The Diego Diaries: Hunt and Hunted (dd8 670)
Sorry. Carpel tunnel is a friend to no one. Its like typing with a bunch of bananas instead of fingers. HERE WE GO!
=0=Evening
They gathered in the locker room at the Arena in Retriades. All of the individuals who were going in to gather up those who were indicted for the arsons were settling onto the benches as Springer, Prowl, Barron and Wheeljack worked out the presentation. There were dozens and dozens of Watchmen and femmes, some special interventionists from the Army and a number of Autobot soldiers who specialized in violent confrontations. Interspersed among them were sappers and weapons specialists who were trained in flammable liquid and bomb making. If they came across anything that looked problematic or was manufactured and needed special handling, they were ready.
"If you can turn this way," Springer said. "Prowl will outline the plan for the arrests. Wheeljack is coordinating the evidence collection and he's going to be handling the teams at the scenes along with his brother Timpani and Perceptor."
Everyone settled as Prowl turned on a monitor. There were ten faces there, the image shots of their immigration to the colony, all taken at the time of repatriation. It was a sparkling group that stared mutely back at them.
"We have warrants to arrest this group of ten individuals who are alleged to be not only the perpetrators of the arsons but the masterminds of the events that took place," Prowl said as he began. "They're from left to right, Claxxon of Crystal City who owns The Club, a social club in the sub basement of a business building off Main and 15th Avenue in City 3 of Crater District 13. Its rumored that High Times, their underground newsletter is published there and we have a warrant to search the club for it as well as other evidence given. Forensics will handle that.
"We have as well Cambel of Capital City who works at the Energon Administration in a capacity that would allow him to have access to all of the systems and the points of interest for anyone who wanted to make trouble at every level of intensity. Serrate and Gentele of Polyhex are brothers, work as administrative aides for two former high caste members of the Delegate Assembly and are known to be very good martial artists.
"The remainder are Pogo of Praxus and his father, Cymbal. Cymbal is a well known radical in the Diaspora and owns the a business evaluating contracts for Earth-based human businesses that employs not only his son but the remaining four post sub adults. They are Sever, Omni, Caret and Plano who are all of Iacon. All of these individuals like guns and are said to be proficient. I would suggest that you approach them as armed and willing to shoot. Non-lethal weapons should be in your servos, concealed if possible and ready to deploy if they make their moves. We don't want shootings or deaths.
"We have you divided into teams with your leaders briefed on the take downs. Forensics have their assignments. Perceptor and Wheeljack along with Timpani will be roving around the places of arrest to ensure that the evidence gathering is done by the book. Everyone waits until the all clear, then you can move in. There will be back up officers ready to support everyone if there turns out to be support for them to remain free.
"We expect that there's going to be emotions in the colony about this and we're prepared to deal with it. The bars and clubs especially will be hot spots. The Watch has been briefed and so will club and bar security when the arrests are made and scenes secured. All we have to do is troubleshoot what you have to do, then hit the streets to make the arrests at 2000 joors on the dot. Let's do this then," Prowl said as he began to go over the individual plans and responsibilities of everyone involved.
=0=Waiting in the pilot's lounge at the military airbase, new on world past the golf course
The new base, a full military installation which was an outgrowth of the planning of the invasion by Paladin was huge and state of the art. It was still any forward base with a lot of soldiers pulling full time shifts, a marine contingent, two flights of Seekers and a giant fleet of ships of all kinds on the flight line ready to go. Long barracks were the housing of the soldiers on duty with lots of amenities for all.
An Administrative Building with a fully functional Operational Center rounded out the huge installation, one designed to meet in a big way any threat that might come their way. Given it was outside of the footprint of the colony toward the north, it would be harder to detect and have a better chance to meet intruders than the other sites which were closer to the city center.
The Seekers who were going to be doing aerial intel for the next few orns waited to be called up. They would do low level flyovers to detect any outbreaks of potential violence from the colonists who were ready to find the perpetrators and 'get it done', or so too many were saying on social media. They would detect any trouble when it started and get help there to settle it faster all around.
It would be a nice interlude chatting in the well appointed lounge before taking off to do their duty. It would be a long tense night for all of them.
=0=Ratchet
He sat at home watching the teevee after putting kids to bed. Ironhide had just slipped out heading for the mission and its control base at the Ops Center. He would sit there with his Appa Hardie and Prime as Prowl roved among the sites to evaluate, observe, decide and be the audials and optics of the operation. The news was muted as he sipped his beer and ate cookies.
Halo was doing well in her school which hadn't burned down. Prowler was toodling along with Ironhide for the short term until they figured out which daycare center would be taking him for the duration until the Academy was rebuilt. Hero was doing great as well. She loved having her brothers Orion and Praxus just down the hallway. Playtime on the playground was 'more fun than even before, Atar' she'd said.
