The Diego Diaries: Talko (dd7 112)
=0=Ops Center
"And its been said that the operation was world wide. Apparently, Interpol, the FBI and other international policing forces from fifteen countries around the world were coordinating the investigation for over three years. There's little information released yet about the operation but it's known that those taken into custody were part of the underground movement known as The Resistance. That's the umbrella term and the political arm for all of the anti-alien, Earth First groups working to rid the solar system of Cybertronian occupation.
"This group has used violence as a tactic since the beginning and there are dozens of bombings, bank robberies to finance their activities and shootouts all over the world that are attributed to this shadowy organization. Its even feared that some of the militaries of the world have been infiltrated by members who have either military training from serving as soldiers or are at present active duty members."
They sat side by side listening to the news as it was broadcast over a number of stations from all over Earth. The take down of a large portion of The Resistance's network had made headlines there and would here in the evening when the information would be released through The Hourly News.
Prowl frowned. "Extremists are said to have infiltrated the United States Army and other forces. That's been known for some time. I'm a bit peeved. This is a lot of work gone down the drain."
"You might want to think about it as someone else doing the dirty work for us," Optimus said as he held Possibility.
Prowl glanced at the baby. "You didn't take him with you did you? I know my ada had him and the twinnies."
"I asked Miler to bring him to me before we landed. He came over from The Trigger by bridge," Optimus said as he smiled at the baby. "You are confusing me with Ironhide."
"That mech had better hope Youth Services doesn't find out," Prowl said as the news came back on.
"If you've just tuned in, The Resistance, a paramilitary terrorist group with a world wide network was raided this morning and here's what we know ..."
=0=Elsewhere at the prison waiting room
Siphon walked out with a grin on his face. He was followed by the mechs who were testing and evaluating him preliminarily pending placement. The three, a counselor, a mental health specialist and one of the advocate/social workers for Youth Services came into the waiting room where Rocco sat with Scar. That mech was going to be his mentor when the paperwork and Matrix oath were over.
"Come with us to the conference room, Rocco," the advocate said. He was a big young kindly mech named Tome.
Rocco stood, then turned to Siphon. "Have a seat, kid. I'll be right back."
"You going to be long?" Siphon asked with a slight sense of unease.
"No," Rocco said. "Scar can keep you company." He followed the three into the conference room and the door closed.
Siphon stared at it, then Scar.
Scar grinned. "Have a seat, kid. Here," he said as he unsubbed candy. He held it out to the youngster.
Siphon hesitated, then sat. He took the candy, then glanced at Scar. "What's this? I think its candy."
"It is," Scar said. "It's yours. Have some."
The kid stared at him, then the can. He opened it, looked inside, then grinned. "I never had candy before."
"Well, you will now," Scar said as he watched the little mech try some.
Siphon's optics lit up, then he grinned at Scar. "That's good. That's what candy is?"
"It is. You can have as much as you want here. Even ice cream," Scar said with a gathering sense of dismay and emotion.
"Wow," Siphon said. "I'll save some for Rocco, too. You want some?"
"I ate some. That's for you and Rocco," Scar said as he watched the kid eat the candy. "Rocco is a good guy?"
"Rocco's the best. He helps me. I don't know some of the things. He's my friend." Siphon ate his candy without a clue to the pathos of his words or the sweetness of his happiness.
Scar took care of that for him.
=0=In the desert outside of Autobot City, just slightly northwest of the Prison
They slowed together, then stopped. Transforming, the mechs turned to each other with a grin. Hardie, Raptor, Sun, Jack, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Steiner and Ironhide gathered together as half a dozen more watched. Springer and Drift who had come along waited with them, too.
"What now, General Dad?" Springer asked with a smirk.
"All of you slaggers go to that ridge and make yourself small. Hardie, Sun, Steiner and I will take care of this. Go now, infants," Jack said with a grin.
The mechs snorted and laughed but obeyed as they walked to a low ridge nearby to fade more deeply into the darkness of the night. Martian nights were squid ink black in these parts. They gathered, then watched. It grew quiet again.
Jack grinned at Hardie, then opened his hold. He pulled out a case holding the Australian, Collin Anderson. The other box pulled from Steiner's hold joined Collin's and contained Horst Mueller from Germany. Both of them stared wildly around, then upward at the bots.
"Well, here we are," Hardie said quietly. He smirked only slightly. His role was to be the hard aft who had no sense of humor. Steiner would be a wild aft as would Sun. Jack would be the one who had a 'conscience' and would be worried about rules and regulations. "What about it, humans? How do you like Mars now?" he asked.
The humans were raised to optic level as the big mechs stared at them. The humans watched their faces come closer, then stepped slightly back. They glanced around, then Mueller saw Anderson. :Collin!:
Anderson stared with fear at Mueller, then tapped the intercom button near the door of their box. :What do you want? What is this?:
"I think its called paybacks. After all, you dragged two human men out here to the wilderness, then killed them horribly."
:We didn't do that: Anderson replied.
"Sure you did. No one else could. We found modified versions of our tech on you. You have our tech. That means you belong to The Resistance, maybe even M.E.C.H." Hardie leaned in slightly. "That wasn't nice, you being from M.E.C.H. and coming here as a spy. No one likes spies."
