WRONG TURN TO THE BABY WAR

[jetsplaining]

So, good news -- the space bridge prototype worked. Less good news -- it seems to have taken Starscream with it instead of the drone, which was definitely not the intent. And he hadn't intended to send it to a...ship? It looks like he's on a ship. He can feel the hum of the engines through the bulkheads. There are almost definitely people on this ship -- whose is it? It seems Cybertronian in make, but it's not as though the ports of Cybertron have been especially bustling lately. The hallway he's in is too nondescript to give him a clue as to just what kind of ship this is, but the lack of Decepticon insignias in sight doesn't install a great sense of confidence in him.

His radio pings are hitting dead air, so either no one else was transported here, or the trip messed with his comms. Neither prospect is especially heartening. Clutching his datapad to his chest, Starscream flattens himself against a wall and starts inching toward the nearest turn in the corridor, calling out in a low hiss.

"Megatron?" Nothing. Well. Hm. "Slipstream? ...Strika? Anyone?"

Comments

[jetsplaining]

Starscream gives him the exact sort of look that Young Uns give old people in response to that tone.

"Yes, his blogs. You know -- his posts? On the net?" He eyes Megatron skeptically. "How did you get your ideas out there?"

[towardspeace]

"I wrote a treatise," he says, sounding a little offended.

[jetsplaining]

"So did my Megatron," Starscream says with totally undeserved and unnecessary smugness. "He just did it in posts instead of chapters. And it wasn't so one-way -- putting it on the net allowed an exchange of ideas. Strika wasn't the only one who encouraged him. He had followers long before the Decepticons were even founded. It's where he met Orion Pax."

He makes a disdainful little sound. Seriously, Orion is extremely lame and he does not get why Megatron is so hung up on them. "Anyway, he had a little help staying under the radar -- and by the time the Senate realized how far it'd spread, it was too late to stop what was happening."

[towardspeace]

"Hmm," says Megatron. Despite his kneejerk response to deem this objectionable in some way, he basically can't? That sounds like a pretty decent approach, honestly. Perhaps he'd feel differently if he knew more about online cults of personality and Callout Culture™, but he is absolutely not that plugged in.

"Does he still value that? The... exchange of ideas, I mean." Because that was sure as heck missing from his own revolution...

[jetsplaining]

"He enjoys a good debate," Starscream says, shrugging. "But the Decepticon philosophy is pretty well established by now, and the fundamentals of that were really embodied in his transition to more radical politics. That was why Orion Pax broke up with him, you know," he can't help but add, like the unpleasant shitbird he is, "and as for the Autobots -- Elita One can't be reasoned with. She won't settle for anything less than unconditional surrender."

[towardspeace]

Oh dear.

"The Decepticon philosophy ought to be allowed room to evolve," says Megatron, looking noticeably concerned. "Especially with a revolution bringing such a drastic shift for everyone on Cybertron -- no," he shakes his head, "these are precisely the mistakes I made."

Part of him is just a little bit glad to hear this, because it means this other Megatron is not in fact Better Than Him -- but for all that he's probably never going to drop the niggling feeling that actually a healthy exchange of ideas is unnecessary because all of the ideas should be his ideas, which are the best ideas, he also knows for a fact that isn't objectively a good thing to think and is in fact exactly what kept him digging this awful hole for four million entire years.

And this alternate Megatron sounds well prepared to be heading down the same route.

He grimaces.

"Look, Starscream, I'm not saying you need to try to reason with your Autobots, but you need to keep an open mind. If you let that philosophy become dogma then you can justify any kind of tyranny in its name."

[jetsplaining]

Starscream frowns a little. He's hearing an awful lot of don'ts and not a whole lot of dos. This Megatron is making it sound like they're already nearly doomed to fail, which is not really how Starscream would prefer to characterize the current state of the Decepticon movement. Thriving! They're supposed to be thriving, even if the Autobots are holding them back.

