The Diego Diaries: Onward Ho (dd6 74)
-0-Evaluations
Smokey sat on the med berth with plugs in every port. He watched Ratchet go through the process while Partition sat at a computer inputting his remarks. He was a glorified stenographer for all intents and purposes.
"What's the word on things back home, Ratchet? I have another two orns to go here," Smokey said as the other mechs lounged around the room.
"Same old, same old. Festival was a hit, my little smokeys in barbecue sauce were a hit and Prime went to the Matrix. You know, the usual," Ratchet said with a chuckle. He pulled the plugs. "You're disgustingly healthy, infant. NEXT!"
Jolt walked up as Smokey jumped down. Sitting, he endured the ticklish (for him) process of getting plugged in to the diagnostics machinery that would trace down the smallest little glitch. He grinned. "What did Prime find out, Ratchet, from the Matrix?"
"He didn't tell me. Sometimes he does, mostly he doesn't. He has to work out what they tell and show him half the time first," Ratchet replied.
"The blessings were nice. That's the best part of this whole thing for me, that and eating again," Smokey said with a grin.
"You fast?" Ratchet asked with surprise.
He smirked. "You don't think I can?"
"No." -everyone there including his doting grandpa
Smokey frowned at them, a wholly cute thing. "I fasted."
"Until when?" Ratchet asked glancing at him as he turned to another console to check data. "There's no dishonor in breaking it. The priests made that clear."
"Well … I did have a snack about mid afternoon," Smokey said with a chuckle. Everyone else joined in with their tales. "What about you?"
"I held out until midnight. We always did once I got a certain age, but then it was easy. There was only so much food to go around," Ratchet said as he put Partition on his sensors. The bot was angry but it hadn't spiked since coming in to do 'scut work again'.
"We did alright," Smokey said as he leaned against a med berth. "Amma made sure of it. We never lacked. Sometimes there wasn't a lot but it was always okay with us. We lived in a sorta nicer part of town than we probably were allowed. Everyone feared my amma."
"My folks worked in factories. They were really religious," Jolt said. "We didn't have much. We lived in a slum in Nova Cronum and they made parts for ships."
Several of the others nodded.
"It's easy to fast when there isn't much to eat," one said. "My folks worked hard. Really hard. I wonder where they are."
"They're coming," Ratchet said. "Put that thought into your processor. They would never leave you."
It was silent a moment, then Smokey looked at Partition. "Did you fast?"
Partition looked at him, then nodded. "I did."
Smokey glanced at Ratchet. "I heard they want new holidays, some dotting the calendar. What sort, Ratchet?"
"Prime's looking at an orn to honor genitors, maybe some that honor our culture, a Cybertronian culture orn … that sort of thing. It's nice to have breaks in the schedule so families can have time together." He pulled Jolt's plugs. "Down, infant. You're disgustingly healthy."
"I could have told you," Jolt said hopping down. Static electricity crackled across him.
Ratchet grinned. "How do you have a partner with that happening all the time? How many partners have you electrocuted?"
"Thousands," Jolt said jauntily. HUGE hoo-haw greeted that. He grinned at Ratchet. "You aren't trying to match make are you?"
"How about him?" Smokey asked with a smirk. He jerked his helm toward Partition who glanced up with a startled expression. "You aren't in a partnership are you?" he asked innocent of the subtext.
The others looked at him with a grin.
"Frag no!" Partition said.
Smokescreen who was sitting nearby felt his expression tighten at what the remark meant as opposed to how the others saw it. "No, you aren't in a partnership or no, not with him?" he said nodding to Jolt. He felt the old time rage of high caste fraggery rising in him, the iron curtain that he and Dev ruthlessly fought against all their lives on Cybertron.
Dev wasn't the only one who hunted leverage for his child and grandchild to have chances in Praxus. He knew every secret along with Dev that the local authorities hid, feeding them to Devcon to make use of to get their babies into schools, clubs and opportunities closed to their caste.
Partition glanced at Smokescreen. "Both."
The room got glacial as the truth of the moment bloomed before everyone like a sickly flower.
Smokey stood up glancing from Partition to his grandfather, then back again.
Jolt whose good natured smile faded instantly sat up, too.
Ratchet who was setting up for one of the new kids, a former Decepticon named Pogo turned to the situation.
"What the frag. What's your problem?" Smokey asked as the whole group of mechs turned toward Partition with angry expressions. "Who are you to speak like that about him?"
"He's a fool," Ratchet said as he glared at Partition. "You're here under my orders and right now I order you to shut your mouth and do your job."
Partition glared at Ratchet. "I don't intend to be talked about. Frag anyone who thinks otherwise. I don't caste mix."
The room dropped to temperatures normally found in the vacuum of space as the mechs absorbed that remark.
Ratchet stepped into the middle of the room glaring at Partition. He turned to Jolt. "If I was a few million years younger and just stringing Ironhide along, there isn't a mech in this room I wouldn't jump. Jolt, you do know you're on the future bonds list, right?"
The youngster who was staring daggers at Partition glanced at Ratchet, then relaxed a smidge. He fielded a faint grin. "Okay," he said as Smokescreen moved to stand next to Ratchet.
Ratchet grinned, then looked at Pogo. "On the table, infant," he said as the tall livid former 'Con stood tensely beside two others. He glanced at Ratchet who nodded to him, then walked stiffly to sit. Ratchet glanced around, then at Smokescreen. "This mech is placed in my charge for being a high stepping fragger. He's going to learn one way or the other. I would appreciate it if you wouldn't take offense, any of you, because you earned your reputations and have shown your quality all of your orns." He turned to Pogo, then smiled. "Of course, I can't speak for the former Decepticons among us."
