Duty and Deceit
Chapter 1
Mission: Infiltration
She had only been in the Decepticon base at Kaon for a couple joors. No one even glanced at her as she wandered down the halls. She assumed that since she was a new recruit, she ought to report to a commanding officer so that she could be properly assigned a post. However, the only mechs she'd seen had acted as though she didn't exist, other than the one that had welded the insignia on and Megatron giving his initiation speech. How was she supposed to be a useful addition to the Decepticons if no one bothered to give her an assignment?
Turning a corner, the femme almost ran straight into a towering green mech... a flier of some sort judging by the wings.
"Why have you left your post, femme?" His voice was deep and the mech seemed nearly angry, though she had no idea why.
"Oh, well, I don't know... Maybe the fact that no one has bothered to give me an assignment? That might have something to do with it. Really, I'd have thought your precious Lord Protector would at least make sure his troops had orders."
The mech frowned, but didn't say anything for several klicks. She wondered vaguely if she ought to have been more respectful. She considered the mech, he was nearly twice her height and looked like he could take on the Prime... and win. After what seemed like an eternity, the mech spoke again.
"Foolish femme. Lord Megatron does not have time to personally see to every Decepticon in our ranks." His engine growled threateningly. The sound echoed off the walls of the empty corridor. She nodded timidly, sufficiently cowed by the display of power. "Come. I will assess your skills and assign you your post." He walked down the corridor with the little Prussian blue and black femme running to keep up.
"What's your name...sir?" She asked, still unfamiliar with the military formalities, after they had walked in silence for a while.
"I am Skyquake."
An internal ping brought Terabyte's mind back to the present. Frowning into her practically untouched cube of energon, Terabyte answered her comm.
/Terabyte here./ The comm-line was silent and she briefly wondered if someone was playing some sort of a prank on her... Or more likely, it was probably Soundwave. Terabyte sighed quietly. She enjoyed working in communications and intel, but Soundwave's unending silence was disturbing.
/Location: Bridge. Come./ The order was short and precise. As was to be expected.
Abandoning her untouched energon, Terabyte left the mess hall and headed to the bridge at a fast walk. Soundwave did not appreciate tardiness, and besides that, it was her duty as a Decepticon to follow orders with all speed.
Terabyte paused in her thoughts for a moment. Here she was lecturing herself on duty... when she first came she hadn't cared about it, or the cause... she only joined because she'd had nowhere else to go. The Autobots had ensured that.
She'd only been called to the bridge of the Nemesis a few times, the last time she was summoned it was for an announcement that they had received orders to stockpile energon from the mines on the surface with plans to build a space bridge in preparation for Lord Megatron's return.
Upon entering, Terabyte went straight to Soundwave, her face hidden safely behind her battle mask, effectively covering her anxiety with an appearance of calm confidence.
"Reporting as ordered, Sir." She paused then made a small bow to Starscream, who was standing smugly in front of a chained, and rather beat-up, red Autobot.
Under her mask, Terabyte smirked at the image in her processor that so aptly matched Starscream's expression to that of a sparkling who had finally learned to walk across the room on his own without falling on his aft.
Pushing that image aside, she turned her attention to the Autobot and quickly determined that he had only just been thrown at Starscream's feet, as the commander's words confirmed. Quickly checking her data banks for any Autobots matching his appearance, she matched the mech to a warrior designated as 'Cliffjumper'. A small description of him stated that he was reckless, talkative, and relatively dangerous.
"Ah, what have we here? A pitiful Autobot soldier..." He sneered at the Autobot, only to recoil slightly when the prisoner lunged at him, pulling the chains taut.
From her position, Terabyte couldn't see the Autobot's face, but the way he spoke made her pretty certain that he was actually grinning in spite of his injuries.
"'Scream. Been a while." The mech paused to cough up a substantial amount of oil, but continued. "So. Where's your master?"
Terabyte couldn't help but admire the mech's strength and insolence, especially since he was completely defenseless. Her file's description was quite accurate.
"Never mind him! I am my own master." Starscream's face contorted in indignation and he raised his blade-like fingers, about to plunge them straight into the mech's spark-chamber when Megatron's voice rang out in the near-empty chamber.
"Starscream, you fool! He may still be of use to our cause."
Just for confirmation, Terabyte glanced in Soundwave's direction as the voice spoke. Soundwave had used a record of Megatron from the last time Starscream tried to offline an annoying prisoner prematurely. From what Terabyte had heard, the Seeker did so on a fairly regular basis.
As if satisfied that Starscream's rage would now be contained, Soundwave turned his attention to Terabyte. An image of the Nemesis' brig appeared on Soundwave's screen, then Soundwave gestured first at her then at Cliffjumper, indicating that she was to take the Autobot to one of the holding cells.
Giving her commander an acknowledging nod, Terabyte charged her small cannon and approached the prisoner. As she raised the weapon level with his helm, she spoke, her voice smooth and quietly threatening.
