The Diego Diaries: Stuffing and Stuff (dd8 208) (Hopefully I'm back on schedule again) :D
=0=Mid afternoon in The Fortress conference room for a staff meeting
It was awkwardly, tensely silent as Ironhide and Ratchet sat on one side of the huge table and Alor and Blackjack on the other. The rest of Ironhide's relatives were in their usual places while Prowl and Prime sat in theirs. They were staring from one face to the other, nervously watching for who knew what to happen.
When others came in it was a relief, their laughter and remarks about traversing the berms and mountains of fine silt-like sand to get here a welcomed relief. When all of them were present the door closed. That's when Alor leaned slightly forward to rest his elbows on the table.
Ratchet gazed at him without expression though his aura was clearly amused. He said nothing but watched Allie even as Prowl began to slide agendas around.
None of the humans were present but they were on the monitors around the room given that they were all under orders to stay in their habitats until things picked up a bit. None of them got the subtext going around the room.
:So …: Alor began having been chosen to be The One. Everyone was tuned in to him and they watched silently, their faces betraying nothing.
:So: Ratchet replied as he faked checked the agenda. It was long.
:So how long are you going to punish us?: Alor aka A
:How long do you plan to live?: Ratchet aka R
A snicker somewhere drew attention, then Prowl began. He wasn't tuned in but Optimus was.
"Loon."
Ratchet sat forward. "I've checked the patients of the refugee group and everyone of them have arrested Cache's disease. The program they're being given have stopped it in its tracks. What's going to be the next step is putting them back together. Every single child and sub adult has to have extensive internal reconstruction because of the wasting of their internal skeletons. Their armor is in sad condition as well. Think of this variant as acid that slowly eats you from the inside out."
"So its stopped and put to rest," Springer asked.
Ratchet nodded. "It is. Repair, restoration and rehabilitation will come next. All of them have a Primal hold so their recovery will be supervised. Their legal status at present isn't fully determined. For now, they're going to be wards of the state and have their recovery under direct supervision until that is ascertained."
"That is good to hear," Prime said. He glanced at Springer. "I will leave it to you and Jarro to determine the security and placement of the refugees for their recovery. I am told that the Long Term Rehabilitation Project is undertaking their physical location in their Rehab Center in District Six. Barron is researching the legal situation and will consult with Jarro and his team about whether charges are necessary or even proper given the circumstances."
"Other than that, most of the relevant problems concerning medical are normal and mundane. There's little else to report that can't hold," Ratchet concluded.
Prowl glanced at Magnus. "Commander."
:Yes, Commander: Alor aka A mimicked pointedly to Ratchet off line
Ratchet smirked slightly at Alor. :So … how's things coming along?:
:Brilliantly. I was just wondering how long you were going to punish us: -A
:I think there's an echo in here: -R
:We figured you could use a break: -A
:Is that it: -R
:How long do you plan for us to have the kids?: -A
:I intend to attend their graduation from Intermediate School: -R
:Then you won't mind if we adopt them: -A
Ratchet shrugged slightly. :Nope:
At that moment a number of documents flooded his inbox. They were adoption papers already filled in but requiring only signatures.
Alor smirked at Ratchet. :We call your bluff:
Ratchet signed them. :I call yours:
Ironhide who had gotten his own set of adoption paperwork glanced sharply at Ratchet. :What the frag, old mech:
Ratchet and Alor stared at each other with a slight edge of amusement as Magnus explained the Central Point Development project to a mostly oblivious group.
:We thought we were doing you a solid, you two. This is the thanks we get?: Alor said changing tactic when the first one failed.
:You couldn't make it to the man cave: -R
:The sand was pretty awful: -A
:You live across the hallway: -R
:We weren't home: -A only partially lying
:You didn't want to come: -R, hammer hitting nail on the head
Alor stared at Ratchet catching all the tells. He wasn't mad. He was just going to dunk everyone. Hard. :We were fragging around. We had a storm and we didn't want to go through it especially with kids. We're sorry. We thought you could use a night or two alone:
:You could have said so: -R
:I just did: -A
:You're all lazy aft fraggers. You should have just said so: -R
:How long are you really going to stay mad? Are you mad? I don't see the tells: -A
:I don't have tells: -R
:They're hard to find but they're there: -A
Ratchet sat back eyeing Alor coolly. :So they made you the spokesman?:
:Are you surprised?: -A
:No. I suppose we're in the negotiations phase of this fiasco: -R
:I do believe we are though I'm prepared to take Praxus to Las Vegas from time to time: -A
:What's your bottom line?: -R
Alor considered that knowing he was negotiating with a highly experienced diplomat and a raging maniac at the same time. :We keep the regular schedule of date nights and weekends. We have a dinner in your honor, you and Ironhide. We apologize for the ginormous back fire that this turned into and we drop and give you 20: -A
Ratchet considered that possibilities. :30:
Alor grinned. "40."
"Hold up, mech," Blackjack said as Ironhide's family and Prime snickered.
"50." Ratchet smirked at Alor. "Take it or leave it."
"Done deal." Alor glanced at the others. "That'll teach you to ask me to negotiate with this slagger."
