The Diego Diaries: War (dd6 349)
-0-Resort of Autobot City, Hillside District, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire, Postal District 122
"And that's what Will told me," Sarah Lennox said as she sat at her desk in the office surrounded by the others who owned and ran the facility. "We're looking at straight up war."
"It was grimly silent a moment, then Lois sat back in her chair. "Think about this without the bots. The 'Cons would come. The energon is here. What about that?"
"I don't want to think about it, its so terrible," Barbara Morshower said. She slumped in her chair. "I hate war. I hate it. We could lose friends, neighbors. This is bullshit."
"No one would disagree, Barbara, but I do salute your language. You're stepping up," Judy Witwicky said with a grin as she stood by a biz hub waiting for a receipt from New York City over a convention group that wanted to come and talk about geology.
"You're wearing off on me," Barbara said with a grin.
"Lucky you," Judy said. "I suppose they're watching at the viewing station."
"They are. Glenn wants to go along, the idiot," Barbara said …
… a phone call earlier …
"So expect us at 2200 hours. I'm bringing my team with me. We can put them up at the Resort, right?" Glenn Morshower said over the encrypted phone all senior officers and 'senior' humans in the community had.
"We can," Barbara replied.
"We're going to go on observer status if Prime allows it. We've been in fights before but this might be an eye opener."
"You're an idiot, Glenn," Barbara replied …
… Resort …
"And they think women are busybodies," Lois said.
"WE ARE! AND WE'RE PROUD OF IT!" Judy said as they all laughed loudly.
-0-United Nations Consulate, United Nations Territory, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire
They gathered before the television to watch the news around their duties both inside and outside of the facility. A really big build up was taking place in the middle of town and they were trying to figure out what was happening and where they fit in the scheme of things. Carly walked in and sat down beside the consul for Brazil. "Sam told me that a big Decepticon fleet has jumped out of the Bootes Constellation and was heading this way. Prime isn't going to allow it. There are a couple of Decepticon groups in the surrounding sectors and they're contained. He doesn't want either to reinforce themselves with this new group which is, apparently, very terrible so they're going out to either turn this group away or destroy them."
"Which is the possible outcome, Carly?" the consul for the United Kingdom asked.
"Sam believes they'll have to fight. This group is lead by someone who never surrenders or turns away. He's really, really bad news." Carly sat back. "The bots are the only thing between us and them. I wish everyone on Earth could really get that."
She wouldn't be the only one.
-0-Full Circle, Terra
"This is going to be terrible," Anders said as they watched the small monitor in the little lounge in the back during a short snack break. "We could have funerals."
The others nodded. "I hate this. I forgot that we're not entirely at peace," Madura said as he fed his baby. "We have to do what we can for everyone. Vinn would know, right, Joon?"
Joon nodded. "He would. I'll find out. We can do whatever we can together."
The others nodded as they worriedly watched the screen.
-0-Around
Big mechs were getting their marching orders, regular army, special ops, specialty skilled, and heavy gunners. Those who knew how to board ships, most of them former 'Cons who were once upon a time highly feared for that skill were gathered to be debriefed by Commander Lissie who would command the close up action. They were huge, fast, dangerous, and utterly fearless. At least, mostly fearless. Many of them had bonded and started families here in the peace, so the old brio was more muted and replaced by a cold fury and a determination to make things brutal, fast and over for the invaders.
Others were gathered in groups that would be commanded by different leaders like Hercy, Kup and Magnus. They would be given their part of the pie and would follow the ship breachers under Lissie's command to provide the punctuation to the saga that would unfold in the enemy vessels. A Seeker commander, Radius, would be handling the fighters, both two and three manned versions. They would strafe the slag out of the ships and handle any fighter response that would arise from them.
Elita had a team of electronics experts who would be jamming the enemy fleet, infiltrating their computer systems to overtake command of them or to shut them down as swiftly as possible. Jazz would employ a special ops EMP system that would jam communications before all of them would join in the melee of taking the ships left intake and dead in the water one by one.
