The Diego Diaries: PsyOps 15
-0-Ops Center later that day
The word reached them from Diego Garcia. Four more bombs had been set and detonated in Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Initial reports were sketchy but it appeared they were similar in configuration and explosive power to the bomb in San Francisco. Word was not firm yet on the graffiti that had accompanied that blast. It would be sent as details became more clear.
Ratchet sauntered into Ops Center and paused by the table where Prowl and Prime sat. "You called?"
"Have a seat, Ratchet," Optimus said with a distracted nod. "We have more bombs."
"Slag," Ratchet said sitting in a chair and leaning forward to study the data on the map before them. A huge monitor on the wall nearby was playing the news reports of four affected cities on split screen and it wasn't great news. "What do we know, Optimus?"
"Not much," Prime replied grimly. He glanced at Prowl. "Anything new from Diego?"
"Yes. Jazz has been sifting news there and working some sources that he has developed both inside and outside of the media and law enforcement," Prowl said pausing. "We appear to have four stores that carry goods that bear our images, etc involved here. The merchanise is made on Earth under our licensing agreements but nothing of our own manufacture. The bombs were placed on the buildings themselves and destroyed their contents. They appear to be of the same type and design of the first one as far as preliminary information tells us. There is confirmation of the message appearing nearby as well. They appear to be similar to the one in San Francisco. 'Earth for Earthers. Aliens go home' is the writing in Chicago and Atlanta. One can assume that the other two match."
"No word on the group?" Ratchet asked.
"None so far. We are hoping they make a mistake," Optimus said.
"Maybe you should send Wheeljack and Perceptor in stealth mode with Hound to scan and see what we can figure out that the humans either missed or aren't technically capable of finding," Ratchet said.
Prime nodded and glanced at Prowl. "Call them please," he said. Prowl nodded and paused. "I think a Wrecker escort will be in order. It should be stealth but secure."
Prime nodded. "Drift and Springer."
Prowl nodded and paused calling them up too.
"This is getting out of hand. Funny it should be the same day that those two gaboons slagged the sparkling as well as the rest of us on the teevee," Ratchet said.
Prowl nodded. "I would think that those two are going to be linked to this group. I would also offer that there will be military included. This first bomb employed material that can't be had easily. For a soldier, it might be an easy steal."
"If that's so, that can't be good. I would stake my spark on the N.E.S.T. Alpha and Beta Striker teams but the rest? It gives me pause now," Ratchet replied.
"Glenn will be on it swiftly if that is proven so," Optimus said. "In the meantime, if they weren't with us from the start we have to be alert. We will have to be extra careful about things for a while."
Ratchet nodded. "I am assuming that I will be going to Earth at some point?"
"You read my processor," Prime said grimly.
-0-RTR Tools earlier
The morning had been going beautifully until The Hourly News. On that venerable broadcast was the full interview of the two soldiers and commentary from other Earth broadcast shows. Tie Down and Ravel had stood rooted to the floor, stunned that their family and their sweet grandson should be the butt of such an affront.
"Tie, what does this mean?" Ravel asked, his expression uncertain and his affect stunned. He turned and looked at Tie who stood staring at the screen. He looked at Ravel. "I don't know. I just called Ratchet."
Moments later, Ratchet entered the room and engulfed his genitors in his arms. After a moment, he looked down at them. "Are you two okay?"
"I don't understand," Ravel said, a worried expression on his face. "Did they … why did they insult Orion? He's a baby."
"Because, Ada, some people are slaggers and some are genuinely great. Just like us. Good and bad," he said gently. "Those two were awful to us on Diego Garcia when they were trying to get on the N.E.S.T. Striker Force. The humans booted them as unsuitable and as you can see, they didn't disappoint."
"What does this mean? Is Orion in danger?" Ravel asked with fear in his optics.
"No. Humans can't come here without us bringing them. No one comes here who isn't trustworthy. The humans here … they are the best. Most of the humans on Earth are first class. Some of them aren't. It's fear, Ada. They don't know they don't have to fear us. They have been alone in space so long that all of this is shocking and new."
They both relaxed slightly. "Alright, Ratchet. I will trust your judgment," Tie Down said nodding.
"It could be that I have to go to Earth to discuss this in a public forum. I want you to know I will have security up the wazoo and I'm pretty nimble on the battlefield myself. I don't want you to ever worry about a slagging thing ever again. Just live here, love on the sparklings, make friends, do things you like to do, eat a lot of food and make your beautiful tools. I hear your order list for just about everyone is around the moon."
Ravel smiled. "You want to see it? I have to look at it every day to believe it."
They walked to the computer and looked at the screen Ravel pulled up. There was over 100 orders for weapon toolkits, several hundred orders for specialty tools from every department and plant in the city and several hundred orders for knives, another specialty of RTR Tools.
"You're going to need apprentices," Ratchet said with a grin. "Do your customers understand it might take awhile? You can't hurry perfection."
"They do, son," Tie said with a grin. "I can't remember when I ever enjoyed myself this much." Ravel nodded, a big grin on his face.
Ratchet enveloped them in his arms. "Then I can't remember when I was ever happier too."
-0-Underground
He stepped off the train and walked along the platform, a small chatterbox infant sitting on his arm. It was like the old days on Diego when they would make the rounds, chat and generally hang out. It was balm and Ironhide felt immeasurably better. Having one of the several reasons he got up in the morning and faced anything that came at him called out on interplanetary television had been a punch in the gut. This sparkling was part of the reason he was still upright and functioning. He was part of the reason that their species would continue. He was part of the reason he, Ironhide would continue as well.
