The Diego Diaries: Shadow Box 46 (This piece is edited for the stupid and tenses) :D
-0-The Flight Center Debrief for Mission 14A, Fortress, Autobot City, Mars
They gathered, the grizzled veterans of eons of combat. Among them, along for the ride, all of the soldiers that were assigned to Mars sat to listen. Lennox, Epps and Graham holding pride of place sat on a seat between Springer and Drift in the front row. They were bantering as the mission commander, Blackjack and his second, Flint stood with Alor, Prowl and Prime discussing things while everyone gathered.
:I would love to come along: Epps said. :I have never been in combat with you outside the system:
:I don't see why you can't: Springer replied. Drift grinned down at them. :You're certifiable to want to come:
:Would you stay behind?: Lennox asked with a grin.
"No. But then, I never said I was sane: Drift replied. As they sat bantering, Springer was in contact with Sciences about a safe spot for the soldiers to see the battle when they mustered out. The idea of them coming along would keep both of them busy for three joors until it was solved. Only then would Springer present it to Optimus. That Optimus Prime would finally agree was testament to the power of persuasion of the former Mrs. Optimus Prime.
Mechs wandered in sitting together until the place was filled. This would be the first briefing of the Alpha team who would be the lead ground soldiers of the plan. When all were settled, Prime turned and looked at them. They were the best, the cream of the crop and he felt the usual confidence he always had when facing a mission with them, these comrades of generations of battles.
"We are going to rescue a prison camp that has between 1000-1200 of our people, apparently civilians, dissidents and others who are being guarded by 1200 Decepticons. None of them are shock troops. Rather, they appear to be regular soldiers. There are also 300 alien slaves who are working there who get highest priority. Their particular physical attributes require extreme care. One of them is an energy alien and if the computers go down, they will die. I want them saved. I want everyone saved. I will turn the mission over to Blackjack who has overall tactical command, Flint who will oversea the alien reclamation and Alor who will manage the intel as it is transmitted by you to the command vessel. He will then be responsible for formulating plans. Springer, you will be commander of all the teams in combat and I am going along to address the alien situation. Blackjack?"
Prime turned and walked to his seat next to Prowl and Ironhide. Blackjack, a massive mechanism with a no nonsense charisma walked to the table and looked at the roll up map that was being transmitted to the massive screen behind him. "Gentlemen, ladies, I am your mission commander and we have a three pronged attack plan to implement. You are going to be taking the ground attack in servo. I am going to explain to you the overall mission, then I will concentrate on your part. Everyone has to know what everyone else is doing because of the fluidity of battle. No one needs to tell you that." As 'Jack finished those words a commotion at the door could be heard. All optics turned to see.
The door pushed open and a big, big mechanism walked inside and paused. "Me, Grimlock, is here. Why you not call me? I am ready to fight. How can you go to battle without me, Autobots? You will need me to win."
The chuckles and smirks that formed on everyone's face signaled to the soldiers that hilarity was coming. Prime rose and walked up the steps pausing before Grimlock. "Come with me, Grimlock. I want to ask you about something."
"Me, Grimlock am ready to fight, Prime. You know you can't win without me or the Dinobots. Remember?" Grimlock continued.
Prime grinned. "I know. Come with me," he said moving past Grimlock into the hallway.
Grimlock turned and walked out, the ground team watching. The door was closed a moment, then Prime walked back inside. He moved to his seat and sat down nodding to Blackjack. Blackjack began again.
Lennox, Epps and Graham looked up at Springer. :What was that about?:
:No one told you about Grimlock and the Dinobots?: he asked grinning down at the humans.
"No: they all replied.
:I'll tell you about it later: They all turned to listen.
"The ground bridges will be used including a prototype that we have in final stages of testing. They are ship bridges. Space bridges that have been adapted for ships have been used for eons if some of you older mechs can remember."
"I remember," Kup said. "Fragging useful."
"Of course, you would remember it," Sandstorm said with a chuckle. "Mech is older than Unicron."
"Taught him all he knows, slagger," Kup said without skipping a beat.
Everyone chuckled. Blackjack smirked. "Are we through, ladies?"
More chuckles and smirks met that. The human soldiers, all fifteen of them smiled themselves. It was universal, the casual good humor of men at arms. No matter the package, some things were the same everywhere. They all settled in to listen.
"We will be testing this plan in the Oort field in dummy camps and installations we have devised. They will be holographic generations based on the actual camp plans as of the capture of Shockwave. We can run them over and over so that we can debug the operation. The first group to enter into their space will be a special ops team lead by Elita-1. She and her sisters will be hitting the first of these three planets," he said turning to point to the giant visual behind him. "This is where the 'Cons have put their communications and sensor arrays. They will be responsible for hitting them and locking down the area.
"At the very same minute, you will be going through the Trigger to land on this planet. Your job is to shock them and take out the troops that are guarding the command center, the barracks where they live and the main internment camp of the aliens they use to run the tech part of things. As you can see," he said changing the view, "the command center is butting against a broken ridge with a number of antennas rising from the roof. The specs say that the walls are about eight feet thick and made of composite stone and cement. Those are strong but a good blaster will pock them and take them down under concentrated fire.
"The barracks for the aliens are here," he said pointing to three long buildings that were behind wire nearby. They were away from the command center and the air field where the Decepticons kept a battleship, a number of fighters and heavy cargo ships to carry ore. "They are not heavily fortified and have towers at the corners that can cover anyone inside from escaping.
