The Diego Diaries: Here, There and Back Again (602) edited
Dear Guest who pointed out the other twins out there: Thank you. :D I am working off a G1 perspective as my baseline. As the universes developed other twins were added including the two pair you mentioned. Hm. What to do. Because you are right, I acknowledge you here and thank you tons. Because the story is going from the G1 pre-other-twins perspective for now, I will try and work this out as I go along. Bayverse twins are Skids and Mudflaps. The others mentioned are Hardtop and Swindle, Tread and Trample, Jazz and Ricochet, Rumble and Sprocket, Roulette and Shadow Strike from a number of other universes. That includes also the Seeker twins from TF: Prime as well. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are considered fraternal twins and were the first mentioned. All of the others come after G1. I think I can incorporate them into the story as interesting sub threads for the twins. By the way, sparks that split naturally make twins while those that are forced to split make clones which tend to be more unstable and unreliable. :D Thank you, guest, for reminding me that there are others from later universes. Readers Rule!
Here we go...
-0-Far away
They came down landing with their usual thundering flair transforming in mid air to stand in root mode. Tremors ran through the ground under the heavy impact of several dozen tons of Seeker format hitting the ground at nearly the same time. They straightened, then glanced around.
"Here they come, Reno," another bot said to their group leader, a big heavy gunner Seeker who had been a holy terror once upon a time until the betrayal of their format changed everyone's paradigm. That the Great Elder told them emphatically to change didn't hurt one bit either.
Nearby, a shuttle bearing Wrecker insignia landed as overhead a bridge sparked out. The hatch popped to slide back silently disgorging its cargo. They included Wheeljack, Perceptor, Beachcomber and several young mechs from Sciences to help do the survey. Bringing up the rear were Springer, Drift, Kup and Old Hercy. Two other Wreckers would stay with the shuttle to protect their getaway vehicle along with most of the Seekers. Springer and Old Hercy along with Kup gathered with the others as they began to organize a very preliminary survey of Gliese 581 g.
Wheeljack and Perceptor stood a moment calibrating their gear, then turned with the others to look around. Gliese 581 g was the seventh planet that orbited a red dwarf star. It fell in orbit in the 'Goldilocks Zone'. That is, it was neither too hot nor too cold to forgo the possibility of life all other things being equal. They were here to assess that and a number of other concerns to see if this would be a good planet upon which to build a base that could spy on Cybertron and the Empire. If they could build the proposed arrays planned, it would extend their sensor and visual range over 200 light years into the universe in all directions.
Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf in vicinity to two others was the closest star to Earth at 4.243 light years. That is, it was the distance that light can travel over a period of a year. Light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles or 299,792.458 kilometers per second. When one applied that speed per second to hours, weeks, months or years it would take humans at their present technological level 4.2 years to reach Proxima Centauri. It would take humans depending on the speed of their ships between 200-20,000 years to reach the planet they were standing on now.
They themselves only journeyed two minutes through the Trigger to get here.
Ant, meet Elephant.
The mechs gathered around to get their assignments off the grid map that Wheeljack and Perceptor had prepared. They would cover the greatest distance possible to gather the largest amount of useful data. Since Gliese 581 g was tidal locked, that is, one face was held captive to the sun, the other to the darkness of space, the orn would be long and productive if they stayed in the chevron that encompassed the reasonable habitable zone between the dark and light sides of the planet. It was a vast area thousands of miles wide that held an atmosphere, though not breathable to humans, a breeze that managed to circulate the scorching heat around the planet making it bearable as well as conducive to oceans found in the zone as well.
They were here to assess the planet, ascertain the vulnerability of lifeforms if any as well as to see if their presence would harm said creatures. Their day's length was the same as the planet's year due to tidal locking. It had no axial rotation because there was no axial tilt. That made seasonal changes impossible because the globe never turned on its own. It was always day in the zone, always what it was now. They would have a 37 day year and a 37 day 'day'.
Wheeljack studied his meter, than glanced at the others. "Right now, its 10 degrees above zero. We are in the high temp range. It could get to -37 the closer we get to the night side."
"The atmosphere feels denser here than Earth," Beachcomber said. "I see that the oceans are rather large."
"Some of them are frozen but there are open spots. I'm curious about tides at their shores which shouldn't be typically possible without a satellite of its own," Perceptor said. He looked at the orangish-lightly blue sky. "Not much change in the upper atmospherics from Mars on a sand swept orn. We won't get a really blue sky here unless the atmosphere increases. Right now, its enough coupled with the slightly higher Earth type gravity to keep the oceans intact."
"This place is huge," a youngling mech said consulting his meter of the planet nearly four times larger than Earth. As they did no one noticed that Hercy had turned to walk toward a gully nearby. The ground was rocky, boulders to sand the size differential everywhere. He had seen a glinting light nearby as a cloud passed away from the middling sun. Walking forward, he paused at the lip of a broken ledge. Looking down, he considered what he saw. Then he turned to the others. "Hey! Come here."
The others looked, then turned walking to where the old mechanism stood. As they reached him, they paused taken aback by what they saw before them.
"Whoa," Wheeljack said with surprise.
