Author's Notes: Happy holidays everyone! This is a much shorter chapter then I intended, but the chaos of the holidays has me slammed when it comes to free time. Either way, I hope everyone enjoys. As always, please comment and share what you think!
Location: Skies over Iacon
Starscream
Of all the total asinine plots Starscream had been forced to participate in, this had the makings of being the worst assault in Decepticon history. And that was impressive, because the supposedly intellectual Soundwave had conceived it all!
From what little information they had acquired from the local riffraff, there were only about ten Decepticons scheduled to be executed. One of those on the chopping block was Knock Out, and the faster the Decepticons could be rid of that traitor the better. There was no good reason they should be wasting resources on a few fools who allowed themselves to be captured.
And yet here he was. Flying alongside Soundwave's sad excuse for Seeker wannabees to provide arial cover. All while Shockwave's long lost Autobot test subjects, the Dinobots, fought for those they would be (sigh) rescuing.
He could not fathom what had happened to the once fierce, Sparkless third in command to cause him to lose his spinal strut. Soundwave was meant to be the silent schemer of the Decepticon faction. Now the once silent Communications Officer had fallen into the role of Decepticon leader for Primus sake!
And while he was pondering the topic of the chain of command… Starscream boiled just processing the grave injustice of his current position in the Decepticon ranks. Technically, he should be leading their cause into a brighter, Energon stained tomorrow. He was Megatron's Second in Command. Now he wasn't even graced with his original position. That screeching nobody Thunderblast had wormed her way into Soundwave's good graces. And then the brute Demolisher, who Break Down could have outwitted in smarts, was serving as third in command. Starscream decided the universe truly took great joys in tormenting him. But like always, he intended to rise to this challenge. He would assure this worthless mission was a rousing success, there by convincing Soundwave of his egregious error in judgment to not reinstate him second in command the moment he had been recovered.
It was unfortunate, but Starscream saw no other way around it. He had to kill Soundwave and take command. Knowing the cold reality of this situation was far from comforting. He could never take Soundwave in a hand-to-hand fight. And of course, sneaking up on him would be out of the question… Primus knew Starscream was never able to succeed in dealing with Megatron secretly, because Soundwave had always been there to monitor him. But that was the past, and the present political climate had shifted in Starscream's favor.
Megatron was gone, and Soundwave was overwhelmed with the duties of the Decepticons. He wouldn't have ample time to remain in the shadows and spy. If there was a time to strike, it would be during this whole Arachnid and New Council disaster. The upcoming chaos would be rife with opportunity to stage any range of 'accidents.' Starscream saw the writing on the walls. He didn't have much time to plan. But working under impossible odds was his specialty.
"Whatcha scheming about?" came the condescending snicker from a member of his unfortunate company. Slipstream was the culprit. She had been the most talkative amongst their party. "I don't even need to read your EM field to know you are in a piss poor mood. You are always in a terrible mood. Not much changes even after a good few eons, eh, Commander?" the last word she tacked on was sprinkled with barely refrained laughter.
Ramjet soared alongside her, snickering right along, like he was some sort of leashed pet. They had been in bad shape when Soundwave insisted the two be rescued from the Elite Guard. They had made too swift a recovery. Now they plagued Starscream's arial unit. He did his best to ignore their presence all together.
Vehicons of course made up the rear of their formation in the early morning sky. They didn't comment, but that was only because Starscream had snapped at their senseless chatter before they had even left the Kaon Capital. One of them, he couldn't recall their number, had begun to offer some sort of commentary about the mission. HIS mission. He was Megatron's second in command, he did not need Vehicons of all creatures offering him advice on how to do his job. He had never recalled Vehicons to be so needlessly chatty. Between the lowly cloned troopers and the other self-important fools, everyone must have been greatly inspired to join Soundwave with his newfound voice.
Starscream scoffed, louder than he needed to between their commlink. He had hoped the abrupt sound would cause painful interference on Slipstream's end. No such luck. "If you call planning proper attack strategies to make sure you ingrates return to Kaon in one piece 'scheming' then you caught me, guilty as charged.
"I am merely considering our mission. Our uneasy alliance with these Dinobots, for example. I do not understand why Soundwave insisted we use those vial creatures; they are even more unnatural then the Predacons. The least Shockwave could have done was assure they were terminated after he was done experimenting on them." He snorted.
"But then we wouldn't have back up." Slipstream felt inclined to needlessly remind him. "With no Dinobots, we would be fighting the Predacons ourselves. And we all know how you are with that. You'd rather fly away, right? Leaving somebot else to take on a damn PRIME by herself and then not bother to turn the fragging ship around to drag my nearly dead chassis back into an airlock." She said, no longer sporting a joking air.
So she was still bitter about that?
"Are you really so juvenile to be focused on past grudges?" Starscream demanded of his old teammate.
"Absolutely not!" Slipstream said, a little to enthusiastically. "In a way, you leaving me for scrap on that trash covered Pit of a planet really opened opportunities for me. I picked myself up, dusted the trash from my peds, and started a small criminal enterprise between worlds. It is a humble business, but I am proud of it. It even gave me a chance to find Ramjet here, in desperate need of help from a swarm of rather rude Piranhacons. And he has been my star employee when it comes to getting brute work done. Isn't that right my big wrecking ball?"