"The aliens we are to retrieve are of two types. One is an energy life form that is being forced to run the computers past their capacity. They are being drained and when they die, another is forced to take their place. It would appear that they are being held somewhere in a containment device that is only mentioned, not diagrammed. Sciences will send a team to manage their retrieval but I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to keep the computers up and running. If they go down, the aliens die."
It was silent a moment as Blackjack studied the plan. He looked at the camp and began again. "We will have you break into teams to take the buildings, one team for the alien barracks, two for the 'Con barracks and the rest for the command center. I will be waiting for your signal that the barracks are locked down because at that point, we will have Seeker strikes on specific targets on the command center. We are going for the aerials, the sensor stuff and other peripherals with pinpoint fighters. There are also a number of guns on the roof that they will strike and it will hopefully show them the wisdom of surrender which we will be broadcasting once the operation begins. Starscream will be briefing those flights as he has responsibility to pull out of the Seekerkin the proper talents.
"When the Seekers pass, that will be your signal to enter and take out the bad guys. The computer power station is in this out building," he said pointing to a small power plant that was nearby the command center. "Once the barracks are secured, then a portion of the ground team will go and secure this building. I want them to stay there until the command center is locked down. Nothing must endanger the energy aliens."
Springer raised a servo. "Who will be devising the different groups?"
"You will," Blackjack said. "You are Wrecker commander. You know the skill sets in this room. Put it together and run it past us. We are going with your expertise, Springer. If you need more than this, tell us and we will pull it in."
"Oh joy," Kup said.
Springer snorted. "Be careful, old mech or I'll have you hold my energon cube."
Chuckles filled the room and the soldiers grinned. It was like old home week.
"When the command center is locked down and the prisoners secured, we can gather the aliens and take them to the ships. There are two here," Blackjack said pulling up the visual of the other aliens. "This is a member of a species that the data calls Hu An. They are bipedal, humanoid with symmetrical body design, a large helm with horns and a long tail. They wear their helm follicles in a long braid and come in two sizes. We have been retrieving data on them and it would appear that they have a large home system that has been overtaken by the Decepticons. They are highly developed peaceful traders who value culture but can fight when they need to. They are organized by a matriarchal structure and the femmes are the larger of the two genders. This big specimen in a femme."
They all looked at the image of a large individual, perhaps ten feet tall and heavily muscled. She had large optics, a bullish facial construction and long reddish hair that was pulled back into a thick braid that ended down below her buttocks. Her hands and feet were human-like and the tail was long ending in a tuft of hair of the same color as that on her helm. She wore long trousers, a sleeveless shirt and work type boots. There was no adornment on the creature but there were tattoos. Ornamental tattoos of an unknown kind ran down the outside of her arms. It was an impressive creature staring out at them. That they had horns like an Earth bison was even more impressive.
"That's a femme?" Sandstorm asked. "Looks like she could beat your aft good."
"This is a femme. They organize around a elder femme and the males are part of a matriarchy, which pretty much rules the society."
"Sort of like Ironhide and Ratchet," Sunstreaker said from the middle of the pack.
Ironhide snorted. "Shh," he said to general hilarity.
Prime grinned. :Better not let Ratchet hear that. He might get ideas:
Ironhide grinned. :It's probably too late already:
They both grinned at each other.
"While this is going on, we will be taking out the third planetoid where the mine is. It is the most lightly guarded place since its devoid of any kind of refuge for anyone who works there. This is where our people are housed and they work there around the clock. They have rudimentary quarters, only about a hundred guards and no hope. We are going to hit that site at the same time as the others. I expect that the teams that go in will divide themselves among the targets which are pretty much limited to these two mines, this row of dilapidated barracks and the guard house here. What we need to do now is break down the plan itself and organize teams to do the separate parts. If you want to facilitate that, Springer and Kup, we will be ready to coordinate the deployment aspects into the main plan."
Springer nodded and stood looking out at the crowd. "Well, looks like its time to make teams," he said as they all laughed riotously.
-0-Sciences, Fortress, Autobot City, Mars
Wheeljack looked at his calendar and penciled in the protoform of Ratchet's new sparkling. He was glad to be a part of the prank and would personally make the protoform himself. They had been an item way back in the orn and had stayed incredibly good friends ever since. Given that Ratchet had impelled his bonding with Perceptor had been more than enough reason for him to help out a brother. That he still loved Ratchet was another reason. He loved him like a brother, like a friend, like a colleague. They were extremely close friends maturing from a time when they were more. He would always have a soft spot for the wild aft medico who had been so much fun at a time when he needed it.
"'Jack?"
"Perceptor?" Wheeljack said breaking from his reverie.
"We have a part of the mission that's forming up to liberate the camp. Apparently, there is an energy alien that is being forced to slave on the computer system of their operation. We need to save them and Prime wants us to figure out how to do it. That doesn't count the safe spot we need to make in the flight deck of the shuttle carrying Springer for the soldiers. He wants them to come along."
Wheeljack nodded. "Do we have the plans for the camp? I remember they said they had the information from Shockwave and its very detailed."
Percy snapped on the overhead monitor and they both grinned. "Now that is what I call detailed," Wheeljack said as he looked at the operator's manual of the entire cyber operation of the camp called The Place.
They both knuckled down to begin.
-0-TBC For Pip
2013 (2)
NOTE: My numbering of the pieces is messed up but they are in the right order. Numbers hate me. :D
Scifi channel has a show, Defiance debuting in April that looks amazing. Aliens galore. Just saying. :D