The Diego Diaries: Farmville (dd6 399)
-0-Touchdown!
Ratchet sat up and glanced around, noting that everyone was sitting up as well while Prime howled with laughter still winched into his chair. Ratchet stood up, then walked to Prime. "GLAD TO MAKE YOUR ORN, FRAGGER!"
Prime unbuckled, then stood. "You're welcome, slaggers."
Thrasher, who though warrior class was a gent and who'd never seen a Prime joke let alone laugh like a maniac, stood up from the conn. "Touchdown, Lord Optimus," he said with a smile. "Invincible is making the seal and setting the coordination for the dome now."
Prime nodded, then glanced around. "What is it like outside? As bad as we expected?"
Magnus consulted a console, then turned to Prime. "Yes."
Ratchet howled, then grinned at Prime. "That was funny, somehow."
Magnus smirked at his ada-in-law. "Glad to entertain you."
"You did." -everyone there including Prime.
Thrasher glanced around, then nodded. "I thought it was funny, too."
A few moments of agreement met that dazzling assessment, then Invincible entered from a heavy door that formed to connect both operational centers. He bowed his helm to Prime, then glanced around. "Did I miss something?" he asked even though he knew. He had been linked into Thrasher from space.
Huge laughter among the warrior classes.
"Lord Optimus, the dome is programmed to go up. I will start the programming now. The energy form will cover the allotted space instantly including down 200 feet into the soil to make an enclosed pod for the working and living space for humans. This will prevent any breaks in the dome or the possibility of leaks underground, or above for that matter. It will also take care of any radium leaks that might be here. I haven't had time to assess the soil yet," Thrasher said. "It will take about two minutes for it to change into a solid feature. The solidity of the dome will take about half a breem to become impervious to impacts, then it'll be self maintaining. My sensors will be linked with Thrasher and monitor every square inch of our features and super structure together."
"And that's why the titan classes are the mech," Ratchet said as he slipped his arm through that of Thrasher.
Thrasher who didn't mind having one of the most beautiful mechs he had ever seen hanging on his arm grinned at Ironhide. "Jealous, much?" he ventured to the big grinning Autobot standing by his father.
Ironhide laughed. "YES!"
They walked to the door nearby which was a sheet of glass-like translucence, hooting and hollering to Ironhide as he followed. Outside in dome, the dust level was amazing. As they watched, it swiftly dropped as the air became clear and normalized very swiftly. Outside the dome, it was a different thing altogether. Thrasher turned to Prime. "Shall we go out?" he asked.
"After you," Prime said as Prowl joined them through the double steel doors from Invincible's Ops Center.
The door opened and they walked through, entering a vastness that was nearly impossible to comprehend that would be accessible and completely safe for the humans who would work here. Outside the dome, a sandstorm was raging as some of the heavier particulates fell back down sliding off the dome as they landed. It would take a few joors for most and a couple of orns for the finer stuff to settle back down out there. Public Works would be digging out the cities for some time.
Prime walked forward heading toward an indentation nearby. "Is this where the pond is going to be?" he asked with a grin as Jetta and his team ran out of the operational center to join them.
Jetta laughed. "I don't know."
Mack who was with him consulted his datapad with the plans. "It's four miles that way, Prime," he said pointing to the west.
"Four miles. The humans are going to come apart at the seams over this," Ratchet said. "Maybe we need to start a series here. "'Farmville: The Passion'. I can see it now. It'll feature a doctor with miraculous servos and his beau, someone with nice shoulders. They can roll across the prairie and set up a log cabin by that pond. It'll feature the usual strife, double entendre, passionate 'facing, and divorce. Can't you just SEE IT!?" he asked as he turned to the group with a giant smile.
They would agree, some of them, after they finished laughing loudly.
Even Magnus. Humans, the insectoidal indigenous lifeforms of Earth, were hilarious sometimes even to him.
Prime laughed, then put in the call he planned for his new team. Walking forward, they continued inward to the vastness that would be Unidad-Terra 1.
-0-The Family Tower
Harley and Amos Epps walked to the door with their 'great sonny boy', Bobby. They went down and entered a truck, a Cybertronian truck, to go to the newest habitat on world. Another truck had driven to Earth2 and amongst the startlement of the masses there retrieved Zak and Monica Hadden. They had been as surprised as everyone else including the management who had come to see what was what. Climbing into the vehicle which was Inferno in armored truck format, they drove out to 'see Prime'.
Owen Harris watched them go with the others inside the habitat. "What's Prime doing? Why would he ask for Zak and Monica? I don't know what he's playing at but something tells me we have competition."
"Fuck that," Kyle Davis said with a frown.
"Indeed," Owen Harris replied.
-0-On the way
They drove through a dark firestorm of flying sand on a highway that had drifts everywhere. Inferno taking this form, his usual one when things were like this, traversed them easily. He was silent until Zak leaned closer to the dash. "Inferno? Are you there? We got your message. What's going on?"
"Prime asked me to get you and bring you to the new installation. I don't know more than that, Zak. Prime needs both of you for something," he replied.
