The Diego Diaries: Titan 7 (541) edited
-0-On site
The sounds were settling, then replaced by the flashing lights and wailing sirens of emergency vehicles. They paused some distance back from the silent ship which lay slightly askew in a billowing mound of dirt and hard rocks. Towering over his massive size were three more titans, Metrobase, Metrocon and Fortress Maximus. They still appeared to be jarred by the experience, one with such deadly consequences that even battle hardened soldiers were shaken.
Jessie stood to one side, the rest of their group having caught up. Then she stepped forward. :Fort Max!: she called out.
He glanced around, then down searching for her on the ground. :Jessie Landon:
:Are you alright? I think I'm going to cry: she said with great emotion.
He looked at her a second, then walked around Metrotitan. When he reached the humans, he knelt down. :I am alright. All is well again:
:What about Tyke and Ace? Are they going to be alright?: Jessie asked as she watched Max lower a servo.
:They will be. Come. I want you and the others to meet someone: he said as he watched the soldiers run to climb onto the massive servo of the titan, helping each other upward. The others hesitated a moment, then ran forward climbing aboard with assistance as well. They all fit on one servo, the entire group of 19 individuals. He curved his digits, then began to rise. Up into the air they went, all of them clinging to the Autobot. He turned and began to walk around Titan again, the heavy jarring of of his peds cushioned by the care with which he carried his cargo.
The civilians and the three new generals who had never been to Mars before clung to Max as one of them ventured a picture of the two titans waiting for Max to join them. They were facing Max, their massive antenna finials and great red visors giving them an oddly imperturbable expression. The pictures taken half a mile in the air would become front page all over the Earth in a few days and win the best pictures of 2013 overall by media organizations world wide.
He paused, then looked at the humans who sat or stood in the middle of his massive servo. :These two mechs are my brothers. This is Metrobase: he said nodding to the first. Base nodded back. :This is Metrocon: Turning to look at the field behind them, he glanced at the humans. :That is Acroplex. We call him Ace. No one in our format is a better shot than him:
:Is he going to be okay, Max?: Jessie asked anxiously.
:I believe he will be. He told us he has begun to work on his own injuries now that Titan is under Ratchet's care:
Metrobase nodded. :Tyke is not himself. Something has been downloaded into his systems. None of us would become Decepticons willingly. None of us ever were but for Tyke. I fear he will be utterly remorseful when he comes back to himself:
:We'll help him: Jessie said firmly. The three bots grinned. :Have you called the others of your kind? Are you going to have Prime do it? They need to come here. No one can hunt you here:
:We did not know the Prime still lived. We only had a lonely hope. We can ask him to do this for us over our coded lines: Metrocon said as the others nodded. :No one, even the bounty hunters can read that encryption:
:We want you all here: Jessie said firmly. :All of you:
Metrobase actually smiled. :Be careful what you wish for: he said as they all nodded. :When we can travel together, we travel in pods:
:Like killer whales: Jessie said with a grin. :I like that image:
For a moment they stood quietly, then all grinned. :We do too: Max said.
They paused as if listening, then Base leaned down. Everyone peered downward watching as Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide and Springer climbed aboard his servo. Then it rose reaching the level where everyone else was standing. Ratchet looked at the humans, then nodded. :You need to be somewhere safe. We are going to have you three pull Titan back to the pad. He's in stasis and we're working on the virus:
Max nodded. :We will place them over there by the city. Then we will pull Titan back. Prime: Max asked pausing. :We would like you to call on our channels for our format to come here. We need them to be here safe with us:
Prime nodded. :I will do that tonight, Max. When everything is settled and all are being cared for, call for me before you seat yourself. I feel the same way:
They looked at him with relief. :Very well: Max said as he looked at the humans. :Jessie, John and Glenn, please help the humans with you be safe while we do this. Titan is very big and you are very small:
:We will: Jessie said with a nod.
Turning with care, Max walked to the edge of Terra, then reached down until his servo was flat on the ground. The humans moved, sliding off his digits, then turned to watch him stand back up. :Everyone come this way: Morshower said as he turned. They walked over mounds of dirt and rocks that had been churned up by Max's peds, finally reaching the edge of the city to stand on the destroyed highway that still led into Terra. Crowds had gathered, some of the younglings running to stand by the familiar humans. They all turned to watch.
