Chapter 6
The strike group of Autobots was on their way to meet with the resistance forces on Cybertron.
While in orbit above them a space battle was going on, a battle that had only the sense to secure their safe landing.
Now they were following the "double agent" Counterpunch, who was playing an important role in the planned retake of the planet, to the arranged meeting point.
The former Autobot leader Hotrod, Rodimus Prime was walking next to Optimus, followed closely by Ultra Magnus.
"So Optimus, when do we start to our special mission?" Hotrod asked.
"Soon, but I don´t want to start this before we have at least met up with the resistance forces."
"You are right, we should not divide our forces before we have seen the others. But we should still do it as fast as possible. I would like to be back when the main battle starts."
"Your team can go as soon as we have found them", the Autobot leader told Hotrod.
"Can you really miss two leading officers for now Optimus?" Ultra Magnus asked Optimus.
"With the resistance leaders here and Fortress Maximus in charge of the fleet it will work and as you said, with some luck you will be back before the real battle starts", he answered.
They had reached the resistance base, actually a forgotten line of buildings in a similar forgotten sector of Cybertron. The greatest part of the complex was underground and ideal for a hideout.
As they came closer, the Autobots who had been taken cover inside the buildings and behind broken walls and rubble that was filling the area, were recognizing them and coming out.
"Springer", Hotrod greeted the green triple changer as he saw him coming out, "it is good to see you."
"Hotrod, Optimus, Ultra Magnus welcome in our base, if you actually want to call it that", he replied humorously.
"I see you have not changed Springer", Optimus Prime commented. "Inferno", he greeted the other leader of the resistance group. "Can we talk somewhere in private? We have much to discuss."
xxxxxxx
In orbit over the planet
The Autobot ships had drawn the defense fleet of the Decepticons into a few short shoot-outs, without any real damage on either side. It had only been an diversion, but for the purposes of the Autobots this had already been enough.
Their forces were now starting to leave the star system. In a few days they would be back for the real attack.
Cyclonus, who was flying as a interstellar jet over the battlefield was contacting his leader.
"The Autobots are retreating mighty Galvatron", he informed him.
"Yes they did, exactly as they had planned right? Too bet for them we knew about their plans from the beginning. Let us hope that Soundwave have success with his mission", Galvatron replied.
xxxxxxx
The Decepticon force led by Soundwave was getting in position. By now they had surrounded the enemy base and were ready to attack.
The Autobots double agent, now their double agent had led them directly to their stronghold.
Soundwave had seen with satisfaction that not only Optimus Prime was here, but also Ultra Magnus, Hotrod and even Kup. Nearly the entire leadership of the Autobots was in this sector, ready to be wiped out. His plan had worked better when he could have imagined.
He was just sending a message to inform Galvatron.
Their strike force consisted of ground troops, seekers and triple changers and they had the Terrorcons with them, one of the most powerful combiner teams. They were strong enough to destroy every Autobot down there.
But when Galvatron heard who was here, he would possibly want to lead the attack himself. So they waited a bit longer.
Soon the Autobots would be completely encircled and then it would be too late for them even if they did notice their presence.
xxx
Death Head was watching both the Autobot forces that had assembled in their base and the Decepticon forces that had surrounded them.
Following the Decepticons had been quite easy. If everything would be working right and he would make sure that it did, he would soon be able to catch his target by itself.
Now he was overseeing the area from a relatively secure position.
Death Head was a warrior in his own right and one of the best in the galaxy. In opposite to the Autobots and the Decepticons however he didn´t believe in a ideological cause.
What he believed in was money, a material reward for what he was doing.
But that didn´t mean that he wasn´t enjoying a challenge when he got one, like so many other warriors.
And this mission definitely was one, picking out a single target in the middle of a battlefield and eliminating it and then getting away.
Yes, the challenge was definitely one of the reasons that he had agreed to this mission, next to the money of course.
But somehow the Decepticons didn´t seem to attack right now. He didn´t knew what they were waiting for.
Whatever it was, it wasn´t in his favor.
With every second he spend here the risk to be detected became greater.
And even for him reaching his target in this situation was impossible. Down there were two entire armies. What he needed was the chaos of a battle.
"Yes, I guess I need to speed things up a bit", Death Head murmured.
He took out a hand-sized missile launcher, aimed at a place close to the Autobot base and fired.
xxx
The shot hit a few meters from one of the most offside standing Autobots. They reacted instantly and draw their guns.
"We are under attack", a red Bot called out.
A number of more Autobots run out of the buildings and getting ready to fight.
xxx
For a moment, Soundwave couldn´t believe what he was seeing.
