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!

206. Chapter 206

The Diego Diaries: Out There (dd7 206)

=0=Out there, Part 1

They flew in a formation designed for anything possible that could come from an enemy that wasn't slowing down. It was clear to everyone in the battle array, a long line of bristling mega ships and the usual groups that inhabited them that they could be detected, yet the enemy flew toward them swiftly without seemingly being deterred anyway.

Springer sat in the engineer's seat of City of Praxus as Rem flew them forward. He watched the improbable sight of the enemy pressing forward to meet them. He toggled a switch. "Clipper, this is Springer."

:Clipper here:

"Could you send a missile their way? Something to catch their optics. They don't seem to be paying attention to our swagger and it sort of hurts my feelings," Springer said as Faber sat nearby watching everything with ill concealed nervous agitation.

:I think I can do that: the deep masculine voice replied. It was filled with amusement and intelligence, something all the big ancient frames shared in common.

Springer glanced at his crew. "Clipper is aptly named."

"Well, he is about fifteen miles long in ship format. So ..." Drift grinned. "We haven't fielded such a group in combat in thousands of vorns. I don't know what they're thinking."

"Maybe they can't. Maybe they're like old Faber here," Springer replied as he and everyone on board glanced at the nervous mech sitting with his body magnetized to the hull.

"What will they do?" Faber asked nervously.

Springer pretended to think about it. "Well, it could go two ways. They can fight us and get obliterated or they're here to scan, then leave. Either way they get obliterated."

"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds," Drift said with a slight smirk.

Springer stared at him a moment. "Is that so?"

"Apparently," Drift replied.

"Who's the hobgoblin? Them or me?" Springer asked.

"Whoever lives through it," Drift said. "What kind of numskull takes us on with this line up?"

"The finest kind," Springer said as the figures on the screen came their way.

That was then that a missile flew from Clipper and headed into the night time of space toward the intruders. It showed up on the monitor screen mounted on the wall above the pilot that allowed those on board to watch the goings on outside.

A blinking light flashed toward them at incredible speed, then the alien ships broke formation. They sped in all directions, dropped countermeasures, then fled swiftly.

"Here we go," Sandstorm said as he grinned at the scene.

Everyone knew about dreadnought slimline missiles. They were high tech, indomitable and almost always unerring. It would take a very big countermeasure (planet or asteroid) appearing (out of the thin air at the very last moment) to draw them off their target. They were prepared to follow their target FOREVER until they found it and struck it hard. Given how swiftly and well they reached their targets in combat, it was uncertain but theorized how far and long they would seek out who they were sent to blast. It wouldn't take any time at all for this one.

BLAM!

The missile found a smaller version of a Wrecker shuttle and blasted the slag out of it. It exploded and became a fire ball for about two seconds before winking out in the vacuum. There were signs that the crew abandoned ship but no one could be sure.

=0=Command Deck, Tennyson

"Well, that was effective. I wonder what they're going to do now," Raptor said with a slight grin. "Should we allow them to retrieve their wounded and dead or is that too decent for them?" He glanced at Prime. "It might even be culturally inappropriate to allow them that courtesy since they don't seem to return the favor to us."

Prime glanced at him then the screen. "It would appear so."

=0=Out there, part 2

They flew closer to the aliens who were retrieving the lost ship's crew. Slowing to maintain a decent distance, Springer glanced at Twin Twist. "See if you can get someone on the line, Twin."

Twin smirked slightly as he input the codes for their ships, a listing type that wasn't that far off the ones used by Autobots, such were the similarities between them with the addition of their tech to the Vergon's arsenal. It was obvious that the Vergons had their communications tech as well. "You're up, Springer."

"Hello, Vergons. We would like to speak to whoever is in charge here. I, myself am Springer and I'm in charge. Probably," he said.

It was silent, then a male voice could be heard. :This is Sen:

"What are you doing here? We told you that Sun Base and Homeland are quarantined. You could have avoided this by obeying the edict," Springer said.

:We wish to speak to Machlis. We're allies and hold mutual treaties: the voice said. :We're here to ascertain their status:

Springer considered that, then glanced at Faber.

He shrugged. "I don't handle that part of things."

"Amazing," Springer said. "You don't do much, Faber. Can you find your aft with both hands or do you need a butler for that?" It was intense and silent, then Springer called Prime. "Springer to Prime. Did you hear that?"

:I did. They do not have permission to come here. We have to run out the clock:

"Understood," Springer said. "Hey, Sen. How about you just leave. Machlis is under supervision. Everyone has the sniffles."

"The cosmic rust. Tell them we have the cosmic rust," Twin said with a smirk.

Springer glanced at him, then grinned. "To tell you the truth, Sen … we have a severe outbreak of the cosmic rust."

It was silent a moment, then Sen was back. "Cosmic rust?:

Springer glanced at Drift. "What now, genius?"

"I didn't suggest that but tell them that it causes us to do … what happened to Atar in Dark of the Moon?" Drift asked as he glanced around the ship.

"He was hit with a cosmic rust shot by Sentinel, then dissolved into a pile of red dust and spare parts," Twin said with a chuckle.

