The Diego Diaries: Slush (dd8 495)

=0=Floating amongst the debris

Optimus floated toward mechs who were flailing nearby, mechs who had no legs to propel themselves away. Where they would go if they could was unclear but they were trying to get there with fury. He marveled once again that their species was able to mute their pain in such a condition. That space had frozen the energon leakage points was also to their favor.

He gripped the mech closest, then reached for another. Holding them at arms length, flying toward Lissie's shuttle, he dropped them off and went out for more. Those two were cuffed and sent by Breakdown into the bridge for the hospital at the prison.

Flying back out, he continued to gather up more.

=0=At a med bay on Camber

Drift sat on a berth 'listening' to the medic telling him what he had to do now that he was deaf as a post. A blast too close to his audials had caught him as he flew through the hole it made in the hull of the shuttle. He and Springer had been blown into a refugee ship, then rebounded back missing the explosion of their shuttle by inches. That they were pockmarked by flying shrapnel didn't help either.

Springer was getting a few spots fixed that had been hit harder by flying shrapnel than Drift. Altogether, minus the deafness they were alright. "Hey."

Drift stared at him, then tapped his audials. "I can't hear you."

"What the frag?" He glanced at the tech working on Drift's audials. "What's the story?"

"He's blown out his audials. He needs them replaced. Until then if you want to talk it has to be off line. We can do this now with an orn downtime or what?"

Drift who was linked in with Springer stepped down from the berth. "We don't have time. We have to be out there now."

"Is he ok to do that?" Springer asked as he stood himself.

The tech pulled plugs. "Sure, technically. Just be careful. You have no idea what can happen when you can't hear."

"We do," Drift said as Springer nodded. He was hearing the conversation through Springer.

"Then be careful and make sure you look around. Going out there to fight is ridiculous. I think I'm going to get a doctor to prove you fit. Stay here," he said as he walked to the door and stepped out.

:Great: Drift said. He glanced at Springer. :I can fight:

:Not if you can't hear. I've done that before and its fragged: Springer replied.

A doctor walked in with a handheld with Drift's data. "I don't certify you to go out there. You can do other things but direct contact in this with the possibility of trouble? Nope."

They stared at each other, the two, then Drift shrugged.

Springer turned to the doctor. "If we uh …"

"I already alerted Prowl. He wants you to report there now," the doctor replied. "I won't have a death that can be prevented on my spark." With that, he walked out.

They watched him go, glanced at each other, then walked out themselves.

=0=Ratchet

:Well, that's fragged: Ratchet said. :Where are they?:

:Headed here: Prowl replied.

:Alright. On my way: Ratchet said. He glanced at the doctors doing great work all around him. "I have to go. Be back when I can. Chancy, you take the lead here."

Chancy nodded. "Sure thing, Ratchet."

With that, Ratchet walked out, caught a Seeker and arrived on Camber before the boys did.

=0=At Home

They walked into the shop and paused to look around. It was amazing to both of them the beauty that filled the showcases around the big showroom. Swords gleaming in spotlights as they hung suspended full length. Their glorious scabbards with their inlaid silver, copper and/or gold filigree, glyphs and/or decorative effects glistened as well.

Cases held knives, remarkable tools and other devices that were prized from one end of the empire to the other by those who understood both the devices and their quality as well as the craftsmanship that went into their creation. The idea that most of them were sentient fully or waiting for the bonding to become so made the atmosphere textured with a subtlety that was hard to explain.

"This is so beautiful," Mystic said as he placed his servo palm out near a sword. "I have thoughts that they were but this is so much more than I remember." He turned to Ravel and Tie. "They're waiting for their partner. They have great patience and the aura of Solus Prime clings to them."

"She is our patron," Ravel said as he bowed his helm respectfully. "See Her forges?"

All around the room sitting on shelves were small models of the huge forge that was Her signature attribute. They were always collected by Ravel or made by him as tokens and keepsakes in their old shop and home. They were here also.

"She blesses this place. She admires other craftsmen," Mystic said.

They took a tour, then sat down in the lounge with Ratchet, Corr and Chan. Docker had detoured to the Delegate Assembly for a committee meeting and the others sat here to wait for her before school.

"This is such a nice place. How did you get this shop?" Budge asked.

"Ratchet got it. He has connections," Ravel said. He was still hooked into the system that ran on Cybertron. It still didn't compute that they were given this shop because they asked, because they were artisans of repute and because this was the new world with opportunity for those who were in business or wanted to start one.

"I see," Budge replied.

"When you and I get working, maybe we can have a small place of our own," Ratchet said. "Your ideas are golden, Budge. Maybe we can have a space for Mystie to do his readings. What do you think, Mystie?"

