Chapter 66
-0-At the scene
Fulton, Prowl and Prime discussed the situation at the scene and watched as Daniels drove up, leaping out of his SUV with armed men along with him.
Daniels had been at the N.E.S.T. HQ on a conference call with Theodore Galloway and had finally come to see for himself what had happened. He walked up showing fury on his normally impassive face. Looking up at Prime, he raged. "What the hell happened here? I was told one of your machines did this and my men are hurt! Colonel, I want an explanation!" he said, turning away from Prime dismissively.
Fulton who was the victim of Daniels' daily 'outrages' and demands felt his own outrage rising. "Your goons are responsible for this. Your hired goons. They provoked an Autobot who was walking to the firing range. They provoked and insulted an Autobot and the others came to help him. If your goons weren't drunk and disorderly all the time things like this wouldn't happen." Fulton in his ire began to move toward Daniels who began to step backwards. "There were no incidents between Autobots and civilian humans before your goons came here, Daniels. I think the question is, what's wrong with you that you can't keep your goons in line?"
"There was a provocation. Johnson and Hedges," Daniels replied. "I hear that they're going to making an issue about being sent away from here after being abused by those homicidal twins."
Prowl who felt anger suffusing him at Daniels' remark stepped forward to squat down on his heels to become eye level with the bureaucrat. "Your goons disturbed my son at the firing range a short time ago. They pulled a gun on him without provocation. I never reported it at the time. I was considering my options. But now I'm going to do just that. I'm reporting the incident. If you take that one along with Ironhide's assault and this provocation, I think a picture is clear about who's making a disturbance and who isn't. Those 'homicidal twins' are also mine by the way and they were merely asking to speak with those two soldiers about their unprofessional behavior and nothing more." Prowl arose and stepped back, standing behind Prime with a cold look on his face.
"That's your version of events," Daniels began before Prime cut him off.
"An investigation found your mercs at fault in Ironhide's assault. There are witnesses for every event that has occurred between your goons and our Autobots. The Colonel is right. Nothing but goodwill has existed between us and the humans here until you came."
"I'll be making calls to Washington, D.C. about this and I want you to know that whatever charges I can file, I will," Daniels said hotly.
"Then you confirm it out of your own pie hole," Fulton said equally as hot.
"What? Confirm what?" Daniels said, pausing his triumphant outrage for a moment.
"Who you work for."
He stared at Fulton blankly. "What are you talking about?"
"Intel-Martin. You work for them. This outrage is on their behalf," Fulton said, moving closer. "You don't work for the government. You haven't since you got here. You've been on the opposite side of every issue on the table even when it doesn't make sense. You're here to disrupt for Intel-Martin." Fulton stepped even closer, leaning in toward Daniels. "Tell you what, pardner. Why don't you just tell us all what they want and we can cut to the chase."
Daniels stared at him, his expression becoming unreadable once more, then he walked back to his SUV. He paused once there to look back at all of them. "I'll be needing new quarters." Then he climbed inside and drove back to his office space in the main N.E.S.T. building.
Prime smiled down at Fulton who was looking up at him. "I do not think it will be too hard to find out what they want, Colonel."
Fulton grinned without humor. "I agree, Optimus."
-0-Ops Center
Red Alert sat on task and recorded the emails, phone calls and other transmissions that Daniels began to make once he reached his office space. The bureaucrat had been given specially encrypted computers, satellite phones and other technology that wasn't in common use by even the United States government from Intel-Martin. He thought he was safe from listening audials and prying optics but he couldn't be more wrong. Nothing manmade could withstand the technology of Cybertron.
Jazz passed the door followed by his team. Sky Dive sat on the runway ready to take them to Corpus Christi and as they walked out they went over protocols for the mission once more with Prime. Then they left.
Prime followed by Prowl separated at the door to Ops Center as Prime continued in, pausing at the door to Wheeljack's lab. They looked up, Wheeljack and Perceptor and between the three of them came up with a plan.
Prime who was satisfied at last walked to N.E.S.T. HQ for the daily rundown with Glenn Morshower and whatever interested party that had to be there for the related topic of the day. He would later have a conversation with Morshower over an Autobot encrypted line that even Starscream couldn't break about the incident. They would both come to the same agreement. Daniels was an Intel-Martin ass hat.
Prowl assuming command once more in Ops Center farewelled Jazz and team and made arrangements for an audio/visual feed to the Center when they took up their positions around the impound warehouse where Arcee was supposed to be held. While he went through the business of daily issues and events, he organized the formal complaint that he would file over the mercs actions against Bluestreak at the firing line. The more the merrier he thought grimly as he signed off on a training request from First Aid.
Ratchet who was standing in Med Bay running a diagnostic on himself to access the protection programming considered the day's events. Not good, he thought as the diplomat came out for a moment. They had another incident and even though it hadn't been their fault this time, it had come up to the line for Ratchet. They had almost had their great secret found out.
The sparkling was resonating among the troops. Almost everywhere he went, things had changed for him and he knew it was because of the sparkling. Mechs were more cognizant of his situation, pausing to let him pass first less he be jostled, getting up to give him a chair to sit upon and asking about his comfort. It had been strange at first, this feeling of oddity generated by an almost femme consideration but he got over it. They were responding to his sparkling.
