The Diego Diaries: Newbies 1 (323)
-0-On the way to the n00bs
Ratchet swished out heading for the triage-processing pavilion that still doubled for a lock up for intransigent bad actors when called upon to do so. The bars were easily resurrected and the space large enough to hold the bad mechs until they could be sorted, the wheat from the chaff.
The bars were going strong and the area inside was thick with gray as well as purple Decepticons. They stood staring out with anxiety as their leadership was gathered around Prime. There were terrorcons and regular troopers, all of them standing as close to the bars as they dared, all of them listening as Optimus Prime gave them their terms. No one spoke but they looked around, most of them goggle-opticed with surprise and amazement at the sight of a genuine Cybetronian city.
That was even before the chosen representative group of the former Decepticon association reached them to lay down the law. Rampage, Nitro, Revo and Heva, Scar and Breakdown walked along the sidewalk behind Ratchet as they came to impose their will on the processors of the new meat. Nearby walking together from the hangar installations nearby, Astrotrain, Goldwing, Red Wing and Cloudburst walked to join them as well.
Ratchet paused by the door where the techs stood waiting to install the devices as the big mechs caught up. They gathered around him, their cold optics regarding the newcomers without mercy. Scar looked down at Ratchet. "We're going to be here while you do your stuff, Ratchet. Anyone who gets any stupid ideas can deal with us."
Ratchet grinned and slipped his arm through Breakdown's. "I would swoon from all the stand up mechliness here but I don't have a couch to catch me."
They grinned and glanced at Prime who was going through the riot act with the leadership. "That's Shield, huh?" Nitro asked.
Ratchet nodded. "He's good friends with Barricade I hear," Ratchet said. He looked up at the mechs. "Genuinely I hear."
"Well, that isn't good," Scar said glaring hotly at the back of Shield's helm. "We're going to be monitoring these slaggers orn and night."
"Thanks, boys. I know how hard this is to get slaggers from your side of the fence but some of these younglings might actually be alright," Ratchet said nodding to the mostly young, mostly intrigued mass of soldiers behind the glowing bars.
"They better be," Scar said darkly.
At that point Prime paused glancing over Shield's shoulder to the mechs standing around Ratchet. "Gentlemen," Prime said with a nod.
Scar nodded back, then stepped forward moving closer to the leadership who looked at him warily. They knew who they were looking at, the array of big bots before him so they hiked their level of concern upward. "I am Scar. You know me," he said glaring at the three leaders who for their part met his gaze levelly. "I live here. I came in Turmoil's battle group but you know that. The others? They were free arrivals from space or gathered up on the Earth, the next planet over by the Autobots. All of us were among the most feared and dangerous Decepticon warriors who ever lived. All of us have done terrible things for Megatron. But when we needed leadership and room to grow, to have families, to get some small payback for our effort, he cut us up." Scar turned to the others and nodded.
Rampage stepped forward and even Shield took a step backward. "I am Rampage. You know me. You know what I am. I am a Predacon. I am part of Predaking," he said with an affectation of prideful menace. "It took a seven foot energon sword through my gut to drop me. I would have been left for dead by Megatron but I wasn't. I was saved," he said nodding to Ratchet. "He saved my life. He fixed me back up and I have a life here that doesn't require me giving everything I got to someone who isn't prepared or even knows he owes me in return. My brothers are somewhere. I don't know where. But if they come here to make trouble I will fight them.
"This is my city. I have work here that makes me happy. I've never been happy in my entire life until now, in this place. I own several businesses, I teach in the University and Career Center and I have a mech I love who loves me back. I will fight for that. I will die for that. I will kill for that. If anyone doesn't understand what this place means for me, remember that. Prime took me in. No one else would have. No one. I live here and I love it. Frag you to the Pit by my own servo if you try to mess with that."
