Flashback - "Quite a Trio" – closed

[Deleted]

Outpost Phi-42 was a Primus forsaken piece of slag on the ragged edge of a galaxy that, by all rights, should have been of exactly no concern to any self-respecting Cybertronian. The problem was, or at least this was the story from the higher ups, the Decepticon monster-scientist, Shockwave, had turned the south-side of a small moon into an energon pumping paradise. Perfect atmospheric and geological conditions catalyzed to convert a random meteor-sized rock into a hotly contested resource that, Bots and Cons alike had been fragging each other over for five megacycles or so.

The latest batch of Bot to get stuck defending this suicidal hot zone was the unfortunate ground assault unit under Captain Jettison, a cantankerous mid-caste officer, formerly a Wrecker, now assigned to holding this precarious position in the middle of nowhere. Worse, there were rumors, lots of them, that the Decepticons had reinforcements from a speculative crew of passing raider ships and were, even now, amassing an assault. He’s taken to brooding in his office on their ship back at base camp and worrying his lieutenants.

But this did not bother the trio of Autobots in outpost three. It was, arguably, the most dangerous outpost, facing the Decepticon basecamp out north. That said, the twin frontliners and their femme gunnery sergeant were arguably the most dangerous three Bots in the unit… they were also arguing.

“It’s true,” said Sideswipe loudly, blue optics crackling electric with glee. He was louging, currently, against the wall of their small, bunker, half recessed into the eastern cliff-face. “Gearstrip’s just a fragger cuz he like to cable-up and no one in this unit does so he’s just, ya know, pent up. Swear to Primus. I’m not lying!”

[sunstreaker]

"That's the case why don't you just save us all the crimp in the tailpipe and take one for the team? You're real good at that, bro," Sunstreaker replied, making a face at his twin over the pieces of the blaster he was cleaning.

This had to be the stupidest argument they'd gotten in during their stint out on the front lines, but what else did they have to do? There was no way they could leave the post and the Cons hadn't made a move in the past two orns. There also wasn't a lot of space to spare, which made the three high energy bots even more restive. Without enough to space to stretch the limbs, high strung warriors always ended up getting snappy with one another.

"Because Primus knows, Vel the Prim isn't gonna do it and neither am I. I wouldn't touch that fragger with my last grenade."

[velocity]

“Well I'm sure that you would know of all people. It takes one who is suffering to notice another.” Her tone was crisp and biting but really that wasn't anything new when it came to Vel. Her optics were focused on Sideswipe when she spoke. “If you both hooked up then it would save everyone the trouble.” Her words pretty much echoed Sunstreaker's which honestly annoyed her right now. For some reason at least half the time that they agreed or thought the same way it bothered her. Probably because she knew what he was like, or at least what she had seen in person.

Thanks be to Primus that she was smaller than them, though that didn't matter one fragging bit in such a tight area. Her legs were curled under her and she had, of course, her data pad in her hands. Sunny spoke again and she turned to quickly shoot him a rather menacing glare. “I am not prim. I just have standards higher than either of you.” The exhale she did at the end came off as a bit haughty but she didn't care.

“Besides...” She frowned and rolled her optics toward Sunny one last time. “I would think that most of the unit was pretty pent up. There hasn't been much time for anything before now and then whenever there is a lull everyone is watched. Especially by those not likely to ever get anything anyway.” Now she smirked and tapped her fingers on her data pad. “Not that I'm pent up at all, since I am definitely not interested in anything like that, and no one in this unit.”

[Deleted]

Sideswipe, having had quite a while to accustom himself to the snark afforded him by Sunny and Velocity, gave no sign of being offended at either of their snidery. He just lazed, sprawled where he was, servos folded on his abdominal plating, looking all kind of boredly amused. He lolled his head to look at his brother, EMF spiked with indifference and, always, mockery.

“Your estimable opinion is noted, Sunstreaker, and while selling out your brother’s body for your own benefit is a widely accepted Kaon practice… ah, thanks but no thanks.” Sides looked at Velocity, optics wide. “He’s got a sketchy EMF. I’m just saying, even if Gears wasn’t completely intolerable and have a frame set twice my mass, it would be like trying to sync up with bad frequency off a backwater tele-comm.”

