The Diego Diaries: War (dd6 356)
-0-Here and there
They stood on the third deck balcony, one that stared out across the main concourse and led toward the work areas beyond. In the other direction, apartments and living quarters of those who worked here were arrayed over a three story configuration. Almost all 5,000 residents were in the shelters having fled when the signal alerted.
"This is not a drill. Go to the emergency shelters, log in for head count, then stay there. This is not a drill ..."
The mercs helped the nine Autobot directed human security team and the bots who worked here look for and direct everyone to the shelter. Sam Hedges, Carlos Ortega and Jim Johnson had gone to the farm deck and saw that those there were shepherding the animals into their barns and enclosures. They had hollered for them to come and forget the animals but they didn't. When the last duck, chicken, sheep, goat, and bouncing dog, including Cora the Australian shepherd who helped corral everyone was inside their keeps, the humans shut themselves into the little barn with the miniature horses.
They weren't leaving for anyone.
The three had ran back, then paused on the concourse. The message was still blaring, the door to Ops Center on this floor was still locked and they weren't ready to go below either. They stood on the concourse watching the outside world, waiting for an invasion or attack. Oddly enough, the three were ready to fight to protect the habitat.
-0-Family Tower
They helped the elders and their pets make it to the elevator that would drop them three stories below ground into the special bomb shelter for humans. Charlotte and Seymour, an 'item' and among the local women who planned the social and event life of the human colony, 'a possibility' were gentle and organized as they grabbed cats, dogs, old ladies, and feisty old men. The odd baby was given pride of place in the elevator as they cleared the three levels of human occupation in the tower. It was only when the last ones left that they inspected again, then went down themselves.
-0-Sparkling Day School
Roto was just walking out of the infant lunchroom with Orion when the message from Emergency Management in Fort Max hit his transponder. He halted with all the adults, then glanced around. Everyone began to firmly manage the kids around them into elevators for the trip downward. The emergency plan everyone had painstakingly created began to work as teachers, aides, visiting family, administration, and others began to lead the kids to elevators to go below. Herling and Mr. Delay-O along with office staff went to the top and began to check every floor for the odd child hiding in terror and to lock the elevator access off when they were clear. It wouldn't take as long as you would think.
-0-Youngling Day
They came running from the playground, assembling in lines as the teachers shouted, "FIRE DRILL! FIRE DRILL!" Running with laughter and delight to their teachers, they were managed into their lines, then filed inside swiftly. There were told if they beat their record, it was ice cream for everyone. It would take about ten minutes to clear the building and another ten to check each floor. Each floor warden would check every nook and cranny, find five kids hiding in terror at the siren, then carry them to the elevators and the shelters below.
-0-Intermediate Day
They walked swiftly, a stream of kids hurrying to the elevators for the 'fire drill'. They had one unscheduled every so often, so this was a swift and humorous event. Down they went, hordes of kids, as the floor wardens checked for stragglers. By the time they were all below, twenty minutes would have passed, Omega would have crashed and the intruders would be well on their way toward Earth.
-0-Autobot City Municipal and Interplanetary Airport, Autobot City
The change over of vacationers, 250 leaving while 251 arrived was underway when the alarm sounded. There was no finesse here. Soon, a Supreme mechanism out of control would pass overhead and no one could be here when it happened. They were hurriedly pushed and cajoled into all the elevators of the facility until they were all in the shelters below along with the bots who worked here or were here for whatever reason. It was noisy, then the ground shuddered underfoot. Everyone was silenced as the rumble repeated a few times, then died. A tall bot walked to a monitor and keyed it on to The Hourly News. It was spoken in NeoCybex here, the commentary and video that was disjointed and hurried, as if someone somewhere else was running swiftly to the sight they were viewing. They were. IntraComm was buried under rubble at the moment and no one would be able to go in or out for a while. This was the linked in personal video of a rescue worker heading as fast as he could to Omega.
