The Diego Diaries: Hunkered Down (dd8 123)
=0=At the 'toilet' in the woods
The mechs pitched survival tents in the center of the huge abandoned sanitation building, bringing their accommodations online as the sun began to set in the distance. Solar fire pits were placed here and there with crates to sit upon while the humans had their own. Activity had been pretty intense for a moment, then Ratchet glanced at the mechs. "Who wants to go with me to the shuttles to get food?"
"Hop on a Seeker. You can fly in and come back," Raptor said from the middle of a circle of mechs. "Bring the slagging beer."
Everyone it seemed had found a place and all of them stared at Ratchet with big grins or smirks.
And expectations.
"Thanks ahead of time," Raptor said as he sat back to watch the sputtering that always followed hard aft demands from one to another in the family.
Ratchet stared at them a moment, then frowned slightly. "Maybe I better use my enhanced vocal processor to call for help because I think you didn't hear me the first time."
Nearly everyone stood up.
Warlord who was laughing glanced at his brother and Red Wing. "Let's help Mom."
Hoots and agreement greeted that from human and bot alike as Ratchet hopped onto Red Wing's back in a flurry of long legs and arms. "Giddy up."
Red lit his peds and up they both went with the other two following the same way, bearing with them the scorn of the nation(s).
When they were gone from view Will and Niall walked over to Raptor, Jack and Sun. "What do you suppose is going to happen here, Raptor? Can you even speculate on that and a timeline?"
"You sound like a slagger from The Hourly News," Jack said with a chuckle. "Knowing how Optimus works and thinks," he said as the other humans walked over, planted their little camp chairs then sat. "Any time. Prime won't let the sun go down on this."
"It already has," Clarice said with a chuckle.
Jack snickered. "Smart aft humans. That'll teach you to come with us."
"It was supposed to be an easy reconn," Corey McFarlane said.
"Nothing is easy. It never is when you go into unknown space," Sun said. "You're going to find as you go along that your physics isn't the only one out there. It isn't even close to the simple stuff I've seen from other places about as advanced as you slowpoke infants. Comparing yours to what we usually find is as comparing a star fish to a space ship. Something's going on here that's new even to us."
"Why doesn't that fill me with confidence?" Olivia asked. "I can only imagine what Joe is thinking right now."
"Are you afraid?" Jessie Landon asked.
"I don't think I am. We're with the mechs so I'm not afraid," Olivia said, unwittingly raising her ranking among the bots and the humans here into the first tier.
=0=The Family Tower that night, somewhat earlier than out there
It was quiet in the tower among the humans that lived there. No one else in the community knew about this and no one was going to outside of the families directly affected. It was the armed forces way.
No mention was made in the news or the papers. It was blacked out and would stay that way for some time.
The children who were present when they were told about this were sworn to secrecy and they obeyed. It was part of 'The Tower Code' here. When someone had to keep something on the down-low, they were giving their word to do so to people as close as their own family. Among the community here a person's word mattered. Sometimes it was a matter of life and death to keep a promise made.
Being together was comforting and everyday when Bobby Epps came off shift he would stop by The Fortress, get the word, then share what wasn't classified with the families. It was like being in a special ops family, having to keep the secrets. Everyone on Mars among the human community who'd been here any length of time knew how to keep secrets.
Joe Bowers and John Fulton were in the meetings trying to figure out what to do and thus their conversations and intel was classified. What Bobby Epps could tell every affected person was all that was going to be said for now.
In two hours Bobby would come and everyone would gather to get the word, what there was of it. They would hear that Optimus Prime had sent a probe. They wouldn't hear that it disappeared as well nearly immediately after leaving the bridge out there.
It would continue slowly on, the days.
=0=There
They landed among the shuttles, then climbed into Hercy's to rummage among the cabinets and holds. Gathering stores and any number of other things, packing them for transport, they walked out and set them on the ground to sort amongst each other for carrying all of it back to camp. As they did it was obvious that mechs were just out of sight in the darkness watching them.
Warlord grinned at his brother. "We aren't alone."
"I know. There's four over there and two behind me," Red Wing replied.
Ratchet who was squatting nearby digging and poking into boxes and bags, having a great time in spite of things glanced up, stood up to look around, then said in a not too soft voice, "Are there slaggers out there? Why can't I see them? They must be stealth slaggers."
The three Seekers alternated between groaning and laughing as out of the darkness footsteps came with bodies into the light of the ships. Three very big mechs with very big guns paused near them, staring at the four with cold malice-filled optics.
Ratchet, Warlord, Saber and Red Wing stared back at them equally 'curious(ly)'.
"Why don't you give us what you know? You've been stuck here forever and you're way behind the times," Ratchet said.
"Is that so?" one of the big mechs, one slightly older than the others said.
"Sure," Warlord said.
"We have Cybertron back. We took it without a shot. Megatron is dead," Ratchet said as Saber glanced at him with barely hidden surprise, the infant. "Prime killed him with his bare hands. It was a duel, a personal duel between them for the possession of the planet and some other slag. Something about a burrito, right?" he asked the others who shrugged at him with fascination. "Anyway … Megatron thought he'd prevail but Prime killed him."
It was very quiet, then one glanced at the Seekers almost as if to see if what was said was true by staring at them somehow.
"Why do you see us wearing this?" Red Wing said as he raised his arm to show the Autobrand. "The war's over and we joined up together again. Megatron is dead. So is Soundwave. I killed him myself."
Both Warlord and Saber glanced at him, then the two mechs.
Warlord turned to face them with his full magnificence on display which was very magnificent. "I personally killed Shockwave."
:Who did you kill, Saber?: Ratchet asked off line as he struggled to stifle a guffaw.
