As Decepticon air commander and second in command of the Decepticon army, Starscream has always sought to usurp leadership of the Decepticons from Megatron. He constantly flouts Megatron's command decisions, and should anything go wrong on a mission, Starscream will always blame Meagtron, even if the Decepticon commander has nothing to do with it. When the Decepticons awoke on Earth, four million years after the Ark crashed there, Megatron quickly withdrew them. However, as they left, Starscream disobeyed orders, and fired on the Ark. The shockwave from the blast knocked the unconscoius form of Optimus Prime into the path of Teletran One's repair beam. Prime was rebuilt, and the other Autobots soon followed. In this respect, one can view Starscream as responsible for the continuation of the Great Wars.

Starscream, like his fellow seekers, Skywarp and Thundercracker, was reconstructed as an F-16 fighter jet. In this mode, he can achieve flight at mach 3, and is armed with devastating cluster bombs, which launch from the cannons under his wings. In robot mode, Starscream is armed with two null-ray projectors (one on each arm), able to fire bolts of energy which disrupt the electron flow in machinery, rendering it inoperative. This process is also known to partially affect Transformers, rendering them weakened and sluggish in movement. Starscream's other great asset, aside from his cunning mind, is his indestructable spark (life-force). Through a mutagenic change in his programming, Starscream is blessed (or perhaps cursed) with a spark which cannot be extinguished. His body can be destroyed, but his spark will live on, in a ghostly energy form - in effect, he can never die.

At one point, Megatron grew tired of Starscream's attempt to dispose of him and take leadership. He incapacitated him, and dumped him on and island in the Guadal Canal. However, when Starscream awoke, he explored the island, and uncovered a cache of emancipated World War II vehicles. Drawing a comparison between a tank and "that loud-mouth", Blitzwing, Starscream hit upon an idea. Travelling to Cybertron via the Decepticon spacebridge, Starscream liberated the personality components of a group of Renegade Decepticons who had opposed Megatron's rule several million years before hand from the Decepticon detention centre, and placed them in the war vehicles. The Combaticons were born, and aided Starscream (somewhat reluctantly) in battling Megatron and the Decepticons. They almost had them beaten when the Stunticons showed up, and turned the tide in Megatron's favour. The defeated Combaticons and Starscream were exiled to an asteroid in space, but Starscream attempted escape while the Combaticons towed the asteroid to Cybertron, and promptly took over. It took the unlikely team-up of Optimus Prime, Megatron and Starscream to stop the Combaticons and their mad plan to drag Earth into it's own sun.

In the Earth year 2005, Starscream was present at the Autobot City Massacre, and escaped unharmed. However, Megatron was critically injured and, on the return journey to Cybertron, Starscream saw his chance - he threw Megatron out of the airlock and into space, along with the other wounded Decepticons and claimed leadership for himself. However, Megatron did not die - he was recreated as Galvatron by the monster planet, Unicron, and swiftly returned to Cybertron, and had his revenge by blasting Starscream to pieces.

Starscream's remains were kept in the Decepticon crypt, until it was opened by the Decepticon, Octane, inadvertantly freeing Starscream's spark from his destroyed body. Starscream's ghost attmepted to assassinate Galvatron by possessing his lieutenants, Cyclonus and Scourge, but in the end, he reactivated Unicron had had him restore his body, in return for finding a new body for him. An explosion instigated by the Autobots, however, hurled Starscream back into space.

Three hundred years after the end of the Great Wars (it is unclear what Earth year this is, as it is unlikely the restoration of Cybertron's golden Age actually ended the wars), Starscream's spark (it is also unclear what happened to his body, most possibly it was destroyed by Galvatron after the explosion mentioned above), tumbling out of control through space and time, wound up on prehistoric Earth, where it possessed the Predacon, Waspinator, and aided the Predacons against the Maximals for a time, until an Energon explosion forced his spark back into space.

According to Starscream, a spark exists in both the present, past, and future, so it is safe to assume that his spark is still floating in space somewhere, plotting revenge against his enemies.

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