The Diego Diaries: War (dd6 354)
-0-Word
The monitor nearest to Prime lit up with the image of Prowl. "OPTIMUS! Four ships made it through the bridge with Omega!"
Prime froze as he stared at Prowl. "Prime to Springer. Bogies in the system. Go through the bridge and take care of it. Ironhide is going to command."
Ironhide who was running for the bridge room was already gone.
-0-The airfield
Dust hung in the air as the sound of wrenching metal slamming into things ended abruptly. More police had arrived and were rushing through the empty streets with Lon and Bezel toward the silent figure of Omega. There was debris, foam, small fires, falling glass, artifacts scattered, and broken buildings laying willy nilly all over the place. Overhead, a bridge was still open where Omega had entered and out of it during his crash four vessels flew heading toward space to disappear.
"What the frag was that?" the officer at sensors in the Flight Control Center at Fort Max said as his servos flew over the board. "OH FRAG! Bogies in the system. They followed Omega. SOUND THE ALARM AND GET SOMETHING IN THE AIR!"
They sprang into action immediately.
-0-Around the colony
They stood at windows in their homes, buildings public and otherwise, staring out and upward to the sky. There were intruders here and it was very scary for the civilian population. Thousands and hundreds of thousands … maybe even a million had gone to the shelters in their buildings, deciding that retreat was the better part of valor. Thousands more were inside any open door they could find as those on the road kept going and those in the big quarry climbed to the top of their pits to watch the sky.
On the ground at the airport and nearby at the ship depot where Roadie ran the repair show, groups whose sole purpose was moments like this sprang into action and lifted off. Getting data from the Flight Center, they flew into space to give chase. A returning Seeker patrol was diverted to head to Earth to intercept and a Seeker and soldier contingent from Luna Base also did the same.
Out of the aperture came Impactor's Revenge with Ironhide now aboard. They gathered intel, then flew swiftly into space. Until the ships were accounted for and nullified however it took, the all clear was not going to be sounded.
-0-Omega
Medics and techs from the Big Frame Yard and from the Specialty Medicine Division: Big Frames headquartered at a huge hangar at the shipyard Roadie operated nearby ran or landed to pile out and head toward the mountainous figure of Omega nearby. He had fallen into root mode during the crash and lay on his back, his arms flung wide. He was off line, fortunately, and therefore would be easier to work on. There were damages all down the chassis of his chest area and gaping wounds where things had been scraped away by the thundering pass of the flaming wreckage. He was covered in broken glass, some of which was still falling from the office building which had shattered and listed from the impact of his slide. Foam covered him and would have to be removed immediately. Tankers flew in, then began to drop a liquid that would wash it all away so that the teams scanning him could begin to check what they had to do for emergency triage. It had to go before they could really do more for him. The liquid which was impervious to freezing rained down on him and the foam began to melt away. Running into the gullies he had created with his own body was a lot of his own energon.
-0-Out there
They were already ahead in the battle when Omega left having disabled most of the enemy ships that hadn't fled. Four cruisers, two heavily damaged battleships, a number of smaller shuttle-like vessels and a troop ship with fighters were unable to function around the colossal damage to their propulsion units inflicted during close quarters fighting. They were slagging it out with Prime's fleet, shooting wildly and furiously as they defended their failing vessels. Auxiliary ships were listing without propulsion, their fighters and small vessels that were such a terror to most species that couldn't defend against metallic warriors were scattered around, some of them with dead crews and others which were drifting without power.
Hardie walked to Prime where he sat. "We have them surrounded. I would suggest that we pull back out of their firing range and take stock. None of them have weapons or weapon systems that can touch us for range now if we pull back. We have them where we want them."
Prime nodded. "Make it so, General."
Hardie nodded, then gave orders. "What is the status of our armada, Smokescreen?"
The big mech made an assessment, then turned toward Prime and Hardie. "We have a lot of damage, Optimus, Hardie. We have Omega down, Salton Sea has major damage and should go back. We have four shuttles shot to slag with injured, what extent is unknown. We have fourteen Seekers in medical right now with two casualties. If there are more, we haven't received the data but there are injuries of varying intensity all over the fleet."
Prime nodded grimly. "Open a channel."
The communications operator did so. "You are go, Optimus."
He nodded. "This is Optimus Prime. I wish to speak to Shrike."
It was silent. There was no answer. Prime turned to communications. "Can they hear us?"
The tech worked a moment, then nodded. "They can. They also have the ability to respond."
At that moment, Prowl walked onto the deck toward Optimus. He paused beside him, having an offline conversation, then Prime turned toward Raptor. "Raptor, please go to Autobot City and handle the situation there. Omega came in damaged and crashed. He has taken down the Courthouse, part of the Museum and IntraCom before sliding to a halt into the Professional Building of Autobot City. They are working on him but there is need for control and leadership. The ships that went into the bridge with him are on their way to Earth."
It was funereally grim as Raptor nodded and hurried off to the bridge room. As he did, Xantium's voice could be heard. "What is Omega's status?"
Prowl glanced at the intercom nearby. "He is in bad shape but he is Omega. No one expects him to be going anywhere."
-0-Silverbolt
He burst into the atmosphere and flew toward the ground before transforming in the air. He landed, slid some distance, then ran swiftly toward Omega through all the broken, soaked and debris-littered streets and roadways. He slowed, then turned to Goldwing who was supervising the triage. "What is going to happen to him?"
