Fic - Decepticam, Chapter 2
Title:Decepticam
Chapter 2 - Soundwave Makes a Discovery
Continuity: G1, Decepticam AU
Rating: PG-13
Genre: cracky genfic
Warnings: none
Summary: Returned to the Ark, Jazz is a very happy mech indeed, while on the Nemesis Soundwave and Megatron hatch a plan.
Clicky for Chapter 1
Jazz lay on the repair berth and smiled up at the ceiling.
“Extend your camera cable,” Ratchet said, gripping his wrist. “Now, lift your right leg.”
Jazz did as he was told. Ratchet had disengaged the more sensitive of his receptors, but the gash Megatron had carved in his chest was still open, aching with each subtle draft caused by Ratchet’s careful movements.
“How long?” Jazz asked.
“‘Til you’re back on your feet?” Ratchet asked.
“I’d be on my feet now if I wasn’t laying down. How long ‘til I’m back in the game?” Jazz replied.
“A few weeks.”
Jazz huffed. “You really know how to cheer a mech up, you know that?”
“Yes, I really do,” Ratchet said. “I’m confining you to base until you’re back to full strength. And don’t give me that look. That look doesn’t work on me, you know that.”
“It was worth a try,” Jazz shrugged. In truth, the thought of spending several weeks in the Ark was actually quite tempting. Time to check over his memory banks and make doubly sure that Soundwave had only copied his files and hadn’t erased anything. There would also be time to restore the data he’d deliberately purged before going on the mission.
An all-frequencies comm. link buzzed into life. “Optimus to med bay. Ratchet, do you read?”
“Hey, Optimus!” Jazz called, before Ratchet could reply. “We read ya loud and clear.”
“Hey, Jazz. How are you feeling?”
“Better than ever,” Jazz replied. Ratchet gave him a look, but said nothing. “Perceptor got my system running yet?”
“It’s live,” Optimus said. “And the quality is excellent. Congratulations, Jazz.”
“Thanks, Prime.” Jazz grinned. “I can’t wait to see it.”
*
They were sitting fifteen feet apart, Megatron at a curved table covered in plans and datapads, and Soundwave in front of the Nemesis’s master computer. Hence, it was something of a surprise when Soundwave hailed his leader on a private comm. frequency.
“Request: we need to talk.”
Megatron continued to glare at a glowing datapad as though it had done him a personal injury, and drained the last few dregs from his energon cube. “Is there a problem?” he asked, responding on the same narrow band.
“Affirmative,” Soundwave replied. “We’re being watched. Autobot infiltration of security network at 87.4%. Visual and audio.”
Megatron fought the urge to look up. “Exceptions?”
“Your quarters, my quarters, and several other rooms with no logical pattern; sending co-ordinates now.”
The datapad flickered, and a string of numbers rolled across the bottom of the screen. So, the Autobots could see - and hear - almost everything they were doing. He saved the co-ordinates to his own memory banks and deleted them from the datapad. “How long has this been going on?”
“Their system has been live six hundred and two astroseconds and counting.”
“It was that little one, wasn’t it? The black and white one with the fragile bumper. Are you certain they have no access to private communications?”
“No comms access whatsoever,” Soundwave replied. “Only security footage. The systems are isolated.”
Aloud, Megatron called for more energon, and lifted his feet onto the table. It was an uncomfortable feeling, knowing that Prime was almost certainly watching him. The back of his helm started to itch.
“Query,” Soundwave said over their private channel, and there was an edge of something to his voice that Megatron hadn’t heard in a long time. Something that intrigued him. “Wiser to scour the system or plead ignorance? The advantages of the latter will almost certainly be worth the inconvenience.”
Megatron smiled, and bowed his head over the datapad to conceal his grin from the cameras. In his peripheral vision, Rumble and Frenzy fussed around the energon dispenser, bickering quietly, while in the far corner Skywarp pretended to pay attention to the long range sensors. Unselfconscious, all of them. He tried to wipe the smile off his face, but couldn’t. This was too good.
“Observation,” Soundwave continued. “Significant opportunity to affect enemy morale.”
After a while, Megatron managed to wrestle his faceplates back into a decorous frown. “I like the way you think,” he said.
“Appreciated,” Soundwave replied. “We will need to adjust security protocols.”
“Yes, but not by much.” Megatron leaned back and stretched, testing his joints. So what if Prime was watching? “We cannot appear to be too cautious, or to be feeding them false information.”
Jostling every step of the way, Rumble and Frenzy finally dumped a fresh cube on the table. Megatron nodded an acknowledgement, and picked up a new datapad. Dead End’s latest mission report; he put it down almost as quickly and reached for another. Wildrider… at least that one would be easy reading, what with all the little pictures.
There was a long pause before Soundwave spoke again. “Query: do you wish to inform Starscream?”
Megatron considered the question. “I can see arguments for and against,” he replied, that smile creeping back again. “How about we have a little fun and tell him afterwards?”
“Request: specify nature of ‘fun’?”
Megatron laughed aloud, not an uncommon occurrence when reading one of Wildrider’s reports, and wondered what Prime was making of their silent, workaday scene. He damned well better be watching. “The good kind,” he said across the comm. link. “Where is the insubordinate glitch, anyway?”
“On patrol. Due back in four joors, one breem, thirty-two astroseconds.”
“Excellent, we have time to prepare. Is there any way we can use this breach to access the Ark’s security system? We need to gauge their responses.”
“And calibrate our interactions accordingly,” Soundwave replied. “Already working on it.”