"May I ask what the frag is going on?" Magnus asked with a frown.
"We're negotiating the end of a war," Sun said. He chuckled. "Unless you want Ratchet to continue."
"No," Magnus said. He frowned at Ratchet. "Are you through?"
"Maybe," Ratchet said as he smirked at Alie. "Where's the kids?" he asked.
Big mechs reached into carry holds to pull out children including a Seeker and a dog. They were placed on the table where they looked around in confusion, then gathering delight.
"ADA!" Orion said. "ATAR! LOU COMED ME, ORION!" He then began to run down the table followed by everyone but a Seeker and a dog. They were pulled into laps where they sat comfortably folded into arms.
Alor grinned. "I want you to know I'm keeping the paperwork just in case."
Ratchet smiled his most beautiful smile as he hugged Orion. "You were in the tower, right?"
Alor gauged the possible fallout, was inundated with texts from the punters urging him to lie, lie, lie, then grinned. He did. "No."
"You're a terrible liar," Ratchet said as he hugged this and that child with Ironhide before they were dragged into laps by everyone with a good reach.
Magnus rapped the table. "Are we through?"
"For now," Ratchet said.
Then Magnus began to outline a showcase development that would traverse a ridge just west of Terra and be a thing of beauty for all to see.
=0=Four joors later
They gathered in the courtyard and sidewalk after making a show of push ups to shoot the shit and gauge the amount of sand that would have to be excavated out of just about every direction they were staring. The airfield and airports were already clear because the wind had died down.
Fine grained silty sand and dirt hung in the air and would take a while to filter back to the ground. It gave an orange haze to everything every direction they looked.
Sun glanced at Raptor, then nodded with a grin.
Raptor turned to the mechs who had waited in the rec room for their orders of the orn. They knew that the army was helping to clear the sand but the group gathered were awaiting assignments which they didn't know about yet.
"I hope we can ride around," Hot Rod said to Lon as he waited.
Smokey did as well but he was hoping that not saying anything would help make it come to pass.
"Smokey! Hot Rod! Come with me," Raptor said as he started out toward the junction ahead.
The two reluctantly fell into line. They walked onward becoming bobbing blurry shapes in the gritty slightly static-filled gloom before disappearing altogether.
Alor turned to Ratchet. "So …"
Ratchet stared at the group who were staring back with expectation. "I cooked my aft off. I barbecued anyway and no one came, slaggers. I made a slagging Celebration cake with everyone's face on it and no one came. Ironhide and I had to eat most of it ourselves."
"It was slagging good, too," Ironhide said loyally earning cheers and kudos off line from everyone. He got a pat on the aft from Ratchet.
"We're sorry, Ratchet. Most of us were hip deep in the storm. We were looking forward to it. I wanted to see the kids drive the cars," Jack said as the others nodded.
"You're fraggers," Ratchet said. "Even when nothing happens on a holiday it happens anyway. The last thing I expected was you being the problem."
"We didn't mean it, Ratchet," Hardie said solemnly. "We're slagging sorry. We thought we were doing you a solid keeping the kids and all."
Ratchet stared at him. "You almost had me."
Hardie grinned. "Damn. I have to work on my delivery."
Ratchet nodded. "Fragger."
"We are. How about we go to lunch? The Diner or The Pit Stop?" Steiner asked.
The Diner it would be.
=0=In the courtyard of the Temple where the wind whips around the bend(s)
They stared at the piles of sand everywhere, then the shed where their tools were stored.
Raptor grinned. "We're going to lunch. When we get back you can have some, too. We'll bring ya something. Until then, put yourself into it, boys. The priests are highly pleased with the last time." he slapped them on the back, then walked out with the others to go to The Diner nearby.
Hot Rod and Smokey stared all around themselves, then without a word to each other walked to the shed to begin. They could slag it off but Raptor wouldn't be pleased.
They knew. They tried it last time to their ever loving regret.
=0=In habitat-ville
They stared outside at the dwindling winds to watch silt-like sand trickle down out of the sky to land in almost misty layers on the ground. That whipped by the wind which was accelerated around the tall building looked compacted.
"You'd think they had this in hand," Kyle Davis said as they sat in a group following the staff meeting. "They had this controlled. I wonder what happened?"
"Its a combination of factors that may happen from time to time in the spring. The humidity such as it is hits cold air, then this happens," Andre Boudin said. "They explained it to me technically when I called Sciences last night. They said it can't be predicted to a fine point nor really prevented. They just said it was rare and seasonal."
"I hate it," Kyle replied.
"We know," Owen Harris said with a grin.
=0=Unidad
"I hope everyone can come," Gabriela Russo said. "This couldn't come at a worse time."
"I asked Ops Center to relay a message to Prowl. He said that he'd authorize a bridge to get everyone here if this makes things difficult."
She smiled. "He did?"
Pastor Millie nodded. "Our Prowl is one of the good guys. Your wedding is going to be perfect."
"It already is, Millie," she said.
It would be. The ceremony would be held in the Chapel in the Trees at Unidad Terra 1. How could it be other?
=0=TBC 07-08-2021