The Diego Diaries: Ready, Set (dd7 80)
I tried to edit this now. Too sleepy. Will do tomorrow. :D
=0=On a street watching the show
They watched the show at the Military Airfield. Magec was showing Silo around since he'd just gotten out of prison after a six year long temper tantrum. They shared an apartment in City 4, Crater District 2. Magec had taken a few orns off from work to ease Silo into freedom.
They were heading for Club Cybertron when they noticed that tankers and other vehicles were being towed to the flight line. The sunlight was dying and city lights were beginning to come on as the towers lit up with residents arriving home to their apartments. Traffic was still brisk as they waited for the lights to change.
"What's going on?" Silo asked.
Magec shrugged. "Hard to say. They muster for missions sometimes orns in advance. Something's going on."
The light changed so the two crossed, then walked to the door of Club Cybertron. The bar was filled with mechs and an odd femme or two as the younger set came in to have fun. They walked through it, then entered the lounge where a few card games were going and friends were gathered at the tables and snugs to talk, drink, eat bar food and laugh.
Silo remembered Club Cybertron from their home world. "This is bigger."
Magec nodded. "It's bigger everywhere. Let's get dinner," he said as he led the way into the dining room.
Silo would do everything but whistle in amazement as he followed. This beat slag all from being in jail.
=0=Sitting in a conference room with Prime
Springer and Drift, Chromia, Elita, Jazz, Maelstrom and Mirage gathered with Prime and Prowl to go over the plan. They would take a modified Decepticon fighter, one with lots of guns and speed, then go to a trading place near the area out of which the Imperialis brothers operated. It was a low down hard as nails settlement where trading, both legal and otherwise happened. From there, they would make their way toward Cassio's camp.
Mirage was with them to make sure that no civilians were being exploited when Prime and Typhoon arrived to settle everyone's hash.
Win-win.
Ironhide, Prime, Prowl, Springer, Drift and Raptor sat together going over the details and intel. Blackjack the Younger was on the monitor adding his two shanix from his office on Cybertron. It would take a while to iron out.
=0=Elsewhere
The kids gathered to go home from schools all over the colony, boarding buses in turn with others who went their direction. A good third of them were heading for the school's metro station to go home. The rest of the kids were either being picked up by family or friends or took cabs. A row of white cabs were always ready at the stand near the schools.
The bus that would take students home to Earth 1 and 2 waited as the humans were carried out in boxes. They were loaded and the doors closed, sealing shut against the elements. They waited in their place, then the buses began to pull out to leave.
Sitting in their seats, the kids from Earth who attended Youngling Day were chatting up the usual stuff. Then Rain looked over the seat. :I heard that the Intermediate kids are going on extended trips to do things. Does our school do that?: she asked.
:I don't know: Jaycee Jameson said. :I'll ask Annie. I never heard we did beyond Trypticon:
:When do we go back to Trypticon? You can sleep over there you know: Camilla Brown said.
:Not until we come around to astronomy again: Madeline De Vries said. :Right now, the Intermediate School is using the stuff at Trypticon:
They chatted onward as the bus took the turnoff to the huge roundabout that would lead them to their habitats and dinner.
=0=Bosom
"ADA!"
"WHAT!"
Orion smiled at Ratchet. "Ada, my doin' this?" he asked as he pointed at the table where Sunspot had placed their dinner ware.
"Yep," Ratchet said as he began to ladle soup into bowls. There were tiny sandwiches, a couple of sides and baby juice for everyone under four feet tall.
"Where Atar?" Orion asked.
"Atar is working. He'll be home shortly. Let's eat, imps. Everyone clean?"
Five little kids, one bigger kid and three giant ones grinned, inspected their hands, then nodded.
Ratchet laughed. "SIT! EAT!"
The titan kids perched the little ones, then placed the bowls and dishes on the table before the kids. When they sat themselves, dinner officially began. It would also include a cow, a dog and a cat.
"Ada."
"What, Halo?"
"She?"
Ratchet considered which she Halo wanted as Hero translated. "Where's Atar? That's what she's saying."
"Atar is working. Just workin'." Ratchet grinned at the second infant in the house who had The Glitch. On her, it was as cute as it was on Orion.
"Atar she?" Halo asked.
Ratchet nodded. "He'll come soon enough. He has to help Uncle Owl and Uncle Otis."
Genesis chuckled. "I love that."
Everyone did.
=0=Later that night
Ironhide sneaked inside, then checked the children before heading for the berth room. Messing around as he dropped some hardware on the chair by the window, he walked to the berth, sat, then lay back. It was quiet a moment.
"What did they decide to do and when do they go?" Ratchet asked.
"We're sending in a team to recon. They're going to that wide open settlement that's nearby, then go from there. The brothers ship what they need from there. The settlement, I think its called Broken Hole, has an agreement with them about this. They should be able to get a job with the arrangements easily enough," Ironhide said.
"I want them back and the show on the road. What does Ty have to say?" Ratchet asked.
"Bring it," Ironhide said with a grin. "Prime and the rest of us are going out on the mission. You never know what might happen."
"I suppose you want a medical component," Ratchet said.
