[ti]Ep 2.5[/ti]New Surroundings, New Friends [Skirmisher]

[Deleted]

Week 1 Day 7. 8am Omega Base.


Without any new sightings of MECH to go off of things had been fairly quiet and easy going so far for Laura. She had been at Omega base for five days now and had been spending most of her time getting caught up to speed on the Omega Base’s database, the approved information at least. With all the new data on MECH she was working on a new approach to tracking them. It was a lot of research and, thanks to NEST, sifting through some hacked data from energy companies all lver the country. It was stuff she wasn’t a fan of doing, but she kept at it. She felt that she was on to something.


As usual Laura was up bright and early at 7am. Since her training days she liked having a good workout in the morning (in her opinion it was a perfect way to start the day) so jogging through the base had become a morning routine for her. There was enough catwalks throughout the base that if she ran the route twice she could get a good solid run in.


Changing into a pair of track pants and a tank top Laura spent a couple minutes stretching before starting her run. It was usually quiet in the mornings; only occasinally seeing the other Autobots this early. Laura figured with the fuel crisis the Autobots spent a little more time preserving their energy.
She had often wished these past few days she could lend a hand with their search for more energon, she could really see the stress whenever the topic of fuel came up.

It was around 8 am when Laura completed her second circuit of the base. Entering the Control Room she slowed her run down to a walk, her breath at a light pant, and crossed the final catwalk that joined with the couch and tv area for the children. So far she still hadn’t run into any of them, suspecting they must had been spending time out and about with their guardians. She didn’t mind that too much, it gave her more time to adjust fully to her new surroundings before adjusting to having kids around.


Walking over to the small mini fridge she took out a water bottle and pressed the cold bottle against her forehead briefly before opening it and taking a long drink.

[Skirmisher]

Having arrived at the Omega Outpost a few days ago, the Praxian Enforcer had spent cycles acclimating to the new era including having read up on political, social and economic situations along with the Law Enforcement arms of the multitude of countries and sub-divided nation states that had developed over the meager last ten thousand or so years -- a term he'd found the humans used to measure time far different and less accurate than the Cybertronian equivalent. His research into this new era had meant at least several cycles of reading data files regarding the local customs to even catching a few of the transmitted broadcasts the local humans called sitcoms though he'd found the local news and even the international feeds had even shared the dramatization found in the sitcoms. At first, he'd wondered why a species that touted itself as advanced and self-evolved from the quadruped burrowing mammalian species of his last posting had lowered their means of educating themselves towards the world through the eyes of a drama queen -- another term he'd found the humans used during his research to denote those that focused solely on drama and surrounded themselves in drama. He'd wondered that at first, but he'd known that even many Cybertronians had sought similar entertainment. There had been a few of the Cybertronian films he'd enjoyed, at least when he'd had the off-duty cycles and he supposed that had been a reason why so many enjoyed seeking out such dramatic views.

Spending time in his quarters, he'd had the chance to do what the humans considered homework in finding out about the Truce to the limited amount of Energon rations within the Outpost. He hadn't exactly met many of the local humans, although at the same time he'd really only met Raf-- one of the apparently resident children and one of the few humans the Autobots had allied with -- a few cycles prior and had learned the difference between a human child and a Sparkling. He hadn't encountered any of the adult members of the species that Raf had spoken of, but he doubted he'd have the chance. Optimus Prime kept the location of the Outpost highly guarded along with the activities of the Garrison closely watched, which had led Skirmisher to have concluded that the possibility of encountering an adult member of the species had been slim.

Leaving his quarters, he'd powered down the data padd in general and had locked the hatch with a code of his own. Letting his pedes carry him down the corridor towards the control room, he'd been rather surprised he'd been able to fully spend what the humans called the night recharging. His internal demons hadn't plagued him for once, but being outside the confines of the shuttle had taken a bit to readjust to. The Omega Outpost hadn't been large according to Cybertronian standards, but certain accommodations had been provided for which he hadn't been about to argue about. He'd been forced or rather had it suggested that he set one of his internal chronometers to match the locally established time and found the chronometer had indicated it to be around eight in the morning.

[Deleted]

Replacing the cap on the bottle Laura moved away from the fridge to stand behind the couch. She placed one hand on the top for balance as she lifted her foot by the ankle behind her and stretched the muscles for a few minutes before repeating the process with the other leg.


Suddenly she could feel the subtle vibration in the floor of an approaching Autobot that was starting to become a familiar feeling. She couldn’t even begin to guess who could it could had been as her interactions were few, but they were strong enough she was confident it was a larger individual. Interesting enough her attention was also drawn to her water bottle; The water inside was starting to form a ripple effect with every step the cybertronian made, getting more frequent the closer Skirmisher came. Immediately the scene from Jurassic Park with the rippling water from an approaching T-Rex to flash in her mind causing Laura to smile with amusement.


She dropped her foot back down to stand up straight just as Skirmisher entered the control room. He wasn’t quiet as tall as Optimus Prime but certainly not less imposing. Her eyes scaned over the thick and extensive body armour, probably placing him as one of the front line heavy hitters. His eyes, or optics, were more unique in comparison to the other bots. The single horizontal visor in place of the two optics gave him a little less of a humanoid appearance she had come to expect.


”Good morning.” Laura greeted, walking over to the railings to stand closer to him so he could hear her better. ”I guess I am not the only early riser around here.”