-0-The siren giving all clear some time later, the Autobot City Municipal and Interplanetary Airport
The crowd from the bunker came up to the main concourse, their expressions devoid of the usual happy expectation that arrival here entailed. They gathered around the humans who were attendants on the ships nearby, getting the word to leave. They sorted the new arrivals from the others who then began to make their way to immigration. He, himself, saw Seymour Simmons cross through an energy barrier to walk to him. They shook hands, then he handed gear to Tom Banachek who was here to spend a week in conversation with Seymour as Sector 7 on world liaison and Charlotte Mearing, the interface between Bot World and the Earth on the official governmental level.
"Slip into that and I'll show you the mask. We gotta motor. I'll take you past the disaster," he said glancing toward a segway that was from N.E.S.T. Tom would stay at the Resort, but spend his time going around learning about the colony, the bots and the humans who lived here. It was common knowledge among those on Earth in government and military positions who had ties or worked with the humans here that they had all 'gone native', including Mearing and Simmons.
He slipped into the gear, then took the face mask from Simmons who yanked the hoodie over Tom's black hair. Helping him fix it to his face, getting the shorthand of 'go or not' security wise and 'channel 2, Tom, to talk to me alone … channel 5 for the bots and other humans. The other six channels are for different things and two of them are permanently on as overrides if there's a disaster. Just say 'channel 2' or 'channel 5' depending on what you need."
Tom nodded then followed Simmons to the segway nearby where he piled his luggage and computer along with himself into the vehicle. Waving to the crowd who waved at them, Simmons buzzed out through the huge barrier to the main concourse, then onward to the airfield. They were heading for the Resort but nothing said they couldn't have a good look at the disaster as they made their way there. They disappeared into the ships and controlled chaos of the airfield.
-0-Earth 1
They climbed out of the shelter, then ran for the monitors and televisions in the big main lounge. Turning them all on, they watched channel 4 coverage of the disaster at the airfield. Aleph was speaking to reporters in the field as he ran the coverage from the sub basement emergency studio at IntraComm. The scene was grim as they saw rescue crews swarming Omega, Silverbolt's agony over the situation, crews pumping the gullies alongside the road, some of which were overflowing with foam, energon, different colored fluids, and the liquid they were using nearby to spray Omega clear of all of the aforementioned.
Ships hovered overhead raining down spray that cleared out the mess which ran in rivers to the streets and gullies. Mechs held hoses and sprayed him from trucks that were parked all around. They had to clearly see what was what as doctors, techs, specialists, and other medical personnel lowered themselves into Omega through the gaping holes in his chest. There was no panic, just carefully crafted and swiftly delivered coordination among the different entities detailed to serve this emergency.
"I wonder how the battle turned out," Markey James said as he stood beside his boyfriend, Corey Taylor. "This is so bad. I hate to think anyone was lost. These are our neighbors."
Everyone nodded as Aleph ran through the preliminary loses thus far. They were unchanged from earlier but they were a number too many for everyone watching.
-0-Simmons and Banachek
They rolled toward the road and crossed a steel plank that was laid over the ditch for that purpose. Usually, the sidewalks were clear and the gullies that bordered them shallow and dry. Now the sidewalks were under water and the gullies looked dangerous with strange colors from strange liquids mixing together. They halted, then looked down the way to the runway that bordered Cultural Center Road. It was set back near the Hangar District, the working area of the airport and the place where the big frames lived and were attended to. It was also the area where trade happened, the business end of it. The actual landing and storing of goods and commodities was behind the big frame hangars in a large hangar district of its own overseen by Slacker as General Receiving and Shipping Manager for the colony and Cybertron.
Omega had come around on a dog leg to line up with the airport runway, then fell onto it. Fortunately, his life was saved by the foam which he plowed like an icebreaker before continuing onward until he flipped, went airborne and landed on the terrain off the runway that led to different businesses, public buildings and towers. A long slide gouged out by Omega was filling with liquid as it ran over the surface of the sand. It was designed and treated to do so, to prevent the problem of contamination on top of everything else. There were bounces where he had flipped again and another series of skids as he flew along.
Buzzing forward, they reached the other side of the road, traversed another plank bridge, then headed toward the Courthouse. No one stopped them, everyone was busy so they made it to the road that led to the jail end of the building. It was shattered from a full on body shot from Omega and the front facade back a good twenty-five feet inside had fallen to the ground almost as one. Inside the building, the interior rooms could be seen, though the jail was untouched because it was in the back. Whether there were structural problems anyway would have to be determined.
