ERRORS IN JUDGEMENT OF THE PERSONAL KIND
Part Six
The next day brought more good news. Two of the High Guard fliers thought lost showed up after all. It turned out that they'd been grounded by their injuries during the fighting in Iacon and that they'd availed themselves of the medical care offered at numerous temporary centers which had sprung up afterwards throughout the city. If anyone had noticed that two of the patients coming in off the streets were red-eyed, they either hadn't cared or known what it meant. Once patched up, the flier pair had taken it upon themselves to quickly scout out the whole of Iacon before leaving for what they correctly guessed would be the High Guard's first alternate headquarters. They could also report that energon was indeed flowing again over the entire planet and that it came straight from the core, sweet and pure and nourishing. The confirmation that Cybertron's natural energy source was again freely available was a tremendous relief to all of them. So much of the High Guard's time had been spent in trying to rustle up enough energon to simply keep themselves going in the past, and they'd all known the pinch of short rations and hunger.
While the two wayward fliers who'd found their way home again were still settling in, the High Guard party who'd been dispatched earlier in the morning to check out the energon situation for themselves came back to confirm what the stragglers had already said. Better yet, they brought back proof. Squadron leader Thundercracker, tasked to lead the party, had decided at the last moment to press the new mech, Darkwing, into service and made him carry back not just a puny sample but two huge containers full of the precious fluid. The two crates which had already been emptied of their own energon contents made handy tables once turned over and everyone in the ship hurried up and gathered around just to stare at the beautifully glowing blue liquid. It was their sustenance, their lifeblood, and in its natural state, had been absent for so long that it was hard to believe that the stuff was even real.
Darkwing was the only bot present who wasn't at least a little awed or who even much cared that he'd just toted back something so valuable. He just went back to his pallet, stretched out, and softly cursed under his breath as he resumed nursing his aching body. He'd actually tried to use it, the fact that he was still sore, to get out of working earlier when a nasty blue flier with a visor first came over and told him to join up. Instead of sympathizing, the nasty flier had informed him that he'd be delighted to administer another welcome-to-the-High Guard beating if he didn't obey at once. Darkwing was already starting to regret joining the exodus out of Iacon. He'd expected getting his aft handed to him by Megatron, for obvious reasons, but being threatened and thrashed by all the underlings too…not part of the job description he'd imagined.
Thus it was that Darkwing totally missed out on the almost ceremonial event which followed, and in truth, he wasn't missed. One of the more resourceful fliers had already fetched several mugs, and Soundwave, being his usual ultra-cautious self, used one of them to dip a sample cupful out of one of the containers. He held it while the little white and red-trimmed bot who'd been shadowing him all morning, the smallest and slightest of the civilians and named Gyro, tested it and began calling out the numbers. He'd claimed to be a scientist during his interview with Megatron and Soundwave had been putting him through his intellectual paces and was so far very pleased with him. Of course, it was always difficult to know how Soundwave was feeling, regardless of the emotion involved; he wasn't a very expressive mech. The fact that he accepted his protege's readings on this occasion without question, however, was enough to let everyone know how satisfied he must have been with Gyro's work.
"Correct," he intoned, then, to Megatron and Shockwave, who were standing closest, he added, "Pure, natural energon. It is safe to consume in any form."
Everyone relaxed and smiled then, even Megatron. Gyro was still excited to have been part of such an important moment. He suddenly grabbed the mug away from Soundwave and held it out to the gleaming, formidable figure of their leader with spontaneous generosity.
"I guess we owe having this at all to you, sir, since you killed Sentinel and all," he rambled happily. "Would you like to do the honours and have the first taste?"
Shockwave stiffened at the irreverence in the clueless little civvie's voice and gesture and several of the nearby fliers sucked in their breaths in anticipation. Megatron, oddly, seemed the least reactive. He merely took the mug from Gyro's hand and raised it to his lips and took a sip. His expression remained impassive as he worked his mouth, swishing the liquid around, before lifting the mug again and steadily drinking it dry.
"Thank you," he said as he handed the empty mug back to Gyro, then spun and returned to his quarters and disappeared inside.
Their leader's actions surprised almost everyone. "Did I offend him?" Gyro exclaimed.