"Okay." Zak sat back and took Monica's hand into his. "This is a big mess. How long do you imagine its going to take to get things back to normal?"
Inferno chuckled. "We're going to be at this a while. The finest particulates might not clear up for months. Wheeljack and Perceptor are working on some kind of ionization thing or something to clear the air. I don't know about that kind of science but I know those two can fix anything but a broken spark."
Monica chuckled. "I love them." She grinned. "I love this place. Thank you, Inferno, for letting us live here. This is the greatest experience of my life, knowing this place and your people."
They couldn't see him smile but he did. "No problem. Ditto," he said as they blasted ahead into the darkness.
-0-Driving to the newest, swankest place in town
Omar and Harley Epps sat in the vehicle with their 'perfect son', Will Lennox, Niall Graham, and Gavin Pritchard who was in the building at the time. It was dark and they were hurtling over dunes and other masses of sand on their way to a looming darkness ahead. "Where are we now?" Omar asked.
A voice from the radio spoke. "We're nearly there, Mr. Epps. That dark shape ahead is Thrasher and Invincible."
They stared out the window at a massive darkness coming ever closer. "Well, isn't that something?" Harley Epps said as they disappeared into the darkness.
-0-Sciences
"This might be the thing. It'll lower the particulates in the air by about 85%. That should make the visible field of sight for the humans about 50% better." Wheeljack glanced at Perceptor. "I wish Ratchet were here. I have no idea how an 85% clearance of the air would result in a 50% increase in visibility even for humans."
Perceptor nodded. "I don't know either. Poor little organics," he said as he consulted his datapad.
Wheeljack grinned. Perceptor got cuter and cuter every orn in his optics.
-0-Inside Thrasher's Ops Center
They met nearly at the same time, then drove inside. Letting out their passengers, the two transformed. The other mech was Squint, a former Decepticon brought in with Knockout and Breakdown who was a shift boss and general manager of the Public Works teams that made the colony fit to live in. He had been a hard helmed and greatly feared Decepticon but now he was a bond, a father of two little femmes that he worshiped like the goddesses that they were and a friend of Jetta, Bulkhead, Payload, and other members of his circle and union.
He stood beside Inferno, an unheard of thing in the past without shots fired and followed the humans as they walked toward the doors ahead. They instructed them to do so and as the humans worked to cross the floor, the big mechs called to them, picked them up and walked out the door to the group standing some distance away, talking together as they pointed to things all around. The humans were overawed into silence as they sat on the mechs servos and stared around themselves.
Prime and the others turned to them as they reached their group. "Welcome," Prime said with a grin. "Let me introduce you," he said. "This is Thrasher and Invincible, the two mechs whose forms have created this habitat. They are dreadnought class vessels and have agreed to come here to live and form this space."
Through the door nearby, a number of giant mechs walked out to join them including Dangerous, Clipper, Typhoon, Tennyson, Metroplex, Paribolus, Caminus, Tyke to kibitz, Fort Max to congratulate, and Metrobon because he was a gossip. They joined the group, chatted happily a moment, then turned to Prime. "Our frame is overjoyed about this new development, Lord Optimus," Caminus said. "More will come and we will be at your beck and call."
"Thank you. When was it ever not so?" Prime asked. "Your honor precedes you, my friends." He turned to the humans. "Zak Hadden, is your father Leslie Hadden?"
:Uh, yes sir. My father teaches at the University of Minnesota: Zak said.
"You can remove your gear inside the dome," Jetta said. "Everything including particulates in the air is optimal."
The humans removed their head gear, then looked around with amazement. "What can we do for you, Lord Optimus?" Monica asked with a slightly breathy tone.
Ratchet scanned her. "You're about to hyperventilate, infant. Take a moment to relax and breathe deeply."
They watched her with concern as she complied, then looked up at Ratchet. "I'm better. It's just … this is so exciting and I love this world so much. Zak and I … we feel so privileged to be here let alone spend time like this with you."
Everyone stared at them for a moment, their emotions evident as well. Zak and Monica Hadden were elevated onto the Family List at that moment by all of them. "We return the sentiments, Mrs. Hadden. What we have created here is a habitat that will be a farming and manufacturing experiment. This habitat will be owned and operated by us, Autobot Nation, and will be housed and staffed by human employees of the same. They will be employed by the Prime Foundation and subject to us, our rules, regulations and laws both inside and outside of the facility.
"We will be working on agriculture, medicine, transportation, environmental problems related to Earth, hard science, animal husbandry and medicine, and other avenues that are still under development. All of this research and development will be for the ultimate benefit of Earth and her people. We are very concerned about the problems afflicting your planet and this is a way to assist. This facility will house, potentially, 45,000 individuals with the ability for infinite expansion in future. For now, we will begin with 10,000. All of them will be related to those industries we will be starting up first including manufacturing and construction. We will develop trade agreements through Autobot Nation, Incorporated to send our results to Earth at no cost as the program warrants. Right now, we need a visionary agricultural specialist to head the largest industry that we will be managing here, someone like your father, Mr. Hadden."
