The Diego Diaries: Talk 4 (415)
-0-Embassy
"You came just in the nick of time. We're doing check off testing on the bridges."
Ratchet grinned. "So I get to be your trial subject?"
"You do," the tech said with a grin. "Get ready. We're ready to send now."
Ratchet moved closer to the portal of the bridge and waited. The sound of the energy flared loudly as light filled the room with brilliance. They were in the lower level of the Embassy, a room that had been storage before the attack but had been modified for this device, the most advanced technology outside of their own bodies currently on the Earth.
The bridge would take him to Luna Base which had a bigger stronger bridge than this one. This bridge could reach the moon and every point necessary on Earth itself. The one on Luna would reach Mars but not beyond, bearing the limitation all bridges had: they could only go as far as their energy level could send. The bridges on Mars would take them to places beyond including the farthest reaches of the universe and back again. No place was out of the reach of the Trigger and the smaller formerly Decepticon bridge they'd liberated.
"You're go, Ratchet."
"Thanks, Hardi," Ratchet said as he stepped into the storm. It was a short walk through to the platform on Luna.
Wren who was second-in-command on Luna was waiting. He grinned. "Welcome back. What a bunch of lunatics on that committee," he said.
Ratchet grinned. "Three of them are. The other twelve are pretty smart and most of them are on our side."
Wren nodded. "If you say so. I would've blown holes through them. I don't know how you do it."
"I don't either," Ratchet said with a chuckle.
"Was cutting the meeting off okay? What are the repercussions of doing that?" Wren asked as the techs got ready to send again.
"I don't know. I think the only course at the time was cutting it off. I think letting the public talk about the crazy of those three is better than giving them more opportunity to make us look stupid. This way we control the narrative to some extent and limit damage from mistakes on our part." Ratchet watched the vortex appear. "Anything you need back home?" he asked with a grin.
"No. We already did a donut run," Wren said. He chuckled. It paid to have friends in bakeries.
Ratchet snorted, then walked into the storm. In a blink of an optic, he was walking into the reception room of the commercial airport at Autobot City. As he did, a group of humans on the tour saw him. They squeed and he took a moment to talk to them before begging off to walk to Ops Center at the Fortress.
They watched him g o, then followed to board the buses that would take them around the city before their last trip on shuttles for the planetary flyover that capped the journey from Earth.
He ambled to the Fortress, entering to snark, approval and WTF?'s from those who were there. He snarked, nodded appreciation and made short explanations before entering the nerve center. He walked to the table where Ironhide, Prowl, Prime, Alor, Blackjack and Flint sat waiting for his arrival. He sat. "Hi."
Prime grinned. "Hi yourself. I'm glad you pulled out leaving her the bad guy and not us. I'm, however, worried about the missing humans mention."
Ratchet nodded. "I am, too."
"I'm making a discreet search of law enforcement databases all over the United States and beyond," Prowl said as systems within and without him worked overtime to find the information requested.
"I believe that the vast majority of the panel follow the same path as the vast majority of the country and world in supporting us because they understand there's little hope of defending against these slaggers without us. It's instructive to allow them to show the world their paranoia and partiality to the Resistance which I believe they support," Ratchet said as he slipped Prowler over from where he sat on the table examining his peds with intense interest.
The baby grinned madly and hugged Ratchet's neck. "Atah."
"I see sparkling is still confused," Ratchet said with a chuckle.
"If someone would stop stealing him he might figure things out," Ironhide said glancing with a gimlet optic to Prime.
Prowl smirked.
"Waa," Alor said with a chuckle. "Poor little sparkling. And Prowler is sweet, too."
Ironhide shot a gimlet optic of his own at his ada. "Traitor. I'm surrounded by slaggers."
"Get used to it," Blackjack said taking Prowler into his own arms with great delight.
The infant smiled. "Ada."
Snickers met that as Ratchet relaxed. "I think we'd a standoff and both of us are at mid line in the game. I think we'll read more normal to the major populations than those three but the missing humans comment worries me."
Prime nodded. "Anything yet?" he asked Prowl.
