SW the Creeper XII

Ravage was partly glad that he had a work shift coming up - the change in his host was elusive but frustrating and the technimal still hadn't decided on his next course of action. Hanging around risked him a new sync and he should avoid that. Luckily, Soundwave was busy.

Besides, it came to his mind that he had an unfullfilled promise and he didn't like to be indebted, even if it was just an eradicon. No, scratch that. The eradicon.

He wouldn't come as far as to admit he was looking forward to seeing his frag toy as he called Doug in the privacy of his processor, but he would admit anticipating an outdoor shift.

This planet might be incredibly dusty, but it also was a new world to explore and he loved that.

On his way to transporter docks, the feline noticed how crowded the corridors suddenly became. Agitation was in the air. Usually, the grunts tried to hide their conversations from him (futile effort, his hearing was far superior to theirs) - he might be part of the mine guard now, but they never forgot his ties to the TIC. Soundwave had a reputation, and it overshadowed his symbionts. Ravage was used to it. It had always been this way for the cassettes.

He didn't expect anything but grudging tolerance and mild suspicion from his fellow eradicons.

However, there was always first time for everything.

'Hey, Ravage!' - he was surprised to be heartily greeted by an eradicon that wasn't Doug, and nodded lightly in response. In a moment the whole mine shift crowded him.

'Is it true?' - they were all asking, and he had to strain his vocalizer to slurr "whhaat?"

There was a commotion and Doug was pushed forward accompanied by 'ask him, ask him!'. The eradicon sat down to level his gaze with the feline. He too seemed over excited.

'Is it true that we're going to restore Cybertron? We are going home?'

The cat tilted his head aside. /why do you think it?/ - he commed.

'Starscream said so to Knockout. They found a way to use those relics. And then the mining operation was put on hold. Are we going to Cybertron instead? All of us?'

There was some muffled murmur in the background about Seekers claiming all the glory as usual... Other voices were heard...the tension between different troops had always been present.

/I cannot impart information/ - the cat commed carefully

'Come on, really?! Surely your host knows?'

Ravage suddenly felt very uncomfortable, being the center of everyone's attention. Of course, Soundwave knew. He tried their telepatic link, but it was shut off.

/Wanna go ask him?/ - he suggested, well aware that the eradicon would chicken out. However DOUG surprised him. "ask him?' - he echoed and made a nervous gesture as if he really wanted to go and at the same time was afraid to. The other eradicons were watching their silent conversation, as people would a ping-pong match. They couldn't receive Ravage's frequency, but DOUG was speaking aloud and that had been enough to follow.

/Alright, I will ask/ - Ravage turned and sprinted off toward the bridge. He was eager to get away from the spotlights. Certainly not for the sake of eradicons, but his curiosity was peaking and he had to know. Besides, with mine shift cancelled, he had no reason to hang out in transporter docks anyway.

As he ran away, Doug stood up, feeling smug and even kind of a hero. 'Told you, he is a kitten really' - he said to his fellows.

---

/Is it true?/

Soundwave did not turn to face his oldest creation as the technimal ran onto the bridge and pinged him a question. Ravage was not normally the one to intrude in his work time, but luckily, Megatron was not present to send the technimal away. The spy went on with his task and waited for explanation. None came.

/query: impossible to answer unless further details provided/ - he finally commed back.

Ravage grinned, baring his fangs shortly. Any normal con would just say "what?", but 'normal' never applied to his host.

/We are going to Cybertron? To restore it? Is this true?/ The cybercat was so excited he was nearly bouncing around his host, making other cons on the bridge step aside to avoid collision with him.

/Affirmative. Omega lock location: established. Keys: present. Time: of the essence/

/Do you want me to dock?/. This time Soundwave did pause his work to look down into honest and hopeful optics.

/Negative. Soundwave: not part of this operation. I will remain behind./

/But... who is coming if not us? We deserve it more than anyone!/

/Ravage, desist/ - Soundwave transmission hadn't been stern, but rather sympathetic, - /Our presence: needed on Nemesis. Strascream: needs to be briefed.../ he made a pause, hesitating whether he should tell his cassette more and decided to go for it: /autobots attack: anticipated/.

