The Diego Diaries: Showdown (dd7 204)
=0=Tense times
The three stared at the array of individuals before and all around them. Fuller had crumbled but it appeared that he only knew rumors because it was evident that he was ready to spill his guts and he could add no more. The other two weren't.
It was maddening.
"Prime … remember the first meet up with the Functionalist Council?" Hardie asked as Ratchet signed.
Prime nodded silently as he drilled holes into Machlis and Faber with his optics.
"You never told me," Sun said with a grin. He was standing next to Jack, the two were enormous and nearly twins in their shape and appearance.
Jack nodded, too.
"They decided to come to the colony and bring the chosen ones with them. You know … their families and the rare formats. We didn't know that they'd killed half a million of our people before they came through their recall chips," Hardie said. "That wasn't a topic they wanted to discuss. So Prime had a solution. He called them to come over to our ships and talk to us about the detonation chips that were in the people's helms including me and half the elders on the mission. They didn't want to talk so Prime 'abused' them of that notion."
Jack glanced at Prime, then Hardie. "Abused? Or disabused?"
"Both, actually. He ripped the arm off of one and beat the others until they talked," Hardie said calmly.
"You're lying. This is Prime. Soft sparked peace loving Optimus Prime," Faber said with a sneer.
"No," a voice behind them replied. "He did," Ratchet said. "I had to replace that slaggers arm from scratch."
Faber glanced round the room as half the mechs and femmes there nodded.
"You're lucky Chromia isn't here. She would volunteer to show you how it was done," Arcee said dryly. "Always helpful, Our Chromia."
"I wonder, Prime," Elita said. "These slaggers are as old as frag. I wonder if they have them. They were around during the Functionalist Tyranny. I bet that's how they crafted the System of Exception, watching the Functionalists destroy people."
"I would know that," Machlis said. "But thanks for the concern."
"No, you wouldn't. I didn't," Hardie said, then he glanced at his brothers. "Ratchet … did you check these two?"
Ratchet stared at them, then startled. "Frag no. They won't come in for their physical." He unsubbed a meter, then scanned both. Oh, frag, Hardie … they have both chips."
The temperature dropped like a rock in the room as Sun and Jack turned to Ratchet. "How do you remove them, Ratchet? Can you?" Sun asked.
"I can," Ratchet said. "Sit in the engineer's chair and I'll do it now," he said.
Sun sat silently as Ratchet transformed digits to remove his helm cover with micro tools. Sun's processor blinked when it was exposed and it was a slightly nauseating sight to most to see the consciousness of Ironhide the Elder of Praxus, Immortal, Autobot and all around amazing mech in clear and unadulterated view.
"Hold still, Sun," Ratchet said as he transformed two digits into micro tweezers. With infinite skill he reached the first, then slowly pulled it up and out of Sun's skull. "I got one. One more to go," he said, then moved slightly to reach the other one. Slowly it came out, then was placed on the flight console with the first. "I wouldn't touch them. They can explode with surprising power. I don't have spare digits to replace anyone dumb enough to handle them. Though," he said with a smile, "I could pound out Ebio's digit on your finial for a temporary one."
Sun grinned as he glanced upward to Ratchet. "I would let ya. Done?"
Ratchet looked inside, then grinned. "You could use a dusting but yeah, I'm done."
Laughter, though muted greeted that as Sun was put back together, then rose to allow his brother to sit. Jack did, then Ratchet went through the process of removing two long chips, gingerly putting them on the console, then replacing Jack's helm back together.
"I sent for a sapper," Prowl said as he stared at the chips warily. "What about those three?"
Everyone turned to the three who were watching with intense silence and stiff posture.
Ratchet picked up the four devices with his tweezer digits, then turned to Machlis, Fuller and Faber. He held them up to their faces and to their credit, they all took a step backward. "If I dropped these there would be a hole in the floor."
"So you say," Machlis said as a youngster with munitions tattoos walked up with a heavy metal case.
Ratchet put three in the box carefully, then closed it. He walked forward on the deck, then lightly tossed the chip. Everyone around jumped back as it hit the floor, then exploded. It was amazing how loud the noise was when it did and the slight divot and black blast mark on the floor was equally scary.
Sun glanced at Ratchet. "That was in our head? FRAGGERS!"
"Actually, Sun, those are from the Quintessan times. They're bigger and more powerful. The Functionalists chips were made smaller and more difficult to find and remove if you weren't a medic. That was efficient, less expensive and saved on surroundings when a helm blew up. Less splatter because they were big enough to kill but not to fracture the helm open. Those chips confirmed my suspicions because Hardie's were smaller … the Functionalist style. Yours weren't. They didn't trust you very much, obviously."
"And with good reason," Jack said as he glanced at his brother. "I don't trust him either."
Huge relieved laughter greeted that.
"What about us?" Fuller asked near to panic. "What about checking us out?"
"I haven't received orders to do so," Ratchet said. "Until my commanding officer tells me, I can't."
They stared at Ratchet, then Machlis stepped closer to Prime who stared at him with a glacial fury. "This is the part where we give up and tell you everything you want to know or you won't take them out. If they're even there."
Ratchet stepped closer, scanned them, then checked the data. "They're there. Functionalist style chips. There's also something else there. Some kind of tracker. Care to tell us about that?"
"What do you mean?" Machlis asked with surprise.
"I see a tracker small and slim. Its also Functionalist era and style tech. What are you three doing with a tracker in your helm?" Ratchet asked.
"You're lying. What would I be doing with one?" Machlis sputtered.
"I don't know," Springer said as he stared at the three. "I heard that Functionalist collaborators sometimes had them in their helms so that their bosses could track them better."
"I wasn't a collaborator," Machlis said hotly.
