koilungfish (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
koilungfish) wrote2007-05-11 03:09 pm
koilungfish) wrote2007-05-11 03:09 pm
Entry tags:
Decepticons being highly unsympathetic
10/5/07 - Ill
11/5/07 - Xenocide
The last of the Rappaxians were huddled together in a cleft between two of the vast crystal formations that had drawn the Decepticons to their world. They clustered together, shivering, silent, staring at the execution squad with wet eyes that bulged from their gelatinous heads. In the distance, Megatron could hear the crump and thud of the demolition teams tearing down the last of their delicate, shard-spun crystal hives to prise out the energy nodes within. Overhead jets screamed in sweeping search-arcs; the hills behind them flashed with gunfire as the Rappaxian's war-beasts died in futile defence of the last scrap of a conquered world.
At his right, Thundercracker grimaced and looked away.
"You have some difficulty with your duty?" Megatron snarled. One of the smaller Rappaxians gibbered at the sound of his voice. Thundercracker shook his head, not looking Megatron in the face. Megatron grabbed him by the wing and hauled him close. "This is nothing to be proud of, but it is necessary."
"Yeah," Skywarp said, checking his gun and locking in a new ammunition packet. "These things multiply like glitch-mice. If we left this lot alive, next week there'd be six thousand of them."
One of the larger Rappaxians wobbled up, pulling itself up to its full knee-high reach. It made slobbering noises Megatron roughly translated as a total, pleading surrender.
"Shoot it," Megatron ordered Skywarp, and watched as the organic blob exploded into a mess of magenta jelly. A ripple of gibbering ran through the huddled mass, then silence.
Overhead and behind, a jet roared down, blotting out the sun and turning the quivering mass of Rappaxians into a shuddering carpet of glob-shapes.
"This extermination operation is a waste of resources," Starscream shouted as he landed, perching on the edge of the crystal formation on Megatron's right. "We should've stopped back at the plains."
"What, and leave these blasted things to keep creating those blasted things?" Megatron yelled back, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the hills behind and the crackling, flaring corpses of the war-beasts.
"Bah, those," Starscream said, waving a hand. "They're hardly a threat."
"Never give an enemy a chance to improve his weapons," Megatron said sternly, frowning at Starscream, who snorted.
"Are these the last?" the red jet said, waving his other hand at the gibbering crowd.
"So it seems," Megatron said.
"What's taking so long?" Starscream asked imperiously. "Have you lost your nerve?"
"Shut up, Starscream," Megatron ordered on reflex.
"I agree," Thundercracker said sullenly. "It is a waste of time."
Megatron backhanded him, sending him sprawling. "Have you both lost your minds? We are Decepticons! We command the fear of the galaxy because we are merciless! Worlds kneel to us because they know that we will leave nothing behind but ash and corpses!"
"We should have accepted their surrender months ago," Starscream said. "We've wasted gigatons of energon on this operation!"
"I was willing to accept their surrender when we first arrived," Megatron said, laying out his words like ingots of lead. "They chose to fight. We are Decepticons. We do not deal in mercy!"
"Mercy? Who said anything of mercy?" Starscream sneered. "I was talking about the waste of time and energy! We're losing ground by the planetoid in the Aregula Cluster and what are we doing? Playing around in the muck, slaughtering pathetic xenorganics as if it was fun!"
"We need the energon from this planet to fuel the troops in Aregula, you screaming moron!" Megatron bellowed.
Starscream bridled, optics flaring, wings stiff. "You run-down museum piece!" he shrieked, jabbing a finger at Megatron and incidentally aiming his gun at the same time. "Can't you see we've wasted more fuel on this than we'll extract from this planet in the next three months?"
Megatron raised his cannon arm. "You try my patience, Starscream."
"Err, I was only offering an alternative logistical perspective!" Starscream gabbled, optics widening as he raised his hands defensively.
Skywarp laughed. "Can I shoot these things now?"
"I do not care," Megatron said stiffly, not taking his target locks off Starscream. "Destroy them, or if that task is too menial, let them go. We will rip this world apart and drain it of everything it has. They will die with amongst the ruins of our ruination."
"Shooting squishies in a crate is no fun," Skywarp said, bored of tone, and lowered his guns. "Come on, Thundercracker, let's go see if the Constructicons left any of those glowy spikey things behind this time."
As the two jets soared away into the rose-tinted skies, Starscream skidded down the edge of the crystal boulder and smirked at Megatron.
"Going soft in your old age?" he needled.
"It's barely worth the cost in ammunition to destroy those things," Megatron said, as they launched themselves into the air and turned towards the falling city. "Their war-beasts are destroyed, they have no refuge and no resources to fall back on..."
"As I said, soft," Starscream smiled, poisonous as a dagger in the neck.
