Chapter 11
Cyclonus had made his decision.
He remember what happened during their trip into the past.
Yes in his mind everybody at least deserved a chance to fight back. If they would actually took that chance was their own business.
Beside all that however, if Magnus was right Unicron would soon attack.
And if what the Autobot told him had been a hint to anything, Ultra Magnus might be a time traveler. He clearly remembered their meeting in the past and especially mentioned it here.
For Cyclonus this had been just a couple days ago. Even if it was in fact nine million years.
Back then Cyclonus had been the time traveler. Was it this time the other way around?
And if he was, Magnus could know something about what would happen.
That would at least be an explanation how he could be on this planet now. And then he could know for sure that Galvatron´s attempt would fail and Unicron would attack.
Maybe. But whatever else, deep down Cyclonus had known one thing the entire time. Right now the Autobots were not their greatest problem.
"Decepticons - stand down," he ordered them, "evacuate the building."
Cyclonus saw that every Decepticon now froze and looked at him.
He admitted that his order was quite unusual.
"We will soon be attacked," he pointed out.
Without any more words, he just saw upwards. For the most Decepticons present this was already explanation enough.
"Get out of here and go back to headquarters," Cyclonus insisted.
The Autobots as well didn´t know what to think.
That a Autobot leader would ask a Decepticon commander for deference for imprisoned Autobot minds and to just let them go with the personality cores was strange enough. The thought alone was downright insane.
But that the Decepticon would actually agree to this, that was beyond anything. This situation would surely go down in history of Cybertron, Red Alert thought.
But sadly it wouldn´t be the only thing for the history books this day.
"You have heard it. Take the personality cores of the prisoners and then leave this place," Red Alert told the other Autobots.
Now while the way was free, they were running to the cell blocks and started removing the personality-components from their holding places.
xxx
The Decepticons who had been in the prison had by then already left the building.
Cyclonus saw that Ultra Magnus had been right as he looked into the sky.
xxx
At the same time, far above them, the living planet had began to change his form.
Cyclonus, the Sweeps and the seekers who had been guarding the prison complex were transforming into their jet-modes and flying back in direction of Polyhex.
The Stunticons following them in a short distance.
They needed to get back to the ship, Cyclonus thought.
xxx
Ultra Magnus and his comrades were now about to bring the personality-cores outside.
They as a whole found 36 Autobot minds that were imprisoned here and were about to release them all and bring them out of the building.
All warriors who were part of this mission had reconfigured their subspace packages earlier to transport the prisoners.
Nearly every Transformer today had at least on subspace storage-fault that could be used to hold weapons or equipment. The mech could simply let it vanish to the outside world and take it back out when it was needed.
Most robots were also able to send their extra mass into subspace when they transformed.
Now they had modified their subspace packages as a safe transport possibility for the personalities, to get them out of here. But every one of the could only carry two personalities and it were not many of them left.
Of their original group, only Ultra Magnus, Red Alert, Getaway, Slapdash, Skids and Moonracer were still alive. They had the Aerialbots as help. Without Unicron´s looming attack, it would have not been a real problem. But like this, they were very tight in time.
Magnus thought. He and his strike group members could all subspace two personalities. That meant 12.
If they were careful they could carry two with their bare hands too, 12 more, so 24 as a whole
The five Aerialbots didn´t have the modified subspace packages. They could only carry them per hand, 10 more.
That makes 34 personalities they could bring out in one go. As much as they wanted, trying to carry more would be too dangerous.
That meant one of them would have to go in a second time.
xxx
In space over Cybertron, Unicron had continued with his transformation.
xxx
"I will go," Red Alert called out.
Before anybody could react, he had already transformed and was racing back into the building.
Ultra Magnus called him with his communicator.
"Red - answer me. What do you think you are doing? This building will be destroyed in a few minutes. Believe me I know it."
