The Diego Diaries: Psyops 4
=0=Out there
They shot through the violence of the gate and flew into battle array before it, double lines of Seeker heavies, their weapons online and ready. Behind them waiting on the other side, the long procession of ships bringing the fort to the fortress waited. When they had scanned the area the Seekers sent back the all clear. Moving forward they paused as ships began to come through the bridge.
Ships bearing massive curtain walls came first and turned toward the planetoid nearby. Behind them came tankers, cargo vessels and battle cruisers stuffed to the gunnels. As they began to come through, three Seekers streaked off to begin a grid pattern scan of the sector.
-0-Bridge Control Center, Trigger, Mars
They sat at their stations, the entire Bridge Project team watching or working as the ships began to leave in earnest. The long line of heavily laden and heavily guarded vessels surged forward as the Guardians themselves waited their turn. The send was smooth and mostly uneventful. The trick now was to keep the bridge open for as long as it took for them to go, unload and come back. Given that several hundred more mechs would be there working, they would leave the smaller bridge open to retrieve and send vessels and soldiers as the need beckoned.
In exactly half a joor, they would be sending for a fueling upload over the geosyncrhonous energy bridge from the plasma energy chamber several stories below the surface of Mars. It was getting on night, the air traffic was heavily controlled so it would be a perfect time for the giant beam to meet up with energy receptors on the bottom side of the Trigger.
In two joors of continuous upload, the Trigger would be powered up enough to stay open orn and night for a decaorn. The energy teams were below getting things ready even as the energy teams were on Mars making ready the same things.
-0-On the ground, evening approaching
Hot Rod walked to the Ops Center after spending the afternoon playing cards with the 'boys'. They had gathered in Jolt's apartment in the bachelor tower where most of them already lived. Jolt, Kup, Lon, Blurr, Smokescreen, Bluestreak for a short time, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Sandstorm were there waiting to play. He sat down and they dealt the cards.
And he lost.
Many times.
Spectacularly.
Having wasted the best part of an otherwise amiable orn, he decided to go to the Ops Center and see what was up. On the way he passed Drift who was going on Duty for the Night Watch. "Where's Springer?"
"He's out there at Fort Apache. He's going to stay until they get the curtain walls up and put up the main floors of the building."
"Well, if you need a berth buddy, I'm available," Hot Rod said waggling his optics with a grin.
Drift snorted. "Don't tempt me," he said with his own. They parted and Hot Rod continued passing workers going on and off shift, families out and about and Barricade. The big 'Con shot him a deadly optic and Hot Rod returned one. They had been mortal enemies on more than one occasion.
Continuing on, he passed Breakdown and Knockout who were standing to one side on the sidewalk laughing about something and Stiletto who was with Scorponok. The number of 'Cons in the city was still a provocative thing for a veteran of many a battle to see in the passing of the moment. But that was the beauty of this place. Most of them were on the same side.
Most of them.
He continued onward and reached the Fortress disappearing into the courtyard and the building beyond. The sun was slowly setting on the horizon signaling the ending of another orn.
-0-The trine
They wandered into the apartment chuckling over a private joke and paused. The place was silent. Moving to the berthrooms, they saw the infants tucked in and their dollies in servo. Kissing them, fussing with them, they turned and tip toed to the berthroom across the hallway.
Bluestreak was already there in his usual place, dead center on the soft and comfortable bed. He looked cute, his wings folded flat and his expression soft and gentled by sleep.
Smirking, Sideswipe crept over and took his side, the left, enclosing Bluestreak in his arms. Sunstreaker took the right flopping down on the soft surface, his night vision awaiting the usual startled awakening of his dream mech.
"What the frag?" Bluestreak said turning halfway around in Sideswipe's grip. "Oh, its you two."
"Who did you expect?" Sunstreaker said turning to face Blue, his powerful arm draped over that bot's slighter form and Sideswipe's larger one.
"I don't know. A mech can dream," Bluestreak said with a sigh as he cuddled against both of them. He tugged Sunstreaker closer and he obliged.
"Who would that be?" Sideswipe asked with a wicked grin.
"I don't know. There's a lot of good looking mechs in the city now," Blue said half asleep. "I bet I could find half a dozen." Then he drifted back into recharge.
They stared at each other a moment. :He's fragging with us again. I'm going to have to see Ada. I don't like this particular line of conversation: Sunstreaker said. :Remember the Smokescreen comment?:
:Yeah. I don't either. But it does make him look awfully cute: Sideswipe said with a soft chuckle. He kissed Blue's helm and relaxed.
:Babe's cute no matter what: Sunstreaker said before off-lining his optics.
The stars grew brighter in the sky contrasting slightly against the lights of the bridges, satellites, ships and other devices that circled the planet or waited to go through the glowing light of the bridge aperture. In the home of the trine, all was peaceful.
-0-Habitat
The scientists were sitting here and there working on their daily blog posts, downloads or information they had learned during the day. One of them walked to the telescope that was pointed up to the sky all day long. He scanned and then paused. "Look at this," he said.
The others came and watched, looking at each other with interest. A burst of energy was burning in the sky, a bluish-green concoction that looked like a fiery blossom. They could see ships, many of them huge waiting nearby, the Trigger glistening brightly as well.
"What is it?" Sheila asked.
"I think they are making a singularity to travel over a long distance. I talked to Will Lennox today about it and he told me that all he could say was they were building a fortress out on the migration lane and they were using a device to get there fast," Antonio said.
"A space-time vortex," Michio said softly. He looked at the others. "They have a space bridge."
The line to watch after that was very, very long.
