The Diego Diaries: Diplomatin' (dd7 133)
=0=In infinity
They walked through the bridge, the kids leaping on each other and Drift as they hurried toward Earth. Springer, Lucien and Ratchet followed smiling at their antics when the sight of the bridge room at Diego came into view. The kids ran forward, then when stepping out collided with each other as Lumi and Tru stopped abruptly.
"ATAR!" Lumi said, then jumped Ironhide to hug him. The others piled on as well. It was noisy and happy, then it was quiet again.
"Hi," Ironhide said with a chuckle. He glanced at Ratchet and Lucien. "You eat?"
"Nope," Ratchet said.
"Food in the rec room," Ironhide said to the kids.
"On it," Tru said as he ran for the stairs. "LAST ONE UP IS A LOSER!"
They fled in hot pursuit of him as all disappeared from view.
Springer grinned. "I hope he wasn't talking about us, too."
"There's food up there?" Ratchet asked with a chuckle. "Where's Halo and Robby?"
Ironhide patted his hold, then walked with the four as they headed for the stairs. It was a jolly group who disappeared as well.
=0=In the rec room
The kids sat with the soldiers there including Smokescreen, Smokey and Jolt. Eating copious numbers of items chosen eclectically by Ironhide, they filled the local punters in about their adventure at the United Nations as crowds gathered outside hoping the group would come out and amble around.
Ironhide who was sipping a drink grinned at Springer and Drift. "How was it this time?"
"Interesting," Springer said. "All we had to do was stand there and look good. For some of us, that isn't hard."
Huge guff greeted that.
"The infants looked good," Smokescreen said as the kids walked back to get more food from the buffet nearby. "Its good for them to see our kids."
"That was fun, Commander," Lumi said. "Wasn't Quadrus great?"
Everyone agreed that he was. Quadrus blushed as only a Cybertronian could … that is, he didn't. But he was pleased as peas to get acknowledged by his elders.
"When you infants get done eating we're going for a swim," Ratchet said. "The ocean is a work and wonder."
Huge delight greeted that as the kids hurried through their food.
Ratchet grinned at Lucien. "Are you going to swim?"
"I'm thinking about it," Lucien said with the ghost of a grin. Ratchet glanced at the kids a moment so Lucien glanced at Ironhide. He nodded ever so faintly.
Ironhide grinned, then nodded back the same way.
Drift and Springer grinned as well.
When the kids were finished, they cleared up, then gathered with their elders to walk through the base to the beach. They were going the long route to get the full monty tour of this, ground zero of their specie's joy and reclamation.
As they did, Ironhide popped his hold, set a cow on a leash down on the ground, then set Halo on his arm. She was smiling at everyone. "Prime and Prowl are coming. They should be here shortly. They want to debrief or as they call it 'play, too'." Ironhide grinned. "You're corrupting everyone."
"Good," Ratchet said as he took Robby's leash. "Shall we go?"
Everyone agreed, then followed Ratchet out into the sunlight. As they did Prowl and Prime came into the rec room with Possibility in arms. The group waited as the three caught up, exchanged a laugh or two, then set out with Ratchet and Robby ambling along with half the titanic kids. The rest followed with everyone else staring at the humans and the base with deep interest and a sense of historical
Behind Ratchet, every off duty mech on the island was following along with Bumblebee holding a couple of balls for water sport. Around and behind them, a vast crowd of off duty individuals were following as well with every manner of camera and phone gadget that they had with them. Among them were camera men and women as well as reporters stationed here from the MCA who shared their work with the world.
It was going to be fun. The big bots were back in town.
=0=Pentagon
Sitting in Morshower's lounge finishing up lunch, Glenn Morshower, Mick Moran, John Fulton, Admiral Nelson of the UK, General Jensen of Denmark and General Fujikawa of Japan were gathered together to debrief about the hearing.
"It was the right tone. Ratchet is strategic. He gave the details of the problem, set the pattern of what would be done about it, discussed the situation with just enough details, showed the kids to remind them that the differences aren't very different between us, then wrapped it up. He has a lot of interviews coming up so he can build from that basis," John Fulton said as he sipped his coffee. Food was over, the major interviews given and they were winding down together.
Mick checked a message on his phone, then grinned. "The Autobots are at Diego. Prime, Prowl, Ironhide. All of them."
Morshower grinned, then rose. "What are we waiting for?"
They rose and walked out heading for a highly secured room where bridges came to take them where they wanted to go. It was a lot less distracting for everyone here than directly using the courtyard inside the huge building for bridges. They were gone in seconds.
=0=Diego
A stroll down the base led to a pause at the Officer's Club. The place emptied out to talk to the bots, some of which didn't come that often. The punters were good friends and often came to Mars for meetings with humans and the bots. Ratchet knelt to talk to them and watch them admire Ironhide's cow.
"This is genius," a colonel said. He was new but he was petting Robby who was enjoying it immensely.
"That's a slagging fine cow," Ironhide said. "Better than my appa and atar's. Their cows are great but this one … this is a genius cow."
Huge laughter and agreement met that comment as out of the Officer's Club a familiar face came. He paused on the porch to watch.
Cam Frazer was in the haus.
Ratchet smirked at him, then continued his conversation with the officers who greeted both Halo and Possibility. The little mech was walking rather well and Halo took it upon herself to hold his servo and 'mother' him. He didn't mind. He came into being near a Matrix.
"We're going swimming and play a bit of ball. You boys on duty?" Ratchet asked.
