Communications

His system was so overheated he only noticed the high-priority secure ping after the third signal. He jerked himself out of the spiral of anger and strode quickly onward to his quarters; the door securely shut, he opened a shielded compartment in his thigh and took out one of his remaining handful of channel locks: Soundwave and Wheeljack had developed them together to shield their communications from the Quintessons. He put the device down on the floor and pressed it to establish the undetectable channel, encrypted with a code Soundwave would not generate for thirteen years; when the small round wheel glowed green, he connected and activated his forearm monitor, and Grimlock’s head appeared.

“You Decepticons do rotten sabotage job,” Grimlock said. “Dinobots do more damage than you! Optimus say so.”

“Yes, I am aware,” Cyclonus said grimly.