The Diego Diaries: Tow Jammed (dd8 484)

=0=Out there a bit farther

Then it appeared all at once.

Floating ahead of them in root mode, an infuriated Xantium Supreme appeared with his big, big, big, big gun pointing directly at them. He had bridged ahead, transformed and waited with implacable fury for them to appear.

"Oh frag," Solo said. "EVADE!"

Three ships broke apart and stomped on the gas. At the place where they were flying before bursting apart of their formation, three well placed shots screamed in.

Behind them, Rem evaded two of the three shots but the third hit their starboard side shearing off a gun emplacement. Out the hole with it went a flailing Sunstreaker.

Hercy's ship avoided them all around as they swung back to see what happened to Impactor's Revenge.

Xantium who didn't wait to look at his shots saw the three 'Con vessels evade and fired after one of them taking out their propulsion unit. Fleeing after the other two he was lost from sight right away. The ship he hit was trailing its guts as it rolled and rolled away.

They flew into range of Impactor's Revenge, then jumped out with propulsion packs. Sunstreaker had gotten free of the emplacement and was floundering as he tried to stop spinning. Impactor's Revenge itself was plowing a trail 'downward' spewing interior products and the odd mech.

"Holy frag," Kup said as he stood in the doorway to receive wounded to send them through the bridge to Phobos. "Look at that."

Impactor's Revenge finally slid to a halt with sparking lights and trailing energon. Standing in the hole was a glimpse of an enraged Springer peering out to see what was going on. :HERCY! WE HAVE THREE OUT THERE!:

"We have them and they're good, Springer," Hercy said as he took the intel from the crew towing everyone toward his ship, the City of Helex. "It looks like you're fragged. I called for backup. The cruiser Tag is coming for us. We can chase Xantium before he gets into more trouble."

:THAT FRAGGER! HE DESTROYED MY SHIP!: Springer said over the com line.

"We got more, Springer. Pick one and mark it up. A whole new Impactor's Revenge," Hercy said soothingly, though as a captain he felt Springer's angst.

:NOT LIKE THIS ONE! I *LIKED* THIS ONE!: Springer bitched as nearby a growing light showed a cruiser heading their way. It was a reworked Decepticon vessel and as always, everyone watching it come was glad it was white and bore the Autobot sigil on its sides.

=0=Prowl

"Oh frag," Prowl said with a sigh. He figured things would go south but Springer's favorite shuttle? That wasn't right he thought with a smirk. "Prowl to Springer."

:WHAT!?:

Prowl grinned slightly. "You sound like someone broke your toys."

:FRAG THAT! WHAT DO YOU WANT, PROWLER!?:

"Well, what happened? How many casualties and who can stand for Xee's drumhead?" Prowl asked with more amusement than he'd felt since this misbegotten mission had begun.

:WE HAVE THREE, ALL OF THEM SHAKEN BUT NOT BROKEN! WE LOST MY FRAGGING SHIP! I LIKED THIS FRAGGING SHIP! WE'RE ON TAG AND WE'RE AFTER THAT SLAGGING XANTIUM! TELL OMEGA I EXPECT HIM TO KICK HIS ASS! HE BROKE MY FRAGGING FAVORITE SHIP!: -Springer taking inventory

Prowl coughed into his fist, a totally unnecessary action to cover up a big belly laugh trying to escape. "Very well. Keep me informed. Prowl out." He sat back, then snickered.

The soldiers and civilians watching him glanced at each other. Louis Richardson, billionaire son of a multi-billionaire, not one of the yahoos on the Panama Papers scam, part owner of the consortium that started the push for Earth2 and full blown reactionary maniac shook his head. "That big thing destroyed a very expensive ship. Those shuttles must be worth at least a billion dollars. Right?" he asked Lennox.

Lennox considered that. "I asked Wheeljack once what things cost. He sort of made a list of them tallied by the cost of their parts, not their assembly. A shuttle would cost us about twenty billion dollars Earth currency apiece. A cruiser costs close two hundred billion dollars and a dread? There isn't enough valuable stuff on Earth if you boiled it in a vat and poured it into ingots to buy even a pop gun on them."

Everyone was silent a moment.

"Then Xee shot a twenty billion dollar shuttle to shit?" Owen Harris asked with a slight grin.

"Yep," Lennox said with a smirk of his own.

"Don't worry about it," Niall Graham said as he watched the screen ahead. "They have a whole bunch of them."

"Springer will get another one, kit it out to his tastes and paint the image of Impactor on it again along with the flames and the rest of it. I don't know if its going to be the same though. He sure did like that one," Bobby Epps said with a slight smirk.

Lennox nodded. "He did."

The soldiers and civilians would stare at them with only slight confusion. Ron Witwicky, a bullshitter who knew bullshitting would know better. He would laugh about it later.

=0=At the scene of the 'accident'

They hauled out refugees, carrying them in their arms or on stretchers. Exhausted elderly, babies screaming in the vacuum cries no one could hear, children clinging to metal structures who had to be pried off gently, adults screaming for their family members and some who were just mute from all of the trauma of the journey made their way out of their broken vessels.

Some were in a bad way, victims of flying shrapnel, falling girders and other debris while others were swearing in their fear delirium about vengeance and paybacks. Stretchers moved them out to runabouts while doctors like Ratchet's trauma teams worked the site. Ratchet would be there but he was easing Beta Supreme though the bridge while attending to the site on monitors.

