CHAPTER 12
The work at the energon mine started out peacefully – unusually peaceful. No signs of Autobots had been reported at the mines lately. Most of the Vehicons took the peace for granted, but at least one of the guards knew the strange inactivity lately meant something was about to happen.
"Hey Steve," the guard next to him said, knocking him out of his thoughts. He certainly seemed more relaxed than his colleague. "Why are you looking so grim? Try to enjoy the peace, will you?"
"I don't know, Henry," the Vehicon replied quietly. "I just have a feeling something bad is about to happen…"
"You always have that feeling. Don't worry, everything's gonna be—"
He silenced as a GroundBridge appeared in the middle of the mine. The bright green light caught everyone's attention, both guards and miners. Was that Lord Megatron on his way to inform them of something? The Vehicon wondered what it could be…
The bot stepping out of the portal was not Megatron. It was Starscream.
"See, I told you something bad was gonna happen!" Steve said as he and the other Vehicon guards aimed their blasters at the Seeker, who kept surprisingly and unusually calm about being surrounded.
"Oh please, it's only Starscream," Henry said unconcerned. "We can take him out easy!"
Starscream's notes
Yep. Changed it back to 'notes'.
Right now, I'm standing in the middle of one of Megatron's energon mines. I came through the GroundBridge, and now it disappeared. The Vehicons are all pointing their blasters at me and have surrounded me. Predictable.
If only they knew what I have in my possession. I can't wait to see their faces!
Well, their expressions probably won't change, because, you know, they're blank.
Still, I'm looking forward to see their reactions as I lay down my remote on the ground and take out the Apex Armor. I put it on my chest, and the Vehicons are watching me carefully, but obviously confused.
It's transforming around me. Now they're beginning to shoot at me. They're lousy shots, as always. And those that do hit me, well they're not having any effect!
The armor is completely transformed now, and it appears the drones have realized their weapons don't work on me, because they've stopped shooting and are now running towards me.
I punch each of them with my mighty fists. They crack so easily, those fragile clones. It doesn't take long before each one of them have been thoroughly dismembered and crushed to tiny little pieces.
Now there's nobody to hinder me from getting my energon!
Starscream searched on the ground for his remote. He found it next to a headless Vehicon miner. It was a miracle that it hadn't been stepped on, blasted or otherwise harmed. Perhaps taking it outside the armor hadn't been such a good idea after all. Oh well.
He picked it up gently, still with the armor on, so he could carry larger crystals at a time. He opened a GroundBridge back to the Harbinger and began picking up and carrying crystals around in the mine over to the GroundBridge, then proceeding to simply throw them through the portal, landing safely back in the ship.
"I've hit a motherload this time," the Seeker snickered while throwing three very large crystals through the portal. "With this much energon, I'll be sustained for at least one more month!"
Unaware that he was not completely alone, a surviving Vehicon guard, the one called 'Steve', regained consciousness. He lifted his head and watched the former Air Commander throw large crystals into his own personal GroundBridge portal. He was currently too weak to fight him any longer. He opened a comm. and contacted the Nemesis.
"Lord Megatron," he said as quiet as possible, "this is trooper 7652-Steve from energon mine DLC 17! We're under attack!"
"By Autobots?" Megatron's harsh voice sounded from the other end of the comm.
"By Starscream," Steve replied, almost a whisper. "He's taking huge chunks of energon…"
"Then STOP him!" Megatron snarled.
"We tried. He's in possession of some really solid armor. Nothing we try can penetrate it!"
There was silence for a short moment, while Starscream loaded another large crystal into the portal. "I don't want any excuses! Stop Starscream in any way you can!"
"But sir," Steve said, a little louder and more desperately, "I'm the only one left in here, and I'm heavily wounded! What could I possibly do alone?"
"Blow the MINE!"
"What? But—"
"I SAID BLOW IT UP! STARSCREAM MUST NOT GET ANY MORE ENERGON!"
Not wanting to hear any more of his master's wrath, Steve turned off his comm. and pulled forth his left blaster and pointed it at a bunch of crystals still sticking out of the walls. His right arm had been torn off, and his legs were dismembered as well. It was a miracle he had survived. A miracle that was soon to be blown to pieces by Megatron's unsympathetic orders. Oh well. Maybe in another life.
