Inverted Insignia Chapter 1 Recruitment

Inverted Insignia

Recruitment
Earthdate: 9.25 million B.C.E. (Before Common Era)
Day one at the CWA

The blue sun rose over the metallic surface of Cybertron, its light shining off city's skyline. Many of the buildings were made of metals such as Titanium, Tridium or Trinium. The Cybertron War Academy was made of the standard Cybertronian alloys, what made the Academy stand out against the glistening city was the dichroic glass. During the day it appeared red, and at night, it seemed to be blue – The change in colour had a somewhat sinister feel about it.

The Academy was bustling with students, the word on the wind was war was about to break out and the Cybertronians were deciding their allegiances. Cybertronians were as much as one race, broken down into different countries with different traditions, methods, and ways; each city-state had its own laws for carrying out justice. A number of Conflicts had occurred between two nearby cities, one in which Megatron resided, and One in which Alpha Trion resided. It was argued that the laws for all of Cybertron should be streamlined. It was countered with the argument that the No Flying laws would impede the Seekers in their City of Vos, where flight was practised by almost every person living there.  The Decepticons, as they called themselves, were lead by Megatron. He spoke out against the Oppressive ways of the Autobots, how their ideals were suppressing the many freedoms his people enjoyed.

Seekers flew in from Vos, and landed in a courtyard area. Many of the Seekers were showing their allegiance to the Decepticon Faction and were having the badge marked into their chromoderm. The tattoo was created by an electrical charge that changed the pigmentation cells within the chromoderm. This was achieved by altering the signal the spark sent to the dermis layer. The effect was permanent until, for whatever reason, it was turned off again by a reversal of the procedure.

Starscream walked to the gate of the Academy; unlike his Seeker brethren, he did not fly. He hesitated looking at the words “Cybertron War Academy” across the bronze gateway. He looked about and tipped his head toward the sky watching as yet another group of Seekers streaked in, their colours glinting brightly in the sun. This caused him to think back a decade into his past. He left Cybertron on the Solar Holiday and saw the colour of his spark for the first time. His best friend and colleague, Skyfire, insisted they leave that day as the solar wind would be most powerful in the direction of the flare event. Starscream desired to stay and watch the festivities the Seekers and their rainbow squadrons would partake in. Such an event would happen again in a few hundred thousand years, maybe as late as a million years. It was very, very rare. But he agreed to go with his friend, leaving Cybertron behind to visit an undeveloped world that had the potential for being rich in energy and resources.

His effort on the science mission had some promising results, that is until Skyfire got swept up in the polar storm. He let his emotions take hold, let his frustration, fear, and grief grip him as he searched for his missing partner. Skyfire had detected a strong Energon reading beneath the Ice Cap on the northernmost part of the planet. Starscream strongly argued against going into the colder area of the world as Cybertronians were not well adapted to cold climates: their systems were known to freeze up and malfunction; and if not treated fast, death would soon follow. Energon reading or not Starscream would rather flag the location in a data report and go back at some other time, or with equipment better suited to the task. Skyfire had been a little more gung-ho about the discovery and left Starscream to study and take samples from the surface tar pits several hundred kilometres from the glacial edge of the polar ice cap.

He had received the brief may-day call and then all he received was static. Within seconds, Starscream was in the air. His jet engines caused great herds of mammalian animals to scatter in all directions, but he paid them little attention. His goal was to find Skyfire. The Seeker continued to ping his partner hoping for a response. When he neared the Arctic, he could feel the cold penetrating his systems, but he circled the ice cap several times in a Hunter-Seeker search and rescue pattern. If he had only written down the location of the energon vein, then he might have a clue as to where to start his search, but the squalls and the cold took their toll. Starscream had to break off his search, heading back south to warm up before trying again. The Seeker spent a month searching for Skyfire; each day he was left with less hope of finding his partner and more worry that he, himself, would be stranded or die on the alien planet.

