The Diego Diaries: Visitin' (dd8 164)
NOTE: BWAHAHAHA! I put some notations at the bottom of part 163 that were add-ins, little bits that I use to make the bigger picture fuller. I took them out by re-posting it but that's what they were. When they come as I'm writing, I put them on the next part's page as a reminder.
:D:D HUGGLES!
=0=Around
Springer and Drift sat on a couch in the command room. Springer was dozing under the spell of his medications and the trouncing he'd taken. A tight black glove that ended at his elbow assembly held his new servo in check, tight enough to stimulate his protoform. It was only sore when he moved the digits so he lay it on the arm of his side of the couch as he slumbered.
Drift sat with Tell on his chassis, the baby covered in a blanket as he lay on another one and fell asleep to the heat Drift was aggregating there. He'd just finished his bottle and was sleepy when he was settled on his old dad's shapely chassis. Drift who'd been slagged himself felt the drowse coming on as well.
Sitting nearby at the command table, Alor and Hard Drive were mapping out the area with the new intel. Glancing at the pair, Alor grinned. "Tough guys."
Hardie glanced at them, then sat back with a look of pleasure on his face. "The toughest guy there is that baby. They have no idea what it's going to mean to have him grow up and become anyone but Raptor."
Alor snickered. "Raptor is the greatest mech. He always makes thing better when he arrives."
Hardie nodded. "He does. That's why he's my best friend besides Delphi. He may be a wild aft but he's the son I always dreamed of having. Blackjack couldn't have been a better mech if he tried because of it. Then the infant …" Hardie trailed off as the image of Ironhide as a toddler flooded his mind. "That infant is a wonder of this and every other world."
"We did good, all of us," Alor said in agreement.
"I won't argue, though stealing my car," Hardie said as the runner brought them breakfast.
Alor laughed. "I hear you. Ironhide stole a pedi-bike once. He said he 'borrowed' it but he sort of neglected to tell us that he saw it in the neighbor's yard and didn't ask to ride it. It was amusing but Raptor is still the biggest felon in the family."
Hardie grinned as the 'felon' walked in with Turbine.
Raptor paused beside the table. "My audials were ringing. I can only guess you were commenting on my handsome face and fine figure."
Hardie laughed. "Bingo," he said as the two sat down and helped them eat.
=0=Temple of Primus Restored, Temple District, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire, Postal District 2-A
They came in, tiny mechs and femmes with their little school bags on their backs and smiles firmly in place. They danced in, some dropped off and others riding a bus that passed the Temple. Behind them carrying his daughter, Ironhide followed. The little kids were hilarious as some of them stopped to ask Ironhide 'what's your name? Mine is Bo. I'm this many' in their tiny voices as they struggled to show their age in digits.
When he got to the door Sela was waiting.
She grinned at him. "Here you are. Nice going, Ironhide."
Ironhide smirked at her. "I thought you were a priest and cared for the broken sparked."
Sela grinned as she took Halo. "I do. Now go. Fast."
Ironhide squeezed Halo's tiny white ped gently, then walked out of sight. Slipping over by the wall out of their line of vision, he dialed in his audials.
"School is starting, Halo. Where would we be without you?" Sela asked as the little solemn faced femme-let in her arms stared at her.
"My atar. He goed?" she asked in a tiny voice.
"He did but he's coming back to get you when school is out," Sela said. "Come on. Let's go eat our little school breakfast with all our friends." She then walked through the door and let it close behind her.
Ironhide heard it close, then walked toward the huge doors across the Temple's main floor. He would parse her tiny reply, trying to see if she was getting better at this but would find it all inconclusive.
=0=Earth2
The newspapers were downloaded overnight to the datapads of those who were subscribed. Given that the now 127 newspapers, broadsheets, magazines and flippy-style news applications that were read by everyone on world including humans could be had by anyone who wanted them, most did. A big past time was reading the local news from all the cities and the 'national' and 'interplanetary' news from the colony at the federal level and Cybertron with the local group. It was incredibly interesting, educational and various. It was also funny both intentionally and not because the bots were tremendously amusing company overall.
'STANDOFF IN CITY 4!' was the standard headline or a variant of it on most covers. Apparently the bots could be as lurid as humans in their sensationalism and design. Most of the articles presented what was known but were advising as well the changes that everyone needed to keep safe and avoid the area. The letters to the editor were ablaze with all manner of opinion.
Autobot City Daily News, the biggest circulating newspaper was famous for its several pages of letters to the editor where all manner of commentary could be found. An example in today's section ...
Dear sirs,
I know that the standoff in the Esco Tower in City 4 is more of that caste crap that doesn't seem to have an expiration date. When I came here the population was about 100,000. It was the biggest city complex I ever lived in before that because I lived on a colony world that was smaller. Now we're 250,000,000 and growing, yet newcomers think they can come here and impose their dumbness on the rest of us.
I heard that the Prime was considering a Convocation of the Will. I hope he does. I would love to see the vote count regarding this issue because you'd need a microscope to read the number of those who want to go BACKWARDS to a past that nearly destroyed us.
But the for Army and Prime we'd all be living wherever we were and Cybertron would be a catastrophe instead of rising up again.
Take your caste slag and put it where the sun don't shine. We're done with it.