"Send someone else. The kids have things coming up," Ironhide said.
"I know. We'll see."
They chatted a while, then fell into recharge.
=0=The group leaving the meeting
They walked to the street to break up for the morning. They would wear pretender gear which would help them change their own real features enough that no one would know who they were. Pretenders could create shells and they could also modify someone with a transformational bent.
They would wear battered finishes and change their vocal patterns so that no one would be able to tell them from their voices. They would fit in. They wouldn't like it. As they chatted a moment, they broke up to go home. They would leave the next orn and bridge as close to the settlement as possible. The range of Cassio's goons was extending with every arrival of soldiers and criminals drawn by his reputation.
They would be close but not that close when they arrived.
The night deepened when Prime and Prowl walked out to go home, too.
=0=Out there
The settlement was quiet at night for a change. This place was a criminal outpost where the roving bands brought stolen goods to trade for things they needed. It was a place where you could buy nearly anything you wanted and where you could have a good time. It was large, very well armed and secure. It was ruled by a hard boiled family who had founded the place with others and built it into a place where even Decepticons could come and hang out. There were few rules but violence was a good way to get you summarily executed.
Given it was the only recreational place within almost unimaginable sectors of space, no one really wanted to end a good thing. That Megatron and his spawn didn't know about this place was a good thing. It would have gone up in smoke right away.
The settlement was heavily guarded, had a main street with bars, hotels and pawn shops where the ships brought their wares to barter for whatever it was their captains wanted or needed. Sensors were everywhere and so were bands of armed guards.
The airfield was nearby where all vessels that came were required to land. It was highly guarded and if you were going to be an aft, this would be the place where you came to die. High fences that were highly charged surrounded the airfield and gun towers were manned at regular intervals.
Ships with their crews and cargo would come and go all orn long.
No one would be ever off camera.
=0=Early morning
They gathered together, the group that was leaving. Maelstrom was going along with His Girl. Springer would be the mech in charge. As they gathered before the ship they would use, Kup and Hercy arrived.
Springer grinned. "Think you can hold the Watch together?"
"No problem," Hercy said.
"Frag. You're going to have to have more charisma and style than that, Hercy. I have a reputation to maintain," Springer said as the group began to load up.
They also began to laugh and mock unmercifully, all of them but Maelstrom. He grinned the entire way upward to the ship where he disappeared inside.
Springer watched them go, then looked at Kup and Hercy. "Slaggers. See ya on the back side."
"Depend on it, infant," Hercy said as he watched Springer walk up the ramp to the hatch door.
Springer entered, the door closed and things began to gather for take off. Elita would fly, everyone else would lounge and practice their sneering and bad mojo. Hercy and Kup would step back to watch.
"Elita-1 to Fort Max Flight Control," she said.
There was a pause, then the tower was back. "You're priority go, Commander. Go at will and come back soon," a young voice said to her.
"Will do. See you on the back side," Elita said as she powered up the ship.
It rose slowly, then more rapidly upward as it disappeared.
Hercy and Kup watched it go, then glanced back at their two horses waiting patiently. "Well, better get to it. Infant would want it."
"He would," Kup said as they ambled back to their steeds, mounted up, then rode back to the city to meet up with the rest of their crew. They would disappear in moments.
=0=Flying through the bridge
The night navigator of Autobot City Bridge sent them on their way. The ship came out at the other end into space that belonged theoretically to the Decepticons but really was the wild wild west of the local area. There were lots of criminals and their ships here with traffic flying around what appeared to be well set traveling and shipping lanes.
There were small relay sensors that could be detected but appeared to be well kept with some sort of dampeners. They would be hard to find so they dug out equipment that Wheeljack and Perceptor had loaded earlier. Dampeners would help them come and go when they had to. Right now, they needed to get to the settlement, Broken Hole before too much longer.
They disappeared into the darkness nearly immediately.
=0=Early morning
Ratchet hoofed it out heading for the Medical Center. Ironhide would take care of the kids, getting them to school but for Halo. He himself would attend to a processor operation on a refugee and talk to Cambo and Goldwing about going out with Prime and Typhoon.
He entered the facility, went up to the neural-processor sector, then found his patient. He would be involved with them for some time. The fascinating thing about the whole procedure was that a former Mayhem Crew captain, someone who was a cold blooded killer, pathological liar, dangerous psycho and all around Decepticon would be assisting the crews doing medicine to those brought in from the Refugee Center.
He was a quiet mech with a good sense of humor. He was learning to be a doctor and at the moment was a surgeon's assistant and aftercare specialist. He was liked, worked hard, was always early to appointments and the job and liked making small models of ships.
He was a low caste with a great interest in learning to read well so he could build up his collection of books in his apartment in Bern.
He had a new paint scheme, a new life and a new name. He was the mech known now as Carne. Before a fire fight in a migration earlier, before he received a head shot that shattered his processor and former life forever, he was the Decepticon marauder known as Carnivac.
Who knew?
=0=TBC 9-7-19 edited 9-8-19
LEONESS! I hear ya. I'm going to have to get more trees. I will actually see the back fence for the first time in 40 years. :} HUGS!