A/N: The title 'War Stories' has two meanings in this chapter. You remember in the last chapter how I said the story was going to get dark? It's close to twilight. I wanted to put something light in here, but it didn't fit with the rest. So we get a better look at Thundercracker and his mother-creator and their relationship, and then we get the boring story about the history of some of the big wars on Cybertron (almost all of its made up by me) as Skywarp's father-creator tries to impress upon the younglings about learning and adapting from previous experiences... and then we get a nasty view of Starscream's home life. It's bad, it made me cry while I tried to write it, but in my opinion, it starts to demonstrate why our beloved 'Screamer acts the way he does as an adult. It's dark but I hope it also starts to show why Skywarp and Thundercracker's friendship becomes important.
As always, constructive criticism is welcomed. Ratings and Reviews given lots of love. And don't worry, a certain character will be getting his soon enough.
Chapter 5 – War Stories
She was watching from her window early the next morning. Thundercracker was still in recharge and the streets were empty. The door across the street opened and a femme ushered Starscream out onto the steps. She gave him a large stack of data pads before she ran her fingers down his check and closed the door. At least someone in that house seemed to care about the youngling. She watched him for a while as he sat there alone reading by himself.
There was a loud clatter from up the stairs meaning Thundercracker was up. She sighed and went to get him some breakfast before he went running across the street to play. The blue femme headed up the stairs as her exuberant sparkling was loading up the grease guns. She handed him his breakfast and sat down on his recharge berth. "Are you three going to have another war today?"
Thundercracker nodded enthusiastically as he downed his energon. "Yep. And then we're going over to Skywarp's to listen to his creator tell some more war stories!"
She laughed. "Just don't get any ideas about attacking people on the street. The type of fighting Skywarp's creator did during the war wasn't sanctioned by the commanding officers."
The blue mech's head turned curiously as he looked at his creator. "What's that mean?"
"It means that… well, just don't let him talk you into anything. Remember, if you think its wrong, then don't do it."
"Yeah I know. 'Let my conscious be my guide'." He went back to filling the grease guns up.
The blue femme bit her lip wondering how she could ask Thundercracker about Starscream without revealing too much over what she had seen. "How are Skywarp and Starscream?"
"Eh, they're both pains." He shrugged.
"But you like them, right?"
"Well, yeah." He turned to face her. "They're my best friends."
"That's good. I'm happy that you have such good friends." She smiled. "I see Starscream is studying a lot, do you know what he's reading?"
"Yeah, a bunch of geeky stuff. He wants to go to the Science Academy." The blue mech capped the reservoirs on the guns. "He's always sitting there reading before we come outside."
Ah, she found her opening. "Always? Seems a bit early to be studying so hard."
"Yeah, but he's always out there, even after Skywarp and I have to leave."
"I noticed that." She smiled inwardly at getting her shy sparkling to open up. "Does his creator come home late?"
Thundercracker thought for a moment. "I don't know. I've never seen his creator, and we've never been inside his house."
"That's really weird, don't you think?"
He nodded.
"Do you notice anything else weird about Starscream and his creator?"
"Well… Some days 'Screamer is really angry and doesn't want to play at all; he says he has to study. And then other days, he freaks out about us playing on the steps."
She looked at the grease guns and nodded. "You know. I think it would be best that when you three are battling that you should stay away from his place. You can come over here and play, okay?"
Thundercracker grinned at her and she patted him on the shoulder. "You better get out there before Skywarp starts causing trouble."
He gathered up the grease guns and ran down the stairs and out of the house with a 'whoop'. She followed after him, quietly shutting the door and taking up her position by the window to watch the three.
--
"Tell us some more stories about the war!" Skywarp was sitting on the edge of his seat, optics wide and shining as he was caught up in the moment.
"Are there fliers in it?" Thundercracker was just as enthralled with the stories the black flier had been telling the trio.
