The Diego Diaries: Convocation (dd8 530)
=0=There
The scene changed once again. There was a room where mechs sat, lots of them both obvious Decepticons and a number of Senators. They were working out a plan with Megatron and his leadership surrounded by armed soldiers, some of whom looked breathtakingly dangerous.
"Then we are agreed," Megatron said.
Ratbat nodded. "The deposit was accepted. Halcyon and I will go there and do our part. Just do yours, Megatron."
The tension in the room ratcheted upward as the mechs watching took the offense that Ratbat always gave anyone he pleased. He wasn't normal enough to be afraid like anyone else would be.
"We need to go, Ratbat," Halcyon said as he watched the mechs with Megatron begin to seethe with anger.
Ratbat smirked, then rose. "See ya." He walked out with Halcyon until they arrived outside whereupon Halcyon transformed into a fighter, waited until Ratbat was aboard, then flew with dispatch northward to begin an unconscionable act of terror, the beginning of the mutual nuclear attack of the city of Tarn and the city of Vos against each other.
The scene cut to a room where Ratchet of Iacon was furiously arguing with a number of the leaders of the city of Vos. He had failed to convince Tarn to be wiser and was here in a futile attempt to end further carnage. The conversation was raw as Ratchet long giving up the pretense of diplomacy tried to find reason with the harsh truths about the lies they believed, these the leaders of the huge city. They were preparing to bombard Tarn who was also preparing to bombard them.
There weapon of choice was shaping up to be nuclear warheads, the doomsday scenario from which there was no return.
Ratchet stared at the group with anguished frustration. "NO ONE LIVES THROUGH A NUCLEAR STRIKE! YOU WILL DESTROY EVERYONE ON BOTH SIDES AND THE ONLY ONE WHO WILL BENEFIT WILL BE MEGATRON! HOW THE FRAG CAN YOU BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT HALCYON AND RATBAT SAY?!"
They stared at Ratchet, stone faced and gray with fury.
The mayor stepped closer. "You may leave."
Ratchet clenched his fists debating striking the mech in the face. Guns in the servos of his bodyguard who were watching closely would be the next step so he turned to go. Pausing at the door, he looked at them for the last time. "I'm taking the people of both cities with me when I go." Then he stepped out to leave.
It shifted toward evening with the rubble of the city swarming with fleeing refugees. Autobots were everywhere carrying many and exhorting others to hurry. Ships hovered over the mobs taking as many away as they could.
They were reaching the safest area of blast radius when in the light of the moons overhead, glancing backward at their city for the last time, they could see the outline of nuclear devices homing in. They struck and the shock wave, blast of light and heat swept them off their peds, those that hadn't dived to the ground first. A thundering blast, light and growing pillar of smoke rose in several places as the city of Vos finally met its end.
Not so far away as the bird flew, the same thing was happening to Tarn.
=0=Aerie Hill
All around the beautiful city of Aerie Hill the sound of wailing, trilling and the ululations of despair rose upward to fill the sky. The death of their city Vos appeared before them on the screen and the culprits who did it, who waged both sides against the middle had done so for money. The wages of sin seemed so paltry, so small for the mutual destruction of cities dearly loved and those who couldn't or wouldn't get away that the grief felt by those who loved them was overwhelming to many.
In the smoke clouds that grew and merged over both cities, the anguish of millions watching went upward with it. Mars and Cybertron were at the same moment in their despair as they watched two loved places die along with the best part of both, their unique and beautiful people.
=0=Prison
Ratchet squeezed Ironhide's servo as they stood side-by-side watching the end of hope and the beginning of survival, the failure of Ratchet to secure reason in madness. He felt things fall away inside as he watched himself fight the futility of propagandized leadership who fell for the lies of masters. It'd been one of the worst experiences of his life trying to save them and failing. To see it again was a terrible thing.
Prime felt it, too, the sadness and rage of failure. He had tramped through the center of Tarn and Vos seeking what he could when Cybertron fell back to his control to understand the colossal failure of their negotiations. Ratchet had tried hard, as hard as could be possible but it wasn't good enough. A liar had made death bloom on the plains of their beloved world and viewing it here was horrible. The only good thing might be the ultimate clarity that seeing the truth could bring.
Primus appeared on the screen. "A lie told over and over becomes the truth. Everyone has a maxim about that including the humans. Its called the Big Lie on Earth, that thing that with repetitions becomes the truth. The dead lie where they fell everywhere on Cybertron because of this one thing.
"It would be easy to blame Megatron but he was only the SYMPTOM of a LARGER DISEASE, the DISEASE OF ENTITLED SELF REGARD AND THE SNEERING CONDESCENSION OF MILLIONS! Continue."
The screen changed to the High Imperium where a scuffle was had before a huge mech made it into the room where the leadership of Cybertron and the Empire were holding session. He hurried to the platform where speakers stood, then looked upward into the highly ornate arrangement where they sat to do their business in session. It was to overawe those who came that their seats were so far off the ground.
A tall mech, young and courageous had made his way in then paused before them. "I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK FOR THE PEOPLE!"
A mech leaned slightly forward, then looked down. "You do not have permission."
