(Armada, G1 combo.)
Can you find the reoccurring theme in my Starscream stories?
This is a bit different from my other two. I adore a young Starscream. And always wanted to see what his life would be like as an Autobot. Of course, he can never start out as an Autobot, and is never wholly innocent.
Pet project. Like all my others, I get to it when I get to it.
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Chapter 1: Razorwire
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"I don't understand why we have tae scout this place. It's already been searched. And the damn booby traps are a pain on top of it." Ironhide trudged behind Jazz, glancing up at the more fleet-footed sabatour. Said 'bot glanced back at the weapons specialist.
"Well, if we gotta search it, we gotta search it, man. Orders, and patrol duty fell to us this time. So deal with it, ey?" Jazz shrugged and perched high up, tilting his head and turning his scanners to their highest settings while he waited for Ironhide.
The landscape was vast and bleak, with dust and dirt settled on the surface. There were a few mountainous formations and hills, along with a valley or two somewhere on the surface. Space dust was their only company out here.
"This place is depressin' man. I gotta get transferred somewhere with more color.," Jazz set his hands on his hips, glancing back at Ironhide, "Its messin' with my groove."
"Shaddup, it ain't bad here. No distractions, so stop complaining," Ironhide snapped, stomping up to where Jazz was standing and looking out at the unimpressive landscape, "Hate whiners."
Jazz stared at him with a raised optical ridge.
"… What?"
"Nothing." Jazz turned around and hopped up to a higher place, scanning the bleak area. Ironhide kicked up some dust and watched their back bellow him.
"Dust, dust, and SPACE dust."
"… Traces of oil, energon, coolant, and fuel." Jazz reported, directing his vision to the direction the wind. Ironhide turned a bit quickly.
"Fresh? A lot of it?" He climbed up and around to look in the direction Jazz was looking, looking for any color or movement.
"There must be to have particles in the air this far. Check over that formation." Jazz started to hop down, sliding down a more flat side of the rocky formation they were on. Ironhide just grumbled.
"You take the high road. I've got the low road."
--
It felt like he'd been trapped for vorns, and his stressed internal clock informed him he had been there for about five megacycles. His internal systems also informed him that his energy levels were down to a pathetic 11. If he didn't escape soon…
He strained his limbs, gritting his dermal plating and trembling as the wire cut into his circuitry more, only managing a choked moan of pain. Dust and dirt clung to his armor, sticking to him by his own energon, which pooled around him in copious amounts.
Hours ago, the seeker had landed in order to rest and recharge. He'd tripped suddenly and found something tightened around his ankle. There had to have been some kind of a motion sensor, because more of the wire loops tightened around him and held him down. A wire around his neck restricted his ability to call out, and the wire around one of his wrists held it away from his body. His other arm had a wire looped around he elbow, and another wire was cutting into his knee joint. But perhaps the worst were those wires around his wings. A lopsided wire was tightened around his wing and shoulder, and another around his arm and wing. For the first half hour, the trap would have simply held him in place, but his struggles coupled with time changed that. Now the wires were hardly visible, buried past the seeker's metal plating and slicing into wires and tubes.
Activating his thrusters to try and pull away had been one of worst ideas he'd had, and his panicked processor was starting to slow with the lack of energon. Every move hurt, and he had begun to taste energon creeping up the back of his throat. A distress signal had been sent out, but no one had arrived. Several distress signals had been sent out, and they should have been picked up. They had been on all Decepticon frequencies. He sent out another distress call, on all frequencies, before coughing and arching in pain.
An undetermined amount of time later, his audios barely managed to pick up the sounds of a helecopter alt mode. He wasn't aware of the time that had passed before footsteps were practically on top of him. The voices hardly made sense, and his flickering optics only caught glances of the mechs around him. Green colors, orange colors, black and yellow colors. None of them meant anything to him.
"Aww geeze… some lost little seeker sparkling." Someone's foot stepped close to his helm.
"No sigils. What do you think?" A shape crouched over him, reaching out and tilting his helm to the side slightly to get a better look at the little seeker's face. He gurgled out a pained whimper in response.
"Bah, he's a Decepticon, no question about it. There's that training academy around here. And have you ever heard of an Autobot seeker?"
"Well frag you too. What's he doing out here then? In this old sensor snare trap?" The speaker bent down and tugged at one of the wires, eliciting a squeal of pain.
"Primus he looks pathetic. He probably won't make it back to the training camp, and I don't want to carry him. This dust is already clinging to my new wax job."
"Yeah yeah. If we just leave him, he'll go into stasis and pass. Lets just get to the base, I want some high grade."
"Get started without me. I'll put him out of his misery." The mech loomed over and cast a dark shadow in the seeker's vision, feeling a hand rest on his cockpit and watching a gun come into focus as it pressed against his forehead. The seeker let out a broken whimper, quivering and struggling in protest of the vague impending death.
After being alone for megacycles, wounded, he was going to get a pity-less mercy killing. Without his consent no less. He wasn't even able to find Thundercracker before dying.
Shots reached his audios.
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"AUGH!"