"Megatron will probably want to adjust his plans, given this new development," Soundwave offered. "It will be to our advantage if he can move up his timeline."
Most of the bots listening accepted his explanation at face value. Only a few looked dubious—what timeline? they thought. But then the two lieutenants began handing out mugfuls of the glowing fluid and encouraging everyone to press in and get their share, and Megatron's abrupt retreat was set aside for the moment. Having an unlimited supply of energy back was more exciting and immediate than their new leader's cryptic plans.
Not a single one of the High Guard would have guessed that the real reason Megatron had retreated was so they wouldn't witness the sudden near despair he'd felt upon consuming the mugful of energon. Megatron didn't even know why he'd had such a reaction. He was not an introspective bot and his fierce, now fully realized personality surged straight ahead in a strong, confident flow with few bends and no idling backwaters to check it. He'd never known what real energon was like before. Was that why it had caused him such sadness, just the reminder that its long absence was the reason why he'd been forced to work in the mines for so many years? He wasn't sure… It seemed more likely that such a thing would anger him.
And so Megatron just sat alone in the quarters and ersatz office which his High Guard had set up for him, waiting for the feeling to pass instead of trying to understand it. It seemed a little ironic to him that there was a plate full of energon cubes on the work bench which passed as his desk at that very moment. Extra fuel which that bot Shockwave wanted him to eat to keep his own energy up as much as possible while his body finished self-repairing. Shockwave had been especially insistent that he not attempt to transform and access his weaponry until the process was fully complete. Trying to do so too early could cause glitching or something. Megatron hadn't realized that there were all sorts of rules which applied to the upkeep of a cogged Transformer's body. It had been a lot simpler when he'd been cogless. Back then, you got damaged, you got fixed up in a medical bay. Or not.
He idly rubbed a hand over his chest just above the chamber which housed his newest precious possession. The fact that it had come from a Prime was another contradictory thing which he refused to think about or even acknowledge. Megatronus had been a pure warrior, the greatest in Cybertronian history. Even if he had been one of the original founding Primes, Megatron had already convinced himself that it was a mere paper title which he'd held; Megatronus's reputation as an unmatched fighter of phenomenal skills and strength was all that mattered and what deserved to be remembered. Again, the big silver bot traced a slow circle on his chest. The crude design which the false Prime had burnt into the metal surface there, to try and shame him, was gone. It had been absorbed and obliterated when Megatron had been reshaped after he'd acquired—no, he had rescued—the cog of Megatronus and inserted it into his own body. Megatron would never let his cog be taken from him again. He would fight to the death to protect it now and to honour the memory of the one it had come from.
The false Prime he'd killed would never know that he'd also burned the germ of an idea into his victim's head when he'd tried to scar him, Megatron thought with a certain smugness, but it would be a while yet before he acted on it. Megatron wanted to do his idea justice, to do it right. He wanted it to be a fitting homage to his hero. The more he thought about it, the better he felt, and before long, he was dutifully munching on the energon cubes he was supposed to eat. Shockwave, who was turning out to be a very diligent, albeit faintly overbearing lieutenant, would be happy with him. The other one, just as diligent, was easier company. He didn't say much unless asked. All the rest, Megatron didn't know very well yet, and he supposed that he should soon go back out into the common area to continue observing them and getting acquainted with them himself. Well. Starscream excepted. He already knew Starscream and didn't like him. He'd folded far too fast during their fight and there was something devious about him. And he needed to do a better job of keeping his place.
Had Megatron remained out in the common area, even he would have likely approved of Starscream's behaviour just then. The former leader once again made sure that he was the very last flier to collect his share of raw energon to drink and he faded back into the crowd before consuming it. Delicious… Starscream actually closed his eyes with pleasure as he finished it. It had been such a long time living on stolen refined rations and the horrible frozen stuff that could keep you alive, though only just, that what he drank seemed like the very finest of distilled beverages by comparison. A welcome game changer for sure…
Starscream felt a little lonely for suitable company after that and started looking around for one of his squadron leaders, Skywarp, the bot who'd nominally be in charge of him for the time being. It actually wasn't so bad of a proposition, Starscream thought. Skywarp was one of his very favourite fellow fliers and a friend. He shared Starscream's rather snarky outlook on life and was one of the most positive mechs he knew, always cheerful and easy-going no matter what. Starscream wanted some cheering up in addition to some company, and as soon as he spotted the grey and purplish patterned figure he was looking for and saw that he was momentarily alone, he hurried over.
