I think that my version of Megatron had higher hopes for his troops. Silly, really, when you consider that the movie wiped out the whole of the command structure except for Soundwave, and he is rather uncharismatic.

I'm glad you got a kick out of the Energon as waste by-product *grin*

As for the Soundwave/Starfire fic, I've been trying to get that one to work since the "WTF! Pairing Challenge" over at mecha_erotica in January. Eventually I'll get it to work, but for the moment, Soundwave refuses to tell me what happened and Starbolt only mentions something about restraints ...