Sky and Ground...I lost count: Collusion

[niyazi-a.livejournal.com]

PG
Bayverse Sky and Ground AU
Barricade, Starscream, Thundercracker Soundwave
no warnings
this story just seems a mess to me but others have been asking about it, so, I may as well post it so you can enjoy the suck as well.
 

Barricade shook his head in frustration, mostly at himself. Skywarp was not dead.  He’d know.  Everything he had heard from Thundercracker and Starscream, even the things they only dared imply, made it clear that he would know. So.  Still alive.  He took a fierce, desperate comfort in that.

“We can’t just do nothing!” he protested. 

“Barricade, we are not ‘doing nothing’,” Starscream said.  “Thundercracker is distracting Soundwave while you and I begin to discover what base they are holding Skywarp at.” 

Yeah, that…didn’t make him feel much better. “Not going to leave me out of this,” he grumbled, his talons flying over his keyboard. 

“Of course,” Starscream said. “We have already settled that.”  Starscream shifted from side to side on his feet, mildly agitated.  Thundercracker had bonded to Skywarp, but he had not. He was left out. Again. Left out. 

Barricade worked in silence for a few moments, intent on the scans popping up on his screens.  “Can-can you predict his flight vector?” 

Starscream considered, and then pulled out a smaller tracing pad, overlaying a line onto one of the scans. “Here is the flight path they logged to get to the AO.” A flowing line in red lit up on the display, next to a lighter line—Thundercracker’s approach vector.  Barricade glared at it, as though somehow it would change anything if Skywarp had flown that lighter red line. “His plotted return path was to have been…this.” A green line, blinking, empty.  Unflown.  Barricade stared at the dotted line, as though it had betrayed him—the lifeline that had snapped. 

Starscream continued, “The Autobot dropship came in on this heading,” a blue line over the target area, sharp and hateful.  “We had satellite surveillance for that part.  But most were destroyed by the time of Skywarp’s…,” he hesitated, then forced the word out, “capture.” 

“So?”

“We have only partial data on his possible exit vector with the drop ship.”  Starscream poked the sketchpad.  A few meager dots—short glimpses from crippled surveillance equipment—popped up.

“And from that?”  Barricade rocked forward on his seat.  And Thundercracker?  Why hadn’t he followed?  Barricade ground his mouth in fury and then…a dire thought.  Had Thundercracker been behind it? Been in on it?

No.  Vile thought.  He would not believe Thundercracker capable of betraying the Trine. Barricade himself, yes, but not, but never Skywarp. 

“We can only extrapolate a cone vector and approximate velocity, and that would be…this.”  A shaded cone stretched into space.  Barricade looked down at his keypad, and tapped a code.  The known Autobot bases in the cone lit up.  Only four.  The two exchanged glances. That was manageable.  Barricade jerked his chin. “Hope Thundercracker’s doing his job,” he muttered.  “Gonna launch the scansat now.”

“Have faith in Thundercracker,” Starscream said.  “He will not fail us.”

Barricade tried to have hope.

[***]

“Honestly,” Thundercracker said, spreading one palm in the chill of space.  “I am disappointed by your lack of subtlety.”

Soundwave’s collector panels shifted minutely.  Flustered? Irritated? It was impossible to tell. But he was reacting, and that was all Thundercracker needed to know.

“I am uncertain about your accusation, Seeker,” Soundwave said, pretending to be inwardly engrossed, scanning his surveillance channels, but the tightness of his diction betrayed him.  Oh yes, Thundercracker thought. Definitely getting to him.

“Oh, please,” Thundercracker said.  “Not all of us are stupid.” He smiled a double-edged smile. Take the bait, Soundwave.  You wanted to see cracks in our unity, right?  Here’s one.

“Your loyalty is also…lacking,” Soundwave retorted.

Oh, you don’t even know, Thundercracker thought. I have loyalty, and to spare. I just…choose where I spend it more carefully than you. “You think I like being tied to that…grounder?” He spat the word with unfeigned distaste.  Barricade’s devotion to Skywarp won him some points, but it was only natural that a grounder should admire an airframe. 

Soundwave tilted his head, giving up the pretense of monitoring. “It appears you are stuck with him. If he dies….”

Thundercracker snorted, releasing a puff of air from his ventilation systems that blew into silvery dust. “Your concern is touching…considering that sniper you set on him.” Thundercracker was a little startled by Soundwave’s response—the satellite’s armor panels burst, restlessly, as if he’d thought briefly about transforming and then thought better of it, pulling himself back into his sleek shape.  That…was not the reaction of a mech who had it all figured out.  Either Soundwave was so smug that he had not followed through on that failure for the oh-so-obvious attempted murder, or…he didn’t know about the sniper. Interesting. 

“Stooping to lies, now, Seeker?”  Soundwave rallied, finally. “I thought your ‘honor’ held you above such things.”

You don’t know what I’ve done in the name of my Trine’s honor.  He borrowed some of Starscream’s haughty diction. “Leave the practice of honor to warriors.”

