The Diego Diaries: Titan 9 (543) edited
-0-Terra, Maximus
He walked around the edge of the city missing the roads with care, taking the time and effort not to disrupt buried infrastructure. His own pad was nearby and in his safe room near his helm, his flight control crew and several Autobots who had come to kibitz in his flight tower waited to be released. The ground trembled as he stepped forward, waiting between each for the tremors to settle.
Nearby working to clean up the debris, smooth the surface and set teams in the trenches to re-attach his lines and cables, workers waited. Several things had been upgraded including access to the vast lower levels that descended many stories below where soldiers lived in barracks, weapons and ammunition were stored and trains came and went. He would re-seat himself with care without too much worry about all of that. The infrastructure under the mega-titans was heavily reinforced with cybertanium and complex formulations of concrete and stone work. It would take his weight and the displaced energy of his format coming downward in transformation.
It would also be filmed by the humans and IntraComm.
-0-Nearby
Jetta and Prime stood side-by-side with Ironhide, Blackjack, Starscream, Bulkhead and Scar. Watching Max walk toward his spot in the city, a place with destroyed infrastructure scattered around it brought back memories of too many terrible events from too many terrible places.
The streets around his site were littered with broken things, the shattered glass of nearby places. Even the Temple ground drew falling debris into its quiet soothing confines. Metroplex who was guiding him in sent soothing energy to his residents as Max walked to the pad, then paused. :Maximus to Jetta. I am here:
:Turn 11 degrees to the east, Max, then pause. I will take your coordinates again: Jetta replied as he synched his datapads to the satellite overhead who was mapping things for him. Max turned, then paused. :Turn back 0.5 degrees, Max, then go forward 2.9 meters:
Max adjusted, then Jetta framed his city form with the pad. :You are go, Max. Slow and steady. I am pulling out everyone until you sit. Then they will come and hook you up:
:Thank you, Jetta: Max said as the magic began.
-0-Around Maximus
:Wow. That is awesome: Aaron Belcher said as he watched Fort Max begin to transform back to his city mode. It was slower than the rise which they had also gotten on tape. Whether it would see the light of day in broadcast almost didn't matter to him.
Though it did.
*ENORMOUSLY*.
:Keep the focus on the face, Jim. Leonora, get the rest of him. All the fucking angles!: Aaron cried as his partner scrambled across the street to focus a camera directly on the ground. He would learn the error of his ways, Our Jack. When Max finally sat down on the ground, the breeze that would generate along with the energy displacement would slam Jack Mellar into the walls of Club Cybertron.
-0-Fort Max
He stood over his site, his internal mechanisms working through the mathematics of transformation. All Cybertronians worked on mathematics consciously or not, the measurements required of their formats and abilities becoming second nature over time, falling into the same categories for them that breathing was for humans.
Necessary, automatic, unnoticed.
Most of them didn't think about it. Their programming was constantly doing the math that made their bodies and abilities happen. They could see into space from the surface of planets. They could hear a cat burp 10 miles away. They could calculate and adjust for any kind of atmospheric shift and operate at optimal by shifting this, shutting things off there, adjusting that.
They were a miracle of construction and it all flowed from their original protoform format. They were liquid quicksilver. They could change their shapes with limitations in seconds. It took a scan, a calculation, then the magic happened. There were even some who could displace their mass into subspace. Soundwave could do it. He could become a small device of his choosing because he could displace the greatest part of his body into subspace.
All Cybertronians had subspace as did all humans. Subspace was everyone's and around everything. Cybertronians used theirs. Humans didn't. Humans didn't know they could or that it even existed and it was debatable whether they could access it given their organic form. Cybertronians kept subspace to themselves. The only known human to use subspace was Sam Witwicky and he didn't know at the time he was. The AllSpark however did.
Infant transformers couldn't use subspace until they became sub adults. The only known exceptions were animals and insects which were born with the ability to access it. When Bob was found by Sunstreaker he was examined. The only thing found in the subspace of that tiny hapless little baby was dirt and a few leaves.
Transformation came with a mature t-cog. That only came to fruition at sub adulthood. The tiny nodes that sparklings carried would grow slowly with access to the transformation process limited by maturation in the processors and bodies of infants and younglings. It was the way it was supposed to be even though in the past and even present time some had tried to speed things up.
Sunspot could transform.
Not well nor easily, but he could. That part of him had been accelerated by the Decepticons and their ghoulish scientists. He should not possess that ability at this age but he did. His cog was accelerated but his body wasn't. The Seeker 'trine' saved from the Decepticons, Cardinal and his two friends could transform. They weren't old and mature enough on their own. The need for more Seekers had led to their present condition by scientists and 'doctors' tampering with them.
