Erm... My first fic! Please be nice ^.^ Constructive criticism does not constitute as being mean. Feel free to share :P

This fic is dedicated to MarySueDevourer, who dragged this fic from the shitter and turned into something so much better.

Starscream was having a good enough day without Soundwave deciding to ruin it for him. As it was, it seemed the Communications Officer was incapable of leaving him alone, and this time had approached the Second-in-Command regarding a strange and out-of-place energy signature he had picked up. Why he couldn't just go to Megatron directly was beyond Starscream, but he couldn't exactly say that to his faceplate. If he did, Starscream might end up being out of the loop on things, which would be rather... unfortunate.

So, Starscream had sent out that idiot Knock Out to go and investigate, deciding the death of the medic wouldn't be that big a deal... he was more often than not a pain in the backside than of any real use, and the Air Commander felt no need to ensure his safety. Besides, whose safety really mattered beyond the safety of Starscream? No one's. That's who. He would lose not sleep tonight.

Knock Out let out a growl, stubbornly wiping at a smudge of dirt, grumpily noting it would take quite a bit of buffing to get it off later. And that wasn't even beginning to scratch the surface of all the beauty regulations he was violating, what with the large amounts of sand that was practically everywhere inside him and the numerous other patches of dirt decorating his body. It was disgusting. Of course it was no coincedence that Starscream had sent him on such a mission, especially after his previous acts of insubordination. It seemed the Seeker severly lacked the ability, or knowledge, to let things go.

Trudging through the desert, unable to drive because last time he did that he got stuck in the dunes, Knock Out began the tedious task of searching out the Energon Signature Soundwave had detected. If there was an actual Energon Signature. He wouldn't put it past Starscream to send him on a false mission and then play all innocent afterwards. Stupid slagger.

And why wasn't Breakdown with him? It seemed awfully like Starscream had been giving Knock Out's partner a break as of late, and had instead focussed all his unwanted attention onto the Decepticon Medic. What had Knock Out's apprentice done that put him in Starscream's good books? Whatever it was, if getting out of icky missions such as this was what it got him, then Knock Out wanted a peice of it too. His paintjob was practically ruined. How could anyone want to walk around looking this disgusting? It was embarrassing. Degrading, even.

Luckily- or not- for Knock Out, it wasn't too much later until he found what was causing such a strange reading on the energy readers... in the most unfortunate of ways. He had finally pinpointed where it was originating from, only to be met with an endless field of sand. Scowling, he'd stormed across, only for the sand beneath his pedes to abruptly give way.

"Fragger-!" he snarled, barely getting the chance to curse Starscream's name before his pedes slammed against a solid surface.

His joints buckled from the impact, sending him on to his hands and knees and effectively faceplanting himself into a cold, metallic surface. His optics, which he had unintentionally closed, onlined again, meeting a rather strange and out-of-place sight. Scrabbling to his feet, Knock Out surveyed the area, noting with some satisfaction that the falling sand had caused a chain reaction, causing a good part of his "discovery" to be uncovered.

It was a ship, he quickly came to realise. Not a particularly large one, but it wasn't small, either. A servo ran over the metallic surface, brushing away some stray lumps of gritty sand as he did so, and another realisation dawned on him.

"Knock Out to base," he said over the comm. link, a sinister grin on his faceplate, "You might want to bring the ship around."

Not what I would call long, but hopefully the others will be greater in length. RnR!