe for a nasty dent in his left wing left by the fusion canon's blast.
Skywarp and Thundercracker, of course, didn't approve of Starscream's general behaviour. He was vain, pretentious, incredibly selfish, threatened them with whatever came out of his exhaust and was unpleasant company most of the time, if not all the time.
The least they could say was that Starscream had never worked on his social skills, if he'd have had any to work on. He was a real geek: always thinking about work! When they were back from aerial manoeuvers, raids or fights with the Autobots, Starscream locked himself in his lab, working on whatever until late night. Whenever they had some free time, Starscream used it to work.
"No wonder the geek is such a pain in the aft," Skywarp had declared once: "He must be getting thoroughly frustrated working all the time and doing nothing fun at all!"
Something still linked the three of them, though. Call it a trineship, for it wasn't frienship. A seeker thing, others would say, that prevented the two seekers to hate their air commander. That, and something else.
They keyed the access code of Starscream's room - they were the only ones, beside Megatron, who posssessed that code - and laid him on his berth. He was still unconscious and the seekers took advantage of it to look at him more closely.
"He's pretty when he's silent!" Skywarp stated.
Thundercracker nodded, staring and moving a finger along Starscream's wing. "Beautiful indeed."
They checked on Starscream's injuries, found his first aid kit and quickly but nicely patched the wound on his wing. He was still off when they were done, but he was looking healthy enough, so they left. It was recharge time and they were tired.
Out in the hallway, Thundercracker sighed. "Too bad."
"What?" enquired his black-and-purple friend.
"Starscream's hot! Too bad he's such an aft," Thundercracker explained.
"I think he would be less moody if he got laid once in a while..." Skywarp said.
"I'd happily help him on that." The blue seeker licked his lips.
Skywarp smiled. "Me too, but we can't just go to him and ask 'Hey, commander, do you want to screw?'."
Thundercracker bite down a laugh. "There might be a way to be more subtle!"
-------------------------------------------)0(--------------------------------------------------
The next day, surprisingly, started out very quiet. Thundercracker and Skywarp went to fetch their morning energon ration in the mess room, had a little chat with the coneheads, meaning they traded their daily share of insults and sarcastic remarks, before heading for the control room where they would be given their orders for the day.
There, they found only Soundwave who was on monitor duty as per his shift schedule. The blue mech was playing some soft music, relaxed in his seat. He paid absolutely no attention to the seekers as they came in.
"Hey, good morning to you too, Soundwave," Skywarp said, not really annoyed.
The tapedeck only buzzed.
"Is the day's schedule ready?" enquired Thundercracker, bending his torso to look at the screen in front of Soundwave.
"Negative. Megatron ordered for a meeting in one groon. All troops are to attend."
"Marvellous!" Skywarp threw his arms in the air. "Another day stuck inside this stinky ship!"
----------------------------------------*----------------------------------------------------
It was evening time. On the surface, the wind was warm and calm. The sea, only slightly crippled, was mirroring the sky, painted in warm shades of blue, golden and red as the sun was setting.
Thousand fathoms under the surface, in the Decepticon's sunken ship, the day's shift ended. The seekers, Skywarp and Thundercracker, just off from their afternoon monitor duty, were chilling out in the rec room. Lazily settled on the sofa, they were sipping their evening energon without hurry, snuggled together in comfortable silence. Would someone come in and make a comment on their proximity, he would learn to shut his mouth the hard way.
Their shift at monitor duty had started after mid-orn and the meeting held in the morning had extended to that time, so the seekers hadn't had opportunity to go out for a flight that day. Being seekers, they were naturally slightly claustrophobic and needed the open sky like they needed energon. Megatron didn't care about these facts, he was not a real flier after all, he was not 'called' by the sky like the seekers were. The warlord was perfectly comfortable with being locked inside his sunken spaceship for weeks and didn't seem to understand that some of his warriors could become really sick when confined for extended period of time.
Skywarp and Thundercracker considered themselves lucky; they had gotten the pleasure to stretch their wings on patrol the previous day and the day before. But Starscream had been stuck in his lab for the whole week, working on some whatever-weird mineral Megatron had asked him to analyse in hope its compounds would be of some use.
