When We Seared The Sky

Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

Fear is the Enemy

Thrust was seething with rage.

Seething.

He clenched his fists angrily, his short, metallic fingers scraping harshly against his palms as he glared at Bloodbringer. “I saidnot to harm the humans, you cretin!” he roared at the small, rusty Decepticon drone, who cowered before his leader in obvious fear. “Much as I like to torture them myself, you have brought us unnecessary attention – the Autobots will track us now!”

“Bloodbringer bad - not kill humans now,” the primitive creature promised faithfully, pounding on his corroded chest plate with his fist. “Not kill humans unless Lord Thrust tell him to kill humans.”

The stocky Decepticon commander put his head in his hands and hissed softly in anger. He had lost Starscream to the Autobot cause, it seemed; wonderful as this was for his position as leader, it meant he had also lost the most adept aerial combatant on Cybertron. He had promoted Skywarp to Decepticon Air Commander, and the jet was good for the position, but not nearly as lethal in the air as Starscream - nor as cold and calculating. He was obedient, true, but a little rebellion made things more exciting.

Throwing a punch in Bloodbringer’s direction and missing when the oxidised robot ducked, Thrust turned to Barricade. “Barricade, keep your partner under control,” he snarled, shoving Bloodbringer towards the hunter and causing the black-and-white to stagger when the smaller Decepticon crashed into him.

“I would if he was a partner I wanted,” Barricade snapped, baring his extensive teeth. The nerve... “Why don’t you let me find Frenzy’s body?” His deep, grating voice took on a slightly pleading note as he appealed to the commanding officer, which made Thrust raise an optic ridge. “You can restore him with the All Spark... and Scorponok. He is still in Qatar, alone -”

“And why do you think I care?” Thrust sneered, transforming his right arm into a gun and training it on Barricade’s face. “Those useless minions of Soundwave’s are of no use whatsoever to me! Scorponok is a clumsy fool, and Frenzy makes me want to slag myself to the Pit with that fraggin’ chatter! He’s almost as bad as that ridiculous Autobot, Wheelie.”

Urgh, Wheelie... the most infuriating blemish on the universe that had ever existed. Thrust still shuddered at the memory of that poetry slag that had always come out of the Autobot's mouth.

“Glad Thunderblast took him down,” Barricade admitted, and a feeling of triumph filled Thrust's spark.

They are learning their place as my inferiors.

Sideways appeared with Skywarp a few moments later, and the Air Commander stood up straight, ruby optics searching the skies for his slow, stupid minions. Thrust had used Alexis’s necklace to create four more primitive newborns, three of whom had the ability to transform into jets – meaning that the Autobots were outnumbered by a long way when it came to aerial combat. However, he was more than aware of how dangerous Starscream was, and knew that Skyfire was a formidable threat - those two were not to be taken lightly.

The three fighter jets transformed clumsily in mid-air and crashed down to earth on top of each other, shrieking in broken English and Cybertronian. They had been christened Taint, Spineshatter and Reaper, and were reasonably skilled in the air; they learnt slowly, but were gradually picking up tactics from their commanding officer, Skywarp.

“Get up,” Thrust snapped at them, and they hastened to obey. “Skywarp, for Primus’s sake get them to land properly!”

Skywarp bowed deeply. “As you command, Lord Thrust.”