And having delivered this unbearably insulting evaluation he added, innocently, “What? I’m just saying! And thank you, Vel, by the way for making your complete disgust with our frequencies and frames types clear. I was getting all these mixed signals. Totally confused.”

[sunstreaker]

"The only thing I'm pent up over is not getting to spill any Decepticon energon," the golden mech replied in tones just as icy and clipped, echoed by the click and snap of a rifle stock being jammed back together. Sighting down the barrel, Sunstreaker turned first to look at Velocity through the scope, the cross-hair lining up directly over her spark chamber just as he dry pulled the trigger, an empty click the only result. "Not something I'd expect your prim, repressed self to really understand." A snide little smirk twisted his mouth as the rifle was lowered once more to have the last smears of oil polished off.

"As for you, dear brother," he continued laconically, the other bot's mockery blowing right past him, "if I knew I could get a single cred for that scrapheap you call a frame, I would have put your aft on the corner a long time ago, but you just gave it away for free." Sunny tipped his gold and black helm back in an echo of Sideswipe's own earlier movement to grin at his brother. "High standards notwithstanding."

[velocity]

Velocity tapped some things into her data pad, the tip of her finger moving rather fast. She did so much with that thing it should be permanently fastened to her hand really. It was her lifeline and where she did all of the work not associated with skirmishes at least. She was not ignoring either of the twins, like anyone could really. Vel enjoyed being with these two so much, in fact she preferred them over anyone else and had tried to hide that fact but it was glaringly obvious. Having stuck her own neck out for them a time or two when no one else would even look at them twice would do that to a femme.

Keeping her snarky attitude was fairly easy but not bursting out into laughter at what Sides said, was not. Not being able to hold it anymore she grinned, then laughed and shook her head at the red bot near her. “You are so very eloquent my dear Sides.” Vel made a face at her friend and waved a hand at him dismissively. “There is nothing wrong with your frames or frequencies. If I had the interest I wouldn't know which of you to hit on more. So I flirt with the both of you because it is fun.” Also, because she believed she didn't honestly have to worry about them reciprocating seriously, just playfully.

That was when Sunny aimed down the rifle at her and her optics widened. No, she didn't think he would shoot her but it was still not something anyone would want to see. A well known bloodthirsty and unpredictable angry mech doing that would unsettle anyone, no matter how much you thought you knew them, or if they were your friend. “Stop being fragging creepy Sunny!” She snapped at him her EMF flaring for a second showcasing her sudden annoyance. “I reiterate, I am not prim! I am just very focused.”

Vel rolled her optics at the two of them but couldn't keep the affectionate grin off her face or the friendly and pleased emotions from her EMF.

[Deleted]

“You have unbearable amounts of class,” drawled Sideswipe sleepily.

It was unclear to which of the two other Bots he was responding to: Vel about her unbearable primness or Sunny about his unbearable, apparent, willingness to whore out his family. He just hummed a little and looked to be settling back for a recharge cycle. He didn’t say anything for a while either about his brother’s sociopathic social skills or their gunny’s scribbling. Her scribbling was, from what Sideswipe could tell, her method of dealing with A: boredom. And B: constant threat of dying due to being assigned to one of the most dangerous outposts in the sector. Sunstreaker had already made his usual attempts to ward off her friendship – death threats, death glares, probably a few mild physical assaults and at least one not so mild one.

Vel had never complained of whatever trials his twins had afflicted upon her through and eventually Sunstreaker had backed off. And now she was still here. That was just unusual enough to warrant the easy camaraderie they currently had going. Sides cracked open an optic. “Someone check perimeter.”

[sunstreaker]

"I know, I know," Sunstreaker drawled back mockingly, one gold and black hand waving dismissively through the air. The magazine next to him was snatched up and slammed home as the warrior straightened up with his usual economy of motion. There was a flirtatious wink and a jerk of the chin in Velocity's direction. Sunny wouldn't deliberately hurt someone he called "friend", unless the circumstances required it, but that didn't stop him from liking to rattle them. A bot on edge was a bot paying attention. "Some day Vel I'm going to get you to stop being so shy about admitting how much you love me."

