The Diego Diaries: Mission (6-299)
-0-Heading into the heart of things
They flew in a furious line, a spearhead shaped formation as they jetted toward the automatic signal. Someone had called them to come. They sounded tense so it wasn't going to be a good thing. The other colony apparently was still up and at it, so the reach of the Functionalists had to be less than it seemed.
Perhaps.
They flew past markers that were rather sophisticated sensor arrays to alert the … whoever was there that someone might be coming. They flew onward toward a small sun with two planets circling it. It was powerful enough to support life if that life was hardy and resistant to slag the way they were. It was also in a nice position where you'd have to know it was there to find it. Following the message and its stated coordinates, they burst through a debris field of an ancient rocky planet that had met its doom with the unstable radiation that made living here a crap shoot as the humans were wont to say about high risk ventures.
The sun shown brightly as they made their way forward following a directional signal that had come to them as they burst through the unofficial barrier that made this a good place to hide. Flying onward, they came upon a hot rocky planet that was the home of the signal. Hardie leaned forward and tapped a toggle on his console. "This is General Hard Drive of the Prime's General Staff. We're coming in. What should we know when we do?" he asked calmly.
The tense voice came back. "It's hot here, General. We live in specialized housing, some of it underground. We will meet you at the airfield. The beam will bring you in. Thank you for coming." The voice clocked off.
"Take us in, Rem. Everyone be on your peds," Hardie said. "Raptor."
:I'm here:
"Did you get all of that?"
:I did. You lead?:
:Yes. Look alive, son. Hard Drive out." He sat back to watch the planet grow larger as they got closer. It was a large and well made settlement there with a big airfield and energy production plants nearby. There appeared to be little else beyond the housing and living spaces that were built around an array of towers that extended about ten stories upward. How big the place was, no one knew but if some lived underground, this was no smallish settlement.
Rem took the ship in, then settled on the tarmac where a group of mechs waited for them. Hardie rose. "Rem and Sandstorm, stay on board and guard this. Sunstreaker? Take a turret gun and be ready to blast them if they pull a stunt. The rest of you, with me." He walked to the door, opened it, then stepped out onto a rock hard tarmac supporting a large fleet of tanker ships. It was about 120 degrees Fahrenheit outside, killer heat for humans but rather wonderful to self regulating adult Cybertronians.
Raptor and his soldiers stepped down, then joined Hardie. Everyone took the measure of the other, then a tall mech with a very plain format walked toward them followed by others like him. He held out his servo and Hardie gripped it Cybertronian-style. "I'm Blanc. I command the settlement. You're Hard Drive?" he asked.
"Yes," Hardie said as he unobtrusively read Blanc's tattoos. Primus Peace Mission. Neutral. Praxus. "My son, Raptor. This is our crew. You were good to give us coordinates. This is a good hiding place."
Blanc nodded. "We needed it after the Fall. This was a refuge from the chaos and marauders. Can you come with us to our central control? We have things to tell you and we'd like to know what's happening abroad. Some say that Cybertron has fallen to the Prime. That he's looking for us. We'd like to know what's going on."
Hardie nodded, then followed the party to a place nearby that looked like an airport terminal with floor to ceiling windows surrounding a very large building. They entered and it was much cooler, perhaps more normal to average Earth temperatures. "This feels better. Mind you, I'm not complaining about the heat but this feels good on the neural net."
Blanc nodded. "We keep a good temperature here. Its a nice contrast. Won't you sit and perhaps have refreshment?"
"If you wish it," Hardie said as he pulled out a chair. Good energon with a famous type of energon cake was placed before them and they made a taste and sip for good manners sake. Then they ate their cake because it was that good. "Tell me what you're doing here. This is the most dangerous part of the Barren and Rift."
"We were driven this way, General, long ago by the Decepticons. They were after all the Missionaries," Blanc said. "We came here and were left alone because they weren't really expecting us to thrive. We did. We manufacture fuel of all kinds from the energy floes, then sell it to big stations on the other side of this area owned by different alien conglomerations. We've charted a stable pathway through and every few, we take huge loads of fuel and trade. Its been very peaceful and stable until the Functionalists came."
Hardie nodded. "Tell me about them. I want to know everything there is about it."
Blanc leaned back, then glanced at another mech, someone called Darvik. "You tell them, Dar."