"Of course there are fliers in it! Fliers are the rulers of the Cybertronian skies." A familiar smirk spread across the faceplate of the older black mech; Skywarp had inherited a lot of his traits from his father-creator. The black mech stretched his wide black and silver wings behind him for emphasis, "Cybertron wouldn't have beaten off the Scintillians if it weren't for the fliers."
"Why did they attack Cybertron in the first place?" Starscream sat quietly next to his more enthusiastic friends; he didn't seem as interested in the stories as the other younglings were.
"The exact reason why will probably never be known. Some say it was for the trade routes, some say it was for resources, some say it was just because they felt like fighting." The older mech's green optics glittered at his young audience, "The reasons behind it don't really matter anymore… The important thing is what we learn from the war and what we must never forget. Even in times of peace, we still need warriors to protect Cybertron and its people… If we want peace, we have to be willing to fight for it."
"Yeah, yeah… fight for Cybertron." Skywarp was bouncing in his seat, "Tell us about some of the fragging battles!"
The older mech slapped the back of Skywarp's head hard, "Do I need to set you in the corner to defrag?"
"…No."
"Quit with the language then." Green optics looked at the other two younglings who were much better behaved than his sparkling. He shook his head with a wry smile, "I shoulda known you'd pick up all of my bad habits."
He grinned at the three sets of purple optics that now watched him. "Hmm, I think I know just the story to tell you kids."
"Does it have stories about the war?"
"Are there fliers in it?"
The older mech shook his head again, "Yes it has fliers in it and yes it has stories about wars."
Skywarp's purple optics widened, "Wars? As in more than one war?"
"Yes. More than one war and it's got the history of the fliers in it." He chuckled and got comfortable in his chair. "Long, long ago Cybertronians believed that they were the only life that Primus created in the entire universe. But when the first alien life stepped foot on the surface of Cybertron, most of the people refused to believe it. The Cybertronian government tried to debunk the stories of life outside of Cybertron by calling the sightings and contacts 'urban legends' or 'mass hallucinations'…that was until the day when the entire planet was invaded by the Quintessons."
"Invaded? Like the Scintillians?" Skywarp's grin had spread from audio receptor to audio receptor.
"The Scintillian's didn't invade Cybertron. They probably wanted to, but I doubt more than a handful actually set foot on the surface. The Cybertronian fliers kept their ships at bay." The black mech took another sip of his energon. "Anyways, the Quintessons invaded Cybertron, destroying the great cities, taking shiploads of prisoners to work on one of their many mining planets and the people of Cybertron were unable to stop the aliens from decimating the population…" He leaned closer to the bewitched younglings and smirked. "All because there were no fighters."
He gestured with his hand airily, "Sure there were artists and scientists and politicians, but Cybertron knew nothing except peace. Why would you need guards or soldiers when everything is peaceful? Anyways, the people learned that running away from the sweeps wouldn't save them. The only other option was to fight back. We picked up the Quintessons' own weapons and learned how to use them. Quickly. We watched how the aliens rounded us up inside the sweeps by circling in from all sides and over-powering the ones that were caught, but…" His optics twinkled. "The backs of the Quintessons were vulnerable to attack."
The older flier raised a finger and shook it for emphasis, "They didn't even bother to protect their most vulnerable spot! You always, always make sure that every angle is covered. Doesn't matter if there are two or twenty of you, you make sure the enemy can't come up behind. Anyways, we realized this and used the Quintessons own sweeps against them."
He took another swig of his cup. "So a resistance formed to fight back. We used the Quintessons own weapons, captured the aliens and found out when and where the next sweeps would occur, then we would empty the cities and ambush them." The older mech grinned tapping his fingers on the table.
"Our people adapted and found better ways to fight them, until we were able to steal one of their ships. Then by pretending to be a slave vessel we started freeing our people and bringing them back to Cybertron. Along the way, we stole more ships and finally we kicked them off the planet." The older flier sat back in his chair and took a long drink from his cup.
