The Diego Diaries: Function over Form (dd6 12)
[ words ] - indicates the alien's languages
-0-Colonial Administrative Building on an abandoned world near the Benzuli
It was the same here, the abandoned work sites with their few personal possessions. Prime stared without expression at the space around them as everyone walked about collecting evidence and data. He began to gather from desks and other surfaces what few personal effects, images and other small specks of individuality that his people had managed to have around themselves in this, a desert of a space. A wrenching sound brought him out of his reverie. He turned to see Ironhide pull a database out of a computer input station. Others were doing the same. There was a master computer somewhere. They would have to have it.
Outside across the street, aliens were beginning to gather. They were heavily armed but silent. They were several types, some winged, some with similar reptilian features while others were big and leathery looking. Raptor walked to the door to stare at them. His huge hulking menace was powerful. They, however, held their ground. That didn't mean that they didn't shift slightly, gripping their weapons tighter. "Prime, we're being watched."
Optimus turned to the window to see them, then walked to the door. Passing Raptor, he walked toward the aliens. They shifted, moving back with a couple raising their guns slightly. Prime glanced at a waste receptacle, then picked it up easily. Turning toward the strange aliens, he threw it hard their way. It hit the wall above them, then exploded. The aliens broke on either side to run for the corner missing getting showered with garbage. They halted there to turn around again, fixing Prime with their unblinking stares.
Prime was seething with fury. :Prowl, download the directory of their language. Did you shake it out of One yet?"
:Give me a minute: Prowl said as he walked toward the odd councilor. Pulling a plug, he stuck it into One's neck none too gently. Prowl listened as the smaller mech sat quietly. Pulling the plug, he sent the database through their intra-communications system. Prime received it, then walked toward the group. [Speak to me! Now!] he said in their language.
The individuals moved backward with their guns raising slowly. ["Leave this place"], one of them cried. He was a big dark brown figure that appeared to be the group leader.
["Not without our people. What kind of creature are you to stand between us and our dead? What kind of society do you have that is so shameful?"], Prime replied.
The creature lowered his gun slightly. ["I have no say over that. I'm here to make sure you leave."]
["We are NOT going to allow our people to be victimized again. You WILL NOT have them. We will destroy these planets before you do. Leave. Tell your people what I just said. I MEAN it. I will destroy the planets first."]
The aliens stared at him, then melted into the alleyways disappearing from sight. Prime scanned and found them to be retreating. He stared at the alleyway, then turned to his people. "We are NOT going to give an inch. I want every scrap of information I can get about this. We need to know who everyone is. I need information about who our people were, what they did, anything that tells about them … images especially. I want to know who they were. They can not be forgotten." Prime glanced around. "Find the information center and get the databases. All of them. We had better get ready for a fight. Prowl," he said.
"Prowl here."
"Send data teams. Send armed escorts. I want to have this place scanned for information nodes and other database and computer collections. I want to know where everything of consequence is so that we can take it. They cannot have our tech. Find where it is and get it," Prime said.
"Understood," Prowl said as a bridge opened near Prime. Out of it came dozens of individuals. Some of them were techs and the rest were soldiers to protect them. Prime watched as Hard Drive called them to his side for instructions.
Ironhide turned to him. "Go to the ship, Prime. We'll take this over. We can come at a moment's notice if you need us."
Prime nodded. "Alright," he said tiredly. "Expect anything at any moment."
Ironhide nodded as he watched Prime enter the bridge. It closed behind him. He turned to the group and waited for his orders from his great grandfather. He would do so with his grandfather and two of his sons who had come down with the techs.
-0-Up there
Prime walked onto the deck, then sat in the command chair. "Update me, Prowl."
Prowl turned to him from tactical. He rose, then stopped beside Prime. They both stared at the forward view screen. The entire view was filled with shimmering light created by ships sharing energy to trap them inside. Prime thought about the sight, then turned to Wheeljack. "Do we have this in our arsenal? I do not recognize this as ours."
