Chapter 3: Breaking the Fellowship
We take a break from our protagonist and focus on someone else. I do not own Transformers, Hasbro does.
"Fellow Seekers," Starscream said, making a grandiose gesture, "We have made another successful bombing raid."
A few bots gave out a cheer, Slipstream just reclined in her chair and let out a groan.
"Now our bombing quota has met, fifteen runs in the past month, right on schedule!" Starscream said.
Another round of cheer rose from the ranks of flight enabled Decepticons
"Finally, I thought we'd never get out of the Yuani Campaign," Acid-Storm said, the green-seeker was talking to Dirge.
"We ain't out of the woods yet," Dirge said.
"However, the battle remains to be fought," Starscream continued, "As such, we'll be staying another month to fill another bombing quota, at this rate, we'll be able to conquer the other half of this hemisphere by the end of this year!"
A collective groan emerged from the gathered cons.
"Told ya so," Dirge said.
They were dismissed and headed back to their quarters.
"So the fearless leader leads us back into battle, into the thick of our patriotic war," Slipstream said, "Truly he is the great hero of Yuani,"
"Eh, give Screamer a break, we all wanna see a victory," Thundercracker said.
"Does that Victory involve Starscream flying above Lugnut to avoid the Anti-Air cannons, or does it involve him only holding half the amount of bombs, so he can drop and run faster?" Slipstream asked.
"Probably neither," Thundercracker said.
"He's just showboating so he can look better than all the other generals, by next week he's probably going to try and off Megatron again, isn't he?" she asked.
"Oh yes, this time he plans to poison his drink," Thundercracker said.
"Wait," Slipstream said, stopping, "Didn't he try that already? Megatron smashed the glass and stabbed Screamer's optics."
"Oh yeah, I remember. Good times," Thundercracker said.
Slipstream smiled at the memory and went to her room.
The next day was fairly standard, the air force went underway, Slipstream took her place next to Skywarp and Thundercracker, Starscream took the lead right in front of them. Behind them Lugnut flew, with Blitzwing and Astrotrain flanking his right, and the Coneheads flanking his left. Surrounding them was a battalion of Vehicons and Other Seekers. Acid-Storm, Triggerhappy and Slugslinger brought up the rear.
The raid started well, they moved into position and unleashed their weaponry on the nearest stronghold. The Installation fell quickly and Starscream laughed as the small bots, almost ant-like, ran from them, only to be blown up or torn apart by shrapnel.
The second installation shot up a plethora of surface to air missiles. The Vehicons returned fire, blowing up most and trying to evade the rest. Three Vehicons were destroyed, two others and Thrust were damaged and had to turn back.
The second bombing raid was also successful, a detachment of jets flew right down into the Autobot munitions factory and fired their missiles. Various Autobot turrets sprang up and shot at them, tearing one's wings apart and destroying two others. One seeker dropped and unguided bomb and let the momentum carry it straight into the turret operator's face, blowing him and his weapon up.
They began to bomb supply lines leading away from the base, when they found a contingent of Autobot fliers heading toward them. Starscream was first to engage, flying forward, right before he did, he ordered Skywarp to teleport himself and three other seekers right behind the contingent, they appeared, and opened fire on the unsuspecting rear, blowing up one bot and downing three others. Starscream hit one Autobot with a side-winder and engaged another. One of them, Powerglide, used his machine gun to fire into and destroy a Vehicon's grill, sending him down. The other 14 Autobots rushed to challenge the Decepticons, with Triggerhappy and Slugslinger moving from their rear position to attack.
The dogfight persisted, while Acid-Storm and two vehicons continued the bombing raid, testing out his chemicals for maximum damage.
Powerglide evaded the much slower Lugnut's machine guns, flying loops around him and scoring hits all over. Blitzwing was shot down, but he just transformed to tank mode and smashed into one of the Autobot's cock-pits, crushing the nose and canopy, killing him, he then re converted back into a jet, made a crash landing, and took on ground forces as a tank.
Astrotrain moved his top mounted cannon to fire on Powerglide, he dodged it, but in doing so got back into Lugnut's line of fire. The large Decepticon's machine-gun shredded one of Powerglide's wings and he had to land.
