The Diego Diaries: Out There (dd6 598)
THIS DIDN'T POST LAST NIGHT WHEN I POSTED IT! I HOPE THIS DOESN'T MEAN THAT I'M GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE DIEGO DIARIES SEVEN! Crap.
=0=At the scene of the crime
They joined Xantium picking off the fighters until those that could flew into the nebula to get away. Three battle shuttles and an enraged Supreme mechanism were too much even for this group who never ran. Around them were more mechs and the odd femme than the three shuttles could gather in so they sent an SOS to Prime through the marker buoys that were placed up to this point in a straight line back to the fleet.
"Whirl to Prime."
A static-filled response was had. :Prime here:
"Prime, Xantium is smashing a battleship. There's more crew here to pick up than we can manage. We have the crews from the two cruisers he broke just a moment ago. We're going to need some help here," Whirl said as he stared with incredulity as Xantium grabbed massive chunks of the listing ship and tossed them aside like old shoes. "You might want to hurry. He's making it hard to keep up."
:Understood. We have marked your position through the beacons. We are on our way. Prime out:
Whirl turned to the windows again to watch the battleship be reduced to rubble. It was fun. Truly.
=0=Prime
He considered the scenario so far. The confirmed kill list was getting better but the size of the fleet indicated that the nebula was filled with enemy ships. The maps showed a pathway to the coordinates that Whirl had given so he ordered Salton Sea to proceed. He also recalled a hundred Seekers who were waiting orders to proceed to handle the pick up.
The space bridge would deliver Warden Gee-Gee to supervise their loading onto the ship using her Fast Response Emergency Arrest and Immobilization Plans or as Americans with their mania for reducing words to letters might call it, FRE-AIP, formulated just for these occasions. He sat back to watch as the shimmering opaqueness of the energy field that led into the nebula proper got closer.
Prowl who had come over from Furious Storm leaving the ship for Starscream and his air command stood beside Prime. The mission had been costly. Some of their mechs were still missing including shiploads of them but they were slowly breaking down the enemy by attrition. Pulsar was already on Phobos and his second, Rabid was being brought to the Salton Sea for interrogation. They would know the extent of his armada if it was the last thing done here.
The path forward was laid and marked not only with beacons but with the increasing presence of destroyed ships and their pieces-parts. It made Prowl happy to see it was theirs, not his.
=0=Phobos
They walked into the ward and angled to the single berth by the view ports where Springer lay. He was staring at the ceiling brooding and didn't see them at first. He was hooked up to stuff as he lay there with a frown.
"Hi, sourpuss," Ratchet said as they paused beside the berth. "Don't get delusions of grandeur. You're going nowhere for a while. I won't do any adjustments of that node if you don't do what I tell you the way I tell you. I'll let Orion do it. Understand?"
Springer grinned in spite of himself. "Is there a difference?"
"Fragger," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile. "How do you feel?"
"Numbed but static-filled. You know?" he replied.
"No. But I'll take your word for it. You're assimilating new hardware for your neural net which accounts for that. It's going to take all night long. Your trusty side kick here has a sad. Make it better," Ratchet said as he squeezed Drift's servo.
Drift squeezed back as the two watched Ratchet head off to do more doctoring. Then Drift sat. "So … you better or what?"
"I'll live. I might even walk again," he said.
Drift frowned slightly. "Don't even joke about that." He shifted uneasily. "Things are getting there. I can stay here."
"You can go," Springer said. "I'm not going anywhere."
Drift stared at him with a slight frown. "Neither am I."
Springer grinned slightly. "Loyal fragger?"
Drift nodded. "Yeah."
It would be a while before the wounded began to show up. Mostly, the space would be empty because Pulsar's injured crew would be housed under guard elsewhere. It was nice sitting together talking quietly as the battles raged on elsewhere. For once, the two of them didn't mind missing the show.
There would always be film.
=0=Earth2
The ships landed, two of them, and out of the vessels came 100 humans of the highest income and commercial business brackets on Earth. They came from a good thirty countries, most of them spoke more than one language including that of international science and business, English, and they were stoked to be here.
They walked into the terminal down the jetways to gather together in the grand concourse where Immigration and The Cybertronian Empire, Mars Port of Entry #1 for all off world visitors including humans was undertaken. Several bots stood with Corey McFarlane and John Fulton, both of them handling the duties of the moment because Lennox and Crew were in the battle far away.
John Fulton would be here to handle the N.E.S.T. side and Corey McFarlane had drawn the short straw to handle their passage from the ships at arrival to Earth2. They were both imposing military figures. John Fulton was now a brigadier general and Corey was still a sargent but made a senior staffer along with Epps for the enlisted men and women in the garrison.
Owen Harris, Hamilton Brown, Pierre Beliveau, Kyle Davis and Cynthia Tomas greeted them as they stepped into the terminal, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries. They were happy to be here and would be transferred from here to Earth2 by bus under the command of McFarlane. Fulton was here to greet them and remind them of the few restrictions of being here.
Owen finally turned to the two men. "Gentlemen and women, I would like to introduce you to Brigadier General John Fulton and Staff Sargent Corey McFarlane. Sargent McFarlane will be getting us back to Earth2 and General Fulton is here to tell us a few things about being here. General?"
"Mr. Harris," Fulton said acknowledging him. He looked at the group. "I would like to welcome you to Autobot City, the City of the Autobots on Mars. This is their headquarters city for the Empire here and I think you're going to find it much more exciting and impressive in person than it is on film.
"Autobot City itself is called The City by the locals though there are dozens and dozens of city-urban centers here. This colony is steadily taking in refugees and passed the 40,000,000 mark in population just a few days ago according to the Bureau of Refugees. They take them in planned moves of five million at a time. That should give you some idea of the sophistication and organization that Prime has created here. These people know what they're doing and do it to perfection.
