Some warnings for this one, depictions of shooting of younglings, assault and murder, read at your own discretion.
They found the security footage.
Skywarp hadn't stayed to watch it as soon as they found it.
Thundercracker had stronger sensors than even he did.
But he was determined to watch.
The date of the footage was… well… galling.
It was within the joor of Megatron striking down Orion.
News evidently hadn't reached either N-0V4 or Downburst, the two educators helping their new students pick their seats.
He spotted… the split spark twins that had fallen together, they looked so excited, so full of life as they snagged seats next to each other.
The screen was displaying the same introduction.
Downburst was at the front of the class, he assumed introducing them to himself, and if the gesture to N-0V4 and her bow were anything to go by, their introductions.
Sound wasn't recorded, just a full colour image of the Guardian and his fully grown ward.
He froze the video.
"She had gold optics…" He commented.
Thundercracker paused. "Star?"
"They suit her much better than red or blue ever could…"
His brother frowned. "Star, why are you focusing on her?"
He scowled, not answering and hitting play instead.
Evidently a sound comes from outside, both adults helms snap around to the door, he see's N-0V4's wings shoot up, a tell tell sign of alarm as the younglings all seem to begin to panic.
Downburst is the first to react, ordering all of the younglings back.
They scrambled up from their chairs, but before they can run further back, before N-0V4 can come around from the desk, two blaster bolts shoot through the door, striking the ancient mech in the chassis.
The mech staggered back, they could spot the shock on him as he dropped back against the wall after trying to brace himself on it.
N-0V4 let out what must have been a cry of alarm as she rushed around the desk, sliding to a kneel to try and help her Guardian.
The younglings were all panicking now, they could see smoke coming from the door.
The door burst open, and N-0V4's helm snapped around.
It took a moment for her expression to turn from horror, to terror, to rage.
She rose, wings flaring as her faceplates warped into a look of aggression he'd never seen from the femme throughout the war.
He'd seen it on many a mech intent on ripping another limb from limb.
She stood over her Guardian defensively, snarling and shouting something that they couldn't so easily make out.
Then… the assailant finally stepped into view, wielding a plasma rifle.
Shatter.
His jaw dropped and he hit pause again. "What…" He managed to mutter out.
Thundercracker scowled. "Shatter… she was the leader of their trine…"
"The one who offered her up to Shockwave… on a platter…" Starscream concluded.
Thundercracker didn't make a comment, but he saw out of the corner of his optic how his brothers frame tightened up.
He hit play again.
There was an exchange of words as Dropkick too appeared in frame.
He was the one who first aimed his gun at a youngling.
The femme who'd fallen apart in his servos.
She turned to run, the camera catching her look of terror, and the blaster shot that reduced her helm to half molten slag.
Leaving her to drop lifeless to the floor.
After that, panic.
Downburst tried to get up, but the mech simply didn't have the strength as N-0V4 cried out, trying to rush towards the youngling who had already fallen, her attention diverted away from the assailants.
She'd only just met those younglings… how could she care so much for them?
She tried to grab up a few, tried to shield them from the blaster fire that Dropkick was now gleefully losing.
Never aiming directly at the adult femme, only the younglings she couldn't grab.
They fell one after another.
The split spark twins fell in the chaos, one tugging the other under a desk that was kicked away, two shots, one to each shoulder.
He saw them curl into each other in agony, their silent cries and screams captured along with the rest.
They corralled N-0V4 into the back corner, the camera still capturing what followed.
She'd filled her arms with them, tucked them behind her, her wings flared in defence as she bellowed at them both.
He caught the gleeful smirk on Shatter's face as she fainted one way, having to dodge a clawed swipe that could very well of ripped half of her helm off, and jabbed something into the femmes exposed side.
N-0V4 tossed it away a moment later, before delivering a brutal kick to the smaller seekers helm, sending her flying back.
So that was why some of the desks were smashed, Shatter had crashed through them.
Dropkick lunged then, gun hanging on a strap at his side as he lunged at her guarded neck, grabbing and squeezing.
N-0V4 was apparently the type for close contact grappling.
The femme was… well…
It was quite honestly terrifying how she fought, her golden optics narrowed to pinpricks as she slammed him to the ground hard enough that it sent a shower of sparks in all directions.
Like some wild thing, she pounced on him, her denta sinking into the soft protoform of his faceplates and ripping.
He felt his wings jump up at the display of savagery as she spat out the lower half of Dropkick's faceplates.
So that's why his face was like that…
She didn't stop there, delivering one brutal punch after the other once she'd reared up to do so.
Shatter was up by then, and struck.
She grabbed one of the younglings trying to escape.
N-0V4 froze in place, optics wide.
The youngling, a little mech, squirmed and flailed in terror, Shatter's servo squeezing his throat hard enough his optics were rolling back in pain.
Words were exchanged, before N-0V4's wings sunk and she raised her servos in surrender.
Dropkick, somehow still online after having a good chunk of his helm caved in, managed to stagger out from between her thighs.
Shatter's smirk never faded as she unclipped a set of stassis cuffs from her hip and tossed them at the larger femme.
He could see her frame rattle with the vent she pulled in.
Shatter squeezed the mechs throat tighter still, he fell limp besides the odd twitch of life.
She put the stasis cuffs on.
He watched them engage, her servos dropping to the ground between her splayed thighs, her helm hanging in defeat as much as the effect of the cuffs.
Shatter laughed.
She snapped the younglings neck, and let him drop to the ground.
The camera didn't catch it, but he could attempt to imagine the look of horror N-0V4's faceplates would have held.
