Ep1.5 – New Digs – Closed

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Sola was babbling. She knew she was babbling, she could hear herself doing it but she couldn’t stop herself from doing it because she was just so damn excited that the obvious disinterest excluded from her fellow teammates broke upon the impenetrable barrier of the weapon-smith’s excitement. It had been a few days since Elita One and Cleaver had sealed the deal and made it official – the Order of Solus was officially throwing its protection over the Earth-side neutral encampment and that meant several things.

A: Their main ship was immediately deployed to a more secure orbital flight-path some good jump-drive distance on the far side of planet. A nice defensible position against a behemoth like the Nemesis or anything else that might want to take a shot at them.

B: Sola got to install new defense systems.

That second part was what had Sola the most excited and why she was driving her fellow Order members up the wall. She’d been waiting for this chance for vorns now and she was finally able to – “install this brand-frakking-new anti-groundbridge shielding technology that I got off Regulon 4 during our last suppy run. I modified the slag out of it and I’m, like, 99%... well, 95%... 92% certain that I can interface this defense array with the power-grid here to get it semi-self sustaining. The solar power out here is extremely viable and basic shielding tech and rotating guard duty should more than take care of the rest, provided I don’t accidental loop the primary defense matrix through the wrong backdoor…”

“Are you still talking?” said Flareup, baffled and amazed. She was holding one of the primary control panels open for Sola while she wired the anti-bridge mod into the main atrium’s ground-bridge control board. “How are you still talking?”

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Elita, leaning against the doorjamb with a parts manifest in her hands, smiled indulgently. "This is Sola. If she ever paused for silence when she was excited, I'm fairly sure she would explode."

It felt good to have a break. After the rather - stressful entry into Haven territory and the subsequent negotiations, Elita was contemplating crawling into any space big enough to take her and sleeping for a full planetary rotation. That option was still on the table, but - watching Flareup's expressions as she suffered through Sola Dex's enthusiasm was strangely effective at reducing stress. Perhaps it was simple relief at seeing her soldiers safe enough to snipe at each other like crechemates. ...Perhaps it was a touch of schadenfreude.

That thought prompted her into action - specifically an act of mercy. "I'll spell you for a bit, if you like," she offered.

Flareup didn't hesitate. "All yours, One, thanks," she said, and all but fled the room so quickly that the access door she'd been holding nearly whacked Sola in the back of the head. Elita reached out and caught it, keeping it open as Flareup had done.

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Sola, lying on her back, half wedged beneath a knot of bundled wires and relay nodes, grinned brightly up at her new spotter. Elita’s amused and lovely face peering down at her from under the open control hatch was, in many ways, one of the things Sola lived for in this day and age. There were a lot of things to keep living for even after Cybertron, despite what people said, but Sola liked to keep a list just to keep things organized.

Things to Live For (An Incomplete List):

1 – Elita One’s smile.
2 – A good engex after work.
3 – The smell of nitroglycerin in the morning.
4 – Minibots with accents.

“Sup, boss?” Sola could have winked, but the effect was lost because of her targeting visor. The rotory femme beamed up at her fearless leader from underneath a low hanging knot of wires, optic band flashing cheerily. Banging her fist against the bottom of a circuit box she added, “I’ve almost got this lot sorted out. Just another cycle and we’ll be a strictly walk-in only facility. I’m gonna set the range at a good half-mile out for now. Any fragger who wants to bridge closer’ll need permission beforehand.”

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"Perfect," Elita affirmed, leaning over the hatch. Seeing Sola this confident gave her confidence as well, easing her worries about the Haven's situation. Sometimes she forgot she didn't have to do everything, she mused wryly - not a single one of her sisters was incapable of helping, and Verdigris would certainly scold her if she took on too much and got burned out.

"I'm afraid my ability to help will be limited to handing you tools," she offered. "But I promise to hand them to you with at least as much skill as you are using on the security system."

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“Rustwash,” said Sola, resuming her task of hot-wiring the shield-mod into the underside of the control hub. “If I took a slug to the cranial case, you’d be able to figure it out. You’d just do it without explaining it.”

The truth was, ant-ground bridge technology had been part of the Cybertronian conflict for eons. Jump-drives had been in existence for a long time, quantum engines, skip-cores, mass-relays, whatever you want to call them the science of folding up space and popping from one end of the verse to the other had been going on since the exploratory virgin voyage of the Ark under Nova Prime. Arguably, jump-drive and space-bridge technology had improved since Nova had zapped him, his crew, and the whole damn ship into fragging oblivion never to be seen again, but it was still tricky.