-0-Diego, in a hangar
It was intensely quiet in the hangar. One could even hear the breeze as well as waves lapping on the beach nearby. Ratchet watched the group, then looked at the twins. They were terribly intimidating, then Sideswipe looked at Ratchet. "What now?" he asked with a grin.
It was enough to break the spell. Everyone stirred, then sat still again. "Do you have any questions for these two?" Ratchet asked. He looked at the twins. "I am assuming you made your point?"
"If it makes things better, yeah," Sideswipe said, then he looked at the crowd. "How many of you have been in combat?"
The crowd was still, then hands went up. Only about half the room raised one even though it was heavily skewed to military. Sideswipe nodded. "Then you know what I mean when I tell you that there are no differences in a fox hole. I know that if I sent my daughters or son to military careers and found out that they were being abused in any way by their comrades and being ignored by their superiors I would kill. I would tear the Pentagon down to the basement floors. If you ask the genitors of the soldiers being affected if they believe that this is part of their expectations for their younglings, I doubt you will get one hand up. Why does this happen and why do you allow it? Because you do. You allow it.
"That sailor … she is a warrior. I respect her. She flies choppers in combat and retrieves wounded. She deserves respect and appreciation. For me as a warrior, its all I have for her, my respect and support. She would have my back in combat and I would have hers, this I know. We would be one. Ask around. I don't go in for team warfare. Sunny and I go to the front and fight there." He paused, then turned slightly in agitation. "I don't get it. I will never get it. What I can't understand either is how you know it and do nothing. I am also including the bullying and the treatment of same gender soldiers. What is the matter with you?" he asked.
It was silent again.
Sunstreaker paused as if listening to something, then looked at Ratchet. "We have been recalled. A mission."
Ratchet nodded. "Thank you. Hit the bricks, younglings. Is Bluestreak going?"
Sideswipe paused. "Yes."
"We'll cover the babies. Go and keep in touch," Ratchet said.
The twins looked at the crowd, then Sunstreaker turned rolling swiftly out. Sideswipe looked at the gathered, then nodded. He turned and slammed on the speed taking the corner at nearly 60 degrees. He was gone in a flash. Ratchet let the crowd savor that show of unconscious grace and power, then he turned to them. "Those two are among the finest soldiers we field. They give and get no quarter. The
'Cons fear them rightfully so. They will defend you to the last mech. They are also my adopted sons, their children my grandchildren."
The crowd looked at him, then each other. A hand went up. A civilian stood. "Are they the two that accompanied you to the United Nations and other hearings?" Ratchet nodded. "They mentioned genders, then lack of genders. I am confused but I also know you have societal taboos. If you could explain a bit of your thinking on this we might be aided in understanding your world viewpoint. Since you are an ancient species perhaps your wisdom on some issues can shed light on the problem at hand." She sat.
Ratchet grinned. "Are you a diplomat too?" he asked to general laughter. The tension receded a bit. "We don't recognize gender. We are genderless because the distinction is pointless for us. What we do feel are emotions as well as familial needs and attachments just like you. You recognize two genders although the prevalence of what you call gay people indicates to me that there are probably more of them as highlighted on the spectrum of sexuality between fully hetero and fully homosexual possibilities that is sometimes utilized in research.
"We have a population of 92-94% mech with the rest a small sometimes seemingly invisible population of those who trend femme. They are seemingly invisible because they are so few. Some have never seen a femme until lately. Because the soul or spark as we call it needs what it does, we find our relationships with each other. We don't recognize the idea of extremes in sexuality or maybe I should call it gender nullification or identity-mechology. We aren't biological and therefore we aren't sexual but we have those terms and ideas applied to us all the time. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker aren't offended by the word 'fag' alone. We are aware that word is hate speech. What offends them is the hatred inherent in it and the idea that gender appears to be utilized as a weapon here.
"Those two are warriors and have been all their lives. They are very self assured about their ability but they are also very aware of the need to be one in a unit, the same as the rest of us. It is the same feeling of solidarity that our N.E.S.T. allies feel who work with us. All of the units together make the victories. To assault and abuse part of that lowers your ability to live through battle and afterwards. It was like the first time this happened to us. I had no confidence that if I went into combat with Hedges and Johnson who were berating and mocking us that they would cover me. It is a matter of life and death in the field and even behind the lines or at home. You are as strong a unit as your weakest link."
Hands went up in droves.
-0-Gliese 581 g
They stood bedazzled by the view, then Wheeljack called Mars. "Wheeljack to Prowl."
The message hit the shuttle comm station, was compressed into a bullet, then went straight out to the Proxima Centauri Deep Space Array fifteen light years away. It would reach that device in two seconds, then be buzzed back to Ops Center. It was possible with their technical communication emplacements that were constantly tweaked and upgraded to have a nearly real time conversation over vast distances.
"Prowl here." The voice broke the stillness of the group.
"Prowl, can you and Optimus come here right now?" Wheeljack asked with a trace of awe in his voice.
"On our way," came the reply shortly after.
