The Diego Diaries: Psy-Ops 25 "Episode One, Platoon: Autobot City, Part One (dd3 104)
-0-Later on
It was getting on in the afternoon when the command crew from Fort Apache flew in finished for the orn. They'd be moving to the Fort early the next morning. Blackjack and Alor would be living there with Flint as head of security. Alor would be second-in-command and the overall tactical strategist with Blackjack commanding.
It was as it always was.
The ships landed and the crew climbed down including the three. They walked to Ops Center where they would sit and discuss the finalization of the project and the beginning of the propaganda effort when they finished visiting with Soundwave.
-0-New Jersey
Cindy and Lola Teasdale sat down in the living room of their townhouse and settled in for the broadcast of the series opener for 'Platoon: Autobot City'. Apparently, they'd changed the series's name between concept and finished product.
"This is going to be stupendous. The line up is epic," Lola said looking at the i-pad with the website for Platoon set up for it by IntraCom for the series run. All the data and pictures along with interviews and observations by crew and others were found there. "All of the best kind of bots are going to be in it. The first ep is supposed to introduce things a bit, the city and some of the bots."
"I wonder if Optimus will show up. Did you see that website that everyone is talking about? They have shots of Optimus or the one they think he is. When they link them to the internet they blur. I'm thinking the Autobots are doing it."
"No doubt," Lola replied. She clicked the remote and the commercial before the show began was just finishing. They sat transfixed and waited.
It began.
-0-In the bosom of love
Ratchet sat with Ironhide, the little mechs playing on the floor as Sunspot lounged on his atar. The sound of Alor's music filtered through the speakers and the moody introduction began.
-0-In a nice house in the Midwest
"Oh my," a nice lady named Annie said with a smile. "What a beautiful creature he is. What sort of vehicle is he?"
"He's a Lamborghini, Mama," Pastor Bob said. "He's a twin, I guess. This one is the yellow one, the one you root for in football."
"I thought he looked familiar. I like his finial things," she replied.
"If you say so, Mama," Mrs. Pastor Bob said. "I'd rather see that one trying to score in a game."
Annie glanced at Leonard then grinned. Their daughter-in-law had unwound her sphincter in the last football game and now the moment anything Cybertronian came onto teevee, she came with her flock and the still stunned minister husband who hadn't had his Road to Damascus moment yet.
All was good in their little house as the show began to start.
-0-CUT TO THE LONG SHOTS
The moody images faded and long shots of the city appeared. They were designed to give a human sized view of the amazing alien city that the documentary crew was living in. Towering buildings filled the skyline for what seemed forever. Huge commercial buildings lined the area behind what was obviously the city administration area. Banners with the emblem of the Prime flew in the air here and there coupled with the flag of Cybertron itself. Also incredibly, there were Christmas decorations here and there hanging beautifully around the city.
Mechs walked here and there going about their business. Every now and again, Day Watch mechs patrolled helping this and that individual on their way. Sun glinted off the buildings and the sound of air craft could be heard as they slowly panned in a circle. The cameras on The Fortress were taking it in with all its fascinating features. Then the images faded.
-0-CUT TO A STUDIO AND A MECH PAINTING
It was the yellow bot, the one with the intense gaze and the tightly coiled demeanor. He was painting on a large canvas and the contents of it were dynamic and beautiful. A voice began to question him. "Sunstreaker, how did you learn to paint?"
"I learned by doing it. I didn't go to school and learn someone else's method. I have my own," a deeply masculine voice replied. Blue optics stared down, their intensity daunting. "Sometimes you're good at something and you don't need formal education. I'm that good of a painter. I was on Cybertron. I am here."
"What sort of pictures do you paint?" -the voice
"Whatever I want. I used to do just landscapes and the like. I'm also good at detailing. But now I like to do abstracts and portraits."
"That's sort of a big spread of interest." -the voice
He shrugged. "Not really. Do what you want. Rules are for fools. At least in art." He turned back to his work. The sound of a door opening can be heard. A big red, white and black bot entered ignoring the camera and the voice.
"Where the frag were you?" Sideswipe glanced down then walked to the couch sprawling as the segway with his own crew enters.
