Chapter Text
Times were tough after the war ended.
“Finding more troops was a priority,” Starscream reasoned. “If we had more troops then we could launch an assault on those weakling Autobots while they’re distracted by the loss of their Prime.” Standing next to him was the only other Decepticon in this part of the universe. One who had very different views on their next move.
“And where do you suggest we find these troops, Starscream?” Shockwave started, not looking up from his work. “We have no tools that are capable of tracking Decepticon signals. We have no element of surprise. And, we lack any information on the whereabouts of the individual who could accomplish the task most effectively.”
“Your idea is illogical,” the scientist finishes, looking his companion in the optics. The seeker went silent. Shockwave had a good point. Soundwave was indeed the most capable mech for locating troops and, unfortunately, the spy had gone missing after Lord Megaron was originally slain. Neither commander had been able to find any traces of where he went or had any idea of who the mech was in last contact with.
Despite that, Starscream could not just sit around while Shockwave hatched whatever alternate plan he had in mind. The seeker needed something to do.
“Then why don’t we find our spymaster instead if he is as important as you imply,” he said not wanting to admit his idea had flaws. “The Autobots have our ship in an isolated area if I recall correctly. It would not be hard to sneak on board and steal back the surveillance footage.”
Shockwave let out a short huff before going back to his work, ignoring his companion completely.
Starscream decided to follow through with his idea, infiltrating the Nemesis under the cover of night. Everything went exactly as expected, the Autobots had settled nowhere near the ship and hadn’t bothered to set up a guard system. ‘Something worth keeping in mind,’ he mentally noted as he flew through the base. It did not take long to reach the bridge and extra old security footage onto a drive he had prepared in advance.
Within an hour the seeker found himself back at their makeshift stronghold, proud of his accomplishments.
Shockwave did not share the sentiment. The mech attempted to berate the seeker about how foolish and “illogical” his actions were before he remembered who exactly his companion was and backed down. Starscream simply cycled his optics before moving to a console to review the fruits of his labour.
The footage didn’t reveal much at first. Mundane shifts, a reminder of the time the ship became sentient, a quiet conversation between himself and Soundwave while the rest of the crew were in recharge. It took a while, but eventually he found the moment he was looking for.
What he saw made him go completely still. Death was something he was prepared to see. Scrap, it was what he expected because of the lack of communication. What he didn’t expect was to watch as the genius tactician was defeated by the tricks of human younglings before blinking out of existence.
While uncertain of the specifics of what exactly had happened to Soundwave, the truth had to be found in the land bridges the mech had disappeared into. Starscream knew that his next move had to be acquiring the technology used, but there was one issue. In their makeshift base they had no means of building one land bridge, much less two. They were already strapped for resources as it was.
The Autobots, on the other servo he realized, most definitely had the resources required. But, for him to ‘liberate’ said resources would be a practically impossible feat if he wanted to avoid capture. Sneaking aboard an abandoned ship to steal data was one thing, getting past a constantly growing group of enemies for things far too large for his subspace was another entirely.
Halting his train of thought, Starscream realized there was an alternative option. However, the risk and sacrifice that option required was great.
Before he knew it, three days had passed. It was likely he would have still been stuck in his thoughts for even longer had Shockwave not questioned the air commander’s unusual silence.
Those details were of no importance really. Three or four days, nothing mattered. The seeker had made his decision, even if it went against every cog in his body and every byte of data in his processor. He gave the scientist a word of warning before quickly flying away.
The journey to the Autobot base was not long, but it seemed to take eons. Every one of Starscream’s systems was yelling at him to turn around but his stupid ‘feelings” wouldn’t let him. Ones he thought he had lost the capability to hold were now infecting his every action regardless of the consequences. He had no alternative.
‘Their numbers have grown larger than we thought,’ he noted as he shakily landed in the center of the base. Now that the Autobots had been able to begin restoring the planet, their allies had begun returning home to aid with reconstruction.
There was no time to process how many there were as, within seconds, he was surrounded by mechs who likely wanted his helm mounted on a wall. In defiance of all the weapons pointed in his direction, Starscream managed to push aside all of his pride as he stood tall and demanded to speak to their new leader.
“No need for dramatics ‘Con,” a voice called out from behind the seeker. He turned around to see the scout who had previously killed his lord pointing a blaster at his wings. “We’ll give you one second to explain yourself, Starscream. What’s the leader of the Decepticons doing flying into our base by himself?”
The impact of his stupid decision finally hit as he started laughing, in an attempt to stall. “You have truly grown in the absence of your Prime, scout . Did he teach you how to be that merciful or is it simply something you do to make him proud”
The blasters around Starscream whirred to life in response.
The seeker snarled before moving on, “I have only one reason to grace you with my presence, and that is to make a deal with you lowlifes. I require some resources that only your faction possesses and I believe you lot have an interest in little old me.” His actions as he spoke matched the spite and mocking tone his voice held. He was not in a place of power but he sure could act as though.
One of the bots in the crowd scoffed. “And why would you ever think we would willingly make a deal with you of all mechs?” they shouted. Starscream glared in the direction of the comment. ”It is not often that you get an enemy commander offering himself on a silver platter so consider yourself lucky.”
“There is much that I can offer, if you accept that is,” he continued, turning to make eye contact with their leader again. The seeker vented, gathering all the courage he had to make his declaration.
”I will offer you my complete surrender and any knowledge that you request. I will track down any number of my troops that you desire, requesting only one thing in return.”
“All I ask is that I be allowed access to…” he trailed off. He realized that if he stated specifically what he needed it could make his enemies suspicious and lose all consideration. However, if he didn’t the result would likely be similar.
With another vent he finished, “Access to resources that will not be used for harm. I am not at liberty to reveal at this moment in time but I can assure you they will not harm your restoration efforts. You are not the only ones who wish to see our home restored after all.”
Blasters were slightly lowered as their wielders were stunned to silence. Most had never heard the air commander sound the slightest bit genuine, and what he was saying held a lot of weight. That was only most of them however.
A mech standing next to his leader burst out laughing before charging towards Starscream with his blasters. “Permission to blast his processor out Bee?” he asked his leader while forcing the seeker into a chokehold with his blaster up against the other’s helm. This action seemed to upset the scout based on him requesting that the grunt, “Smoke”, stand down within moments.
“As much as I hate to say this, I think we need to think about what he said,” the black and yellow mech stated. He gave the grunt a coded look, one that Starscream could guess meant there was more to be said in private. The grunt grumbled but released Starscream from his hold, pushing the seeker to the ground in the process.
The scout turned his attention to the crowd, calling for disbursement. He also got someone to cuff the collapsed air commander.
“We’ll need to discuss this matter more,” he told Starscream as he walked away from the scene. “Either way you’ll be in our custody so that’s something good.”
Two mechs pulled Starscream to his pedes and started to lead him away. The seeker let out a sigh of relief. He might be a prisoner now but at least he had a shot of getting back his…
Whatever Soundwave was to him.