Ep1.2 – Let’s Talk Politics – Closed

[Deleted]

The Nemesis was no longer falling out of the damn sky.

This was mostly to do with their energon transfusion capacitor being one of the few things the Autobot’s hadn’t completely slagged during their attack on the Nemesis. Soundwave was still holding down most of the fort in terms of ship-wide operations and, therefore, could not divert nearly as much attention to the tasks for which he was most useful – intelligence and surveillance. This clearly had the comm officer in a less than ideal mood, his ‘ideal mood’ being pretty much none at all, because Barricade had at least four of his ‘secure data lines’ hacked and main-lined orders and itinerary.

Therefore Barricade was in a less than ideal mood as well and, as an added note, back to repair work on the engineering deck. That wasn’t to suggest his mission to collect data on the human military was in anyway being put on hold, but until Soundwave got an hour to go over the data he’d pulled from the NEST server his time was better spent getting their molecular masking field generator to stop glitching like a Dead End siphon burn out.

“Primus frakking droid-plugging piece of slag!” There was a rather loud bang, signaling that lieutenant Barricade was putting percussive engineering to good use by kicking control console by shield generator drive. The drive hummed, coughed, then purred until all green showed across the board. Several Eradicons nearby exchanged looks. “Right then. That should buy me an hour.” He threw a blow torch at one of the nearby Eradicons who fumbled the catch. “I’m going to go find a set of laser couplers that won’t blow out every time I’m not looking at it funny. Keep standing there with the blow torch. I think that’ll make it behave.”

“Y-Yessir?”

Barricade was already out the door. He was not, however, on his way to get laser couplers. He had an hour, probably less. He figured he could do a lot with an hour.




[[OOC: Takes place after Back from the Dead but before Police Brutality.]]

[Deleted]

The Nemesis was crippled but operational. The threat of suffering a critical systems failure that would bring about an immediate emergency descent - a crash - had passed. Though the warship limped through the skies over this alien planet with distressing vulnerability it was nonetheless undergoing round-the-clock maintenance that would see it back in full operational status within a matter of weeks.

And that was terrible.

As he stalked down the halls - dimly lit by backup lighting - Starscream wondered if it were possible to sabotage the warship just enough to keep it crippled without actually crashing it.

Maybe…

Rupture a fuel line. Tear apart an auxiliary power unit. Subtly disable the avionics. No, no, Soundwave would catch that.

Ugh.

Starscream grimaced. He folded his hands together behind his back. His heels clicked on the floor, tick tick tick, like a clock counting down the precious little time he had left.

Argh.

He was not fretting. An Air Commander did not fret. But he could not deny that the past few months had been an unexpected blessing in disguise. With the battered warship bleeding its presence to every miserable Autobot on the planet, Starscream and his aerial corps had been put to swift use. By serving as decoys they had drawn off both Autobot search parties and the blasted human air force, which had proven to have sharper fangs than he would have given it credit for. Many of his Vehicons had been shot from the skies by keen human pilots. Humiliating.

Despite those losses, the tactic had worked. Rather brilliantly, if he did say so himself. The Nemesis had remained successfully hidden from her pursuing enemies, and Starscream had remained out on the field to direct the aerial forces. And thus away from Megatron. Whom he had recently tried to kill.

He did not think that Megatron was aware of this, but it was best not to take that chance. Ever.

And yet in a matter of weeks he would ordered back aboard this airborne asylum and launched screaming back into the war full bore. It would be a lot harder to keep his deception concealed then. Secrets bred like scraplets within the confines of a warship.

Starscream fretfully clicked his talons together.

Maybe he could just… fire a missile into one of the engines.

With his mind lost in thought he turned a corner. And immediately spotted one of the last Decepticons he wanted to see at that moment in time.

----

It wasn't that he disliked Barricade.

It was that he hated him.

A cunning and violent monster, the infiltrator had somehow managed to work himself into Megatron's good graces in a way that Starscream did not comprehend. The warlord seemed to trust him in a way that he had never trusted his Air Commander. Barricade, it seemed, could do no wrong. Barricade, Barricade, Barricade. Even the Eradicons seemed to respect him. Even his own flying units. Infuriating!

And suspicious.

Just what was the connection there? Loyalty, between Decepticons? Ha! Starscream would find out the truth, or kill someone trying.

Starscream stopped dead in his tracks. He glared. He took some satisfaction in the fact that Barricade at least looked as put out as he felt. The infiltrator was dusty, grease-stained. He too had been put to work in getting the Nemesis operational again. Or at least rendering it less of a flying death-trap.

He fought to keep his irritation from showing and smiled.

"Barricade," he said airily. "I see you've been promoted up to performing manual labour. Good for you."

[Deleted]

Barricade twitched.

Not visibly, mind you, but rather internally, infinitesimally, apocalyptically.

