The Diego Diaries: Avalone (dd8 272)
(Well, the fifth night of my coldness is upon me. The guy who will fix it said he'd be here 'this week' so it looks as if I have a bit of a wait ahead. Maybe. :D:D:D I will write these at work where they have heat. Its also supposed to snow Thursday but not to stick. So …
Who cares, right? :D:D:D [Miss kattenbelletje, I will fix that ship problem that you pointed out in that other piece. Love ya for seeing it] ONWARD HO!
=0=There
Even taking care, Ratchet couldn't miss a lot of it. That's how he found out what had happened long ago when the two ships were separated and recently when Avalone finally crashed on this planet. He considered his oath, then sat back to listen and watch anyway. Somewhere in this set of data were answers to why Avalone was here at all…
Long ago in a hell place ...
They stood by the window staring downward at the world they had to flee to save themselves. He held his bond and his son, a sub adult who clutched him around the waist as they looked at the apocalypse below them.
Cybertron was engulfed in flames. Enormous fires were burning everywhere as rockets rose up and then fell to explode with violence outside the protected ring of this, a negotiated refugee's no man's land. It was a staging area for those who wanted to flee and all around them in various orbits were titans and other massive ships, nearly anything that could fly was waiting to help. If you could get here you could go. Though even so, the window was closing.
Massive Autobot artillery and resources were holding this space as the Network, the Knights, the armed forces of the Circle of Light and others led groups of hysterical civilians across the hellscape of their world to this, a place of escape. For everyone who made it here tens of thousands, even millions were left behind to die or survive what would come next.
It was unthinkable.
Smoke blurred some of the view, mercifully as Seekers engaged Autobot ships nearby. Somehow, the agreement about evacuations were holding though with the advancement of the Decepticons toward Greater Iacon would signal at some point its doom.
Nearby, a massive Ark was being fueled and made ready to leave. Even as t was it was taking hits. It would have to go soon if it was going to survive a pointed barrage by the Decepticons.
Rumors flew and the most persistent one was that Optimus Prime had sent the Allspark into space and would return here to find it with the Ark. If he did they could come back, people were saying. This wasn't forever. They'd come back and find their people, rebuild their homes and have a better life. Prime would restore the planet with the Allspark and the Decepticons would be defeated. It was a desperate thought they all had, that they could come back and 'fix things'.
They were terrorized, the people. There was never much but now there was no safety no matter where they looked. They'd survived dozens and dozens of years of civil war before coming to the conclusion that Cybertron would fall. Most came carrying nothing but family or a few things that were precious to their memories.
But some came with trains of possessions and servants. They who had power seemed secure in their delusion and provided a contrast to those who merely fled for their lives. But in the end, it was they who were fooled. Once their parties reached this area their worker bees who had their families trailing them would abandon their masters to flee on board with their loved ones.
He could see it happening nearby and around the corner. It inflamed him to watch the architects of their doom still clutching their privilege and stupidity.
"What happens now?"
He glanced down at his son, a good boy who had been a mainstay to them as they fled. "We're going somewhere where they can't find us and when Prime fixes this we'll come back. This is our home but right now we'd die if we stayed."
"Do you think he's going to do it?" his son asked.
He thought about it a moment then nodded. "I have to, son. If anyone can he will."
The ship began to move as the last possible refugees were squeezed inside its vast confines. Moving slowly to avoid hitting others, Banner began to leave after fixing his destination point with Avalone who was holding in space nearby. With a blast of his lights to the love of his life, Banner rose into the night of space and headed out toward a place in the Rim that the Knights had designated for this shipment.
Avalone watched him go, sounding his lights back, then tracked him on his sensors until he jumped. All around him other ships waited, some of them like him and others just pressed into service. He was nearly full himself and when he was he would move out and jump to his destination. That would be the last time he saw Banner again.
Ironhide ...
He walked onto the deck toward Ratchet who sat in the command seat plugged in like an old fashioned telephone switch board. He appeared to be engaged with the data flow that was passing through him as the Master Engineer of this class of ship. He paused behind him, then tapped him on the shoulder.
Somewhere in the density of his present effort he paused videos and data streams to glance upward. "Hey."
"Hey. You hungry?" Ironhide asked.
"After this," Ratchet replied. "How about getting me something good. Go to Mars to get it. Wait. We have the commissary."
"On it," Ironhide said as he patted Ratchet's shoulder. He walked across the vast floor and was gone.
Ratchet watched him go, then settled again. He began to listen to Avalone and Banner's story once more …
The war fanned out, reaching into the Empire and beyond. Then orders were given to capture metrotitanic and dreadnought ships for the Decepticons. It was then that life became a survival race for the big frames.
Avalone was one of them, flying to the site where Banner was supposed to be. When he got there a fire fight was going on and he had to jump away. Putting out a message over their low band channel, he listened as he fled. No message would come back to him.