Jump-drives only worked if you weren’t jumping into… complications – a gravity well, planetary bodies, the middle of dwarf-stars, anything anywhere near a black hole. Meaning one could safely jump from an empty point in space to another empty point in space with relative safety, presuming they knew where they were going and what they were jumping into. It wasn’t until the war someone figured out how to mini-jump people from place to place on the ground. It was a combination of jump and bridge technology and it broke a lot of rules of universe. It was one of the most profound technological advances in civilized space.

Cybertronians used it to bridge a 200 kiloton bomb into Praxus.

Anti-groundbridge technology was the second most profound technological advance in civilized space shortly after.

Zap! “Ow! Primus-fragging piston licking hell.” Sola nursed her scorched thumb and scooted back out a bit to hold out a hand to Elita. “Okay, actually, hand me that laser cutter. Imma fix this thing but good.”

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Chuckling, Elita complied. "Given a competently written instructional manual - perhaps I could," she allowed. "That does not, however, give you permission to take a slug to the cranial case."

As if she could forbid that from happening. Well, it was nice to pretend.

As Sola went to work with the laser cutter, Elita leaned on the hatch again, letting her mind drift a bit. It had become almost routine, she and her sisters beginning their service to the neutrals they encounters by taking on the role of mechanics, even if it was usually Sola doing most of the work. The Haven was unique in more ways than one, though - it had access to resources other enclaves didn't, but the dangers were more immediate as well. The Order would have to make use of every resource, and dig up more besides, if the Haven was to survive.

It was going to be interesting.

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“Ow!” There was a bang from beneath the control board strongly suggesting that Sola had banged her head against the bottom of the circuit box. Muttering and flashes from the laser cutter resumed and momentarily there was a humming whirr and the glorious sound of a connection established. “Ahahahaha! Got it!” Another triumphant thunk from beneath the console and the rotory-femme shoved herself out from beneath the console, aiming herself so she ended up lying on the floor between Elita’s pedes, beaming up at the One from her vantage. “Why hullo there,” she said in a tone that didn’t do much for the chain of command. “Guess what I just did.”

Elita probably didn’t need to guess that the weapons engineer had just synced the control matrix to the shield mode and they could now, at their leisure, set the groundbridge disruption frequency as they saw fit. At this point, post-installation, an instruction manual was not even remotely needed. Installing the shield mod was relatively difficult only because not all systems were compatible with anti-bridge mods. Using anti-bridge mods was button-pushin’ easy. Fixing broken or fritzy shield mods was a quantum mechanical nightmare up there with accidentally standing too close to a quantum-engine at jump.

She was enthused to be at the button-pushin’ easy stage.

“Help me up and I’ll show ya how I’ve got ‘er wired in.”

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Oh, Sola. She never changed. Elita didn't know what she'd do with her if she did.

Chuckling warmly, Elita extended a hand and pulled Sola to her feet - with no further damage to her cranium, thank you very much. Steadying her subordinate with one hand, she nudged the hatch closed with the other and surveyed the console controls Sola had rigged. "Seems simple enough," she said approvingly. "But walk me through it anyway. I want to make sure everyone knows how to use it if it becomes necessary. And how not to break it," she added wryly, knowing quite well how difficult fixing a fritzing anti-bridge apparatus was. Mostly from listening to Sola's cursing.

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“Alright.” Sola dusted off her hands, wiping off an electric green coolant smear down her right thigh before moving to the control, eagerly jacking in a proxy line and direct-loading a series of pre-coded scripts into the now waiting anti-bridge mod. “So, not the first time around the block with this slag, but it’s the first time around the block on this particular block of the ‘verse so I’ll run you through the quirks specific to this system. It’s the same math as that last single-sol system we were in a few hundred years back.”

She raised a hand, a holo-projector showing a diagram of the neutral base and the surrounding area for two miles around in skeletal neon grids.

“Okay, so because I don’t have this bastard hooked up to a quantum drive or anything like a decent generator we really don’t have much range – like is said, this mod will throw a strong anti-bridge frequency for about a half-mile, so well within the bounds of the DMZ. Might keep the skinny red idiot from getting his throat slit by Cons again, but I won’t lay money on it.” Her optical visor flickered and the holo-changed, a red circular perimeter generating around the base on the screen. “So that’s our buffer. I’m forwarding all the operational vectors to you.”

She turned, making a face.

“Here’s the nasty part. Once it’s up, we can’t bridge in and out either – this system aint that smart. And quantum tunnel into the disruption field will result in a bad skip – throw whatever and whoever tries it a couple miles off their course, possibly into the middle of a mountain, so tell the Autobots to seriously not try it. Bottomline: no bridging when this thing is on. Period. Luckily, we have our ship in orbit, so we can drop our girls outside the field for their duty shifts, but if you wanna put someone right outside the door we gotta change the range and if you wanna bridge from the inside out, we gotta take the field down entirely.”

