The Diego Diaries: Even More Stuff (dd7 200)
Seventh time we've past 200 in this story. :D (insert tiny fireworks here)
=0=Tennyson
They remained in orbit, the battle platforms ready to join any conflict at a moment's notice. Prime sat in the command chair watching the screen as the armada reached the halfway mark. That was when Wheeljack called.
"Prime here."
:Prime, we're going to release Sun Base. Things are going great here: his voice said over the intercom. :We're about three joors ahead of schedule. We're going to release but stay to capture if things frag up. But right now, it looks good for a release:
It was almost ridiculous how good Prime felt, that bit of news reaching spots he didn't know he had. "Are you sure?"
:We are. We had a good feeling about the placement and number of field augmenters on world and how the field would hold integrity during transport. The ringing that accompanied Caminus hasn't shown up here because this system is seventh generation and that was first. The release will be gradual and smooth as butter. Right now, all is go:
"Then go at your discretion, Wheeljack. I am going to remain linked in," Prime said as the tension on the deck increased rather than decreased.
=0=Triggers 1-2-3, oh my …
Miler ran the calculations, then glanced at Perceptor. "All is go."
Perceptor finished his calculations, then nodded in agreement. He glanced at Miler, then Wheeljack. "All is go."
Wheeljack who was sitting at the command nodule with a half moon of big monitors around him showing everything smiled with deep satisfaction. "Then we goed."
With that, Teletraan was given complete control to release.
Teletraan did.
=0=A small furry animal walking along a stream bank hunting dinner on the surface of Sun Base
He felt slightly uneasy though there was nothing around that could harm him. What he felt was a slight ripple in the magnetic field of his world that was in the process of attaining a life giving orbit around a new and brighter star. The position of the orbit was analogous to the one they had in their original home space. However. here they wouldn't be at the mercy of a confederation that would view the dominant residents, a metallic species as a 'nice acquisition to our tech arsenal' at some point.
He stared down into the water, then felt it, a slight jolt almost imperceptible to anyone but someone with his sensitivities. Then it was gone. He stood up on his hind legs listening and looking, checking through his finely honed instincts for any threat. He didn't feel any. The turbulence which was minute finally subsided. He sat on his haunches listening to his world as it sped onward along the path of its new orbital home. Almost nothing was changed, then it silenced.
All was well again.
He continued onward hunting his dinner in the woods near a park of the city colony, Sun Base.
=0=Trigger Command
"HUZZAH!"
=0=Tennyson Mission Control Center
Tense silence.
=0=Half a joor later at Trigger Command
"The last diagnostics are in, Wheeljack. All is well. Impeccably well, I might add. Congratulations are due everyone including Zenith and Shadow for their help and insight. Well done, Auntie," Perceptor said as the final scans read clean.
"You are welcome, Perceptor," Teletraan's femme voice replied.
*JUBILATION COMMENCED AGAIN*!
=0=Tennyson Mission Command
Prime sat back highly relieved at the news from the science nerds and geeks who'd saved the orn. He felt like a rag. The consequences of his many wounds and the deafness that he embodied were now getting their turn on the cat walk. He glanced at Ratchet across the way.
Ratchet was signing to him: :Guess what we forgot we could do?:
Prime grinned at last.
=0=One joor later
"We have word that the last field stabilizer has been planted on Homeland according to the plans and schematics. Auntie just signed off on the configuration," Perceptor said to Wheeljack. "We're go to release Triggers 2 and 3."
"Triggers 2 and 3, you're released for return to Homeland. Be prepared to transit through the bridge," Wheeljack said.
He received acknowledgment from both Triggers which began to move toward the coordinates of the bridge Trigger 1 would create shortly. As they did, they slowly flew past a flotilla of military and science ships that were carrying scientists and their equipment to monitor the two planets on their new journeys for the next three or four decaorns.
=0=Tennyson Mission Command
"Acknowledged, Wheeljack," Prime said as a monster bridge appeared nearby.
Everyone on the other side of it watched as one Trigger, then another moved through to disappear. They appeared through the aperture almost immediately near Homeland. They moved slowly toward Homeland and the next great adventure of moving worlds through space.
