"Wingstar, Amethyst, and Darksky," Starscream muttered to himself as he read the names of the new Seeker wing in route to Earth. They were newbies, fresh out of the Academy, and this was going to be their first field deployment.
Normally, cadets were the last thing Starscream wanted in the fight against the Autobots, but the record of these was already impressive. They were the top of their class in everything and the leader of their wing – Wingstar – was the number one Seeker of the graduating class.
Nightwing, the Seeker in charge of the Air Warrior Academy back on Cybertron, had made note to Starscream that they were younger than usual. He assumed Nightwing meant they had less experience.
Starscream turned off the datapad and put it in one of his subspace pockets for safekeeping. They had potential, he would admit that. Nightwing had told him that not only were they top of their class, but this wing had been able to finish up their usual studies early enough to take extra classes. Their class had been in melee combat. That perplexed Starscream but he supposed he understood why.
The Seekers official title was 'Air Warriors.' They specialized in aerial dogfights, strafing and bombing, lightning strikes behind enemy lines, reconnaissance, and of course air superiority. These fields were stressed enough that Seekers rarely learned some of the grounders techniques of melee combat.
It was common knowledge if you shot down a Seeker and managed to catch them on the ground, you had them beat. By striving to perfect the battles in the air, battle on the ground was left out of training. The Seekers had also striped away some of their armor to increase their airspeed and maneuverability.
In order to counter that weakness, these three had taken extra training. All three had energy swords and were supposedly very good with them. Wingstar especially was a natural, and could already hold his own against the instructor. This was why these three had been transferred here besides the need to gain experience. There were a few Decepticons here who used energy swords, like Blitzwing and Motormaster.
Most Transformers had given up on swords and other old melee techniques in favor of long-range blasters. Starscream knew that a good enough bladeuser could not just slice through the bullets of an enemy, but kill them as Transformers didn't know how to cope with close-combat anymore.
Starscream checked his chronometer and realized that the newbies were about to arrive. Their record was intriguing enough that he intended to be present when they flew in. The Air Commander of the Seekers was not easy to impress, but if these three could do as their records suggested then he might be. At the very least, they stood a chance of livening up the battlefield.
Miracle upon miracle, Megatron wasn't present to bother him in the entry bay. Skywarp was there though, stuck with monitor duty for one of his ridiculous pranks. He glanced Starscream's way briefly when he walked in, but didn't bother to acknowledge his wingmate.
Starscream didn't mind. He heard Skywarp acknowledge the trio's arrival over the communicator and clear them for landing. These were new procedures. In the past any flyer that approached was instantly waved in, but the Autobots had the Aerialbots now.
After a minute more, the docking tower was raised above the waves and the new wing flew in. Starscream watched as the lift from the docking tower was lowered and got his first look at the new cadets. Something struck him as off, but he couldn't place it.
Like most Decepticons, their color schemes were dark and plain instead of the gaudy neon explosion that most Autobots wore. The dark colors not only looked better, it allowed them to blend into the shadowy corners of the Decepticon's base. Starscream was able to guess their identities by the color schemes.
The one on the right was colored a dark purple-black with no secondary color. That would be Amethyst, the aerial ace of the trio. Nightwing had warned him that Amethyst was not only a cocky and reckless flyer; he was a trouble maker like Skywarp who had a penchant for ignoring regulations.
The one on the left had a nice dark green color scheme with a dark gold for his secondary color. It was regulation that all Decepticons had red optics – if theirs were not then they were surgically changed. A few got around this rule by wearing red visors. This one had red eyes that were quite a few shades darker than the normal crimson and there was something calculating about them. That could only be Darksky, the wing medic.
That left the one in the middle to be Wingstar, the wingleader. His colors were a soft sapphire with pale blue highlights and a few splashes of white – tri-colored like Starscream himself. Although there was an almost gentle air about Wingstar, it was a powerful one that subtly drew the optic. This was not a Decepticon that would always be shouting or would need to shout to get attention. This was a natural leader – and possibly a future rival to Starscream.
Starscream found himself almost coming to attention for Wingstar and he chuckled internally at his reaction. This Seeker certainly had an effect. All three of them wore only the normal pair of Seeker rifles mounted onto their shoulders. Their swords were out of sight and the stripe on their wings that marked their rank was a single white one of a new graduate.
Darksky was the first to notice Starscream standing there. He recognized the main crimson and white secondary stripes of Starscream's wings as the rank of an Air Commander. It was Starscream who the three approached. Wingstar led and the other two followed half a step behind and to either side of him.
As they walked forward, Starscream realized what had been bothering him at the same time Skywarp did. Skywarp smirked and leaned forward in the control panel, setting his head in his hand. Oh Primus, this was going to be interesting. These new Seekers were over a full head shorter than Starscream. They weren't in their adult frame.
