The Diego Diaries: Throw Down 2 (418)
-0-Out there
They entered the ships finding mechs lying on the decks, many of them in very bad condition. Kup who was leading a group in place of Springer who was still on Earth glanced around to take in the hierarchy of need. The smell of illness and injury filled the ship as everywhere he looked bodies lay. Stepping over youngling mechs, he made his way forward. :Kup to Prime. Send medics. We have an ungodly mess here. Hurry:
Prime who was listening nodded to Ironhide. He put out the call. Back at Autobot City, they would be gearing up for a catastrophe even as more ships lifted off with doctors and medics. It was a level four emergency.
Nitro who heard Kup shifted in his seat.
Ironhide who had promised to go with him to find his brother called internally to the captain of the group. :Ironhide to Jet:
:Jet here:
:Which ship has Combo:
:Stand by: An agonizing moment passed then he was back. :The Doria II, the red ship in the pack:
:Thanks: Glancing at Prime, Ironhide leaned forward. "I'd like to go to the Doria II with Nitro, Prime."
Prime glanced at Nitro, then nodded.
Ironhide rose and looked down at Nitro. "Tow me to the red ship."
Nitro rose and walked to the door with Ironhide nearby. Nitro stepped out of the hatch to transform.
Ironhide pushed off the ship and grabbed Nitro to grip him tightly. They flew off together.
Prime looked at the scene outside of the two disappearing toward the ships in the mass and sat back grimly. This was going to be their worst case scenario it seemed.
They sped swiftly through the ships heading toward a red convoy vessel that bore the marks of fire. Its sides were scored and burns showed against its careworn finish.
Reaching the hatch, Ironhide magnetized on its hull as Nitro transformed to grip the door. :Ironhide to ship captain, open up: he said as medics made their way swiftly across the hull. They'd jumped from a shuttle and were heading to the hatch.
The hatch popped as everyone slipped inside pausing to see what was what. It was dark, as if the systems were failing. They could've been for all he knew but Ironhide stepped closer, then stopped again. Against the hulls all along the corridor of the ship bots huddled. Many of them were young Decepticons, miners and other servant class bots. They'd been badly used, many of them incoherent from suffering. The smell was strong of spilled energon and death. :Ratchet, There's a disaster here. Bots are in horrendous shape: Ironhide said finally.
:I know. We're sending for more medical personnel and platform ships. The Supremes are all coming. Hang on, Ironhide. We're getting there: Ratchet replied.
Ironhide glanced at Nitro who stared at the scene before him with stunned optics. Then he moved forward looking at each individual before disappearing into the darkness. Ironhide watched him go, then leaned down to a femme who looked like she was at death's door. "Hang on. We're here to rescue you."
The femme looked at him incoherently as she sat clutching an unconscious youngling mech to her chassis. The hatch opened as more medical personnel entered bringing techs to boost the light and environmental systems on board. Ironhide watched a moment, then followed up the corridor that Nitro had disappeared down.
-0-Kappa Supreme
Ratchet coordinated the massive response. A platform ship made their way to all of the vessels pulling up beside them. Their hatches slid back as the force field that kept the atmosphere and gravity inside became evident from the shimmering energy that it exuded across the open doorway. Medics had accessed each ship and the news wasn't good. This group had fled with extremely injured and abused mechs and femmes including families with infants and elders.
They'd fought their way through one area, oddly enough making it when another group had come to their rescue. That group was led by someone who only identified themselves as Cicero. It then turned back to go on its way. Ratchet had forwarded that news to Prime unaware of who or what they might be.
They'd fled onward battling injuries, sick crew and dwindling supplies. They'd turned away from easier end games such as Paragon and Cyclonus who sent them messages to come. They'd avoided Soundwave like the plague as they were aware of the orders about desertion. They headed onward toward the Prime with the forlorn desperate hope that he would take them in and help them.
Jet stood exhausted and shaking on the deck of his ship as behind him he could hear the Autobots moving forward caring for his crew. He'd been the leader of the group taking the place of his father who lay in stasis in his cabin along with his ada. Both of them were injured taking hits during the attack earlier that had nearly done them in. Without the intervention of Cicero, they would've been destroyed. He himself was a low level soldier, a miner and of minimal experience but he'd stepped in for his father taking over control. They'd flown in a straight line taking care of each other as best they could and experienced the slow terrifying journey into starvation together.