Who in the world had fired that shot? This was too early to strike and now the Autobots were warned.
It had all become much more difficult now, but they didn´t have a choice.
"Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, Laserbeak, Buzzaw, Ratbat, eject", Soundwave ordered his cassettes.
The smaller robots flew out of his chest compartment and transformed into their animal or robot modes.
"Look at this", Rumble said to his twin Frenzy, pointing at the Autobots who were preparing to fight.
Next to them stood two triple changers named Talon and Ripper. Both could transform into four legged dragons, looking like something from human legends. While Talon was mostly red and grey colored and had a jet as his second alt-mode, Ripper was grey and black was transforming into a sports car beside his dragon mode.
Another Decepticon with them was Fang, a large green, brutish robot. He was actually not much more than a thug, recruited into the army. Soundwave had met him a few times in the past.
To that came a few squads of seekers and dozens of ground troops whose names he didn´t recognized. It should be enough troops to beat the Autobots, even if they were not all in position yet.
"Decepticons attack", Soundwave gave the command.
Like the Autobots, the Decepticons came out of their hiding places and both sides started firing at each other.
xxx
From his own hiding place, the bounty hunter was still watching the battle.
"Ah, I see they are bringing it on now", Death Head said to himself.
xxxxxxx
Autobot city earth
After the fleet had left, the number of the forces around Autobot city was drastically reduced. Only the original garrison of the base had remained.
That however, combined with the defense weapons, should have been more than enough to fight off an Decepticon attack.
Under normal circumstances. But that was this time not the case.
To activate the defense weapons, the city needed to transform into fortress mode first and that only worked if they saw the enemies coming. What of course nobody thought of was the possibility of attackers appearing right before the city gates.
Like the times before, a transwarp sphere was appearing out of nowhere, this time right next to the walls of Autobot city. As the energy globe had vanished, twenty Decepticons were standing directly before the base.
Megatron the Decepticon leader from a alternate reality and his three elite seekers, Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp, the mysterious renegade leader Sideways, who had been providing Megatron with information´s and warriors since his arrival in this universe, his followers Doomsday, Flashlight and Eraser, the Seacons and a half dozen black Sweeps.
The group of Decepticons had materialized only a short distance in front of the city, without the slightest chance for the Autobots to prepare their defenses.
Within seconds they were ready to attack.
"Fire", Megatron yelled. At his order, they began their assault.
A blast from his fusion cannon ripped a large part out of the outer walls. The fire of the other Decepticons also caused a great damage in only a few moments.
"Attack", Megatron called out in the direction of the seekers.
Skywarp, Thundercracker and Flashlight transformed into jets and attacked their enemies from above.
Snap Trap, the leader of the Seacons, gave the order "merge" and the combiner team formed the super robot Piranhacon. Like Devastator seven years before, the gestalt was tearing into the city and causing destruction and chaos.
Some of the Autobots were too shocked to even react at first. From the beginning they were in the defensive against the sudden onslaught from the Decepticons.
xxx
Starscream was still standing beside Megatron.
"I have to say, I am somewhat impressed "Megatron", we have actually arrived in one piece", he said, as always mockingly.
Starscream spoke out his name with a wrong pronouncing, as if to point out that he was not really the old Decepticon leader, not the one from this world anyway. Megatron realized this, but decided to ignore it. Starscream, no matter which version, making side comments was so natural as water on a organic planet.
"I have told you that our transwarp engine will bring us safe before the city", Megatron reminded him in a patient tone. "We may not be able to transport entire battle ships like Galvatron does it, but it is enough for place to place transports. And it was enough to reach your universe", he added.
"If you want to call this piece of junk a transwarp engine", Starscream replied even more sarcastically.
At that comment, Megatron was about to lose his patience. But before he had the chance to say anything else, the seeker was transforming into his jet mode and joined the attack.
Starscream couldn´t help but be reminded of his last battle over Autobot city. It was the same situation all over again. Decepticon jets in the sky, attacking ground forces, the Autobots defending their base.
The time of his final betrayal of Megatron. But it was also the prelude to his, Starscream´s, downfall. He had abandoned Megatron in space, sure that he would die from his wounds and lack of fuel. But he reemerged as Galvatron and he himself was the one to die. Galvatron killed him, burned his body down to ashes. He could still remember the moments of pain.
It was only because of the mysterious anomaly that allowed him somehow to continue to exist. Somehow, as a phantom, a ghost.
