The Diego Diaries: Pow-Pow! (dd8 21)

=0=On the ground at Polity's HQ

The door exploded outward and the debris flew. So did mechs making their way out of the building as fast as they could. Standing in front of the door, Ratchet who had joined them, Springer and Drift saw the mob come, then run up their faces before hitting the next line of mechs who were waiting behind them. Down all three went as Ironhide let out a bellow watching from the runabout nearby. Everyone there began to converge on the pile up.

Down on the ground, Springer was laying flat on his back fending ineffectually with his trampled servos the heavy and pounding ped falls of the mob overhead. His face was getting a beating as was all the rest of him as Drift who had bounced off to the ground nearby tried to rise to save him.

Ratchet who was on his face felt mechs climbing over him, stepping on him, beating him with their fists when they fell trying to swing on the Autobot that was pummeling him (and Ratchet accidentally from time to time). He could barely move. He felt things crumbling inside that almost made him want to laugh out loud.

Which he did.

"BWAAHAHAHAHAAAA! WHO STOLE MY BANANAS!?"

Springer who didn't have a personal fruit issue at the moment felt rather than saw Drift fling himself over his body to cover him. He stared at the worried expression on Drift's face when he could actually rise up enough to glance at him before a fist or ped made that precarious. He felt rather than heard the birdies sing even as his servos hung by a thread from a Man Mountain Dean spinning out onto them as he rose to his peds to fight.

That was when Prime unsubbed his big big gun and put two into the air.

Everyone froze, then with guns pulled from every Autobot bodily orifice possible and some that were new to the younger mechs there pointing at them almost at once, everyone relaxed slightly in the gleam of Autobot artillery.

It was silent almost instantly.

"Wow."

Everyone glanced at a young Home Guard kid who stepped behind Hercy and Kup at the attention.

Hercy grinned. "Someone better get Ratchet a banana."

Ratchet had sat up and was staring at his servos. He smiled upward then bobbled, 'assisting' others to help him up. His legs didn't work and he Pinocchio'ed a bit but was soon laying back on a stretcher. Being carried next to him was a slightly addled Springer trailing pieces of his right and left servo, some of which fell to the ground making the mechs watching peds curl.

And not in a good way.

Drift who had owies of his own was carried along as well.

Slaggers, three. Autobots, cold fury and a goose egg (on Drift's face).

Prime turned to the mechs who'd been allowed to stand. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked, oddly sounding like a soap opera diva.

"Autobots came in with guns. You never said anything about that," someone huge and bearing a larger bundle of gall where his tact should have been shrugged as he answered.

"This place is mine. Prowl, get them out of here," Prime said. He glanced down and saw something sparkling on the ground. He bent down to pick it up, saw what it was as he stood and in a moment of arachnophobia-like revulsion startled enough that it flipped out of his servo.

Hercy picked it up and then the others, turning to Prime with a grin. "I'll see that Springer gets these back," as he subbed smashed digits with green paint.

Prime shook his helm, then walked toward the blasted door to go inside.

A number of the grinning officers followed as Hercy walked back to Kup and the mechs including a number of worthy Home Guardsmen and the odd unique kids like Lon and Bezel. They were officially 'Home Guard-Regular Army assigned' and Watchmen. They were two of only a handful of youngsters who the mechs felt could go on missions like this. "I think Springer dropped a few of his digits on the ground over there. I'll make sure he gets these back," he said as he unsubbed them and held them out to Lon who took them automatically.

Lon looked at his servo with Bezel by his side, then frowned deeply. "EWWWWWWW!"

Lon "Ewwwww! of Capital City would never live it down.

=0=Med Bay on board Tennyson

They were put on medical tables where they were swarmed by doctors, nurses, specialists, techs, medical students coming for experience, a couple of tech kids from the galley who were getting orders from the teams on the floor …

"BANANAS! WHO TOOK MY BANANAS!?"

They would be included in the order, too.

Everyone gathered around to watch the show.

Drift sat up painfully on his berth and was pressed right back down. "Springer-"

"I'm on him, Drift," a doctor said.

"I'll help," Partition said as he joined. He was here to do his Home Guard medic duty. "I got this, Drift."

Drift watched him move close to assist Springer, then felt the grin on his face jerk from a pain in his cheek. He lay back down, then turned his helm to face where Springer was groaning and whose body was being moved here and there manually to check things. He turned his helm once more to see Ratchet who was on the other side of his berth.

Doctors were working on him and he was highly plugged in. He was laughing, babbling unintelligibly, then glanced his way. "Did you take my bananas?" Ratchet asked with a giant smile.

"No, Ada. Are you nuts?" Drift asked with a smirk and an elevated sense of concern.

A doctor glanced at him. "You family?"

"Son," Drift replied. Someone was checking his own arms and legs for breaks and who knew what.

"Well, we have a dented processor node that's going to be replaced here. Its not hard but its going to take either seconds or orns for it to sync. Ratchet is going to be hallucinating until it does. This doesn't happen often but its what's wrong here. Someone heavy must have stepped on his helm," the specialist said as Goldwing came back with the interior detailed pictures that were processed in the next room in the imaging suite and its huge machines.

