Chapter Text
9/17/1984, Namibia, Africa
Soundwave opened a Bridge, dropping herself from the Nemesis to the mudball, leaving the vessel for the first time since, the incident, she shook her helm at that, trying to stop it before the phantom pains took hold, “You good, boss?” Laserbeak had asked her, the last of her Casseticons by her, refusing to abandon her even as she ordered it of him, he would not leave her alone.
“Yes, Laserbeak, I am–” before she could finish her answer there was a noise, it was a rumble at 27 Hz, a form of communication, hearing it, Soundwave walked towards the source, listening to the communication between what she assumed was the dominant species, as Soundwave approached, having calculated a rough translation of their language, thankfully it was something she could simulate.
Approaching them, she saw the species, the largest of them reached to her waist, they started to surround their young protecting them as the male gave a roar, “Stay back!” he said, “No food for you here!” hearing this, Soundwave had raised her servos to them, “I am not harmful.” she had said to them, “I only wish to greet.” she had said to them all, making them lower their extremities and their audials.
The quadrupeds approached her, examining her with their extremities, she could feel them sniffing her, their tusks tapping against her plating, careful, Soundwave gently touched the largest, trying to appear harmless to them, “Has your kind met others like me?” she had asked them, Confusion. Trust. Coming from the inhabitants, “Others?” one of the smaller ones said, grabbing her servo for attention.
She started to pet it like the sparkling was made of glass when Soundwave heard something, it was the sound of a Spacebridge, the inhabitants grew distressed, backing away with a young male coming forth with anger in his optics, he reminded her of a young Megatron as the Groundbridge revealed that Three Autobots came forth, appearing non hostile, her rubsign must have been working.
She returned to the inhabitants, “They’re here!” Laserbeak said, “We need to terminate–” “No!” she had told him before looking down to the inhabitants, they started to see the similarities, “Calm.” she said, placing a calming servo onto Organic Megatron, “They are not threat.” That seemed to calm them when the leader of The Autobots, Optimus Prime, spoke up, “Senator Ratbat?” he asked of her.
A shiver went through her Bipedalism cord as she had gotten into character, “<Orion Pax!>Ratbat” Soundwave said, utilizing the database she and her Ratbat had compiled, “<It is so good to see a friendly face plate!>Ratbat” she said before bowing down to the natives, calming them some more when the one of the others spoke, “Wait, I thought you died in the Senate Massacre?” Distrust. Said Bulkhead.
Hearing that, Soundwave got up, “<That was a lie,>Ratbat” told them, “<Soundwave imprisoned me! Tortured me for Decavorns until I escaped!>Ratbat” Soundwave said to them, “<Luckily I had found myself here, I was just finishing greeting the natives.>Ratbat” Soundwave told them Confusion. Came from all three of them, ‘Uh, those aren’t the natives.” Bulkhead told her.
“Those’re elephants,” he had said to her, “<Oh,>Ratbat” she said, “<how many of you are there?>Ratbat” recording their signatures, especially Optimus, she would need it, Optimus raised an optical ridge at this, seeming to have noticed something on her chest plate, that did not bode well, “<Orion?>Ratbat” she asked, making her body language show what she wanted as the others grew suspicious.
“Tell me, Ratbat,” Optimus Prime had said to her, “Why do you wear a rubsign like the early Decepticons?” hearing this, the other two raised their blasters at her, making Soundwave raise her servos in surrender, “<Orion!>Ratbat” had said, faking panic as she had started to initiate protocols, Bulkhead was about to speak up when there was a sound on their comms.
“Optimus!” A mech said, her datafiles told her that it was Cliffjumper, she recalled when he was– “Scrap!” she thought, “That’s not Ratbat! It’s Soundwave!” that was all they needed to hear, Shock. Surprise. Anger. Came from the trio as they trained weapons on her, but Soundwave was prepared, before they could even speak, a bridge was opened right underneath her pedes.
As Soundwave had vanished from their sight, almost as if he had phased through the very Earth, the Autobots had lowered their weapons with confusion, “What just happened?” Bulkhead had asked, wondering why the CCO of The Decepticons and the right servo mech of Megatron was here, “I fear,” Optimus had told his fellow Autobots, “That the Decepticons have now learned of our presence here.” he told them.