He normally didn't volunteer for work like this as it was beneath him, but Sunny needed to move, needed to just do something. Cracking open the ammunition chest he pulled out a few more mags and stowed them in a subspace pocket, grumbling all the while. "Even though the Cons haven't so much as ventilated in our direction in orns, or the simple fact that not a single one of the perimeter alarms, that I installed myself," his tone more than implied 'so you know they're working', "haven't so much as squawked." The golden mech heaved a put-upon sigh, dropping the lid with a resounding clang that echoed through the mostly empty space.

"Princess Vel, req some more ammo, stat. We only got enough to make it through one or two more small scuffles, not counting what we're packing now. And some polish. Oh, and a set of those soft shammies." He knew he wasn't going to get them, but it never hurt to make his wishes known, and he had an appearance to keep up. "I don't like Jettison enough to bear even a scuff mark on his time." With that, Sunny gave his deceptively lazy brother an affectionate kick to the hip and sauntered out. "I'm out. I'll be on channel 6."

[velocity]

She didn't exactly hate how they kept calling her prim but it was annoying. Others might go out of their way to prove they were not something that others accused them of being, but Velocity didn't bother. Maybe compared to them she was prim but there was no way a true prim individual could hang around these two as much as she did and not have their neural net explode. She just wasn't as flirty as everyone else and constantly turned others down. Vel had her reasons though and they were good ones in her mind.

The femme peered up from her data pad as Sunstreaker stood right after Sideswipe mentioned someone checking perimeter. She had vaguely heard the red mech say that but probably wouldn't have volunteered to go out anyway. They were better equipped to handle skirmishes then she was, but if she could peg something from afar she was all good. As her optics were already trained on the large golden frame his words and expression hit her full force. Her mouth thinned out into a straight line and she gave him a rather annoyed expression. “Yes of course you are, and someday I am going to admit that I am secretly in love with Jettison and everyone else in our unit. Go do your job and stop antagonizing me.” Her tone was bland as she spoke and she pointed off even as he began to head that way.

“We all know how wonderful your alarms are Sunny, but in cases like this it is better to be safe than sorry.” She wasn't even being condescending for once and just gave him a look as he referred to her as Princess. “Honestly? Whatever.” Her optics rolled but she took note of what he said otherwise. “I can try for those shammies but if you get them you will be buffing yourself.” Watching him walk away she turned her frame more toward Sideswipe's and grinned. “I swear I am actually going to do my best to get those other things and enjoy his surprise.”

Fingers flew over the data pad as she input what was needed and put in a special notation as well. “Looks like it's just you and me now Sides, wanna have some fun?” As usual she was flirting with her friend and she gave him quite the lascivious look as she spoke to him. “He should be gone for awhile.” Most of the time she wasn't serious and just played with him, other times she could be. Who wouldn't want to flirt with these two? They were attractive and wild, very fun.

[Deleted]

“Quit slumming,” said Sideswipe, not opening his optics, though his EMF quirked with a note of bright amusement. The running joke out here was that boredom and terror made everyone a little stir crazy and more than a few mechs and femmes dealt with this compound of emotion by A: just going crazy B: facing with every decent mech they could or C: going quiet and soldierly like useful mechanisms were supposed to. Sideswipe was type C only in so much as he was built a with a soldiers spark in his chest and type B only in that he didn’t mind blowing of some excess charge and type A in that only crazies could do the job he did for as long as he did without going to dithering pieces.

He just liked to think he was well adjusted.

Velocity was actually a Type C but like to pretend she was a Type B because that was slightly less depressing and boring and it was more fun to flirt with this unit’s two best frontliners than actually talk about what they did… because what they did was quote: ‘fragging horrific. Primus, just, Primus… these guys are all over the place. All over the place!’ End quote.

“What would your creators say? Hitting on mechs outside your caste rank,” drawled Sideswipe. “Pssssh, I’m prolly full of all kinds of viruses. You don’t know where I’ve been, namely, everywhere. Just fraggin’ everywhere. I’ll have you know I prolly ‘faced half the prim-plates in your Tower sector. They really had a thing for me’n Sunny and Streaker always thought swapping paint with Towerlings was a riot.” Seeing how they would have never touched us if they’d known our real caste. “You are stereotyping yourself, Vel. Shame.”

