War From the Stars

by James Pwyll


Punishment

Starscream marched onto the deck of the ship's bridge looking quite pleased with himself, seeing Megatron where he always was, standing at the viewscreen and looking out to the horizon. Nightbird was there also, but the assassin wasn't really doing anything except leaning against the wall and looking on as the second-in-command arrived. Speaking of whom, once Starscream was close enough, he stopped, speaking loud and clear to his leader. "Megatron! I have news!"

Megatron, for his part, stayed where he was, like a statue, but when he spoke it was not with appreciation for the new development, but rather what appeared to be restrained anger. "Starscream...would this news, by any chance, be related in any way to your decision to violate my orders?"

Starscream paused here, glancing to Nightbird, whom he could tell was feeling quite smug about something. Then, after recomposing himself, he continued. "Sir, I realise that my actions are not completely in-line with your wishes, but I assure you they have yielded important information."

"Indeed?" Megatron replied. "And I imagine that your actions yielded important information also." Slowly, he looked over his shoulder, narrowing his eyes to his lieutenant. "Information such as our existence to the natives. Information such as our hostility towards them. Information such as the Autobots now having concrete proof that we survived the crash, and will thus be on high alert now."

At this point, Starscream was fully aware that he was not on his leader's good side, which was always a bad place to be on any day. So, standing at attention in an effort to appear more deferent, he continued his case. "But Sir, my encounter with the Autobot scout has given me insight that may change our entire operation here."

Megatron paused, but only for a moment. "The scout? Bumblebee?"

"Yes, Sir," Starscream acknowledged, regaining some of his former smugness.

Megatron looked ahead once more. "Tell me...did that diminutive, yellow youngster actually fall by your hand?"

Hesitation gripped Starscream once more. "...Optimus and his cohorts arrived to reinforce him before I could deliver a decisive blow."

"Oh?" Megatron mused. "So my old foe yet lives. That is good to know," he said with what could charitably be called satisfaction. But his mood turned cold shortly afterwards. "Still, it's somewhat disappointing that not only did my own right hand violate my directive, but that he also couldn't even manage to finish off the least of their number." As before, he looked over his shoulder to his subordinate, but this time, his gaze was darker then before, which was saying something. "Tell me, Starscream...how should a leader respond to a combined display of not only insubordination...but incompetence?"

Starscream fumbled for a bit. "I...um...I don't..." He looked to the side, to Nightbird, who still bore that satisfied look that irked him so much. However, it was here when she revealed exactly why she was looking like that, stepping to one side and revealing, to Starscream's great concern, that the display that usually held Megatron's two swords was now empty. This, in turn, led the flier to look back to his leader, his eyes widening. "...oh."

Sure enough, Megatron turned, revealing that he was holding both of the aforementioned weapons in his hands. Before Starscream could react, Megatron gave an almighty throw of one of them, sending it flying straight to his Lieutenant as though it was a javelin. Starscream was unable to dodge fast enough, and so the blade pierced his shoulder, sending him straight back into the wall, wherein in pinned him there. He let out a great scream of pain, which nobody else seemed to show any concern over, and he looked down to his injured shoulder to see a bright blue stream of energon leaking out from the wound. Megatron, looking down to the second sword he still had in his hands, took a few steps closer to the now-injured Decepticon. "The answer? This. This is how a leader should respond, Starscream."

Starscream gripped the handle of the sword that had penetrated him, but no matter how hard he pulled, he couldn't make it budge. It was embedded too deeply in the wall behind him. "M...my master...please..."

Megatron was close to him now, looking him right in the eye, and in a move that terrified Starscream even more than his current predicament, the Decepticon leader held his second sword to the latter's throat. "Because you have served me well in the past, Starscream, I'm going to give you a chancer for me to feel...merciful." He pressed the sword against his second's throat harder. "Give me one...good...reason. One reason why I shouldn't end your life here and now." Here, he actually cracked a smile, but it was one of sheer ruthlessness, putting one in mind of a predator about to go in for the kill. "Let us hope that oh so incredible insight of yours is as good as you claim."

Now knowing that his life was on the line, Starscream knew that there was no room for preamble or build-up, so he just laid it all out. "The readings! The readings that drew the Autobots here! It wasn't energon! It was humans!"

At first, Megatron seemed sceptical, but after a moment of considering the confession, he spoke softly. "Go on."

Starscream, taking a breath after this miraculous reprieve, continued. "During my fight, there was a human who attempted to intervene. A female. I tried to crush her, but another arrived to rescue her. I couldn't even register how she did it. She seemed to possess some...some ability. Something that, by all our studies of humans, she shouldn't have been able to do." He gulped before carrying on. "So I scanned her, and I saw it. The same anomalous readings that the Autobots had been chasing. It was her, it was both of them. There is...something unusual on this planet. Not energon, but something powerful enough for us to mistake it as such."

There was silence after that, during which Starscream fully prepared himself for that information to be nowhere near enough for him to be spared. To his shock, and to Nightbird's disappointment, Megatron smiled again, taking hold of the first sword and pulling it out, releasing his second. "Very good, Starscream. You actually did something useful." He turned away from him, wiping the energon stain off his weapon. "Now go, get Soundwave to patch you up...and await further orders."

Slowly, and painfully, Starscream got himself up, holding onto his injury tightly and, after looking to Megatron, mumbling under his breath with venom. "As you wish...master."