CHAPTER 20
"This is terrible, preposterous," Starscream said as he and Knock Out walked through the corridors of the Nemesis later. "That Predacon is going to ruin my status as Lord Megatron's second-in-command!"
"Come on, Starscream, Shockwave is already the same rank as you, and Lord Megatron still keeps you around," Knock Out pointed out. "You're overreacting."
"I'm sorry, overreacting? Easy for you to say, Knock Out! Nobody here wants your post. I, on the other hand, hold the most coveted position within the Decepticon ranks. And no matter what he may claim, I know that Shockwave is plotting to usurp me. Did you see the smug look in his eye when he unveiled that vile beast to Lord Megatron?"
"Well, he does have that creepy atmosphere around him…but I still don't think you have anything to—"
"Quiet," Starscream hushed and stopped. He could have sworn he just heard the faintest of an exclamation. It was brief, though, and now there was only silence around them.
"What is it now?"
"Nothing," Starscream replied after a moment. "Probably just a Vehicon…"
Without warning, an extreme cramp overwhelmed him in the chest. He held both arms around it and fell to his knees while groaning in pain.
"Are you okay?" Knock Out asked and helped him back on his peds.
"Do I look like I'm okay?!" the Seeker spat. "These cramps – they're getting worse every day, but today…it's been worse than ever!"
"Let's get you to sickbay so I can see what's wrong."
As they arrived in the sickbay, Starscream laid down on one of the tables while Knock Out ran the scanner on him. The cramps didn't go away until several cycles later, and they only decreased a little bit, leaving him with an uncomfortable twist in his chest area. He really wanted a few energon cubes now.
"Well?" he said impatiently to the doctor. He didn't answer him right away; he mumbled something before replying to him.
"How would you describe these cramps, exactly?" he asked with a tablet in his servos. "What do they feel like, and how much do they hurt?"
"Like the Pit," the Seeker groaned, feeling the twist twisting harder. "They usually feel like something's kicking my chest from the inside, but earlier today it was different. Now it feels like everything inside me shrinks and then pops back, then it starts all over again."
"Aha. Have there been more of these unusual cramps?"
"After the first time, it's only been those. What's going on?"
Knock Out looked at his tablet and the screens again in silence for a moment. "I think you're having contractions."
Starscream looked like a big, gray question mark. "Contractions? What are those?"
Knock Out shrugged. "Well, that's what the humans refer to them as, anyway. It is apparently what the females get when their protoforms are ready to get birthed."
Starscream's spark skipped a beat. "You mean…they're coming?"
"Well, so-so. See, if what I've researched is correct, then it turns out Transformers have longer contractions than fleshlings do. It could take hours or even days before the actual birthing process begins."
"Ugh, so I'm supposed to spend these next few days suffering even more than I did before? Can't we just pop them out or something?"
"That would cause damage to both you and the protoforms. They have to get out on their own, when they're ready. Right now they're just testing if they're ready."
"Well, quit it!" Starscream said and slammed a fist against his chest-plate, making a clang sound. It only caused the twist to twist even harder.
"Careful, now," Knock Out warned. "The crucial matter right now is how much pressure you put yourself under. The more stressed out you get, the faster they will come. And if you should get a sudden strong blow to the chest, they might come out right away."
So if I want these things to leave my body as soon as possible, I have to go fight the Autobots or such, Starscream thought. Not really the shortcut I'd like, but the thought of going through another week of this kind of torment…
"So," Knock Out continued, snapping Starscream out of his thoughts, "if you still wish to conceive without the knowledge of Lord Megatron, I suggest you go find a place pretty soon. And remember…"
"…no leaving the warship or citadel, I know," Starscream ended for him in an annoyed tone. "Now please, go fetch a few energon cubes for me, I'm starving!"
"Fine, I'll be right back."
As Knock Out left the room and Starscream in it, the Seeker felt another so-called contraction twisting his insides. He looked around in the room to try and put his mind on something else. His gaze fell on a durabyllium drill on Knock Out's operation table. He remembered the time in the Harbinger when he was about to perform self-surgery. If only he had known back then what he was carrying, and possibly, about to destroy…
His thoughts suddenly turned to the Heralds of Unicron. They had not occupied his mind for weeks now; he had almost completely forgotten about them. He began to wonder if they knew anything about the protoforms inside him. He then remembered what one of them had said. He's too valuable to be destroyed. Were the protoforms what he had meant? But why would Heralds of Unicron care about some unborn protoforms, not to mention being Starscream's offspring? The answer to one question only led to more questions…
The door opened and Starscream stirred uneasily, but relaxed once he saw it was only Knock Out with two energon cubes in his arms.
