The Diego Diaries: Incident: Rescue (dd8 266)
=0=Out a bridge far away
They burst through, gathered into running formation, then headed as swiftly as they could toward a stronger signal than they had with the faint blinking light on their maps before leaving. It was stronger but not as strong as a fully functioning metrotitan distress beacon should have been.
The Seeker group lead by Warlord and Red Wing flew in two groups through the darkness of space toward a broken world with nothing to merit any attention otherwise. It was craggy, looked pockmarked by space debris and flew swiftly onward toward no direction in particular. It was one of infinite particles both great and small that filled the universe.
As they flew closer, a small desolate planetoid loomed upon them showing its broken face to the squads. They flew into its path, then into the planet's upper 'atmosphere' which was so thin it almost didn't register. Down they went into the darkness and brokenness of the small feature until they disappeared into the night.
=0=Ops Center, The Fortress, Mars
Optimus Prime and Prowl sat at the command table marshaling and commanding two major missions at the moment as well as several small ones. The barricaded 'Con fleet was still holding but the Seekers had reached the area where Avalone's signal had come from and the wait was tense and heavy. Around them the whirl rolled onward as a number of long term and short term problems were handled.
There were 22,000,000 individuals to pick up out the direction of Fort Borderlands just from the word of the Empress's son. That alone would take a lot of effort and time. They were all on the list.
=0=The planet
They flew through the darkness toward the rising intensity of an overall weak signal. It was steady but 'thin' indicative of a faltering energy source. Flying in two different groups over terrain that would converge on the signal, Warlord and Red Wing led their flights.
=0=Medical
Ratchet sat on the command throne of Phobos, the refurbished dedicated medical battleship that was once a Decepticon man of war. It was redesigned for the efforts it was put toward, huge humanitarian rescues and medical emergencies and was part of a five ship group that could be lifted to go to disasters. Two other battleships and two cruisers were refitted and reconditioned to be ready to go. All of them were repainted white and carried the Autobot sigil on their hulls.
"What's the possibility of finding a titan still alive over all this time, Commander?" a youngling mech Home Guardsman asked as he stood beside Ratchet to be his runner.
"Its hard to say, infant. You never saw hardy until you saw a metrotitan endure a lot of abuse. This is a hopeful mission, a mission with a bigger meaning than rescue. Keep that in your mind when we go. There's real power and hopefulness behind the possibility of finding this mech."
"I will," he said firmly as he stared at the forward screen with Ratchet. The airfield was busy as the big ships, two of the medical fleet were made ready to leave at a moment's notice.
=0=There
They flew in converging on the same spot. Laying in front of them was a crash landed metrotitan who had been there for some time. He was covered in dust from a brisk wind that seemed to be constant and a couple of meteor crashes nearby that threw up massive amounts of dust and debris which had pelted it.
A scatter field of bodily parts, cowlings, various protruding antenna and other features were thrown forward from the impact landing away from the main body of Avalone for some distance. He had landed hard on his chassis, buckled, then slid for what seemed several hundred meters before coming to a hard stop against the rock face of an eroded mountain. That had exploded parts of him sending them flying.
The Seekers landed, staring at the silent titan with expressions of intense dismay and anxiety.
"What the frag," Red Wing whispered as Warlord nodded. "We have to get back and tell what we see. Did your group scan as they came in?"
"We did," Warlord nodded. "Send what you got, then everyone go back but the special features group. You're to stay here with me and guard him against all comers."
"You don't have our special feature, Warlord," a big grim faced mech replied.
"No," he said with a cold expression of fury on his face. "I'm going to stay and defend him. Look there," he said as he nodded to the ground nearby.
The imprint of a shuttle could be seen, then footprints alongside the wheel tracks of a cart or two.
"Someone's been here. Go and bring the fleet. We have to defend this mech until we get him off the ground. He's fragging not going to end this way."
The group leaving jumped into the air then jetted off with speed. Warlord and the four mechs with him, all of whom had invisibility with special features functions that allowed them to beat almost all scans Cybertronians used watched them go.
"Become invisible. Watch for anyone who comes. I'm going inside if I can and see what's happening," Warlord said as he walked to the hull. Up the foot and hand hold ladder he went to reach the superstructure up above. Then he disappeared from view.
The others watched him, then one by one they became invisible. Walking toward a rise nearby, then began to climb to watch for anyone coming their way.
=0=Mars
They flew in through the bridge, then landed heavily on the airfield. Seeing Prime and Prowl jogging toward them, then closed the distance as all gathered.
"We found him, Prime," Red Wing said as others nodded. "He's really bad, all broken up and crash landed. We better hurry. His signal is still sending but its very weak."
"Do you have data?" Prowl asked.
"We do."
"Send it to Ratchet at Phobos and us on Tennyson," Prowl said as they all began to walk swiftly to Omega nearby. They would take him to space, then bridge to Tennyson with the command crew who would affect the rescue with him.
The Seekers would follow and Red Wing would send the data to Ratchet.
