The Diego Diaries: Moving On 8 (dd3 152)
-0-Later that morning
Ratchet sat at his desk working through the plans for the reclamation. A meeting was set for a joor from this moment due to intel that was still being sorted that was pertinent. He looked at the data pad in his servo, then smirked. "I see you."
Ironhide peered around the corner with a grin on his face. "You sober?"
"Indubitably," Ratchet said with a grin. He put his pad down and looked up as Ironhide walked inside and sat on the couch, putting his big old peds on the low table in front of him.
"Nice word," Ironhide said.
Ratchet grinned. "A big birdie told it to me."
"A big black bird I bet," Ironhide said.
"I picture it with big yellow dots around its eyes. That kind of bird," Ratchet said putting his peds up as he warmed to the moment.
"You really are a demented old mech fixating on the stupid," Ironhide said with a snicker. "It will help with the night vision, old mech."
"I never said it wouldn't," Ratchet agreed. "I just said it would look stupid. Imagine Orion with big yellow dots. By the way, how are they?"
"Good. Miss their old Ada. If you would stay out of jail you might be able to raise nice younglings. I have my doubts though. I think I saw a criminal tendency in Hero this morning," Ironhide said with a grin.
Ratchet snorted. "You're a big liar," he replied. "If they have criminal tendencies it's from your side of the CNA."
"How's doing time with Prowl? That mech needs a long vacation and a frag or twelve," Ironhide said nodding.
"Poor Prowl. Sentinel played some serious processor games with him and it stuck," Ratchet said, his grin fading.
"Another reason to slag him to the Pit," Ironhide said. "What did Bluestreak do last night when he came over? I talked to the twins this morning but not Blue."
"He was really upset. You know what a good kid Bluestreak is. He consoled Prowl and traded jokes eventually. Then he finally had to go home. The twins never made it over," Ratchet said.
Ironhide nodded. "I know," he said. "They decided to save their slag for today."
Ratchet grinned. "Thanks for the warning."
He nodded. "You better get good with your genitors. They're really scandalized. They aren't as used to your shameless slag the way I am."
"I know," Ratchet said with a chuckle. "They're very traditional, my genitors. They really feel the burn when things aren't done the way they feel they should be especially concerning a Prime."
"I know." Ironhide vented a soft sigh. "You ready for the blitz?"
"No. You?"
"Nope," Ironhide replied.
"Prime thinks trouble is coming," Ratchet said. "What's the likelihood?"
"As good as any," Ironhide said.
Ratchet nodded. "I guess we better be ready," he said. "Terra had better be on-line now. The hospital center in the Terran Business Tower is ready to go."
"Good. One less worry on the list," Ironhide said glancing at the wall clock. "Let's go. We can stop by the bakery before we get there."
Ratchet rose and followed Ironhide through the doorway. They passed Breakdown who was coming on shift, pausing to chat a moment then moving on. They passed Knockout going to the elevator, a word or two on special surgeries with the Officer of the Orn was had, then they moved onward.
The ride down was swift and the walk outside ambling. They walked together side-by-side heading for the Fortress. Along the way, they traded slag with this and that bot, this and that femme who had found out what had transpired the night before after coming out of Metroplex with donuts and other stuff.
By the time they reached the Fortress, the senior community and military crew were massing to enter. Walking inside, snarking across the rec room, they entered Ops Center and walked to the conference room for the first major meeting since Christmas Surprise. They entered the room and sat in their usual places, all of them chatting and organizing their presentations for solutions of the many obstacles ahead of them.
Prime and Prowl entered with both sitting. Prowl nodded to Ratchet with an all business, no slag expression and slid data pad agendas here and there. All were present so he looked at Prime.
That worthy who was lounging in his chair considered Prowl. "Thank you. If you would like to begin."
"Yeah, Prowler, tell us about you and Ratchet getting slag faced and brawling with Sentinel at the prison," Jazz asked with a smile.
Prowl glanced at him with mortification then looked at the data pad in his servos. He looked at it like it was a lifeline as Optimus flashed back on the sit rep that Prowl had organized about the soldiers and the things the humans had said about them.
USB cables anyone?
"Last night two of our senior officers had a difference of opinion with a prisoner at the lock up. That's about all that anyone needs to know." Prime who could barely suppress his smirk nodded to Prowl. "Shall we start?"
Prowl nodded gratefully in return. "Mirage and *Jazz* … if you would *mind*?"
Jazz snorted. "Sure. We have a lot of intel comin' that indicates that the refugees headin' our way number way over 320,000 individuals who may or not be all civilians. There's an indication that there are Decepticon ships in the mix.
"The wave is breakin' into four different segments. We haven't gotten any messages from the two laggin' groups. The first two are huge. They're probably in the 200,000 range from the math. We can only extrapolate the size for now. We have Seeker data collectors with heavy escort goin' out in a joor to do the initial surveys. We should have a better idea by evenin'. We will also know if there are hostiles among them. We are also going to give the frequencies for them to send data forward including the data list that we hope to get."
Optimus nodded. "Good. Keep me informed."
Jazz nodded. "We will." He glanced at the ill-at-ease winger down table and grinned. "I'll send it to Prowler."
Prowl whose wings were tense stared at his data pad. "We would need an update on the Fortress abroad and its readiness for whatever comes."