"We don't use this though there are those that do, Optimus," Wheeljack said from a table nearby where he and a number of smart Sciences kids were working with Perceptor on the situation. "I've seen it before and it's pretty solid when it's completely hooked up. We're working out how to breach it, though I believe all of us including the dreads can bridge out of here. There may be energetic frequency conflicts for the dreads to teleport out, so they would have to go by bridge."
"We have a standoff, sir," Prowl said. "We exchanged shots. They sent a missile and we shot it down. Then we sent a missile and they shot it down. Right now, their net is complete and they haven't tried anything since."
Prime nodded. "What do long range sensors say about the other three planets?" Prime asked.
Prowl consulted his datapad. "The planets are near enough that the jump between worlds is short. One is just a mining operation. Long range scans indicate no one is there. There's an indication that there are automated systems running but nothing that indicates a spark. The planet next to it, the farthest out, indicates industry and commerce. The entire point of the world was to keep visitors away from the areas where our people lived. There's no indication that anyone is there. There are automated systems in operation there as well. It's the next planet to this one, the third one from the star that's the major habitation zone of those who were considered just equipment by the Council.
"I estimate that there were over 380,000 to 390,000 individuals living there. That's the space where most of the work, the technical delicate work that required finesse was created. It's the habitation zone of the greatest number of individuals, all of them that did the heavy lifting. This world, the one we're searching now, appears to be the zone where the leadership and their personal work force lived," Prowl said. "We have technology problems on all four worlds but the population is limited to these two," he said pulling up a system map that showed every part of the Council's territory. There were eight planets in the system but only four were inhabited, two of them with the bulk of the population.
Prime nodded. "I want the third defense unit gathered together and on standby. Keep their vessels at the shipyard north of town. We can lift off in seconds if and when the time comes. Until then, our people on Mars and Cybertron do not need to fear what is happening. Right now, I want to speak to their leadership. I want to do so in their own language."
Prowl nodded, then turned to Blaster.
"Prowl."
Prowl turned back to Prime. "Find another ship," he said.
Prowl nodded, then turned to Blaster. "Link up, then link me in. Give me enough time to get to Gamma."
Blaster nodded, then sat back as Prowl walked to the elevator to leave. "This is fragged, Prime. What do we do with him?" he asked nodding toward One who sat like a statue nearby.
"We keep him here until we figure this out. Then he stands for his crimes like the others," Prime said. The screen changed as Prowl appeared. "I'm here. Link us up, Blaster," he said. Then the screen changed to the outside vision.
Blaster did, then glanced at Prime. "You're on."
["This is Optimus Prime. Who is the leadership of your faction?"]
The screen came on showing the golden bio-mechanical individual from before and no one else. ["I'm here."]
Prime stared at him. ["We are here to attend to our people. Nothing you can do will change that. If you wish to fight, we will not run away from it."]
["Then we will fight you, Prime."], Fortune said.
["What kind of people are you that you would prevent us from attending to our dead?"] Prime repeated.
Fortune stared at him a moment. ["We didn't ask you to come here. We work hard to keep your kind out. Now you seem surprised that we're going to do what you would do in our place."], Fortune replied.
["You want unfettered access to the technology of the colony. You want to pillage it and the dead. You would pillage our dead people. We will not allow it, Fortune. We are going to be here to protect our dead."] Prime said firmly.
["It's clear that you and I will not agree, Prime. You'll do what you do and so will we. What comes of this is on you."], Fortune said. ["We've asked you to go. You need to leave this place. We'll no longer tolerate your presence and that of your people. Wherever your kind goes death follows. We've lived here for eons in peace. Then you came. We didn't ask for that. Now we're telling you. Leave or there will be war."] Fortune said. Then he cut the transmission.
Prime felt rage rise through him at the thought of his people being in war again. It was deeply futile to him that such a thing could happen once more on this scale. He expected if from Megatron and with local area Decepticons that still opposed him. But taking on four civilizations that had access to their tech was a different problem. He thought about the people who had gone home, some with kids then were murdered on the spot. He wasn't here to protect them then but he was now. He had no choice but to defend them in death where he had failed them in life. He was their Prime. They were his charge. He would not by his sense of honor nor by his Charter turn away from his duties now. "Blaster. Link all the commanders together. Get a fix on the teams on the ground."
