++SELFSTATE QUERY: WOULD DECISION MAKING CAPABILITIES BE ENHANCED BY THE REMOVAL OF EMOTIVE CENTRES IN CORE PROCESSOR AND NEURAL GRID?++

++RESPONSE: LOCICAL PROCESSING WOULD BE UP TO FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT MORE ACCURATE DUE TO REMOVAL OF EMOTIONAL PROGRAMMING.++

I asked the question I already knew the answer to, not the most logical of queries. My rivals would be most amused to see this lapse of clarity in Shockwave.

I have been one of the chief architects of the Decepticon ascension. Megatron, may well be the figurehead and leader of our movement but he still relies on my expertly executed military operations to further the Decepticon cause. A lesser being would be jealous of Megatron's power but I am merely content to further the Decepticon goals...I lie, I am jealous. It shames me to say. A Decepticon gifted with enhanced processors from the legendary Circuitmasters and I envy a lesser transformer.

I see a flawed jewel when I look upon my own schematics where others see cold, calculated logic, an emotionless machine, I know better. I know that the Decepticon movement can do without Megatron but it cannot do without my services. This is not ego or arrogance talking but pure fact. Who exists that can rival my abilities and tactical knowledge. Certainly none within my own ranks. Megatron may be a mighty warrior and a terrifying opponent with his grand vision - he cannot translate the vision on his own. He cannot oversee the Decepticon War Machine. His loss would be a blow but one that we would recover from. After all there are many within our ranks that would gladly slide a vibroshiv into his neural output socket if they thought they could get away with it. Starscream, for example, a power-hungry warrior whose ambition overshadows his abilities and his courage. Soundwave? He is a puzzle to me. Certainly Megatron favours him above all yet he betrays no ambition of his own. There are rumours about his off-duty pursuits, but there are always rumours. I pay them no heed. After all in the training camps it is rumoured that I remove the core processors of Autobots to add to my own. If it were not beneath me I would laugh.

I place my current quandary through rigorous feasibility studies within my own processors I need utilise no other computer. I must remove my emotional centres as these will allow me the clarity of thought needed to guide the Decepticons forwards to our inevitable domination of our homeworld and then beyond and prevent any further lapses.

My problem is who can perform the operation I need. I would be loathe to entrust this to any within my own forces, after all they would view it as a potential weakness on my part and I have no doubt that there would be some who would use the opportunity to extinguish my life-force while I was on the operating table.

An Autobot would be a logical choice if it were not for the fact that I am considered a war criminal for my part in the assault campaigns on their city-states. I must look elsewhere. The Circuitmasters have gone many we have "removed" - the others simply vanished.

My answer presents itself. A neutral Cybertronian is the only viable candidate.

I patch in to the Decepticon intelligence net and begin my search for a list and location of all neutral Cybertronians with skills in engineering and meta-mechanics. The list reads like an alumni of the old Iaconian Institute of Technology. Spanner is the name that leaps out to the top of my list. I discount him immediately for he has refused to aid either side during the war on the grounds that assisting one makes him a target for the other. I scroll through name after name until I come to one in particular - Pressor.

A former institute member, with at one time a lucrative business in hothouse modifications. Not as grand as Megatron's initial designs for transformation but still deadly enough. I had trawled through enough incident reports involving infractions of Cybertronian law centred around those who had been willing and in some cases unwilling participants of his attention during my administrative tenure in Tarn.

I disconnect from the intelligence net and enter a small viral program of my own design to stop any would be observers from finding out any information. Such deception is ultimately fruitless and a waste of energy but it is unfortunate in our current climate. The only way for advancement is over the burning chassis of your superior. I am disturbed from my indulgent reverie by a voice ringing out.

"Shockwave!"

The voice is instantly recognisable as the preening fool Starscream.

"Yes. Starscream." Were it not illogical to do so I would take great pleasure in tearing out his vocal circuitry. The desire passes but it serves as another reminder that I must proceed with my task - urgently.

