katharos

Title: Messenger (listen)
Rating: PG13/R
Wordcount: 1717
Notes: ...I think this might be in the same continuity as Medic?

WARNINGS: War. Really not kidding. Graphic and semi-graphic descripitions of war and mass executions.

In the night we saw the lights of the Decepticon's advance encircle our city; in the morning our comms were silenced; in the afternoon Megatron came to us to ask our surrender.

The commanders of the remaining garrison were brave. They flung his words back in his face, cursed him for the insult to their honour, they mocked his origins and his lineage and the idea that he could even dare to think he could bring down a thousand million cycles of unbroken rule. They stared down their noses at him and bade him take his rabble of working mechs and slaves away, to trouble our high and perfect walls no more.

Megatron took their words in silence. I hear his face was unreadable, down there on the far away ground at the foot of their gates. A gift for you, he said at last, when even the echoes of their defiance had died away. You have three days to give me your answer. Open your gates to me, or I will raze you city to the ground.

And then his army pulled back beyond the range of our weapon fire and not one millimetre more and fell silent, a second wall of waiting death about our city.

(I was hiding in the roof of the Emirate's tower, among the fluting eaves that curled and spiraled about top floor's wide windows. I've always liked high places. I like the wind. I like the thin air. I like the quiet clearness and how far my eyes and ears can see.)

That day I heard the Emirate and his council mech's and the garrison commander's meet and solemnly confer and solemnly swear that our city would never bend its neck to this upstart, brutish slave, that we would fight to the last mech standing before we opened our gates.

I pressed my face against the wall and grinned into the slick glass, my spark burning hot inside my chest for pride in my city.

In the evening the whine of Seeker engines high above the city filled the air.

Why? Starscream demanded. He whirled about, jabbing his finger at Megatron, wings quivering and optics blazing outrage in the dim light of the command tent. Why do you pander to those weakling fools – let me go you idiot, you imbecile – as Megatron, chuckling, grabbed his hand and hauled the hissing, squirming Seeker against him. Do you doubt us? Starscream demanded bitterly, head tilted up to stare at him. Do you doubt that we could tear their walls down tonight, could have their vaunted Autobots screaming in the streets – Hush, Megatron told him, settled his hand about his neck. Hush you little fool, brushing his thumb across the Seeker's lips and Starscream stilled, whole frame burning with indignation and then his optics grew thoughtful. Megatron watched in satisfaction as the hard, sulky line of Starscream's mouth softened, as the tightly wound tension in his frame relaxed, and Megatron let his hand fall from the slender neck, let it sweep back to smooth the edges of proud wings. As Starscream's lips curved in wicked delight, as he tilted his head back to meet Megatron's gaze, as Megatron laughed and picked his Seeker up and threw him on the berth. As they made shadows dance across the thick walls of the command tent.

Why was I in the Emirate's Tower? I was a servant. Um, that doesn't translate right. No other city has something quite like what we had. I was a servant but I'd been picked because I could be something more? They thought we could be valuable in the future. So we weren't punished too badly if we skived off some of our duties and we had lessons and exams and things as well.

On the second day everyone who didn't already have the fighting modules had to get them uploaded. Then we all had to report for weapons drill. There weren't enough guns to arm everyone in the city so they gave them to those who integrated the new modules the best. They gave me a rifle.

We were in the middle of drill when Megatron came to make his offer again. He promised that if we forced him to pull down our gates he would slaughter every mech within our walls, but that if we let him in every civilian would be spared.

That afternoon the sky was full of Seeker flights. They dropped flimsies with the same words all over the city. You couldn't walk without slipping on them.

Everyone was afraid. I heard some tried to get away from the city. The Decepticons shot them on the open ground I -

The second night was hard. I climbed to the roof again. The city was so still; everyone was afraid. There had been a riot in the evening – the garrison put it down. Almost everyone believed our walls would hold. I did. The Tower barely topped them. They were so high, so wide, and the intricate mesh of forcefields glimmered in the starlight. I believed then, cycling the cool night air through my vents to cool my nervous systems. I believed that we could hold against anything the Decepticons could throw at us.

My squad leader hit me about the head when I came back and ordered me to recharge.

The third day passed the same. Megatron came and spoke and left; the Seekers flew and the army beyond our walls chanted and rattled their armour. Then tension rose like static charge throughout the city as the hours passed.

Darkness fell and there was no warning.

I – we thought they had been waiting. We thought they'd just been waiting for our answer but the first explosions came from inside the walls. They shook the ground under our feet; a wash of heat over my plating. Then the screaming.

The Seekers came. They thickened the air, they strafed the streets, the squares, the gardens; my friends fell screaming as one great incandescent bolt slammed through our group. Our squad leader shouted at us to hold and I think I could, I really think I could but then I saw them. The Decepticons. They flew. They rose up above our walls, and the light of the fires flickered off Megatron's frame.

I ran. I broke and I ran. I ran until my vents were heaving, choked on smoke and metal dust, slipping on energon and the pieces of mechs, the gunfire and screams and laughter pounding against my audials and echoing inside my frame.

I made for the high ground. It was old subroutines. I couldn't think. I found myself high in the Emirate's Tower. The wide windows had been smashed in. I could see the Emirate collapsed across the floor, his frame broken apart. Wind blew in and stirred the expensive drapes and crystal chimes.

I climbed out onto the roof, where the air was thin and choked with smoke and the high whine of Seeker engines. I curled myself into the fluted, spiralling eaves. I still clutched my rifle against my chest and now I braced it against my knee and synched my systems to the viewfinder.

I think some Seekers fell. I think some of them because of me. It didn't make the air clear again.

I think the Tower must have fallen because when I came online again a mech was hauling a load of rubble off me. I opened my mouth to thank him but then I saw the second, purple face on his chest leering down at me.

Hey would ya look at that, he said. This one's online. A mech I couldn't see snorted. Then give him a number and shove him with the others, he said.

I couldn't run. I could barely walk when the mech who found me hauled me across to the new wasteland within our City's pockmarked walls and chained me to a work gang. He had some white paint and he sloshed a number onto my chest. It was – it was a very high number.

Um. They had work for us to do. I.

Megatron kept his promise, you see. The priests and moral teachers say that a promise is a sacred thing that must be kept. I don't.

He'd promised to kill everyone inside the walls. Not everyone had died in the attack last night. I could hear screams echo through the morning mist. Megatron had let most of the army loose to loot the city.

But there were a lot more prisoners and they had to be dealt with, you see? But the Decepticons weren't wasteful.

The work gangs. Afterwards the mechs came to us. And we dismantled the frames and set the pierced spark chambers aside and sorted the components and systems and plates and packed them into boxes the medics checked and marked, and when the work grew less they'd take the next work gang away and then we'd have more work to do.

I. Mine was the last. High numbers, you see? After the last box was sealed we slumped together on the ground under the eyes of the Decepticons and waited. We were just waiting. I wondered who would sort and pack away our parts. There was no one left.

They didn't shoot us. I didn't even start to wonder why until I saw Megatron approach us. There was a whole entourge of mechs with him and a Seeker smirking at his back.

Megatron spoke to us then. He told us that he hated to break his promise, but that the story needed to be told. That we would be his messengers, and we'd serve him well.

And then they let us go and we walked and ran and stumbled as fast as we each could away, away, until you found us and. If – If you've got enough evidence I'd really like it if you could take this number off me? Please?

I – I heard that the Decepticons attacked Hanko last cycle. I heard that the citizens overran the garrison and opened the gates for them. I wish...

Is – Is that enough? Am I done? I'd like to talk about something else now please. I'd like to talk about anything else.