"Affirmative ma'am." Ramjet responded obediently. "Happy to help."
"He's just a gem, isn't he?" Slipstream said. "Mercy is so hard to come by these cycles. It's amazing how it comes in handy for keeping bots loyal, and around."
Starscream internally rolled his optics. "The might of the Decepticons, does not have time for weak sentiments such as mercy."
"No surprise that's your viewpoint." Slipstream snickered. She edged a bit to close into his personal airspace, bumping him in a playful fashion.
He yelped and had to realign himself when it gave him a dangerous wobble. "Drop the childish behavior, Slipstream! What exactly do you want from me?"
"An apology would be nice." Slipstream hummed. "But I know you would have an easier time convincing our missing in action Megatron into becoming your personal errand Bot then have 'sorry' tumble out of your mouth plates."
In a way she was right, but Starscream was not going to give her the satisfaction of agreeing with her. "So, how about you give me a little payback. Nothing major. One good shove or punch. Nothing lethal. It would make me feel better. Give my Spark closure in a sense."
"If you intend to be that childish." Starscream vented. He was far from concerned by the threat. Slipstream was not a hard hitter. He assumed that was why she got bigger bots to be in her employ. Nevertheless, he clenched in anticipation of some sort of shove from her side. He was sure his confusion was palpable as the silence stretched on. Slipstream did not make a move to assault him. "Oh, I never said I would tell you when the hit was coming. That will be my little surprise." She snickered.
Wonderful.
Rising smoke in the distance forced Starscream to focus. He could deal with Slipstream and concoct much needed plans for the Decepticons future later.
"Like old times, eh Silver?" Slipstream offered.
Starscream had to shove his annoyance down to remain on task.
"Scans for airborne Predacons are a negative." One of the Vehicons reported. At least the clones were doing their jobs. And as irritated with Soundwave as Starscream was, his intel was accurate. As always. The Predacon brutes were on the ground, tangled in combat with the Dinobots. Starscream wasn't sure which beast he detested more. The Predacon's at least had the decency to not be Autobot aligned.
Starscream zoomed his focus as they made their first sweep over Iacon City. In an electrified cage were ten Decepticons, all huddled together and miserable looking. Interestingly, the flashy red traitor Knock Out was not among those in the cage. Starscream wondered if something was happening in the Iacon Prisons that caused his delay to be on display with the others.
Crowds once gathering around the square were now running for their lives as monsters exchanged blows. He counted only five Dinobots. There were twenty leashed Predacons ripping at them. The Autobot monsters were holding their own for the time, but that would only last for so long.
They swooped low, unleashing fire at the Elite Guard rushing to provide back up to their Predacon pets. Blasters had little effect on Predacons, Starscream had learned that the hard way. He had far too much of an intimate knowledge of the Predacons from recent experience.
"At least you're still a decent shot." Slipstream almost complimented Starscream. "I assume it was the only reason Megatron kept you around. That and when he needed to scuff his knuckles on something to relive stress."
"Focus on task, if you are capable!" Starscream snarled at her. He almost wished she would hit him already so she would stop her hyper fixation on him.
Then a thundering form caught his focus at once. "Grimlock?" he managed to say with a horrified intake. He had to suppress a shutter. Of course, his luck would make one of the Dinobots be Grimlock. He assumed the simple-minded monster would not recognize him. He hoped he would not recognize him.
They came down on the Elite Guard once more to create a path to the prisoners.
"Starscream!?" came the roaring voice from the ground. Starscream had to force the fear from stalling his boosters. The Dinobot Grimlock, who had a Predacon in a grapple, tracked him across the sky with yellow optics. Then he roared with laughter, tossing the Predacon into another of its own kind. "I'd stay up there, you tankless worm! I said I wouldn't kill any Cons, but me ripping your wings off wouldn't kill ya!"
Starscream shuttered. He tried to refrain from looking at the beast again as he worked.
"You have a clear path!" The talkative trooper reported over their channel. "You get the prisoners out, we'll cover you!" The Vehicon and their squad peeled off from the group. Starscream was actually surprised to see them hit a sizable portion of what they were shooting at. That was a strange turn of events… Either they changed something up in the cloning process for Troopers or Soundwave was training the cannon fodder more than Megatron did.
"Sharpshot's somethin', aren't they?" Ramjet snickered. "Never knew a Vehicon to survive so many battles, let alone their whole squad. Kind of enduring to watch."
It took Starscream a moment to realize Ramjet was referring to the head Vehicon. Since when were they giving the Troopers actual names?
With that ridiculous thought, Starscream flipped out of his transformation and landed just before the stage. Going by their expressions, either the prisoners were impressed with his flawless landing, or for the first time since their capture they thought they would survive. Probably both. Slipstream examined the cage for a weak point. It had a place to input a code, and that would take to much time. His or Slipstream's smaller blasters would do little more than dent it.
