Disclaimer: Transformers and related suchness are not mine, with the exception of my fan characters.

Author's Note:Well, here's the next segment. Glad I'm not activly screwing something up. Thanks again to Pivot for betaing this and catching the little mistakes.

Sweetfires: Decepticon democracy involves allowing the people to choose who they don't want to blow them up. Very egalitarian.

Olafur: Yeah, it's a shame that there aren't that many Thrustfics. We're trying to do something about that.

TruebornChaos: Humor is good indeed, although I doubt Thrust is seeing the humor in the situation right now.

SaphireStars: Glad you enjoyed it. He did need a decent origin fic.

Indigo-ink: I suppose it's more efficient then elections. Yes, that is indeed Tidal Wave squishing about in there. More of him to come.

Yuine: Thank you. And Spellcheck is indeed a good thing, but it doesn't catch all mistakes. That's what I have a beta for.

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Tactics

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By the time the sun was halfway up into the sky, Thrust had become aware of several things. He hated mud, he hated insects, he hated plants and he hated his Primus-forsaken damaged wings that screamed in a voice only he could hear whenever he brushed against a tree.

The heat was no bonus either. Or the glare. Or the countless other things that made Thrust wish he had never left Cybertron or better yet, never been created in the first place. He plodded mechanically through the swamp as it became harder and harder to lift each foot out of the mud.

Squish, squish, squish, shlurrrrp…

Thrust suddenly lost a quarter of his height as he sank into ground that was more viscous then he thought it was. He grunted as he tried to pull his legs out.

Turning around, he called out to the Decepticons behind him, "Watch out, the mud here is deeper. You could get stuck."

Another Decepticon shouted back, "Thank you, Commander Obvious!" as he pulled himself out of a similar predicament.

Don't tell them what they already know, idiot. Now they think you're stupid. What did you think you were doing, getting yourself into this?

This…this was supposed to be what every Decepticon aspired to. A gain in status, striving for power, triumphing over one's foes. It was the unspoken motto recited every day at the War Academy; it was the ideology preached by Megatron himself.

No one had ever mentioned how nerve-wrackingly paranoid it made you.

In a way, the mindless walking was working to his advantage. They were all heading in the same basic direction, and Thrust's position as leader was mostly devoted to simply walking in front of everyone else. On the other hand, it also gave him way too much time to think, and thus time to agonize over every word that he said, or hadn't said, or was considering saying.

I'll get better at this as I go along. Megatron copes somehow, and he leads the entire army. All I have to do is lead a bunch of injured Decepticons. Easy as algebra, right? Right.

Attempting to take his little self-pep talk to heart, Thrust attempted to walk more assertively. In the deep mire of the swamp, this was a lot harder then it looked.

A deep, terrified scream came from the back of the line. The other Decepticons turned just in time to see the giant battleship disappear to his shoulders into a deceptively deep pool of mud. Someone yelled, "Tidal Wave's down!"

The battleship flailed around as those Decepticons unlucky enough to be near him scampered out of the way of his frantically waving arms. Thrust shoved his way to the back of the group and stood at the edge of the mud-filled sinkhole. People were staring at him again.

Commander time.

All right, don't panic. It's just mud, and you've just gotten your largest piece of weaponry stuck in it. You're smart, think of something.

"Help!" Tidal Wave groaned desperately.

"Stop struggling you idiot, you're just sinking yourself deeper," Thrust snapped as he looked around, trying not to appear as nervous as he felt. Tidal Wave stopped moving, whimpering slightly. All the thrashing around had made him sink deeper, until the thick mud was up to his faceplate.

Think, think, think.

Thrust's glance fell upon a large fallen tree. He pointed at the second-biggest Decepticon after Tidal Wave, an armored carrier named Terminus.

"Um, you. Get that log and bring it over here."

Terminus shrugged and complied, grunting as the huge pillar came out of the soggy ground.