That had struck a chord for all of them, the fact that their enemies had tracked them here, that they were not safe here anymore, the enemy that they had hid from here on Earth now knew that they were here, they knew that Optimus Prime was here, which meant soon, very soon, the war was going to come here as well, they just hoped that the conflict will not come to harm the natives as well.
______________________________________________________________________
The Nemesis , Solar System’s Asteroid Field
Soundwave had landed safely down upon Bridge of the Nemesis, Surprise. Fear. came from Starscream as she had landed just behind Megatron’s Second, “Soundwave!” he had hissed both shocked and angry at her appearance, “Why are you back!?/ You should have taken Decavorns for him to finish his confirmation!” in response to his thought, Soundwave activated the footage on her visor.
On it was the footage of Optimus Prime, Surprise. Shock. “How did he already find Optimus Prime!?” “Optimus Prime?” “It’s the Prime!” came from Starscream and the MTOs as she played it on the screens for them all to see, “He was there!?” Starscream growled towards her, getting in her visor, she waited a few moments, staying impassive as Starscream stared into his reflection on her blank visor.
The moment that he started to give off fear, Soundwave had nodded before setting the coordinates, the planet Earth, seeing this, Starscream became a flurry of emotion, Excitement. Greed. Interest. “Yes! I have found our enemy while Megatron still flounders amongst the stars!/ Begin docking in Earth’s orbit, activate scramblers for the planet once we get there.” he had told the pilot who had complied.
Soundwave watched as they moved from their previous position to head towards Earth proper, “Soundwave,” Starscream said, his grin still on his face plate, “We will need all the information that you can gather on this… Earth.” he had told her, “Scour the archives and access their data-net,” he had ordered, “We will need all the information possible to find their base of operations.”
Soundwave just walked away, heading to her quarters so that she could go and get her work done, passing by the only soldiers that Starscream trusted to be around, her being the only exception, him not trusting her to be out of his sight, in her command on The Garden, this was the best place he could have her and she wouldn’t have it any other way as she accessed the security footage of The Nemesis.
Recording, getting ready to send everything to the DSS as she had opened up her terminal, all of the data running through as she had linked up her screen, filing through everything when she saw that the latest reports on Megatron, he had been last seen in The Benzuli Expanse, no further reports afterwards, seeing that, she went and focused upon the other reports sent in.
It seemed things were going moderately well, the movements of The Autobots were well out of The Sector here, they would not be a major problem for them, Team Prime is isolated from the rest of their forces after they had removed the signal from circulation, making it easier to deal with them all on their own now, the only real problem right now is Spec Ops trying to hack into her systems.
Prowl was an annoying afthole, but he was a Clever annoying aafthole, Soundwaves been having to update constantly, The Cyber Security of The DSS as having their work cut out for them, both in defending and attacking against their own neworks, The Autobot Orbital Command Hub, or AOCH, was still hidden from her, luckily they were able to pin it down to The Quadrant.
Thankfully it was opposite of where they were located, so there wasn’t a major threat from him, Dreadwing, Ravage and other Auto-Hunters were all going after stray Autobots, mostly Wreckers and those that had gotten lost, but they were whittling them down, there were The Colonies that had been discovered were declared off limits by The Accords so there was a loss of troops there.
The Junkion mercenaries and Neutral Pirates were becoming a problem, attacking their supply depots and cargo vessels, venting at that, she had started to think on how to deal with them, maybe have The Cons stationed on Sanctuary Station could do some sabotage on them, as that possible solution was thought of, Soundwave had started to check the recording when she paused on the animals.
They were… calming, to her, the way they communicated, how protective of each other, it was almost like Soundwave and her Pack, “You really liked those thing, don’t you?” Laserbeak had asked of her, “Yes,” she told him, “They’re just so interesting to watch.” she told him before checking the list of possible members of Team Prime, both from the video and reports.
The most obvious of them of course was Optimus Prime himself, then there was Bulkhead, a Wrecker that had reassigned from Kup and the others, that wasn’t a major problem, The yellow one, according to previous data and what had been gathered from The Ark attack, this was most likely Bumblebee who had been reconstructed after the blast he took protecting The Prime, he made her feel a little pity for him.