Springer grinned. "Its a disease that kills us. It happens so fast that it reduces us to a pile of dust in seconds. In fact, there's something in our tech that attracts it. Its space borne and when it senses our tech or us it descends and eats us alive." He grinned. "You have a lot of our tech don't you. Why not come closer. Let's see if it makes a difference that your tech is only about 60% Cybertronian. It might be interesting to test the theory that our energetic and molecular make up draws it. What's the worst that can happen to you? Your ships might fall apart and you'd be stuck floating in space forever. What about it? Come on down."

"You're full of shit, Springer," Splice said as he sat at a gun turret with a big grin on his handsome face. "Did I tell you that's one of your best features."

"Drift could tell you the rest but its such a short list," Sideswipe said as he sat across from Faber sharpening his blades.

Laughter greeted that, then Rem glanced at Springer. "They're pulling back."

Everyone watched the monitor and saw that the group was falling back. They had their crew and had abandoned the half destroyed shuttle.

"This may be a world record but I think that Michael Bey finally did something good," Springer said. As he did, more ships spewed out of a smallish bridge and flew to the others to form up again.

"Frag," Twin said as he sat by the window to watch.

=0=Tennyson Command Deck

"Cosmic rust."

"It worked, Prowl."

"Cosmic rust."

=0=Out there, part 3

They stood on the command deck of Clipper who was sitting on the command chair plugged into everything. The big titans and the dreads discussed a number of very important things as they watched the show.

"Cosmic rust." Titan grinned. "What a pant load."

Everyone turned to look at him. He sent them the meaning of the slang, then they laughed loudly. Even the most honored, dignified and deeply loved format of their people could be delinquents.

=0=Out there, part 3.1

:What's the sit-rep?:

Springer grinned at Hercy and Kup who were on the monitor facing him on the flight console. "Well, it would appear that they seem to be fretting the bad news about the cosmic rust."

Hercy grinned. "Did you know there's a story somewhere where a planet that was an Autobot colony had the cosmic rust and Bluestreak was one of the last still alive. He was talking to Prowl over the comm link, they might have been related or something and Prowl was begging him to leave. He even said he was coming to get him. Blue said it was too late, he was infected, then after a moment he cut the link. Prowl was upset to say the least."

Everyone stared at Hercy then each other.

"You mean Bey didn't pull that out of his aft?" Splice asked.

Hercy shook his helm. "I sorta teared up myself when I read it."

"Frag." -Everyone in two ships.

Sentimental phonies.

"The sit-rep if I can see it around the big tears in my optics," Springer began, "is FUBAR. Right now, I think we have them fooled. What they think about us breaking their ship is unknown. Personally, I want Clipper to tractor it on board so we can look it over and make a few guesses about their level of tech."

"They might blow it up if we go anywhere near it. I once saw a missile hit a titan's tractor beam in flight," Kup said as Hercy nodded.

"I did, too," Hercy said.

It was silent as the two sat side-by-side staring at Springer and his crew.

Springer and his crew glanced at each other, then the two. "What happened?"

Hercy considered that question. "It was bad."

Faber who was following the conversation tensely leaned around Tonset, a regular army mech the size of a house to look at the monitor. "IS THAT ALL YOU CAN SAY!? WHAT DO WE DO NOW!?"

"Well," Hercy said mildly, "I was thinking we might have a garage sale to see if there's anything they might need from my closet."

Springer grinned. "I can think of a few things in mine."

"Your still," Drift said. "That can go since we get our liquor at The Brown Jug in Tyger Pax now."

"What about your dolls?" Springer asked to be ornery. Everyone they knew understood that Drift collected warrior dolls from all manner of warrior cultures including the Imperial Army of Palpatine. The detailing was magnificent.

"YOU COLLECT DOLLS!? WHAT SORT OF SOLDIER ARE YOU!?" Faber asked.

"A good one. Right?" Drift asked hopefully around the group.

"You're the best doll collecting ninja I know. That is, unless Prowl collects them, too," Splice said as Sideswipe snickered. "Do you play with them or are they for looks?"

"Sometimes Springer plays with them. I don't mind," Drift said as he grinned at Springer who grinned back.

"I thought that was our little secret," Springer said.

"Nothing wrong with playing with dolls. Orion does it," Kup offered.

"That little mech wrecks. He even has the tats," Splice said. "He also has his femme on his arm. Mimi is his femme."

"Who's Orion?" Faber asked as the conversation and its meaning began to slip away from him.

"He's a legend." -everyone there and on the other ship

"What's the slaggers doing, Rem?" Springer asked as he watched the chuckling pilot take readings.

"They look like they're getting ready to take us on," Rem said with amusement as he glanced up at Springer. "What now, boss?" he asked as the mechs on two shuttles laughed out loud.

=0=TBC 2-12-2020 2-14-2020

ESL:

numskull: (numb-skull) A stupid person. A dead head, hence numb.

hobgoblin: (hob-gob-lin) mischievous elf or sprite

countermeasures: Anything used to prevent something. In this case, its usually heavily magnet-designed bombs that are launched to draw a missile to them so they hit and explode. Submarines use them to misdirect and destroy torpedoes launched by ships or planes.

pant load: cheeky slang about filling your pants. Its slang that something is shit.

FUBAR: F**ked Up Beyond Repair: soldier slang for when things are going downhill fast

NOTE: the story about the cosmic rust and Prowl/Bluestreak actually exists. Its really sad to read.