They were waiting for their commander to join them for dinner. Starscream was so busy for the moment that they had to do their patrols without him and, during the past week, they had barely seen him at all, except for that little accident the previous day. Though Starscream usually showed up in the evening to take his dinner and get his wingmates' patrol reports. But today, even after one hour waiting, he was still not showing up. Skywarp and Thundercracker started to wonder what could possibly hold him off his energon ration.
"The geek must be so absorbed in his work that he would have forgotten about us!" Skywarp sighed, checking his chronometer again as time passed without seeing even the shadow of an air commander.
"What about we bring him his dinner?" Thundercracker proposed casually.
Skywarp shrugged. "Dunno, how would he appreciate that we disturb him?"
"Well, at the same time, we can bring him his report and maybe..." Thundercracker traced the purple strip on his mate's wing. "Maybe he could use some, you know, distraction..."
Skywarp looked at him. "You are not really meaning that... Are you?"
The purple seeker watched his friend's features, searching for a hint indicating that he was joking. He found none and Thundercracker looked very serious: he was smiling smugly, mischief written all over his face.
"After all those tedious orns he has spent working, he will not refuse some pleasantries." Thundercracker stood up and went to fill a few cubes at the dispenser.
Skywarp followed and wrapped his arms around his friend's waist, hugging him from behind and whispering in his audios. "I know you can be very convincing, TC..."
"So, you agree to try?"
"Let's!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starscream was working in the dimmed light of his lab, as usual, so absorbed on his current experiment that he had lost perception of time. He even ignored the little warning on the side of his vision that tried fruitlessly to warn him that he was low on energy.
In front of him, a monitor screen showed the outputs sent by various sensors connected to differents compartments where the experiments were carried out in four different ways. His optics and CPU fixed on it, he was deeply concentrated on decoding the sixteen results. He didn't even notice when the door swooshed open.
"Heya, Screamer! What's so interesting here that you even forgot about refueling?"
The air commander snapped out of his trance at the ratter unignorable sound of Skywarp's voice.
He quickly shifted to the automatic-saving program for his work, not to lose any precious data, and turned to the source of the disturbance.
"Skywarp! Thundercracker! Did you ever learn to knock before you enter a place?" he spat.
"We did." Thundercracker shrugged. "You didn't respond, so we came in," Skywarp added as if it was making full sense.
"I am busy. Does that explain it?" Starscream was only mildly annoyed. Since he had been made aware of reality again, he could realise that he was hungry and he had soon spotted the cubes in Thundercracker's hands.
"Yeah well, you work too much already," Skywarp continued. "So Thundercracker and I we thought we could bring you some energon, since you're too busy to even think about refueling."
Starscream took seat on one of the large benches and invited his wingmates to join him. "Is it that late already?" He checked his chronometer to realise that it was almost night time.
Thundercracker and Skywarp sat on the same bench, next to Starscream; Thundercracker to the left of their leader and Skywarp, to the right. They gave him a cube and took one for themselves. They didn't get anything close of a 'thank you' of course, but they were used to it and didn't mind.
"On patrol yesterday, we spotted nothing out of the ordinary." Thundercracker said, starting the report as planned.
"Anything worthy of attention maybe?" Starscream asked, mood eased by the pleasant feeling of his tanks being slowly refilled.
"Like what?" asked Skywarp, taking a sip of his drink. He was feeling confident on his next move, seeing how good Starscream's mood seemed to be.
"Autobots, energy facilities that we hadn't already raided, your working processor?" Starscream humored, smirking in advance at Skywarp's reaction.
His smirk dropped when Skywarp gave him a mirrored version of his own schemy smile. He was about to ask him what he was smiling about, but only a querying hum escaped his vocalizer when suddenly a purple hand landed on his knee.
"What are you doing?" he asked, too surprised to react more properly.
"You're working pratically all the time, commander. Aren't you fed up of that train of life? Don't you wish you could have a little fun sometimes?" Skywarp spoke lowly, moving his hand from the air commader's knee to his thigh, caressing lightly.
On the other side, Thundercracker laughed a little and placed his hand on Starscream's other leg. "A little fun with friends?" the blue seeker added.
Yet, Starscream had gotten over his initial surprise and he wasn't smiling anymore.
"Morons! How could you think I would accept to take part in your wicked game?" Starscream pushed their hands violently away from his frame.
