STATUS REPORT [CLASSIFIED]

KNOWN ISSUES (EXTERNAL):

• N/A

KNOWN ISSUES (INTERNAL):

• N/A

Frankly, this is ridiculous, everything about this is ridiculous, and I feel ridiculous saying it, but...

I don't think they have bad intentions.

It would be foolish of me to pretend I don't have history with Team Heyday. It's been a long time since I made that mistake, and it's hardly a secret at this point. (Though I do feel the need to clarify: regardless of what anyone may think, I have never had any intention of joining the Decepticons.) But I had, and still have, limited knowledge of anyone but my own contact.

I must admit that I am ashamed that I did not take advantage of the opportunity to gain intel on other Decepticon agents at the time. Though that sort of recon work was not within my area of focus at the time, I nonetheless know now that I would take a vastly different approach to the situation if presented with it today. (Not that I would be in that situation again. I've learned my lesson.)

...Regardless. All this to say that I don't know much about Waylay as an individual. They were largely quiet when I interacted with them in the past, which I had assumed to be at least in part due to my status as an Autobot. I was assured at the time that "they (were) just 'like that,'" which I can now see has some truth to it, despite my reluctance to believe anything my contact expressed to me.

Waylay is... simply that kind of 'bot. Quiet, and struggles to communicate. That's not a crime (though they've committed plenty in the past, to be sure.) It's been hard to get them to really express why they're here, now. Especially without causing them to lash out inexplicably. ...As if they're ashamed. Which, I suppose, would be understandable.

It's policy to meet potential Decepticon defectees with open arms— obviously, we wouldn't want to discourage such a thing. I must emphasize that this is the only reason I am entertaining their words as potential truth, and not near-definitively the words of an infiltrator. But Waylay has (finally) expressed to me that it was my own words, though at the time offhanded, that spurred them to set out and seek official registration and physical checks for approval to visit Earth.

Apparently they have an interest in biological life. I personally don't know much about Earth, or biologicals in general, but I did some cursory research in the past as preparation for a potential deployment that never went through. Apparently my recounting of what I was studying at the time had intrigued them.

...And that was it. They left the Decepticons because they want to learn about... "arthropods and bacteria." Not even the rare discovery of a sapient species of organic. Just the small stuff. One of the most effective snipers in the Decepticons, part of a highly-skilled infiltration team, leaving their teammates behind to study miniscule organisms. It's... completely ridiculous.

Maybe that's why I believe it. Who would lie about such a thing?