Ultra Magnus could hardly believe that Red Alert was doing this. As much as he wanted to rescue two more comrades. It was simply no time left. He would not make it.
Magnus knew he shouldn´t let him put his life at risk like that. But he also remembered that Red Alert was one of the Autobots who were dead in his time.
Damn it.
"And what exactly would you have done different Magnus?" Red Alert´s voice came over the com. "Going in there yourself? Taking the same risk? Would that be any better?
I hate to tell it to you in that way, but I am faster than you in car-mode. I have a better chance than you. And you are important where you come from. The Autobots need you."
"Red you damn idiot," Ultra Magnus yelled into the communicator.
Red Alert had been one of the Autobots who had fallen in this battle. But nobody had ever told him exactly how, he realized. It had nearly been as if everybody had been avoiding that question.
He feared he knew how this would end.
`What should I do?´ He thought to himself. Just standing by and let it happen?
"Hey - I always thought that all the worst could happen to me. Looks as if I was right," Red Alert - the security officer who had always been known for his rampant paranoia - pointed out with self-irony.
"Good luck Red," Ultra Magnus said to him.
xxxxxxx
Unicron was now in robot mode, a figure whose dimensions compared to Cybertron itself. His arms and hand, that were larger than entire sectors, were moving.
His metallic wings spread out, that made him to out-shadowing even the planet itself.
His eyes were glowing green.
Galvatron was still standing before this being, placed somewhere on his shoulder blades, looking directly in the face.
Unicron spoke again. His voice was to hear in space all around him.
"For a time I considered sparing your wretched little planet Cybertron. But now you should witness it´s dismemberment."
Galvatron was still shocked, like never before in his two lives.
But he was sure about one thing. He didn´t believe a word of that Unicron just said.
He did no longer thought for a second that this being - The Chaos Bringer - even for a moment, ever considered not to attack Cybertron.
Galvatron was only unconsciously aware of the presence right next to him. About their broken connection, that were on some subconscious level however still there.
The presence of Primus himself - that was having the same thoughts as him at this moment.
Unicron´s giant body started to move through space.
He came into reach of Cybertron in only a few moments.
xxxxxxx
Red Alert had recovered the two remaining personalities from the cell blocks. Now he was racing to the outside as fast as he could.
Magnus had known that this building would be destroyed. No wonder if he was really from the future. Red Alert was by now mostly willing to believe that. Of course something like absolute security didn´t even existed in his paranoid mind.
`My life, my entire life I have always feared all the things that could happen if I was not on guard,´ he thought to himself.
He had always made up the most terrifying scenarios in his mind.
And now he was here, in a Decepticon prison they had infiltrated, that was about to be crushed by a planet sized hostile Transformer. It was something even he could have never imagined.
And yet he had run into this building willingly.
He was silently laughing at this.
Red Alert was now closing up to the entrance-gate and he knew that the other Autobots were waiting for him outside.
He was doing this because otherwise one of the others would have to.
As he could already see the others behind the main gate, the sky was already getting dark. Caused by the shadow of a giant object above them.
The other Autobots saw him coming and looked relieved.
For a short moment Ultra Magnus was hoping that maybe the past had changed.
Then someone shouted in horror. Everybody was starring upwards now.
The monstrous robot, nearly as large as Cybertron itself, was towering above them.
In this moment the entire area was now covered in shadows. The reason they realized a millisecond later.
A giant hand was moving down from the sky.
xxx
Red Alert saw on one of the security monitors what was happening.
The hand of the monster was coming down right on the building. He didn´t know if he could make it and he had the minds of two other Autobots with him. He made a decision.
Red Alert transformed into robot mode. This made him even slower.
The others were seeing him from the outside. He was still several meters from the gate away as he transformed. Ultra Magnus realized that transforming now would slow him down significantly.
The other Autobots were screaming at him too, to get out of there.
Crushed by a planet-sized robot while being in a Decepticon prison, Red Alert thought. Even he would have never thought about a fate like that, he said to himself with a bit of irony. Then he pulled the two personalities from subspace.
