Chapter 4

Ceremony

Shockwave stood in the middle of the grand balcony of the Tricon capital building. Immediately in front of him stood Starscream and to his right stood Megatron and Commander Dreadwing. A mixture of his own people and the people of Tricon waited below to watch the ceremony. Shockwave had not wanted it to come to this, but his people were starving and it was time to put the differences between Solaris and Tricon behind him and take the only action he could see possible. It was supposed to be a simple ceremony where he would formally ask for assistance, Starscream and the powers that be would accept, and Solaris would become a part of Tricon. Having both cities witness the event would prevent confusion and war and make the transition more orderly.

"Citizens of Tricon and Solaris," Starscream spoke "we are gathered here to witness the unification of our two great cities. We of Tricon have seen the struggles of Solaris and wish to offer our assistance. In return, Solaris will give up its sovereignty and accept Tricon as its ruling city-state. Shockwave, do you accept our proposal?"

"Yes," Shockwave agreed, stepping forward toward Starscream.

"Then you can ask for my help on your knees," Starscream whispered to Shockwave, a cunning smirk on his face.

"In front of my own people?" Shockwave questioned, low enough so that the crowd couldn't hear. He was taken aback; this was not part of the ceremony. "Please Starscream, it's obvious we need your assistance, please don't make me do this. Is it not enough that you now have Solaris, must you take my dignity with it?"

Starscream's wordless glare answered Shockwave's question.

"You bastard," Shockwave said.

"Yes," Starscream hissed. "Now bow!"

Shockwave slowly lowered himself to his knees, swallowing the pride he had left. "I formally accept your proposal Lord Starscream," Shockwave stated to Starscream and the crowd below, "and relinquish my command of Solaris."

Some the in crowd gasped as they saw Shockwave bow to Starscream, but others seemed to know it was coming.

"It's your fault you know," Starscream whispered, staring down at Shockwave. You broke off on your own, wouldn't follow orders, killed many humans before they even had a chance to accept my plans for them and those that were left were too scared to accept them after they saw the destruction left by you, and ran instead. It is a shame now that they will be useless and most likely die. We suffered three delays in synthetic energon production due to not enough workers. We would have been able to supply enough to every city-state, including Solaris, early on had those delays not have occurred."

Shockwave was wordless as he stayed kneeling before Starscream.

"You're lucky I don't take your spark right here for delaying my plans," Starscream rasped. "See to it that you never give me reason to again."

Shockwave nodded and slowly rose from his position. He didn't want to piss off Starscream, he had heard what happened to Optimus.

"So, the deal is complete," Starscream announced to the crowd. "We will take immediate control of Solaris and begin shipments of synthetic energon."

Applause along with clicks and beeps were heard from the crowd as the announcement was made.

"Nicely played," Megatron whispered his approval to Starscream.

"Yes, it would seem the tables have now turned in our favor," Starscream replied. "Commander Dreadwing," Starscream said "take our newest recruit here and escort him to his new work assignment in the main production facility."

"Of course, Lord Starscream," Dreadwing responded as he rounded up Shockwave and took him away.

"Oh and Dreadwing,"

"Yes, Lord Starscream?"

"See to it that Bumblebee is rewarded, high grade, femmes, whatever."

Dreadwing nodded and exited the balcony as did Megatron and Starscream.

"That has been a long time coming Megatron," Starscream remarked as they walked together down the corridor leading from the balcony.

"I agree Starscream," Megatron acknowledged. There was no formal title of Lord used in a conversation between the two of them. There was no need for such formality; they were equals in this new playing field. With the war finally over, the tension had calmed between them, things were almost like they used to be in the beginning, when they first met and joined the Decepticon cause.

"You would expect such dissention from an Autobot, but one of our own, it's unacceptable," Starscream said.

"A futile attempt at a grab for power," Megatron replied. "I am glad your planning put an end to it."

"Soundwave has news to share," Megatron continued. "He requested we report to the briefing room after the ceremony."

"Oh?" Starscream replied.

"It seems he has picked up some kind of strange transmission, most likely he has discovered a few remaining humans, possibly the ones we believed to be located in the Arctic region."

"Hmm," Starscream replied unconcerned. "Humans are certainly interesting, able to survive quite adverse conditions at times."

"Yes," Megatron agreed. "Well, I will leave it to you to decide what to do with them should they be located, they were originally slated to be a part of your project after all."

"Indeed they were," Starscream replied "before Shockwave interfered," he stated hotly.

"Well, let us report to Soundwave, to confirm what news he has for us," said Megatron.