"You're going to a habitat that was created in a matter of days by the same individuals. It's unlike anything you've ever experienced and we know you will enjoy yourselves. There are rules there and the policing force answers to Prime and Commander Springer of Polyhex who is head of all policing and security forces both here and in the Empire.
"We will be traveling through a zero-tolerance environment where any false step, show of bravado or ignorance will kill you. We're absolutely resolute about that and will punt you back to Earth without explanation or appeal if you break even one rule. You'll never go out without escort and precautions by the garrison here. They're highly trained to keep you alive.
"We're going to Earth2 by this vehicle," he said nodding to a bus sitting outside with a jetway attached. "You will not be wearing any environmental gear during your stay. You will always be in a contained environment no matter where you go and the guides and guards there have complete command of the situation. That is not negotiable.
"I don't care who you are on Earth or how much you're worth there. Here? You're our responsibility and you have no authority or standing here to do anything about it. Any bad behavior or disagreement with those simple facts will get you sent home immediately.
"The bots are reviewing your requests. They're handling an enemy incursion some distance up the Orion arm from here. Prime is busy but he's going to be sending his decisions to the garrison when he gets back and we'll inform you then. Until then, let's go through customs and get going to Earth2."
Two femmes were standing beside Fulton and McFarlane. One of them, Semio who was senior on day shift gestured for the humans to follow her. "If you will have your papers ready, we can assist you through and stamp your visas. Follow me, please," she said as she walked to the counter nearby in the beautiful space where all newbies to the colony came first.
Having been told to have information ready when they boarded the vessel that brought them here, the group followed her, their hosts and the two soldiers with passports and other identification to the counter where they stood in line to have their papers verified. It was just like it was for anyone going through customs on Earth if you didn't have zillions of dollars, a private jet and a VIP lounge where one of your many assistants or other officers in your personal entourage handled this for you so you could breeze through without pausing.
It was a good thing to see.
For McFarlane and Fulton.
All would clear and they would enter the bus along with their hosts and the two soldiers for the roundabout drive to Earth2. They would go through every city center in the colony and it would be hugely impressive.
=0=Prime
They slid into the space where three shuttles were waiting with a large number of prisoners gathered in the center of their gun sights. They were floating in space, the captured and some of them were wounded. Seekers from Salton Sea flew out to begin their collection under the supervision of Gee-Gee who ruled from the hangar deck.
In the distance, they could see the fractured skeleton of the battleship, its contents spread out over a wide area, lots of coolants and liquids frozen into weird shapes and any number of barely recognizable debris that once was something useful. There were arcs of light from electrical devices dying in the mess but nothing burned or indicating activity. If there was fire in space it took stars and other heat producers to make it happen.
Prowl walked to the elevator to go downward to see what was going to be coming on board. Down he went, then through the great doors to the hangar deck where Seekers were landing with one or two mechs and the odd femme in tow. They landed on the deck to face a plethora of guns, all pointed at them. They were scanned, shucked of guns and other dangerous items, then mined. A short walk to another set of elevators would take them away.
Gee-Gee stood calmly before each group mentally assessing them for threat. This group was a mixed bag of civilians and former 'Cons. It would take study to handle them. She was prepared to house them and work out their kinks. Some would be good candidates for another better life and some would be distributed as long term projects or incorrigible throughout the prison system both on Mars and on the local system planet near Cybertron itself, Kellus, one used for warehousing anything from products to ships over the eons. It would now expand to prisoners under Gee-Gee's command as Director for Corrections of the Cybertronian Empire.
Prowl paused beside her. "What a mangy bunch."
Gee-Gee nodded. "I'm going to have to separate the youngsters and femmes from the military and civilian mechs. There's a method to my madness."
"I defer to your greater wisdom," he said as they stood together watching the endless parade of bad guys towed in for a short trip to the end of the road. What lay beyond here for any of them was anyone's guess.
=0=Beyond here
Xantium Supreme grimly followed the trail of fuel and small debris of the other battleship as it desperately tried to flee him. It zigged and zagged but it was useless. It had been irreparably harmed in its directional control system and most of its flexibility was gone. All they could do was flee and call for help.
As they called, Xantium Supreme grimly followed.
=0=Beyond there
A mech sat in a cage frozen in place by devices that had been placed upon him by Pulsar. He was a bad, bad mech himself so no one was really unhappy but him that this was his lot. It was going to be a long life of misery if someone didn't let him go. He was working out how he could free himself but it didn't look good.
Nearby, being picked up by a Seeker and an Autobot using him as a cab, a bigger Autobot was laughing as they began to tow him. He had used a big ship hull plating as cover to reach the shuttle and had been interdicted by the Seeker and his passenger. A short comical conversation ensued, then they headed for the shuttle.
As they did, Sun who was the intrepid figure of their retrieval noticed a cage floating nearby. With a grin, he halted their progress. Heading that way instead, they reached it with great satisfaction. Gripping it between them, the three pulled it along behind until they reached the hatch doors of the battle shuttle, City of Helex.
Hercy who was leaning out noted Sun with a grin and a nod. Then he stepped back so Callum and Twister could help Sun drag the cage inside. It was silent a moment as the hatch slid shut, then Hercy leaned closer to the furious mech inside it. "Well, hello, Shrike. Nice of you to stop by."
=0=TBC 2-20-19 edited 2-23-19
We're having a snow storm here and I need to shovel. Notes will be answered tomorrow. Sorry its taking so long. SIGH! Snow, it keeps a body tired. ;) :D