Ultra Magnus saw what Red Alert was doing. He couldn´t believe this. It was pure madness.
"Magnus," Red Alert screamed, "catch."
He was throwing the two personality components from a few dozen meters distance to the other Autobots. The stored minds were highly vulnerable. If they should fall down, they could easily break.
Ultra Magnus managed to catch one of the components. Right next to him he saw that Silverbolt had caught the other.
Red Alert had done it. He had brought the last prisoners out. But Magnus realized that in that way he himself had become far to slow to make it out in time. Even if there had been a small chance before, now...
"Red!" he shouted at the doomed robot.
The Autobots around him reacted in the same way. All they could do was watch. Every attempt to rescue him would only end with them throwing their own lives away for nothing.
xxx
Unicron´s hand moved with an incredible speed into the planet´s surface.
Not only the prison building with Red Alert inside was completely crushed, but also the whole area around it.
The greatest part of the entire sector was devastated from one moment to the other.
xxx
Ultra Magnus and his team stood only a few dozen meters out of danger.
"Red Alert - he brought the prisoners out, but he himself…" Getaway said about what just happened.
"He knew that he wouldn´t make it. But he tried to save the others," Ultra Magnus stated.
"Silverbolt, Skydive transform - store all the personality components inside you and then bring them to safety. That means as far away from Cybertron as possible right now. Don´t try to engage anyone, just leave this star system," he ordered the two Aerialbots.
"We can not simply leave you alone," Silverbolt protested.
"You have your orders. We can deal with this situation just as good without you."
`Meaning we are just as outmatched with you as without,´ Magnus thought silently. But that way at least the prisoners will be safe.
Over them Unicron was already raising his hand again.
"We have no time to grieve. Autobots take cover and then try to defend yourself."
xxxxxxx
Several kilometers from them Cyclonus group saw that had happened.
"Have you seen that?" Motormaster asked his teammates.
"That could have been us," Drag Strip said to the other Stunticons.
"Cyclonus had foreseen this," Breakdown pointed out. "If this guy hadn´t ordered us to retreat we would all be dead."
"We are dead either way. Look at this thing," Dead End pointed out.
This Stunticon had always been pessimistic and fatalistic from his personality. He always expected the worst things and then surrendered himself to it.
Now he was hanging emotionless in the air. He had always in his entire life been expecting the absolute worst and now he had got it. Only worse than he could ever imagined.
"This was it. It is over. We are doomed." Dead End talked to himself.
Suddenly Breakdown´s fist slammed into his face.
"Move it," he called out. "You will not just lay down and die here, so get to the shuttles."
"Hurry up and bring that idiot along," Motormaster yelled at the others.
Most of them had complained about Cyclonus decision to suddenly retreat. They didn´t like it at all to leave the building and all the prisoners to the Autobots. Many of them had doubted the order and the new Commander who gave it.
But now a spontaneous cheer for Cyclonus erupted. Their new Second in Command had proven himself to be right.
"Galvatron must have failed," Sweep 1 stated to his partner.
"Yes - this is a disaster," Sweep 2 replied.
"We have to go back to the ship and that fast," Cyclonus pointed out.
xxxxxxx
In Decepticon headquarters Shockwave was standing before a problem like he had never faced it before.
He had always lived by the rules of logic. But at least to him, planet eating monsters were not part of his concept of logic.
It was something he couldn´t deal with.
The last week, since the planet named Unicron was first seen, had not been easy for him. He preferred things to be possible to judge and in control. For four million years he had controlled the Decepticon forces and the war on Cybertron itself. And he had always been competent in it. That were things he knew and could comprehend.
As the killer planet appeared in this system however, Shockwave was glad that Galvatron and Cyclonus were dealing with the situation.
And now this planet had transformed into a robot, another thing he could barely even grasp.
