Different Wavelengths

My 'Friends' on the Other Side

A/N: Sorry this took so long! I had a long time finding work and now work overnight, so I only get so many hours to do writing. I have days off on Fridays and Saturdays so I'll be able to have lots of free time. I'm also juggling different aspects of my online presence so that also eats into my schedule!

Phase one was top priority: Get the other Shockwave off his back.

Sir Soundwave stared nervously at the door. Deleting the data off of the datapad was probably a stupid decision. But irrational behavior was easy to explain away, provided the body language was correct.

Bracing himself for the worst, Sir Soundwave vented, stood straight and lax, and then knocked on the door.

"It is open", came the monotonous voice. The door slid open. Shockwave was leaning over a table, experimenting on something.
His red optic took one glance at Sir Soundwave and his actions halted.
"...Officer Soundwave. I assume you have an explanation for our... Botched interview."

Straight to the point, as Sir Soundwave had anticipated. Keeping his EM field taut and his body still, he made his excuse known through a private comm link.

Soundwave: Apologizes.
Processor: still contains minor damage.
Earlier actions: irrational.

Shockwave's body dropped a smidgen.
"I see. I suppose I was a little at fault as well, pushing you when you were unwell. And your medical report does indeed show that you suffered moderate processor damage. It is not too illogical to assume it may have extended to your data. You tend to always keep your information inside your internal hard drives."

Even across universes, that habit was constant. Sir Soundwave nodded.
Shockwave's fins twitched.

"That being said, I would hope you recover soon. Perhaps only I would turn a blind optic. Should Lord Megatron witness such erroneous actions, he would not be as forgiving."
Sir Soundwave shuddered a tad at the thought and nodded.
Before long, he was quickly shuffling out of the lab.

Okay. Shockwave seems to have been placated, if just for now. Unfortunately, the hard part wasn't quite over yet. The last top priority obstacle was the false Megatron, who was likely more on guard thanks to Sir Soundwave's intervention when the warlord was beating his SIC into scrap. The spy master made his way to the main bridge...

Only for the door to open, leaving Sir Soundwave with grey in his vision.
He meekly looked up at "Lord" Megatron, making optic contact with those red orbs. "Soundwave", came that harsh and gruff voice, "I've been thinking ever since you... Intervened in my 'conversation' with Commander Starscream."

Sir Soundwave stiffened.

Megatron's eyes softened but only by the faintest bit. "Is there a particular reason you found your meddling necessary?" The words were more curious than malicious, but one wrong move could blow his cover completely.
Hiding his inner panic, Soundwave displayed words on his visor.

Physical discipline: not always needed.
Starscream: Still a viable asset.
Unintentional damage to frame has a high chance of reducing battle practicality.

The warlord hummed inquisitively at the words. "...Perhaps. Perhaps. Very well. That being said, I do not require your intervention while I discipline my subordinates. I'll take your words into consideration but do not expect severe changes. Understood?"
He leaned into Sir Soundwave's personal space at the last word. The spy master tried not to shrink down.

He gave a single slow nod. Megatron straightened. "Good. See me in the war room in ten cycles. I will have need of you soon."
Heavy pedes walked past him, and Sir Soundwave relaxed his body. Well, that was easy enough. He was definitely on thin ice though. Whatever that mission was was going to be integral in ensuring this other Megatron didn't sus him out.

On the bright side, once he was done with Megatron's mission, that would be the end of the hard parts. Knockout was easy to please as long as you kept his paint job safe, Breakdown seemed to not suspect too much, Skyquake and Dreadwing could be easily swayed by appealing to their honor towards the Decepticon cause, and the vehicons were too scared of him to defy him so they were also low priority.
The only ones left were this world's Airachnid (who he had yet to meet), and Starscream (who was out on a patrol according to the ship's crew logs.)

For now, he had a job to do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...Theft. His job was theft.

He had to reread the mission dossier multiple times to make sure he wasn't misreading. But no. It was all correct. Megatron wanted him to steal data from a military base in an attempt to locate the Autobots as well as an entire tank of jet fuel to synthesize into quick and cheap rations.

Sir Soundwave hesitated. On one servo, doing this would make the Autobots see him as just a bad guy and make it harder to get their trust. But on the other servo, defying the orders would get him in deep slag with Megatron. And the latter was a lot less forgiving in this dimension.
As much as he didn't want to, Sir Soundwave decided to steal the data and fuel. Hopefully he could do this without hurting any humans on-site...

He activated a ground bridge close to the mission location and stepped into it, emerging onto a cliff side with a clear view of the military base. There was a hangar bay nearby, with a bunch of fuel tanks ripe for the taking.

He took a second to stretch his pistons and let Laserbeak case the scene. The minicon flew in a circle over the base for a moment before returning to his carrier and uploading the information.

Low amount of guards, two fuel tanks were still full, and the servers had encryption that was complex for a human but easy to bypass for a Cybertronian. Good. Makes this easy as pie. Sir Soundwave carefully made his way down towards the base, hiding behind buildings to avoid detection. He looked in one hangar and saw it was empty. Taking advantage of this boon, Soundwave slipped into the hangar and transformed into his vehicle form, using the shadows to partially mask his clear difference from any of the other jets docked in the other hangars. With his disguise in place, he carefully let a data cable slide out to search for the server room. He found it quickly and broke in quietly.

The data was clear as day. Mostly it was just locations of other bases among other things, but one stuck out: a set of coordinates leading to a place in the middle of the Nevada desert. A comparison to a map led to a large plateau. A familiar one. The Autobot base.
...
Sir Soundwave began his edit. Just a "correction". The coordinates were removed from his report, instead being altered to a vague description that could realistically be anywhere under the pretense of defending "a set of highly important guests". Should a power hungry warlord read this, he'd be disappointed, but ultimately satisfied to know that the humans know the location of his enemies, while simultaneously not being able to launch a full-scale attack.

The data was secure. Now for the hard part.

The fuel tanks were outside, where the guards were. He'd have to be fast. Transforming back, Sir Soundwave peeked outside. The tank was unguarded for the time being. He approached the large canister and grabbed hold of it. He grimaced at the slight metallic groan it gave. That's when he saw it was bolted to the ground. He used his cables to unscrew the bolts.
Bad idea, for the sudden shift in looseness caused him to fall backwards into a hangar. It was empty of life, but a jet was crushed under his weight, and the loud noise was enough to raise an alarm. A very loud one.
Sir Soundwave winced and let out a pained hiss of static at the noise, quickly turning off his audio receptors. Still clutching the fuel tank, the spy master opened a ground bridge and ran through it, just as the guards came out to detain him.

Of course, had they stayed in the server room, they would have noticed the message left behind:
Sorry, bro :(