The Diego Diaries: Danger (dd8 690)
=0=Everywhere
It was night and most of the colony was either home, doing a night shift somewhere or going toward home when the sirens broke across the cityscape of Autobot City. Every district in the colony had a siren so no one would be missed. Lights blinked in homes on the grid that held deaf or ill colonists. As they did rescue teams from the Emergency Services Command Center who worked for Home Health Care were being directed to find and take to shelter everyone on their lists.
On the streets there was chaos as cars and trucks speeding along with pedestrians running toward their towers or the Metro to get home made the roads nearly impassible. Ambulances were driving to pick up the ill as runabouts flew overhead to land on roofs where patients waited with their families. They all would be taken to medically staffed shelters.
Medical Centers all over the colony, convalescent homes, specialized care facilities both prison allied and civilian and the care facilities at Central Point were going through their own lists to ensure no one was above ground. The prisons themselves had little trouble getting their clientele into shelters now given the last time the sirens went off they were being invaded. It might have encouraged the prisoners to resist, the chaos of the moment had not several bombs and a near miss by a falling Trigger put end to that fantasy.
Watchmen and Army Home Guardsmen were directing civilians to shelter and handling the distraught individual that was inevitable in times like this. Overhead, ships could be seen heading toward the two Triggers which were throwing up the energy that would be the pathway for the fleet to leave. Some stopped to stare upward as nearby on a plain outside of the city, three titans began to rise in the air. It was still on the street as the giants rose, their hangar doors open to the swarms of Seekers heading their way. Then the moment burst and everyone began to run once more.
Sitting in the command seat of the battle shuttle Impactor's Revenge, Drift and Springer waited to rise up with the rest of the flight on the Ready-Go line in their turn. They listened to the cross talk on the radio as their crew settled in.
:Springer:
"Here, Auntie."
:Prime gave me command:
"Understood," Springer replied. "What's the word?"
:Paladin is heading toward Ominous with a giant fleet. He's running undercover in some as yet unknown manner with ripples on the sensors his only tell. This could be seriously bad if Ominous runs:
"Has Prime contacted him? Has Ominous gotten the word yet, Auntie?" Drift asked as he considered the chaos that would come if they did. Every ship would have to be disabled or destroyed without exception if they did.
:That's his quandary. I don't think he's decided which way to go. Tell him and watch the chaos or wait until Paladin's closer, strike a deal, then push back in unison. Its a zero sum game for him now: Lissie said.
They chatted together with the others in their battle group joining in when the word came to lift off. They all did almost at the same time to disappear into space and their place in the line up to go through the Triggers.
-^-Temple
They hurried through the facility securing their sacred and ancient treasures, lowering them into blast chambers built underneath their display areas. When they were secured, they ran to the Allspark which had stopped turning in Its inscrutable manner. Pausing at the railing to stare at It in their anxiety and distress, the priests and priestesses along with the laity and those civilians who chose to live and work at the facility as their calling, they began to pray a prayer of protection for everyone together.
It was like the singing of birds, the sound of an ancient call to The One to bring peace and prevent harm to all. It would continue until a Watchman entered to check the place out and ordered them gently to their shelter. They would go there reluctantly.
The Allspark wouldn't return to Its slow and silent rotation until the battle that was coming was resolved.
However which way it went.
-^-Shelters everywhere
Most of the big shelters such as schools and other public places were almost completely empty but for night crews and the odd civilian rushing toward them from the streets. Most of the civilians were in the tower shelters gathering together to wait out what was coming. The monitors of the shelters were on with images of everyone clearing the cityscape. Even the Hu-An cameras showed them securing their area, then disappearing into their shelters. In a very short time, the huge Hu-An Sovereign Habitat of Mars was as empty as most of the streets of the cityscape were becoming.
Starscream could be seen on a camera directing his people to their shelters, calming them with his steely figure along with Rainmaker and his family. They stood in the main square of the district taking information and issuing orders. The Elder Council joined them adding their calm and fierce gravitas to assist. In a very short time the cameras revolving around Aerie Hill and its outlying districts showed a ghost town.
Prima Station jolted at the sirens, then everyone seemed to run out onto the streets. The recorded message played a moment before it sunk in, then everyone gathered their families, kids, pets and in one case an orchid starting to get ready for pollination to run for the elevators and shelters below. It was a madhouse for a bit, then it began to die down as the population made their way to the secured section of the facility that could survive nuclear strikes.
As they left in all the habitats in the colony that contained humans, the bot crews there worked to secure the area as their designated battle groups of Army, Marine and Home Guard mechs arrived to take up their stations. They were the line that would defy anyone trying to come in who might be there for mayhem. It would be a hard defense to breech.
