Do keep in mind, the further this story goes and depending on the chars you are familiar with, this may stray off the Primes that they've come up with recently. The char in this story are the original, originals. Can't really even find info on them anymore. Some, I threw in there because some are unnamed, like Starscream.
He couldn't quite tell where he was. There was a table or perhaps what looked like a bar far off to the left. There seemed to be smaller tables dotted about also in a big mess as if it had been recently visited and everyone suddenly fled. The room was barely lit, telling him even less of where exactly he was.
"What are you doing here? Get out!" Screamed a voice. The demand was disorienting. He had no idea what he had done. "I said leave! You're not welcome here!" Green optics appeared from near the supposed bar, a loud slam causing him to startle.
He backed away, barely seeing the figure of someone standing there. It was someone he did not recognize. Affronted by the outburst, he asked, "Who are you?"
"I told you before, you're nothing but a nuisance!" the voice came again. "Get out!"
He awoke abruptly from recharge, confused and hurt. He hadn't known the voice or the mech who had shouted at him. The dream itself was strange enough, since the one who yelled at him had green optics. He knew one other who had optics like that.
The Secretary of Defense was already standing outside of the building he had asked Optimus to meet him at. He stared out across the small piece of land, watching for the Autobots to arrive so things could get underway about the ship they were speaking of. He was more than happy to get rid of them. They were a political nightmare and trying to keep things under wraps was becoming increasingly difficult, especially the expenditures.
Two members of the Secret Service had been sent with him. They had very little knowledge about the Autobots. All they knew was their directive to protect the Secretary of Defense from any threat. They watched with wide eyes as a group of very tall robots appeared.
"Ah, there they are now," Terry had seen the Autobots coming as well, squinting into the sunlight that offended his eyes. Since his first encounter with Optimus over the phone about the F-22 that had been shot down from space, he had met with him very few times, and each time Optimus seemed rather uneasy around him, but gave no rhyme or reason as to why. This made their relationship rocky at best, and neither of them spoke unless either of them absolutely had to. Optimus preferred to use the liaisons as much as he could, since speaking to the man only angered him.
Optimus looked down at the Secretary, while Ratchet and Ironhide took each side of him. He still felt bad that the previous one had gone so soon, supposedly to his 'retirement' whatever that was. He was a much nicer man and had an understanding that this one didn't. The Secretary gave a weak smile, since these big 'Bots intimidated him, especially Optimus. He hadn't met all of the Autobots yet, and any of the ex-Decepticons he had never met…
An F-22 flew overhead and turned in the air, followed by two other jets, both off color from the actual colors they should be, one giving off a blue hue, the other dark in comparison with purple on its tail fins and wings. The men watched the iron birds, confusion in all of their faces from their colors.
"Secretary, there was no mention of military aircraft, are you sure everything is alright?" asked one of the SS men nervously, watching the jets bank after their flyover.
The secretary turned and looked with hesitant smile, gave him a wave to show they were no threat and then looked back to Optimus, "I'm glad to have this meeting with you, Optimus Prime,"
"My scientist has informed me that you might be able to help with the building of the ship?" Straight to the point, very much like a leader should be. The sooner he could get this out, the sooner he could leave.
"That is correct," he said, raising his voice as the jets flew by again. "Perceptor gave us all of the requirements." He gave a sharp glower at the jets, and then looked back to the Autobot leader, "I am to assume they are with you?"
"Your assumptions are correct, Secretary,"
"Do you think it would be too much trouble to ask them to stop flying around like that? It makes speaking a little hard over their noise,"
Optimus sent a databurst to the three Seekers and the Seekers came close, slowing before they all transformed before hitting the ground, their springy legs breaking their hard landing as they gained quick balance.
The two Secret Service men suddenly pulled out their weapons and pointed at the jets, "What in God's name?" One whispered, pulling his sidearm from its holster.
"Surely, the weapons are not necessary," Optimus chided, seeing the gun, "They are with me,"
The three Seekers approached slowly, almost mock stalking them, making the two Secret Service men step backwards, Starscream stopped first, but the other two were enjoying this far too much, "That's enough you two," he reprimanded.
"How come I have never met these ones?" The Secretary's eyes went to the green optics of the silver Seeker, then to the leader again.
"Was there reason?" Optimus asked.
"Well, we do like to keep a profile of every Autobot so that we don't make anymore… uh, mistakes,"
"Yes, don't want those," Optimus' optics went to Starscream, then back to the Secretary. In an elegant move, he knelt to look the Secretary in the eye, "So how can you help us, Secretary?"
