The Diego Diaries: Paradigm Shifted 2 (520) edited
-0-Autobot City Education and University Tower, Autobot City, Mars
Herling sat in his office watching the data numbers increasing. He had left the welcoming committee early to help with the dismissal of those infants who were going home with their genitors. Nova had left earlier with Diesel and Flinn. Both needed berth time. He himself was overseeing the registration of all new infants in the three public schools as well as inquiries and registrations for apprentice, tech and university programs for adults and sub adults. They were still coming in though the flood had abated. It would pick up when the morning came again.
Out in the lobby, an array of personnel for the Education Department labored as they explained enrollment, testing for placement and all the rest. Most of the students this time around were younglings for the Day School with a large number of pending sparklings upon separation and the usual 'need to keep them with me' bunch … or what Herling liked to call the 'Ironhide Sneaky Stealth Period' following their birth.
A number of older students were going to be listed on the rolls as well. It was glorious. They would be able to absorb all of the students thus far known but there were a large number out there that would come in the next few orns or would have to be hunted down. The genitors from too many places and bitter circumstances didn't know or remember that school was compulsory for their infants. He sat sipping his energon, snacking on the treats he had 'liberated' in the staff room as he watched the nearby monitor in his office show the last of the refugees walk toward Prime on the air field nearby.
-0-A small family on Metroplex 1
They walked out of Metroplex Station #1 into the evening crowd. Lil sat in her Ada's arms, 26 picking her up to keep from losing her. They had made a wrong turn ending up in Crystal City before getting back on for the Circle Line to carry them to The City. They had gone the circuitous route once again passing through Centurian as the train rolled through the Tri-Cities, the Industrial Park, Terra, Pax, then Autobot City. They got off at last after a rather thrilling underground tour, then stood to one side to orient.
Nearby, they could see the airfield. A long line, two actually were walking toward Prime and his officers who had spread out more than either adult could remember in their exhaustion when they had met him. Both paused with their children to watch. As they did they could see a great number of armed mechs come closer to form a ring behind and around the area just out of sight.
"We need to move out of the line of fire, 26," Avor said picking up his son. They turned, then Avor called out. "Everyone, get back. There could be shooting!"
Everyone in the sound of his voice paused, glanced at the airfield, then turned moving away swiftly. Avor gripped 26's arm, the two hurrying toward the Mare Tranquilitatis and better cover. It was a good idea.
-0-Herling
He saw the breakdown of the looming confrontation at the airfield, then rose to hurry to the door. He was in the lobby, then outside in a moment.
-0-Avor, 26, Boe and Lil
They fell back with the crowds melting into the businesses, those who couldn't go in hugging the walls and windows as they watched, their infants turned behind them so that they could shield their babies with their own bodies. The sound of running peds caught their attention as a horde of Day and Night Watch officers reached the scene. "Go! Go there!" a mech said to the four and several others huddling against the windows of a business.
Avor turned and ran for the Mare Tranquilitatis with 26 who had Lil as Boe clung to his father tightly. Others followed until everyone was clear. Herling reached the street just as the civilians reached him. He directed them into the tower to safety. Then he hurried to Club Cybertron to stand with others at the corner to peer down the narrow alley toward the airfield.
That was when the shooting commenced.
-0-The Hourly News: BREAKING NEWS!
Lim-Lee appeared shaken but composed. "We have just received breaking news that there is a gunfight currently underway at the Military Airfield. Everyone who is in the vicinity is ordered to retreat to safety in buildings or other spaces until the siren signals all clear. Repeat. There is a shoot out at the airfield and all are requested to be clear of the area so that the army and civil authorities can take charge of the situation. Repeat ..."
-0-At the school nearby
The monitor played the message but several genitors stopping in to take their infants home had spun around leaving with haste to the airfield. Among their number were Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.
