Chapter 1: Chapter 1
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The Diego Diaries: Habitat 3 (687)
-0-On the ground, Earth
Prowl watched the helicopter that began to edge closer. He was standing straight up, staring at the pilot who looked shocked. Cameras were rolling and he knew that he was on the local as well as probably national and international news. :Sir, we have a situation:
:I see it: Optimus replied. :N.E.S.T. is on the way:
Prowl turned to his companions. :Get him ready to go. Call a bridge, then leave. I will take care of this:
Jolt and Jazz nodded, then gripped the unconscious Decepticon. For a moment they waited, then a bridge appeared out of nowhere. Dragging the 'Con between them, they hurried forward disappearing into the whirling storm. Prowl turned, then climbed the slight incline to the highway. He turned to the mass of cars and the gathering police officers, most of whom had their guns drawn.
He looked at them, then knelt. "I am Prowl. I am an Autobot. We came to capture a Decepticon and take him away. I would like to talk to your commanding officer."
They looked at him, then each other. A tall man with a gun lowered his weapon, then walked toward Prowl pausing before him. "I'm Sergeant Miller. What's going on? How do I know you are who you say you are and not one of them?"
"I am Prowl, Second-In-Command of the Autobot Armed Forces. We received a call that a Decepticon had made a move against a human who works on Mars who was visiting here on business. We came to their call, liberating her from custody. We have neutralized the individual and have removed him from here."
"What was that? Is that one of those space bridges that you have?" Miller asked.
Prowl nodded. "Yes. The intruder is in our custody and won't be coming back. We are dedicated to protecting humans against this threat," Prowl said.
"I thought that all of them were gone already," Miller said as more cops gathered around.
"There are some still here, the group that attacked Diego Garcia. We are tracking them and when we find them they are neutralized," Prowl replied. "We have a situation here. We have to handle it." He glanced around noting that people were getting out of their cars to take pictures with cameras and cell phones. He looked at Miller. "As one police officer to another we have to deal with this situation."
Miller glanced around, then looked at Prowl. "Were you a cop? I see your design suggests it."
Prowl nodded. "I was a police detective before becoming a soldier."
Miller grinned. "One cop to another?" he asked.
Prowl perused the word, then nodded with a slight grin of his own. "Agreed."
Miller looked around, then turned to the officers with him. "Get these people back in their cars. I'll take care of the report."
His men turned and began to herd the civilians back to their vehicles. Miller turned to Prowl. "I assume that we'll get a report for this incident?"
Prowl nodded. "I will send it myself."
Miller nodded. "Will you use a bridge too? To go back?"
Prowl nodded. "Yes."
"I won a bet that Praxus Science would win the championship. Thanks," Miller said with a grin.
Prowl grinned in spite of himself. "You are welcome," he said standing up again. Looking around, taking data he would analyze later, he turned to walk down the embankment once more. As he did a bridge he called for appeared. Without a backward glance, Prowl of Praxus walked into the energy, then disappeared.
Miller and his officers stood on the road a moment, then turned to do their jobs. It would also be broadcasted globally.
-0-Diego Garcia, Earth
Prowl stepped down from the platform, then turned to walk upward to Ops Center. When he reached it he entered, noting that Leonora Huttle was sitting on the command table on a chair. She turned to watch him enter. He sat down across from Jazz and Jolt, then leaned forward to look at her. "Are you alright, Leonora Huttle?" he asked.
She nodded. "I was never so happy to see anyone, Prowl. You, Jolt and Jazz are my heroes."
"What happened?" Prowl asked.
"I was coming out of the studio to go back to LAX for the bridge home when the taxi I was riding in turned into something else. It was a Decepticon," Leonora replied.
Prowl nodded. "How would they know about you, Leonora?" Jazz asked.
She looked mystified, then Prowl asked, "Do you use social media?"
She nodded. "We all do. Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and Instagram. We all use them to talk to fans, to help with the message we want everyone to know … that the Autobots are the good guys." she said earnestly.
Jazz grinned slightly. "That could be where its comin' from. They could be tracking connected humans through the social media outlets that they use."
"I would like you and Elita to look into that. There might be a way to turn this to our advantage. We will filter the messages going out through the off world servers for anything that might allow them to locate you but we don't want to alert them," Prowl said.
She nodded. "All you have to do is tell us what you want us to do, Prowl."
He nodded. "Right now, I want you to go to Mars. We can protect you there."
"This was caught on the news, Prowl. What can we do about it? Its going to be bad isn't it?" Leonora asked.
"We will handle that," Prowl said. "It is known that there are 'Cons still loose with Arachnid."
She sat back wearily. "I'm sorry, Prowl. This complicates things."