[velocity]

Sideswipe was of course correct. Velocity was most definitely a type C predominately and just had fun flirting with the twins more than anything else. They both responded so differently too. She didn't do it just for entertainment but she knew they liked the attention and she was mostly honest with her flirtations. The femme was very attracted to the lovely boys she was currently paired off with but she would never take it anywhere. Vel didn't interface with anyone and didn't think she ever would. Everyone else found it all sorts of fun but she honestly wasn't interested. The flirting was fun and enjoyable and made her feel just a tad bit special if they happened to ever return it.

Her fingers stopped moving in a blur over her data pad for a brief moment as she flicked her optics toward Sideswipe once more and just gave him a look. “Like I care about caste and rank. I never did before I was just too busy to bother with anyone is all.” Her tone was awfully haughty but her EMF was oddly neutral and she went back to her data pad yet continued to speak. “My creators would probably say nothing? I was a custom job, created for a specific purpose not because someone loved me and wanted me.” Maybe there was some bite to her words but her EMF was being so carefully contained and managed that she was giving off nothing. That wasn't common knowledge and she usually didn't tell anyone but situations were different now and perhaps she no longer cared about it.

Vel barked out a bit of laughter, “Viruses? You probably have had every one known and several unknown. Yes, exactly I know you have been everywhere. I hear the talk I at least know you would be decent at it.” Smirks but still won't look up from her data pad at him. “Thought I could get a good 'facing once in my lifetime before I'm probably fragged all to hell and no longer useful for anything.” If there was one thing about Velocity was that she had no disillusions to her mortality. She was damn good at anything she put her neural net to but that didn't make her invincible. Was she being serious by her declaration? It still was debatable as she had a vise grip on her EMF and wasn't letting anything leak out.

“Of course they would have a thing for you two. Unlike the lot of them I didn't have time, nor did I care, about messing around with almost everyone. Stereotyping myself now? Never. I'm always myself and if everyone else chooses to act just like me well, that is flattering. Besides my dear Sideswipe, unlike all of them I actually care about the both of you. So take that and stuff it.” She only looked up for a moment but it was enough for him to see she was possibly angry. Vel rarely if ever got angry and when she did it left a lasting impression. Annoyance and snark was her forte, anger was bothersome.

[Deleted]

“Wow, you protest a fraggin’ lot,” drawled Sideswipe, cracking an optic open again to look at the dark framed femme. “I mean, seriously. I talk a lot but you talk a lot. You talk more than I do, then I know you’re up to no good.”

He rolled over and climbed to his feet, briefly flexing his hydraulics and stretching with all the lazy fluidity of a photovoltaic cat, idly popping his rotor cuff and going to pull open the ammo chest and subspace a couple plasma grenades. Sunstreaker’s mention of ‘his last grenade’ had reminded him that he was running low after the last batch of Cons that made an attempt on their perimeter. Sides was an excellent shot with a grenade and best of all, eon gave him perfect timing between charging the timer and detonation. So he didn’t have to hit a mech with a grenade, just get them in its blast radius.

“You keep getting’ all defensive and slag, mechs are gonna think this femme doth protest a touch too muchly.” The frontliner switched in into perfect hoity-toity High Cybertonian for that last part, dropping perfectly prim tonal indicators of mockery and stuffy appall… then smirked and dropped back into his regular laconic dialect. “Torque it down, Vel.. I was just messin’ with ya. I know you being a Towerling ain’t got nothing to do with your being so uptight.” He grinned brightly at her. “You’re just built that way. All on your own!”

[velocity]

She chose to ignore his attitude and his comments and continue to input more work orders and her own observations into the data pad. Some days she could easily handle their snarky ways and others she found herself being far too touchy. This was not one of the latter. Vel was fairly used to having to deal with their attitudes and rarely let it get to her. In fact no one ever seemed to really be able to get to her. The only time she had really lost it was when someone in their unit was questioning her about hanging out with the twins. That hadn't been pretty considering the other mech's words were far from complimentary and Vel did not take kindly to anyone insulting someone she considered her friend. Her reputation was a bit different because of that scuffle but the femme didn't seem to give a whit.

