The Diego Diaries: Storm (dd7 287)
=0=Ops Center some time later
Prowl walked into Prime's office, then sat in the chair across from him. "Lido got him to talk. He didn't have much to say. He believes they're going to the greater Stanix area and hide in the camps. They're family, a group of homeless mechs who joined up with Intel. He's the one with the traceable record from Cybertron though they have all earned their spurs in the Diaspora. He ran a gang in Slaughter City that specialized in armed robbery and breaking and entering. The others have a number of accusations against them that should be taken into some consideration. Apparently, they were in high caste refugee settlements."
Prime nodded. "Please relay the information to everyone concerned, Prowl. I will be glad some orn when things are no longer this way."
"You and me both," Prowl said. "I conveyed your appreciation to the Empress."
"Thank you." Prime sat back in his chair musing on the enigma of Lido. "She is a very brilliant light in the darkness to me."
Prowl nodded. "Me, too." He walked out the door to do his job and Prime stayed behind to do his.
=0=A huge apartment in Stanix
They entered, Radium and Lido. He walked to the monitor to check messages while she walked to the kitchen to fix lunch for both. For those not versed in the system that animated Stanix culture, the idea that the Empress would cook and do normal things would be surprising. Even though she was the most powerful figure in a huge thriving culture and carried prestige similar to a Prime, she was a bond and mother who lived her life as simply as possible. Being part of a hideous experiment, to come into the world because of it and bear the consequences of it all her life was leavening. Jhiaxus may have had his say for her beginning but she was the one who wrote her own story.
She fixed food and drink, this Immortal femme. She was a figure from history with her mother and the world had been changed through their smarts, courage and fearlessness. 'You can live on your knees, Lido' her mother had said but 'if you do you die everyday by being less than you are. Live on your peds, live with character and know your freedom is yours to keep no matter what's happening around you. You will always be free in your spark and processor. Don't let anyone tell you who you are. You already know. Now live that vision with courage. No one can make you less than you really are without your permission.'
She had never forgotten that from the moment they were freed and joined the revolution until this very moment. It helped her shoot the Quintessan overlords and the scientists who had experimented with gender, creating her as she was as well as the Functionalists and the System bosses who wanted her submission throughout the eons following. After a few of them disappeared, dropped by her own rifle, they stopped asking and left her alone. That was when her prestige began to take off among the Outsiders who began to understand along with the Stanixians who understood and worshiped her that this was a force to reckon with.
Even Primes began to understand it.
"Do you want a treat, too, Radium?" she asked sweetly.
Radium glanced at her, this femme he worshiped like the goddess she was, this beautiful femme who worshiped him back, this mech of the Quintessan Oppression and the revolution that followed. "I would love that, Lido. How do you feel about this?"
She took their plates to the table. "I feel that we saved a bunch of our children from danger, Radium. Until they're here, I will feel poorly. I do know that Optimus will find a way for them. He has taken very deeply flawed individuals and helped them find their way. I have faith in him."
Radium shut down the monitor, then walked to the table to join her. "I do believe that you're right, Lido. Until they come home, then."
She clinked her glass with his. "Until then, Only One."
It would be a very quiet afternoon until the evening came and those who needed her would arrive to seek advice. She would give it to everyone who asked.
=0=A conference room at the Courthouse
He was sitting there when Springer limped in. Pulling a chair, he sat. They stared at each other a moment, then Springer leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. "Hi. I'm Springer. I run security for the Empire and I'm chieftain of the Wreckers. I wanted to talk to you about the slag you're in and what you need."
Tolo stared at him with a doubting expression that hardened into disdain. "You want to help me."
Springer nodded. "I do."
"Sure," Tolo said as he glanced away. An air of defeated sorrow hung over him. He had betrayed his family and it hurt.
"This isn't Cybertron in the day. This is the new world that excludes no one. Optimus is Prime, not Sentinel or Nova. This place has potential for everyone. Prime has rehabilitated the worst slag we got into something good. Senators, businessmen, some really hardcore Decepticons … they live here when they should be in punitive stasis. They do because Prime wants everyone to have another chance. You can, too, or you can pout."
The kid glanced at him sharply. "Frag you."
Springer sat back. He regarded the kid a moment. "You know … my bond is the only thing sometimes that keeps me from putting a gun in my mouth. He was a Decepticon, a really, REALLY bad one. His name was Dead Lock. You heard of him?"
In the milieu of the gangs, even those not affiliated but were worthy of admiration due to their fighting abilities and ruthlessness were well known. There would be few gangsters that didn't know of Dead Lock of Kaon. He was a killer, a liar, thief and all around black hole of anger. "He's your bond?"
Springer nodded. "The Circle of Light changed him. They took him in and he remembered who he really was with them." Springer grinned. "I'm not as touchy-feely as him but it was the best thing that ever happened to him. That and bonding with me." He grinned as the kid stared at him with a slight lessening of hostility. "That's sort of a common thing around here. Mechs and femmes arrive, see what life should've been like without the System and that slag, then they pursue those things they want to do. It works that way here."
It was silent a moment, then Tolo leaned closer. "No one cared for me and the others. Just Niso and Intel. They took us in and we made a family. That might mean nothing to you but to me it's everything. I just sold them out."
"They're on the run with a baby. You prevented them from making one mistake too many.
