Chapter Three

Starscream arrived on the bridge to find his requested squadrons waiting silently. "Right," oh it felt good to be in control, "the lot of you were created with superior intelligence—for Eradicons—and thus, from here on out your mission will be differ from that of the other troopers. Each of you will be assigned an abandoned energon mine; your mission: lure the undoubtedly desperate Autobots to the fuel sources and destroy them."

An eradicon gestured for permission to speak. "But commander there are no abandoned energon mines."

Starscream growled and shook his head as if they were all idiots; which, of course, in his mind they were. "are you suggesting I don't know this?" The trooper stayed silent but shrunk in on himself enough to satisfy Starscream, who smirked.

"Obviously, there are not yet mines we have picked clean; but given the average size of the deposits on this miserable dirt planet, it won't be long until we are forced to abandon hopeless locations for more promising fields. When this happens the Autobots will begin to scavenge our leftovers. We must use their diminished number against them—this method is the only way to locate the Autobots as they split up to go scouting." He stopped pacing and smirked at his troops. "We will pick them off one by one."

The troops saluted this and cheered in the form of shouting, "Yes, Commander." Starscream was reminded of the glory days of the war, he barely stopped his wings from fluttering.

"For now, return to your posts and Soundwave will brief you on your new assignments. Dismissed."
As the troops filed out, Starscream folded his arms behind his back and looked at Soundwave. Surely Soundwave was impressed by his plan; Megatron had just ordered Soundwave to 'keep an eye out for the Autobots'. It may seem preposterous, but there were times when Megatron could accurately be called a passive leader. Megatron had ordered them to follow the Autobots to Earth—thanks to Starscream finding out that that was where Optimus Prime was stranded—and when they'd arrived, he'd delegated the search for the Autobots to 'of little importance'.

Soundwave, however, was still attached, literally, to his console as he had been throughout Starscream's speech. Of course, the spy had certainly heard and recorded the exchange, but whether or not he had any thoughts or opinions on it was another matter.

As ever Starscream found himself growing frustrated with Soundwave's lack of attention. Perhaps now was his chance to get the spy more interested in the new chain of command.

"Soundwave?" Starscream put confidence and nonchalance into his voice. The spy turned his helm slightly in his direction—Starscream felt his frustration mount. "You will give your leader your full attention when he speaks to you." Yes, very good to be in control.

Soundwave didn't move for a good moment and Starscream could just feel comprehension dawning on Spymaster Haughtiness. Soundwave turned fully toward him and, according to his all-or-nothing way of doing things, even drew his cables back into his torso.

Starscream let the moment sink in—for both of them. Megatron's favorite? How does it feel to answer to me?

His optics were practically lubricating from the immense satisfaction he felt. However, he reminded himself he would only succeed as leader if Soundwave was on his side.

"I just wanted to know what you think of my plan. I do value the opinion of such an intelligent and capable Decepticon."

Soundwave's visor stared at him in silence as usual. And, as usual, Starscream felt himself get inexplicably angry.

Finally, "It seems not all of your plans are completely useless, Starscream," said Megatron's voice. The bridge was very very quiet. All of the smug pride drained from Starscream.

He'd given Soundwave an order to demonstrate his new-found power, and in turn, Soundwave just demonstrated what he thought of Starscream's role as leader. Soundwave had made perfectly clear he believed that Megatron knew his army would be safe in the hands of Soundwave, whereas Starscream would just have to do.

Starscream got into Soundwave's face. "If you think I'm going to be a pushover for you like I am with Megatron, then you have another think coming. You're not twice my size and half off your rocker like your precious slave master is, so you better be aware of your place...which, by the way, is beneath me." He seethed into Soundwave's visor and was minutely aware that chilled, coolant-scented air from Soundwave's vents was curling around his face.

"Half off your rocker," Soundwave replayed as a threat of blackmail.

Starscream didn't so much backhand Soundwave as rake his razor-sharp talons across his ludicrous visor. Then he wrapped those talons around Soundwave's neck. "Go ahead and tell on me, freak" he chuckled in Soundwave's 'face' and dropped his voice to a whisper, "Megatron has forgiven me for far worse." With that he tittered almost flirtatiously and pushed Soundwave away from him.

"Now go fix your visor."

And Soundwave hesitated, but obeyed.