Ep. 1.5 - Live Spitfire - (Closed)

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For once, Miko was having a rare moment of indecision. Normally she poked and jabbed at every button, knob, and switch in her presence. Ratchet probably wanted to chop off her hands but couldn't because possible medical malpractice. That and Prime would probably not be that happy about maiming a teenager. Still, the threat of violence did little to stop Miko's curiosity.

However, sitting in a tank, filled with all sorts of tempting things that did stuff, Miko found that she was kind of scared to touch anything. She didn't know what did what. What if she accidentally shot something she wasn't supposed to? And Fort Max was a little intense and not just because of his size. She didn't know how to judge him because every time she'd met or see him had been in short instances in passing. She didn't know this dude from a ficus in Fowler's office.

"Um," she muttered as she settled in the narrow seat. Yeouch that could use some padding. She felt the muted rumbling straight into her tail bone. "Like this?" Actually, the monitor wasn't that hard to figure out. She scooted to the edge of the seat and scrutinized the screen for a moment.

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The screen was cool.

It was small, perhaps six by eight inches altogether, and looked like a computer screen from the eighties - low resolution and clunky. The sky it portrayed was black, the ground red. It was part of a thermal imaging system, detecting heat rather than light. That meant that the sun-warmed ground glowed red, while other vehicles in the distance motored across the screen as hot white shapes that looked like jeeps and other tanks.

A bar in the top left corner of the screen measured the zoom magnification, just like her camera did. Another bar in the top right corner read 'AUTO - HIST - WHITE'. Who knew what that one meant. Obscure numbers scrolled in the bottom left corner of the screen. A crosshairs sat in the middle of the screen. That was going to be the fun part.

Blue buttons surrounded the bottom left edge of the monitor itself, labelled with numbers and obscure acronyms.

Meanwhile, the tank had picked up to a cruising speed. The noise inside the hull was loud but not unpleasantly so as the war machine thundered along the path, riding easily over the bumps. A great cloud of dust followed it.

"Yep, that's it," said the tank. "Try moving the yolk now."

And indeed, if Miko tried to do so she would find that she could zoom the focus of the screen around the valley in search of targets. A handful of other jeeps and tanks glowed white-hot far off on the other end of the valley.

"The first target is up ahead," said the tank brusquely. "Look to your right, on the other side of the valley. It will appear as a large square on your screen. It's a concrete wall, and sun is on it, so it'll glow white hot."

Sure enough, if Miko zoomed the camera to the right, she would see a thermal image of the opposite hill and what appeared to be, well... a large white square in the distance. If she focused in closer upon it she would be able to even make out the shapes of the cement blocks that made up it.

Though the tank did not stop to allow her to aim, it did slow down. "Place the crosshairs on the wall, and tell me when you've done so. I'll autoload the shot, and you'll fire it upon command. All clear?"

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Moments like this make Miko wished she could crow about her experiences with other people at school. Or that she had friends. Because bragging to Jack and Raf about this wasn't the same at all. Jack would be partially interested but Raf would get that look that made Miko want to smack him with a pillow some days. It wasn't a discouraging look but it was kind of annoying just the same. Probably the same look she got when he started talking about coding.

As they started moving, she placed her feet on the floor to brace herself lest she be bowled over. It was...odd, being inside a tank. Not at all what she'd expected but then again, she hadn't really pondered what it would be like in the first place. How often did one get the chance to ride inside a fully working military doohicky? No one in their right mind would let her near one much less in.

"This is kind of like a video game..." she mumbled, playing with the toggle and getting the general feel of the movement. A crude, low budget game but she wasn't about to tell him that. Besides, how many video games let her blow something up for real? With her tongue squeezed between her lips while she concentrated, Miko worked on carefully placing the crosshairs on the target. Which was easier said than done. "Ok, I got it."

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The controls were simple to use, and the crosshairs moved fluidly across the screen at her command, even despite the jostling of the tank as it rode over the rough ground. When she placed them upon the glowing target an unseen laser went out, striking the wall and returning. Range distance information popped up on her screen as Maximus calculated the lead angle measurement and wind velocity.

And then, Fortress Maximus said quite possibly the nine most dangerous words spoken by an Autobot since arriving on Earth.

"All right, I've turned firing control over to you," he said. "You see those two red buttons on the controls?"

And indeed, under her thumbs Miko would be able to see and touch two small round red buttons, in a perfect position to be pressed. Not unlike her video game controller, actually.

"Push 'em," said Maximus. "And I'll open fire. That's an armour piercing kenetic energy round I'm firing off, so we should see some damage."

He sounded rather satisfied about that.

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"Wait...you're really going to let me do this? Like...really, really?" This sounded way too good to be true! No one just let her loose to do stuff like this. Usually it was full of maybes and next times. But mostly she was used to just flat out noes. She was young, and sometimes she didn't make the best of choices, but it seemed like more and more people didn't trust her to breathe much less operate the highly dangerous controls of a tank gun.

"Aren't you worried I'll do something wrong?" Not that she wanted to talk him out of it, but she just had to make sure before she acted. Just to get the accountability down. Just in case she did a bad later, she could say he told her too. Wiggling her feet, she leaned closer to the controls, concentrated on the controls and reverently pressed the buttons.

