The Diego Diaries: Shadow Box 1 (dd3 165)
-0-Paragon
He sat on his command throne going through the many options that lay before him. He also listed his liabilities. The first and foremost was the fuel situation. It was bad and not going to get better. He would have to challenge Prime or give up something to get re-provisioned. That worthy would not arm the servo that was prepared to sever his fuel lines. He would have to give up and give in in a major way and that would be unacceptable to his own autonomy and plans for their future here. He would have to anticipate being stranded in their current situation because Prime was pragmatic and smart. He turned to his comm station. "Tell Arrow to come inside. We need to discuss a matter."
His comm officer nodded and complied. Several minutes later the big Seeker walked into the flight deck and paused beside Paragon. "You called?" he asked with a trace of humor.
Paragon smirked slightly. "I did. Prime won't refuel and re-provision us. We're going to have to do that ourselves. I want you to send your flights outward beyond here and search for something we can mine for fuel and food. If we leave this area on our terms it'll be best for our overall future strategy. Power down weapons and go. Find me a place that can be secured, fortified and will serve our needs."
Arrow nodded then walked away.
Paragon watched him, then turned to the screen. A wall of refugee vessels were clearly shown on the monitors overhead and the view ports below. Also clearly shown were the several hundred Seekers who stood and knelt on their hulls, their weaponry pointed directly at him.
-0-Omega
Prowl looked up and tapped the table. Prime turned from Ironhide to look at him. "The Seekers are leaving."
They looked at the map on the table, its layout showing the green lights of the enemy Seekers moving away, leaving the migration and their battle group behind. "Theories?" Prime asked.
"There are several. They could be leaving to go to Soundwave whose fort is in that general direction. They could be leaving altogether. They might not want to come to us but they might have decided to leave Paragon. Starscream and the Elders were pretty brutal.
Arrow, the leader might have something known or unknown in mind. Then again, Paragon might have them scouting for a location in which to set up a base of operations. Either they're on their own and are truly an unknown or they are doing his bidding. Either way, not good for us."
Prime nodded. "I would put them in the scouting category. The youth said that they were going to a place to gather others. It could be that the Seekers are going there now. Track them on the long distance system. I want to know where they land if we can manage that. If it appears that they are setting up shop around here then we will build a sensor grid that reaches out to them."
Prowl nodded. He rose, walking to the flight deck to talk to Rem and the communications officer there. Prime sat back. "This might not be the disaster it seems to be. Soundwave has a fort in this direction. Now Paragon. Megatron is the common thread for all of us."
"We want him gone. They could be the bullets. We just have to be the right caliber gun," Ironhide said.
Prime agreed.
-0-Autobot City, Mars
The space bridge opened, its violent vortex settling. As it did a flight of Seekers burst through followed by five hundred ships and a number of smaller military vessels carrying the sick and injured. Those were given priority to land and they disappeared into the atmosphere of the orangish-red planet below.
The rest took up re-entry orbits waiting for permission to land. Seekers flying air traffic control gathered their portion of the orbital line up waiting the call to take them downward. On the ground, ships were landing and taxiing wherever they were directed.
Lines of civilians were waiting for them. Medical and administrative civilians were waiting for them. Autobot soldiers and Home Guard civilians stood around the air field for security.
Nearby on the shipping crates, the humans of Mars were watching the brilliant precision of the reclamation while some filmed it. Ships were taxied forward. Their passengers were helped off, paired up with a civilian or two to help them, then led away to various stations set up around the city. Doctors and aides took the emotionally and/or mentally distraught gently to runabouts for airlift to the three hospitals. The grim, the grateful, the agonized and the sick were given gentle professional handling as they were taken into care.
The ships were stripped of their possessions which were labeled and taken to a warehouse in the hangar district for storage until they could be returned to their owners. Databases and other electronics were taken, labeled and hauled away for study and later return. Only then were the ships moved. There were no Guardians here to pick them up so they were towed expertly away if they were on their last legs.