His younglings would need him no matter how big they got.
As they sauntered along, the sound of movement behind him made him pause and turn. The twins rolled to a stop. "Hey," they said.
"Hey," Ironhide replied. "I thought you two were going to Io."
"So did we. We were re-assigned to the standby list because of this I think," Sideswipe said tickling Orion who giggled. Then Orion held up his dollie. Both bots complied with a grin. "We want to know what you want to do about this, Atar."
Sunstreaker nodded. "This is fragged."
Ironhide nodded. "We have to see what Optimus wants to do. Right now, we're going to watch them pour steel."
"We'll come with you," Sideswipe said. They turned and walked on heading for Steel Mill #8 to watch giant slabs of transparent steel be poured.
-0-Habitat
Movie crew and scientists sat watching the television as the bombing news alternated with the Johnson/Hedges interview and subsequent other individuals speaking out to both support and denounce Johnson and Hedges. They were waiting for a briefing from General Morshower who had apparently gone to Diego Garcia.
"This is fucked," Cameraman Zeb said. "Some dumbasses have delusions. You see them," he said nodding to bots passing by the Habitat, their height and power astounding even yet. "You've been among them. The Decepticons won't leave us alone if they go. Can you imagine what would happen to Earth if the Autobots left? How long do you think we would last?"
"Zero minutes," Sheila Conroy said shaking her head. "They better catch these idiots. I don't want anyone here to think we agree with this."
A beep sounded and Michio Yamaha walked to the communications console. "This is the Habitat. How can we help you?"
"This is Gen-O from IntraComm. We would like to interview some of you about the situation on Earth. There is unease in the city over this, especially the remarks about one of our babies."
Sheila arose and walked over, her image appearing on the screen before Gen-O along with Michio. "There is no way this is the majority opinion of Earth. I am so sorry about this. What do you want us to do?"
"We would like you to come to the studio and do a segment on 'Good morning, Autobot City'. It begins in about a breem. Is that possible?" he asked.
They looked at him on their screen and Sheila nodded. "I'll be there."
Michio nodded. "So will I."
When they left, seven of them … everyone in the Habitat at the time would be on their way to the studio and damage control for Earth.
-0-Morshower
He got off Cosmos and walked to the Administration Building entourage in tow. The sun was warm and the doors of the Embassy nearby were open. Several Autobots were out sunning themselves in car format. One of them turned toward them and rolled over pausing. Transforming, Jolt stared down at the human all of them trusted completely. "Hello, General."
"Hi, Jolt. How are you doing? How is the garrison doing?" he asked as they all paused. Two of his entourage were new to this and they stared at the unlikely alien with awe.
"We don't get it," Jolt said with a slight shrug.
"Neither do we," Morshower replied.
"Do you want a lift?" the youngster asked with a grin.
"I do," Glenn replied with his own.
Jolt transformed and sat doors open and engine gunning. Morshower climbed in along with his aide-de-camp and a smiling communications officer, both of them more than used to the strangeness. The doors slammed shut and the vehicle peeled out burning rubber all the way to the Administration Building in the distance. The others stood staring. One of them turned to the group. "We better hoof it." Pausing to stare at the two who were new, he grinned. "That was Jolt. He's a kid."
They nodded and glanced at each other. "Bitchin'," one of them said to the other newbie. The other nodded. Then they turned and walked toward the Administration Building themselves. As they did, a beautiful vehicle tore past them skidding to a stop by the Embassy. Transforming into his dazzling silvery format, Jolt walked inside, electrical sparks flashing here and there on his powerful protoform.
They paused to watch him and then turned to continue. The two newbies walked quietly a moment, then one of them grinned. "I am going to like this duty."
The other nodded. "Me too."
They reached the building and entered disappearing from view. At the Embassy, a breathtaking array of concept cars sat sunning themselves as a sentient shuttle regained the air disappearing into the blue sky as they headed home for Mars.
It was a typical day on Diego Garcia.
-0-On the ground in Chicago, USA, Earth
They took pictures of the slightly scorched message spray painted on the walls of the building nearby. They had to look harder for this one because there was no alley in which to put the message. The bombed building was burned to the ground. Techs and forensic fire marshalls were sifting through it alongside FBI and ATF specialists. The Secret Service was represented along with the state fire marshall's office, the local fire and police department as well as the state police forensics division. They had made a grid and were leaving nothing unturned. When they were done there would be several things that were turned up and dozens more that weren't.
It would be a bomb of the same configuration as the one in San Francisco. The bombing itself with message scrawled would be identical. There would be no evidence of who had done this, so professional were the participants. There would also be no exclamation of responsibility from anyone credible. Several groups being tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center as terroristic and hate based would try to claim authority but they would not meet the metrics of the case itself.
News media saturated the site filming and speculating. In Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, a picture of a very capable well armed underground terrorist ring was emerging.
-0-On the airfield nearby
Wheeljack and Perceptor walked toward the waiting shuttle along with Hound. Already there, Drift and Springer stood studying a datapad. On it was all the information known so far about the bombings. The shuttle was slated to fly to New York, then Atlanta, Los Angeles and finally Chicago. It was ostensibly delivering tons of food supplies for a nonprofit coalition of food banks. When it did, it would also deliver and pick up a remarkable collection of spectacular cars as well.
They boarded, the hatch closed and all of them disappeared into the late morning sunlight on their way to a suddenly hostile planet 194 million miles away. Never would it seem that the trip took so long as this journey.
=0=TBC
2012 (11)