The Diego Diaries: Go (641)
-0-In a hold in an unknown place
They sat together listening with their enhanced hearing as footsteps came closer and closer. Then they paused nearby. Tensely watching, the group listened as a grating sound indicated a door being opened. Light streaked in throwing everyone into relief as several individuals stepped inside. The door opened wider as more came, then gathered in front of them. The aliens carried guns and on chains they held in check two of the biggest acid monsters anyone had ever seen. They slavered and growled, their multi-stage mouth showing intense menace.
Springer looked at Hercy and Kup who glanced at him with a shrug. He then rose upward seemingly forever until he towered over their captors. They held guns and the beasts and didn't flinch from the size of the big mech standing in front of them. Both sides stared at each other as they gauged their mutual threat.
A growl came from one, a big organic male who stood about ten feet tall. He was a sickly greenish white color, his body almost brutal in its muscular definition. He stared at them with reptilian eyes, his fleshy dreads moving with every emphasis of his words.
"What the frag do you think he's saying, Kup?" Hercy asked. It was as if he was asking for a weather report.
"Can't say," Kup said as he stared at the end of his stogie. "I hope they don't hold us longer than a vorn or two. I'll run out of medicine for my stogie."
Hercy nodded. "I can see that. Maybe they need to see something else." The little mech, the smallest of the group stood and walked to Springer. He stepped one step closer to their captives to test them. They raised their guns, the beasts in their control lunging forward. Hercy watched them, then did something he was sure they had never seen before. He touched the side of his helm, then scanned the biggest of the three acid monsters.
Springer watched him, then grinned slightly. "You aren't really going to do that are you?"
Hercy looked at him, then smirked. "Fraggers gonna learn something. Stand back, youngling."
"Better, Springer. Old Hercy gets a thing in his processor, he won't quit til its done," Kup said from his place against the wall. He sat relaxing, almost without care as he watched the show with the most blasé manner.
Springer stood back, then Hercy did it. His transformation was incredibly fast, as fast as any hyper youngling could make it. He did it on purpose so that the aliens wouldn't be able to react too quickly and spoil the impact. When he was finished a metallic monster stood before them. Every inch of his body was armored steel. Every ugly facet of the acid monsters before them was replicated minus the drool. He was bigger than any of the acid aliens, incredibly dangerous in appearance and shockingly replicated.
The aliens stepped back a step, then the big male came forward. He reached out to Hercy then lived to regret it. The transformed mech lunged gripping the alien's arm in his steel teeth. The organic exploded in screams as he was jerked here and there by Old Hercy. Then the transformed mech let him go, stepping back. He looked at Springer, then the others.
Springer looked back at Hercy in dawning realization. "Oh frag no. You can't be serious."
Hercy looked at him, then Springer shook his helm. He frowned at the wary group gathered around the one with the bleeding arm. Then Springer scanned one of them, a big light green skinned alien with long dreads. Almost immediately he changed becoming a huge, huge version of that alien. Looking at his arms and body a moment, he turned and screamed like he had seen once, his metallic mandibles parting in the same horrifying manner as the aliens before him. He stomped his ped, flexing his chest and arms in their display mode, then stepped back. At that point the two transformed back. They turned their backs to move to the wall, sat down and relaxed.
The aliens stared at them, then turned walking out the door with their monsters. It closed and they were in darkness again. Springer considered the moment, then glanced at Hercy. "Well … wasn't that awful."
Hercy snorted, then grinned. "You had the easier transformation, youngling. Try doing what I just did."
"No thanks," Springer said with a chuckle. It was quiet a moment, then Springer glanced at Kup. "What comes next?"
"Don't know," Kup said quietly. "No matter what happens, Prime is coming."
-0-Red Wing
They came to the migration landing on the backs of ships. Magnetizing, they waited as the data team made a pass by. Raw intel poured into Red Wing who passed it on to Prime. The migration was densely packed, staying close to each other for safety. That they had none in the circumstances wasn't because they hadn't tried.