"Is this enough?" he asked behind the cubes.
"Yes, this will do," the Seeker said and grabbed a cube, emptying it in three nano-cycles, tossed the empty cube away and then grabbed the other one, emptying it in five nano-cycles. "Ahhh, that did it…"
"I will never get used to seeing that," Knock Out said and picked up the empty cube on the floor. "You know, I met a pair of Vehicons on my way back, and I excused the cubes as replenishing my medical supplies. I also noticed how short we're getting on cubes in the storage lately. You've really drained our supply more than we can restock. You need to be careful Lord Megatron doesn't get to know you're taking his energon again without his permission…"
"I know, I know," Starscream hissed. "I can't help it! These Scraplets force me to drink more than I'd normally do, and when I don't, they give me cramps or contractions or whatever the Pit they're doing, until I drink what we need!"
"'We', you say," Knock Out remarked, smiling.
"Yes, 'we'! Is that so wrong?"
"No, no, it's just funny, seeing you this way. Almost as funny as seeing you try to suck up to Lord Megatron ever since Shockwave arrived."
"Well, what else can I do?" Starscream said concerned and got off the table, heading towards the door. "I need to prove my worth to him, or he might try to… Well, I need to get back to work now."
He had restrained himself from mentioning the episode in the energon mine. He knew that Airachnid knew about it, but not if anyone else knew. Soundwave, maybe. But there was no reason to bring that event back up again. As the door closed behind him, he felt a strange dizziness in the head and stopped for a moment. Next nano-cycle, in just a brief glimpse, he saw Creop Trivem's face floating in front of him. He took a step back, but the image was gone as quickly as it had appeared. But it had already imprinted itself into his processor, and now he couldn't forget about it.
The ominous smile…the sickly green eyes…the cold shiver which ran down his back and up again, all the way to the tips of his wings…
He shook his head and went down the hallway. There is no need to fear these people anymore, Starscream, a little voice in his head said. You are safe as long as you stay on Nemesis or Darkmount. Everything is going to be alright.
Later that day, the Predacon had returned from its hunt. There was no energon on it, and it had no Autobots or even pieces of Autobots with it back. It had failed. Starscream almost felt like it was AllSpark-Day, the many disappointments that Shockwave had brought with him since he arrived. A highly advanced, feared predator, having scanned a sample of energon with Wheeljack's CNA, and still it failed. Shockwave was stroking the beast along its long neck, probably as an attempt to cheer it up. Starscream had other plans regarding that.
"What a grave disappointment this must be for you, master," he said in a silky tone, talking to Megatron but directing it at the beast. "And to make matters worse, because it cannot speak, we have no way of knowing why the Predacon failed so miserably. Poor mute, mindless creature."
By that comment, the Predacon turned its head and glared at Starscream, emitting a metallic growl from its throat. Megatron did not make any comment, but instead turned his attention to Shockwave.
"Take the Predacon to the Nemesis for repairs and refueling," Megatron ordered. "It needs to be ready in case we need it again."
This took Starscream by surprise. "But master, it failed! Aren't you going to punish it or something?"
"This was only a test hunt, Starscream," Shockwave informed. "It needed to learn its opponents first, their strengths and weaknesses alike. Next time, it will certainly take down an Autobot or a human."
"Oh please, it can't learn anything," Starscream protested. "It's a beast! It can't think, it can't feel, and it certainly can't learn!"
This made the Predacon growl even louder. "That's enough," Megatron said. "Bring it to the warship, now."
"As you command," Shockwave said calmly, but Starscream noticed just the faintest tone of irritation. Whether it was irritation towards Starscream or Megatron's orders was unclear.