"Now, put it across the mud, and push it out so he can grab it."

Again, the shrug and obedience. Tidal Wave clutched the end of the log gratefully and pulled on it, almost dragging Terminus in with him.

"No, no!" Thrust screamed. "You grab the log and then we pull you out, not the other way around."

Tidal Wave relented, holding onto the log and trying not to move. Terminus tugged on it, but Tidal Wave barely budged.

"No use," the carrier-tank grunted. "He's stuck. We might have to leave him here."

"Don't!" Tidal Wave moaned desperately as his fingers left grooves in the soggy wood.

Thrust pointed at Tidal Wave and commanded, "The rest of you, help pull." The other Deceptions joined Terminus, hauling with all their strength. Slowly, with a squishy schlurping noise, Tidal Wave began to move.

Tidal Wave suddenly cried out again and the log jerked in his grasp as he flailed. Some of the other Decepticons were falling over each other just trying to stay upright, forsaking Tidal Wave for stability.

"What is it?" called Terminus as she struggled to maintain a hold on the log.

"My leg!"

Thrust fired a shot over the battleship's head. "If you don't quit flailing around, we're going to leave you here," he shouted.

"But it's got my leg!"

"Ignore it, or it'll have more then that."

They managed to pull Tidal Wave slowly, disgustingly, to the edge of the bank. Tidal Wave let go of the log and made a grab for safety, but the dirt came away in his hands. He tried again and managed to work his fingers into the ground enough to pull himself ashore, lying halfway out of the mud and shuddering with the effort.

Something glinted under the mud on Tidal Wave's dark leg. Thrust reached down and pulled a small item out of the battleship's knee joint. He looked at it, then immediately dropped it in horror and disgust. The other Decepticons crowded around the item.

It was a metal hand, with two of the fingers missing and the tattered remains of a forearm still attached to the wrist.

Terminus took a step over and peered down into the large hole left by Tidal Wave, which was quickly filling up again. The armored carrier looked uneasily at the other Decepticons, then backed away from the mud hole.

Thrust shuddered. "Let's move on."

There was no argument.

8888

The Decepticons stopped again at sunset. Navigating Sludge Swamp during the day was hard enough; at night it would be near–suicidal. Thrust also judged that it would be best not to push the other Decepticons too much in one day.

The decision was of course aided by the fact that if he had to take one more muddy step, he would go into stasis lock right there and then.

Thrust picked out a reasonable dry portion of ground covered in dead leaves and sat down, pulling his knees up to his chest and putting his head on them so as to place as little of his body on the dirty ground while he recharged. Thrust listened as the other Decepticons moved about, talking quietly. Their voices were so low that he couldn't understand exactly what they were saying.

There was a loud rustling and crashing behind him.

"Gah! Watch it, you idiot!"

"Stupid hunk of junk, you better not step on me!"

A rhythmic thumping noise gradually came nearer and the stars overhead were blocked out as Tidal Wave came to stand beside him.

"Yes?" Thrust said with a hint of annoyance. He was tired, and the pain in his wings was not helping any. A soft rumble came from the battleship, but no words. He seemed unable to find a way of saying what he wanted to say.

"Are you over here for a reason or do you just like standing over people?"

"You didn't leave me behind," Tidal Wave said abruptly, as if trying to get the words out before he could regret it. It was the longest and fastest sentence Thrust had ever heard him use.

The tension drew out as Tidal Wave stared down at Thrust for a few moments.

"You're not as stupid as you look, are you?" Thrust asked quietly. The response was a soft, almost melancholic chuckle. Thrust watched as the battleship sat down as gently as he could a few meters away. He nodded, Tidal Wave rumbled, and they left it at that.

This, Thrust would have to keep in mind.

888888

Around midmorning of the next day, a cry of "Get down!" sent the Decepticons crashing to the ground as several ships flew overhead. Thrust huddled underneath some fallen foliage and was silently grateful that even the most colorful of their number were so filthy as to be camouflaged.

