*Ahem*

So I finally manage to (kinda) meet my weekly schedule for this thing. It didn't take me two weeks to write this, so that's an improvement. (There were two weeks between updates because I was writing some other thing)

As for why I wrote this, I really have no excuse. I wrote the last two chapters because I wanted to really get down all the characters in a short time, but I wrote this chapter just because I wanted to write about the Decepticons playing cards.

Anyway, if you find any glaring flaws feel free to let me know. Or don't, like I usually do.

A dim glow painted the cold metal walls with soft yellow light. At the middle of the room, the Decepticons sat around a table, playing cards under the shadows carved deeply into the floor.

"Still can't believe you found a printer this size, Soundwave," Skyquake said, shuffling the domino-printed cards in his servos.

"The hard part was finding the paper," Soundwave replied from his seat next to him, not even glancing up from his hand of cards. "You see, there was this small factory really deep into that forest out in Maine. I really had to go out of my way to find it."

Knock Out, sitting on the other side of the table, looked up and put down his cards. "You didn't steal this paper, did you?" he said, a worried look crossing his face.

"I'd say it's more... borrowing it," Soundwave said. "Only there was no one around to ask for permission from."

"You call it borrowing. I call it stealing."

"Details, details," Soundwave said, waving a servo in dismissal. "The important part is I got the paper." He paused for a moment to take a quick peek over the table. "Speaking of which, who's turn is it?"

"Airachnid's," Knock Out said. He stopped to pick up an energon cube to his side, and took a sip.

"Huh?" Hearing her name, Airachnid finally looked up from her place next to Knock Out.

"It's your turn to go," Soundwave said, giving her a friendly nudge.

"Oh, right," Airachnid said. She fumbled a bit with the cards in her servo, before finally putting one down on the trail of cards pointing at her direction.

Soundwave took a moment to lean over the table and steal a glance at her cards. "That's... not going to work," he said after a moment of thought.

She frowned, confused. Taking a second look at her cards, she quickly realized her mistake and spun the card around.

As she slowly lifted her servo, she asked, "A-a quick question: what is he doing here?" She motioned toward Knock Out, indicating it was him she was talking about. "Isn't he supposed to be keeping Megatron alive?"

"It's his off day," Soundwave said, and a schedule popped up on his visor to prove his point.

"But why are you and Skyquake here as well?" she asked, throwing Skyquake a quick glance.

The only reply she got was Skyquake quietly pressing a digit to his glossa.

"Anyway, you'd need me to set up the game," Soundwave said. "If I wasn't here, we'd have no game to play."

Just then, the doors behind them slid open. A group of vehicons walked in, quietly murmuring amongst themselves. When they caught sight of the Decepticon officers sitting around the table playing cards, some exchanged weird looks. Most didn't give them a second glance and walked past, taking an energon cube out of storage on their way out. One by one, the slowly filed out, until only one vehicon remained.

The last vehicon approached the Decepticon officers in a casual saunter, energon swirling in his hand. As soon as he stepped into the light, his armor quickly folded in on itself, revealing the blue tint and spiny helm beneath. Makeshift pulled up a chair to the table and wasted no time in making himself comfortable.

"Is this a bad time to say I want in?" he said in Airachnid's voice.

Off her corner of the table, Airachnid muttered, "I feel mocked."

"We're almost done, so yes," Soundwave replied briskly.

Makeshift quietly nodded, before he dove right into his energon.

With Makeshift out of the way, Soundwave motioned for Knock Out to make his move. With a flick of his servo, he tossed a card to the end of a trail of cards lying on the side. Soundwave leaned over the table to get a closer look and gave Knock Out a glare.

"Do you know what you've done?" he exclaimed, flinging his servos outward in a dramatic fashion.

"As a matter of a fact, yes," Knock Out replied smugly, nodding to Skyquake. The heavy-set seeker just grinned in victory and placed his last card right behind Knock Out. The only bot that seemed surprised at Soundwave's preemptive call was Airachnid, and even then, her reaction amounted to a confused furrow between her optics.

Soundwave ex-vented as he gathered the cards into a pile. After a quick shuffle, he passed out a hand of cards to the other Decepticons at the table. When he was done, they settled into quiet chatter as the game began.

"So, what took you so long?" Knock Out asked, turning to Makeshift.

The shifty Decepticon slouched down further on his chair and replied in Starscream's voice, "I had to find a way to ditch the children with Starscream." He stopped to give Skyquake a sideways glare, before he said, "Thanks for that, by the way."

Skyquake shrugged as he put down another card on the table.

"The kids are probably still listening to that old stick rant on about slacking off," Makeshift continued, this time using Soundwave's voice. "He'd lose his processor if he found out about this little gathering."

"He never lets us have any fun," complained Soundwave, who had been eavesdropping on the conversation. "He says we're supposed to focus on the war effort, but surely a little relaxation won't kill us?"

"Don't we have off days?" Airachnid said, cutting in.

"Only because I had to haggle it out of him, and even then we're still not allowed to leave the ship."

Knock Out clicked his digits against the table. "I'm usually not one to complain, but nothing I do ever seems to be enough for him," he grumbled. "I'm not First Aid; I can't do everything, thank you very much."

The ship rumbled. The Decepticons stopped, and the room became quiet. Cubes of energon carelessly scattered on the table swished gently inside their containers, until they finally settled back down again.

"What was that?" Airachnid squeaked, shrinking back into her chair.

All optics in the room turned to Soundwave. A display appeared on his visor for a moment, before it slipped out of existence.

"Engine problems," he said dismissively. "I just sent a few vehicons to check it out. Probably a minor malfunction."

"You're not even fully off-duty," Makeshift said in Soundwave's voice. "It's no wonder you're TIC. You could spend an entire day in your berthroom and Starscream wouldn't bat an optic, because you'd still be getting work done."

Soundwave raised a servo defensively. "Well, at least Starscream doesn't expect you to get something done every second of the day."

An alert popped up on his visor. The other Decepticons paused again as they waited for Soundwave to respond.

The alert disappeared as quickly as it had disappeared, and it was a few moments more before Soundwave spoke. "Just something on the deck. Probably some passing debris."

As the room was beginning to settle back into a relaxed atmosphere, another alert opened on the glass visor. Then another, and another, until the entire screen was filled with blaring alerts.

"Something tells me it isn't just space debris out there," Airachnid said, rising from her chair, ready to spring away at any moment.

Soundwave checked the exterior cameras. What he saw stunned him into silence.

"Oh Primus," he hissed the moment he broke out of his surprise. "Something's happening."

"What?" Skyquake exclaimed, jumping to his pedes. His weapons were already in his servos, crackling in anticipation.

"We're under attack," Soundwave said. "It's finally happened. We're under attack!"

An alarm shrieked through the halls of the Nemesis. The ship rumbled again; the tremor was hard enough to knock the Decepticons off their pedes, as Starscream's voice rung out clearly.

"All Decepticons! To your stations! We are under attack! Defend the ship by any means necessary!"