Ravage huffed, but didn't dare to press the matter further. If Megatron ordered them to stay behind, there was no sense in questioning that order.

The feline lay down on the floor beside the navy peds and curled his scaly tail around one of them. The news of Cybertron restoration lost part of its allure when he found out that he would not be part of it.

/Who's coming then? There's been a lot of speculation among eradicons. They are mostly sure, Seekers will steal all the glory as usual.../

/Gossip on this ship: extensive. Apparently, workload: lacking/ - Soundwave responded, barely sparing his cassette a glance. Ravage caught up on the joke and sent a laughing glyph back. /But seriously: there is a heated argument about it/

/Patience: a virtue/.

Indeed, in less than 5 breems the cat's curiosity was rewarded: Megatron addressed the whole crew over commlink and loudspeakers with an inspiring speech and announced every unit should send best-scoring cons to contribute into restoring the Cybertron (except medical, communications and seekers, whose contribution was tremendous and will never be forgotten as it is).

Nemesis felt like buzzing beehive now with all kinds of cons running, communicating, checking their scores and rejoicing or letting out disappointed sounds as they discovered they did not meet the requirements. The bridge turned into a still spot in the eye of the storm, and Soundwave was the source of this calm: he and the bridge shift went along with their chores in bau mode. The spy sent two of his subordinates to assist with navigating on Cybertron (and Laserbeak to maintain video translation) - the cons were now refreshing their maps getting ready for bridging.

Megatron entered and was the concentration embodied as he stopped beside the spacebridge console and asked softly: 'How close to the Omega Lock can you bridge us?'

Soundwave answered without hesitation: /Soundwave to Megatron: aiming discrepancy: within one orn's drive. Aim adjustment: possible after initial recon on the spot./

The warlord nodded: "Make sure Laserbeak performs the recon right after bridging. We don't know the extent of destruction in the Sea of Rust."

Soundwave nodded his agreement and altered Laserbeak's orders.

Had he not been numb as a drone with his abilities disabled, he would be high on anticipation - the ship was so full of it, it affected even those cons who were usually not feeling the fields... anyone but him.

However, he still felt logically elated: the restoration of Cybertron would be a final blow to autobots. It would mean victory.

All preparations were completed in less than a cycle and as the restoration party had already assembled on the upper deck, Soundwave still hadn't finished his simulations.

Starscream appeared on the bridge, looking shiny and proud of himself and the sight of him wasn't irritating for a change. Soundwave knew, the Seeker would love to come too, to be the one to launch the restoration, as he had played a great role in making this moment possible, but he was fresh from the surgery and Knockout hadn't cleared him for transformation yet.

Megatron passed the command to him and grinned in response to his 'I will watch the nest for you, Master'. On his way out, the steel jet paused beside his SiC to put his palm on the seeker's shoulder. Starscream did his best not to flinch and nearly succeeded. "We are going home" - Megatron said with emphasis, and Starscream's wings flicked up with delight at this gesture.

As the 'best of the best' finally left for their historical mission, swelling with right-founded pride and elation, the atmosphere on the bridge shifted noticeably. Soundwave plugged all his datacables into the console and maxed out all his surveillance, ready to voice alert the moment autobots are spotted. There was no doubt they knew what was on the stakes even without Dreadwing's treason. Numerous cam feeds and scans flicked across his big console screen too quick for anyone but him to realize what they were showing.

Starscream paced around the bridge and finally came to stand behind the spy's right shoulder - the place Megatron usually preferred.

Ravage raised his head to look at the seeker questioningly.

'I see you got your cassette fixed' - the seeker observed mildly. Soundwave gave a barely perceptible nod. Then he untangled one of the feelers from console and offered Starscream a data crystal.

/Starscream: needs to be briefed on latest events/

The seeker took the offered crystal and eyed the spy's back for a moment: "What happened to you, I wonder? You've changed"

Ravage gave a short warning growl just to remind the seeker of the boundaries he intended to guard.

/Soundwave to Starscream: the crystal: contains all the information required/

The SiC huffed: "You could at least be polite and lie that you're glad I'm back."

