The Diego Diaries: Regrouping 1 (361)
(Drove truck 500 miles yesterday. Crawled home on the hands and knees.)
ON WITH THE SHOW!
-0-Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean, Earth
The night fell upon the slowly resurrected base as its night lights began to play counterpoint to the star filled sky. It was sultry and warm, the few clouds in the sky enough to blot out patches of the constellations overhead. Lennox finished his call home, then left the office to walk outside to the patio where everyone sat relaxing after a trying day. The pile of interview requests was enormous but they weren't ready to say anything yet. Families abroad were getting the same treatment but were mum as was the code of special ops everywhere.
What special ops?
Like that.
He took a beer from the cooler and sat popping the top. A deep pull on the bottle hit the spot as the ice cold liquid pooled in his stomach. A barbecue had helped unwind the tension that informed the base now. It once was calm and peaceful, reasonably homey and always interesting here. The younger crowd of Autobots including a few of the Home Guard were being filtered through the rotations to help them get experience with humans. They were hilarious. Many was the wild ride around the island in their company. Even the Home Guardians were coming out of their proper military mentalities to race the regular army bots around the sandy beaches and sparing roads of the island.
It was awesome.
Then.
Now there was a grimness here that hung over them like a fog.
It sucked.
They sat talking together, the group of N.E.S.T. soldiers that had been through everything since that first encounter in Egypt. This was just the latest chapter in their long saga. In the distance, they could see sparks flying upward into the sky. The bots were having a beer fest of their own on the beach. They would join them soon but not now. They were finally comfortable.
-0-Omega Supreme HQ nearby
They sat together eating a dinner brought from Autobot City for the crews on the ground. It was tasty and homey, something that nagged at all of them. It had been a while since they had been there, in the bosom of their families and in their own berths. The intell from Arachnid and the Insecticons had dried up so they had settled in to wait. The apparatus of detection was being reconstructed and linked up both on the ground and overhead in space. The lunar base was coming along swiftly. Until both were ready to function at optimal, they were here to stay.
Unfortunately.
Ironhide who was checking the news glanced at Prime. "Someone in congress in America wants the lunar landing spot to become a national park. They want to protect the artifacts and the area from anyone coming after them."
"It seems a good idea," Prime said nodding.
Prowl shrugged. "We do that already," he said putting his clutter back into the box. "Maybe we can bring some things back for their museums."
"That might fly or sink. They're getting hard to predict now," Ironhide said.
Prime nodded. "They are. We however must be steadfast. They cannot in their fury be allowed to harm themselves. Arachnid and the Insecticons are powerful enough to destroy this world without us here to be counterpoint to her actions. They will find out that being alone is less preferable than putting up with a detested ally."
"What's to detest? We get slagged with them. They aren't watching us sit on our afts. We go into the holes after them, the slaggers," Ironhide said with no small amount of offense.
"From your lips to Primus's audials," Prowl said quietly.
-0-Phobos City Square, Autobot City, Mars
They stood filming establishing shots in the new cities that had been brought online with the last migration. Phobos had been designed to be different from Terra which was built around a large common area with the streets and habitations radiating out like spires on a star. This city of over 500,000 bots was build more like a hexagon with the common area in the middle. Tower habitations were the norm here too with the business areas in their own separate towers or in the lowest ground levels of the habitations. Some residents only had to come downstairs to get the things and services they needed and wanted. Most of those towers were home to elders or those with physical limitations.
Aaron Belcher turned to glance at the subway station off Metroplex Highway 3 which was the main thoroughfare through town. The highway linked Phobos to Terra which in turn was linked to Crystal City and Luna, the city a child had named after Earth's moon. Earth now was represented in the city and lives of their people with Terra and so was its satellite. :Leonora, where are they going and what are they doing? Go ask will ya?:
Leonora Huttle nodded and turned her segway heading toward the group that was walking out of the subway carrying bundles. Rolling to a stop, she looked upward. :Hi. What's up?:
They paused and looked down with a grin. :We're putting up the banners for the Festival:
She nodded. :The Festival of Primus?:
They nodded.
:What can you tell me about it?: Leonora asked hopefully.
