The Diego Diaries: War (dd6 608)
=0=Out there
The fighting in the space allotted by the hulking burning fighter carrier was tight but they managed to make short work of most of the fighters. Those that limped into the darkness beyond would be gathered by gun boats hunting for them. There was nowhere to go and they didn't require too much persuasion to give it up, though a couple of them decided to shoot it out with Hercy's vessel and found that to be highly unwise.
Xantium and Omega followed the stragglers into the darkness and in doing so ran nearly literally into three battle shuttles that were trying to find others to gather for leaving. It didn't take long for them to find themselves in a shoot out for their lives.
The battle shuttles.
=0=Phobos and The Furious Storm
They swarmed out to gather up the wounded, those floating outside both flailing and stilled. It was nightmarish, the scene beyond the doors. The one on the deck of Phobos wasn't that far off either. The wounded were major, some having taken the brunt of fighters hitting or shooting them. The Autobots had tried to miss them though the Seekers were less reluctant. All in all, the number of dead would be greater than it should have been had the armada given up.
Theirs was not to reason why …
Ratchet hobbled here and there making decisions and routing the recovered to the morgue or emergency. There would be another big grave in the Crater Cemetery when all this was over. That it didn't need to happen was beyond the point. He worked with two bullet holes beside the rest of his staff.
=0=Out there
Ironhide watched as Xantium flew back into the clearing with a battered and bruised shuttle in his claw grip. He was laughing, perhaps with Omega who was still in the darkness beyond as he slowed, then shoved the shuttle forward.
The Autobot shuttles moved out of the way as it slid past them, missing them by inches. "Zee. What the frag!"
:Move it or lose it, Ironhide: Zee replied as Omega came out of the darkness with his battered shuttle.
Letting it slide forward as well, he grinned at his brother. :Time to get the cruisers: he said, then rolled onto his back to speed onward into the darkness.
Zee grinned at the Autobots, then rolled over himself. :See ya, suckers: he said as he disappeared after Omega.
It was silent a moment, then Blackjack spoke over the intercom. :I'm not sure why we're here, exactly:
Huge laughter greeted that, then they stepped on the pedal to follow the two giants into the mess beyond while Lissie stayed long enough to secure the two shuttles for pick up.
=0=Earth2
They sat around the luncheon tables talking and laughing together. One of them, the CEO of the biggest and most powerful electronics manufacturer in the world was beginning to feel it. He sat back with a slight frown. "I wonder if any of them are going to be here. It sort of seems suspect to me that something happened just as we got here."
"This happens periodically," Kyle Davis said as he glanced at the magnate, one of the richest people in the world. "They'll come if they can. Right now, it looks like they grabbed a huge group before they could come here. You don't let phase sixers run around loose."
"Maybe," he replied. "Do you really think they'll allow us to work here? To make agreements and the like? This doesn't make me confident, Kyle. Not at all."
Kyle stared at the man and for the first time felt irritation. They were here and the bots would come if they could or send surrogates. This man expected his needs met on his own timetable. Sometimes you can't have what you want when you wanted it. "Don't worry about it. They'll make it good no matter who comes."
The conversation would continue and no one of those gathered who lived here would notice the tiny deviation in what Davis said. In his own way, he felt irritation for and a need to defend the bots. It was microscopic but it was real.
Kyle Davis had shown the smallest, tiniest indication that he was becoming a home boy.
=0=Prime
The fighting was beginning to contract as the ships were captured and taken down. They were hauling in bales of prisoners, more of them dead than he wished but this wasn't his choice. He would rather be home tending to the fires there than fighting this inferno here.
Behind him, Prowl worked feverishly to account for the vessels in the armada and their capture or kill. The numbers flowing in changed so much that he couldn't as yet give an accounting to Prime.
It would continue thus for some time.
=0=Prowl a few moments later
He turned to Prime. "I have a preliminary total of enemy kills and captures. All of the cruisers have been destroyed. That number is eight. Ten of the twelve battleships are destroyed, five of the thirteen big battle shuttles are as well. Two of the fourteen small battle shuttles are accounted for and one of the three fighter transports. About all of their support vessels are killed or surrendered, nearly 10 with four unaccounted for. Some of the big ships are surrendering but who and what is unclear as of now."
Prime nodded. "That is good news."
Prowl nodded. "The number of prisoners so far is nearly 14,000. We're taking them to Kellus for containment. Jetta has built a transitional prison there and has been expanding it for some time against this sort of eventuality."
"That is relieving. Give Gee-Gee whatever she needs," Prime said as he sat down in his command chair again.
The humans watched them going about their business. Fortunately for them, there was behind their box which was slotted into the wall a small rest area for them to utilize the facilities and get food or drink. Niall rose, then walked to the door behind their seats that led inside.
Lennox watched him go, then glanced at Prime. "I wonder how long this is going to take. They have what … 2 battleships, 8 or 9 big shuttles, 12 small ones and a few fighter carriers. That's still a lot of things to figure out."