"I AM TAKING IT!" Orion Pax called out. "Children are hungry. Our people are homeless. You have them fighting in useless wars for resources against other worlds while neglecting our needy here. You do not HAVE that right. YOU ARE PUSHING THIS WORLD INTO CIVIL WAR! There are groups who will not wait to feed their children forming all over the Empire. When their children are hungry enough their fears will fall before their love and this world will burn. YOU MUST MAKE EFFORT TO ASSIST THEM BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!"
"You do not have permission to speak here. You are pushing sedition, Pax, and treason," one of them hissed.
"YOU ARE MURDERING OUR PEOPLE WITH YOUR NEGLECT AND CORRUPTION! NONE OF YOU ARE ON OUR SIDE! THE FIRES ARE BANKED AND WAITING FOR A SPARK! WHEN IT COMES THIS WORLD WILL BURN! I IMPLORE YOU TO UNDERSTAND ME! THE TIME FOR CHANGE IS NEARLY PASSED!" Orion hollered as he was swarmed with security and dragged from the room.
He was taking into an alley, beaten with clubs and left to die. Jetta, Magnus and the others of the Revolutionary Council waited in the darkness. When the guards were gone they stepped forward to help Orion Pax, their leader away to recover.
The press would report the intrusion and Orion's fame and prestige would grow. It would be the last time he would be greeted thus. The next time he broke into the High Imperium he would do so with Megatron and when he exited he would do so as Optimus, the Prime of Cybertron and Empire.
The very next orn the war that he feared and warned against would begin.
=0=Around the world
They sat transfixed by screens everywhere they were when things went south earlier forcing all to take shelter. In their homes, restaurants and businesses that never closed mechs and femmes watched with horror the events of the past as played for them by Primus Himself. It was clear, unaltered and unassailable.
The truth was being shown to them and it was evident to everyone that most of what they knew about that time was wrong.
In enclaves all over the colony and places on Cybertron, high caste individuals watched with horror, fear, intense emotion, disbelief and deep disquiet. It was a shaking thing seeing what Primus was showing and knowing that what Prime had said about the Pantheon being opposed to the System of Exception was likely true.
That meant it never was right.
That meant that everything they believed was a lie, based on a lie and/or couched in crimes against their own people.
It made them very, very afraid of everyone and everything around them. It was shocking how many of them began to barricade themselves into their homes with real genuine fear.
=0=Around the colony
The towering figures of the gods of their people stared toward the prison where the light of their leaders could be seen. Solomus turned his helm to stare at the humans at the windows of the habitat nearby, Earth2 and considered their faces. They were staring at him with concern and among the younger set intense curiosity.
He considered the child who had written about Him, their wave and His own returned. He grinned their way, noting that more waved. He raised His massive arm to return it, then fixed His gaze once more into the distance.
=0=Earth2
"Damn. That's amazing," Rick Harris said as Solomus returned their wave. "I wonder what comes next. Do any of you?" he asked as he glanced at the kids from Youngling Day.
"This is Primus laying out the case," an older student said. "He says what He sees, then The People get their say. Its interactive."
"Its fucked," Cameron Frazer said. "This is all fucked including Him." Cameron stepped back from the window warily as Solomus turned his helm to look their way.
He wasn't grinning when He did.
"You better shut your trap, Cam. Just shut it before you regret it," Rick said with alarm.
Pierre Beliveau grabbed his son by the arm and pulled him back from the window. "I agree, you idiot. Don't say another word."
It was then that Solomus turned from His position and began to walk slowly and carefully their way.
"Oh fuck," Kyle Davis whispered.
=0=Prison
The high castes arrested in the migration were gathered together to huddle in a corner of their pens as far from the towering figures as they could. They were silent, shocked and fearful. The Pantheon was here and none of Them were happy. Prime had said They wouldn't be regarding the framework of their lifestyle but they didn't believe it.
It was almost too much to expect that individuals living such a programmed and propagandized life should believe something so fundamentally opposed to their thinking. This was generational thinking and generational programming. It wasn't something that was overcome because someone said it must be. Waldeen and Traachon had shown that was a forlorn hope for some.
Millow was an extreme version of it as well.
Gathered around the colony, high castes, former or otherwise, were watching with a rising fear that there could be reprisals from those all around them. That there was little of that outside the bars and the odd occasion when a spark lit a fire among total strangers, it wasn't clear to any of them that they wouldn't be laid out in a riot.
Callo watched with his friends in their clubhouse in the Central Labor Hall. They were caught there during the 'sand storm' and were now held in thrall by Primus.
But not in a good way.
=0=Primus
Scene after scene played out showing the inequities of The System, each of them, and the consequences for The People because of it. Then it cut to a very early moment in the life of their recovery.
Optimus Prime was seen standing on the dusty plain of Mars, the site some fine orn of Autobot City. He picked up a rock, then turned to the officers with him. "You have to use your imagination."
Prowl grinned. "I see a city, a colony where everyone is free. That is what I see, Optimus."
Everyone with him nodded.
Prime dropped the reddish rock. "That is my hope as well. Then we have to find our people, all of them wherever they are."
The scene cut to the Functionalist Colony where a silent viewing of the landscape of the dead was had once more. It was too late for them to care.
=0=TBC 9-24-2022 edited september 25, 2022