They glanced at each other, then her. :Nothing: One of them grinned. :Ask Prime. Then go see the priests. They will tell you what's allowed:
She nodded and watched as they continued onward walking toward a light pillar that had a cherry picker, a small non-sentient vehicle driven by a bot who would hang the banners as the public works mechs handed them to him. He had driven up when she was talking to them. They gathered around the vehicle looking upward as he raised himself, banner in servo. He affixed it, then drove to the next one, the mechs following. It hung a moment, then began to ruffle in the light breeze. It was the Emblem of the Primes followed by glyphs underneath that they had begun to understand were the names of Optimus Prime and the slogan, "Until all are one". She nodded her head. :Until all are one indeed: she whispered to herself. Then she turned around and sped back to the film crew.
-0-Elsewhere in the city-state
Motormaster paced as he considered the situation as it stood. He was stuck behind bars with his brother while another was going about the city having a high old time. Breakdown hadn't come to see them even once since their incarceration. Dead End who was sitting on a chair nearby watching the other end of their cell block where Barricade and that ilk were housed glanced at his 'leader'. "Stop pacing. You're driving me crazy."
"You're already crazy," Motormaster said glancing at his brother. "Frag you."
"Frag yourself," Dead End said morosely. "You were the idiot who got us caught. All you had to do was lie about why and how we were here but no. You had to shoot your mouth off."
Motormaster turned glaring at his brother. "Frag you."
With that, it was on.
-0-On a planetary fragment out there
Wild Rider stood feeling the discord as his brothers clashed far away. It was boring where he was. He wasn't in any big hurry to meet up with Motormaster but the others were passable. He had been a long time apart from them. He was aware that Drag Strip was with Cyclonus, the two coming as close together in this situation than they had been in ages. He considered going to the colony to see if he could pass himself off as a reformed Decepticon. He could say that he was following the signal of his brother, Breakdown and just wanted to find a place that wasn't a colossal clusterfuck. Most of the universe at the moment was.
Pausing, he turned and walked toward the door to the entrance of the Fortress where Paragon and Arrow were sitting together working out something that he didn't give a frag about. Several more battle groups were due in. He wasn't interested in finding out who they were. He wanted to do something NOW and if going to Autobot City to see if he could live there gave him that opportunity, he was going to take it.
-0-In the city
Ratchet opened the door and paused to allow Hero to walk inside, her tiny bag in servo. She walked in with a smile glancing up at Ratchet as she did. "Thank you, Ada."
Ratchet grinned. "You're one well brought up little femme, Hero. I wonder who your genitors are?" he asked.
She chuckled. "You're funny," she said with amusement in eerie imitation of her older brother, Sunspot. She walked to the hallway and disappeared inside her room. For a moment she was gone, then she reappeared without hat, sweater or tiny bag. She walked to the couch where things were put tugging sweaters and a little hat out of the bags where Ratchet had put them. Turning heavy laden, she walked to her room and disappeared.
Ratchet grinned, then put the new book on the coffee table for Ironhide to see. It was his job apparently to 'SLAGGING READ TO THE INFANTS AT NIGHT TIME, SLAG IT, RATCHET'. Turning, he walked into the berth room to watch as Hero laboriously put her newer and older clothing away. The hangars were three level, one over the others with a hat rack on the bottom one. It was designed for her by Ironhide so she could 'get her own gear, Ratchet. Little femme is a lady," he had said as he tinkered and rebuilt her closet. "Little femme is growing up." He had paused as if struck for the first time with that notion, then turned and continued to labor as Hero held a nail or two 'to help you, Atar'.
It was one of his favorite stored images. Here was a malevolent warrior, big, unintimidated and ruthless in battle working on his knee structures to make his daughter's little closet more accessible with the waif 'helping' him. The two chatting was priceless.
"What are you doing, Hero?" Ratchet asked.
She turned and looked up smiling broadly. "I'm putting my stuff away, Ada. Atar said I have to make my room clean every day. We built this," she said patting the shelf with her little hats sitting in a neat row.
"You sure did," Ratchet said with a nod. "Very nice and neat, sparkling. You could be in the army with this much neatness."
"I am," she said nodding to her ada. "You and Atar are soldiers. So are we."
He considered that, then nodded. "I guess you are, honey." He pulled Prowler out of his hold, then turned to go out.
"Ada? Can Prowler play with me?" she asked sweetly.
