Too Useful To Waste.
Summary: Both the Autobots and the Decepticons know how resourceful and inventive Sam Witwicky was. When Soundwave finds him dying after a battle, he wonders if he has a way to save Sam so his skills are not lost.
Warnings: Character death, minor blood and gore.
Rating: T for safety.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and DreamWorks/Paramount. I make no claim to the contrary.
Please read first! Before you accuse me of plagiarism, I want you to first know that I have asked for, and received, permission from LittleMewLugia to continue the snippet. This is a project we're doing. We both have a common start off point, but we want to see where we'll both end up. If you doubt me, please PM LittleMewLugia and ask. Thank you for you consideration.
Orn = One Cybertronian day, haven't found a direct translation, but most likely, following the pattern, it is 8.3 Earth days.
Chapter 5; Laserbeak
While many Decepticons despised being planet bound, especially if the planet was filled with squishy organic life, Laserbeak actually enjoyed being on a planet. This was because it was only on planets that he was able to use his flight capabilities at their maximum.
Soundwave was very much against his Casseticons, or indeed anyone else, using supersonic flight within the confines of a spaceship.
While Laserbeak did sometimes fly outside the ship while it was in orbit, flying in zero-gravity, it wasn't the same. For one thing, he couldn't feel the resistance that he felt when he flew in a planet's atmosphere and for a second, anyone could 'fly' in zero-G, but only a few specialized bots were designed for powered flight.
"Laserbeak!" Buzzsaw shouted from high above the Casseticon. "We have a job to do! Once we're done, then we'll have fun."
Laserbeak vented some air, but he stopped his aerobatics, for the moment at least.
"We'll split up. You go after the military man; I'll go to the Autobots' pet's house. One of them should lead us to their base," ordered Buzzsaw.
"Sounds good."
With their respective objectives, the twin Casseticons split up to start their search for the Autobot base.
*******
As it turned out, finding the military man was harder than Laserbeak had thought. Buzzsaw has it easy - he already had a designation and coordinates to help start his search. Meanwhile all Laserbeak had to go on was a grainy image and the intel that the Autobot Ironhide regularly visited the military squishy and his family unit.
Great.
After several breems of thinking, he decided that the best way would be to simply link up to one of the planets communication system, namely the internet, and cross reference the photo of his target with the media.
Within half an astrosecond, Laserbeak had a designation; William Lennox, as well as a set of coordinates. Things were starting to look up!
Now that the Casseticon had all the information he needed to complete his mission.
Laserbeak hacked into one of the planets global positioning satellites and set a course for the home of William Lennox.
*******
Flying high above the Lennox homestead, located in some rural part of the nation state that the Autobots had gained as allies, Laserbeak was disappointed to note that not only was the Autobot not with the squishies, but the family unit of squishies was also absent.
Slightly annoyed that his quarry was not there, the Casseticon wasn't all that worried. In fact, it was probably one of the best things that could have happened. Laserbeak could take this opportunity to find a place where he could observe without being seen and he could also place cameras around the building as well.
Even if he didn't find the location of the Autobot base, the Decepticons could always use the unwitting squishy as a source of information. His creator would be so proud of him!
Thus, Laserbeak set to work planting his spy cams just about everywhere he could reach. He even planted a few in the building that housed the quadrupeds, Soundwave expected all his creations to be thorough in everything they did, whether spying on Autobots, or setting a prank for the Seekers.
When he was content that he had enough spy cams in the dwelling, as well as the surrounding area, Laserbeak took off to find a place where he could avoid being discovered and waited for the Autobot and squishies to come back.
He didn't have long to wait. Just as he was getting settled in the nook of a tree, he heard the tell-tale roar of an automobile nearing his targets dwelling. He linked up with his camera and started recording.
*******
When Will saw his house in the distance, he allowed himself to relax slightly. The past few days had been incredibly rough, not just on him, but on his family as well.
Since Optimus Prime had sent his message into the depths of space, several Autobots had arrived, along with confirmation that there were still others out there. Ironhide had said that it would most likely be decades, possibly even centuries, before everyone reached Earth.
The only downside to this was that the Decepticons had also received the message and recently one of Megatron's most loyal followers had arrived, a mech by the name of Soundwave.
Apparently, he was one of the few of Megatrons followers that fell into the loyal, powerful and smart categories. His appearance had worried the Autobots so much that they had requested that everyone involved with the Autobots, including immediate family, be moved to a more secure location.
That had been a month ago.
During that time, the Autobots had worked with the military to set up a trap for Soundwave. So far, he hadn't taken the bait, but the Autobots were confident that it wouldn't be long until the trap was sprung.
When they had finally arrived at the farm, Lennox helped his wife Sarah get Annabelle out from Ironhide's back seat and then removed the baby-seat. While Ironhide would tolerate the device while driving around with Annabelle, once the baby was out, he expected the seat to follow.
Will smiled tiredly at his wife and sleeping daughter.
"Tired?" asked Sarah, while gently rocking the baby in her arms.
"Yeah," said Will. "Go ahead without me; I just want to ask Ironhide a few questions before I go inside."
Once his wife was inside the house, Will rounded on Ironhide.
"Alright, spill."
"Spill? The only thing I have to spill would be internal fluids." Muttered Ironhide, slightly confused. Why would Will want him to leak internal fluids all over him?
Will, on his part, sighed in frustration.
"It's an expression."
"Well you humans certainly use odd expressions."
"Stop going off topic. I know you got a message from one of the Autobots; you've been quiet ever since we crossed past Colorado. I didn't say anything in front of Sarah because I didn't want to worry her, but if there was an attack on one of my men…" Will let the rest of the sentence hang; if there was an attack, he wanted to know who, where and when.
