Title:To Build a Future: Arc One
Continuity: 2011 Movieverse - Patronus AU
Pairings, Characters: Decepticon Ensemble, focus on Megatron
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Summary: After Megatron surrendered at the end of Dark of the Moon(Novel), he had to make a plan and begin it. This is his tale, and the story of the Decepticons, as they move to rebuild Cybertron.
Notes: Originally posted in parts at AO3, I was persuaded to bring the fic over here. I will, as story arcs are completed on AO3, import them over if there is interest.
Content Advisory: Canonical hatchlings, character death reversals, some graphic imagery of fights, planetary destruction
My gratitude to Femme4Jack for her amazing story idea behind Patronus, which spurred me to proceed with this fic. It is parallel to the story of Patronus, though, as this was written separate until the story suddenly dovetailed to that work, minor variations may occur.
Optimus Prime had been correct.
Megatron had had to destroy two former henchmen, and stasis locked three others before he managed to get all of the Decepticons under his control again and on the Nemesis. The ship had many repairs that would be needed before they left for Cybertron, but Megatron was quickly finding resources among the litter of what might have been a failed planet between the fourth and fifth one of this system.
Now, striding through the bay where many of the surviving Decepticons, including those who had made it off the wrecked leviathan ship, Megatron wondered if he would have any rest at all from the challenges so that he might begin the rebuilding he envisioned in his processor.
"THIS IS NOTHING LIKE YOU PROMISED!"
And that, Megatron thought wearily, was so much of why they bucked, unable to see the vision he now did, incapable of knowing that their race as a whole was doomed if they did not answer Cybertron's call now.
He turned to view the challenger this time, and for the first time since that day in that pathetically organic warren of a city, Megatron wondered if he had the strength to deliver on his word to his brother. Until now, the Seekers had seemed willing to follow him, but then, they were all struggling with their own rank and file, having lost their direct leader.
Starscream, your death only bought me time, came through his processor before being dismissed as he faced the winged fighter. "I promised you Cybertron would be ours!" Megatron roared. "That it would change, to my visions!"
"What is this though? Autobots taking a planet of their own, us on the run, defeated!" the Seeker roared back, advancing with deadly intent.
"I am NOT defeated!" Megatron snapped back, though it rankled in a part of his spark that he might as well have been. He surrendered.
One of them had to, and his brother had the stronger footing. Megatron was Decepticon enough to respect strength wielded in an iron fist, and that was what he had forged of his brother at last.
Motion to one side of his good optic made Megatron grow more wary, making him shift his own stance as if circling to meet the challenger. The lines of the other were intimately familiar; the colors were the only snap of reality.
This one was in blues and reds, lacking the sensor upgraded 'tattoos', but very much an alpha class Seeker, and the one that had, until now, been the strongest contender for Starscream's position.
This was Megatron's fight, and yet... would he end one just to face the other? Was Thundercracker willing to take to the shadows when he had flown wing for their best already?
Thundercracker was not about to allow an upstart wing lead take his rank from him by going past him to challenge the Lord High Protector.
Yet, the other Seeker was voicing the things so many had whispered in data bursts already.
Did Megatron have what it took to still lead? Was there a point in following Starscream's partnership to the mech who flew but was not a Seeker?
Starscream was dead, because of this mech's plans. Starscream, who had incited revolution for his own personal reasons and had become everything he never wanted to be in it. A killer on a leash, directed by others, no matter how often Starscream had deluded himself in Megatron's long absence, was not exactly what Thundercracker's wing lead had wanted to be.
Thundercracker viewed the challenger, certain he could take that one down. Should he let the younger mech do the hatchet work and then reclaim his place as senior Seeker? Others would always say he'd taken advantage of Megatron weakening the other Seeker.
Or maybe, as Thundercracker looked past the weariness in their Lord to the calculating gleam of his optic, Megatron had a plan worth following, saving Thundercracker the trouble of finding one.
He glimpsed something, a passion in that clearer optic that pushed hard in Thundercracker's spark. It was what had let Starscream seduce him over to the cause.
What that passion might be would be seen in time, but it was enough to sway the decision.
::Skywarp, end the threat.::
There was a burst of incredulous emotion, and doubt. ::Thundercracker!::
::Do it.:: Thundercracker's voice went to space-deep ice, and his bond-mate, last of their wing, whimpered slightly before there was a sucking pop of vacuum.
Megatron braced for the blow, but it was his challenger who felt his chest explode outward, forced by the energy pike Skywarp favored for these maneuvers.
No sooner had all seen the assassination than Thundercracker moved again, taking Starscream's position just behind and off a little from Megatron's shoulder. None in the bay could mistake his intent.
The Seekers stood with Megatron now, or they went through Thundercracker to get to the Lord High Protector.
The corridors rang with his steps, and Megatron scowled. There should be an answering tread, lighter with the disdain for even having to step rather than fly. Where was the mocking laughter, the suspicious questioning, the derisive sarcasm? And why, on the eve of Megatron's newest plans, did it even matter to him that the space to his side was vacant?
His thoughts turned over the vision he had for the future of Cybertron at this point. None of his three lieutenants could have accepted peace, not like this, and they would have been first in line to take his spark from his chest. They would have seen only the weakness in his submission to Prime at the end of the fight with Sentinel.
None of them could have understood the calculation inherent in the choice to do so, to regain space, clarity, and a chance to openly pool resources. Starscream might have come close. The mech had been a master in the lessons of willing submission, after all, with an understanding of the methods of controlling through being controlled. However, that wasn't quite what Megatron had in mind the microt he had knelt to his brother.
No, he had a vision of Cybertron restored, using the fact that many of the surviving Autobots had a taste for war now, to push back out and claim the resources they had charted as their war spiraled beyond their original system. Cybertron would be the mighty center of an Empire as Megatron saw it now, his hubris no longer shaped by controlling all around him, but by a need to restore and better what he had broken.
He would need an organizer, though, an overseer to see the works necessary were built on schedule and within limitations.
He would need a communicator, someone to coordinate the various arms of his projects.
He most certainly did not need someone who questioned every move, who was never far from his side, and who would usurp the glory for himself with the slightest provocation. Such a being was as unnecessary now as it had been halfway through the war.
::Ramjet, I want an analysis of the hatchlings we did recover immediately. Base code percentages of lineage tracing.:: The quick, firm order was sent along comm lines with brutal efficiency, nothing of his personal thoughts tainting the words. On the other end, there was acknowledgement. Placing one of that trine in as his coordinator had been a quick way to give Thundercracker the time he needed to force the entire Seeker contingent into line beneath him the way Starscream had.
Once he had the report, Megatron would personally survey those that carried higher percentages of base coding from the three lieutenants he had lost in the final days of the war. With proper environments, enhanced by memory data being uploaded into the developing processors, Megatron could shape what he most needed out of his former lieutenants to stand at his side once more.