"Wingstar reporting in sir," the one in front announced. "These are my wingmates, Amethyst and Darksky."
Starscream had guessed their identities correctly, but he overlooked that in frustration. "I do not know what Nightwing is thinking, sending me sparklings."
Amethyst tensed and snapped, "We're not sparklings." He added a belated "sir."
Skywarp liked that cadet.
Most Transformers had two frames throughout their life. First, they had their sparkling form which was about the size of a human. They would have this frame until their spark matured enough to support their final, fully grown adult frame. The time between these two frames was their "childhood" of sorts.
Seekers were different. Because Seeker younglings had to adapt to flying they had a third youngling form in between the two others. These children were still in their youngling frame – the Cybertronian equivalent of a teenager – and not their adult frame.
"You don't have your adult frame," Starscream snapped back, disliking Amethyst just as Nightwing had warned he would. "You're still in your youngling frame. Considering that Cybertron has supplies to upgrade you, the reason you haven't been is because your spark is yet too young yet to support the adult frame. Again, younglings."
Wingstar answered before Amethyst. "You are correct sir. We finished training for those our age early so we were moved to adult classes. Nightwing expected us to wash out but we kept up with the adults." He held out a hand with a datapad. "These are our transfer orders. We finished top of the adult class and Nightwing didn't see a reason why not to graduate us."
"You younglings graduated top of the adult class?" Skywarp asked incredulously. If those little ones were this good as younglings he couldn't imagine their skill once they were in their sturdier, faster adult frame.
Wingstar nodded at him as Starscream took the datapad and looked over their profiles. The orders were legitimate. It was possible that this group of younglings had switched places with the correct wing and were simply lying, but that seemed unlikely.
"This seems real," Starscream muttered. He overlooked the younglings again.
Skywarp glanced Starscream's way and then back at the cadets. The trouble maker stood and walked over to them. Starscream watched him, but looked down at the profiles and decided to ignore what was going to happen.
"I don't know how you managed to fake the orders but I'll say I'm impressed," Skywarp told them. "One of you must be quite the hacker."
"We didn't fake them," Wingstar vowed. "Air Commander?"
Starscream looked up at mention of his title.
"Our squadron is trained in combiner combat," Wingstar said. "Nightwing believes we have the skill level to take out the Aerialbot team and prevent them from forming into Superion."
That was the other reason for their transferal here. "I'm aware of that," Starscream admitted, "but the battlefield is very different than your training grounds."
"That is why Nightwing sent us here when you asked for more Seekers. Studies have taken us as far as they can. We need front-line experience now. Earth is a battle zone and we can gain that experience here."
Starscream was impressed by how calm and collected Wingstar was staying. Amethyst looked ready to snap out an argument. Darksky was staying quiet and simply observing. It was his gaze that unsettled Starscream the most.
Skywarp was shaking his head. "I don't care what your rank is, you need to be sent back to Cybertron."
"All right," Starscream interrupted, voice thoughtful. "We're planning on raiding a military base for energon soon. The Aerialbots are stationed nearby and will undoubtedly come in response. If you truly think you can handle them, then you distract them while we get the energon. If you manage to hold them off without any of you getting shot down until we pull out, I'll consider your rank to be well earned. If you do not, I'm going to recommend you return to the Academy and complete the class with your original classmates."
"The other younglings! Hey you, it wasn't easy graduating this early!" Amethyst shouted at him.
Wingstar stepped in front of him, "will you shut up?" He growled.
"But he!"
"He's just like the others in the adult class, we'll prove him wrong just like we did them," Wingstar promised. He glanced back over at Starscream. "Deal."
Starscream nodded. He kept the datapad Wingstar had given him. "You're free to move around the base except the restricted section and the energon bays. The attack will happen tomorrow."
"Fine," Wingstar said. He saluted along with Darksky – Amethyst doing so a second later.
"Dismissed," Starscream said.
They left, going through the main doors that led into the crashed starship.
Skywarp snorted. "Why did you make that bet with them?"
"Because there's no way they can win it," Starscream replied in a simple tone as if he was talking to a sparkling. "Watch your screens, monitor boy," he warned Skywarp.
Skywarp glared.
Starscream smiled, baring his Decepticon fangs.
For those of you that read some of my other stories, you're probably going to say that i have way too many different story genres. I do, but i have a habit of making stories. You would also know that I tend to like the bad guys so of course i like the Decepticons. I personally like the Seekers the best.
This takes place in the G1 cartoon universe and it takes place between the second and third seasons when it's still Megatron vs Optimus Prime.