"I was busy. We're off duty for a couple of orns. Prowl said he's remaking the duty schedule."
"Where's Babe?"
"He's with Ratchet."
"That's not good. He gets ideas," Sideswipe said with a grin.
"He does. Go and tell Ada to cut us some slack. He just laughs at me," Sunstreaker said moving to begin more work on the canvas.
Sideswipe rose to leave and paused at the door to look back. "Sadee is coming after school."
"Alright." Sunstreaker glanced at Sideswipe watching him leave without further comment.
"You two are twins, is that correct?" the off camera voice asks.
Sunstreaker nodded. "We are. The only ones ever to exist before our daughters."
"In the history of your species?" -voice
He nodded. "That's right."
"Incredible. Do you have like mind links and that sort of thing? Twins on Earth sometimes have that." -voice.
He looked down at the camera and voice with his intense penetrating look. "We do. We're twins."
The camera tuned into the easel and picture. "What are you working on and what are your favorite types of paintings?"
"This is a picture of the Sea of Rust on Cybertron. I like any picture that I like. I don't have time or interest in stuff I don't like. Simple as that." He stared down at them a moment, longer than the camera team actually cared for then looked back at the canvas.
"I doubt that there's very little that's simple about you." -voice
He glanced down at them with a slight smirk. "You got that right."
It was silent a moment, then the voice spoke. "Who is Sadee?"
"My student," Sunstreaker said. He looked closer at his picture, then reached over to get different paint from the small table next to him. "She got caught painting graffiti and the Magistrate asked the Art Guild to get her a mentor. I was chosen."
"Is she good?"
He looked down at them. "She's slagging awesome."
-0-In an apartment in the city
Sadee sat between her doting parents and watched the program as most of the city was doing at the same time. She grinned then glanced up at her genitors at Sunstreaker's compliment. "Isn't he awesome?"
They grinned.
"He sure is," her ada said.
Her atar grinned. His daughter was going out to the universe as a talented little femme who had a good mentor with taste. Good taste, he thought.
-0-In the bosom of love
"That's a good looking mech you have there, Ironhide. Takes after my side of the family," Ratchet said as they watched Sunstreaker unintentionally exude tons of sex appeal in the interview.
"If you say so, Ratchet," Ironhide said with a chuckle. Sunspot who was mesmerized that HIS BROTHER WAS ON TEEVEE couldn't muster a word.
-0-Halfway through the documentary
-CUT TO NEW SCENE: A dojo on the third floor of the Cultural Center
A fight was going on, one highly crafted and choreographed. Blades flashed as two bots made their way through the minefield of moves and counter moves such discipline required. A younger appearing mech was learning and getting schooled by a handsome well made bot with a long sword on his back. That bot was obviously the master and the other his student.
"Drift is getting slow." A big bot of a number of green shades of armor color sat watching with what appeared to be a metallic cigar in his hand. He was watching the sparring with a critical optic. "You're going to let that young get you are ya?"
The teacher, a handsome graceful mech with a smirk and a calm bemused voice glanced his way "Slag no."
"I think he's losing his touch." A big bot was sitting in a little lounge area watching as he mocked the white bot with what appeared to be the usual slag between the two. "Put him out of his misery, Lon."
Lon who was the student laughed and dodged a stroke of the teacher's blade. "I will never be as good as Drift."
"You won't if you believe that, young," Kup said. The mech, Kup stared at the camera as he chewed on his metallic cigar. "We're being scrutinized. Makes a mech want to mind his manners."
"You don't have any manners, old mech," Springer said with a grin. "You were put together before they were invented."
Kup looked at Springer with a withering optic. "Sounds like you missed the boat, too, infant."
Laughter greeted that remark and by then Drift and Lon, the two sparring individuals finished, tapped blades and walked to the lounge. They sat down together, Drift content with his student and his student, a young named Lon appeared beside himself with the pleasure of the older mechs' company.
:Drift, you don't carry a firearm. Why?: -voice off camera
"I don't need them. I do my fighting with blades," he said as the red handles of his brace of long knives peeped over his shoulders.