"Ratchet," Metrobase said to the little bot standing on his servo with a repaired leg. "I am so happy to see you. We are in need of your skills once again."
"I am glad to be here too, Base. I will help all of you. I am training three other doctors to be city format physicians but you are the most difficult, complex mechanisms ever created. It will take more time but having you here to work on will speed up the process for them. I will have them bond with you when I finish assessing your hurts. It might take a few orns."
"We are happy to wait," Con said nodding. "We understand the problem. Our automatic systems can fix a lot of things."
"That's true. Having genuinely good energon will too. We serve grade A and A- to all of our people," Ratchet said with a grin.
"How?" Base asked with surprise. Surprise on their faces was as strikingly beautiful as almost every other expression they could form. The handsomeness of the mega formats was legendary. It was no different now as Ratchet watched them.
"I'll let Max and Metroplex explain it. They will have lots of stories to swap with you four. We hope you bundle what you know out there and send it to Prowl and Prime. We want to know those things," Ratchet said.
Con nodded. "We will. We were separated. We, Base and I found Acroplex a while back. He was hunting Titan. That was how we came together, hunting for Titan. Bounty hunters were chasing him. They didn't for long," Con said with satisfaction. "They were deeply surprised when the three of us teleported out of thin air."
Ratchet grinned. "Score," he said. "What do you need us to do to help you, boys?"
"Stand back," Max said. Base turned lowering his servo until the bots could jump off. They turned and began to run to a pile of earth and rocks nearby. Climbing up, they turned to watch as the three titans knelt to speak to the seven Supremes.
"They look like younglings, Omega and his sibs," Springer said with a grin. "Looks like genitors talking to their infants."
"It does," Ratchet said as the Aerialbots gathered nearby.
They stood slowly as Omega, his siblings and the Aerialbots moved back and away. They stood together, a forest of imposing mechanisms completely dwarfed by the giants standing in front of them. After a moment's discussion, Base and Con stepped forward stopping before the leading edge of Titan's ship format, their backs to Acroplex several miles away. Holding their servos out, their palms displayed toward Titan, a pair of tight yellow beams shot out of the flat surface. The light landed on Titan and seemed to grip him.
Max who came to stand behind Titan pressed his servos on the big format's superstructure. Base and Con stepped back pulling Titan with them. With Max pushing, they began to move him up the slight slope that had nearly proved fatal to an entire city of several hundreds of thousands.
Slowly, carefully, Titan began to move. When they reached the surface of the level ground, he slid rather easier. It churned and broke up more as they did. It was only when they reached the pad that the effort paid off. He slid easily back to the place where he had landed next to Acroplex. When they reached that point, they relaxed, the beams disappeared and the emergency teams could come forward.
Ratchet who watched turned to Prime. "This is going to take a while. I will put programming on Ace and Tyke to work out their problems but I'm going to begin with Base and Con. I want them seated as soon as possible. Jetta is working on that isn't he? The sooner they sit, the better their nutritional aspect can become. I would HATE to treat this size bot for protoform wasting."
Prime nodded. "He is and I will check. Take what you need. Do what you have to do, Ratchet. The city is here for your use. The infants will be cared for in the family."
"Thank you, Optimus. Make sure you burp Springer after he eats," Ratchet said as he began to climb down the berm. Catcalls followed him until he transformed and sped off with a loud blast of his horn.
Watching him go, Ironhide shook his helm. "Old mech has a screw loose. Needs a diagnostic or something."
"You volunteering?" Springer asked with a wicked smirk. It lasted until he was pushed over backwards and rolled down the mound of dirt to the bottom.
Leaning over, Ironhide grinned. "You need to ask, *SON*?"
It was the right remark for the right moment.
-0-Half a joor later
"You called, Optimus?"
Prime turned, then nodded. "I did, Jetta. Ratchet needs Base and Con seated as soon as possible for health reasons."
"We considered that. I have been talking to Metroplex about this and we have started to work out the details for the site locations with him. You know that when we refit Metroplex after the bombing that we rebuilt his entire subterranean infrastructure. We didn't pack the earth around the lines and conduits like before, but left them open passages with encasements of double density concrete lining the tunnels. The lines are suspended on steel structures underground in the tunnels. We can do maintenance, fix leaks and troubleshoot inside now. We have enough room there to lay lines for the titans in the system that will take us out to the Fortress. We plan on sitting them south of the Fortress but north of the Tri-Cities. That will make our urban area more dense between the Fortress and the new construction with designated open spaces for recreation and roadways. We have drawn up the plans. Do you want to see them?" he asked.
