The Diego Diaries: Boom (dd7 208)
"SHIELDS!"
The blast hit the ship rocking it even in its gigantic immensity.
=0=Tennyson
They stared at the screen in horror and disbelief as an almost sentient seeming light seemed to crawl nearly the full length of the massive vessel. Then it winked out.
=0=Typhoon on the command deck of Torus State, a metro-titan from Cybertron
"Fire," Typhoon said with glacial rage.
They fired. All of them.
The line up of alien ships saw them coming then dispersed but were obliterated to the last one. It was so complete that a deep scan revealed no survivors.
Typhoon considered that as he continued to reach out to the muted energy of Clipper listing in space nearby and the faint but traumatic energy of Dangerous. He turned to look at the titans who were with him, those that had wanted to come along 'for the fun and the science of moving planets'. Hammer of Primus, Stalker, Caminus, Veritas, Consolation, Torus State, the titan who had come along from the roving security arsenal that protected Cybertron and was now base, Starbase, Camo, Clarity and Bleak from Cybertron stared back at him. "We don't give up an inch." He turned to the console next to him. "No one is left, Prime. Your orders?"
Prime was already landing on the hanger deck of Clipper as Phobos pulled along side and Clipper began to be swarmed. He ran to the elevator with Ratchet, then up they went. :Stand by, Typhoon and monitor the situation. We are seeing to Clipper:
"Understood," Typhoon said as he walked to the command chair to sit. The others found a place, too, or manned a station. It would be a waiting game now.
=0-Ratchet and Prime
Ratchet ran across the deck to the command console. He sat down, fully aware that the deck was clear but for stunned drones that lay or sat around the vast room where they were felled. He plugged into a number of ports, then began to work through the data that sluggishly was coaxed forward. Prime stared around as Prowl, Springer, Drift, Raptor, Blackjack and Hard Drive joined them.
Drift turned to Prime. "Where are the others? No one is here." Then he signed to Prime his remarks.
Prime glanced around. "Ratchet?" he asked though he had an idea.
Ratchet listened to Clipper, his own optics flooding with light. They stared at him, then Ratchet sat back. He turned to Prime and began to sign as he spoke. "He's been electrocuted so to speak. He's in deep stasis, has some injuries and its going to take a while to bring him back. I need all the shuttles to plug into his outside ports and fire up. We need energy fast. I'd ask a titan to do that but its a bigger target for the same outcome."
"Where are the others?" Prowl asked.
Ratchet glanced around with a grim expression. "They went back to where they came as they derezzed. Hard and fast. I think the blast followed them back."
=0=Night at The City
Lights had been on for some time as the night sensors brought cheer to the inky darkness of Mars. Street lights, tall poles along all the highways and the towers of habitation in the residential forests of the colony blazed their brightness against the night. Spotlights emblazoned all the human habitats, marking their beauty to passersby. Other lighted areas like down towns and local amusements that made life here as exciting at night as it was during the day softened the heaviness of the intensity of Martian night. There were moons, two, but they shed very little illumination onto the planet they rounded. Stars were a massed wash of light overhead but it was a small thing without that which the bots brought to their colony.
Cars were out in force on the highway as the last orn of Christmas Surprise played out. The airports, four now not counting the main two in The City were bright with ships coming and going, commercial and private both. Overhead, one could watch the flight of satellites, Seeker patrols and ships coming and going as things moved onward. It was a beautiful sight, the tower filled glory of Autobot City.
It was every night on Mars in the colony.
Then some of the lights went out together.
Driving toward The City to go to shift at N.E.S.T. HQ after dinner with family at Unidad, Bobby and Lonnie Epps along with their children found themselves enshrouded in the darkness of Martian night. Their headlights showed them where they were on the highway itself and the lights both oncoming and behind them helped them remain orientated to the road as they drove from light pool to light pool. Beyond them, the lights in the Metro Districts that were familiar and homey were interspersed with darkness, a new sight and one that was intensely fear making.
"Daddy. What happened?" Lucy Epps asked as she walked from the benches along the back walls of the hummer they rode in to the seats forward where her parents sat. The other kids came forward as well including their dog, Tinsel.
"I don't know," Bobby said as he tuned into the channel that all who served security on world carried on their phone-like devices. It was the encrypted channel that broadcast information from the Emergency Services Command to those cleared to hear and see it. They were speaking in Cybertronian. "Damn. I can't stop to change the translator."
"They're talking about the titans failing. The cities … some of them have fallen somehow," Bobby Jr. said. "They don't know what's happening."
"Are they issuing any statements yet?" Lonnie asked her children.
The kids listened. "They have an all call. Everyone needs to get off the streets. No one needs to panic. We're not under attack."
Bobby Epps stepped up his truck as he sped toward N.E.S.T. HQ. As he did, Will Lennox put out the all call for the garrison to go there. He also issued an all call to the human community that nothing was amiss yet and to stay in and not panic. They sped away into the night.
