The Diego Diaries: processional (dd6 59)
-0-At the Basilica
The chanting went on for some time as the priests said the cycle of prayers for the dead. They were long and complicated, going through all the bases to include everyone. Their soft voices echoed off the walls of the massive building as th group inside stood for them. Outside, as far as the eye could see, millions of Cybertronians were facing the building listening to the event through their internal connections while everyone else would receive the broadcast through IntraComm.
It would go on for a while.
-0-Family Tower
"We finished the corners of that building last night. It's amazing how many places that sand and dust can go," Thelma Lennox said as the other women and some of them men around her nodded in agreement. "I love that building. I never feel more like a mouse among elephants than there."
"Did you see the set aside for the memorial?" Lois Morshower-Howell asked. "I didn't make it. I was at the Shrine for Solus."
"I did. It's beautiful," Thelma said. She glanced at Lois. "What is the Solus shrine like? I haven't been to any yet."
"It's beautiful, so soothing and peaceful. Each of them have a priest assigned to help anyone who comes including those of us who can," Lois said. "It's set into a niche between towers in Iacon."
Earlier the day before …
Lois Morshower-Howell and Lonnie Epps along with Aisha Mohamed and Clarice Forbes rolled into the Shrine for Solus Prime. They sped across the floor to stop before Gravitas who was supervising the readiness for the building to receive visitors the following decaorn or so. As it was, he was gathering small things to save that were left there already by The People, offerings of small carved stones, tiny pictures of Solus and other artifacts that made the shrines so personal and beloved. They were more accessible to The People and given their number, few lived that far from one. Some became huge, like the ones in Iacon and Praxus while others were small and intimate, like that for Onxyx in Tesarus, a city noted for artists and philosophers.
:HI, GRAVITAS! We came to help you: Lonnie called out.
He paused his efforts to look down. Smiling, he knelt. "I'm so glad. You do such miracles in the places we struggle to reach. Thank you for coming."
:Don't mention it: Clarice said as she stepped down with her broom and dust pan. :We got this for you: With that, she strode out with the others to get the place spic-and-span before heading out to another. It would be a very amusing time had for all while they did it.
At the family tower …
"I think it surprises them how much dirt, dust bunnies and sand we pull out of the low places," Thelma said. "I have to say, Gravitas is a treat to be around."
"Not in the beginning," Will said as he glanced at his mother. "He was a real bastard until Prime exiled him and the others came to their senses. Now he can't do enough. I actually like him now."
The others nodded. It was then that the prayers stopped and the priests turned to Prime to bow. Prime nodded his head to them, then turned to the group standing in front of the pews inside. They bowed to him and he nodded. Outside, arrayed across the entrance, the entire delegation of titanic frames stood facing out. They were beautiful and in their servos with blade tips resting on the ground, an astonishing array of swords gleamed in the sunlight.
Those who had gone inside who had carried a banner had placed them into stands that were arrayed up the steps. As the groups walked upward, they slipped each banner into one, then continued onward into the building. The banners of all the groups and organizations honoring the dead both on Mars, Earth and Cybertron lined the steps showing to the world and beyond that the whole of Cybertron, humans living here and Mars itself grieved together. They slowly ruffled in the slight breeze creating about the only sound heard.
Inside, Prime stepped up to the moment. It was his task to provide the eulogy. He stood with blade pointing to the floor, his great servos gripping the beautiful hilt as he gathered himself to tell the tale and sing the virtues of The People. It would not be the first time he had done so for a tragedy but he fervently hoped it would be the last.
Outside, The People waited expectantly. On Earth, there was silence on the airwaves as everyone waited for the big mech, a brilliant but highly unlikely alien lord to speak. In the habitats around the colony, it was silent as well.
Hildie and Jarrod Wilkerson sat in the main lounge with Angus and their friends. All around them, the family that was Earth 1 had gathered to watch the sorrows of their friends and neighbors, their hosts, and protectors be salved by the rituals and organization of their culture. They had learned a great deal about their hosts, the 'transformers' and they had grown to love them. None of them would trade the place they had now with anyone else anywhere. Outside, the sun was bright but the place felt oddly empty. Everyone was in town and along the highway leading their direction. It was a disjointed day for everyone as they waited for Optimus Prime to speak.