Shaping a viper like Starscream would take time, planning, and care. Luckily, Megatron had known Starscream a very, very long time, and knew just why his viper was bent the way he was. Megatron might not need such a heckling, vainglorious mech at his side, but there had been reasons, all along, to keep the savagely proud and strong Seeker close to him.
Megatron was more than willing to consider the tactical ones as advantage enough, and too proud to admit the more personal need for a closer confidante and companion than Thundercracker could ever be.
Megatron reviewed the report pad handed to him, scanning it over before he circled the nest of hatchlings.
As he had suspected, Starscream had rigged the creation process so that the majority of them possessed at least some of his coding. However, Megatron saw that Shockwave had been nearly as careful to use a retroviral code to insinuate his own base programming in many of them.
Of Soundwave, he found very little but one hatchling had made itself apparent as the listener of the group, repeating chitters in conscious, deliberate patterns.
"Ravage. Buzzsaw." The most recent version of Ravage came out of the shadows, accompanied by the other flying symbiont. Reaching out, Megatron plucked the communicator free of the nest, amused at its flip between fearful chitters and angry screeching. Ravage, unlike Frenzy, had always taken the precaution of hiding away a frame with a memory core ready to launch if the current version was destroyed. Being symbiotic to a fully sparked Cybertronian allowed for a little bending of the rules concerning new mech creation. Of course, Ravage was oldest of the remaining brood, memory wise, and had tricks for his own survival that possibly predated Soundwave's influence on his existence.
"You wish something, Megatron?" the smaller, more sinuous flying symbiont asked in a listless tone.
"Take this. Teach it. Use it. Make it be what I want it to be," Megatron said, depositing the hatchling where Ravage could pick it up with his mighty jaws, prompting a squeak of terror before the rest of the nest collectively hissed at losing a member.
Ravage ignored them all, trotting off with the soon-to-be symbiotic spark-bearer in his mouth, Buzzsaw following along.
Megatron then focused on the rest of them, narrowing down his choice for the one to be trained for replacing Shockwave. The overbearing, slightly forceful hatchling was one that was known to push and prod the others into lines when Megatron had started training them to obey commands. With ease, he reached out and caught the brute of a hatchling, ignoring its attempts to free itself.
He scowled, realizing the current lead cadre of Constructicons were not known by him, but that hardly mattered. As he walked out of the nest area, his sensors paid attention to the four candidates he had considered based on code alone for the last of his trio of lieutenants' replacements.
One of them immediately puffed up and started pushing its brethren, as it realized the biggest threat to it was gone. Megatron marked it out in his processors, intent to come back for it so he could begin a little experiment.
Thundercracker was seething inside, enough to have his fields on maximum perimeter and buzzing with it. Skywarp, for once, was unwilling to follow suit, and stayed well out of range as the angry de facto Air Commander stormed into Megatron's council chamber aboard their aging vessel.
"How dare you!" the Seeker spat at him. He did not even hesitate to push right into Megatron's personal space as the Lord High Protector planned and rearranged duty rosters on making the Nemesiscapable of bridging the distance to Cybertron.
Megatron, without even finding out why his second was in a temper, flung the flier away from him in a sweeping motion. However, for once, Thundercracker was not being pushed around as easily as Starscream had been. The flier dug his heels in, used his inertial dampeners, and shoved right back.
"Why, Thundercracker; if you want my attention..." Megatron growled in his throat before turning and putting all his bulk into pinning the lithe flier on his wings beneath Megatron's own weight on the decking. "...all you had to do was ask," he continued, keeping the flier pinned with expertise learned over countless vorns.
Thundercracker continued to struggle, despite the damage growing from his sensitive wing-sensors grinding against the deck. Nor was his field pulsing with anything save anger.
"You cannot isolate a Seeker!"
That told Megatron just what this was over, and He shifted his weight to keep the flier pinned while also catching the other mech's face in one taloned hand. "No one tells me what I can or cannot do," he said, voice dropping to a sibilant hiss. "And he is not isolated completely. Limited contact, always in your care, or a designated flier of your choosing that is notSkywarp."
"He should be given over to a trine or duo like the others were!" Thundercracker's fist connected solidly, and Megatron felt a surge of lust that had everything to do with the frame class and less to do with its owner. How often had Starscream made him be dominant, made Megatron force his submission?
Thundercracker, however, was not the kind to eventually submit, and Megatron would not break the tool of his loyalty to sate his lusts. The leader caught the swinging fist in a harder grip than Thundercracker could easily manage, despite the Seeker's attempt to not show pain, and then bore down so their faces were nearly touching to make his point clear. "Your class got all but three of them. Oen of those three will fly. You don't get more than that. I have plans for him."
With a forceful shove, Megatron came up off the floor, and waited as Thundercracker's fans whirred and cycled while the mech regained control of his senses. When he had, those engines dangerously revved with the crippling harmonics, making Megatron power up weaponry in counterthreat.
Thundercracker's optics narrowed, and then he powered down.
"Maybe you really are damaged in the processors," Thundercracker told him in a non-threatening, dry tone. "If you think you can repeat his experiences after framing to produce a new one, you really are."
Megatron filed it away that Thundercracker truly was the smart one of the three, but he scowled. "I knew him before any of you did. We are all creatures born of our spark, experience, and coding. I can shape him to be far less damaged than he was before. More of a benefit to me, to our needs."
"Why?"
That desperate, emotion-laden demand drew a smirk from Megatron. "Where is my triumph, if I have none to gloat over? Prime will keep calling his own to his new, chosen world." Megatron looked displeased, but resigned to Prime's choices along that line. Perhaps, though, Prime was right. Separating their factions for now, until a new generation was ready to rise up might allow them to forge a stronger race in the end. He shifted, though, his body fully displaying the arrogance and might of the powerful ruler he intended to be, had been all along in his mind. This was about Starscream, about finding a suitable replacement for the pleasure of success that Megatron had lost when his idiot second had been destroyed. "I want to have the satisfaction that not only did I do all we ever dreamed of as younger mechs, but I survived every single treachery he attempted and outlived him. This... experiment, gives me much satisfaction since he had the poor taste to go and be deactivated!"
Thundercracker shook his helm. "You'll regret it. All three of them will be mistakes. You think you can take all their skills and tame them to your use, but they were made for the war, not rebuilding!"
"We'll see, Thundercracker. We'll see."
He already knew he did not register on any spectrum of the sensor ranges he could access; none of the others of his frame type had noticed him.
He couldn't reach the voice calling to him in that shining place. The other half of his spark was already there, and yet Starscream, master of all he cared to be, was incapable of being where he belonged.
Now, it seemed, he had a purpose other than floating aimlessly around, observing and incapable of touching a thing. He settled down on the solitary nest made in the quarters of Onslaught and his teammates. "You see me. You hear me. That's all that matters. Let Megatron shape you, and think you are his. I know what he expects you to be, and I know what I will make you," he crooned softly, and the hatchling chittered softly, understanding none of it, but susceptible to it nonetheless. In isolating the hatchling, Megatron had left it needy for contact that none of Bruticus's members knew quite how to give. Starscream held no compunctions against manipulating that, beginning the process of subverting Megatron's experiment.