“Since I haven't completed the work order yet do you have anything else that you think we could use?” Slowly she let go of her vise grip on her EMF and it settled into a calmness that was just who she naturally was. Tilting her head up she eyed Sideswipe as he restocked himself. “Because once I put this in I'm not going to do another one right after it. So any ridiculous request you may have I will forward, oh and all the good ones as well.” Her grin was quick and easy and she stood up to walk over to the ammo chest herself seeing if she could come up with anything either.

Vel didn't know if they noticed it or not, but they received special treatment from her that other bots on the unit did not. They were her friends and she respected them. Friend was not a term she threw around willy nilly either. “I do protest too much. Some things I am very heated about is all.” One optic narrowd at Sideswipe and she shook her head. “Honestly you two are so convinced I am this prissy prude of a femme. Not to mention a great big snob.” There was only laughter in her tone as she spoke and she bumped her hip against his. “How long should we give him out there? I have a bad feeling today and I don't know why.”

[Deleted]

Velocity’s gift was that while she was capable of getting wound up, she wound down just as fast, which was useful when stuck in a hot box with two unbearable ex-gladiators incapable of letting anyone be for longer than half a cycle. Sideswipe finished restocking his arsenal of high grade explosives and moved to look outside though the narrow slat overlooking atmospheric wasteland that was the turf of Phi-42. The arrangement of orbital bodies in the solar system here meant that while there was no sun rise, there was always a blinding lunar glow from one of half a dozen moons swung into circling the dead planet below.

Sunsteaker had already vanished down the ridge to the Choke, the narrow part of a gully through which Decepticon ground forces had to come through. The terrain here had saved them more times than he could remember. The moon itself was spiked by high spire and ragged cliffs hit by high upper atmo winds that made flight superiority hard to the Cons to keep. Sideswipe's optics flickered before, reflexively, he ‘looked’ for his twin. It was a move that was as much physiological as psychological – like a tug in the orientation of his spark, the gravitational pull. His core tuned instinctively into a frequency that what was, essentially, Sunstreaker.

At a long enough distance he would not be able to find it. For a long enough time, he would find that his functionality declined rapidly. Longer than that, things got… bad. He leaned against the lip of the window.

“Tell them we’re out of dirty data mags and need more immediately.” A beat. “And stop saying that. That’s like saying, I dunno, ‘let’s split up’, or ‘what could possibly go wrong?’” He ex-vented and shot Velocity a mock-irritated look. “Primus, on a piston. Now, I’m tweaked.”

[velocity]

Pawing through the ammo crate herself she typed up a few other things into the data pad that the boys had not mentioned. Though they were warriors and damn good at what they did, she was a different sort and had a much cooler head than either of them. It was easier for her to be over prepared but it had yet to backfire and cause a problem.

Though she was glad to be out here with them she was also on edge some of the time. This was dangerous territory and they were far better suited to it than she was. Not to say she wasn't useful or good when it came to skirmishes but they had a lot more experience under their plating than she did. In the end she was still a data pusher who hadn't even aspired to be more. Watching them all the time sometimes caused her to become irked with herself. There was so much more she could have been, could have even done. Vel had been so intermeshed with the goings on around Kaon and those areas. Sometimes she would sit and wonder if she would have paid more attention could she have tilted the balance at all?

Her thoughts were going faster than normal, which was ridiculously quick anyway. She had been created for quick thinking and dealing with uncertain situations in a click. Vel liked to think she was smart, which she was, but she knew she was more than just simply intelligent. Her mind was her greatest asset. Right now though it was preoccupied with a horrible feeling and she couldn't make it go away.

His words had her giving him a withering glare. “Right sure I'll make sure to do that.” The rest of what he said differed and she knew that he was going to be worried now about Sunstreaker. Vel's vents cycled as she was sorry for even bringing it up. “Sorry about that. Just honestly, be on full alert because this feeling will not go away.” If something happened to Sunny or Sides, she would be devastated. They were her boys, she adored the both of them. “Maybe we should both get geared up and patrol around in a small area, just in case.” She felt like she was being paranoid now.