"That's it?" Skywarp's face fell. "That's a war story? That was boring."
The black mech narrowed his optics at his sparkling, "That's a very important war in the history of Cybertron."
Skywarp rolled his optics and got a smack in the back of his head for it. "Ow!" The older mech glared at Skywarp. "Who says I was done yet. Now shut up and listen."
Thundercracker looked at the older mech confused, "I thought you said there were fliers in the story."
"There is more to that story."
Wide purple optics lit up and Skywarp went from pouting to listening.
"That war proved that Cybertronians weren't alone in the universe and it drove home the fact that we needed a military that would constantly keep a watch on the skies in case the Quintessons came back. So that was the birth of the Cybertronian Security Forces." The older black mech looked at his empty cup with a frown and set it aside.
"The Security Forces were the select few that had proven themselves in the war, and just having the war heroes run the Security Forces would have been all right, except for one problem: there were only had a handful of these heroes left. So the government had the Fighting Academy built and started to train soldiers for the Forces."
He leaned back in his chair. "But to train these new soldiers to fight they needed weapons, and the only weapons we had were what we had stolen from the Quintessons. So the Cybertronian government requisitioned the Iacon Science Institute to create weapons specifically for the Forces to use."
"But now a different problem arose." He smiled at Thundercracker. "The Forces had weapons and strategies to fight invaders on the ground... But not in the skies. The Forces had a handful of battered Quintesson ships left over from the war, but they weren't battleships. So the government went back to the Science Institute and had them reverse engineer the technology of the ships and had them build a battalion of cruisers to protect the skies."
The older mech got up and went into the other room to get some more energon. "So," He called from the other room. "Cybertron had a force to fight back in case any other invaders wanted to fight, and luckily there wasn't another war for three million stellar cycles until the Varcterions attacked." He came back and sat down in front of the sparklings again. "Now the Varcterions weren't interested in slaves or resources, they were after something much more sinister." He gave the younglings a very dark look. "They wanted to destroy the entire planet."
"Like all of Cybertron?"
"Exactly." He pointed at the rapt trio. "You see, the Varcterions were you might say, religious fanatics, and they believed that by destroying Cybertron they would be destroying Primus and releasing the Unmaker from his prison." Three sets of wide purple optics stared at him. "Eons ago, back before the planet Cybertron existed, even before universe had been created… There was a great battle between order and chaos over the Allspark. Primus, who fought for order, and the Unmaker, who fought for chaos, battled over the Allspark for trillions of years… One wanting to use it to create life, the other wanting to use it to destroy life before it could begin. In the end, Primus won and the Unmaker was cast into the Pit, and Primus used the Allspark to create life on Cybertron."
He leaned his crossed arms on the table. "Now the Varcterions believed that Primus and the Allspark resided deep in the heart of Cybertron, therefore if they destroyed the planet, then order would be destroyed and chaos would reign."
He shook his head. "I can't imagine how difficult that battle was, fighting against an army that had nearly unlimited troops and every single one of them ready and willing to die for their desire to destroy the universe … Anyways after heavy damage to the planet and the loss of Cybertron's third moon-"
"Cybertron had a third moon?" Starscream's optics were wide in surprise. "What was it called?"
The old black mech tapped his fingers on the table. "The name escapes me, but its destruction caused the Vectra asteroid belt that Cybertron passes through every vorn. Anyways, Cybertron won. And it was during that war that the first fliers were created. See, the Varcterions had small one-man gliders that they could load with explosives, and they'd send a couple hundred out at once in a battle to attack the big cruisers. Now the big cruisers were good for a full frontal assault, but they were highly vulnerable against the gliders and could easily be destroyed by them. So protoforms were enhanced and the Guardian Fighters were created to combat their gliders." The black mech smirked and pointed at the three sparklings. "Which is why you three can become fliers."
