Seeker Research Paper

The Seekers. An elite special forces group exclusive to flying cybertronian warriors whose existence predated the Autobot-Decepticon War. They were the best and brightest of the Cybertronian Armed Forces back then. Now, they were the best and brightest of the recently-formed Decepticons, still grinding gears and tearing scrap up with as much style as ever.
Sitting across from one another in the bay of a dropship in high orbit over Cybertron, the seekers Jetfire – a Guardian-class flier – and Slipstream – a Stalker-class flier – examined their new integral weapon systems co-invented by Starscream and Thundercracker. Known as the STX-8, the state-of-the-art weaponry was quite simple in appearance; a sleek, dark, and smooth emplacement protruding

from the arm to which it was attached. In operation, the weapon fired superheated plasma in a firing mode limited only by the user’s imagination. The most astounding feature of the STX-8 was that it was powered by electricity, not energon.
For as long as anyone could remember, electricity had only ever been used as a damaging-factor in weapons tech. Energon was the primary source of pretty much everything cybertronian. It sustained life, powered equipment, healed wounds. Energon was everything, until now. The ingenious scientist duo had found a way to use it as a viable power source for nonliving technology, allowing the precious energon to be left for use in other purposes; mainly medical and hygienic.
The two seekers were drawn by the dropship's projector as it powered up, producing a life-size holographic model of fellow seeker, Sky Commander Thundercracker. As Jetfire and Slipstream were the only two sky commanders taking a direct role in the coming operation, Thundercracker decided to brief them personally.
“Jetfire. Slipstream. Good to see you both functional.”
“Likewise, Thundercracker,” Jetfire replied.
“Nice work in Kaon. You two ground that sad mob of trigger-happy gladiators into a real fighting force. Worthy of the title: Decepticons.”
“Decepticons,” Slipstream uttered to herself. “I like the sound of that.”
“It’s not terrible,” Jetfire added. He was not incredibly fond of the name himself. “And Thunder, you did a fine job with these guns. I never thought I'd see the megacycle we used electricity as a power source.”
“Thanks, but I don't deserve all the credit. Starscream did most of the work.”
Slipstream scoffed loud and obnoxious at the mention of Sky Commander Starscream, leader of the Seekers.

“Still not getting along with Starscream?” Jetfire asked.
“I'll never get along with that idiot,” Slipstream asserted.
Thundercracker glared at Slipstream with immense persecution.
“Starscream may be impulsive, vile, and unequivocal, but he is most certainly not an idiot. In fact, he's quite the opposite, whether you’re willing to admit it or not. More importantly, he's our leader; your leader. He deserves your utmost respect,” Thundercracker scorned.
Internally, Slipstream simmered with contempt, but maintained outward composure, even in the face of someone praising Starscream, the man she hated most.
“Of course, Thundercracker. My apologies,” Slipstream conceited.
Thundercracker just stared at Slipstream for a moment, not saying a word. After a few nanocycles, he summoned a series of additional holograms around his own projection, manipulating the images as he made his

