The Diego Diaries: Sun Rise (dd7 147)
NOTE: We were buried in snow. Two days of digging out, snow blowing and getting my car stuck were just … ugh. I am so stove up. :D HERE WE GO!
=0=On the ground at Sun Base
They came through a bridge that dropped them near the Ops Center of the area. It was in a guarded square in the middle of the colony's largest and most beautiful city. Where this was gracious, beautiful and filled with amenities, the others were workmanlike and utilitarian. The Center was surrounded by a howling mob who had clubs and the odd gun taken from guards who had either run away or were parted out all over the ground.
Hardie and Tennyson stood by the edge of the scene as another bridge could be heard. Prime and his mechs walked through, then toward where the pair stood.
Tennyson glanced at Prime. "What is your call, Lord Optimus?" he asked formally. He was in the midst of his function and it showed.
"I think we end this," Prime said as he tuned into the transponder system again. He limited it to the local area which took a moment. :I would like your attention:
For a moment the mob was too exercised, then they stilled. Some of them turned to see who was talking, then froze with surprise. Others looked, too, then almost as one they stopped. They were big and angry, some of them, while others were of all manner of mech and femme. They stared at the group, then Prime.
A femme stepped forward. "You're Optimus Prime," she said.
He nodded. "I am. I want you to stand down. This is my job."
"They need killing, Prime. You don't know what they've done," a big mech said as he pounded his palm with a metal bar.
"I will handle this. I am the Prime. Allow me to do this for you," Prime said as he stepped closer. "It is what I do."
They looked at him hesitantly, then the femme glanced around. "Let him. Help us, Prime. We're slaves here," she said.
Prime glanced at the group, then pointed toward a building nearby far enough away that they would be safer if shooting erupted. "Go there. Let me do this."
They stared at him, then hesitantly began to head toward the building. When they were clear, Prime turned toward his mechs. "We can not push this. They can all die from the Functionalist tech if we are not very careful."
The mechs nodded, then spread out to surround the building. Prime watched them comply, then turned back to the doors of the building. "This is Optimus Prime. I want to speak to Faber."
There was silence, then a voice was heard. "This is Faber. I will kill everyone if you don't leave, Prime. I'm not bluffing."
Prime considered that. "You may not be bluffing but today is a very great day for you. You get to decide if you live or die. It is in your servos, Faber, because if anyone dies I will ask Tennyson to obliterate the building you and your family is hiding in. You may kill everyone else but I will kill you."
It was silent.
=0=At Homeland
Ratchet watched the show, then rose. "I better get down there."
Ironhide glanced at him. "Do we have anything to block their signals?"
"No," Ratchet said somewhat ruefully. "We didn't expect this to repeat. That won't happen again." He walked to the elevators then left.
Ironhide watched him go, then turned back to the table. "Frag," he whispered as the others nodded.
=0=Sun Base
They waited in the standoff, then Faber spoke again. "Come inside and we can discuss this. Either way, both of us will regret what we do if we can't find common ground."
Prime considered that, then glanced at Tennyson and Hard Drive. "Come with me," he said as he began to walk toward the door. "Hercy and Kup, you have ground command."
The mechs watched them walk to the door, then enter. It was silent again. Nearby, a lot of locals watched with dread and hope.
Optimus and the other two walked inside, then crossed a foyer that led on one side to opulent offices and on the other a command center. They entered, then slowed as they noticed a group standing on one side of the room facing guns and another on the other side pointing them. Optimus halted, then turned toward Faber. "I am here."
"Good. We can discuss this. We want to go. You want us to go. We leave. You have the whole thing," Faber said.
Prime remembered other meetings where the same mech briskly imposed his conditions and Prime had smashed them flat without mercy. It felt like that again. "You would just leave."
"We would require ships with provisions and some of our personal things. We would also require a number of individuals to come along as an insurance policy," Faber said. Some of the others nodded. "We would be remiss to believe that you would let us leave just like that without them."
Prime stared at Faber even as his internal tech broke down the room, the individuals, where they all were and every element he needed to sort out the scene. Living with Prowl all those long millennia had taught him a trick or two. "You will not be taking anyone. You will leave the tech behind that allows you to kill mechs and femmes at distance. I will not allow you to leave the way you desire. You owe our people a reckoning."
"Well, that won't do," Machlis said coldly. "We're leaving one way or the other."
It was silent again.
"Prime to Hercy and Kup," Prime said as the tension in the room rose.
:Hercy here:
"Please come inside with four mechs of your choosing," Prime said. It was silent as the Faber clan shifted uneasily.
"What are you up to, Prime? I mean what I say," Faber said.
Six mechs entered, Hercy, Kup, Topspin, Drift, Springer and Sunstreaker. They halted behind Prime. "What do you want us to do, Prime?" Hercy asked.
"I would like each of you pick a primary and secondary target among the mechs on this side of the room," he said nodding toward Faber and his group. "I want you to fire on my command when I give it and not before."