:What's the third blade for?: -voice
"That's an interesting blade, squishy," Kup said glancing at Drift who grinned at him. "That blade is matched to the spark of the one who carries it. It's very ancient and almost sentient itself. It tunes into the spark of the current owner and is used only as a very last resort. It draws energy from the spark of the wielder and if it draws enough, that bot dies."
:Spark?: -voice.
"Like your heart," Springer said with a grin.
:If you used that blade as a last resort it could kill you?: -voice
Drift nodded. "It could. They don't get much use. They generate enormous power when wielded."
:Have you ever used it yet?: -voice
"No," Drift said. "Someone who gave it to me did and they died doing it."
:I've been told that all of you were Autobots but you, Drift. I was told you were a Decepticon before. Now you wear the Autobrand and are living here working as one. How did that happen?: -voice
Drift went through a montage of darker moments coming unheeded into his processor. He pushed them back and considered the short answer. "I was a sub-commander on a ship with a very bad captain. I was hard myself. I broke a rule and had to run. When I did I ended up on a planet with a refugee population and city filled with Neutrals. They didn't take a side. Many of them reformed a legendary force called the Knights of Cybertron. They themselves formed a pacifist group called the Circle of Light. They showed me another way and I took it."
:The tattoos on your shoulders all mean something. I was told to ask you to explain them: -voice
Drift considered his own, all of which held meaning and pride for him. "This one is the tat for the Circle of Light. This one is for my security job here as an Autobot. It's the tat for the Day/Night Watch, Autobot City, Mars. All the policing forces have them including the youngster here," he said glancing at Lon.
That young looked at Drift with pride and gratitude. "The best thing I ever did was joining up with you mechs."
"It was," Kup said dryly.
Hilarity broke out among the group.
:The others? What are they?: -voice
"My Autobrand and the Wrecker tat. The last one is personal." Drift grinned in Springer's direction and the camera followed his gaze.
:Do you know what it means, Springer?: -voice
"Yes but he'd kill me if I told you," the big handsome bot said with a grin.
"I would," Drift said with a smirk.
:You're all Wreckers?: -voice
"Most of us. The youngster here isn't. He wasn't in the life as long as us and he wouldn't survive the missions we get," Springer said nodding toward Lon.
"I'd go," Lon said.
"We know. We just don't want to bring you back in a sack. This infant," Kup said pointing at Lon with his stogie, "is one fine youngster. Lots of talent and guts. You have to understand. We have been at this, most of us since your species was sitting in trees peeling bananas."
"You pronounced that word right this time, old mech," Springer said with a chuckle.
"I ain't drunk," Kup said sticking the stogie in his pie hole. He looked at the camera. "We don't waste our younglings. Someday this young mech here will be doing something tremendous for our people. Today, he's learning. Just learning."
"But if you ever need me, I'll go," Lon said nodding at Kup.
"You will, infant. In about a couple of million years," Kup replied.
Hilarity ensued.
:So you have a Home Guard. I can imagine that Lon's main duty is homeland defense then: -the voice
"That would be correct, that and being a Watchman," Springer said. "When we were Wreckers we were a sort of autonomous group. Prime could ask us to do missions but we were independent. We could say yes or now. We could rip up the plan and do it our way. Now we're part of the Special Ops and Special Missions side of the Army under the command of the Prime."
"Suicide missions," Kup said staring at the stogie in his servo. "We lost a lot of good mechs and the odd femme now and again. Hard and short life."
:You're commanding the Wreckers now, Springer?: -the voice.
He nodded. "I am. No one else would take it," he said with a smirk. "The old derelict here was too ornery and no one else was stupid enough. So here I am."
:I find that hard to believe: -the voice was filled with good humor and it could be heard.
"I don't," Kup said to general hilarity.
-0-At the home of the Trine
"You look so handsome, you two," Blue said as he sat comfortably between the twins. The infants were in bed and they were watching the show together.
"I think so," Sideswipe said with a smirk. "Don't you, Sunny?"
"I always look good," Sunstreaker said with a smirk.
Bluestreak didn't say anything around his grin.
-0-TBC 2012 (11) 12-12-2022