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Elita shrugged slowly. "Not ideal. But better than nothing."

Better, in point of fact, than many other setups the Order had worked under over the centuries. There was no reason why this couldn't work just fine, if they were careful. If the Neutrals could be depended upon. Cleaver seemed responsible, but there were a few Haven dwellers Elita hadn't met yet.

"We'll have to have a basewide meeting to explain the safety protocols," she mused aloud. "I've only met Cleaver and Sideswipe so far, and Azimuth has made Cat's acquaintance - have you met any of the others here yet?" She tapped her cheek pensively. "I don't think they would do anything foolish, but - I want to be sure of them."

It was something she and Sola had both experienced. A frightened civilian, or a seduced one, was capable of doing foolish things. Such as betraying an Order-guarded sanctuary from within. And she could name at least one tyrant on this planet - well, orbiting it - who would take advantage of such a frightened individual in a sparkpulse. It wouldn't do to turn their optics outward, and forget to guard their backs as well.

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“Nope, not really met the civvies in any detail – too busy with defense setup. The skittish one – Moon-something-or-other – just kind of ran away, the wannabe leader is your problem, the human’s been around but I’ve been busy, and the jets are… hiding I think. I see them lurking behind shit when they think I’m not around.” She shrugged. “Only sociable thing I’ve done is buy booze from Red and he didn’t seem too pleased about it. Can’t tell if he’s still sore cuz of his epic thrashing or if he’s doesn’t like us.”

Sola was busily keying in a few more personalized subroutines to smooth out the interface, testing the shielding variables.

“He’s an ex-Bot.” She glanced at Elita. “Commando-type, got the brand and everything. Think I remember that name too and I don’t really remember names. If he’s not a civvie he might not freak out, but he could have other problems. Defectors always have problems and that Cleaver femme.” She made a kind of hnn-whirr sound. “What’s her game anyway? You talked to her. She scared?”

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Elita nodded somberly. "She has more reason to be than most," she said, thinking of the new little life shining within her.

Elita hadn't had much occasion to interact with sparklings on Cybertron, and even less with carrying femmes - if they came to the Order for protection, they were a matter for the medics and counselors, not blade-class as she was. She'd met Bluestreak a few times, when ou was small, but - it had been such a long time ago, and the war had occupied most of her attention. Just as before, the welfare of Cleaver and her sparkling would be better left to those with medic and counselor training.

"I think she is less afraid of becoming a casualty than - being the method by which those who depend on her fall. She's definitely lost faith in herself, from what she said to me." Elita propped her elbow on the console and her chin in her hand. "I don't mind taking over day-to-day administration, of course, but that confidence of hers is either a glaring weak point or the trigger to something explosive. I'm not sure which."

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“Always that way.” Sola leaned a hip against the console, folding her arms. “She must have fraggin’ set though, to come out here and set up a Neutral zone in the middle of the new frontlines, scaled down or no. Really aint a place for a femme who’s scared, unfortunately.” Sola tapped a finger against her forearm for a moment, studying Elita’s face. “Least it’s just a handful, though,” he said brightly. “Cleaver, Moonshot, the human, the jets. It’s not like a refugee camp or a major neutral outpost so, whatever their issues, it’s only five fraggers to worry about.”

Sola grinned, optical band flashing.

“We can totally handle five fraggers with issues. The rest is just making sure the Bots and Cons don’t shoot each other on our turf an’ the Decepticons don’t do their thing and, I dunno, wipe out all organic life." Her tone was so flat it was two-dimentionsal. "Megatron doesn’t always wipe out all organic life on a planet, but when he does it’s, ya know, thorough.” She made a face. “This aint the trenches, aint Simanzi, aint Cybertron. No local resources for planet-killers and the like, so that’s a nice change of pace but it’s still the Bots and Cons. Doing what they do. And if Prime and Megatron are here..."

She shrugged.

"Then there’s pretty much zero chance of things going peaceably. Cybertron's dead, the real war is over... this just might be the last battleground is all.”

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"I fear you are all too correct."

Regret stole over Elita's shoulders like a cloak of cold, and she accepted it, dimming her optics as she let the losses of Simanzi, Cybertron and other worlds wash over her for a moment. So many lives lost, so many worlds destroyed - was she doomed only to bear witness to it all, to sift through the ashes of Earth afterwards as she had other worlds?

No. "No." Elita straightened. "Not again, Sola. Not here. Even if Megatron and Optimus are determined to fight until they destroy each other, even if they immolate their armies in the attempt, Earth will not pay the price for it. I will not - I cannot let it." Her spark blazed within her, regret swiftly burned away by anger and resolve.