A rap on the hatch of the lead ship lead to entry as the officers with Red Wing came aboard. Red Wing stepped in taking in the crew. They were young, strained and anxious. Some of them were Seekers, one of them familiar to him right away. "Cloud," Red Wing said extending his servo. "Your atar is with us along with most of your family. Your ada and other atar are in Autobot City."
The expression on Cloud's face was incredible. He nodded. "We need to find our people. Someone came and took ships. We couldn't meet them, Red Wing. I'm sorry," he said but Red Wing cut him off.
"You can't do what you can't do, Cloud. We have this," Red said turning to the door. "Feed what you know to Prime. He's nearly here."
"We have lost a lot of ships," Cloud said worriedly. He turned and limped to the sensor console nearby. "This could turn into a shooting war the minute they see you."
"We know," Red said before turning back to the door. Outside the chaos was just as continuous as the endless blackness of space. :We are with Marboro, Prime. We have missing ships. Our group is here. What do you wish us to do?:
:Stay there. We are nearly with you: Prime answered.
:Affirmative: Red turned to the others, their anxious faces strained with exhaustion and frustration. "Prime is nearly here."
-0-Sick Bay
Ratchet looked at the injured, then turned to First Aid. "They look adequate. They are on holds/unfit status unless soldiers are requested. None of them need to strain their bindings."
First Aid nodded, then looked at the soldiers reclining or sitting on med berths around the room. "I wonder where the others are?"
"I don't know," Ratchet said with a shake of his helm. "I just know they will regret holding Hercy." He grinned. "There are forces of nature, there are legends, then there is Hercy."
They turned back to the task at servo, keeping Sunstreaker and Sideswipe from going back to the battle that was shaping up nearby.
-0-Trannis
He sat on his throne and watched as the ship with Prime came closer to the migration. The signals were what they expected of a battle cruiser making its way headlong to the ships that they had discovered. He himself had boarded and drawn off about 100 vessels with his crews. They were being herded to a base that Prime would have to work to find on a good orn. Right now, it would be easier with the the ships they were herding. The count of hostages was being made but he knew it would be many.
He considered that his bargaining chips with Prime would be problematic. His base wasn't designed for creature comforts and the addition of additional individuals would strain their already tight resource budget. But Prime had a lot of energon. So did Cyclonus. He was sitting on a planetoid with energon. Getting it from Cyclonus would be costly. That mech had more ships and soldiers than he, Trannis had.
Trannis would dig in and build a base to be reckoned with. He would find energon and his hostages would dig it out. Then he would bargain with Prime using them as currency to get what he wanted. That he wanted to fight Prime in the end was a deferred dream. That big mech was fabled and the conflict of choice among the ruthless fraggers he knew and worked with. He would have that fight someday.
He was a mech of few needs. A good ship and crew. Total and complete dominion of his world and all in it. Now he was on the cusp of easy living and only a big mech with a Matrix stood in the way of doing what he pleased. Trannis considered that, then grinned slightly. He would have his fight with Prime. If that mech wanted the civilians he would have to earn them.
"What is our status?" Trannis asked.
"We are go," his second-in-command said with a nod.
"Then lets go."
They began to move out just as Prime and the Salton Sea slid into view of the fleet.
-0-Salton Sea
They limped to the bridge taking a seat here and there. Their pain receptors were dialed down and their hurts bandaged, puttied and otherwise put to bed. Now they had to heel. That was hard to do around the brush fire of rage in his processor. Sunstreaker glanced at Ironhide. "Atar, what's the word?"
Ironhide looked at him, then shook his helm. "We've gotten to the migration but lost track of Hercy, Kup, Drift, Springer, Lon, Smokey and Sandstorm."
At that moment Devcon returned to the bridge pausing beside the command table. "I have a faint trail of alien ships. I matched the data with the organics in the database files. It would appear that they are the ones who took our people."
"What evidence do you have that they're taken?" Ratchet asked.
"I couldn't find anything that would account for their presence. There are no more bodies or individuals in the area out several miles. I scanned and looked. That means the organics have them," he said.
"Hound, open a channel. Search the database for the frequencies that we used the last time we met back in the early migrations," Prime said turning to communications.