The monitors overhead held the visages of Blackjack and Alor. They were listening at their end, smirking at Ratchet when he gazed up at them. "We're ready to send troops and ships, Optimus, as the need is called. Our medics are also ready for anyone who's in such great need that the time it would take going to Mars would be detrimental. We have the back up surgical team from the University and they'll take the emergencies that can't be held up during the line up around Mars.
"We'll also turn on the boosters to the outer arrays to help facilitate information. Two of our dishes are pointed toward the base Soundwave is building and if there's a change there we can shoot you the information."
Prime nodded. "Very good. If you find that there is any trouble at your end we can send standby troops to the Fort immediately. All we need is the word. You are there to aid the migration. We will be dividing the bridges between two places. The emergencies will come straight to us through the small bridge which will be fixed on you. The rest will go past you on their way to the Trigger jump gate some distance out."
Blackjack nodded. "We're ready."
"Thank you," Prime said.
"Ratchet?" Prowl asked quietly.
"We're ready to move. The beta team is with Blackjack and we prepped that group to do emergencies. If the need is too great we will send more doctors. We also have prepped Zeta and Gamma to be hospital ships who will be bringing the cases from Fort Apache to Mars directly to the hospitals. They won't be part of the lineup in orbit but come down through priority flight clearance through the Command Tower at Fort Max. They'll be off loaded and taken by runabout directly to the hospitals.
"The possibilities are being planned for including anyone who needs protective custody for mental health or anyone underage who isn't in good custody with their families or guardians. We don't want anyone lost in the mix. We've had a couple of infants who were put in care in the last group at the new care facility because their genitors were in the hospital. A couple of mechs I think, very young. They're back with their families. I commend Jarro and his group for the job they have taken to make a secure and homey facility for the stray babies. We'll be working together on this problem if it arises."
Jarro nodded. "Our system is well in place with the emphasis on preserving families and getting them back together as soon as possible."
Prime nodded. "Very good. Herling?"
"We expect given our ratio of school aged infants to adults in previous big migrations to receive at least 2-3000 more school children. Our tower in Terra is almost finished and will house the Sparkling Day School when we're ready to open. That will mean one more move of the school and free up for a quick remodel the entire current tower to be the Youngling Day and Intermediate Schools. They will share space with the University and Sciences at the top.
"The largest group of school students we have are the sparklings. As the population ages, we may have to dedicate a tower to each of the upper elementary groups but that's in the future. We're hoping that there will be more educators in the new group but we can manage with the future projection due to the accelerated program for teachers, aides and support staff in the University."
Prime nodded. "We are going to have to continue to build and we will add the educational needs in as we go. I think its also important to keep up with personnel, Herling. How are we doing on teacher and specialist recruitment?"
"We're holding on pretty well. I'm going to be posting openings in the folder in the Community Bulletin Board and Nova is going on "Good Morning, Autobot City!" when the migration is over and outline the need. We have a lot of good individuals either in the programs or starting so we can plan a bit into the future."
"Thank you," Optimus said. "That is good to know." He looked at Prowl.
Prowl looked at Jetta. "Jetta?"
That bot who was leaning against Elita grinned at Prowl. "We're building madly. There are several hundred thousand housing placements in the city, half of them completed. With the housing still available here in Autobot City, the housing in Terra can manage the incoming unless there's been an under count. We're hoping that's not so. However, we have three shifts running full-out and the plants are meeting all the deadlines.
"We're in the ground breaking stages for the new Industrial Park as part of Phase Four construction and that'll be made once we have a breathing space following this migration. Our energon needs are met at 105% and all the ores and raw materials we need to make our Cybertronian as well as the newer products are being met by harvesting the debris field around Mars. It's a short and simple supply line with our stockpiles of on-hand materials fully ready to meet our needs and demands. Food and medical grade energon is mined here in the quarry outside of Terra. We're at peak in our game, Optimus."
"Thank you, Jetta. I know how hard everyone works. Please express our gratitude," Optimus said.
"Done deal," he said glancing back at a smiling Payload and Bulkhead. Scar who was there as well nodded with pride.
"Now we need to know about security of the city, of the reclamation and the rest," Optimus asked glancing at Springer who was sitting along the wall with Kup and Drift.
"We've beefed up the Day and Night Watch at Terra. When the refugees are placed there we'll be in force to help and keep the peace. As for the city and the orbital part of this, we're doing double shifts to make sure that everyone is safe and has directions. The usual security will be in place at the airfield when the ships come in."
Magnus who was sitting beside Arcee nodded. "We have the city departments working to enact as smooth a transition as possible for the new refugees. We will have the usual civilian volunteers manning the stations for induction of the data and escorting newbies where they have to go.
"Our new computer storage is ready to receive and sort data at four times the rate of our last migration. We have new programs designed to process the information, find any pattern we seek and correlate reports. We can find criminals, lost families and friends to reunite and skills among other things almost immediately."
Prime nodded. "Thank you." He sat back and considered the group. "We have had some bombings on Earth that have made things difficult. At some point Ratchet is going to have to go to congressional hearings as well as one at the United Nations. It might be to our advantage that I go with him to that one myself."
The room was silent as they considered that possibility.
=0=TBC 2013 (1) edited 8-18-15 5-1-19