He turned and looked down, then at the happy little doppelganger of his BFF laying on his servo. "Sure. Teach him how to sit up by himself." Ratchet grinned and put Prowler on the floor. He turned and went to the office next door to check the status of all things medical in the city and beyond. By the time he checked in again, Prowler was sitting up by himself. He would also be wearing half of Hero's growing wardrobe.
-0-On a ridge by the prison taking panoramic views of that part of the city for background and stock footage
They had made their way to the no mech's land that separated the city from the prison proper. Filming the vista shots, they paused as a squad of Day Watch mechs tore toward them along Fortress Road. When they reached the turn off to the prison, they sped forward and transformed when they reached it. Turning their cameras toward the sight, Aaron Belcher and Jack Mellar filmed the resulting hoo-haw for posterity.
Whether it would see the light of day on the MCA or IntraComm remained to be seen.
The mechs at the prison transformed and turned to the guards at the inside gate. "We can take it from here, Pat," the first one said to the Officer of the Orn. Pat, a mech with serious prison experience on Cybertron nodded, pressing the sequence that dropped the bars. The Watch officers as one entered and pounced, the two fighting turning as one to meet the threat. It was brutal and swift, the two Stunticons finally laying out flat on the ground. The Watch mechs rubbing their hurts grinned at Pat. "We'll put them in irons if you want us to do that. Tell us what you want."
Pat-23A considered that. Then grinned. "Put them in the stocks."
The mechs chuckled and with a nod grabbed an arm or a leg. Dragging the two miscreants, they walked to the gate and beyond carrying and/or dragging the slowly reviving bots to the 'stocks'.
On the hill nearby, they stood together watching. It was one thing to film the bots telling about their skills and adventures. It was more so to have the footage they could get from the few filmed incursions they were allowed to film during migrations. This had been something entirely different. It was incredible. It had been brutal, uncompromisingly brutal and short. They had filmed the entire thing that would remain if not in the broadcast, then in their personal 'holy shit' reel. It would be doubtful if they could ever show this material but it jerked up their already high opinion of the warrior society in which they lived and worked that such beings existed and that the tales they told were most assuredly accurate.
"That was fucking awesome," Jack Mellar said as they all stared at the prison.
No one spoke. They just nodded together.
-0-At the 'stocks'
They had entered the little room and stood up the miscreants. Fastening them into the energon cuffs, they stood and waited as the pair cleared their processors. Motormaster came to clarity first. He stood straighter and tugged on his wrists but the glowing bars held him fast. "FRAGGERS! LET ME OUT OF HERE AND I'LL FRAG YOUR AFTS!"
"You already were out of them a moment ago and got your helm handed to you, you dumb fragger," Pat-23A replied drolly. "You are going to stay here for a few joors, then we'll start all over."
The youngling Home Guards mechs who were watching with them glanced at each other. The massive bot was nearly but not quite the size and mass of Prime. He would have wiped the floor up with all three of them, that much was clear. He was big, massive and brutal. Motormaster and his brothers were feared. Everyone of them were big. Only Breakdown was liked. The others were feared or hated.
Even among Decepticons.
"YOU FRAGGER! LET ME LOOSE! I'LL MURDER YA!" Motormaster said as Dead End seethed silently beside him.
The guards went out, some of them chuckling as the door closed behind them. It was silent a moment, then Dead End looked at his brother. "You are one hopeless stupid fragger, you are."
It was on again.
This time, it didn't matter. Neither one could get at the other but the comedy coming out of their screaming was music to the prison guards' audials. Including the three youngling civilian guardsmechs doing their civic duty.
-0-Diego Garcia, Indian Ocean, Earth
They sat around the fire pit, the bots and the soldiers. Half of the base civilians had joined them, all of them drawing comfort from the presence of the others. Sunstreaker who was sitting on a stone talking to Jolt paused as if listening. Then he began to laugh. Loudly.
The conversations around him stopped as everyone turned toward him. "What is it, Sunny?" Bluestreak asked from his perch on Sideswipe's lap. "What's so funny?"
Sunstreaker looked at him, then grinned. "Motormaster and Dead End got into a brawl at the prison. It took six Day Watch to beat them into the ground. They're in the stocks."
Everyone grinned. "All the good stuff happens when we're not there," Sideswipe said with a chuckle. "Is there film?"
