The Diego Diaries: Sun Base (dd7 144)
=0=There, at Homeland HQ
They outlined the area of influence that both sides commanded. Sun Base and Homeland had good armies and air forces but they were small and could do little to invade each other besides break things. Neither had achieved superiority over the other at the moment. The rumor mill held, however, that Sun Base was working to alleviate that with the idea of invading and removing Homeland as a threat, adding it to their delusions of empire. It was just one of several reasons why the area was no longer the safe haven it once was. No matter where they went it seemed that a megalomaniac was waiting to destroy them.
"Then that's the general area and these two places," Prowl said pointing to a couple of large asteroids that were caught in the trap of the large star that held everyone in thrall, "are where they hide their early warning system. Sensors?" he asked.
"They have them there," Styre nodded. "We know each other's defenses. We're too close together not to be able to scan and watch each other's deep space capabilities and improvements. We're working on upgrading all of our own. So far, this attack was the worst between us. I don't expect that to last as a milestone."
Prowl nodded as he studied the maps. "Well, we'll see about that."
Stealth leaned against Prowl's shoulder, his relief evident on his handsome face. They continued together to figure out the set up so that Prowl who already was beginning to do so, could build a brick wall around Homeland's territory. No one was going to get through when he was finished.
=0=Prime
He sat on his chair by the pilot on his ship musing over the possibilities.
Hard Drive considered them as well. "I wonder what they'd do if we did a fly over to scan them? It might give us a clue about his strength and the ground situation. Maybe not the Seekers but a full scale battleship. We can have an escort to protect them. It might give them another factor to consider in their hard line approach to this," he said. "Perhaps even a titan or two."
"Tennyson," Prime mused. He glanced at the pilot. "Link me to the flight center in Autobot City, Rem, if you will."
Rem's digits flew, then he glanced at Prime. "You're on, sir."
"Prime to Flight Control at Fortress Maximus."
:Flight Control here:
"I would like you to recall Tennyson at his post and place Omega and Beta there until he returns. I would like him in ship mode to come to my coordinates through his own teleportation devices. Do not bridge in here due to the unstable energy. We have not charted it yet," Prime said.
:On it, sir: the controller said. The line was quiet though a murmur of voices could be heard over the intercom, then the controller was back. :I've routed the individuals requested, sir. Tennyson will be there in one breem:
"Thank you," Prime said. "Prime out."
They sat on the deck waiting for the behemoth to arrive, musing on the intel thus far. Prime glanced at Hard Drive. "What do you know about Faber and the Tulsa family. I know that one likes publicity and one does not."
Hardie thought a moment, then nodded in agreement. "The oldest members I know are Tulsa, the patriarch on that side of the family and his bond, Machlis. They spoiled the slag out of their kids and I didn't like them. They were mean, bigoted and didn't care for anyone outside of the caste. Even then, they only liked those who agreed with them. We didn't.
"Faber bonded into his family, making a dynastic bond with their son, Machlis, a move considered a coup at the time. I remember that they didn't ruin two families when they did. Faber is the one who made Faber and Tulsa Communications the monster it became. He made and broke politicians and lied like no one I ever met. I think he even believes his lies.
"Faber's genitors were Trailer and Flight. I knew them slightly. They had Faber, Fuller and a daughter. I think her name was Del or Des. I can't remember exactly. All of them are entitled and terrible. All of them work for the family but I remember a rumor that was circulating during the Clampdown. Faber wanted his son, Tulsa to be the next king of their empire. His other son, Clamp was in the business. So is Del or Des.
"There was a falling out with the other brother, Fuller. He fueded with his two nephews. Fuller wanted to be the next mogul and Faber wants his sons. I don't like or respect any of them. They won't go quietly. They have no honor."
Prime considered that. "The elders I did not know. I had a few run-ins with the younger set. Faber hated me passionately and he did his best to discredit me and the movement. I almost considered stepping down it got so bad. I did not want the movement to suffer because of his attacks."