Experienced captains flew the other ships following him. He'd been incredibly surprised when they did so without usurping control of the group. He didn't know that they were injured, too, and were hanging on just barely. He was actually the most physically capable mech in the command structure. A footfall behind him made him turn around. He looked with feverish optics at the medic walking toward him. He heard him speaking from far away but it was too distant to his fevered processor to understand. He took a step, then fell on his knees reaching out to lie down on the deck.
The medic rushed to him and turned him over, listening to the youngling whispering in his feverish state. "Hang on, kid. We're going to help you. Just hang on," he said as he began to work to save Jet's life.
-0-At Club Hoyle
He tossed the cards on the table and began to rise when a good natured voice spoke to him. "Where are you going?"
Smokey glanced back to see Hot Rod walking toward him. He grinned. "I was going to get dinner. No one is off duty until later."
Hot Rod grinned. "I'll go with you," he said. The youngling before him was good looking, young and fun. Just up Roddy's alley. "Come on. Let's go eat."
Smokey walked with Hot Rod to the door.
The bartender watched them go, then shook his helm. Devcon wouldn't like it, he thought. He wouldn't want to be Hot Rod's aft if Devcon decided to kick it. With a grin, he turned back to getting ready for the night crowd which would be coming in a couple of joors.
-0-Kappa
Swoop stood beside Ratchet as he worked taking things away and getting others as Ratchet directed. He, himself was a bit of a medic and knew enough to be useful. Injured, ill mechs and the odd femme were brought over, many of them with actual wounds. Some of them were from fighting, others from abuse, some from both. Apparently under the command of Galvatron, gladiatorial contests were revived with anyone he wanted to see fight being forced to do so. Some of the mechs were just beaten by him for minor offenses. Apparently when they didn't meet exacting standards he took it upon himself to inflict punishment.
They were traumatized. Two femmes were silent and distraught containing their hysteria and tears internally. He would find out later that their sparklings had been found out and killed by Galvatron in a fit of rage. Their mechs had been hung up by their wrists for orns and orns in the elements, starved and beaten for their offenses. Only the defection by the group gave all of them a chance to live.
The commander of their group, Jet's atar Barc had taken them away and led the retreat from the Empire through guile and sheer guts. He'd been injured and only stasis had saved his life. His son Jet was the leader by default as the group's brain trust began to fall one by one. It was a horror show but they'd made it following the Seeker underground instructions, what help the Network could give them and Prime's call. It was harrowing in every possible way.
The medical teams had reached each ship and were assessing patients, transferring according to severity of need as they worked to get ready for transfer the 799 individuals to take to Mars. Most of them would require hospitalization and the city's medical community was ready to receive them.
Down the corridor Nitro went staring at each wan haggard face with a growing sense of desperation. Coming to a series of rooms, he peered inside until in the last one he found who he was searching for. Stepping inside, he looked at a mech lying on a berth as still as death. :Combo?: he asked touching the youngling mech with almost an incapacitating fear. :Combo? Its me, Nitro. I came to get you:
A slight movement as red optics on-lined greeted that as the youngling struggled to come to sentience.
Nitro slid his arms under the youngling gently picking him up. :Combo?: he asked with rising fear and emotion.
Ironhide stepped into the room. Nitro was holding a limp young Seeker mech in his arms. He looked at Ironhide with intense fear. :Ironhide! I have to get him help!:
Ironhide nodded. :Follow me: he said.
Nitro did as they walked out passing a medic as they headed for the hatch and the open doors of Xantium floating side-by-side with the Doria II.
-0-On the command ship
Prime sat listening to the cross talk of the medics and soldiers who were assisting them. It was hell inside the ships as the conditions of the passengers began to appear on the monitors. Data scrolled slowly as it was entered by the medic techs working with the doctors and field medics assessing each of the individuals aboard. There were damaged sparklings, tortured individuals, some beaten within an inch of their lives and some at death's door. Most of them were in extreme condition with some only breems away from death.
