The Diego Diaries: Ka-Boom (dd6 607)
=0=Hangar Deck of Phobos
Ratchet lay on his back on the deck stunned by the force of the shots. He felt his body flood with pain killers and the specialized equipment he'd devised and contracted out to be made for him that would allow him to continue working even when hurt take over. The two wounds he had in his side and arm were assessed, cut off for energon loss, then protoform shifted to make a temporary bandage. He lifted his helm, then flattened as a mass of fighters went past shooting up everything in their way.
Seekers were on them like hornets so they were 'mildly' diverted from a second round of shots at Phobos as the last flashed part. He raised his helm then staggered to his peds to look around. There were doctors down but none of the patients looked like they were hit. "RATCHET TO PRIME! THEY STRAFED THE TRIAGE DECK! WE'RE HIT!"
=0=Nearby on The Salton Sea
Prime scrambled upward to stare at the forward deck. The windows of the ship were stitched but held their integrity as the tensile strength of the material showed its quality. The humans who were hunkered down in their box, ducking as best they could when the horde bore down on them and fired peered over their seats and each other to stare at the windows forward.
"FUCK!" Epps said to the others as they staggered up to stare around. "THE WINDOWS! THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS! THEY HELD!"
"Are you alright?" Gavin asked tensely to the others.
"Ask me when we're home," Will said as he helped Niall stand up from the cramped spot behind a chair where he ducked. "That sucked. Get ready for more."
"RATCHET! WHAT'S THE SITUATION!?" Prime called out as he glanced toward Prowl who was rising to gather things back together.
It was silent a moment, then Ratchet was back. :We got strafed. Three of my doctors are down and are being bridged. A lot of us are wounded but ambulatory. I'm sending those who were civilians with wounds back. We've moved our wounded away and the pick ups are being held until this is … HERE THEY COME AGAIN! GET DOWN!"
The line went silent.
"Starscream, what's the situation?" Prime asked.
:We're on them, Prime. I called for the secondary heavy team. They're coming now: Starscream's voice said over the intercom. :They're attacking us now. We've launched our fighters:
"They're here, Optimus," Prowl said as out of a space bridge nearby a mass of heavy gunner Seekers flew in attack formations. Behind them, a mass of fighters, small two mech versions came in a cloud.
It would be dense and terrible in a second. Worse than it was even now.
=0=Ratchet and Phobos
They came around and strafed the big ship along its entire length as they began to blow up and spin away, some to slam into Phobos itself. Breakdown stood in the doorway shooting back. He had a wound on his arm from shrapnel that hit him while Ratchet had two wounds from direct fire. Behind them, the doctors were being loaded onto stretchers for a trip through the ship's bridge to Mars. A number of techs were getting triaged by others who were staying to assist before they were to follow.
Ratchet took the other side of the door and began to fire as well. Gypsy who had been knocked down by a flying body was sitting on the floor nearby shaking it off. When she did she would run to the door and join Breakdown to shoot at the fighters who were now becoming contained in battle with the heavy Seekers and Autobot fighter pilots.
Floating in the middle of that hell, dozens and dozens, even hundreds of enemy soldiers, civilian criminals and former Decepticons were helpless to do more than pray and die.
=0=At the other hornet's nest moments earlier
Lissie flew straight at the fighter transport and fired the two big missiles that the battle shuttles carried. They were close when they swerved with half the fighters on their tail. Flashing into a dust cloud to hide in the radiation all around them, she missed the missiles hitting the transport to explode.
The transport shuddered, then began to detonate as the fuel and munitions it carried began to explode. Escape pods flew out of the ship as the crew began to abandon it. The fighters were without a home base so they began to flee, heading for who knew where in this benighted confounding mess.
A good half followed Lissie and the rest, 23 in all headed together to get away from the flying debris of their home base. They disappeared about the same time that Ironhide and the other four shuttles appeared. The escape pods pinged off their hulls as they drove through the mess to follow the estimated flight path of Lissie into the darkness nearby. When they reached it, the real fighting would begin.
=0=Phobos
Breakdown pushed Gypsy back and the two fell to the floor huddling together as one of the two enemy shuttles came at them on a strafing run.
Ratchet flung himself out of the way of the opening to the outside on this, the former hangar deck of the big Decepticon ship. The fire scorched a line across the ventilated outer hull but was high and missed everyone on the floor.
Ratchet crawled forward and began to pull the stretchers toward the elevators while shouting orders. The entire deck was cleared at last as everyone pulled back when security from the ship reached then. "Stay here. The fire power is too great and we have enough wounded. Starscream is taking care of them. GYPSY! BREAKDOWN! GET OVER HERE! HURRY!"
Both of them glanced up, then staggered to their peds. Running together, Breakdown following the tiny femme, they both reached Ratchet.
"YOU'RE HURT!" Gypsy said as she glanced at Breakdown. "BOTH OF YOU!"
"Automatic systems, Gypsy. Stay here," Ratchet said as he walked to the hatch again to peer out.
Flame outs were everywhere as the Autobots began to get the upper hand. A number of the fighters were burned out hulks drifting in the sea of wounded, evacuated and helpless mechs and femmes from the vessels around them. Their dead battleship loomed nearby rolled over on its side with fires seen all over it through the view ports. It was done and its cargo, the mechs and femmes on board who were now floating around in space were in dire straits. :Frag," he whispered as he stood by the battered entrance helpless to act.
=0=Furious Storm
Starscream and Rainmaker sat at the command table of the battleship watching the scene outside and that on the map on the table. Seekers were destroying the fighters one by one and a few of them were catapulted here and there in the effort. There would be a few wounded from this encounter, Starscream contemplated. What he refused to contemplate is if there would be any deaths.
