Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of it's characters or content. I am not and do not intend to make any sort of profit off this story.

Chapter One: Sightings

It was quiet and calm that morning. Then again, it was always quiet and calm at the Risley farmstead during sunrise. Being miles away from everyone and surrounded by thick forest on four sides pretty much guaranteed silence, for the most part. Outsiders looking in would likely remark that said farm seemed desolate and lonely. But for the single person that resided there, it was the perfect setting. Peaceful and away from prying eyes, it was where she felt most comfortable. It gave her time to work with no distractions, but more importantly, it gave her a sense of purpose and control; something she needed, whether she was aware of it or not.

Sunlight filtered through the thin glass of the windows of the cabin. As the sun rose, light poured across the floor and crept up the woodwork. In the upstairs bedroom, the light drifted across the tanned face of a dark haired woman in her mid twenties, who was attempting to get another hour or so of sleep. The light also fell upon the nose of a rust colored, large doberman, who refused to let the poor woman rest. He ignored the sounds of protest from the bed and kept nudging his long nose into her face. The lady sighed and opened her eyes to glare at the dog interrupting her slumber.

"Is this really necessary, Titan?" She rasped. "We really don't need to get up at 5:30 every single morning."

The dog just stared for a moment before letting out a high-pitched whine.

"You don't have to go out for anything yet. You went out at 1 in the morning. Now get out of here!"

A bark, followed by another pitiful whimper was the doberman's only response. He didn't budge.

"That's bullshit. You don't have to piss. Quit lying and go back to bed for a bit!"

Titan was not deterred by his human's annoyed gibberish. Every morning for the past 3 years on the farm, he had gone outside at exactly 6:00 AM. He would wake up, stretch, and then patrol the house for anything suspicious. Once he was done with his investigation it was usually 5:35 AM or so and his human would be up making breakfast and getting ready to go outside. This morning's event was an unusual occurrence for her, and had only happened approximately four times previously. 4 days out of 1,095 days; an anomaly.

Titan, being a doberman of high intelligence, knew what this meant. His beloved Elaine was becoming depressed again. It always seemed to happen around this time of year. If she became too depressed, she would oversleep. If she overslept, she would feel ill. Once she was feeling ill, she would not eat. Not eating lead to starvation, and then death. Therefore, it was his job as her best friend to get her out of bed, to save her life.

Elaine fell back asleep during her pet's moment of reasoning and had no clue what was about to happen. She awoke to the startling feeling of being pulled off her bed, sharp canine teeth pulling at the middle of her nightgown. Only when she hit the floor did she realize what just occurred. Her voice, normally quiet and pleasant to hear, became a loud, thunderous noise that reverberated through the house. All her current outrage was directed to one word.

"TITAN!"

With a pleased bark, the offender ran down the stairs.

After being woken up in such a delightful manner, Elaine eventually found herself outside with her loyal companion. She was less than enthused about being outdoors this early, but Titan seemed pleased that she was out of bed and he was only ten minutes behind his absurd, doberman schedule. He was currently inspecting their usual route for anything that seemed out of place. So far, nothing was amiss.

Elaine took a glance back at the old, but recently updated cabin she lived in. It sat atop a large hill overlooking a vast, well maintained field. There was a very large barn, which at this point could have been considered a small hangar, tucked over to the right in the bottom of the field, right next to the tree line. The grass was green, but cut to a reasonable length. There were two gardens near the house. Both contained herbs and vegetables. The path in back of the cabin led to a small pond. Her ducks were currently playing and creating their usual ruckus in the water. All in all, it was a beautiful piece of property, but the memories associated with it weren't quite as beautiful; this place was seemingly seeded with an underlying sadness.

Elaine's father, Mark Risley, bought the property in his late 40's with his younger wife, Bethany. Two years after the cabin and garage were built, Bethany passed away giving birth to Elaine. Her father was devastated by his loss, but chose to raise Elaine himself. Unfortunately, he was often bitter and resentful towards his daughter, blaming her for taking the life of his wife. Elaine and her dad had a very strained relationship; she never once called him "Dad", but chose to just refer to him by his first name instead. Once in a while, they were able to bond over projects around the farm. By the age of fifteen, she was fixing equipment alongside her father. The locals of the nearby town would bring them vehicles of all sorts to work on and, in some of the more extreme cases, put back together after the teens wrecked them with their foolish shenanigans. In a years time, Elaine was a respected mechanic alongside Mark. What had started out as a bit of a hobby had become a full time job for the pair. This allowed them to make a decent amount of money over the years.

At nineteen years of age, Elaine set off on her own in pursuit of her own happiness. Unable to take the blame of her mother's death, she left the farm. She traveled around to various cities, often picking up work in auto shops. The mechanics were impressed with her skill and dedication, especially considering her age and gender. Female mechanics were not common. Young female mechanics were almost unheard of in some parts of the country.