It would also create the problem that they'd have until Homeland was released. That part of their plan wasn't going to change, fast charging Vergan coalition or no. It couldn't.
=0=Home
Ironhide sat in his chair helping his auntie eat her dinner. Lissie was awake and aware at last as her timed medical stasis had clocked off. Ironhide was solicitous almost to a comical degree as he prepared her food, helped her cut the few things that needed it, then waited for her to tell him whatever she needed no matter 'how hard or how far'.
Old family joke.
"I just heard from Ratchet, Auntie. He said that Sun Base was just released and the Triggers are back to transport Homeland. They have three and a half joors before the scout ships reach them to see what's going on," Ironhide said.
"That's good news, infant," Lissie said with a grin. Ironhide being solicitous was a hilarious and wonderful thing. "Maybe we can get away without a fight after all. How are casualties among the troops on our side? I heard that the cruiser exploding decimated the slaggers. Too bad. I hate war, infant. Even if you win everyone still loses. Remember that. Never turn war and conflict into a video game that has no consequences because it does. What it creates changes everything and lasts forever."
He nodded, remembering all the times she'd set him straight when he forgot that death was permanent and someone loved whoever the other slagger was even if you didn't think so. "I remember." He did but he also liked to fight.
She grinned. "The casualties? Do you know? Who got hurt besides you? I know all my team will be fine."
"Prime got slagged. He's deaf for a while. I think your shuttle was the worst of the injuries. Springer got the rest of them and they surrendered. No one had a stomach for continuing the battle," Ironhide said.
"There's tactics, then there's suicide. Never feel badly that you surrendered. You can live to fight another orn. That was the byword for the Autobots left on Cybertron after The Fall. There's nothing honorable or good in dying foolishly."
"I remember," Ironhide said almost automatically. Lissie had imparted a lot of her wisdom into her 'perfect boy' and he was eternally in love with her.
She grinned. "Why not turn on the news, infant? We might even see ourselves on the screen."
They would.
=0=Trigger 2 and 3 checking in about the same time
"We are go," Trigger 2 speaking through Teletraan Command
"We are go," Trigger 3 speaking through Teletraan Command
Wheeljack on Trigger 1 listened, noted the excellent data, then cut in Teletraan Command, the composite brainpower of Teletraan 1-5 on world at Mars, Teletraan 6-8 on Cybertron, one node of which commanded each Trigger as well as the big science computers on both planets cut in through Tennyson to handle the telemetry for transfer. "I'm turning it over to you, Auntie, if you got it."
A soft chuckle could be heard as a young science kid who was working on stabilization realized once more that he was in love with the impossibly sexy voice in his audials. "I got it, Wheeljack," she said. Then the amusement was gone and the mechanical voice of Teletraan taking over EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE in the chain of command was heard. By the time she was through with her checklist the lights on the ground of Homeland, the stabilizers, were coming on with a vengeance.
Prime sat in his chair along with everyone else cut into the chat off line as Ratchet signed to him a thing or two along the way. By the time this planet was gone, the worst would be over.
Maybe.
Time would tell them as he noted the scout team had just about arrived in striking zone. He linked into the command stream where the conversations of ships and their personnel could be heard. :Prime to Blue and Green Command:
:Blue here: Kup said.
:Green here, Dad. Got something for us to do?: Springer's amused voice could be heard.
Prime grinned slightly in spite of himself. :Yes. Go see what the welcoming party wants:
:On it: Green and Blue team.
Prime watched as two shuttles flew from formation near the three titans who had come with Clipper to make an iron curtain with the titans and other ships between trouble and the helpless planet. They streaked away in the darkness transferring from view as real objects to blinking lights on their forward screen.
=0=Home
"The latest news from the mission at the moment is Prime and the fleet are in the area of the Benzuli Expansion called The Ruins. Its a band of intense energy disruptions that are marked on all Cybertronian maps as forbidden territory due to the unpredictable and dangerous energy and plasma eruptions that are common there. It's believed that the area was a star nursery in the distant past and was disrupted by a pair of small wandering black holes. The singularities are believed to have cannibalized a number of stars on the periphery of the area and triggered a larger number of gas giants to nova. It's believe to have disrupted the fabric of space and time in the area and thus, its forbidden to travel or live there," Aleph said.
