Scream of Solitude

Stratagem

Getting used to live with others was strange. Especially after having lived alone in the wild for two weeks, right after having lived in isolation onboard an orbital space station for over a thousand years. But it was a welcome change for Starscream. Now he didn't have to be constantly on guard or look over his back every few seconds. He could sleep sound and safe, knowing there was someone up and keeping a lookout while the rest of the group was recharging.

After being accepted into the group of Scavengers, Starscream had enjoyed a cube with his five new allies. They fell into talking, mostly about how clean and tasty the Energon was and how lucky they were to have met Starscream. After drinking their Energon, Starscream and Paralax took the empty cubes and went for another round of gathering more at the river in the osmium forest, so they had Energon for the next time they refueled.

"Since we're here anyway," Starscream said after he and Paralax filled their six cubes and loaded their cockpits with them, "I gotta show you something."

"Lead the way," Paralax said and followed Starscream further into the forest.

Starscream led Paralax to the platinum-pear tree and gestured the many fruits on the tree. Paralax hummed at the sight.

"So those are metalo-fruits, huh?" Paralax remarked. "Platinum?"

"Yes," Starscream replied with a smile and activated his thrusters. "One moment."

Starscream plucked several pears from the crown until his arms couldn't hold any more. Then he returned to the ground and showed Paralax the many pears in his arms, smile still on his face. Paralax took one and studied it.

"It's safe to eat," Starscream assured. "It's good."

Paralax hesitated for a moment before he took a bite of the metalo-fruit. He chewed and swallowed, then looked at the fruit with a perplexed expression.

"It is good," he said in agreement. "It's sweet and surprisingly juicy. I've never tasted anything like it."

"Not surprising," Starscream said with a chuckle. "We've all lived on the same Energon our whole lives. Compared to that, these things seem like quite the luxury."

"And you eat these every day?"

"Pretty much. Though I eat meshetables as well. It's not good to only eat precious or otherwise soft metals. Metalo-fruits are good for the interior, but meshetables do wonders for the exterior. We should get some of those too."

"Yeah. Beatup was injured the other day, so if what you say about metal being good for healing is true, then we need some of that."

"I'll show you where we can find meshetables."

The two Fliers opened their cockpits and carefully tucked a bunch of platinum-pears each in there, making sure there was still room for more, before closing and assuming jet mode. Starscream brought Paralax out of the osmium forest and instead led him to the forest where he had found tungsten-beets and titanimatoes. This forest consisted mainly of boron-beeches and manganese-maples, though there were clusters of titanimato-vines wrapped around the trunks of some of the trees.

"Titanimatoes are a good source of titanium," Starscream explained while plucking a few titanimatoes. "Good for the frame."

Paralax plucked a few himself, both of them tucking the fruits in their cockpits among their other items. They walked on until Starscream led Paralax to a glade where they found tungsten-plants sticking up from the ground. Starscream grabbed hold of the leaves and pulled up a bundle of dark gray beets. He showed the meshetables to Paralax.

"They're basically roots," Starscream explained. "The leaves are bitter and normally inedible, but the beets themselves can taste good if paired with metalo-fruits like platinum-pears. They're full of tungsten, so they're great for the frame as well."