My Madness, My Saving Sanity

Chapter Twelve: Duties

By: Nightelfcrawler

Author's note: While this is G1 based, I've made Starscream a blend of his G1 and Armada personalities just because I find the dichotomy of it fascinating. It takes place in no particular timeline, following no particular events. Also, please review politely. If you haven't something nice to say, keep it to yourself please.

I had thought I'd seen and heard just about everything in my life.

Obviously I was wrong.

"No." I snapped irritably, slapping the gun down from Sideswipe's aim forcing him to fire haphazardly at the ground, to much cursing from his brother. "You're aiming at the wrong place, moron."

"What?!" Furious azure optics met my own blue gaze as we held the silent battle of command. In any other situation, Sideswipe might have won without much contest, but in front of all the other Autobot gunners gathered before my instructing class, he knew he couldn't challenge me like he wished he could. "It always worked before!"

"On whom exactly?" I snapped. "I seem to recall you didn't score very many disabling hits while your opponents are airborne. Up there, we are superior to you. It's time you remembered that." I glared meaningfully at Sunstreaker, whose murderous gaze turned even more mutinous. "You are battling the aerial elite, something that YOU sadly are lacking in your forces." I smirked as their glowers darkened. To the side, Bluestreak, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Jazz, Prowl and a few others I had seen here and there watched with reserved gazes. "THINK about where you're aiming, idiot." I grabbed the gun from Sideswipe's limp astonished fingers, spun and fired. Thundercracker let out a howl of pain as my blast caught him right up the afterburner, and his trajectory sputtered with thick smoke trailing after him as he spun trying to regain his control.

"FRAGGIT STARSCREAM!" The bellow rang in my head as well as the sky as I winced, rubbing my audio receptor in irritation, handing the gun back to the startled Sideswipe who obviously hadn't expected me to harm my own brother.

"You must be completely willing to hurt your friends in practice before you can even think of harming your enemies." I said coldly. "This is not just target practice, this is survival. You versus them. Your best bet is not to simply hit them, but to disable them permanently." I ignored the shocked optics of the Autobots gathered for my instruction, and turned to point at my thruster imbedded in my foot. "Wings or Thrusters. Either point is the most vulnerable place you can score a hit. Wings however are reinforced with thick sturdy armor." I rapped a knuckle on my own wing, then with one smooth motion detached it from my back and held the blade out without charging it. "Wings are filled with critical sensors that allow fliers to sense the environment, wind changes, pressure… and while incredibly sensitive, they also are one of the most reinforced parts of any fliers body. You're going to have to score a hard close hit to do ANY damage worth considering. Long-range, your best option is to aim right up their engines. If one goes out they can stay airborne, but it throws their equilibrium off enough that you can score a second hit, possibly more depending how stupid they are."

"And what about helicopters?" Bluestreak was the one to ask.

I glanced at him, nodding appraisingly. Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Jazz and Bumblebee all seemed shocked at my brutality in this lesson, and my tactics, but the sharpshooter was all ears. He knew the importance of scoring the RIGHT hit, not MANY hits, like that frag-head Ironhide. "That is an excellent question. Helicopters are obviously reliant on their rotors to keep them airborne, not engines or wings. They do have stabilizing rotors you can aim for which are actually quite frail. Take that out their balance is thrown. Like fliers, the helicopter has reinforced armor on their main rotors to prevent haphazard damage. Instead, aim for the base where the blades connect to the fuselage. That is their weakest point as the spinning blades need more friction to spin which means less armor."

There was silence as they took this in. Behind me Thundercracker touched down and glared daggers as he limped in my direction. "Did you HAVE to shoot up my thruster?! Frag it….. that HURTS… a LOT."

I glanced over my shoulder and noted the black scorch marks that dotted his right foot as he stomped over towards me, and smiled kindly at my brother. "Come now, you've had worse, TC."

By now, the Autobots were beginning to get used to having three ex-Decepticons on base. They were even used to our harsh treatment of each other, and the others, and had come to adjust their own assumptions and treatment of us to compensate. It didn't mean they liked us any more, in fact now that I had equal status with Prowl and Jazz they were decidedly irritated by any orders I gave. Optimus had to remind the ones who talked back that they would visit the brig if they disrespected one of his officers like that again. It was actually quite fun. Since then I had merely had to endure angry stares, but less rebellious back-talking.

Except for my wing-mates of course.

All this changed, however, when the humans arrived on the base.