Soundwave acknowledged the comment with a nod, as if keeping score and granting the other a point.  “What use would I have for him dead?  Perhaps it is much more…entertaining to make you suffer with the shame.”

Thundercracker’s optics narrowed at Soundwave’s inscrutable face. This time, he could read nothing from the satellite’s expression. It didn’t seem like Soundwave’s character but…he didn’t know. It had been a calculated risk, when he had volunteered—how well Starscream could manipulate the crew he had served with for so long versus how well the crew could play him. “You don’t look very ‘entertained’,” he said. 

“Neither do you.”

Thundercracker tipped his head. “My Trinemate,” the word was a slip, but he let it go—it worked better this way, “cares.”

“Your Trinemate,” Soundwave returned, “is not here.” 

Thundercracker could feel the cold optics boring through him, like drills of ice, waiting for some sign. Please, he thought, to Starscream and…to Barricade.  Get the scan. Find him. While he played the part of betrayer. “And do I have you to thank for that?” he sneered, swathing himself in habitual arrogance, as though shrugging on a comfortable cloak.

“I suspect you have…Skywarp to thank for that,” Soundwave said. “He appears to lack foresight.”

A little too close to home, and Thundercracker knew the injury showed.  He mastered himself with difficulty, and said, “Well, I can at least make good use of his absence then, can’t I?” He allowed a poisonously sweet smile to gloss his face.

“Can you?” Soundwave countered.

Thundercracker made a show of inspecting his hand, bending and flexing it, rolling it in the dim light.  “Certainly,” he said.  “You know so very much about Seeker law,” he said, sarcasm dripping, “Surely you have heard of a Bondbreak?” 

 

Comments

[anavidbookworm.livejournal.com]

Oh happy day, you've updated this verse. :)

I'm looking for the suck but can't find it. The flow was very consistant and your characterization was as enjoyable as ever.

With Thundercracker playing the traitor so well and Barricade, even for a moment, questioning his loyalty I can see problems on the horizon.

[niyazi-a.livejournal.com]

Oh I have probably 10 more chapters sitting on the hard drive. Just got lost in other stuff that was more interesting to me to write and since, meh, I'm feeling only lukewarm about the story and I suspect many people are too since there's very little smut, I figured double-meh.

Thundercracker plays a better traitor than anyone's ready for.

[anavidbookworm.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned to another writer, smut is good but plot and character development are what makes a story great. Don't get me wrong, I like smut. It's why I first started reading this series but the characters and their interactions are what have kept me reading. Plus if all we had was smut in real life then nothing would ever get done. :)

[linnet-melody.livejournal.com]

This. All of this. Man, I envy your brain so hard for being able to word that well.

I want to *feel* for the characters. And to do that, I got to get to know 'em. I adore plot, I adore character development, and if they fall in love / suffer loss / worry / hope too? It rounds them out deliciously.

<3

[flybystardancer.livejournal.com]

AGREE AGREE AGREE AGREE

[oni-gil.livejournal.com]

I don't see much wrong with the story itself, which is quite cool. If it seems like a mess to you, something has been nagging at me about this 'verse. I might suggest making your chapters longer, and by that I mean putting some of them together. Sometimes it feels as though nothing is happening in an entire chapter. (Something is happening, of course, but there's barely time to notice.)

Aside from that, though, I really enjoy this 'verse and your characterizations.

[niyazi-a.livejournal.com]

Yeah I've gotten slammed for too-short chapters since I started writing. They're more or less structurally sound: there's a conflict, that conflict gets some resolution, and it ends with a tension note. Glomming two together would give an uneven rhythm. It would be up...down...tension and then immediate resolution of that tension in the next section.

My issues aren't that, and in fact from here on out there's a considerable uptic in action. I just...have too many threads going on at once to think about a good way to resolve them.

[chibirisuchan.livejournal.com]

I love this fic series to bits. I freely admit I tend to get my squee-engines revving more over plot than pron, which makes me an atypical fangirl, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this series. <333333

The fact that I also have a not so secret adoration for epics is just icing on the cake of awesome of this series for me...

[suburban-wulf.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's an update! ^w^

I'm not complaining about the lack of smut or anything. To be completely honest, I sometimes just kinda scroll through it. I love the story itself, but the smut can be fun!

[eerian_sadow]

aww, you got another chapter out before i finished my re-read of the rest of it. ;)

i'm with everyone else. there's no fail or suck to be found here. it does what it's supposed to do: advance the plot.

i loved the interactions in this. Thundercracker plays the traitor so well that it's hard to tell if he's really playing or not. and Soundwave being off balance is just fabulous. the whole mess is spinning out of control and you can really see it here. Megatron and Soundwave are about to have a lot of problems, once Skywarp is back home.

[hektorg.livejournal.com]

Fail and suck? I looked very carefully but could not find any. This is the series I stalk watch your journal for, and the one that I started stalking watching you for.

[evvj.livejournal.com]

^ This. I love this series, and it always makes me incredibly happy to see an update of it.