"Alright, so what would you do, then?" he says, really wanting to know exactly what keeping an open mind is supposed to mean in the middle of a war. "You've overthrown the Senate -- the old government is in pieces -- and there's a ground war with an independent faction that's not only becoming a struggle over territory, but over resources, too. They impede your progress every step of the way, trying to hold together the pieces of a society that's already fallen apart while you try to march toward progress -- oh, and their leader's made it personal with you on top of everything else. So if it were you -- and it was once, obviously -- what would you do to avoid the path you've gone down before?"

Megatron really should let him into those tac meetings. Or at least let him write the briefings.

[towardspeace]

Fortunately -- or perhaps unfortunately, for Starscream -- this is a subject Megatron has spent a lot of time thinking about.

He pauses for a second, weighing the question. "Tell me more about the situation on your Cybertron," he says. "What strategies are you deploying against the Autobots? What do the civilians think of your cause?"

[jetsplaining]

Civilians? Hahahahahaha.

"Well, immediately after the Senate was finally dismantled, the plan was to have Decepticon forces occupying every major Cybertronian city so that Megatron could begin the post-Functionist reform -- starting with an overhaul of the nursery system, and the job assignment protocols with it -- but by then the Autobots were already organizing, and even after the fall of the Senate, there were still pockets of the old memory trying to resist against the Decepticons."

Starscream hadn't joined the revolution until a little later, so the beginnings of it he'd only seen from the other side, but he's pretty well-versed in both sides of history by now. "The Autobots opposed the occupations, and then it became about territory, and they attacked the cities -- they even took some back and got enough of a foothold to keep the fighting going. The public opinion on the war is...mixed," he admits begrudgingly, wobbling a hand back and forth, "and the Autobots were preemptively offering protection to civilians the second they had enough forces to do so. And now Cybertron's sustainability is in decline, and the fight is shifting focus from territory to resources -- not just energy, but nurseries too." He frowned. "The Decepticons only control a handful of nurseries right now. They're pretty fiercely guarded."

[towardspeace]

'Yikes' is not a word Megatron has said or even thought at any point during his extremely long life, but the little uptick of his robot eyebrow zone definitely communicates a yikes-adjacent sentiment.

"Nurseries," he repeats thoughtfully. He's not, of course, familiar with the term, but the meaning is fairly easy to intuit, especially considering how much importance Starscream's placing on them. "Hm. Do your Decepticons offer protection to civilians as well? What about alliances with groups opposed to the old system but who don't want to take on the Decepticon badge?"

[jetsplaining]

"If they don't want to join the Decepticons, then they're more likely to ally themselves with the Autobots. They claim to be opposed to the old system, too." Starscream scowls. "But not all of them. Megatron has made some alliances, though most of them have formally joined the Decepticon movement by now. And civilians in Decepticon-controlled cities are about as protected as the troops are."

[towardspeace]

"Are the Autobots not allied with the Senate?" Megatron asks, surprised.

[jetsplaining]

Starscream gives him a puzzled look. "Megatron thought so at first, but -- no, they formed independently during the revolt against the Senate. Technically they started out as a civilian group."

[towardspeace]

"Hm," says Megatron. "Interesting. What exactly are their... goals, then? You said they opposed Decepticon occupation of cities, but why? "

[jetsplaining]

"They claim to protect the people's freedom," Starscream says with a roll of his eyes. "Freedom that was bought by the efforts of the Decepticons. Thanks for the revolution, we'll take it from here." He makes a face. "They weren't happy with the way the overthrow of the Senate and its aftermath played out, but I'd like to see them attempt a bloodless revolution -- as if starting a war is going to lead for fewer casualties. Now they want to take complete control of Cybertron, but I haven't exactly seen any civil planning on their part."

[towardspeace]

"And you said there's no negotiating with them," Megatron muses. It's all too easy for him to believe that, what with how the Autobots started out in his own timeline. "In that case... I'd focus your efforts away from occupation and expansion and towards defence and public relations. You don't need to control every city -- it's probably better that you don't, in fact. Give the people options. Force some accountability on your leadership."