I'd known they were coming, after all Optimus had briefed us all on their arrival more than was really necessary. I had impatiently agreed NOT to squish or scare any of them more than was necessary, as long as they didn't pester me unnecessarily.

That was the key wasn't it…

The day that the dignitaries were arriving we all had to be on our best behavior. This also meant that we had to look our best. This was not a problem for our trine, a word I had uncovered with some research and one that fit our troublesome trio well. The mechs who didn't like baths, namely Ironhide, had put up with having themselves sudsed down and waxed, while the three of us had taken care of that chore ourselves, not trusting the Autobots to get every scratch and dent out of our wings. Nonetheless, when I strode into the hangar bay and surveyed the troops, I was impressed. Everyone was smartly at attention, every one of them polished and without the usual dust and grime that clung to their chassis in this unbearable desert. I turned to my other sub-commanders and studied them as they studied me, optics sliding to stare at the new insignia on my wings.

I was rather proud of the design, actually.

Despite Optimus' continued nagging asking me to put their emblem on, I had adamantly refused and instead collaborated with my wing mates to come up with our own insignia. We had tried many variations, but in the end it was the most simplistic and ancient of emblem we had chosen. Two parallel lines in red paint with a vertical slash down the center, symbolizing a crude jet. It was the ancient symbol of our ruined city, the Seeker's home. We were quite satisfied with the symbol, and Optimus had no complaints at our choice to remove the Decepticon insignia from our wings. We stood proud as a united team, individual from the Autobots, our own statement to be made. Perhaps it was my own vanity, but I believed we three looked the best out of the group.

I idly stroked the protrusion on my chin that Skywarp had ultimately laughed his aft off about, claiming I resembled a super-villain stroking a goatee. I had punched him for that, but it hadn't stopped him from snickering every time I did it. My hand fell unconsciously at my side as I set my jaw irritably at the idea. Frag-head.

"Men." Optimus' voice rang out strong and regal from the end of the hangar as we all turned to stare at him, fully at attention. "Remember, we are representing not only what we Autobots stand for today, but what we can provide the governments of this world in the way of defense and protection, as representatives of Cybertron. Since we are staying here indefinitely, we must present ourselves with dignity to the leaders of the world. They are here to see what we have to offer, a move that can make allies or enemies. I remind you all to be on your best behavior, be polite and respectful." His eyes lingered especially on the shiny red and gold mechs standing less at attention in the middle of the group for a moment before continuing. "We will speak with them and answer questions, give demonstrations of our prowess, and explain our history and culture to them. If you do not feel comfortable or do not know the answer to questions refer them to your superior officers." This time, a few optics lingered curiously on me, wondering if I would be up to the task of talking to humans.

I winced. I was SO not looking forward to this.

Nonetheless, it was inevitable. In every group there was the 'black tie event' so to speak. This was it.

Humans. Ugh. I was going to have to scrub vigorously afterwards to rid myself of their bio-contaminants.

Most of the mechs remained inside to wait for the dignitaries to arrive, but Optimus summoned myself, Prowl and Jazz outside to stand as welcoming committee. I felt glares on my back as I stepped out into the bright sunshine, the light dazzling on my white and red painted form. I didn't look forward to this, trying to be POLITE. I was a scientist, a warrior and a pain in the aft, NOT a politician.

Maybe Megatron had been right after all. I WASN'T fit to lead the Decepticons. Politics SO was not my thing.

The outside of the Autobot base had been spruced up a bit with banners imbued with the Autobot seal fluttering in the light breeze. The pavement was swept and neat, and as we stood at the entrance waiting for their arrival I noted that even the exterior had been polished.

I wondered who'd pulled the short stick to be placed on THAT duty.

My optics slid calmly to the horizon as I spotted dust moving. So they were coming. I quickly did a scan of the skies out of habit, but found nothing alarming to worry about. There WERE some F-22's patrolling, but they were simple human jets, nothing to be concerned with. Idly I wondered just HOW much these world leaders had been told.

It soon became apparent. The caravan of vehicles pulled up to the edge of the base and stopped just out of immediate sight, allowing those within to unload and glance around at what appeared to be a mere bunker in nowhere in the middle of the desert. It was strange for humans, I supposed. A bunker lowered in the sand to avoid detection from above, visible only to those who knew where to look until you got too close. I was also doubly surprised when I overheard some of the conversation trickle down from above the ramp where the cars had parked.

