The Diego Diaries: Flames (dd8 307)

=0=On the plain near the Crater Districts

They watched as the explosions continued on a quicker pace than before. The fire and heat were stronger and advancing on the District without let up. Before Prime and Prowl was a huge hole that had been blown out, filled with retardant and back filled with hundreds of tons of dirt and rock. It was scooped from the ground nearby by ships called 'belly dumpers' then flown to the spot where their hold was released and the fill came thundering down.

A haze of dust hung in the bitter cold air as everyone finally stepped back to watch. Moving a bit farther away, Prime and everyone there waited for the all clear call from Public Works and the Energon Administration teams working below ground on substations down the way toward the city complex. They were working to turn them off and then call up the emergency barriers that would prevent this conflagration from advancing. They were off line due to the power failure so they brought in generators that would return them to duty.

"Its getting closer," Prowl hissed softly as he tensely paced in a small space behind Optimus. That mech was watching stoically as the fire and explosions advanced.

:Selisar to Prime:

:Prime here:

:Optimus, we have the barriers up. They'll stop the fire from advancing and hold it here until it burns out the energon in the pipeline ahead. I was just told that the Energon Administration has shut down flow through this pipeline as well. It would have been faster and the automatic safeties would have done it but the damage to the Energon Station on the plain is complicating things:

"Thank you, Selisar. Keep me informed: Prime responded.

Prowl who was cut into the conversation by Optimus looked as deflated with relief as Prime. "All this has to do is hold the fire from advancing. If it passes, the barriers will stop them, so Selisar just said," Prowl explained to a tense Jetta who was standing with them along with Elita.

"This is a design flaw. We'll correct it and put the barriers on an alternative power source. We will decentralize the safety features and not make them dependent upon any one place," Jetta said. "Most settlements don't have our problems because most aren't invaded on a regular basis," he said bitterly.

Prime nodded. "We must troubleshoot this entire business from beginning to end unsparingly. I will not tolerate another disaster like this."

It was silent as they watched the last substation before this one blow up in the distance. It was only a matter of time now so they pulled back out of the blast radius and waited to see if their calculations were accurate.

=0=Elsewhere later that night

Ratchet walked out of the last one, Unidad, after having visited all of them. He was outlining for Prime the advancement of the repairs so that the habitats could be released to 'home arrest'. No one would be going outside for a while. Not even the visitors at The Resort.

Earlier, he'd gone to all of them to see himself and chat with those who were there doing the work or helping from the human end. Earth 1 was ready to sign off. The entrances and a few things inside that were shot up were the major fixes and the crews were masterful in getting the place put into order.

That is, the things that the mechs and femmes could. The damage to offices and other spaces would be up to the residents to set right. Brandon and Susie Clark had come topside and after a moment of grief at everything and everyone, they checked out with the main engineer and the night crew at the Ops Center all of the facility to get it right.

They did. Earth 1 was ready to open.

He had walked to the parking lot, transformed, then jetted to Earth2 and a final inspection before Prime made his decision. He roared out, turned left at the highway and headed out into the darkness. The tower lights were out of order but for a couple set alongside the road at intervals to illuminate the drive.

It was as inky dark as he was used to in places like this and the stars overhead reflected that. The Great Galaxy as the Cybertronians called the Milky Way was a smear across the sky, like someone took a palette knife and spread paint across a black canvas. He stared at them, stars that were now as familiar to him as the ones of his home world. They were beautiful. Even tonight in the midst of this, they were beautiful.

He reached Earth2, then drove into the parking lot and the environmental entrance which was open and getting final check off from the experts. He walked to the doors nearby and through the emergency human entrance which was almost never used. He stepped inside a booth after opening the outside door. He closed it, the atmosphere got right, then he entered through the inside door which slid open.

There were many mechs working on a lot of things. He entered the administration center to sit and talk to Cindy Tomas and a silent Owen Harris.

It would be an interesting moment for all three of them.

=0=Terra about the same time

Heatout stared at the mess of the flagship store of their faction, Full Circle. It was burning to the ground from a direct hit taking with it thousands of hours of hard work, creativity and their huge repertoire of books, art, crafts, school items and other things. It was sad to see but he was stoic about such things.

He was Cybertronian after all.

The leadership of his faction was with him called from the shelters under the Halls of Order and they gathered here to overlook the damage. Soon the engineers would arrive once the firemen and fire marshal finished going through the remains. They would salvage what they could but much would be lost. Included among them were three ancient weavings, two that Joon had made and a loom that was built, the one she used every day, during the Functionalist era. It was the oldest loom of its type known to exist.

It was cold and silent on the street among the stoic mechs watching the work ongoing as they began to silently set into place plans to rebuild the store and make it even better. A grieving Vinn who was with them as a board member of the Circle would tell Joon later when it was daylight again.

He would tell her about Sparkling Day School as well.

=0=Unidad Terra 1

The concourse which was usually humming was strangely silent but for a few of the inmates doing this and that. Carly was nearby talking to the mechs who were fixing the main functional damage minus the chapel. He watched, then walked to the motor pool to get a car to pull out to drive around.

