The Diego Diaries: Stuff (dd6 500) Five hundred times six means a minimum of 3,000 parts. :D
My dog hurt his neck. Last night was a looooooooooooooooooooooong night. Here we go. (He's going to be fine, my little Timmy. He's a black and tan dapple dachshund with 1 inch legs and my hero. He and my standard Chihuahua, Buddy. And my two cats, Spike and Queen. Them, too.) :D:D:D:D:D:D
-0-After the ball
Everyone shot the shit a moment then walked out, including Ironhide and Prime, to go back to Cybertron. Raptor was off for the afternoon to do his thing, so he sat back and grinned at everyone. They grinned at him.
"So," Prowl said with a starchy brittleness.
"Those two are the cutest infants," Ratchet said. "Dev better make a lot of pie."
Raptor nodded. "They are. So young, both of them." He sat back, then eyeballed both mechs. "It seems that Frazer is raising his entitled helm. Enlighten me about him."
"Sideswipe knew a femme soldier at Diego, a captain who flew helicopters. She was in an abusive relationship with him and Sideswipe found out. He went down to the docks to find Frazer on a vessel there. It was grisly. The ship captain refused to allow the meet up-"
"An understandable command decision," Prowl added with a smirk.
Ratchet smirked back. "MY SON decided to press the issue and there were words. To make a long story short … the femme was transferred away and Frazer was left there. He may have gone through a hearing and been transferred to another posting but nothing really changed for anyone. I still read about this slag every day. As for him now, his family is connected and his father, Pierre Beliveau was a former French diplomat and best friend for all time to Owen Harris. The younger resigned from the Navy, worked for companies owned by Harris, then was posted to Earth2. That's why he's here and that's why he's still gumming up the works. The two families are like related almost, they're so close."
"Well, that's going to make beating his aft more fun," Raptor said. "The femme captain … what does she do and can she work at Unidad? Why not make it old home week for everyone?"
"You're a devious slagger," Ratchet said. "But I suppose … if the Daniels, Bill Nast and Ted Galloway can work at Earth2, then the femme can work at Unidad. If she wants. I don't know what she does but it might be a nice perk for losing her career to come here and work."
"Talk to Sideswipe. See if he knows where she is. Something tells me he would know," Raptor said as he stood. "What's next on the to-do list?"
"I work and you two pretend to be useful," Prowl said with a slight smirk of superiority.
A donut bounced off his helm and was captured by the edge of his brilliant red chevron. He glanced at it out of the corner of his optic and began to rise. Raptor ran for the door laughing loudly as Ratchet smiled at his fleet feet. "That mech can run fast."
"Not so fast that the duty schedule can't catch him," Prowl said as he picked the donut off his chevron. Glancing at it, he looked around the room at the crew working. When they were suitably on task, he popped the donut in his mouth. "Why waste a good chocolate covered donut?"
Ratchet laughed, then nodded. "Why indeed?"
-0-Earth2
They gathered in the conference room and got the detailed rundown about what happened from Cameron. It was silent a moment. "This was interesting. Prowl thought it important enough to bring Prime back from Cybertron. Their army is different. Less structured and formal than our own."
"They fight like demons," Pierre said. "I wouldn't think that was a deficit. Something tells me that they don't give quarter and they don't lose that often. This Razorclaw," he mused. "He's a combiner and someone everyone fears when his name is mentioned. I've studied his brother, Rampage and find nothing about them insignificant. Yet, they don't rush us from their stronghold. They have a good quarter million soldiers from what I last heard. Yet, no effort has been made to make any kind of incursion."
"Razorclaw is smart and tactical. Nothing says he isn't working out the other way past Prime's domain," Owen said. Hamilton Brown, Steve Jameson, Pierre Beliveau and Cameron along with Kyle Davis sat with Owen in his conference room. The sun streamed in from the outside as in the distance one could see the gleaming south sides of Unidad Terra 1. In the distance in another direction, one could see the communications towers of the Consulate. Earth 1 would have to be seen from another side of the installation but not from his office windows. "I would imagine he's working out what he can control from the directions Prime isn't patrolling."
"He is," Steve Jameson said. "I talked to a few of the soldiers, asking questions about Razorclaw. They didn't say much but they mentioned that they're looking into his activities of in those areas of his influence that weren't obvious or easy to reach. They have Seeker patrols going everywhere."
"Do they bridge out there and back?" Kyle Davis asked.
"They didn't say in so many words but the idea that came to me was yes, they did," Jameson replied.
Owen glanced at Cameron who was still obviously angry about things. "You're going to call us before you take any measures again, Cam. No more going off on your own. This was interesting and tactical but I want to know and approve next time. We're going to glean as much as we can when we can. This was no exception but you came close to being booted off world. Consider yourself on Lennox's shit list forever and know he doesn't have to have a reason to send you home. He has the authority to ban even presidents and prime ministers."
Cam nodded, then shifted in his chair. "I hate Sideswipe. I hate his fucking guts. All of them."
"You might want to look around," Pierre said sharply to his son. "This is their domain and we're surrounded by them inside and outside of this place. If you can't rise to the occasion and do this, then maybe you need to work on Earth."
He glanced sharply at his father. "I can do this."
"Then remember … they don't even need an excuse," Owen said. "Right now," he said as Cynthia Tomas walked back into the room after taking a call, "we need to get organized on the exchange calendar with all the human habitats over the next two months. There are major holidays coming up and a number of conferences at The Resort and Unidad that we're going to be attending. This won't be a small operation with about 15,200+ humans on world now when the everyone is here at the same time."
Everyone grinned, then watched as Cynthia rolled out her chart with the calendars for their site on them. They would spend a number of hours going over the visitor, holiday, event and deadline targets for their installation. Then they would forward them to every other habitat for them to review and add their own. Cynthia, after a week, would send a finalized calendar to everyone in the human community about what was when and where. The next three months barring trouble or unexpected interruption would then be planned.