A seeker jet blasted off the tailfins of one Autobot plane, and sent it down, shooting at it until the bot exploded.
Skywarp was blindsided, and had his cockpit shot up by an Autobot. The damage knocked him out and he went into a nosedive.
"We got a Seeker down," Thundercracker yelled.
"It's only Skywarp," Slipstream said curtly.
Thundercracker growled, transformed and flew after Skywarp, grabbing him and another downed Seeker, and flying back towards allied territory.
"Sentimental idiot," Slipstream thought.
The remaining Autobots fought until only three were airborn, and they flew off, Slugslinger getting one last shot in to blow off one of their wings.
The Decepticons flew to the third target who had used the distraction to raise their weapons and shields. Dirge and Slugslinger were damaged, and the airborne injured retreated to Astrotrain. Starscream ordered them to continue but the group retreated, Lugnut giving one last go, crippling most of their shields, but taking severe damage in the process. Defeated, the pack flew home.
Later
Starscream pounded his fist down on the war table "How dare you defy me and retreat, I can't believe this!" He shouted at the assembled group.
Acid Storm, Slipstream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Blitzwing and Ramjet all sat at the table.
"Because of your incompetence, we lost our squad and couldn't destroy the final target. Your failure has caused us all to fail," he said.
Skywarp let out his bored groan, and Slipstream bit down on a remark she was going to make.
"Well, I suppose we'll have to do better, tomorrow," Starscream said, scowling.
"No!" Ramjet yelled, slamming a fist onto the war table, "We lost over half the squad to that bombing run, an unnecessary one, as we had finished the job. We should all be on the nearest cruiser out of here, not risking our skid-plates for some planet."
"You have something to say Ramjet?" Starscream asked, the acidly.
"You're a terrible leader, your plan involved us running at the fortified enemy, after a dogfight, a plan that could have been avoided entirely. We filled our quota, we should be gone, not ego stroking your resume," Ramjet said.
"Watch your tongue and no your place, Ramjet," Starscream said, growling.
Ramjet stood up quickly, letting his chair clatter to the floor, "Screw you Scream, I've had enough of your orders," he said.
Slipstream was interested now, as was Skywarp.
"Is this an act of treachery, of usurpation, do you wish to take command?" Starscream mocked.
"Well, you ain't no stranger to it are you Scream," Ramjet said, closing the distance and glaring at his face.
Starscream smirked, that smug smirk which he knew pissed everyone off, what was Ramjet going to do, take command? At that point, Ramjet slammed his forehead into Starscream's, knocking him over.
Starscream was stunned, as he lay on the floor, rubbing his forehead.
Ramjet glared down at him.
"Yes, finally something interesting," Skywarp said, clapping his hands together.
"For once, I actually agree with the idiot, " Slipstream said, "Starscream, you just got beaten by the guy who crashes into things, you may have actually reached a new low."
Thundercracker got up and between the two "Stop it both of you. You're acting like a couple of protoforms wining for a parent. Save the aggression for-"
Ramjet and Starscream both shoved him out of the way, and Ramjet tackled Starscream. He started punching his face, until Starscream rotated his guns at the shoulder to point at Ramjet, and shot him point blank.
Ramjet fell off, but soon got up, just as Starscream did the same. Starscream punched Ramjet in the jaw, and then staggered back, rubbing his sore hand.
Starscream activated his jets and jumped back, putting distance between him and Ramjet. Ramjet charged forward, and Starscream shot him in the knee with a null ray. Ramjet went down, his left leg useless.
"Aw, what's the matter Ramjet, can't quite beat me can you?" Starscream mocked.
Ramjet turned over, pointed his right leg, and fired his two thrusters built into it at Starscream, at a wider spray.
The attack knocked Starscream over, and allowed Ramjet to get back up. Ramjet limped over to Starscream, but his immobilized leg slowed him, so Starscream hit him with his Nullray, deactivating him.
Starscream stood, victorious saying, "Does anyone else want to challenge me?"