"What the?!"
Ironhide growled as he saw the other Decepticon dive for cover out of his peripheral vision. He'd managed to knock the first Decepticon away from the trapped Seeker, and continued to shoot at him as he tried to get back up. Shots landed on the car's back, and he finally nailed him in the head as he turned around to return fire. The body collapsed to the ground.
"Jazz, get your aft down here! One of the slaggers is hiding behind a rock. I got rid of the other one." Ironhide com linked as he shifted his vision and gun to the rock formation, glaring at it and moving out from behind his cover.
The Decepticon quickly rolled out from the rocks and shot at him, forcing Ironhide back behind his own rocks and returning fire.
"Don't get your circuits in a knot. It's cool, man." Jazz commed back before there was a sudden cry of surprise followed by more gunshots, and then silence. Ironhide jumped out from behind his cover, gun raised as he moved forward,
"Jazz?"
"Now tell me the high road ain't better?" Jazz was standing cool and suave, over a skillfully shot and cuffed Decepticon helicopter. The captured mech was struggling and grunting in protest, but stopped as soon as Ironhide stuck the barrel of his blaster in his face.
"Don't move, fragger. Maybe I ought to just leave you here to bleed out and offline on your own. Or I could just shoot you." Ironhide pulled a very impressive menacing grin. The Decepticon squeaked in response.
"N-no!"
Ironhide scoffed and rolled his optics, "At least you could protest. Jazz, help me over here." He put away the blaster and walked back to the dead Decepticon, kicking him over to check he was dead before switching his attention to the seeker. The little thing gurgled out energon and struggled weakly. Ironhide set his mouth in a grim line.
"Oh baby, that does not look promising," Jazz cringed behind him, bending down and checking the snare leads into the ground. He couldn't get close without stepping into the pool of energon, and Ironhide was already kneeling in it.
"I listened a bit before jumping in. This little guy is probably from the Decepticon training camp about twenty-three clicks from here. Question is; why is he out here?" he ran his fingers along the wire around the youngling's neck, following it to the ground and pulling out his blaster. The seeker's optics flickered and he tried to recoil, eliciting a restricted yelp of pain.
"No sigils though?" Jazz scanned the wrecked body sadly. The wires were imbedded past metal flesh, and his wings had been sliced halfway off.
"Hold still, I promise I won't hurt you." Ironhide found his 'comforting coo' was a little rusty. It made the seeker tremble. He exhailed with minimum annoyance and shot the wire lead, managing to loosen the wire around the seeker's neck before starting to work on the others. The gunshots made the seeker twitch and attempt to curl away.
"Jazz to base." The second in command turned to watch their backs while Ironhide worked.
"Base here. Go ahead Jazz." He looked behind him at the seeker again, trying to determine age and how to handle the situation.
"Me and Ironhide are bringing in two. Get a cell in the brig ready for one, and a medical bed for the other. He's… messed up pretty bad. Infact, have the medical team meet us outside."
"Copy that. Can I get an overview of the damage?"
The seeker let out a gurgled shriek of pain as he was turned slightly without the wires holding him in a specific position.
"Heavy, heavy energon loss, and lacerations to the inner skeleton. He's a youngling, so treat him real careful, ai'ght?"
"Yes sir. The medical and security team will be sent out to meet you half way. Send me your coordinates."
"Copy that." Jazz transmitted the coordinates before looking back at Ironhide. The seeker was trembling and emitting squeaks and gurgles as Ironhide tried to find some decent way to pick him up. The weapons specialist growled and held still for a moment before just swooping the youngling up off the ground and into his arms in one smooth motion. The seeker shrieked and coughed up energon onto his chest plate.
"Egh, there we go. The wires are holding in some of the energon, but he looks pretty weak." Ironhide shifted the seeker and started to walk, ignoring the frail struggles and hands pushing at his chest.
"You think he's gonna make it?" Jazz dragged the Decepticon up to his feet and shoved him forward, pulling out his laser pistol to encourage cooperation.
"Only one way to find out." Ironhide picked up his pace to a fast walk, trying to keep the motion steady so he didn't jostle the seeker. Said seeker whimpered and curled slightly into the fetal position, optics dimmed and flickering.
--
"How's he doing?" Jazz stretched out casually before lounging on the couch in the recreational room. He'd long since learned to stay out of the medical bay if he didn't need repairs. This went doubly if there was a patient in need in the bay.
"Which one? The dirt bag or the kid?" Ratchet sat down heavily next to him, throwing his head back as he downed some much needed high-grade. He'd been in the medical bay for a full day and a half working, and finally he was able to rest.
"I dunno. Both I guess." Jazz pulled out a datapad from his subspace compartment, turning it on and looking through his list of things to do. A few things were crossed out. Tomorrow he was going to leave Iacon for another city, and another mission. He'd be back though.
"The dirt bag is fine and in the brig with Red Alert questioning him. The kid… He'll live. Offlined and gave us a scare, but he's fine now. Still out and resting. Ironhide told me everything about him that he could, and I don't need to ask to know Optimus wants to keep him here." Ratchet let out a long relieved sigh as the high grade burned itself down and warmed him. His energy levels boosted immediately.