Two days later, and Starscream was getting more and more painful contractions, consuming more and more energon cubes each day. The previous day he had consumed at least twelve cubes, maybe even more. He hardly got any sleep because the contractions would just come randomly within a matter of hours, no matter if it was day, night, morning or evening. It was also not easy sleeping or simply wandering the hallways, knowing that somewhere on the ship, the Predacon was being held, probably not even restrained like it should be. So when he stood in the surveillance room that morning, back to waiting for Autobot and human transmissions, he was drowsy and unfocused. He first noticed he had dozed off when Soundwave played a recording of Megatron saying: "Quit dawdling around!" from which he flinched and looked around. As his optics set on Soundwave, he laughed nervously and pretended nothing had happened.
Just then, a signal appeared on the monitor in front of them. It was Jack Darby, once again. Starscream chuckled gleefully.
"I knew the humans couldn't resist using their telecommunications. That is all they seem to do." He turned around and looked at a squadron of Vehicon fliers. "Seek and destroy!"
The Vehicons left to attend to the transmission.
"I can't wait to see the look on Shockwave's—"
Starscream was interrupted by yet another transmission signal, this time coming from the human girl named Miko Nakadai. Starscream's surprise turned into merry laughter.
"Humans," he snickered and turned to another squadron of Vehicons. "Stand by to GroundBridge!"
Soundwave laid a servo on the Seeker's shoulder, catching his attention. He then pointed at the screen showing the two signals of the human children in two different locations very far away from each other. He was pointing out how suspicious it was for two signals to appear right after each other on such short notice, but Starscream was too tired to listen to reason.
"Soundwave, why can't you accept a little good fortune?" he asked tired. "The Autobots couldn't possibly stay hidden forever."
Not long after the Vehicons left the room, a comm. link opened up and a Decepticon signal showed up on the monitor.
"Decepticon command, do you read? We are under Autobot attack."
There was scratchy noise and a high-toned voice which sounded much different from the usual Vehicons, but Starscream wasn't clear enough in the head at the moment to suspect otherwise.
"It's one of our energon mines. Insecticons, prepare for battle!" The last part was said over the comm., and he could already hear the faint cries of the Insecticons leaving the ship to save the energon mine.
Several cycles later though, a different, deeper, more Vehicon-like voice said through the comm. link: "There must be some mistake, Commander Starscream. The mine is not under attack."
Starscream was confused. Deeply confused. "Wh-what? How can that be—"
"Starscream!" a deep, angry voice sounded behind them, startling the Seeker. It was Megatron, standing with Shockwave by the monitor in the other end of the room. "Explain why my forces are scattering across this globe."
Starscream cleared his throat and approached the Decepticon leader. "Renegade Autobot mischief, Lord Megatron. I am in the process of deducing how they are infiltrating our communication systems without a base of—"
A beeping sound came from Soundwave and a diagram of a location appeared on the silent mech's visor. Starscream immediately recognized the location and gasped.
"The Harbinger!"
He regretted his outburst as soon as he had said it. Megatron turned slowly around and looked angrier than he had ever been at the Seeker.
"You left abandoned Decepticon technology fully operational and unsecured?!" he yelled at the smaller mech.
Despite his fear of failing his master, Starscream knew this moment was inevitable. Back when he left the Harbinger, he had had no choice but to leave it fully operational, as his only means of getting back to the Nemesis was through the GroundBridge, and the GroundBridge wouldn't have worked if the power was down. Of course, he could have taken the remote with him so they couldn't use it and so he could go back to the Harbinger if his plan to return to the Decepticons backfired, but back then he had had very high doubts of his survival, so he didn't think he would ever get to use it again. Despite that, he had brought with him five tracking devices along with the four Omega Keys, and he didn't have enough room to carry more. Besides, there wasn't that much useful technology left on the ship, the most useful being the GroundBridge, but that was pretty much it. Of course, Megatron didn't understand any of this, so Starscream had to think of a shorter, more simple explanation, or at least some sort of answer.
He started with some inexplicable sounds, trying to figure out what to say here. "…Allow me to…correct my oversight immediately…" he said with a squeaky voice and smiled nervously while taking a few steps back. He turned on his comm. and his voice returned to normal. "Seeker armada to the flight deck! Your target is the Decepticon ship, the Harbinger! You are to obliterate it at once!"
He looked at the monitor showing the army of silver Vehicons standing troop on the flight deck, ready for Starscream's next orders.
