The Diego Diaries: Visitin' (dd8 170)
=0=The Hourly News: THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS: STANDOFF IN CITY 4!
The overnight news reader, Jalet of Crooked Creek in The Highlands-Manganese Mountains reappeared after a break with the news.
"Good evening. Its 1100 joors on the TMC and this is the latest news. It's been reported by the Office for Strategic Information that a break in the standoff has just occurred with a large number of the refugees from Meadow Lands that are barricaded into the Tomsa, Esco, Brightman and Medusa Towers in City 4 of Crater District 7. Apparently, a breakthrough occurred about a joor ago surrounding a health condition that's been discovered among this group that has ominous consequences for children and elders if not treated. No information has been released about this due to privacy conditions but it was emphasized that its not contagious.
"The chief negotiator of the operation, CMO Commander Ratchet of Iacon was interviewed for a brief moment by Jacx and he filed this report."
The camera switched to Jacx outside the entrance to the Autobot City Medical Center which had a plethora of press and lots of blinking lights from ambulances and other rescue vehicles. "I'm standing at the entrance of the Autobot City Medical Center on Metroplex Highway 2 in downtown Autobot City. As of 1045 joors on the TMC vehicles have been arriving carrying several dozens of individuals from the refugee standoff situation at City 4, Crater District 7. They are almost exclusively elders, children, babies and adults who are assisting them from that group," he said.
The camera cut to b-roll of the individuals climbing out of buses to hurry to gurneys that were lined up to meet them. Adults gently laid frail looking elders and bundled babies and children onto them. Some of them could be heard crying. "There's an estimated 237 individuals in this group, all of them heading in for emergency treatment for some unknown ailment that apparently has afflicted their group for a long time. I had a chance to speak to Commander Ratchet for a moment."
The camera cut to Ratchet standing by the emergency room doors, tense and solemn as Jacx interviewed him. Behind and around them, the refugees were being taken inside by a crowd of techs, doctors, aides, nurses and children from the Autobot City children's Watch and Medical Auxiliary. "Commander, what's the problem with the health of this group that they'd come here out of the standoff?"
"Medical ethics prevents me from saying too much but it includes a very difficult and new strand of protoform wasting surrounding a malnutrition issue. Its acute among the most vulnerable, elders and children including babies but preliminary research suggests that all of the refugees from this group probably have the problem."
"What caused it and is it contagious? I only ask the latter to help contain rumors," Jacx said.
"Its not contagious. Protoform wasting isn't. Its an acquired condition. This strain of it is new to us and we're putting Sciences on it as a priority item. The children and babies are the most affected and some of them don't at this moment look too good. We're going to pour every resource into this that's possible. Every spark is precious to us including these. Its a hard thing living alone since The Fall without any influences or news from outside of the colony. We're glad they're here and treasure every life."
"What's the prognosis then for those brought here? Some of the children and a couple of the elders didn't look good to me, but then I'm not a doctor," Jacx asked.
"Some of them are in pretty bad condition but we have tricks to boost the system of a depleted individual to keep them going while we seek a protocol that'll work. Nothing we have right now will. I believe that the good will of the colony is needed for all of us, no questions asked. No matter what we might believe, we're all one. Being a refugee is an excruciating process and we need to help each other through this.
"Rumor mongers are slaggers and they need to think about the families who are terrified and exhausted right now. If it doesn't come from Jazz, Prowl, Hard Drive, Prime or me, its a slagging lie. I have to go now." With that, Ratchet ran through the crowd into the doorways and was lost to sight.
Jacx watched him go, then turned to the screen. "That's the word from Commander Ratchet. We're going to stay here to keep you updated but for now, the situation is under control. Back to the studio," he said.
The screen changed to a solemn appearing Jalet. "Thank you, Jacx, reporting from the Autobot City Medical Center in The City. Right now, we'd like to speak with Doctor Starlet and Doctor Fury, both research scientists are Infectious Diseases and Conditions, a private firm located in Talisco in Seven Cities-West. Doctor Starlet is an infectious disease expert and Doctor Fury is a medical researcher on Cybertronian diseases. Thank you for coming. Doctor Fury, what's protoform wasting for those who don't know, what are its symptoms and if left untreated, what's the outcome?"
Doctor Fury who was an old hand at this, famous on Cybertron for his tenacity and success and a total find for the colony considered the question. He was also a consulting fellow at Research and Development for Diseases at the Martian Medical Research Center, an offshoot and dream child of Ratchet located near the Sciences Center off Prison Road. "Protoform wasting is a disease caused for the most part by the lack of proper nutrition and nutrients over a period of time causing a negative immune response to the body. You see it a lot in the refugee groups who come with the usual variant strains F-21 and F-B 14. Those are the most common though there's some that are minor, very rare and mostly require just a transfusion of serum to kill all at once. The trick then is to start the protoform production process with a program of drugs.