"Autobots," hissed the Decepticon beside him. Thrust nodded as he saw the ominous red insignia displayed on the side of the ships.

"Where are they going?"

"Into our path," Terminus commented as the ships landed somewhere ahead of them. Thrust nodded again absentmindedly, considering their options.

We could go around them, but to stay out of sensor range, we'd have to go quite a bit out of the way. Just like Cloudcrest wanted, not going to do that.

"We keep going," he announced.

Thrust braced himself, and sure enough the cries of "Are you insane?" rose up like clouds of thick smog.

"We. Keep. Going," he repeated. "I have an idea for how we can get around them."

The other Decepticons griped a bit, but no one else had any ideas. This was good, because Thrust didn't either.

Within half a megacycle they had caught up to where the Autobots had set up some sort of base camp in a large clearing. The Decepticons crouched at the edge of the treeline, unseen. Thrust pointed at the gathered Autobots as more emerged from the ships, carrying equipment and engaging in loud banter.

"Wish I knew what they were doing. From here, I can't even tell how many there are."

A smallish green Decepticon crept up beside him. "G'me t'cycs."

"Huh?"

Rows of thin, sensor covered spines on the green Decepticon's back rose to an erect position as he stared intently out at the Autobot ships, obviously looking with more then his optics. Thrust looked at him inquiringly, waiting for results.

The spines lay down again a moment later. "I re' fi'six 'bot en'gy sigs ou' dere. 'Struction k'ipment, c'ple o' auto guns. Ships're und'armed, but thicks'inned. Ha'lers, pr'ly."

Thrust shook his head and stared at him. The green Decepticon must have come from Vilnacron or nearby; Thrust had never been able to get the hang of northern accents.

"I cannot understand a word you just said."

"Crackle says he reads fifty-six Autobot energy signatures, as well as construction equipment and a couple of autoguns. The ships have light weaponry and heavy shielding, probably cargo ships," the Decepticon on his other side said tiredly. "They outnumber us. Thrust, we might be able to take down half of the ones outside with an all-out charge, but we'd be smoked in the end."

Thrust ignored him, staring out at the Autobot ships.

It can be done. I know it can be done. It has to be possible if I only see it.

Suddenly Thrust was back at the Academy, watching a tactical simulation play out on the monitor before him with Gyrocopter peering over his shoulder and waiting for his brightest strategist to come up with results. There was always a way of winning in those exercises, they were set up that way. You only had to know how to find it.

Think.

Thrust got up from his crouch and walked back to where the rest of the Decepticons were waiting. " I have a strategy," he announced.

He explained his plan in as much detail as possible, making sure everyone knew where he needed to be and what he needed to do. At the conclusion, he offered the obligatory, "Any questions?"

Crackle piped up, "How w'know s'gon woak?"

Thrust took a moment to decipher this, then replied, "We have the element of surprise. We know what will happen; they don't. And we have quite possibly the greatest advantage of all."

He paused for dramatic effect.

"We are desperate."

He walked up and down before the assembled Decepticons.

"Without one of those ships, we will have no way out of here besides as prisoners of war. We will fight, and we will win, because we can do nothing else. You have trusted me so far, and so far I have not led you astray. Will you trust me now?"

The moment of silence afterward was excruciating as Thrust realized that he had just delivered the second-cheesiest speech of his life.

Great, now they're all going to laugh at me.

Those with working weaponry began checking their guns, brushing off dirt and making sure they were still functional. Others got up and began to move to their assigned positions. No one laughed.

This, to Thrust, was just as good as thunderous applause. His tense body relaxed a fraction.

Well, great tactician, he said to himself sarcastically, let's see if your luck holds out.

Y'know, Tidal Wave was originally supposed to only have a bit part in this thing. Then he kinda came in and took over. Funny how these things work, nye? Anyway, read, review, hopefully come back for the next chapter.