The Diego Diaries: Function (dd6 7)
-0-Out there
The ships carried dozens, even hundreds of individuals forward, some of them from Mars who came to help, some from the migration who were in need. The greatest number of those heading for sanctuary were the worker bees of the group, those that did all the work because their 'form dictated function'. Two and a half thousand or so left, going with doctors, social workers and others who would help them figure out what could be possible in life with a bit of help. That left about two thousand of the rest, those that were functionaries in their colonial structure and their families. They would be taken to the prison. They would be held until the investigation was complete and decisions could be made. That party included children.
Optimus Prime sat in his chair brooding. He was riven with outrage and futility. Even though Solus had come to tell him that this was their failure, not his, the burden fell upon him anyway. Never in the history of The People since the orns of Prima and Guardian Prime was there a leader among them that was more serious and strenuously diligent than Optimus. Prowl who was working nearby coordinating things and making decision glanced at him from time to time. They would have to talk.
Blaster turned to Prime. "Optimus, the championship game just concluded."
Prime glanced up at Blaster. He nodded. "What was the outcome?"
Blaster checked the data, then glanced at Prime again. "Kaon defeated Simfur in overtime. It was 9-8."
The news filtered through the group, then Prime nodded. "Thank you, Blaster."
Blaster nodded, then turned back to the comm station where he was coordinating all communications between the operation underway and the colony far away. It must have been a helluva game but they hardly felt it. They were working out a possible genocide. Nothing was going to lift the pall of that news. Nothing for some time.
-0-On a prison ship
They sat or stood in a cell that was set aside from the others. The bars that held them in were there but they were opaque. Some function made it impossible to see out but the guards working the floor could see in. This was an exclusionary cell, one designed to prevent those inside from watching the goings on outside. The ship was filling up as they brought in families and the others who came with them as officials. They were easier to pick out among the entire party. They would look the Autobots directly in the optics, while those who worked for them didn't.
One of Twelve sat on the berth bench shaking off his grogginess. The other three were beside him as they came up from their unconsciousness slowly. The others stared at the four, then Three of Twelve knelt. "What happened to you?"
One looked up at him with his singular optic. "Prime. This was a mistake. He will find out and go to search. We should never have come here."
"Where would we go?" Three asked. "There was no place else to go that didn't involve the Decepticons. As it was, they intercepted us before we entered into the reach of Razorclaw. That would have been worse."
"What is this place?" Eleven of Twelve asked as he stood.
"A prison ship," Seven of Twelve said. "We are arrested." The four stared at him as shock reverberated through the group again as Eleven sat. "We are headed for their colony, one on a planet called Mars. They will put us in the prison, all of us who were leadership and our families."
"That's absurd. Our families are blameless," Eleven said.
"There's a Master here," Seven said. "Cyclonus. He's the Master of the Monastery of the Clavis Aurea which they reconstructed on Mars. He said they're rebuilding the one on Cybertron."
"That is not good news," One said. "He will be expert about the Guiding Hand."
"He has his values and philosophy about the Guiding Hand and we have ours," Ten of Twelve said with a cold tone. "We have freedom to be who and what we believe. There are many sects on Cybertron. We are just one way of thinking."
"Their objection will be our methods … recalling mechs and the like," One said. "That will be bad. Prime will not be amenable to them."
They would debate their situation for a while before the ship would be filled, then head back. Gee-Gee herself would go with them and put them into their segregated lock ups. She would make sure that they understood her methods.
-0-Mars
Celebrations commenced in the stands as the crowds exulted, many jumping onto the field to run amok. The teams managed to make their way to the safety of their locker rooms after a short ceremony of the award of the trophy. They had made two long lines, the teams, then the President of the Cybertronian Adult Football League, Password, walked out with the shining trophy. He gave a fine speech which everyone appreciated … football had its rituals to be kept … then handed the trophy to the team captain of Kaon's world(s) champion Kavaliers, Sunstreaker of Kaon. He took it, then held it up. The crowd lost its mind.
-0-Out there
They complied the flight plan of the group who had crossed space to come to them, leaving the Benzuli to cross the Barren, then reach this far into Prime's domain. Once they left their homeworlds, they didn't stop anywhere. It was imperative that they leave and not be caught. The only places that could be sites to search for anyone possibly left were the Benzuli itself and the area nearby in this, quarantined space. It appeared that no ships were left behind, no gear tossed, useless things both sentient or not either, so that part was less agonizing to Prime. He would have a deep space scan made anyway. He didn't trust the cyclops-eyed murderers and he would take no chances with some poor mech's life if he was jettisoned as useless cargo.
If truth were told, that was Prime's biggest fear. The idea that someone might be overlooked to die alone or be taken by others to be reversed engineered kept him up some nights. Ever since Jesso and her wandering ship, the agonizing fear he felt listening to her calling for help over the radio never left him. "Are you nice?" she had said to Red Wing in her terror. It had been like a stab in the spark to hear it. Her genitors were in stasis lock at the time from feeding them their own energon and the effects of starvation. She had flown the ship herself with three tiny sisters cowering at her peds. She had gone off course in her desperate efforts and if her radio hadn't worked, if she hadn't figured out how to use it, they would have all been lost.