"I am looking for your input on a strategic matter. I have utilised the battle simulation computers but none are able to assist me."

Once again he tries to prove his mettle as a potential leader of the Decepticons. "Proceed, Starscream."

"I have an idea for a series of coordinated assaults on certain Iaconian perimeter outposts, however I run the simulations the Autobots still manage to repulse our forces in 60 per cent of the runs,"

"More of your wasteful terrorist assaults. A concern beneath me." My rebuke is almost instant and belying more of my own opinions than I would like.

Starscream wastes no time in responding in his typically theatrical fashion.

"Beneath you! You are supposed to be the grand architect of the Decepticon war machine, the clinical scalpel to the brute force of Megatron. I ask for help in a bid to weaken the enemy defences and you say it is beneath you!"

"Your idea is flawed. The enemy is not weakened or demoralised by these foolish little police actions you speak of. These assaults serve only to strengthen their resolve. Only by taking territory that matters to them will we prevail. Iacon is central to our plans. Not some insignificant little guardhouse on the edges of Autobot territory!"

I can feel the anger rise within me. For so long have we been enemies and now I find myself allied to this irksome fool. It does not sit well.

Starscream does not take my criticism well. Immediately his hands are waving and flailing like an empty in the final stages of shutdown. His arm-mounted cannon seems to find it's way under my cranial module in some crude gesture of bravado.

"Have a care Shockwave. I am not one of your little apprentices and bootlickers. I am Starscream commander of the Decepticon Air Forces. My power is as great as yours, you would be wise to show me respect."

The next instant Starscream finds himself on the ground as my left arm swings out making contact with his head and sends him to the floor. The dents in his bodywork are apparent and I have damaged his facial plating.

"Respect is not given it is earned. You were a puppet governor and now you are a puppet commander! An upstart lieutenant who thinks he has the manifolds to wield true power. Megatron would not speak this way to me and neither will you. The outcome of a repeated outburst will find your processor being taken offline permanently."

The emotion in my voice is unmistakable. My mental discipline is being shaken, as I knew it would and so the walls I have erected come down. Soon I will be no better than these lesser Decepticons. I stride away from the corridor leaving Starscream to get up he shouts some threat and promise of vengeance at me but I block his vocal signature from my audio receptors.

Exiting the Decepticon citadel in my changeform I find myself looking down at the fortress with contempt. Megatron's glorious vision will never occur not with these beings to busy with petty concerns and personal glory. Perhaps I can show them a better way.

++SCANNING, SCANNING++++

I trigger my inbuilt sensor array. When I was head of Tarn, any citizen in Tarn was implanted with a device for tracking purposes, this was a fact concealed to most. Pressor, was a citizen of Tarn for a time until his extra-legal activities brought unwanted attention upon him. I am confident that he has not removed the device, as it has lain dormant up until now.

++SIGNATURE DETECTED++

I lock in on his signal and alter my flight path in order to do so, wordlessly communicating with the Decepticon air surveillance net so that I am not shot down by my own troops, or worse intercepted by the. This matter would raise too many awkward questions.

I look over the wasteland that I find myself in. The scars of our war have made themselves apparent on our world's surface. A logical approach in light of this would be some form of Transformer specific weaponry, one that would leave the planet relatively intact. There is no logic in fighting a war to take control of a dead world.

Such thoughts must wait until later. I am standing outside of the ruins of a building. It would have been some form of meeting hall. Now it apparently serves as a hidden workshop for my target. I look at the walls they have all been daubed in obscene writings. Some against the sacred life-force, others against the council. Irrelevant.

I fire at the steps of the meeting hall to gain the attention of it's owner.

"Pressor. Step forward. I have need of your services."

Beneath the steps Pressor stands at a view screen looking up at the forbidding sight, which confronts him. He is quite small in comparison to the purple Decepticon, indeed stripped down. He is bereft of any unnecessary plating and enhancements. He is a mass of conduits and cabling, all hooked into various monitoring devices about his person. He does not look like much of a threat.

