Transformers: Honor and Loyalty

Prologue

Deadlock ducks behind a decrepit wreck in the shipyard, gritting his teeth as he prepares to take out the Decepticon guard nearby.

He had been slowly realizing how tyrannical and oppressive the Decepticon cause is, but his sense of honor had demanded loyalty, so he had bitten his tongue and done as ordered as the war continued to wreak havoc on the planet.

His loyalty had begun to slowly come into question, however, after Optimus Prime had been forced to eject the Allspark to keep it from Megatron's hands. He had then led a mass exodus with as many Autobots as he could find ships for, leaving some of his troops behind to carry on the battle.

Deadlock had at first been angry at the Prime, thinking him a coward for dooming their planet and running away, but then he came to realize the extent of the damages done to Cybertron throughout the war and that Megatron had been the one to drive Optimus to that extreme.

Deadlock saw that Megatron was blinded by his hatred of the Prime, beating or executing any who dared question him or his pursuit of Optimus.

Things grew worse on Cybertron without the Allspark, but the few Autobots left on the dying planet bravely fought on despite overwhelming odds.

Deadlock grew to admire their courage and their valiant struggle to save their planet, hoping the Allspark could be restored to Cybertron before the planet completely died.

Then he and a team of Vehicons were ordered to take out a ship full of Autobots that were escaping Cybertron.

He could not carry out the order, but the troopers had seen no issue with the heartless and cruel command.

Deadlock had gone ahead to scout out the ship, which had been caught before they'd even left the atmosphere, and when he saw the desperate refugees huddled in fear he could not bring his Spark to harm any of them, so he lied to the team, going so far as to say he had eliminated the crew aboard.

The team had been impressed at the alleged show of brutality and returned to their ship, but Deadlock had hesitated, talking briefly with the leader on the ship, a Wrecker he didn't recognize.

Deadlock agreed to help them reach their destination, even pointing out a better route for them.

Then a Vehicon came back aboard and saw Deadlock talking to the Wrecker, and the refugees behind them.

Deadlock had been forced to kill the trooper there and then, feeling for the first time a flicker of disgust with the Decepticons in his Spark. If they were willing to slaughter refugees, they did not have any honor.

After lying that the trooper had been killed in a surprise attack by a survivor to the other troopers on the ship, Deadlock had to assess his loyalties.

He had killed one of his own side in defense of Autobots.

He took a long look at himself in the reflection of his ship's cockpit.

What he had done was the right thing, he felt it in his Spark. How could he kill innocent refugees?

But killing the trooper was dishonorable to the Decepticons and would be seen as treason if it were discovered.

He had covered his actions as best he could and hoped his deceptions were accepted as truth. It was too late to do anything else.

As the cycles went on and nothing came of the incident, Deadlock grew increasingly conflicted. The Decepticons had repeatedly shown dishonor in their actions, but because he had sworn allegiance to them, he felt stuck.

Defecting felt like a betrayal, but more and more of his orders made him see just how dishonorable the Decepticon cause is.

The breaking point occurred when there came a new order, pairing him with Bludgeon (who Deadlock considered a brother. They had joined the Decepticons together, even).