For all the Jessos, Prime worked orn and night to serve and protect. This was no different but for the fact that no one was left to save. He would look. He would turn over every stone and check every space for anyone that might have survived but he had a forlorn hope.
"We have the last bunch moving out. Pilots have the ships left and will take them in. Forensics will team up with Aviation to go over them for evidence and anything else that might tell the tale," Prowl said quietly as Prime nodded.
"Very well. What is the flight plan back to their starting points?" Optimus asked.
"We have it laid out," Prowl said punching a button to show a flight plan on an overhead monitor. "We can go when you decide."
Prime nodded. "Please make it so. We will bridge jump." He was silent a moment, then sat back. "We must keep this under lock and key for now. There are many adherents of the Guiding Hand. I do not want trouble because of this. We have never had sectarian violence over religion and I do not want it now. I will tell our people what has happened when we know more."
Prowl nodded. "I concur. I will organize the flight. Give me a moment."
Prime nodded, watching Prowl as he ordered up a big flight, one with a medical, forensic, armed forces, and a database component. This would be fully investigated and the evidence meticulously taken. What they would do with five hundred thousand dead bodies if this was the case, no one was ready to think about or ask. It was quiet on the ship as Prowl called up the cavalry.
-0-Mars, Cybertron and the Empire, Earth, Gliese, and the Forward Bases
The celebrations were intense. Tens of thousands of individuals poured out of the stadium to celebrate. The streets were packed with happy footballers. Celebrations in other places were going full blast as well. This was the first time that anyone on Cybertron had seen such a championship with full worldwide broadcast and pre/post game shows. The humans made it to their tower as the crowds moved along. Security was out in force but the atmosphere was electric. It would only be noticed later that anything was up when the big ships on the flight line began to take off for space.
The Hourly News would have nothing to say about it for a while.
-0-Out there
They came through the bridge, battleships fully armed and manned, flights of Seekers, mostly heavies, and gunners, along with ships for medical and those filled with runabouts, flight transports for the search so that a great area could be covered by teams of investigators. The individual teams would comprise a medic, a data collector who would handle the evidence that the forensics team member would gather and several mechs and/or Seekers who would provide security.
The ships began to mass in the area for a high-security flight including all of the Supremes. They had no idea what they would face and given that the colonies had traded with aliens, the idea of running into armed forces required equally fiercesome intentions. Gamma, Zeta, Kappa, Beta, Alpha, and Xantium formed up nearby, their size and armaments a good deterrent as well as a platform for Seekers to rest and recoup.
Prowl turned to Prime. "We can go when you say so."
Prime nodded, then glanced at Blaster. "Open a channel to every ship."
He did, then nodded to Prime. "You're go. Optimus."
Prime gathered his thoughts, then began. "This is Optimus Prime. We called you here to help affect a possible rescue mission. We have absorbed a migration that was heading toward the area currently occupied by Razorclaw. When we boarded, we found that they were lead by the Functionalist Council. For those of you who might not know, they were a group that overtook Cybertron after the Quintessans were overthrown. They left after a civil rebellion overthrew them and have not been seen until now. They founded settlements in the Benzuli region among the Rifts.
"After a conversation, it was made clear to us that there were 500,000 individuals in their colonial settlements," he continued. "There were only 4,500 individuals in this group. We are going back to find the others."
On the other ships, commanders and crews listened. Raptor, Ironhide, Hard Drive, Turbine, Delphi, Kup, Hercy, Springer with Drift, Scar, Payload, Starscream, Rainmaker, and Warlord among many others stood on the decks of the ships they would command listening. Some of them already knew the possible horrors ahead while others heard for the first time.
"We believe that we will not be operating a rescue mission. It was the practice of this group that should they feel that you were no longer of use that you were then disposable. It is highly likely that we will be going to a scene of mass murder."
Starscream, Red Wing, and Rainmaker who had transferred over to his ship before Prime began blanched. They sat together in the lounge of the ship listening with growing disquiet as Prime continued. "We may be heading to a gigantic graveyard. It is my intent and purpose to sift every grain of sand there to find anyone who might still be alive. We will look everywhere. Never will your skills and fortitude be more needed than now. If this is what it seems likely to become, we must treat it not only as a mass grave but as a crime scene. You will go in groups and do the most thorough job possible.
"We may also come across aliens that bear our tech and weapons systems, traded to them by this group in violation of the Tyrest Treaties. We must be on our guard. I will give you more information as it becomes clear. Now we will jump from here to their colonies. When we get there be ready for anything. Commanders, have your weapons systems online. Prime out."
It was leaden on the ship, then Prime glanced at Rem. "Let's go," he said solemnly.
Rem who stared at Prime with emotion during his remarks nodded. "Yes, sir," he said, then began to program the ship to move. As he did, space in front of them bloomed with two giant space bridges. The group forming from habit into a defensive formation jumped forward and flew into them. They all entered, then the bridges winked out. No one who would come in future would know that anything had ever happened here of any consequence.
Space is neutral.
-0-TBC 5-16-17 edited 5-23-17