Darvik looked at Hard Drive. "I was a teacher in the school system in Praxus. We're part of the Missionary movement, some of us from all over the planet. I keep the record here. The Functionalists came here after we were up and running. We took in the odd fleeing group that came this way or were near. We saved a bunch of our people. It's the way we live. Our way."
Hardie nodded. "I know. I know a lot of Missionaries." He turned his arm slightly showing his own tats. "I'm from Praxus, too."
"You're an Elite," Blanc said.
"So is my son," Hardie said as he nodded to Raptor. "Please … continue. Leave nothing out."
"They came here and we gave them space. There were about 6,000 or so of them. They were just a group of explorers, they said, driven from their world by the 'Cons. We gave them shelter and they built their colony some distance from here. They wanted isolation to practice their religious beliefs, they said. We were okay with that. We even offered to share our tech with them to give them a chance to earn a living just like us. They took it and we really didn't have much contact. They said they were a … an ascetic group living an austere life of religious devotion. We … we've seen a lot of individuals who sort of went that way … falling into a rigid practice to hold together. We gave them their space.
"They came and went in space, heading out they said to get their people, some they had to leave behind until they found a safe place. We asked how many and they said just a few hundred more. We were working on sensors out that way after a bit of time passed and tested them by scanning their settlement. They were at nearly 50,000. It made us nervous because we ourselves total now after all this time merely 11,000 or so. I didn't like the vibration from them and they were beginning to outnumber us. We called them to a meeting and they came. We knew they were functionalists. They have a bizarre practice and presentation, that singular optic.
"We talked and they said they were going to be organizing their own competitive operation. They also said they were going to be taking over our settlement as well because they saw us as inefficient and out of line with how they felt things should work. Needless to say, there were words. Fortunately for us, we have guns and over the vorns have learned how to use them. It was a standoff for a while, then they raided our main energon depot and destroyed the machinery. They sent us a message to give up control or we'd suffer."
"Sounds like them, the slaggers," Raptor said darkly. "What happened then?"
"We used our sensors to get a good bead on them, then we flew in at night and slagged their grids, their own tech and energon production sites and a few other places. We then came back and called them. We told them they had two orns to leave or we would come in there and slag them all." Blanco looked at Hardie with a cold expression. "We don't believe in violence but we also don't believe in slavery and murder. We figured out who they were about then from this action. They were the actual slagging Council of Twelve of the Functionalist Oppression. We then organized ourselves to fight and modified our smaller ships. We made flyovers to test their weapons and resolve. It was then that they began to pack up.
"It took longer than two orns but they finally lifted off and were gone. We scanned their settlement very diligently for bombs and mines, then entered it. There were dead everywhere. There were dead in houses and homes mostly. No one was dead in the working areas. There were dead on the airfield where their ships were parked, a large group of elders. They were still lying where they fell. They detonated their recall chips," Darvik said with a cold expression. "We read about them and what they did. We never saw it until then. They left 3,200 dead behind."
It was silent a moment, then Hard Drive sat back regarding the group levelly. "The Prime retook Cybertron. It's free but pretty badly off. We're rebuilding it. Until then, the refugees that we go out to get by ship and bridge live on a planet called Mars in a deeply secured system in a colony that last time I heard was approaching 23 and a half million civilians, soldiers, Seekers, and former Decepticons. Its a good place because we all live there in peace. Do you wish to come with us?"
They stared at him, then each other. Blanc considered the offer. "We discussed this in our community when we were waiting for you to come here in the hopes that might be an option and did a flash poll for the will of the order. It's our way. The majority are willing to leave here. This place is dangerous and we don't have any more protection should the floes change their mind and strike our way. There's marauders, strange aliens and Decepticons out here. What do we have to do?"
"We have specialists who take care of getting groups ready to go. What worries me is the dead. Where are they?" Hardie said.
"About 200 miles from here," Blanc said. "We buried them in decent graves. It took a long time and frankly, it took a toll. I'd hate to leave them here when we go. They didn't have much of a life and leaving them behind seems as callous as their killers."
"I will inform Prime. Do you know much about space bridges?" Raptor asked.
"We do. Some of us had been theorists at the Science Institute in Praxus about space bridges and advancing the level of tech we had when the war overtook us. You can bridge in here safely. We can help that way." Darvik sat back with some relief. "What about our dead? Our personal things? We didn't get to take much but some of it's precious to some of us. My ada has some glass that belonged in the family a long time. It may seem trivial after all this-" he said before Raptor cut him off.