Slipstream carefully considered it, but concluded that the fight had not softened up Starscream to an extent.
Thundercracker lifted up the deactivated Ramjet and prepared to take him to the Med-bay.
"No, no mercy to traitors," Starscream said.
Immediately Blitzwing and Skywarp burst out laughing, with Slipstream and Acid-Storm joining in. Thundercracker tried to contain himself, but his smirk still showed.
"What? What?" Starscream asked, oblivious to the irony.
"Scream, just shut up," Blitzwing said.
"Fine, if you don't like how I run things, then I'm transferring myself to Earth, and taking command there," Starscream said, "If Megatron wants to continue his Nebulos campaign, then I'm taking over the Earth initiative."
"Finally, I kinda miss that place," Thundercracker said.
"Yeah, well you can keep missing it, I'm taking charge there as Second in Command of the Decepticon forces, not Seeker commander. Right now, I herby disband the Seeker Brigade!" Starscream said indignantly.
That stopped the laughing. The bots in the room stared at Starscream in silence, until Slipstream said,
"Finally! Primus, it took you this long, but I finally don't have to put up with you."
"Yeah, I was thinking about going back to the Science Brigade, Mixmaster and I have got a Project we've been looking at," Acid-Storm said thoughtfully.
"Wait, Starscream you can't do this, we've been flying together since the start, and the Seeker team has remained since Helex, we can't just quit now," Thundercracker said.
"I decreed it, it's done, no more Seekers, you are all to be transferred to your new places. Good-bye." With that, Starscream left in a huff.
They were all left to ponder, Blitzwing, uncaring as he wasn't a seeker, left to finish his repair cycle, and Thundercracker followed him, needing to drop Ramjet off at his repair bay. Skywarp was pissed he didn't get word in, and he Acid Storm and Slipstream returned to their rooms.
The next day, the seekers prepped for reassignment. Thrust and Skywarp would be heading to Nebulos to join Sunstorm in the campaign, Slugslinger and Triggerhappy were sent as well, Scorponok apparently wanted to test an experiment out. Thundercracker was headed back to Cybertron to be placed in command of the aerial forces. Slipstream soon realized that Starscream had assigned their positions, as she was to be sent to a mining facility satellite called Al-Jabr, she cursed her fortune at being placed at such a remote and unimportant location. Ramjet was left on the planet and Dirge followed Starscream to Earth. Acid-Storm had himself sent back to the science facility, a mobile Space-Station, currently testing out planet breakers in the LU system.
The day after they prepped to leave. Slipstream said no good-byes to anyone, good riddance to them all. The Cone-heads bid each other good luck, and Acid-Storm bid Thundercracker a farewell.
She prepared to leave in her shuttle when Thundercracker approached her.
"Slipstream wait," Slipstream rolled her optics, but turned to her fellow seeker, "What is it?"
She was surprised when Thundercracker pulled her into a hug, an earth custom he must have picked up.
"Good luck," he said to her.
Slipstream was caught off guard by the gesture, but soon remembered that it was normal of Thundercracker.
The gesture still made her smile a bit, and she returned the hug
"At least you've got a cushy new job," she said.
Thundercracker disengaged, and told her, "Hey, opportunity is everywhere, you just have to look for it."
Slipstream headed up to the shuttle, waving at him, and watching him approach a sour looking Ramjet, he went to shake the white-red bot's hand, and when Ramjet took it, he pulled him into a hug as well.
A thought hit Slipstream, the seekers were finally disbanded, once Megatron's greatest legion, now shattered over petty arguments. She felt a pang of regret, as she watched her "family" go. The emotion caught her off-guard, and she wondered if this was how Thundercracker felt, being the "Sentimental Idiot" of the bunch.
She sighed, the full regret of having lost her position in the world setting in. The auto-pilot informed her that they were headed for Al-Jabr and the ship set off.
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Lugnut: Generations body
Astrotrain/Blitzwing: Approximations of their original bodies.
Seekers: Fall of Cybertron and War for Cybertron bodies
Triggerhappy and Slugslinger: G1 bodies.
Vehicons: Prime Bodies
Powerglide: G1 body.