Megatron was inspecting the work on the engines, conducted by the very Constructicons he had given the future Overseer to for training when the call pierced his consciousness. So much anger and a sense of a betrayal fueled it, making the mech curious as to what could have upset the Prime this time.
::Scion.:: He directed the communication directly at the chittering distraction that was his chosen companion on this tour. It immediately stopped flaring its panels at the one raised by the Constructicons, flitting directly to its nurturer. While the Combaticons, with their wide array of subversive, sneaky, and malevolent skills had the training of it, Megatron had opted to spend portions of each ship-cycle with it as well. ::Come.::
The hatchling, knowing that command well now - and the penalty for ignoring it - scrambled up the ridged armor of its nurturer, flattening into the nook of the shoulder and neck, plating settling so that Megatron appeared to have a misshaped shoulder rather than an additional burden.
As Megatron walked back to where the Combaticon quarters were, now closer to his own due to a need to ensure they did not actually kill the hatchling, he let the communication from Optimus filter through his processor, verbally jousting with the Prime as he moved.
Truthfully, the fact Soundwave had survived did not, in the least, surprise him. It merely complicated his plans to be gone from this annoying backwater system, and Optimus Prime's whining for assistance was one more reminder that the war could not just end.
By the end of the conversation, Megatron's fields were active enough to make the hatchling chirr and whine at him in protest of the agitation. He brought a talon up, covering the small form with his whole hand, deliberately providing comfort so that it would remain fixated on him. The absence from the Nemesis that was going to follow was as inconvenient for disturbing the plans to imprint the creature on himself as much as possible as it was to the rate of progress on the ship's repairs.
However, returning to Earth would give him time to acquire new stockpiles of ready energy. He knew of a few depots that were very lightly guarded after all.
::Thundercracker, attend me.::
He stopped outside the Combaticon quarters as his second acknowledged the order. The door slid back swiftly for their Lord High Protector, and Swindle scurried forward to try and curry further favor. Onslaught was more steady, eying the leader and his burden carefully. Onslaught was still unsure of this assignment; they were fighters, an acquisition team. Whether that skill was turned towards resources or information depended upon the needs of the army, but raising a hatchling that wasn't even of any of their coding or design was unusual.
However, Onslaught had decided being on Megatron's better side was the smarter tactic in the current playing field. He wasn't strong enough, even with his gestalt, to take the leadership yet, and would not tolerate any of those others who thought they could.
"I will be absent," Megatron informed the gestalt team. "Maintain the discipline and praise system I decided on for Scion. He is to be kept from any Seeker except Thundercracker. Understood?"
"Yes, Lord Megatron," Swindle quickly averred as the hatchling reluctantly fluffed his plates back out and flung himself across the intervening space to the waiting mech. The wheeling, dealing hustler rubbed along the points where the plates were chafing the hatchling's cabling, taking him over to the work bench for Blast Off to inspect.
"Anything else?" Onslaught asked, optics glinting.
"Keep it alive... and back Thundercracker."
"Of course." Onslaught's loyalty was to the strongest, and so far that was Megatron. The jetformer would be easy enough to deal with, and if Megatron's absence proved too long, there were ways to become the strongest.
"I want the ship ready by the time of my return," Megatron told Thundercracker as they walked toward the launcher. "Maintain discipline, use force only as needed."
"I will, but I am not certain we can meet that deadline." Thundercracker scowled as Megatron growled. "We lost three drones manipulating the last lode-bearing rock to where we could work it!"
"Then send mechs to do the mining! Don't keep trusting mindless drones for things that merely need intelligence to succeed!"
"We are warriors."
Megatron's talons clenched, and he very nearly hit the other mech. However, that more or less proved Thundercracker's point in some ways. "If they seek to have a platform from which to be warriors again, they had better begin learning how to work," he said instead. "Have Ravage reinforce my decree."
Thundercracker stiffened at the implicit insult that he alone could not accomplish Megatron's goals. "The ship will be ready."
"Good." Megatron stepped into the launch chamber, setting the device to aim him quite specifically at Earth in one of the few blind-spots he had mapped out, just in case. Thundercracker waited to handle the actual jettison, almost wishing he had the nerve to corrupt the coordinates for a solar launch.
When it came down to it, though, he really didn't want to be in charge, so he merely fired the Lord High Protector into space on his way to meet that slagging Prime on Earth.
The fact Megatron was not going to be in proximity to the hatchling had both pleasure and annoyance for the unseen inhabitant of the ship. Starscream curled around the hatchling, pondering his next steps as the various components of Bruticus recharged.
"You will be mine without interference while he's gone, but I am intrigued what could pull him away with the current state of affairs," Starscream mused to the barely alert and quite distracted small creature. It chirred softly at him for being noisy, making the spectral visitor laugh at it. "You have opinions. Good."
In due time, with the right prodding, Starscream would have a new tool, shaped by Megatron's little experiment and all of Starscream's willpower. For now, coddling was warranted, and the specter settled, his energy waves coiled around the hatchling as it too succumbed to recharge.
The blinking server rack was innocuous enough to first sight. Megatron would even give his lieutenant compliments for the security surrounding those servers and communication arrays. However, Megatron was not going to be denied entry, though he did wait for night, and attempted to be stealthy in his breach of the security. He did not want more organics to break into their component parts, as that would start new hostilities with his brother.
There was no doubt now, though, that Soundwave was not operating at full capacity. With a grimace for the need, Megatron hardwired into the server array, fending off the automatic attack with ease. Much as he despised linking himself that closely to any other being outside of limitedinstances, Soundwave had obviously only identified him as a Cybertronian threat via his weakened sensor net.
::Fool,:: he sent via the hard connection, all of his mastery of others, his power, in those glyphs. He savored the respite from powerful firewall attacks as Soundwave analyzed the stream.
::Megatron.:: The identification was with surprise. Given that all the organic news had reported him destroyed as part of the agreement for withdrawal and ceasefire, Megatron was not surprised. He still was amused that the pitiful wretches needed that false report to be able to move forward with their squalid lives.
::You doubt,:: Megatron growled as he sensed the gathering of stronger attack protocols behind the firewall separating Soundwave's core being from him. The Lord High Protector detected one of the rudimentary sensors Soundwave had in the room around the server rack and targeted it with the distinct hum of his fusion cannon as the direct warning.
::Identity confirmed,:: the communicator quickly said, showing enough transparency in his processes to allow Megatron to see the attacking protocols be dismissed.
::Now… this is a fine mess you've gotten us into, Soundwave,:: Megatron sent with a touch of amusement, before he flashed everything that began with Sentinel bracing Optimus in battle into a high speed data transfer to bring his lieutenant up to date. Of course, he edited it all to make himself appear stronger than he actually had been immediately after the battle, but what Soundwave did not know meant an advantage for Megatron in the long run.
