The Diego Diaries: Intel (dd8 213)
=0=Ops Center, The Fortress
They gathered in the sub control center, those who'd be the command staff of the mission to find out what happened to their science ship. It had fallen off the grid and there were fears that it'd been destroyed. The intel out that way was spotty and the equipment that this ship was going to put up was going to help with that. For now given the situation, they were still technically blind.
"Anything new, Prowl?" Prime asked as he walked in to sit at the long middle console with the others.
"No. We've turned our dishes and pumped up the relay system bouncing the signal off the station on the Silk Road. Its the one comm system that's far enough out to maybe cut through some of the fog. As of now, we have a missing ship and nothing more to show for it," Prowl concluded.
"This is not good," Perceptor said. "I know everyone of the technicians there and they're family mechs, all of them."
"The soldiers are veterans," Ratchet said as he studied the data pad with the roster. "All of them are smart and tough. Canton is the leader of the security team."
"He's top of the line," Springer said as Drift nodded. "He's regular army but smart and touch."
"I have asked for a dreadnought and two titans to come forward to do things related to this area and project. I think it might do some good to use them for a search and rescue," Prime said.
They would work out the tactical possibilities for a while.
=0=Several joors before this meeting
They flew through dark space heading for a cluster of rather stable space junk that was drifting along the specified area for the dishes to be placed. They were small, just ten feet across but powerful in a manner that hadn't been seen before. A family of techs who specialized in communications had hooked up with a family of techs who made broadcast and collection hardware to create a deep space array that was not only small enough to hide more easily but many diameters more capable than conventional arrays.
They were taking the bases and some of the components that were designed to cloak the dishes which were going through final checks on Mars to the place where they'd be mounted. The science kids on board would do the work and the soldiers would protect them. It was supposed to be easy.
"Canton."
A big mech with a light blue scheme and attractive white detailing rose to walk to the flight deck. "What's up?"
"I'm picking up bogies. We've got company," the pilot, Conduct said.
Canton studied the data, then turned to his crew lounging in the fold out chairs that bordered the walls of the ship's hold. In the middle were crates with the tech they were going to place. "Gear up. We've got something heading our way."
There would be three terrified young scientists who strapped in to watch with growing disquiet the two blinking lights on the navigation monitor come swiftly their way.
=0=At the Saturn Shipyard
Ratchet and his teams stood in the command center on the biggest yard floating in a stationary orbit outside the farthest ring of the most beautiful planet in the solar system. The giant storms of Saturn whirled on the planetary surface and its loveliness belied its lethal capacity.
The operational center was the heart of the massive facility where the biggest ships known in the universe came to get repairs, repainted, refitted and booted onward to their final destinations. The floor to ceiling windows gave an incredible view of the busy yard with its five giant stationary docks where ships either connected alongside the gantry covered installations or slid inside their open framework depending on their size.
There were two titans here, both of them bound for Cybertron to patrol the area beyond the colonial ring, a largely unoccupied set of colony worlds abandoned following The Great Exodus. Now they were industrial areas or graveyards for broken things. No one lived there. Anyone who worked there traveled everyday out and back under guard. It was a spooky and silent three worlds left behind by war.
Coming in soon would be a dreadnought and two titans who were not only great warriors but specialists in communications in deep space. Harpoon, the dreadnought would be the muscle and tactics aspect of their triad and the other two would be the deep space optics and audials for the empire. All three of them were happy to come and find home and service in the company of The People.
Titans.
A blinking light down the way cautioned everyone that a big ship had bridged in from somewhere not on their maps. It was a titan and was followed by another. Then a message came through.
"Saturn Shipyard Command, this is Radical Wind. My brother Camber and I are here to report for duty."
"Welcome, both of you," a voice said over the intercom. "We welcome you home at last. I'm going to send you coordinates to come in on a signal beam so you can dock at the station for repairs and upgrades. You will come to Bay 2-A, Radical Wind. Camber, you will approach the B side of Bay 2. Draw up on the gantry side and we'll hook you up.
"Commander Ratchet and his team is here to bring you up to form. We await your arrival. Follow the signal to your docking port."
"We copy that, Shipyard Command. Its good to hear that Commander Ratchet is here," Camber said over the intercom. "On our way."
Ratchet smiled at the others. "They love me. All of them."
Huge laughter greeted that as they watched the lights get closer. They came into view, two massive ships with their running configuration set for combat. On their sides were hash mark lines signifying kills from their orns as hunter-killer commanders. Their skill as deep space sensors was uncanny.
"We better go. Prime wants them up and running as fast as possible. They look like they've been in a lot of combat. Do the important stuff, then cosmetic reconstruction after," Ratchet said as he led his team toward the bay doors that would take them to the shuttles that would fly them to Bay 2-A and 2-B. It would take several joors to get them to speed.
Harpoon had been in Soft Space longer and his hurts and needs were marginal at best. He looked remarkably well for a ship of his age. He appeared behind the first two and slip next Bay 3-A after them.
