The Broken Crown

[Two] Prejudice

Starscream's recharge felt like nothing, like a light switch that had been flicked once and he was online again. The only passage of time that showed had been a couple of breems later according to his chronometer. His HUD lit up like it was dawn and it strained his optics as he squinted at the stamped time.

Taking a small moment for his body to wake up, he slithered out of his trine-mates torpid embrace, being careful to not wake the rowdy duo. Once he was up and standing, he stared at the two's pervasive positions, arms and legs sprawled across the berth. Each limb was languid and making either bot look like a frozen damsel in distress against the comfort of the berth. The sight made Starscream snort softly, amused at the sight before moving to grab a data pad on the joined desk close by the berth.

Opening the data pad led a flood of notifications through the feed, from extensive reports from the aerial units to private messages forwarded from the invasive red doctor who seemed keen on knowing every detail about his frame. Starscream ignored the messages from Knockout, planning on meeting the hot rod at a later time that day and inspected the other notifications. Most of the reports were bare, the illiteracy of the band of seekers was noticeable and Starscream felt an irritation seeping from his EM field. He would've taught them how to write had he had more time before being dragged into the war with whispers of a promise that their leader couldn't keep.

He felt like he was deceived from reaching that semblance of peace and confidence that was his involvement in the seemingly never-ending war, right? Reaching peace and equality.

Was he being deceived?

He ignored it, dragging himself from the hell that was his thoughts and let himself sigh as he skimmed through the poorly written reports before finally deciding to put the data pad down back on the barren desk. Starscream made it his effort to wake the snoring lunatics on their berth and although it took some time he managed to wake them.

"You interupted my dream.." Skywarp groaned as he sat up, stretching his long purple wings, which ended up smacking Thundercracker's shoulder. Thundercracker let out an annoyed growl as he took his sweet time getting up. His digit coiled around the dull metal and pinched. Skywarp snarled back at him, fully awake now, "Do you want to go TC?" He threatened the blue mech as his wing flicked away from his conniving digit which tried to snatch it again for another pinch. Thundercracker was partially amused at the thought of wrangling the other seeker in a small fist fight.

Skywarp on the other hand was not amused and was quite serious in his threat. He made a move to launch himself at the blue seeker. Starscream managed to wrap an arm around, the mid-lunging, Skywarp and pulled him back, "We don't have time for this." Starscream sighed as Skywarp attempted, again, to claw at Thundercracker who only sported a cocky smirk. All of which did not make the situation any better.

Starscream was rubbing his helm as Skywarp squawked his irritations towards TC with a loud mouth that made his helm throb. Thundercracker didn't entertain Skywarp's obvious irritations but each small comment about being 'hot-headed' made the paint on Skywarp glow a bit brighter purple with how much his vents hissed and made him appear condensed.

"Enough, I don't have the patience to deal with this at the moment, we need to get moving before Megatron chews our afts about being late again, and I'd rather not deal with him this morning." Starscream finally bit the raging end of stick and watched as Skywarp's irritation switch to him. Warp was definitely in a mood, probably from his abrupt awakening. Starscream didn't feel sympathetic enough to apologize and decided on quickly walking on without them while Skywarp decided when it was his time to calm down. Warping seemed out of the question today, not that Starscream cared, his pedes were almost always reliable.

As Starscream walked closer to the landing pad, Megatron's booming voice was the first thing he heard as he walked out, "Get moving now! I don't want to see any bot dragging pedes!" His voice was as close to a sharp yell as it ever could be without boiling his stifled anger. Aerial bots clambered down the runaway with a speed Starscream didn't appear to know as possible, more than likely from their fear of disappointing their leader. Starscream could tell through his EM Field alone that Megatron woke up with a rattle up his tail-pipe and a vocalizer that rivaled Alpha Trion. This was a slow morning, yet Starscream was the one dragging his pedes all the way up to the fierce leader who turned to meet the seeker.

"Its quite imputent for the Aerial Commander to be late to his own take-off, wouldn't you say?" Megatron was spitting venom while Starscream was fed every blow. He managed to respond to his teetering commander, "Had my trine-mates failed to cause an issue, I wouldn't have been late." He replied snarkily, wings carrying the stride of his words, he wasn't in the mood for games. But neither was Megatron.

"Clearly." Megatron remarked gruffly, seemingly taking the snide remark without consequence. Starscream shook his head passively before taking off on his own, transforming to his alt mode and moving in a grace that others would envy.

Starscream's flight was relatively silent, save for a couple of pings from Megatron that insulted his abilities to be a second in command properly. Starscream just ignored them and landed heavily when the mine came into view.

Skywarp and Thundercracker were there already by the time he arrived and he made the assumption that Skywarp was better than earlier and warped them both there. Though, Starscream said nothing to them on his arrival, the two still partially greeted him when he walked in. Starscream was mainly ignored as he walked between the bots displayed across the mine like little bugs, each mining at their own pace. The trine were only there as moderation and passage of energon onto the freights while they worked.