Soundwave took his time processing the file, while Megatron remained immobile, studying everything in the array, in the sensors, preparing for the revolt when it came. Soundwave had been too committed to the cause to accept this truce without question. When Megatron realized that Soundwave had no true method of attacking him here, he realized that he would not be able to trust anything until Soundwave was repatriated to his proper form.
With a bitter, private laugh in his own processor, he realized that 'trust' and any of his followers were not a concept he truly could have, ever.
Soundwave hated for plans to go astray. He had prided himself on playing the long game, of setting things in motion that would benefit himself and his small entourage of symbionts. Having a strong position within the Fallen's views of their species' destiny had been his early motivation. With the Fallen's destruction, he had done all he could to shape Megatron's plans to continue on the path of a Decepticon destiny worthy of their might.
His anger at what had happened after the destruction of his shell left Soundwave momentarily incapable of rendering data pulses into proper communication, a fact he would be glad for once he was calculating odds again. In his current state, he could not affect Megatron. No, for that he would have to finish integrating into his orbital frame, and then confront the mech directly.
His sensors here gave him a complete analysis of his so-called leader. Megatron had not had all the cosmetic damage fixed, but Soundwave sensed that all the system damage had been repaired completely. That meant Megatron was fighting fit, and Soundwave had never been able to withstand him directly.
However, Megatron had made an error. In directly connecting to Soundwave's current location, he had arrogantly thought his firewalls could withstand anything. And, truthfully, Soundwave's full attacks were stymied by the younger mech's defenses. They had merely been diversions, though, allowing Soundwave's smaller sleeper programs to slip past, as no mech could be completely impenetrable.
::Initiating re-integration of personality core to primary frame,:: Soundwave finally said, without offering any comment on the contents of the data transfer.
::Upon completion, rendezvous with me at the gamma coordinates,:: Megatron ordered, preparing to leave. The warrior mech removed his connection from the server array, turning to leave the human building, eager to be free of the stink of the organisms that surrounded him here. The site he had designated as their rendezvous point was far more suitable to his needs, being in the midst of the Salt Flats and mostly cleansed of the constant incursion of carbon-based lifeforms.
The process of rejoining his frame was a long one, relying on the slower transmission rates of the human based technology. Soundwave would not leave himself open to being hacked, and that required a constant vigilance over both ends of the process.
That did not mean he was not planning, reaching out, manipulating events as he was able. And even though Soundwave did not believe in luck, there was a stroke of fortune for him waiting in the distance as he resumed operations at the satellite he had taken control of in orbit for his frame.
::Decepticon signal perceived; designation required.::
::Designation Astrotrain. Function, combat transportation. Responding to muster call by Starscream.::
::Starscream's functions discontinued.::
There was a long pause as the shuttle on the other end of the link determined a new course of action. Starscream had overcome every single Seeker who ever tried to remove him from the Air Command. He had also bullied, bribed, or cajoled the rest of the fixed wing fliers into supporting the smaller fliers in their domination of the army.
::New Air Commander?::
Soundwave knew from the data feed that Thundercracker held them in check, mostly because he had Skywarp's assassination skills to rely on, much as Starscream had early in the war. That did not preclude a change in hierarchy, if Soundwave was successful.
::That could be you, if you want it.::
The surge of ambition and power along the link let Soundwave know his thrust had connected perfectly.
Megatron did not waste his time as he waited for Soundwave to return to the surface. His careful planning since being reawakened from deactivation at the bottom of the ocean had led to his stockpiling information and materials in key places. Using stealth and constant vigilance, he began retrieving these resources, bringing them to the one central location. Some of them, such as the broken pieces of mechs destroyed here, or the unfinished shells of the hatchlings that had failed to thrive he considered donating to the Autobots rather than waste energy on lifting the mass, even sub-spaced. However, they had already salvaged most of the Decepticon deactivated soldiers and drones and even the battle platform and were less likely to need this than his own rag-tag bunch of survivors.
The information, data that had been scrounged from several unlikely locations around the world, was actually Starscream's doing, rather than Soundwave's. The Seeker had been forced to perform certain duties for the Fallen that had led to having a greater awareness of where Cybertronian artifacts and history had been left on this planet. While Starscream had intended to keep them from Megatron as well, that plan had failed on the first time Megatron had asserted his own dominance over the Seeker, reclaiming what had been his since long before the war had come to full blows.
With the data, incomplete as it was, Megatron would find a new way to either harness an energy source or recreate the Allspark itself.
The breech of the atmosphere was done in full sight of NEST satellites, and the Autobots prepared to react. Optimus Prime designated Sideswipe leader of the response, and was approving the use of lethal force if the Decepticon failed to surrender when he felt Megatron's touch along his bond.
::You did harangue me for being so dismissive of sparks, brother. This one is mine, and I will tend to it,:: Megatron growled, reading all the intent from Optimus's battle-state.
::Are you spying on me, brother?:: Optimus accused, but at the same time, he could not help but feel hope. He would not risk his own mechs, and Megatron was learning mercy as well as responsibility.
::The arrogant glitch made sure to get my attention.:: With that, the link severed, and Optimus began the process of dismantling the response team, to Lennox's deep confusion.
Megatron spun and landed an elbow into the midsection of the intruder's armor, continuing in motion to avoid the counter of a heavy arm swing downward. The warrior mech was full of rage, and his cannon pulsed twice as he got a good vantage. His opponent roared in pain as one of the two shots landed, albeit with less effect than Megatron could have wanted in battling this mech.
Slagging transports and their mass, he irritably complained in the sanctity of his own processors. It made them more resistant to his sheer power, and allowed them the stamina to keep up with him. Still, he was Megatron, Lord High Protector of Cybertron, the mech that had brought an entire system to its knees! Nothing could defeat him (as he refused to dwell on boys with powerful artifacts or enraged Primes), certainly not a simple transporter!
The next trade of blows sent the transporter down on his hands and knees before hastily rolling away from the disabling stomp that followed. Megatron could see the sneer, knew the transport was thinking Megatron weak for not using his blade in that vulnerable moment. How foolish the flier was!
As Megatron maneuvered to tighten the distance between them, his HUD displayed a sudden warning of servo failure in his right leg. It was just enough warning for him to push his weight to the left, splaying out the claws of his pede for better balance. On cue, though, the transport rushed him, and it took Megatron down, putting him at a disadvantage in the fight. He called up the fusion cannon for support, and found the firing controls offline.
Two system failures so close together was not natural. With a roar of rage, he instituted a scan of his processors, his autonomic functions, and simultaneously activated a failsafe mechanism to take his central tactical processor out of the circuit, falling back on a more rudimentary system to handle the fight. It was able to reroute firing control for him, and before the transport could bring his energy spear down, Megatron fired at closer range than he would have wanted, knocking the transport back and down from the sheer concussive force married to the hole punched through the transport's shoulder and wing behind it.