The other younglings scattered from the corner.
Shatter mowed them down, but didn't aim for fatal shots like Dropkick.
No, she shot their legs, all of them.
Leaving them to fall to the ground, clawing at it as they tried to crawl away, some without their pedes even still attached.
He wanted to look away, to find the nearest corner to purge his roiling tanks in.
Keep watching.
Keep watching.
The voices were taunting him, he couldn't look away even if he wanted to.
He was well aware of what stasis cuffs did, they rendered the limbs useless, even the helm was partially immobilised.
Shatter stalked closer, grabbing N-0V4 by the back of her neck guard, and yanked her back towards her guardian, who had watched the entire scene unfold.
This time, Thundercracker paused the video. "I need a klik." He muttered, before stepping out of the room.
Leaving him to sit there.
Not for long, within the klik he followed his brother out.
His brother had sat down against the opposite wall, helm tilted back as he looked up at the ceiling of the corridor that led off from the main hall.
He moved to join him, but his helm fell into his servos.
His brother's servo ended up on his shoulder. "Who… what do we do?" He mumbled. "Shatter and Dropkick went racing after the Autobots… after N-0V4…"
"Megatron would throw a fit if he found out I called for their return… if they even heed my orders… they seem to be much more inline with… Shockwave…" He growled.
Thundercracker nodded. "Who's been trying to undermine your power, been doing Primus knows what to reanimate the offline… and… Primus, remember all of those limbs in that secret lab?!" He paused as something dawned on him. "He's had them build him a new, even bigger lab… Primus what is he going to do in there?!"
"This wasn't something that was born out of us running out of troops…" Starscream mumbled. "I've been going over the timeline… Megatron ordered Shockwave to do something to recover their numbers, I bet he meant more drones… Within the orn, he rolled out four hundred clones the first batch…" He growled. "He'd had those waiting in the wing for when our numbers got low enough we needed them."
"He let us lose enough of our people that we'd eagerly accept the new… cannon fodder… without wondering where they came from…" Thundercracker followed.
"They weren't cannon fodder…" Starscream mumbled in defeat, his wings sinking behind him. "We need to find out the truth…"
"How? You really think Shockwave is just gonna tell you the truth?"
"No… no he won't…" He paused, an idea striking him. "But…"
"But?" Thundercracker asked, looking at his brother in concern as he saw a small smile forming on his faceplates.
"If I could get him to brag…" He mused. "I can pull a Soundwave and record it all…"
Thundercracker's optic ridge rose. "And show who? Megatron? Like he'd slagging care." He grunted.
"No, we show the younglings." He answered. "We let them all know the truth. Whatever it is."
Thundercracker nodded. "And then what?"
He hummed. "Then we let them decide what to do with the bastard." He remarked, tilting his helm back.
There was a few kliks of silence before Thundercracker spoke. "Should… should we finish watching what happened?"
It took him a klik to respond. "We should… and then I'm going to send a summons to Shatter and Dropkick… they have a lot to explain. Consequences from Megatron be damned." He remarked.
Thundercracker ended up getting up first, before pulling his brother back up. "Well… no time like the present, right?"
And so, they watched.
They watched Shatter talking, evidently mocking both N-0V4, and Downburst, who still tried to get up without success.
"His main strut was severed by the lower shot…" Thundercracker commented, recognising the symptoms.
Dropkick finally seemed to regain enough senses to get up, stalking closer and pulling something from his subspace.
It extended and he offered the handle to Shatter, who gleefully accepted it, observing the business end.
It was a brand.
The Decepticon Brand.
They could see Downburst shout something, but he went ignored as Shatter activated the brand, the arcs of electricity clear in the camera as the brand swiftly heated.
Dropkick grabbed the back of her helm and wrenched her forwards and down until he was pushing her faceplates into the floor.
After a few more no doubt mocking words from Shatter, the brand plunged down.
Striking the normally covered protoform of the larger seekers neck, just above the neck guard, at the base of her helm.
Even with the stasis cuffs, her frame convulsed, but Shatter and Dropkick gave her no repreve.
They held it there far longer than needed to press on the brand.
Finally it was pulled away, the proform was white hot, the Decepticon brand surrounded by protoform that was now oozing energon.
Thundercracker shuddered. "Ours were done under sedative…" He mumbled.
Starscream just nodded, watching as Dropkick pushed the femme over onto her side, allowing her guardian to see the brand in its entirely.
The mech…
Horror and grief were not apt words for the devastation on his features.
His last expression, before Shatter blasted most of his helm off.
The camera caught the scream from N-0V4 when it dawned on her what that shot had been, her features slick with lubricant and vibrant red optics looked out at her masacred pupils.
Starscream ended the video, closing the file and saving it directly into his own harddrives. "They killed the rest after that…"
"They offlined all of the witnesses…" Thundercracker mumbled.
"And forced her to join the Decepticon army… Before I even put out the order myself…" He mumbled. "They did not act on my order…"
"Why did no one try to intervene?" Thundercracker mumbled.
"Because they were scared, they all were." He answered solemnly. "I ordered them all to war in the end… Vos didn't have a volunteer army… remember?"
Thundercracker's wings just dropped. "I'm going with you to confront Shockwave…"
Starscream nodded. "I'll intrust Skywarp with keeping an optic on the Younglings, he can warp around to check on them all."
"Alright… when do we do this?"
Starscream pondered that. "Not yet. We need to pull all of the younglings out of Shockwave's reach. And if we do that too quickly, he'll notice. Only once they're out of the firing line, we'll strike."
And there right there, is why N hated her Trine.
Until next time!
Moon.