The Diego Diaries: Around the Colony and Beyond (dd6 193)
-0-Public Works
Jetta watched as the huge generators were craned onto big flat bed trucks. Pulled by a non-sentient truck that resembled the engine of an express train, the generators would be towed to the Plasma Chamber Building one mile from Industrial Park #1. It would be placed there on pads that were being created now, five enormous and intensely strong stone platforms that were reinforced with a form of cement that was nearly indestructible. This would be the first, with four more following. They would be capable together given their interlocked design and output to power the entire energy needs of North and South America, drawing upon the energy created in the plasma chamber. Since that was almost eternal in its output, the idea of another power failure due to a lack of energy was now in the past. These were already on Cybertron powering entire regions and city-states. They were the first step in getting the lights turned back on at the home world.
The monster device was lifted into the air by a monster non-sentient crane, then swung ever so slowly as burly mechs on the ground guided it with ropes fastened to the device. When it was over the flatbed, it was lowered and set down with a slight bounce. The crane dropped its line which was pulled out from under the palatalized device as others threw binders over the generator and ratcheted them into a snug grip. It was instructive that Optimus Prime, if need be, could lift the device by himself rather easily.
"How long, Mor-Lee, before this reaches the plasma chamber?" Jetta asked.
"We have to go slow. We'll creep along about 4 miles an hour which I'm told is a fast walk for humans," Mor-Lee said. He was tall but slim, a tense and intense mech who had the maintenance and control of the Plasma Chamber and the Geosynchronous Bridge plant. "It will take about two joors."
"What about the other four?" Jetta asked.
"They're going to be hauled the same way. This is the biggest truck and trailer we have. To get them there safely, we're going to use only the two of them. It'll take about 8-10 joors to get them all there, another 12-14 to get them installed and on line," Mor-Lee said. "We're going to need a number of the weavers to come and help thread the electronics together. Wirelite and Joon will be there along with a couple of their students. It would be one unholy fragging mess without them."
"Alright," Jetta said. "Thank you."
"No problem," Mor-Lee said with a grin.
It was going to take a while.
-0-Ironhide and Company
The elders of the Ironhide persuasion went back to Cybertron or their forward bases to get the word which would be that nothing had happened there. That was relieving to everyone concerned. Ironhide had found that his department had come through in good condition. The systems that siphoned off the dust that filtered off the munitions during construction that could ignite the explosives under certain circumstances had not been disrupted. Their generator had come on ensuring that the airborne particulates from the process itself were continuously gathered, collecting the particles for recycle into munitions. The design of the armory had made such possibilities if not impossible, then highly unlikely.
He ambled out with Halo in hold and went to the Medical Center, riding up with a number of happy new genitors, then stepped off and walked to Ratchet's office. The four kids were there eating candy with Ratchet as data spun past on the screens. "Well, you aren't working too hard." He sat on a chair, then withdrew his daughter, grinning happily as everyone loved on her. He caught a can of fudge, then grinned at Ratchet as he ate it. "We're good at the armory. What about here?"
"So far, so good," Ratchet said. He grinned. "Partition has something to ask you."
"OLD MECH! HAVE YOU BEEN FRAGGING WITH THE INFANTS!" Ironhide asked. A tiny meep was heard, a tinier smile noticed, then shut eyes began again. Ironhide, overcome a moment, grinned at her. "Hush. Halo almost woke up."
"We have to hush?" Lancer asked with a grin.
"Your old pa is insane. Partition?" Ratchet asked with an encouraging nod.
Partition grinned at Ratchet, then turned to Ironhide with a serious expression. "Ironhide? I would like your permission to see your daughter."
Ironhide glanced at them, then Ratchet who grinned at him. "Your slagging caste customs, not mine. We'd settle this in a back alley in my caste."
"I might, too, if your intentions aren't honorable," Ironhide said with a grin.
Partition grinned back. "They are. Lancer is the best."
Ratchet laughed. "I did my best with what I had to work with."
That got slag squared.
"If your intentions are honorable, I give my blessing," Ironhide said. "I have spoken." He glanced at Ratchet. "I'm supposing you gave your consent?"