[Skirmisher]

His audio receptors had managed to draw on the speech patterns stored from when he'd spoken with Raf, and had transmitted the information to Skirmisher's processor that the language family had been the same with a few variations on dialects and regional accents that had with respectable differences among the Cybertronian population. Even with these variations in mind, the Praxian had turned his attention towards the raised dais and leveled center of the large structure dominating the center of the control room and set his optical visor to zoom in on the human femme or woman as the humans preferred standing near the steel railing lining the edge of the platform.

“I suppose. I'm still attempting to familiarize myself with the local earth time,” Skirmisher said. His visor took in the measurements, scanning from the sole of the foot to the crown of Laura's head while his processor compared them to the measurements and scans of Raf to have the processors determine that while the humans on this planet had barely matched the height of an individual servo or finger on a Cybetronian's hand each had been distinctive. However, the femme's identity had registered as unknown to his internal processes and while she had been present within the Outpost it had meant one of two possibilities. The first had held that she had somehow managed to locate and breach the Outpost's outer defenses without triggering a single alarm, but the likelihood of that had been far-fetched -- far-fetched but not impossible -- taking into consideration the choice of clothing the femme had worn. Rather than body armor or the presence of weaponry and climbing utilities there had also been the lack of carbon-scoring or the most minute residue that clung to either a Cybertronian's mesh or in this case a human's skin from handling either explosives, chemicals or from a firearm at least that his visor could have detected, her attire of choice had spoken more of leisure or time spent in a gym or so he'd recalled from having seen images on what the humans called the Internet during the times he'd had to update the data padds. It had meant the other possibility that she had been invited into the Outpost and had most likely consulted with Optimus Prime had been more accurate, but which had also raised more questions two out of three which had been not only what she had been wearing and the other had been why. The third question had been more personal, and direct pertaining to her identity. It hadn't been much of a surprise that for a Cybertronian the speed the myriad processes had occurred had been taken for granted by the Cybertronians much in the same light as humans and other species on the planet had taken for granted the myriad of electrical impulses that triggered every process found in the human brain to the muscles allowing them walk and talk to the very act of respiration. The time it had taken the myriad of processes to have occurred had taken less than a moment according to the human's concept of time.

“How was your jog? My scanners indicate you have recently exerted yourself,” he'd said. “With forgiveness, my scanners have been programmed to detect, and track bio-rhythms. If you wish, I can deactivate those scanners or to place them on standby if there has been any sleight taken,” The internal medical scanners had registered both her elevated pulse, the heartbeats to the still rapid respiration and the sheen of perspiration resulting from his processors had indicated had been the femme having undergone physical exertion.

[Deleted]

It was incredible the speed in which he had scanned her, nothing human made could even come close to that level. She hadn’t honestly been expecting that to ever really come up and within seconds he already knew quiet a few things about her. In that time all she really knew was that he was huge and probably hit like a ton of bricks.


“No that's totally fine, no sleight taken. I think its pretty cool actually.” Laura replied with a small smile. She was a little amused he was concerned for something that was probably so second nature to him, but also appreciated the gesture.


“It was a good run, thank you. Its been a good way to get used to the layout of the base. Its still pretty strange being in an environment that’s scaled so massively. I’m used to being the tall person in the room, not the tiniest.”


Leaning forward Laura rested her forearms on the top of the railing while placing a foot on the bottom rung to stand more comfortably. The bottle was held in both hands now and she absentmindedly dug a nail at the label. “I’m Laura Adler by the way; I’m a Lieutenant with NEST. Ill be here on and off helping with MECH and anything else you guys need. It's a lot easier on your fuel reserves staying here rather than bridging in and out all the time.”

[Skirmisher]

“It is cool? I am not detecting a fluctuation too extreme in temperatures to warrant freezing temperatures,” Skirmisher said, not yet having learned the various mannerisms and implementation of slang in the human language.

“You're welcome,” Skirmisher said. “This is a nice sized Outpost. I've only been here a few days, but have had the opportunity to explore the perimeter, and while there are corridors and hatches too small for even the smallest Cybertronian to fit it does prove the original nature and intent of this former silo,”

“An honor, Lieutenant Adler of NEST. I am Skirmisher...” he began, before realizing that no human alive would have even recognized the name of his previous Unit. “I must say I have not encountered any personnel or assets of NEST or even MECH yet, but that is not to say that your presence and that of this NEST isn't appreciated. I have read much about this MECH, and their activities. They come across as little more than the Decepticons, except and I am loathe to say this at least the Decepticons have the courtesy of either giving a war cry or shooting off your aft plate. I'm loathed to think of them that way after their destruction rampant on my homeworld and on this one,” he'd explained, having turned his entire frame to face the raised dias.

“The fuel reserves? Yes. It's taking some time to get used to that. Even the mega-cycles spent alone in a shuttle buried under ice where rationing of Energon had been vital, I had managed to store more of an ample supply aboard than what's here at the Outpost. If only I had the spare cycles to determine the modern coordinates of current Energon mines or pockets with taking into account the tectonic shifts of a millennia, I could better put my knowledge of Energon seeding to use,”
the Praxian continued.

“I'm not a scientist though. I was forged as an Enforcer, and due to various experiences trained as a medic and surgeon,”