Cybertron is highly policed because of the trauma and tragedy there. Our people have been fragged nearly to death. Now we have gangsters running lose among them. That means that our good people, our suffering tragic people have to face this, too. You did the right thing telling us what you can to help capture these people before something bad happens. You may not think so but you did. What if there's a shoot out? What if someone who wasn't harming anyone gets killed because of this situation? Do you think after suffering all they have and finally getting to see some light at the end of the tunnel that they'd deserve to be deprived from living in the promised land?"
He stared at Springer silently, tensely, than the table top.
"Gangsters are the most selfish bastards I ever met. You don't care about anything but yourself and what you want. You don't care if you steal it from others who suffered to get it for themselves and their families. It could be the last thing standing between living and dying for them and theirs, that thing you stole, but you don't care about that do you? You're parasites, you know. You feed off the sweat and toil of others and you don't care.
"None of our people deserve to suffer for ten seconds longer. They feel like there's hope here and now and they work hard for that to come. They don't deserve anything less than everything. They sure as frag don't deserve to have lazy aft gangsters come upon them and cause them harm. Tell me why I should feel badly about you when you belong to a parasitic gang of losers."
He stared with outrage at Springer, then leaned closer. "No one wanted us but Niso and Intel. The others … they expected us to slave for them, to do their bidding and dirty work. Niso and Intel showed them the error of that line of thinking. We became a family, all of us. We defended ourselves from the true parasites. Frag you if you can't get that."
Springer sat back. "I do. I feel you. But right now, we live in a new paradigm. We don't have to be that small. You did a good thing. You probably saved that baby from harm. You saved your family. You need to get your thinking straight. If there were crimes against you in the colonies, tell us and we'll go after them. Just know one thing. No gangs will be tolerated here. We're coming for all of you."
"Then we're going to prison," Tolo said.
"Maybe, maybe not. Prime has compassion and wisdom. Lots of gangsters are living here doing good things with their lives. Rampage is an asset. He's a fragging Predacon. His brothers aren't that far away and he won't join them because this is home and he defends it and the life and family he created here. There's senators, industrialists, fragging bureaucrats who helped make The System itself living here doing good work. There's no reason that can't happen to you, all of you. You just have to acknowledge that you want to change and mean it. Otherwise, we have a big prison and a place for you. I think even a moron could see the possibilities here in that kind of choice."
"So I'm a moron now?" Tolo asked with grievance in his voice.
"That's the nicest thing I can say for someone who doesn't care who he hurts. You're a slagging gangster. That tells a lot about who you are right now," Springer replied. "Its up to you to figure this out but make no mistake … whatever becomes of you now is up to you. No one else gets the blame. Choose wisely." He rose slowly, painfully, then stared at the kid. "This can be the greatest thing that ever happened to you. I hope you're smart enough to understand that." Then he limped to the door and left.
Tolo would sit a while before being walked back to his cell.
=0=Polity
He sat in the command chair of his ship. They were currently occupying four planets in a binary star system. None of them harbored life before they landed and all of them were hot deserts of possibility. There was a lot of minerals and ores to make the things they needed and to convert to energon. It was surrounded by a thick debris field from ancient collisions, a nice alarm system for him.
His mechs and femmes were working furiously to create a base that would have housing and amenities that would rival any other base built for a group as big as his. He was the son of a construction mogul and he knew how to build fast and well. There would be lots of perks for his people, something that had attracted his following and grew it larger wherever he went. He would use them to draw freebooters that were here and there on the fringes of the Empire. They'd come, he'd settle leadership and by doing so increase his army with every encounter. He hadn't lost any fights yet and he didn't plan to do so. His ultimate goal was to take down Prime and capture his empire.
The only problem was in numbers. If half of what Prime had said was true, then it would take a lot of fire power for him to even survive here let alone prevail. He grinned. This was the biggest challenge and the most fun he'd encountered in eons. This was a good place to die.
For them.
Sitting back, he worked out the logistics of setting up a base that would attract new soldiers and ships even as his second sent his messages on a special freebooter's channel back to the Empire. It would be a very lazy afternoon in the new world for Polity.
=0=Ops Center, Mars
They sat in the room together, a number of big frames in pretender gear listening to Ratchet and Prime explain the need and a possible plan to implement the push back. Prowl had gone over it with Ratchet, then drew up the plans. All it would take was the arrival of four titan hunters and two dreadnoughts that were coming with them.
"We believe that the dreads, Sunrise and Paradisio will arrive tomorrow. They're going to wait at the solar well for escort. The four titans, Calamity, Relentless. Fury and Sunset will follow. They let the dreads go first since they need a bit of work. They were hunted and bear wounds that are on their way toward healing but could use attention. All of them have injuries and need upgrades. I asked them to send a list to you, Ratchet, so you could be ready.'
"That's good, Metroplex," Ratchet replied. "We can affect a faster turnaround that way."
Typhoon nodded. "I agree. This is going to be epic."
Ratchet grinned. "When isn't it with you mechs?"
Laughter greeted that as they sat together planning the defense of their species against a relentless implacable invader.
=0=TBC 5-24-2020 For optimusprime101 5-27-2020
Note on Prime and Lido: The attraction between them is higher purpose. They're both pure sparks willing to do whatever it takes to protect and advance others. She loves Prime but not romantically. (I'm sure she thinks he's as handsome as most in their society but not in a way that's romantic.) They respect and care about each other because they went through the fire together, both of them managing the safety and retreat of their people under the worst of circumstances.) :D:D:D
PS Fancy, replies coming shortly. HUGS TO YOU, FANCYSPINNER! Take care out there, my darling Fancy.