Mystic glanced at Budge, then Ratchet. "I would like that. I haven't done formal readings in so long. Would they allow that?"

"They love your clan here," Corr said. "The Seers are still consulted. Prime has several times."

"Onyx is on Cybertron," Chan said.

Mystic looked surprised. "Onyx? I would love to see him."

"They're regrouping. We can figure it out. Ratchet knows what to do," Corr replied. He grinned at Tell who was stretching in his recharge. "Ratchet knows everything you can ask about."

"That would be good, Corr. I think I'd like to do that," Mystic said as he took the baby held out by Corr. "What a lovely baby. Too bad Drift had an accident and lost his audials."

Everyone startled.

"Don't be upset. Its an easy enough fix," Mystic said.

=0=Command deck of Camber

"He's not going out. You can go. You need to go. He can stay," Prowl said.

Springer frowned at Prowl. "You're enjoying this."

Prowl who was sitting with his arms folded over his chassis stared calmly at Springer. "No. Yes."

Drift snorted as he listened through Springer. "What would I do here?"

"Things," Prowl said.

"Frag that," Springer said doubling down.

Seconds later…

They stood by the elevator getting things straight. Then Springer left to go back to the raucous mess outside. Drift turned to the command table, then walked up to sit in the front of the ship with the remaining titans, the humans and two of the many Elites taking a break, Cartouche and Delta of Praxus. It would be entertaining anyway as he waited for an assignment that would never come.

Ratchet on the other hand would scan the frag out of him, note a couple of cracks in his shin plating, 'shin splints', then put him on a hold for duty until he could scan him on the big scanners at the Med Center for more. Concussion blasts were a bitch.

:Springer:

:WHAT!?:

:Now don't do your old ma that way:

:What, Ada?:

:Drift has micro cracks in his shins and probably other places. I'm sure you do as well. Don't lift anything heavy. I don't want stress added until you go through the big full body scanners at the Med Center:

:Got it. Ciao:

There was a lot of shouting as Springer held up a girder that had fallen on several 'Cons when someone threw a grenade and a Wrecker had thrown it back.

KA-BOOM!

That they were digging the slaggers out didn't do much for his chagrin. Drift wasn't here so automatically it wasn't fun. That he was deaf like their boy was back in the orn made it doubly so. He'd been deaf before himself, once for a prolonged time before medical attention could be had. He didn't care for it. It made fighting dangerous. It was then that he felt if not heard the sound of metal cracking. "Oh frag," he said softly.

=0=Moments later

He sat on the med berth in the hospital emergency center of Camber. He barely made it in with the cracks that had formulated on his interior struts and shin plating. The shot that threw them out of the shuttle came in low and accounted for the location of their injuries.

Drift stood next to the berth alternating between staring at Springer, then the data board which spun with slag he couldn't read. A doctor was finishing up when Ratchet walked in to stare at both with amusement.

"I see you did what I told you to do," Ratchet said as he bent down to check what took his specialist optics to see. "Nice. This all goes. By the time you get ready to retire the only thing stock on you will be your debris cap."

HUGE laughter greeted that.

"You're a barrel of laughs," Springer replied. "This slag hurts."

Ratchet glanced at Drift, then signed.

Drift nodded.

Ratchet WIFI-d a script to them and both relaxed. "So you're off duty for now. You need to go home and wait for me to come and do the work. I'll try to get off at midnight. Amma Corr has the baby just so you know. Given its noon on Mars you might be able to get him for the five joors I'm going to be here. Any questions?" he asked as he leaned into their personal space pointedly.

"No." -Both, leaning back

"Good. My work here is finished," Ratchet said as he walked out.

They watched him go, glanced at each other, then vented soft sighs.

"Frag."

Drift nodded. :Frag:

=0=Around the migration

Ships were being sorted and moved into groups that were cleared to go, needed assistance to go or were problematic in whatever way made the problem. It would clear more of them this way, getting those who were ready to go out of the way quicker.

The rest would have to wait a bit longer before heading through the bridges toward a new home and destiny. Putting several million individuals into their colony was work. This one alone was the size of three of their bigger migrations in the past.

It was then that the faint echoes of the second could be detected on their sensor grid. It was a biggie, too.

=0=Home

They sat in the work room lounge talking with the elders as they held the baby. He was delighted to see them and babbled sweetly as Springer held him.

It was weird for Drift to find their circumstances switched. When his old ma got through with him in about four and a half joors he'd be fixed and ready to go back with Springer. He would also take a new appreciation for his son's predicament with him.

=0=TBC 8-8-2022

ESL

ciao: (chow) Italian version of see ya.

Stock: if something has all its own original parts and isn't embellished or added to, then its 'stock' or original. Cars are often called stock when they're that way.