He fired the blaster without making another word and watched as the laser flew towards the crystals and past the Seeker, who now saw what the Vehicon was doing and followed the laser with his optics.
The shot hit, and the crystals began exploding, causing a chain reaction. The whole cavern was beginning to collapse, along with the many explosions around Starscream and Steve.
"Well, I guess two weeks will suffice as well," Starscream said and ran through the portal with the remote and one last small crystal in his servos.
The GroundBridge disappeared before the explosions or collapsing rocks could follow the Seeker. Steve lay on the hard cavern floor, waiting for his inevitable doom.
Starscream's log
Entry #28
Ahhh, I didn't manage to acquire energon for an entire month, but I did manage to get at least twelve large crystals and five smaller ones. This will definitely last at least three weeks! Which means I don't have to go on another raid until then!
Oh, how I love my shiny new Apex Armor! Megatron will never take me down now!
Well, I better refine this huge stash and put it in cubes right away!
While Starscream was waiting for the first large crystal to get refined, he took one of the smaller crystals and began eating it, as he was too hungry to wait for a drink. Not wanting to get bored while waiting, he checked the monitor to see if there was anything interesting on it. He came back to look at the three remaining Decepticon signals at the three other continents. One of the signals was on this continent, another in the equator and the last one in the continent next to this continent. Starscream remembered how his trip to the Antarctic went, and he wasn't exactly thrilled by the outlook of another trip like that. However, the other signals weren't in any cold areas, at least not as far as he could see, and now he did have his Apex Armor, which would definitely make the trip a lot safer for him. He was still curious as to what the other relics could be, even though he was certain the Decepticons had already left those areas.
"Oh, to the Pit with this," he said and finished his crystal. "I'll go check it out."
He set the GroundBridge's coordinates to the location in the western part of the States. The Apex Armor rested on his back, ready to be activated if necessary. He went through the portal and found himself in an underground subway tunnel. The portal disappeared behind him, leaving him in total darkness, the only light shining from his very own optics, giving him at least a little bit of vision in this dark tunnel. There were lights in the ceiling, but they gradually turned on and off, as if malfunctioning.
He walked along the train tracks in the blinking, dim light, turning his head to each side, scanning the area for a relic, other Transformers or at least signs of their presence. He stepped carelessly partly on the wooden center of the tracks, partly on the metal magnetic tracks to the sides, while searching the walls at each side of the tunnel. At one point, he stepped on one of the metal tracks and felt a surprising shock coming from it, which almost made him jump into the air.
"Crazy humans," he muttered enraged and decided to keep to the center of the tracks for now. After several cycles, he began noticing strange formations and holes in the walls and on the ground. Black marks from plasma and laser guns, scratch marks from very long and sharp claws, and small hollows in the earthy floor.
"There was definitely a battle here," Starscream concluded. "But over what? Where is the relic?"
He arrived at a fork as the ceiling lights suddenly went off, where the lever had been broken off. After a moment of consideration, he decided to go right, as that was the direction the track had been switched to.
The tunnel he chose ended in a dead end – very dead, to be honest, because all he could see in the darkness at the end of the tunnel was a train wreck. That, and some small creatures wearing orange vests and yellow hardhats. Humans!
His arrival did not go unnoticed by the workers. As the ceiling lights turned back on, they turned around and gasped as they saw the tall Decepticon stand before them. Both parts stared perplexed at one another.
"What…is that?" one of the workers squeaked, as the ceiling lights turned off again, almost as quickly as they had turned on.
"It's…it's one o' them aliens!" the guy next to him exclaimed.
Starscream just stood there and stared silently at them in the darkness, unsure of what to do. Usually he felt highly superior to these puny Earthlings and would gladly arouse them and threaten them. But remembering his last encounter with humans, he had not been very excited to meet with them, even if most of them weren't dangerous like MECH. His rogue life had begun to give him paranoia, anxiety and he didn't know any longer whom he could trust or who were dangerous and who were harmless. These humans weren't MECH, but the Seeker wasn't sure yet if they posed a threat or not.
Without warning, one of the workers pulled forth a small rectangular device and pointed it at the Seeker. He reacted instinctively and pointed his missile at the humans. In the very next second, a bright flash blinked into the Seeker's optics, startling him. He tripped and almost fell over. As he regained his footing, he realized he couldn't see a thing. Those blasted fleshlings have blinded me! he thought horrified. The sudden flash in the blackened tunnel had worked like looking directly into the sun.