Skywarp had always told him that the millions of years he had been here had changed him into a pale theoretician, a buerocrat.
He was aware that the seeker told him that to a great part just to provoke him. But maybe he had been right. Shockwave had always been a creature of logic. Still in the 4 million years he had been stuck here he seemed to have lost all his flexibility and ability to adapt to new situations.
Or maybe he was simply getting old. Yes - he thought, that was a logical conclusion.
He stood in the center of the headquarter and saw the attack of the super-robot.
Standing behind him were Reflector - a spy robot consisting of three separate robot-bodies - who had been part of Megatron´s Earth mission and two Decepticons with race car alt-modes who were helping him to run the control tower of Decepticon HQ.
Shockwave stared out of the window for a few moments, before he finally gave the command.
"Decepticons - we are under attack, scramble."
At this words the Decepticons all over Cybertron who hadn´t left their positions yet, were getting out to defend the planet.
Many of course had seen Unicron´s approach and had were already in the air, either to fight or in more cases, to abandon their posts and flee.
Not everybody was willing to fight a enemy like Unicron.
xxxxxxx
Ultra Magnus team was fighting it´s way through a disaster area.
"We have to reach Roadbuster and the others," he shouted to his few remaining soldiers.
xxxxxxx
Cyclonus and the two Sweeps had just come back. While the Stunticons and the seekers headed for the Polyhex space-port, they had returned directly to the flagship.
The three had just entered the bridge.
"Get the ship ready to fight and attack," Cyclonus ordered.
"As you command," Scourge replied after a short hesitation.
xxxxxxx
A few minutes earlier - Sector Polyhex
Roadbuster and his team were still fighting against the Decepticon triple-changers, the five seekers and the prison guards of their sector.
They were holding themselves despite that they were completely outnumbered.
But that didn´t mean much for their mission. They were meant to free the captives from the mind prison and they didn´t manage to come one step closer to that goal.
The prison complex was still kilometers away from them. And here there was nobody like Cyclonus who stopped the fighting.
The seekers were attacking them from the air, while most of the other Decepticons were fighting them on close range in robot mode.
Blitzwing and a few others had transformed into tanks and were shooting them from larger distance.
If that what Magnus said was true... and Roadbuster didn´t doubt it for a moment anymore... Unicron could attack any second now.
"Roadbuster - incoming message from Magnus team," Whirl told him. "They made it. They freed the prisoners and send Silverbolt and Skydive to bring them off planet," the one eyed Autobot called out.
A cheer went through their line as they heard this. Roadbuster felt a great relieve.
"Maybe we can still make it," he said.
In that moment he saw a monstrous hand coming down from the sky.
xxxxxxx
Shockwave could call and instruct the entire army from his control-tower. He could reach all troops, no matter if they are stationed on Cybertron or on colony worlds. From here he could have organized the planet´s defense all by himself if he had wanted it.
Besides him and Reflector, he still had two dozen guards on duty who were still in headquarters and could fight for him if needed.
But even with all that he could do nothing right now.
Unicron´s hand was coming down again and this time directly above the Decepticon base in Polyhex.
Reflector and the others looked at each other. They knew it was over. There was no time to flee.
Shockwave only watched out of the window.
This was the end of his duties, he thought - after over four million years.
In that moment Unicron´s hand reached Polyhex.
The entire building and everyone inside were intantly crunched beyond recognition, as was everything surrounded it.
Not only Decepticon headquarters was caught, but the entire sector.
All that in the same moment, while Shockwave´s control-tower was hit…
xxxxxxx
…the prison complex was completely destroyed.
"How many prisoners were inside there?" Impactor asked horrified.
"By our informations 37 Autobots," Roabuster answered him with a hollow voice.
The Decepticons, as thad seen saw this coming, broke their lines and lifted off in the air.
Nobody was firing anymore. Everybody could simply in shock at what had just happened.
