The Diego Diaries: (dd8 125) 03-27-2021
=0=Evening at home, The Military Daycare Center at The Fortress
They stood in front of the daycare with their ammas and appas, all of them looking uncertain and slightly miserable. They were going to have to overnight just for tonight to make all their schedules work out.
Ravel glanced at the babies, then knelt. "If you be really good tonight we can take care of everyone at home tomorrow. We can't get out of our appointments tonight but we know how big and wonderful you are."
Orion glanced at his siblings, then his ammas and appas. Sunspot was staying over with Bos and the rest of them were having to come here for the night because Ammas and Appas had meetings they couldn't cancel. He looked at the adults who looked sad, then walked to Halo. He took her servo, then put it into Praxus's own.
Walking back to Halo, he put her servo into Prowler's. Glancing at the line of infants who were staring at him, he took Prowler's servo, then glanced up at the adults. Smiling his best fake smile, he said, "I, Orion takeded care of the shes. I, Orion doin'." He then fake smiled again.
The adults looked at him, a tiny little imp who was being 'brave' for everyone.
Ravel petted his face. "You're my little soldier."
Orion glanced at the others, then Amma Ravel. "I, Orion doin'. I takeded care of the shes. You goin', doin'. Don't sad you. Don't sad me, Orion. I takeded care of the shes." He smiled again.
"We'll come early. When we do we can eat breakfast at the Diner before going to school. Would you like that?" Ravel asked gently as the other three watched anxiously.
Orion glanced at the others who were watching him, then up at his amma. "I doin'." He then flashed his slightly anxious 'brave' smile he used when he was trying to put a good face on and being the big boy for the others.
Ravel hugged him, then the others swarmed.
Everyone got hugs, then they walked in when Orion got their servos organized again. The elders walked back out as the children silently watched them leave. Orion was waving to them with his fake big boy smile firmly in place.
They waved back.
It was an awful moment for both sides.
=0=Out there the next morning
It was a soggy group of mechs that woke up from their tents or transformed from their robotic mode after a long warm night. A WIFI'd cure and breakfast broke that up. The humans were stirring as well with breakfast and latrine breaks in the woods that were had by all.
Ratchet glanced around the woods, then walked over to sit with Raptor who was finishing breakfast with the other elders. "So … I think I'll take a look around."
"Good idea. Don't go alone. I'm going to have a Seeker do reconn overhead in silent mode just so you can get back if things happen," Raptor said.
Then you're telling me I shouldn't do anything embarrassing because of the Eye in the Sky?" Ratchet asked.
"Bingo," Raptor said with a snicker. "Go. Reconn, Autobot. Report in often."
"On it," Ratchet said as he walked toward the woods nearby.
Lon, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Bezel, Hot Rod and Smokey followed him. They disappeared into the density almost immediately.
"I wonder where the others are, the 200 or so that that they dumped somewhere," Lissie said as she sipped her tea. They would gather to strategize, the elders in command, as soon as intel was forthcoming. Right now, Lissie sat with her peds up and a warm cup in her elegant servo.
It was alright with her so far.
=0=Clomping around in the stix
They followed Ratchet as he walked though the woods carefully avoiding stepping on any of the beautiful flowers, small trees and bushes that were growing profusely under the canopy of the tall trees. Some of them seemed like Earth's and some were alien to that green world. All of them were beautiful and even though they couldn't see them where they were walking, the sounds of birds and plants moving in the slight warm breeze could be heard.
"This is slow going," Hot Rod said.
Ratchet glanced back. "Take care with the plants and flowers. I don't know why but I feel it might be important. Sometimes it takes a long time for things to spring back after they've been stomped."
The buzzing of insects in the warming early morning air was pleasant. Onward they went crossing streams and boulders until they came to a rise.
Ratchet who was leading slowed to a stop. Standing at the top of the rise were several Cybertronian children. They were staring down at him even as he stared upward. He raised his arm, then waved. "Hi!" he called out.
The kids stared at him silently, then watched as they clambered up the steep hillside toward them. As they did the sounds of a machine could be heard more distinctly somewhere in the distance.
Ratchet reached the top, walked forward into something that didn't give, then fell backward. He managed doing so to take down every single one of his party. They rolled down the hill and landed in a heap. As he lay on his back, Ratchet glanced up the hill.
The kids were laughing loudly.
=0=Ops Center
A committee of humans from The Family Tower were sitting on the table for a briefing. Prowl had asked Fulton to get those who'd be leaders and bring them to share the intel that they had so far. It was the usual group of long timers from Sciences, The Tower, N.E.S.T. and Unidad sitting on couches and chairs gathered to listen.
Prowl sat, then waited for their attention. "We have a message from Ratchet that we received last night. They're with the first group that disappeared during the reconn for a refugee camp, the one led by Hercy and Kup. All are well," he said.
Everyone seemed to deflate as they sat back glancing from one to the other, then to Prowl again.
"We aren't sure what's happening but Ratchet is playing some form of psychological game with the group that's there. The refugee group is a gathering of former high caste bankers, financiers and business moguls who escaped before the Clampdown came into being and have been missing from Cybertron before the bad times began in earnest.