=0=Sciences
They listened as they worked on their computers or experiments, mostly sorting and writing data. It was astonishing to listen to Aleph calmly read over the news data that was unknown to humans even after all the science everyone had done to date. Somewhere, two small black holes, probably no bigger than soft balls had passed near each other and a huge gas cloud that was a star nursery.
Stars bursting into life there probably ran the gamut of small dense ones to huge brilliant giants. A pull like that would disrupt the area intensely and cause enormous pulses of energy, light and power that would ignite others. Some would be flung away heading out into space to wander which was the lot of most stars in the universe. Some would burst and explode. If enough that were numerous and concentrated in a relatively small area did at the same time, who knew what that much mega tonnage would do?
They sorta did now.
=0=Out there
Prime watched and listened, linked in to the conversations among the many levels of Teletraan that were working on the problem. They had the planet in a box now, one of shining energy. In moments, they would head for the bridge nearby taking the planet and its two moons away from here. Nothing in the Matrix was disturbed so he allowed himself to think all was well.
Actually, it was but he'd learned to hedge bets from hard experience.
The Triggers began to move heading toward the bridge, one flying backwards while the other faced it. They held the planet in place as they moved, entering the bridge to disappear completely. The bridge burned furiously, then winked out immediately.
It was intensely quiet on the bridge.
:Wheeljack to Prime:
"Prime here."
:We have Homeland. We're going to work our magic. Good luck and we'll let you know when we get done here: Wheeljack said.
"Thank you, Wheeljack. Call when you can. Prime out," he said, then sat back.
It was quiet a few moments.
Hardie sat back, then chuckled. "That's good to go for them. Too bad about us."
Prime grinned slightly. "Every plan has to have a flaw. If not, where would we be?"
:Home?: Ratchet signed.
=0=Springer and the team
"Homeland is gone," he said to Drift. "They got it away."
"That's good. Too bad we're stuck out here without a bridge," Drift said with a grin.
Springer grinned back. "Yeah."
They sped into the darkness toward the growing lights of a scout team from Vergo.
=0=TBC 2-5-2020 2-7-2020
NOTES:
I think this is everybody. If not, then the next one. :D:D:D
What Lies Beyond chapter 199 . 1h ago
Wait, isn't Optimus still deaf at this point...?
ME: He is. He's linked in through the internal chat but its talking out loud. I will reread it and see if I made it unclear. Thank you. :D:D
Dark Mind and Saddened Soul chapter 198 . Feb 2
You know, with regards to Prime, I am kinda wondering why they all don't just sign to him? I mean... wouldn't they still have the information from back when the twinnys were still deaf? Prime can still respond verbally, and the others can talk as they sign, so those who didn't get the language package or those listening via communicator can also know what is going on...
Ta, Lisa
ME: LISA! :D:D:D I'm glad you mentioned that. I've been up the creek here trying to write around slag going wrong with the heating system and that slipped by. I just posted this so its there. HUGS!
leoness chapter 198 . Feb 2
i adore the badaft little old lady type vibe she gives off!
ME: I love Lissie and the femme at the jail and Gypsy and Gee-Gee. I had cousins who singled their bar roofs when they were in their eighties. Bad aft old ladies run in my family. :D:D:D HUGS!
Sunstreaker's Girl chapter 195 . Jan 31
Wow, this firefight is brutal. Even Optimus got hurt. That rarely happens. I was a bit surprised about that.
Poor Ironhide; he really needs to learn how to duck faster. Lol
ME: They don't get much chances but when they do its memorable. LOL! HUGS!
What Lies Beyond chapter 194 . Jan 29
It's amazing how quicky things can go wrong when you're fighting a battle on multiple fronts. Here's hoping this can get resolved quickly and without too many more casualties (because there are bound to still be some), and that things don't get so bad that they have to resort to blowing up Homeland.
ME: Its sort of breaking down that way. Or not. ;)
On a more humorous note, I spotted a mug the other day which had this printed on it: "Today's objective: keep the tiny humans alive". I know it's actually referring to little kids, but I still couldn't help but think of this fic... I wonder how it would go over if Optimus got a mug like that...?
