The Diego Diaries: Coming Home (dd6 300!) 300. Again. :D
-0-Ops Center
Prime stared at Hard Drive as he watched Optimus from the monitor screen for orders. After a moment, Prime nodded. "Please send a detailed plan of need and action, General. We will move on it. Please figure out the exact possibilities, if any, for bridging closer to where you are. The less travel through that particular area, I would imagine, the better."
Hardie nodded. "We will do it, Prime." He glanced at a solemn Prowl. "I will send it to you in a moment, Prowl. Hard Drive out."
Prowl watched as Optimus rose from his chair and walked to the door that led to his office. The big mech entered it and disappeared. Prowl decided to wait, then see how Optimus was when he would bring in the plan for his perusal and approval. It was a heavy place, the Ops Center, for now. He turned back to the job at hand.
-0-Office
Optimus Prime stared at an image on the wall, a small picture of a number of youngling mechs hanging out in front of a tenement building, gathered on the steps of a stoop. He saw himself as a young mech with his friends, Jetta, Deion and Distar, a long lost friend he wondered about often, one he had grown up with as well. It seemed like a million vorns ago and it probably was. Even though he could calculate his own age to the nth degree, he didn't. It was the now that needed him, not the broken and long ago past. Even though he knew that past existed in this moment along with everyone elses and every other moment past, present and future … damned physics … he didn't like to go there very often in his processor. For all its difficulties, it was a beautiful thing to him, one fraught with memories good, bad and indifferent as well as much loved and long missed individuals. Maybe he would some fine orn as he showed his children around the old neighborhood. It was being preserved for its historic content he had been told.
The orn was sunny in the picture and he could even see a bit of blue sky between the tightly packed towers. He could smell the hot pavement, the trash that was gathered to be picked up, maybe, and all the other sensory aspects of his memories. His grand genitors lived nearby and his genitors along with all the others were there in his dreams, sitting on the stoop on stifling orns, chatting and watching the children play. It felt warm and loved to him.
Home.
The buildings were disasters, all of them run down from neglect and age. This was a district set aside for machine shops during the Quintessan Oppression and here, generations of mechs slaved their lives away, dying and being smelted when they gave out or killed for whatever infraction real or imagined. Given their energetic state and their ability to read energy, it was a place filled with ghosts.
Literally.
He could see them and had become immune to their presence. Some of them did the same thing every time he saw them and he knew they were merely residual energy patterns, like video. Others were intelligent and they sometimes followed him around, drawn by his even then unusual energy and charisma. He didn't like it when he was small and he told his genitors about it with fear. They had 'told' the ghosts to go away and stop making their perfect infant scared. It must have worked because for most of his infancy he never saw them again.
It was good training for the Matrix.
But now he did on occasion and depending on the place when he went to Cybertron, endless masses gathered around the deep pit graves, all of them staring at him. He could see them and sometimes those around him could as well. But mostly, it was him. Maybe it was the Matrix or maybe his eternal empathetic goodness made it possible. He had learned to let go any connection in emotion to them but for his sadness and pity. They didn't make him afraid. They made him deeply sad.
Like now.
So many had been killed, including the genitors of Lesto. How would anyone tell her that her elders were found lying in the dirt of an abandoned airfield just like when she saw the Twelve murder them. What would it do to her recovering and how could she live with it in the long run? She had seen them murdered and it was all a lie. He would protect her from that even as he would protect her elders by bringing them here for burial among those who would have protected, cared for and loved them.
It mattered that they could do this when they could. The Decepticons scavenged their dead, pulling out what they needed and tossing the rest. The Autobots buried their dead. There was no scavenging unless someone's life was at stake and then only with respect and the requisite prayers. Maybe that was the difference … or A difference … he was too much in turmoil at the moment to draw any distinctions. He turned to the desk and sat down wearily. Musing on the information, at the failure of their efforts for this little group, he wondered what could be done differently. Then he looked over at a chair by the desk and She was there. He started to rise but She raised her servo. "Don't rise."
He sat heavily, then shook his helm. "The road is filled with graves in all directions."
"They were not put there by you for the most part, brother," she said. Solus sat back, relaxing Her lithe body as her long silver 'hair' fell over Her shoulder and the arm of the chair. "I would like to discuss with you, brother, this insistence for you to take on the sins of others. Your destiny was to become the Prime of The People, not their Perfect Master."
