(A/N)

Hey, look! A chapter! Yeah, just saying, school work is starting to finally catch up to me but I'm still determined to stick with the schedule. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't very action-packed but I think that it's informative. It'll hopefully give you guys more of an incite as to what vehicon life is like.

Also, can I just say that it's funny to see how inconsistent the view counts are on the chapters? It says 18 people read the prologue, 8 read the first chapter, and 23 read the second chapter. I don't know why I just find that funny.

Enjoy the chapter and I'll see ya later!

Knockout didn't take long with Lord Megatron's repairs and was able to finish up my own a few hours after. Fortunately, my brother was finished with his own tasks for the orn. I immediately told him of what transpired in the Med Bay and we both agreed to try not to receive any medic-worthy injuries for a few weeks.

Shortly after our mutual agreement, word about Lord Megatron leaving to defeat Unicron spread like wildfire, as the human saying goes. According to the vehicons in the control room, our master mentioned something about requiring the power of a Prime.

No mech really knew exactly what that meant, but the most popular opinion was that Lord Megatron is calling a temporary truce with the Autobots, or at least the Prime so that he can defeat Unicron. Now, while I don't really care much for the ideals of our master, apparently Commander Arachnid does. At least, that's why I think she has called a meeting for nearly every mech and femme on the warship.

I was currently on my way there now with my brother, however, we arrived as one of the last vehicons and therefore the only spots left were the ones on the same floor as the higher-ups.

"Slag," D4R-3K muttered. Slag indeed.

Being on the same level as the higher-ups during a crew announcement meant that there was a likely chance of a commander using you as a stress or anger reliever. Sadly, it's not that uncommon for vehicons to offline this way. I just hope that it doesn't happen during this meeting. Probably won't since both Starscream and Lord Megatron aren't here. Although... I'm not really sure how Commander Arachnid handles her stress.

I quickly reset my optics. Speak of the Devil and he shall appear. I recited to myself as Arachnid walks up to the long platform, in the center of the room, in all her 'glory'. When she reached where Lieutenant Soundwave was typing on the monitors, she stopped and spun on her heel to face us.

"Fellow Decepticons!" She addressed, a smirk plastered on her faceplates. "While our loyalty to Megatron has always remained steadfast -"

"She means those who aren't designated Arachnid or Starscream," My twin blurted through the bond.

"- our leader's recent behavior has been questionable at best... and it would seem Earth has become nothing short of a failed experiment." She said, referring to the monitors behind her, which displayed multiple images of the destruction done to the planet.

"Commander Arachnid," Knockout, who stood next to Breakdown on the 'catwalk', began. "You're not suggesting that we abandon Lord Megatron?"

She turned to the TIC at the monitors, who hadn't yet made any acknowledgment of her words. "Despite Soundwave's best efforts, we have been unable to detect our Master's signal." She informed. "He is either offline or in the thrall of Unicron. Neither is in the Decepticon's best interest. So I am deeming an exodus to be the most prudent course of action..." She turned to look at the vehicon soldiers below her. "Unless anyone has a problem with that."

A single vehicon raised his servo. "With all due respect, Commander Arachnid, where would we go? Earth is rich with energon and our scanners cannot seem to pick up any planets that present the same amount of resources."

"Whelp, there goes another promising drinking buddy," D4R-3K sarcastically whined.

"Since when were vehicons allowed drinking privileges in the first place?" I inquired

I could tell that he was trying to withhold a chuckle. "Touche." He replied, but I decided not to ask what 'touche' meant.

Arachnid, however, seemed slightly surprised at the vehicon's words. "A... fair question." She began. "While that may be true, that does not mean that the other planets have a lack of energon. Which is why we will be heading for Regulon Four. Any other questions? No?" I saw Soundwave freeze at the monitor before finally turning towards the femme.

"Uh oh..." My brother said quietly.

Arachnid, completely oblivious to the silent mech approaching her, smirked when no other vehicons spoke up. She quickly spun around, grinning in triumph."Then let us set course!"

Her grin was wiped off her face when Soundwave stood formidably before her, straightening his back struts in a threatening manner.

"Do you have something to say, Soundwave?" She inquired but received no answer. Soundwave merely stood taller, the light reflecting boldly off of his armor. "I am the Commander of this vessel," She transformed so that her spider legs supported her, "you will obey and return to your post." He didn't move. "This is your last warning: Step. Aside."

No movement.

"Ha! The glitch thinks she can actually take on Soundwave? I bet my daily energon ration that she won't last thirty seconds." D4R-3K swore, and not a second later did I begin my internal stopwatch.

Arachnid leaped at Soundwave, who merely brought up his arms to block against every stab she tried to inflict. Her slight shock caused her to momentarily hesitate in her attacks, but it was all that the former gladiator needed. He thrust his servo forward and gripped her neck cables as he lifted her off of the ground. She tried to stab him multiple times, but his arm was longer than any of her legs, so her attempts were met with failure. He glared, or at least the best glare he could give with his visor, before rearing back his arm and throwing her across the catwalk, behind Knockout and Breakdown.

The medic and his assistant stepped aside to allow Soundwave to walk up to the battered femme, but not before silently detaching Laserbeak from his chassis.

"I'll tear out your spark for that!" Arachnid swore before getting shot in the back by the flying symbiote. She was slung forward and landed at Soundwave's pedes. Before she could recover, his pede pinned her down to the ground, resulting in a pained groan escaping her vocalizer. "I... yield."

Knockout snickered quietly. "Watch out for the quiet ones..." He murmured to Breakdown, who simply nodded.

The spymaster retreated his pede and turned to walk back to the main consoles. The two grounders quickly moved out of his way, not wanting to risk getting beat up, I reckon. Knockout and Breakdown glanced at each other before turning to Arachnid, who could hardly move. Breakdown picked her up and followed the flamboyant medic out the doors and to the Med Bay.

The remaining vehicons in the room glanced between one another before we all wordlessly decided to return to our duties. I walked with my brother back to the barracks, as it was our recharge period.

"29 seconds," I said to him, which earned me a laugh from his vocalizer.

"Told ya so."

"I never said I doubted you... or even agreed to your 'bet'," I smirked beneath my visor.

We continued our light conversation until we reached the barracks, where other vehicons were either recharging or talking softly in small groups. In the vehicon barracks, we were allowed to leave our visors off freely, as the higher-ups never came in here anyway. So, the faceplates of all the mechs and femmes in the room were exposed without hesitation.

While the most common type of faceplate was one with a smooth surface and two optics, we vehicons had a large variety of types among us. The number of optics ranged from one to nine and the colors of said optics came in green, yellow, red, pink, orange, or sometimes even combinations. Some vehicons had multiple mouths, instead of just the one, that bared sharp denta, dull denta or both. There were also multi-colored faceplates, scarred faceplates, or even no faceplates at all.

We also had different sizes. While most of us are the average size of cybertronian, some of us are taller or shorter. In D4R-3K and I's case, we are taller than the average mech. In fact, we're even taller than Breakdown. I'm not sure if we're the tallest vehicons, but I know we're defiantly not the shortest. The title of shortest vehicon belongs to 71R-90, also known as 'Virgo'. A feisty little femme, that one.

My brother joined with some others but I decided to go to recharge instead so that my systems could finally rest from the recent... physical strain they went through.

I walked to an empty space, between two vehicon jets, that was far enough from the others so that I could hardly hear them. I transformed into my alt mode, as we vehicons aren't provided with berths, and shut down my systems one by one. The world around me went dark as I forced myself to relax and fall into a deep recharge.