Chapter One: Plotting

There were three essential elements to a foolproof plot to overthrow Megatron: a brilliantly conceived and fabricated doomsday device, a good knowledge of the warlord's schedule, and something really pithy and poignant to shout at him before activating said doomsday device. At least, that was Starscream's current theory. As he had never actually concocted a foolproof plan for overthrowing Megatron, he couldn't be totally sure.

At the moment, he had one-and-a-half out of the three. Being Megatron's second-in-command, he always knew his schedule (he would have thought Megatron would stop including him on those memos, but it was almost as if the warlord liked being ambushed in the hallways at random moments). He also had half of his latest doomsday device constructed, and this one was a real doozie. All he lacked was his witty one-liner of doom. He was thinking something like, "The chain of your fate is about to be severed!" on account of there being chainsaws involved, but he was open to feedback.

"This is a terrible idea," Thundercracker offered.

"I didn't ask you," his trineleader sneered back at him.

"Actually, you did," the other Seeker pointed out. "I came in here and said, 'What the frag is that?' and you were about to scream at me to get out, I think, but you changed your mind and said, 'What do you think? It's my latest plan for that old rust bucket,' instead, and then you talked at me for ten minutes about how it works."

Starscream frowned; that did sound familiar, but he still didn't appreciate the blunt manner of Thudercracker's feedback. His trinemate should know by now that he had a delicate sensibility and needed a gentle form of speech when receiving criticism, or else he was inclined to get pissy.

"What part of this plan is terrible?" he demanded. "It's an ununtrim-plated super droid with chainsaws for arms! What could possibly go wrong?"

Thundercracker sighed and rubbed a servo across his faceplates. "Starscream, you're not..." He trailed off with a noise like his words had run headlong into a steel wall, thought for a moment, and then continued in a rush: "You're not very patient, and you always leave holes in your coding, and I think that has the potential to create a horrific ending this time around."

"What!? I'm great at coding! I got top marks at the Academy!" Starscream protested.

"Mmmmno, I'm pretty sure that's the one you failed," Thundercracker contradicted, shaking his helm. "The comments on your final reports said that you couldn't focus long enough to finish programming a game of full stasis."

Starscream's frown deepened as the memory file in question came up, but then he waved it away.

"It'll be fine; I've been studying more," he assured the blue Seeker.

"That's not—"

"I don't understand why you're always so critical!"

"Starscream, your plans always fail!"

"Maybe because I never get any support around here! You're my trine; you're supposed to stay behind me no matter what!"

"Actually, we're supposed to stay beside you no matter what, but I'm sure Primus will forgive us if we reneg on that when there's a chainsaw-wielding super droid hurtling out of control toward you. Can't you go even a week without indulging your addiction for self-destruction?"

"I am not self-destructive! Like I said, I might actually get somewhere if you would be more supportive."

"Okay, well, I'm not supporting you this time; that's for sure," Thundercracker declared, turning to leave.

"Well, fine!" Starscream pouted, starting to turn back to his project when another thought popped into his processor. "Don't tell Megatron!" he called hastily.

Thundercracker raised a servo in acknowledgment just before the doors slid shut behind him. Starscream huffed and reached for his soddering iron.

"You're gonna do just fine, my little ununtrium-plated beauty," he purred, patting his doomsday device with all the fondness of a new creator.


There was really only one thing that was essential to making it through a meeting with Megatron, and that was a massive amount of patience. Unfortunately, Starscream had none.

"Thrust!?" Starscream shrieked after looking over their latest mission plans. The conehead in question pulled his helm off the table with a snort and looked around to see who had been addressing him. "You're hinging this entire plan on THRUST!?"

"And so what if I am?" Megatron challenged.

"He couldn't fly his way out of a wet paper bag!" his second howled. Thrust opened his mouth to defend himself, but stopped at a look from his Air Commander.

"His flight capabilities are perfectly adequate for the mission in question," Megatron growled. "I suggest you sit yourself down in that chair where you belong and let me finish this briefing, Commander Starscream."

The seeker's optics cycled open to their fullest extent, and then he hurled the datapads with their meeting plans down the length of the conference table with all the strength he could muster.

"I work too hard for this scrap!" Starscream screeched. "I'm not giving all the glory to Thrust!"

"Wait, what am I doing again?" Thrust asked, blinking around stupidly.

"Leading an aerial assault on the Autobots' base," Skywarp yawned.

"Starscream, just sit down!" Megatron barked. "We can talk about this later!"

"I am sick of you refusing to recognize my potential!" Starscream continued to rant as if he hadn't spoken. "And you wonder why none of your subordinates respect you! You have no idea how to show appreciation for anybody!"

"Respect for Megatron; infallible," Soundwave intoned.

"Oh, shut up, you!" the seeker spat at him. "It's alright for you! You're the only one he ever actually recognizes! Why is that!? Why!? Plenty of us have worthwhile qualities of our own! I don't understand! Why do you never praise me!?"

Megatron was staring at his Air Commander as if he had just turned into a massive organic bird.

"You know what?! I don't care! You can just go to the Pit!"

"Starscream—!"

