Being stationed in the desert for over a year, Flicker is just now joining the rest of her Autobot comrades. Life on base is much different from the desert, join her as she figures out how to survive the chaos of the base.
Chapter 1
A lone desert lizard scampered onto a smooth rock, soaking in the suns' rays. Its forked tongue poked out, as it looked around for any predators. Then a shadow pasted over it. Without a moments hesitation it ran down the rock to hide in a crevasse. As the shadow came closer to the ground a dull thud could be heard along with moving sand. The noise traveled away quickly, and the lizard slowly crawled back on to the rock to sun bathe.
The sun glittered off the few still shiny parts of your armor as you raced through the blazing desert land. Sand flew out behind your wheals while you roared up the side of a large dune turning at the last moment; nearly flipping you over and down the other side, to travel the crest. Bouncing along happily, you excelled faster for a large jump. Sailing across the blue sky you give a loud woot of joy. You would easily admit to any one that this was the most fun you'd had since the beginning of the war, maybe even your whole life.
Wide wheals landed on the shifting sand while the large shocks of your vehicle form made your chaise bob lightly. Laughing to yourself you cranked up the volume to a rock n' roll song as you zoomed along, enjoying your freedom.
Although you did still have a duty to complete for the Autobot cause, racing all over the place was in the job description. As a watch post you had the task of keeping a strong surveillance over the assigned area. You always tried your hardest to keep watch.
Suddenly your com unit gave out an annoying chirp of an incoming link. Almost unhappily you muted the music, and answered the communication link. "Blaster to Flicker" declared a deafening and cheery voice.
"This is Autobot Flicker reporting" you replied, regaining your joyful mood at Blasters voice.
"Hay Flick girl! How's the sun n' sand treating ya?"
"Pretty good. Most of my paint is still where it belongs. Although I do have a thick coat of sand on right now." You slowed down near a dune to stop and rest in the shade it created.
"Aw is our little girl all dirty?"
"Hay! I've told you before! I don't care that I am covered in dirt and the suns heat is wonderfully relaxing to ones cables." You defended.
"The suns fried your processor, and you've playin' in the dirt to long. If you ask me." He said going serious only for a moment. "Yep, something an't right, no femme likes to get dirty and most bots get massive processer aches from too much heat." He teased.
Your only reply was a sigh. "Well I guess we should down to business first, shouldn't we, Flick?"
"We should" was your slightly grumpy response.
"So have ya seen anything note able?"
"Nope"
"Any Cons?"
"Not a hint"
"Any landings?"
"None"
"A lost human?"
"Nada"
"A wounded animal?"
"Zero"
"A cloud?"
"All clear"
"Anything at all?" his last shred of hope for anything interesting that may have happened.
You paused for a second to think, "The sun set two minutes earlier than yesterday. Do you want me to send you images of it?"
"Sure!"
You sent him the images and the two of you spent some more time chatting about whatever popped into your processers. Because he was on duty, he did have to end the conversation after a while. As usual he didn't forget to add in the number of days you had till you were to return to headquarters.
The bot that was taking your place would be here in 9 days so you could show them ropes; and 11 days till you would leave the desert for the journey to base.
Rolling out of the dunes shadow you were stunned at how low the sun had sunk. How long had you talked to Blaster? Revving your engine at the lost chance to speed around, you hurried back to base. Across the dunes you flew as they shrank becoming a flat waste land. On the dry hard ground you reached speeds no human made buggy could reach, enjoying the wind over your frame.
A worn and weathered farm building came into view as you got closer. It had long ago been abandoned as the once fertile land became sand. It consisted of a large house, huge barn, and a water tank. When you had found the place it looked like a disaster zone: old fence pieces stuck out every were with rusty nails, the barn was filled with old manure and the bones of long dead animals, both the barn and the house's roofs were falling in, and the water tank couldn't hold water. Together it was a mess, and need a lot of work.
You didn't mind though, it was in a good place and it gave you something to do.
For the fence pieces you either put them back together or kept for repairs. The biggest problem by far was the barn. It took three days to remove the stalls, (which you still keep in the corner) and scrape the crud off the floor and outside the doors. It then took another two days to dig a hole down to the clay bed; gather enough clay for the roof and water tank, then push the crud from the barn in and cover it with sand. You fixed the water tank first so you could wash out the barn later.
You had come up with the idea to fix the water tank after researching how the humans' ancestors held onto water while in the desert. Clay jars was the most common answer. The water tank was simply a wood cylinder on a tower with an iron pipe coming out the side and down to the ground.
To start out you cut the pipe out of the tank, then tore the tank off the tower. Prying the boards off one end you turned them into a lid with the spare pieces from the fence. Cleaning the inside boards you took a detailed scan, then began to shape the clay so it fit in the cylinder. It seemed to take forever as your hands got clogged with clay and your claws would tear its soft body. Finally you pushed the iron pipe through the clay and sealed it in with a ring of clay around the pipe. Letting it bake in the sun for five days it hardened in that shape, and then you slid it into the wood cylinder so no one could tell the difference though you did chop the pipe so you could stand under it.
Patching up the roofs was simple; all you did was put the boards back into place and fill the cracks with clay. You fixed the human house although you had no use for it; you wanted it to look somewhat livable.
After the long and tiring process of cleaning the place up, you had made yourself a wonderful little place to call home, um…base.
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