/Soundwave: glad you are back/ - the navy back responded indifferently.

Starscream grinned his small grin and murmured 'You're too kind' before plugging in the datacrystal.

The party to Cybertron bridged even closer to Omega Lock coordinates than Soundwave initially promised his leader. After defining their location, Megatron ordered everyone to transform and walk the rest of the way to the Lock. This was a grand moment and he wanted every last one of his troopers to feel it to the core.

Soundwave was frantically searching for autobot activity, but found none. Could they get lucky this one time? Hardly.

Laserbeak provided video feed from Cybertron, and all the cons on the bridge (as well as in the mess hall and other places where Soundwave transmitted this feed) were watching what finally seemed to be a victory parade.

Turned out it was too soon to parade yet.

Everything transpired so rapidly that Nemesis crew didn't have time to react especially noting that even with the bridge on there was the delay in signal's passing. So they could only watch.

One moment the cons were attacked by the autobots and engaged in battle (Soundwave mentally kicked himself - he should have foreseen this use of the Forge), and the next there was the Spark Extractor.

The feed was lost and the bridge froze in shocked silence. Everyone, except Soundwave, who was desparately pinging the symbiont bond until Laserbeak's responding ping put him at ease.

- Soundwave, - came Megatron's voice over the commlink, - I need reinforcements.

The common 'phew' of relief at him being alive circled around the room. Before Soundwave managed to answer, however, Starscream stepped up.

- Master, - he said, - Soundwave has briefed me on your recent developments and I believe I have a contigency plan...

Starscream's plan had been good. It had been probably one of the best plans he ever offered, but it still didn't work out.

Cons lost their best troops, the Omega Lock was destroyed, the Keys and all hope of restoring Cybertron were lost forever. Soundwave's long fingers grazed against his chestplate as if he wanted to peel it open. It was all his fault.

Logics had no mercy: if Soundwave didn't shut down his telepathy, he would have discovered Dreadwings treason before the bomber jet acted it out. He could have stopped him. He had no right placing his personal comfort over the Cause's interests. In a way, he too had committed a treason even if no one laid this blame on him.

Megatron was furious. For eons the warlord had been turning despair into white-hot fury that drove mechs forward. It was the driving force behind the Uprising, even though few realized the true nature of insatiable decepticon urge for conquest. Megatron turned the low caste despair into fury and let them against oppression. He was doing it again now, though it had hardly been necessary - if there was one emotion dominating the entire decepticon ship now, it was RAGE.

The Prime may have won this round, but autobot base was a secret no more and if the cons could not restore Cybertron because of the autobots, it was only fit if they claimed this human planet as their new home. Kill the autobots, enslave the ingenious inhabitants. It was only justice.

An attack on autobot base was launched almost immediately after Megatron's return. The warlord didn't even take time to replace the arm that Prime cut off. His fury demanded to be unleashed without delay.

As the Starscream's Armada flew into battle, Soundwave used a small gap between urgent tasks to turn his sensors back on. He rarely made mistakes, but when he did, the consequences had always been dire.

Like that time on Regulon... Soundwave broke and rerouted all thoughts about it. Now was not the time to fall apart.

---

Ravage was searching for autobot corpses in the debris that only recently had been a strong and well-defended secret base. His chemical sampling and smell detection were superior among the con forces, but even he could barely distinguish autobot traces in this mess of molten metal, dust and overwhelming stench of organics.

Around him, the vehicons were digging into the slag, relying on their optics and luck rather than smell. They were looking for grey-out chassises to confirm the kills, but so far there had been only a few trinkets you could barely call tropheys and no autobots, dead or alive.

Megatron was supervising the search himself, his thirst for Optimus Prime's death unsated and palpable in his every movement.

Ravage picked up a scent and followed it to a large pile of debris. He growled, indicating a trace, but those around him weren't paying attention. He had to hit the nearest eradicon with his whip of a tail to get his attention and make him start digging. The eradicon objected. Loudly.

However, the commotion attracted Starscream's attention and the SiC, having more wits than his grunts, ordered them to dig.

They dug out the remnants of a space bridge.

The autobots were in the wind.