The Diego Diaries: Celebrate. Dance to the music. (dd8 716)

=0=Ops Center, Mars

It was with renewed vigor and a sense of powerful delight that the crew began to make arrangements for the armada to return to their home sites, something that was a choreographic nightmare and a fabulous sight to watch given the size and diversity of this group. In conjunction with the Flight Center, the Watch Tower Command Center and the Emergency Services Center filtered through Ops Center in The Fortress, they would bring back a massive armada over the period of the rest of the orn. It was now 1000 joors in the morning on Mars on the TMC.

=0=Out there

Prime sat filled with relief, a kind he couldn't express as he watched the screen forward. The monitor was showing a number of support ships cleaning up the area, gathering what was left to leave it pristine so that no one would notice anyone had been here and come check it out. Various parts of the armada were gathering together to await their format's turn to go though the space bridge, #4 Trigger at the Saturn Space Yard and return to home, wherever that was.

Banner and Avalone who were to be the logistics and back up hospital for the mission sat together on the benches in the forward lounge of the ship. They were chatting with other titans, engaged and happy in their affect as they enjoyed the unexpected and delightful outcome of what they dreaded, a shooting war with death everywhere.

Prime watched them delighting in their happiness. Their auras were improved but still dimmer than they would be eventually he hoped. Titan and Dread auras sometimes were difficult to look at so bright were they, these selfless and ultimately pure individuals. Light from the others, especially now that the peace was retrieved filled the room to those who could see it. He relaxed into his chair to watch the genius of his people gather up to go home.

=0=Ratchet

He walked through Phobos, his command ship which was the main hospital of the armada. The back up hospital was to be Banner and Avalone who were also handling logistics and supply through their bridges and non-sentient crews. He felt almost ready to burst with joy that the war had been quashed before it started. The idea of what might do it had been lurking at the edge of his awareness, almost taunting him to remember. When he did it was a eureka moment.

He didn't care who did what to get this done. What mattered to him was that it was accomplished to the greatest, most peaceful level possible. Now it was time to go home, hug children and other family, then gather the Skwad™ to go on the town and have a boozer. He grinned. Nothing like a little auld lang syne a few months early.

That football was a few orns away was the cherry on top of the victory cake.

He walked along to the bridge room, then jetted over to Tennyson to enjoy everyone's enjoyment.

=0=Trigger 1 in the armada

They sipped the 'good stuff' that Wheeljack had packed along. Holding the Cybertronian version of a 'red cup', everyone in the Trigger had gathered to have a drink. It had been harrowing, the precision required, so they were toasting Auntie who was blushingly accepting the praise from her console nearby.

Auntie herself was now fully sentient. It was an inevitable progression given their nature to arrive at his point and when she became fully sentient Sciences had begun work to allow such a massive, massive, massive spark to have pretender gear. She could join everyone in the construct world where having a sip with the boys and girls would become possible. She was a trial run and a decaorn away from that now deeply sought after goal.

Her sweet and blooming love affair with Severus, a titan on world who was a massive scholar and intellectual was delightful who knew about it or saw him sitting in a terminal in the Ops Center chatting and playing word games with her. He was a stalwart of the 'Eight Ball' titan district, one of eight massive beings fulfilling their second most important functions, housing their people. It was much discussed and admired that Auntie who was beloved by everyone could have a love life, too. What that meant was anyone's guess but her pretender gear was a much anticipated event by all.

Especially Severus.

It would be a great time in the Triggers as they geared up to go back, Triggers 1 and 2, while Trigger 3 operated the bridge that would take half of them back to Trigger 4 at Saturn Station and the other half to Autobot City to assume orbit until they were called to come down. As they did the bridges at the Port would shut down to handle the smaller fry. When they were through, the Seekers, they would begin again to take refugees to Mars and their new lives.

The population when they did would just then top 620,000,000 individuals.

=0=Around, back at Mars

"I don't know about you but getting a normal life back is going to be great. We're having a block party on our street tonight at sun down in City 4. Come over if you can," a big mech said as he walked toward a restaurant with his family, a friend of theirs and two bachelor mechs who worked with him at Crater District 20 in the north in the massive construction project. "By the way, they're building another golf course in the south just past the original stables. How about a round tomorrow? We're not going back to work for another orn."

"We aren't?" one of the bachelors asked as they began to enter their restaurant.

"Nope. Prime's calling a holiday tomorrow. This, apparently, was a very big near miss," he said as he and his family entered behind them to disappear inside.

It was.