The titans chatted together, the groups that were housing for the population. Their plans to defend with their guns and if necessary, rise up to defend were well thought out and approved by Prime as last minute, last ditch defenses. The four that didn't house anyone yet were the first to go and they included Banner and Avalone who were still in recuperation mode.
The mechs and femme, Songbird who had come to settle and live, having become very sweet on her mech sat in their command center at the Central Labor Hall discussing their operational plan together. It would be a tense conversation hooked into those of them who were lifting off with the fleet to be joined by the rest from Cybertron. Typhoon and Dangerous who was a very good shot were joining them with Clipper on standby with the titan children. The children short of annihilation wouldn't be joining the situation. They would be very unhappy with the decision until Ratchet and Ironhide asked them to be the rudders for the elders and children of the family. It was enough to turn the emotional tide in their processors.
-^-Earth 1
They stood by the windows watching as in the parking lot ships were landing, heavily armed ships filled with grizzly looking mechs armed to the teeth. They were stepping off to take up their places guarding the installation in case someone made it to the ground. It was an amazing impressive show of force to three boys and a girl who had grown up here since they were children and considered Mars their home world and Autobot City their home cityscape.
Mateo Tucci of Italy, Hassan Anand of India, Chloe Smithson from the United Kingdom and Pedro Diaz of Peru watched them as they set up their station. They'd gown up together and were fast friends making plans together for their mutual futures. Given that they were nearing time to go to college and given that their parents were planning on sending them to school on Earth, they'd come together to make Plan A.
None of them were planning to go to school on Earth. Plan A was a simple thing. They would apply for and attend the University of Mars, get their degrees here in a profession that was useful and interesting to their futures, then live here working in the human community in a job they would probably have preference for with those credentials. That they were researching how to get Cybertronian citizenship was also part of the plan.
What they wouldn't do was go home to the University system that their parents were planning for them and live on Earth while pursuing their interests. They were habituated to this place, their friends were here, their deepest and most abiding memories were here and they weren't prepared to take on the notoriety of being from Mars all this time and living on a planet that they loved but didn't consider home. It was a phenomenon all over the human habitat community. Some kids went home only to come back given the dissonance between life here and there while others didn't want to go at all. It was a strange hold that Mars and the bots had over the kids who lived here.
Arguments not withstanding, the kids took it upon themselves to work out a plan, Plan A.
From Mars.
[:D]
They went to their delegate representative to discuss their situation and found Coros of Polyhex very receptive. He agreed that it would be a hardship to just go back and into the mill of college after having lived here so long. Their lives had been happy here, rooted into the life and privileges of Cybertronian society and through their participation in it, going to Cybertronian schools, living here since small children, learning if not to speak the language but to write it well, they were more acclimatized to this place than Earth.
They voted in the elections helping Coros campaign inside the habitats, participated in Cybertronian sports and special events, were rabid supporters of their teams (Kaon and Kaon) and had many friends among the Cybertronian kids who attended Iacon Intermediate.
Coros would advocate for them when they got their applications to University ready. He would present their case to the Office of the Primes to have their residency bumped up from 'permanent temporary resident' to 'permanent temporary student resident'. They were planning to sit and write the petition together when this happened.
Staring out the window as they waited for their parents to reach the elevators to go downward,the four couples that were great friends as well, Mateo glanced at the others. "When this is over I'm volunteering for the Home Guard."
The other three stared at him, then nodded.
"I think that's a good idea. We need to help the colony. They can't do it all by themselves," Chloe said.
The other three nodded.
"MATEO! CHILDREN! COME!"
They glanced over their shoulders as their parents waved them to come. Glancing back at the bots, they waved to them and the bots waved back, grinning at the human kids who were universally liked in the colony. They hesitated then ran for the elevator to disappear downward with their families.
=0=At the Resort
Judy and the 'Gals' walked along the concourse shepherding everyone below by elevator. There was real panic in the crowds as they soothed them to go downward. The message to her from Prowl was that Paladin was heading toward Ominous with a fleet and if they clashed there was a chance that some of the group that Ominous commanded might break to flee and if they didn't head for Razorclaw or open space, the only direction they could come was here and Earth.
The leadership of the habitats were on a special line that received and sent messages between them and the Senior Autobots. They were sworn to secrecy and given the heads up about the situations that arose before anyone else was told, their ability to keep secrets and their history with the bots ensured that everyone was on the same page together.
Louise ran to Judy and her mom, huddling together. "Diego is in lock down. Judy and John are in shelters and the bots have gone to the guns. The fleet that protects Earth and Prima Station has launched and should be on station in minutes."
Judy glanced around. "Then we better speed this up," she said grimly as they began to herd their guests downward to safety.
=0=TBC 4-16-2023