The Cybertronian species was a miracle of the universe, the great incomprehensibly vast and varied scape of possibility that existed in all directions everywhere and the humans were amazed every day with some new revelation of their person. Now was no exception as Fortress Maximus, a titan class Cybertronian began his careful descent to the ground.
-0-On the street by Club Cybertron
Two youngling mechs stood watching the massive bot nearby making his way ground ward. A siren had blared to allow anyone on the ground to move away and businesses to shutter. They should have left but were fascinated by the spectacle. The wind kicked up dust and it blew around them peppering their armor and the walls behind them. The sound was enormous but they dialed down watching with growing foreboding the giant mass of Fort Max coming ever downward, forming into a more solid shape than his root mode.
He was aware of them, aware of the recklessness of youth so he compensated. It was almost amusing to him, their daring do. Youth had their priorities and awareness of their own mortality was not among them most of the time. He descended ever aware of his surroundings until with less of a thump than he would have done had they not been there, Fortress Maximus was once more on the ground.
The tremor that flowed outward as energy expended at land surface dumped the two kids on their afts anyway. They didn't care. As with youth everywhere, in all galaxies, in all universes, the entire episode was for them rad.
Or the teenaged Cybertronian youth version of it.
-0-Prowl
He stood nearby watching with a calm that he didn't really have internally when the world was turned upside down like this on his watch. The logic shaped universe that he inhabited sometimes demanded attendance of his entire processor, not just the part that wasn't preoccupied with how good Optimus looked when in fix-it mode. The idea of the titans returning without the spark stopping mishap just past had been a dream. It was a small dream but it was his.
Of course, it was *SMASHED FLAT*!
*LIKE ALL OF THEM!*
*HIS CAREFULLY FORMULATED PLANS AND DESIGNS!*
*FRAGGED!*
*THEY WERE FRAGGED AND NOW IT WAS TIME FOR SHOVELS!*
He paused, then snorted, a grin forming on his handsome face. There was a time he would have felt the entire tirade with a slow internal burn that would haunt his recharge. Now he could see the humor in his uptight sense of outrage.
Even if it was justified.
Which it only was now about half the time.
Mostly.
When things were 'improvised' by slaggers like the WRECKERS! When the former *MRS. OPTIMUS PRIME WOULD BLOW HIS SLAG OUT OF THE WATER!*
Those times.
Of course, it didn't matter that they would accomplish the same thing as he planned only messier and fraggier with a veneer of diesel oil covering everything...
*SNIFF!*
He grinned again.
Bonds and infants, the occasional brawl in prison or the clubs and the wacky extraordinarily sensible (only when he, himself was dead drunk) 'logic' of his (incredibly insane all of the time) BFF, the CMO of Swing, Ratchet had changed him in areas of his processor that had never seen daylight before.
Or humor.
Or fun. No fun.
Laughs.
Laughs were once rare. Machinations were given pride of place, machinations and scheming.
Whatever it took to get around the free balling of FRAGGING OPTIMUS *E&Y#YE#UE&! PRIME! with his *PENCHANT!* for *FRAGGING ALL OF MY CAREFULLY DESIGNED PLANS TO WIN THIS &^% FRAGGING WAR!*
That one.
Optimus turned, then paused. Prowl was standing on a hill of churned up dirt, his expression alternating between humor and his usual serious expression. He grinned himself, then turned that way. Clambering up, he paused. :You look happy:
:I was thinking about how things never go the way you want them to: Prowl said glancing upward.
:Such as?: Optimus asked glancing downward.
:I was thinking about how fragged off I would normally be with this outcome. There is dirt everywhere and we almost lost a city. I would be raging. Inside of course. Mostly:
:I know. You would blame me too: Prime said with a chuckle.
:I would. Something about my sense of order needs adjustment: Prowl said with a grin.
:Get with Ratchet. He has a wrench for everything: Optimus said as they both began to climb down.
:You have that right: Prowl said as they turned to walk toward Acroplex and the mad doctor of repute, the Sultan of Swerve, the Deuce of Aces, Ratchet.
-0-Ratchet
He walked to the hangar deck, then jumped down. Pausing, he waited until Prowl and Optimus caught up. "Coming for the tour?"
"We are. Want the company?" Optimus asked with a grin.
"Sure," Ratchet said turning to walk toward Metrobase and Metrocon nearby. "I think I can get them on a platform in a couple of orns. The worst damaged are Ace and Tyke. Con and Base need a lot of upgrades, patches on some things that will stabilize a few internals and a redo on some parts of their armor. It will be easier when they sit in city mode. We can reach things easier and go over every square inch of them to bring them back to optimal. We can also work on their systems when they are assembled the way they work when they are functioning in city mode, rather than spread out in flight or root mode. They are easier to climb on."
