My next few missions were more straightforward, and I carried them off without a hitch. After my probationary period was over, I was promoted and given a new partner so Dwayne could train another newbie.

My new partner was a sleek Russian sports car who went by the name “Sabot Tasha.” We hit it off really well, and I found we had a lot of the same interests in common—she had formerly been human, and a fellow Decepticon fan, even though the show had been a little different dubbed into Russian. Another benefit was that I got to start dressing a lot nicer, to look the part of someone who would drive such a hot car.

After a bit of settling in, we started taking on some of the toughest assignments—and pulling them off with an admirable success rate. I flatter myself that Tasha and I must have set some kind of record for the fastest climb up the Aegis’s ten most wanted chart, but really, I don’t know if they even have one.

Yeah, life was great—right up until we made that little unscheduled refueling stop.