Not so far away, just over 5,000 humans were watching on the huge screens in the lounges, the theaters and in big open spaces of Earth2 where screens had been moved to accommodate everyone's viewing. They had gathered with children and pets, families together to watch the scene. Most of them knew something of the bots gathered over time by those already here but most of this was new.
Owen Harris sat beside his son and Hamilton Brown who had been released back to the habitat after three days of treatment. They were silent as they watched, their thoughts their own but it was clear that they had a lot to learn about the Cybertronians. Rick Harris who had more contact with them than anyone else here felt slightly emotional about the moment as the obvious sorrow and solemnity of the masses came to him. Neither his father nor Brown would demonstrate anything greater than curiosity.
-0-At the Basilica
It was deathly quiet as Optimus gathered himself to speak. His voice was calm and deep, the voice that called millions home, that commanded great armies and spoke truth to power. It was the voice grown with wisdom that spoke to them now, to comfort his people in this, their hour of need. "In the Beginning, there was nothing but darkness and The One. Alone, wishing experiences, He created his son, Unicron. When it was clear that there was no balance in the universe and that the greatness of all His creation was at stake, He created Primus.
"Chaos and Order … light and dark, yin and yang … both were needed to create balance in the universe … all universes. From the two came a great eternal battle where duality played across time and space, in the end coming to a conclusion through the sacrifice and unconditional love of One of the two. Primus came to the understanding that for the universe to survive, He had to end the war between brothers.
"He created the Thirteen to carry forward and create The People while He led the Great Destroyer into a slumber that lasts even to this day. He gave His first creations their freedom and the charge to help The People become a great one, then He faded into sleep. His body had been our cradle, his beauty our inspiration, his sacrifice our beginning. There are no others in this or any other universe who can tell this story.
"At the core of it is unconditional love. What father wouldn't lay down their own happiness to protect their children? What leader wouldn't give that last measure of their love for the betterment of their country, their people, or their world? We lived on his body. We took our nourishment from Him including the greatness of His wisdom.
With the Pantheon, 12 brothers and 1 sister, our people began their long journey forward to create a great and glorious society. They did so because They held the sacred creed that The One gave to Primus and which Primus gave to us.
"Until all are one."
It was silent as he allowed everyone to absorb that simple, fundamental truth that underlay every concept and notion that was part and parcel of their people and their culture.
All were one.
All.
"But over the course of time, we forgot our fundamental truth, that only in unity, only with love, only with unconditional universal acceptance of each other as the children of the same god would we prosper. Divisions appeared, none of them backed in the teachings of our gods and our forefathers. They were divisions that had no meaning beyond the subjugation of the many by the few. In the end, they made Megatron inevitable.
"The humans had a wise man who said, 'Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.' Who knows that better than us? We have turned our back on the most fundamental truth to life. Without unity, without love and tolerance, we have and are nothing. For those of us who have seen a lot of death and in fighting shared its creation, we know that when death comes the only thing that you take with you is your spark and your memories. All of the wealth and power of the universe stays behind. You take only the most fundamental parts of yourself … your spark, your personality and the deeds and memories of your life.
"All of the battles fought between us in our civil war were the failure of our people to remember what mattered and the teachings that were handed to us by our creators. We failed Primus who gave up His life and dreams to give us our own. 'Until all are one' were His last words to us. We did not listen. For some of us, we are still not listening.
"A great tragedy happened in space far away. Half a million of our innocent people died not because they earned their deaths but because someone decided they were expendable. Someone decided that they were a burden no longer wanted and put an end to them. They did so without remorse or concern to the teachings of The One and Primus. It was my sorrowful duty to protect them in death by destroying the planet they lay upon so that other aliens who lived there would not pillage them. I shall bear that burden forever.
"Here we stand on the cusp of a new beginning. We are gathering all of our people together again so that they might have the life they deserve by their mere existence. In this new world order, we live in peace, protected by our government, not oppressed by it. We no longer tolerate the poverty, hunger, despair, and shattered dreams that led us to near extinction. Cybertron is rising again. Slowly and surely, it will be a wondrous place of great beauty and possibility again. It is my greatest hope that in the doing of this miracle that we can find our sparks and self knowing again.
"Today, we come together as a people to mourn our lost comrades. Children, adults, elderly, all of them are gone. The only peace that comes to me is that they are all safely at the Matrix. Today, we have to live two lives. We have to live our own and we have to live for others. Those who are gone, those who are lost, those who still suffer … live for them too. We will never rest until everyone is found and rescued. We could not do this for this group who will be in our sparks forever but in their memory I rededicate our people to finding everyone else.