"My armada is in position. Open a GroundBridge to the Harbinger," he said to Soundwave with strong accent.
Just then, they heard bangs and felt tremors in the ship. The monitor showed the citadel had been damaged in the west bottom section.
"Since it would seem that Darkmount is presently under attack," Megatron said, "kindly redirect all efforts toward ensuring that our invaders are eradicated!"
"At once, my liege!" Starscream said and talked through the comm. to his armada. "Change of orders! All Seekers target the Autobot attackers at the foot of Darkmount!"
They watched on the monitor as the armada took off and went towards the ground where they engaged the Wreckers in combat. Despite outnumbering them, though, the Autobots had some kind of powerful weapons which took out several Vehicons with a single blow or swing, without even getting hurt themselves. This was troubling, to say the least, but nothing to worry about. Weapons aren't everything, after all. It's how good you are at using them, and how many. And Starscream was good at using his armada. At least, he thought so himself.
Another large bang and tremor reached the ship, and the Decepticons struggled keeping themselves on their peds.
"I assure you, master, I have everything under control and—"
Megatron turned around – Starscream thought he was about to yell something at him, but he only let out an angry growl at him. Apparently he was so mad he didn't even know what to yell at Starscream with anymore. Not that his wordless growl was any less scary, that is.
"Lord Megatron," Shockwave interrupted. "I accept that military considerations are outside of my domain, but perhaps it is once again time to release the Predacon."
Megatron straightened his back and nodded. "Do it." He looked back at Starscream. "And let no one get in its way."
Starscream took the hint and called his Seekers off immediately, while Shockwave ordered his own Vehicons to let the Predacon outside. Several cycles later, they heard the roar of the Predacon, followed by its image on the monitor. They saw it soaring through the sky, towards the Autobots on the ground, but then it got shot by a ship Starscream had not seen before, at least not on Earth.
"That looks new," he remarked. "Where did they get hold of a vessel like that in such short time?"
"They must have gained reinforcements," Shockwave suggested. "Perhaps others followed the trace of the Omega Lock like I did, and ended up on Earth as a result."
"Yes, I was about to say the same thing," Starscream lied. "Let's see if your abomination can take care of this so-called reinforcements."
They watched on the monitor as the Predacon continued to follow the strange ship and fire at it, but missed. Suddenly, a green portal opened in front of the ship which then flew upwards, avoiding it. The Predacon was not so lucky, having too much speed and not seeing the portal in time. It went right through and disappeared into it, ending up Primus-knows-where. If it was up to Starscream, he would have sent the creature to Antarctica like he did Nightbird.
The portal closed and no Predacon came out again. "Oh well," Starscream sighed calmly with a spiteful smile at Shockwave. Again, he could not read his expression, but the way the Cyclops turned around and left the room without a word suggested he was mad, furious even. "Yes, that's right, go off and sulk, why don't you?" the Seeker said, this time with unhidden spite and delight in his voice.
"We're under attack in sector 29!" a voice said through the comm. "We need reinforcements immediately!"
"That's Darkmount's power core chamber!" Starscream exclaimed. "Lord Megatron, did you get that?"
"Affirmative," Megatron said over the comm."I'm on my way there. Shockwave has already left to take care of the attackers on the ground. You better make yourself useful too, Starscream!"
"Wait, whu?" he said confused. "Well, Shockwave certainly has an interesting way of 'sulking'…"
He left the surveillance room to Soundwave and went outside, entered jet mode and gained an overview of the situation. He had his sights on the Autobots on the ground, and indeed, Shockwave was taking more than care of them. He could also hear shots coming from inside the tower, and in the center of the fusion cannons, at the power core, he could see a pair of large mechs fighting. One was Megatron, for sure, but who was the other one…?
"Whoever that is, he's not that powerful," he mumbled to himself as he saw the mech he recognized as Megatron pummel the other one down. "He's certainly no Optimus Prime, that's for sure." He scouted the ground and saw the Wreckers along with Arcee and Bumblebee had been restrained by the Vehicons and Shockwave. He smiled maliciously and decided to join his master.
He flew to the spire and landed on the floor in the throne room, just as Megatron entered it with his defeated opponent. Starscream was surprised by how much he looked like Prime, the only differences being his chest, shoulders and head, plus having more blue than red on him. Now Starscream recognized the Autobot as Ultra Magnus, Prime's own second-in-command. He came to think of the vessel they saw before and concluded that the ship must belong to him.