"Yeah. Crying shame, youngling like that in the Decepticon forces. We'd be condemning him to let him go. Or we'd be condemning other Autobots. Can't win." Jazz added a few more items to his list before opening his subspace and tossing the datapad in.
"Maybe we won't have to. He was running away from the Decepticon camp, right?" Ratchet swirled the high grade before downing the rest of it and standing. He glanced at Jazz, who shrugged in response.
"The security cameras will tell us when he's up."
"What do you mean he's GONE?" Red Alert was staring at all the security camera screens in the medical bay. Prowl remained resolute and still in his seat after giving the information to the security officer.
"The previous mech didn't catch it. I was informed there was a young seeker in the medical bay, but the cameras show they are empty." He kept his voice monotone. Red Alert could panic enough for him and everyone else in the room anyway.
"He's a Decepticon! We can't just underestimate him! Check all of the major information stations! What if he's downloading information as we speak!?" Red Alert was contacting any available Autobots in the base to search for the seeker, while he ran from the room himself.
Prowl was wondering if Red Alert had gotten into the high grade, since the security officer tended to get louder when energized. He turned back to the monitors, looking at the empty medical bay screens again, "… Did Ratchet leave the lights on?"
--
"Hey Optimus." Ironhide picked up the pace a little as the Autobot Prime walked in front of him at an adjoining corridor. He was walking rather quickly.
"Good afternoon Ironhide. Heading to the medical bay?" Optimus glanced at him, before looking ahead and sighting the targeted door.
Ironhide sighed a bit, "Yeah, Red Alert freakin' out about that seeker. I don't think there's anything to worry about. I mean, it's not like he went out, got trapped and nearly killed so we could rescue him and bring 'im to the base so 'e could sabatoge us." Ironhide grumbled. Primus, a fully-grown Decepticon wouldn't even do something that stupid.
"I asked Ratchet to lock the room. It is my belief he is still in there." Optimus typed in the code to the door's panel, and watched as they slid open. The lights were on.
"Well well. Looks like the little guy found tha' one blind spot in Red Alert's security cameras." Ironhide couldn't help but grin a little at the huddled form of the youngling, sleeping directly bellow the light switch.
"Red Alert, this is Optimus Prime. Drop the searches, we found him." Optimus stepped forward and carefully curled his arms around the seeker, lifting him off the ground and walking to the medical table. Unfortunately, the youngling stirred and shifted, squirming a little as he woke up and blinked sleepy optics at Optimus. He smiled behind the facemask, but inwardly frowned when the seeker's expression turned from sleepy, to confused, to afraid.
"W-who are you? Where am I?!" His voice quickly reached a panicked pitch, struggling and pushing against Optimus's body in protest. Optimus struggled to hang on to the youngling.
"Now hold on thar!" Ironhide moved over to try and help Optimus hold the smaller down, "Yer still wounded! Ya can't be moving around like this!"
The seeker shrieked in fear when it saw Ironhide coming as well, activating his thrusters and kicking off Optimus's abdomen. The Autobot Prime barely managed to hold onto the youngling, grasping at his legs and grunting at the heat of the thrusters.
"Calm down! We aren't going to hurt you!"
"SIT down an' we'll explain everytin!" Ironhide grabbed at the seeker's shoulders and shoved him down to the floor before pinning his hands down and placing a knee on his back. Optimus gingerly pinned the smaller's legs down, not wanting to crush them under his weight.
"No! No!! Let me go! Get off me!" He screamed, struggling against the massive weight above him. Ironhide set his mouth in a grim line and held the other down, waiting for him to stop struggling. The medical bay doors opened, letting in Red Alert and Ratchet. The seeker panicked more.
"Get out! Go!" Optimus waved the others back to leave the room, feeling something pop and rip under him, followed by an audio shattering scream. Ratchet shoved forward immediately, bending down,
"Get off him! His knee joint dislocated again." Ratchet grabbed one of his sedatives, holding the youngling's helm down and pushing the needle into his neck to inject the sedative. He was met with a loud shriek, but it did the trick.
It took a few moments, but his struggles slowed to trembles, and then to the sounds of his vents cycling heavily. Ratchet motioned for the other two Autobots to get off, rolling the seeker over and waving his hand over his face.
"He is conscious. I'll supply a local to work on his knee." Ratchet glanced at Optimus and grabbed another anastetic, moving down to the seeker's knee. Ironhide moved his head in view of the sedated mech.
"Okay kid, now calm down. We ain't gonna hurt you, I promise. Ahm Ironhide, and yer in the Autobot Iacon medical ward, Ratchet here worked all night and day to save yew. Me an' Jazz rescued you out in the middle of the midway zone. Aye know you can't talk right now, but we wanna ask you some questions later." Ironhide tried to focus his optics pointedly into the seeker's, who were fogged and fading. They flickered off after a moment.
"… Fine way for a first greeting…" Optimus sighed dissapointedly, standing and running a hand over his helm.
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I hope everyone is in character.