[ti]Ep 3[/ti]Smiler with a Knife (Open)

[Red Alert]

Week 1, day 6, noon

Sometimes (quite often, really) Red Alert wondered if he was the only security director in the whole of the Autobot army that actually ran safety drills. It certainly seemed like it, considering how rarely he met a solider who had ever participated in a single in-service in their entire military career – which for many was also their entire lives. It was such a basic safety measure, such a simple yet essential part of standard safety protocol that he simply could not fathom why it was so frequently cast by the wayside.

Emergencies happened, and everyone needed to know how to respond properly when they did. He didn't know why that was such a difficult concept for some people to grasp. It wasn't rocket science, it was common bloody sense.

And yet, if he asked any random soldier at Omega what the proper procedure was for when an armed intruder entered the base, he highly doubted even a single one would be able to give him an answer more eloquent than “shoot them” or “run for cover.” No, that wasn't quite true. Bluestreak could probably give him the correct answer on accident, if he let the mech talk long enough, and Arcee seem the reliable sort. She might not have been able to give him the exact answer he wanted to hear, but she could probably give him one that, at the very least, was serviceable.

The rest of them, though – at times Red Alert had to wonder if he, Ratchet, and Optimus were the only responsible adults in the entire outpost. Hence his decision to hold an emergency protocol crash course – it was technically voluntary, in the sense that attendance wasn't mandatory, but the subsequent test on proper emergency procedure certainly was. It was a trade off: mecha could either attend the meeting, or they could read through a lengthy summary of it and fill out paperwork demonstrating their comprehension of the material. Either way, everyone had to prove they knew what to do when things went pear-shaped. How they chose to do that was up to them.

By the look of things, most mecha had chosen to do the paperwork than attend the meeting, which was to be expected. Red Alert's reputation tended to proceed him, and those who paid attention to the rumor mill would be hard pressed to find a single good thing to say about him, or how he conducted meetings. He was so infamous among the ranks that he honestly would not have been surprised if not even a single Bot had showed up to the meeting, preferring instead to wade through a mountain of paperwork rather than spend half an hour as his captive audience.

Thankfully, or perhaps just oddly, a few brave souls actually dared to show up. Red Alert wouldn't say he was pleased by this, exactly, but it was somewhat refreshing to see that at least a handful of people did not assume the worst of him. That, or their dislike of paperwork superseded their dislike of him, which seemed the much more likely scenario.

Red Alert cast his keen gaze over the small assembly in front of him, taking note of who was present and who was conspicuously absent. Though he would never admit it out loud, he was glad to see a few particular faces missing from the group.

“Alright, you lot. Let's not waste time with formalities. Do we all know why we're here, or have some of you accidentally wandered in?”

He paused briefly, reconsidering his words in light of his audience.

“That was a rhetorical question. Don't get clever.”

[Rain]

Rain rushed the short distance through the halls. Long strides on small feet carried more grace than was reasonable for a giant mechanical being, four times taller than an average human. She'd been stationed at Omega base, on the planet Earth for a modest four entire days and there were many things to learn, local time being one of them. She was late and that was simply unacceptable right now. She counted the meeting as something she should not miss in any fashion. She was still far too new to brush off something so potentially lifesaving.

The sleek flier turned a corner and halted her momentum once she entered the room. It didn't take a detective to find an empty seat and so she plonked her aft on one in the front. From a thigh pocket she withdrew a very elegant and slip pair of cylinder. They touched each other in parallel until Rain pulled them apart. In the space between a holographic hard-light field was generated and thus Rain had her Datapad. She also withdrew a stylus from the same thigh pocket which she grasped awkwardly in her distinctly un-elegant hands.

“My humblest apologies.” Rain spoke to Red Alert, bowing her head in respect.

