Empire
Soundwave: Castaway
Day 1

He is surrounded by blessed silence. Dark clouds of serenity fly through his systems like a sparkling wish for the void. There is nothing that could disturb his slumber.

"... to Cyrus Tertiae and back. Wake up!"

A slap thunders through his body and shakes sleeping parts into action. Instinct demands his reaction in form of a hit between the eyes of the one who dared to deny him rest. His right fist finds its goal with the assuredness of a seasoned sniper, creating a comforting crack upon impact.

"Well, at least you're alive," is mumbled. It sounds to him like the petulant whining of a certain apprentice navigator he never fully manages to avoid. Though he certainly yearns for it from time to time. Thus, a pained groan seems to be a fitting answer.

"I can't be so bad, boss."

His eyes open only to send a glare with the intention to shut the speaker bloody well up towards the student. The child should have learned by now that he doesn't like 'babbling'. After all, he spent quite a long time raising it.

"Status," he says. For a short moment he is surprised to feel pain accompanying his speech. Then, memory returns in its technicolor dreamcoat and points his thoughts at the more urgent matter at hand.

The answer comes as prompt as he expected. "With you, we have four survivors."

He flinches. Only four out of fifty-seven that remained on board. He has to force himself to believe that the loss could have been far greater. Thanatos, being one of the smaller education vessels not in the hands of temple academies, was carrying six hundred students at the time. If his recollection doesn't fail him, which it never has done before, he is sure that all escape pods left intact and fully manned.

"Who?"

"Us two, the ship and that twin from combat training." He already forms letters of condolence in his head, going through all names on his memorized student list.

Four names he marks as 'Not terminated': Thanatos, grand carrier and apprentice's guardian; Soundwave, navigator and project commander (hacker 1st class); Ravage, apprentice navigator (hacker 3rd class); Sunstreaker, student of combat class 301-Theta.

Not much, he thinks, but enough to get home in one piece.

With a sound of impatience and suppressed hurt, he stands up only to realize that his left knee must obviously be damaged. Were he not who he is, a curse louder than an explorer's scream would have echoed through the air. Instead he merely sinks back to ground and glowers at his young heir.

"You got Frenzy off the ship?" asks Ravage, body held in a position of denied worry for a line sibling.

"He is alive." More is not possible to get out. His mind will never believe anything else. It must be enough for the child.

Without his consent his body begins to shut down. 'Begin stasis' flickers through his head.

Not so far away, a twin is mourning a lost brother. The sounds of weeping follow him beyond the borders of sleep into the lands of nightmares.