Ep 1.5 Fly Me To The Moon (Closed, Skywarp, Starscream)

[Deleted]

Week 1, day 3

Slaggit, why had the Decepticons gone so far away? Skywarp had finaaally dragged himself into the Sol system after a too fragging long, don't want to think about it flight. The Seeker was now smoothly gliding his way through the system, flitting past a bunch of boring gas giants. It was the third planet from the sun he needed to get to, according to those instructions oh so generously provided by Optimus Prime' s message. Too bad that Autodolt was never gonna make it to the party.

Eventually, his destination came into view. Skywarp decided that its satellite would make a good resting point. As the Seeker closed in, about to land, his sharp optics picked up a slight discrepancy on the moon's landscape. Huh. Curious, the Seeker immediately diverted his path to land at whatever it was. Built as an explorer class Seeker meant his visual recognition systems were quite advanced, able to notice the slightest variations in terrain.

It was cluttered with some of the smallest pieces of equipment Skywarp had ever seen. A straight pole with a white bit of fabric attached that was no longer upright but lying in the ground. Random bits of rubber. Little machines, scientific equipment, Skywarp could at least recognize but not tell what they were for. Skywarp's attention lasted approximately 6 astroseconds as he stared at it all in blank incomprehension before he got bored and decided to move on. The random space junk dismissed from his mind, Skywarp paid no attention to where he was walking and one large pede crushed most of it underfoot as he idly wandered about, stretching his arms and working out the kinks in his frame. He'd spent a lot of time in his alt-form and it was about time he finally took a break.

Having unwittingly destroyed most of Tranquility Base, Skywarp eventually decided to continue on the last leg of his journey. But first-

::Hey! Heeeey! Any Decepticons out there?:: he transmitted on a general and probably out of date Decepticon frequency.

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Starscream was stomping back to the bridge of the Nemesis when he received the transmission.

His wings were pinned back, his optics radiating irritation. A pair of Vehicon guards patrolling the halls wordlessly sidled out of his path as he brushed past them without sparing a glance. They knew better than to interrupt the Air Commander when he was in a mood. Luckily, he tended to demonstrate his moods rather loudly, making them easier to avoid.

Starscream almost dismissed the hail at first as something better suited for a patrol to deal with. It was not worth his time to investigate every single broadcast on the Decepticon frequencies. That was Soundwave's job, to sift through the chatter and flag the important transmissions that needed to be passed up the command chain.

But then he recognised the voice.

Starscream gaped.

That... obnoxious... belligerent... voice!

Stunned, Starscream came to an abrupt halt. His hand flew up to press two talons to the side of his head.

"Skywarp?!" he yowled.

[Deleted]

Skywarp had been expecting a Vehicon to answer. As he paced round -thus destroying the remainder of Tranquillity Base- he waited for the inevitable monotonous voice of a drone inquiring who the slag he was and why wasn't he using proper protocol. Instead he got-

::-screamer? SCREEEEAMER?:: he inquired in delight. Oh wow, it had been ages since he'd heard the Air Commander's voice. ::Starscream. Staaarscream, 'zat you? Please tell me it's you. You have no idea how long I've been looking for you. Well, not you-you specifically because I'm still not certain whether you'd dumped me at that last outpost on purpose or not, but the Decepticons in general. Was that deliberate? I put in transfer requests. They kept bouncing off your comm address but nobody else had problems. Oh, hey. Is Megatron there? Have you been hanging out with Megatron without me? How could you? How is he? Does he miss me?::

The Seeker's thoughts were quick to derail from the discovery that the seeker air commander (good) was alive and focus on more important priorities like the Decepticon warlord (much, much, much, much better). Starscream was great n'all but he was no Megatron. And that made all the difference in Skywarp's world.

[Deleted]

Flabbergasted, Starscream merely stood in the middle of the hall for a moment, digesting the unexpected turn of events.

Unbelievable.

Skywarp was still alive.

