The Diego Diaries: What (dd8 221) (Didn't edit yet. Could be weirdo things in here. LOL! HUGS!)
(My finger is healed but my eyes are so tired of these reader glasses. My replacements don't come until next week. I'm using readers and a magnifying glass. LOL!) HUGS!
=0=Camber
They gathered around the table with the data so far. Shields were up to protect everyone on board. So far a total of eleven bursts of an unknown radiation had pierced them but nothing and no one were missing. It was perplexing but it was seemingly a matter of size and shielding that appeared to be thwarting the signal flash.
"We've found the wavelength and its one that is very high. I think when the wave comes through again we an attach a tracer to it and get enough information before it falls away to extrapolate the location its coming from," Perceptor said.
Wheeljack nodded. "If we can hold it long enough then we can mathematically determine its approximate location."
"Then do so," Prime said.
"We have another coming in," Smokescreen said from a console nearby.
Perceptor worked furiously, then waited, watching the screen spin data on the console before him. It stopped loading, then Perceptor began to work on the data. It was very quiet, then he glanced at Prime. "Got it."
"Put it on a map," Prowl said as he turned toward the big screen ahead on the forward view port. A map of the sector which was still filling in spaces appeared with a glowing light in the middle of a large nebula nearby. "That's it then."
Percy nodded. "It is. We have to go into the nebula to get there. Its an ingenious hiding spot. Though this is a very old one, its not as dense as younger ones due to the cooling of a great deal of its energy cloud. A scan will pick up the location in that general vicinity."
Prime considered that. "Do you believe that our ships and their crews are safe enough to enter?"
Perceptor checked the data from all of his scans, then nodded. "Our shields and the size of the ship that powers them up appear to be our edge."
"Will it disappear the closer we get?" Raptor asked.
"I do not believe it will be so, General," Perceptor said.
Raptor glanced at Prime who nodded. "Very well. Fleet, this is General Raptor. Form up in a delta configuration. We're going in with weapons online, sensors interlocked and our optics peeled. Signal receipt."
Pings came, then the ships began to move heading for a nebula nearby, relatively, that could hold not only the answer to the mystery but the location of their missing comrades.
=0=School on Mars
They got off their bus and hippity-hopped into the school to go to their lines in the lobby that would take them to their floor. They had a new method now. The tots would come off the bus, go inside, get into their lines near the bank of elevators that served the public, then ride up when their aide came down to get them. It was loud, happy and bright in the hallway.
Line after line went upward to gather in the lobby of their floor. When the doors opened the lines would march in and the doors would close behind them. Children would go to their lockers and stash stuff, then run to the toys in the room to play until things started.
Orion and Praxus were hip deep in the classroom toy box in no time at all.
=0=Temple of Primus about the same time
Ravel set Halo down on the ground as they stood in line for the doors to open. She was dressing in a white onesie with cap and mittens to match. She was smiling at a little femme who was her friend when the doors opened and Sela walked out. It was a chatty moment or two as the eight children walked in to go to school once more.
=0=Youngling Day School #1, Centurion
The buses stopped and emptied to the curb. Children colorfully clad ran for the big doors nearby to enter and line up the same way they did at Sparkling Day. The difference was when they reached their floor they ran for their rooms. It was a short rush inside, then a long ride downward to the playground where they would chase and chat with friends before the siren which started their orn officially.
Bos, Reflector and Co-D waited by the swings for their buddies, Silverbow, Annabelle Lennox, Bobby Epps and Sunspot to arrive. When they did they would exclaim over Co-D's collection of Tam cards, the Cybertronian version of Pokemon. It would be hilarious.
=0=Intermediate Day School #1, Iacon
The buses let out and kids of all sizes walked into the huge doors that led to their school. Some of them headed for classrooms and labs to check on things or to hang out with teachers.
It happens.
The majority hit their lockers in the hallway, then headed for the gym to play basketball, the cafeteria to sit and talk or outside to play ball games and flirt before the siren. It was as lively and alive as any of the other schools but had the added dimension of femme/femme, mech/mech and mech/femme attraction budding up among the student body. Everywhere else, that sort of thing was still icky.
Walking hand in hand, Lumi and Fireball walked down the hallway to the lab where their project would be checked over for the mid term exams. It was good to be back in the saddle again.
=0=Out there
They entered the nebula running together as they headed toward a signal that was clearing up oddly enough the closer they got toward a space where it was appearing to emanate from. Scans were scattered but it would appear that a planet was there, one that had apparently wandered in from its lonely journey having lost its tether with its star in some eon past.