::SOUNDWAVE!:: Megatron bellowed in anger and betrayal, expected as it had been.
Laser fire from a different vector was his answer, and Megatron found himself facing not one but two threats to his survival, as the analytic lieutenant decided to join the fight more openly. Megatron growled, forcing his right leg to obey the primitive back up system he had to rely on while his anti-virus programs worked against Soundwave's intrusions. If they were both going to be idiots and refuse to see his vision, Megatron would beat obedience back into both of them. Even if it deactivated one or more of the three of them.
"Do you truly think the Autobots will be able to accept peace anymore than our own will?" Megatron asked as he soldered new connections in his ankle. Across from him, Soundwave was attempting to reattach his entire leg, just below the hip.
"I do not understand. You have chosen defeat." Soundwave looked to where his ally of the moment was settling into self-imposed stasis, to allow repairs at the nanite level to proceed.
"You do not understand because you cannot see through the deceptions we fostered on ourselves," Megatron told him. "We are meant to rise above all others, to rule and hold that which we conquer. But the Fallen," and Megatron paused long enough to add the glyphs for so many insults to that designation, "was deluded in his belief that our own race was part of what had to be overcome, tainted by his dealings with the other Primes."
"Autobots are ancestral enemies. The dichotomy of power between Protector and Prime is part of the legacy of the division."
Megatron's optics glowed vividly. "We are all one race," he hissed. "The most recent phase of war has had one true result that I will now make use of, Soundwave. The Autobots have learned war in its fullest form. They have violence etched into their sparks now. And once Cybertron is restored, I will use that fact against them all. I will call them to my banner, and lead all of them to take our rightful place in the galaxy."
"Optimus Prime will resist."
"Optimus, my lieutenant, is more etched in my violence than you can fathom."
Silence fell from there, and Megatron continued his repairs with the sweet savoring of just how much his Prime had been shaped by Megatron's own actions and feelings.
Soundwave strode through the corridors of the vastly improved ship, going straight to his quarters. The locks on the door were overridden, then reset to locks of his choosing, information instantly shared with both Ravage and Buzzsaw within. Neither symbiont quite believed who it was entering the chamber, which prompted the flier to coil around their hatchling, while Ravage took up a protective, growling stance between the door and his responsibility.
The communicator could not quite see the third life-form in the quarters, but felt it with tertiary sensors. He ignored the posturing of the symbiont who had been an enigma since the moment Megatron had presented the cybercat to him as a 'gift', with the intended threat so very clear in just how independent Ravage remained despite symbiotic bonding.
"Report, Ravage. Buzzsaw, release." Both commands were sent with the firm authority of a master within the peculiar arrangement that symbionts shared with their true handlers. He had, from time time time, detached his symbionts to others, most recently with the failed partnership of Barricade and Frenzy. The only part of extraction from Earth he had insisted on to Megatron was a thorough search for Scorponok. He would see to reformatting the bonds of that one in due time. For now, he had this surviving pair to remaster.
::Soundwave deactivated. New communicator to train.:: Ravage's report pulsed with challenge and hostility, having already chosen to accommodate his Lord High Protector's commands to train the hatchling.
"I am no longer dysfunctional, and there is no need for another." Soundwave took a step toward Buzzsaw, who managed, still containing his charge, to pull back further as Ravage intervened with a more aggressive stance.
::ALL mechs needed in full functional form.:: Ravage's optics glinted as he intercepted an attempt by Soundwave to bypass his firewalls, to compel obedience. Soundwave's own optics flared in shock at that willful and masterful disregard for his own mastery, then pushed back with a full attack of his protocols against Ravage's.
::You are bound to me.::
::I serve Megatron.::
Cybercat faced off against the communicator, fully locked in a battle of wills with dueling intrusions and counter-intrusion efforts. While they exhausted their options, Buzzsaw slithered to have the hatchling stretched out on his neck, before launching up, taking it to his berth above them. The motion was noted, and Soundwave tracked in case of a duplicitous attack. Ravage stalked menacingly closer in that moment, and he refocused entirely on the deadliest of his symbionts.
Soundwave did not want another mech with his own function in Megatron's new regime. He still wasn't convinced that the new regime was worth following. Allowing the existence of the replacement without binding its ability, blunting it into a tool, was anathema to him. Yet… much like when he had battled Jazz in the organics' data realm, he knew he craved something of a peerage with another mech. Ravage, as he was proving now, provided it to a degree, yet the cybercat had his own agenda, and his own unique view on the world.
"Enough!" Soundwave threw up strictly a defensive firewall enforcement, then strode forward, transmitting welcoming pulses at the cybercat. After a wary microt, Ravage ceased his attack, keeping his own defenses in place, before accepting a physical touch from Soundwave. The mech, weary from waging war on the organics, weary from the beating he had received at Megatron's hands, and now from the stalemate against his symbiont, dropped down and rested beside Ravage.
Satisfied all was as it should be, Ravage submitted to the communion, only allowing Buzzsaw to return down when Soundwave gave a wordless acquiescence to the hatchling's presence. With Ravage behind him and Buzzsaw coiling on his shoulders, he inspected the blocky, chittering thing that was showing signs of properly developed intelligence and free will. Soundwave could find no flaw in it, and decided if he had to nurture a new mech into being, he would shape it fully.
"Blaster." The designation was fitting. It signified another of his own frame class who had been too illogical to follow Megatron and fallen, though not without a strong fight. "You will not be a threat to me, small one. But you will to my enemies."
The hatchling merely chirruped very loudly, and settled in against the new mech in its existence.
Swindle looked very nervous as the Lord High Protector strode into the quarters where they resided. Brawl attempted, wrongly, to keep the hatchling out of sight. Megatron did not even vocalize his displeasure, he merely threw the smaller mech out of his way to see his 'project'. When he did…
…he threw his helm back and roared in appreciation of the hatchling's color-coding. The nanites in its proto-armor had chosen a schema that was so reminiscent of the pre-war Seekers, bold and striking. More, the colors were the gleaming silver and red, accented by blue and black as needed, that was too familiar to the warrior's youth, when his near-constant companion had been a disgruntled, vicious mech of that class.
"Ahh, Scion, showing your colors already." He reached out and picked up the bold little hatchling, letting it flare itself and then settle on his shoulder. He strode out, leaving the Combaticons absolutely confused over what they had thought would be a grave offense to the Lord's wishes.
In the background, sweeping along at what should be his customary place, Starscream was unnoticed by all but the hatchling, who whirred softly to be back with its true mentor.
Hook monitored as the full clutch of hatchlings, minus the two special cases, were brought back together for indoctrination in Decepticon basics. He took pride in the fact that their charge, the hatchling designated Longarm, did as he had been trained to and took charge over its clutch-mates. Around him, his own gestalt mates took data in and continued manufacturing the shells that would be adapted by the hatchlings at their next upgrade. The shells were fairly basic, but where function was already overriding the personality of the hatchling, some small design variances were introduced to speed functional integration.
