The chamber slowly settled as the final tally remained glowing above the Senate floor.
Authorization approved.
Barely.
Sentinel stood straighter at the center dais now that he had what he wanted. The tension in his posture had shifted into something sharper, controlled anger backed by legal authority. Around the chamber, senators resumed their quiet conversations, already turning the vote into projections, protections, and advantages.
Production. Security. Profit.
Starscream let the moment stretch.
Then he spoke.
“What of Tarn’s vote?”
The question cut cleanly through the chamber. It was not loud, but it carried. Several senators looked up immediately, and Sentinel’s red optics shifted toward him.
Starscream remained perfectly still at his platform. “Tarn’s platform has been empty since Senator Shockwave was removed,” he continued evenly. “No replacement has been seated.”
A ripple of murmurs moved through the tiers again.
One senator spoke from the lower ring. “Tarn has not submitted a new representative.”
Another added quickly, “Their industrial council has been… unresponsive.”
Starscream tilted his head slightly. “Tarn remains one of Cybertron’s primary production cities.” His optics moved across the chamber. “It seems unusual that such a state would have no voice in a vote authorizing full enforcement across the industrial sectors.”
The words landed exactly where he intended.
Several senators shifted uneasily.
Sentinel’s expression hardened. “Tarn’s internal matters are not the concern of this chamber at the moment.”
“They appear to be.” Starscream gestured lightly toward the vote display. “This decision directly affects the cities that supply Cybertron’s infrastructure.”
“The vote has been concluded.”
Starscream inclined his head slightly. “Of course.”
He did not press further. He did not need to. The question had sounded simple enough from the newest senator of Vos, a procedural inquiry from a mech still learning how the chamber chose to excuse its own gaps. But the deeper meaning was there for anyone disciplined enough to hear it.
Tarn was still unclaimed.
Shockwave had been erased, but the empty seat remained.
Across the chamber, Soundwave stood motionless at Kaon’s platform.
Starscream glanced briefly toward him.
Soundwave gave no visible reaction. No movement. No signal. Nothing that would matter to the senators watching the floor. But Starscream already understood that silence did not mean absence. If Soundwave heard it, Megatron would know of it soon enough.
Not as a warning.
Not as an invitation.
Simply as truth.
The Senate had just authorized force across the industrial sectors while one of its most important industrial cities had no voice at all.
The murmuring across the chamber had not fully settled when Sentinel struck the console again. The sharp tone echoed across the amphitheater.
“The vote has been decided.”
His voice carried harder now. What little patience he had left was gone.
“The Kaon uprising has grown beyond a localized disturbance. It is now a coordinated threat to Senate authority.”
Several senators shifted uneasily in their platforms.
Sentinel continued before anyone could interrupt. “Effective immediately, security across Senate operations will increase.”
That drew more attention.
Sentinel gestured toward the two enforcers standing beside the dais. “These measures will not be limited to the Senate chamber. All senators will receive additional protection.”
A few of the wealthier trade senators nodded immediately. Others did not look pleased.
One senator from the lower industrial tier spoke sharply. “You intend to assign guards to every senator?”
“Yes.”
Another voice rose from the upper ring. “This chamber has operated without such measures for cycles.”
Sentinel’s patience snapped. “This chamber has also never faced an organized insurgency operating across half of Cybertron.”
The room quieted again.
Sentinel leaned forward over the console. “The Tarnian gladiator calling himself Megatron has already demonstrated the ability to evade enforcement divisions repeatedly. I will not allow that threat to reach this chamber.”
Starscream remained still at his platform.
Inside, he almost smiled.
Sentinel was afraid.
The constant guards beside him. The demand for protection across the Senate. The scanners already being readied beyond the chamber doors. It was all the same signal.
Megatron had already gotten under his plating.
Across the chamber, Soundwave stood exactly as before at Kaon’s platform. Silent. Motionless. His red visor was angled toward the floor as if he were simply observing procedure in Ratbat’s place.
Starscream glanced toward him again briefly.
If Megatron was listening, he would hear this too.
Sentinel Prime was fortifying the Senate.
Which meant the pressure was already working.
The Senate session dissolved slowly. Senators departed in clusters, some arguing quietly with aides, others already discussing security assignments and transport arrangements. The two enforcers remained close to Sentinel as he left the chamber, their presence unmistakable.
Starscream remained at his platform for a moment longer, watching the chamber empty. The new security measures were already being implemented. Additional guards moved through the corridors beyond the doors, and scanners activated along the entryways with low mechanical hums.
Sentinel had meant what he said.
Starscream finally turned and began walking toward the exit corridor. Thundercracker and Skywarp would be waiting outside the Senate complex. He had nearly reached the archway when a quiet voice spoke beside him.
“Senator.”
Starscream stopped.
Soundwave stood just inside the shadow of one of the chamber columns.
He had not approached openly. He had simply been there.
Starscream turned slightly toward him. Neither mech raised his voice. Soundwave’s red visor flickered once as other senators passed nearby, his tone neutral enough to belong to any routine administrative exchange.
“Construction schedules are proceeding ahead of projection.”
Starscream understood immediately that this was not about construction.
Soundwave continued calmly. “The largest unit has completed structural assembly.”
A senator walked past them without slowing.
Starscream folded his arms behind his back as if the conversation were entirely ordinary. “Efficiency is commendable.”