Sure enough, Skywarp didn't disappoint. He smiled at the other flier as he came up and greeted him kindly. "Hey there, Starscream. How're you doing?"
"Pretty good."
"Exciting couple of days, huh? The new boss solves the Sentinel problem and we get kicked out of town for helping him. Ungrateful slaggers."
"We did try to destroy their city," Starscream pointed out, amused.
"Ahh, that was just urban renewal. Hey, your voice sounds okay again. Did Shockwave fix it for you?"
"No, it mostly self-repaired. It still shorts out some when I get too loud."
"Well, you shouldn't be yelling at us anyway," Slywarp said. "Did Turbo pass on that he assigned you and a couple of the leftovers to my squadron? I get to tell you what to do now. Better watch yourself."
"I'd be real careful about that if I were you. If I ever get reinstated, I'll remember every smart-mouth insult and order you try and give me."
"Oh, you'll get reinstated. Just give ol' Megs some time."
"I'd be careful about calling him that too. I don't think he's got much of a sense of humour."
"Don't worry. I'll zip it when he's around. Hey! Did you hear Soundwave call him Lord Megatron earlier? What a total suck-up. I suppose we'll all have to start calling him that."
"Could be worse. At least we've got our energon back."
"Yeah, I'd almost forgotten how great it tasted. Say, you wanna go see it for yourself, the energon? Thundercracker said it's like a virtual river. I was going to get some of my fliers together to go check out our base over by the old geothermal plant, see if it's still fit to use, and we could swing by it on the way back."
"I'd like that. Thanks."
"If you want to go out on patrol alone, to clear your head, that's fine too. Just leave word or let me know before you go, and I'll say I sent you out if anybody asks."
"Thanks, Skywarp. I appreciate that. Really."
"You're still our captain as far as I'm concerned. Just play along till Megs comes to his senses. He seems like a mech willing to listen and I'll bet his new buddies, Shockwave and Soundwave, will brag you up. Especially Shockwave. You know how mad he gets, dealing with us."
"That's only because you play dumb and keep asking him to repeat and clarify his orders. He hates that."
"Yeah, well, he needs to learn how to relax and take a joke," Skywarp replied, quite shamelessly, then clapped Starsceam on the arm before going off to rustle up the remainder of his mission team.
The little five-bot group was soon up in the air and underway. Because of the heavy losses amongst the fliers, Turbo had reorganized them into four squadrons instead of five and allowed the ones who'd lost their squadron leaders some leeway in where they wound up to boost morale. Skywarp had gotten several 'leftovers', as he sarcastically persisted in calling them, and one of them was another of the few fembots in the High Guard, Slipstream. She and the other femme already in Skywarp's squadron, Redwing, were great friends and delighted to find themselves assigned together at last. There was also the fact that Skywarp was widely held to be the most lax and desirable of the leaders to work for when it came to discipline, although he tried to hide it with a lot of ineffectual yelling and bluffing.
Skywarp had included both femmes in his team on this occasion to see how his new female flier handled herself. Perhaps a mistake. Everyone was feeling so good and goofing around so much with little sideways feints and darts at one another that he was soon having real trouble keeping his unruly bots in formation.
"Redwing! Slipstream! You femmes quit messing around back there. Nacelle! Stop flirting with them!" Skywarp screamed at them.
"What! I'm not doin' nuthin'!" the big mech, Nacelle, shouted back, sounding outraged.
"Yes you are! You're shaking your tail at 'em. Cut it out!"
The two femme fliers giggled helplessly as they took their proper places again. Starscream, who was flying up front next to Skywarp, found himself grinning. It felt good to see his warriors in high enough spirits to want to play around a little again.
