The Diego Diaries: Moving On (dd7 256)
=0=Cybertron
It didn't surprise anyone who knew Sun how fast he turned, then grabbed the backpack. He held it fast in full swing, gripping it in his servo as Rockwell jumped back in frustration. It was silent a moment, then Sun tossed it back to Rockwell. "That wasn't smart. A tactical mech who isn't running on either stupid or bravado will study their opponent, learn their strengths and weaknesses, then make a smart move. That wasn't smart and if I were who you genuinely think I am I would thrash you from here to Mars and back for such a cowardly act."
Rockwell held the backpack in his arms as he stared at Sun with frustrated rage. "I hate you so much."
"That's fine. That's the first genuinely real thing you've said to me all this time. You're making progress, slagger. Just know … I've been on shit lists since the Quintessan Oppression and I'm still here. That should tell you all you need to know about me and taking me on. Understand?"
Rockwell didn't say a word.
Sun grinned at the others. "Now where we were?" he asked as he turned around to continue onward. The others followed him with grins. Rockwell followed. He was the only one not amused.
=0=Later that night
"Well, your Uncle Sun isn't on the future bond list for nothing," Ratchet said as they gathered up to hit the hay.
"He's smart as they come," Ironhide said proudly.
They wandered off to the berth room amiably.
=0=Periodic and Rockwell
"What's wrong?" Periodic asked as they sat together in a conference room for a visit.
Rockwell considered the question and the faint, deeply faint prickle of unease deep inside. "I hate this. I miss you."
Periodic squeezed his servo. "I miss you, too. Your genitors send their support."
"Tell them the same," Rockwell said, then he sat back. "They found a hidden shrine today."
Periodic considered that with surprise. "That's a myth."
Rockwell shook his helm. "No. I went inside. It's not a myth. This one is so old that it might be among the first created."
It was silent between them for a moment, then Periodic leaned forward. "What did you see?"
Rockwell thought a moment. "It was a small space, one they carved out by hand. It can hold a few but not many. There's odd drawings of the Pantheon carved into the ceiling. I don't think they knew as much then as we do now about Them and how things work. It was all old and simple."
"What did they look like?" Periodic asked.
"The rescue archaeologist explained them according to what's known which isn't much. There were three swirls, spirals that were together. He said they have the same symbol on ancient art on Earth. They represent the three face aspect of The One. Then there's Primus who is a star, a six pointed star with radiance lines while Unicron is a swirling line that could mean a black hole. They believe that's what they chose to represent him … all light going in and nothing coming out."
Periodic nodded. "What about the others?"
"They don't really have a firm idea of the other ideas. One is a … an animal-like face with horns. Maybe that's Onyx. Another is a triangle which they think represents Vector. I don't know. A hammer is Solus. That was an easy one. The others … they're odd designs."
Periodic squeezed his servo. "What else did you see, Rocky?"
He leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table as he clutched Periodic's servo tighter. "I saw hand prints on the wall, some with missing digits. I saw a small stone in the middle, like an altar. The archaeologist takes that to mean the creation font. I don't know what that is."
"Its the place where all life comes, or so it was said in the past. It's where The One lives … I remember the speculation in university when I had to take comparative religions. No one is really sure but that's why there's a stone in the Temple, one that's said to come from The One Himself … but I suppose everything comes from that source, so ..." Periodic trailed off.
It was silent a moment then Rockwell sat forward. "There were name scrolls in cylinders there." They considered that a moment. "The fragger told me that they didn't have a clear idea of how things worked so they would mark names on copper sheets, roll them and put them into a cylinder. They hid them in the shrine because its holy ground and they thought the Pantheon and The One would see them there and find the dead. That way those who died could make it to the Matrix. They used to believe that if you were forgotten you wouldn't go there. They were … simple."
"Why would they think that?" Periodic mused.
Rockwell had his own ideas but to utter them would be anathema to his point of view. When no one cared enough to remember you, how could you believe the Gods would? He kept that to himself.
=0=Morning
They gathered up the infants, some of whom would play hooky that orn. Hard Drive walked off with Halo who was the Infant of Choice given her still free range status. A fist fight over cows was had and all was ready to go. Everyone finally boarded everything and disappeared.
Ratchet watched the rest walk off then headed for the Metro. He was going to roam around on this, a slack orn. In other words, he would visit hospitals, care centers and the odd private practice to check in and see what they needed.
A bus man's holiday.
=0=On the trudge a short time later on Cybertron in a small wild district near the Manganese Mountains
Jack aka Blackjack the Elder of Praxus, Immortal, berserker front-liner and master tactician as a General Emeritus in the Army of the Primes walked along with a snappy swagger. Today was a good orn. Whenever you were alive, it was good in his book. Having had a hard and fabled life, he considered it a win when he could blink his optics on line.
Living with his brother, Sun was a barrel of laughs. Both of them were disarmingly charming and full of fun. They could, however, pivot on a dime and take out a slagger without a lot of undo fuss. Jack was only a smidge quieter than Sun and both were deceptive in their affect and abilities.
Both were voracious readers, liked to write, had infinite patience on a task and were incredible tacticians and field commanders. Both of them were unafraid in the pursuit of a goal and were great leaders of those who might need a bit of their charisma and confidence when engaging in difficult things. What they didn't know about their profession wasn't worth remembering and they taught it beautifully to others.
