It was a question that no Decepticon asked out loud but everyone debated in private: Why were the symbiots not partaking in battles anymore? Ravage, Buzzsaw and Laserbeak were still spying and acting relatively normal during combats, but the other, younger half of Soundwave's brood were conspicuously missing from anything but minor skirmishes. Megatron hadn't commented about it, and no one else would dare to ask Soundwave or any of the symbiots directly but theories abounded.
Astrotrain thought that the trio were growing soft since they actually spent time listening to Prowl read stories when they could have been using the opportunity to cause havoc for the Autobots. He called them weak and soft-sparked until Ravage made his life miserable by pointing out every one of his flaw to Megatron.
If anyone asked the Seekers they would likely have replied that Soundwave was afraid Prowl would see Ratbat or the twins fighting and take all the youngest symbiots into his brood like he did Dead End. There were rumored to be more than a few bets passed to Swindle along those lines.
None of the Constructicons commented openly about it one way or another since story time meant Rumble and Frenzy were not causing as much trouble on the Nemesis. The lack of malicious pranks balanced out fewer combat frames on the battlefield in their optics.
Soundwave was typically silent about the whole matter.