The Diego Diaries: Oops (dd6 603)
Totally not edited yet. :D
=0=Everywhere
Ratchet sawed and watched as red lights began to blink everywhere. Systems that were part of control and fire were coming apart at the seams as up the line consoles went dark and things began to short out. When he finally found the main electrical junction he remembered how his Amma Docker sometimes 'accidentally' fragged things up just because.
He learned his rebellion on his granny's knee.
Sawing away, he then rerouted a number of very important cables. Now that he had accomplished all the damage he could do at this port in the storm, he began to leave to plan his exit. Entering into a darkened corridor, he began to run. As he did, he found himself surrounded in the middle of a mob of the enemy.
=0=Ironhide, Blackjack and Lissie
Noting that Ironhide and Blackjack had nearly had a header with supply ships, Lissie and Hercy calmly took the lead on the battleship which was picking up speed. Behind them, Ironhide and his atar were engaging poorly gunned and relatively defenseless transport and supply ships who were as lost as everyone else.
"Fraggers on the ships, this is Blackjack representing the Prime. Give it up. We're destroying everyone we can find otherwise. Power down and we'll let you live."
"FRAG YOU, AUTO-" The line went dead.
The enemy ships began to power down, half of them, while the others backed up to try and get into a rain of boulders nearby that would give them some chance to find a better hiding place or try to leave. As they did, some of them began to back into each other and unfortunately for them, they were mostly munitions and fuel ships.
"Oh, frag. REVERSE ENGINES!" -Blackjack, Ironhide and two other shuttles.
"KABOOM! KA-KA-BOOM!"
=0=Prime
"We have explosions nearby," Prowl said grimly. He was staring at the data pad, leaning on the table with his servos placed firmly on the device. He pointed to the place where they were erupting. "Here. It could be anything."
"Starscream."
:Starscream here:
"I need intel. Prowl will send the location."
:On it:
Prime glanced at Devcon. "Have you located Ratchet, Devcon?"
"I have. He's in the stern of the third battleship fleeing with a mob of other signals. I don't know if they knew he's among them or not." Dev grinned. "No one probably cares at the moment," he said as he glanced at the forward view port. It was silent everywhere in the vast room as they watched Xantium and Omega Supreme grip the battleship by the stern, swatting away what gun bursts reached them as they began to dismantle it.
"Prime to Omega Supreme."
:Omega here: was the terse reply.
"Ratchet is on that ship in the stern section."
There was a pause, then Omega replied. :Understood:
They watched, all of the bridge, as the two slowed their rampage, stared at each other, then nodded in some agreement they weren't sharing. It was then that they slid forward and began to peel the outside hull off the ship like a banana. As they did things shorted, blew up and fell out of it including a lot of mechs who went flailing into space.
=0=Inside the banana
Ratchet felt the ship rock and knew that a Supreme mechanism likely had it in his death servo/claw. The jolting and rocking threw them around but they all picked up and continued, some of them noticing Ratchet but running onward anyway. They reached hatch after hatch as they fled toward the engine room and its escape ports for crew in case of emergency. This clearly was an emergency.
As they booked it, a fleeing mob of jolting and jostling mechs, the hull beside them began to be stripped back and with the whoosh of vacuum flooding the pressurized ship, all of them were sucked out into the darkness of space. Ratchet went with them as well.
=0=Ironhide, Blackjack and the boys
The tanker in the middle of the group had backed into a munitions carrier and the explosion was one for the record books. It was the equivalent of a massive ammo dump dropping on top of a vast refinery in scope as it lit up the darkness all around.
Ironhide who had set himself for the blast saw it flash, vaporize three smaller ships, toss all the surrendered ships willy nilly, then send a visible shock wave his way. "HANG ON! INCOMING!" he bellowed before he was rattled all over the vessel like an exploding kernel of popcorn. Everyone else was strapped in and held through the hoo-haw with nothing more than jolts and jerks from the percussion waves.
Lissie was strapped in when she saw the ships begin to back up. Blackjack was as well. They were less self assured that magnetizing would be enough. They rode out the blast, then waited as the sensors reset themselves from the flash of light and beating they'd all taken. When the view was clear again and all of the ships checked in, they leaned forward to look.
A huge tanker was bits and pieces floating around and around it in sprayed strips of metal, three smaller ships hung in a cloud. Three other vessels had taken a severe beating and were mostly burned and blasted out twisted hulks. The ships that surrendered hung in space as well, their surge forward from the blast making things worse for the wear.
Nearby, the single survivor of the direct blast slowly moved off trailing lots of its internal configuration as it did. Four other ships had dropped as fast as they could and were spared a lot of damage because the others had eaten it for them. They were heading toward a maze of small asteroids nearby hoping to fade from the scene before anyone noticed.
Unfortunately for them, everyone already had.
=0=Floating around
The two big mechanisms had just about laid the entire hull of the battleship to waste as they peeled it off. When they had done so as far forward as possible, they began to reach inside and pull things out. Their sensors were searching for Ratchet's energetic pattern, the one that was his alone. They all knew it intimately since he was their primary doctor and knew them inside and out.