The seeker didn't wait to hear the rest of it, turning on one thruster heel and marching out of the conference room without a backward glance.


There was nothing quite like throwing oneself into the construction of a doomsday device to work off frustrations. Starscream spent the next two days in his lab, ignoring all attempts from his trine or commander to gain his attention. He knew that if they were really concerned about him, Skywarp would just teleport in and get him. Until then, he needed total concentration on his Death Droid.

No focus, indeed... He would show them just what his "lack of focus" could achieve.

It was sometime on the morning of the third day when he found himself snorting out of a recharge session he hadn't realized he'd fallen into. Something slithered off his shoulder vents, and he turned around to see an insulation sheet pooled on the floor behind him. Before he had a chance to wonder much on its origin, a deep voice spoke up from the corner:

"If you insist on closing yourself off from the rest of the world for days on end, you might at least put an energon dispenser in here so that I know you are fueling yourself."

Starscream choked on his own glossa and whipped around to find Megatron perched on a stool behind him. He quickly turned back to his project, which was completely exposed, and jumped up from his own chair.

"THIS IS NOTHING!" he shrieked, scrambling to throw a tarp over the blank-faced droid. "I didn't make this! It's not what it looks like! What are you doing in my lab!?"

Megatron just raised an optic ridge at him.

"Starscream, I don't much care what you get up to in here, I just prefer when I have some kind of reassurance that my second-in-command isn't starving himself to death," he sighed.

"As if!" the Seeker scoffed, resentment bubbling at the implication that he couldn't possibly get up to anything in his lab that Megatron might have to worry about. "I could never leave the Decepticons under your command!"

"The Decepticons are under my command," Megatron reminded him.

"Did you just come here to rub my nose in it?" Starscream snapped, optics narrowing.

Megatron sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before continuing.

"The mission was a success," he said. "We got a massive haul of energon—enough to keep everyone in substantial rations for the next two months at least."

"Good for you. What's your point?" the Seeker griped, folding his arms across his chassis.

"The mission was a success for everyone except Thrust and his trine, who are all in the medbay with extensive damage," Megatron pressed on. "It'll be several weeks before they can go back on active duty."

"I told you they couldn't handle—"

"I knew they couldn't handle it," the warlord cut across him. "That was the point of the plan."

Starscream reset his optics a couple of times.

"I'm sorry... What?"

Megatron shifted awkwardly on his stool. "We needed a group of fliers to create a distraction, but I knew it was too dangerous for someone like Thrust to ever volunteer his trine."

"I could've handled it!" Starscream protested. "My trine is more than up to the task of taking on any Autobots!"

"I wasn't willing to risk that."

The words hung in the air between the two of them for one seemingly endless moment, and then Megatron got back to his pedes, clearing his vocalizer with a burst of static.

"Stop hiding in here and come out already," he grumbled, heading for the door. "Your presence is missed."


If there was one thing Starscream was sure of, it was that exactly no one on the entire Nemesis ever missed his presence except maybe Skywarp on very special occasions. This was only one of many things that the Seeker found suspicious about his commander's visit to his lab, and which eventually prompted him to venture forth into the outside world in search of answers.

"Well, would you look who it is!" Thundercracker called over the hubbub of the mess hall when Starscream wandered in looking for some fuel.

The noise died down for a moment as helms turned his way, but quickly rose up again when everyone realized it was just their Air Commander back from wherever he'd skulked off to this time. Starscream glared down his nose at the lot of them.

A pop and flash of purple announced Skywarp's arrival at his side, and Starscream only just managed to dodge the incoming helmlock.

"So, what'd Megatron threaten you with that got you out so fast?" his trinemate wanted to know.

"Why would he have threatened me with anything?" Starscream demanded.

"Well, he was asking where you were earlier, and then when we told him, he got real mad and stormed off," Skywarp explained. "Me and T.C. were kinda half-expecting to see you in the medbay next."

Starscream snorted in derision. "Megatron hasn't had the guts to try and slag me in months."

And then he paused as he realized that was oddly true. Was his leader finally starting to get tired of him? Was he not even worth punishing anymore? But no; you didn't put insulation covers over someone you were sick of or avoid sending them on potentially risky missions. So, what did it all mean?

"Ah, well..." Skywarp shrugged, clearly not half so interested in their leader's motivations as Starscream was. "Come have a cube with us. You look like slag, Megatron or no."

Starscream grumbled, but allowed Skywarp to lead him cube in hand back to the table where their third trine mate was already sitting.

"So," the blue seeker said when his trine leader had settled, "how's your project coming along?"

"Perfectly on schedule, thank you very much," Starscream sniffed, raising his cube to take a sip.

"What project?" Skywarp wanted to know, sliding in beside Starscream and tugging the smaller seeker close against his side.

"None of your business," Starscream assured him, shrugging the purple seeker off himself.

"He's making a death droid to pit against Megatron," Thundercracker told him.

"What!?" Skywarp threw his helm back and laughed. "That is the stupidest thing you've ever tried!"

"You sure that wouldn't have been the time he tried filling Megatron's quarters with squids while he was recharging?" Thundercracker chuckled.