Skywarp, ignoring the obvious rejection, put his hand back on his commander's thigh. "Why would you refuse to spend some pleasurable moment with us? Who better than seekers know how to please a seeker?" he purred, while firmly stroking the white metal under his hand.
A black fist gently closed around his wingtip and Thundercracker spoke against the flap of his audios. "You will not regret it, commander, we promise."
Starscream shrugged them off again and quickly hopped off the bench he had been seated on. He glared at his wingmates suspiciously, not knowing what grand scheme lay hidden behind their seduction game.
"Why are you doing this? What are you trying to achieve by that?"
"Nothing more than what we propose, but nothing less also," was Thundercracker answer, voiced low and seductive.
He was torn between curiosity and paranoïa. Aroused and more than a little intrigued by the promises, but at the same time afraid of why they would want to do this with him. He knew he was handsome, but it couldn't be the only reason his wingmates were suddenly all over him.
Thundercracker and Skywarp got up from the bench too and moved toward Starscream who backed off, but not quickly enough. The seekers pressed against him again, their hands on his wings.
Starscream let out a repressed moan. "I don't believe you," he stated. He was still trying to push them off him, but with a little less effort as time went by.
"What do you -really- want from me? You better not try anything that you could regret!" The threat was so obviously empty that Starscream was just the slightest ashamed of himself.
The two seekers looked at him with only lust in their optics. "We only want to get the opportunity to see the sweetest side of you, commander. We had wanted it for a certain time already." Once finished, Thundercracker didn't await the reply and latched his mouth on Starscream's neck, drawing the first real moan from him.
That first tingle of pleasure helped his decision. But it was more the unmistakeable look of pure desire he saw in his wingmates' optics -a delightful stroke to his ego- that made up his mind.
"You better not disappoint me," he stated haughtily. Then he seized the back of Skywarp's helmet, pulled him in and crushed their lips together.
If the kiss was harsh and dominant, Skywarp couldn't care less for he knew that he would get what he and Thundercracker wanted, in one way or another, and that was all that mattered.
From behind his air commander, biting and sucking at his neck's cables, Thundercracker watched as dark lips moved on white ones. The sight was arousing, but he too wanted his share. He waited a bit more, entertaining himself with Skywarp's groans of delight until he decided his friend had had enough and seized Starscream's shoulder to turn him toward him, moving in to claim a kiss for himself.
Starscream stiffened and put a hand on Thundercracker's face, stopping him short none too gently. "You'll have only what I decide to give you!" he hissed, staring at the blue seeker haughtily.
Then, Thundercracker shivered as Starscream's optics dimmed. The blue hand slid from his face, caressing, and he let out a small whimper when his commander gave him what he had wanted.
Slowly, not wanting to be rejected again, Thundercracker placed his hands on Starscream sides, barely brushing the metal. As there was no negative reaction, he dared to stroke the smooth surface more firmly and off-lined his optics to better enjoy the feeling of Starscream's tongue pushing against his - and Starscream's satisfied moans of approval.
Skywarp, having also accepted his commander's warning, was just content to watch the kiss while fervently massaging Starscream's wings. He wasn't half as stupid as he pretended to be and knew that, if he wanted Starscream to keep the game up, he better remain like the air commander wanted him to be: obedient, like always. It wasn't really an issue.
The light touches and the submissive kiss stroked both Starscream's external sensors and ego, making him soon want more from the play. He didn't want to rush things too quickly though, if he could get more than one overload during the evening. Not only for himself, of course: he first wanted to send at least one of his wingmates over the edge. And he knew exactly how to make everybody happy.
He started to move forward, pushing Thundercracker by the sole strength of his mouth and tugged Skywarp along. Starscream pinned Thundercracker against a bench, breaking the kiss only to shift his mouth to a white neck, making the blue seeker groan. He placed a hand flat on Thundercracker's cockpit and caressed his way down, then up again, teasingly.
His other hand took hold of Skywarp's head, bringing it closer to his frame -this time gently- until the black-and-purple seeker's mouth touched his neck. The unspoken command was more than clear and Skywarp dilligently started to explore his commander's upper body with his mouth.
He was concentrated on his rather enjoyable task, but his curiosity picked up when he heard a moan from Thundercracker that was louder than the others he had let out until now. Skywarp looked at him, wondering what Starscream could be doing to his friend that seemed so pleasurable. He uttered a gasp and his internal temperature rose to new high when he saw the so-arousing scene of Starscream pratically devouring Thundercracker's neck, his hand down between his legs, fingering his friend's port cover.