He was floating in a mass of criminals, former Decepticons and pirates nearby watching with as much amazement as anyone around him as the two sorted out the contents of a once proud vessel. :Ratchet to anyone: he signaled.
Everyone turned around from their position in the debris field to look at him. Some of them were Autobots.
/ … oh, frag … / Ratchet began to activate his little used pedal thrusters and book it toward the Autobot lines as fast as he could. The enemy floating all around him would see their bargaining chip slipping away and follow. It would be the fastest slow speed race in the history of Cybertron.
=0=Prime
"Prime to Omega."
"Omega here:
"Have you found Ratchet?"
It was tense as the silence strung itself out. Then Omega was back. :His signal is not here. He is heading your way. There are enemy chasing him: Omega said. :I am going to get him:
That was when the mighty Omega Supreme let go of a gutted battleship, shoving it toward his baby brother and turned his gnarly sensors on a flood of tiny mechs in hot pursuit of another one. None of them noticed Omega behind them.
Yet.
=0=Prime
"Oh, frag," Prowl whispered as he reset the forward cameras. They could see the small figure of Ratchet flying madly toward their direction and all of the mechs and a femme or two from the battleship chasing behind. It was one scary sight. "Prowl to Red Wing. Location."
:We're evacuating the destroyed battleship:
"Ratchet is fleeing the other one, the one the Supremes are destroying. He's being chased. Send rescue," Prowl said tensely.
:On it:
They watched the screen, the data pad and listened to the chatter as a squad of Seekers broke off and blazed away to the other battleship. They wouldn't reach Ratchet and his posse before Omega did.
Unfortunately for the posse.
=0=Hercy and Lissie
It would be textbook how they swooped the battleship which had no maneuvering room in the jumble of comet debris, large asteroids and smaller ice encrusted boulders. They tried to plow forward in a zigzag motion, typical evasive action but the battering they took from their oppressive surroundings was as bad as being shot.
Raking the vessel, shooting its sensor arrays on deck, blasting its gun emplacements, blasting the stern where the steering modalities were, the Autobots were rendering a lot of damage to its once proud hull.
They were bleeding it to death.
=0=Omega, oh-ma-god
He reached the rear echelons of the enemy pursuing Ratchet and swept his servo. They went flying away as he sped up to clear a path. Glancing behind themselves as they saw their comrades flash past upside down, the others began to panic and flee in all directions. Those in the front who were just about to catch Ratchet heard screams over their internal com lines and glanced back. Panicking as a giant servo began to wind up to swat their afts to the edge of the universe, they began to fly in all direction in evasive maneuvers.
Because he was huge, because they were small and motivated, they managed, mostly, to get out of his swinging range. Slowing, Omega reached for the one he wanted and as he did, Ratchet found himself enclosed in a giant fist. Slowing before he rammed into it, he watched as the sights all around him disappeared into the darkness of the fist of Omega Supreme.
It couldn't get more weird if it tried.
Yes. Yes it could.
=0=Ironhide, et al
"You okay, Ironhide?" Sandstorm said as he stared at Ironhide sitting on the deck with a dazed expression. "You should have buckled in."
"Where?" he asked as he stood, then shook himself clear. Glancing out the window, he grinned. "That was epic. Now where is everyone else?"
"We better go look. I signaled pick up for these slaggers free floating and the ships that surrendered," Sandstorm said as he began to scan for the four ships that escaped. "I have them. They went that-a-way."
"Then go that-a-way, slagger," Ironhide said. "I'm counting all these ships in the final tally," he said as they dropped down and began to track the others. Behind them zooming out of the darkness, Seekers and prison ships began to arrive with medics and a big broom.
=0=Salton Sea
He reached Salton Sea, then opened his giant servo. Ratchet who was riding in it floated out toward the hangar deck, then rolled over as he did to smile and wave at Omega. :Thanks, sport. You da mech:
Omega laughed, a wordless gesture, then nodded. With that, he blasted back to the battle and his brother. Ratchet watched him go, then floated into the hangar deck, dropping to his peds when the barrier was broken and he was back on ship gravity. With a wave and a smirk, he ran to the elevator and headed upward to the inner sanctum where the Most High was bringing the hurt.
He also wanted to say hello to Prime.
When he arrived, he was applauded and hooted. Curtsying and waving like the Queen of England, he reached the command table with a big smile. "Hi. What's up? Besides new maintenance for the space bridges."
"What happened, loon," Prowl asked with a great sense of relief.
"Well, I was walking into the bridge and ended up on an enemy vessel. So, given that these Blessed Servos were itching to make crooked things straight, I went into the duct system, reached their control and fire nexus points and began to saw everything I could find in half." He subbed a huge rotary blade with a gigantic twinkling smile. Huge laughter greeted that as he subbed it again. "What's the score?"
"We don't know just yet," Prowl said. He grinned at Ratchet. "You can't help yourself can you?"
"What would be the fun in that?" Ratchet asked with a grin as he began to assess the condition reports of the new prisoners.
Prowl smirked. There wouldn't be any, he thought to himself as they turned back as one to the tasks at hand.
=0=TBC 3-1-19 3-30-19