Ratchet shifted with unease as he listened to the frantic sorrow that would tinge everything that he would read or hear next. Avalone was being hunted so he did what all of them did, he fled into such reaches that the Decepticons wouldn't be able to follow. It wouldn't be Soft Space yet. Apparently, this was before then but it would be far, far away.
Entering a system with reasonable planets, he found one and lowered to the ground to settle. It had vegetation and small animals but no higher lifeforms. Rivers ran here and there but there were no really large oceans. The weather was temperate and the seasons came and went.
They would go on and on for five millions years before Avalone would be found again. He wouldn't be found here.
Ratchet leaned forward to input data on the machine nearby, then sat back to see what happened next. It was as he feared …
It was snowing hard on the site where Avalone had taken residence. Over the eons vegetation had grown up and onto his surface. He didn't care. He was in stasis with alarms set to warn him of any danger that might come. Somewhere in the distance something was and because it was it tripped an alarm deep inside.
Systems kicked on as a gigantic intellect awakened after a sleep of eons. Lights flashed, drones stepped off their charging platforms and a long dormant set of engines began to come on line.
A roar of pain flashed through the sentience of Avalone as he was ripped from the deepest safe slumber into awareness in seconds. Then the calmness came as he began to assemble himself to leave.
Everywhere else around him whatever was there felt the trembling beneath their feet. Animals fled, birds rose into the air as the ground rumbled. Then the ground began to rise. Trees and bushes that had found purchase on his body slid off with avalanches of snow that had accumulated in the brisk winter.
Snow fell in profusion from the darkened sky as a figure began to rise slowly, then with gathering speed. Avalone began to gain height as snow fell off his body in devastating showers to the trees below. Up, up he went until he cleared the mountains, then faster toward the sky above. In seconds he was gone. Below slowly filling in with snow, a titan-shaped expanse of bare stony ground began to disappear.
Ratchet inputted more data, made several decisions, then sat back to listen once more …
He flew in space at speed with a pack of jackals following him. Pirates had located him by whatever means they had. They were following him, shooting and landing hits now and again. Flying with speed, missing the comforting presence of Banner's energy, he slowly and for the others dangerously became enraged.
Even though he wasn't fitted for war, Avalone began to organize his 60+ drones to defend. They ran to the torpedo tubes and filled them. They turned his massive guns behind him then waited.
Avalone began to slow to draw them in, faking that he was hurt more than he was. The pirates began to speed up like he wanted but they would regret it. When they were within range of his revenge he let loose the hounds of hell. Torpedoes and guns began exploded to life streaking out behind the big ship to find their carefully charted marks.
Ships began to explode and crash into each other. They dodged but failed to escape Avalone's wrath. The cool mathematical precision for which he was famed found their marks but not before a torpedo reached him. It slammed into his stern and exploded, taking out his guidance system.
He groaned in pain then arced away, flying as fast and straight as he could from the dying mass of pirates behind him. No one would follow him in his extremis as he searched ahead for a place to land. If he could land, his drones would be able to affect repairs so he scanned until he found a reasonably suitable place.
It took everything he had to aim for the planet closest to him without fully functional gyros, scanning to find no really good place to land. He came in as slowly as he could then slammed into the ground hard. He had no control over his trajectory as he slid for what seemed to be forever.
Crying out in pain, he finally slammed into a rocky outcrop disintegrating it when he did. As he stopped short, a spray of his body flew ahead of him scattering everywhere for some distance. He lay on his belly in ship format as agonizing pain washed over him.
Engaging his drones to do what repairs they could, to help him fall into a decent safe sleep given his circumstances, he slid into a medical state of stasis as one by one his systems shut down. The last ones to do so would be the drones who were his internal companions and assistants. They would go to their charging stations, sit and fall into stasis as well.
It would take 300 more years before someone would find the broken vessel and investigate him. It wouldn't be Autobots. It wouldn't be Decepticons. The party who found him came from another place altogether.
Ratchet watched as bio-mechanical humanoids walked around the body of Avalone. It surprised him that he'd only been crashed here for such a short time. It gave him hope that they could raise him and bring him back. Eons of time versus a shorter period was always a plus for him. What bothered him now were the videos of these humanoids.
The strangest part of their presence wasn't their poking and prodding or even their bodily configuration. He's seen organics with mechanical appendages before. What was strange about them was the fact that when they reached out to touch the debris or the ship itself, their hands passed through all of it. They looked but they couldn't touch or pick up anything.
Ratchet considered the possibilities. The 'bad guys' here were out of phase with this dimension. He vented a soft sigh. "Frag. Another paradox," he whispered.
=0=TBC 10-12-2021
THERE! WE GOT A NEW ONE DONE! :D:D:D
Paradox is the name people give multi-dimensional bullshit. Consider this about parallel dimensional theory. You exist in everyone of them but for the few where you were never born, etc. In them you are everything you ever decided to be. Or not. It could be you doing that thing you always wanted to be, married to that guy/gal you didn't or you could be completely different than anything you ever thought about. That's a paradox. Savvy? :D:D:D?