Radio: Dead End to Starscream

[Dead End]

Dead End makes a private transmission to Starscream:

// Dead End here. This is what I meant by getting back to you, because some information should not be spilled all over the airwaves. Now, where do you want me to start? The day things all went greasy side up and half the High Command died, Cybertron was nearly destroyed and those few of us who survived got to start a year starving in exile? There? //

[Starscream]

//EVERYTHING about some kind of 'Semi-Life' I have apparently had! NOW!//

[Dead End]

// Ah, that. That bit I didn't fill Spinister on when I gave him a history lesson; I didn't think he needed to know. The short 'Tell me now!' version? Will raise questions, which will require the long version, so I'll have to tell you it anyway, and you won't like it--very well then. //

// In 2005, Galvatron kills you at your coronation as Emperor of the Decepticons and takes over. There was absolutely no doubt about your death; you were incinerated to ash in front of a large audience of Decepticons, myself included. What happened a year or so later was mostly a matter of rumor, but I tracked the rumors down because of my... peculiar interests in such things. //

// You were not happy about being killed like that. You came back as a ghost--a rather powerful, aggressive ghost with the ability to possess other mechs. You used that to try to get revenge on Galvatron, and a new body from Unicron; I don't know if you succeeded at the latter. You certainly caused Galvatron a great deal of trouble--in a few days, you did far more damage to his ego, sanity, and closest followers than you ever did to either Megatron or the Autobots. Some of us, // Dead End's tone of voice suggest that he means himself, // came to the conclusion that you are far more dangerous dead than alive, not to mention rather vindictive to anyone responsible for you being dead. //

[Starscream]

Holding a grudge against someone who killed him? Yeah, that's odd.

//I see. Well then, Dead End...

...WHEN IN THE NAME OF VECTOR SIGMA WERE YOU PLANNING ON TELLING ME ANY OF THIS?!!?//

[Dead End]

Not many mechs are so vindictive they come back from the dead over it. That's definitely odd. Unless he came back because Octane was a clod and tripped over his grave while screaming Starscream's name for help... but Dead End doesn't know that part.

// You've been busy. I assumed you'd ask when you wanted to know. I certainly dropped enough hints about your uncertain future.// Dead End sounds slightly aggrieved at being yelled at for being perfectly reasonable.

// Also, I did brief Spinister and Thundercracker on our history starting with that very bad day and going through Galvatron's takeover, Unicron's attack and our exile to Charr. I didn't get to your coming back from the dead quite deliberately. I don't trust Spinister that much. //

// I did brief certain people on why killing you and taking over is Not An Option. Oh, and depending on when he was pulled from the timestream, and if they are versions from my reality, Kup and Perceptor may know about this little... quirk of yours. //

// It is rather nice to know that it doesn't all end after the inevitable end, isn't it? I thank you for that. //

[Starscream]

//So you've seen fit to talk to other people about my conditions, but not myself.// If Starscream knew Dead End was being repaired, he'd order Hook to shoot him immediately afterward.

//And who are Galvatron and Unicron anyway?//

[Dead End]

A long, weary sigh. // You did order me to cooperate with Spinister's interrogation, so of course I had to tell him my history! It's not my fault you're a big part of history, Commander. Thundercracker wanted to know how he died, so I had to tell him what I knew about that, as well. //

Dead End sounds positively miffed by this point. // You didn't want to talk to me. I can't make you listen, you're Air Commander Starscream. Or possibly Emperor, if your last rank applies retroactively to your past self now. I'm just a warrior who is doomed to die soon enough. //

// Perhaps I was wrong, sir, to point out why killing you is a bad idea. If you prefer, I'll not do such a thing again. I could even encourage the opposite, if you'd rather. // Hmm, maybe there's a reason Motormaster occasionally used the apathetic, unassuming Dead End as a punching bag?

// Oh, now we're getting to the long part of the story. I told you we would. Just a moment while I sort things out here... //

---
OOC: Pause to allow Starscream to get a word in edgewise.

[Starscream]

There's that twitch in the back of Starscream's optic. His issues with the Stunticons was always more than just 'jets versus cars'.

//If someone DOES try to kill me, they'll find out for themselves if there is life after death.//

He doesn't offer any other talkback at the moment. He's tired of arguing the rest of the points with Dead End.

[Dead End]

// As you say, sir. I will note, however, that most of my fellow Decepticons are a little vague on the idea that there's death after life to begin with. //

Oh, wonderful. Starscream is mad at him, and will probably come over here and blow Dead End's lasercore out and end all his worries. And then Hook will get annoyed over having his work ruined. Obviously Dead End needs to stop protecting his allies; they just get irritated.