Soundwave inclined his head slightly. “One final calibration remains. After which the unit will be available for… heavy labor.”
Starscream allowed the faintest shift of his wings. “Large equipment requires careful timing.”
“Correct.”
Another senator passed by them toward the corridor.
Soundwave finished the message quietly. “When the next foundation is prepared…” He paused a fraction of a second. “…the machine will be ready.”
Starscream nodded once. “Good.”
Soundwave inclined his head again and stepped away, moving down the corridor toward the exterior platforms as if nothing unusual had been said.
Starscream watched him go for a moment.
To anyone else listening, the exchange would have sounded like a routine discussion about construction logistics.
But the meaning was perfectly clear.
Devastator was ready.
And when Megatron decided to move, the machine would be waiting.
Starscream left the Senate chamber without slowing his pace.
The corridors outside were busier than usual. Movement filled the halls, scanners humming quietly as security units moved among the departing senators and their aides. The space simply felt more crowded than it used to.
Starscream almost smiled.
Fear had finally reached the Senate.
As he exited into the exterior concourse, two familiar figures stepped into position beside him. Thundercracker on his right. Skywarp on his left. Neither wore any official Senate insignia. They did not need to. Starscream had already registered them as his personal security detail cycles ago. It was a convenient privilege of being a senator, and one that also ensured he did not have to accept guards assigned by Sentinel.
Thundercracker glanced sideways. “Session went about as well as expected.”
Skywarp smirked. “I liked the part where everyone pretended they weren’t terrified.”
Starscream continued walking toward the flight platforms. Only once they had cleared the main Senate traffic did he open a private encrypted channel on the trine frequency.
Thundercracker’s voice came through first. “Channel secure.”
Skywarp followed. “Always.”
Starscream spoke quietly. “Soundwave delivered a message.”
Thundercracker’s attention sharpened immediately. “In the chamber?”
“Yes.”
Skywarp chuckled softly. “Bold.”
“It was discreet.”
Thundercracker asked the obvious question. “What did he say?”
“Construction is complete.”
Thundercracker understood immediately. “Already?”
“One final calibration.”
Skywarp whistled quietly over the comm. “That thing stood a couple months ago.”
“And now they’re ready to use it,” Thundercracker said.
Starscream stepped onto the launch platform and looked out over the open sky beyond Iacon. His mind replayed the moment again, not as something recent, but as something that had been waiting beneath every Senate debate since the day he witnessed it.
Six machines.
One giant.
Standing.
Devastator obey Megatron.
“Yes,” Starscream said finally.
Skywarp’s voice came through again. “So what does that mean?”
Starscream transformed, his tetrajet frame locking into place as his engines warmed. “It means,” he said over the private channel, “the next time Megatron builds an arena…” He paused slightly. “…the Senate may not be able to stop him.”
Thundercracker transformed beside him. Skywarp vanished in a brief flash of violet light before reappearing already in jet mode.
Three engines ignited together.
The trine launched into the sky.
Somewhere beneath Kaon, Devastator waited.
Starscream angled his wings slightly as the trine climbed away from Iacon. Cloud layers rolled beneath them as the city shrank in the distance. Thundercracker held formation on his right, and Skywarp drifted lazily behind them before correcting his position.
Starscream kept his optics forward.
The Senate had just given Sentinel permission to escalate. But Starscream already knew something Sentinel did not.
Megatron had been ready long before the vote.
The arenas. The growing following. The builders. And now Devastator.
Starscream replayed the moment again in his processor, the first time the Constructicons had forced the giant frame to stand and speak with one combined will. That had changed everything. The Senate was reacting. Megatron was planning.
That difference alone would decide the opening moves.
Starscream tightened the formation signal to his trine. If he intended to bring the Seekers through what was coming, he would have to move just as quickly. He could not wait for the Senate to collapse. He would have to stay ahead of it.
And that meant keeping pace with Megatron.
The trine cut across the upper atmosphere as Vos came into view ahead of them, its massive torus shape gliding through the sky like a moving horizon.
Starscream opened the private channel again. “Skywarp.”
Skywarp’s voice came back immediately. “Yeah?”
“Can you find Rumble or Frenzy?”
There was a pause. Then Skywarp laughed. “You mean the little information machines?”
“Yes.”
Thundercracker’s voice joined the channel. “That might be easier said than done.”
Skywarp scoffed. “Please.”
Starscream continued evenly. “I need communication with Soundwave.”
Thundercracker understood immediately. “So you don’t have to keep flying down into Kaon every time you need to talk.”
“Yes.”
Skywarp’s engines flared slightly as he shifted position in the formation. “I can find one of them.”
“They find you, usually,” Thundercracker said.
Skywarp chuckled. “Exactly.”
Starscream angled slightly toward Vos’s outer flight corridors. “I am not interested in chasing their network through half of Cybertron.”
“Fair,” Thundercracker said.
“If Megatron and I are going to remain aligned…” Starscream left the sentence unfinished.
Skywarp finished it for him. “You’re going to need a direct line.”
“Yes.”
Skywarp’s voice brightened. “Well. I’ll go fishing.”
Starscream glanced briefly at the radar sweep as Skywarp’s signal blinked out. The Seeker vanished in a flash of violet light.
Thundercracker sighed over the channel. “Of course he did.”
Starscream continued toward Vos without breaking stride.
If anyone could locate one of Soundwave’s cassettes, it would be Skywarp.