Command Room, Nemesis

Swiftblade grinned, this was easier than he thought! Those humans were so fragile that they could literally be crushed under a Cybertronian's pedes!

"Taking over their planet can be done, my liege, but we will have to lay low for a while." continued Shockwave, who was describing the anatomy of humans just a few moments ago.

"Oh?" Swiftblade raised an optic ridge "And why is that?"

"They possess numerous types of weaponary similar to Cybetronian ones such as sonic blasters. Although the frequency most likely is not high enough to affect us majorly, we should not take any chances." informed Shockwave

"Fine. We'll need energon first anyway. Where is the nearest reserve?"

"Unfortunately, my liege, we do not have the equipment necessary to detect energon deposits. So we are headed towards the area known as Alaska to collect the condensed energon there first."

Swiftblade sighed, there just had to be a setback on his plans.

"Oh well, Shockwave, your newest priority is to build a energon detector." commanded Swiftblade with a wave of his hand "You are dismissed."

Shockwave bowed once more before leaving the young warlord. He already had a blueprint for the detector, so the order was filed away into his database. He thought about how to eradicate the inhabitants of this planet.

"We could always try brute force...no, there will be too many casualties on our side." mused the scientist as he tapped in the code for his door

"But what if we secretly controlled them from the inside? ...wait. That's it." Shockwave was sure this plan could work, but first he needed consent. He commed a certain Communications Officer a simple message.

"I have a plan."

Seeker's domain, Artemis

"Divespade! Will you play with me?" asked Wisp while focusing her large, watery optics on the femme for maximum effect.

"Alright, it's not as if I'm going anywhere soon. What do you want to do?" answered the purple seeker as she smiled indulgently at Wisp. She never was able to resist those optics. They'll be the death of her one day.

"Read this datapad to me!"

Divespade took the well-worn datapad from Wisp and gasped. Back on the Nemesis, this had been Silverwhirl's favorite story and she almost never let it out of her sight if she took it out.

"Where did you get this, little Wisp?" the seeker whispered, almost more to herself than the orange pre-upgrade.

"I got it from a friend I met on the Nemesis, why?" inquired Wisp who was wondering why Divespade wasn't reading yet.

"She used to be my friend too. A real close one at that." muttered Divespade while stroking the faded cover, as if she couldn't believe it was here.

"Used to be? Why? Aren't you still friends?" asked Wisp, who at this time was a little scared. She dreaded the answer to her question, for if they grew apart even though they were best friends, than her friends may just leave her one day too.

"The war pushes many people apart." flatly stated the femme "I don't feel very good right now, could you come back later Wisp?"

Wisp got up and headed towards the door. She took one last look at the purple seeker and left to go back to Prowl. After all the gloominess and rejection that happened this cycle, she didn't feel like doing anything fun anymore.

Divespade clutched the datapad in her talon-like digits. Silverwhirl would be about Wisp's age right now. She and Swiftblade must have felt so alone on the Nemesis all these vorns. If only they could've came with us that lunar cycle. If only there was no Decepticons.

If only there wasn't a war.

Just then, Thundercracker came in the room and saw his femme creation holding something in her hands. He stepped closer for a better look and immediately knew what Divespade was thinking about.

"You know that we will rescue those two when we get the chance." he comforted as he sat down at the edge of the berth.

"I sometimes think it's too late already. Swiftblade is leader of the Decepticons. How will we get him to switch sides? And even if we did, the mechs over here would deactivate him with no remorse. If we meet again, what would the two of them say to us?" sobbed Divespade as she finally broke down and buried her faceplates in her sire's chassis.

Thundercracker knew that anything he said to her now would only make her feel worse. So he comforted her in the only way a creator could do at that moment. He held her close to him and patted her back. Staying with his creation as she weeps out her sorrows, and he never left until the last droplets of cleaning fluid dried.

Prowl accessed the navigation system of the Artemis. They were very close to their destination, there was probably only a decacycle left of their journey. Since the strategist had finished all of the reports and filing he had that day, he decided to do a little research on Earth with a server they called the World Wide Web.

It was interesting, this species called humans, they were alike to Cybertronians in many ways yet somewhat different. They had intelligent conversations but could become nothing more than savages in the next second. There were rich humans, and poor humans, white humans, yellow humans, all so diverse and different.

"Well," Prowl thought as he checked his internal chronometer "it's getting quite late. I'll just do one more patrol around the ship, then I'll retire to my chambers with Wisp." And with that, Prowl stepped out of the control room.

Laboratories, Nemesis

Soundwave pondered in his head about Shockwave proposition. It was risky, of course, and will take a long time to complete, but it had a high chance of succession.

Still, time was one thing they didn't have a lot of, the Autobots most likely have already started their pursuit, maybe even bringing new reinforcements with them. The Decepticon army as it is right now could at the most draw a tie. Shockwave's plan was looking to be more and more appealing by the click. He felt a guilt cloud his spark, but ignored it in favor of the big picture.

"Permission: Granted." Boomed Soundwave as he nudged Silverwhirl forward with his arm.

"Excellent. The procedure will begin the next cycle. I will take some regular pre-surgery measurements and tests to calculate risks. But I assure you she will be back in one piece.

Soundwave nodded, then exited the room, he can't leave his post at the Communication Center forever since the Vehicons are so incompetent.

If he had turned his cranial unit just a few degrees to the right, he would've seen his creation's blank stare leveled at his backside.