Diego Diaries: Up there (dd7 262)

=0=Up there

"You're going to kill me."

Sun rose and walked to Rockwell, putting his servos on his shoulders. "Do you think so?"

"You said so," Rockwell replied.

Sun gripped Rockwell's shoulder then steered him back to the couch, gently pushing him down onto the seat. He cleared a bit from the coffee table in front of Rockwell and sat down. He stared at Rockwell a moment. "Did you feel anything in the shrine? Anything at all?"

Rockwell stared at him. "I … I don't know."

Sun considered that, then glanced at his brothers and Lissie who had joined them with the titanic kids about a joor earlier. All of them were watching with deeply tense surprise and fascination. The kids, that is. Lissie and Steiner knew what was happening like the others. They nodded back to him. He looked at Rockwell. "We don't talk much about the beginning of things among those who weren't there," he said. "It was a chaotic time."

=0=On the prod

They finished their dessert, about 18 or so mechs who had seen the elephant. Sitting back to chat, they would stay there for about another joor or two, then wander out into the bracing night to take stock of their progress.

=0=Up there

"No one wants to remember that. We've seen a lot, all of us. Lissie, Hardie, Jack and me. All the others, too. I remember the first thing I ever thought, the moment I woke up. We, the three of us … Hardie and Jack along with me were standing on a round platform jacked up with lines, facing each other. My optics on-lined and I saw them, both of them. They were the very first thing I saw, my brothers. Nearby was the Well of Allsparks. I remembered wondering what it all was, then a soft sensation of love and encouragement came through me. It made me stop in my tracks. Something was protecting me and I didn't understand."

"I remember," Jack said. "It was Primus and The One."

Hardie nodded as well but he didn't add anything.

The three seemed to be lost in memory for a moment, then Sun continued. "We were from the Well, the three of us. The Quintessans who we called 'Them' or 'The Evil Ones' were making hardware from the factories all around the area. They were bringing the bots' formats to the Well, some of them and getting sparks there. In those orns, the Well only gave drone sparks." He grinned slightly. "To this day no one understands why It did and why It suddenly granted sentient ones."

"None of the sparks before us were sentient, infants," Lissie said. "They were drones. Primus and The One weren't giving life to the sparks because They loved us and understood that the monsters were here to exploit us so they protected us this way. The Quintessans didn't know that sentience was even possible. They got sparks for drone bots that they believed had simple operating systems being relayed. Then our generation was made and this time we were sentient. We never let on and they were fooled until we put them to the sword. I remember that feeling as well. I remember instantly knowing to play down that I was self aware and that I was totally loved. They would've destroyed us on the spot if they'd found out but they never did. No one ever let on and we gathered the sentient bots into the fold right away."

"Primus was done with the Quintessans but He couldn't intervene. Free will is what operates thus galaxy, infants. Everyone has free will. So He granted sparks that were self aware to begin the path to liberation. We would do it ourselves. It was slow and arduous. We were force downloaded programs that allowed us to function in a limited manner but it didn't stop our progress. We didn't have a lot of important attributes such as reading and the idea of making culture. The sentience that we bore woke up in progress and we became nuanced and alive through time and experiences," Hardie said. "We kept that to ourselves and began to network."

"The whole system was rotten and most of us were kept on Cybertron to work and develop the planet. We were just machines but more and more of us were born with self awareness and we decided to take things back at some point. We knew that The Powers wanted it but we were simple in our understanding of the way things worked," Sun said. "It took time to figure things out and that required learning, a lot of learning which was punishable by death and the biggest secret that we kept, our sentience was the path forward.

"There was a lot of death. Collaborators sometimes killed us to make themselves closer to the Quintessans. They weren't fully sentient but they were growing that way. Even regular tech can become independent and self motivating given enough time and opportunity, Teletraan is fully sentient even though she wasn't in the beginning and she wasn't designed that way," Lissie said. "We didn't know who our benefactors were completely, but we knew They were there and They wanted our best good, The Pantheon did."