"There are so many that need us. What is happening to them? How many are suffering?" he asked with gathering emotion.
"You misunderstand our places here, Optimus. We all come here knowing what's ahead. It's part of the lessons in this, the hardest school possible. No one goes down a road they didn't choose. This is a school, a play, and you are all actors in the drama. Some have chosen to be villains to learn valuable lessons and others heroes for the same reason. You do that for each other to advance your learning and spiritual growth and you do it for love. Sometimes, my dearest brother … it's easier to be the victim than the victimizer. Consider that We are all spiritual beings of a higher energy who are the embodiment of love when We aren't here on this plane of existence, brothers in all things. Imagine being love, then having to be evil to another because they need you to do that for them."
"Megatron has good? … I am unclear about that, Lady. I do have faint memories of a companion I once cared about but that might have been a trick of light and shadow," Optimus replied with a trace of bitterness.
"Perhaps. But what have you learned by your life as his greatest foe?" she asked.
It was silent a moment. "Implacable will. I have to find our people and bring them to safety. I must defend those who need it and I must never give up."
"Ah," Solus said with a nod. "You learned a greater love then."
Optimus stared at Her. "Perhaps."
"There is no perhaps, brother. You have always been the best one, the one most like Primus Himself. You have always had bounties of love for others and a burning thirst for justice. You would no more be ignoble than Megatron can become noble. You are in miniature, the two of you, Primus and Unicron. One is chaos and the other is love. What neither of you are is infallible. What we expect you to be, all of Us, longed for and prayed for to be is good. Dedicated. Determined. Loving in your outlook to others. Your resolve is remarkable. Your ego is your partner, not your master. Megatron never learned that, not in the Pantheon and not here. His namesake killed me, you know, Megatronus. I loved Him but he killed me with my own creation." It was silent a moment. "I understand your sense of failure and sorrow but you are not to blame. You have to push on. You will bring them home in time."
Optimus stared at her with compassion. "I am sorry for that … that such a thing should happen to You," he said. "I am well versed in the legends and tales. You are my patron and solace."
She grinned at him. "And you are my brother. Be what you can and nothing more. Trust Me that it's uniquely and greatly enough." With that, She faded from view.
He sat quietly thinking when the door cracked open and Prowl peered in. "Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.
"No but I will persevere. A good friend told me that it would be so," Optimus said.
Prowl entered and together they finalized a plan to remove a colony from the middle of a death trap. Part of that project would be to remove 3300+ bodies from their graves.
-0-Earth2
Cameron Frazer gathered his gear, then walked out the door of his first floor apartment to join Rick Harris for a joy ride around the colony. He wasn't cleared to go on his own but he could go with someone who was. Rick was approved about a year before so he was waiting at the front hatch for Frazer to arrive. "Help me with the helmet," Cam said as Rick handed him one from the gear closet near the hatches.
It took a moment but it was secured, so both walked out and climbed into a vehicle. The lights changed to red inside. :Don't take your helmet off. Even though we can, I don't like to do it. One fuck up is all it takes to claw your eyes out:
:This feels tight and close: Cam said as they pulled out of the facility.
:You'll get used to it. It's light, you can see 280 degrees all around and its the only thing keeping you alive: They pulled out onto the highway. :There's the Consulate over there: Rick said as they buzzed along. The Consulate was down a long road, set against a rocky ridge.
Frazer stared at it. :That's where Carly works, right? That's one truly beautiful woman:
:One, she's out of your league and two, she's going with Sam Witwicky. She's practically engaged to him, I think: Rick said with a grin.
:If she isn't, she's fair game. What's that?: he asked as they drove past a big complex.
"That's the energy station that supplies half the colony. It supplies us, though we have redundant back ups. We also have priority. The bots make sure that our power is never endangered: Rick said. :That's the Basilica:
:We can go there, right?: Frazer asked.
:We can but not the Shrine with it yet. We obey the rules and we find we get farther that way if we do: Rick said. :I don't want to piss off the bots. They've been champions with me and my business. I have no complaints:
They drove onward passing the Mausoleum, then reached the big roundabout that led to several different directions and destinations. :I have to go to Sciences, then I thought we'd do lunch at The Resort. You can look around. The managers there are mostly tough smart women. Don't underestimate them. They're the movers and shakers … the gatekeepers for the human community here. Piss them off and you're on your own:
Frazer nodded as they swept through the second of the two Metro Cities on their way to Autobot City. It would be rather easy until they reached the Temple District. It would slow down due to those reporting in to save a colony of refugees just located for rescue. It would be fascinating to both men to watch the show as they drove toward the Sciences Habitat nearly in the center of town.