Chapter 2 - Soundwave Makes a Discovery
Continuity: G1, Decepticam AU
Rating: PG-13
Genre: cracky genfic
Warnings: none
Summary: Returned to the Ark, Jazz is a very happy mech indeed, while on the Nemesis Soundwave and Megatron hatch a plan.
Clicky for Chapter 1
Jazz lay on the repair berth and smiled up at the ceiling.
“Extend your camera cable,” Ratchet said, gripping his wrist. “Now, lift your right leg.”
Jazz did as he was told. Ratchet had disengaged the more sensitive of his receptors, but the gash Megatron had carved in his chest was still open, aching with each subtle draft caused by Ratchet’s careful movements.
“How long?” Jazz asked.
“‘Til you’re back on your feet?” Ratchet asked.
“I’d be on my feet now if I wasn’t laying down. How long ‘til I’m back in the game?” Jazz replied.
“A few weeks.”
Jazz huffed. “You really know how to cheer a mech up, you know that?”
“Yes, I really do,” Ratchet said. “I’m confining you to base until you’re back to full strength. And don’t give me that look. That look doesn’t work on me, you know that.”
“It was worth a try,” Jazz shrugged. In truth, the thought of spending several weeks in the Ark was actually quite tempting. Time to check over his memory banks and make doubly sure that Soundwave had only copied his files and hadn’t erased anything. There would also be time to restore the data he’d deliberately purged before going on the mission.
An all-frequencies comm. link buzzed into life. “Optimus to med bay. Ratchet, do you read?”
“Hey, Optimus!” Jazz called, before Ratchet could reply. “We read ya loud and clear.”
“Hey, Jazz. How are you feeling?”
“Better than ever,” Jazz replied. Ratchet gave him a look, but said nothing. “Perceptor got my system running yet?”
“It’s live,” Optimus said. “And the quality is excellent. Congratulations, Jazz.”
“Thanks, Prime.” Jazz grinned. “I can’t wait to see it.”
*
They were sitting fifteen feet apart, Megatron at a curved table covered in plans and datapads, and Soundwave in front of the Nemesis’s master computer. Hence, it was something of a surprise when Soundwave hailed his leader on a private comm. frequency.
“Request: we need to talk.”
Megatron continued to glare at a glowing datapad as though it had done him a personal injury, and drained the last few dregs from his energon cube. “Is there a problem?” he asked, responding on the same narrow band.
“Affirmative,” Soundwave replied. “We’re being watched. Autobot infiltration of security network at 87.4%. Visual and audio.”
Megatron fought the urge to look up. “Exceptions?”
“Your quarters, my quarters, and several other rooms with no logical pattern; sending co-ordinates now.”
The datapad flickered, and a string of numbers rolled across the bottom of the screen. So, the Autobots could see - and hear - almost everything they were doing. He saved the co-ordinates to his own memory banks and deleted them from the datapad. “How long has this been going on?”
“Their system has been live six hundred and two astroseconds and counting.”
“It was that little one, wasn’t it? The black and white one with the fragile bumper. Are you certain they have no access to private communications?”
“No comms access whatsoever,” Soundwave replied. “Only security footage. The systems are isolated.”
Aloud, Megatron called for more energon, and lifted his feet onto the table. It was an uncomfortable feeling, knowing that Prime was almost certainly watching him. The back of his helm started to itch.
“Query,” Soundwave said over their private channel, and there was an edge of something to his voice that Megatron hadn’t heard in a long time. Something that intrigued him. “Wiser to scour the system or plead ignorance? The advantages of the latter will almost certainly be worth the inconvenience.”
Megatron smiled, and bowed his head over the datapad to conceal his grin from the cameras. In his peripheral vision, Rumble and Frenzy fussed around the energon dispenser, bickering quietly, while in the far corner Skywarp pretended to pay attention to the long range sensors. Unselfconscious, all of them. He tried to wipe the smile off his face, but couldn’t. This was too good.
“Observation,” Soundwave continued. “Significant opportunity to affect enemy morale.”
After a while, Megatron managed to wrestle his faceplates back into a decorous frown. “I like the way you think,” he said.
“Appreciated,” Soundwave replied. “We will need to adjust security protocols.”
“Yes, but not by much.” Megatron leaned back and stretched, testing his joints. So what if Prime was watching? “We cannot appear to be too cautious, or to be feeding them false information.”
Jostling every step of the way, Rumble and Frenzy finally dumped a fresh cube on the table. Megatron nodded an acknowledgement, and picked up a new datapad. Dead End’s latest mission report; he put it down almost as quickly and reached for another. Wildrider… at least that one would be easy reading, what with all the little pictures.
There was a long pause before Soundwave spoke again. “Query: do you wish to inform Starscream?”
Megatron considered the question. “I can see arguments for and against,” he replied, that smile creeping back again. “How about we have a little fun and tell him afterwards?”
“Request: specify nature of ‘fun’?”
Megatron laughed aloud, not an uncommon occurrence when reading one of Wildrider’s reports, and wondered what Prime was making of their silent, workaday scene. He damned well better be watching. “The good kind,” he said across the comm. link. “Where is the insubordinate glitch, anyway?”
“On patrol. Due back in four joors, one breem, thirty-two astroseconds.”
“Excellent, we have time to prepare. Is there any way we can use this breach to access the Ark’s security system? We need to gauge their responses.”
“And calibrate our interactions accordingly,” Soundwave replied. “Already working on it.”