Ratchet had Ironhide and Jetstream in the med bay as he assessed the damages they had incurred. They had certainly taken a beating, but that was to be expected when going against a Prime, a rogue one in this scenario.
"For the last time Ratchet we're fine. It's only some bruises here and there" Ironhide said.
"A couple of bruises, yet you almost lost your lives. You should be lucky that your limbs are still intact" he said scanning Jet for injuries.
"Next time, he won't be so lucky. We're going to hit him harder next time" Jet said with confidence.
"You two. Always about fighting" Ratchet sighed as he shook his head. "You're free to go. I've done all I can and patched you up. But please, don't go out there and do anything stupid"
The both of them looked at each other, then back at Ratchet and smirked. They walked back into the base with the humans and Autobots gearing up to go after Sentinel.
"Guess who's late to the party" Sideswipe said loading bullets into his shotgun.
"Da boss wants us ready to go" Dino said sharpening his blade.
"That wouldn't be a problem for us" Ironhide said walking towards the weapons bay to top up on ammo.
Jet checked his weapons systems, ensuring everything was working perfectly, he didn't want anything acting up on him while he was out in the field. He would look to his side and watch Brian and his team loading up, his mind would wonder back to the conversation they had earlier, about him and his retirement. He wouldn't be happy if anything serious would happen to him before he got home to his family.
"You know Brian, you don't have to go with your situation and all" he said examining his plasma cannon.
"I know what you're implying Jet. You're not talking me out of it. This is what I signed up for" he said slipping his magazine into place.
"It's just that, I don't want anything serious happening to you before-"
"I know. But I have a job to do, to protect my country. I wouldn't feel safe knowing those things are out there and could hurt my family and the family of others"
Jet nodded, acknowledging his decision.
"Sir we've got a description match on Sentinel Prime. Looks like he's headed to the Lincoln memorial" said an analyst to Lennox.
"Good. Notify the men. We're going to hunt this thing down now" he said grabbing his rifle.
It's go time.
"We have got a match on Sentinel Prime. He's heading to the Lincoln memorial" said the NEST announcer.
"I've got him" Optimus said as he transformed.
Before anyone could say anything to him, Optimus had already driven off. He was desperate to make things right, so many things had gone wrong because of him, and he took all the blame.
"Where's Optimus?!" said Lennox as he hurried down the steps.
"He's going after Sentinel" answered Wheeljack.
"Alone?!"
"He blames himself for what happened. He wants to… make things right" added Bee.
"Well we're not letting him go out there alone. Let's move it people!" he yelled.
The Autobots transformed, ready to roll and so were the soldiers. With most of their vehicles destroyed during Sentinel's approach to the vault, the Autobots found themselves giving more than a few of them a ride. Ironhide led the way as a long convoy of vehicles drove out of NEST headquarters. A total of five armored trucks followed the convoy of Autobots as they drove to the Lincoln Memorial.
............
At the memorial, Megatron and his associates had arrived, ready to enact their plan and take over the Earth. Sentinel walked past a row of trees with the control pillar and four others active, whirring and buzzing as bolts of electricity ran around them. He moved them over a pool of water as he prepared to open a space bridge. Meanwhile, Megatron, Starscream and Igor walked towards Lincoln's statue with victory finally within their grasp.
"Ah… My master! Such a brilliant scheme" Starscream praised as he rubbed his hands together.
Megatron did not reply, taking off the hood covering his head as he walked to the statue of Abraham Lincoln.
"So when Sentinel left Cybertron, it was to defect?" he asked.
"He was meant to rendezvous with me here on Earth before fate waylaid us both. The only way to revive him… we needed Prime and his Matrix" he said clenching his fist.
"Excellent strategy" Starscream praised.
Megatron removed his blaster from his back, as he proceeded to blast the Lincoln statue to bits. Making room for himself to sit down.
Sentinel had his hand over the control pillar, ready to open the bridge. At that same moment, Optimus arrived. He was going to try and talk Sentinel out of this madness before it was too late. Meanwhile, Igor drooled and slobbered over Lincoln's face, even licking it like a mad dog that had caught its prey.
"Mine, mine!" he said wildly as he continued to lick his head.
"So he is now your partner master?" asked Starscream as his superior had taken his seat on the chair. Acting as if it was a throne.
