Chapter 48 dd1
The Diego Diaries: "Take me now, Sides!..."
=0=Sideswipe
He tossed the game console to one side as he lay flat on the berth bored out of his helm. Sunstreaker was on Mars providing protection and the occasional muscle for work crews that were digging an underground installation. He himself was rotating with the day shift at Ops Center to allow skilled personnel to go to the place Prime was calling Autobot City.
He looked at the screen, the gift of a billionaire who had an interest in the technology that the Autobots had and weren't sharing. Seventy-two inch screen televisions had arrived and the younglings had begged for them for their quarters. Prime unwilling to be anyone's puppet nevertheless allowed it.
He picked up a datapad that granted encrypted access to the internet and pulled up Google. A cursory search of 'Autobot' brought up one hundred fifteen million hits. It was the usual commentary interspersed with sites that had pictures, video and 'inside information' about them. He had satiated himself on those earlier with Sunstreaker who complained at the quality of the video and how it didn't show how beautiful he truly was. Sideswipe smiled. And he kept scrolling...
=0=Autobot City, Mars
Sunstreaker sat on a pile of rocks, the dig out from the labyrinthine maze that was being constructed as the first stage of their colony. He liked the place. The flatness would allow good racing. Nearby helping lift parts of a smelter out of boxes, Bluestreak happily chatted with Beachcomber who would have lived on the planet if they had let him. He was talking to Blue about all the wonderful ores, rocks and layers of this and that he had found. It was a veritable paradise for a geologist he said.
Sunstreaker watched them admiring the delicate appearing beauty of Bluestreak that led one to underestimate how tough, strong, and agile he was. It must be the wings he thought. They looked delicate but weren't anymore than the rest of his gangling frame. He smiled slightly. "Blue."
Bluestreak turned and smiled, waving to him cheerfully. "What?"
"You're going to be a mess you keep standing in this stuff."
"I don't mind, Sunny. You can wash my back later," he said then turned back to Beachcomber to continue the chat.
Sunstreaker shook his head then looked back over the Tharsis Plain. This was going to be home and their lives might change into something more than fighting and dying. The thought had held him in its grip for orns now and he wondered what it would be like to be an artist once more. He looked at Bluestreak, at his sweet gentle manner and wondered what it might mean for the two of them to have a chance at a normal life.
=0=Sideswipe
He scrolled down and found a link that was named 'Fanfiction..net' so he clicked on it. A search screen opened at a link and for a hoot he put 'Autobot' into the request line. He blinked when it opened, the endless lists of stories, authors and communities overwhelming.
=0=Ops Center
Prowl watched as the data came in. Something was going on in North America. Sensors in space patched into Teletraan II had alerted them to activity over the pole. The magnetic forces of the Earth made that a favorite place for Decepticons to come and go as it scrambled somewhat all their sensors. There were a couple of hits, then nothing. He pondered the implications, then walked to Teletraan II to turn the satellites.
=0=At the N.E.S.T. Administrative Building
He stood before the platform, General Morshower and a number of civilian government officials filling the screens arrayed at the top of the platform where people gathered to talk to the Autobots during conferences or meetings involving them. Theodore Galloway occupied one of them, his pinched expression surpassed only by his pinched personality. Prime mostly ignored him as a lost cause.
The discussion was over the assault on Ironhide by the Intel-Martin employees. The reports, depositions by eye witnesses both Autobot and human as well as autopsies and toxicology reports all told the same story. The driver was drunk, all the passengers were as well and they had deliberately rammed Ironhide in some misguided game or failed conception of distance and reflex. No charges would be brought against any Autobot even though Intel-Martin had made noises about suing based on the outcome of the investigation. That was now spiked by the finding. But it didn't mean that Galloway wasn't going to vent.
"There has been no cooperation between Daniels and the Autobots, Prime," he said leaning toward his camera. "He is the liaison of the United States government and as such should be getting better treatment and cooperation than he is currently getting from your side."
Prime bit back his anger with Galloway as he considered what a small insignificant individual he was. "He has been adversarial since he came here. He has no respect for either us or the soldiers of N.E.S.T. As for treatment, it was my soldier that was injured from the drunks in his company. I have not received a satisfactory answer to the question of why he has nine armed mercenaries in his company."
"Apparently he feels the need to have them," Galloway spat back. "If I were him I might too."
"Based on what?" Morshower asked with exasperation. "You throw shit around, Galloway, with nothing to back it up. Tell me why we should have hired scum like Intel-Martin on base in Diego Garcia?"
Galloway glared and sat back. "I think it's obvious."
"I think the only thing obvious is the corn cob stuck sideways up your ass," Morshower retorted.
Prime listened, amused and irritated at the same time. Morshower was stand up man and a friend. Galloway was slag. He'd seen it so much in his life both on Cybertron and other places he was surprised that he could still get angry over it. He wondered how much damage Galloway would do when he found out about their efforts to make a colony on Mars. That would be a spectacular moment he mused.
The conversation continued and Prime was assured that the investigation would be closing with findings of negligence and criminal conduct on the part of the employees of Intel-Martin. He nodded and the conference was over. Lennox and Epps turned to Prime with smiles.
