The Diego Diaries: Holodaze (dd6 515)
-0-Later at the horse barn
They gathered their gear and walked to the paddock outside the stable complex to where horses were standing in anticipation for the evening's ride. Tossing his saddle across Yancy's broad back, Springer began to cinch him up. Drift did the same as others worked around them doing the same, all 40 pairs of the night shift of the horse patrol. Drift placed his saddle on Rondo, a big white horse with incredible speed and the ability to jump over tall things. "Orion is a hoot. What about kidnapping him and the others?"
"It crosses my mind," Springer said with a grin. "Those little kids are hilarious."
"I know," Drift said as Springer tensed, pausing in his saddling.
He glanced at Drift. "You and me now. Earth2."
They hustled, then mounted. Turning Yancy to go, Springer glanced at the others. "Kup and Hercy, with me. The rest of you go on normal patrol." With that, he rode out followed by the others. It was with urgency that they rode onward into the gathering night time of Mars.
-0-In the (Many splendored) Bosom(s) of Love(liness)
They sat on their chairs waiting for the news as they chatted and ate snacks. When the call came for Ratchet, he glanced at Ironhide. "Got a call. I'll let you know what it is." He stood and put the bowl of chocolate drizzled popcorn down regretfully. "Don't eat my popcorn, slagger." With a grin, he walked to the door and left.
Ironhide watched him go, then reached for Ratchet's bowl. Pouring it into his, he grinned. "Fat chance, slagger." The news came on as the night waxed onward.
-0-Getting there
They galloped swiftly cross country, four gigantic metallic yet amazingly natural looking horses with four riders whose armor glinted in the light of the moon and street lights here and there. All around them city scapes close and far away sparkled like jewels as overhead the lights of satellites and ships glittered. It was beautiful, intensely cold and homely. Their horse's hooves beat on the ground as they galloped, covering ground toward Earth2 unimpeded by the traffic on the highway nearby. After a moment, they heard, then saw an emergency vehicle on the highway with lights and siren blazing. It was Ratchet.
:Ada:
:Springer:
:I've called out Sky, his team and Hauser. Don't do anything until we get there. This is going to be bad:
:On it, son: Ratchet said as he bore down on the road ahead. Those still driving on the road in front of him were moving over to let him pass so he left the horsemen behind. It was looming ahead as he passed the Mausoleum, the Basilica and the Shrine of the Thirteenth Autobot. On the right was the night lighted Halls of Order which were still going strong with Knights and Circle who were attending to this or that thing there. In the distance, the light flooded vision of the Performing Arts Center seemed to float in the air on its pedestal platform. He flashed past the turn off to the huge multi lane roundabout that led to any number of other places and nerve centers. The darkness was broken by gigantically tall lights that threw illumination against the almost unnerving darkness of night. A glow in the distance began to grow, the lights of Earth2. He stepped it up on the empty highway flashing past Earth 1 and the Consulate until he reached Earth2 and turned in.
-0-Riders in the Purple Sage
They blasted along, then when the traffic was thinned to nearly nothing took to the roads. The horses were traveling swiftly, over ninety miles per hour or 144 kilometers. They were flying and even as they did, it was unclear to their riders that they were going full out. They were too busy holding on to worry about such things as in the distance Earth2 could be seen growing in size in the darkness.
-0-Ratchet
Driving into the huge parking lot that fronted the facility, he transformed as he shut down his lights and siren. Standing up tall and straight, a somehow malevolent appearing sight in the darkness of night, he walked toward the habitat door where a lot of the leadership, their family and others were gathered. As he did, the horsemen thundered into the turn off and rode toward him to slide to a halt, then climb off to join Ratchet. The horses pulled back, then gathered together as trained to do when their riders were in pursuit of the moment.
Springer reached Ratchet and so did the other three, gathering around that solemn faced mech to talk before going inside to the humans who were calling them on their channel. "Thanks for coming. You didn't tell anyone?"
"Not yet," Ratchet said. "What do you know so far?"
"We were told of a missing human from Earth2, a security guard by the name of … drum roll … Lawrence Dobbs." Springer looked grim. "I'm having the satellites scan for him. He went out and didn't come back. No one has seen him since noon and there's a vehicle missing as well," Springer said.
"Then we better go in and figure this out. Are there searchers looking for him and the vehicle?" Ratchet asked as they began to walk toward the habitat door.
