Crunch.
Snow shifted under the weight of the white and red form as she moved slowly across the snow covered landscape. More snow was only happy to cover the imprinted steps, to nearly hide the trail that was left behind. Silver optics scanned the area as Aero walked. A white hand moved a branch out of the way, only for the snow above to topple down and cover her head. A look of discontent formed as she shook her head free of the snow.
Sighing, she wondered why she was the one sent out. It could have been easier to send Jazz, maybe even Mirage out to do this job. Her head shook as she continued, recalling what Prime had told her.
"Aero, your form is perfect for this mission," said Optimus Prime as he looked down at the smaller Transformer.
"My form, why?" Aero asked.
"You're the smallest and the lightest of all the Autobots."
"But Prime…" A sigh escaped as she knew there wasn't a way to talk out of this. "Yes sir, I'll do this."
"Good to hear, now this is the plan…"
A plop of snow hit Aero's head, bringing her back out of the trance. Shaking her head to get rid of the snow, she looked up only to see a few snowbirds looking down at her before flying away.
"I'll be glad when this mission is over with. I wont have to…" her voice trailed off as she crouched down and waited silently. She didn't have to wait long as she saw a couple of shadows walk past her location.
Keeping quiet, she slowly moved ahead to get a better look at the pair that walked past. She didn't get her gun, even if it should have been a good idea to have it. It was only a low powered gun, only enough to just knock out a Decepticon for a few astroseconds.
Cautiously, she looked through the snow covered bushes to watch the two Decepticons. She allowed the snow to rest on her body, since it would help keep her hidden from view.
Ahead of Aero's hiding spot, Starscream was standing beside Ravage. The latter was growling as he turned his head to look back where Aero was. He was designed perfectly for stealth, but even he did not see Aero hiding. He looked ahead and growled as Starscream scowled.
"Hurry it up, Skywarp! I don't want to be out in this snow," grumbled Starscream as he shook the snow off of his wings.
Skywarp grumbled something too, but he didn't notice the movement in the bushes as Aero moved around the clearing to get a better look at what the Decepticon were working on.
Crouching back down again, Aero moved a bush slightly, but that caused some snow to hit the ground. She froze up as Ravage growled in her direction.
Starscream glanced down to Ravage. "What is it?" He inquired of the metal feline as Ravage ran over to where Aero was hiding.
Oh no, Aero thought as she knew she was in trouble. Pulling her gun out, she got ready to shoot if needed. Lucky for her, Ravage didn't get very far since he ran right into Skywarp's leg with a yelp and tumbled back.
"Watch where your going," scowled Skywarp as walked over to a pile on energon cubes and set down the pair he was carrying. He was too grumpy to notice one of the bushes was lacking in snow.
As he returned to the machine, Starscream walked over also and made sure that everything was working. He did look up when he heard a crunch in the snow. Narrowing his optics, he walked over and looked through the bushes. All he saw was snow, so he growled and returned to the machine.
Aero watched as the machine seemed to be pumping oil from the ground and turning it into energon. It was only the explanation that seemed logical to her. Still, she never thought that it would be possible for oil to exist so far north. Not including how cold it was at the time. Shifting ever so slightly, she turned and started to leave, but stopped as she knew she had to figure out exactly what it was.
Sighing inwardly, she turned back to watch and hoped that one of the seekers would let loose a hint. She didn't have to wait long as Thundercracker leaned against the machine. He looked to Skywarp, who scowled. "This is a dumb assignment, TC. Mining oil is more a job for the Constructicons, not me."
"'Warp, we have to do this." said Thundercracker quietly.
"Ya right," mumbled Skywarp under his breath. He then looked to Starscream and smirked. "Watch this TC."
Thundercracker knew this wouldn't end well, but he watched anyway. Skywap rolled up a snowball and then teleported beside Starscream and hit him with the snowball before warping back. He snickered and Thundercracker sighed.
Starscream flailed to get the snow off of his face as he growled at Skywarp. "Skywarp, knock off the jokes. I don't want to be here either," he grumbled. He was about to complain again, when he heard a noise from the bushes.
"What now?" Starscream turned to the bushes, in which Ravage was already approaching. The cassette was already sniffing at the snow, which had Skywarp's footprints in it. He growled and looked back to the seekers.
Ravage just growled and then snorted as he walked along the bushes. Looking and sniffing anything out of the ordinary. Of course, even with his olfactory sense heightened even more so then that of an earth bound feline, the cold slipping in with the smells was just too much for him. Shaking his head and pawing at his muzzle when a snowflake fell on it, he returned to the machine and sat down beside it.
Soundwave had sent Ravage to keep an eye on the triad of jets. He knew that they would complain, and obeying Megatron, he sent a spy with them.
As the Decepticons went back to their work, the complaining went down a few notches. Aero was glad for this, as she had enough complaining back at the Ark when Gears or Huffer was going on about something or another. Shaking her head to clear her head, she looked back to where the cubes were piled. From the looks of it, she decided, They'll be leaving with those cubes and I can get up and close with that machine.
If the situation didn't require her to be silent, the Autobot would of chuckled. She remained still and like she assumed, Skywarp and Thundercracker were filled up with the energon cubes. Starscream however had to do the work himself and as for Ravage, the cassette transformed and slipped into the red seeker's cockpit.
"We have enough energon cubes to please Mighty Megatron, lets return. The cone heads can come and take the rest of it. Decepticons, lets go," ordered Starscream as the triad of jets took to the sky.
Only when the sound of the humming engines was out of her hearing range and none of her sensors registered Decepticon activity, did Aero dare to get up and slowly make her way out of the forest. She kept her gun on hand, just in case, though she rarely ever fired it. Scanning the ground and the area, she relaxed slightly.
Standing up all the way, she moved over to the machine and walked around it to get a full view. "I better report this to Optimus and hopefully Jetfire is in the area, so I can go back home. My servos are starting to ice up," she mumbled to herself.
Putting two fingers up, she gently pressed the side of her helmet as a wire went up out of the back as a speaker curved down to her mouth. "Aero calling Optimus Prime, are you there?"
The line was quiet with static.
Aero tried again. "Optimus, I found the Decepticon's latest machine. Its a small version of an oil refinery."
"Aero, this is Optimus Prime. I received your message. Sorry, Perceptor was talking about a new invention," said Optimus at last over a delay.
The white and red Autobot shook her head. "May I come back now?" she asked her commander.
"I need you to stay there. I'll contact Skyfire and send him enroute to your coordinates. Stay alert," replied Prime.
"Yes, I know. I'll stay alert for any Decepticons. I am leaving after Skyfire arrives."
There was a pause on the line. "Alright. Optimus out." The link ended.
Retracting her hand, the microphone and the antenna returned to her helmet as she sighed. She looked at the ground and then to her footprints An idea formed in her head. A foolish one, but it did seem to work occasionally for humans. Going over to a tree, she found a fallen branch and picked it up. "Humans come up with the most interesting ideas," she mused to herself.
Brushing the branch on the ground, all of her tracks were covered back up by the snow. Even though it was already a mess of footprints, she was having fun with it. Even a few childish giggles came from her as she did this. Returning back to her cover spot, she put the branch down and sat down and looked up at the sky. It was a white as the ground below. Beautiful in it's own way really.