Starscream and the Drones
is a Transformers fanfic by Lexicon on fanfiction.net.
Megatron, having finally had enough of his second-in-command's takeover attempts, decides to replace Starscream with a squad of perfectly obedient drones. Starscream won't take this lying down, of course, and storms away in a huff. After witnessing the drones' unquestioning compliance for himself, he decides to make a little game out of destroying them.
This fanfic contains the following tropes:
- Extremely Short Timespan: The fic takes place within a single day, starting with Megatron announcing his plan to replace Starscream with drones and ending with him reprimanding Starscream for destroying said drones.
- Feghoot: The fanfic is a short story about Megatron wanting to replace his treacherous second-in-command Starscream with several drones that do whatever they're told. The fic spends a lot of time describing Starscream leading the drones to a cliff, ordering each drone to go to a specific spot and hold a unique silly pose while jumping off, then surveying the wreckage before instructing the next one. When Megatron eventually catches on and goes out to ask Starscream what he's doing, the latter replies that he's playing Tetris.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Megatron tires of Starscream's antics getting in the way of the Decepticon cause and decides to replace him with a bunch of mindless drones that do whatever people tell them to. Since the drones are mindless, they have no self-preservation instinct and jump off a cliff to their demise when Starscream orders them to do so.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Towards the end of the fic, Megatron asks Starscream what on Cybertron he thinks he's doing.
- Idiot Ball: Megatron holds a meeting to tell Starscream he's getting replaced by a group of drones that do everything they're told, but doesn't actually do anything to prevent Starscream from accessing and ordering them around. Consequently, Starscream storms out of the meeting, discovers the drones have been left unattended and will obey him, and orders the drones to destroy themselves before the day is out.
- Oh, Crap!: While destroying the drones that are supposed to replace him, Starscream spots Megatron off in the distance flying towards him at top speed. He responds by hurriedly telling the last drone to jump off a cliff; the drone does so and smashes itself to bits just as Megatron arrives.