"Oh, ha ha," Starscream said sarcastically. "Let's all laugh at the genius for having ambitions."

"Oh, Star. We've never doubted you're a genius," Skywarp assured him. "You just..."

"Struggle to effectively utilize your talents?" Thundercracker suggested.

"I was gonna say he gets really stupid whenever Megatron's involved, but yeah. That too," Skywarp nodded.

Starscream felt his face plates heat and buried himself in his fuel to hide it. He was pretty sure Skywarp didn't know—couldn't know—how close he was to a rather embarrassing truth there.

"So, when will it be ready?" Thundercracker wanted to know. "Just so I know when to not be on base."

"I... have a few more kinks to iron out before it'll be ready," Starscream muttered.

"I'll have to stop by and see it sometime before Megatron pulls it apart," Skywarp mused.

"That's not gonna happen this time," Starscream assured them, knocking back the rest of his fuel.


Starscream reported to the command room for duty later that afternoon after a trip to the wash racks, freshly scrubbed wings held high and helm thrown back. He had some serious detective work to be doing, and he could be nothing but resplendent for it.

Megatron and Soundwave were poring over a bunch of schematics for something that could only have been designed by a human when Starscream sauntered in. Soundwave threw him what was probably supposed to be a judging look (there was a judgmental tilt to his helm at any rate) as soon as he had stepped through the doors, but it took Megatron a bit longer to acknowledge his presence.

"Glad to see you've decided to stop shirking your duties in favor of your personal projects, Starscream," he said finally, glancing at Starscream over the top of those little rectangular spectacles he sometimes wore when reading.

"My personal projects always have the well-being of the Decepticon cause at the core of their motivation, and isn't furthering our cause my main duty as your second-in-command?" the seeker asked, peering down his nose at the warlord.

Megatron raised an eyebrow at him.

"Your main duty as my second-in-command is to be by my side and advise me," he reminded the seeker.

"Well, as you seem to have that covered, I fail to see how my presence could have been missed," Starscream said, his voice sickly sweet as he threw a pointed glance at Soundwave.

The look on Megatron's face was priceless—like Starscream had just walloped him over the helm with a sledgehammer.

"So, what are we looking at?" the seeker moved on, sweeping over to take a look at the schematics before his commander could collect himself enough to comment. "Are we stealing another super computer? You do remember how that ended the last time, right?"

"We hijacked the computer last time," Megatron reminded him. "Stealing one entirely is a different matter."

"Oh, sure. Now you can crush the whole computer with your fat aft instead of just the remote control."

"Maybe if you had provided more adequate air support..." the warlord grumbled.

"Sorry, I didn't want to risk it," Starscream said, twisting seductively as he leaned across the table toward him.

Megatron straightened up.

"Why do you do this, Starscream?" he demanded.

"What?" the seeker asked, blinking innocently up at him.

"You know perfectly well what," the older mech growled.

And now it was Starscream's turn to get frustrated because...

"No, I don't!" he snapped, also straightening up as much as possible while still leaning across the table. "You never make a lick of sense, you over-inflated zeppelin!"

"That's rich coming from you!"

"Don't get smart with me now!"

"Well, one of us has to be the brains in this operation!"

"This," Starscream snarled, jabbing a clawed digit into the schematics on the table, "is the stupidest idea I have ever seen! What are you even going to do with a computer the size of this room that takes a full hour to search through a terabyte of information?!"

"It is connected to the humans' network of nuclear warheads. We can use it to hold their whole planet hostage," Megatron informed him smugly.

"Connected by ethernet and landlines!" his second shrieked. "The humans barely have wireless networks yet, and they don't use them for anything that important! The whole thing would be useless the second you got it out of their base."

Megatron blinked and then turned to Soundwave, who had been standing off to the side, messing with a label peeling up from one of the command consoles while the other two argued.

"He knows I'm right," Starscream huffed, cocking one hip and planting a servo on it. "He's just too much of a wimp to tell you."

"Information regarding human wireless networks; insufficient to confirm or deny," Soundwave announced.

"Even if they did have one, we wouldn't be able to access it from the bottom of the sea," Starscream pointed out.

"We could bring it to another location," Megatron tried

"And the Autobots would find us and steal it back, or at least interrupt our work before we could finish it somehow," his second countered. "If you want to hold the whole world hostage with their own weapons, then steal the weapons themselves."

"Transporting nuclear warheads; inadvisable," Soundwave cut in.

"Spoilsport," the seeker huffed.

"All the same, Starscream raises some valid points," Megatron sighed.

Starscream reset his audials, not sure he'd heard that correctly.

"I do?"

"We ought to gather more information on the specifications of this computer before making any further plans," his commander said, starting to roll up the schematics.

"Wait, seriously?"

"You have advised me, Starscream, and I have taken your advice," the warlord said. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Well... in a way, yes, but..."

"Really, Starscream," Megatron interrupted him, a smile pulling at his mouth. "Only you could find something to argue about when I'm agreeing with you."

The seeker scowled, wishing he could find more to argue about because this was getting uncanny.

"Your glasses look stupid," he groused, just for appearance's sake, before sweeping back out of the room.