"Their leader is a mech named Reset who was a very influential businessman with ties into a number of munitions industries. It's my guess that he had inside knowledge of the breakdown coming and decided to cut his losses, taking himself, his family and like minds with him before the collapse of our world into all out civil war.
"This means they're way out of date with reality and probably very hardcore in their beliefs. Its our experience with those who've been isolated this long that they become very committed to what they believe and will defend it."
Prowl sat back. "We have two groups there, Hercy and Kup's along with the newest one led by Raptor. That means 20 Seekers are there including Warlord and Saber who are sons of the Great Elder and Red Wing, our senior field flight commander. The crews are hardcore veteran soldiers and along with Raptor they have Sun, Jack, the twins, Ratchet and others who are experts at this sort of thing. Ratchet himself is Prime's chief negotiator."
:What's holding them there, Prowl?: Judy Witwicky asked. :The high castes or something else? We know space is weird:
Prowl nodded. "It is. We're not sure. Ratchet eluded to it and will be sending us a message tonight unless the line they're using gets shut down. I don't believe the high castes know we're using it. They aren't up-to-date in tech and we hold that advantage."
:How many of them are there? Do you know?: Sam asked.
Carly sitting next to him looked grim.
"We get the impression there's a good number, all of them the same caste. We sent a list of questions this morning and got the answers back shortly ago." Prowl picked up a datapad. "The planet or something on it draws in ships and keeps them. They found the others who were caught as well, a mixed caste group from what they know and there's about 200 of them. The high castes number nearly 1,000 and live in a very compact city on a small footprint. There appears that there's no dominant life form living there that is sentient enough to be thus classified.
"They're camping together. The humans are 'behaving' and they're trying to figure out the physics of the place so they can formulate a way off. There's another note coming later that will be more detailed but for now, all is well."
The relief was palpable.
=0=Ratchet and the others earlier
They lay in a tangle as they struggled to get up.
Ratchet managed, then climbed up the hill with his servo out looking for something that couldn't be seen by the optic. All of his settings including his medical and personally modified optics were useless. When he got near the top he felt a field before him, a charged field that pressed back against him.
The kids were there smiling at him and the others who were climbing up behind him.
"Hi. What the frag is this?" Ratchet asked.
The kids grinned at him, then one touched it. He pressed and it was obvious but the field was pressing back. "Its the thing that's been here. It keeps us inside," a tall young mech said as the others, all younger and smaller nodded.
Just then an adult appeared with a concerned expression. He called to them. "Come here. Get away from them."
Ratchet noted swiftly the tats on the adult, low caste, and the aura around him. He was fearful and furious. He gathered the kids, then turned to leave. "Wait! We're not with the others. We're new here and we got caught coming to find you to transport you off this slagging rock."
The adult paused as all of them looked back to the Autobots. He glanced at the kids, then told them to go onward. They did so grudgingly. When they were gone he walked back to the barrier. "Who are you?"
"I'm Commander Ratchet of Iacon and these slaggers are my minions. I'm here to do a reconn for a refugee rescue and this happened. What's this?" he asked.
The mech stared at him a long time, then glanced over his shoulder. "Wait here. I have to get someone." With that, he headed down his side of the rise and disappeared from view.
"What now, Commander?" Lon asked solemnly.
Ratchet glanced at the kids and the twins. He grinned. "Now you get to watch a Master At Work."
Huge laughter greeted that.
Then the sounds of someone climbing could be heard. The mech was back with three others. Two of them were older and gave a leader vibe. The other looked younger but older than the first one they met. They gathered at the barrier.
"I'm Ratchet of Iacon, a senior Autobot of the Prime. We got the distress signal and came to get you. We got snared and we need to know what's happening. The whole story."
The mechs stared at him, then the oldest began. "I'm PVC. This is my son, Torel," he said nodding to the mech they first met. "We were heading wherever we could when we passed by here and were drawn in. The colony was filled with high castes led by Reset. They were … unhelpful. They told us to find our own space but not to trespass on theirs. They offered no help, no assistance, nothing.
"We came here to this place, settled, then one morning we woke up to this. A huge invisible barrier surrounds the area where we live. You can't penetrate it. We've done all we could so we could lift off but the field almost seems sentient. Whatever we do it counters. You're going to find you're stuck. We've been here since the end when everyone was leaving Cybertron. They've been here longer."
Ratchet nodded. "We have access to the city and our shuttles are there. We've not reached any kind of accord because they won't have it. They've marinated in their own viewpoint to the degree that reason won't work with them. We've got armed mechs, a very veteran group and if we have to we can shoot it out. Right now, we have to figure out how to drop these barriers. Did they put this up?"
"I don't think they did, Commander. This barrier keeps them in as well," PVC said.
Ratchet considered that. "It would explain the small footprint of their settlement. Apparently, we're all prisoners here."
PVC nodded grimly. "The only real question for all of us is simply, prisoners of who?"
=0=TBC 03-28-2021
God, so tired. I have seven feet of snow dumped from my roof onto the ground around my house. This morning a young cow moose was eating the tops of my little alpine maple tree from the top of the berms. LOL! It was so strange to see the moose perched up there. I live in strange times. ;)