Scourge gives Cannonball an indulgent look for all of a moment. Black repaint ground vehicle solidarity? Scourge will take it!
A flick of a gaze over at Blackarachnia.
No, not yet. If Hellbender must be dealt with, Scourge will do it with his own hands. Relying on underlings looks weak, and Scourge is not afraid of triply-redundant mining worms that see in the dark.
Duskwing is not getting an explanation. Duskwing is also not going back to the dawn of time to ascend to a hyper-avatar. Duskwing is getting sent back home, when the time comes, if he doesn't kill himself by sticking his head in a metal shredder first. (Probably a metal shredder that Frenzy labelled 'free candy'.)
Needlenose does get an actual verbal answer; he merits that much. Scourge flourishes out a hand and explains, "In at least three different realities, in-universe time travel and changing the past has been shown to work." The G1 cartoon, G1 Marvel, and also Beast Wars. Also IDW and AEC, but Scourge does not know that yet! "Four, counting that we're all from different time periods." His look turns just slightly cocky. "Even if we hit a barrier and can only go back... oh... ten million years, what
things we could do with such time."
"Even if we don't have universe-to-universe ansible communication, that small time advantage would be
crushing to our enemies. On the other hand... if for some quirk of science, time travel is no longer viable," even though it obviously has been, "if universe-to-universe ansible communication
is viable, the possibilities there are still too good to pass up. The multiverse as your laboratory. Want to know what happens if you do...
anything? Ask a version of you who has."
Better hope you wouldn't lie to yourself. I would.The plan is certainly better as a whole, but even the pieces are worthy goals, Scourge feels.
Fleetwind smiles? Scourge gives the Seeker a brief indulgent look, too. Scourge doesn't know Fleetwind well, but he's worked with Fleetwind a few times, and he knows that the Seeker is careful and reserved. Fleetwind might just be smiling to appease his new commander, but that's reason enough.
Counterpunch gets a piercing glare.
Slag you, Counterpunch, brainwashing our how species to be more aggressive and instituting a police state is a bad sci-fi movie, too!To Hellbender, he says mildly, "On the contrary,
a Megatron did - the Megatron of Tarantulas and Rampage. He wanted to go back to the war of his forefathers and win it for them. I just want to go back further, to where I'll have
all the time in the universe and stay in... touch with all those other versions of myself, as those with multiple bodies do." Like Reflector crossed with a Time Lord! "An army of me, if you will."
So that Scourge doesn't have to face an infinite number of dimensional traveller incarnations of himself. It seems obvious why that would be a pain.
A quick look over at Turmoil and then to Assault who might even be surprised; it's hard to tell with him. Oh, has Scourge put Slugslinger out? He hopes so! Hasn't Slugslinger heard? Scourge has
come to shake his faith! Scourge favours the screen with a smug look and puts one hand on his hip, repeating, "It's simple. Go back to the dawn of time with self-to-self extra-universal ansible communication modifications. Propagate through every possible universe as a self-to-self network intelligence. Conquer. Rule. You could, of course, just go home, instead, Slugslinger."
Dark Skyfire has a good question, and no good question must go unpunished. "As this is a new plan, no one is yet assigned. Why... would you want lead on the communications aspect?" He glances over at Blackarachnia. "Because that could be arranged. If you think you could get results."
"But for now... we need short term goals. Hook is lost. Even if the Autobots have extracted everything out of his head - worst case scenario, we must assume they have - and I want Intel on analysing just how much that worst case scenario includes - if Hook can put half a thought together, he's still valuable. The Autobots have a lead on us. Either we make them pause or we give them a reason to chase us. We were on course for Cybertron, but there are a number of inhabited planets along the way." Scourge calls up a map. Earth is included. "I think we are well aware of the peculiar fondness for Earthlings that Autobots harbour. Attacking Earth to force them to turn back and stop us is always a possibility,
if this Earth is like others - soft and weak, ripe for the plucking. We must be vigilant for the occasion to strike and retake what is ours."
"The Autobots have a functional spacebridge. We need our own working spacebridge or a functional equivalent."
"In addition to Hook and a spacebridge, one more short term goal would be their rocks, to deny them new allies on their ship."
"And of course, if the chance comes up to destroy so much as one of them, that is always an opportunity to seize. More goals will be added after I've had time to convene with Starscream and other advisors."