Gavin nodded. "I don't know. I wonder if they know we're here?"
"As long as the beer is cold and the food plentiful," Niall said as he walked out with a plate of cold chicken, potato salad and tomatoes, "I'm good. He handed a beer to Gavin, then sat with his own. The others would get a bite as well.
Among other things.
=0=Autobot City Medical Center
He walked across the room, then back again. Drift who was sitting nearby watched him with concern. He looked weak yet but at least he could move. The techs watched, recorded and discussed their findings. When Drift couldn't take it one nanosecond longer, a doctor of neuro-rehabilitation, Macer turned to both of them. "The hub is set just fine. What you have to do now is let it heal. Its power levels and transmission circuitry is fine but you can't do too much until its optimal."
"How long will that take?" Drift asked with a slight tone of relief in his vocal processor.
"I wouldn't do more than sit and relax for three orns. Then he comes in and we check it. No work, no soldiering, no picking up anything. You get up, sit all orn, then recharge. If you don't, we have to take it out and start all over. This is delicate circuitry and I can't stress enough how important this is. Understood?" he asked with a pointed expression.
Springer and Drift glanced at each other, then him. They both nodded at the same time. Springer would spend another breem walking up and down, then bending over and standing up straight again. Then he would go back to the ward, get plugged in, then wait for the word on release that evening.
They would fret and watch the reports on The Hourly News together.
=0=Nearby at the emergency deck topside
Runabouts from the airfield landed and took off as badly wounded mechs were hauled out and hustled inside for repair. There were dozens and dozens of prisoners who had been badly injured and needed medical attention for injuries that ran from burns, loss of limbs, wounds from bullets, flying shrapnel and fast moving ships slamming into them.
Some of them wouldn't make it off the table intact including three who had to have a nearly complete processor wipe due to extensive damage. Like Rampage and Starscream, they would remember the best parts or perhaps one should say the most societally desirable things but not the murder, rapine and marauding. Somehow, the more negative the memory the higher the likelihood it would be damaged. There was a doctorate in there for anyone who could figure it out. Instead, they would be evaluated, family searched for them (and not found), then they would be given their choices of a profession and/or life and a mentor.
It was better than sitting in a window like a potted plant watching the sun go up and down every orn.
Seven of them would be had from this group, so greatly damaged were they when they arrived. A good quarter of them would die, a good three quarters of them would be repaired and sent on to Kellus for jailing when recovered. It would go on for the rest of the orn and into the night before the cases sent to Mars would be concluded. Some of them would end up on Gliese, then be shipped to Kellus later. It depended upon where the specialist doctors were working.
Ratchet stood on the hangar deck watching the last leave his ship. The floor was slippery with energon, some of his own included and one could see stars through the holes shot into the side of the ship by the fighters. That had been secured by a force field and would take a bit of repair at the Depot 200 miles north of Autobot City. That would, however, be Roadie's problem. Right now, he ached, was bugged and heading for Salton Sea. He would hope he would reach it this time, too.
=0=Out there
:I think we're running out of targets, Omega: Xantium Prime said to his brother as they dragged the broken carcass of a battle shuttle behind him. They'd found three of the smaller ones and literally run them down. Slagging two into splinters, they allowed the crew to attach to the one Zee had as they headed back together.
Omega had a pair of wounds on his side that probably hurt a little but not a lot. He was made of stern stuff, Our Omega. Zee was scored all over having put himself into the line of fire for the 'fun of it'. They would require a repair and a good detailing before they were their usual debonair selves again.
Lissie, Steiner, Hercy and Ironhide were hovering nearby as the shuttles approached trailing a long line of frozen fuel drainage and pieces/parts of the vessel. Magnetized to the hull were a lot of crew from the two that didn't make it.
"Omega, is there anyone you didn't pick up out there or is that the lot of them?" Lissie asked as she sat at the conn piloting her shuttle.
:All accounted: not to worry: Omega said.
:SLAG YEAH! WE BAGGED ALL OF THEM! TAKE THEM! WE HAVE MORE TO GET! RIGHT!?: Xantium said over the comm channel of the Autobot shuttles.
Huge laughter greeted that, then it subsided as Omega shoved the shuttle toward the group. Grinning as the four shuttles swiftly parted when the shuttle festooned with prisoners nearly slid into them, Omega and Xantium moved onward. There were a gaggle of little shuttles, two fighter carriers and who the hell knew what else out there. They were determined to bag the lot of them.
They both disappeared into the darkness once more.
=0=TBC 3-9-19 edited 3-31-19
NOTE: I once sat and listened to a guided meditation with a set of Tibetan singing bowls. Someone was being hypnotized and it lasted about 32 or so minutes. I was hypnotized listening to it and when the therapist ended the session for the person on the video so they would wake up, so did I.
The funniest part was my left leg was numb from my hip to my toes. I got up startled and fell on my back side. It was the strangest thing but I learned that I can be hypnotized. Most of you can. Its only a tiny bit who can't. Strange world. :D:D:D