Vos drifted through the upper atmosphere when Starscream returned.
Traffic moved along the city’s aerial corridors in steady patterns, but above the outer rings the sky was thick with Seeker activity. Wings climbed and turned through assigned drills while patrol formations rotated through the defensive perimeter. The city no longer looked merely defended. It looked alert.
Starscream did not stop on the platform. He moved directly inside the command tower and into the operations chamber he had claimed weeks earlier. The room had once been little more than a navigation office, useful for routing traffic and managing atmospheric positioning. Now it was filled with data tables, flight rosters, formation assignments, patrol schedules, and layered projections of Vos’s expanding aerial defense structure.
Thundercracker entered a moment later and took his usual place near the tactical display while Starscream began pulling the information together. Individual pilots first. Then wings. Then larger operational groups. Hundreds of Seekers now rotated through the structure he had built. Some were veterans of Vos’s aerial guard. Others had come quietly from across Cybertron after hearing about the training. More were applying every cycle.
Starscream studied the numbers for several long minutes before making the adjustment.
The wings reorganized across the display as he grouped them under a single formal structure.
Thundercracker looked over. “What are you calling it?”
Starscream answered without hesitation. “Aerial Combat Brigade.”
The designation settled across the command table.
Thundercracker nodded slowly. “That fits.”
Starscream continued working. Assignments shifted. Wing leaders were designated. Dirge held one command, with others arranged beneath him according to skill, reaction time, discipline, and judgment under pressure. The structure was becoming far more organized than the Senate’s old aerial patrols had ever been.
This was not all of Vos.
Not yet.
It was the first true military division of the city.
Starscream leaned back slightly when he finished, then opened another set of records. Financial ledgers appeared across the table. As senator of Vos, he had access to the city’s economic projections and operational expenditures. He rarely needed to review them personally, but the scale of what he was building required it.
Training equipment. Fuel reserves. Maintenance facilities. Infrastructure upgrades for the stabilizers that kept Vos aloft. Expanded patrol rotations. Additional repair capacity for Seeker frames.
The numbers were substantial.
Starscream examined them carefully.
Vos could support the expansion.
Barely.
Thundercracker watched him for a moment. “You’re calculating supply lines.”
“Yes.”
Starscream scrolled through another ledger, and the realization came quietly.
Megatron had never asked for any of it.
No financial contributions. No resources from Vos. No requests for equipment, fuel, material, or direct logistical support.
Thundercracker noticed the pause. “What?”
Starscream answered slowly. “Megatron has asked for nothing.”
Thundercracker frowned slightly. “Nothing?”
“No funding. No materials. No logistical support.”
Thundercracker leaned against the console. “That’s… unusual.”
Starscream nodded.
Yes. It was.
For someone preparing to wage war across Cybertron, Megatron had not once asked Vos for a single credit. If he had needed resources, he would have asked. If he had wanted support from Vos, he would have demanded it. The fact that he had not meant one thing: Megatron was building his war machine without relying on the Senate cities.
Which meant he either already had the resources he needed, or he had another way of getting them.
Starscream folded his arms behind his back.
That meant he needed to speak with him again.
Soon.
Thundercracker noticed the shift in his posture. “You’re thinking.”
“Yes.”
“That usually means something complicated.”
Before Starscream could answer, a flash of violet light cracked across the chamber. Skywarp reappeared beside the operations table as if he had been standing there the entire time.
Thundercracker did not even look surprised. “That was fast.”
Skywarp grinned. “Told you.”
Starscream’s optics shifted past him.
Another figure stood beside the teleporting Seeker.
Small. Compact. Red and black armor.
Frenzy.
The cassette-framed mech looked around the command room briefly before focusing his red optics on Starscream.
Skywarp folded his arms proudly. “You asked for one.”
Starscream studied the small mech. “And he agreed to come.”
Skywarp shrugged. “He was already listening.”
Frenzy smirked faintly. “Soundwave says you wanted a line.”
Starscream nodded once. “Yes.”
Frenzy tapped the side of his chest lightly. “Then talk.”
Starscream regarded him for a moment before answering. “I require a timeline.”
Frenzy tilted his head slightly. “For what?”
“For when Megatron intends to act.”
Thundercracker glanced over but said nothing.
“The Senate has authorized enforcement against the arenas,” Starscream continued. “That will escalate quickly.”
Frenzy’s expression did not change.
Starscream folded his arms behind his back. “My forces are not underground.” He gestured toward the tactical display where hundreds of Seeker flight paths crossed the skies around Vos. “The Seekers are visible.”
“Very visible,” Thundercracker added.
Starscream looked back to Frenzy. “When this begins, I intend for both sides of this alignment to remain standing.”
Skywarp smirked slightly. “That’s the polite way of saying we don’t want to get caught in the middle.”
Starscream ignored the comment. “If Megatron moves without coordination…”
He let the implication hang.