-0-At the Big Frame Repair Center, five miles from Autobot City and seven from Terra
They came with their equipment, computers and other devices to set up for a new wave of rescued immigrants. Apparently, they were in good shape and had led a relatively peaceful life for a long stretch of time, so the hope was that they would be able to check through and get on with their lives faster and easier. This was a mixed bunch, apparently, of Primus Peace Mission and Circle with some hard helmed but weary Neutrals thrown in for spice.
They set up the tents and tables, hooked up the system to Teletraan III's Bureau of Refugees, Medical and Immigration/Customs sectors of the computer, then worked out between all of them what they would do when the first ships began to set down nearby. They would be directed here rather than the Military Airfield downtown. Even if they weren't busy there heading out to get the newcomers, it would still be a much easier place to work than the crowded congested downtown.
-0-Driving slowly, bumper-to-bumper
They edged along Metroplex Highway #1 as they drove forward though the Temple District. Frazer stared at the big building and its immaculate unknowable grounds surrounded by a wall. Foreign but obviously Cybertronian words were written on the wall, cut into the stone. He saw them everywhere, Frazer did, but they were just so much gibberish to him, rather like their spoken language. :I wonder what goes on inside there:
:I hope to find out someday: Rick said as they moved forward again. :That place will get you banished from Mars forever and I mean … forever. Just so you remember:
:You sound like you've lost your edge, Rick: Cameron said with a grin as they stopped at a red light.
:I like this place. It's peaceful, beautiful and the bots treat me well. I like being here and working in these conditions. I won't save you if you screw up. I don't want banned: Rick said with a pointed stare.
:You know me: Frazer said with a grin.
:I do and that's why I'm saying this: Rick said.
Cameron laughed as they moved forward and shifted to the right lane. Turning on Sports Center Road that ran alongside the big building, they pulled into the turn off that led to the habitat doors. Signaling his desire to enter, the doors began to open. Driving inside, they closed equally as swiftly behind them. After the atmosphere was established, they stepped out, pulled off their helmets and walked into the huge facility. There were family members of the scientists around including two geologists that Rick wanted to speak to as well as a lot of pets.
He introduced Cam, then walked to the lounge to speak with the two scientists about things he was discovering on the climbs and runs. He was becoming as interested in Mars as they were and he had taken to giving reports to their great delight.
Cam walked to the counter, pulled together a big piece of pie, then took a cold drink. He walked to a table to sit. An older couple, the civilian parents of Sheila Conroy who were practically living here full time nodded to him. "Are you from Earth2?" Dale Conroy, Sheila's father asked.
"I am. I'm head of procurements and supply," Cam said as they shook hands.
"What's the problem with the mercenaries there?" Dale asked. He was an ex-cop, a veteran -military police- and as such had no time for such men.
"Um, they made a mistake. They're paying for it now," Cam said.
"Good. Make sure they do. We have a great reputation here. I don't want those fools to mess it up," Dale said as Mildred, his wife nodded her head. "I have no time for hired guns, especially stupid ones."
It was awkwardly silent a moment. "I will, sir. We're on top of the problem."
"I hope so," Dale said as he rose and walked to the counter for dessert. "My daughter works here. She's among the first 30 humans to ever come here and she's doing incredibly important research. I don't want that sullied." He returned to the table and sat with his pie. "I was a cop for thirty-five years and I can smell a punk fifty miles away. Some of us family, we have skills and we know how to use them. Tell them that, too."
Cameron nodded. "I will."
Rick who was glancing their way with a grin turned back to the two scientists he was conversing with. They were grinning, too.
Everyone liked Dale and Millie Conroy.
Especially Dale.
-0-TBC 3-15-18 edited 3-16-18
Interesting tidbit about Solus Prime. The difference in her and the mechs wasn't her body. She is different because her processor was different for her specialty. That is where the change emanates, the difference that all can 'see' but isn't really present. Then for this story, the CNA changes made the format differences but in all, they are all mechs or equally genderless. This theme will continue as its refined for the humans.