If that comm was to be believed then Cliffjumper was here, and if the Assassin was here then Arcee was as well, that just left the possibility of the Chief Medical Officer, one of Optimus’ closest allies, Ratchet, realizing this, she had put down the file before scanning through the Earth Data-Net, it was archaic, like somehow their data was in a feudal system, not planetary like other species, but that wasn’t surprising.
A Five thousand year old society, it wasn’t surprising with such a young species, even their intelligence agencies were simple compared to The DSS and Spec Ops, as she had looked at their transmissions and was interested, there was some chatter within something called The United Nations(Why, they weren’t united?), they were proposing the creation of a taskforce known as The EDC, Earth Defense Command.
This was interesting, Soundwave wondered if this was The Autobots breaching The Tyrest Accords, she would have to examine them, see if there is a possibility that she can bring in The Dreads at a future date, for now though, Soundwave needed more data on Earth and all of the possible advantages and disadvantages that would be available to them as it were.
The first and most obvious of them was the fact that there were vehicle modes that they could utilize against the enemy, she started searching and sending them out to their forces here on The Nemesis when she saw something, a form that interested her, it was known as a Drone, it was unmanned and used for espionage, “I believe this would be appropriate for us.” she told Laserbeak.
The Cassetticon had agreed with this thought and watched as Soundwave had downloaded it into her form, her body reconfiguring to be able to transform into it before opening a Groundbridge, plopping into open air, she went freefall before transforming, flying through the air of Earth, ready to get to work and make sure that the Decepticons were victorious against their enemies.
______________________________________________________________________
Autobot Base Omega One
Optimus, Bulkhead and Bumblebee had returned from their mission grim, “Optimus,” Ratchet said as he approached them, “What happened out there?” The medic asked, Cliffjumper and Arcee there as well, worried, “It was as Cliffjumper stated,” Optimus told them, “As soon as his identity was revealed, Soundwave escaped via a Spacebridge.” Optimus told them.
“What I don’t get is how,” Bulkhead said, “I thought you need a remote or something to bridge that quickly?” he said, at this, Arcee spoke up, “I heard about that,” she told them, “Rumor has it that Soundwave experimented on himself, made it so that he had a Spacebridge control in his body.” she told them, earning some concerned expressions, the amount of resolve for a procedure that painful…
Before any of them could say anything else, the elevator had opened up to reveal three individuals coming out, Optimus smiling and Bumblebee excited as The Witwicky’s and a stranger had approached, “Hey Bumblebee!” Fourteen year old Steven ‘Spike’ Witwicky said as he went and high fived Bumblebee’s outstretched hand, Colonel Daniel ‘Sparkplug’ Witwicky watching them as it happened.
“Hello, Colonel Witwicky,” Optimus said, bowing his head to one of their first friends and military liaison of Earth, “How may we help you?” he asked them, “Three things,” Sparkplug said as the young agent followed him, “One, we heard about a sighting in Namibia, what was that about?” he asked them, expecting an answer, “We had received a Cybertronian signature there and assumed it was one of us.”
Sparkplug nodded as he heard the BUT, “But it wasn’t, was it?” he asked as his son went to go and chat with Bumblebee, the first one they found and ever since then the two of them had been two peas in a pod, “It was not,” Optimus told him, “I fear that The Decepticons have become aware of our presence here on Earth.” he admitted, making Sparkplug cuss once his son was out of earshot.
“That brings me to things Two and Three,” he said, “First off, Uncle Sam had gotten The UN involved, they’re creating a taskforce to be responsible for you guys and anyone else out there,” he told them, “They’re calling it the Earth Defense Command.” he said, “Does your… United Nations not trust us?” Optimus asked, “Quite the opposite, Optimus, we just want to make sure it doesn’t reach the public.” he told him.
That was reasonable and the others understood, after all, that was part of The Tyrest Accords as it were, “And the third part, Colonel?” Ratchet asked him, the two looked at each other, they both liked each other, both cantankerous and gruff but loyal to those who matter, “We’re reorganizing,” he told them, “I’m to be n charge of one of the Three Units a part of this.” he explained to them.
“Agent Fowler here, will be in charge of you, acting as your liaison for Unit: E.” he told them, “Nice to meet you all.” Fowler said to them, eyeing each and every one of them while Sparkplug continued, “I’ll try and slip in here every once in a while, but try to treat Fowler here like you would me.” he told them while Fowler had different orders involving them.