"He is my greatest triumph"
"So impressive" Starscream complemented.
"Commence transport" said Sentinel.
All was ready and set to open the space bridge to begin the invasion.
"Stop! No, no Sentinel!" Prime said running onto the scene as Megatron and Starscream watched from behind.
"Forgive me Optimus" Sentinel said as he opened the space bridge.
Beams of light shot upwards from the four normal pillars. Bolts of electricity shot around the pillars, connecting the beams to one another forming a translucent wall of light.
"Here we are. Fight us now" said Megatron as he initiated the invasion.
On the surface of the moon, the same phenomenon happened, this time it was bigger than what was happening on Earth. The ground began to move as hundreds of Decepticons, fighter ships and mother ships, began to uncover themselves. After years of waiting underneath the surface of the moon, it was time. It was time to take over the Earth and claim their world for their own. At long last, their wait was over.
The ships and foot soldiers rushed towards the bride, eager to get things started and unleashing carnage. They ran wildly, like hungry animals to a fresh carcass. They leaped into the translucent wall of light and were teleported to Earth ready to wreak havoc upon the human race.
People began to run and look for cover as the Decepticons began their assault, blasting anything that moved. The rest of the Autobots arrived and were scratching their heads as they looked at the situations they had on their hands. NEST soldiers quickly got out the transformers as it was a race against time to try and contain the situation.
"The Decepticons are running Rampant. We need to act now" said Ratchet with a hurried tone as he transformed.
"Lennox, what's the plan" Ironhide said as he held his Heavy Iron blasters, ready to put the hurt on some Cons.
"Prime is stuck up there on his own at the center of things. We're going to give him some help. The rest of you will try and set up a perimeter. Try and contain these things as people evacuate, buy them some time to get clear of this" Lennox said.
"Ironhide, Jetstream, Bumblebee, Dino. You guys are on Perimeter Duty. Kill as many of these things as possible. Ratchet, Sideswipe and Que are coming with me. We're going to provide cover for Optimus. Brian, you and your Team will go with Ironhide. Take three APC's and get a move on. The rest are coming with me. Let's Move!" he yelled as they all sprang into action.
"Come on. We don't have much time!" Ironhide said charging forward.
His blasters were already in use as he fired at the first set of Decepticons he saw.
"Move it! Move it! Move it!" yelled the humans as they moved.
The Autobots would provide them cover before they setup a blockade. They setup a perimeter around the memorial spanning two streets. Ironhide and Jetstream taking a streets respectively while Mirage and Bumblebee provided cover from above.
"We're going to try and contain these things before they over run the city. Nothing gets passed us you hear me!" said Brian.
"Incoming!" Jet yelled as Two missiles flew their way.
Jet rolled on the floor, dodging the missiles as they hit a bus behind him. His weapons were brought out as he opened fire on the Decepticons. The second NEST team pushed forward as the sound of machine guns littered the air. They had pushed quite a distance to the memorial but they were having a hard time getting past the horde of Decepticons that kept on pouring in. Ratchet and Wheeljack took cover behind a tree while Sideswipe knelt down behind the two APC's covering them.
"Does anyone have eye on Prime?!" cried Sideswipe as he shot two Decepticons.
"We can't see him. The Decepticons are too much to see through" Wheeljack answered firing his blaster.
"We can't leave him there. We have to keep on pushing" said Lennox firing his rifle.
Optimus had his battle mask on and held his two blasters in his hand as he took on any Decepticon that dared crossed his path. His mind was set on meeting Sentinel and putting an end to this once and for all.
"Sentinel!" he said using his blaster to slap a Decepticon in the face before shooting him in the head.
"Where are you!" he cried.
He rolled out of the path of a missile, before shooting the launcher of the missile. He turned to the left firing at a three Decepticons before firing to his right. He fired straight ahead, and then at two ships above him, taking them down. The Decepticons only grew in numbers, becoming an overwhelming force. Through the fray of bullets, he caught a glimpse of Sentinel Prime attempting to flee the scene. Now that he had eyes on his target, he began to pursue him, stopping at nothing until he met Sentinel, blasting through bodies, bashing heads and ripping limbs apart.