Frenzy finished it for him. “Sentinel comes after Vos.”
Starscream nodded. “Yes.”
Frenzy studied him for a moment. “You want to move at the same time.”
“Yes.”
Thundercracker added quietly, “Air and ground.”
“So that when the Senate collapses,” Starscream said, looking directly at Frenzy, “we are both still standing.”
Frenzy was quiet for a moment. Not confused. Listening.
Starscream recognized the pause immediately. The cassette’s optics flickered once, and Starscream knew the message was already traveling somewhere deeper in the network.
Soundwave was hearing every word.
Which meant Megatron would as well.
Finally, Frenzy straightened slightly. “Soundwave acknowledges.”
Starscream waited.
“A timeline will be provided,” Frenzy continued.
Thundercracker glanced at Starscream. “That sounds promising.”
Frenzy tapped his chest lightly again. “The arena rotations are already shifting.”
Starscream’s optics narrowed slightly.
That was not information the Senate had.
Frenzy finished the message simply. “When Megatron moves…” He paused just long enough to make the meaning clear. “…you will know.”
Starscream inclined his head slightly. “Good.”
Frenzy gave a small nod, then turned and stepped back toward Skywarp.
Skywarp grinned. “So.” He gestured casually. “Need a ride?”
Frenzy did not answer. The small mech folded inward smoothly, armor plates compressing until the familiar cassette form rested in Skywarp’s hand.
Skywarp looked at it. “Well, that’s convenient.”
Thundercracker sighed. “You’re not keeping him.”
Skywarp laughed. “Relax.”
He set the cassette on the edge of the operations console. Moments later, a black-and-red blur swept through the open command window. Laserbeak snatched the cassette without slowing, mechanical feet catching the rectangular form with practiced precision before he climbed back into the sky.
Starscream watched the bird vanish into the clouds above Vos, then turned back to the tactical display.
Megatron would provide the timeline.
Which meant the war now had a clock.
Less than two weeks passed.
Vos continued its steady rotation through the upper atmosphere while the drills expanded again. Wings rotated through patrol cycles, and new pilots arrived almost daily to join the training structure Starscream had built. The Aerial Combat Brigade was no longer theoretical.
It was operational.
Starscream was reviewing the latest assignments when a familiar shape cut across the sky outside the command chamber.
Thundercracker saw it first. “Visitor.”
Starscream looked up as the black-and-red form of Laserbeak swept through the open flight aperture and landed neatly on the edge of the command table.
Skywarp leaned forward. “Well, that’s never subtle.”
The cassette ejected smoothly from Laserbeak’s underside and unfolded as it struck the table.
Frenzy stood upright. Without a word, he placed a small data wafer onto the console.
Starscream activated it.
The room filled with Megatron’s voice.
“Starscream.”
The recording was brief.
“The next Senate session you attend…” A short pause followed. “…be prepared to vacate quickly.”
Silence returned.
Thundercracker blinked. “That’s it?”
Skywarp shrugged. “Short and dramatic.”
Starscream did not respond immediately. He closed the playback file and looked toward the window where Laserbeak had already taken to the sky again. The message had been simple, but the meaning was unmistakable.
The timeline had arrived.
For several moments after the recording ended, the command chamber was quiet except for the low hum of the tactical displays. Then Thundercracker spoke.
“That sounded ominous.”
Skywarp leaned against the edge of the table. “I liked it.”
Starscream turned away from the console and walked slowly toward the observation window overlooking the flight corridors of Vos. Below them, wings of Seekers moved through their assigned patterns.
Hundreds of them now.
His responsibility.
Megatron’s message had been clear.
The next Senate session.
Starscream did not intend to misinterpret it.
“Thundercracker.”
Thundercracker straightened slightly. “Yes.”
“You will not attend the next session.”
Thundercracker raised an optic. “Not even as security?”
“No.”
Starscream kept his gaze on the sky outside. “If Sentinel intends to react violently…”
He left the rest unsaid.
Thundercracker understood. “You don’t want two of us trapped there.”
“Correct.”
Thundercracker accepted it with a short nod. “Understood.”
Starscream then turned toward the third member of the trine. “Skywarp.”
Skywarp pushed himself off the console. “This sounds like my kind of assignment.”
“You will attend.”
Thundercracker glanced between them. “As what?”
Starscream did not hesitate. “My exit.”
Skywarp grinned immediately. “Oh, that is perfect.”
“When I give the signal,” Starscream continued, "you teleport us out.”
Skywarp laughed. "Easy.”
Starscream did not share the amusement. Teleportation was something he tolerated only when necessary. The distortion it caused to his systems was unpleasant at best.
But the alternative—being trapped inside the Senate chamber during whatever Megatron had planned—was unacceptable.
Starscream looked back toward the tactical displays.
“Be ready.”
Skywarp gave a casual salute. “Always.”