“They are an alien species that are older than us and much more dangerous than us,” General Bryce told him, “Keep an eye on them and don’t drop your guard, you report to me, not The Colonel.” and so Fowler was going to do just that, he’d watch them, and the moment that they showed hostility, Uncle Sam was going to come in with an airstrike to turn them into scrap metal.
“Alright Fowler,” Sparkplug said, drawing his attention back to The Colonel, “I’ve got business to attend to, The Bots will give you a tour, and don’t worry about Spike, he can handle himself.” The Colonel told him, after all he had been teaching him everything he knew since their first camping trip, Fowler nodded at this, unsure why they were letting a civilian here when The big big one spoke.
“Well then, Agent Fowler, allow me to give you a tour of the facilities.” Optimus told him, starting the walk while The Other Autobots dispersed, Bulkhead going to train, Ratchet working with their tech, Arcee and Cliffjumper talking, and Bumblebee taking Spike out for a drive, Fowler looked around at all of them and wondered what kind of mess he had gotten himself assigned to.
Sparkplug on the other hand was heading back to the lift, he needed to get to work, as of now, he was head of Unit: D now, which meant that he and the troops under him would be finding countermeasures against all alien threat such as Decepticons or Decepticon-related individuals, though he hoped it didn’t come to that, sighing, Sparkplug had went and pulled out his phone to call his new boss.
“Faireborn.” Dashiell “Flint” Faireborn had said, “Hey Flint,” Sparkplug said to his old friend, “Sparkplug,” Flint said, sounding relieved at the sound of his voice, “You get The Unit: E Liaison situated?” He asked, knowing that Sparkplug didn’t like leaving The Autobots under Bryce’s command, “Prime is giving him the tour right now,” he told Flint as he approached his car.
“How’s the Journeyer Asset?” he asked his new superior, “It’s going fine,” Flint told him, “The data that Sector Seven had was useful,” he said, the now defunct organization absorbed by The EDC, “Simmons helped me and The rest of Unit: C make contact now and– oh no.” he went, “Flint?” Sparkplug asked, “Hey! What did I say about her!?” he shouted, running could be heard.
Hearing this, Sparkplug started to chuckle as he heard half of the conversation with Flint yelling at The Asset, “Sorry.” Flint told him, “No problem, Flint,” he said, “So, how’s being a dad treating you?” he asked, knowing that he just discovered he had a daughter after she was left on his doorstep, “Tiring,” he admitted, “She’s already a year old but–” he started, unsure how to say it.
“I get it,” Sparkplug told him, “I had enough trouble with Spike and I had my wife to help me,” Sparkplug told him, remembering the curfew he gave him when hanging out with the bots and the gray hairs he got when Spike helped test the Groundbridge, “I’m just glad he’ll be at West Point in Four years./ Three if he keeps causing trouble,” he told Flint/thought.”
Flint gave a chuckle at that over the phone, “Yeah, I just worried about Red,” he told Sparkplug who was in agreement, Joshua Red, The previous and last Director of Sector Seven, he was… extreme, Red believed that they needed to treat all alien threats as hostiles, such as The Autobots and Journeyer Asset, in fact he had been developing weapons against them, as if he was going to war.
When The US found out about it, they removed him and had Sector Seven absorbed into The EDC with some agents quitting while others stayed, such as Simmons, Red was one of them, and neither Sparkplug or Flint were going to trust him with their backs, “Leave red to me, he’s in my Unit, you just worry about Unit: C and making sure we don’t go belly up.” he told Flint.
“Have fun being Red’s boss, Major.” Flint told him before hanging up, the promotion was not official just yet, but everyone knew that it was in the works, leaning back into his seat, Sparkplug started to think about all of the crazy that was happening now, just because he and his son had found them on their last camping trip together, making contact with an alien species, officially.
It was thanks to the Cybertronians that their understanding of the Universe had gotten so much bigger than before, but now there was also a possibility of a threat coming their way, Sparkplug hoped that they would be ready when they came, as he was driven to the airport, neither he nor anyone else knew that The Nemesis was already approaching their orbit, waiting for the first shot to start the war here as well.