The shipyard would be intensely busy for a while with other ships waiting their turn.
=0=Ops Center
"Ratchet said that the three ships are in. Harpoon is in great shape but the other two had a lot of combat and they're taking more time," Prowl said as he paused by Prime's office door.
Prime was waiting for the word and getting things done that had piled up over the refugee problem. It was early in the morning but everyone involved was getting ready to go. A muster was being made outside on the flight deck among the battle shuttles and the Wrecker crews being called up. No Seekers would be going along this time due to the fighter capacity of the dread and titans. "Who is going to take care of the baby with Drift and Springer going out to command?"
"I am," Prowl said. "I have the old box bed in my office cupboard against such things. I don't think they're going to be too happy but such is the life."
Prime nodded sympathetically. "I know."
=0=At the office at Metrotitan, The Watch Tower
They had a briefing about who would manage the shop while the two would be gone. Given the possibility of a shoot out with ships, most of the senior soldier-Watchmen would be leaving. Stepping in for Springer would be Fort Max. He had trained and was designated the fill-in Watch Commander when the senior boys were gone on missions and he did a damned fine job.
"So that's about it, Max," Springer said in conclusion.
Max was sitting on a couch with his 'running buddy', a big titan mech named Foresight.
Foresight was a quiet mech who liked to read, hike and hang out with Max. No one knew if it was just friendship or more but they went way back so the guess was … who knew? Foresight would help Max with the Watch.
"I think that clears it, Springer," Max said. "What about Tell? What do you plan to do with him while you're gone and are both of you going? That isn't wise is it?"
Springer and Drift stared at Max, then each other, then Max.
"Prowl's taking care of him until we get back. We're still working out the one stays, one goes thing," Springer said as Drift nodded.
The baby was sitting propped up on a pillow nearby as he lay on the floor of his play pen. He was smiling at everyone, waving his dollie in his tiny servos and being his usual sweet self.
This was going to be really, really hard.
=0=On the flight line
A good dozen battle shuttles bristling with guns sat on the flight line getting set up for leaving. Crews worked on them and some of the soldiers going to man them were already there, bachelors mostly.
Lissie and Steiner would be commanding two of them while Raptor, Blackjack, Hercy, Kup, Springer with Drift, Splice and Reamer would command some of the others. They were all tough, smart and veteran. Raptor would have overall command of the operation and would transfer to the titan, Camber when they reached him.
The twins sat on boxes of ammo which was stacked near their shuttle. They'd be going out with Kup. Lon and Bezel who were divided between Springer and Splice's shuttles sat with them.
"I don't like us being divided," Lon said.
"Ask then," Sideswipe suggested.
"Just like that?" Bezel asked with surprise. "The Master won't change the list will he if we ask?"
Sideswipe grinned, then shrugged.
The two rose and walked toward the station nearby where the Master of the Muster worked.
Sunstreaker watched them go, then glanced at Sideswipe. "He won't change the manifest."
"You know that. I know that …" Sideswipe said with a chuckle.
"HEY!"
The twins turned toward the voice calling out over their common channel and saw a human waving to them from the truck they were driving. It was idling nearby and he was leaning out the window. They waved him over.
He rolled up, then stopped. :What's the mission this time?: Rick Harris asked.
"We lost track of a science ship. It could be trouble so Prime's throwing the kitchen sink at it," Sideswipe said to a human he really liked.
:What's the odds of coming along?: Rick asked.
"I don't know. Who wants to come besides you?" Sunstreaker asked. He liked Rick Harris as well.
Rick told them, then grinned.
The twins stared at him, each other, then him again. "I'll go see," both of them said at the same time.
=0=Shortly later on the road to the Autobot City Military Airport
They drove a truck toward town passing landmarks as they hurried to come to the muster. The light was barely breaking over the mound that was Olympus Mons. It would be light rather swiftly once the feeble sun far away broke the top of the rounded hump that they lived upon.
The lack of techtonic plates moving along on a sea of semi-liquid mantle meant that any volcanic magma and resultant lava would cover the same ground over and over. The pressures that pressed ever upward would have no place to disperse, thus the volcano was the largest in the solar system and the architect of their colony.
"I hope we don't regret this," James 'Big Jim' Johnson said as he rode in the vehicle with other mercenaries. Sam Hedges, Carlos Ortega and three others who were new had joined in when Rick Harris rather taunted them to come along.
"Prowl okayed you coming," he'd said on the call.
They considered it together, unwilling to look chicken but unwilling to believe Prowl didn't have some paybacks up his ass. In the end their pride won out and they were hustling through the dark to join a number of 'regulars' on a mission far away. That it was possibly a fight was both exciting and extremely repelling. The idea of having a hull breach in vacuum was terrifying even to hard heads like them.
They disappeared into the darkness of the early morning as they made their way to the muster.
=0=TBC 07-16-2021