Zak who listened to Prime almost in a state of trance glanced at his wife who was in the same condition. "My father? HE'D DIE TO COME HERE! This is what he tried to teach others to do all his life. MY FATHER AND MOTHER WOULD PAY YOU TO COME HERE!" He caught himself. "My mother is a botanist with a specialty in bees."
Monica nodded.
"Her expertise would be most welcome, too. He would be director for agriculture and all related areas for the facility and report to me and my designated farm liaisons, Generals Raptor and Blackjack," Prime said with a grin.
Everyone glanced at Blackjack and Raptor who stared back with surprise. Then Blackjack howled. Reaching into his carry hold, he pulled out a surprised little cow, one with a Holstein paint scheme. Setting him on the ground, Raptor complied with his own, a tiny Hereford with horns. Everyone stared at them, then the two.
Raptor grinned. "Moile. The first two cows in the habitat."
"Oh, my god," Monica said as Inferno put both her and Zak on the ground. She walked to the two tiny cows, both of them reaching her shoulder in height. She grinned up at the bots.
"The good looking one is Pudding and the other one is Flipper," Raptor said with great pride.
Blackjack frowned at his father.
Everyone around him grinned.
"Pudding, I can see, but Flipper?" Monica asked.
"My son made the mistake of pulling his ear," Blackjack said with a proud smile.
"Shame on you, Ironhide," Monica said with a smile and wink at the big mech who grinned. Then she hugged the little cow.
They would spend an hour walking around the farm land, then head inside. The part of the facility facing the dome was fronted with clear reinforced aluminum allowing the light to flood the facility. The ground floor was administrative, held the huge commercial sector and would be the 'lounge' of the habitat with different places to play and exercise including a huge pool.
There were facilities for a barber, two beauty salons, groceries, restaurants of all manner, a multiplex theater, three clubs which were also bars, a post office, city hall where Leslie Hadden would work if hired, a small hospital, a police station with little sub stations on each floor for the security force that would be Springer's to manage, a tiny jail, a big library and media center, a broadcast station and studio connected to all the habitats and IntraComm, a newspaper office for dailies and magazines for anyone who wanted or needed to publish … that space would maintain the web pages for the facility … a huge expandable school for children from baby to high school, a nascent college facility for those who would graduate the local schools then move onward and any adults who wanted education, a dining hall with cafe and cafeteria that be repeated on deck three and five, places for those who didn't want to cook at home to eat in community, and other space to be utilized later on.
That didn't count the two-to-three bedroom apartments, studios and dormitory living facilities for the resident employees.
Some of the commercial and public facilities were clustered together on deck three and five to make the place less dependent on the first floor and control traffic better. The facility would utilize four wheeled vehicles some of which would be automated 'cabs' and huge elevators located at each end and in the middle of the facility. They would follow the roads laid out with bordering sidewalks for pedestrians and utilize traffic lights at the intersections. There was a massive warehouse and delivery system set up in the back of floor one which would be the sector that would deal with the outside.
It was overwhelming, spectacularly beautiful and infinitely well thought out. The humans sat on their mech's servos, then Harley looked up at Prime. "What do you want me to do, Prime? I'm ready to go." Omar nodded as well.
"I would like you, gentlemen, to start a dairy here. I would like you to produce the typical products that such a situation creates." He glanced at the Haddens. "I would also like a vineyard and orchard. The Hu-An will be consulting. I expect Larc shortly."
"He wants butter and cheese, Daddy," Omar said to his father who nodded. "We can do that." Omar looked up at Prime. "We're going to have to look at some cows, Optimus. We're in."
Prime grinned. "Thank you, gentlemen. We will help you facilitate your situation. Mr. Hadden? Would your father be interested?"
"I can call him. Now, even," Zak said with a hopeful expression.
"Here," Lennox said. He punched some buttons. "Dial like normal. I put it on speaker for Optimus."
Zak nodded, dialed the phone, then waited nervously.
"Leslie Hadden," a voice was heard to say.
"DAD! THIS IS ZAK!"
"ZAK! How are you, son? How is Mars? Is Owen still giving you shit?" the voice asked.
"DAD! Listen. You know the thing that's going on? On Mars with the big ships landing?" Zak asked nearly breathlessly.
"Yes. We're watching it on TV now," Leslie replied.
"I'm standing inside it. It's a domed habitat for farming," Zak said. "Optimus Prime is right here. He wants to know if you'd like to be director for agriculture here."
It was silent a moment as the bots leaned slightly forward to listen.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" -Leslie
"YES!" Zak held out the phone. "HERE'S OPTIMUS PRIME, DAD!"
Prime grinned slightly. "Mr. Hadden, this is Optimus Prime."
"OH! MY! GOD! YES! YES! WHATEVER YOU WANT!" -Leslie Hadden agreeing to the greatest event of his life short of his marriage and the birth of his kids.
Prime grinned at Zak. "I think we have a director."
They would.
-0-TBC 7-1-18 Happy July, everyone. :D edited 7-1-18
Sorry this is late. I'm planning for two a day but slag happens. Last night, I stood by the window looking out at nearly midnight. It looked like three in the afternoon on a sunny day. ALL HAIL, ALASKA! Hugs, forever. :D