"So with the new Guardian Fighters, we were able to easily fight their gliders. Our Guardians could attack the gliders from a distance and we could easily shoot them as they exited the Varcterions cruisers, causing a chain reaction that destroyed not only a sortie of gliders but do major damage to the cruisers their. It was the fliers that won that war."
He sipped at his energon. "After that, the government decided that Cybertron needed to do some exploring in the star system and find out if there were any other threats nearby. So a cruiser was modified to become a scouting shuttle and an expedition was sent out to explore the nearby planets. Well, the expedition found nothing else in this star system that could attack us, but they also found that there were numerous systems out far beyond the Vectra belt. So when the expedition came back with all the new information, the scientists went nuts, and there were telescopes and new shuttles built and all that stuff."
The older flier leaned on the table. "Now here is where the story gets really interesting. One of the expeditions on some planet in our star system turned up ruins of an ancient society, so of course more scientists were sent to investigate, and they figured out that the civilization that lived there had died out millions of stellar cycles ago… Longer than anything existing on Cybertron. And," He grinned at Starscream. "Artifacts found at the ruins were written in a strange dialect of Cybertronian, and they described different civilizations all over the universe that were created with the Allspark."
The black flier's internal chronometer went off and he sat up in his chair. "It's getting late. I'll have to finish the story later."
"No way!" Skywarp glared at his father-creator. "Just talk faster!"
The flier just shook his head. "Too much left to tell. I'll finish it tomorrow, okay?"
There were disappointed nods as the younglings got up from their chairs and headed for the front door. "See you tomorrow, 'Warp."
--
Thundercracker had come home for the night and the femme was cleaning up from dinner when there was a loud pounding at the door. Starscream's creator stood at the door, fuming and shaking his fist. "I told you to slaggin' keep your nose out of our business, you filthy glitch!"
The blue femme crossed her arms over her cockpit and coldly glared at the mech. "It is my business when I see a sparkling treated like that."
He snarled at her before stomping back across the street. "I'm warning you to keep your nosy aft to yourself."
--
Starscream sat on the bottom step as he watched his father-creator bang on Thundercracker's door and yell at the blue femme. He cringed while waiting for something bad to happen to her, but when she crossed her arms and glared at him…
Nothing happened.
She had actually stood up to him.
She stood up to him and nothing bad had happened.
--
"You call that frakkin' clean? Get your Pit-spawned aft back out there and clean it again!" The gray mech stormed in the room, his red optics flaring in anger. "Do you hear me you little glitch?"
The red youngling drew a deep breath, balling up his little fists as he tried to muster up as much courage as he could. "I already scrubbed them."
The air grew still and icy cold. "… What did you say?"
"I said…" Starscream's mother-creator green optics were wide in horror as she tried to get his attention. Her spark lurched in her chest as she tried to maneuver around the mech and get to her sparkling.
The red youngling calmed his voice. "I said I already scrubbed them."
The gray mech grabbed Starscream by his shoulder, wrenching him around. "You get out there and clean those slaggin' steps now!"
Starscream winced in pain and tried to struggle out of his father-creator's grasp. "NO!"
The backhanded smack echoed through the cold room and Starscream was hurdled across the floor, his head snapping to one side painfully, and energon oozing from a broken lip. He wiped his face with the back of one hand as his father-creator loomed over him. Starscream flinched as the first fist came down. And then another, and another, and another, until he was curled up on the floor whimpering.
His mother-creator pulled on the gray mech's arms, trying to get him to stop hitting her sparkling only to get thrown to the floor next to Starscream. She forced her body between them, trying to protect Starscream from his father-creator's punches. "He didn't mean it! He'll go outside and rewash the stoop! Please, just stop hurting him!"
The gray mech spat at them before raging out of the room. "You two make me sick. Get out of my sight!"
