Scourge's Primary Objective

It didn't take long for the Autobots to find out that the errant female was missing again. Rodimus Prime became deeply worried. Something like this had happened before. Several females who had mated with Sweeps and decided to keep the offspring had gone in search of their mates shortly before they were due to give birth. None of those females had ever been seen again. It was assumed that they'd been destroyed by the Decepticons, although their remains were never found. And a search might do more harm than good--the last thing a female needed was to have attention drawn to herself by a search party if she was trying to hide. Bringing this to the attention of the Decepticons wasn't an option either and would probably put more females in danger, even though Rodimus was certain that Galvatron would punish any Decepticon who mated with a female Autobot.

If the female did manage to survive and give birth, Perceptor wondered how she'd handle trying to raise a small litter--since Sweeps could often trigger simultaneous multiple ovulation--of Sweep cubs. One female on Cybertron had tried to do so. At first it had not been difficult, but as the cubs grew older they became quite aggressive, and the predatory nature they inherited from their father began to show itself. The last straw came when two of the cubs attacked and nearly killed a young Autobot. Ultra Magnus had a long talk with the mother and convinced her that her unholy offspring had to be destroyed. They had been deactivated humanely but this was small comfort to their mother, who still loved them despite their savage temperament.
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Cyclonus was becoming very concerned about Scourge's behavior. Lately the Sweep Leader had been extremely nervous and under a lot of stress. Cyclonus knew that it was because Scourge was afraid of being discovered having had a liaison with a female Autobot, but he also knew that if Scourge didn't settle down soon, Galvatron would become suspicious. And lately, Scourge was too jumpy for that to be all that was wrong with him. Cyclonus cornered him one day, making sure they were alone.

"Scourge, what's wrong with you?" Cyclonus asked.

Scourge's ruby optics widened in fear. He glanced around to make sure not even Ratbat was listening. "You remember what I told you about that female Autobot? Well she came here!" Scourge said in a stage whisper.

A tremor of panic seized the purple jet as he finally understood why Scourge was so frightened.

"Where is she?" Cyclonus asked.

"I managed to get her off the planet before anyone saw her," Scourge replied, "I have her hidden in a secret place only the Sweeps and I know about. But she's going to give birth soon."

"You mean to tell me the Autobots didn't terminate her pregnancy?" Cyclonus said in amazement.

"Yeah, that surprised me, too," Scourge replied, "If it weren't for Autobots terminating Sweeps before they saw the light of day, I'd have a much larger army by now."

"And you're certain no-one can find her?" Cyclonus pressed further.

"Positive. Nobody's ever found any of the others that were taken there,"

"OTHERS?!" Cyclonus exclaimed.

"How do you think we managed to suddenly gain a few extra Sweeps?" Scourge told him.