In the moment Unicron´s hand hit Polyhex, Decepticon headquarters and the polyhex mind-prison had been destroyed.
But not only that, everything in tens of kilometers around them, was obliterated in a single moment.
xxxxxxx
High above them the flagship of the Decepticons and all available seekers were now engaging Unicron.
They were landing a number of hits on him. These however were doing no visible damage.
While they were avoiding his attacks, at least for the moment. But that would not last.
Their fight took less that a minute. After the seekers flew several maneuvers on the planet-devourer, four of them made the mistake of coming too close.
Unicron then did something they would have never expected. He just opened his mouth as they were coming neat to his head and swallowed them in mid-flight.
He literally ate the four jets and crunched them between his metallic teeth.
Then he took a swing at the Decepticon battleship that was at that moment behind him and still covering him with fire.
Unicron hit the flaggship square in the side.
xxx
"Incoming!" the Sweep at the consoles screamed as he saw the blow coming.
He still tried to avoid the hit and changed the course. That alone was it what saved the ship, so it wasn´t hit with full force.
The blow was however still strong enough to push the ship away over a great distance. The force of the hit was still enough to threw it in just a few seconds out of Cybertron´s orbit and into open space.
At the inside the ship was shaking and several Decepticons fell over. Most systems were disabled and the energy got offline.
Damaged and out of control, the ship drifted away from Cybertron and from the battle.
xxx
Galvatron was still standing on Unicron´s shoulders.
The entire battle so far had not even taken more than two minutes. Desperation overcame him.
He wanted to help his fellow Decepticons. He wanted his freedom back. He wanted to regain control of the situation. He wanted to defend Cybertron and he wanted Unicron dead.
In truth he didn´t believe any more that he could succeed in any of this - that he had any chance. He had gambled and lost. But he tried anyway.
Galvatron transformed into his cannon mode and fired several times.
Every single one of this blast was enough to reduce a Transformer to ashes.
On this opponent, it didn´t even leave a mark.
A moment later the monstrous robot grabbed him precisely between two giant fingers, with just enough force not to crush him, held him over his head and simply let him fall into his mouth.
Galvatron, damaged but still intact, fell into the Chaos Bringer´s insides.
xxxxxxx
In another part of the star system, the Decepticon flagship with Cyclonus and his followers on board was still floating helplessly through space.
The Sweeps had just managed to bring the emergency power back on-line.
They realized however that they were already far away from Cybertron.
"Scourge how long will it take to bring the ship back under control?" Cyclonus asked the Sweep leader.
"That is hard to say. The engines are damaged and most of the systems are still off-line," he answered.
xxxxxxx
At the same time two other ships were entering the star system of Cybertron and were about to join the battle.
On board were the Autobot group led by Hotrod and their new allies, the Junkions.
They were approaching the planet.
Inside, like so many others did today, the passengers were currently starring in disbelieve at Unicron´s robot form.
But suddenly Unicron was shooting burning plasma out of his mouth. Another thing nobody would have anticipated him of even being capable of doing.
It hit one of the ships, a captured cruiser of a race called the Quintessons.
Hotrod took over the controls of the ship, that was already spiralling and about to crash.
He was however aiming it directly at their giant opponent, using the ship itself as a projectile and looking for the weakest part he could find.
If they were going down, he would at least do it where he could do some damage to their enemy.
Another part of him acted on pure instinct and this felt like something he should do.
It worked better than he could have hoped for. The ship crashed directly through Unicron´s eye. This was the first move so far that actually managed to damage him.
And at the same time Hotrod and his group, consisting of Kup, Springer, Arcee and Spike´s son Daniel had made it inside of Unicron´s body.
xxxxxxx
In a remote area of Cybertron - a sector mostly called 0017 and not so often by it´s name Taasas - was standing a old Decepticon fortress.
The soldiers here had not managed to follow Shockwave´s order and leave.
Of course this was one of the most unimportant outposts the Decepticons possessed on the planet. Probably one of the most unimportant in the entire Empire.
