17: Tactics
Starscream jerked bolt upright on his berth, for reasons that, at first, he couldn't identify. The sensations were odd, something that he'd never experienced before, and so he couldn't classify them, not immediately. He knew only that something was wrong…that something was out of place…that…
Alarmed, he lurched off of his berth and then staggered toward the door. It slid obligingly open, giving him a view of the medbay's main ward. Ratchet was there.
"Where is she?" Starscream growled at him.
Ratchet, puzzled, turned toward Starscream and took in his posture. He was leaning heavily against the doorjamb, as if it was all that was holding him upright, and there was an almost wild look on his face. But it was different than imprint desperation, and it was too early for that anyway. It was instead, Ratchet realized, more like somewhat panicked concern.
"Who?" he asked.
Starscream scowled at him and spat, annoyed, "How many 'she's do you have around here? Swoop, of course!"
Ratchet frowned, still puzzled.
"I don't know," he said mildly, with an unconcerned shrug. "She should be here any minute, although she's already twenty minutes late, and that's really not like her at…"
The medic's voice trailed off as he watched Starscream shake his head vehemently. Once he pushed himself away from the doorway against which he'd been leaning, he approached Ratchet rather unsteadily.
"No," he said quietly but somewhat manically, his eyes fever-bright. "She isn't here. She isn't…she isn't on this base," he added, frowning himself as he realized the implication of what he was sensing.
"What are you talking about?" Ratchet asked, but Starscream had become inwardly focused, as if he was searching inside of himself for something. Or, Ratchet realized, suddenly uneasy, for someone. After a moment or two of "searching," a plainly horrified expression crossed Starscream's face, which instantly exacerbated Ratchet's unease.
"No," Starscream murmured more to himself than to Ratchet. Then: "I have to talk to Optimus Prime," he announced, suddenly and much more loudly. He spun away from Ratchet, as if to go and do exactly that. Ratchet grabbed him by a wing, since one became momentarily and conveniently close as Starscream turned away from him. Starscream's own momentum jerked him backwards.
"Whoa, Nelly!" Ratchet protested. "If you go charging off like that, you're only going to get yourself killed by someone. Tell me what's wrong."
"There's no time!" Starscream insisted, impatiently and forcefully jerking his wing out of Ratchet's grasp.
"Make time," Ratchet insisted, brooking no argument as he raised his voice by a couple of decibel levels and stepped threateningly closer to Starscream. "Because you're not leaving here unless you do."
Starscream scowled mutinously at the medic. But then, with a mighty effort, having already learned that Ratchet was as stubborn as they came, he calmed himself and said, simply, "He has her."
"Who?"
"Megatron, stupid," Starscream hissed.
"What?" Ratchet responded, instantly alarmed. "But…How?"
"I don't know!" Starscream almost shrieked in response. "I only know that he has her!"
"Because," Ratchet said, blinking a few times as the light dawned with sickening clarity, "you know where she is."
Starscream grimaced.
"You catch on so fast," he commented sarcastically, sarcasm that Ratchet chose to ignore. And then Starscream added, "She's…on the other side of the planet. Not at Decepticon Headquarters but…but…"
"Let's go," Ratchet said, grabbing the Seeker by one arm and heading swiftly for the medbay doors, comming Optimus Prime as he did so. Snarl, who'd been one of Starscream's self-assigned guards for the day, fell into step with them as they exited, and Ratchet couldn't help but notice the almost guilty expression on his face.
"Snarl?" he asked quietly, curiously, of the Dinobot once he'd finished informing Prime that he was bringing Starscream to his office and that Swoop was possibly in danger.
"She left last night," Snarl answered him shortly and just as quietly.
"What?" Ratchet responded, alarmed. "Why? Why didn't you tell anyone?"
Snarl hesitated, taking a second to cast an odd glance at Starscream.
"Because I helped her leave," Snarl said. Ratchet opened his mouth, probably to berate him, but Snarl spoke over him, "It would take too long to explain why," he said. "And it doesn't really matter now. But I must go with the rescue party, if there will be one."
"Oh, there will be one," Starscream growled viciously before Ratchet could say anything. The expression on his face was thundering and somewhat frightening to behold. "Even if it's only a party of me." He glanced up at the big Dinobot and added with an approving nod, "And you."
Snarl nodded wordlessly, satisfied. And Ratchet just sighed a deep and resigned sigh, one full of foreboding.
