The Broken Crown

[One] Pride

The wind felt nice on his wings this morning, cascading against the damp turbulence as the clouds set in the moody undertone of a slight drizzle. Rain felt nice too, even if it was bothersome at points. Luckily, because of his speed he didn't have to worry about it too much, the air carried much of the issues with it.

Starscream was just glad he wasn't on the ground during the pelting. He could already imagine the annoyance of the muck from the dirt riding up his struts and between the seams of his legs. The amount of cleaning and preening he would have to do to thoroughly remove it. Ugh.

He increased his speed, letting the rain slide across his wings as he idled closer to the ground.

He was on patrol, not a joy ride, even if the notion of flying was one of the reasons why he even patrolled in the first place. He came alone this time, his trine-mates hanging back at the Nemesis to get some much needed recharge for the later mining that they were going to need to do to keep the Energon stocks up.

Starscream opted to cover their shifts, boasting that he could handle himself without his trine to Megatron, as per usual. Though his trine kept him much needed company during patrol, he held out his care to them for their well-being even if he tried desperately to hide his vulnerability towards his brothers.

They hadn't been getting enough recharge and were getting worse every solar-cycle. He could see it in their optics, and their demeanor. Skywarp's bubbly demeanor had dwindled to a mere smile and he hadn't been as excited as usual, no pranks either. Thundercracker was dragging and he felt too tired for any sort of comebacks to some of Starscream's remarks made to his frame. They were both courageously tired to an extent that Starscream wasn't happy about.

He remembered coming from a long patrol to find them struggling to keep their optics online, Skywarp much worse than Thundercracker. Neither of them were barely responsive to questions and both of them collapsed on the berth as if they had just went through the worst hellfire imaginable. Starscream debated on calling Knockout to see if there was something more going on. Another long day with Starscream at the starting edge of line-ups for aerial training and the duo were still at the edge of collapsing.

"What's the matter with you two?" Star had asked them when the training had concluded and they back in their shared quarters, crossing his arms over his chassis. He didn't feel as antagonistic as he was before, truthfully he was tired himself. He stared at their exhausted demeanor making him feel pity for whatever had been occurring for them to be this way. When they confided it was clear who the culprit was, it was Megatron. It always was.

He had been working them to the wire; from Energon mining to useless, sometimes silent, patrols. It was no secret that Megatron had been a bit more paranoid since the Nemesis' crash on Earth. He was also more skittish to the ideas of Optimus Prime suddenly raiding their vulnerable base. Not as vulnerable as it had already been. Starscream was well-aware of the lack-luster technology that plagued the old systems. Soundwave had tried at many points to keep breaches from occurring on multiple occasions and while the bot wasn't someone that Starscream favored to be around, Soundwaves position was something he could not fill.

Starscream was clever enough to recognize that both sides were equally struggling after some extensive observation on his own time. Both ships had crashed near the same time, from the war. But even after explaining the evidence of the potential upper-hand, Megatron's paranoia had not subsided and there were multiple instances where Starscream sat before the combustible leader as he raced through plans that were short-lived. The plans were hastily constructed and it was immediately clear that they were fated to fail. Even the enemy could've seen this coming from miles away.

As much as Starscream didn't credit the Prime, he was extremely intelligent, the only thing he lacked was nuance in certain situations. Comparatable to Megatron, Prime had more confidence and political involvement than Megatron did, specifically in past tense. These plans were nothing more than childs play and could be easily adapted to which made Starscream even more irritated at his leader's arrogance.