The Diego Diaries: The Gift That Just Keeps Giving (dd8 706)
=0=In a conference room
It was silent for a moment as they both digested the information.
"I think I have to interview Immortals who might have more information about this war crime and any others out there. I know the War Crimes Commission is working on it. You didn't remember you had that memory, Hardie, and I'm sorry you had to go back to find it but are there others you remember who might have some clue about this?"
Hardie considered it, then nodded. "I can think of several. You might start with the Empress of Stanix. She was one of those femmes walking around and Wirelite. Her friends, all of them from our time and from all over the planet can help, I think. We need to track down crimes and maybe among our group, the Immortals, we can parse this out for what we saw and who we saw do it." His expression became grim. "I don't regret many things, Ratchet. It was excruciatingly hard then to do things when you couldn't read and you were so vulnerable to death for no reason. But things have changed and been made harder for slaggers to pass. Who knows how many died in those times for what ends? We have to know."
Ratchet nodded. "I agree. I love the little femmes. My amma is one. My daughters are beautiful and good, all of them and I know that the squad feels mech while being perceived as femme. That must be excruciating to live with orn in and out. I have no problem with gender and what a person is. That's for them to figure out and find their way. My problem is trying to understand those who don't feel the same way and make it all harder. They've hard a hard life, my femmes. Arcee and Elita are very bitter and I don't blame them. We have to help them feel something better about this than that because they had no choices here.
"Right now, I want all of our people, especially those affected to understand themselves fully. How can you be happy, truly happy, when such fundamental things are withheld, changed or manipulated for others without their knowledge? My amma is a force of nature and I could never imagine her as a straight up mech in form and figure. She sees herself as a champion for femmes. But she's here because someone took away her choices. Everyone needs to have their own choices, Hardie. Its that fundamental for me."
Hardie nodded. "Me, too. I'll get on this with Delphi. Maybe some of the others can help us get this organized. We need to know and catch this fragger. What else has he done to others?"
"I shudder to think," Ratchet said as he leaned back in his chair. "We have two little femmes of our own. I wonder what they'll think when they find out they would've been ordinary mechs in appearance but for him. I see little mechs just like everyone else when I look at them but they're also femme to my sight as well because I'm used to seeing it when I see their form around. I don't know how to explain the balance of that in my head but its so. Humans only see mechs when they look at the big femmes. They only see femmes when they look at the little ones for the same reason, I think. Yet, both groups are femme. We have a problem to figure out, Hardie."
Hardie nodded, then rose. "Keep me up on this, Delphi and I. I'll get on finding those who might have information. It was only in the Iacon and Polyhex area that they were seen then, if I remember right. I traveled all over the planet and they were the only two places that I spotted a couple. We'll figure this out."
Ratchet rose and followed Hardie to the door. "Thank you, Appa. This has been a pain in the processor for me a long time. Its a sore, sore subject, hurtful in the extreme for some that this dichotomy exists when they see themselves one way and others don't. That they had no choice to make about it is wrong."
Hardie paused, then glanced at Ratchet. "No matter what, no matter how they see themselves or feel about it, Ratchet, all of our daughters are wonderful, accepted and loved. I hope they feel that from our sparks."
"They do, Hardie," Ratchet said.
"Good. It can't be any other way. I don't care about the wrapper. Only the spark matters," Hardie said as both left the room to go back to the world of hurt before them.
=0=Outside
They flew into their position having attended to a number of fleet conditions before settling in for the stand off. Most of them were mechs and femmes who were in the regular army. Any number of them worked at civilian or military jobs, went to school or learned trades while a large number rotated through the system to maintain security for the colony, Cybertron and the Empire. They were the soldiers that protected the entire entity as police, special security, techs for the bases and fleets, flew ships both aimed at military as well as civilian purposes, helped with the rebuild on Cybertron and served on the many bases scattered around the sovereignty of Prime's territory.
They flew patrols, attended as doctors and maintained both the military and civilian fleet's vessels as well as migrations where ships were broken down, on their last legs or needed fine tuning. They worked on titans maintaining their running as well as made the food, took care of data and all the millions of jobs that entailed all of the time. None of the titans were ever without a contingent of soldiers and civilians working on them to keep things going.
The now two demilitarized zones or DMZ's were hands on situations and the rotation of military and civilians trained for the myriad of jobs that required was also great. Given that the Autobots had passed two and a half million individuals in their standing army, reserves and Home Guard, it wasn't a hard thing to find every kind of specialist or worker that was needed with many waiting to be called for back up.
