The Diego Diaries: Incident: Intercept (dd8 245)
=0=At the point of contact
"Can you see anything?" Hercy asked as he lounged in the seat next to Rem.
"How about that?" Rem said as he pulled back hard on the throttle.
It helped. But it didn't stop them from ramming the back end of a shuttle that had been shot up and was listing in the darkness in front of them.
"Well, there is that," Hercy said with a grin. "Scan it. Is anyone on board? I doubt it but …"
"No," Rem replied. "It's …" Rem turned sharply to the left and slammed on the speed. As he did he slapped the button to alert the other ships to scatter. Slipping swiftly away, the ships broke apart just as the vessel listing before them blew itself up in a zillion pieces.
=0=Ops Center, Mars
The sound of yelling jolted everyone who was sitting listlessly around the vast room in the heavy hours of late night. Then it was silent a moment.
:Check in now: Hercy's voice could be heard to say.
Pings came, then cursing.
:They blew up their derelict and tried to take us with them: Sun said. :That wasn't very neighborly:
"General," Optimus said. "What is the situation?"
:We're following them into the nebula and all its risible slag when we bumped into their broken shuttle. Rem noted the bomb and we split up fast. We have a shuttle with a tagged hull but its holding integrity. Its my shuttle, too, damn it:
Optimus relaxed a bit. "No one is hurt then?"
:Not notably. My feelings are but not much else. We're going in with guns to the ready. Any further orders?: Sun asked.
"Don't die."
Laughter came over the intercom. :We don't plan on it. What was it that crazy aft American general liked to say? Our job is not to die for our country but to make the other guy die for his. Sun out:
"I don't admire Patton much but that saying has a certain charm," Prowl said dryly. He glanced at Prime. "Are you hungry?"
Optimus glanced up at him. "A little. Not much until this is over."
Prowl nodded. "I'll get something in," he said as he walked to a console and entered his requests. Dinner would arrive for everyone shortly from the Army Commissary Depot near the administrative buildings for the commercial side of their operation in the Hangar District. That entity supplied food all orn long for any military outpost and station on world.
Prowl sat. "This isn't going to be good."
Optimus nodded. "I want them alive."
"We can but hope," Prowl said with a nod.
=0=Out there
The sensors interlocked between ships supplied a rather muted scene before them of big, little and minute bits of this and that, some of which had accreted layers of snow and ice. It was dark and dense, like sitting in a snow globe looking out at the world.
"I hate this kind of stuff," Splice said. "I remember that mission where we lost a bunch of mechs to capture in a snowball like this. I do believe that Springer and Drift were among the lucky bastards."
Hercy grinned. "Those two need to wear a bell so we can find them they get captured so much."
:Leading from the front is an iffy business: Jack said over the intercom. :I personally need you all to clear a path:
"I've heard that before. Sideswipe as a Corvette skating through the streets of wherever they were. Chicago? I don't remember," Lariat said. He was a Wrecker of some repute who liked to do things with knives. "He looked like a demon to me."
"I'll tell him," Splice said with a chuckle. "He'll take it as a compliment. The only thing that's going to be an insult is that he was formatted as a Corvette."
"At least it wasn't a Porsche. If you want to get on their bad sides that's the route," Hercy said.
"I'll remember that," Splice said.
"They have a good side?" Lariat asked as the entire shuttle erupted in laughter.
Then it erupted in bolts of energy piercing its side.
=0=Ops Center, Mars
They halted halfway through their dinner to listen to the sounds of yelling and shouting. Prowl linked in, then frowned. "Someone's shooting them. Hercy's ship got cut in half."
Optimus linked in to listen as well.
Jetta let them.
=0=Out there
The energy beam slit the side of the shuttle with barely inches to spare between Splice and Lariat. Singing both their arms, they rose and moved to the windows to look. Jumping on guns, all of them began to shoot, then the ship split into two parts trailing fire, fuel and the odd mech into space.
=0=Ops Center, Mars
:WHAT THE FRAG!:
:WE'RE DONE FOR HERE! WE NEED PICK UP!:
:HANG ON! WE'RE UNDER FIRE!:
=0=Ops Center, Mars
Everyone listened tensely as the shouting and shooting roared over the intercom system. As it did Rainmaker, Starscream and Red Wing walked into the center to walk to the command table to sit. More officers began to come in sent for by Prowl against any operational possibility they chose to send.
That's when the worst case scenario happened.
=0=Out there
The flare wasn't big. It wasn't especially lethal but it meant that no one was leaving the area for the time being. Spraying its energetic guts along a strip of space that bordered the nebula, the ships inside stopped shooting each other to run.
Jack's vessel slid alongside Hercy's and as they gathered up the mechs inside and the two floating outside, the shimmering light began to grow. When everyone was collected, they began to hoof it as fast as they could fly. Everyone flew as fast as they could in the same direction, going deeper and deeper into the muddled mess of the nebula.