ME: BWAHAHAHA! That is hilarious. INTO THE IDEA FILE FOR HUMANS! :D:D:D
Misty Legionnaire chapter 194 . Jan 29
I hope the titans and dreadnoughts can fire down any Vergans missiles as precisely as the Vergans "think" their new weapon systems can. That would make any force pause in consternation at the scale difference on accuracy.
ME: Given that they can't go through a bridge home this might be a nice way to find out. :D
I sure hope the Vergans don't have any captive Cybertronians. This could be a bigger mess if they have hostages. Though, doesn't Prime have two of the alien members from a prior fight, so maybe an exchange could work?
ME: I'm going to look that up. I thought I put them on a shuttle home but maybe not. I don't think the angelic type fliers could live easily on Mars. I will check. :D
They probably have the meek Prime image the Functionalist society provided along with whatever the other colony gave them. Though blowing up two planets to prevent looting the dead should have made them reassess.
ME: I love that they underestimate Prime. Its one of his biggest weapons. :D
Looking forward to the next chapter :)
ME: ON IT! LOL! HUGS!
KyrstenRook chapter 193 . Jan 28
Hello, Arctapus. Thank you for another wonderful chapter. :) In answer to your note, nova is best translated as it doesn't go. If that small ship that killed the 'cons' ability to communicate externally also destroyed their ships' electronics, we could technically have a situation where the Autobots could just pull the mechs from the ships and bridge them to prison on Mars. Not sure if that's what you were thinking or not, but there you have it. :) Hope all is well with you. Take care.
ME: That's a good thing to think about. The bots are my babies and I don't like them hurt but this is war and war is hell. I will put that into the idea folder for great tech ideas. (I have about 2 million oddly named folders. LOL! They're full of awesome ideas from readers) HUGS!
Misty Legionnaire chapter 193 . Jan 28
The speech from the Great Elder positively sent shivers down my spine.
ME: I love Rainmaker. If he didn't exist (he doesn't) I'd have to make him up (I did) ;)
Looking forward to the space battle.
ME: COMING UP! HUGS!
Misty Legionnaire chapter 192 . Jan 27
Oh dear. Auto brands gave away the game. Hope enough battleships and Seekers are on site for the space shoot out.
ME: Wearing their faction on their bodies is nuts but they do it proudly. :D
I'm curious why the new Seekers didn't realize they need to stand down. Are they re-programmed like Tyke was, or simply out of the loop too long?
ME: These guys came from far, far, far away. More on that to come.
Dang it for Ironhide. Ratchet is not going to go easy on him.
ME: You mean "Runner"? LOL!
I hope Prime doesn't take too much damage. I don't think anyone wants an enraged Prowl devastating the enemies with his superior tactics. Besides they need to know if Nova Prime is coming back. I would hate for a show down between him and Prime, but it sounds like it's in the works.
ME: Prowl is pissed but he's on duty so … ;) Nova is going to factor in. The prisoners will tell the story. :D
Looking forward to the next chapter.
ME: Okay. :D:D:D:D:D:D
moosekababs chapter 191 . Jan 26
haha. these dudes sure know how to party. i hope they get their noses broken! what dweebs. our guys are gonna mop the floor with them. it'll be interesting to see who all is with them... I wonder if the whole crew is from nova prime's gang, or just a few ships? Even when its bad guys, i kinda always get excited when someone new shows up because of the possibility of reunions. Pretty uncool of them to show up at the exact same time as the Vergo, though. thats definitely not a headache that prime needed right now. But hey, im confident he'll lay them all out in short order and we can get back to football and movin planets :P
ME: You and me both, sister. LOL! Nova will be explained, Prime will play again, the crews are going to be squeezed. Right now, they have to get away from the Vergans without a bridge helping. SUCH FUN AHEAD! LOL!
Thanks for the great read! I hope you had a swell weekend :P
ME: And you, too, darling. :D:D:D
Silverhornd chapter 190 . Jan 25
hi again. question why not release the dynobots and let them have some fun.
ME: You mean the 'boy band of the Autobots'? I love them. Not a bad idea. :D:D HUGS