The Diego Diaries Part Seven

by arctapus

This is a continuation of the universe started in Diego Diaries and continued through parts two to six. The premise is a joke that led to world building. This is about family, friendship, overcoming adversity and finding the best parts of yourself. This is an adventure, a trek through the world of Transformers and its a comedy/drama. Everyone is here and if you are, too, then YAY!

157. Chapter 157

The Diego Diaries: Sun Dance (dd7 157)

=0=Later on

He limped into the control center to pause by the table.

Watching him enter, Prime noted four bullet holes in Ratchet's armor all of which were field patched. He'd seen worse but it had been a while.

"You look busy," Ratchet said as he sat.

"You look perforated," Prime replied. "The worst is over. Showing images of buildings getting slagged has helped some come to the right conclusion faster. What is the word on you and the team?"

"Lots of holes but never fear … I have lots of silly putty," Ratchet said as he propped a big ped on an empty chair.

"I am assuming that the mild covering of dust and glass fragments you wear once was a finely turned stone townhouse?" Prime asked.

"Bingo," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile.

Prime grinned. "I was thinking about leaving this show for you to run given the medical nature of it but you do not look up to it."

"Give me enough time to get a detailing and a bite and I'm your town car," Ratchet said rising slowly and stiffly. "I'll be right back unless someone HAS A BOO BOO AND NEEDS NANA TO KISS IT ALL BETTER!"

The entire crew froze, turned to look at Ratchet and Prime, then turned back to the job.

Ratchet grinned at Prime. "You got them trained."

"I am Prime after all," Optimus said with a smirk.

Ratchet grinned, then headed for the door. Sitting in various positions around the rec room of bent and broken, the crew watched him approach them. "I'm going for a bite and a detailing. Who's with me."

They all were.

Alor watched them go then walked into the Center. He pulled a chair then sat in front of Prime. "Well, that was interesting."

"I saw," Prime said with a grin. "I suppose you will be heading back."

"The Tall Whites are the slowest slaggers I ever encountered. Someone needs to boost their tech so I won't fall asleep watching them putt-putt along," Alor said. "Besides, this is where the action is."

"Ratchet has the command when he gets back. Right now removing the devices are priority one before anyone leaves here," Optimus said.

"I heard we might move these two planets to our side of the galaxy," Alor said. "It might give the humans ideas given the kind of planet this is. By the way, where are they?" he asked glancing around.

"They left earlier," Hound said as he dropped a data pad with Prime. He glanced at Optimus. "This place is supportive of human life."

"We will not tell them," Optimus said with a slight grin.

"I bet your ada had a hard time paddling you as an infant," Alor said. He grinned. "Did you ever get paddled?"

Prime smirked. "No. All they had to do was ignore me. It made me literally crawl to get into their good graces again."

"Ironhide needed a paddling once in a blue moon. I would say, 'Wait until your atar gets home, mister' and he would do just about anything, beg just about anything to make it all right. I think he was paddled about twice in his entire life." Alor grinned. "He was a good little mech when he was younger but he was a wild aft sub adult."

"I can see that," Prime said. "I on the other hand was a pretty good sub adult. I did not want to burden my genitors."

"Oh, that Ironhide had that much sense as a sub adult," Alor said with a chuckle.

"What are you saying about me now?" Ironhide said as he walked to the table and pulled out a chair to sit.

"I was saying what a doofus you were as a sub adult," Alor said. "I told him how we paddled you a couple of times."

"I was doing research," Ironhide replied. He glanced at Optimus. "I took the flagstones off the path to the lake at the shared house in the Manganese Mountains. It wound along the side of the slope heading down to the water. I saw bugs under the stones so I pulled them up to look at them closer. No one was happy."

"Your appa had just laid them," Alor said. "He had dug a long and carefully planned trench the full length deep enough to inset the stones. It was his pride and joy. Then infant tore them up."

Prime smirked at Ironhide. "You did that to your Appa?"

Ironhide glanced at Alor with a frown, then Prime. "It was research. The bugs were calling to me."

"You were just goofing around. There were no bugs. We looked. Remember? Appa came home and when he saw what you did he asked you what the frag you were doing. You tried to show him that you were looking at bugs but there weren't any there," Alor said with a grin.

"They were all scared off. They went and hid," Ironhide said. "I got paddled."

"You deserved it," Alor said. He glanced at Prime. "I had to make Blackjack paddle him, the big baby."

"Why did you not do it, Alor?" Prime asked as he enjoyed Ironhide's discomfort.

"Because once I got warmed up I might not stop," Alor said with a chuckle.

"CHILD ABUSE! CASTE COURT!" Ironhide bellowed bringing the optics of the room their way. "No wonder I grew up to be such a hellion."

"You were," Raptor said as he walked up behind them. "I remember that. You tore up my walkway, infant. I still feel the burn." Raptor said. "Good thing Blackjack paddled you."

"You wouldn't have paddled me," Ironhide said smugly. "I'm your slagging little mech."

