Chapter 1
Skywarp whined as someone started shaking her shoulder. She struck out at the disturber, rolling over and trying to curl up more. There was a loud sigh above her before the hands roughly grabbed her and hauled her out of the berth.
"Sky, let's go," Thundercracker's voice cut through whatever was left of her recharge. "Megatron wants everyone in the assembly room for the battle plans."
"Don't wanna," Skywarp whined, huffing unhappily as she struggled to get free from Thundercracker's grip. "Must recharge more!"
"And this is why I should not let you play those Earth video games until the middle of the night," Thundercracker huffed. "Megatron's calling an assembly in the war room and if we aren't there when he starts we are going to be offlined on the spot for walking in late."
That was enough to make her stop fighting, but it did little to wake her up fully. Megatron's temper was legendary in its fury and intensity. Regardless of how tired she was, Skywarp was not foolish enough to bring that fury down on herself or Thundercracker without a justifiable reason to placate the warlord's wrath. Very few things did.
Sighing, she pushed against Thundercracker's shoulder and moved them both towards the door. He let out a soft snort at her, but the hand he rested on her shoulder was just as affectionate as any trine member. They hurried down the corridor of The Nemesis, ignoring the soft, constantly moving shadows on the walls created by sunlight piercing the waters that surrounded the ship. Later, if Skywarp felt like it, she might go to a secluded room to meditate and watch the ripples.
Soundwave was waiting patiently by the door to the war room when they arrived. He was silent as he watched them, but his presence was reassuring; the meeting had not started yet. If it had been, Soundwave would have been sitting at Megatron's elbow like the loyal lapdog that he was. A small tingle of pain ran the length of Skywarp's spinal unit and she wisely bowed her head to Soundwave in apology for that thought.
The massive mech did not move, but they stepped into the room at the mental prompt to get inside. The elongated table in the center of the room was almost entirely filled with the "important" soldiers onboard Megatron's warship. Megatron, the silver tyrant with his infamous red optics and black hands; Skywarp was not entirely sure why everyone remembered the black hands rather than his sheer size; was seated at the head of the table, looking up briefly to see who had entered. On his right sat Starscream, who was rigid with his wings stiff and unhappy behind him. His vibrant colours were painful to look upon when he was juxtaposed to Megatron, but it also gave him a strangely childish look, not that anyone was dumb enough to mention that to his face. Beside Starscream was the leader of the Constructions, Scrapper, with his twin brother Hook seated beside him. Scrapper might be leader of the gestalt, but it was an undisputed fact amongst the soldiers that it was Hook that held most of the power in their little group. On Megatron's left side was an empty seat; Soundwave's place; and the next seat was occupied by the Combaticon leader, Onslaught. The sheer size of the mech was enough to cause apprehension with a skittish soldier, but Skywarp had long since grown use to him since Starscream returned with him from Cybertron and made a point to wave at him as she moved to stand behind her trine leader. The last seat around the table was occupied by the leader of the Stunticons, Motormaster, with a slumbering blue and white form against his chest.
"We let people take naps in the meeting room now?" Skywarp asked as she leant on Starscream's chair. "Why wasn't I told about this?"
"Skywarp, shut up," Starscream growled, his high-pitched voice grating at Skywarp's audios in annoyance.
Pouting a little, Skywarp fell silent as Soundwave took his seat beside Megatron. Her wings trembled behind her as she turned her attention to the hologram that Megatron had brought up. It was a floor plan for a nuclear facility, one that she had scouted out a few orns ago on Starscream's orders. Immediately, she shivered and waited for Megatron to attack.
"This facility," the warlord growled in his gravelly voice, "creates enough energy in the course of a day to provide power to almost three counties for half an orbital cycle on this planet. For humans, that is more than enough for them to be content with. For us, that is enough energon potential to keep Kaon lit for a few more orns."
"So we're going to raid it," Hook huffed bluntly.
"Precisely," Megatron's optics flickered momentarily to Hook and there was a small twitch of amusement on his dermas.
Skywarp barely kept her wings still in silent anger. If that had been Starscream who interrupted him, the trine leader would have received a backhand and a snarl to not speak unless spoken to.
Megatron began to explain his plan, showing weak points in the outer walls of the facility and where they could siphon energy without being too exposed. Starscream was glaring at the hologram as it zoomed into the various floors and Megatron's voice continued on around them. Finally, shaking his head, he turned towards the warlord and cleared his throat.
"Megatron, that won't work," he stated calmly.
"Starscream, did I ask for your opinion?" Megatron snarled as he rounded on his Second in Command. "You do not seem to remember that you are not in command!"
"Let me speak," Starscream started to say before Megatron actually reached out to grab him by the throat. "Skywarp!"
Without hesitating, Skywarp darted around Megatron's chair and slipped between his arm and Soundwave's chair. The Third in Command's hand settled on Skywarp's neck, but she managed to plug her wrist port into the small control panel that connected to the hologram before she was hauled backwards.
Immediately, a swarm of blinking red orbs appeared in the area that Megatron had been planning on sending the Stunticons into. The five purple orbs that had been the Stunticons flickered before vanishing under the onslaught of red orbs. Megatron was silent as Motormaster actually trembled in his seat.
"What was that?" Megatron finally asked as he signalled for Soundwave to release Skywarp and let her scuttle over to Starscream's side with a lopsided grin on her face.
"The result of the Autobots giving the humans technology to protect themselves from us," Starscream replied simply as he gave Megatron a cold glare. "All detailed in the report I kept trying to give you that you oh so politely told me to forget about." Tilting his head towards the ceiling, Starscream let a mocking frown cross his dermas. "How did you put it again? Oh yes; 'get out of my sight you worthless mech. Nothing you have could be of any importance.' Ring a bell?"
Megatron's glare was fearsome, but Starscream simply smirked. He had actually won this round.
"Very well," Megatron growled. "The raid will be put off until all the new information is sorted out. You are dismissed."
Skywarp and Thundercracker stepped back so that Starscream could rise without clipping either of them in the jaw with his wings. They left the room together before something in Skywarp's subspace started to ping as they walked down the hallway.
"Ooh," she squealed happily before she darted down the hallway. "I'll catch up with you later!"
She was gone down the hallway before Thundercracker or Starscream could call her back. They both knew what the beeping thing in her subspace meant, at least, what she told them it meant. A friend that she played video games with online had finally come on after a few days of "vacation". Sliding into her room and turning her computer on, Skywarp pulled a small contraption out of her subspace and plugged it into the a port.
Logging onto the online website, Skywarp immediately connected with her friend. After a quick greeting, they set off on the quest they had cut short a few days ago. She waited a half hour, letting anyone that could possibly be watching her think that it really was just a game between herself and some human she had befriended from a distance. Then, she uploaded the data from the meeting to her Autobot comrade and hoped that they could get it to Optimus as quickly as he could. There was a brief flash of light on the screen as her friend cast a spell in the game, the one that they used to confirm that he had received the information.
They played for another hour before the Autobot used lunch as an excuse and logged off. Leaning back in her chair, Skywarp let out a long sigh as she stretched her arms towards the ceiling. Optimus Prime would use that information accordingly and would likely increase the patrol unit to right what Megatron was going to do. She and Thundercracker would be sent out again, they would report, and everything would likely even itself out.
There was nothing she could do about that.
