The Diego Diaries: Bam (dd7 8)
If you got this far, go back a couple and read them. I left one out due to stupid numbering. EEK! Sorry. :D:D:D
=0=At the Jailhouse. Now.
They drove up, transformed on the fly and flew through the air to land on their peds. Hoofing it to the doors down the way where a heavy weapons team stood together watching them, Ratchet and Prowl walked inside, then over to where Drift, Springer and a number of mechs were crouched.
The room was a large cafeteria-lounge for the building, giving amenities to the worker bees and others including clientele who worked or had business here. There was a long corridor that led off from it that ran parallel to it. Across the opening from where everyone crouched that led back into the building was a number of heavily armed mechs. They'd circled around to seal off the possible retreat of the five criminal suspects.
"So, here we are again," Ratchet said as he peered down the corridor.
A blast was heard as Ratchet jumped back. A flash of light zipped past and landed on a wall down the corridor. Ratchet grinned. "As you can see … I still have it."
"They nearly let you have it, Ada," Springer said with a snicker. "By the way, they're holed up down that away."
"Why thanks, oldest offspring. You're helping me in my joor of need," Ratchet said with a snicker. "What's the situation?"
"They got loose from the van, ran in here, grabbed two femmes and lit off down that way. There's an outside door to a large patio but we have it and all the other holes in this sieve plugged," Springer replied.
"Who are the femmes?" Ratchet asked.
"Two little femmes who run the law library and research law for the hot shots here," Drift said. "Tiny femmes with a lot of kids between them."
"Frag," Ratchet said. "I better be good." He moved closer to the door, then leaned against the wall so he could hear and be heard better. "HEY, DOWN THERE! THIS IS RATCHET, THE PRIME'S NEGOTIATOR! HOW ABOUT TELLING ME EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT!?"
It would be quiet a while before Ratchet would get an answer.
=0=At the meeting
They watched Prowl and Ratchet rush out as Prime got the update from Springer. He sat back musing on the information, then looked at Magnus. "Ultra Magnus, what is the closest approximation of our population thus far?"
Magnus consulted his data pad. "We have received a steady flow of civilians, 20,000 per orn on average for some several months now. We stand at just over … 62,000,000 citizens."
It was dizzying to most there and the buzz took a moment to die down. Prime considered it himself, the long march from a dusty plain to the multi-city magnificence of today. "We have a hostage situation at the Courthouse of which Ratchet as our chief negotiator is going to manage. I may be called out or not but if I do Paragon will lead the meeting and the information gathered will be given to the relevant individuals including me later on. As for now, let us continue."
Herling and Nova did. The situation was expanding in their realm and there were new towers opening to meet demand. Though the infant population was low for such a colony as this, it wasn't unusual for the Cybertronian people. There were always less children than adults. When you didn't die without making it an effort, there were always imbalances in the society's demographics.
In the end, there were 10 Sparkling Day, 6 Youngling Day and 3 Intermediate Day schools in the colony. Some of them weren't ready to open yet but were being readied due to the numbers being forwarded and projections.
The University was hot on the training of new teachers, Bron-E was announced to be a recent graduate of special needs children and training in a classroom to eventually move into a new Pioneer School being opened in Crater District 2. All was well in the world of education.
=0=At the hostage situation
"HOW ABOUT YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT? THAT WAY I CAN SEE WHAT I CAN DO!"
There was the sound of peds, then silence. "What the frag do you want me to say? I surrender?" a deep harsh voice said contemptuously.
"I won't say no," Ratchet replied. "How about you tell me, I do what I can, everyone gets to go home tonight. Maybe even you."
"We want to go to Razorclaw," another voice said, one equally as darkly masculine as the first. "You can't make that happen."
"You have no idea what I can do. But I have to ask you a question first … why do you want to go to that loser?" Ratchet asked.
The mechs standing around Ratchet grinned slightly, then relaxed a tiny bit. This was getting interesting.
It was silent a moment, then the first voice was back. "Explain."
Ratchet considered the request. "You do know that Prime took Cybertron without a shot, right?" He waited but nothing was said in reply. "We have this colony with about 55 or 60,000,000 citizens. What the frag does Razorclaw have? We have him hemmed in with dreadnoughts and metroformers. Prime commands more firepower than anyone ever did in our history. You lived here for a while. You know. So I ask again … why do you want to go to that loser?"
Springer stared at Ratchet. :What are you doing? What if he decides he won't go there? What then?:
Ratchet glanced at him with a slight smirk. :Fragged if I know:
Springer blinked with surprise at Ratchet who was smirking at him. He glanced at Drift, then the others. :Okay:
Ratchet snickered. He waited, then continued. "There is no way that Razorclaw is allowed to free range. He's hemmed in and we know every move he makes. Why not go to Ominous?"
"Just like that?" the first voice said.