"So you're undermining the operation are you?" Prowl asked. "Some of us work and then … well, you get it."
"I do, Miss Priss who's playing hooky. I do believe you were supposed to be in the Ops Center all afternoon," Ratchet said as Prime grinned.
Prowl glanced at Prime and the grin disappeared to the riotous laughter and ribald commentary of everyone there. Prowl gazed at Ratchet with cool optics. "I do believe you've been in the sun too long. I, Prowl do not play hooky."
"Sure you do, slagger. I don't blame you. Hanging out with me adds to your overall allure. Ask the booking sargent at the jail house," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile.
Prowl gave him The Look, then glanced at the humans. "We have to move on now. Ratchet might get lost going by himself."
Huge laughter, snark and some small agreement greeted that as they continued onward. They passed the docks but didn't go down them as they were busy with ships in and all manner of freight transfers underway.
The sailors and marines there watched the surreal sight of gigantic mechanisms walk past some distance over, the buildings of the area allowing them to see the bots only from the waist upward. There were a lot of similar appearing bots that were taller than all of them, bots that they knew were the titanic kids.
"The dreads are over 16 miles long I heard," a sailor said as he waited for the forklift to come around to the pallet that was heading for a warehouse nearby. "I can't imagine that. You could run 5K races in them and have three going at the same time without overlap. Damn."
The others agreed, then the forklift came around and they were busy piling things on the pallet in its arms. The bots continued onward.
Crowds had gathered at the shore with the professional media already in place to film the fun. It was always fun when the bots came. Among their number finding places to watch was Cam Frazer. Nearby, not having noticed his presence, Commander Cardinelli also was watching with friends.
They came, stepping over the fence nearby to walk to the water and beach which was cleared of humans. Every human new and old got The Talk when they came here by boat or plane. When the bots were on the beaches, everyone cleared off. They weren't allowed to approach past the markers on the shore which was a built up ridge that ran the length of the beach on this, a very flat island.
No one got too close. They were fast, they watched out but anything could happen. Everyone had seen football from Mars and everyone was completely aware of the possibilities. Everyone also would give their left kidney to go to a game but that was another story.
A huge crowd lined the beach for some distance holding cameras, phones and binoculars. The bots were flooding over the fence to the beach, some carrying kids and a cow while others brought balls. They gathered at the water's edge, then placed the two children down.
Halo and Possibility stood in the warm water as it lapped over their tiny peds. It was warm, wet and rhythmical. They LOVED it. Prowl picked up Halo and walked out to waist deep before holding her on his arms so she could pat the water and kick her tiny feet.
Springer picked up Possibility and joined him. The two kids were delighted and even more so when Ironhide picked up Robby and tossed him into the water near them. He sank, stood on the bottom a moment looking betrayed, then began to rise. He broke the surface, mooed loudly, then began to swim back to shore. He would land in the water two more times before Ratchet would slap Ironhide's noggin and save the little baby.
Ratchet walked to the beach, set Robby down, then grinned at three clerical workers, females all before handing them the leash which was rather big for them. "He's called Robby and he likes girls."
They squeed, stood around him and patted his fat little belly.
He let them. He was in love.
Ratchet ambled back to the water's edge where all the boys were gathered. Prowl and Springer were back on shore with the children when Lucien, Prime, Ironhide, Springer, Drift and Smokescreen grabbed Ratchet, swung him a couple of times to build up momentum, then threw him as far as they could over the water.
It was quite a ways.
Ratchet flew through the air upside down and spreadeagled before he fell into the ocean a long distance away. Everyone of them congratulated themselves, congratulated Lucien for having hitherto fore unknown powers of humor and took their bows. Then everyone turned back to stare at the water for Ratchet to bob up.
He didn't.
They watched, waited, then became nervous. Everyone turned back to look at Ironhide. He actually took a step backward. "Don't look at me. Old Mech is insane. He's probably coming straight at us like a torpedo."
Everyone turned back to the ocean to look, some of them even using special detection gear they carried. There was no sign of Ratchet.
"Oh, oh. Something tells me we're going to regret-"
That was as far as Springer got before Ratchet rose up out of the water, hovered a moment on his peds, then grabbed Ironhide and Prime by the arms.
Torquing up his pedal thrusters, something nearly everyone had but often didn't use, he yanked them off their feet, flew over the ocean, then dropped them in. As everyone watched either with surprise or huge laughter, Ratchet flew swiftly in for more.
"OH SLAG! MAY DAY! MAY DAY! EVERY MECH FOR YOURSELF!" Drift said as he began to run down the beach.
He didn't get far.
The titanic kids who were laughing as they watched glanced at each other. Tru and Verilus picked up Halo and Possibility as casually as they could, then stepped back from the group who was watching Drift hanging by his neck from Ratchet as he flew toward the sea. Dropping from about fifty feet, he sank like a stone. They gave the children to a femme Home Guardsman who took their servos and with a Home Guard mech pulled them back to watch. There wasn't enough shanix in the universe to compel them to join in.
That's when the titanic kids gave a war hoop. "FOR ADA! FOR CYBERTRON!" they all bellowed loudly. Then they charged the bots on the shore who were caught by surprise, all nine of them. War was declared and they'd chosen their faction.
Mama.
=0=TBC 11-15-19
ESL
eclectic, eclectically: (ek-lek-tik, ek-lek-tik-lee) deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of things (Like the average hobo's house) ;D