"Commander, please..." Thundercracker muttered between moans, his face harboring an expression of blissful agony.
Skywarp, still licking the red metal of Starscream's chest, couldn't help watching and wished Starscream would not make his wingmate suffer much longer. He stared, optics wide with lust, as Starscream eventually gave in at Thundercracker's pleas and removed his port cover. Lubricant had been shining out between the seams of Thundercracker's port and a reasonable amount of it poured on Starscream's hand when the cover was set aside. The air commander let out a groan of approval and licked one of his fingers in front of two trembling seekers.
"Hmm, tasty," he purred. Then his own cover was removed and he exposed an equally wet port.
Skywarp and Thundercracker groaned at the sight of the treat both lusted for.
Starscream, tantalizing, lightly traced the rim of his port with one digit. "What will it be?" he asked, but they knew better than try to answer it; Starscream would take care of that.
Another click was heard and Starscream's spike cover was tossed aside. Skywarp and Thundercracker groaned again in concert, watching another delicious-looking treat unfold, not oversized but thick and standing hard to attention. Their own spike covers were feeling at least uncomfortable.
"Thundercracker," Starscream eventually said: "Will you leave your wingmate like this or are you going to help him uncover himself?!"
"N..No sir!" Thundercracker awoke from his trance and went to Skywarp. Not knowing which cover Starscream wanted him to remove, he removed both of his friend's covers. Skywarp let his spike unfold with a soft moan of relief.
They looked back at Starscream, waiting for his next command. Ruby-colored optics shone as Starscream liked what he saw.
"Come on, TC..." He used this nickname for the first time and it meant a lot for the blue seeker. "Are you shy or... not well gifted?"
Thundercracker let his modesty paint his cheek a light shade of purple and removed his own cover, allowing something that was very decent to unfold under his wingmates' approving- and slightly admirative- gazes. Not that Thundercracker's attributes were of monstrous proportions, it was a bit longer but a tad less thicker than Starscream's.
Starscream laughed, certainly not mockingly. "Ah, so much beauty and even more possibilities!" He opened his arms. "Let's try them all!" He smiled at his wingmates, now lusting for them as much as they lusted for him."
Thundercracker and Skywarp positioned themselves on their knees to pleasure their commander, but Starscream pulled them up gently. "I want you to overload first!" he declared, giving a quick kiss to Skywarp.
On Starscream's command, Thundercracker lay on his back, Skywarp over him.
"Overload him!" was the simple command as Starscream settled behind Skywarp.
The black-and-purple seeker didn't hesitate and moved over his blue mate, taking his mouth for a deep kiss, moaning at the feeling of Starscream mouthing his wings' edges.
Thundercracker watched, with fondness and anticipation, Skywarp move away from his face with a malicious smile and kiss his way down his body. Skywarp didn't see why he should wait to take what he wanted and went directly for Thundercracker's spike, neglected until now and looking attractive. He had it down his throat in no time. Thundercracker arched his back and grabbed Skywarp's wingtips for sanity support, while Starscream's head was burried between Skywarp's legs. A concert of delighted and pleasure-filled noises of varying intensity followed instantly, between other wet sounds. Wonderful music to three pairs of audios, far too happy to truly enjoy the sounds of their game.
Skywarp's gasps were muttered by the piece of warm metal sliding in his mouth. It was so hard for him to concentrate on what he was doing when Starscream's tongue unforgivingly kept hitting that spot inside his port. Droplets of condensation formed on his body and the others' as well. Skywarp was having a hard time resisting the urge to squeeze his legs, feeling his overload already close. Thundercracker hoped he was helping him by moving his hips, humping his friend's mouth gently where Skywarp couldn't move himself.
Visual and sensory input soon had Thundercracker lose it and he overloaded the first, then watched with admiration and already renewing lust as Skywarp didn't spill any of his essence.
The black-and-purple seeker lifted his head, letting go of his spike and his own overload followed suit, his hands clenching on Thundercracker's hips.
Starscream allowed them just a moment of recovery.
"I hope you still have some want and energy left." He was yet to get his overload and knew exactly how he wanted to have it.
Still panting a little, Skywarp and Thundercracker recovered swiftly for the next round. They wanted some more of that play and certainly more of their air commander; they thought they had gotten too little of him until now.
