Infection

Lure

     Starscream walked confidently off the bridge of the warship holding their new prize with orders to take it to the vault. It was safe to say that he was back on Megatron's good side.

     After locking the relic safely away he went to the medical bay. He went their almost as often as his quarters but in all honesty he had nowhere else to go. Besides when he was in a good mood, he and Knockout got along great.

     Knockout and Breakdown had been like a trine to him and were part of the reason he was still online. He thought back to just after his trine mates had perished. His drive to become the leader of the decepticons was how he pushed through in the beginning and Megatron had placed him in a temporary medical facility with two cons he though Starscream got along with. Said cons had recently become partners, one a medic, the other a wrecker.

     For the first few days he had been extremely suicidal and the two cons had both been told not to leave the facility. It turned out to be for good reason as they had to talk him down several times as well as physically stop him from killing himself.

     Soundwave researched that once a seeker had bonded, they were considered stable, if their trine mates died they could survive off previously being stable by unofficially "bonding" with two others, that did not have to be seekers. After 2 weeks he began to improve and the two felt comfortable leaving him alone.

     They had grown closer and in a way he accepted them as his "new trine", and they accepted him. Now Knockout was the only one left and Starscream was fighting a bit of the pain that still linger in him, when Breakdown died he had a bit of a relapse that Knockout helped him through. Dealing with him kept the medics mind off his fallen partner but once Starscream was cleared the full impact hit him.

     Now Starscream was the one trying to help Knockout but, despite his attempts, he was not trained how. His miserable attempts to help usually involved angering the medic to distract him but as much as Knockout tried to hid it, it wasn't working.

The seeker turned the corner into the med bay to see the group of vehicons that survived the ambush at the excavation still there.

"Out of my way!" He barked as he slipped past them and into the main area of the room. Knockout was in the middle of welding a wound that could have only been inflicted by Arcee. Two of the vehicons were cleared and he still had four left. Starscream had learned to keep quiet and out of his way while he was fixing vehicons, he shuddered as he remembered the tool that had been thrown at him last time he interfered. Was it a wrench or was that Ratchet?

     He shook himself as the vehicon was cleared, three more. He was bored so he let his scientist side take over and he began to study their forms. He had easily figured out that fliers had wings and drivers didn't but their were more subtle differences he had yet to understand.

He first noticed differences in fliers and drivers outside the obvious, like how fliers had more sleek, streamlined, forms to cut through the air with extra fins for steering and longer thinner talons to easily slice through an enemy. Drivers, however, had stronger sturdier builds with powerful vents, and thicker talons to dig into the ground, as well as stronger tails for steering.

     It was interesting how they had different adaptations for the same purpose, like how fliers used their fins to steer while drivers used their tails. But that was only the vehicons, all the autobots and high ranking decepticons had forms more adapted to their natural build and vehicle mode. From what he had seen, Bumblebee, Arcee, and Knockout were built for speed and stealth, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack were made to cause damage, himself and Soundwave, were built like bullets to easily fly through the air but tear things apart at the same time. Smokescreen's purpose drifted like he could do it all but wasn't a specialist, what did humans call it? Oh yes a generalist, typically an invasive species.
Shockwave and Ratchet seemed more able to use their paws to create or fix things but fight if nessecary, and Megatron and Optimus seemed made to fight like gladiators.

     Starscream looked over to see only two vehicons left and they didn't seem too injured. It shouldn't be too much longer. He didn't know why he was so anxious for Knockout to finish, he guessed he just wanted to make sure their medic was doing ok but he wasn't sure why he cared so much. Stupid trine instincts.

     He waited for the medic to finish and was going to try to ask him how he was doing but Knockout said he was tired and went to his quarters without any signs of grieving. Maybe he was doing better than Starscream thought.

Having nothing left to do but his actual job Starscream went back to the bridge and began to monitor patrols.

     He did this rather boring task for the next day and a half, only stopping to recharge and occasionally bother Knockout. He did however go on one flight that consisted of circling the warship but it was a good training session and he got to get out for a while.

     Now, however, here he was at his work station, working. Bligh, how boring. He glanced around him to see almost exactly the same things as two hours ago. Vehicons standing guard outside and some working inside with the occasional report coming in to Megatron who was standing at the front of the control panels multitasking with his endless amount of patience.

     Almost an hour later and to his immediate relief a notification was sent by Soundwave that he had located a relic signal. Starscream was up and over to Megatron in an instant, his wings twitching with anticipation. He was given a questioning look and then an eye roll, Megatron was definitely in one of his better moods.

Soundwave walked in with Knockout behind him and displayed a map with not one, not two, but three relic signals. That had to be some trap MECH set or maybe the autobots since MECH didn't usually strike so often.

"Sir?" He questioned but Megatron was still considering the options.

     They can't run the risk that at least one of the signals was real meaning all of them had to be investigated, however if it was a trap they also can't run the risk of being spotted. So no clumsy vehicons were going to mess this up leaving just enough decepticons to investigate.

     Megatron looked at the coordinates again, one was in the dessert, one in the tundra, and the third was in the jungle. He could send Knockout to the dessert as the con seemed fit to run long distances and stealthy enough to hide without much cover. Megatron himself would go to the tundra, since Breakdown's death no other cons were built large enough to withstand freezing temp, at least he could manage longer that the others. Leaving Starscream to go to the jungle and Soundwave to man the bridge in his absence. As much as he knew the seeker would hate feeling cooped up, he would just have to deal with it. Besides, he would hate the tundra more and he was not the ideal choice for the dessert.

     "Starscream will investigate the jungle signal, Knockout will take the dessert, and I will handle the tundra." He said as he turned to face them. "This will be a stealth mission, no vehicons, if it is a real relic report back and we will meet from their. Soundwave will handle things here."

Satisfied with no obnoxious questions they prepared to leave.

-

The autobots were also preparing, having received the same signals an exceedingly tired Ratchet notified them. He had still not gotten any rest and was going on day 3. Cybertronians naturally didn't require as much recharge as humans but 3 days was kind of a stretch and Ratchet was showing signs of exhaustion.

Nevertheless he resumed covering it up and continuing to work on their cure no matter how much the team pushed him to rest, however he had stopped to type coordinates into the groundbridge. Of the three locations Bulkhead and Arcee were heading to the jungle, Arcee because of her stealth and speed and Bulkhead because of his strength and color, which could allow him to hide better in the thick forest. Bumblebee and Wheeljack were going to the dessert, Bumblebee for his speed and stealth and Wheeljack for strength, similar to the first team. That left Smokescreen and Optimus to go to the tundra, also following the team structures, Smokescreen for speed and Optimus for strength.

As the teams left Ratchet just hoped they would make it back soon, he was getting really tired and, although he would never admit it, he wasn't sure he could keep going that much longer.