The mechs grinned, then snickered.
Smokey turned to Pogo who was becoming a very good friend. "I wouldn't either. You should see him run."
Ratchet laughed, then walked back to plug him in. "I would love to. How can you really get a bead on the quality of someone's aft if you don't see it running away from you?"
The mechs grinned, then nodded.
"That's true. I'd love to see Megatron's through the site of my rifle," another former 'Con said, a sweet young mech named Dangle.
The garrison here of regulars on the same shift had become a very tight group under the leadership of the amiable Smokescreen and the newer residents, most of them news people and other civilians from industry who were very fond of everyone. To say they were popular and well liked among the military and civilian humans posted here would be an understatement.
"You and me both," Ratchet said. "Have any of you worked near him or his spawn?"
"No," Pogo said as Dangle and Forteus, the other former 'Con youngster shook their helms. "We saw him decimate a squad for being late to a meet up. It was the scariest thing I ever saw. Every tenth mech knew before he got shot and most of them were too scared to move. He just shot them, Ratchet." Pogo stilled a moment in memory, then shook his helm. "I don't know what's wrong with him. He was never anything short of scary before but now he's crazy."
"Well, we'll get him, mark my words. All you infants have to do is be happy, work at what you like and be an asset. We need assets. Speaking of which, who among you needs an assist in the romance department? I have a great track record on that score."
The laughter and mockery that got was mostly deserved. Yenta Claus was a well known local menace among the soldiers on and off world. The rest of the physicals went well and the mechs left to go catch a bite.
Ratchet stayed with Partition to work out the changes in the med bay. Ratchet finally signed off, then turned to Partition. They were alone in the room. "That was a stupid and mean thing that you did. The boys were just talking like soldiers do. They actually were trying to include you. Did you notice that? Espirit d corps and all that shit."
"I don't care," Partition said with a stubborn set to his expression.
"You should. The world you wander in right now is filled with pot holes and very lonely. It could become permanent. Did you notice that no one else vouched for you and your genitors? Someone stuck their neck out for your brothers because they sensed that the two weren't hopeless. Without me, you wouldn't have a chance at rehabilitation. You needed a sponsor. No one in your caste volunteered for the three of you. How does that make you feel?"
Partition glared at Ratchet. "We would have found one. Whatever it takes for my genitors, I'm going to do."
"For them. What about you? Are you always going to be a selfish entitled fool? Do you ever get tired of being lonely?" Ratchet asked.
Partition folded his arms over his chest. "My personal life is none of your business."
"Every part of you and your life belongs to me. I read the fine print before I decided to help you and your genitors. I have complete say over your life until you're released from my sponsorship by the court and the judges. What a fragged up system that you're defending here, Partition. If you fail, then you get shunned by your caste forever. Even your genitors and brothers will have to shun you. Why would you defend a system that did that?"
"You don't get it, Ratchet," Partition said as he stepped closer. "This is about the truth. This is about the relative merits of our species. This is about the simple truth that some of us are smarter, better and more fit to rule than others. The Matrix gave Itself to a low caste fragger, Orion Pax who was once in partnership with another low caste fragger, Megatron. Between them their actions destroyed our world."
"You don't get it. You can't imagine that if you beat a dog long and hard enough they'll turn on you in rage and self defense, then eviscerate you. When there's nothing left to lose, when there's no hope and when your children cry loud and long enough, when you bury your genitors, bonds and siblings too early, then revolution is INEVITABLE! What part of that can't you grasp? Do you really believe that low and mid castes don't love their children and families? Do you really believe that the higher virtues are limited to you and yours alone?" Ratchet asked with appalled fascination.
Partition stared at him with a cold expression, then nodded. "Yes. I do."
That's when Ratchet punched him.
-0-Sitting in the rec room discussing the 'new guy' before hitting the road to race around or go on duty
Dangle, Smokey, Jolt, Rago who was an Autobot soldier from way back, Percle who was a civilian tech from Mars via Polyhex who was here to tweak computer linkups but was taking a break to trade slag with the boys, Forteus and another former 'Con named Distill traded slag and ate snacks. It was hot outside which was awesome but it was also humid which was less so. As they talked together a commotion at the door of the med bay was heard. They turned to watch.
Ratchet was punching the slag out of the 'new guy'.
They stood, one of them dragging a chair out of the way as Partition traded a few punches of his own. Back he went until he rolled out the door of the Embassy.
"Outside. Perimeter the humans," Smokescreen said as he stepped out of Ops Center at the noise.
Ratchet snorted after Partition ignoring everyone around him. The other mechs beat him out, then began to take up positions. The humans fell back startled at the sight of a mech rising up off the ground to turn on the Ambassador of the Autobots with his fists raised.
Ratchet stepped in slagging the kid, taking some reasonably good blows from the enraged kid as they mixed it up in the open space in front of the Embassy.
The crowds gathered quickly including a news crew from the news bureau that was based here now. The bots were cheering on the fight, it was evident, even as they made sure that the crowds weren't hurt.
It was a brutal thing, the blows that landed and it wasn't lost on the humans. Back and forth, they danced around each other, flashing blows that landed with resounding thuds.
-0-Ops Center, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire
:Prowl?: Alex Blake said as he sat on the console nearing the end of shift.
Prowl looked up. "Yes?" he asked.
:Uh, William at Diego just messaged that Ratchet and Partition are slagging it out in front of the Embassy:
Prowl was out of the door before Alex finished his sentence.
-0-TBC 7-26-17 edited 8-2-17 edited 01-28-2022