Back on the street, Ironhide and Jetstream crouched down, and fired their weapons relentlessly. Jet's nozzles had begun to heat up due to the rate at which they fired. The more it looked as if they had reduced their numbers, more Decepticons would show up, outnumbering the last batch.
"We're not getting anywhere with this!" yelled Dino, with his voice cutting through the noise of weapons being fired. "The Decepticons are too much"
Bee used his plasma cannon in rapid fire mode as he shot at the cons surrounding his building. His attention would be diverted as he would get shot in the chest from a long range shot throwing him down into the street. Jet would notice this and provide cover for his comrade, buying him time to return to his feet. He would unleash his swarm missiles, hitting the targets he had locked onto before continuing with his primary weapons, interchanging fire between his machine guns and plasma cannons.
"I've never been one to run away from a fight…" Ironhide said as he would spin to the side, avoiding a blast and return fire to his aggressor.
"… but we have to retreat. We can't take on the Decepticons, not like this" he said as he tried to reason with Brian.
Brian nodded, this was out of hand. They were, outnumbered and severely outgunned; waves upon waves of bullets flew their way with the Autobots taking significant damage.
"Fall back! Fall back! There's nothing we can do here anymore" Brian said calling for a strategic repeat.
"You guys get out of here. We'll cover you" said Jet, as he would then get hit in the shoulder with a blast.
Bee whirred as he rolled on the floor, to avoid a missile before returning fire. Dino slid down a building to provide more cover for the humans below as they began to evacuate. He knelt down next to Jetstream as then unleashed the fury of their weapons at their enemies while Ironhide and Bee fired from the cover of buildings.
"This is Brian. We're pulling away from the streets. The Decepticons have overrun the place. We're heading back to NEST" Brian radioed in.
"Damn it!" Lennox said in an outburst of anger.
"What's the problem?" Sideswipe asked.
"It's the second team. They're getting overrun by Decepticons. They're pulling back" he explained.
"We are in a similar situation ourselves. We can't advance beyond this" Ratchet chipped in as he fired two missiles.
Before they could converse any further, Optimus sprung out from behind a tree on the left, rolling back to his feet and running forward as he gave chase to Sentinel.
"Optimus" cried Wheeljack.
"Autobots! Retreat!" he ordered.
There was no winning this now, the Decepticon forces were just too powerful.
"Colonel Lennox, what do we do?" asked his second in command.
"We fall back. Hey everyone! Fall back!" he commanded.
Even he knew that there was no winning this. It would be a waste of lives and time trying to see this mission through. The humans and their Autobot counterparts began to pull back as Prime got closer to Sentinel.
He unsheathed his sword and axe as he mowed down Decepticons that tried to stop him from reaching the other Prime. With a great slash from his blade, he tore through one Decepticon, splitting him in half vertically. With his axe, he would chop of the head of another before doing a forward roll and jumping onto a big Decepticon and sinking his axe into his skull. He pulled out his weapons quickly, wasting no time as he pursued the other.
Optimus avoided blasts from Sentinel, who tried to slow him down but eventually caught up to him and tackled him to the ground. As the two bots came to a halt after rolling, Sentinel stood up quickly as he pinned the rising Optimus to a statue and aimed his gun at his head. Optimus resisted him, trying to fight back, but he was out muscled by the other Prime.
"Why Sentinel? Why?" he grunted as he moved the blaster away from his head and tried to get up.
"For Cybertron! For our home!" he said as he used his hands to pin him by his shoulders.
"What war destroyed, we can rebuild! But only if we join with the Decepticons" he said as his student continued to struggle with him.
"No, it's not the only way! This is our home! We must defend the humans!" he said before Sentinel placed his blade to his neck as he continued to struggle with him.
"So lost you are, Optimus. On Cybertron. We were gods. And here… they call us machines" he said releasing Optimus from his hold.
"Let the humans serve us, or perish" he said as he would point his rust cannon and his sword at Optimus with the cannon to his chest and sword to his head.
"You're lucky I didn't kill you" he says walking away. "In time, you'll see" he added as he disappeared into the trees, transformed, and drove away.
Optimus got up on one knee, looking on as Sentinel made his exit. He tried to talk things out with him, but if this is the path Sentinel had taken, so be it. So with a cold voice and serious expression, he gave his remark.
"It's not over"