"No. We can manage it. Bring what you want and need. We can get this organized swiftly, then blow the settlement," Raptor said.
"We lived here a long time. We built this with our servos. I'd hate to see it go but that's what has to happen. There's some really dangerous aliens out here and given how close the Rim is, I wouldn't want them to move in and prosper here," Blanc said. "We've been alone a very, very long time. I would like to feel closer to home."
Hardie nodded. "Where's your comm station?" he asked.
"Follow me," Blanc said as he rose rather wearily. "This is going to be bittersweet. This place saved us and it feels like treachery to destroy it."
Hardie nodded as they walked to the door. "I know. Been there, done that." They left.
Raptor sat back. "We caught the Council. They were tried for their crimes. Not these but others. They abandoned another colony, one with half a million of our people. They killed all of them but about 4,000 the same way."
The Missionaries stared at him with shock. "It never ends does it," Darvik said quietly. "I want to go somewhere that has peace."
"Autobot City does. It has the Temple and a peaceful life. When the hearing was concluded on these slaggers, the Pantheon weighed in. They took a bunch of us to the Matrix and passed Their own judgment on the slaggers. They were 'recalled' themselves. Primus, Himself weighed in," Raptor said. "They aren't in favor of caste slavery."
Darvik leaned closer. "They did?"
Raptor nodded. "I think you're going to like the colony."
-0-Elsewhere
Lucien sat at the table with Ratchet going over the agenda for the United Nations Interplanetary Business Conference that was going to be held at Diego Garcia where the humans attending could meet the bots in a more informal manner. It would be televised like their previous meetings had been held. It was shaping up to be a long and interesting three orns. There were several categories of proposals which were organized to be covered. First, there were 'joint ventures' that pertained to mining the system and making things together. The Autobot's foundation was gagging with money and investments were going to be a big item on the first part of their talks.
Secondly, there were proposals by companies that made films and television who wished to increase their platforms on world and elsewhere. There were even those who wanted to make documentaries … 'respectful joint venture films' about their recovering world, Cybertron. Others wanted to make historical films about their culture, the Decepticons, the War and the Fall.
That was going to be a delightful minefield to traverse.
Thirdly, there was the idea of more humans living abroad, including some of the planetary system moons. They wanted to do hands on research abroad, then build habitations on some of the less extreme planets to utilize their resources with the idea of building a series of space habitations leading to the solar well. Wheeljack and Perceptor was studying their proposals now and were expected to attend that part.
"I wonder if the rumor about a habitat commanded by Prime and filled with humans will come up. That rumor is a hoot," Ratchet said with a grin.
Lucien shrugged. "I don't know. I can hardly stand the ones we have now."
Ratchet laughed. "How do you feel, Lucien? How is this new reality percolating down?"
Lucien sat back and tossed his stylus on the table. "Ask me in a while. Right now, I just want the ringing in my spark to stop."
Ratchet watched his face. "You know … I understand how you feel. You may find that strange or funny but I have oceans of empathy. I always wanted us to be better, to be united. Wandering alone in space trying to find the AllSpark, wondering where Ironhide and my family was … did they make it off Cybertron? Did they die in their beds? I spent a lot of time alone looking for everyone. It was ghastly. It was spark breaking. In the end, there's only love and those who matter. Nothing else does, Lucien. You have a great bond, great kids, a good job, I hope you have outside interests. I don't truly know what else matters anymore. I lost so many on the battlefield. Why? Why did any of this have to happen? In the end, we all lose."
Lucien stared at him. "I don't know any other way."
"Do you go to counseling with Vinn?" Ratchet asked.
Lucien nodded.
"Good. Give it time. In the end, it's only those you love, the memories of them and the places and times you shared that count. Imagine a life without your kids when you feel it come over you. No matter what you owned or did or the power you had, not having them would be the worst thing of all. Only love matters, Lucien. You will get there. I have faith in you," Ratchet said gently.
Lucien stared at him. "You're a mad bastard."
Ratchet grinned. "You're just finding that out now?"
He stared at Ratchet, then the faintest ghost of a grin appeared to appear. He looked at the agenda. "What do you think about this idea?" he asked. They both bent their helms to the task. It would be added as well.
-0-TBC 3-14-18 edited 3-30-18
NOTES:
ascetic: (az-seh-tik) characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons. "an ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and manual labor" (Or as Ultra Magnus calls it … "Tuesday" ;)