The red femme stroked Starscream's back, holding onto him tightly while they both sat on the floor sobbing. She pressed his head into her chest, whispering fervently into his audios. "We'll get out of here. I promise we'll get away from him." He whimpered and she held onto him tighter. "Just keep studying as hard as you can and we'll get out of here."
--
The blue femme was at the window again, but there had been no sign of Starscream. She balled up her fists in anger, that mech better not have laid a hand on him.
Thundercracker bounded down the stairs and caught her looking out the window frowning. He tilted his head to one side curiously. "Something happening outside?"
She turned to look at him and trying to hide her emotions. "Nothing. I think Starscream went over to Skywarp's already."
Purple optics widened. "No way! They better not have started the story without me!" He threw himself into the door and yanked it open, bolting down the stairs and then the street.
She closed the door behind him and went back to looking out the window. Hopefully Starscream was at Skywarp's.
--
Thundercracker banged on Skywarp's door. How could they just leave him behind!
The older flier opened the door with a stretch before looking down at the ruffled sparkling. "Heh, I knew you were excited to hear the rest of the story, but I didn't think you'd be here this early."
"Huh? But 'Screamer is here already."
He raised an optic ridge curiously. "He's not here. 'Warp isn't even out of recharge yet."
"But he has to be here. He's not outside his house."
The black flier shrugged and let Thundercracker inside. "Maybe he is." He yelled up the stairs. "Hey 'Warp! Get your scrawny aft our of bed!"
A moment later, the mischievous black youngling came down the stairs with a yawn, blinking at Thundercracker. "Hey, TC. Where's 'Screamer?"
The blue youngling looked back and forth between the old flier and Skywarp before answering. "I thought he was here. He's not on his steps."
The older mech patted Thundercracker on the shoulder. "He's probably still in recharge."
Skywarp shook the last bit of grogginess from his head, realizing something was wrong. "No way. 'Screamer is always outside before we're even awake."
"Maybe today he slept in." The flier shrugged. "He's probably on his way here or at your place, TC."
"Maybe…" The two younglings looked at each other.
Skywarp grabbed Thundercracker by the arm and headed for the door. "We'll go get him and come back for the rest of the story!"
--
When the blue femme saw her sparkling and Skywarp running down the street, she knew something had happened to the red sparkling. Thundercracker opened the door and looked at his mother-creator. "Did 'Screamer show up?"
She shook her head and looked back across the street, pursing her lips. "I haven't seen him come outside."
"Maybe he did sleep in, TC." The black youngling looked out the door and across the street. "Let's go wake him up."
The blue femme's optics narrowed, "Remember to go knock, you two. No teleporting or rushing inside."
The sparklings ran across the street quickly to Starscream's home and she subspaced her rifle, holding it cautiously behind her back. If that mech answered and made any move to hurt the two younglings…
--
Skywarp and Thundercracker knocked on the door repeatedly. "Maybe they're not home."
There were soft footsteps and then the door unlocked and opened a crack. A red femme with green optics answered the door. "Yes?"
"Uh, where's 'Screamer?" Skywarp tried to peer inside the house.
Thundercracker elbowed the black mech. "Can Starscream come out to play?"
The red femme looked at the two sparklings sadly. "No. He's…sick today."
"Sick?" Skywarp looked up at the femme. "He can't be sick, we're going to hear the rest of the Guardian Fighters story today."
Thundercracker tilted his head to one side, looking up at the femme curiously. She looked like she had been crying.
She started to close the door. "I'm sorry. Maybe he can come out tomorrow."
The two younglings stared at the door for a moment before turning around and headed across the street. "Sick? How could he get sick when he knows we're to hear the rest of the story today?"
--
The blue femme stood in the doorway and put her rifle back in subspace as Thundercracker and Skywarp walked up the stairs. "Is he still in recharge?"
"No, his mother-creator said he's sick. How could he get sick today?" Skywarp crossed his little arms over his chest.
She looked back across the street and hoped that she wasn't the cause of the sparkling's 'sickness'.