-0-At Club Hoyle
The high castes in the corner paused along with everyone else at the news that a gun fight was going on nearby. Several mechs stood up and swiftly ran for the door disappearing. Default, Commotion and Kale watched them go, then sat back glancing at each other. "Wanna go watch?" Kale asked.
"Sure," Commotion said with a smile on his face. They jumped up, then ran for the door. They would be at the airfield in seconds.
-0-The road gangs
Their ships were covered with gang sign, the markings that identified them to others as dangerous, semi-depraved and scary. They were the worst of the worst on Cybertron, predators of the highest degree who had fear of no one or nothing. They hated each other passionately, even more than the authorities who had made it a priority to quell them, resorting in the Clampdown to the tactics used against Shockwave and other dissidents in the past. Sentinel Prime loathed them with the power of a thousand suns even as he sometimes wandered in their environs for the thrill of it.
It hadn't worked of course, their suppression tactics. They seemed to grow two for every one taken down and the ones who had survived this far were the most ruthless, the most dangerous of all. They paused long enough to glare at each other on the tarmac, then began to walk toward the group waiting for them.
"Frag. That looks like the road crew from Kaon," Ratchet said. "The Race Track Patrol. Who is the other one?" Ratchet said as he began to move to the side, the others stepping back with him. He glanced at Neo. "Run."
She looked at him, then did. As she turned to run the violence commenced.
-0-The Hourly News: BREAKING NEWS!
"The Office of Emergency Management asks anyone in proximity to the Military Airfield in Autobot City to leave the area. If you have to expose yourself to probable or possible gunfire to do so then stay put. Those in the Fortress and the street environs, seek shelter and stay put. The Army and Watch are on their way. Please keep off the emergency lines and stay away from the area. You will impede officers on their duty. The Office of Emergency Management asks ..."
-0-Neo
She watched them approach, a group that began taunting and calling out the moment their peds hit the ground. They were obviously bad news so she moved closer to Ratchet. In her rather sheltered life experience it didn't occur to her to run.
When she did rounds were flying.
-0-The Road Gangs
The Race Track Patrol of Kaon was a terrorist group of long standing on Cybertron which was controlled by Barricade. He had built a fast hard hitting homicidal criminal empire that at last brought him into the optical range of Detective Prowl of Praxus. Barricade had managed to dominate the violent underworld of Kaon through brute force and a coldness of spark that was murderous and unforgiving. Because he was beginning to muscle into other territories, he was bringing feuds together with some of the worst elements in the Cybertronian underworld.
Now they had made it to Mars and upon spying each other, the old hatreds and grudges burst into flames. They had nearly made it to Prime when someone shoved someone else. That was when guns were pulled from subspace.
-0-Venture
He stood with Nitro watching with growing alarm the ferocity of the mechs walking toward them. They were as scary a group of individuals as a nice mech from a privileged protected background had ever seen in real life. As he stood with gathering foreboding a servo gripped his arm and he felt himself lifted off his peds. Flying upward, then straight down, he fell on his chassis as someone's servo pressed him flat. "STAY DOWN!" a voice called, Prowl's voice. Raising his helm slightly, he saw his son stand and pull a big gun at the same time. Prowl then turned calmly and pointed it at the bad guys.
Next to him as he peeked upward and around watching almost in slow motion as the bots around him either began to run, were shoved down or began to pull weapons his mind strained to process what he was seeing. Squint, Scar and Nitro pulled guns, then turned to the front, their weapons pointing at the newcomers. Jetta and Elita along with Arcee jumped on the priests and Alpha Trion pushing them down as they knelt, their own weapons pointed to cover them.
Ratchet and Ironhide who were standing next to Starscream turned to move swiftly toward the humans who were standing only dimly aware of what was happening on shipping crates nearby. As all of this began, everyone involved with filming continued including the oblivious crews from IntraComm and Platoon.
Ultra Magnus with Bluestreak stepped forward pulling weapons as they came even with Starscream who was watching without movement and Prime who was turning to look at everyone involved.
