The Diego Diaries: Getting On (dd8 308)
Last night I went to dinner in freezing darkness. Today, its only slightly better and we're heading for the darkest day of the year, Yule, on December 21st. If you're Celtic its the day that the Great God dies and the Great Goddess mourns him until spring when he's reborn and all life begins again. Happy Yule anyway! Onward!
=0=Earlier in the shelters of the Resort of Autobot City, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire.
They sat on air mattresses, chairs and couches in the many lounge areas or benches along the walls. Above them they could faintly hear the sounds of a brutal air battle, one that appeared to them to be happening directly overhead. 2,500 guests, 1,222 total worker bees from every facet of their operation and the command staff of the Operational Center which all habitats had and which was controlled by military mechs and femmes listened to the sounds.
Some of the guests had been soldiers so this wasn't new. Most of them, the massive majority were civilians without any military experience outside of media and gaming. It was the way of the world all over Earth. The majority had never had to be a part of this life, though it would be easier to find multitudes of civilians who had in a less formal way via being trapped in wars. It was silent as the sounds continued.
Walking through the building to check everyone with his team of security, Gavin Pritchard looked for those who might crack from the strain or assume that their privilege or nationality would exempt them from the circumstances they found themselves in. He noted an agitated older man sitting on a couch with his older wife and what appeared to be two adult sons and their wives. Pensive children were leaning on the couch watching him. He paused before them. "Are you alright?"
"Are we?" he asked with watery eyes. He was old, sunburned and arthritic appearing in his actions.
"We are," Pritchard said smoothly. He knelt. "The bots have it in hand. I've lived here a long time and they have it. Just next door at the Monastery is the Master of the Guiding Hand, Cyclonus. He was an actual lieutenant of Megatron himself until he turned on him for being the tyrant he was. He's protecting us right now. I got word that the fighters overhead are him and his mechs from the Monastery. They will protect us and so will Prime."
The man stared at Pritchard, then his sons who looked in their sixties. "I hate war. I've been in too many. We need to end it."
Gavin reached behind himself to pull up a chair. "You were a soldier?"
The older man nodded. "I was in the Great War, World War Two. It was supposed to end all of them forever."
"You must have been a kid," Gavin asked.
The old man stared at him, then nodded. "I was seventeen. My old dad didn't want me to go, him and Mama because he was part of World War 1 and knew what they were like but I didn't listen. I had him sign me up. I'll tell you, when I got on the train and saw them disappear from view, I thought my father was the smartest man who ever lived. I went to war and fought in a lot of terrible places. I hate war, son. No one who ever goes to one feels any other way. This has to end."
"The bots will take care of us," Pritchard said. "I was in war, too. I hate it like you do. What was your unit and where did you go?" he asked.
The two would sit together discussing old and modern wars that in the end had little to do with anything good while overhead the latest version raged onward. Both of them would feel better doing it.
=0=Down at the disaster
Ironhide watched as Science technicians swarmed the big ship leaking fluids before them. It was crashed and broken up over a long expanse and the medics who went with the science bots would find a few of the dead inside. Some were burned up and others were now in the prison. It was instructive how fast they'd used the escape pods this close to the ground. There were dents burned black in the sandy soil all over the plan where they'd launched, then nearly immediately crashed. It was interesting how many survived the impact.
It was a cruiser, the biggest ship they'd downed on world. It had been trying to flee the titans when they turned their guns upon them and had exposed its vulnerable underbelly to attack. Shot down, spiraling into the ground, the explosions would have impacted buildings far away had the atmosphere held oxygen enough for it. The flying shrapnel had taken out other ships which were pockmarked by titans as well.
All across the once pristine plain, one dotted with utility stations, train tracks and their main station for overland commercial and civilian transport as well as towers for transmission of signals there were carcasses of downed ships. Five of them in all, the cruiser being the biggest. Scattered with these five bigger ships were several fighters, most of them multi-seaters which would require removal as well.
The sound was muffled and low as per the thin atmosphere but activity was busy. Sappers walked along the ground with sensors looking for spilled bombs, ammunition and other explosives. They'd denature them on site, then take them to the main armory for analysis and disposal. Most of them would just be standard issue while others would be alien but conventional in composition. It'd have to be made safe given that civilians sometimes cut cross country to get somewhere. Driving over a missed mine would be the end of them.
As the sapper teams worked, as Sciences and Medical went through the ships, as huge lifting vessels from the Saturn Shipyard hovered overhead, the sun was breaking over the curved massive dome of Mount Olympus on this, the Tharsus Plain of Mars.
=0=At the scene of a diverted disaster
The sunlight was welcome as Prime walked with Prowl, Sycamore who was director of the Energon Administration and Perceptor along the path the fire had taken. The ground was fused from the heat and blaze creating darkened shards of obsidian-like and glassine materials which were scattered all over the place from the explosions. For miles the fire had raged through the tunnels taking out the localized substation control systems for each as it did.
They paused by each hole to stare into its blackened and still smoldering abyss. There were fifteen stations along this stretch of pipeline and all of them but the four beyond their fire break were destroyed. It was a sobering sight to see.
The ground crunched below their peds as they continued, noting the line of burning that led from one blackened hole to another. They stepped away from that visible line for fear of collapse if they walked on it.
