Starscream's History
Before the war, Starscream was a scientist and a close friend of Jetfire. As part of their research, the pair discovered and partially excavated Metroplex, an ancient Titan buried near the city of Iacon. Thanks to his unique spark, Starscream would be able to handle the power surge that came with directly linking with a Titan, and the pair hoped that they could find a way to reactivate and communicate with their subject in the hopes of better understanding Cybertron's history. However, mundane academic concerns got in the way of their lofty ideals, and to secure funding for their project the pair decided to meet with the Cybertronian Senate in the hopes of convincing one or more senators to support their research. In between fundraising meetings, the pair watched one of Megatron's many civil rights protests outside the Senate building; although the Decepticon leader came to blows with Senate security officer Prowl, Starscream was inspired by the sight of a humble miner taking on the establishment and eventually developed sympathies for the nascent Decepticon movement.
As it turned out, their next meeting was with senator Orion Pax—ambitious, power-hungry, and with designs of his own, he took an immediate interest in the idea of reactivating a Titan and promised them all the funding they'd ever need if they got him results and kept their research a secret. While Jetfire jumped on the offer, Starscream, who'd heard rumours of encroaching senatorial corruption, turned down the offer and walked out. Although the pair managed to scrape together the resources needed to continue their work, Jetfire continued to worry that they'd run out of money before they made any significant headway with their project, and continued floating the idea of taking Orion up on his offer. Although Starscream, correctly fearing that Orion was a tyrant in the making, made Jetfire promise that he wouldn't talk about Orion anymore, Jetfire went behind Starscream's back to meet with Orion and his followers in secret—unaware that a suspicious Starscream had trailed him to the meeting.
When Bumblebee found Starscream and dragged him before Orion, Jetfire tried to convince the Autobots that Starscream was not a Decepticon—however, a furious Starscream told Jetfire that he'd betrayed his ideals and that he would never join the Autobots. Before Orion or his followers could deal with him, however, Starscream transformed and fled back to their dig site; knowing that the Autobots would find a way to compromise and weaponize their peaceful research, Starscream destroyed all of the necessary scientific equipment, then tried to bind the remaining data to his own spark, to permanently put it beyond Optimus's reach. However, when Jetfire and the other Autobots arrived, Starscream was forced to sever the link, leaving the data corrupted on both ends.
With nowhere else to go, Starscream fell in with Megatron and the other Decepticons as the war against the evil Autobots began. In time, Starscream became Megatron's closest lieutenant and developed a reputation as the spokesman for the Decepticon movement, ven writing some of Megatron's pre-battle speeches for him. In private, Megatron and Starscream discussed the possibility of using Starscream's spark as an indestructible safe, although the idea did not come to fruition before the end of the war. Although circumstances had driven them apart, Starscream never stopped believing that there was a kernel of goodness somewhere in Jetfire. Whenever they encountered each other on the battlefield, Starscream would try and reach out to his former friend.
Starscream was one of the many Decepticons who followed Megatron to the planet Earth to keep its supplies of Rarified Energon out of Autobot hands. However, as the conflict between the two factions intensified, their battles grew increasingly destructive. Finally, on the cusp of an unwinnable battle in Hollywood, Megatron made the drastic decision to martyr himself for his cause, so that the Decepticon movement could survive: before he threw himself into one-on-one combat with Optimus Prime, he ordered Starscream to gather up every Decepticon left and flee the planet while he bought time for them to escape. Despite his urge to help out his commander, Starscream followed his orders to the letter, and, along with his fellow Seekers Thundercracker and Skywarp, coordinated the Decepticon evacuation from Earth, while the triumphant Autobots defeated Megatron and pillaged the planet to their heart's content.
As the Autobots won the war and consolidated their power over Cybertron, Starscream went into hiding and spent at least a megacycle in self-imposed isolation, combing through his corrupted databanks in an attempt to make himself whole again. After Megatron had returned to Cybertron, he gave the Seekers the coordinates to his hideout in the Rust Sea should they ever need to contact him. Finally, Starscream returned to Metroplex, intent on recovering the part of himself he'd abandoned all those years ago, and initiated the mental merge again—this time, however, Starscream was able to successfully complete the procedure, and discovered how to awaken and control the still-dormant Titan. Unfortunately, however, his activity caught the attention of the Autobot Goldbug, who deduced what he was up to. Goldbug put a bounty on his head and promised to handsomely reward the first Autobot bodyscrapper who successfully brought him in alive.
While he waited to contact Megatron, Starscream lay low in the ruins beyond Gold City, Starscream came under attack from the bodyscrappers Chromedome and Hardhead, who attempted to bring him in... only for Blurr, another Autobot bodyscrapper, to rescue him. Blurr offered to escort him deeper into the lawless Static Zone, in reality a means of stalling for time until he could summon Goldbug, but Starscream proved immediately skeptical of this impromptu teamup. Blurr tried to play on his sympathy by lying that he'd been pressured into joining the Autobots, and Starscream played along until they reached the deadly Chrome Ridge. In the ensuing battle, the Decepticon flier turned Blurr's infamous speed against him by tricking the speedster into running straight into a deadly flow of molten metal. To ensure that Blurr was dead, Starscream stood by his melted corpse until morning, at which point he flew away; the adventure had brought him one step closer to finding Megatron. An injured Starscream limped to Megatron's hideout in the Rust Sea, and forced the Decepticon commander to bring him inside his bunker to repair him. Although Megatron, feeling himself a failure, had long since lost the will to go on as leader of the Decepticons, Starscream reminded him of his past glories and inspired him to retake command, in the hopes that they could use a Titan to fight back against the triumphant Autobots.
Their first stop would be Gold City; travelling incognito, Megatron and Starscream met up with Soundwave, who agreed to put out the call to every remaining Decepticon. However, when the pair stopped off at a nearby bar to discuss their next steps, Blaster and his minions through their disguise and attacked them. As more and more arriving Autobots threatened to overwhelm them Megatron ordered Starscream to get to safety while he held them off. Starscream did so., cursing himself for abandoning his leader once more... until Jetfire shot him unconscious and delivered him to Goldbug. Shattered Glass #3 Goldbug put Jetfire in charge of the interrogation, but although Jetfire implored him to surrender the knowledge willingly and escape death, Starscream refused to break, even after Goldbug announced that he'd murdered Starscream's would-be rescuer Skwyarp and showed him his head as proof. Furious by Jetfire's inability to get results, Goldbug snapped and pointed his blaster at Starscream, ready to kill him even if it meant losing the information he'd sought.
Despite Jetfire's protests, Goldbug released Starscream from his shackles and prepared to kill him—but when an explosion from outside heralded the arrival of Megatron's Decepticon army, Jetfire turned on his former leader and punched him out. However, as he helped Starscream to his feet, Goldbug was able to regain his bearings quicker than Jetfire had anticipated, reach for his gun, and shoot Starscream in the back, opening a gaping wound in his torso. Wounded but still alive, Starscream reassured Jetfire that the shot had missed his spark—at which point Goldbug ripped Starscream's pulsing spark from his body and killed him.
Although Megatron and his followers successfully liberated Gold City, Goldbug escaped in the chaos and successfully used the information encoded on Starscream's spark to reactivate Metroplex. In a later conversation with his spy Slicer, Ultra Magnus told him that Optimus Prime and Prowl had plans of their own regarding the Titan, and Goldbug's fall from grace, combined with his possession of Starscream's spark, had painted a target on his back.
