The Diego Diaries: Cam Shafted (dd8 73)
=0=Diego at a volley match
"You don't have the right to come here and do anything to me, Raptor. This isn't your turf," Frazer said with a smirk. He was leaning against the window frame with his arms crossed, staring at the biggest most reflexively dangerous looking mech seen in these parts for some time. "You don't have any arrest powers here."
"Maybe," Raptor said with a grin. "I do have the power to stand at the space bridge and grab you when you come back. Or maybe I'll just spin the control and punt you back. How about ending up somewhere else in the space-time continuum? I don't need paperwork to do that."
Frazer stared at Raptor as he absorbed that possibility. He'd never been afraid of bridges, he liked using them for all the obvious reasons and because they were amazing, even magical tech. But at this moment he wouldn't put it past the big pile of bolts to do just that. "I can believe you'd do anything. Its not like you have a soul or something. I couldn't depend upon you having actual feelings or empathy."
The crowd watching was silent. You could even hear sea birds nearby calling. The bots across the way could hear him just fine and some of the younger ones were simmering but held in check by their elders. It only took a glance from one for them to fall into line. The elders who'd heard worse from better individuals in their long lives were watching with amusement and for the intel value of the moment. No one believed among them that this man was speaking without Owen Harris's permission.
"Empathy. Feelings. You have those do you?" Raptor asked conversationally.
"More than you can imagine," Frazer replied.
"The man you work for, Owen Harris. He's worth a few billion isn't he."
"So?" Frazer asked, caught off guard by the question.
"How much does he pay in taxes? He uses all the features of his society but he pays nothing in taxes, nor do his businesses. I know. I just checked being a computer and all," Raptor replied.
"What has that got to do with feelings and empathy? Seriously. Stay on track," Frazer replied.
"Your family has money as well, lots of it. Your family as well as Harris's channel your fortunes off shore to tax havens to avoid paying taxes in the countries in which you live. You use the structures in place in your societies … fire, schools, police but you pay nothing for their upkeep. Why is that?" Raptor asked.
Turbine who was standing nearby grinned at him. :I see where you're going with this:
:You recognize my genius do you?: Raptor asked as he glanced at Turbine, then back to the human.
:I wouldn't go that far: Turbine replied with a smirk.
Raptor grinned, then stepped closer. "You and yours, Harris as well are leaches on society. You take and take and take but give back nothing. Your sense of entitlement is staggering but your worth to others is zero because you don't make, do or create anything. You didn't get rich by your own efforts. You gamed the system. You cheated everywhere you could."
"Its not cheating when its the law," Frazer said with growing offense. "We use the laws."
"It is when you bribe those who make the laws to ensure that you benefit while everyone else pays. Look at these people here, these the salt of the Earth as your people say," Raptor said with a sweep of his arm. "There's civilian contractors here. They usually do pretty good. But most of these people are soldiers, military, naval and army, air force. They don't get paid scrap. Some of these younger ones, the lower ranks get paid $1681.00 a month. They get paid that to go to your slagging oil and corporate wars and risk their lives. Did you know a bunch of them have to get food stamps and other assistance to get by? Did you know that?"
Frazer stared at Raptor with disgust. "So what? What has that got to do with this?"
The sense of coldness that remark enlisted, the deep offense that spread through the crowd of observers was exactly what Raptor expected. He grinned faintly. "It has everything to do with our conversation. You're a hand waiting to be filled. They're the worker bees who get nothing but the smallest scraps for their labor while you get everything. You provide nothing. All those employed by your companies can walk away today and you're done for. You have nothing. You don't make anything. You don't even think things up. You have engineers to take your scribbles and make something out of them. You take the credit from others smarter and better than you, yourselves and think you're fragging Einstein.
"I came from wealth. My family had wealth that you fraggers can't imagine. We spent it to help our people but none of you do. You pile it up in places that can't be accessed. You pay no taxes but you expect to be catered to first. You gin the system to get massive tax cuts for what? Where's the rule, law or simple logic that says give more money to the richest people in the world? Why? You expect everything first without giving back one fragging cent or one moment of inconvenience.
"You buy the system, you rig the system, then you put the blame for the inevitable societal crash on the least powerful people in your society. I know something about rich fraggers blaming the poor for the system that they rigged. It happened to us and you know what that led to.
"You talk about a soul and empathy. Yet this is the life you lead, a life of privilege at the expense of everyone else. Children starve and you don't care. You've created a desolation deliberately and you tell me I don't have a soul. You insulted everyone standing here with your remarks. You think its enough to say you honor the troops. You put up your little flags and you give a lot of lip service. You say a lot of flowery bullshit about them but you send them to your corporate wars and you don't fix them when they come back broken. Did you know that at least 20 veterans die from suicide in your country EVERY SINGLE DAY!"
It was silent, then a voice called out. "HEY! BASTARD! DID YOU KNOW THAT!?"
