The Diego Diaries: Shadow Box Interlude 1 (Part 228/66) Editied for boo boos :D
-0-Airfield some joors later
Ironhide and Flint stood together watching as a scuffed nondescript shuttle was loaded with carefully nondescript electronic parts headed for Cybertron. The amount of contraband that made its way to Cybertron was enabling a sizable portion of the reconstruction. Ships filled with questionable materials were given freedom to land. Pirates, entrepreneurs with doubtful provenances and freelance rovers made a good living doing so. Some of them made stops just to allow their presence to continue in the systems controlled by the Empire. Without the odd freebie, they would be destroyed where they were found.
The femme team would take advantage of this and establish themselves on the 'permitted' list that had been discovered to exist in the Shockwave data. They walked out, their appearances unrecognizable from the efforts of the surgical reconstruction team at the Hospital in Metroplex. All of them were different, nondescript in their designs and tough as nails.
They waved and boarded, an unrecognizable Jazz joining them. When they took off Ironhide walked Flint to his ship. He would be flying to the outlying forward bases to do performance checks. They were discussing upgrades on a number of systems as well as personal quarters. No one would be sitting on an ice cube without amenities. He flew away so Ironhide turned to the runabout that he and Prime would hopefully get to use for a project that was in the planning stages for some time. He had loaded it with all of the stuff they had stored in a locker in the armory against the orn when they could actually step out for this very event.
Turning, he walked to the Fortress entering to cross Ops Center where Prime stood bent down to read something on the sensors. Pausing beside Prowl, he looked himself. Prime was watching the team get sent through the gates to a place on the shipping lanes nearby Cybertron. Miler's calm voice counted down the mathematics as Perceptor and Wheeljack countered with the appropriate responses. Then the go was given and they shot away into infinity.
Standing up straighter, Prime nodded to Prowl. "They're off. Alert me when they ping," he said.
Prowl nodded, then grinned. "You do realize you are go now."
Prime grinned back in spite of himself. "I do. See ya." With that, he leaned in and kissed Prowl. Glancing at Ironhide, he nodded. "Ready for this?"
"No," the big mech said with a smirk.
"Neither am I," Prime said with a chuckle. "Did you call for the delivery of the VIPs?"
"I did when I saw Flint off. Ratchet and the twins should have them at the airfield now," Ironhide said.
"Have fun," Prowl said with a grin. "I want video."
Prime snorted. "I want rescue. If things need me, call."
"Fat chance," Prowl said as he turned Prime to leave.
The two big bots walked across the command deck and out the doorway as Smokescreen doing duty at Communications glanced up at Prowl. "Where are they going?" he asked.
Prowl grinned in spite of himself. "Camping," he said with a nod.
-0-On the deck
Prime and Ironhide stood at the door of the shuttle watching as a gaggle of babies and other fellow travelers crossed the tarmac. They were being led by Ratchet who had the leashes of Praxus and Orion. Sunspot was skipping along with a radiantly happy T-Bar, Rambler and Spirit. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe walked with them, Sideswipe holding a smiling babbling Miracle as he also held Kaon's leash. They reached the two, then paused. "Here you go, suckers," Sunstreaker said with a grin.
Sideswipe handed over Miracle to Ironhide. "Are you sure you want to take the sparklings?"
"No," Ironhide said as he took the leashes of Praxus, Kaon and Orion. "Ask me in a joor."
"You don't have to. I can take them back to school," Ratchet said with a gigantic grin.
"No," Ironhide said glancing at Prime for backup. He looked at Ironhide a moment, then nodded. "In for a penny, in for a pound."
A moment of internet activity was met with big grins. "Suckers," Sunstreaker said chuckling.
"This is Ratchet's fault," Ironhide said casting a caustic optic at his bond. "Slagger made the Autobot Scouts a big deal."
"Why isn't Prowl here?" Sideswipe asked. "He's your second-in-command isn't he?"
"He's running the mission and tracking a migration. I'm the default subcommander. Besides, I've never been camping with younglings before," Optimus said with a grin.
"Have you ever been camping and I'm not talking about bivouac?" Ratchet asked.
They both looked at him. "No," they said in unison.
"Tell me how it goes and if you need us to come to get the sparklings mech up enough to say so, slaggers," Ratchet said with a chuckle.
They smirked at him then turned boarding the infants. After winching them down, they waved and the hull door slid shut. Take off was gentle and they were on their way to a low lying mesa in the Valles Marineris where they would 'camp' overnight. After all they both decided, what was an atar worth who didn't give their younglings experiences?
"Home in bed contented," Ratchet replied to that flight of fancy.
Both of them then and there resolved to prove Ratchet wrong.
That would be their first mistake.
-0-On the way to Shambala
They flew out of the vortex into the farthest shipping lane from the still operating Decepticon array system that monitored Cybertron even as it fell away from its original place in the universe. The slow but inexorible inevitability that she would eventually leave her sector ensured that the range and dependability of the sensors to report would become compromised over time. Given their nearly invincible lifespans, they would only be marginally aware of the drift but see it in its inglorious inevitability, they would.
