Two
Earthen weather being what it is, there was always a perceived stereotype that it was unpredictable and annoyingly violent, spawning frequent disasters or at the very least causing disruptive nuisance. It always appeared apparent to be one of the first questions asked by new transfers to the planet. Optimus sighed inwardly as he considered the overall blandness of the day, a muted down betrayal of Earth's meteorological reputation. It wasn't hot, nor was it cold, by human standards – even if those things varied greatly. He'd found Sparkplug was always a man who preferred, or simply stoically and without complaint, tolerated the cold. In the early days of their alliance he, and quite a few others, would find the man wandering about apparently aimless in the cooler parts of the structure. Spike would often mention he didn't much care for the chill to the point Bumblebee started carrying an extra jersey in sub-space for the kid. But youth, curiosity and the enthusiasm that came with it, seemed to pull his thoughts away from any externally unpleasant stimuli.
The room where they held the meetings of this security clearance was quite enclosed. No windows, one door and heavily restricted access protocols at that. Even when it wasn't in use, it couldn't just be accessed, as was to be expected out of fear of bugging. Speaking of which, the Prime watched Blaster finish up his sweep, who then gave a broad grin, said something to Jazz about KISS before plopping down a little too casually in his seat. Red Alert was fussing about something as he shuffled through his many, many data-pads. Prowl sat dead-pan, as always, his expression never changing as he acknowledged the late arriving Kup.
"Too old to always be on time, lad".
He'd noticed the look, or at least the direction Prowl pointed his face plates.
Jazz just smirked, amused.
However, when Ironhide was involved, Kup didn't tend to bother too much about any dirty look he thought the statistician was holding behind the poker-face. Ironhide's clichéd tardiness was never an indication of his lack of concern over the importance of such meetings, nor did it express itself on the battlefield or in training. He just hated sitting in a room with one door, no windows, and Red Alert's blatant paranoia, thus, he always tried to cut it as close as possible to arriving. Although, at 1404 he was probably pushing it.
Prime gave himself the luxury of thinking about a chuckle.
The warrior-extraordinaire entered just as Prowl was standing to shut the door, a rather displeased look shone through his optics as the red bot strode in. Looking a little surly.
He clanged down in his seat, glanced at the clock on the wall, a decorative feature of sorts that they'd picked up from humans, very much unnecessary on account of their own internal chronometers. 1409 hours.
"Damn twins".
Was as much explanation it seemed anyone was going to get. Prowl made an inward note to follow this up.
"Are we ready to begin?"
Prime inquired.
ooOOoo
After two hours and fourteen minutes of what Rodimus considered processor-numbing boredom, which included Perceptor's almost intentionally lengthy spiel about energy production timetables; Red Alert's overly dramatic and undeserved paranoid ramblings about the western security perimeter being constantly breached by an angry, possibly rabid family of racoons; and Prowl listing, alphabetically, the various indiscretions by members of the crew [all of which, by the way, were far from original], they reached the part of the agenda that always got attention spans refreshed.
'Con antics.
Things had been decidedly subdued on the Decepticon front, which could be construed either as incredibly worrying, secondary to Megatron's sometimes lengthy process in concocting impressively destructive schemes. Or, simply Megatron brooding until he could think of something, which always left a quiet hint of optimism around the base. No point getting worked up until something actually looked like it might happen, generally tended to be the widespread opinion amongst the grunts.
"I'd like to begin..."
Prowl stood and walked towards the viewing screen.
"By congratulating the work Perceptor and Blaster have put into developing finer points of view on the cameras Cosmos uses to monitor various locations on Earth of note".
There were a few acknowledgements, appearing half-hearted in expression but sincere. Perceptor looked a little embarrassed as he often did when receiving praise, and Blaster had a giant grin plastered from audio to audio, to adapt a human phrase.
"The only thing of interest, and perhaps a debatable cause for concern…."
Prowl activated the screen and a bird's eye view of the desolate land scape came up. There amongst the ruins was Ravage, clear as day, well, as much as anything could be clear in such a grey-scale environment.
"Where the frag's that?"
Ironhide asked, even though he knew.
They all did.
"New Zealand. Near the city once known as Rotorua. A location in the country with still functional and ample geo-thermal resources".
"Our research into the impact of the disaster on the environment, and subsequent energy reserves have shown time and time again that they would be unsuitable for process and use by Cybernetic life".
Perceptor offered.
"To our knowledge, does that include Decepticon processing techniques?"
"Yes Prime".
"Decepticons are lazy mo'fos, Boss-Bot. They're not likely to put all that effort into digging those gasses out of that dead earth when they've got higher priority and lesser resource demanding opportunities".
Jazz reclined insouciantly. He was right, the Decepticons were notoriously slothful when it came to energy resource gathering, especially the military wing. They would only begrudgingly do it under threat of fusion cannon, or enslave the local population to do it for them, a completely unrealistic scenario given New Zealand's current situation.
"Not to mention, Decepticon technology is not advanced enough to provide adequate filtration systems for their flyers. The environment there is far too toxic for them to even attempt an air based entrance".
"Ground based, Perceptor?"
