Radio: Needlenose to Spinister

[Spinister]

Spinister sounds frustrated, but it's mostly with himself. He readily agrees, //I know! I don't think Dead End or Starfighter had any clue they might have been dealing with Emirate Xaaron. I'm not sure they even have an Emirate Xaaron. Their Starscream doesn't know him. Don't get too excited. Treaddraft could be legit, or he could need a hole through his head. We'll find out.//

This he vows.

[Needlenose]

Needlenose sighs over the radio, then goes on, //All right, all right. Well, now I know who to keep an eye out for. It's just so... so... frustrating!//

[Needlenose]

//Hey, Spinister, Starscream's got an old buddy that he's trying to recruit, but apparently the guy ain't much for conquest so he's laying it on thick with the storytelling. //

//This concerns us, because he says that if they're asked, the Nebulans came to this planet on their own and were shot down by unidentified craft. They found some other villages empty and with damages like what I did to the mining town, and in one city that they saw get destroyed, they spotted something ground-based departing it and ran.//

//Says the Nebulans aren't to be around near the guy - looks like the Autobot Jetfire, by the way, but Starscream's been calling him Skyfire - in gun mode until they're comfortable reciting that scrap pile, but I can tell you already Ziggy's not happy about someone else getting the credit for what he did, so I may just have to keep mine out of sight for awhile.//

[Spinister]

Needlenose may imagine Spinister to be facepalming, based off his tone. Spinister is, of course, not facepalming. He's too professional to do that while he's stalking someone he knows as one of the Ten Deadliest Killers. Still, the mental image has some appeal.

Spinister would like to facepalm.

Instead, he lectures, although he's not so much lecturing Needlenose as he is analytically critiquing Starscream's plan, //That story will never hold water unless you go out now and vape part of every single town. I've been out here. These places are untouched. If this Skyfire is at all similar to Jetfire, a few aerial passes will tell him that much. Moreover, we've already given a brief explanation of our Nebulans to the other Decepticons, and some of them don't know the meaning of deception. I'm not opposed to lying, but Starscream needs to make his lies plausible. It is never a pleasant thing to discover that one's new boss has been dishonest, and I would hate to have to kill this newcomer. Lies need to be kept simple, easy to remember, and not far from the truth. Starscream's lies are none of those three. Can you handle explaining this to Starscream, or do you need me to talk to him?//

[Needlenose]

//I tried telling him. He didn't respond.// Well, this is more or less true. Needlenose pointed out some flaws in the story, at the very least.

//And it's a bit worse than you think. He's already got orbital maps of the whole planet. He passed them along to Starscream. Depending on the resolution of the images, it's probably already too late to go out and set things up.//

[Spinister]

//...lovely.// Spinister himself imagines how good, how right a facepalm would feel. //Telling a guy with orbital maps that various towns are slagged when he knows they aren't doesn't work. I'll try talking to him on my next radio in. Tracking's been uneventful so far.//

[Spinister]

//You're good with people. Invent a new story for the Nebulans doesn't contradict any lies Starscream's already today but doesn't compound the problem. Make is plausible and hard to falsify. Then run it by Starscream.//

[Needlenose]

//Spinister, why not the truth? They signed on willingly with us after the Autobots dragged the war to their planet! They were already partnered with us when we were brought here.//

//Granted, we can leave out the bit about the whole the Autobots went there was because they were trying to get away from the war.//

//I think Starscream doesn't like that I blew up half the town in my test shots. Well, fine. Say we found it like that, and leave it there.//

[Needlenose]

Then Needlenose remembers something.

//Damn it. Starscream told him these guys were survivors. That doesn't work, then.//

Needlenose sighs. //I don't suppose we can just get Starscream to admit he got his facts wrong? Like, he met the Nebulans with us, and just made assumptions without asking us?//

[Spinister]

//You're the one with the people skills. Go ahead and try.//

It wasn't Needlenose's overall good combat abilities that interested Spinister. It was that Needlenose is overall good in combat while also being a brilliant circuit designer who is actually social. Decepticons who play well with others are hard to find!

[Spinister]

//Needlenose, I have authorisation from Starscream to interview and later run through combrat drills nearly everyone here. I'm stuck out in a swamp for now, so I'd like you to pick up the slack. Don't try it with Hook or Starscream,// obvious reasons, //or Dead End, Thundercracker, and Jetstorm, because I did those, but otherwise, ask about their abilities, useful and useless, their experience, the technology they knew about back home, the important historical events, and who they engaged in combat at the power plant, if they were there. Up for it?//

[Needlenose]

//Ah, sure! I've got it.//

He's all for another excuse to get away from the base planning for awhile.

[Needlenose]

//Hey, Spinister, is it just me, or does this new policy of Starscream's have the potential to cause some pretty serious strife down the road? Think about how many of our own guys died in that Underbase mess - and isn't Ratbat one of them?¹ Even if it's not the same Starscream, they're liable to be a bit resentful.//

---

¹ Ratbat was, in fact, killed by Scorponok, not Starscream. However, it stands to reason that some of the specific details from that event would be fuzzy to those who weren't part of it, and it would be fairly easy to mistakenly assume that all Decepticons lost that day were killed by Starscream.

[Spinister]

//Most of the Underbase deaths were never investigated. We didn't have the time, and there was an obvious culprit. The ballistics data was dodgy on a few of them, but I don't have my notes with me on which cases.//

Decepticons killing each other in secret and blaming other people? Oh, that never happens!

//Either be selective in what you tell Ratbat or brief Starscream on what his alternate self did first.//

[Needlenose]

Needlenose sighs. //I didn't want to tell him. Was worried it might, you know, give him ideas. But I think we're going to have to. That was too big an event, and if many more people arrive from our universe he's liable to find out, anyway.//