"We must never forget them. We must always remember and reverence them. They were us. Any one of us could have been them. It is time to put the evils of the past away. Never again shall the philosophy of such beings be allowed expression. They have defiled the teachings of the Guiding Hand, the Pantheon, Primus, and The One Himself. Never again will the System of Exception and all of its poisoned branches be allowed to have a place among us. For those who bear a burden for the actions of others who have twisted your philosophy and your beliefs, put that burden down. The only ones who bear this desecration are those who created it.
"I, Optimus Prime, Bearer of the Creation Matrix, the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, sovereign leader of Mars, Cybertron and the entire Cybertronian Empire by virtue of the Charter of the Primes and the choice of the Matrix Itself declare before all and the Almighty One that the philosophy that led to the Functionalist system of exclusion and the System of Exception itself are banned from our society and culture from this point forward into infinity. I do so on the authority of the Matrix, of the Pantheon, of Primus Himself, and the Great One. To continue to seek it is to challenge my authority which is given to me by the divine ones and will provoke an honor fight with me."
The soldiers in the room nodded with expressions of satisfaction at the oath that Prime was giving. There would be others who wouldn't be happy about it. Throughout the crowds outside, it wasn't well known what they felt but the lightness of spirit was real throughout the vast gathering. It was clear that this declaration was met with acceptance.
Prime raised the hilt of the sword to his fore helm, then seemed to be in meditation for a moment. He twirled the sword and held it up, its gleaming blade almost supernaturally bright. "I AM OPTIMUS PRIME! FOR THE WELL-BEING OF MY PEOPLE, FOR MY OBLIGATION TO THE MATRIX, TO PRIMUS AND TO THE ONE, I DECLARE ON MY AUTHORITY THAT I WILL CHALLENGE PERSONALLY ANYONE WHO BRINGS THE POISON OF THIS PHILOSOPHY FORWARD TO THE NEW PARADIGM! I HAVE SPOKEN!"
He seemed almost lit inwardly with passion and rage as he held up the sword. An intense energy gathered inside him making him seem even bigger and more unworldly. Then it rolled out, a visible tidal wave of movement that spread in all directions, speeding faster than the optic could watch.
Outward it went touching everyone as it passed. The crowd froze as it flashed through them heading onward in all directions.
Owen Harris jerked as the energy flashed through him and the facility, then disappeared. He felt jolted with righteous anger, with a sense of such ancient power that he had no words for it. Everyone else sat forward glancing around themselves, then turned back to the screen. It was the same everywhere in the colony.
Prime brought both hands to the hilt of the sword, then held it up, staring upward as well. From nowhere, a bolt of electricity hit the sword flashing brightly as it crackled. He held it as the electricity dazzled the sword, then he lowered it slowly. The blade was smoking because etched on the blade were words in Primal Vernacular and NeoCybex. "Until all are one" could be clearly seen where it wasn't before.
Prime turned the sword, then flipped it onto his back. He turned to the priests, then nodded. Lying on the altar-like stone that was central to this part of the facility, a large disk covered in glyphs waited. Two big mechs picked it up and with the priests trailing walked to the niche where it would be attached for all to see and remember. When it was complete, the priests bowed lowly.
Prime nodded, then turned to the crowds. "I am Optimus Prime, the First Disciple of Primus and through Him I speak the words of truth. We are one. We are unity. With tolerance and unity, with love and understanding, peace will come. To our brothers and sisters on Earth, to our brothers and sisters here, on Cybertron, in the Empire both reclaimed and not, and to all who still wait for us to come, I pledge my spark. This will never happen again. I, Optimus Prime, have spoken. Until all are one."
Murmurs of 'Until all are one' echoed in the basilica and the crowds outside. They were spoken softly this time. Prime stepped forward with the priests following and the rest came with him, following the leader that had been their savior, friend and comrade for millions and millions of years. They would return to The City in the same order as they came, walking through silent crowds who would bow to Optimus as he made his way back to the start.
-0-TBC 7-8-17 edited 7-11-17
In the USA, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial shrine is about the most popularly visited place in Washington, DC People leave things there, all manner of things for the dead and the Park Service collects them. They store everything left.