Author's Note: I am just throwing this out there. Fuck everything. Hope you enjoy. I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't even have a name for this thing as I type this.

Disclaimer (because I'm old school): I don't own Transformers. Please don't sue me for finally putting something TF-related up.

Even with the wind whipping around me it was still hot as balls. Although, it was a relief in the sense that I couldn't smell the body odor wafting off myself or my teammates. Two weeks spent in the harsh desert looking for one man left me covered in sand, sweat, and who knew what else. It was familiar, though, and I felt good knowing that the mission went off without a hitch.

I sighed contentedly and leaned my head back, hoping to get some rest before we landed. Fig crushed this hope when he started his alligator spiel for the umpteenth time in the past two weeks.

"Oh, god, five months of this. I can't wait to get a little taste of home. A plate of mama's alligators étouffée... Mmm."

"Not this shit again," I murmured and rolled my eyes. To my right I could hear Lennox trying to keep his laughter to himself.

"You've been talking about barbecued 'gators and crickets for the last two weeks. I'm never going to your mama's house, Fig. I promise." To my surprise, Epps turned his attention to me. "Guerra, do y'all really eat this shit?" I automatically raised my hands up in defense.

"Don't look at me man. His family eats some weird crap."

"Mi hermana—" Fig leaned around Lennox and gave me a pleading look.

"Don't 'sister' me, man." I waved a finger at him, "I'm with Epps, no disrespect to your mama but she cooks some weird shit."

"'Gators are known to have the most succulent meat," he tried to reason as he looked between Epps and I.

"That's nice."

"I understand."

Fig genuinely looked insulted.

"Con un poquito de arroz con habichuela—"

"No amount of rice and beans can make gator taste good!" I shot back.

"Seriously, man?" Epps squinted at Fig. "Rice and beans is your answer? Seriously?"

"Hey," Donnelly cut in, taking over the roll of peacekeeper. "You guys remember weekends? Huh? The Sox at Fenway. Cold hot dog and a flat beer."

This got everyone reminiscing with far off looks in their eyes. It made me think about sitting under the old oak tree with a beer after helping out on the farm. Watching the dogs running around and playing even though I could probably fry an egg on the driveway.

"The perfect day." Fig muttered, causing all of us to hum is unison. He looked over to Lennox with a smile. "What about you, Captain? You got a perfect day?"

"Nahhh," the captain shook his head with a small smile making its way to his face. "I just can't wait to hold my baby girl for the first time."

Everyone broke out into cooing and I nudged him with my elbow. "You sap."

"Shut up!" Lennox shoved me back and rolled his eyes.

It was well into the wee hours of the morning before I managed to drag myself into the tent I was staying in. The few other women that were stationed at SOCCENT were already asleep, so I did my best to keep quiet as I got into bed. Between a half a pack of baby wipes and a change of clothes, I felt clean enough to crawl into my bed for a few hours. The team had at least a week of downtime between missions, and I intended to spend at least half of it trying to catch up on the sleep I missed while out in the field.

My head hit the pillow and the next thing I knew I was dragging myself out of bed for formation.

I groaned as I shoved myself up, hazily gazing around the tent as the other girls were getting ready. Most of them were already dressed and putting their hair up.

"Fuck," I thought as I sat up on the edge of my bed. "I'm running late."

"It lives." Without looking, I tossed my pillow in the general direction of the person talking to me.

"I don't think that's necessarily a good thing." The pillow I threw hit me in the face and I barely flinched. "Good morning to you too, Thomson."

My eyes wandered up to the woman who was making her way to my side. She stopped at the edge of my area with a smirk on her lips. "You better get up soon or you're going be getting smoked."

'Yeah, yeah. I'm going." I waved at her as I got up to throw on my uniform. I had a clean one stashed in my Tuff Box that I didn't take on missions. It was mornings like this that I was especially grateful for my decision to have short hair. Most women had getting their hair up in a bun down to a science, but it was way more convenient to just shave the back and sides of my head.

Once formation came to an end I headed back to the tent to get changed for a shower. Technically, the women had their own showering area, but it was easier just to head for the lagoon. I slipped into a pair of ranger panties—that I had stolen from Donnelly—and a tank top with flip-flops before heading for the showers.

I could hear the music before I even rounded the corner of the tents. The lagoon was a popular place to hangout during the days. It was sweltering at all times of the day, so being able to splash around in kiddie pools was a form of heaven. It was still pretty early in the day, so only a few people were around. I spotted Epps on the court playing basketball and waved as I passed.

"Watch this crossover, baby. Like Jordan in his prime, pushing through the front line."

"I think you're more of an Anthony Bennett." I laughed as he threw a glare my way. Which, ironically, ended up being the reason he got the ball knocked out of his hands.

"Not cool, Iris." Epps ran after the guy who had taken the basketball and I just laughed harder.

"You're just mad because I'm right." I resumed my walk to the showers, thanking god that they were empty.