:We're with N.E.S.T. We aren't spies: Mueller said.
"Of course you are. That's why given you dragged Dobbs and Lombardi out into the cold and left them to die, we thought we'd return the favor," Hardie said. "No one will know. We can tell your families that you died in a freak accident on the Valles trails or something. No one will ever know and we solve a problem for both sides, N.E.S.T and us."
:What are you going to do?: Collin called out. He was looking a bit on the panicky side as was Mueller. That man wasn't making a sound but you could see it around him like an aura.
"Well," Sun said with a grin. "We're going to put these cages down on that rock over there," he said with a nod to a boulder nearby. Everyone looked at it, then him. "Then we're going to take turns throwing rocks at it until we break your cages. Mind you, we'll probably crack the rock before we break a cage but the beating you're going to take will be epic. We can say you fell down a cliff side when the ground broke up under your feet."
The two stared at Sun with real fear, then turned to Hard Drive. :You're some kind of general, someone everyone respects. This would be murder:
"You mean like the things you did to Dobbs and Lombardi? Like those murders?" Hardie asked quietly.
It was as silent as a tomb, then Sun took a box into servo. He began to walk to the rock followed by Steiner who held the other one.
=0=Conference room
"We did a preliminary overview of the youngling and found him somewhat sound physically. He's smaller than he should be but that can be rectified with good nutrition as well as an organized routine of rest and supplements. We're going to do a deeper, better evaluation at Metro Femme, our youngling hospital tomorrow," Ocher, the medical tech said as the others nodded. "He seems to be without too many injuries but he bears two wounds that appear to be caused by plasma weapons."
Rocco nodded, then sat back uneasily. "No one knew he wasn't up to it and he saw some battles. I pulled him out for menial labor when it was clear he wasn't smart enough to do this. He's brave. He's willing. But he doesn't have the skills to stay alive."
Ocher nodded. "I know. I did the math on his transponders and he's a high end youngling, low end sub adult. He's on the edge of that."
Rocco stared at him with an appalled expression, then he hid it. "He's a kid then."
Ocher nodded. "He is. We're finding child soldiers among our recoveries and they default to the state if they don't have families or guardians. Right now, he's being evaluated and when that's done he'll be given a hearing to figure out what's the best place for him."
Rocco stared at them for a moment. "What else did you find out?"
"He's uneducated. He's got complications from lack of nutrition and hard knocks, something we're seeing in all of our child warriors. They have developmental problems and some of them have heavy duty emotional and mental problems," the advocate, Tome said. "He seems to be a mech without too many obvious problems that way but time will tell us more. Time and study."
"He … he's not so bright but he's okay. I don't see mental problems. He can get scared but he's brave, you know?" Rocco said. "He got good care with us. We protected him. I … he was a kid all along and we got it. Check this," Rocco said as he subbed a small wooden box and put it on the table.
Tome opened it and inside were homemade trucks, planes and other small items.
"Those are his toys. We made them for him, some of us. He likes to play with them. We figured he wasn't too smart. He liked toys. I don't think we really thought he was a kid. He just … he likes his toys," Rocco said. He looked dark with emotion.
Ocher picked up a tiny plane. "These are cute. He loves them then?"
"Yeah," Rocco said.
"Well, we need to work with him to get him into shape again. He's not that badly off. I've seen them come in pieces. He's terribly devoted to you," Tome said.
It was silent. Rocco shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, well ..."
"What we have here is an unaccompanied underaged child who has some issues that need addressed. He's under legal obligation to go to school until he reaches the age of consent as a sub adult. Until then, if he has no one to take care of him we'll take him to the Youth Center where he'll be safe and attended to until we find a family who will take him in," Tome said.
Rocco glanced at him. "Just like that. A youth center?"
"They aren't like the ones on Cybertron. These are homes where they're taken good care of," Ocher said as the other two nodded.
"No. Youth Centers are kid prisons," Rocco said. He seemed to struggle with himself, then came to a conclusion apparently. "What about I take care of him until you find someone. He's only been with us and he's … he's not a bad kid. He can work up to it."
"Your status is uncertain," Turley, the mental health specialist said. "Let me see how that's going. Scar told me that he's your mentor in the Former Decepticon Association." He tapped into a computer, pulled up a number of screens, then read something.
Glancing at Rocco, he sat back. "Your status has been granted as provisional citizenship through the trial period. After that, you'll be granted full restored citizenship if you don't frag up. You'll be fitted with a device and a tracker, then taken to transitional housing for now. The F.D.A. will take care of the rest."
"What about Siphon?" Rocco asked tensely.
=0=Out there
They set the boxes down, then began to look around on the ground for rocks. The two humans watched with growing terror as those nearby watched.
:Frag. Remind me to never frag them off: Sunstreaker said with an admiring expression on his face.
:You and me both: Springer said with a big grin.
=0=Prison Interview Room
"Name?"
"Cog of Altihex."
"Occupation before the war?:
"Tracker."
=0=TBC 10-17-19 NOTES TOMORROW! :D 02-02-2021