Fiction » “Based on a Conversation with Thundercracker”
“Based on a Conversation with Thundercracker”
It was when the searing heat melded his cranial apex to his cortex shell that Sunstorm realised he should have just kept quiet.
It had been dubbed “The Final Solution.” Rumours spread like rust across the planet that a new order was coming. The Council of Autobot Elders had become an antiquated system—not fit for the changes that lay ahead, not fit to oversee the evolution of the Transformers and their planet.
The Transformers, Sunstorm had been told, were destined to spread throughout the galaxy, to go where no one had gone before, to seek out new civilisations, and claim them in the name of Megatron.
The very idea appealed to Sunstorm. He felt like a fragment of something larger than he was yet to understand. He felt the need to belong to something. The Autobots seemed only interested in athletes and scholars, and by all accounts, Sunstorm was none of those things.
Sunstorm loved to fly, to soar above those athletes and scholars. He felt bound by gravity. Cybertron was not for him, and perhaps the Decepticons were.
That first day in Polyhex opened up his world. For the first time in his life, he realised the full scope of life. He saw a well of untapped potential, and an organisation he could really feel a part of.
Until he met Growl, that is.
*
Growl, Sunstorm would come to learn, was the epitome of those that wanted to join Megatron: a thug, a bully, and an altogether nasty piece of machinery.
Growl took a liking to Sunstorm. Not the conventional kind of liking—this kind was a twisted and cruel fascination. It started, innocently enough, Sunstorm thought, as a series of remarks. Nothing particularly threatening, just comments on his colour scheme, alternate mode, that kind of thing.
But things degraded. Growl would sabotage training sorties, blaming mistakes on Sunstorm. The other members would join with Growl in digging at Sunstorm.
Then came the violence. Growl would purposely fire on Sunstorm and blame it on accidental circumstance—friendly fire. Sunstorm was in Hook-1’s workshop more than he was out in the field.
In short, Growl was a bully.
At first, it didn’t bother Sunstorm. He was happy enough with the pride of belonging to such a welcoming organisation. But with time, it began to eat at him. The constant venomous remarks, the continual laser burns.
It eventually became all a bit too much for Sunstorm. He presented himself with a dilemma. If he quit the Decepticons, he would lose his label, that sense of belonging. His ex-comrades would surely hunt him down when war inevitably fell on the planet. Besides, Sunstorm was not a quitter. If he didn’t quit the Decepticons then he would surely be consigning himself to a lifetime of torment.
*
Unless!
Unless he found it within himself to stand up to the bully. As Growl continued his twisted games, Sunstorm reinforced his resolve for the confrontation. As he played it out in his mind, Sunstorm realised that it would be the most difficult thing he would have to do.
Strafing targets in a practice simulation? No problem. Infiltrating a power base while under heavy fire? Hardly anything to break the coolant out over. Standing up to someone you live in close-quarters with who torments you day in, day out? Now that was a different scenario altogether.
On a return journey from a training simulation in the Acid Wastes, Sunstorm blurted it out without thinking. He said it straight to Growl’s face. “Stop!” he had shouted.
Growl reacted like any one of Megatron’s Decepticons. He pushed his laser rifle into Sunstorm’s forehead and fired.
None of the other Decepticons present said a word and Sunstorm’s body was left to rot—not fit for inclusion.
The end
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