#cyber streak sent me 43 asks the other day that I'm answering bit by bit - there really is no limit

[aecho-again]

Ok I know this is usually for one character at the time but 🎫 for Helios, Ironwing and Nightjet? They look like such a wholesome squad together!

Aw, thank you!

There are no set rules for ask games so you and everyone else is free to send whatever you want!

Helios

When he listens to music, he prefers to find a secluded space, lay down on the ground and close his optics to fully concentrate on the melodies and texts that drown out his thoughts.

Ironwing

He prefers energetic songs over slow, calming ones. Often times he can be seen headbanging or tapping to the powerful beat of whatever he's listening to. I listenend to one too many viking metal songs and made him a metalhead - my boy has to suffer for it.

Nightjet

I am so. Tempted. To make him listen to elevator music on his shift. But I will not. He likes certain tracks from all genres and he will listen to a myriad of soundtracks while working.

Extra: How the trio met

When the Stellar Observatory landed on Earth, they were wise enough to cloak themselves from human detection systems but any Cybertronian could see that there was a neutral ship on the planet and they used this to lure in other Transformers that were stranded.

They did this on almost every planet they went to and on rare occasions it worked. Sometimes, they picked up mechs from either faction and let them stay until they reached the nearest space port where every mech could leave if they wanted to.

That's also how Helios finds them and they give him shelter in return for his service as their new pilot. No one on their ship has experience with the controls and most of the time the autopilot has been in control, but since Helios has picked up some useful skills a while ago, he is qualified enough to do it on his own.

Now, since Nightjet is the head of security, he has to keep an optic on the new arrivals and make sure they don't cause any trouble. Being the only one with the patience to observe the small heliformer shift for shift, he starts to notice things.

Helios' forced positivity that scares off most mechs on the ship is just a mask he wears in public and it is there to cover the hurt that has accumulalted over the years, as well as a desparate attempt to communicate with the outside world that he still has no idea how it works.

Nightjet takes one look at the frail figure underneath his persona and decides that this guy needs a friend - so he will be his friend.

He looks after him and makes sure he is well fueled and rested for the cycle (by singing him to sleep). Whenever Helios takes a break, Nightjet comes by to chat with him. Because NJ is well liked with the crew, more people start talking to Helios as well, but they still keep their distance.

Helios brings his new friend his daily rations when NJ's shift starts and ends, since their shifts overlap at times. This goes on until they receive a distress signal from an approaching ship.

Firecry's team has disguised itself as Decepticons to retrieve equipment from a Con base in the vicinity, but Carbonlight had betrayed them and kept the acquired materials for himself with which he intends to build something that controls other mechs' minds.

The remaining five team members escape from the Cons and seek refuge from it all, unknowingly attracting the Stellar Observatory whose crew takes them in.

Railjet welcomes them with caution. Five mechs were much more difficult to keep track of and he knows his brother will have a lot of work to do.

A couple of days after their arrival, the ship hosts a dinner party for them. Nightjet is still watching them from afar, but Ironwing has had enough and confronts him about it (politely). Helios just happens to stand right behind NJ when they strike up a conversation and that's when he introduces himself to Ironwing.

The flier is not impressed by his docile behavior and immediately labels him a coward in his mind. But they meet a couple of times in the hallways over the next few weeks and when Ironwing catches NJ and Helios chatting one day, he can't help but be curious.

When Nightjet notices the renewed interest in the two of them, he talks to Ironwing about it and tells him as much as he needs to hear in order to drop the matter - but he doesn't. He's still suffering from Carbonlight's, his best friend's betrayal. His emotions are unstable and therefore he latches onto the first two strangers who talk with him.

A brittle kind of friendship ties them together and they swear in silence that they will always be there for each other.

...

And then Helios dies during the final fight against Carbonlight's reanimated starformers and Ironwing and Nightjet go separate ways because they think they need to cope on their own with the loss of yet another friend.