The jeep drove up into the hanger, every soldier, including the bots, were their waiting. The bots were in the back, in their holoforms. Lennox and Epps step out of the vehicle and Lennox goes to open the door for Nichole.

"Here we are." He states. She gives him a thank you nod and hops out. Her backpack over her shoulder, she walked in front of the jeep, taking in her surroundings.

She scans the room and notices the separate group in the back behind the soldiers. The fancy colorful vehicles, she knew all too well who they were. She formed a scowl, and her eyes began shooting daggers as she stands looking at the all, each eyeing her down, different emotions showing on their faces and from the look in their eyes. She took note of the scared looks she was getting around the room. The nervous glanced made towards her.

"This is Nichole James. You will treat her with the same respect you treat me, if not more. Would you like to say anything, Nichole?" Lennox said turning to her. She set her bag down to her side and walked closer to the group.

"I want to thank you all for letting me stay here for a few weeks. All I really have to say is, stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours." She said in a flat voice, no change in pitch as she talked and a fake smile to top it off. Lennox nodded at her as she turned to look at him.

"Alright dismissed." He said awkwardly.

"Yes, Sir." Echoed throughout the hanger. All the soldiers left, besides the bots. They waited until the room had been cleared.

The tallest of the holoforms walked up and held out his hand getting ready to introduce himself.

"No need to be in your holoforms, I know what you are." She interrupted.

Their holoforms vanished into thin air and the vehicles in the back began to transform. Lennox led her up to the platform, so she could convers with them better.

"Don't you know respect." Ironhide sneered after they all transformed.

"As far as I'm concerned respect is earned not given. And you have not earned my respect. In fact, you've lost it. My partner is dead, because you all ignored his cries for help. So, give me a reason why I should respect you." She demanded raising her voice enough to be heard throughout the hanger.

The bots looked away from her, except for Ironhide who only gave a low growl. Even Optimus had to look away, it pained him to know she was right. He didn't want to let anyone down, but he had, he wasn't able to rescue a fellow Autobot.

She felt all eyes on her, but one set seemed to be burning into her. She snapped her head towards the golden mech with the golden and black fins on the side of his helm. His face distorted in anger, eyes on the verge of turning red. He glared into her. She held her glare back. Her face stayed emotionless, her eyes doing the talking. He tried to find fear in them, there was none and that made him furious. He wanted to make her scream, threaten her, make her cry. They continued to stare at each other, time slowing around them. The others watching the two in curiosity and fear.

Then his spark seemed to pause as he saw a gleam of light pass over her eyes, and that...that scared him. Before anything could be said or done between the two, Lennox decided it was a good time to interrupt.

"Nichole let me show you to where you will be staying." He suggested, eyeing down Sunstreaker, making sure he didn't try anything. Nichole didn't move her eye contact from Sunstreaker.

"Yes, Sir." She said. She picked up her bag and grabbed her other bags, her eyes finally moving away from the mech. Then she followed Lennox down the hall out of the hanger. Lennox gave Sunstreaker a questionable look as he was leaving. Sunstreaker watched as they left the hanger.

"What was that?" His twin Sideswipe wondered putting his hand on his twin shoulder. Sunstreaker shook him off and started storming off.

"Sunstreaker" Called Optimus. Sunstreaker stopped short, gave a low grunt, hoping the prime wouldn't hear, then turned and walked in front of Optimus.

"Yes sir?"

"Seems you and the girl are alike in some ways. I suggest trying not to start anything with her. I don't need anyone ended up in the med bay." The Prime warned.

"Yes. Sir." The mech growled. He had no plans of trying to talk to her and being anywhere near her. He took his leave and left to his and his brothers room, Sideswipe following behind.

"She sure is rude." Ironhide noted, crossing his arms.

"I don't think we should judge her so quickly. There is a story we do not know, and our goal is to find that out. Do as Major Lennox told. We need her to know we are here to help and that she can trust us." Optimus ordered. The others nodded in agreement and began to go off, back to what they were doing before Nichole came.

"Are you going to talk to me?" Sideswipe nagged his twin, trying to figure out what happened between him and the new femme.

"No, go away." Sunstreaker barked, laying on his berth, his servos behind his helm.

"Come on, you two had some kind of connection, or you were about to kill her or her you. It was so weird and Prime saw it too. I could feel your spark starting to boil, then just let go. You got to explain it to me." Sideswipe kept pushing.

"I don't know what to explain. I have no idea what happened. All I know is that nasty fleshy needs to stay away from me." Sunstreaker pushed off the bed, pointing a digit at his twin. He then got off the berth and stormed out of the room. Before leaving he stopped and looked over his shoulder at his brother.

"I'm going for a drive, I need to clear my helm." He said, then walked out the door. Sideswipe stood there, confused, hoping his brother would be alright.

After showing Nichole her room, they started to show her around base. The mess hall, training rooms, med bay, and others. As they were walking back to her room, they began to make their way through the hanger. They barely had time to think as a golden-black Lamborghini came drifting into the bay, stopping right in front of the heartless women who didn't bother to get out of the way.

Sunstreaker transformed and pounded his fist into the floor, almost shattering the concrete.

"I could have killed you." He roared.

"If you didn't come speeding in, you wouldn't have to worry about that." She rebutted, standing in front of him, arms crossed. He growled at her, barring his teeth, shooting daggers at her. Her face remained unchanged, staring right back at him. Lennox and Epps, as well as some others in the hanger, backed away. Lennox became worried for Nichole but wasn't sure if he should interfere. He knew how dangerous Sunstreaker could be.