It wasn’t that he hated Starscream, it was just that he really really hated Starscream, with a consistency that made it almost a kind of hobby after four million years. That said, following the attempted murder that left him in the hands of the enemy – namely Ironhide and Shadowrunner – Barricade’s idle hatred had rather moved beyond the hobbist’s dislike into a very real focused and intense kind of loathing. Hate he usually reserved for Autobots and incorrigibly cheerful people. Hanging him up in the brig with a muzzle and electrocuting him a couple times hadn’t improve his disposition toward the Seeker much either.

He supposed it would not be acceptable to shoot him in the hall.

Barricade turned his head, just his head, to regard the Air Commander and took a long and luxurious moment to calculate the warm sum and total of his fucking hatred for the psychotic dullard and let it settle snugly into his neural circuitry like a dose of warm energon. He allowed himself to just kind of blissfully consider that very soon the ship was going to be fully repaired and he was going to have the time he required to exact both direct and indirect revenge on the scrawny mutinous glitch-fragger at his leisure.

For now, though, he’d have to settle for being direct.

“Commander Starscream,” said the Mustang, baring a mouthful of neat, razored chrome. It was possibly one of the ugliest smiles he had in a repertoire. “Back from patrol already? Things must be settling down then. Good news.” His optics, still Autobot blue, were openly gleefully full of malice. His tone was conversational. “Once we’re out of emergency protocols Megatron will have time to sit back and address some of the… gaps in the events since Chernobyl. I’m sure that’ll be an interesting debrief.”

He smile broadened.

[Deleted]

Starscream inwardly flinched. That was a conversation he would make a point to avoid, if possible. No good could come of Megatron looking too closely into the events that played out during that… interim period after Chernobyl.

That was the sort of thing that could get a Seeker shot and dumped into a shallow grave.

Judging by the look on his face, Barricade was thinking the same thing. With glee. That mouthy little ogre. Starscream darkly wondered just what the infiltrator had already told Megatron in private. Perhaps this was a game to Barricade - a sadistic diversion meant to keep him on edge and paranoid. How infuriating, that someone like Barricade could be in a position to hold a threat over the head of someone like him, Starscream. Maddening!

But then again, if a bowed head and a little investigative work meant that he would live long enough discover a scrap of evidence that might prove his growing suspicions were correct, then, well…

Things would change.

Starscream forced back his nerves and assumed a blasé expression.

"I'm sure that with the Nemesis scheduled to return on-line shortly Lord Megatron is more interested in planning ahead for the next stage of our operational manouvres," he said with a sniff. He strolled away, picking his steps with care to place his back to Barricade. His wings were scarred, ugly blackened lines of shrapnel damage. "I'm sure when he is ready to proceed with the next briefing we will hear in great detail all of the high-priority targets you have doubtlessly been tasked to penetrate in order to provide us with a means to secure future victories over the Autobots and their human allies."

With his hands behind his back Starscream paused. He glanced back over his shoulder, one red optic alight. "You have been assigned to field missions, of course? I would assume as much, given how my Seekers and I have been preoccupied with the duty of securing the Nemesis."

[Deleted]

Barricade tilted his head slightly, not immediately answering in favor of simply staring at the other Decepticon with a kind of weighted calculation – the kind of look you give the contents of an supply drop pod behind enemy lines and you’re trying to decide what of its content you can use and what you can stand to leave behind. It was also a look Barricade might give a corpse he was thinking about stripping for parts to use later. Never know when you need a fuel pump, slightly used.

It wasn’t obvious, but Barricade supposed that must be the way Megatron looked at Starscream after his latest extreme act of borderline (or outright) mutiny: like a weapon he’d been using for a very long time and was trying to decide if it was still dangerous enough to keep using despite its occassional malfunctions. So far, for the whole of the war even, Starscream remained dangerous enough to keep around. That didn’t, however, mean it wasn’t going to get slammed against a wall a couple times until it stopped getting itself in quasar jams.

He eyed the Seeker’s shrapnel-blasted wings idly before saying:

“Well, I guess you’ll know all about it at the next briefing, won’t you, Commander?”

[Deleted]

Starscream bit back a sigh at the mocking inflection placed upon his title. Nearly everyone who addressed him did it, save for the Vehicons, who - if nothing else - were military to the core. Once the lack of respect annoyed him; he had since learned to repress his irritation. Most of the time.

He chuckled instead.

"That little to report on, hm?" he said. With his hands still clasped he scraped his talons together then turned back to Barricade. "Well, fear not. I'm sure the intel my aerial corps have collected during these trying times will be sufficient to cover any deficiencies that may exist elsewhere. In successfully counteracting the combined human and Autobot forces arrayed against us we captured from the enemy certain intriguing military assets that perhaps Lord Megatron might find of interest."

Starscream casually waved his hand. "But I suppose you'll find out about that in the next briefing, won't you. In the meantime - am I to surmise that Megatron did not assign to you any form of team to gather intelligence for our next sortie?"

He regarded the infiltrator with a mixture of veiled dislike and curiosity.