The Diego Diaries: Emergency (dd7 85)
I couldn't post this last night because my internet had a problem. I'm sitting at McDonald's eating breakfast to use their internet until this afternoon when I think it'll be fixed. :}
EDIT: I was told that Microsoft was using my computer as a server and caused my modem to slow down, thereby crashing my system. I thought it was my ROKU box so I got another. It wasn't. It was the leaches at Microsoft utilizing my computer without telling me to do their stuff, the bastards. :(
It took this long to get back on and send this. :(
ON WITH THE SHOW!
=0=On board Banner
The needles finally ticked over into the 'acceptable-seek refill' levels for his transfer to Mars. Ratchet called Cryptic Warrior. "Ratchet to Warrior"
:I am here, Doctor:
"I've done the calculations. We can teleport to Mars proper without much problem and bypass Saturn Station. Its that urgent we get there without delay. It's the rest that follows that'll be difficult. Call Prowl to get coordinates for a beam in. Make it as close as possible, then we'll figure out how to take him down from there."
:On it. Standby: Cryptic Warrior said.
Ratchet stared at the panel nearby, then a voice whispered to him. "Who is there?"
Ratchet walked to the panel, then knelt and placed a servo on it. "I'm here. I'm taking care of you, Banner."
"Don't leave me alone. They're here. I am … alone," Banner whispered.
Ratchet pressed his face against the panel. "You aren't alone. Everyone is here. We saved you."
"Don't let me die alone," Banner whispered. "I have looked forever for someone. I've been alone forever."
Ratchet stared at the panel as the war inside himself raged.
:Doctor, we are going to teleport into the visual range of Mars to a high orbit. I would suggest that you hold on tightly: Cryptic Warrior said.
Ratchet rose, walked to the command chair, then magnetized. "Complied, Warrior. Let's go."
A hum began that vibrated the big ship, a light grew outside and then they were gone.
=0=On the ground
Prime and Prowl watched space as four big ships just arriving took up a stationary orbit over the city of Tyger Pax. They were in conference with Dangerous on how to provide a web of tractors for Banner to be lowered. It could be done but required very good calculations so as not to cause a big flare of overlapping beams and a short out of everyone's energy beam systems. If that happened as they held him now one would be able to tractor and he would fall into a fireball.
Radio traffic was cryptic among the big frames as they worked out the details both in space and on the ground. That was when the word that Banner, Cryptic Warrior and Striker were on their way. The other ships were waiting at Saturn Big Frame Space Yard with The Dandy. He would be able to wait. Banner had priority.
Shortly after that news, everyone heard the siren as it signaled that Banner had arrived in space nearby and was going to be coming. It echoed across the flat platform surrounded by rescue vehicles, soldiers, medical, rescue personnel and Seekers, all of them starkly illuminated by light towers.
No one from the city was there, no ships were flying in and out and everyone held their breath metaphorically speaking. There were cameras covering every inch of the area and the steady stream of them rotated on the news through the monitors and viewing screens of millions of Cybertronians and billions of humans on Earth. It was tense and filled with foreboding as the big ships got ready to bring Banner to the ground.
=0=On Banner
Ratchet hunched over the environmental controls watching as the indicators held for Banner. They would keep him alive but they weren't helping him with consciousness. He was drifting in and out, whispering incoherently for the most part but now and again something would come from him that drove itself into Ratchet's spark.
"Someone … is anyone there? ..."
"I'm here, Banner. You aren't alone. Everyone is waiting for you. Your family is waiting for you," Ratchet said as he glanced over his shoulder. "Hang on, Banner. Keep talking to me."
"Alone … where are you, Avalone?" he whispered. "Come to me ..."
Ratchet glanced at him. "Banner? I'm here. Avalone is here."
It was silent a moment, then he whispered again. "I love you ..."
Ratchet felt things crack up and break inside his helm as he stared at the flickering panel of a mech who was the living personification of self denial, genuine greatness and love. The titans were the purest among them. He tapped in a number of codes, then walked to the panel to sit down on the floor. He put his servo on the screen. "I'm here, Banner. Avalone is here."
"I'm glad … I feel like I'm dying … don't leave me, Avi."
Ratchet stared at the big mech, at his subdued interface, then an avalanche of images crossed his mind.
His kids.
His friends, family and home.
All of it flashed before him, then he magnetized. "I'm here, Banner. I'm not leaving you."
:Dangerous to Ratchet:
"Ratchet here," he said as he leaned back against the panel.
:Are you clear? Banner's energy signature is muddled. I can't tell:
Ratchet thought a long time, then nodded. "I'm clear." He listened as the big ships signaled each other, their chat bringing together the plan to bring down a ship that weighed hundreds of millions of tons of metal. As he sat on the floor leaning against Banner's panel, he could feel a massive tractor beam grip the ship, steadying the wobble of it when Cryptic Warrior and Striker cut Banner loose.
The beam held a moment, then Banner began to move. As it did, Ratchet sat quietly with the silent mech as they moved forward toward Mars.
=0=In the area around Mars
Four titans sat in orbit over Tyger Pax as the vastness that was Dangerous worked his skills to save a member of his family. All of the giants considered themselves families or at best clans among the giant tent of titanic greatness. From the Supremes to the Metrotitans to the Dreads, all of them were family to each other.
They watched as a squadron of Seekers flew toward the emerging figure of Banner. They hovered over him forming a rectangular pattern above and below him so that Dangerous could add them to his navigation for a third dimensional view of his body. Slowly they came forward, the Seekers and Banner under tow until he was directly under Danny.