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The tank let out a rumble. It was a sound not unlike the roar of its engine, but a little more reserved somehow.

"No, I'm not worried," it said. "You're doing a good job so far. I've known green Autobot soldiers in your position who would freeze up behind a weapon. Target verified, fire control confirmed. And firing!"

Miko's thumbs hit the switches.

The bellow of the main gun detonated through the hull. The noise was terrific, though the machine's armoured plating kept the worst of the bang muffled, at least enough to make her ears ring but not hurt. The loading station leapt back from the recoil as the giant weapon fired, and the tank lurched. And instant later Miko would be able to see the target on her screen disappear behind a hot cloud of flying dust and debris as the round impacted it. It had crossed the valley in less than two seconds.

Slowly, the dust drifted away. When it did it the target came into view again. It had once been a fifteen foot high bunker with five foot deep solid concrete walls. What was left of it was little more than a crumbled foundation.

Maximus had to be monitoring the destruction, because he whistled.

"Nice shot," he said in an admiring voice. "You hit the base of the structure, which had the added effect of causing the whole thing to cave into itself after the impact. I see why Bulkhead is always talking of you like a Wrecker."

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"Bulkhead doesn't trust me with a gun." Though to be fair, she didn't really blame the big guy for not letting her go loose with his stuff. But it wasn't like she was going to blow anyone up! She could be responsible! They just never gave her the chance. Bulk was always more worried for her safety over her danger to anyone else, so at least there was that.

She squinted one eye as the tank fired. She'd expected it to be loud but this was actually much more ah...bracing than she would have thought. There was no way she could see Raf sitting in here and being comfortable. For one, she doubted his short legs could even reach the floor in the seat. For another, he probably would have been stuck playing with the controls over the viewfinder for a good hour.

"That was fun! What else can we blow up?"

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The tank gave another rumble that might have been a laugh.

“Stand by,” it said.

All at once it pivoted smartly, one track locked while the other revved to turn it. The big machine hit the shoulder of the narrow path and ramped into the loose dirt and scree that lined the slope below.

It skidded down the gentle hill, turned sideways, its treads tearing up a monster cloud of dust that enveloped it from sight. At one point it hit a small tree, which immediately burst into splinters. Inside the tank Miko would be able to see the whole thing through her screen. She would feel the jolts as it rode over the rough ground; it was a bumpy ride that was somewhat smoothed out by the tanks robust suspension. A few of the bigger bumps would be enough to bounce her right out of her seat.

The tank spoke calmly in the background, as if it wasn’t in a sideways power slide into the ravine.

“We’ll hit up the lower range next,” it said. “There are a few old vehicles positioned there we can use as targets. Should make a pretty good explosion. I’ve been told you like explosions.”

The tank hit the bottom trail with a thud and rocked on its tracks. “And what’s this about Bulkhead not allowing you a weapon? Not even for self–defence?”

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As the tank plowed over the landscape with the grace of a, well...a tank, he was gifted with a sound most around the base had yet to hear from the moody teenager: delighted giggles. Even in the presence of Bulk she tended to hold herself into a more "mature" frame of mind, trying to act and be the grownup. At the base, she was so used to everyone looking at her like she was a child, that she went out of her way not to act like one. But here, bouncing in a seat of a freakin tank, she found herself giggling uncontrollably at the feeling of being, for once, indestructible. Too bad she couldn't feel like this forever!

"I love explosions! Once, I got to watch the demolition of a bridge. It was so cool! The charges blew so fast I almost missed them. Just a series of-" she mimed the blast with her hands, fingers pushing away from each other and fanning out, "-poof! Gone!"

At the mention of weaponry of her own, she frowned and dropped her hands in her lap. That was a sticky, uncomfortable subject around the base. The Autobots acknowledged the children were in danger but didn't do anything but assign them guardians. Which was hella rad but at the same time, Bulk couldn't always be there for her. What happened when he wasn't that one time?

"Yeah...I think the one time it was mentioned, Fowler, Ms. Darby, and Prime nearly flat-lined in unison. That's a big no go." She pouted, looking around the tank for a moment, thoughts distracted by the same old debate. "...I mean, I guess I get it. Weapons would require training. And training takes time. And time isn't something you guys have a lot of. And we're not even legal aged in this country to own a weapon much less one from aliens...But I kinda don't think the Decepticons are gonna care about that technicality."

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"No," said the tank. "They won't."

Inwardly, Maximus frowned.

It was a difficult concept for him to grasp. Within cycles of the integration of his own green spark and his freshly forged body he had been ushered straight into the thick of the war. His training had come as naturally to him as the operation of any the other systems that powered his warbuild frame. That he had initially resisted it by veering into other military fields had been an act of choice, not a lack of capability.

Then again, he supposed that the lack of a planet-consuming war did not require humans as young as Miko to take up arms, even in a country as militarized as this one seemed to be. That was probably a good thing for her. It was just unusual to him. And she was right when she said the Decepticons would not bother to make any distinction.