Raptor grinned. "You are but you still needed paddling." He looked at Prime. "He used to sneak out and run around with his friends at night when he didn't think we knew. He actually told us that he was staying overnight with a friend and his friend told us that he was staying with us. Both of them went to Capital City to run around and stay overnight during a big festival there."

Prime stared at Ironhide who was staring at Raptor with a big opticed look of betrayal. "You did that? You lied to your family and snuck out?"

Ironhide glanced at Prime. "Uh, maybe. Maybe not."

"Then there was the time you shoplifted and we had to take you back to the store and make you apologize and pay them out of your saved up little pile of pennies," Hardie said as he walked in with Delphi and Turbine. They pulled chairs to sit. "He took a piece of candy from a store when Delphi took him with him on a venture. We brought him back and made him apologize. He had to give them twice the money it cost out of his little stash."

"I'll have you know that that stash was pennies and stuff I found on the ground," Ironhide said. He glanced at Prime. "If you look on the ground at a bar after a wild night you can find it."

Prime nodded, then chuckled. "I know."

"Ah, the good old orns," Turbine said. "Remember when you used to pull on the neural nets of that femme that you liked in school?" He glanced at Prime. "There was a femme with great neural nets that hung past her shoulders. He used to tug on it."

"What happened?" Prime asked as he glanced at a frowning Ironhide.

"She turned around and slapped him silly, I was told," Hardie said with a snicker. He glanced at Ironhide. "You were sweet on her."

"I'm no femme chaser," Ironhide said slightly affronted.

"You were then. 'Hey, Amma, there's this femme and I love her. Her name is Jersey.' Remember that?"

"NO!" Ironhide said as he sat back. "It must be 'slap the slag out of Ironhide day' again."

Prime laughed. "When is it not?"

"You got that right. I suppose Ratchet is getting patched somewhere. He brought in an airstrike on our cornered rats. They flew really high when they were blowed up," Ironhide said with a grin. "Got them all without losing one either, I might add."

"I am going to have Ratchet run the show here," Prime said. "When he gets back, most of us can rotate out. I will be going back to meet with the planning commission and Jetta about the housing situation."

"We're good, right?" Alor asked.

"We have the entirety of Crater District 3 to use and a good number of thousands in Crater District 2 before that's full. Crater District 4 and 5 are in the final stages. We're going to go over Districts 6 and 7 now which were excavated and primed to build," Prime replied. "We can handle this group easily and keep the steady flow from Dai Atlas. However, the mapping will tell the tale. Every time they go out to look for refugees they find literally millions."

"We're well past 100,000,000 now on world. I'm impressed by how its working out," Hardie said. "We're doing well, I think, in all."

Prime nodded. "I want to keep it that way."

The conversation would continue until Ratchet returned with a new finish and a huge box of 'stuff'. If he was going to be majordomo of the operation, he wasn't going to do it without snacks.

=0=At the detention center, the former prison on world

They walked in lines to pens that were temporary holding areas for the groups who ran the place all of whom were being rounded up and arrested. They were marched in with mechs separated from femmes. Everyone kept their children with them as they were sorted out for transport to Mars. The place was filled with malcontented high castes who glared at the bots with each new arrival of those gathered from the master list created by Teletraan. The energy was terrible and the vibe close to violence.

Roadie who was back was helping keep order there given that the facilities weren't designed to give comforts to anyone let alone hold this many individuals. He stared at a group of mechs who were standing by the wire watching him and two others with him. Roadie, Lon and Bezel stood a good seven feet away with their rifles casually slung over their shoulders.

It was a mutual hate fest each way.

There were pens being strung up with electrified wire to hold more. The list was long and everyone had to be accounted for. The number of guards who were here were increasing by what seemed the hour. Overhead, the sun was beginning to set and darkness would arrive soon enough. It would be dark until the lights came on, a project currently being rectified by the Autobot version of the Sea-Bees.

"When the lights come on this is going to be easier," Bezel said to Lon. "I will be glad when they do."

Roadie considered that knowing that the seething mechs were listening to them. "If anyone acts up we shoot them. End of problem."

A tall mech stepped closer to his pen which itself was electrified. "You would shoot unarmed mechs? Femmes? Some of us have children in here."

Roadie stared at him. "What about the children who lived in the towns over that way?" he asked as he glanced toward the zone where all the worker bees lived. "Why should your kids matter when theirs don't?"

He stared at Roadie coldly. "I don't have enough orns to tell you all the reasons, slagger."

Roadie stared at him with his blank dangerous face then he stepped closer, too. "Be glad there's wire between you and me."

The big mech stared at him then stepped back. Roadie's aura was that menacing.

Standing nearby watching the exchange, Sunstreaker glanced at his brother. "Tonight this place is going to become a hell hole. Mark my words."

Sideswipe nodded. "I hear you, bro."

=0=Control Center

Ratchet sat at the command center working on data as the night dragged onward. Arrests were going well and without incident after the three shootouts earlier. The worst and most visibly incendiary were carted off in cuffs for the Autobot City Civilian and Military Prison on Mars. The electrified pens were holding up well so far.

That is, they did until they didn't.

=0=TBC 12-14-19