The sky above Vos was crowded.
Wings of Seekers moved through layered formations around the floating city, engines carving bright lines across the upper atmosphere as patrol groups rotated through the defensive perimeter and new squadrons climbed from the lower rings to take their place. The Aerial Combat Brigade was no longer a plan. It was a force.
Starscream stood at the edge of the command platform overlooking the flight corridors while the tactical displays below him updated continuously with positions, fuel states, and rotation assignments. Thundercracker worked one of the consoles nearby, coordinating wing shifts across the outer patrol rings, while Skywarp appeared and disappeared along the platform edge as he monitored the inner flight lanes.
Starscream watched the sky. A formation drifted too wide, and he pointed once.
Dirge corrected it immediately.
Good.
The Seekers were learning.
Behind him, unnoticed by most of the mechs moving through the command deck, Megatron stood near the rear of the chamber with Soundwave beside him. They had arrived without announcement. Megatron said nothing. He simply watched how Starscream moved the wings, how the flyers responded to his signals, and how the skies above Vos bent to the command of the Seeker Air Commander.
The command chamber lights shifted.
Not an alarm.
A transmission override.
Every screen in the room flickered at once as the tactical displays were pushed aside by a new signal forcing itself across the network. Thundercracker glanced up from his console. “That’s not ours.”
The image resolved.
Sentinel Prime filled the projection. His frame bore fresh damage, armor scorched and plating cracked in several places, but he stood before a wide broadcast array somewhere inside Iacon’s defense grid. Behind him, the damaged skyline of Iacon still smoldered.
“This is Sentinel Prime,” he said.
The message was not directed at Vos. It was directed at all of Cybertron.
“Today, the capital city of Cybertron suffered an act of treachery. The Senate has been destroyed by the criminal calling himself Megatron.”
The command chamber inside Vos fell silent as every Seeker present watched the broadcast.
Sentinel’s red optics burned with anger. “This atrocity will not go unanswered. All citizens of Cybertron are ordered to report any information regarding Megatron and his followers. Any who shelter them will be considered accomplices in the destruction of the Senate.”
Thundercracker folded his arms. “That’s going to go over well.”
Sentinel continued as if the whole planet were already under his command. “The Autobot Security Forces will restore order. Megatron will be found, and he will answer for this crime.”
The signal cut abruptly.
The command room returned to its normal displays, and for a moment no one spoke.
Skywarp finally broke the silence. “Well. That sounded personal.”
Starscream said nothing.
Behind him, Megatron had listened to the entire broadcast without moving. The room remained quiet for a moment after the signal ended. Seekers returned their attention to the sky outside, but the tension from Sentinel’s message lingered in the chamber.
At last, Megatron spoke.
“It is always treason first.”
Starscream turned slightly.
Megatron’s gaze remained fixed on the tactical displays where Seeker formations moved across the skies of Vos. “Before it is proven right.”
The words were calm. Almost reflective.
Starscream watched the formations continue their patrol rotations beyond the command platform. Thundercracker resumed working the console beside him, adjusting the outer patrol wings as new reports came in, while Skywarp leaned against the railing with uncharacteristic quiet.
“Yes,” Starscream said.
History, he knew, rarely judged the first move kindly.
Victory, however, rewrote the judgment.
Above Vos, the Seekers continued their patrols. They were no longer flying for the Senate.
Megatron watched the sky for another moment, then turned slightly toward Soundwave. “To the planetary channel.”
Soundwave did not ask for clarification. “Acknowledged.”
His hands moved across the console. The displays shifted as his signal forced itself into the global broadcast network Sentinel had just used. Thundercracker noticed immediately.
“That’s not a local signal.”
Skywarp leaned forward. “Oh.”
Starscream watched the screens as the override spread across the system. Soundwave’s red visor remained steady, his hands moving with precise economy as relays accepted the intrusion one after another.
“Planetary transmission available,” Soundwave said.
Megatron stepped forward.
Across Cybertron, receivers flickered to life.
Factories. Mining platforms. City towers. Orbital relays.
The image stabilized on Megatron standing in the command chamber of Vos.
His voice carried across the entire planet.
“Citizens of Cybertron.”
There was no anger in his tone. Only certainty.
“Today the Senate of Cybertron fell. For cycles, your world has been governed by a system that divides you by caste. Workers. Laborers. Soldiers. Thinkers. Leaders.” Megatron’s red optics hardened. “A system designed not for order, but for control.”
Thundercracker glanced toward Starscream. Skywarp watched the screen with open interest.
Megatron continued. “The Senate called this order. I call it slavery.”
Across the command chamber, the Seekers had stopped moving again, listening to the broadcast along with the rest of the planet.
“The fall of the Senate marks the end of the caste system,” Megatron said. “No Cybertronian will again be told what they must be. No Cybertronian will again be chained to a function assigned at birth. The future of Cybertron will be decided by strength. By will. By those who choose to rise.”
His red optics burned brighter.
“The Decepticons have begun that future today.”
Starscream felt the name land in the room.
Not rumor now. Not something whispered in arena corridors or carried through Soundwave’s channels.
Formal.
Public.
Declared.
Megatron let the silence hold just long enough for the weight of it to settle across the planet, then continued. “Sentinel Prime calls today an atrocity. He calls it treason. He will call you criminals if you listen to me now. But ask yourselves one question.”
His gaze lifted slightly.
“Who benefited from the system that ruled you? The Senate? The elites of Iacon? The ones who told you what you were allowed to become?”
The tactical map of Cybertron continued to turn behind him.
“If the world they built served you, then you have nothing to fear from what comes next. But if you have ever been told that you were less than what you could be, if you have ever been told that your place was chosen for you, then you already know the truth.”
Megatron’s voice hardened.