Saber glanced at Ratchet with a slight frown, then his brother and best friend. "I got to watch."
It took all that the group had not to laugh out loud.
"They're dead? No one will miss them. Who's the Prime?" the big mech asked. "We already heard you say Sentinel went to the Matrix. If he did."
The three Seekers glanced at Ratchet.
:Fraggers: he said to them, then looked at the three slaggers. "Ultra Magnus, the Tyrest Enforcer is the Prime. He was bonded with the Matrix when Sentinel Prime was murdered. Remember, Saber? You were there, right?"
Saber startled, then nodded. "I was. I was there."
"Murdered? Sentinel?" one of the other mechs said who had obviously not gotten the whole 'story' yet.
'Yes. He was smarting off with Megatron about the System and other things. Believe it or not, Megatron was pretty anti-social and there was a fight over a femme. You know how Sentinel was, right?" Ratchet asked. "He was a historic femme chaser, Our Sentinel. He had his spark broken by the biggest femme I know. Sunstreaker was the name. Right?" he asked the Seekers who nodded, glancing from him to the slaggers, then him again.
None of them dared to say a word.
The three locals stared at him, then each other. The big one, apparently the spokesman glared at Ratchet. "Continue."
"Megatron skewered him with his big knife. I saw it." Ratchet glanced at the ground unwilling to look at Saber who'd bent down to pick up a bag to cover his need to laugh out loud. "Just so you know. Ultra Magnus is my son-in-law. He's bonded to one of my many daughters, some of which are still available." He smiled brilliantly.
The three local mechs stared at him silently, appraisingly. Even they were admiring Ratchet's smile among other things.
The other three, Seekers all, were staring everywhere but at Ratchet.
"I think you're lying," the first said.
"Why?" Ratchet asked. "I don't give a frag what you think. Why would I lie to you?"
The three considered that, it was evident, then the big one stepped closer. "Ultra Magnus is Prime? He killed Megatron? Cybertron is in his control?"
The four nodded. The conversation off line was to behold between them.
"Ultramus Prime," Ratchet said with a straight face.
Then the three locals without a word turned around to walk into the darkness to disappear.
Ratchet watched them go, then glanced at the three Seekers. "That's how you play the suckers, infants. Saber, I'm delegating you to remember the story."
Warlord grinned, then shouldered a butt load of stuff. "We're walking back. Grab slag and lets get back to the toilet so I can laugh my aft off and have a smoke afterward."
Chuckling on the inside to keep the illusion going for any slaggers that were still out there, they gathered up their gear and began to walk back down the dirt road to the sanitation depot in the clearing about two miles away.
=0=Back at home base
"I wished I was there, you slagger. Cut us in next time," Raptor said as he sat in his chair by the fire. The light played on him and he looked a bit on the Satanic side. "What's for dinner?" Everyone around him which was everyone stared at Ratchet with amusement, curiosity and for those who knew, a certain level of dread.
Ratchet hit him on the helm with a pot. "Shut the frag up." He walked to a faucet nearby and turned it on. Water came out. "WELL! WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE!" He walked back and set the pot near the fire. Then he began to unpack boxes from a big sack.
Everyone including the humans who were eating good meals packed in boxes that protected food for literally eons, thank you, Sciences, watched as well.
"You need help, Ratchet?" Lon asked because he was made of good.
"You can kick the first slagger that insults me in the codpiece. I'll be your slagging alibi."
Ratchet grinned as he dropped big bags into the now boiling water. They were floating almost immediately, a sign that they were done. Without fanfare, Ratchet transformed a digit, tweezered one out of the water, then tossed it to Not Rod.
Roddie caught it automatically, then bellowed loudly from the heat index of it which was somewhere around the corona of the sun.
Smokey laughed loudly until Ratchet tossed him one. Then he yelled, too.
Raptor and the others did as well. From laughter.
=0-Moments later
They ate their food, good and tasty off plates and drank beer that was also carefully and longitudinally packed for future beer busts on busted ass-teroids. It was a mellow group that broke bread together.
"I thought I'd be afraid but I'm not," Clarice said. "This is like camping out."
"It's funner as my kids say. Just out there are armed mechs that can come and shoot us in our recharge," Raptor said as he drank his beer.
It was silent a moment.
"And how is that 'funner', Commander?" Smokey the Twinkle in the Energon Delivery Mech's Optic asked.
"The thrill of pursuit. The thrill of the chase, of wondering when its going to come," Raptor said as he winked at Hercy. "Consider how big the hole is going in and then coming out. That can brush up your math skills alone."
Hercy nodded. "There's nothing like slaggers creeping up to shoot you in your recharge. Nothing at all."
It was silent longer as the youngsters among them, anyone who didn't come into being at least at the tag end of the Golden Age considered what the deeper meaning of their remarks were, these Gods of Their Profession™.
Ratchet grinned. There wasn't any.
=0=TBC 03-24-2021
Grammar police: I sometimes use these on words: ( ) to add this and that to the conversation or to make the grammar right or both. Curious(ly) needed that to make the statement correct and to add to the joke. Just so you know. You can take the old hag teacher out of school but you can't take the school out of the old hag. :D:D:D
Note:
For some reason the scene in Transformers: Prime where Starscream is sitting on Megatron's throne came to mind. When Predaking shows up and Starscream wants to give him the chair, he says "I have no need of thrones." I'm surprised he didn't melt it right then and there ala Game of Thrones with Starscream still sitting upon it. It would look like something you cleaned out of a bug zapper I imagine. LOL!
Starscream is unable to die. His spark is indestructible. If you want to write fan fiction about him, know that. He's the Deadpool of Transformers. :D:D:D Can there ever be enough of him at any time? :D:D:D