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[liesdontfindyou]

 

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AUs:

• Connie survives Longshore and either a) is the CT at Sandtrap b) ends up in Blood Gulch c) disappears until another point in time, canon event related or not.
• Connie never defects from Project Freelancer.

Comments

After Connie places the dogtags but before she defects

[a_shadow]

Agent Texas rarely goes to the locker room. Well, even that's an exaggeration. She never goes to the locker room. But for some reason today she decides to pop in, and notices that she has a locker with her name on it. There's the usual hustle and bustle of people marching in and out, on their way to work out or whatever they plan to do. But Texas approaches the locker and opens in, wondering why she's never had occasion to do so before. Doesn't she just change in her room, and go there right after workouts? She's unsure. Weird, how someone could just not remember details of their daily life like that.

She finds nothing inside but a disc drive disguised as a dog tag. She notices it's a disc drive right away because it's too thick to be a normal dog tag.

That night, after AI class is over, she slips into the room and uses one of the terminals to play the files enclosed in the drive. What she sees confuses her at first. The more she views, however, the more she understands. There's just one bit that doesn't make sense—Connie saying she's probably gone. Maybe it's because their latest mission has been delayed. She doesn't know. But she knows who she needs to talk to about it.

It's late at night according to the ship's clock. Texas knocks on the door to Connie's quarters and waits for a response.

Re: After Connie places the dogtags but before she defects

[liesdontfindyou]

Despite the time, Connie had never fallen asleep. The knock on the door triggers an automatic fight or flight response that she barely suppresses, forcing herself not to hold her breath but to breathe steady and evenly.

Across the room, her roommate shifts in her sleep and the fabric of the sheets rustle beneath a groan, but she doesn't awaken.

Careful not to make a sound, Connie stands from her bed and moves towards the door. There's no whistling and she hadn't been in the Invention's systems that night, which settles her frayed nerves somewhat, but despite that, she hesitates to open it. Surely, the Director's attack dogs wouldn't knock, right?

Finally, she opens the door and its both a surprise and a relief when she sees who's there.

"Texas?"

[a_shadow]

"I think we need to talk," Tex replies simply. The dog tags she'd found are nestled in her storage pocket, but she'll whip it out if necessary to prove that there is definitely something important to be discussed here.

[liesdontfindyou]

Connie bites her lower lip and steps out from the room, letting the door shut behind her. Feeling a little bit small out of her armour, she automatically squares her shoulders and raises her head.

"Not here. South's asleep. I know a place if you don't."

[a_shadow]

"Go ahead," Texas says, nodding forward. It's important this remain confidential, she knows, and she figures Connie already knows what this is about.

She doesn't speak until they reach the place where Connie is going, and once they're there, Texas crosses her arms, contemplating how to begin.

"So it's obvious you didn't expect to be here right now."

[liesdontfindyou]

"No, no I didn't." Connie shifts on her feet, compulsively picking at an old scar that stretches across her palm. "I didn't intend to leave, exactly, but... I knew there was a good chance I wouldn't be coming back. Then, we were delayed at the last minute and..."

She gestures vaguely.

"Here I am, and here you are. I didn't think you'd find them so soon."

[a_shadow]

Part of her wants some commiseration. She just realized she's never had a meal, never lifted on the weight bench , never even taken off her helmet. Somehow, the Director had programmed her not to question these things—until this had come up.

But admitting these things would make her feel too vulnerable, and it's not even really the point.

"So what do we do about it?" she asks. That's the point. How will they bring the Director to justice? If that's even what they decide to do.

[liesdontfindyou]

"Well, the original plan was to go to the UNSC, but... the more I learn about my contact the less I'm sure he has as many connections as he claims he does," CT says, shifting again.

Said contact will be getting antsy, thanks to the delay. She can only hope he doesn't do anything rash in her absence.

"Not to mention, in the original plan, I... didn't have any allies here." There's something unspoken, there, an unwitting openness. Connie has been alone for a very long time and there's almost a novelty to talking so openly.