The work of the rescue was fever pitched as they swarmed the ships taking stabilized individuals off by runabouts from the holds of the guardians. They flew with extreme dispatch to the bridge nearby disappearing inside to the city to unload at the hospitals and return.
It would take about four joors before everyone was attended to, the extreme cases dealt with here, the rest taken ahead to the city on the other side of infinity. Prime would wait with the Seekers, Guardians, soldiers, shuttles and everyone else. His ship would be the last one to go through the vortex.
It would close and nothing would be left to show that anything terrible had happened at that point, not even the desiccated ships the refugee Decepticons had come on.
-0-At the Medical Hospital Tower landing pad
Ratchet stepped off helping a stretcher be downloaded. Medical students and Home Guard took the stretcher and moved forward as Ratchet ran to the entrance and an elevator ride to the Emergency floor below. Entering, he noted the pace and efficiency of his teams. Breakdown was helping a delirious mech stay on his gurney as he was wheeled into Knockout's surgery. That worthy was finishing up the repairs he'd done to a mech who looked like he'd been slashed by a sword across his chassis and face.
Turning from the scene, he walked into each surgery noting the patients and the work being done at peak speed and efficiency by his doctors, nurses, med techs and data technicians. He was thrilled at some level that they were there as the grim old orns of him being the sole doctor begged to come into his memory. He quashed them and took a dire case himself. He would work on a processor that had been beaten to a pulp pulling a Decepticon youngling back from death, then turn to others who needed him.
When they'd finished the last treatment every single one of the 799 individuals would fill the wards, intensive care units and private graduated care rooms of the entire building and the hospital at Metroplex. It would be the most worse off set of refugees in the history of the migration route so far. One of them would be Nitro's young brother, Combo. He'd be in intensive care recovering from surgery to repair his wings, back, legs and processor. He'd been beaten many times, hung up by his wings, a process that nearly tore them from his body and deprived of fluids to the point of death.
Only Galvatron leaving with Megatron had saved their lives. Only when that mech was gone were they able to take ships, load every single mech and femme in the location on board and begin their terrible flight to safety. Without Megatron's need to seek allies, none of the individuals in the hospital this orn would've lived.
Ratchet stood in the intensive care dictating instructions to his doctors, collaborating on care and getting information as the last bots were delivered to rooms and wards for recovery. He would be there for joors helping to make things right. He would spend a little bit of time with Nitro and Ironhide as well as Nitro's bond and his distraught genitors who were overwhelmed at the thought of their son's retrieval and his dastardly condition.
Ironhide stood beside Nitro who held his brother's servo as tears slid down his face. "I should've made sure he stayed with me. This is my fault."
Ironhide stepped in front of Nitro. "This is Galvatron's fault, Nitro. You know it and I know it."
Nitro looked at Ironhide with anguish. "You said you would come with me when we found him."
"I did," Ironhide said quietly. "And I'll go with you when we find Galvatron. I'll help you kill him."
Nitro nodded. "Okay," he said rising as his genitors came back in from talking to the doctors. Goldwing had spoken with them telling of the long convalescence that awaited the youngling. They would take him into their home and make him their priority. He would recover and they would see to it.
"We can stay, Nitro," his atar said, his body stiff with agonized fear and misery. "Why don't you go eat dinner with your family. Then you can come back if you want. We'll stay with him, son."
His ada nodded. "We will, son. You and the family go eat. Maybe Ironhide will go with you."
Ironhide nodded. "I will. Come on, Nitro. Your daughter needs to see you."
Nitro stared at his brother, then looked at Ironhide with an agonized expression. Nodding, he hugged his genitors, then with his bond walked out with Ironhide. His daughter was with friends. She wouldn't be seeing Uncle Combo for a while.
It was quiet as Amot and Argosy sat down taking their son's servo into theirs. "This isn't the homecoming I'd prayed for, Amot."
Amot nodded. "I'm filled with rage, Argosy. I'm filled with such intense loathing and hatred I can hardly think."
Argosy took his servo and squeezed it. "I know. Right now we must help our son get well. Then we can worry about the rest."
Amot nodded. Then he burst into tears.
-0-TBC September 2, 2013 edited 7-6-14 12-04-2022