"I dispatched them when the call came in. Right now, its aerial and when they find him hopefully he will still be alive," Springer said as they reached the doors. They stepped inside, then the hatch closed and the Earth atmosphere inside was restored almost instantly. As it was, the lights changed to 'safe' and the human door inside opened. The group walked out led by Owen Harris. He paused before them and looked upward. "I would like to speak to you privately."
"Tell them to go inside then," Springer said. "I think you might rather want to tell us what you know so we can figure this out and find him."
Harris turned to the greater number and told them to go back inside. They grumped but did then the doors closed. Looking back upward, he turned to Springer and Ratchet. "Lawrence Dobbs went out at noon with a vehicle. He didn't say why. He went alone. He hasn't come back and we can't raise him."
"That's not good. All of the vehicles have locator transponders," Ratchet said as he glanced at Springer.
"Search and rescue said they found his fifteen miles up the TransWorld Highway, a place you here can't go without permission. It had been removed and tossed to one side. The vehicle can't be located that way now." Springer looked at Owen, then knelt. "What can you tell us about him, his state of mind … any fights here? Don't leave a slagging thing out. We might be looking at a dead man, Harris."
Harris stared at Springer, then shrugged helplessly. "There's none of that. No one seems to think anything was wrong."
"Where are the other mercs? Get them out here now," Springer said with gathering irritation.
Harris stared at him, then turned to Hamilton Brown who looked frightened. "Get the security team here, Ham. Fast."
Hamilton ran to a communications device inside the vast space then put out an all call over the facility intercom system. "Alpha Security team, meet in the entry hatch immediately. Come immediately!" He turned toward the group but didn't join them. He looked terrible.
Moments later, the hatch opened as a group of familiar slaggers hurried in, slowed, then stopped. Behind them were the security officers employed by Autobot Nation. They gathered with the group as well. "What's going on?" Sam Hedges asked as he looked warily from one to the other in the room.
"Larry Dobbs is missing. He hasn't come back from a drive. He or someone removed the locator from his vehicle. What do you know about him and this? Tell anything you know. He may be in grave trouble," Harris said with his command voice.
The mercs stared at him, then the bots. "Nothing," Silvio Lombardi said. "He seemed himself. I didn't know he left. Does he have permission?"
"He does, though limited. No one has permission to drive the TransWorld Highway but for you," Ratchet said as he nodded to the human Autobot security officers. "That is where we believe he may have gone. Its a slagging nightmare out there in the day time for humans, let alone night time." Ratchet knelt. "Tell us of his state of mind, any worries or problems? Any beefs with the others or anyone else?"
They glanced at each other seemingly genuinely perplexed and the energy reading that Ratchet took lent itself to that conclusion.
"No," Jim Johnson said. "He was enjoying it here, making friends around and going to other habitats."
The Autobot humans nodded as well.
"Which ones?" Drift asked.
"All of them. He wanted to see how things were," Hedges said as the others nodded. "No one had a beef with him. You may find that hard to grasp but that's what it was."
"Smart ass," Springer said coldly. "You better have told the truth. Something tells me that Lawrence Dobbs is dead somewhere." He glanced at Ratchet. "We better book it. Come along. We may need you," he said as Sky and his team began to land in the parking lot in the usual thunderous manner outside. "Go inside and let us out. I'll talk to you tomorrow," Springer said to his ten human officers. "Don't talk about this any of you. We don't want panic or speculation until we have the facts."
The humans hurried inside, then the door closed. The outside opened and they walked out heading for Sky and his two forensics teammates. "We don't have a clue where he is but the satellites and search and rescue are looking," Springer said grimly. "His transponder from the vehicle he drove out was found on the highway fifteen miles from here. Here are the coordinates. Fly out and see what you can find. The scene hasn't been searched but there's probably disturbance from the Civil Air cadets that found it there."
Sky nodded. "We're looking for a dead man then."
"Most likely," Springer said with a shake of his helm. "Tell me what you find, if anything, Sky. This is going to be fragged ten ways to Sunday."
Sky nodded, then jumped into the air to blast off along with his two partners.
Ratchet turned to Springer. "Where we going?" he asked.
"To Earth 1 and the Consulate. I don't know if he made it to Unidad but we have to go there, too. The Consulate now," Springer said as he walked to his horse. The others joined him and they began to ride out.
