The Diego Diaries: Sun Base (dd7 148)
=0=There, on the ground
:Please stop and listen to me:
A beautiful voice spoke in their helms reaching across all distances where they were to reach everyone who was old enough to receive it. In the wild celebrations and retributions that followed the downfall of the leadership of their world, no one cared if anyone saw them dance, cry, shout and bash helms. The guards had fled and they were being chased. People who had lived the high life were barricaded in their offices or homes against ravening mobs.
:I am asking you to stop and listen to me. I am Optimus Prime:
It was an astonishing thing to hear, the compassionate voice of their leader, one who was them, a working class mech who was chosen by the gods of their people to lead them. They had never expected to hear him, to know what being free felt like or knowing there was anything else but the never ending night of slavery. For them the sun never rose, the wind never felt fresh, the scenery and routine never changed. It was their lot they felt.
Then this happened.
They rioted with joy, sweeping through the streets of their locations with elation, a momentous outpouring of their long pent up emotions driving them forward. They wanted to be with their families, hold their children and remember this moment. Nothing and no one could hold back the wrenching release of their joy.
:Please … listen to me. I am here to take you to safety:
They slowed, then stopped, all of the adults listening to the velvet voice of their Prime, one chosen by the Matrix who had Their Blessing. It was only then that they halted their reveries.
:I am here to help you leave this place. I want you to know that your oppressors are in custody. What I need now is you to act on grace and not revenge. Please allow us to round up those who have held you in bondage including guards, their families and others in the hierarchy of this regime. We will ask you to tell us what they have done to you when we get this under control.
:We are going to be following Cybertronian law. We are asking you to help us do this, to remember who you are. The Pantheon and The One hope that we remain Cybertronian no matter what our path was. Causing them harm out of a sense of revenge would not be that path:
Prime stared at the groups around him, all of them watching him with great heaving emotion. He stepped toward them, pausing before the crowd. :You are safe. You are free. We are going to check you all one-by-one with medical and other attention. We know this has been hard. We all know what that's like. But now we can choose and be the architect of our own dignity.
:I would like those who need gathered up done so without violence. Please, call into the frequency that I give you now so we can come to you and take them away. Do this for yourselves. Make this a great orn and not one tainted by violence and revenge. All of us understand how you feel. Remember our creed … until all are one. Prime out:
It was silent a moment, then Springer glanced toward the command door. Prowl was standing there listening to something. Then he waved Springer toward him. They huddled a moment, then Springer ran for the ships sitting nearby. The others followed as the ships began to lift. Pings were coming in and fast.
Prime stared at the crowd, then a small femme stepped forward. She bowed to him, then stared upward with an expression of dazzled amazement.
He grinned at her. "You are safe. What would the population think about leaving here and finding sanctuary elsewhere?"
"I don't know," she said almost breathlessly. "I know I want to go. I've never been anywhere. My family and I … we were refugees who came here because they broadcast signals of sanctuary. We've toiled this whole time. Take us with you. I want freedom."
"You have it now. We have to take you away from here because this space is not safe," Prime said. "I am going to bring you to a good place where you can live freely and do what you wish to do."
They stared at Prime with almost a dumbfounded sense of amazement, then a surprise stepped out of the crowd. It was a priest from the look of his tattoos which he had uncovered moments before. He came forward, bowed deeply, then smiled at Prime. "Lord Optimus. I live to serve you. May we talk?"
Prime nodded. "I would be honored."
The two stepped away to walk to a small park nearby where there were benches to sit. He did, then Prime followed. He stared at Prime for a second. :I could weep to see you. We have been captive here a long time:
:There are migrations among you? They lured you in?: Prime asked as they chatted off line.
He nodded. :I am Buro. I was a priest at the Shrine of Micronus at Way Station. I was posted there to assist the colonists and to maintain the shrine that they chose for the colony as their patron. We had to flee because of the Decepticons. We came forward and ended up here. The group with me were afraid that I might be harmed if they knew that I was a priest so I hid my identity and acted as a medic for the community, the slaves. I have to tell you something quite terrible:
:Functionalist control devices … the enslaved population have them. Correct?: Prime asked.
He considered that. :They do. You know about them?:
:We have Immortals and Exempts in our company who know about them. We discovered them accidentally and make it a part of our rescue process to scan for them. You have them? The Functionalist colony near here … they gave them to Faber and the leadership?:
Buro nodded. :Yes. I found them doing this and that treatment. I confronted them about it and they told me that if I said a word they would punish some of the people. I couldn't tell them. I had to keep the secret:
Prime nodded. He patted the mech's shoulder. :We are going to get them before you go from here. The tech they used is in their data and we have the device that activates it:
Buro stared at him. "You have all three of them?" he asked aloud.
Prime stared at Buro silently a moment. "Three?" he asked.
=0=Moments later
Prime stepped through the bridge ahead of the ship landing that carried the leadership of Sun Base. He transformed, then beat feet to the Prison Airfield where they were just coming in to land. Behind him, Raptor and Sun followed. They reached it, transformed, then waited as the ship settled, its hatch opened and the racket inside indicated they were getting to their peds to come outside.