The speculation on names was running rampant and even though Toilet Snake wasn't even in contention, it had its supporters. Ratchet chuckled, pulling out a plug from his chest to inserting it into his neck.
Toilet Snake.
It had done his spark good to see Springer laugh like that after his ordeal.
Springer.
He would have to talk to him and see how he was. He was going to be going to Autobot City to run diagnostics on the med bay and he would have Springer help him. He could observe him that way. Satisfied that he had solved another logistical crisis, Ratchet continued to delve deeper into his own programming, searching for the small obscure trigger that would cause a primordial reaction in Ironhide.
The slagger.
-0-At the same time
Perceptor had sifted the scene, taking recordings and measurements, checking the angles of observation so that he could produce witnesses beyond the already numerous unimpeachable individuals who had seen the event first hand at the site, a number that included most of the base and a very agitated Rabbi Chaplain who was determined to speak on behalf of the Autobots. When he was finished, Perceptor walked away and alerted the clean up crew to come.
-0-One joor later
The scene at the barracks was pristine. Six breems earlier, five Autobots had walked silently to the barracks with a box and a small brush. They had picked up the pieces and stowed them in the box. Next, they had meticulously picked up every scrap, every tiny broken nail and shard of glass, stowing it in the box as well. By the time they'd finished, there was only the concrete slab and a neatly piled and sorted stack of furnishings and belongings nearby. They left as silently as they had come.
-0-Three joors later
Perceptor, Wheeljack and Grapple who was called back from Autobot City walked to the barracks carrying a building between them. Behind them, carrying a box filled with odds and ends, Hoist, also recalled followed. They set the building down as crowd began to gather, gathering together to look toward the slab to watch.
Grapple who was explaining what they should do next began with the others to insert steel beams into the concrete slab, drilling holes big enough to hold them. They puttied them in with a sealant they'd made in the lab that held them fast instantly.
They tested the fastness of the girders, then picked up their building. Walking back, holding it over the slab, they lowered it as the beams inserted into slots in the building which they lowered until it was flush with the concrete foundational slab. Picking up a torch with special settings for odd materials that Wheeljack had borrowed from Med Bay, he crouched and began to attach the building's metal rim to the concrete, melting the two together seamlessly.
When he had done that, they gathered up the belongings, putting furniture where they felt it belonged and everything they couldn't understand in a neat pile in the middle of the rooms they had reconstructed. When that was finished, they took miniaturized heating, lighting and air conditioning devices and plugged them into the plumbing and electrical master boards, stepping back to look when they were finished.
Smiling, they then walked back to the HQ taking their box with them. The spectators who were immense in number peered inside, amazed at the detail and care given to the construction. Then they heard someone call out that the four Autobots were back carrying the roof in one piece. Moving carefully so they wouldn't step on anyone, they lowered the roof onto the top of the steel bracings and settled it. Wheeljack welded the roof and wall seams together.
Rising at last, the four looked at the construction with satisfaction. A few brushes of digits, the re-positioning of lawn furnishings on the patio and they were done. Walking back to the HQ, waving and smiling at the spectators who were applauding them as they left, they entered upbeat.
Grapple who was smiling broadly looked at Wheeljack, Hoist and Perceptor. "I love to make models. Tell me if you ever need to do this again and I will come at a moment's notice."
"We will," Perceptor said with a grin.
Wheeljack nodded. "How about a nip before you go to celebrate a perfect collaboration."
"Don't mind if I do, 'Jack," Grapple said happily as they walked through the rec room together.
-0-That evening after the hoopla died down and day shift was over
Daniels having spent the day bitching to his superiors both in Washington, D.C. and in Houston drove to the 'scene of the crime' to retrieve what he could of his own personal items. His men who were staying in another barracks much to the disgust of the soldiers who were also living there would need to come as well. He wanted to get his own pictures to send with his report to D.C.
When he drove up, he sat in his SUV for a moment as his mind attempted to process what he saw. Getting out, he walked to the barracks, opened the door and peered inside. It was immaculate but for the pile of personal belongings and a couple of pieces of furniture here and there. The walls had art that depicted a city made of metal. He wasn't aware that Wheeljack had Sunstreaker make a small portrait of Iacon for him.
The floors were intricate, metal inlays of a swirling design that he didn't know mimicked the event horizon of a black hole. The doors were hand engraved metal, copper inlays of Cybertronian glyphs asking Primus to bless the residents and all who lived there. He didn't know they were words, thinking them intriguing designs. He walked through the building, each room more beautiful than the rest, each having the vibe of being handmade in a way he struggled to define.
The windows had small inserts in the middle, pieces of glass and metal that cast a rainbow of colors as the sun moved across the sky, sparkling against the walls as they shifted through the solar cycle. All of it was beautiful, all of it personalized and keenly thought out. He felt his admiration for it rising even as he hated those who had made it.
Walking to the front door, he decided he would have to depend on Fulton supplying images of the disaster. Pulling out his phone, he summoned his mercs to come back to their quarters and settle in once more.