Not that he disliked the other Seeker. In fact, Skywarp could be distinctly useful when handled properly, and Starscream did find amusement in his endless capacity for violence at times. So far as simpleminded brutes went, Skywarp was loyal and had little room in his head for anything other than advancing the Decepticon cause through destruction. Fine. Sometimes the situation called for destruction.

But the noise. The shouting. The belligerent commitment to the abuse of everything in his path that even Megatron would find wearying. If Skywarp had an off switch, Starscream had yet to find it. How such a distinctly elegant and useful piece of equipment as a warp drive had found its way into that processor...

Screamer. Screamer. Primus, he hated that nickname.

Starscream drew in a sharp inhalation and steeled himself.

“Indeed, Skywarp, Lord Megatron is included among our numbers,” he said. “In fact, I’m sure he would be... very pleased to be made aware of your return to us. Verify your identity with your codes and I shall provide you with our coordinates.”

Not that Starscream needed the codes to verify the mech’s identity to himself.

[Deleted]

Skywarp didn't notice the hesitation on Starscream's voice. Despite all evidence to the contrary over the many millenia he'd known Starscream, he still trusted the Air Commander to tell him the truth. Lord Megatron was here and he was glad to have Skywarp back. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes!

The seeker excitedly rocked back on his heels and he couldn't babble his ID codes onto the comm channel fast enough. The warp core embedded into his frame began to hum to life as he eagerly awaited co-ordinates.

[Deleted]

Slowly, Starscream raised a hand to his optics.

In silent suffering he dragged his talons over his face as it sank in what he was about to do. The ship was about to get so much louder. Maybe the volume and joyful violence would at least make Soundwave suffer. That might be worth the aggravation.

He steeled himself.

"I am transmitting our co-ordinates to you now," he said. "I must warn you: our Lord is... indisposed as of this time. Please do not cause a disruption that might disturb him. Or the physical integrity of the ship."

Without further delay, Starscream sent the data packet and settled in to wait for the other Seeker's arrival. He had a fairly good idea how it would occur.

[Deleted]

Once upon a time, Skywarp's warp core could have jumped the Seeker across multiple star systems in one go. Such long jumps would have drained his energon reserves severely but they had been possible. He wouldn't have been able to make the long trip from Earth to Cybertron in one go but two jumps perhaps, maybe even three.

Time and age and lack of competent repair had slowly shortened his warp core's capability. The mecha who knew and understood how it functioned were long dead and Skywarp's understanding of it was largely intuitive. He could not put into words what he instinctively understood. For Skywarp, how he worked, how he slipped between dimensions and cut shortcuts in the fabric of time and space was as instinctive as cycling energon through his lines. For the few Decepticon medics who'd overseen his repair over the war, the warp core was an alien and indecipherable component they were incapable of understanding. The seeker was fortunate that his bulk and heavy armor meant that it took a large amount of damage to cause even the slightest damage to the core, else it probably would have accumulated damage and decayed a lot faster. To the best of the seeker's knowledge, once it failed, it would take his spark with it. Several flight brothers had died when the scientists that had made Skywarp's cohort had attempted to remove the cores. They were integrated to the point they were vital to his very existence.

It wasn't long before the Seeker received the co-ordinates pinged to him. He might not be able to jump across star systems anymore but Skywarp could certainly manage a planetary jump. ::Be with you in a moment, Starscream:: he said cheerfully. With a destination now given, the Seeker engaged his warp core, tearing a hole in the very make up of the universe. He winked out with a flash of green, then appeared in the main landing bay of Nemesis landing bay.

Dark and gloomy, this looked to be the right place. A few nearby startled Vehicons brought their guns up to bear until the Decepticon brand and ID ping registered with them. Skywarp lowered his gaze to the last one, who was a little bit slower on the uptake and still has a gun in his face. The seeker casually reached out and crushed the in-built weapon with one servo before pushing the Vehicon's arm (and consequently the rest of it with that one shove) away. That got the rest of the silly drones to back off.