"Oh, frag, yeah," Ratchet said. "My intentions are to see everyone of our 487 children in harness, pulling the same slag wagon as you and me. What more can an ada hope for their 487 infants?" he asked with a dazzling smile.
Huge laughter greeted that, then Partition looked at his brothers. He slipped his servo into Lancer's. "We have to find you someone."
"We have 486 more kids. Take your pick," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile. That is, he did until a piece of fudge bounced off his helm.
-0-Aerie Hill
Starscream sat in the Command Center at Aerie Hill discussing the situation with the Elders and the command structure in this, a secondary station for the Seekerkin. The big one in The Fortress was manned orn and night and usually directed the operation at hand through there. "We have an invisible foe. This concerns me," Starscream was saying. "They could come here … they could BE here and we would not know."
Rainmaker nodded. "We have to redouble our efforts. What can be done about modifying the sensor flights to infrared or some other spectrum to see if there is someone there? What is the word on the device that Hercy had when we went after Pharma when he pretended to be the DJD?"
"I'll find out," Sky Warp said as he sat at sensors. They were re-calibrating them to full spectrum. It was a miracle that the beam had been found last time but the fact that it disappeared into nothingness was frustrating and concerning.
They would continue to talk and by the time they were through, the device from Hercy would be part of the internal structure of the sensor Seekers who flew daily around the system. It would be one more step toward detection.
-0-Earth2
They gathered at the conference table in the office level of the structure. Nearby, Operational Center ran smoothly with its Cybertronian crew and a small land bridge from which the crew came and went, something that the humans would never see let alone use. They were not allowed inside the big high tech room even to watch the show so sensitive was the equipment. It was frustrating to nearly everyone because of curiosity, but Owen Harris, Hamilton Brown and Kyle Davis were burning up with a lust to see how things worked. The Pit would probably freeze over before they ever did.
"What do we know then beyond the news broadcasts about what happened? It felt like an attack. Some of our security men where nearing Aerie Hill when the alarms sounded and the sirens blew. They said Seekers were coming out of their buildings to look at the sky. Everyone there felt there was an attack in progress," Owen said.
"I was in a car going to Pax when the sirens happened. Everything went down and the lights for the highway and all the traffic were off. Everyone slowed down, some pulled over and transformed but everyone recovered and continued onward," Cynthia Tomas said. "Everyone seems to believe they have a glitch in their power grid."
"I would love to believe that but my spidey sense is going off," Hamilton Brown said.
Owen nodded. "Mine, too."
"I received a message from Springer about the mercs, by the way. Changing vehicles before they're signed off to be outside is a no-no," Hamilton said as he picked up his i-pad. "They're now on Prime's radar because this will be a report to the Office of the Primes." He looked at Owen. "Not smart having them around."
"Maybe and maybe it might lead to interesting things," Owen said. He leaned back. "I want to see what Springer is made of."
"Spare parts, I can imagine," Kyle Davis said with a smirk.
Cynthia frowned. "You'd be a fool to think that. He's the chieftain of the Wreckers and he doesn't have a fearful bone in his body. You would be unwise to underestimate him or his mechs."
"We have a fan girl," Hamilton said in his usual fragged manner.
"You need to check Twitter, Hamilton," Cynthia said coldly. "That kind of talk can make you infamous these days."
It was chilly a moment, then Harris smirked at Brown. "I think you better. Last things we need is to send anyone home because they're an idiot with our female population. No one is putting up with it anymore."
"Yes," Cynthia said coldly. "No one is eating your kind of shit any more."
The meeting broke up not long afterward.
-0-School, in the library doing assignments
"What do you think caused the power outage?" Fireball asked Tru who was sitting next to him at a computer terminal looking for information on pulsars.
"I don't know," Tru said as he glanced at Fireball. Sitting at a table across the way, Quadrus, Santee and Saber were working on their projects. It was science lab following lunch, the first class for the five to be altogether during their school day. "It came back on so it must mean that there is a backup generation system here."
"I guess," Fireball said. He brightened. "Football for us starts in four orns. I can't wait."