[a_shadow]

"That's the important part," Tex says. "And you do have one now."

Connie has seemed to need that reassurance.

Texas supposes that means they need to figure out if they're on the same page.

"My priority is rescuing Alpha before anything else."

Not that she doesn't want justice for the Director, because she does, at least in a measure, but the fact that the AI is being tortured is weighing heavily on her.

[liesdontfindyou]

That comes as no surprise. Connie nods knowingly and in agreement. Though some (her contact) may have seen the torture of a living, but artificial, mind as incidental to the protocol violations, she'd never been able to shake the sense of obligation she held towards the Alpha and the other AI, too.

It's why the dog tags were placed there in the first place, after all. Not just because she believed she could trust Texas, a belief now proved true, but because Texas deserved to know the truth.

"They only recently split off another fragment. North is due to receive it— him after the assault on the scrapyard finally goes ahead. Alpha is..." She pauses to consider her words. "I don't know what state we might find him in, whenever that may be."

[a_shadow]

If Tex could look pained, she would right now. She angles her head, thinking.

"We need to figure out how we're leaving. That's the first thing to have in mind. Once we've accomplished everything we're trying to do, we need to be able to get out. Or to bail if things go wrong."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I don't suppose you know how to fly a ship?" Connie asks. At the start of the sentence, she's only half-serious, by the end, she's tilting towards 'dead serious'. "My only way out before was through my contact. I was meant to meet him on a scrap ship and leave with him. One of the few things I couldn't plan for was bailing early, I didn't have the means."

No allies, no flight experience, meant no emergency exit.

[a_shadow]

"I do," Tex says. " I don't know why..."

Contemplating that is a futile notion. She shakes her head slightly.

"Anyway, point is I can do it. Do you trust anyone else here?"

In the MoI Hangar, Pre-Bjorndal

[lordmegatronhasfallen]

"I used to be Air Commander," Starscream mutters, hunched over with a canister of fuel in one hand, nursing it with a vengeance. Long gone are the sleek, sweeping wings of an F-15; he may be the same colours, but time and necessity have forced him to take the alt-mode of a YSS-1000 Sabre, its engines mounted on his wings a far cry from the once iconic Seeker profile. The leap in their technology would be remarkable, if it wasn't for the fact it was organics'. His paint is faded and chipped, and that too is a far cry: a far cry from the once proud Second in Command of the Decepticons. Starscream is on his own.

"And now," he hisses, "Here I am, drinking this slag they call fuel!"

There's a quickly squashed urge to throw the fuel canister in frustration, but instead he stays his hand, hissing lowly. The last time he had caused a racket, he had woken half this ship, drawn far too much attention. It's not a risk he can afford to make. Here, Primus knows where in the galaxy, trapped in a human starship's hangar, blending in is survival. It's only luck that they found him, and only luck that he was awake enough to scan himself a new alt-mode to hide in time.

"It's just my stupid luck that nobody even thought to go looking for me. Not even to confirm I was dead! Primus knows how long it's been! Useless, worthless scrap-eaters-"

[liesdontfindyou]

It's one of those increasingly common nights where Connie can't quite get herself comfortably off to sleep. She's taken to walking the halls to pass the time and wear herself out, though where she ends up is a dice roll at best. She's gone to parts of the ship she didn't even know existed before, just by wandering.

Tonight, though, she finds herself heading down to the hangar.

The brightly coloured fighter had become sort of part of the scenery down there; a curiosity, but one that many people had stopped thinking about unless they were staring it in the face.

It's... literal face, apparently.

She has to do a double take when she reaches the hangar entrance. The Sabre being out of place isn't a total surprise, but the fact it appeared to no longer exactly be a Sabre at all and was... drinking fuel? Certainly was.

"What the fuck?"

[lordmegatronhasfallen]

It's a minor miracle Starscream doesn't jump enough to whack his head or wings on the ceiling. He wheels around, null rays instinctively powering up, looking for the threat- Only for optics to land on one of the smallest humans he'd ever seen.

"...Slag."

