The Shadow of Kaon

Stuck in the past/ Part 1

While her digits hurriedly typed on the small datapad in her hands, the femme only partially listened to the older-looking, rusted bot who stood next to her and explained everything his small crew did on the project since her last inspection, sometimes pointing at different parts of the spacebridge in front of them to show her what he was talking about, which only earned small nods from her occasionally. In her mind, the small femme was already listing every element for the structure that still needed to be delivered to this construction site, along with the possible routes that she would have to take to get back to the Council's building if this meeting would stretch longer than she had previously anticipated.

Above them, other workers were standing high up on the structure, welding metal plates together and connecting wires in different orders like they would be doing it for the hundredth time already, with all their noise making the femme lower her small antennas, and quicken her typing pace even more to be able to leave the site as soon as possible.

These visits to the building spacebridges were always her least favorite part of her work, but whenever her Master shoved the datapad into her hands and gave his order, she had no choice but to obey and do these fieldwork travels without thinking twice.

Or even without thinking once, for the matter.

"-and we would need some extra batch of those bolts too, one of those idiots dropped a few into a lower level." The rusted bot continued, slowly chewing on a smaller screw like it would be the most natural thing for him, and leaning against a few big storage boxes. "The remaining set doesn't seem to be enough to finish the project."

"Noted." The femme answered shortly, scrolling through her notes to be sure that she had everything written down. "Let me summarize. The project is going at a steady pace, we talked through every safety concern, the extra materials list, and the technicians for the final calibrations can visit in a few days too..." She nodded to herself as her optics scanned the countless rows of data on her datapad. "If this is all, I will give this report to my Master, and if everything is alright in his opinion, we will be able to connect this bridge to the network in no time, and your crew will be assigned to the next task soon too. Anything else you deem mentionable?"

The rusted bot took out the screw from his mouth, eyeing the femme with a less-than-pleased expression before answering in a low, berating tone.

"We need more Energon. The last delivery was late, and we are running out of the backup cubes too."

"I will pass it to the responsible department, but don't get your hopes up. The storages are low all around the planet." The smaller bot responded, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, but this answer only seemed to anger the worker.

"Damn you, femme!" He pushed himself away from the boxes and grabbed her upper servo, digging his rusted digits deep in her metal and pulling her closer by it, making the datapad fall out of her hold from the sudden motion. "Low? My workers will die if this continues, and you can only say that the storages are low? You and your fragging high castes probably hoard the cubes up in your fancy quarters or drink them in parties without really needing them!"

The femme turned her helm slowly, staring at his digits for a moment without moving, then she reacted so fast that her movements seemed to blur. Her other servo wrapped around the mech's wrist, her sharp digits digging into the wiring before she twisted the limb outward with a firm grip, the gears and cables snapping loudly in it.

"I would advise you not to try to touch me again, or you'll end up losing your servo." She said in a cold tone without any emotion in her voice, like she would only be in an everyday conversation. "As I mentioned, the storages are low everywhere. If we receive any, I will personally write the message so your crew will get it as soon as possible. Understood?"