Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro

Warnings: AU, part of the Right of All universe

Prompt: At the Beach

Although Soundwave had been amongst the first to join the armada, he hadn't been there from the very start; that dubious honor belonged to only a few:

Blitzwing. Rumble. Frenzy. Onslaught. Starscream.

Those five, along with Lord Megatron, had been the original core. By the time Soundwave arrived, the search for a command staff had begun. He wasn't the only one of the newly-minted Decepticons to think that the Second, the Third, the Air Commander would come from the original five.

Instead, Starscream had adamantly refused the (at that time) joint positions of Second in Command and Air Commander. He had to actually be bargained into taking on the role of Chief Medical Officer, and was happiest (for a given value of happy) when he was tending to the injuries of the troops or simply making sure their antivirus programs were fully updated.

No, the role of Third had been offered to Soundwave himself, along with Chief Intelligence Officer. He had accepted both positions, still a bit thrown that one of the remaining four hadn't been offered a spot on the command team... at least, until Rumble and Frenzy gleefully volunteered to be part of Soundwave's spy team and Onslaught was given command of a mercenary unit deemed the Combaticons. The position of Second in Command and Chief Science Officer went to Shockwave, who had learned that some of his ideals were a match for those Megatron was fighting for and offered his services in any way necessary.

Back then, in the early days, the structure of command had been confusing to the technopath. The mechs who made it up were too divergent, too different to actually work together... and yet somehow, Megatron's charisma and Shockwave's deductive reasoning and Soundwave's technopathy had meshed to create a strong core unit. The additional input that would eventually be added by Starscream's scientific and medical background and Skywarp's tactical know-how and Thundercracker's Elite Forces training would only make the Decepticons that much stronger.

Strong enough to know when a fight was futile, to know where to place a distraction while another smaller team handled the real objective.

Vorns later, on a world far from home, Soundwave knew that they were still able to perform such intricate operations even with Shockwave holding the Decepticon strongholds on Cybertron.

"I hate the beach," Ravage complained, glaring at the sand as if it was mortally offending him. "Sand gets into all of my gears."

"Observation: fact of nature on this world," Soundwave responded, mostly ignoring the complaints even while admitting that he didn't much like the sensation either. "Further observation: distraction tactics working as previously planned."

"Still do not know why I had to be here," the panther groused.

"Because you're a fragging ray of sunshine. Now shut up so I can concentrate on this weld."

Soundwave very nearly snorted at the comment, and was amused that Swindle actually did snort. Starscream responded by whapping the Combaticon on the helm with his welding torch before going back to work on the mech's damaged hip join. To absolutely nobody's surprise, the CMO had joined the distraction force, mostly because it was a given that Megatron would go one-on-one with the Prime, and Starscream would never pass up the opportunity to inform him of his stupidity while fixing the damage as was his prerogative as head of the medical team. It was just another sign of the long-term friendship between the Decepticon commander and his chief medic that Megatron expected the treatment and kept from complaining too much during the repair process.

"Ouch," Swindle complained in spite of the fact that the seeker hadn't smacked him that hard. "And you're here, kitty cat, because otherwise Thundercracker would toss your aft into the brig if anything happens to his wingmate."

Soundwave didn't respond with any outward signs, but he mentally acknowledged that Swindle's words were Primus' honest truth. The only reason that neither Thundercracker nor Skywarp was hovering over Starscream's work was because the technopath and one of his agents were on guard. Otherwise the head of security or air commander (or both) would be covering the medic's back instead of working on keeping the Autobots' attention on the coastal power plant they were "raiding" and away from the small outcrop that Starscream had turned into a makeshift triage.

"Do I need to start welding mouths shut?" the seeker growled, lifting his optics only long enough to shoot a hard look at the Combaticon and Cassetticon before returning attention to his repairs. It would probably only be another half-breem before Swindle would be back in the fight, but Soundwave remained alert and in contact with the rest of his spy team; Rumble and Frenzy were with the crew at the actual target (a wind farm in the central United States) while Laserbeak kept an optic on the operations and Buzzsaw and Ratbat updated their chief on how the distraction was playing out.

It was hardly the first time that Soundwave had taken measures to ensure that the CMO was kept out of the line of fire, and he would never stop doing whatever it took to keep Starscream out of enemy hands.