"A round in the face should have been offered as an alternative. I volunteer," Ironhide said darkly.
Prime grinned. "You are nothing if not loyal."
A bright light appeared outside in the sky as they glanced out the port windows of their vessel. The city around them was beautiful and the landscape one of green forests, faraway mountains and a glistening ocean nearby. It felt good to be in a moderate climate with a good sun. The light faded slightly as Tennyson came into view and his teleportation gear off lined. He was massive on a scale that was astonishing to see.
A heavy tread stepped onto the deck of the Salton Sea as everyone turned around to look. Tennyson walked on with a grin, reached Prime, bowed slightly, then glanced around. "I hear you have a mission impossible for me."
"I do," Prime said with a slight grin. "I need a scan of a planet nearby with a lot of security. It would appear that renegades have a population in chains and they refuse a visit by me to see it."
Tennyson frowned. "I dislike this already," he said as the button marked "CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE" got depressed hard in his psyche. "Shall I go now?"
"I would like General Hard Drive to command the mission and support you," Prime said. "I need intel, deep and complete intelligence, Tennyson."
Tennyson bowed slightly. "You will have it. I live to serve you," he said, then turned to Hard Drive. "General? Old times?" he said gesturing to the elevators.
Hard Drive grinned. "After you, my friend."
Tennyson smiled. "Age before beauty."
Huge laughter greeted that as Hardie passed by Tennyson. "Pearls before swine," Hardie replied.
Huge laughter followed them to the elevator where they disappeared from view right away.
Ironhide turned to Prime. "I googled it. A writer once was being slagged by a woman at a dinner party when they walked in to sit and eat. The woman who didn't like her paused by the door, then said, "Age before beauty." The writer looked at her and without missing a beat said, "Pearls before swine. Its a biblical thing about casting the good after the bad."
"I will remember that," Prime said with a chuckle.
=0=The command deck of Tennyson
Hardie and Tennyson walked to the command deck where Tennyson took the command chair. Hardie sat at the navigator's position as one of Tennyson's drones took the conn. He would fly the vessel and was getting information over line as Tennyson configured their flyby for maximum scanning and minimum lingering.
Hard Drive leaned back with a grin. This was going to be good.
=0=Homeland
:Prime to Prowl:
They paused their discussion about Sun Base as Prowl answered. "Prowl here."
:Do you know the ballistic missile capability of Sun Base or is that unknown?:
Prowl glanced at Styre who shrugged helplessly. "It's an unknown."
:Very well. Prime out:
They turned back to the task before them searching through the data for any ideas about their interplanetary missile capabilities.
=0=Tennyson
He began to move out, back into space from the parking orbit over Homeland. Down below, a green cityscape curved around low hills and other land features creating a very beautiful urban area. It was clearly Cybertronian. Tennyson noted it as he did about 22,567 different things to move and to prepare to scan. He brought all his weapons on line and dispatched his drones to their stations just in case.
"What do you remember about the Tulsa clan, Tenn? Anything?" Hardie asked as he lounged in the comfortable chair in front of the command seat.
Tennyson who could do several millions of things and carry on his daily life at the same time glanced at Hard Drive, someone he loved along with Delphi and remembered from the dark days of yore. He considered that set of memory files. "I remember they were in broadcasting. They liked to lie and everyone I knew who listened to them was ignorant, ill informed and mean. I did not like them nor do I respect them. Lying to your own people, dividing them into warring camps is as evil and treacherous as it gets. I remember Sentinel liked them for propaganda. All of them did back to Nova and Zeta."
Hardie nodded. "They bonded into the Faber Group. Remember them?"
"I remember Trailer and Flight. They had some sons who were awful. They liked to slag our frame's program. They wanted us cut back because we were expensive. IMAGINE THAT! We were lucky to get the children in the pipeline or you would be down about nine grandchildren. I didn't like them one bit but then I think that was the common theme for us short of the idiots who watched and listened to them on the media nets," Tennyson said as he sat back to relax. It would take a bit to get to Sun Base. "I helped Dai Atlas a few times to get refugees out of harms way and resettled here and there. I don't remember anyone coming this way but then I wasn't here much. I had the brief out in the Bootes and Eridani sectors. I would love to slag Razorclaw. I know that area well."
