Tick, tick, tick.
The sound of metal tapping lightly off metal echoed through the roofless chamber as claws tapped on thigh plating, the half moon casting a soft glow off battle worn metal.
"It appears Skyquake's was not the only pod sent to this Primus forsaken rock," A voice grumbled in the relative quiet.
Starscream stood before a stasis pod half his height again, his back towards the roughly hewn entrance of the cavern, the eerie echo of mining drills making his wings twitch subconsciously.
"However, there are no records of a Decepticon warrior in this quadrant..."
The seeker stalked forward, brushing his sharp claws across the scratched and pitted surface of the ancient metal, rust flaking off beneath his servos. With a grimace, he drew them away, flicking the residue off quickly. No insignia. Anywhere obvious at least, but he wasn't going to risk infection to find out.
"An Autobot perhaps? Certainly would explain the state of your pod," He mumbled. "But why haven't they come to retrieve you, considering how few remain on this mud ball," He wondered aloud, rubbing his talons together to remove any flakes of rust. "Unless, you have been forgotten... Which very well may tip the odds in my favour. A guard of an energon deposit must be powerful indeed..."
"Have you finizhed monologuing Starscream? Or zhould I vait in zee rain zom more?"
"Shadestep!" Starscream shouted, spinning round before lowering his reflexively primed cannon. Stealth expert or not, the new arrival should have been noticed by at least one of the miners. "I was expecting our dear doctor, not..."
"Zee unnerving zeeker viv a lizp?" The F-35 waked towards him, his crimson optic band the only lit biolight on his form, reflecting off the smirk below it. "The CMO is getting zom much needed ztrezz relief from zee medical ztaff, under my orrderz." His helm tilted slightly to one side. "Unlezz you want me to interrupt…?"
"No!" The Commander answered quickly, before catching himself. Troop health and moral balanced quite precariously on the moral of their superiors. And with Megatron's possible return, though doubtful, better to err on the side of caution… In front of Soundwave's pet lieutenant at least.
"Knockout may be a doctor, Shadestep, but he is too busy worrying about his precious finish to be of any use to me…"
A flash of blue derailed him as an energon cube appeared between them, grasped lightly in the tips of Shadestep's talons. "Commander, vill you do the honourz" The proffered cube retracted slightly, almost teasingly, though the dark blue seeker's lip plates didn't so much as twitch. "or vill you pontificate zom more?"
Snarling, Starscream snatched the cube from the other flyer's servos before spinning round, his wingtips passing inches from the Nemesis stealth expert's chest. The Commander in-vented deeply, calming his startled spark. He was an asset. Shadestep... was an asset. Don't kill him yet.
"As you well know, Shadestep," He growled. "Late in the war, large amounts of energon were hidden off world by the accursed Autobots and Decepticons alike."
"Zoundvave did brief me on your previous attempt," Shadestep stood next to the Commander, arms crossed over his chest. It was one of the reasons he was here. "And I perzonally relayed zom of zee orrderz." He looked down at the slightly smaller seeker, watching his wings flare upwards. "Vat haz zat got to do viv zis?"
Sneering slightly, the Commander held the small offering of energon to the pod, the cube disappearing as it was eagerly accepted.
"Because, my dear Shadestep," Starscream purred, smirking smugly up at his companion. "Only the mightiest were sent to guard it."
A flash of light cut through the cavern's gloom, lighting every inch in blue-white light for a single moment and after it disappeared, left the cavern darker than before.
The pod's door began to open, the ancient internal mechanisms groaning and shrieking as the metal was dragged apart, a cacophany of sound that echoed through the mine.
Skyquake's hadn't been this loud! Just how long had those blasted Autobots left it here!
"I hope you learned zomething from lazt time Commander." And with that morbid warning, the stealth expert disappeared, shimmering out of existence.
Starscream huffed, turning back towards the pod. Coward. He didn't have enough of a death wish to say it out loud however, the other Con's reputation speaking for itself. Not many were chosen for the Nemesis' crew, and even fewer remained.
The pod door finally split open, allowing the weak light of Earth's moon to leak inside.
Wait, what?
The pale grounder, her colour unrecognisable from the greying of her frame, stepped out too fast. Her speed made her stumble, doorwings fluttering wide on her back as she tried to catch her balance, dim gold optics darting around fearfully before finally settling on Starscream.
Her reaction was instinctive, right arm raising and lower plating transforming into a blaster. The weapon; however, didn't power up, a sure sign of energon deprivation, and her arm fell limp to her side.
The two of them stood silently, dwarfed in the large cavern, the only sound being their intakes in the quiet, semi-reassuring, hum of drills.
"Well, Autobot," Starscream spat the word. "State your designation!"
Swaying, the grounder stood to attention, glaring at the commander through a broken visor. She didn't say anything, raising an optic ridge.
He, Starscream, Supreme leader of the Decepticons, had just spoken in the organic dialect of Earth to a stasis lagged grounder.
Clicking a Vosian curse and receiving a reprimand over the comm. from his stealth expert, Starscream spoke again, in the, relatively, common dialect of Cybertron.
"State your designation," He growled. If Shadestep was laughing, so help him...
"Holostrike," She breathed, her Praxian accent sounding synthesized through the two vents in her mask as she retracted her useless blaster. She hesitated a moment."Scout."
"Well, 'Holostrike'," Seriously , Starscream thought to himself, shaking his helm as he stalked round the grounder. What sort of name was that? Definitely an Autobot. "Much has changed since you entered stasis." He gestured towards the very organic walls. "Enough to leave you at my mercy on a different world."
"So," Holostrike whispered before coughing. "What are you going to do with me, after you went to all this trouble?"
He came full circle, looming over the grounder.
"I," His hand found itself over his chest. "Starscream, supreme leader of the Decepticons, am offering you a chance at survival." His claw pricked underneath her chin, catching the edge of her mask and tilting her faceplates to look up at him. "I don't offer this lightly."
Calm as the little scout was outwardly, she couldn't hide the trickle of fear in her widened optics as she felt the sharp tip against her energon lines.
"And if I don't accept your kind offer?"
A soft hum answered her question as Shadestep shimmered into visibility behind her, his blaster lowered at the back of the scout's helm.
"You will join the Allspark, one way or another."
The scout's optics flickered to black, switching on a moment later, careful not to move her chin as her doorwings drooping behind her as a visible sigh.
"I am yours to command."
For one without apparent optic ridges, Shadestep gave an impressive feeling that he was frowning at the two of them.
"Soundwave, open a groundbridge and inform Knockout of my arrival." Starscream smirked at the grounder. "I have a project for him."