"Why not? He's less hemmed in than Razorclaw. You won't have as much trouble fighting for command as you would with a Predacon and you can run for it when Prime gets tired of both groups and goes forward to crush them. Think about it." Ratchet listened to the silence for a moment, then glanced at Prowl. He was looking at Ratchet with puzzlement as well. Ratchet grinned, then turned back to wait.
They would wait a moment or two.
=0=Meeting
So the planets are lining up well. No one has faltered outside parameters set for them in our calculations. We will begin to program the move of the two inner ring planets we plan to hold the Mercury and Venus positions. That will take another decaorn. When those show good data then we can consider the move of Cybertron. That's going to take a lot of effort with the population. We can't scare them too much."
Prime nodded. "You state that it will be nearly instantaneous, the transfer through the bridges."
"We have to do it that way. If we do it swiftly, then the chances for problems drop precipitously. That's the entire hope. When they arrive at the system, the sky will be dark with stars but there'll be light on the ground. Sort of like Pluto and others we've all seen. It will take a bunch of work for the processes of Primus to begin to make an atmosphere. We're working on that now. When the atmosphere is restored so will the blue skies."
"I want that for home," Raptor said from a monitor.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
=0=Courthouse
"So … let's assume that you aren't full of slag … you'd just let us walk out of here like that?" the voice asked.
"Consider our situation. You're just five slaggers. Even if you're worth in trouble about 20, you're still five. You go to Ominous, you'll fight and likely win. None of you fraggers want to be second to anyone. You go to Razorclaw, he will kill you. If you were honest with me, you'd agree.
"Ominous isn't a phase six formulated mechanism. He's tough and smart but you could take him. He, you can kill. If you go there you'll make trouble and get them off our list for a while. It'll take longer for you to get his group under your command and we get a breather.
"With Razorclaw, he'd kill you and there'd be no interlude of chaos. Its a win-win for us if you go to Ominous. It's a fragging waste of time to send you to Razorclaw because he'll kill all of you. See?" Ratchet grinned at the others who grinned back.
It was silent a moment, then the voice was back. "You don't think I can take Razorclaw down."
"No. No offense. He's just that tough. He also has his brothers with him." Ratchet grinned. They didn't need to know that one of them was here. "Are you slaggers ready to face Predaking?"
It was silent, then the voice was back. "What are you offering to get us out of here?"
"Give us the femmes in exchange for a shuttle equipped to get you out of our slagging life. We'll program the path to Ominous. He'll take you in, then its up to you. I personally hope you slag each other to the Pit but I'm not particular. Either way, you slaggers will be off our To-Do list for a while," Ratchet replied.
"We take the femmes for a short distance, then let them out. You follow discreetly and pick them up. I don't trust you any other way, Autobot," the voice said.
"That makes two of us. There's no other way for you to leave here alive. Either give it up to do it this way or we'll just gas you," Ratchet said. "Maybe we'll even use non poisonous gas."
Prowl who was listening called for a runabout to be prepped at the airfield. However this cockamamie plan worked out, he would cover all the bases.
It was silent as the five worked out the possibilities.
=0=Meeting
That's the best case scenario. Given that we've met or exceeded our projections, I expect that this won't be any different." Caro smiled at everyone, then sat.
The claps and acknowledgment he got was music to Payload's audials. Venture was next.
=0=Courthouse
"We'll send out one femme. We're keeping the other. We're going to drop her off before we jump to superluminal space."
"No, you're not taking anyone but yourselves. The femmes are not negotiable," Ratchet said.
"Then trade them for two of you," the voice said.
Ratchet considered that, then leaned closer to the door. "I have to clear it with Prime. Wait a second."
"Not too long," the voice said.
Ratchet stepped away and everyone gathered. "We need Percy and 'Jack."
Moments later …
Prowl and Ratchet, both highly unarmed walked down the corridor with their servos in sight as agreed upon. They entered the room where the mechs were waiting, facing a plethora of big big guns, all of them pointed at them.
Two femmes who were terrified were standing together behind them.
Ratchet looked at them. "Let the femmes go. Then we go down the corridor to the patio outside. A runabout is waiting there for all of us."
Spectre stared at the two, his sensors indicating that the mechs before him were unarmed. He glanced at the femmes, then nodded.
The two looked at Ratchet and Prowl who nodded, too, then edged out to run down the corridor. They disappeared at once.
It was silent a moment.
"Well, do tell the rest," Spectre said with a humorless smile.
"We go down the corridor and out the back door. We get into the runabout, then take off. Once you get out of the system you'll let us out and we'll be picked up by Seekers who'll be shadowing us waiting for my transponder signal to come get us both."
Spectre nodded. "Lead on then," he said gesturing with his gun.
Ratchet and Prowl walked to the door, then stepped out into the hallway for the short walk to the patio outside. The rest of them followed with their guns drawn and their optics peeled.
It was agonizingly tense as they did.
=0=TBC 6-5-19