"I can't tell you how shaken I am, Lord Optimus, how close we came to having this reach a city," Sycamore said. He glanced at Prime who was grim faced but listening. "The system worked the way it was supposed to but it wasn't designed for a ship to crash on the Main Relay Station. How could that possibly be factored into our plans?"
"We will reconsider everything we have before us, Sycamore. What we have to do now is take care of our people," Prime said. He slowed to glanced at the tense mech beside him. "What will be the status of supplying energon to those who live this direction? How much disruption has this caused us?"
"It's pretty big," Sycamore said. "We can supply energon to the cities, Crater Districts 4,5,7 and 8 are affected, by rerouting the big unaffected mains this way for half the orn. The other half can run its normal routine. It means everyone gets half of what they're used to. But we think we can get this pipeline replaced and in production in three orns."
Prime stopped to consider that, then glanced in the distance were the habitats, the Metro Districts and Autobot City itself was. "Who in the main template is affected by this?"
Sycamore did the mental math. "The titans are fine, all of them. They have dedicated pipelines that are administrated by stations at Industrial Park City #10 to prevent things like this. The habitats are on that line. The City itself is the original system and is moderated in the substation beneath Fort Max and Metroplex. It was a complete rebuild and redesign from that disaster. All of these have a direct massive line running directly to us across the plain to branch into these diversified mains.
"Our Master Station took the hit. Its the tracking station and router for energon all over the colony. We have a backup system at the Energon Administration Building on the Metroplex Highway just before it turns into Industrial Park City Highway. Its in the lowest sub basement for just such happenings. We're online with every place now but the four Crater Districts. We're working to do the half and half supply reroute until this pipeline is functional."
"That is relieving to know," Optimus said.
"No one could have predicted this. Frankly, Lord Optimus, there's no way to protect the pipeline unless its buried deeper and even then having a cruiser fall on it wouldn't have changed the outcome. We can do the replacement station as an underground installation which if reinforced enough should protect it against most anything," Sycamore concluded.
"I would like that a lot," Optimus said as Prowl took furious notes.
"We can gather up the need, meet with Jetta, Magnus along with the guilds, unions and cooperatives. We can get the highest needs done first, then hit everything else in descending order." Prowl turned to Prime. "They've pulled the last fighter out of a tower and they're working to repair them. We should be clear of that hold up in about four joors. It'll be livable but the cosmetics will take time to get to. I imagine that families just want to have a home in spite of that."
Prime nodded as he considered his own dilemma. "I can understand that."
Prowl winced then squeezed Prime's servo. "Then we can put a timetable on this construction?"
Sycamore considered that. "It's going to take a lot of digging out. Fortunately, the tunnels are wide so it won't be so hard but this ground is a block of ice. We can start when you decide."
"I do now," Prime replied simply.
They walked on together toward another charred hole in the ground and its exploded debris field as they made their way toward the dark and charred remains of the United Nations Consulate of Mars.
=0=At the cruiser site
Jetta transformed then landed on his peds. Walking to Ironhide and his elders he paused beside them to look at the mess. "Isn't this amazing. I have a lot of work ahead. The towers are being framed in and secured. We can add the detail later.
"The metrotitans have transformed back as best they could to avoid damage to their resident's apartments. There's going to be a lot of shaken up interiors but hopefully nothing that can't be straightened out. They always try to be as good as they can when they do this." He turned toward the elders who were listening with solemn expressions. "N.E.S.T. is a shit show upstairs. The Hangar District is a mess. The big hangars were missed somehow. I'm glad because they're so slagging tall.
"Sparkling Day is closed until further notice. We want to ensure that the structural integrity is sound and the rebuild downstairs is no small thing. The electronics are slammed as well. The Circle is going to contract for a new business three stories high. That entire building is shot to slag," Jetta concluded. "There's more but that's the highlights."
"When can they come up?" Raptor asked.
"Soon," Jetta replied. "Its going to be a controlled release. The entire Metro is shut down pending a complete survey. Some of them are flattened like Sparkling Day's Metro and a couple of others. Some of the tracks and tunnels under the plain here are shot. The overland is shot and so is a lot of the underground commercial train track. You're going to have to truck stuff to armories for a while, Ironhide."
Ironhide nodded. "That's okay. We can get an upgrade to the underground train, right? What about the ones that feed the Courthouse, prisons, hospitals and Ops Center?"
"The Courthouse was hit but not by much. The Dinobots reached them as they were working on the doors. IntraCom is shot and so is The Pit Stop. That place might think of moving," Jetta said with a grin. "The prisons and all that transportation is safe and sound."
"Good," Ironhide said.
"Did anyone get to the prison?" Sun asked.
Earlier during the fighting …
Gee-Gee and Winnie who were armed to the teeth stood side-by-side near the closest gates to an aerial battle nearby. With them were the massive soldiers who worked the prisons as well who would help hold off invaders. The prison's gun batteries were pointing skyward to shoot down anyone who might come on a bombing or strafing run as everyone waited tensely.
It would be a nice wait. No one would get past Aerie Hill and Cyclonus to make the trek to the prison. All of the prisoners who were sitting in highly monitored shelters underground for the most part listened in anticipation that wouldn't pan out.
The only prisoners who weren't underground were a number of highly mental former Decepticons who couldn't be driven there without a lot of damage and danger to their well being. They were allowed to stand in their pens to exhort the Decepticons fighting in the sky over them in a misguided notion that they were here to free them.
It was a weird, weird orn for all.
=0=TBC 11-21-2021