I took to lounging around in one of the chairs after my shower with my Ipod and headphones. Epps had already tried to challenge me twice but I wasn't going to get dirty after just showering. I was sweating enough buckets as it was. The hours ticked on and most of the team had showed up at the lagoon. Lennox had taken up a cot beside me to scribble notes down on a notepad, who knew about what.

"Lennox!"

My head popped up when I heard a kid calling. I grinned when I saw the young curly-haired boy running towards us with a camel pack.

"Hey Mahfouz." I waved him over and he smiled, choosing to walk between Lennox and me. He held out the water to Lennox and the captain smiled.

"Hey, kid. How you doing?" Lennox took the water and patted him on the shoulder.

"Good." Mahfouz practically idolized the captain. He also loved helping out with our gear. It probably helped that we shared some of the goodies we got in care packages with him.

I tapped his nose as I got up to stretch. "Don't have too much fun."

"I will!"

A smile made its way to my face as I watched them make their way to check the gear. Seeing Mahfouz always made me miss my little cousins. Shaking my head, I started making my way to the mess area for some lunch. That would have been fine and dandy if it hadn't been for the multitudes of people running around everywhere. I raised my eyebrows in interest as I made my way through all the commotion. The base was usually busy but there were more people scurrying about than usual. Someone knocked into my shoulder from behind and I stumbled. Luckily, they caught me and I looked up to find Thomson looking down at me apologetically.

"Sorry, Guerra."

I waved her off. "No worries. Any idea what's up?" She looked around before shuffling closer to me.

"Radio chatter says we have a potential hostile coming in. The details are sketchy but its got command in a fuss." Her eyes darted around again before backing up. "I've gotta go report in, I'll see you later hopefully."

"Yeah, see ya." I nodded at her and she went on her way. Dismissing the thought of getting lunch I headed for the tent I was staying in to make sure my gear was in order. The enemy was ten kinds of crazy to walk right into SOCCENT territory, there was no way I was going to sit around and wait for the shit-storm to hit. I threw on my ACU's minus the jacket after getting my guns together and headed for The Lagoon to find the rest of the guys. If there really was an incoming bogie, I'd be damned if I let my team be caught with their pants down.

"Hey," I nodded at Epps and Donnelly who were sitting in chairs with sodas. "Where's the captain and Fig?"

"He's got video time with the wife." Epps pointed in the directions of the tent. "Fig's in the showers. Everything okay?"

"Dunno, I'll get back to you on that." I grabbed Fig's towel and threw it at his face as I passed him. "Ay, follador! Get dressed." There was a cry of surprised followed by cursing, but I kept on walking.

With some luck, I managed to catch the captain as he was about to head into the tent. "Lennox!" He looked at me and then back at the tent, but I reached him and pressed a hand to his shoulder. "We might have a bogie coming in, just a heads up. Now go talk to your girls."

"Thanks." He nodded at me seriously and then disappeared into the tent.

Overhead two jets took off into the sunset and dread settled into my gut. I hurried back to the guys and we huddled up a ways away from everyone.

"What's got you all riled up, Guerra?" Epps patted my back and I shifted my weight feeling antsy.

"One of my friends who works in command center says we have a potential hostile en-route." I crossed my arms and looked at my team. "I'd bet my entire Officers salary that they just sent those jets out to either escort or destroy whoever is coming in. I already let the captain know."

"Not much else we can do then." Donnelly shrugged but I shook my head in disagreement.

"It doesn't make sense though. Who would be stupid enough to fly into restricted U.S. Military airspace?"

"Someone with a death wish." Fig offered, but it still didn't make me feel any better.

"Man, I don't know." Uncertainty was clear in my voice but my team had my back.

"Tell you what," Bobby clapped my shoulder and offered me a smile. "We'll go check our gear. Then I'll go talk to some of my buddies and see if I can find anything else out."

I gave him a meek smile back. "Thanks man."

By the time I had gotten my stuff situated, nightfall was settling in making my trigger-finger itch. Having to fight in low light conditions wasn't a situation I enjoyed being in. Just thinking about it made me grimace as I lifted the flap for the tent. My train of thought came screeching halt when I heard the faint sounds of gunfire followed by multiple explosions. The airfield lit up like a Christmas tree and I let out a string of curses as I turned back for my equipment. Lights started flickering and popping in the tent causing me to dive for my bed. Once I secured my guns I rushed out the tent with my pack in hand, only to almost get mowed over by Epps.

"They bombed the antenna farm! We're under attack!" I hurried after my teammate and handed him one of my rifles once I realized he was empty-handed. We turned the corner and almost ran into the rest of our team along with Mahfouz. Lennox looked at everyone quickly and nodded.

"Let's move it! To the motor-pool!"

The sound of explosions assaulted my ears as trucks were thrown across the field like toys. A shock wave of heat took out a line of soldiers in front of us causing me to curse in anger. But we kept moving. The tanks came into view I felt like I could breath a little, but this was short-lived when two tanks flew over my head. I grabbed the kid by the shoulders and slid behind a tank.