The screen ahead split as all the different commanders including an avatar of Hard Drive, Raptor and Ironhide appeared. "I am not going to abandon our people. We will protect them from being pillaged by these aliens. It is my duty as Prime. Anyone who has thoughts, speak now."
They stared at Prime, those on screen, then Ironhide's voice was heard. "You're the Prime. Command us."
The images of the commanders nodded in agreement as they listened. Starscream spoke. "This is an outrage of incredible proportions, Prime. If we leave them behind, they will be taken apart and engineered into who knows what? This is also a crime against our technology. Whatever I might think of Magnus and Tyrest, the treaties exist for a reason. We are duty and honor bound to resist this and to protect the dead. It's the least we can do."
Everyone nodded again. Prime sat back as he considered what he would order. "Then we show them our quality. Wheeljack, Perceptor … what would it take to blast their energy screens so that they go down?"
Wheeljack and Perceptor turned toward Prime. "I think if we create a fleetwide energy pulse directed toward the net it'll be enough to short it out. I don't think they'd expect it and it should throw them off their game long enough to know that we can bring the fight to them. They may have our tech but not all of it. Let them wonder what we can do that they weren't shown."
"Work it out then talk to Prowl. The rest of you, stake out your field of defense in the overall field of conflict and be ready if they decide to fight when the field goes down. I want the Seekers pulled back to standby. We do not know their level of firepower given the circumstances so I do not want them in the fight until we do. Understand. We are facing an opponent who has our tech. How much power they have because of it remains to be determined. Be ready to fight and cover your field of combat. Send to Prowl your battle plans."
The group turned to the task at hand as Perceptor, Wheeljack, and their smart kids worked on the plan to bring down the net. It was silent on the bridge but for the murmurs of the scientists and ship's systems.
"Ironhide to Prime."
"Prime here."
"We found the master computer. Appa is working out how it interrelates with the others and how we can take these, then pulse the others to destroy themselves. A lot of the systems that are still up are running under their direction. It could be that if we shut down the system or destroy the outlying nodes, it'll cause machinery to overheat and destroy itself. That wouldn't be half bad but it would destroy and burn the dead. What do you want us to do?" Ironhide asked over the intracom.
Prime thought a moment. "Can you download the contents and if so, how long would it take?"
Hard Drive answered. "We can. It would take a joor or so. We can also place a virus in the system so that if something happens that we can't hold this position, they wouldn't be able to enter the system without infecting their own. It would destroy their systems but not ours as long as it's not transferred or transported from this, the zero placement locus. This virus, the one I'm thinking of would need activation by us to do the same. It defends systems slated to be destroyed against access. It also protects computer systems that can't be transferred from being tampered with. Once it's in their system it'll destroy their files down to their maintenance programming."
"Do it, Hardie," Prime said. "Keep the activation for our systems to yourself. I do not want anyone else to have the codes. I trust your judgment."
"Very well, Prime. Hard Drive out."
Prime sat back feeling slightly better. Then Wheeljack walked to him with a datapad. "We're ready to send them a pulse. It would mean coordinating the entire battlegroup to pulse an energon burst on the same frequency at the same time, in the same intensity. It will flash out as a burst causing all tech on both sides to disrupt for a microsecond. This pulse will be geared to the frequency of the net so that it will go down but nothing more. If we tried to shut down their ships, it would take a lot more work. All of them operate at their own frequency."
"Then you are ready?" Prime asked.
Wheeljack nodded. "We are, Prime."
Optimus nodded. "Prime to all commanders. Prime to ground teams. We are going to activate a pulse at the nets hemming us in. We will need you to be ready for a fight when we do. Be prepared to fight. I will signal the send with a countdown. Everyone on the ground, be ready to lift off. Come to us if they fight. We do not want any of us divided in case of combat. Acknowledge."
They all did. Prime sat straighter, then nodded. "Get ready to send the pulse, Wheeljack."
-0-TBC 5-20-17 edited 5-24-17