The Diego Diaries: "There's Fighting in the System!" (dd8 295)

=0=At the colony

Ships began to fly from the enemy formation toward the ground below. They were filled with soldiers who were going to begin ground operations in a bid to take over the colony. It was more than they'd planned upon, having the intel that Cord had altered as their blueprint. Having dispatched the two Triggers and downed the control of the one floating near it, the Autobot City Space Bridge to make it inoperable, they were on their way toward combat for the supremacy of Prime's domain.

Springer and the others who were on the ground watched as the ships flew downward and dispersed all over the colony, flying overhead in all directions. As they did squads of Seekers chased them and fired. Two big shuttles were hit and as they trailed fire and debris along with black smoke, they fell toward Terra in erratic glides.

"Oh frag," Drift whispered as they watched the shuttles disappear from view from their vantage point near Club Cybertron. As they did more began to land at the airfield to be strafed by Seekers. Even as the Seekers strafed, two and three mech fighters flew down to engage them.

"We better get in the game," Springer said as he glanced at Smokey, Lon, Bezel and a youngster named Parable. "You kids stay here. Don't move. We're going to see what they're made of and then we'll regroup here and head for Terra. Jetta is going to be handling that train wreck. Understand?"

The four kids nodded and for once didn't give a spirited defense of their abilities as they watched their elders rushing toward the airfield. They would wait by the building watching shuttles fly over heading for other places with troops. It would be terrifying to all of them though to their credit it didn't show on the outside.

=0=Terra

Jetta, Elita, Arcee and Magnus with their troops stood on the sidewalk down the street from the main commercial district of the city. Down the way was the tower for the Sparkling School and all around them were the familiar shops and buildings of this, one of the most busy and popular commercial hubs of the colony.

Overhead, they watched helplessly as a mortally wounded shuttle came screaming in on a fatal glide as mechs swarmed out of it, flying toward the ground, something Decepticons were very capable of doing. The shuttle flew over them and hit the highway that divided the city into two districts. It slid spewing fire, shrapnel and liquids until it hit the school fence and continued with momentum. Flashing past that barrier, it crashed into the building, burying itself deeply into the main lobby of the primary school until the bank of elevators halted its flight.

In the shelter of the school building itself, the shuttle gave up the ghost and blew up, taking out the first floor of the facility back to the cafeteria and kitchens. A shattering boom roared out and a shaking that would be felt all the way to the shelters around the area rattled everything and everyone there.

The building which were built with earthquake technology in this, a very constant quake zone slid easily on its pads until the rattling stopped. So well made and technologically sound was the building, nothing on the upper floors beyond the absolute blast zone of the shuttle's demise would even fall from where it was sitting. It would be the first five floors and three of the seven sub floors that would pay the price.

It would also blow out the metro station below necessitating a structural review and repair from the colonial engineers. A lot of metros would go off line before this battle was over.

=0=Around Terra

They sat paralyzed with fear in shelters all over Terra, listening silently but for crying children. Shudders from the building, the obvious result of being hit rattled through their processors and sparks as they huddled. Around them workers, doctors, social care givers and soldiers murmured comfort and resolve as the sound of another explosion nearby could be heard and felt.

It would be terrifying all over the colony as the tremors of battle made their way to the huddles masses of Optimus Prime's Kingdom hiding far below ground.

Outside above the street, another shuttle came in hot. It missed Jetta and the huddled group, hit the road nearby, then slid into Full Circle blowing up immediately. Shrapnel barely missed Jetta, Magnus, Arcee, Elita and the group they were with, the femmes and gnarly soldiers of Company 10. Their job was to hold off the enemy troops in this area of the colony as Prime rallied the air battle above.

The sound of falling glass could be heard as the first five or six levels of the buildings on both sides shattered their windows from the reverb of the blast in the long paved street. The structures of the buildings were designed and built to survive this kind of attack. Jetta and Fort Max made sure of it. But the blast waves were what they were and windows which could withstand a Seeker attack vibrated into oblivion from the blast of the shuttle next to them.

"Frag. There goes a lot of good things," Arcee said as she stared down the street. "They got off the ship and they're coming this way."

Magnus stared down the street as everyone drew their weapons. He glanced at Company 10 and the others. "You know what to do," he said as all of them melted into the alleys and cul de sacs of the area to await the soldiers advancing upon them. The fire fight would be brutal.

=0=Prime

He studied the maps as he gave orders. Shuttles were lifting off to cover from the air all of the troops heading out to fight off the invaders. It was going to be the worst kind of combat, door-to-door, urban, guerrilla and brutal. He was in conference with Inferno, Alor who was barricaded up at The Fortress and Metroplex. Even though there were titanic individuals ready to fight with three having transformed their towers into weapons, the titans couldn't at the moment.

Paladin's ships were over the colony itself and if shot down would fall into the cities and destroy the entire place. They had to be drawn out and take the fight into the countryside where titanic guns could fire at will. There were tens and hundreds of millions of lives at stake. As he ordered his fleet and troops to take on the enemy, more shuttles fell out of the sky to head into the colony. One of them engaged with a gun emplacement from the roof of Fort Max as he came in over the Military Airfield.

Rounds hit it hard taking out the guidance system of the ship. It burst into flames and arced in an erratic manner toward the Mare Tranquilitatis. Barrel rolling as mechs jumped out, it flew into Tower 1 and blew up, heading by momentum alone into the open space where families played and picnicked.