"Ground based Transformers would find it unsavoury, but not at all unmanageable. The Decepticons are limited in their ground based units, however, the Stunticons, if they were agreeable to such a mission, would not fare as well as the average Autobot. Our ground units are built with these conditions in mind, the Decepticons, not so much".
"So what's that slinky bastard doing then?"
Ironhide wondered aloud.
"And is Soundwave nearby?"
Blaster offered, the distain for his rival very much evident in his tone.
"Cosmos did not obtain any further evidence of Decepticon activity. I contacted the Australian authorities and requested any information regarding any sightings they may have had. They sent through their radar reports for the time period Ravage was noted, and while they did have some slight pings that didn't match their own aircraft, it wasn't sufficiently detailed enough to reach a conclusion either way as to Soundwave's activity. The most logical entry point would be an ocean approach, which Ravage would be unable to undertake without assistance, therefore I don't think it's unreasonable to surmise Soundwave was present".
"Prowl, any hint of an on the ground time frame?"
Optimus asked.
"Analytical estimation, based on land mass, geography and the basic assumption of obstacles would place time frame at an approximation of six hours and twenty-three minutes".
"Megatron never acts without purpose, there'll be something there that's piqued his interest. I just can't quite see Ravage being there to take in the scenery. Prowl, I'm running on the assumption that this was perhaps a test run of the cameras and that Cosmos' luck in grabbing this image was just that, luck?"
"Essentially, yes. Although Cosmos didn't even realise he'd caught Ravage on the image. He took a few further shots to test the zooming, light-range and frequency features".
"It's not exactly a strategically sound location for a base, Prime".
Ultra Magnus added.
"Yeah, but the 'cons have hunkered down in worse, and if ole numb-nuts has it in his processor that there's something of value there, they'll put the effort in".
"I tend to agree with Kup, on this. Prowl, have Cosmos do a more thorough run over the country. Jazz, see what your boys can find out. Ironhide, hunt down Beachcomber and have him run geological projections regarding the thermal resources – we could have missed something, or the situation could have changed since we last looked at it".
Prime exhaled from his vents and straightened in his chair as he ran his hand over his battle mask.
"I'm not yet willing to risk anyone to go poking around in that place. This could be anything, from a test of new technology, morbid curiosity on that kitty's part, or Megatron looking for an energy source we wouldn't consider to monitor. They've been quiet for a while now, so let's hope this isn't where their focus is".
The commander, content with his orders, motioned to Prowl to continue.
"Our final point of focus is the offer of diplomatic talks made by the RACA's hosted summit held three days ago in Beijing. I've reviewed the document, and it's surprisingly straight forward for a political invitation from the humans.
It follows: "We, the democratically and lawfully elected representatives of the Nation of Russia and the People's Free Democracy of China, do hereby extend in friendship, an offer of co-operation to the Autobot Race.
We express sincere concern at previous treatment the Autobot People have received whilst being residents of our fine planet, and we wish to make known that we hold no desire to manipulate you in order to seek technological or military favour. Instead, we would like to offer resources as a sign of gratitude for your protection of our planet.
Earth has been under threat from Decepticon terrorism for many decades, many millions of innocent people have lost their lives, as well as Autobots having valiantly sacrificed to protect the human species. As representatives of the two largest nations on this planet, we feel obligated to act on their behalf, despite any internal disagreement it may cause with other human lead entities…"
Prowl looked up from the datapad.
"It goes on a little longer, but offers no relevant points to our interests".
"It was a predictable outcome of the Summit. I was speaking with Ambassador Smekhov, he was quite clear that the Russian and Chinese representatives want closer ties with the us, but for years have been cautious not to anger the US. We reside in this country, Smekhov basically spelt it out – he didn't want us to feel placed in a position where we could be seen as ungrateful for the years of American hospitality. With that said, the statement is right, and we could do with more formalised trade agreements with the other nations. Jazz, another job for you, perhaps get Skids to assist on this. I know he's been looking for a reason to get more formally involved in his cultural research".
"No problem, boss. I do think it'd be the polite thing to do to acknowledge the statement, I'm sure we can cook up some tactful response which the Yanks won't get all iffy about".
"I dunno, they've been mighty sore over the last few years".
"Be that as it may, it's only normal that nations go through periods of change, I have no desire to pull us into human conflicts, Rodimus, how about you break your teeth on this one?"
Optimus sure did like to drop in odd human idioms. The look his apprentice of sorts gave him amused the commander, but he elaborated further:
"Draft a response that makes it clear we're not interested in their wider political interactions with each other, rather our primary concern is the Decepticon threat. Any trade agreement we enter to is based on that fact, but we will be happy to sit down with the appropriate representatives to see where we all stand".
"I'll give it a shot, Prime".
Rodimus absolutely hated paperwork and diplomacy, or rather, he recognised he was pretty useless at it. Magnus' uncomfortable sounding shifting seemed to add confirmation to the leader-in-training's somewhat undeserved self-deprecation.
"Right, well, I think that's everything. Unless anyone has anything else? No? Good".
Prime was well standing as he gave the last two words a solid annunciation. His optics brightened in what was generally understood as a smile and he headed for the door.
"Dismissed".