He headed into the town center, then turned right at Farm Road to drive out to the farm land beyond. He paused at the chapel, ruing the mess and the taped off area where the sheets of glass had fallen. They still could it seemed. Feeling a bit blue, he continued onward into the countryside to see what was what. He was told that they made it down the road to the pasture where the bulls were kept.

Driving along the road he stared up at the stars finding himself feeling slightly homesick. Somehow, he'd have to help explain to Kes and Tagg that their home and that of their son and neighbors was a streak of damage on the common area of their tower and beyond. Workers would go through it and save what they could for the 100+ families affected from that blow alone.

He, himself would be staying away as well as the rest of the tower's residents until the building was sounded and found to be structurally safe at least to the 30th floor. It would be a madhouse but Prowl had informed him everyone who lived there was housed around the colony. He'd be living with the family and whoever could squeeze in at the Ambassadorial Apartments in Terra.

Pulling to a stop, he climbed out and walked across the road to the fence where nearby laying down to chew their cuds or sleep three of the biggest bulls he'd ever seen were eyeballing him. He climbed up to sit on the fence to watch them.

A bison, a Charlois and a Hereford bull started at him, none of them deeming him too serious to rise and give chase. He was on his side of the fence and all was good in their worlds.

Ratchet grinned. "I wish you slaggers could talk. I wonder what you'd say being here. You got a nice thing going on. I know. I administer this place. Whatever you need, I approve. You're going to have a small herd of bison here soon and some Brahmas from India. I don't know why but I sign the paperwork. I like you though. I hope that helps."

They chewed their cuds as they stared at him, relaxed and content in their kingdoms. It was miraculous that they got along this well given the temperament of some of them.

Ratchet stared at them, the sky overhead and listened to the senior Autobots on the linked in line that all shared. Apparently the fire's advancement was stopped at the fire break that they'd built near the Crater District it was heading for at top speed. He felt deep relief.

He listened as crews chatted about lifting the cruiser from the Energon Relay Station upon which it fell. They were discussing how to drain the pipelines and have in place enough firefighters to ensure that it didn't blow up with the small amount that would be there, energon they couldn't drain off because of the lie of the ship.

He listened as crews were struggling to pull workable trains out of the wreckage of a fighter transport that had been shot down over the locale of the overland station. It was where trains were turned around, cleaned, serviced or otherwise cared for so that the public and industrial demands for them could be met with the utmost quality.

A battle with a titan had shot down a fighter transport that had to be removed before they could really assess the damage to the facility. It would in all likelihood be considerable thereby pulling that transportation system off line above and below ground.

There was a lot of talk by emergency workers on their way to this or that site. Many more talked about what they could do or were doing to help with the disaster. It would go on all night, all day and all night again before it would appear that they were making any sort of difference in the crashed ships and infrastructure.

The habitats were working out and would be released shortly he mused. The towers which were damaged by shooting and the odd crash were essentially easy fixes though the structure would be sounded just to make sure. All of their construction was built to withstand ships crashing into them or bombs landing. They were holding up admirably.

Score one for Fort Max and his teams.

Ratchet climbed down, walked to the car, then with a wave to the bulls turned around to drive back to the concourse for a long talk and walk around with the crews and Carly. He would be at it all night.

=0=On the plain

Ironhide and his family stood by the road which had laid across it the dead carcass of a behemoth ship. Filled full of holes, leaking fluids which froze into weird shapes nearly immediately, it blocked the light of the stars from the angle where they looked with its massive size. They were looking at its danger, the scattered ordinance that could explode, the energon in its tanks that needed draining, the explosive possibilities of its electronic and weapons systems and the dead that might still be inside, though most of the crashed ships had managed to launch some escape pods.

It would have to be lifted along with the other four and the smaller vessels that were several mech vehicles for fighting, an innovation they'd study that Lancer was probably responsible for creating. There was tech on it that Sciences wanted so they were gathered nearby with a science vessel in the distance to handle what they'd extract. They were determined to figure out Paladin's advantage.

Raptor glanced at his grandson. "You okay, infant?"

"I hate this. This is sacred space, this solar system. We have to protect it and this happens to our people. I don't look forward for Prime to tell his genitors their house is gone."

Raptor nodded. "Happy Thanksgiving."

Ironhide glanced at him. "We're still here. There is that."

Raptor squeezed Ironhide's servo. "There is ALWAYS that."

=0=Monastery and Resort about the same time

Cyclonus stared at the ships, fighters all, that had attacked the Monastery and had fallen. The leadership of his faction weren't just scholars. Some of them were good warriors and their skills on the ground and in the air like him had been enough. They'd defended the Monastery, The Resort and the roads that led to Aerie Hill. It had been fraught but they'd beaten off the enemy.

Now they waited for the emergency vehicles heading their way with their lights blazing, tall sentinels against the night sky watching with guns in hand from the platform of their spiritual domain.

Below them scattered across the Tharsus Plain where the colony of the last Prime of Cybertron lay, fires told of the destruction wrought by Paladin of Iacon and his armada. Cyclonus wrote that name on the list in his spark that were enemies of Cybertron. If he could ever even the score he wouldn't hesitate a minute.

=0=TBC 11-19-2021