=0=Ops Center
"Everyone just disappeared off the sensor network, Lord Optimus," a kid from the Home Guard said as he glanced toward Prime. "We have nothing."
Prowl rose to walk to the Sensor console while Wheeljack and Perceptor rose to go to Tactical.
It was silent, then Perceptor turned toward Prime. "It would appear an unexpected energy surge has erupted along the leading edge of the nebula they were using for cover and now everyone is caught inside. I detect no debris of metallic content so it would appear that they were missed. Theoretically."
Prime stared at him, then the map on the table. The once bright lights of everyone which had faded a bit when they entered the nebula were gone. "How can we find out if they are alive in there?"
"We can't, Optimus," Wheeljack said. "We have two options. Go there and face a wall of energy we can't cross. Or go there on a bridge and hope that wherever we come out isn't attached too closely to the radiation and particle waves that are going to be everywhere."
"What do we do then?" Prime asked.
"We have to wait. If this is a surge, perhaps it'll recede wherever it came," Wheeljack said. "I don't know much more about the energy floes there other than they're very atypical but for what we have from Shockwave's database and Blackjack's. But sometimes what surges out of a hole will recede back inside. There's no real logic and predictability for this phenomena in that area. Its in a class by itself. Even the time continuum doesn't seem to work there."
"Then they could be stuck there forever?" Prowl asked.
"The nebula goes on well past the closest floes. If they fly long and far enough they can call for a bridge and it will probably be safe," Perceptor said. "Its the best and safest way."
"Then we need to find that leading edge and send a group there to fly toward them to assist," Prime suggested.
"Ah, that's the rub as they say. How can we see that in the midst of the surge?" Wheeljack asked. "Unless they can give us coordinates from the inside, we might put a group down into a fissure itself. We can't guess a bridge destination there. We need real coordinates. Its just too dangerous."
"Then you're saying they're on their own?" Warlord asked as he leaned against a console nearby.
Wheeljack nodded. "Its the safest possibility right now, to let them get to the place where they can call for a pick up or back up."
It was silent in the Ops Center for a moment or two as they took in the news.
=0=There
"FLY FASTER!" Splice said as he sat on the floor dazed from the turbulence outside and having flown through a cracked hull to float in space. "WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"
"A surge. We're fragging surfing a surge," Sun said as he helped his pilot fly. The controls required two pilots to hold the ship steady as it flew with the others through a surging energy floe that erupted the moment Hercy's shuttle was hit. "How's everyone, Hercy?"
"We're good. Splice got his slagging bell rung. Ignore him until his systems reboot," Hercy said as he checked his mechs.
Outside in the thrashing mass of energy, disintegrating rubble and fellow ships, they were flying swiftly after their prey, four rugged and highly armored Decepticon ships. None of them were in control but they were flying with the surge toward the darker and more dense area of particle clouds and larger debris. It would be a banger when they would reach the bigger garbage and have to endure it bouncing off their plating.
"Frag," Sun said. "We're going to miss the new episode of 'Platoon'."
"Are you in it?" his pilot asked with a grin.
"Nope," Sun replied.
"Then its a good miss," his pilot replied.
Sun would laugh a long time. No one else but Hercy would join him.
=0=Ratchet
He walked into Ops Center with Ironhide to join the session currently well under way. The usual suspects were there and they were staring at a map of the location, one that was limited in its detail but held the path their pursuit squad had taken. No blinking lights showing that told the story. "What's the word? Anything new?" he asked Jetta.
Jetta shook his helm. "Not so far. We can't go in because we don't know where its safe. They can't call out because of the energy ribbon. The only good news is its dropping its intensity a few micro lumens at a time. Its fucked up out there."
"I was afraid of that. Its never going to be nice, our lives. Never," Ratchet said as he leaned against a console beside Ironhide.
"They'll get to a place they can contact us or bridge. Neither side has the upper hand now," Ironhide said as Jetta nodded.
They would stay in the Ops Center all night and into the orn waiting for something to break their way. It wouldn't.
=0=Out there
The surge began to flag and showed itself to be a small one.
Sun who was sitting on the second pilot's seat glanced at Hercy. "I bet this was a burp caused by the shuttle blowing up. Good thing it wasn't a real surge. We'd all be knocking on the Matrix door right now."
"Well, the comm system is fragged for Mars," Hercy said as he felt the turbulence start to recede. "What about the others?"
"This is Sun. Check in. What's your status?" he asked.
One by one, the shuttles would check in stating their situation. They were all in all good to go. It was relief making. It was also good when the lead Decepticon ship checked in as well, the smart aft.
=0=TBC 9-4-2021
risible (riz-uh-bl) such as to provoke laughter.
"a risible scene of dancing by heifers" Sun is in a happy mood, he's a happy, happy, happy, happy, happy boy. ;)
Lux: the unit of illumination (see luminous intensity) in the International System of Units (SI). One lux (Latin for "light") is the amount of illumination provided when one lumen is evenly distributed over an area of one square metre.