Bravo and score.
Sunspot was still with them at the table in the Ops Center with Bos, Co-D and Reflector. Spirit and T-Bar were also with them and in a couple of orns the daycares would take them for the duration of repairs to their school. For now they all, adults and children, enjoyed the novelty.
The School Board had an emergency meeting the following morning about the situation and were to finalize the plans about who went where for how long. Youngling Day would take less time to repair than Circle Academy but both would take longer than they liked. Given the influx of kids wanting to attend the Monastery School, groundbreaking had already begun to do so there as well.
The humans were attending school by media at lounge set asides in their habitats. They were unhappy at doing so but it was the best short term solution. All of the kids from Youngling Day were now on zoom and for the mob at the Ops Center the small conference room down the Officer Offices corridor would be their school for now. Starlet would be their contact person because her office was next door to it.
The news came back on so he turned up the sound.
"Welcome back. I'm Lim-Lee and I will be bringing you the latest in the news, sports and weather of the colony, Mars, Cybertron, the Empire and our bases in system and out. The top story of the joor is the progress made in repairs to Youngling Day School in Centurion and the Circle of Light Preparatory Academy flagship school at the Polyhex Business Plaza which was completely destroyed in a fire suspected to be arson some orns ago.
"The analysis of the Day School indicates extensive fire damage to the building from the first floor to the 22nd. The fire ran up the wall burning the cladding and entered behind it at albeit a slowed pace. The cladding in our constructions, the outside facings, is designed to resist burning and impacts. Given the highly concentrated plume of energon burning at several thousand degrees of intensity, it was able to do more damage than usual.
"The entire north side of the building was burned to varying degrees of intensity with the 5th though 22nd floors receiving a great deal more when the fire managed to enter the building and start burning across the floors. The structure of floors 1-8 is sound. Floors 9-15 are considered to be salvageable with a great deal of repair while 16-22 are gutted through one third of the building's width.
"Destroyed in the building are 73 classrooms to varying degree, the Library Center, the Data Center for Education, the Nursing Stations on floors 5, 10 and 15 for children with conditions and impairments that require such care, three teacher lounges, a home economics kitchen and classroom, three art rooms, a music room and 10 teacher's personal offices on their classroom floors. A special education center for children was destroyed as well. Smoke as well as some water and suppressant damage happened as well for rooms that were otherwise untouched.
"The Colonial Architect Fortress Maximus had a statement about the school and its prospects. He said that the schools were given priority for the colony as were all the businesses destroyed. They will be rebuilt swiftly and children will be attending again in schools not only rebuilt but with enhanced safety features to protect them and their buildings against such assault again. He begs the colony's indulgence as they work to secure, then rebuild the facility. He expects it to reopen again but has no set time frame for it. He just says it will be as fast as safety and the damage level allows.
"As for the Polyhex Business Plaza, he says it'll be expanded to twenty stories with the first three held for the businesses that were already there. The Circle Academy has asked for the top three stories for their schools and other enterprises connected to their group including a study center and school for adults as well as a training center for Knights, artisans and others connected to them. Fortress Maximus has stated that this request will be granted.
"All of the businesses that made the building their home since it was built, this one of the first buildings constructed on Mars, will be returning with enhanced facilities built to their personal specifications. A firm date on when it'll be finished and ready to receive its businesses is unclear as of yet. The building was a total loss in the fires.
"In other news, the School Board will meet in emergency session tomorrow in their chambers at the Autobot City Unified School District Tower in Metrotitan at 0900 on the TMC. They will finalize the plan with the Daycare and Child Providers Guild for the placement of all affected children from both fires until their schools are rebuilt and reopened. The School District will be providing buses to their new locations. All genitors and caregivers will be sent messages from the School District Transportation Center about how and when to get your children on them. Please check your messages.
"In other news, the new military base on world north of the Golf Course is going to be doing routine flyovers of their Seeker contingent to work out what to do if there's an emergency in the colony. Its part of the new plan that's designed to protect civilians in case of emergency, to report where help should be sent and to ensure that all are covered while getting to shelter or during some sort of emergency such as an earthquake or fire hazard.
"The colony is going through its emergency planning to make sure that departments can deploy help swiftly and accurately where needed …"
:Ratchet:
:What?:
:They're going in:
Ratchet considered that and the possibility that things would become very hot and heavy because of it. :You there?:
:I am now. I'm at The Club where the slaggers hang out. We're across the street and we're going in:
:Bring the hurt, Ironhide:
:Gotcha:
:Oh, and Ironhide?:
:What?:
:Don't get hurt:
=0=TBC 3-24-2023