"We can supply all you may need; there is a plant not far from your base, in fact. I had heard the ship will need to be large enough to… accommodate all of you, and there is plenty of metal of your choosing. All you need to do is send a request and it will be brought to you. I am assuming that we will not need to fabricate anything?"
"No, we will do all of the fabrication,"
"How long will this take?"
"It hadn't been decided. With a ship of that magnitude, we are still working on the specs. The schematics have only been started, but a rough estimate is around 2 to 4 months."
The Secretary nodded. "And how much fuel are we speaking here?"
"Since we use different fuel, or a more condensed version of your fuel, it will be a fraction of what your shuttles required for proper liftoff back when we first got here."
Starscream looked down at the human. He no longer harbored anger for the creature. If anything, he pitied him and the look on his face showed nothing more. The Secretary caught the glance and nodded towards him, "Why are his optics green? I was told the Autobots' optics were blue,"
"He is Starscream," It was apparently the only thing he would tell him. Optimus stood up just as graceful as he had knelt, watching the humans' reaction go from curious to horror as the revelation as to who Starscream was. So, he was Optimus' offspring. Turning from the green optics that regarded him so lowly, he glanced towards the other two Seekers, looking right at their red optics, "And those two? I thought the Decepticons had red optics?"
"That's because we are defected Decepticons," Skywarp supplied without a second thought.
Instantly the man panicked. He was told none of the Decepticons made landfall, "What is this!? I was told that there weren't any after that incident with the Black and White one!"
"His name is Barricade," Skywarp said brusquely.
"It was a need-to-know basis, and you…" Starscream leaned forward with a dangerous smirk, he extended a clawed finger towards the man and harmlessly poked him, "didn't need to know,"
"The hell I didn't! You lied to us?"
"We never lied, you only assumed, and you never asked." Optimus said with a matter-of-fact intonation, "They arrived during the incident with Barricade which we had to fabricate to even get them here." What was it about humans and their constant assumptions of things, anyway?
"This is a break of treaty, Optimus! We were to know every one of your kind that came to Earth." The two men behind the secretary pulled out their guns and aimed it towards the Cybertronians. Even though they felt they had a snowball's chance in hell at getting out of there alive, they had heard the tone of the Secretary and that was enough for them.
"Oh please, spare us." Skywarp growled, "I hope you are well aware that those things won't hurt us,"
"I'm happy you're all leaving, in fact, the sooner the better!" The Secretary scoffed in a show of unprofessionalism.
"Shut your trap," Thundercracker suddenly snarled, leaning down in the man's face, causing him to go pale, "consider us even for shooting our sparkling," his optics flashed dangerously, even though he probably would not have hurt the man, it was nice to get back at him for his insanely stupid mishap.
The man noticed that Starscream hadn't moved from his position and neither had anyone else, "TC, enough," he warned, and Thundercracker leaned back and stood erect, still glaring at the human. Apparently the silver one had some superiority over the other two jets. Probably had something to do with Optimus' rank.
"Be happy we are leaving this planet, Secretary," Starscream murmured, his tone changing as he leapt with grace into the air and transformed, bursting out of there with his wing mates.
Optimus gave one final look to the Secretary, "Whatever it is you think you believe, we have never lied to you," He said curtly, "if anything, we were protecting them from you because we knew what would happen," he nodded to the trine in the air – more specifically, Starscream, "case and point."
"Point made," The Secretary glared. He realized in his haste that he was in the wrong. They never had asked. They did assume, and anyone with a brain knows where assuming gets you, "good day, Optimus," he nodded, stalking of with what dignity he had left. He heard the transforming of the 'Bots before they had left without another word, "Get them what they want. Have trucks ready to bring them the supplies they need." He glanced back at the Autobots driving away, walking to the SUV and got in without another word.
When they had returned to base, Starscream headed for his quarters immediately, but something had told him to stop. But why? He turned his head and glanced at the machine that was staring right back at him. It was the very one that was used to unlock his memories and he gave the machine a grimace and then he continued on.
When he entered his room, he instantly went to thinking mode, which wasn't so unusual for him as of recently. He was wondering about the other twelve Ancients.
Something pulled him from his thoughts as his HUD flickered strangely then returned, doing it a few more times until the ancient symbols the others saw in his memories took up his vision. He took a moment to study them realizing in a short moment that he could clearly read them. It was the ancient symbols from the language they used from days of the biggest battle that never happened. He smiled outwardly.