When she turned 22, she moved to New York and was able to secure a job working in a Toyota-Scion dealership. The supervisor of said dealership, Brent, had originally hired her as a detailer, so he was impressed when she stayed overnight to replace the brake lines and pads on a Corolla, which were worn out to the point of being unsafe. The resident mechanic had attempted to skip out on the vehicle's minor repairs, claiming that the owner was delusional and the car was completely fine. He was absolutely blown away when she changed the head gasket on the same vehicle, which turned out to be moments away from wearing out completely. Brent tested her skill on a couple of other vehicles and was pleased with the result. He ended up pulling some strings to get her certified as a mechanic for Toyota, much to the current mechanic's disdain.

The same year she was certified, she adopted Titan, who was only a year old at the time, but still intimidating enough to be a good deterrent should anyone decide to scope out her apartment for things to steal. Everything appeared to be going well. Her job was wonderful, her dog was a great companion, and she had even made a couple of friends despite being a bit of a recluse.

That summer, Elaine received some terrible news; her father had passed away. He had neglected to call her for over a year. It turned out that he had lung cancer and three brain tumors. Being too stubborn to go to a hospital or even a regular check-up, he died at home in the field on his way to the garage for the day. The farm, the property connected to it, and everything else her father owned was passed down to her according to his wishes on one condition; that she honor her mother's memory and erect a memorial to her on the property. She agreed, packed up Titan and her belongings, and gave her two weeks notice at the dealership. As much as she loved her job, her family's home was more important. She had a statue built of her mother near the house in a clearing in the woods and planted a beautiful flower garden around it, which she still meticulously maintained. The statue, by her father's request, had angelic wings.

The roar of jet engines broke Elaine's train of thought. She and Titan looked up to the sky to spot them. There were three; one a dark blue, one a brilliant red, and one black with purple details. The blue one always seem to be the loudest of the three and Elaine often found her dog cowering behind her whenever it flew over. This seemed to be a normal occurrence; about twice a week they would fly above her farm and scare the hell out of everyone present.

After the first month of dealing with their weekly bullshit, she contacted the closest Air Force base to ask why their pilots were flying so low. When the operator asked her to describe the planes, he laughed at her and hung up at the mention of a black and purple jet. As much as it pissed her off to be hung up on, there was nothing she could do further. Still curious though, she went to the local library to look up the jets by color and appearance to see what she could find. In her mind, they had to be archived somewhere, being of such a unique design. What she had uncovered came as a bit of a surprise.

There were indeed three military jets by that color, but they didn't belong to the U.S Military. Or any other country's Air Force, for that matter. The three she had been spotting were alien in origin; Decepticons, to be exact. Elaine had heard of the conflict, saw the stories on the news, but had never expected to actually see one of the robots everyone was so frightened of, let alone three. She was unable to dig up their designations; only a couple news reports that warned people of the jet trine and pleaded with anyone who saw them about to report it immediately so the leader of their opposing faction could be notified.

Optimus Prime. There was a name that nearly every person had heard of at least once if they watched the news at all. Elaine didn't know what to think of him, or his soldiers. She was skeptical, at best. The two factions had brought their war to Earth somehow, and now they were fighting amongst themselves and causing quite a bit of damage. Humans only knew the Autobot's side of the story - no one had bothered to get close enough to any of the Decepticons to hear theirs. It was the reason Elaine preferred to remain neutral about the Autobot-Decepticon conflict. She didn't know enough to pass judgment. They had been fighting for thousands upon thousands of years; she was certain that there had to be atrocities committed by both factions. Nothing was ever black and white, especially when there was a war going on. When the townsfolk asked her what she thought of the whole thing, she usually just shrugged and replied with "I'm not really sure what to think, to tell you the truth."

For those reasons, along with the fact that they seemed to be just enjoying a flight, she left them alone and chose not to report them to any authorities. They had done nothing to her, her town, or farm so she had no reason to interfere with them. Besides, once in awhile, she enjoyed watching them pull off their previously-thought-impossible maneuvers. The red one seemed to lead the whole show. The blue one that made the strange thunderous sound, which was sometimes downright terrifying to hear, followed without much of a stir and looked like a pretty competent, professional flyer. The black and purple jet, however, always managed to do something erratic and weird, sometimes downright silly almost. She always got a good laugh out of watching that one fly around the other two, like an annoying gnat that kept pestering the hell out of them. Usually, the red or blue jet would bank towards the purple one and, after a small chase and a few maneuvers, they'd all fall back into formation once again.

It made her wonder sometimes; if they could all enjoy themselves, were capable of higher reasoning, and even had fun once in awhile, why were they so different from the others? What started the war? What set them apart so much that they had been warring for thousands of years? Elaine wished that at some point in her life, she'd get to ask one of them and maybe get a better answer than the propaganda and biased view the media was giving.