"Wow… for a top-secret military base you sure didn't pull out all the stops here."

"I assure you, looks can be deceiving. There is more here than meets the eye, sir."

"I'll believe that when I see it."

"Mister President, so nice to see you again."

"Likewise Doctor Forrester."

Disgust filled my head. I thought this was a conference of world leaders, not a freak show for civilians. My disgust must have showed, because Jazz elbowed me and whispered. "Stop lookin' like ya sucked on cold slag. You'll scare 'em off, Screamer."

"DON'T call me that!" I hissed venomously, infuriated that my trine's nickname had now spread to the others. I would kill them for this later… I felt them both snickering at me through our link. Fraggit…!

"At attention, men." Optimus rumbled quietly.

We obligingly fell silent again, waiting. Before long I heard a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. I think I had heard it once or twice on Teletran's external communications system, likely one of the Autobot's contacts. "Now everyone… Listen up. I know we've brought you here without much explanation, and now I'd like to give you a bit more to go on. We've invited all our allies to this conference, as well as the leading scientists in each new field of development for this very important meeting. What you are about to see of course is highly classified to only those in your top circle for the moment until we all decide a better course of action. Now…" There was a hesitation in the voice of the one I took to be the General, and I smirked at the concept that he had to be wrapping his fleshie brain around. How to explain extra-terrestrial mechanical aliens to a bunch of politicians and scientists both of which were trained to question the truth of what they saw and heard.

This was going to be interesting.

"I would like you all to suspend what you know to be real in our little planet here… and embrace the idea of the unknown for a moment. We've told you that you are to meet with representatives of future allies, but you have not been told just whom your are meeting." There was a long pause. "I suppose the only way to truly explain it, is for me to introduce them. Therefore ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present the distinguished Optimus Prime and his officers, representatives of the Autobots, citizens of Cybertron." The words HAD to sound amusingly outlandish to the gathered humans, I thought. I had done much research into their scientific beliefs and their science fiction realm, and found that what they believed and what they FANTASIZED about were two entirely different things. Humans were incredibly imaginative when it came to creating fiction, yet they were very narrow-minded when it came down to putting that fiction into reality. Hundreds of 'first encounters' had been documented in films, television programs and books and there were pathetically few of these encounters that included ANYTHING like US in them.

I did my best to hide my smirk as Optimus stepped forward, our cue for introductions. Together we stepped out of the shadowed base entrance and up into the sunlight, and into full view of the assembled humans.

To say they were startled was quite the understatement. In truth, the expressions on their faces were QUITE amusing. There were several humans that appeared to be intending to catch flies with their mouths. As Optimus stopped to tower directly over them, all heads craned up, eyes wide and mouths agape. More than a few eyed me, as I was the more intimidating of the three sub-commanders with my bristling weaponry displayed proudly on my shoulders and arms, newly attached Null-Rays shining with deadly intent. Prowl and Jazz looked mild compared to my glory. Of course… Optimus ALWAYS took center stage simply due to his massive height and overwhelming presence. Still, I was satisfied to see most of the military types eyeing me impressively. My optics roamed the stunned faces and then paused as I made a visual connection with the only person other than the General who was not gawking in shock or horror, but staring up with clear interest. For a human, she wasn't unattractive. She was slim and tall wearing a corporate outfit expected of such events sporting those ridiculous platforms human femmes preferred. But it was her eyes that caught my attention. Sparkling green eyes stared curiously up at me from behind fragile thin ocular corrections, interested and unafraid. I stared back at her challengingly, curious as to what she found so fascinating about ME.

"Thank you General O'Neil." Optimus rumbled quietly, in an effort not to startle our visitors. Nonetheless, several of the dignitaries jumped. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our base. May I introduce my commanding officers." He turned slightly to gesture to the three of us in turn. "Prowl, my second-in-command and Tactician, our Enforcement Officer." I resisted the urge to snort. Translation: Cop, through and through. "My Reconnaissance Officer and Field Commander, Jazz." Translation: Goof-off so I send him away from the base to cause trouble. "And our resident scientist and Aerial Commander, Starscream who represents our independent squad of fliers." Oh so I was the resident scientist now? I saw several curious gazes draw immediately to me and my spark sank. Primus… He'd set me up to talk with the HUMAN scientists? Oh I was going to strangle him!

At least he was thoughtful not to include us as Autobots…

I fought the urge to sigh. Thank you peanut gallery.