"We built shrines for them in gratitude and a desire to be closer to that feeling of love and caring, something we didn't get from anyone else," Sun said. "That one we found is just one of them. There's one in Iacon that's still buried down deep under a colossal pile of steel. Its old as well. They were places we could put names. We thought that if They couldn't see something of us, our names or designations when we died, then we would be missed for the Matrix and wander as ghosts. Our understanding of things was limited then. It took a long time for us to develop fully because the enemy lied and hid things from us." He glanced at Hardie. "You had a talent for finding things out and with Delphi sending them on for everyone to know."

Hardie nodded. "Jack and Sun were military hardware, hence their size. I was midway in development. I could be an informational mech or a worker bee in the middle range of things. I was put to work as a painter. I painted ships and tech, buildings and other things until they decided that I would be a data mech with a specialty in electronics and communications. Their mistake."

Jack nodded. "It was. That way you and Delphi could help wake up the others, millions of mechs who wanted freedom but didn't know how. The groups began to network and all over the planet we were getting ready to go. Merric was the overall leader but we were part of the first cell that was operational. That included Lissie and Stein as well. We had to get the information out and Sun, Steiner and I were the protectors of everyone in that group. We were security bots at the communications center in Nova Cronum where everyone of us worked." Sun grinned. "Hardie made sure that we were kept together by rewriting the orders when they were needed."

"Merric was the real name of Guardian Prime," Lissie said. "We didn't really have family names. We couldn't really read beyond technical stuff at the time and reading the ratings and part names given to us. DL-Fee became Delphi. HRD-DRV-2 became Hard Drive. I was L-C or Lissie as I preferred. We could read the letters and keep the model names and inventory designations clear but that was about it for a while. It was all very strange when I think back to it."

Sun nodded. He looked at Rockwell who was listening but was as tensely wound up as he was before he sat down. "We beat them, Rockwell. All of us together. It was almost animalistic the feelings we had when we did. We weren't ready to be free. When Guardian was killed it spiraled downward again. We were damaged down deep. The Functionalists came and the havoc they created we still feel. They could spy on you through your optics and you wouldn't know it."

"They killed because they believed form fit function and when your function was fulfilled to their standards they would destroy you. They killed a billion of our people on Cybertron before we destroyed them. Then they killed half a million shortly ago," Lissie said. "It was a devastating time to live through, the same slag all over again. Then The System of Exception came and it began again."

"The Praxian Elites were there to stop it, to keep it from becoming terrible beyond control," Hardie said. "We couldn't stop it and make it disappear but we could make rules and have you accept them so we could stop the worst of the worst. But we failed. We tried and failed."

"Appa, you didn't fail. Cybertron failed you," Ironhide said. He was listening gravely to things he never heard before. The idea that the gods of his familial pantheon were slaves was a crippling concept for him and it filled him with a static energy that felt awful on his neural net.

"Appa."

Hardie and the others glanced toward the titanic kids. They were sitting on the floor together and looked varying degrees of sick and furious. "Infant?"

"Why didn't it stop? Why didn't we all love each other?" Lumi asked.

It was silent a moment as the roomful of younger mechs waited for the oldest member there to speak about things they couldn't even bear to consider. Hercy and the others were pantheonic in their thinking and this was fragged three ways to Second Sunday.

"That's the biggest question, Lumi," Hardie said. "I have no real answer. You see us … Hercy, Ammas and Appas … so many Immortals in the colony now … over 800 recovered. We didn't fight to free only part of us. We fought to free all of us. Every bot. All of us including the future. One of the things we had to do when we were free was to track everyone who was ever sold and find them. No name was left out. We looked for vorns before everyone was accounted for that we could find. It was a nightmare."

"It is my biggest one, that we will not find everyone and rescue them. I wish them all to be found," Optimus said quietly.

"You will, Orion," Tagg said as he squeezed his son's servo. "You bear the Matrix and carry the love of the Pantheon with you every orn. They will help you, this I know."