"This is fragged," Rainmaker said softly as he rose and walked to the front of the ship. "This is fragged. Pulsar will pay for this."
"He will, my Lord," Starscream said equally bitterly.
It would be a tense breem to follow before the fighters were brought to heel and the real hard part begun … getting the combatants and those who had abandoned ship to safety.
=0=Prime
"Prime to Ratchet."
A momentary pause ensued before a harried Ratchet replied. :Ratchet here:
"What is the situation?" Prime asked as he braced himself.
:We have wounded. Four of my doctors were evacuated, three triage techs and a number of injured civilian medicals. Right now, we're regrouping to receive injured. We got a call from Gee-Gee that Prison Ship #3 took hits and we sent a team over. Everyone is fragged. The slaggers outside had to suffer in the middle of this. I don't know how many got killed but it has to be some. Frag this, Optimus:
"Are you operational? Do you need anything?" Optimus asked.
:Yes, we're operational and I want these slaggers out of the picture. We're go again: Ratchet replied with some of his legendary testiness.
"Very well," Prime said with relief. "I will be there shortly. We have been strafed and so has Furious Storm. I ordered Beta to leave for the duration and we can use him to transport wounded as well as prisoners. Tell us what you need."
:On it. Thanks, Optimus. Ratchet out:
Prime felt relief even as he walked to the table to see the data incoming about the fight. There were casualties on each of the big ships but Beta who were being evacuated. Some were serious but the medics believed they would recover, though for some it would take a long time.
The individuals outside had been rampaged against and they bore it on their bodies. Some were killed in crossfire, run over by fighters or were dead of their injuries from the lack of attention this interlude had incurred. It made Prime's blood boil. He stood by the table tensely watching the information roll in, then he called Omega and Xantium.
Xantium replied. :Xantium here, Prime. We're tearing things up:
"Please assist Ironhide and Lissie if you can. They were chasing ships," Prime said. "Locate them and return their coordinates. We will marker buoy them when you do."
:On it, Prime. Xantium out:
=0=Ironhide and Company
The fighters, those that were still functional fell into the darkness around them as the battle shuttles carved them up. Kup had taken concentrated fire and was listing nearby, though their guns worked just fine.
"Ironhide to Kup. Need a lift?"
:Frag. I think this ship is busted ass as Epps would say. Yeah:
"Hang on," Ironhide said. "We're coming around to get you."
With that, Ironhide and his ship made a tight circuit to come to and halt beside Kup and his vessel. As he did, the remarkable sight of Xantium and Omega Supreme flying past like Superman and his little brother could be seen before disappearing into the nebula again.
Ironhide stared at them as they passed, then grinned slightly. "Well, that's a sight for sore optics. A day late and a shanix short."
The crew laughed as the hatch slid open. Waiting in the hatchway of their vessel, Kup and his crew began to float over. They would be boarded, then everyone would move forward to tag the survivors for pick up. When they were finished, they would head into the darkness after Omega and Xantium. Lissie would lead them.
=0=Airfield, Autobot City
The ships came through the bridge and began to land. Standing nearby with cameras, Galaxy Productions, Wind-a-Mar Motion Pictures, a new company related to Galaxy and IntraCom were recording the scene. The ships slowed, then stopped. Hatches went up, then stretchers came down. Ambulances waiting began to load them and with sirens blaring, they began to leave with their passengers.
=0=The Hourly News: LATEST BREAKING NEWS
"The shuttles and ships that are landing are bringing wounded from the combat on the arm between our forces and the renegade former Decepticon Pulsar. His combined armada, one doubled in strength by that acquisition according to the Office of Strategic Information is in shambles. The fighting is fierce and the wounded are said to include our own along with them, though no deaths are reported as of yet.
"There has been fierce fighting with the enemy armada getting the worst of the brunt of it. Mapping by the titanic formats, Dangerous, Tennyson and Typhoon have made a great deal of difference considering the combat is in a nebula and not in open space. We asked Commander Paragon who is in charge of operations at the Ops Center in The Fortress what this means overall for the fighting that is still ongoing. Jacx met him moments ago there. Jacx?" Aleph asked.
A handsome mech with a microphone was standing in the doorway of Ops Center. "Aleph, I had a conversation with Commander Paragon about what this could mean to the success of the operation. Here is what he had to say." The screen cut to a recorded interview.
"Commander, the information suggests that the combat undergoing right now is in a nebula. Most of us know what nebulas are like and we tend to avoid them unless we can't or are being chased. What is the story thus far?"
Paragon who was handsome, elegant and impeccable looked at Jacx, who he as a military mechanism towed over. "We use nebulas to our tactical advantage, Jacx. We can hide, regroup or surprise someone using them. You don't want to have this kind of battle inside of one unless its dispersal is ancient and broad. This one is dense and filled with radiation and highly charged particles. This disrupts communications and sensors. A lot of the injuries are being caused by ships colliding."
"This battles can go on for a long time then," Jacx asked.
"They can but the titans are mapping the area and the armada is buoy marking all around. Soon, we can have a better idea of what's going on and find them. Right now, we have destroyed a great deal of the enemy shipping so they will have to surrender. That's what the hope is, that they surrender when they find that there's no way to escape."
"Do you have an idea of the casualties on both sides? We know some of our shuttles are destroyed," Jacx said.
"We have lost three shuttles thus far but not the crews. Our people are masterful and we will release the information as we can," Paragon said. "Until then, I can only answer generalities."
And he would.
=0=TBC 3-7-19 3-30-19