"There was an attack, but none of your men were the target."
It was silent for several seconds. Will didn't think he wanted to think about whom else could have attacked, but he asked anyways.
"Who was attacked?"
"Bumblebee and Hound. They were transporting Sam, his family and Mikaela."
Will swallowed nervously. He hated were this line of questioning was going, but if Ironhide wasn't revealing anything, then that meant that something terrible had happened."
"Were there any casualties?"
"Only one."
Silence reigned for several seconds.
"Who?"
"Sam Witwicky."
Will was stunned into complete silence. Ironhide proceeded to tell him what had happened, from the attack by Barricade and Scavenger on the small convoy, to Starscream's surprise appearance and what he had done to the boy.
******
Laserbeak listened intently to the Autobot and Squishy as the talked about the attack that had happened earlier. He had been aware that Soundwave had launched an attack against a pair of Autobots, but he wasn't aware of the details because he and his siblings had been on a search to locate Frenzy.
So, the Autobots pet saviour had died and two of their small numbers were injured, most likely seriously.
Laserbeak wished they would move on to another topic, like what they planned to do about the attack. While Laserbeak welcomed the knowledge of what had happened, Soundwave was already aware of what had happened and thus the information was useless to his cause.
Laserbeak perked up when they started talking about what had happened after the battle.
Naturally, that was when the drawling voice of Ravage interrupted him over the Casseticons private com channel.
"Laserbeak."
Said Casseticon vented some air out of frustration before he answered.
"Yes, Ravage?" Laserbeak was so tempted to point out that he was in the middle of something important, and maybe even throw in an insult or three towards his brother, but he refrained. If only for the simple fact that Soundwave could have been listening in as well.
"Soundwave wants you and Buzzsaw to return to base, now. He has something urgent to show us."
Laserbeak concentrated on his targets for a few seconds before sending another message to Ravage.
"Fine, but Buzzsaw isn't with me, he's following another lead. You'll have to contact him yourself; I think my target is starting to become aware of my presence."
"Fine." Came the response, then the com line went dead. Laserbeak waited for several breems before taking off as well, making a low-altitude detour to avoid being seen by the Autobot as his sensor sweeps. Once he was sure he was well out of range, he ascended quickly and made his way back to the base.
******
By the time Laserbeak reached the base, the systems local star had risen above the edge of horizon. Not that he could tell that from looking, because it was raining, hard. He was also low on energy.
Needless to say, when he finally entered the shelter of the base, Laserbeak was tired and irritable. He ignored the sentry currently on duty; he didn't even bother to look at who was on duty.
When he arrived at Soundwaves quarters, he stared solemnly at the door until it opened. At this point in time, he didn't care about what his creator had to show him, all he wanted as a cube of energon, something to remove all the water from his systems and maybe a few orns of recharge. In that order.
When he entered the room, ne noticed that his twin had arrived before him and that the rest of his family was currently crowded around something on Soundwaves desk. No one even bothered to look at him when he entered, not even his twin.
Curious as to what they were all so focused on, Laserbeak leaped onto the desk in one shot, with a little help from his jetpack.
Immediately upon landing he noticed what had gotten his brothers attention. Sitting up Soundwaves cupped hands was a sparkling, a Casseticon sparkling no less.
He was a non-flier model, specifically; he was almost like a miniature mech. He was built a little sturdier than Rumble and Frenzy, but he was still smaller than Ravage. His frame was coloured a deep green with some silver thrown in as well. He also had the yellow optics of a neutral Cybertronian.
Laserbeak looked at the little sparkling with interest. It had been vorns since he had been this close to one, certainly longer than the war had been going on, that was for certain.
Laserbeak slowly made his way over to Ravage who, being the oldest, would most likely have more information than his other brothers.
"Ravage…" started the Casseticon.
"Don't bother, 'Beak," his twin muttered darkly. "He won't tell us anything and neither will Soundwave. All we were told is that we now have a new little brother."
Laserbeak started at what was apparently his newest sibling. He closed his optics as he searched for the spark-bond that, indeed, proved that the little one in front of him was indeed his sibling.
The strongest bond in his spark was with his twin, the next strongest on was with his creator, followed by each of his siblings. He searched a little more, until he found it, a spark-bond that hadn't been there earlier. It was thin, delicate bond, one that would be easily fractured, but it was there nonetheless.
He opened his optics and smirked.
"Looks like Ratbat isn't the baby anymore." He then looked up to his creator. "What's his designation?"
Soundwave was silent for a moment.
"Designation: Discord."
Laserbeak tilted his head, he sensed a story behind that name, but he didn't bother asking for it. If Soundwave wanted them to know, he would have told it already.
*****
Praise me. No, I mean it. I wrote 3/4s of this bad boy within the span of a few hours, my spare computer is a decepticon and I wrote one part of this story three times because of said decepticon. I even included Sam, and I even revealed his name. Be happy.
Basically what happened, I had to use the spare computer in the basement, so I saved the story to the story to my USB key. I loaded it on the other computer, but when I went to save, it said that the file was on my key, but all the other ones were there, then it closed Word. This happened twice. I almost gave up, but I know that there are lots of people waiting for an update this weekend and if I want to give my amazing beta; Dealing With It Now, a chance to go over it, I had better get it done tonight (Friday evening), no excuses short of a mortality would stop me!
Authors run better on reviews that Alerts. I also promise to respond to all signed reviews and anonymous reviews that include an e-mail address, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. If you see any errors, please point them out! Thank you.