"That must stick sideways in Daniels' craw," Epps said walking to the ladder to climb down.
Prime grinned and held out his servo with both men climbing on. Then he walked out of the building moving down the middle of the hangar which was kept open for just such activity. They walked outside where Prime set them down. "That is over. The rest, the bad feelings and the sabotage will not be."
"You feel that too?" Lennox asked as he frowned up at Prime.
Prime nodded. "They tend to go hand-in-hand in my experience."
"We have your back, Optimus," Epps said as Lennox nodded in agreement.
Prime smiled, his spark warmed. "I know. And we have yours."
=0=Sideswipe
He stared at the screen, at the list of stories anonymously named people had written about them falling off the bottom of the screen it was so long. He had figured out the way they were listed then noticed that there were 'pairings'. Some of the stories involved Autobots with femmes, with humans both male and female, some with historical or fictional characters, and lastly, most of them with each other. You could search the listings for every kind of story imaginable.
He sought a search for 'Sunstreaker and Sideswipe' and found endless stories for that category. He sat a moment, almost afraid to look, then opened one called 'Sunny with a Sides of Bluestreak', written by someone with 34 stories named of all things, Hibby the Bibber. He braced himself and opened it...
"They hurried down the hallway of the Ark paint cans in hand. Snickering with glee, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe halted, then entered the officer's wing of the ship. Pausing before the quarters of S.I.C. Prowl, they looked around, nodding to Bluestreak who was on lookout. Hacking into Prowl's alarm, they sneaked inside as the door closing behind them."
Sideswipe grinned. /... tips ... new ideas .../ He stretched out and began to read further.
=0=Prowl
He turned the satellites in space toward the North Pole, following the blinking lights as they arched over and began to go southeast toward Alaska and the Aleutian Islands before fading away. He frowned then commed Prime.
:Prowl to Prime:
:Prime:
:We may have a situation:
:On my way:
Prime looked down at the two men who were watching him, aware he was getting a message. He held down his servo and they climbed on. Then he walked to the Autobot HQ and the new intel coming into the computers in an endless stream.
=0=Autobot City, Mars
They gathered their things together, moving to go to Cosmos and home. They had begun to put the smelter together and soon they would be able to begin the fabrication process that would allow them to brace their excavations with Cybertronian steel and build weapons installations that would protect them. When the smelter was up they would run crews here day and night, the race to build a defensible fortification paramount.
Sunstreaker walked with Bluestreak who was chatting to Hound, himself carrying a set of plans for Perceptor. He grinned and shook his head. Bluestreak was so unconscious of his nervous habit that it had become as much a part of his persona as his graceful door wings or his compact physique. He knew why Blue did it and he didn't care. He just loved him. The insult to Blue that the soldiers and the mercs had done still rankled. He walked closer taking Blue's arm.
Blue pausing mid-word, glancing up at Sunstreaker with a smile. Sunny smiled down briefly, then looked ahead, the door of Cosmos looming. They were on their own turf, their own land and he was with the people that mattered. All was good in his world right now. It would be better if he could even the score with the mercs. Maybe later he thought as he climbed into Cosmos and the door slid shut.
=0=Sideswipe
He was sitting up again, his eyes riveted to the screen.
"They fell together landing on the berth, Sideswipe's servos everywhere on Bluestreak's lithe slim body. Side's devoured Blue's mouth, the younger mech making mewling sounds as he was dominated by the bigger mech. "Sides! Take me!"
Sideswipe paused in confusion and emotion. He swallowed. Hard. He also continued.
"Blue, show me your stuff. Let me in," Sides said, his fans circulating cooling air throughout his overheating chassis. He reached down to find Blue's interface panel, clicking it open to reach inside."
Blue awash in his touch, the sensation of his digits, arched against him crying out in pleasure. "Sides! Oh, Sides! I need you. Now! Hard!"
Sideswipe put the datapad down and rose to pace in a circle as his processor whirled. He looked at the screen, its details of Blue's body and his own animalistic attentions to said body hitting him like a low flying Decepticon. He returned to the berth, picked up the datapad and continued scrolling as he read further.
"Sideswipe gripped Blue's hips pulling him down underneath his own bigger body, finding his own panel as he did. He pulled his own cords free and with a trembling hand plugged them both into each other. The feelings of intense heat hit them both hard as Bluestreak wrapped his legs around Sideswipe, groaning as he clung to Sideswipe's bucking body."
At that point, Sideswipe rose again feeling the effects of suggestion. That part was fine. What wasn't fine was the truth it asserted. He had wanted to do something similar to Bluestreak since forever.
Bluestreak, his twin brother's lover.
He sat gathered himself and continued to the end of the story.
=0=Ops Center
Prime and Prowl stood side-by-side watching the screen. The targets had made their way past the Arctic Circle, then disappeared. Lennox and Epps stared at it too.
"Looks like trouble," Will said sighing.
Prime nodded in grim agreement.
=0=TBC 2010 (11) edited 1-1-17