In the war with the Autobots this sector had not really been involved for millions of years... and also otherwise had nothing really happened here for a similar long time.
And since they were not really important, they had only sparsely been informed by the Decepticon bureaucracy about anything what was going on.
This included the entire crisis of the last week. They had barely been informed that Megatron was `gone´ and replaced by a new leader whose name they did not even knew.
Of course discipline and motivation had dropped next to zero after all this time of boredom and inactivity.
And so the order to swarm out had caught this base completely unprepared. The 20 Decepticons stationed here had barely believed it as they were called into battle.
As they had finally gotten ready it was far too late.
Unicron decided to get a stand on the planet itself instead of floating in space, to fight better.
As he placed his feet on the surface whole sectors were crushed beneath them.
To the bad luck of this fortress and it´s troops, it was in one of these sectors.
They all died in a battle they knew barely anything about as one of Unicron´s feet crunched their base.
xxxxxxx
From the space-port in Polyhex, just outside of the range of destruction, Soundwave, his cassettes and the Constructicons were watching what was going on.
Together with the Stunticons who had just arrived.
Their combined group was standing in front of one of the few remaining shuttles that were not in the air yet.
"Scrapper - status of this location?" Soundwave asked the Constructicon leader.
The impact of the last strike had caused great damage and heavy tremors through the entire area. They needed to know if the port was still working.
"Energy supply off-line, communication systems down, automatic weapons not working," he replied.
"Understood," Soundwave said.
"In one word nothing is working," Hook told him. "We can not even contact the other bases. If there is still anything left of them."
"We have just seen how the headquarter had been taken out and the flagship had been blown out of orbit," Rumble pointed out. "If we are honest we have already lost."
"The situation is hopeless," Breakdown agreed. "We should better get out of here."
"Tactical situation unsolvable," Soundwave admitted. "Retreat is required."
"That means we board the shuttle and get away from here," Bonecrusher said.
"Yes."
"We have also lost contact with the rest of the forces," Scrapper reminded them.
"They should be smart enough to retreat of their own," Motormaster replied. "In a situation like this it is every Decepticon for himself."
xxxxxxx
Hotrod had been separated from his teammates as they fell inside Unicron.
As he had walked for a couple minutes owever he noticed a familiar glow before him.
He saw something in the dark corridor, something he would always recognize.
"The Matrix," he said.
"It would do you no good Autobot. It can not be opened."
A voice was to hear from the darkness. Hotrod knew it was Galvatron. The figure of the Decepticon appeared out of the shadows before him.
He recognized the young Autobot. It was the same who had gotten involved in Megatron´s fight with Optimus Prime.
"Not by a Decepticon," Hotrod answered him.
The mind of the Matrix that was physically chained to Galvatron, but metaphysically separated from him on several levels, was desperate for a chance.
Technically Hotrod was right, Primus was thinking.
The Matrix had been connected with Autobots for so long by now that it was very hard for any other being to built up a connection.
But the Matrix was his lifeforce and on principle every living being could reach to it if he allowed it. And the Decepticons were as much his creations as the Autobots were.
In this case however the problem went deeper.
Allowing Galvatron to connect with the Matrix and open it would also mean allowing Unicron, who was controlling Galvatron, a direct link to it too. That would practically open a gate for Unicron inside it - inside Primus essence itself.
And that would risk a disaster a million times worse than the one they were facing now.
Primus knew that his and Unicron´s essences were attacking and destroying each other on the physical and non-physical, energetic plane.
But should Unicron ever get direct access to his core he might be able to convert absorb it into his own.
His energy would double, Primus power and abilities would become his and Primus himself would perish.
His mind would probably continue to exist as a power and formless entity, trapped for all eternity inside Unicron´s being, while the Chaos Bringer would assimilate everything that he had once been and add it to his own powers.
By the definition of many of the races of the universe, Unicron would become god.