Anytime!

"I am certain you have many questions at the moment, so allow me to in brief tell you something about ourselves." Optimus then proceeded to give the delegates a break-down of Cybertronian origin and history, and how we'd come to arrive at their annoyingly organic planet. It didn't take long, as he was conscious it was quite warm outside, thus uncomfortable for the fleshies. Perspiration was growing on their exteriors, which made me all the more eager to retreat back into the shadows. Ugh… biological excrement…

The group was fairly calm and showed great interest as their shock wore off and after the brief introduction Optimus invited them to follow him down into the base for introductions with the remainder of his forces. The humans followed in some bewilderment as we three sub-commanders stood aside waiting for them to enter before bringing up the rear. I noticed more than one human glancing nervously over their shoulders. As we walked, several of them engaged us in questions. I was one of the unlucky ones to have the first addressed to me. "Mister…Starscream was it?" It was one of the world leaders who spoke with an accent that immediately drew images of a certain Triplechanger to mind. "I must ask why it is you display such obvious weaponry where your comrades do not?"

I glanced down at the man with a scathing glare. "I am a warrior." I stated coolly. "My weapons are a part of me and I will not be separated from them, even for such an… insignificant threat." I said silkily, telling him just what I thought of him. The man colored red and quickly sped up to join the other diplomats. I smirked.

"That was quite rude you know."

My optics shifted down to find the human femme staring up at me, arms crossed disapprovingly. I scoffed a bit and smirked at her. "Was it? I didn't notice."

She lifted an eyebrow. "You're not a people person, are you?"

"If you refer to small human organics, no." I said dryly. "I honestly can say I have never MET one before."

"So you big robots don't have manners?"

I frowned and stared critically down at her. Unlike the others, she didn't seem one bit distracted by the strangeness of the aliens around her. Of course for all I knew she was one of those who'd known about us previously like the General or the President, which would explain it. "I'm sorry." I said dryly, sarcasm dripping from my voice. "I'll TRY to be more polite."

She just lifted an eyebrow up at me. "Somehow I doubt that."

"I would retort with an appropriate human phrase, but I am rather lacking in that department." I said dryly. "My closest approximation would be 'so slag me'."

"I get the picture." She said dryly, though I noticed her lips were pulled up with a small smile.

The party continued down into the main hanger bay where the rest of the Autobots were gathered. From there the formal introductions took up some of their time, and then at last the stiffness of ceremony was broken as the diplomats began to break up to speak with various individuals that they found worthy of conversing with. Optimus offered to give tours, and the military personnel split off with the likes of Ironhide and Prowl. Soon the room was mostly empty and I relaxed a bit from the stiffness of formality to rub my shoulder. I was getting stiff joints from holding at attention for so long.

A soft voice clearing it's throat drew my attention. Instantly my optics slid down to stare incredulously at my feet where the human woman was standing. "You." I said rather warily.

"Me." She stated calmly, folding her arms over her chest with a mild smile. "I don't think we were properly introduced. I'm Alexis Forrester, Environmental Science Advisor to the President."

"How charming." I said dryly, eyeing her. "You keep the little pointless plants safe, then?"

To my surprise, she laughed. "Something like that. Environmental means I'm responsible for anything that impacts the environment, from plants to Plants." At my frown of confusion she clarified. "Nuclear plants, biological plants, jet engines…" She eyed mine with a lift of her eyebrows. "I investigate the impact that any of that will have on our ecosystem."

"How…interesting." I said trying my hardest not to stomp right out of there. WHY had this pesky human lingered to speak to me?

I soon found out.

"So you're the science geek then?"

My optic ridge twitched. I HATED that term. It was one of those human nuances Skywarp loved. "I prefer Academic Professional."

"Nice one. I should remember that." She murmured. "Well then, could you show me anything of interest you're working on? I'd love to know what kind of projects an alien scientists studies."

Really? How interesting.

Awwww… Starscream's found a…

Skywarp, if you even DARE to finish that sentence, I will rip your wings from your chassis and mount them on my wall.

Shutting up!

I stifled the sigh that threatened to expunge from my exhaust vents and instead squinted down at the small human femme. She was very sure of herself, confidant in a way that reminded me quite a bit of myself. Perhaps she wasn't as annoying as I thought at first. "Would you be able to comprehend space bridge technology?" I queried warily.

"Explain the principles to me."

Very well. She did ask for it.

Imagine my surprise when she DID understand it.