:They're so good at this: Warren Roberts said.
Sam Witwicky nodded, himself just arriving in the city. :They have a lot of practice and face it. When did a human mind ever top a machine mind at anything?:
Warren thought about it. :Beats me:
Sam nodded and watched as more ships began to take the place of those who were moved. It would go on for two orns.
Endlessly.
-0-The Rogue Seekers
They flew onward heading into the distance, their sensors flung wide and interlocked. They were looking for a secure system, preferably one with a decent sun, several habitable planets and energy sources. They could use geothermic, solar and/or mineral bases for their needs. A decent energon strike, if even small would be welcomed. Manufacturing energon from other sources was more than adequate but lacked the taste and undefinable extra something that real energon had.
They flashed through the Oort Cloud, a zone that stretched from just inside the Sol System to one quarter of the way to Proxima Centauri unaware that the two factions would share the same material space. This space was the home ground of billions of comets, icy conglomerates, fragments and aggregations of failed planets and other ancient debris.
They were only marginally aware of other alien groups using the same space. Some were traders passing through. Some were wandering civilizations unused to or needful of a permanent place to live. Some were old civilizations that lived here for all the existence of their species. They gave no offense and expected none. That they could pretty much annihilate aggressors was a good thing since they were peaceful otherwise on their own.
Arrow spotted a large planetary fragment surrounded by a halo of smaller ones. Flying toward it, he landed and waited for his flight. They landed and looked at him waiting for the word. He turned slowly scanning the surrounding areas. Breaking up his flight into several would cover more ground he considered as he thought about where each group would go. As he turned, he stopped. Rechecking his data, he glanced at the others. :Wait here: With that, he stepped off and floated on the thrust of his pedal boosters toward a haze of fragments nearby. Once there he gripped one or two, then floated back to land in the middle of his crew. :Look at this:
They moved closer and scrutinized the debris in his servos. "That's energon," a large mech said taking a piece. He'd been their group's energon specialist. He looked at it breaking it apart in his servos. The unmistakable light blue glow of energon could clearly be seen. "Primus," he whispered. He licked it and analyzed the flavor. Glancing sharply at Arrow, he grinned. "This is Class B energon. Raw Class B."
The game was changed instantly.
-0-At the end of the line
Sunstreaker floated between the small gathering of ships that had fallen to the end of the line. The manifest declared that there were no others left to find. Conversations with the stragglers confirmed that. Half the migration had faded but they were moved forward to join the stalled group at the line of confrontation. These were the last, those the main group were forbidden to assist. They were the most in need of support and he did his best treating the injured, stabilizing the ill and by his fierce gentleness assuaging the majority of their paralyzing fears.
Sideswipe was moving among other ships, all of them being scoured for need and endangerment. By the time they met up at the last vessel all of them had been helped. Wreckers moved here and there writing on the hulls, getting stalled equipment to work, refueling the vessels for the last short hop to safety.
Refugees stared out the windows watching, the journey and its cares clear on their faces.
:This is the last one. This whole group needs priority. Springer: Sunstreaker said.
:Springer here:
:This group needs to go now:
:Standby:
Sunstreaker looked at Sideswipe. :We need to kick the 'Cons in the aft:
:We do. When this is done, we can go back and help do security: Sideswipe said as he floated above the last ship with his brother. :This is fragged. If we have to fight every time a group comes, Prime is going to have a fit:
Sunstreaker nodded. :I know:
:Springer to medic teams. Report to the ships. We have go for the group. They get medical priority. Optimus is telling them now. We'll be here until the Seekers come through and take them in, then we have to go give security to the rest:
:Affirmative: Sunstreaker said as he watched the faces of refugees nearby in ships as they listened to Optimus tell them they were going to come to safety. There were tears and utter disbelief as they listened, then some turned to face them. A few waved. Others just looked at them with love and gratitude.