"Sounds good," Optimus said with relief. "Jetta says the pads will be ready by mid orn tomorrow. They can move over after a city wide siren and notification. It won't take time to clear the area especially if the Watch comes out in force."
"I agree. Besides, the main artery between Terra and The City is down as well as the trains going to the Tri-Cities, Terra and beyond. That is going to keep a bunch home unless we have a road to divert everyone," Ratchet said.
"It will be easier to stay home. The road work will take about three orns. Unless you are essential personnel, take the time off," Optimus said as Prowl noted the decision.
"This is going to feel a lot more like Cybertron with the four cities added to the landscape of Autobot City," Ratchet said with a grin as they reached Metrobase. A side hatch was open with stairs leading inside. "We will have seven cities that direction with this new addition."
"Its going to take a lot of pressure off the projects around the colony. The Basilica can get more attention along with the new train lines and the new city excavations," Prowl said. "We can allocate resources better now that our housing database is eased a bit with their addition."
"It is hard to imagine Soundwave's situation on Cybertron in contrast with us here," Ratchet said as he climbed the stairs. "We have a great and vast dedicated and educated workforce as well as unlimited materials. Poor Soundwave, the slagger."
Prime grinned. "I know. Couldn't happen to a nicer mech."
Prowl merely nodded with a grin as he followed them up.
The interior corridors of Metrobase shown like new, the internal mechanisms for cleaning and maintenance doing their job to keep him running at optimal even in his currently depleted condition. There were obvious areas where there was a need for repair or upgrade. It would be hard to calculate how long it had been since he had even routine maintenance on his person.
They turned this way and that, passed stores and different passages until they reached the command deck. Metrobase's interface panel was brightly lit as he chatted with Metroplex. "Prime, Ratchet, Prowl … I am very happy to have you come."
"The feeling is mutual, Metrobase. We're here to give you the readout. I think if we work on a few things on you and Con, you can take on your pad tomorrow about mid orn," Ratchet said as he paused before the giant bot's soul interface. "By the way, Ace is going to take about three or four orns before we can let him join you and Con. He has panels and outer armor to be removed and we want to do it in large sections rather than chase it all over his city format. We will be downloading the matrix interfaces into all of you so I can find everything that needs work and help you faster. When the others are certified, I will bond one of them to each of you. Right now, I troubleshoot all of you including Max and Metroplex as well as the Supremes."
"You are a most skilled doctor, Ratchet. I am sorry that you must provide so much space and effort to the 13 of us," he said with his deep cultured voice.
"Small thing, Base. You and your sibs are a breath of fresh air for me," Ratchet said. "That part of my database hasn't been this happy in vorns."
A deep chuckle resonated, then the lights became brighter. "I have been alone so long wandering. I have longed for the sound of a voice since the fall of Cybertron. Meeting up with Con was a miracle. I thought I would have to find a place to sleep to endure my solitude but the hunters were everywhere. They are hunting us, Optimus Prime. They hunt us and kill us. I am afraid for the others. They are still out there."
"I will send the message. I need your codes and the line frequency," Prime said. He paused as Base sent them. "I will go out to the plain in a moment to send the message."
"They will come," Base said with a lighter tone. "They can't all be too far away and they can teleport wherever they are to wherever they want to come. Be specific and they will come here swiftly," Base said.
"Better tell Jetta," Ratchet said with a chuckle. "They might just show up here in numbers. And where would we be?"
"In luck," Prowl said with a big grin. "Head first deep in luck."
-0-TBC December 6, 2013
NOTE: MERRY CHRISTMAS, MY DEAR ELITA-1 AND YOUR LOVELY FAMILY! HUGS!
I just got season three of TF: Prime in the mail. It has the series with these extra features: TF Prime panel at San Diego-Comic-Con International 2013. They also have 'audio commentaries' which might mean that the cast discusses the shows as they play (or not) like Lord of the Rings did (or not). I will tell you tomorrow. No spoilers of course. :D:D:D HUGS TO ALL FROM THE ROOM GRANNY OF AUTOBOT CITY!
Here is a note to an awesom thing that happened in Georgia today:
To a guy in a post office Cartersville, Georgia, thank you for pulling for Kaon in the upcoming football game. My little reader-friend and 'honorary granddaughter' told me you met her there and asked which team she was rooting for. Small world, my dear reader. Thank you for making her day memorable and me too. That is what is so wonderful about writing for people. This kind of off-the-cuff interactions. Merry Christmas to you. The game is coming up shortly. :D:D:D (Hint: the winner will be Kaon. Or Praxus.) :D
(PS the letter being sent by my little gal was one to me) How is that for chance encounters? :D:D:D