He had found out that he was able to possess and take over other Decepticons in that state and he tried to use this to his advantage and failed once again. Finally he made the decision to get his body back, at any cost. He reactivated Unicron, whose blown off head was still floating in space close to Cybertron at that time, unconscious and inactive.
Starscream made an alliance with the chaos bringer. In exchange for restoring Starscream´s body, he would help Unicron take over the planet Cybertron, which Unicron would reform into a new vessel for himself. The chaos bringer held up his part of the deal, while Starscream betrayed and turned his back on him in the moment Unicron had brought him back to life.
He remembered the alliance with Unicron and the terrible price he had to pay for it. Starscream was a outcast, a traitor to both sides. He had betrayed everyone, the Decepticons, the Autobots, the humans, the galaxy, even Unicron. Nobody in this universe would be willing to trust him anymore. Ironically his new partners were not from this universe.
Under him the battle continued. Robots and human personal were running all over the place. Seven years ago there were no human forces in Autobot city. This was one of the differences to Megatron´s last attack, Starscream noticed somehow in the back of his mind.
He saw three of the human security guards running beneath him, two men and a woman.
Yes, he noticed every difference from the last battle, no matter how small, Starscream said to himself. Maybe it would this time not end like the last.
He took aim and gunned the three people down.
xxx
Jazz, the current commander of Autobot city and the Autobots Blaster and Beachcomber were starring at a monitor in the command center of the base.
Somehow a group of Decepticons had suddenly appeared right next to the city and were now attacking it mercilessly.
The three Bots didn´t know how their enemies had done this. They had heard of course about the new transport system that the Decepticons had used to take over Cybertron. Maybe this had something to do with it.
But that wasn´t what truly unsettled them.
They could only stare at they screen before them. It showed the place outside of the city and the leader of the current attack.
"Megatron", Jazz said with a flat voice.
"That is impossible", Blaster called out. "Megatron is gone. He was reformed into Galvatron years ago."
"And Skywarp and Thundercracker, both are under the attackers", Beachcomber said.
"Or just seekers who look like them, at this distance we have no way to identify them for sure. At least Starscream is somewhat explainable, we already knew that old Screamer was back", Blaster replied, using the nickname Skywarp had once given to Starscream.
"This could be a fake a impostor", Beachcomber said.
They looked at the large green figure, very different from the Megatron they remembered.
"A impostor would try to look exactly like the old Megatron, not like a remoduled version", Jazz commented.
"We can not be sure."
"No we can not. But whoever, whatever this is, Optimus needs to be informed, now."
"You are joking right? Optimus Prime should be on Cybertron right now, deep in Decepticon territory. There is no way that we could reach him over our channels", Blaster stated.
Jazz spend a few seconds thinking about the situation.
"Then send it over the open channel", he decided.
"What? But then the Decepticons will hear it too."
"That doesn´t matter. If they are behind this we wouldn´t tell them something new and if this is a new threat from the outside I don´t see what harm it could make if they are informed about it."
"If you think so."
"Yes, send the signal directly to Cybertron and tell Prime that we need reinforcements."
Blaster transformed into his tape recorder mode, connected himself with the computer console and started to send out the distress signal together with the information who was leading this attack.
Déjà vu, he thought as he was trying to reach Optimus.
xxxxxxx
Orbit over Cybertron
Galvatron was sitting inside of Cyclonus space jet form. Both were on their way back to Cybertron to lead the fight against the Autobot troops on the planet.
To say that Galvatron was disappointed would be an understatement.
Soundwave had just informed them that someone, who exactly was unknown had opened fire and started the battle too early, before they were ready and now the Autobots there had a good chance of escaping.
All three, Optimus, Hotrod, Rodimus and Ultra Magnus were with them, even the security officer Kup were there. With taking out this four, they could practically end the war. But exactly this officers would also have the best chance to lead the Autobots out of there. He could practically feel the victory slipping out of his fingers.
"Galvatron, I am receiving a signal. It is not decoded", Cyclonus told him. "By this information, it seems to come from Autobot city, earth.
That is impossible", he suddenly called out, "Galvatron this data it…", he stammered.
It was a, for him, completely uncharacteristic behaviour.
"Show me", Galvatron asked his second calmly.
On a small screen inside Cyclonus cockpit appeared a picture, the same as the Autobots had seen a short time earlier.
Galvatron felt as if the reality around him began to blurr, as if he was looking into a distorted mirror.
"Megatron", he finally said the name.
xxx
On the planet, the Autobots had broken into several smaller groups and tried to escape separately. They knew that they had been found and were for the moment outnumbered.
Optimus Prime was leading a small group of Bots out of the ambush, as he received the message.