They both waved back as Seekers burst through the space bridge. They turned around and gathered the vessels, all of them moving as well as they could to form a group. When that was accomplished they slowly moved to the bridge, two of them being flown by Seekers and entered to disappear into the darkness and home. The bridge fell into nothingness behind them.
Hanging in the darkness staring at the empty space around them, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe joined the others heading for the Wrecker battle fighters. When they were all aboard the hatches closed and they jumped to full speed to head back to the battle group once more.
-0-Paragon
He sat on the throne of his command deck musing over the information that Arrow had given him. They had found energon fragments in the debris field. They were of a grade he'd only read about. Class B. Maybe there were higher grades around. They'd have to search with great care.
Beyond the area where it was found were wandering planets with moons. There was no sun nearby to illuminate their darkness but they could take care of that themselves. What they needed most, they had.
Staring at the screens where diagrams of the reclamation were displayed in great technical detail, Paragon watched as another bridge lit up the darkness. Sensor readings told him that the stragglers had been rounded up and retrieved, the space bridge facilitating that winking out at last. Now it had reappeared. Prime was a very technologically advanced mech he considered.
They would have to spend some time digging in and developing their own infrastructure. They would send new coordinates to the groups that were coming to meet up with him. Gathering his own power base would take time and effort. But they would do it.
What they wouldn't do is bother any more migrations again. Nothing would happen that would draw Prime toward him until he was in a better position to withstand the scrutiny. His plans were still in order. They didn't change just because of this. He would follow them on his inexorable march to victory and dominion of Cybertron. Then he would deal with Prime.
He glanced at his communications officer. "Open a channel to Prime." He nodded and made it so. "Prime, this is Paragon."
After a moment, Prime answered. "Prime here."
"We've decided to rescind our request for help, Prime. We're going to be taking our leave of this migration. In future you can depend on the surety that migrations will pass our dominion unharmed."
It was silent a moment. "Just like that," Prime replied.
"I know. It's very strange to me as well but we find nothing of value in the refugee flood and give them over to you to care for. We cannot do it ourselves. We're going to be leaving. Our weapons will be powered down. I'm asking for your word that we can go unmolested."
Optimus Prime considered the request as Prowl and Ironhide watched him. "We live in this sector peacefully. Our reputation in the universe has been sullied. Do not make it worse by being stupid. I can only assume you are moving on for a distance. I would remind you that we can field battalions through our bridges any distance in a moment's notice. You would do well to leave and go far away. We will destroy you if you ever set foot here again. On that, you have my word."
"Your threat is noted," Paragon said smoothly. "We are leaving now."
He nodded to his helmsman who sent the message through the group.
Prime and his team watched as the hatch opened and Starscream entered. He walked forward and sat down with them. "That slagger is regrouping. Something pulled him away, something that he could use for his needs. I think, Prime, that he found his own energon source in the Cloud."
"I agree with you, Starscream. He would not leave unless he could refuel. I think we have another enemy at our flanks," Prime said.
"One more slagger to slag," Ironhide said darkly as Prowl nodded.
"This mech is a strategist," Prowl said. "He works from logic and exploits everything to his advantage. I'd concur with Starscream. They found energon in the debris or maybe even another seeded planet. This is going to be a long game."
"As long as they don't have bridges or make alliances with Soundwave, we can play them against each other, Prime," Starscream said. "I feel that they will be too clever by half. They will be foolish like Megatron. Dominionists always overreach."
"I agree," Optimus said looking at his team grimly. "If they bring a pipe to a fight, we bring a knife. If they bring a gun, we bring a warship. We need to look for our people and get them where they are and not hope they come to us. We need to search for them. I do not want them ever to be pawns in a standoff again. He said we have free rein on migrations but when he sets up and feels strong enough he will use them against us. We can not allow that. Ever."
The others nodded.
Starscream sat back against the hull. "Count on it, Prime."
-0-TBC 2013 (1) edited 8-19-15 edited 5-3-19