He does not have to be. He is flanked by two Mark 1 Guardian Droids. Both Droids are far beyond their assembly specs. The one on Pressor's right is armed with a Photon Cascade Cannon and the other armed with a Neural Parasite Launcher. Both weapons outlawed many cycles ago.

Speaking into a microphone Pressor talks with the Decepticon.

"Decepticon. You have less than a breem to remove yourself from here. If you stay you will be disassembled."

"Your threats are not necessary I wish to employ your services for a suitable reward."

"That is different then."

Pressor presses a button on his console and above ground the steps disintegrate into so many million pixels and particles. A hologram revealing instead a bunker hatch, which is in the process of retracting. Shockwave allows it to retract fully before descending the hatch and into darkness.

Shockwave enters the complex and extends his gun arm in front of him to better prepare himself for combat. Upon walking into the main chamber he sees both Guardian units with their weapons trained on him.

" Stand down, I am not here to attack you."

"Very well Shockwave. Guardian's, bodyguard mode. Be warned Shockwave the guns here are trained on you if you so much as trigger a neural synapse against me they'll cut you down."

"Illogical. I am not here to attack you. I require your expertise." I pause a moment to assess the threat of these Guardians. Were they standard specifications I would rend them asunder in microseconds without taking my hydraulics. But these will be modified and enhanced, particularly if the weaponry is anything to go by. A Photon Cascade Cannon, and impressive find the most destructive medium range weapon designed by Autobot science and the fools destroyed most of them after certain "incidents" involving the Iaconian Guard. A Neural Parasite Launcher. I am in awe, as far as I was aware there were no working models built after the Overlord vetoed it's construction and the designer was..re-educated.

Pressor launches into a pseudo-interrogation of me in a conversational matter. I haven't suffered anything as inept since watching Laserbeak.

"You require my assistance. It cannot be an upgrade Shockwave. All know of you and your offensive capabilities, indeed only Megatron and the Autobot Prime can compare."

"It is a matter not of outward perfection I speak of."

"As you know I live my life by basic tenets of logic as many once did. However, I have noticed of late that I cannot stay as firmly with this path as I once did. Software has begun to degrade, buffer patterns that I had installed eons ago have begun to decay."

"And what would you have me do, my skill is great but I am not a Circuitmaster!"

"I do not need a Circuitmaster for this. All I ask is that you remove my emotion circuits and burn them out close down their circuit pathways."

"An intriguing suggestion Shockwave but what do I get in return. I am not doing this for charity. And do not insult me by offering amnesty. We all know what happens to those who oppose the Decepticons Autobot or otherwise."

"Your crude bartering is unnecessary. I will of course offer something in return. If you will allow me access to one of your secondary terminals."

I walk across to maintenance terminal and extend my hand towards it. A small access port opens in my index finger, extending from it is one of my secondary interface keys. I connect into the system and find an empty directory. I open my own program files and prepare a program for download.

" Once my modifications are complete and I have returned to consciousness I will send a signal to the program that I am about to download into your system and it will grant you access to classified Decepticon files. Complete schematics and design specifications for all Decepticon military and non-military constructions."

I see Pressor's optics light up and a look of avarice or possibly joy crosses his face. But he is no fool and will not be swayed by mere words alone.

"I do not trust you or your program."

"Permit me a demonstration then." A brief communication with his computer and I grant him access to one solitary design.

"There you have a schematic for the Fusion Cannon that Megatron uses. Notice the heavy modifications that the weapon has in place. All this and more will be yours if you agree to my request."

"Agreed, agreed!" Pressor's hands are upon my arm at this point and I feel compelled to comment.

"Pressor. Why are you stripped down to your chassis?"

"The march of science must go on and where I am just now I don't have a lot of guests and empties are such poor patients."

"You continue to conduct experiments on yourself?"

"Of course it is the only choice if I wish to continue with my work."