"I'll help you," Hardie said with a chuckle. "I'm afraid that Faber has started The System on Sun Base and he's doing a Functionalist program there. What if he mined the low and mids? What if they have the processor devices? I have a bad feeling about this one."
"We can't have them out here. This is deeply unstable space. They lucked out picking this area. It's less affected but I can see the ripples. I can detect them because we are multi-dimensional in our sparks. I don't feel very good here, Hardie. This could be a very dangerous place to live. They have to leave if they want to have a future. They have likely used up all their luck this far."
"That's becoming more obvious with every passing moment. Its a miracle that they're still here but then I can see why they came. There's no where else to go and its so dangerous that the 'Cons stay away mostly," Hardie said as a flashing light appeared on the console behind him.
"We have bogies," Tennyson said with a grin. "Three ships coming out to see what's what. I hope they give me slag."
Hardie turned around to stare at the forward screen which displayed on a corner of it the tactical screen nearby. Three pulsing lights were on their way.
=0=Nearby
A crowd of civilians had gathered at the airfield drawn by the sight of battleships and fighter shuttles. The mechs who came with them were waiting on their ships, standing on the tarmacs or sitting on crates nearby. The civilians watched them from the other side of a fence that separated the airfield from the city beyond. They were silent and fascinated. The ships bore the marks of the Prime of Cybertron and the rumor mill was buzzing.
Inside, Prowl watched the bogies. "Prowl to Prime. Do you see them?"
:I do. Hook us into the comm lines of Tennyson and make it possible for me to hear the intruders. If anyone calls us from Sun Base link me in, Prowl:
"Done," Prowl said as he glanced at the Communications officer nearby. He startled, then made it so. "Now we wait," Prowl said softly. He would do so with the company of his emotional and strained Appa and Amma.
=0=Tennyson
He flew toward them, a massive fully mature dreadnought ship of war. He was nearly 16 and a half miles long in his ship configuration and his guns could house shuttles in their barrels they were so big. He was a terrifying sight to behold.
=0=Sun Base HQ
They stood around the view port staring at a sight that none of them short of their great grandgenitors could recall from personal experience. A ship out of the Golden Age was heading their way. Faber, Fuller, Tulsa Jr. and Clamp along with the officers of their military watched in silence.
"What are we going to do, Atar?" Clamp asked in a subdued and awed voice.
"We're not going to turn tail and run," Fuller said to his nephew. "We play this out unless you want to end up in prison. I'm sure that Prime has the mainframes on Cybertron if that part is true. All of us have flagged warrants if memory serves me."
No one replied as Faber watched with a growing frown. "We have the ultimate bargaining chips in the population. Prime won't jeopardize that. He's just showing us his hand. Let him. We'll see what he does, then do what we have to do."
It was deeply silent in the room.
=0=Tennyson
"Well, lets say hi," Tennyson said with a grin.
All of the big frames who had never had a worry given their size, power and links directly to Primus, the Matrix and The One through their sparks weren't slackers in the confidence department. It was highly amusing to Hardie to watch the big mech handle his mission with amusement and skill.
"This is your first real mission in pretender gear. How's that holding up?" Hardie asked.
"It's about the best thing I've experienced in ages. Did you know that most of us are dating? Can you imagine that? Tyke and 2-Lip are the cutest thing. Kids." He grinned. "She's the best thing that's happened to them. I suspect a bonding eventually." He looked at Hardie with a grin. "Oh, the parties."
"What about you? Anyone I know?" Hardie asked with a chuckle.
Tennyson grinned back. "I'd tell you but I'm busy at the moment. Hang on until we get back, then we can chat." Tennyson chuckled, then stepped up his speed. "Well, boys … let's play shall we?" he murmured with deep and abiding satisfaction.
=0=TBC 11-29-19