Buoyantly, Skywarp turn to the other seeker. "Skywarp reporting to duty," he reported cheerfully. "Watcha been up to, Starscream?" Was he supposed to be formal, like right now? Maybe. Skywarp was a little iffy on protocol, it had been a long time and he didn't quite remember how it went. Was he supposed to salute? Or was that just back at Vos, when Starscream had been Air Commander? Sometimes Skywarp couldn't differentiate between Decepticon protocols and Vosnian ones. Which normally didn't matter because a lot of Vosnian military protocol inevitably got assimilated in the Decepticons but soooometimes, they differed and he'd got into trouble because of it. Anyway.

It was a minor miracle that he hadn't asked for Megatron again.

Yet.

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Starscream glared, while in the background the injured Vehicon staggered back with its crushed arm clutched to his chest. Batch produced and simple to maintain, the bulk infantry of the Decepticon army was nonetheless not a finite resource, and had been taking losses as of late.

Still, he supposed that anyone foolish enough to remain within snatching distance of Skywarp once he appeared deserved whatever happened to them. Maybe that particular Vehicon would not be as slow to react next time.

Ugh. Not likely.

Starscream huffed and let out a resigned sigh.

“It’s Commander Starscream still, Skywarp,” he said. He straightened to his full height and haughtily lifted his chin, enough that he could tilt a red optic up at the other Seeker. His wings folded back, his hands clasped behind his back. “I have been occupied with leading the Decepticon forces since the Nemesis left Cybertronian space.”

He arched a brow. “And where have you been? I’ve not seen a trace of you since the Exodus. It was my – fear that you had been terminated during the aerial bombardments above the planet’s surface.”

[Deleted]

Skywarp frowned, optics narrowing in thought as he mentally went back his long trip.

"Before here? Antares 3. Before thaaat. Tyroxia. There was something in the fumes. It was really, really colourful and my heads up display stopped giving me glyphs in Neocybex for orns afterwards. Derut Four was before that, fought in the murderpit over there. I think I may won a few planets. I also think I may have gambled both you and Megatron into slavery but, heeey I own a few planets now! I should go back and collect. Then…"

And so on and so forth he went, recounting his very, very long flight between Cybertron and Earth.

Finally:

"OH! I got mixed up with the wrong flight squad during the Exodus. Wound up with a squad heading for Xetaxxis. Tagged along until they got taken out by an Autobot ambush," Skywarp shrugged, then smiled again cheerfully. "And that's how it all started."

[Deleted]

He and Megatron. Sold into slavery. Starscream digested that flatly for a moment before dismissing it. Skywarp told long tales. It was always debatable how many of them were true and how many were the product of a throttled processor.

He endured the long explanation with a mixture of impatience and amusement. It sounded as if Skywarp had taken a straggling path across the galaxy and hit every major skirmish he could find along the way. Well, that was fine. So long as it had only honed his combat capabilities and not worn the edge off his adolescent bloodlust and ffft, look at who he was talking about.

“Very good,” said Starscream, when Skywarp wrapped up his story. He scraped his talons together behind his back and turned. With a gesture he motioned for the other Seeker to follow him. “It seems as if fate has conspired to bring you back into the Decepticon ranks. I’m sure Lord Megatron will be thrilled to see you. As will Soundwave. We will soon see you integrated back into the ranks.”

Starscream hesitated. In mid-stride he paused, and glanced back.

“I don’t suppose you saw what befell Thundercracker while you were engaged in the Exodus, did you?” he said. “I... did regret the decision made to leave behind all aerial units deployed in battle while the Nemesis pursued the Autobots through the space bridge. It was not mine to make, and I bitterly protested it. To no avail, alas.”

[Deleted]

Of course Lord Megatron would be thrilled to see him. Skywarp was one of his favourites. Or at least, the Seeker liked to believe so. He puffed up at Starscream's assessment. Soundwave would-huh. Skywarp didn't even know if Soundwave did pleased. Or anything. Mech was as emotionless as a rock. But if Soundwave did feel anything, Skywarp was certain that the mech would be pleased to see him. Everybody was. Always. They just had difficulty expressing it.

