The Diego Diaries: Aftermath (dd8 304)

=0=The Fortress, Autobot City

They walked in, a large group of nervous appearing mechs led by their captain, an older one who looked like he was ready for anything. Behind came Hercy and Kup who brought them forward to talk to Prime. They marveled openly at the Center even as they marveled at the colony when they flew in with the two on their shuttles. Pausing at the table, they waited silently as they watched two of their biggest nightmares, nemesis bots both, working on their problems together.

Prime glanced up then sat back. "You are Cord. Correct?"

The big mech nodded. "I am. We want to surrender and have a chance to live here. I was the captain who overflew you but I didn't give Paladin the full story. Hercy and Kup can tell you."

Prime glanced at the mechs with him, a mix of scared kids and hopeful nervous older types who looked like life had been hard and unsparing. They stared at him almost defiantly, like hoping was one step too far to go and stay in one piece if it didn't pan out. They'd dared before and it appeared to Prime that falling short had made them wary and hard. "I am Optimus Prime."

It hung in the air between them, the name of a mech so legendary that even in death he came back.

Repeatedly.

Prowl stared at them as well and they knew him, some of them professionally as rowdy hungry kids caught in a system without pity. Everyone knew his reputation and abilities. None of them wanted to spar with either one.

"We want to defect and have a chance to live free," Cord asked gruffly as he felt his confidence waver. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Have a seat, Cord," Prime said. He waited until the big mech was, then glanced at Hercy. "Do you vouch for them?"

Hercy glanced over the tense kids and adult mechs, some of whom looked almost sick with fear of what might come of this. "All of them," he said. He looked at Prime, then nodded slightly.

"Very well," Prime said as the room nearly deflated of its structural soundness from a hope too hoped for to be believed attainable. "There are rules and those who will help you. I will waive you going to the Prison as your starting point.

"Hercy and Kup will get you together with the Former Decepticon Association who handles newcomers to ensure they transition into the life here successfully." He watched the kids who were nearly limp with relief. "What I need to know now from all of you is everything you can tell me about this armada, the leadership and what you have seen and where you have been.

"We are recovering our people. We have nearly 250,000,000 mechs and femmes of all ages, former castes and sides here as well as Cybertron and all of the Empire that's still free. If you know about any refugees in your part of the woods or along the route you traveled to get here we have to know so we can schedule them for pick up."

Cord nodded. "We can do that, though there were few we saw. The area wasn't good for that. As for the Cause and the empire, its tighter than a drum. We came from far enough away that by the time they noticed us we were long gone.

"There's a group running things for Megatron but no one knows who they are. They're holed up in the middle of the remaining empire and they closed the doors tight. There's Seekers trapped all over the place and they can't get out. The death order is still in effect. I can tell you where among who I know."

"We would need that," Prowl said. "Tomorrow you can come here when Rainmaker and Starscream are present. They want to get everyone out given their dire circumstances."

"Glad to do it," Cord said tensely. He glanced at Prime. "Paladin isn't like the others. I've seen and known of 22 of them. Someone said you got the DJD and Black Shadow. That's good to know."

Prime nodded. "We do. We chased off Heretech and Killmaster as well. Also there has been two pretender DJDs. One we have destroyed, the original one, and another who moved in on their territory."

Cord shook his helm. "There's one where we were, pretty good at it given the truth you just told me. They've fooled a lot of tough customers out there. Psychos everywhere."

"The war has been hard on all of us," Prime said sympathetically.

"Paladin and Serial are smart and a good team. They don't argue and they don't bother about command structure in terms of who's top dog. They both compliment each other, one filling in where the other lacks. They're the only two sixers who do that. Most of them are either loners or they're going to duel it out for supremacy. There's something about the procedure that makes them crazy.

"Paladin is involved with a younger mech, a former high caste who was a protege of Jhiaxus. He worshiped Jhiaxus and took part of his data base with him when Jhiaxus left for the Dead Zone with Nova Prime. He's smart, is always watching to see what's going on and no one who is a fool. Don't let his age put you off. He's smart and tough, too. Paladin and him have a real thing between them. His name is Lancer."

"Why did they think they could come here? You had data. How much did you doctor to fool him?" Raptor said as he sat nearby with Hardie and Delphi.

"I didn't tell him much. I let him think this was a dusty army base with a lot of civilian refugees," Cord said. "I didn't want him to think he had to go in guns blazing or do something really big to get the upper servo. He might have bridged in nukes or some slag," Cord said. "He had no idea that you were able to whip him or he might have done something sneakier or worse."

Prowl handed him a data pad. "This is what he lost. Can you fill in the remaining armada and where do you expect him to go?"

Cord quickly listed Paladin's assets, then glanced at Prowl. "I expect him to camp somewhere to lick his wounds, then notice the amount of energon floating around here. I expect him to dig in and get reinforcements. Someone mentioned that Predaking is nearby and Ominous. I know that slagger and have some small acquaintance with Razorclaw and his brothers. He'll want to hook up with them, then take over."

"They all do," Prowl said.

"I know. Its the Decepticon Way," Cord said ruefully. "All I want for me and my crews is peace and a chance. I also heard that you track families. We have them but not anywhere we know. We'd like to find them. I have a bond and three kids. I need to know where they are and find them. We were separated in the war when they shifted us around so much."