"Yes," Prime said. "It is a critical need, Jetta. Pull crews off other projects if you need to."
Jetta nodded. "Already done. We began when we heard they were coming," he said with a grin. He pulled an architectural datapad, then knelt rolling it out on a slightly flattened boulder. "This is what we are doing right now," he said tapping a key. A layout of the under city infrastructure of the megatitans was shown as well as that feeding all of the different buildings, towers, businesses and installations of the city. "We are laying down conduits for all of the energy requirements and when fabrication gets the culverts done, we will put them down along beside the ones that feed Metroplex and Max as well as all of the food conduits that go to the apartment towers. The businesses that use energon in bulk as well will be fed into the new system that will actually be an improvement over what is there now. If one goes down, three other mega conduits will be ready to step in. Before, if one did all of the area was affected."
He pressed another key and another overlay appeared. "We talked to Max and Metroplex about the placement that all would prefer. They think that having the other four south of the Fortress will give everyone room and a good view of the others. It will be close enough for everyone."
"What about Titan? Have they said whether they believe he will city form or will there continue to be problems?" Prime asked worriedly.
"They are still out about him but they said the few times he did city form he liked it. He's young and wild. Maybe we can use him for something other than family living. Maybe he can be a business sector with government offices and recreation. We can ask him with the others monitoring what he would prefer when he's up to speed. It could be that he will be fine when his processor is clear," Jetta replied.
"That is good to hear," Prime replied.
Jetta nodded. "I am thinking we have one or two orns before push comes to shove. I will keep you posted."
"Do. Whatever it takes, Jetta," Prime said.
Jetta nodded, then turned subbing his datapad. He and Mack climbed down the dirt pile and jogged into the bright lights and mayhem of the night. Turning, Prime noted several more mechs and a femme waiting. He climbed down and walked to them to talk.
-0-Ratchet
He walked across the hangar floor of Titan in the glare of his overhead lights making for the corridors that took him back to the command center. Wheeljack and Perceptor along with two refugee computer geeks were there now working on breaking the virus into tiny bits of dead stuff. He himself was very good with virus killing but was happy to pass it off to others. Right now a subroutine was running in the background of his mind feeding him an overall picture of Titan's condition.
He had just gone over the repair and refit of Acroplex a moment before …
"Hey, Ace. Nice shooting. Your brother is disabled but not dead. The usual precision," Ratchet said pausing in the command center of the giant bot. His interface screen was fully optimal, a good sign for Ratchet.
"Ratchet. I am glad to see you. I am running a diagnostic of my entire format. I know it will be a lot of repair but we have had a difficult life with the hunters out there," Acroplex said apologetically.
Ratchet patted his interface panel. "Don't ever apologize, Acroplex. You are a miracle and we're glad to have you. Prime's going to call for the rest of you over your lines. Any idea on numbers?"
"Its hard to pinpoint but there are still many others, most of them in hiding," Acroplex replied.
"Good," Ratchet said. "The more, the merrier. I am training doctors. It will be a steep learning curve for them. I have also downloaded your schematics to Specialty Fabrication-Medical as well as Structural and Armor. We can begin when the list is finished. I want you, Base and Con seated as soon as possible. Your energon needs must be met to keep you healthy."
"I look forward to it. I am very weary, Ratchet. Will we be allowed to host residents?" he asked slightly wistfully.
Ratchet turned to look at him, a bot he had met and worked with at the beginning of his existence. Walking over, Ratchet embraced the panel pressing his face against it. The bond of doctor and patient surged a moment, then subsided into the warm gentle embrace that it was between them usually. "You will. You have no idea the waiting list for residence in Metroplex. Your format is loved by us. Don't ever forget that, Ace."
Ratchet had taken the list of injuries, worn hardware replacements, maintenance demands and upgrades with him after boosting Ace's energy levels now that the emergency crews were able to hook him up to the tankers. He refined the self repair programs, then bade farewell. Ace had holes, needed a bunch of repairs and upgrades, but he wasn't in bad shape overall. That was a big relief to Ratchet as he waited for the downloads from Metrobase, Metrocon and Titan.
He would be one busy bot for a while.
-0-TBC December 4, 2013