Warden Gee-Gee and her lieutenant, Coleus watched them approach. Gee-Gee grinned. "What brings you here, Lord Optimus?" she asked.
"All of the enslaved population at their base have the Functionalist chips in their processors, Warden" Prime said. "We have one control. We have to find two more. Prowl is tearing up their quarters and offices but has not reported that they found them."
Gee-Gee who was Guiding Hand stared at him with revulsion and shock. "Not that slag again," she said with gathering fury. "We have to find them."
Prime nodded as the group walked down the ramp and toward them. They were cold, silent, furious, afraid, defiant and uncertain. This was not in their skill set, getting arrested. They reached Gee-Gee who turned to them with fury.
"ON THE LINE! NOW!" she said.
They flinched, some of them, then complied, some with surly slowness. They lined up, then stared at Gee-Gee with a vast array of emotions, most of them built around fury.
Gee-Gee looked at them, then glanced at her team. "There are Functionalist chips in the processors of the civilians at their base. They enslaved them. We have one controller but we need two more."
The team stared at her, then them. Included among them was Roadbuster. "You want me to smash them, Boss?" he asked without emotion. He glanced at the group who stared at him with gathering fear and loathing, then her again. "I can smash them if ya want."
Gee-Gee almost grinned. "You're my hero, Roadie, but I need them to tell me. Maybe I can." She walked closer. "I'm Warden Gee-Gee of the Autobot City and Cybertronian Prison and Correctional System. I'm ruler of this place and you are now mine. HOWEVER," she said, then paused her remarks. "However, some of you have sullied the good name of the Guiding Hand with Functionalist slag. We have one controller for them. There are two more. Maybe even more than that." Her expression tightened into something closer to rage. "I want you to tell me where they are. Now."
Tulsa and Machlis stared at her, then Prime. Machlis said, "And if we don't?"
"Then I'm going to rip off body parts until you do," Gee-Gee said. "I can either do that and hope that all those mechs and femmes don't do die while I part you slaggers out or you can tell me. Which do you prefer because I've already made my choice." She slammed her fists together, then slowly began to walk along the line staring at the group who watched her warily.
"You would let this creature do this, Prime?" Tulsa the Elder asked.
Prime stared at him without a word or motion.
"And you were supposed to be such a good mech. That's what they said … Optimus Prime is a good mech. He isn't like the others," Machlis said with real hatred. "But then you shot my son didn't you? Why should we help you?"
Gee-Gee spun and was in the personal space of Machlis almost faster than Prime could follow. "Because I will rip you up. That's a good reason, right?"
Machlis stepped back instinctively, then was prodded back to his space by a gun barrel held by a guard. He stood centimeters away from Gee-Gee staring at her with raging hatred. "Do it."
:Machlis is a real fragger: Sun said. "Let me, Warden. I haven't ripped on a high caste fragger in a long time."
Gee-Gee stepped back, glanced at Prime and Sun, then nodded. "Go ahead."
Sun glanced at Prime who was staring at the line up. He didn't say a word one way or another so Sun walked toward Machlis. He grinned. "What do you wanna have, Gee-Gee, given its Thanksgiving? A drumstick or a wing?" Sun said as he grabbed Machlis.
Huge yelling erupted as Tulsa tried to grab Machlis. They were restrained as Sun dragged Machlis aside. He gripped Machlis' arm to pull it off. Machlis stared at him in shock but didn't back down. He was going to let Sun part him out.
"STOP!"
Everyone turned to Tulsa the Elder. He was panicked as he struggled in the grip of a guard. "I'LL TELL YOU!"
"Frag," Sun said. "Better be accurate. I'm going to strip down this fragger and burn the refuse if you lie."
Tulsa watched as Machlis walked stiffly to the line to stand and stare straight ahead. He didn't show much emotion as he did.
"Go to our apartment. There's a wall safe. Both of them are in it," Tulsa said. "Faber kept one with him but I didn't want to have them about. A mistake could happen that way."
"Scruples and principles. Did I just hear them?" Coleus asked with real surprise.
"Where would be the profit if you killed the workers?" Roadie asked with a stare that could melt concrete.
"What about the rest?" Gee-Gee asked playing a hunch.
Tulsa stared at her, then shifted in spite of himself. "I don't know what you mean."
"Roadie, beat that one to a pulp," Gee-Gee said pointing at a mech with a femme, the son-in-law of the femme, Del.
Del looked panicked as Roadie walked toward her bond. "WHAT?! TELL THEM! TELL THEM, APPA!"
"WAIT!" Tulsa shouted. He looked close to the fritz.
Roadie paused, glanced at Gee-Gee who shook her helm, then walked back dejectedly to the rest of the guards.
"Talk, Tulsa and if you try this again I will kill all of you myself," Gee-Gee said. "Fraggers."
Tulsa looked at her, then Prime. Then he began to talk.
=0=TBC 12-04-19