Chapter Five
14th December 2005
"Hey bro".
"Hey".
"Made it through Aid's lovely dubby everyone needs to express their hurts crap?"
"Yeah".
"He figured out why you couldn't initiate recharge properly?"
"He said it was stress".
"So nah".
"Yeah".
"You get it with that femme?"
"Minute?"
"Yeah".
"Nah".
"Stink. Probably a lezfem".
"Hah, probably".
"You got patrol?"
"Yeah. When they sending you out?"
"Aid told Kup to keep me off duty for a few more rotations".
"Cool".
"Nah, Kup didn't listen".
"Why?"
"Cos he caught me out joy riding, and figured if I'm well enough to joy ride then I'm well enough to patrol".
"Slag".
"Nah, its all good, better then sitting around here".
"True that".
"What about you?"
"Ah! Slaggit, bro, Red Alert is so damned angsty since the big attack; he's got me doing guard on Solias".
"WTF? Solias? All that's over there is a good view of the sewer entrance and a warehouse full of empty crates, most of them broken at that!"
"Yeah, well, he seems to think it's a perfect entrance for grumpy 'Cons, out to hit us while we're down".
"Last I checked, they're in worse shape then us!"
"Pit yeah".
"When you got that shift?"
"Starts in half an hour, I needed to come back here and make sure I had my new code working, Kup has started overhauling the whole security system and he's changed all codes, and I didn't want to be crawling in here at 0700 trying to get in with an expired code. What about you, what'd that old codger stick you with?"
"Bloody patrol out the north-east end".
"Up by the mountain range?"
"Yeah".
"Oh, man, bro!! Your suspension is going to kill you!"
"Yeah, well, I blame Trailbreaker, if he were still here it'd be him doing the dash".
"Is he offline?"
"I dunno, I heard he was, I mean, I haven't seen him around in ages".
"Are you sure? I thought he was transferred off world for a bit, up to the moonbase or Europe or some place with more hills then flats".
"Well, he obviously can't be around here since if he was he'd have his hand up for this job".
"Shame Roddy hasn't been able to reign in the likes of Beachcomber".
"That slaggin' hippy needs a good kick up the aft, if Kup or Magnus was all they were cracked up to be they'd have that dirt digging flower power sissy working the hard yards and not substituting is energon with Primus only knows what".
"Doesn't help that the new doc only has "suggestion" talks with him and doesn't weld his aft to the wall".
"Haha, wasn't that a laugh, remember that, when Ratch welded that dirty hippy to the wall of the arc, and right outside".
"Oh yeah!! Man, that was awesome…"
A moment of reflective silence passed between the two.
"Well, I better get going, I hear Magnus is on the prowl and he's out for energon… someone pissed him off and I don't what was done or who did it, but he's mad as and I'm in no mood for half rations, triple duty or no rec time or whatever he feels is the going rate of reprimand".
"Yeah, bro, I better head off now too, actually".
The twins departed their quarters together.
--
Sideswipe sat against the wall of the Solias building. It had been crafted using materials from the Arc. It was the first structure erected on this site, which before Autobot City had been dreamed up, was just a small sentry tower and office structure. No one really even bothered about manning it when it was just those things. Autobot City had been built around it for Primus only knew what reason. Grapple was a perfectionist and completely pedantic about everything he did, so it seemed odd that such a structure would be allowed to remain.
It housed very little in the way of valuables to anyone, it wasn't even close enough that if a Decepticon did infiltrate that they could use it to launch a full scale attack. As it was, they came straight down in an Autobot shuttle – that was what had shocked everyone, and probably frizzled a few too many of Red's logic circuits.
Since the structure had remained, and Autobot City completed, the reality was, or at least perceived reality was, that those who's job it was to guard it, had usually done something to piss someone off. And well, as one of the twins, it was a daily occurrence this pissing people off.
There was movement behind him. He craned his neck and turned his head sideways.
"What?"
He asked, matter of factly.
There was no response.
"Fine, whatever".
He added crossing his arms over his chest.
The sounds of movement were gone but there was that unsettling feeling that someone was watching him.
"Hey! Piss off! I'm busy okay?"
He grumbled… inwardly hoping it was one of the senior officers so he could justify his causal swearing. Optimus was a great leader, yeah, but he also knew what it meant to be one of the slobs, and he certainly understood and appreciated the job the twins did – so he was more then happy to ignore the causal foul vocaliser of a few of the troops. Ironhide had been more then capable of letting rip a torrent of profanities that would make even the sternest Con cringe. Rumour had it that Megatron frowned upon any foul language used by his troops, and while that rumour may have been just that, Sideswipe had to admit he'd never heard a Decepticon swear for the sake of swearing. He'd recently heard Kup announce he didn't trust people who didn't swear, especially soldiers, he was involved in the conversation, merely overheard it in the communal fuelling facility, his logic was, if you didn't swear, well, it meant you were hiding your true self, a good swear meant you were alive, meant you felt, his logic was questioned when someone pointed out Perceptor didn't swear, which then led into a discussion about the scientist probably having a good curse out in the privacy of his own lab – and besides, how many mechs actually hung out with that "nerd".
He flicked a small pebble that was sitting near him, his thoughts keeping him from the sensation he was being watched, which continued. He decided to ignore it, if there was someone there, they'd either jump out and give him a fright or were watching to ensure he was alert at his post.
Footsteps were very clear to him now. He was aware of them coming up from his right. He stood arrogantly, prepared to turn and face whoever approached him and make some smart arse remark about him paying enough attention to be acutely aware of the new comer's presence. The individual stood next to him and tapped the twin on the shoulder.
"Yeah, what'd'ya want?"
There was no one there.
"Whah…"
Silence.
No whirl of internal mechanisms. No exhaust breath. No small minor movements.
Nothing.
Even with Mirage, you knew he was there if you were that close to him, you could feel the heat generated from his systems, his oral vents cooling his CPU, the small clicks joints and linkage made upon movement.
But he heard the footsteps.
He was tapped on the shoulder.
A sudden slap on the arse.
"WHAT THE SLAG?!"
He squealed and jumped around quickly to see nothing. But there was something there, but it wasn't a mech.
"WHAT THE HELL? WHO'S THERE?"
To hell with any dignity and soldier's grit he may have held. Maybe a new 'Con weapon was here afterall.
Nothing.
"To pit with this!"
He shuddered with some ounce of fear and began walking backwards.
"Sideswipe".
A small whisper from behind.
He jumped around and saw standing… no floating… about three metres in front of him about a metre from the ground a cloud of mist.
"Oh hell no! To the smelting pit with this!"
The solider then did something he never thought he'd do, he turned and ran.