"Soft? I'll show you soft!" Megatron snarled. Pivoting in flight, he trained his cannon on the cleft. With target-locks fixed, he saw the expressions of terror on every Rappaxian face. He saw them raise their grasping-tendrils to cover their wet eyes, to cling to one another or to shield one another. What hopeless weakness, he thought. They had the chance to serve us as slaves; now, for their presumption, their world dies. A fast flare of anger burned up inside him. Foolish flesh-germs! Did they really believe they could stand against us? Let them die for their arrogance!
He fired, and the crystal cleft erupted in a purple blaze; the crystals glowed, throbbed with power, and put forth spurs of new growth. The Rappaxians went extinct in a patter of gentle magenta rain.
Other worlds will hear of this and tremble before us, Megatron thought, half angry at himself for giving in to Starscream's goading, half angry at himself for letting the campaign drag on so long. Some will take up arms in outrage. As soon as we blot out one irritation, another springs up.
Was it right to do this? Was it right to squash one germ at the risk of angering some other, more powerful future foe?
Am I making Cybertron a target?
He looked around at the devastation, the emptiness of a landscape once thronged by an alien race, the ruined bodies of war-beasts scattered on the slopes of the hills, the tearing and crashing of the city falling, the dark shapes of jets slicing the air, Starscream floating, waiting, smirking, equally lethal in all directions.
"Found your nerve, you antiquated lump?" Starscream asked.
"Starscream, you fool! We are Decepticons - proud, mighty and merciless! If anyone will stand against us, let them come! We will show them a true test of strength. And if they outmatch us in strength," - Megatron laughed - "then they will learn why we are called Decepticons."
Final Version Posted
11/5/07 - Xenocide
The last of the Rappaxians were huddled together in a cleft between two of the vast crystal formations that had drawn the Decepticons to their world. They clustered together, shivering, silent, staring at the execution squad with wet eyes that bulged from their gelatinous heads. In the distance, Megatron could hear the crump and thud of the demolition teams tearing down the last of their delicate, shard-spun crystal hives to prise out the energy nodes within. Overhead jets screamed in sweeping search-arcs; the hills behind them flashed with gunfire as the Rappaxian's war-beasts died in futile defence of the last scrap of a conquered world.
At his right, Thundercracker grimaced and looked away.
"You have some difficulty with your duty?" Megatron snarled. One of the smaller Rappaxians gibbered at the sound of his voice. Thundercracker shook his head, not looking Megatron in the face. Megatron grabbed him by the wing and hauled him close. "This is nothing to be proud of, but it is necessary."
"Yeah," Skywarp said, checking his gun and locking in a new ammunition packet. "These things multiply like glitch-mice. If we left this lot alive, next week there'd be six thousand of them."
One of the larger Rappaxians wobbled up, pulling itself up to its full knee-high reach. It made slobbering noises Megatron roughly translated as a total, pleading surrender.
"Shoot it," Megatron ordered Skywarp, and watched as the organic blob exploded into a mess of magenta jelly. A ripple of gibbering ran through the huddled mass, then silence.
Overhead and behind, a jet roared down, blotting out the sun and turning the quivering mass of Rappaxians into a shuddering carpet of glob-shapes.
"This extermination operation is a waste of resources," Starscream shouted as he landed, perching on the edge of the crystal formation on Megatron's right. "We should've stopped back at the plains."
"What, and leave these blasted things to keep creating those blasted things?" Megatron yelled back, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the hills behind and the crackling, flaring corpses of the war-beasts.
"Bah, those," Starscream said, waving a hand. "They're hardly a threat."
"Never give an enemy a chance to improve his weapons," Megatron said sternly, frowning at Starscream, who snorted.
"Are these the last?" the red jet said, waving his other hand at the gibbering crowd.
"So it seems," Megatron said.
"What's taking so long?" Starscream asked imperiously. "Have you lost your nerve?"
"Shut up, Starscream," Megatron ordered on reflex.
"I agree," Thundercracker said sullenly. "It is a waste of time."
Megatron backhanded him, sending him sprawling. "Have you both lost your minds? We are Decepticons! We command the fear of the galaxy because we are merciless! Worlds kneel to us because they know that we will leave nothing behind but ash and corpses!"
"We should have accepted their surrender months ago," Starscream said. "We've wasted gigatons of energon on this operation!"
"I was willing to accept their surrender when we first arrived," Megatron said, laying out his words like ingots of lead. "They chose to fight. We are Decepticons. We do not deal in mercy!"
"Mercy? Who said anything of mercy?" Starscream sneered. "I was talking about the waste of time and energy! We're losing ground by the planetoid in the Aregula Cluster and what are we doing? Playing around in the muck, slaughtering pathetic xenorganics as if it was fun!"
"We need the energon from this planet to fuel the troops in Aregula, you screaming moron!" Megatron bellowed.
Starscream bridled, optics flaring, wings stiff. "You run-down museum piece!" he shrieked, jabbing a finger at Megatron and incidentally aiming his gun at the same time. "Can't you see we've wasted more fuel on this than we'll extract from this planet in the next three months?"
Megatron raised his cannon arm. "You try my patience, Starscream."
