Ep.1(AR)- One is the Loneliest Number- (OPEN)

[Deleted]

This is set very early in the episode.

With a softly vented sigh, Nova glanced over the report she was asked to compile regarding what had occurred prior to her final arrival on base. A twinge of sadness/regret leaked into her field as she marked the names of those she knew were lost, and those she prayed were still functioning. Memories of the assault played in long loops in her mind.

With an angry wave of her band, she dismissed the report, though not before saving it. Heaving her bulk off the slab assigned to her, she stood for a moment to ponder what she should do. While she had been ordered (more or less) to rest, she wasn't told she had to recharge, even though she really needed it. And any 'Bot worth his or her oil knew there was more then one way to cool one's motor. With a smile, she stepped out into the hallway, aiming to find at least that one other way.

[Deleted]

"Holy crap!"

The startled exclamation rang down the hall behind her. A white robot was strolling up it, his startled optics fixed upon Nova Storm.

Air Raid rubbed his optics. He peered at her. Yes, she was still standing there: a tall figure with the unmistakeable gunmetal-grey frame of a flier.

Another Autobot flier. Here on Earth.

A female flier.

Air Raid resisted the urge to get down on one knee and raise his hands to the sky in gratitude.

Lord Primus. Thank you.

With a quick check of his paint to make sure that it was still immaculate and awesome, Air Raid strolled towards her, grinning. He was a tall mech himself, lean and broad across the shoulders where his wings met his back, a flier in a smart white and red livery. He pointed a thumb over his shoulder and struck a casual pose.

"You know, I'd sorta heard a passing mention that a new 'Bot had just arrived after a furball with a 'Con or two," he said. "Didn't know it was another aerial! Finally! I'm Air Raid, resident Aerialbot and Doctor of Shotgun Surgery. Didn't catch your name...?"

[Deleted]

Nova paused and turned back upon hearing the rather crude expression to see, blessedly, another flier approach. There was something in the way the mecha moved that...yeah...he was one of those, as evident by the once over of his chassis and that grin that signaled he was Primus' gift to femmes everywhere. She mentally rolled her optics.

There somehow seemed to be one just about everywhere she had landed since throwing her lot in with the Autobots.

She nodded in greeting. "Well, you heard correctly, Rookie, though I wouldn't quite call it a...furball? Honestly, I was glad to cut it short, seeing as how I'd been scrapping with 'cons off and on for the last 3 local days. As for my name, it's Nova Storm. Though if the surname makes you uncomfortable, call me Storm."

Her sea green optics looked down upon the flier, not out of contempt, but because she had to. She could see a bit of something beneath the bravado, though she couldn't quite put a servo on what it was.

[Deleted]

Air Raid smiled rather serenely.

"Nice to meet you, Storm," he said. He threw up a jaunty salute. "Good to see another flier around here. For a while I thought I was gonna be the only one on this base. I mean, the 'Bots here are great, don't get me wrong, but grounders just don't speak the same language, you know? Besides, there are like a hundred Vehicon jets out there, and I was getting tired of racking up kills all on my own."

The Aerialbot grinned cheekily. Then a thought seemed to strike him and he snapped his fingers.

"Oh, hey, since you're new here, I should ask," he said, his optics wide. He rubbed his chin. "Has anybody walked you through the SOPs for fliers here at Omega One? Given you all the rap on atmospheric flight within a Class Three planet, VRF versus IFR flight, air space classifications, the FARs, the FAA, international radio terminology and protocol, relevant squawk codes-"

He droned on for a bit, his serene expression unchanging.

"- weather minimums, refuelling procedures, flight in icing conditions, rules of engagement, uhhh, lemme think. Downloaded any approach plates yet? Yeah, you might want some of those. I guess the SOPs really tackle the minimum of what you need to know. If you need 'em just lemme know. Since I was the first Autobot flier here on Earth I pretty much wrote the book on them. Literally. It's an actual digital manual. Took me forever. Agent Fowler has threatened to hurl abuse and worse at any 'Bot flier who disrespects local flight procedures outside of emergency scenarios. Especially if it makes us look like idiots in front of the spamcans and bus drivers."