The lights shined here, made luminous from the radiation that filled the region. Not much else existed here but for the wandering planet and what was coming clear to the mechs was a long dead civilization. It was with trepidation that they began to close the gap. As they did more and more waves hit them but they had no more effect on the cloaked titans than before they entered. It was a silent command crew that watched as a dusty appearing beige planet came ever closer and closer.
=0=School in Metrotitan
They came from the building to await a few children that were delivered by other than district school buses. Hero stepped out of hers and ran to her aide, hugging her tightly. Bron-E had been the aide for some time before graduating college, getting her own classroom down the hallway and having her first sparkling, a tiny mech named Tito.
That little baby went to work every morning with his amma, Edict and was pride of place at Full Circle in Terra. He 'helped' amma as he sat in his bouncy chair smiling at everyone. His father, Borealis who was a former low caste was also a teacher at Sparkling Day #1 in Terra. All was well in Bron-E and Edict's world.
=0=Coming up on a long dead planet
They came about and fell into a high orbit around the planet below, one that had the remnants of a civilization with apparently still functioning technology. The titans combined to scan and when the results came in Perceptor turned to Prime and the senior Autobots who were sitting quietly waiting on the findings.
"We have a planet that had some sort of catastrophe and broke free of its moorings. It was once held in balance with a star but has been wandering a long time," Percy said.
"Did the ones who built it get off or are they down there? Is there anyone alive down there?" Prowl asked.
"No. No one registers as alive. However, we do get faint electrical signals from a building that is still relatively intact. It could be the location for the signal and might be also the location of our missing colleagues. The signal has familiar elements," Wheeljack said.
"Then we need to go down there. Can you scan for traps or tech that might activate and cause havoc? If a group goes to look then we want maximum safety," Prowl said.
"The cityscape below has been under assault from the elements for a long time. But there could be machinery that still works. I doubt that its anymore a danger than it is a … perhaps its a distress signal or a beacon to direct ships home. I don't know more but the speculation is pretty open ended here," Perceptor said.
"Then we go armed and wary. Do you pick up on a shuttle anywhere?" Prime asked.
Perceptor scanned. "I detect trace elements of spent fuel in the location of the building. I don't detect any lifeforms or security effects that might be harmful. This world has not hosted life in eons."
"Very well," Prime said. "General?"
Raptor grinned. "Blackjack, Sun, Jack, Perceptor and Ratchet, come with me. Let's do this fast and get home. I'm hungry."
Smirks and mockery greeted that as the group gathered up, then walked to the elevator to go to the ground below in an armed shuttle from the bay of Camber.
Wheeljack sat, then grinned at the remaining mechs. "Its amazing to have my family back. All of the little kids can grow up with Resolve. My father is dazzled with the baby. Now if we can just get Percy's family back."
"It's his father who's named Resolve, right?" Prowl asked.
Wheeljack nodded. "I'm never more glad that we named him that than right now."
They would chat as they listened to the open line of the shuttle heading for the ground of an ancient planet below.
=0=RTR Tools
The customers came in and left with their precious bundles. The work list was as long as their arms but they were making dents in it. Sitting in the lounge of the shop, Appa Ratchet, Corr and Chan were sitting there chatting, eating danish which was delivered every morning as they waited for school. Docker was in her office doing constituent work before joining them in class.
All was well with their world.
=0=On world
They flew over a dust covered and half destroyed city. It was made of stone, opulently carved and beautiful. The coldness of the stone and the dark skies everywhere made the place terribly eerie. It seemed that there were ghosts everywhere as they watched with a bit of dread the brokenness all around them. It stretched into the distance forever.
Settling down beside the huge building which was a black box with a door. It was hard stone and the sides and roof was smooth even still. Scanning it, they stepped down, drew weapons and started toward it. Trudging through the deep fine silt of eons of bombardment and despair, they walked toward the big doors nearby.
They were slightly open, shadowing the inside. Moving toward them slowly, Raptor called to the ship. "Getting anything? We're nearly there."
:Nothing so far. There's no energy around including the beams: Prowl said.
They gathered at the door, then turned on their lights. Raptor glanced at them. "Scan away, Ratchet. Let's go inside. Look alive."
Ratchet turned on a meter, then nodded to Raptor. With guns in hand, all of them slipped inside the building.
=0=TBC 7-31-2021