Optimus Prime's office was very crowded, with little room to move. This was because, once they'd heard about Swoop, the other four Dinobots insisted on crowding themselves in, insisted on being part of the process. The result was a crowded room and somewhat short tempers.
"But I know where she is!" Starscream was insisting forcefully, urgently, leaning across Optimus Prime's desk so that his face was mere inches from the Autobot leader's. He was doing his best to resist the urge to reach out and shake him, too, because he knew that doing so would only earn him a one-way trip to the brig. "I know where she is every second of every single day," he added desperately instead. "And where she is right now matches the location of an abandoned outpost of ours. It's in the Gobi Desert." He grabbed a datapad off of Prime's somewhat cluttered and messy desk and hurriedly scribbled a set of coordinates on it before flinging it back down on the desktop. "There."
"It makes sense," Prowl put in, as Optimus picked up the datapad and regarded it in silent thought. When Optimus gave him an odd look, he shrugged and added, "Megatron apparently doesn't want her dead anymore, or else he would have simply destroyed her. I…suspect that he's reverting to his original plan for her. But first, he will need to keep her hidden for a time. Any warrior who comes into contact with her will know exactly what she is, and he can't risk that, not until…"
"Not until she's safely broken and bent to his will, subordinated to him, so that she isn't a threat to him," Starscream said, finishing Prowl's thought with a confirming nod, all the while trying to quell the ever-rising swell of panic that was threatening to overwhelm him. It was panic not only for his own sake but also, he was surprised to discover, for Swoop's sake, completely outside of any concern for himself. Later, he would contemplate why that was so; there wasn't time now.
"But once he breaks her," Starscream continued, "he will flaunt her as ostentatiously as he can. And he will break her. And he will…use her, too. I think you know exactly what I mean by that," he finished pointedly, eye-to-eye with Optimus again; Optimus flinched at the implication. "We have to go, and the sooner the better," Starscream finished urgently.
"I concur," Prowl put in, quietly.
"And I need my weapons back," Starscream further insisted.
Optimus hesitated and, surprisingly, Prowl put in quietly, before his leader could say anything, "He knows the base, Prime, knows the way in, knows the way around. He has to go, and it wouldn't be fair to make him go defenseless."
"Fine," Optimus growled, slamming back in his seat, obviously not appreciating being ganged up on by his enemy's second-in-command as well as his own second-in-command. "But I swear to you, Starscream, if you—"
"Oh, think about it, idiot," Starscream replied scathingly. "I need her. You've all seen that, much to my utter humiliation. I need her alive and well and sane and not in Megatron's hands. So for the moment our interests overlap nicely, wouldn't you say?"
Prime glared at the Seeker. An equally scathing and condescending response to what he'd said immediately leaped to his mind. But there was a time and place for everything, and now was neither the time nor the place to get into a protracted sniping session with Starscream, who was a master of such things. So, instead, Prime sighed resignedly, but the look that he gave Starscream let the Seeker know in no uncertain terms that his tone was not at all appreciated.
"I suppose so," Optimus said to him frigidly, and Starscream at least had the grace to look somewhat chastened. "So all we need now," he added with a significant look at Prowl, "is a plan."
Prowl nodded in acknowledgment.
"Tell me about this outpost," he said, turning to face Starscream.
Nodding, knowing that Prowl would need as much detail as possible, Starscream took a moment to recall the outpost in question and then began, "It's very small, meant to be staffed by no more than eight. It served as a listening post, and it was built about ten years ago when we were closely monitoring the Chinese government."
"Why?" Optimus Prime interjected.
"That's not important," Starscream growled. Then he continued, "It has a control room, a few other rooms, some living quarters, all in a simple radial layout with the control room as the hub. As I recall, all of its valuable equipment was removed and redistributed long ago, including its automated security system, and I doubt that Megatron would deem it necessary to re-equip the place just for the duration of this…project."
Prowl nodded and Starscream continued, "At the moment, Swoop is in one of the living quarters, I believe, which would be a logical place to hold her. Those are on the northern side of the building. Overall, the building itself isn't heavily fortified and really shouldn't present a problem…once we get to it."
"What do you mean?" Optimus Prime asked.
"The environment is…hostile," Starscream answered. "Especially now, in the middle of winter. It will be frigid, and the winds are…" He shivered and then finished, "The winds are brutal this time of year. Plus, there are no roads in the area and the terrain is treacherous, so you grounders will have difficulty. I would suggest bringing those with sturdier alternate forms and anyone who can both fly and fight well."
