[If Starscream can say one positive thing about Rodimus, it's that his timing couldn't have been better. Just when he's about to start putting a grand scheme into motion and, and he hits a wall with how to obtain one of the key pieces involved in it, an Autobot with exactly the information he needs suddenly appears? It's almost too good to be true.

He taps into Orion Pax's comm link frequency, voice urgent.]

Pax? Please tell me this is the right frequency... I need to speak with you, privately. 

Autobots, this is Chief Medical Officer Ratchet responding to a request for medical assistance. I'm currently in orbit and am open to suggestions for places to land discreetly to keep your cover intact. Please respond with a location, or a briefing, or both, as soon as possible.

[Orion has pointedly gone somewhere isolated for this - he doesn't want to feel confined to his alt mode while having this conversation, in the inevitable event that it gets heated. It's been a long while in coming, and he earnestly has no idea what he'll do in the aftermath.

All the same, his tone starts surprisingly assertive.]


Megatron. I must speak with you.

[He is definitely not hiding around a corner with a payphone receiver while making this call, that would be ridiculous. It is at least a week since Starscream's rescue.]

Commander Starscream, do you read me?



LATER, HE PHONES THE DISCIPLE...

[The voice on the other side of the phone sounds awkward and hesitant.]

Magdal, do you read me?



EVENT LATER, HE PHONES METABEE...

[He speaks with a certain sense of urgency.]

Hello. This is Orion Pax. Do you read?