Raptor glanced at the crowd who had turned ugly in temper, then Frazer. "You say I don't have a soul or empathy. I paid my full taxes even though the system was rigged on Cybertron as well. I was called a dumb ass for doing it. We all were. I did it because I used the services of my society and because I GAVE A DAMN ABOUT OUR PEOPLE! I didn't have to do it but I did. WE ALL DID! Why don't you? Why don't you love your own PEOPLE!?"
Frazer stared at Raptor with a cold expression. He could sense the crowd's animosity and he knew he was probably alone in this moment. He glanced at the crowd, then Raptor. "So. You had money did you? Why should I believe you were some big time philanthropist."
"Because he was," Delphi said with a smirk. "I made sure of it. Its called giving back. It helps if your parents care enough to teach you the finer things but apparently they were remiss in that area of your education."
Frazer glanced at Delphi who was standing next to an amused Ratchet and a deeply unamused Blackjack. "So now you're going to tell me about parenting? You, tin can, are going to tell me about kids and all that stuff?"
The crowd shifted uneasily. The kids of the bots were part of Diego. One was even born here.
"Given that you're an entitled little fragger without a lick of sense, yes," Delphi replied.
"How about we peel the roof off and grab him by his chicken neck?" Blackjack suggested with deep offense for his amma.
Ironhide who was smoldering stepped closer to his amma. It'd be nip or tuck whether he would do just that thing if Frazer insulted Delphi. "I'll help you. I have some experience with such things."
"You ripped up a building here already," Frazer said as he stared at Ironhide. "You were out of your fucking mind and nearly killed a lot of innocent people."
"Innocent. Did he say innocent? I do believe they nearly all ended up in prison for treason. I guess treason is okay if you have enough money," Ratchet said with more of an edge than he wanted.
"Fuck you, Ratchet," Frazer said. "You think you're going to win this. You think you can out think Owen? He's two steps ahead of you. All of you."
Raptor laughed in spite of himself as Sun and Jack walked up to join him. "Excuse my mirth. I do so love a good joke."
"You're not getting him out of there, nephew. Let Jack and me do it," Sun said with a smirk.
"You can't. You don't have any legal rights here," Frazer said. "Tin can. Tin pot. My mom's washing machine has more grace and style than you."
Sun grinned as he stared at the oddball in the window. He could detect no heat in his aura. This human had no fear. He was either crazy or so self assured that his actions were okay he wasn't worried about anything. Half a dozen of the biggest baddest warrior mechs of Mars were standing here and he wasn't afraid. "Meat sack. Pile of slime. I can do this all day, too, but I have a card game coming up and I don't have a lot of time to waste." He glanced at the others. "How about each of you take a corner of the building and we lift the roof off. Then you can grab him, Raptor."
"What if it caves in?" Delphi asked as he stepped close to the corner nearest him. "What if the fragger inside dies? Won't that create an interplanetary incident and cause strife and perhaps a sundering of our mutual treaties and agreements?"
Sun considered that, then shrugged his shoulders. "Who cares?" he said. "I HAVE A CARD GAME WAITING!"
Huge amusement from the crowd greeted that as Frazer watched the scene without moving. "You won't lift the roof off. You won't create a diplomatic incident. You won't give your legions of enemies a reason to come at you by doing that."
Sun glanced at Ratchet. "You're the diplomat. Right?"
Ratchet smiled brilliantly. "That's me."
Huge laughter greeted that remark. The crowd was really starting to get into the moment.
Semper fi, motherfuckers.
"Is there anyone else here who's a diplomat?" Sun asked.
Everyone in the group glanced at each other silently, then looked at him. "No." -everyone in the group
"So … tell me how I have to worry about that again?" Sun replied.
"You still won't do it," Frazer replied. "You have no legal standing."
"Tell them why we call you Sun, Sun," Jack said as he watched his brother flounder a bit.
"Do you think I should? Its sort of grisly," Sun replied.
"You're too modest?" Jack asked.
"It's my nature," Sun replied with a big smile.
The laughter that engendered was loud and long. The entire crowd were Sun stans for life at this point.
Jack smirked at Sun, then glanced at Frazer. "The last poor dumb slagger who tried to push my brother into a corner lost their star."
It was silent a moment, then someone on the ground looked upward. "What?" they asked with a bit of fear laced awe.
"It was a misunderstanding," Sun said as he looked down at a middle aged civilian contract worker from the Netherlands.
"HA! I was there. Remember?" Jack glanced at Frazer. "It's not a good idea to push Sun into a corner. He doesn't like it." Then he grinned slightly. "He's also a bit of a psycho."
Sun turned to his brother. "You aren't supposed to say that in public. How many times do I have to remind you, Jack?"
Ironhide who was subconsciously protecting his amma by standing next to Delphi watched his great uncles with something akin to god worship. So did nearly everyone else in the crowd.
"Sorry, Sun," Jack said as his servo shot out, grabbed Frazer in a protected encirclement of his fingers, then pulled him out of the building. The window frame and the upper panes of glass shattered but Frazer wasn't harmed at all. He held Frazer up, then grinned. "Hi, Cameron. You shoulda gone quietly."
=0=TBC 01-23-2021