"He's getting the best we have. I believe he's going to be fine," Goldwing said.
Silverbolt stared at him, then turned to Omega. He knelt beside Omega's face, touching him gently. "Omega? Can you hear me?" he asked. The big mech didn't stir. Silverbolt leaned forward to embrace Omega, placing his own on the big orange face of his bond. He would stay there until he was asked to step back when the big ships came to lift him to go to the medical hangar where all the big frames went when they were fragged up.
It would be a while.
-0-Ironhide
He sat in the engineer's seat while the boys took up turret guns or sat on the benches along the hull. They were following the signal of several groups. A shuttle and two flights of Seekers were ahead of them and coming the other way were more troops from Luna Base. Somewhere in the middle, their signals strong and fast paced, four Decepticon ships flew madly toward Earth. It was grim and silent on board the ship. When the four ships disappeared from the radar and sensor nets of all the Autobots pursuing them, it wouldn't be.
Silent, that is.
-0-Prime
He watched as shuttles with guns and missiles pointing at the listing Decepticons gathered the injured, pulling them in from space or from damaged ships. Some of them were placed in runabouts which sped with great speed toward the bridge nearby. It was being guarded by small cruisers who had taken a beating but were functioning well enough. It had been a brutal costly affair as both sides knew it would be and now they were taking stock.
"What's the word on the bogies, Prowl?" Prime asked as he sat brooding on the command chair.
"Just a moment," Prowl said as he leaned over sensors. He stiffened, then turned toward Optimus. "They just fell off sensors."
Prime glanced at him sharply. "They are heading toward Earth still?"
Prowl nodded.
"Prime to Springer."
"Springer," the voice said. "We're looking for them. They have capabilities. Those are now confirmed."
"Can you pick them up in some manner? Fuel residue perhaps?" Prime asked.
"No," Springer said. "Not yet anyway. Wheeljack and Perceptor are on it. We're plotting a reasonable calculation for their trajectory."
"Keep on it. Call up who you need, Ironhide. We cannot allow anything to happen to Earth. I will contact Morshower. Prime out." Prime glanced at Prowl who connected them to Glenn. He looked to be at N.E.S.T. HQ. "General, we have a problem."
"So we heard," Glenn said grimly. "We sent word to Earth through the network and there will be radar on alert for their arrival. When will that be?"
"In thirty minutes, General," Prowl said as he looked toward the screen. "We have everyone at Luna, a Seeker patrol diverted and Ironhide with crews led by Springer following them. They appear to have the ability to cloak. We know Megatron was working on it but we had no idea of their progress."
"Understood. Prepare for the shit to hit the fan," Morshower said. "We will get on it. Give me what you got when you get it. It helps."
Prime nodded. "We will."
"How's the operation?" Morshower asked.
"We have them contained," Optimus said. "We will come back as soon as we can."
Morshower nodded. "Understood. Morshower out." The screen went back to what it was before as the bots on the bridge turned back to the task of settling a battlefield as even a new one just opened on Earth.
-0-Over the Pacific Ocean
Four cloaked ships traveled low over the Pacific Ocean as their cloaks began to falter. It took a lot of energy to hide so they were limited on the time they could. However, it got them into the atmosphere of Earth and a chance to find a place to go where they would be safe from prying optics until their cloaking tech recharged and came back on line. They angled their ships and dived, disappearing below the waves as they did.
Nearby on maneuvers, naval components of Japan, Australia, the UK, the United States, South Korea, New Zealand, and Canada were working together in anticipation of RIMPAC. Rim of the Pacific, or RIMPAC for short, was an international gathering of naval entities to practice cooperation, safety at sea for shipping as well as keeping the peace in a dangerous world. It would be held in June and July of this year. Some of the entities were already together, near enough to the situation to pick up everyone on radar and sonar.
Skimming the waters, too, Ironhide and Impactor's Revenge flew toward a spot in the ocean that had been disturbed, like a very big rock landing in the relatively placid surface of a very big lake. Seekers and the ships following were ordered to dive. They went in fast and disappeared from view as well. As they did, fighter planes lifted off two carriers, one from the UK and one from the USA and headed their way locked and loaded.
-0-Airfield
They were climbing in and out of his chassis taking care of energon leaks and scanning for the repairs that would have to be done. Tankers landed or hovered overhead for their turn to pump energon back into the big mech. As each broken line was repaired or clipped off, the better his statistics began to read. At this rate, he would be ready to lift up and transport in a couple of joors.
Until then, everyone was ordered to stay inside.
-0-Pacific
Jets bombed over noting that a ship was hovering in place over the sea. It bore the Autobot markings of the Prime and Cybertron. The jets flew off and soon were replaced by big heavily armed helicopters. Two of them hovered alongside the ship upon arrival. Their doors were open and guns were pointing at Impactor's Revenge. Ironhide rose, walked to the hatch and popped it. Staring at the humans sitting and standing in the door of the helicopter, he did the same from his vantage point. Then he made a call to them. :We're here because some slaggers broke free from a battle and made their way to Earth. Point that slagger at someone else. Call your ship. Have them call Morshower at N.E.S.T. , then head back to base. You're in over your helms:
The humans stared at the bots while the call was being made. It would be a very tense standoff.
-0-TBC 5-12-18 edited 7-3-18