The largest of the shells was the one for their ward. Longarm was already bulkier than its clutch-mates, and would need the larger form. Hook found it suitable, and was fine-tuning the wiring array within that one in his spare time. When Longarm matured, he would be the perfect overlord mech that Megatron needed to oversee the rebuilding of Cybertron.
Hook's own cadre could do nothing but rise in that glorious accomplishment. He firmly intended Longarm to be their crowning jewel of creations.
"I believe it is ready," Astrotrain said with a vague sniff of disdain for dealing with a lifeless transport hauler. That the Nemesiswas larger than any Cybertronian ever, save the mythical city-formers of ancient legend, did not impress Astrotrain. Neither did the fact it did have a rudimentary intelligence in its systems. Astrotrain looked at it and saw something that was less than even a drone.
That he had also not been impressed to learn there was a brood of scrapping hatchlings just nearing their first re-frame was another sticking point. He had little use for the chittering, scrabbling monsters, finding them to be abominations. He would never forgive Megatron or Optimus Prime for the loss of the Allspark which had forced such a hideous return to long-lost reproduction. Far better to frame a spark with full capabilities programmed into the frame, Astrotrain believed. Even if one started with the mid-development framing, adding on as time went by, it was still better than these creatures of instinct and curiosity.
"You're certain you can provide enough of a field to break the subspace warp limitations?" Thundercracker asked, still skeptical on that part. He knew how much energy it took for Skywarp to warp himself. He had doubts on Astrotrain being able to project a big enough field for their entire vessel to slip through, given how much more massive the Nemesiswas in comparison to the transporter.
"As long as I have a bay to return to once I make the field, it will be done, Thundercracker," Astrotrain told him in a firm, almost challenging voice. "A bay that is devoid of those parasites, I will remind you."
Thundercracker bristled, both for the tone and the irritable dismissal of their future. "You do your part, and I'll be certain you get the rewards you deserve!"
The Air Commander strode out on an angry heel clicking stride, wondering just when the slag he had begun to sound like Starscream in his handling of the others. He had every intention of getting Astrotrain aboard and then doing away with any supposed promise to keep the hatchlings away. If one could imprint on the transport before re-framing, their army could only improve. He made his way toward the command bridge, irritable and wings flexing in agitation as he did, knowing deep in his spark that once they settled at Cybertron, the challenges would just start all over.
If he didn't have Skywarp, who was coded down to the smallest wire to be a Decepticon, Thundercracker wasn't certain he'd stay. Certainly he wouldn't go to the Autobots, but there were plenty of other, small outposts of their kind. There was Lithone, and a few other planets where the natives were sensibly mechanoid. But he did have Skywarp, dangerous glitch that his mate could be, and that was enough to make him stay despite Megatron's insanities.
Starscream felt the warp field beginning just beyond the skin of the ship, and it started to shear at his edges. For the first time in a very long time, the being that had ruled the Decepticons for millions of years, albeit in Megatron's name, felt fear. He had plans! He was not going to lose his way, just because Megatron had discovered a way to cut off the time it would take to return to Cybertron!
Desperation, much like necessity, led to discovery. The hatchling he had carefully been monitoring, guiding, and nurturing into his footsteps was too small to support his collective consciousness. However, others aboard Nemesishad known the touch of his energies, were familiar enough to his undying spark for him to anchor with. And as they were all on the command bridge now, given that Megatron had taken to keeping Scion close much of the time, Starscream had his choice.
Thundercracker appeared to be a roiling ball of fury, and thus distracted from the ongoing countdown to full warp. Skywarp was flitting from station to station, studying what was basically his own function turned to such a grand scale. Megatron…
The ruler of all Cybertron, now that Prime was officially in exile on that nastily infested rock, was watching the forward view screen in visceral anticipation. That he had Scion clutching to a perch on his shoulder, along the better side of his helm, was a sight that made Starscream chuckle to himself.
"Oh you have no idea," Starscream crooned, before choosing Thundercracker to inhabit. The other Seeker was far too distracted to notice the rerouting of power and the use of secondary systems right now.
For a moment, Megatron had thought he heard Starscream's voice, but that was far from possible. Instead, Scion was chirping in time with the countdown to full warp integrity, displaying a keen intelligence as it 'counted' in binary in time with the computer. Megatron lifted taloned fingers up to reward the small thing with scratching caresses along its head, getting a nip at first, and then a push into the touch from his ward.
The doors opened, admitting Soundwave. Megatron took in the lack of physical damage, but did not inquire how his reintegration to the surviving symbionts went. He knew Scorponok was still listlessly contained in a forward bay, so Soundwave had not had time to tackle that particular aspect of his desires. Personally, Megatron was convinced the symbiont would reject Soundwave without severe recoding, given the long association with the rotor operative that had been Scorponok's original master.
/Thundercracker in Starscream's place. Skywarp filling in where Shockwave might have been. A Soundwave who is very much set to oppose me, even if I pretend to accept his acquiescence to me,/ Megatron catalogued, optics remaining fixated on the growing energy disturbance enveloping the ship. /And every single one of them will be forced to accept my supremacy when I show them all what I have burned in my processors!/
Cybertron would thrive, and all those who needed the feel of battle, both of his own and of Prime's, would see to establishing the new Cybertronian Empire.
The warp fully engaged the entire ship, Astrotrain now safely in his bay at the rear of the vessel to complete the puncture of space and time. With a slight lurch as all inertial dampeners were thrown off line, the ship jumped, destination known and desired by all aboard.
The space ahead stabilized, and the screen was filled with Cybertron's form…
"NO!"
Megatron's roar was the first to break the silence on the bridge, as the planet was there, a dark, almost molten mass on one side, twisted and broken towers on the other. Soundwave flicked over the various communication lines, but he already knew; the satellites were gone so how could there be dialogue?
"Cybertron…it's dead!" Skywarp gasped, his processor too slow to give him a shred of self-protection in this moment of shock. Fortunately for him, Megatron had only optics for the planet, lost in this blow to his grand dreams.
"Theory: the partial movement and rapid displacement torqued planetary faults to a point of rupture," Soundwave said, stunned on a level he had not thought feasible.
After a long, painful silence, Megatron's hand on the hatchling shifted, flicking at Skywarp. "The moons are still present. Make an orbit around the larger of the pair. We will evaluate from there."
Order given, Megatron strode out of the bridge, carrying his ward… and hastily flanked by Starscream's spirit as it disentangled from Thundercracker.
Scion was placed with the Combaticons, leaving Starscream's spirit to decide hastily where he wished to be. The hatchling was his future, but he needed as much data as he could acquire on Megatron and this latest scheme as he could. That was the only reason, he swore in his spark, that he wanted to follow Megatron at all. It had nothingto do with shock at Cybertron's sad shape. It was enough to make him give a last look toward Scion, already stalking Swindle with an intent to demanding nourishment, and hastily leave before the door closed.