That was when the first bullets and blasts hit their party.
-0-Rampage
He stood looking without comprehension. Something should be happening he thought. He should be doing something, a thing that one did in the middle of a battle but he had nothing. He had learned his record, perfecting the facade of his former horrific past to use for his Prime and colony but he had no experience to act upon in the midst of fire. That had gone with his processor glitch. So he did what he felt was right. He turned and knelt covering the priests with his body. Even though his will was ferocious and he was willing to fight and die for the city, his experience was nil. For now.
-0-Prime
Experience kicked in his reactions even as time slowed down in that strangely relative way it did in the moment of extremity. All around him mechs were moving to do their job. Neo was running away. The priests and Alpha Trion were down under the protection of Rampage as Jetta, Elita and Arcee rose to fight. Ratchet and Ironhide had reached the humans and were pulling them off the top of the shipping crates. Prowl was there. Venture was down. Starscream was watching the show as if it were on television.
Prime shoved Starscream. "Watch out!"
Starscream looked at him, then the Great Elder who was standing quietly beside him. "We are."
Prime turned just as bullets and energy began to tear up the tarmac.
-0-At the corner of Metroplex 1 and 3
Avor and 26 stood on the pathway that led to the towers nearby including the schools where they were headed. The administration of the entire educational system of Mars was housed in that building expanding into some of the rooms vacated by the Sparkling Day School when it moved to Terra. A large crowd had hurried to safety in the businesses along the highway that bordered the Metroplex District. The buildings were safe because the transparent steel windows were impermeable to most fire.
As they stood watching, a pair of mechs sped up the highway toward them swords flashing before making impossible turns to head for the battle nearby. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had arrived.
-0-Roller Force
He had stepped off his ship well aware that the race track patrol that ruled Iacon, their direst enemy was also deplaning. They had found out about each other in the thinning process. As the manageable were taken away first, that left a dwindling number of ships in the mass. The signatures of most ships were easy to ascertain at that point, most of them discounted as civilians. The ones with the criminal element were not so much. When they came off their ships, the hot helms among them decided to even old grudges. Whether it was with Autobots or other criminals, no one cared. The shooting then began.
-0-At a corner nearby
Kale, Commotion and Default stood against a wall watching the slag as it exploded all around them. Commotion, someone with as little sense and experience with the hard realities of real violence and a lifelong habit of chasing danger glanced at his comrades. "I bet I can make it to that pile of cargo boxes without getting shot."
"I bet you can't," Kale said with a grin. Default for once staying rooted in reality gripped Commotion's arm. "Don't. This is like war."
"Frag that. Watch this," he said as he moved swiftly. He had to cross the empty space between himself and the Fortress that formed the southwest corner of the Military Air Field. He had to make it through the intersection, then across the sidewalk to the cargo depot. Ironhide and Ratchet who had managed to get the humans out of harms way turned to go forward into battle. As they did, Commotion reached the intersection.
Ironhide and Ratchet ran to the right of the group that was massed to shoot at each other and everyone else halfway to where Prime was standing. They didn't see the civilian make a break for the cargo depot. The soldier humans who were crouching down watching did. So did the human civilians including 2 important members of the United States Congress. The scientists who looked up watched with the rest of them as a big mech appeared. He ran swiftly, a smile on his face. Nearby, blowing in like jet planes, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker appeared. They flashed past, their swords raised for combat, all impossible turning radius and angry beauty.
Will Lennox peered over the edge of the cargo crate, then turned to stare at the youngling heading toward them at high speed. That is he was until the plasma charge hit his chest catching him in mid stride. He came to a jarring halt, his peds flying up as a molten ball of fire caught him in the chassis. He flew upward, then back landing hard on the ground. As he did, the cargo boxes began to take hits.
-0-TBC November 19, 2013
NOTE: Cliffjumper's name originally was supposed to be Blowout. :D