Sun liked art. He spent hours in Sunstreaker's studios watching him paint, talking art and life. The younger mech was worshipful at these moments and for him, both Sun and Jack were in his personal pantheon. Sun himself could draw and preferred that mode best using pencils and charcoal. His art came from the past and the need to preserve the memory of it. He was good in still life and landscapes paintings as well as portraits and enjoyed characterizing cartoons everyone he knew, especially the children.
Jack on the other servo couldn't draw a straight line if his life depended upon it but he could and did draw a bead with a weapon. He was an expert, even legendary marksman and taught it to his 'kids' to keep them alive. Both of them worked on Cybertron taking on smaller districts that were difficult and filled with the oldest known parts of Cybertronian life and culture, hence the hidden shrine. Their memories were invaluable to say the least.
Jack led his merry group including Rockwell trudging with his backpack. He was chatting with a youngling mech from Stanix when the subject of the Empress came up. He glanced at the kid. "Is the Empress here? Is it still Lido?"
The kid grinned. "Yes. She's my great, great, great grandmother."
"She's a legend. She was a sharpshooter during the Uprising, the one against the Quintessans. I knew her. She was almost foolhardy she was so brave. She liked to hunt on her own. She was a data bot at a science installation. The enemy didn't put a lot of stock in them. They were the most disposable class. Even the Functionalists had the same idea. When they no longer had a use, they were destroyed. I will never forget nor forgive it. She was such a good person," Jack said.
"What's the Empress, General?" another youngster asked.
"Well, the Stanix area was hard hit during all the slag. Pick an era. So they wove everything together to protect themselves. The clans came into being and they were run by the femmes. We had femmes come out of nowhere then. I don't know the whole of it but they came from the ether and they were ferocious. They defended the city-state and when they began to gather, they did so under the rule of Queens," Jack said with a grin.
"My grand ada is a queen," the first youngster said proudly. "My family has two queens and the Empress."
"Royalty," Jack said.
The kids with him were Home Guard and they were adorable. The aides and other permanent staff mechs grinned as well. It was happy and good, right now. Even Rockwell's aura didn't seem so impenetrable.
"The system formed and they defended things. The Empress ran the entire show, her word was and is final. The Queens formed part of the Elder Council that she headed which were all the leaders … femme queens and the most revered elders who weren't queens. Mechs could be included, the wise oldest ones. They were her optics and audials among the people.
"Serving her directly were an ever changing array of mechs and femmes chosen for a period of time to attend to the Empress and the Elder Council at all meetings or when she desires something done. At get togethers, they stand behind her ready to take on anything she wants done. And I can't stress enough that it'll be anything. Its an honor to serve the Empress. The rest of the clans live in their family groups and go about their business. Sometimes a queen will need something and someone will do it but only in consultation with the Empress.
"This system not only protected a highly vulnerable group living in a really depressed area but it put all the Primes that followed Guardian on notice not to frag with them. Even the Primes knew better than to frag with the Empress and her court. You might want to know that crime and substance abuse was nearly unheard of in the confines of Stanix where the Empress ruled. No where else can say the same. There was the usual poverty and slag but no crime nor substance abuses. Gangs knew better than to come there. The entire city's inhabitants were the weapons of the Empress."
"Amma was an immortal. Do you know where she lived and what she did? Maybe her ada, Merritt as well, Abba?" the first youngster asked.
Jack considered that. "Amma hasn't told you?"
"She's pretty hush-hush about then," the kid said.
"Most of us are to everyone's detriment, I think," Jack said. He began to climb down a slight incline to a road where they would walk for several kilometers before getting to a river bank. "Merritt and Lido were in a science facility run by Jhiaxus. He was doing science experiments on us. I don't think I can speculate on what it was but it was something about 'perfecting the genome'. Lido is a first generation outcome of that slagger's madness. Most of them died but for those with a really good protoform like Lido. It was a pile of slag, all of it."
They walked along as the kids thought about it. Then the one looked up at Jack. "Were you part of that, Abba?" he asked. It was a measure of the amiability and care given to the youngsters that they forgot to call him a more formal title.
He grinned. "We all were, infants. Do you really think that military hardware was originally designed to be this handsome?"
It would take a moment for the joke to register with the infants, such was their hero worship of the big mech but when they laughed it would be music to Jack's audials. They would continue onward their merry way including a very amused Ironhide and a pensive Rockwell.
=0=At the house that late afternoon
Ratchet rearranged the living room to ensure that everyone had a good shot at the monitor. On the table and long counters of the kitchen, trays and piles of food filled every space. The freezer had ice cream, stacks of cases of beer were on the floor by the windows and there were desserts and snacks galore. He surveyed his kingdom, then grinned. "Don't say I never did anything for ya, slagger."
Soon the kids would come, dinner would be a jolly affair, the titans would go to Ammas and Appas for the card games, returning when they were ready to hang with their elders here, then all would go merrily on their way.
Ratchet and the Squad would be on their way to a night on the town by then, beer, bowling and bravado. It would be awesome.
=0=TBC 4-15-2020 4-22-2020
HAPPY TAX DAY IN AMERICA! NOT! ::D:D:D:D:D