"The F and F-B variants are more difficult and long lasting. It takes a lot of supplementation both against the strain and to stimulate protoform development into a hyperdrive state. It makes you sick sometimes and even can make you ache and feel nauseated. The drugs are not fun to take taste-wise but are incredibly effect. We have a cure rate of 94.9% using the usual protocol. The remaining 5.1% are resistant but we've developed a work around that takes care of that by adding a number of infusion type substances that do the trick.
"What makes this difficult is that its a different variant of the disease which in all likelihood developed in their isolation around improper or inadequate nutritional supply."
"Doctor Starlet, what are the symptoms of protoform wasting, what's the likelihood that our incoming refugees have it and what's the ultimate outcome if not treated?" Jalet asked.
"The symptoms of protoform wasting usually begin with unusual and long lasting fatigue, nausea and vertigo. They progress as the protoform making mechanism breaks down and is unable to produce the continuous flow of protoform that makes us who we are. Its our blood, essentially, and its the form of our anatomy that gives us leave to make different shapes, to transform and to be the figure of ourselves that we are. Its formed around an internal skeleton which is the framework upon which the protoform develops our bodies.
"If the process stops, then the protoform thins down and the skeleton which is fed by it becomes thin and fragile. It can snap easily which is why those with extreme cases find it difficult to walk or even move without breaking something. That's the point when its incredibly painful. When the skeleton becomes compromised then the body will find limited movement available until it gets to the point where the sufferer can't move. Its then that the skeleton deprived of nutrients begins to break down. At some point death follows.
"I would like to make it clear that the strains that we've found in the migration follow the F and F-B pattern. This is the first new strain of the disease that we've seen in all the years here and on Cybertron. Its unusual and there may be local factors to this strain that are found only in Meadow Lands. Its incredibly important that everyone in that colony be tested and if found with this strain receive treatment. The longer it takes the more time the strain has to disrupt."
"Are there other things that happen with untreated protoform wasting that you know about?" Jalet asked.
Doctor Fury nodded. "This disease is like the human's form of tuberculosis. Its a wasting, consumptive disease. It can enter the skeleton and destroy it the same way that TB gets into human bones and destroyed them. It can disrupt reproduction. If one is sparked, this is a bad time to have this disease because the body of the carrier often times is unable to carry the spark to separation. I would also say that the symptoms are more severe among babies and children, sometimes even causing death.
"We've known of it so long that its almost an extinct disease on Cybertron and among the Empire and its colonies. But the war brought it back. We have taken it down again. Its checked for among all returnees and treated. It can be defeated but you have to cooperate on testing and following the directions for care."
"Then its not a death sentence like it once was?" Jalet asked.
"No," Starlet said. "Almost no one dies from this disease. The only way you can truly do so is to ignore it. Don't do that. It never gets better by itself. We need all of us and we want to care for you. Doctor Fury and I will be helping Sciences work out the answer for this strain. We'll do it like we've done before, together. Just trust as much as you can and come in. Come in and be helped."
"Thank you both. Good luck on your research," Jalet said as both nodded. "We'll be right back in a moment."
-Command Center
"Damn. What a fragged way to go," Sunstreaker said as he sat with Sun and Jack. He was rotated in as others went to his spot on the front line of the standoff.
"It used to be in the ghettos until even the high tones decided a debilitated populace was a money loser," Jack said as Sun nodded. "You just dissolve."
"Frag," Sunstreaker replied.
Hard Drive listened to a report, then glanced at Sun and Jack. "We have more coming. Go and supervise. Sunny, go with them."
"Easy deal, Appa," Sunstreaker said as he rose to go. Following the two behemoths to the door, all three disappeared out of sight.
-On the scene
Three buses waited with escort cars from the Watch ahead and behind them. Their lights flashed, the overhead satellites and ships flashed. It was an epileptic's nightmare.
"How many is this here then, Appa?" Sunstreaker asked as he stood beside Sideswipe. That mech had another two joors before rotating out to the command center.
"This is another 110," Sun said. "That makes it … 534. That leaves 398 inside."
"Frag," Sideswipe said. "So far, though, so good. I heard the news report on the disease. I never had it, thank Primus. Sounds like pouring salt on a slug."
The three mechs glanced at him, downloaded the information, gagged, then slapped the slag out of Sideswipe. That's when the doors opened at the Brightman Tower and more refugees came out. Some of them walked with older kids, a few of which looked 'off'.
They came to the buses where Sun stepped up. He gripped the arm of a tall spindly kid gently. "Come, infant." He helped the mech walked forward and onto the bus where a tech inside took him further in. Turning to the group, joined by the others who helped refugees down the line, they moved the frail individuals forward to the bus where they sat heavily.
Behind them in the distance, doors opened and more came out, lines that led from Medusa and Esco Tower. It appeared that even more had decided to come.
Sun stared at them, then called Hardie. "Brother, we're going to need a lot more buses."
-Med Center
Ratchet heard the call, then turned to his department heads. "We have a crisis heading our way," he said grimly.
TBC 05-22-2021