Megatron dragged the rather weakened 'blue Optimus' across the floor, and threw him near the edge of the platform. Starscream joyfully observed the scene.
"All invaders have been taken captive, master," he informed Megatron. "There was no sign of Optimus Prime."
He took Megatron's silence as disappointment of his missing arch-nemesis. The warlord then turned his attention to the Autobot commander below him.
"So tell me, commander, where might your leader be?"
Ultra Magnus did not respond – whether it was because he didn't know or didn't want to speak was beyond Starscream's knowledge, but Megatron was growing increasingly impatient. Lately he had seemed bored, even more prone to provocation than usual. Perhaps he missed fighting against Prime. That must certainly be the case.
"I will not ask again," Megatron snarled impatiently at Magnus.
The Autobot finally spoke, though it was more of a whisper. "…If I knew…I wouldn't tell you…"
"Very well," Megatron said and drew forth his arm-blade. "Execute our prisoners, and fire each cannon at the nearest metropolis within its sights," he said to Starscream. "It is time to show the known universe that this planet belongs to Megatron."
While listening to Megatron, Starscream looked at the sky, in direction of the sun. He swore he could see just a tiny, faint black dot materialize in the middle of the big bright ball. He walked forward a little to get a better look at it.
"Master, something's coming," he informed.
Megatron focused on the same object Starscream could see in the distance. The dot was getting bigger and clearer to see now, no longer just a faint image. The object was flying towards them with high speed.
"The Predacon?" Megatron suggested.
"Hmm, not beasty enough," Starscream said and walked backwards to Megatron's side with a nervous look. He came to think of Creop Trivem in his hover-plane mode. That crazy mech wasn't really on his way here, was he? I'm screwed, I'm so screwed if that's Creop… Megatron will learn everything, and then I really am screwed!
Megatron walked forward, past Magnus (who was also looking), until he was standing at the edge of the platform. As the dot became bigger and closer, they could now make out the colors. It was a red and blue object.
"I know that color-scheme…" he said, but doubted it was who he thought it was.
Megatron took another step forward and squinted his optics to see better. He flinched as he too recognized the figure flying towards them with high speed. It could be no other than Optimus Prime himself, with the sun in his back, flying in robot mode towards the citadel. Talk about a literal 'speaking of the sun'…
"Wait, he can't fly, can he?" the Seeker asked, but before anyone could answer him, Optimus Prime had approached them. Starscream watched as the rather taller and more robust Prime punched Megatron several times in the face and chest, then landing a heavy punch which flung the warlord into his throne, shattering it and burying him underneath the rubble. It was like watching a pair of giants fighting, at least in the eyes of the small Seeker.
As Megatron did not get up, the Vehicons present in the throne room began firing at Prime, even though they probably knew they didn't stand a chance against him. And indeed, Prime pulled out a large machine gun which annihilated the three Vehicons with ease. Starscream was now alone, with no chance against this upgraded Optimus Prime.
Frightened, he stepped backwards, horrified at the scene of Megatron and the Vehicons getting crushed so easily by Optimus. He heard something behind him and looked. The next nano-cycle, he was punched in the face by Ultra Magnus, sent flying across the room and landed on the stairs. He felt another contraction, this one far worse than any other these last few days.
"No…please…don't…" he whispered frightful, more to himself than to the Autobots. Luckily for him they decided to ignore him and greeted each other briefly. He didn't hear what they said, because he lost consciousness the very next nano-cycle.
When he came to, he saw Ultra Magnus jump off the platform and take off on his vessel, the same one that the Predacon had chased earlier. He groaned a bit, partly from the punch, partly from the contraction as it settled. He remembered what Knock Out had said about getting stressed or taking hard blows. Too close. I'm beginning to think I would have been better off staying at the Harbinger.
He started when he heard a roar behind him; it was Megatron, and he was furious, but alive. He transformed and flew down to the fusion cannons. Afterwards, Starscream could hear a tremendous, rattling and furious: "OOOOPTIMUUUUSS!" shaking even the very sky surrounding them.
