A Very Bad Day, Part 1
4/8/07 14:07![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
headless_seekerThe first bad news I had was Starscream's broadcast: "Megatron is dead! I lead the Decepticons now!"
Yeah, tell me I hadn't heard that one before. Seriously. This time, though, it was real--rumor spread almost as fast as the broadcast: the Autobot City raid had been a disaster--Megatron was dead/the Autobot City raid had been a stunning triumph--Optimus Prime was dead! When Starscream announced his impending coronation and ordered all Decepticons to watch the broadcast--yeah, I could believe that Megatron was truly dead.
I made the same mistake Starscream did.
Our next raid on Moonbase One was put on hold while Starscream threw his party; a bit of an annoyance, because me and my boys were ready to shred metal. The prospect of tearing into the Autobots while they were demoralized had us ready to go posthaste. Megatron's fall might have demoralized us, but His Shriekiness was in charge--he hadn't let things fall apart into warring factions. Me, I was one of Shockwave's, so Megatron was just the big boss, not my creator, not the guy who inspired me to "The Cause" or whatever. My boys mostly looked to Shockwave or Starscream for leadership--Shockwave because he'd been the leader all those years, and Starscream because he was the Air Commander who'd been whispering a lot of promises about the "new order" in a lot of audials.
I remembered Shockwave's advice and turned a deaf audial to those whispers. Didn't blow off the Air Commander to his face though. Even this dumb slag-swimmer is smarter than that! Seriously.
We didn't get front-row seats at the coronation--we had to watch it on widescreen back at the barracks. Just as well. Iceraker commented that Starscream was looking a bit testy, and he was just as glad not to be downrange of the Air Commander's cannon today. Did I mention that Iceraker was back in my unit? Guess he decided I wasn't so terrible to be around after all. Truth was, I'd kind of missed the idiot. I agreed with him about that--new leaders sometimes get a notion to blast a few bystanders just to prove that they're serious about being obeyed, worshiped, or whatever.
I wondered how Starscream had managed to prevail over the other likely contenders without there being more notable absences than there were. Maybe Skywarp, Thundercracker and the Insecticons really were casualties of the Autobots--or maybe they'd taken the wrong side of the succession debate on the way home. Starscream all but boasted of having disposed of Megatron himself--a not-so-subtle hint to would-be contenders.
I stopped wondering when Astrotrain crowned Starscream, and Blitzwing stood by his side. Oh yeah. My triple-changing kin. That's some serious backup to have when grabbing the throne. Damn, but that cape looked stupid. Pink may be the color of power, but it just didn't match up with those red intakes.
Then everything went to hell. You probably remember it, too--that spaceship descending from the stars to land in the middle of the processional aisle, the big purple guy that jumped out of it, and the spaceship turning into yet another big purple guy...
Yeah. A while back I said "One's last words should not be 'Watch this!'". Guess what? "Megatron, is that you?" beats that hands down for crappy last words.
Exit Starscream. Galvatron was our new leader with shocking suddenness. Something about his way with a fusion cannon was amazingly convincing to all concerned. I have to credit Blitzwing--I think he kept things from going totally pear-shaped. He was the first to hail Galvatron as leader, and Astrotrain followed his lead; when Blitzwing says, "Yes, sir!" ain't no one else going to find the osmium-plated turbine blades to argue with the new boss.
Someone still isn't quite getting it. Blitzwing and Astrotrain have both gone toe-to-toe with Megatron just for fun. If a guy who will trade punches with Megatron for grins bows down and says "Yes sir!" to Galvatron... Seriously. You figure it out.
So we get the go-ahead order--we're moving on the Moonbases right away. Not just my unit--all of us. Galvatron and his spaceship guy take off for I'm not sure where, my boys get fueled up, weapons loaded and ready to fly--
Then the slag really hits the rotors! A planet attacks the moons. A planet! Sucks down the Autobots on them with a humongous tractor beam and eats the fragging moons one at a time!
Some things are just too weird to scare you--at first. The ringed, dwarf machine planet that ATE things was totally "What the slag?"--especially coming right on the heels of Starscream's rather exciting and unexpected incineration. Seriously.
