Niave

Chapter 17: How to be a Vehicon

Lila was awakened to the sound of the vehicons' visors flashing and beeping. She groaned and turned over, catching sight of the vehicon who recharged on the bunk above her as they jumped down. The three of them began to move around silently and Lila sat up in confusion.

"What's going on?"

Her voice seemed to knock them out of rhythm and the three turned to look at her in surprise.

"Oh, right, you!" Kate skittered over and grabbed Lila's wrist, pulling her to her pedes. "Get ready, we have to go to our shifts."

"Right," Lila pursued her lips. "Our shifts."

"Don't be so glum!" Dave tossed her a smile. "At least you don't have to deal with Lord Megatron."

"Right."

Stacy grabbed their visor. "On the bright side, you're forbidden from leaving the ship, so we are all safe and sound on energon distribution duty. All we have to do is disperse crates of energon around the ship and then clean out the empty ones afterward."

"Yay," Lila muttered. "I love being safe and serving other bots energon."

"Look, it's not that bad," Kate frowned. "The casualty rates of miners or guard mines are incredibly low. There are horror stories about Autobot raids. You'd much rather be serving energon than being ripped open by Arcee or crushed by Bulkhead."

"I just don't want to starve to death while being crushed in a collapsed cave," Stacy shivered.

"Or worse," Dave added, "you're a survivor of Optimus Prime. He'll come out on the battlefield, slay everyone in seconds and then you'll be standing on an energon covered battlefield while Starscream yells at you to drag the terminated bodies of your friends to be dismantled or melted down."

Stacy reached over and patted their friend on the shoulder pad. "I'm sure you'll never have to go through that again. Especially now that we have Lila."

Kate cleared her throat. "We should be going. Those energon crates won't deliver themselves."

"Right," Dave pulled away. "Let's go."

The three of them pulled on their visors, effectively darkening the room with their silence. Lila grabbed the staff and stuck it into the back of her belt before following after them.

Nothing was said as they walked through the hallways and Lila felt a twinge of sadness as they walked and Megatron's piercing red optics glared into her mind. She shook her helm and pushed him aside.

The vehicons entered the energon storage room and Lila paused at the door, her gaze drawn to the gaping hole that a few bots were currently working to repair. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

Lila turned to see Kate pointing to a cart full of crates. Dave had their servos wrapped around one end and was looking at her expectantly. With a small sigh, Lila walked forward and helped them push it out of the room. Kate and Stacy worked together to get a different one and once they left the room, the two groups split up.

Dave led her down a series of corridors. Lila thought her pedes would fall off by the time they led her into a room and opened an energon dispenser. Slowly, they filled it up.

Nobody paid them much attention, at least, not that Lila could see, but she felt her backstrut tingle with embarrassment. Replacing energon was a lowly and humbling task. Despite her longstanding hatred for her mother's warrior posturing, Lila wasn't sure if she hated this even more.

Between the two of them, Lila and Dave were able to fill three energon dispensers and refill their crate with empty crates full of empty cubes. The cart was much lighter on their way back to the energon storage room, where they then proceeded to go about the same process for countless more trips, stretching across the day.