The Diego Diaries: Shadow Box 7 (dd3 171)

-0-A while later that day in the CMO's office, Autobot City, Primal Colony of Mars

"Old mech."

"What?"

"What are you doing?" Ironhide walked into the CMO's office in the hospital and sat on a couch parking his big old peds on the low table before him. Hero was sleeping on his arms, her thumb in her little mouth.

"Studying for the big exam," Ratchet said looking up to grin at both of them. "I have a hearing scheduled on Earth apparently in less than a week. The hostile congressmen of the U. S House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and Subcommittee on Autobot Affairs and Treaties want to chew me up."

A frown formed on Ironhide's face as he considered what that meant. "No."

Ratchet grinned.

-0-At the new Sparkling Day School

Sunstreaker knelt on the floor of the room where the infants learned fine motor skills and other manipulation oriented objectives. The wall of drawers awaiting their contents lined the whole side of the room. It was soon-to-be filled with toys, creative shapes, things to string and bend as well as dollies, soft and hard tactile manipulatives and teacher materials. He'd been delegated to fill the drawers with the objects listed on their tabs. It would take a long time to get them all put away but he didn't mind. This was the first school his infants would attend and he was on the committee that helped make its decisions. He, Sunstreaker of Kaon was on the School Board.

That was all he needed to be here.

Sideswipe peered in and watched a moment, then slipped back out. Sunstreaker was kneeling in a mountainous landscape of boxes and bags. He himself was helping move furniture. It would take many trips from the city to the school here in the suburbs. Blue was somewhere doing something. They were all here. It was with enormous satisfaction that he helped put together the school that his children would attend. He would stay here until it was time to get the babies.

-0-Earth, somewhere in the mountains of America

They had dug in deeply, the hardened bunkers below ground holding their caches of guns and ammunition, bomb making materials and communications devices that would be a part of their campaign. They'd been preparing for this with the aid of their rich benefactors for a long time.

Just after public disclosure of the aliens on Earth, the rumbling disgruntlement had begun to shake out. The idiots, gun boobs, slackers with a grudge, quack jobs and unreliable mouth breathers had been purged in favor of the dedicated, skilled, bright, well trained and cunning.

M.E.C.H. was the 'professional army' part of the 'Resistance'. Such was the umbrella term that covered the elite forces that had risen out of the chaos and stupidity of the nativist movement to become a real obstacle to the peace. They were highly trained and disciplined, military in organization, multinational and able. Many were still active duty. All of them were special forces of some kind or another with many diverse skills related to their objectives. All of them were combat veterans.

The Family had become the political side of their effort, the hard core ideologues who would in the end be the public face of their movement. Right now, they were the ones who secured funding, sorted through recruits and networked into corporate and public life on an international scale with like-minded believers.

They had secured the billionaires who were easy gets in the end. They didn't like the Autobots and their science making their own human technologies obsolete. They didn't like the idea of machines having a footing in an organic world. Although they were very willing for the Supreme Court to define corporations as people with the Citizen's United ruling some time back, they were not willing to extend that courtesy to the alien machines that had streaked from the sky and taken up residence in their solar system.

This was the group that tracked Autobot money, their companies and ability to bring materials from space to Earth for use by human as well as alien industry. This was the group that worried about the growing influence of the machine aliens through the broadcasting of their programming and the growing affection in the populations because of it.

Both groups didn't like the idea of someone else owning 'their' worlds, living on them, making them their own. They didn't like the implications that the universe had diversity of a scope that was beyond their ability and/or willingness to understand. They didn't like the idea of their obvious reproduction, however it was and the implications that had on every area of their philosophy regarding creation and life. They didn't know how it worked but it couldn't be good.

They didn't like the idea that they were stuck on Earth while the rest of the solar system disappeared into the control and exploitation of a shadowy leader and his ruthless unknowable followers.

They just knew that they were the bulwark, the Maginot Line for humanity and if they didn't step forward the end would be all too clear. They would disappear under the iron fist of the aliens and end up in slavery or worse. They would fight back, take what they needed of the enemy's technology and save their species from extinction. They would make no distinction among the 'good' aliens and the bad. For Mech and The Family, for The Resistance, there was only bad.

He stood in the shade of tall trees considering their meet up with the mercs, Johnson, Hedges and their benefactors, the billionaires who were as wedded to them and their cause as the gun he carried on his hip. They were feeling it, the inroads of Transformer technology into their bottom lines.

That the world was better for it didn't enter into the equation for any of them on this side of the dividing line. It didn't matter. Earth was for the Earthers. When that was secured what lay out there afterward would be next. He walked back into the hidden bunker that led to their HQ and the international network that they'd spent two years laying out. Behind him, the work of clandestine war preparation would continue.

-0-Working in Ops Center

"Here," Prowl said handing a data pad with the agenda for the meeting on Earth to Optimus. He took it and perused the data. Nodding, he glanced up at Prowl as he did. Grinning in spite of himself, he saw the mild reproach in his partner's optics. "Still steaming?"

"No," Prowl said with a slight smirk. "'Sir?'"

"It was the best I could come up with. I was rather bedazzled by the fact that half my senior staff uses my name in 'facing games."