=0=At Emergency Command Center, Fortress Maximus, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire, Postal District 2
They sat at their stations shooting the shit as the night shift began. Inferno was ready to leave the office to go to dinner with his roomie, Red Alert. As he walked out the door to go to the Command Center and leave a few messages there the lights went out. The entire building seemed to almost sigh, then all things illuminated winked out.
He was stunned a moment as he looked around with surprise, then he ran toward the Command Center. As he did he noted that the emergency lights that should have come on didn't.
=0=Autobot City Day/Night Watch Command, Tower 18, Metrotitan, Metro District 2, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars, Cybertron and the Empire, Postal District 29-12A
He finished the forensics on a number of things that would be presented in court shortly. They were related to theft and were easy tests to carry out. He finished his report, then saved it. He stood at last, stretched, then walked to the door to take a nosh break in the lounge nearby. He was on the 22 floor in the massive Forensics Sciences Laboratory that occupied fix floors. He was a master at ascertaining things that eluded most others. He was as good a tracker as Hound and forensically, very little escaped his methodical logical process.
He walked into the lounge where the young mech he was sweet on sat going over a number of reports that would be due. Grabbing a cup and a plate of donuts, he walked toward the mech who glanced up with a grin when the lights went out. It was pitch black in the room.
=0=At a club in Retriarius
They danced the usual bouncing, boinging, flailing, uninhibited flurry of movement and joie de vivre that passed for Cybertronian dancing. The dance floor aka mosh pit was surging with laughter, cat calls and the usual guff one had to face in the younger clubs. This was Axiom, a dance club that was getting to be as famous for its food and small label small batch beer as anyplace else on 'the strip' as the business district of Retriarius was called. If you wanted good food, good drink, good company and fun, the downtown of Retriarius with its entertainments, sports facilities, theaters and clubs, dance or otherwise was the place to go.
Then it all went dark.
Like Time Square would go dark.
=0=Amity, Hospital 2 at Gliese 581 g
The night shift was nearly over as the sun which was constant was let back inside the huge facilities that were hospitals here. Amity, Consolation, Solace and Hope were busy places with the flow of those who were rescued or those from Cybertron came here to be treated and recover. It was astonishing to the crews at shift time when Amity lost all its power and fell into a deep almost stasis-like condition.
Even turning on the emergency back ups, half of which were automated didn't do a damned thing.
=0=Unidad
The failure hit when the shift had already changed from normal days to night. Most of the day, most of the worker bees did their jobs, work and science while the night shift which was smaller took over about 1900 hours on the TMC. Given that this was the last day of vacation around Christmas and the related holidays of others at the facility, everyone was goofing off and things wouldn't be 'normal' until the next day.
They were in their homes, the theaters, working out, messing around in the dome at the lakes or rivers, visiting each other, courting, hanging out in the chapel doing various things, working or dining. When the failure struck it was silent everywhere, then everyone began to run for the concourse or come out of their apartments to stand on the walkways in front of them to look whatever stories down from their homes to the ground below.
Klaxons sounded and lights flashed.
=0=Tennyson
Magnus arranged with Autobot City to use the small bridge to come back. Jetta who was with him waited until things were cleared. Then they ran for the hangar deck. Tennyson had released his fastest vessel for them to use so they jumped in, buckled up and flew out as fast as they could for the journey to the farthest reach of the small bridge and the short jump back to the colony.
As they did, Fuller and Machlis sat in the brig of Tennyson, the chips still in their helms.
=0=Clipper
"Keep me informed about them," Prime said. "I want them tracked down. Perceptor will meet you at the bridge point."
Drift and Springer nodded, then ran for the shuttle outside. They would bridge to Tennyson, get another fast vehicle, then blaze their way to the bridge point. Perceptor would arrive about the same time and both would shoot through to take command of the situation with Magnus and Jetta on Mars.
=0=Torus State
They sat around the computer terminals on the command deck of Torus State working through the data as they began to analyze this, the first really scary thing they had seen in their collective memories. Few things were available to harm them, especially a colossus like Clipper.
Omega, Beta and Kappa were there as well waiting for some sort of answer to their dilemma. The scientists among them, Hammer of Primus, Camo and Bleak collaborated as they began to piece the story together.
Kappa took a message, then turned to the group. "I just received a message from Mars. Acutus says that everyone who is missing here is off line on Mars."
The energy was disturbing at the thought that so many friends and family might be harmed, then Typhoon turned toward tactical. "Frag," he said. "Here they come again." He transferred the data to the forward monitors. A bridge had opened and ships began to swarm out of it heading their way again.
"Well, isn't that interesting," Stalker said quietly.
Typhoon's expression was glacial. "It will be in a moment," he whispered to himself.
=0=TBC 2-14-2020 2-14-2020