"So by crossing the gateway between dimensions you are able to transport matter nearly instantaneously across great distances. That is an absolutely fascinating concept. Does it work?"

"Yes." I said, comfortably seated on one of my stools within the lab, the human sitting on the shelf housing all my neatly stacked data pads and paperwork, watching me intently with her bright green eyes. She was incredibly attentive, and far more intelligent than I had given her credit for. "However we don't have the energy output needed to power a full gate, I've only built a short-term prototype."

"May I see it?"

"Here." I gestured to the side and stood as she walked the length of the table to get a closer look at the contraption on the display nearby. "As you can see, it's a short-distance version and only a tenth of the size we would need." I eyed her curiously. "It might work for a human."

"Thank you, but I'm not ready to become your guinea pig just yet." Alexis said wryly, smiling up at me with a dry smile that again reminded me of myself. "I'll settle for a demonstration though."

I smirked. I had been dying to show off that this miniature space bridge worked for weeks now. Perceptor and Wheeljack had been ecstatic at the success, and so we'd worked on building the gate on the base. However, due to our lack of ability to construct another gate on Cybertron the thing would sit unused until we could get back there. Nonetheless, something I had built WORKED, and hadn't been blown up by the crazy inventor yet. I flipped it on as the small bridge hummed loudly with power routed directly from the Ark's generator as the small circle crackled to life with blue light. I glanced around for something to demonstrate with and found one of my less important data pads and held it up to show her, then tossed it through the glowing warp field. Almost instantly it popped out across the room in the adjacent ring. I flipped the small warp gate off and walked over to retrieve the data pad, showing it to her as it was fully functional and undamaged.

"I'm impressed." Alexis said, genuinely sounding so. "This could be a huge boon for all of mankind, actually. Goodbye traffic jams, hello Star Trek."

"Star Trek?" I queried, then did a quick check online to find out the reference. What I found baffled me until I uncovered the reference. "You refer to … transportation."

"Yeah, sorry. Forgot you're not from around here." She smirked. "Anyway, what kind of energy input powers the small version?"

"Too much to make it efficient for your mental deductions." I warned, sitting back down on the stool. "The equivalent of Five of your nuclear power facility's output for an entire month."

"Yikes." She muttered. "Ok, some improvements must be made to go forward with that. Got it." She peered up at me curiously. "What kind of fuel powers all of you, anyway?"

"Energon." I stated simply. "It's not a method you humans have come close to replicating yet. And to answer your question, yes it's a clean energy source." I smirked at her eyebrow lift. "We have perfected such techniques to be as pollutant free as possible. Having pollutants in our systems is just as toxic as yours, I imagine. All Energon burning sources burn clean."

"Again, impressive. We could learn a thing or two from you guys." Her eyes studied me critically. "So that includes your own fuel expenditure? You're an F-15 Eagle, am I right?"

I blinked. As far as I knew, none of the diplomats had been given a chance to see our transformations yet. "That is correct." I said slowly, wondering how she could detect something so precise in my bipedal form.

"I've worked at a lot of military bases." She said in way of explanation. "You learn to spot the differences in aircraft. I've been wondering what kind you favor, but the fins give you away."

My optics roamed down to the twin fins on my legs. Since I had taken my new build, I had decided to keep my Earth alt-form as I was familiar with it, and I knew no other earth aircraft of my mass that was comparable in performance. I'd heard there were some new models available, but had not ventured close enough to a human air base to scan one. Nonetheless, this human seemed to be unusually attentive for her kind. I would not have expected her to know the make and model of my alternate form. "The design is different from my fellows, but still acceptable to my needs."

"Well I would be interested in seeing how exactly you change." Alexis said with a lift of her slim eyebrows. "I must say, there's more than enough just on your people to keep me busy for my entire career."

"Funny… I knew someone who said nearly the same thing about organic species." I murmured with a small smirk. Yes… Skyfire would have loved this girl. She wasn't half bad, for a human.

Our discussion of space bridge mechanics did not last as long as we'd both wished, as soon we were summoned back outside for the demonstrations we were scheduled to do for the guests. It was nothing special, considering we had been practicing well up to this point in order to show our best sides, our prowess. I still believed my own trine performed the best out of them all, and when it was finally done I felt a sense of pride swelling within me at the applause given.

Overall, it hadn't been that bad of a day as I'd feared.

And I did hope to pick Alexis Forrester's brain again sometime in the future.