"We all have the same story," Nitro said. "I'm a Seeker but my bond is a grounder. We have a daughter who was dying when we finally reached this place. My daughter was saved. She goes to school, she plays with her friends and they are everyone … Neutral, Autobot, Ex-'Con, Circle of Light, Knight of Cybertron … all of it. I am a writer now. I have two books published and they're being read in the schools. I never knew I could do that. Only here. I work in the Armory with Ironhide," he said nodding to the big hulking mech beside Prime. "I help make every bullet, bomb and gun this city and army uses. I make the bullets that are going to take down Megatron. I live with my bond and daughter in a beautiful apartment. We are together, my family all of whom Megatron ordered to be killed. Frag anyone who tries to endanger that."
Breakdown looked at Ratchet, then the newcomers. "I'm a Stunticon. I'm Breakdown," he said as a murmur went around the group. "My brothers are in the prison, two of them. They tried to sneak in here to spy and got caught. My own brothers are in the prison and they belong there. They were going to sell us out and cause the colony to be breached. Frag that. I am happier here than I ever thought possible. I live decently. I work in the hospital as a medic ... in the field too. I'm studying to be a doctor. Me, Breakdown. No one ever expected that I could do that but Ratchet did. This place lets me. You will never make it to step two in any plan you have to take down this place. We won't allow it."
Everyone nodded. "We all come from crap," Heva said. "We all grew up as poor as we could be including Prime. We joined the Decepticons because Megatron said we were going to become something better for all of us. But what happened? Are you better off with him at any point in this futility? We aren't. Never with him. It was all about him, his dreams and needs. He doesn't care about us. We never were allowed to make families, to bond or have a life with him. Only here. I got my engineering degree at the University over there," he said nodding to the city. "I'm going to be a designer of aircraft and make a business with my bond, Revo. We didn't even get to go to primary school on Cybertron and here I am a college graduate. My bond," he said nodding to Revo, "teaches aviation at the University."
"I do. I get to do a lot. I get to fly and teach flying as well as mechanical engineering of aircraft and ship design. This I get to do. I learned to really read and write here and I have textbooks in production for aviators that I wrote myself. I'm part of a private business working to make leisure aircraft for local on-world flying. I wasn't allowed to do that on Cybertron and I wasn't allowed to with Megatron. There's no daylight between Cybertron back in the orn and life with Megatron."
"I was shot down by our own side," a huge Seeker said. "I'm Astrotrain. You know who I am. I was doing my job when the shoot-to-kill order on Seekers came down from Megatron. I had no warning. I was shot up and barely escaped. I flew on and on barely alive because if I died which I believed was going to happen, I didn't want it to be on some rock somewhere by myself, without anyone ever knowing what happened to me. I wanted to be among my own kind. The Autobots heard me and came. Do you really believe I would be standing here if only Decepticons had heard? What about you, Shield? Would you have come to save me or finish me off? I hung by a thread but survived. I serve the colony and myself. I have a bond now. Sky Dive, an Aerialbot and I bonded, Autobot and Decepticon. We aren't the only ones. There are Autobot-Decepticon infants here. We want our own family. We can here. Frag the Cause and Megatron and frag you if you come here to cause trouble. We will take you down and no one will ever find your parts."
Goldwing, Red Wing and Cloudburst nodded too. "We helped pull you through, Astrotrain. You almost went to the Matrix," Goldwing said. "But you didn't and I'm glad. We're all glad. We all together have made a home here. We have festivals and holidays, schools teach the young, the Seekers are respected. We are respected."
"You know me," Red Wing said stepping closer. "You know that I was subcommander to Starscream. I did everything I was asked to do but it didn't matter in the end. I don't know what Shield and the others have told you to do here. I don't know if they told you to bide your time and wait for something to happen. But I do know you will regret for the rest of your orns that you threw away a chance like this if you do. We are a Cybertronian city, a genuine one under the leadership of the only mech who has the respect of everyone from all factions, Optimus Prime. I go into combat under his command. I fight for this city to protect my trine and our younglings. I have an orphan in my family because of Megatron, an orphan whose life was turned upside down because all that mech knows how to do is hate."