Not wanting to stick around and get any more handicapped than he already was, he turned around and ran off, stumbling into walls and corners, as he waited anxiously for his vision to return. Behind him, he could hear one of the humans scold "Now look what you did, you scared it off!", but he didn't dare turn back and return the insult. He just wanted to get out of this claustrophobic place. He activated the GroundBridge and returned to the Harbinger.
The energon refiner had finished the first large crystal. Starscream filled two cubes and shoved in the next large crystal, which began refining right away. As he was still hungry, he grabbed another one of the small crystals to consume, wanting to save the cubes for the time after all of the crystals had been converted.
He looked at the monitor and the remaining two Decepticon signals. The last trip wasn't exactly dangerous, though his temporary blinding had left him with quite a scare. Now that he was back in the safety of the Harbinger, he felt embarrassed about the event. Startled by humans and their harmless human devices. Good thing no one else had been there to witness his humiliation.
"Hey, Dreadwing," Knock Out called. "Check this out."
The first lieutenant had checked in with Knock Out after his battle with Optimus Prime and Starscream. He went over to the medic and looked at the screen, displaying a picture of…well, speaking of the sun!
"Starscream's getting careless," the medic snickered. "Look how spooked he is of the human who took this picture! Hilarious!"
"Mhm," Dreadwing mumbled uninterested, examining the picture of Starscream, pointing his missile toward the screen, which exposed a small section of the Apex Armor on his back. The area behind him was pitch black, but the Seeker himself was distinctly bright, due to the assumed flash of the photographer's phone. "I see he is still in possession of the armor. I'm surprised he made it out that fast."
"Out where?" Knock Out asked curiously. Dreadwing hadn't mentioned the battle to anyone on the ship, not even Megatron.
"Nothing you should worry about," he replied coldly. "Now get back to work."
Knock Out sighed and switched the channel. You're certainly a charmer, he thought sarcastically. This ship is so empty without Breakdown. He would've loved to see a picture like this one.
"Hey guys, check this out!" Raf called. Miko and Jack had been watching TV but interrupted it and went over to see what Raf had found.
"What'cha find?" Miko asked eagerly. "'Cons? Relics?"
"Isn't that Starscream?" Jack said as he saw the picture on the laptop. "Where'd you find this?"
"I was searching for pictures of Bumblebee on that conspiracy website," Raf explained, "and then Starscream just popped up. Someone must've managed to catch a shot of him and survived. Seems the Decepticons can be careless too."
"Where is he?" Arcee asked interested and walked over to them. "Let me see."
Raf tilted his laptop so Arcee could see. She examined the image of the agitated Seeker pointing his missile at the photographer. A very small portion of a device showed on his back, as if he was wearing some kind of backpack.
"He's in the same tunnel where we found the Phase Shifter," Arcee concluded. "But what would he be doing there? And what's that on his back?"
Optimus walked over, having overheard their conversation. Arcee stepped aside to let her leader see. The tall red and blue mech examined the image, specifically at Starscream's back. "It is the Apex Armor," he confirmed. "He seems to still be in possession of it. And he has apparently already gotten himself out of the ocean too."
"But what's he doing in the tunnel?" Arcee repeated. "The relic is gone and the area evacuated. How did he even know where to look?"
"He must have acquired a tracking system of bigger format," Optimus suggested. "And a GroundBridge too. Without his T-cog, getting to the Antarctic would be otherwise impossible. Perhaps he thought he could acquire more of the relics in his possession."
"He's obviously unaware that all the relics have already been claimed then," Ratchet said from the medical bay, checking Bulkhead's status. The Wrecker was still unconscious from his battle with Hardshell and from being exposed to toxic energon, but he was healing.
"Still, with the Apex Armor in his possession, Starscream poses a great threat."
"Here we go," Raf said, as the image of Starscream was replaced with a GIF of a hare shoving its cheeks with marshmallows and said "Chubby-bunny!" with a scratchy computer voice.
"Nice one," Jack said and turned to look at Miko, but this one had lost interest and gone over to be with Bulkhead, anxiously waiting for her partner to wake up.