His weapons power down, their whine ebbing to nothing. Ugh. If he left one of them a smear on the floor, more would investigate, and then he'd be without shelter or fuel. But he can't let it leave! If it outed him to the rest of the ship... Ugh! He's going to have to think fast. The exalted Decepticon Air Commander, reduced to this!

He hikes his wings up higher, a threat display in Seeker-speak, trying to look more aggressive than ridiculous despite the fact he's hunched over with his knees up to his cockpit.

"I could ask you the same!" He snaps. "How dare you interrupt my refueling!"

[liesdontfindyou]

Connie isn't entirely sure that she isn't dreaming. She even pinches herself, just in case, but that hurts, so she figures that this is actually real.

Which doesn't make it make any more sense.

Blinking, she says, dumbly, "...so that's where all the fuel's been going," as if there isn't anything weirder about this situation than that, as if there aren't a thousand more questions and only a single answer.

[lordmegatronhasfallen]

There's a sharp roll of the optics that nearly moves Starscream's entire head with it. "Yes, fine, I am partaking in this sorry excuse for fuel. Not like your kind is giving me much of a choice! Do you have a problem with that, human?"

A pause, and then he snaps, "And stop staring! You would think your kind has never met Cybertronians before!"

[liesdontfindyou]

"Met... what before?" Connie says, not entirely sure why she's still stood there and not running to tell someone that something is very strange. "I... don't think we have? We only recently met... fleshy... aliens...?"

Every new word of the sentence feels more absurd. Right, that's why she's not running to tell anyone. This is ridiculous. No one would believe her.

[lordmegatronhasfallen]

"Cybertronians! Ugh." Another roll of the optics. "Are you ignorant? How can you not know? We Decepticons were on your world in- Sometime in the past!" He's not sure he can remember the way humans figure out their 'years', but he's not going to admit that.

He leans forward a little, towards her, and narrows his optics. "And you are not going to tell anyone I am here."

[liesdontfindyou]

"Like anyone would believe me if I tried."

She tries to wrack her brain for anything resembling the clearly living being in front of her, but the only things she comes back with are old cartoons that have a vague resemblance, but are more than likely nothing to do with what she's seeing. She's read a lot of old human history, and a lot of old documents she should never have had access to.

Whatever he's talking about, it pre-dates it all.

"Not as far as I know, you weren't. Whatever you are we... you are not common knowledge." Which isn't entirely surprising, even if he is telling the truth somehow.

[lordmegatronhasfallen]

His first instinct is to hike up his wings again in anger, to snap in response to this blatant ignorance. How dare they forget all the Decepticons had done to their kind? Surely something about their stay on Earth had persisted in their laughably short memories, even if only the Autobots' presence!

But as he opens his mouth to shoot back a snarky, cutting remark, her words click in his processor. The Transformers, forgotten... And this little human can't say a thing. The scowl that had settled on his faceplates slowly morphs into a smirk. "I suppose you will just have to leave me here then, hmm? If no one will believe you..."

[liesdontfindyou]

"I guess so. I mean, you're huge, it's not like I could personally do anything about... whatever you're doing. Other than stealing our fuel, that is."

She's not sure if her relative nonchalance is her lack of sleep or chronic lack of fucks to give, lately. There's a thousand questions swirling in her head and trying to pluck a single one from the whirlwhind is easier said than done when every time she looks at this... 'Cybertronian', another one is added.

[lordmegatronhasfallen]

"What I am doing is none of your concern!" He flicks his wings almost dismissively, back to scowling again. Starscream's not having a good day, but at least he's too currently self-absorbed to notice Connie still being so baffled down there. "Besides, this fuel is subpar! Who ordered this slag? I'm worth more than this scrap!"

[liesdontfindyou]

"I don't know who orders that stuff; the Director, I guess? Or... whoever oversees the pilots?" Her nose scrunches slightly in thought, but she shakes her head. "And anyway, it wasn't exactly ordered with someone drinking it in mind. It's just for the ships and in my experience, ships aren't usually picky."