"I've seen every Prime since Guardian," Sun said. "Guardian Prime was a miracle. He led us into the light and everyone of us here would die by his side if need be. He was a great, good and totally under appreciated Prime. Those that followed couldn't hold his beer. The only Prime that's of his stature and more is this one," he said as he nodded to Optimus.

A murmur in the room greeted that, then settled.

"I've worked for every Prime from Guardian. I never wanted to do anything but to serve The People and keep them safe. It didn't mean just a caste or a group. Every single Cybertronian is my charge. Everyone of them gets my best. I remember the shrine in Iacon and there's one in the Manganese Mountains, General," Hercy said glancing at Hardie. "I remember going to it and feeling safe. I want that feeling for everyone. No one deserves to be left behind. That's how we find ourselves in these fixes. I'm tired of it. We have to be one or we're going to suffer over and over and over."

"The creed was given to Guardian by The One and Primus. It was instructive. Until all are one. It was a fait accompli and a goal yet to attain at the same time. We were ALWAYS one. ALWAYS. It took our own doing to make it different. And to do that, some of us had to lie, cheat and steal. When we left some behind because a group thought that they mattered more than them, this became inevitable." Sun leaned into Rockwell. "Your system is a lie. Everything that you believe about it is a lie, it's alien propaganda designed to keep us divided and weak. The strength of character and grit it took to raise up mechs like Magnus, Springer, Ratchet … all of the mechs sitting here in this room, every one of them without exception … even you, Maelstrom … it's admirable. Given the conditions they were forced to endure, their genitors and they, themselves are admirable."

The mechs listening were entranced. This was nothing like they'd ever seen before, though they knew that Rockwell was a last ditch project for the elders. They were his last chance to change.

Sun glanced at the twins. "You're from Kaon. Drift is, too. It was a hard luck town and you were orphaned, twins. Tell what the state did about that."

Sunstreaker glanced at Sideswipe. "We ended up in a Youth Center. We were left there."

"What do you think was the reason?" Sun asked.

They stared at him, this god from their personal pantheon and did something they never did outside a small trusted circle. They disclosed their personal information.

Sideswipe glanced at Sunstreaker, then looked at Sun. "We think they had a problem keeping us. We know they didn't do it because they wanted to. We know it wasn't that."

Sun nodded. He glanced at Drift. "What about you, infant? What about your life?"

Drift stared at Sun, someone he loved and admired. "I grew up in a packing crate that was part of the dump, the city refuse area. We lived near the gate and my genitors worked hard. They tried their best. They never slacked but they couldn't make it happen. They weren't allowed to. It broke them down. I was alone a lot and got into trouble. I learned to fight and steal and hate the system, the government,, and especially those who put their peds on our necks. My genitors deserved the best. They never got it."

"When Megatron came, you went with him," Sun said.

Drift nodded. "I did."

Jack glanced at the mechs sitting around the room. "You didn't have to love Cybertron and our culture. It didn't do a damned thing for you but hurt you, but here you are changing, serving and protecting. You give back your best to a system that didn't value you or your families. You shouldn't love Cybertron but you do and its to your credit and honor that it happens."

Sun looked at Rockwell. "Megatron isn't the problem here, Rockwell. He was just the symptom borne out of the disease. The System was the disease and three times that kind of thinking brought us all to the brink. It kept mechs and femmes from being what they wanted to be and we all lost out on their talents. Why should a little mech who was loved by his genitors live like Drift did? What idea or inspiration can you tell me that justifies such a betrayal of an innocent kid, his genitors, our greatest benefactor, Primus and the teachings of our culture that says without caveats that all of us are one.?"

Everyone waited as Rockwell struggled to think. He couldn't. He glanced at the mechs around the room, then Prime. "Are you going to shoot me?"

Prime stared at him, then shook his helm. "No," Optimus said. "I am not like Sentinel Prime."

=0=TBC 4-22-2020 5-8-2020

ESL:

Fait accompli: (Fate oh-comm-plee) Noun: a thing that has already happened or been decided before those affected hear about it, leaving them with no option but to accept it.