Cameron Frazer would be back in his office running supply and procurement for Earth2 but on his mind would be the smirking angry face of Autobot Sideswipe.
His nemesis.
-0-Swimming Pool, Youngling Day School #1, Centurion, Autobot City
They waited for their turn to jump in and swim to the other side. Halfway there tethered to the line that divided the bot kids swimming zone from the human was a floating platform for them to climb up upon. The distance from one side of the pool to the other, the narrow, not long side was too great for them to swim without a stop along the way. Down the pool in their part of the vast watery space, the bot kids were doing laps and learning to walk on the bottom.
Annie Lennox stood beside Jaycee Jameson waiting for her turn. Ahead of her Sandy, James and the Epps kids were swimming madly for the platform. A teacher aide, Lo-T was sitting in the water instructing and cheering them forward. Their regular gym teacher was with the bot kids. :Halloween is coming. What are you going to do about it?: Annie asked Jaycee who she liked and liked her. They were buds with Jaycee staying overnight and going on outings with the Lennox family. She was the one who was the best and most well assimilated among the non-N.E.S.T./Family/Resort kids. The age difference between her and Annie didn't matter to her.
:I don't know. I haven't trick-or-treated in a long time. We usually have a party: she said as they stepped forward just that much closer to the edge. :You?:
:We have a party and trick-or-treat at Earth 1. Come with: she said as they reached the edge and took their places to dive in next.
:I'll ask my mom: Jaycee said as they got on the mark, then dived in. The rest would have to wait for the long swim to the platform. When they got there, those ahead of them were ready to go again and would be diving in just as they climbed out.
-0-Diego Garcia
They walked on their rounds, nearly off shift. The base had heard about things and many were the humans that wanted 'the inside stuff'. It was amusing to stop here and there to chat with those who had the same opinion of Frazer that they had. Heading onward, they chatted together. "This is funny. I don't think he has a friend in 1,000 miles," Jolt said.
"He deserves it. I could pulverize him," Smokey said with a frown. "Sideswipe will be watching him."
"Sideswipe hates him. That whole mess he started. This place is going to be fun for a while," Jolt said as he waved to some sailors nearby who had honked their vehicle horn.
"When we get done here we can go to my amma's place," Smokey said. "His pie is the best."
"We have to go do kitchen patrol duty when we get done here," Jolt said with a sigh. "Where is the Veteran's Center?"
"Central Labor Hall," Smokey said with a sigh. "Its a big deal. Lots of bots and their families go there all day long. Don't expect to get done in three joors."
It was silent a moment, then Jolt vented a sigh. "Frag," he said as they turned to the shore side to wander through the dock area. One of the ships they would pass would be that of Captain Cardinelli.
-0-Cybertron
They walked across a canal, one that ran with real water. Cybertron had a lot of water, most of it subterranean and a good deal of it mixed with energon. They had perfected separating the two liquids to the point where humans could drink water on Cybertron without harm once upon a time. It would also have surprised them that originally the big planet had an Earth-like atmosphere. If they had been able to come in the past, they wouldn't need survival gear. The sky would be higher and the rain harder because Cybertron was more than four times bigger than Earth. There would be some differences but tolerable. Right now, not so much.
Reaching the other side, they saw a crater that was huge. Down inside working hard to clear the debris and water filled shell, mechs were hard at it. Prime turned to the locals. "How much more do you need to do this safely?"
"We're doing alright at the moment, Lord Optimus. We hope to have it drained by this evening and then work on the sides. We have to shore them up so they don't cave in when we go down there," the local foreman said.
Prime glanced around. "If they require more, fast track it. We want this done safely."
Everyone agreed, then he began to skirt the site to continue onward. There were places to visit that hadn't seen anyone's presence since the war. This part of Helex was a warren of holes in the ground for very disturbed individuals who had fled the fighting or were trapped on the wrong side of it. Being one of the first cities to fall to Megatron, those here were swiftly enslaved and had been worked harder and longer than anyone else throughout the long winter of the occupation. It had taken a lot of time to get them out and it would seem they'd finally succeeded. He listened to the explanation of the effort, then the plans for the area to be turned back into habitations, decent housing towers for everyone here. The footprint of Helex would be smaller because the towers were being grouped more sensibly.
No more would there be willy nilly building and dead zones were the poor lived. This was their chance to make things right and Helex would be different when they were finished. There would be lots of open spaces and public places. That part of the rebuild was not negotiable. Heading onward, they walked to a camp where refugees lived, those especially who were ill or mentally debilitated. It would be a very hard venture even if the people there would be ecstatic to see them.
-0-Sciences
Prowl sat in the office next to the main lab as he waited for Optimus to come. Things were going slowly on Cybertron near the equator. Given that an enormous portion of their population had been forcibly congregated there during The Fall to work in the industries that the Decepticons had concentrated there, the number of bots needing help exceeded every other place. There were also a growing number of burial sites that had to be seen by Prime to pay respects. It was an arduous task. Prowl would hold off telling him the new information about Razorclaw until tomorrow. Today, they would plan the protoform for the new infant. Heavy treads nearby drew him from his reverie as he stood with a grin. "How was home?"
"Getting there," Prime said as he hugged Prowl. "You ready for this?"
"We're getting behind Loon. I'm overdue for it," Prowl said as they walked toward the lab to make their wishes known. "However, if you count them all up everywhere, you'll find that all of the infants are mine. Technically, we win," he said with a grin.
It drew a laugh from Prime, just as he knew it would. They walked inside to sit and plan a new baby. It would be the best possible end of a long hard orn.
-0-TBC 10-20-18