Sunstreaker paused to listen, then nodded as if answering someone on the phone. "I have it." He touched the side of his helm and a scene unfolded near the group. It was as solid as if it were happening right there and was obviously someone's view point in the melee. Motormaster and Dead End were going at it with half a dozen Watchmen. They were able to put them down, then the scene shifted to the two being hauled off followed by three wide opticed, slightly intimidated Home Guardsmen doing their quarterly civic duty at the prison.
A stockade room appeared and all of them entered plastering the two to the wall in energon cuffs. They revived and Motormaster did what he was famed all over the galaxy for … being a loudmouthed dumb aft: "FRAGGERS! LET ME OUT OF HERE AND I'LL FRAG YOUR AFTS!" followed by "YOU FRAGGER! LET ME LOOSE! I'LL MURDER YA!"
The laughter was therapeutic from the group as they howled at the expense of the two Stunticons. Sunstreaker smirked. "Motormaster has been watching cartoons. 'I'll murderate ya, you palooka.'," he said with a snicker.
"Sounds like you have too," Bluestreak said nudging Sunny with his ped.
"Those little guards with them looked freaked out," Jessie Landon said chuckling. "They can come sit by me."
"Home Guard civilians getting real world experience," Sideswipe said. "Now you know why they will never have front line active duty. I don't think those three will mind. Some of actually them do. We should have them do duty with the hard afts. Might cure them of that notion."
"What about these two 'Cons? Who are they and what's their story?" a civilian asked as he relaxed against Track's ped.
"Those two are Motormaster and Dead End," Kup began and for once no one cared. They sat back to be 'edumacated' as the old master soldier liked to put it. "They are part of a team called Stunticons and you can't find dumber fraggers on this or any other planet."
"Isn't Breakdown a Stunticon?" 'Fig' Figueroa asked to be ornery.
"He is. He must have gotten the better end of the deal when they screwed him together. He and his brothers hate each other to the point of murder," Kup continued.
"I have been fighting the Stunticons longer than anyone here," Sideswipe said as everyone present nodded. "They are a poor iteration of bot that doesn't mesh together in good times because they weren't carefully formatted in their beginning. When the 'Cons began to make combiners, they experimented on bots, mostly siblings sometimes without their agreement. Jhiaxus thought siblings could combine easier together because they were related. The first few combiners were a fragged up mess. They included the Stunticons. That combination was code named Menasor. They don't combine well and they don't mesh at all. None of them. They all hate Motormaster with all they got. It's extreme even for Decepticons not getting along and you can attest to that, right?" he asked glancing at Revo who was sitting next to Tracks.
The big ex-'Con grinned and nodded. "There isn't much esprit de corps in the 'Cons. Take my word for it. Even less so for most of the combiners. Maybe the Constructicons are the exception but not many others."
Sideswipe nodded. "These guys are brothers but you wouldn't know it from being around them. They all hate each other but they're united in an undying hatred of Motormaster."
"He's huge," Jessie said. "He looks as big as Optimus. Can Optimus take him?" she asked worriedly.
"He can. I remember when he and Motormaster had a head on collision," Sideswipe said nodding. "He was in a ground format and so was Motormaster. The Stunticons are among the very few 'Cons who have an exclusive grounder format. They were in combat and I stopped to watch, it was so epic. Motormaster decided to ram Prime and he was going about 250 from a standing stop. Optimus transformed and headed for him. The sound of that collision was amazing."
"I wish I had seen it," Kup said nodding.
Sideswipe paused as if thinking, then grinned. "You want to?"
Everyone yelled their planetary version of 'HELL THE FRAG YES!' at the top of their lungs in unison.
-0-TBC July 11, 2013
NOTES: Apparently Kelsey Grammer is going to play a counterintelligence guy in the TF4 movie.
There's a rat trap freightliner type truck tractor that speculation runs from whomever to Motormaster. :D There is also speculation that it could be Galvatron. Considering idiot boy has killed everyone else, he looks to be obliterating Galvatron too. Consider the next movie to have an incoherent bad guy on the 'Con side. (Sort of describes Bay) :D :D :D
"We believe in a world where humans and androids can coexist." -seen on a t-shirt made by common sense. :D :D: :D