"Resistance would be... inadvisable," she released his bonds slowly, "Get up, Autobot."
Cliffjumper stood up to his full height, which was nearly a full helm taller than her. Terabyte pursed her lip-plates in annoyance at her short stature; she had never met a mech that wasn't taller than her. She prodded the mech towards the door. Her height was the average for a Protihexian two-wheeler, but they were not very common. The majority of the survivors of Protihex had jetted out to some neutral world right after the destruction of the city.
They walked in silence to the brig for most of the way, because although Cliffjumper tried to initiate conversation every breem or so, Terabyte refused to respond in any way. After she raised the containment field she ran a quick scan on him. He had several major leaks throughout his systems and a couple dents in his armor that were crushing the wiring underneath. If Soundwave had a plan for the Autobot, then she probably ought to make sure someone did some repair-work on him.
Not bothering to tell Cliffjumper that repairs and Energon would be brought, Terabyte left the room. Standing outside the door, she checked her chronometer.Well. So much for my break. Terabyte thought sourly as she headed towards the communications lab.
The rest of the orn was relatively uneventful, other than the fact that Soundwave had also assigned the prisoner as her responsibility. Which meant that her already near-nonexistent free time was now spent taking Cliffjumper his Energon rations and working on his repairs, much to her annoyance. She didn't see why one of the drones couldn't have done it. But of course she couldn't complain... Duty would not allow it.
"A true Decepticon will follow orders. Personal preferences mean nothing." Skyquake's voice rumbled in her mind, as she recalled his first lectures on duty.
2nd rotation of the next orn
Before she reached her usual work terminal, one of the Vehicons informed her that she was expected in Soundwave's office. Soundwave generally called her to his office once an orn and gave her the orders, having her relay them to the drones as she saw fit.
Terabyte hesitated slightly at the entrance. It had only been one rotation since the last briefing, so that couldn't be the reason she was expected. Maybe it would have something to do with the prisoner? Soundwave had implied that he had plans for the Autobot...
Soundwave's office was even darker than the rest of the Nemesis, though also much more organized. Everything had a place, the walls were bare and so was his desk, aside from one mid-size datapad. Soundwave gestured for her to sit down and watch the projection that was currently paused on the wall to her right.
Terabyte sat down slowly, trying to gauge Soundwave's expression. It might have been helpful, if he had an expression, but the purple mech's visor was a blank abyss. She briefly considered if her own helm type would be compatible with a visor.
Probably not.
The projection showed several successful Decepticon spies and the wealth of information that they had gathered. Some had lived their whole lives in the Autobot's ranks without ever being discovered, even vorns after they offlined.
The Autobots could be so gullible. So confident in their own rightness, they readily accepted any mech that claimed to have 'seen the light' of their cause. Terabyte's lips curled up in a disgusted sneer, still thankfully hidden by her ever-present battle mask.
When the presentation was over, Soundwave looked at her expectantly. Terabyte's golden yellow optics dimmed as she processed the information and worked out what her commander wanted. Her helm rose and her optics widened as it sunk in.
"Sir," she started quietly, forcing her tone into one of detached curiosity. "Would another mech, perhaps of higher rank, not be better qualified for such a mission?"
Soundwave shook his helm slightly.
Terabyte lowered her helm in resignation, deep in her processor already knowing the reason. "I have rarely been on the field in the past eight vorns, the Autobots have no past records of me that would give them reason for distrust aside from the insignia I wear." She concluded soberly. "The Autobots will be more likely to trust me than any other mech."
"My plan exactly..." He replied with a record of Starscream. Most likely one of Starscream's schemes to take command; Terabyte figured Starscream hadn't meant for anyone to hear it.
The human transmitting symbol flashed on Soundwave's visor and she nodded her understanding, not that it was necessary. Seconds later she received a large data burst, containing several gigabytes of information detailing her mission, how and how often she was to report, as well as all the info they had on the Autobots, their base, and their 'morals, rules, and codes of conduct'.
Her processor instantly summarized the transmission down to this: The Autobots were no doubt going to arrive soon to rescue Cliffjumper. She was to help them, insuring that they did as little damage as possible without revealing her true loyalties. She would lay low and gain their trust, confidence, and a place in their ranks. Once that was achieved, she would gather info and give a report of her findings every quartex, or as close to that as she could manage without arousing suspicion.
Soundwave had also included a warning that only the high-ranking officers would be aware of her true mission. The drones and low-ranks would truly think that she'd betrayed them.
Terabyte twitched an audio finial slightly. She would be considered a traitor to most of the Decepticons. Traitors were to be killed on sight, or sometimes even brought to Lord Megatron himself for a very long, excruciatingly painful death. Terabyte only barely managed to conceal the convulsive shudder that ran through her at the thought, reminding herself that the Lord Protector would most certainly know of her mission.
"Understood. How shall I proceed until such time as the Autobots attempt a rescue?" She maintained a somewhat excessively formal tone. The past couldn't be allowed to interfere with her mission.