Tru nodded with a grin of his own. "Me, too. They made a pair of teams for us big mechs. I wonder if we're going to be on different sides."
"The draw will be announced at lunch time on Second Friday. I can't wait," Fireball said. "I wonder if Ada and Atar are going to come watch? Appa and Ammas, too."
"Everyone is coming to watch," Tru said. "Uncle Max said so."
Fireball grinned. "It's going to be fun."
"So is Thanksgiving," Tru said. "I hear there's a contest. You make cookies and then they get judged."
"Ada will win," Fireball said loyally. "How about us entering, too?"
Tru grinned at him. "I don't know how to make things like that."
Fireball considered that, then paused his search for information on black holes to search the main public internet database for cookie recipes. He and Tru would be thus occupied for the rest of their lab. They would have to do their research after school at the Autobot City Main Public Library in town.
-0-In a lounge at Sparkling Day
"It's a good thing to have backup. I would hate to lose my data," Roto said. "I have reports due on the progress of a number of little ones. Orion's speech, Bleu's fine motor, Praxus and his advanced curriculum IEP … Hero is due, too, for an update. I do detect a trend here."
Condy who was a speech therapist as well laughed. "I like them, especially Orion. Good thing you've had him from the beginning. You translate him faster than the rest of us. I love sitting in on his sessions."
"He's the one," Roto said with a nod. "I got my first degree using him as a case study. They have a new one, a baby named Halo."
"Ah. Radiant Light. That's a beautiful name. I think I had a great, great, great grand ada named that. Maybe," Condy said with a grin. "I suppose you'll have to pry him from Ironhide's servos with a crowbar, too?"
"Most likely. We should be getting Prowler by next year. I really look forward to that. He's a very smart sweet little imp. Halo, in all likelihood, will be an Academy grad as well. Miss Birdie will be Ironhide's nemesis for a long time yet."
"Funny how the children adore her," Condy said as they continued working. If he had known and a baby could tell him, he would know that the energy aura around Miss Birdie was a golden color reflecting her love for the children. They could see it and feel it. That's why they loved her. That and her sense of humor.
Who knew?
-0-Out there
A big armada hid itself in a nebula to go over a download of information that they had stolen from a big and heavily armed civilization some sectors away. It was going to take a while to go over things. They had struck and then ran. Disappearing from view, they reached their hiding place. He sat at the command seat, the commander of the group. He had a soft voice but he was no one's fool. He was tactical, enormously smart, enormously strong, and unafraid. He was the product of his civilization. He had reached the pinnacle by being the best among the best. It was so obvious that he was chosen by acclamation. The respect he commanded in his civilization and among his men was legendary.
His soldiers worshiped him. His officers respected him completely. They were a warrior society and in it, he was the apex, the heights. Wherever he wanted to go, whatever he wanted to do, his soldiers were ready to die for him. His empire was vast and he ruled it with a tight fist and an oddly benevolent attitude. In their society, he was the last word but his society followed him without hesitation or regret. Now, he had intel and he would go over it. He would gather his officers to work out the situation and what they would do.
He was a king without a country. He was home and then he wasn't. It came and went, leaving him frustrated. It wouldn't do. He would find his way back to his incomparable kingdom and once again, The People would have his strength and wisdom. Until then, they had to figure it out. He turned to his lead scientists and handed them back their datapad. "That is intriguing. Continue."
The four of them bowed. "As you command, my Lord," Wheeljack said. Turning to leave, Perceptor, Shockwave and Jhiaxus followed.
Their lord would digest what they found out and try to see how it could help them in their current state. It was quiet on the bridge of his ship as the Lord of a vast kingdom puzzled out his dilemma.
-0-TBC 11-17-17 edited 1-7-18
I am going to be close to the vest about this one. No more than minuscule clues. ;)
-0-Notes:
In some universes, the Plasma Chamber is the source of new transformers, their bodies coming from there in one of the several forms of creation. It's profoundly critical to keep it safe, thus, the Prime carries one of the keys on his person at all time. :D It also powers things like the Triggers.
Holding something close to the vest: not telling anyone. Rather like Ratchet and the last two kids. :D