Hound searched, then signaled over the frequencies used by the organics. He listened, then found a signal returned. "I have them, Prime but I don't know if they can understand us. I'll put it through the universal translator." It was silent a moment, then Hound looked at Prime. He nodded. "They're open. I get no response to my hails but they haven't cut the channels either."
Prime nodded. "Unknown aliens, this is Optimus Prime of Cybertron. We know you have several of our people. We want them back. Give them to us and you can leave without harm or foul. Harm them and we will hunt you to the ends of this and any other universe it takes to extract vengeance for your actions. Respond."
The static of the universe crackled over the line as they listened, waiting. When it seemed no one would speak, someone finally did.
-0-In a hold in the dark
"You're nuts to make an organic transformation," Springer said as he continued to digest what they had done. It had startled the organics the way Hercy intended but it had also unsettled him. It was all he could do to look at the Dinobots and Insecticons on a good orn. But then with them, he wasn't alone.
It came back to the idea of beauty and form. Ratchet was considered a looker among the Cybertronians but among the humans it was almost impossible to see him in the same light even though he was as loved as any of them and probably twice as accessible. Ratchet was a good looking mech. The twins were obviously as well. Most of the Cybertronians were considered handsome, intriguing or even good looking to this or that extent by the humans.
The Dinobots weren't considered the same way by most Cybertronians, though the distinctions would fly past most humans who found them fascinating. In fact, they were considered to be hideous. It was so outside the nature of their species to hold to alt formats like theirs that they were hard to look at. To transform into one was also revolting and unthinkable to most. That Arachnid would willingly take an alt format of an organic was incredibly awful to the average Cybertronian. It was a matter of taste and cultural outlook.
Hercy glanced at Springer, then smirked. "You do what works. It put them back on their heels. The less then can predict from us the better it will be. I will chew them up. FRAGGERS!"
Springer grinned. "Don't expect me to do that again. I think I lost a vorns worth of recharge."
"It was a good look on you," Kup said with a grin.
"No it isn't," Drift said with a chuckle.
"Loyal slagger aren't you," Springer said patting Drift's arm.
"That's me. Loyal," Drift said. They sat in the hold listening to any sound that they could. They would only hear and feel the engines of the ship as it turned away, taking them to who knew where. It was a forlorn sound to all of them.
-0-TBC March 4, 2014 March fourth: It was to be the inauguration date of the American government back in the orn… march forth. Get it? LOL! edited 3-4-14
NOTE: MY INTERNET IS FIXED! HUZZAH!
The reference of how the average Cybertronian would view the Dinobots which is spelled Dynobots in some universes is canon but I have misplaced it. I will post it when I do. It isn't that they are biased. They are just geared to change into what they are used to. Organic formats are not on that list. IDW Dinobot information is really great at tf wiki. Grimlock rules. There are few bots that take on an organic format and none of them get respect: Dinobots, Arachnid, the predacons and the Insecticons. Ratbat is a douche bag. Organic formats are not considered decent or acceptable among the greater population. They are also considered extremely ugly. A reference I read suggested that it was nauseating to look at Swoop's format. I will run down that reference.
I love the Sunstreaker and Sideswipe story, LesleyM. Thank you so much. Huggles. There is something about those two that make me want to write stories about them the the time. If this one wasn't such a brain hog, there would be about three others going on besides Whatever Makes No Difference Is No Difference. SIGH! Oh to multi-task like there was no tomorrow. :D:D:D I am so sorry, Cry4Me that Netflix doesn't let you see that TF thing. I will search another place for it and let you know if I can find it. :D
Magebreaker, LeslyM, Guest, JC and Leoness: Your notes are wonderful. There will be battles. There will be more. My internet has fragged me over but now its fixed. I hope. :D I tried to draw the city once and it took a sheet over four feet long and three wide to make it fit. Its not pretty but it keeps the colony straight for me. As for the outer installations … I have a simple map for them. Its really hard for me to draw them but I have scribbles for the story's sake. I love cartography. I think maps are awesome. Maybe someday I can get this done. :D:D:D I just know the movie in my mind keeps me on the straight and narrow. Usually. :D Thank god for eagle opticed readers.