Without Skyfire, Starscream's return trip would be extremely challenging. It never occurred to the young Seeker as they embarked on their missions together that he could end up attempting the return trip on his lonesome. They never used a shuttle to fly to their destinations; why would they when Skyfire himself was large enough to carry passengers within his altmode. Fortunately for Starscream, he was able to break planetary gravity and enter space; however, it was an energy-consuming task. His small size would require him to make frequent stops to obtain energy as he flew across Orion's Arm. A trip that would take Skyfire up to a year to complete would take ten times as long for the much smaller flier, even with the use of the ancient warp gates. And the worst thing about this was: Starscream would face being alone, without companionship for the entire time.

Much had changed for Starscream when he arrived back on Cybertron: There had been significant political upheaval. Gladiator-gone-Politician Megatron was bringing people together to fight back against their neighbours who wished to impose their wills and ways upon the provinces near them.  Starscream, as soon as he returned to his home world after a decade of mentally-scarring “solitary confinement” in space, compiled his report to submit to the University at Crystal City. What happened at the University devastated him as much as losing Skyfire... Perhaps it was the rumour of war brewing, or perhaps it was that Starscream was a Seeker, a race of Cybertronian who were flocking to Megatron's banner, or perhaps it was that Starscream survived where the brilliant Skyfire had not. But the University revoked Starscream's degree, 'tore up' the report and promptly kicked him out.

Suddenly without a certified profession and now homeless, as his residence had been taken by the city and sold while he was “lost in space” and without any friends or allies, Starscream felt like his world had been spinning out of control. He contemplated his options: remove his T-cog and plummet to his death by leaping off a chasm ledge, or join the war effort. Being that the Autobots had elected to remove his status Starscream decided between ending it all or joining the Decepticons. He was now without doubt a pauper once more. Ending it all did not appeal to the Seeker. He had strong survival instincts. His ability to adapt to meet the needs of an ever-changing situation gave him the ability to  look past the desperate moment and see that there could be a future ahead of him in an upcoming war. If anything, there would be more dignity and honour to die in battle rather than die by a cowardly and pointless act.

The bronzed gate of the War Academy beckoned him in. He grabbed the few scientific tools he had, the single journal he had been using to record the details of his existence and quietly walked into the Academy. There were so many people around and Starscream felt a bit ill at ease. He had been on his own for a decade in space, having other beings around him felt strange - being on solid ground felt stranger still. He walked up to the clerk who was registering applicants.

“Name” the clerk asked, scrutinising the Seeker.

“Starscream,”  the Seeker replied.

“Occupation?”

“Scientist, I specialise in geology and meteorology although I have also studied chemistry and biology...”

“Scientist is enough,” the clerk said holding up his hand to stop the Seeker from continuing. It might have been just as well. Starscream was about to launch into how he was just recently stripped of his degree by no fault of his own. “Any other skills or abilities?”

“Err... flight would be obvious -  I can emit a low level Electro-Magnetic Pulse -  its' not very focused, so I can generally neutralise anything that that is directly touching me... That's it I fear. I am also a meticulous record keeper.”

“Your age -  approximately?”
Starscream tilted his head smiling in a youthful manner. “Nine-hundred and fifty-three thousand years. Give or take a few hundred.”

The clerk wrote the age down, rounding it up to the nearest million and filled out the rest of the form. He handed it to Starscream along with a datapad. “Go to the red barrack and meet the Quartermaster. He will equip you and then you can choose what courses of study you wish to explore while training to become a warrior.

He took the papers and the datapad in his hand and looked them over carefully. His mind once again turned at the concept at hand. Was he really going to step from science and go to warfare?  He looked at the datapad and scrolled through the options for courses. Meterology, Science, Chemistry, Bio-technology, Field Medicine and Astronomy. He read through each one until he walked into the back of somebody.

“Hey! Watch it dirtball!” said a Seeker. He was white and black with violet accents. His face was quite youthful but he did appear older.