"Sunstreaker!" A low deep voice yelled across the room.

He stood back up. Knowing he couldn't do anything to her without consequences.

"Disgusting Belligerent Fleshy." He whispered under his breath as he turned to leave.

"I apologize for Sunstreaker behavior." Optimus said walking closer to the small group.

"You shouldn't have to apologize for him. He's a soldier, isn't he? He needs to act like one." Nichole spoke, keeping her arms crossed.

"There is a story behind him and his twin, Sideswipe. Though that is one I can not tell. But I can assure you, they are my best fighters. They fight like nothing I've ever seen. I am proud to have them on the Autobot side." He explained kneeling down on one knee in front of her.

"Everyone has a story, Optimus. Everyone has their reasons on how they are. How they act in front of others. But that doesn't excuse recklessness, carelessness. If we are all supposed to be on the same side, we shouldn't be trying to kill each other, or causing accidents to happen." Her tone was acidic, putting a tainted taste in your mouth as she spoke.

"Nichole, they are alien species, they work differently than we do. And they are fighting a war, I don't think it really matters at this point, anyone that can fight is fighting. It doesn't matter for them what their attitudes are like as long as they can fight. You didn't get hurt that's all that matters." Lennox intervened, trying to get her to understand. They were different than humans, very different.

"She is right though. We may be different species, but we have the same ideas when it comes to fighting in a war." Optimus agreed. He knew it was going to be hard to win the broken female over. He was starting to realize just how hard it will be.

"Nichole, would you mind taking a drive with me?" Optimus questioned. She glanced away quickly then looked back up at him. Thinking quickly about if she should or not.

"If this is so you can get answers out of me, its not going to happen. So, I'll pass." She answered to the big guy. He looked down at her, optics wide in surprise. Lennox and Epps also seemed surprised at this.

"Maybe I would just like to get to know you. You will be staying here while." Optimus rephrased.

"Optimus, I'm sorry, but I think it would be better you don't get to know me." She snarled.

"Will you talk to me about Diesel?" Her eyes lit up for just a moment, but disappeared as quick as it came.

"I will talk about him. He was my partner and he was an Autobot. Though if he were alive today, I doubt he would want to continue." She said calmly. Though her eyes showed anger and danger.

"I would be honored if you would tell me about him." He chose his words wisely, not wanting to upset the lady further. She gave a nod and he transformed into his alt mode. A gorgeous blue with red flamed Peterbilt. He opened the passenger side door for her and she climbed in.

The ride was silent for the most part. Nichole stared out the window, seeming to look relax, but was tense underneath. After they were some ways from the base, Optimus spoke up.
"How did you meet Diesel?" He asked. She looked at the radio that he spoke out of. Since showing up, emotion showed in her eyes. That emotion was sadness. Though it didn't stay their long.

"I met him not to long after I first got into the fleet. Before I knew who, he was or what he was, I assumed he was just any other MKR 16. I was assigned to him, well the truck everyone thought he was. He would be the truck I had to use whenever I would go on the road and keep everything working properly. No one else wanted to drive him. They said it was a possessed truck. Well they just didn't know what it really was. I told them I'll take the challenge. They all thought I was nuts. I was though. I was nuts. And I thought I was going crazy at first when I started driving him and taking care of him. It wasn't until a few months later that I learned what the truck really was. We were on a field op and I had just gotten back from picking up a tram. My A-driver was ground guiding the tram driver off of the 870 trailer. Then the tram began to slip off of the trailer. I didn't have time to react and just when I thought it was going to hit me, there was a screech of metal and then nothing. I looked up and there he was, transformed, his hand over me, holding the tram. He picked it up and set it on the ground. Let's just say I was the only one that didn't freak out. The tram driver and my A-driver went crazy, but in the end, they accepted him as well. The three of us kept his secret. He became my best friend, my family." She whispered the last part. Trying not to let the emotions forming get to her.

"What happened to the other two that knew him?" Optimus asked, he parked his alt near the edge of a cliff.

"They died two years later in our second deployment to Afghan. We had gotten split up that deployment. I stayed with Diesel. There was nothing we could do about it. We didn't hear about the news until two weeks later when we arrived back at base." She stared blankly over the cliff from inside Optimus.

"I'm sorry for your loss." He professed, knowing what its like to lose friends.

"It was a risk we we're all willing to take. We all signed the dotted line." She commented. If he would have been in his bipedal mode, he would have nodded in understanding from what other soldiers have told him.

"That is the one difference I have found between your military and mine. We didn't have a choice to fight in the war, you did." He explained, trying to keep the hint of anger at bay.

"Optimus, there is always a choice. I chose to fight for my country. I have my reasons why, but it was better than what I was doing before. Your Autobots had a choice. Unfortunately for them, after your planet died, they had to make that choice. Americans, like me, sign that dotted line, saying we will fight for our country and pay with our lives if we have too. It was a choice we all make. Every soldier working with you at the Nest, made that choice to be there. They weren't forced too, but they did it for their country. None of them were thinking about themselves." She finished. Optimus decided it was time to change the subject.

"May I asked what happened to get you medically discharged?" He was hesitant to ask. She turned and looked at the radio, her eyes growing dark.

"You can see the stitches. I was hurt that's all you need to know." She said her voice dead, ending the conversation there.

"Let's head back to base, shall we?" He suggested, knowing he wasn't going to get anything else out of the women.