Thanks,
Sterling of Promontory Point
The letters were a good barometer of the local opinion and no one in any of the newspapers were for any changes that might have the slightest stench of the past. What the only privately circulated former high caste newsletter thought about things, High Times, was unknown. You had to be a friend of someone who had connections to the debris chute of Nova Prime to get a look at it, it was such an underground publication.
Owen Harris read about fifty newspapers every morning and the others took their share so that the range was covered. Most of the habitats did that, some of them reading those that pertained to their hobbies, local area or point of view. Carly read about 40 and Sam read them all, learning to skim them for what he needed to know.
He sat back to sip his coffee and considered where this standoff could go. The letter about a Convocation of the Will sounded interesting. He would ask Fenix about it when they had their meeting later about supplies and other features of life on Mars. It was ever growing to him that Optimus Prime was the most powerful individual he'd ever encountered. No one ever, not on Earth or here had the range of power that he had. Optimus Prime was indeed the King of Cybertron.
The morning would pass in meetings and visitations, then he and the Squad (something they were called behind their back) that consisted of him, Kyle Davis, James and Jase Daniels as well as Beau Weaver would book it for the city of Terra and a meet up in the Colonial Administration Annex that was there. It was the hub of decisions and the workings of Ultra Magnus's colonial and empire administration having been moved from Metroplex to this wide open and beautiful city.
It would be productive, they would nod to Venture as he passed and all would be well after the hoo-haw of the Mall expansion and the economic model being used there now. It was actually doing boffo with a positive reception back on Earth. The companies who had stores there and those coming in didn't really know whether to laugh or cry that things were this good.
The locals knew what they believed and they LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it.
=0=On the scene
They were back after a break to recharge and eat on the run from food trucks parked a few blocks away. Smokey, the twins, Hot Rod and Sandstorm stood at the intersection of Blackstone and 14th. It had a clear view of the Tomsa Tower where about 62 families were forted up. The entire floor of three levels were removed to make sure that no one got hurt accidentally. It was so in the other three Towers where all of those living there most directly affected were removed. There would be a lot of repair of walls made when this was over after the Watch cut through them to help the locals leave safely.
It was cold and the sun was just rising. Hot food had been brought by the local Watch stations as a surprise so they were eating donuts and sipping hot energon. Everything metal around them had a skim of ice on it and the difference in temperature from the sun and shade sides of things was about 60 degrees.
"I wonder how long this is going to go," Sandstorm said.
"You got a date?" Sideswipe asked with a smirk.
"Got two," Sandy replied to huge laughter.
"Appa Hardie said its going to last as long as it takes," Sunstreaker said. "I hope we get this over. My down time is coming and I don't want it fragged up."
"I wonder how Springer is? I heard he got his servo shot off again," Smokey said. "This is what … servo number three?"
"It hurts like a bitch," Hot Rod said as he remembered getting his cut off by the second string Decepticon Justice Division back in the orn.
"Springer needs to learn to duck," Sideswipe said with a smirk.
Just then a news crew from IntraCom pulled up, then climbed out. Jacx walked toward them and helped himself to a donut. "How's it going?"
"Nothing's going on," Sandy said. "Just a standoff."
Jacx nodded. "Someone told me that there were a number of elders and kids in the Tomsa Tower that were going to go to the Monastery. We have a film crew there and we want to be here."
"Get my good side," Sunstreaker said with a smirk. "Both of them."
Huge laughter greeted that, then a call came from Command. Sideswipe listened, then turned to the others. "Appa just told us that about 16 are coming out for now. They're going to the Monastery. Cyclonus is having a bus come to pick them up. We're supposed to pull back to the other side of the street. The bus will pull up here, then when everyone's on board, they'll leave. Cyclonus is having the Gatekeeper do this and he's going to be there to receive them. Appa is coming to see them off. No guns in sight or swords." He glanced at Jacx. "Better get over there to film and try to hide it. This could go either was as it is."
Jacx nodded, then ran across the wide street to the truck where the camera crew was. They began to hustle up a shot with cameras that would be semi hidden by the truck.
It was then that a bus drove up and the familiar and formidable figure of the Gatekeeper stepped out to walk to them. He paused before them, a huge mech with a somber expression and a mind like a steel trap. "We're coming for the sixteen. If you could pull back."
"Who's doing the arms check?" Sunstreaker asked as the others gathered up their stuff. "They could come armed."
"That was negotiated by the General and the Master," he said as Hard Drive drove up, then transformed.
He walked to the group to join them. "Welcome, Gatekeeper. Thank you for your efforts and that of the Master. It brings honor to all of us."
The Gatekeeper bowed slightly at the very pleasing formality of Hard Drive's remarks. He knew his stuff, Our Hard Drive. "It is our honor, General. We are here to serve."
It was then that a number of individuals stepped out of a side door in the tower across the broad open space that surrounded all of the towers in the colony. They had arms filled with children. They paused a moment to stare at the group, noting the soldiers backing off to the other side of the street. When they were away from Hardie and the Gatekeeper, only then did they begin to cross the space toward them.
=0=TBC 5-15-2021
ESL
lurid: (Lure-id) The two major meanings …
very vivid in color, especially so as to create an unpleasantly harsh or unnatural effect.
"lurid food coloring"
(of a description) presented in vividly shocking or sensational terms, especially giving explicit details of crimes or sexual matters.
"the more lurid details of the massacre were too frightening for the children"