"Alright, one of you prisoners must have seen the guards input the code whilst you were cowering." Starscream snapped, looking up at the small group of wasted resources. His optic's locked onto the gaze of a Bot who momentarily made him forget how to activate his voice box. The Bot in question would have a very similar understanding of that concept. "Autoclave?" He wasn't sure if he had whispered it, or merely formed the name with his mouth plate. "You're alive?" he said, this time out loud for sure.
Much like the last time Starscream had seen the old bot, Autoclave could only offer a nod and a few clicks from his destroyed voice box.
It was a cycle of nostalgic faceplates indeed.
Everything else was forgotten. The Predacons swooping down on other monsters and blaster fire. Slipstream's threatening banter. Only the Elite Guard aiming his blaster at Autoclave from behind the cage brought Starscream back. He unleashed his own barrage from his left blaster, taking the Elite Guard by surprise and knocking him off the elevated platform.
"That's a look." Slipstream observed, optic ridge raised as Starscream finally noticed she was looking at him. "You know this one?"
Autoclave was the first to the punchline. His small communication device he must have kept hidden from the guards activated with his fiddling. [An. Old. Friend.] it reported for him.
"Ramjet!" Starscream snarled at the other conehead Seeker who had yet to join them on the ground. "Get your bigger blasters down here and blow open the cage."
"He doesn't have blasters." Slipstream reported with a shrug.
"I don't have blasters, sir!" Ramjet confirmed through their commlink as he zipped around the battlefield.
"Then what true good are you?!" Starscream snarled.
In answer, Ramjet turned from confusing a Predacon with maddening circles. He then burned his boosters at full power, his intended target the prisoner's cage. Starscream gasped an intake and managed to dive out of the way as Ramjet, well, rammed into the cage. Despite the electricity it burst open, throwing prisoners out and tossing Ramjet into the ground.
Starscream blinked in utter shock. Ramjet, smashed into the ground behind the now obliterated cage, transformed. His chassis jerked with the extra electricity from encountering the electrified barrier. Despite the painful looking twitches in his limbs, he was smiling.
"I wonder what came first," Slipstream snickered, getting up from the ground when the impact had thrown her too. "His name, or the attack."
"I-I f-f-or-got." Ramjet admitted with effort.
Starscream left the two fools to their own devices and stepped hurriedly around the broken sparking pieces of the cage. Autoclave was shaken, but thankfully not in pieces like his old enclosure. Starscream grabbed him by the upper servo and pulled him to his peds.
"Time to Groundbridge!" Starscream ordered to his fliers, and into his commlink to the Renegade Crew waiting for the signal.
Once Ramjet stopped sparking, Slipstream helped him up, and they herded the remaining prisoners towards the swirling vortex.
"Time to retreat already?" Grimlock laughed despite the Predacon ripping at his back plating. "And here it was just getting good! You Con's sure do know when to break up a party!" Grimlock roared, and his fellow monstrosities broke away from the fight and retreated after him.
To Starscream's shock, Soundwave's promise to provide backup as they escaped was kept. 'Sharpshot' and their unit flew around them, making themselves alluring targets for the Predacons to focus on as the Dinobots escaped. Losing one Trooper unit was far from a tragedy if it meant the Dinobots thought they were not being double crossed. That would bring about wanted retribution from the monsters, so Starscream saw where Soundwave was coming from.
He pulled Autoclave into the portal, leaving the chaos of battle behind. All prisoners accounted for, and his two none trooper fliers were still online. Starscream considered that a victory deserving praise.
Autoclave crumbled just as the Bridge closed behind them, and Starscream just managed to catch him. "Keep it together old man… I didn't just risk my aft to have you die of Spark failure once we are out of the fight." Starscream said, intending it to come off sharper than it did.
Autoclave clung to him for support, and once again his deep optics found Starscream's. It made him more uncomfortable than he wanted to admit. [Thank. You. Starscream.]
Starscream pursed his mouth plates. He waved a trooper over from their console post operating the Renegade's Spacebridge. "Get this one to med bay. He's in more need than the others."
With a reluctant stare, Autoclave was pulled away from Starscream and down the dark corridors towards the med bay with the others.
"Awww." Slipstream said loudly, making Starscream wince. "So that black hole where your Spark should be does have a glimmer of good in it? There's hope for the universe yet."
Starscream rolled his optics and marched back to the Bridge. "Autoclave is a brilliant scientist. It would be foolish to waste that potential!" he stepped onto the command deck and searched it for Soundwave.
"Whatever you say, Silver softy." She said.
He turned from his search to glare at her. It allowed him to see her clenched fist coming right for his faceplate.
"Gah!" Starscream winced in anticipation for the assault, but it stopped short.
Slipstream smiled behind her stalled fist. "Yeah, this is going to be fun."
Starscream shoved her shoulder as hard as he dared so not to scuff himself on his way past her. "Where is Lord Soundwave?" he demanded of the crew present. "Our mission was a resounding success."
"We'll make sure to tell him when he gets back." Thunderblast said. Her normal annoying chipper attitude had been replaced with a glaring somber aura. "He, the Autobots, and Predaking are breaking into the Iacon prison as we speak."