Ratchet met with his teams on the ground here on Mars and by monitor with those on Gliese and Cybertron to lay out the plan. Omega and Xantium would come as platforms. Xee would be the Seeker platform and Omega would be command and control. Prime would direct the battle from there and the overall commanders such as Hard Drive, Turbine, Delphi, Alor, and Raptor would be there with him to work their peculiar magic. Ironhide and Blackjack would free range wherever they were needed. Phobos would be the main hospital ship with immediate bridge access to Gliese and Mars if the need dictated. Every team from alpha to standby/fill in would be on call. Standby and Omega would fill in for Alpha and Beta so they could stand out with the ships. It was all troubleshot and ready to go. Ratchet would command his kingdom on board the battleship Phobos.
-0-At the field
They were moved away once their deadly cargo was loaded. The field beyond the long runways was filling up with big ships. Battleships, light fast cruisers and fighter-carriers were moving forward as they were brought to battle status. Teams worked long and hard to fuel, flight check, load up, and test out systems so they were what was needed for any venture ahead. It looked chaotic but it wasn't. Everything going on was planned and worked out through hard work and experience.
Pilots gathered together to discuss their orders. The Master of the Muster stood at his platform near the street going over the ship manifests as they came in. Soldiers and support teams checked in, then went on their way with the information they needed when the time came to muster. Many were the mechs going aboard their assigned ships to drop off their gear and find their places. Guns would bristle as the ships took off, all of them ready to point at Shrike and his fleet. It was an old drill but one resented even more than usual. Peace was a good thing and this? It wasn't. The show would spin onward and the humans would gather at the viewing place to watch.
-0-Out there
Razorclaw watched the lights blinking on his screens as the news of another player reached them. He had hailed the newcomer last night and spoke with him a moment. He was heading toward Ominous and it was going to be a game changer if Prime allowed it. No matter how this happened, he would learn something from it. Prime would never allow a mech like Shrike to reach Ominous. Both of them know that Shrike would never be anyone's second. He would kill Ominous, take over his command, then come at Prime without hesitation. No amount of chat with the big dangerous mech had made any difference. Shrike had been successful for a long time using his current model and no one would be able to change that.
He knew.
Shrike had been a criminal before the war. He was an enforcer, someone who enjoyed inflicting pain on others until they complied with whoever hired him for the job at the moment. He was smarter than most gave him credit for. He just liked to create havoc and harm. He enjoyed fighting to an indecent degree and he never liked to lose. Fortunately for him and no one else, his frenzied desire to win was usually enough to propel him to what he desired. It would be interesting to see what Prime was going to do.
Razorclaw conjectured that if by some miracle Shrike beat both Ominous and Prime, he would then turn his rage-driven focus on him. He would enjoy it for the sheer joy of fighting and taking another group into his operation but he had little faith that the 'Con would make it past Prime. There might be a lot of explosions and frenzy but Razorclaw doubted that Shrike would be more than a situation for Prime to settle rather than victor. Together, the three of them might have a chance against Prime but that would never happen. The other two would no more take second place than he would. As he mused it didn't occur to him right away that this truth played into Prime's hands.
He would later on.
-0-Around the airfield
"I can't believe that Lancer is going and we aren't."
Inweld and Partition glanced at Morius who shrugged. Inweld grinned, then turned to Partition. "I can't believe you're going."
"I'm going because I learned the skills necessary," Partition said. "You could if you'd get a stick on."
They stared at him. "What does that mean?"
Partition shrugged. "I don't know but the humans use it."
"Oh," both said almost together. "Let's go look around. Maybe someone will let us go," Morius said as he set off for the Master of the Muster. The other two followed.
They wouldn't be allowed to go.