Four of the upper floors of Tower 1 went with it as the shorting of electronics and bursts of flame on the shattered building flared, then died. The shuttle continued, hit the ground and exploded. Rocks and metal shot out everywhere, striking the buildings including the Medical Center. Because it was far enough away and down into the beautifully manicured and beloved space of the parkland, it wasn't as deadly as it could have been otherwise.

Smoke rose into the sky as the building swayed, then settled. Glass and parts of the upper floors would fall off and clatter to the ground for a while. The Penthouse of the Primes of Cybertron was no more.

=0=The human habitations

Shuttles landed at Earth 1 and Earth2. Troops clambered out to scan, then run for the building. The elevators that led to the upper stories or into the main concourses of the massive habitats were locked out with a rotating combination that would take a mathematics expert to even attempt to disarm.

They reached the facility, shot out the windows with effort, then entered the environmental entrances to the buildings. By the time they were inside, the soldiers assigned to defend them would be locking and loading at the entrances to the shelters below whose corridors were mined to explode if breached. Watching on monitors that were showing the entire attack from the outside cameras, the humans huddled in abject and absolute terror.

The apocalypse had arrived on their doorstep.

=0=Elsewhere

Enemy troops with heavy arms stared into the habitat which stretched on for what seemed forever. Green trees and grass, oddly at odds with the dry desert planet they were attacking greeted them. Inside, habitations, houses that were suffused with flowering window boxes spiraled around big pillars upward to the great dome that covered this space for what seemed miles and miles.

The Hu-An Habitat was a space that now encompassed 1,100 square miles of dome covered land. About 900 square miles was either in cultivation or being worked toward that end goal. It was a brilliantly beautiful place and many were the humans who came here for the taste of home it so abundantly afforded.

The soldiers tested the door, an environmental entrance and found it strangely open. Glancing at each other, the five mechs with heavy arms entered, waiting for the entrance to let them in, then stepped into the warm fragrant world of the alien farmers. There was the sound of running water from streams nearby and birds could be heard. Butterflies and bees buzzed on the bushes and flowers that bordered the habitat walls.

They stepped farther along the cobblestone path that led onward to the habitation spaces and the massive greenhouses in the distance. They wouldn't get very far before shots ran out. They spun to return fire but it was too late. Hu-An warriors stepped out of the greenery and fired their own weapons in a fusillade at the Decepticons. They fell almost as one as the Hu-An closed the distance with continuous fire.

When they were dead and still, Larc glanced at her troops. "We will hide them and wait for more. When Prime calls us we will come. For now we protect our people."

They nodded, these huge females with ferocious fire in their eyes. They would drag the 'Cons into the bushes, then settle in to wait again as all around them the enemy armada descended to overrun the colony.

=0=Nearby

They ran down the street for The City, breathing fire literally as they did. Grimlock and his team were heading for the airfield where the 'Cons were trying to set up a beachhead. Woe be to the enemy that confronted them in this state. This was personal, it was maddening and it was glorious. Grimlock and Company were coming to count heads.

=0=Earth2

The professional soldiers conferenced with the policing unit and the bots who were part of the command and control of the facility. Striker and Invincible in pretender gear were there to help defend the habitat that constituted Parabolus. That worthy was at Earth1 with four of his brothers to defend it, having been nearby. He ran there with them rather than head for E2 which was being relieved by other titans. Watching nearby with their angst writ large, the mercenaries of Owen Harris waited to be called.

Jim Johnson finally walked over to interrupt the proceedings. "We're here and we know how to fight. What do you want us to do?"

Striker turned to him, this distasteful human. "We need someone to stay here and guard the doors. None of them can come inside. They will kill everyone here without exception. We're going to the top and engage them." As he spoke Hammer of Primus, Retriades and Gambian appeared beside him and Invincible, called by Parabolus to assist here.

"We can come, too," Johnson persisted.

"No," Invincible said. "If they manage to breach the walls or windows the decompression with be immense and you could be killed in the chaos. These humans," he said nodding to the Autobot Nation Watch Guard of humans answerable to Springer, "will be here guarding the doors along with the mechs and femme from the control center. There are mines built into the corridor coming into here. They will blow them and block the entrance if they break through until we can come to relieve this place. You will be with them and you will answer to Con-T," he said nodding to a tall mech that was a veteran soldier and someone would fight them off if they came. "If you can't do that then we're going to lock you up."

Johnson stared at Invincible, then nodded. "Alright. We'll defend here."

"Good," Invincible said as he glanced at the others. He glanced around the room at the hundreds and hundreds of humans huddled in this shelter in the environs of Parabolus. He glanced at the mechs and Striker. "See you topside," he said then derezzed.

Striker followed him, then the others ran to the door. They opened then closed it, locking it against the intruders. Their ped falls disappeared into the distance.

Con-T stared at the door, then the humans watching him. "Get your arms, the ones issued to our security forces. Do what I tell you and we might all live. Frag around and don't do it, I will shoot you myself. Understood?"

The mercenaries stared at him including Martin 'Silas' Polaski. They nodded.

They believed him.

Running with the guard to the gunnery nearby, the mercenaries grabbed weapons and found their posts around the room. They settled silently to watch the door as overhead the sound of running and shots could be heard faintly through the walls.

=0=TBC 11-6-2021 edited 11-7-2021

NOTES COMING TOMORROW! :D:D:D