Prowl leaned back with a grin. "They do. What does that say about the caliber of your leadership?"

"You tell me," Optimus said with a smoky optic.

Prowl swallowed. "Uh, what was the question?"

They grinned at each other. Leaning forward, helms nearly touching, they began a conversation internally that would melt solenoids.

Mirage who was sitting nearby waiting for data from Jazz watched knowing the signs. :They're having a discussion about the meeting and its disclosures:

Jazz glanced over his shoulder with a grin. :Good. It's about time. I wonder what Prime's safe word is?:

Mirage grinned. :Do you really think they need one?:

:I think Prowl needs one every time he gets into the berth with a bot that big. I imagine it runs along the lines of 'You're squishing me, sir! Ooh, ooh, ooh!:

Mirage chuckled. Then he rose and took the data wafer Jazz had handed him. :You're a piece of work, my dear Jazz:

:I know: he said with a smile. He watched Mirage walk to the corridor that led to the offices, one of which belonged to Elita. He glanced at Prime who was smiling at Prowl who was smiling back at him.

Maybe raucous staff meetings were good for Prime. They certainly didn't hurt him. Turning back, Jazz continued to work through the endless mountains of data that had been downloaded from Shockwave in anticipation for not only rescuing their missing enslaved people but also someday to aid in the rescue and retrieval of Cybertron.

-0-City Hall, Metroplex District, Autobot City, Mars

"It just fries my circuits. Its not, Arcee, that I'm a prude. I'm not. I just believe that there are certain positions that need to be taken seriously. We're nearly a million strong here. What if all the senior staff ran amok?"

Arcee who was relaxing in a chair across from Magnus grinned. "You do realize that Ratchet does that to aggravate you. He thinks you need a way to relax."

"I do relax," Magnus said pausing in his pacing to gaze at her, the only individual that actually made his dainty bits tingle. "I just feel that I can't do enough, that there aren't enough joors in the orn to do all the things that Optimus needs."

Arcee felt an 'aww' moment rising inside. "Magnus, you do so much, I wish you could understand and appreciate it. Optimus loves you like a brother. Just because some of us need more to blow off steam doesn't mean we aren't all dedicated to the effort. It also doesn't mean that we don't see and appreciate you."

"You know that doesn't matter to me," he said pointedly.

"I know," Arcee said. She rose and walked to him staring up at a mech that was a good 4 feet taller than her. As a proto-femme, Arcee was like her companions in the saboteur group that had become legendary during the war. She was nearly 25 feet tall and robust. Yet there was that something about her that made one pause. She slipped her arms around him and hugging tightly. "Unwind, Magnus. I don't want to be killed by flying bits of metal when your main spring shatters."

He grinned slightly and hugged her back. "Is that an order?"

She looked up at him and grinned slightly. "That's 'sir' to you, big boy."

Magnus rolled his optics but he hugged her back anyway.

-0-Down the corridor

"This is where I work when I'm in the office," Jetta said as the two stood in the big oversized room. "Elita is down the hallway with the femmes and they run some of their intel there as well as devising incursion teams and planning. This can be your corner," he said pointing to a drafting table nearby. "We can clear it off and get it organized for you until I get a better space. Most of the time I'm out in the city and the job sites. You can come with me, learn the layout and get a chance to settle in. I really need an assistant. If you want to do other things though, you can tell me."

Mack grinned. "Assistant to you is perfect. I can't think of anything better, Jetta."

Jetta smiled as he slipped an arm around his brother's shoulders. "The only thing better would be having our folks here. I wish I could know what happened."

"I know," Mack said quietly. "Think about this. I made it. Maybe they did, too."

Jetta nodded, his usual good hopeful nature rising up again. "I'll hold that thought. In the meantime, come with me to Terra and check out the new construction."

They walked out heading for Terra, passing Magnus and Arcee talking quietly together on the couch in his office. It was good to be alive Jetta thought as he led his brother to the elevator and the great big world beyond.

-0-Flight Center, Aerie Hill, Autobot City, Mars

He finished composing his message to Seekerkin in the greater universe and turned to the communications officer on duty. He pressed the relevant keys and the message was sent to anyone and everyone in the great endless expanse beyond. It would reach the main dish at Io and split into seven identical parts, each being shot out in seven different directions into space. Everyone everywhere would get it on the low band channel that all Seekers used.

"Come to me. Megatron wants you dead. Don't be fooled by the liars and users who would tell you that you are safe with them. You aren't. Come to me and live in free skies, raise a family and be who you were born to be. Come and be lords of the skies here. I'm waiting for you. I, Starscream am waiting."

When it passed by the rising Fortress of the Decepticon Paragon, all of the Seekers with him would hear it. Some of them would be swayed. Some already were. Others wouldn't.

Not yet.

-0-TBC 2013 (1) edited 8-20-15 edited 5-4-19

NOTES: Leoness: Thank you so much. What a kindness to suggest that for your next Kindle book. :D I think having that information is so essential to making everyone well rounded. In the LOTR movies, they even embroidered the inside of costumes they made for the movie though the work wouldn't show to make it real. I can appreciate that a lot.

In G1 Transformers, Arcee is just a head shorter most of the time than Magnus who is as big as Prime. Thus, the femmes who are original are huge.