[Skirmisher]

He'd heard of an In-Service Training, a Review of Security Measures at the Omega Outpost hosted by Red Alert -- the Outpost's Chief of Security. The Enforcer hadn't met the Mech that went by the name of Red Alert at the Outpost yet since his own Duties and Chores had kept him occupied, but he'd welcomed the Training given that a fellow Enforcer or at least a Security Minded Bot had been in charge of it. Skirmisher had held the opinion that the Omega Outpost Garrison had been lax in their Security Procedures and with many that displayed resistance to even mundane Patrols and other such precautions even Rookie Enforcers had instilled in them, but he'd kept his silence in the matter. He'd been surprised that the Garrison hadn't been a Military or even Enforcer Garrison as his previously Assigned Units, and that the Garrison's Outpost had been a mix of those Cybertronians that had carried their own varied professions he would have in the least something different. It might have been that he had still missed his old Precinct in the hills surrounding Praxus with its Main Briefing Room where the Squads met in the early Breems of a Cycle to hear from the Squad's Sergeant. The Squad Sergeant had always been one to give detailed updates on the matters of the Cycle, the Problematic Areas, the Gangs, and any On-Going Cases coupled with some encouraging words and a bit of wisdom near the end before every Enforcer went out for their own Tours or to their Desk jobs.

His pedes carried him into the Rec Room, but he'd had to step aside for a much smaller Cybertronian -- a Femme as she'd made her way past him into the recesses of the Rec-Room. He'd only seen her briefly during one of his Duties in the Outpost though he'd known she'd been arrived only a few cycles ago, and knew he'd have to review the updated and amended Rosters to learn whom the smaller Femme had been and whom the newer arrivals had been. He'd only managed to see her rear-profile as she'd strode past him, and perhaps more out of needing to know if others might have been in line he'd looked back over his right shoulder before proceeding into the compartment. There had been chairs set in several arrays perhaps in the expectation or rather the assumption more of the Garrison's personnel would have attended the Review, and as Skirmisher took one of the vacant chairs the lack of those in attendance save for the smaller Femme and the Mech he'd had to assume had been Red Alert had only cemented his opinions on the lackadaisical attitude of the rest of those in the Unit. He'd have to insure personally those attitudes had changed.

“Officer Skirmisher, Reporting, Sir,” the Praxian said. Saluting with his right hand, he'd snapped to attention. Even though he hadn't been among those of his Precinct for several millennia, he'd found the old habits had been hard to drop.

“My apologies. My Recharge Cycle was interrupted again,” he'd said. “It is something I will rectify,”

The particulars as to why and how his Recharge Cycles as of late had been interrupted had proven more than a nuisance. The guilt he'd felt over having failed to protect his City had plagued him even before he'd Volunteered to join the Unit headed for Earth in the first place and before his long-stasis under the ice. He'd have to pay Ratchet a visit to see if the Garrison's Medic could have shared that remedy he'd spoken of with him.

[Bumblebee]

Bumblebee sat awkwardly to one side.

He’d arrived a little early to this meeting - wanting to not only make a good impression, but also because he found himself at a loss of things to actually be doing instead. The truce was no longer a thing, and he was sure that there were plans in motion to raid another Decepticon mine somewhere in the works, but until a command was issued? There wasn’t much to do around the base.

So here he sat, preferring to sit in and listen as things happened than having to do homework. Oh, sure, he loved helping Raf with his homework - he got to learn so many new and exciting things about the planet, or could even help a little sometimes with his own input! But getting his own homework to do? Noo thank you.

The turnout sure was small, though. Maybe that would mean it wouldn’t take too long to get through, but he knew Red Alert was a bit of a stickler for detail, especially when it came to safety stuff (or whatever this was about), so probably not.

At any rate, Bee could only hope it was just a refresher course on things he already knew. A lot of things were just common sense, right? This was probably more for the newbies to the base than someone like him.

Ah well.

Right on time, Red Alert would speak up and start the meeting- and Bee shifted in his chair a little, sitting up straight to show he was listening and paying attention.

--It’s a meeting about safety, right?-- he sounded a tad unsure, but hey - an attempted answer was better than wrong answer!