The workers sitting in the shuttles with the soldiers were civilian reservists who were finishing adjoining a link up in the shuttle sensor systems to bring all of the views of all of the ships into one feed that would allow the commanders to pick any one of them to watch what was happening outside their command center.
"There," Rowdi-o said as he stood up and pulled down the cowling that covered the technology that was used to record in all directions for a very great distance for the shuttle that was part of the 'second circle of hell' as it was being called. The three semi circles of death that were pointing their guns at Paladin's fort were now connected to Tennyson allowing Prime to see all ends.
"What did you do, Sarge?" a grizzled veteran asked Rowdi-o as he sharpened a long blade in boredom. For Raven of The Torus States, waiting was the worst. He would rather go home and help his two sons make the model of this very shuttle they'd been working on for a decaorn than sit here but if that wasn't possible, then fight and get it over.
"Well," Rowdi said as he gathered his tools together, "I just finished a long link up with Tennyson and the other titans so that they can take over the outside view of your shuttle when you fly or fight to see what's happening. Given that their processors are about as fast as anything ever created, they can take the outside visual view of all of you and the entire Seeker contingent then watch everything everyone is doing from every angle you got almost instantly. They can make changes in the plans before you can even know someone is on your aft. They can also warn you now that its happening."
Everyone stared at Rowdi-o as he picked up his kit, stowed his small tools and a couple of hand meters, then turned to go to the bridge in the shuttle to leave.
"Okay," Raven said nonchalantly as the entire crew and Rowdi-o laughed loudly. "Thanks."
Rowdi-o glanced back. "Sure," he said before he entered the bridge to go back to Banner which was the home titan for this sort of worker and gear. He was gone immediately.
They stared at the bridge, then each other.
"Someone can watch our afts," another grizzled mech said, then he grinned. "Of course, some of us have afts that bear watching."
"We do," Raven said with a grin.
Nothing would happen on their shift this orn but the conversation would be as funny and sparse as ever.
=0=School back home
They sat in their classroom that looked different only in the color of the paint that was now on the walls. They'd missed almost all of the physical damage from the fires but smoke had been heavy and all of the rooms on that side of the building from the lobby up to the 22nd floor had gotten a repaint. The rest was okay after a thorough clean, inspection and tweak here and there.
Sitting on their chairs watching the huge monitor as Terradive began to explain the Delegate Assembly and how it worked, all of the kids were relaxed and happy again. Given that most of them were in a system that kept students with their teachers over a series of years to build unity and security in a very insecure population, their classrooms were their second homes. Their orns were long, full of activities, learning, play, friends, culture and art, the daycares had been comfortable but woefully short of their usual orn.
{The Delegate Assembly is a new cultural and political device for our people to allow them to be represented, have someone they can personally go to see for their problems and to help give a broader range of voices to the way we live and what we want to see in our lives. Its a huge facility and when we get to mid range in this unit of study, we will be going there to take a tour and see for ourselves what happens with ideas before they make their way forward to try to be laws} Terri said.
{MY AMMA IS A DELEGATE!} Sunspot said proudly.
{MY ATAR IS PRIME!} Spirit said equally excitedly.
Huge laughter erupted at that.
Terradive grinned. {That he is, Spirit.}
It went well on the first orn back in school for a good third of the population of Youngling Day School #1 in Centurion.
=0=TBC 5-11-2023
SOME NOTES: (More coming tomorrow)
Jackalkat: It is interesting isn't it? I read this in a graphic novel by Dream Works? Or maybe the other one … I forget … and its amazingly interesting for its potential. Arcee was chasing Jhiaxus, caught him then killed him over and over since he was from the Dead Zone and couldn't die because he was dead already. Its pretty hilarious watching Arcee hit his face on the ground holding his body like she was hammering a nail. LOL!
Gender stuff is pretty interesting in TF because its the canon official position of Hasbro that there are no genders in this story. None, but all are mechs. They acknowledge officially that they're androgynous. The story is so much fun.
Arcee is perceived to be femme but she's a mech as is Solus Prime. To explain some of this in the Chronicles of Primus, they state that the Powers are all mechs including her but because of the tools that Solus Prime uses to make things, the shape of her processor creates the effect of being different or femme. There's a more elegant explanation in the book but that's about it. Solus and the mechs as well as the Cybertronian people themselves allow people to think that way because its a mannerly thing to make them comfortable. All the bots do that to aliens they meet but all of them self identify as mech if they think about it at all.
To me, that's the best conclusion. You're who the hell you say you are. Just like them. Who knows better than you who you really are? Be who you are. Life is short and I tell you as someone who is … drum roll … 70, you will not have regrets when you reach my age by being true to yourself no matter what. HUGS!