“The future of Cybertron will not be written by the Senate. It will be written by those who have the strength to claim it. Vos understands this. Vos stands in the sky now because the Decepticons broke the power that tried to drag it to the ground.”
Several Seekers in the chamber went very still.
Starscream did not move.
Megatron knew exactly what he had done. He had named Vos’s freedom in the same breath as the Decepticon victory, not as flattery, but as proof. The aerial city had survived the Senate. The Senate was gone. The implication was obvious, and every Seeker listening would hear it.
“If you believe that future should belong to you,” Megatron said, “then stand with us.”
A pause.
“Rise.”
His final words carried across the broadcast with absolute command.
“For the first time in Cybertron’s history, you are free to choose your side.”
The transmission ended.
Soundwave’s hands moved once across the console. “Broadcast concluded.”
The planetary channel closed, and the normal tactical displays returned, replacing the image of Megatron with the flight paths of Seeker patrols circling Vos.
Megatron remained where he stood for a moment longer. Then he turned toward Starscream.
“You have done well with the Seekers.”
The words were direct. Not praise. Recognition.
Starscream inclined his head slightly. “They respond well to structure.”
Megatron’s gaze shifted briefly toward the sky beyond the command platform where the formations continued their rotations. “Continue.”
“I will.”
Megatron nodded once, then turned and walked toward the exit corridor. Soundwave followed him without a word. Within seconds, the two of them had disappeared into the interior of the command structure.
The chamber was quiet again.
Thundercracker glanced toward Starscream. “Well. That went smoothly.”
Skywarp leaned against the railing, watching the patrol wings above Vos. “So now what?”
Starscream looked back to the sky. “Now we hold it.”
He kept his gaze on the tactical display while the patrol wings continued their rotations above Vos. The Seeker formations moved with growing precision now: outer rings guarding the city, inner wings rotating through fuel and maintenance cycles.
Thundercracker was the first to notice the shift on the planetary map.
“Tarn.”
The name appeared highlighted across the display as new activity began registering around the industrial region.
Skywarp leaned over the console. “Looks busy.”
Starscream studied the data streams quietly.
Kaon had fallen into Megatron’s control almost immediately after the Senate’s destruction. The uprising there had been too strong, too organized, for the remaining city authorities to resist. But Kaon was not enough. Megatron needed more than a single city. He needed a foothold across Cybertron.
And Tarn—
Starscream understood immediately.
Tarn had once been represented by Shockwave. Now its Senate platform sat empty.
A city without leadership was an opportunity.
Thundercracker followed the logic. “He’s moving.”
Starscream nodded slightly. “Yes.”
The map continued updating as new movement patterns appeared across the region between Kaon and Tarn. Skywarp smirked.
“Sentinel’s not going to like that.”
“No,” Starscream said.
Sentinel would not ignore Tarn. The Autobot Security Forces would respond quickly, which meant the next engagement would not be a political strike like the Senate attack.
It would be a battle.
Starscream expanded the tactical overlay. Seeker patrol wings shifted across the display as he began assigning new positions.
Thundercracker noticed immediately. “You’re spreading the flights.”
“Yes.”
Skywarp looked up. “You think Sentinel’s coming.”
“He will.”
Sentinel would not allow Megatron to claim another major city without resistance. And when he came, he would see something the Senate had failed to understand.
The Seekers were no longer an aerial caste protecting Vos.
They were a coordinated combat force.
And they moved according to Megatron’s war.
More information began filling in as Soundwave’s network updated the planetary overlay. Movement around Kaon. Energy spikes. New defensive lines forming.
Thundercracker leaned closer to the display. “That’s not just traffic.”
Starscream expanded the sector.
Ground signatures appeared across the industrial districts surrounding Kaon: troop concentrations, armored vehicles, barricades forming along the primary transit corridors.
Skywarp let out a low whistle. “Well, that didn’t take long.”
Starscream watched the defensive grid settle into place.
Megatron had not just taken Kaon.
He had fortified it.
Barricades guarded the outer approaches to the city while heavy weapons emplacements appeared along the ridgelines surrounding the industrial basin. Even the main energon transport routes had been redirected to feed the defenses.
Thundercracker crossed his arms. “He’s building a fortress.”
“Yes.”
Kaon had always been a brutal city.
Now it was becoming a stronghold.
Skywarp tapped the display lightly. “So Sentinel comes down here…”
He gestured toward the defensive ring around the city.
“He’s not just chasing a rebellion.”
Starscream finished the thought. “He’s attacking a fortified position.”
Thundercracker glanced toward the sky outside Vos where the Seekers continued their patrol rotations. “And we’re the air cover.”
Starscream looked back to the map.
Megatron had moved quickly. Faster than the Senate ever had. Which meant Sentinel was already behind.
And when he finally reached Kaon, he would discover that Megatron was no longer a gladiator leading riots.
He was a commander holding territory.
The tactical display shifted again. A new signal cut across the command network, encrypted, direct, and unmistakable.
Megatron.
Thundercracker glanced toward Starscream. “That didn’t take long.”
Starscream opened the transmission.
Megatron’s voice came through the channel, brief and direct. “Sentinel will respond.”
No elaboration.
None needed.
Starscream waited.
Megatron continued. “When he does…”
A short pause.
“Tarn.”
Thundercracker looked up from the console. Skywarp straightened slightly.
Megatron finished the message. “I expect air cover.”
The transmission ended.
Silence settled across the command chamber for a moment.
Skywarp broke it first. “Well. That sounds like an invitation.”
Thundercracker folded his arms. “Or a warning.”
Starscream looked back to the tactical map of Cybertron where Tarn now glowed at the center of the display.
Megatron was moving.
Sentinel would answer.
And when they met, the skies above Tarn would belong to the Seekers.
Starscream pointed once toward the operations board.
“Prepare the wings.”