He hated the sensation of passing through material objects, which was one reason he had not just waylaid a fellow Seeker and taken over their casing. Even the temporary push into Thundercracker's frame, to have a shell around him for the warp, had been distasteful to him. When Scion was of a size to be useful, having been trained and coerced into brilliance, then Starscream would make that permanent step into being whole again. For now, he avoided closing doors and did not let anything occupy his space.
Megatron entered his chamber, followed by the ghostly presence, and flicked a command at the far wall, which brought up the same view they had from the command deck. Megatron stood in front of it, talons flexing, mapping out the planet over and over, trying to see what was completely lost, and what was merely broken, twisted. Starscream took up a place just to his left, studying it as well. So many cities, including most of the world that was considered civilized, had fallen. As Starscream watched, there were red pulses visible from space in amongst the molten side of the planet; magma still flowed then.
"The moons are more problem than boon," Megatron commented, just as Starscream was getting to the same conclusion. It made the specter look at his lord, studying him. This entire new move of Megatron's, toward peace and rebuilding had been shocking to the Seeker, until he dug deep into ancient memory banks. There, Starscream had known a mech who wanted to reshape everything to match desires that had been simpler at the time.
"You'll have to move their orbits out further, so they do not pull the magma tides so hard," Starscream said, irritated that Megatron could not hear his suggestion. He looked around for anything he could affect, finally discovering where Megatron's data pads were. Those were so simple, with such basic processors. With a wicked smile on his features, he claimed the uppermost one with a touch of his ethereal hand in its components, taking control of the processor, and letting his own brilliance write itself out in formulae for activating the moons' boosters. The data for safer orbits took Starscream a slightly longer time to spill out, as he had not looked at the console to read the data the Nemesiswas pulling in, but soon, he thought he had the new point of stability written out. He saved the data in the simple device, and then focused as hard as he could on making the data pad fall from its stack. It took so much energy to affect the physical world like that… and no sooner had the device fallen than Starscream felt his presence be swept away to the anchor point of the hatchling.
"Pits!" he cursed as his form incorporated, though far less substantially, near where the hatchling was gnawing happily on Swindle's hand while the Combaticon demanded his gestalt help him.
The clatter of the data pads made Megatron scan the entire chamber before putting the fall down to the tremors still shaking the ship from its warp-journey. He walked over to straighten them, so Scion would not damage one when he came in, and noted that one was flashing with a priority message. The warlord flicked it on to read the message, and his optics narrowed on seeing the science that was written at a level few could handle without a more complex processor than any data pad carried.
The message originated on the pad, though, and no amount of testing it could prove otherwise. With a growl, Megatron took the pad to his main computer, plugging in the formulae to a probability generator. All data points were plotted, and bit by bit the model rendered, until Megatron could see that one set was for activating the moon's boosters, long since deemed unnecessary, while the rest of it was for plotting out safe distance. The model played out, and showed Cybertron quieting in its magma eruptions. Megatron's voice echoed in the chamber as a purr of delight, even as he remained curious just where such formulae had come from.
Soundwave's intellect did not run toward such science. Shockwave was indubitably deactivated, and had rarely displayed any interest in astrogation and its related sciences.
Starscream was gone. Megatron knew that with the blackened pulse of his own spark as well as he had known the moment Optimus Prime ceased to function. And unlike with his brother, there had never been a new pulse to suggest Starscream had found his own way back to a sparked existence. Yet the science of the pad's formulae reminded him of that young genius who had been violently opposed to a regime that had forced him and his bonded into the service of an uncaring military instead of allowing them entrance to an academy.
"Always a failure to me, Starscream," Megatron growled, resenting his second's deactivation all over again. He opened a communication line to Thundercracker, voice growling out orders. "Ready two teams to penetrate the moons' defenses. We have work to do."
"Will this work?" Skywarp asked aloud, taking the clang upside his helm with a solid good cheer from his mate.
"Shut-up, would you; I hate remote piloting as it is," Thundercracker told him, finishing the last adjustments to Beta-Moon. Alpha-moon was settling as well, under Soundwave's team's guidance. There had been a momentary panic when the shifting had precipitated an new magma storm on the molten side of the planet, but Hook had argued it was to be expected, and such things would need time to taper off. His team was eying the twisted, broken side of the planet with something akin to fervor in their optics, which satisfied Megatron.
"Orbits stabilized," Soundwave announced.
"Two full lunar revolutions will be needed to be certain," Hook reminded Megatron.
"Agreed. Spend the time reframing the hatchlings; they need to begin learning useful skills." Megatron was quite looking forward to Scion's reframing, now that he had a starting place concerning Cybertron. Survivors found on the moons had given first hand accounts, and would provide even more of a work force. Perhaps, Megatron mused, this was the final crucible his race had needed, to forge a civilization truly worthy of ruling the galaxy.
"As you command, my lord," Hook said, his own thoughts turning fondly toward Longarm and the special frame awaiting his ward.
"How in all the PITS can an entire brood refuse to have wings?" Thundercracker demanded of Hook. "You tampered with them!"
"On the contrary, Thundercracker; I am as surprised as you are!" Hook said, tried to wriggle free of where the volatile Seeker had slammed him. "As high as the Seeker coding was in all of them, it is shocking that only the one designated Scion has begun wing creation."
Hatchlings went through many frame adjustments. In order to be strong enough to leave the sacs, they had to convert some of their nourishment to an exo-suit over their protoform. Often, this was followed by a rapid reframing into actual armor, but the Decepticons had been lacking resources to do so until just before the jump to Cybertron. However, those first sets of armor were considered to be 'blanks', with only basic coding that would then be activated by the sparks within the hatchlings to taking on new forms. Scion, as expected, had been doing nothing but recharge and take in nourishment, reshaping the armor frame to take on the gliding wings of a young Seeker. The rest of the brood had given minimal changes to their armor, forming tools and structural improvements more in keeping with Constructicons.
"Both of you cease to fight," Megatron growled as he entered, Scion held in his arms against his chest. The gleaming silver of the Seekerling's armor was so blatantly familiar to Thundercracker that he could do nothing but look away. Especially as non-war colorations filtered out to the tips of the wings and heels. Starscream's own clone, that one, and it unnerved Thundercracker. "It is clear that the brood responded to the needs of our race, as the communal reaction to Cybertron raced through us all more than loud enough to affect their nanites. We'll turn this sacrifice of the brood's individual talents toward our future. Hook, begin working through them, determining gestalt teams. Thundercracker, you and your Seekers will be too busy to train any Seekerlings. All of you must begin flights over the planet, determining structural soundness, survivors' locations, and resources." Megatron clicked in binary at Scion, and the Seekerling swiftly scrambled up and over to cling to the warlord's back instead. This allowed Megatron to reach out and clasp Thundercracker's arm, drawing him close enough to bore his optics into the other's. "Our future is riding on your command of that fractious lot," Megatron hissed. "Do not fail me."
