"Need any help?"

Cascade doesn't answer, glaring instead at his half-disassembled blaster. Basic training is hard, harder even than mining, but he wasn't staying in Kaon to slave away for the greater glory of Megatron. Too bad nobody outside Kaon will hire a mech who can't do anything but dig, if they're hiring at all. The Autobots are Cascade's last chance: succeed and survive, or wash out and starve.

Without help, either way.

But the other rookie leans in, poking at the blaster's works. "Takes three servos to strip these stupid things." Friendly, guileless optics meet his. "I'm Smokescreen. You?"