The Diego Diaries: Psy-Ops 24 (dd3 103)
-0-Autobot City, Mars
Sideswipe rolled through traffic heading for the Cultural Center. Riding up the elevator, he halted to let a number of mechs go past him as he stepped out, burdened as they were with boxes of exhibits from the Museum. The new one had been built and was just northeast of their current location in the Cultural Center. The new one was vast, had secured vaults in the several basements, held the entire artifact restoration unit as well as the archives of the city. The archives would become the home base of Alpha Trion who would take up his old job there.
They would take several orns to take everything to the new site and the old museum would become the only renovated home of the Autobot City Gallery of Cybertron. The entire art community and a number of very young enthusiastic students of the Day School were happy to see this exciting possibility. Rolling to the studio, he slid to a halt . Looking inside, he saw who he was looking for. "Hey."
"What?"
"You're due at the school, Your turn with the girls."
Sunstreaker looked up from a canvas he was concentrating on. "Oh slag. You're right." He put down his paints and covered them with an air tight lid. He looked at his canvas again, then walked to the door. "What are you going to do?"
"Hang out with Kup. We're going to grab a brew at Old Macadam's. Come over when you get done. I'll save you a chair."
Sunstreaker agreed as both left. Sunstreaker transformed from peds to wheels. They were gone, swiftly maneuvering around the workers as they cheerfully went about the business of transferring their precious cargo of history and artifacts to a newer, bigger and more secure building.
-0-The Hourly News
Gen-O sat quietly as the promos played. When he was signaled, he sat up straight and looked at the camera. "Good afternoon, Autobot City. This is The Hourly News and I am Gen-O reporting. Today, it was announced that the new fortress on the migration trail has been brought up to specifications which will allow it to come under deadline for operations. Jetta who is City Engineer and Project Director of the installation now called Fort Apache had this to say about it."
(Cut to Jetta and Lim-Lee in Jetta's office at the City Hall, Administration Plaza, Metroplex District
"Jetta, The Fortress on the migration path was built why?"
"It was built to assist the refugees that are coming to Mars heeding the call of Prime and Starscream. We have the capability to utilize space bridge technology to reach our returnees much farther out thus sparing them suffering and negating the risk of losing anyone. It gets our tech teams and doctors out there faster. We have space bridges that can take us where we need to go and bring us back as well."
"On Cybertron, they were mostly utilized in the local sectors. How is it that we can run this kind of technology which is historically energon demanding?"
"We discovered as you know that Mars is 40-47% Class A and A- energon. The entire system is brimming with it. Energon needs volcanic activity to be able to form crystals. On every planet and lunar body that had or continues to have volcanic and other forms of geothermal activity, energon has either developed or is still developing. Since this system is made up of aggregate planets, that is … planets that formed by collision and cohesion of the debris there are energon particles way out into the Oort Field and Kuiper Belt. We're blessed to be in a place that took energon seeding by ancient drone Seekers to this extent."
"The fort itself … do you expect that it will be necessary to use in military actions?"
"The fort can field Seeker flights and warships if they're needed. They can also be supported by the bridges. We can add combatants and retrieve injured soldiers, disabled ships or refugees with ease and great speed."
"Thank you, Jetta. Back to the studio, Gen-O."
(Cut to the studio with Gen-O)
"That was a report by Lim-Lee speaking with the City Engineer Jetta of Iacon. In other news about the city, the Museum is getting a makeover," he continued.
-0-Habitat
They sat eating lunch and watching the news. Every hour for a few minutes all during the mid morning and mid afternoon the news in brief was broadcast. Four times a day it was given an indepth treatment, twice in the morning and twice at night. This broadcast would be one of the many short ones.
"They have a great system of keeping everyone informed. Have you met any of the broadcasters?" Sheila asked.
"Just a couple. Jacx interviewed me for tonight's late broadcast regarding Christmas Surprise," Antonio Lopez said with a grin.
"I can't wait for that. I heard a rumor about Santa Prime," Sheila said.
"The weather today is going to continue to be sunny and warm. The high today will be 42 degrees Fahrenheit or five degrees Celsius. The low tonight will be a brisk -134 or a minus 92.2 degrees Celsius. On tonight's broadcast we'll be speaking to Wheeljack and Perceptor about a test program that's being carried out north of Olympus Mons in an effort to control the sandstorms that are epidemic during the winter months. There's been a lot of progress in transforming the weather and the details will be at 2000 hours on the Terran Military clock during the evening broadcast.
"That's all the news for now. We return you back to the schedule." With that, Gen-O signed off.
With that as well, the scientists finished up lunch and headed out to their various projects, meetings and viewings of projects in the Science Center.
-0-At Club Cybertron
"You're late."
"I had to take care of something," Breakdown said sitting in chair. He looked at his gloomy partner. "What's the matter with you?"
"Nothing."
[Silence]
"If you can't tell me, then I guess we don't have much rapport then," Breakdown said.
Knockout looked up sharply. "We tell each other stuff. I tell you all my stuff."
"Well?" Breakdown sat back and regarded Knockout. The sexy snarky bot of his orns and nights was peeved and it was better in the long run for him to spout it out.
Knockout regarded him. "Ratchet dropped in on shift."
"And?"
Knockout looked at him a moment, his angst flowing like a waterfall. "He complimented me."
Breakdown grinned. "That's nice. Why are you mad?"
"Because he complimented me."
