“I’d be happy to,” Hemorrhage says with a nod. “You’ve welcomed us into your home; it’s only right that I repay that kindness.”
If there was nothing more he could do for Arachnix, he opens the panels on his left arm and disconnects his harvester’s siphoning tubes from the tank in his back. He places the ends of the tubes in empty jars around the tent and starts to pull the energon out of the Tyrant’s corpse.
“None of us have been able to take it easy for years.”
The tarantula protested.
The jars would fill up quickly after he began. The medic made sure to switch out the filled jars for empty ones. But after not too long there were no more jars left to fill, and the tyrant still had plenty to give.
“Primus almighty, you bots might just be the best thing to happen to us since we moved out here.”
She exclaimed, going to get a moderately rusted barrel to hold the remainder of the energon.
Hemorrhage momentarily stops harvesting while the camp’s medic goes to get more containers. Happy to help as he was, he knew he couldn’t stand to leave these predacons out in the desert. Not without trying to do something for them, anyway.
…
Outside the tent where Arachnix worked, Tripwire tinkered idly with a few bits of scrap he’d collected from around the camp, along with a few baubles in his backpack. Though this was meant only as a distraction to pass the time, it quickly becomes something more as his fingers seem to take on a life of their own, deftly joining circuits together and welding the rusty scraps of armor into odd fractal shapes.
If Angel saw Hemorrage, he would ask the medic what caused him to be so rushed.
If Angel followed Hemorrhage to the tent, the doctor would be able to give him an answer:
“I heard someone call for a medic,” he says. “One of our hosts had been crushed under the Tyrant carcass we brought them, and sustained significant damage to his torso and limbs. He’ll be fine now; he just needs rest.”
Axis noticed this, and reluctantly left Angel be. This group seemed trustworthy, so she wasn’t too worried.
She carefully approached the inventor, taking a look at his facial expression.
“And saved me months of work in the process. I try to do the best I can out here, but getting decent tools and materials out here isn’t exactly easy.”
The medic said as she put the harvesting tubes into the barrel so that Hemorrhage could continue his work.
“By the way, the name’s Hoverbug. What’s yours?”
“I-i guess I got jumpy.” she said, lowering her arms and revealing her emblem. “I’m not used to interacting with strange bots, at least that didn’t involve fighting them in an arena.” She added with an awkward chuckle.
Angel examines the equipment.
Quickslash laughed a bit.
“Don’t worry about it. Not like we’ve had much experience with strangers ourselves.”
He said politely.
Tripwire didn’t seem entirely “there” at the moment. His expression was blank as he stared down at the odd contraption he was slapping together between his fingers. It was a small thing, looking like a rusty pinwheel with circuit boards inside its petals, and a few blinking LEDs inside its stem. It’s function couldn’t be discerned from a glance.
“I’m Hemorrhage, and I must commend you for being able to keep so many bots alive in the Sea of Rust for seventeen years,” Hemorrhage says as he finishes siphoning the Tyrant’s energon. “That is no small feat.”
“Especially in the Sea of Rust. I’m Darksting.” Darksting said.
Axis watched intrigued, deciding to let this run its course before saying anything.
The medic shrugged.
“Thanks. It helps when we do our best to stay out of trouble. We set up far off from any tyrant territory, and scrap raptors don’t come by often. Biggest threat we usually face is an energon shortage.”
Angel seemed as if he had found what answers he was looking for.
Tripwire keeps at it for a few more minutes, groping through the sand for parts until he seemed unable to find something he needed to continue building this odd machine. This brings him out of his daze, it seems, and he blinks as if clearing his vision.
“I’m sure,” Hemorrhage says. “but hopefully this should alleviate that concern for a little while, at least.”
The first thing Tripwire might see when looking up is Axis looking back at him with an intense and interested expression.
“Are you kidding? This is gonna last us ages. I don’t think we could thank you enough for this.”
Hoverbug said enthusiastically.
There’s a sound of scraping metal as Angel’s battle mask retracts and he smiles.
“Oh, uh…”
Tripwire looks up at Axis for a second, then down at his latest creation, then back up at Axis.
“…Hi.”
“No thanks necessary,” Hemorrhage insists. “Just doing my duty.”
Timberjack’s mouthed a silent, elongated “Oh,” with the clarification of the ants. His shoulders lift into a small shrug from Quickslash’s answer.
“Figures, thanks for the info.” Timberjack replies.
Though if the ants are still around, he tries to put his hands near the back of their necks and bends down to them with a smile.
“Hello friends,” he starts. “Bit and byte was it? I’m sure you two are great little scavengers.”
With that, Railgun looks back around the space with the campfire. Trying to estimate how much room would be left once all the bulks were inside.
“Hi! Sorry.”
Axis said taking a step back.
“This is still just really interesting to me. I don’t think you ever told me how it started.”
“Well if you say so.”
Hoverbug relented.
“By the way, what are y’all doin’ out here anyway? I can tell just by lookin at ya that you haven’t been out here long.”
“Scavenging’s good.”
“Good at it.”
“Barely anything around here.”
“Gotta grab everything we can.”
There would be enough space for everyone to comfortably pile around the fire pit. And given the minicon’s smaller size, finding room for themselves among the bulks likely wouldn’t be an issue.
“I guess… actually, are you in need of some entertainment?” Juliana asked, having an idea.