The Diego Diaries: Gale Force (dd8 205)
=0=Around the colony
It was busy at the Emergency Response Command Center at Fortress Maximus. In his office working the call lines, Inferno was hard at it. The local jails and the brig were under the command at the moment of Red Alert, his partner and house mate. Gee-Gee would have back up from the Center through the Emergency Response Center of the Military in The Fortress, two separate chains of command. One would shoot you and the other would taze you.
Big dif.
The two had come in when the storm looked like it was quickening and had been hard at it all day and now into the night.
The 'War Room', a huge command center in the second floor center of the great Maximus with stations all around a vast circular space was buzzing. Huge monitors covered all the walls and were filled with images, data, the maps of all transportation, the grid for security, the one for power and the one showing the status of all the towers and housing units in the colony among other things. This was Central Dispatch for all services but for the Watch which had their own center in the Watch Tower in Metrotitan.
One only had to shift the layers of the displayed maps for the colony to see each housing development. All of them, the towers, buildings both commercial, public and habitation and substations for this and that glowed with a soft blue light. If they were malfunctioning, red would be blazing.
Experts worked with great efficiency taking data and formulating plans from it to keep the colony functioning until things lessened outside and the view was less impaired. It was special functions required if you were to go outside in this storm even for the bots.
The Office of the Chief Colonial Meteorologist was busy, its giant maps, satellite down feeds and other wonders of technology were busy helping plot the storm which was caused by a confluence of moist uplift meeting dense cold air. It wasn't predicted given that living on a planet like this full time was a new experience for an army that lived on many places for less time over a period of eons. Now they were tasked with finding a solution.
The whirl would continue as the colony outside lay buried in some places in many feet of silt-fine powdery sand and rock.
=0=Early the next morning
"Get up, 'Jack. We have to cover our afts."
Blackjack glanced upward to see Alor leaning over him.
"Don't make too much noise. We can't have the children awake just yet." Alor stepped back to stand beside a grinning Turbine and Raptor.
"What do you mean 'cover our afts'?" he asked as he rose from the couch.
"Consider this, Einstein. We're supposed to be with Sun and Jack or someone who doesn't live in the building. That includes Hardie and Delphi. If we go back home from here we could get caught. We don't have any storm traces and Ratchet's as feral as it gets. I called The Diner On The Corner. They're open. We're going to go to breakfast there and take the kids. If we don't have the kids corroborate our story by actually being out there then the jig is up," Alor concluded. "If they contradict us its your aft. We voted and you're the sacrifice."
"Why am I not surprised," he said with a smirk. "Besides, the kids won't be able to tell them that they weren't at Appa's house," Jack said.
"Are you willing to tempt that?" Raptor said with a grin. "All of us are going out into that. You included, lazy aft. The kids have to be able to believe they were somewhere other than my house at some point so that they won't give the game away."
They gathered up the kids who were still sleeping, wrapped them in blankets, then stowed them gently into holds. Without a cow or dog or mouse included, they walked out the door to make their way to the storm raging outside.
As they did, Raptor glanced at Blackjack. "We've agreed that we stayed in a hotel last night after trying to leave Sun's house. What hotel it was we don't remember. It was just a hole where we crawled. We cleared our story with the others. If you forget or hear something you can't answer, plead the fifth. Got it?"
"You really expect to get caught don't ya," Blackjack said with a grin as they walked to the elevator to board it.
"Only if you give it away, weak link," Raptor said with a grin. The door closed on Blackjack's indignation.
=0=Up there
Prowl got off the horn to The Fortress and the Emergency Command Center. He walked to the couch to sit beside Optimus who was going over a number of data pads that held the sit-rep as it stood. "Public Works is holding off a moment because the wind is causing so much drifting that they can't keep up. The plan is to get the main highways plowed to one lane each direction, then city streets. Public Works in each municipality is coordinating through the Emergency Center of Public Works here. Jetta is directing the build up to the effort.
"Meteorology states that the storm will continue to be a gale at least until about 1230 joors when the winds will begin to die down and finally come to a conclusion about 1400 joors tomorrow."
"That long?" Prime asked with surprise. "That is another orn and a half. Has Sciences figured this out? I was under the impression that this sort of thing was in hand."
"I was, too, but Wheeljack said this is a freak set of conditions and as far as they can tell we can't prevent it from happening again. Its a combination of warm moist air hitting a cold layer across a large cold landmass featuring even nominal winds. "We would have to warm up the planet overall to have a chance to change this.
"A good point to remember is that the force of the storm came from the city itself. Given our 1% atmosphere, the force of the winds should have been almost balmy. It wasn't because when it hit the towers it concentrated and turned into a fury. Out on the plains the force of the wind would be negligible."
"I have encountered that on worlds like this. Category five hurricanes felt like mild breezes," Optimus agreed. "The problem is that there is so much dust here that it is as fine as talc. When it settles the grain is so small and jagged edged that it becomes concrete tough almost at once."
"Jetta is going to have a job of work to do to get this right," Prowl said. "I put the army at his disposal. The construction brigade for sure can help."
Optimus nodded. "This is a mess. Its going to take a long time to get it back to normal."
They would work in the apartment with the children playing here and there while an enhanced wind outside howled around their building.
=0=Sun and Jack's house
They tip-toed out to head for The Diner On The Corner in Autobot City. Leaving Iacon and heading there was going to be a trial given the storm outside. They would have to head cross country given that all the roads were buried alive. The twins who stayed over left with them.