"Err, I was only offering an alternative logistical perspective!" Starscream gabbled, optics widening as he raised his hands defensively.
Skywarp laughed. "Can I shoot these things now?"
"I do not care," Megatron said stiffly, not taking his target locks off Starscream. "Destroy them, or if that task is too menial, let them go. We will rip this world apart and drain it of everything it has. They will die with amongst the ruins of our ruination."
"Shooting squishies in a crate is no fun," Skywarp said, bored of tone, and lowered his guns. "Come on, Thundercracker, let's go see if the Constructicons left any of those glowy spikey things behind this time."
As the two jets soared away into the rose-tinted skies, Starscream skidded down the edge of the crystal boulder and smirked at Megatron.
"Going soft in your old age?" he needled.
"It's barely worth the cost in ammunition to destroy those things," Megatron said, as they launched themselves into the air and turned towards the falling city. "Their war-beasts are destroyed, they have no refuge and no resources to fall back on..."
"As I said, soft," Starscream smiled, poisonous as a dagger in the neck.
"Soft? I'll show you soft!" Megatron snarled. Pivoting in flight, he trained his cannon on the cleft. With target-locks fixed, he saw the expressions of terror on every Rappaxian face. He saw them raise their grasping-tendrils to cover their wet eyes, to cling to one another or to shield one another. What hopeless weakness, he thought. They had the chance to serve us as slaves; now, for their presumption, their world dies. A fast flare of anger burned up inside him. Foolish flesh-germs! Did they really believe they could stand against us? Let them die for their arrogance!
He fired, and the crystal cleft erupted in a purple blaze; the crystals glowed, throbbed with power, and put forth spurs of new growth. The Rappaxians went extinct in a patter of gentle magenta rain.
Other worlds will hear of this and tremble before us, Megatron thought, half angry at himself for giving in to Starscream's goading, half angry at himself for letting the campaign drag on so long. Some will take up arms in outrage. As soon as we blot out one irritation, another springs up.
Was it right to do this? Was it right to squash one germ at the risk of angering some other, more powerful future foe?
Am I making Cybertron a target?
He looked around at the devastation, the emptiness of a landscape once thronged by an alien race, the ruined bodies of war-beasts scattered on the slopes of the hills, the tearing and crashing of the city falling, the dark shapes of jets slicing the air, Starscream floating, waiting, smirking, equally lethal in all directions.
"Found your nerve, you antiquated lump?" Starscream asked.
"Starscream, you fool! We are Decepticons - proud, mighty and merciless! If anyone will stand against us, let them come! We will show them a true test of strength. And if they outmatch us in strength," - Megatron laughed - "then they will learn why we are called Decepticons."
Final Version Posted
no subject
no subject
I'm surprised you enjoyed this. It just felt so ... end-of-the-day, fag-end, tired and dirty and bored, which is a pretty disrespectful way for a ficbit about genocide to be. Then again, they're Decepticons. Genocide is kinda stock-in-trade.
I just feel like a Nazi apologist or something now ...
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I get the impression the Rappaxians were *way* out of their league, facing off against the Decepticons, and what started out as a colossal backhand turned into a search-and-destroy campaign that became pretty miserable to the 'cons just because the opposition were numerous but feeble.
Kinda like random encounters with imps in Final Fantasy, really.
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Yeah, I too think you brought it across rather well - the Decepticons here are bastards, certainly, but they don't like mass-slaughtering aliens that can't fight back much because it's just - boring?
You may want to fix this sentence, though - They will die with amongst the ruins of our ruination. (Specifically, the "die with amongst" - there is either a word too many or a few words too few.)
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Argh, I have screwed that sentence up, yes.
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Thundercracker and Skywarp are very well painted, too--the 'heavies' of the trine, as opposed to Starscream's more refined perspective. They just want to shoot something. Starscream's not opposed to a bit of mayhem for mayhem's sake either but he's trying (as always) to out-command the commander, by yowling about conserving energy and whatnot.
Speaking of, you've got Starscream spot on, from his arrogance to his cowardice (turning on a dime to save his own hide) and to his ability to get periodic digs into Megatron. He's a manipulative little cuss, as always, and can push Megatron's buttons like no one else.
"They will die with amongst the ruins of our ruination."
I know what you're trying to say ("our 'scorched-earth' tactics will leave them without anything to sustain life") but it's a bit on the wonky side. But you probably knew that. =)
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As said to Loon, there's a certain sense here of swatting flies with a blunderbuss; the 'cons aren't having much fun exterminating the locals because the locals aren't much of a challenge. Hence the cross tempers all over.
Nice to know I got them right, heh. I haven't written Megatron and Starscream sniping at one another for rather a while.
Hmm, right.
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This piece reminds me of G2. Thing is, Thundercracker hates those without wings. I would sooner see him going soft over pretty little avians or dragonflies.
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I wouldn't say he was going soft over them. I just don't think he saw the point of squashing small harmless helpless things that couldn't fight back. It'd seem ... too easy? Beneath him? I'm not sure what.
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