Once settled down, the five of them reached their destination in good time and were soon busy inspecting yet another of their alternate bases and generally poking around. The old shipwreck and the geothermal site still appeared undisturbed from the last time any of them had been there, and given the very recent changes, both were likely to remain so. The volcano which had always fueled the abandoned plant was still simmering away and showed no evidence of becoming explosive again. Its tall cone still stood empty, its magma chamber long ago subsided into a boiling lava lake and fissure eruptions which one could actually access and observe via a vast network of underground caverns and long emptied lava tubes. The warriors were tempted, but, being typical jet fliers, were too skittish to go underground without some assurance that it would be safe. They'd wait until they had a Shockwave or a Soundwave or anyone else with them who could take readings and properly interpret them before they'd risk expanding their inspection to the interior of an active volcano, no matter how spectacular the sights within might be.
When they returned later from their mission, Skywarp led them back via a broad loop that overflew the nearby energon. And it truly was a whole river of the stuff, a rippling, glowing flow too enticing to resist. The five of them landed for a closer look and wound up sitting on a bunch of convenient rocks lining one of the new river's shores, just watching it run by in wonder while they happily chattered away and gossiped about whether the new squadron leader, Bitstream, would be up for his new appointment or fall flat on his caboose. The detour delayed them for over an hour, but Skywarp didn't care. He would chalk it up to necessary personnel enrichment if anyone remarked on their late return.
Starscream was again left to his own devices when Skywarp hustled off to deliver his report. He soon came back to find Starscream specifically again, grinning away and laughing to himself. Their interim leader, Turbo, had actually been in Megatron's office, he related, along with Shockwave and Soundwave, and Skywarp had been able to present his findings to all four of them directly. His briefing had earned him a 'well done' from Soundwave, and when Skywarp left Megatron's office, Turbo went with him and clapped his shoulder and told him that he'd done a 'good job'. Needless to say, such high praise from two of his higher-ups had resulted in Skywarp's feeling very full of himself indeed.
"But that's not the best of it," he continued on excitedly. "When I first got into his office, guess what ol' Megs was doing? Showing off that damn huge cannon of his to Shockwave, that's what, and the smaller gun on his other arm too. I guess it's all repaired now and Shockwave was inspecting it for him. Seriously, that thing is enormous for an arm weapon! If you thought it was bad having Megs put his fusion cannon to your face before, I bet you would've fainted if it'd been that monster he's got now, ha ha."
Starscream affected a tight, strained grin. "Hilarious. Thanks."
"Hey, you know I don't mean nothing by it. It's just a really, really big cannon to have on your arm. Too bad that new Prime had an energon weapon. Megs would have blown him away otherwise."
"I know," Starscream said, more seriously. "He threw me around like a paper plane. Well…next time. We'll be better prepared next time."
"Yeah, I hear you. Listen, I have to go see to some of my other leftovers and talk to Turbo some more. Do you want to sleep with me tonight? I'd rather stay with the troops for now and there's plenty of space in the communal room I'm in."
Starscream again felt a wealth of gratitude towards his friend. "I'd like that. Sure."
"Good. I'll come find you again later when it's time to retire. Busy day! It'll feel good to stretch out."
And with that, Skywarp turned and strode off to attend to further business. Starscream watched him go, a little enviously. That was another problem with falling to the very bottom of the heap. No responsibilities to absorb one's time.
He looked around. It was coming on evening and everyone but himself seemed to have something to do. The common area in the hangar was almost empty of bots for the moment, aside from those moving about the separate rooms and former workshops lining some of its sides or entering or exiting the ship. He desperately wanted to know more about the reshuffling of the squadrons, but didn't dare approach Turbo about it directly. Megatron would flip out if he saw him do so. Just the audacity of it, bypassing the chain of command so flagrantly…Starscream had the bad sense that his new leader was just waiting for him to make an error like that so he could get rid of him the way he'd gotten rid of the two civilian fliers he'd deemed unworthy of joining their cause. It really wasn't fair. Starscream was willing to support Megatron a hundred per cent, he really was, yet Megatron continued to view him with nothing but suspicion and disdain.
And speaking of civilian fliers, at least Megatron couldn't object if Starscream chose to speak to them, the only members of the High Guard who were currently more lowly than himself. He peered over at the corner they were still using as their living area. The three nerd bots were still off running around somewhere with supervision being overseen by Shockwave and Soundwave, he guessed, but he'd noticed the two bigger ones coming back from some sort of fetch and carry job earlier and they were still there. Starscream was most curious about the one who was supposed to be a medic. He had to admit that he'd changed his mind about the wisdom of keeping any of the civilians on at all. They might have been useless warrior candidates, but did have other valuable assets, such as their specialized knowledge, which he hadn't considered at the time.