Ratchet watched them, then turned to Earth2. The humans were lined up staring out. He stared at them with disquiet, then transformed and drove out after Springer and his crew. He disappeared swiftly from sight.
Earth2 would be subdued and riven with gossip and supposition for the rest of the night.
-0-Prime Residence
Optimus nodded then turned off the monitor in his office. He took the call there because Prowl was getting the baby ready for bed and he didn't want either bothered. Everyone was in bed and they were down to the last infant when the message arrived. Grave news had come in when Lawrence Dobbs had been reported missing from Earth2 by their Ops Center. They had the responsibility to maintain the human's safety and part of that was monitoring where they were at all times. When he didn't return with the vehicle he checked out, they scanned what was known as 'the habitat grid'. It was all of the terrain that was occupied by humans outside of the safety of the city scapes … the Consulate, Earth 1 and 2 and Unidad Terra 1. They weren't like the 'local humans'. These individuals were vulnerable and Prime had ordered a grid to keep track of everyone in case of situations like this one.
Now it was coming into play though it hadn't been able to find Dobbs. It showed that he'd left the Consulate after visiting each habitat and disappeared around 1620 on the TMC after driving off the grid toward the TransWorld Highway. Given that was a forbidden area, no one had extended the grid that direction. Since it was now 2250 on the TMC, he had had joors to get lost, buried, hurt or whatever a human can do in a terrifyingly dangerous environment like this one.
Prime walked to the berth room where Prowl had set up the bassinet for the baby. He was tucking him in now. The other children were already in bed. He grinned, then paused beside Prowl to stare at the newest improbable thing in his life, his smallest son. "I have to go out. I will be back shortly."
"What's up?" Prowl asked as he placed a Miler dollie next to the smiling baby.
"Nothing yet," Prime said honestly. He could feel Prowl nudge at his firewall but he didn't press the issue.
"Tell me when you know. Something just went wrong, right?" Prowl asked with his usual appraising stare and no bullshit directness.
"Maybe," Prime said as he hugged the tense winger. He bent down to kiss his son, then glanced at Prowl. "Two more orns and he has a name and a public face."
"And something tells me that this is going to frag that up," Prowl said as he kissed Prime. He watched as the big mech walked out of the room with soft chuckle and a steady tread. He stared at the empty door a moment, then his son. "Frag this slag. It never fails."
-0-At the scene on the TransWorld Highway, Mile Post 15.5
They landed and began to examine the area forensically. It was trampled by the cadets but still readable. The vehicle had pulled over, stayed in place as someone stepped out to walk to the front where footprints showed someone had stood a moment or two to do something or other. They took images of them, then scanned the area around. Nothing more could be had and it appeared that the vehicle had pulled out to leave. Sky stared down the highway, then called for a specialist Seeker to come.
After a moment a big one landed, then walked to them. "What do you need, Sky? This better be good. I was winning."
Sky grinned. "I need you to image these tracks, these faint ones and see if you can follow where they go with your sensors. Your sensors can read tracks that are almost nothing more than grains of sand, right?"
"Pretty much," Sirrio said as he knelt to look at the ground. He spent a moment gathering images and data, then stood. "Let's go. Hover fly over the side of the road or walk. I don't want anything to disturb the faint trail and its really faint. We can see where this goes, maybe."
"Got it. Thanks, Siri," Sky said as he and his partners walked across the road, then waited for Sirrio.
He glanced at them. "I think I'm going to walk, too. This is a very faint trail." Then he began to walk down the road, pausing now and again to reorient his sensors. The four of them disappeared into the night. They would be at it a long time.
Then they would find something.
-0-At the same time they began to track in the wilderness
A rap on the door and a helm popping in drew Ironhide from the popcorn bowl which he had just dropped on the floor. Tie Down walked in followed by Prime. They grinned at his dilemma which he tried to hide by just standing in front of it.
"I'll take care of that, son. You go with Optimus," Tie said as he walked to the kitchen to get a dust pan and hand broom.
"Thanks, Tie," Ironhide said with a grin. "You might call Spot. He's better at that then the clean up tools."
"I will," Tie said with a chuckle. He would.
Ironhide walked out with Prime to head for the elevator. "What's up?"
"Something bad, I fear," Prime said as they entered the elevator. The door closed on them and their conversation.
-0-TBC 11-7-18 edited 11-24-18