Starscream/TransTech

## Starscream

*"You taking over as the bad cop, here?"
"Oh, no. No. I am the* worst *cop.*"
―**Bulletbike** is interrogated by **Starscream**
**Starscream** is the Intelligence Directorate of a Cybertron from a very old universe. He doesn't spend much time with the "lowtechs" from other, less advanced universes that inhabit the city of Axiom Nexus—rather, Starscream is busy angling for more power and influence. Bureaucracy is the tool he manipulates towards this end, and he's been known to place subordinates where they would do the most or least harm, depending on circumstance.

Starscream's intentions aren't completely lost on everyone. Commander Optimus Prime appointed his confidante Prowl to work closely alongside Starscream, a circumstance both transparently hate.

## Biography

Starscream was the one who wrote the original version of Axiom Nexus's decree of "Dux non Intruitus." Thanks to his bureaucratic meddling, getting back to one’s home dimension eventually became a paperwork nightmare for Offworlders. Reportedly, Starscream regularly manipulated the system to ensure that his friends got pushy jobs.

Starscream's intelligence operatives had been keeping an eye on Alpha Trion and his "cult" for a long time. Starscream believed he was a simple crackpot and nothing more, an assertion Prowl disputed. Starscream was consulted by Optimus Prime when Senator Ratbat came to them, requesting that an outworlder-of-interest, Breakaway, be examined more thoroughly, though it meant Breakaway would not survive. Though the outworlder's two companions had fallen in with Alpha Trion, Starscream was certain this would amount to nothing.

He was wrong. Not only did he have to step in personally when Alpha Trion's group raided the Transwarp Complex, but he also learned the the elder's group might have had something to do with the murder of RoboCo CEO Bulletbike. After meeting with Commander Cheetor and his subordinate, Stungun, it became clear that someone was somehow able to swap sparks effortlessly between TransTechs and "lowtechs"—a frightening scenario, indeed. Starscream was left with only one way to deal with this conspiracy: He confronted their only suspect, a "lowtech" who had smuggled himself into Bulletbike's body somehow. Starscream was not happy.

Starscream and Rattrap informed Rook that a traffic jam had occurred at the Hydra Loop due to a dire need to repaint the nearby Turbo-Span Bridge.

Starscream was one of the many TransTechs knocked offline due to a surge in the Global Net. His unconscious form was found by Cheetor and Stungun. Later, when the cause of the surge, a Waruder invasion, had been dealt with, Starscream and the rest of the TransTechs became functional once more. Starscream later debriefed the Convoy, and dispatched the team to restore order to Axiom Nexus.

When Rook went off on a rant on-air, accusing the government of conspiring to bring in an Offworlder Megatron to Axiom Nexus, Starscream called ANN and said he would arrest Rook on grounds of treason if he did not desist immediately.

Seeking information as to the accuracy of rumors that a blue muroid-former was boasting about an interdimensional gate which had ended the Waruder invasion, Andromeda contacted Directorate Starscream, who strongly denied the rumors.

Later, when Rook pestered Starscream on the subject of several multiversal probes not returning from their information-gathering travels, Starscream brushed him off, claiming that there was little to be worried about. Rook nonetheless continued to confront Starscream on the subject.

Later still, Starscream made an announcement alongside Megatron, informing the general populace that all probes in the Tyran Cluster had gone dark to Axiom Nexus's instruments. The two of them began to argue about whether or not they should go in a state of emergency in front of live cameras.

After the Shroud had fully fallen, Megatron and Shockwave departed for the Ejoornus System to investigate the possibility of piercing the Shroud. Starscream *oh so reluctantly* took control of all security issues on Cybertron in their absence, civilian and military, and named himself Directorate General. Blackarachia was appointed Vice Directorate of Cybertronian Intelligence to cover his old job, over Prowl; suspiciously, a Blackarachnia now riven with angry bigotry against offworlders. Neither the Autobots nor Megatron were happy about Starscream's power grab.

Starscream began clamping down on the press, starting with an "audit" of ANN. When Rook continued to pass comment on Starscream on news broadcasts, he was abruptly taken away to Serenity Spa, the Ministry of Information's thoughtcrime "correction" facility. The reporter began to babble pro-Starscream lines before the programming broke down on air.

## References

1. ↑ I, Lowtech
2. ↑ Starscream's profile in Hasbro Transformers Collectors' Club issue 23