-0-In the Control Center of the Trigger
Perceptor sat on the chair of the engineering station and watched the gauges. They were on course and so he set the manual override to automated and turned looking around the conn. Wheeljack was sitting at the control station chatting with Miler who was manning the computational computers. He felt as happy at this moment as he had in a very long time.
It had been a rough few vorns as they fought their way across the universe in search of the AllSpark. He had been diverted from Wheeljack's company, his preferred companion even then when he was assigned by Prowl to monitor Kup after his refit. His sojourn on a poisoned world had left him broken and dependent on a substance that had captured his spark while he was stranded there.
A lot of mechs had gone to fetch him out and when they did he was in pieces. It had been a long hard refit between the two of them, Wheeljack and himself. But they had achieved it and stabilized Kup's addiction as well with the introduction of his stimulant delivery device, or his 'stogie' as he called it. The device delivered the drug to a degree short of impairment but high enough to keep him from keeling over dead. It was a fair balance but he had had to accompany Kup for a long time to make sure his armor and rebuild as well as the delivery device worked.
That meant going out on missions with the Wreckers. There was hardly anything more anathema for a high caste scholar and scientist than to run into the doom of everyone and everything with the almost exclusively low caste mechs of the last line of defense. It had been harrowing and he had been pushed toward the Matrix on more than one occasion but he had survived. He had learned a lot of about himself and he came to appreciate even more than he did now the mechs and the Cause they served. To come here at the call of the Prime was life affirming.
He rose and walked to the control station where Wheeljack sat and looked at the screens. They were halfway through the mission so far and things would go on for hours. He didn't mind though. His colleagues and his Wheeljack were here.
-0-Club Cybertron
They sat at a table helms nearly touching as they shared a night cap before going home to their tower out in the habitation grid. Their tower had been finished some time ago and many unbonded mechs and a femme pre-bond occupied its stellar heights. It was young, busy and fun. The Club was still full and would be for a while. Families sat on one side of the big room and the odd group of mechs everywhere else including Barricade, Stiletto and Scorponok sat nearer to the door and the bar. They stared at the pair, then Stiletto arose and walked over. He pulled out a chair and sat. "Hey."
Breakdown looked at him and nodded. "What do you want, Stiletto?"
"Just to talk."
Knockout looked at him with his usual lack of fear and prim peevishness. "We were busy."
"You can frag later," Stiletto said. "I want to know what is going on with the space bridges."
"Go ask Prime," Knockout said leaning back and folding his arms over his chassis.
"I'm asking you," Stiletto said.
"If we tell you, you will make trouble. They'll trace it back to us and we'll be fragged. Some of us aren't so stupid as to keep beating our helms against a brick wall."
Stiletto glared at Breakdown. "Your brothers are in the prison. Doesn't that bother you?"
"No," Breakdown said. "I hate Motormaster. He's a slagger from the Pit. If you want to make trouble, you came to the wrong mechs."
Stiletto looked at them and rose. "We'll see," he said as he turned and walked back to the two 'Cons watching him as they were being watched by their guards. He sat and they leaned in to talk once more.
"Slagger. He's going to get us brigged," Knockout said with his usual comical aggravation.
Breakdown grinned. "Let's go. We got other things to do."
Knockout smirked. They rose together and walked out heading for the trek to home in a high tower nearby. The night waxed onward as they did.
-0-Ratchet
He sat in his chair listening to The Hourly News. There was general news about the mission. A profile of Fort Apache was given by Jetta and Ultra Magnus, omitting of course the real purpose of the installation. No one knew officially that a group was held captive nearby. The newcomers were cautioned and so far so good. No need for panic at the idea of hostile Decepticons nearby. The unity and amity of the city was paramount.
The weather was announced. Clear skies and temps in the moderate range of -40 to -200 at night were forecasted. That was short sleeve weather he thought borrowing a comment he had once heard Bobby Epps say.
The door opened and Ironhide stepped inside. Hanging his guns on the rack by the door that kept them off the floor and out of the way, he walked to Ratchet and kissed him. "I just got back. The genitors are still there and will stay over. I have to go tomorrow but I'm here for our conferences at the school."
"You're a good genitor, Ironhide," Ratchet said as he sat wearily. "You hungry?"
"Peckish," he said with a slight grin.
Ratchet rose and walked to the kitchen getting his mug that said 'World's Greatest Atar' and turned to the dispenser. Sunspot had gotten that made for him at a Guild shop and it was something Ironhide treasured. Putting in the necessary desired supplements with a practiced stir, Ratchet turned and walked to Ironhide handing him his cup. Sitting, relaxing, he grinned. "How's it going out there?"
"Well. We are getting the slabs in place," Ironhide said. "Once the first set are in we can add the first floor. Then the next set of slabs will be slid into place. There's a steel framework that will be the skeleton of the walls and floor that is a marvel. The stones are carved so they slot into the steel. Fast drying cement mixed with a polymer that makes it nearly impervious to harm is poured into the gaps and it sets almost instantly. The whole process is something to see. IntraComm is there filming and talking to the mechs. I hear its going to be a documentary on Channel 9 when its done."
"I will be sure to watch it."
"How are the younglings and the infants?"
"Missing their old pa. They are off tomorrow for conferences and then they begin the next orn. We have a conference first thing for Sunspot and following that, Orion, then Praxus."
"How's Hero?" Ironhide asked with a nod.
"Missing her old pa," Ratchet said squeezing Ironhide's servo.
"Her old pa is missing her," Ironhide said squeezing back.
=0=TBC
2012 (11)