:Damn. This is toast. Imagine that happening to the White House or the Sears Tower? Imagine that happening to the Eiffel Tower or the Leaning Tower of Pisa?: Simmons said as he warmed to the idea. :Helluva mess:
:This is a disaster: Banachek said.
:Disaster as in 'disaster' or disaster as in 'Prime fucked up'?" Simmons asked.
Banachek shrugged. :I'm not the enemy:
:You will be if you talk like this. Treat this as a tragedy in the family and you won't put your foot in your mouth: Simmons said as he gunned the segway. Heading forward, he followed the trail of Omega's suffering until he reached the clear area between the Museum and IntraComm. They looked at the buildings, then the ground where glittering artifacts lay in the midst of foam. He climbed off and walked to a sparkling metallic object, reaching down to tug it out of the mess. It was a jeweled dagger, one that had a spectacular history among The People. He looked at Banachek. :Come and help me get this on board. We can give it to someone before it gets messed up worse than it is:
Tom Banachek, director of Sector 7 and a member of the National Security Agency for the President hopped down, gripped the dagger by its hilt and helped Simmons drag it onto the segway. It took a bit of effort, then they climbed on and sped onward, staring at the destruction silently. When they reached the area around Omega, they would deliver the dagger to Inferno who would thank them. Then he would boot them out of the area for their own good.
They would speed onward to the Family Tower and the grim faced group waiting there for news.
-0-Out there
They were gathered together, everyone but Raptor, Ironhide and Springer. They were discussing how to take the ships without causing undo harm to anyone, especially their side. Prime had been updated momentarily about Omega, then shared the news. "Omega Supreme will live," he said to enormous relief in the room. "He is gravely injured but will be brought back to optimal over a period of time. The Museum, Courthouse, IntraComm and the Business Tower of Autobot City were damaged, some of them extremely, when he crashed onto the runway on his return."
It was silent, then Xantium who was listening growled his relief laced outrage. "So … when do you give the word to blow these fraggers to molecules, Prime?" he asked gruffly.
Prime who considered the question with more agreement than he thought possible glanced at the interface panel of Xantium. "We will take them alive if we can, Xantium. It is the Autobot way."
"And if they fight back?" Delphi asked quietly.
"Then we fight them to the floor," Prime said grimly.
-0-Sparkling Day
They walked upward carrying and leading infants, all of them glad to be out of the 'jail'. Orion who was sitting in Roto's arms was having an animated conversation about the event given that he remembered the last time they were downstairs waiting out a disaster. "TO-TO! GOING TO THAT THERE? I, ORION, NOT LIKED IT! Down dere bad. What we go there?" he asked.
Roto grinned at him. "We have drills. Practice. We went down there to practice. We have to do it, Spud."
"Go there to doing? Going there to doing this and that?" he asked in his usual manner.
He reminded Roto of a baby bird with bright optics and a big mouth. Roto chuckled as they rode upward in an elevator. "Yep," he said as they stepped out and began to walk to the classroom where the kids would finish their orn.
"I, ORION, GOED TO THE DOING!" Orion cried with joy. "I, ORION DOED IT! SO DOED EMMEE! BOO! PAX! CO-CO!" He laughed loudly. "CO-CO! COO-COO! I, ORION, SAYED COO-COO!" he said as he cackled loudly. So did everyone else as they walked into their classroom and the door closed behind them.
-0-At a Pioneer School
They walked into their classroom, six little kids, one teacher, and two aides. Ferri and Hero were holding servos as they walked along, chatting about fire drills and how they had to learn things to be safe. It was amusing to Bron-E who was a first level teacher-trainee and student at the University. Soon, she would be assigned to a regular classroom to get training across the spectrum before returning to this one, the room she had applied for and won. When she graduated, she hoped to have a future classroom in the Pioneer Program or one like it with the Circle. Either way, she was stoked.
The door closed quietly behind them.
-0-TBC 5-14-18 edited 7-5-18