There was movement from behind him then, and he’d turn to glance over his shoulder at who it was that’d arrived late. It honestly wasn’t who he’d been expecting, then again - those that he was expecting probably wouldn’t even be coming to this meeting. Instead, it was a femme he hadn’t actually met yet, and Skirmisher.

He didn’t want to interrupt things further by speaking, but would simply nod in greeting to the pair before turning his attention back to Red Alert - silently wondering if he should’ve got a datapad like the femme had to take notes.

Oops.

[Raf Esquivel]

Raf wasn’t too far behind Bee when he entered.

The youth had heard something about a safety meeting that was going to go ahead, and Raf was always curious about these sorts of things. Safety was important, no matter where it was, and Raf figured here in Omega it was probably even more important than at school where they didn’t even have real chemicals to use in the labs. He had heard that there was a form that could be filled out, but..well...he hadn’t actually gotten a copy of it, so he thought that if he were allowed to stay, he’d learn more that way.

At first he had considered just sneaking in and listening. Raf was learning he could pick up a lot of stuff if he was just quiet, and while he didn’t like to actually consider it eavesdropping...it kind of was.

However, when he squeezed in through the gap in the doorway and saw Bee sitting off to the side, he straightened up. There was no need to try and eavesdrop, he could go join Bee!

He walked across the floor towards the yellow scout, large sneakers thumping softly on the floor, moving to stand alongside his friend.

“Hey, Bee!”

It was then that Red Alert spoke, and Raf turned, looking up at the mech.

Raf liked Red Alert. He was very serious and took his job seriously as well. He never spoke down to Raf in an annoying sort of tone. Raf knew Red Alert was always worried – he could only imagine how stressful it was to keep a place like Omega running safely – and always tried his best to stay on the catwalks when he could. The only problem was they didn’t go everywhere Raf wanted to go.

“Um...is it ok if I stay too?” Raf asked Red Alert, “I know I’m not a Cybertronian, but safety’s for everyone, right? I can stay out of the way if you want.”

[Red Alert]

Red Alert looked too each member of the small assembly in turn, in order of their arrival.

Bumblebee was first. The young mech was bright eyed and bushy tailed as usual, and though he was clearly out of his element he was doing his best to be a productive member of society by showing up early and just...behaving himself. Sad to say, Red Alert was a bit surprised by that. Not because Bumblebee was known for being particularly rambunctious or recalcitrant, but because he had lost nearly all faith in the ability of the average Autobot to behave themselves for more than ten bloody minutes at a stretch. The fact that Bumblebee didn't seem to be struggling at all to simply sit there and wait for the others to arrive was a testament to his character - he was a good kid, which was high praise coming from Red Alert, and not something he said often or lightly. To Red, it made Bumblebee's presence at the meeting all the more necessary. If anyone needed to know what to do in an emergency, how to keep themselves safe, it was someone as young and honest and genuinely decent as him. Just looking at the wee lad made Red Alert anxious, made him think of all the awful things that could happen to any one of them and how much worse it would be if it happened to him in particular. It was all Red Alert could do to not wrap the lad up in bubble wrap and Kevlar just so he could look at him without feeling like his death was imminent.

The next to arrive was Rain, who offered an apology as took her seat. Red Alert couldn't help but raise a brow as she retrieved a datapad, supposedly to take notes. He hadn't expected anyone to take that sort of initiative, especially since he hadn't made note-taking a requirement when he sent out the memo. He supposed she came over-prepared because she was the newest member of the team and was still trying to make a good impression on everyone. He wondered how long she would be on her best behavior before she got comfortable enough to start slacking off. By his estimate, she would last two, maybe three months before her true colors would begin to show - assuming, of course, that she wasn't already showing her true colors, but he very much doubted that. It was always safer to assume the worst of people and be pleasantly surprised when they proved him wrong than to give them the benefit of doubt and be taken for a fool when they proved to be far removed from the persona they portrayed. Only time would tell if Rain was half as polite and diligent as she seemed, and until that time came, Red Alert was going to take her good behavior with a grain of salt.