=0=Autobot City Flight Center, Ops Center, The Fortress

Arrow worked at the command terminal watching the computers plot the return of a massive armada. It wasn't just about coming back. It was about doing it in good order so that there weren't any tangles and delays. Across the hallway, Paragon was working, too. He'd returned to run this end and when it was over they'd go home until the kids came. Tomorrow would be a 'play day' for the Empire with everyone getting an orn off everywhere with the usual two joor rotation for those who were needed.

All of the amenities for the colony were going to be available or not depending on their business owners so it was anyone's guess that any sports facilities, stables, restaurants or other places would be open. It could be that a giant barbecue-dance party would be the order of the orn. From the comments on social media to commentary among the people, it was shaping up to be a (beer) blast the following orn.

=0=Armada

Prowl who was working feverishly glanced up when Ratchet sat down before him. Ratchet flashed him a zillion watt smile. "Hi, loon. Nice call. I can go home now and continue my life."

"You're weclum, minion. I, Ratchet, held up these servos, these magnificent servos and laid healing onto the unclean. Verily, I, Ratchet, did help the Messiah part the waters and lead us into the promised land. Savvy?"

"You're certifiable." Prowl leaned back, then grinned at him. "Thanks."

Ratchet grinned back. "No problem. More data to move Gliese and Cybertron as well as the inner planetary system. And those other places, too. Them."

Prowl nodded. :Thanks for talking to Optimus. He seems a bit better:

:I told him I would make it an order. He was so angry I worried that his famed record of wisdom and healing of the unclean would be sullied:

Prowl grinned. "Certifiable."

"True, that. Let's get the Skwad and get loaded soon. Its been a while since I embellished my arrest record," Ratchet said.

Prowl snickered. :Done deal:

They would sit and chat until the word was given. All of the support titans, those not there for combat were given the word to go. A massive bridge from Trigger 4 appeared in the darkness and everyone watched in awe as a good half dozen or so titanic ships began to line up to fly through one after the other to home.

=0=Mars

They gathered in the viewing stand at the edge of the Military Airfield, the usual crowd, a few from other places, their leadership and some of the soldiers from the UN Garrison. Word was given that the titans who lived on Mars or in its orbit or general vicinity on station were coming back together through the Saturn Shipyard Bridge to Mars. It was an overawed group that saw the bridge open, then the marvelous beauty of Banner followed by Avalone slip through the maelstrom back into home space.

"Wow," a Turkish soldier said as they slowly flew over to their berths just outside of town followed by others.

They would set down in the nearby waste land where impaired titans lived until they could find their permanent station. Banner would eventually return to his permanent berth in The Elevens. Avalone had a pad next to him that would be his permanent home short of invasion but for now they were settled away from the colonial bustle until Avalone was signed off to set down permanently by Processor Health and Medical.

It would take a while but less time than everyone feared it would. Truly. The answer to every woe was, indeed, love.

=0=Shuttles

They sat around the armada providing protection as they waited for their turn to bug out. Tennyson as the command platform holding Prime and his officers would be the last ship to leave. For Optimus Prime, it was the way he rolled.

"Its going to be good being home. Tell needs some quality time," Springer said as he watched the tenth little video that Ravel had sent 'his sweet boys'.

Tell was running around the lounge at RTR Tools laughing and patting everyone's legs. Then he raced off through a connecting door with Ravel behind filming his every move. Appa Ratchet and Abba Budge paused their work to see him. Budge picked him up, explained the forge and fire nearby to a rapt little mech, then put him down. He raced off.

Abba Mystic was showing someone out the door of the business, a happy mech who found out, maybe, what he needed. Mystic turned to the little mech who was racing toward him. He picked Tell up, kissed his little face, then walked into his office to get a jar down from a shelf. It said, "Tell's Sweeties". He gave Tell one, then put him down. He raced off laughing loudly to begin his round again.

Springer and Drift watched the scene emotionally. Their son was in the bosom of love and it helped more than they could articulate. They sat quietly watching their son's videos until late that night they would get the word to go. When they did and were gone only then would the great and mighty Tennyson of Praxus follow them home.

=0=TBC 5-27-2023

ESL and such ...

quash (kwah-sssssh) to end something so completely it can't rise again. Its a word someone I reverence uses all the time and it makes me laugh to see it. LOL is another thing they used. Its amazing how something so little can be so funny but then you'd have to know him. LOL! ;)

Eureka or a eureka moment: Greek polymath Archimedes takes a bath and figures out how to calculate volume and density. These are iconic "light bulb" moments in the history of science. Or, as Archimedes reputedly said when insight struck, Eureka! What does it mean? a cry of joy or satisfaction when one finds or when someone discovers something.