Starscream made sure to appoint himself in a position of authority, watching belatedly from above as the aerial bots and wreckers worked through the tough rock and pierced energon crystals. His trine-mates sauntered through the lined bots as they worked, glancing lazily at each one and made sure they worked as efficiently as possible.

Then came the repetitive cycle. The invasion of the Autobots felt like chaos. An eruption of confusion flooded the entire mine. To the Decepticons, it wasn't expected. But to Starscream, it was something he had been waiting for. It been multiple breems since the Autobots made a move since the crash onto Earth. Starscream knew it was only a matter of time before the Autobots did something, they've been recovering for a while now. With the most recent incident with Bee still in his mind, he knew this was all coming.

Starscream still fought, attempted to, he was never good at close combat and it showed when he was starting to get overrun by the scout, again. The femme in their group, Arcee, backed up Bumblebee as they cornered him. His blasters were raised at both of them as he backed away, glaring daggers back at the two while the background looked like a spinning top. Multiple bots collided with each other while plumes of blast fire zoomed past helms and limbs. It could've been a bloodbath had the Autobots extended more brutality towards the Decepticons. Starscream felt humiliated to be in a position like this but he kept his arms raised and his wings stiff. "Got nothing to say con?" Arcee's annoying voice split through his thoughts and he focused his gaze on Arcee. His blaster was aimed strongly at the both of them but even more so on the smaller bot.

"On the contrary, I have quite a lot to say but this is an unfair situation!" Starscream snarled as he looked at the two. Coming up behind them was the rowdy and reckless seeker Skywarp who had seen the predicament that Starscream was in.

Starscream took notice of Skywarp's presence but made it his goal to keep the two Autobots unaware of the flank. While the two were also in slight conversation on what to do with the SIC, Starscream shifted his footing which caught the attention of Arcee.

Skywarp creeped forward, getting close to Bumblebee, setting in who he was going to go after. Warp had a sinister grin on his face as he stepped closer and closer, the inner workings of his messed up processor working on overdrive. The sight made Starscream internally cringe.

Is that how he appeared to everyone else? Wait, don't answer that.

When Skywarp made the jump, his arms hooked under Bumblebee's torso and he dragged the bot back. Starscream followed through, kicking Arcee back, lunging at the femme who swiftly moved out of the way. Both were resorting to close combat, Arcee attempted to sweep at his legs and rolled to the side, attempting to grab her leg as a counter but she managed to pull her leg in quicker than he could grab.

He snarled, "Clever slagger." Arcee gave him a sly look before running at him. Starscream collided with her as a result, letting her overtake him as they tumbled to the ground. His wedged his wings, making sure the fall didn't damage them and punched Arcee in the face. The femme staggered from the blow but failed to be hit off of the seeker.

Arcee and Starscream were emphatically struggling, wrestling like mechlings in a fist fight while Skywarp and Bumblebee were evenly matched. All were exhausted, each bearing the weight of their blows.

Starscream had managed to get the pin on Arcee while she held her blaster to his chin, stuck impudently in a position of a stalemate until one or the other makes a move.

"You're extremely annoying," Starscream said through gritted dentae, "Right back at you." Arcee responded wittingly, having a glaring competition with the SIC who had her pinned. The call for retreat was received on both ends of the factions. One that made both Arcee and Starscream cautiously raise a fist to one another while the release was slow. It was common ground and although Starscream thought about adding another scuff to the bots plating he held back at temping any more future events.

Skywarp was difficult to convince to fall back but the purple seeker eventually listened to his trine leader. Soon, Thundercracker joined on the retreat. They all watched the Autobots slink back into the ground bridge and the Decepticons return to the Nemesis.

There was a heavy air and Starscream learned of the loss that they had suffered on return to the Nemesis.

Skywarp seemed to have forgiven the earlier plight from this morning and warped himself and the other two seekers back to the landing pad. Starscream didn't step foot through the hallway when his HUD pinged with a summons request.

It was Megatron. He wasn't happy, but truly when was he ever?

Starscream did further inspection on the mining expedition, they had lost about 25% more than their last run, which meant during the brief fight with Bumblebee and Arcee. They somehow made it out with a decent amount of fuel. Which meant Starscream was about to take the fall for it.

The frown must of been evident on his face as the seeker siblings noticed quickly, "Megatron?" Warp was the first to ask and Starscream's delayed response answered it without him having to say anything. Thundercracker failed to hide his snarl and Skywarp had to nudge him.

"We have no authority," Skywarp added with a glance to TC, it was the smartest thing Skywarp had said for eons. Starscream shook his head slightly, "Well said."

"I'll deal with this myself," Starscream started, separating himself from the two as the hallways branched paths, "Wait for me in our quarters, it shouldn't be long." Thundercracker and Skywarp watched him leave, walking idly down the corridor with heavy pedes before they looked amongst themselves. Unhappy with the turn of events but unable to do anything about it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quick.