"You had us where you wanted to, commander." Thundercracker straightened himself and moved to where Starscream was kneeled.
"Not yet I have!" Starscream retorted with a smirk.
With no further wait, Starscream crawled lasciviously toward Skywarp and loomed over him, his shadow dominating the black-and-purple mech who stared back at him expectantly.
Helped by a hand on each side of his subordinate's head, Starscream lowered himself down and foreward on him, keeping black knees apart with his own.
Skywarp let out a small cry as Starscream entered him. The light discomfort of the initial penetration made him stiffen, but he relaxed soon enough, allowing Starscream to keep going. The air commander sighed at the pleasant feeling and lowered himself until his spike was fully settled inside Skywarp's port.
He remained immobile then and Skywarp placed his hands on red hips. "Oh Starscream, please, I'm made of stern stuff!" he whined.
Starscream laughed a little and whispered. "I know, just wait a minute!" He shifted his gaze to Thundercracker. "Why are you sitting there doing nothing?" His voice was raspy with need.
Thundercracker stared, unmoving, not quite understanding what Starscream wanted from him. That is, until his sexy air commander faintly wiggled his aft, his wet port suddenly very obvious and optic-catching. Thundercracker became purple again.
"Thundercracker!" Starscream spat, annoyed. "I am not going to wait all night!"
Thundercracker snapped out of his staring transfixation. "N...no sir"
Starscream watched him come closer much too slowly for his liking. When the blue seeker hesitated, the tip of his spike in front of Starscream's port entrance, Starscream sighed and pushed his aft backward, hissing a little as he impaled himself on Thundercracker's spike and pulled almost out of Skywarp in the same movement. Twin moans followed his action, one of pleasant surprise and one of frustration.
The blue seeker steadied himself by holding Starscream's hips and started to move at slow pace, moaning softly. His air commander was lovely hot and tight around him.
Starscream copied his rhythm and plunged himself back in Skywarp, watching the white face contort with pleasure.
"Screamer... please... faster!" Skywarp groaned.
"Ask... your friend... over there!" Starscream retorted, glancing back at Thundercracker with annoyance.
"Teecee!" Skywarp moaned. "Thank Primus... you don't fly… like you fuck!"
Starscream couldn't help but laugh at that and Thundercracker just grinned. "You want me to fuck you like I fly, commander?" he asked, falsly innocent.
"That'd be appreciated, soldier!" Starscream hissed.
The blue seeker shrugged. "Alright then!"
Next he knew, Starscream gasped loudly, suddenly pinned against Skywarp, cockpits scraping together, Their bodies thrusted hard against each other by the violence of Thundercracker's pounding.
"Like... that?"
"Yes!" Skywarp cried out as Starscream got a hold of himself and synchronised again with Thundercracker.
The blue seeker grunted at each hard thrust, Starscream's port clenching so wonderfuly tight on his spike. Skywarp clung to them and his hips met Starscream's the best they could. The pleasure was so overwhelming that he didn't mind the dynamic weight of both his wingmates over him. Starscream cried, his hips squeezed in the middle; he couldn't tell what was giving him most pleasure, the one he was in or the one that was in him. All he was aware of was the delicious warmth enveloping him, his body pierced by a measureless pleasure, threatening to take him apart.
It was good. Just so good!
At that pace, unfortunately, they couldn't last long. Starscream was the first to come, the charge in his body having built up since the very beginning without relief until then. He overloaded with a sensual moan. The sound of it, combined with the warm feeling of his commander's essense inside him, had Skywarp follow almost immediately after. He sighed deeply against Starscream's head, buried in the black-and-purple seeker's neck.
Unexpectedly, Thundercracker proved to be the loudest in overload, roaring deeply as he did so. His release dragged a faint whimper from Starscream.
A moment of relative silence followed. The sound of overworking vents filled the lab for a time when everybody simply enjoyed the post-overload haze, bodies slowly recovering from the heat of passion. They barely realised how quickly their bodies cooled down. The comfortable temperature of the room had made them sleepy and they soon fell in a sweet torpor.
Left alone on the work table, one week of hard work was ruined - or maybe not quite. The unknown elements, which were heat-reactive, had broken their test compartiments and were now glowing quietly blue from their expelled energy.
