Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2021 1:38:31 GMT -5
Week 1, Day 4
Nevada, Late Evening
No matter what planet you were on, a road was a road. A long stretch of ground connecting Point A to Point B for some, but a sacred place to certain others. For these others, the road was a place to rev your engine, make your tires squeal, push yourself to the limit, and drive. Away from your problems. Away from your fears, and your obligations.
Nevada, Late Evening
No matter what planet you were on, a road was a road. A long stretch of ground connecting Point A to Point B for some, but a sacred place to certain others. For these others, the road was a place to rev your engine, make your tires squeal, push yourself to the limit, and drive. Away from your problems. Away from your fears, and your obligations.
The orange sun dipped low over the Nevada desert, in the process of surrendering its post for the night. As it sank below the horizon, it gave up its heat as well as its light; the lizards awoke from their holes and skittered onto the cooling rocks, eager for another moon on the hunt. One brave creature dared to set foot on the cracked, graying asphalt of Highway 93, but quickly turned tail when it heard the unmistakable blare of an approaching V8.
At one hundred and thirty miles per hour, Barricade kicked up the sand and dust that had blown over the abandoned highway, spattering it out of his tires and back onto the side of the road. The humans called his vehicle mode the Hellcat, a title it rightly deserved with the demonic growls produced by its supercharged engine echoing across the aged plateaus. Alien engineering continued to impress him, be it the simplicity of their transportation infrastructure or the absurdity of the transportation itself. As small and insignificant as everyone on the Nemesis described them to be, the humans knew how to build some solid patrol cars.
Continuing on his journey to nowhere, the Decepticon soldier took the liberty of blasting his police siren as well as switching on his light bar. Harsh red and blue pulses lit up the highway as Barricade sighted a turn a good ways ahead of him. Unfortunately, he miscalculated how much he needed to slow down, causing him to overshoot the turn and jump off the road. Scrambling for traction on the red sands, he inevitably spun out of control, blowing up an orange cloud of dust in his wake. Transforming his arms first to catch the ground, then the rest of his body into a crouching position, Barricade slid across the rocks until he finally skidded to a halt.
Covered in chalky red dust from helm to pedes, he lifted himself off the ground, coughing out more sand from his insides. In his robot mode, he towered above the flora and fauna of the desert.
That was... good.
Barricade looked back at the swath of disturbed sand he cut through the desert when he veered off the road, then let out a rough chuckle. For the first time in a long time, he felt some sort of calm in his spark. This planet seemed boring at first, but despite what his fellow Decepticons may think, it offered far more than what meets the eye. For once, the roads here were excellent. Even better than those on Cybertron. Of course, Kaonian roads amounted to nothing but raggedy shitholes, so how could he possibly make a proper comparison?
This country jaunt wasn't Barricade's free time, however. What was he supposed to do here, anyway? Holding back feelings of frustration over yet again failing to remember his mission objective, he quickly (and correctly) deduced that he should have been patrolling this sector of the planet. Curse his malfunctioning brain module.
Luckily, the task was easy enough. Nothing had happened.
Yet.