For seven days, things had not gone Scrapper's way, so when Soundwave calmly dropped Ravage's report on his proverbial doorstep, he looked for the catch.
Ravage was not a fan of language, and he had not sent a message so much as a data package. After he had read it all, Scrapper scanned the file list again:
- Ravage's diagnostic.
- An account of the events regarding Unicron, the opening of the Matrix, re-occupation of Cybertron and the accession of Rodimus Prime; logged by Ultra Magnus.
- Report on the status of Polyhex; logged by Springer.
- (Contents redacted); logged by Blaster; uploaded from Teletraan One.
- Notice of Autobot alliance with the Junkions (Terms redacted); logged by Ultra Magnus.
- Guarantees and remarks relating to an Autobot-Decepticon truce made by the Autobots Arcee and Perceptor; recorded by Ravage.
Everybody else was browsing alongside him. The shuttle's bridge had their only functional monitors, so they were all packed into it—even Dirge had been dragged in, in the hopes that something in the transmission might stimulate his interest.
"Look, Dirge, Blitzwing survived," Scavenger said encouragingly. He was met with silence which should have been hint enough, but Scavenger always dug himself deeper. "He's got a jet mode… that means you're not the only one left!"
Blitzwing was alive (or had been), and Shockwave was definitely dead. It was new information, but not the sort that they needed.
"Why do we only have Autobot reports?" Scrapper demanded before Scavenger could damn them further with faint hope. "From the looks of this, Ravage was only caught today. What's he been doing for the past week?"
"Transmission insecure," Soundwave pointed out. "Deduction: Further information available upon retrieval of Ravage."
Well, obviously that was Soundwave's ulterior motive: strengthening the case for rescuing his pet. Scrapper did not have a problem with that—if anything, he was relieved to have a way of acceding to Soundwave without backing down.
But what was the Autobots' plan? They had meddled with some of the data Ravage had sent, removing what was most likely a status report on their Earth operations and censoring the terms of their alliance with the Junkions—there was a name Scrapper hadn't heard in a few million years. Those redactions were so clearly signposted that it seemed unlikely there were any others. (Unless it was a double bluff, but open admission of censorship was entirely in keeping with Autobot diplomacy.)
Why had the Autobots allowed the data that had come through, and what was Ravage telling them between the lines?
"Have you caught the damage history in his diagnostic?" Hook asked the room in general. "It's not under the repair heading, where you'd expect it. He sneaked it in under the efficiency ratings over the past week."
Scrapper glanced at Hook's screen. It appeared that Ravage had had two run-ins with the Autobots: the first two days ago and the second a matter of hours earlier—unsurprisingly, the second had taken a heavier toll on him.
Hook elaborated for the benefit of those without an easy view: "If you want to know how Autobots are willing to stretch the term 'ceasefire', it includes deliberate optical damage, because they know his vulnerability there, some minor impact injuries consistent with physical combat, and a direct shot—stunning not killing, but shooting is shooting."
"The Autobots will claim self-defence," Scrapper predicted.
"Ravage would not attack without provocation," Soundwave observed.
Neither would the Autobots, Scrapper thought. Ravage must have got into their systems at some point to steal this data, so no wonder they had gone after him. He compared the damage history with the time stamps on the recordings of negotiations and dryly noted that Ravage had trained the Autobots to shoot first and ask questions later.
Slaggit, he needed to get a win out of this one. They all did.
"We could scrape together enough energon to fuel a trip to Cybertron," he announced with intentional abruptness. Everybody's gaze went to him, but nobody had words prepared so he was able to continue and set the tone. "As well as Ravage, they've got a new Autobot leader who wants to be friends. Let's exploit that."
"We'll ambush them!" Bonecrusher's whole face had lit up. "Tear their new city to the ground."
Long Haul looked even brighter. "Yeah, let's see some action!"
"No way," Scrapper vetoed quickly. "They'll be ready for that—why do you think Ravage warned us about the Junkion alliance?" Not that he rated the Junkions highly for discipline in combat, but the Decepticons were in no shape to face even a horde of volatile trash-heaps.
"If they're inviting us to Cybertron, why don't we go to Earth?" Hook suggested, probably for the sake of disagreeing with him. "They pulled that file from the transmission; there might be a weakness they're hiding."
"Because going to Earth would be another step backwards, Hook," Scrapper hissed back. "What we want is on Cybertron, not on Earth."
The Constructicons looked between their leader and Soundwave, but it was Scavenger who asked it. "Ravage?"
"More than Ravage," Scrapper told them. "We don't want to pick a fight with the Autobots…" Rumble swore his disappointment, but Scrapper continued: "We want to con them."
He played back Perceptor's recording: … the matter of arrangements for deceased Decepticons. Subsequent to the conflict with Unicron, it is an unfortunate reality that many remains have been found. We would grant them the respect of being interred by their own peers.
Mixmaster's optics brightened. "Well, this should be morbid!"
"We're gonna get Ravage back and get the Autobots to agree to a Decepticon Crypt memorialising our fallen heroes right in the ruins of Polyhex."
It was not the pitch any of them had been expecting, but he was more than ready to sell it. "Hook, this is gonna be your baby. You get as fancy as you like, and make sure it's gonna endure when the Autobots have rusted to scrap. As a bonus, we'll get to trawl through Polyhex and find out what we can salvage."
"Oh, what I wouldn't give to pick through the pieces of Shockwave's lab!" cackled Mixmaster.
Scrapper was relieved he had one easy buy-in, but he'd kept back his hard sell for Soundwave. "You think I don't care about Megatron's legacy, but now's your chance to test me. The location of this crypt is going to be untouchable as far as the Autobots are concerned. We can use it to preserve whichever piece of our history you want. Whaddaya think? Did the foundations of Darkmount survive Unicron? We'll make 'em eternal!"
Soundwave looked dispassionately back at him. "Proposal: accepted."
If his reaction was anticlimactic, Rumble and Frenzy made up for it. They broke out in wild cheers that caused Scrapper to doubt they'd understood a word he'd said. "The cat is comin' back! Those Autojerks aren't gonna know what hit 'em! They can eat Polyhex's rust!"
"But our real obligation is to honour our dead," a voice rasped out, and it took Scrapper a moment to recognise it as Dirge's. They were the first words he had spoken since they'd arrived on Chaar.
Dirge stared back at them all, as if bemused by their surprise. "What happened with Unicron was a tragedy. We need to give everybody who died that day the respect they deserve."
Scrapper laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "We'll let you write the epitaphs, buddy, OK?"