// By 2005 we had pushed the Autobots off of Cybertron; they retained a toehold on the two moons, and their bases on Earth along with their human allies. Megatron opted to strike at the Autobot's powerbase on Earth. That was the day everything went greasy-side up... //

// Shortly after returning from the raid, you told us that it had been a fatally risky, 'go-for-broke' strategy and it was all Megatron's fault things went wrong. Megatron did not take us Stunticons on the raid. He took you, the Constructicons, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Soundwave and his cassettes, Blitzwing, Astrotrain, and the Insecticons, that I know of. As I understand it, you captured an Autobot shuttle over the dead shells of some of Optimus Prime's elite cadre--that you personally killed with Megatron in hand. That and the termination of Optimus Prime were possibly the only good things out of that raid. //

// I've heard different versions of what happened down there; you'll have to find someone who was actually on the raid, and who survived 2005, to get the details. Optimus Prime was killed by Megatron, that much no one disagrees about. As for the rest, I heard that Megatron was gravely wounded by Prime, perhaps killed. You returned to Cybertron in Astrotrain, on the last dregs of the latter's fuel, but without Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercracker, or the Insecticons. I was told that they were all killed in battle with the Autobots, and the bodies jettisoned to save fuel. You took leadership of the Decepticons, of course, with Astrotrain and Blitzwing at your side. //

Dead End conveniently leaves out the rumors that Starscream tossed a still-living Megatron out the airlock, along with others who weren't quite dead. He's not totally stupid.

// Now we get to Unicron. Unicron was--is--a gigantic living machine planet that eats other planets. It also transforms, so it could also be the largest Transformer in existance. What none of us knew at the time was that Unicron had stalked the shuttle home.//

// It salvaged some of the jettisoned Decepticons, and re-made and re-programmed them to suit itself. One of those was Megatron--he became Galvatron, and apparently did not follow the program Unicron intended. //

// A purple spacefighter crashed your coronation ceremony, and out of it leaped Galvatron--the spacefighter transformed into his lieutenant, Cyclonus. I remember him well.// Now Dead End hesitates; considering who he's telling this to...

// You seemed to recognize that Galvatron was Megatron, but before you could do anything, Galvatron transformed into a sort of fusion cannon artillery piece and fired. That, I fear, was the end of your reign and history. // There is a sense of regret in Dead End's words, though whether regret at what happened, or at having to tell Starscream, is hard to tell.

// Galvatron lead us to attack the Autobots. Things were rather chaotic after that--Unicron ate both moons and attacked the planet. Shockwave sent all the Seekers and spacefighters and other fliers up to defend our world against the Great Devourer. A few survived. Shockwave did not. He was under Unicron's first strike on Cybertron.//

// Somehow, the Autobot Hot Rod got turned into Rodimus Prime, the new Autobot leader, defeated Galvatron, and destroyed Unicron. Those few of us who survived were exiled from Cybertron; we starved for a year on a burnt-out world called Charr. //

// Then Cyclonus and Scourge came out of space to rally us and search for Galvatron, whom they eventually found, and then there were the Quintessons pretending to ally with us when they really wanted to use us to kill all Cybertronians, and Galvatron returned to lead us, and it's been very involved since then, // Dead End swiftly concludes.

[Starscream]

//Dead End, this little morsel of knowledge apparently hasn't made its way to you, so listen now and listen good. STOP. TALKING. Our open range frequencies have been compromised. If the person you've found is a hostile, we'll deal with that, but otherwise I don't want you speaking up on the channel. Alert everyone around you to this and then report back.//

[Dead End]

// Commander Starscream, // Dead End said with careful precision, // we have new arrivals out by the southern road into town. A large tanker-truck-former and group leader from Sky-Byte's universe named Scourge, and an outcast Junkion called Screwdriver. Scourge seems rather more like Motormaster than Octane, except without all the yelling. The Junkion speaks TV, so figuring her out beyond 'outcast' and 'repairs things very well' is difficult.//

// Oh, and Scourge seems to have a bone to pick with Sky-Byte. Apparently he contacted Sky-Byte first, and was deliberately misdirected. //

[Starscream]

...Motormaster is a universal constant. Oh, goody. But then, he has a bone to pick with Sky-Byte so he couldn't be all bad. For some definitions of the term anyway. We ARE talking about Decepticons here.

//Give this 'Scourge' my private frequency. I have some questions to ask him, and in exchange I'll bring him to Sky-Byte.//

//And what in the scrap is a Junkion? Speaks TV? What ARE you talking about?//

[Dead End]

There were several moments of dead air before Dead End replied (He's recovering from being smacked by Hook). // Done. Oh, you'll find Scourge's robot mode interesting. //

// Oh dear. That's another one of those incredibly complicated things that came up while you were dead. Junkions are a race of Transformers that no one actually knew about until 2005. They live on a literal junkheap of a planet and they are very possessive, very territorial salvagers and scavengers. They are built of junk, and very hard to put down permanently, since they can rebuild just about anything, including themselves. Their culture and language all seems to come from video broadcasts that their planet is positioned to intercept. Many of those came from Earth--so imagine a race of robots speaking like a mish-mash of all of Earth's popular TV entertainments... //

// The Autobots managed to ally them somehow, and Galvatron has managed to antagonize them repeatedly, so most of them are Autobot allies. This one claims to be an outcast who makes 'toys' that the other Junkions did not approve of, and that may be dangerous. //

[Starscream]

//..They are Transformers made from garbage and live in their own filth, who model their behaviour on the most mind-numbing form of recreation for the most mind-numbing species in the galaxy. Thank you Dead End, what a find that is. Demand some proof that she's of use to me, or else kill her on the spot. We have enough 'interesting' additions as it is.//

[Dead End]

// Scourge seems to think her useful, and I am not currently in a position to dispute with him. He reported a run-in with Rodimus Prime, and came away still functional, with a piece of Prime. //

// Oh, right, I should have mentioned that bit of intel. The Autobots have a Rodimus Prime now. //