Title: Unfortunate

Part 4: Design

Summary: One never knows just how far a mech is willing to go.

Characters: Starscream, Decepticons, Autobots

Warnings: bad mojo, character death, cannibalism

Continuity: G1

AN: And yet another section. Autobots getting started, as are the humans. XD


He sits outside the Autobot base, shrouded by trees and shrubbery. He waits, patiently, silently. He lurks, quiet, and still, signal jammers on and energy field tightly bound under his control. His once bright paint-job is marred by the grey of soot and ash, the brown of dirt, the red-orange of rust, and deep evergreen of trees. He waits, and he watches, studying his prey as they come and go with an intensity that had once been reserved for his experiments.

While he waits, while he watches, he spends much time hacking the humans' inferior networks,* searching for information and finding it with ease. He traces human military experiments and caches, a plan forming, hazy now but soon to be made reality. He thinks of his brothers, and of the nuclear reactor that stole them from him. He thinks of the frailty of human life, and of the various nuclear warheads stashed quietly in various spots all over the globe.

He thinks of nuclear holocaust, and of how poetic it would be to see the humans burn in the flames of their own making.

So, as he watches the Autobots' movements – how they come and go, who leaves and who stays, etc. - he also sets up his plans for the humans, quietly issuing ghost orders to various generals who begin to discreetly move hundreds of nuclear bombs to strategic places, always being careful to intercept the requests for verification of orders and verifying them.

He moves only those nuclear bombs owned by the United States of America, and makes no move to hide those movements from any other country, even as he blindsides everyone in power here. To those in the US government, nothing is wrong, nothing is happening, except for most of their allies bombarding them with frantic warnings and enemies pounding on their doors with furious demands made in such a way as Starscream has no trouble seeing the panic and fear behind every word.

He almost gives himself away, he is laughing so hard. But he turns out to be rather lucky in that no one is currently in the Autobot base – they are all in Florida on Bethune Beach examining the remains of what used to be the Decepticon Empire. He imagines their disgust, their horror, their private elation.

He smiles.


He makes no attempt to hide his approach – and why should he? He has waited for nearly an Earth-month after the Autobots discovered the Decepticon Army's remains. He has listened quietly to conversations broadcasted on channels meant to be private, but weren't, because the human's network is not the only thing he's been hacking lately. He has listened as each Decepticon the Autobots knew were trapped here on this disgusting planet were eventually named and listed as deceased – which only happened once they found enough parts to identify a mech. Of Megatron, no one has yet said a word, but even Optimus Prime has privately speculated that the explosion that took out the Nemesis took out the Tyrant as well. No one has yet said a word of him, either, but Starscream knew where he stood on the Autobot's private level of threat. No one had ever given him much in the way of respect since long before they had crashed on this planet; his past glories were attributed to blind luck, behind-the-scenes maneuvering, or functioning sanity. Even if they suspected that he is alive, not one Autobot would think to be on the look-out for him.

As far as they were concerned, he might as well be a ghost.

So he approaches the Autobot base, smiling. He makes no move to hide his approach, and no one makes any move to protest his movement. Not that there is anyone to protest. There are only two mechs inside – and neither of them are known for their paranoia. Ratchet would be minding his med-bay or catching up on some much needed rest, and Perceptor is no-doubt deep into one of his many projects. All the others are gone – some dragged out protesting against their will.

Starscream smiles.

The Autobots have grown careless once the assurance that the Decepticons that were Earth-bound were truly deactivated. While part of him still searches for any hint that this is a trap of some sorts, the vast majority doesn't care. No one but Megatron has ever had a hope of catching him and beating him into submission; no one but Megatron could have even hoped to kill him until he is done with what needs to be done.

He ambles leisurely up to the door, smile turning derisive when the door opens with a merry tone of welcoming. Inside is a long hallway with multiple doorways branching off. Each one he walks by is unlocked, and each room reveals the Autobot's general happiness that the war is now mostly over. It's sickening to him, to know that the Autobots, those who preach about the right of all could celebrate the death of another, even their bitterest enemies.

But then again, who is he to talk? He knows that the party for his 'death' – once it is confirmed – will probably be one of the most festive the Autobots will ever throw. After all, he has personally taken out almost most of the Autobot faction, and has led the attacks that took out almost the whole of Cybertron. Those two Praxians were some of the last of their frame-kin, all thanks to him, not that they would admit it now. His smile grows wicked. And by Primus, how he enjoyed every moment of it all.

He eventually makes his way into the Control Room of the Ark, and spends a long moment simply smiling at his warped reflection on the black monitors. He imagines all the things he could do to Teletran II, all the ways he could drive the Autobots insane bit by bit before he kills them all. The moment of reflection is interrupted when Perceptor walks in. They stand there and stare at each other for a long moment, before Perceptor eventually turns and runs. Starscream snarls and races after the smaller bot. He spares a small second to berate himself for his inattention, but it is of no matter.

The quiet approach is now out, but that's okay. Truly it is, because now he can really have some fun.


And now shit is really going to hit the fan. The next chapter is shaping up rather nicely, and should be much longer. ^^ RnR?

Notes:

*One of the few things I actually liked about Bayverse was the way they set up internet access through the bots. I rather liked how some had what basically amounts to WiFi connection, while others had to take a more hardline approach. I kinda hijacked the set-up, though I highly exaggerated what could be done through the web in the1980's. Although I know it might shock some of you younger folks out there (not all of you though), the internet as we know it really didn't get popular until the mid '90's. As far as I'm concerned, Starscream is capable of both hardlining and the Cybertronian equivalent of WiFi, though he isn't capable of doing much damage over that connection. To successfully hack anything Cybertronian, he has to be hardlined, but because of the primitive nature of the internet that the humans have at this time, he is more than capable of doing some serious shit. Especially considering that it's mostly government and military that have access to it.