The tank powered forward, accelerating through the dirt and rock at the bottom of the ravine. A rough path lay ahead of it, winding away to the north.

"I forget that many of the nations on your planet forbid the use of arms by minors of a certain age," he admitted. "And yeah, you need proper training before you can safely use any weapon. Still, from what I hear you three end up mixed in among the Decepticons often enough that they know who you are. Bulkhead's a good mech, but you should still have something you can fall back on for your own defence, especially if it's already something you have an interest in. It's either that or you remain permanently at the base."

There was a pause. "And I'm thinking that isn't going to happen."

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"Ok! So I sort of sneaked out a few times! I didn't think it-actually I didn't know what to expect! That's why I went! If you never experience anything, how can you know anything?" Miko blushed over the outburst and resisted the urge to cross her arms. Not only did she need her hands free to hold onto a stable surface, but crossing her arms was going to suggest she was vulnerable or something. Frag that, she wasn't!

"It would be cool if we didn't get in trouble. But that's kinda not gonna happen, don't you think? I get what they're saying but...do you think the Decepticreeps care that we're young?" She refused to use the term "kids." She'd been force fed that word too often lately and it was starting to leave a vile taste in her mouth.

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"In my experience, neither age nor tactical significance figure into how the Decepticon's choose their targets."

The tank's voice was dry, though laced with an unmistakeable edge of bitterness. It hit a line of rock and rolled over it, crushing it under its treads. The impact send the tank lurching, though with no ill effect.

"Anyway," it said. "Yeah, don't expect the 'Cons to show you any quarter just because you're young. If anything, they'll be inclined to see your youth as a weakness to be exploited mercilessly against the Autobots. I'm not suggesting that it truly is a weakness - a lack of experience and knowledge sets you at a disadvantage to colleagues like Agent Fowler, perhaps. Similarly, his age presents him with disadvantages that you and the other children don't suffer from. But the Decepticons will not view it like that at all."

The tank spoke matter-of-factly, with his usual gravity. There was no trace of patronization in his tone.

"That said, I understand if you're finding the security precautions surrounding you to be chafing," it said. "The base can be, uh - stifling at times. Especially when you're required to remain there for legitimate reasons, such as issues of safety or concealment."

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"Eh...I get it." She toed at the floor of the tank with the tip of her boot. Could he even feel that? "They just worry. But we're not stupid. Jack, Raf and I know what's up. They think that if they spare us they'll 'protect our innocence' or something. Kind of hard to keep your eyes closed though, when you've been involved in an alien war."

Blech, she felt guilty in a way. Yeah, ok, so she'd gleefully thrown herself into said war. Because who wouldn't want to help out? There were giant robots involved! And she couldn't let Raf and Jack fend for themselves. Raf was downright helpless and Jack always let his thoughts get in the way. Thinking could get you hurt.

"I don't want to be...ahm, what's the term? Co...lateral damage? I want to do the damage." Which was her worst fear. That she'd be Bulkhead's weak point. When she should be the strong point, the secret boost to help him. Not some easy target to pick off.

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"Collateral damage, you've got it," said the tank. "And yeah. You're right. It is a lot more satisfying to be the one with the capacity to inflict damage, rather than someone who must hide from it out of fear or weakness. That's no life at all."

It spoke with firm conviction of that.

"And maybe I'm wrong, but you don't exactly strike me as someone who is afraid of getting in harm's way," it continued. "That's what I've heard, anyway. You seem to be aware that you lack the physical strength and armament necessary to stand toe to toe with the Decepticons. It seems to me that your only option is to prove to the Autobots that you are capable of contributing to the fight in a way that plays to your own advantages. There are other ways to hurt the Decepticons than punching or shooting them. Figure out what you can offer the Autobots that their own soldiers can't, and then hone it. You humans seem good at working out ways to tackle obstacles that exist on larger scales than yourselves."

The tank rocked on its suspension, a vehicular shrug.

"That's all I can suggest," it said. A pause, and then, "You really want to fight the Decepticons, huh?"

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"Uh, yeah." She stated, like it was completely obvious. Heck, it was to her. "Every Con I've met has been a real as-erm, a jerk. Granted, I only met like a few, but each time was kind of unpleasant. And it's not just me being biased," she rushed to assure him.

"I've given it a lot of thought. If these guys want to take the planet for themselves and don't care about the life here, they can't be good, right? Besides, Bulk assures me they're no good and he's an expert on that. He'd never lie to me." She solemnly nodded. To the best of her knowledge, Bulkhead would never sully their friendship with Adult Lies. Those, Miko hated the most.

"I may not understand the war but it's not like I can't side with those I care about," she stated lowly, while scuffing at the flooring of the tank with her tennis shoe again. "Just look at Jack and Arcee. They're good friends. That can't be bad. And then there is Raf and Bee." The girl was still missing the more adult form of non-linear thinking but she seemed to have grasped upon the basics well enough.

"And dude, as it stands right now my skills are like, getting Red Alert super mad and getting in the way. I'm like a pro at that." She grinned lopsidedly, just a little sheepish at her track rate so far.