Chapter Ten
After making the altercation to our calculations, it was clear the loss of energon was more annoying than it was harmful. Any loss of the precious life source was always hard to bear, but it was done, and they would live. Starscream put it behind him and focused on the present.
When he got back to the bridge, Soundwave was waiting with intel he'd gathered from Cliffjumper. It was Arcee foolishly revealing her location. The other Autobot who'd embarrassed him in front of Shockwave—thank the AllSpark he was dead—was too out on her lonesome.
And by now she was probably aware of her precious partner's passing—it was the opportune time to destroy her.
"Let's deploy a couple of drones to find her in this Jasper, Nevada. Wouldn't want to call too much attention to ourselves, especially in case other Autobots are lurking around." Soundwave nodded.
As Soundwave fulfilled his orders Starscream turned and pondered the map on his console. He was looking at a full map of the planet, copied from the humans data net, with every energon deposit so far discovered indicated by bright blue dots. There was a whole continent near the bottom of the map that had no points at all.
Starscream smirked; it was uncanny that the continent was known amongst the humans to be difficult to explore and full of mysteries. It was strange to feel anywhere close to understanding those gross flesh creatures, but he could appreciate the irony.
Soundwave approached him.
"Have you deployed the troops?" The spy nodded, "then by all means, return to your usual work."
Once Soundwave was back at his console Starscream sneaked out of the command center—in a manner of speaking, obviously there was really no sneaking to be done around Soundwave—and made his way to one of the old labs.
His destination was the lab in which they'd put Cliffjumper's corpse. Starscream could be petty, he knew, but it had been so long since he felt the sense of purpose and thrill of war. One little arrogant Autobot denying back-up was all it took to put the pieces back on the board. The Autobots would not let this go unacknowledged, and even if they only managed to alert Arcee to their presence, the message would be made clear: We still have unfinished business, Autobots.
He made it to the old lab and deactivated the new lock that had been placed on it hours ago. The room was as he was expecting, and hoping. It was eerily dim—lights in unused sectors were kept off to preserve fuel—and empty aside from a few bins which held whatever equipment was once used in there.
On a slab in the back could be seen a body with two cables attacked to either side of the abdomen.
These cables were not being used to keep him clinging to life, but to keep his body from graying and rusting. It was amazing how fast their bodies, when dead, rusted on this planet; and Starscream didn't want to have to taunt the Autobots, or show-off to Megatron, with rusty old bits of barely-recognizable Autobot.
He remembered how this Autobot had taunted him, and how he'd fallen for it. This time he'd rewarded Cliffjumper's goading with a quick strike and death. But the anger hadn't been relieved.
It seemed he was never anything but angry. Living in Megatron's gargantuan shadow would do that, he supposed—but that wasn't the whole story. Shockwave, Soundwave, and many others now lost or dead, are legendary amongst the two factions. They manage to spark caution, even fear, in the Autobots and are respected amongst the Decepticons.
Why then, is he such a joke to everyone? Everyone on this ship knows that he was only trusted to be in charge because Soundwave is essentially babysitting him. They must know—and Soundwave definitely knows.
Megatron distrusts his abilities as a leader, even though he'd more than proven himself capable of making good decisions! So he isn't very good at physically overpowering prisoners; what bearing does that have on ones ability to make quick and keen decisions, and to anticipate the enemies' intentions?
It's all Megatron's fault. He never let Starscream speak his mind, he never followed his advice, and he treated him more like a nuisance than a dependable adviser. What did their gracious and glorious leader expect from him after he was treated with such disdain?
He even had Soundwave fooled. Or perhaps Soundwave had them all fooled. All assumed Soundwave was super intelligent, but perhaps his capacity to store and analyze information did not correlate with practical intelligence. Perhaps his loyalty to Megatron was not proof of Megatron's prowess as a leader, but more a testament to Soundwave's lack of unbiased judgment.
Starscream had noticed his complete uselessness in social situations many times.
But what good any of this was to him was unknown. All of it was speculative, and without being able to prove it, it did him no good. All of the mindless fools around him would go on thinking Megatron was an infallible leader and that Soundwave's superior intellect was in awe of this.
There was nothing he could do to expose this shambolic hierarchy, and he lived in a state of constant frustration. Everyday he grew more restless and resentful. Every day Megatron did not return his lust for supreme leadership intensified.
Everyone around him seemed content to fold themselves into the monotony of life: the drones mined, maintained the ship, did whatever job they had, and Soundwave stared at his screen all day. But Starscream was full of hunger—hunger for power, and for victory, and most of all, to return home and begin their world again. He hated scavenging this pathetic dirt planet for energy in order to survive while Cybertron rusted in its ruinous state.
Megatron had abandoned them to search for more slaves of his will, had ordered them to do nothing but harvest energon and attack Autobots that strayed to close. They could be sending drones to clean up Cybertron; even if they couldn't make it habitable, at least the planet they all loved would not be in such a dismal state. With the Autobots trapped on Earth they would be unable to interfere. The Deceptions would find a way to restore Cybertron, and they would be the ones history remembered as the saviors of Cybertronian life.
But Megatron would not see the benefit of this, despite his poetical orations he knows only destruction and violence. As long as Optimus Prime functions, nothing else matters—not his troops, not their race, and certainly not their precious planet.
