I really wanted to do this, so sorry if the length of it is short of long because I have no idea how much I'm going to put into it.
Thanks to all the firefighters and the authorities who helped those they could, and thank the passengers of flight 93 who crashed the plane themselves rather than let it crash into D.C. And please remember all those who perished, whether in the air, falling to the ground, or in the fire, and remember the Twin Towers.
The soldiers of N.E.S.T. watched the clips of the 9/11 Twin Towers attack, reminiscing in the bad memories. The video clips that were shown showed the second plane hitting the tower, and also showed the towers falling. The human soldiers watched old news report with somber thoughts, and the Autobots were confused as to why the humans were so silent. The news report talked about how the whole world had turned on their televisions to watch the Trade Centers fall, and the casualties. Even Director Galloway was silent, eyes glued to the report, his usual air of annoyance gone. Even though the event had happened eleven years ago, the incident was still tragic and would always be remembered.
"D*mn terrorists." Epps growled, hitting his fist against the arm of the couch he was sitting on. A few of the soldiers nodded and agreed, while the others stayed silent. Most of the Autobots were in the rec room, waiting for someone to ask what had happened, but no t doing the action themselves. Their wait was over when Ratchet finally walked up.
"Sitting so close to the television is bad for you eyes." He snorted. All the soldiers whipped around and glared at him, obviously angry at the medic.
"It doesn't matter right now. We're watching the Trade Centers footage!" A soldier called out.
"And how are the Trade Centers important?" Ratchet asked back, rolling his optics.
"The Trade Centers were where a lot of money transactions took place. It's also the resting place of more than a thousand people." A soldier from Lennox's team, nicknamed Fig, said seriously. This caught all of the Autobots' in hearing range's attention.
"Care to explain?" Ratchet asked, Optimus Prime walking up behind him, curious as well. Lennox looked around, and spoke first.
"Eleven years ago today, the Twin Towers in New York fell and a plane was crashed into the Pentagon, another into a field. The whole attack was planned by some terrorists who had ties to Osama Bin Laden, who was a big threat to the United States. The first plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers, and people thought that the pilot had maybe fallen asleep or lost control of the plane. Then, when the second plane hit, people knew it couldn't just be coincidence. Both towers were smoking and debris and fire were everywhere. The Towers stood for a while, and the authorities were sending firemen and other emergency services to the Towers to help the people they could." Lennox explained. Epps picked up the discussion after that.
"Then, the third plane in on the attack was hijacked as well and crashed into the Pentagon, the United States' defense. It killed about forty-three people, and took out about a fifth of the building itself. The president, George Bush, was at a school reading to some kids. He was there when the Twin Towers and Pentagon were hit. He finished his time with the kids, and then he was escorted out of the building." Epps filled in. And then, Galloway, who no one expected to join in, cleared his throat and spoke.
"The fourth and final plane was headed to D.C., either to hit the White House or the Capitol. But the plane never got there. After the hijackers had killed the pilots and taken over the plane, the hostesses on the plane called into the flight towers to report that there was something wrong with the pilots. After receiving no help in the situation, the passengers finally figured out that the pilots were dead, and that the hijackers were going to crash the plane into D.C. They then decided they could either let the terrorists crash the plane, or they could do something about it. The passengers rebelled, and they fought back against the hijackers. After a struggle, the passengers crashed the plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, rather than letting the terrorists crash the plane in D.C. None of the people in the planes survived."
As Galloway finished, the Autobots who had heard the story were infuriated by the terrorists, saddened by the deaths of the passengers, and impressed by passengers of flight 93 who fought back and prevented an attack of the nation's capitol.
"What happened to the Towers?" Optimus Prime asked. Lennox spoke up again.
"About an hour after both Towers had been hit, one of the Towers fell. The debris from the building was everywhere, and it crushed people on the ground, in buildings nearby, and the people who couldn't get out of the Tower. In the other Tower, people had decided to jump from the windows to the ground. But most of the people who jumped were from above where the plane hit. A lot of the people who jumped did it only because they could either hopefully die painlessly hitting the ground, or be burned up in the fires. So, as the footage shows, you can see things falling through the air; most of those things were people, who were alive still. And for those above the crash site⦠well, there was no hope for them. The firefighters couldn't go up into the building past the wreckage and the fires; it was too dangerous. Even a lot of firefighters didn't make it out."
The new facts they learned of the attack horrified and shocked the listening Autobots. Some of them turned to see the current liaison, Charlotte Mearing, walk into the rec room and take the story from Commander Lennox.
"When the second Twin Tower fell, it buried what was left of the first Tower and the people in both Towers underneath the crash site. The people on the ground next to the Towers had no hope either, since the debris fell everywhere. A few men made a live documentary of the event, following a group of firefighters into the building. During their documentary, they could hear these deafening sounds of glass breaking, but the thing that was strange about it, was that when the planes hit ,the glass windows of the buildings broke and fell onto the ground, so there were these huge piles of glass everywhere. After a bit of wondering what made the cause of the sound, the group making the documentaries finally found out. The sound was of bodies falling through the air and hitting the ground." Mearing explained somberly. The Autobots were horrified.
"They released to the media a few days ago that a note had been found in the rubble. The note had been written by someone in the Towers, and they put thrown it out the window in hopes someone would find it. The note said '84th floor, west office. Twelve people trapped'." Lennox added. As the human soldiers turned their attention back to the news report of the footage, the Autobots listened as well, and listened to the number of casualties that marked the tragedy of the September 11th, 2001 one attack on the United States of America.