-0-Xantium
:What's happening now?:
:They're loading medical just in case: Xantium replied to Kappa. :Why don't you come? You can watch me flex my stuff:
A laugh came over the comm system directly, rather than between the two off line. Everyone working on Xantium paused to listen, grinned, then hurried back to the job. Xee grinned as he sat on his gear to allow himself to be loaded. :You can come with us. That way you can have a chance to observe combat and maneuvers in a tight field of battle:
:I'll keep that in mind: Kappa said as they bantered together. It would be a long busy afternoon.
-0-In the schools
"What's happening, Mr. Landro?" a child asked as he stood on the playground doing recess duty.
He looked at the children gathered around him. "There's a mission happening. The Prime protects us by taking very big battle groups out to show everyone the error of their ways."
"Will someone come here and attack us?" a small mech asked, one who knew from personal experience what that felt like.
"They haven't yet. They didn't when we had a smaller army and they won't now. You forget … we have the armies on Cybertron to help us as well."
They stared up at him, then at each other. "I forgot about that," the little mech said with a grin. With that, they ran out to play once more without worries. Mr. Landro would take care of that for them.
-0-Ironhide
He walked through the airfield heading for a number of ships to check their ammunition supply. Things were highly computerized and he was sure that everyone had what they needed. Climbing into each, he chatted with the crews who were preparing the ships for flight. Everything was in servo, so he walked back out and motored onward. Walking through the crowds, dodging small vehicles, he climbed up the ramp to Omega. The leadership was there going through the plan, making sure that all was clear and in place. Walking to the command table where they sat along with Omega Supreme, he glanced at his hands. Raptor who held Halo grinned at him. "You snooze, you lose."
Ironhide glared at him, then grinned at his daughter. "She's that far up the awesome scale."
"So are you, infant," Raptor said as he turned to the table. They would discuss and troubleshoot the situation for a couple of joors, then adjourn for dinner. In T minus 4 joors, they would stand out from the colony and head into deep space. Before they did, Optimus Prime would speak to his people. It would only be then that Earth would be clued in again.
-0-IntraComm
They worked out the presentation time for Prime even as they tempered the reporting until the mission was announced. The tension in the colony was already high enough without ratcheting it up with on air speculation and supposition before the announcement. Jazz sat with the communications board and Blaster, though both would be with the armada. They were members and officers of IntraComm and part of the broadcasting community. Their show would be managed by 'interns', two sweet kids who were wanting to do a broadcast radio show of their own when they graduated from Intermediate School.
"We want to get the information out in real time but we don't want to scare anyone. We're going to have Blaster be the conduit and it'll be funneled information to him through Prowl who's Prime's interface for the mission. Due to security constraints, we're going to hold back some of it but we're going to be as upfront as we can. A full mission briefing will be held after the show and all questions will be answered then. Right now, we have to think about our people and what they've been through. I don't expect to lose this fight but I don't want anyone to regress because its happening." Jazz glanced at Blaster. "Your opinion?"
"I agree," Blaster said. "We might lose people and if we do, their families come first. Prime and the rest of us will be ready to debrief right away. All inquiries from Earth need to be held in abeyance. They get the same information we're releasing here. Full disclosure will happen when we have something to tell."
The conversation continued with the board until Optimus Prime walked in to give the mission statement before lift off.
-0-Prowl
He hurried from home to the airfield where he was going to go straight to Omega. Prime had left earlier to go to IntraComm after comforting the family who would manage all the children including the twinnies and Kaon along with Venture. Miler was on duty for the mission as Navigator and thus, it fell to Kes, Tagg and Venture to pick up the slack. Reaching Omega, he walked to the command table, put his satchel of datapads and other work items on the floor just as the monitors all around changed from the symbols of Mars and Cybertron to Optimus Prime's handsome face. It stilled as he began.
"Good evening, Mars, Cybertron and Earth. My name is Optimus Prime ..."
-0-TBC 5-8-18 edited 7-3-18