I am impressed with the singularity of his vision. It is unfortunate his political allegiance is not compatible he would be an ideal asset to the Decepticon cause. It will be a waste.

"Remember all this will be lost if you alter our bargain while I am offline."

"I would not dream of jeopardising such a mutually beneficial agreement."

He is almost sycophantic now, yet it is understandable. I have offered him a treasure the likes of which he has only ever dreamed of. I am ushered onto a slab that serves as an operating table. It contains and input/output shunt beside it. Using my one hand I extend it's cabling into my neural access port and connect it.

Pressor is at his own terminal. He is hooking in and preparing to get a full mapping of my brain module prior to his surgery.

"I will surrender higher functions to you now. Please note that if I do not come back on line the program will be lost to you. And in addition I have primed my self-destruct mechanism. Should I not go back online within one cycle. You and this entire complex will join the Matrix."

"I understand Shockwave." Nimbly his fingers dance on his console. "Initiating voluntary system shutdown now."

I fade away into darkness. I trigger my personal safety protocols.

++++Data Tracks Online......Internal Sensor Diagnostic Begin.....

+++++Neural Pathways altered...Bypass Cluster nodes A43oo3, Bypass TR4xs3. System Check nominal....All systems working within normal parameters+++++ Online.++++

My optics begin to decode almost instantly and the quality becomes clearer in nanoseconds. My first sight is of the almost skeletal Pressor fawning over me like some medbot.

"Well Shockwave how do you feel?"

The answer is apparent as my diagnostics are reported by my onboard computers.

"I am functioning within optimum parameters. There is no contact with my emotional circuitry."

"Enquiry: Have they been removed?"

"No Shockwave. They could not be removed. They are embedded upon your brain module and integrated into all of your higher functions. Removal is impossible without reducing you to an Empty."

"Then what solution did you employ?"

"I simply altered your online subroutines. When you activate after systems shutdown you are able to bypass the emotional centres of your brain. This is not permanent. The longer that you remain online increases the chance that your maintenance programs will discover the anomaly and rectify it. A brief period of systems shutdown will restore the modifications."

I had required that all emotional centres be rendered ineffective. This was not done but logically any method that succeeds is desirable and where is the logic in being an empty?

"This was not the terms of our bargain, but you have provided me respite from my lesser influences."

The console flickered to life as on all of his terminals the complete Decepticon Technological database made it's way into Pressor's computer systems.

"Excellent, Excellent."

"Now our business is concluded. I will depart. This matter is between you and I none must ever know of this."

"You have my word Shockwave that this matter will not leave this room."

"I am inclined to agree with you Pressor."

I transmit the program in it's entirety to Pressor's system. It is not the program he thinks he is getting. By now the shell program hidden within the schematics provided earlier will have transferred full authority to his computers and all dependent systems to me. The screens flicker momentarily and go black.

"Shockwave, wha-what is happening?"

"The only logical conclusion Pressor."

The screens flicker into life once more and on every single console is the Decepticon sigil. I now have full control of the facility.

"Guardian's target non Decepticon personnel and destroy."

++COMPLYING++

Pressor's fate was sealed the moment my order was given. The small robot was no mach for the two Guardian droids who he had retrofitted with advanced person-to-person combat weapons. I choose not to employ their firearms here as they could prove damaging and in such a confined space I may become damaged. Pressor now lies at my feet as the light in his optics flickers and then dies.

Shockwave looked down at the fallen robot. He felt no emotion for his victim. As it should be. He removed the weapons from the Guardians and triggered his subspace shunt and deposited them for further study. Wordlessly he left Pressor's little compound. Transforming into his offensive configuration he aimed at the compound and unleashed a torrent of energy towards it. The resultant explosion was immense it devastated Pressor's compound. He fell to the surface transforming as he did and initiated a sensor scan of the area. There were no traces of energy to suggest anything from that compound functioned.

Shockwave took to the air once more and never looked back.

The End