Elita who was flying set her course for the once enormous civilian and commercial airport of Polyhex. What it was like now, they had no idea. But that would be where they would start, in the airport several of them knew well. It was among the least tended according to Shockwave's intel because the military had consolidated their fleets off world or in four cities dispersed around the planet to allow them to lift off in case of invasion without too much trouble.
Polyhex was now the contraband and pirate capital of Cybertron, a heavily policed but very active semi lax port of entry for those who were willing to bring needed, helpful things to the struggling world. The parts they had would be welcome. The replicators, broken into pieces and secreted aboard the ship as ornamental fixtures and discarded debris scattered about would be taken away with them when they left to meet up with the Resistance.
"When will we get there, Elita?" Lancer asked as she checked and rechecked her weapons.
"Give or take ten joors," Elita said as Jazz walked to sit in the co-pilot seat. She glanced at him. "You look lovely."
"You look like a mech. No offense," Jazz said with a grin.
"None will ever be taken for that remark," Elita said with a grim expression. "None at all."
-0-On the road to CAMP MEETING! in the Valleys of Mariners
They flew to the Valles, the tremendous gash in the earth stetching out for thousands of miles. They were heading for a nice little mesa that was located in the widest part of the canyon. It would be sheltered from the winds, had lots of opportunities for exploration and would be safe from cliffside falls and other avoidables-at-all-costs-do-you-hear-me, Ironhides?!.
When they lifted off, the sparklings were demanding answers.
ANSWERS!
Winched into their seats, they glanced at each other, then the two adults who were sitting in the pilot and co-pilot seats making their way to the seriously carefully chosen and much discussed place of 'camp'. In the hold were tents, food, containers for 'stuff', things to use for digging, cameras for pictures, toys and books for down times, a first aid kit, fire making equipment, sleeping bags that were picked up at The Sports Shop in the Mall of Metroplex and other sundries.
They also had Prowl and Ratchet on speed dial.
If things worked out, the two would fly in for a moment, perhaps for dinner and see how it was going.
They hoped.
Sort of.
Prime and Ironhide both wanted to ace this but the scope sitting in the back babbling sort of felt daunting.
It was.
But they were both determined to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. After all, they were the Prime of Cybertron and the Master of the Autobot Armed Forces. They could manage four enthusiastic younglings and four babbling sparklings.
Right?
Pause.
Right?
-0-Ten joors later far away
They had come under the beacons and monitoring satellites of the Decepticon Forces four joors earlier. They had been told to indentify themselves and they did. A tense pause for confirmation and the okay to continue was anxiety making but the approval finally came through. They would have to come in unarmed into Polyhex, submit to search and inspection, then receive the data document that would be their passport to further commercial interactions with the planet.
They would pass with flying colors.
-0-On a small mesa in the middle of nowhere
They set down and the ship powered off, the infants all becoming quiet and expectant. Prime and Ironhide glanced at each other, then looked back at eight smiling faces.
"ATAR! WHAT ME?" Orion asked as he tugged at his seat belt.
"Sit there, you little slagger until we let you out. Sunspot, boys, you have to keep them from killing each other," Ironhide said as he punched the latch and the hull door slid back.
Prime was already out unloading things from the back like a suburban father unloading groceries out of the back of his hatchback SUV. Ironhide joined him, then looked at the piles of 'essentials' according to the handbook of the Boy Scouts of America. "We better set up the tents."
Prime nodded and they looked finding the bundled devices in the pile of gear. "I think you pull this latch and they unfold themselves."
He stepped away and did so, the tent leaping out of his servos as it burst into bloom. It bounced here and there, then settled, a big tent with a logo of the Primes and an Autobot face on its yellow panels. Prime grinned. "That was fun. Let me do the other two." With that, he did. Soon three big tents were sitting on the ground.
Ironhide pulled them into place, then pressed a button on a small panel by the door flap that led inside. They immediately staked themselves down. "When I got these, Arot asked me to let him know how they were and if they can be improved. The sports gear company wants feedback."
"Well," Prime said with a big grin, "I like them."
Ironhide snorted. "Sparkling. We better hurry with the rest of the stuff or they'll riot in there."
They both looked at the sparklings and younglings who still sat in their seats on both sides of the hull watching them as they worked through the open hatch.
"ATAR! ORION LIKE! ORION WANT FLY! I CAN GO?!" he asked with a gigantic smile.
"Hang on," Ironhide said with a smirk as he gathered tiny sleeping bag sacks and tossed them into the appropriate tent. When he threw his into one and Prime's into another, he turned to help Optimus as he began to sort through the food, hiking stuff, electronic fire and alternative cook stove that didn't need atmosphere, first aid pack, box of wipes that didn't require water, storage things for 'finds' and the datapads both were going to use to help devise a manual for the Autobot Scouts.
The boss made them do it.
Prowl.
"That will teach you to make me the second-in-command of the Scouts, Optimus," he had said orns before. "Help us do the manual, smart aleck."
He had goodnaturedly agreed, more than happy to do something that had the potential to be this much fun.
Or not.
-0-TBC
2013 (3)