Then it transformed.
(( continued here ))
Yeah, tell me I hadn't heard that one before. Seriously. This time, though, it was real--rumor spread almost as fast as the broadcast: the Autobot City raid had been a disaster--Megatron was dead/the Autobot City raid had been a stunning triumph--Optimus Prime was dead! When Starscream announced his impending coronation and ordered all Decepticons to watch the broadcast--yeah, I could believe that Megatron was truly dead.
I made the same mistake Starscream did.
Our next raid on Moonbase One was put on hold while Starscream threw his party; a bit of an annoyance, because me and my boys were ready to shred metal. The prospect of tearing into the Autobots while they were demoralized had us ready to go posthaste. Megatron's fall might have demoralized us, but His Shriekiness was in charge--he hadn't let things fall apart into warring factions. Me, I was one of Shockwave's, so Megatron was just the big boss, not my creator, not the guy who inspired me to "The Cause" or whatever. My boys mostly looked to Shockwave or Starscream for leadership--Shockwave because he'd been the leader all those years, and Starscream because he was the Air Commander who'd been whispering a lot of promises about the "new order" in a lot of audials.
I remembered Shockwave's advice and turned a deaf audial to those whispers. Didn't blow off the Air Commander to his face though. Even this dumb slag-swimmer is smarter than that! Seriously.
We didn't get front-row seats at the coronation--we had to watch it on widescreen back at the barracks. Just as well. Iceraker commented that Starscream was looking a bit testy, and he was just as glad not to be downrange of the Air Commander's cannon today. Did I mention that Iceraker was back in my unit? Guess he decided I wasn't so terrible to be around after all. Truth was, I'd kind of missed the idiot. I agreed with him about that--new leaders sometimes get a notion to blast a few bystanders just to prove that they're serious about being obeyed, worshiped, or whatever.
I wondered how Starscream had managed to prevail over the other likely contenders without there being more notable absences than there were. Maybe Skywarp, Thundercracker and the Insecticons really were casualties of the Autobots--or maybe they'd taken the wrong side of the succession debate on the way home. Starscream all but boasted of having disposed of Megatron himself--a not-so-subtle hint to would-be contenders.
I stopped wondering when Astrotrain crowned Starscream, and Blitzwing stood by his side. Oh yeah. My triple-changing kin. That's some serious backup to have when grabbing the throne. Damn, but that cape looked stupid. Pink may be the color of power, but it just didn't match up with those red intakes.
Then everything went to hell. You probably remember it, too--that spaceship descending from the stars to land in the middle of the processional aisle, the big purple guy that jumped out of it, and the spaceship turning into yet another big purple guy...
Yeah. A while back I said "One's last words should not be 'Watch this!'". Guess what? "Megatron, is that you?" beats that hands down for crappy last words.
Exit Starscream. Galvatron was our new leader with shocking suddenness. Something about his way with a fusion cannon was amazingly convincing to all concerned. I have to credit Blitzwing--I think he kept things from going totally pear-shaped. He was the first to hail Galvatron as leader, and Astrotrain followed his lead; when Blitzwing says, "Yes, sir!" ain't no one else going to find the osmium-plated turbine blades to argue with the new boss.
Someone still isn't quite getting it. Blitzwing and Astrotrain have both gone toe-to-toe with Megatron just for fun. If a guy who will trade punches with Megatron for grins bows down and says "Yes sir!" to Galvatron... Seriously. You figure it out.
So we get the go-ahead order--we're moving on the Moonbases right away. Not just my unit--all of us. Galvatron and his spaceship guy take off for I'm not sure where, my boys get fueled up, weapons loaded and ready to fly--
Then the slag really hits the rotors! A planet attacks the moons. A planet! Sucks down the Autobots on them with a humongous tractor beam and eats the fragging moons one at a time!
Some things are just too weird to scare you--at first. The ringed, dwarf machine planet that ATE things was totally "What the slag?"--especially coming right on the heels of Starscream's rather exciting and unexpected incineration. Seriously.
Then it transformed.
(( continued here ))