Breakdown regarded him. "You're really losing it, Knockout. Why would that be a problem?"
"Because I bit his aft off for it."
"Oh," Breakdown said with a slight smirk as the light dawned in his processor. "Nice move."
"That's it," Knockout said bitterly. "Rub it in at my moment of need."
"You were stupid. Go and talk to him. Get it straight. You do know that Ratchet teaches. He was probably coming to tell you good job because of that."
"I can't go to him and apologize. I'm a Decepticon. I was, anyway. I can't apologize to an Autobot."
"Well, then live with it. You had a chance to get along and you blew it." Breakdown grinned slightly. "You have to change your ways here, Knockout, if you want to get along."
"Coming from you, I find hilarity," Knockout said. "You're a Stunticon. You're Breakdown for Primus's sake."
"I was. Maybe a part of me still is but I can't do that slag here. I gave my slagging oath," Breakdown said leaning forward slightly with a grin on his face. "I live here now. Besides, what other than mayhem did we ever get from the 'Cons?"
"I don't remember you shying away from mayhem," Knockout said quietly with a slight smirk on his face. "I remember you were very good at it."
"I was," Breakdown said nodding in agreement. "But that was then. This is now."
"We'll see," Knockout said relaxing in his chair. "You can take the bot out of the 'Cons, but you can't take the 'Cons out of the bot."
"We'll see," Breakdown said leaning back as their meal arrived. It would be a snarky amusing lunch for at least one of them.
-0-Far away
They gathered in the ships finding solace in their own company. Fifty bots every five joors came and went, all of them working on a fortress that was being carved from the stone surface of a craggy planetoid that offered a lot of nice craters for defensive emplacements.
The wait for whatever was to come was nearly unbearable as they huddled on the ships, sharing the meager energon available and looking with hopeful optics to the calm confident mechs who made up the Knights who'd found and guided them this far.
The dark skies offered no clues to where their Prime was. There was only the here and now and the scratchy background noise of ambient radiation from surrounding space on their radios and communications devices. They listened with great fear in the hope that someone would tell them anything that might mean freedom.
They would have to wait one more orn.
-0-On the communications monitor in Ops Center
"After that, we'll have to go to hearings with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That will make two in a row. We can't have them on the same day sadly. It'll require two trips to accommodate the House and the Senate committees that want to speak to you, Ratchet. Then the United Nations has sent an invitation for you to speak to the General Assembly over the disposition of Mars in particular and the solar system in general. There's a lot of interested parties who want to discuss the threat."
Ratchet glanced at Prime. "You might consider coming with me to the United Nations meet up. The entire diplomatic corps of the Earth will be there including usually a number of heads of state."
Prime glanced at him. "I will consider it."
"Sunstreaker and Sideswipe can whip you into shape," Ratchet said with a smirk.
"If anyone is going to whip Optimus it's going to be me," Prowl said with a tiny grin of his own. He stared officiously at the datapad in his servos as he spoke.
"Why, Prowl. That was outstanding," Ratchet said with a guffaw.
Prowl stared at Prowl proudly and Prime even more so. The reaction of Warren Roberts was lost to the translation problem. The three put back on their serious faces along with their English programming.
"That sounds very reasonable, Warren. I will consider it along with all other factors."
:Good, Optimus. Right now, it's all set to commence according to the outlined schedule presented. Any changes will be forwarded: he said.
Prime glanced at Ratchet, then Warren again. "Thank you, Warren. Please convey my appreciation to your staff. I hope you take precautions for your safety since you are working for our interests. I would be upset to know that you or they were harmed in any way."
:We have, Optimus. We've also arranged security staff in the case we get targeted but so far, nothing. The New York Police Special Security Division is looking out for the threat:
Optimus sat back to relax. "Will you and your staff be here for Christmas Surprise this year?"
Warren smiled, a rare and beautiful thing. :We are. It's penciled in on all our schedules. Thank you for the invitation:
"You are one with us, Warren. We are honored to have you and your staff as guests," Prime said nodding.
:We're looking forward to it immensely: Warren replied with a grin. :We feel the same way about you and your people:
The meeting continued a bit, then broke up, the transmission ending on a pleasant note. Prime sat back and looked at Prowl. "Whip me? Why, Prowl … another side to you I never knew."
"You've bonded with still water, Optimus," Prowl said rising to go to the computer nearby.
They both watched him go, Ratchet with bemused optics and Prime with something a little more heated.
"You have to watch the quiet ones," Ratchet said grinning at Optimus.
He grinned back. "It is not hard," he said to much general hilarity.
-0-Faraway
They rested on a rocky asteroid collecting themselves as they homed in on the signal. It was faint but leading them onward in the same relative direction they'd been going when they first heard it. They locked in on it as they sat energizing on the liquid they made from some ores they'd found in the rubble field. Their small device made enough for them to use traveling but they longed for better.
"This tastes like dirt."
The others agreed.
"Soon, we will find the Prime. He might have some better."
The biggest one of them looked with disgust at the energon in his cup. "I hope so. Me, Grimlock am sick of this." He slugged it down and looked at his brothers. "Time to go. Autobots need help. Me, Grimlock, say I will help."
The others then changed into their transitional forms before taking off once again. They would follow the signal back to the source and eventually they would land at the site the signal was directing them toward.
The sandy beaches of Diego Garcia.
=0=TBC 2012 (11) edited 8-1-17 12-12-2022