It was leaden in the room as it hung between then, victims of war on each side.

Prime glanced at Delphi. "Would you take their names and search, General?"

Delphi nodded, then took a data pad from Kup. "I'll get the results, if any, to you. You're going to be processed in right now. Don't be upset if you don't find them right now. Ten thousand come in every orn and its getting to be a good time to be here given how many get hooked up."

"I'm from Stanix," a youngster said from the back. "I heard the Empress is here and the Court."

"They are," Hercy said. "You got family with the Empress or her Queens?"

"My aunt is an attendant to her court. Her name is Tildee. Do you think she would be there? She left with my whole family. I wasn't fast enough to get there for the liftoff. I miss them so much," the kid said near to tears.

Delphi inserted the data pad, then scanned the database. "There's two here. Come here and tell me if they're yours," he said.

The kid glanced at Prime who nodded, then hurried to Delphi. He stared at the image on the screen, then burst into tears.

One of the two was her.

=0=Unidad

They walked through the structure checking things out. Calling up the human engineer of the plant who worked with the bot shift engineer keeping the place in shape, a member of the ag team who specialized in the animals and Carly, Jetta led them through the area which had been checked stem to stern and found to be sound. They were now being shown the wreckage.

Pausing before the Chapel, Jetta glanced at Carly. "We can fix this in a couple of days. We have it on the list but its not a high enough priority to bump up. I don't mean to be offensive, Carly."

"You aren't, Jetta. I fully understand. I just hate this. Its such a place of peace and comfort. Its become a real community center for activities and events." Carly turned to him. "I asked Turbine to protect our animals and he did. I love you all so much."

Jetta grinned. "The feeling is mutual." He glanced around. "We have a few things to fix. They weren't kind to this place when they were here but they didn't stay long to do very much damage. I do believe if everyone stays away from the few broken places that we can release the habitat. Your emergency electrical system will keep you going forward business as usual even given the outages.

"The Metro is offline all over the place for now. Some of the stations were destroyed or collapsed. Those are on the list ahead of a lot of things. Having this population and losing transport is a nightmare. You're all confined to the Habitat until things are replaced, fixed and Optimus signs everyone off. He won't for a while."

"Thank you, Jetta. I'm sick about this. This place is home now and I can hardly bear to think what happened out there. Optimus and Prowl lost their home," Carly said nearly in tears.

"We're fixing up the apartment in The Fortress for the family. There's apartments from the old orns for families who had sick members to stay in down the hallway from that where his family can live. We'll get through this," Jetta said as he gently patted her shoulder.

"We will. Just tell me what you need and its yours," Carly said as the others nodded.

=0=Outside heading toward the Central Labor Hall

They walked toward Fort Max and the original city underneath him that covered many square miles of streets, businesses, meeting places, an annex for many a trade school, arts schools, childcare places, restaurants, bakeries and cafes, small industries, halls for parties and entertainment, professional and private businesses, a couple of theaters, Guild and union headquarters, an annex of the University of Mars, pocket parks for kids, a newly opened hotel, government offices and departmental annexes as well as military related operations.

The 'Old City' as it was called was a massively busy area of commerce, education and relaxation for literally millions of bots everyday. There were a large number of Metro stations now along with the overland train stations for passengers, some leading in the circular routes ending back at the Hall while others branched off to other places to run back and forth between them all orn long.

There were lounges around the big space with kiosks for the post office, news and information. One could make a call, read the latest news and eat lunch within a short walk of each other. The massive lobbies to the place were gathering spots for families and friends to meet, greet and go to eat. It was a study zone for a lot of students and a hangout for the younger set to flirt and play.

They were going to the Immigration and Naturalization office there which opened to process them back into Cybertronian society and then go to the Former Decepticon Association Hall which was one of the largest in the installation now. They had overtaken their own and annexed the Halls of Order next to them when the Guiding Hand built their own Halls on the highway heading toward Metro District 1.

Entering, they made a line, were checked for 'priors', taken through the data work, then granted citizenship once more. They'd already given their oaths to Prime and when they left Ops Center it was with hope where none was before. Leaving the Immigration Hall, they walked on sidewalks that bordered every road on both sides in the underground city. Traffic lights were on along with nighttime illumination on the grid that could actually field small cars and trucks.

It was a mini-con's paradise, driving the road system in the underground city.

Shuttered restaurants and businesses, their night lights brightly lighting their way were fascinating to the now former Decepticons as they walked down street after street through intersections and around corners until a huge sign over a street-long storefront greeted them. "The Former Decepticon Association Hall, Scar: Commandant" told them the story. Entering the building, they were greeted by Scar, Nitro and a number of other mechs who sat them down to read them 'the code'.

Before they were half way through, the door opened and a huge family of genitors, uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, grandparents, small kids and babies as well as who knew whom else rushed in and mobbed their long lost boy.

Joining them with a big smile and a happy spark, The Empress of Stanix entered with her court. Among them was a wildly happy attendant, Tildee and her big family.

It was a joy to behold in the Hall.

=0=TBC 11-16-2021 edited 11-17-2021