=0=Ratchet
"We're called to go, Commander. We're following Xantium into space," the pilot of Phobos said.
"Okay," Ratchet said as he took a data pad from the kid who was his runner. He stared at it, swiftly looking it over with a sinking feeling, then opened a channel to Omega. "Prime? Prowl?"
:Prime here:
:Prowl:
"You better get a move on," Ratchet said softly.
The fleet would rise into the sky faster than usual and disappear through the bridge in mass.
=0=The Hourly News
"We just received a message from the Office of Strategic Information that the Ready-Go fleet lifted off to affect a humanitarian rescue of a downed ship near the edge of the Decepticon dominated domain that leads to what our local maps call the Bootes Chute. This is a migration trail that leads from the interior of the old Empire which is still controlled by the Decepticons from the Rim and the Benzuli Expansion out fifty-thousand light years.
"We receive refugees from that direction and have been recently informed that 22,000,000 of our people have colonies and encampments that direction as well. The Bureau of Immigration and Refugees along with the General Staff of the Prime and the Strategic Planning and Rescue Service is working to make plans to bring them here to Mars and while doing so discovered a ship that needs rescue.
"Very little information is being released concerning the vessel, any passengers that might be with it or its location. It was noted that the ship is believed to be crash landed near two outlying Decepticon bases in the region and thus requires a heavily armed response team to pick them up.
"Optimus Prime and his sub commander, Prowl of Praxus are leading the team and utilizing among many ships the metrotitan Tennyson and a number of the Supremes. There is no timetable to the rescue nor is there any information about who might be involved or why the ship crashed.
"When that information becomes available we will break into regularly scheduled programming to bring it to you. In other news …"
=0=On the way
They flew in a huge formation, massive ships surrounding the medical fleet. Seekers flew in the holds and hangar decks of titans and Supremes as they flashed toward a planet that was nondescript, free-floating and without any distinguishing features. They would arrive in next to no time.
=0=Ratchet
He went through the details looking for the master list of broken and busted systems and parts that Avalone would've automatically flashed into being before any sort of stasis would have automatically overtaken him. There were a lot of automatics built into these vessels to protect them if they ever landed on anything harder than water.
He found it and blinked. It would be easier to tell what wasn't damaged, off lined at the moment or needing only minimal repair. It wasn't evident to him that the ship was still alive. He wouldn't know until he was on the ground. Because of the scope and magnitude of the disaster, the Phobos would do a very rare thing. It would make a surface landing to ease the work of bringing Avalone back to life.
Ratchet was a master at landing big ships.
=0=Tennyson
They walked through Omega's bridge to the Tennyson Command Deck. It was a solemn group of mechs who gathered as Prime sat on the command chair that Tennyson vacated for him. Nearly every titan and dread on world was here in pretender gear, all of them grim faced but ready to help. It would be a tremendous challenge to lift what needed lifting inside the big ship as relayed by the information that the Seekers had given.
:Warlord to Command:
"Prime here, Warlord. Where are you and what is happening?"
:I posted guards and climbed into the ship. I'm stuck two fire doors down from the command deck. They won't budge and I can't go further. Very little functions and a lot of it appears to be reactionary stuff, small lights and the like. I don't know if he's alive or in deep stasis but he needs so much work to move its scary:
The titans and dreads shifted with unease, then Typhoon turned to Prime. "We're here to help. You need things lifted or opened, put into place or whatever it takes, we're here. There's more on Cybertron waiting to be called including good medics and a couple more doctors. Command us, Prime," he said with deep emotion in his voice. "We need to save Avalone."
Prime nodded. "That is our goal, brothers. Right now, let us descend with those going down and have Ratchet and his teams determine our next steps. The rest of us will stay in orbit and defend this mech at all costs. Ratchet?"
:Ratchet here:
"Descend then. The Seekers will signal your landing space," Prime said.
:On it. I see their signals now: Ratchet said.
Everyone sat on or leaned against something to wait for the landing all clear for Phobos, a massive medical ship.
=0=Ratchet
"Alright. Let's do this slowly. We want to land without incident and to be in the best possible place to affect repairs on Avalone. Conn, take us in slowly at these coordinates," Ratchet said as he sent them to the pilot.
"On it, Commander," Rem said. He was also an expert at landing big ships and thus, they began to descend nearly in a straight line from the fleet holding in place over the spot below which Avalone was lying in deep danger and distress.
"Slowly, infant. We have the time," Ratchet said as he watched the horizon level on the console before him. It was even with the ship lowering through the darkness onto a flat plain that was part of the crash slide zone for Avalone. "Easy does it."
The ship lowered and lowered through the dusty darkness to the ground below. When it touched down, the hiss of hydraulics could be felt through the ship's decks. It was shut down immediately.
Ratchet rose, then glanced around noting a mass of very solemn-faced mechs, doctors, techs and specialists staring at him as they stood on the deck. "We have to be good today. We just have to be very, very good," he said as he stepped down and began to run swiftly to the elevators beyond.
The crowd followed behind him.
=0=TBC 10-03-2021