It was a measure of Danny's size that Banner looked so small in comparison. He was dwarfed by the ship mode of Dangerous. It was evident that he'd been terribly hurt. His silence, the absence of his running lights, the sparkle of the ship's energetic aura signaling to all who could see his conscious liveliness was gone. He was just a big metallic figure being held in place by a bigger one and it felt ominous to those waiting on the ground to save him.
:Dangerous to Prime:
:Prime here: Optimus said as he cut everyone with him into the conversation. It was already joined by every titanic being on the planet and the doctors Ratchet had trained to bond and work on the big frames.
:Optimus, I'm scanning him. Ratchet is still in the command center: Danny said.
Everyone froze, then Ironhide stepped forward. :RATCHET!:
There was a pause, then he replied. :I'm here:
:GET THE FRAG OFF THAT SHIP!: Ironhide demanded as everyone stared upward with real fear on their faces.
:I can't. Do it now. I can help. Danny, what about me running thrusters to keep him level?:
:Ratchet … I … it would help a lot. I'm going to lower him directly down. The others are going to form a box pattern, one at each corner of him. If he falters, they will grab him. If you … you need to get off, Ratchet!:
:I can't leave him. Who is Avalone?:
:Oh no: a voice said. It was Metroplex. :Get off, Ratchet. Please get off and we can talk about this:
:Do it, Danny. I'm not getting off: Ratchet said. :Ratchet out:
Ironhide began to run to a runabout and as he did, Danny gave the all clear order. The sirens rolled out and he began to lower Banner to the ground from several miles into space from the upper atmosphere. Forming a square around the big silent mech, the four titans moved from Tyger Pax to Dangerous.
=0=Banner
"My old mech is going to kick my aft, Banner. He's a great mech, my Ironhide. You will love him. We can tell him about you and your Avalone. Are you still there?" Ratchet asked as he rose to walk to the pilot's seat.
A murmur he couldn't make out was all Ratchet heard as he sat down and buckled in. Pulling up auxiliary power, Ratchet onlined the engine's thrusters, the easiest feature to do so in this condition and one of the last to fail on a ship like him. No one knew them better than Ratchet as he plugged in and began to work the panel.
It was clear to him that more tractors would be needed. "Ratchet to Danny."
"Danny here. Ratchet ..."
"Listen, Danny. Have them hit him with a beam on the four corners of your grid on my count. Make it moderate, level 3 and no more. I'm going to stabilize him with thrusters," Ratchet said as he began the calculations.
:Dangerous to team. Get ready to hit Banner with a level three beam on the four corners at Ratchet's mark. Acknowledge:
They did, all four of them.
It was silent on the traffic but for automated systems going through their vocal countdowns over the ship's sound system and those from the others helping.
"On my mark. Acknowledge," Ratchet said.
The five of them did.
"On three. One ..." Ratchet began as he saw the lights below. Danny was lowering him as fast as he could without causing destabilization. As Ratchet sat there doing the math and watching the dials denoting the bodily stability of Banner, it was clear to him that without thrusters, even with the tractor beams, Banner would buckle, slip from at least two of them and fall to the ground to die in a fireball.
"Two ..." Ratchet said. He moved through the data swiftly, then concluded that two of the corners would hold until they were 2-3,000 meters from touchdown, then the likelihood that they would slip was at 65-70% probable. The operation should be aborted but it was too late. They couldn't stop now. Banner was going to begin to fall at 2,000 meters.
"ONE! DO IT!"
Four thuds gripped the ship, shaking him, then settled. A deep, deep moan rolled up through the floor plates, then settled.
Ratchet routed environmental and systems through his panel, took stock, then called out to Dangerous. "We're linked! DANNY! We're going to loose the link at 2,000 meters! He's going to fall! Fix the configuration! Do it fast! I'm sending the data now!"
=0=On the ground
Ironhide ran to a runabout and began to climb inside before his father and grandfather grabbed him. There was nearly a serious brawl as Ironhide floundered blindly, then they gripped him hard enough to hold him before he stopped. Everyone then turned back to the field and looked up to watch as four tractor beams shot out to grip Banner.
The big ship stabilized even as energon fell from the sky to patter on the landing zone. Everyone stared at it, then the big mech who was wobbling overhead. He stopped almost immediately, then began to continue to come back down. As he did all of his thrusters turned downward across the entirety of his body and began to burn.
=0=Saturn Big Frame Yard, Rings of Saturn
:I'm going: Riot said. "Can you hold Dandy?"
:I have him, Riot. Go: Enzio called out over their link.
:Stay, Barter and the rest of you. Help Enzio. I'm going with Riot: a big ship said as he slid out to follow. Three others followed anyway as another slid into the space where Riot had held Dandy to tractor him into place. The four giant ships were out of sight in seconds.
=0=Banner
It was a stable ride for a moment, then Ratchet felt it happen. Two tractor beams were slipping. He corrected with thrusters but the ship was too big and too compromised. "Oh frag. Stay with me, Banner."
Banner was silent but over the interlinks, everyone could see that they were failing to grip him. As the sight of ground below came into view, two tractor beams slipped and the stern end of a metrotitan frame began to fall toward the ground, swinging in the beams still holding as it began to drag two others holding his bow and a dreadnought gripping his superstructure with him.
=0=TBC 9-14-19
Avalone: Ah-vuh-low-nee