He reclined himself back on his berth, preparing to get comfortable for the long hours of situating and looking for solutions. He considered all possibilities as he wondered how to find the other twelve Ancients. Some were no doubt sleeping on Primus or they were hidden away to protect themselves. Perhaps, if some of the Ancients had been reborn like he was, then he might be able to start finding them now. That only bode one hard question… where was he to start looking… and how?
Perhaps that machine…
He thought back to when he had stopped to look in Ratchet's med bay. It had opened his mind, so perhaps it could open the others' minds as well if there were some hidden Ancients around them. There was also the plus side to this. At the same time, it would show Optimus answers he was searching for through others' optics. Even though he knew deep down somewhere that not all of the Ancients were reborn, he knew some had to have been, their uses no longer needed. And where better to start his search than here on Earth..
On that same note, he started to wonder who could possibly be 'in hiding' like himself, not on Primus. He wondered for a moment if he could match personalities, but quickly dismissed that thought, as he, himself, had no matching personality to his real self. He tucked an arm behind his head as he thought about it.
His mind's ramblings were interrupted by a most unexpected visitor. He hadn't even seen them to know who they were, and the door buzzer hadn't even been pressed before the door opened revealing to him the questionable mech. He rose up to a slight sitting position resting on his arms and tilted his head, "Yes?"
"Hey, Screamer-"
"Stop calling me that." Starscream deadpanned as the door behind the yellow warrior closed with a click.
The yellow mech gave an annoyed frown at Starscream, then to the now closed door as he watched it with confusion, wondering how it had opened before he had touched anything. He looked to Starscream; those strange green optics still alien to him. They had a wise look to them that wasn't there when they were red, and Sunstreaker wasn't sure how to interpret them. "Uh," Knowing he never went to Starscream's quarters, he wanted to break the ice, so to speak. He gave a sigh and said, "I heard the meeting went alright with Optimus,"
"You could say that," Starscream sat up straighter to look into the 'Bot's optics with purpose. Just as Sunstreaker wasn't one to go to Starscream's quarters, Starscream also knew that of either of the idiosyncratic brothers, Sunstreaker was the last one he'd expect to come to him. In fact, it was downright strange, but very intriguing, given how he was previously boasting how fanatical he had claimed the Seeker to be during the meeting about a ship. "But something tells me that's not why you are here,"
The yellow mech gave a curt yet nervous nod, answering, "Well, no…" he looked away a few times before looking back at the Seeker, "I… I had a really strange dream. Thought you might be able to help me out with it, as there was someone there I do not ever remember seeing…"
Starscream looked inquisitively at him, "But…" he rumbled and leaned back, "don't you usually go to your brother about these things?"
"I would, believe me," Sunstreaker gave another nervous nod, "but given things you've said recently… and your optics… I thought you might be able to interpret it for me before I… go to him about it,"
The reference to his optics did not go over Starscream, in fact, it interested him even more. "You called me nuts a few days ago and now you're telling me you want my help?" Starscream asked. He couldn't help but rag on the twin for now coming back to him after his words, "dig the irony in that," he mused.
Slighted, Sunstreaker snorted, "If you don't want to, I can leave,"
"That isn't what I said, 'Streaker," Starscream said.
"Don't call me that," Sunstreaker retorted angrily at the nickname.
"You call me 'Screamer all the time," The seeker gave a small shrug, "Fairs fair, I think." Starscream's optics looked away, then back at the yellow Warrior. His comment held little emotion. He nodded towards where he was sitting, indicating he wanted Sunstreaker to stay. He steepled his claws. "Now, enlighten me about this dream, hmm?"
Sunstreaker provided the full dream to Starscream, telling him every detail he could remember.
Starscream was silent at the mention of the green optics. Now he understood why he'd come to him. He gave a soft 'hn' as he thought about it. No way… Maccadam only hated one type of mech… His optics gazed at Sunstreaker, and he gave a lop-sided grin, "Shit," he said to himself.
Sunstreaker gave a brisk look to the Seeker when he didn't respond right away, "So you think I am nuts?"
Starscream, broken out of his thoughts, replied, "No..." he drawled out, coming to a powerful revelation. He quickly sat up. "Not at all. Maccadam knows you're here." he answered emotionlessly before leaping from his perch and running out the door.
Sunstreaker, confused about Starscream's remark, only wondered one thing… "Who's Maccadam?" He asked a now empty room staring after the Seeker.
Perhaps he was mistaken on thinking he needed to call the other ancients. Perhaps more of them were closer than he thought. Starscream knew where to start now. He needed Ratchet and that machine that kept drawing him.
Until Next Time...