They stood staring as time passed, how much they didn't notice. When the sound of a bridge opening near the shuttle, its location the place of triangulation, they turned to watch Ultra Magnus, Optimus and Prowl exit along with Paragon. Wheeljack waved to them watching as they walked toward the ledge where they stood, some staring forward, some staring at the new party.
"What is it, Wheeljack?" Magnus said as the party reached the group. Then he paused staring at the vast crevasse that stretched out before them for literally hundreds of miles. Optimus, Prowl and Paragon joined him, all of them falling into silence.
"Primus," Optimus finally managed.
Old Hercy nodded, glancing up at Prime. "That's the least we can say, youngling."
-0-Seekers, at the same time
Nitro, Red Wing and Thundercracker landed behind the hangar thudding into the ground with their usual showy display of mechanical machismo. The ground rumbled jostling everyone in the room for a moment. Then they turned to look at the crowd sitting on chairs staring at them with wonderment and not a little barely concealed fear. They glanced at Ratchet as they stood silently, a majestically intimidating yet colorful collection of mechanical beings with bird like attributes that they seldom saw themselves but were recognized by nearly everyone else who saw them.
"Come in," Ratchet said nodding to the trio. They did so reluctantly, their menacing appearance going before them. Pausing next to Ratchet, they towered over him. Some of the bigger Seekers were nearly 30 feet tall and the three before him were no exception. "This is a format we call a Seeker. Seekerkin are clannish, proud and formidable. These mechs are Thundercracker, Red Wing and Nitro. Thundercracker is one of the two Seekers who run the air wing of our armed forces. Nitro is a munitions expert who works with my old mech to make every bomb, bullet and gun in the colony for all formats and needs. Red Wing is the flight field commander of our air forces and one of the most formidably brave Seekers around. I would tell you why I believe that but its classified."
Grins and chuckles met that, then Ratchet stepped back. When he did so did Thundercracker and Nitro. Red Wing standing by himself looked back crossly. "Fraggers." He turned to the grinning chuckling crowd and stood silently a moment. "Ratchet asked us to come and tell you about our kind and our purpose. We are Seekers, an old and venerable part of our species that never was treated the right way, ever. We are familial and close, are led by clan leaders who are led by the Great Elder. He is Rainmaker and the most impressive being short of a Prime," he said pausing. He glanced at Ratchet who nodded encouragingly. "A *real* Prime that you can know." He looked at the humans. "We were never allowed by our society to be a real part of it. We were the workhorses and the warriors but our families and our kind never got freedom.
"But then, too many of us didn't. We had an unjust society. There was a tiny handful of high castes that set the rules and the rest of us had to follow them. It was ruthless, strangling us all in the end. Even the lowest caste was higher than Seekers. I wish you could know how it feels to even hear myself say that." Behind him, standing without the faintest clue how masculine and remarkable they looked, Nitro and Thundercracker listened, their brawny arms folded in front of them. "We paid our dues and didn't get slag for it. When things fell apart, we chose our side. We chose as a group the Decepticons."
Nitro nodded. "The system, the one that held the castes in place didn't deserve our loyalty even as hard as Prime worked to make it different so when Megatron began to tell us things we yearned to hear, we went with him. The war destroyed our entire slagging planet. Hate did that. Hate and war. Look at us. We fight hard and don't give quarter. No one got a pass. You can imagine what our world looked like when the end came."
"Megatron told us what we needed to hear, that we mattered and that freedom was ours if we took it. So we did. We fought the Autobots like demons including the Prime. Ratchet, Prowl and Wheeljack along with Perceptor had 'capture, not kill' orders on their helms. We never did catch you and make it stick," Nitro said glancing at Ratchet with a grin.
"I'm slippery that way," Ratchet said with a grin. Chuckles met that remark.
"In the end, we lost everything. Megatron lost his processor and put an extermination order on Seekerkin. We left him taking our families and friends away. We came here to the Prime, to his colony and our own leadership. Prime wanted to regroup all our people so none of us would pass away into the Matrix. All of us are equal in his optics and in the life we live, something that motivates us I can tell you to defend and protect. It binds all of us together in a way we never were, all of us under his leadership. We still search for our kind everywhere. We are one, all of us. If we can do that in the face of all we had between us, I don't understand how you can't. It was the law of the jungle in the Decepticons. The strong ruled, the weaker and the weak were ruled. You could forget your spark in conditions like that. You can do terrible things. But we were saved and redeemed by a leader that applied the rules equally and valued all of us the same way. We are here to be one again." Nitro looked at Thundercracker who was listening to them quietly.
He stood a moment, then began. "I am in a trine bond with Starscream," he said. The gasps literally could be heard aloud.
-0-Gliese 581 g
They stared together, then glanced at each other. "We need to bring a force here to protect this place. Get it going, Prowl," Optimus said when he could speak again.
Prowl nodded, then he stepped aside with Paragon. They hashed out a plan, then Paragon ran toward the shuttle. At that moment, a bridge burst into sight, the elegant winger reaching it, then disappearing in seconds. Prowl turned, then walked back to stand beside the others. They would stay there dazzled until a bridge overhead burst open and shuttles flew out of it in a stream.
-0-TBC January 27, 2014