Starscream ran to the deck behind the now-shattered throne and watched Megatron and Optimus fighting in mid-air, shooting against each other, blue and purple lasers flying everywhere down there.
"Commander, a cluster of enemy signals incoming," a Vehicon said through the comm. link.
Starscream growled frustrated, knowing what that meant. "Humans. Activate the fusion cannons!"
He watched as the fusion cannons began charging up the green plasma balls and preparing to fire. Suddenly, another roar rung through the sky: "Megatron…BEGONE!"
Before Starscream could catch a glimpse of either Megatron or Optimus, a heavy tremor shook the entire tower, knocking the Seeker off his peds. Explosions sounded and the fusion cannons shut down. Something was wrong.
Starscream transformed and flew into the nearest entrance to the interior of the tower that he could reach, then resumed to robot mode and ran through the hallways, while yet another blast hit the tower, making another powerful tremor. Something must have happened to Megatron, and whatever had happened, it couldn't be good…
As he arrived in the power core chamber while the tower was crumbling around them, he saw Megatron lying on the ground, heavily wounded and drained of energy, and the power core shut down completely. He stopped and gasped at the sight, then became thoughtful. Optimus must have thrown Megatron into the power core, thus shutting down the fusion cannons and putting Megatron out of commission. In the old days, this would be the perfect opportunity for Starscream to put his leader out of commission for good, but he had changed now. Besides, they weren't alone.
"Transport Lord Megatron to the warship," he ordered the two Vehicons in the room. They each grabbed an arm and helped Megatron back on his peds. Though not resisting, Megatron was clearly not intent on leaving.
"What are you doing?" Megatron hissed weakily. "No! We'll not retreat!"
"This battle is lost, my liege," Starscream said, desperately trying to get Megatron to understand. "We must retreat if we are to have any hope of winning the war!"
Megatron didn't say anything else the rest of the way to the ship. He couldn't admit to Starscream that he was right; he had too much pride to admit the second-in-command he had beaten, lectured, banished and punished for eons made more sense than him right now. But nonetheless, he followed the Vehicons and Starscream to the docking area, where they entered the Nemesis. Shockwave was already onboard, having been GroundBridged back by Soundwave, and Knock Out was in the command center with Soundwave, waiting for the others' return. As the weakened Megatron and his companions entered the command center, Knock Out looked shocked at their leader's condition.
"Lord Megatron, what—" he began, but was interrupted by Megatron, who pushed his two Vehicon companions aside and managed to stand by himself.
"Set course for space," he ordered the Vehicons, who immediately began working, along with the other Vehicons. "We have lost this battle, but we have not yet lost the war."
As the warship left the docking area and took off, the Decepticons all stood in the command center and looked through the large windows, staring at the crumbling Darkmount Citadel.
"All that power...all that success…now gone," Starscream remarked.
"It was a magnificent citadel," Shockwave said. "And it served the Decepticon cause well."
"I guess we're back to flying around aimlessly now, huh?" Knock Out sighed.
"Lord Megatron," one of the Vehicons said, having just entered the command center, interrupting their silent goodbyes to Darkmount. "We're almost out of energon cubes.
Starscream's spark skipped a beat. He did the best he could to keep a straight face as he saw Megatron's reaction to the news. He showed an expression, mixed with shock and anger, then proceeded to look around at everyone, from Knock Out to Shockwave to Soundwave to the Vehicons and to Starscream. The Seeker held back a sigh of relief as the warlord returned his gaze to the messenger.
"We must have spent too much during the battle. We'll have to conserve our energy for now, until we get fresh supplies from the mines." He then looked around on all the Decepticons and announced: "Decepticons. Though Darkmount has fallen, we are not finished yet. We will keep a low profile for now until we are back to full strength. Then, when the Autobots least expect it, we'll strike. At full force."
Starscream considered his current options. Now that they had lost Darkmount, they once again only had the Nemesis left to live in, and there wasn't nearly enough room onboard for Starscream to seclude himself when the protoforms would arrive. With a beating spark, he realized the only way to get these protoforms without Megatron's knowledge…would be to leave the safety of the Nemesis and have them in a vulnerable place like the Harbinger.
Unless, of course, the Autobots found him first. Or worse yet, the Heralds of Unicron, Nightbird…or Creop Trivem.