"Everything is complicated here, Leonora. This did however highlight a security breach," Prowl replied. "I think you need to go back to Autobot City. I will follow after we get this taken care of."
Jolt and Jazz arose, then Jazz offered his servo. Taking her gently into hand, they turned to walk to the bridge room. They would be back on Mars swiftly, pausing only to allow Leonora to put on her gear before they did.
Prowl sat at the communications desk discussing the problem with Prime. By the time they trouble shot all of the numerous possibilities, Prowl would then allow the equally numerous requests for interviews to come through.
-0-Ops Center, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars
"This is just what we didn't need," Ratchet said leaning back to watch the interviews. Prowl was calm, reassuring and the right mech to do damage control. Prime himself was in the conference room having a chat with half a dozen world leaders and others with a vested interest in knowing what was going on.
"That 'Con … what's the status on him?" Elita asked as she turned from communications toward Ratchet.
Ratchet made a call and got the update. "He's in stasis. He has a few dents and a bad attitude but otherwise fine."
"Good," she replied grimly. "He's mine."
-0-The Hourly News, "LATEST BREAKING NEWS!"
"We are monitoring the broadcast of several Los Angeles television stations as well as MSNBC, CNN and the consortium broadcast of the MCA. Right now, it would appear that there's excitement over the incident itself but that there's a calm in spite of the shock of discovering a Decepticon on their roadways. Optimus Prime is in contact right now with world, national and local leaders apprising them of the situation. Gen-O, what do you suppose this incident will do to our relationship with the humans of Earth?"
Gen-O considered that. "I would think given that humans know the efforts our Prime expends in insuring that they are safe and protected, it will continue to give them confidence. A threat was detected and addressed. We have promised our devoted protection, not impossible perfection."
They continued to chat as Ravel continued to listen. "This isn't good, Tie. They will be frightened and I don't blame them. We need to find and confine Arachnid and her soldiers as soon as possible."
Tie paused to look at the monitor. "They will. Our army is that good."
Ravel nodded. "I worry about Earth. I feel for them. They aren't equipped to take our kind on in numbers."
"That's what we're for, Ravie," Tie said as he turned back to the job at servo. Ravel would join him with one worried optic on the monitor nearby.
-0-Elsewhere
She considered their failure with a frown. She wanted that human for her program. She had Brandon Clark's avatar working on the habitat the humans wanted. She wanted to have someone with free access to the colony which the human woman would have supplied. Now it was iffy if their plans weren't turned over to the Prime with the capture of one of her soldiers. Next time she would send an Insecticon to do the job.
Pacing back and forth, she began to reconfigure her plans for the short term future. They would not include letting the Autobots in on her location any time soon.
-0-Some time later in a security cell in the Metro Hospital
Prime walked into a conference room to sit. Ironhide, Ratchet, Jetta, Ultra Magnus, Starscream and Jazz were there as well. Elita opened the door, entering as behind her came a wary Decepticon heavily cuffed and guarded. Springer and Drift who brought him in paused on either side of him as they pushed him into a chair.
It was silent a moment, then Prime leaned forward resting his elbows on the table. "You know who we are and we know you. I think it would be in your best interests to tell us what we want to know."
"And if I don't?" the mech asked in a venomous tone.
"You will anyway. Ever heard of a cortical psychic patch?" Ratchet asked.
From the expression on his face it was evident that he had. Leaning back as he tried to remain outwardly calm, he considered the enemy before him. He knew who most of them were and fought personally against Elita a couple of times in the distant past. He had little personal experience with Autobots so their threats didn't seem unlikely even though they were. "If I tell you things what's in it for me?"
"We won't tear you into confetti, punk," Ironhide replied in his usual ominous manner.
"Talk or I'll have to unscrew your head and find the information the hard way. Either way, I have a good time," Ratchet said.
It was silent a moment, then Wheeljack leaned forward. "We are of the opinion that your team is collecting humans for a reason. Care to elaborate?"
He didn't.
"Why would Arachnid collect humans?" Ratchet said in pretend speculation. "Makes you wonder..."
The mech sat without a remark.
"Why not speculate? What's the harm in that, right?" Wheeljack asked as he glanced at Ratchet.
"Go ahead, 'Jack," Ratchet said with a nod.
"Consider the facts … collecting random humans indicates perhaps that there is experimenting going on with your group. I am aware that Protocol Infiltration Teams often utilize resident aliens to advance their cause. What we have to deduce, Ratchet, is what kind of experiments they're doing."
Ratchet nodded. "I can think of a couple of things I've heard about in the past. Care to listen?"
Wheeljack sat back, then nodded. "I think we would be interested in listening. Go ahead."
Ratchet nodded, then looked at the tense 'Con. "Stop me if you've heard this before," he began.
-0-TBC April 18, 2014 edited 8-14-15