Chapter 19

The next day

It was beginning. The forces of the Autobots had just started on their way to the Earth´s moon.

Most of them on board of Cosmos and the Autobot named Hoverstar´s large space-ship-modes.

The two surviving Aerialbots Fireflight and Airraid were flying next to them in their own jet-forms. Ready to cover them and give the others time to exit should they be attacked before they could land.

xxxx

Rodimus had asked at one point what had happened to his old friend Skylinx. The answer was sad but didn´t surprise him after all he had already heard. Skylinx was one of the many who had died during the first Unicron Battle.

He had been destroyed as he had tried to carry a group of Autobots out of Cybertron´s orbit... and died along with the robots he was trying to save.

Rodimus remembered how they had defeated Unicron once and for all in his own reality. He would restore the timeline and make sure none of this had ever happened, he swore to himself.

xxxx

But for that they first needed to first get through the Decepticons.

And they were unlikely to make it easy for them. By all what he heard, this version of Galvatron seemed to be even more insane than the one he knew had ever been.

It was more than unlikely that he could be reasoned with.

And besides, this Galvatron here had probably his completely own plans for the pyramid. And that for sure did not involve letting any Autobots close to it.

xxx

"Remember the plan," Optimus said to them. "We ran a frontal assault."

Rodimus was standing besides Optimus and Ultra Magnus in front of a crowd of assembled Autobots inside of Hovercraft´s spaceship form.

Per communication-link they were connected to the rest of the Autobots, so that they heard Optimus speech as well.

"All except you three," Optimus said, looking at Hound, Springer and Perceptor. "You go with Rodimus and do everything to get him inside the pyramid and help him get to the time-travel device and use it to return to the past."

"The same time-travel device, you mean, that we all - including Rodimus - do not even to a hundred percent know of how it works?" Springer commented. "And of that we are not even one hundred percent sure that it is where exactly it is?"

"Yes," Optimus replied soberly. "The small time-travel device is most likely inside the pyramid. This is where Rodimus had found it before. They will just have to look for it."

"And if not?" Springer asked. "What is Galvatron had decided to always keep it in a sup-space pocket on his own body?"

"Then we will take it from him," Optimus responded. "This might be our last chance to have any kind of future. The rest of us will engage the Decepticons and try to buy you time."

"That means the rest of us are basically a diversion," Getaway pointed out. "We will be getting killed by the Decepticons, so that they can get inside and hopefully find the device they are looking for?"

Optimus gave him a silent look for a short moment.

"You know the situation we are in as well as me," he said sternly, "you all do it. We have lost Cybertron. We have lost the Matrix. We have lost Earth. Billions have died. We have lost the war. There are only this few of us left. And we are loosing more with nearly every week that passes.

We are being hunted down and destroyed. It is only a question of time. That is the terrible truth abou how things are," Optimus stated.

"But now we have maybe one chance to change everything. We can prevent Cybertron´s destruction and the devastation of Earth in the first place. We can prevent the loss of all our Autobot brothers, if we manage to take control of the time-ravel device."

"If they find it... and if they manage to take it from the Decepticons and use it without being killed first," Getaway retorted.

"What do you think we have to loose," Optimus said resignated. "If the last Autobot now falls today or in one or two weeks from now, as long as we fight this loosing battle, we will all die.

And even if we don´t, we might all just disappear if our world is erased from existence when Galvatron uses that machine to rewrite reality," he reminded them.

I will not force anybody to take part in this mission if you don´t want to. If anyone of you asked for it, you can leave now. I will not hold your choice against you. The Autobots have always been free to decide over their own lives.

If you leave this part of space and travel to another sector, you might be able to survive. At least long enough to see if our reality will truly cease to exist or not," he stated.

"But I will stay and fight."

"So will I," Rodimus added.

"And I," Ultra Magnus said.

"I am with you," Springer said as well.

"Optimus," another Autobot called out... "Optimus," and another.

The entire room filled with voices giving their support.

xxxxxxx

Decepticon Base - a short time later

"We have detected intruders Galvatron," the Decepticon Powermaster Darkwing reported.

A picture that instantly appeared on a screen in front of them showed the approaching small Autobot fleet.

"Autobots," Darkwing said.

"Of course," Galvatron stated. "Optimus Prime - I knew you would come. Are you feeling that the world as you know it will come to an end today? Are you seeking a warrior´s death? Are you ready to join Rodimus in the afterlife? Are you asking me to be the one to deliver you to it?

Yes. I will gladly fulfill your request. Today you will die through Galvatron´s hands."

Standing next to him were this timeline´s versions of Cyclonus and Scourge.

"The pyramid is ready to be activated," Soundwave suggested. "We could just start without having to engage the Autobots at all."

"Now Soundwave - are you trying to interrupt my last fight with Optimus Prime?" Galvatron asked him.

He sounded nearly amused. But they all sensed the danger behind his words.

"Of course not Galvatron," Soundwave replied. "I apologize for not understanding the priorities correctly."

"Very right," Galvatron replied. "It is good that at least you recognize your error and see the importants of things. Not that any other here would have the courage to speak up in the first place." He commented and looked around to the other Decepticons present.

All except Cyclonus and Scourge, who he just seemed to take for granted.

"Yes - we will soon have the power to rewrite time and control the universe," he declared.

This was not a delusion, Soundwave and the others knew, if the larger time-travel device - the large pyramid they had build during the last decades - was really capable of what it promised.

"To control reality itself," Galvatron continued. "But how should that ever work, if I not first kill Optimus Prime with my own hand? Just like I killed Rodimus Prime.

No - it is only right to rewrite the universe after I had my last fight with Prime. It is destiny. Only like that it can work. Only then the universe can be truly mine. I am glad that you understand this Soundwave."

Soundwave understood all too well as he listened to Galvatron´s insane reasoning.

He had been loyal for millions of years, both to the Decepticons and to their Leader. But how much of exactly this leader was still left? Soundwave asked himself.

He could not help his doubts coming up.

Was it really a good idea for Galvatron, in his deranged state, to have this kind of power? A madman with the ability to throw history and the universe itself into chaos.

But was it even still possible to do something about it, even if he wanted to?

Soundwave looked around at the faces of his comrades one by one. And one by one he was scanning their minds. In some he sensed the same doubts he himself had, in most of them however countered by fear or nearly blind ambitions on their own.

With one notable exception- Skywarp.

xxxxxxx

The Autobot Forces arrive in the orbit of the moon.

Just as planned, Rodimus, Springer, Hound and Perceptor already jettisoned out of an airlock and separated from the other before the battle started

As they jumped out, Springer turned into his helicopter-mode. With Rodimus and Hound hanging at his sides and Perceptor in his small telescope-form too place in Springer´s cockpit.

While at the same time Hound formed one of his hologramms around them that looked identical to the black sky. And so they were flying down to the ground. Hopefully undetected, as the rest of the Autobots draw the attention of the Decepticons to them.

At the Decepticon Base on the ground alarms were raising up.

The battle had started.