Next was Skirmisher, who Red Alert wasn't surprised to see, but he wasn't particularly happy to see him either. Yes, he appreciated that the mech came to the meeting  - as bloody well everyone should have - but the mech's interest in matters of security made Red Alert's plates itch. You'd think he would have been happy to have someone on base who actually followed protocol and had a decent working knowledge of basic security practices, but he wasn't. It rubbed him the wrong way, someone breaking from the general pattern of indifference and showing an active interest in base security. He just couldn't help but ask why - why was a field medic interested in security? It shouldn't have bothered him, but it did. Mecha were allowed to have varied interests, it wasn't as if it was impossible for a person to be interested in a field that was unrelated to the one they specialized in, but still. The thought rankled, and Red Alert couldn't leave it alone. Or, more accurately, the thought wouldn't leave him alone. He didn't want to pay it any mind, knowing it would likely take hold and run away with him if he did, but it gnawed incessantly at the back of his mind, making it difficult to ignore.

Being in no mood to go down any rabbit holes, Red Alert forcefully shifted his focus to Raf, who had followed after Bumblebee, as he was wont. Immediately, Red Alert found himself feeling on edge as he typically did whenever the humans -particularly the children- were underfoot. He knew that he of all mecha, with his acute senses and inability to not be painfully aware of his immediate surroundings at all times, was unlikely to accidentally step on or otherwise injure the humans, but that did little to dissuade his fear. As long as the possibility was there, improbable as it might be, it was something to be concerned about.

He looked down at Raf, wondering if the polite thing to do would be to kneel down to his level while speaking to him, or if that would be considered condescending. He didn't interact with the humans enough to be familiar with their sensibilities, and so he wasn't sure if he was about to commit some sort of social faux pas. Figuring Rafael to be the forgiving sort, Red Alert decided to take the risk of kneeling down to his level, so the poor kid wouldn't have to strain his neck to look up at him.

"Right you are." Safety was, indeed, for everyone, and he was glad Raf could appreciate that. "Do me a favor and pass the message on to your friends, aye? There's a lad."

Standing, Red Alert turned his attention from Raf to his guardian. He nodded towards the empty chair next to him, which was Cybertronain-sized and therefore not something a small human child could clamber up on their own.

"Bumblebee, if you would?"

He waited a moment for everyone to be seated, Raf included, before addressing the small group as a whole.

"Now, as our scout here so eloquently put it, this meeting is about safety. If I ever hold a meeting about anything else, you can assume I've gone off my head."

His tone was flat and dry, though it was difficult to tell whether or not he was joking - between his serious, stoic expression and his deadpan sense of humor, there was enough evidence to support either interpretation.

"Specifically, we're here to make sure everyone knows what to do if there's ever a hostile entity inside the base. I trust you all know what a hostile entity entails?"

That last sentence was most definitely a joke, as Red Alert was only capable of using the word trust sardonically, bitterly, or as part of a paraphrase.

[Rain]

Rain politely nodded at the others in the room whenever she caught a glance. She had yet to learn the names and faces of everyone and set aside some iota of her attention to remember the “whos” as they cropped up, like the diminutive human Raf.

"Now, as our scout here so eloquently put it, this meeting is about safety. If I ever hold a meeting about anything else, you can assume I've gone off my head." Rain quickly copied Red Alerts word down, they might come up in a test later on but she fully intended to remember them just in case Red Alert ever held another meeting with a different subject. She as yet couldn't read the mech. His face conveyed only slightly more than her own. Her stylus flicked over her pad, selecting and editing the audio bite. She didn't so much take notes as record snippets for later review. The written word was after all so two dimensional when the flier lived in two more dimensions - at least.

Rain gingerly raised a hand to answer Red’s question. “A hostile entity is any creature or device that intends to, or is programmed to, cause harm to or restrict another?” She was a little unsure of how detailed the chief of Security wanted his answers, if he wanted dictionary definitions, or practical snappy answers.