For an instant, Thundercracker bared his dentaplates at his leader and lord, ignoring the pressure of those talons on his arm. "I serve Cybertron, and you so long as you do," he growled fiercely, full of his own pride.
Megatron clasped the other arm too, then threw his head back and howled with laughter. "Sometimes, you show me why he chose you." With that, he shoved the Seeker away, chuckling when Scion hissed at Thundercracker too, before walking out.
"Slagging insanity," Thundercracker mumbled.
Hook did not disagree.
It took time for Cybertron to settle with its moons in further orbit, time that was spent taking a census of the survivors who had been on Alpha and Beta at the time of the space bridge incident. Megatron had to wonder, bitterly, if Sentinel Prime had managed the last laugh at last, for many of the survivors were no more than scientists and miners. It took Soundwave pointing out that miners might well be useful in reclaiming the planet to pull Megatron away from a growing rage.
The leader had to wonder just what Soundwave stood to gain by keeping Megatron out of said rage, or if he just feared for his existence should Megatron lose his temper.
Through it all, Astrotrain, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and the dozen-plus fliers aboard the skip were overflying the planet, installing relay points for communications on the twisted, broken side, and finding those who had survived the mayhem. While Astrotrain refused to transport those wrecks to the moons, supplies were brought in, rallying points established, and lures set to bring in any they had missed in their flyovers. They suspected few among them would ever be more sentient than a drone again, but Soundwave would be able to manipulate them all into usefulness at least.
The hatchling designated Blaster was a source of both pride and frustration to Soundwave as he readied to make landfall, having done all of his preparations for landfall. Deciding what to do with his ward was of utmost priority now, as he needed both Ravage's and Buzzsaw's capabilities with him.
It took having Blaster with him when he went to try once more to coerce Scorponok into a bond to find a solution to both problems.
Soundwave entered the hold where Scorponok lay listlessly, mere joules away from a being in stasis. Blaster, in his routine of observation of his mentor, was walking on his own pedes, for Soundwave did not pamper him the way Ravage did. Scorponok stonily ignored the caresses along the symbiont band aimed at him from Soundwave. However, when Blaster chirruped and clicked out queries in binary, the arachnoid lurched upright, optics and tail both orienting on the newcomer.
Soundwave, well-aware of his own punishment if harm should befall the small being, powered up his weaponry. However, his reading of the situation told him there was no threat in the symbiont's manner. He monitored, watching as Blaster steadily moved toward the symbiont, optics glued to the fascinating creature that resonated much like Ravage, but with an open, gaping hole in his frequencies.
Blaster clicked at Scorponok, and the arachnoid clicked back in perfect understanding. Within moments, Blaster was atop the much larger symbiont's back, settling just above the optics, chittering in excited noises that made his new mount croon upwards. Soundwave read through their resonances, watching as a frequency band settled out between them.
His ward was precocious, Soundwave decided, but if the hatchling had his own symbiont, then Ravage and Buzzsaw would certainly be able to attend him planet-side.
Hook and his gestalt were of vital use on the planet. They were the remnants of several other gestalts, but had managed to forge a working link that allowed for a new Devastator to be formed from the ruins of those. Having made themselves adapt, Hook had forced upon the others the names of his fallen brothers, continuing the legacy of what had been the first true Constructicon gestalt.
He was already seeing promise in some of the hatchlings to be able to do the same thing, but did not wish to risk them yet on the planet. While Longarm would, by necessity, go with Hook's group to the planet, the rest of the hatchlings would continue their learning aboard the ship. The only problem was in finding an adequate teacher to oversee them all.
Hook smiled cruelly as he decided he had just the right victim in mind.
Reflector looked on the brood without anything approaching good humor. It was true that his talents were not needed by their lord, currently. It was also true that he did not want their Lord to know just what he had filmed quite recently between certain subordinates. Hook was a glitch to have held that over his helm.
"Alright, you glitch-taken rust stains! Fall in!"
The hatchlings clicked and clacked and made unruly noises, but they did understand 'muster' at least.
A slight smile formed in his spark, if not upon his faceplates. If he had to teach, he might as well secure future favors while he was at it.
Megatron steadied Scion, the small one still reacting with hisses at every creak and rasp of metal on metal. It made the flier edgy, which somewhat amused his keeper. After all, the young Seeker was reacting with anger, not fear, at the strangeness of Cybertron's noise. It also served to distract the warrior from his displeasure at what he had for resources.
Behind him, he had the Constructicons on one side and the Combaticons on the other. Bruticus could serve as, well, brute force. The Seekers were out, mustering the wrecks to be worked over by Soundwave. The rest of the brood, save those who were being specifically trained and indoctrinated to replace, or back-up in Soundwave's case, key officers, were in the care of Reflector and a handful of drones.
There was work to be done, and it would be a long project ahead of him. However, Megatron had chosen this path. He would not fail in his dream.
"Proceed, Decepticons." His words put in motion the efforts that would transform this landing site into a new metropolis worthy of Megatron's presence.
Starscream watched the two gestalts begin assaulting the broken, twisted wreckages of the city that had been. Megatron did not deign to sully his hands here, though. Instead, he purposefully strode through the chaos, necessitating Starscream to hurry along. The specter eyed Scion irritably when the hatchling begin clicking at Megatron, as if cataloguing all it was seeing.
"You need to get big enough to be useful to me," the ghost growled at the non-verbal creature. Predictably, Scion paused in its clicking to turn its helm enough to hiss directly at the spirit visible and audible to it alone. "Before Megatron makes a bigger mess than this already is!"
The treacherous little creature actually brushed against Megatron's mostly restored helm at that irritation aimed to his keeper, and Megatron responded by reaching up to run a talon along the gliding wings.
"He's even getting soft," Starscream groused, but he grew quiet as his curiosity overcame him on feeling a wellspring of power converging. He flicked his vision through its ranges (still quite unsure how he was intangible, invisible, and yet still able to do everything as if he still possessed form!) to see phantom traces of energy swirling, drawing steadily toward the destination Megatron had in mind.
A rather difficult set of calculations, based on orbital observations, and the few landmarks they had made out from space, allowed Starscream to make a rough estimate of just where this place had been before the devastation. When he did, his eerie optics glowed with a deeper hue than ever before.
This had been where the All Spark existed, before the foolish Prime sent it away.
And Megatron was going to the very center of the faint energies steadily swelling on that spot.
Scion could not get large enough for Starscream's needs quick enough at all, with his curiosity now aroused fully as to the plans Megatron had not verbalized. Looking at the Lord High Protector's faceplates, Starscream knewMegatron had anticipated something of this nature, and only the state of Cybertron had set him back.
"Just what are you planning, my lord," Starscream mused, optics riveted on where Megatron and Scion stood in the midst of the gathering energies.