The civvies had already rustled up some benches and a table and more bedding from the unused portions of the ship and had made themselves quite at home. It spoke well of their adaptability. Both Darkwing and the medic were sitting and drinking some of the last of the liquid energon when Starscream came strolling up. As usual, Darkwing had nothing to say and barely acknowledged him. The medic, by contrast, was a chatty bot and eyed Starscream with immediate interest.
"You're the one who was leading this bunch before Megatron came along, aren't you?" he asked unexpectedly.
Starscream wasn't crazy about admitting to his loss, especially to a nosy stranger. "I was," he said in a grudging tone.
"Oh, tough break. So how do you like your new boss?"
"He killed Sentinel. It's what we all wanted." Starscream was actually a little taken aback by now. The conversation certainly hadn't started the way he'd expected it would.
"Mm. That he did," said the medic. "And in rather spectacular fashion, I must say." He looked pointedly over at Darkwing. "You do realize what Megatron was before he took on his new name, right?"
"Yes. He was named D-16 before."
"No, I mean what." Again, he smirked over at the big dark blue bot now scowling back at him. Being able to discern Darkwing's expressions at all was a relatively new thing. Megatron had broken his visor and mask back when first interviewing him and had ordered him never to cover his face again; he wanted to be able to look into his eyes at all times. Darkwing hated that other bots could now see what he was thinking. Perhaps the most startling aspect of his unveiling was that he was extremely good-looking.
"Back in Iacon, I used to patch up a lot of the miners when they got hurt," the chatty medic went on. "And sometimes, they got hurt when our ol' pal over there decided to discipline them…remember that, Darkwing? Remember punching out your two favourite troublemakers?"
"Shut up!" Darkwing snapped.
"D-16 used to be a cogless miner! And guess who liked reminding him of that fact at every opportunity?"
The big bot being ribbed had had enough and jumped up to stomp off and sulk elsewhere in peace. Starscream stared after him, then back at the medic.
"A cogless miner! Are you certain?" he asked, astonished. The medic grinned back at him.
"Oh yes, I remember D-16 well. Him and that crazy buddy of his. By the way, you'd never guess what— Well, never mind. D-16 started off as a miner all right. More pewter than silver back then and those yellow eyes…hard to miss. Darkwing was his shift supervisor and they had quite the number of run-ins."
Starscream was still turning the medic's startling revelation over in his mind. Sentinel had stolen the cog Megatron had been born with and relegated him to years of toil—it was almost inconceivable. Little wonder that Megatron had hated the false Prime so. It made him suddenly much easier to understand.
"I knew that Darkwing was involved with Iacon's mining operations, but didn't know that D-16 was once a cogless miner," Starscream admitted.
"Hardly surprising. I doubt he'll ever bring it up himself. Probably something he wants to forget."
Yes, thought Starscream, more bitterly. Just as I wish I could forget what Sentinel took from me. Again, he felt a sense of kinship with his leader which he hadn't before.
He looked the medic over more closely. Mid-sized, mostly blue and grey, and with the boxier outline and neatly stowed back blades of a bot whose aerial alt was rotary powered. A handy alt mode for a battlefield. Starscream liked his frank, confident air and his lively way of speaking.
"I'm glad you're joining us," Starscream said to him. "There are a lot of us who could do with some work. We'll keep you busy."
"Scrounge me up some supplies and I'll be ready to start anytime."
"Good. We've already got some teams out scavenging for medical items among other things. What's your name, by the way? I can't just keep calling you 'that medic'"
The other bot grinned. "Fester."
"Fes— Seriously?"
"Yes, and it could be worse. I could have been named Boil."
That made Starscream laugh. He put out a hand and Fester shook it happily. "We'll get you those supplies soon," Starscream promised.
Starscream already knew that the other three tech types were turning out to be good sorts similar to Fester, which left only sullen Darkwing as the nearest thing to a potential problem bot which they'd taken in. Luckily, he was still petrified of Megatron and, more recently, a couple of the fliers too, so…problem solved.
to be continued...