"Nothing but missing persons cases so far," Prowl replied. "Right now, I'm just collecting data. I'll collate it when its all in. I could tell you so far that strange disappearances are showing up out in the western United States. There's similar data popping up in Australia."
"Superimpose the known structure of the Hive tunnels onto the locations of the missing humans, Prowl," Ratchet suggested.
Prowl nodded, then paused as the internals began to line up. He glanced at Prime. "There's a correlation. It could be that some humans have spotted random Insecticons wandering above ground and paid for it. I hope not."
Prime nodded grimly. "That makes things difficult. We have to isolate where the tunnels coincide with the surface or come close. Maybe we can seal or mine them against further access above ground."
"I'll get Wheeljack and Perceptor on it and we can build what they would need. It'd have to be deep or humans might blow themselves up spelunking or something weird like that," Ironhide said.
Prime nodded. "Get with Prowl and take the data, Ironhide. Have a plan with them as soon as possible. I want to see it."
Ironhide nodded.
They sat chatting together in busy room, playing with Prowler as they listened to the talking heads on the monitors discussing the truncated committee meeting on Earth. The three humans were getting a lot of slag from most, though some sided with the hardliners.
But then they always did before. Nothing would actually change when all was said and done. The polls would support the Autobots and the small number of fearful humans who wanted EVERYONE gone would not change.
-0-On the way back
Smokey, Blurr, three techs and a civilian stood in the bridge room at Diego waiting to go. Springer and Drift had declined stating they would return later. The bots had gone ahead and when the vortex appeared, they entered and were gone. Springer and Drift by then were gone, too.
Springer and Drift had sassed with Ratchet, then watched him go, more than aware that he knew what they were about. Heading back to walk to the beach, they paused next to the shimmering beauty of the vast ocean. "I'll never get used to this sight," Springer said quietly. He stared at the ocean which lapped gently at his peds.
"I know," Drift said as he waited for Springer to talk about what was bothering him so much. The big mech's energy was bad. "What do you want to do?"
"I want to see this guy," Springer said quietly. "I just want to see him."
"Okay," Drift said.
Springer then moved to one side. He transformed into his plane format, one he had on Cybertron.
Drift climbed on top of the vessel to grip tightly, then the two flew off into the bright blue sky.
-0-At the studio
Sunstreaker sat at the table he used to view photographic images, one that was back lit. He had several thousand of them to choose from in the mass he'd taken earlier. Discarding those with obvious defects except for several of each that were amusing, he began to organize and select the best possible images for the family's personal albums and the card project for the colony.
Bob was laying on the floor by the window, his body relaxed and his attitude improved. His fear was dissipating among the family. The infants loved him and he'd grown to love them. They climbed on him and he allowed it. Most of the time he wandered wherever Sunstreaker went. The big Lambo took Dawg and him everywhere with him.
Dawg was laying on the floor, his belly up and legs splayed as his tongue lolled out. He was the quintessential bull dog. The sun shown in brightly as the afternoon slowly slipped past morning. Lunch would be soon enough. He would meet Bluestreak and Sideswipe at Club Hoyle. Food, beer and billiards. It would be perfect.
-0-At the airport
Smokey and the others arrived, then stepped out. Heading to the city, the group divided up as Smokey left Blurr who headed for his bar. When he reached Club Hoyle, he entered. His grand genitors had left heading for duty but other bots were there lounging around.
Hot Rod who had left for Mars earlier watched as the youngling searched the room. He raised his servo and caught Smokey's optics. "Come on over," he called out.
Smokey grinned. Walking over, he pulled out a chair and sat. A number of bots were there as well playing cards. They dealt them and the game began. Smokey would play with skill learned at the knee of his Grand Ada. He would not notice the scrutiny that Hot Rod was giving him.
Others would though.
-0-In America
They flew in avoiding detection as Springer utilized technology unknown to humans to hide his profile from radar. They flew over the northeast heading for Michigan, a journey from Diego that was accomplished in about ten minutes. By the time they reached the place they were heading it was mid morning and the sun was already getting hot. Heading for a secluded field off a side road Springer touched down.
