I just had to write this. It came to my mind the other night and then the next thing I knew, I'm writing it and posting it on DA. Enjoy. :)
"STARSCREAM!"
The furious roar could be heard throughout the entire Nemesis, no matter if you had your audio receptors shut off or not. However, everyone was far safer as the enraged howl was not directed at them, but at their Air Commander. The ones present watched in fear and anticipation as Megatron stepped up towards the seeker, towering over him with their faces only inches apart.
"You have failed me yet again!" he snarled, stressing each and every word as he stalked over his SIC, causing him to back away from him in fear of being beaten.
Starscream shook his helm frantically, though he knew he would not be believed. He had been at the energon mines when the Autobots invaded. He held the Decepticon ground for as long as he could, but they were just too powerful. Starscream didn't want to abandon the energon mines where they had been harvesting, but he didn't want to lose his life.
That he deemed more valuable than the energon mines.
"M-my Lord, please!" Starscream pleaded, still backing from his master's wrath. "It was those wretched Autobots! They got us by surprise! We're–"
"How dare you use that as your excuse!" Megatron back-handed the seeker across the face, ceasing him to let out a cry of pain and to fly far back and hit the floor with a hard thud. "You coward! I know you ran away!"
"Ma-Master, please!" Starscream was trying to back away from him as the tyrant stalked closer, though in the back of his processor he knew that he had nowhere to run. No one would help him and not just because they feared the tyrant but because they had no respect for their SIC. He wasn't worth their efforts.
"It was those Autobots, Master! They overpowered us! I only retreated because we would have lost the energon reserves–"
The Decepticon leader grabbed him by the neck and yanked him up into the air, making Starscream squeal in pain as the grip on his neck cables was tight, cutting off his intakes. He desperately tried to free himself but to no avail. He kicked at him in a futile attempt to defy him as he gasped for his intakes.
It only enraged Megatron more. "How dare you defy me!"
He threw the seeker against the far walls and before Starscream could even get up, his brutal master was there and had grabbed his left wing, ripping it from its hinges. He screamed in agony and only continued to scream and beg for mercy as Megatron's fists pounded down on his already beaten frame.
Eventually though, the screams died away as Starscream systems shut down and Megatron's temper faded. The leader then whispered in his SIC's audio receptors, "I dare you to make the same stupid excuses again the next time you fail me."
The SIC had already fallen into a half-dead state, unable to hear his master. The tyrant turned to the others within the room. "Anyone else care to tell me what happened and give me worthless excuses?"
No one dared to speak.
Then Megatron turned to two Eradicons. "Take him to the medbay and have Knock Out look over him. Everyone else aside from Soundwave, get out. Now."
The Eradicons obeyed and soon the room cleared out, the two called on Cons taking the half-dead Starscream away, only leaving Soundwave and Megatron as the tyrant ordered. His TIC stared at his commander, who just looked at him for a cycle.
He laughed once and shook his helm, turning away from him. "I know. He isn't dead."
Soundwave merely nodded once.
"He may seem inept, but he is useful… No matter how much you protest otherwise."
"He may seem… useful…" Soundwave said through his recorder. "How dare you use that as your excuse!"
Megatron knew his TIC meant no disrespect and laughed harshly. "So maybe he's not the only one who has excuses. Do you have a problem with that?"
Soundwave said nothing.
"I thought so."