"Stay behind me!" I barked before turning around to check if everyone else made it. Lennox and Epps were crouching beside me and Donnelly and Fig were a hiding a tank over. I peeked around the edge of the tank to see... something. It looked robotic and reminded me of something out of a video game.

"What in the actual shit?" I yelled over the gunfire.

"I'm gonna get a look at this thing!" With that, Epps ran out with a camera. Kneeling, I switched the safety off and aimed my weapon at the enemy.

"Giving cover fire!" The sound of metal hitting metal echoed in my ears but it didn't even look at me as it tried to squish my screaming teammate.

"What the fuck!"

I looked to see Fig loading a grenade into his launcher and I motioned to Epps. "Move, man!"

Fig let off the grenade as Epps stumbled his way over to us. I grabbed Mahfouz and Lennox pulled Epps up to haul him over to one of the tanks.

"Let's go!" Lennox gave the order and we snapped to. A few piled into the tank and the rest of us moved out on foot into the desert without another word. I risked a glance behind us to see the airfield being destroyed by whatever the hell was attacking us.

"Guerra, move it!"

I jerked my head forward and looked at Lennox. "Sir!"

We had been on the move for about an hour before Lennox finally signaled for us to stop. The captain jumped out of the tank and waved everyone over. "Alright, here's the plan. We're going to circle around the base and head for Mahfouz's village. You have a telephone there, right?" He looked over at the kid and he nodded. "Once we're there, we need to make contact with the pentagon and get this info stateside. Fig, you take point. Epps, Guerra, and Mahfouz are with me. Jones and Bradley are in the tank. Conners and Finnley are in the rear. Let's move out!"

"Yes, sir!"

It was sand as far as the eye could see once the sun started to breach the horizon. The wrath of her heat was already starting to bear down upon my back causing my clothing to uncomfortably stick to my body. Morning came and went, and a good majority of the day was nothing but traveling in silence. Everyone was tense, it was all to surreal and it felt like no one knew what to say. I wasn't totally sure what to think of the situation either. The entire base had been destroyed by whatever thing had attacked us, we hadn't run into any friendlies, and I was starting to think no one else had made it out. I knew I needed time to process all of this—hell I had friends on that base— but now wasn't the time to do so.

Eyes open, gun ready, keep moving.

We finally took another break as we crested a large dune. Lennox pulled himself up on the tank to scope out the area while the rest of us tried to rest up a bit. My rear connected with the sand and I let out a tired sigh. I was trying to wipe some of the sweat off my face when I noticed shuffling beside me. I looked over to see Mahfouz giving me a small smile and holding out a camel bag to me.

"Water?"

"Thanks kiddo. You're a life saver." He nodded and went to go check on everyone else. He was a good kid, and was doing surprisingly well considering the circumstances we were in. I quietly sipped from the pack as Epps pulled the camera out to look at the image he had almost gotten squished taking.

"I've never seen a weapons system like this. The thermal shows this weird aura around the exoskeleton like it's cloaked by some kind of invisible force field." He shook his head as he handed it off to Lennox. Donnelly frowned and looked around.

"That's impossible. There's no such thing as invisible force fields except in, like, comic book stuff, right?"

"I don't think that's it." I got up and glanced at the team, "My bullets were definitely hitting it but that thing wasn't even tickled." I held my hand out for the camera and the captain handed it off. Looking into the eyepiece, I could see that there was a field around the metal thing. Oddly enough, it was throwing the readings off. "Maybe it's an EM field? The readings are all fucked up."

"Man, I don't know." My gaze shifted to Fig as he shook his head.

"What?" I asked with a shrug of my shoulders.

"My mama, she had the gift, you know?" He rubbed the crucifix between his fingers as he thought. "She saw things. I got the gene, too, you know. And that thing that attacked us? I got a feeling it ain't over."

My eyes rolled as I handed the camera back to Lennox. "Oh yeah, that's comforting, Fig."

Conners popped out of the tank and glared at him. "How about you use those magic voodoo powers and get us the hell out of here, huh?"

"When I took that picture, I think it saw me." Epps shook his head like he couldn't even believe it himself. "It looked right at me."

Everyone got eerily quiet and I shifted my weight, feeling uncertain. We had no idea what we were up against, and all we knew was that this thing had taken out an entire military base all by its self. It gave off batshit energy readings and was nothing like anything anyone had seen before. Our situation was looking bleaker by the minute and that was extremely bad for morale.

"All right," Lennox cut into my thoughts and I saw him holding up the camera. "We gotta get this thing back to the Pentagon right away. They gotta know what we're dealing with here."

I wanted to say 'what if' but I kept it to myself. This wasn't the time to start second guessing everything.

"Hey, Mahfouz. You know, how far do you live from here?" I turned my attention to the kid and he pointed off towards an outcropping of rocks.

"Not far. Just up that mountain."

"Alright, lets hit it."

And with that, we were back on the move.

If I lived through this, I was never going anywhere sandy ever again.