"They did. Several times," Drift said before he had to assist the examination. Conversation was over for a moment.

=0=Inside the Operational Center

"General," Prime said as he turned toward Raptor, "please assess this asset and let me know what you find and if its helpful to staff right away. I would like your opinion how long it will take to turn this into our own operation."

"On it, Optimus," Raptor said as he turned to walk to the communications station. He paused, glancing around. "Where's Ironhide?"

"He's over checking out Ratchet and the boys," Delphi said as he sat down at the main computer station to hack it.

=0=Over there in La-La Land

"What's the frag wrong with him?"

"He has a dent in a processing unit that controls creativity and helps process reality. They got squished together and he's seeing things that aren't there."

"What are you going to do about it, Goldie? Old Mech is crazy enough when he has everything working," Ironhide asked.

Goldwing laughed. "We've already replaced it. Right now, we have to let it sync. It might be minutes or a couple of orns."

"A COUPLE OF ORNS!? WHO'S GOING TO SAVE ME!?" Ironhide asked with a grin. He looked at Ratchet who was looking at his servos as if they were something he'd never seen before.

He glanced at Ironhide. "Oh, hi, Ironhide. Do you like my new things?" he asked as he held up his big old servos.

"Things? What do you see?" Ironhide asked with a sense he didn't want to really know.

"Forks. I have forks for servos. Isn't that great?" Ratchet asked with a big smile.

"Oh frag," Ironhide said softly.

=0=Out there

They began to gather up the mechs, taking them to space by shuttle. It would take a while because this was a big group but their encampment was already underway. They were being taken to the small moon circling the planet to a place where a tent city was already growing out of the ground. It would be an impossible place for them to leave so it was a good temporary prison until they could identify, research and decide on the level of threat and prior warrants/ongoing war crimes they presented. Gee-Gee was the goddess of knowing so she and her teams would figure it out.

All Prime had to do was make sure the slaggers got out of here so that he could bring in his own mechs and femmes. As he stood outside noting the military precision-style fort that sprawled out in all directions in a beautiful way, a soldier was leading a line of what looked like civilians behind him. He paused before Prime. "We have some civvies, Optimus," the mech, an older full time soldier who was a friend of Prime said. "Tell them and Optimus will help you."

A mech who was standing in front of the group stepped closer to Prime. "My name is Jo-Z2. Most call me Joe. My ada is the Empress of Stanix. I was told by a trader going through our space that she'd made it to your camp and we were on our way there when they caught us.

"I know a lot of things about computer systems and sensors … I was an engineer before the war. I had to work for them and it meant that our colony wasn't picked up by anyone because I do the signal. Its really hard to pick up unless you're an Autobot. We have a colony, a lot of Stanix citizens but other groups, too, including Tinkers and some of the smaller clans. We sort of grouped up with others and still more came. We need to get them. Most of our families are there and they'll be scared about how long its taken us to be free and find you, Lord Optimus," he said as he bowed.

Optimus glanced at Prowl who had come out of the Ops Center to stand beside him. "I need this mech to tell us all he knows. We can organize a pick up." Prime turned back to him. "How many individuals are you talking about? Is it very far from here?"

The mech looked at Prime with an anxious expression. "Not that far but its a lot. A lot of colonies of our people are there. All in all … it might be … I think ..." He halted in his anxiety.

"Tell us, infant," Hardie said as he stared at the mech calmly. "How many individuals are we talking about? Ball park figure?"

"About 22,000,000," Joe said.

It would be silent a moment as everyone digested that news.

=0=Med Land

Ratchet sat up as they pulled their plugs from him, processor specialists, their techs and the supervising physician, Goldwing. He smiled at them as he noted their clown noses, big round red ones that he wanted to honk in the worst way. "Happy Mardi Gras."

Goldwing chuckled. "Thanks. How do you feel?"

"I'd feel better if I had legs. How am I suppose to walk anywhere? Maybe I can call a taxi," he asked as he looked at Ironhide. "HEY, YOU! TAKE ME HOME!"

Ironhide frowned. "You think I'm a taxi?"

Ratchet smiled. "HONK! HONK!" Then he laughed loudly.

"You're going to keep him until his marbles are back in order. Right?" Ironhide asked.

Ratchet got down, his knees buckled, then he rose with assistance. He turned to the kid who helped him, then smiled brilliantly. "Thank you, Sentinel. Did I ever tell you I thought you were the cutest thing?"

The kid blinked, glanced at everyone grinning at him, then Ratchet. "Uh, no."

Ratchet laughed loudly, then rested his servos on the kid's shoulders. Leaning in close, he grinned. "And I never will," he said before his knees buckled and he fell onto his ass.

=0=TBC 11-21-2020 12-08-2020

ESL:

ineffectually: (ihn-eee-feck-shul-lee), not every well, not effect to prevent whatever it is.