Prime nodded, agreeing. Then a thought occurred to him, and he said, "We have a few jet packs available, as well. Perhaps we shouldn't approach by ground at all, if we keep the party small enough that we can equip anyone who doesn't already have flight capability."
Starscream thought about that for a moment and then said, slowly "The winds are very tricky, especially for those who are…inexperienced…" He paused, his eyes narrowing calculatedly, and then added, "But if your packs are able to maintain enough altitude to stay above them until the last possible moment…that might be the best option, yes." Addressing Prowl with a significant look, he finished, "The outpost is situated on a small rise overlooking a flat and wide-open plain. There's no cover whatsoever for a ground approach."
Prowl grimaced unhappily.
"So even approaching by air, we will be spotted quickly," he concluded.
"And from very far away," Starscream confirmed with a grim nod. "If they're looking, that is…and if we're lucky, they won't be."
Prowl frowned at Starscream for a moment but then nodded in comprehension half a second later.
"Because," he said, "Megatron would have no reason to suspect that we would know where he is."
"Exactly," Starscream answered with a sly grin. "He knows that I'm still imprinted on Swoop, or at least that I was when I left, but I highly doubt that he understands all of the implications of that. And—"
"And even if he did," Prowl surmised, a faint echoing smile on his face as he finished Starscream's thought,, "it's not likely that there will be many Decepticons there, due to both the size of the outpost and the…secrecy required for the moment. So perhaps there will be no one to act as sentry. Or perhaps they will simply deem it unnecessary."
Starscream nodded.
"Indeed," he said. "Soundwave will surely be there, because he knows about Swoop already. And with him will be the full complement of his annoying little minions, of course. Beyond that…there may be some very expendable grunts, whom Megatron can and will destroy if he deems it necessary. They should not present much of a problem. Soundwave and Megatron, however…"
"Not a problem, either," Slag suddenly announced, with a ferocious snort. He nudged Snarl next to him with his elbow, and the two exchanged wide, anticipatory grins and then a ringing high-five. Grimlock and Sludge snickered in full agreement.
Starscream gave Prowl an amused look as the few others in the room with them chuckled at Slag's confidence, too.
"They do come in handy, don't they?" he observed.
Prowl sighed wearily.
"When they're in a cooperative mood, yes," he said, then qualified, "Sometimes."
"In this case," Optimus Prime added half-jokingly, "since it's Swoop in danger, we could probably just send the four of them in and—"
"And they and Swoop would probably all end up dead," Prowl finished flatly. "No, they're too emotionally close," he decided. "They shouldn't be there at all."
"Snarl's coming," Starscream immediately insisted, shaking his head. At the odd, questioning look that Prowl leveled at him, he added, his eyes innocently wide, "I promised him. You wouldn't want me to break my promise, would you?"
"Why on Earth did you—?" Prowl began, annoyed, but then interrupted himself. "No, never mind. I don't want to know. Well," he added after a moment, with a resigned sigh, "I suppose that if one of them must go, Snarl is the best choice."
"Why's that?" Starscream asked, frowning.
"Because," Optimus answered wryly, "he hasn't been in a fight in months and, worse, it's been overcast all week." At the baffled look that Starscream gave him, due mostly to the logical disconnect in what Prime had said, he explained, "Two things make Snarl happy: Combat and sunlight. If he doesn't get enough of either one, he gets…grouchy."
"Very, very grouchy," Prowl elaborated.
"And lately, he hasn't had enough of both of them," Optimus finished. "So!" he added. "Personnel, then…"
And as they fell to hurriedly planning the fine and final details of the rescue mission, Starscream felt compelled to murmur at Prowl, "Just like old times, eh Prowl?"
Prowl only grimaced in response, but Starscream could have sworn that it was an almost nostalgic grimace.
If you're curious…The average temperature in the Gobi Desert in January ranges between -20 and +5 degrees, Fahrenheit, depending on where you are, since the Gobi is big. (That's about -30 to -15, Celsius) With extremes to -50 degrees, Fahrenheit. (-46, Celsius) Contrary to popular belief, not all deserts are warm. Most, in fact, aren't. Add in wind speeds, which routinely reach 140kph (87mph) in the Gobi. Plus, it's one of the driest places in the world, any rain that it might otherwise receive being blocked by the Himalayas. It's…not a welcoming place at all. Which, of course, is why I chose it. ;)
Next time: Y'know what happens when you piss off that guy who becomes The Incredible Hulk? Yeah, Swoop's kinda like that…