It was a screaming mess and it would take longer than anyone liked to reach all of the ships. Even the two next to the one that just exploded.

=0=Bridge

Beta hung in the beams of two of the biggest ships short of titans in the armada. They followed Ratchet's vessel as he guided them to the vortex, then through it.

Standing on the ground on the other side, hundreds of transport workers, a couple thousand emergency workers and two sky crane crews watched as a tiny runabout flew through, then headed for the ground.

Just edging through the energy field behind it, the nose section of a tow vessel could be seen. Slowly, carefully, the big ship made its way past its flight deck, then midships before the first sign of Beta could be seen. Caught in a web of lime green beams, the silent ship was held fast.

On the ground watching with stricken expressions, Kappa, Zeta and Gamma Supreme waited with the desire to help if needed. As they did several hundred Seekers lifted off to fly beside the tow trucks to help if something failed. If one applied enough Seekers to a situation like this, their force exerted could slow the fall of even a Supreme mechanism. They couldn't stop it but they could arrest a slip until the beams reattached if it happened.

Jacx was on the ground reporting. "We're just seeing the forward decks of Beta Supreme, Lim-Lee, as the tow ships, Mercy and Hard Top bring him through in transport beams. They have, I'm told, 17 beams on him at strategic places to hold him fast. These ships are capable of lifting such weight and maneuvering it through difficult spaces. However, they aren't going to be the vessels that move Beta into the Medical Center Hangar where he can be attended to.

"What they plan to do is a novel switch up. The skycranes can't tow him here without compromising the next step. The idea is to get Beta upright so he can be eased into the hangar where he'll be placed in a cradle that will hold him so he can be attended to. What that means simply is Beta will be switched to the skycranes from the tow vessels so they can hold him upright to get to the cradle. If they let him down on the ground to do this it would cause further damage to his already compromised frame, Lim-Lee."

Lim-Lee in the studio with a number of panelists and experts as well as the crew at the MCA Center in Brussels which still held the rotation of broadcast considered that. "That's very dangerous, Jacx. Right? They could drop him or he could be injured in a slip."

"That's right, Lim-Lee. The operators of the skycranes have done this before but not with such a big mechanism. They're going to go to 3,000 feet to make this switch. The tow vessels will do a timed and controlled release to allow the cranes to fasten their beams on Beta. Its going to be very very slow to make sure he's safe, Lim-Lee," Jacx said.

"Why not allow the tow trucks again? They can't set him upright? Is that it, Jacx?" Lim-Lee asked.

"That's right, Lim-Lee. The crane operators are the only ones with the skill to do this. Its all very fraught indeed, Lim-Lee."

Beta made his way through followed by the other two vessels as they slowly eased toward the open desert between the big frame runway and the prison fifty Cybertronian miles away. Then they began to ascend, slowing pulling Beta upward until he was level at 3,000 feet.

It was then that the skycranes slowly made their way toward him.

Watching on the ground with his special optics, Ratchet glanced at Inferno. "I have to be up there," he said. Then he ran for the Commercial District Bridge Hangar nearby and a short hop upward to the flight deck of Beta. He would be the only one aboard.

=0=Prime about a half a breem before

He watched another set of ships rise upward, then head off across the migration to Flare who was a medical titan for the rescue. This ship was totaled. He watched the mechs seal the doors, burn a big X on top of its hull, then fly to their shuttle to move to the next one two battered ships over.

"Prime to Prowl."

:Prowl here:

"What is the situation overall?"

:Beta is arriving on Mars and skycranes are going to take him into the hangar after transfer from the tow ships. Ratchet will facilitate that then return to the migration after the medical team gets going. Xantium shot at the three 'Con vessels and took out Impactor's Revenge. No one got hurt but they're fuming: Prowl said. :The missus is very unhappy about his ship: he said off line.

Prime considered Xantium on a rampage from earlier times. :We have more:

:That's what I mentioned. He wasn't mollified. Hercy and everyone are after Xi and the 'Cons on the cruiser Tag. Medical at Gliese and Mars are receiving the most wounded from the rampage. We're holding our own," Prowl said. "I asked Tennyson to make himself available to catch Beta if they drop him. That much is covered: Prowl replied.

:That is good to know. This is a disaster. They slammed through ships like a snow plow. Its going to be terrible for a bit longer. I think I have to do something about the rest of the 'Cons. We have a lot of them, Prowl: Prime said grimly.

"I can come," Prowl said. "I've alerted Metroplex about it. He's organizing posses." Prowl glanced at the data pad as a message light flashed. Metroplex had affirmed and had three coming. "Three teams are coming with Metroplex. They can do a lot of good."

:Understood. Keep me informed: Prime said as he commed off. That was when a ship nearby exploded next to two transports filled with refugees.

=0=In a gerbil cage

"More titans are coming?" a soldier from Australia asked.

Lennox nodded. "The big frames are coming. Sucks to be a Decepticon right now."

Niall and Bobby nodded. So did Ron Witwicky.

It would be.

=0=TBC 7-24-2022 8-12-2022

ESL

drumhead: a court-martial in the field during a combat campaign where the drummer boy's drum was used as a desk by the judge. Yes, they took 8-13 year olds into battle to be drummer boys. War is fucked.