Drift slid down and turned to his partner. Stretching, he watched as Springer transformed. "That was a scary ride. That's one big ocean."
"I know. Tell me about it," Springer said with a grin. "Up to a drive?"
"I am," Drift said. "Do you know where we're going?"
"Yeah. I googled it," Springer said with the first snicker he had in two orns.
They transformed, then drove across the field toward the nearby road. Turning off, they continued onward heading for a filming site that was nearby. They disappeared from view right away.
-0-Mars
The card game continued with Smokey winning every other hand.
Whirlaway tossed in his cards. "You play like your Grand Ada. Slagger."
Smokey grinned. "He's really good isn't he."
"He is," Hot Rod said. "What else do you do well?"
Smokey glanced at him. "I shoot really well. I fight pretty well. I have a lot to learn but I have skills already."
All of the mechs sitting around the table who got the subtext that Smokey missed smirked.
"Devcon and Smokescreen are good models," Sandstorm said glancing at Hot Rod pointedly. "Devcon. Smokescreen."
Hot Rod looked at them with the ghost of a smile. "I know."
"My Grand Ada plays better than anyone I know," Smokey said missing the interplay as he dealt the cards again. "Ante up," he said with a smile.
"No problem," Hot Rod said with a smirk. He did. So did everyone else.
-0-Out there
They built their own base on a planetoid that had been floating in space since the beginning of time. It was big enough for their ships and had enough minerals for their needs. Chunks and fragments of energon floated in the empty space around them, enough to provide food and energy requirements without much effort. All they had to do was gather it in its large and small pieces.
They were pirates now, marauders of the universe hitting ships and on world locations wherever they found the advantage. Their leader was a big mech, a brutal Terrorcon named Kard. He was big, bore a body count on his blue armor and had a level of intelligence that was unusual for Decepticons. He was smart, tactical and brutal. He was also aware of Prime and the migration route that their people were using to go to him. He was aware of two big groups coming and the potential to make trouble. He needed things to build up his position. He also needed to enlarge his group. There were two others pillaging around the sector, too, that were competition.
He hated competition.
Standing at the view port of his vessel, a ship that was his headquarters even with the rising structures outside, he considered the migrations that were coming. They would be sitting ducks for his troops and he was going to test the Prime. He had no idea how strong that mech was but he was going to be ready to find out. Prime would have competition for supremacy of the sector.
He'd also enjoy taking over the others one by one. Two other pirate groups roaming about and two settled battle groups were crowding his territory. Even now, that's what he thought about the sector. It was the practice of their faction to win the leadership of all by force. He was prepared to do so against all of them.
Including Prime.
-0-On the job
They didn't notice two new vehicles driving nearby as they slowly passed the turn off that led to the filming site. Police had blocked the road with one squad car staying to watch. Down the winding road the film crew was working on chase scenes. Michael Bay and his crew were staging some important scenes, important enough that he'd decided to film them himself rather than his second unit team.
Pulling over out of view of the cops, Springer sent the message to the drivers of the cars hired to carry Bay to the set. After a few moments, two black sedans pulled up to the cops, then drove off heading for the city far away where they were dispatched to bring things to the director. That they were dispatched by Autobots was ironic but unknown to both. When they drove past, the Autobots scanned their format entering it into their own databases. Waiting as other cars disappeared, they reformatted swiftly.
"This is a fragged format, Springer," Drift said as he changed from sexy sleek sports concept car to a Mercedes sedan.
"I hear ya," Springer said. "I barely fit this shape."
"Throwing your height advantage in my face again?" Drift said with a grin.
"Anytime I can," Springer said pulling out. "Pop a hologram. We have a film scene to watch." He drove off toward the road and cop. Both would get though easily, then find themselves several miles down a road where they would sit and watch Prime chase Motormaster through what looked like flour bombs as the chase scene was filmed. It would be interesting. It would also take a while for Bay to come to the car for a drive back to the city. It would be an interesting orn all around for everyone.
-0-TBC August 30, 2013 edited 5-1-14 12-04-2022