Air Raid winked and playfully aimed a finger-gun at her. "Ya know?"

[Deleted]

Nova laughed. "Just beam me the rules and regs for dealing with the locals. I've flown on more then enough planets to know how to handle myself in any natural weather condition. A few while under fire. I'll take the time to study them in depth late, besides I've still got some things to do before I'm slotted into patrols."

An alert pinged in her visual, saying she needed to refuel, as her energon levels were down to about 15%. She looked at Raid. "If you don't mind me prying, please tell me there's somewhere other then the medbay one could get some 'gon, and possible some mid-, if not high-grade? 3 days of 'con running, and 5 days since a halfway decent refuel, much less recharge."

[Deleted]

"Looking for a fill-up, eh?" said Air Raid. "Welp, you've got three options at the moment."

He held up one hand and began a running count on his fingers, squinting off into space. "One: the medbay. And you've already ruled that one out. Not that I blame you. We go through low energon periods sometimes, and Ratchet hordes the stuff he's got. Patients get first dibs on it. And okay, that's fair. Two-"

Air Raid held up another finger and grinned evilly. "We take a wee hop on over to the nearest airport with a fuel truck and lax security measures, pick a pair of convincing holo avatars, and fill up on some dull ass Jet-A courtesy of the American Air Force. Agent Fowler has sworn to skin my white ass if I charge another ten thousand dollar fuel bill to his department, but I think he was just in high spirits when he said that. And three....!"

He pointed down the hall. The fluorescent lights overhead flickered overhead, while the ventilation system of the old base wheezed and rattled in the background.

"One of the guys is cobbling together an energon still in one of the abandoned storage areas," he said. The Aerialbot made a face. "The high-grade it brews tastes vile and could probably be used to polish chrome. I call it the Ole' Panther Piss. Still, it's good stuff and will get anyone who isn't me hammered pretty quickly. So! Just pick your poison."

[Deleted]

Nova set a hand to her hip. "That last comment almost sounds like a challenge, and I do love a good challenge. Please, lead the way."

Time quickly found her just after her third pull of the local high grade. Truth be told, it wasn't all that bad. She'd honestly had worse. She halfheartly listened to Raid as he dropped a few tales of his exploits. Her mind drifted to the events that had led her here.

[Deleted]

The still was not much to look at, a rickety contraption made up of giant oil drums, burners, and rubber hoses. Glass gauges monitored temperatures and pressures, though most of them were cracked and their needles flickered erratically. The air around the thing stank like a chemical plant.

But it was hidden beneath some rotten tarps, and it produced a form of distilled energon that probably wouldn't eat out the lining of an Autobot's tank or lines for another two to five years. And it didn't render you blind. So there was that.

The storage room was a big and echoing space, gloomily lit by a handful of electric bulbs. Shadows danced on the walls. Much of the room was taken up by industrial crates and shipping containers, some as big as a warhead. Most of them were draped in more rotten tarps and fastened to the floor by chains.

Air Raid sat comfortably on top of one stack. It was so tall he had to sit hunched to keep his head from whacking off the beamed ceiling. He drank from an old barrel. He was on his tenth drink, and going strong.

"- and when I came online again it was really dark. Took me a while to figure out they'd crammed me into the overhead compartment of a transit shuttle while I was passed out. And that is officially the strangest place I've ever woken up in while smashed out of my head."

He'd spent the past forty minutes talking about old drinking stories.

Now he sniffed and looked into his makeshift glass. "Man, this stuff is vile. Anyway, how about you, Storm? Any good stories you can tell off the top of your head?"

[Deleted]

Nova thought for a long moment before cracking a smile. She had the perfect story, and it was one she never got tired of relating.

"Alright, so..."

She sets off in her tale, moving from her arrival on Terminus, one of the furthest Cybertronian colonies, to her first encounter with the 'cons.

"- they stood there, jaws hanging. This flier, not to mention femme, had just dropped the largest of the group like he was no stronger then a turbopup."

She laughed, shaking her helm.

"I looked at the remainer, recocked my cannon, and said 'Didn't anyone tell you Storms are dangerous?'. They glanced at each other and took off. It was right about that time some of the local Autobots rolled up. And the rest they say, is history."