"No because that means you're a traitor and we'd have to give you life in front of a firing squad if you were," Springer said.
"I heard about that, right, Hardie? Collaborators helped the Functionalists take over and keep the people in line. They were part of the oppression. You were part of the oppression were you, Machlis? Faber?" Jack asked darkly.
The three stared at him, then said nothing for a moment.
Faber glanced at Prime. "Are these coming out, too?"
Prime stared at the three as Prowl filled him in off line. He didn't say a word for a moment, then he sat straighter. "Tell me what you know or they stay."
A number of the youngsters in the crew looked at the ongoing scene with wide optics. Most of them had never seen this side of Optimus Prime and it was kind of scary. Though none of the others around them, most of the senior Autobots and civilians who were part of his command structure seemed to be perturbed, they were. This was about the tensest thing most of them had ever been a part of and it was also the most consequential.
"I tell you, Prime … I only heard someone say that the aliens had star maps that included Cybertron at a party. They invade to get free passage. They don't seem to take over the worlds in their conquered territory. They leave them alone. They just seem to want to know what's out there and get free passage to explore," Fuller said.
The other two stared at Fuller with enraged expressions, then looked at Prime. They added nothing.
"Consider that Cybertron is the mother lode of tech," Drift said. "What makes you think they would just fly past going somewhere else when they can have the technology that we have for the taking? They wouldn't. You raised their level of threat to us by selling them tech that's forbidden by law and treaty for that reason. You also sold them specs that show how to make the materials they're made of. They also would believe that Cybertron is flattened and thus, it would give little resistance."
"I am personally going to volunteer to enforce the treaties … my way or the hard way," Magnus said with malice.
"Look … maybe if you give me access to the computers I can help you," Fuller said.
"You COWARD!" Machlis said.
Fuller spun on him. "YOU IDIOT! WE HAVE BOMBS IN OUR HELMS! If they don't take them out we could die just bumping our heads."
"Relieve Fuller of his burden, Ratchet," Prime said coldly.
Ratchet gripped Fuller's arm, then walked to the conn. Sitting him down, he began to remove the mech's helm cover. No one said as word. It was what most humans would call an intensely breathless moment. He inspected the site, then with care and transformed digits, he began to pull a chip out of Fuller's helm.
"How did this happen?" Faber said as he glanced at Machlis with growing fear. "HOW DID THEY GET ACCESS!?"
"Well," Ratchet began as he pulled the other out, "I do believe that Jhiaxus was the chief of medicine and science at the time. If you work at it a moment, it might all come clear to you."
"He never touched me," Faber said.
"No, but I'm sure one of his doctors did," Ratchet said as he pulled out a slim chip that looked different, one tailored along the lines of an old fashioned tracking device. "You do recall that all medicine was administered through his office and command. Of course, you were probably too young to remember but it was, Faber. Given that Jhiaxus was the mad scientist through the orns of Nova Prime, I'm not surprised that you have one yourself. My guess is that the ones in Machlis and Faber are older and of the Functionalist style.
"Given that the Functionalists gave rich industrialists and corporate managers like your family a pass on the functional part of their philosophy because they needed innovation and cooperation, they probably didn't tell you about this. But consider that it was in their arsenal and there for them to use if they wished it," Ratchet said as he put Fuller's helm back on. "Go over there and sit down," he said pointing to a couch nearby that was placed by the windows.
He complied, sitting with a slightly dizzy motion.
Ratchet carried the three chips to the sapper who opened the box. "These are lighter payload and slightly less touchy on the triggering but you'll lose a servo with just one without the containment of a helm to control the blast."
The sapper nodded, then glanced at the other two. "What about them, Commander?"
Ratchet turned to them. "What about you?" he asked.
No one said a word.
=0=Mars
"The latest news from the Office of Strategic Operations states that the outlaw group that has caused so much havoc at Nova Cronum is now in custody. They were brought to heel three joors ago by the combined forces of Alpha and Beta Ready-Go First Response Teams here and the local Cybertronian Security Forces at the airfield.
"They're still calculating the dead and wounded but the final total of the fleet is known. There were five battleships, four cruisers, three mid range cutter class fighter carriers, a number of unarmed munitions and provision vessels and four Wrecker class battle shuttles. All of them were taken into custody and nothing that was involved in the fighting in space over Nova Cronum reached the ground.
"There are fifteen million refugees living in ten camps in the greater Nova Cronum area and the possibility of such a catastrophe was high during the fighting. A number of the ships were allowed to leave rather than risk a shoot out in space but they were captured before they could get very far away. The captured crews are being placed in hospitals or prison based on their medical condition. All of them appear to be hardcore criminals, pirates, civilians and Decepticons.
"Optimus Prime is staying with the fleet until the operation is completed. Commander Jazz of Kaon said that when things are finished and everyone comes back Prime will speak to the nation. We'll be back in a moment with more news after this ..."
=0=There
"It would do you well to unburden yourself, Machlis. Prime may have scruples but we don't have any," Raptor said as he stood between Blackjack and Steiner. "I would love to thrash a collaborator. You were a traitor then and you're a traitor now."
"At least, you get marks on consistency," Ratchet said as he leaned against the conn. "Who's first?" he asked with brilliant smile as he held up his long tweezer fingers.
A mech who was watching the show, a Home Guardsman stood hesitantly. "Uh, sir?" he asked tentatively.
Prowl turned to him. "What is it, Rie-Lee?"
"There's a bunch of ships that are making a jump now. They're going to be near where Commander Springer and the others caught the scouting party really fast," he said.
"Frag," Sun said with a mirthless grin. "I'm so engrossed in this I forgot about those guys."
=0=2-10-2020 2-11-2020 2-14-2020
Sorry about last night. Family stuff. :}