"All your life you obeyed one mech and now at this point when he steps out of the picture you have nothing. These snivelers," Cloudburst said glancing at Shield and his two captains, "probably told you to wait for some signal so they can harm this city and our people. You would be very great fools to do that. There are nearly 2 million of us here with uncounted more coming. We will defeat you handily. Then we will take you apart and bury you deep," he said quietly, his menace and promise evident.
"You listen to them," Rampage said nodding to the three ship captains, "and you will be against us. Look at us, younglings. You can either be assisted by us to reach your potential both for yourself and our colony or you can be against us. I wouldn't advise doing that. We didn't get our reputations by not standing by what we say we will do. We will."
It was silent, all sides taking the measure of the moment. Then a young mech stepped forward. "How do I get a chance to live here? I don't want to fight anymore."
Prime stepped forward. "You have to give me your oath, both personal and professional to abide by the rules and laws, to accept my rule and stand down from your faction and its goals. You make that oath to the Matrix. If you break it the Matrix will exact a punishment that could terminate your life."
The youngling considered that, then nodded. "I will. I'm sick of this. If they can live here and be alright," he said nodding to the former 'Cons who stood quietly watching him, "then I want the same chance." He looked at the group of ex-'Cons almost plaintively. "Can you help me?"
Scar nodded. "I will, youngling. Just don't shame us. We are one here. All are one here."
He nodded and moved to the gate to wait. For a moment no one moved. Then others joined him until more than half the group was lined up, the others glancing at each other hesitantly before moving that way too. Prime looked at them. "You will have a probationary period. You will wear a device inside you that can be activated remotely and will if so detonated blow you sky high. You cannot take it out yourself or it will automatically explode. This device will track your movements and when its clear that you mean to be an asset, not a detriment, it will come off. Understood?"
They nodded, those ready to go. Prime looked at the three captains, then turned to Ratchet. "You can begin, Ratchet. I will take the others to the hospital and you can do the honors there with us available. We are not clear on their freedom to go around yet given that they were the leadership of this group." Prime looked at Nitro and the others. "You have custody, gentlemen. Thank you."
They nodded. "Don't worry about them, Prime. We'll take care of it," Scar said with grim determination.
Prime nodded and with the three Captains as well as some of his officers in tow, they began to walk down the sidewalk to the city. Ratchet watching them go, turned to his techs and assistants. "Let's get going, younglings. These guards have other things to do," he said with a grin.
In a joor, they would be wired, dispersed and on their way.
-0-In the high up echelons of Autobot City Medical Center and Hospital
They sat in the waiting room of the Emergency Services level of the hospital. The Officer of the Orn was of all mechs Knockout. When the group entered he paused and took in the three captains with Prime. "Well, well, well. What have we here?" he asked with his usual trademark smirk.
"They'll let anything in I see," Shield said with a grin.
"That's what I was thinking about you, Shield," Knockout said. "I suppose you're waiting for the witch doctor to get here."
Prime snorted in spite of himself as he sat in a big comfortable chair. The others who took their places as well as Shield stared at Knockout with a considering gaze. "Tell me, Knockout … are you still infatuated with Prime? Or did I just let out a secret?" Shield ventured.
Knockout startled, then glared at the big Decepticon with a look that could drop a Seeker in flight. "I don't know what you're taking, Shield, but it must be giving you waking hallucinations."
"Really? It's old news among the 'Cons that you have a soul destroying lust for Prime. You like them big don't you. Everyone knows that." He glanced at Prime with a smirk. "I don't know if you knew that but Knockout has never made it a secret."
Knockout glared at Shield, his servos gripping his hips the way they would have had they been Shield's neck. "Keep talking, Shield. Keep the lies coming." With that, he turned and stormed out of the room.
It was silent a moment, then Shield glanced at Prime, a grin on his face. "I don't know if you knew about that but there you have it. I am holding nothing back from you."
Prime who was amused in spite of himself looked at Shield. "I'll be sure to tell the bond. He will be delighted."
Shield snorted, then shook his helm. "I am sure that Springer will be," he replied.
He had no idea why Prime and Ironhide laughed at that remark.
-0-TBC June 4, 2013