speech.
“Down to business,” Thundercracker said. “Your mission is to rally the Seekers in a combined assault on Stanix. The city is currently holding a memorial service in honor of Gauntlet, the magistrate we assassinated not long ago, making now an opportune time to attack. The locals have erected a statue of Gauntlet in Stanix Central, the main plaza near the heart of the city. They’ll be plenty of upper-caste rust buckets there to see the unveiling. You will launch an aero strike against the plaza. Half of Cybertron will be watching that service over the Grid. Be sure to give them a show. After that, you’ll spearhead a combined assault on Fort Scyk. I want the Seekers at the front of that assault, with you two at the front of the Seekers. Capture the fortress, but do as little damage to the infrastructure as possible. We want Fort Scyk for our own use. Also, if any stanixian soldiers attempt to surrender, subdue them with non-lethal force. We might be able to turn them to our side. After the area is secure, return to Vos and await further orders.”
“Yes, Thundercracker,” Jetfire acknowledged.
“Seek and destroy. Thundercracker out.”
The projector powered down after Thundercracker stepped off screen. Jetfire turned to face Slipstream with his own look of disappointment.
“What?” she asked.
“You would dare talk scrap about a sky commander in front of another sky commander? And scrap about Starscream no less, leader of the Seekers? In front of Thundercracker no less, one of Starscream's two most trusted lieutenants? What the frak is wrong with you!?”
“Relax, Jet. I'm a sky commander too, remember? Thunder won't tell on me.”
“I know he won't, but how do you know Starscream wasn't right next to him and heard the whole thing?”
“Starscream wasn't there.”
“And how do you know that?”
“Because if he was, he would've done the talking. Trust me. I know.”
“If you say so,” Jetfire resigned. He also knew Starscream quite well. All the sky commanders knew each other personally, and Starscream certainly was one who enjoyed the sound of his own voice. One thing still gripped Jetfire’s curiosity though. “Slip, why do you hate Starscream so much?”
“I have my reasons.”
“And they are?” Jetfire prodded.
“Wouldn't you like to know?” Slipstream teased.
Jetfire cracked a tiny smile.
“I would. You see, I find Starscream to be quite the luminary. A man with a vision, and a great role model for kids,” he joked.
Slipstream stood there, frozen, like she had just seen a ghost.
“You're joking, right,” Slipstream declared more than asked after a brief moment of silence. Her hatred for Starscream truly ran deep.
“Yes. Don't worry. That was a joke,” Jetfire abated.
“A bad one,” Slipstream panned.
“Really? I thought it was pretty good. Perfectly timed.”
“Maybe... for another audience.”
“You really don't like Starscream.”
“If you knew him like I did, you wouldn't like him either. Let's leave it at that.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll drop it. Now come on. Let’s review the AO.”
“We’ve reviewed it twice already,” Slipstream protested.
“Third time’s the charm.”
“Why do you always say that? Nobody says that.”
“I do.”
Slipstream rolled her optics, pretending to be annoyed, but it was all for not. Jetfire knew just the look to give to make her let loose a smile.
“Stop that!” she cried.
“Stop what?” Jetfire asked, feigning ignorance.
“You know what.”
“Fine, fine, fine.”
The two seekers stepped over to the dropship’s projector, and for the third time at Jetfire’s insistence, they reviewed the AO. Holograms of the schematics for Stanix and Fort Scyk flashed before their optics, beaming the data into their minds with each passing image.
The area of operation consisted of two main sectors in the region. The first was Stanix Central, the plaza located at the heart of the city of Stanix. The rhomboidal structure was stacked with exactly 300 levels stretching 5 kliks across.
The second main sector was Fort Scyk, located just beyond the city limits of Stanix, approximately 2000 kliks away from the plaza. This was where the deciding battle for the city of Stanix would take place. The fortress was a vast, circular structure, spreading out with a diameter of approximately 100 kliks, making the military base larger than any of the suburbs in Stanix. The fort’s wall stretched up almost two kliks above the installations surface level. The sublevels of Fort Scyk stretched out beyond the boundaries of the surface level by about 500 kliks in every direction. If the stanixians chose to fight to the very end rather than surrender, than the fight for Fort Scyk would be brutal beyond measure, even if the reports were accurate about the defenders being in bad health from stellarcycles of atrophy.
“There,” Slipstream declared, manually powering down the projector immediately at the end of the presentation before the poor little drone had a chance to initiate its own shutdown procedures. “Feeling charmed?”
“Oh yes,” Jetfire affirmed. “Third time is definitely the charm.”
“Dear Primus,” Slipstream groaned, “shut me down now.”
As if on cue, the mission lights illuminating the dropship's bay turned from red to green, signaling it was go-time.
“That’s got to be a sign,” Jetfire commented.
“Uh oh,” Slipstream joked. “I guess Primus is going to kill me after all.”
“You should be careful what you wish for.”
“Mm hmm,” Slipstream agreed.

“Talk later?” she asked.
“Of course,” Jetfire replied with a warm smile.
The two seekers readied themselves in front of the dropship's aft door. Jetfire gave Slipstream a friendly nudge, one last banter before it was time for no-nonsense, all-business.
Slipstream hit the door release. The wind howled as it wrapped around the speeding craft. Jetfire looked down at the city below. They were right above Stanix, directly over the central plaza. The cityscape jutted high up into the atmosphere, a spectacle to behold, one that was about to get a whole lot less glorious.
“We'll rebuild it someday. When all this is over,” he thought to himself. He hated having to destroy something so beautiful, but he hated the caste system even more, and would do whatever was necessary to bring it crashing down.
“Comms check. You read me, Slip?” Jetfire called out through the closed data link between him and Slipstream.
“I read you, Jet. Comms online. Data streams nominal,” Slipstream replied.
“DECCOM, this is Sky Commander Jetfire. Comms check,” Jetfire called out through the AO data link between all Decepticon forces partaking in the

operation.
“This is Decepticon Command. We read you, Jetfire. Data streams nominal. Commence your attack.”
“Seek and destroy!” Slipstream yelled, converting to alt-form and blasting down towards the surface of the planet.
“Seek and destroy!” Jetfire followed, streaming down at hypervelocity, forming up next to his partner.
As the two sped toward the city below, all the hundreds of other low-ranking seekers formed up behind them, joining in on the ferocious nosedive.
Jetfire locked his weapon systems onto the central plaza. The action prompted his combat programming to kick in, readying his systems for engagement.
/: COMBAT ACTION DETECTED.
/: COMBAT PROGRAMMING AUTO-ENABLED.
“Target locked,” Jetfire called out.
“Target locked,” Slipstream called out.
Less than a nanocycle later, all seekers had confirmed they were locked on.
“Open fire,” ordered the communications officer at DECCOM.
The central plaza and all its occupants went up in a blaze of horror and agony, seen all across the Grid by half the world, just as Megatron had planned. After the video feeds of the memorial service were cut, the Seekers bombed the city's communications infrastructure into oblivion too, then shifted course to Fort Scyk, where the real fight for the great city of Stanix would soon begin.