Another Seeker placed his hand on the aggravated one's shoulder. He was blue as the sky, white with red accents like Starscream's. “Easy there Skywarp, no need to bite his head off – errr...what's your name Seeker?”

“I am so sorry,” Starscream replied to Skywarp. “I'm Starscream, a scientist. I just got back from a ten year sojourn in space....” Starscream extended a hand in greeting.

“He's a geek,” Skywarp interrupted. “We don't hang around geeks, Thundercracker.”

“Scientist eh?” Thundercracker replied, ignoring Skywarp's less than friendly remarks, and shaking Starscream's extended hand. “I'm a construction worker - or was. I oversaw the construction of buildings, buildings and towers of Vos. My friend here, is nobody important. But he is okay once you get to know him.”

“Hey I resemble that!” Skywarp responded – then he smiled, a creepy sinister smile. “He's still a geek though...”

“I'm sorry if I am not very outgoing... I have been in space for so long, alone... I am not used to people...” the red Seeker explained hesitantly.

“Not to worry there, Screamer,” Skywarp said placing a now all-too-friendly arm around Starscream's shoulder. “We'll keep out of your way soon enough.”

Starscream felt a little disconcerted by Skywarp's sudden change of attitude. “Please don't... don't call me Screamer.”

The dark Seeker pawed at Starcream's paperwork, yanking it out of the young scientist's hands. “Look, Thunder, he's got Red Barrack too, we're roomies!”

The red Seeker looked appalled and rather disturbed and pulled his papers back. Without any more talking, he quickly took his leave of the strange pair and all but ran into the barracks in hopes he could get accommodations well away from the pair that followed in behind. The barrack was large with many platforms, most of them double platforms. He also noted that those already in the barrack were also Seekers. They were divided up then by species, flier or grounder. He groaned. He wondered how many Seeker barracks there were and perhaps he could transfer.

The officer inside the barrack was also a Seeker. He had the insignia marked on his wing. It was bright, shiny and quite attractive-looking. Starscream wasn't sure he wanted to go through with it. The idea of tattoos did not appeal. He was perfectly happy with how he looked and did not find need for decoration. “Papers?” the officer asked gruffly, holding his hand out. Starscream placed the papers in the open palm and the older warrior nodded as he added to the information.

“There isn't a chance here  is another Seeker barrack is there? I'd like to go to another one.”

The soldier shook his head. “No. Platform 48-b is yours. Your footlocker is 48-B. This is your key, and you are to head to the tattoo station to be marked.”

“Is the tattoo really necessary?”

“It is if you don't want to be blown out the sky by friendlies, I strongly suggest you get it very soon. It'll be a black mark against you if you are not in uniform.”

“Yes, very well...” Starscream groaned and as he was about to turn he felt a hand smack him in the back almost sending him flying head first into the registration table.

“Hey there, Screamer!” It was Skywarp.

“I said don't...”

Skywarp had turned to the officer, “you said he's in 48? 49 a and b open? We're old friends, me and Screamer, we work well together!”

The red Seeker spun around . “That's a lie; I never knew you before now! And don't call me Screamer!”

“Your papers?” the soldier asked Skywarp. Skywarp grabbed Thundercracker's as well and thrust them at the officer and stood back to attention.

“I thought we did not hang around geeks, Skywarp,” Thundercracker reminded.

“Error of judgement, I think he's gonna be so much fun,” the other replied, smiling in a sinister manner once more.

“If you can back out of this, Starscream, I suggest you do...Skywarp has a strange sense of humour,” the blue Seeker warned.

He groaned, “I'll take it under advisement, I think I am bound by my decision now...”

“You three will report to the tattoo station and get the mark,” the officer said, looking, straight at Starscream; the red Seeker felt it was more of an order than a request this time.

Saying nothing more, Starscream turned and found his bunk, his footlocker and put the few items he owned in it. Quickly and quietly the Seeker made his way to the station to get the mark of the Decepticons added to his wings.