[Skirmisher]

The Enforcer listened as Red Alert began his lecture, one focused on Safety Regulations pertaining to the Operation of the Omega Outpost to its Garrison and Protocols on Hostile Entities ranging from Decepticons, to M.E.C.H. to hostile humans and potentially fauna on this planet although he doubted the local fauna could have posed a significant threat to them. He still hadn't dismissed them though since the Local Fauna on any Planet could pose a threat, even if it were simply rodents nibbling on exposed cables.

He'd caught the joking tone in Red Alert's voice when he'd asked them if they'd known what a Hostile Entity had entailed, but in hearing the younger Femme raise her question he'd opted to have remained silent on it. His old Instructors had told them it had been better to have learned through questions, or if the worst came through error rather than having the answers given by others. It may have seemed cruel, but it often forced the Femme or Mech in question to have remembered the lesson if they had come to that conclusion either by themselves or in the classroom by their own curiosity rather than being spoken down to or treated poorly by those that had been in a Caste or a Trade longer.

It had been some time -- cycles really -- that he'd sat in on a Briefing and in some small way it brought a wave of nostalgia and only reinforced why he'd been there. He'd recalled having attended quite a few -- more than a few -- Briefings held by the Precinct Sergeant or by the Precinct's Captain where the chairs or benches had been filled by Enforcers covering a range of Frames from the heaviest hitters, to those designed for hazardous conditions to the lighter more maneuverable scout models and those that could have flown.

He'd remained sitting in attention, allowing his recording function to activate to take in what could have simply been a review of Security Regulations and Protocols that had been programmed by default into him to begin with.

[Bumblebee]

--Raf!--

Bumblebee chirped, sounding honestly surprised to see his best friend here of all places. Had he known that Raf was that close behind or that he was interested in sitting through this meeting as well? He would’ve offered to carry him in, or at the very least? Walked with him. It was a pleasant surprise though, and he was excited - raising a servo and eagerly waving him over.

An almost-nervous glance was given to Red Alert after this motion, and he slowly lowered his servo to rest neatly on his lap, shifting some in the chair to sit a little more upright. He half expected the other mech to shoo Raf out of here the moment he arrived, because while most of them were sitting down, there was probably some danger in having him around so many bots at once.

Only- Yes! It seemed that Raf was allowed to stay, and Bee would lean forward at Red Alert’s word to carefully pick the tiny human up and just as gently set him down on the over-sized chair next to him. Even though this was a rather serious meeting, the excitement at having Raf here could be felt in Bumblebee’s field. He’d found himself wishing more than once that he could sit in classes with Raf to spend more time with him and learn all kinds of cool stuff, so this was probably the next best thing!

Once Raf settled, he would turn his attention back to Red Alert. There was a gentle whir of his optics as he focused, and as the question was asked he’d glance to Rain as she raised a servo, answering.

Did he have to answer, too? Did he have to raise his servo first? Was that a legit question, or more rhetorical? 

Just as cautiously, Bee would eek up his servo.

--Someone - or something! - that wants to do us harm?--

With Raf here, he was trying to not only be on his best behavior, but it was a chance to show off what he knew!

[Raf Esquivel]

Raf settled easily onto the enormous chair, short legs danging over the edge, looking all for the world like a normal child on a normal chair that had been shrunk down to the size of an action figure.

Raf glanced about to the others in the room. Most of them he knew, although there was one there he didn’t. The first thing he noticed right away, how could he not, was that she didn’t have a head.

Well, she did, only it wasn’t a normal head. It was similar to Shockwave’s, though smaller. It almost gave him a slightly creepy feeling, realizing that someone’s head had been removed.

He looked away quickly, not wanting to stare, and attempted to focus instead on Red. When Red asked his question, he looked towards Bee, not sure if he should answer or not.

The others answered, and when Bee answered, Raf grinned at him in encouragement. Go Bee!

Instead of answering, Raf just nodded at Bee, whether or not Bee even noticed, and then the young man turned his attention back to Red.