"TC?" Skywarp had been following Starscream but at the question, he rocked back on his heels and shrugged. "Nope, nadda. Why, isn't- wait, he isn't here?" The large Seeker frowned at his Air Commander as his previous good mood vanished and he wilted in disappointment. Skywarp had just assumed that wherever Starscream was, Thundercracker wouldn't be too far behind. That's just how it was. It never even occurred to Skywarp to think anything otherwise.

"You lost him?" Skywarp demanded, forlornly. "Why would you do that? How did you do that? Whhhhy?"

[Deleted]

Starscream sputtered at that.

“I did not lose him!” he said. He walked upright, wings stiffly aloft in offended indignation. “He is not a piece of baggage, you great lummox! I – merely – lost track of him. The Exodus was just a little bit hectic for all of us, you know!”

Starscream came to a halt when he realised that Skywarp had stopped walking and looked back over his shoulder at him. At the sight of the crestfallen Seeker he rolled his eyes and let out a long–suffering sigh.

“I will comb the records of the battle and search for any report of his last known position and suspected whereabouts,” he said. “And if I should find anything significant I will tell you at once. I do wish to be reunited with him myself, you know. How about that? Will that suffice?”

[Deleted]

If there was one thing that never failed to amuse Skywarp, it was seeing the Air Commander swell with indignation. While it sucked, it really did suck that Starscream had lost Thundercracker somewhere (honestly, Starscream was always telling Skywarp to keep track of his stuff and yet couldn't manage the same with his own belongings...) watching Starscream get so riled was always funny. His wings would go straight -aaaand there they went, just look at how stiff they were!- and he'd bluster and stumble over his words. It was that he was watching, so Skywarp didn't really register Starscream's insulting words.

He did notice, however, when his Air Commander stopped and looked back at him. Skywarp blinked, focusing then on what Starscream was saying. At the assurance that he'd keep up the searching for the missing Seeker, Skywarp brightened. "Thanks Starscream," he gushed. "You're the best." If Skywarp had stopped to think for a moment, he'd have amended that statement because actually Megatron was the best, Starscream came second. He skipped up after the Commander, falling back in place to follow Starscream again.

"Sooo what are we doing here?" he wondered. "Are we killing Autobots? We better be killing Autobots. They're here right? Prime sent out a message, that's how I found my way here."

[Deleted]

It was always strange to see a big flier like Skywarp gambol to his side like a turbohound. Starscream haughtily waited for him to catch up, then turned and resumed walking.

“Killing Autobots is a worthy side pursuit, indeed,” he said. “Why, it was not long ago that I personally slaughted one of their warriors. But we must not let enjoyable distractions steer us from our main objective on this planet.”

He held up one talon to illustrate its importance. “And that is the harvesting of the energon cache seeded upon this miserable little bog planet. Lord Megatron has decreed this to be our primary focus, and it is to that purpose that we shall bend our will. The native species are weak and unworthy of conquest as of this time, and are not to be bothered with – with few exceptions. Do not alert them to your presence, and do not waste your time upon them. Concentrate upon your task of the collection of energon for your Master, and–”

Starscream paused as his brain module caught up to his audials. He cast a sidelong glance at the mech lumbering alongside him and hastily reevaluated his last statement.

“Actually, scratch that. You may focus your energies upon killing Autobots. It is, as I recall, what you are good at. Entertainingly so.”

[Deleted]

Skywarp's face had taken on a glazed look as Starscream started laying down rules and regulations about what they could do on the planet below. Boring. Don't get him wrong, energon was great. He liked it. He liked it a lot. Skywarp just didn't like the tedious work involved in extracting it. Especially since no one trusted him with large and powerful machinery that could drill holes through rock. Maybe if he could play the equipment, he wouldn’t hate it so much. But nooo, they got him to do the boring, menial stuff like heavy lifting.

The big Seeker perked when Starscream cut himself off and then corrected himself, giving Skywarp the sort of orders he liked to here (the only orders he tended to get actually). "You got it, Starscream," he answered chirpily. "How many are we talking and who?"