Tucked in among the babies was a sweet tiny mech with a hearing deficiency who snored alongside his cousins in the comfort of a cashmere blanket with his name embroidered upon it, something that his proud daddies had gotten him as a 'first orn of school present'. It said, "Tell of Polyhex-Kaon, Cybertron and Mars.
=0=On the way
Turbine and Raptor trudged through the 'snow' which blew all around them. Behind them came the others. Every step kicked up the settled sand and all of it went into the seams and crevasses of their bodies in the most inconvenient yet oddly soothing manner ever. The children who were still sleeping didn't notice a thing.
=0=At other houses in Iacon
Bern: Sunspot slept the sleep of the innocent as he shared a berth with Bos. Spot was sprawled on his back snoring like dogs sometimes do and all was well. They were stranded at the moment but would be gathered up later by Appa Raptor and Uncle Sun when they made their way there to check on an operation of the clean up. Sunspot and Spot along with Bos would ride along with them and have the time of their lives.
Iacon: The dread kids were with Ammas and Appa in Iacon at the apartment tower on the block just for big frames to have homes in the colony as well. The floors and super structure of the building had huge multi-level apartments which was an add on detail on a block set aside on the outskirts of the original development. For now until more towers were built, it sat in a park-like setting with room for more specialized towers for their frame.
The one they occupied was the one that belonged to Typhoon, Clipper, Dangerous and the six titan kids. There was an entire level of the house that were berth rooms and a lounge for the kids, all nine of them if they wanted to stay over. The wash rack was theirs as well and a study room was a get away place with a couple of desks and major hookups with museums and libraries for the kids to use.
Right now, all nine kids were sleeping the sleep of the innocent with cats and a miniature horse the size of a German shepherd sleeping on their beds, a pet that Clipper coveted and carried around like Paris Hilton with a chihuahua.
The storm howled outside as the adults read the papers in the huge living room downstairs, caught up on the news and prepared breakfast for themselves in the kitchen way on the other side of the house.
School was canceled. The kids were left to recharge.
=0=Elsewhere
They trudged onward joined by Hardie and Delphi. Orion hadn't even roused when they slipped him inside a onesie that was big enough to still hold him. Amma Delphi was very partial to him when he was tiny so a 'travel onesie, Hardie … that's going to keep our little mech toastie outside' and it did. That it tickled Orion pink to peer out of the hole of a onesie with his big old smile was the cherry on the cake.
All of them continued onward toward the vaguely seen end goal ahead. That they were doing so down the middle of Metroplex Highway 1 and there were no vehicles in sight was a pretty amazing thing altogether. They couldn't even see the traffic lights down on Sports Center and Metro Highway 1's intersection. If truth be told, they couldn't see the intersection either.
Neither could Springer, Hercy, Drift and the boys coming from Titan in the other direction.
=0=In The Bosom of Love™
Ratchet came to sentience sprawled in his chair. Glancing to the left he saw Ironhide had slid out of his and was sort of jumbled up on the floor. A tray with a platter that held a giant Celebration sheet cake was still there with two big spoons but nothing of it remained.
Glancing around slowly, ignoring the siren in his helm, he saw that there was a lot of dishes, some half eaten laying around. He sat up slowly, fed himself The Cure, then basked a moment in its instantaneous relief. He glanced down at Ironhide, then sent him the same. Sitting back, he relaxed himself as he sobered up almost immediately.
Ironhide took a moment longer.
Beer bottles lay everywhere. Empty plates were piled on the coffee table and next to the chairs with their litter of empty bottles. The sink was still running. He vaguely remembered he'd turned it on. It was a nice sound, like a fountain as the water it loosed flowed down over the stack of dishes he slightly remembered stacking there.
Ironhide roused, then sat up in the chair. He waited a moment, then glanced at Ratchet. "I see you're still alive."
Ratchet smirked slightly. "Barely. You almost were a free mech, Ironhide."
"Yeah? Well, nothing can compete with you," he replied.
"You're quoting Prince to me now?" Ratchet asked.
"If you say so, Ratchet. Look at the slag pile," he said as he stared at the empty platter. "That cake was amazing. I think I ate eighty percent of it. Thanks. The pictures will stay with me always."
They both snickered, then with effort rose to look around.
"I hate it when I have a time and don't remember it. All that's left when that happens is clutter, clean up and dead soldiers," he said as he picked up an empty bottle of beer.
"We can have the funeral later. My latent 'bus your space, Ironhide, or I'll punt you' is kicking in. Never have military genitors, Ratchet. They haunt you forever," Ironhide said as he began to gather up plates to haul over to the sink onto the platter.
"I won't then," Ratchet agreed as he began to collect the bottles. "I think I should call Raptor to send Hot Rod and Smokey over to do this."
"You might want to wait. I heard that the Temple asked him if the storm was too bad to send Hot Rod and Smokey over if they can be spared. They loved what those two did with the place last time," Ironhide said.
Ratchet glanced at him, then smirked. "You do know we were set up."
Ironhide froze. "I hoped you wouldn't notice that."
Ratchet chuckled. "Do you know who I am?" he asked reminiscent of a certain Prime in a certain Michael Bay movie.
They both snickered together.
"What do you have in mind?" Ironhide asked as he gave into the inevitable.
=0=TBC 07-05-2021 HI, MISTY! :D:D:D
If someone 'pleads the fifth' it means in America that they invoke the amendment in the Constitution, the fifth amendment that says you can't be made to testify against yourself. They usually say, "I invoke the fifth amendment on the grounds that I don't want to incriminate myself'. If you incriminate yourself, you tell things that might get you into trouble.