"What are you doing? We're asking to leave and giving up everything," Tulsa the Elder said with surprise. "Do you really believe you're going to shoot us?"
"If anyone dies from that device, my mechs have full leave to shoot all of you dead," Prime said.
It was intensely silent.
"All I have to do is push this button," Faber said as he held up his handheld.
"All I have to do is pull this trigger," Springer replied with cold fury.
As Springer said what he said, as Faber glanced at him and away from Prime, the big mech pulled his gun and shot Faber in the face. As Prime did, Hardie gripped Faber's arm and the device flew upward.
Tennyson reached out his long arm and big servo and it landed there. The whole thing seemed to take forever as time seemed to slow down but it was over in seconds.
Faber staggered backward, sat hard, then fell back with arms flung wide. Sound slammed back in for the civilians. The room seemed to shudder as Machlis bent down, then gripped his son. He looked upward at Prime. "YOU SHOT MY SON!"
"Prime to Ratchet," Optimus said with a cold tone.
"Right here, Prime," Ratchet said as he stepped around Prime to kneel beside Faber. It was silent a moment as he checked the mech, then grinned. "Nice shot, Optimus. He's going to be fine but his gyros and bodily functions are going to need a rebuild. Nice shot to the right place on his thick skull."
"Cuff them," Prime said softly.
The mechs strode forward and after a scuffle the group was cuffed and seated on the floor. They were shocked, silent and uncharacteristically afraid.
A mech who worked there stepped up to Prime. "Lord Optimus … some of them fled before you got here."
Prime nodded to the mech, then glanced at Springer. "Find them."
Springer and Drift walked toward the door as Springer put out a call for Devcon to join them.
Prime glanced at Tennyson who held the device. "Ratchet, please take custody of the device and have Sciences here immediately. I want the control mechanism of it disabled. We have to get this taken care of as a first priority."
Ratchet nodded as he took the device gingerly. He called for a stretcher for Faber, then waited as Perceptor and Wheeljack walked into the room. "Here. The detonator for the charges in everyone's helm. Kill it far away from here. Don't even scan it until you get back."
Wheeljack took it carefully, then slid it into a bag that was designed to block signals. With Perceptor, he walked out to head for Mars. Distance was the best medicine at the moment.
Ultra Magnus walked into the center with Prowl. "The mob outside is waiting. What are your orders for these slaggers, Prime?"
"Take them into custody. We are going to take all of this with us, every scrap of their tech and equipment. I want to know everything. We have to help the people to get ready to leave this place. We also have to remove detonators out of everyone's processor," Optimus said as he glanced at the group on the floor. "Take them out a back way, Magnus. I do not want anymore violence."
Magnus nodded then looked at the group. "You will rise and leave with me. I am Ultra Magnus, the Tyrest Treaties enforcer. You can do this my way … or the hard way," he said in his deadly no nonsense voice. It was the same voice and remarks that chilled the energon in just about everyone everywhere.
They struggled to stand but when they did they were marched out a side door to a courtyard nearby where a bridge would take them directly to the Prison at Autobot City and Gee-Gee's tender mercies. In the meantime, the place would soon be swarming with mechs here to assist the population.
=0=Homeland
Prime walked off the bridge of the Salton Sea with Prowl and Ratchet. Hardie and Tennyson were supervising the ground game. Walking to the elevators, they left the ship, then headed for the Ops Center nearby. They entered and walked to the table where everyone waited.
"What is the word, Lord Optimus?" Styre asked with a slight anxiety in his voice.
"We have control on the ground. The leadership is under arrest and on their way to Mars. We are going to have to remove detonators from the processors of the population, then get everyone ready for transport," Optimus said.
"That's millions of individuals between this place and there," Stealth said with an anxious tone to his voice. His affect was suffused with anxiety, something that Prime would later know was his general condition. Life had been hard even in their gilded cage. Any deviation no matter how slight from the norm bore consequences for a high caste.
"We have the knowhow and the space, Amma," Prowl said soothingly. "Don't worry. That's my job."
"Then how may I help you, Prowl?" Stealth asked.
"Stand here," Prowl said pulling the handsome elegant mech closer.
"Ask me a hard thing, Prowler," Stealth said as he hugged Prowl.
:Springer to Prime: came over the comm system.
"Prime here."
:We have a ship with two young mechs on it, apparently the children of Faber. We're bringing them in. They tried to make a break for it:
"Send them to Mars, Springer," Prime replied.
:On it. Springer out:
It was silent a moment, then Styre vented a long sigh. "I'm not cut out for this. I just want to write again."
"Then you came to the right place," Prowl said encouragingly. He didn't mention, however, Miler and Venture.
He especially didn't mention Prima.
Nor did he tell them about Shadow and Zenith.
Yet.
=0=TBC 12-03-19 :D Screw snow.
ESL
Stove up: broken down, wore out.
If you like Lord of the Rings, then check out a channel on you tube that features music and videos by a group of men and women, choral style, called Clamavi De Profundis. It is so glorious, their singing style and the videos they create will knock you out. :D:D:D You're welcome.